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Yao Ming, Yang Liwei among top ten young people of 2003

( 2003-11-28 16:45) (China Daily)

China's first astronaut Yang Liwei,†Houston Rocket Center†Yao Ming and eight other outstanding young people were awarded the title of China's top ten young people of 2003 here Thursday. The ten, including a journalist, medical worker, scientist, businessman and an official, were selected by a special committee from among 47 candidates from across the country. The is the 14th appraisal of its kind in China, and was jointly organized by the All-China Youth Federation, the China Youth Development Foundation and a number of media organizations. The awarding ceremony will be held in December, sources at the All-China Youth Federation said.

Yang Liwei, China's space hero              Yao Ming, Chinese basketball star

Trial opens for nation's biggest `ice' case

( 2003-11-27 22:55) (China Daily)

The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court in South China's Guangdong Province opened a public trial yesterday into the country's largest-ever drug case involving methamphetamine, which is more commonly known as 'ice.' The case includes 10 suspects, including a Hong Kong permanent resident. They are charged with having manufactured more than 12.36 tons of pure ice between January and October of 1999. Zhang Shaoxian is the only woman defendant in the case. The defendants are charged with illegally producing and trafficking the drug on the Chinese mainland, an official from the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court said yesterday. The public trial will last for at least two days, the unnamed official said. Produced by chemical synthesis over a period of 10 months, the ice seized is almost equal in quantity to the total amount of ice seized worldwide in 1998. The ice, which the gang produced in an agricultural chemical factory in Yinchuan, in northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, was seized by Guangdong police after it had been transported to the province for sale, which shares borders with Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. A total of 11.08 tons of the drug was seized in a warehouse in Guangzhou on November 4, 1999, while another 1.28 tons were seized in Puning, a city in eastern Guangdong, fourteen days later. It is the biggest ice case to be handled in the Chinese courts since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the official said. Investigations revealed that the ice was transported to Guangdong in eight trucks after manufacture in Yinchuan. Zhang Qisheng, the prime suspect of the drug gang, escaped to Thailand using a counterfeit Chinese passport under the name Zhang Zhongheng, and other gang members fled to various parts of the Chinese mainland. Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Security immediately established a task force to handle the case and sought both international and domestic co-operation to help in tracking down the suspects. Zhang was arrested by Thailand police in October of 2000. He was sentenced to one year plus six months in jail in Thailand for using a fake passport to enter the country. With the help of Interpol China, Zhang was extradited to China in June 2002, after completion of his jail term in Thailand. By January of this year, the other nine suspects were also arrested by Chinese police. According to Chinese law, the maximum penalty for drug producers and traffickers is death.

Chinese, US leaders to meet Dec. 9

( 2003-11-27 15:15) (chinadaily.com.cn/Agencies)

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and US President George W. Bush, whose countries are engaged in increasing trade disputes, will meet in Washington on Dec. 9, the White House announced on Wednesday. Wen, making a four-state tour which will also includes Canada, Mexico and Ethiopia, will be on his first visit to the United States since he became premier in March, . Although relations between the two states have improved markedly in recent years, disagreements over trade and economic issues have grown. This month, Bush administration decided impose quotas and dumping-duties on Chinese textile products and TV makers. China responded by critising the decision as discriminatory and unfair. Beijing recently announced it would raise duties on some US goods in response to US tariffs on steel imposed a year and a half ago. China has called for consultations to mend the trade rift, which has fanned fears in Asia that the United States is growing more protectionist. "The president looks forward to holding discussions with the premier on the full range of issues on the US-China agenda and to continue building a candid, constructive and cooperative bilateral relationship," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan told reporters in Crawford, where Bush was on vacation. Moreover, as the most important and sensitive issue in the Sino-US relationship, the Taiwan question will also be high on the agenda between Wen and Bush, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Wen will discuss bilateral relations and other major international issues of concern when meeting US President George W. Bush and other US leaders, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao earlier this week. The premier will also attend several functions in Washington DC, New York and Boston during his December 7-10 stay.

　Editors: Jennifer and Mabel