Wang Lijun under investigation

BEIJING - Chongqing vice-mayor Wang Lijun is under investigation and not to attend the upcoming session of the National People's Congress (NPC), a spokesman for the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee said here Friday.
Wang, an NPC deputy, has asked for leave in this year's session, Spokesman Zhao Qizheng told reporters at a press conference, adding that progress has been made in the probe.
"Wang's incident is an isolated case," Zhao said, asking media not to make excessive speculation on the incident.
Zhao compared some media reports of Wang's incident to "puzzle pieces", which, because of lack of information, are not accurate and even absurd.
Wang entered the US consulate in southwest China and stayed there for one day, the office of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokespersons said on February 9.
Southwestern China's Chongqing municipality has made many achievements in social and economic development in recent years, Zhao said.
Bo Xilai, secretary of Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, will attend this year's NPC session, according to Zhao.
The annual session of the NPC, China's top legislature, and that of the CPPCC national committee, the top political advisory body, will open early this month.

Nike introduced Jeremy Lin to the topic of shoes

耐克推出林书豪为主题的鞋子.Nike Inc will start selling Jeremy Lin-themed shoes this weekend, cashing in on the New York Knick point guard's recent rise to worldwide fame.
Priced at $130, the shoes will be available on Nike's website.
Nike said it will launch the Nike Zoom Hyperfuse Low basketball shoes, built especially for Lin, this weekend in Orlando, Florida, where the NBA is holding its All-Star festivities.
"It's not a signature line but a version of the shoe that he's been wearing this season," the company told Reuters.
Lin, the NBA's first Chinese-American player and a Harvard graduate, has rocketed from obscurity to global celebrity in just 12 starts for the Knicks.
The world's biggest sporting goods company, headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, signed Lin in 2010, and launched its "Linsanity" line of clothes at Foot Locker Inc stores last week.

Hu called for efforts to promote economic growth, stability

胡锦涛要求努力促进经济增长，稳定.Chinese President Hu Jintao attends the Group of Twenty (G-20) summit in Cannes, France, Nov. 3, 2011.

胡锦涛要求努力促进经济增长，稳定.CANNES - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday urged the world's major economies to work together to promote growth and financial stability.
"It is imperative that we stand on a higher plane, transcend differences on specific issues, move beyond short-term considerations, and jointly seek ways to overcome the crisis and sustain development," Hu told the Group of 20 (G20) summit here.
"At this critical moment, the G20 must work to address the key problems, boost market confidence, defuse risks and meet challenges and promote global economic growth and financial stability," said Hu.
As the premier forum for international economic cooperation, the G20 must continue to demonstrate the spirit of standing together in times of adversity and pursuing win-win cooperation, he said.
The Chinese president said "the current world economic situation deserves our high attention," cautioning the global recovery is fraught with instability and uncertainty and faces growing risks and challenges.
Some major economies are experiencing economic slowdown and some countries are facing acute sovereign debt problems, said Hu.
He also cited volatility in the international financial markets, and high inflationary pressure in emerging markets.
Hu put forward a five-point proposal on what G20 nations need to do to tide over the crisis.
First, the countries should ensure growth while paying attention to balance. Given the serious risks facing the global economy and continued market volatility, ensuring growth and promoting stability should be the top priority, he said.
"We should introduce new and strong measures to ensure that fiscal and monetary policies are fully implemented and that funding is channeled into the real economy to boost production and employment."
Second, the G20 nations should strengthen unity and send a strong signal to the world as there is widespread panic and acute lack of confidence in the markets, said Hu.
He urged G20 members to strengthen consultation and coordination, tackle sovereign debt risks, regulate cross-border capital flow, put the fluctuation of commodity prices under control, mitigate global inflationary pressure and make sure that the economic policies pursued by various countries do not offset each other.
Third, global economic governance should be improved through reform, Hu said.
The international financial crisis has highlighted the deficiencies in the global economic governance system, said Hu.
"Major efforts should be made to reform and improve the international monetary system, international trading system and commodity pricing mechanism," said the Chinese president.
He asked for continued reform of the International Monetary Fund, calling for the expansion of the use of the special drawing rights, reform of the IMF currency basket and the buildup of a new international reserve currency system.
He warned against trade protectionism and urged efforts to curb speculation so as to stabilize commodity prices and supply and demand.
Fourth, the countries should strive for progress through innovation, said Hu.
"Innovation is an inexhaustible source of human progress. To overcome the crisis, we need to make pioneering efforts," said Hu.
"We should improve and innovate our thinking, system and mode for advancing economic and social development, and strike a balance in such important relationships as those between government and market, labor and capital, production and consumption, and equity and efficiency."
Fifth, the G20 countries should help developing economies to grow, said Hu.
In the final analysis, the most serious bottleneck in world economic development is the inability of developing countries to achieve full development, said Hu
The imbalance between developed and developing countries has created a vicious circle where underdevelopment leads to backwardness and backwardness hinders development, thus hampering sustained and steady growth of the global economy, he said.
"We should continue to increase the voice of emerging markets and developing countries in global economic governance and create an enabling institutional environment for their development."
Hu pledged that his country will provide more help to other developing countries.
Between 2010 and 2012, China will provide Africa with 10 billion U.S. dollars in lending of a preferential nature, the bulk of which will go to infrastructure development, he said.
Between 2011 and 2015, China will build 200 infrastructure projects in clean energy and environmental protection in other developing countries, he announced.
China will give zero-tariff treatment to 97 percent of the tariff items of exports to China from the least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China, he said.
The G20 summit, which began on Thursday, would concentrate on the promotion of strong, sustainable and balanced global economic growth, as well as global governance, development and financial regulation.
The G20 bloc, established in September 1999, was designed to bring together important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues concerning the global economy.

Some experts believe that the value of the yuan to rise, "reasonable"

一些专家认为人民币的价值上升，“合理”.CANNES, France - The renminbi is coming close to having a reasonable exchange rate, Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said at the G20 summit.
Chen told reporters on Thursday that the yuan has risen by about 30 percent against the US dollar since 2005, and China's trade surpluses are declining when compared with the value of its gross domestic product.
In September, selling pressure appeared for the yuan, showing that the market perception of the currency is starting to change, Chen added.
The Chinese yuan closed at a record high against the dollar on Friday. Its reference rate was set at 6.3165 on Friday, the highest it has been since July 2005.
Chen said the eurozone troubles have not had a big effect on China's exports to that region, but said he expects that they will affect global trade more as time goes on.
The world and China have an interest in helping Europe overcome the difficulties, he said.
China will concentrate on importing more from Europe, Chen added.
China has long faced pressure from the US and other Western nations to allow the value of its yuan to float more freely, but it has refused to bow to those demands.
"The renminbi should appreciate in a controlled way," Yao Shujie, head of the UK-based University of Nottingham's school of Contemporary Chinese Studies.
China's economy still has many obstacles it must overcome if it is to grow more. Those include its shortage of energy, dependence on manufacturing and its production primarily of low-tech goods, Yao said.
"Rapid appreciation will hit exporters, and particularly medium-sized and small enterprises," Yao said.
Yao said world leaders should try to understand the difficulties that a rapid currency appreciation will impose on China and recognize that any harm done to the country's economy will harm the world as well.
"Allowing the currency to move at a faster pace is not the ultimate solution to China's core problems," said Simon Derrick, head of currency strategy at BNY Mellon, a New York-based investment management and investment services company.
"It therefore seems to me that these latest developments in monetary policy in the US and elsewhere only increase the pressure on China to pick up the pace of currency liberalization," Derrick said.
G20 leaders met in Cannes on Thursday and Friday to discuss Europe's work to deal with its debt crisis and revise their plans for rebalancing the world economy.
Global trade
Chen also published an article in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, saying China is doing its part to rebalance global trade by stoking domestic demand and cutting import tariffs.
Chen wrote that other countries should not think that they can improve their domestic conditions by criticizing China's trade and currency arrangements and resorting to protectionism.
"Rather, they could negate our efforts to expand imports, crush global market confidence and cast a dark shadow over the recovery prospects of the world economy," Chen said.
As China takes steps to further open its economy, it is expected to bring in more than $1.7 trillion worth of imports this year and about $10 trillion during the next five years, Chen said.

Hu Jintao met Sarkozy at the G20 summit

胡锦涛，萨科齐会面在G20峰会.Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) shakes hands with his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy during their meeting in Cannes, France, Nov 2, 2011.

胡锦涛，萨科齐会面在G20峰会.CANNES, France - Chinese President Hu Jintao met his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy in Cannes on Wednesday ahead of a Group of 20 summit.
The two leaders exchanged views on bilateral ties and other issues of common concern, including the Cannes summit scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
The development of China-France relations has maintained good momentum recently. President Hu paid a state visit to France in November last year and met Sarkozy in March and August this year when the French president traveled to China.

胡锦涛，萨科齐会面在G20峰会.Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) shakes hands with his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy during their meeting in Cannes, France, Nov 2, 2011.

Hu Jintao arrived in France to attend the G20 summit

胡锦涛抵达法国,参加G20峰会.Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) arrives in Nice, France, Nov 2, 2011. Hu arrived in France on Wednesday to attend a summit of the Group of Twenty (G20). 

胡锦涛抵达法国,参加G20峰会.NICE, France - Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in France on Wednesday to attend a summit of the Group of Twenty (G20) that aims to check the downturn of the global economy and achieve financial stability.
Hu flew in following a visit to Austria.
After his arrival in Nice, the Chinese president traveled by car to Cannes for the G20 summit, slated for Thursday and Friday.
At the meeting, the G20 leaders were expected to address the major problems affecting the world economic recovery and the stability of the global financial market.
They were to discuss the eurozone debt crisis, reform of the international monetary system, the strengthening of financial regulations, and the combating of inflation.
President Hu was expected to deliver speeches at the meeting to elaborate on China's stand on the issues expected to be discussed at the summit.
In a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy last week, President Hu exchanged views concerning the Cannes summit.
"The G20 has become an important platform for global economic governance," said Hu.
China, Hu said, hopes the G20 would, by means of the Cannes summit, convey "a strong signal of growth and stability to the international community" and make continued efforts to promote "robust, sustainable and balanced growth for the world economy."
"China is ready to work together with other G20 members to make the Cannes summit a meeting of unity, success and mutual benefit," the Chinese president said.
Sarkozy said he hoped the parties to the summit would adopt common measures to ensure world economic growth.
Hu was also expected to meet other G20 leaders on the sidelines of the meeting.
The G20 was created in December 1999 in response to the financial crises affecting the emerging countries in the late 1990s.
Confronted with a global financial crisis, the heads of state and government of G20 members met for the first time in Washington in November 2008 to work out an action plan to prevent the financial system and the global economy from collapsing.
Since then, leaders of the G20 members met regularly: in London in April 2009, Pittsburgh in September 2009, Toronto in June 2010, and Seoul in November 2010.
In the past three years, the G20 members have taken drastic steps to support the global economy, and to address problems of global macro-economic imbalances and the inadequacies of financial regulation.
The G20, which accounts for 85 percent of global output and two thirds of the world's population, has become the premier forum for economic and financial cooperation.
The G20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
Cannes, the host city of the G20 summit, lies on southeastern France's Mediterranean coast. With its outstanding climate and beautiful setting, the city is a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival.