www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-23 07:47:25

    BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Xinhua News Agency has been authorized by the State Council to examine and approve the publication in China of economic information by foreign news agencies and their information subsidiaries, said Tian Congming, president of Xinhua, here Monday.

    Tian told visiting Chairman of Bloomberg Peter Grauer that Xinhua, China's state wire service, conducts such examinations and approvals in line with the country's law and regulations.

    Xinhua and Bloomberg have enjoyed friendly cooperation in recent years, Tian said, hoping that the two sides will work together to increase mutual understanding and expand exchanges on the basis of respect, equal coordination and mutual benefits.

    Grauer said Bloomberg values friendly relations with Xinhua, and will continue to promote cooperation with Xinhua.

The Office of the State Council recently promulgated a regulation designed to help the government implement its transparency obligations under its Protocol of Accession to the World Trade Organization. Part I.2(C)2 of the Protocol states, inter alia, that "China shall establish or designate an official journal dedicated to the publication of all laws, regulations and other measures pertaining to or affecting trade in goods, services, TRIPS or the control of foreign exchange . . . ."

As can be seen, this is a very significant commitment - "pertaining to or affecting" could be reasonably construed to cover almost anything - and I don't know of any other WTO members subject to such an obligation. Given the vast array of bodies with significant rulemaking power in China, the central government's major challenge is simply collecting the stuff.

The new regulation, entitled "Notice on Further Doing Well the Work Relevant to Implementing the Transparency Provisions of China's WTO Accession Protocol" (关于进一步做好履行我国加入世界贸易组织议定书透明度条款相关工作的通知), makes clear that the official journal in question is the "Documentary Bulletin of China's Foreign-Related Economy" (中国对外经济贸易文告), and instructs all provincial-level governments and departments directly under the State Council to submit copies of relevant regulations to the Ministry of Commerce for publication in the Bulletin. The main problem seems to lie in local-government recalcitrance. For example, the most recent six issues (all from March) contain 69 regulations; only one (from Shenzhen) is something local governments bothered to send in. Was there really only one trade-related regulation adopted by all of China's local governments in this time?

新华网北京3月16日电  新华社16日受权全文播发《中华人民共和国国民经济和社会发展第十一个五年规划纲要》。十届全国人大四次会议3月14日表决通过了关于国民经济和社会发展第十一个五年规划纲要的决议，决定批准这个规划纲要。

    纲要全文约55000字，共分为14篇：指导原则和发展目标；建设社会主义新农村；推进工业结构优化升级；加快发展服务业；促进区域协调发展；建设资源节约型、环境友好型社会；实施科教兴国战略和人才强国战略；深化体制改革；实施互利共赢的开放战略；推进社会主义和谐社会建设；加强社会主义民主政治建设；加强社会主义文化建设；加强国防和军队建设；建立健全规划实施机制。

    国民经济和社会发展第十一个五年规划纲要根据《中共中央关于制定国民经济和社会发展第十一个五年规划的建议》编制，主要阐明国家战略意图，明确政府工作重点，引导市场主体行为，是未来五年我国经济社会发展的宏伟蓝图，是全国各族人民共同的行动纲领，是政府履行经济调节、市场监管、社会管理和公共服务职责的重要依据。

    根据出席十届全国人大四次会议代表审查和全国政协十届四次会议委员讨论国民经济和社会发展第十一个五年规划纲要草案时提出的意见和建议，受国务院的委托，国家发展和改革委员会对纲要草案进行了修改完善，共修改了34处。（完）

 

For the full text,please go to:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/misc/2006-03/16/content_4309517.htm

 

Here below is the index of the Plan---

 

第一篇 指导原则和发展目标

 

    第一章 全面建设小康社会的关键时期 

 

    第二章 全面贯彻落实科学发展观

 

    第三章 经济社会发展的主要目标

 

    第二篇 建设社会主义新农村

 

    第四章 发展现代农业

 

    第五章 增加农民收入

 

    第六章 改善农村面貌

 

    第七章 培养新型农民

 

    第八章 增加农业和农村投入

 

    第九章 深化农村改革

 

    第三篇 推进工业结构优化升级

 

    第十章 加快发展高技术产业

 

    第十一章 振兴装备制造业

 

    第十二章 优化发展能源工业

 

    第十三章 调整原材料工业结构和布局

 

    第十四章 提升轻纺工业水平

 

    第十五章 积极推进信息化

 

    第四篇 加快发展服务业

 

    第十六章 拓展生产性服务业

 

    第十七章 丰富消费性服务业

 

    第十八章 促进服务业发展的政策

 

    第五篇 促进区域协调发展

 

    第十九章 实施区域发展总体战略

 

    第二十章 推进形成主体功能区

 

    第二十一章 促进城镇化健康发展

 

    第六篇 建设资源节约型、环境友好型社会

 

    第二十二章 发展循环经济

 

    第二十三章 保护修复自然生态

 

    第二十四章 加大环境保护力度

 

    第二十五章 强化资源管理

 

    第二十六章 合理利用海洋和气候资源

 

    第七篇 实施科教兴国战略和人才强国战略

 

    第二十七章 加快科学技术创新和跨越

 

    第二十八章 优先发展教育

 

    第二十九章 推进人才强国战略

 

    第八篇 深化体制改革

 

    第三十章 着力推进行政管理体制改革

 

    第三十一章 坚持和完善基本经济制度

 

    第三十二章 推进财政税收体制改革

 

    第三十三章 加快金融体制改革

 

    第三十四章 完善现代市场体系

 

    第九篇 实施互利共赢的开放战略

 

    第三十五章 加快转变对外贸易增长方式

 

    第三十六章 提高利用外资质量

 

    第三十七章 积极开展国际经济合作

 

    第十篇 推进社会主义和谐社会建设

 

    第三十八章 全面做好人口工作

 

    第三十九章 提高人民生活水平

 

    第四十章 提高人民健康水平

 

    第四十一章 加强公共安全建设

 

    第四十二章 完善社会管理体制

 

    第十一篇 加强社会主义民主政治建设

 

    第四十三章 加强社会主义民主政治建设

 

    第十二篇 加强社会主义文化建设

 

    第四十四章 加强社会主义文化建设

 

    第十三篇 加强国防和军队建设

 

    第四十五章 加强国防和军队建设

 

    第十四篇 建立健全规划实施机制

 

    第四十六章 建立分类指导的实施机制

 

    第四十七章 调整和完善经济政策

 

    第四十八章 健全规划管理体制

 

 

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-03-10 11:13

 

By Richard McGregor in Beijing
Published: March 6 2006 00:59 | Last updated: March 6 2006 00:59

Wagging his finger like a stern headmaster, Zhang Dejiang glares at passers-by from posters plastered along the alleyways of Nanting village, warning local party bosses not to cross “three red lines” in handling land disputes.

Mr Zhang, the party secretary of Guangdong, issued his province-wide “red lines” directive after a series of violent disputes pitting villagers against local governments, including one in which paramilitary units shot protesters.  

But the residents of Nanting, who are refusing to vacate their village to make way for a new university complex without more compensation, take little encouragement from Mr Zhang’s order, issued in late December.

“Whatever Zhang Dejiang says, the local officials will not listen to him,” said Guan Wolun, one of the protest leaders in the village that is nestled next to the bustling Pearl river, a few hours by boat from Hong Kong.

If he needed a reminder of how important the issue is, Mr Zhang received one yesterday at the opening of the National People’s Congress, China’s pliant parliament, in Beijing.

A member of the elite 25-member politburo, Mr Zhang took his seat on the leadership podium to hear premier Wen Jiabao deliver an annual Chinese-style state-of-the-nation address focusing heavily on rural problems.

While Mr Zhang has put the jobs of local officials on the line over land disputes, his own position, and that of provincial leaders throughout China, is under similar pressure from central government.

The key issue is the gap in value between rural land, which farmers have the right to use but not trade, and urban land, which can be bought and sold at much higher prices.

Converting farm land into industrial use can deliver large windfalls for local officials. And even when rural land is taken for public purposes, such as for universities, farmers often claim they are not fairly compensated.

Although the issue is a national one, Guangdong’s relative wealth – it was the first Chinese province to open to foreign investment and market forces in the 1980s – has given the problem a particular edge.

In the 1980s, many villages in the province negotiated agreements allowing investors to use their collectively owned land for industry in return for a flow of dividends from the businesses.

“Dividends can support a whole family in the Pearl river delta; they are an important source of income,” said Wu Chongqing, a expert on rural issues at the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences.

The profits from leasing their land have made some villagers rich by Chinese standards and driven the development of tightly drafted agreements within the communities themselves about how to divide up the pie.

As a result, said Mr Wu, local village elections had become important contests and the sense of rights in the province heightened. “They are not just selecting a village chief in these elections, but a CEO.”

Mr Zhang, considered a rising star in the Chinese political firmament, has added to the fractious mood in the province with his own tough style.

Certainly, his education could not have prepared him for Guangdong’s free-wheeling ways. A native of China’s north-east, he gained his economics degree from Kim Il-sung Comprehensive University in North Korea, a state impoverished by its xenophobic economic planning model.

Mr Zhang has cracked down hard on the once-liberal local media by closing newspapers and sacking editors, and has struggled to handle a host of other problems such as coal mine disasters and river pollution.

But the land disputes, highlighted by violent clashes in two villages – Taishi, over rigged elections, and Dongzhou, where at least four demonstrators were shot dead – is the most serious threat to his standing in Beijing.

A mocking Hong Kong media, which Mr Zhang cannot control, has reported that his “three red lines” directives on land would become “the three jokes” if he failed to make grassroots officials toe the line on property requisitions.

If Nanting is a microcosm of Mr Zhang’s challenges, he faces an uphill battle. Residents of villages nearby, already razed to make way for the university, have established a squatter’s camp by the river, festooned with big-character posters attacking corrupt local officials.

And in Nanting itself, cynical villagers fret they will be left with neither a home nor a job once they are shifted for the university project. A woman pointed to the fate of an adjoining community. “Out of 100 people there, only 10 got jobs as security guards and gardeners at the university,” she said. “Why should it be any different for us?”