China Chronicles February 24, 2013
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- Central Committee plenum date
THE Second Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will be held in Beijing from February 26 to February 28, according to a decision by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee yesterday.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.
A draft on institutional restructuring and function transformation of the State Council was discussed during the meeting. It was agreed that efforts will be made to achieve simpler and decentralized administration as well as push forward institutional reform.
Participants also discussed the work report the State Council will present to the upcoming NPC meeting. They said that since the first meeting of the 11th NPC in 2008, the Chinese people, under the CPC's leadership, have effectively coped with the international financial crisis, enhanced the country's strength and made remarkable progress in its modernization.
- Cities aim to create '4th economic powerhouse'
MAYORS of four provincial capital cities in central China yesterday signed a strategic partnership agreement vowing a coordinated effort in building the Central China Economic Belt.
Under the Wuhan Consensus, Changsha, Hefei, Nanchang and Wuhan will be committed to seeking a regional development strategy, and push for industrial cooperation and infrastructure construction that can meet the common interests.
The four cities, all located along the middle reaches of China's longest river the Yangtze, will take part in regular meetings in order to carry out regional cooperation.
Shared resources
Agreements were also signed by representatives from 11 government departments ranging from transport, technology, commerce to health, from the four cities for sharing resources and boosting personnel exchanges and cross-province medical bill settlements.
"With the Concensus, the four cities, each with its distinct competitive industries, are expected to take a lead in boosting the overall economic growth in the central China economic circle," said Fan Hengshan, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, at the signing ceremony in Wuhan.
The belt is dubbed the country's "fourth economic powerhouse." The three other economic circles are the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Bay area encircling Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Hebei Province.
The new economic belt covers an area of 440,000 square km encompassing Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi and Hubei provinces, with 40 cities and a population of 160 million.
Tang Liangzhi, mayor of Wuhan, said the Central China Economic Belt has strong industrial development potential. Each of the four provincial capitals saw their GDP growth rate exceed the national average of 7.8 percent last year.
Wuhan is known as one of China's iron and steel production bases and has booming machinery manufacturing and photoelectron industries.
Changsha is famous for its culture and eng! ineering machinery sector. Hefei has aimed at building itself into China's leading electric appliance production base. Nanchang is China's traditional aircraft production base.
- 8 die as early hours blaze sweeps through houses
EIGHT people died in a fire that broke out early yesterday morning in Wenling City, in east China's Zhejiang Province.
Among the dead were two children. Five of the six adults who died were migrant workers.
The city's fire department said the blaze, which broke out at just before 3am, burned over an area of 129 square meters in three houses in Zeguo Township. The fire was contained by 4am, said officials.
Firefighters rescued 17 people from the flames. One was seriously injured, while the others sustained minor injuries.
Investigators found that the three houses, owned by a local named Li Faming, were being leased. Li has been detained as part of the investigation.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
- Hillside railway station hits green heights
LIJIANG City in southwest China's Yunnan Province has what it takes to be a tourist attraction - picturesque scenery and a rich cultural heritage.
Now, its new railway station, built on a hillside, is adding to Lijiang's fame.
A stark departure from downtown stations, the plan was controversial. However, it has since been praised as a model for efficient and innovative use of land.
It also highlights the country's critical need to protect farmland, the arena of a tug-of-war between urbanization and agricultural use.
Flat land, usually best suited to farming, accounts for only 4.2 percent of Lijiang's area.
Some 37 percent of its arable flat land had been converted for construction use, said He Jiafeng, chief engineer of Lijiang's city planning authority.
"A scarcity of farmland forced us to put the station on the hillside. We had no other choice," said He.
And indeed, many observers believe that China as a whole has no other choice.
Figures from the Ministry of Land and Resources show that China has registered a per capita arable land of 1.35 mu (900 square meters), less than half the world's average.
From 1997 to 2011, the country lost 124 million mu of farmland, while some 70 percent of the remaining 1.82 billion mu is medium and low-yield land, according to the ministry.
Chinese people consumed 520 million tonnes of grain in 2012, 2.7 percent of which was imported.
"Farmland has been squeezed by urbanization and rural projects, which has made it more difficult to protect," said land and resources minister Xu Shaoshi in a report to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee in December.
The minister also noted the dire need to prevent soil from being polluted.
Xu pledged to continue a rigorous basic farmland protection system and more efforts to curb worsening soil pollution.
But lawmakers predict a continuing decline in farmland, due to pressures of urbanization and economic development.
S! tanding Committee memberHao Yidong suggested adopting Lijiang's practices nationwide.
Lijiang hillside station has helped conserve fertile land, according to local authorities.
There is great potential of developing hilly areas for building, according to figures from Yunnan's provincial land and resources bureau. These show that highland areas with an incline between eight and 25 degrees account for more than 47 percent of the total area.
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