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<description><![CDATA[Courts in Guangdong are handling a growing number of triad cases involving local youngsters and people from outside the mainland, a senior provincial judge has said.

Chen Chao, presiding judge with the First Law Court under the Guangdong ...]]></description>
<full-text><![CDATA[Courts in Guangdong are handling a growing number of triad cases involving local youngsters and people from outside the mainland, a senior provincial judge has said.

Chen Chao, presiding judge with the First Law Court under the Guangdong High People's Court, said the increasing number of cases will worsen the environment for children if effective and concrete measures are not taken quickly.

"Many young people have become members of local secret societies and this is a concern for the whole of society," he said.

Addressing a press conference in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, on Monday, Chen said there was a growing trend for such crime in the prosperous province, which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

He said Guangdong courts will hand out serious punishments to any triad members found guilty.

Late last month, the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court heard a case involving 14 members of a triad.

Apart from Feng Zhixi, the leader of the Heilong (Black Dragon) gang, the 13 other defendants were in their teens and twenties. Three of them were underage.

A similar case was heard in Foshan Intermediate People's Court in July, where eight of the 17 defendants were in their 20s and one was a minor.

They were investigated for their alleged participation in murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion and theft.

In addition to the rising problem of young gang members, Chen said there was a growing number of people from outside the mainland getting involved in this type of organized crime.

However, he did not give details of the number of triads controlled by foreigners or people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Most of the province's triads are based in prosperous cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan and Jiangmen in the Pearl River Delta.

Courts at all levels in Guangdong handled 228 triad cases involving 1,833 people between February 2006 and July 2007. Of those, 208 have been concluded, with 1,714 criminals punished.

Several notorious leaders and key members of secret societies have been executed, landing a heavy blow in the fight against triads, Chen said

Wu Shenguang, a lawyer, said there had been an increase in the number of cases involving juveniles in Guangdong in recent years.

Some youngsters were influenced by domestic and overseas TV programs featuring sex and violence.

Source: China Daily 
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<title>Pork safety teams needed: Official</title>
<NEWS_ID>6255256</NEWS_ID>
<link>http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/6255256.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:20:27 +0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[A senior official in charge of food quality said yesterday companies and local governments should jointly establish an inspection system to address pork safety issues.

Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervis ...]]></description>
<full-text><![CDATA[A senior official in charge of food quality said yesterday companies and local governments should jointly establish an inspection system to address pork safety issues.

Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, made the remarks during an inspection tour in Tianjin.

It was his second inspection visit to a pork market and processing unit in less than 15 days. Late last month he inspected a market in Beijing.

Sources close to the administration said this was part of the nation's four-month campaign to improve the quality of goods and food.

"Food safety is not only about public health but also the company's image. Companies are responsible for their products. Local governments should also play an active role in supervision and ensure food safety," Li said.

"We are working to implement two 100 percent rules around the nation to prevent any ill or dead pig from entering the market."

The two rules refer to the slaughter of pigs in designated areas and the safe disposal of ill or dead pigs.

Tianjin has "successfully addressed pork safety problems" with the implementation of the rules, Tianjin Deputy Mayor Huang Xingguo said.

"We strictly follow food safety regulations, from pig purchasing to transportation. I can assure you that no ill or dead pigs get into my factory and all my pork is safe," said Xie Xinchun, a manager of Tianjin's Hepeng Food Company.

The company only buys a pig with tags showing it has a complete immunization record. There are four quality control inspectors from a local livestock bureau based in the company to monitor production, Xie said.

"You can easily follow the trail from the blue inspection stamps on the pork if you have a problem," said an official from the bureau, who declined to give his name.

Also, local governments are pushing for a village-level inspection system to deal with pig disease in Tianjin.

Li Yongjiang, an inspector in Jixian county, Tianjin, said his role was to provide vaccine injections and report any diseases to the county's livestock bureau.

Source: China Daily 
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<title>Renewable energy gets a boost</title>
<NEWS_ID>6255045</NEWS_ID>
<link>http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/6255045.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:52:45 +0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[The country plans to spend around one-tenth of its 2006 GDP in the next decade or so to develop renewable energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions, the top economic planner revealed yesterday.

"Overall, around 2 trillion yuan ($265 billio ...]]></description>
<full-text><![CDATA[The country plans to spend around one-tenth of its 2006 GDP in the next decade or so to develop renewable energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions, the top economic planner revealed yesterday.

"Overall, around 2 trillion yuan ($265 billion) of investment is needed to meet the renewable energy target by 2020," the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement.

Chen Deming, vice-minister of NDRC, reiterated China's medium- and long-term target to boost the renewable energy sector.

The NDRC plans to raise the ratio of renewable energy in total energy consumption to 10 percent by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020, compared to 8 percent now, Chen said.

China generates much less greenhouse gases than developed countries, but treats the issue seriously and spares no effort to cut carbon dioxide emissions by enhancing energy efficiency and developing renewable energy, Chen said.

Setting an explicit target for renewable energy generation is part of the country's commitment to save energy and cut emissions, he added.

"We will adopt measures to guide and encourage the development of renewable energy. We will come up with various taxation and fiscal incentives, including subsidies and tax breaks," Chen said.

The preferential policies will treat all companies, either private or State-owned, equally, Chen promised.

Other measures are also being implemented.

"We will require real estate developers to install solar power equipment in their projects. Large State-owned energy enterprises will be set quotas to invest in the development of renewable energy," Chen said.

Analysts say most of the 2 trillion yuan investment by 2020 will come from the market, with only a small proportion from the government.

"As long as there are favorable policies from the government, market investment will support the development of renewable energy," Han Xiaoping, an independent analyst with China5e.com, said.

Market-oriented preferential policies may include setting higher prices for electricity generated by renewable energy, Han added.

He said hydropower and wind power are priorities for developing renewable energy, because of the vast potential and advanced technology.

Source: China Daily 
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<title>Oil price hikes ruled out</title>
<NEWS_ID>6255044</NEWS_ID>
<link>http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/6255044.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:52:55 +0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[The country's two biggest oil companies have not asked the government to raise prices of their refined products as reported by some media, a senior planning official said yesterday.

"We haven't received any application from Sinopec or Ch ...]]></description>
<full-text><![CDATA[The country's two biggest oil companies have not asked the government to raise prices of their refined products as reported by some media, a senior planning official said yesterday.

"We haven't received any application from Sinopec or China National Petroleum Corp to raise prices of finished oil products in response to rising global crude prices," Bi Jingquan, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said.

The two refineries had made profits in the January-July period, he told a press conference in Beijing.

Zhang Zhiguo, a senior media manager with Sinopec, told China Daily yesterday that his company began to lose money in June, but the losses have not yet offset the profits made this year through May.

Analysts said that any hikes in refined oil prices would further push up inflation, which has risen largely because of food prices.

Bi said the government will continue to reform the pricing system for oil products.

"China's crude prices have been linked to international markets, and we will reform finished oil product prices based upon that - that is the direction."

Price revisions will take into account international oil prices and affordability of all aspects of society, he said.

The official said the commission had asked the two oil giants to increase production and imports to ensure supply in Fujian and Heilongjiang provinces, which suffered oil shortages last month.

Overall, the country's oil demand and supply is balanced and the market is stable, he said.

Source: China Daily 
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<title>'No threat of big rise' in inflation</title>
<NEWS_ID>6255043</NEWS_ID>
<link>http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/6255043.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:52:31 +0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[There is no threat of high inflation despite recent steep rises in food prices, a senior planning official said yesterday.

The rising consumer price index (CPI), driven up largely by more expensive food, will become stable when pork pric ...]]></description>
<full-text><![CDATA[There is no threat of high inflation despite recent steep rises in food prices, a senior planning official said yesterday.

The rising consumer price index (CPI), driven up largely by more expensive food, will become stable when pork prices stabilize, Bi Jingquan, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference in Beijing.

The CPI - a key gauge of inflation - hit a 10-year high of 5.6 percent in July and rose by an average of 3.5 percent in the first seven months of the year, of which 2.9 percentage points were contributed by rising food costs, he said.

Pork, in particular, was 70.3 percent more expensive year on year at the end of August in 36 large cities, according to the commission's statistics.

The rise was mainly because of a rise in animal-feed prices and the blue-ear epidemic which shrunk the stock of pigs.

"There are ups and downs in the prices of other goods, but not a continuous rise because demand has not vastly exceeded supply," he told the news briefing held by the State Council Information Office.

"Therefore, there is no serious inflation."

The country has experienced only some structural short supply, such as that of pork, but overall supply and demand in the economy is balanced, he said.

A series of government measures are stabilizing pork prices, but this does not necessarily mean the overall inflation rate will recede to the full-year target of 3 percent in the short term, he said.

"The 3 percent target set at the beginning of this year is only a guideline, it's natural that the actual data are below or above that target."

Pork prices stabilized in the past three weeks because of improved supply, but fluctuations in the meat market are inevitable, he said.

The odds are low that pork rates would continue to rise drastically for a long time, he said.

The skewed supply-demand situation with livestock is expected to be substantially balanced by mid-2008, he said.

Farmers have been given incentives - increased price and government subsidies - to raise more pigs.

Meanwhile, supply of alternative food is sufficient. The output of poultry, eggs and mutton has increased this year, he said.

The official ruled out the possibility of large volumes of pork imports to ease prices.

The country produced 53 percent of the world's total pork last year. It imported 30,000 tons and exported 95,000 tons through July this year.

"Because China is the world's largest pork producer, the country is very unlikely to import pork by the millions of tons every year - there is simply no country that could satisfy such as a huge need."

Source: China Daily 
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