Sex educator calls for more control over porn sites

1.A Chinese sex educator is appealing for the introduction of a movie ratings system "to purify" the Isexy internet for the countries' youth.

2."Technically, China could bring in the system to guide our young people," said Zhang Meimei, director of the research center on the sex education at Capital Normal University.

3.She claims some 370 million sexually explicit Web sites on the Internet put the country's 20 million Internet users under the age of 18 at risk.

4.The Internet has spawned numerous pornography sites on the World Wide Web. And porn sites on the Chinese mainland always set up servers outside the country.

5.Zhang, who has studied sex education for 16 years, said Web sites should cater to the needs of juveniles and improve their environment because "it is impossible to block all the unhealthy information on the Internet."

6."Information on these sites plays a key role in crimes involved with sex", she said, adding the prime task is to help young people improve their ability to judge what is right, and to control themselves when reading unhealthy content,"

7.Ministry of Public Security spokesman Wu Heping says as much as 80 percent of juvenile delinquency were caused by juveniles' exposure to sexually explicit Web sites all over the world.

8.China has the second largest Internet users of 144 million, only behind the United States.

9."A large portion of crimes, including rape, racketeering, robbery, and theft, are committed by juveniles addicted to content on pornographic Web sites," said Wu.

10."It is very difficult to inspect and filter sexually explicit sites," explained Kan Kaili, professor of the research institute for the information technology policy and development with the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

11.Kan said society must intensify the campaign of scrutiny and guidance on young Internet users, and to create a healthy environment for them.

12.China has recently launched a campaign to clean up the Internet. Law enforcement departments found and deleted over 60,000 posts and ordered the closure of more than 2,000 sites.

Spanish Flamenco Closes Arts Festival

1.The one-month long 7th "Meet in Beijing" Arts Festival has drawn to a close. Spanish dances were put on stage at Beijing's Tianqiao Theatre as the grand finale act of the closing ceremony. The festival, which started on May 24, ended last Saturday.

2.The performance given by the Ballet Nacional De Espana (BNE)-who are regarded as ambassadors of Spanish culture-presented Beijing citizens with a sumptuous Spanish feast for the eyes, including a demonstration of world famous flamenco dancing. The Spanish troupe of dancers are already quite popular among the Beijing public. During the final show in particular, the passionate audience was amazed by the superb dance moves, waves of applause rained down on the dancers throughout the night.

3.Three brand new works, Caprichos, Dualis and Cambalache were put on stage during the closing ceremony. They not only presented Chinese audience with traditional compositions of flamenco, but also contemporary styles, with newly integrated elements. The performers were not only dancing, but interpreting each movement with profound understanding, as an extension of themselves.

4.Jose Anonio is the artistic director of the performance. He was formerly a first dancer for the BNE himself-since its foundation in 1978-later becoming its artistic director. He has created a large number of works for the group and won countless awards for his outstanding compositions.

5.The wonderful performance marks the successful completion of the 7th "Meet in Beijing" Art Festival. The festival kicked off on April 28 with a splendid Mongolia musical epic entitled Prairie Legend, performed at the opening ceremony.

6.The "Meet in Beijing" Arts Festival is the continuation of a series of yearly cultural activities, begun in 2001, and organized by the Chinese government. The festival, as a cultural bridge, aims at promoting traditional Chinese culture, and also at introducing the best of foreign performing and visual arts to the Chinese. Each year, the festival has a different theme, this year's was: "Cultural Communication, Creativity Sharing".

7.2007 also happens to be the centennial anniversary of Chinese Drama, and it is the cultural year of "Spain in China". Within this year of rich cultural events, the 7th "Meet in Beijing" Arts Festival has provided a fantastic stage for the dissemination of different cultures, and the sharing of artistic endeavours between China and the world.

Great Wall Among Top 10 Finalists for New 7 Wonders

1.China's Great Wall is currently competing among the top 10 finalists for the title of the "New Seven World Wonders" as voted for by millions of people around the world.

2.It is reported that organizers of the biggest global vote ever announced that more than 45 million people had taken part in the ballot so far in an Internet campaign to choose the seven new wonders of the world from a shortlist of 21 historical constructions.

The voting website is www.n7w.com.

3.According to the most recently published data, on May 7, the top 10 were the Great Wall of China, the Acropolis in Greece, the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico, the Coliseum in Rome, the Eiffel tower in Paris, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, Petra in Jordan, the statues on Easter Island, Britain's Stonehenge and the Taj Mahal in India.

4.Following the destruction of Afghanistan's giant Buddha statues at Bamyan by the Taliban, a Swiss filmmaker, curator and traveler Bernard Weber decided to set up the "New Seven World Wonders" contest in 2001.

5.The Swiss organizer said the selection of the new list is a great chance for people to review how major world civilizations grow, and to appreciate the world's collective cultural heritage.

6.The New 7 Wonders' panel of experts, chaired by the former Director General of UNESCO, Prof. Dr. Federico Mayor, short-listed nominations with the most votes received at the end of 2005, narrowing the list down to 21 finalists in 2006.

7.The original "Seven World Wonders of the World", made by the Greek philosopher Philon 2200 years ago, included the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Colossus of Rhodes, along with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in modern-day Iraq, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in modern-day Turkey and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

8.The final results will be officially announced on July 7 of this year in Portugal's capital city, Lisbon.

Buy American!

1.Over the course of this year, China's government will find itself with more than $300 billion in new foreign-currency reserves, mostly dollars, that it will have to park somewhere. That's in addition to more than $1 trillion already in the bank. The oil-exporting countries of the world are in a similar predicament, with a trillion petrodollars looking for a home. Japan's got a trillion bucks lying around too.

2.This is the flip side of the gargantuan trade deficits ($765 billion last year) that the U.S. is running, the result of high oil prices, Asian manufacturing prowess and our spend-and-borrow mentality. That leaves exporters like China the task of figuring out what to do with all those dollars. It's tougher than it sounds.

3.Consider what happened the first time the nations of the Persian Gulf found themselves in a dollar gusher, during the oil crises of the 1970s. They handed back much of that money to Western banks, which loaned it out to developing countries that couldn't repay it. Then, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japanese firms recycled their dollars by investing in trophy U.S. properties, including Rockefeller Center and the Pebble Beach resort. Both those deals ended in bankruptcy for the acquirers.

4.This time around, Japan seems content with U.S. Treasury bonds--a dud investment, but a reliable one. China and the gulf states, though, are aiming higher. On May 20, the Chinese government said that it was paying $3 billion for just less than 10% of the Blackstone Group, the U.S.'s leading private-equity firm, which owns everything from Freescale Semiconductor to Michaels Stores. The next day, Saudi Basic Industries Corp. said it was buying General Electric's plastics division--the storied operation based in Pittsfield, Mass., where former GE boss Jack Welch earned his stripes--for $11.6 billion.

5.The Blackstone transaction makes barely a dent in China's foreign-currency reserves, but it signals that the government wants to invest its dollar stash more aggressively. The deal was nicely timed--just before top Chinese officials arrived in Washington for talks aimed at reducing the bilateral trade deficit. "It's a safe bet. It's politically savvy and economically very smart," says Bank of America market strategist Joseph Quinlan. The Saudi plastics buy, in turn, is part of an effort to move up the economic food chain from pumping oil to making things of value out of it. The day after, the CEO of oil-field-services firm Halliburton practically begged for a similar investment from the gulf.

6.These deals--unlike recent debacles in which the China National Offshore Oil Corp. failed in an attempt to buy Unocal and Dubai Ports World bought and then had to give up control of several U.S. ports--appear to have profiles low enough to avoid political opposition. Make no mistake, though: foreign investors' presence in the U.S. is only going to grow.

7.Ever since the late 1970s, America's appetite for foreign oil, cars and consumer electronics has resulted in trade deficits that can be financed only by attracting investment from overseas. Since 1986, the U.S. has been a net debtor--to the tune of $2.7 trillion at the end of 2005.

8.In one sense, foreigners' buying companies is a good thing for a debtor nation like the U.S., because it's harder to dump those investments in a panic than it is to sell bonds. But there's a worrisome aspect to this trend, even beyond the usual xenophobic concerns about foreigners' acquiring our national treasures.

9.Until last year, partly as a result of the dollar-investing disasters described earlier and partly because most foreign investors preferred safe but low-yielding bonds, Americans earned more on their investments abroad than foreigners made here. This meant you could argue that our nation's decades-long spending binge had actually left it richer in relation to the rest of the world, not poorer. In 2006, though, the U.S.'s long-running investment-income surplus gave way to a deficit of $7.3 billion.

10.If that keeps up--and all indications are that it will, especially if China and the gulf states prove to be savvy investors--the U.S. will effectively be sending big checks abroad each year to pay for good times past. Which is money Americans won't be able to spend on oil, cars and consumer electronics.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)

1.China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is one of the world's leading integrated energy companies. It is a State holding company whose business operations cover a broad spectrum of upstream and downstream activities, domestic marketing and international trade, technical services, and equipment manufacturing and supply.

2.CNPC serves as China's largest producer and supplier of crude oil and natural gas, holding a dominant position in domestic petroleum production, processing, and marketing sectors. At the same time, CNPC is also a major producer and supplier of refined oil products and petrochemicals. As one of the largest service suppliers in the global petroleum and petrochemical industries, CNPC can provide operational services and technical support in such areas as geophysical prospecting, well drilling, logging, well testing, downhole operations, oilfield surface facilities construction, pipeline construction, refining and petrochemical projects, and manufacturing and supply of petroleum equipment.

3.CNPC ranked 9th among the world's top 50 petroleum companies by US Petroleum Intelligence Weekly in 2005, based on indices of oil and gas reserves, production, crude processing capacity, and sales of refined oil products. In 2005, the company rated 46th by the Fortune Global 500 in terms of sales revenues.

4.CNPC's registered total assets is 114.9 billion yuan, and its present total assets is 736.2 billion yuan. It has 14 large and giant oil and gas field enterprises, 14 large scale refining and petrochemical companies, 19 marketing companies and a large group of R&D units and technical service and mechanical manufacturing enterprise located in Northeast China, North China, Northwest China and Southwest China. By the end of 2004, there were 20 overseas exploration and production projects in 12 countries such as Sudan, Algeria, Ecuador, Nigeria, Chad, etc.

Shanghai sees less contractual FDI

1.Shanghai, the economic engine in east China, approved establishment of 909 foreign-funded projects in the first quarter of this year, taking in 3.17 billion U.S. dollars in contracted foreign direct investment, according local government sources.

2.The sources said the pledged FDI went down seven percent from the same period of last year.

3.The decline was ascribed largely to tightened government control on land use and promulgation of the new corporate tax law.

4.The sources said tightened land-use control has crippled foreign investment in real estate and related manufacturing sectors.

5.Between January and March, the city approved establishment of 26 foreign-funded property development projects, involving 612 million U.S. dollars in contracted foreign capital, down 31.12 percent.

6.The sources said of the 909 projects approved in the three months, 58.9 percent were projects to replenish capital into existing foreign-funded enterprises, who were believed to make use of the continued tax holidays in the grace period set by the new corporate tax law. Most of them were from the manufacturing sector.

7.The new Corporate Income Tax Law passed in March of this year unifies the income tax of domestic and foreign-funded enterprises. According to the new law, some tax preferential treatment to foreign-funded enterprises will be adjusted or cancelled, and domestic and foreign-funded enterprises will be treated equally to pay corporate income tax at a rate of 25 percent.

8.In breakdown, Shanghai approved establishment of 196 foreign-funded manufacturuing projects, taking in 1.26 billion U.S. dollars in contracted foreign capital, up 3.34 percent year-on-year.

9.The city recorded 499 million U.S. dollars in pledged FDI for leasing and commerce projects, up 8.16 percent, and 186 million U.S. dollars for other service projects, up nearly 240 percent.

10.Shanghai actually used 2.02 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter, up 2.2 percent, the sources added.