Universities Revel in Centennial Birthday

　　President Jiang Zemin has sent a letter to congratulate the 100th anniversary of the founding of nine universities in east China' Jiangsu Province.

　　The nine universities, with the same origin, Nanjing Normal School in 1902, are Nanjing University, Southeast University, Nanjing Normal University, Hehai University, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Forestry University, Jiangsu University and Jiangnan University.

　　Largest gas field found in North China

　　Scientists have discovered the nation' largest natural gas field with massive proven reserves in the Ju Meng League of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in North China.

　　The gas field, some 602.5 billion cubic meters in size, will provide sufficient energy support for a considerable time for Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, North, East and Central China, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in Northwest China, the Ministry of Science and Technology announced recently in Beijing.

　　Air crash again

　　A China Airlines passenger jetliner with 206 passengers and 19 crew en route from Taipei to Hong Kong crashedsintosthe Taiwan Straits off the island county of Penghu on May 25. All 225 people on board feared to have died.About 20 minutes after Flight CI611 took off from Taipei' international airport Saturday; radar showed it "disintegrated"into four pieces before dropping off the radar screen.

　　The catastrophic crash of a China Airlines plane may turn out to be a new driving force to push forward an ongoing bid from both sides of the Taiwan Straits to end Taipei' five-decade ban on three direct links.

　　Human Researches in Rural China "Badly Wrong" Harvard President

　　The 15 genetic projects launched by Harvard University in China' Anhui Province is not only "Wrong"but "Badly wrong"said Harvard President Lawrence Summers when visiting Beijing University on May 14.

　　These human researches, starting from 1995, was conducted under the name of cooperation between the Public Health Institute under Harvard University and concerned universities in Anhui and took farmers in Yuexi County in Dabieshan Mountain as their objects. Over ten thousand farmers, many with their whole families, were asked to participate in "physical checks"and give blood samples for at least twice. But they didn't have the slightest idea toswherestheir samples were send and for what purpose.

　　Chinese civil servants?salary will be raised again in July

　　The Minister of Ministry of Finance, Xiang Huaicheng said that China would increase its civil servants?salary once more on May 12 at the press conference of Asian banks annul convention in shanghai.

　　Chinese civil servants?salary has been raised up for several times in the past five years.

　　China warned of water crisis by 2030

　　Chinese experts warn that by 2030 when China' population reaches 1.6 billion, per capita water resources will drop to 1,760 cubic meters perilously close to 1, 700 cubic meters, the internationally recognized benchmark for water shortages. Li Rui, head of the Soil Conservation Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said that China' water consumption would peak by 2030 and if no effective measures are taken, the country is likely to suffer a serious water crisis in the future.

　　Rainstorm Hit Northwest China

　　Rainstorms hit northwest China' Shaanxi Province early this month. At least 26 people have died and 282 were still missing till June 11 as a result of flooding in southern parts of Shaanxi Province in Northwest China. It had also destroyed a 150-meter-long bridge on Longhai Railway (from Lianyungang to Xinjiang). The bridge over the Bahe River, which runs near Xi'an City, collapsed Sunday afternoon and detained 300 trains.

　　Chinese Customs Revenue Drops

　　Duty collected by Chinese customs totaled 74.16 billion yuan (about 8.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the first four months of 2002, down 7.74 percent year on year and ending three years of fast growth.

　　Statistics from the Chinese General Administration of Customs (GAC) show that tariffs in the January-April period reached 20.98 billion yuan (2.5 billion dollars), a drop of 6.9 billion yuan (831 million dollars) or 24.81 percent from the same period of last year, while the import consumption tax and value-added tax increased 1.34 percent to 53.2 billion yuan (6.4 billion dollars).

　　Car presentation to car purchasing

　　Auto China 2002, an international car exhibition which made its debut in Beijing on June 6, has attracted about 1,200 auto manufacturers to display their products, as well as hundreds of thousands of people to view their products.

　　Predictions on China' auto consumption potential are promising and the passenger car market is expected to grow to about 1 million units in the next two years. By 2006, up to 60 per cent of Chinese auto purchases are expected to be made by private customers, up from about 30 per cent now.

　　China Posts Record Industrial Growth in May

　　Booming exports pushed China' industrial production growth to 12.9 percent in May from the same month last year, the fastest expansion since 1998.

　　The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on June 11 that industrial output in May mounted to a total of 261.7 billion yuan (US.53 billion), a rise of 12.9 percent over a year ago. The growth was 0.8 percentage points higher than in April.

　　The rise in production was powered by increased output of electronics and telecom products, transportation equipment and electrical machinery, the bureau said.

　　China Becomes World' 6th Largest Foreign Trader

　　China has edged one step forward to become the world' 6th largest trading nation, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) said in a press release, quoting figures issued by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

　　The United States, Germany, Japan, France and Britain were the five countries whose trade volume surpassed China' last year. However, China has outrun Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and Hong Kong.

　　FDI increases after WTO entry; foreign trade up

　　Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China soared between January and April on the back of investor confidence in a strong domestic economy and the country' entrysintosthe World Trade Organization (WTO).

　　China made use of US.1 billion foreign direct investment in the first four months of this year, registering a 29.06 percent increase on comparable months last year, according to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC).

　　On foreign trade, GAC figures show that exports in the January-April period rose 12 per cent to US.38 billion and import grew 8.8 per cent to US.14 billion, leaving a trade surplus of US.24 billion.

　　China Has Become No.1 Mobile Phone Country in the World

　　In a short span of a dozen years or so, China has become a No.1 country in the world for cellular phone users.However, to go unmatchable to its place is that China has no brand-name cellular phone of its own. It was not until 1998 that Kejian fired the first shot in the homemade cellular phone field and then followed by Xoceco, TCL, Bird and Hai'er in the wake, forming gradually a contingent to break out of the encirclement.

　　China Mobile Becomes Biggest Telecom Operator

　　China Mobile has first become China' biggest telecom operator instead of China Telecom the past champion, the ever telecom sector' giant, which has downgraded to the second place, according to sources from the Ministry of Information Industry on May 15.

　　And China Netcom has upgraded to the third place with China Unicom dropped to the fourth, and the rest is shared by ChinaSat and China Railcom, according to the new ranking list.

　　Audi makes China 2nd target market

　　Audi AG, the luxury arm of German auto giant Volkswagen AG, says China is its second most important overseas market after the United States.

　　China has become increasingly important to the company with its growing demand for Audi cars even though its current sales in China account for a only a small proportion of its global sales.

　　Volve aims high in China market

　　Spurred by strong demand in the Chinese market, Volvo Car Corp, an affiliate of world No 2 automaker Ford Motor, is tinkering with its sales forecast for the nation.

　　According to Ong Eng Seong, vice-president of the Sweden-based company' China operation, it has set a new sales target of more than 10,000 units a year by 2005.