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The Air Force of the Chinese People\’s Liberation Army (PLA) is now studying a new training program for the pilots of its third-generation fighter jets, according to Air Force headquarters.

The country\’s first group of third-generation fighter pilot cadets recently completed their academic studies and military training in an experimental Air Force training program. They are expected to become qualified pilots after more training in Air Force combat units, according to the headquarters.

Fighter pilots typically go through 10 years of training, including academic study and combat training. However, the new training program shortens the period to five to seven years, according to Wang Yingzhong, president of an Air Force pilot academy responsible for carrying out the experimental program.

The new program also keeps the trainees in the air more often. Total flying hours have increased by over 42 percent under the new program, Wang said.

The new program has allowed the academy to train more pilots at a time, increasing this year\’s number of graduates by 94.3 percent, Wang said.

The new program also adds new graduation criteria for cadets, requiring them to master 10 aerial combat skills in addition to their academic training, Wang said.

Source: Xinhua

China on Wednesday expressed its "strong dissatisfaction " with Japan\’s 2011 defense white paper, saying it contains irresponsible comments on China\’s national defense construction.

"The Japanese 2011 defense white paper made carping and irresponsible comments on China\’s national defense construction," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.

Ma made the remarks when asked to comment on the China-related content in Japan\’s 2011 defense white paper, which was published on August 2.

Ma said China\’s reinforcement of national defense and military modernization drive is entirely for safeguarding its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, not targeting any other country.

"China\’s development is offering significant opportunities to all countries in the world including Japan". He said, "China has not, and will never be a threat to any other country".

"I hope Japan can learn from the past, seriously reflect on its own defense policy and do more to deepen mutual trust with neighboring countries, maintain regional peace and stability, not the contrary," Ma added.

Ma also reaffirmed China\’s adherence to the path of peaceful development and pursuit of defensive national defense policy.

Source: Xinhua

A former governor of a Yi autonomous prefecture in Southwest China\’s Yunnan province was expelled from the Party after he was alleged to have abused drugs, maintained "improper" sexual relations and taken bribes, a local Party authority said on Wednesday.

The Yunnan provincial Party committee\’s standing committee said in a statement on Wednesday that it had decided the day before to expel Yang Hongwei, former governor of the Chuxiong Yi autonomous prefecture, after investigations had linked him to bribery, drug abuse and derelictions of duty, as well as the enjoyment of an "indecent life".

Yang, 48, is believed to have accepted cash bribes that included 10 million yuan ($1.55 million), $138,000, HK$30,000, and 30,000 Australian dollars when he was governor of Chuxiong from 2006 to 2011, the statement said.

He was removed from that post in April.

The provincial Party committee also meted out punishments to a former head of the provincial taxation bureau and a former head of the provincial housing bureau, who were both charged with corruption.

From reports, Internet users learned that Yang was the first department-level official found to have abused narcotics, leading them to call him "the prefecture governor doing drugs".

Yang once used narcotics in a meeting in police officials\’ presence, his colleague, former chairman of the prefecture\’s political advisory body, Yang Chengbiao, told Kunming Daily.

The drug Yang is alleged to have favored is called "Kaku", a popular narcotic that consists of opium and herbs and looks like shredded tobaccos.

Before Yang\’s reputation was damaged by his alleged drug abuse, local media had reported that he was well known for his zeal for drinking alcohol and his "immeasurable" drinking capacity.

That propensity was perhaps best illustrated by his alleged response to a break in a drought that had struck his province in 2010. Learning that rain was falling in seven extremely dry counties there, Yang is said to have celebrated by drinking seven mugs of liquor in a row, according to a report by Xinhua News Agency.

Yang was also found to have had improper relations with several women – another reason for his dismissal, according to the statement of the provincial Party committee.

The statement said local judicial authorities will further investigate Yang\’s alleged crimes.

Yang and his subordinates, Lu Linlin, deputy governor of the prefecture, and Ma Guoxiong, secretary-general of the Chuxiong government, were dismissed from their posts on the same day Yang lost the governor\’s seat.

Before being appointed to that post in 2006, Yang had worked for several years in the local government of Yunnan\’s Mile county.

Source: China Daily

The Ministry of Commerce has expanded a pilot meat and vegetable tracking system to 10 more cities on Friday, aiming to improve food safety.

Officials from the ministry signed cooperative agreements with senior government officials from 10 cities including Harbin, Jinan and Urumqi on Friday, to start the second phase of a pilot project for a meat and vegetable tracking system.

The ministry started the first-phase pilot of the system in October 2010 in 10 cities, including Shanghai and Dalian. The system will allow consumers to check the provenance of meat and vegetables by the use of bar codes on the products once the system is in place.

The system will standardize the transportation of meat and vegetables, two key agricultural products, and will lead to changes in the current system to provide a higher standard of food safety.

"The tracking system will boost the development of modern transportation of agricultural produce with electronic commerce. Transportation is an important factor in the price fluctuations of agricultural products," Jiang Zengwei, vice-minister of commerce, said at a news conference on Friday.

"By the end of the year, the tracking system piloted in the first 10 cities will be put into full use. By the end of the 12th Five-year Plan (2011-2015), the tracking system should cover the transportation of meat and vegetables across the country and will be expanded to other areas such as fruit and marine products on a step-by-step basis," Jiang said.

Approximately 80 percent of meat and vegetables in the larger cities are produced in rural areas, while more than 80 percent of the transportation is done through wholesale markets. The first-phase of the system now covers 176 slaughterhouses, 100 large wholesale markets, more than 3,000 food markets, 1,400 supermarkets and more than 4,400 bulk buyers in the 10 pilot cities.

A series of food safety scandals in recent years, including contaminated milk and pork from pigs fed with illegal additives, has greatly heightened public concern about food safety. The tracking system is part of the government\’s efforts to improve the situation.

Huang Guiheng, a manager at Bric Global Agricultural Consultants Ltd, said that the tracking system is in the interests of consumers, who will be able to check the source of the produce.

"Consumers will choose meat or vegetables verified by the tracking system, providing the cost of the system does not add much to the price," he said.

However, he said the greater significance of the tracking system lies in establishing food safety standards by involving leading enterprises in the system. "The tracking system should start with leading enterprises to set safety standards and then be extended to the entire food industry. Businesses will welcome the tracking system which will promote their brands," he said.

Source: China Daily

China has arrested approximately 2,000 suspects and shut down more than 4,900 businesses for illegal practices during a national campaign launched in April to crack down on illegal additives in food.

Agricultural, industrial, commercial, quality control and food authorities in their coordinated efforts have as of Sunday inspected 5.92 million food or additives manufacturers and catering businesses, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the Food Safety Commission under the State Council.

The police have investigated 1,200 criminal cases concerning the illegal adding of non-edible materials in food and destroyed a series of underground sites for illegal production, storage and processing of food products.

The statement said government agencies across the country will continue the fight against irregularities to safeguard food, and violators will be severely punished.

Source: Xinhua

The PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the People\’s Liberation Army (PLA), called upon the army to follow the guideline put forward by President Hu Jintao in an editorial written for the 84th anniversary of the founding of the PLA that fell on Monday.

Hu, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, said in his speech regarding the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) that "the scientific development of national defense and the army should be the general guideline to follow, and priority should be given to accelerating change in the way of raising troops\’ combat effectiveness."

The PLA Daily editorial called upon PLA officers and soldiers to practice this "major strategic thinking," and to promote the development of national defense and the army under its guidance.

The editorial elaborated that the key to the PLA\’s growth from weak to strong, and its journey from one victory to another, is that it revered the Party\’s leadership, and thus maintains great cohesion and battling capacity.

Further, the paper called upon PLA officers and soldiers to enhance risk awareness and to be mindful of their mission, as the international military competition becomes increasingly fierce, and modern wars are fast evolving from mechanical wars to information-based ones.

Additionally, the commentary laid out tasks for the PLA.

It\’s important to adhere to the fundamental principle of the Party exercising absolute leadership over the army, and to boost Party building within the army.

It is important to expand and intensify military preparedness and to conduct military exercises with IT applications and raise independent defense- and weaponry-related R&D capabilities.

"We should speed up all-around development of modern logistics and the training of a new type of high-caliber military personnel, and promote reform of national defense and the army in an active yet prudent manner," said the editorial.

The army must be run strictly and in accordance with the law. It\’s imperative to strengthen and develop unity between the army and the people, according to the editorial.

Source: Xinhua

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, China\’s central government recently raised the standard of orphan subsidies. The total sum of the subsidies is 2.5 billion yuan and about 655,000 orphans will benefit from it.

National Situation：Growth subsidies based per capita income, CPI

Xu Jianzhong, the director of the social welfare and the philanthropy promotion department, said that the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance had a conference about raising the standard of orphan subsidies in the first half year of 2011. The growth of the subsidies is based on per capita disposable income and the CPI last year.

The provincial governments have also raised the standard of orphan subsidies as the same time. For example, Shaanxi Province has raised the minimum standard from 600 yuan a month each in 2010 to 800 now.

Xu also said that the number of the orphans in China has decreased from 712,000 in 2008 to 655,000 by the end of 2010.

Beijing\’s Situation：Living expenses for orphans reach max 1,600 yuan per month

On May 10, the Civil Affairs Bureau and the Municipal Finance Bureau of Beijing jointly issued a notice about paying the living expenses for orphans. According to the standard, orphans in Beijing can have a maximum 1,600 yuan per month.

The standard of the subsidy is only for the orphans who are living in Beijing and are less than 18 years old.

Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau requires that the 1,600 yuan in living expenses includes meals, education, clothes, basic medical expenses and some other necessary expenses.

By People\’s Daily Online

Meteorological authorities in southwest China\’s Sichuan Province on Wednesday afternoon issued an alert for downpours that are predicted to hit the province from Wednesday evening to Friday morning.

According to the alert, heavy rains will hit the province\’s cities of Guangyuan, Bazhong, Dazhou, Nanchong, Guang\’an, Suining, Ziyang, Neijiang, Zigong, Yibin, Luzhou and Mianyang.

The province\’s Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture will also be hit by the downpours.

Precipitation is expected to exceed 100 mm, according to the forecast.

Local meteorological authorities have ordered cities and prefectures that might be affected by the downpours to examine drainage systems connected to farmlands and fish ponds.

Source: Xinhua

Bullet trains running from Shanghai to Wenzhou, Fuzhou and Xiamen all departed on time as of 11 a.m. Monday after a deadly collision suspended the operation in eastern Zhejiang Province on Saturday night.

The first train, numbered DJ5603, running from Ningbo to Cangnan in Zhejiang, passed the accident site at 6:57 a.m. on Monday, said a statement on the website of the Ministry of Railways (MOR).

Source: Xinhua

In order to address new challenges, coordination between UN peacekeeping operation, peacemaking and peacebuilding efforts needs to be strengthened, Wang Min, deputy permanent representative of the Chinese Mission to the United Nations said here on Wednesday.

Wang made the remarks when he addressed a UN Security Council\’s open meeting on UN peacekeeping operations.

He pointed out that as important as peacekeeping operations is, it is not panacea. The key to building lasting peace lies in promoting political dialogue and reconciliation process. Furthermore, concerned parties should pay more attention to and tackle the root causes of conflicts, particularly the problem of economic and social development.

Wang also noted that while implementing mandate of protecting civilians, UN peacekeeping operations should strictly abide by Security Council resolutions, stick to principle of neutrality so as to avoid becoming a party of conflict.

China supports the UN\’s efforts to improve speed and efficiency of peacekeeping operation deployment, make it more targeted and flexible, and to enhance the partnership with host countries and regional organizations, he said.

Source: Xinhua