Daily Life in China

Ke Dawei

 

Week 1:

Assignment:

Original title and lead inluded.

Mandelson: EU may free Chinese goods next month

(AP) Updated: 2005-08-28 21:14

  EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said Sunday he will present EU governments with proposals to unblock millions of dollars worth of Chinese textile imports held up at customs, the Associated Press reported.

1.      Part 1: Read and determine what the article is about.

2.      Separate the big important facts and issues from the small facts and issues.

3.      Determine the most important thing or issue in the article.  The big pictures facts or issues.

4.      Write a title for the article body that lets the reader know what the overall article is about.

5.      Write a compact lead for the body that gives the reader a better idea of the article but without the detail, just a few of the big picture highlights.  Try using one or two sentences packed with information.

6.      Part 2: Write leads and titles for two different news events that have happened in the past or create your own news event.  No article body just create a title and lead.

If his plans are accepted, the crisis over the backlog of Chinese bras, sweaters and other clothes could be over by mid-September, Mandelson told British Broadcasting Corp. television. He said he will make the proposals to EU governments on Monday.

"I am making proposals to our member states ... to begin the proceedings to unblock all the goods which are currently held at customs," Mandelson said.

"I hope that member states will cooperate with me in doing that and they won't prevent the speedy passage of those procedures," he added. "If they cooperate I believe that we will be able to unblock the all the goods currently held at customs by the middle of next month."

He spoke in London as EU trade officials negotiated in Beijing to end the trade crisis. EU officials said they hoped those negotiations would end in an agreement Sunday on how to unblock the exports which could then be quickly endorsed by the union's 25 member nations.

European retailers say their business is threatened by EU quotas introduced in June to halt a flood of cheap Chinese clothing imports.

The temporary quotas were introduced in an agreement with China after complaints from European textile producers that their livelihoods were endangered by a surge in Chinese goods following the expiry of global textile trade limits in January.

Mandelson blamed EU governments for the crisis by continuing to issue import licenses for Chinese goods for weeks after his agreement in June to fix the quotas. He also said Chinese authorities "were a bit slow off the mark in introducing their own exports control system."

The result was that Chinese goods piled up at bonded warehouses on European borders leaving retailers warning of empty shelves this autumn and winter.

Mandelson said governments should now act to get those clothes into stores.

"In the implementation of this agreement there has been a glitch," he told the BBC. "It is not the fault of importers, it is not the fault of retailers, I don't believe they should be unfairly penalized."

Mandelson stressed that the EU's quotas were introduced to protect textile importers from poor nations outside Europe from Chinese competition, as well as to shelter European producers. However, he insisted such protection could only be temporary.

"The need is for everyone to adjust to the new market realities, adjust to the reality of China's growth and make sure that we reform economically, invest and adapt so that we can take on the challenge of this competition," he said. "The protectionist route is simply a dead-end."

Class 304 below:

Assignment:

1.      Part 1: Read and determine what the article is about.

2.      Separate the big important facts and issues from the small facts and issues.

3.      Determine the most important thing or issue in the article.  The big pictures facts or issues.

4.      Write a title for the article body that lets the reader know what the overall article is about.

5.      Write a compact lead for the body that gives the reader a better idea of the article but without the detail, just a few of the big picture highlights.  Try using one or two sentences packed with information.

6.      Part 2: Write leads and titles for two different news events that have happened in the past or create your own news event.  No article body just create a title and lead.

The farmers, who gathered in Longnan in Gansu Province yesterday, are asking the Longnan Intermediate People's Court to award them 25 million yuan (US$3 million) from Chengxian County government.

The suit also names the local land procurement and relocation office, charged by the government to do the demolition.  According to plaintiffs' lawyer Wang Dong, the county government issued a notice in September 2001 saying it would requisition the land in the county's Chengguan township in order to construct a sewage treatment plant.

In the following year, the procurement and relocation office pulled down the farmers' single story houses and constructed residential buildings.  "It's illegal because the land, covering about 21,300 square metres, was collectively owned by farmers," Wang said yesterday. Chinese law states that land owned collectively by rural residents should be managed by a board elected by the residents. According to 1996 figures, 46 per cent of land in China falls into this category.

If the government has to use the land for the general public's welfare, then it needs to consult and compensate the farmers.

But Wang, who took the case along with another lawyer, said the county government demolished the farmers' houses through coercive measures without compensation.

"Each farmer has a certificate to prove the land is owned collectively," Wang said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Worse, the government did not even keep its promise that it would compensate the farmers . "As a result, these homeless rural workers have to seek shelter in their relatives' houses or elsewhere," Wang said.

"Only a few resettled families, who have special relations with the government, have moved into new houses."

He also said some victims had been afraid of accusing the government, especially those who have family members working as county civil servants.

In recent years, nevertheless, some wrote petition letters to relevant departments, and others visited the General Office of the State Council in Beijing.

"These peaceful farmers are now outraged," Wang said.  He said that to obtain the evidence, he pretended to purchase a house from the developer of the residential buildings.   

But Wang said the developer has yet to obtain the proper certificate to use the land, and there are other loopholes in its use.

The lawyer for the local government could not be reached for comment.

According to local media reports, the local land procurement and relocation office said it had reached agreements with each family and, in addition, the suit has exceeded its statutes.

However Wang said the government has persisted in violating farmers' legal rights.

 Title and Lead Examples:

1. Title:10 year old enters college

1. Lead: A ten-year-old boy formally registered as a student in an engineering college in the city of Tianjin on Saturday.

2. Title: Shanxi sinking as mines riddle land

2. Lead: Honeycombs of underground mining tunnels have caused one-seventh of the land in Shanxi Province, which produces nearly one-third of the nation's coal, to subside.

3. Title: N.Korea says not ready for nuclear talks -Thai min

3.      Lead:  PYONGYANG - North Korea says it is not ready to rejoin six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program, Thailand said on Sunday, which if true would test the world's patience and throw the talks process into doubt, Reuters reported.

4 Title: Shanxi sinking as mines riddle land

4. Lead: Honeycombs of underground mining tunnels have caused one-seventh of the land in Shanxi Province, which produces nearly one-third of the nation's coal, to subside.

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