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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)


March 2003 - China Special Weapons News

  • U.S., CHINA AGREE TO ENHANCED COOPERATION ON POW/MIA MATTERS 29 Mar 2003 -- A Department of Defense delegation has concluded a visit to China to discuss additional cooperation in resolving POW and MIA cases.
  • CHINA/PNEUMONIA VOA 27 Mar 2003 -- Months after a severe form of pnuemonia first appeared in southern China, officials in Beijing are just now beginning to admit how far the disease has spread. News media in the country have been quiet about the outbreak.
  • CHINA / ASIAN PNEUMONIA VOA 26 Mar 2003 -- The World Health Organization confirms that the global outbreak of a pneumonia-like disease from Hong Kong is the same illness that struck southern China in November.The number of Chinese people it has killed sharply boosts the international death toll.
  • CHINA-PAKISTAN VOA 25 Mar 2003 -- Pakistan's prime minister, on a state visit to Beijing, has signed several agreements to boost cooperation with China. Chinese leaders also have used the occasion to call for an end to the U-S-led war on Iraq.
  • The World’s Largest Antenna Measuring Range: Astrium and EurasSpace Deliver Compact Range to China EADS 21 Mar 2003 -- The European space company Astrium and its subsidiary “EurasSpace – Gesellschaft für Raumfahrttechnik mbH“ (Munich) will deliver the world’s largest antenna measuring range to China.
  • CHINA / FALUN GONG VOA 21 Mar 2003 -- China has sentenced an American member of the banned Falun Gong meditation sect to jail for interfering with television broadcasts. The American also has been ordered deported.
  • CHINA NPC: WRAPUP VOA 19 Mar 2003 -- China's new political leadership is promising to do more for the country's millions of impoverished farmers and to close the gap between those who have benefited from economic reforms and those left behind. The pledges come at the end of the 13-day meeting of the National People's Congress. Although China may be refining its economy, there is little indication major political reforms are under serious consideration.
  • CHINA WEN VOA 18 Mar 2003 -- China's new prime minister says rural poverty and rising unemployment are his nation's biggest problems.
  • CHINA / NPC CLOSE VOA 18 Mar 2003 -- China's new president is promising to rejuvenate the nation, as he takes power in the country's smoothest leadership transition in more than half a century
  • CHINA / NPC CLOSE VOA 17 Mar 2003 -- China's annual legislative meeting has ended with the country's most orderly transition of power in more than half a century. The new leaders pledge to continue the country's modernization.
  • CHINA CABINET VOA 17 Mar 2003 -- China is announcing more high-level appointments in its leadership transition. Some new ministerial positions have also been created to better manage the country's economic reforms.
  • CHINA FOREIGN MINISTER VOA 17 Mar 2003 -- China has appointed a new foreign minister, but says its policy on the Iraq crisis will stay the same.
  • CHINA / NEW LEADERSHIP VOA 15 Mar 2003 -- China has put the finishing touches on its sweeping leadership transition with the selection of a new Prime Minister.
  • CHINA / LAW VOA 16 Mar 2003 -- China has chosen a top police official with a tough reputation to be its new head prosecutor. China also re-appointed its highest-ranking judge, who has promised continued crackdowns on terrorists, separatists and "evil cults."
  • CHINA/NEW LEADERSHIP VOA 15 Mar 2003 -- China has named a new generation of leaders to replace its aging Communist Party elders. Hu Jintao has been appointed President, replacing Jiang Zemin. But Mr. Jiang is likely to exert a strong influence on the country's policies for some time.
  • CHINA NPC: LEADERSHIP CHANGE VOA 14 Mar 2003 -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin is expected to retire Saturday and hand over his position to Vice President Hu Jintao. But many believe that Mr. Jiang will continue to maintain a tight grip on power from behind the scenes.
  • WEN PROFILE VOA 14 Mar 2003 -- The man expected to guide China's economy as prime minister, Wen Jiabao, takes office Sunday. Political experts tell Mr. Wen will be less abrasive than his predecessor and more concerned about the problems of ordinary people left behind by China's rapid, but uneven economic growth.
  • CHINA NPC: ZHU RONGJI VOA 14 Mar 2003 -- China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji (JOO Rong-jee) leaves office soon, during the final days of the annual session of the National People's Congress. In his five years as Prime Minister, Mr. Zhu tackled the country's bloated bureaucracy, trying to streamline state firms and clean up bad loans. Zhu Rongji may be a tough act for the country's new prime minister, Wen Jiabao, to follow.
  • HU JINTAO PROFILE VOA 14 Mar 2003 -- Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao is to replace 76-year-old Jiang Zemin as the country's president. Mr. Hu became party leader last November, and since then has portrayed himself as an advocate for China's poor and disadvantaged. But it is still not clear how much real power he will wield, or whether his beliefs will translate into policy changes.
  • CHINA / NPC / ENVIRONMENT VOA 14 Mar 2003 -- China's environment minister says the country's new leadership will put greater emphasis on curbing the nation's "severe" pollution.
  • CHINA NPC: JIANG PROFILE VOA 14 Mar 2003 -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin has confounded critics who said he would not last long in Beijing politics. Thirteen-years later he is still in charge and his ideas are enshrined in the Communist Party's constitution.
  • CHINA APPOINTMENT VOA 13 Mar 2003 -- China is appointing an official who was involved in the worst corruption case in Chinese Communist history as head of the advisory body to its legislature. The official is a close ally of retiring President Jiang Zemin, who many believe insulated him from graft allegations.
  • CHINA / N-P-C SOCIAL STABILITY VOA 12 Mar 2003 -- As a new generation of leaders prepares to assume power in China next week, it will face an unprecedented challenge from growing social unrest due to poverty and massive unemployment. The next Communist Party government has pledged to relieve hardships brought about by major restructuring to create a market economy. But their promises may not be enough.
  • CHINA NPC / LABOR VOA 12 Mar 2003 -- China's top labor official says the country's unemployment problem is grim, but the government is trying to help the jobless. His comments come shortly after an unemployed man claiming to have a bomb held several journalists hostage in Beijing. China's leaders feel they must act quickly, to prevent more frustrated workers from striking out.
  • CHINA HOSTAGE JOURNALISTS VOA 12 Mar 2003 -- A man claiming to have a bomb took over the Beijing office of the Reuters news agency Wednesday. The staff was eventually released unharmed, and a few hours later, police captured the suspect. The man appears to be one of China's millions of frustrated jobless workers.
  • CHINA NPC / WESTERN DEVELOPMENT VOA 12 Mar 2003 -- The Chinese government has been pouring money into developing the country's western provinces. China's leaders consider the region's poverty an urgent problem, and have a new plan to enrich the arid region.
  • CHINA U-S FALUN GONG VOA 11 Mar 2003 -- A U-S citizen is facing trial in China on accusations of tapping into state television broadcasts for the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
  • CHINA / NPC LEGAL REPORT VOA 11 Mar 2003 -- China's top law enforcement officials are promising there will be no let up in the get tough on crime policy - in which millions of people had been jailed in the past five years.
  • CHINA NPC: BANKING REFORM VOA 10 Mar 2003 -- China's banks are staggering under 400 billion of dollars in debts that are not likely to be repaid, a situation that threatens economic growth and the badly needed jobs that go with it. Reforming China's banks and other financial institutions is a top priority for the nation's new leaders who will be formally appointed during the current session of the National People's Congress.
  • CHINA NPC AGRICULTURE VOA 10 Mar 2003 -- China says it will be a long, hard task to help its impoverished farmers. The government plans to speed up urban development and better protect the rights of migrant workers to raise the incomes of the rural poor.
  • CHINA / LI PENG BOWS OUT VOA 10 Mar 2003 -- The man most associated with the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in China's Tiananmen Square has given his political farewell speech. China's parliament chief Li Peng stayed true to his conservative views in parting words to the National People's Congress.
  • CHINA / NPC GOVERNMENT REFORM VOA 10 Mar 2003 -- China's legislature has approved a plan for restructuring government departments to trim bloated bureaucracy. The significant change is the merger of the foreign and domestic trade ministries to better handle growing commerce as a member of the World Trade Organization.
  • CHINA BOMB SUSPECT VOA 08 Mar 2003 -- Chinese police say they have arrested a man who confessed to planting bombs last month at two Beijing universities. The attacks injured nine people just days before the annual meeting of the National People's Congress began, causing great official concern.
  • CHINA JOBS VOA 07 Mar 2003 -- As China's National People's Congress convenes in Beijing, one of the biggest problems facing new leaders is widespread unemployment caused by mass failures of state-owned enterprises. The government has pledged to create millions of new jobs this year, but China's future job growth will come largely from the private sector.
  • CHINA/DEBT BURDEN VOA 07 Mar 2003 -- The Chinese government's public spending is exploding, and there is increasing concern about its record budget deficits and debt-burdened state banks. The government is bringing in less than it is spending to create new jobs, stimulate growth, and ensure social stability.
  • CHINA OVERHAUL VOA 06 Mar 2003 -- China says it plans to streamline its bureaucracy. Chinese officials say the reforms are designed to help the government increase its transparency and efficiency as the country moves toward a free-market system.
  • CHINA BUDGET VOA 06 Mar 2003 -- China's finance minister says fighting poverty is the government's top priority as he unveiled increases in spending to help farmers and the urban poor. The plan has a modest increase military spending - and a record budget deficit.
  • LYLLY-CHINA VOA 05 Mar 2003 -- James Lilly, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and a former U.S. ambassador to China and the Republic of Korea.
  • CHINA NPC: OPEN VOA 05 Mar 2003 -- China's parliament, the National People's Congress, has opened, with a sweeping leadership transition topping the agenda. In his farewell address to the government, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji has urged legislators to make poverty and unemployment relief their highest priorities.
  • CHINA ZHU RONGJI VOA 05 Mar 2003 -- China's prime minister says his government has boosted the economy over the past five years, but still faces serious problems. Zhu Rongji gave himself mixed grades in his last speech to China's legislature before he retires from politics.
  • CHINA PARLIAMENT VOA 05 Mar 2003 -- China's parliament, the National People's Congress, convenes in Beijing this week, and the country will complete its biggest shuffle of top leadership since the 1970's. The N-P-C is dismissed by some as a rubber-stamp institution that does the bidding of the ruling Communist Party, but others see it as a valuable conduit for bringing public opinion to senior leaders.
  • CHINA N-P-C AGENDA VOA 04 Mar 2003 -- China's new leadership plans no changes in its dealing with Taiwan, but will work to slash Beijing's bureaucracy and boost living standards across the country. Those issues will dominate the agenda as National People's Congress convenes for its annual session in Beijing.
  • CHINA N-P-C: PRIVATE ENTERPRISE VOA 04 Mar 2003 -- As this year's National People's Congress convenes in Beijing, private business people are expected to play an unprecedented role in Communist China's policy-making process. But entrepreneurs still face many obstacles as they struggle to compete with traditional state-owned companies.
  • CHINA / CONGRESS / TIANANMEN VOA 03 Mar 2003 -- China's top legislative advisory body has opened meetings ahead of the annual Congress this week and was faced with the 14 year-old issue of the government's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. Families of 12 missing democracy activists are asking for a public accounting as China prepares to appoint a new generation of Communist leaders.



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