China Roundup August 31
- Source: Global Times
- [02:42 August 31 2009]
- Comments
Opposition to Dalai visit
The Chinese mainland voiced its strong opposition to the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP's) invitation to the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan yesterday.
"The invitation was politically motivated. The Chinese government is explicitly and resolutely against the visit, which will bring negative influence on the cross-strait relation," said a spokesperson at the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.
"We will closely watch the progress of the event," he added.
Cross-Straits flights
Scheduled flights between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan will officially start flying today and enhance the number of weekly cross-Straits nonstop flights from 108 to 270, the Taiwan-based Central News Agency reported yesterday.
The first day will feature a total of 44 round-trip flights.
The first flight bound for the mainland, which starts from Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan at 7:30 am, will reach Qingdao, Shandong Province at 8:55 am.
Hostage boy rescued
Beijing police freed a schoolboy who was taken hostage by a man at a training school yesterday afternoon. A police source told the Xinhua News Agency that a man armed with a knife broke into to the English training school in Chaoyang district at around 3 pm and took the student hostage. The teacher and other students in the classroom managed to escape from a back exit and alerted the police. Police seized the man during negotiations one and a half hours after the incident took place.
The boy was rescued unhurt. The hostage taker, surnamed Tang, 23, is a native Sichuan Province.
Police are still investigating the case.
Coalmine blast kills 2
A coalmine blast yesterday in Hechuan, Chongqing Municipality, left two dead while five people were reported as missing, according to the local government.
The accident occurred at 8:43 am as 10 miners worked underground. Rescuers saved three miners alive from the blast site and the rescue operation is still underway.
Corrupt official jailed
An official in Chongqing Municipality, was sentenced yesterday to 14 years in jail for taking bribes worth more than 2 million yuan ($292,780), the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.
Gu Fei, 39, illegally received 1,6 million yuan in cash, a property, purchased at a much lower market price, valued at 600,000 yuan, plus $20,000 and 30,000 Hong Kong dollars between 1997 and 2008, while he worked at different posts in the Chongqing Municipal Planning Bureau, and acted as deputy chief of Dadukou district according to the Chongqing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.
