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Norwegian director Trier receives Bronze Horse at 2015 Stockholm Film Festival

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Stockholm，Nov. 22(Greenpost)–Norwegian director Joachim Trier won the Bronze Horse at the award ceremony at 2015 Stockholm Film Festival on Friday evening.

This year’s Stockholm XXVI Competition jury is producer Mimmi Spång, director Peter Grönlund, director Christian Zübert, director Di Phan Dang, and director Arab Nasser. The jury for the Stockholm Impact Award includes artist Ai Weiwei (head of jury), director Ida Panahandeh, and theatre director Linus Tunström. For the Stockholm Documentary Competition the jury members are film critic Stefan Nylén, director and actor Alexandra Dahlström, and director Matías Meyer.

The Stockholm XXVI Short Film Competition jury consists of actor Saga Becker, director Alejandro Guzmán Alvarez, and director Takeshi Fukunaga. And for the FIPRESCI, Yael Shuv, Kristin Aalen, and Dariia Badior.

Best film: Louder Than Bombs by Joachim Trier
The prize for best film goes to an aesthetic masterpiece, a film that innovatively uses all cinematic components to move freely between present, past, dream and imagination. With this tightly woven family drama, the director gradually patches together our broken inner places and makes us visible to ourselves – and to each other.

Best first film: Mediterranea by Jonas Carpignano
The prize goes to a director who takes us on a journey to a place where reality triumphs with its hidden contempt. An unsentimental yet tender film about dreams, struggles and hopes for a better life that at the same time mirrors the contemporary state of the world. The director has with this knockout of a debut created a multifaceted and pressing real-life drama that leaves no one unaffected.

Best director: László Nemes, Son of Saul
The award goes to a film that makes us hold our breath and instead become part of the film’s own pulse. With furious pacing, constant motion, a consistently subjective point-of-view and with long, meticulous and masterly executed sequences, the director takes a whole new perspective on a subject that has been depicted countless times, but never with this intensity – and never this good.

Best script: Deniz Gamze Ergüven and Alice Winocour, Mustang
The writers of this film depict a serious topic with both humour and warmth. It is a touching story of sisterhood, an empowering film that challenges patriarchal oppression with its stale views on female sexuality. Conservative values are placed in opposition to modern society, the life within each of us – and every person’s right to their own bodies.

Best cinematography: Manuel Dacosse, Evolution
The prize for best cinematography goes to a cinematic masterpiece, a story that could as well take place in the subconscious as on a metaphorical plane or another planet. A hauntingly beautiful universe distilled through the lens of a master, with a singular visual expression that provokes goose bumps in the soul.

Best actress: Julija Steponaityte, The Summer of Sangaile
The prize for best female lead goes to an actress who illuminates the screen with her absolute presence. It is a subtle yet multifaceted acting we are witnessing, at the same time cool and vulnerable, arrogant and passionate. She makes us curious – and we want to see more!

Best actor: Koudous Seihon, Mediterranea
The prize for best male lead goes to an actor who owns the story in every scene. It’s a portrait of a fighter, a street-smart survivor and a fellow human, who opens our hearts on his journey through a torn world full of dangers. He manages to convey a feeling of hope and faith in humanity in the midst of the brutal reality of the story.

Best documentary: Behemoth by Liang Zhao
Abandon all hope you who enter here. This filmmaker digs deep inside the bowels of its subject, showing us the monster of greed hiding in our destructive civilization. This film unveils hell right here on earth in a beautiful, emotive and poetic way. Through the power of great imagery, storytelling and empathy we are given a chance to perceive and finally end this abuse of the earth than of each other. Pure and utterly necessary.

Stockholm Impact Award: Leena Yadav, Parched
Through superb acting giving a unique insight into the minds and hearts of women in rural India told with colourful, sensual cinematography. This film is a paradoxical celebration of life in tough circumstances, creating both anger and joy, giving fuel for debate as well as hope for change when addressing a burning question that affects, not half, but the whole of our society.

Best short film: A Few Seconds by Nora El Hourch
In a very unique and bold way of storytelling the director manage to show how much humanity in the characters in such a short time. There are so many layers of emotions in this film. We are excited to discover this new talent in her future work.

Stockholm Rising Star: Aliette Opheim
This year’s Rising Star is awarded an actor who inhabits a deep sensibility as well as an immense power. Who delves into diverse roles with great courage and integrity. With the sense of carrying a secret.

Telia Film Award: Mediterranea by Jonas Carpignano
With a warm, humanistic touch Jonas Carpignano has written and directed a film with acute relevance and unexpected humour. Populated by brilliantly crafted and depicted characters with complexity, throughout the story, with an outstanding Koudous Seihon in the male lead. A beautiful film that humanizes what it is to live in the world today and offers a unique glimpse into experiences shared by many of the people fleeing across the Mediterranean Sea.

FIPRESCI best film: Macadam Stories by Samuel Benchetrit
The FIPRESCI award goes to Samuel Benchetrit’s Macadam Stories (Asphalte), an insightful, melancholic and tender comedy, filled with quirky deadpan humour. Three separate stories are seamlessly interwoven around the theme of urban loneliness and the longing for human connection, all beautifully drawn, highly nuanced and perfectly paced, while the excellent performances allow the characters humanity to shine through the cracks.

Stockholm Achievement Award: Ellen Burstyn
An icon of contemporary American cinema, a bold actress with great integrity, who has given life to groundbreaking characters. Her performances have left a lasting impression with a relentless struggle for independence and freedom.

Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award: Stephen Frears
This year’s receiver of the Lifetime Achievement Award is a filmmaker who is not afraid to take a stand for those who exist at the margins of society. Regardless of what form the story takes, Stephen Frears shows us that he is a director with a genuine curiosity for people’s life stories.

Stockholm Visionary Award: Yorgos Lanthimos
This director gives us a perspective that is both challenging and headstrong. His films offer the audience an unpredictable cinematic trip that forces us to discover an inconvenient reflection of our own behaviour, logic and desires. And yet we cannot stop looking, identifying and yes, very oddly smiling.

1 km Film-scholarship: I turn to you by Victor Lindgren
Two siblings are forced to experience the implosion of their parents’ relationship. The director poses an inconvenient question to us in the audience, can a child’s will to survive overcome the self-destructive desires of the parent. The film seamlessly connects refined form with emotional impact and the director shows great courage and promise.

iFestival Award: Tisure by Adrian Geyer
Voted for by the 2015 Stockholm Film Festival audience.

 

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China, U.S. should increase legislative exchanges: top legislator

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 BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Greenpost) — Chinese top legislator Zhang Dejiang has met with U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, calling for more exchanges and communication between China’s top legislature and the U.S. Congress.
Calling China-U.S. relations “of great importance,” Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), said China and the United States agreed to continue to build a new type of major-country relations during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States in September.
Both presidents made clear the correct direction of development of bilateral ties and reached a series of agreements during the visit, sending a positive signal to the outside world that China and the United States are committed to dialogue and cooperation, Zhang said.
He called on the NPC and U.S. Congress to enhance communication and exchanges, deepen mutual understanding and advance substantial cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect and common ground.
The chairman encouraged both sides to do more to promote mutual trust and cooperation so as to promote the development of bilateral relations and benefit the people of both countries and the world.
Speaking highly of the meeting between the two presidents, Pelosi said she expected the two countries’ legislatures to step up exchanges to boost friendship between the two peoples.
Earlier on Thursday, Zhang Ping, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, hosted a meeting between the NPC and the U.S. congressional delegation led by Pelosi.
The two had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on issues including bilateral ties, legislative exchanges and climate change.  Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson

 

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News Analysis: China five-year plan to chart reform, growth path

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BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Greenpost) — China is mulling the 13th five-year plan, which will chart its reform and growth path, when the country is entering a “new normal” of slower growth and boosting re-balancing towards consumption and services.

The new five-year period from 2016 to 2020 will be key for reforms, which can facilitate economic growth, including reforms on tax and fiscal policy, state-owned enterprises and finance, according to China International Capital Corporation (CICC), one of China’s leading investment banks.

Leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) met in Beijing on Monday for a four-day meeting to discuss changes, while the fifth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee will review proposals for the five-year plan. After taking into account the proposals, a final plan will be ratified by the annual session of China’s top legislature in March 2016.

The biggest challenge for the 13th five-year plan may be capping the runaway financial sector without hammering growth, according to Bloomberg research.

More financial market reforms are expected to be included in the new plan to encourage risk-taking and stoke growth for small and medium businesses.

Non-traditional financial services may be allowed a greater role in the economy to cut reliance on the state-owned mega-banks and their traditional deposit taking and lending function, it forecast.

Newly-packaged financial intermediation services such as peer-to-peer lending, crowd funding, Internet-based financing, asset securitization, derivatives and corporate bonds are likely to be a regulatory focus and encouraged, it said.

The more meaningful function of the meetings is prioritization of various policy targets, especially considering China’s economic growth has continued to decelerate, settling at 6.9 percent during the third quarter of this year, said Zhu Haibin, chief economist for J.P. Morgan China.

Like in previous five-year plans, a GDP growth target is likely to be included. The market estimates the growth target for 2016-2020 will be put between 6.5 and 7 percent.

The market interprets the growth target as an important indicator of how leaders will prioritize growth and structural re-balancing, Zhu said.

If the growth target is lowered to 6.5 percent, it implies the government will tolerate slower growth to leave more room for structural re-balancing. Accordingly, there will be less stimulus efforts by the government. If the target is left unchanged at 7 percent, it implies the government will have to maintain its loose policy stance and do more easing, and perhaps at the cost of structural re-balancing, Zhu said.

Not surprisingly, no one seems to consider a growth target below 6.5 percent, as China’s target to double GDP between 2010 and 2020 will require the average GDP growth in 2016-2020 to be 6.5 percent, he added.

The previous five-year plan in 2011-2015 set an average annual growth target of around 7 percent. Between 2011 and 2014, the economy expanded by an annual rate of 8 percent. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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Interview: China-Germany ties facing new development opportunities: ambassador

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BERLIN, Oct. 28 (Greenpost) — “The Chinese-German relations are facing new development opportunities, and are expected to continue a stable development at a high level and to play a leading role in China-Europe ties,” said Chinese Ambassador to Germany Shi Mingde.

Shi made the remarks in a recent interview with Xinhua, ahead of an official visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to China from Oct. 29 to 30.

Since 2005, Merkel as chancellor has paid seven visits to China, the most among all German chancellors. She has also kept a record among leaders of European countries regarding the visit frequency. Her predecessors, including Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schroeder, also have visited China many times as chancellor.

“Developing relations with China is the consensus of major political forces in Germany. The bilateral ties between China and Germany have a solid political foundation. Chinese leaders also attach great importance to developing relations with Germany,” said Shi, noting that mutual trust and frequent exchange of visits between leaders of the two countries are of significance for promoting bilateral ties.

China and Germany have witnessed all-around and rapid development of their relations in recent years, the pragmatic cooperation between the two countries has achieved fruitful results, Shi said.

According to the ambassador, the trade volume between China and Germany has reached 177.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, accounting for around 30 percent of China-EU trade volume. China is Germany’s largest trading partner outside the European Union. For China, Germany is its largest trading partner as well as the most important source country of technology transfer and investment in Europe.

Sino-German cooperation, said Shi, is not only in the interest of both countries, but also conducive to safeguarding world peace and promoting common development.

“Both China and Germany have significant international influence. The two countries have maintained close cooperation in international affairs and are both actively committed to addressing focus issues through political and diplomatic means,” he added.

China will hold the rotating presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20) in 2016. Shi said that China and Germany as G20 members would further strengthen coordination in macroeconomic policy within the G20 framework, and work together to construct and maintain an open world economy as well as promote the establishment of a more equitable global economic governance system.

At present, the Chinese-German relations are facing new development opportunities, raising hope that it will continue to develop stably at a high level and play a leading role in China-Europe ties, the ambassador stressed.

“Last year, China and Germany agreed on a leading role of innovation in the future bilateral cooperation. This is the first time that China has established a broad innovative partnership with a Western power,” he explained.

Secondly, bilateral cooperation has broad prospects and can achieve mutual benefit in the field of high-end manufacturing; In addition, the two countries can enhance their cooperation to jointly promote the “Belt and Road” initiative.

Speaking of the main challenges facing the ties between China and Germany in the coming years, Shi noted that the two countries should fundamentally promote mutual understanding between the two peoples.

He urged both sides to look at each other in an objective manner. “Especially the German society should further its understanding of China’s national conditions and development,” he added.

Besides, China and Germany should handle their differences properly and continue to tap new growth points of bilateral ties.

“As the Chinese saying goes, rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back. China and Germany should have a long-term perspective, and continue to tap potential and step up cooperation in order to lift bilateral relations to higher levels,” the ambassador concluded. Enditem

Source  Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

 

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Volkswagen recalls 5,906 cars in China

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BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Greenpost) — German carmaker Volkswagen began to recall 5,906 vehicles in China over defective batteries, the nation’s quality watchdog said Tuesday.

Starting from Tuesday, Volkswagen will recall 5,906 imported 2012-2014 Flying Spur models and Continental models, manufactured between Feb. 5, 2011 and May 15, 2014, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).

The battery nuts of those affected vehicles may become loose while driving and cause safety risks, said the AQSIQ.

The company will replace the faulty parts free of charge. Enditem

Source   Xinhua

Editor   Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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China lodges protest with U.S. on warship patrol in South China Sea

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BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Greenpost) — The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday expressed “strong  discontent” and “resolute opposition” over a U.S. warship patrol near Zhubi Reef, which is part of China’s Nansha Islands in the South China Sea.

This action by the United States threatens China’s sovereignty and security interests, endangers the safety of personnel and facilities in the reef, and harms regional peace and stability, ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said in a statement.

Lu urged the U.S. to “immediately correct its wrongdoing.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. warship USS Lassen entered waters near Zhubi Reef without the permission of the Chinese government, according to Lu.

The U.S. warship was monitored, tracked and issued with warning, said the spokesperson, adding that China will continue to watch the situation and “do whatever is necessary.”

Stressing that China’s sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and its adjacent waters is “irrefutable,” Lu said China is prepared to respond to any deliberate provocation by any country.

China respects other countries’ freedom of navigation in accordance with international law, Lu said, however, China is firmly opposed to any action that harms China’s sovereignty and security in the name of freedom.

The construction activities undertaken by China on its own territory is an internal affair and will not block the legal freedom of other countries, the spokesperson said.

The U.S. side should remember its commitment that it would take no position on territorial disputes, as this would damage China-U.S. ties and regional peace, said Lu.

Earlier Tuesday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in response to a question on the U.S. Navy’s intention at a seminar, warned the U.S. not to “make trouble out of nothing.”

“If it is true, we advise the U.S. to think twice before it takes any action,” he said, urging them “not to act in an imprudent way and not to make trouble out of nothing.” Enditem

Source: Xinhua

Editor: Xuefei Chen Axelsson

 

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Big power diplomacy: China, Britain enhance trust and trade

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BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) — During what was dubbed as a “super state visit” to Britain, President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of deals worth 40 billion pounds (61.5 billion U.S. dollars).

The most talked-about project will see China holding a one-third stake in Britain’s first new nuclear plant in a generation.

Observers are praising the China-Britain partnership as exemplary in China-Europe cooperation and beyond.

CHINA, BRITAIN’S BIG POWER DIPLOMACY

China’s approach to dealing with major powers was clarified by Xi during his visit to the headquarters of the United Nations; a relationship featuring non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

His state visit to Britain was regarded as many as a test for China’s diplomacy with big powers, and it has proven to be fruitful.

Britain rolled out the red carpet for Xi, the first Chinese head of state to visit the country in a decade. Queen Elizabeth II hosted an informal lunch and formal banquet. While Prime Minister David Cameron took Xi to see that age-old British institution — the pub.

“The Financial Times” said Xi’s visit was the “most important diplomatic visit to Britain in several years,” and would recalibrate the UK’s great-power relations.”

During the visit, China and Britain issued a joint declaration on their “global comprehensive strategic partnership for the 21st century,” which will usher in a lasting, open, win-win “golden era.”

“The new definition of bilateral ties reflects both countries expect to achieve win-win cooperation with each other, but not only at the bilateral level,” said Feng Zhongping, vice president of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

As globally-influential countries, the China-Britain partnership can set an example for China-Europe cooperation and at the global level, Chen Xin with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said.

“Though there are disagreements between China and Britain, both countries can learn to manage them. As long as Britain adheres to the consensus reached with China, the differences won’t affect bilateral cooperation,” said Cui Hongjian, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies.

NUCLEAR DEAL, ECONOMIC TIES

Chinese and French companies signed an agreement to build an 18 billion pound nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point C, with the CGN-led Chinese consortium holding a one-third stake.

China’s third-generation nuclear reactor design, known as Hualong One, is expected to be used, following British inspections.

Cameron described the Hinkley Point C deal as “historic” as the project would provide clean electricity to nearly 6 million homes and create over 25,000 jobs.

“Britain […] lacks the funds for the nuclear power plant due to the international financial crisis and the European debt crisis,” said Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at Renmin University.

For China, the gains from the project go beyond economics. More important is the knock-on affect the project will have for China in the overseas nuclear market.

“Investment into overseas nuclear power plant is usually more substantial than at home. We will get returns from electricity sales and equipment procurement, because a large amount of this will be done in China,” said Zhou Dadi, a researcher with the energy studies center of the National Development and Reform Commission.

“The nuclear power plants in Britain will be benchmark projects for Chinese companies to develop the global market and increase people’s confidence in Hualong One in emerging markets,” CGN chair He Yu said.

Other deals included an agreement for BP to sell Huadian up to 1 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year; and Carnival UK and CSSC agreed to build seven new cruise ships over the next 10 years, among others.

During Xi’s visit, China’s central bank issued its first offshore renminbi note worth 5 billion yuan in London, and the two countries agreed to increase currency swaps.

These close economic and trade collaborations show that Britain is confident of China’s economic growth, and its leaders are aware of the opportunities emerging from China as it transitions from an economy driven by export and manufacturing to investment and services.

“By working with China to usher in a ‘golden era’, Britain has made it clear that they are willing to seize all the opportunities from China’s reform and growth,” Wang added.

RICH CULTURAL EXCHANGES

The president often attends cultural activities during his foreign visits, his time in Britain was no different.

Cameron accompanied Xi to a pub and the two enjoyed a plate of fish and chips washed down with a pint of British ale. Xi also watched a performance featuring British and Chinese artists at an creative-industry exhibition.

Xi also addressed the opening ceremony of the annual Confucius Institute meeting, saying the essence of Chinese and British culture had sparked a fantastic “chemical reaction” into the thinking and lifestyles of both nationalities through people-to-people exchanges.

“Britain is the birth place of modern culture and sports. President Xi’s activities reflect this admiration,” said Cui Hongjian, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies.

Xi, a well known soccer fan, visited Manchester City Football Academy with Cameron. Xi called for more exchanges and cooperation between China and Britain on soccer as well as other sports.

For Britain, tourism has been pegged as an area that will generate more revenue. Britain announced that from 2016 the validity of new visitor visas for Chinese tourists will be extended from six months to two years.

For its part, during Xi’s time in Manchester, China announced that a direct flight linking Beijing and Manchester will be opened June 2016.

By strengthening people-to-people exchanges, China-Britain relations will have a more solid social foundation, analysts say. Enditem

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

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Sweden to seek UN Security Membership

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Av Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, Oct. 24(Greenpost)–Saturday marks the United Nations Day. Sweden is seeking a membership in the United Nations according to a statement from the Swedish government.

“We are celebrating the UN Day because we are doing so in a world that is more uncertain than for many years and in which the United Nations is needed more than ever. Global crises and challenges require common solutions.” the statement said.

Minister for International Development Co-operation, Ms Isabella Lövin, Prime Minister Mr Stefan Löfven, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms Margot Wallström
Minister for International Development Co-operation, Ms Isabella Lövin, Prime Minister Mr Stefan Löfven, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms Margot WallströmFoto: Martina Huber/Regeringskansliet

The statement explained that Sweden is ready to assume its share of responsibility. This is why Sweden is strengthening its engagement in the UN and why we are seeking a seat on the Security Council for 2017–2018.

The reason Sweden seeks the membership is that Sweden’s UN policy contributes to peace, security, sustainable development and gender equality. It is part of a solidarity-based foreign policy and a means for responding to crises that affect us.

Sweden is one of the top contributors to the UN. “We contribute personnel to peace operations, aid, climate financing and humanitarian assistance. Our contributions also include engagement, resources and ideas.” said the statement.

“We also set clear requirements for a modern, effective, transparent and legitimate United Nations that is equipped to meet future challenges and take advantage of future opportunities.” according to the statement.

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City of London expects Xi’s visit to boost Chinese-British financial cooperation

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Stockholm, Oct. 18 (Greenpost) — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Britain will consolidate the basis for long term development of Chinese-British ties, said Mark Boleat, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Policy and Resources Committee on Monday.
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Thanks to support from both governments, China and Britain have witnessed strengthened cooperation in financial services in recent years, said Boleat.
Noting that internationalization of the renminbi, the Chinese currency, marks a key part in financial cooperation between China and Britain, Boleat said the City of London Corporation will do more to push forward cooperation with China in this regard.
He hoped Chinese and British leaders could hammer out deals to boost two-way trade and investment cooperation.
Lord Mayor of the City of London Alan Yarrow has also expressed welcome for Xi‘s visit, saying that she hoped for further strengthening of the relations between the two countries.
Yarrow last month said Britain will support the renminbi to become part of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Right (SDR) basket currencies.
“We think the world needs another reserve currency, and we think we need renminbi,” Yarrow told reporters before his trip to China.
Yarrow tuned positively on China’s renminbi pricing mechanism improvement and other financial market reforms. He stressed that the currency fluctuation is one of the features of a marketized currency.
Yarrow led a business delegation to the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong on Sept. 16-25, helping to make sure London and Britain remain the global partner of choice for China when it comes to financial and professional services.
Figures from the London market for 2014 showed persistent strong growth in RMB forex trading, according to a report by the City of London Corporation.
Overall forex-related RMB businesses trading volumes in 2014 were up 143 percent from 2013 figures, with average daily volumes reaching 61.5 billion U.S. dollars, nearly six times as large as those reported in 2011, the report said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the United Kingdom at the invitation of British Queen Elizabeth II next week.  Enditem
Source Xinhua                  Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson
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Spotlight: Xi’s visit to open new chapter for China-UK relations, sets example for int’l cooperation

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Stockholm, Oct. 18 (Greenpost) — As the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Britain enters its second decade, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the country, scheduled between Oct. 19 and 23 at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II, will open a new chapter for bilateral ties.
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   President Xi‘s visit to Britain will further revitalize the forty-year-old China-Europe partnerships as the two sides embark on a new journey based on the consensus of peace, growth, reform and civilization.
At a time when China’s sweeping reforms are entering a decisive year, and as China is drafting its 13th five-year plan, China’s top leader will take this significant visit as an opportunity to continue declaring China’s peaceful development and its determination of reform and opening-up.OPENING NEW CHAPTER FOR CHINA-BRITAIN RELATIONS
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New York in late September that Britain is looking forward to Xi‘s visit and will speed up efforts to make good preparations.
Prince William handed Xi Queen Elizabeth II’s invitation letter when he visited China in March, and the Queen made a formal announcement of Xi‘s visit at the opening ceremony of a new parliament held in late May.
Now as the visit approaches, the royal family, the government and the people of Britain are all eagerly awaiting Xi‘s coming and are fully prepared to welcome him.
During the visit, the Queen will hold a welcoming ceremony for Xi and invite him for both an informal lunch and a formal dinner. Together, the two leaders will review the Royal Horseguards. Several members of the royal family will attend Xi‘s activities during the visit — a high standard of reception that showcases the high level of ties.
Xi will also hold talks with Prime Minister David Cameron and make joint plans for the future development of China-Britain relations. In addition, Xi will also meet with leaders of opposition parties and parliamentary leaders to hear their appeals and expectations for relations between the two nations.
Zhou Hong from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences thinks that Xi‘s upcoming trip, during which he will visit a single European nation, is very rare in Sino-European history, and that it in some way indicates China attaches great importance to its relations with Britain, which is a major country at the core of the European Union.
As the world’s two major countries , China and Britain share comprehensive common interests while shouldering the important responsibility of promoting world peace and stability,Xi said when meeting with Prince William in March in the Great Hall of the People.
Acting as permanent members of the United Nations’ Security Council, China and Britain have maintained good long-term communication on regional and global affairs.
The relationship between China and Britain is becoming increasingly stable and mature, which not only brings concrete benefits to the two peoples, but also actively contributes to world peace and development, Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming said.ENHANCING COOPERATION FOR WIN-WIN RESULTS
During his visit, Xi is scheduled to deliver an important speech in the City of London, where he will systematically expound China’s domestic and foreign policies, charting the future course for China-Britain and China-Europe economic and trade cooperation.
Xi‘s visit offers Britain an opportunity to better understand him and his thoughts, said Stephen Perry, chairman of the 48 Group Club.
In the bilateral talks on the sidelines of the nuclear security summit held in The Hague last March, Xi and Prime Minister Cameron agreed to push forward cooperative programs in such areas as nuclear power, high-speed rails, high technology and finance, among others.
Since 2012, London has been seeking to become the key Western hub for trading the Chinese yuan. Among the 53 agreements made in the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue this September, three are focused on bilateral financial cooperation.
In his state visit to China this September, British Finance Minister George Osborne said Britain welcomes China to participate in the construction of its new nuclear programs. Making special reference to the construction and operation of Hinkley Point C, he said that Britain wants to make it a cooperation platform for Chinese capital, French technology and the British market. If carried out, it would be the first time for China to invest in a Western nuclear industry.
This April, Britain has encouraged enterprises and financial institutes both at home and in China to participate in Britain’s HS2 railway project.
During his upcoming visit to Britain, Xi will attend a banquet and visit research projects and local businesses in Manchester, a major industrial city the British government wants to revitalize. Britain is committed to work with China on the Belt and Road initiative and plans to attract Chinese capital to help with the revitalization program.

ELEVATED PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE EXCHANGES
During his first state visit to the EU countries, the Chinese president said in his keynote speech at the College of Europe in Belgium’s Bruges that China and Europe need to build four “bridges” of peace, growth, reform and progress of civilization to step up friendship and cooperation.
On the bridge of common cultural prosperity linking the two major civilizations of China and Europe, Xi said China represents the Eastern civilization in an important way, while Europe is the birthplace of the Western civilization.
During his upcoming visit, Xi will take part in cultural activities to deepen the China-Britain friendship and promote bilateral exchanges. In recent years, the people-to-people exchanges, which play an important role in the China-Britain relationship, have been further enhanced.
This year marks the first “China-UK Cultural Exchange Year”, with both sides holding various activities in the other country, forming a bigger platform for the cultural creative industries in both countries as well as providing opportunities for people from both countries to enjoy literature and art works and communicate with each other.
While there are around 150,000 Chinese students studying in Britain, there are 6,000 British students studying in China. According to a British report, China has become the largest source of overseas students in Britain.
In the meantime, Britain is experiencing a “Mandarin fever,” with over 20 Confucius Institutes being established in 10 years, ranking the first among EU countries.  Enditem

Source Xinhua      Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson 

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A forward-looking of President Xi’s forth-coming visit to UK

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STOCKHOLM, Oct. 18(Greenpost)–Chinese President Xi Jinping will start to pay his first state visit to Britain on Monday.

As the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Britain enters its second decade, the visit is expected to open a new chapter for bilateral ties.

During his five-day visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron. The two leaders will map out the blueprint for the future development of bilateral ties.

Xi will also meet with leaders of opposition parties and top MPs.

The two countries are also expected to make progress on trade and economic cooperation during the Chinese president’s visit. A number of deals on energy, finance, real estate, medical treatment and automobiles are likely to be inked.

Cultural exchange will also be highlighted. This year marks the first “China-UK Cultural Exchange Year”. Both sides have held various activities, providing opportunities for the two peoples to communicate with each other.

Alan MacFarlane, anthropologist and a Professor Emeritus of King’s College of the University of Cambridge, says he expects the upcoming Chinese president’s visit to further boost cultural exchanges.

“There are going to be big culture exchanges between China and Britain. For example, British museum is sending objects to China, so does Victoria Albert museum and other museums. The Shakespear Global Company is going to go to China… This is the year of culture exchange between Britain and China, so much more is beginning to happen.”Professor MacFarlane first visited China in 1996. And since 2002, he’s traveled to China every year.

The professor says huge changes have been taken place in China.

“There is immense progress in every field of China, and most of it, it is what I would think was the right direction, it is a very difficult place to keep together, and no other political system that I know of, for example, western democratic system, which was designed for a few million people on this island of England, and then take it to America else where, it is very difficult how that to know how that could hold together 1.3 billion people in a satisfactory way, So China is doing extremely well.”

Yet China remains a mystery to many in the western world, says the professor, who’s also a historian.

“As a historian, I’ve studied my own civilization, Europe. And our history is a terrible story of empirical attacks on the rest of the world, my own nation of Britain is not the worst, but it has its empire, and there are other empires and missionary efforts, to try to conquer the rest of the world. Either into ask or to take their wealth, and make ourselves wealthy with it. China has a different model, which is gradual expansion of the Han people, into empty or half field area surrounds them. But China does not on the whole try to conquer them, so China is one of the few civilizations on earth which when it is very powerful has not tried to build up a huge overseas expanded empire, so we do not need to fear China.”

 Source Xinhua      Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson
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American Angus Deaton wins 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics

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By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, Oct. 12(Greenpost)–Goran Hansson, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced that Angus Deaton has won 2015 Sveriges Riksbank in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

“The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred

Nobel for 2015 to Aungus Deaton for his analysis of consumption, poverty and welfare.”

deaton_minislide

From Nobelprize.org.

Consumption, great and small

To design economic policy that promotes welfare and reduces poverty, we must first understand individual consumption choices. More than anyone else, Angus Deaton has enhanced this understanding. By linking detailed individual choices and aggregate outcomes, his research has helped transform the fields of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and development economics.

The work for which Deaton is now being honored revolves around three central questions:
How do consumers distribute their spending among different goods?Answering this question is not only necessary for explaining and forecasting actual consumption patterns, but also crucial in evaluating how policy reforms, like changes in consumption taxes, affect the welfare of different groups. In his early work around 1980, Deaton developed the Almost Ideal Demand System – a flexible, yet simple, way of estimating how the demand for each good depends on the prices of all goods and on individual incomes. His approach and its later modifications are now standard tools, both in academia and in practical policy evaluation.


How much of society’s income is spent and how much is saved? To explain capital formation and the magnitudes of business cycles, it is necessary to understand the interplay between income and consumption over time. In a few papers around 1990, Deaton showed that the prevailing consumption theory could not explain the actual relationships if the starting point was aggregate income and consumption. Instead, one should sum up how individuals adapt their own consumption to their individual income, which fluctuates in a very different way to aggregate income. This research clearly demonstrated why the analysis of individual data is key to untangling the patterns we see in aggregate data, an approach that has since become widely adopted in modern macroeconomics.

How do we best measure and analyze welfare and poverty? In his more recent research, Deaton highlights how reliable measures of individual household consumption levels can be used to discern mechanisms behind economic development. His research has uncovered important pitfalls when comparing the extent of poverty across time and place. It has also exemplified how the clever use of household data may shed light on such issues as the relationships between income and calorie intake, and the extent of gender discrimination within the family. Deaton’s focus on household surveys has helped transform development economics from a theoretical field based on aggregate data to an empirical field based on detailed individual data.

Angus Deaton, UK and US citizen. Born 1945 in Edinburgh, UK. Ph.D. 1974 from University of Cambridge, UK. Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Princeton University, NJ, USA, since 1983.

http://scholar.princeton.edu/deaton

The Prize amount: 8 million Swedish krona

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organisation whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.

 

 

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Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet wins 2015 Nobel Peace Prize

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By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, Oct. 9(Greenpost)–The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2015 is to be awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.

This was announced by Kaci Kullmann Five, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo on Friday.

Five further explained that  the Quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 when the democratization process was in danger of collapsing as a result of political assassinations and widespread social unrest.

“It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war. It was thus instrumental in enabling Tunisia, in the space of a few years, to establish a constitutional system of government guaranteeing fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, political conviction or religious belief.” said Five.

The National Dialogue Quartet has comprised four key organizations in Tunisian civil society: the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT, Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail), the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA, Union Tunisienne de l’Industrie, du Commerce et de l’Artisanat), the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH, La Ligue Tunisienne pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme), and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers (Ordre National des Avocats de Tunisie). These organizations represent different sectors and values in Tunisian society: working life and welfare, principles of the rule of law and human rights. On this basis, the Quartet exercised its role as a mediator and driving force to advance peaceful democratic development in Tunisia with great moral authority. The Nobel Peace Prize for 2015 is awarded to this Quartet, not to the four individual organizations as such.

The Arab Spring originated in Tunisia in 2010-2011, but quickly spread to a number of countries in North Africa and the Middle East. In many of these countries, the struggle for democracy and fundamental rights has come to a standstill or suffered setbacks. Tunisia, however, has seen a democratic transition based on a vibrant civil society with demands for respect for basic human rights.

An essential factor for the culmination of the revolution in Tunisia in peaceful, democratic elections last autumn was the effort made by the Quartet to support the work of the constituent assembly and to secure approval of the constitutional process among the Tunisian population at large. The Quartet paved the way for a peaceful dialogue between the citizens, the political parties and the authorities and helped to find consensus-based solutions to a wide range of challenges across political and religious divides. The broad-based national dialogue that the Quartet succeeded in establishing countered the spread of violence in Tunisia and its function is therefore comparable to that of the peace congresses to which Alfred Nobel refers in his will.

The course that events have taken in Tunisia since the fall of the authoritarian Ben Ali regime in January 2011 is unique and remarkable for several reasons. Firstly, it shows that Islamist and secular political movements can work together to achieve significant results in the country’s best interests. The example of Tunisia thus underscores the value of dialogue and a sense of national belonging in a region marked by conflict. Secondly, the transition in Tunisia shows that civil society institutions and organizations can play a crucial role in a country’s democratization, and that such a process, even under difficult circumstances, can lead to free elections and the peaceful transfer of power. The National Dialogue Quartet must be given much of the credit for this achievement and for ensuring that the benefits of the Jasmine Revolution have not been lost.

Tunisia faces significant political, economic and security challenges. The Norwegian Nobel Committee hopes that this year’s prize will contribute towards safeguarding democracy in Tunisia and be an inspiration to all those who seek to promote peace and democracy in the Middle East, North Africa and the rest of the world. More than anything, the prize is intended as an encouragement to the Tunisian people, who despite major challenges have laid the groundwork for a national fraternity which the Committee hopes will serve as an example to be followed by other countries, said Five.

 

 

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Belarus journalist writer Alexievich wins 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature

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By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, Oct. 8(Greenpost)—Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of Swedish Academy Thursday announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2015 is awarded to the Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich ”for her polyphonic writings, a momument to suffering and courage in our time.”

Video from Nobelprize.org.

In an interview with Greenpost, Danius said there are several reasons for her to win the prize and one of the reasons will be enough.

”She is offering us a whole new and very interesting historical material, she is devoted almost 40 years to exploring Soviet Individual and Post Soviet Individual, but she is not interested in events.”

The events she covers for example the Chernobyl disaster, Second World War, these are pretext for exploring what history does to the individual, where individual life intersects with the course of historical events.

”What she is really interested in is the soul of events, of the inner life of individuals, that’s what she has been uncover book after book. ”

Svetlana Alexievich was born on 31 May 1948 in the Ukrainian town of Ivano-Frankivsk, as the daughter of a Belarusian father and a Ukrainian mother. When the father had completed his military service, the family moved to Belarus, where both parents worked as teachers.

After finishing school, Alexievich worked as a teacher and as a journalist, and she studied journalism at the University of Minsk between 1967-1972.

After her graduation she was referred to a local newspaper in Brest near the Polish border, because of her oppositional views. She later returned to Minsk and began an employment at the newspaper Sel’skaja Gazeta. For many years, she collected materials for her first book in 1985 and then published in English as War’s Unwomanly Face in 1988 which is based on interviews with

hundreds of women who participated in the Second World War.

She has conducted thousands of interviews over the years with man and women and children, she always keeps herself in the background unlike most journalists,

She doesn’t add any material of her own. All that we get are these voices and they have been edited because she really wants to bring out sort of the innermost life of individual, and then she composes these voices in a delicate way, this is some kind of musical composition.

Danius said Alexievich’s achievement is also to create this new genre of writing.

Her first book was called Wars Unwomenly Face which was sold two million copies depicting about the one million Soviet women red army who fought alongside with male soldiers, and then returned to civil society, but they didn’t get the recognition they deserved.

This work is the first in Alexievich’s grand cycle of books, “Voices of Utopia”, where life in the Soviet Union is depicted from the perspective of the individual.

By means of her extraordinary method – a carefully composed collage of human voices –Alexievich deepens our comprehension of an entire era. The consequences of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl 1986 is the topic of Voices from Chernobyl –Chronicle of the Future, 1999).

Zinky Boys – Soviet voices from a forgotten war, 1992 is a portrayal of the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan 1979–89, and her work “Second-hand Time: The Demise of the Red (Wo)man”) is the latest in “Voices of Utopia”. Another early book that also belongs in this life long project is “Last witnesses”.

Important influences on Alexievich’s work are the notes by the nurse and author Sofia Fedorchenko (1888–1959) of soldiers’ experiences in the First World War, and the documentary reports by the Belarusian author Ales Adamovich (1927–1994) from the Second World War.

Because of her criticism of the regime, Alexievich has periodically lived abroad, in Italy, France, Germany, and Sweden, among other places.

The Swedish Academy has a tradition that all the journalists will squeeze around the platform to wait for the news.

They also invited some children from Rinkby school where Chinese writer Mo Yan who won the  Nobel Prize  in 2012 had been.

Nobel Prize is seen as a way to promote science and literature as well as world Peace.