New Delhi, March 3: China has announced that its new generation of carrier rocket – the Long March 5, which has a maximum payload capacity of 25 tons, would start operations in 2014.

“The rockets will be made in Tianjin and launched in Hainan,” said Liang Xiaohong, vice president of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.

“The 25-ton payload capacity, more than double the current limit of 9.2 tons, will greatly improve the country's capability in space exploration,” he added.

New Delhi, March 3 : China has announced the development of a cultural project costing 4.2 billion dollars to be built in Shandong province, which would help to revive traditional values including Confucianism.

Referred to as "Chinese Cultural Symbolic City", this project will be first of its kind in the country, covering 300 sq km with an estimated investment of at least 30 billion yuan
(4.2 billion dollars).

The project will be in the city of Jining, one of the cradles of Chinese civilization and the birthplace of Confucius and his major disciple Mencius.

New Delhi, Mar 1: Visiting Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee here last evening.

The visit comes just a month after Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing to seek more economic cooperation.

According to China's Commerce Ministry, bilateral trade in 2007 rose 56 per cent from a year earlier to 38.6 billion United States dollars. But there have been growing concerns by the Indian side over the imbalance of trade, which India fears will undermine further economic cooperation.

Beyond trade, China and India also face common challenges on issues such as climate change and energy security. (ANI)

Washington, Feb 18: Scientists from around the globe have said at a symposium that in order to reduce the effects of carbon emissions on the climate, a global aspect needs to be taken into account, with the proposed solutions working for countries like India and China.

The symposium was organized by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to provide an overview of the scientific, political, industrial and international perspectives related to climate change and carbon management challenges.

Globally, 85 percent of energy comes from hydrocarbons – coal, oil, natural gas and biomass. As demand for energy continues to rise, carbon emissions will increase.

Rio De Janeiro, Feb 13: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that the G8, comprising seven wealthiest countries in the world plus Russia, should be converted into G13, to include Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

Sarkozy said this at a meeting with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in French Guiana on Tuesday.

“The G8 must become something more than that. In the end, even if we do not want to think about anybody else, we must consider there are China, India, Brazil and South Africa,” Sarkozy said.

New Delhi, Feb 13: A senior Iranian official has said that China is keen to join the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and if New Delhi does not take a decision soon. He further said that then Beijing may replace New Delhi in the deal.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Ali Hosseini, who is on a visit to New Delhi said in an unambiguous statement that there is limited time left for India to take a decision on the gas pipeline, the Dawn reported.

"Expedite the decision-making process to finalise the gas deal. We don’t have a lot of time," Hosseini said.

Washington, Feb. 12: A Pentagon weapons expert and a Boeing engineer are among four people taken into custody on suspicion of spying for China.

Fifty-one-year-old Gregg Bergersen, Taiwanese-born businessman Tai Shen Kuo, 58, and Chinese Yu Xin Kang, 33, are said to have plotted to pass on defence secrets to Beijing.

Bergersen, whose unit handles arms sales, was picked up from his Washington home. The other two were arrested in New Orleans.

In a second unrelated case of spying, Boeing engineer Dongfan Chung, 72, was accused yesterday of passing secrets about the US space program - including the Shuttle

New Delhi, Feb. 8: China removed over 200 million items of harmful online information last year, according to the National Office for Cleaning Up Pornography and Fighting Illegal Publications.

According to a Xinhua report, the office's local branches also cracked down on over 4,000 pornographic messages and 150 kinds of pornographic publications, cell phone novels and Internet games.

Last year, China confiscated about 149 million pornographic, pirated and unauthorized publications.

New Delhi, Feb 1: Indian Ambassador to China Nirupama Rao has said that the tourism between India and China is all set to develop at an “amazing speed.”

With the ending of the year 2007 came a new chapter of the communications between the two countries, Rao said at the closing ceremony of the “China-India year of friendship through tourism-2007.”

Shao Qiwei, head of China's National Tourism Administration, said: “The year 2007 is just a beginning. The Sino-India exchanges mechanism will improve further with the promotion of tourism.”

New Delhi, Feb 1: China is publishing a cultural encyclopedia that will cover 20,000 ancient books and texts, which when completed, would become an extraordinary summary of the country’s historic works since the founding of the New China.

According to Xinhua News Agency, this encyclopedic series, which is titled "Zhong Hua Da Dian" (The Great Encyclopedia of China), had 49 volumes in print with more than 100 million words as of 2007.

The series is expected to cover various categories like history, literature, philosophy, astronomy, medicine and others.

China 31 Jan: Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday stressed the need to maintain a sound economy while realizing fast growth.

"We should correctly handle the relations between sound and fast with the stress on sound development, said Hu as he presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

China should have a clear understanding of global economic trend and its influence on the Chinese economy and prepare for a fast-changing and complicated situation, Hu said.

New Delhi, Jan 30: China is expected to complete the construction of
its third station around the highest point on Antarctica by 2009, the
captain of a Chinese expedition team told Xinhua on Tuesday.

The
station will be built around Dome A, the continent's peak point at
4,093 meters above sea level; Wei Wenliang was quoted, as saying.

A 17-member Chinese expedition team has successfully scaled Dome A before deciding on the location of the new station, he said.

New Delhi, Jan 26: China might broadcast live the first ever spacewalk by its astronauts in the upcoming mission of Shenzhou VII this year.

According to Yuan Jie, president of Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), "The Shenzhou VII spacecraft is capable of live-broadcasting the walk, but it has not been decided if the spacewalk will be broadcast in a live or recorded version."

SAST is in charge of the transmission of pictures and audio signals of Shenzhou VII and its technologies have been proved successful in previous Shenzhou spacecraft missions.

SAST is also responsible for the research of the propulsion system, power system, and monitoring and control communication system of the Shenzhou VII, according to Yuan.

New Delhi, Jan. 24: China's economy expanded at its fastest pace in 13 years in 2007 even after a slowdown in the fourth quarter, amid rising inflation, official figures showed on Thursday.

Xie Fuzhan, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics, told reporters in Beijing today that the country's Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) grew 11.4 percent last year from 2006, to 24.66 trillion yuan (3.42 trillion dollars).

According to him, that marked a fifth year of double-digit growth for the world’s fourth largest economy after the US, Japan and Germany.

Beijing, Jan 23: China has assured Pakistan that its warming ties with India would not affect the friendship between Beijing and Islamabad.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said improved relations with New Delhi were the need of the hour.

“China and India are both big developing countries. To improve relations is in the interests of both countries, and in the interests of regional stability, prosperity and development,” the Daily Times quoted Jiang, as saying.

New Delhi, Jan. 23: Chinese archaeologists have reportedly found an almost complete human skull fossil, possibly dating back to
100,000 years.

The skull was found in China's Henan province, and Chinese archaeologists hope the discovery will will shed light on a critical period of human evolution.

Authorities in China shut down 44,000 domestic websites and homepages and arrested 868 people while investigating 524 criminal cases in a campaign against Internet pornography last year, a national teleconference has heard.

Another 1,911 people involved in 1,609 Internet pornography activities were penalized, while the authorities canceled more than
440,000 pornographic messages online.

New Delhi, Jan. 19: A survey undertaken by the China Youth Daily shows that employers in China are disadvantaged on two fronts -- the hiring front while facing the biggest salary increases in Asia and secondly the highest staffing turnover in Asia.

Nearly a third, or 32 percent, of the employers surveyed have revealed that they plan to raise salaries by at least 20 percent to attract badly needed talent.

Human Resources Company Hudson, which carried out the survey, covered employers' first-quarter plans and expectations.

London, Jan. 18: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was just 25 feet away from almost certain death on Thursday.

The Boeing 777 that crash landed at London's Heathrow Airport, said to be the businest in the world, was just 25 feet above his
(Brown's) head.

He was being driven to a VIP lounge along an airport perimeter road when the Boeing 777 lost all power and plummeted towards the ground. He had arrived for a flight to China which was waiting on the ground, reports The Mirror.

Beijing, Jan. 18: Three days after a landmark first visit to China by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his British counterpart Gordon Brown arrived in Beijing on Friday on his maiden visit as prime minister, with the objective of tackling climate change and boosting two-way trade and investment at the top of his agenda.

Brown's two-day trip is a first by a European leader this year to China, and has been billed by officials in London and Beijing as being of vital importance to the strengthening of ties between the two countries.

He will spend Sunday and Monday in India on his return journey.