Young Costa Ricans give China's President Xi Jinping, accompanied by President Laura Chinchilla, an enthusiastic welcome in the capital, San Jose, on June 3. Rao Aimin / Xinhua

Diplomacy

Pork, oil, road building in Costa Rican deal

Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Costa Rica boosted economic ties between the two countries after a series of agreements in infrastructure, trade and investment were signed.

The two countries concluded agreements on economic and technical cooperation, quality inspection of pork products exported to China, construction of a joint oil refinery on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, and Chinese funding for the expansion of a highway between San Jose and Puerto Limon, 200 km east of the capital.

They also agreed on substantial purchase orders of oxhide and timber exported to China, but the exact price tag on these orders was not revealed.

Manila condemned over grounded warship

Beijing condemned the Philippines on May 30 over a Philippine warship that has been grounded on a Chinese reef in the South China Sea since 1999.

It described the illegal grounding of the vessel on the Ren'ai Reef as a "serious encroachment of territorial sovereignty", and warned Manila not to escalate the situation in the South China Sea any further.

"China's resolution and will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty is unswerving," Geng Yansheng, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said at a news conference.

Observers said Beijing acted in response to an attempt by the Philippines to assert territorial claims by keeping the warship stranded on the reef.

Top PLA officer hails power of dialogue

Beijing has expressed its openness and keenness in resolving disputes, as well as its determination to protect its territory, at an annual forum for security issues, observers said.

Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army of China, said that to realize prosperity, stability and development of the Asia-Pacific region, one cannot merely rely on the efforts of a single nation, nor on expansion and plundering, and even less on an obsession with the use of force.

The only way forward is to take cooperation as the overriding principle, and that countries, whether big or small, are all equal and should respect one another, Qi told the 12th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

The forum, also called the Asia Security Summit, was organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Health

H7N9 resistant to antiviral drugs

Measures taken against H7N9 bird flu will not be changed despite the first cases detected of the virus proving resistant to recommended treatment with Tamiflu or similar antiviral drugs, a senior health official said.

Feng Zijian, director of the health emergency center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, disclosed this after the discovery by Chinese scientists.

The findings, published in an article in medical journal The Lancet on May 29, show that three seriously ill patients with H7N9 did not respond to medication, including Tamiflu. The World Health Organization recommends the antiviral drug as a standard treatment against infection.

The findings emerged as a second H7N9 case was reported in Beijing, involving a 6-year-old boy.

Campaign to eliminate smoking in buildings

Nearly 200 government departments, government-affiliated institutions and state-owned companies in Beijing have started a campaign to eliminate smoking in their buildings.

The 170 organizations include ministries of the central government, such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the ministry leading tobacco control efforts in China.

In the Global Adult Tobacco Survey led by the World Health Organization in 2010, 63.3 percent of Chinese adults surveyed said they noticed tobacco smoke in workplaces and 58.4 percent said they noticed that smoking occurred in government buildings.

(China Daily European Weekly 06/07/2013 page2)