1. China honors helicopter regiment for quake relief 
2. China quake death toll remains unchanged for two days 
3. Central gov't requires transparency in use of quake relief funds 
4. Report: China's economic growth likely slows to 10.4% this year 
5. Chinese mainland tourism delegation to visit Taiwan

1.  China honors helicopter regiment for quake relief

President Hu Jintao on June 14 ordered that the title of "heroic quake-relief force" be given to a helicopter regiment that showed loyalty and courage in rescue work following last month's major quake in southwest China.

The command by Hu, also Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China, was announced at an award meeting here on Sunday.

The regiment of army aviation under the Chengdu Military Command did an excellent job in quake-relief missions and showed great loyalty, courage and dedication, the command said.

All Chinese military members should learn from the regiment, which put people's lives first, it said.

The regiment has dispatched 1,848 helicopter flights for rescue and transport missions since the quake on May 12 and evacuated 1,126 injured people from the region.

More than 619 tons of food, water and medicines have been delivered and 2,171 people stranded by the quake were transferred by the regiment.

One of the regiment's helicopters crashed in a deep forest ravine in Sichuan Province during a rescue mission on May 31, leaving all five crew and 13 passengers dead.

The honor awarded to the regiment was the top honor of all the regiment members and all military members who participated in quake-relief missions, Xu Caihou, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, said at the meeting.

Source: Xinhua (www.chinaview.cn)

2.  China quake death toll remains unchanged for two days

The death toll of China's massive earthquake reported no increase from Saturday's figure, freezing at 69,170 as of 12 a.m. June 16, the State Council Information Office said.

The number of the injured also remained unchanged at 374,159 and people reported missing dropped by one to 17,426 after the 8.0-magnitude quake rocked southwestern Sichuan Province and neighboring regions on May 12.

Hospitals had treated 95,732 injured people as of Monday noon, of whom 79,008 had been discharged and 14,094 were still being treated.

By Sunday, more than 1.42 million quake survivors had been evacuated.

As of Monday noon, the government disaster relief fund had reached 53.86 billion yuan (about 7.8 billion U.S. dollars), including 49.25 billion yuan from the central budget and 4.62 billion yuan from the local budget.

As of Monday noon, 1.38 million tents, 4.82 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 1.07 million tonnes of oil and 2.29 million tonnes of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas.

The office said as of Sunday, relief workers had built 152,600 makeshift houses and another 38,800 were being installed, while the materials for 96,300 had arrived in the affected areas.

Source: Xinhua (www.chinaview.cn)

3.  Central gov't requires transparency in use of quake relief funds

China's State Council issued on June 16 a guideline on regulating the use of relief funds for the massive earthquake that jolted the southwestern Sichuan Province on May 12.

It required local governments and organizations that receive relief funds to use them transparently and efficiently.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs statistics said the donations to date were valued at 45.654 billion yuan (6.6 billion U.S. dollars)for the affected areas. The 8.0-magnitude quake claimed at least 69,170 lives, left 17,427 missing and made millions homeless. About 30 percent of the donations have already been offered to the tremor-affected areas.

The Red Cross Society of China and the China Charity Federation are major conduits collecting and distributing donations.

The State Council, the country's Cabinet, urged individual donations should go to areas in agreement with donors' wishes.

The priority would be for the improvement of people's livelihoods in the quake-hit areas, the government said.

This has been specified for reconstruction of peasants' houses, re-building of schools, hospitals and welfare institutions, subsidies for those in desperate need, including orphans and the disabled, and public facilities of local transport and power supply, the guideline said.

To keep transparency of the fund allocation and its use, the State Council asked the Ministry of Civil Affairs to set up a database on fund sources, amount, donors' wishes and other concerned information. The ministry was required to publicize the information regularly.

Source: Xinhua (www.chinaview.cn)  

4.  Report: China's economic growth likely slows to 10.4% this year

BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- China's economy is forecast to grow at a slower annual rate of 10.4 percent in 2008 because of a deteriorating external environment and domestic tightening policy, a research report said.

The gross domestic product (GDP) in the world's fastest-growing major economy expanded 11.9 percent last year, the fifth year of double-digit growth.

The economy had now started shifting to a slowdown from a record growth pace, said a report by Renmin University of China (RUC) and Donghai Securities.

The GDP grew 10.6 percent in the first quarter, down 1.1 percentage points from the same period last year. This was on weakening external demands for Chinese exports and the worst winter storms in more than five decades.

"This is not a short-term, temporary correction," the China Securities Journal reported Monday, quoting Liu Yuanchun, RUC's School of Economics vice president.

"China's economy has a good chance of repeating earlier slowdowns that feature softening in the short term but accelerating weakening in the middle term."

The report suggested the government increase fiscal spending and use more reserve requirement increases and bill sales rather than harsher interest rate hikes in the second half to boost the economy while taming inflation.

"The tight monetary policy, which had better not to be continued for long, can only help to adjust people's expectations on inflation," the report stated. "Don't expect it to play a direct role in curbing prices."

It also advised the government order temporary controls on grain exports and increase government subsidies for agricultural production.

The surging food prices are considered the major driver behind China's inflation as food accounts for one-third of the main inflation gauge, the consumer price index (CPI).

The CPI eased to 7.7 percent in May as food prices started to fall after surging in the past year. The reading was 8.5 percent in April, up from 8.3 in March and down from the 12-year high of 8.7 percent in February.

The report added the CPI might rise 7.1 percent, well above the government target of 4.8 percent, and the trade surplus to fall by3.4 billion U.S. dollars for all of 2008.

The surplus dropped to 20.2 billion U.S. dollars in May, down 10 percent from a year ago. Last year, it surged 47.7 percent to a record 262.2 billion U.S. dollars.

Source: Xinhua (www.chinaview.cn)  

5.  Chinese mainland tourism delegation to visit Taiwan

Managers of 33 travel agencies from the Chinese mainland will pay a 10-day visit to Taiwan from Sunday, an official of the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) said.

The group will inspect tourism facilities to make advance arrangements following a recent agreement with the island, China News Service (CNS) quoted a CNTA official as saying.

The delegation will focus on hotels, transportation, shopping centers and major tourist sites such as Mt. Ali and Riyuetan, CNS said.

The official said that the CNTA will publish a list of the 33 mainland travel agencies authorized to deal with cross-Straits tours next week. Detailed rules on cross-Strait travel will be released as well.

The mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation signed an agreement on Friday that opens the island's door to mainland tourists.

The agreement, taking effect June 20, will see the arrival of the first tourist group to Taiwan on July 4.

The pact set a quota for the number of tourists in line with Taiwan's accommodation capacity. A maximum of 3,000 mainland tourists can travel to Taiwan every day, the agreement said.

In the meantime, mainland residents in Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Hubei, Guangdong, Chongqing, Yunnan and Shaanxi could apply for tours to the island.

Source: Xinhua (www.chinaview.cn)