PEOPLE/POINTS

PEOPLE/POINTS

CISA’s New Head

Zhu Jimin, Board Chairman of the Shougang Group, one of China’s leading steel companies, was elected new chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) on February 21. Zhu will succeed Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp.’s Chairman Deng Qilin in taking the helm from 2011 to 2013.

Zhu, 65, was born in Anhui Province and has worked in the iron and steel industry since college graduation. He started working for the Shougang Group in 1999, becoming its general manager in 2000 and board chairman in 2003.

CISA has 232 members and covers almost all iron and steel corporations in China. It plays a vital role in the yearly price negotiations for ironstone and makes suggestions to government on the industry policy making.

New Railways Minister

Sheng Guangzu, former Chief of the General Administration of Customs (GAC), has been appointed new minister of railways, replacing 58-year-old Liu Zhijun, who was dismissed from the post by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China since he is under investigation for “serious disciplinary violations.”

Sheng, 62, was born in Jiangsu Province. He began his career in the railway industry in 1968 and was the vice minister of railways from 1999 to 2000.

Writer’s Ambition

Liu Xinwu, a famous Chinese writer, said recently he has written a new ending for Chinese literary masterpiece A Dream of the Red Mansions by Qing Dynasty writer Cao Xueqin (1724-1764), and will publish his work in April this year.

Liu, considered an expert on the classic work, holds Cao completed work on A Dream of the Red Mansions, but only the first 80 chapters have been passed down. There have been various versions of the ending to the classic written over the years.

Liu said his ending took seven years to finish and has been added to his own take on the great novel. But his actions have aroused much discussion on whether modern writers are able to convey well the essence of the ancient classic. Liu, 69, began publishing in 1958. His short novel Class Adviser was a sensation when first published in 1977.

“We should change the criteria for evaluating of ficials’ work. The supreme criterion for assessing their performance is whether the people feel happy and satis fied, and not the number of skyscrapers they build.”

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in an online chat with Internet users in Beijing on February 27

“Housing is imperative for people’s lives and local governments must waste no time in beginning the construction of 10 million affordable housing units this year.”

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang, at a meeting in Beijing on the program for affordable housing nationwide

“In 2010, China’s turnover of the import and export of cultural products was $14.39 billion, an increase of 15.1 percent year on year.”

Sun Zhijun, Vice Minister of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, on February 28

“This issue we have repeatedly informed P5+1 about our readiness shows we will pursue the path of negotiations if these countries are ready to hold talks about cooperation without taking sides and if they place emphasis on interaction and not confrontation.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast, at his weekly press brie fing on March 1 in Tehran, Iran

“The international stance is totally in harmony with the Palestinian stance which calls for halting all kinds of settlements to get back to the negotiations, end the occupation and establish the Palestinian state.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying there is an international consensus against construction of Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories, as 14 countries in the UN Security Council voted against it on February 28

“I have decided to quit as prime minister. This resignation will serve Tunisia, and the revolution and the future of Tunisia.”

Tunisian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi, announcing his resignation on February 27 in Tunis