CRI中国国际广播电台 News & Reports 2012-12-29（打印版）

US President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders are to meet to try to avoid falling over the so-called 'fiscal cliff.'

A senior Japanese scholar says Shinzo Abe's new government will take a cautious attitude towards ties with China.

And we'll also take a look at China's new pension insurance system, which is expected to cover 60-percent of the country's population by 2015.

US President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders are to meet later on this Friday to try to avoid falling over the so-called 'fiscal cliff.'

President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will all going to be part of negotiations at the White House.

The Democrats have been pushing for higher taxes to generate more revenue, while the Republicans have been advocating more spending cuts.

For more on the latest negotiations, Paul James spoke earlier with Zha Xiaogang, researcher at the Department of World Economic Studies with the Shanghai Institute of International Studies.

A senior Japanese political analyst is suggesting Shinzo Abe's new government is going to take a cautious attitude towards ties with China and Japan's other neighbors.

Satoshi Amako, a professor of contemporary Chinese studies at Waseda University, is suggesting the top priority for Shinzo Abe's new cabinet is to maintain a stable political environment before the House of Councilors election next July.

As such, Amako says he believes Abe will not be too radical in his foreign policy.

"The most important task for Abe is to revive Japan's looming economy. What's more, he has to make an attempt to mend ties with the United States. Indeed, Abe is considered to be a hawkish politician. But he will not immediately put his hawkish ideas into practice because he has to take Japan's national interests into serious consideration."

Shinzo Abe is on record as saying he would like to modify Japan's pacifist constitution and form a national defense army.

Ties between China and Japan have been at a low point this year amid the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands.

At the same time, tensions with South Korea and Russia over territorial disputes are also escalating.

As such, Satoshi Amako says he believes the new Abe government is going to have to be pragmatic in its foreign policy to avoid becoming isolated in the region.

"Japan cannot take radical steps to annoy China. I suggest Japan and China hold talks at all levels to bring an end to the disputes and enhance mutual understanding. It is essential for Abe's cabinet. Also, I hope Abe's cabinet can make moves to improve Japan's broader ties with China."

Shinzo Abe has returned to the role of Japanese prime minister, after his Liberal Democratic Party swept back to power in this month's parliamentary elections.

Japan's new government has said it hopes to stick to a three year deadline to decide whether to restart all nuclear reactors after safety checks.

Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, who is also responsible for energy policy, says reactors will be restarted as units have received the all-clear from the atomic regulator.

"We will rely on the Nuclear Regulation Authority to judge safety from an expert point of view and will not restart the ones where safety is not confirmed. On the other hand, if the nuclear reactor is deemed safe, we will respect that opinion and move to restart the reactor."

However NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka, has said completing safety checks within the three-year time frame set by new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be impossible to meet.

All but two of Japan's fifty reactors remain switched off, after an earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns and explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi station in northeastern Japan in March 2011.

Atomic energy supplied about 30-percent of Japan's needs before Fukushima, but since the disaster support for nuclear power has plummeted.

Abe's government said it would take 10-years to decide on the best energy mix for Japan.

China's foreign trade is expected to increase by around 6-percent year on year in 2012.

The growth will be slower than the annual target of 10-percent set by the government.

Foreign trade rose 5.8 percent year-on-year in the first 11-months of the year.

"Though the growth is just 6 percent, it owns a good quaility. Our export ratio in the international market increased 0.6 percent."

The ministry forecasts the export ratio in the international market will reach 11- percent this year.

Meanwhile, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming says the ministry will accelerate restructuring to stabilize foreign trade growth.

"We will continue to boost export rebates, expand the channels for trade financing, facilitate export credit insurance and especially facilitate the financing need for the export of large equipment."

China will increase imports of energy and resource products, advanced technical equipment and key components.

Chen also estimated that China's use of foreign direct investment will reach about 110-billion U.S dollars this year.

China's outbound direct investment in non-financial sectors will stand at 70-billion U.S dollars.

Chen said the government will create more preferential policies next year to encourage foreign investors to invest in central and west China.

A 17-year-old girl in the northern Indian state of Punjab, who was allegedly raped in November, has committed suicide after police failed to take action against the accused.

Indian media is reporting she consumed poison at home later died in hospital.

Police sources say three men abducted the girl, then she was repeatedly raped and dumped on the road.

The victim had tried to report the case for 14-days, but local police did not register the case and tried to force a settlement between the rapists and the girl's family.

After the suicide, the police hastily arrested the accused, two men and a woman, earlier on Thursday.

PARAMJIT SINGH GILL, inspector general OF POLICE OF PATIALA RANGE,says the officer in charge of the police station is reported to have been sacked for negligence.

"Till November 27, almost for 14 days, no action was taken in this case. No case was registered neither was any arrest made. Attempts were also made to hush up the case by arriving at a compromise. But nothing happened. After 14 days when the case was registered."

News of the teenager's suicide comes as a 23-year-old medical student, who was brutally assaulted by six men in a moving bus in New Delhi, battles for her life in a Singapore hospital.

The savage New Delhi gang rape has caused outrage in India with thousands participating in massive protests demanding stringent punishment for the rapists and tough anti-rape laws.

We'll continue our yearend reports on key words 2012.Today's key words are "pension insurance."

With a rapidly aging society here in China, the central authorities have unveiled plans to cover at least 60-percent of the country's population under the pension insurance scheme by 2015.

On top of this, the authorities are proposing a new pension system which will allow people to choose among 3-different types of programs.

China's current pension insurance system includes basic pension insurance for urban workers, rural social insurance and urban social insurance.

Under the new plan, those covered by two or three of these types of insurance can switch from one or the other.

Professor Zheng Fengtian with the College of Agriculture and Rural Development at Renmin University says the new policy is part of the broader reform of the social insurance system.

"There should be a unified standard for everyone, no matter who he is. However, the insurance gap between different classes is evident. Yet, to set a unified standard for every different social group costs a lot. So the new scheme is on the right path by starting with people in rural areas, as it paves way for the broader reform of the whole society."

Under the new proposal, people who have paid into social insurance for 15 consecutive years can apply for the basic pension insurance for urban workers, which generates higher returns.

Those who haven't reached the 15-year payment period can apply for the new urban or rural social security plans so they can have basic coverage.

As an example, if a migrant worker from the rural areas has been paying for the new rural social security scheme, he or she can apply to have their payment moved to the better-paying account for urban workers if he or she has moved to urban areas to work.

However, professor Zheng Fengtian notes the 15-year payment requirement is one of the main reasons most migrant workers can't qualify for the most lucrative program.

"Rural migrant workers who are currently working may eventually benefit from the policy. But those who are in their 50's or 60's probably won't. At the same time, the current policy doesn't cover people from rural areas who are living without a job in the city. These are the problems yet to be solved in the new policy. "

Meanwhile, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is reporting China's pension deficit has reached some 77-billion yuan through 2011.

Its latest report shows over one-third of China's 31 provinces and autonomous regions are facing pension fund deficits.

The government's top think tank is warning of an unsustainable financial situation under the current pension system.

"Our basic pension insurance system seems to have saved a large surplus in recent years. And they have guaranteed the current needs. However, most of the surplus comes from financial subsidies by the central and local governments."

The report by CASS also notes China's economic growth structure is undergoing a planned slow-down, which is also going to reduce revenues to the pension system.

Dai Xianglong, chair of the National Social Security Fund, is suggesting part of the gaps in the pension fund can be covered by this country's state-owned enterprises.

"I think we should set up a system to transfer one fifth of SOE profits to social security funds."

The ratio is 83 percent in Norway, 25 percent in Japan and 15 percent in the US.

An aging population here in China is quickly becoming a major concern.

There were 190 million people at or above the age of 60 as of the end of 2011.

As many as 125 million elderly people here in China currently receive pensions every month.

As such, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has promised to increase government spending on the social insurance system to address the aging problem.

Runaway real estate prices in China have been a significant source of public complaint in recent years.

To curb the soaring housing prices, the government has implemented a string of policies since early 2010.

However, the property market has shown signs of warming in recent months.

The central bank twice cut interest rates and the banks' reserve requirement ratio to buoy the economy earlier this year.

At the most recent central economic work conference, China said urbanization is a key driver of domestic demand, remaining that way in 2013.

However, China is also indicating it will stick to control measures in the property sector next year.

For more on expectations of the Chinese property market in 2013 , Rebecca Hume spoke earlier with Zhuang Jian, Senior Economist at Asian Development Bank's Resident Mission in China.

Courts in Zhejiang province are testing a program that will offer free legal services to poor defendants in criminal cases.

Since the beginning of 2011, Zhejiang courts have appointed lawyers to defend over 22-thousand suspects who faced the possibility of being sentenced to more than three years in jail.

That number was up by 130 percent from the two-year period starting in 2009.

Ensuring more suspects are represented by defense lawyers will help protect their rights and prevent miscarriages of justice.

Local authorities estimated high legal fees now prevent all but 30 percent of suspects from obtaining a legal defense.

Free legal services will also be offered to those who are older than 60 and are not a principal suspect in a crime, or who come from ethnic groups and do not understand Mandarin.

Metro officials will add more vending machines and ATMs to the subway system in the coming year to meet the increasing demands and to eliminate potential fire dangers posed by some of the current, smaller subway stores.

The Metro operator intends to sell various kinds of goods, such as drinks, snacks and fruits, from the machines.

The plan of selling daily-use medicine via the machines is also under discussion.

However, some passengers have expressed concern about the quality and freshness of the food.

The city removed 400 to 500 stores from the subway network at the time of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo for safety concerns.

Officials said they are working on solutions to the problem of expired food and drinks being sold via the machines.

Charity Oxfam has said a negative image of Africa in the UK is harming efforts to raise food aid in the continent.

It found that three out of four people had become desensitized to images showing hunger, drought and disease.

Three-quarters thought it was possible to end hunger in Africa, but just one in five believed they could play an active role in achieving it.

Of the more than two thousand people surveyed, almost half suggested hunger as the biggest problem facing Africa.

Respondents to the survey said over-exposure to negative media and advertising portrayals of Africa and developing countries in other parts of the world was "depressing, manipulative and hopeless".

According to Oxfam chief executive Dame Barbara Stocking, if they want people to help fight hunger they have to give them grounds for hope by showing the potential of countries across Africa.

In market news....U.S. stocks fell for a fifth consecutive day on Friday as the prospects of the "fiscal cliff" were still uncertain.

All three major indexes slumped. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 1.2 percent to 12,938, the S&P 500 fell 1.1 percent to1,402, and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 0.9 percent to 2,906.

European market also traded lower. London's FTSE 100 dopped 0.5 percent to 5,925. Frankfurt's DAX lost 0.6 percent to 7,612. CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.5 percent to 3,620.

CRI中国国际广播电台 News & Reports 2012-12-29（在线收听）