Friday______________________ April 5

Europe is the No 1 destination for shoppers

Chinese buyers say Europe was their favorite shopping destination in 2012, and they spent a record amount there and will spend even more this year, according to a report by Global Blue, a tourism shopping-service provider.

Chinese shoppers spent 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion) on duty-free shopping in 2012, an increase of nearly 60 percent year-on-year, according to Nyon, a Switzerland-based company. The figure could see a 20 to 25 percent growth in 2013, it added.

The amount only included transactions handled by Global Blue.

More than 80 percent of Chinese tourists see shopping as a vital part of their overseas trips, according to the company report. Watches and jewelry were among Chinese shoppers' favorite items.

Begich heads Senate group to improve ties

Alaska Democrat Mark Begich has been named to head a US Senate group that works with members of China's National People's Congress on improving bilateral ties.

Begich, whose appointment to lead the US-China Inter-Parliamentary Group was announced earlier this week, said his top priority will be to advance trade between the world's two biggest economies.

The Inter-Parliamentary Group, formed in 2004, consists of 12 senators from the two parties in the Senate. Its mandate is to work on a bipartisan basis with Chinese counterparts in advancing US-China relations through visits to each other's country.

Begich was picked by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to succeed Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state, who had led the US-China parliamentary group since 2009.

Monday______________________ April 8

Language conference draws large turnout

The National Chinese Language Conference on the teaching of Chinese in the United States attracted a record number of participants to its three-day session in Boston.

The session, held from Saturday through Monday, was organized by the Asia Society and the College Board in collaboration with the Beijing headquarters of the Confucius Institute (also known as Hanban, the acronym for the institutes' oversight body affiliated with China's Education Ministry) and the organization Primary Source.

"The number of participants grew from 700 to over 1,200 - not only growing in size, but also in enthusiasm from participants," said Christopher Livaccari, director of education and language initiatives at the New York-based Asia Society. He has been attending the annual conference since its inception in 2008.

Bryant to open campus in Zhuhai

Rhode Island's Bryant University will open a campus in Zhuhai in collaboration with the Beijing Institute of Technology starting in September.

The small, private university would recruit students from the United States, China and Southeast Asia to study business and earn a US bachelor of science and business administration degree. It will be the fourth US-China academic joint venture of its kind, following those involving New York University, Duke University and New Jersey's Kean University.

Tuesday_____________________ April 9

Confucius institutes open in NY, DC

Confucius institutes opened this week at Columbia University in New York and George Washington University, representing a key part of China's "soft power" initiative to the United States.

Columbia University inaugurated the Confucius Institute in Manhattan on Tuesday, and George Washington University followed on Wednesday.

A priority for the Confucius Institute at George Washington will be instruction in Chinese language and culture to professionals working in diplomacy and international business. At Columbia, it will be research into the teaching of Chinese as a second language. The city already has one Confucius Institute, at Pace University in downtown Manhattan, which caters to the broader community. (Photo 2)

Compost may help solve soil erosion

A compost of wood chips from poplar trees developed by Cornell University scientists may be part of a solution to huge soil-erosion problems in northwest China.

Working in the northwestern Ningxia Hui autonomous region, the scientists developed the compost as part of a three-year $450,000 project funded by the Chinese government.

Rainfall in the region is less than six inches annually, but 36,800 square kilometers of soil erosion in Ningxia causes an average of 100 million tons of silt to flow each year into the nearby Yellow River, Asia's second longest and "the cradle of Chinese civilization". (Photo 3)

Wednesday________________ April 10

More research posts planned for Antarctica

China will increase the number of research stations in Antarctica to five from three.

The two new facilities are expected to join the existing stations on Antarctica by 2015, said Xu Shijie, an official with the China Arctic and Antarctic Administration.

He unveiled the plan the day that the Chinese research vessel Xuelong (Snow Dragon) returned from its 29th expedition to the South Pole to a Shanghai port. The five-month expedition completed missions that included selecting the site for one of the new facilities, he said.

Sportswear company countersues Jordan

Qiaodan Sports Co, which was sued by the former US basketball star Michael Jordan for unauthorized use of his name in 2012, has filed a countersuit, claiming his lawsuit misled customers and the public. The company is seeking $8 million in compensation.

Jordan's suit stopped the Chinese sportswear manufacturer from getting listed, and the company is asking him to restore its reputation, Qiaodan Sports said in a statement sent to China Daily.

Jordan is known in China by the name Qiaodan - the Chinese translation of Jordan. He accused Qiaodan Sports of building its business around his name in Chinese and jersey number without his permission. He asked the company to stop and requested tens of millions of yuan in compensation.

Qiaodan denied Jordan's claims and said the company had simply used a Chinese translation of what it considers a common foreign family name.

"Michael Jordan has not received notice from relevant authorities about Qiaodan's countersuit," a spokesperson for his legal advisers told China Daily on Tuesday. (Photo 4)

Thursday________________ April 11

California signs trade agreement

California will establish a trade partnership with six of China's largest and fastest-growing regional economies.

Governor Jerry Brown, who led a California delegation of more than 70 business people in China this week, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Beijing with Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shandong provinces; Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities; and Inner Mongolia, the fastest-growing region in China. President Xi Jinping initiated the agreement during his visit to California last February when he was vice-president.

The agreement will promote investments and cooperation in infrastructure, new energy, biopharmaceuticals, electronics and information technology, agriculture and tourism.

"We are totally open to China - it's about jobs, and it's about investment," Brown said.

March imports are the highest in 10 years

China's imports in March rose to $183.07 billion, or 14.1 percent, from a year earlier, the highest in more than 10 years, according to the General Administration of Customs.

"The better than forecast imports signal the unleashing of domestic demand, and China's economic growth will significantly pick up from the second quarter," said Chen Hufei, a researcher at Bank of Communications.

Exports grew 10 percent year-on-year in March to $182.19 billion. China's overall trade gained 12.1 percent year-on-year with an unexpected trade deficit of $880 million, the first in more than a year.

Flowers are laid by staff members in front of the wax statue of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Shenzhen on Tuesday. Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping met with Thatcher in Beijing in 1982. The only female prime minister of Britain and known worldwide as the "Iron Lady", she died on Monday at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke. She played a key role in China's relationship with the United Kingdom, especially in the peaceful handover of Hong Kong, experts said.

(China Daily 04/12/2013 page8)