Conferences & Meetings \>\> In China

Offshore Wind Power Development Asia, Shanghai

It discusses the challenges of offshore development, including a complex regulatory structure, technical and logistical risks associated with offshore operations and the lack of mature case studies within China.

Date: March 6-7

Venue: Renaissance Shanghai Pudong Hotel

Website: www.offshorewindpowerasia.com

China Crop Protection Summit, Shanghai

Workshop subjects will include process technology for producing agrochemical actives and the status of Indian agrochemical industry and development trends.

Date: March 8-9

Venue: Ramada Plaza Gateway Shanghai

Website: www.cnchemicals.com

International Wood-Plastic Composites Fair, Guangzhou

Focuses on the wood-plastic composite field in China and includes hundreds of companies with new products.

Date: March 9-11

Venue: China Import and Export Fair Complex

Website: www.musuz.com

International Conference on Modern Hydraulic Engineering, Nanjing

Topics will include theories and practices of modern water conservancy, related fields of hydro project technology, and hydraulic engineering construction, management, and information technology.

Date: March 9-11

Venue: Selected places

Website: http://cmhe-conference.org

Conferences & Meetings \>\> In the US

The Selectoral Connection in Chinese Local Congresses, Boston

Speaker Melanie Manion is professor of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin. She studied philosophy and political economy at Peking University. Her research focuses on Chinese politics.

Date: Feb 13

Venue: Knafel Building, Bowie-Vernon Room

Website: fairbank.fas.harvard.edu

Luncheon Honoring China's Vice-President Xi Jinping, Washington

The event is held by the US-China Business Council. It favors constructive engagement with China to eliminate trade and investment barriers and develop a rules-based commercial environment that is predictable and transparent to all parties.

Date: Feb 15

Venue: Washington DC

Website: www.uschina.org

Culture \>\> In China

Chieli Minucci's China Tour

Known as a composer for television and film, Chieli Minucci has written music for well-known programs such as Good Morning America, Bloomberg Radio, Access Hollywood, and The 700 Club.

Date: Feb 9-18

Venue: Selected cities

Website: http://blog.chielimusic.com

Avril Lavigne's Black Star Tour, Guangzhou and Beijing

Now 27 years old, the queen of pop-punk Avril Lavigne is coming back to China and brings the maturity and insight she has gained from her experience to her fourth and latest album, Goodbye Lullaby.

Date: Feb 11 and 14

Venue: Selected places

Website: www.damai.cn

Culture \>\> In the US

Tomb Decor from Ancient Shanxi, New York

This exhibition will feature an entirely reconstructed tomb, It will also bring to life brick carving and theater traditions.

Date: Feb 9-June 17

Venue: China Institute

Website: www.chinainstitute.org

Ancient Sichuan: The Origins and Development of Complex Society in the Chengdu Plain, Boston

Rowan Flad is associate professor of anthropology at Harvard University. His research focuses on the archaeology of ancient China from a comparative perspective.

Date: Feb 21

Venue: CGIS South, Belfer Case Study Room (S020), Harvard University

Website: http://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu

Diplomatic pouch

Celebrating the publication of the Shanghai Communique 40 years ago this month, China's Deputy Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai told a gathering at the Jingjiang Hotel that "despite many ups and downs, the bilateral relationship has maintained the right track and achieved substantial developments".

Cui quoted Confucius saying that "man should no longer suffer from perplexities in his 40s". Four decades after the communique was signed at the hotel, he said, both sides should have "a more profound understanding of its importance, deeper feeling for the fruits it has produced, and higher expectations for its future".

The event was sponsored by the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), and VIP guests included Tu Guangshao, vice-mayor of Shanghai; Yang Jiemian, SIIS president; Richard Solomon, president of the US Institute of Peace; and Christopher Hill, former US assistant secretary of state.

San Francisco Consul General Gao Zhansheng attended the Huayin Cup, Chinese Music International Competition hosted last week by the Chinese Musicians Association of America in the music department of San Jose State University, and the 4th Spring Festival Silicon Valley in San Jose Center for the Performing Arts.

Gao presented prizes to the competition winners and, with US senator Dianne Feinstein, sent congratulatory messages to the competitors. About 1,500 people watched the performance.

Earlier last week, Gao hosted a celebration reception for the Global Winter Wonderland 2011 Zigong Lantern Show at his residence. About 70 people involved in the project attended the reception.

Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping met former governor of Florida Jeb Bush last month at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, calling for closer cooperation between China and the United States.

The Bush family has made great contributions to promoting relations between China and the United States, "which the two nations and the two peoples will not forget", the Chinese vice-president said.

Xi is traveling to the US to visit Washington, Los Angeles and the state of Iowa beginning Feb 13.

China Daily

(China Daily 02/10/2012 page23)