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LOS ANGELES - More Chinese tourists are expected to visit the United States as new travel rules between the two nations are pending, a report said on Sunday.Southern California is a likely destination for middle- and upper-class visitors with money to spend, said the Los Angeles Times.Travels agencies are preparing for what they hope could be a boom in new Chinese tourism to the United States that is expected to occur next year.Both nations are finalizing a deal to ease entry restrictions and lift a ban in China on promoting travel to the United States, according to the paper.The negotiations have been going on for several years, but China's government news agencies and sources at the US Commerce Department said a deal should be completed within the next few weeks, said the paper.The new travel rules are expected to be a particular boom to Southern California, which already sees more Chinese tourists - 110,000 in Los Angeles County last year - than anywhere else in the United States. But travel officials expect that number to grow significantly if more members of China's emerging middle and upper classes are able to travel to the region for vacations.China's travel industry is currently prohibited from marketing the United States as a travel destination because of disputes over the strict entry process initiated after 9/11 - a reality that US officials blame on the need for national security and concerns about visitors overstaying their visas, said the paper.

The central government has ordered coal firms to stop driving up prices and said they must honor their supply contracts with power plants in an effort to head off a power shortage.At the request of the National Development and Reform Commission, the China Coal Transportation and Distribution Association has threatened to cancel the license of any company that ignores the order to stabilize prices."Coal producers must strictly implement their contract prices for 2008 and must not take advantage of the current tight supply to raise prices as they like," the association said in a circular issued yesterday.Prices should be held at around the same level as at the end of last year, the circular said.The government is also banning all coal shipments other than those to power plants.The crackdown comes as the country faces a severe power shortage. Several power plants are struggling to secure the coal they need, while others are reducing their output rather than lose money as coal prices soar.Brownouts have already hit at least 13 provinces, and at its peak last week, nationwide demand outstripped supply by nearly 70 gigawatts, the People's Daily newspaper reported yesterday.About 80 percent of China's electricity is generated by burning coal.The crackdown on unsafe mines, high global demand, which pushed up prices and the cold snap that has closed roads and downed cables have added to the problem, an official from the State regulator said.

Chinese residents along the Huaihe River have been urged to gear up for their second tough combat against floods in a week as the receding flood water on some branches started rising again on Saturday after torrential rains.The upper-reach Nanwan Water Dam and Shishankou Reservoir have got an average rainfall of 150 mm and 315 mm respectively on Friday, resulting a twist in the ongoing combat against the worst flooding on the Huaihe River since 1954. ¡¡ Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao talks to a child during his visit to the flood-hit Funan County in East China's Anhui Province, July 13, 2007. Continuous heavy rainfall has been battering a large part of eastern and southern China, with some parts witnessing the worst floods in decades. [newsphoto]The water level on the crucial Wangjiaba Hydrological Station may soon surge above the danger line as more rains have been forecast in the next few days, said Cheng Dianlong, deputy director of the Office of the Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. Thirteen sluices at Wangjiaba station were opened Tuesday to divert flood water into the Mengwa Buffer Zone home to 150,000 people to provide relief to more than 2 million flood-hit residents in Henan Province. ¡¡ Nearly half a million people have been evacuated from the projected path of floodwater from the Huaihe River by Friday. Cheng said that the Henan hydrological departments on the upper reaches have made good use of reservoirs and water dams to alleviate pressure downstream Saturday. The flux into the Nanwan Reservoir registered at 2,760 cubic meters per second, however that out of the reservoir was¡¡reduced to 200 cubic meters per second. "The Huaihe riverbanks have been lashed by swelling water for several days. Putting up good defense will become increasingly difficult as more torrential rains are to come," he said. The headquarters issued an emergency notice Saturday to all local governments along the Huaihe River, requiring them to surmount fatigue, remain high alert and carry forward the spirit fostered in battling the 1998 Yangtze River flooding which killed more than 3,000 people and inflicted about 100 billion yuan (about 13 billion U.S. dollars) in economic losses. The notice urged them to take all adverse situations into consideration to reinforce preventive measures, continue to put the human first and safeguard the lives and assets of the people by arranging for relocation in advance. Along the Yangtze River, Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei provinces and Chongqing Municipality have been stricken by floodwater as heavy rainfall had lifted up the water levels of some branches. The Pipazui and Zhengjiahe Hydrological Stations on the tributary Fuhe River have both registered their highest water levels in history. Landslides triggered by mountain torrents killed six and caused three missing in Zhijin County of Guizhou Province, affected more than 673,000 people in Chongqing and inflicted the municipality 182 million yuan in direct economic losses. Some 1,630 people in Jingshan County of Hubei were evacuated in emergency as the water collected in downtown areas were 0.5 to 1.5 meter deep. By Friday, a total of 403 Chinese had been killed with 105 missing and 3.17 million people have been relocated as the rainy season coupled with ferocious flood waters continues to batter central and southern China.

WUXI: Premier Wen Jiabao has demanded a thorough investigation of the Taihu Lake crisis, which has affected the drinking water supply of about 2 million people. Efforts to protect the lake from further pollution are also to be scrutinized. "The pollution of Taihu Lake has sounded the alarm for us," Wen said in a directive to a symposium held by the State Council here yesterday. Taihu Lake, which was once a scenic attraction famous for its aquatic life, including shrimp, lily and water chestnuts, has been heavily polluted by industrial, agricultural and domestic waste. Wen said efforts had been made to reduce pollution in Taihu Lake in recent years. "But the problem has never been tackled at the root," he added. He asked participants in the symposium, including officials from central and local governments, environmental workers, scholars and researchers, to thoroughly investigate the Taihu Lake crisis so that concrete measures could be drawn up in response. Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan, who attended the symposium, told governments at all levels to work to prevent algae blooms and ensure the safety of drinking water. Zeng asked local governments to continue collecting the blue-green algae, intensify monitoring of water quality, ensure the water supply and divert more water from the Yangtze River to flush out the pollution. He also asked environmental watchdogs to strengthen supervision and punish factories that discharge pollutants into Taihu Lake. At the meeting, all towns around Taihu were ordered to establish sewage treatment plants. Chemical factories will have to meet a new water emissions standard by the end of June next year. Towns must set up sewage treatment plants and are forbidden from discharging untreated sewage into Taihu Lake or rivers in the Taihu valley. Existing plants must install nitrogen and phosphorus removal facilities before the deadline, according to the plan announced at the meeting. Chemical factories that fail to meet the new water emissions standard risk suspension. They will be shut down permanently if they fail to meet the standard by the end of next June. The new water emission standard for the Taihu area will raise the bar for sulfur dioxide emissions and chemical oxygen demand. China Daily-Xinhua

Four-yuan Scheme What can a part-time Chinese employee of McDonald's afford by his hourly pay? Only two small ice creams, which are valued at four yuan (US50cents). A McDonald's outlet. [File]American fast-food giants McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) are being bombarded for their work contracts which offer their part-time Chinese employees just four yuan per hour, well under the state requirement, state media reported. An employee is entitled to no less than 4.3 yuan per work hour, said a rule released by the Guangzhou city government last November. The hourly pay averages 7.5 yuan in the city. An unnamed source in Guangzhou told the New Express newspaper that the contract violated the legal rights of employees. "Once administrative departments discover acts of violations, officials will order these enterprises to revamp and compensate the employers for their losses," the source told the Guangzhou-based paper. "If the problem is so grave that a punishment will be handed out," the source said without giving details. The source also cast doubts on the probation system implemented by the fast-food giants. "Part-time employees don't need to undergo a one-month probation period." McDonald's and KFC have nearly 3,000 outlets all over China and a work force of nearly 200,000, according to a state media report. Zhu Yongping, a Guangzhou lawyer, has begun to move for the rights of employees. He told the paper that the work contracts have 'seriously violated' the legal rights of employees. A Lin, a McDonald's employee in Guangzhou, regarded McDonald's as a respectable foreign-funded enterprise before starting to work there. But the working experience has changed her mind. "I don't have enough rest. It seems that I was overly exploited." Cui Minghuan, Manager of KFC'S Guangdong market, refuted the claims of rights violations, saying the current rule of the minimum hourly rates of pay for the non-full-time employees implemented in the province is not applicable to the part-time employees working for KFC. "KFC does not breach relevant laws in China." Cui said these part-time employees are neither full-time workers nor non-full-time workers. "Their hourly rates of pay cannot be measured by the rule. An unnamed offical with the Provincial Department of Labor and Social Security said Cui's words are ridiculous. "So what kinds of workers they are on earth? " The official said the rule is applied to these part-time employees. Mcdonald said in a written statement that "it is always committed to relevant laws and regulations in China." Central Government Actions The report came just days after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in his work report to the congress in early March, called for more efforts to implement the minimum hourly wage system in a bid to protect the workers' rights. The minimum wage system aims to protect the rights of Chinese employees. For example, Bejing has set a minimum wage about 550 yuan per month, while the economic hub Shanghai has a minimum wage about 650 yuan. The central government has beefed up efforts to protect the rights of its huge crowd of employees to quell any likelihood of unrest and maintain social stability. China is planning to adopt an unemployment law that aims to build an unemployment benefit system. The draft law is aiming at promoting employment around the country. The law states that the government will implement new policies, such as boosting professional training and increasing financial investment in employment promotion. As discrimination turns rife in China, the draft law contains a clause on anti-discrimination in an effort to provide employment equality in the country. The clause states that discrimination against job seekers with respect to their background, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, age, or physical disability, will be prohibited. The government is also taking actions to set up trade unions in foreign-funded enterprises in China. Up to date, about 26 percent of China's 150,000 overseas-funded enterprises have established trade unions, with a total membership of 4.29 million, previous media report said. However, McDonald's and KFC have not set up unions so far.

来源：资阳报