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LONDON -- China is set to make 2008 the year it asserts its status as a global colossus by flexing economic muscles on international markets and exhibiting its cultural richness, The Independent newspaper said on Tuesday."The world's most populous nation will mark the next 12 months with a coming-of-age party that will confirm its transformation in three decades from one of the poorest countries of the 20th century into the globe's third-largest economy, its hungriest consumer and the engine room of economic growth," the daily said in an article.It said that China enjoys unprecedented levels of domestic consumption and showcases itself to a watching world with a glittering 20 billion pound ( billion) Olympic Games.China's trade surplus with the rest of the world will widen from 130 billion pounds (0 billion) in 2007 to 145 billion pounds (0 billion) this year, the paper said.The paper said China is set to grow in the next year by something like 10 percent and contribute more to world economic growth than the United States in 2008.The paper also expressed worries about the challenges China faces in social and economic life like the rich-poor gap and inflation.Culturally, China will remind the world of its rich legacy of music, dance and visual arts with a new wave of Chinese creativity in Britain, it said.The Chinese New Year on February 7 will herald the beginning of the largest-ever festival of China's culture in Britain with an accent on contemporary artists in fields from video art to neon signs.

In the latest move by some countries to construct new embassies or give their missions in Beijing a makeover, the Australian embassy will spend million refurbishing its already elegant building, the Australian ambassador announced Tuesday.The refurbishment will cover much of the embassy's high-traffic areas and incorporate all four levels of the Chancery building.A new 2,500-sq m annex building will also be constructed on the site, the ambassador added.The project will begin immediately after the 2008 Olympics and is scheduled for completion in 2010.Geoff Raby, the Australian ambassador to China, said the number of embassy staff had increased to 190 resident Australian diplomats and their families and 120 Chinese staff.He recalled there were about 32 Australian staff and 60 Chinese employees when construction of the embassy was completed in 1992, making it one of more iconic buildings in Beijing."The Australian embassy in China is one of our biggest embassies in the world," Raby said.It is a sign that Australia attaches more importance to its relations with China, the ambassador said.Woods Bagot, a global studio specializing design and consulting that operates in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and Europe, will implement the project with Chinese local design institute UAD and multinational engineers Arup."The (Australian) government demanded new thinking for a new diplomatic era in China," Jason Marriott, managing principal of Woods Bagot, said.The Australian embassy is located in the second diplomatic neighborhood on Dongzhimenwai Street.The first diplomatic neighborhood is near Jianguomenwai and a third one is north to Liangmahe.The United States has plans for a new embassy project in the third diplomatic neighborhood after Republic of Korea and Malaysia finish their new buildings.Wang Fan, a researcher of international relations with China Foreign Affairs University, said the embassy building and renovation boom symbolized how important China was to foreign countries' diplomatic strategies.

China has sent rescue ships to search for a cargo vessel missing in the East China Sea with 17 Russian crew on board.The China Maritime Search and Rescue Center said on Friday it launched a search and rescue emergency plan soon after a rescue center in Russia's far east informed it of the missing boat on Thursday.The Cambodia-registered ship went missing on its way from Japan to Hong Kong.The vessel failed to arrive in Hong Kong on Thursday as scheduled, and the last radio contact was made with the ship on Sunday, when it was 212 sea miles (391 km) east of Shanghai.Russian rescue officials then informed rescue centers in China, Japan and South Korea of the Captain Uskov's disappearance."Our rescue ships have started searching," Zhai Jiugang, a senior official with China's search and rescue center, said.Vessels sailing in the East China Sea have also been informed by the center's branches in Shandong and Shanghai of the disappearance of the ship, and were asked to assist in the search, he said.The center is also using maritime satellites to help search for the vessel. But by Friday afternoon, there was "no clue about the missing boat, and we will continue to search", he said.The boat, with a cargo capacity of 5,200 metric tons, was built in Japan in 1982. It flew a Soviet flag and was later sold to a private shipping company and registered in Cambodia.

BEIJING, Mar. 1 -- Mrs Zhang is very much looking forward to the opening of Beijing's new Line 10 metro route.    On Friday, the 72-year-old was buffeted and bashed as she tried to get on a bus at Guomao, where she had been visiting her son at his office.     She wanted to get to Shuangjing, she said, but the crowds were so big and boisterous, she kept getting pushed to the back of the queue.     However, she knows that when the new Line 10 opens, her journey will be a lot less stressful.     "I really wish I could take the subway. It's faster and less painful," she said, doing her best to avoid the crowds and passing buses.     Scheduled to open in June, Line 10 will provide a high-speed link for commuters - and their elderly relatives - between Bagou in the west and Jinsong in the south.     On Friday afternoon, Zhou Zhengyu, deputy director of the Beijing municipal committee of communications, joined a group of journalists to try out the new route.     The 15.5-billion-yuan (2.18 billion U.S. dollars), 25-km line, along with two other routes linking the airport and the Olympic Green, will open in June, once testing has been completed - just in time for the millions of Olympic visitors, he said.     "But we won't slow down our construction plans once the Games have finished," Zhou told China Daily inside one of the line's new carriages.     "In fact, we will accelerate our development plans to provide an even better service for the people of Beijing."     Since the opening of Line 5 in October, the number of passengers using the subway has risen by more than a third, he said.     By 2015, Beijing's metro will stretch more than 561 km and feature 420 stations, Zhou said.     The existing network spans 155 km and has 93 stations, with the cost to develop each additional kilometer averaging out at about 500 million yuan, Liu Hongtao, a senior official with the Beijing railway transportation construction corporation, said.     He told China Daily the massive infrastructure project was already progressing well.     "Three lines are close to completion, one is under construction, and ground has been broken at six others," he said.     "The total cost of all the extra lines will be something like 200 billion yuan by 2015," he said.     "The government's usual annual budget for public transport is about 1 billion yuan," Zhou, who will be in charge of public transport in Beijing for the next five years, said.     Wang Hailong, who has worked as a taxi driver in the capital for the past five years is not worried about the metro taking away his business.     "The new subway does us little harm," he said. "And it will certainly ease the pain of millions of people who now travel by bus."

A senior central bank official has rejected calls for a quicker increase in the flexibility of the renminbi exchange rate, saying the currency's role in rectifying global economic imbalances should not be exaggerated. Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said more attention should instead be paid to growing protectionism to safeguard the health of the world economy, according to a central bank statement and Xinhua. She was speaking in Washington on Saturday at a conference during the semi-annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The meetings are a venue for key financial officials of the two institutions' member countries to discuss global economic issues. Officials and economists at the IMF, which has a mandate to safeguard the global economy and render advice to member countries, said that Beijing should pursue a more flexible exchange rate, for the sake of both the Chinese economy and a more balanced global economy. However, China did not seem to see the advice as being appropriate. "The fund... should respect its member countries' core interests and actual economic fundamentals," Hu was quoted as saying. "Biased advice would damage the fund's role in safeguarding global economic and financial stability." In July 2005, China abandoned the renminbi's decade-old peg to the US dollar and let the currency appreciate by 2.1 per cent. Since then, it has gained almost another 5 percent against the dollar. However, there has been a persistent international chorus, led by the United States, arguing that China has not been moving quick enough in letting its currency rise. US lawmakers have said that the country's trade deficit was partly caused by what they believed an undervalued Chinese currency. Chinese officials say the yuan's flexibility would gradually increase but argue that radical steps would generate shocks in the Chinese economy which could spread to the rest of the world. "The IMF... should attach significance to stability of domestic economies (of member countries) when observing their contribution to outside stability," Hu said. She said the IMF should strengthen surveillance over the soundness of economic policies of countries whose currencies are used as major instruments in other countries' foreign exchange reserves. She was clearly referring to the US, whose low savings rate, and fiscal and trade deficits are agreed to be a key cause for global economic imbalances. Hu also called attention to what is seen as a rising protectionist sentiment, which has been causing troubles for China's exporters. "We call on all countries to harness the opportunities created by globalization... and resolutely oppose protectionism," she said.

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