The Belt and Road Initiative can become an "experimental field" for China and Japan to achieve mutually beneficial cooperation and common development, Beijing said on Tuesday. The Foreign Ministry's remark was made after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a speech on Monday that Tokyo is ready to work with Beijing on the initiative, with conditions. Conditions proposed by Abe include "harmony with a free and fair Trans-Pacific economic zone".He also said it is "critical for infrastructure to be open to use by all and to be developed through procurement that is transparent and fair", Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported. In response, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday that Beijing had taken notice of Abe's remarks. Japan is welcome to talk with China about introducing cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, Hua said. "We also hope that the Japanese can translate its will of improving bilateral ties into tangible actions," she added. Naoya Yoshino, deputy editor of Japan's Nikkei Business Daily newspaper, commented in an article on Tuesday that Abe's "conditional" support "tells Beijing that Tokyo is ready to work toward warmer bilateral ties". Lyu Yaodong, a Japanese diplomacy researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that Tokyo is "adapting itself to the evolving trend" of win-win cooperation as it tones down its negative stance toward the initiative. "What China has proposed lives up to the interests of regional stakeholders, and it (the initiative) has won recognition by the international community, a fact that offers no excuse for Tokyo to continue defying it," Lyu said. [email protected]wristband comcustom silicone wristbands ukchildren in need wristbandcool wristbandsflash drive wristbandcustom wristbands no minimumwristbands online
Members of a voluntary rescue team in Shanghai's Zhujiajiao town patrol its waterways on charge boats. [CHINA DAILY] Pedestrians and cyclists in a busy riverside town outside of Shanghai can move about with more peace of mind thanks to the efforts of a highly trained rescue team. For over a decade, the team's patrols have helped prevent accidents, especially along the Dianpu River in Zhujiajiao - a town with a history of more than 1,700 years in suburban Qingpu district. Members perform various tasks, including fighting fires, emergency water rescues, and flood prevention and typhoon preparedness, according to Chen Chunhao, director of the Zhujiajiao's conscription office, which oversees the team. The team has several dozen members, he said. Half are ex-military and the rest are college graduates under 25. All are unpaid but receive free training, and were selected through exams and stamina tests. The group is officially classed as a militia, which still operate nationwide under guidance from local authorities. They play a part in protecting national security and respond to emergencies that threaten social stability. However, such groups are only armed during training with the military. We undertake more diversified duties - mainly covering the propagation of national defense knowledge and performing daily guard duty along the river - in addition to our basic security work, said Li Linjie, the team leader. For example, we rescued a 22-year-old woman who attempted to drown herself in the river in September. In January, the team also cleared heavy snow from the streets and laid skid-resistant straw mats to protect vehicles and pedestrians. On an average day, Zhujiajiao receives more than 40,000 tourists keen to take in the town's history and watery vistas, and accidents sometimes occur with children and the elderly trying to negotiate the river's slippery banks. We're ready for every mission, Li said. Every member also speaks a second language, to help foreign tourists in town. According to its members, the team's track record of success is due to its disciplined military-style management. A full set of equipment is available to us, including rescue and patrol boats, inflatable rafts, motorcycles and firefighting tools, said Yuan Heqiang, another team leader. Members undergo regular military training and physical conditioning, as well as study water-rescue and firefighting techniques. We even began using drones last year to quicken our emergency response time, Yuan said. Experts from the Qingpu Lifesaving Association and the Qingpu Red Cross Association are regularly invited to teach the team the latest techniques in water rescue and first aid. The emergency response team has become a key guardian of peace and security in Zhujiajiao, said Colonel Li Huilin of the Qingpu district's conscription office. Over the past 11 years, the unit has coped with more than 30 major disasters and 500 crises, helping prevent property losses of more than 8 million yuan ($1.21 million), especially before and during weather emergencies. [email protected]
