Chinese Foreign Policy: A Chronology April - June 2009 - Defence ...

trade.” He announced a 10 billion US dollar "China-ASEAN Fund on InvestmentCooperation" to support infrastructure development in the region. Wen also called on Asia topromote reform of the international financial system:"We should advance reform of the international financial system, increase therepresentation and voice of emerging markets and developing countries, strengthensurveillance of the macroeconomic policies of major reserve currency issuingeconomies, and develop a more diversified international monetary system."Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said that the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) failed to give alarm or diagnosis, let alone remedies when problemsoccurred in developed countries. Zhou made the comment at a panel discussion during theconference, saying that the IMF needs improvement in this respect.18 April 2009 Sanya - Wen Jiabao, at a meeting with Fredrick Chien, chief adviser ofTaiwan's Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation, called on the Chinese mainland andTaiwan to: "discard past enmity and face the future to tackle the financial crisis and seekcommon prosperity.” Chien told reporters after his longer-than-expected talks with Wen thathe came up with several proposals in his capacity as a Taiwanese citizen, not as arepresentative of Taiwan's government.19 April 2009 A Xinhua article describes the 42 nd escort provided by the Chinese Navy in theGulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, started on 16 April. It was the first escort taskcommanded by the second escort formation of the Chinese Navy. The 13 ships to beescorted were divided into two groups. The first group comprising the “Shenzhen” and thedestroyers “Wuhan” and “Haikou” formed an escort which accompanied nine merchantvessels - the "Mingzehu", "Carmen", "Anlihu", "Gangqiang", "Taixing", "Xijinuosi", "Friends ofthe Thunder God", "Tairong" and "Kangqiang" - that advanced in double files. In the secondgroup, the [frigate] "Huangshan" escorted four merchant vessels - "Fuyuxing", "Daming","Xique" and "Changhang Xingyun" - which arrived slightly late at the rendezvous point.During the three-day-long escort operation, the escort formation encountered 42 suspiciousboats in 16 batches. Among others, at 1816 on 17 April, not long after the first escortformation left the formation for a return voyage, six batches of 19 suspicious boats appearedaround the nine merchant vessels but the ship "Shenzhen" successfully drove them away.19 April 2009 Taizhou, Zhejiang - Li Keqiang, standing committee member of the PoliticalBureau of the CCP Central Committee and vice-premier of the State Council, attended theopening construction ceremony of the Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant and promoted nuclearpower. Li acknowledged that Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant was: “China's first project toincrease self-sufficiency in developing third-generation nuclear power plant.” The SanmenNuclear Power Plant is the biggest energy cooperation project between China and the UnitedStates so far. The Chinese and US governments signed a memorandum of understanding onmaking joint efforts to build an advanced pressurized water nuclear power project and relatedtechnical transfers in December 2006. The Plant will be constructed in three phases, with aninvestment of more than 40 billion yuan injected in the first phase. The first generating unitwill be finished in 2013. The AP1000 nuclear power generation units will use third-generationpressurized water reactor technology. On developing China’s nuclear power technology Lisuggested: “promote the improvement of imported technologies through digestion andabsorption.”20 April 2009 Wang Yiren, head of China's Atomic Energy Authority, told reporters at anuclear energy conference in Beijing: "China has never had any cooperation with the DPRKin nuclear energy development."Mohamed El Baradei, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General, openedthe nuclear energy conference in Beijing with the remark that:16