• New Report Shows "Sprinkles" are Working to Prevent and Treat Childhood Nutrition Epidemic

Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao told visiting Ghanaian Foreign Minister James Victor Gbeho on 27th January.
The national archives work conference and the meeting for giving commendation to the advanced opened in Beijing on 7th December. Hu Jintao met the participating delegates and made an improvised speech. Nearly 400 representatives from archives departments attended the meeting.
Hu Jintao, Li Lanqing, Qian Qichen, and Wan Li expressed condolences to relatives of Yao Zhongming, former Chinese ambassador to Burma and Indonesia and vice-minister of culture, who died of illness in Beijing on 26th December 1999, aged 85.
A ceremony was held at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing today to present awards to winners of the Guo Moruo Prizes in History. Li Tieying, member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee and president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, presented the prizes to the winners.
When inspecting Hubei, Li Tieying, Politburo member and president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that propaganda and ideological fronts should implement Jiang Zemin's instruction on propaganda and ideological work and spiritual civilization, saying that economic development and spiritual civilization were indispensable to each other.
Li emphasized the need to raise the level of urbanization, as with a low level of urbanization domestic demand could not be expanded. Intensifying construction of small cities and towns and accelerating progress in urbanization were the needs of both economic and social development, he said. He also set demands on the construction and development of local academies of social sciences.
"The Earth Science and Sustained Development," a book series on natural science was recently published by the China Science and Technology Publishing House. Li Tieying, member of the CCP Central Committee Political Bureau, attended the launch ceremony.
State Councillor Luo Gan visited policemen and public security officials and bereaved families in Beijing on 27th January.
At the Public Security Sub-bureau of the Xincheng District, Luo highly praised the hard work of police officers in the past year and their excellent job in protecting Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Communist Party and central government headquarters.
Luo brought flowers, baskets of fruits and other New Year presents to the family of Shen Jizhu, a police officer at Chongwen Sub-bureau who was killed while arresting a criminal.
Luo Gan, state councillor, and secretary of the Central Commission of Political Science and Law, came to Yunnan to attend the national conference of directors of public security departments and bureaus held in Kunming. He inspected Kunming and Lijiang from 7 to 8th January.
He inspected the Compulsory Detoxification Centre of Kunming City, and the Xian Street Police Substation of Lijiang County. After that, he went to the home of He Weidong, former deputy director of the Lijiang County Judicial Bureau, who had sacrificed his life to put out the Yulong Xueshan forest fire.
Vice-Premier Qian Qichen attended a Spring Festival party at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on 1st February for counsellors of the State Council and staff of the Central Research Institute of Culture and History. celebrated the festival together with new and old counsellors and veteran staff of the institute.
Qian Qichen said the history of counsellors' work showed that their role was indispensable. He handed letters of appointment to Qi Gong, the newly appointed director of the Central Research Institute of Culture and History; Yuan Xingpei, the newly appointed deputy director; and Huo Da, a newly hired member of the institute.
On 22nd January, Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen sent a message to Jiang Enzhu, director of Liaison Office of the central people's government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, asking Jiang to relay his condolences on the death of He Yingjie, founder of the Hong Kong Tobacco Company.
Qian Qichen, member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee and vice-premier of the State Council, delivered a report on China's current situation at the fifth plenary session of the Fifth National Committee of the China Association for Science and Technology in Beijing on 25th January. In the report, Qian Qichen urged all scientific and technological workers to shoulder the task of developing science and technology to revitalize China.
Vice-Premier Qian Qichen met Walter Kwok Ping-Sheung, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Sun Hong Kai Group on 25th January. Qian praised his family's support to the mainland's economic construction and education over the years.
Vietnamese ambassador to China Bui Hong Phuc held a reception in Beijing on 17th January to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-Vietnamese diplomatic relations. Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen attended the reception.
Ground was broken on 26th January for the new headquarters of the International Network of Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), the first international, non-profit, inter-governmental organization to be based in China. Vice-Premier Qian Qichen, INBAR Board Chairperson Gordon Smith and Co-Chairperson Jiang Zehui, who is also president of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, attended the ceremony.
Jointly initiated by the Chinese and Canadian governments, INBAR was officially established in Beijing on 6th November 1997, and has 21 member countries from Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America.
China has agreed to granting financial support to INBAR for its first five years and to pay for its custom-designed offices.
The United Front Work Department of the CCP Central Committee and other organizations held a tea party at Beijing's Great Hall of the People on 27th January to celebrate the arrival of spring. NPC Vice-Chairmen Buhe and Tomur Dawamat as well as State Councillor Ismail Amat attended the tea party. Tomur Dawamat called on ethnic cadres across the country to do a better job to safeguard ethnic unity and social stability and help carry out the building of material and spiritual civilization.
State Councillor Ismail Amat went to the old revolutionary base area in Beijing suburbs on 27th January to visit people living in difficulties. He stressed the need for the governments and civil affairs departments to make adequate arrangements for the daily life of people living with government subsidies, natural disaster victims, and people living in poverty to ensure they have a harmonious, pleasant Spring Festival. Minister of Civil Affairs Doje Cering accompanied Ismail Amat on his tour.
Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings on 12th January spoke highly of the Ghana-China relationship while meeting with a visiting Chinese government delegation led by State Councillor Wu Yi. During the meeting at the Presidential Palace here, Rawlings expressed his government's gratitude to the Chinese government and people for their kind assistance to Ghana.
According to figures provided by the Chinese embassy in Accra, the volume of bilateral trade amounted to 120m US dollars in 1998. So far China has invested in 78 projects in Ghana, which makes China the number two investor in terms of the number of investment projects in this country.
During his meeting with visiting Chinese State Councillor Wu Yi in Lome on 15th January, Togo President Gnassingbe Eyadema pledged to strengthen unity and cooperation with China. Wu Yi relayed President Jiang Zemin's regards to him and thanked the Togo government for its unwavering support on the question of China's reunification. She also held talks with Togolese Prime Minister Eugene Koffi Adoboli the same day.
Botswana President Festus Mogae has praised China's disinterested assistance to Botswana in defending state sovereignty and economic and social development. Meeting visiting Chinese State Councillor Wu Yi at the presidential office on 20th January, the president said Botswana is very proud of having a great friend, China.
Wu Yi said China thanks Botswana for its upholding "one China" policy.
A national industrial and commercial administrative work conference was held in Beijing on 16th December today. Wu Yi, alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee and state councillor, attended and delivered a speech at the conference, urging the industrial and commercial administrative organs to adhere to economic construction as the centre; improve and enhance market supervision and management and administrative enforcement of the law; and work hard to serve and promote economic development.
On 2nd February, Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao visited the State Oceanic Administration, where he telephoned New Year's greetings, via a telecommunication satellite, to Chinese scientists working in the Antarctic.
The vice-premier asked the scientists to strengthen their research, improve the infrastructure of the Chinese expedition vessel Snow Dragon, and two stations, Changcheng and Zhongshan, and pay more attention to protecting the environment in the polar area.
Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao on 26th January met a group of US guests led by Prof Michael McElroy, chairman of the Harvard University Committee on Environment, on 26th January.
McElroy and his party are attending the Sino-US Research Workshop on Economy, Energy and Environment at the invitation of Qinghua University.
A ceremony was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 17th January to mark the publication of the fourth volume of a book on China's outstanding entrepreneurs. Wu Bangguo, member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee and vice-premier of the State Council, wrote the book name while Wang Zhaoguo, vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee and director of the United Front Work Department of the CCP Central Committee, wrote the preface.
A national conference on supervision and management of pharmaceuticals was held in Beijing on 18th January. Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo sent a letter to the conference calling for reforming the pharmaceuticals supervision and management system and building a strong contingent of supervision and management personnel for pharmaceuticals.
Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo delivered a written speech to a recent national conference on textile work, urging the textile industry to comprehensively implement the spirit of the 15th CCP National Congress and the fourth plenary session of the 15th CCP Central Committee and make great efforts to improve textile qualities and increase export to make China a strong textile country.
The Ministry of Justice held a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on 18th January to present certificates of notary public to 41 Hong Kong lawyers. Vice-Premier Qian Qichen and State Councillor Luo Gan received the notaries public. In his speech, Qian Qichen spoke highly of the important role of notaries public under "one country, two systems."
Qian Qichen, vice-premier of the State Council, was appointed officially on 5th January as dean of the International Relations Institute at Beijing University. Qian Qichen inspected the institute, held a forum with some lecturers, and gave a report on economic globalization, unipolarization, and diversification.
Wei Jianxing, member of the CCP Central Committee Political Bureau Standing Committee, member of the CCP Central Committee Secretariat, and president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, watched a modern Beijing opera, "Premier Zhou Enlai and the People of Daqing," in Beijing on 8th January. The opera depicts the late Premier Zhou Enlai's visits to Daqing Oil Field. Wei Jianxing went up the stage to shake hands and take photos with the artists and crew at the end of the performance.
The remains of Jiang Hua, former CCP Central Committee Advisory Commission standing member and Supreme People's Court president, were cremated on 30th December 1999 in Hangzhou. He died on 24th December 1999 at the age of 93
Acting on behalf of the CCP Central Committee, Politburo standing member and Secretariat Secretary Wei Jianxing and Politburo member and Secretariat Secretary Luo Gan flew to Hangzhou today to see Comrade Jiang Hua off.
While Jiang Hua was ill and after his passing, many leaders visited him in the hospital or expressed regrets upon his death. The list included Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, Li Ruihuan, Hu Jintao, Li Lanqing, Ding Guangen, Tian Jiyun, Li Changchun, Li Tieying, Wu Bangguo, Wu Guanzheng, Chi Haotian, Zhang Wannian, Jiang Chunyun, Jia Qinglin, Qian Qichen, Wu Yi, Qiao Shi, Song Ping, Liu Huaqing, Rong Yiren, Bo Yibo, Song Renqiong, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, Yang Baibing, and many others
Wei Jianxing, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) said in Tangshan on 18th January that China's trade unions should help poor workers live a better life. Tangshan in 1976 suffered a devastating earthquake which claimed 240,000 lives. Wei also observed the city's re-employment centres, training centres for laid-off workers and recreation centres for the retirees.
On 4th January, Beijing held various activities to mark the 100th birthdays of late Beijing opera masters Xun Huisheng and Shang Xiaoyun. Li Ruihuan, member of the Standing Committee of the CCP Central Committee Political Bureau and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, wrote inscriptions for the occasion.
With the CMC's approval, the four general departments of the People's Liberation Army recently issued an order to commend seven scientific and technological personnel who are working at the PLA's logistical front for their key contributions to development of the army's specialized technology. Wang Ke, CMC member and director of the General Logistics Department, and Zhou Kunren, political commissar of the General Logistics Department, presented certificates, commemorative medals, and cash to the award recipients.
The China Institute for International Strategic Studies held a ceremony on 23rd December to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its establishment. Fu Quanyou, CMC member and PLA chief of General Staff, attended and spoke at the ceremony. The Institute's President Xiong Guangkai presided over the ceremony.
PLA General Staff Department recently commended 10 advanced units and 100 individuals for their contributions to strengthening the army's comprehensive development. Fu Quanyou, CMC member and chief of general staff, and Guo Boxiong, CMC member and executive deputy chief of general staff presented awards to the heroic models.
Fu Quanyou, chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), met Demostenes Amos Chilingutila, deputy minister of defence of Angola, in Beijing on 24th January. Fu expressed his thanks for the Angolan government's support of China on human rights and Taiwan.
Chilingutila said that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory and that Angola supports China's full reunification.
A ceremony was held in Beijing on 21st January to commend outstanding health care personnel for military cadres. Zhang Wannian, member of the Political Bureau and member of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee and vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission; and Fu Quanyou, Yu Yongbo, Wang Ke, Cao Gangchuan, and Guo Boxiong, members of the Central Military Commission, attended the ceremony.
Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Mong-ku on 27th January met Chinese Vice-Premier Li Lanqing here to discuss construction of a Hyundai car factory producing up to 300,000 vehicles per year. The meeting followed a ceremony earlier in the day at the National People's Congress to sign an agreement on the launch of a joint auto venture between Hyundai and a Chinese firm.
Hyundai Motor President Yi Kye-an and Kia Motor President Kim Su-chung also attended the Chung-Li meeting.
(c) The British Broadcasting Corporation 09/02/2000. All Rights Reserved. No material may be reproduced except with the express permission of The British Broadcasting Corporation.
Document bbcfe00020010804dw2900hts
HOUSTON

Millennium milestones /A past cluttered with events important and trivial bring us to 2000

STEPHEN MIHM

New York Times

2,503 words

1 January 2000

Houston Chronicle

HOU

2 STAR

10

English

© 2000 Houston Chronicle. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
By the year 1000, homeowners throughout the world enjoyed a remarkable range of creature comforts: coal stoves in China; crystal tableware in Baghdad; libraries in Ghana. All in all, it wasn't a bad time to be alive - unless, of course, you lived in Europe.
Peasants there dwelt in filthy one-room hovels heated by an open fire. The family, along with the goat, huddled on a single vermin- infested straw mat. Not that kings and queens in gloomy castles had it much better. Privacy was nonexistent, and the nobility, one historian has written, "didn't so much live in their houses as camp in them." They spent most of their time on the road, visiting far- flung estates. Tellingly, the French and Italian words for furniture at this time - mobilier and mobilia - meant "movables." It would be awhile before Europeans settled down.
1005: TWO-TINING. Mothers-in-law everywhere quarrel with their sons' wives. But imagine the consternation of the august Venetian lady whose daughter-in-law, a snooty Byzantine princess, refused to eat with her fingers like the rest of the family. She preferred a "golden instrument with two prongs." Her highness died soon thereafter - divine retribution for using a fork.
1066: SAFE, YES; SYBARITIC, HARDLY. Home security, of sorts, was introduced in England by invading Normans. Donjons, their heavily fortified castle towers, offered protection but no comforts.
C. 1110: TWO RMS, DESERT VIEW. Pueblo Bonito, built by the Anasazi of Chaco Canyon, is an apartment complex, which eventually encompassed 800 rooms capable of housing 1,000 people. Its size as a multitenant building was not surpassed until 1882.
1165: PLUMBING FIRST, PLUMBERS LATER. A monastery in Canterbury, England, enjoys a labyrinth of indoor plumbing: pipes, aqueducts, cisterns, reservoirs and a main water tower. But regular bathing remains a curiosity.
1180: LET THERE BE LIGHT. English homeowners finally rediscover the windowpane, although the Romans had used glass for windows as far back as 14 B.C. Most homes, however, continue to rely on crude wooden shutters and oiled parchment.
C. 1200: ENTER SANTA. Residential chimneys become common in Europe. Previously, homeowners had built fires in the middle of the floor and cut a hole in the roof to let out smoke and cinders.
1212: FIDDLING WITH THE ROOF. Heavy-duty, low-maintenance tiles replace thatched and wooden roofs in London. Housing becomes more permanent and durable, but repairs are a headache.
C. 1240: BEDS OF STATE. Henry III of England commissions the first king-size bed, a four poster with a painted canopy, which soon becomes an emblem of nobility throughout Europe.
1255: EARLY WALL-TO-WALL CARPETING. Eleanor of Castile marries King Edward I of England and begins redecorating, unappreciated, in the colorful, comfortable Moorish style. "Even the floor was covered with tapestry," an observer noted. "This excessive pride excited the laughter and derision of the people."
1259: CLEANLINESS, SORT OF. Soap, a common household item in the Islamic world, is finally manufactured in London. It takes centuries to catch on, as frequent bathing is considered unhealthy (which accounts for the popularity of asphyxiating perfumes). As late as the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I would be considered eccentric for her "frequent" - that is, monthly - baths.
1300: VANITY. Glass blowers in Venice craft the first mirrors. Though they cast blurred and distorted images, mirrors gradually became indispensable in the civilized home, culminating centuries later in magazines like Self and US.
1492: SWING LOW. Columbus discovers the New World and, more important, the hammock, a hanging bed used by Caribbean Indians. Adopted aboard Spanish ships, it eventually found a home on the American porch. In time, it begat that instrument of cordial courtship, the porch swing.
1509: ART BY THE YARD. An artisan makes the first wallpaper - literally, tacky tapestries - for use at the master's lodging, Christ College, Cambridge.
C. 1510: A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP. A French upholsterer devises an improvement to the mattresses of the first half of the millennium, which consisted of little more than straw, leaves, pine needles and a convention of bedbugs. His solution is inflatable: the "wind bed," an early air mattress.
1519: GLITZ. Cortes conquers the Aztecs and loots their palaces. The conquistadors ship home tons of gold, kicking off a craze for gilt furniture, walls and fixtures unsurpassed until Liberace.
1581: COORDINATING. Queen Elizabeth orders one of the first matching sets of furniture: 19 chairs, six high stools, 24 square stools and 11 footstools, upholstered in the same material.
1590s: EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE. At last, decent storage: The chest of drawers appears in Italy.
1596: ROYAL FLUSH. Sir John Harington, godson of Elizabeth, installs "a privy in perfection" for the queen that features a primitive flush toilet. He later falls out of favor after publishing details of her water closet in the poem Metamorphosis of Ajax (the title punning on "a jakes"). It fails to replace the chamber pot.
1660s: BAD POSTURE. The invention of the back stool heralds a new desire for comfort among the hoi polloi, who until now have sat on benches and stools. It later will morph into the side chair.
1687: ROOM WITH A VIEW. Bernard Perrot of Orleans, France, patents a means of rolling plate glass, spurring the production of full-size windows. The relationship between the inside and the outside of the home is forever changed.
C. 1730: SHADE. African slaves arriving in the Southern United States build houses fitted with porches. Slave owners and others quickly adopt the sun-deflecting design to their own homes.
1763: BREAK OUT THE DISHES. Josiah Wedgwood patents his trademark earthenware. It soon becomes the standard domestic pottery in England and abroad.
1777: HEAT GETS INTERACTIVE. Bonnemain, a French architect, installs one of the first central heating systems since Roman times at Chateau de Pecq, with a primitive thermostat to control the flow of air to the boiler.
1792: READING AFTER DARK. William Murdock in Cornwall, England, lights his home using coal gas. The first gas utility is formed in 1817; by midcentury, most cities had abandoned oil lamps and candles for the unnatural but vastly superior gaslight.
1799: BEHIND THE EARS. Elizabeth Drinker of Philadelphia writes of the family's innovative "shower bath," noting "I bore it better than expected, not having been wett all over att once, for 28 years past." Regular showers remained a novelty until the mid-1800s.
1804: COMMON CHARGES. The French Civil Code grants a person the right to own a building or part of a building on land that he or she does not own: the legal foundation of condominium ownership.
1820s: ALUMINUM CHIC. A craze develops among nobles for aluminum plates and cutlery. Until chemists discovered how to produce aluminum cheaply and efficiently, it was the must-have metal, selling for $600 a pound (more expensive than gold).
1830: NO WORK FOR SHEEP. Edwin Beard Budding invents the lawnmower. Americans, especially, become obsessed with lawns, and by 1870, the detached home with a manicured yard is desirable, thanks to the proselytizing of landscape architects. Nature becomes something to contemplate, not fear. And children's allowances are never the same again.
1831: DOMESTIC DEBT. The first building and