China Accedes to International Convention on Protecting New Plant Species
At the official ceremony held in Geneva by OUPV on March 23, 1999, Chinese Deleg ation submitted its letter on joining the International Convention on Protecting New Plant Species (78' version) to OUPV and became the 39th member of the Organ ization.
It is briefed that the International Convention on Protecting New Plant Species is an important international agreement aiming at protecting the interests of br eeders. It, through coordinating laws or policies in the field of protecting n ew plant species among different nations, ensures the realization of legitimate rights of breeders. It has constituted a framework for international research a nd development in new varieties, technology transfer, cooperation and new produc ts trading. The country who joins in the convention is the natural member of OU PV. China's protection targets are the plant new varieties cultivated artificia lly or domesticated from wild plants with the features of novelty, specificity, consistency, stability and appropriate naming. In March 1997, China's State Council published "Regulations on Protecting New Plant Varieties"and in August 1998 the fourth plenary meeting of the Standing Committee of 9th National People' s Congress made the decision on joining in International Convention on Protecti ng New Plant Species (78' version). While submitting its joining letter to OUPV , Chinese Delegation has also provided China's first protection list for new pla ntsincluding rice, corn, Chinese cabbage, potato, purple al-A rare plant for special tea protected.
falfa, pasture early grass, Chinese white poplar, paulownia, China fir, category of lily magnolia, peony , plum, categories of rose and chrysanthemum, spring cymbidium, categories of ca mellia and China pink. Being the authorities in charge of examination and appro val of new plant varieties in the country, Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and State Forestry Administration will jointly handle the applications and examinat ions of new plant varieties in accordance with their respective terms of referen ces and grant new plant variety certificates to those who are qualified.
Implementation of China's Agenda 21 Action Plan for Agriculture
China has defined its sustainable development of agriculture in t he 21st century as:"maintain the steady growth of agricultural production, ens ure food safety, develop rural economy, increase farmers' income, change poverty and backwardness of rural areas, protect and improve agricultural ecological en vironment, utilize natural resources, especially ecological resources and renewa ble resources in a rational and sustainable manner so as to meet increasing dema nds of national economy, social development and people's life." Mr. Lu Ming, Vice Minister of Agriculture said at the news briefings on China's Agenda 21 Acti on Plan for Agriculture that the action plan is an important basis for formulati ng relevant agricultural and rural development plans, policies and agricultural S&T policies by both central and local authorities and it will be used to guide the near, medium and long term agricultural development in the country.
Mr. Lu briefed that according to the action plan, the basic contents of China's sustainable agricultural development are: coordinate the relationship between ag ricultural development and population, environment and resources on a rational b asis, continuously improve integrated production capacity of agriculture; enhanc e stimulus for agricultural development, develop rural economy, ensure the coord inated development between agriculture and entire national economy and gradually narrow down the gap between workers and peasants and the one between urban and rural areas.
The action plan has 20 chapters covering 36 fields including concepts and approa ches of agricultural sustainable development; major areas of agricultural sustai nable development and proposed restructuring, investment enhancement and improve ment, protection and rational utilization of resources, promoting local developm ent and poverty alleviation, strengthening research and education of agricultura l sustainable development, promoting the involvement of society and internationa l cooperation and major measures for realizing agricultural sustainable developm ent.
Chinese Scientists Discovered New Crystal Matter
Dr. Zhang Xiangyi of China Yanshan University has not long ago discovered a crys tal matter named copper rich phase in nanometer magnetic materials. Internation al authoritative organization has recently confirmed the first discovery of the new crystal matter.
Days ago International X Ray Diffraction Data Center, an authoritative organizat ion in assessing crystal matters told Dr. Zhang in its letter to him that the x- ray diffraction data on copper rich phase submitted by him has been made into an international standard card of powder diffraction. This indicates that the data provided by Dr. Zhang has become an international standard and important evide nce for future assessment of similar matters.
China's Desert Greening Efforts Saw Progress
Project of Talimu Basin Resources Development and Ecological Envi ronmental Prote ction has recently been placed on Priority Lists of China's Agenda 21.
Major endeavor of the project is establish an artificial oasis and artificial ec ological experimental zone in Talimu Basin. Its development is inseparable from the wonder created by Talimu Oil Field.
Since its foundation a decade ago, Talimu Oil Exploitation and Development Headq uarters have invested Rmb 10 million and more on a cumulative basis to carry out both scientific experiments on green biological prevention of desertification a nd oil field sand break green projects and have achieved major progress in the s tudies of desert artificial ecology, oasis and sand breaks.
Up to the date, they have grown more than 60,000 trees and brushes suitable for deserts and constructed a green land of 10.6 hectares and sapling breeding base of 1 hectare. Each year the base may turn out 500,000 tree saplings. They al so successfully grew tomatoes and cucumbers in the desert and demonstrated life light in the sea of death.
Genes Suppressing Tumor Blood Vessel Growth Discovered
It is disclosed by the Department of Logistics, Chinese Navy Forces that 12 adva nced cancer patients have shown remarkable cancer suppression effects after taki ng a kind of medical oral liquid at a navy hospital. It only took one period o f treatment for a 72-year-old advanced liver cancer patient to see his tumor sh rink by 16mm in diameter with carcinoembryonic antigen restored to normal; anoth er 64-year-old liver cancer patient had his tumor shrunk by 10 mm after two peri ods of treatment with remarkable reduced icterus index. The transgenetic oral li quid containing esoderma anthormon genes is developed by the team headed by Prof . Xu Genxing with Naval Higher School of Medical Sciences.
In 1995 Prof. Xu discovered in his experiments that there was a human gene able to suppress the abnormal growth of esoderma cells of blood vessels and he immed iately realized that if the gene was able to suppress the growth of cancer cells , it would become a major discovery in addressing cancer treatment. In this con text, he started from cloning the gene from human liver gene banks. His experim ents on more than 300 animals and chicken embryos have proved his supposition th at such gene is able to gradually make the tumor retreat to the original dormant state through suppressing the growth of cancer blood vessels, making blood capi llary shrink, cutting off the nutrition supply to the tumor and eventually resul ting in death of cancer cells.
Many experiments and clinic testing have shown that cancer treatment with geneti c techniques not only brings no harm to normal cells in human body and toxicant by-effects but is also simple, economic and of less pains. As shown by the re trieval results, Prof. Xu's discovery is the first of its kind in the world. I n September 1997, Prof. Xu has applied for national patent right on invention an d passed preliminary examination. On March 1998, the Chinese State Patent Admin istration announced the invention both at home and abroad.
Prof. Xu has introduced the gene into the only physiological bacillus that does not produce internal or external mycin and produced transgenetic oral liquid. Clinic testing has shown no toxicant or side effects. With the approval of auth orities concerned, the drug was put into clinic testing at a navy hospital.
In March 1998, Prof. Xu started pre-clinic study of the medicine in collaborat ion with Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. of Nanjing University, working on direct introd uction of the gene into the cancer and more direct, efficient and faster means o f elimination of cancer.
Gas Erosion Solved
As the result of his 14-year hard working, Mr. Li Shusheng, General Manager of
Beijing Condensed Water Dynamic Technology Co. Ltd. has finally realized the re covery of condensed water in a sealed high temperature environment with his cond ensed water recovery device. His achievement has eventually solved the socalled pump cancer, a kind of gas erosion that has trouble the world for more than a c entury. Before the new year's eve, the technical innovation was proved to be a success at Beijing No. 1 Rubber Factory. Being highly praised by International E nvironment Development Organization, the result has been listed as a demonstrati on project of EMC's energy efficiency program. With the support of GEF and Worl d Bank, the duplication assembly line will be created so as to address funds sho rtage of users.
Gas erosion of water pump is serious damaging effects caused by breaking the gas bubbles formed in high temperature condensed water with the attacking frequency of water flow particle reaching 20,000 to 30,000 times per minute and air press ure several dozens or even several hundred Mpa, huge attacking force and oxygen erosions. These erosions may damage the pump's fans shortly. In the meanwhi le, condensed water carries away 20% of the heat from the steam and exhausts it into the air, which cause the waste of both water resources and thermal energy, thermal and noise pollution to the environment, increase the costs of water soft ening and shorten the life of boilers. The unchecked process also increases the coal consumption and causes more emission of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide and other pollutants.
Mr. Li bravely proposed concentrated water flow, high and low pressure tube line s, condensed water system and dyoxygen system. The concentrated water flow syst em he developed is of 1.2 to 1.5 times efficiency higher than that of the old ones. Since the actual condensed water flow is close to the designed one, the floati ng ball becomes a free one under normal working condition. As a result, the life could be prolonged for 5 to 10 times even though the investment is reduced by 60%. His condensed water recovery device is of the features such as self cleaning, automatic pressure readjustment, erosion removing, optimized water flow and automatic control, which has not only ensure normal water pressure suff icient for erosion removing but also ensure no oxygen erosion within the equipment and pipes; the low level medium pressure thermal oxygen remover is the best supporting facility for transforming multiple level coal burning boiler in to a single layer arrangement. It has many merits such as integrated design, lo w ground installation costs and closed automatic oxygen removing system that wou ld greatly reduce internal consumption of steam.
Fifth Media Appeared in China
The socalled Tiancai TV Multi Media Data Broadcasting System jointly developed b y Tianjin Cable TV Station and Tianjin Tiandatiancai Co. Ltd. was put into opera tion on March 28 on Tianjin Cable TV network who possesses a million of subscrib ers. This earmarked the first appearance of a completely new information media in the country.
It is briefed that the system , established on the existing cable TV network, ha s made receiving huge multi media information flow in a fast and efficient manne r possible by taken full advantage of wide frequency bands resources available w ithout huge investment in infrastructure construction. In China, cable TV subsc ribers have outnumbered telephone subscribers with lower subscription rating of cable TV than that of telecommunication. As a result, it will be more feasible to transform the current cable TV network into an information highway tailored to Chinese own situation. In the meanwhile, the system has solved practical pro blems of small information volume in Chinese on the current Internet through inf ormation transmission in Chinese and making people easier to acquire information through the network.
Experts pointed out that if mass media are rated in time sequence, newspaper, au dio broadcasting, TV and Internet may land in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th places resp ectively. In that context, TV multi media data broadcasting could find its posit ion in the fifth with many advantages such as large information flow to the exis ting large subscriber population without worry about network traffic jam and low er costs for both terminals and subscription fees.
