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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION |
China-ASEAN Cooperation Strengthened
The “Action Plan for Promotion of China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership”, a five-year cooperation plan was recently rolled off in China, in an effort to deepen the cooperation and exchanges between China and ASEAN countries in numerous fields. Created under the China-ASEAN Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity, a document jointly signed by China and 10 ASEAM members on October 2003, the action plan outlines concrete goals, implementation steps and cooperation projects, making S&T cooperation an important field, in addition to other major thrusts for political and social affairs, security, and international and regional affairs.
Under the framework of China-ASEAN Joint Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation, China has, in collaboration with involving ASEAN organizations, staged workshops on biology, remote sensing, seismology, functional foods, oceanography and information technology, which creates platforms for enhancing communications and exchanges among scientists and engineers in China and ASEAN countries. Both parties are currently implementing the cooperation projects defined at the third meeting of the China-ASEAN Joint Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation.
The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology has paid great attention to exchanges between China and ASEAN countries. It sponsors each year for the developing nations more than 20 international training courses or workshops on applied technologies in different fields. A China-ASEAN S&T economic cooperation website (in Chinese) has opened up for trial operation. The Ministry will stage a China-ASEAN small and medium businesses’ technical innovation show at the China-ASEAN Fair in coming November in Nanning, Guangxi, in an attempt to lift China-ASEAN S&T cooperation to a higher level.
China-US High Level Forum on Agricultural Products
A China-US high level forum on agricultural produce processing, jointly sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the US Department of Agriculture, was opened July 20-21, 2004 in Los Angles. LI Xueyong, Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology, Joseph Jen, US Under Secretary of Agriculture, and some other 50 representatives from governmental agencies, research institutions, universities and industries of both nations attended the meeting. The two vice ministers delivered their keynote speeches at the forum, and ten experts from each side presented their reports on dedicated topics. The forum had an in-depth discussion of numerous interesting issues, including S&T development in the field of agricultural produce processing and related industrial cooperation, and reached consensus on many issues. The meeting has deepened the understanding and trust between the two nations’ scientific communities and industries, and laid a ground for further cooperation in the field.
In his keynote speech, LI Xueyong, Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology, introduced China’s agricultural produce processing industry, and talked about the future directions in which China will lend its S&T support to agricultural produce processing and associated industrialization. LI also raised three proposals, including strengthening the joint research and development of agricultural produce processing technology, the joint establishment of a China-US research center for agricultural produce processing, and establishing a related exchange mechanism between two nations.
3rd APEC Youth Science Festival
Under a theme of “science, youth and future”, the 3rd APEC Youth Science Festival was held August 3-9, 2004 in Beijing. 14 of APEC’s 21 members and China Macao ( in the capacity of APEC observer) had sent their delegations to attend the event. More than 1,200 domestic and overseas representatives were present at the gathering. As the first large APEC activity hosted by China under S&T and youth themes, the event also constitutes a large APEC episode held in China, since an APEC Summit meeting held in the same country in 2001.
As a cooperative project under the APEC framework, the APEC Youth Science Festival has become a largest and most influential comprehensive scientific education and popular science exchange event in Asian and Pacific regions. Korea and Singapore are the respective hosts of the festival’s preceding two sessions.
Under the joint sponsorship of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, China Association for Science and Technology, the Central Committee of the Youth League, and the Beijing Municipal Government, the festival creates varieties of activities, including mayor’s forum, popular science show, students’ forum and practice, scientists’ forum, teachers’ forum, S&T tour, and cultural exchanges. In an effort to bring together young people in Asian and Pacific regions via science, the Festival plays a positive role in enhancing friendship, promoting exchanges and cooperation, improving young people’s scientific and cultural awareness, and stimulating the sustainable development in the regions.
A popular science show, held at the same tine at the Beijing National Agriculture Exhibition Center, displayed popular science works and inventions, created by young people both from home and abroad, at some 200 counters over an area of 6,000m2.
China-US Tumor Tissue Bank
On July 22, 2004, a tumor tissue bank project was jointly launched the Tumor Hospital affiliated to the Tianjin Medical School, and American Association for Cancer Research. Expecting to collect 50,000 tumor specimens in 5 years, the bank will make its specimen resources available for both clinic and basic studies.
The bank, as a platform to collect and store tumor tissues accrued from operations and blood samples, provides rich information on tumor pathology and treatment effects. The Tumor Hospital under the Tianjin Medical School has already established a tumor tissue bank able to make a yearly collection of 3,700 specimens. The American Association for Cancer Research, a public good research institution, supports worldwide malignant tumor studies and international cooperation in the field.
China-Japan-Korea for Unified Specifications
A China-Japan-Korea ministerial meeting on telecommunication was held on July 26, 2004, in Sapporo, Japan. The government representatives from three nations have reached a consensus at the meeting on specification settings for future IC chips and household information appliances, and on the future joint development of those technologies. The event marks a substantive step in the direction of “unified Asian specifications” for information technology.
According to an agreement reached at the meeting, the three nations promise to use unified specifications for wireless data exchange IC chips in the new generation of networking technology. The three nations will join hands in research and development of related products. In addition, the government representatives present at the meeting promise to plan unified specifications for future household information appliances and 4th generation mobile phones.
China’s GM Corn
A research team, headed by Dr. ZHU Dengyun, the Institute of Biology, a part of China Agriculture University, has worked out genetically modified corn species with potato’s pollen genes. The efforts have resulted in an increased lysine and protein concentration in corns by 30% and 90% respectively, compared with regular corns. While working on a national research project for high protein and lysine hybrid corns and combinations, it takes 7 years for the team to have produced 10 new GM corn species, and have them grown over the experimental fields of the Bioengineering School, under Jinghua Technology College. The new GM species have produced a yield of 508.6 kg per mu for the YC combination, or 27.1% more than the control group named Danyu 13’s 400.7 kg per mu, also a high-yield species planted by the School. The new corn species records an 88-day growth period. The research team will continue to screen out a combination suitable for growing in the Jinhua area, using comparative experiments and mixing growing techniques.
The study team, using hybrid combinations of both GM self-bred lines and conventional self-bred lines, screened out 18 hybrid combinations of fine integrated properties, including YC, Y642 and Y419. Researchers told reporters that those GM corns constitute the world’s first instances of self-bred corn lines produced with genetic engineering techniques. So far researchers have completed the environmental release experiment, a part of the security assessment procedure. The high lysine and protein producing genes, and the GM techniques for producing high lysine and protein corn species, worked out by the study team, have applied for national invention patents.
Super-low Temperature Keeps Monkey’s Brain
Through more than a year’s concerted efforts, Prof. JIANG Jiyao at the Department of Neurosurgery, the Renji Hospital, an affiliate to the Shanghai No. 2 Medical School, and a study team headed by Prof. XU Wei, Division of Neurosurgery, No. 2 Hospital under the Kunming Medical School, have recently made a revival experiment on five monkeys, using a selective super deep low temperature technique (16℃). All the five monkey subjects have survived the experimental operation.
Researchers believe that the experiment has provided animal based experimental evidences for handling emergency patients suffering heart stop or acute brain blood shortage. The new technique also creates a promising perspective for performing brain operations in a bloodless manner. Researchers found that, the full-body super deep low temperature technique ( lower than 18℃) may also bring down the brain temperature to 18℃ or below. However, the full body application can easily cause damages to heart and lungs in the process of revival. The selective low temperature brain technique can avoid the possible damages caused by a full-body application to heart and lungs. Researchers also ascertain that the lower brain’s temperature, the better protection for brain cells.
China’s Progress in Stem Cell Study
On August 3, 2004, three major national research projects, undertaken by the Northwest S&T University for Agriculture and Forestry, and the Shan’xi Branch of the National Stem Cell Engineering Research Center, including “Construction of Human Pancreas Stem Cells”, “ Plasticity of Epidermis Stem Cells and its Applications in Corneal Transplanting”, and “Frozen Corneal Edge Stem Cell based Corneal Epidermis Construction and Associated Transplanting”, passed the verification checks organized by the Ministry of Education in Yangling, Shaan’xi Province.
“Construction of Human Pancreas Stem Cells”, a project undertaken by the study team headed by Prof. DOU Zhongying, a Chinese expert in stem cell engineering, has worked out the world’s first human embryo’s pancreas stem cells. The project “Frozen Corneal Edge Stem Cell based Corneal Epidermis Construction and Associated Transplanting” builds corneal epidermis tissue patches for transplanting, using frozen corneal edge stem cells and a cell cultivation system without feeding layer. The technique paves a new approach for treating corneal edge stem cell deficiency.
The project “Plasticity of Epidermis Stem Cells and its Applications in Corneal Transplanting”, works out corneal epidermis tissue patches for transplanting, using human amnia based epidermis stem cells. The technique is able to grow out the tissue structures similar to normal cornea.
Ancestral Echinoderms’ Fossil Found
A rare fossil named “ancient purse animal” was discovered in the Chengjiang deposits of China. The newly discovered fossil has been confirmed by scientists ancestral echinoderms, a representative animal in modern oceans. The finding, reported on July 22, 2004 in the journal Nature, marks a major breakthrough in the field.
Under a title of “ancestral echinoderms from the Chengjiang deposits of China”, Prof. SHU Degan, School of Earth Sciences and Resources, a part of China University of Geosciences in Beijing, and S.?CONWAY?MORRIS, from Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, who co-authored the study, reported a key breakthrough on the origin of echinoderms, a mystery long puzzled the academic world. More important is, combined with his many other important discoveries in the past, Prof. SHU has outlined a most complete evolution roadmap for deuterostomes, presenting a clear full picture for the crown of the large family tree of deuterostomes and proterostomia.
China’s Amazon Expedition
China’s Amazon Expedition, beginning on August 5, 2004 from Manaus, will travel westwards up along Amazon’s mainstreams, and make an all-round investigation into the river basin, said TAO Baoxiang, head of the expedition team, on August 4, 2004 in Manaus, Brazil.
According to a briefing, Chinese scientists will, in the 10-day journey, line up their investigations mainly long the upper reaches of the Amazon valley, studying vegetation diversity, the relationship between plants’ structures and environmental conditions, major vertebrate and fish resources and their distributions, major economic animals and their utilization, and local efforts in coordinating animal utilization and protection. Researchers will also analyze the relationship between the economic development and biodiversity and associated environmental protection, from an angle of China’s own situation, and some other subjects, including the Amazon valley’s water resources and basin management, the relationship between folk cultures and special animals’ protection, different folk cultures and their attitudes towards animals and plants, and the relationships between folks’ traditional habits and the protection, survival and reproduction of wild animals and plants in the valley.
The Chinese expedition team arrived in Manaus on August 1, 2004. During their stay in the city, Chinese researchers visited the Amazon National Research Institute and Amazon University, and exchanged their views with Brazilian botanists and scholars. They also made a field investigation in the tropical rain forests and secondary forests along the Amazon near Manaus.
Electronic Traditional Medicine Database
A multimedia database, containing precious ancient literatures on Chinese traditional medicines, has recently opened up for public access. The online ancient traditional medicine library has rescued and patched up together more than 1,100 invaluable Chinese traditional medicine literatures.
The initiative to rescue 1,100 ancient Chinese traditional medicine literatures, a prelude to the online database, was approved in 2001 by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology as an official project. Contracted to the China Institute of Traditional Medicines, the project has rescued 1,200 ancient Chinese traditional medicine literatures of high academic values, published in different dynasties, including 16 in the Song Dynasty, 50 in the Yuan Dynasty, 389 in the Ming Dynasty, and 1,045 in the Qing Dynasty. The database has meanwhile collected 146 ancient Chinese traditional medicine literatures that had disappeared in mainland China.
The multimedia database for precious ancient traditional medicine literatures, a product derived from the rescue project, has digitally processed 320 authentic precious traditional medicine works, and had some seriously damaged works repaired and restored. The database, using internationally recognized character system and XML format, together with accurate notes for the ancient literatures, has not only addressed technical requirements for sophisticated Chinese traditional medicinal terms and related characters, but also produced a module of full graphic and text applications. While facilitating search for ancient traditional medicine literatures, the database also makes readers feel the authenticity of those ancient literatures. The new database creates a platform for people taking full advantage of those ancient literatures’ value, as well as spreading them.
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