Chinese President Jiang Zemin paid a visit to North Korea from September 3 to 5 as scheduled. The top leader’s visit to the neighbor will create a great impetus to bilateral relations, peace and stability on the Korean peninsular and prosperity and development of the two countries, says the Chinese newspaper People's Daily in a commentary.

Chinese premier Zhu Rongji is on his European trip. His visit to Ireland, the first stop of his tour, is the first by a Chinese head of government since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in 1979. Thursday the premier attended the Fourth Summit Meeting between China and the European Union(EU) held in Brussels, Belgium. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the smooth progress for China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) during the meeting. During his Russia tour, Zhu and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov exchanged views at the sixth regular China-Russia prime minister meeting in St. Petersburg and they signed agreements in the Mariinskiy Palace on Saturday.

China’s top legislator Li Peng pays a visit to Vietnam from September 7 to 10 and held talks with Vietnamese Party Chief Nong Duc Manh. In Hanoi last Friday Li told his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Van An that China's National People's Congress (NPC) will enhance exchanges with the Vietnamese National Assembly and China will also strengthen cooperation with Vietnam.

Military dialogue between China and the US frozen after the collision will be resumed during September 13-14 according to an announcement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao. The two countries will also talk about US plans for a missile defence system (NMD), which China opposed.

The US government decided to take sanctions from September 1 against a Chinese Campany under the pretext of the claimed export of missile-related items to Pakistan. The Chinese side expressed strong indignation at and resolute opposition to the United States's hegemonic act of willfully taking sanctions against other countries according to its own domestic laws.

Richard Rossi, a veteran American pilot of the Flying Tigers Fleet, said Wednesday at the opening ceremony of a symposium marking the 60th anniversary of American volunteer pilots' fight against Japanese invaders during the Second World War that he hoped younger people can remember history and the friendship between China and America.

The Flying Tigers Fleet is formed in 1941 by a group of American pilots to transport arms and other materials, and carry out air raids to support China against Japanese invaders. Some of them were killed in the war.

The South Korean government said on Thursday it had proposed four days of ministerial level talks with the DPRK later this month in Seoul. The proposal followed a DPRK's offer this week to end a six-month freeze on government-to-government contacts. South Korea said the talks could be from September 15-18.

The UN racism conference in Durban, South Africa, descended into chaos and recrimination. The United States and Israel walked out, demanding that language branding Israel as a racist and apartheid state be removed from documents. The EU and Canada considered following suit, but relented.

( China.org.cn by Xiao Wei 09/09/2001)