President Xi Jinping (L) is welcomed by his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev when attending the opening ceremony of the Expo 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan, June 9, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua] ASTANA - Chinese President Xi Jinping's ongoing visit to Kazakhstan has won growing support for the Belt and Road Initiative and a historic enlargement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Xi arrived here Wednesday for a state visit to Kazakhstan, the 17th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State and the opening ceremony of the Expo 2017 Astana. Speaking to reporters after the SCO annual summit on Friday, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Li Huilai said the fruitful results of the summit will help SCO member states to address threats and challenges, and are important for them to achieve development and revitalization. Upgrading Belt and Road building The Belt and Road Initiative, first proposed by Xi in 2013 in Kazakhstan, comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, with the aim of building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes. Four years later, when Xi returned to Astana, the initiative has developed from a proposal to actions, and from a concept to practice, generating business opportunities, new jobs and hopes for countries and peoples involved. The Chinese president and leaders attending the SCO summit have pledged to carry out extensive cooperation under the Belt and Road framework, further align their respective development strategies, pooling each other's resources and sharing economic and social benefits. In a press communique released after the summit, leaders of the SCO countries spoke highly of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held by China in Beijing on May 14 to 15, saying that they stand ready to jointly implement the forum's consensus. During a meeting with Spanish King Felipe VI on Friday, Xi said that China welcomes Spain's participation in the building of the Belt and Road Initiative, adding that they should make full use of the China-Europe freight train from the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu to the Spanish capital of Madrid. China and Tajikistan are also mulling more high-end, innovative and diversified cooperation within the Belt and Road Initiative. The expanding and evolving of the initiative demonstrated the openness and inclusiveness China has advocated, said Wang Yiwei, Director of Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China. The Belt and Road (Initiative) essentially answers the call of the mankind for development. It is the need of most countries in the world, where supply capacity is far from enough to meet the growing need for public goods, Wang said. custom silicone braceletspersonalised silicone wristbands ukslap wristbandsrubber wristbands custom cheapmake rubber braceletsjordan wristband rubber24 hour wristbandscustom rubber bracelets1 inch wide rubber bands
China among leaders in transplant technology, senior health official says The number of people who donated organs after death in China this year reached 4,207 at the end of October. And the number of individual organs was much higher - 11,896 - exceeding last year's donations, according to China's top health authority. Last year 4,080 people in China donated 11,037 organs, Guo Yanhong, deputy chief for medical administration and supervision at the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said at a work conference on organ transplants in Beijing on Thursday. Huang Jiefu, chairman of the China National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee and former vice-minister of health, said the total number of people who have made organ donations after death in China is expected to exceed 5,000 year this year. If you count live donors - people who donate a kidney to a family member, for example - the total number of donors could hit 7,000 by the end of this year. When China banned the harvesting of organs from the bodies of executed prisoners in 2015, voluntary donations became the only legitimate source of organs in the country. China currently ranks second in the number of organ donors in the world. Last year, the United States had more than 9,000 donors, Huang said. China could rank first globally in organs donated in the next three to four years, considering the rapid development of the practice over the past several years, he added. Organ donations have seen a surge in China since 2015. The number of donated organs exceeded 7,700 in 2015, a rise of nearly 70 percent over the previous year, Guo said. Meanwhile, hospitals in China have been among the world's top ranking in organ transplant technology, she said. Organ donations and transplants follow internationally accepted principles - including voluntary, ethical inspections before transplantation and fair distribution of organs, Guo said. "China will continue to improve and detail its laws and regulations on organ donations and transplants," she said. "We will intensify international cooperation in this area." Despite its increasing number of organ donations, China still lags behind many countries and there's much room for improvement, said Hong Junling, vice-chairman of the China Organ Transplantation Development Foundation. In Spain, the number of donors is more than 34 per 1 million population; in the United States, it's more than 25, he said. According to the commission's Guo, China has about 3.8 per million. More efforts need to be undertaken to improve organ donations and transplants in China, including the prevention of illegal acquisition of organs and building public faith in a fair distribution system, Hong said. [email protected]
