Women leaders in government, business and academia gathered at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Women Leaders Network Meeting in Beijing Wednesday to share views on the challenges and opportunities that women face in economic globalization. The Third Senior Officials Meeting (SOM III) of the 13th Ministerial Meeting opened Thursday in Dalian, a coastal city in northeast China's Liaoning Province. So far, the 10 previously-convened meetings of APEC, out of 20 scheduled for this year, have all reported good results.

The 21st Universiade opened Thursday at Beijing Worker’s Stadium. Athletes from the 169 participating countries will demonstrate their skills in venues throughout the city. In Chinese eyes, the Universiade is second in importance only to the Olympic Games which will be held in Beijing in seven years.

Four Chinese citizens were kidnapped in the southern Philippines. Two of them were killed while another escaped during the confrontation between the Philippines military and the captors. The captors threatened Tuesday to behead remaining hostages if the military continues pursuit operations. The Chinese embassy has made representations to the Philippine government over the death of Chinese hostages. Wang Shengli, the escaped hostage, talked to reporters about his horrifying experience after his safe arrival at the Chinese embassy in the Philippines.

China and the United States held missile technology non-proliferation talks in Beijing on Thursday with no more talks scheduled on Friday and little further information released. The talks were "candid,” according to one US official.

At the invitation of China, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrived in China early Friday for talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin on the Middle East crisis. The lingering Palestinian-Israeli conflict has caused heavy casualties and aroused close attention from the international community. The Chinese government has repeatedly called for "restraint of the maximum from both Israel and Palestine, and especially Israel, " and urged the two sides to resume negotiations.

The question regarding China WTO bid has been settled, according to Long Yongtu, China's top trade negotiator. China is expected to achieve its 15-year quest to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) when the body meets in November in Qatar. Long also said that entry into the WTO will help China resolve its recent trade dispute with Tokyo.

(China.org.cn by Xiaowei 08/26/2001)