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Hu leaves on first foreign trip

— AFP

The Chinese President, Hu Jintao, and his wife, Liu Yongqing, at the airport in Moscow on Monday. — AFP

Beijing May 26. The Chinese President, Hu Jintao, today left China on his first foreign trip as State leader, a four-nation tour that is expected to include talks with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, the U.S. President, George W. Bush, and the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi.

Mr. Hu plans to visit Russia, France, Kazakhstan and Mongolia from May 26 to June 5, in his first official overseas trip since becoming President in March.

He will take part in a Moscow summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which groups China, Russia and Central Asian nations, and focuses on fighting cross-border terrorism, separatism and religious extremism. Mr. Hu will also attend celebrations to mark the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the Foreign Ministry said.

He will travel from Russia to a Group of Eight (G-8) ``North-South'' informal dialogue between leaders of developed and developing nations in the French spa town of Evian on June 1.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Koizumi also plan to attend the G-8 summit and they and the French President, Jacques Chirac, are all expected to hold bilateral talks with Mr. Hu during the event.

The G-8 includes the seven most industrialised countries — the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Japan — plus Russia.

Report denied

China today denied Japanese media reports that the purged Communist Party chief, Zhao Ziyang, had died. ``There's no such thing,'' a Cabinet spokesman said when asked to comment on the April 29 reports. He declined further comment.

Mr. Zhao (83), pioneered bold capitalist-style economic reforms and wielded power second only to Deng Xiaoping before being purged in 1989 for opposing the army crackdown on student-led demonstrations for democracy centred on Tiananmen Square.

He has been under house arrest ever since.

Mr. Zhao has no influence on the day-to-day world of politics, but the party is still nervous about him, fearing the icon of reform and democracy could emerge as a rallying point for reformists and workers disgruntled about soaring unemployment and the widening gap between the rich and poor. — Reuters, DPA

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