Diplomatic Pouch

British Ambassador Sebastian Wood visited the Shunyi Chinese Paralympian Training Center on Valentine's Day, meeting many athletes in suburban Beijing at a ceremony "to mark 200 days to go to the London Paralympics".

At the biggest Chinese Paralympian training camp, Wood visited members of the country's swimming, blind women's croquet and wheelchair boccia teams, sharing his excitement about the upcoming Games and promising a welcome in London. After watching their training, the ambassador was invited to put on an eye mask to simulate the experience of a blind athlete.

Wood said Britain plans to host the most accessible Olympic and Paralympic Games ever. Hosting the Paralympics will be a particularly special moment for Britain, he said, as the country that founded the Paralympic movement in 1948 and put disability sport on the map.

Wood was accompanied by Jia Yong, the executive deputy chairman of China's Paralympic Committee.

German professor of mathematics Andreas Dress was presented with an award for international cooperation in science and research at the capital's Great Hall of the People on Tuesday.

Dress, accompanied by German Ambassador to China Michael Schafer, was honored for significant contributions from foreign individuals or organizations to China's development in science and technology. In 2005 the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Society (MPS) established the Partner Institute for Computational and Theoretical Biology in Shanghai, with Dress as the MPS founding director.

As part of a diplomats' lecture on Chinese investment in Germany and Europe, the German embassy's Hendrik Luchtmeier last week outlined the mutual benefits of Chinese engagement in Germany.

"Just a few days ago, you could read in the newspapers about the Chinese company Sany taking over the German well-established company Putzmeister, which has 3,000 employees," he said. "With this acquisition, Sany strengthened its position as the biggest producer of concrete pumps worldwide."

He said his example shows Chinese companies are discovering Germany as a location for strategic investment, noting that visiting Chancellor Angela Merkel recently called Chinese investment "highly welcome".

Danish Minister for Trade and Investment Pia Olsen Dyhr, who will travel to China this month, was in Copenhagen on Monday to salute a new Danish-Chinese research partnership.

BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, has opened its first European Genome Research Center in the Danish capital. Chinese and Danish researchers at the center are eager to gain insight into human genomes and one day may be able to prevent and cure diseases like cancer.

"I am pleased that BGI has invested in Denmark and thereby contributed to creating new jobs here," Dyhr said.

BGI chairman Yang Huanming thanked the Danish government and the scientific partners in Denmark for longtime commitment to the company's research. "It is the strong tie between BGI and Denmark both culturally and scientifically which led BGI's choice to establish the first European Genome Research Center of BGI in Copenhagen."

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