Diplomatic Pouch: With Mike Peters

As the UK celebrated its queen's diamond jubilee last week, Britain's consul-general in Hong Kong, Andrew Seaton, hosted a birthday party for Queen Elizabeth II with a VIP guest list that included Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government Donald Tsang, Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma and Chief Secretary for Administration Stephen Lam.

"For the queen to have retained the respect and admiration of people in Great Britain and around the world through (six decades of) change is a truly remarkable achievement," Seaton said. "The reaction, the enthusiasm in the crowds over the weekend told their own story. The celebrations have been a fitting tribute to 60 years of extraordinary public service."

German Ambassador to China Michael Schaeffer was presented the keys of a new all-electric Audi A3 e-tron last week by Feng Derui, the carmaker's general manager in China.

"With this new electric car, our embassy will continue to practice its concept of 'green embassies', and to advocate the use of environmentally friendly transport," Schaefer said. The embassy's use of the vehicle is part of Audi China's testing of the automobile, he said, adding: "The megacities in China are the ideal place for zero-emission, battery-powered vehicles." Feng said the Audi A3 e-tron has maximum power of 85 kilowatts and a lithium-ion battery capacity of 26.5 kwh, giving the vehicle a potential driving distance of 135 km without recharging.

The European commissioner for agriculture and rural development, Dacian Ciolos, is in China through June 13 to deepen EU-China cooperation in the fields of agriculture and rural development. On his second visit to China in his current role, he will focus on food security, food safety, food quality, climate change and the balanced development of rural and urban areas.

The commissioner's visit starts Friday with a meeting in Harbin with Heilongjiang Governor Wang Xiankui to discuss agriculture and rural development.

On Saturday Ciolos will visit the Shuangcheng Modern Agriculture Demonstration Park, which focuses on high yield food crops and economically efficient crops. Other planned stops include Meiyu new village, the production base of Wuchang organic rice. It has also developed an industrial operation organization mode of combining production, processing and sales, integrating R&D, demonstration and promotion, uniting corporations, production bases and farming households.

Ciolos will end his Northeast China tour with stops at Hou Lan Qi village in Hongqi county, which is the largest vegetable base in Heilongjiang province, and Harbin's prestigious Northeast Agricultural University before returning to Beijing to meet Chinese agricultural leaders.

The Austrian embassy announced a weeklong exhibition tracing Mozart in Vienna beginning June 9 at Beijing's Spring Legend Town in cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum.

The opening program includes a Mozart quartet concert by a master class from Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music and an FAQ contest about the composer's life and music, two films about Mozart and a late-night music festival.

Embassy and consulate news can be sent to michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/08/2012 page31)