05-12-08

官方媒体：中国地震死亡三千至五千人 (State Media: Chinese Quake Kills Between Three and Five Thousand)

中国官方媒体估计，中国西南部的四川省发生强烈地震后，仅在一个县就造成3千至5千人死亡。官方新华社说，同一地区，四川省的北川县可能还有至少一万人恐怕受伤。

报导还说，两所小学的校舍倒塌，将近900名学生被埋。报导没有提供任何细节，这些学生目前的命运还不清楚。

新华社报导说，在四川、甘肃、云南和重庆市，已经证实有107人死亡。

Chinese state media estimate that between three to five thousand people were killed in one single county today (Monday) when a powerful earthquake struck China's southwestern province of Sichuan. The official Xinhua news agency says that at least 10-thousand people are also feared injured in that same area, Sichuan's Beichuan county.

Reports also say that that nearly 900 students were buried when two primary schools collapsed but no details were provided and their fate is unknown.

Xinhua says there are 107 confirmed deaths in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan and in the municipality of Chongqing.

中月贸易顺差因全球需求减弱下降 (China's Trade Surplus Down on Weaker Global Demand)

由于全球需求量略有减少，中国4月份的贸易顺差减少了大约一个百分点，但仍高达强劲的168亿美元。中国国家统计局公布的数据，4月份的贸易顺差远远超过2月份和3月份，但大大低于去年，去年每月的贸易顺差常常超过200亿美元。

中国与欧盟27国以及美国的不断增加的贸易顺差是经常引起争议的问题，西方国家敦促北京放松对本国货币控制以及取消进口壁垒。

此外，中国今天(星期一)宣布，中国4月份的通货膨胀率上升到百分之8点5，仍然接近10年来的最高水平。

China's trade surplus fell about one percent in April to a still robust 16-point-eight billion dollars as global demand weakened slightly. According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, the trade gap for April was much bigger than in February (13.4 billion dollars) and March (8.6 billion), but still well below last year's monthly figures that often exceeded 20 billion dollars.

China's growing trade gap with the 27-nation European Union and the United States is frequently a point of contention, as Western nations push Beijing to ease currency controls and lift import barriers.

China also announced today (Monday) that its inflation rate rose to eight-point-five percent in April, remaining near decade-high levels.