China, U.S. maintain close communication on tariff cuts, trade, investment: spokesman

China and the United States are maintaining close communication on implementing reciprocal tariff cuts covering around 30 billion U.S. dollars worth of imports on each side, as well as on issues of mutual concern in trade and investment, China's Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

The reciprocal tariff-cut arrangement will help stabilize and expand bilateral trade, and business communities in both countries hold high expectations for it, ministry spokesman He Yadong told a regular press conference in Beijing.

"The two sides are currently in close communication on implementing the arrangement. We hope that the United States will work with China to put it into effect at an early date and create more favorable conditions for bilateral agricultural trade," he said.

"The two sides are also maintaining close communication on their respective concerns in areas including trade and investment, and relevant progress will be announced in due course," he added.

Under the reciprocal tariff-cut arrangement previously reached by the two sides, China and the United States will each lower tariffs on about 30 billion dollars worth of imports from the other side after completing their respective domestic legal procedures. More than 90 percent of the products covered will be exempt from all additional tariffs imposed on each other and receive most-favored-nation tariff treatment.

China, U.S. maintain close communication on tariff cuts, trade, investment: spokesman

A ceremony was held Thursday morning at Beijing's Biyun Temple to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen, one of China's revered revolutionary forefathers, with tributes paid at his cenotaph.

During the ceremony's first round, representatives from the General Office of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, the Beijing municipal government, as well as Sun's relatives, overseas Chinese and international friends, stood in silence for three minutes, presented floral baskets and bowed three times before a statue of Sun.

It was presided over by Zheng Jianbang, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and chairman of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang.

In the second round, representatives of people from Taiwan paid their tribute in the same fashion.

Born in 1866, Sun led the Revolution of 1911 more than a century ago to abolish the absolute monarchy that had ruled China for thousands of years.

On March 12, 1925, he died in Beijing and his remains were kept in Biyun Temple at Fragrant Hills in the western suburbs of Beijing before being transferred to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing in 1929.

Ceremony held at Beijing temple to pay tribute to Sun Yat-sen