Xinhua News Agency has selected its top 10 domestic news items of 2006. They are:

-- Chinese President Hu Jintao, also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, raised the "socialist concept of honor and disgrace" on March 4, while meeting with members of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body.

The concept, which underscores the values of patriotism, hard work and plain living, belief in science, consciousness of serving the people, solidarity, honesty and credibility, and observation of the law, aims to refresh China's values by amalgamating traditional Chinese values with modern virtues.

-- The Fourth Session of the 10th National People's Congress passed the draft outline of the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2006-2010) on March 14, which highlighted the aim of building a new socialist countryside.

-- A forum on economic and trade affairs across the Taiwan Strait was held on April 14 and 15, focusing on cross-Strait economic and trade exchanges and opening direct transport links. A beneficial policy package and Joint Proposals were announced at the forum.

On April 16, President Hu Jintao raised four suggestions to promote the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations at a meeting with Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) Honorary Chairman Lien Chan.

-- China on May 20 completed construction of the world's largest dam at the Three Gorges area, central China's Hubei Province, signifying a milestone accomplishment in the mammoth Three Gorges water control project that aims to tame the flood-prone Yangtze, the nation's longest river.

On June 6, underwater demolition removed the Three Gorges Project's last cofferdam. On Sept. 20, the water level in the Three Gorges Reservoir started rising to 156 meters till mid-October, increasing power production by 7.85 billion kw/hours annually and water storage by 11 billion cubic meters.

-- A grand rally to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was held on June 30. The CPC also summarized its educational campaign to maintain the vanguard character of CPC members, launched in January 2005, at the rally.

-- On July 1, the world's most elevated railway, Qinghai-Tibet Railway, went into operation from Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, capital to Tibet Autonomous Region. The full length of the railway is 1,956 kilometers and the highest point is 5,072 meters above sea level.

-- The eighth Typhoon of the year, Saomai, landed on east China's Zhejiang Province on Aug. 10 and caused great loss to Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. It was the strongest typhoon to hit China in more than half century.

-- Chen Liangyu, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPC, was sacked for his alleged involvement in a social security fund scandal by the CPC Central Committee on Sept. 24.

-- The 16th Central Committee of the CPC held its sixth plenary session from Oct. 8 to 11 and issued a communique highlighting the issue of social harmony. It also decided the Party's 17th national congress would be held in the second half of 2007 in Beijing.

-- President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders attended a grand ceremony in Beijing on Oct. 22 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, a famous military maneuver carried out by the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army led by the CPC to combat the KMT Regime from 1934 to 1936.

Source: Xinhua