PEOPLE/POINTS

Trade Representative

Gao Hucheng has been appointed the international trade representative of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), the ministry said on August 16. Zhong Shan, Vice Minister of Commerce, and Chong Quan, former Assistant to the Minister of Commerce, are Gao’s deputies.

The international trade representative takes charge of China’s major multilateral or bilateral economic and trade negotiations, and coordinate the stances of concerned parties at home.

The mechanism of trade representatives has been established in response to increasing friction between China and its trading partners since the global fi nancial crisis began.

Gao, 59, has worked with the MOC (formerly the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation) since 1994 and became its vice minister in November 2003. In April 2005, he was appointed chief international trade negotiator of the ministry.

Bank Card Manager

Su Ning, a former deputy central banker, has taken over as chairman of the China UnionPay Co. Ltd., China’s national bank card payment network.

Su, 63, left office as vice governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBC), China’s central bank, in June, after holding the post for seven years. During his tenure at the PBC, he had overseen the development of China’s banking payments system.

Su’s predecessor Liu Tinghuan, 68, who served as chairman of China UnionPay since 2004, has retired.

China UnionPay was founded in March 2002. Besides the Chinese mainland, UnionPay services are available in 90 countries and regions throughout the world.

Lenient Victim

Luo Caixia, the victim of a well publicized identity theft, settled her lawsuit against the infringer on August 13 with an agreement for 45,000 yuan ($6,617) in compensation.

Following a three-hour court mediation in Changsha, Hunan Province,Luo fi nally dropped her original 141,900 yuan ($20,868) claim for violations of her right of name and right to education, as well as for mental injury, from high school classmate Wang Jiajun and her family.

The theft took place in 2004, when Luo scored higher than Wang in the national college entrance examination. Wang’s father, Wang Zhengrong, a senior police of fi cer, abused his position to steal Luo’s identity for her. Wang was then recruited by Guizhou Normal University.

In March 2009, Luo, then a student at Tianjin Normal University, found out about the offense.Two months later, she filed a lawsuit against Wang, her family and other people she thought were responsible.

Wang disappeared when the theft was uncovered. Her father was sentenced to four years in jail last October on charges of counterfeiting of ficial documents.

Luo said she had forgiven Wang and hoped the case’s settlement would mean a new beginning for both of them.