Big Deal

May 21， Shanghai： Chinese President Xi Jinping （2nd right） and Russian President Vladimir Putin （2nd left） attend the signing of the China and Russia Purchase and Sales Contract on East Route Gas Project and a memorandum. The 30-year contract means that beginning in 2018 the Russian east route pipeline will supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually. “This is the biggest deal ever in the history of our gas industry，” declared Alexei Miller， Gazproms CEO. According to PetroChina， natural gas imported from Russia will satisfy Chinas increasing domestic de- mand and help optimize its energy resource utilization structure with target markets in the northeast， the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster， and the Yangtze River Delta.

Pang Xinglei/Xinhua

China-Russia Joint Sea Drills

May 18， Shanghai： Anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Panteleyev from Russia enters a naval port for the China-Russia Joint Sea-2014 naval drills on the East China Sea between May 20 and 26. Warships from both navies fired a gun salute as China staged a welcome ceremony for visiting Russian naval vessels. A total of 14 surface ships， two submarines， nine fixed-wing warplanes， six shipboard helicopters and two special forces detachments rallied in Shanghai.

by Chen Jian

Her Majestys Passion for China

April 28， Shanghai： Danish Queen Margrethe II and her husband， Prince Consort Henrik， pose for pictures near the Bund. At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping， the Queen visited China from April 24 to 28， along with four ministers and five vice ministers from sectors of trade， recreation， development， culture， and education. Also making the trip were senior representatives from 110 Danish companies， making it the largest Danish delegation ever to visit China in the history of the countrys diplomacy. The Queens first visit to China dates back to September 1979– the first Western state-head to visit after the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China， and the first visiting Western monarch since the founding of New China in 1949. Aly Song/REUTERS

JD.com Hits NASDAQ

May 22， New York： Richard Liu， CEO and founder of Chinese e-commerce company JD.com， waves after ringing the NASDAQ opening bell in Times Square， New York City. Chinas second-biggest e-commerce company， JD.com Inc. was valued at US$28.6 billion at closing， resulting in a 10 percent rise on the day of its listing， ranking it third among Chinas listed internet companies， following Tencent and Baidu. Alibaba， another Chinese cyber giant， has applied for listing in the United States and hopes to enter the American capital market this fall， with an estimated market value of over US$200 billion – potentially the largest IPO ever on the planet.