A police task force has been established to search for three fugitives who escaped from a detention center in Jieshou, Anhui province on Saturday.

Guo Bingwei, 24, Guo Wenwu, 20, and 17-year-old Liu Jiajun, overpowered six wardens after faking a fight in their cell early on Saturday morning.

A fourth man, Wang Hanyu, 24, arrested last year for masterminding a jewelry store robbery, was part of the escape plot but died after suffering fatal injuries from a metal spike when he attempted to climb the fence.

“A special team has been assigned to the case and we are devoting our full attention to it,” a detention center official told China Daily yesterday, without elaborating.

The Fuyang public security bureau has offered a 50,000 yuan ($7,100) reward for any person who comes forward with information about the men.

After overpowering the wardens, the four men climbed the gate and fence, where Wang cut the main artery in his thigh. The three uninjured men then fled.

Guo Bingwei was serving an 8-year sentence for robbery, and Guo Wenwu had been jailed for 11 years for the same crime. Liu was jailed for theft.

Guo Yonghua, Guo Bingwei’s father, was “extremely upset” when told about his son’s prison break and pleaded for Guo to give himself up.

“He was in school for only two years. He has been in prison several times and I didn’t even know he was jailed for 8 years this time,” the farmer told the paper.

Police from Jieshou and neighboring Fuyang city are continuing to search for the fugitives. There is tight security at all Jieshou checkpoints, as well as in neighboring cities.

Liu Qi (R), member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chief of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, meets with Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung in Beijing, capital of China, on May 26, 2009.(Xinhua Photo)

Liu Qi (R), member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chief of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, meets with Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung in Beijing, capital of China, on May 26, 2009.(Xinhua Photo)

Liu Qi (R, central), member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chief of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, meets with Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (L, central) in Beijing, capital of China, on May 26, 2009.(Xinhua Photo)

Liu Qi (R, front), member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chief of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, meets with Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (L, front) in Beijing, capital of China, on May 26, 2009.(Xinhua Photo)

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) — Visiting Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung met Beijing Party head Liu Qi Tuesday morning to discuss economic cooperation between Taiwan and the city.

“There will be a wide range of cooperation potential,” said Liu Qi, secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Beijing Municipal Committee, as he introduced to Wu the cooperation and exchanges between Taiwan and Beijing.

The two sides can work together in high-tech industries and manufacturing, such as vehicles, machinery, biotechnology, pharmacy and clean energy, he said. “We sincerely welcome more Taiwan business to invest in Beijing.”

Wu agreed that the two sides of Taiwan Strait should work together to tackle the global downturn as their economies can complement each other.

He appreciated the Beijing government’s placement of great importance on Taiwan businesses and helping them solve problems.

“I hope more Beijing residents will tour Taiwan,” he said.

Wu began his eight-day mainland visit on Monday. Besides Beijing, he will also visit southwestern Chongqing Municipality, the city of Hangzhou in the eastern Zhejiang Province and Nanjing in the eastern Jiangsu Province.

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) — Lesotho’s Foreign Minister Mohlabi Kenneth Tsekoa is to pay an official visit to China from June 3 to 9 at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu made the announcement at a regular press briefing on Tuesday.

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) — Chen Changzhi, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, met here Tuesday with a delegation of Chile’s National Congress.

The delegation was here to attend the fourth meeting of the committee of Sino-Chilean parliamentarian political dialogue.

Senator Sergio Romero, head of the delegation, is also chairman of the Chile’s side of the committee.

The two sides established the dialogue mechanism in 2006, when the political dialogue was decided to be held annually.

SUZHOU, May 26 (Xinhua) — China and Singapore celebrated the 15th anniversary Tuesday of their largest cooperative project, the Suzhou Industrial Park, in east China’s Jiangsu Province.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan attended the commemoration together with Singaporean Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng.

Calling the park a product of friendly cooperation, Wang said it had become an important window for China’s opening up.

Founded in February 1994, the park lies in the center of the Yangtze River Delta and at the juncture of China’s coastal economic open areas.

Its chief industries include electronics, bio-pharmaceuticals and new materials, which account for 75 percent of its gross output.

Over the past 15 years, the park maintained an average annual economic growth of 30 percent, paid more than 100 billion yuan (14.6 billion U.S. dollars) in taxes and utilized foreign funds of nearly 16 billion U.S. dollars.

Currently, the park has more than 12,000 companies, including more than 3,000 foreign enterprises.

Singapore “ignited” the engine of the Suzhou Industrial Park, but it was the Chinese government who had made it run in an active way, Lee said.

Lee said the park served as a platform for Singapore and China to share economic development experience.

An eco-city in the northern metropolis of Tianjin — another cooperation project between China and Singapore — started construction last September.

The eco-city, 40 km from downtown Tianjin and 150 km from Beijing, will be guided by Singapore’s use of solar and wind power and rain recycling technologies. Singapore will also share with Tianjin its expertise on waste water treatment and desalination.

Vice Premier Wang said the global downturn had posed severe challenges to China’s economy, but the government’s responses had started to have an effect.

China was confident of overcoming the crisis, he said.