China Chronicles April 27, 2012
- Live firing in joint Yellow Sea drills
A live ammunition exercise is seen on the Yellow Sea off east China's port city of Qingdao yesterday at the end of a six-day joint naval exercise between China and Russia. Six warships, including the Chinese navy's missile destroyer DDG-112 Harbin and Slava-class guided missile cruiser Varyag, flagship of the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet, rendezvoused to fire hundreds of shells at surface, underwater and air targets. There was also a fleet review involving 19 warships and 19 aircraft from both sides.
- China to boost central, E. Europe
China will set a US$10 billion credit line and a US$500 million investment fund dedicated to central and eastern European states as it aims to increase trade with the region to US$100 billion in 2015, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday.
Wen, in Poland as part of a European tour, said the global economic situation had been improving, but recovery was still fragile.
He told an economic forum in Warsaw: "The global economic situation has shown some improvement so far this year, but the basis for such recovery is fragile and there are still relatively big uncertainties."
He added: "The Chinese side understands concerns among eastern European countries over trade imbalances and will boost imports from those countries."
China is also ready to seal currency swap agreements and conduct trade settlements in local currencies with its central and eastern European partners and wants to launch a dedicated US$10 billion credit line for them, as well as a special investment fund worth US$500 million initially, Wen said.
China has signed a string of bilateral currency agreements, including with Mongolia and Kazakhstan, to promote the use of the yuan in cross-border trade and investment.
The fund will offer loans on favorable terms to support infrastructure, high-tech and green energy projects.
China will also expedite the establishment of economic and technology zones jointly with central and eastern European countries in the coming five years, Wen said.
He said economic and trade cooperation is the most dynamic area in the ties between China and central and eastern European countries and has strong growth potential.
He said trade volume between China and central and eastern European countries reached US$52.9 billion in 2011 and had grown 27.6 percent a year on average since 2001, when it was just US$4.3 billion.
China will set up a China-Central and Eastern European Countries' Cooperation Secretariat, which will be in charge of communications and coord! ination, he said.
Earlier this week Wen also promised to increase bilateral trade volumes with Germany and Poland as part of a drive to diversify its foreign currency reserves, the world's largest at US$3.3 trillion.
Wen also discussed his visits to Germany, Iceland, Sweden and Poland in a phone call with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, in which he reiterated China's support for European efforts to tame the eurozone debt crisis.
Poland, the largest eastern EU member and still outside the single currency area, is engaged in a large-scale infrastructure building program and struggling to modernise its energy sector.
Warsaw hopes for Chinese investments in those fields.
China is interested in Poland's banking sector and wants to open branches of its banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, its biggest lender, in Poland.
- China to boost central, E. Europe
CHINA will set a US$10 billion credit line and a US$500 million investment fund dedicated to central and eastern European states as it aims to increase trade with the region to US$100 billion in 2015, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday.
Wen, in Poland as part of a European tour, said the global economic situation had been improving, but recovery was still fragile.
He told an economic forum in Warsaw: "The global economic situation has shown some improvement so far this year, but the basis for such recovery is fragile and there are still relatively big uncertainties."
He added: "The Chinese side understands concerns among eastern European countries over trade imbalances and will boost imports from those countries."
China is also ready to seal currency swap agreements and conduct trade settlements in local currencies with its central and eastern European partners and wants to launch a dedicated US$10 billion credit line for them, as well as a special investment fund worth US$500 million initially, Wen said.
China has signed a string of bilateral currency agreements, including with Mongolia and Kazakhstan, to promote the use of the yuan in cross-border trade and investment.
The fund will offer loans on favorable terms to support infrastructure, high-tech and green energy projects.
China will also expedite the establishment of economic and technology zones jointly with central and eastern European countries in the coming five years, Wen said.
He said economic and trade cooperation is the most dynamic area in the ties between China and central and eastern European countries and has strong growth potential.
He said trade volume between China and central and eastern European countries reached US$52.9 billion in 2011 and had grown 27.6 percent a year on average since 2001, when it was just US$4.3 billion.
China will set up a China-Central and Eastern European Countries' Cooperation Secretariat, which will be in charge of communications and coord! ination, he said.
Earlier this week Wen also promised to increase bilateral trade volumes with Germany and Poland as part of a drive to diversify its foreign currency reserves, the world's largest at US$3.3 trillion.
Wen also discussed his visits to Germany, Iceland, Sweden and Poland in a phone call with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, in which he reiterated China's support for European efforts to tame the eurozone debt crisis.
Poland, the largest eastern EU member and still outside the single currency area, is engaged in a large-scale infrastructure building program and struggling to modernise its energy sector.
Warsaw hopes for Chinese investments in those fields.
China is interested in Poland's banking sector and wants to open branches of its banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, its biggest lender, in Poland.
- Chinese scholarships
PRIME Minister Wen Jiabao said yesterday China will provide 5,000 scholarships to students from central and east Europe over the next five years, and invite 1,000 students to China to learn Chinese.
Meanwhile, China will send 1,000 students and scholars to eastern Europe to advance learning and exchanges, he said. A research fund on ties between China and countries will also be set up.
- Military to help safeguard marine rights
Chinese armed forces will work closely with fishery and maritime supervision agencies to jointly safeguard national marine rights and interests, a Defense Ministry spokesman said yesterday.
Spokesman Geng Yansheng made the remarks at a monthly press briefing in response to a question on whether the Chinese navy will send warships to patrol the South China Sea following an incident on April 10 when Chinese fishing boats were harassed by a Philippine Navy gunboat while taking refuge from bad weather in a lagoon near Huangyan Island.
Two Chinese marine surveillance ships conducting routine patrols in the area later came to the fishermen's rescue.
The Chinese navy did not send warships at the time.
Geng said the Chinese army shouldered the responsibility of defending national territory sovereignty and safeguarding marine rights and interests.
"Chinese armed forces have persisted in implementing their mission under the unified deployment of the nation," he said.
At a routine press briefing yesterday afternoon, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Huangyan Island was an inherent part of the Chinese territory and China's sovereignty did not require international arbitration.
Liu was speaking after the Philippines said it would take the Huangyan Island dispute to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Seas.
In response to confirmation that the Philippine Department of Education confirmed plans to open a school on Zhongye Island, part of China's Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, Liu said China has sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and adjacent waters and opposes any illegal activities that will infringe on its sovereignty.
- Supply dock plan approved
China has approved a provincial proposal to build a supply dock in the South China Sea.The State Oceanic Administration said yesterday that it had agreed "in principle" to a proposal by Hainan to build the dock over more than 3.3 square kilometers of sea off Jinqing Island to service Chinese tourism and fishing activities. Jinqing is part of the Xisha Islands.
A separate proposal to build another comprehensive supply dock in the South China Sea is under consideration, it said.
- Officials caught up in privacy crackdown
GOVERNMENT officials from 20 provinces and cities were among 1,700 suspects arrested in a four-day crackdown on privacy violation and the illegal selling of personal information, the Ministry of Public Security said yesterday.
Liao Jinrong, vice director with the ministry's criminal investigation department, said police had traced 38 sources of leaks, including telecom operators, industry and commerce watchdogs and civil affairs departments.
They sold detailed personal data to information agencies and illegal investigation companies, who profited from reselling the data to others, including criminal gangs, at a higher price, sometimes even 100 times the original price.
The leaks had greatly facilitated an increase in telecom frauds and spam messages, the ministry said, adding that since last Friday, 161 illegal agencies and 611 illegal investigation companies had been busted in Beijing, Hebei, Guangdong and 17 other regions.
But the ministry didn't give details about the authorities involved.
An official surnamed Liu from the Baoding City Industry and Commerce Administration in Hebei Province gathered large amounts of registered companies' information and sold each piece of information, such as an address and telephone number, for 5 yuan (79.5 US cents), the Beijing Times reported yesterday.
For shareholders' data, he asked 20 yuan for a mobile phone number or identification card number.
Between 2010 and this April, he raised nearly 60,000 yuan, the report said.
A local police official, Liu Wenping, said some unlicensed investigation companies would bribe government officials to get the private data.
Liu's violation was worse because he sold it publicly.
According to the Resident Identity Card Amendment Draft, any one working for the authorities, telecom operators, and financial institutions will face detention or jail terms if they leak private information.
China is planning to publish national standards for personal information! protect ion in the first half of this year, officials with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.
- Rich state firms, officials got bikes from Red Cross
THE Chinese Red Cross Foundation said yesterday that it was probing allegations that it donated nearly 15,000 inferior bicycles to state-owned enterprises and retired government officials in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
The exposure sparked a public outcry because the Ren'ai Foundation with the CRCF claimed all of its aid went to minorities and children in underdeveloped areas, not government organizations and state-owned enterprises, including Yanchang Petroleum Group, a major company in the province that boasts hundreds of billions of yuan in capital.
"We will be sure to punish the involved officials if the scandal is proved true," the CRCF announced on its official microblog on Weibo.com.
Shi Jinlong, an official with the Ren'ai Foundation, insisted that "retired officials were minorities" and said it was normal to donate bikes to major companies because they did great work. But it didn't win any appreciation.
Even the retired officials who received the shoddy bicycles complained about the donation, claiming they were too light, roughly made and prone to tire punctures, a local newspaper, Chinese Business, reported yesterday.
Some retired workers who were paralyzed or suffered severe diseases argued that it was meaningless to have a bike, especially a substandard one, which could neither be used nor sold.
The Xi'an Aircraft Industry Co received 2,000 bikes last August and distributed 200 to its outstanding workers. Overwhelmed by criticism, CRCF has recalled 1,800 bikes and agreed to replace them with new ones.
"We didn't refuse the offer because it (CRCF) voluntarily asked for the chance," the company's labor union vice director, Wang Feng, told the report.
- Premier's use lands fashion firm in hot seat
A CHINESE online fashion retailer is being probed for cashing in on Premier Wen Jiabao's popularity to promote its latest T-shirts - an act that might have violated the country's law on advertisement, Beijing commerce authorities said.
Vancl, popular for its pop culture apparel, stirred up controversy on Tuesday by advertising a new series of T-shirts printed with Wen's signature quotations like "Forget About Me" and "Self-Reflection."
Both quotes were picked from Wen's emotional press finale in March when he addressed a press conference.
The 70-year-old premier's term of office is slated to end in March next year. Since he took the post in 2003, Wen has become popular among the people and is sometimes fondly nicknamed "Grandpa Wen."
The series of T-shirts is named "Look Up At The Starry Sky," the title of a poem written by Wen and published in the People's Daily in 2007. One of the Vancl T-shirts actually features "Look Up At The Starry Sky" and "Step On The Concrete Ground" in Chinese calligraphy, in reference to a couplet Wen gave students at Peking University in 2010.
The couplet was a metaphor for telling young students to hold high ambitions but take a step-by-step approach to achieve their dreams.
Pictures of Wen waving to journalists and taking questions, though not printed on the T-shirts, were splashed on the firm's web page at www.vancl.com. The page was taken down by the company only hours after its appearance as many Internet users accused it of cashing in on the premier's popularity to promote its products.
"Vancl's online advertisement is suspected of violating the Advertisement Law, which stipulates an advertisement shall not involve using the names of State organs or their functionaries," said a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Industry and Commerce Bureau.
While it is not unusual to see Chairman Mao and other late leaders on souvenirs, it is rare to see images of incumbent leaders or officials being borrowed by pop culture.
!Jiao Hongyu, a Vancl spokeswoman, told Xinhua the advertisement was designed out of respect for Wen, hoping the premier's messages might have a positive influence on today's young people, who are Vancl's back-bone customers.
"We did a Lei Feng (a late heroic Communist soldier) series before and it was very well received," Jiao said. "So when we planned this series, we did not foresee any negative impact it might bring."
- Beijing group to foster making of micro movies
A Chinese cultural enterprise has announced the founding of the "Shang8 Film Industry Park," vowing to build it into China's first base for the production of "micro movies."
The park will nurture young filmmakers and support the growth of Chinese companies working in this medium, which involves films shot over a short period of time and lasting only a few minutes or less, mostly completed on extremely small budgets.
It will also serve as a platform for original films from new-generation producers, said the Shang8 Culture Group on Wednesday at the Beijing International Film Festival.
Beijing-based Shang8 specializes in cultural, artistic and advertising services. It owns eight industrial parks related to creative design, advertising and new media.
The Shang8 Film Industry Park will integrate all sectors of filmmaking including investment and plotting, script writing, production, promotion and distribution, said He Yang, planner and manager.
The park will set up "workshops for young filmmakers," "new director introductions" and other projects to promote the rise of new filmmakers and the micro-movie industry, according to He.
Micro movies have been on the rise as an independent art form in China that can be downloaded and viewed on various new media players like iPads and smart phones.
- 阳光灿烂的日子
hexi1960 has added a photo to the pool:
- Toyota, IQ, "IQ-R", Ping Che, Hong Kong
Daryl Chapman's - Automotive Photography has added a photo to the pool:
Cool little car, loads of space if there are just two of you.
- Man shot dead after attacking police in Guangdong
A MAN in Guangdong Province was shot dead by police yesterday morning after he chased and attacked police officers, Nanfang Daily reported.
The man, surnamed Dong, 29, threw bricks early in the morning from the third floor of the building he lived in, the report said. A neighbor called the police after the bricks broke his roof and fell into his home.
Dong refused to speak with officers and started throwing bricks at police, according to the report. The deputy director of Chengnan Police Station, surnamed Xian, ordered officers to shoot Dong after police fired several warning shots, which failed to stop him. The man was gunned down when he attempted to beat the officers with a rod, according to the police.
He died in a hospital after emergency treatment failed.
Dong was convicted of intentional injury in 2004 and theft in 2007. He served prison sentences for both crimes. He was also detained two years ago for taking illegal drugs.
Police are still investigating the case.
- Lamborghini, Murcielago, Ping Che, Hong Kong
Daryl Chapman's - Automotive Photography has added a photo to the pool:
Its never been my favourite Lamborghini but its still a great car.
- Chinese, Russian warships conclude live fire exercise
CHINESE and Russian warships concluded a live ammunition exercise today, following a no-weapon joint war game earlier the same day.
Six warships, including the Chinese navy's missile destroyer DDG-112 Harbin and Slava-class guided missile cruiser Varyag, the flagship of the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet, rendezvoused in the Yellow Sea and fired hundreds of shells at surface, underwater and air targets.
The conclusion of the drill marks the end of the live sea exercise of the April 22-27 naval exercise between Russia and China.
They also had a fleet review this afternoon, involving 19 warships and 19 aircraft from both sides.
Earlier Thursday, exercises of joint escort and joint anti-hijacking were held involving no weapons.
- Giant Buddha statues of Yungang grottoes
Sokleine has added a photo to the pool:
The Yungang Grottoes are ancient Chinese Buddhist temple grottoes near the city of Datong in the province of Shanxi. They are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture.
The site is located about 16 km south-west of the city of Datong, in the valley of the Shi Li river at the base of the Wuzhou Shan mountains. They are an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings from the 5th and 6th centuries. All together the site is composed of 252 grottoes with more than 51,000 Buddha statues and statuettes. In 2001, the Yungang Grottoes were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Source: wikipedia - Buddha in Yungang grottoes
Sokleine has added a photo to the pool:
The Yungang Grottoes are ancient Chinese Buddhist temple grottoes near the city of Datong in the province of Shanxi. They are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture.
The site is located about 16 km south-west of the city of Datong, in the valley of the Shi Li river at the base of the Wuzhou Shan mountains. They are an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings from the 5th and 6th centuries. All together the site is composed of 252 grottoes with more than 51,000 Buddha statues and statuettes. In 2001, the Yungang Grottoes were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Source: wikipedia - Giant Buddha statues in Yungang grottoes
Sokleine has added a photo to the pool:
The Yungang Grottoes are ancient Chinese Buddhist temple grottoes near the city of Datong in the province of Shanxi. They are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture.
The site is located about 16 km south-west of the city of Datong, in the valley of the Shi Li river at the base of the Wuzhou Shan mountains. They are an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings from the 5th and 6th centuries. All together the site is composed of 252 grottoes with more than 51,000 Buddha statues and statuettes. In 2001, the Yungang Grottoes were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Source: wikipedia - Red Cross in hot water again over bike scandal
The Chinese Red Cross Foundation found itself in the media spotlight again after it donated nearly 15,000 inferior bicycles to state-owned enterprises and retired government officials in northwestern Shaanxi Province.
The exposure sparked a public outcry because CRCF claimed its aid all went to the minorities and children in underdeveloped areas instead of government organizations and state-owned enterprises, including Yanchang Petroleum Group, a major company in the province.
CRCF also raised complaints from retired officials who received the shoddy bicycles, a local newspaper, Chinese Business, reported today.
The Xi'an Aircraft Industry Company received 2,000 bikes last August and distributed 200 to its outstanding workers.
Overwhelmed by criticism, CRCF has recalled 1,800 bikes and agreed to replace them with new ones, the report said.
The bike supplier, Zhao Dalong, said all the bikes were assembled in a 100-square-meter workshop in Tianjin, each costing about 140 yuan (US$22). However, CRCF claimed the bikes were priced at about 700 yuan each, according to the report.
"They neither signed an contract with me nor asked for an invoice," Zhao said.
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