China Chronicles August 1, 2012
- Foreign countries warned not to interfere in disputes
A MILITARY spokesman yesterday warned foreign countries to avoid interfering with territorial disputes between China and its neighbors regarding the South China Sea.
On the eve of the 85th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army, the Chinese government held a press conference by inviting senior officers with the PLA to meet the press.
"We oppose any country outside the region intervening in these disputes," Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said on the sidelines of the conference.
"Any intervention by countries outside the region will complicate the problem and even deteriorate the situation," Geng said, calling for bilateral dialogue and negotiations to solve disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea.
Tensions have risen in the South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, the Philippines and other several countries in the region have made overlapping territorial claims over multiple islands.
On April 10, a Philippine warship harassed 12 Chinese fishing vessels that had sailed near Huangyan Island to seek shelter from inclement weather, triggering a months-long maritime standoff near the island.
Geng, a senior colonel in the PLA, said: "Safeguarding national sovereignty and maritime interests is a common responsibility shared by China's armed forces.
"We will cooperate with other agencies to perform our duties."
He said a combat-readiness patrol system has been established in waters under China's jurisdiction.
"The Chinese navy is justified in protecting the country's interests, and it is groundless to equate such a justified action with tough foreign policy," he said.
Colonel Lin Bai told reporters that China would not engage in an arms race.
"We will develop armaments appropriately in accordance with the needs of safeguarding state sovereignty and territorial integrity, as China will continue to take the path of peaceful development," Lin said.
Senior Colonel Wang Yongsheng said: "Our! army be longs to the Party, but it also belongs to the state and to the people."
- Policy of friendship
A top army officer said yesterday that nations need not fear China's military development.
"The development of the Chinese armed forces poses no threat to any nation, in that it aims to safeguard state sovereignty, security and development interests," said Senior Colonel Wu Xihua.
Wu told reporters that China had always carried out a foreign policy of friendship and partnership with neighboring countries.
- Carrier home after longest trial
CHINA'S aircraft carrier has completed its ninth sea trial, the longest yet, and returned to the Port of Dalian in northeastern Liaoning Province yesterday.
However, military officials confirmed it will continue to carry out tests rather than be commissioned today as predicted by some experts.
There are still many tests to be done before it can become a combat platform, Lin Bai, a colonel of the General Armament Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, told a press conference yesterday.
"The Great Wall wasn't built in a day, we hope people can treat the issue rationally and objectively," Lin said.
The sea trials have been running smoothly so far and attained anticipated objectives, while the next tests and training tasks had yet to be decided, he added.
Five tugboats drew the vessel back into port yesterday morning after the 25-day sea trial.
The carrier first carried out tests in the north Bohai Sea and then headed further east for a one-day exercise in the Yellow Sea on Sunday, China News Service reported.
The aircraft carrier still has many parts to be tested, including an important step called electromagnetic compatibility, said Song Zhongping, a military commentator. This will ensure that equipment or systems will not interfere with each other or prevent each other's correct operation.
It will be closer to its commissioning when we see if aircraft can take off and land on the deck of the carrier freely, Song said.
He said the carrier would be equipped with a defense system able to launch attacks on missiles, aircraft and approaching vessels.
The carrier will also use a Chinese radar system that can evaluate risks automatically and had a strong anti-interference capability.
The nation's first carrier, refitted from former Ukraine vessel Varyag, left port on August 10 last year for its first sea trials and since then has regularly been tested in both the Yellow and Bohai seas.
Some military experts believed t! hat the carrier would be commissioned today on China's Army Day, but officials denied that.
"I have heard of no such a plan," Yang Yujun, a defense ministry spokesman, said earlier.
- Provinces prepare for Typhoon Saola
AS Typhoon Saola strengthens and approaches coastal regions of southeast China, Fujian Province has begun preparations to respond to any possible disasters, local authorities said yesterday.
Saola is expected to reach seas off the northeast coast of Taiwan tomorrow and approach Fujian and east China's Zhejiang Province on Friday, according to the Fujian Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.
The coastal areas of Fujian will see gales and rainstorms from today to Sunday, Chen Rongkai, vice head of the headquarters, said. Though Fujian's summer fishing moratorium ended at the end of July, the headquarters have decided to extend the ban in a bid to protect local fishermen. Authorities have relocated more than 8,000 people as of yesterday afternoon.
Neighboring Zhejiang Province is also preparing for Saola's arrival tomorrow an=d China's maritime forecasting authority issued warnings to vessels and residents.
Saola is gaining strength and will move northwest at 10 kilometers per hour toward the east coast of Taiwan and gradually approach the Chinese mainland's coastal areas, the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said.
Its center was about 400 kilometers southeast of Hualien, Taiwan, yesterday morning, it said.
Fujian and Zhejiang provinces will witness 2.5 to 3.5-meter waves today and tomorrow, the forecasting center said.
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- Rich woman detained in fraud of millions of yuan
A WEALTHY businesswoman in the southeastern province of Fujian has been detained in connection with a fund-raising fraud that reached the hundreds of millions of yuan.
Li Baohua is accused of cheating dozens of friends and acquaintances who invested more than 1 billion yuan (US$156.7 million) by making false promises of high returns in real estate projects and oil field development, according to police in Shanghai and Fujian Province.
She also made up a story about being a confidante of a supposed love child of Li Kai-shing, China's richest man, to gain the trust of investors, Fujian's local news portal www.fjsen.com reported yesterday.
At least 10 people were swindled out of more than 10 million yuan and some lost up to 100 million yuan, several creditors said, adding that one invested 170 million yuan with Li.
They have been trying to trace down Li since she disappeared in June 2011.
Li was imprisoned in southern China's Guangdong Province for two years starting in 1999 for fraud, according to the report.
She struggled for life after she was released. But several years later, Li became well-known as part of a rags-to-riches story in which she built up a multimillion-yuan business after starting with a trading company in 2006, the report said.
In 2008, Li founded Xiamen Mingda Real Estate Investment Group Co Ltd and fabricated projects in the cities of Beijing, Shenyang, Tianjin and Nanchong to entice investment.
Li was caught in Shanghai three weeks ago and escorted back to Xiamen, police said.
- Lawyer must apologize to killer's dad, court says
THE lawyer of a murder victim in northwest China's Shaanxi Province was sentenced yesterday to pay the killer's father 1 yuan (16 US cents) compensation for mental anguish.
Zhang Xian was ordered to pay the money and publish a letter of apology on Sina Weibo, a major Chinese microblogging site, for concessive 30 days for the anguish that Yao Qingwei suffered when Zhang smeared his family's reputation during his son's trial.
The content of the apology letter would be censored by the court and Zhang couldn't delete the letter on Weibo, the Xi'an Yanta District People's Court said.
The court ordered all of Zhang's frivolous, irresponsible and inappropriate public comments regarding the murderer, Yao Jiaxin, should be taken off the Internet within three days, China Central Television Station reported.
The 21-year-old student of the Xi'an Conservatory of Music was executed in June 2011 for stabbing to death a woman, Zhang Miao, he had hit with his car, in order to cover up the October 2010 accident.
But Zhang, a relative of the victim, fanned public anger to influence media coverage of the trial by spreading rumors that Yao's family was related to powerful high-ranking officials or rich business people, Yao said, adding that he was a retired military man and ordinary worker on an average income.
The father filed a lawsuit against Zhang in August 2011, demanding the lawyer cease his defamatory remarks and false allegations.
- China will send first rover to moon in 2013
CHINA will launch its third lunar probe, Chang'e-3, to land on the moon in the second half of 2013, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence has announced.
The launch of the Chang'e-3, named after the Chinese goddess of the moon, is part of the second step of China's three-phrase lunar probe project of orbiting, landing and returning, the administration said.
The Chang'e-3 will release the country's first moon rover to patrol the lunar surface after it makes a soft landing on the moon, said Ye Peijian, chief commander of the Chang'e-2 and Chang'e-3 missions.
It is expected to be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
"The probe will take more scientific equipment than its predecessors mainly to detect, collect and analyze samples on the moon," Ye said.
The Chang'e-3 will also observe space from the lunar surface as the lack of atmosphere allows better viewing than from Earth, Ye said.
The rover will patrol the surface for at least three months with the 100-kilogram vehicle being controlled by scientists on Earth, Ye said.
"It will be the most difficult part of the mission as the rover must avoid dropping into big holes on the moon and climb over some small pits and rocks," he added.
Shanghai showcased a moon rover model, the MR-3, in 2008, mainly designed by the Shanghai Academy of Aerospace Industry.
However, it is unclear whether this will be the rover taken to the moon by the Chang'e-3.
The rover will have an expandable solar power plate to absorb the sun's energy during the day and draw back at night to wrap around the equipment to protect it from temperatures of minus 170 degrees Celsius.
A telescope in Sheshan Hill in suburban Shanghai, Asia's biggest radio telescope, will track the Chang'e-3 probes.
The telescope, to be as large as eight basketball courts with a diameter of 65 meters and a height of 70 meters, will be erected ! in Septe mber.
China launched the Chang'e-1 in 2007 and the Chang'e-2 in 2010.
- Fujian Province braces for approaching Typhoon Saola
Local officers help fishermen go back to port as Typhoon Saola approaches in coastal regions of Jincheng Village of Fuqing, southeast China's Fujian Province, yesterday. Typhoon Saola, the ninth typhoon of the year, is expected to reach seas off the northeast coast of Taiwan tomorrow and approach Fujian Province and east China's Zhejiang Province on Friday. Fujian Province has started to prepare to respond to possible disasters brought about by the typhoon, local authorities said yesterday.
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- Buffalo in town@Shanghai
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