China Chronicles July 26, 2012
- Man held in connection with Hangzhou murder
A MAN who allegedly robbed 2,000 yuan (US$313) from a woman and then killed her in downtown Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, was detained in Shanghai last night.
Chen Qianqian, 21, of Jiangsu Province native, told police he decided to commit the robbery after he had spent all his money. He used a fruit knife to stab the victim in a greenery area in West Lake Avenue and took away 2,000 yuan on July 23, Hangzhou police said today on its official microblog.
Chen then fled to Shanghai and was seized by police around 10pm last night. The 23-year-old victim, surnamed Wu, was a staff worker at a KTV club.
Witnesses who discovered her body claimed her pants had been taken off and suspected she was raped before being murdered. - Former drug watchdog official jailed for corruption
A FORMER top official with China's drug watchdog has been sentenced to 17 years behind bars for taking bribes, fabricating charges against a superior and illegally selling a book he has written.
Zhang Jingli, former deputy director of the State Food and Drug Administration, asked for 1.17 million yuan (US$183,105) from drug companies and offered them priorities in the business between 2005 and 2010, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court has heard.
The 56-year-old man gained most of money by having companies buy his book - "Shou Shi Bu Yuan," a health guide focused on traditional methods – which he was not licensed to publish and sell, the Beijing News cited the court as saying.
Zhang and Liao Hongbing, a Beijing entrepreneur, has published a total of 43,000 books, with each costing nearly 368 yuan, and raised more than 16 million yuan of illicit money from 2008 and 2010.
The court also said Zhang instructed Liao, Yang Jun and Pan Jingping, to send more than 1,300 letters to central authorities containing false accusations against Shao Mingli, director of the FDA.
Liao was sentenced to six years while Yang and Pan received jail terms of one year and eight months each.
- Beijing weather bureau to send SMS alerts
BEIJING Meteorological Bureau will send text messages to alert residents before extreme weather conditions after the capital city suffered the worst downpour in six decades over the weekend which left at least 37 dead.
The weather bureau has cooperated with China's three major telecom companies to send alerts about treacherous weather conditions which threatens people's lives and assets, said Ding Deping, director of the bureau, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
As of 8pm yesterday, 11.7 million text messages about the blue alert for heavy rains have been sent to Beijing residents, Ding said.
Meanwhile, authorities yesterday confirmed that three had drowned on a highway linking Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau and the highway pumps were submerged by the floodwater, which caused them to shut down.
Their bodies were found in the area on July 22 and no more new casualties were discovered after the highway resumed to traffic on July 24.
Around 900 meters of the Nangangwa section of the highway was inundated by the downpour with the average depth of floodwater at 4 meters and the deepest at 6 meters, completely blocking the traffic artery, said Li Xiaosong, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Committee of Transport, at a press conference, last night.
A total of 23,000 cubic meters of water were pumped and 3,000 cubic meters of mud cleared up in the area. More than 120 vehicles were found in the water, Li said.
But three water pumps were completely submerged by the floodwater and became out of work.
- Left-behind children experience work of firefighters
A boy tries to operate a fire hose at a fire brigade in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, yesterday. A total of 10 left-behind children experienced the work of firefighters as they visited a fire brigade here on Wednesday.
- Plane in emergency landing in Hangzhou
A PASSENGER plane made an emergency landing in Hangzhou last night after smoke appeared in the cabin, terrifying passengers on the China Southern Airlines flight.
No one was injured during the incident and the plane landed safely.
Later, the airline said the smoke had been thick mist formed due to an air-conditioner malfunction.
The smoke was detected in the front cabin area at around 5pm about eight minutes after the Airbus 319 plane with 105 passengers onboard took off from Xiaoshan International Airport, said Ruan Zhouchang, the airport's media center director.
The plane turned back to the airport where it made an emergency landing.
"We were all freaked out when the smoke appeared and a woman sitting beside me immediately started crying," a woman passenger said. "I wanted to calm her down but found myself also frightened."
She said the plane had been delayed for four hours in Hangzhou and that had already made passengers feel anxious.
At least five fire trucks were sent to the scene but there was no fire on the plane, passengers said.
Flight CZ6199 left Daqing in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and was heading for the southern city of Guangzhou with a stopover in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province.
"Maintenance workers have confirmed it was the air cycling machine that malfunctioned and sent a thick mist in the cabin," a China Southern Airlines spokesman said.
- 31 dead in Hebei
RAINSTORMS that hit north China's Hebei Province over the weekend have killed 31 people, provincial authorities said yesterday.
As of 8am, 20 people were still missing after floods and hail hit 58 counties in the province that borders Beijing. A total of 33,586 houses collapsed and 161,700 hectares of farmland were damaged. A relief effort is under way.
- Safety hammers selling out after Beijing downpour
AFTER the Chinese capital suffered its worst downpour in six decades on Saturday, Beijing's residents are making sure they know how to survive such treacherous weather in future.
The downpour left at least 37 people dead, including a 34-year-old man who failed to escape his car after it became submerged in floodwater.
Rescuers later found he had fractured his skull, probably in attempting to smash open the car's window.
The man's death triggered online discussions about how to escape a car in such a situation.
Videos and pictures have sprung up on the Internet to equip residents with survival skills. A search for "car survival" produced millions of results.
Many posts suggested people keep an emergency hammer or scissors in their cars.
Since the rainstorm, emergency hammers have been in high demand at online stores such as Taobao and 360buy. On Taobao.com, car hammers sales surged by 598 percent year on year, while the search volume for life-saving hammers saw a 17-fold increase.
Beijing residents are the main customers, with more than 1,080 people having bought hammers on Taobao from Saturday to Monday.
"I hope I don't need to use the hammer, but ensuring that I have one is the responsible thing to do for my family and myself," said a man surnamed Li, who works in a college in east Beijing. He bought a hammer after he heard about the man drowning in his car.
"The public's discussion of survival skills is good, which indicates people's enhanced safety awareness," said Professor Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociologist with the Renmin University of China.
"But to popularize first-aid knowledge among the people and give everyone more opportunities to survive in disasters is the government's duty to the public," said Zhou, adding that people should not rely on online gossip.
Torrential rain has ravaged 22 provincial-level regions in China since July 20, leaving 111 people dead and another 47 missing, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.
Th! e rains have also driven more insurance companies to stop car insurance concerning water damage, which had not been regarded as a must in city noted for its dry weather.
A telephone operator at China Pacific Insurance Co Ltd said she had been busy with queries about water-damaged engines recently.
The Beijing branch of China Insurance Regulatory Commission said auto insurance companies in Beijing received 27,459 claims in three days, worth a total of 220 million yuan (US$34.4 million).
- Urban jobless rate stays at 4.1% for 8th quarter
CHINA'S urban registered unemployment rate was 4.1 percent at the end of June, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said yesterday.
It was unchanged for the eighth consecutive quarter during the April-June period, and was below the government's 4.6-percent annual target set for this year.
China created 6.94 million new jobs in urban areas in the first half of the year, fulfilling 77 percent of its annual target of creating 9 million new jobs, ministry spokesman Yin Chengji told reporters.
A total of 2.94 million laid-off workers were re-employed in the first six months, meeting 59 percent of the annual target to have 5 million unemployed workers move back into jobs, Yin added.
The country's central and western regions were a major force in creating jobs in the first half as their economies had kept growing by more than 10 percent despite the overall slowdown, Yin said.
Labor-intensive industries have been gradually moving to the central and western areas from eastern coastal regions, as part of the country's efforts to upgrade its industries.
However, experts are warning that job cuts may be inevitable if external demand remains sluggish.
- Road in a rush after students risk their lives
WORKERS are rushing to build a road to connect an isolated village with a major highway in northwest China's Gansu Province after pictures were posted online showing students holding on to a rope to cross a fast-flowing river, arousing concern for their safety.
The 5-meter wide road, suitable for motor vehicles, will connect with the mountainous village of Shichuanba, in about 20 days, the local government said.
Earlier this month, villagers uploaded photos of students climbing along a rope to cross the river, saying they had to use this dangerous route to go to school because their only bridge had been destroyed by floods two years ago.
The posts, which accused the local government of failing to honor its commitment to build a new bridge, attracted media attention and sparked widespread anger at the government's lack of action and concern for the students' safety.
The original bridge was financed and built by villagers in 2009. It was destroyed in August 2010 by the torrential rains that triggered the Zhouqu mudslides about 120 kilometers upstream on the Bailongjiang River. More than 1,430 people died in the mudslides and 331 others were reported missing.
After the bridge was destroyed, some villagers looking for a more convenient transportation route came up with the risky rope solution.
An official with the government of Wenxian County, which administers the village, said the villagers did not necessarily need to use the rope to reach the main road, most villagers walked 30 minutes to another bridge.
The new road, which is costing 35,000 yuan (US$5,800), will greatly reduce travel time to the main road, as villagers will be able to use motor vehicles, said Wang Jinliang, Party chief of the town of Sheshu, which administers the village.
Currently the village has just one small pedestrian track.
The local government could not currently afford a new bridge, which is estimated to cost 2.6 million yuan, Wang said. However, a new bridge is in th! e county's plan.
Wenxian still has 10 villages of 298 communities that do not have driveable roads.
Transport has always posed difficulties in the mountainous area, and has hindered development of the local economy, said Shang Qiwen, director of the county's poverty relief office.
Shang said 60 percent of Wenxian's 210,000 rural residents lived below the national poverty line, and most live deep in the mountains where means of transportation are poor.
- Patient on trial over fatal attack on hospital doctor
A MAN charged with murdering a doctor and injuring three others at a hospital in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, went on trial at the city's intermediate people's court yesterday.
The court heard that Wang Hao, a 28-year-old intern, died when 17-year-old Li Mengnan broke into the office of the rheumatism immunity department of the No. 1 Hospital affiliated to Harbin Medical University and cut him on the neck with a knife.
Three other doctors were injured during the attack, the court heard.
The court was told that Li told an earlier investigation that he held a grudge about his medical treatment at the hospital and carried out the attack in revenge.
Li was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a form of arthritis which most often affects the spine, and stayed in the hospital for a week in April 2011. In March this year, Li visited the hospital for a review and asked for a specific drug, Remicade.
But Zhao Yanping, Li's doctor and deputy chief of the department, said Li's tuberculosis need to be treated first as the drug would have side-effects on his lungs.
Li thought this meant Zhao didn't want to handle his case and, angered at this, bought a knife, went back to the hospital and attacked the doctors, the court heard.
"I came to the hospital for the purpose of getting Remicade treatment, but they didn't give it to me," Li told Xinhua news agency before yesterday's hearing.
During the court proceedings, Wang's parents asked for compensation of 864,400 yuan (US$135,292).
Prosecutors didn't call for a specific sentence but said that Li, if found guilty, could receive a lighter sentence since he was 17 at the time of the alleged offense.
Li celebrated his 18th birthday in detention in May.
The court didn't announce a verdict in the case yesterday.
- Baby with neck wound found in dumpster
AN ABANDONED baby girl was found in a trash can by a rubbish collector in Anshan, northeast China's Liaoning Province on July 23th.
To everyone's surprise she had an 8-centimeter-long wound to her throat, deep enough to reach her windpipe, www.nen.com.cn reported today.
A man surnamed Huang found the baby at about 8am and the baby received simple treatment at a nearby clinic that found her to be a prematurely born.
The wound on the baby's throat was finally treated during an operation late that day in Anshan Central Hospital. The physician-in-charge said the wound was about 8cm long and the baby was lucky that her windpipe was not pierced. The operation has been a success, the hospital said.
The hospital placed the baby in an incubator and is working to prevent infection.
Without exception, all Anshan local residents expressed their sympathy as well as disgust at the case. The police have begun an investigation and said the guilty person may face abandonment and attempted murder charges.
- Baby with neck wound found in dumpster
AN ABANDONED baby girl was found in a trash can by a rubbish collector in Anshan, northeast China's Liaoning Province on July 23th.
To everyone's surprise she had an 8-centimeter-long wound to her throat, deep enough to reach her windpipe, www.nen.com.cn reported today.
A man surnamed Huang found the baby at about 8am and the baby received simple treatment at a nearby clinic that found her to be a prematurely born.
The wound on the baby's throat was finally treated during an operation late that day in Anshan Central Hospital. The physician-in-charge said the wound was about 8cm long and the baby was lucky that her windpipe was not pierced. The operation has been a success, the hospital said.
The hospital placed the baby in an incubator and is working to prevent infection.
Without exception, all Anshan local residents expressed their sympathy as well as disgust at the case. The police have begun an investigation and said the guilty person may face abandonment and attempted murder charges.
- P7220507
- 18-year-old charged with murder of doctors
AN 18-year-old man charged with murder stood on trial today for attacking medical staffs in a hospital in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, in March, resulting in one dead and three injured.
The suspect Li Mengnan, was trialed at Harbin Intermediate People's Court this morning, China National Radio reported.
Prosecutors said Li, a native from north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, broke into the office of the rheumatism immunity department of the No. 1 Hospital affiliated to Harbin Medical University with a knife about 5pm on March 22 and attacked the doctors there.
Wang Hao, a 28-year-old intern doctor was killed as Li slashed his neck with the knife. Three other medical staffs were injured, the court heard.
In earlier investigations, Li said he held a grudge about his medical treatment at the hospital and carried out the attack for revenge.
Wang's parents raised a compensation demand of 864,400 yuan (US$135,292) in the court.
Prosecutors didn't call for a specific sentence but said Li could receive a lighter sentence as he was under 18 when he committed the crime. Li just celebrated his 18th birthday in May, two months after the attack.
The court didn't announce a verdict today. - Taking a rest
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