China Chronicles September 25, 2012
- Xi'an police pressure rioters to surrender
POLICE in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, yesterday published the photos of nine suspects who committed vandalism during an anti-Japanese protest.
Police urged the suspects to turn themselves in for a lenient punishment and called on local residents to provide clues to their whereabouts.
The nine suspects were caught by surveillance cameras as they smashed cars and damaged other people's properties during the September 15 protest against Japan's illegal purchase of China's Diaoyu Islands.
Protests took place in many Chinese cities on September 15 and 16. Some turned violent as rioters smashed Japanese-made cars and Japanese-run businesses, forcing many Japanese companies to suspend their operation in China.
- Taiwanese fishing boats leave Diaoyu Islands after protest
TAIWANESE fishing boats that sailed to the Diaoyu Islands to protest Japan's "purchase" of part of the islands completed their voyage this morning and have set sail for home.
Local media reported that the boats finished their protest at 9:15 am and are expected to return to a port in northeast Taiwan's Yilan county at noon tomorrow.
The boats assembled about 20 nautical miles away from the Diaoyu Islands at 5 am today. They then made their way to the islands while evading Japanese vessels that attempted to stop them with water cannons, pushing to an area located three nautical miles away from the islands.
Although the boats originally numbered 75, they were joined at sea by other boats from different parts of Taiwan, raising the total number to about 100 vessels.
Organizers said the voyage was made to protect Taiwanese fishing rights in nearby waters and to protest Japan's "purchase" of part of the Diaoyu Islands.
The Japanese government announced a plan to "purchase" part of the islands earlier this month, despite opposition from the Chinese government. Local authorities in Taiwan have also protested the move.
- 13 dead, 7 trapped in coal mine accident in NW China
THIRTEEN miners were confirmed dead and seven remained trapped after a locomotive that transported them to ground slipped down a pit in northwest China's Gansu Province early this morning, the provincial administration of work safety said.
The locomotive with 34 workers aboard its two carriages slipped down and overturned 150 meters further at 0:25 am when a steel wire powering the vehicle up a 28-degree 704-meter-long slope broke 80 meters away from the entrance of a colliery pit in the city of Baiyin, the agency said in a new update.
A total of 27 workers at the Qusheng Coal Mining Co. have been taken out of the pit, but 13 of them were dead, it said.
The rescue operation is still underway.
The coal mine, which began operation in 2003, has a designed annual production capacity of 90,000 tons.
- 75 Taiwan fishing boats sail to Diaoyu Islands
A fisherfolk waits to leave for China's Diaoyu Islands at a port in Yilan, southeast China's Taiwan, yesterday. A total of 75 fishing boats from Taiwan sailed to the Diaoyu Islands yesterday afternoon from the port in Yilan. The boats will sail around the Diaoyu Islands in a move to protect the fishing rights in nearby waters.
- 浙江西塘@9
- China's surveillance ships enter waters near Diaoyu Islands
TWO Chinese marine surveillance ships sailed into waters near the Diaoyu Islands again yesterday to undertake a rights defence patrol and carry out law enforcement activities, the State Oceanic Administration of China said.
It was the second time Chinese ships had entered the area near the islands after surveillance ships sailed there last Tuesday to exercise China's administrative jurisdiction over the islands.
"The Haijian 46 and Haijian 66 are carrying out the legitimate activities in accordance with relevant laws of the People's Republic of China," the administration said in a statement.
Five Chinese ships were patrolling around the islands yesterday morning and two entered an area 12 nautical miles from the islands that was also "patrolled" by Japanese ships at around 6am, Japan's coast guard said.
The Japanese ships reacted with "high alert" measures to ask the Chinese ships to leave via radio but this was rejected.
"China has just exercised its administrative jurisdiction over the islands and its surrounding waters by conducting the patrol," the administration said.
Besides the two surveillance ships, there were nine Chinese fishery patrol ships near the islands.
Meanwhile, a group of fishermen from Taiwan said that as many as 100 boats escorted by 10 Taiwan Coast Guard vessels were headed for the area yesterday. Taiwan television showed boats bound for the islands leaving the port of Suao in heavy rain. News reports said bad weather could delay their arrival, which had been expected late last night or early this morning.
The Taiwan fishing group said their boats would sail around the islands to reassert their right to fish there and did not rule out trying to land on the rocky isles, Reuters reported.
Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated sharply after Japan illegally bought the islands from so-called private owners earlier this month, sparking anti-Japanese protests across China.
Worries are simmering that the row could hurt th! e economic ties. China is Japan's largest trading partner. In 2011, their bilateral trade grew 14.3 percent to a record US$345 billion.
Tokyo's Nikkei China 50 index, composed of stocks of Japanese companies with significant exposure to the world's second-largest economy, has shed around 1.3 percent on concerns over the dispute.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch said Japanese carmakers saw a 90 percent drop in showroom traffic and a 60 percent fall in sales in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, the largest market for Japanese brands, since the beginning of the anti-Japan protests, according to Reuters.
Some 40 Japanese troops and 2,200 US Marines, meanwhile, are conducting a joint drill on and around the US territory of Guam aimed at improving their ability to defend remote islands, Japan's defence ministry said.
The exercise which began on August 21, runs until Wednesday.
- Japanese official in Beijing for talks aimed at mending ties
THE Japanese government has sent its deputy foreign minister to China on a two-day trip to repair ties frayed over the Diaoyu Islands.
Chikao Kawai arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon, and is expected to hold talks today with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun.
"As requested by the Japanese, China agrees to receive Kawai to visit from September 24 to 25," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei announced at a press conference yesterday.
"China will state its solemn position on the Diaoyu Islands, urge the Japanese to correct its wrongdoing and make efforts to improve ties," Hong said.
- 5 protest suspects surrender
FIVE people in south China's Shenzhen City have turned themselves in to police after local authorities received tip-offs regarding property damage during anti-Japanese protests earlier in the month.
On Saturday, police posted photos of 20 people alleged to have destroyed public and private property during the protests on September 16.
The local police bureau said it had solid evidence the 20 had committed vandalism, and urged them to surrender to the police. It also offered a reward for any information.
By Sunday night, the authorities had received more than 350 phone calls offering information on the 20 suspects and five of them had since turned themselves in, the bureau said yesterday.
Protests flared in dozens of Chinese cities on the weekend of September 15 and 16, just days after the Japanese government's Diaoyu Islands "purchase."
Some protests turned violent, resulting in damage to Japanese cars and businesses and the temporary closure of Japanese-funded companies.
A man surnamed Li, one of the five who surrendered, told reporters he regretted vandalizing a police vehicle.
Another suspect, surnamed Wang, said he regretted vandalizing a Honda vehicle.
In northwest China's Xi'an City, police are seeking information they hope will lead to the arrest of a man who turned to violence during a September 15 protest. Police published photos online of a man smashing a Toyota car with a steel lock.
He is also said to have attacked its owner, leaving him unconscious for days.
- Combat role nears for aircraft carrier, say experts
CHINA'S first aircraft carrier could soon be accompanied by destroyers and frigates to form an aircraft carrier fleet with combat abilities, Chinese military officials and experts said yesterday.
The Liaoning held a flag-raising ceremony on Sunday afternoon in an indication that the day for its official commissioning was fast approaching.
The ceremony came as tensions with Japan rose over the Diaoyu Islands.
"China will have more variable ways, both strong and soft, to solve the disputes in the East and South China seas," Qiao Liang, an air force major general, said yesterday.
Li Jie, a researcher with the China Navy Military Academy, also said the aircraft carrier would play an important role in China's handling of island disputes and safeguarding its maritime interests.
China's newly developed 052D missile destroyers will be the most suitable company for the aircraft carrier, said Hu Siyuan, a professor with the National Defense University PLA China.
The 160-meter-long destroyer is equipped with 130 millimeter caliber cannon and has two vertical launch systems to set off Redflag-9B missiles.
Hu said the destroyer is similar to the US Aegis-level destroyers in fighting ability and more powerful than the Japanese navy's major warships.
Meanwhile, the Jiang Kai-II frigate which has a helicopter pad, may also join the carrier fleet. The No. 88 ship that accompanied the carrier during its sea trials is expected to be its depot ship.
China's J-15 fighters that analysts say are match for US F-18 Hornet fighters would probably be used on the carrier. Many photographs have been published that show the plane on the carrier's deck.
The carrier will also be equipped with a defense system able to launch attacks on missiles, aircraft and approaching vessels, experts have said.
A US aircraft carrier is normally accompanied by two missile cruisers, two frigates, two nuclear-driven submarines and a depot ship.
"The carrier will be most pr! obably under the direct orders of the Chinese Navy headquarters rather than by the major Navy forces and be commissioned in different sea territories of China," Hu said.
China has three major Naval forces - the East China Sea, North China Sea and South China Sea fleets. Li has also said the vessel could be commissioned in different fleets.
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 successfully tested in both the Yellow and Bohai seas.
- 30 mainland tourists hurtin Taiwan coach crash
THIRTY tourists from the Chinese mainland were injured when their coach overturned in Taiwan's eastern Hualien County yesterday afternoon.
Four were seriously hurt.
Among the seriously injured was 57-year-old Zhai Shuangjing, who suffered internal bleeding in her chest.
Zhai's husband, Jiao Lianhe, suffered minor injuries. He accompanied her as she was transferred to Hualien Hospital for treatment.
Another two female tourists, identified as Liu Guanglan, 57, and Hou Guizhi, 76, suffered serious injuries in the chest and head respectively.
A fourth tourist, Liu Tieji, 51, sustained a serious back injury.
The other tourists, who suffered various minor injuries in the accident, are being treated in medical facilities in Hualien County.
Four tourists in the group were unhurt.
Authorities said the tourists were part of a 35-person tour group that was organized by the Beijing-based China International Travel Service.
Their coach overturned at around 4:20pm.
Late last night, local traffic authorities clarified that one tourist did not make the trip, leaving the total number of tourists in the group at 34.
The tour group had arrived in Taiwan on September 20 and had initially planned to leave the island for home this Thursday.
Extra staff have arrived at the hospital to assist in various matters after the accident, according to local authorities.
- 40 hurt in brawl at plant that assembles iPhone 5
Forty people were injured in a brawl which broke out at a Foxconn factory in north China's Taiyuan City on Sunday night.
Three are in a serious condition, but most of the others were only slightly injured, a government official in Taiyuan said yesterday.
The Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles Apple's new iPhone 5 and makes components for top global electronics companies, said the plant had been closed while an investigation was carried out.
It was not immediately clear how long the shutdown would last at the plant, which employs about 79,000 people.
"The plant is closed today for investigation," Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo told Reuters yesterday. "We want to offer enough time for workers to calm down."
The Taiyuan government official, however, denied media reports that there had been a halt in the plant's production work, and said the factory was still in operation yesterday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Police said workers began arguing over a personal matter at around 11pm on Sunday and the situation soon erupted into an all-out brawl involving around 2,000 workers. Pictures posted online showed windows and doors smashed and cars overturned.
Around 5,000 riot police were mobilized to quell the violence, Xinhua said.
An initial investigation found that workers from Shandong Province had clashed with others from Henan Province.
In a statement yesterday, Foxconn said the incident escalated from what it called a personal dispute between several employees in a privately managed dormitory, and was brought under control by local police at around 3am.
"The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related," Foxconn said.
Online comments, however, suggested the factory's security guards may have been to blame, Reuters said.
In a Weibo posting, Jo-Liang said four or five security guards beat a worker almost ! to death, while another user, Fan de Sa Hai, quoted a friend from Taiyuan as saying guards beat up two workers from Henan, which led other workers to set quilts on fire and toss them out of dormitory windows.
The unrest was the latest in a string of incidents at plants run by Foxconn, the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co and the world's largest contract maker of electronic goods.
Drawing attention as a supplier and assembler for Apple products, the Taiwan-based company has faced allegations of poor conditions and mistreatment of workers at its operations on China's mainland where it employs a total of about 1 million workers, and it has been spending heavily recently to improve working conditions and raise wages.
Foxconn does not confirm which of its plants supply Apple, but an employee told Reuters that the Taiyuan plant is among those that assemble and make parts for Apple's latest iPhone 5.
- Chongqing's ex-police chief jailed for 15 years
The former police chief of Chongqing City was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday on charges of defecting, abuse of power, taking bribes and other crimes.
Wang Lijun told the court he would not appeal the sentence, which was lighter than the 20-year term suggested in sentencing guidelines.
The Chengdu City Intermediate People's Court in southwest China's Sichuan Province noted Wang's cooperation in exposing the crimes of others, especially in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood by the wife of Chongqing's former Party chief Bo Xilai, actions which merited a lighter sentence.
The court heard that on November 15, 2011, Heywood was found dead in his hotel room in Chongqing.
Wang told the court that Bogu Kailai had told him she poisoned Heywood, but he concealed the fact from officers he assigned to the case.
However, in February this year, after Wang's relationship with Bogu soured, Wang revealed Bogu's involvement. Police re-investigated and Bogu was charged.
Earlier that month, Wang's positions and duties had been adjusted and his close aids illegally interrogated, the court heard, and that was when Wang entered the US Consulate General in Chengdu asking for political asylum.
The court also heard that from January 2010 to February 2012, when director of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, Wang instructed staff to use technical investigation measures against many people without obtaining legal approval from authorities.
From September 2008 to November 2009, Wang, as executive deputy chief and then chief of Chongqing Public Security Bureau, had accepted bribes to illegally release four suspects who had been detained, the court found.
Wang's actions in reporting the involvement of Bogu in Heywood's murder, providing evidence and willingly assisting in the reinvestigation, played a key role in cracking the case, the court said, and the penalty for the crime of bending the law for selfish ends should be lighter.
After h! is defection, Wang turned himself in and confessed to his crimes, which also merited a lighter penalty.
He also produced important clues for exposing serious offenses committed by others.
This also merited a lighter penalty, the court ruled yesterday.
- Probe at kindergarten over charging VIP fees
BEIJING police are investigating a privately owned kindergarten said to have illegally collected money from parents under the name of VIP fees.
It is alleged that parents were told to pay 150,000 (US$23,790) to 300,000 yuan to win a place for their children. In return, education fees would be waived.
The sum would be returned when the children left the school, but until then the kindergarten could use the money as it saw fit, yesterday's Legal Evening News reported.
But when parents heard that the contract between the Tongzhou District Harvard Cradle Kindergarten and a local property company was about to end, they asked for their money to be returned to them.
According to the newspaper that was rejected and they were told they would have to pay education fees if they wanted their money ahead of time.
But the kindergarten head surnamed Wang dismissed the allegation, saying only one parent didn't get his money back. He refused to say why he had raised funds in this way, the paper said.
An official with the Tongzhou education commission office said: "We are just in charge of the public-owned kindergartens. The pricing of the private-run ones is the job of pricing departments."
Pang Biao, a Beijing lawyer, said that by raising funds and not charging fees it was a case of illegal fundraising.
- Dafosi temple yard
Shanghai 2007 has added a photo to the pool:
- Dafosi Yellow corridor
Shanghai 2007 has added a photo to the pool:
- Tourist View 1
Comments