China Chronicles September 26, 2012
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- Work resumes as iPhone 5 pressure blamed for brawl
A FACTORY in north China owned by the company making Apple's new iPhone 5 resumed production yesterday after a brawl by workers highlighted tensions that labor groups say were worsened by the pressure of the new iPhone launch.
Foxconn Technology Group and police said the cause of the unrest on Sunday night was under investigation, but labor activists said the rollout of the iPhone 5 had led to longer working hours and more pressure on workers.
Foxconn and police said as many as 2,000 employees were involved in the brawl and 40 people were injured.
The new phone debuted last week in the United States and eight other markets and Apple has a three to four-week backlog of online orders.
Foxconn declined to say whether its one-day suspension of production in Taiyuan City on Monday might affect supplies. It did not respond to a request for comment on the labor groups' claims.
News reports and witnesses said the violence in Taiyuan stemmed from a confrontation between a factory worker and a guard that escalated.
One employee said the violence was fueled by workers' anger at mistreatment by Foxconn security guards and managers.
"Foxconn, some supervisors, and security guards never respect us," said the employee, who asked not to be identified. "We all have this anger toward them and they (the workers) wanted to destroy things to release this anger."
Foxconn did not respond to a request for information on the status of its investigation or whether policies at the factory might change.
The company, owned by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, is the world's biggest assembler of consumer electronics, with about 1.2 million workers in factories in Taiyuan, the southern city of Shenzhen, Chengdu in the southwest and Zhengzhou in central China.
It makes iPhones and iPads for Apple and also assembles products for Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.
Labor activists say the need to ramp up iPhone 5 production had increased pressure on Foxconn em! ployees.
"Because of the launch of the iPhone 5, the workload of workers suddenly surges," said a Hong Kong group, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, in a report this month.
It said some employees interviewed at the Zhengzhou factory had not had a day off in the previous 30 days.
Foxconn has declined to say which products are made in each factory but another group, China Labor Watch, said the Taiyuan facility, which employs 79,000 people, is assembling the new iPhone 5.
The group, based in New York City, complained that employees suffer "verbal and physical abuse" by guards.
"These workers must be treated with respect," it said in a statement. "And both Apple and Foxconn, with billions of dollars in profits every year, have both a legal and ethical obligation to uphold the rights of these workers."
Foxconn raised minimum pay and promised in March to limit hours after an auditor hired by Apple found Foxconn employees were regularly required to work more than 60 hours a week.
That review followed a number of suicides at Foxconn facilities - about a dozen since 2010 - and an explosion at an iPad-making plant in Chengdu in May 2011 that killed four employees.
Foxconn's facilities are exceptionally large by the standards of a Chinese electronics industry in which most manufacturers employ hundreds or thousands of workers. Its flagship mainland factory in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, has 250,000 workers. The Chengdu site has 100,000 and the company has said the Zhengzhou factory might eventually employ 300,000.
Foxconn has also faced criticism in the past over the conduct of its security guards.
In 2010, Foxconn's parent company pledged that its guards would obey the law and refrain from using threats or harassment after a videotape showing several of them beating workers was circulated on the Internet.
"Workers are expected to obey their manager at all times, not to question but simply do what they are told," said Geoffrey Croth! all, comm! unications director for China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong organization that promotes employee rights in China. "That atmosphere is not conducive to a happy or contented workforce. It's a very dehumanizing way of treating workers."
- Philippines agrees to repay Chinese loan
THE Philippine government will comply with a Chinese demand for repayment of a US$500 million loan for a stalled railway, an official said yesterday.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said he told Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying during a meeting in China over the weekend that the Philippines planned to repay the loan in two years. The Philippines has the funds and is negotiating the terms, he said.
The high-speed railway was to have linked Manila with a northern province and eventually with the former US Clark Air Base, which President Benigno Aquino III's administration plans to convert into the country's main airport. The US abandoned Clark after it was damaged by the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.
The long-delayed railway was one of a number of infrastructure projects Aquino ordered reviewed when he took power in 2010 to ensure they were not tainted by corruption. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that a lower court could hear allegations that the railway project was illegal because it was awarded without competitive bidding.
It is not clear what happened to the funds or how much has been used for the railway.
Roxas said Aquino's administration wants to continue the project if the contract can be renegotiated to conform with Philippine laws. But he said Chinese officials demanded earlier this year that the loan be repaid because the project had stalled.
China's demand coincided with a sea standoff between Chinese and Philippine vessels over the Huangyan Island in the South China Sea, but Roxas said he believed Beijing's decision was not linked.
Roxas said he met separately with Vice President Xi Jinping to assure him that Manila wants to bolster ties with China despite the disputes over the island.
"What's important is that we stop the deterioration, that we establish the other linkages such as in trade and investment," Roxas said. "We fix what we can fix. We remove as many of the irritants as we can so that there's no further deterior! ation."
- Bikinis hit the wrong note with opera fans
BEAUTY pageant contestants wearing bikinis designed with Peking Opera elements have upset many Internet users, who say the combination is spoiling the "quintessence" of Chinese culture.
Pictures of bikini-clad girls wearing Peking Opera headwear and performing on stage began circulating widely on the Internet this week following an announcement in Beijing of preparations for the finals of the 37th Miss Bikini International contest.
An overwhelming majority of online comments criticized the idea as a clumsy attempt to incorporate Chinese traditional elements into pop culture without paying due respect to the essence of Peking Opera, a 200-year-old form of theater that combines music, vocal performance, dance and acrobatics.
One Internet user commented on Weibo: "It may be a clever idea of commercial promotion, but to Peking Opera, the 'quintessence' of Chinese culture, it's an insult."
Another commented: "The beauty of Peking Opera should definitely not be presented with naked skin. Peking Opera-themed bikinis are vulgar."
Li Yulong, chairman of the contest's organizing committee, said the pictures were taken in April at a celebration performed by previous winners. The intention was to make the costumes more innovative and at the same time present traditional Chinese culture to foreign audiences.
His explanation was echoed by a smaller camp of Internet users who argued the act was just like fashion designers incorporating Chinese cultural elements into catwalk shows and that it was an effective way to attract attention to the art form. "Bodies are also a form of art. Only people with dirty minds see obscenity," one wrote.
Arising in Beijing in the late 18th century, Peking Opera fully developed in the 19th century and flourished in the 20th. However, after its heyday during the late 1970s and early 1980s, it gradually declined.
Chen Changwen, a researcher for the Chinese Theater Society, said innovation is a must for Peking Opera, but too bold an ide! a like the bikini one can do little to help the opera modernize or go global.
"At a time of rapid economic development and increasing cultural exchange, countries should pay even more attention to preserving their cultural traditions, particularly for an ancient civilization like China," Chen said.
- China's aircraft carrier entering active service
China's first aircraft carrier officially entered service yesterday, making China the 10th country in the world to have such a vessel in active service.
The Ministry of National Defense said the carrier, Liaoning, would "raise the overall operational strength of the Chinese navy."
In a statement after a ceremony overseen by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in the ship's home port in Dalian, the ministry said: "It has important significance in effectively safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development benefits, and advancing world peace and common development."
Zhang Zheng, a 43-year-old senior colonel in the navy and a former student of military academies in the UK, has been named the Liaoning's commanding officer. Zhang, who was born in east China's Zhejiang Province, is a former frigate and destroyer commander.
The Liaoning was refitted from the former Soviet navy's unfinished Varyag after the Admiral Kuznetsov class carrier was bought from Ukraine in 1998 as an empty shell.
Renamed Liaoning after the northeastern province where it underwent a 10-year refurbishment program, it began sea trials in August 2011. All weapons and radar systems and other equipment on board were made in China.
So far, 10 trial runs of the aircraft carrier have tested its propulsion, communications and navigation systems. Chinese military analysts also believe that launching and recovering fixed-wing aircraft at sea, a complicated procedure, had also taken place during the trials.
The Central Military Commission said the Liaoning would continue to be used for scientific research purposes, as well as military training, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. It would be used to master the technology for more advanced carriers and to train personnel on how to operate such a craft in a battle group and with vessels from other nation's navies, said retired Rear Admiral Yang Yi. "When China has a more balanced and powerful navy, the regional situation will ! be more stable as various forces that threaten regional peace will no longer dare to act rashly," Yang said.
Military officials and experts have said the aircraft carrier could soon be accompanied by destroyers and frigates to form an aircraft carrier fleet with combat abilities.
China's J-15 fighters that analysts say are match for US F-18 Hornets would probably be used on the carrier as many photographs have been published showing the plane on the carrier's deck.
The carrier is also equipped with a defense system capable of launching attacks on missiles, aircraft and approaching vessels, said Song Zhongping, a military commentator. He estimated the ship will carry around 30 Chinese J-15 fighters and helicopters and have a crew of about 2,000.
Some 98 percent of the crew have bachelor degrees or above, Mei Wen, the newly appointed commissar of the carrier, told China News Service yesterday. "The advanced military weaponry needs high-quality talent," Mei said. Many of the crew are female, doing the same work as the men.
Xu Xiaoyan, a People's Liberation Army lieutenant general, has said China will need at least three aircraft carriers.
Major General Luo Yuan, a researcher with the PLA's Military Science Academy, said: "It is fully possible for China to build more aircraft carriers based on the country's economic power."
- Water cannon fired at Diaoyu ships
Japanese and Taiwan ships shot water cannon at each other yesterday in the latest confrontation over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
About 40 fishing boats from Taiwan and 12 patrol boats entered waters near the islands in the morning, briefly triggering an exchange of water cannon fire with Japanese coast guard ships.
Coast guard officials said the Taiwan vessels had ignored warnings to leave the area. After shooting water back at the Japanese ships, the Taiwan ships pulled back.
It was Taiwan's first foray into waters around the islands since the Japanese government "purchased" some of them two weeks ago.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai met at China's Foreign Ministry yesterday to discuss the Diaoyu situation.
After the four-hour meeting, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said both sides exchanged views "frankly and deeply" and agreed to continue discussions.
Zhang said: "Japan must banish illusions, undertake searching reflection and use concrete actions to amend its errors, returning to the consensus and understandings reached between our two countries' leaders."
He called the Japanese government's purchase of the islands "a grave trampling on historical facts and international jurisprudence."
"Given the current situation, there were severe parts," Kawai told the Kyodo News agency. "But I can say we both stated our thinking in a frank way."
While the talks were under way, the State Council, China's Cabinet, released a white paper on the history of the island group, asserting the country's indisputable sovereignty over it and its affiliated islets.
Diaoyu and its affiliated islands are an inseparable part of Chinese territory, it is China's inherent territory in all historical, geographical and legal terms, and China enjoys indisputable sovereignty over them, the white paper says.
Japanese coast guard officials said their ships fired water cannon! after the Taiwan fishing boats and government patrol boats entered the waters close to the Diaoyu Islands and ignored warnings to leave.
Japanese patrol boats only fired at fishing vessels, said Hideaki Takase, a coast guard official. "Shooting water cannon at an official vessel is like waging a war against its country," he said.
Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou supports the "protecting Diaoyutai campaign" launched by local fishermen, and offered praise to Taiwan's coast guard for its role in escorting the Taiwan vessels to the island area, his spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi said yesterday.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Tokyo requested, through diplomatic channels, that Taiwan stop entering the area near the Diaoyu Islands.
"We will continue to keep our guard up to protect the area," he said. "Japan sticks to our principle that we should resolve the issue while maintaining friendly relations between Japan and Taiwan."
Ships from the Chinese mainland have briefly entered the waters around the islands in recent weeks without being fired on. About 10 vessels are still just off the islands. The fleet size has decreased over the past few days, Japanese officials said.
"Both sides hope to see the escalation in tensions ease up because confrontation does no good to either, but so far we haven't seen any room for compromise," Liang Yunxiang, a Japan expert at Peking University, said.
- Another holiday, another railway headache
EVEN with an expanded rail network and upgraded computer systems, Chinese travelers still find it difficult to buy tickets for travel during national holidays.
The upcoming extended "Golden Week" holiday, which starts on Sunday and runs until October 7, encompassing the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, is the latest test for railway authorities.
The Ministry of Railways has upgraded its ticket booking website, 12306.cn, which opened late last year. However, it has been sharply criticized after crashing periodically amid fielding hundreds of millions of page views ahead of the holiday season.
One particular subject of complaint is the "queuing" - often, even after users submit orders, a reminder pops up saying they have to wait for half an hour to find out whether the orders are finalized, and there is no guarantee of success.
One Weibo comment likened booking a ticket on the website to climbing Mt Everest.
Passengers find it hard to understand why the website, with a reported investment of 330 million yuan (US$49 million), fails to function as efficiently as those of major online retailers handling a similar number of visits.
Questions have been raised over whether corruption has hamstrung the website project, an indication of the public's lack of confidence in the transparency of railway departments.
One rule peculiar to the Chinese railway system and widely believed to be the reason for the difficulty in obtaining tickets is that passengers are only allowed to start purchasing tickets 10 days ahead of the departure date, which always triggers a rush to booking sites on the first day that they become available.
Unlike sales of air tickets in China, train tickets may only be bought at agents designated by the ministry and its official booking website.
Loosening the monopoly and allowing professional online ticket agents to compete for the business is believed to be the key to solving the problem.
The ministry has given various r! easons why it has not been able to "open up" ticket distribution to competitors, citing management difficulties and technical barriers, but critics say it needs to work hard on its own distribution channel, probably by learning from counterparts in developed countries.
Critics say that repeated complaints whenever major holidays arrive can only undermine the public's opinion of the capabilities and credibility of the railway authorities.
- Overloading blamed for deaths of 20 coal miners
OVERLOADING was to blame for a coal mine accident that killed 20 miners early yesterday in northwest China's Gansu Province, work safety officials said.
Two carriages with 34 people on board slipped 150 meters and overturned at 0:25am when a steel cable pulling them up a 28-degree 704-meter slope broke 80 meters from the entrance to the pit in the city of Baiyin.
Company sources said the cable that snapped was replaced on July 29, but an initial investigation suggested the carriages were overloaded, Xinhua news agency reported.
All the bodies and the survivors had been brought to the surface as of midday. Most of the 14 survivors are in hospital being treated for their injuries. Three of them are in serious condition.
Officials said the coal mine, run by Qusheng Coal Mining Co, was operating illegally, as it was one of 55 that safety authorities had ordered to halt production.
The order was part of an industry reorganization that was incorporating 55 small mines into 10 larger ones, Xinhua said.
The Qusheng pit began operation in 2003 and had a designed annual output of 90,000 tons.
In the wake of the accident, the Gansu government has demanded a temporary shutdown of all mines with annual output below 300,000 tons for a safety overhaul.
The Baiyin City government has set aside 6.1 million yuan (US$966,850) as compensation for the accident victims.
- Suspect sought in college killings caught by police
A MAN suspected of killing three female students in a dormitory in central China's Henan Province was in police custody yesterday, the local Dahe Daily reported.
Officers apprehended the suspect, surnamed Zhang and born in 1991, on a long-distance bus about 2pm, according to police.
They said he broke into the girls' dormitory in Henan Polytechnic College in Zhengzhou about 5am yesterday, killing three of the students with a knife in the room and injuring another.
The survivor suffered severe injuries to her back and arms and is undergoing treatment in hospital.
Police said the suspect was not a student at the college but had got to know one of the girls online and planned the attack following a dispute.
- 11 still trapped
RESCUE efforts for 11 miners trapped for three days are being hampered by roof collapses and a dense concentration of inflammable gas in a coal mine in northeast China.
Yesterday, rescuers were still unable to reach the trapped men in the mine in Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province. They are working in shifts to clear a 20-meter tunnel blocked by fallen rubble, but another section the same length lies ahead.
Fire broke out in the shaft on Saturday, trapping 11 of 13 miners working underground. The other two escaped.
- Tourist View 3
- iPad photo
- Breast cancer mortality rate rising in China
BREAST cancer is the most common and deadly cancer among Chinese women and its mortality rate has kept rising in mainland cities in recent years, a doctor said at an Estee Lauder Pink Ribbon breast cancer awareness event.
Dr Shao Zhimin from Shanghai Tumor Hospital said a healthy lifestyle and regular medical checkup are the key to preventing breast cancer which is a preventable and curable disease before it reaches the terminal stage.
Women are exposed to the risk of breast cancer after they are 20 years old and they should take an annual examination after turning 40 years old, Shao said.
He said low-fat diet, adequate exercise and avoiding alcohol and smoking can reduce the chance of breast cancer. The newly developed gene chip technology can make breast cancer diagnosis more accurate.
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