China Chronicles December 25, 2012
- New mall@Shanghai
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20121220
Minox BL-1217214
Fomapan100
Studional (1+30)6min./ 4min.20℃
Distilled Water
Nikor Tank +Nikor Minox developing reel
Dots report : Minor black & white
Film wide : 9.30mm - Rain, snow to hit S China
RAIN and snow will sweep south China in the coming three days, weather authorities said today.
Strong precipitation is expected to hit the eastern part of southwest China, the Yellow River and the Huaihe River valleys and areas south of the Yangtze River from Tuesday to Thursday, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said in a statement.
Moderate to heavy snow will fall on parts of those regions, according to the statement.
It also said moderate to heavy rain will hit southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, central China's Hunan Province, and Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces in the east, with torrential rain expected in some areas.
The NMC also forecast heavy snow in northern and western parts of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region over the next three days.
- Wuzhen, Zhejiang
- reflets sur le Haihe
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- Father's 'surprise' gift of life
Wan Jinqiang and his two-year-old son Wan Kefan are pictured in Beijing yesterday before they left a hospital where they had undergone the nation's first liver transplant between a father and son with different blood types on November 20. The father is type AB while the son is type B. The boy was diagnosed with liver disease in June and doctors said only a transplant could save his life. The father persuaded doctors to do the surgery in the hope of a "surprise success" despite the high risk of rejection.
- China to raise farmers' land compensation
China is considering raising compensation for farmers whose collectively owned land is taken from them - a move aimed at cutting the number of land disputes that threaten the social stability of a country with a rural population exceeding 656 million.
A draft amendment to the Land Administration Law will remove the current ceiling for calculating compensation which has been judged to be too low and also ensure money is paid out before land is expropriated.
Currently, the ceiling is 30 times the land's average annual output in the three years before it is taken.
Chinese farmers do not own their fields. Instead, rural land is owned collectively by a village, and farmers get leases that last for decades.
The compensation ceiling, set in 2004, is not in accordance with today's economic situation and many localities have seen compensation standards exceed it, says the draft submitted to the National People's Congress for its first reading yesterday.
It also proposes a rule that no land can be taken without first settling on compensation, as well as increased compensation to cover farmers' rural residences, relocation allowances and social security fees.
"Illegal expropriation of rural land frequently occured in some regions. It has become a prominent problem endangering social stability," Song Dahan, head of the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office, said when submitting the draft yesterday, Xinhua news agency said.
Song said current legal compensation methods had deficiencies including "low compensation standard, rigid regulations and a lack of guarantee for the farmers' long-term livelihood and social security."
He said there were loopholes in procedures and insufficient compensation.
"The standards are too low and rigid, and cannot sustain the long-term well-being of farmers."
The draft amendment, which focuses on Article 47, proposes to give "fair compensation" to farmers to "ensure their living standards improve and their long-term! livelihood is guaranteed" after their land is taken.
"China is still at the stage when a rural land market has yet to be formed," Song was quoted.
"Fair compensation" means the standard should be set by taking more factors into consideration such as location, supply and demand, level of economic and social development, and social security fees instead of only taking into account the annual output of the land before it is expropriated, Song said.
"The draft amendment sets down the principle of 'compensation and relocation first, expropriation later'," Song said.
Farmers whose land is expropriated and who then find it hard to find a new job will be given training, employment guidance and other help in looking for work, he said.
Large-scale rallies
Song said land expropriation reforms aim to balance urbanization and farmland protection, better protect legitimate rights or farmers and restrict government taking land from farmers.
Farmers' protests over land seizures have occurred across the country in recent years, prompting calls for better protection of property rights.
Last year, Wukan, a village in south China's Guangdong Province, made international headlines when its residents staged three waves of large-scale rallies in four months to protest at government officials' illegal land grabs and violations of finance rules.
Peace was later restored after the government promised to investigate and villagers were allowed to choose their own representatives.
Earlier this month, a house that had stood in the middle of a new road for more than a year was finally demolished in east China's Zhejiang Province, ending a long dispute over compensation. The bizarre sight in Zhejiang's Wenling City also made headlines worldwide after photographs were posted online.
- 11 children killed in van crash
Eleven children died after a minivan carrying them to kindergarten plunged into a roadside pond in a rural area of eastern China yesterday.
Three children died at the scene of the accident in Guixi City in Jiangxi Province and another eight died later in hospital, said an official. Four children survived.
The accident is the latest in a string of deadly crashes in China involving school children.
Police detained the driver for questioning and were investigating the cause of the accident, Xinhua news agency said.
The minivan belonged to Chunlei kindergarten, which doesn't have a government license to operate, according to the website of China Central Television. Its report said that the van was traveling too fast and had swerved to avoid a parked vehicle.
Photos on the website showed pairs of tiny shoes and brightly colored schoolbags lined up on the ground near the scene and an injured child being treated.
The van was said to have a capacity of seven people but had 17 onboard. A teacher was also on the vehicle at the time.
Overcrowding on school buses is common in rural China, where the education system is short of funds and children are forced to travel far to get an education because of school closures.
Last year, a nine-seat private school van overloaded with 62 kindergarten children and two adults crashed head-on with a truck in western China, killing 19 children and the adults. The accident caused public uproar and Premier Wen Jiabao pledged more support for school bus safety and said central and local governments would bear the cost of bringing buses up to standard.
- Chinese finding their own ways to celebrate Xmas
AT Christmas, Chinese youngsters embrace the festival like Westerners but not for religious reasons or family reunions.
Young people have found a "Chinese way" to celebrate. For them, Christmas is more like an excuse to have a break from their busy lives.
Liu Ping, a postgraduate student from Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, spent last Christmas having dinner with her boyfriend and enjoying the sales.
"I had a great time, and I'm planning to do the same this year," Liu added, recalling she spent 10,000 yuan (US$1,604) on the day.
In many department stores across the country, Christmas decorations, trees, Santas and jingle bells can be found, luring shoppers with the promise of seasonal bargains.
The sales volume on Christmas Eve is the highest for the whole year, Kang Wei, sales director of Guidu department store in Taiyuan in north China's Shanxi Province, said.
Some experts believe more Chinese youngsters have started celebrating Christmas due to the pressures of life and seize any opportunity to have fun.
"Carrying a lot of pressure, the young seek to relax, providing moneymaking opportunities for merchants," said Ma Zhichao, of the Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences.
While some are celebrating Christmas in a commercial way, others are celebrating the festival's original meaning.
On Sunday, Chen Kejia was baptized and became a Christian.
"I chose to be baptized on that day. To spend a real Christmas with other Christians," said Chen, a nurse at a hospital in Beijing.
At the South Cathedral in Beijing, Catholics were attending Mass last night.
One of them, surnamed Yang, said: "Christmas is a day to remember the birth of Jesus. It moves me and gives me power." He said Christmas had been commercialized in China, which had nothing to do with religious belief.
"It's completely different from our real Christmas," he said.
- Blogging, taping at trials barred for fairness
PARTICIPANTS or bystanders in legal proceedings cannot record or videotape trials, nor can they broadcast the court's activities live via e-mail, microblog or other forms of media, China's top court said yesterday.
Journalists who have permission from the courts are still allowed to report on trials, according to a judicial interpretation of the amended Criminal Procedure Law issued by the Supreme People's Court (SPC).
Participants are also forbidden from applauding or taking other actions that could disturb the trial.
The prohibitions are aimed at ensuring proper trial procedure and guarding litigants' rights, an SPC official said.
Some courtroom participants have used computers or mobile phones to broadcast trials, disturbing the independent and fair judgment of the courts, the official said.
Such practices also indicate that some participants have not fully concentrated on the legal matters at hand, violating professional ethics and impairing the legitimate rights and interests of litigants, the official added.
The presiding judge has the right to seize media or equipment used by participants to broadcast trials without permission, said the interpretation.
The lengthy interpretation mainly targets newly added or revised provisions of the amended law and explains relevant provisions that need to be further defined, according to a statement from the SPC.
The Criminal Procedural Law was amended in March during the annual session of the National People's Congress, the top legislative body, to include the phrase "respecting and protecting human rights" in the law's first chapter.
The revised law stresses protecting suspects and defendants from "illegal restriction, detention and arrest."
According to the interpretation, collegiate benches should listen to the defense counsel during the review of a death sentence if the defense counsel wishes to express its opinion.
For witnesses who refuse to appear in court without a proper reason, ! the chief justice may sign a decree to force the witnesses to appear.
To better protect the safety of witnesses, courts should refrain from releasing names, addresses or other private information regarding the witnesses, as well as avoid exposing their voices and faces, the interpretation read.
The interpretation also forbids forcing defendants to confess by torturing them physically or mentally.
- China to get tough on abuse of online personal details
CHINA is cracking down on the theft, sale or abuse of personal information with the country's top legislature deliberating a draft decision to tighten online security and protect Internet users' privacy.
China will protect digital information that could be used to determine the identity of a user or that concerns a user's privacy, according to the draft decision submitted to the bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress yesterday.
The draft bans individuals or companies from sending business information to cell phones or e-mail accounts without their owners' permission. Punishments for violators have not yet been announced.
Meanwhile, Internet users will be required to identify themselves to service providers, including Internet or telecommunications operators, before they can publish any information on their online platforms, according to the draft. Internet users may use nicknames when publishing information online but only after they complete the identity checking process.
"Such identity management could be conducted backstage, allowing users to use different names when publicizing information," Li Fei, deputy director of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee, was quoted by Xinhua news agency as telling lawmakers yesterday.
The draft decision aims to enhance social management on the Internet and ensure the safety of information online, Li said.
The move to protect personal information, filter spam messages and establish an online identity policy follows a surge in online scams, fraud and identity theft in recent years.
According to one report by a major anti-computer virus company, more than 257 million people in China had been the victims of Internet crime in the 12 months since July last year.
The report said these crimes had caused direct economic losses of 289 billion yuan (US$46.3 billion).
Many suspects had not identified themselves to service providers or simply us! ed false details, making it hard for the authorities to collect evidence, China National Radio reported.
The lack of a law banning Internet users from publishing information without their identities being checked had made illegal online activities easier, CNR reported.
The draft follows a regulation issued in Beijing last year which required local microblog operators to register users with their real names in a bid to stop online rumors.
A nationwide real name registration policy for mobile phones took effect on September 1, 2010, enabling police to track down spammers once the senders' numbers were reported to them.
- Legislators consider program to limit administrative power
THE top legislature is considering a pilot program in south China's Guangdong Province to further limit administrative power by suspending or adjusting a list of governmental examination and approval items.
The list consists of 25 examination items set by national laws, including settings for special business entities, qualifications for health care facilities for work-related illnesses and architect registration.
Once adopted, Guangdong would be given special authorization to temporarily cancel administrative approval items or assign them to authorities at lower levels, Minister of Supervision Ma Wen said yesterday while briefing legislators in Beijing.
It would also mark the first such decision made by the top legislature after the country declared it had successfully established a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics in March 2011, as previous authorizations were often made to address the absence of major legislation.
Guangdong was chosen for the program because of its position at the forefront of reform and its relatively high level of market development, Ma said, adding that economic and social developments in Guangdong had created an urgent need for further administrative reform.
In 2011, Guangdong's per capita GDP was US$7,819, ranking seventh among China's 31 provincial regions on the mainland, according to the provincial statistics bureau.
Guangdong has pioneered many cutting-edge reforms, including those used to promote transparent policy-making and increase the government's operational efficiency.
In October, the Guangdong government pledged to create a better commercial environment by cutting 40 percent of administrative approvals at multiple levels by 2013, as well as cut the amount of time required for reviewing procedures in half by 2017.
Since 2001, the government has made six attempts to clean up the administrative approval system, which is said to have caused unnecessary intervention in small business, power abuses! and corruption.
Figures from the State Council show that a total of 2,497 administrative approval items had been rescinded or adjusted in the past 10 years, accounting for 69.3 percent of the total.
However, "our reforms are still lagging far behind the country's economic and social development," said Ma. She said the Guangdong program is expected to create experience for future reforms in other areas.
If the program is successful, laws will be amended to make the program universal. But it will be terminated if unsuccessful, Ma said.
According to the draft, 15 government approval items targeted for suspension will be handed over to professional associations outside the government.
"Governments should refrain from handling issues that citizens, corporations or other organizations can handle independently, that a market competition mechanism can effectively adjust or that industrial groups and agencies can manage," according to a State Council statement issued on August 22.
- Busy week for lawmakers
CHINA'S top legislature started to review nine draft laws, amendments and revisions yesterday, including a draft decision on Internet management.
At a session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, lawmakers were briefed on draft revisions to the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly and the Law on Funds for Investment in Securities.
They will also deliberate amendments to the Land Administration Law, the Labor Contract Law and the Trademark Law during the Beijing session which ends on Friday.
- Amendment targets use of famous trademarks
CHINA plans to crack down on "malicious" trademark registrations, after a series of cases in which international brands and individuals had their names or copyright misused.
Basketball legend Michael Jordan was one of the latest to accuse a company of using his name without permission, and French luxury group Hermes and Apple have also faced trademark problems.
The proposed amendment will offer protection to major international brands, giving copyright owners the right to ban others from registering their trademarks or from using similar ones, even if such trademarks are not registered, Xinhua news agency reported.
The draft increases the ceiling for fines imposed on trademark violators from 500,000 yuan (US$80,179) to 1 million yuan in the event that financial losses and gains from the infringement cannot be determined.
The fines were raised with the consideration that the owners of trademarks that are infringed upon often spend great sums of money in taking violators to court.
Basketball star Michael Jordan filed a lawsuit in China in February against a Chinese sportswear company, accusing the firm of unauthorized use of his name.
The former Chicago Bulls star said Qiaodan Sports, a company in southern Fujian Province, had built its business around his Chinese name "Qiaodan" and jersey number without his permission.
France's Hermes International SCA also had problems in China with its trademark, and in July Apple Inc agreed to pay US$60 million to Proview Technology (Shenzhen) to end a protracted legal dispute over the iPad trademark in China.
- Poor farms profit growing crop from Andes
RATHER than abandoning his rural home in the mountains of Shanxi Province to do hard, manual labor in a big city, Mao Cunlin, 57, farms at home, earning more than his migrant worker son.
Quinoa, a grain-like crop from the Andes known for its nutritious edible seeds, has brought prosperity to Mao and other farmers in the Luliang Mountains.
Known as "a food for the poorest of the poor," quinoa has been a staple in Latin American and South American countries for thousands of years. The so-called "Mother Grain's" nutritional value, however, was not fully appreciated until the 1980s, when it was found to be rich in protein, magnesium and iron, as well as a good source of dietary fiber, phosphorus and calcium.
The high-protein food, related to spinach and beets, gained worldwide popularity as appetites for organic and whole foods have expanded in recent years. Bolivia, for example, raked in US$64 million from quinoa exports in 2011, spurring a cultivation boom.
Mao grew up in one of the poorest regions in northern China, where generations of people have suffered from poverty largely caused by the harsh environment. He spent much of his life not even knowing about the Andes.
In the pursuit of wealth, waves of Luliang residents have migrated to cities over the years, but quinoa cultivation is enabling some to stay.
Mao has already earned 50,000 yuan (US$8,000) from the 1.2 hectares of quinoa he planted in May - a sum that is nearly double what his son makes as an urban laborer.
The crop can survive in the Andes as well as the Luliang Mountains, freeing people in both areas from the geographic constraints that prevent conventional profitable farming, said Hao Lijun, the head of Suopo Township, who encouraged villagers to try cultivating the alien crop two years ago.
The quinoa in Shanxi has been planted on the 1,600-meter-high mountain slopes. The crop guarantees profits four times that of potatoes, Hao said, basing his estimates on how much it cost to buy q! uinoa online.
"More and more middle class Chinese in cities have begun to know this healthy food," said Wu Xiangyun, manager of Shanxi Jiaqi Agricultural Technology Co Ltd. "It has very strong market potential."
The growing wealth and changing appetites of urban Chinese have been driving changes in countryside farming techniques, presenting more opportunities for farmers.
- Report: Famous snacks made in dirty conditions
AN undercover investigation has alleged that Qiaqia, a famous snack brand, allows unhygienic conditions and altered production dates in its workshops making bestselling products such as roasted seeds and nuts.
Workers in the Hefei, Anhui Province-based Qiaqia Food Co were found to process seeds and nuts without wearing disposable gloves and gauze masks, City Sun newspaper reported yesterday.
While processing the seeds and nuts, some of the Qiaqia workers chatted and sneezed, according to the findings of an undercover reporter for the newspaper.
However, the report did not find the company mixing substandard, years-old sunflower seeds with fresh ones - as found in a report in May by the China Business News.
Qiaqia Food Co replied yesterday on its website that it had launched investigation over the accusation.
The City Sun said that some Qiaqia workers, fearful of having their paychecks docked, picked up dirty seeds and nuts accidentally dumped on the ground, and simply removed hair stuck in the food before packing.
They also added flavor essence with altered production dates to roasted sunflower seeds, the report alleged.
But Qiaqia explained in an online statement that the flavor essence was from the best supplier in China and the products complied with national standards.
The report also accused the company of altering the production dates of imported pecans and recruiting workers without health certificates.
Qiaqia admitted later yesterday that five of its workers were hired without the document but said it has punished employees be responsible for the negligence and helped the five acquire the certificate.
- Teacher fired over photo of 7 students kneeling
A PICTURE that circulated online of seven students kneeling in a school courtyard was not physical punishment, but was taken as the students kneeled to seek forgiveness for bullying a student, education authorities in east China's Anhui Province said yesterday.However, a report in the Beijing News says the students were forced to kneel for an hour on a chilly afternoon and threatened if they told anyone about it.
Despite authorities' explanation, the teacher was still sacked because of her "improper handling" of the situation since she didn't stopped the students in time, said Huang Yan, section chief with the Yingdong District Education Bureau in Fuyang City.
"The teacher criticized them in the playground and asked them to call their parents to school. These students felt frightened and one suddenly kneeled down and others followed him," Huang said.
In the picture, the seven eighth-grade students at the Jingjiu Experimental Middle School were seen kneeling below a banner that read, "Welcome leaders to inspect our school."
The banner has been hung for several months, according to anhuinews.com.
The school was ordered to rectify management loopholes, the website reported. The privately run school hired many temporary teachers, and some did not have proper training, education officials said.
- Take a break
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