News » Society » 28 Chinese fishermen missing in S. Korea due to typhoon
News » Society » 28 Chinese fishermen missing in S. Korea due to typhoon |
- 28 Chinese fishermen missing in S. Korea due to typhoon
- China investigating reported incident involving Japanese ambassador's car
- 31 Chinese fishermen missing in S. Korea due to typhoon
- China seamen missing in typhoon
- Flag ripped off Japan envoy's car
- Expert angered by bridge collapse reports
- Mother's anger ends in fatal petrol bomb attack
- Taiwan residents facing typhoon's return
- Lawyers in plea over transport card fund
- Guangzhou starts using car plate lottery, auction
- Fishermen say pollution cause of massive fish kill
- 9 die as truck hits van
- Province bans overnight buses after crash
- Bentleys and wine swell China inventory overhang
- China approves Ford, Mazda, Changan to split JV in two: Ford CEO
- Politics the priority for China as economy slows
- Have You Heard…
- Tokyo Governor Keeps Up Island Rhetoric
- China's economic conundrum
- Fire-bomb kills 3 water company officials
| 28 Chinese fishermen missing in S. Korea due to typhoon Posted: 27 Aug 2012 07:03 PM PDT TWO Chinese fishing boats with 34 crew members aboard capsized today in waters about 1.8 kilometers from South Korea's port of Hwasun in Jeju's Seogwipo, an official from the Chinese Consulate stationed on Jeju has confirmed. Six crew members have been rescued and 28 others went missing, the official said. The two fishing boats, "Yuejiangchengyu" No. 91104 and No. 91105, both from Weihai city of East China's Shandong province, capsized around 2:40 am local time due to gale-force winds and high waves caused by Typhoon Bolaven, the official said. According to report of Yonhap, South Korea's official news agency, two crew members reported the accident to South Korean authorities after coming ashore. They were taken to a hospital for treatment as one of them sustained serious injuries and the other complained of difficulty breathing. A third crew member was rescued later. Currently, the Chinese Consulate is maintaining close contact with local police in regards of search and rescue effort. |
| China investigating reported incident involving Japanese ambassador's car Posted: 27 Aug 2012 06:49 PM PDT Relevant authorities are seriously investigating the report that the flag of the Japanese ambassador's vehicle was ripped off in Beijing, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's office told Xinhua yesterday evening. The Chinese government always conscientiously fulfills the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to protect the safety of foreign embassies and personnel, the office said. It was reported that the Japanese flag of a car carrying the Japanese ambassador Uichiro Niwa was pulled off by an unidentified person in Beijing yesterday afternoon. |
| 31 Chinese fishermen missing in S. Korea due to typhoon Posted: 27 Aug 2012 06:07 PM PDT TWO Chinese fishing boats with 34 crew members aboard capsized today in waters about 1.8 kilometers from South Korea's port of Hwasun in Jeju's Seogwipo, an official from the Chinese Consulate stationed on Jeju has confirmed. Three crew members have been rescued and 31 others went missing, the official said. The two fishing boats, "Yuejiangchengyu" No. 91104 and No. 91105, both from Weihai city of East China's Shandong province, capsized around 2:40 am local time due to gale-force winds and high waves caused by Typhoon Bolaven, the official said. According to report of Yonhap, South Korea's official news agency, two crew members reported the accident to South Korean authorities after coming ashore. They were taken to a hospital for treatment as one of them sustained serious injuries and the other complained of difficulty breathing. A third crew member was rescued later. Currently, the Chinese Consulate is maintaining close contact with local police in regards of search and rescue effort. |
| China seamen missing in typhoon Posted: 27 Aug 2012 06:27 PM PDT At least 31 Chinese fishermen are missing after two boats sink as Typhoon Bolaven hits South Korea and lashes China's coast with huge waves. |
| Flag ripped off Japan envoy's car Posted: 27 Aug 2012 08:15 AM PDT An assailant has snapped the flag off the car of Japan's envoy to Beijing, amid heightened tension caused by a dispute over a small island group. |
| Expert angered by bridge collapse reports Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:32 AM PDT BAD weather, overloading and human error have been blamed for a series of bridge accidents that left more than 140 people dead over the past five years, but not shoddy construction. The findings have angered an expert who said the bridges were "doomed" to fail due to quality problems. Fifteen bridges, including three under construction, collapsed between 2007 and this month, killing 141 people and injuring another 111. But official reports made public say that no case was triggered by poor quality. According to the investigation reports, torrential rainfall and overloaded trucks caused the most accidents, yesterday's Shandong Business Daily reported. Of the 15 bridges, three - in Henan and Hunan provinces and Chongqing City - were said to have been damaged by heavy rain while overloaded trucks were blamed for problems at four bridges in Chongqing and Hangzhou cities and Fujian and Jilin provinces. However, when pictures of the wreckage of the Yihe Bridge in Luanchuan County in Henan were published, they showed that no steel bars had been used in the construction of the ramps that had broken. The collapse of the bridge killed 53 people in July 2010. In July last year, gaps appeared in the middle section of the No. 3 Qianjiang Bridge in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang Province, injuring a truck driver. The bridge was said to have been weakened by overloaded trucks, but experts from the city's traffic authority said the bridge had been plagued by severe quality problems. The government announcement, however, insisted the collapse had nothing to do with shoddy construction, the newspaper reported. Besides torrential rainfall and overloading, authorities also pointed the finger at unlicensed contractors. Chen Zhaoyuan, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said tight schedules and lack of routine maintenance had caused the collapse of the 15 bridges. Only three of them had been in use for more than 15 years. Some officials had urged contractors to build the bridges as quickly as possible without taking actual conditions into consideration, which resulted in safety hazards, Chen said. However, the major contributor to the accidents was still poor quality, he said. "Our national standards toward load-bearing capacity are half as strict as international standards. So frequent accidents are doomed to happen due to quality issues," he said. Last Friday, three people were killed and five injured when a bridge ramp in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, collapsed. A 120-meter ramp on the multimillion-dollar Yangmingtan Bridge, less than a year after construction finished, tilted and crashed to the ground, sending four trucks plunging 30 meters. Three of the four trucks were heavy-duty vehicles carrying lime. Together they weighed more than 400 tons, the local authority said. The local government blamed the overloaded vehicles, while China's work safety watchdog said the build quality of the bridge was in question. "The bridge must have some problems as it collapsed a year after being constructed," Huang Yi, spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety, told reporters. Authorities in Harbin yesterday released details about the designer, builder and supervisor of the bridge, Xinhua news agency reported. The Harbin government also disclosed details of the trucks at a press briefing. The ramp was designed by Harbin Municipal Engineering Design Institute, built by Fujian Jiaojian Group Engineer Co Ltd and supervised by Heilongjiang Baixin Construction Engineering Supervision Co Ltd, said Huang Yusheng, secretary-general of the Harbin government. Huang said the ramp had no direct relationship with the main body of the Yangmingtan Bridge. He said the collapse of the ramp had little effect on the bridge, and traffic flow had resumed. Huang also disclosed that all four trucks were heavy-duty, but he did not clarify if they were overloaded at the time of the accident. On Friday, Huang suggested that overloading could be one of the possible causes for the accident. His words triggered a flurry of Internet comment, complaining about shoddy construction and accusing the government of inadequate supervision. The ramp was built in 90 days at a cost of 7.09 million yuan (US$1.13 million), Huang said. Of the five injured, Huang said one was still in critical condition while the other four were stable. |
| Mother's anger ends in fatal petrol bomb attack Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:26 AM PDT A WOMAN angry at her former company that hadn't given her son a job threw a petrol bomb into a meeting room, killing three people and injuring four others. Shi Yanfei, who had retired from the Shaoyang Water Company in Shaoyang, Hunan Province, broke into its meeting room at 10am yesterday and threw a bottle filled with petrol at officials. The subsequent explosion and fire killed Long Xinmin, the company manager and Party chief, deputy manager Rao Xiaoyang, and the company's deputy Party chief Shao Jiaping. Shi, who was also injured in the fire, jumped from the sixth floor in a suicide attempt, China News Service reported. She was taken to the hospital and later died from her injuries. An initial investigation suggested that Shi had been angered at the water supply company's decision not to recruit her second son although his older brother had gained a position in the company. Shi was said to have taken early retirement - a policy in place in state-owned enterprises in order to make room for younger people - and there was speculation the company might have made an offer to give both her sons a job in lieu of paying a sum of money in compensation. The investigation found that she had become extremely angry when she had heard that someone with close connections to the company's managers had been given the job that she believed should have gone to her younger son. However, police have not yet confirmed these details and their investigation is ongoing. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Taiwan residents facing typhoon's return Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:26 AM PDT TYPHOON Tembin, which drenched southern Taiwan last week before heading out to sea, appeared to be looping back yesterday for another run at the island and the nearby Philippines, forecasters said. The revisit comes after another storm about 1,200 kilometers to the northeast, Typhoon Bolaven, lashed the Japanese island of Okinawa. It injured five people and left 66,500 households without power as of yesterday afternoon, but did less damage than feared before moving north into the East China Sea. Bolaven could affect coastal areas of South Korea today, weather officials said. Taiwan weather officials predicted Tembin would make landfall early this morning in the same part of southern Taiwan where it dumped more than 500 millimeters of rain three days ago. Tembin, packing winds of 119 kilometers per hour, will likely skirt the eastern Taiwanese coast before moving north toward the Chinese mainland, the bureau said. In Manila, typhoon warnings were reissued. |
| Lawyers in plea over transport card fund Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:25 AM PDT PUBLIC transport card deposits have become a huge topic on China's social media sites after three lawyers called for more transparent regulations regarding the deposits. The lawyers, from Jiangsu and Henan provinces and Beijing, sent a letter to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council last week, urging the government to better regulate deposited money and disclose the whereabouts of the funds. "The details of this fund have not been publicized despite repeated requests from citizens and members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which infringed on the public's right to know and undermined the credibility of urban transport sector," the lawyers wrote. The transportation card was introduced on a large scale in 2006 in major cities including Shanghai and Beijing. Data showed that the country had issued more than 180 million transport cards and the total deposits were estimated at between 1.8 billion yuan (US$285.71 million) and 5.4 billion yuan. "The public has the right to know who is managing the deposit fund, how the money has been invested and how about the returns?" read one post on Sina Weibo. "I strongly support the lawyers' move. As the deposit fund earns hefty interest each year, local governments should release the details of the fund in a timely manner," was another Weibo post. "We will not give up until the government publicize the management of the card deposits," said Wang Yu, one of the three lawyers. |
| Guangzhou starts using car plate lottery, auction Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT THE southern Chinese megacity of Guangzhou conducted its first ever car license plate lottery yesterday, nearly two months after it introduced the policy to ease traffic jams and cut pollution. A total of 5,640 applicants were awarded plates at the lottery, attended by the representatives of the applicants, notaries and officials. Guangzhou said last month it would allocate the city's annual 120,000 new car registration quota through a dual model of auction and lottery. Among 64,866 people who applied for the lottery and auction, 58,405 passed an assessment to vie for 10,907 plates, which means that one out of six people will be lucky enough to win a plate. But the odds of winning are likely to shrink as more applicants enter the lottery later. It is not known how many applicants participated as the city keeps the number of bidders confidential. The auction is set to start today. Among yesterday's 5,640 winners, 4,800 were individuals, 654 were office applicants and the remaining 186 were registered for plates for energy-saving or new-energy vehicles. Guangzhou becomes the fourth Chinese city to cap small passenger vehicle registrations after Beijing, Shanghai and Guiyang. |
| Fishermen say pollution cause of massive fish kill Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT AUTHORITIES in Anxin County in Hebei Province attributed the death of 1 million kilograms of fish in Baiyangdian Lake to environmental changes, triggering controversy among fishermen who blamed illegal chemical dumping. Flooding in the upstream Xiaoyi River sent a large amount of mud and wastes into the lake and decreased oxygen in the water, which caused many fish to die, authorities said. But fishermen said the lake had turned black and red and emitted a smelly odor because of illegal chemical discharges from factories in the upstream counties, poisoning the fish, Beijing Times reported yesterday. The fish died between August 12 and August 14, causing economic losses up to tens of millions of yuan. The fish were removed and buried on August 18, the paper said. Wang Xiaocang, a fisherman from Dahenan Village, said fish started to jump out of the water. "The mixture of mud and water has a lot of floating debris and never emits stinky smells, but this time, the water smells so bad," Wang said. A local villager surnamed Liu said the upstream water had given off a strong odor since August 5 and "forced villagers to close the windows and doors" to avoid being overwhelmed by the odor. The fishermen suspected textile mills and fur processors in Gaoyang and Lixian counties caused the contamination. They said they would bring the plants to the court if they got conclusive evidence, the paper said. Local government officials said the fishermen who suffered big losses could register for compensation. Villagers said many plants in Gaoyang and Lixian were closed in 2006 after massive fish kills at Baiyangdian Lake. However, the factories reopened soon. Residents in Nanzong Village denied the plants directly discharged waste to the river, but admitted illegal dumping in some ditches linked to it. |
| Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT A speeding tractor-trailer rammed into a Toyota van yesterday morning in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, killing nine in the van. Officials of Suide County in the city of Yulin said the truck hit the van on the Qingdao-Yinchuan Expressway. The crash, blamed on the truck's speeding, led to a pile-up crash involving four other vehicles. |
| Province bans overnight buses after crash Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT ALL the red-eye bus trips in Shaanxi Province will be banned starting next week after a deadly bus accident claimed 36 lives and injured three early Sunday, the provincial governor said yesterday. At the same time, all buses traveling from nearby provinces to Shaanxi late at night will be forced to pull off the highway for the driver to rest for safety concerns, said the governor, Zhao Zhengyong. The announcement was made after a crash at 2:18am on Sunday in which a fully-loaded double-decker sleeper coach rammed into the back of a tanker loaded with highly flammable methanol, triggering a fire that engulfed both vehicles and left 36 people on the bus dead, including the driver. The transport company in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region yesterday published the names of 20 victims. The names, published by Hohhot Municipal Transport Group, the owner of the bus, indicates 12 victims were from the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Henan, as well as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Three survivors severely burned in the accident are being treated at a hospital. The bus driver who died, Chen Qiang, a man in his 40s, is now suspected of driving dangerously fatigued. The bus station of the double-decker coach told China Central Television yesterday that they had received warning from a GPS device on the coach. An official with the bus station showed a video of the drivers taking shifts driving the coach, according to CCTV. About 2am, the station got the warning saying that Chen was driving while overly tired. One survivor, Wei Xuemei, said the bus driver saved her by pushing her out of the bus window before it was devoured by flames. Wei said someone broke the bus window for her but she wasn't able to climb out until the driver pushed her out. In the past 17 months, over 140 people have died in double-decker sleeper coaches in six accidents. Companies were ordered to stop manufacturing or selling sleeper bus products starting in March of this year. |
| Bentleys and wine swell China inventory overhang Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:15 AM PDT  Source: Reuters News By Donny Kwok Aug 27 (Reuters) – Chinese auto dealer Dah Chong Hong Holdings amassed so much inventory this year that it would take 63 days to sell all of its Bentleys, Toyotas and Isuzus, up from the 42 days' supply it carried in December. As China's economic growth cooled to a three-year low, inventories swelled at consumer firms such as auto dealers, food makers, liquor companies and department stores, according to a Reuters analysis of balance sheets from 350 Chinese companies. The bloated inventory complicates Beijing's efforts to shore up growth as it prepares for a once-a-decade government leadership transition later this year. If China pours in more stimulus money when demand is weak, it could just make the inventory overhang worse by encouraging companies to produce more goods than the market can digest. About one in three consumer firms recorded inventory growth of at least 10 percent between December 2011 and June 2012. Dah Chong Hong's $296.5 million inventory jump was the largest sum in the sample of companies examined. With demand slowing – China's July retail sales growth eased to a 17-month low – it will take longer to clear out the goods. "To resolve the inventory problems may have to take two to three years to see the results and it's impossible to see a major effect within a couple of months," Kim Jin Goon, executive vice chairman of sportswear company Li Ning Co Ltd, said last week, when his firm predicted a full-year loss because of heavy inventories and rising marketing costs. PICKING UP THE SLACK These consumer companies primarily feed China's domestic economy, which must pick up some of the slack from sluggish exports to keep the country on track to meet its 2012 growth target of 7.5 percent. Second-quarter growth slowed to 7.6 percent, and early indicators of July and August point to a lacklustre third quarter. A China manufacturing survey released on Thursday showed heavy inventories and a sharp decline in new export orders in August. Chinese authorities told state-owned companies in July that they should focus on clearing inventories for the rest of the year. This is healthy for long-term growth, but in the short term it curbs demand throughout the economy as companies hold back on ordering new supplies. It can also squeeze corporate profit margins when firms cut prices to dispose of excess inventory. Profits at non-financial state-owned enterprises fell 13.2 percent year-on-year through the first seven months of 2012, the Ministry of Finance said on Aug. 15. At Dah Chong Hong, inventory rose 38 percent to $1.07 billion between December and June, according to Thomson Reuters data. The company did not immediately respond to a phone call and email seeking comment. In its earnings statement on Aug. 15, it acknowledged that margins were getting squeezed. "Rising inventory levels and price competition have exerted pressure on profit margins and have led to consolidation in the market," Chairman Hui Ying Bun said in the statement. COTTON AND WINE At Shanghai Jinfeng Wine, a unit of Bright Food Co, average inventory days soared to 678 as of June, up from 284 in December, Thomson Reuters data shows, illustrating just how long it would take to sell off the stockpiles. An official in the chairman's office who provided only his surname, Liu, said Jinfeng did not consider its inventory level high. Liu said such stockpiles were necessary to ensure adequate supplies for year-end banquets that are popular in China. However, in June 2011, Jinfeng held 493 days worth of inventory. Its current tally of 678 days is the highest in Thomson Reuters data going back to September 2007. The net value of inventory on the books of all 350 companies sampled rose 2.3 percent between December 2011 and June 2012. It was up six percent among companies listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, but down about four percent for Hong Kong-listed firms. The better performance for Hong Kong-traded stocks was primarily due to a $472 million inventory drop at one company: Weiqiao Textile Co, China's largest cotton textile firm. It curbed production of yarn, fabric and denim "to lower the output with a view to reduce inventory levels", Weiqiao said in its earnings statement. China's textile exports rose just 1.3 percent in the first half of 2012, a steep drop-off from the 28.8 percent jump it recorded in the same period of 2011, Weiqiao said. ($1 = HK$7.76) |
| China approves Ford, Mazda, Changan to split JV in two: Ford CEO Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:20 AM PDT  Source: Reuters By Deepa Seetharaman and Norihiko Shirouzu (Reuters) – Ford Motor (F.N) and Mazda Motor Corp (7261.T) and their local Chinese partner Chongqing Changan Automotive Co have received approval from China's central government to split their three-way, manufacturing and sales joint venture into two, Ford's chief executive said on Monday. Ford and Mazda share two major manufacturing bases in Chongqing and the eastern city of Nanjing. Under the plan, the tie-up will be carved into two joint ventures, Changan Ford Mazda Automobile said in a statement on Monday. The two ventures are temporarily called Changan Ford Automobile and Changan Mazda Automobile. The Chongqing operations will be owned and operated by Ford and Changan, and the Nanjing base by Mazda and Changan. Naoto Oikawa, a Mazda spokesman in Shanghai, said the Japanese automaker was planning a formal announcement on the split, but had nothing to say on Monday. "We're likely to make a formal announcement shortly," Oikawa said, without elaborating. Executives close to the three-way joint venture said the move is partly driven by Ford's decision in 2008 to raise money by reducing its controlling stake in Mazda to 13 percent from one third. The U.S. automaker later further reduced its stake in Mazda, and its stake currently stands at less than 3 percent. The two companies now feel less need to coordinate their strategy in China with each other and are seeking more operational freedom to boost their presence individually in the country, which in 2009 surpassed the United States as the world's largest auto market, the knowledgeable individuals said. |
| Politics the priority for China as economy slows Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:44 AM PDT  Source: Reuters By Nick Edwards (Reuters) – China's policy chiefs have about two weeks left to decide about giving the economy a proper stimulative prod, or risk parading a new Communist Party leadership to the world just as growth falls below target for the first time in nearly four years. That is a deeply unappealing prospect for the Party's top brass as GDP data is likely to be unveiled at roughly the same time as the new leadership in a once-a-decade power transition. The only real option to deliver a growth spurt in the narrow time window open to policymakers is a boost to infrastructure spending. Indeed, verbal intervention may be the only answer. "They are sending out the message that they want to stimulate the economy, but in reality that is not going to happen," influential independent China economist, Andy Xie, told Reuters. "About the only tool left to them now is propaganda." The leadership change should come against a backdrop of prosperity and stability – thereby justifying the Party's grip on power – which means politics are more important than usual to policy decisions in China's carefully choreographed economy. But further stimulus risks exacerbating China's main policy bind – how to respond now even though it has not reversed the speculative consequences of the 4 trillion yuan ($635 billion) stimulus during the global financial crisis of 2008-09, while still cleaning up bad debts run up by local governments. There are concerns that even more fixed-asset investment – already worth about 50 percent of GDP and at a level that worries the International Monetary Fund – would simply add to China's existing stock of inefficient economic capacity. Added to that is a standoff among the Party's intellectual elite over whether stimulus would further widen the already chasm-like gap between China's urban rich and rural poor. Existing monetary easing measures have not yet fully filtered through the economy and with only weeks to go before the end of the third quarter, there may not be enough time to significantly affect the outcome with another policy push. Further limiting what policymakers can achieve is the fact that the big drag on China's export-oriented economy lies well beyond Beijing's borders in debt-ridden, recessionary Europe. VERBAL INTERVENTION Talking up the economy could be the most expeditious option. About a dozen local governments in the last month have been reported by Chinese media as unveiling multi-year investment plans worth trillions of yuan – mostly unfunded and likely to be simple restatements of blueprints in official five-year plans. They have, nevertheless, fed market talk that Beijing is set to spend big to fight the worst economic downturn since 2009, with growth on course to hit a 13-year low of 8 percent in 2012. Premier Wen Jiabao has begun to exhort the virtue of having confidence in the economy in tough times, after pledging since autumn 2011 to stabilize it with proactive, pro-growth policies. He did so again on Saturday on a visit to the export hub of Guangdong, where he pledged to step up support for the economy and improve business confidence. While Wen's words so far have heralded two interest rate cuts, freed about 1.2 trillion yuan for new lending from bank reserves, given tax breaks to small firms and accelerated some infrastructure spending, they have yet to bring stability. China's economy has been sliding for six straight quarters and analysts fear it will do so for a seventh, pushing back their expectations of a growth rebound into the fourth quarter from the third quarter – far behind earlier predictions of a bottoming out in the first quarter of this year. Many economists though see politics as the ultimate insurance policy, with preventative action to underpin growth in the second half of the year guaranteed the worse the data gets. "This is no longer pre-emptive. They are already behind the curve," said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at HSBC, sponsor of the factory activity survey that triggered the latest wave of worry about the world's No.2 economy. "But we're not talking about the Fed here, so it's very difficult to pinpoint what exactly they are doing, or when exactly they will do it," he added. NARROW WINDOW Qu says infrastructure spending is the surest way to get the economy quickly back on track. Rising infrastructure investment and an average annual 20.7 percent increase in fixed-asset spending each month so far in 2012 as other data points to growth slipping suggests it might already be happening. "Most important is loan supply and whether more will be given to local governments for their investment projects," Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura in Hong Kong, said. "If the data continues to surprise on the downside, local governments will get more bargaining power and their requests to the central government will become stronger," Zhang said. A jump in new lending would signal to investors that capital is being channeled into infrastructure spending. The total value of new lending so far this year implies it will hit 8 trillion yuan – expansionary versus 2011′s 7.5 trillion yuan. Money supply analysis by MES Advisers' Paul Markowski, a long-time consultant to China's monetary authorities, indicates an imminent turn in GDP and negates arguments for doing more – especially as the data also signals rising inflation. That's a red flag for policymakers anxious to stop price hikes gnawing at workers' spending power and only a surge in unemployment would override it. HSBC's Qu says jobs are already at risk. "You don't have to wait until millions of people are thrown out of the factory doors before you act," Qu said. "The bottom line is that this should be a wake-up call for them to do more." China's 2008-09 stimulus came as at least 20 million Chinese jobs were axed in a matter of months as world trade ground to a halt in the depths of the global financial crisis. But while the IMF's 3.5 percent 2012 forecast for global growth is hardly perky, the world is in better shape than late 2008 when Wall Street banks toppled over and trade finance froze. That makes Tim Condon, head of Asian economic research at ING in Singapore, question calls for tactical action ahead of the transition. He says something more strategic may be at play. "A bad year is not the end of the world for the Party. The new leaders come in, turn things around in 2013 and look like heroes," Condon said, adding that aggressive stimulus would thwart policies to fight speculation and rebalance the economy. "What they seem to be saying is that they are not going to take the easy way and double down on the command and control policies, but stay on the course of market-oriented reform," Condon said. "That's a really positive story – if it's true." |
| Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:08 AM PDT Have You Heard…   |
| Tokyo Governor Keeps Up Island Rhetoric Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:52 AM PDT  Source: Wall Street Journal By Phred Dvorak and Toko Sekiguchi TOKYO—As Japan's government is trying to smooth a quarrel with China over the sovereignty of a set of islands that lies between them, the man who ignited the current flare-up shows no sign of letting up the heat. Mr. Ishihara's plans are proving awkward for the Japanese government, which is struggling to ease tensions over those islands, which lie between Okinawa and Taiwan and are called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. The islands are controlled by Japan, but claimed by China and Taiwan as well. Though the sovereignty of the islands is the focus of periodic spats between Japan and China–most recently in 2010—the issue had been off the radar until April, when Mr. Ishihara announced that Tokyo was in negotiations to buy the islands from a private Japanese owner, and started raising donations for their purchase. As of mid-August, Tokyo had collected around 1.5 billion yen ($19 million), Mr. Ishihara said. Mr. Ishihara's move prompted the Japanese government to step in and say it would buy the islands instead. China has said it won't allow the land to be purchased by anybody. Over the last few weeks, groups of activists from Hong Kong and Japan have made unauthorized landings on the islands to push competing claims, sparking harsh rhetoric from both sides and anti-Japanese demonstrations in China. The Japanese Embassy in Beijing said Monday that a car carrying the ambassador was attacked by a man who ripped off the Japanese flag from the vehicle, the Associated Press reported. It wasn't clear whether the attack was related to the island dispute. The embassy said it issued a strong protest to China's Foreign Ministry, which expressed deep regret over the incident, the AP reported. The Japanese government Monday moved to head off further steps by Mr. Ishihara, rejecting the city of Tokyo's request to land on the islands for a survey to determine their value. The city plans to go ahead and survey the islands anyhow from the sea, and Mr. Ishihara on Friday said he himself would lead a second survey team to land there in October—with or without permission. In the interview, Mr. Ishihara said that his quest for a foothold on the disputed islands is driven by a fear of China, which is building up its maritime forces and has been increasingly assertive over territorial claims in the Pacific in recent years. "Think of Tibet," Mr. Ishihara said. "They don't have a country. They don't have a leader. They've even lost their culture…I don't want Japan to end up as a second Tibet." To bolster Japan's claims, Mr. Ishihara is proposing that either Tokyo or the national government build facilities on the islands—now uninhabited—including a fishing port, a weather station and a base for radio transmissions. "If worst comes to worst, we would probably station Japanese Self Defense Forces there," he said, referring to Japan's version of the military, whose activities are constitutionally limited to defense. Mr. Ishihara pooh-poohed the idea that relations with China will improve if the islands are left alone, pointing out that the Hong Kong activists that landed there a few weeks ago threw a brick at a Japanese coast-guard vessel that was trying to prevent them from approaching. People say "if Ishihara buys [the islands], who knows what will happen. But if the country buys them, it won't do anything, so there won't be any friction with China," said Mr. Ishihara. "Well, there will be friction if things continue like this." Throughout the interview, in addition to referring to China by the standard Japanese term "Chugoku," Mr. Ishihara often used the word "Shina," a derogatory term used during Japan's occupation of much of China. But Mr. Ishihara took a much less aggressive tone on another set of islands, known as the Liancourt Rocks, whose sovereignty is now the subject of strained relations between Japan and South Korea. Tensions started rising in early August, after South Korean president Lee Myung-bak visited the Korea-controlled islands, called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese. The incident sparked a still-escalating diplomatic battle between Japan and South Korea, featuring aggressive rhetoric, canceled bilateral meetings and threats by Japan to take the matter to an international court. Mr. Ishihara said that the Korean control over the islands dated back to the period after Japan lost World War II and that it is tough to overturn that now. "Too much time has passed since then," said Mr. Ishihara. "It's very unfortunate but it's partly a done deal now." |
| Posted: 27 Aug 2012 05:13 AM PDT Chinese leaders face a dilemma about what to do with the economy ahead of the country's major leadership change, writes the BBC's Damian Grammaticas. |
| Fire-bomb kills 3 water company officials Posted: 27 Aug 2012 01:36 AM PDT THREE officials of a water company in Shaoyang City of central Hunan Province were burned to death this morning. A Shaoyang Water Company employee went into their meeting room at about 10am and threw a gasoline bottle at the officials and other managers at the meeting. The blast killed the three officials at the scene and injured several others, according to people.com.cn. The attacker's motive is still not known, the report said. Police did not reveal the identities of the attacker and the victims and the investigation is ongoing. |
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