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News » Society » Islands claim stressed as foreign ministers meet |
- Islands claim stressed as foreign ministers meet
- Plane down on Yangtze but it's only a drill ...
- Anger over oil firm's 'threats'
- 1 passenger hurt as bus gets stuck in road cave-in
- School sorry for face stamping
- Need to declare personal assets gets thumbs up
- Students finding it difficult on their own
- 'Prison camp' hit in Tibet opening
- The speaker of Tibet's parliament-in-exile accused Beijing of turning the Himalayan region into a giant prison camp as he opened the biggest meeting of the Tibetan leadership in four years.
- `Money pit' early-warning system drops off radar
- China slowdown adds urgency to Communist Party soul searching
- China Adds Aircraft Carrier to Its Navy
- China Bankrolling Chavez’s Re-Election Bid With Oil Loans
- Have You Heard…
- China-Japan Ministers Hold ‘Severe’ Talks as Spat Damages Trade
- Students marked good or bad with stamps
- Vintage map disproves Japan claim to Diaoyu Islands
- Illegal blood dealers arraigned in Beijing court
- China media: Aircraft carrier
| Islands claim stressed as foreign ministers meet Posted: 26 Sep 2012 09:37 AM PDT FOREIGN Minister Yang Jiechi stressed China's claim to the Diaoyu Islands when he met Japanese counterpart Koichiro Gemba in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. During a meeting requested by Gemba, Yang said Japan's so-called "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands was a gross violation of China's territorial integrity and sovereignty, and a grave challenge to the post-war international order. "The Chinese side will by no means tolerate any unilateral actions by the Japanese side on the Diaoyu Islands," Yang said. "China will continue to take firm measures to safeguard its territorial integrity and sovereignty." Both sides promised to maintain consultations on the issue. |
| Plane down on Yangtze but it's only a drill ... Posted: 26 Sep 2012 09:26 AM PDT A drill simulating a plane making an emergency landing on water took place at the mouth of Yangtze River yesterday. A model plane, the same size as a Boeing 757 but not capable of flight, was used for the drill, with 150 volunteers acting as passengers stranded on the aircraft, maritime officials said. The exercise was similar to the incident where an American plane successfully ditched in the Hudson River minutes after takeoff in early 2009, officials said. The drill was to "put our rescue abilities from the water and air to the test," said Xu Zuyuan, vice transport minister and head of China's Maritime Search and Rescue Center. During the drill, which lasted around 45 minutes, "passengers" were first evacuated to the plane's wings, waiting to be rescued. They were then taken on board boats and ships, as well as helicopters. Some played the part of wounded passengers airlifted to helicopters hovering above the scene for transfer to hospital. The rescue center said it had conducted more than 1,290 actual sea rescue missions this year, saving more than 950 ships and vessels and the lives of more than 11,000 people. |
| Anger over oil firm's 'threats' Posted: 26 Sep 2012 09:24 AM PDT SLAPPING his hands repeatedly on a table, a local government official yesterday angrily accused Sinopec, China's biggest oil company, of threatening provincial government departments and brazenly discharging pollutants into the sea off south China's Guangdong Province. Zhou Quan, director of the province's Environment Inspection Bureau, shouted at a meeting: "It always threatens the government by claiming what it does is for the national economy and the people's livelihood .... The environment is people's true livelihood." The meeting, held to announce the conclusion of an inspection campaign launched by the province's environmental protection authority, was broadcast on China Central Television. Zhou said some government departments did not dare inspect or supervise Sinopec even after they found the company was discharging excessive pollutants. The inspection campaign found that three subsidiaries of the oil company in Guangdong had been illegally discharging pollutants into rivers or were putting the environment at serious risk. The Sinopec Dongxing petrochemical company in Zhanjiang City illegally discharged sewage through rain drainage system, and the environmental protection authority of Guangdong ordered it to suspend its production in May. However, the company later resumed production without permission, officials told the meeting. Another subsidiary - New Sino-US - illegally dismantled its sewer system. Then it diluted the waste before discharging it into rain tunnels. Meanwhile, officials said that Sinopec Guangzhou had stored a large amount of unidentified liquid in two of its emergency tanks, which could cause severe environmental pollution in the event of an accident. "District departments have been inspecting the three companies many times but why had they never found any problem?" Zhang Zhimin, a leader of one of the campaign's inspection teams, said, implying that Sinopec had managed to make district-level governments stay silent on the issue. "I think these issues should never happen to a major state-owned enterprise like Sinopec," Zhang told the meeting. Sinopec topped an annual ranking of the biggest-earning Chinese enterprises for the eighth straight year with 2.55 trillion yuan (US$402 billion) revenue in 2011. It was followed in second place by another oil company, China National Petroleum Corp, which also reported revenue over 2 trillion yuan. The CCTV broadcast of the meeting triggered anger among viewers, and Sinopec's stock price dropped by 1.5 percent on the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday. The Ministry of Environmental Protection has reported 26 pollution cases in the first half this year with nine of them related to Sinopec or its subsidiaries, CCTV said yesterday. In Shanghai, Sinopec Shanghai Gaoqiao Petrochemical Corp was fined 200,000 yuan in April 2011 for causing a toxic gas leak that affected many parts of the city. The ministry has asked Sinopec to launch an overhaul of its plants and suspended the three Guangdong companies, CCTV said. District governments who failed to oversee the illegal actions of the plants will also be punished, it was reported. |
| 1 passenger hurt as bus gets stuck in road cave-in Posted: 26 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT THE rear wheel of a bus carrying more than 20 passengers got stuck in a hole when a road in Harbin suddenly caved in yesterday. A 40-year-old female passenger on the bus, which was damaged, was injured and has been sent to hospital, China National Radio reported. The accident occurred around noon at the crossroads of Daqingfu Road and Xusheng Street in the city's Xiangfang District, the report said. Police have cordoned off the surrounding area and authorities are investigating the cause. Several shoddy urban infrastructure accidents have cast a bad light on Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Over nine days in August, seven reported road cave-ins killed two people and injured two others after two vehicles fell in. Netizens have been mocking the frequent cave-ins, which they say "may trap anyone.' This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| School sorry for face stamping Posted: 26 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT A primary school in Shenzhen has apologized for the misconduct of a young teacher who stamped blue and red marks on the faces of her students according to their performance. Online pictures showed red marks on the foreheads of pupils who performed well while naughty ones had blue marks on their cheeks. The pupils said they could not rub off the marks until school was over, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday. ''I felt humiliated and my classmates all laughed at me,'' said a child with a blue mark on his face. ''I begged my teacher to stamp it on my arm but she refused.'' A parent said it's like ''tattooing an inmate in ancient times to show the man was a criminal.'' Shangfen Primary School in Guangdong Province said a newly recruited teacher surnamed Guo used the method on grade three pupils as she wanted to motivate them to perform well in school. Other teachers gave marks on students' exercise books. Guo admitted it was inconsiderate to stamp the faces of the pupils. ''I will examine my wrongdoings and I won't do it again,'' she said. Li Yu, the school's deputy head, said the school would give further training for young teachers, but didn't say if Guo would be punished, the paper reported. News of Guo's action circulated online and triggered a public outcry. ''She must be fired and local education officials are required to make a public apology,'' wrote a microblogger on Weibo.com. |
| Need to declare personal assets gets thumbs up Posted: 26 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT THERE has not been any negative response or tip-off about the 14 candidates applying for official posts in a county in Zhejiang Province who have been required to declare their personal assets. The details of their personal assets have been publicized for a week by yesterday and the Pan'an County's organization committee said it has not received any adverse report or tip-off from the public about their declaration. The public and the media have applauded the committee's endeavor on mandating personal asset declaration. Some lauded it as a most thorough initiative. The candidates' data on the county government's website include their educational and work background, annual salary, the number of homes and cars owned, share holdings and other sources of family income. Hu Yuxian, who is running for township head, reported an annual salary of 62,123 yuan (US$9,847) as secretary of the Pan'an county committee of the Communist Youth League of China. She also disclosed she owns two homes - one measuring 143.95 square meters bought by her family while another of 304.17 square meters was a gift. "It (declaration) is a strong constrain to ensure civil servants are self-disciplined," Hu, a 30-year-old college graduate. Those who are found to have concealed their personal assets will be dismissed from the official nomination procedure under discipline regulations set by the committee. The organization committee of Jinhua City, which administers Pan'an, is working to introduce Pan'an's practice into the official appointment system in the city to check corruption and build a "transparent" government. Officials bearing luxurious personal assets have become a new form of corruption in China. Yang Dacai, a senior official in Shaanxi Province, was sacked after being exposed online wearing 11 pricey watches on various occasions. |
| Students finding it difficult on their own Posted: 26 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT A COLLEGE student in east China has been thrust into the media spotlight after she sent her dirty clothes home to be washed. Her 74-year-old grandmother in the northeastern city of Dalian was asked to return the clothes once they'd been washed, according to a local newspaper. The granddaughter recently enrolled in a university in Qingdao. Newspapers and online news services quickly picked up the story and the student was suddenly at the center of much comment and criticism. Since the beginning of the autumn semester, there have been many reports of new students, often from one-child families, finding it hard to cope on their own. The reports gave rise to the question of whether indulgent parents should be to blame for their children's inability to take care of themselves. "They should have basic operating abilities, and they surely need to know how to tend to their clothes," was one comment on Weibo. "They can't depend on their families their whole lives." Another comment claimed: "Nowadays, many children are fragile," adding that parents were failing to give their children responsibilities at home, such as doing the household chores. Xu Yafei, a junior at Nanchang University, said he had never washed clothes prior to gong to university and once took a month's worth of dirty socks home for his mother to wash. "Later, I realized that I should live independently and, therefore, started making attempts to change," he said. "College campus life is half like a society. After graduation, we need to live more independently," Xu added. Freshman Liu Hao started doing his own laundry this summer, and now has no problems with campus life. "During the summer vacation, my parents arranged for me to do household chores to prepare for university life," Liu said. Some experts say that the current education system, where students learn mechanically from textbooks, doesn't instill a sense of responsibility and self-sufficiency. Students have been trained to study hard in school, and mastering the abilities that would make them self-sufficient and independent was not a priority, said Yin Xiaojian, a researcher at the Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences. |
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| China slowdown adds urgency to Communist Party soul searching Posted: 26 Sep 2012 08:53 AM PDT  Source: Reuters By John Ruwitch (Reuters) – Chinese university teacher Zhu Haibin wept softly as she and other Communist Party cadres stood in rows before a mass grave of Communist fighters in southern China. Dressed in 'Red Army' garb, they looked like travelers on a history tour, except the scene was less about history than survival — the survival of a party that critics say has lost its ideological soul after more than three decades of free-market reforms and is striving to stay relevant. Since 2005, some 40,000 cadres have attended an elite new communist academy in the bamboo-covered hills of Jinggangshan, where the party hopes to rekindle faith in its founding principles and remind them how it came to run the world's number two economy, which long ago ditched Marx for markets. It is the softer side of a campaign launched under President Hu Jintao to strengthen the party which, despite boasting roughly 80 million members, still quietly fears Soviet-style oblivion if China's economic miracle comes to a halt. "With 200,000 party members it captured state power," said Zhou Jianping, a vice president at the Jinggangshan academy, referring to the initial membership of Russian communism when the Bolsheviks took power in 1917. "With 2 million party members it won a war to protect the country. But with nearly 20 million party members the red flag came down, power changed hands and it became an opposition party," he added. "The most profound reason was that party spirit was not strong and its work style had become degraded and devalued." SURVIVAL TRAINING With China's economy slowing and public scrutiny of officials on the rise via social media, the party is likely to endorse deepening its training push when Hu passes the baton to new leaders at the 18th Party Congress, which is expected to be held as early as next month. China's cadre training system is run out of academies across the country, some focusing on practical aspects of 21st century communism such as handling the media and management skills, including role-play scenarios on how to manage a variety of crises from mass protests to train crashes. At Jinggangshan's China Executive Leadership Academy, the job is to win hearts, not just minds. Hand-picked teachers are coached to tug heartstrings and elicit maximum emotion and they hammer two messages into trainees: your revolutionary forebears made immense sacrifices in harsh conditions, and the party exists to serve the people. It seemed to work, at least during a recent visit to the academy arranged for foreign and local journalists. "The difficulties that I face are nothing," said Zhu, the university teacher from Hainan province, sniffing back tears after hearing the story of Zhang, the "hero mother". China experts are skeptical the party can endure by tugging at heartstrings. They say it has drawn its modern legitimacy from a stunning economic rebirth, but that effect is fading as the economy matures and adjusts to slower rates of growth. "You have to find other ways to bolster and sustain your legitimacy and I think that's where they have a problem going forward," said Damien Ma, an analyst with the Eurasia Group. Two other Executive Leadership Academies opened in 2005 when the Jinggangshan school opened. They form the vanguard of the training push alongside Beijing's Central Party School, which crowns a network of nearly 3,000 party schools nationwide. In Jinggangshan, students dress in Red Army uniforms, sing revolutionary songs and haul baskets of rice along a path traversed by Mao Zedong, the late Communist leader, more than 80 years ago. Classroom time is spent on history lessons. Even for cadres at Jinggangshan — known as the "cradle of the revolution" because the mountains around it were used by Mao's red army at the beginning of the civil war — the problems of the present are not far from their minds. Zhang Dechang, another Hainan cadre on a five-day course, said: "Cadres now are overly pragmatic in their thinking and perhaps think too much about their own benefit. We need to do more governing for the people." Yuan Meisheng, a Beijing official also on a week-long course, said the training had a valuable but limited impact. "With this kind of education it isn't like you go back and there's a big change. It's subtle." The town of Jinggangshan itself shows just how far the party has strayed from its Marxist roots. It is a haven for tourist-based capitalism where dozens of shops sell revolutionary memorabilia, including bronze Mao statues, Red Army keychains and bottles of liquor shaped like hand grenades and bullets. The small hill town where the leadership academy was established now has nearly 300 hotels and guest houses. Training is a cornerstone industry alongside "red" tourism, locals say. In peak season last year, 100 classes were under way at once and more than 10,000 people were in training in Jinggangshan, according to a news website run by the local government. Pu Xingzu, a Fudan University political scientist and adjunct professor at the cadre school, once asked school administrators if there was really a long-term effect. "Their answer: After a few years they can always come back and do it all over again!" he said. |
| China Adds Aircraft Carrier to Its Navy Posted: 26 Sep 2012 08:57 AM PDT  Source: Wall Street Journal By Brian Spegele BEIJING—China officially welcomed its first aircraft carrier to its navy, offering a public display of its ambitions to challenge U.S. naval supremacy in Asia in the midst of a territorial dispute with Japan that has inflamed nationalism at home. But the addition of the Liaoning to the fleet Tuesday received broad coverage in China's state-run media. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao were among the leaders at a ceremony in Dalian, the port city where the carrier was refurbished, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. The commissioning led the national nightly television news broadcast, which showed Mr. Hu presiding over the ceremony while wearing the Mao-style suit he reserves for military functions. Mr. Wen, reading a letter on behalf of the country's leaders, said putting the aircraft carrier into service would "be of great and far-reaching significance in inspiring patriotism, national spirit and driving national-defense technologies," Xinhua said. "It will also be of great significance in enhancing national defense power and the country's comprehensive strength." The carrier's formal handover to the navy from contractor China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. is largely symbolic. It comes just before China's Oct. 1 National Day as well as a sensitive once-a-decade changeover of top political leaders set to begin in the coming weeks. It appeared in part designed to reinforce a domestic message as China verbally defends its territorial claims against neighbors including Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam. China holds claim to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, known in Chinese as the Diaoyu. It also faces potentially volatile disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines and others over energy-rich waters in the South China Sea. Tens of thousands of Chinese have protested—at times violently—against Japan's control over the Senkaku in the past several weeks, underscoring the public pressure leaders face to defend Chinese territorial claims. Top Chinese political leaders are also grappling with a resurgent U.S. military presence in the region, after more than a decade where the Pentagon focused on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The development of an aircraft carrier has long been promoted as a symbol of rising national strength. It reinforces the government's narrative that China under the Communist Party is rapidly emerging as a benevolent regional actor just as the U.S. is struggling to retain the influence it has had in the Asia-Pacific since 1945. "China will not join any arms race, pose a threat to other countries or exceed its national and economic strength to develop arms," Xinhua said in a commentary on Tuesday. The Pentagon has reported rising overall numbers of Chinese naval vessels in recent years as well as a greater proportion of which the U.S. considers modern. It says the Chinese navy possesses about 75 principal surface combatants, like destroyers and frigates, and around 60 submarines. China's military could add to its projected power if it were eventually able to deploy aircraft carriers as well as necessary support vessels. That could include running longer and more sophisticated sea and air missions to assert sovereignty over the South China Sea. Currently, its jets don't have sufficient range to operate for extended periods to the outer limits of China's territorial claims, experts say. A Chinese company purchased the carrier's empty hull from Ukraine in 1998, and it made its first sea trial under Chinese control in August 2011. China's neighbors have reacted warily to its growing clout. The U.S. is forging strategic partnerships with long-time ally the Philippines as well as with Vietnam. Vietnam is also in the process of acquiring six Kilo-class submarines from Russia while the Philippines has pushed the U.S. for defense pledges in the event of a territorial conflict with China. Chinese leaders see a modern navy as necessary to protecting Chinese assets and interests increasingly spread across the world. China's navy in recent years has been taking part in antipiracy missions in the in the Gulf of Aden, for example, though it isn't likely the aircraft carrier will be participating in missions far from China's shores in the immediate term. In its annual report to Congress on Chinese military developments, the Pentagon said some components of China's first indigenous aircraft carrier may already be under construction. The first of several indigenous carriers isn't likely be ready until after 2015, the report said. Chinese aircraft carriers are the cornerstone of a multidecade effort by Beijing to modernize its forces. China's military spending in 2012 is forecast to rise to 670.2 billion yuan (about $106 billion), an 11.2% jump over spending a year earlier, according to government figures. Other Chinese military advances that could counter the U.S. include the development of specialized missiles designed to target large ships, such as U.S. aircraft carriers operating in the Western Pacific. One antiship ballistic missile under development, the DF-21D, has a range of more than 1,500 kilometers, or 900 miles, according to the Pentagon. |
| China Bankrolling Chavez’s Re-Election Bid With Oil Loans Posted: 26 Sep 2012 08:49 AM PDT  Source: Bloomberg News By Charlie Devereux Edelmina Flores thanks God and Hugo Chavez for her apartment in a new housing complex in the Venezuelan president's home state of Barinas. She might also want to thank the Chinese government. The loans are fueling a surge in spending as Chavez hands out homes to the poor, stocks "socialist" supermarkets with appliances and builds a cross-country railroad — all aimed at winning votes next month in his toughest election battle ever. "If we didn't have a president like the one we have, lots of families would be on the street," said Flores, who used to live in a two-bedroom shack before being given a new home in December by Chavez's brother, Governor Adan Chavez. "Now I have a decent home for my three children," Flores, 46, said in an Aug. 21 interview. "My president is the best." Winning Twice The loans give the Chinese influence over Chavez, who regularly speaks of recovering Venezuela's sovereignty after decades of subjugation to the U.S. "empire." In addition to securing large deliveries of oil, much of the money lent to Venezuela returns in the form of contracts to Chinese state-run companies whose global expansion is also being financed by the Beijing-based CDB, the world's biggest policy lender. Among the beneficiaries are China Petrochemical Corp and the country's biggest oil and gas producer, China National Petroleum Corp. Both gained stakes in Venezuela's oil industry after Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and ConocoPhillips (COP) abandoned the country under the threat of nationalization. "Venezuela's oil is at the service of China," Chavez, 58, said in February 2009 at a meeting in Caracas with a delegation of Chinese businessmen led by Vice President Xi Jinping. Joint Fund One vehicle for the lending is a joint fund to finance infrastructure projects set up in 2007 by CDB and Venezuela's Bank for Social & Economic Development. To date, China has contributed $16 billion, while Venezuela has committed half that amount, according to the Venezuelan government. Separately Chavez also secured a $20 billion loan from CDB in 2010, half of which is payable in U.S. dollars and half in renminbi. Chavez said this month that he's seeking a third credit line. "We're thinking about 2013," he told reporters Sept. 11. "I sent Hu Jintao a letter and the teams are already working on it," he said, referring to the Chinese president. Venezuela pays off the loans with oil, the amount of which fluctuates depending on the price of crude. Currently debt- servicing consumes about 200,000 barrels of the 640,000 a day that Venezuela sends China, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Sept. 25, or about 9 percent of production. Venezuela relies on oil for 95 percent of its exports and half of public spending. The savings for Venezuela are significant. As a result of Chavez's nationalization drive and inflation that has remained above 18 percent since 2007, the country's borrowing costs have soared to the highest among major emerging markets. The extra yield investors demand to own Venezuelan dollar debt rather than U.S. Treasuries widened 5 basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 987 at 10 a.m. in Caracas, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s EMBI Global index. Cheap Credit Venezuela pays no more than 6 percent interest on its loans from China compared with 12 percent it pays for bonds issued in capital markets, Ramirez told El Nacional in an interview published Sept. 19. Ramirez's office didn't immediately respond to a request to confirm his comments as reported by El Nacional. The lower cost has allowed Chavez to avoid tapping global investors. While the government and state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA sold a record $17.5 billion of dollar- denominated debt in 2011, so far this year PDVSA has issued just $3 billion. 'Lots of Capital' "We have lots of capital and lack resources, they have lots of resources and lack capital, so it's complementary," Liu Kegu, the CDB's adviser to Venezuela, said in a March interview in Beijing. "Oil is very simple to drill. You drill a hole, put in a pipe and it comes out." Chavez has put the windfall to work ahead of an Oct. 7 election in which he's seeking a third, six-year term amid concerns about his health after he revealed last year he was battling cancer. In the past 12 months, government spending has risen 30 percent in real terms, according to Bank of America- Merrill Lynch, helping to drive economic growth of 5.4 percent in the second quarter. Much of the spending is going toward a plan to build 3 million homes by 2018, a pillar of Chavez's campaign to defeat opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski. Diverging Polls Pollsters are split on who has an advantage in the race, though none shows Chavez dominating as he did in 2006, when he won with 63 percent. Capriles, the former governor of Miranda state, enjoyed a 1.9 percentage point edge over Chavez in an August poll by Caracas-based Consultores 21. A poll taken Aug. 25 to Sept. 5 by Caracas-based Datanalisis showed Chavez with 49.4 percent against 39 percent for Capriles. In a poll of 2,000 people by Varianzas taken Sept. 7-20, Chavez had 49.7 percent against 47.7 percent for Capriles. The survey had a margin of error of 2.16 percentage points. In a sign of how China wins twice from lending to Venezuela, much of the construction is being done by Chinese companies. Flores's apartment is one of 5,360 units being built on a plot of land two miles outside the state capital in Barinas by Citic Construction Engineering Co, a subsidiary of China's largest conglomerate. In addition to helping Chavez fulfill his campaign pledges, Chinese companies are gaining access to some of Venezuela's most valuable assets. Gold Mine Citic, which is building more than 33,000 homes across the country, is in talks with PDVSA to acquire a stake in the Petropiar oil venture in the heavy crude Orinoco belt, state television reported Feb. 27. It's also a minority partner in Las Cristinas, a mine containing the country's largest gold deposits, Chavez said Feb. 24. Another subsidiary, Citic Securities Co Ltd (600030), China's largest brokerage by market value, is advising on ways to conduct financial operations through the Hong Kong stock exchange, according to Chavez. Chinese companies are also being invited to fill pent-up demand for everything from cars to televisions as currency and import restrictions lead to supply shortages. According to a September 2010 resolution in the Official Gazette, Venezuela must spend at least 75 percent of the $20 billion it received in 2010 on "cooperation projects" between the two countries. Chavez's government since September 2010 has purchased 3 million air conditioners, televisions and other appliances from Qingdao Haier Co., Commerce Minister Edmee Betancourt said in April. The goods are used to supply a program called "My Well- Equipped House" that's backed by credit from state banks at a subsidized interest rate below inflation. The loans are also being used to import cars made by Wuhu-based Chery Automobile Co., Betancourt said this month. Commodity-Linked Loans "The Chinese have done their homework," said Kevin Gallagher, an economist at Boston University and author of "Dragon in the Room: China & the Future of Latin American Industrialization." "The Venezuelan economy can tank but part of the loans are linked to commodities that aren't going to disappear anytime soon." The oil-for-loans program in Venezuela stands out for its size, though the same model is used by China to benefit its economy and companies throughout the world, from Russia to Ghana. In Latin America, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, an ally of Chavez, has secured oil-backed loans from China since 2009 worth $7.3 billion, about a third of the government's budget, according to the country's Finance Ministry. Labor Tensions As with Chinese projects in Africa and elsewhere, tensions have surfaced between Venezuelan workers and their foreign managers. At three construction sites in different states visited by Bloomberg News over five days in August, dozens of workers described being forced by Chinese managers to work long hours, with little concern for their safety, and being harassed by police for airing complaints. Andres Roman Rangel said police shot him and two co-workers while breaking up a union meeting near Los Dos Caminos, in Guarico state, where China Railway Engineering Corp. is building a 468-kilometers (290 mile) railroad. "They got me in my right arm and you can see how it entered and exited just below my armpit," Rangel, 38, said in an interview from the workers' camp, pointing to a bullet wound. Jose Perez, a 31-year-old machinist on the same project, said he's frequently forced to work 15 hours straight without overtime. "They're trying to impose Chinese labor laws on us," he said, standing near a giant billboard of Chavez shaking hands with Chinese President Hu. Much of the work is going to Chinese migrants. In the housing project in Barinas, about 43 percent of the 812 workers are Chinese, according to state-run newspaper Correo del Orinoco. In Los Dos Caminos 75 percent are Chinese, said Manuel Magallanes, a union leader on the $7.5 billion Tinaco-Anaco railway, the nation's largest non-oil infrastructure investment. China Response Marco Perozo, manager of the project for Venezuela's State Railway Institute, or IFE, declined to discuss the workers' grievances when he was asked about them outside the encampment. He said he needed permission from the National Guard commander who wasn't present. He didn't return subsequent phone calls and IFE's President, Franklin Perez Colina, didn't respond to an e- mail. Chinese managers on the project wouldn't talk to Bloomberg nor were police officials in the nearby town of Ortiz and the state capital San Juan de los Morros available to comment. Zhang Fan, an official at the investor relations department of China Railway Group Ltd. (601390), the listed subsidiary of China Railway Engineering, did not respond to an e-mailed list of questions seeking comment on the workers' disputes. Feng Qihua, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for CDB, did not respond to two phone calls to her office and an e-mail about the bank's lending to Venezuela. Officials at China Railway's office in Caracas said they were not allowed to give interviews and did not respond to a letter seeking comment on the workers' complaints. 'Complete Nonsense' Venezuela's Information Ministry didn't respond to an e- mail request for government comment on the alleged abuses and criticism by the opposition that the loans benefit China more than Venezuela Hong Lei, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said that any notion that Chinese lending was meant to influence Venezuela's election is "complete nonsense." "In recent years, China and Venezuela have started sizable financial collaborations based on the principle of mutual benefit," Hong told reporters in Beijing on Sept. 25. "Such investments are mainly used in development projects in Venezuela's agriculture, infrastructure and energy sectors which are beneficial to the country economically and socially." Nationalization Praise China's policy is to stay out of politics, Liu said in the March interview on the sidelines of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory group to the country's legislature. Still, he praised Chavez's nationalization of oil assets as a move that brings the country's resource wealth closer to the Venezuelan people. "What he's done is amazing," Liu said. "He's a people's president." Chavez has responded in kind, referring to Liu as his "brother" at a Feb. 24 ceremony welcoming a delegation of Citic executives. "China is large but it's not an empire," Chavez said on the occasion, holding a 600-page blueprint for Venezuela's development over the next two decades presented in an earlier trip to Caracas by CDB Chairman Chen Yuan. "China doesn't trample on anyone, it hasn't invaded anyone, it doesn't go around dropping bombs on anyone." Opposition lawmaker Julio Montoya said in an interview that the loans lack transparency, benefit Chinese manufacturers at the expense of local ones and may violate a 2005 law by offering the country's natural resources as collateral. Capriles has said he'll review the terms of the loans to ensure their legality if he wins next month's vote. 'Political Loyalties' "There's no doubt we're going to need China — they are an economic powerhouse," Capriles said in a Feb. 7 press conference. "But many of the agreements the government has signed involve political loyalties that don't interest us." The U.S., which buys 9.7 percent of its oil from Venezuela, has remained largely silent about China's outreach. That's because rising production levels in countries such as Brazil and Canada will be able to make up for any potential shortfall and much of the oil acquired by China is re-sold in Venezuela, said a U.S. government official. China has avoided friction with the U.S. in Latin America by avoiding overt political engagement with Chavez, said the official, who declined to be named because he isn't authorized to discuss policy publicly. "I don't understand how some Venezuelans dare to question this relationship with China," Chavez said Feb. 24. "They've even said such ridiculous things like that Venezuela is now a Chinese colony." Post-Election Reckoning? If oil prices tumble, and the cost of servicing the loans jumps, the spending boom may come to an end. Morgan Stanley said in a report this month that Venezuela may default on its debt as early as the second half of 2013 unless Chavez takes action to shore up the nation's "increasingly fragile" finances. After PDVSA put off investments in its facilities to fund social programs, reviving output won't be easy. Production is 22 percent lower than it was when Chavez took power in 1999, according to annual statistics published by BP Plc. (BP/) Venezuelan crude averaged $102.76 in the week ending Sept. 21. Still, those scenarios, if they materialize at all, will come after Debora Gutierrez casts her vote next month. The 49- year-old retired sales clerk said she wasn't a supporter of Chavez when he first took office because at that point "no one had given me anything." Now, sitting on her bed in a government-provided apartment in Barinas built by Citic, she said she has no doubts about whom she'll support. "Here in the housing project there's a fanaticism for Chavez." |
| Posted: 26 Sep 2012 08:37 AM PDT Have You Heard…   |
| China-Japan Ministers Hold ‘Severe’ Talks as Spat Damages Trade Posted: 26 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT  Source: Bloomberg News By Stuart Biggs The foreign ministers of China and Japan held "severe" talks in New York in an attempt to ease rising tensions over a territorial dispute that is hurting trade between Asia's two biggest economies. While neither side showed signs of compromise, the discussion contrasts with the cancellation of a series of bilateral events amid the worst diplomatic crisis since 2005. Nissan Motor Co. (7201) said today it's halting production in China to reflect falling demand, and All Nippon Airways Co. said 40,000 seats have been canceled on its China flights. "There was agreement to maintain lines of communication through working-level talks," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters today in Tokyo, adding that the meeting lasted about an hour. "There are no magic tricks in diplomacy. It all comes down to holding talks through various channels and at various levels." The talks took place after vice foreign ministers met yesterday in Beijing to discuss Japan's purchase this month of the islands, known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese. Crisis Talks Yang and Gemba last met on Sept. 9 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Vladivostok, Russia, two days before Japan reached a deal to buy the islands from a private Japanese owner. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Chinese President Hu Jintao also met briefly at APEC. "China will continue to take firm measures to safeguard its territorial integrity and sovereignty," Yang told Gemba, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry statement. The crisis sparked protests in China that damaged operations for Japanese companies. Reservations for more than 40,000 seats on All Nippon Airways flights were canceled from September to November, Executive Vice President Osamu Shinobe told reporters in Tokyo today. Japan Airlines Co. (9201) had 15,500 cancellations as of Sept. 24. Organizations in the two countries canceled or postponed a series of events, including plans to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations. China skipped an international disaster relief conference in Tokyo, Xinhua reported. It said Chinese leaders in the Japanese city of Yokohama announced they would cancel an annual National Day parade on Oct. 1. Production Cuts Nissan, the top Japanese seller of vehicles in China, said today its August output in China fell by 8.9 percent from a year earlier to 86,488 units. Chinese production dropped 18 percent to 67,625 vehicles at Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) and declined 10 percent at Honda Motor Co. Japanese autos will lose their lead this year over German nameplates for the first time since 2005, China's Passenger Car Association estimates. Nissan will suspend China production from Sept. 27 — three days earlier than planned — and resume output on Oct. 8 in view of the "current market situation," company spokesman Chris Keeffe said today by telephone. Toyota said it's suspending output from today until Oct. 8 in Guangzhou and Tianjin, and at its Sichuan FAW plant from Sept. 29. Japanese carmakers, still recovering from natural disasters in Japan and Thailand last year, may face an even bigger financial toll from the protests in the world's biggest automobile market, according to projections from China's Passenger Car Association. Ambassador's Car Thousands of people have taken part in anti-Japanese protests across cities across China over the island dispute. Protesters threw bottles and eggs at the Japanese embassy in Beijing this month, while demonstrators also caused minor damage to the official vehicle of U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke. Japan's main opposition Liberal Democratic Party today chose as its new leader former premier Shinzo Abe, who has called for building on the islands as a means of asserting the country's sovereignty. Polls indicate the LDP may defeat the ruling Democratic Party of Japan in elections Noda must call by August, putting Abe in line to become prime minister again. The Legislative Affairs Office of China's State Council unveiled draft regulations yesterday that would raise the fine for failing to "demonstrate China's complete territory" when creating maps of the region, Xinhua said. The fine, currently capped at 10,000 yuan ($1,585), would be raised to 100,000 yuan. At the same time, Xinhua published a 5,200-word White Paper from China's State Council Information Office outlining China's claim to the islands, referring to documents dating to the Ming Dynasty in 1561. "No matter what unilateral step Japan takes over Diaoyu Dao, it will not change the fact that Diaoyu Dao belongs to China," the paper said, referring to the islands' full Chinese name.   |
| Students marked good or bad with stamps Posted: 25 Sep 2012 11:42 PM PDT A primary school in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province apologized for the misconduct of a young teacher who stamped blue and red marks on the faces of her students according to their performance. Good students received red marks on their foreheads while the naughty ones were given blue marks. They had to wear the marks until the school was over, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported today. "It's like tattooing an inmate in ancient times to show the man was a criminal," a parent said. "I felt humiliated and my classmates all laughed at me," said a child with a blue mark on his forehead. "I begged my teacher to stamp it on my arm but she refused." The Shangfen Primary School said a young teacher used the method on grade-three students to motivate them to perform well in school, but it didn't say whether the teacher would be punished.
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| Vintage map disproves Japan claim to Diaoyu Islands Posted: 25 Sep 2012 11:01 PM PDT A northern Chinese resident unveiled today a Japanese map published in the 1930s that he believes disproves Japan's claim to the Diaoyu Islands. Yang Xiufeng in Hebei Province said the map was published in 1935 and purchased on May 21, 1939 in Fukuona, Japan. Yang added that the map was bought by a family friend who later gave the map to his family. One page of the map specifies that Okinawa Island belongs to Japan, but the Diaoyu Islands are not labeled on the page. On another page, Okinawa Island and its affiliated islets are described as belonging to Japan, but the Diaoyu Islands are not. Although the map has sustained some damage, the content is still readable, with characters stating "newest Japanese map" and "latest traveling map" inscribed on its pages. Yang said he decided to draw attention to the map after being angered by Japan's "purchase" of part of the Diaoyu Islands. Yang described the "purchase" as an "irresponsible action," adding that the map indicates that the country did not claim the islands 77 years ago. Zhao Jingcun, a 92-year-old historian of Hebei's Tangshan Normal College, said he has no doubt that the map is of Japanese origin, adding that the islands were not included as part of Japan's territory on the map because the islands did not belong to Japan. |
| Illegal blood dealers arraigned in Beijing court Posted: 25 Sep 2012 10:53 PM PDT BEIJING'S biggest case of illegal blood sales, involving 12 suspects, was tried yesterday in the Haidian District People's Court. The gang was accused of recruiting people to sell blood to patients but pretend to be their relatives. Patients were charged 400 to 500 yuan (US$63-79) for a 100ml bag of blood, the procurators said. The sellers could get 100 yuan from each 100ml bag of blood they sold and the rest was split by the gang members, today's Beijing News reported. The gang began their illegal business last year in a hospital in Wukesong area and was arrested in January. All the 12 suspects pleaded guilty to the charges. A verdict will be handed down later. |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2012 11:10 PM PDT Morning newspaper round-up: Extensive coverage on the launch of China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning. |
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