News » China » Making inroads to a place where time stands still

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• Making inroads to a place where time stands still
• Income gap between the sexes widening
• Sharp increase in factory profit
• Jet launch inspires 'Carrier Style' craze online
• Parents who lost only child receive greater support
• Draft seeks to simplify pension planning
• Top lawmaker calls for greater environmental awareness
• Top Chinese political advisor arrives in Italy for official visit
• Xi offers condole on senior jet figure's death
• China's operating high-speed railway exceeds 7,000 km
• Skeptism to China's carrier-borne jet should be mute
• 1992 Consensus shows political wisdom: witnesses
• HIV/AIDS cases in Yunnan exceeds 100,000
• Web China: Jet launch inspires "Carrier-Style" online craze
• Active video games not recommended as exercise for children
• Chinese defense minister meets U.S. Secretary of Navy
• CPC cherishes Party banner, amended constitution
• Chinese defense minister meets US Secretary of Navy
• Policeman killed in Shandong
• Agriculture highlight in China-Sudan cooperation

Making inroads to a place where time stands still Posted: 27 Nov 2012 01:06 PM PST   Li Wenshi, 73, one of the few remaining Derung women with facial tattoos, shares an amusing moment with her daughter Li Yuhua at their home in Yunnan province. Wang Jing / China Daily As dusk fell in Xiongdang village, deep in the shade of the Gaoligong Mountains in northwest Yunnan province, Li Songying's relatives and friends gathered around a fire pit fenced with bricks to protect the small, wooden house. The slices of pickled pork suspended above the flames swayed in the warm air and a chicken boiled slowly in a pot of rice wine, diffusing an appetizing smell. Welcome to a party of the Derung ethnic group. After serving cooked taro and corn, Li Songying, 48, joined the fun and games. Losers in one game, where players attempt to correctly guess the number of fingers their opponent will hold up, have to perform a "forfeit" by quaffing a cup of the lethal "chicken soup". The party ended at midnight, when the wine jars were finally empty, and the guests lay down to sleep on a piece of plastic sheeting next to the fire. Next morning, as the first sunlight hit the village, the three hills hugging the contours of the Dulong River — rolling along like a blue ribbon unfolding in a stream of blue and white bubbles — resembled a beautiful landscape painting. Xiongdang, deep in the hills that straddle the border with Myanmar, is the most isolated settlement in Dulongjiang township, located at the far end of the road that links the two. Even in good weather when the road is free from landslides in the rainy season, it takes three days to travel by bus from the provincial capital Kunming to the Gongshan Derung and Nu autonomous county and a further seven hours by car to the township. Residents of Xianghong village, which has no road, face a seven-day trek if they need to visit the township government. From November to June, the road is regularly rendered impassible by snow, which can lay 10 meters deep. Infrequent interaction with the outside world has sheltered the area from modernity, but it has also condemned the residents to a life of economic disadvantage. The ethnic group was historically known as the Qiu people, but was renamed by former Premier Zhou Enlai in 1954 to Derung, meaning "single dragon" in Chinese. Roughly 60 percent of the Derung live along Dulong River. Once they were famous throughout China for the facial tattoos sported by the womenfolk, but the practice is fast disappearing. Li Wenshi, 73, and Lian Zixian, 74, both have facial tattoos, but the seven other girls tattooed alongside them as teenagers have passed away. "The girls were bound with rope and the mother would hold her daughter's face still," explained Li Wenshi. "The tattooist scratched the design into their flesh with a sharp, red-hot chisel and then filled in the scars with ink made of soot from the bottom of cooking pots. The bloody scars took a week to heal and the girls' faces were swollen for at least five days." The practice was forbidden during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) and has never restarted, leaving those still bearing the tattoos as living historical relics. The Derung people were too weak militarily to resist invasion from, among others, slave drivers from Tibet. According to the most widely accepted account, this resulted in the elders deciding to make the girls "ugly", and thus undesirable to invaders, by tattooing their faces. The tradition stuck and the indelible markings came to represent courage and became a prerequisite for marriage. Only 34 tattooed women are left in the township, according to records at the Dulongjiang Frontier Police Station, and the youngest is 56. Two or three die every year, meaning that within a decade all trace of the practice could be gone. A series of photographs, taken when the local police station compiled health dossiers on the women, will be the only reminder of the tattoos that were once commonplace in the area. Previous Page 1 2 3 Next Page Previous Page 1 2 3 Next Page

Income gap between the sexes widening Posted: 27 Nov 2012 01:06 PM PST Survey reveals gender inequality in job market The income gap between men and women in China is growing partly because of gender inequality, particularly in the job market, according to a survey. In 2010, urban women's income was 67.3 percent that of men's and rural women's income was 56 percent that of their male counterparts, the survey found. The ratios were 77.5 percent and 79 percent in 1990. The nationwide study was carried out by the All-China Women's Federation, the country's largest women's organization. Incomplete statistics also show that women make up about 45 percent of all employees on the Chinese mainland, while only one in four entrepreneurs is female, said Cui Yu, a member of the federation's secretariat. Women's incomes are growing much slower than men's, although China has achieved remarkable progress in promoting gender equality, Cui told a symposium in Beijing on Tuesday. Some 300 delegates — including company executives, scholars, industry leaders and members of non-governmental organizations — attended the one-day conference. It was organized by the federation, UN Women — a United Nations entity working for the empowerment of women and girls — and other organizations. Gender is one of the five most cited factors for respondents when asked about reasons for job discrimination, according to a report released by the Institute of International Labor and Social Security under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in 2011. The report, based on a poll of 2,240 residents aged 16 to 60 in eight cities, found that 8 percent of female respondents said they lost their jobs because of their gender, compared to only 3.6 percent of men. Zhang Junfeng, deputy director of the institute and chief editor of the report, told China Daily on the sidelines of the symposium that workplace inequality remains a "thorny problem" and this can partly be attributed to the public's low awareness of gender inequality. Other reasons include poor enforcement of laws and regulations to protect women's employment rights and difficulty in collecting evidence of gender discrimination, Zhang said. He added that gender discrimination is a global problem. Ding Manshan, who works in a foreign law firm's Shanghai office, said a local law firm rejected her application and offered the job to a male candidate last year. "The interviewer, who was in his 30s, told me bluntly that they only want men because they believe that women are physically weaker," the 24-year-old said. Julia Broussard, country program manager of UN Women's China Office, urged companies to become agents of social change in China by promoting gender equality internally and in the communities they serve. "Women have not received their fair share and this has hurt business and society, not to mention women themselves," Broussard said in her opening speech at the symposium. But some companies have been promoting gender equality. Ma Xinying, director of the sustainable development management office at China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co, says her company has recruited more female graduates from maritime universities and set up working committees for female employees across the group's 1,000 subsidiaries worldwide. The shipping giant has more than 70,000 staff members but they are mostly men. "But we have prioritized employing women in positions on land, and now 40 percent of our land staff are women," Ma said at the symposium. Zhao Ying, vice-president and chief editor of Netease.com Inc, which runs a major Web portal, said women accounted for half of the company's management posts, and in some departments all leaders are women. Contact the writer at hedan@chinadaily.com.cn Yang Yao contributed to this story.

Sharp increase in factory profit Posted: 27 Nov 2012 01:06 PM PST Investment and rising exports drive rebound, report says Factory profit rose at the fastest pace in 10 months in October, driven by increasing investment projects at home and export orders. The National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday that large companies (with annual business worth more than 20 million yuan) reported profits of 500.1 billion yuan ($80 billion) in October, a jump of 20.5 percent year-on-year. In September, the figure was just 7.8 percent, following a minus 6.2 percent in August. The five months to September saw consecutive losses. October figures were responsible for a marginal 0.5 percent profit for the 10 months, the bureau reported. The October figures are a "positive sign," said Liu Yuanchun, deputy dean of the Renmin University of China's School of Economics. "They could send a signal to the government that there is no need for further stimulus, at least in the short term." Major adjustments in macroeconomic policies are impractical before the annual economic work conference in December, Liu said. Economic reform is expected to see fresh progress under the new leadership team, Liu said. October's data are "better than expected," and will boost confidence to speed up investment and production in the coming months, he said. GDP growth will be 7.9 percent year-on-year in the last three months of the year, he said. Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS AG, said that investment in manufacturing might show moderate growth through 2013, while investment in infrastructure could experience higher growth. Wang forecast that China's GDP growth might be 7.6 percent this year and around 8 percent in 2013. Indicators began to show that the world's second-largest economy picked up the pace in September. In October, exports increased 11.7 percent year-on-year, 1.7 percentage points higher than September. The HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index was above 50 in November for the first time in 13 months. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. "The recovery in industrial activity appears to be gaining traction, supported by policy easing and stabilization in the housing market," said Zhu Haibin, the chief China economist and head of Greater China Economic Research at JP Morgan. "External demand has also improved in the near term." Business owners also reported positive signs. Zhou Mingwang, owner of Yiwu Mingwang Jewelry, a small export company in Zhejiang province, said overseas orders have slowly come back since August for Christmas. Government policies to help small and medium-sized enterprises are also coming through, he added. Huang Yi, manager of Shanghai Qinfen Trading, a vehicle parts exporter, said although the situation is still "quite miserable" for many manufacturing companies, he believes that the business environment will change for the better soon. Sunil Garg, the head of Asia Pacific Equity Research at JP Morgan, said that the steady rise in optimism for earnings estimates is notable, "as is the fact that consumption demand sentiment is stabilizing". From January to October this year, 27 of the 41 sectors covered by the bureau's data showed net revenue increases compared with a year earlier. The gains in the electricity and heating companies surged 57.5 percent and the growth was 9 percent in the auto industry. In the meantime, 13 industries reported a drop in profits, including oil and gas exploration companies with earnings decreasing 3.2 percent. The petrochemicals, coking and nuclear-fuel processing industries showed losses in the first 10 months. Contact the writers at chenjia1@chinadaily.com.cn and yuran@chinadaily.com.cn

Jet launch inspires 'Carrier Style' craze online Posted: 27 Nov 2012 01:06 PM PST Chinese Internet users have been imitating the hand signals used by crew members on the country's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, in celebration of a crucial breakthrough in the country's move toward a deep-sea navy. The gesture, stepping forward in a low bend and pointing with two fingers on one hand, was made by two crew members on the carrier's flight deck, giving the go-ahead to the pilot of a Chinese J-15 fighter jet who succeeded in the country's first take-off and landing from an aircraft carrier. Close-up shots of the crew broadcast on China Central Television from Sunday to Monday gave viewers the chance to see the gesture properly, and it was soon being imitated by Chinese Internet users on the micro-blogging platform Sina Weibo and other major Chinese websites. Nicknamed "Carrier Style", it has been deemed "cool, powerful and confident as well as amusing and comical" by netizens who uploaded pictures showing various takes on the gesture. Carrier Style rapidly eclipsed the online craze for the Gangnam Style music video after which it was named. On Sina Weibo, posts relating to Carrier Style were followed by more than 8 million users in one day and topped the list of hot topics. "Although the gesture has often been seen in movies, I couldn't restrain my excitement the first time I saw it used to instruct a fighter jet to land and take off from China's first aircraft carrier," said Han Lu, executive chief editor of a leading car website. Some netizens also praised the Chinese government's swift announcement of the dangerous exercise, comparing it favorably against the long delay it took to officially confirm the refitting of the carrier last year. The successful exercise on the Liaoning was conducted within two months of the carrier's delivery to the People's Liberation Army navy on Sept 25. Enthusiasm for Carrier Style has shown that the gesture has been accepted as a totem inspiring self-confidence and pride among Chinese people. "With carrier-borne fighter jets, China's own aircraft carrier is now truly charting a course for deep seas," commented a user named Lifushou on Sina Weibo. "We have done these test flights from the very beginning, and finally we mastered the key skills for the landing of carrier-borne aircraft," said Vice-Admiral Zhang Yongyi, the commander-in-chief in charge of the exercise. "It's like dancing on a knife point because the aircraft has to land on a very small space," Zhang said. The success of the exercise on the Liaoning, using a ski-jump style take-off instead of a catapult system, makes China one of a handful of countries to have mastered the landing and take-off of fixed-wing jets on an aircraft carrier. Refitted from the former Soviet Union's unfinished carrier Varyag, China's first aircraft carrier was towed to Dalian in Northeast China in 2003. Chinese authorities said the aircraft carrier will be mainly used for training and scientific research, and its operation will not change the national defense policy, which is defensive in nature. Military experts estimated that the J-15 has comprehensive capabilities comparable to those of the Russian Su-33 and the US F/A-18. Luo Yang, the chief of the carrier-borne J-15 project died of a heart attack on Sunday. CCTV confirmed Luo's death on Monday. Many netizens' reacted with disbelief to the sad news. "I just could not control such mixed feelings on a day when we should have had thousands of reasons for celebration," a Sina Weibo user named Shuijunnandang wrote on the website. "Under unimaginable pressure, Luo sacrificed himself to turn J-15 jets' take-off and landing into reality."

Parents who lost only child receive greater support Posted: 27 Nov 2012 01:06 PM PST Cities across China are providing greater financial aid to senior citizens who have lost their only child. Demographers estimate there are 10 million households that lost their only child in China. According to a draft regulation by Futian district government in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, parents aged 49 or older whose offspring have died, will be entitled to 750 yuan ($120) a month. People will not be eligible if they gave birth to, or adopted, another child. The district solicited public opinion on the draft from Nov 23 to 26. When the policy comes into effect on Jan 1, the health and population and family planning bureaus of Futian district will oversee the funds. Since Oct 1, Shaanxi province has given one-off 20,000 yuan to each rural family that has lost the only child and 30,000 yuan to each urban family. In addition, the monthly allowance per person has been raised from 140 to 800 yuan in rural areas and 1,000 yuan in urban areas. In the Haishu district of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, a two-year program commenced in January, aimed at providing greater support to these families. A parent, aged 49 or older receives 1,800 yuan a year. Some social groups are paid between 2,000 and 10,000 yuan for their outstanding services. Communities that take care of these elderly people's funerals, receive 10,000 yuan in subsidies. The policy has benefited 218 people from 139 such families, said Li Yiping, secretary-general of the family planning association in the Haishu district, at a work meeting on Nov 23. The China Family Planning Association provides funds to 14 provinces to run pilot programs that encourage government purchase of services from social groups. With 200,000 yuan allocated from the association, Anhui province began working with the Ailin social work organization in Hefei, the provincial capital. The four-month partnership runs from September to December, serving seniors aged 60 and older from 106 households who have lost their only child. "The government needs to rely on social groups' outreach to communities and volunteers. They can provide everyday services, such as health checkups or haircuts," said Zhang Gaoqiu, an official from the Family Planning Association in Anhui. When the program ends this year, Zhang's office will try to extend it and apply for further funds from the China Family Planning Association. In Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, such families are also struggling with limited financial help and despairing about getting older and frailer, said Li Minglan, 58, the founder of Heart-to-Heart Family Association, a mutual support group. Li's only son died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 21 in 1999. She suffered from severe depression and had to be hospitalized. She found consolation through helping others who had similar experiences to rebuild a life. There are more than 5,000 such families in Wuhan, and the group receives new members every month. Li has heard too many stories that involve impoverished parents who, after losing their only child, develop terminal diseases and cannot afford to go to the hospital. Zhang Taomei, 51, lost her only son in 2003. Zhang's thyroid cancer has relapsed, and her husband had a stroke and went blind some years ago. Nursing homes refuse to accept her husband, because they have no custodian to sign the papers, Li said. Healthcare and old-age support are the biggest concerns for these families. Even for Li, who runs a multimillion yuan business providing repair services and spare parts for steel companies, is deeply worried that no one will take care of her and her husband when they get older. "I hope there will be some organizations that keep an eye on us. In case we need a nurse, they can make the arrangements," she said. Contact the writer at liyao@chinadaily.com.cn

Draft seeks to simplify pension planning Posted: 27 Nov 2012 01:06 PM PST Proposal makes it possible to merge social endowment insurance benefits Yuan Xiaoqun felt relieved after she heard of a draft policy that would make it easier to deal with her complicated pension accounts. The 41-year-old Chong-qing resident, whose left leg was broken in a car accident in 2010, worked at a local motorbike parts manufacturer for 10 years, and she paid pension premiums every year. After the accident, she had to quit her job and joined a new pension program for non-working urban residents. "Before the new draft regulation, I did not know how to deal with the two insurances I participate in," she said. "But now I can make a wiser pension plan." The draft regulation Yuan was speaking about was released on Monday by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security to ensure conditional transfers of the country's three types of social endowment insurances and to benefit the potential 750 million residents who joined at least one of the three programs. Those insurances include basic endowment insurance for the urban working group, new rural social endowment insurance for rural residents, and social endowment insurance for non-working urban residents. At the end of September, the basic endowment insurance covered nearly 300 million people, and the other two covered another 450 million. With the draft, on which public opinion is solicited until mid-December, the ministry has made clear for the first time that people who have yet to reach retirement age and have contributed to any two or three of those insurances can transfer and combine them into one type of insurance. People who have contributed to rural or urban residents' insurance can have their premiums in both individual accounts and the government subsidies to combine with their premiums in basic endowment insurance. But the precondition is that they have worked in cities and contributed to the basic endowment insurance for 15 years, according to the draft. For instance, farmers who joined the new rural social endowment insurance and later the basic endowment insurance after finding a job in cities can merge the two programs into one basic endowment as long as they pay the premiums for the latter program for at least 15 years. Endowment insurance is a complicated issue in China, as the premiums people pay and pensions they collect differ among the three insurances, and they also differ from place to place. In Chongqing, for instance, the individual premium for an employee can range from 107 yuan ($17) to 1,600 yuan a month this year. The premiums for both local non-working urban residents and rural residents range from 100 to 900 yuan a year. "Each person can only collect pension from one type of endowment insurance after reaching retirement age," the draft says. Local social security bureaus are asked to accomplish transfer procedures within 45 days after receiving applications, according to the draft. Ensuring a transfer of different social endowment insurances will help people better decide a more appropriate insurance for themselves, and it will do good to avoid losses in insurance premiums, experts said. "China has just outlined its social endowment insurance framework for all groups of people, and the new draft mainly gives a signal to the public that everyone can benefit from the social security system no matter when they change from rural residents to corporate employees or urban residents, or from employees to become unemployed," said Lu Quan, a social security expert at Renmin University of China. Lu Xuejing, director of the social security research center at Beijing-based Capital University of Economics and Business, said: "The draft is quite practical because it will help resolve the problems that many people face when they change their work and living situations, and I believe a large number of people will benefit from it." She also said a long-term goal for China is to merge all three endowment insurances and provide an equal basic pension fund for all. "In fact, the new regulation is a key step toward that goal," she said. Contact the writer at chenxin1@chinadaily.com.cn

Top lawmaker calls for greater environmental awareness Posted: 27 Nov 2012 09:20 AM PST China's top legislator, Wu Bangguo, has issued a call for more efforts to create greater awareness among the public on thriftiness and environmental protection.

Top Chinese political advisor arrives in Italy for official visit Posted: 27 Nov 2012 08:13 AM PST Top Chinese political advisor Jia Qinglin arrived here Tuesday afternoon for an official goodwill visit to Italy.

Xi offers condole on senior jet figure's death Posted: 27 Nov 2012 08:09 AM PST Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has extended his "condolence with deep feeling of grief" on the unexpected death of Luo Yang, the on-site director-in-chief of China's carrier-borne fighter jet research program.

China's operating high-speed railway exceeds 7,000 km Posted: 27 Nov 2012 05:57 AM PST China's high-speed rail network in operation totaled 7,735 km at the end of October, ranking it first in the world in terms of the size of its high-speed infrastructure, said an official from the Ministry of Railways on Tuesday.

Skeptism to China's carrier-borne jet should be mute Posted: 27 Nov 2012 05:43 AM PST Foreign media reports have claimed that China's new J-15 carrier-borne fighter jet is merely a copy of a Russian model. Such an assertion is groundless and sour.

1992 Consensus shows political wisdom: witnesses Posted: 27 Nov 2012 04:48 AM PST Key witnesses have recalled the political wisdom and flexibility displayed by both sides of the Taiwan Strait two decades after the birth of the "1992 Consensus."

HIV/AIDS cases in Yunnan exceeds 100,000 Posted: 27 Nov 2012 04:48 AM PST Southwest China's Yunnan Province has logged more than 100,000 cases of HIV/AIDS since it began taking records of the condition, the chief of local AIDS watchdog told Xinhua on Tuesday.

Web China: Jet launch inspires "Carrier-Style" online craze Posted: 27 Nov 2012 04:33 AM PST Chinese Internet users have been tirelessly imitating auspicious hand signals by crew members of the country's first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, in celebration of a crucial breakthrough in marching toward a deep-sea navy.

Active video games not recommended as exercise for children Posted: 27 Nov 2012 12:45 AM PST Parents shouldn't consider video "exergames" as a way to help their youngsters be more physically active, an advocate group for children says.

Chinese defense minister meets U.S. Secretary of Navy Posted: 27 Nov 2012 12:45 AM PST Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie met here Tuesday with visiting U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, calling for deeper mutual trust between the two militaries.

CPC cherishes Party banner, amended constitution Posted: 27 Nov 2012 01:56 AM PST Xinhua News Agency's recent editorial gave a review of Chinese Communist Party's decisions to amend its Constitution.

Chinese defense minister meets US Secretary of Navy Posted: 27 Nov 2012 01:56 AM PST Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie met Tuesday with visiting U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, calling for deeper mutual trust between the two militaries.

Policeman killed in Shandong Posted: 27 Nov 2012 12:30 AM PST A policeman from Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, was killed on Nov 22 during an operation to arrest criminals in neighboring Shandong province, the Modern Express reported on Tuesday.

Agriculture highlight in China-Sudan cooperation Posted: 27 Nov 2012 12:33 AM PST On Nov. 23, the Promotion for Chinese Agricultural Investment in Sudan and the 2nd Session on China-Sudan Agricultural Cooperation concluded in Beijing.

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