News » Society » 12 officials suspended over children deaths
News » Society » 12 officials suspended over children deaths |
- 12 officials suspended over children deaths
- VIDEO: China's child trafficking raids
- World's longest high-speed rail line makes debut
- China opens longest bullet route
- Getting ready for spring ...
- Eateries spurn 'instant chicken'
- Controls on cigarettes 'not tough enough'
- Driver plows into student group
- Kindergarten closed after fatal van accident
- Ex-town head gets death in 14.4m yuan bribe case
- Police rescue 89 abducted kids, arrest 355
- Official fired after videos show his second family
- Kerry positive for China-US relations
- China starts background checks on IPO applicants – paper
- Liquor firms hung over from luxury dinner ban
- Teahouses still lack that winning blend
- Have You Heard…
- China on alert for Japanese fighter jets over E. China Sea
- Chicken raisers involved in antibiotics scandals under probe
- Ex-land planning official gets 15 years for taking bribes
| 12 officials suspended over children deaths Posted: 25 Dec 2012 07:21 PM PST TWELVE officials, including a vice mayor, have received work suspensions after 11 children died in a traffic accident yesterday in east China. Eleven kindergarten students died following the traffic accident in which a van carrying 15 children and one teacher plunged into a roadside pond yesterday morning in a rural area of Guixi City, Jiangxi Province. Police have detained the van's driver, who is also the head of the kindergarten, for questioning. A total of 12 officials, including the vice mayor of Guixi and directors of the education and transportation bureaus, were suspended from work for further investigation. A thorough inspection of all school buses in the province has been launched in an effort to prevent similar accidents. |
| VIDEO: China's child trafficking raids Posted: 25 Dec 2012 07:45 PM PST Chinese authorities say they have rescued 89 children and arrested hundreds of suspects following a crackdown on trafficking rings across the country. |
| World's longest high-speed rail line makes debut Posted: 25 Dec 2012 07:02 PM PST THE world's longest high-speed rail line, which spans over half of China, began operating today, further cementing the country's high-speed railway development ambitions. Two trains departed from stations in Beijing and Guangzhou at 9 am and 10 am, respectively, to mark the opening of the 2,298-kilometer line. Running at an average speed of 300 km per hour, the new route cuts the travel time between Beijing and the southern metropolis from more than 20 hours to around eight. A total of 155 pairs of trains will run on the new line each day, and alternative schedules have been made for weekends and peak travel times, according to the Ministry of Railways (MOR). "The opening of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed line shows that China's high-speed railway network has started to take shape," said Zhou Li, director general of science and technology of the MOR. With the opening of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed line, China now has more than 9,300 km of high-speed railways in operation. The country aims to create a high-speed railway backbone featuring four east-west lines and four north-south lines with a total operating mileage of more than 120,000 km by 2020, according to government plans. |
| China opens longest bullet route Posted: 25 Dec 2012 05:24 PM PST China officially opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, linking the capital Beijing with the southern commercial hub of Guangzhou. |
| Posted: 25 Dec 2012 09:24 AM PST A villager hangs his harvest of herring on metal poles to dry in the sun for the Spring Festival, which is on February 10 next year, in Renhe Town in the eastern city of Hangzhou yesterday. Local farmers make herring into salted or smoked fish ahead of the lunar New Year celebrations. The small water town has nearly 700 hectares of fish farms. Chinese traditionally preserved fish or poultry in the runup to the Spring Festival for future meals at a time when there were no freezers or fridges. Today, dried fish has become an indispensable delicacy during the festival. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Eateries spurn 'instant chicken' Posted: 25 Dec 2012 09:20 AM PST CHINESE fast food restaurant chain Yonghe King has stopped using chicken from the Shandong Liuhe Group, supplier of the "instant chicken" exposed in a TV report. The move follows publication of a list by Beijing authorities showing that 23 restaurants and food companies in the capital had bought chicken from Liuhe. Yonghe King, founded in Shanghai in 1995, was on the list. An official surnamed Yang told the Shanghai Morning Post that the company had purchased chicken wings from Liuhe but no longer used them in its dishes. Yang said Yonghe King restaurants used chickens reared in Anhui Province and there was no connection with Liuhe. Chicken dishes were still on the menu and the company had not received any orders from supervisors to seal the products, Yang said. Another Yonghe King official surnamed Xue told the newspaper that the chicken wings they purchased from Liuhe made up a very small part of the restaurants' menu. The company had not tested the raw chicken, but it received third-party test results from Liuhe every year and all reports had shown the chicken met the country's standards, Xue said. Another fast food restaurant on the list - Beijing Yoshinoya Co - said on its website that it had resumed sales of its chicken dishes as official test results had shown no problems with the chicken purchased from Liuhe. Its chicken dishes had been withdrawn from sale last Friday, according to reports. The company said the dishes they are now selling do not contain chicken from Liuhe. An official surnamed Xu with Yoshinoya Co's Shanghai operation told the Shanghai Evening News yesterday that the company had never purchased chickens from Liuhe but from China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation in recent years. Last week, China Central Television reported that some poultry farmers in Shandong Province had given their chickens excessive amounts of antibiotics to help them survive in overcrowded conditions and encourage rapid growth. Its program about "instant chicken" triggered concerns about food safety. Bi Meijia, a Ministry of Agriculture spokesman, told reporters yesterday that chicken farms and manufacturers involved in the scandal had been shut down and the ministry was investigating other chicken farms. Bi said the ministry would strengthen supervision over the entire farming industry and strictly punish chicken farmers or companies found abusing antibiotics or veterinary drugs, according to the People's Daily website. The ministry has sent experts to Shandong and ordered local authorities to investigate, he said. "In the following steps, we will enhance supervision over the entire poultry raising industry, raise the quality of the industry and scale up the crackdown on those who feed animals excessive amounts of antibiotics and veterinary drugs," he said. Foreign fast food chains such as Yum Brands' KFC had become embroiled in the scandal. Last Friday, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said the level of antibiotics found in KFC chicken samples was fine, but it found a suspicious level of an antiviral drug in samples. The watchdog has asked KFC to recall the tainted products and launch inspections throughout its outlets in the city. |
| Controls on cigarettes 'not tough enough' Posted: 25 Dec 2012 09:18 AM PST A NEW tobacco control program is not tough enough to address China's tobacco-related issues, it was claimed yesterday. The program does not include plans to have graphic warnings on cigarette packs, one of the most effective ways to persuade smokers to quit, said Wu Yiqun, executive vice director of the anti-smoking advocacy group Thinktank. "The program smelled smoky," said Wu, implying that the tobacco industry may have had a hand in the creation of the program. The China Tobacco Control Program (2012-2015) was released last Friday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. According to the program, authorities plan to expand the size of warning labels on cigarette packs, as well as enlarge their type and highlight some words in color, in order to dissuade smokers. The program does not include plans to put graphic images on the packs, as is done in some countries. "This means graphic warnings on cigarette packs are unlikely to appear in China before 2016," said Wu. China has ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, pledging measures to curb tobacco use - including placing clear warnings regarding the effects of tobacco on packs. By October, 63 countries and regions that ratified the convention had used or decided to use graphic images on packs. Images of bleeding brains, blackened teeth and rotten lungs can show the harm of smoking, experts say. In its annual tobacco control report released yesterday, Thinktank urged making the graphic warnings a compulsory part of cigarette packaging. The program also fails to increase excise duties on cigarettes, another method that has proved effective in reducing smoking. According to Thinktank's report, excise duties account for 65 to 70 percent of the retail price of cigarettes in other countries, but just 40 percent in China. China has more than 300 million smokers, while another 740 million people are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke, official figures show. The tobacco industry, which contributes nearly a tenth of the country's tax revenue, is seen as an economic pillar in some provinces and regions, leading some to believe it has interfered in national tobacco control efforts. |
| Driver plows into student group Posted: 25 Dec 2012 09:17 AM PST A MAN who drove into a group of students during their lunch break, injuring 23 of them, has been arrested, police in north China's Hebei Province said yesterday. Driving a black sedan, Yin Tiejun, 48, accelerated toward the group outside Fengning No. 1 Middle School in Manchu Autonomous County of Fengning shortly after midday on Monday. "I never saw such a horrible scene," a 50-year-old man told the Beijing Times. The injured students, some of whom had been on bicycles, had to support each other to stand up and others were lying on the ground with blood coming out of their noses and mouths, the paper reported. The car hit several other cars along the road before it ran into a taxi and was forced to stop. Passers-by tried to pull Yin out of his car after smashing his windows with bricks, but he resisted their efforts before lighting a bottle of diesel and setting fire to the vehicle from the inside. Police arrived several minutes later and took the man away while firefighters doused the flames and retrieved a gas cylinder and firecrackers from the trunk. During police questioning, Yin denied that these items were intended to be used in an attack, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. Yin was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs but he told police he was upset with a court ruling that had not sentenced all his daughter's killers to death, Xinhua said. His daugher was murdered three years ago. Villagers told the Beijing Times that Yin was a local man who divorced his wife 10 years ago and had no stable job. Ever since the court case, Yin had been lodging complaints about the verdict, the newspaper said. No further details of the murder case were given but police said there was no connection with the injured students. Fourteen girls and nine boys, all aged between 16 and 20, were taken to the county hospital. Among the 13 students hospitalized, one had a fractured skull, the bones in another's feet were broken and one was suffering from damaged blood vessels in his eyes. The 10 others incurred only minor injuries, Fengning officials said, citing hospital sources. The incident was the latest case involving schoolchildren being attacked. On December 14, a man broke into an elementary school in central Henan Province and wounded 23 students with a knife. The attack spread fresh fears among parents about their children's safety while at school. |
| Kindergarten closed after fatal van accident Posted: 25 Dec 2012 09:17 AM PST A PRIVATE kindergarten in east China was ordered to close yesterday, a day after the school's van plunged into a roadside pond killing 11 children. The Chunlei Kindergarten was operating without a license and had ignored government warnings in the past, local officials said. A safety overhaul of school transport has been launched throughout Jiangxi Province. "The school has now been ordered to close and its principal Zhou Chun'e - the van driver - has been detained," said officials of Guixi City, where the crash occurred. Zhou, 35, had operated the kindergarten for six years without having a license and got her driving license just one year ago. Villagers complain there are few practical alternatives to unauthorized kindergartens for children whose parents work away in larger cities. The preschool was the lone nursery in the village and admitted children who lived in the nearby township of Binjiang. Local residents said the closure could leave preschoolers with fewer options - either to attend a faraway nursery with unreliable transport or to stay at home until they are old enough for elementary school. Photos of mud-stained children's clothes, tiny shoes and school bags scattered on the bank of the pond created a sensation online after the accident, with the public demanding increased safety for students. The Ministry of Education issued a circular yesterday calling on education departments at all levels to make student safety a priority and launched an overhaul of the school transport sector, aiming to ban unauthorized vehicles in particular. The kindergarten had nine teachers and 95 students, according to official records. Its seven-seater van was carrying 15 children and two adults and was speeding on a rural road undergoing repairs when it plunged into a 3-meter deep pond early on Monday morning, according to an initial investigation. Three children died at the scene while eight others died in hospital after emergency treatment failed. Four children, Zhou and another adult survived. Police said the van was overloaded and Zhou "drove improperly." Most of the casualties, aged four to six, lived with their grandparents as their parents had migrated to larger cities for work, a situation typical across China's countryside. Tong Fuliang, who was working in a factory in neighboring Zhejiang Province at the time of the accident, said he became frantic when he learned that his four-year-old son, Tong Yongjie, was involved. "My legs shook so uncontrollably that I almost collapsed," he said, adding that he and his wife rushed "like mad" to the hospital where Tong Yongjie was being treated. The father broke down in tears in the hospital ward. "I want to take him with me to Zhejiang. Though life might be hard out there, it helps me feel calm with the family around," he said. Tong Boliang, 59, another villager, was relieved when he discovered that his grandson had boarded a different van that day. "If he was a bit late and took the second van, I might have missed him forever," he said. He said his grandson was already in elementary school but, like many others in the area, the family paid 200 yuan (US$32) a semester to use the Chunlei Kindergarten van to commute to school. Each of the victims' families will be given cash compensation of 480,000 yuan, local officials said. The parents signed an agreement with the government yesterday, they added. Last year, 19 preschoolers and two adults died after the school bus they were in - a nine-seater van carrying 64 passengers - collided head-on with a coal truck in northwest China's Gansu Province. The accident prompted the central authorities to order a school transport overhaul. "In rural areas, only well-off nurseries can afford to run school buses," Li Xiong, a rural kindergarten principal in Gansu, said. Li said that in his township, there are only two kindergartens - both privately run - to take care of preschoolers living within an 8-kilometer radius. "Even if the government gives us a free school bus, to run it can incur big costs for struggling private kindergartens," said Yue Linjun, another school principal in Gansu. The government provides free and mandatory education that lasts from elementary to junior high school, but excludes preschool education. As with cities, the number of preschools has grown rapidly in rural areas as farmers pay attention to their children's education, said Li Changtai, the villager in Jiangxi. Many of these village nurseries cannot get a license because huge investment is needed to run a legal kindergarten, said a Guixi educational official who declined to be named. "The village kindergartens are all private. If they make the investment, they have to raise the school fees to almost unaffordable levels for poor farmers," he said. The Chunlei Kindergarten charged 800 yuan per semester, an acceptable cost for local families, villagers said. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Ex-town head gets death in 14.4m yuan bribe case Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:25 AM PST A FORMER town official in Sanya in Hainan Province has received a suspended death sentence for taking 14.4 million yuan (US$2.3 million) in bribes and causing government losses of up to 700 million yuan. Li Ji, former head of Haitang Bay town and the town's management commission, had been responsible for allocating compensation to villagers whose land was taken in order to build luxury resorts, prosecutors said. Li was charged in a graft investigation that started in mid-2011 and involved 104 people, with 76 being detained and 12 sentenced, Legal Daily reported yesterday. The court sentenced Li to death with a two-year reprieve and confiscated 2.1 million yuan of ill-gotten money, said Ma Yongxia, secretary of the Party discipline watchdog in Hainan Province. Li used his position to arrange excessive compensation payments and steer construction contracts to those who paid him bribes, prosecutors said. Contracted projects also were left unfinished. Li was appointed Haitang Bay town head in August 2008. By the end of 2009, six villagers, including Dong Guomin and Li's sister-in-law, had spent millions of yuan building a fish pond without approval in a bid to inflate government compensation for their land, the paper said. Dong sent Li a payment of 1 million yuan, and Li allocated them 23.9 million yuan in compensation, the newspaper said. In 2011, after hearing he was being investigated, Li returned 2.3 million yuan in bribes, prosecutors said. |
| Police rescue 89 abducted kids, arrest 355 Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:25 AM PST A NATIONAL operation in China has busted nine child abduction gangs, arresting 355 suspects and rescuing 89 children. The Ministry of Public Security said it conducted the nine-province operation this month after receiving reports of child abductions in Fujian and Yunnan provinces, Xinhua news agency reported. The ministry said the child trafficking activities spanned several provinces and that the suspects bought abducted children in provinces including Yunnan and Sichuan and transported them to other provinces, where they were sold. All the rescued children are being cared for by local civil affairs administrations, and officials will collect their DNA to find their parents. The umbilical cord of one trafficked baby was still attached when it was rescued by police in Sichuan Province. Police said some village officials responsible for family planning were found to be involved in trafficking. Civil servants were also among buyers in Fujian Province. The operation took place starting on December 18 in nine provinces that also included Anhui and Guangdong. Chen Shiqu, director of the ministry's Child-Trafficking Strike Office, said that since the country launched a special campaign against child-trafficking in April 2009, Chinese police have destroyed about 11,000 gangs and saved more than 54,000 children. Wang Xizhang, vice chief of Fujian Criminal Investigation Corps, said that such gangs often had clear labor divisions. Some were in charge of buying and abducting kids, some looked for buyers and some were in charge of transportation. "A child bought for about 30,000 yuan (US$4,809) in Yunnan could be sold for 70,000 to 90,000 yuan to the end buyer. It was low cost and huge profit," said Wang. "Many of the traffickers were middle-aged women in rural areas, who had poor educational backgrounds and little income." "They usually covered children up with thick blankets and clothes," said Li Xiaowei, a Fujian police officer who participated in the joint action. "Many of the abducted children were newborn babies. They could not stand such a trip and often died of diseases or even suffocation." Chen said a national DNA database for abducted people was established in June 2011. It collects samples from parents who report children missing and from kids thought to have been abducted. |
| Official fired after videos show his second family Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:25 AM PST THE deputy secretary-general of Zhanjiang City in Guangdong Province has been removed from his post after local Party discipline watchdog confirmed online allegations about his having a mistress and a second child in violation of China's one-child policy. Zhanjiang's Party discipline inspection committee confirmed the online allegations against Deng Wengao and also opened a graft investigation in his case, Yangcheng Evening News reported yesterday. The discipline watchdog released no other details. Deng's only response, the paper reported, was to say, "You can go around and know the real me." A microblogger identified as Meiriqing made the allegations against Deng last Thursday and posted two video clips. The videos claimed to show an apartment on an August morning and on an October night, showing Deng preparing to go to work and "a family of three" returning to the home. The child appearing on the video was that of Deng's mistress, wrote Meiriqing, who also alleged Deng bought the flat in June 2009 under the name of his mistress. The 44-year-old Deng, a native of Jiangxi Province, was promoted to deputy secretary-general of Zhanjiang in March. Internet users called it another victory for online muckraking, seen as a potent weapon for fighting official corruption and abuse of power. In October, Cai Bin, a senior urban management official in Guangdong's capital Guangzhou, was sacked after it was revealed online that he owned 21 properties worth 40 million yuan (US$6.4 million). |
| Kerry positive for China-US relations Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:53 AM PST  Source: China Daily The diplomatic wisdom of incoming US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to improve China-US relations, as the Obama administration seeks to rebalance its Asian strategy during the president's second term. Among the challenges facing Kerry will be to improve ties between China and the US, which have worsened since Washington's rebalancing policy in the Asia-Pacific region, experts said. "China-US ties have deteriorated through a series of high-profile measures by the US aimed at rebalancing, especially the over-emphasis of military action, which triggered great antipathy from China," said Ruan Zongze, a US studies researcher and the deputy director of the China Institute of International Studies. Kerry supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, to "balance China's economic influence in the region" in a speech at the Center for American Progress before President Hu Jintao's visit to the US in January 2011. "Some called this intensified US engagement in Asia a hedging strategy, an insurance against the possibility of China emerging as a regional hegemony. "Frankly, I don't care what we call it. I just think it makes sense that we ought to do it", he said then. During the address he appealed for maintaining a cooperative attitude toward China, rather than one that treated China as an enemy or the cause of US domestic problems. "If China succeeds in rebalancing its economy, then the global economy will benefit and so will we," he said. "If China fails — or worse, if we cut ourselves off from China in a misguided attempt to 'contain it' as some have suggested — then we will all suffer. And even though we can't call China an ally today, we simply cannot treat it as an enemy." Ruan views Kerry as professional, calm and pragmatic, and expects him to initiate strategic dialogues between China and the US, which will wield positive influence on Sino-US relations. As the new secretary of state, and a supporter of the Asian rebalancing strategy, Kerry would be less aggressive than his predecessor Clinton, said Jin Canrong, an international affairs professor at Renmin University of China. In an era when being secretary of state is increasingly about style as much as substance, many foreign-policy experts said the five-term senator and quiet negotiator is expected to return the office to a more traditional version of diplomacy, according to The Christian Science Monitor. The Vietnam veteran, who was critical of the war after he returned home, lost to US president George W Bush in the 2004 election. He has represented Massachusetts in the senate since 1985, and has served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for decades. During his first term, Obama sent Kerry around the world on his behalf numerous times, particularly to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He also helped prepare the president for his live TV debates during this year's election, and won praise from Obama for his sharp national security-focused speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, when he told delegates: "Ask Osama bin Laden if he's better off now than he was four years ago." |
| China starts background checks on IPO applicants – paper Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:50 AM PST  Source: Reuters (Reuters) – China has started to run checks on the more than 800 companies that have applied for domestic share sales, the latest move aimed at shortening the IPO waiting list and ease pressure on the stock market, the official China Securities Journal said. Stock market watchdog the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has started to scrutinize IPO applicants, including examining their application materials and financial authenticity, and will disqualify unsatisfactory applicants, the newspaper reported on Monday. The CSRC has said it wants Chinese companies to list overseas, sell bonds or trade on over-the-counter equity markets as regulators keep a tight grip on supply, as a result of concerns about the strength of the stock market. More than 800 Chinese companies are currently seeking approval to list on the Shanghai or Shenzhen exchanges, aiming to raise an estimated 500 billion yuan ($80 billion) in total, Ernst & Young said earlier this week. That means Chinese companies may need to wait up to five years to launch a domestic IPO, a queue which was likely to prompt some to turn to Hong Kong, the accountancy firm said. |
| Liquor firms hung over from luxury dinner ban Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:46 AM PST  Source: By Wang Ying in Shanghai (China Daily) Kweichow Moutai Co Ltd, China's biggest liquor maker by market value, has struggled under a Central Military Commission decision to ban luxury dinners. On Friday, the nation's top military authority announced 10 regulations aimed at reducing extravagance and curbing corruption. Among them were bans on liquor or luxury banquets and restrictions that prevent senior military officers from staying in luxury hotels while they are on business trips. Moutai, one of the most famous brands of the Chinese liquor,or baijiu, will bear the brunt of the new regulations, analysts said. "The slump in Moutai's share price is the immediate result of the Central Military Commission's reining in of luxury spending, including the consumption of baijiu," said Liu Jiang, an industrial analyst from Sealand Securities Co Ltd. "This is part of the new leadership's efforts to trim officers' extravagant spending on banquets and inspection tours." The stock price drop was the biggest Moutai had seen in a single day since Dec 3 and came even as the Shanghai Composite Index increased by 0.27 percent. "The new leadership has shown its commitment to having practical and down-to-earth work methods, and more and more detailed regulations are being issued," said Long Fei, an industrial analyst from Guosen Securities Co Ltd. The Beijing municipal government also banned banquets for civilian officials on fact-finding trips in the capital city, and said it will instead offer them buffets, Xinhuanet.com reported on Saturday. Like Moutai, other alcohol companies have seen the value of their shares decrease since November and experienced large drops on Monday. On the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Anhui Gujing Distillery Co Ltd declined 3.88 percent, and Wuliangye Yibin Co Ltd, the second-largest producer of baijiu, fell by 3.02 percent. The Shanghai-listed Sichuan Swellfun Co Ltd, partly owned by Diageo Plc, dropped by 1.62 percent. "After losing a large source of consumption – the official banquets – high-end baijiu will not do as well as before," wrote Zhang Yanlin, research director for China Investment Consulting. However, Long from Guosen Securities said Chinese baijiu remains undervalued. "Look at the high price of red wine from overseas and you will find that Chinese baijiu, with its longer history and greater popularity in the domestic market, has the potential to increase in price," he said. The decision about luxury dinners is the second blow to fall on makers of Chinese baijiu after headlines began in late November alleging that Moutai products contained toxic levels of DEHP, a substance harmful to human health. |
| Teahouses still lack that winning blend Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:43 AM PST  Source: By Wang Ying in Shanghai (China Daily) China's teahouse operators should do more to win consumers and cash in on the nation's economic boom as its rival coffee chains do, according to a new report. In contrast, the nation's teahouses grew by only 4 percent to 50,984 during the same period, the report by UK-based research company Mintel said on Wednesday. The market value of the nation's cafes and teahouses rose from 31.8 billion yuan ($5.05 billion) in 2007 to 71.6 billion yuan in 2012. Mintel predicts this will rise to 121.69 billion yuan between 2012 and 2017. "The lack of strongly branded chains among traditional teahouses means the sector has so far failed to meet the challenge posed by the rise of cafe chains, while the few existing chains have focused on a very narrow, higher-end, generally older consumer segment," said Matthew Crabbe, director of Asia-Pacific research at Mintel. Most teahouses target high-end consumers with expensive teas, food and service, but lack individual character. As a result, they are not well prepared to meet the challenge posed by mushrooming cafe chains, said Crabbe. As the world's largest coffee chain, US brand Starbucks is planning to have 1,500 stores in China by 2015. Many cafe chains have shown flexibility in seeking younger and low-income consumers by selling both tea and coffee. Crabbe said: "Given that the cafe chains continue to successfully sell tea to their core younger consumer market, there is evidence that there could be potential in developing branded, franchised chains of teahouses with a broader consumer appeal." Han Miaomiao, a 34-year-old middle-income white-collar worker, said she prefers to go to a cafe for a cup of coffee instead of taking tea. "I like both green tea and Starbucks coffee, but I think drinking tea at a teahouse is something older people do. If I want to drink tea, I can serve myself at home." Coffee chains only started appearing in China in the late 1990s, but have since grown rapidly. Teahouses are generally viewed as leisurely places where the elderly gather to chat and play cards, with their outdated interiors and management style deterring younger customers. The report said there is an increasing trend for cafes and teahouses to sell each other's drinks, and this crossover is extending into fusion food, following a wider trend in the catering market. Alisa Gu, insight manager with Mintel, said that because Chinese people are very familiar with tea, they can drink any kind of tea they like at home. But she suggested that teahouses pay more attention to providing a cozy but less high-end environment for consumers. "I would like to go if teahouses offer a similar service as Starbucks does, with affordable prices," Han said. 
|
| Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:40 AM PST Have You Heard…   |
| China on alert for Japanese fighter jets over E. China Sea Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:55 AM PST  Source: Xinhua China is on alert after Japan dispatched fighter jets to airspace over the East China Sea, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday. "As far as I know, China's marine surveillance plane you mentioned has been conducting routine patrols in airspace over the East China Sea," she said in response to a journalist's question. "The Chinese side is highly concerned with, and alert to, Japan sending the Air Self-Defense Force jets," said the spokeswoman, adding that China had lodged solemn representations to Japan over the issue. "The Chinese side will pay close attention to Japan's intentions," she added.   |
| Chicken raisers involved in antibiotics scandals under probe Posted: 25 Dec 2012 01:26 AM PST CHINA'S agriculture authority said today it has shut down poultry farms in east China where animals were given excessive amounts of antibiotics, pledging to intensify checks on poultry farmers. Last week, Chinese media reported that some poultry farmers in Shandong Province had given their chickens excessive amounts of antibiotics, including amantadine and ribavirin, to help them survive in overcrowded chicken houses, triggering nationwide concern about food safety. Bi Meijia, the chief economic engineer as well as the spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), told a press conference today that relevant poultry raisers and processors have been shut down and are under close investigation. The MOA attaches great importance to the case. It has dispatched a group of experts to Shandong and ordered local authorities to properly handle the case, he said, adding that results will be released to the media in time. "In the following steps, we will enhance supervision over the entire poultry raising industry, raise the quality of the industry and notably scale up the crackdown on those who feed animals excessive amounts of antibiotics and veterinary drugs," he noted. Those found violating laws and standards will be punished, he added. The Chinese public is sensitive to food and drug safety scandals, as tainted milk powder, fake cooking oil and toxic capsules have harmed food producers' credibility and grated consumers' nerves. Foreign fast food chains such as Yum! Brands' KFC have also been embroiled in such scandals. The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said in a statement Friday that the level of antibiotics found in KFC chicken samples was fine, but it found a suspicious level of an antiviral drug in the samples. The watchdog has asked KFC to recall the tainted products and launch inspections throughout its outlets in the city. |
| Ex-land planning official gets 15 years for taking bribes Posted: 25 Dec 2012 12:14 AM PST A former Shanghai top urban planning official was sentenced to 15 years in prison for taking bribes of 5.04 million yuan (US$807,912), the Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's Court ruled today. Hu Jun, 46, former deputy director of the Shanghai Planning, Land and Resources Administrative Bureau, was the third land official in Shanghai to be sent behind the bars for corruption. His first bribe came from Zhongkai Corporate Group, developer of Top of City, a residential complex in Jing'an District, when Hu was director of the district's urban planning administration. Hu took advantage of his position to speed up relocation in the area and issue planning approvals for Zhongkai. In return, the developer sold Hu one of the apartments on Dagu Road at 7,800 yuan per square meter while the market price was 11,500 yuan. It also sold an apartment at 333 Weihai Road to Hu at a lower-than-market price. The court said Hu paid 2.01 million yuan less than ordinary buyers and later sold the apartments for 6.45 million yuan. In a previous hearing, Wu admitted to taking 5 million yuan in bribes in the past 10 years while denied a bribe of another 2 million yuan as accused by prosecutors. According to the court record, Wu had returned 4.8 million yuan. Under today's ruling, Hu would also be confiscated 2 million yuan. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Update » News » Society To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Comments