News » Society » Fresh water after oil leak
News » Society » Fresh water after oil leak |
- Fresh water after oil leak
- Peaceful relations with Taiwan a duty, says Xi
- Striking bus drivers go to jail
- Official in bureau car hurt 26
- Celebrity apologizes for defense of privileged son
- Spoiled elites lamented after gang-rape case
- Beijing blames fireworks
- KFC cuts links with over 1,000 small farms
- Soil pollution survey a 'state secret'
- Heinz to Sell China Packaged Food Business
- Sinopec to buy stake in Chesapeake assets for $1.02 billion
- Chinese tune in for big night at Oscars
- Have You Heard…
- Yum Cuts Off Some China Suppliers
- China’s Xi to tread peaceful, patient path on Taiwan
- European Union is looking into imposing import duties on cheap Chinese solar panels: facepalm
- BBC shortwave blocked in China
- New anti-graft rules target military waste
- China's military has introduced new rules to combat "extravagance and waste" in spending as the country's new leaders stress austerity to fight official corruption.
- Festivities end with a bang - and smog
| Posted: 25 Feb 2013 09:03 AM PST Firemen distribute tap water to residents in a community in Yongxiu County, in east China's Jiangxi Province, yesterday after supplies for 60,000 people were cut off due to pollution. At around 10am, an oily substance was seen floating near a water intake used by a tap water company on the Liaohe River, the county's environmental protection bureau said. An initial investigation blamed the pollution on an oil pipeline leak upstream. The pipeline has been shut down and the leak has been sealed. The leak is said to have occurred at around 9pm on Sunday, when an unidentified person attempted to steal oil from the pipeline. Police are investigating. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Peaceful relations with Taiwan a duty, says Xi Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:49 AM PST
Meeting Lien Chan, honorary chairman of the Kuomintang from Taiwan, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi said: "It is the duty of the new Party leadership to continue promoting the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties and the peaceful reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait." Xi said the new leadership has full confidence in unwaveringly promoting the peaceful development of ties and overcoming difficulties in ushering in new prospects for relations, as well as in joining hands with Taiwan to embrace the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. "We will maintain consistency in policies toward Taiwan by unswervingly upholding the one-China principle and continuing to promote cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation," Xi said. Nothing could cut the blood bond between mainland and Taiwan compatriots and nothing could change the fact that both sides belong to one China, Xi said, adding that nothing could hinder the Chinese resolve to make the Chinese nation outstanding. Xi expressed his hope that Taiwan can develop along with the mainland and that compatriots from both sides can cooperate in realizing the "Chinese dream." Realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation - the greatest dream in the country's modern history - requires the joint efforts of people from both sides of the strait, he said. "If brothers are of the same mind, their sharpness can cut through metal," Xi said. Xi, however, warned of problems that had hindered the development of cross-Strait ties, saying they would require time, patience and joint efforts to resolve. Prospects for cross-Strait cooperation will be bright as long as the two sides can agree to oppose Taiwan independence and follow the 1992 Consensus, he said. More Taiwanese will realize that Taiwan's future hinges on the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties. Lien said: "The path of peaceful development is a correct path that should not and will not be reversed." He expressed hope that relations could be deepened from a new starting point. Lien said Taiwan is a part of China and so is the mainland, thus making cross-Strait relations part of the "one-China" framework instead of being state-to-state relations. People from both sides should promote brotherhood and mutual understanding, as well as join hands to resist separation and reinvigorate the Chinese nation, he said. Lien conveyed greetings from Kuomintang Chairman Ma Ying-jeou to Xi, while Xi asked Lien to give his regards to Ma. |
| Striking bus drivers go to jail Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:49 AM PST FOUR Chinese bus drivers charged with instigating and inciting an illegal strike in Singapore in November were yesterday sentenced to between six and seven weeks in jail. All four pleaded guilty to conspiring to instigate an illegal strike, while one of them, He Junling, admitted an additional charge of inciting an illegal strike. The judge sentenced He to seven weeks in jail for each of the two offences, but said that the sentences "will run concurrently, having regard to the fact that his two offences were part of the same transaction." The four men were among 171 Chinese bus drivers who failed to report for duty on November 26 last year in protest at inequitable pay raises and alleged discriminatory policies of their employer SMRT, a local public transport operator. Eighty-eight of the drivers continued to stay away from work the next day. A fifth driver, Bao Fengshan, who pleaded guilty to taking part in an illegal strike was sentenced to six weeks in jail last year. Twenty-nine others were repatriated to China. Senior District Judge See Kee Oon said the strike had affected public transport services which were listed among essential services, which means stricter strike rules for workers. He Junling had called for a strike in online posts on a Chinese website, the judge said. "Their conduct may have been motivated by a sense of grievance. Irrespective of whether their grievances were valid or otherwise, their pleas of guilt signify their awareness that they could not justify taking the law into their own hands." The judge also said that an aggravating factor was that the strike was planned to put pressure on their employer SMRT in the knowledge that it would cause disruption to the transport services. However, the drivers had expressed their remorse by pleading guilty, he noted. Lawyers representing the Chinese drivers on a pro bono basis argued the primary failing of the drivers was that they did not give their employers notice of their intention to stage a strike 14 days ahead of the date of the strike. |
| Official in bureau car hurt 26 Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:00 AM PST AN official has been taken into police custody after injuring 26 people by driving a government car into a movie theater in central China's Henan Province, local authorities said yesterday. The incident occurred around 11am on Sunday, when Liu Xianchong, Party secretary of the Culture, Radio, TV, Film, Press and Publication Bureau of Wancheng District in Nanyang City, drove into the theater and injured people participating in a puzzle game held there for the Lantern Festival. Liu was driving a Volkswagen Santana and mistakenly stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake, according to police. The injured were sent to the hospital, local police said. Two of the 26 were still in critical condition, but their injuries were not life threatening. Six had left the hospital after medical exams, according to the hospital. The Nanyang government said Liu had been on sick leave for about seven months after having a stroke. The Party committee of Wancheng and the district government have set up a task force to handle the incident and its aftermath, including organizing a medical treatment team for the injured, punishing the official in accordance with laws and regulations, releasing information on the incident and instructing other officials and cadres. Local police have had Liu in custody and have seized the car he was driving as the investigation proceeds. The car was registered with Liu's bureau, officials said. Chinese officials and cadres may be supplied with government vehicles, but such vehicles should not be driven for private or personal use. |
| Celebrity apologizes for defense of privileged son Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:00 AM PST CHINESE celebrity talk-show hostess Yang Lan has apologized for her widely panned defense of Li Guanfeng, a popular military singer's teenage son, accused in a gang rape after serving a year's confinement for assault. "Is one year of confinement too heavy a punishment for an underage boy? Such a kid is very likely to regard himself as hopeless and act recklessly," she wrote in an Internet post on Saturday night. Her comments triggered outrage. Netizens said she wanted to shield Li because he is the son of Li Shuangjiang. Faced with massive condemnation, Yang made a public apology on Sunday. She said she didn't know details of Li Guanfeng's case and made irresponsible remarks. "I'm sorry. Everyone is equal and no one can override laws," she said. |
| Spoiled elites lamented after gang-rape case Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:00 AM PST THE official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party yesterday lamented a generation who had never tasted "hard work" after the son of a general was detained on suspicion of involvement in a gang rape. Li Guanfeng, the teenage son of army Major General Li Shuangjiang - a popular military singer and household name in the country - went into custody on Thursday in the latest allegation against privileged children of officials to spark public outrage. The news has dominated Internet message boards, online news portals and state-run newspapers in China, where crimes by the offspring of the country's elite cause particular anger among people. "Family education" among successful, well-known figures in China needs to be "cautious," said the People's Daily in an editorial. "Many of these children have not experienced the hard work needed in the struggle to achieve success, but are shown the results of this success. "Used to getting everything they want and having all their problems handled, they will use their father's name as an excuse, take flaunting wealth for granted and regard defying the law as brave behavior." Li Guanfeng is among five suspects detained over allegations of a sexual assault on February 17. They took a drunk woman to a hotel room, beat her and gang-raped her after they met her in a bar, Beijing Morning Post reported. It was reported that Li Guanfeng has cooperated with police in the investigation. However, he mentioned his famous father from time to time, the Beijing Times reported. His 47-year-old mother, Meng Ge, Li Shuangjiang's former student and second wife, has asked for leniency from the public for her son. "My son made big mistakes! His case should be dealt with under the law," she said. "But, I hope the media and the public could forgive him," Meng said in an interview with Southwestern Metropolis Daily. It is not the first time the 17-year-old has come to public attention. He was sent to a government correctional facility for one year in 2011 for beating a couple while their young child looked on. Hundreds of thousands of people went online to express outrage at the time, and the general apologized for his son's actions. His parents changed his name from Li Tianyi to Li Guanfeng to give him a new start. However, netizens said it was his parents who spoiled him too much. "I never beat him. I even cry myself when I just threaten him," the elder Li said. He added that his son is a good ice hockey player at Shattuck-Saint Mary's School in Minnesota in the United States. Li Guanfeng's primary school classmates said he had pushed a second-grader down stairs when he was in the third grade, and he monopolized others' video game machines. But teachers never punished him because of his powerful family, they said. A netizen also said Li Guanfeng fought with his classmates in the US over small disputes. He was once heard shouting, "I will crush you to death if you dare to come to China. Do you known who my father is?" the netizen said. In another high-profile scandal, the son of a police chief tried to use his father's status after a fatal car crash he caused in 2010 in the northern province of Hebei. Li Qiming, 22, ran over a student and shouted, "Sue me if you dare. My father is Li Gang!" He got six years in prison. |
| Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:00 AM PST FIREWORKS were to blame for significant short-term jumps in PM2.5 particles and other major pollutants in the capital's air, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said yesterday. In 16 days of fireworks being set off, the capital experienced eight days of air pollution above national standards, the bureau said. Beijingers were allowed to set off fireworks within the Fifth Ring Road from lunar New Year's Eve on February 9 to Sunday's Lantern Festival. |
| KFC cuts links with over 1,000 small farms Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:00 AM PST KFC has struck more than 1,000 small chicken farms from its supply network in a bid to tighten quality control after the "instant chicken" scandal. The company, a subsidiary of fast food giant Yum Brands Inc, told reporters yesterday that they would hasten the elimination of chicken farms and suppliers, test chicken meat for illegal drugs and encourage farmers to improve their methods. "We saw hidden safety danger in the chicken supply chains from the incident and we are now taking action to eliminate those dangers at source," said Sam Su, chairman of Yum Restaurants China. "Starting now, we will stress strict management and the principle of zero tolerance in food safety. We will immediately drop any supplier that lacks the determination or the ability to manage breeding well." The "instant chicken" scandal got its name after China Central Television reported chickens reared for KFC were being fed chemicals and 18 kinds of antibiotics to keep them alive and speed up their growth. On January 10, Yum Brands apologized for the scandal and conceded that it hadn't reported excessive antibiotics detected in samples to the authorities. It said it had found faults in food testing procedures, and a lack of communication inside the company and with the public. Also in January, an announcement on KFC's website said Yum Brands had destroyed batches of raw chicken suspected of being contaminated with an antiviral medicine, amantadine, which can affect the central nervous system. Yum Brands CEO David Novak has said the company would need the "gift of time" for the controversy to die down, according to The Associated Press. Even before the chicken scare, sales growth in China was slowing and it fell into negative territory in October. Executives blamed slower economic growth and comparisons with earlier explosive expansion. But KFC and other Western fast food chains also face mounting competition from young but ambitious Chinese rivals. According to The Beijing News, Yum Brands, which also owns Pizza Hut, estimated that its January sales in the Chinese market had fallen by 37 percent, while KFC's sales alone were estimated to have dropped by up to 41 percent. |
| Soil pollution survey a 'state secret' Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:00 AM PST A SURVEY into soil pollution in China is a "state secret," according to the country's environmental authorities, which have refused a Beijing lawyer's request for it to be published. The lawyer, Dong Zhengwei, told the Legal Daily newspaper that he e-mailed the Ministry of Environmental Protection on January 30 asking it to publish information about its survey, including testing methods, results, causes of soil pollution and its prevention. The survey dated from as early as 2006 but its conclusions have never been made public, the newspaper said. Dong said he received a reply from the ministry on Sunday, a 22-page letter that didn't include any information about the survey's results. The ministry wrote that it refused to publish the survey results because the information was a state secret. Dong told the newspaper: "The ministry has claimed to Chinese media several times that it would publish data covering its survey of China's soil pollution after it is permitted to do so by the State Council. "Now it seems like the soil pollution in China is so serious that the environment authorities dare not publish the result." Dong said the ministry's refusal may have violated the rules governing the publication of government information. Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the newspaper that soil pollution in China was directly linked to residents' health and the ministry could not deprive residents' right to know by simply labeling the information as a state secret. "Soil pollution may directly damage residents' health while it would also affect food, crops and underground water to pose a danger to health. The public has the right to know about soil pollution," Ma said. He said that compared with other pollutions such as air and water, soil pollution is much more difficult to judge by members of the public, which is one reason why the ministry should publish the information to keep them informed. "The country has never made public any information about soil pollution. Questions such as what buildings are set up above polluted earth or what crops are still being cultivated in polluted soil may spark panic among residents," said Ma. "But this should not be a reason for the ministry refusing to publish." Ma called on the ministry to publish at least part of its survey result with explanations of how pollution came about and what measures should be taken to prevent it in future. So far, there has been no response from the ministry. Air and water pollution in China raised concerns recently after a map was widely circulated online showing that China had at least 247 "cancer villages" throughout the mainland. Earlier this month, the Ministry of Environmental Protection admitted the existence of such villages and said pollution was to blame for high cancer rates among their residents. |
| Heinz to Sell China Packaged Food Business Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:36 AM PST  Source: Bloomberg News | Photo: Morning Whistle H.J. Heinz Co. (HNZ), the ketchup maker which agreed to be acquired in a $23 billion buyout this month, will sell its China packaged food business to Zhengzhou Sanquan Foods Co. (002216) Zhengzhou Sanquan rose to its highest in 11 months in Shenzhen trading. The company, which sells frozen meals and snacks such as fried chive dumplings on the mainland, said the purchase will help increase competitiveness and expand market share. The acquisition will be financed using internal cash, it said, without giving a value for the deal. The sale is in line with "Heinz's global strategy to de- emphasize non-core frozen food businesses outside the U.S." the Pittsburgh-based foodmaker said in an e-mailed statement. "The decision to seek a buyer for our Long Fong frozen foods business in China is unrelated to the merger agreement with Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital." Heinz agreed Feb. 14 to sell itself to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) and Jorge Paulo Lemann's 3G Capital Inc. for about $23 billion. Shanghai Long Fong is involved in food packaging and frozen food on mainland China. The Long Fong brand sells products in eight major categories including dumpling, rice ball, dim sum and hot-pot base, according to Heinz's website. Zhengzhou Sanquan, which resumed trading today after being halted on Feb. 22, gained 3 percent to 29.33 yuan, the stock's highest close since March 19. The transaction is expected to be completed in four months or less, Heinz said. Three calls to the main telephone line of Zhengzhou Sanquan returned a busy signal. |
| Sinopec to buy stake in Chesapeake assets for $1.02 billion Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:33 AM PST  Source: Reuters By Swetha Gopinath (Reuters) – China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (600028.SS) will buy half of Chesapeake Energy Corp's (CHK.N) Mississippi Lime oil and gas properties in Oklahoma for $1.02 billion to increase its presence in the booming North American shale gas industry. Companies in China, which has the largest shale reserves in the world, are keen to get the know-how of drilling in such unconventional fields. China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK) has struck a deal to buy Canadian oil and gas company Nexen Inc (NXY.TO) for $15.1 billion, while Pioneer Natural Resources Co (PXD.N) said last month it would sell a stake in its assets in the Wolfcamp shale field of Texas to Sinochem Group SINOC.UL for $1.7 billion. Sinopec, Asia's largest oil refiner, will buy 50 percent of Chesapeake's 850,000 acres of net oil and natural gas leasehold properties in the Mississippi Lime shale field in northern Oklahoma, the companies said. The Mississippi Lime assets will be bought by Sinopec International. "The deal is about $200 million below our modeled assumption for similar acreage but (with) more production," analysts at investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co said. Chesapeake shares were down marginally at $20.40 in premarket trading on Monday. The stock has risen about 23 percent this year. However, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Neal Dingmann. said the deal was very positive for Chesapeake. "The price based on all metrics appears better than what myself or the Street expected, especially the $2,400 per acre metric," he said. Chesapeake has about 2.1 million net acres of leasehold in the Mississippi Lime region, which straddles northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas. Chesapeake's production from the Mississippi Lime region jumped 208 percent to an average of 32,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the fourth quarter, the company reported this month. About 45 percent of the total output was oil, 46 percent was natural gas and the rest was natural gas liquids. Sinopec's deal with Chesapeake, the second-largest gas producer in the United States, will help the Oklahoma City-based company cut down its debt, which stood at $12 billion as of December 31. Chesapeake, which closed $12 billion of asset sales last year, is targeting asset sales of $4 billion to $7 billion in 2013, the company said in a presentation earlier this month. Chesapeake said in December it would sell most of its natural gas processing and gathering assets for $2.16 billion to Access Midstream Partners LP (ACMP.N). The company's board and big shareholders are trying to rein in spending, pay down debt and increase production of more profitable oil. Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon, who co-founded the company in 1989, is stepping down on April 1 following a tumultuous year during which the company faced a liquidity crunch and a governance crisis. Sinopec struck a deal with Devon Energy Corp (DVN.N) in January 2012 to buy a third of the U.S. oil and natural gas producer's interest in five developing fields for about $2.2 billion. |
| Chinese tune in for big night at Oscars Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:30 AM PST  Source: By Liu Yuhan in New York (China Daily) Although no Chinese-connected movies were nominated for this year's Academy Awards, film lovers in China were awaiting the 85th edition of the glitzy Hollywood gala with enthusiasm. Chinese fans took to online forums to stream Oscar's big night (or Monday morning in China), discuss the nominees and dig for any China-related tidbits from the star-studded ceremony. M1905.com, the website of China Television Channel 6, claimed it alone among Chinese networks had live video of stars' arrivals on the red carpet and the awards ceremony. Although the Chinese box office grew more than 30 percent last year to 17 billion yuan ($2.7 billion), trailing only the US, Chinese movies still have a long way to go in gaining recognition in other markets. Asked by M1905.com to comment on why there has been no Oscar nominee from China in 10 years, Hawk Koch, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said China's industry needs to work harder. Websites in China that streamed the Academy Awards were expecting an uptick in page views, including Sina, Tencent, Douban and others. Before the ceremony, Douban, which had about 53 million registered users as of 2011, started a poll among users to vote for their own Oscars. "It would be exciting to see Life of Pi win, yet the most exciting thing is, it's such a big year with too many movies that are as good!" said a user with the handle Oathkeeper who took part in the poll. Another user on the site expected that "the most thrilling moment for me" would be watching British singer Adele perform the Oscar-nominated theme song from the James Bond movie Skyfall. Some die-hard movie fans who are studying in the United States said they looked forward to watching the awards ceremony live on television. "My love for American movies started years ago, before I came to the US. I watched the tape-delayed broadcast on CCTV's film channel, but it felt like a long wait," said Nick Wan, a second-year graduate student in higher-education administration at Boston College. "My office is filled with joy these days – 12 of us bet on different films to see who will win," he said. Life of Pi is my favorite movie of the year." Wan praised the 3-D adventure drama's "interesting plot" and said it was "beautifully shot, with superb visual effects". "I feel proud to see a director of Chinese descent be nominated at this year's Oscars," he said referring to the Taiwan-born Lee. Another China-related highlight was Fan Bingbing's attendance at the ceremony. The 31-year-old Chinese actress walked the red carpet at the invitation of Hollywood producer Bill Mechanic, a former executive with Walt Disney Studios and Fox Filmed Entertainment. He has said he thinks Fan, in addition to her beauty, has the potential to be an influential, bankable star. Mechanic plans to collaborate with the actress on two films, and he hopes to introduce Fan to more people in the US movie industry. Fan, asked if conquering Hollywood is in her plans, has said she would "go with the flow". Media reports said she was expecting Sunday night at the Oscars to be an exciting experience that could produce a breakthrough for her career. Claus Mueller, New York correspondent for Film Festival Today, a website that covers the movie industry, said Fan stands to benefit from the exposure, however brief. "The tremendous audiences at the Oscars will help the Chinese actress gain worldwide recognition, as the platform was also designed for networking in the industry," he said. There have been rumors that Fan will be in the cast of Iron Man 3, with Chinese actor Wang Xueqi confirmed for the role of Dr Wu. The action sequel, which has Chinese production input and is scheduled for US release on May 3, is also said to include numerous cast members. US movies generate more profits internationally than they do at home. In 2011, Hollywood's ticket sales soared to more than $32 billion, with about 69 percent from box offices around the world. Chinese fans are expected to see more foreign-made movies, including from the US, in coming years. China, the world's third-biggest producer of movies, recently increased its quota for revenue-sharing imports of foreign films to 34 a year from 20. |
| Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:25 AM PST Have You Heard…   |
| Yum Cuts Off Some China Suppliers Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:40 AM PST  Source: Wall Street Journal by Laurie Burkitt BEIJING—The head of Yum Brands Inc.'s China operations made a rare appearance to take aim at the country's food-safety issues and win back customers after allegations of quality oversights at the company's KFC restaurants caused consumer confidence and sales to tumble in its largest market. "We have been in China for many years now, so we can't say that we haven't known this," said Mr. Su. "But this situation is very complicated and it cannot be fixed with an apology." The public appearance is rare for Mr. Su, who typically keeps a low profile in his position at Yum. But the Louisville, Ky., company is trying to win back customers to its KFC outlets in China after a probe of its chicken supply late last year resulted in a spate of negative publicity that caused sales to tumble. Mr. Su apologized in January for communications missteps in handling public reaction to the probe. Mr. Su said in an interview that Yum is working with international poultry suppliers to help them enter the Chinese market or to invest in China's domestic suppliers to improve their quality. Yum will have future announcements on bringing additional poultry players to the market, Mr. Su said, declining to comment further. For Yum, China is a critical market that accounted for 42% of the company's profits last year. Yet the company's fourth-quarter same-store sales in the country fell 6%, a deeper fall than its previous estimate of a 4% decline, as consumers in China pulled away from its KFC chain after discovering that food-safety authorities were looking into whether KFC purchased raw chicken with higher-than-permitted levels of antibiotics from two of its poultry suppliers. Yum attempted in December to manage customer concerns with statements on its official Sina Corp. Weibo microblog, a service similar to Twitter. Still, word-of-mouth spiraled, leading to thousands of negative comments and would-be KFC consumers who steered clear of the chain. Sales at its KFC stores open at least 12 months in China declined 41% in January, according to company statements. Yum invited representatives from industry groups such as the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, the China Cuisine Association and the China Animal Agriculture Association to speak at the company's press briefing and bolster the claim that China's food sector requires more investment and more management to ensure quality and consumer safety. The food industry in general in China faces greater need for safeguarding, Mr. Su said, adding, "It's not something that Yum alone can do." In late December, Shanghai's food-safety regulator said it was investigating whether Yum responded appropriately to test results that had shown eight out of 19 batches of chicken samples Yum sent to labs for testing in 2010 and 2011 had higher than acceptable levels of antibiotics. A spokesman for Yum said as soon as the company learned of the Shanghai watchdog's test results, it immediately contacted restaurants, removed the chicken from outlets and destroyed it. Shanghai's food-safety watchdog in January said suppliers were to blame for antibiotics issues, but that KFC needs to increase its oversight of poultry suppliers. Mr. Su said he doesn't feel that Yum was unfairly blamed for problems in China. "Customers do expect us to safeguard our food," he said, adding that Yum and other foreign companies have been known for and high standards and that people and regulators hold them to those standards. Recent incidents won't affect the company's plans for China growth, Mr. Su said. Yum aims to open 700 stores in China this year. It already operates more than 4,000 KFC outlets and more than 700 Pizza Huts in the world's most populous country. KFC plans to minimize its risk in China by boosting supplier testing and will work only with those that have direct management over their chicken houses, Mr. Su said, adding that the chain cut from its network more than 1,000 small poultry producers used by the company's 25 poultry suppliers. Food safety has been a major issue in China over the past decade, as agricultural reform has lagged behind industry expansion. Most of China's agrarian landscape is made up of small-scale farms, using different feed and varied animal breeds. That adds steps to the distribution channel, maximizing the chances of contamination and decreasing accountability. The dairy industry has been pushing to consolidate dairy farms after a 2008 milk scandal resulted in the death of six infants and illnesses in 300,000 others, highlighting problems with accountability of smaller farms. Mr. Su said that Yum's challenges go beyond food safety in China, as it was clear before the recent chicken probe that sales would not meet targets set for the year. "The previous year, we were firing all cylinders with breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon and 24-hour sales and we underestimated our ability to lap ourselves" Mr. Su said. "Can you continue to expand the user base—that's the big challenge now," Mr. Su said.   |
| China’s Xi to tread peaceful, patient path on Taiwan Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:46 AM PST  Source: Reuters (Reuters) – China's Communist Party chief Xi Jinping pledged peaceful ties on Monday during a meeting with a Taiwan delegation, suggesting that the mainland's policy towards the self-ruled island will not shift dramatically when he becomes China's president. "Safeguarding the interests of our Taiwan compatriots and expanding their well-being is the mainland's oft-repeated pledge and solemn promise of the new leaders of China's Communist Party central committee," Xi said, according to China's Xinhua news agency. China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since defeated Nationalist forces fled to the island at the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. For years the strait between the communist mainland and the democratic island, a key U.S. ally in the region, was seen as one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints. But relations have warmed significantly since Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou was elected in 2008. The two sides have agreed to a series of trade and tourism deals and China is now Taiwan's top export market. Bilateral trade is worth about $121 billion last year. Tension between China and its neighbors, including Japan Vietnam and the Philippines, over over-lapping offshore claims has become more of a worry for the region than China-Taiwan differences. But despite better economic ties between the mainland and the island, there has been little progress toward political reconciliation or an easing of military distrust. "Of course, we also are soberly aware that historical problems remain in cross-Strait relations, and that there will be issues in the future that will require time, patience and joint effort to resolve," Xi said. U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are an irritant in relations between China and the United States. Xi's meeting with Lien, a former Taiwan vice president, was his first with a senior political figure from the island since assuming the Communist Party's top job in November. Xi will become China's president next month. In a separate statement released by Taiwan's Nationalist Party, Lien said the 18 cross-Strait agreements signed in the past four years were a break from turmoil in relations, but he added that "core issues" were unresolved. Xi, as governor of the southeastern province of Fujian in the 1990s, helped attract Taiwan investment to the region which is directly across the strait and shares a similar dialect. Lien, heading a delegation of dozens of Taiwanese political and business leaders, is set to meet outgoing Chinese president Hu Jintao on Tuesday.   |
| European Union is looking into imposing import duties on cheap Chinese solar panels: facepalm Posted: 25 Feb 2013 04:43 AM PST
THE European Union is looking into imposing import duties on cheap Chinese solar panels. If they go ahead with this it will be one of the most ludicroulsy stupid things any government has ever done: yes, worse than a land war in Asia. Not as bloody or wasteful, but more stupid:
Facepalm. Every European government is gouging consumers to subsidise the installation of solar panels all across the continent. Every user of electricity pays more so as to subsidise the feed in tariffs that most counrtries have for example. So, the average schmoe has to pay more to subsidise solar. Then along come the Chinese. Assume that tey're right, there are government subsidies there. That the Chinese taxpayer is being gouged to make those panels cheaper for Europeans. What should be our response? Well, obviously, it should be "Ta v. much. Please send us some more". For instead of us, we Europeans, being gouged in order to get solar power going it's the Chinese. Great, we're happy as a labrador smelling its own fart here. And then we've got those we deign to rule us threatening to tax these cheap imports? What? Seriously, how damn stupid do you have to be to tax and subsidise, at the same time, the very same damn thing?
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| BBC shortwave blocked in China Posted: 25 Feb 2013 04:45 AM PST The BBC says its shortwave broadcasts in English of World Service radio are being jammed in China in an "extensive and co-ordinated" way. |
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