News » Society » China Medical Services Market Seen Hitting $500 Billion

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• China Medical Services Market Seen Hitting $500 Billion
• Huawei denies using Chinese subsidies to grab more business
• China, U.S. Sign $3.4 Billion in Deals
• China manned docking a key step for space station
• Have You Heard… China manned docking a key step for space
• Bird flu `epidemic' sparks chicken cull
• Kirchner, Wen hail bond
• Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and Premier Wen Jiabao hailed 40 years of strong diplomatic ties at a ceremony in a museum opposite the presidential Casa Rosada mansion.
• Taiwan nears US deal to upgrade fighter jets
• Drought leaves 4.3m people short of drinking water
• 12 killed as rainfall batters south China
• China calls for restraint
• Scene set for astronauts' return
• Microblog proves a godsend for monk
• Privacy concerns lead to site suspending service
• Corruption cited for Shandong official's ouster
• Bomber's death sentence upheld
• Torrential rains leave 11 dead, 8 missing in south China
• Court upholds death sentence for blast culprit
• Court upholds death sentence for bank blast culprit

China Medical Services Market Seen Hitting $500 Billion Posted: 24 Jun 2012 11:40 PM PDT Source: Bloomberg News China, where 260 million people suffer from cancer, diabetes and other diseases, is in a hurry to bolster its medical services. Investors are ready to help. The latest is Carlyle Group LP-backed Concord Medical Services Holdings Ltd. (CCM), which last week completed a deal for a 52 percent stake in Chang'an Hospital, a 1,000-bed facility at the eastern end of the Silk Road. The acquisition comes three months after China announced it wants 20 percent of its hospital beds privately owned by 2015. Other investors in China include Kuala Lumpur-based IHH Healthcare Bhd. (IHH), Asia's biggest hospital operator, which plans to build a hospital in Shanghai, to add to seven clinics it owns in Shanghai and one in Chengdu.   The push for private hospitals in China is part of a broader drive to improve care in a country where 95 percent of people had health insurance as of 2011. China's medical services market is growing 18 percent annually and projected to reach 3.16 trillion ($500 billion) in 2015, accountancy firm Deloitte China said. "China's gross domestic product has grown by leaps and bounds, but the quality of medical care has lagged far behind," said David Chow, chairman of Harvest Medical Investment and Operation Group, a Taiwanese private equity firm that's planning to buy stakes in mainland hospitals this year. "The potential for China's hospitals to improve is massive, both in the overall number of beds and the fees charged for each bed." As of last year, China had 3.7 million hospital beds, up 54 percent from 2005. Besides an increase in the proportion of beds run by private operators — it was 12 percent last year — the government wants at least one or two hospitals in each of its 2,853 counties by the end of 2015, according to an outline of the country's health-care policies. Annual revenue from private hospitals in China may reach 2.4 trillion yuan ($377 billion) by 2015, said Yvonne Wu, national life science and health care industry leader at Deloitte China in Shanghai. 400,000 Beds The targets could translate to 400,000 new private hospital beds over the next few years, said Roberta Lipson, chief executive officer of hospital operator Chindex International Inc. (CHDX) U.S- and European-owned companies previously had a hard time entering the Chinese hospital market and tended to invest instead in clinics and diagnostic centers. They have only been able to independently invest in hospitals since Jan. 30, when the government took the industry off a so-called restricted list that required non-Chinese investors to have a local partner and capped foreign ownership at 70 percent. Chindex, based in Bethesda, Maryland, started China's first foreign-owned hospital in Beijing in 1997, six years after commencing negotiations with the government, Lipson said. It took only a year to obtain a license to operate Chindex's latest hospital, in the port city of Tianjin, she said. Friendlier Now China has become a "friendlier environment" for foreign companies investing in hospitals, Lipson said in an interview in Beijing. "There's a large unmet need for health care in China and the potential is huge," she said. Chindex, whose shares trade on Nasdaq, is nearing completion of a fourth hospital in the southern city of Guangzhou and is studying opportunities elsewhere in China. Other private hospital operators in China besides Concord Medical and IHH Healthcare include Shanghai-listed Topchoice Medical Investment Corporation (600763), which is based in Zhejiang province, and Shenzhen-listed Aier Eye Hospital Group (300015), based in Hunan province. GE Boon The increase in hospitals is also boosting demand for medical equipment. General Electric Co. (GE), which makes ultrasound, CT and MRI machines, opened an innovation center in May in the western city of Chengdu to be closer to its rural-hospital customers. The Fairfield, Connecticut-based company intends to open a second China innovation center this summer in the Shaanxi provincial capital, Xi'An, where Concord Medical's Chang'an Hospital is located. Concord Medical signed a preliminary agreement with GE last August that includes using GE medical products in its treatment centers and helping promote GE equipment in rural China. Concord Medical, based in Beijing, operates 131 radiotherapy and diagnostic imaging centers in 24 provinces in China. It spent two years trying to buy its stake in Chang'an Hospital for 248 million yuan, delayed by "unclear rules" and bureaucracy, said Yang Jianyu, Concord Medical's chief executive officer. New policies encouraging private hospital ownership will spur more investment, he said. First Profit Concord Medical intends to set up as many as eight private hospitals in the next decade, starting in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Yang said in an interview. Chang'an Hospital last year posted its first annual profit in 10 years of business, helped by the changes introduced by Wang Jingming, a former senior colonel and head of the People's Liberation Army's 251 Hospital in northern China's Hebei province. Wang, who advises the Chinese government on medical information technology systems, was hired to run Chang'an Hospital by the original owner three years ago under Concord Medical's recommendation. He installed a system of electronic swipe-cards at the hospital to reduce patient waiting times and identify under- performing doctors by gauging treatment times. He's also introducing a program for doctors from Philadelphia's Fox Chase Cancer Center to work there, with diagnostic and management support from their colleagues in the U.S. Morgue Money A graduate of China's top army medical school, Wang brims with ideas on how to generate more income from the hospital's facilities, including extracting more profit from its convenience store, canteen, and even the six-bed mortuary, where he sees the potential for earning money from funeral and religious services. "There should be a dignified way of handling the deceased, like how it's done overseas — not just dressing up the corpse but also taking care of the psychological and religious needs of the families," he said, adding that China's hospitality industry improved when foreign investment and management knowhow was encouraged in the 1980s. "We have some of the world's best hotels, and it's now our hospitals that need to be better managed."

Huawei denies using Chinese subsidies to grab more business Posted: 24 Jun 2012 11:37 PM PDT Source: Reuters By Denis Pinchuk (Reuters) – Huawei Technologies Co Ltd HWT.UL, the world's No.2 telecom gear maker, has denied using Chinese subsidies to gain global market share after it was accused by U.S. lawmakers and EU officials of unfair competition. Huawei and cross-town rival ZTE Corp 000063.SZ (0763.HK) have come under close scrutiny by U.S. lawmakers and the European Commission, which say both are able to use subsidies to bid for contracts at lower prices than Western competitors. Both companies rose to prominence rapidly over the past few years, clinching contracts with major telecom carriers and sometimes edging out European rivals Ericsson (ERICb.ST), Alcatel Lucent SA (ALUA.PA) and Nokia Siemens Networks NOKI.UL. "It's not true that Huawei uses subsidies to gain market share," Chen Lifang, Huawei's global board director, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a business event at St Petersburg in Russia. "We receive legal subsidies. Like European countries, China also gives out subsidies for R&D-related activities. Huawei has taken part in such European and Chinese schemes," said Chen, a member of Huawei's 13-person board. Huawei, together with the world No. 5 telecom equipment maker ZTE, denied accepting illegal subsidies earlier this year, but this is the first time a Huawei board member has commented about the issue. The head of the U.S. House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee this week said apart from the investigation on subsidies, legislation could be proposed to deal with any related national-security threats. In May, EU diplomats said the trade bloc would like to take action against Huawei and ZTE on the grounds that they receive illegal state subsidies that allow them to sell equipment at lower prices. Analysts said Chinese telecoms equipment makers had also the support from policy banks, such as China Development Bank CHDB.UL, which provided low interest rate loans for network infrastructure projects in emerging economies. Chen brushed off rumors that Huawei did not need to pay back such loans. "Our competitors even spread rumors that we needn't repay these loans. This is impossible and untrue," she said late on Friday. She said Huawei usually worked with Chinese and foreign banks in project financing and loans, and was transparent in the process. In 2011, Huawei borrowed $4.6 billion from banks, with more than 70 percent from overseas banks and less than 20 percent from Chinese lenders, Chen said. "These banks usually make necessary risk assessments before agreeing to the loans. All of such loans have also been audited." Huawei has been successful in selling telecom equipment in Europe and emerging economies in Asia and Africa, expanding its presence in the mobile phone and enterprise segments. In Russia, for instance, Huawei has worked closely with major carriers and is in negotiations to possibly provide equipment for 4G LTE (fourth-generation long term evolution) mobile technology, Xiong Lening, chief of Huawei's Russia operations, has said. However, the prized U.S. telecom carrier market remains elusive for the Shenzhen-based company that was started by its Chief Executive Officer, Ren Zhengfei. Ren, who is also in Russia this week for the event, was a former military officer who was laid off by the People's Liberation Army in a downsizing exercise over 20 years ago. Several years ago, Huawei and ZTE were blocked from taking part in a bidding process for a network project by U.S. carrier Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) due to national security concerns. More recently, Huawei was blocked from participating in a tender in Australia's $38 billion National Broadband Network due to cyber security concerns. "It's supposed to be straightforward commercial transactions, but the U.S. likes to link economic issues to politics because Huawei has its roots in China," said Chen, who joined Huawei in 1995. "Our competitors also take advantage of this fact to paint an unfriendly image of us." Huawei has denied having any ties with the Chinese military. After years of rapid expansion and market share gains in the telecom equipment and mobile phones sectors due to aggressive marketing and pricing, Huawei's profitability has been hit lately with rumors surfacing of massive layoffs. Chen brushed off such concerns. "We are not laying off staff in China or India. In Russia, we're expanding and might even add staff," she said, but stopped short of elaborating.

China, U.S. Sign $3.4 Billion in Deals Posted: 24 Jun 2012 11:44 PM PDT Source: Wall Street Journal | Photo: CCTV NANJING, China—Companies from China and the U.S. on Saturday signed a total of $3.4 billion in bilateral investment projects, as the world's two biggest economies seek to boost trade and investment. The deals are another sign that the two economies are becoming ever more intertwined despite trade frictions and complaints about protectionism on both sides. The companies were meeting as part of a forum in Nanjing. They signed contracts on 42 bilateral investment projects in areas including manufacturing, new energy, property, logistics and entertainment. China's finance minister, Xie Xuren, said at the forum that he hopes China and the U.S. can expand cooperation in sectors including energy and environmental protection, adding that both countries are restructuring their economies and pushing ahead with reforms, providing a great potential for cooperation between local governments of the two sides. Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary Marisa Lago said at the same forum that the U.S. welcomes investments from all countries including China and hopes cross-border investment with China will continue to grow. The U.S.-China Cities Forum on Economic Cooperation and Investment, which is aimed at facilitating cross-border investment among local governments and companies of the two economies, followed the fourth U.S.-China strategic and economic dialogue meeting in Beijing in May. Local governments in the U.S. thirsty for capital for their infrastructure construction are turning to China, which has been relaxing controls on outbound investment as it internationalizes its currency. The U.S. government has been striving for investment from both China's state-owned firms as well as small and medium-size enterprises, said Robert W. Hsueh, deputy head of the Dallas delegation and chairman of DFW International Airport. SME investments in the U.S. could be widespread, and the U.S. government has many supportive and incentive measures for such companies, Mr. Hsueh said. Less-developed Chinese cities, especially those in the central and western China, are also eager for more investment from abroad as Beijing wants to boost development there to catch up with the more-developed east coast. Among the $3.4 billion of agreements are two from the city of Xi'an. Under the agreements, two U.S. companies will invest about $527 million in western China. One is from Air Products & Chemicals Inc. and the other is from a U.S. entertainment company. Linuo Group Co., based in Jinan, has agreed to invest in the U.S. to develop a solar-energy project.

China manned docking a key step for space station Posted: 24 Jun 2012 11:46 PM PDT Source: Reuters (Reuters) – China re-affirmed its goal of building a full-fledged space station by 2020 on Sunday, following a successful manual docking between a manned spacecraft and an experimental orbiting lab module. "Mastery of rendezvous and docking technology is a decisive step towards realizing the goals of the second stage in the development of China's manned space flight program. It also lays a firm foundation for the further construction of a space station," said Wu Ping, the spokesman for China's manned space program at a press conference following the docking exercise. The Shenzhou 9 and its three-person crew, including the country's first woman in space, Liu Yang, separated about 400 meters from the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1 module for about two minutes before re-connecting under the manual control of the astronauts, with state television covering the event live. "It means China has completely grasped space rendezvous and docking technologies and the country is fully capable of transporting humans and cargo to an orbiter in space, which is essential for building a space station in 2020," the official Xinhua news agency said on its website. Wu said the next step for the program would be further manned docking exercises using the Shenzhou 10, but she said the program had not yet settled on a timeline for the next launch. The Shenzhou 9 had already conducted an automated docking with Tiangong 1, on June 18, a day after it blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. "The automated docking and manual docking are both essential and they serve as a backup for each other," Xinhua reported Zhou Jianping, designer-in-chief of China's manned space program, as saying. Compared with an automated docking, manual docking is more challenging in terms of orbit control, Xie Jianfeng, a space scientist with the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, told Xinhua on Saturday.

Have You Heard… China manned docking a key step for space Posted: 24 Jun 2012 11:49 PM PDT Have You Heard… China manned docking a key step for space station China, U.S. Sign $3.4 Billion in Deals China Medical Services Market Seen Hitting $500 Billion Huawei denies using Chinese subsidies to grab more business

Bird flu `epidemic' sparks chicken cull Posted: 25 Jun 2012 01:05 PM PDT

Kirchner, Wen hail bond Posted: 25 Jun 2012 01:05 PM PDT

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and Premier Wen Jiabao hailed 40 years of strong diplomatic ties at a ceremony in a museum opposite the presidential Casa Rosada mansion. Posted: 25 Jun 2012 01:05 PM PDT

Taiwan nears US deal to upgrade fighter jets Posted: 25 Jun 2012 01:05 PM PDT

Drought leaves 4.3m people short of drinking water Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:36 AM PDT SEVERE drought has been plaguing areas along the Yellow and Huaihe rivers due to a lack of rain and high temperatures. Temperature rising to over 35 degrees Celsius in some areas will make the drought worse, the meteorological center said. Some 4.28 million people and 4.85 million livestock are said to be suffering from a shortage of drinking water in parts of Henan, Anhui, Shandong, Yunnan and Hubei provinces and Inner Mongolia. In Hubei alone, 813,000 people are short of water in about 30 cities, where reservoirs hold 22 percent less than last year.

12 killed as rainfall batters south China Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:34 AM PDT AT least 12 people have been killed, with another eight missing as of late yesterday, as downpours continued to batter China's south, forcing the evacuation of millions of residents. The rain, which began late Thursday, triggered floods in 42 rivers in nine provinces including Jiangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan and Hunan, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said. It issued an emergency alert at 2pm yesterday asking local governments across the country to ensure the safety of reservoirs and dams. The hardest-hit area was southern Guangxi, where at least eight people have died since Thursday in the autonomous region. In Hezhou, more than 10,000 people were evacuated and economic losses of 200 million yuan (US$31.4 million) incurred, flood control officials in the city said. One resident died in a hospital after suffering serious injuries in a landslide, while another was crushed to death in a house collapse. Rainstorms and gales have also hit the southern coastal city of Beihai over the past several days and are set to continue. Shipping routes from Beihai to Weizhou Island and from Beihai to Haikou, capital of the southern Hainan Province, were suspended from 8am on Sunday, the local maritime department said. In east China's Zhejiang, heavy rain forced 17,000 people to relocate and affected the lives of more than 350,000 others since June 22. A 12-year-old girl died when her house was buried in a landslide on Saturday in Zhejiang's Songyang County. Rain has been battering central China's Hunan Province since Thursday, killing one person, leaving another missing and affecting the lives of 138,000 others, officials said. Details of another seven people missing have not been revealed by authorities. A landslide in Hunan's Chenzhou city blocked roads and rivers and stranded 130 tourists. More rain and storms are expected to hit Zhejiang, Fujian and Anhui provinces in the east, as well as Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces in the southwest. "The rain will extend to southwest China areas and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the next three days and may bring the floods in those areas," the National Meteorological Center said yesterday. Water levels at the Three Gorges Dam indicate that a major flood on the upper Yangtze River may be on the way, according to the Yichang Maritime Safety Administration. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

China calls for restraint Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:30 AM PDT CHINA called for calm and restraint yesterday after Turkey accused Syria of shooting down one of its jets and summoned a NATO meeting to discuss a response. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: "We hope that the parties concerned will exercise calm and restraint and adhere to diplomatic channels."

Scene set for astronauts' return Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:30 AM PDT PREPARATIONS are under way for the return of China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and its crew of three to an area of grassland in the country's north on Friday. Personnel responsible for retrieval, search and rescue missions have arrived at the landing area in Siziwang Banner of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and drills are being held in advance of the landing. All eight previous Shenzhou spacecraft have landed in the sparsely populated area where most people are engaged in farming on the grassland. The astronauts on board Shenzhou-9 - Liu Wang, Jing Haipeng and Liu Yang, China's first woman in space - conducted the country's first manual space docking procedure on Sunday with the orbiting Tiangong-1 lab module and have lived in the country's trial space station for about a week. The spacecraft will separate from the module and begin its flight back to Earth on Thursday. The return module with the three crew will separate from the spacecraft after it enters the Earth's atmosphere. Parachutes will help reduce the speed of the module as it falls and a rocket will fire to further slow the module shortly before it lands. Wu Ping, a spokeswoman for China's manned space program, said an upgraded video monitoring system had been installed around the landing zone to transmit details to the control center in Beijing. Search teams will be able to locate the module after it lands in the fastest time possible after many drills, she said. Landing is considered the most dangerous phase of the mission apart from the launch as the return module has to crash to the ground. China doesn't possess a space shuttle like the United States which can land on a runway just like ordinary aircraft. The next space mission will see Shenzhou-10 dock with Tiangong-1 with astronauts onboard, Wu said. She said detailed plans would be made after the completion of the current Shenzhou-9 mission. China will train and send foreign astronauts into space on Shenzhou spacecraft in the future, Wu said. The country has been cooperating with Pakistan on space exploration, she said. "However," she added, "China is still at the basic step of manned space exploration and needs a lot more missions and experiments to gain experience."

Microblog proves a godsend for monk Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:29 AM PDT LIKE all Buddhist monks, Yancan spends most of his day seeking enlightenment. But unlike most monks, Yancan often stays up until midnight using a microblogging site to spread the word among more than a million followers002E Yancan is abbot of the Shuiyue Monastery in north China's Hebei Province. For over 20 years, the Zen monk has passed his knowledge on through sermons and lectures. But now, the power of the Internet has given him a new avenue through which to spread his wisdom. Yancan rose to online prominence last week, when a video of him being harassed by monkeys near E'Mei Mountain, a sacred Buddhist site, was uploaded to the Internet. Yancan quickly amassed a large following on Sina Weibo, with his posts forwarded thousands of times over since the video's debut, helping him to bring his thoughts to a much larger audience. "I only hope to shore up positive energy on the web, where people vent too much anger and frustration," Yancan said. Yancan has written more than 11,000 posts since he opened his Weibo account two years ago. Most reflect a Buddhist interpretation of ordinary life issues, ranging from the pains of growing up to dealing with the national college entrance exams. "Life inspires me, and then I write what comes to my mind," the monk said. Yancan's positive approach stands out among the verbal abuse common to social messaging sites. His humorous demeanor and laid-back approach have charmed the public. "Life itself is too serious, so I try my best not to be," Yancan said. Yancan recently conducted an online interview on Sina Weibo, inviting questions. He received about 30,000 queries, and responded to many in typically witty fashion. Liu Xiaoying, a professor at the Communication University of China, attributed Yancan's rise in popularity to the fact that the Internet allowed more people to discuss life freely. Yancan has not been spared criticism. Some have described him as "ignorant of his proper duties" and even accused him of lacking "Buddhist purity." The criticism confuses the monk. "Isn't it a good thing? Everybody laughs and no one gets hurt," he said. "I am duty-bound to propagate Buddhism. The new age needs us to change."

Privacy concerns lead to site suspending service Posted: 25 Jun 2012 09:00 AM PDT A website copied from Facemash, Facebook's predecessor, and popular at a university in a central Chinese city has suspended service after students asked police to probe privacy violations. Hust-facemash.com, Facemash's copycat in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, provided a similar "hot or not" game for students in Huazhong University of Science and Technology. It took student certificate pictures from the school's online information platform and allowed visitors to compare the student pictures of two girls side-by-side and let them choose who was "hotter." Many students were outraged by what they considered the site's violation of individual privacy. But the site said its main aim was to warn the school of security loopholes in its online platform and urge it to step up protection for students' personal information rather than to show girls' pictures. The website couldn't be accessed as of yesterday and it claimed the system was under temporary maintenance. It didn't say whether it was forced to shut down by authorities or because of widespread criticism. The website designer, whose identify wasn't disclosed, was believed to have transferred the web server to California to avoid domestic punishment. The mysterious inventor didn't try to conceal his admiration for Mark Zuckerberg, who created Facemash when he was a Harvard University student, and attached his words on Hust-facemash. Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, opened Facemash on October 28, 2003. He hacked into Harvard University's website and stole photos to have students picked "hot boys and girls." However, the website was shut down by Harvard executives a few days after it opened. Zuckerberg faced charges of violating copyright, breach of security and violating individual privacy. He also faced expulsion from Harvard. However, all the charges were eventually dropped, and on February 2004, he launched Facebook, now the world's largest social network service.

Corruption cited for Shandong official's ouster Posted: 25 Jun 2012 09:00 AM PDT A DEPUTY governor of eastern Shandong Province who is at the center of lurid online allegations has been expelled from the Party for serious disciplinary and legal violations, the People's Daily said on its website yesterday. Huang Sheng was also dismissed from all government posts by the State Council, or China's Cabinet, and the Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Huang took huge bribes and used his position to advance the interests of others, which caused massive economic losses to the country, the statement said. All of his ill-gotten money has been confiscated, and he is under the criminal investigation for corruption. The statement also said Huang was "morally corrupted." Online speculation about the findings against Huang ran rampant, including claims that he took bribes of US$9 billion, kept 46 mistresses and owned 46 properties. But the central government didn't confirm any of the claims as the investigation is ongoing. Huang, a native of Weihai City in Shandong, joined the Party in 1975 and started his political career as a military cartographer. He was promoted to a post as a government official in 1984, assigned as the mayor of Dezhou City in 1996 and elected as deputy governor in 2007. He was among seven ministerial-level officials who were investigated for suspected embezzlement or bribery in China last year. The most famous case was that of former Railway Minister Liu Zhijun, who was sacked in February and then detained amid a graft probe that involved a series of railway projects. The State Council has said Liu should also be held responsible for the bullet train crash last July that killed 40 people in the eastern city of Wenzhou. Others included Tian Xueren, the former executive vice governor of Jilin Province in northeast China, and also Wu Zhiming, the former secretary general of the government of Jiangxi Province.

Bomber's death sentence upheld Posted: 25 Jun 2012 09:00 AM PDT THE Hubei Provincial Higher People's Court yesterday upheld the death sentence for a convict who set off a homemade bomb in a bank robbery attempt in December, killing two people and injuring 15. Wang Haijian, 25, was sentenced to death last month on homicide charges. He triggered the deadly explosion outside a China Construction Bank outlet in Wuhan, the provincial capital, on December 1. Wang appealed the ruling by Wuhan Intermediate People's Court and the case went to the higher people's court on June 13. His lawyer insisted Wang neither robbed the bank nor intended to kill and requested a psychological test for Wang. But the higher people's court rejected his appeal and upheld the original sentence. Wang's accomplices, Wang Wei and Wan An'an, sentenced to 10 years and six years respectively, also failed to win a more lenient sentence in their appeals. Wang Haijian began learning to make explosives in October 2010 and later tested his bombs with Wang Wei and Wang An'an. The three plotted to rob a bank, but the other two pulled out. The blast killed two passersby, left 15 with minor injuries and caused financial losses of 127,000 yuan (US$20,320). Wang Haijian's death penalty is still subject to review by the Supreme People's Court.

Torrential rains leave 11 dead, 8 missing in south China Posted: 25 Jun 2012 02:21 AM PDT ELEVEN people were killed, eight went missing and more than 710,000 people were afflicted as torrential rains flooded a large part of south China in the past few days. Heavy downpours have swollen 42 rivers in nine provinces including Jiangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan and Hunan since Friday, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters says today. More than 16,000 residents have been evacuated; about 49,000 hectares of crops were washed away; and over 7,000 houses collapsed, causing an economic loss of 705 million yuan, according to the flood control officials. "The disastrous rainstorms will move toward southwest China and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the coming three days and may bring floods to those areas," the Central Meteorological Observatory says today. Mudslides, thunderstorms and hails are likely to hit the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the mountainous regions in Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei and Anhui provinces, the observatory warns. Meanwhile, drought will plague the region between the Yellow River and the Huai River. Some 4.28 million people and 4.85 million livestock are short of drinking water across China, mainly in Henan, Anhui, Shandong, Yunnan and Hubei provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Court upholds death sentence for blast culprit Posted: 24 Jun 2012 11:29 PM PDT The Hubei Provincial Higher People's Court today upheld the death sentence for a convict who set off a homemade bomb in a bank robbery attempt last December, killing two people and injuring 15 others. Wang Haijian, 25, was sentenced to death last month on homicide charges. He triggered the deadly explosion outside a China Construction Bank office in Wuhan, the provincial capital on the afternoon of December 1. Wang appealed against the ruling by the city's Intermediate People's Court and went to a retrial in the Higher People's Court on June 13. His lawyer insisted that he neither robbed the bank nor intended to kill anyone and requested a psychological test for Wang. But the Higher People's Court rejected his appeal and upheld the original sentence. Wang's two accomplices, Wang Wei and Wan An'an, were sentenced to 10 years and six years respectively.

Court upholds death sentence for bank blast culprit Posted: 24 Jun 2012 11:29 PM PDT THE Hubei Provincial Higher People's Court today upheld the death sentence for a convict who set off a homemade bomb in a bank robbery attempt last December, killing two people and injuring 15 others. Wang Haijian, 25, was sentenced to death last month on homicide charges. He triggered the deadly explosion outside a China Construction Bank office in Wuhan, the provincial capital on the afternoon of December 1. Wang appealed against the ruling by the city's Intermediate People's Court and went to a retrial in the Higher People's Court on June 13. His lawyer insisted that he neither robbed the bank nor intended to kill anyone and requested a psychological test for Wang. But the Higher People's Court rejected his appeal and upheld the original sentence. Wang's two accomplices, Wang Wei and Wan An'an, were sentenced to 10 years and six years respectively.

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