News » Society » Focus Media backs buyout offer
News » Society » Focus Media backs buyout offer |
- Focus Media backs buyout offer
- Beijing to build massive downtown nursing home
- Mentally ill Henan man kills four relatives
- Anger as Qing seal sold off
- The state cultural authority criticized a French auction house for selling a historic seal allegedly looted by foreign troops in the 19th century.
- End is nearer for doomsday cults as crackdown picks up
- 'Instant chicken' farms shut down
- Mo's daughter denies Nobel laureate endorsing cigarettes
- Driver who hit girl gets lighter term, forgiveness
- Mainland firm denies link to tainted oil in HK
- Millions in graft used for beauty treatments
- Sinopec takes big dip into oil industry in North Sea
- U.S. slaps duties on China wind towers, high-level talks begin
- Yum, McDonald’s Vow Food Safety After China Poultry Report
- Have You Heard…
- Amid China tensions, Southeast Asia looks to India
- China Measures Its Step, Report Says
- Duke Kunshan Univ. to enroll students in 2014
- Beijing-Zhengzhou high-speed railway to start service
- Driver who crushed Foshan toddler gets jail sentence
| Focus Media backs buyout offer Posted: 19 Dec 2012 05:59 PM PST Chinese advertising firm Focus Media, once the target of short sellers, approves a management-led buyout offer that will take the company private. |
| Beijing to build massive downtown nursing home Posted: 19 Dec 2012 07:47 PM PST BEIJING is to build a massive nursing home in its downtown area to cater for rising demand for senior care. The construction of the nursing home, located by West Dawang Road in the Central Business District in Chaoyang District, will begin at the end of December and the facility is expected to open in 2014, according to the district's civil affairs department. The 460-bed nursing home is funded by the government and will cost nearly 200 million yuan (US$31.8 million), an official with the department said at the Beijing International Senior Industry Expo 2012, which opened yesterday. Featuring apartments and a recreation center, the nursing home will cover more than 20,000 square meters, with three storeys underground and 10 storeys above ground. Chaoyang District plans to have 78 nursing homes by the end of 2015, which almost doubles the current number. Figures provided by Beijing's Civil Affairs Bureau show the city's nursing homes have some 82,000 beds for senior citizens, but only about half of them are taken. The openings are mostly available in remote suburbs, which can be inconvenient for family members to visit. Regardless of the openings, the bureau maintains that Beijing's senior care capacity still lags far behind demand, estimated between 120,000 and 150,000 beds, or almost three for every 100 citizens aged 60 or above. China had 190 million people at or above the age of 60 at the end of last year, according to the China National Committee on Aging. It is estimated that the figure will top 200 million next year and that, by 2050, one third of the Chinese population will be aged 60 or over. |
| Mentally ill Henan man kills four relatives Posted: 19 Dec 2012 07:14 PM PST A man with mental illness stabbed four of his family members to death yesterday morning in central China's Henan Province, local police said today. The incident happened in Guangyang Town of Fangcheng County, where the man is thought to have attacked his father, son, wife and nephew with a knife. Neighbors said the killer returned to Henan on Monday from China's northern city of Tianjin, where he had worked, accompanied by his relatives. Local government has launched an investigation in the case. |
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| End is nearer for doomsday cults as crackdown picks up Posted: 19 Dec 2012 02:16 PM PST Ad: Chris Farrell Membership - Voted No.1 Internet Marketing Service Online By Imreportcard.com. Chris Farrell Membership Is For Those Serious About Creating A Regular And Continuous Income Online. |
| 'Instant chicken' farms shut down Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:04 AM PST Food safety authorities in Qingdao City have closed two farms where workers were said to have fed chickens illegal drugs and 18 kinds of antibiotics to boost their growth. Late yesterday, the animal husbandry and veterinary bureau of Shandong Province issued the findings of four investigation teams sent to the cities of Qingdao, Weifang, Linyi and Zaozhuang on Tuesday. Several chicken farms, including a farm belonging to Yingtai Co, had been under investigation, the bureau said. Relevant people responsible for these farms have been detained by police or are under further investigation, it said. Two slaughterhouses of Shandong Liuhe Group and Yingtai Co have been ordered to halt production, and all raw chicken products in the slaughterhouses sealed until samples can be tested, the bureau said. The bureau also said it would launch supervision over the usage of veterinary medicine across the province. Slaughterhouse workers were reported to have killed chickens without any quarantine inspection procedures, Xinmin Evening News reported. The actions follow a report by China Central Television on Tuesday that said some poultry suppliers in Shandong Province accelerated the growth of chickens by using chemicals-laced feed. Farm workers were filmed pouring bottles of medicine, additives and up to 18 kinds of antibiotic into the feed to keep the chickens alive and speed up their growth. Overcrowded houses Poultry farmers told reporters that without antibiotics, their chickens could die within two days in overcrowded chicken houses. Qingdao government officials said they would punish the companies involved if tests indicated wrongdoing and problem products would be recalled and destroyed. According to CCTV footage, batches of what it called "instant chicken" were ready to be served at fast food restaurants after they were transported to the Shanghai logistics center of Yum Brands Inc, the world's largest restaurant company and owner of KFC and Pizza Hut. Officials at the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said that they had launched an investigation into Yum Brands, which was reported to have purchased the batches of chicken and stored them at its logistics center. The investigation found that the center purchased the last batch of chicken from the Liuhe Group in May and sold all of it. After that, it no longer bought goods from the company, the center said. The FDA said on Tuesday that they were checking 32 samples from eight kinds of poultry products stored at the logistics center, and the results would be known as early as today. In the news program, a CCTV reporter followed a truck carrying the chicken and found that it was taken to Yum Brands' logistics center and later sent to its restaurants, including a KFC in the Pudong New Area. KFC has about 300 stores in Shanghai. KFC China said the company stopped buying chicken from the Liuhe Group in August. |
| Mo's daughter denies Nobel laureate endorsing cigarettes Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:03 AM PST A FAMILY member of Nobel laureate Mo Yan yesterday denied online claims that the writer was endorsing a brand of expensive cigarettes. His daughter, Guan Xiaoxiao, said on her microblog: "My father did not, does not, and will not endorse any tobacco products ever." Mo's brother, Guan Moxin, said he had no knowledge of any commercial endorsement. The tobacco company involved also denied that Mo had endorsed cigarettes that sell for more than 20,000 yuan (US$3,209) a carton. And his publisher, Beijing Genuine and Profound Culture Development Co Ltd, added its voice to the denials, Xinhua news agency reported. The responses followed a set of advertising posters which were posted online promoting "Limited Mo Yan Edition" cigarettes produced by China Tobacco Shandong Industrial Co, a subsidiary of China Tobacco. The ads said the limited edition would be based on the company's high-end "Taishanfoguang" brand. Each cigarette would carry the title of one of Mo's books in Chinese characters. One of the posters features the silhouette of a man smoking, believed to be Mo, while it quoted him as saying: "Actually I have only three cigarettes. I sent one to Sweden and another to hometown Gaomi. And I held the last one between my fingers to light up my inspiration." The ads said the cigarettes would be sold in a "luxury rosewood package" and only 100 cartons would be produced. A carton of such high-end cigarettes - 10 packs of 20 - would cost 20,120 yuan, compared to "normal" cigarettes at around 200 yuan per carton, the ads said. The posters sparked heated discussion online with many people expressing shock that Mo was endorsing cigarettes. The Shandong company published an announcement on its official website saying: "Our company has never authorized anyone or any company to design ads for "Limited Mo Yan Edition" cigarette products, and our company has not produced such products." Despite the denial, tobacco control experts believe the company is behind the post and that its advertising purpose had been achieved. Yang Gonghuan, deputy head of the Chinese Association for Tobacco Control, told Xinhua that the company may have turned to Mo for commercial endorsement only to be rejected. "The company just released the failed endorsement information to make their products known by making use of Mo, a household name after he won the Nobel Prize," Yang was quoted as saying. Although tobacco advertising is banned in China, tobacco companies use various ways to make their products known, such as donating money to schools, sponsoring health research and other, more obscure methods, Yang said. China signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003. Yang urged the government to better implement the framework and forbid tobacco companies' advertising in such ways. Mo, meanwhile, could not be reached for comment. |
| Driver who hit girl gets lighter term, forgiveness Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST THE driver who ran over and crushed a two-year-old girl last year was given a reduced sentence of two years and six months in prison at a court in Foshan, Guangdong Province, yesterday as he agreed to compensation and was forgiven by the girl's family. The driver, surnamed Hu, was initially sentenced to three years and six months but he appealed the ruling, the local Yangcheng Evening News reported. Police simulated the accident by placing a toy as big as the toddler at the accident scene and had a man of the same size as the defendant drive the same van through the spot. Police then took measurements to evaluate the driver's state of mind and the extent to which the driver should be held responsible. After the initial verdict, Hu and other involved parties reached an agreement with the girl's parents and compensated them with 303,000 yuan (US$48,600). The victim family then forgave Hu. The case stirred a nationwide debate after the toddler, Wang Yue, was shown in a surveillance video on October 13 of 2011 being hit several times on a busy market street in Foshan while 18 people walked by, making no effort to save her. |
| Mainland firm denies link to tainted oil in HK Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST BEIDAHUANG, one of China's major agricultural groups, denied yesterday any connection with an edible oil supplier in Hong Kong of the same name, which was found to sale tainted peanut oil, according to media reports. The Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department on Tuesday announced initial test results of 39 samples taken from the Hong Kong cooking oil supplier and 13 restaurants accused of having no license or having sold substandard oil. The results showed high levels of Benzoapyrene (BaP) was detected in four samples. BaP can cause cancer in humans, according to the department's website. Two peanut oil samples, under the brand of Jindi, taken from the Hong Kong Beidahuang company contained 16 and 17 micrograms of BaP per kilogram, exceeding the legal limit on China's mainland of 10mcg/kg and the European Union limit of 2mcg/kg. Hong Kong has requested the Hong Kong Beidahuang cooking oil supplier to stop selling and recall the affected product. Further tests were to be conducted. The authority said it couldn't identify whether it was made from swill oil. The deputy chairman of the Hong Kong Beidahuang blamed Jindi, saying the company just packed the products for Jindi instead of importing or selling them, according to news portal, Sina.com. He added that the company only packed 200 kilograms of Jindi peanut oil in the past two years, the website reported. Hong Kong's FEHD said prosecutions will be initiated if there is sufficient evidence of anyone violating the law. Hong Kong media reported earlier that the Hong Kong Beidahuang, founded in May 2010, was a subsidiary of mainland Beidahuang. But the mainland's Beidahuang Agriculture Co Ltd, which entered Shanghai stock market in 2002, insisted it was not involved. However, the group's stock price was still affected. It dropped from 8.06 yuan to 7.88 yuan yesterday. |
| Millions in graft used for beauty treatments Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST TWELVE female officials from government or state-owned enterprises in Beijing have been found to siphon huge amounts of state funds or take bribes that could run into millions of yuan for an unusual purpose - high-end and exotic beauty treatments at luxurious parlors. Tony herbal drinks, wraps, body sculpting and skin treatments usually reserved for the wealthy were all consumed with gusto, Beijing-based Procuratorial Daily reported yesterday. While there were few details on the amounts involved, the investigation started following the downfall of Bai Hong, a former labor union leader with the Beijing Health Bureau. It is estimated that between July 2006 and March 2011, Bai embezzled 3.39 million yuan (US$544,095) used for beauty. Beijing prosecutors have finished investigation of the 12 beauty-seeking officials as well as a probe into a former deputy of a construction group, who they say implicated himself by embezzling government money to support his lover's treatments at a beauty parlor. Further actions, including prosecution, against the suspects is expected soon. Prosecutors said many of the suspects are in their 40s and 50s and obsessed with improving their looks - some of them are estimated to have been to high-end parlors hundreds of times. They said the "beauty corruption" suspects may have felt safe because the close-door membership services would face less oversight. After a tip in 2011, Bai, in charge of the union's finance and accounting, was found to have handed over large amounts of invoices, mainly issued by four companies as fees for meetings, training and office supplies related to union activities - while the real expenses were for beauty services. Prosecutors found the four companies were all founded by a local women's club management group, the paper said. The group also runs five chain high-end beauty parlors in downtown Beijing, which facilitated the invoices. Bai was sentenced to 15 years behind bars on December 20, 2011. She didn't appeal to a higher court, the paper said. One of the 12 women investigated, Yang Ping, a former section chief with Beijing Finance Bureau, was found between 2004 and 2008 to ask others to send her member cards worth a total of 389,000 yuan to support her consumption in the parlors, prosecutors said. She also handed in invoices valued at 169,000 yuan to the bureau and took the reimbursed money, the paper said. |
| Sinopec takes big dip into oil industry in North Sea Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:44 AM PST  Source: By Du Juan (China Daily) China Petrochemical Corp, or Sinopec Group, said on Tuesday it had acquired a 49 percent stake in the UK subsidiary of the Canada-based Talisman Energy Inc for $1.5 billion, marking the first direct investment by a Chinese company in the North Sea. The company said the two parties will strengthen their cooperation to explore resource potential and accelerate the evaluation and commercial development of these assets. "Sinopec is well positioned to increase the production capacity of the mature oil fields, while Talisman has ample project experience in the North Sea," the company said. "It will be a mutually beneficial cooperation." Talisman's UK subsidiary is headquartered in Aberdeen, United Kingdom, and has interests in 51 North Sea oil and gas fields. It has remaining proved plus probable reserves of 489 million barrels of oil equivalent, of which 95 percent is crude oil. In 2011, the company's daily oil and gas output reached 71,000 barrels. After the completion of the deal, Talisman will continue to hold 51 percent of the joint venture, but Talisman Energy UK Ltd will be renamed Talisman Sinopec Energy UK Ltd. Meanwhile, Sinopec will send employees to take part in the new company's management. Hal Kvisle Talisman President said the transaction supports a number of Talisman's key priorities and will give it the financial flexibility to invest in future opportunities. The completion follows two big overseas acquisitions announced last week by fellow Chinese oil giant PetroChina Co Ltd. PetroChina, the country's biggest oil producer, said it agreed to buy BHP Billiton Ltd's stake in a liquefied natural gas project in Australia for $1.63 billion on Dec 12, and joined the Canadian company Encana Corp to develop a shale gas project in Alberta at a price of $2.14 billion on Friday. "The weak global economy has provided a good chance for Chinese companies in their overseas expansion in the energy sector," said Lin Boqiang, director of the Xiamen-based China Center for Energy Economic Research. He said Sinopec's deal is indeed a breakthrough for a Chinese company in the North Sea. The North Sea had a daily output of 2.7 million barrels of liquid fuel in October, according to the energy and commodities market agency Argus Media Ltd. The area has had a total output of 40 billion barrels so far, and the potential remains to produce a further 14 billion to 24 billion barrels of oil equivalent over the next 30 years, according to Sinopec. Lin said the deal can help Sinopec gain offshore oil exploration experience to improve the technology that can be used when the company returns to China's offshore oil exploration business, which is currently dominated by CNOOC Ltd. China will import about 60 percent of the 500 million tons of oil it uses in 2013, government officials said at an industry conference last week. Since China became a net importer of crude oil in 1993, it has gone from importing 6 percent of the oil it consumes to more than 50 percent in 2009. The government is now encouraging Chinese companies to go overseas to seek energy resources to meet growing domestic demand. |
| U.S. slaps duties on China wind towers, high-level talks begin Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:41 AM PST  Source: Reuters By Doug Palmer (Reuters) – The United States on Tuesday pressed forward with plans to slap steep punitive duties on wind turbine towers imported from China at prices deemed unfairly low, even as officials welcomed a high-level Chinese delegation for trade and economic talks. The department also slapped final anti-dumping duties of 51.40 to 58.49 percent on wind towers from Vietnam. A U.S. trade panel has final approval over the duties and is expected to vote on the case in late January. The action was the latest clash between the two countries over U.S. imports of green technology from China. It came as a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Wang Qishan was in Washington for the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting, a high-level bilateral forum to address barriers to trade and investment. Wang will attend a dinner on Tuesday evening hosted by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank and is expected to meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday morning. CHINA EYES U.S. "FISCAL CLIFF" The main meeting on Wednesday takes place as President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner try to negotiate a budget deal to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts early next year. The White House is also pushing for an increase in the nation's $16.4 trillion statutory debt cap as part of any deal. The U.S. Treasury expects to reach the debt ceiling by year-end and will likely run out of options to free up more borrowing capacity by sometime in February, risking a potential default. China is the United States' largest creditor, giving it a deep interest in Washington's budget debate. U.S. companies expect Wednesday's meeting to produce no sweeping new commitments, but hope for action on concerns ranging from Chinese barriers to U.S. farm products to policies pressuring U.S. companies seeking business in China to transfer valuable technology there. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday urged securities market regulators in both countries to resolve differences over sharing of confidential business information that China considers a state secret. "Failure to reach an agreement will create regulatory dead-zones that harm investors and businesses. Furthermore, the threat of retaliatory actions by regulators, on both sides of the Pacific, may create a regulatory protectionism that will harm both economies," the business group said in a letter to the heads of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The United States has also slapped anti-dumping and countervailing duties on billions of dollars of solar panels from China, despite strong objections from Beijing. In Geneva on Tuesday, China's Ambassador to the World Trade Organization Yi Xiaozhun, criticized what he called U.S. "abuse" of anti-dumping and countervailing laws and accused Washington of blocking some Chinese investment in the United States for "ideological reasons." LOST MARKET SHARE The United States imported $222 million of wind towers from China last year and about $79 million from Vietnam. The custom-built steel towers support turbines that generate electricity from wind. Anti-dumping duties announced on Tuesday were higher for two Chinese companies, Chengxi Shipyard Co. and Titan Wind Energy (Suzhou), than the preliminary rates they received earlier this year in the range of 20 to 30 percent. Three other Chinese exporters also faced higher duty rates of around 45 to 50 percent in the final decision, but the top rate of 70.63 percent for "all other" Chinese manufacturers and exporters was down slightly from the preliminary level. Final countervailing duties on Chinese wind towers were higher than the preliminary rates of 13.74 to 26.00 percent. Final anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese towers were only slightly changed from preliminary levels. The U.S. International Trade Commission has the final decision on duties. In February, the panel made a preliminary vote of 5-0 that there was a reasonable indication Chinese and Vietnamese imports have harmed U.S. wind tower producers. U.S. producers say low-priced towers from Asia have cut into their market share and forced plant closings. "Over the last years, in a period of peak demand, the U.S. industry should have been profitable," said Alan Price, an attorney at Wiley Rein representing U.S. producers. "Instead, due to the surge in dumped and subsidized imports, the industry lost market share and saw its profits collapse." |
| Yum, McDonald’s Vow Food Safety After China Poultry Report Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:38 AM PST  Source: Bloomberg News Yum! Brands Inc. (YUM) and McDonald's Corp. (MCD) said they are working with Chinese suppliers to ensure the safety of food they serve after China Central Television reported the companies may have sold chicken that had been indiscriminately fed antibiotics and growth hormones. Liuhe Group Co. and Yingtai Food Group Co., suppliers to customers including KFC and McDonald's, didn't properly inspect chickens they bought from farmers in Shandong province before delivering the poultry, the state broadcaster reported yesterday. The chickens may have been given unapproved antibiotic drugs and growth hormones by the farmers, CCTV said. "We take food safety very seriously," Yum, the Louisville, Kentucky-based operator of the KFC and Pizza Hut chains, said in an e-mailed statement after the CCTV report. McDonald's "first priority is the safety and well-being" of its customers and it samples and tests every batch of raw material received, the restaurant-chain operator said in response to e-mailed questions. The Chinese government has cracked down on food-safety violations after tainted baby formula was first found in 2008 and cases involving additives in pork and the use of reprocessed cooking oil followed, sparking public outrage. The Ministry of Agriculture has dispatched a team to Shandong province to investigate reports of antibiotic misuse in chickens, and urged veterinary officials to strengthen monitoring of drug use in poultry and livestock, it said yesterday. Stopping Supplies Yum stopped buying from Liuhe in August, the food company said in its KFC microblog. The company's e-mailed statement and microblog didn't say if it uses poultry from Yingtai. Amy Sherwood, Yum's vice president for public relations, didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on Yingtai. Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's stopped all deliveries from Liuhe yesterday, even though the company hadn't rejected any product from the Chinese supplier in the past 24 months, Jessica Lee, a Singapore-based spokeswoman for the chain, said in an e-mail. The company also hasn't used Yingtai's supplies since May 2012, according to Lee. China, the world's second-biggest economy, accounted for 44 percent of Yum!'s revenue last year. McDonald's, which doesn't give separate figures for China sales, plans to have 2,000 stores in the nation by the end of next year. Two calls to Yingtai's headquarters in the city of Tengzhou in Shandong province weren't answered today. A person who picked up the phone at Liuhe Group's headquarters in the city of Qingdao, also in Shandong, said the company will release a statement later regarding the issue and declined any additional comment. She refused to give her name. New Hope Liuhe Liuhe Group was acquired in 2011 by Sichuan New Hope Agribusiness Co., the listed unit of New Hope Group Co., whose chairman is billionaire Liu Yonghao, the subsidiary said in a filing to the Shenzhen exchange. The combined entity was named New Hope Liuhe Co. (000876), according to the company's website. New Hope Liuhe sank as much as 8.8 percent in Shenzhen trading before closing 1.4 percent lower at 11.72 yuan. Two telephone calls to the general office of New Hope Liuhe's board secretary were not answered. New Hope Liuhe processes about 1 billion birds a year, the most in the world, according to the company's website. Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co. (000895), a holding company whose subsidiaries make food products, stopped using supplies from Yingtai starting May because products failed to meet the company's standards, spokesman Liu Jintao said in a phone interview today. The company also stopped accepting supply from Liuhe after they saw the media reports. Shuanghui will consider using products from the two companies again only until government said their products are qualified, the spokesman said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued in January an order that restricts certain antibiotics in livestock and fowl to prevent humans from developing resistance to drugs such as Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY)'s Cefzil and Keflex from Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) The antibiotics known as cephalosporins are used to treat pneumonia, skin infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, diabetic foot infections and urinary tract infections in humans, the regulator said. |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:34 AM PST Have You Heard…   |
| Amid China tensions, Southeast Asia looks to India Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:48 AM PST  Source: Reuters By Frank Jack Daniel (Reuters) – Southeast Asian leaders are expected to lay out a vision for closer cooperation with India on security and the economy at a high-level gathering in New Delhi at a time of tension with China in the potentially oil- and gas-rich South China Sea. But ministry officials said the leaders would also produce a statement which is expected to reiterate a commitment to freedom of navigation, a hot issue because of territorial conflicts in the South China Sea. Some ASEAN countries contest claims by China in the waters, making it the biggest potential flashpoint in the region. The United States has called for calm, but some are also looking to India, the other regional heavyweight, to get involved. "They want India to play a larger role. Those concerns are only increasing given the uncertain situation that is emerging," said C. Raja Mohan, a strategic affairs expert at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank. For India, improved relations with Southeast Asia will give it entry into one of the fastest-growing economic regions in the world and a source of raw materials needed for its own growth. Poor there are poor transport links between India and the nations to its southeast, and constraints like India's tiny diplomatic corps – similar in size to New Zealand's – mean India trails China in relations with the region. Trade between India and the 10-member ASEAN was up to $80 billion last year compared with $47 billion in 2008. An agreement on free trade in services and investment could be signed at the New Delhi meeting. But India's role in the region is dwarfed by that of China, which enjoyed trade worth a record $363 billion with ASEAN countries in 2011 in an already established free trade area. "What we need is far greater connectivity," Khurshid said in an interview with Reuters, mentioning roads, railways and flights as areas needing work. He described a 10-year plan to double the number of diplomats to reflect India's global ambitions. "RESPECT FOR LAW OF SEA" The prime ministers of Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam, the presidents of Myanmar, Laos and Indonesia, and the vice president of the Philippines are scheduled to attend the summit along with the sultan of Brunei. India walks a delicate line to balance its increasingly close partnership with Washington as President Barack Obama steps up the U.S. presence in Asian, and the reality of living next door to China, Asia's fastest-growing superpower. Khurshid played down the possibility of any tension with China and reiterated that India had no territorial claims in the South China Sea. "I don't think this is something that will reach hostility or conflict, there are differences obviously – China has a very clear perception about its sovereignty and it also has a very clear idea of how it wants to resolve these issues. "It's not something that cannot be resolved, it is certainly not something in which we are directly involved, we've said categorically that there should be compliance and respect for the law of the sea." But India's "Look East" policy and a need to lock down energy supplies for its rapidly growing industrial sector are pushing it gradually to step up military activities in the region with more joint exercises and visits. The meeting's statement on ties will include elements of an expert report ASEAN adopted at a meeting in Cambodia in November, an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said. The experts called on India and ASEAN to work together to ensure "evolving regional economic and security architectures will promote the goal of open regionalism". This month, India's navy chief said his force was ready to deploy naval vessels to the South China Sea to protect its oil-exploration interests there if needed. India is exploring oil and gas blocks with Vietnam in the disputed waters and in future is likely to bring more liquefied natural gas through the Malacca Straits.   |
| China Measures Its Step, Report Says Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:51 AM PST  Source: Wall Street Journal By William Mallard TOKYO—China's recent dispatch of vessels to waters near disputed islands held by Japan is part of a long-term strategy to end Tokyo's "effective control" of the rocky crags, a Japanese government military researcher said. But he said Beijing is calibrating its patrols to avoid dramatic escalation of tensions. "For quite some time China has been trying to end Japan's effective control of the Senkaku islands," said Masayuki Masuda, a senior fellow at Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies, the policy-research arm of the Defense Ministry. The chance of escalation is very low, because Beijing understands the risks of engaging Japan, and potentially the U.S., Mr. Masuda told reporters in releasing an annual report on China. Instead, observers say, China has been prompting a response from Japan in the disputed waters, just as Mr. Abe was pledging to improve Japan's fighter capability and promising to build a more robust military. Tokyo sent eight or more F-15 fighters last week in response to the latest incursion, after coast-guard patrol vessels confirmed the presence of a Chinese aircraft 15 kilometers south of the island of Uotsuri Jima, Japan said. Mr. Masuda played down the chances of the Senkaku dispute escalating dramatically, saying the biggest risk comes from China's buildup of its surveillance fleet. It plans to add 20 of the 1,000-ton surveillance vessels to the 28 or 29 it has now by 2014-15, he said. "I personally believe that the Japanese coast guard should also grapple seriously with expanding its capability," he said. If not, "the balance of power will tilt to the advantage of China." "We do not expect that the military will be mobilized," Mr. Masuda said. "We think the government is trying to control the information so the PLA won't be mobilized." Joint Chinese exercises, with police forces backing up the military, could be preparing for a contingency in which other countries get involved militarily in areas such as the South China Sea or the Senkakus, Mr. Masuda said.   |
| Duke Kunshan Univ. to enroll students in 2014 Posted: 19 Dec 2012 02:20 AM PST DUKE Kunshan University, a joint venture between Wuhan University and Duke University and located in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, is expected to enroll students in 2014, officials announced today. The university will develop by phases. During the phase one, the focus will be on graduate programs, undergraduate curriculum education, non-degree programs, and the establishment of research centers, school officials said. In phase two, attention will go to undergraduate degree programs and new graduate programs and new research centers, they said. Phase-one enrollment will be modest, between 400 and 500 students per academic year. Half of them will be from around the country and another half from abroad, including students from other Asian countries and the United States. This is the latest Sino-US partnership in higher education after the establishment of Shanghai-New York University in Pudong, Shanghai. |
| Beijing-Zhengzhou high-speed railway to start service Posted: 19 Dec 2012 12:50 AM PST The Beijing-Zhengzhou high-speed railway will start service on Decevem 26, connecting the functioning Zhengzhou-Wuhan and Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway to become the world's longest high-speed railway. The new station is the biggest high-speed railway marshalling station of central China as well as a comprehensive passenger tranportation hub incorporating high-speed railway, road transportation, intercity railway, subway and bus. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Driver who crushed Foshan toddler gets jail sentence Posted: 19 Dec 2012 12:21 AM PST The driver who crushed a toddler in Foshan, Guangdong Province last year has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison by the Foshan Intermediate Court. The verdict is final, the local Yangcheng Evening News reported on Wednesday. The convict was initially sentenced to three years and six months but he appealed the ruling. Police conducted an experiment in their investigation by placing a toy as big as the toddler on the accident spot and let a man of the same size as the defendant to drive the same van through the spot. Police then took measurements to evaluate the driver's state of mind when the tragedy struck. The accident occurred on October 13 last year. Hu lived and worked normally, as witnesses testified, until October 16 when he was told that the van that killed the three-year-old girl was actually his. Hu surrendered himself to police immediately. After the initial verdict, Hu and other involved parties reached an agreement with the girl's parents and compensated them with 303,000 yuan (US$48,600). The victim family then forgave Hu. Considering these, the intermediate court commuted Hu's sentence to two years and six months in prison. |
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