Google opts to return to China

February 02, 2012: American search engine Google chose to apply for licence to operate in China, agreeing to abide by all the conditions imposed by the government here after its share in the burgeoning Chinese market declined to 9 percent.

Since last year, Google has seen its share of the online mapping market shrink below 10 percent while that its local rival Baidu Inc soared to 61 percent, official media reports here said.

Google maps were now listed third after Bidu and Mapbar.com which has over 10 percent market share, according to the domestic research company Analysys International. Moreover, an increasing number of websites that use the data provided by online mapping services providers have turned to Google’s rivals, Yan Xiaojia of Analysys International told state run China Daily.

There are 48,000 websites of this type in China, and about 60 percent of them used Google’s mapping data in the first half of last year.

However, the company is now losing its dominant position, said Yan.

Google has formally applied for licence to operate online map service to operate in China seeking to return to the lucrative Chinese market after a year long absence.

China’s mapping service regulator said that Google’s application for an online maps licence, which is required for operating such service in China, is under official examination.

Google, which desisted from applying for licence after China brought about a new rule making it mandatory for the companies to have joint venture in 2010 picked up Beijing Guxiang Information Technology as its partner in China.

China also imposes stringent restrictions on online map operators which included sticking to its official outline of borders.

The official online Chinese maps depict Arunachal Pradesh as part of China?s southern Tibet.

Hong Bo, an IT critic who follows Google, said the bureau’s statement may deliver a blow to the company. Internet users will also be affected if Google’s current online mapping business is further influenced in the future.

In a statement to China Daily, Google China said that it had “nothing new to add” to an earlier statement that it was “in discussions with the government about how we can offer a mapping product in China”.

However, Hong Bo said that the online mapping service is only part of Google’s business in China, and the company’s Android mobile operating system is reaching an increasingly large number of users and is the most popular operating system among the nation’s smart phone users.

If Google fails to get the licence, it could cause great inconvenience to many websites and developers that provide services based on Google Map API (Application Program Interface), Fang Xingdong, founder and CEO of blog portal Bokee.

Meanwhile, millions of iPhone and Android smartphone users will be affected if Google fails to provide mapping services, as Google Maps is a built-in application in these smartphones, Yan was quoted by the state run Global Times here as saying.

Since last year China stipulated that mapping service providers apply for a licence to operate and foreign investors have to engage in joint ventures to provide the service. Companies including Baidu and Sina have obtained their mapping licences.

Beijing Guxiang is a 50-50 venture funded by Google and Chinese classified website ganji.com, to operate Google Maps in China.

Companies need to have a licence to provide mapping services in China as the service may involve information related to national security.

Companies that didn’t apply for a licence to provide the mapping services would not be allowed to continue doing so after February 1, the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping said in a statement.

China raises security to contain Tibet protests

Beijing, January 31, 2012 : A senior official in Chinese-ruled Tibet is ordering heightened security in Buddhist monasteries and along key roadways as the government tries to prevent protests that erupted in neighboring Tibetan communities from spreading.

Inspecting security around the Tibetan capital of Lhasa this week, the city’s Communist Party secretary, Qi Zhala, warned officials and clerics at monasteries that they would be dismissed if any trouble arose and told police at a highway checkpoint to be alert for acts of sabotage.

Officials “must profoundly recognize the important significance of preserving stability in temples and monasteries,” the state-run Tibet Daily on Tuesday quoted Qi as saying Monday. “Strive to realize the goal of ‘no big incidents, no medium incidents and not even a small incident.” The exhortations underscore China’s nervousness as it tries to squelch the most serious outbreak of anti-government protests among Tibetans in nearly four years.

Tibetan areas in the neighboring province of Sichuan — on tenterhooks for more than a year as more than a dozen monks, nuns and lay people separately set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule — saw large demonstrations last week. Police fired on crowds in three separate areas, leaving several Tibetans dead and injuring dozens, according to Tibet support groups outside China.

The violence has highlighted anew the government’s failure to win over Tibetans and other ethnic minorities through policies to boost economic growth and incomes while increasing police presence and controlling religious practices to deter displays of separatism. State media announced Monday that 8,000 additional police were being recruited in Xinjiang, a traditionally Muslim region north of Tibet that has its own separatist rebellion.

Before the latest protests, Chinese security forces were already hunkering down for an annual period of tensions in Tibetan areas: the weeks between the Tibetan new year, which this year falls in late February, and a string of anniversaries in March marking previous anti-Chinese uprisings.

A crucial task for the government is to keep the protests in Sichuan from spilling into Tibet proper, especially Lhasa, home to major monasteries that have been at the forefront of previous unrest. In 2008, rioting in Lhasa left at least 22 people dead.

Among the stops Qi, the Lhasa official, made on his inspection tour was a key roadway leading from Sichuan into the capital and two major monasteries on the city’s outskirts.

Qi spoke with members of the monasteries’ management committees. The committees are comprised of officials and clerics that Beijing has set up in Tibetan religious institutes to purge them of followers of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader in exile in India. The groups and their controls have contributed to the tensions behind the protests.

“They who do not do their jobs responsibly, if any problems happen, will be fired immediately without exception and will be strictly held accountable,” Qi was quoted as saying.

Chinese aircraft to monitor disputed seas

Beijing, January 25, 2012: A Chinese maritime surveillance aircraft based in Shanghai will expand their area of coverage this year to include waters of the East China Sea disputed with Japan, according to local media. The reports quote officials of the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration as saying the plane’s range includes China’s territorial waters as well as what the country claims as its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

That would encompass the disputed territory known as the Senkaku Islands to the Japanese and as Diaoyu to the Chinese, as well as areas between the two countries where China has been unilaterally developing natural gas deposits to the consternation of the Japanese.

Under the U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea, countries are entitled to claim 200 nautical miles from their shores as their EEZs. But the EEZs claimed by China and Japan overlap.

China restores 23,000 hectares of wetlands

China will step up wetland protection and restoration efforts this year, having already restored 23,000 hectares of wetlands in 2011, the country’s State Forestry Administration (SFA) has revealed. According to the SFA, China reinforced wetland protection in 2011 by increasing subsidies in protecting wetlands, Xinhua reported.

The country carried out 42 wetland protection projects, increased 330,000 hectares of protected wetland areas, added four wetlands of international importance and 68 national wetland parks.

As per the SFA, nearly half of China’s natural wetlands have been brought under effective protection.

A wetland is an area of ground that is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally.

In 2012, China will further step up wetland protection and restoration, finish the second national wetland resources investigation and carry out pilot projects in assessing healthy conditions of the wetland ecological system, an SFA spokesperson said.

The country has so far built over 550 wetland natural reserves, 37 wetlands of international importance, which were listed in the Ramsar International Wetland Convention, and 100 national wetland parks.

China makes its own magnetic train

Beijing,  January 21, 2012: A Chinese locomotive company has rolled out the country’s first home-made magnetically levitated (maglev) train that creates less pollution than the conventional ones and ideal for transport in the urban and ecologically fragile tourist areas.

The low-cost three-carriage train is designed to run at a maximum speed of 100 km per hour and carry 600 passengers, Xinhua news agency reported. Trains run on coal or diesel creates more pollution.

Maglev also runs quietly, said Xu Zongxiang, general manager of the Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co. Ltd., maker of the train in central Hunan province. A conventional train moves forward by using friction between its wheels and the track. The maglev replaces wheels by electromagnets and levitates on the guideway.

“It’s ideal for mass transportation, as it is quiet and environment-friendly. Its manufacturing cost is about 75 percent of a conventional light-rail train,” said Xu.

Maglev has a minimum turning radius of 50 meters and can run easily in the residential areas or on the hilly slopes. “It’s an ideal public transport option for Chinese cities and major tourist destinations,” said Xu.

Railway transport specialist Liu Youmei said the new train is green, economical and safe. “It can be used for public transport in populous areas and at scenic spots with fragile environment.”

Liu said China is one of a few countries that used maglev technology.

Beijing is currently building a maglev route that will be operational next year, Xinhua said.

Currently, a German-made maglev train is operated in Shanghai city. It went into operation Dec 31, 2002.

China’s 1st interplanetary probe hits mars mission

The loss of China’s first interplanetary probe, attached to an ill-fated Russian spacecraft, has cost scientists the chance to conduct breakthrough research on Mars, according to a top scientist.

Wu Ji, director-general of the National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sad that new objectives must now be considered for a Mars exploration mission, probably in 2016.

Yinghuo-1, launched in November two years later than was originally planned from Kazakhstan on a Russian spacecraft, crashed into the Pacific Ocean on Monday.

The Russian Phobos-Grunt spacecraft the probe hitchhiked on failed to fire two booster engines that would have set it on course for the Red Planet.

However, no reason was given for the failure of the booster engines.

Wu said that the failure cost the centre a chance to conduct research and come up with breakthrough findings before their counterparts in the United States.

“We had hoped that the micro-satellite could help us discover something about the atmosphere on Mars,” the China Daily quoted Ji as saying. He also said that the US will send a probe to Mars in 2013.

As China’s first probe to Mars, the Yinghuo-1 mission had been expected to explore the Red Planet’s environment, climate history and look into why water had vanished from the surface.

Those specific objectives were selected by the centre in 2006 to differentiate China’s mission from those of other countries.

“Previous missions mainly focused on whether there is water and life on the planet, consequently humans have limited knowledge of the Martian atmosphere,” Ji said.

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, scheduled to launch in 2013, also aims to find about the Red Planet’s atmosphere and climate history, among other tasks.

The MAVEN mission was selected in 2008 from 20 proposals submitted in response to a NASA Announcement of Opportunity in 2006.

Both countries are interested in the Martian atmosphere as it continues to be a cause of intrigue for scientists.

Mars once had a denser atmosphere that supported the presence of water on the surface but it suddenly changed and scientists are unsure as to what exactly was behind it.

Wu said that with Yinghuo-1’s failure, China has to wait until 2016, at the earliest, to launch a Mars probe.

“This means that the US MAVEN mission will get there before we do, and therefore we have to change our goals for the next Mars exploration mission to avoid findings being repeated,” Ji added.

China to again close Tibet during sensitive period

Beijing, January 19, 2012: For a fifth straight year, China plans to close Tibet to foreign travellers during a sensitive period starting in mid-February, travel agents said on Thursday.

Agent Yu Zhi of the Lhasa Youth Tourist Agency said on Thursday the government’s tourist administration in Tibet’s capital had informed agents that foreign travellers would be banned from February 20 to March 30.

Another agent with the China International Travel Agency in Lhasa, who wouldn’t give her name, said she’d been told the ban would end on March 20.

The periodic closure of the Himalayan region encompasses the February 22-24 Tibetan new year festival of Losar as well as the anniversary of a deadly anti-government riot among Tibetans on March 14, 2008.

Tensions are especially high this year following the self-immolations of at least 16 Buddhist monks, nuns and other Tibetans. Most have chanted for Tibetan freedom and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.While authorities have never explained the rational behind the annual closure, it’s seen as a standard measure based on the assumption that outsiders could either inspire or witness renewed anti-government protests or other conflicts.

“We haven’t seen a written notice, but it’s the same as previous bans. We were not told about the reasons, but it’s probably because of the Tibetan new year,” said Yu, the Lhasa agent.

In addition to the coming closure of Tibet proper, traditionally Tibetan areas of Sichuan province and other parts of western China where most of the self-immolations have taken place have been closed to outsiders for months amid a massive security presence.

A clerk with the Lhasa Tourist Bureau denied there was a ban, but declined give her name. Chinese officials often issue orders regarding sensitive political issues only verbally to allow deniability and maintain the impression of control.

Although Chinese citizens are generally exempt from such closure orders, they have dented China’s hopes to develop tourism into a major economic driver in one of the country’s poorest regions. Many Tibetans resent Beijing’s heavy-handed rule and large-scale migration of China’s ethnic Han majority to the Himalayan region. While China claims Tibet has been under its rule for centuries, many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for most of that time.

One killed, 30 injured in gas leak in China

Beijing, January 17, 2012: One person was killed and about 30 others injured after carbon monoxide gas leaked in a steel company in Harbin, capital city of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province.

The leakage occured late last night in Acheng Iron & Steel Co, Ltd in the city’s Acheng district, an official with the district government said.

The injured were admitted to nearby hospital, in which 10 are reported to be in serious conditions.

Rescuers are still determining the exact number of casualties and an investigation into the cause of the accident is underway, state-run media Xinhua quoted him as saying.

The company, under Xilin Iron & Steel Group, is the the province’s largest steel producer.

China, Indonesia eye closer military ties

Beijing, January 16, 2012: China wants closer military ties with Indonesia, Defence Minister Liang Guanglie said here on Monday.

China is ready to advance strategic partnership with Indonesia for peace and development of the region and the world, Liang said. He was speaking to Indonesian Ambassador to China Imron Cotan, Xinhua reported.

Both sides have held defence consultations, joint training, among others, in the recent past.

Imron said Indonesia regards working with China as an opportunity rather than a challenge.

Liang visited Indonesia last May at the invitation of his Indonesian counterpart Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

Chinese rights lawyer in remote jail denied visits

Beijing, January 10, 2012: The wife of an outspoken human rights lawyer jailed in China’s remote Xinjiang region says her husband has been denied visitors.

Gao Zhisheng was jailed last month in Shaya county in the far western Xinjiang region. He’s serving a three-year sentence for subversion that was ordered in 2006 but initially suspended. He was returned to jail in December for allegedly violating the terms of his parole. Gao’s wife, Geng He, says authorities in Shaya told relatives trying to see Gao on Tuesday that he is undergoing a three-month “education period” and is not allowed visitors.

She says Gao’s family was told that if he behaves well, he can see his family after three months, but that he will be denied visitors if he behaves badly.

Asia to face difficult year, policy stances of India & China to play role: IMF

Washington, January 06, 2012: Events unfolding far from Asia’s shores could shape the region’s economic outlook for 2012, but Asian policymakers still have the room to respond aggressively to a deteriorating global economic scenario, economists with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have said.

“Despite the prevailing global uncertainty, Asia has until now, proven to be very resilient. It has boasted strong domestic demand, low unemployment, and factories working at near-full capacity. While credit growth has slowed from the torrid pace of early 2011, it remains robust in most economies,” Xinhua quoted an article on the IMF blog as saying.

However, Asia’s heavy reliance on trade was likely to make 2012 a difficult year.

Asia is one of the world’s most trade-dependent regions, exporting everything from commodities like metals and rice to sophisticated electronic products and cars.

Regional growth has already started to slow due to weaker demand, although domestic factors such as tighter macroeconomic policy stances have also played a role, especially in India and China.

Recent stresses in several regional financial markets suggest that financial channels of contagion also pose a risk for Asia, according to the article.

“Further financial turmoil in the eurozone would likely have a substantial impact on Asia by reducing access to credit. Euro zone banks are an important source of funding for many Asian banking systems, and play a crucial role in providing trade credit,” it said.

But there was still sufficient policy space in the region, though less than at the start of the global financial crisis in some countries.

Some economies have already started monetary easing.

Fiscal policy consolidation could be appropriately delayed if external demand were to collapse, especially where low levels of public debt afford space for measures, it said.

Asia is home to some of the world’s most dynamic economies, but several reforms were needed to sustain the region’s excellent historical performance and reduce vulnerabilities to external shocks in the medium term.

China, India, Pakistan owe quite a bit to Tibet

January 06, 2012: Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile Lobsang Sangay has urged China to grant autonomy to Tibet in accordance with the legal and constitutional means it adopted while giving autonomous status to Macau and Hong Kong earlier.

Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the Buddhist religious ceremony, Kalachakra, here, Sangay lashed out at China for its perceived ”bias” in granting autonomy to regions within its territory.

“Why are the Tibetans not granted autonomy when they have granted it to Hong Kong, Macau and are willing to grant it for Taiwan? There lies the major question. I think that the indication seems to be, you all are Tibetans, you all are different, hence we cannot grant you autonomy,” said Sangay.Since the past several decades, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and Chinese government have been at loggerheads with each other over the issue of Tibet. China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since its troops marched in 1950.

Underscoring Tibet’s geo-political significance, Sangay asserted that China as well as several Asian nations, including India, had been using the vast water resources available in Tibet since centuries.

“All of Asia, India, Pakistan and Thailand, China owes quite a bit to Tibet because they all are drinking Tibetan water. Nowadays you have to pay quite a bit of money to, you know, buy water and we have been providing free water for centuries. Not that we want to charge, but hopefully at least the Chinese population will realise that each time they drink water, they are drinking from Tibet and Chinese leadership will have second thoughts to say something nasty about us,” added Sangay.

Tibet marks China’s western edge and is a vital link between China, south and central Asia. The region is dubbed as ”Asia’s Water Tower”,’ since the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a crucial water source and store for China, whose unevenly distributed water resources are said to be in crisis.

Tibet’s glaciers and snow-fed highlands also feed Asia’s great rivers, the Brahmaputra, Mekong, Yangtze, Indus, Yellow and Salween.

US Defence Secretary counts India as a challenge yet again

Washington,January 06, 2012: For the second time in less than two months, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said that the country is facing challenges from rising powers in Asia – China in particular and also includes India in 21st century.

“We have got the challenges of dealing with rising powers in Asia. We have got the challenge of, you know, dealing with countries like Russia, rising countries that – like India and others.

“All of that represents the kind of challenges that we are going to have to deal with in this world of the 21st century,” Panetta told PBS News Hour in an interview.

A transcript of the interview, taken on Thursday, was provided by PBS News Hour.

Panetta’s remarks came within hours of the Pentagon releasing its defence strategic review which said that the US is investing in long-term strategic partnership with India.

The strategy document unveiled by the US President Barack Obama identified China as one of the major security threat to the US in the long term and puts Asia on a bigger priority.

“The United States is investing in a long-term strategic partnership with India to support its ability to serve as a regional economic anchor and provider of security in the broader Indian Ocean region,” said the strategy document.

Earlier in the day at a Pentagon news conference, Panetta had said that the US faces challenges from rising powers in Asia, but had not named any country.

“We’re facing challenges from rising powers in Asia. And we’re facing a situation in the Middle East that continues to be in turmoil.

“So, what we’ve got to do is to be able to have a flexible, adaptable, agile force that can deal with a myriad of challenges in today’s world.

“That’s what we’ve got to be able to develop,” he told the PBS in his interview.

This is for the second time in recent months that Panetta has identified India as a challenge among rising powers in Asia.

“We face the threats from rising powers – China, India, others – that we have to always be aware of and try to make sure that we always have sufficient force protection out there in the Pacific to make sure they know we’re never going anywhere,” Panetta had said on November 17.

However, Panetta’s spokesman George Little had said that the Defence Secretary strongly values a close relationship with India and sees it as a nation of increasing prominence and power.

“The Secretary strongly values a close military relationship with India, which he sees as a nation of increasing prominence and power. He doesn’t view India as a threat,” Little had said.

“The United States and India work together on a regular basis to find ways of cooperating around common security interests. We’re committed to pursuing even stronger cooperation in the future,” he had pointed out.

In his PBS interview, Panetta said that the US wants to build relationship with China.

“Well, the United States is a Pacific power. And we have always had a presence in the Pacific. China is a Pacific power as well. And we recognize that.

“And, frankly, my view is that we need to continue to work with China, continue to build a relationship with China, because they are a power, because our economy – our economies are related, because there are other relationships that we have in that area,” Panetta had said.

He said US has a common interest with China in dealing with the threats that exist in the Pacific, “stability of Korea, one example, the whole issue of being able to have commerce move freely through the oceans in that area, the whole issue of nuclear proliferation, the whole issue of dealing with humanitarian crises and disasters.”

He added, “All of these issues in the Pacific and the possibility that any one of those could develop the kind of challenge that would demand US power being invoked, that’s the reason we have got to focus an emphasis on the Pacific region.”

Earlier in the day, the State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, told reporters that the US President Barack Obama, and the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton “desire for a strong, growing, robust partnership with India”.

Timothy Geithner to discuss Iran in China and Japan visit

January 5, 2012: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will travel to China and Japan next week to discuss U.S. sanctions on Iran and the state of the global economy with top government officials, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

Geithner will meet with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan on Tuesday and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday.

He will travel to Japan on Thursday to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Finance Minister Jun Azumi.

Geithner’s trip is the latest step in an accelerating U.S. effort to reduce Iran’s oil revenue and try to force the country to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program. At the same time, the Obama administration wants to avoid a spike in crude prices that could threaten the global economy.

The Treasury Department said Geithner would “discuss our continued coordination with international partners in the region to increase pressure on the government of Iran, including financial measures targeting the central bank of Iran.”

President Barack Obama on Saturday signed into law new sanctions against financial institutions dealing with Iran’s central bank, the main conduit for the country’s oil revenues.

China, the No. 1 customer for Iran’s oil, is unlikely to be swayed by the new U.S. law, analysts have said. China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday restated Beijing’s opposition to the U.S.-led push for unilateral sanctions on Iran.

In addition to the U.S. effort to tighten the financial screws, Iran faces the prospect of an outright European Union embargo on its oil. EU diplomats said on Wednesday that a preliminary agreement to ban imports of Iranian crude had been reached, and oil prices rose on the news.

Iran has warned it could choke off crude shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a transit point for 40 percent of the world’s oil, if sanctions were imposed. Many market participants, however, say the chance Iran will follow through with its threat is remote, and security analysts question whether it has the capability to shut the Strait.

A U.S. Treasury official said the Obama administration supported the EU proposal, adding that a phased-in effort to curtail use of Iranian crude could cut Tehran’s revenues without disrupting oil markets.

During his trip to Asia, Geithner also will discuss policies to promote global economic growth and efforts to support a level playing field for global trade, the Treasury said.

The United States contends an undervalued yuan currency has given China a competitive trade edge, but the Obama administration, in a semi-annual report on currency practices last week, declined to name China a currency manipulator.

In the report, it said a faster appreciation of the Chinese yuan was needed. It also chided Japan for stepping into the currency market to stem the yen’s rise.

China to expand oldest Buddhist temple

China`s oldest Buddhist temple, built 1,943 years ago, is to be renovated.

Baima Temple, or the White Horse Temple, will be expanded into a cultural park of 87 hectares in eight years, the religious affairs authorities said.

According to the People`s Daily, the temple, located in Luoyang city, was the first Buddhist shrine in China and is considered “the cradle of Chinese Buddhism” by most believers.

The expanded complex will include an area for 10 exotic shrines that will come from foreign countries, the official said.

An Indian shrine and a Thai shrine have already risen in the courtyard.
Construction is expected to start in April.

South Korean President to visit China

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak will visit China next week for talks with his counterpart Hu Jintao as the two nations deal with North Korea’s leadership transition, Lee’s office said on Wednesday.

It said Lee would also meet Premier Wen Jiabao and National People’s Congress chairman Wu Bangguo during his January 9-11 visit.

“The two leaders will discuss how to further develop a bilateral strategic partnership and deepen bilateral cooperation for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula,” Lee’s office said in a statement.

The two will also discuss wider Northeast Asian issues and global cooperation, it added. Seoul hopes that the visit, Lee’s second to China as president, will deepen ties as the two nations mark the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations, it said.

Both nations are watching the power transition in the North after the death of its longtime leader Kim Jong-II on December 17.

The impoverished but nuclear-armed state has urged its people and the military to rally behind his youngest son Jong-Un, proclaiming him the “great successor” and supreme military commander.

China is the North’s main ally and economic prop. It quickly endorsed Jong-un’s leadership.

China also chairs long-stalled six-party talks on the North’s nuclear disarmament that bring together the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia.

Efforts to start formal talks on a free trade agreement may also be on the agenda. China is South Korea’s largest trade partner, with two-way trade worth USD 188.4 billion in 2010.

Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang called in October for speedier efforts to reach such a pact.

Two injured in Xinjiang blast

A blast ripped through a building in the capital of China’s restive Xinjiang province this morning, injuring two persons and trapping a child under the debris.

The blast that toppled the two-storey residential house came following clashes between police and militants in the province, in which eight persons including seven ‘militants’ were killed.

Rescuers were frantically looking for a three-year-old child who was trapped under the debris of the collapsed house following the explosion in Urumqi. According to the rescuers, two persons were injured in the blast, and were later shifted to hospital.

The blast that ripped the upper floor of the building, also damaged neighbouring houses, a news agency reported.

The cause of the explosion is being investigated, the report said.

China is battling East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) militancy in Xinjiang where Uyghurs Muslims have long resented the increasing settlement of Han Chinese from mainland China.

Recently a clash took place when a group of militants kidnapped two people in the remote mountainous areas of Pishan county of the Hotan prefecture of Xinjinag bordering Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).

“There was speculation that the kidnapping was linked to a surge in religious extremism in the Muslim ethnic Uygur- dominated area that borders the Kashmir region controlled by Pakistan and India,” a report said.

A similar attack in Kashmghar, a border town close to POK was blamed by the local government on terrorist training camps in Pakistan.

China punishes 6 media groups for violations

Beijing, December 28, 2011: Government regulators punished six newspapers and magazines for illegally leasing local branches to advertising agencies that allegedly indulged in extortion and for employing non-journalists for reporting and publishing work.

The violators include China Urban Economy Magazine, China Quality Journey Magazine, China Technology Market News, China Food Publishing Co, Ltd, Shandong Legal News and Enterprise Party Construction Information Weekly, according to a statement released Tuesday by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP).

These papers and magazines received warnings and were fined up to 180,000 yuan ($28,400), and their illegally established branches were removed, Xinhua quoted the statement as saying.

The Beijing-based magazine China Urban Economy was stripped of its publishing license.

In 2010 and 2011, the magazine authorized the use of its title to several contracted advertising agencies to charge “management fees” and allowed their employees to do interviews with the magazine’s work permit and letter of introduction.

With the press cards issued by the magazine, two advertising agents Xu Cheng and Li Wanjun allegedly extorted 20,000 yuan from a local real estate group during an “investigative interview” May 25, 2011, in Luoyang city, Henan province.

According to rules, local newspaper branches and their staff reporters are not allowed to engage in extortion by threatening to expose inside stories. Paid news, forced subscriptions and forced advertising in return for complimentary reports are also banned.

China to introduce US style visa rules for foreigners

Beijing, December 27, 2011: China will introduce US style visa rules for foreigners, which included procedures like finger printing, to put in place biological identification data in order to “curb illegal entry” in the country to seek jobs.

The draft law on entry and exit procedures, currently under consideration by China’s legislature, National People’s Congress, for the first time, allows the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to put in place a system to gather biological identification data, such as fingerprints, on foreign visitors.

The draft also stipulates that foreigners should be fingerprinted by public security departments when they apply for a residential certificate, official media reported today.

China already has stringent rules for resident permits which are given every year for foreigners working here.

All foreigners including the journalists have to undergo health checks on arrival before getting resident visas and have to report to nearest police station within 24 hours.

Till last year China stipulated foreigners to undergo mandatory AIDS tests before they arrive to seek resident permits. It was done away with following criticism that it discriminated people with HIV. The regulations currently stipulate that foreigners staying for longer than a year should apply for a residential certificate, while the proposed draft requires visitors to do so within a month after entering China, “if their visa requires”.

Yang Huanning, vice-minister of public security, told lawmakers at their bimonthly session that fingerprints and other biotechnology information are “effective measures” in identification and can speed up arrival and departure procedures at customs.

The draft, an integration of the current separate rules for foreigners and Chinese citizens, aims to “facilitate exchanges while making sure that those who should not enter are kept out”, Yang said.

In addition, the proposal said foreigners being suspected of illegal entry, stay for employment, or those suspected of threatening national security, can be detained for up to 60 days for investigation, if the case is “complicated”.

China recorded 260 million arrivals and departures from January to September, according to state-run China Daily. This represented a massive increase from 12.1 million in 1980. The number of arrivals and departures has been increasing by 10 per cent annually since the 1990s, according to the ministries of public security and foreign affairs.

The Ministry of Public Security said that although the number of illegal aliens was generally “stable”, it is essential to improve the “management and control system” for foreigners. The draft also prevents foreign businessmen who do not pay wages from leaving the country.
It also said foreigners undertaking a job without a work permit, or overseas students working longer than the allocated time, are defined as “illegal employees”.

Japan urges China to help keep in check North Korea

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda also nudged Chinese President Hu Jintao to share information about developments in North Korea, where the succession of Kim’s youngest son, Kim Jong-un, has fanned speculation about who will really control the secretive one-party state and its nuclear weapons programme.

“It is important that we will not let the death of the Chairman of the National Defence Commission Kim have a negative impact on the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula,” Noda was quoted by a Japanese official as telling Hu in Beijing.

Kim Jong-il’s many titles included head of the military.

“Under these circumstance, the role of China, which is the chair country of the six-party talks and has a big influence on North Korea, is extremely important,” said Noda, according to the official who brief reporters on condition that he remained anonymous.

The Japanese prime minister was the first regional leader to visit Beijing since Kim Jong-il’s death was announced a week ago, putting Kim Jong-un in formal charge of North Korea, which has long relied on China for diplomatic and economic support.

China has also sought to defuse confrontation by hosting six-party nuclear disarmament talks since August 2003. The now-stalled negotiations bring together North and South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.

Noda also urged China to be forthcoming about what it learns about the North’s transition — something Beijing, with its intensively secretive relationship with Pyongyang, appears unlikely to do.

“I would like vigorous information sharing between Japan and China, and intend to address the situation calmly and properly,” Noda was quoted as telling Hu on the second and final day of his visit to the Chinese capital.

Pyongyang has alarmed the region with two plutonium-based nuclear test blasts, a succession of military altercations, and declarations that it is developing uranium enrichment, which could open another path to assembling atomic weapons.

Constraining North Korea is especially important for Japan, which lies within range of the North’s long-range missiles and wants Pyongyang to resolve the visceral issue of the fate of Japanese citizens kidnapped to help train spies decades ago.

In April 2009, North Korea said it was quitting the six-party talks and reversing nuclear “disablement” steps, unhappy with implementation of an initial disarmament deal.

But Beijing is acutely wary of upsetting North Korea, especially during the current delicate transition, and has restricted its public comments about the implications of Kim’s death to broad calls for stability and calm.

“Both sides agreed that preserving the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula serves the interests of all sides,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in its account of talks on Sunday between Noda and Premier Wen Jiabao.

The Chinese media did not immediately offer Beijing’s account of Hu’s meeting with Noda.

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