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Beware the Waking Dragon
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog (Chindia Alert) was viewed about 11,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
About 3.33 million hectares (8 million acres) of China’s farmland is too polluted to grow crops, a government official said on Monday, highlighting the risk facing agriculture after three decades of rapid industrial growth.
China has been under pressure to improve its urban environment following a spate of pollution scares.
But cleaning up rural regions could be an even bigger challenge as the government tries to reverse damage done by years of urban and industrial encroachment and ensure food supplies for a growing population.
Wang Shiyuan, the vice-minister of land and resources, told a news briefing that China was determined to rectify the problem and had committed “tens of billions of yuan” a year to pilot projects aimed at rehabilitating contaminated land and underground water supplies.
The area of China’s contaminated land is about the same size as Belgium. Wang said no more planting would be allowed on it as the government was determined to prevent toxic metals entering the food chain.
“In the past there have been news reports about cadmium-contaminated rice – these kinds of problems have already been strictly prohibited,” he said.
This year, inspectors found dangerous levels of cadmium in rice sold in the southern city of Guangzhou. The rice was grown in Henan, a major heavy metal-producing region.
China’s determination to squeeze as much food and resources as possible from its land has put thousands of farms close to chemical plants, mines and other heavy industries, raising the risks of contamination.
With food security still the most pressing concern, China is determined to ensure that at least 120 million hectares (295 million acres) of land is reserved for agriculture, a policy known as the “red line”. The rehabilitation of polluted land is part of that policy.
A government land survey revealed traces of toxic metals dating back at least a century as well as pesticides banned in the 1980s, and state researchers have said that as much as 70 per cent of China’s soil could have problems.
via China says more than 3 million hectares of land too polluted to farm | South China Morning Post.
Police in China\’s restive Xinjiang region have shot dead eight people during a violent clash on Monday, a state news portal says.
The clash broke out when men armed with knives and explosives attacked a police station in Yarkand county, officials say. One person has also been arrested.
The violence comes two weeks after a riot in the region, which saw 16 people killed, including two police.
Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur minority group, sees sporadic clashes.
The government traditionally blames extremists for the violence. Uighur activists, on the other hand, point to ethnic tensions and tight Chinese control as triggers for violence.
Verifying reports from the region is difficult because the information flow out of Xinjiang is tightly controlled.
News of the latest clash first emerged on the state-run regional Tianshan news portal.
Officials described the people who attacked the police station in Yarkand, near the old silk road city of Kashgar, as \”thugs carrying knives and throwing explosives\”.
It was not immediately clear if there were any police casualties. The incident is currently under investigation, officials say.
More than 100 people have been killed in Xinjiang this year in this and similar incidents, which Beijing blames on separatist \”terrorists\” from the Uighur group, says the BBC\’s John Sudworth in Shanghai.
As China\’s smog levels crept past record highs in early December, the phone lines at pollution-busting kit maker Broad Group lit up with Chinese customers worried about hazardous pollution levels that have gripped China this year.
China\’s government is struggling to meet pollution reduction targets and has pledged to spend over 3 trillion yuan ($494 billion) to tackle the problem, creating a growing market for companies that can help boost energy efficiency and lower emissions.
\”Recently, we haven\’t been able to make products fast enough to keep up with demand,\” said Hu Jie, a general manager at Broad Group, which makes pollution-related products ranging from hand-held monitors to eco-friendly buildings. Sales roughly doubled this year from 2012, Hu said, without giving details.
Pollution problems in China, the world\’s second-biggest economy, are by no means new. But heightened public anger – and a growing political will to deal with the issue – has created opportunities for firms with sustainable know-how to earn a slice of China\’s clean-technology market, which is set to triple to $555 billion by 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Companies like U.S. clean-energy expert Fuel Tech Inc, design engineer WS Atkins Plc and others have seized the opening by boosting staff numbers and clinching contracts.
\”China has reached a saturation level which people can no longer tolerate,\” said Feng An, president and executive director of the U.S.-China Clean Tech Center, which takes U.S. clean technology companies to China to meet potential partners.
\”Five years ago people could pollute and get away with it. Now they can\’t. This year you can really see the difference.\”
THE COST OF SMOG
Pollution cost China\’s economy at least 1.1 trillion yuan ($181 billion) in 2010, the environment ministry estimated this year – equal to 2.5 percent of GDP that year. Pollution has been tied to \”cancer villages\” and reduced life-expectancy. Smog even closed down the major northern city of Harbin in October.
Acknowledging public anxiety over the issue, Premier Li Keqiang said in March that China should not sacrifice the environment to pursue economic growth, giving a boost to \”green\” companies.
U.S. environmental engineering company LP Amina, which helps coal power plants reduce emissions by retrofitting burners to make them more efficient, saw its China sales double this year, said the firm\’s marketing manager Jamyan Dudka, without providing specific figures. Coal accounts for more than two-thirds of China\’s primary energy consumption.
China is pushing to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollutants from power plant emissions and offering subsidies to get firms on board. The cost of retrofitting all China\’s power plants over a 5-year period is around $11 billion, said Dudka.
U.S.-listed Fuel Tech, which also focuses in this area, sees China at the forefront of its business development plans, and has increased its China-based staff to more than 30 people, CEO Doug Bailey said on an analyst call last month.
Companies such as UK-listed Atkins and Australian developer Lend Lease Corp Ltd are also leveraging their global expertise in sustainable construction.
Atkins is working with local governments to develop sustainable construction guidelines and will partner with two Chinese cities to put them into action. China\’s contribution to the company\’s 88 million pounds ($144.6 million) in Asia-Pacific revenues increased to 40 percent this year, it said. The region accounts for around 5 percent of global sales.
via Opportunity glimmers through China’s toxic smog | Reuters.
Chinese officials are asked to \”take the lead\” in adhering to the smoking ban in public spaces.
The No Smoking sign, designed by one of the members of AIGA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
According to a circular from the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, officials are not allowed to smoke in schools, hospitals, sports venues, public transport vehicles, or any other venues where smoking is banned.
Government functionaries are prohibited from using public funds to buy cigarettes, nor are they permitted to smoke or offer cigarettes when performing official duties, the circular notes.
\”Smoking remains a relatively universal phenomenon in public venues. Some officials smoke in public places, which does not only jeopardized the environment and public health, but tarnished the image of Party and government offices and leaders and has a negative influence,\” reads the circular.
The sale of tobacco products and advertisements will no longer be allowed in Party and government offices. Prominent notices of smoking bans must be displayed in meeting rooms, reception offices, passageways, cafeterias and rest rooms.
China is the world\’s largest cigarette producer and consumer. The number of smokers exceeds 300 million, with at least 740 million nonsmokers regularly exposed to secondhand smoke.
In 2003, China signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and it became effective in January 2006. The FCTC requires a reduction in tobacco supply as well as consumption. The 12th Five-Year plan (2011-2015) promised to ban smoking in public places.
Experts are widely critical of the current government effort, which lags far behind the FCTC standard, and no national law is yet in place banning smoking in indoor public places.
via Chinese officials banned from smoking in public – Xinhua | English.news.cn.
The probe into coal block allocation scam, which got CBI the sobriquet of “caged parrot” from the Supreme Court and saw the exit of Law Minister Ashwani Kumar over his alleged interference, marked the agency’s functioning during a tumultuous year for it.
The passage of the Lokpal Bill by Parliament this year is likely to bring a major change in the working of CBI since the Supreme Court order in the Vineet Narain case in 1997 which had brought in the supervision of Central Vigilance Commission and gave CBI chief a fixed tenure of two years aimed at freeing the agency from the clutches of bureaucracy.
The angry comments of the apex court not only claimed the ministerial scalp of Mr. Kumar but also set in motion the modalities for the autonomy of the agency, which according to Supreme Court, has become “voice of its political masters”.
The battered government scrambled its best brains in the Cabinet to constitute a group of ministers, which met a number of times, and came up with suggestions to give only “functional autonomy” to the agency.
The financial powers of the CBI Director were given a significant boost but Centre did not agree to give him rank and powers on par with the Secretary of the government of India.
The proposed Lokpal will have powers to refer cases to CBI and keep an eye on the ongoing probe. It will also have powers to transfer officers who will be probing cases referred by it.
via ‘Caged parrot’ hopes to get wings in New Year – The Hindu.
Standing before a crowd estimated in the tens of thousands, Delhi’s unlikely new leader, swept into office on an anticorruption campaign, was sworn in Saturday, and he vowed to arrest anyone in his government, from police officer to bureaucrat, who demanded a bribe.
“Within two days, I will announce a phone number, and if anybody asks for a bribe, please complain by that phone number and that person will be arrested red-handed,” Delhi’s youngest chief minister ever, Arvind Kejriwal, 45, said shortly after taking the oath of office.
Amid growing public anger over India’s widespread corruption, Mr. Kejriwal last year formed the Aam Aadmi, or Common Man, Party, which shocked India’s two largest and most solidly established parties this month by winning 28 of the 70 seats in Delhi’s state assembly. He became the state’s leader after the Indian National Congress Party, which won just eight seats, agreed to support him.
Mr. Kejriwal, a former tax commissioner, traveled to Saturday’s ceremony by subway, eschewing the vast motorcades of his predecessors. He has vowed to do away with Delhi’s culture of privileges for the powerful, which have been in place since the Mughal kings ruled India.
In contrast with past chief ministers whose swearing-in ceremonies were held at the state assembly among small, select audiences of the powerful, Mr. Kejriwal took the oath of office in Ramlila Maidan, an open area where he participated in mass anticorruption protests several years before. A spokesman for his party said the police had estimated the crowd at 100,000. Patriotic songs were played over loudspeakers, and many of those present carried signs reading “Today C.M. Tomorrow P.M.,” suggesting that Mr. Kejriwal would soon lead all of India.
Mr. Kejriwal announced last week that he would not travel in one of the cars with flashing lights that allow high-ranking officials to zip through Delhi’s oppressive traffic. He also said he would not accept a security detail or live in one of the sumptuous houses at New Delhi’s core that India’s elite have occupied since the British abandoned them in 1947.
Mr. Kejriwal was sworn in along with six of his ministers. All of them wore simple, white Gandhian caps bearing slogans like “I am the common man” and “I need self-rule.”
“We are here to serve the people, and we should not forget that,” he said in his remarks.
via Delhi’s New Leader Vows to Halt Corruption – NYTimes.com.
continuously updated blog about China & India
continuously updated blog about China & India
continuously updated blog about China & India
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 