Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
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NANJING, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) — China’s spacecraft tracking ship Yuanwang-3 is sailing to the Pacific Ocean to carry out maritime monitoring missions for the BeiDou-3 and other satellites.
The ship departed Sunday from a port in east China’s Jiangsu Province. It is the third voyage of the ship this year.
Before the voyage, crew members completed preparation of supplies, carried out examinations and tests of the facilities and received tailored training to ensure the success of the missions.
This year, the ship has spent 83 days at sea and completed three missions, including maritime monitoring of a relay satellite Tianlian II and a BeiDou-3 satellite.
Yuanwang-3, China’s second-generation space tracking ship, mainly undertakes maritime tracking and monitoring tasks of high-, medium-, low-orbit satellites, spacecraft and space station.
Since it was launched more than 20 years ago, the ship has made 52 voyages and completed 83 missions on the sea, including maritime tracking of the Shenzhou spacecraft, the Chang’e lunar probe and BeiDou satellites, maintaining a 100 percent success rate.
Train trips, Xinjiang and chartered flights among the growing holiday trends, travel agents say
Destinations such as Dubrovnik, Croatia, are becoming more popular among mainland Chinese tourists, according to one of China’ s biggest travel services. Photo: AFP
Chartered flights and niche destinations such as Croatia and Malta are growing in popularity as Hong Kong falls out of favour for mainland Chinese holidaymakers over the National Day “golden week” break.
Japan has overtaken Thailand as the most searched overseas destination on the website of travel agency Ctrip, followed by Malaysia, the United States, Singapore, Australia, Macau, France, Italy and Russia.
Within the mainland places such as Beijing and Shanghai continued to be among the most popular searches but Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, is a fast-growing term, especially among people in Shanghai and Guangzhou.
“It could be that tourists want to see autumn leaves,” a Ctrip spokesman told the South China Morning Post.
October 1 marks the start of a week-long break on the mainland when millions of Chinese take the chance to travel. This year, an estimated 800 million people are expected to go on trips in China or overseas, about 10 per cent more than last year.
The country’s motorways are expected to be jammed from about 2pm on Monday, reaching a peak at around midnight, and again from 10am Tuesday, according to web mapping service Tencent Map.
China’s highways can expect heavy traffic as travellers head out for the holiday. Photo: Reuters
Ctrip said people heading overseas were increasingly seeking out new destinations, with bookings to places such as the Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia, Malta and Cambodia growing by 45 per cent this year.
“As Chinese people travel outside the country more and their experience of travel grows, many are more willing to go to smaller eastern European countries, such as the Czech Republic,” the spokesman said.
“Popular movies also have a strong influence. Many young people are willing to travel to see where films are shot, such as Croatia, one of the locations for Game of Thrones.”
Other noticeable trends this year include more people travelling with pets, by train and on chartered flights. The site said it sold 60 per cent more European train tickets and 10 times the number of train tickets for Japan for this golden week compared to last year.
The most popular routes in Asia were Tokyo to Kyoto in Japan, and Seoul to Busan in South Korea.
Hong Kong protests leave ‘golden week’ tourist boom in tatters as visitor arrivals during Chinese holiday period are set to be slashed by a third
Thousands of users also chose chartered flights, a service Ctrip introduced in September.
Ji Yu, head of chartered flights for Ctrip said most people thought chartered flights or helicopters were something only millionaires could afford, but in the internet age, they had become cheaper and more accessible.
“In the internet era, consumer needs vary from person to person, especially in terms of travel. There are products on the market to satisfy each customer’s personal needs.”
Among the more popular chartered routes were from Beijing or Shanghai to Tokyo, Bangkok, the Maldives and London.
More people are also going away for longer. Digital travel services giant Qunar said that 80 per cent of the travellers booking flights or hotels through its services were heading off for more than five days. And of those 41 per cent were travelling for more than a week.
Meanwhile, trips to Hong Kong have fallen substantially, with just 15 group tours expected to enter the city each day, down from 110 last year, according to the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong.
Efforts to promote Hong Kong attractions have also increased in Shenzhen in recent weeks, with advertising videos scenic spots, popular restaurants and malls in Hong Kong playing on cross-border buses. Passengers can also get discounts to some stores and services with their tickets.
Three films that opened on Monday morning rake in US$76.6 million by midday
Palme d’Or winner Chen Kaige heads bill with ensemble that has movie-goers in tears
My People, My Country looks at seven events in the past 70 years through the eyes of seven Chinese directors. Photo: Baidu
Three films that paid tribute to the People’s Republic of China on the eve of its 70th anniversary grossed a total of 546 million yuan (US$76.6 million) at the box offices hours after opening on Monday, Maoyan Entertainment, China’s largest movie ticketing app, said.
My People, My Country, consisting of seven short stories by seven directors led by Cannes Palme d’Or winner Chen Kaige, recounted major events since 1949. It took in 225 million yuan.
Milestones including the detonation of China’s atomic bomb in 1964; the handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China in 1997, and the staging of the Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, brought back many memories and stirred feelings of national pride, film-goers said.
“I went to see the movie today and saw many primary school students with their parents. Tears welled in my eyes, and I felt touched and proud at the same time. Go China!” one Weibo user wrote.
True-life drama The Captain has proved to a big screen hit with mainland cinema-goers. Photo: Baidu
“This movie used directors of commercial movies, and most of those born in the 1960s and 1970s lived through these moments. I think young people will bring their parents to see the film,” another Weibo user wrote.
True-life drama The Captain, directed by Hong Kong director Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, ran in second with a box office take of 175 million yuan by noon on Monday. The film was based on events in May 2018, when the cockpit window of a Sichuan Airlines flight was shattered at 30,000 feet over the Tibetan Plateau in western China. The decompression pulled the co-pilot halfway out of the cabin as the pilot fought to land the flight safely.
Big-budget film The Climbers, directed by Hong Kong’s Daniel Lee Yan-Kong and featuring stars such as Wu Jing and Zhang Ziyi, retraced the steps of two generations of Chinese mountaineers who scaled Mount Everest by the perilous North Ridge in 1960 and 1975. The film posted earnings of 146 million yuan.
Tencent’s homage to modern China tops gaming charts on eve of 70th anniversary celebrations
Patriotic feelings have been running high this week as the celebration of the 70th anniversary draws near.
My People, My Country’s theme song, Me and My Mother Country, an oldie recorded by Hong Kong’s Faye Wang, has been heard in shops, restaurants and workplaces all across the mainland.
The Climbers was directed by Hong Kong’s Daniel Lee Yan-Kong. Photo: Baidu
Last week, 200 million WeChat users responded to a campaign by internet company Tencent to add a national flag or Happy National Day sticker to their social media profile picture, The Beijing News reported. Demand was so heavy Tencent’s servers were overwhelmed for a short time.
LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) – Heavy rains have killed at least 113 people in India’s Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states over the past three days, officials said on Monday, as flood waters swamped a major city, inundated hospital wards and forced the evacuation of inmates from a jail.
India’s monsoon season that begins in June usually starts to retreat by early September, but heavy rains have continued across parts of the country this year, triggering floods.
An official said that at least 93 people had died in most populous Uttar Pradesh since Friday after its eastern areas were lashed by intense monsoon showers.
Rising water levels forced authorities to shift 900 inmates from a prison in eastern Ballia district, police officer Santosh Verma said.
In neighbouring Bihar, an impoverished agrarian region that was hit by floods earlier this year, the death toll from the latest bout of rain had reached 20 on Monday, a state government official said.
Bihar’s capital city of Patna, home to around 2 million, has been badly hit, with waist-deep flood waters across many streets, and entering homes, shops, and even the wards of a major hospital. In some parts, authorities deployed boats to rescue residents.
“The rains have stopped but there is waterlogging in many areas,” Bihar’s Additional Secretary in the Disaster Relief Department Amod Kumar Sharan said.
In its bulletin on Monday, India’s Meteorological Department said the intensity of rainfall over Bihar was very likely to reduce. Showers in Uttar Pradesh are also expected to abate this week.
Weather department officials said this month that monsoon rains were likely to be above average for the first time in six years. [nL3N26B1MD]
BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) — The resumption of diplomatic ties between the governments of China and Kiribati fully demonstrates that the one-China principle meets the shared aspiration of the people and constitutes an irresistible trend of the times, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said Saturday.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Kiribati’s President and Foreign Minister Taneti Mamau on Friday signed a communique on resuming diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level between the two countries at the Chinese Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
Geng stressed that there is but one China in the world, that the government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legitimate government that represents the whole of China and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory.
“This is an objective fact, a universally recognized norm of international relations and a general consensus of the international community,” Geng said.
The government of the Republic of Kiribati recognizes and undertakes to stay committed to the one-China principle, sever the so-called “diplomatic relations” with Taiwan authorities and resume diplomatic relations with China. “We support this important decision which Kiribati government has made on its own as an independent sovereign state,” Geng said.
“This again fully demonstrates that the one-China principle meets the shared aspiration of the people and constitutes an irresistible trend of the times,” Geng added.
Relations between China and Pacific island nations are maintaining rapid growth. People of the two countries hold amicable feelings toward each other, he said. “It is the common expectation of all sectors of Kiribati to resume diplomatic relations and strengthen cooperation with China. It is in the fundamental and long-term interests of the two countries and peoples.”
China stands ready to strengthen pragmatic cooperation and friendly exchanges with Kiribati in various fields on the basis of the one-china principle and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence to benefit the two countries and peoples, said the spokesperson.
Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 25, 2019. Li paid an official goodwill visit to Russia from Sept. 25 to 28. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)
MOSCOW, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) — China’s top legislator Li Zhanshu and top Russian officials have agreed to further strengthen bilateral comprehensive cooperation and continue to promote legislative coordination for stronger ties.
Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, on Saturday completed an official visit to Russia, during which he held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of both houses of the Russian parliament.
The Russian leaders congratulated China on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and hailed the great achievements China has made in the past seven decades. The two sides also exchanged congratulations on the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia.
When meeting Putin, Li said, under the strategic guidance of the heads of state of the two countries, China-Russia relations have hit an unprecedented high and entered a new era of higher level and greater development.
Under the current international situation, China and Russia should strengthen mutual support, jointly build strategic support and security barriers between the two countries, and promote the construction of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind, Li said.
He called on the two sides to bring their political mutual trust and strategic cooperation to a new height, and push economic and trade cooperation to a new level, so as to move forward their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era.
For his part, Putin lauded Russia-China ties as a model of relations between the world’s major countries.
He said the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era between the two countries, built in compliance with the international law, is in the interests of the two countries and the two peoples.
Noting that the current bilateral cooperation in various areas is steadily advancing towards the established goals, Putin urged the two countries to further strengthen all-round cooperation and develop their ties on the basis of existing achievements.
Li also met with Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Russian Federation Council, or the upper house of parliament, and Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian State Duma, or the lower house of parliament.
During his talks with the heads of Russian parliament, Li said the cooperation between legislative bodies, as an important part of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era, is expected to prioritize the implementation of the consensus reached by the two heads of state.
According to him, the two sides should promote communication and collaboration for the sake of the development of bilateral ties and, in particular, strengthen the exchanges of experience on foreign-related legal construction, so as to effectively deal with unilateralism and protectionism as well as defend the national sovereignty, security and interests of the two countries.
Li also called for better synergy between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, further cooperation in high-tech fields as well as sub-national cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.
For her part, Matviyenko said China’s development has proved to the world that a country can follow its own development path in line with its national conditions.
She said the people of the two countries work closely together and respect each other’s national interests, adding that no matter how the international situation changes, the long-term friendly cooperation between the two countries will remain unchanged.
The legislative bodies of the two countries should provide legal support and guarantee for the development of bilateral relations, Matviyenko said.
Volodin also urged the legislative bodies to make good use of existing cooperation mechanisms in a bid to promote cooperation in various fields, resist external interference and safeguard a fair and just international order.
Li and Volodin also attended the fifth meeting of the China-Russia committee for parliamentary cooperation.
In his speech, Li talked about China’s historic achievements in the past 70 years and spoke highly of the contribution of legislative cooperation to the development of bilateral relations.
He expressed hopes that both sides, after thorough studies, will come up with new ideas and new measures for legislative cooperation in a new era, better use the committee for parliamentary cooperation as a platform, and further enrich China-Russia relations.
While in Moscow, the top Chinese legislator also visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and inspected the Moscow metro project of the China Railway Construction Corporation.
He also exchanged views on strengthening local cooperation with Rustam Minnikhanov, president of Russia’s Tatarstan Republic, in its capital of Kazan and visited the Kazan Helicopter Plant and Kazan Federal University.
Photo taken on Sept. 28, 2019 shows a flowerbed titled “Story of Spring” in Beijing, capital of China. Flowerbeds were built along the Chang’an Avenue to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)
New system to enable businesses and government agencies to verify mainland-issued travel permits
The new system is expected to expand access to the public transport system on the mainland. Photo: Roy Issa
Hong Kong and Macau residents and “overseas Chinese” may soon be able to have full access to public services on the mainland using their China-issued travel documents, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Xinhua reported on Wednesday that the National Immigration Administration was putting a platform in place to enable government agencies and businesses to verify mainland-issued travel permits for Hong Kong and Macau residents.
“As soon as the platform becomes operational, these overseas travellers can, from October, have access to 35 public services, ranging from transport, to finance, education, communications, medical care and accommodation,” the report said.
According to the report, “overseas travellers” cover Hong Kong and Macau residents and ethnic Chinese living overseas.
But it did not say why the new measures did not apply to people from Taiwan.
The administration did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Will Hong Kong anti-government protests ruin city’s role in Beijing’s Greater Bay Area plan? Depends on whom you ask
The new measure appears to be part of a long-term strategy by Beijing to foster closer ties between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macau.
In the last few years, the central government has launched a host of incentives for Hong Kong and Macau residents and businesses, including opportunities in the Greater Bay Area development plan in southern China.
Ivan Zhai, executive director of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce in China-Guangdong, welcomed the new measure.
“If such an arrangement can be fully implemented, Hong Kong businesspeople who operate on the mainland will be thrilled,” Zhai said.
The Hong Kong business community has long lobbied for relaxation over areas such as train ticketing and hotel registration.
Zhai said that although Hong Kong and Macau residents could now book high-speed train tickets with their mainland-issued travel permits, there were few ticket machines that could automatically read the permits, complicating the process.
“There are also hotels on the mainland that can only entertain guests with Chinese identity cards and currently Hong Kong travellers can only go to hotels that are authorised to accept the mainland-issued travel permits,” he said.
China’s regulator relaxes currency conversion rules throughout Shenzhen, sharpening city’s edge in Greater Bay Area
According to the report, there will be stiff penalties for departments or businesses misusing information collected through the platform.
Zhai said Hong Kong businesspeople who travelled to the mainland often were more likely to be concerned about convenience than the risk of invasion of privacy.
“If you are a frequent traveller in China, you would have expected that the relevant departments of the Chinese government already have information about you anyway,” he said.
Millions of Chinese children are raised by their grandparents but some seniors are demanding compensation
For generations in China grandparents have provided childcare, but some are no longer willing to do so for free. Photo: Shutterstock
The traditional role of grandparents in caring for China’s children has been called into question with two recent lawsuits sparking debate about whether seniors should be paid for their efforts.
Two grandmothers took their demands for compensation to court in separate cases which have highlighted the reliance of Chinese workers on their parents to provide childcare while they pursue professional advancement.
A woman in Mianyang, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, was awarded more than 68,000 yuan (US$9,500) by a local court after she sued her son and daughter-in-law for the costs of raising her nine-year-old grandchild, according to Red Star News.
The woman, identified only by her surname Wang, had been the child’s full-time carer for eight years after his parents left home to seek better-paid jobs elsewhere. Wang said she had taken care of most of her grandson’s living expenses and had decided to seek compensation when his parents said they were considering a divorce.
They should respect our contribution. Grandmother Wang, Sichuan province
“I only want to let them know through this lawsuit that it’s their obligation to raise their children,” she was reported as saying. “The young ones should not take it for granted that old people ought to look after their grandchildren. They should respect our contribution.”
Despite winning the case, she has not received a penny and the boy still lives with her.
In another case, three months ago, a Beijing court supported a woman’s demand for compensation for helping to raise her granddaughter since her birth in 2002.
The stories of the two women generated a public reflection on the Chinese way of childcare which, for generations, has involved leaving most – if not all – of the burden on grandparents.
One of 60 million: life as a ‘left-behind’ child in China
From a cultural perspective, it has been a matter of course in a country with a long history of several generations living under one roof, for grandparents to participate in child rearing, according to Xu Anqi, a researcher specialising in family studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
“Today, as people face fierce competition and great pressure from work, it’s still common to rely on their old parents to look after their children,” she said.
While rapid urbanisation in recent decades has broken up multi-generational households, Chinese elderly still take an active role in child rearing, with many relocating to their children’s cities to take on the job.
Millions more families do it the other way round – with parents leaving children in their hometown with the grandparents while they seek better paying jobs in the cities. In August last year, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, China had nearly 7 million “left behind kids”, as they are known.
My little granddaughter is adorable, and generally I enjoy doing all this.Li Xiujuan, grandmother
“Many grandmothers like me would joke that we are ‘unpaid nannies’, but at the same time we feel it’s our responsibility to help them out – they would be in financial stress if one of them quit or they hired a nanny,” said Li Xiujuan, who relocated from her hometown in the central province of Henan to Shanghai two years ago to help look after her granddaughter.
“I’m a 24-hour nanny for my grandkid. I prepare food for her, wash her clothes, attend early childhood classes with her, take her for a walk in the park twice a day, sleep beside her at noon and night …” she said.
“I never cared for my daughter when she was little like I do her daughter now. You know, it was also her grandmother who mainly took care of her daily life when she was young,” Li said, laughing.
“My little granddaughter is adorable, and generally I enjoy doing all this. The hard part is that I miss my friends and relatives back home. We don’t have friends here. I have plenty of things to do at home, but here, nothing but babysitting. People are polite, but it’s difficult to make new friends,” she said.
‘Left behind’ sisters cry when parents leave home to go to work
In a 2017 study of about 3,600 households in six major cities including Beijing and Guangzhou, the Chinese Society of Education found almost 80 per cent of surveyed households had at least one grandparent as carer before children began primary school.
The study also showed that 60 per cent of parents still relied on help from grandparents after children were old enough for primary school at the age of six.
Whether grandparents should be compensated for their efforts split a poll of 49,000 users conducted by social media platform Weibo in late June, with half believing that the older generation should be paid for raising their grandchildren. Only 2.3 per cent said babysitting grandchildren was “an unalterable principle” for the elderly.
“This arrangement could be well managed and improve blood ties if children reward the elderly in their own ways, such as sending gifts on holidays and taking them on trips,” Shanghai researcher Xu said.
I think what they need more is words of appreciation, which many of us have neglected. David Dai, Beijing parent
Grandmother Li agreed: “I think regular payment is a little awkward, but I do expect some kind of reward, like cash gifts on festivals and daily necessities as presents.”
David Dai, a 30-year-old white collar worker in Beijing, said how to reward grandparents for their contribution depended on the financial situation of each household.
“My parents are farmers – they are in good shape and not so old – in their late 50s, and if they didn’t come all the way from my hometown in Anhui to Beijing to look after my son, they would still be taking some odd jobs,” he said.
“Therefore, besides covering their living costs at my place, I give them cash gifts on their birthdays, the Spring Festival and other important occasions, because babysitting their grandchild means they lose the opportunity to work,” he added.
“In some families, the grandparents might have retired and have a good pension. They don’t lack money and enjoy spending time with their grandkids. I don’t think they need to be paid. I think what they need more is words of appreciation, which many of us have neglected,” Dai said.
China boosts childcare and maternal health services in bid to lift birth rate
But for those who never show any gratitude, their parents have every reason not to offer child rearing help or to demand payment, Xu said.
Zhang Tao, a lawyer at the Hiways Law Firm in Shanghai, noted that as long as at least one parent of a child was living, the grandparents had no obligation to help with childcare.
“The grandparents should be compensated for the money they have paid for the child’s education, medical fees, and accommodation from the beneficiary,” he said.
But whether they should be paid has become the latest controversy as more grandparents find it a burden.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 