Archive for ‘against’

09/03/2020

China issues new policies to fight against poverty

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) — China has rolled out a slew of measures to strengthen social assistance for people most in need and fight against poverty, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Sunday.

A census targeting poor people will be launched to ensure those eligible are covered by the social security system and have access to supportive policies, the ministry said at a teleconference on poverty relief.

Efforts will be intensified to support disadvantaged groups, including the elderly, the disabled and minors who are incapable of working, have no source of income, and have no others to rely on for support, it said.

The ministry also stressed encouraging social organizations to participate in poverty relief and accelerating the implementation of charity projects to combat poverty.

Targeted assistance will be provided for areas of extreme poverty, said the ministry, calling for more relief projects, financial support and personnel training for these regions.

Source: Xinhua

10/12/2019

China’s rare nod for Korean war film seen as boost to nationalism

  • The Battle of Triangle Hill is known in China as a victory against foreign aggressors
  • Film’s timing linked to deteriorating relations between Beijing and Washington on multiple fronts
A scene from the 1956 Chinese film Shang Gan Ling, about the Korean war Battle for Triangle Hill, subject of a new film which is about to go into production in China. Photo: Handout
A scene from the 1956 Chinese film Shang Gan Ling, about the Korean war Battle for Triangle Hill, subject of a new film which is about to go into production in China. Photo: Handout
One of the bloodiest battles of the Korean war is the subject of a film that will soon start production in China, in a move which is being linked to surging Chinese nationalism amid poor relations between Beijing and Washington.
The film, based on the Battle of Triangle Hill – also known as the Shang Gan Ling campaign in China – was given the green light by state regulator the China Film Administration in July, but was not reported by Chinese official media until last week.
Hou Jianwei, one of China’s best known war novelists, has been signed on as screenwriter for the film, to be produced by Ao Bo Film Zhejiang which confirmed on microblogging platform Weibo that production was already in “active preparation”.
“More than 100,000 people from the People’s Voluntary Army and forces from the US and South Korea took part in the 43-day fighting, and over 2.4 million shells of ammunition were fired. The battle was unprecedentedly fierce and 40,000 lives were lost,” the film company said in its most recent Weibo post.

“With a multitude of heroes, our army built up an impenetrable barrier in the East.”

China invokes Korean war talks as reason not to bow to US in trade dispute
News of the film has coincided with mounting confrontations between Beijing and Washington on multiple fronts ranging from trade and technology, to Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

Korean war-themed productions have long been a taboo subject for China’s heavily censored film industry, partly because of Beijing’s complicated relations with the US and North Korea.

But the 1950-53 war, in which China and North Korea battled Western forces led by the US, has increasingly become a tool to rally public opinion behind Beijing’s ongoing trade war with the US. Study Times, a Central Party School publication, for example, has directly likened the trade war to the end of the Korean conflict, saying China was determined to oppose US bullying as trade negotiations entered their 17th month.

While Beijing has never given an official account of its decision to join the Korean war, it is often portrayed as a necessary intervention to shield China from US aggression.

The Battle of Triangle Hill has often been presented in China’s official media as a victory by the “volunteers” of the People’s Liberation Army over foreign aggressors.

News of the production has raised avid discussion on Chinese social media, with many seeing the new film as part of China’s efforts to reinforce surging Chinese nationalism in the face of growing pressure from the West.

“Isn’t the approval [to make the film] a strong signal to the West that we are now a strong power?” one Weibo microblogger wrote.

Source: SCMP

02/12/2019

China’s plans for new coal plants risk undermining battle against global warming

  • World’s largest coal consumer shows little sign of ending its dependency even though it is also the biggest market for renewable energy sources
  • UN climate summit is meeting to discuss ways to limit future warming, but hopes are fading that China will commit to further curbs on emissions
China now accounts for around 30 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. Photo: AP
China now accounts for around 30 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. Photo: AP
As world leaders gather in Spain to discuss how to slow the warming of the planet, the spotlight has fallen on China – the top emitter of greenhouse gases.
China burns about half the coal used globally each year. Between 2000 and 2018, its annual carbon emissions nearly tripled, and it now accounts for about 30 per cent of the world’s total.
Yet it is also the leading market for solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles, and it manufactures about two-thirds of solar cells installed worldwide.
“We are witnessing many contradictions in China’s energy development,” said Kevin Tu, a Beijing-based fellow with the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. “It’s the largest coal market and the largest clean energy market in the world.”
That apparent paradox is possible because of the sheer scale of China’s energy demands.
Pollution alarm as tourism businesses contaminate home of China’s hairy crab
But as China’s economy slows to the lowest level in a quarter century – around 6 per cent growth, according to government statistics – policymakers are doubling down on support for coal and other heavy industries, the traditional backbones of China’s energy system and economy. At the same time, the country is reducing subsidies for renewable energy.

At the annual United Nations climate summit, this year in Madrid, government representatives will put the finishing touches on implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement, which set a goal to limit future warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Nations may decide for themselves how to achieve it.

China had previously committed to shifting its energy mix to 20 per cent renewables, including nuclear and hydroelectric energy.

Climate experts generally agree that the initial targets pledged in Paris will not be enough to reach the goal, and next year nations are required to articulate more ambitious targets.

Hopes that China would offer to do much more are fading.

Recent media reports and satellite images suggest that China is building or planning to complete new coal power plants with total capacity of 148 gigawatts – nearly equal to the entire coal-power capacity of the European Union within the next few years, according to an analysis by Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco-based non-profit.

China is the world’s leading market for wind turbines and other renewables – but is still a major source of emissions. Photo: Chinatopix via AP
China is the world’s leading market for wind turbines and other renewables – but is still a major source of emissions. Photo: Chinatopix via AP
Meanwhile, investment in China’s renewable energy dropped almost 40 per cent in the first half of 2019 compared with the same period last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research organisation. The government slashed subsidies for solar energy.
Last week in Beijing, China’s vice-minister of ecology and environment told reporters that non-fossil-fuel sources already account for 14.3 per cent of the country’s energy mix. He did not indicate that China would embrace more stringent targets soon.
“We are still faced with challenges of developing our economy, improving people’s livelihood,” Zhao Yingmin said.
As a fast-growing economy, it was always inevitable that China’s energy demands would climb steeply. The only question was whether the country could power a sufficiently large portion of its economy with renewables to curb emissions growth.

Many observers took hope from a brief dip in China’s carbon emissions between 2014 and 2016. Today the country’s renewed focus on coal comes as a disappointment.

“Now there’s a sense that rather than being a leader, China is the one that is out of step,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Helsinki.

He notes that several developed countries – including Germany, South Korea and the United States – are rapidly reducing their reliance on coal power.

After climbing sharply for two decades, China’s emissions stalled around 2013 and then declined slightly in 2015 and 2016, according to Global Carbon Budget, which tracks emissions worldwide.

This dip came as Chinese leaders declared a “war on pollution” and suspended the construction of dozens of planned coal power plants, including some in Shanxi.

Pollution scandal near China nature reserve at Tengger desert’s edge

At the same time, the government required many existing coal operators to install new equipment in chimneys to remove sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and other hazardous substances. About 80 per cent of coal plants now have scrubbers, said Alvin Lin, Beijing-based China climate and energy policy director for the Natural Resources Defence Council, a non-profit.

As a result, the air quality in many Chinese cities, including Beijing, improved significantly between 2013 and 2017. Residents long accustomed to wearing face masks and running home air-filter machines enjoyed a reprieve of more “blue sky days,” as low-pollution days are known in China.

In the past three years, China’s carbon emissions have begun to rise again, according to Global Carbon Budget.

The coming winter in Beijing may see a return of prolonged smog, as authorities loosen environmental controls on heavy industry – in part to compensate for other slowing sectors in the economy.

The UN Climate Change Conference is taking place in Madrid this month. Photo: AFP
The UN Climate Change Conference is taking place in Madrid this month. Photo: AFP
Permits for new coal plants proliferated after regulatory authority was briefly devolved from Beijing to provincial governments, which see construction projects and coal operations as boosts to local economies and tax bases, said Ted Nace, executive director of Global Energy Monitor.
“It’s as though a boa constrictor swallowed a giraffe, and now we’re watching that bulge move through the system,” said Nace. In China, it takes about three years to build a coal plant.
The world has already warmed by 1 degree Celsius. All scenarios envisioned by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for holding planetary warming to around 1.5 degrees Celsius involve steep worldwide reductions in coal-power generation.
In that effort, other countries rely on Chinese manufacturing to hold down prices on solar panels. wind turbines and lithium-ion batteries.
“China has a really mixed record. On the one hand, it’s seen rapidly rising emissions over the past two decades,” said Jonas Nahm, an energy expert at Johns Hopkins University.
“On the other hand, it’s shown it’s able to innovate around manufacturing – and make new energy technologies available at scale, faster and cheaper.”
Source: SCMP
25/11/2019

Priya: India’s female comic superhero returns to rescue ‘stolen girls’

Priya Shakti riding her pet tiger SahasImage copyright PRIYASHAKTI

Comic crusader Priya, a gang-rape survivor who earlier campaigned against rape and acid attack, is back in a new avatar. This time she is fighting the trafficking of girls and women for sex.

The “modern-day female superhero” was first launched in December 2014, exactly two years after the horrific gang rape of a young woman on a bus in Delhi, to focus attention on the problems of gender and sexual violence in India.

In the first edition, Priya Shakti, the tiger-riding heroine challenges the stigma surrounding rape while in Priya’s Mirror, the second edition, she returns to fight acid attacks.

In the latest edition – Priya and the Lost Girls – she takes on the powerful sex-trafficker Rahu, the evil demon who runs an underworld brothel city where he has entrapped many women, including Priya’s sister Lakshmi.

Indian-American actor and writer Dipti Mehta, who wrote the script of the comic, draws on ancient Indian mythology to create larger-than-life fantastical characters and delivers a powerful feminist statement.

The story of Lost Girls begins when the protagonist returns home to find that there are no girls in her village.

She then mounts her flying tiger Sahas (Hindi for courage) and arrives in Rahu’s den. It’s a city ruled by greed, jealousy and lust, where women exist only to serve and please men – and those who resist are turned into stone.

Priya with her tiger SahasImage copyright PRIYASHAKTI

Priya is threatened and attacked, a woman who works for Rahu tries to lure her into the sex trade saying: “If you work for us, you’d serve only five to six men and not 20”, but in the end, good wins over evil and she manages to vanquish Rahu and liberate her sister and all the other trafficked girls.

But victory still eludes her. The families of rescued girls refuse to take them back. The survivors are treated like “lepers”, facing stigma, scorn and ridicule.

But Priya and the other girls stand up to confront patriarchy, says Ms Mehta, “just as women have broken their silence to talk about MeToo”, the campaign against sexual harassment and abuse that started in Hollywood in October 2107 and later spread to many other parts of the world.

“I was very clear from the start that Lost Girls can’t be just another comic book where good guy wins and evil dies, it had to be much more than that,” Ms Mehta says.

Presentational grey line
Priya Shakti in the comicImage copyright PRIYASHAKTI
Presentational grey line

Ram Devineni, the Indian-American creator of the comic series, told the BBC that he had decided to focus on sex trafficking in this edition after visiting Sonagachi, India’s largest red-light area in the eastern city of Kolkata, where he met several women engaged in sex work.

“Half of them told me they had been tricked into coming there and, once there, they were forced into the sex trade. The other half said they’d agreed to do this for a living because they were dirt poor and they had no alternative.

“Often there were two to three women sharing a small dingy room, many of them had young children who lived with them, and some of them said their children slept in the same bed where they serviced clients.

“I found that really disheartening.”

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Cover of Priya and The Lost GirlsImage copyright PRIYASHAKTIPresentational grey lineAccording to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, human trafficking is the second largest organised criminal business in the world after the arms trade. It is even ahead of the drugs trade.

“It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry,” anti-trafficking activist Ruchira Gupta told the BBC on the phone from New York.

Ms Gupta, who supports trafficked girls and women in India through her charity Apne Aap Women Worldwide, says there are 100 million people trapped in human trafficking globally, of which 27 million are in India alone, and most of the trafficking is in girls and young women.

India, Bangladesh and Nepal, she says, make up “the epicentre” of global sex trafficking.

Ms Gupta, who collaborated on Priya and the Lost Girls, says she plans to take the comic to schools and colleges in India and the US to use it as a talking tool, “as a conversation starter on what is a very difficult topic”.

The only way to fight trafficking, she believes, is to “de-normalise” sex trade – and cinema, art and pop culture are tools that can help do that.

The comic is made to appeal to young people. After its launch, it can be downloaded for free anywhere in the world; it also has “augmented reality features”, which means people can see special animation and movies by scanning the artwork with their smartphones.

The families of rescued girls refuse to take them back, the survivors facing stigma, scorn and ridiculeImage copyright PRIYASHAKTI

“People often make flippant comments to say that prostitution is the oldest occupation in the world, but they don’t realise that trafficking is not some poor woman getting money in exchange for having sex with a man. It is the extreme exploitation of most vulnerable girls,” Ms Gupta says.

To stop this “commodification” of girls, she adds, we need to create revulsion in men’s minds about sex trade – and it’s best to catch them young.

“We must work with young boys and teenagers, 13 to 14 year olds, through storytelling and pop culture. They learn about sex from porn sites which portray sex workers as happy hookers, and no-one sees the girl behind her.

“I want to demolish that myth of the happy hooker. I want to ensure that people see the girl behind her.”

Artwork by Syd Fini and Neda KazemifarPresentational grey line

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Media caption Freida Pinto: Why I made a film about sex slaves

Source: The BBC

16/10/2019

China’s former ambassador to India joins team dedicated to fight against climate change

  • Luo Zhaohui, who was credited with helping to resolve 2017 Doklam stand-off peacefully, joins group set up to tackle global warming
Luo Zhaohui previously served as China’s ambassador to India. Photo: Handout
Luo Zhaohui previously served as China’s ambassador to India. Photo: Handout

China’s former ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui has joined a national team in charge of fighting climate change, the Chinese government website has announced.

The team, led by Premier Li Keqiang, will be responsible for coming up with proposals to tackle the problem, develop proposals for energy conservation and analyse the impact of climate change on socio-economic development.

China is currently the world’s largest polluter, accounting for a quarter of the world’s total emissions, making it crucial in the effort to curb global warming.

The US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017 also makes China the largest single economy committed to the efforts to limit emissions.

As well as taking up the position on the National Leading Group Dealing with Climate Change, Energy Conservation and Emissions Reduction, Luo was also promoted to the position of deputy foreign minister in late May.

In this post, Luo is in charge of Beijing’s relations with its Asian neighbours, replacing Kong Xuanyou, who was named China’s new ambassador to Japan.

Luo was credited by diplomatic observers as having helped bring relations with India back on track after the 2017 Doklam stand-off, one of the worst border disputes in decades between the two sides.

In July 2017, Luo told media in New Delhi that the Chinese people were deeply angry over the “occupation” by Indian troops of its sovereign territory but helped to resolve the situation through diplomatic means, paving the way for an informal summit between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Wuhan last year.

Luo, 57, has also served in diplomatic missions in Singapore and the US and was head of the foreign ministry’s department for Asian affairs.

He previously served as ambassador to Pakistan and Canada before being posted to the embassy in New Delhi in India in 2016.

Source: SCMP

25/05/2019

At Cong’s big meet after poll defeat, Rahul Gandhi’s next move is the focus

Rahul Gandhi, who had fronted the opposition campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has owned responsibility for the crushing defeat at the meeting.

LOK SABHA ELECTIONS Updated: May 25, 2019 14:07 IST

HT Correspondent
HT Correspondent
Hindustan Times, NewDelhi
Lok Sabah elections 2019,General elections 2019,Congress
Seated next to Rahul Gandhi as he shared his brief analysis of the election is UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi (Sanjeev Verma/ HT Photo)
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday is leading a review of his party’s devastating performance in the Lok Sabha elections at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, or CWC.
Rahul Gandhi, who had fronted the opposition campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has owned responsibility for the crushing defeat at the meeting. Seated next to Rahul Gandhi as he shared his brief analysis of the election is UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former minister P Chidambaram and Congress’s leader in the outgoing Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge was also present.
Television channels initially said Rahul Gandhi had offered to resign at the CWC which was rejected by the top panel but later put out a clarification. Three senior Congress including Uttar Pradesh unit chief Raj Babbar, HK Patil, who was tasked to oversee the Karnataka Congress campaign and Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik have resigned after the election debacle.
The Congress won just about 52 seats in the Lok Sabha in this round of national elections, a shade better than its worst performance ever, in the 2014 elections, when it ended up with 44 seats.
Congress leaders have indicated that the CWC could go for a deeper analysis of the election outcome that goes beyond the obvious. Some drastic action could also follow.
Senior Congress leaders assembled at the party’s Working Committee meeting in New Delhi.

For now, the Congress’s top priority is to get the party fighting fit in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand that will head to assembly elections later this year. Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are likely to be held anytime soon and Delhi will go to the polls in February next year.

Some new general secretaries and in-charges of states are also expected to be appointed soon.
Gandhi had made it clear at an unusually brief news conference after the poll verdict came on Thursday that the party was determined to fight back. “Have faith and we will work and sort this out in the time to come,” Gandhi said, his message to party workers and supporters. “Love never loses, and I am certain that we will emerge stronger and work better… love will guide us.

The Congress which did not get the post of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha in 2014 may not get it this time also. A party should get 10 per cent, or 55 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, to be entitled to the Leader of Opposition designation for its leader.

Rahul Gandhi has already taken responsibility for the party’s performance in the Lok Sabah elections but hasn’t elaborated on the next step yet.

Source: Hindustan Times

08/04/2019

UK court rejects Vijay Mallya’s request to appeal against extradition order

vijay mallya,mallya extradition,vijay mallya extradition
A London court has rejected Vijay Mallya’s plea against extradition, bringing him one step closer to being repatriated to India.(Getty Images)

In another legal win for India, a judge in the appeals court of the high court has rejected controversial businessman Vijay Mallya’s application for permission to appeal against home secretary Sajid Javid’s February 4 order to extradite him to India.

Mallya had applied to the court on February 14 and the Home Office submitted its response within the stipulated 20 days. Legal experts say the case is usually allowed to go for a full appeals hearing if new grounds or evidence not previously considered in lower courts are cited.

The appeals court has refused him permission, according to individuals with close knowledge of the case. The refusal suggests that the judge may not have seen merit in Mallya’s application. The case is now expected to revert to the Home Office.

Also read: Beer king Vijay Mallya may have to curb his $24,000-a-week life

Mallya is likely to make a representation to the home secretary to prevent extradition on human rights and other grounds. He previously lost his challenge in the Westminster magistrates court, which ordered his extradition in December 2018.

There is a precedent for resorting to ‘representations’ as the last recourse. Tiger Hanif, who is wanted in India in connection with blasts in Surat in 1993, lost all legal challenges in 2013, but has since made representations to prevent extradition to the home secretary, who has not yet taken a decision.

Also read: Vijay Mallya’s extradition will speed up trial, jail barrack ready for him: ED

Facing charges in India of financial irregularities amounting to over Rs 9,000 crore, Mallya has been putting forth his version of events through social media in recent weeks, most recently on March 31 following an interview to a television channel by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a series of tweets, Mallya used the reported financial problems of Jet Airways to plug his case, demanding that his assets placed before the Karnataka high court be used to pay off banks and other creditors, adding: “It will help them to save Jet Airways if nothing else”.

“The same PSU Banks let India’s finest airline with the best employees and connectivity fail ruthlessly. Double standards under NDA”, he added.
Wishing banks had similarly bailed out his Kingfisher Airlines, he said: “BJP spokesman eloquently read out my letters to PM Manmohan Singh and alleged that PSU Banks under the UPA Government had wrongly supported Kingfisher Airlines”.
“Media decimated me for writing to the PM. I wonder what has changed now under the NDA Government”.
Mallya has previously taken to twitter to seek to change the narrative that he “stole” money from India and fled, reiterating that he had offered to return the loans, wondering why the government was not taking up the offer.
Source: Hindustan Times
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