Archive for ‘China alert’

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09/01/2019

Beijing school attacker injures 20 children

File photo of a schoolImage copyrightISTOCK
Image captionThe attack took place in a school in Beijing (not pictured)

Twenty primary school students in Beijing have been injured in an attack at their school by a hammer-wielding man, say officials in China.

The attack took place at around 11:00 local time (03:00 GMT) said Beijing’s Xicheng district in a statement on social media site Weibo.

Three children were reported to be seriously injured but stable.

The alleged attacker has been arrested. It is not clear what motive the suspect might have had.

Some reports say he was a former maintenance worker at the school.

The attack took place at the Beijing No.1 Affiliated Elementary School of Xuanwu Normal School, according to state-media outlet the Global Times.

The Xicheng district said it would work together with other government authorities to carry out a full investigation.

The attack comes after a Chinese man was executed on Friday for injuring 12 children in a knife attack at a nursery in China.

Violent crime is rare in China but there have been several attacks on school children in recent years.

Posted in Beijing, children, China alert, injures, school, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

09/01/2019

Chinese subway train collision leaves one dead, three injured

  • Chongqing metro rail loop opened two weeks ago and is still in trial operation
  • Train driver died in hospital while two other staff and one passenger treated for injuries
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 09 January, 2019, 2:39pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 09 January, 2019, 2:39pm

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The driver of a subway train in southwestern China was killed and three other people were injured when it smashed into protective barrier doors on Tuesday night, less than two weeks after the metro rail line opened.

Station staff on the Chongqing rail transit loop line evacuated 30 passengers and took one passenger, who sustained a slight hand injury, and three injured rail staff, including the driver, to hospital.

The train driver later died in hospital.

The front of the train was damaged and the first compartment offset, but not derailed, when it collided with the protective doors protruding on to the track area between two stations, according to the Chongqing Morning Post.

China, Japan jointly develop ‘albatross’ high-speed train, with a top speed of 500km/h

Chongqing’s railway transit company said three stations along the affected 4km (2.4 miles) route were out of service, while the rest of the metro loop line was still in operation.

The 34km northeastern section of the Chongqing rail line opened on December 28, 2018 and is still under trial operation.

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There are 24 stations in the new section, built with an investment of 22.2 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion), with 17 stations currently open, according to local media reports.

The cause of the incident is being investigated.

The protective doors used in Chongqing are a feature of the mountainous city’s rail system and were primarily used in wartime, a staff member of the city’s rail transit department told online news portal Thepaper.cn.

“Protective doors were primarily used during the anti-Japanese war and now to prevent nuclear catastrophes,” the employee said.

During the second world war, hundreds of wartime bomb shelters were built into the sides of mountains in Chongqing to provide protection from Japanese bombardment.

Posted in China alert, collision, dead, injured, subway train, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

09/01/2019

Xi honors two academicians with China’s top science award

CHINA-BEIJING-TOP SCIENCE AWARD (CN)

Chinese President Xi Jinping (C), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents China’s top science award to Liu Yongtan (R) and Qian Qihu during an annual ceremony to honor distinguished scientists, engineers, and research achievements at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 8, 2019. Liu Yongtan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), is from the Harbin Institute of Technology, and Qian Qihu, a CAE academician, is from the Army Engineering University of the People’s Liberation Army. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) — President Xi Jinping presented China’s top science award to Liu Yongtan and Qian Qihu on Tuesday for their outstanding contributions to scientific and technological innovation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, granted award medals and certificates to them at an annual ceremony held in Beijing to honor distinguished scientists, engineers, and research achievements.

Liu Yongtan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), is from the Harbin Institute of Technology, and Qian Qihu, a CAE academician, is from the Army Engineering University of the People’s Liberation Army.

Xi shook hands with them and expressed congratulations.

Other leaders, including Li Keqiang, Wang Huning, and Han Zheng, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, were also present.

Tuesday’s ceremony honored 278 projects, with 38 winning the State Natural Science Award, 67 the State Technological Invention Award, and 173 the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award.

Five foreign experts won the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.

On behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, Premier Li Keqiang extended congratulations to the award winners and thanked foreign experts for their support to China’s science and technology development.

Li said China has achieved remarkable progress in science and technology since the country’s reform and opening-up four decades ago, and the past year again witnessed excellent performance in science and technology innovation.

He called on scientific and technological workers to follow the guidance of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, grasp the new trend of science, technology revolutions and industrial transformation, and further implement the innovation-driven development strategy, so as to speed up the building of an innovative country and a leading power in science and technology.

Basic research should be given more priority, and receive more long-term and stable support, Li said, adding that the development of basic research, applied research, and industrialization should be integrated to build an open, coordinated and efficient research platform.

“We should deepen the reform on the scientific and technological system, innovate the scientific and technological investment policy and the fund management system, as well as expand the decision-making rights of scientists and researchers in choosing technological routes, utilizing funds, and transforming their research achievements,” Li said, while urging for the more flexible and diversified payment incentives.

He stressed the need to strengthen the role of enterprises as the main players of innovation and the integration of industries, universities and research institutes, noting that more market-driven means should be applied to encourage entrepreneurship.

China will step up building the system for IPR creation, protection, application and services, and cracking down on IPR infringement and counterfeiting, Li pledged.

Vice Premier Han Zheng presided over the ceremony, which was attended by about 3,300 people.

Before the ceremony, Xi and other leaders met with representatives of the winners.

Posted in academicians, awards, China alert, President Xi, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

09/01/2019

Chinese, Djibouti presidents exchange congratulations on 40th anniversary of ties

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday exchanged congratulatory messages with Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh to mark the 40th anniversary of bilateral relations.

In his message, Xi said that in the past 40 years, China and Djibouti have seen a healthy and stable development of their relations, with mutual understanding and support on issues of great concern to or concerning the core interests of each other, in addition to plentiful fruits of cooperation in various fields.

Xi recalled the top-level exchanges that included Guelleh’s state visit to China in November 2017 when they together announced the establishment of a bilateral strategic partnership; and their exchange in September 2018 when they reached a new consensus on further ties and witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on pushing forward the Belt and Road construction.

Xi said he highly values the development of China-Djibouti relations, and is willing to work with Guelleh and take the opportunity of the 40th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties to consolidate the mutual political trust, deepen the cooperation in co-building the Belt and Road, and implement the results from the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit, so as to lift the bilateral strategic partnership to new heights.

In his message to Xi, Guelleh said he is satisfied with and proud of the smooth development of bilateral ties over the 40 years since his country and China established a diplomatic relationship.

The November 2017 decision to lift bilateral relations to a strategic partnership showed the two countries’ resolve to forge closer ties while providing the direction for their economic and trade cooperation, he said.

Guelleh thanks the Chinese government and people for the help and support to Djibouti. He said Djibouti will continue adhering to the one-China policy.

Guelleh added that he is willing to join Xi in the efforts to push bilateral relations further forward.

Posted in anniversary, China alert, congratulations, Djibouti, President, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

08/01/2019

China deploys vehicle-mounted cannons in Tibet along border with India

China has either deployed or plans to induct cutting-edge weaponry for its land border troops to use. Last August, China said it was building rockets for its artillery brigades that will be propelled by the “electromagnetic catapult” technology and can be used in the high altitude plateaus of the TAR.

WORLD Updated: Jan 08, 2019 16:41 IST

Sutirtho Patranobis
Sutirtho Patranobis
Hindustan Times, Beijing
China,China army,China forces
China has equipped its forces in Tibet, which has a long border with India, with new vehicle-mounted howitzers to improve combat capability at high altitudes, reports sourced from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said on Tuesday.(Reuters File Photo)

China has equipped its forces in Tibet, which has a long border with India, with new vehicle-mounted howitzers to improve combat capability at high altitudes, reports sourced from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said on Tuesday.

It is the same cannon used by an artillery brigade during the 73-day Sino-India border standoff at Doklam (Donglang in Chinese), a state media report said, indicating that since then it has been inducted in high-altitude brigades on a wider scale in the border areas of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

The deployment comes at a time with China’s border issues, with India and Bhutan, remain unresolved and “…challenged by pro-Tibet independence forces and terrorists,” an analyst told the state media.

The deployed weapon is said to be the rarely seen PLC-181 vehicle-mounted howitzer cannons, capable of firing and then rapidly changing positions. It is said to be a new addition in the arsenal of the PLA ground forces (PLAGF).

The information was first released on a social media app by the PLAGF, saying the PLA in the Tibet Military Command is equipped with the new howitzer, which Chinese military analysts said is supposed to be the PLC-181 vehicle-mounted howitzer.

Song Zhongping, a military expert, told the nationalistic tabloid Global Times the howitzer has 52-caliber cannon with a range of over 50 kilometres and shoots laser-guided and satellite-guided projectiles.

“It will boost the high-altitude combat capability of the PLA in Tibet,” Song said.

“As part of military training in 2019, an artillery brigade in the Tibet Military Command ordered soldiers to take part in a military skills competition at a training ground on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 3,700 meters above sea level,” the report said.

Video from the China News Service on Sunday shows soldiers engaged in military boxing, standstill shooting and firing in motion, as well as assembling guns on the snowfields to improve their attack capability.

The information about the new deployment comes within days of President Xi Jinping commanding China’s armed forces to be ready for combat and be prepared for unexpected crisis and war.

The armed forces should have enhanced awareness of danger, crisis and war, Xi told a meeting of the central military commission (CMC), the top military organisation in the country of which he is the chairperson.

The deployment is not to provoke neighbours but defensive in nature, Zhao Gancheng, director of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies told the Global Times.

China has either deployed or plans to induct cutting-edge weaponry for its land border troops to use.

Last August, China said it was building rockets for its artillery brigades that will be propelled by the “electromagnetic catapult” technology and can be used in the high altitude plateaus of the TAR.

Calling the innovation “unprecedented”, the report said the catapult-propelled rockets, which can hit targets beyond 200 km, will be more powerful and effective than conventional artillery guns.

Posted in border, cannon, China alert, India alert, Tibet, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

08/01/2019

China smartphone shipments seen down 12-15.5 percent last year – market data

(Reuters) – Smartphone shipments in China fell between 12-15.5 percent last year, market data indicated, suggesting a bleak outlook for the sector at a time when behemoths Apple (AAPL.O) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) have already issued dour forecasts.

China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a research institute under the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said shipments dropped 15.5 percent to roughly 390 million units for the year, with a 17 percent slump in December.

Market research firm Canalys estimates shipments fell 12 percent in China last year and expects smartphone shipments in 2019 to dip below 400 million for the first time since 2014.

The Chinese smartphone market, the world’s largest, could shrink another 3 percent this year, Canalys said, in what would be a third straight year of declines. Smartphone shipments in the country had fallen 4 percent in 2017.

Shipments are the number of smartphones that manufacturers deliver to retailers and carriers, different from sales that happen when customers actually buy these smartphones.

The plunge in Chinese shipments expected in 2018 could lead to a 1 percent contraction in the global smartphone market, Canalys said.

Apple triggered a selloff in global markets last week after it took the rare step of cutting its quarterly sales forecast citing slowing iPhone sales in China.

China boasts the world’s biggest smartphone market, but a slowing economy, exacerbated by a trade war with the United States, has seen demand for gadgets drop across the tech sector.

TuanAnh Nguyen, a Singapore-based analyst for Canalys, told Reuters that China was now a fully mature market and lengthening refresh cycles for smartphones would be the new normal.

“Weaker economic growth and lower consumer confidence will likely hit the premium segment well into the first half of 2019,” Nguyen said.

“Apple certainly was the biggest victim of this trend, with added effects from the fact that it’s lagging behind local competitors in innovation and attractive pricing,” he said.

Apple rival and supplier Samsung on Tuesday estimated that its fourth-quarter earnings plunged 29 percent and that profitability would remain subdued in the current quarter due to weak demand for its memory chips.

Also, Samsung’s display business is struggling due to the lack of growth of its own devices as well as worse-than-expected performance of Apple’s X/XS/XS Max iPhone series, Nguyen said.

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Chinese firms Huawei and Xiaomi (1810.HK) are challenging Samsung’s dominance in many key markets, he added.

Huawei dominates the Chinese market, where the once-market leading Korean firm is now nearly a bit player.

Samsung controls over a fifth of the global market, followed by Huawei, which has a 14-percent market share, Canalys said.

Posted in China alert, shipments, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

08/01/2019

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un visits China’s Xi Jinping

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju as they prepare to leave for China from Pyongyang, North Korea, 7 January 2019Image copyrightEPA
Image captionMr Kim is visiting China with his wife Ri Sol-ju, state media report

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has arrived in Beijing for an unannounced visit, at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Mr Kim will be in China until 10 January with his wife Ri Sol-ju, according to state media reports.

The visit comes amid reports that negotiations are under way for a second summit between Mr Kim and US President Donald Trump.

The two met last June, the first such meeting for a sitting US president.

Speculation had grown on Monday that Mr Kim was possibly making his way to China after South Korea’s Yonhap news reported that a North Korean train had been seen crossing the border.

Dozens of security vehicles and officials blocked roads around the train station in the border town of Dandong.

Hotel guests in Dandong had also not been allowed to enter rooms that faced the border, with news outlet Kyodo calling this an “apparent move to prevent the train from being seen”.

A vehicle that is part of a motorcade that is believed to be carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un makes its way through central BeijingImage copyrightREUTERS

Both countries’ media confirmed the visit on Tuesday morning. Mr Kim’s distinctive green and yellow train arrived at a station in Beijing later in the day.

The train, the same one used during Mr Kim’s first visit to China, resembles the one used by his father Kim Jong-il during his visits to China and Russia in 2011.

A motorcade with heavy security was later seen driving through central Beijing.

A train believed to be carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrives at Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, China January 8, 2019.Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionMr Kim travelled to Beijing on his distinctive personal train

Mr Kim’s visit, during which he is being accompanied by several leading North Korean officials, is his fourth to China in less than a year.

Tuesday is also reportedly Mr Kim’s 35th birthday, though his date of birth has never been confirmed by Pyongyang.

China is an important diplomatic ally for North Korea, and one of its main sources of trade and aid.

“[Mr] Kim is eager to remind the Trump administration that he does have diplomatic and economic options besides what Washington and Seoul can offer,” Harry J Kazianis, director of defence studies at the Centre for the National Interest told Reuters.

Images of Xi Jinping with Kim Jong Un, are displayed at a newspaper stand in Beijing on March 28, 2018Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionMr Kim’s first visit to China came in March last year

Mr Kim, unusually, did not meet Mr Xi for the first six years of his leadership of North Korea.

But last year, he visited China three times. None of the trips was announced in advance.

The BBC’s Laura Bicker in Seoul says two of the trips, which took place ahead of the historic summits with the South Korean leader Moon Jae-in and Mr Trump, were seen by some as a chance to co-ordinate strategy.

The latest three-day visit, our correspondent says, is likely to fuel speculation that a second US-North Korean summit will take place soon.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump said a location for another meeting between the two would be announced in the not-too-distant-future.

Mr Trump told reporters in Washington DC that “a good dialogue” was taking place with North Korea, but that sanctions on Pyongyang would remain in place.

In his annual new year’s speech last week, Mr Kim said he was committed to denuclearisation, but warned that he would change course if US sanctions remained.

Diplomatic progress between Mr Trump and Mr Kim has stalled since the Singapore summit. Both parties signed a pledge at the time to denuclearise the Korean peninsula, though it was never clear what this would entail.

Posted in China alert, Kim Jong-un, President Xi, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

08/01/2019

Slight Chinese nurse saves heavyweight patient from hospital window leap attempt

  • Patient struggled and tried to bite her as she clung on to his arm for eight minutes until help arrived
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 08 January, 2019, 5:40pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 08 January, 2019, 5:40pm

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A slightly-built female nurse managed to hang on to a heavyweight patient as he dangled out of a 13th floor hospital window while struggling to escape her grasp.

Nurse Dong Jing grabbed the 80kg (176 pounds) man’s arm and held on to him for eight minutes until rescuers arrived at the hospital in Liaoning province, northeastern China.

The 52-year-old patient, a farmer surnamed Fu, smashed the window with a chair and was grabbed by Dong – who weighs around 50kg (110 pounds) and is less than 160cm tall (5ft 2in) tall – as he jumped out.

Colleagues and patients in the ward rushed to her aid but all they could do was apply their own weight to Dong as she held on to the man with her right hand through the 50cm (19.6 inches) window space until security guards and police arrived.

The man, who was around 178cm (5ft 8in) tall, tried to break free from Dong’s grip, making several attempts to bite her arm, according to the Liaoshen Evening Newspaper.

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“He tore three buttons off my undergarments with his teeth. Any longer, and it would have been too late,” Dong said.

“I’m not very strong. I was able to hold on to him, not because of my strength, but the conviction that I could not let him go,” she told local media.

“Although I’m a girl, there was only one thought in my mind: to save a life.”

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Dong, who has been a nurse at the General Hospital of Mining Industry Group Fuxin in Liaoning for 12 years, couldn’t feel anything in her swollen right arm after the incident, and was diagnosed with nerve injury.

Feng Chunwei, the hospital’s chief orthopaedic surgeon, said Dong’s recovery from the brachial plexus injury would take time, and that she would be monitored for the next three months.

Surgery was not ruled out if she did not recover in that time.

Although her heroic act may leave its mark on her right arm, Dong told local media she did not regret her actions.

“As long as I held on, there was a possibility he could live,” she said.

According to local media reports, the man had been under pressure after his wife passed away due to illness, leaving him to care for their disabled child.

Posted in China alert, heavyweight, Hospital, leap, nurse, Patient, Uncategorized, window | Leave a Comment »

08/01/2019

China to expand investment in civil aviation sector in 2019

BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) — China’s civil aviation regulator said Monday that the country aimed to expand its fixed-asset investment in the civil aviation sector to 85 billion yuan (about 12.41 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019.

This was compared with 81 billion yuan made in 2018, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Total transport turnover of the country’s civil aviation industry was expected to rise 11.8 percent year-on-year to 136 billion tonne-kilometers in 2019, said Feng Zhenglin, head of the CAAC, at a work conference.

Passenger transport volume as well as cargo and mail transport volume are likely to increase 11 percent and 5.7 percent respectively this year, according to the CAAC.

Feng said the civil aviation industry had made remarkable achievements last year, with the total transport turnover up 11.4 percent year-on-year to 120.64 billion tonne-kilometers.

In 2018, 167 new international flight routes were launched, with 105 of them linking domestic cities with countries along the Belt and Road, taking number of China’s total flight routes to 4,206.

Efforts will be made to push forward the construction of Beijing’s new international airport and ensure its opening to air traffic at the end of September this year, Feng said.

He said as of the end of 2018, 55.49 billion yuan had been invested Beijing Daxing International Airport. The new airport is expected to handle 45 million passengers annually by 2021 and 72 million by 2025.

Posted in China alert, Civil aviation, Investment, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

08/01/2019

Chinese vice president to attend WEF annual meeting in Davos

BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) — Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan will visit Switzerland and attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos from Jan. 21 to 24, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced Monday.

Wang is making the visit and attending WEF annual meeting at the invitation of Ueli Maurer, president of Swiss Confederation, and WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab, spokesperson Lu Kang said.

During his attendance at the WEF annual meeting, Wang will deliver a speech, meet with Schwab, and exchange views with those attending the meeting, Lu said at a press briefing.

Responding to external views and comments on the economic situation in China, Lu said that China’s economy has on the whole maintained stable performance and is making progress.

Lu said that in spite of external uncertainties and unstable factors, the positive momentum of China’s economy over the long run will remain unchanged, as China enjoys “enough resilience and great potential” for its development.

“We are strongly confident about the positive momentum of China’s economic fundamentals over the long run, as well as achieving the goal of maintaining a medium-high rate of growth while advancing toward a medium-high level of development,” he added.

At the upcoming WEF annual meeting, Wang will further expound on China’s views and propositions about its development, economic globalization, and other major international issues, according to the spokesperson.

“We welcome all parties to work with China, based on the principle of seeking shared benefits via extensive consultation and joint contribution, to advance an open world economy and the common development of humanity,” Lu said.

Posted in China alert, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

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