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.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
BEIJING, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) — A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Friday applauded the Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid’s remarks that the Maldives will continue to work with China under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Shahid on Thursday said in an interview that the Maldivian new government will continue with the projects initiated in the Maldives under the China-proposed BRI.
Spokesperson Hua Chunying told a press briefing that Shahid’s remarks showcased the willingness of the Maldivian new government to develop bilateral ties.
Hua said China and the Maldives have promoted cooperation on the construction of bridges, airports, housing and other projects related to people’s livelihoods based on mutual respect and equal treatment, which has played a positive role in promoting the economic transformation and upgrading of the Maldives and improving people’s living conditions.
The China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, which opened to traffic in August, has not only facilitated the interconnection of infrastructure in the Maldives but also brought tangible benefits and improved lives of local people, said the spokesperson.
China is ready to work with the Maldivian new government to consolidate traditional friendship, better dovetail development strategies, further bilateral pragmatic cooperation and push forward mutual beneficial and win-win cooperation under the framework of the BRI, so as to constantly enrich the China-Maldives Future-Oriented All-round Friendly and Cooperative Partnership, Hua said.
HIVARGAON/MUJAHIDPUR, India (Reuters) – A spike in the price of onions has led to the ouster of governments in Indian elections in the past. Now, prices of the staple have collapsed, and many impoverished farmers are saying they will make Prime Minister Narendra Modi pay in next year’s general election.
Steep drops in recent weeks in the prices of onions and potatoes, both staple foods for India’s 1.3 billion people, have badly hit the rural economy in large states.
In interviews with dozens of farmers last week, Reuters reporters found resentment welling against Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not helping support incomes in the countryside, where a majority of the population lives.
“Whatever they do in the coming months, I will vote against the BJP. I won’t repeat the 2014 mistake,” said Madhukar Nagare, an onion grower from Nashik in Maharashtra state, referring to his backing the BJP at the last general election.
In the 1998 state elections, a sharp spike in onion prices led to the fall of the BJP government in the capital New Delhi.
In the 1980 general election, sky-high onion prices helped former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi dislodge a coalition government that had included politicians who later formed the BJP.
In recent weeks, loss-stricken farmers have staged protests, blocked highways and dumped onions on the road after prices plunged to as low as one rupee (1.4 U.S. cents) per kg for a crop that costs about 8 rupees a kg to produce.
But because of large cuts taken by middlemen, consumers have not benefited from the low prices.
In Maharashtra, the top onion producing state, farm prices have fallen 83 percent, dragged down by surplus supplies from the previous season’s crop and lower export orders from the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
And in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, which was crucial in Modi’s election win in 2014, there is a similar problem with low potato prices.
Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are both dominated by rural voters and together send 128 lawmakers to the 545-member lower house of parliament. It means that big losses in these two states could either see Modi lose the next election which is due by May or his party be forced to form a coalition government. Farmers say shortcomings in a government crop support programme, and weak overseas demand have combined to produce the current glut of onions. And as prices have plunged, fertiliser and crop nutrient costs have risen, thanks in part to a weak rupee.
Perhaps most important of all, the BJP came into office in 2014 determined to shift away from subsidies. That may have been fine when crop prices were relatively high but as they crashed it has exposed the party in farm areas.
The prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
NOT “GOOD DAYS”
Many farmers blame Modi for not fixing a price protection programme which barely covers 7 percent of India’s 263 million farmers, leaving most growers at the mercy of middlemen.
They also criticize him for not setting up more food processing and cold storage facilities, which would allow them to store their crops without having to sell immediately after the harvest.
“Expecting good days, as promised by Modi, we voted for the BJP, but now we are going through the worst phase,” onion farmer Madhav Pawase said, pointing to his rotting crop stocked in a temporary shed in Hivargaon village, about 230 km (140 miles) northeast of Mumbai, India’s financial hub.
“I’ve spent more than 80,000 rupees to produce 15 tonnes of onions from my two acres of land, but I won’t recover more than 3,000 rupees at the current market price,” he said.
Some farmers have decided to let onions rot in the field, saying that harvesting and transporting the produce to wholesale markets would only add to their losses.
A farmer sits on a tractor trolley after auctioning his onions at Lasalgaon market in Nashik in the western state of Maharashtra, India, December 19, 2018. REUTERS/Rajendra Jadhav
The BJP was defeated by the opposition Congress party in three major states in local elections this month because of rural anger, and Modi’s government is under pressure to come up with measures to placate farmers.
Congress wrote off farmers’ loans in the three states which it won and has demanded the federal government do the same across the country.
Although the BJP has so far not commented on the issue of farm loan waivers, Rajiv Kumar, the head of government think-tank NITI Aayog, has said that writing off debt is not the solution for the problems of the farm sector.
Syed Zafar Islam, a spokesman for the BJP, said the government had initiated a number of steps to help farmers get remunerative prices, including a project to electronically provide farmers with real-time market prices and help them directly sell to buyers, eliminating middlemen.
“It’s an ongoing process and the results will not just start reflecting in four years,” he said.
In a sign that the Modi administration is beginning to take the crisis seriously, the government on Friday doubled export incentives for onion farmers to 10 percent.
The move will result in better prices for onions in the domestic market, the government said in a statement.
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POTATO PRICES
In Mujahidpur village of Uttar Pradesh, India’s biggest potato growing state, farmers lamented that prices have dropped by 86 percent to 2,500 rupees a tonne.
“I lost my entire investment of 100,000 rupees to grow potatoes on one hectare,” said Gopi Chand, 55, sitting next to bright yellow mustard fields.
He said he and some other farmers in the area had dumped potatoes in favour of growing mustard.
Farmers in the two states also complained of rising operating costs.
Prices of crop nutrient diammonium phosphate, popularly called DAP, have gone up by 400 rupees to 1,450 rupees for a bag of 50 kg, said Babloo Singh in Mujahidpur village. DAP rates have gone up because of higher overseas prices and India’s weaker currency.
“Higher input costs and record low potato prices have left us in deep debt,” said Singh. “The situation would have been different had there been more cold storage facilities and food processing plants in our state.”
The crash in vegetable prices hasn’t helped consumers either thanks to the chain of middlemen.
In Lasalgaon, the country’s largest onion trading hub, most farmers are selling their produce at 2 rupees a kg. But consumers in Mumbai are still shelling out 20 rupees. Between Lasalgaon and Mumbai, a distance of 220 km (135 miles), traders say onions pass through at least four layers of middlemen, adding a hefty margin at every stage.
India’s assistance to Bhutan’s 12th plan, which runs from 2018 to 2023, would conform to its needs and priorities.
Statesman News Service | New Delhi | December 28, 2018 7:44 pm
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bhutan Prime Minister Dr. Lotay Tshering, during delegation level talks at Hyderabad House, in New Delhi on December 28, 2018. (Photo: IANS/PIB)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced that India would contribute Rs 4,500 crore to Bhutan’s 12th five-year plan as the two countries decided to enhance cooperation in hydro-power and other key sectors.
India’s assistance to Bhutan’s 12th plan, which runs from 2018 to 2023, would conform to its needs and priorities, Modi said at a joint media interaction with his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering after wide-ranging talks between the two leaders.
Tshering is on his maiden overseas visit after assuming the office in November, reflecting the importance his government attaches to ties with India. Bhutan had solidly backed India during its military stand-off with China at Doklam in June last year.
Noting that the collaboration in hydro projects has been an important part in the long history of cooperation between India and Bhutan, Modi said work on the Mangghe-Descchu project was going to be completed soon. The tariff of this project has also been agreed upon between the two sides. Work on other projects was also making satisfactory progress, he added.
Modi said he was happy to learn that the Bhutan Government has decided to launch RuPay Cards soon and expressed confidence that this would lead to strengthening people-to-people relations. He said he had assured the Bhutanese leader that India would, as always, play the role of a trusted partner and friend in the development of Bhutan.
On his part, Tshering noted that Prime Minister Modi was the first head of government to congratulate him on his electoral victory. He also thanked India for its continued support to his country’s developmental needs.
He said the purpose of his visit was to take India-Bhutan relations to much greater heights. India and Bhutan were celebrating the golden jubilee of bilateral ties and it should be their endeavour to score a century, double century, and triple century in taking this relationship forward.
He was hopeful that India would come to the rescue of Bhutanese businessmen who had been affected due to the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India.
Earlier in the day, Tshering was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also called on the Bhutanese PM.
Flights of Dutch carrier KLM, Taiwan’s Eva Air and the US-based National Airlines were involved in the incident, an official said. The incident happened in the Delhi Flight Information Region (FIR).
In a rare incident, three planes of three foreign airlines, carrying hundreds of passengers, came perilously close in the Delhi flight information region and collisions were averted after multiple auto generated warnings and intervention from ATC, an official said Friday.(Reuters/Representative Image)
In a rare incident, three planes of three foreign airlines, carrying hundreds of passengers, came perilously close in the Delhi flight information region and collisions were averted after multiple auto generated warnings and intervention from ATC, an official said Friday.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has started a probe into the incident, which happened on December 23.
Flights of Dutch carrier KLM, Taiwan’s Eva Air and the US-based National Airlines were involved in the incident, the official said.
The incident happened in the Delhi Flight Information Region (FIR).
An FIR refers to a specified airspace where flight information and alerting services are provided. Generally, an FIR can be land and sea territory as well as any international airspace as defined under global norms.
According to the official, at the time of the incident, National Airlines’ flight NCR 840 was on its way to Hong Kong from Bagram in Afghanistan while the KLM Flight KLM 875 was heading to Bangkok from Amsterdam. The Eva Air flight EVA 061 was flying to Vienna from Bangkok, the official said. “First it was NCR 840, which was flying at flight level 310 (31,000 ft) and EVA 061 at flight level 320 (32,000 ft) which breached mandatory separation. The pilots of both the aircraft were alerted by the onboard TCAS warning system,” the official said.
Around the same time, the KLM flight was at 33,000 ft, he added.
Following the TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) warning, the pilot of NCR 840 sought to climb to 35,000 feet but was told to remain at that current level till the time it gets a go-ahead. “However, when the air traffic controller (ATC) observed it climbing, it was immediately asked to take a left turn. In the meantime, EVA also continued climbing at flight level 330, a level at which KLM was already flying, and at this time, another TCAS warning went off, alerting the pilots to steer the aircraft to a safer distance,” the official said.
As the NCR 840 again descended to flight level 330, it came across the EVA flight , triggering another TCAS alarm, the official said.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionMaking pornographic material or sharing it is illegal in India
A troubling trend of rape videos going viral in India has led many to believe that smartphones and easy access to violent porn, coupled with a lack of sex education, could fuel sexual violence. The BBC’s Divya Arya reports.
Earlier this year, a video showing a group of teenage boys trying to rip the clothes off a young woman was shared extensively on WhatsApp in India.
In it, she is urging them to stop, using the term “bhaiyya” (Hindi for brother) but they are jeering, laughing, clearly enjoying themselves.
As the video went viral, police were able to establish that it was filmed in a village in the northern state of Bihar. The accused teenagers were arrested.
The arrests caused anxiety in their village in Jehanabad, a four-hour drive from the state capital Patna, where village elders blamed the entire incident on smartphones.
Making pornographic material or sharing it is illegal in India.
But even as it becomes easier to access pornography thanks to cheap data and smartphones, there is concern that this isn’t being accompanied by any meaningful understanding of sex and relationships.
Local boys in the village freely admitted to the BBC that they watched videos of molestation and rape. One 16-year-old said he had seen more than 25 such videos, adding that his friends often shared them on their smartphones.
“Most boys in my class watch these videos together or sometimes by themselves,” another boy said. “It feels fine because everyone does it.”
Experts say this kind of introduction to sex is typical for many Indian men.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionWhatsApp is the medium often used to share such videos
“We have not grown up being given sex education or having normal adult conversations about these things,” says filmmaker and writer Paromita Vohra. She runs the website Agents of Ishq (Romance), which encourages open discussions about sex.
“When people only watch violent sexual content, it is very desensitising because they start believing that violence is the only way to get pleasure and that female consent is unimportant.”
India has 400 million smartphone users, and more than half of them use WhatsApp, which is the medium often used to share such videos.
In a statement to the BBC, WhatsApp said: “These horrendous rape videos and child pornography have no place on our platform. That’s why we’ve made it easy to report problems like these so we can take appropriate action, including banning accounts. We also respond to valid legal requests from law enforcement in India to help them investigate crimes.”
Porn ban
Concerned after a case in which some young men gang-raped a schoolgirl after allegedly watching porn on their mobile phones, a court in the northern state of Uttarakhand asked the federal government to reinstate a 2015 ban imposed by the Supreme Court on websites hosting violent pornography.
It had been revoked almost instantly due to widespread protest.
The ban only applies to some 800 websites that contain violent or abusive videos. This does not seem to have had much impact though.
Within days of being blocked, one of the largest pornography websites had already set up a mirror site with a different URL for its Indian market.
Many believe it is the lack of sex education that is fuelling the appetite for violent and misogynistic videos. Often, there is no deeper understanding of what a sexual relationship or experience should be for both men and women.
This is something the government tried to change in 2009, when it began its Adolescent Education Programme (AEP). It sought to address changes in adolescence and dispel myths about gender, sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases and drug abuse.
But implementing the programme remains a challenge. At an all-girls school in Jehanabad for instance, the principal had never heard of it.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionMany say it is the lack of sex education that is behind the proliferation of violent videos
Huge market
Sunita Krishnan, the founder of Prajwala, an organisation in the southern city of Hyderabad that deals with issues of sexual violence and trafficking says these violent videos reinforce the old belief that a woman’s choice is insignificant and she has no agency.
Ms Krishnan, a rape survivor herself, has also received such videos and has been campaigning to check their spread. In fact, the 2015 Supreme Court ban on porn sites was a result of her efforts.
Even though she has managed to get a few of these videos taken down, she says it can be near impossible to completely erase something from the internet.
Ranjeet Ranjan, who is one of only three women amongst Bihar’s 40 MPs, says the lack of concern about such videos is alarming.
“No-one really cares. If people had even a little respect for these girls, they would have gone to the police station instead of sharing such videos,” she said.
Ms Ranjan is also concerned by what she sees as “a competition” to make such videos.
“If these continue to circulate and we have no sex education, then it will embolden the thinking that a woman should be treated as an object, a source of entertainment.”
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s new curbs on e-commerce companies may not be enough to win over small store owners and traders in next year’s general election, with the key voting bloc still seething over what it sees as broken promises by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
From Feb. 1, e-commerce firms such as Amazon.com and Walmart-owned Flipkart Group will not be able to sell products from companies in which they have an equity interest or form exclusive agreements with sellers.
Intended to prevent predatory pricing and deep discounting, the curbs follow intense lobbying by India’s many millions of small shopkeepers and the middlemen who serve them, particularly after Walmart this year spent $16 billion to acquire Flipkart.
The sector, which includes an estimated 25 million small store owners, largely supported Modi in the 2014 general election. While seeing the new rules as a step in the right direction, many small businesses feel too much damage has been done after Modi went back on promises that he would not allow the entry of foreign companies into the domestic retail sector.
“We clapped and voted for Modi believing in his promises. But what have we got is just a slap on our face,” said Pankaj Revri, president of a furniture market association in central Delhi.
The curbs, announced on Wednesday, surprised foreign e-commerce firms as little had been done by the government despite over three years of lobbying by domestic retailers.
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is widely viewed as panicking after losing five state elections this month. The government, which must hold a general election by May, is also expected to come up with new support programs for farmers as their opposition grows due to low crop prices.
An opinion poll by TV channel ABP News this week predicted Modi’s party could fall short of a majority if the opposition forms an effective alliance in the national election.
EARNINGS HALVED
B.C. Bhartia, president of the Confederation of All India Traders, said some small businesses had seen earnings more than halve in the last few years as they struggle to compete with low prices offered by the American-controlled behemoths.
“The last minute policy change is too little and too late,” he said.
In particular, retailers and traders believe Modi turned a blind eye to what they say was the use of policy loopholes by major e-commerce companies to offer heavy discounts that allowed them to seize market share for goods such as electronic items.
Asked about those accusations, Amazon India said in a statement that it had always operated “in compliance with the laws of the land” and that had more than 400,000 small and medium businesses on its marketplace.
Flipkart declined to comment on the specific allegations.
Small Indian businesses have also been bruised by other Modi policies, including a sudden ban on the use of high-value currency notes in late 2016 and the launch of a national sales tax in 2017, both of which raised compliance costs.
Bhartia said if the government was serious about the concerns of small traders, it should prosecute violators of trade rules and appoint an independent regulator to curb malpractice.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Flipkart is seen on the company’s office in Bengaluru, India, May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Abhishek N. Chinnappa
A government official told reporters on Thursday the administration could consider demands for a regulator in its new e-commerce policy, expected to be released in the coming months.
A September report by PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated online commerce in India would grow 25 percent a year for next five years, hitting $100 billion a year by 2022.
The new curbs could harm those growth prospects and discourage some foreign investors, said investment consultants.
“Sentiment is definitely hurt,” said Harminder Sahni of retail consultant Wazir Advisors, adding that the policy suggested online retail business should only be done by Indians.
Amazon said in its statement it was evaluating the new guidelines to engage as necessary with the government so it could remain true to its vision of “transforming how India buys and sells and generating significant direct and indirect employment.”
Flipkart said the advent of e-commerce had created hundreds of thousands of jobs and “the industry was set to be a major growth driver for the Indian economy and create millions of jobs in the future.”
Exclusive: Foxconn to make iPhones in India-source
“It is important that a broad market-driven framework through the right consultative process be put in place in order to drive the industry forward,” it added.
The government boasts of attracting nearly $223 billion foreign investment in the last four years, compared with about $152 billion in the previous four years.
A request for 10 pumps of 100 HP, survey teams to detect seepage and other assistance from state-owned Coal India was made by the district administration in a letter to the state government on December 20, but the corporation received the communication only on December 26.
An Odisha team left on Friday morning in a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force with 20 high-power pumps to assist in rescue operation in Meghalaya for 15 miners trapped for past 15 days.(Photo courtesy Fire Department , Odisha)
A 21-member team of Odisha Fire Services, on board an Indian Air Force plane, has landed in Guwahati on way to Meghalaya with high-powered dewatering pumps to assist local authorities in a fresh attempt to rescue the 15 miners, trapped in a flooded illegal coal mine in Ksan village of East Jaintia Hills district for the last fortnight.
The team has approximately another 200 km to go by road through hilly terrain before they reach the site of accident .
With chances of their rescue becoming bleaker by the day, the Union ministry of home affairs on Thursday sought the help of Odisha Fire Services for sending its team of experienced professionals.
Director general of fire service and commandant general, home guards and director civil defence BK Sharma said the team led by chief fire officer Sukanta Sethi left on Friday morning in a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force with 20 high-power pumps.
“Each of the pumps can dewater 1,600 litres of water a minute and we hope the miners can be rescued. We are one of the few states that is experienced in handling such calamities. We could have gone much earlier, but the request from MHA came yesterday (Thursday),” said Sharma.
Watch:Rescue operations underway for 15 miners trapped in flooded Meghalaya mine
With time running out for the miners, the Odisha team could have left on Thursday evening but could not as the Shillong airport does not have night landing facilities.
This is the first time that the fire services team would test their skills in a coal mine filled with water. The fire services department has taken part in rescue operations in others states in the past as well.
In August this year, a team of 240 fire service personnel from Odisha had helped in the rescue operation of flood-affected people in Kerala. The team not just saved hundreds of people, including patients and disabled, they also rescued domestic animals like cows, goats and pets like dogs.
In 2014 too, the Odisha fire service personnel had earned praise for their commendable job in the relief and rescue operations in Andhra Pradesh during Cyclone Hudhud.
Efforts stepped up
The state government has been criticised for the tardy rescue operation in the Saipung area of the northeastern state due to the festive season. All that the rescue officials in Meghalaya have recovered so far are three helmets.
The efforts to pump out water from the mine stopped on Monday as the available machines were ineffective and stronger ones were needed.
A request for 10 pumps of 100 HP, survey teams to detect seepage and other assistance from state-owned Coal India was made by the district administration in a letter to the state government on December 20, but the corporation received the communication for assistance from Shillong only on December 26.
On Thursday, an assessment team from Kirloskar Pumps (KBL) in Kolkata arrived at the remote site on Thursday evening after a request by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, whose party is in the opposition in Meghalaya.
A Coal India team arrived in Shillong on Thursday and will visit the site on Friday for assessment. JK Borah, general manager, North Eastern Coalfields said “seven pumps have been mobilised by Coal India.” Officials said moving the other equipment to the site of the accident will take another three to four days.
Rescue teams at the site said that a foul smell emanating from the water on Wednesday reported by one of the divers was in all likelihood because of stagnation when the operation was suspended on Christmas Day.
“It has been fourteen days now. The chances of the trapped miners surviving are very slim,” acting additional district magistrate SS Syiemlieh said on Thursday.
The miners have been missing after the illegal coal mine they were digging collapsed on them in the coal-rich East Jaintia Hills, an area where illegal mining is rife and a National Green Tribunal ban on such activities has been in place for four years.
Meghalaya has nearly 640 million tonnes of coal reserves. Mining of coal by hand has been going on in Meghalaya for over 150 years, mostly for local use. Large-scale illegal and indiscriminate mining of the coal by private landowners and the local community started nearly three decades ago.
Most of these mines employ minors, some from neighbouring states and Nepal as well; the miners work many metres underground in unsafe conditions, mining coal with their bare hands.
This isn’t the first accident involving an illegal mine in the state.
In February 2014, four miners were killed when the walls of an illegal mine collapsed in Garo Hills. In December 2013, five miners died when the cable of the contraption which was carrying them down to an illegal mine in Jaintia Hills broke. In July 2012, 15 miners drowned in an illegal mine in Garo Hills when an underground stream flowing near the mine flooded it.
If successful, India would be the fourth nation to achieve the feat after the US, Russia and China.
SNS Web | New Delhi | December 28, 2018 4:19 pm
The mission would be launched using ISRO’s own capabilities. (Photo: isro.gov.in)
The Union Cabinet on Friday approved a budget of Rs 10,000 crore for an indigenous human spaceflight programme, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced.
The ambitious mission, dubbed “Gaganyaan”, will carry three Indian astronauts to space for seven days by 2022 at the estimated cost.
The project announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in August, on successful completion, will make India the fourth nation in the world to do so.
If successful, India would be the fourth nation to achieve the feat after the US, Russia and China.
The mission would be launched using ISRO’s own capabilities.
“Our country has been making a lot of progress in the area of space (science). When India celebrates its 75th Independence Day, or even before that, an Indian son or daughter will undertake a manned space mission on board ‘Gaganyaan’, carrying the national flag,” Modi had said from the Red Fort.
BEIJING (Reuters) – A third prototype of China’s home-built C919 narrowbody passenger jet completed its first test flight on Friday, its manufacturer said, in another step forward in the nation’s push to become a global civil aerospace player.
The C919, which will compete with Boeing Co’s (BA.N) 737 and the Airbus SE (AIR.PA) A320, is widely regarded as a symbol of China’s civil aerospace ambition and President Xi Jinping’s policy of upgrading manufacturing capabilities.
In a statement on its official microblog, Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd (COMAC) [CMAFC.UL] said the plane landed safely at Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 12:45 p.m. (0445 GMT), having flown for 1 hour and 38 minutes.
The jet will next fly to the city of Xian in central China for more test flights with a focus on aircraft flutter and airspeed calibration, the company said.
The second prototype of the C919 jet conducted its first flight in December 2017, seven months after the maiden flight of the first C919.
COMAC said it is assembling a further three prototypes, and that all six will be scheduled to conduct flight tests next year.
The C919 has dozens of customers that have placed orders and commitments for 815 jets.
COMAC is aiming to obtain certification for the plane from Chinese regulators by the end of 2020, as well as Europe’s aviation safety regulator, which agreed in April to start the certification process.
Local suspicions over Changsha plant heightened by failure to officially announce the plans until one day before public consultation process was due to end
The protesters fear that radioactive materials used at the planned facility in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, will pose a health risk.
The institute behind the project did not officially release their plans on Tuesday – after work had began on the site and one day before the public consultation period was supposed to end.
An environmental impact assessment into the project said Number 230 Research Institute, a branch of the China National Nuclear Corporation, had acquired a space of over 20,000 square metres near a densely populated area to expand its offices and laboratories at the site, which will be dedicated to the geological exploration of uranium.
Although the facility is not intended to handle refined uranium, and scientists say that unprocessed material does not emit harmful levels of radiation, residents have expressed concerns about the possible health risks and have called for building work to be halted.
Their concerns were heightened by the failure to carry out an assessment of the radiological hazards and the decision to announce the plans a day before the consultation period was due to end.
Wu Xiaosha, one of the protesters, said people were also angry that the project is already being built without approval.
“The environmental impact assessment report lied about the population in the area – it said there are only 40,000 people in the area, but actually it’s nearly 250,000,” said Wu.
Yang Wenqiang, an official from the Changsha Urban Rural Planning Bureau, refused to comment on the matter, saying the government was holding an emergency meeting and will release a statement later.
In a public letter issued on Thursday, Luo Zheng, deputy head of the Xueshi subdistrict, said he had no idea what the project was planning to do and had asked the institute to explain its population estimate – a question it has not yet answered.
“As for what does this institute does and why should it be built here, I am very curious too,” said Luo.
He said he would visit related institutions to see how they operate and how they evaluate the risks.
Environmental concerns have fuelled a growing number of protests in China in recent years as public awareness of the possible health risks increases.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reported that half of protests with more than 10,000 participants between 2001 and 2013 were sparked by concerns about pollution.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 
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