13/06/2019
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbay Jeenbekov have a meeting at the presidential residence right after the Chinese president arrives in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, June 12, 2019. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
BISHKEK, June 12 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Kyrgyz counterpart, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, met here Wednesday evening, pledging joint efforts to promote bilateral ties.
Xi and Jeenbekov had a meeting at the presidential residence in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek right after the Chinese president arrived in the Central Asian country for a state visit and the 19th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.
Reflecting on the traditional friendship between the countries, the two heads of state discussed the future of bilateral relations with an in-depth exchange of views on issues of common concern.
Noting that it is his second visit to Kyrgyzstan in six years, Xi expressed the delight of visiting an old friend.
Substantial advances in bilateral ties have been made over the past 27 years since the establishment of the China-Kyrgyzstan diplomatic relationship, Xi said, highlighting the two sides’ strong political mutual trust, mutually beneficial economic cooperation, mutual reliance in security and close coordination in international affairs.
Xi expressed appreciation for Jeenbekov’s public remarks on safeguarding the China-Kyrgyzstan friendship on many occasions.
The Chinese side applauds Kyrgyzstan’s achievements in reform and development, and expects more progress of the country in safeguarding national stability and promoting economic development, Xi said.
China is ready to share experience in state governance with Kyrgyzstan to achieve common development and prosperity, Xi said, hailing the solid outcomes in the joint construction of the Belt and Road.
Xi called for concerted efforts to strive for more fruits in the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership to benefit the people of both countries.
The two sides, he said, should step up coordination within multilateral frameworks including the SCO and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, stick to multilateralism, and oppose protectionism and unilateralism, so as to contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.
Jeenbekov said he appreciates the great importance Xi attaches to bilateral relations. He expressed warm congratulations on the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and wished China greater achievements.
Recalling his attendance last week at a release ceremony for the Kyrgyz edition of the first volume of “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China,” Jeenbekov said the book is of great significance for Kyrgyzstan to learn from China’s experience and promote its own reform and development.
Jeenbekov stressed that Kyrgyzstan firmly supports the measures taken by the Chinese government in safeguarding peace and stability in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and cracking down on extremism. He also thanked China for its strong support and assistance to Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan, he said, values China’s influence in international affairs and is willing to deepen cooperation with China in various sectors within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, get on board the express train of China’s economic development, and push for leapfrog development of bilateral relations.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in Bishkek, China-Kyrgyzstan diplomatic relationship, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures, Kyrgyzstan, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Sooronbay Jeenbekov, Uncategorized |
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13/06/2019
- Findings support earliest record of cannabis use, written in 440BC
- Researchers speculate psychoactive THC had role in grim funeral rites
Researchers say their findings at a burial site in Xinjiang about cannabis use 2,500 years ago back up a Greek record written around 440BC. Photo: Handout
Scientists say a burial site in mountainous northwestern China contains evidence that cannabis smoke was used there as far back as 2,500 years ago, corroborating the earliest record of the practice, written by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus.
They said the evidence was found in a wooden bowl containing blackened stones unearthed at a Scythian cemetery in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Chemical analysis showed traces of THC – tetrahydrocannabinol – the potent psychoactive component in cannabis.
Yang Yimin, lead author of a paper published in the journal Science Advances on Thursday, said the discovery at Jirzankal Cemetery, close to the border of Tajikistan, Pakistan and India, was “jaw-dropping”.
Scythians were horseback warriors who roamed from the Black Sea across central Asia and into western China more than 2,000 years ago. Herodotus wrote in The Histories around 440BC that they used marijuana, the earliest written record of the practice.
Scientists in Xinjiang found hemp had been burned on stones inside these wooden bowls 2,500 years ago. Photo: Chinese Academy of Sciences and Max Planck Institute
“The Scythians take the seed of this hemp and … they throw it on the red-hot stones. It smoulders and sends forth so much steam that no Greek vapour-bath could surpass it.
The Scythians howl in their joy at the vapour-bath,” Herodotus wrote.
Yang, who led an international team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany and the University of Queensland, said that until now there was no evidence to back up the Greek historian’s account.
“There was never any archaeological proof to the claim. We thought – is this it?” Yang said.
The discovery posed a question for the research team: where would the plants have come from? While hemp was commonly found in many parts of the world and was used for fabric, cooking and medicine, most wild species contained only small amounts of THC.
Ruins of 2,000-year-old coin workshop found in central China’s Henan province
Yang and his colleagues speculated that the altitude, 3,000 metres (9,843 feet) above sea level, and strong ultraviolet radiation might have resulted in a potent plant strain with THC levels similar to those in marijuana today.
“From here it was selected, probably domesticated and then went to other parts of the world along ancient trade routes with the Scythian nomads, forming an enormous ring of culture that shared the ritual of smoking cannabis,” Yang said.
Archaeologists said the site, with its 40 circular mounds and marked by long strips of black and white stones, could have been a burial ground for tribal members, with human sacrifice and cannabis part of the last rites.
Researchers suspect a potent strain of cannabis grew close to the Xinjiang burial site. Photo: Chinese Academy of Sciences and Max Planck Institute
So the early pot party might not have been the kind of celebration Herodotus described, the study’s authors suggested.
While the Scythians might have been inhaling the smoke to try to communicate with the dead in the next world, evidence suggested that a sacrifice – perhaps a war captive or a slave – was struck repeatedly on the head with a sword and the body hacked to pieces nearby, the researchers said.
Source: SCMP
Posted in cannabis, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese scientists, evidence, first stoners, found, Germany, graveyard, Greek record, grim funeral rites, hemp, Henan province, Herodotus, human sacrifice, India alert, Jirzankal Cemetery, marijuana, Max Planck Institute, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Pakistan, psychoactive THC, Science Advances, Scythians, Tajikistan, tetrahydrocannabinol, ultraviolet radiation, Uncategorized, University of Queensland, vapour-bath, Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region |
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13/06/2019
- Firm is expected to go public in Hong Kong on Friday, with Zhang’s 68 per cent stake giving her a US$7.9 billion fortune
- She and husband Sun Piaoyang will join world’s richest pharmaceutical families, rivalling the Sacklers and Bertarellis
A technician loads containers on a rack at a Cyagen Biosciences facility in Jiangsu province, China, in March. Photo: Bloomberg
Zhong Huijuan quit her job teaching chemistry to teenagers and got into the drug business.
The career switch has paid off handsomely.
Her Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group, China’s largest maker of psychotropic drugs, is poised to go public on Friday in Hong Kong with a market value of US$10.4 billion. Zhong holds a 68 per cent stake, giving her a US$7.9 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Zhong, 58, is not even the richest person in the family. Her husband Sun Piaoyang, 60, is worth US$9.2 billion, thanks to the success of his Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine, a maker of anti-tumour drugs whose stock has returned about 16,300 per cent since it went public in Shanghai almost two decades ago.
Longfor Group Holdings Chairwoman Wu Yajun attends the company’s interim results announcement at the JW Marriott Hotel in Hong Kong in August 2016. Photo: May Tse
They are poised to be among the world’s richest pharmaceutical families, with a combined fortune that rivals the Sacklers, who made a fortune selling opioids, and the Bertarellis of Switzerland.
Health-care spending in China has surged to 5.9 trillion yuan (US$853 billion) last year from 3.5 trillion yuan in 2014, and is projected to top 9.4 trillion yuan in 2023, Hansoh said in a prospectus for the offering.
Cen Junda, a long-time investor of the Lianyungang, Jiangsu-based company, is also a billionaire with a stake valued at about US$1.7 billion.
Iris Luo, a spokeswoman for Hansoh, declined to comment on their fortunes.
Who is Yang Huiyan, China’s richest woman?
The IPO will make Zhong China’s third-richest woman, after two real estate moguls: Country Garden Holdings co-chairman Yang Huiyan, and Longfor Group Holdings
Chairwoman Wu Yajun, who are worth US$21.4 billion and US$9.9 billion, respectively.
Zhong graduated with an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Jiangsu Normal University in July 1982 and taught chemistry at Yan’an middle school in Lianyungang in the early 1990s, according to the website of All-China Women’s Foundation. She founded Hansoh in 1995.
The company, which researches and produces drugs for six major therapeutic areas, reported 1.9 billion yuan in profit in 2018, an 18 per cent increase from a year earlier, the prospectus shows. The drug maker gets almost half of its revenue from cancer treatments.
Country Garden Holdings co-chairman Yang Huiyan, who is worth US$21.4 billion, is China’s richest woman. Photo: Handout
“We believe its R&D will focus on making generics as soon as possible to take the first-mover advantage, a strategy many leading pharma companies applied in the past,” said Zhang Jialin, a Hong Kong-based analyst at ICBC International Research.
Hansoh’s cornerstone investors include Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, and Hillhouse Capital, Asia’s biggest private equity buyer, helping to draw more market interest in Friday’s IPO. Hengrui’s earlier success also may help bolster investor confidence in Hansoh.
“The synergies between Hengrui and Hansoh, particularly in R&D and distribution, will bring the latter advantages over industry competitors,” said Mia He, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.
Source: SCMP
Posted in All-China Women’s Foundation, Bertarellis, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, China’s richest woman, Country Garden Holdings, Ex-chemistry teacher, Hansoh, Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group, Hong Kong, Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine, Jiangsu Normal University, Jiangsu-based company, JW Marriott Hotel, Lianyungang, Longfor Group Holdings, Sacklers, Shanghai, third-richest woman, Uncategorized, Yang Huiyan, Zhong Huijuan |
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13/06/2019
- Han costumes are enjoying a renaissance across China, buoyed by a call to nationalism backed by President Xi Jinping
Women wear Han-style clothing in Beijing as part of April’s Traditional Chinese Costume Day celebration. Photo: AFP
Dressed in a flowing robe adorned with beaded floral embroidery from a bygone era, stylist Xiao Hang looks like she emerged from a time machine as she strides across the bustling Beijing metro, attracting curious glances and questions.
While China embraced Western fashion as its economy boomed in recent decades, now a growing number of young people like Xiao look to the past for their sartorial choices and have adopted hanfu, or Han clothing.
The costumes of the Han ethnic majority are enjoying a renaissance in part because the government is promoting traditional culture in an effort to boost patriotism and national identity.
Like the film, television and comic book productions that have inspired cosplay fans in the West, period dramas on Chinese TV have contributed to the surge in interest in traditional clothing. The Story of Minglan, a series set during the Song dynasty, attracted more than 400 million viewers over three days when it was first shown this year.
The success of television drama The Story Of Minglan this year reflects China’s interest in its Han heritage. Photo: Baidu
While each Han-dominated dynasty had its own style, hanfu outfits were generally characterised by loose, flowing robes with sleeves that reached the knees.
“When we were little, we would drape sheets and duvets around ourselves to pretend we were wearing beautiful clothes,” Xiao said.
Once a worker at a state-owned machine manufacturing company, Xiao now runs her own hanfu business, where she dresses customers for photo shoots and plans hanfu-style weddings.
The Hanfu fashion revival: ancient Chinese dress finds a new following
In modern China, the hanfu community includes history enthusiasts and anime fans, students and young professionals.
Yang Jiaming, a high school pupil in Beijing, wears his outfit under his school uniform.
“Two-thirds of my wardrobe are hanfu,” he said, decked out in a Tang-style beige gown and black boots, adding that his classmates and teachers were supportive of his fashion choices.
A government-supported revival in Chinese culture has energised the hanfu community. Since he entered office in 2012, President Xi Jinping has supported the promotion of a Han-centric vision of Chinese heritage.
Fans of traditional Chinese clothing dare to mix old and new, and hanfu is not the preserve of women. Photo: AFP
In April, the Communist Youth League of China launched a two-day conference celebrating traditional Chinese garb, which included hanfu and took in Traditional Chinese Costume Day.
A live broadcast of the event drew about 20 million viewers, alongside an outpouring of emotions.
“Chinese people have abandoned their own culture and chosen Western culture. The red marriage gown has now become a wedding dress,” wrote a user of Bilibili, a video-streaming platform popular among young anime, comic and gaming fans in China.
Clothes were the “foundation of culture”, said Jiang Xue, who is part of Beijing-based hanfu club Mowutianxia, which has received funding from the Communist Youth League.
“If we as a people and as a country do not even understand our traditional clothing or do not wear them, how can we talk about other essential parts of our culture?” she said.
Forget K-pop and US missiles, Korea is back in fashion with China thanks to live-stream shopping
The style has not yet gained mainstream acceptance in China.
In March, two students in Shijiazhuang Medical College, in northern Hebei province, were reportedly threatened with expulsion for wearing the outfits to class.
Others said they were put off by the reaction they got while wearing hanfu in public.
“I used to be very embarrassed to wear [hanfu] out,” screenwriter Cheng Xia said.
The 37-year-old said she overcame her reservations after going out dressed in a full outfit last year.
Meanwhile, the movement to revive Han ethnic clothing has prompted questions about nationalism and Han-ethnocentrism – a sensitive issue in China, where the government is wary of conflict between ethnic groups.
High school pupils and young children are drawn to China’s hanfu trend. Photo: AFP
For instance, within the hanfu community there is long-running opposition towards the qipao, the high-collared, figure-hugging garment that was once a staple of women’s wardrobes.
Known as cheongsam in Cantonese, the qipao – meaning “Qi robe” – began as a long, loose dress worn by the Manchu, or Qi people, who ruled China from the 17th century until the early 1900s.
Its popularity took off in 1920s Shanghai, when it was refashioned into a fitted must-have, favoured by actresses and intellectuals as a symbol of femininity and refinement.
“Some people … think that the cheongsam was inspired by the Qing dynasty, which is not enough to represent China. There are nationalist undertones in this issue,” Chinese culture scholar Gong Pengcheng said.
Master of a dying art: traditional dressmaker recalls golden era of cheongsam in Hong Kong
“It is a good trend to explore traditional culture and clothing culture … There are many things we can talk about, and we need not shrink to nationalist confrontation.”
Yang, the high school pupil, was more upbeat. He said: “At the very least, we can wear our own traditional clothes, just like the ethnic minorities.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in Beijing, cheongsam, Chinese clothing, Communist Party, Communist Youth League, Communist Youth League of China, Han clothing, Han costumes, Han ethnic clothing, Han ethnic majority, hanfu, Hebei province, Korea, Manchu, Mowutianxia, nationalism, President Xi Jinping, Qing Dynasty, qipao, renaissance, revival, Shanghai, Shijiazhuang Medical College, Song Dynasty, supports, Tang-style beige gown, The Story of Minglan, traditional, Traditional Chinese Costume Day, traditional Chinese garb, Uncategorized, Western culture |
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13/06/2019
- Chinese social media finds light relief in struggle over gaokao Question 12 in an American cafe
Video of a US middle school maths teacher trying to complete a mathematics question from a Chinese exam paper has been widely shared on Chinese social media. Photo: Weibo
A video of a US secondary school maths teacher comically trying – and failing – to complete a mathematics question from a Chinese gaokao exam paper has been widely shared on social media in China.
The video was shared on June 8 by an unidentified Chinese teacher working in the United States. It shows her friend, a US secondary school maths teacher, trying to solve a question from this year’s gaokao, the annual Chinese college entrance examination that has a reputation for difficulty, even by international standards.
The question was taken from section II of the natural sciences mathematics exam paper on the national level, which is generally a more challenging test given to students who select the science track.
“I heard this year’s gaokao maths questions are very difficult so I searched online and tried to solve one in a cafe. But it has been a long time, so I forgot how to solve it,” the Chinese teacher told online news platform Guancha Syndicate.
At that moment, the US maths teacher was sitting next to her and playing chess with his friends, “so I asked if he could help me solve a question, but that posed a big challenge for him”, she said.
In the video, the US teacher looks confused by question 12, a multiple choice question about functions. He reads it for three minutes, then starts to analyse and explain the steps to the Chinese teacher.
He first tries the method of substitution but fails and finally chooses D by exclusion.
The US secondary school maths teacher still doesn’t know his answer was wrong. Photo: Weibo
“I think it’s this one (option D), it’s matching, it’s D!,” the American teacher says confidently. Later in the video, the Chinese teacher explains, “He spent around seven to eight minutes on this question and finally chose D, so he should get it correct, shouldn’t he?”
However, the answer turned out to be B, much to the amusement of social media users. Posts about the video have been viewed 140 million times on microblogging site Weibo, and the video has been picked up by other Chinese news media.
Crunch time as gaokao exam season starts for China’s university hopefuls
Weibo users shared their views below the post, with comments such as, “Question 12 is usually the hardest one”; “these multiple choices should not take more than 50 seconds”; and “he would not be able to finish the whole paper at this speed”.
According to the Chinese teacher, her US friend still doesn’t know his answer was wrong.
“He just said the question is ‘worded really weird’ and he cannot clearly figure it out,” she said.
Source: SCMP
Posted in American cafe, Chinese exam paper, college entrance examination, gaokao, international standards, light relief, maths question, natural sciences mathematics exam paper, reputation, social media, struggles, stumped, Uncategorized, university entrance exam, US maths teacher, US teacher |
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13/06/2019
- After a six-month closure, Boracay reopened in October with new rules that prohibit smoking, drinking, dining and littering on the beachfront. But the dos and don’ts seem to have escaped notice, especially among tourists from China and South Korea
-
Tourists enjoy Boracay’s famous White Beach in January. Photo: Shutterstock
Travel has changed a lot since the 19th century. Obviously. But attitudes towards travellers have not, if the diaries of Francis Kilvert are anything to go by.
“Of all noxious animals, the most noxious is a tourist,” the English clergyman wrote in the 1870s, and while Kilvert asserted that it was the British who were “the most vulgar, ill-bred, offensive and loathsome” of them all – a contention that might be challenged today – an increasing number of places across the globe have had their fill of imprudent outsiders, regardless of where they are from.
The island of
, in the Philippines, the original face of overtourism in the region, is one of them. In February last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte vowed to
the popular tourist hotspot, saying, “Boracay is a cesspool. It is destroying the environment of the Republic of the Philippines and creating a disaster.” The septic metaphor was no melodrama – a number of hotels, restaurants and other tourism-related businesses were dumping untreated sewage directly into the ocean, contaminating White Beach’s crystalline waters and tarnishing Boracay’s reputation. As Duterte decreed, the island shuttered for six months from April, during which time infrastructure was to be installed and new environmental requirements implemented.
When Boracay
, in October, it was heralded as a rare success in the ongoing fight against the tourist menace, despite the fact that thousands of
, the nation’s economic growth had suffered and, heaven forfend, holidaymakers had been forced to cancel hard-earned vacations. And the rehabilitation is far from complete. In January, the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force, the organisation overseeing the ecological overhaul, announced a 25.3 billion peso (US$485 million) action plan, which, if approved, will fund 233 projects related to the enforcement of laws and regulations, pollution control and prevention, rehabilitation and recovery of the ecosystem, and the sustainability of land activities, according to a report on Philippine news site Rappler.
But still the tourists come, albeit in smaller numbers than before, and just as in pre-closure times, not all of them are welcome; in particular those who pay little attention to the new rules, which prohibit smoking, drinking, dining, littering, partying and fire dancing on the beachfront.
A complaint about Chinese tourists, posted to Facebook in April. Photo: Facebook / @philippinesdefense
On April 29, Wilson Enriquez, the Boracay Tourism Regulatory Enforcement Unit chief, revealed that tourists from China were the worst violators of these regulations, as stated in an article on the Philippines Lifestyle News website. Since the beginning of the year, 739 Chinese had been apprehended.
“Tour guides have informed them about the ordinances but [Chinese tourists] are really stubborn,” Enriquez told the news site. Korean tourists took a distant second, with 277 apprehensions, with most infractions recorded for smoking, eating and drinking on the beach, or littering.
Eighty per cent of the visitors Boracay received in the first quarter of this year hailed from China and South Korea, according to the local tourism office – the former accounting for almost half of all arrivals, 149,019 of 309,591 – so perhaps it is unsurprising that the Chinese break the most rules.
One disgruntled Filipino took to social media (where else) to air their grievance, writing that Boracay had been “teeming with loud, garbage-throwing, spitting everywhere Chinese tourists” during their Holy Week visit, while another told Philippines Lifestyle News, “I saw [Chinese tourists] with my own eyes, breaking ordinances all over the place.”
That there has been a recent rise in anti-China sentiment in the Philippines, a reaction to Duterte’s “love affair” with the Middle Kingdom, according to an article on SupChina’s website, should be noted. But really, if we want to be able to enjoy Boracay, or anywhere for that matter, for years to come, we should all stick to the rules and exercise respect for the community and environment hosting us.
Airbnb bounces back in Japan
A sign on the door to a block of flats in Tokyo communicating a ban on using units in the property for Airbnb, in March 2018. Photo: Reuters
It has been a year since Japan implemented its
minpaku law, aimed at regulating short-term lets, such as those advertised on home-sharing site
. It effectively rendered hosts whose homes were not licensed illegal, and all those without the required permit were forced to delist their properties and cancel bookings. Almost 80 per cent of listings disappeared.
However, Airbnb is back in business. In a statement published on June 6, the company said that 50,000 listings were now available in the country, as well as 23,000 rooms in hotels and ryokan. Just before the rules came into force last June, Airbnb had a total of 60,000 listings.
Presumably the company’s efforts to appease local regulations will pay off next year, when Japan hopes to receive 40 million visitors as host of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Whether those 40 million will be welcomed by residents remains to be seen.
Monkey troubles – wild macaque gets cheeky in Bali
If you need any reminder that the macaques that roam Ubud’s Sacred Monkey Forest, in the uplands of the Indonesian
, are wild animals, then this tourist’s experience should jog your memory. While posing for a picture, a monkey climbed onto the lap of Sarah Wijohn, a visitor from New Zealand, had a good old scratch and then yanked down her top, almost exposing her to the world.
Fortunately, neither Wijohn nor the primate seemed too scarred by the incident, unlike those who have written blog posts about being attacked by the animals and made videos advising how not to catch rabies from the “crazy monkey forest”.
Here’s an idea: don’t go.
Source: SCMP
Posted in all over the place, beachfront, Boracay, breaking rules, chinese tourists, dining, drinking, fire dancing, littering, overtourism, partying, Philippine President, prohibit, Republic of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, Shutterstock, smoking, South Korea, Uncategorized, White Beach |
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13/06/2019
- Visit to beauty spot spoiled as tourists ordered off the bus to spend, spend, spend
Guilin is renowned for its scenic cruises along the Li River, through magnificent karst mountains. But one tour group was forced on an unexpected shopping trip. Photo: Alamy
A tour guide in the scenic city of Guilin in southern China has been stripped of her licence after forcing tourists to spend at least 20,000 yuan (US$2,900) in local shops.
The tour guide, surnamed Zhao, was captured on video telling her customers they had an hour to spend the money and she would accept no excuses.
The short clip, which has been circulating widely on Chinese social media this week, was filmed on June 1, according to online news portal QQ.com.
“You might have thousands of reasons to refuse me, such as you already have this stuff at home,” Zhao said in the video. “I don’t care why you have come to Guilin. Now you have chosen this group … get off the bus and spend 20,000 yuan [in] an hour.”
Tiffany loses its shine with Chinese tourists as US sales fall 25 per cent
Some of the tourists can be heard on the video murmuring “how can it be like this?”
The 55 members of the tour group, from Hunan province in central China, had travelled to Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region from May 30 to June 2. According to their itinerary, they were supposed to visit three shops on the day the incident happened, but instead visited six, the QQ.com report said.
In its statement on microblogging platform Weibo, the authority also said it was investigating her employer.
Ferrying tourists along China’s Yellow River
Tour guides are banned from forcing tourists to shop or join programmes charging extra fees. A State Council regulation issued two years ago set a 10,000-50,000 yuan penalty for individuals violating the rule, and a further 100,000-500,000 yuan fine for their tour company.
Despite the crackdown in recent years, it is not uncommon for Chinese tourists to be coerced by tour guides into extra spending during their trips. China’s authorities have repeatedly reminded the public to be wary of companies that lure potential tourists with extremely low group fees.
In July last year, a group of 300 elderly people, from the central province of Henan, were reportedly forced to buy jewellery from a shop in Hong Kong. The tour agency charged them just 380 yuan for the whole package and promised there would be no forced shopping activity, according to Henan TV.
But, despite the assurance, they were taken to a jewellery shop where their tour guide told them, “Henan people, spend some money to earn face for your Henan folks.”
Those who did not spend as they were urged had to wait in the shop for hours and were cursed by the tour guide, according to the television report. It is not clear if the tour guide or the agency received any penalty.
Source: SCMP
Posted in barred, forced shopping trip, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guilin, Henan province, Hong Kong, jewellery, karst mountains, Li River, licence, news portal qq.com, State Council regulation, Tiffany, tour guide, Uncategorized, video, Yellow River |
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13/06/2019
Air force and army helicopters on Wednesday had airdropped 15 mountaineers for rescue operations last evening. The IAF said eight reached the An-32 crash site on Thursday morning.
INDIA Updated: Jun 13, 2019 14:35 IST
Air force and army helicopters on Wednesday had airdropped 15 mountaineers for rescue operations last evening.(ANI )
Thirteen military personnel on board the An-32 aircraft that crashed in Arunachal Pradesh on June 3 have died, the Indian Air Force said on Thursday hours after the first recce team reached the crash site. Air force and army helicopters on Wednesday had airdropped 15 mountaineers for rescue operations. Eight of them reached the crash site and transmitted the tragic news.
“IAF is sad to inform that there are no survivors from the crash of An32,” the air force said in a string of tweets to “pay tribute to the brave air-warriors who lost their life” in the crash.
The IAF also identified the air warriors who died in the crash: Wing Commander GM Charles, Squadron Leader H Vinod, Flight Lieutenants R Thapa, Ashish Tanwar, S Mohanty and Mohit K Garg, Warrant Officer KK Mishra, Sergeant Anoop Kumar, Corporal Sherin, Leading Air Craftsman SK Singh and Pankaj and two non combatant enrolled employees Putali and Rajesh Kumar.
Also Read | AN-32 pilot’s wife was on ATC duty in Jorhat when the aircraft went off the radar
The An-32 was on its way to an advanced landing ground at Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Siang district – about 15 km from the Line of Actual Control, the disputed border with China – when it lost contact with ground control in about 30 minutes after taking off from Jorhat in Assam.
The aircraft was equipped with an emergency locator transmitter, an emergency beacon in the cargo section that can broadcast distress signals to reveal the location of an aircraft. But no signal came from this device.
The The 24-metre-long aircraft with a wingspan of about 29 metres was a speck in a treacherous search zone spanning hundreds of square kilometers dotted with towering ridges, thick forests and deep valleys, officials familiar with the search said. The search efforts were hampered by bad weather, with fierce rains and poor visibility narrowing the scope of operations.
For eight days, the IAF deployed every possible asset it could – right from satellites in space, specialised surveillance aircraft from the Navy, unmanned aerial vehicles, and Global 5000 surveillance jet of the country’s external spy agency to locate the Soviet-origin transport plane that mysteriously disappeared from its radar screens. It also announced a Rs 5 lakh reward for information that could help it locate the aircraft.
The first firm clue about the crash site came eight days later from a villager in Arunachal Pradesh’s remote mountains, according to state government officials in the West Siang district.
Also Read | From ‘missing’ to ‘crash’: The family of IAF cook swings between hope and despair
A Mi-17 helicopter, among the scores of aircraft involved in the massive search, finally sighted the wreckage at 12,000 feet near a tiny village called Lipo with a population of just around 120 people. The first image of the crash site indicated the plane had blown up into a ball of fire on impact and dimmed hopes about the possibility of the IAF personnel surviving the crash.
The crash is similar to an incident from 10 years ago in which the wreckage of an AN-32 that crashed in West Siang with the same number of people on board was found at 12,000 feet. There were no survivors in the June 2009 crash. The IAF has lost 10 aircraft this year.
In 2016, another AN-32 – flying from Chennai to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands – went missing above the Bay of Bengal with 29 people on board. Search teams were not able to locate the aircraft despite a massive operation.
Source: Hindustan Times
Posted in AN-32 aircraft, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, army helicopters, Chennai, crashed, emergency beacon, emergency locator transmitter, Global 5000 surveillance jet, Indian Air Force (IAF), Mi-17 helicopter, mountaineers, navy, recce team, rescue operations, surveillance aircraft, survivors, Uncategorized, unmanned aerial vehicles, West Siang |
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12/06/2019
BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping left Beijing on Wednesday afternoon for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
At the invitation of Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, Xi will pay a state visit to Kyrgyzstan and attend the 19th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.
At the invitation of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Xi will attend the fifth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan, and pay a state visit to the country.
Xi’s entourage includes Ding Xuexiang, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee; Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee; State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi; and He Lifeng, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and head of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in Beijing, Bishkek, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Dushanbe, Emomali Rahmon, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, General Office of the CPC Central Committee, He Lifeng, Kyrgyz President, Kyrgyzstan, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), National Development and Reform Commission, Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, State Councilor, Tajik President, Tajikistan, Uncategorized, vice chairman |
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12/06/2019
- Many of those involved feel profound ‘guilt and shame’ over the lives lost in Beijing 30 years ago, according to two former PLA officers
- Move to tone down language used to describe movement – as ‘political turmoil’ rather than a ‘counter-revolutionary rebellion’ – came from army
The brutal military crackdown on peaceful protesters in Beijing 30 years ago might have saved the Communist Party’s rule, but it has since become a cross to bear for the People’s Liberation Army.
Today, the world’s largest fighting force is still haunted by the
tragedy in 1989, despite efforts to rebuild its image. After the bloodshed, it was the military that suggested the pro-democracy student movement be referred to not as a “counter-revolutionary rebellion” but as a time of “political turmoil”, two former PLA officers told the South China Morning Post.
They said the move to tone down the language around the crackdown reflected the anxiety and shame felt by many rank-and-file officers over a fateful decision that has tainted the military’s reputation and legacy.
Up to that point, the PLA had been widely respected by the Chinese public. Even during the turbulent decade of the Cultural Revolution from 1966, the military was largely uninvolved. Rather, it was instrumental in bringing an end to the chaos and setting China on the path of reform and opening up.
The crackdown in 1989 was unprecedented for the PLA and dealt a crippling blow to its reputation and morale – and the question over the legitimacy of the decision to send in the tanks and open fire on the protesters remains.
“[I believe] the Tiananmen crackdown will be revisited one day – it’s just a matter of time. The ultimate responsibility will fall to those military leaders who directly implemented the decision,” a retired researcher with the PLA’s Academy of Military Science, who requested anonymity, told the Post.
PLA soldiers with automatic weapons eat ice creams as protesters plead with them to leave Tiananmen Square on June 3, 1989. Photo: Reuters
Throughout history and across cultures, following orders has been a fundamental principle of military service. But the absence of a written order on the mission from the commander in chief – late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping – puts its legality in doubt.
It is estimated that hundreds, or perhaps more than 1,000, civilians were killed during the crackdown that began on the night of June 3 and continued until the morning.
“No matter whether it is one or 10,000 people killed, it’s still wrong to shoot at unarmed civilians,” said a retired PLA officer who served in the army’s political department and also declined to be named. “But [the troops] had to do this dirty job because the party’s rule was in danger.”
According to the former military researcher, many commanders involved in the crackdown questioned the decision to use force to quell the protests, particularly since they had only been given a verbal order from above and never saw a written instruction from Deng, who was chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC).
This was further complicated by the fact that Zhao Ziyang, the party’s general secretary at the time, openly opposed a military crackdown. Without the support and approval of the party’s chief, the operation violated the long-held principle of “the party commanding the gun”.
Even then CMC vice-chairman Yang Shangkun and Xu Qinxian, commander of the 38th Army Corps that had been sent to Beijing, had qualms about carrying out the verbal order, according to the former researcher.
It is not known how many troops were sent in to crush the protests, but the number could be as high as 200,000, according to a book by US-based scholar Wu Renhua.
Soldiers patrol Changan Avenue in Beijing on June 4, 1989. Photo: Jeff Widener/AP
The retired PLA political officer said the instruction to commanders was to “clear out Tiananmen Square by June 4 – and whoever stands in our way is an enemy of the state”.
“Most officers and soldiers were only trained to use heavy weapons like machine guns and tanks. They didn’t even know there were things like rubber bullets, tear gas or other kinds of non-lethal weapons for crowd control,” said the former officer.
“To meet the deadline to clean up the square, some commanders asked their troops to shoot into the air to scare away the crowds – that was the only thing they could think of doing,” he said.
But although they started off firing into the air, ricocheting bullets hit many protesters as they fled and in the chaos and bloodshed, inexperienced troops panicked and started firing into the crowd, according to the former officer.
The army’s clean image was destroyed overnight, and in the minds of many, renmin zidibing – the army of our sons – became the feared and reviled tool of a killing regime.
It also left a psychological scar on the military, which is reflected in the effort to tone down the narrative around the crackdown.
The former researcher said the push to use “political turmoil” instead of the more provocative “counter-revolutionary rebellion” to describe the movement first appeared in a military academy reference book, the Chinese Military Encyclopaedia, in 1997. He said it was proposed by military advisers who believed it could help soften attitudes towards the crackdown.
Then president Jiang Zemin with American journalist Mike Wallace during an interview in 2000. Photo: Xinhua
Former president Jiang Zemin spoke of the “political turmoil” in 1989 during an interview with American journalist Mike Wallace in 2000, and the wording has since been widely used by state media.
Meanwhile, the suppression of the protesters also prompted calls for a separation of the army and the party, so the PLA would be a “national” force rather than a political one.
But after
, the idea was squashed by the top leadership in 2007, on the eve of the PLA’s 80th anniversary. It was labelled as a plot by hostile Western forces to topple communist rule in China and is now a taboo subject.
“But despite banning discussion of military nationalisation, the calls from within the PLA to rehabilitate the military and for a review of what happened with the student movement have never stopped,” the former PLA political officer said.
“Many senior military officers believe the students weren’t attempting to overthrow communist rule – they were just asking for a better political system. That’s why calling it a counter-revolutionary rebellion is wrong.”
Curious Beijing residents gather to look at the military hardware in Tiananmen Square on June 7, 1989. Photo: AP
On Sunday, days ahead of the 30th anniversary, Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe
, telling a regional defence forum that putting an end to the “political turbulence” had been the “correct policy”.
“Throughout the 30 years, China under the Communist Party has undergone many changes – do you think the government was wrong with the handling of June Fourth?
There was a conclusion to that incident. The government was decisive in stopping the turbulence,” Wei said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
But according to the former PLA researcher, military top brass involved in the crackdown still felt profound “guilt and shame” over the lives lost.
“None of those people in the PLA would feel a sense of honour for participating in the crackdown,” he said. “Instead they harbour a deep feeling of shame.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in Academy of Military Sciences, army, Beijing, Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s military psyche, Chinese Military Encyclopaedia, Communist Party, counter-revolutionary rebellion, deep scar, Deng Xiaoping, paramount leader, People’s Liberation Army, PLA officers, political turmoil, president jiang zemin, Shangri-La Dialogue, Singapore, south china morning post, Tiananmen crackdown, Uncategorized |
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