Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / Archives for China

China’s giant Mao Zedong statue ‘demolished’

by

Chinese media reports say 37-metre-high statue in Henan province was removed due to lack of government approval.

Construction was reportedly funded by local entrepreneurs and finished in December after nine months of labour [File: Reuters]

Construction was reportedly funded by local entrepreneurs and finished in December after nine months of labour [File: Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A giant gold-painted statue of Communist China’s founding father Mao Zedong has reportedly been demolished because it lacked government approval, just days after images of it were widely shared on social media.

Images of the statue of a seated Mao towering about 37 metres over empty fields in the central province of Henan made worldwide headlines this week.

But the $460,000 structure has been destroyed, the People’s Net news portal cited local officials as saying on Friday, adding that the reason was “unclear”.

The website is linked to the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

It cited reports from unspecified media as saying the likeness of the man who ruled China with an iron grip for nearly three decades until his death in 1976 “was not registered or approved” by the local government.

Pictures circulating online – which could not be immediately verified by the AFP news agency – showed a gaping hole in the rear of Mao’s massive golden torso, and his head shrouded in black.


Construction was reportedly funded by several local entrepreneurs and finished in December after nine months of labour, the HMR.cn portal said this week.

Despite being blamed for millions of deaths, Mao is still widely revered in China and credited with uniting the country.

Meanwhile, the Communist leadership tightly controls public discussion of history and seeks to use his legacy to shore up its support.

China’s current President Xi Jinping has praised Mao as a “great figure” and revived some of his rhetoric and centralisation of power, while following the party’s 1980s conclusion that he also made “mistakes”.

Some internet users criticised the statue, pointing out its location in Henan, the centre of a famine in the late 1950s resulting from Mao’s economic policies estimated to have killed as many as 40 million people.

“Have you forgotten about the Great Famine, building that?” asked one poster on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

Others questioned the statue’s resemblance to the “Great Helmsman”, who also launched the decade-long Cultural Revolution that saw violence and destruction nationwide.

China: Scores missing after landslide buries industrial park buildings

by

Landslide also ruptured national gas pipeline, causing explosion

A landslide struck the city of Shenzhen, China Sunday, toppling buildings and leaving dozens of people missing. (Photo: ChinaTopix/AP)

A landslide struck the city of Shenzhen, China Sunday, toppling buildings and leaving dozens of people missing. (Photo: ChinaTopix/AP)

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

Scores of people were missing Sunday after a landslide occurred in an industrial park in southern China that buried dozens of buildings, sparked an explosion from a ruptured national gas pipeline, and forced the evacuation of roughly 900 people.

“I saw red earth and mud running towards the company building,” Xinhuaquotes one local worker as saying.

Official reports from the government-controlled media left out the cause of the landslide in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, the New York Timesreports.

China coal mine blaze kills 21 workers

by

Fire races through mine in Heilongjiang province, killing 21 miners and leaving one missing.

Miners walk out of a coal mine on the outskirts of Jixi city in Heilongjiang province [File: Jason Lee/Reuters]

Miners walk out of a coal mine on the outskirts of Jixi city in Heilongjiang province [File: Jason Lee/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A late-night fire at a coal mine killed 21 people and left one missing in China’s northeastern province of Heilongjiang.

State-run Xinhua news agency said on Saturday that the fire at the Xinghua mine in the city of Jixi was brought under control, and 21 bodies were recovered from the mine – owned by the Heilongjiang Longmay Mining Holding Group.

Xinhua said 38 miners were working underground when an angle belt caught fire. Sixteen people were pulled to safety.

The provincial work safety administration confirmed the death toll on Saturday.

A work safety employee, who only gave his family name, Xing, said rescuers were searching for the missing person.

China’s mines are among the deadliest in the world. Accidents killed 931 people last year, a work safety official said in March.

China – the world’s largest producer of coal – is grappling to improve standards in the poorly regulated sector. Many accidents are caused by corrupt bosses seeking profits over worker safety.

China to abolish decades-old one-child policy

by

State news agency says restriction introduced in 1980 will be lifted, allowing all couples to have two children.

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for resources [Frederic J Brown/AFP]

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for resources [Frederic J Brown/AFP]

by Al Jazeera

The official Xinhua News Agency says China’s ruling Communist Party has decided to abolish the country’s one-child policy and allow all couples to have two children.

It cited a communique issued by the ruling Communist Party on Thursday after a four-day meeting in Beijing to chart the course of the nation over the next five years.

China is “abandoning its decades-long one-child policy”, Xinhua reported.

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for water and other resources.

The controversial policy restricted most couples to only a single offspring, and for years authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China’s economic boom.

But after years of strict, sometimes brutal enforcement by a dedicated government commission, China’s population – the world’s largest – is now ageing rapidly, gender imbalances are severe, and its workforce is shrinking.

The concerns led to limited reforms in 2013, including allowing a second child for some couples in urban areas, but relatively few have taken up the opportunity.

Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Beijing, said the one-child policy was no longer viable for the country.

“China needs more people joining the workforce, so there is the economic aspect looking further ahead that China needs to have larger families.

“This was one of the widely anticipated measures that was expected from the five-year plan and I think it will be broadly welcomed. The one-child policy is an unpopular measure here in china. We have seen children growing up in isolation because of it,” our correspondent said.

Dujuan brings flooding to eastern China

by

The former typhoon which brought death and destruction to Taiwan has now hit the mainland.

Dujuan weakened as it moved across the cooler waters of the Taiwan Strait [AFP]

Dujuan weakened as it moved across the cooler waters of the Taiwan Strait [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

Typhoon Dujuan has begun to disintegrate over eastern China after unleashing its full force on the neighbouring island of Taiwan.

At least two people were killed and more than 300 injured as the typhoon tore across central Taiwan on Monday night.

Dujuan struck Taiwan as the equivalent of a Category 4 storm (on the five point Saffir-Simpson scale).The highest gust recorded on the island was 246km/h, 30km south of Yilan City.

Torrential rain, with as much as 750mm in some areas, resulted in flash flooding and mudslides.

At least 1.8 million homes were without power, although 1.3 million of those have since been reconnected.

Around 12,000 people were evacuated from their homes in advance of Dujuan’s arrival and this may have contributed to the very low death toll.

The track of Dujuan was slightly further to the south than predicted, meaning that Taipei missed the very worst of the weather, although the city’s famous Taipei 101 skyscraper suffered some damage.

Dujuan weakened as it moved across the cooler waters of the Taiwan Strait before making landfall between Putian and Xiamen, China, at 00:00 GMT on Tuesday.

Dujuan’s track and strength is very similar to that of August’s Typhoon Soudelor, which caused at least 26 deaths in China and estimated damage and financial losses of $3bn.

Although Dujuan’s winds are weakening rapidly, it is likely that flooding rain will cause disruption and a threat to life for the next few days.

China stocks suffer biggest one-day loss in eight years

by

China market plummets more than eight percent as investors disillusioned with measures taken dump shares.

EPA/WOO HE

EPA/WOO HE

by Al Jazeera

China’s stock market has fallen by its biggest margin in eight years at the end of trading, defying the government’s multibillion-dollar effort to stop a slide that has wiped out the gains of this year’s price boom.

The plunge on Monday in China’s equities followed last week’s losses of 11 percent, and hammered stock prices across Asia, as fears grew that a slowdown in China could send the rest of the world into a recession.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 8.5 percent to close at 3,209.91 points, its biggest one-day loss since an 8.8 percent decline on February 27, 2007. The index is down 38 percent from its June 12 peak.

Analysts blame the fall on both weak onshore performance and investors moving money out of yuan-denominated assets after a surprise devaluation in the Chinese currency earlier in August.

The further decline threatened to weigh anew on global markets after last week’s Chinese losses triggered a worldwide selloff.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell for the seventh straight day, dropping 5.2 percent to 21,251.57 points as Taipei stocks tumbled 583.85 points to 7,203.07 in morning trading, a drop of 7.49 percent.

More than $5 trillion has been wiped off the value of global equities markets since China’s shock devaluation.

Many investors had expected the People’s Bank of China would over the weekend cut the amount banks have to keep in reserves, which could boost stocks by increasing market liquidity and address weakness in China’s vast manufacturing sector.

No such move materialised, and the only policy support in evidence was an announcement formalising rules allowing pension funds to buy stocks, a policy initiative that had already been trailed.

Earlier measures taken

Beijing already carried out rounds of cuts to transaction fees and encouraged companies to buy back their own stock. Such buybacks usually result in increased valuations of outstanding shares by reducing net supply.

Rajiv Biswas, a senior director and economist for IHS Global Insight in Singapore, told Al Jazeera that Beijing needs to do more to prop up the economy.

“It doesn’t seem that they are prepared to really put in a big package of measures, but would rather put in dribs and drabs along the way. And that is not convincing anybody that the economy is about the turn around anytime soon,” he said.

“One of the problems is that they are directing their efforts towards stabilising the stock market. But we are not seeing enough initiatives to support the real economy,” Biswas added.

“It’s the real economy that investors in the country are not confident about. All the signs are showing that the economy is cooling.”

Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said that malaise on the markets could continue as investors awaited US gross domestic product or GDP figures set for release this week, and a decision on whether the US Federal Reserve would lift interest rates.

Monday’s falls followed heavy falls on Wall Street on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting its worst single-day session in four years and all benchmark indices losing more than three percent.

China orders evacuations as chemical fears grow

by

Fire re-ignites at site of twin blasts in Tianjin, as death toll rises to 85, with more than 700 wounded.

china

by Al Jazeera

Residents living close to the site of giant explosions in the Chinese port of Tianjin have been evacuated over fears of toxic contamination as new fires ignited.

Armed police were carrying out evacuations within 3km of the blast site on Saturday after highly poisonous sodium cyanide was found, the Beijing News said.

The blaze ignited again at the warehouse where the blasts struck on Wednesday night, with several small blasts heard by reporters from the Xinhua state news agency.

“Out of consideration for toxic substances spreading, the masses nearby have been asked to evacuate,” Xinhua reported.

Authorities announced on Saturday that the death toll has risen to 85, with more than 700 others still being treated in hospitals, including 25 who are in critical condition and 33 who are in serious condition.

A survivor was pulled from a shipping container on Saturday morning, state media reported. His identity was not immediately known. Television video showed the man being carried out on a sketcher by a group of soldiers wearing gas masks.

A team of chemical experts has been called in to the site to test for toxic gases.

Shockwaves from the blasts late on Wednesday were felt by residents in apartment blocks kilometres away in the city of 15 million people.

Furious residents and victims’ relatives railed against authorities outside a news conference on Saturday for keeping them in the dark as criticism over transparency mounted.

Residents and relatives were prevented from entering the press conference and could be heard shouting outside.

“Nobody has told us anything, we’re in the dark, there is no news at all,” screamed one middle-aged woman, as she was dragged away by security personnel.

The man survived for three days in a shipping container following the blasts [Reuters]

China has a patchy industrial safety record and the disaster has raised fears of toxic contamination after officials said they were unable to identify precisely what chemicals were at the site at the time.

Tianjin work safety official Gao Huaiyou listed a host of possible substances at the briefing, adding that the firm’s recent large exports had included sodium bisulfide, magnesium, sodium, potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, and sodium cyanide, among others.

China on Friday defended the work of firefighters who initially hosed water on a blaze in a warehouse storing volatile chemicals, a response foreign experts said could have contributed to the explosions.

The explosions have disrupted the flow of cars, oil, iron ore and other items through the world’s 10th largest port.

The blast sent shipping containers tumbling into one another, leaving them in bent, charred piles.

Rows of new cars, lined up on vast lots for distribution across China, were reduced to blackened carcasses.

Tianjin is the 10th largest port in the world by container volume and the seventh largest in China, according to the World Shipping Council, moving more containers than the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg and Los Angeles.

It handles vast quantities of metal ore, coal, steel, cars and crude oil.

Authorities have only released limited information about the accident, a criticism often levelled at Chinese officials in the aftermath of disasters, and restricted discussion of it online.

More than 360 social media accounts have been shut down or suspended for “spreading rumours” about the blasts, Xinhua reported citing the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Death toll soars after huge blasts hit China’s Tianjin

by

Explosions in city’s industrial zone kill at least 50 people and injure hundreds more, with 36 firemen reported missing.

The blasts started late on Wednesday after a container of 'hazardous material' exploded in a warehouse in Tianjin [EPA]

The blasts started late on Wednesday after a container of ‘hazardous material’ exploded in a warehouse in Tianjin [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Explosions at a warehouse for dangerous materials in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin have killed at least 50 people, including at least a dozen firefighters, and injured more than 700 and sent shockwaves through the city.

Chinese state news said the blasts started late on Wednesday after a container of “hazardous material” exploded in a warehouse around midnight local time.

The city government said the death toll from the explosions stood at 50, adding that were 701 hospitalised and 71 seriously injured.

At least 36 firefighters were initially reported missing by the state news agency, Xinhua.

The blasts knocked doors off buildings in the area and shattered windows up to several kilometres away.

There were no indications of what caused the blasts, and no immediate signs of any large release of toxic chemicals into the air.

Beijing News reported on its website that there was some unidentified yellow foam flowing at the site.

Police in Tianjin said an initial blast occurred at shipping containers in a warehouse for hazardous materials owned by Ruihai Logistics, a company that says it is properly approved to handle hazardous materials.

Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Tianjin early on Thursday, said: “Close to the disaster zone, dazed people are wandering about the streets, many carrying what possessions they could grab before fleeing their homes.

“Others are sitting at roadsides, many clearly in shock. Those who can get out are fleeing.

Photos on state media outlets showed a sea of fire that painted Wednesday’s night sky bright orange in Tianjin [Reuters]

“In the distance, smoke is still billowing from the scene of the multiple blasts. Scores of nearby buildings have had their windows punched out.

“The streets are littered with broken glass and stones. The air is acrid. That no one knows what they are breathing is adding to the anxiety here.”

State media said senior management of the company had been detained by authorities, and that President Xi Jinping has demanded severe punishment for anyone found responsible for the explosions.

The official Xinhua news agency said an initial explosion sparked other blasts at nearby businesses.

The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts before midnight, the first was the equivalent of three tonnes of TNT, and the second one was the equivalent of 21 tonnes.

The explosions occurred in a mostly industrial zone, with some apartment buildings in the vicinity.

Buildings of a half-dozen other logistics companies were destroyed in the blasts, and more than 1,000 new Renault cars were left charred in a nearby parking lot, Beijing News said.

Photos taken by bystanders and circulating on microblogs show a huge fireball high in the sky, with a mushroom cloud.

China’s National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts in Tianjin’s industrial zone before midnight on Wednesday [Reuters]

Tall plumes of smoke

Other photos on state media outlets showed a sea of fire that painted the night sky bright orange, with tall plumes of smoke.

In one neighbourhood about 10km to 20km from the blast site, some residents were sleeping on the street wearing gas masks, although there was no perceptible problem with the air apart from massive clouds of smoke seen in the distance.

At the nearby Taida Hospital as dawn broke, military medical tents were set up.

Photos circulating online showed patients in bandages and with cuts.

State broadcaster CCTV said six battalions of firefighters had brought the ensuing fire under control, although it was still burning in the early hours of Thursday.

Ruihai Logistics says on its website that it was established in 2011 and is an approved company for handling hazardous materials. It says it handles one million tonnes of cargo annually.

Tianjin, with a population of about 15 million, is about 120km east of Beijing on the Bohai Sea and is one of the country’s major ports.

It is also one of China’s more modern cities and is connected to the capital by a high speed rail line.

China stages biggest currency devaluation in 20 yrs to revive exports

by

Chinese one yuan coins and 100 yuan banknotes are seen in this picture illustration taken in Beijing December 30, 2010. A gradual and modest appreciation of yuan is good for China's economy, a senior Chinese central bank official said in comments published on Thursday. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic (CHINA - Tags: BUSINESS) - RTXW3AD

Chinese one yuan coins and 100 yuan banknotes are seen in this picture illustration taken in Beijing December 30, 2010. A gradual and modest appreciation of yuan is good for China’s economy, a senior Chinese central bank official said in comments published on Thursday. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic (CHINA – Tags: BUSINESS) – RTXW3AD

by RT

The central bank of China has cut its daily reference rate by 1.9 percent, making its biggest downward adjustment since 1994. The People’s Bank insists Tuesday’s measures are a one-off aimed at reviving faltering exports.

The bank’s announcement prompted the yuan exchange rate to tumble against the US dollar. As of 8:15am GMT on Tuesday, the yuan (renminbi) was trading at 6.33 to the dollar, 1.9 percent lower than Monday.

Over the weekend, Beijing said July exports dropped 8.3 percent, compared to a year before. The weaker the yuan, the bigger revenues exporters get from their foreign sales.

The tough move may also indicate that Beijing is allowing the market more freedom to determine the yuan rate.

“The People’s Bank of China has astutely combined a move to weaken the yuan with a shift to a more market-determined exchange rate,” Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University professor and former China representative of the IMF told the Wall Street Journal.

Becky Liu, a Hong Kong-based senior strategist for Standard Chartered, said the bank’s move was “big… and bolder” than predicted.

“The new fixing will be quoted based on the previous day’s closing, which is a real market level. The band will become the real band. This is a big step, and bolder than we expected,” she told Bloomberg News.

Tuesday’s devaluation comes a decade after Beijing’s key decision to replace the hard peg against the US dollar by a link to a basket of currencies. The exchange rate was simultaneously set within a band of around 8.11 to the US dollar, marking a 2.1 percent move from an 8.28 yuan exchange rate in place before 2005. In those 10 years, the yuan has risen 33 percent, becoming one of the world’s most-traded currencies, while Beijing has staked out its position as the world’s second-biggest economy.

The adjustment could complicate Beijing’s goal of making the yuan the world’s leading currency. On the other hand, becoming more market-oriented is a solid step towards greater openness.

Erdogan in China amid tension over treatment of Uighurs

by

Turkey president to meet Chinese counterpart in bid to improve souring ties over Beijing’s treatment of Uighur minority.

NATO countries are concerned over Turkey's move to secure an air defence system deal with China [Getty Images]

NATO countries are concerned over Turkey’s move to secure an air defence system deal with China [Getty Images]

by Al Jazeera

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Beijing to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart and other senior officials amid increased tensions between the two countries over China’s treatment of its Muslim Uighur minority.

Erdogan, who is due to meet Xi Jinping later on Wednesday, has repeatedly accused China of systematic oppression against the Uighurs, who share close linguistic, cultural and religious ties with Turks.

The president has previously accused Beijing of “genocide” in the region, and the gap between Chinese and Turkish views of the Uighurs are likely to complicate the upcoming discussions on improving relations.

The two sides engaged in a row this year over Uighurs who fled China to seek refuge in Thailand, with Turkey offering them shelter against Beijing’s wishes.

Bangkok said this month that it had deported about 100 Uighurs back to China, after sending more than 170 Uighur women and children to Turkey in late June.

China’s state-run China Daily said in a Wednesday editorial that the “Uighur issue … if left unattended, may poison ties and derail cooperation”.

The newspaper suggested that Beijing would pressure Erdogan to stop Turkish officials issuing Uighurs who “illicitly left China” with travel documents.

As tensions over the refugees mounted this month, activists stormed the Thai consulate in Istanbul and burned the Chinese flag outside Beijing’s consulate in the city. China “strongly condemned” the acts.

Missile deal

Turkey entered discussions in 2013 with a Chinese state-run company over an anti-missile system contract worth $3.4bn, raising eyebrows among other NATO members.

A final deal has been elusive, with Erdogan noting “impediments” have emerged after an initial Chinese proposal, but he said the issue will be on the agenda in Beijing.

“Any offer that will enrich this appropriate proposal will be welcomed by us,” he told China’s official news agency Xinhua in an interview published on Tuesday.

“I believe this visit will give more momentum to bilateral relations.”

Boosting Turkish exports to China is also likely to be high on Erdogan’s agenda, with Ankara running a large trade deficit with the world’s second-largest economy, according to official Chinese statistics.

 

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives