The authorities in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, have suspended plans to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant after several days of street protests against the project. Observers said the decision could put other nuclear projects under greater public scrutiny, and urged backers of similar schemes to improve transparency. The Lianyungang city government announced the halt in a one-sentence statement. “The government has decided to suspend preliminary work on site selection for the nuclear recycling project,” the statement said. It came after thousands of protesters launched a series of street demonstrations from Saturday, protesting about the potential radiation risks and the alleged lack of transparency in the decision-making process for the project.
Source: South China Morning Post, August 10, 2016
Beijing has issued strict migration rules to keep the city’s population in check. Under a system similar to ones adopted in other megacities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, migrants will be graded according to their contributions to the city and qualifications such as education or age. A migrant cannot obtain permanent residency, which is tied to a series of social benefits that migrants do not get, without gaining enough grades. To begin with, a non-Beijing Chinese resident must be formally employed and paying into local social security funds, including pension, health care and housing, for seven years continuously before he or she “is qualified to apply.” Meanwhile, an applicant has to have a temporary Beijing residence in hand, have no criminal record and be below retirement age. Permanent residency in China’s top cities such as Beijing and Shanghai allows easier access to better education, health care and pensions, but is often beyond reach for most migrant workers and even some professionals because of rigid control and tedious paperwork requirements.
Source: South China Morning Post, August 12, 2016
Top court moves to improve case hearings by drawing from ranks of experienced lawyers. The Supreme People's Court said it will more thoroughly research the backgrounds and abilities of lawyers seeking to be judges, in a move to support a rule on the selection of judges that was adopted in June by the central leadership. The rule says selecting judges, prosecutors and legislators from the ranks of lawyers should be encouraged because lawyers effectively combine judicial theory and practice. It also clarifies that some lawyers cannot be judges, including those whose spouses or children have moved overseas, those with criminal records or those who have committed disciplinary violations. The top court said that its department that selects judges has studied the rule since it was published, saying it will continue to work on building a strong, competent legal community.
Source: China Daily, August 12, 2016
China on August 11 voiced resolute opposition to a call by United Nations human rights experts to release a jailed activist, saying it is "gross interference in China's domestic affairs and judicial sovereignty." UN human rights experts expressed concern about Yang Maodong, a jailed rights activist whose health is reportedly "deteriorating" after a hunger strike, and urged Chinese authorities to release him. "This is gross interference in China's domestic affairs and judicial sovereignty and China is resolutely opposed to it," foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a released statement.
Source: Global Times, August 11, 2016
Bangladesh Railway Bureau and China Railway Group (CREC) signed a contract on August 8 to undertake a project with a total value of $3.14 billion. The project is to build a rail across the Padma Bridge in Dhaka, the capital of Bengal. When complete, the bridge will become a transport corridor between the western and eastern parts of the country. The railway line will start from Dhaka and end at Jessore, forming the most important rail link in southwestern Bangladesh. The main line of the new railway will be 168.6 kilometers long and reach a maximum speed of 129 kilometers per hour. The new project will help to improve traffic conditions in the western and southwestern parts of Bangladesh, as well as to promote social and economic development in these regions. Furthermore, it will benefit the country’s foreign trade with China, India and Myanmar. China Major Bridge Engineering, a company associated with CREC, won the contract for the main part of the Padma Bridge itself in 2014. The contract was valued at $1.55 billion. Development of the Padma Bridge is by far the largest overseas bridge project carried out by a Chinese company. Bangladeshi citizens are already calling the project the “Bridge of Dreams.”
Source: People’s Daily, August 10, 2016
The United Nations Security Council has been unable to condemn the launch of a missile by North Korea that landed near Japan because China wanted the statement to oppose the planned deployment of a US anti-missile defense system in South Korea. North Korea launched a ballistic missile on August 3 that landed in or near Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, the latest in a series of launches by the isolated country in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions. The 15-member council held a closed-door meeting on the same day, but has been unable to agree on a US-drafted statement to condemn the launch, which was almost identical to two previous statements issued by the council on North Korea (DPRK). China proposed that the statement also say "all relevant parties shall avoid taking any actions which could provoke each other and escalate tensions, and shall not deploy any new anti-ballistic missile stronghold in Northeast Asia with an excuse of dealing with threats of the DPRK nuclear and missile programs."
Source: Reuters, August 9, 2016
Workers install a heavy truck at a production base of Aviation Industry Corporation of China in Xingtai, north China’s Hebei Province. Official figures show that China’s producer price index or PPI, which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate, dropped 1.7 percent year on year in July. The National Bureau of Statistics said the PPI decline narrowed from a 2.6 percent decrease in June thanks to stronger industrial product prices for nonferrous metal smelting and rolling, ferrous metal ore mining and ferrous metal melting and rolling. However, the July reading continued a 52 month declining trend as China’s economic slowdown and industrial overcapacity dampened prices.
Source: People’s Daily, August 10, 2016
China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, grew 1.8 percent year on year in July, down from June's 1.9 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics announced Tuesday. The July data dropped for the third-consecutive month from 2.3 percent in April, when the CPI reached its highest level since July 2014. On a month-on-month basis, the CPI rose 0.2 percent in July. NBS statistician Yu Qiumei attributed the moderated inflation mostly to eased food prices. The price of pork rose 16.1 percent year on year in July, slowing from 30.1-percent rise recorded in June.
Source: Xinhua, August 9, 2016
Chinese firm Fiber Home has developed a type of optic fiber that can transmit 400 terabytes of data per second, breaking the world record for the amount of data that can be transmitted on optic fibers, the company said earlier this week. Such capacity would allow for simultaneous phone calls by 4.8 billion people and the transmission of 40,000 blue-ray high definition movies (10 gigabytes per movie) in one second, according to the company based in Wuhan, the provincial capital of central China's Hubei Province. The transmission of 400 terabytes of data is accomplished on multi-core mono-mode optic fiber, which can be simply understood as breaking down the fiber into multiple paths to enhance transmission capacity, according to technicians. Such expansion in transmission capacity is a welcoming development amid growing demand for high speed transmission of data for VR, the Internet of Things, cloud computing and other emerging technologies.
Source: China Daily, August 7, 2016
China on early August 5 successfully launched the first satellite for mobile telecommunication. The Tiantong-01 satellite was launched at 00:22 am Beijing Time, at Southwestern China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center, with the Long March-3B carrier rocket. It is the first satellite of China's home-made satellite mobile telecom system, and a key part of the country's space information infrastructure. More geostationary satellites will be sent into orbit for the system. Tiantong-01 was designed by China Academy of Space Technology and its ground service will be operated by China Telecom. It will establish a mobile network with ground facilities, providing services for China, the Middle East, Africa and other areas. The Long March-3B carrier rocket was produced by China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. It was the 232nd flight of the Long March series carrier rockets, and the 36th launch of the Long March-3B.
Source: Xinhua, August 6, 2016
An “extremely critical” warning was issued to Hongkongers on August 9 after recent research that multiple vulnerabilities in 900 million Android devices around the world could leave users’ sensitive personal and enterprise data open to attack. A vendor patch was currently unavailable, experts warned, as they advised users not to install unknown applications until solutions emerged. A set of four vulnerabilities — also known as “QuatRooter” — were identified in 900 million Android smart phones and tablets that use chipsets by Qualcomm, the world’s leading designer of LTE chipsets. A wide range of popular brands including Nexus, HTC, Samsung, Sony and LG use the problematic chipsets. Attackers exploiting these vulnerabilities could gain root access to a device by using a malicious app like a GPS tracking unit or secretly turning on a mobile phone’s audio recorder. Check Point has called on the affected users to download and install the latest Android updates as soon as they become available as they include important security updates that could keep the devices protected.
Source: South China Morning Post, August 10, 2016
Cliff Buddle, A blow to Hong Kong’s clean and fair electoral process – dealt by its own election officials, South China Morning Post, August 11, 2016
David Gitter and Leah Fang, The Chinese Communist Party International Department: Overlooked yet Ever Present, The Diplomat, August 8, 2016
Zhu Feng, China Isn't a Threat to World Order, Bloomberg, August 8, 2016
Investor interest must come first in battle between regulators, South China Morning Post, August 10, 2016
China poised to play crucial role at Hangzhoumeeting, says Argentine expert, People’s Daily, August 10, 2016
China improving flood-control capacity with better technology, facilities, Xinhua, August 9, 2016
Winnie Tang, To innovate, Hong Kong needs to groom more top scientists and engineers, South China Morning Post, August 9, 2016
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