China Challenges

Flu Outbreak Hits Hong Kong

ChannelNewsAsia reports:

Hong Kong health authorities tried on Thursday to calm public fears over a flu outbreak which has left four children dead and led the city to close all primary schools and kindergartens.

It was the first time schools in this Chinese city have been closed for a health scare since the 2003 SARS epidemic.

The order came on Wednesday, just hours after a flu-like illness was reported in nearly two-dozen schools.

"It was quite a difficult decision but we realise the number of infections is increasing," Health Secretary York Chow told a news conference on Thursday morning, when the closures took effect.

"It's not something based entirely on public health data at the moment. But I think the public would appreciate that what we are doing might be a little drastic - but it's reassuring to the community," he said.

To read more:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/334642/1/.html

Chinese Tourists Go Abroad

The USA Today reports:

The Chinese will take 34.1 million trips abroad this year, the United Nations World Tourism Organization estimates. That's a 10% increase over 2005. By 2020, the number of foreign jaunts, mostly tourist travel, will hit 100 million, the organization predicts. By then, only Germans, the Japanese and Americans will travel abroad more.

Although about 90% of their trips are to Asian destinations, Chinese travelers tour the globe. Their top stop outside Asia: Europe, which will host nearly 1.4 million Chinese tourists this year, the economic research firm Global Insight estimates. North America is next, with about 376,000. Global Insight predicts a 40% to 50% increase in Chinese trips outside Asia by 2010.

To read more:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-06-china-tourists_x.htm

Old Jiang's Travels

AP reports:

BEIJING - He speaks English and shows it off by reciting the Gettysburg Address. Now former President Jiang Zemin is adopting another Western custom: the post-retirement publishing binge.

Ahead of his 80th birthday Thursday, government publishers have released a retrospective on Jiang's foreign travels - the closest thing yet to a Chinese presidential memoir - and a three-volume set of speeches, letters and decrees.

To read more:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14363317/

One Human = 18,000 Dogs

Back on August 4, the Financial Times reported:

The government-ordered slaughter of tens of thousands of dogs has shone a spotlight on the changing feelings of ordinary Chinese towards their canine companions – and exposed the officials behind the killings to unusual criticism.

The "dog-beating storm" was ignited this week by newspaper reports from south-western Yunnan province, where 54,429 dogs – 99 per cent of the Mouding county canine population – were destroyed after three local people died of rabies.

To read more:

https://registration.ft.com/registration/barrier?referer=http://blog.chinaeconomicreview.com/&location=http%3A//www.ft.com/cms/s/49871928-23e8-11db-ae89-0000779e2340.html

Manned Lunar Mission

The China Economic Review reports:

A Chinese manned lunar mission including a walk on the moon's surface has been scheduled for 2024, AP reported, citing comments made by a Chinese scientist to a Hong Kong newspaper. Lunar program vice-director Long Lehao said the moon walk would be the culmination of a program that would see a robot explorer bring a chunk of the moon's surface back to earth in 2017.

There are also plans to send a landing vehicle to the moon in 2020 to conduct tests, including soil studies. The first stage of China's lunar program – named “Chang'e” after the mythical Chinese moon-inhabiting fairy – has already been unveiled by chief scientist Ouyang Ziyuan. It will begin next spring with the launch of a two-ton moon-orbiting satellite.

To read more:
www.chinaeconomicreview.com

American Engineering Group Accused of Conspiracy

CNet reports:  The Standardization Administration of China, a group promoting China's wireless encryption standard, accused the U.S.-based engineering group Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) of conspiracy and unethical behavior on Monday, according to reports by the Xinhua News Agency, China's official news agency.

The accusation was made in an appeal to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), based in Geneva, to reconsider its March decision to reject China's encryption technology known as WAPI (WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure) in favor of the American IEEE's 802.11i encryption standard.

To read more:

http://news.com.com/China%20battles%20rejection%20of%20Wi-Fi%20encryption%20algorithm/2100-7351_3-6077975.html

Beijing Bans Dangerous Dolls

This is strange.  Beijing is going after so-called Voodoo Dolls.  Newsweek reports:

The dolls have become increasingly popular among the Middle Kingdom's misanthropes and trend-conscious teens. Customers purchase a doll (pin included), attach a piece of paper bearing the name of their enemy to the doll and then stab away.

Voodoo Dolls Online offers a wide range of dolls in assorted colors. "Do you want to make your enemy feel as if someone is always stalking him behind his back?" reads the caption next to a doll clad in black. " 'The Magic Shadow Killer' will thoroughly destroy his spirit." Another popular item is the "Little Angel," which purportedly brings good luck and helps its owner find true love.

Authorities at Beijing's Industrial and Commercial Management Department claim the dolls encourage superstition and "promote feudalism and feudal beliefs."

To read more:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12958900/site/newsweek/

Typhoon Chanchu

Reuters reports: China evacuated more than 600,000 people as the strongest typhoon on record to enter the South China Sea in May bore down on the south coast on Wednesday, causing flight and shipping delays around the region.

To read more:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12829941/

More Bird Flu Coverups??

This report comes via the China Economic Review:

It is possible that local health officials are concealing suspected cases of human bird flu, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a source familiar with the topic. This appears to tally with a sharply worded statement that appeared on the Ministry of Health's website on Tuesday reiterating warnings that cover-ups and delays could facilitate the spread of the disease.

However, ministry spokesman Mao Qunan said there was no evidence of local authorities suppressing information relating to the H5N1 virus, although he admitted that problems have been experienced with hospitals not reporting cases of severe pneumonia that could be bird flu. Officials in Beijing have been working closely with the World Health Organization, reporting confirmed cases of the disease and allowing foreign scientists to take part in research.

But some international experts have long warned that the real challenge is in ensuring health officials in remote areas are prompt in reporting cases to Beijing. So far there have been 17 confirmed human cases of bird flu, 12 of which have been fatal.

Source: www.chinaeconomicreview.com

A Chinese Face Transplant

Doctors in China performed a 14-hour transplant surgery on a 30-year-old man to replace his face, which was mauled by a bear two years ago.  To read more:

http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7944

China and GM Food

Capital Press reports:

China will reap substantial economic, environmental and worker safety rewards from its imminent approval of biotech rice, a California expert told a U.S. Department of Agriculture conference here last week.

And a recent World Trade Organization ruling on European Union biotech crop regulation could help improve trade relations between the EU and the United States, a former top federal food regulator told a separate Washington seminar.

To read more:

http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=792&ArticleID=23228&TM=80639.52

A Cultural Revolution Museum

Mr. Clifford Coonan in the The Independent reports:

The frightened figure in the picture is a Chinese opera star. His hair is grasped tightly in a Red Guard's fist and he is being denounced during the Cultural Revolution, the ideological frenzy which destroyed millions of lives in China between 1966 and 1976.

The image is one of hundreds of engravings on cold grey tablets that make up the exhibits in China's first Cultural Revolution museum, near the industrial port city of Shantou in the Guangdong district.

To read more:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article346712.ece

Skating for Glory

A pair of Chinese ice skaters made quite a performance at the Winter Games.  NBCSports reports:

The Russian pair of Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin took gold, but the Chinese pair of Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao showed incredible courage and stamina Monday in the Olympics pairs final.

Skating last, Zhang Dan fell in a split while attempting an unprecedented throw quad salchow and doubled over in pain. They stopped skating as Zhang Hao struggled to help her off the ice.  After a few minutes talking with coaches, she asked to continue. With the fans clapping in support, the event referee allowed it.

To read more:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11333510/

A Chinese Tyrannosaurus Rex

The NY Times reports:

Chinese and American scientists have discovered what appears to be the granddaddy of all tyrannosaurs, a primitive crested dinosaur that lived 160 million years ago in northwestern China.  The scientists announced today that an analysis of two fossil specimens suggested that they were remains of the most primitive tyrannosaur known or the first branch on the family tree leading to Tyrannosaurus rex, the exemplar of tooth and claw predation in the age of reptiles.

To read more:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/09/healthscience/web.0209.dino.php

Tragic Bus Crash

A tragic bus crash in Egypt which killed 14 Chinese has rocked Hong Kong.  The SCMP reports:

Hong Kong tourists passing Tuesday's fatal bus crash in Egypt ignored injured Hongkongers' cries for help, a man whose wife was killed in the accident claimed yesterday.  Calling them cold-blooded, the injured survivor, identified as Mr Leung, claimed more lives might have been saved if the passing tourists had lent a hand.

To read more: ($$ required)

http://www.scmp.com/topnews/ZZZW6CTJRGE.html

Mother Nature Strikes

Just as millions of Chinese are trying to return to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year, Mother Nature is not cooperating.  Authorities sent in armed police to help control some 100,000 passengers stranded at Beijing train stations after snowfalls in central China paralysed a key section of the nation's railway grid, media reported on Saturday.

To read more:

http://www.gulfnews.com/world/China/10013217.html