10 Top News in China 2009

1. 60th anniversary of the founding of New China

Looking at China's history over the past 60 years, it is apparent that, despite much suffering, the country has achieved huge political, economic and social success, especially during the past three decades.

A grand parade in Beijing on Oct 1, led by the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police Force, showcased some of China's latest achievements in defense modernization. About 8,000 military officers, along with tanks and other vehicles, formed columns stretching 3 km.

The military parade was followed by a civilian procession featuring six massive performing groups and 36 formations of about 100,000 people. In addition, 60 floats represented everything from the country's geographic areas to last year's Beijing Olympics.

Everyday life in China is a parade on a grander scale, with citizens now able to enjoy things their ancestors did not dare contemplate 100 years ago, things their grandparents took for luxury 60 years ago, and things their parents did not even know how to attempt 30 years ago.

2. Barack Obama's historic visit to China

Barack Obama became the first United States president to visit China in his first year of taking office when he arrived in Shanghai on Nov 15 as part of his first Asia tour.

During one of his trademark town hall-style meetings with youths at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum on Nov 16, the 48-year-old president reiterated that the US does not seek to contain China's rise and welcomes China as a "strong, prosperous and successful member of the community of nations".

After the speech, Obama departed for Beijing, where he spent two days in talks with President Hu Jintao, National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPC) Chairman Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao.

China and the US signed a joint statement on Nov 17 highlighting joint efforts to combat climate change and promote the clean energy industry. The countries also reiterated a commitment to building a "positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship in the 21st century".

Obama capped his four-day visit with a trip to the Great Wall in northern Beijing on Nov 18.

3. Climate change

Leaders from about 100 nations, along with thousands of negotiators from almost 200, flocked to Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, for the United Nation's 12-day climate change conference on Dec 7. The talks were intended to seal a deal on the fight against global warming after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Premier Wen Jiabao arrived on Dec 16 to join world leaders for the crucial last two days of negotiations, during which he told US President Barack Obama climate change is a global challenge, as well as an important field for cooperation between China and the US. The key to this issue is to stick to the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", said Wen.

The Chinese premier said his country has always regarded addressing climate change as an important strategic task and that, between 1990 and 2005, China's carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) were reduced by 46 percent. "Building on that, we have set a new target of cutting carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent on the 2005 level by 2020," Wen told delegates.

The conference ended on Dec 19 with the Copenhagen Accord. Although the document was not legally binding, it firmly upheld the basic framework and principles established by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol.

4. July 5 riots in Xinjiang

The violence that broke out in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on July 5 left 197 people dead and more than 1,700 injured.

Rioters gathered in downtown streets at 8 pm and began beating pedestrians, vandalizing cars and buses, and looting shops. The mayhem quickly spread to other areas. Most of those killed or injured were ethnic Han Chinese, while most of the rioters were Uygurs armed with bricks and batons.

Chinese authorities accused Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the World Uygur Congress who lives in exile in the US, of orchestrating the violence by using mobile phone text messaging and social networking websites. The central government blocked access to the Internet in Xinjiang just 24 hours after the violence, and its Web service to this day remains restricted.

Police asked the local procuratorate to approve the arrests of 575 suspected rioters. The authority granted 430 and, so far, 22 people have been sentenced to death for murder and other crimes during or after the July 5 riot.

5. H1N1 flu

Since the first confirmed case of H1N1 flu on the Chinese mainland on May 11, there have been 326 reported deaths from the virus, which quickly spread across the globe after initial reports in Mexico.

Pregnant women make up almost 14 percent of the victims of H1N1 on the Chinese mainland, while men account for 58 percent, according to official figures. About 90 of the 326 H1N1 deaths were reported between Dec 14 and 20, said Ministry of Health officials. During that period, 6,129 cases were reported.

A vaccine developed in China was approved on Sept 3 and, as of Dec 21, more than 40 million people had been inoculated nationwide.

The Chinese government planned to vaccinate 65 million - 5 percent of the country's population - before the end of 2009. Health workers, public service workers and students are priority groups for the vaccine.

6. Adoption of the Food Safety Law

China's top legislature, the NPC Standing Committee, approved the Food Safety Law on Feb 28, providing a legal basis for the government to strengthen control "from the production line to the dining table".

The law, implemented on June 1, enhanced monitoring and supervision, and toughened safety standards. It stipulated substandard products must be recalled and promised severe punishments for rule-breakers.

All chemicals and materials not on the list of authorized additives were banned from food production, with the new regulations insisting "only items proved to be safe and necessary are allowed to be listed as food additives".

The NPC Standing Committee gave the nod to the hotly debated draft law following a spate of food scandals triggered vehement calls for an overhaul of China's monitoring system.

Winning 158 from 165 votes, the rules said the State Council would set up a State-level food safety commission to oversee the entire food monitoring system, which due to a lack of efficiency has long been blamed for repeated scandals.

7. China's 8-percent growth rate

The nation's economy grew by just 9 percent this year, the lowest in seven years, which experts blamed on the global financial crisis. It brought to an end a five-year streak of double-digit expansion.

China has been under great pressure to realise 8-percent growth - the target announced by Premier Wen Jiabao in March - as the government has long believed it essential to the populous developing nation.

A massive economic stimulus package featuring a two-year investment plan worth 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) was implemented in the first quarter. It was originally adopted in November 2008, shortly after the start of the world economic slowdown, along with more pro-growth economic policies such as expanding the "home appliances to the countryside" program.

Official figures show GDP grew 8.9 percent in the third quarter, accelerating from 7.9 percent in the second and 6.1 percent in the first. For the first three quarters, the annualized GDP growth reached 7.7 percent.

8. PLA Navy takes on Somali pirates

China launched its first overseas military mission since 1949 on Dec 26, 2008, when it sent its first fleet of People's Liberation Army warships to the coast of Africa to protect merchant vessels from Somali pirates.

Leaving from Sanya port, Hainan province, they traveled more than 4,500 nautical miles and arrived on Jan 6. By the time they were relieved by the second fleet on April 2 , the Haikou, Wuhan and Weishanhu had escorted 130 vessels, as well as rescued three foreign merchant ships from pirates, according to statistics from the Ministry of Transport.

The mission has included more than 3,300 troops, while figures show the PLA Navy has in 12 months of operations escorted 1,300 merchant vessels, including 405 foreign ships and 18 from Taiwan province.

Four batches of destroyers and frigates have so far been deployed to the Gulf of Aden.

9. Forced demolitions

When Tang Fuzhen was told her home in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, was in the way of a highway project and would be demolished, she doused herself in petrol and set fire to herself in protest on Nov 13.

That same month, the media also highlighted the case of a woman in Minhang district, Shanghai, who threw petrol bombs at a demolition crew outside her home in June last year. Officials planned to raze the building to make way for a transportation hub for the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

Both "nail houses" - a term used to describe when people refuse to move out of homes slated for demolition - shocked citizens across China and turned the spotlight onto the rights of homeowners and forced demolitions by local governments. The central government announced on Dec 7 it would look into the issue of housing demolition regulations.

The most famous "nail house" case was in Chongqing in 2007 when a couple stopped developers from demolishing their home for three years until they received suitable compensation.

10. Disneyland in Shanghai

Construction of a Disneyland on the east bank of Huangpu River in Shanghai finally got the green light on Nov 4. The theme park will cost an estimated 25 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) and will open its gates as early as 2014. It is expected to cover an area of 116 hectares, 10 hectares fewer than the Disneyland in Hong Kong.

Walt Disney Co. will reportedly take a 43-percent equity stake in Shanghai Disneyland, while a joint-venture holding company formed by a consortium of Chinese companies owned by the municipal government will own the majority 57 percent.

The park will be the fourth Disneyland outside of the US - the others are in Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong - and is one of the largest-ever foreign investments in China's mainland.

Hotest Album in this week: Susan Boyle' s dream

The 48-year-old Britain's Got Talent runner-up shifted more than 130,000 copies of her debut album as it went on sale on Monday. Experts at the Official Charts Company said it is now set to become one of the fastest sellers of the decade.

I Dreamed A Dream looks to be on track to vie for the accolade of having this year's biggest first week sale, a record held by JLS for their self-titled which sold over 230,000 copies earlier this month.
It also includes the standard Cry Me a River, as well as covers of Madonna's You'll See and The Monkees' Daydream Believer.

Boyle's album last week achieved the largest ever pre-order for online retailer Amazon. She said: ''It was my greatest ambition to release an album and I have finally achieved it. There is happiness out there for everyone who dares to dream.''

Boyle launched her album with a performance on The X Factor on Sunday during which she sang her version of The Rolling Stones song Wild Horses. A huge crowd watched the performance seven months after her sensational debut on Britain's Got Talent.

Miss Boyle said: "I've grown up a bit. I've become more of a lady. I don't swivel my hips as much, you know? It feels very surreal, as if it's not really happening." She said: "That was a statement I was trying to make, because I was bullied a lot at school - 'You may have done that to me when I was younger, but you can't do it to me anymore. I'm grown up now'." She added: "From no pressure to having all this pressure, I found it a bit suffocating. It was such a short space of time, it felt like a demolition ball really. It really came at me like a demolition ball.

The things which mattered to me before 'Britain's Got Talent,' they still matter to me now: my faith, my friends, family. I'm not so cooped up now; I'm part of the world."

China product promotes via new ad

China, the country that introduced the world to formerly obscure chemicals like melamine and diethylene glycol via a series of product safety scandals, is now hoping to salvage its image through an advertising campaign.

The 30-second ads, played initially on CNN, show images of MP3 players printed with "Made in China with software from Silicon Valley," and clothes labeled "Made in China with French designers."
A jaunty soundtrack plays over happy Westerners jogging, eating, dancing, posing for a fashion shoot and looking out an aircraft window at a "Made in China, with engineers from all over the world" aircraft engine.

It ends with an American-accented voice saying: "When it says Made-in-China, it really means 'Made-in-China, Made with the world'."

The "charm offensive" is designed to promote Chinese-made goods "in a fair and objective way," to tell overseas consumers "that Chinese companies work with overseas firms to produce quality products," the official English-language China Daily said.

The campaign "reflects the Chinese companies' attitude and aspiration of strengthening cooperation with other countries to provide quality goods for foreign consumers," it added.

China, often called the world's factory, is struggling to convince a skeptical global audience that it has won a battle to improve safety standards after recent scandals involving everything from pet food and dumplings to children's toys.

The issue has proven a huge irritant in ties between China and the United States and European Union, the country's largest trade partners.But Beijing insists it is getting tough after endless promises to crack down.

US President Barack Obama visits China for the first time

President Obama will visit Shanghai and Beijing November 15–18 to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. While in China, Obama hopes to emphasize the importance of the U.S.-Chinese relationship and build trust between the two nations. He arrived in Shanghai on Sunday, and then flew into Beijing late on Monday.

Obama told President Hu Jintao that more people-to-people exchanges between the U.S. and China would lead to greater cooperation on economic and security issues.

Obama said at a meeting of senior government officials in Beijing's Great Hall of the People that the American people were interested in stronger relations with the people of China.

"The more that we can encourage people to people exchanges that are consistent with the discussions that we're having at the government level, the more that China and the United States will be able to work cooperatively on a whole range of issues -- both economic issues, security issues and global issues -- that are in the interests not just of our two nations, but the entire world," said Obama.

He told Hu that the smaller group discussions between the two leaders before the formal talks were very constructive.

"As we both affirmed, the United States and China have a great many mutual interests, and after 30 years of bilateral relations, I think it's fair to say that our two governments have continued to move forward in a way that can bring even greater cooperation in the future," Obama said.

"We hope the US understand and support China's government's stance and concerns, properly manage the Taiwan issue, and disallow any 'pro-Tibet independence' and 'the East Turkistan' forces to commit to any moves on the American soil to separate China," Hu said.

The East Turkistan has long sought to separate Xinjiang from China.

Obama stressed that the US recognizes and respects China' sovereignty and territorial integrity on Taiwan and other issues.

He said Washington is not intent to interrupt China's core interests.

Obama reiterated that the US follows its one-China policy and abides by the principles of the three Sino-US joint communiqués. Washington's one-China policy is solid and lasting, he added.

Obama also said Tibet is part of China.

"We did note that while we recognize that Tibet is part of the People's Republic of China," Obama said at a Joint Statement with Hu. "The United States supports the early resumption of dialogue between the Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama to resolve any concerns and differences that the two sides may have."

Apart from enhancing the strategic mutual trust, Hu suggested both countries keep close high-level exchanges and dialogues on all other issues.

At Obama's invitation, Hu will visit the US in next year.

Hu also called for more bilateral cooperation to jointly deal with "all sorts of" regional and global challenges.

Obama also said international cooperation is necessary for the world to face all global challenges.

He said the current US government, which is quite different from its predecessors in foreign policy, supports dialogues between nations and multilateralism.

The US goes not seek to contain China, as it welcomes a strong, prosperous, and successful China with bigger role in international affairs. He said the US appreciates China's effort to help resolve the nuclear issues of Iran and the Korean Peninsula.

The 21st century is different the 20th century, Obama said. Inter-state relations should not be a "zero-sum game" and countries should move beyond the "Cold War mentality".

Obama, 48, is the first US president who started a state visit to China within the first year since taking office.

After meeting Hu, Obama visited the Forbidden City.

Obama will meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday and visit the Great Wall in the afternoon.

His team will then leave for the Republic of Korea.

The rising travel fares in london

The world’s most expensive city will increase travel fares in 2010.

The cost of a single central London tube journey will rise from £1.60 to £1.80 on Oyster. The bus journey will rise from £1.00 to £1.20.

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, announced that he would make this decision later this year. The fare rise will impact the London Underground and the expanded bus network.

The fares have been rising during the past decade. Although the Oyster card cut the price down, the average cost of travel in London is higher than others in Europe.

According to research done by London's Liberal Democrats, ”London's cash single fare is over two and a half times that of Tokyo, the next most expensive city, and almost three times the price of the European average, £4.00 compared with £1.37.”

The mayor defended the sharp rise is going to help plug a multimillion-pound hole in transport funding in the capital.

Johnson wrote for the Evening Standard "We are coping with the colossal costs of the failure of Metronet and the disastrous PPP, and we are dealing with the costs of years of irresponsible politically motivated jiggery-pokery in setting fares”.

Johnson also said, "Nobody wants to make an announcement like this, especially when Londoners are feeling the effects of the recession,"

Researching the recent years’ figures about the London transport fares. It is easy to find out last year Johnson had announced an inflation-busting 6% rise in tube and bus fares from 2009.

The comments from Londoners show their about the rising fares. They said, “Without the fare increase we would not get the much needed tube update that we are all crying for.”

Sharon Grant, chair of the commuter watchdog London TravelWatch, said the rises were unacceptable. "We are particularly appalled at the 20% rise in single bus fares, and the rise of a single Oyster trip in zone 1," she said. "While the freeze on the price of a weekly Travelcard is welcome, it appears that infrequent, irregular users, such as part-time workers, will be disproportionately punished. It is these people who may well decide not to use public transport, not travel at all, or use their car instead."

British Airways is losing money

British Airways said it will cut 1,700 jobs and plans to introduce a two-year pay freeze for cabin crew and this transformation would take effect from the end of November.

A spokesman for British Airways said, "Revenues are down, so we must reduce costs and restore profitability," The airline also said the job cuts would involve 1,000 cabin crew taking voluntary redundancy and a further 3,000 choosing to go part-time.

Airlines all over the world are struggling due to the fall in the numbers of passengers. British Airways is losing money

The airline has been in negotiations with unions about the best way to cut staff costs.

The Unite union criticised the cuts and warned BA staff in an email that "you can rest assured it won't be the last [job cuts]."