HK's chief executive apologizes to public

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang attends a question and answer session at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong March 1, 2012.

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's Chief Executive (CE) Donald Tsang formally apologized on Thursday to the public over travel and other incidents related to him, which were believed to have created worries and shaken public confidence in the city's institutional system.
Attention has been drawn to Tsang recently after local media disclosed his holiday trips on private jets and yachts owned by his tycoon friends, and the renting of a Shenzhen flat where Tsang intended to live after his tenure ended.
A full account of the incidents have been demanded by the city' s lawmakers, who also called for a full disclosure of payments Tsang made.
Tsang, while attending a question and answer session at the city's Legislative Council in the day, said that after consulting with his wife, he has decided to give up the Shenzhen flat and will arrange meetings to terminate the contract as soon as possible.
Wide media coverage has already generated public suspicion on my honesty and integrity as the city's CE, Tsang said, who admitted his ways of dealing with the incidents did not meet the public expectations.
"Today, I came to the Legislative Council by myself to provide an explanation, not with an intention to save my own reputation, but to restore the public's confidence in a clean and devoted government," Tsang said.

Policies to promote the flow of population, the settlers in the office area

政策推动流动人口，在办公地区的定居.BEIJING - China has clarified its residence policies to facilitate domestic migrants' settling in small and medium-size cities as permanent residents, a move intended to further push the urbanization drive.
In cities of county-level or below, people who have stable jobs and residences may apply for permanent residence permits, along with their spouses, unmarried children, and parents, according to a State Council circular posted online late Thursday.
In medium-size cities, people who have stable jobs for three years, stable residences, and have paid social security insurance for at least one year, can also apply for permits to live in the city permanently, the circular said.
That means many of China's millions of migrant workers may be formally accepted as urban residents, giving them more access to public services including welfare housing and medical insurance, which are currently only open to holders of permanent residence permits in many cities.
Ushered in some 30 years ago, China's reform and opening-up drive established a pattern of labor flowing from rural to urban areas, and the country now has more than 200 million rural migrants working in cities.
Meanwhile, the circular said China will continue efforts to control the population of major cities, including those directly under jurisdiction of the central government, many of which are already over-populated based on their existing facilities and services.
Census data showed that the population of Beijing, the capital, reached more than 19 million in 2010, already exceeding 18 million, the figure Beijing has set as a goal in population scale control by 2020.
Of Beijing's 19 million population, migrants from other provinces and cities comprised seven million, more than 70 percent of whom moved to the city for work or business reasons.

PM2.5: Easy to monitor but hard to control

BEIJING - Over 100 flights were canceled or delayed Tuesday morning as a thick haze enveloped Beijing, China's capital city currently embroiled in a fierce public debate over the air-quality monitoring gauge PM2.5.
Despite forthcoming tighter monitoring standards nationwide, it is no easy task for Beijing and other cities to implement PM2.5 standards and then further control pollution, insiders have said.
Particles 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5) are referred to as "fine" particles and are believed to pose greater health risks than larger particles because they can embed deep in people's lungs.
Easing air pollution in China during its development phase is a massive systematic project, said Hao Jiming, director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at Tsinghua University.
"It is estimated to take at least 10 years for Beijing to meet the upcoming national standards under the PM2.5 gauge," Hao said, adding that the process is bound to kick off a long, brutal fight.
The public debate on PM2.5 and PM10 first began when it came to light that air-quality monitoring results released by Beijing's weather forecasting station and the US Embassy in Beijing often differed.
While the embassy's results often described Beijing's air quality as "hazardous" or "dangerous," the Beijing weather forecasting station would classify the pollution as "minor." Both sources defended their stances by saying that the divergence resulted from using different measurement standards.
China currently uses PM10, or particulate matter under 10 microns, to measure air quality -- a measure often seen as the root of discrepancies between the government's ratings and the way urbanites feel.
Beijing announced on January 6 that it would release its air-quality monitoring data using the PM2.5 gauge ahead of the Spring Festival holiday that begins on January 23. The data had previously only been available for laboratory use and was not disclosed to the public.
It is also currently working to increase the number of monitoring substations, which will allow it to release real-time PM2.5 data by the end of 2012.
Meanwhile, Beijing is not the only city facing public outcry over pollution. Many Chinese cities have been periodically enveloped in heavy smog, deepening public frustration over the quality of air people breathe every day.
In response to the clamor of public health concerns, the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced that a new index standard, which includes the measuring of PM2.5 and ozone density, is scheduled to be fully implemented nationwide by 2016.
Pilot projects will be also conducted in certain regions, including all municipalities and provincial capitals, ahead of the national deadline.
With the forthcoming new gauge, the number of reported good weather days will likely decrease. However, the figure will not be the most "shameful" thing if air pollution conditions continue unchanged, Xu Ming, vice governor of east China's Jiangsu province, said in a local media report.
"Core issues topping the to-do list also include finding the sources of the haze and determining measures to reduce emissions," Xu said, adding that realizing the overall coverage of PM2.5 monitoring sites throughout the entire province of Jiangsu will happen by the end of 2013.
But implementing PM2.5 measuring standards is not an easy job for China. It is easy to monitor the data, but hard to control the air pollution, insiders observed.
Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian has urged a prompt overhaul of the current air quality monitoring standard to factor in PM2.5, as well as measures of ozone and carbon monoxide into the country's pollution monitoring system. 

"China is still facing the unresolved pollution issue with a comparatively high density of total suspended particulate (TSP) and PM10. Then, there is still a gradual process of bringing national standards in line with international conventions," Zhou said.
As a multi-source pollutant, PM2.5 is tricky to technically control. Research shows that over half of PM2.5 emissions are not directly emitted, but are oxidations of other air pollutants.
Meanwhile, by adopting the upcoming PM2.5 standards, local governments will definitely face great pressure on the declining number of "blue sky days," said Wu Dui, a researcher with the tropical oceanic climate institute of the China Meteorological Administration.
Then, the performance criteria for local governments should be broadened to include "hard environmental targets," not just the gross domestic product, Wu said.

Year of the Dragon stamp caused controversy

龙年邮票引发的争论。Photo taken on Jan 3, 2011 shows a dragon stamp to be released to mark the Year of the Dragon.

龙年邮票引发的争论。BEIJING - A set of stamps to mark the Year of the Dragon, slated for sales beginning Thursday, has aroused heated debate on the image of the legendary creature after China Post unveiled the design of the stamp.

"The moment I saw the design of the dragon stamp on newspaper, I was almost scared to death," Zhang Yihe, a noted writer said in her post on weibo.com, China's Twitter-like social networking service and microblogging service provider, on Tuesday.
"The dragon on the stamp looks too ferocious," echoed one post on the Web.

"It is roaring and intimidating," read another.

Few mythological beasts could better arouse a national debate in China than the dragon, because Chinese believe they are descendants of the legendary creature.

The stamp for the Year of the Dragon, the third set of its kind issued by China Post since 1949, used a make-up that was close to China's first stamp in 1878 during the Qing Dynasty when emperors still reigned the country.

For thousands of years, the Chinese have named each year after an animal in a 12-year cycle. The dragon ranks fifth in the cycle, after the mouse, ox, tiger and rabbit, but before snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. 2012 is the Year of the Dragon.

Dragons are traditionally considered to symbolize auspicious powers in China with their control over water, rainfall, hurricane, and floods. Emperors in ancient China used the dragon as a totem of the imperial power.

Chen Shaohua, designer of the new stamp, upheld his work, saying the dragon should not be too gentle in image otherwise it does not fit the portraits of dragon in the minds of most Chinese.

"Dragon is the deity of the 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac, and you can't modernize the creature like cartoons," said Chen, who once designed the emblem of Beijing's bidding for the 2008 Olympic Games.

"Among the civilian people, dragon can exorcise evil spirits, avoid disasters and bless people, so we need a tough image," Chen said.

Feng Shula, manager of the circulation department of China Post, defended Chen's design, saying the image of the dragon is exactly what it should look like, based on the references to the dragon robe worn by emperors in ancient China and the Nine-Dragon Wall in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

"From this perspective, the new dragon stamp is a perfect combination of history and modern time," Feng said.

To Zhou Zhihua, president of All-China Philatelic Federation, the discomfort at the 2012 dragon stamp among some people is understandable, given an image that is far different from the prior two sets of dragon stamps.

The first set of dragon stamp issued in 1988 abandoned the awe-inspiring looking for the legendary creature and used the Chinese  traditional paper-cutting art to soften its appearance. Another dragon stamp issued in 2000 combined the traditional Chinese calligraphy and the dragon pattern of the Qin (221 BC - 206 BC)and Han (206 BC -220) dynasties  in design and gave a graceful exterior for the dragon.

Despite the controversy, the new dragon stamp is set to bring good fortune to some people in the country.

At Madian, a philatelic market in downtown Beijing, the new set of dragon stamps have been overbooked at prices much higher than its face value of 24 yuan ($3.8).

"All my quota for subscription have been booked and some collectors even asked for one set of the dragon stamps at 180 yuan each," said Li Wei, a stamp and coins seller at the market.

Death occurred in southern China confirmed bird flu cases

在中国南方发生的死亡病例确诊为禽流感病毒。SHENZHEN - Health authorities in south Guangdong province have identified the type of the virus that led to the death of a bus driver, but the cause of the bird flu remains unclear, a local disease control center confirmed Monday.

The receptor of the virus, a highly pathogenic H5N1, is poultry, according to a statement released by the Shenzhen Disease Control Center.

Though it is highly pathogenic to human beings, the virus can not spread among people, the center said in the statement, adding that there is no need for Shenzhen citizens to panic.

Genetic analysis also indicated that the virus was spread directly from poultry to human, according to the statement.

A 39-year-old man surnamed Chen in Bao'an district of Shenzhen was hospitalized for fever on December 21 and tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Chen died of multiple organ failure Saturday afternoon.

Health authorities are trying to figure out where Chen acquired the virus.

The Guangdong Department of Agriculture announced Saturday that no epidemic of bird flu among poultry had been reported in the province.

Parts of China, recycled needles spread hepatitis C

中国部分地区，回收的针头传播丙型肝炎。A girl displays a medical report claiming she has been diagnosed with hepatitis C virus in a hospital in Anhui province, Nov 28, 2011.

中国部分地区，回收的针头传播丙型肝炎。BOZHOU, Anhui -Thirteen people, including at least six children, were confirmed to have contracted hepatitis C in a recent outbreak in Guoyang county, Anhui province. Forty-three others were suspected to have been infected, but will have to go through more tests to confirm if they have actually contracted the disease.
The disease spread after a private clinic in the neighboring Henan province allegedly reused dirty needles, according to initial investigations led by Anhui's health bureau.
Six children, aged between two and six, are being treated at No 1 Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University in the provincial capital Hefei. Seven others, whose ages are not known yet, have been sent to hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province.
Most of the confirmed victims used to receive medical services at Miaoqian clinic, a family-run business in Maqiao township in Henan province, about eight kilometers from the border of Anhui and Henan.
Some parents claimed to have seen the same needle used to inject different children.
Chen Yuping, whose 2-year-old son, Zhang Ziheng, was confirmed carrying the virus, said residents of Laotian village in Guoyang, where she lived, brought their children to Miaoqian clinic as it cost less and treatment was quick.
Chen said Wu Wenyi was the doctor and owner of the clinic. Wu's daughter-in-law helps with making injections. Chen took her son for a blood test after she heard rumors of people contracting the virus in Henan.
"I insisted that they change needles for the sake of the children's health, but they didn't listen," Chen said.
Zhang Yongli, a migrant worker in Anhui's Chuzhou city, rushed back home when he heard his 5-year-old daughter, Zhang Zimeng, was infected with the virus.
"What if she gets discriminated against in the future because of the infection?" Zhang said.
Wei Lai, director of the hepatosis department at Peking University, said hepatitis C was curable and it was in fact possible to have the virus removed from one's body.
Unsafe injections, mostly involving the reuse of dirty needles, have caused HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C infections, Wei said.
A man from the Maqiao township-level supervising body of the clinic said Wu's clinic would remain open until Henan provincial authorities reached a final conclusion. Six residents in Maqiao have been confirmed to have contracted hepatitis C as of Monday.
In November 2009, 19 renal patients on dialysis treatment were found to have contracted hepatitis C due to the use of poor equipment and improper medical procedures in Huoshan county in Anhui. People responsible for the incident, including the head of the hospital, were sacked in December that year.

Some hotels in Shanghai stop selling shark fins to protect endangered animals

上海一些酒店停止出售鱼翅，以保护濒危动物。A worker puts shark fins into baskets at a processing plant in Wenzhou city, East China’s Zhejiang province.

上海一些酒店停止出售鱼翅，以保护濒危动物。SHANGHAI - Several luxury hotels and popular restaurants have decided to take shark fin soup - a traditional delicacy on banquet tables - off the menu to help keep the species from becoming extinct.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Ltd (HSH), parent company of The Peninsula Hotels, said that it will stop serving shark fin on Jan 1 at all of its eight hotels globally, including one in Shanghai, one in Beijing and one in Hong Kong.
HSH said the decision was made "in recognition of the threat facing the global shark population and in line with the company's sustainability vision".
A spokeswoman for the Peninsula Shanghai who declined to give her name told China Daily that removing the dish from the menu will have a very limited impact on the hotel's food and beverage profits.
"We will replace shark fin soup with some other precious ingredients such as abalone and sea cucumber," she said.
Swissotel Beijing has also decided to ban shark fin soup. "Our restaurant stopped selling shark fin soup at the beginning of November to protect sharks," said Zhang Lei, staff member of the Chinese cuisine department at the five-star Swissotel Beijing.
"We saw retired NBA star Yao Ming's public service advertisement against eating shark fin soup and became aware of shark protection," Zhang said.
"Also, the number of customers ordering shark fin soup has decreased recently. They may be aware of the environmental protection problem as well."
The Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel Shanghai, which opened in March, never featured shark fin on its menus. And popular Chinese restaurant South Beauty stopped serving shark fin soup in September.
"We will not serve shark fin soup even if the guest requests it for a banquet," said Shen Xiaoyan, supervisor of South Beauty's Shanghai City Center outlet.
The culinary industry's move has been lauded by animal protection organizations.
WildAid, a wild animal conservation organization that has pursued a shark protection campaign for more than a decade, said in a newsletter that the ban on shark fins "exemplifies how businesses can become leaders in conservation, dissuading people from purchasing wildlife products and spreading awareness of the detrimental effects of the illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade".
According to WildAid, up to 73 million sharks are killed every year to meet the increasing demand for shark fin soup. As a result, about one-third of the open-ocean shark species are threatened with extinction, with certain species experiencing a 99 percent population decline.
When their fins are hacked off, sharks are often still alive. The sharks, whose meat is not considered as valuable as their fins, are thrown back into the water to drown or bleed to death.
Other major hotels in Hong Kong said they were reviewing their policies in the wake of the Peninsula's move, but few appeared ready to drop shark fin soup from the menu entirely.
Four Seasons Hotel spokeswoman Claire Blackshaw said that shark fin had been removed from the menu but was still available on request. "We are a popular venue for weddings so it gets requested quite a lot," she was quoted by AFP as saying.
The Conrad, part of the Hilton group, the Nikko and Regal Hongkong hotels have similar policies, with some offering a choice of menus with and without shark fin dishes.
However, some hotels in Shanghai have refused to take shark fin soup off the menu, even though some customers urged them to do so.
Tang Yi, a 26-year-old employee with a State-owned enterprise, booked a wedding banquet for next year at the Howard Johnson Caida Plaza Shanghai. The hotel refused his request to take shark fin soup off the menu.
"I cannot bear to eat shark fin soup after I saw the documentary Oceans that had a segment showing how sharks' fins were cruelly sliced off and the fish thrown back into the ocean.
"However, the hotel insisted that the banquet would be degraded without the shark fin soup. They were not willing to look for alternatives either," he said.
"I don't think people really love the taste of the soup. Their passion for shark fin soup is only because it kind of represents luxury."

Railway officials to re-address fraud and engineering contracts

铁路官员重新处理欺诈合同和工程.BEIJING - The Ministry of Railways on Sunday dismissed at least 10 railway officials and fined local railway authorities for contract fraud that led to unqualified subcontractors - including a former cook - using substandard material to build bridges in Northeast China.
The ministry also ordered the demolition of 16 piers of two extra-big bridges - part of a 2.3 billion yuan ($360 million) railway project - in Jingyu county and Fusong county in Jilin province. These will be reconstructed.
The dismissed officials were working for: owner of the 74.1-km-long rail project, Shenyang Railways Bureau, general contractor, China Railway No 9 Group Co, and the supervisor of Shenyang Railways Construction Supervision Company.
Publicity officials of the general contractor told Xinhua, "At least 10 officials were dismissed over the case, excluding those who would possibly be handed over to judicial authorities".
Also, China Railway No 9 Group and Shenyang Railways Construction Supervision Company were fined to cover the reconstruction costs and were disqualified from making bids for railway contracts for a year.
Calls to the Group and Shenyang Railways Bureau on Sunday afternoon went unanswered.
The ministry said that investigations were conducted, following up media reports of contract fraud, illegal subcontracting and compromising on quality published in October, and the allegations were found to be true.
Early media reports said China Railway No 9 Group subcontracted the project to several companies, including one from East China's Jiangxi province, which, in turn, engaged migrant workers to build two extra-big bridges and a tunnel.
But the Jiangxi-based company made an announcement in September, saying a group of frauds had forged the company's stamps, passing themselves off as company staff who carried out the project with China Railway No 9 Group.
The ministry concluded a deputy director of the railway construction project headquarters had "introduced" the migrant crew to carry out part of the tasks. But no official from the Shenyang Railways Bureau was found to have been involved in the contract fraud, the ministry said.
Lu Tianbo, who previously owned a restaurant and recently headed a team of laborers building the bridges, said the workers had substituted concrete with large quantities of gravel and rocks to build the piers.
Worker Chai Fangze told local newspapers, "Truckloads of waste were dumped into piers when stones were in short supply."
Project managers reportedly passed quality assessment forms without questioning.
This was not the first time that under-qualified laborers had built sub-standard bridges.
In August 2007, a 328-meter-long bridge under construction over the Tuojiang River in Hunan province collapsed, killing 64 people and injuring 22. The gravel inside was exposed when the piers broke.
The railway authority had spent heavily on infrastructure construction in China. Over 800 billion yuan was invested in 2010. The overall investment from 2011 to 2015 is expected to amount to 2.8 trillion yuan, according to official figures.
Dong Yan, a researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission, has warned that "a great many of the biddings for railway supplies and projects are trivial, and these bids, once acquired, tend to be exploited for corrupt practices."
In February, the Minister of Railways, Sheng Guangzu, urged Party and administration officials to not exert any influence on railway projects or procurements.

Anchorman backs students by wearing green tie

中央电视台主持人为被要求戴绿色红领巾的学生鸣不平，戴绿色领带.A TV grab shows anchorman Bai Yansong wearing a green tie on Oct 19, 2011. 

中央电视台主持人为被要求戴绿色红领巾的学生鸣不平，戴绿色领带."I just want the students to know that I'm also wearing a green one. And we are all great people and are as good as those wearing red scarves." Bai Yansong, a famous anchor of China Central Television, voiced his support to students wearing green scarves at a primary school in Xi'an by wearing a green tie on a TV program, Oct 19, 2011.
The program focused on a recent controversial issue, triggered by First Experimental Primary School in Northwestern China's Xi'an that made children whose schoolwork and general behavior were not yet good enough to wear green scarves instead of the red scarf of the Chinese Young Pioneers.
"The original idea for designing the green scarf was to strengthen education and to encourage the pupils to work harder," said Chen Hong, the school's principal.
The practice that divided students into "good" and "bad" has provoked a lot of discussions on Sina Weibo, a Chinese twitter-like microblogging website.
The color of green in Chinese culture carries an annoying implication particularly because "green hats" are the Chinese symbol of a cuckold. Many Weibo users thought it was inappropriate to make pupils wear green scarves.
"It is a violation of dignity to make bad students wear green scarves," said a blogger with the username Suosez.
"If bad students have to wear green scarves, then bad teachers should wear green hats," another blogger said.
"The Chinese version of Steve Jobs has died in primary school because his pride has been hurt by the green scarf," said another blogger.
"It is an absolute discrimination against children," said yet another.
"Seeing the students in Xi'an wearing green scarves reminds me of some miserable memories. I cannot forget that I was the second batch to wear a red scarf in my class. I cannot forget the scar on my hand left by my Chinese teacher. And I cannot forget that my math teacher threw my test paper on the ground and insisted that it was copied," a blogger with the username Kivalailai recalled.
"The green scarves will cast a shadow over the students and bring them inferiority or jealousy, which are quite bad for their mental health," said a blogger.
The school has halted the use of green scarves as of Wednesday and parent-teacher meetings have been held to explain the situation, according to teachers at the school.

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In North China,oil leak spotted

在中国华北海域，出现石油漏油事故.
QINGDAO - An oil spill was discovered in North China's Bohai Sea Friday evening and is being assessed for damage, maritime authorities said.

Water samples are taken after an oil slick was spotted near the Jinzhou 9-3 oil rig located in Liaodong Bay, Oct 15, 2011.

在中国华北海域，出现石油漏油事故.The Tianjin branch of the China National Offshore Oil Corp said it discovered the spill after an oil slick was spotted near the Jinzhou 9-3 oilfield, which is located in Liaodong Bay, on Friday.
The source of the oil is an underwater pipe that was damaged by the anchors of ships passing through the bay, the company said in in a report.
The State Oceanic Administration (SOA) has initiated a level-three emergency response to the spill and has dispatched a plane and a monitoring vessel to assess any possible damage.
The spill comes after the government's pledge to inspect offshore petroleum drilling and exploration businesses to prevent future oil spills.
The pledge was a response to a severe oil spill that occurred in Bohai Bay in June, wreaking havoc on local tourism and aquatic farming.
The June spill originated from a platform belonging to ConocoPhillips China, a subsidiary of US-based oil giant ConocoPhillips.
The company has been criticized for its failure to clean up the spill in accordance with a deadline imposed by the Chinese government.
The Bohai Sea is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea and comprises Laizhou Bay, Liaodong Bay and Bohai Bay.

Water samples are taken from North China's Bohai Sea after an oil slick was spotted Friday near the Jinzhou 9-3 oil rig, which is located in Liaodong Bay. 

Water samples are taken after an oil slick was spotted near the Jinzhou 9-3 oil rig located in Liaodong Bay, Oct 15, 2011.

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