WEEKLY WATCH

WEEKLY WATCH

OPINION

Train Malfunc tions

The opening of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway has been a source of great excitement for Chinese people.Citizens have high expectations of safety,com fort and environmental protection on this railway. However, since formal operations began on June 30, a series of accidents have taken place.

A breakdown occurred on July 10 at the contact network of the Qufu-Tengzhou-Zaozhuang section due to stormy weather,which prevented 19 trains from arriving on time. Two days later, on the afternoon of July 12, due to a malfunction in power supply facilities, some trains were delayed again.

China’s high-speed rail link is now the longest in the world, but high speed on the line is not enough. There are still a lot of problems waiting to be solved. Is the railway able to cope with emergencies related to extreme weather and can it ensure the safety of its technical equipment? Does the train staff know how to com fort and compensate passengers when accidents occur?

It seems that the service, security and managerial work of our high-speed trains is falling behind speed. How to develop the railway into a com fortable and safe manner is a matter of urgency facing China’s advanced high-speed railway.People’s Daily

Plastic Bags

Six m inistries including the National Development and Reform Comm ission recently announced a nationw ide campaign to forbid supermarkets and various other retailers from providing free plastic shopping bags during July and August.Retailers who violate the regulation w ill be punished.

Since the Chinese Government began to adopt bans on the free use of plastic bags in 2007, supermarkets have already ceased to offer free plastic bags to consumers.But, in daily life, p lastic bags are still w idely used, particularly in farm produce markets.

But, when the charge on a bag is listed as an extra item, consumers w ill be affected to some extent. The primary goal of the ban is to help rid the country of the pollution caused by these bags.

The reality now is, even if a plastic bag adds to the cost of consumers, they are unable to eradicate the deep-rooted habit of using plastic bags. The major reason is for most people the fee on plastic bags is not high enough to prevent them from using them.

The use of plastic supermarket bags is strongly opposed by people around the world, and more and more countries have officially announced bans on the use of plastic bags. However, the ban is only a temporary measure, and the solution is to develop biodegradable, convenient substitutes for plastic bags. Only when shoppers are really w illing to give up plastic bags w ill an environmentally friendly life habit form.Yanzhao Evening News

CONSTRUCTION QUESTIONS: Mo to r vehic les on the Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge on Ju ly 5 as rem aining w o rk on the new ly built b ridge goes on

Cooking Oil

Beijing Municipal Health Bureau recently said the bureau will carry out a tough action against the use of bad cooking oil in the city’s restaurants.

This action may help to some extent, but removing bad cooking oil from restaurants’tables is not enough. These kinds of oil can be used as bio-fuel and chemical products, or in other fields.

The bad oil is harm ful to human health,while when it is used in other areas, it is still useful. Turning waste kitchen oil into jet fuel is costly, so it may not be a good choice in China, but it is realistic to transform waste oil into bio-diesel. In east China’s Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces,several companies now produce bio-diesel and chem ical products in daily use, such as unsaturated fatty acids.

It’s a pity we still lack incentive policies for this business, and also a standard for biodiesel. Because of this underdeveloped biodiesel market, businesses devoted to the safe use of waste oil can’t develop strongly.

If there is strong policy support, processing bad oil to be useful products like bio-diesel could become a lucrative business. Then, who would ever like to risk using bad oil as cooking oil on restaurant tables?The Beijing News

Construction Quality

In response to public doubts about the opening of the Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge on June 30, Shao Xinpeng, chief engineer of the bridge, claimed the bridge was already ready for public traffic, although some parapets had not been fully installed and screws and bolts not tightened.

It’s not only the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge,but throughout the country, the speed of constructions is terrific—whether it’s a building,a subway or a bridge. The interesting thing is,many of these huge constructions are completed before the arrival of a certain event or important day.

In order to complete a construction on a certain date, people often speed up the construction pace irrationally.

It’s common sense a public engineering project can’t be rushed through, as it’s related to the public safety. But, such things keep happening. It’s largely related to local governments’ impulse for a good achievement record.

Projects are opened to the public even when they are not finished to mark certain big events. How to prevent such ridiculous events occurring again? The key is to lim it the adm inistrative power over constructions.People’s Daily

SOCIETY

Progress on Hum an Rights

China has accomplished various goals set by the National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-10), which demonstrates that the country’s human rights record and its people’s livelihoods have improved, said Wang Chen, M inister of the State Council Information Office, on July 12.

The State Council Information Office published China’s first national action plan on human rights in April 2009. The office w ill publish an assessment report of the action plan soon.

Tibet White Paper

The Chinese Government released a white paper on the development of Tibet over the past 60 years on July 11.

The document, released by the State Council’s Information Office, reviews the history of Tibet, particularly the peaceful liberation in 1951, as well as the profound political, social and economic changes that have taken place in the region.

In the 60 years since its liberation, Tibet has fulfi lled two historic leaps: “from a society of feudal serfdom to one of socialism,and from a state of isolation, poverty and backwardness to one of openness, prosperity and civilization,” the white paper says.

In the period from 1952 to 2010, the Central Government channeled 300 billion yuan ($46.37 billion) to Tibet as financial subsidies, with an annual grow th rate of 22.4 percent, according to the white paper.

The Central Government has also allocated more than 160 billion yuan ($24.73 billion) in direct investment to Tibet.

Econom ic Accountability

China’s auditors have demoted or removed 16,000 government officials or executives of state-owned enterprises(SOEs) in economic accountability audits since 1999, according to the National Audit Offi ce.

Auditing authorities also handed over more than 7,600 government officials and SOE executives to supervisory departments and judicial organs for abuse of power for personal gains.

Econom ic accountability audits evaluate the performance of leading Party and government officials and SOE executives in managing and using public funds, national resources, state capital and social funds.

New Satellite

Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.,the two satellites w ill form a network to offer data relay, measurement and control services for China’s spacecraft and planned space stations, said the center.

They w ill also be used to help perform the nation’s first space docking, scheduled for the second half of 2011.

China launched its second data relay satellite,Tianlian I-02, on July 11 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest Sichuan Province.

The country’s first data relay satellite,Tianlian I-01, was sent into orbit on April 25, 2008.

Developed by the China Academ y of Space Technology under the China

Legal Aid Schem e

The 1+1 Volunteer Legal Aid Campaign has benefi ted more than 1 m illion people in China since it was launched in July 2009, according to the China Legal Aid Foundation.

In the past two years, more than 300 volunteer lawyers and law students have been sent to 130 counties in 19 provincial regions across the country to dispense legal advice and assistance to those in need.

Volunteers have handled over 10,000 cases and helped more than 1 m illion people,including disabled people, senior citizens,juveniles, women and migrant workers.

ECONOMY

Funding Medical Reform

The Chinese Government has allocated another 18.4 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) to a subsidy fund to support the nation’s medical reform, the M inistry of Finance (MOF) said on July 12.

The new fund brings total subsidies allocated by the Central Government to 171.7 billion yuan ($26.4 billion) so far this year.

Of the 18.4 billion yuan ($2.83 billion),nearly 40 percent, or 7.2 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), w ill be used to build maternal and child-care service centers, first-aid centers and other public health institutions which specialize in the treatment of tuberculosis and leprosy.

Meanwhile, 4.2 billion yuan ($646 m illion) w ill be used to subsidize the purchase of medical equipment by county-level traditional Chinese medicine hospitals and 3.4 billion yuan ($523 million) w ill be used to subsidize the medical costs of people in both urban and rural areas.

ABC Pro fit Up

The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC),one of the country’s “big four” state-owned commercial banks, said it expects its net profi ts in the fi rst half of 2011 to jump more than 45 percent year on year.

ABC said the profit surge was the result of stable development, continuous grow th in net profit margins and a rapid increase in commission fees and net interest income.

ABC’s net profi t went up 46 percent to hit 94.91 billion yuan ($146 billion) last year.

Jet Fuel Pricing

China w ill introduce a more marketoriented jet fuel pricing mechanism starting on August 1, said the National Development and Reform Commission, on July 12.

The move aims to improve the formation mechanism of jet fuel at-cost price.

This at-cost price should not exceed the after-tax CIF price (cost, insurance and freight price) of jet fuel imported from Singapore.

Jet fuel producers and their clients can negotiate the fuel premium and review it once a year when taking into account factors such as the transportation costs, trade volume and international crude oil prices.

Jet fuel producers and their clients can negotiate and re-price jet fuel on the fi rst day of each month.

Currently, adjustments of the country’s jet fuel prices require authorities’ approval.

Chinese Steel Supp lier

The main portion of steel for the east span replacement of the San Francisco Bay Bridge was delivered on July 11 by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., one of China’s largest heavy equipment manufacturers.

This is the biggest project so far for the state-owned equipment manufacturing enterprise w ith a contract worth $350 million,said Kang Xuezeng, President of Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries.

Zhenhua hopes the quality and safety of this project w ill increase its reputation in the global construction market, Kang said.

FLYING HIGHAirbus (Tian jin) Fina l Assem b ly Co. Ltd., the com pany’s on ly fina l assem b ly line outside Eu rope, has so far de livered 55 A320 airp lanes since it de livered its first p lane in June 2009. Eigh teen w ere de livered this year. The com pany p lans to inc rease its China ou tput to m eet the g row ing air avia tion dem ands in the coun try

1. RUSSIA

Em ergency w orkers load d rinking w ater on to a boat near Kam skoye Ustye Village in Tatarstan on Ju ly 11 during the search fo r the bod ies o f the passengers o f a c ruise ship that sank the day before in a storm on the Vo lga River

2. INDIA

Po lice o fficers conduc t security checks at M um bai’s m ain airpo rt on Ju ly 14. Security in Indian c ities w as tigh tened a fter a series o f b lasts struck Mum bai the day be fo re, killing at least 21

3. SYRIA

Syrian Vice President Farouk a l-Sharaa (cen ter) attends a consu ltative m eeting fo r national d ia logue in Dam ascus on Ju ly 10

4. PERU

Wo rkers p repare to burn 14 tons o f d rugs seized du ring seve ra l operations in the past five m on ths in Lim a on Ju ly 8

5. NORTH KOREA

Chinese Vice Prem ier Zhang Dejiang p resen ts gifts to No rth Ko rean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on July 12. Zhang’s visit m a rked the 50th anniversary o f signing o f the Sino-North Korean Treaty o f Friendship,Cooperation and Mu tua l Assistance

6. ITALY

Tourists coo l o ff around the Foun tain o f the O ld Boat in dow ntow n Rom e on Ju ly 12.This yea r’s first heat w ave recen tly hit Italy, p rom p ting 13 cities to issue red a lerts