Anti-China protests greet torchbearers BY NICHOLAS PAPHITIS The Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece — Torchbearers carried the Olympic fl ame through the crowded streets of Athens to the Acropolis on Saturday amid heavy security and demonstrations by small groups of protesters. At the foot of the Acropolis, a pro-Tibet group unfurled a banner reading “Free Tibet 2008” and lit candles to protest China’s deadly crackdown there. “We don’t want the torch relay to pass through Tibet,” said one protester who identified herself only as Klara. Earlier, police briefly scuffl ed with a group of anti-globalization demonstrators shortly after the torch relay entered the city. The relay was not disrupted by either protest and no arrests were reported. More than 2,000 police offi cers were deployed in Athens for the relay. A helicopter flew overhead and about a dozen plainclothes officers on motorcycles flanked the torchbearers. Thousands of people gathered along the route to watch as the runners — including Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis — ran through streets lined with the Chinese, Greek and Olympic flags. Organizers had made last-minute changes to the torch route to prevent protests against China’s human rights record from disrupting the event. The torch will be handed over to Beijing officials today at the restored ancient stadium where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896. China’s crackdown on anti-government protests in Tibet more than two weeks ago has prompted protests in several countries, and campaigners have pledged to demonstrate throughout the 85,100-mile global torch relay.
Earlier, police briefly scuffled with a group of anti-globalization demonstrators shortly after the torch relay entered the city.
Ahhhh....'anti-globalization', it's music to my ears!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Chaos surrounds Olympic torch as it goes through Paris The Associated Press
PARIS — Paris’ Olympic torch relay descended into chaos Monday, with protesters scaling the Eiffel Tower, grabbing for the flame and forcing security officials to repeatedly snuff out the torch and transport it by bus past demonstrators yelling “Free Tibet!” The relentless anti-Chinese demonstrations ignited across the capital with unexpected power and ingenuity, foiling 3,000 police officers deployed on motorcycles, in jogging gear and even inline skates. Chinese organizers finally gave up on the relay, canceling the last third of what China had hoped would be a joyous jog by torchbearing VIPs past some of Paris’ most famous landmarks. Thousands of protesters slowed the relay to a stop-start crawl, with impassioned displays of anger over China’s human rights record, its grip on Tibet and support for Sudan despite years of bloodshed in Darfur. Five times, the Chinese officials in dark glasses and tracksuits who guard the torch extinguished it and retreated to the safety of a bus — the last time emerging only after the vehicle drove within 15 feet of the final stop, a track and fi eld stadium. A torchbearer then ran the final steps inside. Outside, a few French activists supporting Tibet had a fist-fi ght with pro-Chinese demonstrators. The French activists spat on them and shouted, “Fascists!” In San Francisco, where the torch is due to arrive Wednesday, three protesters wearing harnesses and helmets climbed up the Golden Gate Bridge and tied the Tibetan fl ag and two banners to its cables. The banners read “One World One Dream. Free Tibet” and “Free Tibet.” The 17.4-mile route in Paris started at the Eiffel Tower, headed down the Champs-ElysDees toward City Hall, then crossed the Seine before ending at the Charlety track and fi eld stadium.
Are we Americans as dumb as we appear or is it that we just don't think? While the Chinese, knowingly and intentionally, export inferior products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in American markets, the media wrings its hands and criticizes the Bush Administration for perceived errors. Yet 70% of Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended. Well, duh..why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges? DO IT YOURSELF!!
Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says 'Made in China' or 'PRC' (and that now includes Hong Kong), simply choose another product or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, however you will be equally amazed at what you can do without. Who needs plastic eggs to celebrate Easter? If you must have eggs, use real ones and benefit some American farmer. Easter is just an example, the point is.. do not wait for the government to act. Just go ahead and assume control on your own.
If 200 million Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, that's a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favor...fast!! The downside? Some American businesses will feel a temporary pinch from having foreign stockpiles of inventory. ** Downside ??
The solution ?
Let's give them fair warning and send our own message. We will not implement this UNTIL June 4, and we will only continue it until July 4. That is only one month of trading losses, but it will hit the Chinese for 1/12th of the total, or 8%, of their American exports. Then they will at least have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness were worth it.
That actually sounds good. I just got my first pair of reading glasses. I know, I'm getting old. Anyway, I was sad to see that as soon as I looked at the fine print on my glasses that they are made in China. I need glasses made in China to read to see if other things that I am buying are made in China? What is the country / world coming to?
I actually do my best to do this every day. And sometimes by looking for the Made in the U.S.A., I get a better product at a lower price.
China establishes company to make its own jumbo jets China establishes a homegrown company to make passenger jumbo jets
Sunday, May 11, 2008 BEIJING -- China has established a homegrown company to make passenger jumbo jets, state media reported Sunday -- a step forward in the country's quest to become less dependent on Boeing and Airbus.
China Commercial Aircraft Co. was established in Shanghai with registered capital of 19 billion yuan $2.7 billion, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said the central government and the Shanghai government are among the major shareholders, as are China's two main aircraft manufacturing and servicing companies, China Aviation Industry Corp. I and China Aviation Industry Corp. II, which were split off from state-owned China Aviation Industry Corp. in 1999. Europe's Airbus has forecast that China's domestic market will increase fivefold by 2026. Airbus and Chicago-based rival Boeing dominate the market for commercial airplanes carrying 100 or more people. Xinhua said Commercial Aircraft Co. will be able to make planes with more than 150 seats. General manager Jin Zhuanglong said in a Xinhua interview that it was too early to say when a Chinese-developed jumbo jet would be taking off, as it would take a long time to develop homegrown talent and do research. "According to the development history of Airbus and Boeing, the development and success of civil planes cannot be realized by relying on one or two generations," he said.
Report: Death toll in China quake exceeds 12,000 By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer
The toll of the dead and missing soared as rescue workers dug through flattened schools and homes on Tuesday in a desperate attempt to find survivors of China's worst earthquake in three decades.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the death toll exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan province alone, and 18,645 were still buried in debris in the city of Mianyang, near the epicenter of Monday's massive, 7.9-magnitude quake.
The Sichuan Daily newspaper reported on its Web site that more than 26,000 people were injured in Mianyang.
The numbers of casualties was expected to rise due to the remoteness of the areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.
There was little prospect that many survivors would be found under the rubble. Only 58 people were extricated from demolished buildings across the quake area so far, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told Xinhua. In one county, 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed.
Rain was impeding efforts and a group of paratroopers called off a rescue mission to the epicenter due to heavy storms, Xinhua reported.
More than two dozen British and American tourists who were thought to be panda-watching in the area also remained missing.
Officials urged the public not to abandon hope.
"Survivors can hold on for some time. Now it's not time to give up," Wang Zhenyao, disaster relief division director at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, told reporters in Beijing.
Premier Wen Jiabao, who rushed to the area to oversee rescue efforts, said a push was on to clear roads and restore electricity as soon as possible. His visit to the disaster scene was prominently featured on state TV, a gesture meant to reassure people that the ruling party was doing all it could.
"We will save the people," Wen said through a bullhorn to survivors as he toured the disaster scene, in footage shown on CCTV. "As long as the people are there, factories can be built into even better ones, and so can the towns and counties."
State media said rescue workers had reached the epicenter in Wenchuan county — where the number of casualties was still unknown. The quake was centered just north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu in central China, tearing into urban areas and mountain villages.
Earthquake rescue experts in orange jumpsuits extricated bloody survivors on stretchers from demolished buildings.
Some 20,000 soldiers and police arrived in the disaster area with 30,000 more on the way by plane, train, trucks and even on foot, the Defense Ministry told Xinhua.
Aftershocks rattled the region for a second day, sending people running into the streets in Chengdu. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the shocks between magnitude 4 and 6, some of the strongest since Monday's quake.
Zhou Chun, a 70-year-old retired mechanic, was leaving Dujiangyan with a soiled light blue blanket draped over his shoulders.
"My wife died in the quake. My house was destroyed," he said. "I am going to Chengdu, but I don't know where I'll live."
Zhou and other survivors were pulling luggage and clutching plastic bags of food amid a steady drizzle and the constant wall of ambulances.
Just east of the epicenter, 1,000 students and teachers were killed or missing at a collapsed high school in Beichuan county — a six-story building reduced to a pile of rubble about two yards high, according to Xinhua. Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan alone.
At another leveled school in Dujiangyan, 900 students were feared dead. As bodies of teenagers were carried out on doors used as makeshift stretchers, relatives lit incense and candles and also set off fireworks to ward away evil spirits.
Elsewhere in Gansu province, a 40-car freight train derailed in the quake that included 13 gasoline tankers was still burning Tuesday, Xinhua said.
Gasoline lines grew in Chengdu and grocery stores shelves were almost empty. The Ministry of Health issued an appeal for blood donations to help the quake victims.
Fifteen missing British tourists were believed to have been in the area at the time of the quake and were "out of reach," Xinhua reported.
They were likely visiting the Wolong Nature Reserve, home to more than 100 giant pandas, whose fate also was not known, Xinhua said, adding that 60 pandas at another breeding center in Chengdu were safe.
Another group of 12 Americans also on panda-watching tour sponsored by the U.S. office of the World Wildlife Fund remained out of contact Tuesday, said Tan Rui, WWF communications officer in China.
Two Chinese-Americans and a Thai tourist also were missing in Sichuan province, the agency said, citing tourism officials.
Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in from the United States, Japan and the European Union, among others.
The Dalai Lama, who has been vilified by Chinese authorities who blame him for recent unrest in Tibet, offered prayers for the victims. The epicenter is just south of some Tibetan mountain areas that saw anti-government protests earlier this year.
Beijing Games organizers said the Olympic torch relay will continue as planned through the quake-affected area next month.
The Chinese government said it would welcome outside aid, and Russia was sending a plane with rescuers and supplies, the country's Interfax news agency reported.
But Wang, the disaster relief official, said international aid workers would not be allowed to travel to the affected area.
"We welcome funds and supplies; we can't accommodate personnel at this point," he said.
China's Ministry of Finance said it had allocated $123 million in aid for quake-hit areas.
The quake was China's deadliest since 1976, when 240,000 people were killed in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing in 1976. Financial analysts said the quake would have only a limited impact on the country's booming economy.
China: Earthquake death toll could reach 50,000 The Associated Press
LUOSHUI TOWN, China — Troops dug burial pits in this quake-shattered town and black smoke poured from crematorium chimneys elsewhere in central China as priorities began shifting Thursday from the hunt for survivors to dealing with the dead. Officials said the final toll could more than double to 50,000. As the massive military-led recovery operation inched farther into regions cut off by Monday’s quake, the government sought to enlist the public’s help with an appeal for everything from hammers to cranes and, in a turnabout, began accepting foreign aid missions, the first from regional rival Japan. Millions of survivors left homeless or too terrified to go indoors faced their fourth night under tarpaulins, tents or nothing at all as workers patched roads and cleared debris to reach more outlying towns in the disaster zone. Health officials said there have been no outbreaks of disease so far, with workers rushing to inoculate survivors against disease, supply them with drinking water, and fi nd ways to dispose of an overwhelming number of corpses. “There are still bodies in the hills, and pits are being dug to bury them,” said Zhao Xiaoli, a nurse in the ruined town of Hanwang. “There’s no way to bring them down. It’s too dangerous.” Troops in the town of Luoshui in a quake-ravaged area used a mechanical shovel to dig a pit on a hilltop. Two bodies wrapped in white sheets lay beside it. Down the hill sat four mounds of lime. In a sign of nervousness, 50 troops lined the road outside Luoshui. Five farmers watched them dig the burial pit, after performing brief funerary rites. Local police detained an Associated Press reporter and photographer who took photos of the scene, holding them in a government compound for 3 1 /2 hours before releasing them without explanation. Across the quake zone in Dujiangyan, troops in face masks collected corpses and loaded them onto a flatbed truck. Thick black smoke streamed from the twin chimneys of the town’s crematorium. Fears about damage to a major dam in the quake zone appeared to ease. The Zipingpu dam had reportedly suffered cracks from the disaster, but there was no repair work or extra security at the dam when it was reached Thursday by an AP photographer, indicating the threat to the structure had likely passed. People trying to hike into Wenchuan walked on top of the dam as water spilled from an outlet, lowering levels in the reservoir and alleviating pressure on the dam. Just behind the dam, soldiers set up a staging area preparing speed boats to lower into the reservoir and ferry soldiers in lifejackets, engineers and medical staff up river to Yingxiu, a town flattened by the quake. The government says “the dam will hold, but then the longer-term question is what to do with it — to keep it or dismantle it,” said Andrew Mertha of Washington University in St. Louis, author of a book on Chinese dams, “China’s Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change,” The emergency headquarters of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, said the confirmed death toll had reached 19,509 — up more than 4,500 from the day before. The council said deaths could rise to 50,000, state media reported. The provincial government said more than 12,300 remained buried and another 102,100 were injured in Sichuan, where the quake was centered. Experts said hope was quickly fading for anyone still caught in the wreckage of homes, schools, offices and factories that collapsed in the magnitude-7.9 quake, the most powerful in three decades in quakeprone China. “Generally speaking, anyone buried in an earthquake can survive without water and food for three days,” said Gu Linsheng, a researcher with Tsinghua University’s Emergency Management Research Center. “After that, it’s usually a miracle for anyone to survive.” Amazing survival stories did emerge, and were seized on by Chinese media whose blanket coverage has been dominated by images of carnage. In Dujiangyan, a 22-year-old woman was pulled to safety after more than three days trapped under debris. Covered in dust and peering out through a small opening, she waved and was interviewed by state television as hard-hatted rescuers worked to free her. “I was confident that you were coming to rescue me. I’m alive. I’m so happy,” the unnamed woman said on CCTV. Premier Wen Jiabao, who has been in the quake zone since Monday as the public face of a usually remote communist leadership, urged those helping the injured to keep up their efforts. Repeating a phrase that has become a government mantra this week, Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang said every effort would be made to find survivors. “We will never give up hope,” Gao told reporters in Beijing. “For every thread of hope, our efforts will increase a hundredfold. We will never give up.” With more than 130,000 soldiers and police mobilized in the relief effort, roads were cleared Thursday to two key areas that took the brunt of the quake, with workers making it to Wenchuan at the epicenter and also through to Beichuan county, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Communication cables were also reconnected to Wenchuan. Power was restored to most of Sichuan for the first time since the quake, although Beichuan county remained without electricity, Xinhua said. Much of the official publicity dwelled on efforts to reach the trapped but actual ground operations focused on delivering food and medical aid to survivors and disposing of the dead. In Dujiangyan, on the road between the provincial capital of Chengdu and the epicenter, a dozen bodies lay on a sidewalk as police and militia pulverized rubble with cranes and back hoes. The bodies were later lifted onto a flatbed truck, joining some half-dozen corpses. At the crematorium, some grieving relatives were rushed through funeral rites by harried workers. Scores of bodies lay on concrete in a waiting area — outnumbering the handful of chapels usually used in funerals. Thick black smoke streamed from the crematorium’s pair of chimneys as families cleaned and dressed the dead in funeral clothes, including fresh socks and sneakers for children.
Quake toll could pass 80,000 BY TINI TRAN The Associated Press
YINGXIU, China — China warned Saturday that the death toll from a massive earthquake two weeks ago could take a major leap and pass 80,000, suggesting the government may be giving up hope of finding more survivors. But rescuers rushed anyway to reach 24 coal miners who officials said were trapped in three mines by the disaster, though it was not known if the miners were alive. “We have had the miracle in the past that a miner was found alive after being trapped underground for 21 days,” Wang Dexue, the deputy chief of the government’s work safety department, told a news conference in Beijing. “We are carrying out rescue work on the assumption that they are still alive. We absolutely will not give up.” Wang gave no further details of the trapped miners. China’s mines are the world’s deadliest, with explosions, cave-ins and floods killing nearly 3,800 people last year. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a brief visit Saturday to one of the hardest-hit towns, Yingxiu — a helicopter ride that offered rare bird’s-eye views of the destruction wrought by the 7.9-magnitude quake on May 12. The mountains in central Sichuan province showed huge tracks of naked earth from landslides. Layers of mud covered fields. Rivers churned brown. Yingxiu itself was largely piles of rubble, and the buildings left standing had caved in, giving the surreal impression that they had melted. The State Council, China’s Cabinet, said Saturday the latest confirmed death toll for the quake — China’s biggest disaster in three decades — was 60,560, with 26,221 people still missing. Premier Wen Jiabao, on a return visit to the quake zone to accompany Ban, warned the toll could go much higher. “It may further climb to a level of 70,000, 80,000 or more,” Wen said, standing amid the rubble in Yingxiu. The jump could occur as the number of missing are added to the number of dead. About 15 minutes before Wen started talking, yet another minor aftershock rumbled. Ban, who came to China directly from cyclone-stricken Myanmar, promised the U.N. would help with reconstruction and that it was waiting for China’s assessment of what was needed. “If we work hard, we can overcome this,” Ban said, with Wen standing at his side. “The whole world stands behind you and supports you.” The secretary-general left China later Saturday and was to attend an aid donors conference in Myanmar for cyclone victims on Sunday. About 4,800 of Yingxiu’s 18,000 people were killed in the quake, a military officer told Ban during a tour. Reporters could see government workers in hooded white protective suits spraying disinfectant on the rubble. Underscoring doubts that more survivors would be found, Wen said the government’s focus had shifted from rescue to rebuilding. “Previously our main priority was the search and rescue of affected people,” Wen said. “Our priority now is to resettle the affected people and to make plans for post-quake reconstruction.” Meanwhile, some 10,000 medical workers have been dispatched to prevent disease outbreaks. “The second major challenge facing us is epidemic prevention and control,” Wen said, adding that no outbreaks had been reported so far. PANDAS SAFE Also Saturday, eight pandas reached Beijing safely after a long journey from their damaged reserve near the quake’s epicenter. The pandas will spend the next six months at the Beijing Zoo on a special Olympics visit that was planned long before the quake. The pandas’ home at the worldfamous Wolong reserve was badly damaged by the quake and five staff members were killed. The pandas have been closely watched because they seemed nervous after the earthquake, sometimes eating and sleeping less. But the pandas appeared lively after they were moved into their exhibit space at the Beijing Zoo on Saturday evening, even putting their paws on the glass separating them from the media and the public.
1-child policy has exceptions after China quake By CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer
Chinese officials said Monday that the country's one-child policy exempts families with a child killed, severely injured or disabled in the country's devastating earthquake.
Those families can obtain a certificate to have another child, the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee in the capital of hard-hit Sichuan province said.
With so many shattered families asking questions, the Chengdu committee is clarifying existing one-child policy guidelines, said a committee official surnamed Wang.
"There are just a lot of cases now, so we need to clarify our policies," said Wang, who declined to elaborate.
The May 12 quake was particularly painful to many Chinese because it killed so many only children.
The earthquake has left more than 65,000 people dead so far, with more than 23,000 missing. Officials have not been able to estimate the number of children killed.
Chinese couples who have more than one child are commonly punished by fines. The announcement says that if a child born illegally was killed in the quake, the parents will no longer have to pay fines for that child — but the previously paid fines won't be refunded.
If the couple's legally born child is killed and the couple is left with an illegally born child under the age of 18, that child can be registered as the legal child — an important move that gives the child previously denied rights including free nine years of compulsory education.
China's one-child policy was launched in the late 1970s to control China's exploding population and ensure better education and health care. The law includes certain exceptions for ethnic groups, rural families and families where both parents are only children.
The government says the policy has prevented an additional 400 million births, but critics say it has also led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio as local authorities pursue sometimes severe birth quotas set by Beijing and families abort girls out of a traditional preference for male heirs.
Though commonly called a one-child policy, the rules offer a welter of exceptions and loopholes, some of them put into practice because of widespread opposition to the limits.
For example, in large parts of rural China, most families are allowed a second-child, especially if the first was a girl. Local officials often have wide discretion on enforcement, a fact that has made the policy susceptible to corruption.
Many Chinese have shown interest in adopting earthquake orphans, and Monday's announcement says there are no limits on the number of earthquake orphans a family can adopt. The adoptions, or even a future birth to a family that adopts an orphan, will not face the limitations of the one-child policy.
Officials estimated last week that the quake left about 4,000 orphans, but they warned they would make every effort to connect children with other family members.
BEIJING — Two Chinese steel companies combined Monday to form the world’s fifth-largest producer, the latest in a series of government-orchestrated deals aimed at creating globally competitive suppliers amid booming demand. The new state-owned company was formed through a combination of Tangshan Iron & Steel Group and Handan Iron & Steel Group. It is called Hebei Iron and Steel Group Co. and replaces Baosteel Group Co. as China’s biggest steel company. China is the world’s biggest steel producer and consumer but many of its mills are dirty and inefficient. The government is trying to promote efficiency through consolidation.
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