Transport System Crisis in Southern China Strands Migrant Workers
The Beijing-Guanzhou railroad, the backbone of China’s railroad system, ground to a halt during the worst snowfall in half a century.
Millions of migrate workers were stranded in train stations at Guangzhou and other cities were left in chaos.
The government warned that the system would not be in order for the next few days and asked travelers to spend the Chinese New Year where they were.
According to the Railroad Ministry, the number of stranded passengers exceeded .5 million in Guangdong Province alone.
The statistics reported by the Hong Kong media indicated the number approached one million in Guangzhou and Shenzhen alone.
The authorities in Guangdong announced that all of the stations in this province would stop selling tickets—the business windows would only handle ticket refunds, as they expect the crisis won’t end until Chinese New Years Eve (Feb 6). This triggered a lot of dissatisfaction among the travelers.
Source: Voice of America, January, 29, 2008
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2008-01-29-voa26.cfm
PLA Daily Claims China Will Soon Have Fighter Plane In-Air Refueling Technology
PLA Daily published an article on January 28 about its military technology advance.
The article introduced a military scientist, Ge Xiaofei, and his recent achievements in advancing China’s fighter airplane technology.
The article says that Ge has succeeded in developing an automatic electronic interference apparatus for the next generation’s fighter airplane.
He also finished a theoretical plan, operation procedure, and feasibility report to develop a “fighter plane air-refueling technology.” The article is posted on Xinhuanet’s military section.
Source: PLA Daily, January 28, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-01/28/content_7510808.htm
Anhui Politician Wang Zhaojun Publishes Second Open Letter
On October 22, 2008, Wang Zhaojun, a delegate member of the Political-Consultative Committee of Anhui Province wrote an open letter and published it on overseas Chinese websites. In it he asked China’s top leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, to stop the political persecution of the Chinese people and start political reform.
Today, he wrote a second open letter to Hu-Wen calling again for political reform after his press conference about opening an environment protection website was blocked.
Source: Boxun, January 31, 2008
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/pubvp/2008/01/200801310202.shtml
China and Japan Have a Closed-Door Meeting on the Dumpling Poisoning Incident
China and Japan’s officials of quality inspection and commerce had a closed-door meeting on February 5 in Beijing to discuss the Japanese food poisoning incident by pesticide-tainted dumplings imported from China. Both sides expressed to closely cooperate in the investigation.
They will go to the food processing company in Hebei together for further investigation.
Source: Xinhuanet.com, February 5, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-02/05/content_7571883.htm
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