Chinese paramilitary policemen examine the crash site of a cargo truck carrying boxes of watermelons in Baoshan, South China’s Yunnan province, March 7, 2010. The truck driver lost control due to brake failure, struck the barrier for road construction, and slammed into the barracks at the border checkpoint, killing two policemen and the driver. A passenger in the truck and eight policemen also got injured.

Officials yet to release timetable for new program

BEIJING: The real-name train ticket system implemented during Spring Festival is likely to be expanded across the country, a top railway official said.

Liu Zhijun, Minister of Railways, said the ticketing system designed to curb scalping was still on trial until March 10 and a timetable for its full implementation was not yet available.

The system was helpful in easing ticket shortages during the travel peak season before Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, but failed to eliminate scalpers.

“We hope to conduct summarization and evaluation when the current experiment closes at the end of the Spring Festival travel period, but we have decided to keep heading toward the goal of a full nationwide real-name ticketing system,” Liu told the Yangtze Evening News, on the sidelines of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Theexperiment of name-based ticketing system was carried out at 37 stations managed by Chengdu Railway Bureau and Guangzhou Railway Group during the Spring Festival travel period between Jan 30 and March 10.

Under the system, travelers had to use their ID card to book tickets. Inspectors at the station scanned the ticket and his or her ID card. The names and codes on the ticket and ID card are required to match.

Liu said the ministry had received a lot of feedback and a special team from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is assessing the system’s effectiveness.

“We have heard praise and criticism, and both in the extremes. It is normal. It shows people have concerns and expectations about the railway system. We’ll take all of the suggestions into consideration,” Liu said.

Lu Qin, a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and a businesswoman, proposed the real-name ticketing system during last year’s NPC-CPPCC sessions.

A graduate student surnamed Tang at Beijing Normal University said she found the name-based system to be efficient when she took a train to Beijing on Feb 26, but that there were not enough tickets available for sale.

She said she used the telephone booking system to book the ticket 10 days ahead of her scheduled traveling day, which is the earliest time tickets can be purchased.

“I ended up with a standing ticket. So I brought a small stool with me and sat in the aisle for more than 10 hours,” Tang said.

Internet giant Google must obey Chinese law if it still wishes to continue to operate in the country, said Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology.

“If Google still plans to continue its operations in China, it must abide by Chinese laws and respect the wills of Chinese Internet users,” the minister told reporters on Monday during a plenary session of the annual legislative meeting at the Great Hall of the People.

When asked whether authorities are still in discussions with Google on Internet restrictions in China, the minister declined to respond.

“On this matter, Google knows it best itself,” the minister said.

The defiant California-based Internet search company revealed plans to cease operations in China on January 18, saying it no longer wishes to be under the pressure of China’s Internet restrictions.

China will issue 50 billion yuan (7.32 billion U.S. dollars) of certificate treasury bonds next week, the Ministry of Finance said Tuesday.

The certificate treasury bonds, the first batch this year, will be sold from March 1 to 21.

The bonds include 25 billion yuan of one-year bonds with a fixed annual interest rate of 2.60 percent and 25 billion yuan of three-year bonds with an annual interest rate of 3.73 percent.

Interest would be calculated from the day of purchase. Principal and interest would be paid upon maturity, the ministry said.

China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, would probably only increase moderately in 2010, an official with China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said here on Monday.

Although China’s CPI continued to climb in previous months, it was not likely to surge this year as supplies were abundant, Wei Guixiang, head of the Department of Urban Social and Economic Survey of the NBS, said Monday during an exclusive interview with xinhuanet.com, a website run by Xinhua.

China’s CPI rose 1.5 percent year-on-year in January, mainly boosted by food price increases due to the cold winter weather.

The gauge in January was 0.6 percent up compared with last December, said the NBS.

“China’s housing demand continues its strong run, but the rate of increase may slow due to an array of government measures,” Gui added.

Official figures revealed that housing prices in China’s 70 large and medium-sized cities rose 9.5 percent in January 2010 from a year earlier, and were up 1.3 percent compared to the previous month.

Tengzhong could use an offshore vehicle to buy General Motor’s (GM) Hummer brand if it fails to win Chinese regulatory approval for the ambitious but controversial plan that has met with cooling government appetite.

Machinery maker Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co, with no experience in the auto industry, had started communicating with the regulatory bodies after closing the deal with GM in October 2009.

The partners had to push back the deadline of the deal to the end of February from a previous date of Jan 31.

However, the Ministry of Commerce, which is responsible for the approval of outbound investment by Chinese companies, has repeatedly said it has not received an application from Tengzhong for approval of the purchase.

One source told Reuters earlier this month the chances of having the deal approved had dropped to 50:50, adding that the Hummer profile also works against it, as Beijing pushes for a greener economy and the global trend shifts to more environmentally friendly, low-emission cars.

“Tengzhong has not given up hope yet to win government approval, but buying Hummer through an offshore investment vehicle could be an option if it can’t get the green light,” said a source.

Support from the government has been critical for Chinese firms that have embarked on a series of deals to pick up distressed assets from a global auto industry reeling from overcapacity and sharply depressed demand during the recession.

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp (BAIC), China’s fifth-ranked automaker, closed its $200 million purchase of technology platforms from GM’s Saab in just two weeks.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group’s bid to buy Ford’s Volvo car unit is also believed to enjoy government support.

Zhejiang Geely is the parent of Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd.

However, technically speaking, acquiring Hummer through an offshore vehicle is also viable if the production base of the off-road sport utility vehicle remains outside China, analysts say, as new entrants need to get vehicle production licenses from the government before building plants in China.

“It seems that Tengzhong is really interested in Hummer and is trying everything it can in order to get the deal down,” said Boni Sa, analyst with global industry consultancy CSM Worldwide.

Organizers of the Shanghai World Expo are willing to appeal for a temporary lifting of bans on foreign publications for the convenience of overseas participants and visitors to the 2010 mega event, a senior official said yesterday.

Zhu Yonglei, deputy chief of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, told a press conference yesterday that “we will send proposals at a proper time to meet the demands of Expo participants and visitors, especially from other countries”.

The potential suspension of the ban follows the short-term relaxation of curbs on foreign newspapers and magazines around the time of the Olympics in 2008, when about 100 overseas publications hit news kiosks located in areas catering to athletes and international media covering the Games in Beijing.

“The policies adopted during the 2008 Olympics would be a guideline for the Shanghai Expo,” a senior official with the State General Administration of Press and Publication, who declined to be named, told China Daily yesterday. “But there is no final decision yet. We hope to work something out as the Shanghai Expo approaches,” he said.

Participants applauded the organizers’ position while experts are looking at the Expo, which attracted 242 countries and international organizations, as an opportunity to lift the ban forever.

“Participants at the Expo are coming to China to present their countries as comprehensively as possible,” said Pavel Stehlik, commissioner general of the Czech pavilion.

“Publications in English and in Chinese are one of the ways to do that. Although we are not seeking any special arrangements for distributing Czech publications, we would appreciate any opportunity to distribute special fact sheets and documents about the Czech pavilion, the art installations, cultural programs and our country,” Stehlik said.

Hanada Mika, an official with the Japan pavilion, said: “It is a good thing because it will help enhance the awareness of Shanghai Expo and attract more visitors.”

Guo Ke, a professor in communications at Shanghai International Studies University, said there could be a major reform of the media industry if the ban is lifted for the Expo.

“The Shanghai Expo lasts six months – much longer than the Beijing Olympics,” he said. “It could be a breakthrough for the international media in China.”

It’s the first time a developing country is hosting a World Expo and there were no bans on foreign publications by previous host countries.

China will put more investment, subsidies, fiscal and policy supports into vast rural areas this year . The aim is to better coordinate urban and rural development, the central government said on Sunday.

The government will continue to enhance financial support to agriculture and farmers, improve agricultural subsidy systems and maintain a good order in farm produce market, said the first document of the year issued jointly by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, China’s Cabinet.

The central government said budget priority should be given to infrastructure construction in rural areas and programs which are aimed at improving rural residents’ livelihood.

More subsidies will be channeled to increase the output of crops, potato, highland barley and peanut, as well as the purchase of agricultural machinery, said the document.

The government would implement more policies for purchasing and stockpiling major agricultural products, including corn, soybean and oilseeds, to stabilize prices of major farm produce.

More efforts will be made to strengthen financial services including micro-credit loans and insurance service in rural areas, according to the document.

It promised that basic banking services would be available in all villages and towns in the next three years.

It called for more efforts to develop village banks, loan-lending companies, and mutual funds in a bid to guide more capital flows into the rural financial market.

The central government also asked for further expansion of rural consumption market as part of the country’s accelerating measures to boost consumption.

A Malaysian company has invented a machine it says will help Muslims purify themselves before prayers without excessively wasting water.

The ornate, green-colored machine comes with automatic sensors and basins to reduce water usage during wudu, an Arabic word used to describe the act of washing the face, arms and legs before prayers.

The wudu preceeds the five daily prayers Muslims are obligated to perform. There are more than 1.7 billion Muslims in the world, with the majority in Africa and the Middle East where water supplies are scarce.

The machines will be available in the next six months and cost $3,000-$4,000 a piece. AACE Technologies, the company behind the machines, is counting on rich countries in these two regions snapping them up.

“Saving water is a motivation for people to adopt this system rather than the conventional methods, where there’s a lot of water wastage,” AACE Chairman Anthony Gomez said at the product launch in the Malaysian capital.

The device, which also emits recorded Koranic verses, is 1.65 metres (5 ft 5 in) tall, and only uses 1.3 liters (0.3 gallons) of water compared to the conventional methods which usually involve leaving faucets running for the duration of the washing ritual, which can last for several minutes, Gomez said.

“During the Haj (the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca), two million people used 50 million liters of water a day for wudu. If they introduce this machine they are saving 40 million liters per day,” he said.

The machine took two years to develop at the cost of $2.5 million.

Muslims heading for prayers in mainly Muslim Malaysia had mixed feelings about the high-tech, but pricey, invention.

“The idea is good and it is built in line with Islamic teachings. But water in this country is cheap, so it is still not worthwhile to have this machine,” one muslim office worker said.

But a tourist from neighboring Singapore, which has little water supplies, said the machine would help conserve natural resources.

“Nothing is impossible. Of course we are trying ways and new products, those that can save mankind, those that can save nature,” Azman Mohamed Noor said.

Chinese staffers with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti on Saturday donated two large tents, some food and drinking water to a local orphanage whose building sustained cracks in the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The Chinese police force working with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) decided to make the donation after learning that the orphanage with 40 children aged between 4 months and 14 years old had to settle its minors in two small tents on the lawn of its yard and had the older children sleep with its staffers in the open air during the night for fear of lethal aftershocks.

The two large tents given by the Chinese donators are big enough to house all the 40 children.

Madam Rachel, daughter of the founder of the Orphelinat Solidarite et Fraternite in the Tabarre quarter of Port-au-Prince, said the Chinese donation was the first assistance her orphanage had got after the temblor.

The Chinese police force even brought to the orphanage what they had saved from their daily rations of biscuits and fruits. They also gave the orphans some stationeries, hoping they could soon resume classes.

Founded in 2005 by Madam Devastey, the orphanage was lucky not to lose a single kid in the deadly earthquake that has reportedly claimed more than 170,000 lives.

Hu Yunwang, deputy chief of the Chinese police force with the MINUSTAH, said that his team would closely follow the situation in the orphanage and would offer further necessary assistance.

Madam Rachel and the kids expressed their gratitude to the Chinese police representatives.

Before the Jan. 12 devastating quake, there were nearly 100,000 orphans in Haiti. UNICEF has said that the quake made lots of Haitian children lose contact with their families and international institutions have been identifying these children before confirming a definite number of earthquake-orphaned children in the Caribbean island country.