China in Africa: Developing ties
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In the second part of a special series on China's new
relationship with Africa, the BBC's Adam Blenford reports on the new
roads being built in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The Chinese shun the limelight in Ethiopia's capital, but traces of them are rarely far away.
In Addis Ababa's largest market, shoppers pick through piles of Chinese-made shoes and imported underwear.
At the city's new vocational college, dozens of students
are taking lessons in classrooms built with Chinese money. Inside
government ministries and hospital offices, Chinese computer experts do
their thing to bring Ethiopia's outdated IT networks into the 21st
Century.
But it is on the city's roads - potholed, dusty and
permanently under construction - where the Chinese influence is most
pronounced.
Much of Addis Ababa is currently a mess of churned earth and drying concrete.
Addis Ababa's stores are piled high with Chinese goods
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Major roads lie devastated by earth movers. Minibus
taxis bump and grind their way over temporary road surfaces. A short
journey in the midday sun can become a choking ordeal.
At first glance the construction sites seem an
all-Ethiopian affair: local women haul huge rocks into place for local
men to break them up with a pickaxe. Local surveyers take endless
measurements.
But the real power lies elsewhere, with the well-dressed Chinese men standing slightly away from the dust and clatter.
Far from home and rarely off-duty, these are the road-builders quietly constructing a continent.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7081530.stm>
Dalai Lama steps up succession rhetoric
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By Emily Buchanan
BBC News
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The Dalai Lama might name a successor while he is still alive
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The debate over who will one day succeed Tibet's iconic spiritual
leader is heating up, even though the Dalai Lama himself says he is
"good for another few decades".
Talking to reporters in the northern Indian city of
Amritsar, he emphasised his desire to make the Tibetan leadership more
democratic.
"As early as 1969 I made clear the very institution of the Dalai Lama is up to the Tibetan people," he said.
He outlined other methods to appoint his successor as
well, such as one similar to electing the Pope where senior lamas would
choose the next Dalai Lama.
The Tibetan spiritual leader also raised the possibility
of himself naming a new Dalai Lama while he is still alive, a proposal
he outlined in Japan last week. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7116262.stm>
Criticism as EU-China talks begin
Mr Barroso said there is a danger of Europeans seeing China as a threat
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The annual summit between officials from the European Union and
China has got off to a shaky start following criticism of China's
closed economy.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson also said the
Chinese government did not adequately protect the intellectual property
rights of European companies.
But there were some warm words about the record levels of trade between the EU and China.
The summit is later expected to focus on the weakness of the Chinese yuan.
"Rebalancing the trade relationship is not a question of reducing Chinese exports to Europe," Mr Mandelson said.
"It is a question of improving the terms on which
European companies trade here, about levelling the playing field and
combating discrimination against foreign companies in the working of
the economy," he added.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7116408.stm>
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By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing
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Chinese migrants are following in the footsteps of European settlers, by seeking their fortunes in Africa.
In the 19th century, most of those drawn to Africa -
businessmen, explorers, missionaries and soldiers - came from western
Europe.
Now it is the turn of the Chinese. Over the last decade, tens of thousands have moved to Africa with Beijing's approval.
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There's no harm in allowing farmers to leave the country to become farm owners [in Africa]
Li Ruogu
China's Export-Import Bank head
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They are settling all over the continent, in rural and urban areas, and are involved in agriculture, construction and trade.
This latest wave of Chinese migrants - thought to total up to 750,000 - is not the first to have travelled to Africa.
In the 1960s, China's communist leader Mao Zedong forged close links with the continent in a bid to garner political support.
But the Chinese who have moved to Africa in the last 10
years are going for economic, not political reasons as they did under
Mao. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7118941.stm>
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Deep concern over Three Gorges Dam
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By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing
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The dam is meant to alleviate flooding and generate electricity
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There are fears that China's Three Gorges Dam is causing serious
environmental problems, despite official claims to the contrary.
Local farmers, environmental campaigners and even officials themselves have voiced concern about environmental damage.
That damage includes landslides that have triggered 50
metre-high waves on the reservoir behind the dam, according to one
local official.
But despite these widespread accusations, the Chinese central government insists there are no geological "abnormalities".
Critics of the Three Gorges Dam - the world's largest
hydro-electricity project - have long argued that the scheme would lead
to environmental problems in the area around the reservoir. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7120856.stm>
Tibet train carries China troops
The railway snakes for 1,140km across 'the roof of the world'
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China's high-speed, high-altitude railway to Tibet has carried
troops to the regional capital, Lhasa, for the first time, state media
has reported.
The Xinhua news agency cited unnamed sources in the
People's Liberation Army as saying the railway would become "a main
option" for transporting soldiers.
Analysts say the move is likely to fuel concerns that China is using the rail link to tighten its hold on Tibet.
Chinese tourism and trade to Tibet has surged since its opening 17 months ago.
Journey times cut
The $4.2bn (£2.1bn) Qinghai-Tibet line boasts high-tech
engineering to stabilise tracks over permafrost and sealed cabins to
protect passengers from the high altitude.
China says the 1,140km (710-mile) line has cut travel time to Lhasa from Beijing and other cities to just two days.
Previously, Lhasa could be reached only by plane or after a long, arduous road journey.
Trains now carry about 75% of all goods between Tibet and other parts of China, according to Xinhua.
Tourism also soared by 64% during the first 10 months of
the year, to 3.72 million tourists, compared with 2006, a separate
report said.
Critics say the railway line threatens not only the delicate Himalayan environment, but also the ancient Tibetan culture.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7122433.stm>
China in Africa: Developing ties
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By Lucy Ash
Reporter, Crossing Continents
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Chinese workers are redeveloping Luanda - but costing Angolan jobs
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In Angola, tens of thousands of Chinese workers have come to rebuild a country devastated by a long civil war.
It is not just the capital Luanda that has become a vast
construction site. In the provinces too, blue-jacketed Chinese workers
are ubiquitous, building roads, railways, and schools.
Three hours south of the capital, in the coastal town of
Sumbe, I find a team of 95 Chinese men finishing a technical college
and about to start work on a hospital. The site is set back from the
road and surrounded by a high fence.
Inside is Wang Weiheng, a 28 year old doctor from the
Chinese city of Chonqing, whose job is to look after the construction
workers.
"I try my best," she says, showing us the spartan
dormitories where 10 men sleep in bunkbeds draped with mosquito nets.
"But in the rainy season we had several cases of malaria."
In the kitchen are lots of paper signs in Mandarin taped
to the wall. Weiheng says they tell the cooks which foods some people
will not eat.
"I don't like pig's ear or leg of pork; others don't eat beef," says Dr Wang.
"Our food is very important to us - it stops us from feeling too homesick."
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7047127.stm>
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China youth crime 'in rapid rise'
Young people are committing both more crime and new types of crime
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Juvenile crime is increasing rapidly in China and becoming a serious problem, Chinese experts have warned.
The number of young offenders had more than doubled in 10 years, officials told a Beijing seminar.
The offenders were getting younger, forming larger gangs and committing a greater variety of crimes, one academic said.
Social change, China's one-child policy and the internet were all partly to blame for the rise, the experts said.
"Crimes committed by youngsters have been causing a
growing amount of severe social damage," the China Daily quoted Liu
Guiming, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Juvenile
Delinquency Research, as saying.
Young offenders were forming gangs and committing crimes "without specific motives, often without forethought", he said.
These included theft, assault and rape, but also 22 new categories of crime linked to fraud and the internet.
Part of the problem was the breakdown of families caused by migration, Mr Liu said.
In hundreds of thousands of rural families, children are
left with elderly relatives or friends while their parents travel to
cities in search of work.
Shang Xiuyun, a Beijing judge specialising in juvenile crime, suggested China's one-child policy could also be to blame.
With most families having only one child, the children
were under greater pressure than in the past, China Daily quoted the
judge as saying.
The number of juvenile criminals had risen from 33,000 in 1998 to an estimated 80,000 in 2007, the experts said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7128213.stm>
Macau tourists in shopping revolt
Tourists wanted to see more sites like the St Paul's facade
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Riot police in China's enclave of Macau have been called in to calm
mainland tourists angry they were being shown too many shops and not
enough sites.
More than 20 police armed with riot shields and batons
were involved in a five-hour stand-off with 100 tourists from Hubei
province, local media say.
The last straw came at a windy beach where the tourists were not allowed to retrieve warm clothing from coaches.
The gambling hotspot has become a key destination for mainland tourists.
Scuffle
The tourists had complained to their guides that they wanted to see more of the former Portuguese colony's historic sites.
They said they were being pressured into buying goods.
A scuffle broke out at the beach when the tourists were
not allowed to re-board their four locked coaches to get some warmer
clothing.
Police tried to push back the angry tourists with batons and detained at least four.
"Some tourists refused to let some of our colleagues go
and attempted to use violence," one police officer told the South China
Morning Post.
It was not until about 2200 local time (1400 GMT) that government officials persuaded the tourists to return to their hotels.
Macau tourism officials said the incident was a "one-off situation".
Tourist figures show that some 22 million people visited Macau last year, most from the mainland.
Also last year Macau was reported to have overtaken the famous Las Vegas Strip as the world's top gambling destination.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7128307.stm>
Washington diary: Toxic China?
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By Matt Frei
BBC News, Washington
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The troubled relationship between the world's only
remaining superpower and its next emerging one, between the US and
China, wafts in and out of our consciousness like those over-powering
sweet and sour smells that emanate from the heating vent of my local
dim sum restaurant.
Millions of Chinese-made toys have been recalled this year in the US
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The smells come in waves, they depend on the direction
of the wind and they can make you feel a little nauseous, even if you
love the food behind them.
The latest waft came last Sunday at my daughter Lotte's sixth birthday party.
The party bags included a scented pencil. It was meant for writing but could easily be used for chewing.
With unbridled horror, one of the parents shrieked as if
she had seen a poodle-sized rodent in the kitchen: "Oh my God. It's
made in China!" Some of the other parents shuddered in unison.
"So?" I thought. "Isn't everything made in China these days?"
But I had failed to grasp the new terror that has gripped America, as it plunges head first into the holiday season: toxic toys.
The alliteration trips off the tongue like, well, Yellow
Peril. The Chinese have become the latest incarnation of the Grinch
that stole Christmas.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7128047.stm>
Nanjing remembers massacre victims
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By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Nanjing
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The Taiping Gate ceremony marked 70 years since the massacre
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Shortly after capturing Nanjing in December 1937, the Japanese army
gathered together 1,300 Chinese soldiers and civilians at the city's
Taiping Gate. They then killed them.
They blew them up with landmines then doused them with
petrol before setting them alight, finally using bayonets to finish off
anyone still left alive.
This was just one small incident in what has become
known as the Nanjing massacre, a six-week orgy of violence in which
tens of thousands of Chinese people died.
A day before the massacre's 70th anniversary, a small
group of survivors, dignitaries and visiting Japanese citizens gathered
at Taiping Gate to remember the dead.
It is just one of a number of commemoration events being
held in Nanjing this week to mark a bloody episode that still
reverberates in East Asia today.
We only know about the Taiping Gate killings because of
the tenacity of Japanese teacher Tamaki Matsuoka, who wanted to know
more about the massacre.
Ms Matsuoka set up a hotline for former Japanese troops
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With a number of others, she set up telephone hotlines
in several Japanese cities in 1997, inviting former soldiers who had
served in Nanjing to call up.
The group interviewed more than 200 old soldiers and,
from the information it gathered, was able to identify the exact army
unit that had carried out the Taiping killings.
Ms Matsuoka told her story at the Taiping memorial ceremony, which took place on a cold, wet Nanjing morning.
Before helping to unveil a small monument, she said she
hoped Chinese young people would not forget what had happened in
Nanjing. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7140357.st
Taiwan nationalists in huge win
All parties campaigned up to the last minute
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Taiwan's opposition nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party has won a
landslide victory in parliamentary polls, official results show.
The KMT, which wants closer ties with China, secured 72%
of the seats in the 113-seat chamber, beating President Chen
Shui-bian's party, the DPP.
The independence-leaning president said he was "shamed", resigning as chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party.
The elections are seen as a barometer for the presidential poll on 22 March.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that should be reunified. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7184448.stm>
Well-heeled protests hit Shanghai
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By Quentin Sommerville
BBC News, Shanghai
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China's new middle class usually tends to stay out of politics
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Rarely have protests in China been so well organised, or the protesters so well-dressed.
The residents of Pingyang district, in the south of the
city, say their health is at risk and their homes will become worthless
if a planned extension to Shanghai's futuristic maglev railway goes
ahead.
They are part of China's new middle class. Many of them
bought their first homes here, capitalising on China's new economic
freedoms.
The government is considering a 30km (19-mile) extension
to its showpiece magnetic levitation train. The train, which floats on
magnets, is the fastest commercial train service in the world,
travelling at 430km/h (267mph).
But local residents along the route - including those in
Pingyang - say the electro-magnetic field is dangerous and that their
homes are now impossible to sell.
"Real estate agents won't come near now; we'll lose
everything if this goes ahead," said one woman who did not wish to give
her name for fear of official reprisal.
"We're prepared to take the risk, because our health, and a safe living environment, is more important," she said.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7188122.stm>
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Chinese students on Gordon Brown
Whisper if you mention human rights in China
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By Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent BBC News website
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Gordon Brown and Wen Jiabao: strategic interests
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In 1991, a senior British official remarked to me at a reception on the
lawn of the British embassy in Beijing that talks with the Chinese
about human rights were simply "froth".
The adviser was Sir Percy Cradock, a former British
ambassador to China. He was at the time senior foreign policy adviser
to the Prime Minister John Major who was visiting Beijing to discuss
Hong Kong.
Sir Percy's view, often expressed though not always so
pithily, was that it is far more important to develop your strategic
interests with China than trying to pin the Chinese down on human
rights, over which you have very limited influence. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7196086.stm>
China's rising people power
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By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Xiamen
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A nondescript plot of industrial land on the
outskirts of the southern Chinese port city of Xiamen has become the
focus of a new political movement.
Housing developments are attracting the wealthy to Xiamen
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The site was supposed to be the home of a new chemical
plant, but protesters have forced the city government to put the
project on hold.
It is a rare example of people power in a country where
government officials are used to doing exactly what they want, when
they want.
Ordinary people elsewhere in the country have taken
note. There were similar protests over a railway project recently in
Shanghai.
The Xiamen saga began when Taiwan's Xianglu Group said
it wanted to build a chemical factory on the Haicang peninsula on the
edge of the city.
Xianglu wants to produce the chemical paraxylene (PX), used to makes plastics, polyester and cleaning products.
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Economic development is fine - but not if it damages our environment and health
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Mrs Lin, a Xiamen resident
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The firm already has one chemical factory on the
peninsula, which is dotted with ancient villages, factories and new
housing projects.
And it started work on the PX project. The proposed site was levelled and temporary site offices erected.
But in June last year the people of Xiamen decided they did not want another chemical factory right on their doorsteps.
Short-term exposure to PX can cause skin, eye and throat
irritation. Longer term exposure can damage the nervous system and
vital organs.
Protesters took to the streets for two days of
demonstrations in the city centre, eventually forcing the local
government to put the PX project on hold. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7195434.stm>
China 'not ready' for snow crisis
Temperatures remain below freezing in parts of China
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Chinese weather experts have admitted that they were not properly
prepared for the snow storms that have left hundreds of thousands
stranded.
The cold weather seen in recent weeks has been the worst to hit central and southern provinces in decades.
Officials have blamed freak conditions, but on Monday
the head of the China's meteorological office said "we did not make
enough preparation".
About 100m people have been affected, with damage set at 54bn yuan (£3.8bn).
According to a BBC correspondent in Beijing, Michael
Bristow, there are few facilities in the south to deal with icy roads,
and power lines are too thin to cope with too much snow and ice.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7226002.stm>