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Contradicting recent strong statements from Chinese officials, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a government-connected think-tank, said Wednesday that now would be a good time for China’s currency, the yuan, to be appreciated 10 percent against the US dollar in a single move and then be allowed to fluctuate 3 percent annually. Economists questioned the feasibility of the proposal.

Zhang Bin, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the CASS, made the proposal in a report.

“It doesn’t mean that a 10 percent appreciation is the just-right level,” Zhang said. “It only means that China’s economy can handle the impact of a 10 percent appreciation of its currency.”

Zhang said now is the right time to make such a move because the hot money flowing into China on expectations of the yuan’s appreciation adds to the risk of inflation caused by the increased money supply following loose monetary policies introduced to combat the global financial crisis.

The suggestion contradicts repeated statements by the central government that the yuan would not be allowed to appreciate against the US dollar.

“We will never compromise with whomever gives us any form of pressure for currency appreciation,” Premier Wen Jiabao said in response to questions on foreign trade protectionism and disputes with China in an interview with the Xinhua news agency December 27.

The one-off appreciation against the dollar would reduce the trade surplus and correct economic structural imbalances, head off rumors of the yuan’s appreciation against the dollar, and reduce the impact of speculative capital, Zhang wrote in his report.

The report said that allowing the yuan to appreciate would also be a proactive move in maintaining good trade relations. Since last year, China has seen increasing anti-dumping cases against its exports to the US, the EU and other countries and regions that have accused China of refusing to let the yuan appreciate.

Lu Ting, an economist with Bank of America-Merrill Lynch China, said that China’s exporters couldn’t stand a 10 percent appreciation of the yuan. Many have a profit margin of less than 5 percent and would suffer losses if they had to maintain their current prices, which are often denominated in other currencies, usually the US dollar, he said. Exports contribute about 17 percent of China’s GDP, and the total volume accounts for about 30 percent of the GDP, and a further dip in exports could also cause unemployment, Lu said.

Zhang’s suggestion is unwise, Lu Zhengwei, chief economist of the Industrial Bank, said. The US has pushed for a 20-40 percent appreciation of the yuan, and with the dollar getting stronger as the economy recovers, the yuan might face further pressure, he said.

Explosive experts on Tuesday detonated a suspicious package found at court buildings in New Zealand South Island’s largest city of Christchurch.

The court complex in the central city was evacuated about 11:00a.m. Tuesday (2200 GMT Monday) after the package with protruding wires and masking tape was found by a court official on the second story after they received a bomb threat, Radio New Zealand reported.

Roads around the complex have been closed and nearby buildings have been evacuated.

A bomb robot was sent into the building before midday and a muffled explosion from the court area was heard about 1 p.m..

Tuesday is the first day of court proceedings after the Christmas holiday break.

Fuel leak reaches Sanmenxia; reservoir stops power output

The diesel fuel leak into a tributary of the Yellow River has spread downstream into Shanxi and Henan provinces, contaminating and potentially affecting the drinking water supply of many local residents.

The fuel leaking into the Weihe River has reached the Sanmenxia reservoir on the Yellow River in Henan province despite earlier efforts to prevent it from spreading into the main river.

Zhang Lijun, vice-minister of environmental protection, urged all-out efforts to protect drinking water supply at an urgently scheduled meeting yesterday.

The meeting, attended by senior officials from Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces and China National Petroleum Corp, owner of the broken oil pipeline, was held in Sanmenxia, the first point in Henan province through which the Yellow River passes.

Zhang urged the affected provinces to spare no effort to contain the contamination within the Sanmenxia Reservoir, and prevent the leak from spreading into Xiaolangdi Reservoir, 130 km downstream, as that may likely impact drinking water supply in Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, two densely populated cities in Henan province whose source of drinking water is the Yellow River.

The Sanmenxia reservoir has stopped generating electricity and dammed up the river since Jan 3 to prevent polluted water from flowing in, according to the provincial government.

Cities along the Yellow River have all added monitoring stations to check the quality of water every hour.

Water was still considered safe for drinking, as the leakage had not reached the drinking water supply sources to cities in Henan province.

A resident of Sanmenxia, surnamed Cao, yesterday told China Daily that the drinking water supply was as usual.

“I think the government will inform us if the water supply is going to be cut off, and the TV station will also broadcast the notice. So far, there has been no such information,” Cao said.

A restaurant owner surnamed Zhao also said her business was not impacted, and tap water was safe as of yesterday.

In Shanxi province, people living in Ruicheng, Pinglu, Yuanqu and Fenglingdu towns have been ordered not to use water directly from the river, according to a notice issued by the Yuncheng city government.

The four counties are located along the Yellow River and are under the administration of Yuncheng, an industrial city in the southern part of Shanxi province.

The notice said emergency stations are monitoring the water quality on a 24-hour basis since Jan 2. Residents have been asked to stop using water directly from the Yellow River for the sake of safety.

In Shaanxi province, where the diesel spillage took place, agricultural production and normal life have seen little impact. Efforts were ongoing to clean up the spill in the Chishui and Weihe rivers.

“Our water sources are upstream from the diesel leak point and our life has not been impacted much by the incident,” a villager in Chishui surnamed Bi told China Daily yesterday.

Du Xinli, the director of a water quality monitoring station located just before the junction of the Weihe River and the Yellow River in Shaanxi province, was quoted by Xinhua as saying that the diesel concentration peaked at 25.3 mg/l on Jan 2. The concentration was 0.479 mg/l on Jan 3, he said.

Some 10,000 cubic m of soil near the contaminated Chishui river had been removed to better control the pollution in the area, said Cai Xueming, deputy magistrate of Huaxian county, Shaanxi province in northwest China.

“About 1,000 sq m of land around the diesel spillage point was dug to a depth of 10 m to thoroughly clear out the diesel-polluted soil. The pits will be covered by non-polluted soil brought from other places,” Cai said.

The broken diesel pipeline, which runs from Lanzhou in Gansu province to Changsha in Hunan province, was found leaking in the wee hours of Dec 30 at a point close to the Chishui River, a tributary of the Weihe River.

Su Maolin, deputy director of the Yellow River Water Resources Commission, yesterday refuted the claim by CNPC that the broken pipeline was caused by a third-party construction project, and called for a further probe into the accident after the spill has been tackled.

Water contamination cases

Feb-March 2004

Tests on the Tuojiang River in southwestern Sichuan showed it contained excess nitrogen and ammonia - due to untreated wastewater from a fertilizer plant being diverted into it - leading to tap water getting contaminated in nearby Jianyang city.

Nov 13, 2005

A major oil spill on the Songhuajiang River temporarily cut off water supply in Harbin, the capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, affecting nearly four million people.

Nov-Dec 2007

A mining company in Southwest China’s Guizhou province discharged 1,900 tons of untreated wastewater into the Duliujiang River. Seventeen people living downstream fell sick due to arsenic poisoning.

Nov 2008

The Dashahe River was contaminated when a company in Minquan county of Shangqiu, in Central China’s Henan province, discharged wastewater that had a significant amount of arsenic in it. It is believed to be the most serious arsenic-related contamination case in China.

Feb 20, 2009

Wastewater was discharged by a chemical company into the Mangshe River, the drinking water source for Yancheng city in East China’s Jiangsu province. Potassium in the water caused serious contamination. Water supply to over 20 million residents was disrupted for over 66 hours.

While the rest of the world gears up to usher in the new year with celebrations from Thursday night, Nepal is probably the most festive country in the world that will enjoy new year merrymaking virtually throughout the year.

New Year Eve celebrations already started in earnest Tuesday by the ethnic Tamu community, also known as the Gurungs, whose new year starts from Wednesday.

The Gurungs are a warlike people from central Nepal, who form over 2 percent of Nepal’s 27 million population and have their own culture and language.

Now scattered worldwide, the new Tamu year or Lhochhar — which is also the year of the tiger –is being celebrated in Nepal.

In Nepal, the government has declared Wednesday a public holiday for the community and the President, Ram Baran Yadav, issued a message.

Two days later, Nepal will march with the rest of the world to usher in 2010, as per the Gregorian calendar, with parties and festivals.

However, while the parties will stop in the rest of the world soon after that, Nepal has its traditional new year coming up in April.

On April 14, Nepalis will celebrate the start of the Nepali new year 2067, as per the Bikram Sambat calendar, an eastern calendar founded by an Indian ruler and still observed by the traditional people in both countries.

Nepal has cultural ties with both its southern neighbor India and northern neighbor China.

In February ever year, it also celebrates China’s Tibetan new year.

Hundreds of Buddhist monasteries in Nepal will usher in the Tibetan new year on Feb. 14, an event marked by lighting butter lamps and prayers.

Around October-end, Nepal will have another New Year bash when the Newar community, the original inhabitants of the capital Kathmandu Valley and a people famed for their business acumen and artistic skills, celebrate the Newari new year.

It will be the beginning of the Newari year 1131, following the Nepal Sambat calendar that was founded by a respected trader, Sankhadhar Sakhwaa, who, according to legend, transformed sand into gold by alchemy and paid off the collective debt of the nation to the king, thus liberating them.

Sakhwaa is regarded as a national hero and Nepal hails the calendar with great pride since it was drawn up by a commoner and marks the age of liberation.

Last but not the least, the Newari new year festivities will be followed by more partying around December-January when the Kirantis, an indigenous community from eastern Nepal, usher in Yele Sambat — the Kiranti new year.

There are about 1.5 million Kirans who will celebrate the calendar named after their first king, Yelamber Hang.

The outgoing 2009 proved a very tough year for the European Union (EU). The worst financial turmoil in decades has plunged the combined economy of the 27-nation bloc to its bottom.

While a precarious rebound is underway, the next year would be a crucial test for the EU to manage all risks and sustain the economic recovery

　 WORST RECESSION ON RECORD

The financial turmoil, which originated in the United States last September and soon spread to Europe, dragged the EU economy into the deepest, longest and broadest-based recession in the history of the 27-nation bloc.

It was estimated by the European Commission that the EU economy is set to shrink 4 percent this year, the biggest fall in output since the Second World War, and the cumulative output loss of 5 percent since the recession started in the second quarter of 2008,or some four times as much as the average loss in the previous three recessions.

Fortunately, confidence indicators and hard data since the summer have increasingly showed signs of improvement in the economic situation.

After negative growth in four consecutive quarters, the EU economy expanded by 0.4 percent quarter on quarter, marking the end of what has been known as the “Great Recession.”

But the outlook remains uncertain as the better-than-expected rebound was underpinned by the massive support provided by governments and central banks worldwide. As such support depends on the ability of the banking sector to increase the present levels of lending to the economy, it would eventually scale back.

The commission forecast in November that the EU economy would grow by 0.7 percent in 2010 and 1.6 percent in 2011, much lower than the around three-percent growth in the past years.

THREE MAJOR RISKS AHEAD

As its economic recovery is gathering momentum, the EU is faced with three major risks, namely a still fragile financial system, swelling government deficits and rising unemployment.

Despite billions of euros the EU governments spent on financial bailouts, European financial markets remained under stress. The global markets shivered at the news that Dubai World was delaying debt service, only to reveal how fragile and nervous they are.

Another risk is the EU’s soaring public finance deficit pushed up by financial bailouts and economic stimulus. The overall government deficit in the EU is expected to reach 7.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2010, far beyond the 3-percent ceiling set by the EU’s stability and growth pact.

The seriousness of ballooning deficits was highlighted by the recent downgrading of the credit worthiness of Greece by the international rating agency Fitch, which led to concern of the deteriorating economy.

Similarly, public debt, bearing the brunt of the crisis, is expected to reach 79.3 percent of GDP by 2010 in the EU.

Swelling government deficits and debt are threatening economic stability and long-term sustainability.

Meanwhile, the continued, albeit more moderate, increase in unemployment is a source of concern both socially and economically.

The recession has caused deterioration in the labor market. In October, unemployment rate in the EU rose to 9.3 percent. It was set to increase further, reaching 10.3 percent in 2011.

Rising unemployment would dampen consumption, a key engine of economic growth.

NEXT YEAR CRUCIAL

The forthcoming 2010 will be a challenging and decisive year for the EU economy to sustain the emerging recovery amid a host of risks.

Looking back on 2009, solid groundwork has been put in place to go ahead. Recognizing that the economy cannot rely on government support forever, EU finance ministers decided in October to start fiscal consolidation in 2011 at the latest. Furthermore, countries deep in debt should begin to consolidate its deficit earlier than2011, according to a EU document.

This means some EU member states have to consider phasing out their economic stimulus as early as next year.

But the timing of the exit strategy is crucial since an early end to fiscal stimulus would hurt recovery, while a late withdrawal would increase the risk of inflation and threaten long-term stability.

Meanwhile, the year 2010 will be crucial for making progress in financial sector repair as the banking sector continues to be under stress.

The EU is reworking its financial market supervisory architecture. To better bolster the stability of European financial markets in future, a new European Systemic Risk Board would monitor macro-prudential risks and issue warnings and recommendations for policy action if risks are judged significant.

In addition, three European supervisory authorities for banks, insurance and securities markets would be created with a view to unifying supervisory practices among member states and to ensuring efficient handling of a financial emergency.

The new system was expected to take place in the course of 2010to help maintain the EU’s financial and economic stability.

China’s electrified railway mileage has surpassed 30,000 kilometers, ranking the second in the world, said the China CREC Railway Electrification Bureau Group (CCREBG) on Saturday.

It achieved the goal with the completion of a 1,422.2-kilometer electrified railway line which connects Beijing and Lehua in south China’s Jiangxi Province on Saturday, according to the CCREBG.

The project, involving an investment of more than 7.6 billion yuan (or1.112 billion U.S. dollars), will increase the trains’ speed from 120 kilometers to 160 kilometers per hour and raise the transportation volume from 3,500 tonnes to 6,000 tonnes by each train.

The operation of this railway links the electrified railways in the country’s central and eastern regions, and it would help to ease transportation strains on the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, according to the CCREBG.

The strong cold front that has been sweeping across most of north China over the past two days has brought a sharp temperature drop of up to 30 degrees centigrade to some hit areas.

The National Meteorological Center has issued second-level, or orange, alerts on the cold storm that brought fresh gales of up to force 8 to the affected areas, the China News Service reported.

The center forecast temperatures in parts of the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as well as Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hebei Provinces to fall to 30 degrees below zero.

The cold will continue to affect most parts of the country in the following two days, according to the forecast.

China’s State Electricity Regulatory Commission said Thursday more efforts will be made to ensure electricity supply and safe operation of thermal power system.

“One of the priorities was to ensure the stable and safe operation of thermal power plants,” the SERC said in a statement on its website.

Power supply resumed Thursday in parts of the northwestern Xinjiang Autonomous Region where the cold snap had caused large-scale power cuts one day earlier.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)

SHENYANG, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) — Northeast China’s Liaoning Province closed 14 of its 15 highways Friday, due to a cold snap that hit the region on Thursday night bringing freezing temperatures and snow.

The meteorological station in Shenyang, Liaoning’s capital, issued a snow storm alert Friday morning, and forecast that temperatures would drop to 24 degree Celsius below freezing on Saturday in the province’s northern areas. Full story

BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) — A cold wave is expected to bring strong winds and sharp temperature drops in most parts of eastern China over the next three days, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) forecast today.

Temperatures in north China, central and eastern parts of Inner Mongolia, as well as regions along the Yellow River and Huaihe River would drop by 8 to 12 degrees Celsius.

British Prince William slept a night on a London street for experiencing the situation of being homeless, according to news reports on Wednesday.

The prince spent the night in a sleeping bag next to rubbish bins in central London in an organized event by a homeless charity Centrepoint.

The charity’s chief executive slept next to the prince and said they were frightened as a moment came that they were nearly hit by a road sweeper.

It is reported that they woke up in the street at 6 o’clock on the morning and walked to the West End to meet other participants who were also experiencing the homeless’ sleep.

A spokesman from St. James’s Palace said, “Prince William took away from the experience the importance of tackling all the issues that cause people to be homeless and stay homeless, from drug dependency to mental health problems.”

Chinese President Hu Jintao attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the University of Macao’s (UM) new campus on Hengqin Island Sunday afternoon, calling for concerted efforts to build the university into a world top-notch one.

The president arrived at the campus accompanied by Chui Sai On, the newly sworn-in Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the Central Military Commission, was briefed on the construction of the campus and the general outline to develop Hengqing Island.

He said that the building of the new campus caters to the need of Macao’s social development, especially in the high education sector.

The move also reflects Macao SAR government’s special attention on education and central government’s strong support to Macao’s education development.

The building of the campus is also a vivid embodiment of the advantages of “one country, two systems”, he said.

An island of 106.46 square km, Hengqin is situated in the south of Zhuhai, a coastal city of China’s southern province of Guangdong. It is separated from Macao by the Pearl River Estuary.

Hengqin is currently under the jurisdiction of Zhuhai city, but, on June 27, 2009, the ninth session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People’s Congress passed a bill to give the Macao SAR jurisdiction over 1.09 square kilometers of land located on the eastern coast of the island, where UM’s new campus will be built.

Being a prestigious public school in Macao, the UM currently occupies a hilly strip of no more than 0.05 square km, and it has just over 6,600 students due to limited land.

With a larger area, the new campus will have a minimum accommodation capacity of 10,000 students and better education and research facilities.

Construction of the campus is expected to complete within 3 years.

The president said that he hoped the new UM will be turned into a world top-notch university with first-class facilities, teaching faculty, talents and achievements to contribute more to Macao’s talent cultivation and social and economic development.

“The development of Hengqin Island is a major decision by the central government,” he said, hoping Guangdong and Zhuhai will take concrete steps to turn Hengqin into a pilot zone for the cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao under “one country, two systems.”

Hu also hoped Hengqin will become a pilot zone for deepening reform and opening-up and promoting scientific and technological innovation, and a new platform to promote industry upgrading on the west bank of the Pearl River.

The groundbreaking ceremony began at 4:00 p.m. Amid a warm applause, Hu unveiled a memorial plaque and then, shoveled earth on the cornerstone, marking the formal start of the campus construction.

Before leaving the campus, the president wrote for the UM an inscription “love the motherland and love Macao, study extensively and do things earnestly.”

Hu left Macao on Sunday afternoon after wrapping up his two-day tour to the special administrative region.

A senior leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Friday stressed the need of strengthening inspection to intensify intra-party supervision and maintain discipline.

He Guoqiang, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and head of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, made the remarks during a meeting of the central leading group set up for the CPC’s inspection work.

Intra-party inspection was formulated as part of the CPC’s intra-party supervision mechanism in 2003.

Intra-party inspection is key to enforcing the CPC’s disciplines, stepping up party building and maintaining social stability, He said.

He urged inspection authorities to give top priority to the enforcement of the party’s political disciplines.