Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts

Saturday, 6 August 2011

Honda to recall over 2m vehicles in US, China


 Honda Motor said Friday it will recall more than two million vehicles in the United States and China to update the software that controls their automatic transmission.
Honda said in a press release on its US site that the vehicles in the voluntary recall will include Accord, CR-V and Element models.
No injuries or deaths have been reported, the statement said.
Honda China said in a statement on its website it had notified the nation's quality watchdog that from Monday, it would recall 760,515 cars to update the software that controls their automatic transmission.
The auto giant said the vehicles in the recall would include Accord, Odyssey and Spirior models, manufactured between July 2004 and November 2009.
A bearing in the automatic transmission system was not built with sufficient strength and as a result it may emit an abnormal noise or cause the engine to stall under certain gear shift operations, Honda said.
Similar Honda models are sold in Canada, Europe and other markets. Altogether, 2.49 million Honda models installed with the faulty transmission are involved, Kyodo quoted Honda officials as saying.
They said the affected Honda models are not sold in Japan.
Honda has received reports of an abnormal transmission noise and transmission malfunctions but there have been no reports of accidents, the company said.
The automaker in late July recalled about 200,000 passenger cars globally due to defective engine parts.
The move also comes after the car giant was forced to call back about two million vehicles in February and December and is the latest in a series of recalls to hit Japan's auto industry.
Japan's car giants have seen millions of recalls in the past year, but none have been more affected than Toyota, the world's biggest auto maker.
Toyota became mired in crisis when it recalled nearly nine million vehicles between late 2009 and February last year due to brake and accelerator defects linked to deadly accidents that tarnished its image of reliability.
As criticism mounted of its slow response and bureaucratic inflexibility, Toyota tightened its recall policy and has pulled around 16 million units since late 2009 over a range of issues.
Honda has now recalled more than six million vehicles since February 2010 over a range of different issues.

Saturday, 23 July 2011

Train collision in China kills 35, injures 191




bullet train crashed into another high-speed train that had stalled after being struck by lightning in eastern China, causing four carriages to fall off a viaduct and killing at least 35 people and injuring 191 others, state media and an official said Sunday.
It was the first derailment on China's high-speed rail network since the country launched bullet trains in 2007 with a top speed of 155 miles (250 kilometers) per hour, the China Daily reported.
The first train was traveling south from the Zhejiang provincial capital of Hangzhou when it lost power in the lightning strike and was hit from behind by the second train in Wenzhou city at 8:27 p.m. (1230 GMT) Saturday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The second train had left Beijing and both trains were destined for Fuzhou in eastern Fujian province.
The Ministry of Railways said in a statement that the first four carriages of the moving train and the last two carriages of the stalled train derailed.
An official in the Zhejiang provincial emergency office told The Associated Press that 35 people had died, including one foreign female. He said her nationality was not clear. A further 191 people were being treated at hospitals, said the official, who gave only his surname, Hua, as is common with Chinese officials.
Early Sunday, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called for an all-out effort to rescue passengers still trapped in the wreckage hours after the collision, Xinhua said. China Central Television later said the search-and-rescue operation had ended by 4 a.m. Sunday.
A preliminary investigation by the Zhejiang provincial government showed that four coaches of the moving train fell off the viaduct, Xinhua said. The cars plunged about 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters) from the elevated section of track, it said.
Photos taken at the scene showed one badly damaged car lying on its side by the viaduct and another car leaning against the viaduct after landing on its end.
Xinhua quoted an unidentified witness as saying, "Rescuers have dragged many passengers out of the coach that fell on the ground."
The Wenzhou city government said more than 1,000 people participated in the rescue operation.
About 1,500 passengers were taken to a middle school, and more than 500 residents had given blood by 9 a.m. Sunday after appeals from the local blood bank, which said many of the injured needed transfusions, CCTV reported.
It was China's worst train accident since April 2008, when a train traveling from Beijing to the eastern coastal city of Qingdao derailed and crashed into another train, leaving 72 people dead and another 416 injured.
Minister of Railways Sheng Guangzu, who rushed to the scene, ordered an in-depth investigation of Saturday's accident.
The trains involved are "D'' trains — first-generation bullet trains with an average speed of about 95 miles (150 kilometers) per hour and not as fast as the new Beijing-Shanghai line.
China has spent billions of dollars and plans more massive spending to link the country with a high-speed rail network. Power outages and other malfunctions have plagued the showcase high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai since it opened June 30.
Official plans call for China's bullet train network to expand to 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of track this year and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.
The huge spending connected with the rail expansion also has been blamed for corruption. Railways Minister Liu Zhijun was dismissed this spring amid an investigation into unspecified corruption allegations.
No details have been released about the allegations against him, but news reports say they include kickbacks, bribes, illegal contracts and sexual liaisons.

Entire Apple stores being faked in China




At first, it looks like a sleek Apple store. Sales assistants in blue T-shirts with the company's logo chat to customers. Signs advertising the iPad 2 hang from the white walls. Outside, the famous logo sits next to the words "Apple Store."
And that's the clue it's fake.
China, long known for producing counterfeit consumer gadgets, software and brand name clothing, has reached a new piracy milestone — fake Apple stores.
An American who lives in Kunming in southern Yunnan province said Thursday that she and her husband stumbled on three shops masquerading as bona fide Apple stores in the city a few days ago. She took photos and posted them on her BirdAbroad blog.
The three stores are not among the authorized resellers listed on Apple Inc.'s website. The maker of the iPhone and other hit gadgets has four company stores in China — two in Beijing and two in Shanghai — and various official resellers. Apple's Beijing office declined to comment.
The proliferation of the fake stores underlines the slow progress that China's government is making in countering a culture of a rampant piracy and widespread production of bogus goods that is a major irritant in relations with trading partners.
China's Commerce Minister promised American executives earlier this year that the latest in a string of crackdowns on product piracy would deliver lasting results.
The 27-year-old blogger, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the set-up of the stores was so convincing that the employees themselves seemed to believe they worked for Apple.
"It looked like an Apple store. It had the classic Apple store winding staircase and weird upstairs sitting area. The employees were even wearing those blue T-shirts with the chunky Apple name tags around their necks," she wrote on her blog.
"But some things were just not right: the stairs were poorly made. The walls hadn't been painted properly. Apple never writes 'Apple Store' on its signs — it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit."
A worker at the fake Apple store on Zhengyi Road in Kunming, which most of the photos of the BirdAbroad blog show, told The Associated Press that they are an "Apple store" before hanging up.
The manager of an authorized reseller in Kunming, who gave only his surname, Zhang, said most customers have no idea the stores are fake.
Some of the staff in the stores "can't even operate computers properly or tell you all the functions of the mobile phone," he said.
"There are more and more of these fake stores in Kunming. Although they may sell real Apple products, some of those products were not imported through legal means. And they cost more."
Fake Apple stores are a "particularly egregious example" of brand piracy but their emergence is not surprising given the amount of product counterfeiting faced by corporations such as Apple, said Ted Dean, president of BDA China Ltd., a telecoms market research company.
He said a challenge for mobile phone companies and others selling branded products across a country as big as China is how to manage distribution, especially to smaller cities.
"And then, making sure people aren't copying it, faking it ... is absolutely a challenge," said Dean, who once saw a fake Apple phone in China that had an Apple logo — but with no bite taken out of it.
Apple said this week that China was "very key" to its record earnings and revenue in the quarter that ended in June.
Revenue was up more than six times from a year earlier to $3.8 billion in the area comprising China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, said Apple's Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook, according to a conference call on Tuesday.
"I firmly believe that we're just scratching the surface right now. I think there is an incredible opportunity for Apple there," Cook said.
The company plans to open two more Apple stores in greater China — one in Shanghai and another in Hong Kong — by the end of the year.

Sunday, 3 July 2011

China Wants to Buy Facebook

On Thursday, Business Insider reported that China is trying to buy “a huge chunk” of Facebook.
According to the business news website, Beijing approached a fund that buys stock from former Facebook employees to see if it could assemble a stake large enough “to matter.”  Moreover, Citibank is rumored to be trying to acquire as much as $1.2 billion of stock for two sovereign wealth funds, one from the Middle East and the other Chinese.  Business Insider reports a third source, from a “very influential” Silicon Valley investment bank, confirms that Citi is representing China.

Friday, 1 July 2011

China opens world's longest sea bridge

Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, the world's longest cross-sea bridge with length of 36.48 kilometers, connects the urban district of Qingdao City to its Huangdao district.

 
This photo taken Tuesday, June 21, 2011 released by China's Xinhua news agency shows the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. China opened Thursday, June 30, 2011, the world's longest cross-sea bridge, which is 42 kilometers (26 miles) long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to an offshore island, Huangdao. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Yan Runbo) 

 

This photo taken Wednesday, June 29, 2011 released by China's Xinhua news agency shows the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. China opened Thursday, June 30, 2011, the world's longest cross-sea bridge, which is 42 kilometers (26 miles) long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to an offshore island, Huangdao. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Yan Runbo) 

 
Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is seen in Qingdao, Shandong province, in this general view taken June 27, 2011. The world's longest sea bridge spanning Jiaozhou Bay of Qingdao City, Shandong Province, opened on Thursday, June 30. The bridge is 36 km (22 miles) long, Xinhua News Agency reported. Picture taken on June 27, 2011. REUTERS/China Daily 

 A band plays during the opening ceremony of the Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in Qingdao, Shandong province June 30, 2011. The world's longest sea bridge spanning Jiaozhou Bay of Qingdao City, Shandong Province, opened on Thursday. The bridge is 36 km (22 miles) long, Xinhua News Agency reported. REUTERS/China Daily

 
A sign that reads: "Shandong Highway Corp. invests to operate Shandong Highway Jiaozhou Bay Bridge" is seen at Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in Qingdao, Shandong province June 27, 2011. The world's longest sea bridge spanning Jiaozhou Bay of Qingdao City, Shandong Province, opened on Thursday, June 30, 2011. The bridge is 36 km (22 miles) long, Xinhua News Agency reported. Picture taken June 27, 2011. REUTERS/China Daily

 

This photo taken Tuesday, June 21, 2011 released by China's Xinhua news agency shows the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. China opened Thursday, June 30, 2011, the world's longest cross-sea bridge, which is 42 kilometers (26 miles) long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to an offshore island, Huangdao. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Yan Runbo)


Tuesday, 28 June 2011

China's 300 kmph Beijing-Shanghai bullet train!


 Builders of China's fast-growing bullet train network conducted a test run of its showcase Beijing-to-Shanghai line Monday amid controversy over the prestige project's high cost.
A train carrying government officials, managers of the companies that built the line and reporters left Beijing for the 1,318-kilometer (824-mile) trip. It was due to take about five hours, or half the time of conventional rail.
The communist government is building thousands of miles (kilometers) of high-speed rail to link together China's far-flung regions and show off its rising wealth and technological prowess.



The multibillion-dollar plan has provoked complaints that it is too expensive for a country where millions of people still live in poverty. The government announced in April the top speed of the fastest lines would be reduced from 350 kph (220 mph) to 300 kph (190 mph) and ticket prices would be cut.
Official plans call for the network to expand to 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of track this year and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.
China's trains are based on Japanese, French and German technology but its manufacturers are trying to sell to Latin America and the Middle East. That has prompted complaints Beijing is violating the spirit of licenses with foreign providers by reselling technology that was meant to be used only in China.


Monday's test run comes ahead of celebrations of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party on July 1.
In a statement, the Ministry of Railways said it made extensive preparations for safety and security. They include plans for daily inspections of tracks and other facilities and an earthquake monitoring system.
The Beijing-Shanghai line crosses seven provinces that include some of China's most densely populated and economically developed areas.
The railway ministry says the line will run 63 pairs of trains a day at 300 kph (190 mph) and 27 at 250 kph (155 mph). Ticket prices range from 1,750 yuan ($269) for a business class seat on the fastest train to 410 yuan ($63) for second-class on slower trains.


Government plans call for spending 700 billion yuan ($106 billion) on railway building this year. The railway ministry says the Beijing-Shanghai line cost 215 billion yuan ($32.5 billion).
Critics say railway officials have diverted too much money to high-speed rail and should be expanding lower-cost traditional rail.
During the Lunar New Year holiday in February, working class travelers complained they couldn't afford high-speed tickets and regular trains were sold out. A migrant worker became an Internet sensation when he stripped to his underwear to protest outside a ticket office after he waited 14 hours in line but couldn't get tickets for his family.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said earlier this year that construction of one line and operation of another already completed, both in China's east, must stop until they receive environmental approval.




Tuesday, 11 August 2009

'China should break India into 20-30 states'

New Delhi: In an article likely to raise Indian hackles, a Chinese strategist contends that Beijing should break up India into 20-30 independent states with the help of “friendly countries” like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

The publication of the article nearly coincided with the 13th round of India-China border talks that ended in New Delhi Saturday on a positive note, with Beijing emphasizing the need to build strategic trust and elevate strategic partnership to a new level to include coordination on global issues.
Written in Chinese, the article, “If China takes a little action, the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up,” is published in the new edition of the website of the China International Institute for Strategic Studies (CIISS), an influential think tank that advises Beijing on global and strategic issues.

According to DS Rajan, director of the Chennai Centre for China Studies, Chennai, Zhan Lue, the author of the article, argues that the “so-called” Indian nation cannot be considered as one having existed in history as it relies primarily on Hindu religion for unity.

The article says that India could only be termed a “Hindu religious state” that is based on caste exploitation and which is coming in the way of modernisation.

The writer goes on to argue that with these caste cleavages in mind, China in its own interest and the progress of whole of Asia should join forces with “different nationalities” like Assamese, Tamils and Kashmiris and support them in establishing independent nation states of their own.
n particular, the article asks Beijing to support the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a militant separatist group in the Indian northeast, to it achieve independence for Assam from India.

Furthermore, the article suggests that China can give political support to Bangladesh to encourage ethnic Bengalis in India get rid of “Indian control” and unite with Bangladesh as one Bengali nation.

If this is not possible, the creation of at least another free Bengali nation state as a friendly neighbour of Bangladesh would be desirable for the purpose of weakening India’s expansion and threat aimed at forming a “unified South Asia”, the article argues.
The article recommends India’s break up into 20-30 nation-states like in Europe and contends that if the consciousness of “nationalities” in India could be aroused, social reforms in South Asia can be achieved, the caste system can be eradicated and the region can march towards prosperity.

The Chinese strategist suggests that to split India, China can seek support of friendly countries including Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan.

China should encourage Bangladesh to give a push to the independence of West Bengal and recover the 90,000 sq km territory in Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls Southern Tibet, says Rajan who has analysed the article for the Chennai-based think tank.

“The write-up could not have been published without the permission of the Chinese authorities, but it is sure that Beijing will wash its hands out of this if the matter is taken up by New Delhi,” says Rajan.

“It has generally been seen that China is speaking in two voices - its diplomatic interlocutors have always shown understanding in their dealings with their Indian counterparts, but its media is pouring venom on India,” says Rajan.

Which one to believe is a question confronting the public opinion and even policy makers in India, Rajan says, adding that ignoring such an article will “prove to be costly” for India.

Govt downplays suggestion

The Indian Government however described as an "expression of individual opinion" comments by the Chinese analyst.

At the same time, India emphasised that "opinions and assessment of the state of India-China relations should be expressed after careful judgement based on long-term interests of building a stable relationship between the two countries."

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said India and China have strategic and cooperative partnership, and the multi-sectoral engagement and the pace of bilateral exchanges have gained momentum in recent years.

"The article in question appears to be an expression of individual opinion and does not accord with the officially stated position of China on bilateral relations conveyed to us on several occasions, including at the highest level, most recently by the State Councillor Dai Bingguo during the visit to India last week," he said, reacting to the analyst's views.

"We continue to maintain that opinion and assessment on the state of India-China relations should be expressed after careful judgement based on long-term interests of building a stable relationship between the two countries," Prakash said.

"The Chinese side has conveyed to us that in approaching India-China relations, China abides by the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence. One of these principles stresses respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty," Prakash said.

Source: Zee News

'China should break India into 20-30 states'

New Delhi: In an article likely to raise Indian hackles, a Chinese strategist contends that Beijing should break up India into 20-30 independent states with the help of “friendly countries” like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

The publication of the article nearly coincided with the 13th round of India-China border talks that ended in New Delhi Saturday on a positive note, with Beijing emphasizing the need to build strategic trust and elevate strategic partnership to a new level to include coordination on global issues.
Written in Chinese, the article, “If China takes a little action, the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up,” is published in the new edition of the website of the China International Institute for Strategic Studies (CIISS), an influential think tank that advises Beijing on global and strategic issues.

According to DS Rajan, director of the Chennai Centre for China Studies, Chennai, Zhan Lue, the author of the article, argues that the “so-called” Indian nation cannot be considered as one having existed in history as it relies primarily on Hindu religion for unity.

The article says that India could only be termed a “Hindu religious state” that is based on caste exploitation and which is coming in the way of modernisation.

The writer goes on to argue that with these caste cleavages in mind, China in its own interest and the progress of whole of Asia should join forces with “different nationalities” like Assamese, Tamils and Kashmiris and support them in establishing independent nation states of their own.
n particular, the article asks Beijing to support the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a militant separatist group in the Indian northeast, to it achieve independence for Assam from India.

Furthermore, the article suggests that China can give political support to Bangladesh to encourage ethnic Bengalis in India get rid of “Indian control” and unite with Bangladesh as one Bengali nation.

If this is not possible, the creation of at least another free Bengali nation state as a friendly neighbour of Bangladesh would be desirable for the purpose of weakening India’s expansion and threat aimed at forming a “unified South Asia”, the article argues.
The article recommends India’s break up into 20-30 nation-states like in Europe and contends that if the consciousness of “nationalities” in India could be aroused, social reforms in South Asia can be achieved, the caste system can be eradicated and the region can march towards prosperity.

The Chinese strategist suggests that to split India, China can seek support of friendly countries including Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan.

China should encourage Bangladesh to give a push to the independence of West Bengal and recover the 90,000 sq km territory in Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls Southern Tibet, says Rajan who has analysed the article for the Chennai-based think tank.

“The write-up could not have been published without the permission of the Chinese authorities, but it is sure that Beijing will wash its hands out of this if the matter is taken up by New Delhi,” says Rajan.

“It has generally been seen that China is speaking in two voices - its diplomatic interlocutors have always shown understanding in their dealings with their Indian counterparts, but its media is pouring venom on India,” says Rajan.

Which one to believe is a question confronting the public opinion and even policy makers in India, Rajan says, adding that ignoring such an article will “prove to be costly” for India.

Govt downplays suggestion

The Indian Government however described as an "expression of individual opinion" comments by the Chinese analyst.

At the same time, India emphasised that "opinions and assessment of the state of India-China relations should be expressed after careful judgement based on long-term interests of building a stable relationship between the two countries."

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said India and China have strategic and cooperative partnership, and the multi-sectoral engagement and the pace of bilateral exchanges have gained momentum in recent years.

"The article in question appears to be an expression of individual opinion and does not accord with the officially stated position of China on bilateral relations conveyed to us on several occasions, including at the highest level, most recently by the State Councillor Dai Bingguo during the visit to India last week," he said, reacting to the analyst's views.

"We continue to maintain that opinion and assessment on the state of India-China relations should be expressed after careful judgement based on long-term interests of building a stable relationship between the two countries," Prakash said.

"The Chinese side has conveyed to us that in approaching India-China relations, China abides by the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence. One of these principles stresses respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty," Prakash said.

Source: Zee News