Millions of travellers remain stranded by China's unusually harsh winter storms and supplies of petrol and food reserves are reportedly dwindling.  Predictions of a looming humanitarian crisis in southern China are being fuelled by the expectation that more bad weather could see the situation deteriorate.  Widespread blackouts and water shortages have hit more than 160 counties and cities. Cooking oil and vegetables are also running low across the region, driving prices up. 250 thousand soldiers have been mobilised to help with disaster relief and more than 60 people have died already.  President Hu Jintao has visited coal workers, urging them to boost production to ease the country's power crisis.  Authorities in China are stepping up efforts to deal with some of the worst winter weather in half a century.  Heavy snowfalls and freezing temperatures across much of the country have left more than 50 people dead, cut power supplies and hit millions of people trying to go home for the main holiday of the year.  Premier Wen Jiabao (1/29) is now overseeing the disaster relief effort, travelling to one of the worst-hit areas in central Hunan province to meet those affected and inspect repair work.  Earlier, the Finance Ministry announced it would be offering more than USD13 million in emergency aid to those suffering from the winter weather in a number of badly hit provinces.  The government has also ordered all insurance firms to award compensation as quickly as possible.  The worst snowfalls in a decade have caused traffic chaos across much of China as millions of people tried to head home for the important Lunar New Year holiday.  Tens of thousands of travellers were left stranded as transport in several regions across the centre, east and south of the country were hit by the bad weather.  State media reports several highways and airports have been shut.  The worst-hit provinces were Anhui in the east, central Hubei and Hunan, which host millions of migrant workers who work in the cities and return to their families to celebrate Lunar New Year.  Severe Storms Beleaguer China  1/29  SB120154503981222803

China has announced plans to build nearly 100 new airports by 2020 to cater for soaring demand.  The proposals will mean 8 out of every 10 residents will live within 100 kilometres of an airport within 12 years.  The General Administration of Civil Aviation has put the cost of building the 97 new airports at nearly USD70 billion.

China says (1/29) there has been an outbreak bird flu among poultry in Tibet.  The Agriculture Ministry says about a thousand birds had died from from the H5N1 strain of the virus, while more than 13,000 others have been culled in a bid to stop the spread of the disease.  The case follows the confirmation earlier this month of another outbreak of the disease among poultry in the western Xinjiang region.  Scientists fear the H5N1 strain, which remains mainly an animal disease, could mutate to a form that spreads easily among people.

China has been accused of covering up the accidental deaths of at least 10 workers, in a rush to construct a futuristic stadium in Beijing for the Olympic Games.  Britain's Sunday Times newspaper says the estimates are drawn from dozens of interviews conducted over six months, with employees from the huge building site in a northern district of the capital.
The paper says witnesses have spoken of seeing workers plummet to their deaths from the perilous heights of the so called "bird's nest" stadium.  It's claimed the bodies were swiftly removed by squads of armed police, and workers ordered not to mention the deaths to anyone or speak of them among themselves.  The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, heaped praise on the stadium after a visit on the weekend, calling it "a huge effort by the people of Beijing and a huge contribution by China to world peace and prosperity".  Chinese officials deny there have been any deaths. 內地去年有十萬零一千多人，在全國各類事故中死亡。國家安全監管總局局長李毅中表示，仍未能遏止重大事故，局方工作仍有漏洞。對於英國傳媒指，俗稱鳥巢的國家體育館，趕工期間曾有十名工人因工傷死亡。李毅中說不清楚，會要求北京的安監局調查。China Cites Worker Deaths  1/29  SB120154456160122771  China Toughens Stance On Workplace Safety  1/24  SB120113901251812061

Cambodian police have barred (1/20) Hollywood actress Mia Farrow and other activists from laying flowers at a "Killing Fields" museum.  The flower laying ceremony was intended to be part of the 'Dream for Darfur' pressure group's campaign to end atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region.  Some 100 baton-wielding police blocked Mia Farrow and her fellow activists from entering the compound at Tuol Sleng, a Phnom Penh high school that became Pol Pot's main torture centre.  The group, which had planned to light a symbolic Olympic torch in the compound, has held similar events in Chad, Rwanda, and Germany as part of a campaign to persuade China to push Khartoum into ending the violence in Darfur.  Beijing is hosting the 2008 Olympic Games and human rights groups have targeted China in the hope of using the spotlight thrown on the country to influence Chinese foreign policy.  China, a major investor in Sudan's oil industry, has been accused of breaching international rules and fanning bloodshed by selling Sudan weapons that have been diverted to Darfur.

A Chinese villager and his six-year-old grandson have been killed by a collapsing bridge.  A section of a 150-metre bridge collapsed under their oxcart in southwest China.  Hastily built and poorly maintained infrastructure projects, known in Chinese as "tofu dregs" projects, are causing problems across China as they age.  Fatal collapses are increasingly common following a building boom over the past two decades.  In the latest accident a 10-metre section of the 150-metre bridge fell into the water.  Another villager is still missing while a fourth was rescued.

Died: Bobby Fischer, 64, former chess champion whose life was marked by genius and eccentric behavior, in Reykjavik, Iceland.  1/18  SB120065686120600487

China Closes In on U.S. As Largest Web Market: China's total number of Internet users rose 53% to 210 million at the end of 2007 from 137 million at the end of 2006, the state-owned China Internet Network Information Center (中国互联网信息中心 CNNIC) said. The center said the number of Internet users rose from 162 million at the end of June. China is now just five million users short of surpassing the U.S. as the world's largest Internet market, according to the center. It said about 16% of the Chinese population now has access to the Internet, compared with a global average of 19%.

In northern China, 20 people have been killed in a gas explosion as they tried to reopen an illegal coal mine authorities had shut down.  The blast occurred as a group of people attempted to extract coal from the mine in Shanxi province.  The mine near the city of Linfen opened in 2004, but was later destroyed with explosives and sealed up by authorities.  Authorities are now searching for the organisers of the illegal mining attempt and investigating the cause of the blast. 

At least 21 people have been killed in east-central China by freezing temperatures and heavy snow that have disrupted the annual New Year travel rush.  Eleven people were killed and 51 injured when an overloaded bus rolled off an icy road in eastern Anhui province near Mingguang city.  The passengers were mostly migrant workers returning home to celebrate the Spring Festival on February 7, China's most important holiday.  The driver of the bus has been arrested for carrying 72 passengers - 21 more than allowed.  Meanwhile in adjacent Hubei province, more than a thousand kilometres of highways have been shut down because of the biggest snow fall in the region in 16 years.  At least 10 people have died due to weather-related incidents in Hubei over the last several days. 

BHP kicked off production of medals for the Beijing Olympics with the donation of gold and silver, hoping that its sponsorship will help reduce anxiety over rising iron-ore prices and a megamerger.  1/16  SB120042632603192057

A government campaign targeting China's karaoke parlors will try to stamp out the selling of sex and drugs and the use of unlicensed music, the Ministry of Culture said.  The "Sunshine Project," which began Monday (1/14), comes as the Chinese capital prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors for the Beijing Olympics this summer. Chinese leaders, who see the Games as a chance to show off a modern, thriving country, have taken great pains to ensure the event is flawless. The ministry said on its Web site Tuesday that the initiative would run through 2010 and target the 200,000 "entertainment enterprises" in China, though it mentioned only karaoke parlors specifically. Karaoke is extremely popular among Chinese, who sing in parlors ranging from glittering multistory complexes to roadside mom-and-pop operations. In the past, most played unlicensed versions of songs but that has been on the wane in recent years as Beijing has increasingly cracked down on the practice. China is a leading source of pirated copies of music, movies and other goods. While entertainment enterprises boost consumer spending and provide jobs and tax revenue, "some are unlicensed and in some, illegal activities such as sex, gambling and drugs are taking place," the Ministry of Culture said in an apparent reference to the many massage parlors that double as brothels. Protection of intellectual property rights was also lacking, it added. The ministry didn't give details on how the campaign would be carried out, but said it would strengthen supervision of the industry and give "sunshine" certifications to businesses that followed regulations, provided good service and used only licensed products. The campaign will be carried out by several government departments, including the Public Security Bureau and the Ministry of Health. It follows a call by the ruling Communist Party for citizens to help build a "harmonious society."

China is reportedly struggling to contain a surge in online piracy, specifically cases involving the illegal downloading of movies, music and books.  The deputy head of the National Copyright Administration, Yan Xiaohong, says the number of cases dealt with last year was more than double the previous two years combined, and with technology developing rapidly, it is becoming harder to crack down.  He says tougher punishments, including heavier fines, should be introduced.  Xinhua news agency has quoted industry sources as saying that at the end of 2007, China had 210 million Internet users - second only to the United States.

China's largest river has been hit by a devastating drought.  According to Chinese state media, water in some parts of the Yangtze River is at its lowest level since records began in 1866.  The normally rainy and humid south has been hit by a major drought.  More than 40 ships have run aground on the Yangtze since October.  The China Daily has also reported that large amounts of water were stored in the Three Gorges Dam last month causing the river's flow to drop by 50 per cent.  But government officials say the drought is to blame.

China has a new face for the 2008 Summer Games, and it's not an athlete. Wang Wei, former college professor and secretary-general of Bocog, or the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, will promote a positive message of the change China can expect as host of the Games.  1/15  SB120034554519589295  The Washington Post reports on the struggle of land ownership in China, an issue that will be under scrutiny from media attention on the Olympics.  1/15  SB120033230388588775

Australia has handed back to China 750 kilograms of illegally imported dinosaur, mammal and reptile fossils.  The fossils were returned by the Australian Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, in an official ceremony at the Chinese embassy in Canberra on Tuesday (1/15).  Some of the fossils in the collection are up to 450-million years old and were seized between 2004 and 2007 in a joint operations by the Australian Federal Police, Customs and the Environment Department.
In a gesture of thanks, the Chinese ambassador has handed six fossils back to Australia as a gift. 

A South African Paralympic sprinter has been told he can't compete in the Beijing Olympics because the artificial legs he uses give him an unfair advantage.  The International Association of Athletics Federations say the carbon fibre blades that Oscar Pistorius uses to run give him an advantage over other athletes.  Scientific testing showed that Mr Pistoirus uses about 25 per cent less energy than able-bodied opponents.  His spokesman Peet Van Zyl says they want to take the matter further.  "The natural feeling from our side would be to appeal the verdict and then we can see what avenues we can take forward," Mr Van Zyl said.  "Obviously the onus is now on us to prove he's not getting an advantage." 

India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has arrived in Beijing (1/13) for talks with Chinese leaders on a three-day visit aimed at improving relations.  It is the first visit by an Indian leader in five years as the two countries, which account for one-third of the world's population, try to set aside lingering disputes and establish a partnership on the international stage.  Mr Singh is hoping to discuss a wide range of issues with Chinese leaders including UN reforms and regional dialogue.  Also on the agenda are global issues such as climate change, energy security, international trade and counter-terrorism.  After arriving in the Chinese capital, Mr Singh visited an Olympic venue as part of the three-day trip before holding talks with his counterpart Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao on Monday and Tuesday.  辛格是近五年來首位訪華的印度總理

The top commander of the US Pacific Fleet is in Beijing (1/13) for talks with Chinese officials and will discuss Sino-US military ties and Taiwan.  The four-day visit by Timothy Keating, commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Command, includes talks with vice chairman of the Central Military Commission Guo Boxiong and foreign minister Yang Jiechi.  It comes after a row last November that was sparked by China's cancellation of a Hong Kong port call by the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk.  At the time, Chinese officials suggested the cancellation was due to a US approval of USD3bn in weapons sales to Taiwan, and a meeting between US president George W. Bush and exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.  美軍太平洋總部司令基廷此行分別會見中央軍委副主席郭伯雄總參謀長陳炳德和外長楊潔篪 A U.S. admiral said he is optimistic about ties with Beijing, suggesting that relations soured by China turning away U.S. ships are now on the mend.  1/16 SB120039330886791073

NBA Names Investors In China Venture; New League Is Possible  1/15  SB120035959591890007
NBA Uses Local Allure to Push Planned League in China  1/11  SB120001492675982693

Marion Jones appeared in federal court Friday (1/11) and was sentenced to six months in prison for lying to investigators about performance-enhancing drugs and a check-fraud scam.  The sentencing completed a stunning fall for the woman who was once the world's most celebrated female athlete. A runner and long jumper, she won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.  SB120007154969984119

Died: Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, age 88 (1919-2008jan11), New Zealand mountaineer and philanthropist, who in 1953 with a Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, first attained the summit of Mount Everest.  SB120000586755182257

The caging of mentally-ill patients in China is rooted in the convulsions that the nation's health-care system has gone through in the past few decades.  1/16  SB120043020275792159
Not All Fun, Games At Hong Kong Toy Fair  1/11  SB119999272764381643
Imax to Put 10 Giant-Screen Cinemas in China  1/11  SB120001856581182899
In China, Grass-Roots Groups Stretch Limits on Activism  1/10  SB119980515239074901
Care in China: A Boy's Turnaround  1/10  SB119991558027278749

'New Silk Route' Rail Plan: China and five other countries have agreed to collaborate on a train service between Asia and Europe that is expected to transport cargo twice as quickly as by sea.  The countries included in the agreement are China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.  They will simplify customs and border checks to minimise the time for trains to cross boundaries.  Linking Beijing and Hamburg, the 'fast freight' line is expected to boost trade and cargo flows between the two continents by taking less than 20 days to transport goods from China to Germany.  Shipping goods between the two destinations takes about 40 days.  A test-run lugging 100 containers of toys, electrical goods and industrial products left Beijing Wednesday (1/09), overseen by Chinese Transport Minister Liu Zhijun and German railways Deutsche Bahn President Hartmut Mehdorn. 

Award-winning film director Zhang Yuan, a member of China's acclaimed "sixth generation" of movie-makers, has been detained for taking drugs.  The Beijing News reports Mr Zhang was detained along with two friends in a police raid at his eastern Beijing apartment in the early hours of Wednesday (1/09) morning.  Police found Zhang high on crystal methamphetamine, or "ice," and the drug ketamine.  An officer with Beijing's vice squad confirmed the media reports were correct but declined to offer further details.  He is unlikely to face formal charges but may be forced to complete a strict drug treatment course that typically lasts up to a month. 

Chinese businesses and consumers are preparing for a national ban on free plastic shopping bags.  From the first of June this year, it will be against the law to give out free plastic shopping bags in Chinese supermarkets.  The production of certain thin plastic bags will also be banned altogether because they are often thrown away and become a major source of pollution.  Shoppers will have to pay for bags and are being encouraged to return to carrying cloth bags and baskets.  According to the China Daily, three million plastic bags are used here every day and five million tons of oil are needed to produce plastic packaging in China every year.

Chinese authorities have detained 24 people, including some city officials, over the killing of a man in central China.  
湖北天門市城管理執法局人員涉嫌不滿一建築公司總經理用手機拍下他們與村民衝突過程將總經理打死。天門市委表示，城管局局長及廿四名執法人員已被警方調查，其中四人被刑事拘留。
Wei Wenhua was beaten to death on Monday (1/07) by a group that included Tianmen city inspectors in Hubei province after he used his mobile phone to film them using violence against local residents, the People's Daily newspaper said.  The paper said Mr Wei, who had been passing by, was surrounded and beaten unconscious by several inspectors of the local "Urban Management" bureau or "Chengguan", and died on the way to hospital.  The incident has been widely reported throughout China and elicited anger in internet chatrooms.  Tasked with enforcing a range of local ordinances against such practices as unapproved street peddling and begging, the civilian inspectors have been criticised nationwide for using excessive force in the past.  Confrontation over rubbish  The confrontation on Monday stemmed from local anger about a rubbish dump that residents felt was too close to their home, according to various reports.  They believed the dump would be removed by the end of December and confronted Urban Management staff at the site on Monday.  A clash followed, with several residents being beaten by the city inspectors.  Mr Wei, the general manager of a local waterworks construction company, captured the clash on his phone video camera, provoking the inspectors' ire, the reports said.  The People's Daily said 24 people were being held, but did not say how many were city inspectors.  City inspectors sparked a violent riot by about 2,000 people in the central city of Zhengzhou last June after they beat a female college student who was selling items on the street.

China plans to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites and its third manned mission into space in 2008.  Chinese state media reports the country's third manned mission, Shenzhou VII, is due to take off in October and will involve a space walk.  China will also undertake a joint effort with Russia to explore Mars in 2009.  In 2003, China became the third country to put a man into space using its own rocket.  It sent two astronauts on a five-day flight on its Shenzhou VI rocket in October 2005.  Fears of potential military rivalry in space with the United States have mounted since China blew up one of its own weather satellites using a ground-based missile in January 2007. 

Robb Report Delivers Luxury to China: Robb Report, a self-declared catalog of the best of the best for the richest of the rich, is banking on its Chinese-language edition, the latest sign of China's rising upper crust and its growing appeal to global marketers.  1/09  SB119984419076876807

Chinese scientists have warned that climate change is hurting the most famous draw in the northern city of Harbin - its annual ice sculpture contest.  Average annual temperatures in the city perched on the edge of Siberia hit 6.6 degrees Celsius last year, the highest average since records began, and the ice sculptures are feeling the heat.  "In the beginning of December 2002, ice lanterns in Harbin melted right after they were sculpted," Yin Xuemian, senior meteorologist at the Heilongjiang Observatory, told Reuters news agency.  "What came out of the work was sweaty ice sculptures."  Problems got worse in 2006.  "Lots of money and energy were spent on redoing the sculptures," he said.  "As the temperature rises, the period of ice and snow activities have shortened dramatically."  China has blamed global warming for growing water shortages around the country that have been taking their toll on rice cultivation.  Climate change is also shrinking the country's high altitude glaciers.

China's latest outbreak of bird flu, in the far western region of Xinjiang, has been brought under control.  Xinhua news agency reports (1/08) that authorities in Turpan city culled more than 35,000 birds and no human cases had been reported.  The first H5N1 outbreak in the country since September came about a month after the virus killed a 24-year-old man in the eastern province of Jiangsu.  Xinhua cited an unnamed official as blaming a warmer winter for bringing in more migratory birds to the area near Turpan, and so "increasing the chances of bird flu outbreaks".  "The wild birds ought to have flown south, but stayed near the city because of the warm weather this winter," the official said.  With the world's biggest poultry population and hundreds of millions of farmers raising birds in their backyards, China is seen as crucial in the global fight against bird flu.  The Agriculture Ministry has warned of a "very high" possibility of bird flu outbreaks in the country over the winter and spring, when the virus is at its most contagious. 

Beijing will deploy about 80 dogs in its subway system to sniff out flammable products such as fireworks in the leadup to the Chinese New Year.  Police say the security patrol will be good practice for the police dogs ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games later this year.  Eight sniff dogs have started patrolling five downtown stations.  The government normally launches campaigns ahead of the Lunar New Year, which falls on the February 7th this year, telling people not to bring fireworks onto public transport.  Photos of accidental explosions are often used to drive home the point.  

China has launched (1/07) a nationwide probe into foreign investment in the real estate market.  State media reports the State Administration for Industry and Commerce has ordered branches across the country to carry out the probes.  Foreign investment in China's real estate market surged in 2007, despite a series of measures introduced in 2006 tightening approvals and stepping up supervision of direct foreign participation in the industry.  New tightening measures are highly likely to be introduced this year if the probes prove existing limits were ineffective.  Latest official figures showed that the total value of foreign investment in the market soared by 71.9 per cent in the first 11 months of 2007 to $US7.4 billion, stoking fears about an emerging bubble.  China Moves to Discourage Developers' Land Hoarding 1/09 SB119980933576275053

It's feared thousands of people could be trapped by a large fire burning through tower buildings in Urumqi.  It started last night (1/02) and initially spread through 13 floors of a wholesale market building. No death toll has been released but the building normally has thousands of employees selling clothes, toys and cosmetics.  The fire has now spread to an adjacent 20-story hotel which has been evacuated. Three firefighters have been killed and the rest moved back to a safer distance of 100 metres as they wait for the market to collapse.

China to Restrict Web Video Sites: The regulations stipulate that online videos can be broadcast or streamed only by state-owned or state-controlled companies. That means video sites could face the same treatment as television broadcasters and newspapers, which also are controlled by the state. 2008/1/04 SB119935654133664513  China Eases Control Over Existing Web Sites  2/06  SB120221774207644073  For China's Web Portals, Controversy Sells  2/28  SB120415879228098115
CCTV Jumps Into Web for Olympics  2/28  SB120416432552498591
国家广播电影电视总局和信息产业部2007/12/29联合发布的《互联网视听节目服务规定》让很多视频网站陷入了焦灼状态，因为自今年1月31日起，申请互联网视听节目服务的企业必须是国有独资或国有控股单位。
China has announced tough new rules to crack down on the explosion of audio-visual content on the Internet, reiterating that sex and politically sensitive material will not be tolerated.  Only state-controlled entities will have the right to operate websites that post audio-visual content, according to the rules, placing into doubt whether Chinese will have access to foreign video sharing sites such as YouTube.  It was not immediately clear how the new rules will affect foreign-based Internet video sharing sites, such as YouTube, or Western companies already operating in China, such as Yahoo and Google.  All content must be free of violence, sex, or gambling, and cannot reveal state secrets or portray morally, socially or politically harmful situations, according to the notice.  The regulations were jointly issued by the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and will go into effect on January 31. 

CCTV Gets Wrong Kind of PR: The 2008 Beijing Olympics have become a public relations vehicle for the Chinese government, corporate sponsors -- and now even a betrayed wife (2007/12/28).  SB119937167420564937 

CUTTING THROUGH THE SMOG: Steven Q. Andrews says in a commentary on our opinion pages that a closer look at the data and collection methods cast doubt on Beijing's claims of improved air quality.  1/09  SB119983312470175979

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