REFLECTIONS IN A CHINESE EYE

Chinese electric taxis struggle to win mass appeal

(Reuters) - A pioneering electric taxi project in China's southern economic powerhouse of Shenzhen seems a success by most accounts. Riders are enthusiastic, there have been no accidents and drivers are termed "gracious," not a term usually applied to mainland drivers.

The pilot project, which could be replicated in other cities, underpins China's ambitious plans to put at least half a million electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015.

The country is already the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and other human activities that scientists say are causing global warming.

As the world's largest and fastest-growing auto market, China's carbon footprint can only grow.

To bolster China's energy security, Beijing has pronounced the electric vehicle industry a top priority, earmarking $1.5 billion annually for the next 10 years in the hope it can transform the country into one of the leading producers of clean vehicles.

But even with government support and the popular support of e-taxi customers, challenges remain for electric vehicles such as the e-taxis to gain broader acceptance and widespread use.

Charging stations are few and far between, repair shops are hard to find and the cars are costly. Even after generous government support, the Shenzhen e-taxi costs 80 percent more than the Volkswagen Santana that ordinarily cruises the streets of Shenzhen.

"The electric car is still too expensive and we ended up paying a lot more than for a (VW) Santana, even with government subsidies," said Du Jun, general manager of Pengcheng E-taxi, the taxi operator participating in the pilot project.

Local automakers, from SAIC Motor to Dongfeng Motor Group Co, have pledged massive investments in greener vehicles. Global automakers, including BMW and Nissan Motor, are also working with local governments to roll out their E-Mini and Leaf respectively.

Read more at REUTERS

New report suggests China will win EV race

China is likely to beat the US in the race to put electric vehicles on the road, according to a new report from global management consultancy firm Accenture.

The report, "The US and China: the race to disruptive transport technologies", concludes that because of the strong government backing given to electric vehicles, China will deploy EVs faster than the US.

In June last year, Chinese authorities said that they would subsidize purchases of alternative energy vehicles in five cities, including Shanghai - no small undertaking given the explosion recently seen in the Chinese car market.

China will also be aided by its plentiful supply of lithium, a key component of EV batteries, and its current battery production capabilities, said the report's authors.

The necessity of lithium for rechargeable batteries has sparked concern over its long-term supply, something that has prompted Japanese automaker Toyota to begin research into environmentally friendly-cars which don't use precious minerals.

Read more at The Independent

VW to Deliver Record 7 Million Cars as Chinese Business Booms

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker, said annual deliveries in 2010 will exceed 7 million for the first time as sales in China surge.

VW’s 11-month deliveries in the world’s largest car market advanced 38 percent to 1.82 million vehicles, accounting for 28 percent of global sales, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said in a statement today.

Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn is counting on China, VW’s largest market, to surpass Toyota Motor Corp. as the world’s biggest carmaker by 2018. Passenger-car deliveries in China surged 29 percent in November to a record 1.34 million, the China Automobile Industry Association said yesterday.

“Overall prospects for China continue to look good,” said Aleksej Wunrau, an analyst at BHF-Bank AG in Frankfurt who has an “overweight” rating on the stock and forecasts an industry- wide sales gain of 12 percent in China next year. “VW will again be in for double-digit growth.”

Read more at BusinessWeek

China auto sales jump 27 percent in November

SHANGHAI (AP) — China's auto sales powered ahead in November, jumping 27 percent to 1.7 million vehicles as car buyers rushed to beat expected increases in license plate fees in some cities.

The rebound after a slowdown during the summer pushed sales for the year to 16.4 million vehicles, up 34 percent from the year before, the government-affiliated China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a notice Thursday on its website.

While American automakers celebrate signs of a long-awaited revival in U.S. car sales, China's strong growth suggests it will retain its status, acquired last year, as the world's biggest market by sales of new vehicles.

Sales of passenger cars surged 29 percent over a year earlier to 1.34 million, CAAM reported.

The expected expiration of subsidies for purchases of small, energy efficient cars next year, and rumors that some cities plan to counter growing traffic problems by raising license plate fees, prompted buyers to head for the showrooms, says Zhang Xin, an auto analyst at Guotai & Jun'an Securities, in Beijing.

"Consumers want to catch the last of the cheap car plates," Zhang said.

Read more at Bloomberg

Competition Between Rail and Roads in China

China's rapid economic growth is causing some strains - and they are increasingly evident on the roads of the country's big cities.  Traffic jams fill news headlines and create headaches for a growing number of people. 

Beijing is the capital of the world's most populous country.  At rush hour, the city's roads become clogged.  The city has 4 million cars, and 2,000 more are added every day.

World Bank transportation analyst Shomik Mendhiratta says a good economy spurs car sales.

"You have seen that China and Beijing have seen double-digit economic growth, which has taken them to a national GNP (gross national product) per capita of $4,000 dollars, with Beijing being maybe two and a half times that," he said.  "As you would expect, this kind of per capital income and this kind of double-digit growth, you are seeing an absolute boom in motorization."

Two years ago, China responded to the global financial crisis with a stimulus plan that helped fast-track projects for new roads, bridges and railways.  It funded high-speed railway lines, including a new one between Shanghai and Hangzhou, which reduces the journey from two hours to about 40 minutes.

Read more at VOA

Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Traffic along Beijing’s Second Ring Road in late September.

This week I was in Kenya and ended up spending a lot of time sitting in traffic. Even at night, a trip to the Nairobi airport that should have taken 30 minutes took three times that. In reporting trips to large cities of the developing world, I have noticed that one feature most now have in common is this jarring traffic and attendant smog, from Nairobi to New Delhi to Beijing.

In booming Nairobi, I witnessed a common tactic for addressing the traffic problem: road widening and road construction. It seemed like nearly every major road was being enlarged when I was there. As in much of Africa, Chinese contractors are a mainstay of such road-building projects.

“Did anyone look to see how this strategy played out in Beijing?” I complained to a Kenyan colleague. Adding road surface often merely eases the congestion for a brief window of time; in the long run, it can make it worse.

As a reporter for The Times in Beijing from 1997 to 2003, I witnessed the vicious cycle of road building and traffic. My family moved there just after the Third Ring Road has been completed to ease traffic congestion in a rapidly expanding city with ever more wealth and more cars. Traffic flowed like a dream -– for maybe six months.

Read more at The New York Times

A death in China triggers disgust, derision

BAODING, CHINA—It might have been a fatal traffic accident like so many others that occur in China every day.

But when 20-year-old student Chen Xiaofeng was run down and killed on her college campus this month, it was different — and triggered a firestorm.

Chen was roller-blading with a friend at the University of Hebei, when a car collided with them and pitched them both sprawling and bleeding on to the pavement.

But the driver did not stop.

Instead, he sped on — corralled minutes later by campus security guards and angry students.

Undaunted, the driver drunkenly climbed out of his car, and confronted the crowd shouting, “Go ahead and sue me! My father is Li Gang!”

It was Oct. 16 — and those words have reverberated around China ever since.

Li Gang is a senior police official here in Baoding, about 140 kilometres south of Beijing.

His son’s loud, arrogant and public profession that his father’s power would trump any law enraged students here and, eventually, much of the country.

China’s Internet, home to some 400 million users, lit up with fury.

And many claimed the case is by no means isolated — but typifies the “arrogance” of children of Chinese officials who believe, in the words of one blogger, “that they can get away with any mistake or any crime they commit.”

Two weeks on, that anger is undiminished, and the government is concerned.

The words, “My father is Li Gang,” have become the single, most popular phrase on China’s Internet, one laced with derision about the base way in which China’s government often works, especially at the local level.

Meantime, Chen Xiaofeng is dead from her injuries; her friend is recovering in hospital; and Li Gang’s 22-year-old son, Li Qiming, is in custody awaiting completion of the investigation.

Read more at The Star

China spooks auto makers

BEIJING—Joining a wave of corporate criticism about Chinese industrial policy, foreign auto makers are concerned about a Beijing plan for electric-vehicle development that could force manufacturers like Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. to share technology with Chinese companies in exchange for access to the nation's huge market.

The 10-year plan, being prepared by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, is aimed at making the nation "the world's leader" in developing and producing battery-powered cars and hybrids, according to executives of four foreign auto makers.

The draft suggests that the government could compel foreign auto makers that want to produce electric vehicles in China to share key technologies by requiring the companies to enter joint ventures in which they are limited to a minority stake, the executives say.

Their concerns follow increasingly vocal criticism by foreign companies, such as Siemens AG, General Electric Co. and Microsoft Corp., about the business environment in China. Foreign executives and government officials have raised complaints about Chinese indigenous-innovation policies that the companies fear are designed to discriminate against them or to force them to transfer intellectual property to China.

The electric-vehicles plan is aimed at developing three to five Chinese companies into globally competitive makers of all-electric cars or plug-in hybrids by 2020, and developing two to three global suppliers of key components, such as advanced batteries and motors.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

China mulls forcing automakers to devulge electric-car secrets

 

The fastest way for China to develop a thriving electric-car industry that can overwhelm the West: Require foreign automakers to give up their electric car secrets and technology as a condition of selling cars in China.

That what the Chinese government is mulling as it tries to become the "world's leader" in electric-car technology within 10 years, the Wall Street Journal reports. The proposal could force foreign automakers -- basically all major makers since China has been a more vigorous market than the U.S. or Europe -- to hand over their technology to their Chinese companies.

Read more at USA Today

China's Unruly Auto Sector

Beijing is playing a now-familiar record: China's auto industry needs to get leaner. The rest of the country isn't listening.

According to J.D. Power, nearly 80 different manufacturers compete in the light vehicle market alone. The central government has long desired some rationalization of this sprawl, and this week state media reported that China's State Council has placed the auto sector atop a list of industries needing consolidation.

It isn't the first time the authorities have made such a call. Last year, Beijing unveiled a grand plan to develop a core of auto groups to lead the domestic industry. Since then, there's hardly been an avalanche of activity. The last big deal, Changan Auto's purchase of Hafei Auto and Changhe Auto, was announced in late in 2009.

Beijing's logic is clear. A more streamlined sector will enable the larger companies to benefit from economies of scale and increased pricing power, in turn raising their profits available for re-investment. Ultimately, that could help China develop a clutch of world-class car makers.

But it seems this isn't swaying local governments, which house the auto makers. In a growing market where even small car makers are doing well, they provide employment, a measure of economic growth, and a source of tax revenue to local authorities. The type of consolidation Beijing wants could see some plants slimmed down or closed, with provinces in turn losing those benefits.

The resistance is justified, for now, by China's fast-rising auto sales. Year-to-year growth may be slowing, but auto sales were still up 48% in the first half from a year earlier. Few analysts see anything other than continued expansion of car ownership in China in the coming years.

The central planners, then, are in need of a good crisis. A drop in auto sales, which would reveal high levels of industry overcapacity and lead to losses among those too small to operate profitably in a slower growth environment, would bolster its scheme. At the moment that seems far off.

Beijing may hope its car industry develops like the U.S.'s in the 20th century, with a core of leading firms emerging from an initial plethora.

But then, that process did take about a century

The Wall Street Journal   

Write to Andrew Peaple at andrew.peaple@dowjones.com

Another Lengthy Gridlock in China

Yet another gargantuan traffic jam has gripped the freeway that links Inner Mongolia’s coal fields to metropolitan Beijing, possibly exceeding a blockage on the same road that drew global attention last month, Chinese news sources report. More than 100 regional police officers manned the road, called the Jingzang Highway, in an effort to break the 75-mile, 10,000-vehicle gridlock, the state broadcaster CCTV reported Thursday.

Beijing News, a daily newspaper, reported Friday that 14,000 vehicles were trying to squeeze through the Lianhuatan toll gate in Inner Mongolia every day, compared with 6,000 at the same time in 2009. Officials attribute the jam to a sharp increase in Mongolian coal production, which not only has clogged with road with thousands of heavy coal trucks, but also has led to traffic-clogging highway repairs.

The New York Times

Car Sales Surge in China

BEIJING—China's growth in car sales accelerated sharply last month thanks in part to new government incentives for small fuel-efficient cars, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday.

Car-sales growth in the country has been slowing recently from its torrid pace in 2009, and analysts have widely expected it to continue slowing. But overall automobile sales in August rose nearly 56% from the same month a year earlier to 1.21 million vehicles, Xinhua said, citing data from the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, or Catarc. The center couldn't be reached for confirmation. Xinhua said August sales rose about 15% from July.

Xinhua said Catarc believes that sales were spurred by, among other factors, government subsidies for vehicles—particularly subsidies of 3,000 yuan ($441) each for purchases of certain fuel-efficient vehicles with 1.6-liter or smaller engines. The government announced those incentives in June and gradually began implementing them over the past two months.

The new incentives for fuel-efficient cars were announced by Beijing in the face of concerns about a significant slowdown in sales later this year.

When auto sales began slowing in June, dealers began offering more generous discounts and incentives to spur sales of new vehicles. But that had the opposite effect in some cases, said Naoto Oikawa, a Beijing-based spokesman for Mazda Motor Corp. of Japan.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

2011 Chevrolet Volt's China Offensive Kicks Off

Just the Facts:

• GM announces the arrival of the first "drivable" 2011 Chevrolet Volt in China.
• GM delivered two Volts to the Shanghai Expo Bureau for use as part of its VIP transportation fleet at World Expo 2010 Shanghai.
• The Volt will launch in China in 2011.

SHANGHAI, China — GM on Tuesday announced the arrival of the first "drivable" 2011 Chevrolet Volt in China, but consumers there still have some unanswered questions about the highly anticipated car. GM has yet to announce Volt pricing in this key global market.

In a phone conversation with Inside Line on Tuesday morning, GM spokesman Rob Peterson said that Volt pricing will not be announced anytime soon, even though the automaker has heralded the arrival of the Volt in China. "We're still a few months away from pricing [in China]," Peterson said. The Volt will launch in China in 2011.

On July 27, GM said U.S. pricing for the Volt will start at $41,000, including a $720 destination charge. Volt owners can qualify for up to $7,500 in U.S. federal income tax credit.

GM said the two Chevrolet Volts on the ground in China have been delivered to the Shanghai Expo Bureau for use as part of its VIP transportation fleet at World Expo 2010 Shanghai. "The Volt will shuttle special guests to and from Shanghai's Expo Park and demonstrate GM's pathway to its vision of sustainable urban transportation," GM said in a statement.

China is one of the initial markets outside of the U.S. to get the Volt.

edmunds INSIDE LINE

Minnesota Mayor Arrested on Drunken-Driving Charge Before Trip to China

A Minnesota mayor is facing drunken-driving charges after he allegedly rear-ended two vehicles in one day before leaving the country on a trip to China, MyFox9.com reported.

Mayor John Brady, of Mankato, Minn., was reportedly driving under the influence when his vehicle collided with another car during two separate accidents on Saturday. Brady was arrested in Golden Valley, a suburb of Minneapolis, after he was seen driving erratically on Interstate 94 in south Minneapolis, the station reported.

The 61-year-old mayor, who is up for re-election in November, was on his way to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where he was to leave on an official trip to China. He eventually did fly there.

Golden Valley police allege Brady refused to stop while officers pursued his car and he rear-ended another vehicle. They also claim he had an open container of alcohol.

Brady reportedly apologized for the incident through his attorney, Calvin Johnson, who said in a statement: "Mankato Mayor John Brady was detained on suspicion of operating a motor vehicle while impaired this past weekend in Hennepin County.”

"Mr. Brady regrets being unable to respond in person at this time. He wants a quick and speedy resolution of this serious matter, and is initiating a process of recovery for himself and his community. He apologizes for the inconvenience that this may cause his professional responsibilities," Johnson said.

FoxNews

China's Massive Traffic Jam: Already Gone?

Image by © David Gray/Reuters/Corbis

So much for it lasting up to a month.

The Internet went crazy over reports of a nine-day traffic jam that spanned two provinces in China. But when an NBC News reporter went to check it out, any signs of a traffic jam were gone.  It seems authorities were able to clear the jam practically overnight. NBC's report notes that police came out in full force, manning everything from toll booths to entrance ramps to clear the highway.

Now Beijing drivers can go back to the only slightly less crippling traffic they face every day. Well, that is, until the road repairs — the ones that caused the jam in the first place — get started again.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/08/25/chinas-massive-traffic-jam-already-gone/#ixzz0xeB8KvFG

China's Massive Traffic Jam Could Last For Weeks

I n this photo taken on Monday Aug. 23, 2010 and shot through a fence, trucks can be seen lining up on a highway in Wanquan county in north China's Hebei province The traffic jam that has stretched as long as 60 miles (100 kilometers) in northern China and continues into its tenth day on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Associated Press

In this photo taken on Monday Aug. 23, 2010 and shot through a fence, trucks can be seen lining up on a highway in Wanquan county in north China's Hebei province The traffic jam that has stretched as long as 60 miles (100 kilometers) in northern China and continues into its tenth day on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Enlarge Associated Press

In this photo taken on Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, a truck driver washes himself after waiting over two days in the jam on an entrance ramp to the Beijing-Tibet Highway in Zhangbei county, in north China's Hebei province. The massive traffic jam that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Associated Press

In this photo taken on Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, a truck driver washes himself after waiting over two days in the jam on an entrance ramp to the Beijing-Tibet Highway in Zhangbei county, in north China's Hebei province. The massive traffic jam that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

 In this photo taken Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, a driver takes a nap under his truck jammed on an entrance ramp to the Beijing-Tibet Highway in Guoleizhuang township, in north China's Hebei province. The massive traffic jam that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Associated Press

In this photo taken Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, a driver takes a nap under his truck jammed on an entrance ramp to the Beijing-Tibet Highway in Guoleizhuang township, in north China's Hebei province. The massive traffic jam that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Enlarge Associated Press

In this photo taken on Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, truck drivers play cards in the shade of a truck jammed on an entrance ramp to the Beijing-Tibet Highway in Guoleizhuang township, in north China's Hebei province. The massive traffic jam that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Associated Press

In this photo taken on Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, truck drivers play cards in the shade of a truck jammed on an entrance ramp to the Beijing-Tibet Highway in Guoleizhuang township, in north China's Hebei province. The massive traffic jam that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

A cleaner picks up waste on the roadside of a jammed section of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway in Huailai, in north China's Hebei province, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010. The massive traffic jam that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

 

Associated Press

A cleaner picks up waste on the roadside of a jammed section of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway in Huailai, in north China's Hebei province, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010. The massive traffic jam that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

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BEIJING August 24, 2010, 09:48 am ET

A massive traffic jam in north China that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Bumper-to-bumper gridlock spanning for 60 miles (100 kilometers) with vehicles moving little more than a half-mile (one kilometer) a day at one point has improved since this weekend, said Zhang Minghai, director of Zhangjiakou city's Traffic Management Bureau general office.

Some drivers have been stuck in the jam for five days, China Central Television reported Tuesday. But Zhang said he wasn't sure when the situation along the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway would return to normal.

The traffic jam started Aug. 14 on a stretch of the highway that is frequently congested, especially after large coalfields were discovered in Inner Mongolia, Zhang said. Traffic volume has increased 40 percent every year.

Read more at NPR

Nine-day traffic jam NOT in Atlanta

Drivers in China have been stuck in a traffic jam for nine straight days now, trapped in gridlock that stretches more than 62 miles, according to multiple media reports. The backup has thousands of cars and trucks crawling the major route from Beijing to Zhangjiakou.

And here's the worst part: Severe congestion isn't expected to end until construction projects are finished on Sept. 13, msnbc.com reported, citing Xinhua News.

"Insufficient traffic capacity on the National Expressway 110 caused by maintenance construction since August 19 is the major cause of the congestion," a Beijing Traffic Management Bureau spokesman told the Beijing-based Global Times.

CNN.com reports some drivers are playing cards to pass the time. Others accused nearby food vendors of price-gouging to take advantage of the situation

AJC.COM

Difficult to find a parking space in Beijing? Not for this lady.

Buick hits 100,000 milestone on LaCrosse sales in China

Buick just sold its 100,000th LaCrosse in China

CAPTION

By Buick

Buick says it has hit a critical milestone: Less than a year after its launch in China, sales of the new LaCrosse sedan have reached 100,000 units.

The LaCrosse is the fastest-growing member of China's "premium upper-medium sedan segment." (The what? And you thought figuring U.S. car segments was confusing). In the first six months of 2010, the LaCrosse 3-liter model basically owned the segment, accounting for four out of five cars sold on it. And it doesn't come cheap in China, which is still considered a developing nation. The average upper-medium priced sedan went for the Chinese equivilent of $44,200.

LaCrosse was introduced as a redesigned model in the U.S. in 2009. Here, it is powered by direct-injected Ecotec 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine in the CX and CXL versions, good for 19 miles a gallon in city drive and 30 mpg on the highway. The 3.6-liter direct injected V-6 is available on the CXL and CXS versions gets 17 mpg city/27 mpg highway.

LaCrosse has received several prestigious awards in China, including 2009 China Car of the Year and 2009 Champion Car of the Year.

USA TODAY

Italy to China in driverless vehicles

PARMA, Italy | It's a modern-day version of Marco Polo's journey halfway around the world — but is anyone at the controls?

A team of Italian engineers last week launched what has been billed as the longest-ever test drive of driverless vehicles: an 8,000-mile, three-month road trip from Italy to China, not in search of silk, but to test the limits of future automotive technology.

Two bright orange vehicles, equipped with laser scanners and cameras that work in concert to detect and help avoid obstacles, are to brave the traffic of Moscow, the summer heat of Siberia and the bitter cold of the Gobi desert before the planned arrival in Shanghai at the end of October.

"What we are trying to do is stress our systems and see if they can work in a real environment, with real weather, real traffic and crazy people who cross the road in front of you and a vehicle that cuts you off," said project leader Alberto Broggi.

The road trip consists of two pairs of vehicles, each with a driven lead van followed by a driverless vehicle occupied by two technicians, whose job is to fix glitches and take over the wheel in case of an emergency.

The driverless vehicle takes cues from the lead van, but will have to respond to any ordinary obstacles or dangers. The two pairs alternate stretches along the route to China.

"We will definitely need some help by humans. It is not possible to have 100 percent driverless. This is why I call it a test, not a demonstration," Mr. Broggi said.

Governments have yet to write rules of the road for driverless vehicles, so the team has obtained prior permission from all countries along the route to carry out the experiment. To protect themselves from liability, they are placing one of the technicians in the driver's seat, ready to assume the controls or slam a red shutdown button if necessary.

The technology developed by Vislab, an artificial vision and intelligent systems lab at the University of Parma run by Mr. Broggi, might one day allow driverless vehicles to transport goods across Europe.

Analysts say such technology is feasible in the foreseeable future, but some question its utility.

Read more at the Washington Times

Honda: China plants to restart,supplier strike ends

June 23 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co (7267.T) said production at Chinese joint venture Guangqi Honda's two factories would resume on Thursday after a one-day disruption caused by a strike, now ended, at a Chinese factory of Japan's NHK Spring (5991.T).

NHK Spring could not immediately be reached for comment.

NHK Spring said earlier that workers at a majority-owned factory in Guangzhou, NHK-UNI Spring (Guangzhou) Co, had gone on strike late Tuesday. The factory supplies to Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) and Honda Motor Co (7267.T), a NHK Spring spokesman said.

A Nissan spokesman said the impact on its factories from the short-lived strike at NHK Spring would be limited to a few hours' delay. Toyota said it expected no added disruption from NHK Spring, although its Guangzhou factory remains idled due to a supply cut from another supplier. [ID:nTOE65M03P] (Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim)

REUTERS

Suicide-Hit Foxconn Hikes Wages by 70 Percent

Photo: AP

Staff members work on the production line at the Foxconn complex in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Southern city in China. The head of the giant electronics company whose main facility in China has been battered by a string of worker suicides opened the plant's gates to scores of reporters Wednesday, hours after saying that intense media attention could make the situation worse, 26 May 2010.

An electronics company hit by a string of suicides has raised wages in China for the third time in 10 days, as it seeks to appease unhappy workers and quell a public relations storm.

The Taiwanese high-tech company Foxconn said Monday it would hike wages for a third time in less than two weeks at its plants in southern China.

The hikes come after a string suicides led to global condemnation of the working conditions for its staff.

Foxconn -- which assembles products for U.S.-based Apple --  will increase the monthly salary for its assembly line workers in Shenzhen by nearly 70 percent, to $290.

But the wage increases come with strict conditions, including a lengthy probation period on lower pay.

Jeffery Crothall of the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin pressure group, says the IT giant is "missing the point" after 10 staff committed suicide since the start of the year.

"Put bluntly, Foxconn still doesn't get it.  One thing I would ask Foxconn is why, given that there has been so many suicides at this point, are you introducing a pay rise that is going to put more pressure on workers," he asked.

New Foxconn hires have to complete the three-month probation period, during which they are paid three-fifths of the new wage.

Crothall claims this breaks the country's confusing and rarely enforced labor law, which state 80 percent of pay must be given to new staff during their review period.

The troubled company's shares fell sharply on the Taiwan stock market, following the announcement of the pay raises.

And, it suspended trading on the Hong Kong Exchange Monday without citing a reason.  

Some observers say the wage increase could trigger industry-wide pay increases.

Crothall says Chinese workers are becoming more assertive, as China's economy recovers from last year's slump, caused by the global financial crisis.

VOA News

Honda succumbs to union pressure, offers 30% pay hike in China

BEIJING: Japanese auto maker Honda became the second foreign firm to announce substantial wage increase following industrial action seen in the premises of three multinational companies in the past two weeks. The other company to effect wage rise is Foxconn of Taiwan while KFC executives are engaged in negotiations with a trade union run by the Communist Party.

Honda has announced a 24% wage hike to end a workers’ strike that paralyzed operations at its components factory in southern China. The strike, which affected production at four vehicle assembly plants in China, has been withdrawn after the wage increase.
The move comes in the wake of an announcement by Hon Hai, the world’s largest electronics component maker, for a 30% increase in salaries of its workers in China. The factories based in China, which Hon Hai refers as Foxconn Technology Group, have been hit by a series of over a dozen suicides by workers.

Local officials and the media in South China has blamed high level management pressure and poor working conditions at its factories as the main cause of the suicides over the past two months. The suicides gave the company, which produces components for Apple and Del, a bad name and forced it to hike wages

Read more at the Times of India

All revved up for China

BACK in 1991, China was making about 600,000 cars a year. Most of these were taxis or for the use of senior government officials.

It was a time when the concept of individual car ownership was unheard of.

But last year China made about 13 million vehicles and this year will produce even more.

It is now the largest vehicle producer and seller in the world, surpassing the US last year.

It was also in 1991 that Melbourne-based car component manufacturer Air International decided to make its move into China with car airconditioning units.

Its success over the years, most recently through parent company Futuris, which is in turn owned by Elders, puts it in the position to confidently say that now is the perfect time for Australian companies to get their act together and start talking to the Chinese.

"We're a small Australian manufacturer that made the decision a long time ago to go into the more difficult markets because our competitors wouldn't go there," said Futuris's Bruce Griffiths.

"In 1991, the Americans weren't there, the Europeans were just looking. But after a couple of false starts, in 1995 we signed a 50-50 joint venture partnership with Shanghai Aerospace and it still stands today."

In 2005, Futuris entered another joint venture, with Chery, one of China's top five car makers, and in 2007 it opened its first car seat-making facility in Wuhu, in Anhui province.

Last year, production in China of Futuris car seats outstripped production in Australia for the first time.

"China is now the automotive powerhouse," Mr Griffiths said.

While there are at least 130 individual car makers in China, many with multiple plants, Mr Griffiths said he was aware of 384 more companies that had started electric car projects.

"This is a unique opportunity. We are one of only 12 countries that can design and build a car from scratch," he said.

"We have a tiny market, but we've built a capability and technology that the Chinese want."

Australia's Trade Commissioner in Shanghai, Christopher Wright, said companies making components or which were technology-driven could tap into this burgeoning industry.

"The automotive industry is capital-intensive and setting up a plant can be expensive," he said.

Major car maker Geely has all its transmissions built in Australia because the use of sophisticated technology made it more efficient and cost-effective, Mr Wright said.

Mr Griffiths said Australia's expertise in design and technology was welcomed in China because Australia was seen as non-threatening.

"It's not a big-product competitor as the Americans and Japanese are. It's a safe place for co-operative investment and we're trustworthy," he said.

Mr Griffiths said China's history of stealing technology needed to be dealt with from a new perspective.

"Technology is no good if you don't have a market and China is the biggest market in the world. They've stolen a bit of mine but we sorted it out. I let them have it and then we did even more business," he said.

The Herald Sun

Tiananmen Square memoir claims China decided to 'spill some blood'

China decided that it had no choice but to "spill some blood" during the Tiananmen Square massacre in order to preserve stability, a new memoir by a top leader of the time has claimed.

 
An estimated 50,000 people, many of them students, gather in Hong Kong's Victoria Park for the annual candlelit vigil to commemorate the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. Photo: AP

The phrase, attributed to China's then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, appears in a previously suppressed diary which publishers say will lift the veil of secrecy over how the decision was made to send in the tanks on the night of June 3-4.

Leaked extracts of the diary said to be by Li Peng, the hardline former head of China's government in 1989 who is most deeply associated with the bloody crackdown, appeared yesterday as dissidents commemorated the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square.

"The measures for martial law must be steady-handed, and we must minimise harm, but we must prepare to spill some blood," Deng told officials on May 19 1989, according to a copy of the manuscript.

Mr Li, now 81 and reportedly in frail health, is said to have written his diary to justify his own role in the killings and to counter long-standing beliefs in China that it he pressured Deng Xiaoping into ordering the use of lethal force.

"From the beginning of the turmoil, I have prepared for the worst," Mr Li is quoted as saying.

"I would rather sacrifice my own life and that of my family to prevent China from going through a tragedy like the Cultural Revolution," he added, referring to a period of bitter political in-fighting in China from 1966-76.

The memoirs come a year after the publication of the secret memoirs of Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party general secretary, who Premier Li helped push from office for seeking to negotiate with the protestors.

The publishers say they taken every possible to assess the authenticity of the memoirs which were passed to them through a middle-man, but admit that some doubts remain which will set out in a footnote to the book that will come out later this month.

Read more at The Telepraph