REFLECTIONS IN A CHINESE EYE

China Suspends Boat Traffic on Mekong

HONG KONG — China announced Monday that it was suspending passenger and cargo traffic in the headwaters of the Mekong River after Thai border police heard gunfire on the river, found two Chinese cargo vessels adrift carrying 920,000 amphetamine pills and one body, and then discovered the floating bodies of 11 Chinese crewmen.

Liu Weimin, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, announced the suspension of river traffic and also said that China’s cabinet and the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party “attached great importance to the matter.”

As postings on the Internet in China have become increasingly nationalistic, and increasingly critical of government agencies not perceived as taking a strong enough stand to defend the country, the foreign ministry and other agencies have become outspoken in response to the deaths of Chinese citizens abroad.

Read moe at The New York Times

Japan probes source of video leak in island row with China

JAPAN launched an investigation yesterday into the leak of a video on YouTube showing a tense maritime incident that sparked a row with China.

Japan said it would ask Google for information on the source.

The government confirmed the authenticity of the 44-minute video, which shows how a Chinese trawler collided with two Japanese coastguard vessels in disputed waters in the East China Sea in early September.

The footage was taken by the Japanese Coast Guard and not released for fear of further inflaming the dispute with China, but it was uploaded on to YouTube on Friday.

After an in-house probe, the Coast Guard brought a criminal complaint in Tokyo against an unknown suspect, citing breaches of the National Public Service Act.

The video, rebroadcast widely by Japanese TV stations, shows the collision near islands claimed by Japan and China.

Read more at The Australian

Has China Built a New Stealth Submarine?

China's neighbors are worried that the People's Republic may already have produced a stealth submarine, the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong reported Sunday.

Three weeks ago, photos of a new submarine built at a Chinese naval shipyard in Wuhan failed to draw much attention when they were posted on several websites. But that changed last week when the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation disclosed that the Wuhan shipyard had built a new submarine, as well as more details of the craft.

China has not yet officially announced that this is a stealth sub, but neighboring countries have become nervous as military experts say that is what it is, the paper claimed.

"The talk in our community is that we are seeing the first signs of a completed new design," the daily quoted one Asian military expert as saying. "The question is ... just how quiet have they been able to make it? Stealth is everything when it comes to submarines and at some point China is going to finally crack it."

/South China Morning Post

It also quoted the People's Liberation Army Daily as saying Da Liang Long, a professor at the PLA Navy's Submarine Academy, won an award from the Central Military Commission for his "considerable" work on submarine stealth technology.

"Naval officials in the region say encounters between submarines are increasing. Such encounters will become more frequent as countries such as Japan, Korea, Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia expand and update their submarine fleets in the face of China's rising military strength. The PLA will soon have more submarines than the United States Navy," the daily added

Chosun Ilbo

Taiwan, China to Practice Maritime Rescues Together

Rescue boats from Taiwan and China take part in a joint rescue drill, at sea halfway between Taiwan's Kinmen and China's Xiamen, 16 Sep 2010

Taiwan and China have forged closer economic ties in the past two years. Now, in a sign of growing trust between the two sides, they will hold their first joint sea rescue drills this week.

Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration are conducting a sea rescue drill with China's Maritime Search and Rescue Center Thursday. This is the first time the two governments' coastal patrol agencies will hold train together.

To avoid the sensitive sovereignty issue, the two sides carry special drill flags, rather than national flags.

China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, and has said it would retake the island by force if Taipei declares formal independence.

Taiwan has governed itself for over 60 years, since Nationalist forces fled China when they lost a civil war. Relations have been on the most part hostile, but have improved under the President Ma Ying-jeou over the past two years.

Read more at VOA 

China, Japan fishing boat row reflects shift in Beijing's approach toward Tokyo

In this photo released by Japan Coast Guard, a Coast Guard boat, foreground, goes by a Chinese fishing boat which Coast Guard officers are on board for inspection after it collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japanese or Diaoyu in Chinese in the East China Sea, Tuesday, Sept. 7.

Even as Beijing raises pressure on Japan to release a detained fishing boat captain, it appears reluctant to exploit this weekend's anniversary of Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931 for political purposes

Japan Coast Guard/EPN/EPN/Newscom

China, Japan fishing boat row reflects shift in Beijing's approach toward Tokyo

Even as Beijing raises pressure on Japan to release a detained fishing boat captain, it appears reluctant to exploit this weekend's anniversary of Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931 for political purposes.

In this photo released by Japan Coast Guard, a Coast Guard boat, foreground, goes by a Chinese fishing boat which Coast Guard officers are on board for inspection after it collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japanese or Diaoyu in Chinese in the East China Sea, Tuesday, Sept. 7.

Japan Coast Guard/EPN/EPN/Newscom

Beijing

As the diplomatic row intensifies over the detention of a Chinese fishing captain in disputed waters between Japan and China, a sensitive anniversary that could touch raw nerves here is approaching.

Saturday marks the 79-year anniversary of Japan’s invasion of Manchuria on Sept. 18, 1931, a move that led to 14 years of bloody and painful occupation in China.

The Chinese government, however, seems keen not to exploit the date, nor to allow Chinese protesters to do so, even as Beijing steps up diplomatic pressure for the captain’s release.

Whispered rumors of public demonstrations planned for Saturday remain vague. Websites, Internet bulletin boards, and chat rooms appear to have been ordered not to allow any posts advocating such protests.

Read more at The Christian Science Monitor

Japan-China trawler row deepens

China has summoned Japan's ambassador to demand the release of a Chinese fishing boat captain detained last week, in the worst diplomatic spat between the two regional rivals in years.

Zhan Qixiong and his crew were seized following a collision on September 7 between his trawler and two Japanese coastguard vessels in disputed waters.

Japan says Zhan rammed the two Japanese coastguard patrol vessels intentionally during a high-seas chase near disputed islands in the East China Sea, which are claimed by both countries as well as Taiwan.

The maritime incident has strained ties between the two Asian nations, and China has since summoned Uichiro Niwa, the Japanese envoy, repeatedly.

Liu Zhenmin, the Chinese assistant foreign minister, called Niwa on Tuesday to complain again over Japan's continued "illegal detention" of the Chinese skipper.

In a statement posted on the ministry's website, Liu "demanded that Japan immediately release and send back the Chinese boat captain."

The trawler's 14 crew members were released on Monday.

Read more at Aljazeera

Chinese warships end first Burma visit

 

Gen Than Shwe has ruled Burma since 1992

Two Chinese warships have completed a first ever trip to Burma.

The five-day visit, by two ships in China's anti-piracy taskforce, highlighted China's growing naval reach and its close ties with Rangoon.

China also says it will receive a visit next week from the head of Burma's military government, Than Shwe.

He is to meet the Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, during a four-day trip which will take him to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

The announcement highlights the growing relationship between China and its southern neighbour, which is shunned by Western countries and viewed with suspicion by many Asian governments.

General Than Shwe has also visited India in recent weeks.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the general's visit would take place between 7-11 September.

Ms Jiang said she believed Than Shwe's visit would contribute to the consolidation of the traditional friendship between the two nations and promote regional peace and development.

Asked about Burma's election scheduled for 7 November, the spokeswoman said: "China hopes to see the election proceed smoothly and the continuous realisation of democracy and development in Myanmar (Burma)."

Read more at BBC 

 

Taking a slow boat from China

    

The Huangpu River and skyline of Shanghai.

Aboard a cargo ferry in the East China Sea, Stephen Phelan finds himself sleeping with a floating league of nations.

My father was a sailor, although none of his ships had actual sails. He operated radar and radio equipment aboard ocean-going tankers, each one the size of a small town, delivering crude oil through the Panama Canal, into the Persian Gulf, around the Cape of Good Hope. He would come home for a few months after six or more away and tell stories that gave me a fantastical impression of his workplace. On his off days, he would admit there was precious little romance left in the life of a mariner.

"A modern fleet of ships," wrote Joseph Conrad, one of several authors I later came to love for their first-hand accounts of earlier mercantile voyages, "does not so much make use of the sea as exploit a highway." This strikes me as particularly true in Shanghai harbour this morning, where traffic on the Huangpu River is so heavy that it takes us hours to reach open water

Before we began the two-day crossing to Osaka, Japan, I climbed on the deck of Su Zhou Hao, a ferry that also functions as a cargo vessel, to watch the containers being loaded. And I stay up here during our passage through the biggest and busiest port in the world. The view is spectacularly ugly. Behind us is the old city, half-destroyed by Japanese bombers in World War II, and the new, being restacked with futurist skyscrapers.

Ahead is an industrial underworld of vast dry docks, flying sparks and smokestacks, with tugboats and barges swarming around us, driving our captain to honk his horn like a short-fused motorist. The sky is low and heavy with petrochemical rain clouds.

Off to starboard, on a huge and half-built freighter suspended in mid-air between two titanic cranes, I spy a lone engineer standing under a pink umbrella. I wave to him and he waves back, which fills me with a sudden glee and fellow feeling. And a good day to you, my communist friend! Beyond all this, at last, is the East China Sea.

Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald

Floods halt shipping at China's Three Gorges dam

BEIJING — Authorities have halted shipping through China's massive Three Gorges Dam on the upper reaches of the Yangtze river because the dam will experience another flood peak Tuesday.

Water levels at the world's largest hydroelectric project have been at high levels for weeks from record rains, which have also lashed other parts of the country, triggering landslides and flooding, and causing deaths and billions in damage.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said that late Monday the water level in the dam was about 500 feet (152 meters), 24 feet (7 meters) above the flood alarm level but still below a peak of about 518 feet (158 meters) reached earlier this summer. The reservoir's maximum capacity is 574 feet (175 meters).

The statement posted on the organization's website said shipping services through the dam were suspended twice in July because of heavy water flows into the dam, a $23 billion project that was built to end centuries of floods along the Yangtze River basin.

This has been the worst year in a decade for floods and landslides in China, with widespread evacuations and washed out villages.

Over the weekend, flooding along China's border with North Korea forced the evacuation of more than a quarter-million people, although water levels along the Yalu river have now fallen.

The worst-hit area was the northwestern province of Gansu were rescue efforts have been called off for 330 people still missing after an Aug. 8 mudslide tore through Zhouqu county, killing 1,435 people, Xinhua said.

Google News

China’s 2010 Shipbuilding Activity Accounts for 48% of World Total

While, China’s shipbuilding orders have increased to 8.26 million dwt in first quarter of this year. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated in the period from January to March the country’s output of completed ships surged 128% during the same period from 09’ to 10’ now accounts for 41% of the world’s total.

China's total shipbuilding orders amounted to 184.1 million DWT at the end of March, 2.2% less than at the end of 2009.

The total existing orders, 88% of which are for export, make up 37.3% of the world's total. In the first two months of this year, China exported US$6.72 billion worth of ships, boats and floating structures, 65.8% more than in the same period of last year.

The Maritime Executive

China: Diamond on the rough sea

There is something of the Bond villain's superyacht about the Seabourn Odyssey. A panel at the stern slides open to allow jetskis to be deployed and passengers to swim, caged, in the tropical ocean. On formal evenings men in tuxedos and women in spangly frocks glide around clutching cocktails. There's a diamond showroom.

High above the decks twin white domes silently collect data. The bridge bristles with gadgetry. And there are "measures" in place, Captain Mark Dexter assured me, conspiratorially though non-specifically, should the need arise to repel pirates.

Though not, apparently, the measures used on the Odyssey's sister ship, Seabourn Spirit, which arranged for well-muscled French marines to mingle, incognito but poised for action if necessary. They were, of course, sprung instantly. Old ladies fondly hoarded champagne and arranged a party for them when they left piracy-prone waters.

Read more at The New Zealand Herald

China hopes Korean probe will bring out cause of ship sinking

Beijing: China on Tuesday expressed hope that issues concerning the sinking of a South Korean warship last month would be properly dealt with in a probe being carried out by Seoul.

"The Republic of Korean side said it would conduct scientific and objective investigation into the incident, and we believe relevant issues would be properly dealt with," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

The 1,200-ton 'Cheonan' with 104 crew members onboard sank on March 26 near the maritime border with North Korea after an unexplained explosion.

Only 58 sailors were rescued alive shortly after the sinking, but at least 38 died and eight are missing.

"The sinking of the 'Cheonan' warship is a sad incident, and we have expressed sympathy and condolences to South Korea and families of the victims," Jiang said.

ZEENEWS

An American hero in Nanking

American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking: The Courage of Minnie Vautrin

Illinois native Minnie Vautrin must rank as one of America's greatest unsung heroines. This excellent biography of Vautrin vividly recounts how her superhuman courage prevented Japanese soldiers, wild-eyed with lust and anger, from raping women when they plundered the doomed Chinese city of Nanking in December 1937. That Vautrin stood for dignity during the Rape of Nanking makes her an American idealist in war; her lonely death makes her a tragic figure.

Vautrin was born in Secor, a small farming town in the center of Illinois. Dreaming of being a teacher, Vautrin worked her way through high school and entered college in 1910. The God-fearing prairie girl eventually decided to spread the Bible; she came to the "heathen" Middle Kingdom in 1912.

Read more at Asia Times

Slang phrase guide speaks volumes about language

Eveline Chao has published the book not only to create an interest in Manderin, but also for people to discover Chinese culture. Wang Jing / China Daily

It's the type of book that would make sailors blush, but don't go buying it for grandma. Welcome to the book of Chinese slang.

With chapter titles ranging from "Internet Slang" to "Behaving Badly", Eveline Chao's "Niubi - The Real Chinese You Were Never Taught in School", has got Chinese learners and citizens alike speaking in a more colorful, and sometimes more coarse, vernacular.

More than three years in the making, Chao's book, published late last year, catalogs the underbelly of the Chinese language.

With phrases from "suo tou wugui", a Chinese expression for cowards meaning "turtle with its head in the shell", to "se lang", meaning "color wolf", an expression used to describe an overly aggressive male, to the downright dirty, the book offers adult readers a way to "spice up" their everyday dialogue.

"The key to learning any language well is to create real interest. If you're just taking Mandarin to earn a college credit, you won't take it very seriously," she said. "These kinds of words help make the language much more fun."

Read more at China Daily

Australia Examines Ship Routes After Reef Grounding

April 15 (Bloomberg) -- Australia will examine ship routes and the piloting of vessels as part of investigations into the grounding of the Shen Neng 1 coal carrier on the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said.

Bureau officials will investigate how the ship managed crew fatigue as well as the measures in place to protect the World- Heritage listed reef, including traffic services and pilot route guidelines, according to a report released in Canberra today.

The inquiry may lead to new recommendations about the types of vessels and the routes they may use through the area as well as additional rules for marine pilots, the Bureau’s Chief Executive Officer Martin Dolan told reporters in Canberra.

Read more at BusinessWeek

Men arrested over Barrier Reef spill

Australian Federal Police (AFP) have arrested three men in connection with a bulk carrier that entered a restricted area of the Great Barrier Reef.

The AFP says the MV Mimosa vessel entered a restricted passage in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) without permission last week.

Federal agents executed a search warrant on the Panama-flagged vessel at Bowen, in north Queensland, on Saturday after receiving information from the GBRMP Authority and Australian Maritime Safety Authority investigators.

Navigational equipment and charts were seized and three men have been arrested.

Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald