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EU signals end of anti-dumping duties against Chinese shoes - People's Daily Online March 17, 2011

The European Commission on Wednesday signaled an end of the controversial anti-dumping duties slapped more than four years ago on shoes imported from China and Vietnam.

"The commission gives notice that the anti-dumping measure ... will shortly expire" since "no request for a review was lodged," the European Union (EU)'s executive arm said in its official journal.

The anti-dumping measures were now set to expire by the end of this month.

The EU first introduced anti-dumping duties of up to 16.5 percent against Chinese leather shoes for two years in October 2006, a decision widely criticized by EU retailers and consumers since the punitive taxes pushed up shoe prices in the European markets.

A similar move was taken at the same time against shoes imported from Vietnam.

Brussels temporarily reimposed the tariff pending a review launched in October 2008 when the penalty duties should have expired, despite opposition from the majority of member states.

During the review period which usually lasts 12 to 15 months, the duties remained in effect.

In December 2009, the review ended with an extension of the anti-dumping duties by another 15 months. The decision was a compromise among divided EU member states since the definite anti-dumping duties usually last five years.

Countries led by Britain and Northern European countries were largely against the anti-dumping measure, calling for free trade to the benefits of consumers, while Italy, Spain and other Southern European countries, home to small and less competitive shoe makers which lodged the complaint, were in favor of it.

Bigger and more competitive manufacturers such as Adidas and Puma, which have plants in China, were also opposed to the duties.

But the European Commission warned it would monitor for one year the evolution of the imports of shoes from China and Vietnam, with a view to facilitate swift appropriate action should the situation so require.

Source: Xinhua
 
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China's largest metals trader to plunge into deep-sea mining - People's Daily Online March 17, 2011

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An advertisement for China Minmetals on a street in Beijing. One of the company's subsidiaries has stepped up research into deep-sea mining. (Photo by China Daily)

China Minmetals, the country's largest metals trader, said it has carried out research and development work into deep-sea mining exploration and exploitation, a move designed to meet the country's growing demand for minerals and metals.

Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, a subsidiary of Minmetals as well as a key national laboratory in the development and utilization of deep-sea resources, has stepped up research in underwater mining for manganese nodules, multimetal sulphides and cobalt-rich manganese crusts, Zhou Zhongshu, president of Minmetals, told China Daily.

"China relies heavily on costly raw-material imports, and this will push the country to go for deep-sea mining to explore metals including copper, nickel, sliver and gold," he said.

"It will be profitable if we can sell deep-sea exploited raw ores priced at more than 80 U.S. dollars per ton," he said.

Deep-sea mining takes place about 1,400 to 3,700 meters under the ocean's surface, creating sulfide deposits, containing precious metals such as silver, gold, copper, manganese, cobalt, and zinc.

The Canadian company Nautilus Minerals Inc suggests the deep ocean produces several billion tons of metals each year, including vast amounts of copper.

China filed the first application to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for deep-sea mining in the Indian Ocean in May 2010, and it is awaiting approval.

But the country still lags behind international rivals. Nautilus Minerals and Australia's Bluewater Metals have already kicked off exploration of underwater mountain ranges in the South Pacific. Nautilus plans to start full-scale operations in 2012.

Zhou from Minmetals said the country should establish a trial ocean economic zone at home and also develop ocean mining exploration overseas.

China is focusing on exploration and exploitation of the deep sea to obtain more minerals and oils to meet the demands of a high-growth economy.

Liu Baohua, a geophysicist at China's State Oceanic Administration, said at an earlier conference that China will increase funding for R&D in deep-sea technology and list the target in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).

Although the country hasn't started operations in deep-sea mining, it has already made progress in deepwater oil production.

China National Offshore Oil Corp, the country's largest offshore oil company, said that it will step up exploration in the South China Sea this year and plans to raise deep-sea oil production to 10 percent of global production.

Source: China Daily
 
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Profits from state-owned enterprises in China up in first two months - People's Daily Online March 18, 2011

Profits from state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China have reached 331.65 billion yuan (about 49.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the first two months of the year, up 29.4 percent from the same period of last year, the Ministry of Finance said Thursday.

The ministry said that in January and February, SOEs performed better than in the past, with the growth rate of profits higher than operating revenues.

According to the ministry, the operating revenues of SOEs in January and February came to 5.14 trillion yuan, up 26.4 percent.

Comparing industries, the construction materials and chemical industries enjoyed notable increases in profits in the first two months, while both the transportation and power sectors reported a decline in profits, according to officials.

Source: Xinhua
 
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Project hopes to pen new story on innovation - People's Daily Online March 18, 2011

Since there's little chance of making a better mousetrap, the government of China is putting its research dollars into improving another invention: the ballpoint pen.

China is set to launch a three-year project to develop its own technologies for making ballpoint pens, the Ministry of Science and Technology said.

The country's manufacturers currently rely heavily on foreign technology for their production.

With a fund of 60 million yuan ($9.1 million), the project will run from June 2011 to June 2014, a statement from the ministry said.

The project to make ballpoint pens a home-grown product will mostly focus on developing core production techniques, including producing inks, pen points and mechanisms to combine the two.

"Using advanced technologies to renovate and upgrade traditional industries is an important part of China building an innovative country," said Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang.

The project was initiated in response to calls in recent years for upgrades in the ability to make ballpoint pens.

Wan said that a proposal submitted during the recently concluded annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference "gave him quite a shake-up".

According to the proposal, China manufactures 38 billion ballpoint pens every year, but 90 percent of the pen points are imported from overseas and 80 percent of the ink is imported or produced by imported equipment. Manufacturers only earn 0.1 yuan from making a ballpoint pen.

"It doesn't mean we should not use overseas technologies," said Wan. "But Chinese companies must enhance their position in the world's industry chain to facilitate a more reasonable distribution of profits."

Who's got talent?

The central government has launched an ambitious program to lure 2,000 talented young people from overseas over five years to boost the country's research and technological capabilities.

The Young Thousand Talents Program, which takes effect in 2011, aims to lure skilled overseas Chinese or foreign workers to the country's universities and research institutions, a statement on the central government's website said.

The program will help the country rapidly advance its scientific and technological capabilities and industries over the next decade, it said.

Applicants should come from the natural sciences and engineering fields, have a PhD from a prestigious overseas university and at least three years of research experience. They should be younger than 40, the statement said.

Participants should also take full-time jobs in the Chinese universities or research institutes, the statement added.

They will enjoy a 500,000-yuan living subsidy and a research fund of between 1 million yuan and 3 million yuan, it said.

The program is the latest government effort to attract leading overseas scientists and researchers who are working at the world's best institutions or enterprises since it started the Young Thousand Talents Program in 2008. A total of 825 people have already signed up.

The National Outline for Medium- and Long-Term Talent Development (2010-2020) released in June said China plans to increase its talent pool from 114 million to 180 million by 2020, when it will spend 15 percent of its GDP on human resources.

Source: China Daily
 
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Solar Report | China on track to become the global center of solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing - SolarServer

China on track to become the global center of solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing
February 14, 2011

In the first two financial quarters of 2010, Suntech Power Holdings Company Ltd. (Wuxi, China) surpassed previous industry leader First Solar Inc. (Tempe, Arizona, U.S.) in sales to become the world's largest solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturer by revenue. During the third quarter of 2010, both Suntech and JA Solar Holdings Company Ltd. (Zhabei, China) surpassed First Solar in manufacturing capacities as well.


PV cells at a Hanwha Solar One manufacturing facilitySuch developments were hardly surprising to industry observers. Suntech and JA Solar are the tips of the iceberg in terms of China's enormous PV manufacturing industry, and such stories illustrate the slow consolidation of China as the undisputed center of the PV manufacturing world.





Clean energy manufacturing leaders in the 21st century


These trends have been establishing themselves for years, and are related to China's emergence in 2010 as the world's largest exporter and the economic powerhouse of the 21st century. However, PV manufacturing has unique conditions as an industry, and the reasons for China's dominance in PV manufacturing tell an important story with global relevance for other nations who seek to remain or become clean energy manufacturing leaders in the 21st century.

This report by Solar Server, with the assistance of iSuppli Corporation (El Segundo, California, U.S.), will cover the emergence of China as the world leader in PV manufacturing. Our focus is on recent developments in 2009 and 2010 and particularly shared characteristics of large Chinese PV manufacturers, as expressed by industry leading companies including Suntech, JA Solar, LDK Solar Company Ltd. (Xinyu, China), Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Ltd. (Baoding, China), Trina Solar Limited (Changzhou, China), and others.
 
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China's largest direct-drive wind turbine passes critical grid test - People's Daily Online March 18, 2011

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China's largest direct-drive wind turbine recently passed a critical international test on its capacity to withstand power dips in the national grid, announced the Sino-German maker Friday.

The 2.5MW direct-drive permanent magnetic wind turbine, independently developed by Guangxi Yinhe Avantis Wind Power Co., Ltd (GYAW), recently passed a low-voltage ride through (LVRT) test, said Lars Andreasen, general manager of the turbine maker in Beijing.

"This is so far the largest direct-drive permanent magnetic wind turbine passing the LVRT test in the world," said Lars.

The test measures the capacity of a turbine to maintain continuous online operations when the voltage of the grid dips.

The GYAW wind turbine was connected to the national grid for a trial operation in June 2009, making it the first grid-connected 2.5MW wind turbine in China.

On March 5 this year, the turbine, located on a testing site in Beihai, south China's Guangxi, successfully passed two-phase and three-phase LVRT tests, carried out by China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI).

On March 7, the prototype successfully passed the LVRT test based on the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard.

Few of China's popular 1.5MW wind turbines have passed the test.

In October 2010, a 5MW direct-drive wind turbine rolled off the production line of Xingtan Electric Manufacturing Corporation (XEMC), a wind turbine maker in central China's Hunan.

The turbine is so far the largest in the country, but XEMC is planning to develop 6MW and 7.5MW direct-drive wind turbines.

In March 2010, the National Energy Bureau (NEB) announced it had established a technical committee of wind energy industry standardization to draft the Standard for Wind Power Grid Connection.

At present, the main components of the national standard have been made ready and submitted to the central government for examination.

"Compared with the current technical rules for connecting wind farms to the State Grid, the national standard concerning the LVRT test is stricter, adding requirements for response time and duration of reactive compensation under three-phase short-circuit of wind farm," said, Amanda Yang, an engineer with GYAW.

Chinese wind farm operators have been perplexed and disappointed with the quality of wind turbines.

According to Dai Huizhu, a professor with CEPRI, 598 wind turbines were disconnected from the grid during voltage sags in February this year in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province. Hundreds of turbines met the same problem in January in northeast Jilin Province.

Xie Wenbo, from the wind power branch of China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, said "The 1.5MW wind turbines could operate soundly only for three years. After that, they will show problems one way or the other."

"As a wind farm operator, we are most concerned with the rate of return on investment," said Xie.

Liu Bin from China Wind Power, a leading wind farm developer, said "With wind turbines of the present quality, China cannot realize its ambitious installed capacity objective in 2020."

To upgrade the existing thousands of wind turbines in operation, mostly without the LVRT function, a huge amount of money will be needed, perhaps up to 1 percent of the value of the turbines, industry officials say.

China aims to have 290GW of power generation capacity from new energy sources in 2020. Wind power will amount to 150GW and nuclear power 70GW in installed capacity.

By the end of 2010, China had 44.7GW cumulative wind power installed capacity, replacing the United States to be the largest in the world.

Following explosions at a Japanese nuclear power plant wreaked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Chinese government announced on March 16 that it had suspended the approval process for the country's nuclear power stations, including pre-construction works of all new nuclear power plants, so that safety standards could be revised.

"Wind power will play an even greater role now in achieving the government's 2020 objectives," said Li Junfeng, deputy director of the energy research institute under the National Development and Reform Commission.

Source: Xinhua
 
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China moves to stabilize 2011 grain production over 500 mln tonnes - People's Daily Online March 18, 2011

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China is taking measures to stabilize its grain production as severe drought in its major wheat belt triggers food security concerns.

China aims to keep its 2011 grain production over 1 trillion jin (500 million tonnes), according to Thursday's executive meeting of the State Council, or the Cabinet.

The State Council has required relevant departments to take part in a national movement to promote harvests this year, according to a statement released after the meeting, which was presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao.

The action will focus on increasing grain supplies of both abundant and scarce species, spreading key technologies on disaster prevention and mitigation in China's major grain producing areas.

Source: Xinhua
 
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Opening up takes new form as Hunan official airs views
Ng Tze-wei
Mar 19, 2011

The heads of the Communist Party's political and legislative affairs committees - responsible for ensuring the party line is toed by police, prosecutors, judges and lawyers - are usually considered an ultra-conservative lot.
But Li Jiang , the 60-year-old secretary-general of the provincial committee in Hunan , was happy to cover a range of issues in an interview on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, touching on everything from democracy to "evil cults".



"I believe the political system we have today is chosen by history and our people, and is most appropriate for our country," Li said. "However, if we do not opt for a multiparty system, we must think about ways to avoid problems that could potentially arise under one-party rule.

"For me the key to building our own democratic political system is how to resolve the problem of `few voters, few candidates', how to get the best talent elected, and how to supervise officials ... in particular we must strengthen supervision by the public and the media."

Li, vice-chairman of the Hunan People's Congress Standing Committee and a former provincial propaganda chief, also addressed a top criticism of officials in his position: the practice of officials heading political and legislative affairs panels and police forces at the same time, which many say leads to abuse of power by police. Li is one such official.

"The Central Organisation Department issued an order banning this practice last year, in order to create a fairer legal system," Li said, the first time an official had confirmed the ban. "But in most cases we are still looking for replacements, or waiting for the next change of guard. I believe all changes will be completed within one or two years."

Li plans to resign as police chief at the next provincial People's Congress Standing Committee meeting later this month, or by May at the latest.

He was keen to talk about the call for "innovative social governance", which he denied was sparked by concerns over rising social conflict.

"This cannot be narrowly understood as a problem of maintaining stability, even though maintaining stability is one major goal," Li said.

Since reform and opening up began, privatisation has seen many previously state-owned employers shed their social role in providing services such as housing, schooling and pensions, and the relationship between citizens and the government has become more complex, requiring a new model of social governance.

Li said the mainland needed to make better use of non-governmental organisations for things that "the government can't manage, shouldn't manage, or doesn't manage well".

However, when asked whether the tight registration requirements for NGOs should be relaxed, he said the dual-track registration process for "sensitive" NGOs, such as those with religious backgrounds, would remain.

"Of course, in the development of social organisations there exists the need for a process of adjustment ... this is a new task for our country. We don't have experience," Li said.

He said charities and service-type NGOs would be more readily promoted, and political and religious organisations subjected to strict regulation.

"I'm not saying that political and religious NGOs cannot develop ... but many political and religious organisations, especially those from overseas, have carried out activities in China that broke the law," Li said.

"We cannot allow evil cults to enter China in the name of religion; and we cannot allow organisations who want to subvert [our government] to enter in the name of religion. The civil affairs departments will continue to be the main body in charge of NGO registration, but other departments will also assist."

He was less sceptical of foreign intervention when it comes to police force regulation, saying Hunan's police force was the first to adopt a detailed police handbook - based on the Hong Kong Police Force General Orders, and experience from other developed countries.

From how to make a report to superiors once an emergency call is received at a police station, to having at least two policemen at interrogation sessions and legal intervals for delivery of water and food to suspects, the handbook tries to set out specific instructions for police.

On complaints that people increasingly find themselves involved in confrontations with people who dress like police, Li said that more needed to be done to ensure that people could distinguish between police officers and other law enforcement officers. He suggested urban management officers and toll officers be banned from wearing uniforms that look like police uniforms.

But he defended the use of assistant police, who are legally restrained in their power to operate independently but are not subject to the same strict regulations as proper police. He said that by world standards, the mainland's ratio of police to the population is low.

"For example, Hong Kong has seven million people, and about 30,000 to 40,000 policemen. Our population in Hunan is 10 times Hong Kong's population, but we only have 70,000 police," Li said. "And we are now talking about cutting government expenditure. So hiring a lot of proper policemen will not be possible in the short term."

Li said he was in close contact with Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption and the mainland should give its anti-corruption bodies, such as the Communist Party's central disciplinary commission and the Ministry of Supervision, more independence.

At this year's NPC meeting, Li urged the introduction of new identity cards, including biometric data such as fingerprints. "This will not only help combat crime, but also protect citizens' rights," Li said. He said a smart identity card could make it easier to regulate migrant workers and speed up the abolition of the hukou (household registration) system, which restricts their access to social services.

On the legislative front, Li said the controversial Three Gorges project had eventually gone to an NPC plenary session for approval, while the recently passed car and boat tax law was only approved after three readings at the NPC Standing Committee and consideration of 100,000 suggestions from the public.

"These decisions were made with very careful deliberation," Li said. "From a certain point of view one can't say that this democracy is worse than the physical confrontations between the Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party in the Taiwanese parliament."

Li said while there were many unsatisfactory areas in the mainland's political reform, "the good news is we are also making progress".

"For example, in the past, I probably wouldn't have accepted your interview request," he said.

Five other provincial political and legislative affairs committee chiefs did not.
 
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Affordable apartments built in central China - People's Daily Online March 19, 2011

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A construction site of affordable apartments is seen in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, March 18, 2011. The province plans to boost the number of affordable houses to 416,200 in 2011 from 2010's 262,700, including 261,100 rebuilt houses for the residents living in shanty areas. (Xinhua/Long Hongtao)

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Under-construction affordable apartment building is seen in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, March 18, 2011. (Xinhua/Long Hongtao)
 
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New navigation system to create big business - People's Daily Online March 21, 2011

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A new Chinese global navigation system is expected to help China compete with other foreign GPS technologies, and could generate around 400 billion yuan ($60 billion) in revenues by 2020, a senior space technology expert has announced.

Liu Jingnan, executive president of the China Satellite Navigation Conference, said on March 19 that, "The Beidou project will be part of an industry that's worth from 150 to 200 billion yuan by 2015, and that figure is expected to reach 400 billion by 2020."

According to previous reports, there will be 12 to 14 navigation satellites put into orbit to provide navigation and short messaging services in the Asia and Pacific region, during the first stage of the project (2011-2015). By 2020, there will be more than 30 satellites in the global navigation system.

China has already sent seven of the Beidou positioning satellites aloft.

Qi Faren, former chief designer of Shenzhou spaceships, said earlier this month that the Chinese Beidou GPS system can cover any place that the United States' GPS system covers.

The system could also play an important role in forecasting earthquakes, defining borders and helping drivers find their way around, Qi said.

The United States is currently the dominant navigation service provider for Chinese drivers, accounting for 95 percent of China's navigation system market.

According to industry analysts, the Beidou system's performance in the global navigation sweepstakes over the next 10 years will mainly depend on three things: user feedback, the overall fitness of China's basic industries and government policy support.

China began work on its own navigation system in 2000. It established a regional satellite navigation system after sending up three Beidou geostationary satellites between October 2000 and May 2003. The word "Beidou" is the Chinese pinyin for the English word compass.

Source: Chhina Daily
 
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All great news. The navigation system is vital for our military movements to become independent of GPS, and affordable housing is exactly what we need to suppress hot money flowing from the West.
 
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