Clipmarks | invictus's China collection

Thousands dead in Chinese quake

Mon, 12 May 2008 14:40:27 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Between 3,000 and 5,000 people may have been killed by an earthquake measuring 7.8 in just one county of south-western China's Sichuan province, reports say.

Some 10,000 people are also feared to have been injured in Beichuan county.

Desperate efforts are under way to find survivors. One school that collapsed has buried an estimated 900 students.

President Hu Jintao has urged "all-out" efforts to rescue victims of the quake, which hit 92km (57 miles) from Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital.

The quake was felt as far away as Beijing, he says, meaning millions of people will feel connected to the disaster and will be watching TV screens closely to see how the government responds.

Tags: earthquake, china

China Satellite Soundtrack Announced

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 04:50:14 GMT

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Clip Source: www.redorbit.com

China Satellite Soundtrack Announced

Chinese officials have finalized the music that will be broadcast from a satellite orbiting the moon during the upcoming lunar festival.

The Commission of Science, Technology and Industry announced the list of 30 songs approved in a vote by the public and a committee of musicians for broadcast during the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.

The Xinhua news service said Saturday the play list included a large number of Chinese folk songs, including standbys such as My Wonderful Home Town, and I Love China.

The national anthem will also be played by the satellite that will survey the moon for a year, providing 3-D imagery of the lunar surface, and analyze the geology.

Tags: china, satellite, moon, lunar festival, soundtrack

China’s Wine's Past and Future

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 22:04:12 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

Two years ago, archaeologists at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences came up with a new theory, based on the discovery in northern China of evidence of fermented wine made from rice, honey and fruit. They pegged the find at 9,000 years old.

Clip Source: www.avenuevine.com

China’s Wine's Past and Future

China claims it gave the world pasta, gunpowder, the umbrella and paper. Scholars here say the Chinese were golfing before the Scots and roaming the New World before Columbus.

Two years ago, archaeologists came across evidence that led to another claim: China may have been the first to make wine. Wine historians generally regard the Middle East as the region where wine originated.

Today, China is determined to join the ranks of France, Italy, the USA, Chile, Australia and other great winemaking nations.

Tags: china, wine, culture, history

Typhoon kills over 100 in China, 190 missing

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 14:05:06 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Typhoon Saomai kills over 100 in China, 190 missing

BEIJING (AFP) - The strongest typhoon to hit China in 50 years has killed more than 100 people, forced over 1.6 million residents from their homes and destroyed tens of thousands of buildings.

Typhoon Saomai, which struck eastern China on Thursday afternoon, caused the deaths of at least 104 people, with 190 others missing, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on its website Friday.

The deaths occurred in the eastern province of Zhejiang and Fujian province directly to the south, it said, without giving more specific details about where the people had died or gone missing.

Tags: typhoon, disasters, china

1,076 have died from floods this year

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 16:10:43 GMT

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Clip Source: english.people.com.cn

1,076 have died from floods this year

Up until July 26th, 29 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have been struck by flood disasters of different sizes, leaving 1,076 people dead and 359 missing and causing a direct economic loss of 74.3 billion yuan, E Jingping, sectary-general of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters of China said on July 27th. In order of severity, the most-hit areas are Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Gaungxi, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Zhejiang.

Tags: china, floods, disasters

China: dozens dead in record floods

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 01:35:36 GMT

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Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

China: dozens dead in record floods
(Filed: 09/06/2006)

Floods in southern China have killed at least 55 people and forced thousands more to evacuate their homes, official state media has reported.


	A woman paddles down a flooded road in Shunchang

The Xinhua news agency told how nine hours of torrential rain caused a series of landslides in Wuzhou, a city in the Guangxi region. Around 15,000 people had to leave the city as nearly 2,000 houses collapsed.

In Fujian province, also in the south, the bank of a rain-swollen river collapsed yesterday morning and flooded 11 villages while thousands of residents were still asleep, Xinhua said.

The disasters come amid what the government says is the worst summer flooding in parts of China in three decades.

More heavy rain has been predicted for the next two days in southern China, and local governments are preparing for mudslides and landslides.

Across southern China, at least 378,000 people have already been asked to leave the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Guizhou, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

China suffers hundreds of flood deaths each year during the summer monsoon season, although this year's first storm arrived unusually early.

Rivers overflow and water rushes down mountains stripped of trees by decades of farming and logging, often causing deadly landslides.

9 June 2006: Burma 'is using dams to drive out dissident villagers'

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Tags: china, floods, monsoons

Containing China

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 02:26:19 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: "The imperative of containing China was first spelled out in a systematic way by Condoleezza Rice while serving as a foreign policy adviser to then Governor George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign. In a much-cited article in Foreign Affairs, she suggested that the PRC, as an ambitious rising power, would inevitably challenge vital U.S. interests."

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Containing China

Commentary: The Bush administration is once again putting the Asian giant in its strategic gun sights.

By Michael T. Klare
Photo: AP/Wide World Photos

Slowly but surely, the grand strategy of the Bush administration is being revealed. It is not aimed primarily at the defeat of global terrorism, the incapacitation of rogue states, or the spread of democracy in the Middle East. These may dominate the rhetorical arena and be the focus of immediate concern, but they do not govern key decisions regarding the allocation of long-term military resources. The truly commanding objective -- the underlying basis for budgets and troop deployments -- is the containment of China. This objective governed White House planning during the administration's first seven months in office, only to be set aside by the perceived obligation to highlight anti-terrorism after 9/11; but now, despite Bush's preoccupation with Iraq and Iran, the White House is also reemphasizing its paramount focus on China, risking a new Asian arms race with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Tags: china, united states, asia

China tells departments to cut energy, water use

Sat, 04 Mar 2006 15:55:59 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: The first paragraph (which I couldn't clip): China has told its government departments to cut their electricity and water consumption by 20 percent by 2010, state media reported on Saturday.

Clip Source: go.reuters.com

China tells departments to cut energy, water use

The edict from the central government was even stricter on energy usage by office buildings, which had to fall more than 20 percent by 2010 from 2005 levels.

"According to the notice, government institutions should play a leading role in reducing resources consumption and guide the consumption mode of society," Xinhua said.

Tags: china, energy usage