3_6_5_PQ365

VEGETABLES ripened by using plant growth stimulators are being widely sold in wet markets across China, and there is no national testing system in place to regulate the practice.

Such vegetables look attractive but don\’t taste good because they have been ripened artificially, according to a Xinhua news agency investigation.

In several provinces, Xinhua found that most growers used Ethrel, a type of plant growth stimulator, to promote ripening in vegetables. The vegetables matured quickly after being dipped in the liquid.

Customers at the Furong wet market in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, said tomatoes with glowing red skins were found to have green seeds, while cucumbers with yellow flowers tasted "weird and unnatural."

"I was stunned and puzzled," said a customer surnamed Xu.

All the vegetables were most likely overdosed with Ethrel, Xinhua agency said. The practice is most common in tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelons as a way to attract customers and boost profits.

Industry insiders said Ethrel is cheap and easily available. Using it on cucumbers causes output to rise from 37,500 kilograms to 60,000 kilograms per hectare, according to a grower surnamed Huang from Jiangsu Province.

Vegetables treated with Ethrel could also reach the market much earlier and thus command higher prices.

They also stay fresh for at least five days compared to naturally grown ones which tend to have a market life of just two days.

A Xinhua reporter found that many growers used Ethrel according to their experience rather than referring to scientific standards.

"If you want vegetables to grow faster, add more Ethrel," said one grower.

However, experts warned that vegetables that have been treated with large doses may harm people\’s health.

According to the national standard of pesticide residue on vegetables, residues of Ethrel on tomatoes should be no more than 2 milligrams per kilogram.

The standard is currently applied to tomatoes, tropical and sub-tropical fruit and cotton seeds, but many other vegetables are also being treated with the growth hormone.

"There should be a sound set of regulations and standard on the use of plant growth regulators," Xinhua quoted an expert as saying.

Plant growth regulators are usually allowed for use in vegetables to avoid the effects of freezing weather, a necessity to guarantee a supply of vegetables to wet markets throughout the year.

But there is a lack of regulations and standards to keep their use under control, Xinhua said.

An official from the Shanghai Agricultural Commission said the city is currently drafting its own regulations.

Recent food safety checks by the commission showed that all the plant growth stimulators in use were qualified.

Source: Shanghai Daily

The train collision in east China\’s Zhejiang Province has killed 35 people and left 192 others injured as of Sunday night, said a spokesman with the Ministry of Railways.

A total of 132 people are still being treated in hospitals, said Wang Yongping, spokesman with the ministry at a press conference.

Twelve people remain in critical condition, said Cheng Jinguo, head of the health bureau in the city of Wenzhou, where the collision happened Saturday night.

Cheng said at the press conference that 52 people who suffered slight injuries had been discharged from hospital.

Wang expressed condolences to the bereaved families and sincere apology to all the passengers.

The train\’s "black box" has been retrieved and the ministry is investigating the cause of the crash, Wang said.

Wang said the ministry will make public the cause of the accident as soon as the investigation is done and publish the names of the deceased and injured.

He said the crash has caused large number of casualties and great property losses. The ministry will find out the cause through thorough investigation and take effective measures to prevent similar accidents.

Despite the accident, the spokesman said the ministry is still confident in the high-speed train.

"China\’s high-speed train is advanced and qualified. We have confidence in it," he said.

The damaged rails have been repaired and were ready to resume operation but the reopening was delayed by the stormy weather, according to Wang.

Wang did not provide the exact time when the line would start operating again.

The accident occurred at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday on a bridge near Wenzhou when bullet train D301 rear-ended D3115, which allegedly lost power after lightning strike.

Source: Xinhua

A dance drama Silk Road, Flower Rain is performed by northwest China\’s Gansu Province Song and Dance Theater in Pyongyang, Democratic People\’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), July 15, 2011. (Xinhua/Zhao Zhan)
【1】 【2】 【3】 【4】

Source: Xinhua

Defective signaling equipment and human error were factors contributing to China\’s most serious rail accident since 2008, investigators said yesterday.

An ongoing investigation had uncovered two problems so far, said An Lusheng, the newly appointed chief of the Shanghai Railway Bureau – a defective signaling system and dispatchers who did not send any warnings after a lightning strike.

He said a signal that should have turned red after lightning hit the train that stalled remained green, and rail staff then failed to see something was amiss.

His comments were in a statement released after a meeting in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, the site of the accident.

The Shanghai bureau operates and supervises train services in Shanghai and neighboring provinces, including Zhejiang.

The investigation found that signaling equipment at Wenzhou South Railway Station, where the trains were heading, had "serious flaws in the design," the director said. But the design faults were compounded by human mistakes.

"After the lightning strike caused a failure, an interval signal machine that should have shown a red light mistakenly upgraded it to a green light instead," said An. He was appointed bureau director to replace Long Jing who was sacked after the crash along with two other top bureau officials.

A red light is a warning to drivers and dispatch staff that another train is dangerously close and that adjustments need to be made.

The green light led the driver of the D301 train, Pan Yiheng, to believe the track ahead was clear.

He was killed in the collision but had managed to trigger the emergency brake when he saw the stationary D3115 train on the track. But it was too late, and the first four cars of his train derailed after his train slammed into the D3115, whose last two carriages then derailed.

The trains each had 16 carriages. The D3115 was carrying 1,072 passengers and the D301 558.

The investigation showed that dispatch staff at Wenzhou had failed to realize in time there was a problem to take action that could have prevented the accident, An said.

The accident had shown that China\’s railway services had safety loopholes and that questions remained over the quality of facilities, training and staff competence, and emergency response mechanisms, he said.

An said the signaling system was put into use in September 2009.

The signal equipment designer, Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signals and Communications Co Ltd, in a rare admission of responsibility for a disaster, issued an apology yesterday, acknowledging it was the source of the deadly flaw. It said it would "face up to shouldering responsibility, and accept any punishment that is due, and will strictly undertake pursuing culpability of those responsible."

Investigators said they would release their findings in mid-September.

Source: Shanghaidaily.com

The key to maintaining a stable China-U.S. relationship lies in a mutual respect for each other\’s core interests, a senior Chinese lawmaker said.

Lu Yongxiang, visiting vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People\’s Congress (NPC), reiterated the position Monday and Tuesday in separate meetings with Daniel K. Inouye, president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, Senate majority leader Harry Reid and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi.

China and the U.S. currently are striving to foster a cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit, as part of their efforts to implement the consensus reached at the summit between Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama during Hu\’s visit to the U.S. in January this year, Lu noted.

Maintaining a good China-U.S. relationship not only serves the fundamental interests of both peoples, but also is conducive to world peace, stability and prosperity, Lu said.

The senior Chinese lawmaker reaffirmed that the NPC is willing to strengthen dialogue and exchanges with the U.S. Congress through various channels, including the regular exchange mechanisms and special committee meetings, to further enhance mutual trust, expand consensus and boost cooperation between the two sides.

It\’s no surprise that China and the United States don\’t always agree, given the different social systems, traditional cultures and development levels, Lu told the U.S. congressional leaders.

However, the key to maintaining a stable China-U.S. relationship lies in a mutual respect for each other\’s cores interests and top concerns, he said.

Lu expressed the hope that the U.S. side will properly handle sensitive issues, including those of Taiwan and Tibet, so as to avoid any potential damage to the overall bilateral relations.

During the meetings, the U.S. Congress leaders agreed that it is very important for the two nations to build a cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit, since it would be in the fundamental interests of the two peoples and be conducive to world\’s peace, stability and prosperity.

They said that the U.S. Senate and House are willing to carry on frank and pragmatic exchanges and dialogues with the NPC, constantly enhance mutual understanding and trust, and push forward the relations between the two countries steadily.

Source: Xinhua

Gansu Province in northwestern China on Thursday granted two foreigners with permanent residence cards, or the Chinese version of "green cards."

It is the first time for the province to grant such cards since 2004, when China allowed issuance of permanent residence cards to foreigners.

According to the exit and entry administration under the public security bureau of Lanzhou, capital city of Gansu, the two foreigners were Fu Qiang and Wang Muyin, a scholar and his spouse.

Fu and Wang are American-born Chinese, and their green cards were granted based on an overseas talents program of Lanzhou University.

Yao Hanzhong, head of the administration, said the issuing of the green cards is to bring more overseas talents to Gansu to start businesses or to improve the research work of local research institutes.

The number of foreigners who permanently stay in Lanzhou is continually on the rise, over 1,000 at present, and among them 160 are professors or scholars.

Foreigners who hold Chinese green cards can stay in China without time limit and are entitled to skip the visa procedures when they cross the border.

Source: Xinhua

The Intermediate People\’s Court of the city of Jiaozuo in central Henan province opened court on Monday morning on the case of producing and selling clenbuterol, a poisonous chemical that boosts the output of lean meat.

The Monday court, the court of first instance, is open to public.

In March this year, the China Central Television reported that some pork producers had used pork tainted with the fat-burning drug clenbuterol in its products.

Clenbuterol is a chemical that can be fed to pigs to make them produce lean meat. The chemical is poisonous to humans and is banned as an additive in stock feed in China.

Source: Xinhua

A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has urged southern China\’s Shenzhen City to blaze new trails in addressing social conflicts and accumulate experiences for the country\’s overall effort to improve social management.

Zhou Yongkang, secretary of the CPC Central Committee\’s Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, made the remarks during an inspection tour from Monday through Wednesday of social management work in Shenzhen.

Shenzhen in Guangdong Province has taken a lead in economic development and also has become one of the regions to first experience certain social problems, Zhou said.

He expressed hope that Shenzhen and Guangdong will continue to come up with new ideas in resolving new social problems as well as to bravely push forward the country\’s social management work.

In his three-day tour to the city, Zhou, also a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, visited resident communities in Baoan, Nanshan, Yantian and Longgang districts and also Tencent, a major Internet service company.

Zhou called on greater efforts to organize and train the floating population so as to increase their ability to secure employment, as well as to provide them with better access to public services.

In addition, he said the government should beef up regulation of the cyberspace as its influence is growing stronger. He urged Internet firms to be more self-disciplined and join with the government to make the Internet play a more positive role in serving the public, promoting development, and maintaining harmony and stability.

Source: Xinhua

The Chinese language has become one of the most widely used language on the Internet, second only to English, said Liu Ruisheng, vice research fellow at the Institute of Media Research under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, during a release conference of the "Report on the Development of China\’s New Media Industry" hosted by the Social Sciences Academic Press in Beijing on July 12.

Liu said that there were only around 22.5 million Internet users in China in 2000. At the time, the number of Internet users per 100 Chinese people was even lower than the average of developing countries. Although China is a real late starter, its Internet penetration rate reached over 34 percent in 2010 after 10 years of efforts, 1.5 times the average rate of developing countries. The gap between China and developed countries in Internet penetration has been narrowing year by year.

In addition, the number of mobile phone users in China has reached nearly 900 million. China has made many accomplishments through hard work and sustained efforts. Chinese brands such as Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, Sina, Sohu, NetEase, People\’s Daily Online, Xinhua Online, and China Mobile have developed into "powerful forces" in the world of new media. Although there are still many problems, they will be solved over time, said Liu.

He added that the rise of Chinese brands is already an undeniable fact. China\’s GDP reached nearly 5.9 trillion U.S. dollars in 2010, ranking second in the world. Unwilling to lag behind in the field of new media, China has been actively drawing on foreign experience and attracting Western investments to create a sound and effective government-led new media development mechanism with Chinese characteristics, instead of blindly copying others.

By People\’s Daily Online

The operation of 58 trains was suspended on Sunday after a train collision and derailment in east China\’s Zhejiang Province killed at least 35 people and injured more than 200, railway authorities said.

The Ministry of Railways said the damaged train tracks are under repair, with service expected to be resumed by 6:00 p.m. Sunday.

The derailment occurred at 8:38 p.m. Saturday near the city of Wenzhou. High-speed train D301 rear-ended bullet train D3115, which allegedly lost power after being hit by lightning.

Four of the D301\’s coaches fell off an elevated bridge, while two of the D3115\’s coaches were derailed.

Local railway authorities have ordered two temporary service trains to carry stranded passengers away from the accident site. The injured passengers have been taken to local hospitals for treatment, said the ministry.

The ministry promised full ticket refunds for passengers who were supposed to take the suspended trains.

The ministry also expressed condolences to the victims of the accident.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called for all-out efforts to rescue the passengers after the accident. Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang is leading a work team in Wenzhou to assist in relief work and conduct an investigation into the accident.

Source: Xinhua