Li Ka-Shing’s Hutchison Whampoa, the world’s biggest container-terminal operator, will sell deep-water port holdings in Hong Kong and southern China, hubs of record global trade, in what may be Singapore’s largest-ever initial public offering.
The company will retain a stake of about 25% in the trust that will own terminals in Hong Kong and neighboring Guangdong province, port operations along the Pearl River and shipping-support businesses, it said in a statement today.
Torrential rain and landslides in southern China have killed 132 people, with more heavy rain forecast. A further 86 people are missing and 800,000 residents have been evacuated.
At least 69 people have now died after flash flooding struck southern China. Torrential rainfall caused rivers to swell across the southeastern province of Jiangxi and Fujian.
After 11 attempted suicides in 2010 of Chinese factory workers at its Foxconn subsidiary facility in Southern China, officials at Hon Hai Group in Taiwan plan to increase worker salaries 20 percent. Exactly when these raises of workers who build products for Apple, HP, Dell, Sony and others will take place has not been announced. – In response to ever-increasing worker suicides,
Hon Hai Group, the owner of Foxconn, a technology and electronics manufacturing
supplier to the giants of technology including Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Sony,
Dell and others, announced plans to raise wages of its workers 20 percent,
according to Reu…
Sembcorp today broke new ground of its first wastewater treatment plant in southern China, in the Qinzhou Port Economic Development Zone (QEDZ) in Guangxi province.
Expected to commence operations in the second quarter of 2011, the 15,000 cubic metres per day plant will serve industrial and municipal customers in the QEDZ, and is expected to be expanded in tandem with customer demand.
A Chinese court in the restive far western region of Xinjiang on Monday sentenced six people to death for murder and other crimes committed during ethnic rioting in July in which almost 200 people were killed.
It was not immediately clear from the brief report by the official Xinhua news agency if any of the [...]
Hundreds of people are feared dead in Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot triggered a mudslide that buried an entire village on the south-west coast.
Officials said about 600-800 people are missing in Shiao Lin village after part of the mountain collapsed on sleeping villagers’ homes on Monday morning.
Most of the dead are thought to be the elderly and children.
Elsewhere in Taiwan, the number of confirmed deaths is 37, with 35 injured and 52 missing, officials said.
Typhoon Morakot dropped some 2m (80in) of rain on Taiwan this weekend, causing the worst flooding in decades.
See map of storms in East Asia
The typhoon is now battering southern China, forcing the evacuation of a million people from their homes. Six deaths have been reported there.
In Japan, Typhoon Etau has set off flash floods and landslides that have killed at least 12 people.
Trapped
Taiwanese television earlier reported that about 200 homes in Shiao Lin village were buried by mud.
Animated guide: Typhoons In pictures: Storms hit East Asia Eyewitness: Pacific storms
The BBC’s Cindy Sui, in Cishan village, some 40km (25 miles) away, says about 50 people had been rescued and another 150 found alive in another part of the village.
Our correspondent says many of those rescued said their family members were still trapped inside.
Rescue efforts have been complicated as many of the roads leading to Shiao Lin have been washed away and the unstable ground makes it difficult for rescue helicopters to reach the area.
In another incident in Taiwan, an entire hotel – empty at the time – collapsed into the raging waters.
Morakot has also contributed to heavy rains in the Philippines. At least 10 people were killed in flooding and landslides in the north of the country last week.
Typhoons and tropical storms are frequent in the region between July and September.
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Chinese police say they will charge 83 people in connection with ethnic riots in Xinjiang last month that left almost 200 dead, state media report.
The group face charges including murder and arson, Xinhua said, adding that no dates had been set for the trials.
Xinhua also said 718 people had been detained, in what is the first official tally from the police in Urumqi city.
Police previously confirmed the arrests of more than 1,500 people, but it is unclear how many were later released.
"Those arrested will face charges of murder, intentional injury, arson and robbery," the report cited Urumqi’s chief prosecutor, Utiku’er Abudrehman, as saying.
"We want an independent investigation to establish the correct number [of detentions]"
Dilxat Raxit
World Uighur Congress
It marks the first step in prosecuting those implicated in the violence that saw fighting erupt between Muslim Uighurs and members of China’s dominant Han ethnic group.
A spokesman for the World Uighur Congress dismissed the official figure of 718 detentions, saying hundreds more Uighurs were being held.
"The numbers they give are simply not credible," said Dilxat Raxit. "We want an independent investigation to establish the correct number."
The violence in Xinjiang was the worst ethnic unrest in China for decades.
It began on 5 July during a protest over a brawl in southern China in which two Uighurs were killed. The government says 197 people died in the ensuing violence, and more than 1,700 were injured.
The government says most of the dead were Han Chinese, but the World Uighur Congress claims many Uighurs also were killed.
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Chinese police have recently arrested 319 people for last month’s violence in Xinjiang, according to state media.
This brings the total number of people detained over the riots to more than 1,500, although it is unclear how many people have since been released.
The violence between ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese left almost 200 dead.
Meanwhile, Beijing has claimed that relatives of exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer have written letters criticising her over the riots.
Beijing has repeatedly blamed Mrs Kadeer – the head of the World Uighur Congress – for triggering the violence, a claim she vehemently denies.
A spokesman for the congress said the letters were fake.
Simmering unrest
The violence in Xinjiang was the worst ethnic unrest in China for decades.
It began on 5 July during a protest over a brawl in southern China in which two Uighurs were killed.
The government says 197 people died in the ensuing violence, and more than 1,700 were injured.
The government says most of the dead were Han Chinese, but the World Uighur Congress claims many Uighurs also were killed.
The 319 people who have been detained recently are in addition to 253 detentions last week and more than 1,000 before that, according to Xinhua news agency.
The most recent arrests came as a result of a call for information from the public, Xinhua said.
In the aftermath of the riots, local media published a list of wanted men and urged people to turn in suspects who were still at large.
It is unclear what proportion of those detained are Uighur or Han, or if any of them have been since charged or released.
Children’s letter
As head of the World Uighur Congress, Mrs Kadeer is often accused by China of fomenting unrest in Xinjiang, and has been blamed for orchestrating the July riots.
According to Chinese media, Mrs Kadeer’s son Khahar and daughter Roxingul, as well as her younger brother Memet, have written letters condemning their mother over the unrest.
"Because of you, many innocent people of all ethnic groups lost their lives in Urumqi on 5 July, with huge damage to property, shops and vehicles," Xinhua quotes one letter as saying.
"We want a stable and safe life… Please think about the happiness of us and your grandchildren. Don’t destroy our happy life here. Don’t follow the provocation from some people in other countries."
It is difficult to independently authenticate the letters, but Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uighur Congress based in Germany, quickly rejected them as fakes.
"It’s not possible that one of her family members would write such a letter," he told reporters.
Five of Mrs Kadeer’s 11 children still live in Xinjiang, and according to human rights groups they have experienced many forms of harassment because of their mother.
Her eldest son, Khahar, was reportedly fined and forced to liquidate his mother’s business and two other sons have been given jail terms – one for tax evasion, the other for "secessionist" activities.</p
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Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer has arrived in Tokyo for a visit which has prompted an angry reaction from China.
Mrs Kadeer is expected to use her five-day stay to drum up support for the minority group.
Beijing holds that Mrs Kadeer was behind a recent outbreak of deadly ethnic unrest in Xinjiang province.
But Mrs Kadeer, once a businesswoman in China and now leader of the exile group the World Uighur Congress, has denied any involvement.
Her visit to Japan will include a news conference and meeting with members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
On Monday, Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai called Mrs Kadeer a criminal.
"How would the people of Japan feel if a violent crime occurs in Japan and its mastermind is invited by a third country" Mr Cui was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency.
He hinted that the visit could harm relations between China and Japan.
"We must prevent important matters that should be worked on together from being disturbed by a criminal or attention to our common interests from being diverted," he said.
Culture threat
Mrs Kadeer, who now lives in the US, was imprisoned in China for six years until 2005 on charges of endangering national security.
Nearly 200 people – mostly Han Chinese – died in the clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese in the western province of Xinjiang, according to Chinese officials. Uighur exiles say hundreds of Uighurs were killed.
The unrest began on 5 July during a protest by Uighurs over a brawl in southern China in late June in which two people were killed.
China’s Uighurs are concentrated in Xinjiang but complain their rights and culture are being overridden by an influx of Han migrants from outside the region.</p
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A Chinese official says police shot dead 12 Uighur rioters in Urumqi this month, in a rare government admission of deaths inflicted by security forces.
Nuer Baikeli, governor of Xinjiang region and himself a Uighur, said those killed had ignored police warning shots and were attacking civilians and shops.
He said police had shown restraint and had no choice but to act.
Some 200 people – mostly Han Chinese – died in the clashes between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi.
"The rioters, the criminals, continued to act in an extremely vicious manner, insisted on having their way, and continued to threaten the lives of others," he told reporters.
"It was at this point that our public security forces and military police decisively fired. They shot dead 12 rioters. Of them, three died on site, and nine died as people tried to save them."
The violence in Xinjiang began on 5 July during a protest by Uighurs over a brawl in southern China in late June in which two people were killed.
Uighur groups in exile have said hundreds of Uighurs were killed.</p
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• Twitterer amoiist caught up in police blog probe
• Inquiry centres on murder ‘libel’ against officials
The hundreds following amoiist on Twitter were used to his stream of messages. But they ended abruptly with two terse updates early yesterday morning.
“i have been arrested by Mawei police, SOS” he wrote. Then shortly afterwards: “Pls help me, I grasp the phone during police sleep.”
His followers quickly passed on his plea to other Twitterers. But since then there has been silence from amoiist – also known as Peter Guo, or Guo Bofeng – who is apparently the latest internet user to be caught up in an inquiry that began with claims of defamation but which police now say involves “state secrecy issues”.
As many as seven bloggers have been detained over claims that a 25-year-old woman, Yan Xiaoling, had been gang-raped and murdered. It was further alleged that the man responsible was connected to local authorities in her city in Fujian province, southern China.
Officials dismissed the stories, which first surfaced in late June, and insisted Yan had suffered a haemorrhage caused by an ectopic pregnancy. They turned their attention to tracking down those they suspected were responsible for the stories.
According to Global Voices Online, Guo posted an interview with Yan’s mother in which she repeated the claims and accused local authorities of a cover-up.
An employee at Mawei police station told the Guardian: “These cases are in the process of investigation. We are not in charge of the case so we can’t tell you more. We will release information if there is progress.”
The case is testament both to the growing ability of Chinese citizens to share information through the internet, and to the restrictions on those who do.
In a recent, unpublished interview with the Guardian over the government’s Green Dam censorship programme, Guo said: “The significance of internet in China is huge. It can’t change the current situation in China right away, but it has deeply influenced China. Through the internet, Chinese society has become more and more diverse, and more importantly many people who are unaware of the truth have started to hear different voices.”
Guo, who described himself on Twitter as “a trouble maker in Amoy [Xiamen], living with character sales”, is reportedly a professional interpreter. His two calls for help were in English, although he generally uses Chinese.
He often blogs and tweets about news, current affairs and internet censorship, frequently with a satirical tinge, and has more than 1,500 Twitter followers. A message posted several hours before his pleas read: “Peter Guo, one of the twitterers in China, originally from the Fujian countryside, not a famous blogger; people called him amoiist, good character, young, handsome.”
Liu Xiaoyuan, who represents another detained blogger, You Jingyou, said lawyers had been told they could not meet their clients because the case involved “state secrets”.
Liu’s client wrote his power of attorney in advance because he feared he might be the next to be detained. Another man who was away when police visited his home yesterday told Liu he believed they planned to detain him.
The lawyer said: “I do not know why exactly [You] was detained. Whether it is because he wrote something or he spread something or planned something is still unknown. But from the police we know it was connected to the Yan Xiaoling case.”
He said bloggers had been held more frequently in the last two years. “I think it is because the internet’s power is getting bigger and bigger and the internet uncovers many issues so the authorities get more pressure.”
Another lawyer told the Xinkuaibao newspaper that if officials had been libelled they should sue the bloggers involved rather than launching a criminal case. “We can tell that the local officials haven’t caught up with the need for the development of open information and the internet. They have not adapted to it and feel it is a big deal if some bad information appears on the net.”
Twitter is blocked in China but many on the mainland still tweet through a variety of means.
China has urged its citizens in Algeria to take extra care, after reports that a militant group might take revenge for the recent deaths of Muslim Uighurs.
On Tuesday a UK-based security firm reported that an al-Qaeda-linked group had threatened to target Chinese workers in north Africa.
The Chinese foreign minister recently appealed for understanding within the Muslim world in the wake of the unrest.
Officials say 137 Han Chinese and 46 Uighurs died in the riots, in Urumqi.
Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, is currently under heavy police and military control.
Safety precautions
On Tuesday the London-based risk firm Stirling Assynt reported that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had threatened to target Chinese workers in north Africa.
In response to the report, the Chinese embassy in Algiers has urged all 50,000 Chinese who live and work in Algeria to be more aware of safety precautions.
It told residents to strengthen security measures "in consideration of the situation after the 5 July incident in Urumqi".
XINJIANG: ETHNIC UNRESTExiled Uighur organisations have said they oppose all forms of violence and condemn the alleged al-Qaeda threat.
One nation which has seen a particularly strong anti-China reaction in the wake of the Urumqi violence is Turkey.
Demonstrations have been held across the country to protest against the Chinese government’s handling of the incident, and the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the Chinese of "genocide".
Uighurs are Turkic-speaking people and share linguistic and cultural bonds with Turks.
Turkish news agency Anatolia reported on Wednesday that a Chinese diplomat, Song Aiguo, was in Ankara for talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Mr Song, a former ambassador to Ankara, said the Chinese government felt sorrow over the Xinjiang incidents, adding that he was in Ankara to avoid possible damage to Sino-Turkish ties.
Contentious film
Meanwhile Chinese diplomats in Australia are reportedly trying to block the screening of a film about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
The director of the Melbourne Film Festival, Richard Moore, said that when the programme for next month’s festival was published, a Chinese consular official contacted him and insisted he withdraw it.
Mr Moore said he had declined the request.
The film – The Ten Conditions of Love – explores the impact on the family of Ms Kadeer of her fight for the rights of China’s Uighur minority.
China blamed the Xinjiang riots of Ms Kadeer, a claim she vehemently denies.</p
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China has demanded that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan retract his accusation that Beijing practised genocide against ethnic Uighurs.
Mr Erdogan made the claim after riots in the Uighur heartland of Xinjiang during which 184 people were killed.
Separately, more than 100 Chinese writers and intellectuals have signed a letter calling for the release of Ilham Tohti, an outspoken Uighur economist.
Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, is under heavy police and military control.
China’s rejection of Mr Erdogan’s remarks came in an editorial headlined "Don’t twist facts" in the English-language newspaper China Daily.
It said the fact that 137 of the 184 victims were Han Chinese "speaks volumes for the nature of the event".
The newspaper urged Mr Erdogan to "take back his remarks… which constitute interference in China’s internal affairs", describing his genocide comments as "irresponsible and groundless."
Mr Erdogan made the controversial comments last Friday, telling NTV television: "The incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide. There’s no point in interpreting this otherwise."
He had called on Chinese authorities to intervene to prevent more deaths.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told his Turkish counterpart by telephone on Sunday that the Urumqi riots were a grave crime orchestrated by the "three evil forces", state news agency Xinhua said, referring to "extremism, separatism and terrorism".
Ilham Tohti
Mr Tohti disappeared from his Beijing home last week and has apparently been detained.
"Professor Ilham Tohti is a Uighur intellectual who devoted himself to friendship between ethnic groups and eradicating conflicts between them. He should not be taken as a criminal," said the intellectuals’ letter.
It was posted online on Monday, and demands information about his case.
"If they’ve started legal proceedings toward Ilham Tohti, [the authorities] must gain trust from the people through transparency, and especially gain trust from the Uighur people," the letter said.
It also said that Mr Tohti’s website, Uighurbiz.cn, was an important site for dialogue between Han Chinese and Uighurs.
In a televised speech on 6 July, Xinjiang governor Nur Bekri accused the site of helping "to orchestrate the incitement and spread propaganda".
The letter also urged the Chinese government to reflect on whether its own mistakes caused the unrest in Xinjiang and the anti-government riots last year in and around Tibet.
The violence in Xinjiang began on 5 July, during a protest by Uighurs over a brawl in southern China in late June in which two people were killed.</p
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Two ethnic Uighurs have been shot dead by police in Urumqi, capital of China’s Xinjiang province, officials have said.
A government statement announced that a third "lawbreaker" had been injured.
A reporter with Hong Kong’s RTHK radio said two police officers were also shot in a confrontation in a Uighur district of the city.
The violence comes after Chinese officials said calm had been restored to the city after at least 180 people were killed in rioting last week.
Other reports said police had fired at a group of Uighur men armed with knives and poles who had attacked the police.
Thousands of extra security personnel have been patrolling the city of about 2.3 million people since violence erupted on 5 July.
Ethnic Han Chinese make up the majority of Urumqi’s population, but Uighurs form a significant minority and have long-standing complaints of discrimination.
Rioting began during a protest by Uighurs over a brawl in southern China in late June in which two Uighurs were killed.
Chinese officials have said 184 people are known to have been killed in the violence in Urumqi, and 1,680 injured.
The officials said 137 were Han Chinese, 46 were from the indigenous Uighur community and one was an ethnic Hui, the officials said.
Uighur groups in exile have said hundreds of Uighurs were killed.</p
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Rescuers reach three men who survived in flooded mine by chewing coal
Three miners survived 25 days in a flooded mine in southern China by drinking dirty water and chewing coal before rescuers burrowed through a collapsed tunnel to reach them, a local official and state media said today.
The men and 13 others were trapped when the Xinqiao coal mine flooded on 17 June. Yesterday rescue workers digging into the mountainside cleared a path to the miners and saw their lights, which still gave off a dim glow, said Wang Guangneng, a Communist party spokesman in Qinglong county, Guizhou province.
The miners stayed alive by drinking water that seeped through the earth and were in a stable condition, Wang said.
The Guiyang Evening News said the miners chewed coal to stave off their hunger pangs.
It was not clear whether the men had any information about the miners who were still missing. Rescuers found the body of one miner a week after the flooding, Xinhua said.
A Xinhua photo showed one of the rescued miners, Wang Kuangwei, his bones prominent through his skin, getting medical attention yesterday, with his eyes covered to protect them from the light.
During an interview with Shenzhen Media Group television, 36-year-old Zhao Weixing, who was lying down with his eyes and face covered, said: “I feel OK.”
The miners’ rescue after 604 hours underground was a rare tale of survival in China’s coal mines, the world’s deadliest, where an average of 13 workers are killed every day. Most accidents are blamed on failures to follow safety rules, including a lack of ventilation or fire control equipment.
In August 2007, two brothers survived nearly six days in a mine tunnel by chewing coal and sipping urine from discarded water bottles. They even managed to crack jokes about their wives remarrying after they were declared dead.
The miners rescued yesterday – all from central Henan province – were found 500-600 metres from the entrance to the mineshaft, on a level intersection that protected them from the flood, the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper reported. The ceiling had collapsed, blocking a path to the tunnel opening.
The county’s head of work safety, Li Xingwei, was digging a channel into the mountain and found an unblocked pathway, then noticed the miners’ lights. “We crept along the tunnel in excitement,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
Rescuers shouted to the men to remain calm, the Beijing Youth Daily report said. Once rescued, it said, the miners did nothing but ask for water.
Turkey’s prime minister has described ethnic violence in China’s Xinjiang region as "a kind of genocide".
"There is no other way of commenting on this event," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
He spoke after a night-time curfew was reimposed in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, where Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese clashed last Sunday.
The death toll from the violence there has now risen from 156 to 184, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reports. More than 1,000 people were injured.
Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, shares linguistic and religious links with the Uighurs in China’s western-most region.
Quentin Sommerville, BBC News, UrumqiA large number of riot police surrounded the group, they punched and kicked the protestors – one officer used his baton to beat one of the Uighurs. A number of foreign journalists had their equipment seized, some have been detained.
Earlier the group said they feared for their safety. There’s no word from the authorities as to what happened to them.
In pictures: Closed mosques New media openness Q&A: China and the Uighurs
"The event taking place in China is a kind of genocide," Mr Erdogan told reporters in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.
"There are atrocities there, hundreds of people have been killed and 1,000 hurt. We have difficulty understanding how China’s leadership can remain a spectator in the face of these events."
The Turkish premier also urged Beijing to "address the question of human rights and do what is necessary to prosecute the guilty".
Mr Erdogan’s comments came a day after Turkish Trade and Industry Minister Nihat Ergun urged Turks to boycott Chinese goods.
Beijing has so far not publicly commented on Mr Erdogan’s criticism.
But it said that of the 184 people who died, 137 were Han Chinese.
Uighurs defiant
Earlier on Friday, the Chinese authorities reimposed a night-time curfew in Urumqi.
The curfew had been suspended for two days after officials said they had the city under control.
Mosques in the city were ordered to remain closed on Friday and notices were posted instructing people to stay at home to worship.
XINJIANG: ETHNIC UNRESTBut at least two opened after crowds of Uighurs gathered outside and demanded to be allowed in to pray on the holiest day of the week in Islam.
"We decided to open the mosque because so many people had gathered. We did not want an incident," a policeman outside the White Mosque in a Uighur neighbourhood told the AP news agency.
After the prayers, riot police punched and kicked a small group of Uighurs protesters, who demanded the release of men detained after last Sunday’s violence, the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville says.
Meanwhile, the city’s main bus station was reported to be crowded with people trying to escape the unrest.
Extra bus services had been laid on and touts were charging up to five times the normal face price for tickets, AFP news agency said.
"It is just too risky to stay here. We are scared of the violence," a 23-year-old construction worker from central China said.
The violence began on Sunday when a Uighur rally to protest against a deadly brawl between Uighurs and Han Chinese several weeks ago in a toy factory in southern Guangdong province turned violent.
Tensions have been growing in Xinjiang for many years, as Han migrants have poured into the region, where the Uighur minority is concentrated.
Many Uighurs feel economic growth has bypassed them and complain of discrimination and diminished opportunities.
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