Party and State: Guangzhou

Showing posts with label Guangzhou. Show all posts

Thursday, September 12, 2013

China Bans Coal Power Plants

In an attempt to downgrade it's AQI from "chewable", coal-fired power plants in key areas around Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai will be banned. The move comes after an intense leafleting campaign and some signs being installed failed to clean up the skies around the major cities that are permanently shrouded in grey gunk filled skies.

The State Council said the country's air pollution situation is "grim" and is "harming people's health and affecting social harmony and stability." The action plan calls for the density of fine particulate matter — a gauge of air pollution — in Beijing to drop by 25 percent by 2017 from 2012 levels and by at least 10 percent in cities nationally.

Ever since the announcement that the God-awful air quality had caused a 14% downturn in tourism to China, officials have been desperate to reign in polluters, and at least try to keep the AQI below 90. Initially taking bold steps to outlaw the US Embassy from broadcasting it's air quality index figures on Twitter, the Chinese government has finally come around to the idea that China's crack-like dependence on coal might be affecting the air somewhat. From

Earlier in the year, figures from the official Chinese air quality monitoring stations hit 700 on it's PM2.5 scale, making the air in Beijing worse than what you might find in an airport smoking lounge. Burning coal fuel means that people in the south live five and half years longer than people in the north, where coal burning was heavily promoted by the government. Added to that, deaths caused by unsafe mining conditions cost the state an estimated 1.7 trillion yuan a year - nearly 7% of the countries GDP.

Burning coal contributes a number of noxious gases to the atmosphere, none of which are particularly helpful when it comes to living a long and happy life. When Greenpeace released it's "True Cost of Coal" report in 2008, it showed that smoking a cigarette was probably more beneficial to human health than take in a deep breath in some parts of China. Well, not that bad, but it was pretty bad, but it does generate 375 million tonnes of ash, which ends up in someone's lungs somewhere.

http://youtu.be/cUW8L-kX3pQ

Since the US government estimates that China gets around 70% of it's energy needs from burning coal there's clearly a long way to go before we can expect to see permanent blue skies over Beijing. Until then, the CCP promises that they'll try and get it down to a respectable 65% over the next four years.

Under normal circumstances, we would say don't hold your breath....

China sets national coal use target to tackle air pollution

China must manage the conflict between coal and water

Beijing aims to slash coal use

China: Getting Serious About Air Pollution?

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Could China's Austerity Drive Lead to a Mooncake Scandal?

China may well have saved the ocean's sharks with it's crackdown on officials spending thousands of RMB on lavish dinners to impress their friends, and now sales of mooncakes are about to be hit as the austerity drive targets the all important Mid-Autumn Festival Mooncake Giving Extravaganza.

Mooncakes, usually boxed in outlandish packaging, are a traditional foods that's eat around the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival. To fully understand the important of the mooncake, which is a small round pastry with various fillings, ranging from the utterly disgusting (beef and peanut) to the bland (egg whites), one need only take a look at the number of scandals that have risen up in their name.

In 2011, news footage played on the Beijing subway routinely shows police smashing fake mooncake gangs as 8,000 boxes of fakes were discovered in Guangzhou. The following year, another gang used mooncakes from 2011 (hopefully not from the same Guangzhou batch), put them in new packaging - complete with a few dead cockroaches - and sold them at a discount. Such was the scale of the operation that a police raid on the factory recycling the cakes took an epic seven hours, and the goods confiscated filled five trucks.

Whether the crackdown on expensive moon shaped snacks this September 19th will increase the sales of dodgy mooncakes as officials continue to face scrutiny over their expenses remains to be seen. The last thing China needs now is a Mooncake Scandal on top of everything else.

China bans officials' mooncake buy

China corruption: Ban on officials' mooncakes purchases

Mooncake Crackdown: China's Annual Mid-Autumn Festival Centerpiece Banned

China bans officials' use of public funds for buying mooncakes as gifts

China bans officials from buying mooncakes with public funds

Monday, August 26, 2013

Two British Women "Trapped in China"

Expats might like to moan about being trapped in China, but for two British women, it's literally true. After getting into an argument over the 500rmb deposit she left for a pair of slippers. One of them, Ms Jubril-Badmos, claims that she was dragged from the market by her hair and beaten so badly that her companion, Mary Idowu called the police. When the police arrived at the scene, they arrested the women, on charges of "provocation and disturbance of the peace".

Working as efficiently as ever, the pair endured 32 hours of interrogation, and were intimidated into signing documents, entirely written in Chinese, including one confession. According to reports, neither woman was told what they were signing. After the ordeal of being questioned, they were sent to a detention centre, where they slept on the floor of a 12-person cell. Eventually, the treatment that was doled out to her took it's toll, Ms Jubril-Badmos collapsed and was sent to a local hospital.

They gave me tablets for my blood pressure. They kept increasing until I was taking 16 a day." Her two daughters came to China to arrange bail. A policeman that they named as Mr Chen advised them that prosecutors had not found any evidence.

Despite paying 45,000rmb (about £4500), to settle the matter out of court, the police are refusing to cancel their bail, and the investigation could run for a year or more. The British Ambassador has promised consular assistance, but the families of the the two detained Brits say that they are "disillusioned" by the level of support they are receiving from the Guangzhou consular office.