Yellen says Beijing visit helps put US-China ties on 'surer footing'

BEIJING — US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that her talks with top Chinese officials have helped put ties on "surer footing", as she wrapped up a trip aimed at stabilizing fraught relations between the two biggest economies.

During her four-day trip -- which came on the heels of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit -- Yellen stressed the need for healthy economic competition and improved communication, and urged cooperation on the "existential threat" posed by climate change.

"We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive," she told journalists at the US embassy in Beijing on Sunday.

"Both nations have an obligation to responsibly manage this relationship: to find a way to live together and share in global prosperity," she added.

While it did not produce specific breakthroughs, Yellen's trip furthers a push by President Joe Biden's administration to steady ties with China.

Beijing's official Xinhua news agency said Saturday that Yellen's meeting with Vice Premier He Lifeng yielded an agreement to "strengthen communication and cooperation on addressing global challenges".

Both sides also agreed to continue exchanges, the readout added.

Yellen said Sunday that while there are "significant disagreements" between the countries, her talks had been "direct, substantive, and productive".

"My bilateral meetings –- which totaled about 10 hours over two days –- served as a step forward in our effort to put the US-China relationship on surer footing," she said.

"I feel confident that we will have more frequent and regular communication."

Sources of tension

Topping the laundry list of disagreements are Washington's trade curbs, which it says are crucial to safeguard national security.

On Sunday, Yellen said she had stressed that Washington's measures "are not used by us to gain economic advantage".

"These actions are motivated by straightforward national security considerations," she said.

And with the US mulling fresh curbs that could more strictly regulate American outbound investment to China, Yellen said any new moves would be implemented in "a transparent way".

"I emphasized that it would be highly targeted and clearly directed narrowly at a few sectors where we have specific national security concerns," she said.

"I want to allay their fears that we would do something that would have broad-based impacts on the Chinese economy.

"That's not the case, that's not the intention."

She also said she had raised "serious concerns" over "unfair economic practices" by Beijing.

She cited barriers to foreign firms entering the Chinese market as well as issues around the protection of intellectual property.

"I also expressed my worries about a recent uptick in coercive actions against American firms," she said, referring to a recent national security crackdown against US firms in China.

During a roundtable of experts on Saturday, Yellen also stressed the "critical" need for the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases to collaborate on climate financing.

"The United States and China must work together to address this existential threat," she said.

'Messaging' a key goal

Looking ahead, "any concrete key breakthroughs and major deliverables presumably will be reserved for the two top leaders to announce," said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center.

"The two sides have not had this level of communications and consultations for a number of years," she told AFP.

Last month, Biden voiced confidence in meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping soon.

Lindsay Gorman, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, added: "I think one underappreciated audience is really US allies and partners, both in the region and globally."

"The main goal for this trip is really a messaging goal," she told AFP.

Among the aims are communicating how Washington considers its economic relationship with China, and dispelling the notion that it might embrace "pure zero-sum competition" -- while signaling it targets a fairer playing field.

Overall, China's response towards Yellen's visit appears "more enthusiastic" than Blinken's trip, as he is considered more hawkish, said Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University.

"Yellen is seen as a professional in the eyes of the Chinese, and her attitude towards China-US economic and trade relations is relatively rational," said Wu.

Taylor Fravel, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told AFP: "I don't think a single visit or interaction alone can achieve the goal of stabilizing relations."

But Yellen's visit and remarks convey support for continued US-China economic cooperation, "despite the political frictions in the relationship and competitive actions around limiting China's access to certain technologies such as semiconductors."

Agence France-Presse

China premier pledges: ‘We will make our skies blue again’

BEIJING — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged Sunday to make the country’s skies blue again and “work faster” to address pollution caused by coal burning.

His words to delegates at the opening of the annual National People’s Congress highlight how public discontent has made reducing smog, the most visible of China’s environment problems, a priority for the leadership.

In a report to China’s ceremonial legislature, Li said that “people are desperately hoping for” faster progress to improve air quality. “We will make our skies blue again,” he declared to almost 3,000 delegates in the Great Hall of the People.

He said the government intends over the next year to step up work to upgrade coal-fired power plants to achieve ultra-low emissions and energy conservation, and prioritize the integration of renewable energy sources into the grid.

Building on publicly available real-time and hourly readings from coal plants and other factories, Li said: “All key sources of industrial pollution will be placed under round-the-clock online monitoring.”

Environmental groups welcome the disclosure of such data because it allows the public to directly supervise the emissions of plants in their areas.

Lauri Myllyvirta of Greenpeace said they had expected the government to announce a speeding up of measures because air pollution is supposed to hit targets this year that were laid down in 2013. They include a 25-percent reduction in the density of fine particulate matter — a gauge of air pollution — in Beijing and the surrounding region from 2012 levels.

“It will require very dramatic steps to achieve those targets for this year,” Myllyvirta said.

He said they also hoped to see a measurable target for reducing wasted wind and solar-power generation capacities, “because that’s when different parts of the government will be really held accountable for integrating wind and solar fully into the grid.”

Li also said the government would ramp up efforts to deal with vehicle emissions by working faster to take old vehicles off the roads and encourage the use of clean-energy cars.

He said that they will “strictly enforce” environmental laws and regulations and that officials who do a poor job in enforcing the law or respond inadequately to worsening air quality will be held “fully accountable,” without giving details. Local officials have often been lax at enforcing regulations on companies that contribute to economic growth in their areas.

Official data show an improvement in China’s air quality since 2013, when the government brought out its air pollution action plan. However, residents in cities including Beijing still regularly breathe in levels of pollution several times higher than the recommended safe limit, and use apps to monitor air quality./rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

WATCH: Gay marriage proposal on Beijing’s subway gets buzz online

One man’s unconventional marriage proposal to his boyfriend onboard the subway in Beijing has set tongues wagging—in a good way—on the Internet.

Online news site Shanghaiist reported that the proposal took place on a rainbow-decorated train carriage on Line 1 of Beijing’s metro system.

A 43-second video posted on YouTube showed the man kneeling down in front of his stunned partner as he popped the all-important question while holding out a watch.

“Today I invite all the people we know and do not know to bear witness,” he declared in Mandarin as the majority of commuters in the carriage cheered him on and broke into applause.

There were also calls for them to kiss as they embraced each other after the successful proposal.

Images of the incident have since gone viral in China, with microblogging site Weibo flooded with positive comments and messages of encouragement for the couple.

The original post has been shared more than 10,000 times on Weibo, CNN reported.

One user wrote: “This type of love really needs courage, bless you!”




Gay marriage is not legal in China, although public perception towards rights for gays has shifted for the better. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1997.

In June, gay dating app Blued tied up with popular Chinese online shopping site Taobao to send 10 gay couples to the US to get hitched legally.


A gay couple also held their wedding ceremony in Beijing, a day after the US legalized same sex marriage in all 50 states on June 26.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Chinese central bank governor says currency is stable

BEIJING — China’s central bank governor says its currency has stabilized, in an apparent effort to dispel fears of more big declines following a surprise devaluation that rattled global markets.

The yuan’s exchange rate against the dollar “tends to be stable,” Zhou Xiaochuan said at a meeting of finance officials of the Group of 20 major economies in Turkey on Friday, according to a central bank statement.

Beijing said the Aug. 11 devaluation was part of efforts aimed at making the yuan’s state-set exchange rate more market-oriented. But coming without warning amid a collapse in Chinese share prices, it caused anxiety in financial markets.

Zhou’s comments appeared to be aimed at quelling fears Beijing might allow the currency, also known as the renminbi, to fall further to help its struggling exporters by giving them a price advantage. The devaluation had spurred warnings of a possible “currency war” if other governments responded by lowering their own exchange rates.

“At present, the exchange rate of the RMB against the dollar tends to be stable, and most of the correction of the stock market has taken place, so the financial market is expected to be more stable,” the statement read.

Zhou said Beijing was committed to carrying out economic reforms despite recent turbulence in its financial markets.

Also at the G-20 meeting, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei tried to defuse concern about the slowdown in Chinese economic activity, saying Beijing is “not especially concerned” about short-term fluctuations and will stick to its reform plans.

The ruling Communist Party is in the midst of a marathon effort to encourage domestic consumption and reduce reliance on trade and investment to drive growth. It has promised to give market forces a bigger role in the state-dominated economy.

Concerns have mounted, however, that growth is slowing too abruptly after July exports and auto sales contracted and August factory activity weakened.

Lou said the Chinese government expects economic growth of “about 7 percent” this year, according to the central bank statement.

“China is in line with plans and will stick unswervingly to ‘reform and opening up,'” he said.

source: business.inquirer.net

American lobster: the new Chinese New Year delicacy

PORTLAND, Maine — Now on the menu in Beijing for Chinese New Year: lots and lots of American lobster.

Exports of U.S. lobster to China have rocketed in the past few years, largely to satisfy the appetites of the communist country’s growing middle class, to whom a steamed, whole crustacean — flown in live from the United States — is not just a festive delicacy and a good-luck symbol but also a mark of prosperity.

And that’s good news for Maine, far and away the No. 1 lobster state in the United States. The lobster boom has put more money in the pockets of lobstermen and kept shippers and processors busy during the usually slack midwinter months.

For Stephanie Nadeau, owner of The Lobster Co., a wholesaler in Arundel, Maine, the demand has meant 14-hour nights spent stuffing wriggling lobsters into crates so they can reach China in time for the Lunar New Year, which falls on Thursday. She said she sends 100,000 pounds a week to China this time of year.

“There’s lot of orders, lots of demand right now — it is a race to get them there for Chinese New Year,” Nadeau said.

On the other side of the world, every morning at 9, the Auspicious Garden restaurant in Beijing receives 800 lobsters that have just crossed the Pacific aboard a cargo plane. In the evening, hundreds of diners fill the two-story restaurant in the gigantic Pangu Seven Stars Hotel for a nearly $80 all-you-can-eat buffet with New England lobster as the main attraction.

Xu Daqiang, a 35-year-old businessman on a romantic date with his girlfriend, said food-safety concerns in China make him choose expensive high-class restaurants where he can find imported seafood.

Cao Lijun, a 24-year-old Shanghai resident celebrating her friend’s birthday, alluded to lobster’s reputed aphrodisiac properties with a laugh: “How to say it? It makes my husband healthier. Really, this is what we say, because it is high in proteins.”

Lobsters and other foods seen as luxuries are popular at Lunar New Year and other festive occasions. The bright red of a cooked lobster is considered lucky, as it resembles a dragon.

China also imports lobsters from Canada, Australia, South Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere, but the market for the U.S. variety is exploding, with the demand strong year-round, not just at New Year’s.

American exports of live or processed lobster to China climbed from $2.1 million in 2009 to $90.5 million in 2014, federal statistics show. China took about 12 percent of U.S. lobster exports in 2014, up from 0.6 percent in 2009.

For the Chinese, the preferred way of enjoying lobster is to cook it in plain water and then dip the pieces in soy sauce and wasabi. Another popular way is to braise it with green bean vermicelli noodles in garlic sauce, said Lv Hui, the cook in charge of the daily buffet at the Auspicious Garden.


Wang Kang, a marketing manager at Zhangzidao Group, a seafood distributor and processor in Shanghai, attributed lobster’s popularity in China to rising incomes.

“That naturally means that people are buying more foreign luxury goods,” Wang said.

New England lobstermen have been recording epic catches in recent years. Maine, which accounts for more 80 percent of all U.S. lobster, hauled in more than 250 million pounds in 2012-13, the highest two-year total in the record books, which go back to the 1800s.

Chinese New Year is on the verge of becoming Maine’s second-biggest lobster shipping week of the year, behind Christmas week, according to industry officials.

Lobsterman Gerry Cushman of Port Clyde said the year-round demand from China has helped drive prices up, and he is using the extra money to build a new boat.

But so far, Cushman said, the surge has not driven large numbers of Maine fishermen to go out in the middle of winter, a punishingly cold and wet time of year in the Atlantic when lobsters head out into deeper, more dangerous waters.

Maine’s small number of winter lobstermen, Cushman said, consists of “stragglers who are stupid like me, or who have kids.”

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Blame game erupts as China criticizes Malaysia over MH370

BEIJING – Beijing on Monday blamed Kuala Lumpur for a lack of information about a vanished Malaysia Airlines flight, as tearful relatives of the 153 Chinese passengers aboard voiced frustration with all sides of the response effort.

Nearly two-thirds of the 239 people aboard Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 were from China, and if the loss of the aircraft is confirmed, it would be China’s second-worst air disaster in history.

“The Malaysian side attaches importance to the incident with a sincere attitude, but in light of the situation, the Malaysian side needs to step up their efforts,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters at a regular briefing.

Qin declined to pinpoint any specific areas of the Malaysian response with which Chinese authorities were dissatisfied, noting that “the incident is still under investigation”.

But China’s state-run media minced no words on Monday, lashing out at Malaysia and its national carrier over their handling of the missing jet, demanding answers despite the early stage of the investigation and calling for a swifter effort.

Officials said two Europeans whose names were on the passenger manifest — who both had their passports stolen in Thailand — were not on board.

“The Malaysian side cannot shirk its responsibilities,” the Global Times newspaper, which is close to China’s ruling Communist Party, wrote in a scathing editorial. “The initial response from Malaysia was not swift enough.

“There are loopholes in the work of Malaysia Airlines and security authorities,” it said.

“If it is due to a deadly mechanical breakdown or pilot error, then Malaysia Airlines should take the blame. If this is a terrorist attack, then the security check at the Kuala Lumpur airport and on the flight is questionable.”

China itself regularly enforces heavyweight security, while authorities are often secretive about real or alleged incidents.

 Terrorism fears

The China Daily newspaper wrote in an editorial that “terrorism cannot be ruled out”, with Malaysian and international authorities still at a loss to explain how at least two passengers were able to board with stolen Italian and Austrian passports.

“Who were they and why were they using false passports?” the paper asked.

“The fact that some of the passengers on board were travelling with false passports should serve as a reminder to the whole world that security can never be too tight, at airports in particular, since terrorism, the evil of the world, is still trying to stain human civilization with the blood of innocent lives,” it added.

Malaysia’s police chief said Monday that one of the men who used the passports had been identified, after ministers reportedly said they had Asian facial features.

At a Beijing hotel, Malaysian embassy officials were processing visa applications for families wanting to take up an airline’s offer to travel to Kuala Lumpur to be closer to the rescue operations.

Scores of relatives made their way into the room, some in groups of five or six, clutching handkerchiefs and wiping away tears from their faces.

Some family members are expected to travel from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur on a 1:30 a.m. flight Tuesday, but many said they would not go.

“There is more we can do here in China,” one woman told AFP. “They haven’t even found the plane yet.”

Calls for action

Some have criticized Malaysia Airlines’ response and information disclosure, asking the Chinese government to devote “strong attention” to the incident.

“There is very little information coming from the airline,” lamented one 40-year-old Chinese man, who said his best friend was on the plane. “They are very slow. We have to rely on the media.”

Others have called for top Chinese officials to help the family members deal with the airline, drawing a contrast with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has reportedly visited families in Kuala Lumpur along with his wife.

Beijing sent a working group to Malaysia Monday, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, including officials from the foreign, public security and transport ministries.

The aircraft’s disappearance came one week after a deadly attack at a train station in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, in which a group of knife-wielding assailants killed 29 people and wounded 143.

Both Beijing and Washington have condemned the mass stabbing as an act of terror, with Chinese authorities blaming it on separatists from the restive far western region of Xinjiang.

Even as information remains sparse and the hours tick by, many relatives in Beijing continue to believe that the passengers may yet be found, according to one US-trained psychologist who counselled about 20 families awaiting news at the hotel.

“I think most of them are holding onto that thin ray of hope,” he said. “Whether they believe it to be realistic or not, most of them are not letting it go.”

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Malaysia says ‘mystified’ as no jet debris found

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia said Monday there is still no trace of wreckage from a jet that vanished with 239 people on board, deepening the anguish of relatives two days after the “mystifying” disappearance.

A potential breakthrough emerged Sunday when an aircraft scouring waters off southern Vietnam — part of an international search and rescue effort — spotted two objects authorities said could be debris from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

But Malaysian authorities said there was no confirmation they came from the Boeing 777 which slipped off radar screens early on Saturday, an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.

“Unfortunately ladies and gentleman, we have not found anything that appears to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft itself,” said Malaysia’s civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.

“This unprecedented missing aircraft mystery — it is mystifying and we are increasing our efforts to do what we have to do,” he told a press conference.

Malaysia has launched a terror probe after at least two of the passengers on board were found to have travelled on stolen passports.

But Azharuddin had few answers to the burning questions surrounding the plane’s fate. Asked whether it was possible the plane had been hijacked or disintegrated mid-air, he said nothing could be ruled out.

“We are looking at every angle. We are looking at every aspect of what could have happened,” he said. “Again, we have to get concrete evidence… we have to find the aircraft.”

More than 150 Chinese are among the missing passengers and Beijing’s state media on Monday lashed out at Malaysia and its national carrier over their handling of the crisis.

“The Malaysian side cannot shirk its responsibilities,” the Global Times newspaper, which is close to the ruling Communist Party, wrote in a scathing editorial. “The initial response from Malaysia was not swift enough.”

China grief

At a Beijing hotel, Malaysian embassy officials were processing visa applications for families wanting to take up an airline offer to travel to Kuala Lumpur to be closer to the rescue operations.

Scores of relatives made their way into the room, some in groups of five or six, clutching handkerchiefs and wiping away tears from their faces.





Others said they would not go. “There is more we can do here in China,” one woman told AFP. “They haven’t even found the plane yet.”

A team of Chinese officials from government ministries headed for Malaysia on Monday, tasked with investigating the incident and helping family members already there.

As the search entered a third full day, other families of missing passengers gathered at a hotel in Malaysia’s administrative capital, Putrajaya, sharing breakfast as they stared intently at television news bulletins.

The search effort has zeroed in on waters off the remote Vietnamese island of Tho Chu, near where two large oil slicks — suspected to be caused by aircraft fuel — as well as the suspected debris were spotted on the weekend.

“All night we mobilized our most modern equipment for the search… but we found no sign of the objects,” Vice Admiral Ngo Van Phat told AFP of the hunt centred on Vietnam’s southwestern tip.

Tests on the oil slick that could indicate whether it came from the missing plane could be completed by later Monday, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency director general Amdan Kurish told AFP.

Malaysian authorities said they were also combing waters closer to their shores, further south of Tho Chu.

A total of 40 ships and 34 aircraft from an array of Southeast Asian countries, China and the United States have been involved in the search, with two Australian surveillance aircraft joining.

‘Asian features’
As they scramble to discover what happened, Malaysian officials have said there was a possibility that MH370 may have inexplicably turned back towards Kuala Lumpur.

The plane, captained by a veteran MAS pilot, had relayed no indications of distress, and weather at the time was said to be good.

Questions have also swirled over how at least two passengers boarded the jet on stolen passports, sparking an investigation into possible links with terrorism and a probe into the sale of passports in Thailand — where the documents were stolen over the past two years.

Two European names — Christian Kozel, an Austrian, and Luigi Maraldi of Italy — were listed on the passenger list, but neither man boarded the plane.

Malaysia’s Home Minister Zahid Hamidi reportedly said Sunday that the two passengers who did board using those passports looked Asian in appearance.

“I am still puzzled how come (immigration officers) cannot think: an Italian and Austrian but with Asian facial features,” Zahid was quoted as saying by Malaysia’s national news agency Bernama.

Interpol confirmed that “at least two passports” recorded in its Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database were used by passengers on the Malaysian flight.

The United States has sent an FBI team to help investigate the passengers, but US officials stressed there was as yet no evidence of terrorism.

Malaysia Airlines shares lost 10 percent in early trading Monday as the market reacted to the jet’s disappearance.

The incident is a massive blow for the carrier which has haemorrhaged cash for several years amid mounting competition from low-cost rivals such as AirAsia.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Chinese boy, 10, jumps to death ‘on teacher’s order’

BEIJING — A 10-year-old Chinese boy jumped 30 floors to his death after failing to write a self-criticism letter demanded by his teacher, state media reported Thursday.

The fifth-grade primary school student had been ordered to write a 1,000-character apology by his teacher for talking in class, China National Radio (CNR) reported on its website, citing a neighbor.

The educator allegedly told him to jump out of a building after he failed to complete the task, the report quoted relatives and the neighbor as saying.

“Teacher, I can’t do it,” was found written in one of his textbooks, CNR said. “I flinched several times when I tried to jump from the building.”

The child smashed into a parked car beneath the flat where his family live, the West China City News reported.

His furious relatives posted a banner outside the school in the southwestern city of Chengdu reading: “The teacher forced our kid to jump off the building,” pictures showed Thursday.

“The police investigation is still under way,” an official of Jinjiang district, where the incident happened, told AFP, declining to comment further.

Strict discipline is an essential part of China’s education system and culture, and tradition demands deference to authority, putting children under pressure to obey instructions.

The news provoked sadness and sympathy on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

“How can a guy like this be a teacher?” wrote one poster. “Who gave him the right to speak in this way? Why does the student have this kind of blind obedience?”

The boy’s school said Thursday on its verified account that the child and some of his classmates had been ordered to write reviews of their behavior after they disturbed a speaking competition.

He died “by accident,” it said.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Military drills set amid talks on more US troops in PH

MANILA, Philippines – About 2,300 members of the Philippine and US military will hold joint military drills later this month amid talks of increased rotational presence of US forces here and continuing tensions between Manila and Beijing over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Part of the bilateral exercises include staff planning exercise to increase the capability to conduct bilateral maritime security and territorial defense operations, field training exercises and humanitarian and civic assistance projects.

The three-week joint exercises hosted by the Philippine Marine Corps will start September 18 in several Philippine military camps including the Naval Education and Training Command in San Antonio, Zambales; Crow Valley in Capas, Tarlac; Marine Base Gregorio Lim in Ternate, Cavite; Marine Barracks Rudiardo Brown in Metro Manila; and at the Basa Airbase and Clark Field in Pampanga.

The 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit and 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade from the United States Marine Corps will be paired with Philippine Navy, Air Force and Army units in the annual Amphibious Landing Exercises 2014 dubbed as Phiblex 2014.

“Phiblex 14 is designed to improve interoperability, increase readiness and enhance the ability to respond to natural disasters or other regional contingencies,” said First Lieutenant Vince Edward Salmingo, Public Affairs Officer of Phiblex 2014 in a statement.

At the same time, Phiblex will also enhance local infrastructure and quality of life and build upon vibrant professional and personal relationships between Philippine and US Marines, Salmingo said.

The staff planning exercise aims to increase the capability to conduct bilateral maritime security and territorial defense operations.

The field training exercises, meanwhile, will provide the Philippine and US troops an opportunity to maintain their unit skill sets while sharing best practices and enhancing an already high level of interoperability.

Additionally, Philippine and US forces will carry out a series of humanitarian and civic assistance projects that will include engineering civic action projects, to improve local infrastructure, and cooperative health engagements, to share medical best practices, promote civil military relations with the community while advancing humanitarian interests and meet the medical needs of Filipino citizens.

Humanitarian and civic assistance projects will be held in some villages in Legazpi City, Albay, Salmingo said.

source: globalnation.inquirer.net

Charges laid over illegal sale of human kidneys in China

(CNN) -- A Beijing court has prosecuted more than a dozen people for organizing the illegal sale of 51 human kidneys worth about 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million) in one of China's biggest organ trafficking cases.

The ring, headed by Zheng Wei, allegedly helped scores of customers find organs by paying mostly young and poor men approximately 25,000 yuan each. Their kidneys were then sold for about 200,000 yuan, according to the state-controlled People's Daily.

The Beijing Haidian District People's Procuratorate prosecuted Zheng and 15 others involved in the scam, including some doctors from state-run hospitals.

According to reports, an operation room from a township hospital in Jiangsu Province was set up between March and June of 2010, where more than 20 kidneys were removed from living "sellers" and sent to Beijing for patients suffering from kidney disease.

Zheng then purportedly moved the operational base to Beijing in the second half of the year to ensure easier transportation of the organs and to minimize their spoiling. Police busted up the ring in December.

One analyst believes the shortage of donated organs in China is the main motive for the growing practice, but added that the issue of ethics played its part.

"The involvement of medical staff in such illegal acts reflects management loopholes in hospitals. Strengthening professional ethics of doctors is important to wiping out the illegal dealings," Zhou Zijun, a professor at Peking University's School of Public Health, told the People's Daily.

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/01/world/asia/china-organs/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Year of the Dragon roars into Asia

BEIJING - Asia welcomed the Year of the Dragon on Monday with a cacophony of fireworks, hoping the mightiest sign in the Chinese zodiac will usher in the wealth and power it represents.

From Malaysia to South Korea, millions of people traveled huge distances to reunite with their families for Lunar New Year -- the most important holiday of the year for many in Asia -- indulging in feasts or watching dragon dances.

As the clock hit midnight, Beijing's skyline lit up with color as families across the Chinese capital set off boxes and boxes of fireworks to ward off evil spirits in the new year -- a scene repeated across the country.

Those living in the Philippines, meanwhile, were able to sleep in on Monday after the Lunar New Year became an official holiday for the first time, despite objections from some in the business community.

The dragon is the most favorable and revered sign in the 12-year Chinese zodiac -- a symbol of royalty, fortune and power that is also used in other cultures that see in the Lunar New Year, such as in Vietnam.

As such, hospitals across China and in Chinese communities are bracing for a baby boom as couples try to have a child this year.

Nannies in Beijing and neighboring Tianjin are charging more in 2012, and the beds in the capital's Maternity Hospital are all booked up until August, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong even took advantage of the Dragon to call on the country's residents to boost a stubbornly low birth rate, in an attempt to reduce the government's heavy reliance on foreign workers.

"I fervently hope that this year will be a big Dragon Year for babies... This is critical to preserve a Singapore core in our society," he said in his new year message.

But in Hong Kong, where tens of thousands of pregnant mainlanders come to give birth every year to gain residency rights for their babies, the Dragon may not prove such a boon as it could exacerbate problems such as limited beds and soaring delivery costs.

And according to some astrologers and geomancers, the Dragon may bring natural disasters and financial volatility to an already destabilized world.

Hong Kong feng shui master Anthony Cheng warned a "scandalous corruption case" would rock China in the second half of 2012, and also said high-ranking Chinese officials would be forced to step down, thrown behind bars or even die.

But people across Asia disregarded the doomsday predictions over the holiday, preferring to feast and celebrate with their families, and pray at temples or pagodas.

Highways in Malaysia, where 25 percent of the population is ethnic Chinese, were clogged at the weekend while the capital Kuala Lumpur became almost deserted as people traveled home.

In South Korea, which also celebrates the Lunar New Year, more than half of the entire population -- or some 31 million people -- took to roads, railways and planes for the holiday.

But stores in the capital Seoul -- normally quiet at this time of year -- bustled with activity as tens of thousands of tourists from China swamped major shopping areas to spend an expected 100 billion won ($88 million) in January.

"I feel like I'm walking on the street in China. There are so many of them," Park Eun-Yong, a South Korean college student, told AFP. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com