In a significant development, Barack Obama the President of US will meet the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama on Saturday defying Chinese pressure.
The meeting will be significant as well as crucial over Tibet issue; which has been opposed by China for long.
Obama and Dalai Lama will be discussing about Tibet, support for its unique religious culture, linguistic identity and protection of Tibetans, according to a White House statement.
The statement said that the President will highlight the US’s enduring support to the dialogue between hinese government and the Dalai Lama's representatives over the Tibet issue.
Dalai Lama, the Nobel Peace laureate and the US President Obama met last time in February 2010.
Media persons will not be allowed to cover the meeting, which is scheduled to be held on Saturday morning at Map Room of the White House, instead of his Oval office.
Opposing the meeting between Obama and Dalai Lama, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei asked the US government to withdraw its invitation to Lama for meeting to avoid its interfering in internal affairs of China.
China has been opposing Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile since 1959 terming him as "splittist". Dalai Lama has been seeking rights for the people of Tibet.
The President of the International Campaign of Tibet Mary Beth said that the meeting will strengthen the relationship between US and Tibet. Dalai Lama is on ten days visit to US, and is presiding Buddhist teachings.
During his visit, Dalai Lama met with top leaders including John Boehner the Speaker of the House, Pelosi the Democratic leader, and John Kerry the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman.
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
China Urges Full Disclosure on Japan Radiation Leaks.
The Chinese government on Thursday urged its crisis-hit neighbor Japan to issue prompt and accurate information about radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami.
Concerned by rumors circulating in China about nuclear fallout and radiation exposure, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu called on Tokyo to issue prompt and accurate details about stricken nuclear power plant ravaged by last week’s earthquake and tsunami.
Concerned by rumors circulating in China about nuclear fallout and radiation exposure, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu called on Tokyo to issue prompt and accurate details about stricken nuclear power plant ravaged by last week’s earthquake and tsunami.
Photo: Reuters
Customers line up outside a store in Hong Kong March 17, 2011, as shoppers in the Chinese territory rush to buy salt, which they believe could help to protect them from radiation.
She also issued a call to worried Chinese who are panic buying salt in a false belief it can guard against radiation sickness. Japan should release detailed and accurate information about the about radiation leaks as soon as it’s known, said Jiang. And she urged the public to stay calm, saying it was not necessary to panic.
The country's largest salt maker, China National Salt Industry Corporation, Thursday issued a statement warning panic-buying and hoarding is unnecessary.
The Ministry of Health is also telling the public that regular salt cannot prevent radiation.
But panic buying continues and price spikes are occurring.
Jiang also confirmed China will send 20,000 tons of gasoline and diesel fuel to Japan to aid it earthquake recovery.
Despite often prickly relations between China and Japan, the Japanese disasters have sparked an outpouring of sympathy in China.
Beijing earlier pledged $4.5 million worth of blankets, tents, emergency lighting and other humanitarian assistance, and has sent 15 rescuers to help search for survivors.
The country's largest salt maker, China National Salt Industry Corporation, Thursday issued a statement warning panic-buying and hoarding is unnecessary.
The Ministry of Health is also telling the public that regular salt cannot prevent radiation.
But panic buying continues and price spikes are occurring.
Jiang also confirmed China will send 20,000 tons of gasoline and diesel fuel to Japan to aid it earthquake recovery.
Despite often prickly relations between China and Japan, the Japanese disasters have sparked an outpouring of sympathy in China.
Beijing earlier pledged $4.5 million worth of blankets, tents, emergency lighting and other humanitarian assistance, and has sent 15 rescuers to help search for survivors.
Source : voanews.com
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
China : 'Judgment day' fears for high-speed rail tracks.
Construction of the mainland's massive high-speed rail network is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success.
The breakneck speed at which track is being laid means engineers are likely to have to sacrifice quality for quantity on the lines' foundations which could ultimately halve their lifespan.
The problem lies in the use of high-quality fly ash, a fine powder chemically identical to volcanic ash, collected from the chimneys of coal-fired power plants. When mixed with cement and gravel, it can give the tracks' concrete base a lifespan of 100 years.
According to a study by the First Survey and Design Institute of China Railways in 2008, coal-fired power plants on the mainland could produce enough high-quality fly ash for the construction of 100 kilometres of high-speed railway tracks a year.
But more than 1,500 kilometres of track have been laid annually for the past five years. This year 4,500 kilometres of track will be laid with the completion of the world's longest high-speed railway line, between Beijing and Shanghai. Fly ash required for that 1,318-kilometre line would be more than that produced by all the coal-fired power plants in the world.
Enter low-quality fly ash.
Professor Wang Lan , lead scientist at the Cement and New Building Materials Research Institute under the China Building Materials Academy, said that given poor quality control on the mainland, the use of low-quality fly ash, and other low-grade construction materials, was "almost inevitable" in high-speed railway construction.
And that could have fatal consequences, Wang said. With a catalytic function almost opposite to that of good fly ash, the bad fly ash could significantly weaken railway line foundations and shorten a railway's lifespan by about half. That would mean China's high-speed rail tracks would last only 50 years.
But Zhu Ming - a researcher at Southwest Jiaotoing University's School of Civil Engineering who experimented with fly ash at a Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway construction site last year - was even more pessimistic.
The use of low-quality fly ash would threaten the safety of rail passengers and "judgment day" might come sooner than expected, Zhu said.
"Quality problems with Chinese high-speed railways will arise in five years," he said. "I'm not talking about small problems, but big problems. Small problems such as occasional cracks and slips that delay trains for hours have already occurred. Big problems that will postpone an entire line for days, if not weeks, will come soon.
"When that happens, the miracle of Chinese high-speed rail will be reduced to dust."
The 2008 study conducted by Yin Yaxiong , senior engineer at the First Survey and Design Institute of China Railways, concluded that though China produced more than 100 million tonnes of fly ash a year, only a small fraction of it would meet the quality requirements for high-speed rail construction.
In high-quality fly ash, the presence of unburnt carbon is extremely low. Coal-fired power plants with large, advanced furnaces are the main producers, but on the mainland, especially in less developed provinces, there are few such power plants.
Most fly ash on the market comes from small or medium-sized plants whose furnaces cannot achieve full combustion, therefore producing low-grade fly ash with higher levels of carbon.
The unburnt carbon in fly ash seizes water molecules. Cement needs lots of water for the chemical reaction that makes it set and harden. Wang said that the bad fly ash competed with cement for water and messed up the reaction.
"Without an adequate ... reaction, high-speed rail is lying not on a concrete foundation, but sand," he said.
Reports about the widespread use of low-quality fly ash in high-speed railway construction began surfacing in mainland newspapers in 2007. Undercover journalists followed fly ash convoys from power plants to railway construction sites in various provinces. Their reports generated a public outcry, prompting the Ministry of Railways to team up with the Communist Party's Propaganda Department in ordering newspapers to kill all reports about low-quality fly ash related to high-speed railways. Some journalists received threats. Some lost their jobs.
Since the 1950s, Chinese civil engineers have tried to use fly ash in building construction, and the dangers of low-quality fly ash are widely known.
In a bid to ensure that only high-quality fly ash is used, the Ministry of Railways has set up testing laboratories at major construction sites. But fly ash suppliers sidestep the testing process, according to a Beijing-based journalist who spent three months investigating them during construction of the Guiyang to Guangzhou high-speed railway line last year. He requested anonymity.
Arriving at a railway construction site on the Guizhou-Guangxi border with a convoy of trucks carrying low-quality fly ash produced by a small coal-fired plant, the journalist said he saw the trucks drive directly to a cement mixing facility and unload straight into it.
"No sampling, no testing and no questions asked," the journalist said.
When that was completed, the convoy leader entered a building nearby with a bag of fly ash that he had in his pocket.
In the temporary building was a small laboratory and in the bag was high-quality fly ash. The man handed the laboratory clerk the bag for sampling - with an envelope containing a bribe - usually 10 to 20 per cent of the fly ash price, the journalist said.
Zhang Shuguan , deputy chief engineer for the Ministry of Railways, told Xinhua last month that the speeds on high-speed railways would reach 500km/h by 2050.
But Zhu said the average speed of trains on Chinese high-speed railways would probably decrease.
The system must endure the daily, if not hourly, grinding and twisting of heavily built passenger trains travelling at 350km/h, Zhu said.
Such operations would significantly speed up ageing of the railways. Some people had already urged that operations be slowed down to save the lines. "We will need luck to maintain 250km/h for long." he said.
Source South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd
The breakneck speed at which track is being laid means engineers are likely to have to sacrifice quality for quantity on the lines' foundations which could ultimately halve their lifespan.
The problem lies in the use of high-quality fly ash, a fine powder chemically identical to volcanic ash, collected from the chimneys of coal-fired power plants. When mixed with cement and gravel, it can give the tracks' concrete base a lifespan of 100 years.
According to a study by the First Survey and Design Institute of China Railways in 2008, coal-fired power plants on the mainland could produce enough high-quality fly ash for the construction of 100 kilometres of high-speed railway tracks a year.
But more than 1,500 kilometres of track have been laid annually for the past five years. This year 4,500 kilometres of track will be laid with the completion of the world's longest high-speed railway line, between Beijing and Shanghai. Fly ash required for that 1,318-kilometre line would be more than that produced by all the coal-fired power plants in the world.
Enter low-quality fly ash.
Professor Wang Lan , lead scientist at the Cement and New Building Materials Research Institute under the China Building Materials Academy, said that given poor quality control on the mainland, the use of low-quality fly ash, and other low-grade construction materials, was "almost inevitable" in high-speed railway construction.
And that could have fatal consequences, Wang said. With a catalytic function almost opposite to that of good fly ash, the bad fly ash could significantly weaken railway line foundations and shorten a railway's lifespan by about half. That would mean China's high-speed rail tracks would last only 50 years.
But Zhu Ming - a researcher at Southwest Jiaotoing University's School of Civil Engineering who experimented with fly ash at a Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway construction site last year - was even more pessimistic.
The use of low-quality fly ash would threaten the safety of rail passengers and "judgment day" might come sooner than expected, Zhu said.
"Quality problems with Chinese high-speed railways will arise in five years," he said. "I'm not talking about small problems, but big problems. Small problems such as occasional cracks and slips that delay trains for hours have already occurred. Big problems that will postpone an entire line for days, if not weeks, will come soon.
"When that happens, the miracle of Chinese high-speed rail will be reduced to dust."
The 2008 study conducted by Yin Yaxiong , senior engineer at the First Survey and Design Institute of China Railways, concluded that though China produced more than 100 million tonnes of fly ash a year, only a small fraction of it would meet the quality requirements for high-speed rail construction.
In high-quality fly ash, the presence of unburnt carbon is extremely low. Coal-fired power plants with large, advanced furnaces are the main producers, but on the mainland, especially in less developed provinces, there are few such power plants.
Most fly ash on the market comes from small or medium-sized plants whose furnaces cannot achieve full combustion, therefore producing low-grade fly ash with higher levels of carbon.
The unburnt carbon in fly ash seizes water molecules. Cement needs lots of water for the chemical reaction that makes it set and harden. Wang said that the bad fly ash competed with cement for water and messed up the reaction.
"Without an adequate ... reaction, high-speed rail is lying not on a concrete foundation, but sand," he said.
Reports about the widespread use of low-quality fly ash in high-speed railway construction began surfacing in mainland newspapers in 2007. Undercover journalists followed fly ash convoys from power plants to railway construction sites in various provinces. Their reports generated a public outcry, prompting the Ministry of Railways to team up with the Communist Party's Propaganda Department in ordering newspapers to kill all reports about low-quality fly ash related to high-speed railways. Some journalists received threats. Some lost their jobs.
Since the 1950s, Chinese civil engineers have tried to use fly ash in building construction, and the dangers of low-quality fly ash are widely known.
In a bid to ensure that only high-quality fly ash is used, the Ministry of Railways has set up testing laboratories at major construction sites. But fly ash suppliers sidestep the testing process, according to a Beijing-based journalist who spent three months investigating them during construction of the Guiyang to Guangzhou high-speed railway line last year. He requested anonymity.
Arriving at a railway construction site on the Guizhou-Guangxi border with a convoy of trucks carrying low-quality fly ash produced by a small coal-fired plant, the journalist said he saw the trucks drive directly to a cement mixing facility and unload straight into it.
"No sampling, no testing and no questions asked," the journalist said.
When that was completed, the convoy leader entered a building nearby with a bag of fly ash that he had in his pocket.
In the temporary building was a small laboratory and in the bag was high-quality fly ash. The man handed the laboratory clerk the bag for sampling - with an envelope containing a bribe - usually 10 to 20 per cent of the fly ash price, the journalist said.
Zhang Shuguan , deputy chief engineer for the Ministry of Railways, told Xinhua last month that the speeds on high-speed railways would reach 500km/h by 2050.
But Zhu said the average speed of trains on Chinese high-speed railways would probably decrease.
The system must endure the daily, if not hourly, grinding and twisting of heavily built passenger trains travelling at 350km/h, Zhu said.
Such operations would significantly speed up ageing of the railways. Some people had already urged that operations be slowed down to save the lines. "We will need luck to maintain 250km/h for long." he said.
Source South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd
Thursday, October 28, 2010
China unveils the world’s fastest bullet train- CRH380,travels at 350 km per hour.
One of the major emerging power in Asia as well as in the world,China has unveiled the world’s fastest bullet train CRH380, which will travel at a speed of 350 km per hour.
This fastest bullet train CRH380 will run between Shanghai and Hangzhou.The distance between Shanghai and Hangzhou is 192km.
CRH380 bullet train has been recorded travelling at 420 km per hour, which is a world record.CRH380 bullet train will cover the 200-km distance in only 45 minutes.
The tickets will cost 156 Yuan (InR-1,036) for a first-class seat and 98 Yuan(InR-651) for a second-class seat between Shanghai and Hangzhou.
The Chinese government plans to expand the high-speed rail network to over 16,000 km by 2020.
Currently China has started working on 1,318-km high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shanghai at a cost of $33-billion line will open in 2012.
Worlds fastest bullet train in china CRH speed-380-km/hr
This fastest bullet train CRH380 will run between Shanghai and Hangzhou.The distance between Shanghai and Hangzhou is 192km.
CRH380 bullet train has been recorded travelling at 420 km per hour, which is a world record.CRH380 bullet train will cover the 200-km distance in only 45 minutes.
CRH380 bullet train has been recorded travelling at 420 km per hour, which is a world record.CRH380 bullet train will cover the 200-km distance in only 45 minutes.
This fastest bullet train CRH380 will run between Shanghai and Hangzhou.The distance between Shanghai and Hangzhou is 192km.
CRH380 bullet train has been recorded travelling at 420 km per hour, which is a world record.CRH380 bullet train will cover the 200-km distance in only 45 minutes.
The Chinese government plans to expand the high-speed rail network to over 16,000 km by 2020.
Currently China has started working on 1,318-km high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shanghai at a cost of $33-billion line will open in 2012.
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