China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has learnt that the second hydrogen explosion in three days rocked Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant Monday, sending a massive column of smoke into the air and wounding six workers. It was not immediately clear how much — if any — radiation had been released.

The explosion at the plant’s Unit 3, which authorities have been frantically trying to cool following a system failure in the wake of a massive earthquake and tsunami, triggered an order for hundreds of people to stay indoors, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

The blast follows a similar explosion Saturday that took place at the plant’s Unit 1, which injured four workers and caused mass-evacuations.

Japan’s nuclear safety agency said six workers were injured in Monday’s explosion but it was not immediately clear how, or whether they were exposed to radiation. They were all conscious, said the agency’s Ryohei Shomi.

Earlier, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the reactor, said three workers were injured and seven missing.

China Watch Blog has learnt that rescuers have ended large-scale searches through quake rubble for trapped people in Yunnan province.

Local authorities said over the weekend more than 8,000 rescuers are still checking and repairing buildings damaged in the magnitude-5.8 quake that jolted Yingjiang county on Thursday noon, leaving 25 dead and another 314 injured.

China Daily reported that the earthquake toppled the homes of 1,039 families and left 4,994 others seriously damaged, mainly in the county seat near the border with Myanmar.

Many stores and restaurants have resumed business in the county seat. Mobile phone service and power supplies were also restored on Saturday.

Local health departments have dispatched a team of 60 people to sterilize the quake-stricken area, especially the shelters, to prevent epidemic outbreaks, said Zhou Yun, deputy director of Yingjiang’s public health bureau.

More than 700 medical staff are working in Yingjiang to treat the injured and help with health work, Zhou said.

Most of the severe cases were sent to Lianghe county, 40 kilometers away.

China Watch Blog has learnt that relief efforts have commenced following the devastating earthquake and tsunami wave that hit northeastern Japan on Friday (11 March).

The USS RONALD REAGAN carrier strike group arrived off Sendai, Honshu
Island today (13 March) to support relief efforts in areas hit hardest by
the earthquake. According to a US MOD news release, the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet
and Japanese naval forces are making plans for a joint rescue operation. In
addition, the Japanese Coast Guard has deployed patrol and research craft,
planes and helicopters off a number of the most severely affected
locations.

Currently, there is no official announcement on the status of ports.

According to local reports, production was halted at refineries and
chemical plants after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck on Friday.

China Watch Blog has learnt that despite the faster-than-expected February inflation figure released yesterday, inflation in Mainland China is expected to remain stable, according to China’s central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan.

“If we observe the CPI (consumer price index) figures for December, January and February, although they are high, inflationary expectations are currently relatively stable,” Zhou was quoted as saying in a Shanghai Daily report.

Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress, he said China’s February inflation was 4.9 percent, the same as January’s but higher than the market expected. December’s figure was 4.6 percent.

China has made fighting inflation a priority this year and targets an annual figure of around 4 percent. Inflation last year was 3.3 percent.

Alaistair Chan, a Moody’s Analytics economist, said a sense that inflation was being brought under control may have encouraged the government to allow retail fuel prices to rise around 4 percent in mid-February.

“Further ahead, slower monetary growth and a slowing economy should crimp inflation pressures,” Chan said in a report. “But we still expect inflation to go a little higher before declining by year end.”

Zhou said the People’s Bank of China will use price and quantitative tools such as interest rates, reserve requirements and open market operations to maintain appropriate liquidity in the banking system, and implement differentiated reserve requirement ratios.

“At this stage, interest rate policy is still a key tool to use,” Zhou said.

He also said that exchange rates were not the most important tool for curbing inflation. China will stick to its gradual foreign exchange reform, Zhou said.

Hu Xiaolian, the central bank’s deputy governor, said it is believed that there will be fairly big progress in opening China’s capital account in the next five years.

But she declined to outline a timetable for the yuan being fully convertible.

China Watch Blog has learnt that China’s retail sales rose 15.8 percent year on year to 2.9 trillion yuan (US$441 billion) in the first two months of this year.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics,  despite a spending spree during the traditional Chinese New Year holiday, the growth was 3.3 percentage points lower than December’s level.

Urban retail sales of consumer goods topped 2.5 trillion yuan in the January-February period, up 15.9 percent year on year, while retail sales in rural areas rose 15.4 percent to 384.5 billion yuan from a year earlier, said Sheng Laiyun, Shanghai Daily reported, citing a bureau spokesman.

The January-February consumption figure was “relatively weak,” said Liu Ligang, head of ANZ Bank’s China economics, which is far below market expectations of 19 percent. The slowdown in consumption growth was in line with a decline in consumer confidence in recent months, he said in a note.

The Bankcard Consumer Confidence Index, compiled by Xinhua news agency and China UnionPay, was up 0.51 point to 86.04 last month from January, but it was still down 0.59 point from the same period last year.

In January, the index dropped 1.28 points from a year ago and 0.39 point from the December level.

China Watch Blog has learnt that a sixth reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plants has lost its ability to cool the reactor core since the massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami struck Japan yesterday, said Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator and owner of the plants, early today.

The No. 3 reactor at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant lost the function after No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at the No. 1 plant and No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 at the No. 2 plant had suffered the same trouble.

At an emergency press conference today, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that the reactor is releasing radioactive steam after the malfunction occurred.

An explosion occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant Saturday, destroying the roof and the walls of the building of the No. 1 reactor’s outer container.

Four people were injured at the power plant, but radiation levels dropped quickly after surging for a while following the blast.