China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has learnt that two major Chinese microblogging sites, weibo.com and t.qq.com, have suspended comment functions after they were punished for allowing rumors to spread.

According to a Shanghai Daily report, the t.qq.com, run by Tencent, put up an online announcement this morning that it has decided to suspend comment function from March 31 to April 3 to clean up rumors and other illegal information spread through microbloggings.

The weibo.com operated by Sina also released an announcement today saying it would suspend comment function during the above-mentioned period.

Chinese authorities have closed 16 websites and detained six people responsible for “fabricating or disseminating online rumors”.

The State Internet Information Office (SIIO) and Beijing police said that those websites were closed for spreading rumors of “military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing,” which were fabricated by some lawless people recently.

Beijing police also detained six people for allegedly fabricating and spreading the above-mentioned rumors, particularly through microblogging posts, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security.

A spokesman with the SIIO also said with regard to a number of rumors having appeared on weibo.com and t.qq.com, the two popular microblogging sites have been “criticized and punished accordingly” by Internet information administration authorities in Beijing and Guangdong respectively.

China Watch Blog wishes to inform readers that tonight (Mar 31) at 8.30pm, Hong Kong joined hundreds of millions of people in over 6,400 cities across 150 countries and regions, and every continent in a moment of unprecedented global unity to show the way forward on sustainability by switching off its lights.

Hong Kong participates in Earth Hour

Earth Hour 2012 began at 8:30pm tonight for one hour and participation has reached record levels. The Hong Kong community, as in previous years, have shown overwhelming support for Earth Hour: The Government House, the Chief Executive’s Office and Legislative Council Complex participated in the lights-out event. In addition, over 3,300 companies and buildings, all universities and over 340 secondary and primary schools in Hong Kong have also supported WWF’s Earth Hour.

“Earth Hour itself might last just one hour, but its spirit surely goes beyond that. Our theme this year is ‘Go beyond the hour, set your own energy saving target’. We believe that every individual has the power to make a difference. With each of us having an energy saving target, we can reduce our energy consumption, and make Earth Hour every hour of every day,” says Trevor Yang, Chairman of WWF-Hong Kong.

Earth Hour is a symbolic event that clearly demonstrates that small actions such as turning off your lights for one hour can collectively make a difference. According to “Hong Kong Energy Index”, 26 percent more energy was wasted in the overall energy consumption in Hong Kong over the past two decades (1990-2008). This year, WWF is calling on people to support Earth Hour not only by turning off the lights for one hour in a year, but also by going beyond the hour and contributing to a sustainable future by doing their part at home every day.

Hong Kong’s famous skyline was dimmed from 8:30-9:30pm. Landmarks and iconic buildings participating in Earth Hour include: International Finance Centre, Manulife Financial Centre, International Commerce Centre, Exchange Square One, Two and Three, Jardine House, Cheung Kong Center, Cultural Centre, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Pacific Place, Standard Chartered Bank Building, HSBC Building, Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower, Tsing Ma Bridge, Mega Box, Festival Walk, SOGO Causeway Bay, One Island East, Sino Plaza, Central Plaza, 1881 Heritage, Sun Hung Kai Centre, Hopewell Centre and Nina Tower.

Besides the WWF event at Cultural Centre Open Piazza, WWF also organized a series of activities during the day including a tram parade and street promotion to invite Hong Kong citizens to celebrate and witness this memorable event together.

Just before the countdown, 150 maracas handmade by Earth Hour school ambassadors out of recycled bottles are being distributed to guests to count down with fun. The handmade maracas also demonstrate the spirit of maintaining a sustainable lifestyle. In addition, a number of spontaneous events will be held in homes and communities all over the city. Corporations have involved their staff in Earth Hour. In the catering industry, restaurants and hotels are dimming or switching off their lights. Shops have provided Earth Hour special offers and campuses are also participating in the lights-out event.

Standard Chartered Hong Kong 150th Anniversary Community Foundation continues to be the Lead Sponsor of Earth Hour in Hong Kong for the third consecutive year.

Around the world, citizens in 150 countries and regions have confirmed that they would switch their lights off for Earth Hour 2012. This includes a number of international landmarks such as the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Buckingham Palace in London, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Table Mountain in South Africa, and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro as well as the Sydney Opera House.

China Watch Blog is considering a number of policies to boost the country’s imports and improve its trade balance, which include adjustments to import tariffs and measures to facilitate fund-raising and customs clearance for import enterprises.

According to a State Council, or cabinet, executive meeting presided by Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday, China will cut import duties on some energy and raw material products, consumer products as well as some high-tech goods.

It said the country will put more attention on increasing imports, which will help improve people’s living standards and ease frictions with the country’s trade partners.

The country will also encourage commercial banks to support the imports of high-tech technologies, equipment, key parts as well as energy and raw material products, it said.

Other policies will include measures to expand fund-raising channels of import firms, improve the cross-border trade settlement in the yuan, cut import costs and remove irregular restrictions.

China is now the world’s largest exporter and the second-largest importer. The growth of its imports has recently outpaced exports as the country tries to increase domestic demand.

The countries’ exports rose 18.4 percent from a year earlier to $114.47 billion in February, while imports were up 39.6 percent, the highest growth in 13 months, to $145.96 billion, according to customs data.

China Watch Blog has learnt that the Beijing office of the Intellectual Property Rights Department of the Italian Trade Commission (ITC) recently submitted a list of 30 brands to China’s State Intellectual Property Office, saying that these brands falsely advertised as having Italian origin to lure customers.

How do these “fake Italian brands” label themselves as Italian brands?

Nonexistent “Italian design”, Register trademarks and establish shell companies, Feature Italian flag, cities to show Italian origin, and Forge certificate of origin.

Presumably, all other top brands are similarly copied and being sold in China. So don’t be surprised.

China Watch Blog has learnt that the Australian competition regulator will take Apple to court for allegedly making misleading statements about the wireless internet capability of the third generation iPad.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accused Apple of breaking the consumer law by promoting the new iPad as being able to connect to high-speed 4G mobile networks using a sim card.

The ACCC says the new iPad does not work on any Australian 4G network.
It is seeking an urgent court order to force Apple to correct its advertising and make refunds to customers.

The ACCC will make the application in the Federal Court in Melbourne this morning.

California-based Apple announced last week that it sold three million of the latest tablet computers in its first weekend on the market – the strongest iPad launch yet.

The latest case is not the first time Apple’s technology has landed in Australia’s courts.

The firm is locked in a legal battle with rival Samsung over tablet patents, part of a wider global tussle over supremacy of the $100 billion market.

China Watch Blog has learnt that a Japanese man in Shenzhen has received a lifetime driving ban for fleeing the scene of an accident, according to Shenzhen traffic police.

Norio Ohi, who works for a local toy company, ran over and killed a drunken man who was sitting by the road on the Nanguang Expressway in January 2009. Ohi fled after the accident, knowing that he had hit someone. He failed to report the accident to police. Ohi was arrested later and found guilty of committing hit-and-run.

Ohi, 62, is the eldest of 19 drivers who have received lifetime driving bans for fleeing the scenes of accidents, according to a list released by police.

The youngest, Deng Chuan, caused an accident in March last year. His car hit a tricycle pedal cab in Longgang and killed the rider.
According to police, their information will be on the national drivers’ management database and they will be unable to get drivers’ licenses in China.

China Watch Blog has learnt that Shenzhen will ban the use of electric bikes that fail to meet national standards between April 1 and June 30. There will be a 15-day grace period.

Violators will be fined 200 yuan (US$32) starting April 16. The restriction areas include trunk roads, port areas and terminals.

But the restriction will not apply to vehicles used by businesses that require electric bikes, such as those involved in postal service, water, electricity, gas, telecommunication, elevator repair, and bottled water delivery.

The colors of electric bikes will be standardized (dark yellow for public facilities rescue, dark blue for postal service and newspaper delivery, and sky blue for other industries) and employees must wear uniforms while riding the bikes and carry work certificates and ID at all times, Shenzhen traffic police said at a news conference yesterday.

The city has around 200,000 electric bikes and 80 percent failed to meet national standards, which require the bikes to have a maximum speed of 20km/h and weigh less than 40 kg.

Most electric bikes in Shenzhen can reach 40-50 kilometers per hour and riders often ignore red lights, increasing the risk of traffic accidents. In 2011, Shenzhen police received 483,709 reports of accidents involving electric bikes, accounting for 58.5 percent of all traffic accidents.

As the electric bikes were not insured and riders often fled the scenes of accidents, the victims would struggle to get compensation, police said. In 2011, 22 people were killed and 34 injured in accidents involving electric bikes.

A survey of over 1,926 respondents showed 70 percent of residents supported restricting or banning electric bikes while 13 percent opposed, police said

China Watch Blog has learnt that a 68-year-old rural woman who went to the city for the first time in her life wasted 98 tons of water over two months by flushing the toilet in her son’s home, the Dalian-based Bandao Morning Post reported on March 26.

The lady, surnamed Song, flushed the toilet almost every five minutes because she found it interesting, the paper said.

Song told the paper that she thought flushing the toilet was different from running water, and didn’t cost any money.

Song was brought to Dalian, a city in Northeast China’s Liaoning province, by her son in January to spend the lunar Chinese New Year and has stayed with him ever since, according to the paper.

China Watch Blog has learnt that a college professor in the city of Luoyang, Central China’s Henan province, was fined only $159 for plagiarizing the work of a former undergraduate student at Beijing Sport University, the Zhengzhou-based Dahe Daily reported.

Lu Di, a graduate student at Beijing Sport University, found an article published in their school academic journal that had 95 percent of the same content as her graduation thesis in 2010, the report said.

The author of the published paper is a director and professor in the sports department of a college in Luoyang.

Lu filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement with the Luoyang Intermediate People’s Court in 2011 and sought compensation of 100,000 yuan ($15,858).

The court determined Lu’s thesis as copyrighted materials but fined the professor only $159, the report said.

China Watch Blog has learnt that there is a rising number of bankruptcies in Hong Kong, as many companies and individuals, squeezed by the adverse economic situation are falling behind in their payments to banks, which are aggressively recalling loans and so on, pressuring many to resort to bankruptcy protection.

Banks are resorting to dirty tactics to squeeze their customers, and when their payments are overdue by slightly over one month, they add the second month’s payment to the first and immediately demand two months payments in one-go putting tremendous pressure on customers.

If customers fail to pay up, they send their customers case immediately to the debt collection companies, which then bill the customers exorbitant fees for doing the debt collection for the banks.

In so doing, banks ruin their reputation by resorting to dirty tactics.

People many go bankrupt but after four years in Hong Kong, they can discharge their debts, but they cannot borrow money or use credit cards for life. These people would be better off with cash since they cannot deal with banks.