Friday - January 06, 2012
china threatens eu with trade war ….. sock it to em China.
Europe faces the possible threat of a trade war with the USA after the high court in the EU, threw out an American claim for our airlines to avoid new emissions-trade rules.
As of Jan. 1st, the EU says all airlines who land in EU member states will need carbon permits and naturally, costs are going up.
All airlines flying to and within Europe will be affected.
Now enter the Chinese who are hot under the collar over this and are saying F***You to the EU.
OK, they didn’t go that far and aren’t as crude as I am. But you get the idea. And I hope the Chinese stick to their guns on this issue. Lets see if the EU can take those folks on and at what cost.
Give em hell China.
The “environmental squeeze” that helped prompt British Airways owner IAG’s takeover of BMI is set to ignite a trade war between China and Europe after the EU’s top court upheld a move to charge airlines using the Continent’s airspace for their greenhouse gas emissions.
Beijing yesterday threatened disruptions to trade with the EU after the European Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that the emissions tax would go ahead as planned on 1 January. The move added China’s voice to that of America, which last week warned that it would take “appropriate action” if the proposed charges were not amended or delayed.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency, which acts as the Chinese government’s mouthpiece, said: “This is a trade barrier in the name of environmental protection and will strike a blow to passenger benefits and the international airline industry. It will be difficult to avoid a trade war focused on an aviation ‘carbon tax’.” The European Commission has calculated that costs per passenger could rise by about £21 on a return transatlantic flight as a result of the emissions charge.
The ruling from the European Court of Justice will intensify the pressure on airlines exerted by environmental concerns, adding to the woes of an industry already reeling from high fuel costs and the weak US and European economies. China threatens trade war over EU jet emissions tax
Chinese airlines warn they will refuse to pay EU carbon taxChina’s biggest airlines warned on Thursday they will refuse to pay a new EU tax aimed at cutting carbon emissions.
By Peter Simpson, Beijing
Beijing said it has deep concerns over the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which came into force on New year’s Day and demands all airlines pay a green duty to offset carbon emissions.
“China opposes the European Union’s unilateral legislation. China has expressed to the EU our deep concern and opposition many times on a bilateral level,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
Mr Hong urged Brussels to hold urgent talks with Beijing over the controversial carbon allowance scheme, which has also met strong opposition from other countries.
The China Air Transport Association was more militant in its response – declaring its members would not co-operate with the ETS and refuse to pay the added tax.
It also said it would seek legal action and try and attempt to form an international alliance to scrap the scheme.“The CATA, on behalf of Chinese airlines, is strongly against the EU’s improper practice of unilaterally forcing international airlines into its ETS,” CATA spokesman Cai Haibo said.
“If governments like the US, China and Russia can launch strong and forceful retaliatory measures, this will form enormous pressure and we hope could make the EU to change its mind.”
China’s four major airlines – national flag-carrier Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines – are represented by the CATA.
China is likely to be able to pull unusually heavy punches in the dispute as its air carriers ferry hundreds of thousand of passenger from Asia into Europe’s troubled markets, including the tourist sector.
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Permalink • Friday - September 02, 2011
archaeology in china again
Ran across this only minutes ago.
Worth sharing for any who have an interest but haven’t seen this yet.
Remains of horses and chariots unearthed from tomb dating back to 3,000-year-old Chinese dynasty
By DAILY MAIL REPORTERIt could have been as early as 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ that these horses were moved on to greener pastures - and no one has laid eyes on them until now.
Archaeologists have painstakingly uncovered the almost 3,000-year-old remains of horses and wooden chariots in a Zhou Dynasty tomb in Luoyang, Henan Province, China.
The completed excavation unearthed four horse-and-chariot pits, dating back as far as 770BC.
The pits have well-preserved evidence of bronzeware and ceramics from the Early Western Zhou dynasty.
Though a far smaller tomb than the famous ‘terracotta army’ found in 1974 in the Lintong District, this find has been undisturbed while buried and has not suffered the ravages of grave robbers.
Archaeologists believe that the tomb belongs to an official of some renown during the dynasty - pottery, metal weaponry and inscriptions are consistent with a man of mid-level importance.
Apart from the artifacts themselves, the tomb is an exciting discovery for historians, as it provides unquestionable insights into funeral customs in the early Western Zhou dynasty.
The unearthed tomb is a vertical earthen pit tomb, which is very common in that period.
Because of the age of the site, the traditionally wooden coffin and body within have long-since carbonised.
But the most valuable discovery by far is the complete set of chariots and horses, of all shapes and sizes.
Animal lovers can breathe a small sigh of relief - archaeologists say the position of the horses, lying on their sides, show that the animals were slaughtered before burial, and not entombed alive.
At the time of this official’’s death, large-scale irrigation projects were being instituted across China, and the nation’s writing system was being further developed.
It was also the time of the great Chinese philosophers of antiquity, including Confucius, Mencius, and Zhuangzi.
Many nearby tombs have fragments similar to the Luoyang find, but most have been emptied of their funeral relics by thieves.
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Permalink • Monday - January 17, 2011
DIGGING UP CHINA
Came across this today. Don’t suppose all of it quite falls into archeology but the parts newly found sure do. Amazing that those people could build on this scale in this environment so long ago.
Lots of good photos HERE
China: A history still being unearthed
Nigel Richardson reports on tombs in China that have been ignored in the hype over the Terracotta Warriors.
In the contiguous provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan, through which China’s second-longest river flows south then abruptly east, man made the first written records of his existence – on animal bones – and established China’s earliest political and artistic cultures. Until power shifted north and east from the 10th century, the region remained the hub of a succession of dynasties, the one called Tang being generally considered the high point of Chinese civilisation.These days the Yellow River plateau has swapped imperial robes for a boiler suit. Its coal mines and power stations feed the monster that is industrial China. But its past lives on in a succession of outstanding historic and archaeological sites that deserve to be rated world-class.
That they are not better known is partly because they are located in the heart of a vast country that only relatively recently, after nearly 4,000 years of civilisation, has been made accessible to foreigners (a region, moreover, that makes few concessions to Western tourists); and partly thanks to the Terracotta Army effect.
So far as foreign visitors are concerned, these endlessly celebrated and reproduced figures have eclipsed almost every other notable site in China (bar the Forbidden City and the Great Wall), just as Machu Picchu dominates the rich and varied archaeology of Peru. This is both a shame and a marvellous excuse for the reasonably adventurous tourist to go exploring.Yes, yes, we did the Terracotta Warriors – and were glad to get it over with. Since I was last there, in 1998, the car park has been relocated half a mile from the actual museum so that visitors must run a gauntlet of souvenir shops to get there, battling not just through hawkers and fellow tourists but through the wall of heat that is reflected off the vast acreages of new paving stone.
After a long gap, excavations were resumed last year and 100 more figures have been unearthed and put back together. But for me, the impressiveness of the Warriors lies not merely in the sight of them, lined up in their earthen parade grounds, but in the knowledge that they represent only a tiny fraction of what still awaits discovery.
If you imagine Xian sitting at the centre of a necropolis the size of a football pitch, the pits containing the Terracotta Army occupy an area less than the size of the penalty spot. Driving from the airport towards the city, you see the telltale burial mounds pimpling the fields.
The actual tomb of Emperor Qin, remember, still awaits excavation, though fabulous stories of what it may contain, including rivers of mercury and elaborate booby traps – are legion. But other tombs have been opened up, notably that of Emperor Jing Di, who ruled China from 157 to 141BC, less than a century after Qin Shi Huang (and was, by all accounts, as enlightened as Qin was monstrous).Jing’s tomb was discovered during the building of the airport road in the early Nineties, and a museum opened on the site in 2005. It provides a poignant counterpoint to the commercial hoopla of Terracotta-Land.
Undisturbed by camera-clicking hordes, we walked along glass floors above 10 excavated burial pits containing miniature clay figures of men, women, eunuchs, pigs and chickens. The armless human figures once had wooden arms and real clothes. There were lacquer boxes and collapsed chariots, and a sense of intimacy, as if these artefacts were family heirlooms.
In this part of China, farmers and construction workers are only ever a spade’s depth away from such treasures.
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Permalink • Wednesday - December 08, 2010
CHINA GRIMM ON FAIRY TALE AND ELK HUNTER BAGS SKIER IN SWEDEN
A couple of news briefs of some interest.
First ... CHINA in the news.
Chinese publisher releases erotic fairy tales by mistake
By Malcolm Moore, ShanghaiA Chinese publisher has been forced to recall a collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales after mistakenly translating an erotic Japanese version of the stories.
The edition of the children’s book which hit the shelves in China in October included a reworking of the story of Snow White in which she romps with the seven dwarves.Red-faced executives at Beijing Mediatime, the publishing house, said a mix-up had occurred when they could not find the original German version of the book to translate, and had turned to a Japanese version instead.
Around 150 copies of the book were sold in Hangzhou before complaints from customers led to the recall.
“Readers called us to say they did not think the book was healthy for children,” said Li Yong, the deputy chairman of the publisher.“After that, we pulled all the copies off shelves across the country before last Wednesday.”
Asked how the mix-up had gone unspotted, the publisher said the situation had been “complicated”.Another executive from Beijing Mediatime, only named as Mr Yuan, told the Zhejiang Morning Express newspaper: “We cannot read Japanese, so we cannot make a comparison, but we trusted the translator, who is a post graduate student.”
no, I spelled it the right way on this occasion.
Elk hunter bags skier in Sweden
Elk hunter accidentally kills skierA female hunter accidentally shot dead 70-year-old cross-country skier when a bullet she fired ricocheted off an elk and struck the victim, according to reports.
Police were investigating the incident and the account given by the female hunter and her companion about the bullet first striking the elk and then bouncing off to hit the skier, killing the man instantly.The hunter was in shock and police were not yet able to question her, according to the Expressen newspaper.
The incident occurred Saturday in a forest region near Ljungby, some 155 miles south-west of the capital Stockholm.
Each year, some 300,000 hunt elk, killing 100,000 of the animals. Formerly an exclusively male domain, in recent years more and more women have taken part, with more than 14,600 Swedish women registered for this year’s elk hunt.
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Permalink • Thursday - November 18, 2010
BIKINI CLAD CHEERLEADERS DISTRACT PLAYERS WHO LOSE. IT’S BUSH’S FAULT.
Not how I planned to start the posting day but who could resist this. Never mind babes in bikinis, it’s funny.
Cheerleaders blamed for Yemen beach volleyball defeatBikini-clad cheerleaders have been blamed by the Yemen beach volleyball team for their defeat during the Asian Games.
By Our Foreign Staff
Organisers of the games in China have hired four cheerleader squads, each made up of eight girls, to entertain fans during breaks in the volleyball action, according to the Tianfu Morning News.
But Yemen beach volleyballer Adeeb Mahfoudh has now accused the squads of being distracting, and partly to blame for their defeat to Indonesia.
“They had an effect on how we played,” he said. “I think they had something to do with our losing the match.
Besides cheering, the girls also perform routines that include traditional Chinese elements including martial arts and fan dancing.
“These girls are very beautiful. With them here, more people will pay attention to beach volleyball,” Mr Mahfoudh added.
“If I can, I hope to watch them perform at the next match.”
Posted by peiper
on 11/18/2010 at 06:22 AM
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Permalink • Friday - November 05, 2010
will china own the world?
H/T ... Miller
Just found in one of my mail accounts. Must have been there for a few days. They do own a lot of our debt.
Posted by peiper
on 11/05/2010 at 11:54 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - September 09, 2010
an action whose time has come? yeah. I’d say so. for once, good for the lawyer.
I haven’t been to a movie in years. Don’t miss it either. But I do miserably recall those god awful over modulated commercials they started to run in Ca. theaters. Always bothered me. First, you’re paying to see a movie. You are not an invited guest. It isn’t enough that TV has tons of boring commercials. But at least with a remote control at home, you can do something about that. And then the worst part is as stated, the volume they runs the ads at. Ear shattering.
But I guess it takes a lawyer, even in a place like China, to do something about it. I hope she wins her case.
btw ... Coming attractions no thrill either. They used to be pretty good once upon a time. Is it me? Had the sound system gone south in the modern age?
Seems like it was a lot better when I was much younger and movies didn’t have the high tech toys for sound engineers to play with. Or maybe it’s the theaters in Ca. ??
Chinese woman ‘sues cinema for wasting her time’A Chinese woman is suing a cinema and a film’s distributors for wasting her time by showing 20 minutes of adverts before it started, according to state media.
Chen Xiaomei claims the Polybona International Cinema in the northern city of Xian and film distributors Huayi Brothers Media Corporation should have told her how long the advertisements for the film Aftershock lasted, Xinhua news agency said.
Ms Chen, who is a lawyer, has accused Polybona and Huayi Brothers of wasting her time and violating her freedom of choice.
The case has been accepted by the People’s Court in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, Xinhua said, citing a statement from the court.
Ms Chen is demanding the companies refund her 35-yuan ticket (£3.30), pay her 35 yuan in compensation and one yuan (10p) for emotional damages and write her an apology, the report said.
She has also advised the cinema to publish the advertisement times on its website, in the lobby or on its customer hotline and asked Huayi Brothers to cut the length of commercials to less than five minutes.
“Aftershock”, which is about an earthquake that devastated a Chinese city in 1976, has become the highest-grossing domestic film, raking in 650 million yuan (£61,768,000), Xinhua said.
The movie directed by Feng Xiaogang tells the story of a mother’s emotional reunion with her daughter, three decades after a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated the northern city of Tangshan, killing more than 240,000 people.
Posted by peiper
on 09/09/2010 at 11:43 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - August 24, 2010
Horry Clap
10 days? This sounds impossible, but gridlock in northern China has shut down the highway and snarled traffic for 60 miles or more. Guess they should have used some of the money from that great economic expansion of theirs to develop a little bit of infrastructure. Or done a better job of that 5 year planning the commies are so famous for.
BEIJING – A massive traffic jam in north China that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won’t be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.
Bumper-to-bumper gridlock spanning for 60 miles (100 kilometers) with cars moving little more than a half-mile (one kilometer) a day at one point has improved since this weekend, said Zhang Minghai, director of Zhangjiakou city’s Traffic Management Bureau general office.
But he said he wasn’t sure when the situation along the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway would return to normal.
The traffic jam started Aug. 14 on a stretch of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway. That section has frequently been congested, especially after large coalfields were discovered in Inner Mongolia, Zhang said. Traffic volume has increased 40 percent every year.
Drivers stranded in the gridlock in the Inner Mongolia region and Hebei province, headed toward Beijing, passed the time sleeping, walking around, or playing cards and chess. Local villagers were doing brisk business selling instant noodles, boxed lunches and snacks, weaving between the parked trucks on bicycles.
The highway construction in Beijing that is restricting inbound traffic flow and causing the jam “will not be finished until Sept. 17,” he said.
Pretty much only one improved highway heads south from Russia into Mongolia and then down to China across it’s northern province of Inner Mongolia. Once in China that highway splits, with one leg heading south towards Ulangab and another heading south east towards Zhangjakou, where the Ulangab leg meets up with it. From there, only one improved highway heads into Beijing. Beijing is about 300 road miles from the Mongolian border.
Posted by Drew458
on 08/24/2010 at 06:46 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - January 13, 2010
WOO - WHO GUYS IN AMERICA. Have you already seen this? WOW!
Right I know. I go a bit crazy over finds like this. And I always ask the same questions. What else is out there? What are they gonna find next?
It amazing that some of the things found have even survived this long.
I wonder if there will be anything from our current century that will have someone 500 years from now saying, wow. What a find.
Maybe, Wow. How primitive?
Be sure to go HERE FOR SOME GREAT PHOTOS .
Pictured: The 400-year-old map that shows China as the centre of the worldBy Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:49 AM on 13th January 2010A rare 17th Century map that shows China as the as the centre of the world went on display yesterday in Washington.
The map, created in 1602 by Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci, was the first in Chinese to show the Americas, and identifies Florida as ‘the Land of Flowers’.
The 12ft by 5ft document, printed on six rolls of rice paper, is on show at the Library of Congress. It is one of only two copies in existence in good condition, and was coined ‘the impossible black tulip of cartography’ by experts strugging to track it down.
Rare: The 17th Century Ricci Map. 1: China - 2: India - 3: Russia - 4: Europe - 5: Japan - 6: Canada - 7: US - 8: South America - 9: Africa - 10: Middle EastThe map includes drawings and annotations detailing different regions of the world. Africa was noted to have the world’s highest mountain and longest river, while a brief description of North America describes ‘humped oxen’, wild horses and a region named ‘Ka-na-ta’.
Several Central and South American places are also named, including ‘Wa-ti-ma-la’ (Guatemala), ‘Yu-ho-t’ang’ (Yucatan) and ‘Chih-Li’ (Chile).
Ricci also included a brief description of the discovery of the Americas: ‘In olden days, nobody had ever known that there were such places as North and South America or Magellanica,’ he wrote, citing a name that early mapmakers used for Australia and Antarctica.
‘But a hundred years ago, Europeans came sailing in their ships to parts of the sea coast, and so discovered them.’
Ti Bin Zhang of the Chinese Embassy in Washington called the map a ‘catalyst for commerce’, and that it represented the momentous first meeting of East and West.
Ricci was among the first Westerners to live in what is now Beijing. Known for introducing Western science to China, Ricci created the map at the request of Emperor Wanli.
No examples of the map are known to exist in China, where Ricci was revered and buried. Only a few original copies are known to exist, held by the Vatican’s libraries and collectors in France and Japan.
Enlarge Catalyst for commerce: The map is thought to represent the momentous first meeting of East and West
Enlarge Intricate: The map, created in 1602, identifies Florida as ‘the Land of Flowers’Catalyst for commerce: The map is thought to represent the momentous first meeting of East and West
The copy on display at the Library of Congress became the second most expensive rare map ever sold after it was purchased by the James Ford Bell Trust in October for $1million.
The trust also owns the Waldseemuller world map, which was the first to use the name ‘America’ and was purchased for a staggering $10 million in 2003.
Prior to its sale, the Ricci map had been held by a private collector in Japan. When the Washington exhibition ends in April, it will be housed at the Bell Library at the University of Minnesota.
The library also will create a digital image of the map to be posted online.
-30-
Posted by peiper
on 01/13/2010 at 07:01 AM
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Permalink • Friday - January 01, 2010
CHINESE DEMOLITION CREW GETS IT WRONG. (suicides at 6)
I seriously thought I was gone for the night. Shows how much I know. I need to get back to a book. Hey ,, I finally got my copy of Heinlein from Amazon.
Can’t put it down. Thnx guys.
OK so .... you have GOT to go here to see this. The video is also here but there isn’t any way to bed it here as it’s the Chinese YouTube. YouKu.com.
Take a look at this.
The demolition guys got it wrong.
See all the photos and the video here.
Posted by peiper
on 01/01/2010 at 01:31 PM
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Permalink • Wednesday - December 30, 2009
WHEN CHINA SPEAKS, PEOPLE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION ….
Caught this today in the Times On Line. (UK)
No comment from me. Kinda speaks for itself.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/cartoon/
Posted by peiper
on 12/30/2009 at 10:18 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - December 29, 2009
IDIOT BRIT GOVT. SUMMONS CHINESE AMBASSADOR OVER CHINA’S LEGAL ACT WASTING DRUG DEALER
I am surprised that the Brits have already forgotten The Opium Wars. Woo-hoo. They “summon” the Chinese ambassador to lodge a complaint.
And of course the scummy rights groups are wetting their diapers. The govt. here is greatly concerned at what the Chinese did.
Meanwhile ... RIGHT HERE IN ENGLAND ,,,,,
Father shoots dead daughter, 4, and leaves wife fighting for life before turning gun on himself
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:51 PM on 29th December 2009A father ‘executed’ his four-year-old daughter by shooting her in the head before gunning down the child’s mother and then turning the weapon on himself.
Police officers desperately tried to save the injured child after the shooting this morning but she died in their arms at the scene.
The badly wounded 35-year-old woman, who was also shot in the head, was rushed to hospital where she is now fighting for her life.
Neighbours had called 999 shortly after 10am because they were worried about a domestic dispute.
Officers rushed to the £250,000 house in Aldershot, Hampshire, where they discovered the bloodbath.
Drunkenness, violence and vandalism blight most of Britain, admit officials
By Steve Doughty
Last updated at 1:14 AM on 29th December 2009Officials running Labour’s campaign against anti-social behaviour believe that most of the country has a major problem.
A Home Office survey found that 73 per cent said drunkenness and rowdiness is a ‘significant problem’ in their area.
More than four out of five believe that teenagers hanging around the streets are also a concern. Seven out of ten cite vandalism and graffiti as a scourge of their district or town.
I’m sorry but there are NO links on these. I am having continuing problems as there is nothing in the URL window above with an address. It has been happening a lot lately but usually fills in after a short time. Tonight however, all the window reads is, Google.com. I can put an address in there, get the page I want, but for some damn reason instead of showing the actual URL, it simply says Google.com. I’ve never seen that before this week.
The Times
December 29, 2009
Chinese ambassador summoned over execution of Briton Akmal ShaikhChina’s Ambassador in London was summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office today to hear Britain’s “strong condemnation” of her country’s execution of Akmal Shaikh.
Mr Shaikh, a convicted British drug smuggler who is believed to have suffered from bipolar disorder, was killed by lethal injection early today, despite the personal intervention of Gordon Brown in a telephone call to Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier.The execution was condemned by the Prime Minister and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, with the Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis declaring that it made him feel “sick to the stomach”.
Mr Lewis met Ambassador Fu Ying to express the Government’s “deep regret” that Beijing refused to examine appeals for clemency.
“I had a difficult conversation with the Chinese ambassador today,” he said.
“I made clear that the execution of Mr Shaikh was totally unacceptable and that China had failed in its basic human rights responsibilities in this case, in particular that China’s court had not considered the representations made about Mr Shaikh’s mental condition.”
Mr Shaikh’s family said that they were “deeply saddened, stunned and disappointed” by the execution.
Mental health campaigners deplored his killing, with one charity describing it as “medieval rough justice”.
The criticism sparked irritation in China, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu telling a press briefing in Beijing: “No one has the right to comment on China’s judicial sovereignty.
“It is the common wish of people around the world to strike against the crime of drug trafficking.
“We express our strong dissatisfaction and opposition to the British Government’s unreasonable criticism of the case. We urge the British to correct their mistake in order to avoid harming China-UK relations.”
The Chinese Embassy in London issued a statement insisting that Shaikh had “no previous medical record” of mental illness and that his rights and interests had been properly respected.
The Supreme Court said that the death sentence was the correct judgment in the case and evidence of mental illness was insufficient. Justifying its decision, the Supreme Court said in a statement: “To use the death penalty for extremely threatening and serious crimes involving drugs is beneficial to instilling fear and preventing drug crimes.”
It said no documents provided by the British Embassy or by other organisations as well as by Mr Shaikh himself could prove that he had a mental disorder. “There is no reason to cast doubt on Akmal Shaikh’s mental status.”
CHINA REPLIES
1.)
Statement of the Chinese Embassy on the Case of Akmal Shaikh
Akmal Shaikh was convicted for serious drug trafficking. The amount of heroin he brought into China was 4030g, enough to cause 26800 deaths, threatening numerous families. According to the Chinese law, 50g of heroin is the threshold for death penalty. It is important that the independence of the Chinese judiciary be respected.
During the legal process, Mr. Shaikh’s rights and interests were properly respected and guaranteed and the concerns of the British side were duly noted and taken into consideration by the Chinese judicial authorities. Out of humanitarian consideration, visas were granted to the two cousins of Mr. Shaikh on Boxing Day, and they were given access to meeting Mr. Shaikh inChina.
As for his possible mental illness which has been much talked about, there apparently has been no previous medical record.
Drug trafficking is a grave crime worldwide. InChina, given the bitter memory of history and the current situations, the public has a particular and strong resentment towards it. In a recent web survey, 99% of the public support the decision of the Court.
InChina the conditions are not there for abolishing the death penalty. But it is applied in a cautious manner and limited number, all such cases are reviewed by the Supreme Court.
The legal structures ofChina and UK may be different, but it should not stand in the way of enhancing our bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect.
2.)
Akmal Shaikh was convicted and sentenced to death penalty for serious drug trafficking on solid evidence. In fact, 150mg of heroin of high degree of purity would be lethal. The amount of heroin he carried was 4030g, enough to cause 26800 deaths. According to Chinese law, 50g of heroin is the threshold for the application of the death penalty. Even in the UK, he would be punished severely for his crime.
Drug trafficking is a grave crime worldwide. China has the bitter memory of drug problems in history, and is still facing severe situations at this moment, which undermines the social stability. The general public has a deep-seated hatred toward it.
China has acceded to United Nations Conventions against Illicit Drug Trafficking. In order to combat drugs, China faithfully honors its obligations under the conventions and cracks down on drug-related crimes. All cases of drug trafficking are dealt with according to law, regardless of nationality. To apply death penalty to the serious drug trafficking is helpful to preempt and prevent the drug trafficking.
The concerns of the British side have been duly noted and taken into consideration by the Chinese judicial authorities in the legal process, and Mr. Shaikh’s rights and interests under Chinese law are properly respected and guaranteed. UK consular officials visited Mr.Shaikh several times in prison and attended relevant trials.
We fully respect the UK and EU’s decision to abolish the death penalty. However, half of the countries in the world still maintain the death penalty. And in China the conditions are not yet met for abolishing the death penalty. And the majority view in China is against such abolition.
Death penalty is applied in a cautious and strictly limited manner. Reforms were introduced to ensure that all death penalty cases are reviewed and approved by the Supreme People’s Court. Such reforms will continue.
This case has been undergoing for more than two years, it is absurd to link it with the issue of Climate Change.
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Sorry not to join the liberal wailing: heroin traffickers deserve to die.
GOOD for China! Bravo.
Yes. I do understand that many BMEWS readers are not exactly China boosters. But I am tired of the liberal left and all the hand wringers claiming that EVERYONE who does bad things from running drugs to street thug killings are “suffering” from some sort of mental illness.
Lets take this jerk who happily has breathed his last in China. Right away the call went out. Spare the poor man. He has a history of mental illness.
Oh fuckin yeah? He managed to father several kids and was traveling under his own power. If he was so ill that he could not be responsible for his actions, what the hell was he doing flying everywhere on his own? I’m tired of excuses, excuses. I am also VERY tired of the moralizing and the criticism of states with the death penalty by OUTSIDERS.
Then we heard that Britain wanted the poor guy spared cos not only was he a mental case but .... He was we are told, a Brit.
Oh fuckin yeah? Well he was living in Poland or have I been misinformed?
Leo McKinstry is 100% correct. The west can not point fingers at China or anyone else while our own house is buried in filth. Ok, he didn’t say exactly that. What he said is:
My regret is not over tough action by Beijing, but the fact that we in this country do not possess the moral clarity or strength of purpose to deal ruthlessly with drug peddlers and other enemies of our society.
It is the height of hypocrisy for the Labour government, the human rights brigade and celebrity loudmouths to lecture China when Britain’s own strategy has failed so disastrously.
He said a hell of lot more and was correct in all particulars. Normally on a long editorial, I only post part of them and leave the link for anyone who wants the entire thing. But today, here is the whole editorial. It’s worth reading every single word. Even if you don’t like everything he says, everything he says is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!
But FIRST .........
Naturally enough here is what the weak minded screwball who is the Brit PM said.
Gordon Brown leads furious outcry as China executes British drugs mule by lethal injection
Gordon Brown condemns execution in ‘strongest terms’
Oh woo hoo Mr Brown. You stupid shit. Who are you to tell China what to do? What? There aren’t any serious problems here in your own falling apart country? And it gets worse. I know it isn’t scientific but a Daily Mail poll so far shows 59% of their readership agree with their bassackwards PM.
Shows ya the mindset that has taken hold here. Ten years of Liebour (as Lyndon calls it). That’s a generation steeped in the liberal left wing fold.
But not all.
Sorry not to join the liberal wailing: heroin traffickers deserve to die
By Leo Mckinstry
Last updated at 2:03 PM on 29th December 2009This morning, barring an unlikely last-minute reprieve, convicted drug smuggler Akmal Shaikh was executed by firing squad, having been found guilty of trying to bring 4kg of heroin into China.
His case has prompted outrage in this country from politicians and from the trendy metropolitan elite, for whom drug use is a fashionable habit rather than serious criminal offence.
Yet for all this orchestrated wailing, is it not possible that China is right to put Shaikh to death?
Indeed, I would argue that Britain’s enfeebled, self-destructive approach to narcotics has been graphically highlighted by China’s ruthlessness in tackling drug pushers.
In contrast to New Labour’s policy of appeasement and surrender, the Chinese Government acts vigorously to defend its people from the misery caused by the drugs trade.
My regret is not over tough action by Beijing, but the fact that we in this country do not possess the moral clarity or strength of purpose to deal ruthlessly with drug peddlers and other enemies of our society.
A bankrupt with a chequered financial history, a tangled personal life, and an obsession with easy money, Shaikh was arrested with heroin worth a cool £250,000 in his suitcase.
As the Chinese police point out, this is a big enough amount to have killed 27,000 people.
In China, the death penalty can be invoked against anyone carrying more than 50g of drugs - and that is one obvious reason why China, proportionally, has nothing like the drugs problem that we have in Britain.
Serious dealers and abusers know they could be looking down the barrel of a gun if they are caught.
It is the height of hypocrisy for the Labour government, the human rights brigade and celebrity loudmouths to lecture China when Britain’s own strategy has failed so disastrously.
A country that reveres such junkies as Kate Moss has no right to lecture China on its drugs policy, argues Leo McKinstry
Thanks to the climate of institutionalised leniency, our society is awash with drugs, bringing widespread crime, violence and family breakdown in their wake.
Dealers and users conduct their business knowing they have absolutely nothing to fear from our courts. Far from condemning cannabis and cocaine, our achingly liberal youth culture glamorises their possession.
Vacuous supermodel Kate Moss was caught using cocaine by undercover reporters, most of the fashion world rallied behind her with a sense of moral indignation, protecting her lucrative contracts and behaving as though she were a victim.
In showbusiness circles there was speculation for a long time that cocaine was not Kate’s only drug of choice - that she had also smoked heroin and crack cocaine.
Nor has Moss’s former boyfriend, musician Pete Doherty, ever received a meaningful sentence, despite repeated convictions for misuse and other criminal behaviour.
In 2007, for instance, he was spared jail over a string of offences and was even allowed by Judge Jane McIvor, who claimed to be a fan of his music, to delay a court hearing.
Similarly, drug-addled singers Amy Winehouse and George Michael have been lionised by the music establishment.
British officialdom now adopts a simpering indulgence towards drug abuse. Politicians line up to boast how much cannabis they smoked in their youth and downgrade the criminal classification of substances.
Instead of locking up offenders, the Government wastes a fortune of taxpayers’ money on non-judgmental propaganda like the useless television adverts from the £2.2million Frank campaign.
Public funds are lavished on rehabilitation schemes, all of which have failed to prevent a dramatic rise in abuse.
Unlike China with its firing squads, the only ‘shooting galleries’ we have in Britain are state-run needle exchanges for junkies.
Outrageously, self-inflicted drug addiction is now regarded by the welfare state as a disability, entitling claimants to generous payouts of at least £110 a week. In effect, the Government requires taxpayers to subsidise criminal drug habits. It’s estimated no fewer than 267,000 serious drug users live on social security.
In contrast to China, our criminal justice system no longer treats offending seriously. Criminals walk free, community punishments are meaningless, jail sentences, even for murder, are derisory.
Ordinary citizens are constantly bullied through a plethora of bureaucratic regulations, yet violence, burglary, theft and drug abuse carry no consequences.
One key factor behind modern Britain’s reluctance to uphold the law is the belief that criminals are really victims of society, motivated only by social disadvantage or mental health problems and that they need support not punishment.
We can see this clearly in the case of Akmal Shaikh. Campaigners on his behalf claim he was suffering from mental illness at the time of his visit to China and so should be let off.
Such excuse-making is absurd. His record of infidelity, sexual harassment and dubious business conduct suggest he was amoral, selfish, and irresponsible.
He was once fined £10,000 for hounding a woman he had recruited as his secretary, while it is telling that his former first wife refused to join the campaign for a reprieve.
The hysteria over Shaikh’s death penalty echoes the preposterous outcry in 2002 over another British man who was executed by a foreign government.
A career thug, drug addict and alcoholic, Tracy Housel was put to death by the U.S. state of Georgia for raping and killing a woman, Jeanne Drew, whose body was so badly battered she could be identified only by dental records.
Once again, there were the interventions by the Labour Government. Once again, there were the claims of mental illness, with Housel said to be suffering from brain damage and hypoglycaemia, though this hardly explained his record of extreme violence.
Once again there was the tenuous nature of the defendant’s links with Britain, which hardly justified the energy the Government spent on his case. Housel, born in Bermuda, had never actually set foot in this country.
Similarly Shaikh, born in Pakistan, spent much of his adult life in the U.S. and Poland before going on his criminal odyssey to China. Neither of these men could demonstrate any real commitment or connection to Britain.
The British government, with its prattle about human rights, likes to think a refusal to use capital punishment is a badge of a civilised society. The truth is the willingness to execute dangerous criminals is a sign of compassion. It means a government is determined to protect the vulnerable and maintain morality.
It is no coincidence Britain was at its most peaceful and crime-free in the Forties and Fifties, when we still had the death penalty.
‘The gentleness of English civilisation is its most marked characteristic,’ wrote George Orwell during the war, a remark that seems laughable now, though we think of ourselves morally superior.
Between 1950 and 1957, the number of murders in Britain never rose above 180. The annual average in recent years is over 900.
Overall crime has also shot up since we abolished capital punishment. Since the Fifties, the number of recorded crimes has increased more than tenfold, up from 438,000 in 1955 to 4.8 million in 2008.
This is because the removal of the death penalty has had a downward ratchet effect.
Since murderers could no longer be hanged, sentences for all other crimes had to be lowered commensurately. The result is the near-anarchy we see today, where serial offenders continually escape custody and rates of violent crime soar.
There is nothing barbaric about the death penalty. The real barbarism lies in refusing to punish criminals.
The drug-fuelled, crime-ridden, welfare-dependent, fear-filled inner city housing estate in modern Britain is far more savage than any place of execution in China for a trafficker of human misery.
PS BMEWS. With regard to my rants on govts. sticking their unwanted noses in the business of other countries. Will shortly share something from my American Embassy newsletter. You will recall no doubt since I’m always on about it, my concerns about the EU putting in their 2 cents worth about internal American affairs. Well, the bastards have. In a case back home where some slime ball is to be erased soon, the eu had decided that it somehow is also their business too.
Hey ... to ALL of the left wing socialist hand wringing fat cats who are sitting members of the eu governing body and all other libtard Eu MPs.
FUCK YOU!
Posted by peiper
on 12/29/2009 at 09:29 AM
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Permalink • Monday - October 26, 2009
Biofuel refineries in the US have set fresh records for grain use every month since May.
Well, yet again I have to H/T LyndonB but this time there’s more. Got my eyes opened WIDE on a subject that frankly I had given no thought to.
I don’t recall exactly what I wrote to Lyndon but his reply was this:
The US may be down (with an ass clown at the helm) but it is not out. It is still a superpower. Not just militarily but in terms of agriculture. Years ago I worked on Mississippi river barges which came up to Iowa empty and went back down to New Orleans full of soy beans and maize. Unless you have seen this first hand the sheer scale of this industry it is hard to get across. We loaded up barges with maize. Each of them were 200’ long and we then moved them out to the line boats which took them on to the gulf fifteen at a time. I therefore found this article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard very interesting. The arabs and Chinese think they have the US by the balls. One through oil dependancy, the other through their dollar holdings. When I worked on the river one of the owners of the company once remarked that hunger was the most important factor to consider, because at the end of the day you can’t eat gold or drink oil. Something I feel a few of these piss pots would do well to remember.
And the link he provided me was the following which I found quite surprising not just for the info. What surprised me lots was the fact that I found it so interesting. It isn’t a subject to set the blood rushing lets face it. Like the rolling movements of the Qs on NASDAQ. But darn if I wasn’t glued to every line. I had no idea.
Thanks L.
Food will never be so cheap again
Biofuel refineries in the US have set fresh records for grain use every month since May. Almost a third of the US corn harvest will be diverted into ethanol for motors this year, or 12pc of the global crop.
By Ambrose Evans-PritchardThe world’s grain stocks have dropped from four to 2.6 months cover since 2000, despite two bumper harvests in North America. China’s inventories are at a 30-year low. Asian rice stocks are near danger level.
Yet farm commodities have largely missed out on Bernanke’s reflation rally in metals, oil, and everything else. Dylan Grice from Société Générale sees “bargain basement” prices.Wheat has crashed 70pc from early 2008. Corn has halved. The “Ags” have mostly drifted sideways over the last six months. This divergence within the commodity family is untenable, given the bio-ethanol linkage to oil.
For investors wishing to rotate out of overstretched rallies – Wall Street’s Transport index and the Russell 2000 broke down last week – this is a rare chance to buy cheap into a story that will dominate the rest of our lives.Barack Obama has not reversed the Bush policy on biofuels, despite food riots in a string of poor countries last year and calls for a moratorium. The subsidy of 45 cents per gallon remains.
The motive is strategic. America is weaning itself off imported energy at breakneck speed. It will not again be held hostage by oil demagogues, or humiliated by states that cannot feed themselves. Those Beijing students who laughed at US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner may not enjoy the last laugh. The US is the agricultural superpower. Foes will discover why that matters.The world population is adding “another Britain” every year. This will continue until mid-century. By then we will have an extra 2.4bn mouths to feed.
China and Southeast Asia are switching to animal-protein diets as they grow wealthy, as the Koreans did before them. It takes roughly 3-5kgs of animal feed from grains to produce 1kg of meat.A report by Standard Chartered, The End of Cheap Food, said North Africa and the Middle East have already hit the buffers. The region imports 71pc of its rice and 58pc of its corn. It lacks water to boost output. The population is growing fast. It will have to import, and cross fingers.
The UN says global farm yields must rise 77pc, which means redoubling Norman Borlaug’s “green revolution”. It will not be easy. China’s trend growth in crops yields has slipped from 3.1pc a year in the early 1960s to 0.9pc over the last decade.“We’ve all heard the stark anecdotes: precious topsoil weakened by over-farming, dust clouds darkening the Asian skies, parched land becoming desert and rivers running dry,” said Mr Grice.
Since 2000, China has lost nearly 1,400 square miles each year to desert. Urban sprawl is paving over fertile land in the East. Water supply from Himalayan glaciers is ebbing. The Yellow River has been reduced to “an agonising trickle”. It no longer reaches the sea for 200 days a year.Farmers are draining the aquifers. Environmentalist Ma Jun says in China’s Water Crisis that they are drilling as deep as 1,000 metres into non-replenishable reserves. The grain region of the Hai River Basin relies on groundwater for 70pc of irrigation.
China’s water troubles are not unique. North India lives off Himalayan snows as well. Nor can we take fertiliser supply for granted any longer since “peak phosphates” threatens.
One can be Malthusian about this. Grizzled commodity guru Jim Rogers certainly is. “The world is going to have a period when we cannot get food at any price, in some parts.” He advises youth to opt for a farm degree rather than an MBA, if they want to make serious money.
Mr Grice remains an optimist, believing that human ingenuity will rescue us. You can trade the “Ag” rally by investing in exchange traded funds (ETFs), but this amounts to speculation on food. There are ancient taboos against this practice.
Or you can invest in the bio-tech, fertiliser, and land services companies that will both make money and help to solve the problem. Monsanto, Syngenta, and Potash are popular, but trade at high price to book values. Golden Agri-Resources, Yara, Agrium, and Bunge are at better multiples.
Kingsmill Bond at Moscow’s Troika Dialog suggests the Baltic company Trigon Agri as a way to play the catch-up story in the Eurasian steppe. He likes sunflower processor Kernel, grain group Razgulay, and fertiliser firm Uralkali.
Strictly speaking, the world has enough land to feed everybody. The Soviet Union farmed 240m hectares in Khrushchev’s era. The same territory now farms 207m hectares. Troika says crop yields could be doubled in Russia, and tripled in the Ukraine using modern know-how. Africa’s farms could come alive with land registers, allowing villagers to use property as collateral for credit.
None of this can be done with a flick of the fingers. What seems certain is that the terms of trade between country and city will revert to the norms of the Middle Ages. Landowners will be barons again.
Posted by peiper
on 10/26/2009 at 09:19 AM
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