Japan Defies China Ultimatum!

SICK OF CHINA’S EMPTY THREATS?

Japan to Jiabao: You Don’t Have the Balls!

Image of the day:

The detained Chinese fishing trawler is flanked by two Japanese Coast Guard vessels during an investigation by Japanese authorities near Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture of Japan Sept. 12, 2010.  (Xinhua, File Photo). Image may be subject to copyright.

Chinese PM Wen Jiabao has demanded Japan ‘swiftly and unconditionally’ release the trawler’s detained captain.

Japan seized a Chinese trawler, and has held its Chinese captain and 14 crews in detention since September 7, after the boat collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels in waters off the disputed Islands, despite strong protests from China.

Chinese PM Wen Jiabao has demanded Japan swiftly and unconditionally release the trawler’s captain. But, Japan isn’t impressed.

The Diaoyu Islands have been Chinese territory since the early years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Maps printed in Japan in 1783 and 1785 that marked out the boundary of the Ryukyu Kingdom show that the Diaoyu Islands belonged to China.

Jiang also said China has complete sovereignty and jurisdictional rights over the Chunxiao oil and gas field 450 kilometers southeast of Shanghai, adding that Chinese activities in the area are “reasonable and lawful.”

“Japan has extended the detention of the trawler’s captain to Sept. 29,” the report said.

Could this situation escalate, or would Japan blink?

The dispute arises from the two countries territorial claims over the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu Islands in Chinese), a group of uninhabited islands situated northeast of Taiwan and west of Okinawa. The Japanese government says the islands are a part of Okinawa prefecture. The Chinese say the islands have been part of China’s territory since ancient times.

NOTES:

1. Clearly, China doesn’t really believe in its own sovereignty claims over the islands; otherwise, why  pussyfoot about for so long?
   
2. Japan’s deranged policymakers continue to remain in their delusional prewar imperial stupor.
   

Second Sandstorm Blasts Beijing

Beijing Blasted by Sandstorms Twice in Two Days

Mothers, tell your children NOT to do what they have done!

Beijing was hit Monday by a second sandstorm just two days after a severe sandstorm struck on Saturday. The sandstorm originated from Mongolia and arrived in Beijing Monday morning, but was expected to subside by the evening.

Tourists visit the Tian’anmen Square in Beijing amid a massive sandstorm, March 22, 2010. The Central Meteorological Station issued a blue alert for sandstorms at 6 AM on Monday. (Xinhua/Sang Quanli). Image may be subject to copyright.

“The sandstorm from Mongolia arrived in Beijing Monday morning, and is expected to weaken by Monday evening,” said Zhang Mingying, senior engineer with the Beijing Meteorological Station, official news agency Xinhua reported.

The Sandstorm spawned by strong winds has swept over north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as well as Shanxi and Hebei provinces, he was reported as saying.

“Dust and sand left from Saturday’s sandstorm was still affecting Beijing Monday,” Zhang said.

“Although the sky was not as orange as Saturday, the smell of the dust was stronger on Monday,” said Li Nan, a Beijing resident.

Lanzhou, Gansu province, shrouded by a thick yellow-orange haze produced by thousands of tons of airborne sand. March 19 -20, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua] Image may be subject to copyright.

What’s Behind the Sandstorms?

In short, it’s the economy. The impact of exponential growth economy has driven China’s fragile ecosystems to the verge of collapse. The environmental stress caused by overconsumption of water, deforestation, land-use change and severe droughts, enhanced by climate change, are accelerating the desertification in northern China.

Related Links:

• SW China on the precipice of catastrophe
• WORST EVER DROUGHT in SW China
• Disaster Calendar 2010
• Drought and Deluge
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• 2010: The Year of Disasters
• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion

Powerful Quake Strikes Vladivostok Region

Earthquake measuring up to 7.0Mw strikes near China-Russia-North Korea border area

A powerful quake measuring up to magnitude 7.0 Struck  near China-Russia-North Korea border region (42.7ºN131.1ºE) on Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 01:13UTC, at a depth of about 590 km.

The quake was felt as far east as the eastern coast of Honshu, east of Tokyo, Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) reported.

The event was the 12th earthquake measuring between 7.0 and 7.8 to strike the region since 1900, and the fourth such event since 1990, according to USGS earthquake data.

The quake epicenter appears to be located in sparsely populated Chinese territory. It too deep to cause any tsunami, or major damage to the nearest major cities of Vladivostok, Russia,  and Chongjin, North Korea. As of posting, there was no report of injuries as a result of this event.

Earthquake Location (USGS/EHP)

Political Map of China. Click images to enlarge.

Population Exposure:  Estimated Population Exposed to Earthquake Shaking (PDF)

Earthquake Details:

• Magnitude as reported by USGS/EHP: 6.9 [Fire Earth estimate of the maximum magnitude: 7.0]
• Date-Time: Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 01:13:18 UTC
• Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 10:13:18 AM at epicenter

• Location:  JMA (42.7ºN131.1ºE); USGS (42.581°N, 130.537°E)
• Depth:  JMA (590km);  USGS (573.8 km or 356.6 miles)
• Region: Vladivostok (CHINA-RUSSIA-NORTH KOREA BORDER REGION)
• Distances:
  • 90 km (55 miles) ESE of Yanji, Jilin, China
  • 100 km (60 miles) NNE of Chongjin, North Korea
  • 1110 km (690 miles) NW of TOKYO, Japan
  • 1215 km (760 miles) ENE of BEIJING, Beijing, China

• Location Uncertainty: horizontal +/- 4.4 km (2.7 miles); depth +/- 6.7 km (4.2 miles)
• Source: JMA; USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
• USGS Event ID: us2010swaf

Seismic Hazard Map (USGS/EHP)

Click image to enlarge.

Related Links:

• Earthquake Monitoring Centers and EQ links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Volcano Links

• Powerful Quake Strikes Queen Charlotte Islands Region
• Two Powerful Quakes Strike Fox Islands, Alaska

Moderate Earthquake, Massive Damage, Yunnan, China

Quake measuring 5 on Richter scale rocked Western Yunnan, destroying about 600 houses and damaging up to 18,000 others

The earthquake occurred in western Yunnan about 85 km (55 miles) NE of Dali at a depth of 35 km (21.7 miles) early Monday local time.

The tremor has affected 302,000 people, with 31 injured and 61,000 relocated, but no deaths were reported so far, China’s official news agency Xinhua said. “The quake flattened 579 houses and damaged another 17,400.”

China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs has sent tents, war clothing, and rice to the victims, Xinhua added.

According to other reports, about 400 livestock, including pigs, sheep and chicken had been killed in the quake.

10-degree Map Centered at 25°N,100°E

Earthquake Location Map. Source: USGS/EHP. Enhanced by FEWW

Earthquake Details

• Magnitude: 4.9 Mw
• Date-Time: Sunday, November 01, 2009 at 21:07:23 UTC    [Monday, November 02, 2009 at 05:07:23 AM at epicenter]
• Location: 25.919°N, 100.748°E
• Depth: 35 km (21.7 miles)
• Region: YUNNAN, CHINA
• Distances:
  • 85 km (55 miles) NE of Dali, Yunnan, China
  • 120 km (75 miles) SW of Panzhihua (Dukou), Sichuan, China
  • 700 km (435 miles) SW of Chongqing, Chongqing, China
  • 2130 km (1320 miles) SW of BEIJING, Beijing, China
• Location Uncertainty:  horizontal +/- 10.7 km (6.6 miles)
• Source: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
• Event ID:  us2009nla2

Seismic Hazard Map

Major Tectonic Boundaries: Subduction Zones -purple, Ridges -red and Transform Faults -green

Related Links:

• FEWW Earthquake Index

Image of the Day: The Painful Good Bye!

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) kills at least 50 babies in China with 115,000 more cases reported

A mother kisses her child who has a fatal form of hand, foot and mouth disease at a hospital in Hefei, Anhui province April 13, 2009. The disease has killed 50 children nationwide in the year to April 7, a Health Ministry official said, adding that a total of 115,000 cases have been reported, according to Xinhua News Agency. REUTERS/Stringer. Image may be subject to copyright.

Facts about hand, foot and mouth disease in China

• China has reported a  sudden rise in HFMD among young children.

• At least 50 deaths have been reported since January 2009.

• Figures show the virus has struck earlier than normal and the numbers are likely to growin the peak season between May and July, Xinhua News Agency quoted Health Ministry officials as saying.

• Health officials fear that the current strain is especially virulent.

• The health ministry has recorded 115,000 cases since January 2009

• Some 54,714 cases were reported in March alone, including 31 fatalities.

• About 95 percent of the patients are children under age 5.

• In 2008 at least 27,000 children were sickened by the virus, Xinhua reported with dozens killed  by May 2008 [The actual casualty figure is a state secret.]

• The worst hit areas this year are rural areas in the provinces of   Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang.

• Symptoms of HFMD include fever, mouth sores and skin rashes with blisters.  It is spread by direct contact with mucus, throat discharges, saliva, fluid from blisters, or feces of infected people, and has an  incubation period of about seven days.

• There are no known treatment or vaccine for HFMD, however most children recover from the disease without problems.

• It is unrelated to the foot and mouth disease  (FMD), aka hoof-and-mouth disease that affects livestock

Related Links:

• Toddler virus in China kills three in new outbreak
• China launches nationwide fight against deadly EV71
• Deadly virus infects 1,884, kills 20

3.6 million cars in Beijing and counting

Beijing registered 65,970 new motor vehicles in the first 45 days of 2009, or a daily increase of 1,466, Xinhua reported.

Before allowing the stats to become an emotional issue, you should consider the following points.

1. Any Chinese citizen who can legitimately obtain a car, and who has a valid driving license, has [should have] the same right to drive a vehicle in China as does an American, Italian, French, British, Japanese …, or German citizens in their countries.

2. At what stage of the looming ecosystems global collapse should driving a car no longer be considered as an automatic birthright, nor an automobile-centered economy an intelligent option?

Now, the rest of the stats from Beijing:

• Total number of cars in the city:   3.56 million [as of February 14, 2009 – figures from the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau.

• No of new drivers registered in Beijing:  58,590 [in the same period, representing a daily increase of 1,302.

• Total no of drivers in the city:  5.2 million.

Vehicles are stuck in a traffic jam along a major thoroughfare in the central business district of Beijing in this January 29, 2008 file photo. A sudden slowdown in car sales in China and India is threatening to shrink the global auto market this year, promising tougher times for an industry leaning on the two most populous countries to pick up the slack in the West. REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV/Files (CHINA). Image maybe subject to copyright.

The vice mayor of Beijing, Huang Wei, said the number of people killed in traffic accidents was less than 1,000 people last year, for the first time since 1999. Xinhua reported.

“Beijing reported 90 deaths from traffic accidents in its suburban areas since the beginning of this year, or 66 percent of the city’s total traffic deaths in the past six weeks, according to the bureau.” Xinhua said.

“The bureau did not reveal traffic deaths in 2008, but said last year saw the number of people killed in traffic accidents drop by 196 from 2007.”

In an earlier report, Xinhua said that China had recorded 5.1 road accident deaths for every 10,000 motor vehicles in 2007, the highest rate in the world, Reuters quoted  from the report.

Ice Planet China

Big Freeze Hits Northern China

Ice storms, heavy snow and freezing conditions have covered most of northern China, the meteorological department said on Sunday. In Tianjin, which borders Beijing and is the second largest city in northern coastal China, all flights were canceled due to heavy snow; road and rail tracks became impassible.

People make their way amid snowfall on a street in Tianjin municipality, China, December 21, 2008. REUTERS/Vincent Du. Image may be subject to copyright.

Beijing  temperature fell to minus 12 degree centigrade, while further north they fell to minus 26 degrees Celsius. The weather forecast for most of central, eastern and southern China in the next two days is much of the same.

Cold weather s across central and southern China earlier this year killed at least 129 people.

Related News Links:

• Snow, freezing weather sweep northern China
• Northern China hit by cold snap

Toddler virus in China kills three in new outbreak

Three children die in China’s second outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease

At least three children have died in eastern China from hand, foot and mouth disease in the country’s second outbreak of the deadly toddler virus this year, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

The three victims were aged below one and came from Jian’ou City. Health officials reported another 113 cases since beginning  of October and warned that the disease was epidemic in parts of coastal Fujian province, Xinhua said.

The first outbreak of the virus in southern China killed at least 40 people in April and May, and sickened more than 27,000 others, mostly toddlers.

Hand, foot and mouth disease notice posted at a children’s hospital in Beijing. (PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images). Image maybe subject to copyright

“Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common childhood illness, but the outbreaks in China have been linked with enterovirus 71 (EV71), which can cause a severe form of the disease characterized by high fever, paralysis and meningitis.” Reuters reported.

Enteroviruses usually spread through contact with the carriers infected blisters or feces.

Related Links:

• China launches nationwide fight against deadly EV71
• Deadly virus infects 1,884, kills 20

The Stolen Forests

Inside the covert war on illegal logging

by Raffi Khatchadourian

Timber in the train station at Suifenhe, China. The country is now the world’s largest importer of logs and exporter of finished wood products. Photograph by Lu Guang. Source: The New Yorker. Image may b e subject to copyright.

The town of Suifenhe, a former Russian imperial outpost on the Trans-Siberian Railway, has belonged to China since the nineteen-forties, and occupies a broad valley in northern Manchuria. From a distance, its homes and factories appear to cling to a rail yard, with tracks fanning out into a vast latticework of iron as they emerge from the Russian border. Suifenhe is a place of singular purpose. Nearly every train from Russia brings in just one commodity: wood—oak, ash, linden, and other high-value species. There is also poplar, aspen, and larch, and occasionally great trunks of Korean pine, a species that was logged by the Soviets until there was almost none left to cut down. In a year, more than five billion pounds of wood cross over from Primorski Krai, the neighboring province in the Russian Far East. Hundreds of railcars enter Suifenhe every day, many loaded beyond capacity with logs. The wood is shuttled between mills by hand, often six men to a log. Other workers, many of whom are migrants from elsewhere in China, operate cranes to empty the rail carriages, and at sundown they bring the machinery to rest, with beams pointing upward, like arms outstretched, waiting for the rush of timber that will arrive the following day. More…

Taiwan Cares about Citizens, China Doesn’t!

Taiwan demands apology, compensation from China over tainted milk

Taipei – Taiwan Premier Liu Chao-hsuan told parliament on Tuesday that he demanded an apology and compensation as appropriate from China over tainted milk import.

“Hereby, I make a formal request to demand China apologize to Taiwan … Departments concerned will have calculate the damages caused within a week. Once the damages are confirmed, we will help seek compensation from China,” he said.

A 6x8mm Kidney Stone. Credit: Robert R. Wal

Five Taiwanese children have reportedly developed kidney stones after drinking tainted Chinese milk powder, and the food industry has incurred substantial losses due to product recalls.

A Taiwanese delegation that visited China last weekend to probe the tainted milk scandal, expressed concerns about the safety of imported food from China.

Beijing and Taipei subsequently agreed to cooperate closely on food safety issues. (Source)

Will China Prosecute Sanlu-Fonterra Directors and Executives for Corporate Manslaughter?

Related Links:

• China Syndrome
• Fonterra File

FEWW

Another Deadly Earthquake Cluster Hits China

China quake damages more than 100,000 homes, 25 dead

Revised figures in brackets are from a more recent report by AP.

BEIJING, Aug 31 (Reuters) – An earthquake that hit southwest China’s Sichuan and Yunnan provinces has killed [32] people [another 467 people injured], damaged or destroyed more than 258,000 homes and affected at least 600,000 residents [about 152,000 were evacuated,] state media said on Sunday.

Li Fucui, 47, cries in front of the debris of her collapsed house, which buried her brother-in-law, in Huili County, Sichuan Province. (Image: Reuters). Image may be subject to copyright.

The epicenter of Saturday’s quake, which struck around 4:30 p.m. (0730 GMT), was about 20 miles (30 km) southeast of Panzhihua, near Sichuan’s border with Yunnan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake was about 6 miles (10 km) deep.

The USGS put the magnitude of the quake at 5.7, while China’s official Xinhua news agency said it measured 6.1.

A 5.6-magnitude aftershock hit the same area 24 hours later, the USGS said on Sunday. There were no immediate reports of further damage.

Xinhua said Saturday’s quake had injured more than 250 people, and three more were missing.

It added that 656 schools had also been damaged and that heavy rain and difficult terrain were hampering rescue efforts, with mobile telephone communications patchy.

State television showed pictures of houses with large cracks in their sides, broken tiles on the road and people receiving medical attention under tents.

The government was rushing disaster relief to the affected areas, including thousands of tents and blankets and tonnes of food and water, Xinhua said.

Parts of Sichuan province were devastated by an earthquake that killed about 70,000 people in May. The province, known for its pandas and fiery cuisine, has struggled to rebuild after the disaster, which left 10 million people homeless. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alex Richardson)

China should prepare for another massive earthquake in the Sichuan and Yunnan border area this winter!

First Blood!

One World One [Short] Dream!

A relative of a U.S. men’s volleyball coach was killed and another family member badly injured by a Chinese knifeman in Beijing on Saturday, the first day of competitions at the Olympic Games. A Chinese tour guide was also injured in the stabbing.

“While at the Drum Tower [a 13th Century landmark] in central Beijing, the two family members were stabbed during an attack by what local law enforcement authorities have indicated was a lone assailant. One of the family members was killed and the other seriously injured,” the U.S. Olympic Committee said.

The male assailant, 47, committed suicide by jumping from the tourist site the Drum Tower after the attack, police said.

Image of the Day: Sickening Symbolism

Big Brother: Eastasia

China’s national flag is raised during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the National Stadium, August 8, 2008. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen. Image may be subject to copyright.

Addiction to Symbolism in the ‘CO2 Civilization’

At least 1,000,000 babies born in China in the weeks leading to and during the Beijing Olympics would be registered under the names of

• Aoyun (奥运), which is short for Olympic Games
• Fuwa (福娃), or lucky dolls (or one of the five mascots that are called Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying or Nini)
• Wenming (文明) meaning [GHG] civilization
• Guoqing, or national celebration

How Dirty Is Your Money?

How Much CO2 Does Your Money Produce?

Did you know?

Each dollar you earn (or spend) produces 450g of CO2 pollution!

Original Entry >> Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar

Images of the Day: The Ghost of Tiananmen Returns

Haze returns to Beijing with only 4 days to Olympics

Beijing Olympic Games banners hang from poles along along a main road as cars drive past on a hazy day in Beijing July 28, 2008. REUTERS/David Gray. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair use Notice!