News & Reports 2011-07-09

 Hello and Welcome to News and Reports on China Radio International.

 
In This Edition
 
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he's confident about South Sudan obtaining membership in the UN.
 
Thailand's prime minister-elect says, she cannot avoid the fact that she is the sister of fugitive 1, ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra, but she will try to use it as a "benefit".
 
U.S. space shuttle Atlantis lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the 135th and final flight in NASA's shuttle program.
 
And on-line group-purchasing, which has gained fast popularity in China over the past few years, faces group reputation challenges following reports of product quality and customer services problems.
 
 
Hot Issue Reports
 
South Sudan in Fast Lane to UN Membership
The new government of the world's newest country -- the Republic of South Sudan -- is now preparing to obtain membership in the United Nations.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he's confident about South Sudan obtaining membership in the UN.
 
"I am happy to join the President of the General Assembly, the minister, President Kiir, to celebrate the independence of south Sudan. I am confident that this new country will soon become the newest nation of the United Nations, our 193rd member state."
 
Ban Ki-moon is in Juba, capital of South Sudan for its independence celebrations on Saturday.
 
"Today is also day to recognise the strong ties between south Sudan and its northern neighbour. The people living among the common border have co-existed for generations and will continue to live side by side."
 
Without any objection from the five permanent members of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, South Sudan's request to join the UN will be sent to the 192-member UN General Assembly. All UN members will have a chance to vote on whether South Sudan should join them.
 
Earlier on Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously agreed to establish a new peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, which will be established on July 9 for an initial period of one year with the intention to renew for further periods.
 
Prime Minister-To Be Yingluck Shinawatra to Use Her Special Identity as a "Benefit"
Thailand's prime minister-elect says, she cannot avoid the fact that she is the sister of fugitive, ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra, but she will try to use it as a "benefit".
 
44-year-old Yingluck Shinawatra, who jumped into politics this year from her brother's business empire and won a landslide 3 election, has so far ducked talking about specific plans for Thaksin's return.
 
"I will use the benefit of sister to bring the good things and the good ideas and good vision from him to apply to the country. But, anyway, I'll be myself and independently make decisions for the country."
 
Analysts 4 say Thailand's landslide election result underlines the enduring influence of Thaksin, but also confirms that the rural majority he awakened 5 can never be dismissed again.
 
As his allies prepare to take power, with a strong mandate 6 from Thailand's countryside and his sister Yingluck, they must tread lightly to restore equilibrium 7 to a polarized nation and avoid any turbulent backlash from the military-backed elite 8 in Bangkok that they have challenged.
 
Yingluck could help her brother come back, but the mere 9 hint of rehabilitating 10 the former leader sends his opponents into a rage.
 
US Space Shuttle Blasts into History
The last space shuttle of the United States, Atlantis blasted off Friday as expected, marking an end to an era of human spaceflight. Many American people felt regret for the retiring of the space shuttles, US media called it a "bittersweet" moment, and NASA said the US should move on to a new chapter of deep space exploration. Our Washington correspondent shanshan has more.
 
Despite the NASA forecast that there was a good chance the launch would be delayed due to the weather, Atlantis lifted off at 11:29 local time, 3 minutes behind the scheduled time, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape 11 Canaveral, Florida. In the end, though, the countdown was held at 31 seconds, not by the weather but by the need to verify that the launch pad support equipment was retracted 12 all the way. After everything was checked, four astronauts rocketed into orbit as hundreds of thousands of spectators were on hand to witness the historic moment.
 
In other parts of the United States, this final journey of the shuttle era roused emotions on a scale not seen since the Apollo moon shots. NASA scientist Igor Eberstien is one of them. He has witnessed the whole story of the space shuttles, from birth to retirement 13. He says his feeling sad.
 
"Of course I'm sorry to see it go. It's too bad that we can't keep it up. It's a political decision. Personally I'd like to see it keeps flying, but decision has been made, that's the way it is."
 
Leonard Poll is a doctor in Washington DC, who is also a big fan of space shuttles. He says being sad a little bit, he is more with a forward-looking spirit.
 
"A little bit for nostalgic purposes, and in some way excited because you know there is gonna be newer missions, greater missions. We're leaving one program of space exploration, but engaging in a greater aspect of it."
 
Atlantis in on the 135th shuttle mission of NASA, 30 years and three months after the very first flight of space shuttles. NASA promised 50 flights a year, but never managed more than nine flights in a single year. The program suffered two tragic 14 accidents that killed 14 astronauts and destroyed two shuttles, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. The other two, Discovery and Endeavor retired 15 in March and June this year. The total tab was $196 billion, or $1.45 billion a flight.
 
Dean Cheng, a security expert with the Washington thinktank, the Heritage Foundation, says being sentimental 16 as they are, most people would find it hard to support further flights of the space shuttles.
 
"They regret the shuttle being retired, but you ask them should we keep the shuttle flying, I think the answer is if it doesn't take too much money, sure. Keeping the shuttle flying will be extraordinarily 17 expensive. Until something captures the imagination again, I think manned space will be a very expensive and difficult proposition to support."
 
NASA says it is sacrificing the shuttles because there is not enough money to keep the expensive fleet going if the space agency is to aim for asteroids 18 and Mars. NASA Administrator 19 Charles Bolden was an astronaut himself, flying Columbia, Discovery and Atlantis on 4 space flights. He says US manned spaceflight is not ending, rather, the country is completing a chapter of a journey that will never end.
 
"We're not ending human space flight. We're recommitting ourselves to take necessary and difficult steps today to ensure US's preeminence 20 in human space exploration for years to come. But we have to do things differently. For one, we have to get out of the business of owning and operating lower orbit transportation system, and hand it off to the private sector 21. We need to focus on deep space exploration, while empowering today's innovators and entrepreneurs to take care of the rest. "
 
Atlantis is scheduled to return on July 20 after 12 days in orbit. The three remaining shuttles will become museum pieces. Private rocket companies will take over the job of hauling supplies and astronauts to the space station. The first supply run is targeted for later this year, while the first trip with astronauts is projected to be years away, at least three years, possibly five or more. Until those flights are up and running, American astronauts will be hitching 22 rides to and from the space station via Russian Soyuz capsules, at more than $50 million per trip.
 
For CRI, this is shanshan from Washington.
 
Hsu Fu Chi Talks With Nestle on Possible Acquisition
Hsu Fu Chi, China's biggest confectionary company by market value, has announced that it's in talks with potential suitors interesting in acquiring the company, in what would be the largest overseas purchase of a Chinese company.
 
A spokesperson from Hsu Fu Chi says that Nestle is assessing a bid for their company and that for the last two years the two companies have been in talks regarding a partnership 24.
 
Nestle has also separately confirmed the talks.
 
Founded in 1992, Hsu Fu Chi has a market capitalization of 2.59 billion U.S. dollars. If the deal finally goes through, it will be one of the biggest takeovers of a Chinese firm by a foreign company.
 
For more on this, CRI's Liu Yan earlier talked with Benjamin Cavender, associate principal at China Market Research in Shanghai.
 
Chinese Group-Buying Websites Facing Challenges to Their Reputation
With group-buying companies multiplying in China, negative reports regarding poor product quality and bad customer services have abounded 25. This time, a renowned 26 Chinese group purchase website 55tuan.com has been attacked by vicious form of online software, causing it to stop issuing gift cards from a previous online campaign, which has led to dissatisfaction and blame from furious customers.
 
Let's take a closer look with our reporter Liu Min.
 
Wowotuan or 55tuan.com is one of the major group-buying websites in China, attracting thousands of online visitors every day. Recently, the company decided 27 to offer a number of gift cards online to thank their old customers. However, these valued online customers who received the gift suddenly found that many of their accounts had been frozen five days after the campaign took effect. The incident aroused suspicion among many of the recipients 28.
 
"I logged onto the website and wanted to top up my gift card, but discovered it had been deactivated 29. Customer services told me their website had been attacked by a hacker 30. I thought it might be a trap set by the website itself?"
 
"I thought to myself, why can't the website do anything about it since it is such a big group-buying site."
 
As questions and inquiries 31 mount, the website claims that they've found a number of people using a fake user generation tool in order to create multiple user accounts and gain as many gift cards as possible. An anonymous 32 tech manager with the website explains someone released the software online teaching people how to gain the gift cards.
 
"For example, our gift card give-away campaign started at 11am. From 12 pm, someone had started to use the software to gain gift cards. By 1pm, when the campaign ended, the person had gained more than 2500 cards in total. A real user needs at least 2 minutes to log onto our website by entering his email address, but this hacker only spent two seconds logging on with one ID."
 
Group-buying websites so far have been filed with numerous lawsuits 33 and complaints, but this incident seems to have set up another typical case in this growing market. Facing the customers' questions and doubts, the president of the company, Xu Maodong, says they have decided to unfreeze the accounts even though the company will have to suffer some losses.
 
"We don't want to hurt any customers, so we've decided to release all the accounts, and those customers who already applied 34 for the gift cards will still benefit."
 
Secretary-in-Chief of Beijing Ecommerce Association, Lin Ya, says all kinds of websites will encounter technique problems, but they must prepare to take responsibility when problem occur.
 
"The companies who get into such troubles have to deal with it. You can't violate customer's rights for any reason. Once you start such a campaign you have to be prepared for all possibilities, including the risks witnessed here."
 
For CRI, I'm Liu Min.
 
Volunteerism in Full Swing at the Ongoing 35 Xi'an International Horticulture Expo
Volunteerism has become an increasingly popular concept in China. It was a mainstream 36 topic during rescue missions following the massive Sichuan earthquake, and events such as the Beijing Olympic Games and the Shanghai World Expo. And this year, the ongoing Xi'an International Horticulture Expo is no exception.
Zhang Cheng has more.
 
More than 110,000 people applied to be volunteers for the Expo, but only 13,000 secured their positions at the Expo site. They spared no efforts to provide a wide range of services, such as information inquiry 37, tour guiding, interpreting and media assistance.
 
Most of the volunteers are college students, while people from other walks of life are encouraged to participate as well. Li Chang-xing at the age of 62 is the oldest volunteer at the Expo site so far. He wants to take this great opportunity to correct people's misconceptions about Xi'an.
 
"Many people think Xi'an is a backward city surrounded by sandy deserts in northwest China, but they will soon find how beautiful the Expo is with green trees, grasslands 38, flowers and bodies of water."
 
Wang Ruo-peng stands out among his young volunteer peers as he has both served in the Beijing Olympic Games and the Shanghai World Expo. According to his observations, volunteers in China are maturing due to several high-level and large-scale international events.
 
"I think the volunteer system is improving. China has a unique volunteering method that organizes under the Communist Youth League, which has proved to be effective and successful."
 
Zhang Li, the assistant director of the Executive and Public Relations Department at the Expo, says Xi'an aims to become an international cosmopolitan 39 city, and volunteerism is an important indicator 40.
 
"If people's well-being 41 cannot be guaranteed, they will not consider pro 2 bono jobs. Xi'an is developing fast now, and people are happy, so they are willing to be volunteers."
 
Apart from the volunteers on site, there are more volunteers who are not in the spotlight 42 but working in communities and landmarks 43 in the city. The total number of volunteers for the 6-month Expo will reach as many as 300,000.
 
Happiness is the word that volunteers mention the most to describe their feelings. As former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan puts it- "at the heart of volunteerism are the ideals of service and solidarity 44 and the belief that together we can make the world better."
 
For CRI, this is Zhang Chen.
 
Tennis Success Vindicates 45 Prioritizing Chinese Market
Since the exploits of Li Na at Roland Garros earlier this season, Chinese tennis has enjoyed a spike 46 in popularity. The WTA now regards the Asia-Pacific region as one of its key areas of growth.
 
CRI Sports' Paul Ryding spoke 23 to the managing director of the WTA's office in Beijing, and brings us this report.
 
China currently has four players in the top 100 world rankings. Li Na's recent triumph at the French Open ensured that she became an overnight Chinese sporting idol 47, and catapulted tennis to the forefront of China's sporting consciousness.
 
Fabrice Choquet is the Managing Director of the WTA Asia-Pacific office in Beijing.
 
He believes that Li Na's win in Paris was crucial to the continued development of the sport in China.
 
"Li Na's success is really a transition for tennis being an up-and-coming sport, to becoming a major sport in China, and this is the kind of sports victory that not only interests people that are usually following tennis. It suddenly interests others."
 
Choquet says that the Asia-Pacific region, and particularly China, is currently the WTA's priority area of development.
 
"Li Na's victory will take women's tennis to a huge new level of popularity in China. And no doubt Li Na's first Grand Slam success will boost all our projects."
 
Figures show that the popularity of tennis is indeed booming in China. The recent French Open final, where Li Na defeated Italian Francesca Schiavone to become China's first Grand Slam champion, was watched by 160-million TV viewers making it the most-watched sporting event of the year in China. The WTA Baidu page now boasts 4.5-million members having only been established in recent months.
 
For CRI Sports, I'm Paul Ryding.
 
Newspaper Picks
 
Yahoo News: Nowadays you can do a lot with an iphone -- send text messages, make phone calls, take pictures and even surf the internet. According to Yahoo News, soon, thanks to two Australian entrepreneurs, you will be able to use it to open a bottle of beer by way of the "Opena" a hard plastic case that fits over the iphone and is equipped with a slide-out bottle opener. Basically, Australians are fairly heavy drinkers who are often out at friends' houses or drinking together at other places, so they've attached a bottle opener to an iphone case. There are three basic rules -- the case has to be slim, there has to be no chance that the bottle opener will scratch the phone, and the opener has to work without putting any pressure on the phone. If you are also a heavy drinker, you can now combine your love of drinking and tech.