CRI中国国际广播电台 News & Reports 2012-12-01

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

 
In This Edition
 
?China reiterates 1 that it attaches great importance to the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
?China says the Palestinian elevation 2 to a non-member observer state in the United Nations is a "positive step" toward the establisment of an independent state.
?Egypt's Constituent 3 Assembly approves the final draft of the country's new constitution.
?And China promises to spend more money toward combating HIV/AIDS.
 
Hot Issue Reports
 
?China Attaches Great Importance to Freedom of Navigation in the South China Sea
 
The Chinese government has issued a new statement, saying it attaches great importance to the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
 
The statement comes amid word Chinese police have been authorized 4 to board and search ships in waters it considers its territory.
 
Foreign Ministry 6 spokesperson Hong Lei.
 
"We uphold resolving the dispute with neighboring countries via friendly consultations 7 and negotiations 8. All countries have freedom of navigation in the South China Sea in accordance with international law. China attaches great importance to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. At present there are no problems in this regard."
 
The move comes amid an uptick in political tensions this week connected to the South China Sea.
 
Both the Philippines and Vietnam are refusing to stamp new Chinese passports, which contain a map showing the South China Sea as part of Chinese territory.
 
Chinese citizens entering either country will instead have their entry approvals temporarily attached to their passports.
 
 
?Palestine's UN statehood "positive step" toward independent state: FM
 
The Chinese government is describing the Palestinian elevation to a non-member observer state in the United Nations as a "positive step" toward the establisment of an independent Palestinian state.
 
The Chinese Foreign ministry has made the comments following a vote in the UN General Assembly which has approved the Palestinian upgrade from an "entity 9" to a "non-member state."
 
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei.
 
"The just cause of Palestine striving to regain 10 its legitimate 11 right as a nation has won greater support internationally. China gives its warm congratulations on this. Like many member nations, China voted in favour."
 
China is among the 138 countries that voted to back the Palestinian upgrade.
 
Israel, the United States and 7 others voted against the move.
 
41 countries abstained 12 from the vote.
 
The Palestinian status upgrade doesn't make it an independent state.
 
However, it does allow the Palestinian authorities access to a number of international organizations, such as the International Court of Justice.
 
Access to the ICJ affords the Palestinians the right to file suits and grievences against Israel.
 
 
?Egypt's draft constitution approved by Constituent Assembly
 
Egypt's Constituent Assembly has approved the final draft of the country's new constitution.
 
The voting lasted nearly 17 hours.
 
The approved version is now being referred to President Mohamed Morsi.
 
If Morsi gives the green light to the draft, a national referendum will have to be held to get its final approval.
 
The Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Constituent Assembly has fast-tracked the constitution approval process following the recent conflicts that have broken out after Mohamed Morsi's decree this past week, granting him virtually unchallengable power.
 
"This decree is a temporary one until the constitutional assembly finishes drafting the new constitution, and it goes to the people to give their decision. The matter goes to those concerned, and the president of the republic has the executive power only. "
 
The Islamists rushed to approve the draft constitution without the participation 13 of liberal and Christian 14 members of the Constituent Assembly.
 
Mahmoud el-Alayli is with the Free Egyptians Party.
 
"We wish that Morsi could have started this dialogue before the announcement of the constitutional declaration, and we are very disappointed that he initiated 15 the dialogue only when he had no other options."
 
Egypt's Constitutional Court will rule on Sunday on whether to dissolve the upper house of parliament, which is overwhelmingly held by Islamists.
 
Meanwhile, protesters continue to maintain their presence in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
 
 
?Peace talks between FARC and Colombian government continue in Cuba
 
The latest round of negotiations between the government of Columbia and the main rebel group in the country have broken off until next week.
 
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia , or FARC, and the Colombian government are set to resume their negotiations on Wednesday in Cuba's capital Havana.
 
Former vice 16-president Humberto De La Calle is the government of Columbia's lead negotiator.
 
"We hope to reach an agreement that will lead us to the end of the conflict,build a stable and lasting 18 peace in which the FARC, without weapons, can participate as actors in national political life and the construction of peace in the country."
 
Formal talks between the Columbian government and FARC began in Oslo, Norway, a month ago.
 
FARC has been at war with the Colombian government for nearly half a century.
 
While no timetable has been set for the negotiations, both sides say they want to see a resolution within months, not years.
 
 
?Japanese Car Makers 19 Showcase New Models After Sales Drop
 
Despite a sharp downturn in sales here in China the past couple of months, Japanese automakers are still pressing for new customers at this year's Guangzhou Auto 20 Show.
 
CRI's Wang Wei has more.
 
Reporter: Japanese automakers have suffered sharp drops in their China sales following the territorial 21 dispute over Diaoyu islands, which has inflamed 22 anti-Japanese sentiment and sparked sometimes violent protests.
 
However, Japanese automakers including Toyota, Nissan and Honda, didn't shy away from showing off their new models at the ongoing 23 China International Automobile 24 Exhibition in southeast China's Guangzhou city.
 
Chen Bingbo, the Executive Vice President of Dongfeng Honda, said that their sales dropped 46 percent in October, compared to the same period last year, but he added that he expects sales will slowly improve beginning next year.
 
"I think next year the recovery will be better, but when the set-back will be completely cleared, that remains 25 to be seen. But I think in the first half of next year, we will still be feeling the impact."
 
Another hard-hit Japanese brand Nissan also suffered major sales setbacks following the protests. Their sales were down 40.7 percent from October last year.
 
In order to regain consumer confidence, Nissan launched various policies including vowing 26 to fully 27 repair or replace any cars at no cost which were damaged in the anti-Japanese protests.
 
But Hideki Kimata, Senior Vice President of Dongfeng Nissan says that the issue cannot be solved quickly.
 
"The real concern is the consumers' mindset towards Japanese brands. It's more of a psychological issue and it's not a short term issue."
 
Klaus Paur, an analyst 28 at global market research company Ipsos says he believes that there is not much that the Japanese brands can do at this moment but wait until the tension between two countries is alleviated 29.
 
"One of the major difficulties that the Japanese brands have now is that they cannot really do a lot of marketing 30 activities because it would be certainly much less effective for the investment. So, once this conflict is solved, the first thing is that they have to get back to is very aggressive marketing activity. The issue at the moment is that they must basically leave the field to all the competitors, yet also need to be in the mind of the consumers in order to get them back into shopping basket."
 
The decline in demand for Japanese vehicles has proved to be an unexpected boom to other foreign brands. About half of the potential customers who had once shown an interest in Japanese cars have since decided 31 to buy German, South Korean or US vehicles. As a result, BMW's China sales increased by 55 percent in September, Audi's by 20 percent and Hyundai Motor Company's by 15 percent.
 
For CRI, I'm Wang Wei.
 
Light News
 
 
?NGOs an Indispensable Force in Combating HIV/AIDS
 
Saturday, December 1st, marks World Aids Day. To that end, the Chinese government is promising 32 to spend more money toward combating HIV/AIDS, while at the same time, promising to give more support to non-governmental organizations working in this field. CRI's Robert Costelloe has more.
 
Reporter: Chinese vice-Premier Li Keqiang says NGOs have become an indispensable, special force in combating HIV/AIDS in China.
 
Li Keqiang's comments come following a meeting with a group of NGO representatives from across the country.
 
He says the government will continue to support these organizations.
 
There are neary one-thousand Non-Government Organizations involved in battling HIV/AIDS in China.
 
However, because many of them aren't registered with China's ministry of Civil Affairs, they can't access government services, funds, and tax breaks.
 
Sun Xinhua with the Ministry of Health says the ministry and the Ministry of Civil Affairs are working on plans to help streamline 33 the registration 34 of NGOs working in the field of HIV/AIDS.
 
"We will also support the NGOs with funds and technology, which include training their employees, conducting peer education, and sending technical staff to collaborate 35 with them. Some people don't want staff of government institutions to examine them, so we teach the quick examining technology to the NGO employees and ask them to do the examinations."
 
The ministry of health has already given out some 100-million yuan to qualified 36 NGO's for combating HIV-AIDS this year.
 
The central government has invested 2.4-billion yuan in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, a 200-million yuan increase over last year.
 
On top of the funding, a free voluntary counseling and testing network has been established around the country.
 
Nearly 3-thousand counties have been equipped with AIDS screening labs and outpatient clinics.
 
Sun Xinhua says with the expanding coverage 37 of the network, the mortality rate of AIDS patients "receiving treatment" has dropped.
 
"At present 84 percent of the HIV/AIDS infections meeting the treatment standards have received antiviral treatment. The effect of the treatment in China is among the top in developing countries. The mortality rate of children receiving treatment is close to that of developed countries."
 
The Ministry of Health is reporting the mortality rate of AIDS patients who are receiving treatment has been halved 38 in recent years.
 
The rate of mother-to-child HIV transmissions has plunged 39 to 7.4 percent from 34.8 percent in 2007.
 
Despite all the moves, more than 17-thousand AIDS-related deaths have been reported in the country from January to October, a year-on-year increase of 8.6 percent.
 
More than 68-thousand new HIV cases have been reported this year.
 
For CRI, I'm Robert Costelloe.
 
 
?INCOME INEQUALITY widens in China
 
A new survey by the All-China Women's Federation 40, China's leading women's rights organization, has found over the past 20-years, women's salaries have not been growing as quickly as men's. CRI's Alexandra Blucher has more.
 
REPORTER: A famous Mao Zedong phrase is that women hold up half the sky. Nowadays Mao's words still ring true but women are getting paid less than men. In the last two decades, the average income of urban women has dropped from 80 per cent to 70 per cent of what men earn.
 
Julie Broussard is the United Nation's Women Country Program Manager for China, which works closely with All-China Women's Federation. Broussard says that before late 1970's, women had access to resources like subsidized daycares that allowed a greater focus on employment.
 
"Since the move to the market economy, what's happened is there are no longer the subsidized daycares. Daycares are now offered through the market economy and they're priced quite steeply and a lot of families can't afford them. So the women face a very tough choice, do I go to work and put my kid in this expensive day care or do I stay home and take care of my kids when they're young but give up on several years on employment and opportunities for promotion 41. Or in some cases it's the grandmother's who look after the child, which again puts the burden on women."
 
Chinese women make up just shy of half of the country's labour market, with 45 per cent of all employees are women, but they are under represented in the top income earning positions. According to a recent Bloomberg report, only one out 120 national level state-owned enterprises has a female CEO.
 
In non-state owned enterprises, a Grant Thornton report finds that women account for about one quarter of the senior executive positions.
 
Shirley Zhou is an in house lawyer in the Beijing office of a Mongolian mining company. Zhou says that in her last job in a Beijing law firm there were far more men than women in the top positions.
 
"At the beginning, the junior lawyers there's more women, but at the senior lawyer level it's equal but at the partner level there's more men. Women have to consider more family I think. They not only have to consider work but also consider to take care of the parents, children and husband. Their ambitions will be weaker than before."
 
But it's the women who live in China's rural areas that have been the hardest hit.Rural women's income dropped from 80 percent to 56 percent of men's over the last two decades. Broussard explains:
 
"Rural women are fairing the worst when it comes to income inequality. It comes down to access to resources, so on average rural women have an even lower education, they have less access to financial resources and capital. They don't have as easy access to decent employment of international standards much less so than urban women and patriarchal culture is stronger in rural areas than it is in urban areas."
 
Broussard also says that China is not alone in this trend and that the widening gap in all inequalities is global issue.
 
For CRI, I'm Alexandra Blucher.
 
?Music Stars Gather in Hong Kong for MAMAs
 
Some of the biggest stars in the music world are in Hong Kong for the 2012 Mnet Asian Music Awards (also known as MAMA).
 
American singer Adam Lambert is event's special guest.
 
He says Korean pop band Big Bang has caught his attention.
 
"The 'Big Bang' group, I just saw for the first time yesterday on a TV screen.　And I want all of their clothes, because the fashion was A plus"
 
Hip 5 hop 17 artist B.o.B has also been invited to perform tonight.
 
B.o.B's popularity rose in Korea after his song "Nothing On You" was covered by a Korean artist Jay Park.
 
Among this year's presenters 42 are Jackie Chan, Angela Baby, Wang Lee Hom, Li Yu Chun from China, and Choi Ji Woo, Song Seung Heon, and Jung Woo Sung from Korea.　
 
Launched as Mnet KM Music Festival in 1999, the MAMAs has turned into a music award ceremony in 2010.　
 
A whopping 2.3 billion people are expected to watch the awards, in 85 countries through 16 live broadcasts.
 
[Media Digest]
 
?GLOBAL TIMES
 
"Weibo used to boost student participation"
 
Hundreds of students at the School of Broadcasting and Hosting at Communication University of China, Nanjing voluntarily practice vocalization at 6:40 every morning, and they are photographed by group leaders and teachers as a way of tracking attendance.
 
The photos from the morning exercises are then posted on Weibo, China's Twitter-like site.
 
Those who attend sessions all week are congratulated on the school's Weibo page, while absentees are given a gentle reminder 44 to make up for it in the coming week.
 
Ding Jie, a counselor 45 at the school says that the management team of teachers introduced the new practice two weeks ago in an attempt to encourage more students to participate in the morning vocal 43 exercises.
 
The students are quite satisfied with the new measure, adding that many of them even like posing for the camera.
 
Meng Xiangzhu, who was singled out as an absentee during the morning exercises, explained on her Weibo that she had been sick that week and promised to work hard to catch up.
 
SHANGHAI DAILY
 
"Patents filed locally top national goal"
 
The number of invention patents approved in the first nine months of this year in Shanghai was five times the number set as a national goal.
 
Officials said there is a need to make sure patents are genuine and converted into products, not filed just to take advantage of government incentives 46 or to gain local residency.
 
The city has kicked off a patent promotion week, which features an exhibition of more than 1,000 elite 47 inventions in real and virtual world.
 
To put more patent technologies into practice, representatives from 28 cities in the Yangtze River Delta 48 signed a non-government framework agreement yesterday with the Shanghai Intellectual Property Service Center to promote patent technology transfer and trade in the delta.
 
Inventions are one of the three types of patents in China, which include design patents and utility models, which are rights to protect an invention.
 
Officials say the current patent conversion 49 rate - patents put into production - is stable in Shanghai but lower than that of developed countries.
 
 
DAILY MAIL
 
"Take it a bit easier in the gym: Too much exercise can wear out your heart"
 
Doctors have warned that, rather than adding years to their lives, fitness freaks could be working themselves into an early grave.
 
They say that while regular, moderate exercise, including jogging, is beneficial; it is possible to do too much.
 
US cardiologists James O'Keefe and Carl Lavie, both keen runners, also advise that those who want to exercise at full pelt 50 should limit themselves to 30 to 50 minutes a day.
 
And marathons should be viewed as something to do occasionally or once in a lifetime, rather than a regular challenge.
 
They warn that exercising intensely for more than an hour or two can damage the heart, causing its tissue to stretch, tear and scar and raising the odds 51 of dangerous changes in heart rhythm.
 
BBC
 
"Botswana to ban hunting over wildlife species decline"
 
Botswana will ban commercial hunting from January 2014 over growing concerns about the sharp decline in wildlife species, officials have announced.
 
The environment ministry says the shooting of wild game for sport and trophies 52 is no longer compatible with their commitment to preserve local fauna 53.
 
The ban is likely to be controversial as many communities depend on hunting for their livelihoods 54.
 
As much as a third of the global elephant population lives in Botswana.
 
Recent estimates place the number at about 130,000.