Current Events

[Randy W]

from the Global Times on Facebook

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A customer in Shanghai has been left in a vegetative state after eating puffer fish in last December. The cook who prepared the food for him was given a 1-year sentence under the charge of intentional injury to another person.

 

NatGeo said:

Almost all pufferfish contain tetrodotoxin, a substance that makes them foul tasting and often lethal to fish. To humans, tetrodotoxin is deadly, up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. There is enough toxin in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.

https://www.facebook.com/115591005188475/posts/3156873331060212/

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from Shenzhen Pages on Facebook

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At least 10 people have died and more than 100 have been injured after an #oil truck exploded on a highway near #Wenling in #Zhejiang province, East #China. The blast caused nearby homes and factories to collapse. People trapped in the collapsed houses affected by the #explosion are missing.

 

https://www.facebook.com/305447029839943/posts/1089884561396182/

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP - China/India border clash. Apparently, "no shots were fired"

Indian soldiers killed in border clash with Chinese troops

• Sources say there are more casualties on both sides from a brawl where rocks and sticks were used
• Beijing accused India of ‘provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical confrontation between border forces’

Quote

Three Indian soldiers died in a clash at the Himalayan border with China. Beijing accused India’s troops of “provoking and attacking Chinese personnel”.

https://www.facebook.com/355665009819/posts/576911023011019/

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Updated totals from WaPo on Facebook

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Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in clashes with Chinese troops high in the Himalayas, the Indian army said Tuesday, marking the most serious conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbors in decades. India said earlier on Tuesday that only three of its soldiers were killed.

 

https://www.facebook.com/6250307292/posts/10160019695692293/

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The deaths occurred in the mountainous region of Ladakh where India and China share a disputed — but largely peaceful — border. No Indian soldiers have been killed in clashes on the frontier between the two countries since 1975, experts say, and no casualties of this magnitude have occurred since 1967.

. . .

The clash comes at a time when China is flexing its muscles across the region amid a global pandemic. In recent weeks it has confronted Malaysian and Vietnamese vessels in the South China Sea and twice sailed an aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait. China also unilaterally moved to seize new powers over Hong Kong.

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . and the NY Times

Worst Clash in Decades on Disputed India-China Border Kills 20 Indian Troops

 

Quote

The surge in violence is a product of the protracted dispute between India and China over the precise location of their jagged Himalayan border, which cuts through a desolate landscape home to few people or resources that would be easy to extract. Both sides maintain high-elevation military installations facing each other, and armed skirmishes continued through the late 1960s and mid-70s.

The spark for the recent tensions seemed to have been a road to a remote air force base that the Indian Army is building through the Galwan Valley. Military analysts say that the road is fully within Indian territory but that the Chinese are determined to frustrate India’s efforts to upgrade its military positions.

And the wider backdrop is that India and China have been competing for influence on many fronts across South Asia.

 

Several countries, such as Nepal and Sri Lanka, that were once reliable Indian allies have recently tilted toward China, wooed by Chinese investment. And Pakistan, India’s archenemy, is now fully aligned with China, working hand in hand with the Chinese military.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Al Jazeera says -

 

Indian news agency ANI on Tuesday night claimed that 43 Chinese soldiers had died in Monday's clash, without giving further details. Chinese media did not reveal casualties on its side.

 

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/china-doesn-clashes-india-live-updates-200617075318924.html

[Randy W]

from China Eastern for only $470USD - in the Sixth Tone

 

 

Chinese Airline Offers ‘Flight Pass’ Promotion for Unlimited Travel

 

Six months of unlimited domestic travel on China Eastern Airlines can be yours for just $470.

During a major online shopping festival Thursday, China Eastern Airlines, one of China’s three major state-owned air carriers, introduced a “flight pass” package for unlimited weekend travel to all of the airline’s domestic destinations.

Customers who purchase the pass will be allowed to travel economy class with very few restrictions. Priced at 3,322 yuan ($470), the product can be used for unlimited trips within China through the end of the year.

 

 

[Randy W]

from China Daily on Facebook

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A maglev train prototype designed with a maximum speed of 600 km/hr made its first trial run in Shanghai today. After nearly 4 years of effort, the project team has finally made a breakthrough. #China

https://www.facebook.com/191347651290/posts/10158572259106291/

Guests visit China's first high-speed maglev train testing prototype in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, on May 23, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

https://www.facebook.com/1570821646570023/posts/2676405469344963/

Worst Floods in Decades Submerge Chongqing, South China

Parts of China are experiencing torrential rainfall, affecting millions of people and causing over 20 billion yuan in damage.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP on Facebook

"More than 8.5 million people have been affected"

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Torrential downpours have wreaked havoc in China, affecting more than 8. 5 million people.

 

Read more here: https://sc.mp/op5o5

https://www.facebook.com/355665009819/posts/266408144627025/

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

Shanghai Wants to Harmonize Its Signs. One Woman’s Pushing Back.

The Chinese city has imposed strict controls over advertising displays. But critics complain the campaign is turning stores into “bald chickens.”

Left: A local newspaper report on Fei’s store from 2014. Courtesy of Fei Baoying; Right: A view of Fei’s store captured in January 2017. Ding Yining/Sixth Tone

Quote

“They grabbed stuff in my store and destroyed all my handwritten signs,” Fei tells Sixth Tone. “The signs hanging outside were ripped off the wall and dumped on the ground.”

 

The elderly business owner had become the latest victim of Shanghai’s sign clampdown — a drive to remove advertising displays deviating from the municipal government’s strict “urban appearance” regulations.

 

Chinese cities have imposed tight controls on how businesses decorate their storefronts over recent years as part of a wider push to make urban spaces safer and more “civilized.” The campaign, however, is facing growing public backlash amid complaints it’s quite literally draining the color from China’s streets.

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

 

81 Dead or Missing in China as Floods Spread to 26 Provinces

Over 740,000 people have had to be relocated amid the worst flooding some areas of the country have witnessed in decades.

 

 

 

Since early June, five rounds of heavy rainfall have impacted over 13 million people across at least 26 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. Some areas including the southwestern megacity of Chongqing have seen their worst floods in over two decades.

According to the latest estimate by the national fire department, the rains and deluges have led to a direct economic loss of over 27 billion yuan ($3.8 billion).

The country is expecting continued precipitation in the coming week. Hubei province in central China and Jiangxi in eastern China both recently issued a “severe meteorological disaster (rainstorm) emergency response.” Meanwhile, the southwestern Guizhou province and eastern Anhui province have also upgraded their response levels.

 

 

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

Flooding in China

https://www.facebook.com/355665009819/posts/1204670826553625/

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

The electric buses are showing up everywhere these days. Yulin has converted most of its fleet to electric. I'm not sure if they have to recharge over the course of a day, or if they can pack enough battery power into the chassis to keep it running. Manufactured by BYD.

from the Global Times on Facebook

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Chile's capital sees 150 new Chinese-made electric buses

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1193154.shtml

https://www.facebook.com/115591005188475/posts/3211225945624950/

Edited January 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

China’s massive floods move east, battering communities along Yangtze River

• Intense downpours hit areas already struggling after coronavirus with more rain expected in coming days
• Floodwaters cause further delay for some students trying to sit all-important university entrance exam

 

 

After weeks of intense seasonal flooding in southwestern and central China, torrential rains have caused more floods along the Yangtze River, with nearly 300,000 people evacuated in the eastern provinces of Anhui and Jiangxi as homes have been destroyed, roads paralysed and many left stranded without food or electricity. More than 2,000 homes were damaged by the latest floodwaters, forcing the evacuation of 147,000 people by Tuesday in Anhui, after a week of heavy rainstorms on the country’s eastern coast. In neighbouring Jiangxi, more than 151,000 people were evacuated, with nearly 2,000 houses damaged, between Monday and Wednesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.