Beijing, with a population of over 20 million, has suffered from hazardous air pollution since last January, which has threatened the people greatly since the pollutants can cause fatal health problems.

On January 12, the air quality monitor run by the U.S. embassy in Beijing reported an air pollution level of 886, which directly indicated PM2.5 – a fine particulate less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter – is off its maximum level of 500. This warns that everyone should refrain from all physical activities outdoors. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the average concentrations of PM2.5 per cubic meter should not be more than 25 micrograms, yet the readings on some days in January exceeded 40 times of the standard.

The effect of the PM 2.5 is even more disastrous: The U.S. embassy Beijing air quality monitor website stated “PM 2.5 particulates are of concern since they are small enough to directly enter the lungs and even the blood stream,” and warned that ‘hazardous’ level of air quality can result in “Serious aggravation of heart or lung disease and premature mortality in persons with cardiopulmonary disease and the elderly; serious risk of respiratory effects in general population.”

Nonetheless, you did not need to check the Air Quality Index (AQI) to see how dreadful the air quality was. The darkness from the extreme dustiness lasted the whole afternoon on that day, and the thick dusty layers hindered sight within approximately 300 meters, where even the huge skyscrapers were hardly visible. “The smog was so thick that more than 50 flights were cancelled at Beijing Capital International Airport, causing chaos ahead of Chinese New Year, when city-dwellers travel to see relatives” reported the Independent on January 29. The effect of the ‘hazardous’ level of the air quality was immediate. Dr. Huang of the Beijing Shijitan hospital said in an interview with CBS News that the number of patients hospitalized because of chronic bronchitis or other respiratory illnesses had increased by 20% after the hazardous air quality days.

Yet, this catastrophic phenomenon did not just happen for an occasional day. Beijing has been besieged by the hazy and dusty skies for the last several months at a consistent level, and there have been only a few days of blue skies; the AQI reads under the degree of ‘Unhealthy’. Even China’s national newspaper, China Digital Times, published an article titled “Beijing Air Quality: Worse than SARS.”

As a response to the people’s outcry, the city government took urgent action. According to Bloomberg on the last January 29, Beijing decided to temporarily shut down the 103 factories around the city, and the government agencies and state-owned companies were commended to reduce vehicle use by 30% until the end of January.

The scenery of Beijing in the past months has been changed visibly. People started wearing PM 2.5-blocking masks outside, and frequently check AQI via the application on their mobile phones. The term ‘PM 2.5’ is often being discussed everywhere – in newspapers, television and people’s daily dialogue. Some companies distribute free 3M dust masks for college students on campus instead of their traditional marketing strategies of giving a small gift such as stationary.

It is estimated to affect the job market in Beijing as well. On April 1, Financial Times reported that the ‘Airpocalypse’ has made it difficult for companies to find international work talent, and many expatriates are planning to leave Beijing due to the concern for health. There are nearly 200,000 foreign residents in Beijing and many of the expats are professionals with high-earning jobs, which contribute greatly to the socio-economic development of the city, the news report said.

“Air pollution is a major problem in China because of the country’s rapid pace of industrialization, reliance on coal power, explosive growth in car ownership and the sometimes disregard for environmental laws,” said CNN news on January 19. China has been the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter since 2007, and approximately 70 percent of its total energy still comes from coal.

The 2012 Cancer Registry Annual Report showed that cancer-related mortality in China has increased by 465 percent in the past three decades and the lung cancer was the top cause among all the cancers.

According to the World Bank (WB) report, 20 cities in China listed on the 30 most polluted cities in the world. In the recent study by Greenpeace and Peking University’s School of Public Health, it is estimated that the exposure to PM2.5 caused more than 8,500 premature deaths in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Xi’an in 2012.

Image credit: People in Beijing via Flickr.com

The article ‘Airpocalypse’ in Beijing: The Days with ‘Hazardous’ Air Quality appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Beijing, China – PR Newswire issued a new white paper that provides essential information about the media landscape in China, as well as tips for building successful communications strategies and media outreach programs. Designed specifically for companies looking to learn more about China that may not currently have a presence here, the white paper, titled “Navigating China’s Complex Media Landscape,” is a must-read for marketing and communications experts interested in learning about what drives the world’s most populous nation.

Breaking down China’s complex media landscape into bite-size segments, the white paper provides useful and usable information about how to navigate both traditional and online media in China. Confusing and contradictory at times, Chinese media can also be summarized by their fast transformation, and while traditional media still play an important role, online media are becoming more and more influential.

The white paper includes: a detailed breakdown of both traditional and online media, with an emphasis on the power of traditional media and the growing impact of social media and new technologies; a comprehensive list of Do’s and Don’ts for marketers and communicators; tips for writing Chinese press releases, building media relationships and getting noticed online and a selection of case studies highlighting international companies that got it right.

“The goal of the white paper is simple. We want to provide companies with a clear and concise picture of China’s media landscape and how best to navigate it,” said Lee Green, Director of Operations (Asia) at PR Newswire. “We hope that the knowledge we’ve gained over the last decade, since PR Newswire first opened its Beijing office, will help guide companies as they look to crack what can be a very complex industry, and we’re also delighted to be conducting a three-part webinar series on ‘Understanding China’ that runs in connection with this white paper.”

The article Understanding China’s Fast-Changing Media Landscape appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The multiplicity of global economic complexity of the recent past and a fragile economic future has led the Asian economic linchpin, China, to cut its growth forecast. Recently, the country cut its economic growth rate to 7.5 percent from its previous 8 percent, which had been in place since 2005.

Premier Wen Jiabao, in his annual state of the union, announced at the National People’s Congress in Beijing that the government has a gross domestic product target of 7.5 this year. This is the lowest economic growth target for China since 2004.

Across the board, there are plenty of problems that may impart great damage on the Chinese economy. Starting with a decline in European services and manufacturing output, a fall in US factory orders for the first time in three months, and an impending Greek debt storm, China is going through a radical demographic makeover.

The main suspect for this turnaround in growth forecast is the debt crisis in Europe and the US. This is because there is an iron-strong connection between what China produces and with whom it exchanges goods.

Demand for Chinese goods declined in troubled economies due to falling employment, diminishing domestic production, dragging corporate profits, high borrowing costs for the government, and perhaps only a few ways to get out of it. After years of a torrid growth rate of at least 9 percent, China needs better quality development over a longer period of time. Economists and investors agree that China is now entering a new era of slower growth rate, where the 8 percent growth figure is no longer important.

On the other hand, what happens in China does not stay in China. China had been the number one trading partner for most Asian countries, and a declining economy for the dragon will hit many Asian economies negatively. On the face of it, Chinese commodity imports may slow down, impacting economies from Australia to Brazil.

Interconnections at the global economic platform have created a scenario where it is legitimately impossible to imagine escaping from these  events.  It is ubiquitous that a lower phase of GDP growth in China will diminish import demand in the country, affecting economies or trading partners directly.

In a globalized environment, interconnection is interdependence. Suppose, for example, X is partly independent, and Y and Z are mostly dependent on X.

Any event that has a direct forbearance on Y and Z that takes place in X will for sure impact both Y and Z. In this case, export-oriented economies, like Australia, whose economic growth was derived from fast and partly unfettered GDP run-up in China, will suffer. On the face of it, prices of copper, gold, and the Australian dollar have fallen immediately after the announcement in Beijing, mining stocks in the Australian stock exchange felt headwinds, and the region’s stock market closed on a weak note.

Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank in London, stated, “What the authorities are trying to do is to move from strong to sustainable rates of growth. No one is quite clear where sustainable is, but clearly, it’s one that’s slower than we’ve seen in the recent past.”

At the end, we could say there is a possibility of radical economic transformation in China, emphasizing development, rather than an erratic chase for economic growth.

Image Courtesy of  BartlomiejMagierowski / Shutterstock.com

The article Chinese Economy Slows Down appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Live Nation Entertainment announced recently it has opened a concert promotion office in Seoul, South Korea.

This marks another important step in Live Nation’s international expansion into new markets. South Korea is the 13th largest economy in the world, and the 3rd largest in the Far East, with growth of 6% in 2010. It also ranks as the 12th largest music market in the world, which is largely attributable to K-Pop, whose popularity is now spreading rapidly to other markets outside of South Korea and the Far East.

“We see great opportunity for concerts around the world and our move into South Korea represents another step in the growth of this business,” stated Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation Entertainment. ”Our strategy is to continue our international expansion into under penetrated regions and identify new markets to deliver our unique live experience product.”

“With a growing interest from international artists to perform in South Korea, this is a natural step for us to be able to serve artists and fans better in Korea,” said Alan Ridgeway, President of Live Nation International and Emerging Markets. ”We also have plans to work with Korean artists both in Korea and internationally to meet the expanding demand around the world for the K-Pop phenomenon.”

“Live Nation Korea will further enhance the touring opportunity for both international and local artists in the Asia region,” says Mats Brandt, President of Live Nation Far East. “Live Nation Korea will, together with our existing offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing, expand Live Nation’s network and capabilities in the region.”

Live Nation Korea will be a fully owned subsidiary of Live Nation, and will be led by Steven Kim and Yongbae Cho, who, together, have more than 20 years’ experience within both the Korean and international live music and promotion industry.

Chuwit Srisomwong / Shutterstock.com

The article Live Nation Entertainment Expands into South Korea appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

China’s capital Beijing plans to implement congestion fees on some of its major, highly trafficked roads, Chinese Xinhua news agency reported on September 2 The measure is primarily meant to help reduce the heavy pollution caused by the high number of cars and it should lead to a decrease in traffic jams.

Hopefully, it will also encourage the residents of the Chinese capital to rely more on alternative-energy, environment-friendly vehicles. Officials also hope that the new congestion charge will inspire Beijing residents to start using public transport more than personal vehicles.

However, the reports did not mention how the fees would actually be collected or any other specific details regarding the manner in which the authorities plan to implement the measure. The plan encourages nevertheless the use of the so-called new energy cars, such as electric vehicles, as an environmentally-conscious alternative to cars which use fuel.

Unspecified incentives to buy new energy vehicles will also be provided. For the same purpose, the plan pledges to build more electric-vehicle charging stations and to upgrade the equipment in the already existing ones.

Measures to reduce traffic pressure have been introduced since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, when car owners could use their vehicles only on certain days, depending on the number of the license plate. However, the measures have not had the desired impact and traffic jams continued to remain a problem.

In January 2011, Beijing began capping new car registrations at a price of 20,000 per month, available through a lottery. That has not slowed the increasing traffic to a significant extent, however, it has deprived tens of thousands of hopeful car owners of the possibility of  buying a car.

Beijing also continued to raise parking fees, expand its subway system and build parallel roads, all in an attempt to relieve its heavy traffic. There are voices saying that the measure will probably not have the expected effects, due to the complexity of the problem. “Neither traffic restrictions nor congestion fees can end traffic jams, because they fail to address the essence of the problem,” said Zhang Chang Qing, a traffic law expert at Beijing Jiaotong University.

“Although the plan does not clarify the exact road sections the government is going to charge tolls on, it is simple logic that if it is the Second Ring Road only, people will swarm to Third and the Fourth Ring Road and cause traffic congestion there. Currently, all the rings are already seeing heavy traffic, so I believe the government will have to set up tolls everywhere.”

In 2009, China became the world’s largest auto market, which has led to a constant growth of car ownership. By 2012 the already heavily-trafficked Beijing is expected to have a total of 7 million vehicles on the road.
fstockfoto / Shutterstock.com

The article Beijing Plans Congestion Charge appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Six individuals connected with Xclusive Tickets Limited and Xclusive Leisure and Hospitality have been charged with a range of offenses after an investigation by the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office and the Metropolitan Police.

Terence Shepherd, Allan Schaverien, Alan Scott, Cyril Gold, and Geert van Meel have all been charged with offenses arising from Xclusive’s sale of tickets to a wide range of events, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  Additionally, Sheperd’s wife, Margaret Canty-Sheperd, has been charged with money laundering.

It is alleged that the Xclusive companies have a long history of failing to deliver on their promises.  Many customers complained that they never received the tickets, while others reported receiving tickets that were later revealed to have been stolen.  All told, the Xclusive companies received over £5 million in payment for tickets that were never delivered.

The accused claim that their failure to supply the tickets was due to the collapse of another company, Peter Ticketing.  However, prosecutor Miranda Moore QC told Southwark Crown Court that Peter Ticketing was actually a bogus entity created to conceal Xclusive’s fraud.

Shepherd, Scott, Gold, van Meel, and Canty-Shepherd have all pleaded not guilty.  Schaverein has pleaded guilty and has been bailed for sentencing until after his co-defendants’ trial is over.

Xclusive is just the latest ticket-related scandal to be exposed.  According to a report in Dagbladet, a Norwegian company by the name of Euroteam habitually pays cash for black market tickets, which it then resells at a hefty premium.  For example, in the run-up to the 2006 World Cup, Euroteam was able to sell $81.7 million worth of tickets despite the fact that they were not an official distributor.

Dagbladet also alleges that the company contacted FIFA vice president Jack Warner in 2009 and asked him for tickets to the 2010 World Cup.  Warner, who is also president of the Caribbean Football Union, is said to have ordered tickets to several World Cup matches only to have the deal with Euroteam fall through for unknown reasons.  In February, Dagbladet reported that FIFA’s ethics committee was investigating Warner’s links to Euroteam, but nothing seems to have happened since then.

The article 2008 Beijing Olympic Scammers Earned £5m on Fake Tickets appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Bob Dylan, the 1960s musical legend and icon of the anti-war movement in the era of the Vietnam War came under heavy fire by critics and human rights groups following his performance at the Worker’s Gymnasium in Beijing at the beginning of April. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times lashed out at the 69-year-old folk-rock legend for having “broken creative new ground in selling out.” The fiery commentator expressed her deepest regret that legendary troubadour of the 60s freedom anthems had sunken below the level of other known sellouts “ – even worse than Beyoncé, Mariah and Usher collecting millions to croon to Qaddafi’s family, or Elton John raking in a fortune to serenade gay-bashers at Rush Limbaugh’s fourth wedding.”

Dylan built his extensive career on a foundation of so-called ‘protest songs’ such as The Times They Are a-Changin’ and Like a Rolling Stone with lyrics that voiced the counterculture of the 1960s and labelled him the poster boy for a disenchanted generation, the BBC explains. However, the musician was never comfortable with the label and has been quoted for saying “Whatever the counterculture was, I’d seen enough of it.”

Still, Dowd complained that the old-school touring pro had failed to live up to his own words as he let the Chinese government “pre-approve his set.” She also criticized Dylan for keeping his lips sealed on the artist Ai Weiwei’s disappearance, whose detention happened in the days running up to his first performance in the Chinese capital. Faced with the harshest crackdown on artists, lawyers, writers and dissidents in a decade, the lack of reaction from the aging musician was a thorn in the columnist’s rosy image of Dylan’s 60s persona as he “didn’t offer a reprise of ‘Hurricane,’ his song about ‘the man the authorities came to blame for something that he never done.’ He sang his censored set, took his pile of Communist cash and left.”

A few days ago, the icon himself responded to the criticism in an open letter to fans and followers on his webpage. He insisted that he knew nothing of any censorship imposed on him from the Chinese government and that the list of the songs which was sent to the authorities did not make a difference. “If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play.”

Bob Dylan dismissed the alleged ‘China controversy’, that he was refused permission to enter China last year, and also refuted the words of Mojo magazine that claimed the “concerts were attended mostly by expats and there were a lot of empty seats.” According to Dylan, the local press had heralded him as a sixties icon and the seats had in fact been nearly full with young, enthusiastic Chinese. He denies any suggestion of bad vibes. “Ask anyone who was there. They were young and my feeling was that they wouldn’t have known my early songs anyway.”

The New York Times explained how he has continuously tried to distance himself from the spirit of the anti-war movement and how his memoirs stress that he “had no interest in being an anti-establishment Pied Piper and that all the ‘cultural mumbo jumbo’ imprisoned his soul and made him nauseated.”

According to the BBC, the notoriously stubborn singer-songwriter regularly surprises fans by changing his set lists. He is known for his lengthy concert tours, known as the Never-Ending Tour, which sometimes has him playing 100 times each year.

In 1963, the 22-year-old Dylan walked out on his first nationwide television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” when CBS censors told him he couldn’t sing “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues.”

Image Credit: Heinrich Klaff

The article Bob Dylan, Still the Music of Protest? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The People’s Republic of China is know worldwide as upholding strict censorship rules on all publicized material in the country. The country has also proved itself capable of censoring foreign opinions from penetrating national debates and to serve harsh punishment to anyone suspected of dissidence towards the state. Hong Kong was officially handed back to China from British colonial rule 14 years ago, but the city is still one of two special administrative regions, the other being Macau, which enjoys some form of autonomy. In the period of 50 years after the handover in 1997, Hong Kong will retain its citizen privileges, including less restriction on freedom of speech, while its system is being reformed for full incorporation into mainland China.

Jes Randrup, Danish correspondent for Jyllands-posten, took a look at one of the interesting side effects of Hong Kong’s status. He found that the special freedom enjoyed by the region has made the peninsula’s publishing companies an important mouthpiece for alternative viewpoints, controversial political material and other written material that are banned by Beijing. In an interview with Bao Pu, a political commentator and veteran human rights activist, he reported about the work that publishers are able to do under the ‘safety’ of Hong Kong law.

Mr. Bao is the owner of New Century Publishing and has since 2005 been one of the city’s most prominent publishers of non-fiction. “We contribute to a niche in Hong Kong which has been created by Chinese censorship,” Mr Bao explains, “Some subjects and writers are banned in mainland China and there is a range of things you know will not be tolerated so what do people do? They come to Hong Kong to look for publishers.” The best selling book from his repertoire was the sensational ‘Prisoner of the State’ – a memoir written from secret recordings of the former Premier Zhao Ziyang who was purged politically and put under house arrest following an internal dispute with the party leadership in 1989. Mr Zhao remained under house arrest until his death in 2005 and his name has been taboo since his ousting. Bao Pu secured the recordings from his father, Bao Tong, who was once the right hand of Mr Zhao and still lives under house arrest in Beijing.

Despite the book’s sensitive subject, it sold 120.000 copies and it is especially tourists from mainland China who take advantage of the market in Hong Kong, buying a lot of their otherwise banned political literature in the airport book stores. “We know that it is the buyers from the mainland who purchase many of the nonfictional books in Hong Kong. They constitute a significant market segment,” says Mr Bao.

But Bao Pu and others in his trade are also not afraid to admit that their business is not only to publish. Equally important is the message of their work – to challenge the Chinese state. “The censorship provides us with a form of mission. We exist to undermine the censorship. As long as it exists we will too.”

Mr Bao describes Hong Kong as a haven of information which is considered secret in the mainland. Under the 50-year agreement, Chinese leader have found it politically useful to feed the political discourse through Hong Kong during internal power stuggles. “The most important information comes from insiders in the party,” Mr Bao explains. “A number of articles are based on information which has been leaked by one of the wings in the party. It is leaked to writers in Hong Kong where control over the media is nothing like in China. It is very difficult to leak anything to the media in China.”

Despite the special freedom of speech enjoyed in Hong Kong, there are limitations. When Bao Pu announced his plan to publish a secret diary, said to be written by China’s most hated politician, former Premier Li Peng, Beijing mobilized a stop of the printing and seized the material under copyrights. Mr Bao is reluctant to talk about the incident but acknowledges that the future of freedom of speech in Hong Kong is bleak once the implementation of the Chinese mainland system is complete. “I am not sure how long the current situation can last,” the publisher asses.

The article Hong Kong Publishers Thank Chinese Censorship for Success appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.