left corner left corner
China Daily Website

IN BRIEF (Page 3)

Updated: 2013-12-13 12:02
( China Daily Africa)

Oceanography

Further exploration missions scheduled

China is accelerating its efforts to tap vast metal deposits on the ocean floor, with manned submersible Jiaolong scheduled to dive in the country's two contract areas in the northwest Pacific and the southwest Indian Ocean next year.

"We will acquire geological data, conduct a mineral resource survey and assess biodiversity in these regions during the two missions, preparing for future exploration and mining," Liu Feng, director of the National Deep Sea Center, said in an exclusive interview.

He said Xiangyanghong 09, the mother ship of Jiaolong, will start a 40-day journey to the northwest Pacific in May and then to the southwest Indian Ocean in November for 40 or 50 days.

The China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association won exclusive rights to explore for cobalt crusts in the western Pacific in July and also a polymetallic sulphide contract in the southwest Indian Ocean in 2011.

Space

Satellite failsto go into orbit

China says it has failed to put into orbit a satellite it jointly developed with Brazil, due to rocket malfunctions.

A statement carried by Xinhua News Agency said the Ziyuan-1-03 remote sensing satellite was launched at 11:26 am on Dec 9 aboard a Long March-4B rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province, but malfunctions occurred during the flight, resulting in the satellite failing to enter its preset orbit.

Experts from both countries were analyzing the cause of the malfunctions and said they were "confident in their future cooperation", the statement said without giving any further details.

The 1,980-kg Ziyuan-1-03, or CBERS-3 as it is known in Brazil, is a remote sensing satellite that was part of the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite Program between the China Center for Resources Satellite Data and Application and Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.

It was the fourth of the CBERS satellite series. The first satellite of the series, ZY-1, or CBERS-1, was successfully launched in October 1999. CBERS-2 and CBERS-2B were launched in October 2003 and September 2007. The vehicles for all the launches were Long March-4B rockets.

Currency

China allows roubletrading in border city

IN BRIEF (Page 3)

China has strengthened its economic ties with Russia by allowing the rouble to circulate unrestricted in Suifenhe, Heilongjiang province.

It is the first time that Beijing has given a foreign currency the same legal status as the renminbi on Chinese territory, underscoring the two countries' determination to forge a closer alliance.

The border city of Suifenhe has been dubbed the capital of Sino-Russian trade. The move allows Russian visitors in Suifenhe to pay for meals, shopping and taxi fares in roubles.

Underground currency trading was rampant in the city, and analysts say the trial will create a boom in rouble use in the city.

Wang Jianhui, Beijing-based chief economist with stock brokerage Southwest Securities Co Ltd, said he thought Russia will reciprocate by allowing the renminbi to trade freely in one of its own border cities.

The move will help define the yuan-rouble exchange rate and promote Sino-Russian financial cooperation on a broader scale, he said.

Beginning last month, Russians were allowed visa-free entry to the Suifenhe Sino-Russian Trade Zone, a 4.53-square km area dedicated to promoting China-Russia trade.

Transparency

Ranking of courts openness published

A top Chinese institute has published the first report ranking courts on their openness, as part of efforts to promote judicial transparency.

The report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Law covered 103 courts in Zhejiang province.

Evaluation criteria included the openness of trials and how quickly verdicts were published online.

From April to September the institute collected data from the courts' websites, including the provincial high court and 11 intermediate courts, and carried out courtroom inspections.

Courts were then given scores based on the findings, the institute said.

It is the first time Chinese courts have been evaluated by a third party on transparency, which Shen Deyong, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, has called an innovation.

Aviation

Pilots must qualify to land in haze

IN BRIEF (Page 3)

Many pilots flying scheduled airliners in China must become qualified to land in poor visibility if they want to fly to Beijing next year.

Starting on Jan 1, pilots of flights from the top 10 busiest airports to Beijing Capital International Airport must be qualified to land using an instrument-landing system on hazy days with visibility of around 400 meters, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

"It is part of a series of measures the administration took recently to raise the flights' on-time performance," a source at the administration said on condition of anonymity.

Instrument-landing systems guide approaching aircraft through a combination of radio signals and, often, high-intensity lighting arrays to safe landings when visibility is poor due to fog, rain, or blowing snow. Pilots commonly use the system if visibility is less than 800 meters. Only a handful of airports in China, such as those in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xi'an, have such facilities.

"Considering that the recent smog and haze has brought numerous troubles to air transport in eastern and southern regions, it seems necessary for authorities to ask pilots to improve their landing capability in low visibility," said Ouyang Jie, a professor of airport research at Civil Aviation University of China.

China Daily-Xinhua

 IN BRIEF (Page 3)

The second group of China's hopeful oceanauts make their public debut in Beijing on Dec 10. Zhang Wei / China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 12/13/2013 page3)

8.03K
 
...
 
  • Group a building block for Africa

    An unusually heavy downpour hit Durban for two days before the BRICS summit's debut on African soil, but interest for a better platform for emerging markets were still sparked at the summit.
...
...