Negative Blogs

Tuesday night’s deadly China plane crash highlights the risks in China’s booming air travel industry. A disproportionate number of flights now have to take off and land at night without proper lighting.

The China plane crash that killed 42 people late Tuesday night was a rare blot on the country’s aviation safety copybook, say experts here. But it highlights the risks of flying in and out of some small regional airports at night, something more airlines are forced to do to meet the demands of China’s booming travel industry.

A domestic Henan Airways passenger jet crashed and burst into flames at a fog-shrouded provincial airport near Yichun in Northeastern China, killing 42 and injuring 54, according to official reports.

It is still not known what caused the accident “but from news reports I deduce that the reason is human error,” says Wang Yanan, deputy editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine. “I think it came down too fast or too steeply.”

It emerged Wednesday that another airline, China Southern, decided last August to avoid night flights into Yichun. A technical note on the airline’s website said that “in principle there should be no night flights at Yichun airport,” citing worries about landing strip lighting, weather conditions, and the surrounding hilly terrain.

The newly built airport, one of a number of such regional facilities springing up all over the country to serve China’s booming travel industry, sits in a forested valley. China will have 244 airports by 2020, up from about 175 today, according to figures from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC.)

“Over the last few years, because of the high demand and big market, regional aviation has developed very fast,” says Mr. Wang. “The quality of personnel and facilities may not be keeping up.”

Tuesday’s crash, however, was the first major commercial airline accident in China for nearly six years, Wang points out. “I think it is an isolated case,” he adds. “In general aviation safety in China is normal.”

The government credits this to a nationwide crackdown on safety that it ordered in 2004, upgrading aircraft and airports, after 10 serious airplane crashes in four years had given China a notoriously dangerous reputation.

But at new airports a disproportionate number of flights take off and land at night, because airlines serving them can no longer get daytime slots at the busy hubs they fly to and from.

“At night in Northern China it is often cold and wet, so it may be foggy,” Wang points out, suggesting that Yichun airport’s landing lights may have been too weak to see properly in Tuesday night’s fog. “Small airports should install the right sort of equipment to cope with different conditions,” he adds.

The China plane crash that killed 42 people late Tuesday night was a rare blot on the country’s aviation safety copybook, say experts here. But it highlights the risks of flying in and out of some small regional airports at night, something more airlines are forced to do to meet the demands of China’s booming travel industry.

A domestic Henan Airways passenger jet crashed and burst into flames at a fog-shrouded provincial airport near Yichun in Northeastern China, killing 42 and injuring 54, according to official reports.

It is still not known what caused the accident “but from news reports I deduce that the reason is human error,” says Wang Yanan, deputy editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine. “I think it came down too fast or too steeply.”

It emerged Wednesday that another airline, China Southern, decided last August to avoid night flights into Yichun. A technical note on the airline’s website said that “in principle there should be no night flights at Yichun airport,” citing worries about landing strip lighting, weather conditions, and the surrounding hilly terrain.

The newly built airport, one of a number of such regional facilities springing up all over the country to serve China’s booming travel industry, sits in a forested valley. China will have 244 airports by 2020, up from about 175 today, according to figures from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC.)

“Over the last few years, because of the high demand and big market, regional aviation has developed very fast,” says Mr. Wang. “The quality of personnel and facilities may not be keeping up.”

Tuesday’s crash, however, was the first major commercial airline accident in China for nearly six years, Wang points out. “I think it is an isolated case,” he adds. “In general aviation safety in China is normal.”

The government credits this to a nationwide crackdown on safety that it ordered in 2004, upgrading aircraft and airports, after 10 serious airplane crashes in four years had given China a notoriously dangerous reputation.

But at new airports a disproportionate number of flights take off and land at night, because airlines serving them can no longer get daytime slots at the busy hubs they fly to and from.

“At night in Northern China it is often cold and wet, so it may be foggy,” Wang points out, suggesting that Yichun airport’s landing lights may have been too weak to see properly in Tuesday night’s fog. “Small airports should install the right sort of equipment to cope with different conditions,” he adds.

By Peter Ford

Chinese paramilitary policemen stand guard near the damaged Henan Airlines plane which has crashed on landing in Yichun in northeast China's Heilongjiang province Wednesday.

Death toll in China landslides rises to 1,117; survivor found in the debris, nearly 4 days on

Heavy rains lashed a remote section of northwestern China as the death toll from weekend flooding that triggered massive landslides jumped to 1,117, although the fading hopes of rescuers got a boost late Wednesday when a survivor was found in the debris.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency gave no immediate details on the survivor, found nearly four days after the disaster struck. Earlier Wednesday, a 50-year-old man was rescued who had been trapped in knee-deep mud on the second floor of a hotel, Xinhua said.

Local officials were cited as saying at least 627 people were still missing.

The National Meteorological Center warned there was a “relatively large” chance of more landslides in the coming days, as heavier rain was expected, with up to 3 1/2 inches (90 millimeters) forecast for Friday.

Troops and rescue teams, joined by traumatized survivors, were increasingly turning to recovering bodies and seeing to the needs of the living. Clean drinking water was a primary concern, with most local sources destroyed or too polluted to use.

Entire communities in Gansu province’s Zhouqu district were swallowed when the debris-choked Bailong River jumped its banks early Sunday, releasing wave after wave of mud and rubble-strewn water. While torrential rains were the direct cause, tree cutting that left the dry hills exposed and the weakening of cliff faces by a massive 2008 earthquake were seen as contributing factors.

Buildings were torn from their foundations, their lower floors blown out by the force of the debris-laden water. Three villages comprising hundreds of households were entirely buried and much of the county seat was submerged.

“In some households, all the people have died,” making the counting of the dead more difficult, Zhang Weixing, a Ministry of Civil Affairs official, told a news conference Wednesday.

Crews using explosives and excavators rushed to drain an unstable lake on the Bailong upriver of Zhouqu, fearing more rain could cause a massive breach, bringing more misery to the town.

By DAVID WIVELL

Rescue workers search for victims after a mudslide swept into the town of Zhouqu in Gannan prefecture of northwestern China's Gansu province, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010.

More than 125 are dead, 1,300 missing.

Rescuers armed with little more than shovels searched on Monday for hundreds of people after a torrent of mud engulfed a northwestern Chinese town, tearing down homes, filling the streets with sludge and killing at least 127.

Nearly 1,300 people were missing after heavy rains and landslides created a torrent of mud and floodwaters that buried at least 300 low-rise homes and gouged chunks out of multi-storey concrete homes in Zhouqu County in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu province.

The region is dominated by steep and barren hills.

Upstream from the disaster, demolition experts and geologists were working frantically to drain a lake that had built up behind a barrier of landslide blockage.

With more rains forecast for this week, there would be fresh tragedy if the unsecured dam bursts, creating a new mud flow.

Premier Wen Jiabao visited the disaster-hit town on Sunday, to survey the wreckage, promise government help, console survivors, and urge rescuers and engineers to work as hard as possible to save lives and prevent fresh tragedy.

China has deployed all the resources of a powerful central government to battle a string of natural disasters in recent years — flooding, quakes and landslides — winning popular support for both the military and the leadership.

Six thousand troops, police and firefighters worked through the night to dig out survivors, though the slurry of mud that devastated the worst-hit areas dimmed hopes of finding many alive under the wreckage, and complicated rescue efforts.

Over a meter deep in many areas, the mire has made it almost impossible for rescue teams to bring in vital heavy equipment.

More than 1,240 people have been rescued from among the debris or plucked from the top of buildings where they had taken refuge from the onslaught. Over 100 were injured, 29 seriously.

Streams of refugees trekked out of the area, some carrying a few possessions they had managed to salvage, others with a grimmer load — the bodies of loved ones killed by the sludge, the official China Daily newspaper said.

Power lines are down in two-thirds of the county, and water up to 4 meters (13 ft) deep is still surging through some parts of town, the official Xinhua agency said. At least 45,000 people have been evacuated, including the residents of downstream towns thought to be at risk from a fresh mudslide.

The Ministry of Finance has set aside 500 million yuan ($74 million) in emergency funds for the region.

The Agriculture Ministry has also sent protective equipment and disinfectant to an area with large numbers of livestock — there are many nomadic Tibetan herders living there — to help battle possible epidemics caused by dead animals.

By MSNBC

A view of a massive mudslide running through the county-seat town in Zhouqu county in northwest China's Gansu province August 9.

Typhoon Chanthu moved deeper into western China Friday, lashing Guangxi province with high winds and rain before weakening to a tropical storm.

Authorities predicted the storm would bring continued downpours to a region that already is suffering the worst flooding in 10 years.  The official Xinhua news agency said the official toll now is 742 dead and 367 missing after weeks of flooding from storms.

Chanthu was blamed for three deaths, including two killed when 126-kilometer-per-hour winds knocked over a wall in Guangdong province.  In neighboring Hong Kong, officials recovered the body of a man who was swept away late Thursday.

Earlier in Hainan province, authorities suspended all flights in and out, and ordered more than 20,000 fishing boats to return to port and seek shelter.

Xinhua said Chanthu has affected about 1.36 million residents and toppled almost 3,000 houses.  It estimated the economic losses at more than $350 million.

By VOANews

Rescue workers evacuate residents from flooded areas in Jianong town in Leshan in southwest China's Sichuan province, 18 July 2010

A tropical storm has shifted direction away from Hong Kong and is expected to make landfall in South China early Thursday, adding more weather woes to a region that’s already been deluged, causing suffering to millions.

Tropical Storm Chanthu is forecast to hit China’s Guangdong and Hainin provinces as a severe tropical storm, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

Chanthu was about 260 miles (420 kilometers) south of Hong Kong Wednesday afternoon and was forecast to move northwest at about 6 mph (10 km/hr), edging closer to the coast. The observatory said the storm has slowed down and is taking more westerly track. The storm is expected to strengthen as landfall approaches.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said the storm is packing sustained winds of 63 mph, which are expected to grow to nearly 75 mph. The center is operated by the U.S. Navy and Air Force in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The storm is expected come ashore late early Thursday, local time.
This latest storm comes on the heels of major flooding and landslides across much of the nation with more than 700 people dead and hundreds more missing, China’s vice minister of water resources Liu Ning told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.

More than 700 dead in Chinese floods

Regions affected include Sichuan province and Shaanxi province. Of particular concern is the massive Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province. With the Yangtze River already running at record levels, engineers have opened up the flood gates.

The Yangtze is fed by three major tributaries, and it flows east, from Sichuan, toward the dam. Water flows near the dam are comparable to record flows during devastating floods in China in 1998.

The Three Gorges, the world’s largest dam, was completed last year. So far, it is holding up.

Xinhua quoted Yuan Jie, director of the dam’s cascade dispatching center, as saying that, “Compared to 1998, the biggest difference is the Three Gorges Dam. Without it, thousands of soldiers and rescuers would have been needed to fight the floods.”

Elsewhere, more than 230,000 people have been evacuated from the city of Guangan in Sichuan, after the worst flooding there in 160 years. There’s no power, no clean water, and the only way around is by boat.

The wild weather also has cut off roads, flattened homes, destroyed power facilities and flooded farmland in Ankang City, the worst-hit area, Xinhua reported. Flood control authorities say the lives of nearly 1.5 million people have been disrupted by flooding in 23 counties and cities in the southern regions of the province.

Other areas that have been inundated include the city of Chongquing, and Anhui and Hunan provinces, according to Xinhua. Altogether, more than 9 million people have been affected by floods and landslides, it said.

According to the observatory website, the outer rain bands of Chanthu may affect Hong Kong overnight and local winds will gradually increase.

The government weather website said that since there will be swells, people are advised to stay away from the shoreline and not engage in water sports. All small vessels, including low-power vessels and fishing vessels in open seas, should seek shelter as soon as possible, the government said.The storm is expected come ashore late early Thursday, local time.

This latest storm comes on the heels of major flooding and landslides across much of the nation with more than 700 people dead and hundreds more missing, China’s vice minister of water resources Liu Ning told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.

More than 700 dead in Chinese floods

Regions affected include Sichuan province and Shaanxi province. Of particular concern is the massive Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province. With the Yangtze River already running at record levels, engineers have opened up the flood gates.

The Yangtze is fed by three major tributaries, and it flows east, from Sichuan, toward the dam. Water flows near the dam are comparable to record flows during devastating floods in China in 1998.

The Three Gorges, the world’s largest dam, was completed last year. So far, it is holding up.

Xinhua quoted Yuan Jie, director of the dam’s cascade dispatching center, as saying that, “Compared to 1998, the biggest difference is the Three Gorges Dam. Without it, thousands of soldiers and rescuers would have been needed to fight the floods.”

Elsewhere, more than 230,000 people have been evacuated from the city of Guangan in Sichuan, after the worst flooding there in 160 years. There’s no power, no clean water, and the only way around is by boat.

The wild weather also has cut off roads, flattened homes, destroyed power facilities and flooded farmland in Ankang City, the worst-hit area, Xinhua reported. Flood control authorities say the lives of nearly 1.5 million people have been disrupted by flooding in 23 counties and cities in the southern regions of the province.

Other areas that have been inundated include the city of Chongquing, and Anhui and Hunan provinces, according to Xinhua. Altogether, more than 9 million people have been affected by floods and landslides, it said.

According to the observatory website, the outer rain bands of Chanthu may affect Hong Kong overnight and local winds will gradually increase.

The government weather website said that since there will be swells, people are advised to stay away from the shoreline and not engage in water sports. All small vessels, including low-power vessels and fishing vessels in open seas, should seek shelter as soon as possible, the government said.

By the CNN

Residents of Guangan, China, try to salvage what they can from their devastated homes Tuesday, July 20. A 10 square kilometer area of Guangan was inundated by waters of the Qu River, which ran through the old part of the city, bringing debris and mud. The death toll has risen past 30 as a result of floods and landslides, says the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Rescuers search for survivors after torrential rains cause hill to collapse on homes in south-western China.

Hope of finding survivors was diminishing today as rescuers used heavy machinery including bulldozers to search for at least 107 people trapped under a cin south-west China.

Villagers huddled in tents set up at the site as rescuers searched for survivors.

But there appeared to be little hope, with no word by midday today, said Tian Maosheng, an official from Guizhou Communist party propaganda department, who is helping with the rescue.

“The number 107 remains unchanged, and there is still no sign of life here,” he said.

Homes were buried when the landslide struck the village of Dazhai in Guizhou province yesterday afternoon after days of torrential rains. An official interviewed by state broadcaster CCTV said nearly half a hill had collapsed.

Makeshift tents were set up as first aid stations and soldiers waded through water and mud as they evacuated more than 360 residents.

Light rain this morning hindered rescue efforts, threatening to wash more mud down the slopes, but began to subside later in the day.

Large areas of southern China have been hit by flooding in the last two weeks, with at least 377 people killed and another 142 missing – not including those from Monday’s landslide. More than 3 million people have fled their homes over the past two weeks, according to the ministry of civil affairs.

On Sunday floodwaters began receding in the south and workers finished repairing a dike breach that forced the evacuation of 100,000 people.

By Guardian

Soldiers evacuate residents from the site of a landslide in Dazhai Village, Guanling county in south-west China. Photograph: Chinafotopress/Getty Images.

58 feared killed in southern China storms.

BEIJING - The death toll from fierce storms and torrential rains that ravaged southern China this week has risen to at least 58 people with tens of thousands left homeless, state media reported Friday.

The extreme weather hit southern parts of China overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, leaving at least 190 injured and a further 11 missing, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The southwestern municipality of Chongqing was the worst hit after a tornado and gale-force winds killed 29 people, destroyed homes, uprooted trees, flooded roads and caused landslides.

More than 70,000 people were displaced in Chongqing, according to the civil affairs ministry.

Authorities estimate that direct economic losses in Chongqing — which has more than 30 million people — could come to 420 million yuan (62 million dollars), China National Radio said.

Reports have said the bad weather was triggered when a heatwave in the south collided with a cold front from the north.

In neighbouring Hunan province, heavy rain triggered landslides, affecting more than 380,000 people and leaving 10 dead. The government had already moved 21,000 residents to safer areas, Xinhua reported.

In the southern province of Guangdong, where six people were killed, heavy rains destroyed thousands of hectares of crops and authorities were predicting more downpours at the end of the weekend, a separate Xinhua report said.

Meanwhile, torrential rain in the eastern province of Jiangxi killed seven people, cut off roads and flooded schools and villages, it added.

The remaining six people died in rain-triggered landslides in the southwestern province of Guizhou.

A villager tries to salvage his belongings after his home was damaged in a tornado in Chongqing on May 6, 2010.

China moved swiftly on Saturday to suspend military exchanges with the United States after Washington’s announcement of arms sales to Taiwan, widening rifts in their far-reaching relationship.

The Defense Ministry, in a strongly-worded statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency, condemned the proposed U.S. sale of weapons to self-ruled and democratic Taiwan, which China considers an illegitimate breakaway province.

“Considering the severe harm and odious effect of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the Chinese side has decided to suspend planned mutual military visits,” Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying.

Qian Lihua, director of China’s Defense Ministry Foreign Affairs Office, also summoned the U.S. defense attache to lodge a “solemn protest” about the sales, Xinhua added.

The Obama administration told the U.S. Congress on Friday of the proposed sales to Taiwan, a potential $6.4 billion package including Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot “Advanced Capability-3″ anti-missile missiles, and two refurbished Osprey-class mine-hunting ships.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei told the U.S. ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, that the arms deal could jeopardize bonds with Washington, which has looked to China for help in surmounting the financial crisis, dealing with Iran and North Korea, and fighting climate change.

The U.S. arms sales to Taiwan have joined trade imbalances, currency disputes, human rights, the Internet, and Tibet among rifts dividing the world’s biggest and third-biggest economies.

Washington and Beijing have also recently traded angry words about Internet policy after the search engine giant Google Inc earlier this month threatened to shut its Chinese google.cn portal and pull out of China, citing censorship problems and hacking attacks.

In coming months Obama may meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader China calls a dangerous separatist, adding to Beijing’s ire with Washington.

Vice Minister He hinted the anger would be felt in a number of areas.

“The United States’ announcement of the planned weapons sales to Taiwan will have a seriously negative impact on many important areas of exchanges and cooperation between the two countries,” said He in the remarks, published on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Web site.

He said the arms sales were “crude interference in China’s domestic affairs and seriously harm China’s national security”, words notably tougher than Beijing’s recent statements on the issue.

“This will lead to repercussions that neither side wishes to see,” said He. He urged the U.S. to halt the planned sales. Hard money training.

Americans are turning away from the world, showing a tendency toward isolationism in foreign affairs that has risen to the highest level in four decades, a poll out Thursday found.

Almost half, 49 percent, told the polling organization that the United States should “mind its own business” internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own, the Pew Research Center survey found. That’s up from 30 percent who said that in December 2002.

Results of the survey appear to conflict with President Barack Obama’s activist foreign policy, including a newly announced buildup of 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to fight Taliban and al-Qaida extremists.

“Isolationist Sentiment Surges to Four-Decade High,” the nonpartisan research center headlined its report on the poll about America’s role in the world.

Only 32 percent of the poll respondents favored increasing U.S. troops in Afghanistan, while 40 percent favored decreasing them. And fewer than half, or 46 percent, of those polled said it was somewhat or very likely that Afghanistan would be able to withstand the radicals’ threat.

Forty-one percent of those surveyed said the United States plays a less important and powerful role as a world leader than it did a decade ago, up from 25 percent who said that just before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the report said.

Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut said in an interview that the “very bad economy” appeared most responsible for the growth of isolationist sentiment. He said the public was also “displeased with the two wars we are waging, in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

While isolationism and unilateralism reached four-decade highs among the public, the stature of China increased.

Among Americans polled, 44 percent said China was the world’s leading economic power compared with 27 percent who named the United States. In February 2008, 41 percent said the U.S. was the leading economic power, while 30 percent said China.

A majority of Americans surveyed, or 53 percent, see China’s emerging power as a threat to the United States. Hard money training.

China’s economy has shown signs of improvement, with the annual growth rates of both industrial output and retail sales rising last month.

However, despite the improvement, both sets of data were below analysts’ expectations.

July’s industrial production rose 10.8% year-on-year, while retail sales grew at an annual pace of 15.2%.

The rise in retail sales suggests that domestic consumption has helped to counter the drop in foreign demand.

China’s 4 trillion yuan ($586bn; £355bn) stimulus package aims to boost domestic demand to fuel a recovery.

The plan has helped to boost China’s economy, which grew at an annual rate of 7.9% between April and June, up from 6.1% in the first quarter.

But this is less than the double digit growth seen between 2003 and 2007. NHMA