Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2009-11-23 06:25 PM
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – United States President Barack Obama will not change anything about his country’s policies towards Taiwan, visiting American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt said Monday.
The top U.S. liaison officer with Taiwan is visiting the country to inform political leaders about last week’s meeting by President Obama with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing.
After talking to Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, Burghardt said Obama had told Hu face to face that he would not change existing Taiwan policies, including the sale of American arms.
Taiwan is expecting Washington to approve the sale of more advanced F-16 C/D fighter jets, but concern continues that the deal will be postponed or canceled altogether because of China’s vehement protests against arms sales to the island nation.
The Taiwan Relations Act approved by the U.S. Congress after Washington switched recognition to China in 1979 allows for the sale of defensive weapons to Taipei.
Obama mentioned the act in the news communiqué, Burghardt said. “That was a personal desire by him to make sure it was mentioned,” the AIT chief was quoted as saying.
Wang said he told Burghardt that U.S. leaders would carefully weigh any public statement involving Taiwan’s sovereignty because it could have a grave impact on the country’s status. Any such U.S. comment should be clear and not leave any room for interpretation or imagination, Wang said.
The chief of the Legislative Yuan said he expected the U.S. to evaluate seriously how to protect Taiwan’s security and the rights of its people.
Burghardt described the recent concerns over the safety of U.S. bone-in beef as a “phony issue” because the meat to be imported to Taiwan was the same consumed each day by millions of Americans.
A public outcry broke out last month after Taipei and Washington signed a protocol to allow the import of bone-in beef and other products thought to carry the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease.
Consecutive Taiwanese governments evaluated the risks of U.S. beef and concluded that it was safe, Burghardt said Monday.
During the discussions, Wang said he also brought up Taiwan’s wish for a U.S. visa waiver and for trade liberalization talks.
The AIT chief is scheduled to meet President Ma Ying-jeou on Tuesday, while talks with Premier Wu Den-yih, Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan and opposition Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen were also on the agenda.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Obama Seeks Time for Policies to Take
November 23, 2009
The Caucus
By JOHN HARWOOD
President Obama’s scramble for a health care overhaul, like his dash across Asia last week, obscures an irony of his first year in office.
As he tries to effect his agenda, the politician who campaigned on “the fierce urgency of now” plays for time to demonstrate the benefits of policies that, if they work, will not work quickly.
Mr. Obama, backed by some independent economists, believes that his stimulus plan has helped pull the economy into recovery. But he is at least months away from being able to make that case by pointing to a decline in joblessness.
Mr. Obama returned from Asia to lobby Congress on his health policy goals, and won a significant preliminary victory in the Senate over the weekend. Many changes would not even be in place until 2013 — including such popular provisions as subsidies for buying coverage and prohibitions against insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
His initiative to curb global warming by limiting carbon emissions may raise energy costs long before Americans perceive environmental or economic benefits, if they ever do. The most demonstrable near-term result of his forthcoming Afghanistan strategy will be more troops for an unpopular war.
In Asia, Mr. Obama pushed to “rebalance” the world economy through policy shifts in Beijing that he hoped would benefit Americans via more exports to China. The world’s oldest continuous major civilization showed no sign of a quick pivot.
The president’s challenge is pursuing far-reaching changes in a political and media culture centered on short-term consequences. He has disdained the values of the “24-hour news cycle” and vowed to ignore day-to-day fluctuations in polls, financial markets and cable-TV chatter.
“I’ve got to be looking at the horizon,” Mr. Obama said in a January interview. That becomes harder to afford with an approaching election.
Not to Be Rushed
In Beijing, Mr. Obama praised China’s $585 billion economic stimulus, whose emphasis on infrastructure projects paid immediate dividends for American exporters of heavy equipment.
“There are opportunities right now that are available for American companies,” said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who accompanied the president.
More promising for American companies and workers in the long term is the prospect of an expanding Chinese middle class going on American-style shopping sprees. Mr. Obama wants China to make American imports cheaper by letting its currency rise in value, and to provide more incentives for Chinese families to spend.
Signs exist that the Chinese government and families want that to happen as they adapt to explosive economic growth. But statements from Mr. Obama and President Hu Jintao of China after their consultations made clear Beijing would not be rushed on its currency policy. Other changes to spur domestic spending, like development of broad-scale consumer credit and investments in a social safety net, will not happen quickly either.
“Changing the orientation of this economy is not something that can be achieved in two to three years,” said Arthur Kroeber, an analyst at the Beijing consulting firm Dragonomics. “It’s more like a five- to 10-year process.”
Needing Results Soon
White House aides bristled at news media reviews suggesting Mr. Obama had failed to secure diplomatic victories in China. “This isn’t an immediate gratification business,” said David Axelrod, the presidential adviser.
But midterm elections arrive in 11 months. For Congressional Democrats — facing politically risky votes on Mr. Obama’s health care, energy, budget and immigration initiatives — the horizon is approaching rapidly.
For their sake and its own, Team Obama is not ignoring that reality.
A White House “jobs summit” will explore near-term steps to accelerate job creation, even though the administration is loath to widen the budget deficit and additional spending may not reduce unemployment rapidly anyway.
To ensure that voters see immediate benefits from health legislation, Democrats have included quick-trigger provisions to bar insurers from putting lifetime caps on benefits and to help expensive-to-cover patients buy insurance through government “high-risk pools.” Weeks before visiting Beijing, Mr. Obama nodded to the anxieties of American workers by imposing tariffs on Chinese tires.
Mr. Obama enjoys thicker political insulation than Democrats in Congress; polls show that voters like him personally, and he does not face re-election until 2012. But he feels the pressures of his strategy, nonetheless.
Before returning to Washington, he took solace in the timelessness of the Great Wall. “It gives you a good perspective on a lot of the day-to-day things,” he mused. “They don’t amount to much in the scope of history.”
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
The Caucus
By JOHN HARWOOD
President Obama’s scramble for a health care overhaul, like his dash across Asia last week, obscures an irony of his first year in office.
As he tries to effect his agenda, the politician who campaigned on “the fierce urgency of now” plays for time to demonstrate the benefits of policies that, if they work, will not work quickly.
Mr. Obama, backed by some independent economists, believes that his stimulus plan has helped pull the economy into recovery. But he is at least months away from being able to make that case by pointing to a decline in joblessness.
Mr. Obama returned from Asia to lobby Congress on his health policy goals, and won a significant preliminary victory in the Senate over the weekend. Many changes would not even be in place until 2013 — including such popular provisions as subsidies for buying coverage and prohibitions against insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
His initiative to curb global warming by limiting carbon emissions may raise energy costs long before Americans perceive environmental or economic benefits, if they ever do. The most demonstrable near-term result of his forthcoming Afghanistan strategy will be more troops for an unpopular war.
In Asia, Mr. Obama pushed to “rebalance” the world economy through policy shifts in Beijing that he hoped would benefit Americans via more exports to China. The world’s oldest continuous major civilization showed no sign of a quick pivot.
The president’s challenge is pursuing far-reaching changes in a political and media culture centered on short-term consequences. He has disdained the values of the “24-hour news cycle” and vowed to ignore day-to-day fluctuations in polls, financial markets and cable-TV chatter.
“I’ve got to be looking at the horizon,” Mr. Obama said in a January interview. That becomes harder to afford with an approaching election.
Not to Be Rushed
In Beijing, Mr. Obama praised China’s $585 billion economic stimulus, whose emphasis on infrastructure projects paid immediate dividends for American exporters of heavy equipment.
“There are opportunities right now that are available for American companies,” said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who accompanied the president.
More promising for American companies and workers in the long term is the prospect of an expanding Chinese middle class going on American-style shopping sprees. Mr. Obama wants China to make American imports cheaper by letting its currency rise in value, and to provide more incentives for Chinese families to spend.
Signs exist that the Chinese government and families want that to happen as they adapt to explosive economic growth. But statements from Mr. Obama and President Hu Jintao of China after their consultations made clear Beijing would not be rushed on its currency policy. Other changes to spur domestic spending, like development of broad-scale consumer credit and investments in a social safety net, will not happen quickly either.
“Changing the orientation of this economy is not something that can be achieved in two to three years,” said Arthur Kroeber, an analyst at the Beijing consulting firm Dragonomics. “It’s more like a five- to 10-year process.”
Needing Results Soon
White House aides bristled at news media reviews suggesting Mr. Obama had failed to secure diplomatic victories in China. “This isn’t an immediate gratification business,” said David Axelrod, the presidential adviser.
But midterm elections arrive in 11 months. For Congressional Democrats — facing politically risky votes on Mr. Obama’s health care, energy, budget and immigration initiatives — the horizon is approaching rapidly.
For their sake and its own, Team Obama is not ignoring that reality.
A White House “jobs summit” will explore near-term steps to accelerate job creation, even though the administration is loath to widen the budget deficit and additional spending may not reduce unemployment rapidly anyway.
To ensure that voters see immediate benefits from health legislation, Democrats have included quick-trigger provisions to bar insurers from putting lifetime caps on benefits and to help expensive-to-cover patients buy insurance through government “high-risk pools.” Weeks before visiting Beijing, Mr. Obama nodded to the anxieties of American workers by imposing tariffs on Chinese tires.
Mr. Obama enjoys thicker political insulation than Democrats in Congress; polls show that voters like him personally, and he does not face re-election until 2012. But he feels the pressures of his strategy, nonetheless.
Before returning to Washington, he took solace in the timelessness of the Great Wall. “It gives you a good perspective on a lot of the day-to-day things,” he mused. “They don’t amount to much in the scope of history.”
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Russian Convents Face Obstacles To Restoring Past
November 23, 2009
Russia has seen an explosion in the number of Orthodox convents over the past two decades.
After the 1917 revolution, all were closed. Some women continued to live as nuns in secret, but with the end of communist rule, convents had to start from scratch. There are now more than 240, outnumbering monasteries.
Most of the renovated convents — many in remote areas — are based on their distant history and devotion to their particular icons. But for many reasons, restoring the past is far from easy.
Restoring A Convent
The restored convent in the provincial town of Serpukhov, a two-hour train ride from Moscow, is jammed on a Sunday morning. Founded in the 14th century, the convent became known for its miracle-working icon, which the nuns say has long helped those trying to stop drinking.
They believe it can now also help those battling drug addictions — a growing Russian affliction — and they welcome those seeking spiritual rehabilitation.
Mother Superior Aleksiya, 45, was brought up during the Soviet Union, where she says she was unable to find out much about religion. It was only in the 1980s, as restrictions lifted, that she even dared enter a church. As convents reopened in the early 1990s, she decided to become a nun.
"If I was going to serve God, I had to do it completely," she says. "Maybe that's just my character."
Fifteen years ago, she was sent to resurrect the convent in Serpukhov. "There were nothing but ruins, skeletons of buildings, trash and debris," she remembers.
She has since restored one of two churches and a residence. Initially alone, she attracted helpers, then new nuns. Some have since died; two have been tapped to start their own convents. She now has 12 sisters — far fewer than convents in major centers like Moscow.
Nonetheless, the convent is considered a historic monument, and the government has paid for the rebuilding. For daily needs and upkeep, the convent depends on pilgrims, donations and the sale of icons, as well as its gardens and livestock.
Mother Aleksiya says attracting new nuns is not as easy as it was a decade ago.
"Enthusiasm for becoming a nun is not as great as it was with the first explosion of interest in the church," she explains. "But maybe that's not so bad. Some thought it was an escape from poverty in the villages, an alcoholic husband or the loneliness of old age. Now, women fully understand what they are really getting into."
Facing Frustrations
Orthodox nuns live within convent walls, largely cut off from the world, wearing formal black habits and bound by centuries of tradition. While happy with her vocation, Mother Aleksiya still expresses a little frustration.
"The current church does not fully value the role of women. I do not think women should be priests, but in the past women could be deacons," she says. "It's the same in the church as society. Many men don't understand women. They tell us to be quiet. They are wrong."
Orthodox churches have been criticized for being standoffish. Another nun here, 33-year-old Mother Georgia, hopes the Serperkhov convent can be a comforting place.
"People finally come to church for the first time. They don't know what to do. It's not right when people snub them for their ignorance," she says.
Greater Goals, Greater Problems
Compared with the modest goals at Serpukhov, the Spaso-Yeleazarovsky convent in distant western Russia has far greater ambitions — and, with this, far greater problems.
"At first, people were delighted that the convent was restored," says Raisa Shumkina, head of the local government, "and they could live within the sound of its bells. But then the mother superior demanded the only store for miles be closed because it is on what is now convent land.
"She started to expand the convent territory even farther. People are confused and angry."
Wood is still what heats most houses here. There are 10 tiny, poor villages, a beautiful lake and an abandoned communist-era farm, where a century ago there were acres of church territory.
Mother Superior Elizaveta wants to get it all back. She says she is willing to relocate villagers.
Grigory Nikolaichuk, 72, who lives next to the convent, says she has intimidated residents.
"She told those who didn't want to sell her their houses they would end up on the hill — the hill is where the cemetery is," he says. "That's how she curses and threatens people."
Mother Elizaveta believes God is on her side. And she's also got big political support. With pressure from the governor, a recent Kremlin appointee, the entire area was recently declared a protected zone, putting limits on what villagers can build.
A Messy Situation
So much attention is focused on this remote place because it was here that a 16th century monk espoused what many believe is Russia's religious destiny. According to this thinking, ancient Rome fell because of heresy. The second Rome, Constantinople, was brought down by infidels. The third Rome, Russia, is to illuminate the world.
As Mother Elizaveta explains, there is to be no fourth Rome. "Russia is the hope for all mankind. We answer for the whole world," she says. "And through the help of the state, we have been able to restore Russia's spiritual legacy."
Though there are only 20 nuns here, she has rebuilt not only the church but eight substantial buildings, with plans for a lot more development.
Longtime resident Sergei Borodulin has no intention of being pushed out — even to an apartment with modern conveniences — and he is none too happy with how government funds are being spent.
"This is serious money — millions and millions," he says.
Irina Golubeva, a respected art historian who heads the Pskov branch of the Russian Society for Restoration, says ambition, nationalism and bad public relations have created a huge mess.
She agrees this convent has historical importance, but she says Mother Elizaveta has been allowed to create a Disneyland of a convent that may satisfy dreams of greatness, but has little to do with the past.
"And this just adds to the mess," says Golubeva. "The big two-story buildings in no way resemble what was once there. As a historian, I am not happy, the local people are unhappy and, ultimately, she has ill-served the church."
As Russia seeks to restore its past and its identity, nothing, not even a convent, is simple — certainly not where property, money and politics are concerned.
Russia has seen an explosion in the number of Orthodox convents over the past two decades.
After the 1917 revolution, all were closed. Some women continued to live as nuns in secret, but with the end of communist rule, convents had to start from scratch. There are now more than 240, outnumbering monasteries.
Most of the renovated convents — many in remote areas — are based on their distant history and devotion to their particular icons. But for many reasons, restoring the past is far from easy.
Restoring A Convent
The restored convent in the provincial town of Serpukhov, a two-hour train ride from Moscow, is jammed on a Sunday morning. Founded in the 14th century, the convent became known for its miracle-working icon, which the nuns say has long helped those trying to stop drinking.
They believe it can now also help those battling drug addictions — a growing Russian affliction — and they welcome those seeking spiritual rehabilitation.
Mother Superior Aleksiya, 45, was brought up during the Soviet Union, where she says she was unable to find out much about religion. It was only in the 1980s, as restrictions lifted, that she even dared enter a church. As convents reopened in the early 1990s, she decided to become a nun.
"If I was going to serve God, I had to do it completely," she says. "Maybe that's just my character."
Fifteen years ago, she was sent to resurrect the convent in Serpukhov. "There were nothing but ruins, skeletons of buildings, trash and debris," she remembers.
She has since restored one of two churches and a residence. Initially alone, she attracted helpers, then new nuns. Some have since died; two have been tapped to start their own convents. She now has 12 sisters — far fewer than convents in major centers like Moscow.
Nonetheless, the convent is considered a historic monument, and the government has paid for the rebuilding. For daily needs and upkeep, the convent depends on pilgrims, donations and the sale of icons, as well as its gardens and livestock.
Mother Aleksiya says attracting new nuns is not as easy as it was a decade ago.
"Enthusiasm for becoming a nun is not as great as it was with the first explosion of interest in the church," she explains. "But maybe that's not so bad. Some thought it was an escape from poverty in the villages, an alcoholic husband or the loneliness of old age. Now, women fully understand what they are really getting into."
Facing Frustrations
Orthodox nuns live within convent walls, largely cut off from the world, wearing formal black habits and bound by centuries of tradition. While happy with her vocation, Mother Aleksiya still expresses a little frustration.
"The current church does not fully value the role of women. I do not think women should be priests, but in the past women could be deacons," she says. "It's the same in the church as society. Many men don't understand women. They tell us to be quiet. They are wrong."
Orthodox churches have been criticized for being standoffish. Another nun here, 33-year-old Mother Georgia, hopes the Serperkhov convent can be a comforting place.
"People finally come to church for the first time. They don't know what to do. It's not right when people snub them for their ignorance," she says.
Greater Goals, Greater Problems
Compared with the modest goals at Serpukhov, the Spaso-Yeleazarovsky convent in distant western Russia has far greater ambitions — and, with this, far greater problems.
"At first, people were delighted that the convent was restored," says Raisa Shumkina, head of the local government, "and they could live within the sound of its bells. But then the mother superior demanded the only store for miles be closed because it is on what is now convent land.
"She started to expand the convent territory even farther. People are confused and angry."
Wood is still what heats most houses here. There are 10 tiny, poor villages, a beautiful lake and an abandoned communist-era farm, where a century ago there were acres of church territory.
Mother Superior Elizaveta wants to get it all back. She says she is willing to relocate villagers.
Grigory Nikolaichuk, 72, who lives next to the convent, says she has intimidated residents.
"She told those who didn't want to sell her their houses they would end up on the hill — the hill is where the cemetery is," he says. "That's how she curses and threatens people."
Mother Elizaveta believes God is on her side. And she's also got big political support. With pressure from the governor, a recent Kremlin appointee, the entire area was recently declared a protected zone, putting limits on what villagers can build.
A Messy Situation
So much attention is focused on this remote place because it was here that a 16th century monk espoused what many believe is Russia's religious destiny. According to this thinking, ancient Rome fell because of heresy. The second Rome, Constantinople, was brought down by infidels. The third Rome, Russia, is to illuminate the world.
As Mother Elizaveta explains, there is to be no fourth Rome. "Russia is the hope for all mankind. We answer for the whole world," she says. "And through the help of the state, we have been able to restore Russia's spiritual legacy."
Though there are only 20 nuns here, she has rebuilt not only the church but eight substantial buildings, with plans for a lot more development.
Longtime resident Sergei Borodulin has no intention of being pushed out — even to an apartment with modern conveniences — and he is none too happy with how government funds are being spent.
"This is serious money — millions and millions," he says.
Irina Golubeva, a respected art historian who heads the Pskov branch of the Russian Society for Restoration, says ambition, nationalism and bad public relations have created a huge mess.
She agrees this convent has historical importance, but she says Mother Elizaveta has been allowed to create a Disneyland of a convent that may satisfy dreams of greatness, but has little to do with the past.
"And this just adds to the mess," says Golubeva. "The big two-story buildings in no way resemble what was once there. As a historian, I am not happy, the local people are unhappy and, ultimately, she has ill-served the church."
As Russia seeks to restore its past and its identity, nothing, not even a convent, is simple — certainly not where property, money and politics are concerned.
China families protest mine disaster, toll hits 104
Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:39am EST
By Maxim Duncan
HEGANG, China (Reuters) - Relatives of miners killed by a gas blast at a coal pit in northeast China scuffled with police and demanded answers from the owners on Monday as the toll hit 104 and hopes faded that any more survivors would be found.
The protest came a day after another 11 miners were killed in a blast at a pit in the southern province of Hunan, the official Xinhua agency said. China's stability-obsessed government is nervous about protests, and keen to control discontent.
China has the world's deadliest coal-mining industry with more than 3,000 people killed in mine floods, explosions, collapses and other accidents in 2008 alone.
Saturday's explosion at the mine in Hegang in the frigid province of Heilongjiang came as more than 500 miners were underground, though most were rescued.
Mine operators were at fault because they failed to evacuate workers fast enough after dangerously high gas levels were detected in the mine, said Luo Lin, head of the country's safety watchdog, the State Administration of Work Safety(SAWS).
Nearly an hour before the explosion, a gas detector showed levels five times the trigger for an evacuation, Xinhua said. An official said the mine was too big for workers to escape in time.
Four miners were still unaccounted for on Sunday with almost no hope for survival, but even as smoke drifted out of the mine mouth near the site of the explosion, other miners were heading into undamaged parts of the pit to start the evening's shift.
A dozen women, relatives of the dead, had braved the freezing temperatures on Monday morning to take their complaints about a lack of information to the mine's entrance, where they argued and scuffled with police and mine security.
"None of the officials have died, all of the dead are the workers," one shouted. "Not one of those officials has even been down into that mine."
Some of the women were taken inside the mine compound, while others were put into a large white van. Men who declined to identify themselves tried to stop reporters speaking to the women, putting their hands in front of cameras.
SUFFERING FAMILIES
Anxious families were also milling around the hospital where 54 miners, six of them seriously injured, are being treated. Hospital staff were trying to calm tensions.
"When the patients see their families going through this suffering, they become very emotional, overemotional, and they can become restless," said Wang Jun, Director of the surgical department at Hegang mining hospital.
In 2007, after more than 180 miners died in a flooded coal mine in the northern province of Shandong, relatives stormed the offices of the company that operated the mine, smashing windows and accusing managers of not telling families what was happening.
Compared with other manual jobs, Chinese coal miners can earn relatively high wages, tempting workers and farmers into rickety and poorly ventilated shafts.
The Xinxing mine in Hegang lies near China's border with Russia and produced more than a million tonnes of coal in the first 10 months of this year, local reports said.
It is owned by the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group, making it larger than most operations where accidents occur.
(Additional reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison in BEIJING, Writing by Ben Blanchard)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
By Maxim Duncan
HEGANG, China (Reuters) - Relatives of miners killed by a gas blast at a coal pit in northeast China scuffled with police and demanded answers from the owners on Monday as the toll hit 104 and hopes faded that any more survivors would be found.
The protest came a day after another 11 miners were killed in a blast at a pit in the southern province of Hunan, the official Xinhua agency said. China's stability-obsessed government is nervous about protests, and keen to control discontent.
China has the world's deadliest coal-mining industry with more than 3,000 people killed in mine floods, explosions, collapses and other accidents in 2008 alone.
Saturday's explosion at the mine in Hegang in the frigid province of Heilongjiang came as more than 500 miners were underground, though most were rescued.
Mine operators were at fault because they failed to evacuate workers fast enough after dangerously high gas levels were detected in the mine, said Luo Lin, head of the country's safety watchdog, the State Administration of Work Safety(SAWS).
Nearly an hour before the explosion, a gas detector showed levels five times the trigger for an evacuation, Xinhua said. An official said the mine was too big for workers to escape in time.
Four miners were still unaccounted for on Sunday with almost no hope for survival, but even as smoke drifted out of the mine mouth near the site of the explosion, other miners were heading into undamaged parts of the pit to start the evening's shift.
A dozen women, relatives of the dead, had braved the freezing temperatures on Monday morning to take their complaints about a lack of information to the mine's entrance, where they argued and scuffled with police and mine security.
"None of the officials have died, all of the dead are the workers," one shouted. "Not one of those officials has even been down into that mine."
Some of the women were taken inside the mine compound, while others were put into a large white van. Men who declined to identify themselves tried to stop reporters speaking to the women, putting their hands in front of cameras.
SUFFERING FAMILIES
Anxious families were also milling around the hospital where 54 miners, six of them seriously injured, are being treated. Hospital staff were trying to calm tensions.
"When the patients see their families going through this suffering, they become very emotional, overemotional, and they can become restless," said Wang Jun, Director of the surgical department at Hegang mining hospital.
In 2007, after more than 180 miners died in a flooded coal mine in the northern province of Shandong, relatives stormed the offices of the company that operated the mine, smashing windows and accusing managers of not telling families what was happening.
Compared with other manual jobs, Chinese coal miners can earn relatively high wages, tempting workers and farmers into rickety and poorly ventilated shafts.
The Xinxing mine in Hegang lies near China's border with Russia and produced more than a million tonnes of coal in the first 10 months of this year, local reports said.
It is owned by the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group, making it larger than most operations where accidents occur.
(Additional reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison in BEIJING, Writing by Ben Blanchard)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
China attacks "biased" U.S. cyber-spying report
Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:01am EST
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Monday accused a U.S. congressional advisory panel of bias for a report in which it said the Chinese government appeared increasingly to be piercing U.S. computer networks to gather useful data for its military.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its 2009 report to Congress released last week that there was growing evidence of Chinese state involvement in such activity.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the report was a twisted attack on China.
"This report disregards the facts, is full of bias and has ulterior motives," Qin said in a brief statement on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn), less than a week after President Barack Obama wrapped up his first official China trip.
"We advise this so-called commission to not always look at China through tinted glasses and stop interfering with China's internal politics and damaging Sino-U.S. ties," he added.
China regularly dismisses such allegations.
The 12-member, bipartisan U.S. commission was set up in 2000 to analyze the implications of growing trade with China.
Beijing had begun to broaden its national security concerns beyond a potential clash across the Taiwan Strait and issues around its periphery, the 367-page report said.
China was the most aggressive country conducting espionage against the United States, focused on obtaining data and know-how to help military modernization and economic development, it added.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Monday accused a U.S. congressional advisory panel of bias for a report in which it said the Chinese government appeared increasingly to be piercing U.S. computer networks to gather useful data for its military.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its 2009 report to Congress released last week that there was growing evidence of Chinese state involvement in such activity.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the report was a twisted attack on China.
"This report disregards the facts, is full of bias and has ulterior motives," Qin said in a brief statement on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn), less than a week after President Barack Obama wrapped up his first official China trip.
"We advise this so-called commission to not always look at China through tinted glasses and stop interfering with China's internal politics and damaging Sino-U.S. ties," he added.
China regularly dismisses such allegations.
The 12-member, bipartisan U.S. commission was set up in 2000 to analyze the implications of growing trade with China.
Beijing had begun to broaden its national security concerns beyond a potential clash across the Taiwan Strait and issues around its periphery, the 367-page report said.
China was the most aggressive country conducting espionage against the United States, focused on obtaining data and know-how to help military modernization and economic development, it added.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
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