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Monday, April 26, 2010

CHINA: Driving force

An employee polishes a car on the BYD stand in Beijing, China (23 April 2010) 

Chinese car-makers are keen to compete globally

Page last updated at 02:20 GMT, Tuesday, 27 April 2010 03:20 UK

By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing

There were few private cars on China's road two decades ago.

Even in the capital Beijing, pedestrians were more likely to be knocked over by a bicycle than by someone behind the wheel of their own automobile.

But China is now the world's biggest car market, with 13.6m vehicles sold last year.

That is why this year's Beijing auto show is attracting such attention: from buyers as well as sellers.

The exhibition centre playing host to the show gives a hint of the developments in the car industry in China over recent years.

It was previously held at a cramped venue in the city centre.

It has now moved to a larger site on the outskirts of the capital: vast car parks have been marked out for the thousands of visitors.

Perhaps unwittingly, this new venue undermines the image propagated by manufacturers that cars bring the ultimate freedom to move around.

Visitors driving to the exhibition centre still have to leave their cars far away from the show, and take a bus for the final leg of the journey.

Big ambitions

There is huge interest in Chinese car makers at this exhibition because of their desire to compete with bigger, global brands across the world.

Beijing Car Show visitors inspect a Geely electric car (25 April 2010)

Experts say the quality of Chinese-made cars is improving rapidly

BYD, based in Guangdong province, is just one of the companies that wants to expand abroad, mainly by selling its advanced range of battery-powered cars.

Its electric E6 car, which can travel about 300km (186 miles) on one battery charge, is due to be launched in China and the United States later this year.

BYD wants to become the biggest Chinese car maker by 2015 - and the biggest in the world just 10 years after that.

It sounds like a tall order for a company that only began building cars five years ago, but spokeswoman Elva Zhai was unmoved when that was put to her.

"We should be able to do it. I believe we'll be able to completely meet these targets," said Ms Zhai, whose company's name stands for Build Your Dreams.

Across the hall, Roberto Holtheuer, a car importer from Chile, was admiring another Chinese-made vehicle, this one manufactured by Geely.

He said Chinese-made cars are getting better all the time, and believes they could one day soon compete with the likes of General Motors and Volkswagen.

"It took Japanese cars probably 25 years to reach a level where no-one doubted the quality," said Mr Holtheuer, of the firm Derco.

"Korean cars, such as Kia and Hyundai, are doing an excellent job. It probably took them 15 years. We think China is going to take 10 years."

Expensive tastes

There are many foreign car makers at the show, firms that are more interested in selling in China than anywhere else.

Rolls Royce Phantom at the Beijing Car Show, China (23 April 2010)

Luxury cars fit the fashion for extravagant purchases

China's economy has recovered from the global downturn and its car market gives them the chance of increasing sales that could prove elusive in other countries.

Rolls-Royce, the UK-based company at the luxury end of the market, says sales have jumped three-fold in the first three months of this year in China.

A jet-black Phantom - priced at 9m yuan ($1.3m: £860,000) - made especially for the Beijing show was bought even before the exhibition opened.

"The Chinese have taken to Western luxury brands in a very satisfactory fashion," said a tanned and relaxed Richard Carter, director of global communications.

"They understand the notion of luxury - and not just in motor cars: watches, yachts, aeroplanes and so on. We are doing very well here."

And it is not just the market as it is today that has foreign cars firms excited - it is also the possibility of a growing market for years to come.

Car analyst Michael Dunne said only one in 10 Chinese people currently owns a car. The figure is eight out of 10 in the US.

"That makes CEOs all over the world salivate when they think of China," said Mr Dunne.

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VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA: Army Parade Run-Through Starts in Vladivostok

Tuesday, April 27 2010, 11 AM

The Vladivostok garrison military units marched in the Vladivostok main square

VLADIVOSTOK, April 27, vladivostoktimes.com The first run-through of the military parade on the occasion of the Victory Day took place in the main square of the Primorye capital city. On April 26, Monday, the Vladivostok garrison military started marching at 6 in the morning; then they carried on the rehearsal at 3 in the afternoon; the correspondent of RIA PrimaMedia reports.

The Pacific Navy battalions and companies, the police and emergency forces units and the parade company of the Pacific Navy Maritime Institute as well as the rest participants of the Victory Parade are going to march three times a week: on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The preparatory running of aviation and armored units is to take place on May 5. The dry run is to be held on May 7 at 11 a.m. 

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RUSSIA: Russian police crush blue bucket protests

Moscow's blue bucket brigade

A blue bucket has become the symbol for a popular revolt against Russian officials whose limousines use a flashing blue light to flout traffic traffic laws with impunity. Picture: WSJ Source: The Australian

April 27, 2010 10:56AM

By Tony Halpin

From: Times Online

THE flashing blue light is a symbol of all that ordinary Russians hate about the powerful elite whose cars break the law with impunity.

As Alexei Dozorov demonstrated to The Times yesterday, however, you can achieve roughly the same effect with a plastic bucket.

VIDEO: Moscow's blue bucket brigade

When Mr Dozorov, who heads the Moscow branch of the Committee to Protect Drivers' Rights, first put a blue child's bucket on the roof of his car he ignited a popular revolt against the arrogance of state officials whose limousines use a flashing blue light, or migalka, to force their way through traffic as they speed between the capital and their country mansions.

Cars with blue lights can ignore speed limits and traffic rules, police cannot stop them and they have been involved in several controversial traffic accidents.

Now the bucket, which resembles a migalka from a distance, has been adopted by other drivers as a mobile protest against the blue-light class. The action threatens to become an embarrassment for President Medvedev, who promised to end "legal nihilism" in Russia.

Mr Dozorov said: "People are fed up with these people getting away with everything while we have no protection either from migalka drivers or corrupt police. Why should we be second-class citizens on the road?"

The Times joined him as he drove around Moscow yesterday in his hatchback with the blue bucket attached to the roof by a magnet. Mr Dozorov exchanged beeps with a 4x4 whose owner had also stuck a blue bucket on the roof.

The authorities have failed to see the funny side, ordering traffic police to crush the bucket protest. But it is not illegal to drive with a bucket on the roof and officers have struggled to find a way to punish drivers.

Police initially accused them of breaching "cargo transportation regulations". Mr Dozorov, 45, carries with him however a court judgment revoking a fine he received after a judge ruled that no offence had been committed.

"Now there's a new trick," he said. "They ask you to remove the bucket and when you refuse they arrest you for disobeying a police order."

Officially, the number of blue-light vehicles on the road is restricted to 964 for Russia's most senior politicians and bureaucrats. The newspaper Vedomosti and a Moscow radio station counted 1,123 after asking readers and listeners to send in photographs.

Russia's traffic police chief has pledged to investigate illegal migalki amid rumours that businessmen have bought the lights from corrupt officers. Yuri Luzhkov, the Mayor of Moscow, recently proposed that only the President, the Prime Minister and the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church should have them.

"They are under police protection anyway so they never need one. Nobody should have a migalka except the emergency services," Mr Dozorov said. "We should all be equal on the road."

The Times

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