The largest solar power plant ever built in southwest China\’s Tibet Autonomous Region went into service on Wednesday. The plant is expected to help ease the region\’s recurring power shortages.

The 30-megawatt (MW) power plant project is located in Xigaze Prefecture, about 3 km northwest of Tibet\’s second-largest city of Xigaze.

The plant is being built in three phases. The first phase involved the construction of power facilities at a cost of 249 million yuan (about 38.5 million U.S. dollars). These facilities were integrated into the region\’s local power grid on Wednesday, where they will generate up to 20.23 million kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity annually, according to project manager Gao Yuankun.

Gao said the first phase of the project will ease power shortages in the prefecture by supplying electricity for more than 100,000 households.

The project will also save 9,000 metric tons of coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 17,800 metric tons annually, he said.

The project, costing 800 million yuan, is solely funded by the Linuo Power Group, a leading provider of solar photovoltaic power generation systems based in east China\’s Shandong Province.

Tibet has abundant solar energy resources, receiving an average of 3,300 hours of sunlight annually.

Tibet has stepped up its exploration of clean energy resources over the last 60 years in order to protect the region\’s environment while simultaneously allowing growth and development to take place.

[i]Source: Xinhua [/i]

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China\’s National Meteorological Center (NMC) said on Wednesday that high temperatures will continue to plague the country\’s southern regions over the next few days, while rainstorms are expected to sweep southwest China.

The center continued its high temperature alert on Wednesday, citing a persistent heat wave that has lasted for five days in south China.

Temperatures in some parts of Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guizhou, Hubei, Anhui and Fujian provinces, as well as Chongqing municipality, will reach 35 to 37 degrees Celsius, the NMC said in a statement on its website.

Some of these regions may even experience temperatures as high as 38 to 39 degrees Celsius, the statement said.

Torrential rains are forecasted to pelt parts of the Sichuan Basin, as well as the provinces of Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong and Hubei, over the next few days.

The NMC recommended that authorities in these regions should take action to prevent rain-triggered natural disasters such as floods and landslides.

[i]Source: Xinhua[/i]

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[b]BULLETS SWEEP THE BATTLEFIELD[/b]

Immediately after the Lugou Bridge incident, the National Revolutionary Army defeated the Japanese. However, the Japanese soon staged a comeback, bringing 400,000 soldiers across China\’s border.

Ren fought in his first battle in Nanyuan. \”Their aircraft were hovering overhead. Bullets passed over us like they were sweeping the floor of the battlefield,\” Ren said.

One of Ren\’s friends, a man named A Guangfu, was shot to death right in front of him.

\”We had training sessions and dinners together. He was a member of the Hui ethnic minority. Every time before dinner, he would ask the cook if he used pork in the dishes,\” Ren bitterly recalled.

On the second day of the battle, Ren learned that their commander Zhao had died on the battlefield.

\”He was a good commander, pleasant but strict,\” he said.

More than 5,000 lives were lost in the battle at Nanyuan, including those of Zhao and Tong Linge, a corps deputy commander. The defeat allowed the Japanese to take control of the cities of Beijing and Tianjin.

Ren and his fellow troops had no choice but to retreat.

[b]ERASING THE STAIN[/b]

Ren went on to fight the Japanese in several locations across China, including the provinces of Shanxi, Hubei and Henan. Finally, the Japanese surrendered in 1945, leaving Ren with a tough choice to make.

\”I had no money to go back home, so I decided to remain enlisted in the military, fighting in the civil war,\” he said. Ren retired four years later, returning to his hometown to work on a farm.

However, Ren\’s experiences would continue to follow him in the form of a diary that he kept during the 13 years he spent as a soldier. Ren carried two dictionaries with him at all times to ensure that his diary entries were written properly.

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When Guo Cong came to work in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen several months ago, she did not expect to have any help with her luggage or someone to provide her with directions. That\’s because she did not know about the people in the blue vests.

Proposed by the Shenzhen municipal government, the \”blue vests\” are government workers who volunteer on weekends to further serve the city. They help the traffic police maintain order and encourage residents not to spit, litter or cut in line.

To the newly arrived like Guo, they can provide a sense of comfort and security. \”If I need help, I will go straight to someone who wears a blue vest,\” said the 24-year-old post-graduate.

Shenzhen has 30,000 government employees, and approximately 4,000 of them have volunteered in the program.

The campaign aims to relieve the city\’s traffic chaos that has prompted complaints from the public and also help boost the city\’s image ahead of the 26th Summer Universiade, which will be held from Aug. 12 to 23, said Liu En, the campaign organizer.

\”\’Help citizens in need\’ is our work motto,\” said a blue-vested volunteer Lin Yulu, a tax accountant.

Last week, Lin and 10 other volunteers each held a red umbrella, standing in a line in heavy rain to set up a makeshift shelter for people waiting for the buses.

As China\’s first experimental field for its epoch-making reform and opening up, Shenzhen has always been leading the nation in innovation.

\”It provides a good platform for public servants to get closer to and serve the public, which will forcefully enhance the image of government staff and give full play to their role in improving urban life,\” said Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

Since the initiation of this campaign in January, the secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Shenzhen Municipal Committee Wang Rong and mayor Xu Qin have taken the lead to serve on the street.

\”The public servants have broadened their channel from the office to the street to collect public opinion and find out about social problems, which enhances their social responsibility,\” said Wu Yixin, a researcher at the Shenzhen Municipal Academy of Social Sciences.

The volunteers have come up with thousands of proposals, including the correction of vague road signs and modification of impractical bus routes, said Liu En, who is also the secretary of the Work Committee for offices directly under the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee.

The campaign has been fruitful–even during rush hour, everyone now queues for the buses in an orderly manner,\” said He Hua, a local office worker.

According to a poll conducted by Wanren Market Research, more than 97 percent of 430 respondents endorsed the move and gave positive feedback.

Some social management experts, however, worry that the move might bring place more pressure on public servants, who have already been considerably tasked with daily duties.

Wang Yukai suggested that the volunteers be divided into small groups to serve on the street by turn.

\”There is no need to let everyone go out at every weekend, after all, there are already lots of volunteers from various social organizations on the streets,\” Wang said.

Liu said it\’s not decided yet whether this campaign will be continued after the Universiade, but if it is it will be tailored to address the practical demands of the city and better serve the public.

[i]Source: Xinhua[/i]

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A wild giant panda drowned amid heavy rain in Sichuan Province, according to local forestry authorities.

The male giant panda, aged about 10, probably drowned after it was swept into a section of the Minjiang River by rain-triggered floods and mudslides in the township of Yingxiu in Sichuan, said a spokesman with the provincial forestry department Wednesday.

An autopsy conducted by the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center found a considerable amount of water in the lungs of the dead panda, said the spokesman, adding the possibility that humans killed the animal had been ruled out.

The body of the giant panda was found in the Zipingpu Reservoir, which the Minjiang River flows into, by a local villager on Tuesday morning, he said.

The provincial forestry authorities have urged wildlife preservation organizations to enhance their efforts to protect giant pandas and other wild animals in the areas affected by the recent downpours.

Statistics from the State Forestry Administration show that about 1,600 pandas live in the wild while about 300 are held in captivity at zoos worldwide.

[i]Source: Xinhua [/i]

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\”Sometimes I wrote in the trench, sometimes I wrote in my tent. When we arrived at the Yellow River, I wrote in a wooden boat, listening to the sound of the river passing by,\” said Ren.

However, Ren lost the diaries upon retiring. \”I\’d been seriously injured at the time, actually. I very nearly died.\”

Ren wrote a second version of the diaries later, based entirely on his memory. With the arrival of the Cultural Revolution, Ren lost his diaries once more.

\”I was criticized at public meetings because of my past. I had been a Nationalist soldier. The experience was a stain on my life,\” he said.

Ren was accompanied by his wife until she passed away in 2003. Although the couple never produced any children, they did have a niece, who Ren later adopted. He now lives with his niece, her husband and their family, including his niece\’s 10-year-old grandson Lu Xuan.

Being asked what he wants to be when he grows up, Lu smiled and said \”anything but a soldier. My great-grandfather opposes it.\”

Ren has been very open with Lu about his past, but his efforts are not always reciprocated. \”He usually runs away, not particularly interested in listening,\” Ren said with a sigh.

Ren has paid several visits to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Memorial Hall. In 2005, he met the daughter of a former Nationalist official, who told him that the central government has acknowledged the contributions made by the National Revolutionary Army in warding off the Japanese invasion.

However, Ren has never been personally recognized for his contributions, nor absolved of his shame.

\”I just want something to prove that my past in the National Revolutionary Army was not a shameful thing. I just fought the Japanese to protect my country. I\’m old, but I want to erase this stain while I\’m still alive,\” he said.

[i]Source: Xinhua [/i]

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Vice President Xi Jinping has requested cadres with the Communist Party of China (CPC) organization departments at all levels to better learn President Hu Jintao\’s CPC 90th founding anniversary keynote speech.

Xi made the remark at a seminar held by the CPC Central Committee\’s Organization Department on Tuesday.

Hu\’s speech was a programmatic document of Marxism containing important guidance for the Party\’s self-construction and organization work, said Xi who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau.

Leading cadres should set an example by learning the speech harder and better, and incorporating the speech\’s ideas into their own to encourage others, he said.

Xi said that Hu\’s speech had mobilized all Party members to constantly strive to achieve more for the CPC.

Cadres in the Party\’s organization departments at all levels should always uphold their belief in the CPC\’s leadership, Marxism, socialism and the country\’s opening-up and reform, Xi stressed.

Cadres in the Party\’s organization departments should also improve their works to better serve the Party and the government\’s current job of reforming the economy and improving people\’s livelihoods, Xi said.

[i]Source: Xinhua[/i]

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The Red Cross Society of China opened a verified account at Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging site operated by Sina Corporation, at approximately 2 p.m. on July 4. The account quickly attracted some 16,000 followers as of 11 p.m. on the same day.

[b]Four micro-blog entries posted[/b]

The society posted four micro-blog entries in a row at around 7:30 p.m. on July 4, with three entries introducing the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the history of the society itself.

The last entry contains a link to a long blog post written by the society\’s Secretary-General Wang Rupeng to answer netizens\’ questions. This entry received more than 2,000 comments, and was re-posted more than 1,000 times in a short time.

Wang answered a total of 13 questions in the long post, mainly covering the Guo Meimei incident as well as the society\’s Business System branch, audit process, special status and management mode. The Guo Meimei incident refers to a recent scandal involving a 20-year-old girl who claimed to be an employee of the Red Cross Society of China. The girl was pictured online flaunting luxury items, such as cars and expensive jewelry.

[b]\’Guo Meimei incident\’ considered \’good thing\’[/b]

In response to questions raised by microblog users, Wang said that the Guo Meimei incident is both a bad thing and a good thing for the Red Cross Society of China. It is a bad thing because she showed off her wealth and made up a false post at a nonexistent organ under the Red Cross Society of China, leading to public misunderstanding and discontent and seriously damaging its image and reputation.

It is also a good thing because this incident has enabled the Red Cross Society of China to recognize the problems and challenges it faces in terms of organization building, operations, fundraising and project implementation.

Wang said that Internet users mostly put forward valuable opinions and suggestions with good intentions to express their concerns to the Red Cross Society of China and expect it to improve its work. Nevertheless, the views and opinions of a few Internet users were irrational and impolite, and even irresponsible and groundless. For instance, they assumed that Guo Meimei is a biological and even illegitimate daughter of an official surnamed Guo and she wears a luxurious watch. Furthermore, some emotional Internet users went so far as to have completely denied the tremendous outstanding work of the Red Cross Society of China.

Wang expects the masses and media agencies to rationally deal with the Guo Meimei incident and make suggestions from the angle of promoting the development of China\’s Red Cross cause and fledging philanthropic cause.

\”Many institutions have opened official microblogs. It was a little late for the Red Cross Society of China to open its microblog, but it will progress gradually,\” Wang said. The launch of the microblog aims to make the Red Cross organization open and transparent, increase its inactivity with Internet users and release information. The Red Cross Society of China will designate special personnel to update and publish information through its microblog.

\”The Red Cross Society of China will select the donation project related to the Yushu earthquake as the first pilot project to make its project implementation open and transparent,\” Wang said.

The Red Cross Society of China will put its donation information management system online at the end of July and accordingly publicize the donation information related to the Yushu earthquake through the system before making related real-time, interactive exchanges with Internet users through its micro-blog.

Wang said that the Red Cross Society of China\’s projects are large. For instance, the Yushu earthquake project involved 70 to 80 subprojects and 2 billion yuan of donations. It is beyond its capacity to publicize the implementation details through its microblog. Thus, once the donation information management system is put online, Internet users can look into related information through the system.

[i]By Wang Kala from Beijing News and the article is translated by People\’s Daily Online.[/i]

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs started to officially issue electronic passports for public affairs on July 1. This indicates that travel documents for Chinese citizens have stepped into a digital network era.

[b]Digital passport has high safety standards, hard to counterfeit[/b]

The appearance and size of the new-edition electronic passports for public affairs are the same as traditional passports. On the lower part of the front cover, the unified symbol designed by the International Civil Aviation Organization is printed. It is the unique \”identity\” of the electronic passport. On the inner pages, \”Chinese elements,\” including the Great Wall and Imperial Palace, are printed as the background.

The \”secret\” of the electronic passport is inside its back cover, where a \”component layer,\” consisting of microchips, electronic circuits and other parts, is sealed. The information, including the passport owner\’s name, sex and personal photo as well as the passport\’s term of validity and digital certificate of the chip, are all stored in this \”electronic heart\” of the passport.

One unique characteristic of the passport is that it has high safety standards and is hard to counterfeit. In addition, the electronic chip can store a large quantity of information. After the photo of the passport owner is digitally analyzed, the \”facial features\” data will be stored in the chip. When the owner is entering or exiting a country, customs will take a photo of the owner on site and compare the photo with the data stored in the chip so that the identification can be more precise.

[b]The passport will be issued in three pilot provinces in September[/b]

In addition to Beijing, the ministry will also officially issue the passport in three pilot provinces in September: Liaoning, Zhejiang and Fujian. The passports will then be gradually implemented all over China. According to the plan, issuing the passports nationally will be completed in 2012. The passport for private affairs is also being developed and implemented.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched a special website for the application of electronic passports as well for collecting necessary data. In addition, it has introduced the passports to foreign governments in accordance with international practice.

Zhang Xin, who works in the media industry, recently applied for an electronic passport for a business trip abroad. She said that the application procedures for the electronic passport and a traditional passport are basically the same, and it only took her a few days to obtain it. As electronic passports have higher requirements for personal photos than traditional passports, she had her passport photos taken twice to meet the high standards, and then uploaded them to the application website.

[b]Electronic passports in line with international conventions[/b]

Huang Ping, director-general of the Department of Consular Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the adoption of electronic passports has shown China\’s desire to follow international conventions in foreign exchanges and its determination to embrace the trend of internationalization. So far, more than 90 countries and regions, including the United States and Hong Kong, have launched electronic passports.

Luo Guanheng, a Hong Kong resident who is studying in Britain, said that the process of using the Hong Kong electronic passport is very similar to using bus cards. The frontier inspection equipment can quickly read the information within the electronic passport to reduce the time of going through customs.

\”If people use traditional passports, customs officers will repeatedly check the characteristic information, such as the appearance of the passport holder if the passport photo is quite different from the real person. Therefore, the passport holder has to wait for a long time and there also may be other problems,\” said Qi Yongqiang, an officer of a public institution who is responsible for the application of public passports.

Qi also said that as an application for traditional passports requires several photos, it is easy to make mistakes sometimes. The relevant work process has become more scientific, reasonable and convenient after public electronic passports were issued.

[i]By People\’s Daily Online[/i]

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The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) opened its official microblog on Sina\’s microblog service Weibo, a Chinese-language Twitter clone, Monday to better interact with netizens amid a mounting public trust crisis.

As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, the online microblog postings of the charity have been forwarded by more than 25,600 Sina microbloggers, and more than 61,800 followers had posted comments.

The postings spurred another wave of public debate after a young woman calling herself \”Guo Meimei Baby\” online posted photos on her microblog detailing her lavish lifestyle. The woman claimed to be the general manager of \”Red Cross Commerce.\”

Her posts provoked the ire of the country\’s netizens, who speculated that Guo might have funded her lifestyle by embezzling money from the Red Cross Society.

Responding to questions posted on the charity\’s microblog website Monday night, the charity\’s secretary general Wang Rupeng said \”the Guo Meimei incident has discredited the RCSC, but it, at the same time, make us realize the problems and challenges in our project operation and fundraising.\”

The RCSC has reported the case to the police as Guo had allegedly fabricated both the name \”Red Cross Commerce\” and the title \”general manager,\” which had tarnished RCSC\’s reputation, according to Wang.

The charity has also decided to invite auditing institutions to check revenues and expenditures for the China Business System, a group founded in 2000 by the China General Chamber of Commerce with the approval of the Red Cross Society.

The China Business System primarily engages in charity fundraising in China\’s commercial sector, as well as organizing emergency relief efforts. Funds raised by the group are channeled directly to the Red Cross Society.

\”We sincerely welcome public and news organizations to oversee our work. If loopholes appear, we will spare no effort to probe and find the truth,\” Wang said in the microblog.

\”However, we hope the public and news organizations to shun extremism and treat the Guo Meimei incident in a more rational way,\” he said.

By opening the microblog service, the RCSC aims to enhance transparency in their work, deliver timely information, and conduct real-time communication with netizens, Wang said.

\”Many organizations have registered their official microblogs, we have come late, but will strive forward gradually,\” he said.

Followers voiced their anger on the charity\’s microblog website, with the most frequent comments demanding \”Pay back the money I have donated.\”

Reports carried by People.com.cn said Tuesday that the Guo Meimei incident reflected people\’s concern about a lack of transparency in the charity sector.

To enhance transparency, Wang said in the microblog that the RCSC will introduce a new online database to enable the public to access detailed donation information later this month.

Information on donations to areas devastated by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Yushu in northwestern Qinghai Province last year will be the first to be included in the database, according to Wang.

This is not the first time that the Red Cross has come under fire.

In April, a photo of an invoice was posted online showing that a department of the Shanghai branch of the Red Cross Society of China spent 9,859 yuan (1,524 U.S. dollars) on a meal, sparking public outrage.

[i]Source: Xinhua[/i]

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