February 10:
The rising cost of fireworks accidents during the Chinese New Year holiday has rekindled debate over whether or not large cities should ban them. From February 2- 8, 11,813 fireworks-related accidents took place across the country, causing 40 deaths, 37 injuries and more than 56 million yuan in economic loss, the Ministry of Public Security reported on its website. That figure did not include the first fire of the Year of the Rabbit, which ignited in the early morning of February 3 and caused 3 billion yuan in damage to a skyscraper in Shenyang, Liaoning. Two days later, a forest fire left six dead and three injured in Chun'an, Zhejiang. On February 7, fireworks destroyed a 1000-year-old Buddhist temple in Fuzhou, Fujian, and in Beijing, they killed two and injured 388, the official People’s Daily newspaper reports. The effectiveness of a fireworks ban is questionable, however. Despite a ban in Guangzhou, Guangdong, illegal pyrotechnics still caused 30 forest fires. Many city governments, including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, banned fireworks in the 1990s in response to fire dangers and air pollution but most were later repealed by popular demand.
February 14:
Beijing is expanding its new public campaign against cigarette smoking to the arts. China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has ordered film and TV makers to limit cigarette smoking on-screen. The edict, which was posted on the state administration’s website, orders producers to limit plot lines and scenes involving cigarettes to the bare minimum and show smoking only when necessary. Minors cannot be shown smoking or buying cigarettes and characters cannot smoke in public buildings or other places where smoking is banned. Over 300 million Chinese – nearly 30 percent of adults – are smokers. The deadly product, which is often marketed by provincial government-owned producers, causes over 1 million Chinese deaths every year, the Associated Press reports.
February 15:
Meng Jianzhu, Chinese state councilor and minister of public security, hailed “the successful solution of the issue of succession to the Korean revolution,” which, according to ChannelNewsAsia, means that Beijing has blessed the regime’s decision to support Kim Jong-Un’s accession to his father’s position as leader of the despotic state. Kim Jong-Il, the elder, travelled to China twice last year to secure Beijing’s support for his son as eventual successor. In September, Kim Jong-Un (believed aged 27) was promoted to a four-star general and selected as vice-chairman of the North Korean party's Central Military Commission, which oversees the 1.2 million-strong armed forces currently headed by his father.
The state-owned China Communications Construction Company has signed a $1.2 billion contract to build a new airport in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. The new airport will have a runway long enough for the giant Airbus A380mm, the BBC reports. China is Sudan' biggest investor.
February 16:
Last year, North Korea's exports to China grew 51 percent to $1.2 billion and Chinese sales to the North rose 21 percent, according to Chinese government data published by Britain’s Telegraph newspaper. South Korea, which in the past has given millions of tons of food and fuel aid to the North, has cut off all trade and aid until Pyongyang demonstrates that it’s sincere about nuclear disarmament. Earlier this month, military-to-military talks between the two Koreas collapsed acrimoniously, infuriating Pyongyang, which wanted use the talks to restart aid flows.
[Editor’s Note: Although China-North Korea bilateral trade is paltry (amounting to only $3.5 billion) and is dwarfed by China's $207.2 billion in commerce with South Korea, Beijing still provides a critical lifeline to the Pyongyang regime, which uses Chinese merchants to smuggle its products into South Korea.]
