新闻纵贯线 The Beijing Hour updated 20:00 2013/10/03

The Beijing Hour
 
Evening Edition
 
 
 
Rebecca Hume with you on this Thursday, October 3rd, 2013.
Welcome to this shorter holiday edition of the Beijing Hour for the national day holiday, coming to you live from the Chinese capital.
Coming up on our program this evening.
China vows to build a community of common destiny with ASEAN
We get an update on search and rescue operations in the South China Sea
New radioactive water leak found at Japans Fukushima plant
Business
China's Sept. non-manufacturing PMI rises to 55.4 pct
First... lets get a check on the weather...
 
 
Weather
 
 
Beijing will be clear tonight; the low of 11 degrees, tomorrow will be cloudy with highs of 24.
Shanghai will be clear tonight; the low of 17 degrees Celsius, and tomorrow will be sunny with a high of 26.
Lhasa will see moderate rain tonight, the low of 6, and tomorrow will see showers with a high of 18 degrees.
Elsewhere in the world, and staying in Asia:
Islamabad sunny 33
Kabul, sunny 30
Over in Oceania
Sydney, sunny 21
Canberra, sunny, 20
Brisbane, sunny 24
Perth, overcast 21
To Europe now
London, thundershowers 18
Paris, moderate rain 24
In Africa
Cairo, sunny 31
Nairobi, sunny 27
Monrovia, thundershowers 28
Johannesburg, Sunny 28
And in North American
New York sunny 28
Washington, sunny 29
Houston sunny 29
Toronto sunny 22
Finally, on to South America, and Rio de Janeiro will be sunny with highs of 25 degrees Celsius.
 
 
Top News
 
 
China vows to build community of common destiny with ASEAN
 
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for closer ties and a community of common destiny with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The President made the remark while addressing to Indonesian lawmakers.
Reviewing the strategic partnership between China and ASEAN established a decade ago, Xi Jinping noted bilateral ties are now standing at a new historical starting point.
The Chinese President vowed to strenthen win-win cooperation with the regional bloc.
"China is ready to open itself wider to ASEAN countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit to enable ASEAN countries to benefit more from China's development."
China will propose the establishment of an Asian infrustructure investment bank that would give priority to ASEAN countries needs."
The President also noted that China is prepared to upgrade the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and strive to expand two-way trade to one trillion US dollars.
As the first foreign leader to address Indonesia's parliament, Xi Jinping also spoke highly of biliteral relations with Indonesia.
"The growing mutual trust between the two countries has put our biliteral relations on a more solid political basis. Our wide-ranging cooperation, from space to ocean, has delivered tangible benefits to the two peoples and set a fine example of friendly cooperation among states."
Prior to the speech, Xi Jingping met with his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bam/bang Yud/ho/yono.
The two leaders agreed to lift bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
Jakarta is the first stop of president Xi Jinping's maiden tour to Southeast Asia since taking office in March.
The President has left for Malaysia for an official state visit.
After his Malaysia stop, Xi will travel back to the Indonesian resort island of Bali for the 21st informal economic leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.
 
 
Chinese companies shoulder social responsibilities in Indonesia
 
Anchor
A growing number of Chinese companies are now choosing to set up operations in Indonesia.
As CRI's Wang Xiao reports, there are already over a thousand Chinese companies with operations in that country.
Reporter
As a leading global information and communications technology solutions provider, Huawei Technologies entered the Indonesian market 13 years ago.
Right now it has cooperation agreements with 10 local communication carrier operators.
Huawei sales volumes through last year exceeded 1.2 billion US dollars.
Recently Huawei Indonesia has been promoting LTE service, China's locally-developed fourth-generation telecommunications technology, as an option to help build up Indonesia's communications technology landscape.
Huawei is also sole vendor trialing the LTE network at this year's APEC Summit in Bali.
Talking about the achievements the company has made in the past 13-years, Huawei Indonesia Country Manager Sheng Kai says one of the major reasons is localization.
"There are more than 3 thousand employees in our company, 80% of which are local people. Some of them are promoted to department managers. We also established strategic partnership with 220 local companies, and the amount of purchases from local market exceeds 400 million US dollars. Meanwhile 40% of LTE and other advanced technology products have realized local production. That's to say, we have created many job opportunities and transferred the technology to the local enterprises."
Sri Wulaningsih is a veteran among all the local employees.
She joined Huawei Indonesia in 2000 when the company arrived.
She has since risen to become a Senior Corporate Affairs Manager.
"My feeling is, actually there is no burden working in Huawei. One thing is very important is that Huawei also gives opportunities to local employees who want to improve. Huawei encourages its local employees to do whatever they want as long as we follow the company's internal policy."
Indonesia and China have enjoyed flourishing relations, particularly after the signing of a strategic partnership accord in 2005.
Two-way trade last year reached over 66-billion US dollars, which is up from 26.6 billion in 2009.
More than a thousand Chinese companies run operations in Indonesia.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Indonesia is also a good example of a Chinese company contributing to the local economy and social development.
ICBC Indonesia entered the local market by purchasing the local Halim bank.
Yuan Bin is the general manager of ICBC Indonesia.
He says the company functions as a bridge between the two countries.
"The Chinese companies who invest in Indonesia are our customers. We provide financial services to iron and steel enterprises, electric and power companies from china. We also provide information to Indonesian companies who want to invest in China. We try our best to act as a bridge for the two countries in the fields of finance, economy and culture."
Yuan says Chinese companies in Indonesia are paying close attention to president Xi Jinping's visit.
Sheng Kai, the country manager of Huawei Indonesia, is suggesting more attention needs to be paid to youth exchanges.
For CRI, I'm Wang Xiao from Jakarta.
 
 
Callin with Yin Xiuqi on the rescue operation in South China Sea
 
268 fishermen trapped by Typhoon Wutip in the South China Sea have now arrived in Sanya, Hainan Province on this Thursday.
Meanwhile, rescue work is continuing as 58-fishermen remain missing.
Three fishing boats sank in the Xisha Islands on Sunday following Typhoon Wutip, around 330-kilometers from China's island province of Hainan.
Hospital ship "Ark of Peace," which was scheduled to return to port following it's latest mission, is now joining rescue efforts in the South China Sea.
For more on the search and rescue work, I earlier spoke with CRI's Yin Xiuqi who is onboard the ship.
1. Can you give us more details on the search and rescue operation so far?
2. How long is the operation likely to last?
3. According to latest observations, what are the surviving chances for those still missing at sea?
That is CRI's Yin Xiuqi who is now onboard the hospital ship "Ark of Peace" taking rescue effort in the South China Sea.
 
 
Shutdown Day 2, No Way out
 
Anchor
The US federal government shutdown shows no signs of ending for the time being.
US President Barack Obama has held a meeting with Congressional leaders at the White House, but it has failed to produce any deals.
CRI's Washington correspondent Xiaohong has more.
Ann
Coming out from the one-and-half-hour-meeting, House speaker John Boehner is accusing President Barack Obama of refusing to negotiate.
"You know at time like this, the American people expect their leaders to come together and try to find ways to resolve their difference. The President reiterated one more time tonight that he will not negotiate."
However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid contends it is John Boehner who should be blamed.
"My friend John Boehner can not take yes for an answer."
According to the Democrat caucus, the two sides held a candid discussion trying to find ways that will lead the country out of the current shutdown.
The Democrats say they and the President asked John Boehner to stand firm against the Republican Tea Party caucus and pass a clean budget bill that has already been passed by the Senate.
However, Democrats say Boehner has insisted Obamacare be part of the budget negotiation.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi.
"Every bill that ever passes in the Congress is subject to another bill pass in the Congress to amend it.
And so, they don't like certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act, they have every opportunity in the majority especially to bring anything to the floor to make whatever changes they want. But that should not be something that is a threat to whether government is open or the full faith of credit."
The Democrats are also calling on the Republicans to separate negotiations over lifting the debt ceiling with the current budget negotiations, saying the United States should always honor its obligations in full-faith.
Outside the White House, frustration among average people continues to grow.
A growing chorus of voices are calling on politicians to do something to stop the standoff.
However, if Wednesday's meeting is any indication, the impasse doesn't appear to be anywhere close to being resolved.
Xiaohong, CRI, Washington.
 
 
US Secretary of Defense meets Japanese counterpart
 
The United States and Japan have held top level meetings as they look to revise security guidelines for the first time in over a decade.
The meetings are part of their "two-plus-two" talks between the two countries' defense and foreign chiefs.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel met Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, and Japanese Minister of Defense, Itsunori Onodera.
During their talks, Kerry said a revision of security guidelines was needed in the changing climate.
"The framework that we will be discussing today will really lay out the security relationship between the United States and Japan for this region for the next 15 or 20 years. This alliance which we believe is the lynch pin alliance for the United States in the region has not been updated since 1997 and as you said in your opening comments, a great deal has changed in this period of time."
Cyber security is on the agenda when the military and diplomatic chiefs of the two countries hold their first joint meeting in Japan.
The two countries also have agreed to move part of U.S. military personnel from Japan's Okinawa to Guam from the first half of the 2020s.
The "two-plus-two" meeting aims to set a framework for revising the treaty allies' security guidelines to "update and renovate them" in line with "new challenges".
The four are scheduled to hold a joint news conference later today as well as meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
 
 
New radioactive water leak found at Fukushima plant
 
Tokyo Electric Power or TEPCO has found a fresh leakage in a storage tank reported to be holding highly radioactive water.
They admit the contaminated water may have entered the Pacific Ocean.
Masayuku Ono is a TEPCO official.
"The contaminated water went into the drain and we cannot deny the possibility of it having reached the ocean. The leak occurred at the gap between the ceiling and the side wall of the tank."
Ono adds the overflow was the result of a worker misjudging the capacity of the tank that is tilting due to an uneven location.
An estimated 400-litre's of water has leaked and may reach the sea via a ditch next to a concrete barrier surrounding the tank and four others.
The plant has experienced several leaks since being crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
TEPCO discovered a leak of at least 300-tonnes of highly radioactive water at a different part of the plant last month.
Japanese authorities are reportedly unsatisfied with TEPCO's handling of the radioactive water.
The government announced this month a hundred-million-dollar plan of building a frozen wall around the plant to stop the leaks.
 
 
88 migrants die, hundreds missing in Mediterranean crossing to Italy
 
At least 88 African migrants have died after their boat capsized off the southern Italian island Lampedusa.
Some 160 have been rescued but hundreds are still missing at sea.
The vessel is believed to have around 500 people on board, including many women and children.
Coastal guards are still searching for survivors.
Thousands of North African migrants arrive in the Italian southern most island every year, but many die in attempting the Mediterranean crossing.
Earlier this week, 13 migrants drowned while trying to reach Sicily.
 
 
Muslim Brotherhood comment after talks with EU's Catherine Ashton
 
EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton has met with Muslim Brotherhood leaders in a closed-door meeting in Cairo.
A senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood says they have discussed the recent political developments in Egypt.
No proposed solution was put forward during the meeting.
The Brotherhood has also told Ashton it feels the current political situation should be solved without foreign help.
The talks are part of a three-day visit by Ashton, who has been calling for reconciliation between Egypt's transitional government and the Muslim Brotherhood.
 
 
Chinese retailer promotes new online shopping mode
 
Anchor
A new report is suggesting online spending by Chinese consumers is soon set to surpass that of Americans.
As such, traditional Chinese retailers are now upgrading their online services to try to keep up.
CRI's Lucy Du has more.
Reporter
China's retail tycoon Suning, which has a history of 23 years, proposed Cloud Shopping scheme this year.
It wants to integrate online and offline retailing businesses, to create new values for consumers and the industry.
Sun Weimin, the vice-president of Suning describes the new mode of shopping as "brick and mortar stores + e-commerce + retailers".
"Suning's Could Shopping consists of two parts: first, we will combine online and offline channels and networks together. Next, we will progress from the old combinations of services and products to the combination of prices. Through these measures, our online and offline services will be officially combined. That is to say, we will have built a new Online-to-Offline or O2O compounded platform. This is the first stage in the development of Cloud Shopping."
Sun Weimin notes that Cloud Shopping is an open resource platform for everyone in the industry.
"Suning's Cloud Shopping is building an open platform with online and offline channels. We want this platform to open in both ways. Hence we say O2O plus openness. This is the basis of Cloud Shopping. So what is this open platform? We use our resources: brick-and-mortar stores and online stores to gather consumer data to support this platform with logistics and money. We then share all these resources with our partners who include manufacturers, dealers and retailers; they can all sell on this platform. We will provide consumer flows, logistics, money and data and then realize our own values."
The Chinese government also favours such complementary advantages.
Wang Desheng, a senior official from the Ministry of Commerce says the combination of online and offline retailing is mutually beneficial for e-commerce and the traditional retail market.
"The combination of online and offline retailing complements each other's advantages. Traditional retailers are speeding up their online services. Some build websites themselves. More prefer to combine online and offline services to gain new strengths. For online retailers, they will improve their public image and user experiences on the basis of their original strengths."
Suning is also advancing in the international market.
It merged with Japanese appliances chain Laox in 2009, making it the first Chinese company ever to do so.
It also merged with Hong Kong's electronics chain Citicall in the same year.
Sun Weimin says that international development is good for building experiences as well as promoting Chinese products.
"China has the fastest growing market with the most potential in the world. Our focus remains in China. We entered Japan and Hong Kong in 2009, as a trial for our international expansion, especially with respect to Japan. We want to learn from Japan's developed retail market and at the same time, consolidate our domestic business with Japanese design, branding and management experiences. We are also using the platform in Japan to promote Chinese products to the world."
According to Suning's plan, it will explore the market in Southeast Asia this year and European and American markets in 2015. Its O2O platform may be able to break past the traditional boundaries of geographic restrictions.
For CRI, this is Lucy Du.
 
 
China's Sept. non-manufacturing PMI rises to 55.4 pct
 
China's non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to 55.4 percent in September, a 0.6-point increase from the previous month.
The figure is released today by the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.
Cai Jin, vice chairman of the federation, says the index reflected strong growth in services sector.
"I think that the positive development momentum of non-manufacturing industry is due to two reasons. One is boosted by the holidays in September and October, and the other is the nation's value-added tax (VAT) reforms with an apparent effect in structural adjustment recently."
The sub-index for new orders rose to 53.4 percent in September, up 2.5 percentage points from August.
The sub-index for new exports orders climbed to 50.5 percent, up 0.9 percentage points from August.
 
 
Lang Lang receives International Artist Classic BRIT award.
 
Chinese superstar-pianist Lang Lang has been awarded International Artist of the Year at the Classic BRIT awards.
The special accolade given by the British Phonic Industry is in recognition of 31-year-old's global success as a recording artist and performer.
It also notes his work promoting the piano among young players in China and around the world.
After being handed the award Lang Lang said it means a lot to him:
"Today I am really excited, because it is my first time receiving a Classic BRIT Award. I am also very excited for being the first Chinese artist to receive this award. I thank all my friends in China for their support. I am hoping this award can bring me more encouragement so that I can strive for greater achievements in my profession."
At the ceremony Lang Lang treated the audience by performing a duet with Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti who won best Female artist.
This years Classic BRITs also gave a posthumous Lifetime Achievement award to the late tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
 
 
Li Na and Rafael Nadal advance to final eight at the China Open
 
Chinese ace Li Na is through to the quarterfinals at the China Open here in Beijing.
The world number-5 defeated Germany's Sabine Lisicki 7-5, 6-4 last night.
I'm really happy with my playing condition. Actually all this year, I've been very satisfied with how my body and spirit have held up. I told Carlos and my team that the game is like a bonus, and I can just enjoy the experience."
Li Na now has a quarterfinal clash with 9th-seeded Petra Kvitova.
Last night also saw Serbia's Jelena Jankovic and third seed Agnieszka Radwanska both advancing into the 3rd round.
On the men's side,
Current world number-2 Rafael Nadal is a step closer to potentially taking over the world number one ranking after a second round victory over Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-4, 7-6.
Current world number-1 Novak Djokovic is set to take on Spain's Fernando Verdasco later on today.
If Djokovic were to falter here in China, and Nadal were to go onto victory, it could help propel the Spainyard into the world number-1 position.
 
 
 
That's it for this edition of the BJH
A quick recap of the headlines BEFORE WE GO...
China vows to build a community of common destiny with ASEAN
We get an update on search and rescue operations in the South China Sea
New radioactive water leak found at Japans Fukushima plant
Business
China's Sept. non-manufacturing PMI rises to 55.4 pct
On behalf of the Beijing Hour team, this is Rebecca Humes in Beijing hoping you join us for our next edition of the Beijing Hour to open a window to the world together.