Pakistan and China cooperation to forge trade gateway: senator

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-22

A tunnel under construction on the Karakoram Highway connecting Xinjiang
in China with Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region, April 18. (Photo/Xinhua)

Two-way trade between China and Pakistan is expected to swell by 300% to 400% in the next five years along with the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that connects Kashgar city in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to the southwestern Pakistan port of Gwadar via highways, railways and pipelines, Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao reports, citing a Pakistani senator.

"The corridor will greatly benefit both Pakistan and China, as it involves deployments in comprehensive cooperation in the fields of manufacturing, energy, and transportation, etc," Saleem Mandviwalla told the paper when asked which country will benefit more from the project.

The senator also expected Gwadar Port, located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baloschistan, to become the key gateway for Middle East transshipments to China in the coming few years.

President Xi Jinping of China is paying his first state visit for the year to Pakistan to oversee the signing of agreements pertaining to the implementation of the CPEC project, which may serve as a model for China in promoting its Belt and Road Initiative, the paper reported.

With the construction of the economic corridor, Mandviwalla said Pakistan will enjoy significant infrastructure improvement and transfer of manufacturing industries from China, thereby changing his country's economic structure. China's demand for clean energy to support the next decade of economic growth will be fully met by the new oil pipelines constructed under the project, he added.

China-Pakistan trade amounted to US$16.006 billion in 2014, with China enjoying a large trade surplus by recording US$13.248 billion in shipments to Pakistan. But Mandviwalla believes that once Gwadar becomes the gateway for shipments to China from Iran, Afghanistan and other neighboring countries, the trade imbalance will improve drastically.

Mandviwalla told the paper he believes Pakistan will eventually become the cornerstone of the trade gateway for Central Asia and the Middle East after the Gwadar-Xinjiang railways and highways are operational.

Google Executive Points to Self-Driving Cars as Key to Future Highway

Jakarta Globe - AFP, Apr 22, 2015

Google’s Chris Urmson, right, shows a Google self-driving car to US Transportation
 Secretary Anthony Foxx, left, and Google chairman Eric Schmidt, cener, at the
Google headquarters on Feb. 2, 2015 in Mountain View, California, US. (AFP
Photo/Getty Images/Justin Sullivan)

Detroit. Self-driving vehicles hold the key to reducing traffic fatalities and will transform the automobile industry, a top Google executive predicted on Tuesday.

Ray Kurzweil, a leading expert in artificial intelligence who joined Google in 2012, told the annual conference of the Society of Automotive Engineers that the rapidly declining cost of computing power and the advances in artificial intelligence will make autonomous driving a reality.

Kurzweil told the audience that autonomous driving, utilizing artificial intelligence, is definitely coming.

 

“The technology works. It’s not far away,” said Kurzweil, though he was not prepared to say just when self-driving cars will become a common sight.

“Google advised me to share with you they don’t know the answer… The technology is not going to be introduced until it’s ready.”

The need and value of autonomous vehicles is clear, he told hundreds of the industry’s top engineers.

“Google cars have gone close to a million miles without incident,” he said.

“Some day an autonomous car will cause an accident and it will be big news. But while we’ve been talking several people have died from human drivers.”

Autonomous cars “are ultimately going to save millions of lives,” he said, noting that traffic accidents kill 1.2 million people worldwide a year now.

“They also provide more efficient use of roads and parking lots. There are a lot of benefits.”

But he said Google was not going to let its self-drive cars into the market “until they’re safe.”

“They have to be much more reliable than the technology they replace.”

The appearance of the original Google Car prototype touched off a race among the world’s automakers.

Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Nissan have set up engineering centers near Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley to focus on self-driving technologies.

Part of sharing culture

“People will still buy cars,” Kurzweil said.

“But the Uber model with self-driving cars will become very popular. We should share our cars. I think that model will grow when we have autonomous cars.

“Every company has to reinvent itself. Not everything is predictable.”

Kurzweil said that until now the transportation industry, including the automobile business, has not been considered part of the digital world.

“But we see information of every kind coming into every form of transportation,” he added.

At the same time, the price of digital information is dropping dramatically.

Kurzweil said disruptive technologies become feasible at different times. Search engines, such as the one developed by Google, became practical in the late 1990s because of the exponential growth in computing power.

If you tried to build a search engine after that you “missed your opportunity,” he said. “But if you are running a business you can anticipate when changes will occur.”

“There is one is one aspect of the future you can predict reliably,” Kurzweil added.

“The price performance and the capacity of information technology follows a very predictable path and that path is exponential, not linear.”

As for slower-moving technologies like batteries — the key to more electric cars — he predicted longer lasting batteries in 10 to 15 years, at a “more mature phase of nanotechnology where you can manipulate matter on the atomic level.”

Other technology, such as solar power, is developing more quickly than many experts expected.

“Solar power is growing exponentially. It’s doubling every two years. In many parts of the world, it’s reached parity with fossil fuel,” Kurzweil said.

Agence France-Presse

China's internet giants make inroads into auto industry

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-19

The internet and auto industry. (Photo/CFP)

Alibaba Group, the world's biggest e-commerce company, announced on April 8 that it has formed an automotive unit in partnership with nearly 50 car brands and 10,000 dealerships.

The Hanghzou-based company's aim is to provide O2O (online to offline) services and it will present its auto operations at the Shanghai auto show next week.

"Until now, buyers have had no more contact with auto companies once purchase is completed unless there are problems with the quality," said Peter Zhou, vice president of AutoNavi Software under the Alibaba Group.

That situation is about to change. Alibaba is currently working with SAIC Motor, China's leading car manufacturer, among others, to help it connect with existing and potential buyers and work with its cooperation partners to tap the B2B (business to business) services.

In March, Alibaba started a 1 billion yuan (US$160 million) fund with SAIC Motor to create a platform for the development and operation of Web-enabled cars.

Zhou said that Alibaba Group has data on 60 million car owners and 500,000 car showrooms and that its Tmall online marketplace could provide finance, payment and car insurance services.

Alibaba's automotive unit will provide "browse, select, purchase, use and sell" facilities all at the same time, Zhou said.

In addition to the Alibaba Group, fellow internet giants Tencent and Baidu have also been working with auto firms to make inroads into the industry.

Securities Times pointed out as the pace of output and sales of automobiles in China slows, and traditional car enterprises are facing the need to transform, it is time for the internet giants to make inroads into the auto market.

Russia to build own space station by 2023, says Putin

Yahoo – AFP, 16 April 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the worst is over for Russia's economy

 (AFP Photo/Alexei Druzhinin)

Moscow (AFP) - Russia plans to build its own orbiting space station by 2023, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday during a marathon call-in session with the nation.

"By 2023, we plan to create our own national space station in orbit," Putin said.

"This is something far-off in the future, but also necessary for us from the point of view of our national economy."

Russia and NASA recently agreed to keep operating and financing the International Space Station at least until 2024, but future joint space projects remain in doubt, as relations between Russia and the US have plunged to post-Cold War lows over the Ukraine conflict.

The Kremlin strongman said Russia needs its own space station to be able to view its own territory properly from space.

"We use the ISS actively for science and the economy, but from the ISS only 5 percent of the area of Russia can be seen," Putin said.

"From a national station, we should be able to see the whole of the area of our huge country."

"It goes without saying we will bring this project to fruition, and without any doubt, it will be under our control," Putin said.

Russia said earlier this year that it planned to create its own space station using its modules from the ISS after it is mothballed.

In March, the head of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, said at Baikonur after meeting his NASA that Russia would work jointly with its US counterpart on a project of a new orbital station.

But NASA did not confirm such a plan, saying only that the heads of NASA and Roscosmos discussed future cooperation.

China has also announced plans to complete a permanent orbiting space station by 2023 as part of ambitious plans to become a superpower in space.

The Russia-Soviet space station Mir was ditched in 2001 after 15 years of service.

Putin was speaking during a national phone-in that included a video link with workers at Russia's new cosmodrome under construction, Vostochny in the country's far east.

The new launch pad is designed to reduce Russia's reliance on its rented Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The delayed Vostochny project is mired in scandal, however, with those in charge of the construction under investigation and suspected of misusing millions of rubles in state funds.

Garuda Stowaway Released After Flight in Landing Gear

Jakarta Globe, Apr 15, 2015

Jakarta. Mario Steven Ambarita, 22, who crawled into the wheel well of a Jakarta-bound Garuda Indonesia flight from Sumatra last week has been released and will not face  jail.

“Mario was released on Tuesday around 11 p.m. at Sultan Syarif Kasim II airport in Pekanbaru,” Marangin Parlindungan Sinaga, who represents Mario, told the state-run Antara news agency in Pekanbaru on Wednesday.

Officials had decided the offense did not warrant further police time, Maringin said.

“Mario would be in jail if the penalty was going to be more than five years,” he said.

Mario is from Rokan Hilir district in Riau. On April 8, he slipped past airport security and climbed aboard the Boeing 737-800 before it departed from the province, surviving freezing temperatures as the plane flew some 34,000 feet above the earth surface.

Mario was found dazed and staggering by Soekarno-Hatta staff and was directly assessed at the airport clinic. He was reported to be running out of oxygen with blood coming from his ears and frostbitten extremities.

Mario told police he had made the perilous journey to see President Joko Widodo in Jakarta, police said.

The general manager of Sultan Syarif Kasim II airport Slamet Samiadji was fired over the incident.

Surviving the freezing temperature and very limited oxygen in the well of a commercial aircraft’s landing gear is unlikely, but not impossible. A 15-year-old American boy survived for five hours in a wheel well on a flight from California to Hawaii.

The security lapse at Pekanbaru airport is the latest evidence that Indonesia has not have sufficient control to allay safety fears in its fast-growing aviation sector.

Flights run by low-cost carrier Lion Air are routinely late or canceled during busy times. After an Indonesia AirAsia flight crashed into the Java Sea in December, killing all on board, the Indonesian government revealed the airline did not have the correct paperwork to fly from Surabaya to Singapore.

Video: chimp attacks drone flying over Dutch zoo

DutchNews.nl,  April 14, 2015

Officials at Burgers Zoo in Arnhem found out to their cost how intelligent chimps are, when one knocked a drone which was filming the apes’ enclosure out of the sky.

The drone was being used to make footage for a television programme but did not go down well with one of the inhabitants. Once the drone had been spotted, the primates armed themselves with long sticks, the zoo reports on its website. 

One chimp, a 23-year-old female called Pushi, was sitting in a high tree when the drone came buzzing. 

She managed to swipe it with the stick, causing it to fall to the ground. The chimps then proceeded to dismantle the spy plane, which kept on filming during the process, the zoo said. 

Zoo spokesman Bas Lukkenaar told USA TODAY Network it was no surprise that Pushi was the ‘main perpetrator.’.

‘Some are good at throwing and others only produce poor shots and Pushi is a very clever and capable chimpanzee,’ he said.

Airbus A320s sport 'created and made in China' wings

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-12

An A320 being assembled in Tianjin, December 2014. (File photo/Xinhua)

The Airbus and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and the Xi'an Aircraft Industry Factory have achieved domestic production of Airbus aircraft wings for the A320 series at their jointly operated Tianjin factory, reports the Shanghai-based China Business News.

The Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Centre, run by Airbus and its Chinese partners, is also fully functional and producing key parts needed for Airbus A350XWB aircraft.

So far, Airbus Tianjin has assembled a total of 216 A320s, most of which are for the mainland China market. Airbus Tianjin plans to assemble 49 aircraft in 2015, said one unnamed Airbus executive.

Airbus began cooperating with Xi'an Aircraft as early as 1999, with the latter as a contract manufacturer for aircraft wings. Now collaboration has extended to include the assembly, testing and delivery of whole wings, said the report.

The A320 wing project is one of the most advanced technologies Airbus has brought to work with the Chinese aviation industry, as the design and construction of a wing is the most technical section of the aircraft. Success in commercial airplane wing manufacturing has significantly boosted the overall capability of China's aviation industry.

The cooperation entered the fourth stage in 2009, with Xi'an Aircraft delivering the first whole A320 aircraft wing to Airbus in February 2010.

Airbus Tianjin, which is a joint venture between Airbus, AVIC and a Chinese consortium in the Tianjin Free Trade Zone (TJFTZ), has been praised as a model for cooperation between China and Europe.

In June 2009, Airbus Tianjin delivered its first assembled A320 aircraft to Sichuan Airlines. Since then, Airbus Tianjin delivered 11 aircraft in 2009, 26 in 2010, 36 in 2011, 37 in 2012, 46 in 2013 and 47 in 2014 to more than 10 local and foreign airline companies.

In April 2014, Airbus and its Chinese partners signed an agreement to push for further cooperation in the assembly of the A320 Neo series, and raise total assembly capacity. The Airbus A350XWB project will show not only "made in China," but also progress towards "created in China," said the Airbus executive.

Airbus forecasts that for China to become the world's largest civil aviation market within the next 10 years, it will need more than 5,300 newly added passenger and cargo aircraft, accounting for 17% of the world's total.

Jakarta Govt Considers Cycling Fix to Help Traffic Woes

Jakarta Globe, Lenny Tristia Tambun, Apr 09, 2015

A man cycles past vehicles stuck in Jakarta's gridlock traffic.
(Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)

Jakarta. Jakarta’s government is considering a proposal to rent bicycles at several points across the capital in a bid to ease the city’s notorious traffic congestion.

The Bike to Work community’s Wez & Go group has offered the city 100 bicycles, which would be rented in several busy spots such as Dukuh Atas, Monas and the City Hall, according to group coordinator Ramadona.

He said people who wished to use the bicycles would use a special card, which could be integrated with the TransJakarta card.

“We will improve the bicycles’ design, we even plan to install GPS and design a special card to prevent the bicycles from being stolen,” Ramadona said.

The plan has been well received by Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who has promised to study the proposal and its operational costs.

“This is a good plan, not only can it help to ease the congestion, it will also support our Smart City Program,” Basuki said.  Jakarta’s Smart City Program uses Google Maps and traffic information from crowd-scourced smartphone applications like Waze to plot the city’s traffic conditions online.

Ramadona said people who wished to rent the bike would have to register first and pay a monthly subscription fee of Rp 40,000 ($3).

Riau Airport to Install CCTV Cameras After Stowaway Incident, Investigation Launched

Jakarta Globe, Apr 08, 2015

Mario Steven Ambarita, 22, slipped past airport security in Pekanbaru and
 clambered into the wheel well of a Garuda Indonesia flight to Jakarta.
(JG Photo/Jurnasyanto Sukarno)

Jakarta. Authorities at Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport in Pekanbaru plan to install CCTV cameras on the runway after a man crawled into the wheel well of a Jakarta-bound Garuda Indonesia flight on Tuesday afternoon.

Mario Steven Ambarita, 22, slipped past airport security and clambered aboard the Boeing 737-800 before it took off from Riau province, surviving freezing temperatures as the plane flew tens of thousands of meters in the air.

Authorities from Roesmin Nurjadin Air Force Base, which shares the runway and airport space with Sultan Syarif Kasim II airport, said they were reviewing airport security following the incident.

“After what happened, we will evaluate the airport security protocols. We plan on installing CCTVs on the runways,” Roesmin Nurjadin chief Col. M. Khairil told news portal Detik.com on Wednesday.

Khairil said the CCTV systems were considered necessary for safety and airport security.

The response may not be enough for the Ministry of Transportation, however, which has launched an inquiry into the incident.

Suprasetyo, director general of air transportation at the ministry, said he had instructed state-owned airport operator, Angkara Pura II, to investigate the matter and impose appropriate sanctions on airport officers who were responsible.

“The Angkasa Pura II director is to rotate the responsible general manager and security officers of the airport,” Suprasetyo told a press conference on Wednesday.

The ministry will form a team to investigate the security weak points that allowed Mario to crawl into the wheel well.

Mario was reportedly found dazed and staggering by Soekarno-Hatta staff and was assessed at the airport clinic.

“The man was running out of oxygen, his fingers were blue and his ears were bleeding,” Garuda Indonesia spokesman Pujobroto said.

Pujobroto said the airplane had been flying at 34,000 feet above the earth surface.

“The temperature at 16,000 feet usually reaches the freezing point so you can imagine what the man must have experienced during the flight,” Pujobroto said.

After receiving medical treatment, Mario underwent questioning by police, whom he reportedly told he climbed on the flight to see President Joko Widodo in Jakarta.

Aluminium battery can charge phone in one minute, scientists say

US scientists hail breakthrough in technology they say could provide safer, more convenient, greener alternative for laptops and mobiles

The Guardian, Press Association, Tuesday 7 April 2015

The researchers said their prototype battery achieved ‘unprecedented
charging times’. (Photograph: Alamy)

Scientists say they have invented a new battery that could fully charge a smartphone in just one minute.

The researchers have created an aluminium battery which they hope could replace the lithium models commonly found in laptops and mobile phones.

And as well as the “unprecedented charging times” of their aluminium prototype, the team said it was also safer than lithium-ion batteries as it was less prone to catching fire and more environmentally friendly than alkaline models such as AA and AAA.

Publishing the findings in the journal Nature, Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford University, hailed it as a breakthrough in battery technology that went further than previous attempts using aluminium.

He said: “We have developed a rechargeable aluminium battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames. Our new battery won’t catch fire, even if you drill through it.

“Millions of consumers use 1.5-volt AA and AAA batteries. Our rechargeable aluminium battery generates about two volts of electricity. That’s higher than anyone has achieved with aluminium.”

The prototype was said to be more durable, withstanding more than 7,500 cycles without any loss of capacity and surpassing previous aluminium batteries which died after just 100 charge-discharge cycles, while a typical lithium-ion battery lasts about 1,000 cycles.

“This was the first time an ultra-fast aluminium-ion battery was constructed with stability over thousands of cycles,” the report’s authors wrote.

Dai added that lithium batteries could “go off in an unpredictable manner” and cited a ban by US airlines Delta and United on bulk shipments on passenger planes.

And the new design could be used to store renewable energy of the electrical grid, the researchers suggested.

Meanwhile, co-author Ming Gong said: “Another feature of the aluminium battery is flexibility. You can bend it and fold it, so it has the potential for use in flexible electronic devices. Aluminium is also a cheaper metal than lithium.”

Electric cars exempt from Beijing road space rationing

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-07

Tesla's P85D at a press event in Beijing on April 3. (File photo/CNS)

The Beijing city government announced on April 2 the continued implementation of traffic restrictions this year. Electric vehicles are exempted from the measure as an effort to boost the ownership of green energy cars, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

Traffic rationing, or road space rationing, was first introduced in Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympics to relieve heavy traffic by restricting the number of cars that could enter common road space based on the last digit of the license plate number on certain days or during certain periods of time.

The outcome was so successful that the policy has been implemented on a permanent basis, mainly aimed at reducing the amount of exhaust emissions from motor vehicles, a major source of pollution in many of China's large cities.

Another way to tackle air pollution is to increase the ownership of new energy vehicles. To promote the use of electric cars, the Beijing government has kept exhaust-free passenger vehicles out of the traffic rationing policy.

Issues such as low battery life, incompatibility of batteries and higher costs have been major hurdles for consumers. Compared to the 164 bids for each license plate on conventional gasoline-powered vehicles during the first license lottery this year, there were more than enough for those applying for new energy cars. Many of the 20,000 licenses available for electric vehicles were left unclaimed.

There is still much work to be done if the city government is to heat up the tepid electric car market, said the report.

Malaysian PM's chief of staff and former ambassador killled in helicopter crash

Witness reports mid-air explosion as six people killed, including Najib Razak’s principal private secretary and senior member of his party

The Guardian, AFP, Kuala Lumpur, Sunday 5 April 2015

The scene of the helicopter crash that killed the Malaysia PM’s chief of staff.
Photograph: Xinhua News Agency/REX/Xinhua News Agency/REX

The Malaysian prime minister’s chief of staff and and his country’s former ambassador to the US were among six people killed when a helicopter crashed south of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

The helicopter went down in a rubber plantation in the town of Semenyih, killing everyone on board, including Najib Razak’s principal private secretary, Azlin Alias.

Also among the dead was Jamaluddin Jarjis, an MP and senior member of Najib’s political party, UMNO, also a former Malaysian ambassador to the US.

“I am personally grief-struck. Jamaluddin Jarjis was my friend of many years and no truer friend could I have,” Najib said in a statement.

“Azlin Alias was my chief of staff and a truly outstanding government servant. The contributions of these two men to the government, to UMNO and to Malaysia were very significant.”

Najib added that he had ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash, saying that “no stone will be left unturned”.

The transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, said in a separate statement that all six bodies had been recovered and sent to a hospital in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

“This is indeed a great loss and my thoughts and prayers are with their families and the families of the other victims during this tragic time,” the minister said.

A witness told Malaysia’s official Bernama news agency that the helicopter “exploded in mid-air” during heavy rain.

“Then, the debris, tail and blades were thrown all over the place,” the witness, Roslan Harun, was quoted as saying.

Second Germanwings black box found

French prosecutors have confirmed that the second black box from the Germanwings flight 4U9525 has been found. Authorities hope to find more clues about the plane crash in the French Alps.

Deutsche Welle, 2 April 2015

After the first voice recorder suggested that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately locked the plane on a collision course with the mountains, the second black could provide more information about the Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps last week, French prosecutor Brice Robin told reporters in Marseille on Thursday.

Brice Robin

The voice recorder with the conversations between Lubitz and the pilot had been found shortly after the crash on March 24. German co-pilot took the advantage of the captain's absence to lock him out and set the plane on a deadly descent into the Alps.

The Marseille prosecutor in charge of the case, declined to give any further comment, but said he was planning a press conference for later on Thursday.

The Flight data in the second black box contain readings from hundreds of parameters of the Airbus aircraft including any pilot commands.

French search teams were also examining cell phones found in the debris of the plane crash for more clues about the tragedy. However, no video or audio from such devices has been released publicly.

The Germanwings flight 4U9525 from Barcelona to Düsseldorf crashed into the mountains at a speed of 700 kilometres (430 miles) an hour, killing all 150 people on board.

Co-pilot studied suicide methods on internet

Meanwhile, German state prosecutors said a computer seized from 27-year-old co-pilot's home showed searches had been made on cockpit doors and their safety precautions as well as suicide methods.

Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz

"On at least one day, the person also spent several minutes trying out search terms for cockpit doors and their security protection," German prosecutor Ralf Herrenbrueck said.

"The browser history wasn't erased, in particular the search terms called up on this device in the period from March 16 to March 23 were able to be retraced," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Lubitz's tablet computer was found in a search of his flat in Düsseldorf.

German prosecutors have said Lubitz was diagnosed as suicidal "several years ago," before he became a pilot. He informed Lufthansa about his illness in 2009 after interrupting his flight training.

Two days after the crash, Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said Lubitz had passed all medical and psychological tests to obtain a student pilot certificate including the one from the US Federal Aviation Authority in 2010.

jil/rc (dpa, AFP)

'Space Silk Road' to back China's Belt and Road plan

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-02

The new Beidou satellite is launched into space carried by
a Long March 3 orbital carrier rocket, March 30. (Photo/CNS)

At 9 pm on March 30, China successfully launched the Long March 3 (LM-3) orbital carrier rocket, carrying the first of China's new generation Beidou satellites, set to transform the Beidou satellite navigation system from a regional to an international guidance system, according to the Chinese-language website of China's Global Times.

On March 31 the China Satellite Global Services Alliance (CSGSA) held a press conference in Beijing, announcing the latest stage in the construction of a "Space-based New Silk Road." They stated that it will enable the smooth development of China's "Belt and Road" plan–comprising the New Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Space-based Silk Road

The deputy director general of the alliance in charge of daily operations, Wang Zhongguo, said at the press conference that at the end of 2014, the alliance decided to focus its strategy on the Belt and Road project and international expansion. Currently the alliance has established trial satellite receiving bases in Xinjiang, Ningxia, Hainan and Fujian, all important locations for the Belt and Road projects. After this it will move westwards over land, through Central Asia and Southwest Asia to Europe and over sea through the South China Sea, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean to Africa and South and Central America, establishing receiving stations all over the world.

The alliance is said to be an open interdisciplinary non-profit NGO, with members including the management of companies throughout the astronautical industry chain, research institute staff and academics.

Wang said that the alliance has entered into talks with a range of countries, including Malta, Malaysia, India, the US and Norway regarding establishing satellite receiving facilities within their borders. Satellite cooperation with Malta has already been incorporated into the country's trade treaty with China. He said that as well as the construction of new receiving stations, already established receiving stations can be used too. The Chinese University of Hong Kong previously built a ground receiving station, which will be able to receive signals from Chinese satellites, which it can then use to provide services to the public.

If the Space-based Silk Road is to be realized then the building of related infrastructure must be prioritized as a central project, he said. This can be done by improving the communications infrastructure within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SHO). Joint funds can be used to establish a low orbit data acquisition satellite system, improve the coverage of navigation along the Belt and Road routes and to build a remote sensing Virtual Constellation. Ground infrastructure must also be jointly constructed, including facilities for the receiving, processing and distribution of satellite information.

Satellites

Wang said that China currently has 120 satellites in orbit and that its communications satellites can provide coverage for 98% of the world's inhabited areas; China's remote-sensing satellites can also provide global coverage. The recently launched new generation Beidou navigation satellite brings the number of Beidou satellites to 17. The Beidou system is expected to have global coverage by 2020.

The Space-based Silk Road will comprise several dozen high capacity communications satellites, offering broad coverage, and these will be used as a supplement for data acquisition satellite systems. They are also expected to improve navigation services along the Belt and Road routes. The remote-sensing satellites will also engage in long term observation of land masses, the oceans, the atmosphere and environmental changes.

When asked if the Gaofen series of satellites would be incorporated into the Space-based Silk Road satellite system, Wang said that this would depend on the demands of the owners, as most were commissioned by businesses.

Wu Jiyun, vice director of the Satellite Technology Application Working Committee of the Chinese Society of Astronautics, says that currently Beidou is second only to the US GPS navigation system. He added that Beidou's accuracy is already a match for GPS in the Pacific and that China intends for it to match GPS's capabilities worldwide by 2020.

Belt and Road

The Space-based Silk Road will enable the Chinese government to continue observing different regions of the world even in the event of a natural disaster or other unforeseen circumstances. The system is also likely to help Chinese businesses expand internationally and it can act as a scout for infrastructure construction along the land and sea routes.

China accelerates westward opening for Silk Road Economic Belt

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-04-01

A train enters China through the Alataw Pass, June 26, 2014. (File photo/Xinhua)

The Alataw Pass, a remotely-located port in the Gobi desert of Xinjiang, is becoming an increasingly important trade gateway connecting China's inland cities to Central Asia and Europe.

Dozens of international trains are running to and from the port everyday with a total freight volume of 74,000 tonnes and foreign trade volume of nearly US$50 million. The Alataw Pass has become a key entrance for energy resources of strategic importance such as crude oil, metal ores and steel.

The prosperity of the port is a reflection of China's effort in opening up westward, as part of a strategy to develop the Silk Road Economic Belt that spans the Eurasian continent.

President Xi Jinping proposed the idea of the economic belt during his visit to Central Asia in September 2013, eyeing a cultural revival of the Silk Road, which historically linked China with Central Asia and Europe, as a way of developing political and economic ties.

After the Silk Road Economic Belt agreement was signed in November 2013 by 24 cities in eight countries along the Silk Road, a series of Chinese inland cities including Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Xi'an have successively opened international shuttle trains to the Eurasian continent.

Northwest China's Shaanxi province, the starting point of the ancient silk road, has been carrying out economic and technological cooperation with countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Fang Weifeng, director of the Shaanxi Development and Reform Commission, said, the Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group has set up an oil refining program in Kyrgyzstan with an annual capacity of 800,000 tonnes.

Other western provinces and regions have also been extending their reach to the west. Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region vowed to enhance agricultural and energy cooperation with Central Asia. Ningxia Hui autonomous region, heavily populated by the Muslim Hui ethnic minority, has been developing Muslim food and products manufacturing bases with the purpose to promote trade with Muslim countries.

Yang Shu, a professor at Lanzhou University in Gansu province, said speeding up westward expansion is of great strategic importance to China. With international trade shrinking after the global financial crisis, China's economic slowdown is urging the country to further tap the development potential of its west through westward opening.

The campaign can also help bridge the development gap between China's western areas and more prosperous east, he said.

The global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis has hit the economic development of Russia, Central Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. The economic belt can bring opportunities to those countries, he said.

However, China has to be cautious when deepening cooperation with countries to its west.

Xing Guangcheng, an expert with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China should seek to develop more stakeholders by building joint ventures when initiating programs in the Central Asian countries in order to reduce risks.

Beijing pitches US$5.2bn toward Russia's first high-speed railway

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-01

Two high-speed locomotives in a hangar in Guiyang, Guizhou province.
(File photo/CNS)

Beijing plans to invest 300 billion Russian rubles (US$5.2 billion) to build Russia's first high-speed rail line between Moscow and Kazan, reports the Xinhua publication Reference News.

China reportedly proposed the investment to Alexander Misharin, first vice president of Russian Railways, in a meeting during the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan. Chinese officials suggested the two countries form a joint venture for the rail line, each taking a 50% stake.

Around 50 billion rubles (US$860 million) of the investment will be equity payment made by the Chinese company responsible for the project. Chinese banks will lend the remaining 250 billion rubles (US$4.3 billion) to Russia for 20 years.

The 770km-long rail line linking five regions in Russia — Moscow, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Cheboksary and Kazan — would reduce the travel time from 11 and half hours to around three and a half. Many European and Chinese companies have shown interest in the project.

Yuanzheng-1 'space shuttle bus' enters orbit for first time

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-31

Concept art of the Yuanzheng-1 shuttle. (Internet photo)

China's Yuanzheng-1 ("Expedition") upper stage aircraft with the ability to launch more than 10 satellites went into orbit on March 30, the Global Times reports.

Yuanzheng-1 is one of the 40 spacecraft China plans to send into orbit in 20 separate launches in 2015, as declared during the annual meetings of the country's parliament and political advisory body earlier this month. The UK's Daily Mail described it as China's largest rocket which can restart its engine in space about 20 times. It can launch more than 10 satellites during the course of its mission.

Liang Xiaohong, party secretary of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, said the carrier rocket bearing Yuanzheng-1 can carry aircraft using its own power system after reaching an initial orbit. Using liquid propellant, Yuanzheng-1 can be operated for up to 6.5 hours in space.

Liang said the spacecraft will play an important role in China's future lunar and Mars missions as well as orbital transfer and space debris clearing.

Referred to as the "space shuttle bus" by various media, the first mission of Yuanzheng-1 is likely to be to launch satellites for China's Beidou Navigation System. Earlier reports suggest China plans to launch four Beidou satellites this year.

MH17 investigators launch appeal for witnesses, release BUK footage

DutchNews.nl, March 30, 2015

Dutch investigators looking into the MH17plane disaster on July 17, 2014 on Monday launched an appeal for help in tracing witnesses to a possible BUK missile attack on the plane. 

The appeal includes video footage showing a BUK missile system being moved through eastern Ukraine on a low loader Volvo truck on July 17 and 18 and parts of secretly recorded phone conversations, the public prosecution department, which is coordinating the investigation, said.

‘We are looking for witnesses who have seen BUK crew members or have more information about the identity of those involved in ordering and launching the BUK,’ the statement said. People who are concerned about their safety will be offered ‘various protective measures.’ 

Tapped phone conversations indicate pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine had set up BUK anti-aircraft missiles prior to the MH17 plane crash and that the rebels withdrew in the wake of the crash, first to rebel-held parts of Ukraine and then to Russia, the department said. 

The phone conversations, recorded by the Ukrainian secret service SBU, have been released in order to encourage witnesses to come forward. 

Total mess

‘Yesterday was a total mess. I have nothing to say about it,’ one separatist was recorded as saying the day after MH17 was shot down, killing all 298 people on board. 

Two of the conversations mention the weapons system by name and discuss where it is to be placed. 

The appeal for witnesses does not mean the department has concluded a missile attack is the only likely cause of the crash and is just one of number of scenarios being looked at, the department statement said.

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