CHINA'S NEXT SUPERPOWER,China wows world with engineering

[Mallaba]

Beijing-Shanghai high-speed link to slash travel time to four hours

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BEIJING - The landmark Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line will open in June, months ahead of schedule, the Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun said on Tuesday.Addressing a conference in Beijing, Liu also announced a major expansion of the high-speed rail network, which will be extended by nearly 5,000 km this year, taking it past 13,000 km by the end of 2011.

At the end of 2010, the network stretched to 8,358 km, the world's longest. Some 5,149 km of high-speed track were put into service last year.
The network now accounts for one third of the world's total, almost 25,000 km in 17 countries and regions, including Japan, France, Germany and Italy, according to the Ministry of Railways.
There are plans to invest 700 billion yuan ($106 billion) in railway construction this year, Liu said, a figure that almost reflects last year's 709 billion yuan investment.

A worker is seen at the Shanghai Hongqiao Station of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line in Shanghai, Jan 4, 2011. [Photo/Xinhua]​

As a result, the national rail network has expanded from 86,000 km in 2009 to 91,000 km in 2010.
This year's investment is expected to expand the network by 7,901 km to some 99,000 km in total, and the high-speed rail network will be extended by 4,715 km to just over 13,000 km, according to the ministry.
The opening date of the eagerly anticipated Beijing-Shanghai line has been rescheduled twice - the initial schedule was for 2012, but earlier last year officials suggested it would be operational at the end of 2011, according to previous reports.
But rapid progress in the construction of the 1,318-km railway track, which started in April 2008 and ended in November 2010, has seen the completion date moved up to mid-June. Workers are now installing the railway's power supply and communication systems.
Once in service, trains with a top speed of 380 km/h will slash the travel time between the two cities to only four hours, down from the current 10 hours.
Liu also stressed that ensuring "absolute safety" of operations is the priority for all railway departments.
"There will be zero tolerance for errors or defects," he said, as a perfect operation record will be crucial for the construction of high-speed networks as well as China's reputation and railway technology exports.
The ministry now aims to export its technical knowledge of high-speed railways to other countries hoping to build or expand their own networks.
"Given the scale of China's high-speed rail network, it is possible for China to take a lead in establishing the technical standards for high-speed railways of around 350 km/h," Yang Hao, professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, said.
Liu urged that potential overseas high-speed rail markets be explored, including in the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, the United States and Russia.
He also said preparation work for cooperative railway projects in Laos, Myanmar and Turkey should speed up this year, so that "these railway projects can start construction as soon as possible".
According to earlier media reports, China will help build a railway linking Laos and China as early as 2012 as well as a 1,920-km railway from Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, to Yangon, Myanmar's largest city.

This photo taken on Dec 18, 2010 shows workers set up the contact wire for the rail system of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line near Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/Xinhua]​

China eyes California's high-speed rail system

In the 19th century, laborers from China helped build railroads spanning California and linking the U.S. coasts.
In the 21st century, the Chinese may be back -- not for backbreaking labor, but with financial and technological muscle.
The People's Republic of China has more miles of track for high-speed trains than any country in the world, while California has none. But the Chinese want in on the state's fledgling high-speed rail project. They're eager to help bankroll and build the system and, eventually, provide the trains to operate on the tracks.


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[Mallaba]

kulingana na population yao sawa utasema kuwa kuna masikini wengi lakini ukilinganisha na population ya tz yenye almost 40mil (ni kama province moja vile china) huwezi wala ukaongea hata kujipima nao tu.
Hilo ni taifa kubwa hata maendeleo hayaji yote siku moja lakini kwa juhudi zao sio siri hatuna budi kuwa pongeza, hilo utake usitake ukeli unabaki pale pale jamaa wako mbali sana maana kwa sasa Hata mataifa mengine ya Magharibi wanaliiogopa sana hili Taifa.
Maswala ya mazingira ni tatizo la kila sehemu hata Ulaya na USA karne ya 19 walipokuwa na industrialization waliharibu sana mazingira na hayo ndio matokeo waliyotuletea, pamoja na hapo bado hawako radhi kuchukua responsibility of their deeds, kwa hiyo China nayo iko kwenye rapid development swala la kuharibu mazingira lazima liwepo tu wala haliwezi kukwepeka kabisa, ila kitu kizuri ni kwamba jamaa wameshaonyesha umhimu wa kujali mazingira ndio maana serikali yao kwa sasa inawekeza kwenye mazingira sana tu kuliko hata nchi yeyote hapa duniani.

..kuna masikini wengi sana China.

..serikali yao inaweza kuwa superpower lakini wananchi wake wengi wanaishi maisha ya taabu.

..ndiyo maana mnaona wa kichina hapa kwetu.

..China sasa hivi hawajali masuala ya environment, hawajali haki za wafanyakazi--kuna sweat shops kibao, hawajali haki za binaadam etc etc

 

[Mallaba]

"China is cash-flush, and its highly subsidized industries are bankrolled with surplus government funds," said Usha Haley, a professor of international business at Massey University in New Zealand and an expert on China's worldwide business strategies. "They're investing in infrastructure around the world ... and if they're bidding in an open-bid process, China will get that bid."Because the U.S. lacks both technology and expertise in high-speed rail, foreign involvement from countries where high-speed trains already operate will be inevitable in California.
"It's technology like the trains, signals, electrification that we don't have in the U.S.," said Barker. Those components represent about 15% of the cost for the state's high-speed train system

China eyes California's high-speed rail system

In the 19th century, laborers from China helped build railroads spanning California and linking the U.S. coasts.
In the 21st century, the Chinese may be back -- not for backbreaking labor, but with financial and technological muscle.
The People's Republic of China has more miles of track for high-speed trains than any country in the world, while California has none. But the Chinese want in on the state's fledgling high-speed rail project. They're eager to help bankroll and build the system and, eventually, provide the trains to operate on the tracks.


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[Mallaba]

Key findings from the report include:

?China has twice as many university graduates as the United States, which used to be the world leader, according to statistics published for the first time.
?In 2005, more students graduated from universities in the 19 WEI countries than in the 30 Member States of the OECD combined.
?The growth in tertiary education has come at a high cost for WEI countries, which spend 53% of GDP per capita per tertiary student compared to the 40% OECD average.
?Overall, children in WEI countries can expect to spend about 14 years in school, about four years less than in an average OECD country. The gap is largely explained by lower WEI participation rates in upper secondary and tertiary education.
?In an average WEI country, just more than one in five upper secondary students is enrolled in technical and vocational education, which is about one-half of the OECD average.
?Class size varies considerably among WEI countries, with 42 pupils in primary school classes in Egypt and Jamaica, compared to just 16 pupils per class in the Russian Federation ?which is less than in many OECD countries.
source: China leads the world in the number of university graduates: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (3.14)

 

[Mallaba]

A thousand years ago China was well ahead of Europe in science and technology. The Chinese were using gunpowder, paper, movable type printing and the magnetic compass. They had perfected the crossbow long before the Europeans.
But for some reason they decided not to continue the development of these and other technologies. It was only when the knowledge spread to Europe by way of travelers like Marco Polo that technology continued to advance, and Europe took the lead in technology and with it, world domination.
Today we may be seeing , depending on how you look at it, either a repeat of that process or a reversal of it. Today the technologies involved are not printing and gunpowder, but nuclear power and genetic engineering. While the West (Europe and the USA/Canada) currently has the lead in these fields, we are forfeiting it to Japan (nuclear) and China (both, but especially genetic engineering).
The Wall Street Journal March 29, 2000 had a story on the drive by China to become the world leader in genetics and the applications of genetic engineering. China has a large and growing population with increasing wealth but a shrinking amount of arable land. Heavy use of pesticides in the past has created insect pests that are resistant to them. The Chinese leadership sees genetically modified crops as the best hope of dealing with these problems.
China has been directing billions of dollars of research money into modifying the genes of crops, animals and even humans. A state-of-the-art genetic research laboratory is planned for Inner Mongolia. Such is Beijing's excitement that even its traditional suspicion of foreigners has been set aside, and seeds for GM crops are being bought from Monsanto.
And the effort is paying off. In the past year, the government of China has approved the use of a dozen new strains of rice, potatoes, tomatoes, corn and trees, all developed domestically. There is also a program to clone the Giant Panda to help save it from extinction.
Cotton on the North Plains of China had been decimated by insecticide resistant bollworms a decade ago, but is now thriving due to new insect resistant varieties of cotton plants that increase yields up to five fold.
Genetic modification offers the possibility of crops with greater nutrition, higher yields and that require less fertilizer and insecticide to grow. If this technology is going to be blocked in Europe and even the USA by various opponents, at least it will continue in China. And while a thousand years ago, ideas and goods were slow to spread across the world, today the knowledge is likely to remain available to all.
And if in a few years I can't buy the new GM seeds for my garden locally, maybe I will be able to order them from China over the internet.
Will China Again Lead the World?

 

[Mallaba]

China leads the world in Clean Energy due to massive investment in new energy industry.
BERNAMA - China Leads Asia In Clean Energy, Says Un Official

 

[m_kishuri]

Shukrani sana Mr. Mallaba kwa hizi encouraging news, kwa kweli hii ni changamoto ya hali ya juu kwa nchi zetu ambazo hadi leo hii, karibia miaka 50 baada ya uhuru lakini bado tunajikongojakongoja tu. Lakini, I personally do not believe that China will be the next and the only Superpower in the World. To me MULTIPOLAR is the way to go. Why, kwa sababu, ili China iwe lone Superpower, ina maana kwamba nchi nyingine zote kama India, Brazil, German na baba yao U.S waanguke kiuchumi au wacollapse ndio labda China inaweza kuibuka as a HEGEMONIC POWER, vinginevyo sidhani kama hili suala liitawezekana.

Pili, Globalization imechange the way global issues are solved. Kuna mambo mengi katika dunia ya leo ambayo yanachallenge hii notion of the next Superpower, e.g. Terorrism, global warming, umaskini, njaa na maradhi ya mlipuko kama AIDS etc. Hizi issues zote zinahitaji global efforts ili kuzitatua, kwa hiyo kwangu mimi, I can't see China having the same sort of World domination that U.S had after the demise of the USSR. Nada!

Education & Innovations: Kati ya best 10 Universities in the World, 8 are from the United States, mbili ni za Unigereza. Kutoka China, kuna no. (40) Hongkong University, Chinese (Hongkong) na Peking University, ambazo ni no. 42 na 47.

(World University Rankings | Top Universities)

Innovations: Tukiangalia the last 5 innovations in the World na ambazo zimeleta mabadiliko ya maisha Dunia, kuanzia Google, Facebook, Genomics mpaka GPS zote zimefanyika Marekani. Huku China bado inajikongoja.

Halafu tukija kwenye ule msemo wa kizamani usemao:"Its the Country with the biggest guns that wins the game " ndio hata usiseme. Militarily, Itachukuwa muda mrefu sana kwa China to compete na mnyamwezi, achilia mbali kumrelpace kwenye Military Supremacy. Budget ya mwaka jana (2010) ya Marekani ilikuwa karibia $ billion 700, na kwa mwaka huu (2011) ni karibia $ billion 800 wakati China katika official data zao inaonyesha kwamba walitumia $billion 70, ingawa inaaminika kwamba budjet yao ni karibia $ billion 150.

I am not here to defend any country. Lakini hapa tupo kwenye jukwaa la Great Thinkers and where we try to put things in perspective. Itakuwa faraja na chachu kubwa sana kwa bara letu la Africa endapo China itaibuka kuwa Global Super power kama alivyokuwa U.S miaka michache baada ya kuanguka kwa USSR, lakini ukweli ni kwamba hali hiyo itabaki kuwa ndoto tu. Multipolar is the "New World Order."

 

[Averos]

chinese are more than seriuous people, hawataki mchezo, ni kazi tu, kwao kazi ni kazi kweli, wanastahiki kupongezwa kwa hilo. Tanzania tuna mengi ya kujifunza kutoka china kwa kuwa kuna wakati hali zao kiuchumi zilikuwa kama za kwetu ila walipoamua kubadilika walibadilika kweli! Big up China!

 

[Mallaba]

well said Mr.M-kishuri, nakubaliana na wewe kwa maelezo yako amabayo umejaribu kuangalia zaidi mno ya past kuliko kuangalia current and future situation.
Pili, Unapoongelea hizo Google, Facebook etc ni kweli zimekuwa dominated sana pia ni lazima uelewa kuwa kama ni kwa mawasiliano esp matumizi ya internet kwa sasa ndio taifa linaloongoza duniani kwa kuwa na watumizi wengi zaidi , tatizo lililopo ni kuwa kuna website nyingi sana google like/facebook and the like ambazo ziko kichina kwa matumizi ya wenyewe hivyo zinapunguza uwezo wa kujulikana duniani makapuni kama BAIDU/ ALIBABA ,youku,etc ni makampuni makubwa tu kwa sasa ndio maana hata google alijitoa China kwa visingizio kibao kumbe tatizo ni kukosa soko compared kwa makampuni mengine.
tatu, unapoongelea kuhuzu weapons/guns ni wazi kuwa Usa imekuwa dominated kwa sekta zote lakini hayo yote ni past what we are looking now is /are 20,3, or 50 years to come ambapo hata USA wenyewe wanaiogopa sana China kwani wamejitahidi kuipa jina la enemy lakini halitoshi na mwaka huu wanasema wanataka kuongeza spending money ili kudevelop morden weapons na Leo Defence secretary Robert Gates ameanza tour nchini China in order to reduce mis trust.
military spending of China is always kept secret therefore dont be bothered on data.
Just get be reminded that Chinese Gov has enough CASH/MONEY something which is very crucial for the stability of the country and the world as whole, but USA is in bad financial situation.
Im neither defending any country either, ila tuna eleweshana tu wote maana hizi nchi zote wala sio zetu ingawa tuna changamoto sana ya kujifunza kupitia kwao
Kweli ukiangalia maswala ya vyuo ranking utakuta ni USA, EUROPE na china utakuta iko below , do u know why? kuna reliabilities na sometimes data zinakuwa available kwa maeneo hayo husika, mfano wanaochukua hizo data wengi wanakuwa Usa na inakuwa ni marachahche sana kwenda China , hivyo mara nyingi sana tu China as a whole imekuwa mis-represented in many issues.

Shukrani sana Mr. Mallaba kwa hizi encouraging news, kwa kweli hii ni changamoto ya hali ya juu kwa nchi zetu ambazo hadi leo hii, karibia miaka 50 baada ya uhuru lakini bado tunajikongojakongoja tu. Lakini, I personally do not believe that China will be the next and the only Superpower in the World. To me MULTIPOLAR is the way to go. Why, kwa sababu, ili China iwe lone Superpower, ina maana kwamba nchi nyingine zote kama India, Brazil, German na baba yao U.S waanguke kiuchumi au wacollapse ndio labda China inaweza kuibuka as a HEGEMONIC POWER, vinginevyo sidhani kama hili suala liitawezekana.

Pili, Globalization imechange the way global issues are solved. Kuna mambo mengi katika dunia ya leo ambayo yanachallenge hii notion of the next Superpower, e.g. Terorrism, global warming, umaskini, njaa na maradhi ya mlipuko kama AIDS etc. Hizi issues zote zinahitaji global efforts ili kuzitatua, kwa hiyo kwangu mimi, I can’t see China having the same sort of World domination that U.S had after the demise of the USSR. Nada!

Education & Innovations: Kati ya best 10 Universities in the World, 8 are from the United States, mbili ni za Unigereza. Kutoka China, kuna no. (40) Hongkong University, Chinese (Hongkong) na Peking University, ambazo ni no. 42 na 47.

(World University Rankings | Top Universities)

Innovations: Tukiangalia the last 5 innovations in the World na ambazo zimeleta mabadiliko ya maisha Dunia, kuanzia Google, Facebook, Genomics mpaka GPS zote zimefanyika Marekani. Huku China bado inajikongoja.

Halafu tukija kwenye ule msemo wa kizamani usemao:”Its the Country with the biggest guns that wins the game ” ndio hata usiseme. Militarily, Itachukuwa muda mrefu sana kwa China to compete na mnyamwezi, achilia mbali kumrelpace kwenye Military Supremacy. Budget ya mwaka jana (2010) ya Marekani ilikuwa karibia $ billion 700, na kwa mwaka huu (2011) ni karibia $ billion 800 wakati China katika official data zao inaonyesha kwamba walitumia $billion 70, ingawa inaaminika kwamba budjet yao ni karibia $ billion 150.

I am not here to defend any country. Lakini hapa tupo kwenye jukwaa la Great Thinkers and where we try to put things in perspective. Itakuwa faraja na chachu kubwa sana kwa bara letu la Africa endapo China itaibuka kuwa Global Super power kama alivyokuwa U.S miaka michache baada ya kuanguka kwa USSR, lakini ukweli ni kwamba hali hiyo itabaki kuwa ndoto tu. Multipolar is the “New World Order.”

 

[Mallaba]

BEIJING -- State Grid Corp of China (SGCC) plans to build more electric charging stations in Beijing and several other cities this year to meet rising demand for electric vehicles, a Beijing newspapers reported Saturday.
The country's dominant electric power transmission company will build a network of charging stations in Beijing, Tianjin, Hefei and Nanchang this year, the Beijing News quoted SGCC general manager Liu Zhenya as saying.
The major service of the stations will be providing batteries that are already recharged, Liu said at the company's annual work meeting in Beijing.

"On average, oil-powered car owners spend 70 yuan ($10.6) on fuel cost for driving 100 kilometers at present. But a user of battery-powered auto just needs to pay 20 yuan for the same journey," Liu said.
He said the batteries will be mostly charged at night, and used batteries will be recycled by SGCC.
SGCC built 6,209 electric vehicle supply equipment at 75 charging stations in 27 Chinese cities last year, the newspaper said.
The company's move is part of the government's effort to promote the development of the electric auto industry, which has been listed as one of the country's seven emerging industries in September 2010.
The government aims to lift annual output of new energy vehicles to 500,000 units over the next three years, and boost sales to account for 5 percent of total passenger car sales.
However, for a long time, the lack of related infrastructures such as charging stations and the absence of a common standard on charging devices hindered the industry's growth.