In China, jar of French mountain air fetches $860

BEIJING (AP) — Beijing artist Liang Kegang returned from a business trip in southern France with well-rested lungs and a small item of protest against his home city's choking pollution: a glass jar of clean, Provence air.

He put it up for auction before a group of about 100 Chinese artists and collectors late last month, and it fetched 5,250 yuan ($860).

"Air should be the most valueless commodity, free to breathe for any vagrant or beggar," Liang said in an interview. "This is my way to question China's foul air and express my dissatisfaction."

Liang's work is part of a gust of recent artistic protest — and entrepreneurial gimmickry — reflecting widespread dissatisfaction over air quality in China, where cities often are immersed days on end in harmful pollutants at levels many times what is considered safe by the World Health Organization. The chronic problem has spurred brisk markets for dust masks and home air purifiers.

China's senior leaders have pledged to clean the country's air, partly in response to a citizenry increasingly vocal about environmental issues. But it is a daunting task that must be balanced with demands for economic development and employment crucial to maintaining stability.

In February, a group of 20 Beijing artists wearing dust masks lay on the ground and played dead in front of an altar at the city's Temple of Heaven park in a performance art protest.

In this photo taken on March 29, 2014, Beijing artist Liang Kegang collects fresh air in the commune …

In March, independent artists in the southern city of Changsha held a mock funeral for what they imagined would be the death of the city's last citizen because of smog.

"If smog cannot be effectively cleaned up, what it will leave us is death and cities of death," artist Shao Jiajun said.

Liang's contribution is a short, ordinary glass preserves jar with a rubber seal and a flip-top. It has three small, handwritten paper labels: one with the name and coordinates of the French village, Forcalquier, where he closed the jar; one saying "Air in Provence, France" in French; and one with his signature in Chinese and the date — March 29.

The auction closed on the night of March 30, and Chengdu-based artist and entrepreneur Li Yongzheng was the highest bidder.

"I have always been appreciative of Kegang's conceptual art, and this piece was very timely," Li said in a telephone interview. "This past year, whether it was Beijing, Chengdu or most Chinese cities, air pollution has been a serious problem. This piece of work really suits the occasion."

In this photo taken March 29, 2014, residents breath from bags of fresh air taken from a provincial  …

Liang is not the only one to make money from China's air-pollution angst. Entrepreneurs also see the potential, and so do tourism officials in parts of the country where skies are clear.

Chinese President Xi Jinping joked to Guizhou province delegates during last month's National People's Congress that the scenic southwestern province could put its air up for sale. Days later, the province's tourism bureau announced plans to sell canned air as souvenirs for tourists.

"Canned air will force us to stay committed to environmental protection," provincial tourism director Fu Yingchun said recently.

In central Henan province, local tourism authorities promoting a resort scooped up mountain air and gave away bags of it in downtown Zhengzhou, the provincial capital. City dwellers greedily inhaled the air, and some said they planned to visit the mountain resort to get more than a lungful.

Chen Guangbiao, a recycling tycoon who briefly made headlines with his abortive plan to purchase The New York Times, has been selling fresh air in cans under his "Good Person" brand.

Want one? They sell for $3 each on China's online bazaar of Taobao.

EnvironmentNature & EnvironmentChinaair qualityair purifiers

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China bans officials sending new year cards at public expense

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party on Friday banned officials from sending or printing new year cards or calendars if they have been paid for with public funds, the latest step in the government's crackdown on waste, extravagance and graft.

"The printing and production are more and more extravagant, and the waste is greater and greater," the central government said on its main website (www.gov.cn).

"This is not only an expression of formalism, but drives extravagance."

The order covers all government and party departments, state-owned industries and financial bodies, though an exception will be made for those which deal with foreigners and overseas Chinese, as long as they rein in costs, the notice said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has sought to address growing public anger at the illegal or unethical behavior of party officials, especially those with flamboyant lifestyles, often seen as a sign they are corrupt.

Since taking office in March, Xi has called corruption a threat to the party's survival and vowed to go after powerful "tigers" as well as lowly "flies".

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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'Pacific Rim' called American propaganda in China

(Warner Bros. Pictures 2013)Truth could be stranger than fiction: A Chinese army officer is denouncing the movie “Pacific Rim” as American propaganda, reports the news site China.org. The sci-fi blockbuster is about … robots.

According to China.org, in an op-ed for the People’s Liberation Army Daily, Zhang Jieli asserts, "The decisive battle against the monsters was deliberately set in South China Sea adjacent to Hong Kong.” He added, "The intention was to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to maintaining stability in the Asia-Pacific area and saving the mankind."

The monster flick depicts countries surrounding the Pacific Ocean that join forces to fight giant creatures called Kaijus that rise up from the ocean floor to attack humans.

Written and directed by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, the summer film has grossed almost $400 million worldwide, including $106.2 million in China, where it topped the box office for the past three weeks. In fact, the monster vs. robots movie has done better in China than the United States, where it has grossed over $99 million so far.

But the success is probably more due to its entertainment, not propaganda value.

Rotten Tomatoes called it a “solid modern creature feature bolstered by fantastical imagery and an irresistible sense of fun.”

According to Voice of America, Zhang was referring to the “Obama administration's ‘pivot’ to East Asia, under which the U.S. plans to move 60 percent of its naval assets to the Pacific by 2020. Many in Beijing view the move as a U.S. attempt to contain China, despite assurances from Washington this is not the case.”

Zhang claimed in the opinion piece that U.S. movies have “always served as a propaganda machine to convey American values and their strategies in the world."

China is certainly watching plenty of movies, many of them American: China has become the world’s second largest box office market after the United States.

The country even agreed last year to relax its strict quotas of American movie imports, which previously had been only 20 a year. It has now increased the number to 34 with the promise that the additional movies be in Imax or 3D format — movies such as “Pacific Rim.”

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China to phase out use of prisoners' organs for transplants

By Li Hui and Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will start phasing out its decades-long practice of using the organs of executed prisoners for transplant operations from November, a senior official said on Thursday, as it pushes to mandate the use of organs from ethical sources in hospitals.

China remains the only country in the world that still systematically uses organs extracted from executed prisoners in transplant operations, a practice that has drawn widespread international criticism. Many Chinese view the practice as a way for criminals to redeem themselves.

But officials have recently spoken out against the practice of harvesting organs from dead inmates, saying it "tarnishes the image of China".

The health ministry will begin enforcing the use of organs from voluntary donors allocated through a fledging national program at a meeting set to be held in November, former deputy health minister Huang Jiefu, who still heads the ministry's organ transplant office, told Reuters.

"I am confident that before long all accredited hospitals will forfeit the use of prisoner organs," Huang said.

The first batch of all 165 Chinese hospitals licensed for transplants will promise to stop using organs harvested from death row inmates at the November meeting, he added. Huang did not specify the exact number.

MEETING "ACCEPTED ETHICAL STANDARDS"

An Australian-trained liver transplant surgeon, Huang said the China Organ Transplant Committee will ensure that the "source of the organs for transplantation must meet the commonly accepted ethical standards in the world".

That effectively means the use of prisoner organs at approved hospitals will come to an end, but the timeframe remains indefinite, he added.

China has launched pilot volunteer organ donor programs in 25 provinces and municipalities with the aim of creating a nationwide voluntary scheme by the end of 2013.

By the end of 2012, about 64 percent of transplanted organs in China came from executed prisoners and the number has dipped to under 54 percent so far this year, according to figures provided by Huang.

At a meeting in August last year, Huang, deputy health minister at the time, told officials that top leaders had decided to reduce dependency on prisoners' organs, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Reuters.

Rights groups say many organs are taken from prisoners without their consent or their family's knowledge, something the government denies.

So far, more than 1,000 organ donors have come through the new system, benefiting at least 3,000 patients, Huang said.

Voluntary organ donation in China has already risen from 63 cases in all of 2010 to a current average of 130 per month so far this year, Huang added.

However, not all donated organs are currently allocated through the new program, leaving room for human interference, one of the main challenges the reform faces.

Supply still falls far short of demand due in part to the traditional Chinese belief that bodies should be buried or cremated intact. An estimated 300,000 patients are waitlisted every year for organ transplants and only about one in 30 ultimately will receive a transplant.

The shortage has driven a trade in illegal organ trafficking and in 2007 the government banned organ transplants from living donors, except spouses, blood relatives and step or adopted family members.

(Editing by Sui-Lee Wee and Ron Popeski)

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China graft buster orders staff to ditch their VIP cards

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top anti-corruption official has demanded his staffers ditch their VIP cards, commonly given out by Chinese businesses to grant access to discounts or exclusive services, state media said on Monday, as part of the country's push to defeat graft.

VIP cards in China can offer everything from cheap deals at massage parlors to free gifts in department stores and preferential seating at popular restaurants, and hence offer countless opportunities for abuse by corrupt officials and businesspeople.

"Although membership cards are small (objects), they reflect big problems of working style," the official Xinhua news agency cited Wang Qishan, head of the ruling Communist Party's anti-corruption bureau, as saying at a meeting.

Officials and employees working in disciplinary and supervisory departments should discard all their VIP cards by June 20 and follow this order "seriously and earnestly", the report added.

This campaign is a way for graft-busters to act by example for other party members by showing they have high standards, Wang said.

"The demands of the campaign are not onerous, but they have to be followed and are totally doable," he added. "Men of honor need to show that they are honorable."

Since becoming Communist Party boss in November, and president in March, Xi Jinping has made battling pervasive corruption a top theme of his administration, warning the problem is so severe it could threaten the party's survival.

A major theme of that fight has been an austerity drive that has emptied top-end restaurants and dented the sale of expensive food and drink, as the party tries to allay criticism of the extravagant lifestyles of some officials.

However, there has been little apparent progress to get officials to publicly disclose their assets, and the party has given no indication it will allow the establishment of a fully independent judicial body to tackle corruption.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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China says Xinjiang minorities too busy dancing to make trouble

BEIJING (Reuters) - Ethnic minority people in China's Xinjiang are far more fond of dancing, singing and being good hosts than making trouble, a top official said on Tuesday, dismissing the idea that the far western region is a hotbed of unrest.

Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people who live in energy-rich Xinjiang, chafe at Chinese restrictions on their culture, language and religion, and the region is frequently the scene of deadly ethnic violence.

Last month, 21 people were killed in clashes in the heavily ethnic Uighur part of Xinjiang near the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, the deadliest unrest since July 2009, when nearly 200 people were killed in riots in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.

China says it offers broad freedoms in Xinjiang, though few Chinese officials make the effort to learn the Uighur language or understand much about Islam in what is officially an atheist country.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, deputy Xinjiang governor Shi Dagang said he had worked in southern Xinjiang for more than a decade and never had to carry a gun or have a police escort.

This was the common experience of government officials who are members of the majority Han Chinese ethnicity, many of whom work in areas heavily populated by minorities, he said.

"There is mutual respect by Han cadres and ethnic minorities, and we are friends. When we go into their houses as guests we are treated to meat and wine, with song and dance," Shi said.

"The ethnic minorities are simple-hearted and honest, very kind and unaffected. They love guests," he added. "I hope people don't have misapprehensions and go to Xinjiang and see for themselves."

China dismisses accusations its policies are connected to unrest, saying armed Uighur groups have links to Central Asian and Pakistani Islamist militants, and of carrying out attacks to establish an independent state they call East Turkistan.

"Those minority of people, the violent terrorists, ethnic splittists and religions extremists who want to cause trouble, their organizations are all outside the country, as are their backers behind the scenes," Shi said.

"How could we let this minority of people split Xinjiang off from the rest of the country and destroy this peaceful and harmonious society? It's impossible."

Many rights groups say China has long overplayed the threat posed to justify its tough controls in Xinjiang, which lies strategically on the borders of Central Asia, India and Pakistan.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Rescuers save newborn from sewer pipe in China

BEIJING (AP) — A newborn boy is recovering in a Chinese hospital after being rescued from a sewage pipe below a squat toilet by firefighters, who sawed off an L-shaped section and then delicately dismantled it to free the trapped baby.

A tenant heard the baby's cries in the public restroom of a residential building in Zhejiang province in eastern China on Saturday and notified authorities, according to the state-run news site Zhejiang News. A video of the two-hour rescue that followed was broadcast widely on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday.

The child — named Baby No. 59 from the number of his hospital incubator — was reported safe in a nearby hospital, and news of the rescue prompted an outpouring from strangers who came to the hospital with diapers, baby clothes, powdered milk and offers to adopt the child.

The baby weighed 2.8 kilograms (6.2 pounds) and still had his placenta attached to his body, reports said. His heart rate was low and there were grazes on his head and limbs, but he was largely unscathed, according to Zhejiang Online, the province's official news portal.

It was not immediately clear how the baby ended up in the toilet, but police said they were treating the case as an attempted homicide. The Pujiang county police bureau said on its official microblog account that the boy's mother has been located and that an investigation is ongoing, but gave no further details.

A duty officer at the Pujiang Public Security Bureau reached by phone late Tuesday said he had no information and that staffers involved in the investigation had left for the day.

On China's popular Twitter-like microblogs, some users expressed pity for the child and horror at his ordeal. Most bloggers speculated that the child had been abandoned and dumped by his parents down the toilet.

The landlord of the building in Pujiang county told Zhejiang News that it was unlikely the birth took place in the restroom because there was no evidence of blood and she was not aware of any recent pregnancies among her tenants.

The baby was stuck in an L-shaped portion of the sewage pipe with a diameter of about 10 centimeters (3 inches).

The video shows rescuers sawing off a section of the pipe along a ceiling that apparently was just below the restroom. The rescuers then rushed that section of pipe to a hospital, where firefighters and medics alternately used pliers and saws to rip apart the pipe and free the baby.

Despites the offers to adopt Baby No. 59, a doctor at the hospital said the boy would be handed over to social services if his parents did not claim him, Zhejiang News said.

In China, reports of babies being abandoned are common and fuel public anger against a strict one-child policy that imposes huge fines on parents who violate the rules. The policy has been blamed as a factor causing parents to abandon unwanted children, though they are usually baby girls whose parents want sons due to a traditional preference for male heirs.

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Online:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHW_fn2W9HQ

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China probes reports of film director Zhang Yimou's seven children

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have begun investigating reports that Zhang Yimou, one of China's best-known movie directors, has seven children in violation of strict family planning rules, which could result in a fine of 160 million yuan ($26.05 million), state media said on Thursday.

Online reports have surfaced that Zhang, who dazzled the world in 2008 with his Beijing Olympic ceremonies, "has at least seven children and will face a 160 million yuan fine," said the website of the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece.

An unnamed official at the Wuxi Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission said "based on the current policies and regulations, an investigation is currently being carried out", according to the report.

It is unclear where Zhang's children were born, the report said, citing a worker at the Jiangsu Province Population and Family Planning Commission.

Both the Wuxi and Jiangsu Population and Family Planning Commission could not be reached for comment.

Zhang, 61, once the bad-boy of Chinese cinema whose movies were sometimes banned at home while popular overseas, has since become a darling of the Communist Party, despite long being a subject of tabloid gossip for alleged trysts with his actresses.

Zhang's newest project, a film to depict wartime Nanjing under Japanese occupation starred Hollywood actor Christian Bale in a leading role.

There are signs that China may loosen the one-child policy, introduced in the late 1970s to prevent population growth spiraling out of control. The policy has long been opposed by human rights and religious groups but is also now regarded by many experts as outdated and harmful to the economy.

Last December, authorities in southern Guangdong said they were investigating a family for having given birth to octuplets through in-vitro fertilization, a case that sparked intense public debate about China's one-child policy and how wealthy families were able to circumvent the rules.

The one-child policy was meant to last only 30 years and there are now numerous exceptions to it. But it still applies to about 63 percent of the population. ($1 = 6.1410 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee, Additional reporting by Sally Huang; Editing by Michael Perry)

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"Panda-monium" as giant pandas arrive in Canada from China

By Fred Thornhill

TORONTO (Reuters)-Canada has an international flavour Panda diplomacy Monday with the arrival of two "very important Pandas" at the start of a 10-year loan of two Canadian zoos.

Speaking as the two giant Pandas arrived in Toronto from China, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Junsai-that animals were given the designation of VIP-noted that when he started his speech in Canada two years ago, was greeted only by Canada of the Protocol.

But the pair of pandas, Er Shun, and Mao, 5 4, earned a personal welcome by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has reached an agreement for the loan of pandas during a visit to China last year.

"I am delighted to officially welcome you to Canada ... a couple of China's national treasures," Harper said at the airport.

Officials hope that Er Shun, who is female, and by Mao, who is male, will partner during five years in Toronto and the next five years in Calgary, Alberta, to produce the first Canadian panda Cubs.

"China wants to be known for other than economic skills," Gordon Houlden, Director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, told CTV television. "This helps serve that purpose."

China has often lent pandas to foreign zoos, in offerings that can be profitable for both parties. Fees paid by host countries Fund help panda research in China, but zoos hope to recover that extra visitors.

Other costs include large quantities of bamboo that you eat the two Panda-pass from 10 to 16 hours a day eating 20 to 14 kg (31-44 lbs) of bamboo.

FedEx Corp., which flew the pandas in Canada from China, will fly in 600 to 900 kilograms (1,320 to 1,980 pounds) of bamboo each week by the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee because "Pandas are picky eaters," he said.

(Written by Randall Palmer; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Rubber chickens, diapers recommended for holiday travel in China

HAINING, China (Reuters)-a luggage trolley that converts into a seat and a pole with pads that props up the sleepy passengers are only a few intrepid Chinese gadgets have devised to help make their new year's annual House of train travel a little more comfortable.

About 200 million people in China are expected to take trains home for new year's holidays at the weekend in what was described as the largest annual migration in the world.
Some opt for standing-only tickets on trains packed to save on trips that can last for three days.
This year, Chinese microblog were abuzz with gadgets and inventions that could help make travel a little easier exhausting.
One of the most talked-about is the "Hard Seat", a metal pole with attached pads that is intended to shore up a sleepy traveler and ensure that he or she does not fall out of their seats when they nod off. But not everyone is a fan.
"It is a burden to carry," said Li Kang, a migrant worker from Southwest Guizhou province, who tried out. "When I lean on it, my body feels suspended."
Former physics teacher and avid amateur inventor Zhou agreed. Invented the "Grass Roots treasure trip" – a truck with what looks like a broomstick metallica sticking out of it that converts into a seat.
It also has support for Zhou insists that bottles can be filled with powdered sodium percarbonate and water to make oxygen-a breath of fresh air to anyone suffering sweltering train carriage, smoky.
The 67-year-old Zhou has such faith in his gadgets he plans to test himself on a train journey to 31 hours.
"I could have bought a ticket for a sleeper but I really wanted to try this so I can see what doesn't work and improve it," Zhou said at his home in a small town near Shanghai before leaving.
There are a lot of other ideas out there.
A user of Sina Weibo microblog site suggested taking along a rubber chicken squawking do other passengers get out of the way in crowded corridors.
Another recommended adult diapers.
But the most popular accessory remains a simple plastic bucket, which can be turned over and used as a home, or for other purposes.
(Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee, Elaine is writing; editing by)

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