Call to ease China one-child rule

11 July 2011 Last updated at 15:10 GMT The Chinese government is facing growing calls to ease the one-child policy China's richest and most populous province has asked the central government to relax the law that restricts most families to one child.

Guangdong, in south-east China, wants to lead a pilot project that will allow some families to have a second child, according to state media.

The one-child policy has been in effect for 30 years and is facing growing criticism.

Guangdong officials are concerned about a rapidly ageing population.

"The increase in population is still a big problem affecting our social and economic development," said Zhang Feng, the head of Guangdong's population commission, in an interview with the official local daily, the Southern Metropolis News.

"But in the long-term, ageing will also be a problem", he said.

Mr Zhang said that Guangdong, which had a population of 104 million in the last census, would not encourage couples to have a second child, but would permit some to do so under an experimental scheme.

Guangdong is proposing that the one-child restriction be waived if either of the parents was an only child. In most provinces, families are only legally entitled to a second child when both partners had no siblings.

Current regulations also exempt other groups from the restrictions, including ethnic minorities and residents in rural areas whose first child was a girl.

China's population is currently put at 1.34 billion and is expected to peak in about 20 years time.

Critics of the one-child policy say that it is unnecessarily draconian, and that China's population growth was already beginning to dip at the time the policy was introduced in 1980.

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China and UK strike space deal

29 June 2011 Last updated at 09:03 GMT By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News The DMC-3 satellites will see details less than a metre across Chinese and UK companies have agreed a deal that will result in three high-resolution Earth observation spacecraft being built to map China's extraordinary growth from orbit.

The deal was penned between Guildford satellite imagery provider DMCii and Beijing-based company 21AT.

It means DMCii can now roll out its new constellation of spacecraft that will picture details on the surface of the planet less than a metre wide.

They should be ready to launch in 2014.

For 21AT (Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Company Ltd), it means it can have ready access to Earth imagery without the worry of having to launch and operate satellites in orbit.

The Chinese company will take 100% of the capacity of the three spacecraft over an initial contract period of seven years. Day-to-day use of the data will be handled by 21AT subsidiary, BLMIT.

It will use the pictures to monitor land use and land-cover changes. In particular, the data will enable regional governments to plan better the extraordinary rate of development in China's cities.

The satellites for the DMC-3 constellation, as it is called, will be manufactured by DMCii's parent company, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). It will cost some ?110m to build, launch and insure these platforms.

The imagery from the satellites will be needed in particular for urban planning

Approval for the deal has come from the highest levels in government in both London and Beijing, and the satellite data package was actually part of the ?1.4bn of trade agreements signed between premiers David Cameron and Wen Jiabao during their summit on Monday.

Both administrations gave their consent after being re-assured that no technology transfer rules were being broken.

The DMC-3 constellation will be operated on a different business model to the other satellites managed currently by DMCii.

These older platforms are wholly owned by the countries that use their data. In the case of DMC-3, the Guildford company will own the spacecraft and lease the capacity to the Chinese. It is a model familiar in satellite telecommunications but not in Earth observation.

Each DMC-3 satellite will be in a larger class than the earlier spacecraft - about 350kg in mass.

As well as their high resolution cameras (1m/pixel resolution panchromatic; 4m/pixel resolution colour), they will also accommodate imagers capable of mapping ultra-wide strips of the Earth's surface, albeit at resolutions above 20m.

This broad-swath facility will allow DMCii to use the new satellites for disaster response - a key skill the company has developed for itself during its seven years of existence.

Its current fleet plays a leading role in acquiring the urgent maps needed by relief agencies when a natural or man-made calamity strikes a particular corner of the globe.

The deal was signed on Monday - part of a much wider UK-China trade agreement

No formal arrangement has been put in place to allow the Chinese-sponsored platforms to perform this function, but it is expected they will take up some humanitarian duties from time to time.

21AT-BLMIT already does this with the Beijing-1 satellite that has been managed in orbit by DMCii since its launch in 2005. Beijing-1 returned much needed imagery following the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008.

The vast majority of the time, however, the DMC-3 satellites will be busy mapping the rapidly changing landscape of China. Their coverage should ensure that any given area in the country can be re-visited on a daily basis.

DMCii hopes the initial three satellites can be followed by a fourth in due course.

"There is an enormous requirement for Earth observation data in China - for urban planning, for agriculture and water management, everything - and they also want to be able to update everything rapidly," explained SSTL Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting.

"On that basis we planned to put up a constellation of three spacecraft, but when the Chinese went away and looked in detail at what they needed they realised they wanted all the data. So, we'll launch these first three satellites and then look at putting up a fourth to expand the capacity and bring other partners on board as well," he told BBC News.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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Millions affected by China floods

20 June 2011 Last updated at 02:17 GMT The floods come after months of crop-destroying drought in the centre and north of the country

More than five million people are now reported to have been affected by deadly floods in eastern China.

Torrential rain was continuing, leaving large parts of Zhejiang and Hubei provinces under water, state-run news agency Xinhua said.

It said nearly 1,000 businesses were being disrupted and crops destroyed, pushing up food prices.

This month's flooding - the worst since 1955 - has already left about 170 people dead or missing, reports say.

The government has mobilised troops to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people.

China's disaster alert has been raised to the highest level, four.

Downpours earlier this week triggered landslides that buried houses and killed at least two people in Zhejiang and another two in Hubei.

The floods come after months of crop-destroying drought in the centre and north of the country.

Some areas along the Yangtze River have suffered their worst drought in half a century.

Despite the rain, officials have warned that the crop shortages and dislocation caused by drought will remain severe.

Analysts say crop shortages in China could affect prices around the world.

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China steps up flood evacuations

17 June 2011 Last updated at 09:39 GMT China has raised the disaster alert to the highest level, as flooding spreads across central and southern provinces

Days of torrential rain have forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people in central and southern China.

The government has described flooding in some areas as the worst since 1955 and has mobilised troops to evacuate some 555,000 people.

More than 100 people are known to have died so far this month.

China's disaster alert has been raised to the highest level, four. More heavy rain is expected in the coming days, with little let-up until Sunday.

In Jiangxi province in the east, troops helped 122,400 residents move from vulnerable, low-lying areas, the China News Service reported.

Rain follows drought

In central Hubei province, downpours earlier this week triggered a landslide that left six people missing and blocked the Pingdu River, forcing 2,000 residents to flee.

The floods come after months of crop-destroying drought in the centre and north of the country.

Some areas along the Yangtze River have suffered their worst drought in half a century.

Despite the rain, officials have warned that the crop shortages and dislocation caused by drought will remain severe.

Analysts say crop shortages in China could affect prices around the world.

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China row over Einstein display

7 June 2011 Last updated at 10:40 GMT Einstein, awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921, was the author of the theory of relativity The Historical Museum of Bern, Switzerland, has cancelled plans to put on an exhibition about the scientist Albert Einstein in Shanghai, China.

Shanghai's Science and Technology Museum had suggested merging the Einstein show with a display about the Chinese philosopher, Confucius.

A Hong Kong newspaper said Beijing had earlier asked for all references to World War II to be removed.

Neither the Shanghai nor the Bern museums have commented officially.

Shanghai is where Einstein is said to have officially learned that he won the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics.

He is best known for authoring the theory of relativity, and credited with changing the way we understand the universe.

The Albert Einstein (1879-1955) exhibition is on display at the Hong Kong Science Museum until August. It has previously appeared in Beijing and Guangdong.

Fraught effort

The Associated Press quoted a director at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum as saying he did not know why the talks on hosting the show in Shanghai had ended.

He added that the Shanghai museum had an idea to merge the European physicist's exhibition with one on Confucius, who lived more than 2,000 years earlier.

The Einstein exhibition is part of a celebration of 60 years of diplomatic relations between China and Switzerland, financed by the Swiss government.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post quoted an anonymous source close to the situation as saying that even before the problem in Shanghai, the China Science and Technology Museum in Beijing had demanded deletion of historical content.

The newspaper said the Swiss had firmly opposed the deletions, saying the whole exhibition would be cancelled.

Beijing relented and the exhibition in the capital went on to host about 200,000 visitors within four months.

"I think as a science museum, they didn't see why we should talk about world history in an exhibition on Albert Einstein," the source said.

"And they were afraid their visitors would not understand that you can have a message of peace and tolerance in an exhibition which talks and shows negative events, like the National Socialists in Germany and the persecution of Jews leading up to the concentration camps."

In Hong Kong a section of the exhibition dealing with the Holocaust and Nazi concentration camps carries a disclaimer warning visitors it was "not suitable for children".

Observers were quoted as saying the disagreements between China and the West highlighted different ways of looking at history.

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China acknowledges dam 'problems'

19 May 2011 Last updated at 07:18 GMT By Michael Bristow BBC News, Beijing The Three Gorges is the world's largest dam China has admitted that the Three Gorges Dam has created a range of major problems that need solving quickly.

Top leaders say the project has led to environmental problems and issues involving relocating 1.3m people.

The Three Gorges is the world's largest dam and could have cost up to $40bn. This appears to be the first time that central government leaders have admitted to problems with the project.

The admission came in a statement from top government body, the State Council.

The statement initially praised the scheme's achievements, saying it had helped alleviate flooding, improve navigation and generate electricity.

But it went on: "There are urgent problems that need to be addressed, such as stabilising and improving living conditions for relocated people, protecting the environment, and preventing geological disasters."

'Catastrophe'

China's revolutionary leader Mao Zedong dreamed of building the Three Gorges Dam. Construction started in 1994.

More than a million people have been affected by the construction of the dam

The dam was completed in 2006, with the reservoir reaching its full height last year after submerging 13 cities, 140 towns and 1,350 villages.

Local leaders and campaign groups have for some time complained about problems associated with the project.

At a government-organised conference in 2007, local officials warned of "environmental catastrophe".

One problem appears to have been caused by fluctuations in the water level of the vast reservoir, which stretches for 660km (360 miles). This causes frequent landslides.

The government said more also needs to be done to help those forced to move because of the construction.

They need more jobs, better transport facilities and improved social security benefits, said the State Council, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

Known problems

The Three Gorges was a contentious scheme even before it was approved.

A third of the members sitting in China's normally compliant parliament voted against the plan or abstained.

Perhaps in a tacit acknowledgement of the problems, there were no major celebrations when the reservoir reached its full height last year.

In this latest statement, the State Council said it knew about some of the problems even before work started 17 years ago.

It says others arose while the dam was being built and some have happened since, because of "new demands as the social and economical situation developed".

The task now was to begin sorting out some of these problems, said the government.

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