China snows worsen, forcing release of emergency food
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
John Liu and Irene Shen
CHINA'S heaviest snowstorms in half a century worsened today, forcing the government to release emergency food supplies and preventing millions of people from traveling home for next week's Lunar New Year holidays.
Shanghai has received 15 centimeters (6 inches) of snow, Xinhua News Agency said. The city has also shut some operations at its port, the world's busiest, stranding more than 1,000 ships, it added. The storms, which have killed at least 60 people nationwide, may continue until the end of next week, the report said, citing the Central Meteorological Station.
The government will sell 18,000 tons of pork from reserves before the Lunar New Year holidays start on Feb. 6 to help ease price rises, Xinhua said, citing the Commerce Ministry. More than two weeks of snow has bought transport networks to a standstill, killed 15.8 million livestock and caused economic losses of at least 53.8 billion yuan ($7.5 billion).
"Inflation is a big concern,'' said Wang Tao, head of Greater China economics and strategy at Bank of America Corp. in Beijing. ``Food prices were already on the rise before the storms, and the weather could really have an effect on supplies.''
Heavy snows were expected in eastern and central provinces including Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejing today, Xinhua said, citing the metrological station. More may follow on Feb. 4 and Feb. 5, the report added.
China's ``top priority is to unclog transportation and to restore the power supply,'' President Hu Jintao said in a State Council statement posted on the National Development and Reform Commission Web site.
There have been blackouts in at least 19 provinces and regions, the State Council said in another statement. The country's power production has fallen by 40 million kilowatts as heavy snows hamper rail shipments of coal, it said.
Producers should boost output ``by all means, while ensuring worker safety,'' the State Council said. Ports in northern China should also send more coal to power plants in the east and south.
Some rail problems are easing, with the Beijing-Guangzhou and Shanghai-Kunming lines returning to normal, the National Development and Reform Commission said on its Web site.
On Jan. 30, Premier Wen Jiabao personally apologized to passengers at Guangzhou railway station in southern Guangdong province, where disrupted services had stranded more than 200,000 people, the Xinhua reported.
About 12,000 vehicles and 37,000 people were also stranded on the Jingzhu Expressway, which connects the southern cities of Guangzhou and Zhuhai with Beijing, according to Xinhua.
Airports in Hangzhou and Ningbo were closed today, the official news agency said. Freeways were only open for trucks carrying emergency supplies, it added.
The government ordered the biggest troop deployment in more than a decade this week to clear ice from roads and keep order at rail stations as workers sought to return home for Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar.
Still, about 11.2 million migrant workers in the southern province of Guangdong, or 60 percent of laborers, have opted to remain in the region for the weeklong holiday, Xinhua cited local officials as saying.
The government also plans to set up a system to ensure that enough grain, poultry, milk and other foodstuffs are supplied to Hong Kong and Macau during the holidays, according to a Ministry of Commerce statement today.
Chinese insurance companies have paid 350 million yuan in claims as of Jan. 31, with the total payout expected to reach 3.5 billion yuan, Wu Dingfu, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said on Feb. 1.
China's People's Liberation Army has sent 306,000 soldiers and about 1.07 million paramilitary personnel for the relief effort, more than the 300,000 soldiers sent to battle flooding at the Yangtze River in 1998.
People are forecast to make an estimated 2.18 billion bus, train and plane journeys during the six weeks surrounding the Lunar New Year, according to the Ministry of Communications.
Internet
CHINA'S heaviest snowstorms in half a century worsened today, forcing the government to release emergency food supplies and preventing millions of people from traveling home for next week's Lunar New Year holidays.
Shanghai has received 15 centimeters (6 inches) of snow, Xinhua News Agency said. The city has also shut some operations at its port, the world's busiest, stranding more than 1,000 ships, it added. The storms, which have killed at least 60 people nationwide, may continue until the end of next week, the report said, citing the Central Meteorological Station.
The government will sell 18,000 tons of pork from reserves before the Lunar New Year holidays start on Feb. 6 to help ease price rises, Xinhua said, citing the Commerce Ministry. More than two weeks of snow has bought transport networks to a standstill, killed 15.8 million livestock and caused economic losses of at least 53.8 billion yuan ($7.5 billion).
"Inflation is a big concern,'' said Wang Tao, head of Greater China economics and strategy at Bank of America Corp. in Beijing. ``Food prices were already on the rise before the storms, and the weather could really have an effect on supplies.''
Heavy snows were expected in eastern and central provinces including Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejing today, Xinhua said, citing the metrological station. More may follow on Feb. 4 and Feb. 5, the report added.
China's ``top priority is to unclog transportation and to restore the power supply,'' President Hu Jintao said in a State Council statement posted on the National Development and Reform Commission Web site.
There have been blackouts in at least 19 provinces and regions, the State Council said in another statement. The country's power production has fallen by 40 million kilowatts as heavy snows hamper rail shipments of coal, it said.
Producers should boost output ``by all means, while ensuring worker safety,'' the State Council said. Ports in northern China should also send more coal to power plants in the east and south.
Some rail problems are easing, with the Beijing-Guangzhou and Shanghai-Kunming lines returning to normal, the National Development and Reform Commission said on its Web site.
On Jan. 30, Premier Wen Jiabao personally apologized to passengers at Guangzhou railway station in southern Guangdong province, where disrupted services had stranded more than 200,000 people, the Xinhua reported.
About 12,000 vehicles and 37,000 people were also stranded on the Jingzhu Expressway, which connects the southern cities of Guangzhou and Zhuhai with Beijing, according to Xinhua.
Airports in Hangzhou and Ningbo were closed today, the official news agency said. Freeways were only open for trucks carrying emergency supplies, it added.
The government ordered the biggest troop deployment in more than a decade this week to clear ice from roads and keep order at rail stations as workers sought to return home for Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar.
Still, about 11.2 million migrant workers in the southern province of Guangdong, or 60 percent of laborers, have opted to remain in the region for the weeklong holiday, Xinhua cited local officials as saying.
The government also plans to set up a system to ensure that enough grain, poultry, milk and other foodstuffs are supplied to Hong Kong and Macau during the holidays, according to a Ministry of Commerce statement today.
Chinese insurance companies have paid 350 million yuan in claims as of Jan. 31, with the total payout expected to reach 3.5 billion yuan, Wu Dingfu, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said on Feb. 1.
China's People's Liberation Army has sent 306,000 soldiers and about 1.07 million paramilitary personnel for the relief effort, more than the 300,000 soldiers sent to battle flooding at the Yangtze River in 1998.
People are forecast to make an estimated 2.18 billion bus, train and plane journeys during the six weeks surrounding the Lunar New Year, according to the Ministry of Communications.
Internet