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Start out slowly, like selling it to folks in Chongqing and Chengdu area. I'm sure they could utilize those pick ups in that rugged landscape.
News on China's scientific and technological development.
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Start out slowly, like selling it to folks in Chongqing and Chengdu area. I'm sure they could utilize those pick ups in that rugged landscape.
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China's first independently-developed large civil helicopter, the AC313, has passed a cold weather flight test, establishing a good performance in polar region temperatures, said the producer -- China Aviation Industrial Helicopter Co. (CAIH) -- on Monday.
The flight testing period for the 30-tonne AC313 was conducted in Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia, starting in January, when the region experienced temperatures of minus 46 degrees Celsius.
The helicopter also set its speed record of 336 km per hour during the testing period.
The AC313 became the first China-made aircraft authorized by China's civil aviation authority in January to fly in high-altitude regions of over 4,500 meters above the sea level.
Xu Chaoliang, the chief designer of the helicopter, said the company has so far received 32 orders for it.
CAIH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the China Aviation Industry Corp., is expected to produce 300 helicopters annually by 2015, making it one of the major helicopter suppliers in the world.
Headquartered in Tianjin, the company is mainly engaged in the research and development, production, maintenance and sales of helicopters and other aircraft and aviation components.
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Combo photo shows scientists honored China's State Top Scientific and Technological Award from the year of 2005 to 2010, including (top, L to R) liver and gall specialist Wu Mengchao, wheat breeding expert Li Zhensheng, petrochemical scientist Min Enze, botanist Wu Zhengyi, neurologist Wang Zhongcheng, (bottom, L to R) chemist Xu Guangxian, space scientist Sun Jiadong, mathematician Gu Chaohao, material expert Shi Changxu and hematologist Wang Zhenyi. China has given the annual award to elite scientists and researchers for twelve consecutive years since 2000.
Combo photo shows scientists honored China's State Top Scientific and Technological Award from the year of 2000 to 2005, including mathematician Wu Wenjun, hybrid rice developer Yuan Longping, IT expert Wang Xuan, physical scientist Huang Kun (up, from left to right), computer scientist Jin Yilian, geologist Liu Dongsheng, aerospace scientist Wang Yongzhi and atmospheric physicist Ye Duzheng (down, from left to right). China has given the annual award to elite scientists and researchers for twelve consecutive years since 2000
actually china is the biggest market for heavy trucks.
for the slight smaller trucks. companies that sells the utilitarian 2.5 ton work trucks are doing very well. Foton, 1st Auto. etc etc.
for smaller "pickups" "Great Wall" is doing well and I believe is corning the market.
so no it is not "poors can't afford while rich is driving beamers".
the full size pick up concept in US market is warped into a super-macho-man-big-boy-toy truck. it is more for looks and wasting fuel than actually get the job done. they are more designed for looks and hulk and driving on highways at 90 mph, than actually hulling stuff to and from places.
for the same amount of fuel wastage, a 2.5 ton foton utility truck prob could hull twice the load. and get twice the milage.
It would be a shame if other countries follows US in pickup market.
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Sales of Apple's popular iPad tablet computer series could come to an abrupt halt in China as the American company's trademark dispute with Proview intensifies in the lead up to its appeal at the Guangdong High Court, to be heard on Feb. 29. If Apple fails to come out on top, it could face billions of dollars in fines and damages and a ban on the sale of any device bearing the iPad name in China.
Apple on Jan. 5 applied to appeal the decision handed down by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court on Dec. 5, 2011, in which it rejected Apple's claim that it held exclusive rights to the "IPad" label in China, and fined the company 240 million yuan (US$38 million).
According to international trademark databases, Proview — a Taiwan-based display manufacturer — had registered trademarks for the name "IPad" in the European Union, China, Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam between 2000 and 2004, long before Apple released its tablet computer of the same name in 2010.
In 2009, Proview Electronics (Taiwan), a subsidiary of Proview International, the group's Hong Kong-listed parent company, agreed to transfer a package of trademarks, including its two "IPad" trademarks, for ￡35,000 (US$55,000) to IP Application Development, a UK-based Apple subsidiary. Yet a dispute subsequently arose as to whether the deal had included China, prompting Apple to sue Proview Technology (Shenzhen), Proview International's Chinese subsidiary.
The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court ruled in Proview's favor, but Apple has ramped up efforts for its latest appeal with a 24-page application featuring seven key arguments. The iPad maker's main argument is that email exchanges between IP Application Development and Proview Taiwan in 2009 had already formed the basis of the sale contract, and that a trust relationship exists between its Taiwan and Shenzhen subsidiaries. Proview Shenzhen has responded by saying that Apple's formulation is a one-sided interpretation of an email exchange to which it was not privy, and that the contents of the email clearly refer to Proview Taiwan, not the company's Chinese subsidiary.
Apple also alleges that there was an undisclosed agency relationship between the two subsidiary companies, meaning Proview Shenzhen should also be bound by the sale agreement. Proview Shenzhen responded by pointing out the peculiarity of Apple raising this argument for the first time more than a year and a half after bringing its initial claim.
Most legal experts believe that Apple's chances of success in the appeal are slim, and that the application is merely a stalling tactic to allow more time for settlement negotiations. Given that Apple faces fines of up to 30 billion yuan (US$4.76 billion) and damages of up to 10.8 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) — based on three times its revenue from iPad sales in China — it appears likely that any settlement figure would also be in the billion dollar range.
Proview is also retaliating against Apple in full force. Proview lawyer Xiao Caiyan, from the law firm Guangdong Guanhe, confirmed that China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce is closely monitoring iPad distribution chains across the country, ready to take action to bring iPads off shelves as soon as the appeal decision is handed down. Proview has also begun targeting vendors in Huizhou and Shenzhen with court cases pending in both cities, and has applied to courts in Shanghai to ban the sale of iPads.
The outcome of the case is of paramount importance to the struggling Proview, which was once one of the top three display manufacturers in the world.
The case is also significant for the millions of Apple and iPad fans in China. In addition to the financial repercussions of a ban on one of the American company's core product lines in one of its largest markets, a loss in the case will bring iPads and iPad 2s off of shelves across China and could affect the highly anticipated iPad 3, which rumors say will be released in March. At question is whether that product will even be available for sale in the country and, if so, whether it will have to be released under a different name.
Xiao says that Apple must accept the legal consequences of knowingly infringing on a firm's trademark rights, and cannot be given special treatment on account of its reputation and financial clout.
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CHINA will invest heavily to support the new Internet of Things industry by forming 10 special industrial zones and 100 firms with core technologies nationwide by 2015.
The Internet of Things refers to wireless connections among various devices such as cars and home appliances. The revenue in the industry was 200 billion yuan (US$32 billion) in 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday on its website.
It's now used in the security, electricity, transport, logistics, medical and environment sectors in China. Generally the Internet of Things in China is still in the infancy stage but with a great potential in the future, the ministry said.
China may have 500 Internet of Things technologies by 2015 under the 12th Five-Year Plan. It will offer favorable tax and financial policies.
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Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, the maker of the nation's first large passenger jet, the C919, expects to sign all key suppliers for the aircraft by June as it works toward a 2014 deadline for the jet's maiden flight.On Tuesday, the company, also known as COMAC, named AVIC Landing Gear Advanced Manufacturing Co, Liebherr and Moog Inc as suppliers for the C919, according to a statement from the plane maker at the Singapore air show. All 33 major systems providers will be signed up in the first half, it said.
COMAC also expects to reach an agreement with Bombardier Inc within two months to secure the coopperation of the Canadian aircraft manufacturer on the jet's development, said Han Kecen, the Chinese aircraft company's vice-president, on Tuesday. The companies are both working on new aircraft as they try to break the grip of Airbus SAS and Boeing Co on the global market for single-aisle planes.
"China has invested huge money in the project and is determined to make it successful," said David Wei, an analyst with Shanghai Securities Co. "Domestic airlines and State-backed lessors are likely to keep placing orders."
COMAC won an order for 20 C919s from BOC Aviation PTE, the aircraft-leasing arm of Bank of China Ltd, the company said on Tuesday. The agreement raises orders and commitments for the plane to 235, COMAC said. BOC Aviation is the 11th customer for the plane.
Among the existing customers for the 168-seat plane, as many as 10 are State-backed Chinese companies, including the nation's big three airlines: Air China Ltd, China Southern Airlines Co and China Eastern Airlines Corp. The leasing arms of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd and Bank of Communications Co have also signed deals.
COMAC's only overseas customer so far is the leasing unit of General Electric Co. The company is also forming an avionics venture with COMAC's parent, Aviation Industry Corp of China.
State-owned COMAC has already signed up the engine maker CFM International Inc, a venture between General Electric Co and Safran SA, and Honeywell International Inc.
Bombardier separately said it continues to talk to COMAC for jet programs and the two companies may consider teaming up to manufacture planes. "These are all types of discussions we can undertake with COMAC," said Philippe Poutissou, Bombardier's vice-president of marketing, in an interview on Tuesday.
The Canadian company is developing the C-Series, which seats as many as 149, while COMAC is working on the larger C919. Montreal-based Bombardier had five teams working on the potential tie-up, it said last year.
COMAC hopes to have as many as 300 orders and commitments for the plane by the end of this year, Chief Designer Wu Guanghui told reporters on Tuesday.
The company is working on detailed designs of the plane after passing a preliminary technical review by the Chinese government in December. The C919 is due to make its first flight in 2014 and to enter service two years later, according to the schedule.
The jet will be 20 percent lighter and 10 percent cheaper than existing aircraft of similar size, as it will be built with composite materials and aluminum-lithium alloys, according to COMAC.
To meet its 2014 deadline, the Chinese company will probably have to assemble its first C919 within a year of completing the detailed designs, Shanghai Securities' Wei said. The plane maker may struggle to achieve this, given that Airbus and Boeing, which have more experience, usually take longer, he said.
The company is sticking to the 2014 schedule for the first flight, said Han.
The first delivery of COMAC's 90-seat ARJ21 has slipped by at least four years from a previously planned 2007 debut.
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Xie Jialin (L) and Wu Liangyong
Two names were added to the list of the country's top science and technology award winners on Tuesday. They were 92-year-old physicist Xie Jialin and 90-year-old Wu Liangyong, an architect and expert in urban planning.
Like their 18 predecessors, their age testifies to the contributions they have made in their fields and their whole-hearted devotion to their professions.
Their painstaking and life-long efforts are well worth such acclaim.
The national science and technology award was initiated in 2000 to pay tribute to those who have made outstanding achievements in scientific research and technological innovation. It was meant to encourage more scientists to devote themselves to the advancement of the country's technological capability.
However, in striking contrast to the great honor Xie and Wu have received, an ex-candidate for the academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences was tried in Beijing on Tuesday for embezzling public funds intended for scientific research.
Given the bureaucratization of our institutions of higher learning and the increasing tendency among scholars and researchers to seek fame and fortune, the example of these veteran scientists, who have dedicated themselves to their research without bothering about money and fame, can never be overemphasized.
Qian Xuesen (1911-2009), the father of China's aerospace achievements, lamented in his late years the inability of this country's institutions of higher learning to produce great scientists.
Great minds always see beyond immediate personal gain. But nowadays, many of our professors and researchers get entangled in the pursuit of higher academic titles or seek extra money by acting as business advisors.
Some even resort to plagiarizing research papers or become obsessed with connections in order to get immediate success. In their mind's eye, research is nothing but the means for fame and material rewards.
Should young scientists learn anything from the top award winners like Xie and Wu, it is their never-say-die spirit and their disregard for fame and money, which has enabled these great minds to pursue their research regardless of what they will receive in return for their efforts.
While we hold these top science award winners in reverence, we need to bear in mind that those who always view research through the prism of expediency will never produce anything that will be of benefit to the country.
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A Chinese company has ventured into small aircraft manufacturing by clinching a cooperative deal with a Russian designer, eyeing China's vast-yet-fledgling general aviation market.China Oriental Sciences Group, together with China-Russia International Investment Co. Ltd., entered an agreement with Russian aircraft designer KB-SAT on jointly building general aviation aircraft in China.
The three sides will invest 8 billion yuan (1.27 billion U.S. dollars) to set up a manufacturing and technical base in Ordos, a prefecture-level city in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, according to the agreement signed in Beijing on Wednesday.
Construction of the plant will start this year and it will be able to assemble 400 4-12-seat general aviation aircraft by the year 2016, when the project reaches its full capacity, said Zhuang Zhong, president of Beijing-based China Oriental Sciences Group, which will have a controlling 52 percent stake in the project.
KB-SAT and China-Russia International Investment Co. Ltd. will have 38 percent and 10 percent stakes, respectively.
General aviation refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular flights, both private and commercial.
"China's general aviation industry is at its initial stage of development, and the market demand is huge," Zhuang said.
China has loosened its grip on general aviation in recent years. In March 2011, Civil Aviation Administration of China head Li Jiaxiang said low-altitude airspace would be fully open by 2015.
"The opening of low-altitude airspace will herald a rising demand in medium to small-size aircraft," Zhuang said, adding that he is confident over aircraft from the joint venture as Russia owns advanced aircraft technologies.
The project will be operational at the end of this year and the first aircraft is expected to come off assembly lines early next year, Zhuang said.
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Two Chinese telecommunication equipment makers, both based in Shenzhen, saw their sales of mobile phones take off in the fourth quarter of 2011.
ZTE Corp sold 56.9 million handsets in 2011, making it the world's fifth largest mobile phone vendor, while Huawei Technologies Co Ltd sold 40.7 million devices and moved into eighth place worldwide, according to analysts Gartner Inc.
In a report sent to China Daily on Thursday, Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said ZTE and Huawei were the fastest-growing vendors in the fourth quarter of 2011, behind only Apple Inc. "These vendors (ZTE and Huawei) expanded their market reach and kept on improving the user experience of their Android devices," she said.
The two Shenzhen firms had expressed their ambition to explore new business fields, such as mobile phone production, in addition to their traditional telecom hardware business.
ZTE moved into fourth place in the global handset market for the fourth quarter. The firm posted a 71 percent increase in sales of smartphones, the report said. In 2011 as a whole, ZTE sold 56.9 million mobile phones, with a global market share of 3.2 percent. ZTE's market share in 2010 was 1.9 percent.
Huawei moved ahead of LG in the Android marketplace to become one of the top four Android manufacturers worldwide. Huawei has made significant progress in moving to its own-branded devices, and has continued to expand its portfolio into higher tiers as its tries to build more iconic products, the report said.
Worldwide, mobile device sales to end users totaled 1.8 billion in 2011, an 11.1 percent increase from 2010, the report said.
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China will construct 6,366 kilometers of new railways in 2012, including 3,500 kilometers of high-speed lines, People's Daily reported on Thursday.
The year 2012 will be a historic year in China's railway history with the highest number of new lines scheduled to be constructed. Meanwhile, high-speed railway lines will surpass 10,000 kilometers.
Once the new high-speed line is put into service, the travel time from Beijing to Shenzhen in South China's Guandong province will be reduced to eight hours from the current fastest time of 23 hours.
Confronted with such a massive construction project, the railway ministry expressed its determination to guarantee the construction quality, saying they will solve any hidden quality issues before operation.
The railway ministry has also launched an overhaul over all projects under construction started since 2003.
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Cars made by Chinese company JAC Motors are on display at a dealership in Rio de Janeiro. The low cost of Chinese cars is winning over buyers in Latin America.
Reporting from Lima, Peru, and Bogota, Colombia
At first, Lima taxi driver Mario Segura was disgusted by the thought of buying a Chinese-made car. He had doubts about the vehicles' durability, service and resale value.
But favorable word of mouth, assurances that spare parts are plentiful and, of course, unbelievably low prices won him over.
"Little by little, I heard favorable comments," said Segura, speaking in a Chery showroom in the Surquillo district. He had just plunked down $12,000 in cash for a new Fullwin XR sedan, half the cost, he said, of a comparable Fiat or Renault. "It took a long time to decide, but I'm risking it."
So is Luis Luna, a doctor just back in Lima after working for several years in Argentina. He had planned on buying a secondhand Japanese car. Until, that is, he noticed billboards touting low-priced Chinese brands and listened as his relatives insisted that he kick tires at a JAC dealership, one of dozens of Chinese brands sold here.
"We realized for the same money that we'd pay for a crummy secondhand car that inspired no confidence, we could have a brand-new Chinese car with a two-year warranty," Luna said as he finished paperwork on his new $16,000 JAC B-Cross family wagon. "I'm totally convinced this is the right decision."
Similar buyer testimonials can be heard across Latin America these days, where Chinese cars with unfamiliar brand names like Great Wall, JAC, Brilliance and Sinotruk are selling like hot cakes. Chinese cars were introduced in Peru in 2006 and now one in six new cars sold here is a Chinese make.
There are no fewer than 90 Chinese car manufacturers to choose from, according to the trade group Automobile Assn. of Peru. The Chinese auto industry has yet to undergo the winnowing process that, over a century of competition, has reduced the U.S. car industry to three big players.
The Chinese brands' main selling point is, of course, price: New Chinese cars typically sell for half to two-thirds the cost of a comparable European, U.S. or Japanese vehicle, said Guido Vildozo, an auto industry expert with consultants IHS Automotive in Lexington, Mass.
"What makes Chinese cars so much cheaper? Start with labor," Vildozo said, noting that a typical Chinese autoworker makes $300 to $400 a month, a fraction of the $2,000 to $3,000 in wages that Mexican workers make or the $5,000 to $7,000 a month that U.S. auto workers average.
Another price advantage, said Jian Sun, a partner with AT Kearney business consultants in Shanghai, stems from the "reverse engineering," or design and mechanical imitation, that many Chinese carmakers use in competing models to save them the expense of designing new models from scratch.
Chinese manufacturers are entering the market as Latin American incomes are rising to unprecedented levels, flush from the decade-long global commodities boom filtering down to an expanding consumer class.
Augusto de la Torre, chief Latin America economist at the World Bank, said the region's middle class now encompasses 30% of its population of 570 million, up from 20% in 2002.
In Colombia, where the economy is thriving on global sales of its oil, coal, coffee and bananas, the increase in disposable income is especially dramatic. Bank of Bogota economist Camilo Perez said economic output per capita has nearly doubled in five years, to $6,700 last year from the $3,400 average in 2006.
So it comes as no surprise that car sales are accelerating. New units sold last year in Colombia totaled 325,000, a 28% increase from 2010. New car sales in Peru totaled more than 100,000 last year, up 26% from the previous year.
According to Scotiabank, Brazil's car sales will grow to 2.8 million in 2012, up 4% from last year, but in a much larger population base than those of its neighbors.
The expanding new-car market is what attracted Chinese automakers, who see Latin America as a proving ground for its plan to conquer the world car market in coming decades. According to AT Kearney, China exported 800,000 cars last year but hopes to boost that number to 2 million by 2015 and to 3 million by 2020.
The Latin focus is also explained, AT Kearney's Jian said, by the fact that Chinese manufacturers are not yet prepared to tackle the U.S. and European markets, which are more demanding in quality and emissions standards. The competition is less intense and the regulatory restrictions are lower in emerging markets, he said. China and these regions share similar road conditions, emission controls and safety standards.
(The domestic Chinese car market, where sales last year totaled about 18 million vehicles, is the largest in the world, far surpassing that of the U.S., where about 12.8 million new cars and trucks were sold in 2011.)
Many buyers, like Antonio Benevides, a 26-year-old theme park worker in Bogota, are first-time owners. In early December, he bought a new Chery QQ model for $9,000, two-thirds the cost of a comparable Renault he had considered.
"That difference in price is what put a new car within my reach for the first time," Benevides said as he drove his car off the dealership lot near Bogota's international airport. "I've heard they hold together well, that they are cheap to operate and, as you can see, they are not bad looking."