News on China's scientific and technological development.

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The push for an innovation-based economy and growing public awareness has resulted in a soaring number of lawsuits involving intellectual property rights (IPR), the top court has said.

Last year saw 66,000 IPR cases go to litigation, up 37.7 percent over 2010, Chief Justice Wang Shengjun said on Sunday while presenting a work report on the top court to the national legislature.

The litigation jump is bigger than those for lawsuits in other categories.

The number of criminal cases last year rose 7.7 percent, to about 840,000. And the number of administrative cases was up by 5.1 percent to 136,000 last year, according to the work report.

"With rapid economic and social development in China, copyright lawsuits, involving complicated technical and legal problems, are soaring" the top court said in a statement issued after Wang made the report.

"Courts across the country are faced with the arduous task of protecting technical progress and innovation," the statement said.

A majority of last year's 66,000 concluded cases were related to disputes concerning ownership and infringement or contracts, according to a document from the top court's intellectual property tribunal.

The Guangdong Provincial High People's Court is still handling a high-profile trademark dispute between a Chinese company and Apple. Proview Technology Shenzhen Co Ltd claims it owns the rights to the iPad trademark on the Chinese mainland. Apple refutes this.

The reason behind soaring IPR lawsuits is growing public awareness and China's vigorous push for science and cultural industries, legislators said.

"Because there were fewer legal disputes in the past that did not mean that IPR infringement did not exist," Zhu Jianmin, president of Liaoning Oxiranchem Inc, and a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), said.

"It's only because people were not fully aware of IPR importance or they didn't have laws to protect themselves then. The rise in IPR disputes will enhance the building of national brands and boost fair competition. Otherwise, a brand that takes a few years to build will soon attract a lot of copycats," he said.

Song Yushui, deputy president of Beijing's Haidian district court and also an NPC deputy, said that usually the sector with the most economic activity has the most demand for legislation.

"The rise of IPR lawsuits means that the knowledge-based economy is developing fast in China and has an increasing demand for legislation. Solving these IPR disputes will provide space for the knowledge economy to develop in a healthy, orderly way," she said. However, the rise means that judges are facing an increasing number of challenges.

"IPR cases are different from traditional civil cases. They can be highly technical, and require a thorough understanding of relevant laws and regulations," the document from the intellectual property tribunal said.

As China is vigorously promoting the development of culture, courts across the country will pay special attention this year to IPR cases in the sector, including industrial design, Web productions, folk literature and arts. The courts will also take into account the intangible cultural heritage to promote the healthy development of the sector, the document said.

Judicial reform urged

The top judge also vowed on Sunday to push reform to further realize judicial justice.

Some courts could do more to boost transparency of their affairs and promote the democratic judicial system, he said.

On top of this, some judges have not been as efficient in handling cases as they should have been, and there have been delays in proceedings and hearings, Wang said.

A small number of judges were even found guilty of taking bribes and perverting the course of justice, he added.

This year the Supreme People's Court will work to reform court procedures, speed up proceedings in civil cases involving small sums of money and improve the rules allowing citizens to observe trials, he said.

Wang urged greater efforts in allowing supervision by the general public, including soliciting public opinion, paying more attention to media reports and netizens and promptly responding to issues of social concern.

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Photo taken on March 12, 2012 shows the radio telescope under construction in Shanghai, east China.
The 65-meter-diameter telescope, a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy, will be used in
tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes including Chinese astronomical projects like
Chang'e lunar probe, YH-1 Mars exploration and other deep space explorations. The antenna structure of the
telescope is scheduled to be finished by September 2012 and the facility is set to be used for tracking and
locating missions during China's lunar probe program from 2013 to 2014.

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Two new Chinese LCD screens in Beijing's imposing Great Hall of the People will replace screens made by a Japanese competitor, in a sign of resolve to supply the world with Chinese brands and not just Made in China products.

The screens are made by Chinese electronics giant TCL. At 110 inches, they are the world's largest 3-D LCD screens, just a touch wider than the 108-inch Panasonic models they replaced.

"We have broken through the Japanese and South Korean monopoly of big flat-screen TVs!" TCL chairman Li Dongsheng boasted at a launch ceremony on Friday. Officials from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), and the government of Shenzhen, TCL's hometown, clapped and nodded.

The government is encouraging its companies to move up the value chain and develop margin-producing brands, partly as a matter of national pride but also to shift the world's second-biggest economy away from gritty, low-profit manufacturing.

But creating recognisable brands has not been easy.

With the possible exception of computer-maker Lenovo and appliance maker Haier, China has few brands that foreign shoppers would recognise. Even at home, producers often find themselves supplanted by high-end foreign brands.

"That is a big hurdle, especially in autos. (The domestic brands) are almost non-existent in large cities like Shanghai or Beijing because no one wants to be seen going lower than a Japanese or a Korean brand," said James Roy, a senior analyst with China Market Research Group, a Shanghai-based consultancy.

Beijing has been ready to lend a hand.

This month, MIIT posted new rules requiring officials, who overwhelmingly prefer German luxury brands like Audi, to buy only local cars.

Other efforts, including government support for domestic companies engaged in "indigenous innovation", have led to allegations that China is unfairly trying to tilt the playing field towards its own industry by guaranteeing government purchases and by setting standards that favour Chinese companies over established industry leaders.

"If Chinese companies want to go global, they can't just compete in a protected domestic market," said Zhao Yuhai, high- and new-technology development and commercialisation director general at the Ministry of Science and Technology.

"That way you will never win the global market. So this concern is unnecessary,"

CAR-VING OUT A MARKET

For policymakers, overseas presence is a sign that a brand has succeeded.

Companies aspiring for international brands should aim to earn one-fifth their revenues and one-third of their profits from sales abroad, Yang Mianmian, the president of the world's largest appliance maker Haier, told the National People's Congress, or parliament, a few years ago.

Haier sells compact appliances like washing machines and mini-fridges under its own name in the United States, but still sells in Europe under European brand names. Few other companies have reached even that level.

"Some brands have started (to get international recognition), but most need more work," Zhou said.

"Of course, there are different kinds of markets, high-end and low-end, and I think brands like TCL are still at the mid-to-low-end stage. But they'll move up."

TCL sells under its own name in developing markets, but markets under the Alcatel, Thomson and RCA brands in the West.

"To fully sell under our own name isn't a question of technology but of marketing. Because if we promote a new brand, our own brand, it would take time," TCL's Li told Reuters.

"If there is already a local established partner, using their brand is quicker. For our company, the most important is bigger sales turning into greater revenue."

For many companies those big sales come at home. Unlike South Korea or Taiwan, China's domestic market is big enough that many producers do not yet need to focus on developing international brands, said Roy of China Market Research Group.

"That there aren't many Chinese brands that are globally known shouldn't necessarily suggest that Chinese companies don't know how to brand," he said. "The main opportunity for brands has been the domestic market."

The auto industry is still a major front in the brand wars. The government hinted to foreign automakers last year that applications to expand joint venture production were unlikely to be approved unless they worked with their Chinese partners to develop Chinese-branded cars.

General Motors has since launched the "Baojun" (Treasure Steed), although it denies that it was in response to Chinese government pressure.

The policy helps correct what planners now see as a mistake -- although China is the world's largest vehicle market, it lacks the defining national auto brand enjoyed by such smaller markets as Korea, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, even Poland.

When China married foreign automakers to its largest state-owned firms, the unexpected consequence was that the joint ventures saw rocketing output, but left the state-owned firms with zero incentive to develop by themselves.

That radio wave telescope is too close to Shanghai, wouldn't that disturb the scientist with city background noise?

China is mastering every fascit of technology, from deep space exploration to deep sea

its like America of 1950s all over again, they want to push on everything and anywhere and they want to do it by themselves

in many ways, Chinese are very much like what Americans used to be like, can do attitude, nothing is impossible, hard working etc etc

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Despite lingering consumer doubts about the technology and practicality of electric vehicles, the Chinese government and automakers are pushing ahead with the development of green cars.

Buyers of hybrid cars, which run on a combination of batteries and conventional engines, are entitled to a direct central government subsidy of 5,000 yuan ($790) per vehicle, while a rebate of up to 60,000 yuan on the purchase price is offered to buyers of battery-driven cars.

Other than government incentives, auto manufacturers are luring buyers of their alternative cars with free maintenance and a range of personalized services.

Their combined effort to promote greener cars on Chinese roads is beginning to pay off. A survey by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that 8,159 hybrid and electric cars were sold nationwide in 2011. All together, there are more than 10,000 green cars on China's roads.

The energy conversion rate of electric vehicles in general is 46 percent higher than in internal combustion engine cars, and they have the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 68 percent, said Raymond Tsang, partner at Bain and Company.

The majority of early converts to green cars are college-educated young professionals in major cities. For instance, Zhao Yu, a 30-year-old office worker at Shanghai International Automobile City, in Jiading, a district of the Shanghai municipality, bought a hybrid car domestically produced by BYD "to show support for my district's reputation as the country's showroom for energy-efficient cars".

Jiading, home to Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group), one of China's largest car manufacturers, considers itself a suitable testing ground for popularizing the use of clean cars.

All the promotions were making Zhao feel embarrassed every time she drove her gas-guzzling, pollution-belching, sinister-looking lump of a sedan to work every day. To repent, she spent 160,000 yuan in April last year to buy BYD's new hybrid model, the F3DM, to drive to work and show her eco-friendly credentials.

To her surprise, buying the car has brought benefits that make her feel like a pampered child. For a start, she received close to a 40 percent, or 60,000 yuan, rebate from the central and local governments on the purchase price of her hybrid car. What's more, she was told she could enjoy free battery recharge at stations sprouting in the city, compliments of the Jiading district government.

"I am still getting the hang of owning and driving a hybrid car," she said. But the many incentives have removed any earlier doubts she had about the economic sense of buying one. "I feel like I am one of the chosen few," she said. That feeling, she added, "makes me feel immensely proud of my decision".

Zhao's F3DM can go as far as 150 kilometers in hybrid mode, a range long enough to make the daily round trip from her home to the office and back. "I never need to worry about running out of juice in the middle of nowhere," she said.

In electric power mode, the batteries can sustain up to 90 minutes' driving, or 80 kilometers, before the gas engine takes over. "I only need to recharge the batteries once every day, after I get to work," Zhao said.

The good thing, Zhou added, is that her car is smooth and quiet. What's more, it saves her quite a bit on fuel costs, compared to her other car, which she drives only on weekends.

"But the shortage of recharging stations outside Jiading has made it impractical to take my hybrid anywhere other than the office," she said, sighing. Otherwise, she said, "I would have sold my old car in a jiffy."

China's strategy to develop new energy cars has gained sufficient ground on many fronts. When coal imports began to exceed exports in 2009, the government saw the urgent need to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels and launched a campaign to widen the use of alternative energy sources.

The country also faces the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in every sector of the economy. An area that has raised great concern is emissions caused by the explosive growth of the car population in the many sprawling urban districts. As a result, great emphasis has been placed on the development of green cars that can be widely accepted by consumers.

On the policy front, the development of the electric vehicle industry has been set as a priority of the Ministry of Science and Technology since 2001. The resulting "863 Electric-Drive Fuel Cell Vehicle Project", a State-level, high-tech development plan, received an initial investment of 800 million yuan, said Wang Tianwei, policy director of the policy coordination department of Jiading Auto City.

On the regulatory front, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission passed at least 20 new regulations in the past decade to regulate and promote wider use of hybrid and electric cars.

These combined efforts centered on a multiple of tax incentives to manufacturers as well as price subsidies to customers. The original target was to make the country a world leader in electric vehicles by putting 500,000 units on the road by 2011. But held back by technology constraints and policy coordination, the deadline has been extended to 2015.

Electric car pioneers, including SAIC, Chery and BYD Motors have indicated their commitment to the development of electric vehicle technologies. SAIC, for instance, is planning to introduce Roewe E50, an all-battery-powered vehicle with the latest technology, by late 2012.

The car, which produces zero emissions, has a range of 120 kilometers on a full charge, compared to about 80 km for the existing models.

According to Hu Maoyuan, SAIC chairman, the E50 is "a result of the company's efforts", which he described as an example of "indigenous innovation". The company holds the patent and rights to all the key technologies it developed for this project.

To be sure, there are snags to overcome before hybrids and battery cars become a common sight on Chinese roads.

Battery performance remains the challenge to the practicality of electric vehicles. Wang said Chinese companies still lag far behind their competitors in the West and Japan in battery technology.

A study conducted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs said China holds just 1 percent of the total patent registrations for lithium ion batteries, while Japan owns 52 percent and the US owns 22 percent.

Tsang said he believed China has many advantages for developing electric vehicles, including availability and integration of resources, and strong government support

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Chinese auto parts manufacturer Lingyun Industrial Group said Tuesday that it has acquired German car-lock maker Kiekert with a controlling stake of 55 percent.

The remaining 45 percent of Kiekert's equity is held by two other Chinese companies, according to a press release issued by Lingyun at the agreement's signing ceremony.

The agreement will promote the entrance of Chinese companies into the high-end auto parts market and allow them to compete globally, the press release said.

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Sections of a high-speed railway set to open in May have suffered subsidence, it has been reported.The 291-kilometer Wuhan-Yichang railway will be an important link in the Shanghai-Chengdu trunk line from east to west.

On March 9, a micro blog post, claiming parts of the railway in Qianjiang city, Hubei province, had collapsed, was denied by the provincial railway construction office.

Its director, Wang Zujian, said on Tuesday that sections of the railway had suffered roadbed sedimentation due to a unique geological structure found locally.

"The problem was found in a checkup organized by the Ministry of Railways," he told China Central Television.

The checks begun at the start of this year found that parts of the railway roadbed, totaling 7.2 km, had subsided more than that allowed by the design.

According to design regulations, sedimentation within 3 millimeters a month is allowed.

Experts suggested that the roadbed should be reinforced, and on Tuesday, workers were seen carrying out urgent repairs at one location. Rail tracks were removed and more than 100 vehicles were on site.

The Shanghai-Wuhan -Chengdu Railway Hubei Company estimated that repairs are likely to take a month.

The railway's constructor, China Railway 12th Bureau Group, said that there were no quality problems involved.

However, Wang said that it was too early to conclude how the sedimentation was caused.

Construction of the railway started in 2008. Some villagers living along the route claimed that the roadbed was filled with sandy soil and lacked reinforcement.

"The railway is like a spring," said one villager, Yuan Zhiguo, adding the railway had sunk several times since it was built.

On March 1, Guangzhou-based newspaper The Time Weekly cited a whistleblower, Ni Hongjun, who disclosed that the high-speed railway was using earth instead of the required gravel during construction, and it would become dangerous when heavy rain fell on the railroad bed.

Ni, an earthwork supplier, said the constructor had used his earth instead of the more expensive gravel for that layer.

Hu Runzhou, a transport expert with China Academy of Management Science's Wuhan branch, told China Daily that the laying of railway foundations was crucial, especially for high-speed rail."The high-speed railway needs a firm base to support it, or it will bring unimaginable consequences if not properly built," Hu said.

China plans to put nine new high-speed railways into operation this year, bringing their total length to more than 10,000 km by the end of the year, early reports said.

After the train crash on July 23 last year that killed 40 people, the ministry vowed to prioritize railway safety and ordered railway construction not to rush to meet unreasonable deadlines.

If this was a result of cutting corners, I'd really want someone shot. What's gonna happen if a train was travelling on the track when the thing collapses?

Me and my family were thinking about getting on the HSR if we travel to China in the future. Luckly this was found out sooner and hopefully they do a comprehensive check of all HSR tracks.

no_name said:

Me and my family were thinking about getting on the HSR if we travel to China in the future. Luckly this was found out sooner and hopefully they do a comprehensive check of all HSR tracks.

Click to expand...

Have a nice trip and don't forget taking pics of HSR to share with us.