In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating at an industrial scale. The sheer volume of these shipments marked a disturbing milestone, one that revealed the global reach …
CHINA'S plan to build the Three Gorges dam across the Yangtze river with a 185-m-high reservoir level "would not be an economically viable proposition", according to the World Bank. Probe International reports the World Bank endorsed a Canadian feasibility study of the dam, which contained evidence that raising the water …
DESPITE China's much-vaunted economic development, more than half its population still depends on highly polluting fuels to meet domestic needs and several studies show that chronic respiratory diseases are on the increase because of exposure to the smoke from these fuels. In fact, chronic respiratory diseases are among the leading …
SCIENTISTS are making headway in using genetic engineering techniques to develop commercial varieties of rice strains that are resistant to diseases. Initial trials by researchers in China and Japan of rice strains modified to fight the red stripe virus, which in southeast Asia has been known to destroy entire harvests, …
DESPITE continuing criticism from ecologists, work has started on the Three Gorges Dam along the Yangtze river in China, the world's largest hydroelectric project. The project includes a 185-metre-high dam stretching about two kilometres along the third of the Yangtze river's three famous gorges and is meant to fuel China's …
A 61-YEAR-old Chinese architect, Cao Shizhong, who specialises in setting tilting structures straight, dreams of restoring the Leaning Tower of Pisa to its original tilt, a feat that would make him a millionaire. The Leaning Tower of Pisa could never attain its planned 13-storey eminence for when the tower had …
CHINA -- one of the world's largest markets for tiger and rhinoceros parts -- has imposed a ban on the trade of rhino horns and tiger bones. These substances are no longer to be used in medicines, though the ban will be delayed by six months to allow liquidation of …
THE UNITED Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) may quit China, the most populous country in the world, following indications that China is planning a harsh family planning drive in the countryside. But UNFPA executive director Nafis Sadik hopes Beijing will itself take the initiative and announce the end of …
WHILE Washington continues to maintain there is no proof that China is exporting nuclear missile technology to Pakistan, US intelligence says it has proof China shipped components to Pakistan that made it possible for the Pakistanis to assemble their own version of the Chinese M-11 surface-to-surface missile. In addition, an …
DISDAINING short-term profits for long-term moral principles, jeans giant Levi Strauss is pulling out of China, even as other US corporations scramble to get in. The reason: Levi Strauss considers Beijing's human rights record far short of the standard it expects of its trading partners. Levi Strauss, however, will continue …
MORE THAN one-third of China's population suffers from iodine deficiency and two provinces, Xinjiang and Jiangxi, are the worst hit. Five million Chinese are said to be mentally retarded and children with less than normal IQ are reported to number 8-18 million and increasing by one million every year. Iodine …
THE FIFTH meeting of the members of the Global Environment Facility, held in Beijing in May, ended with the South getting some assurance on additional finance, and many conditions on how the money would be spent. Also under discussion were the governance structures of the GEF. With the "pilot" phase …
TIBETAN emigres accuse China of seeking to build a nuclear reactor near Lhasa, the Tibetan capital; of dumping nuclear waste on the Tibetan plateau, and of setting up sites there for missiles aimed at India. The US-based International Campaign for Tibet adds forced prison labour is being used to build …
BEIJING is making an all-out effort to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) by the end of this year, despite indications from US trade representatives that it may take longer. The Chinese have been wooing foreign investors by telling them that their entry to GATT is imminent, …
CANTON will soon wear a different look as its commuters abandon the traditional bicycle for other modes of transport. In a dramatic step to ease traffic congestion, Cantonese officials intend to restrict and eventually ban the environment-friendly carrier, the China News Service (CNS) reports. CNS says the plan to crack …
CHINA'S cut-rate, space-launch business may not be much of a bargain, especially after its most recent effort resulted in the disappearance into space of a US-built, Australian-owned telecommunications satellite. Launched by the China Great Wall Industry Corp for Optus Communications, the $138 satellite vanished before reaching its scheduled 35,000-km orbit. …
China's attempts at modernising its energy industry will cause more than 100,000 coal workers to be laid off immediately, while hundreds of thousands more will be retrenched in the coming years. The state-owned coal conglomerate, which employs three million workers, intends to close down 30 mines this year, after determining …
INDIA is now exports 40 per cent of the iso-proturon (a wheat pesticide) it produces, a far cary from two years ago, when it had to import a large part of its requirement. But in return for the increased in foreign exchange, the country will have to pay in terms …
CHINESE science is going the market way. A new policy recommends the withdrawal of state funding for twothirds of the country's research scientists. But scientists protest their work has vital relevance to industry. Researchers fear that the new policy, which may only be a short-term measure to counter recession, will …
China intends to spend about $2 billion in the next two or three years to become a power in the highly competitive computer industry. Chinese officials confirmed recently in Texas they plan to make major purchases of US equipment to produce silicon chips that form the basic component in computers, …
Basing methodology on global justice N S Jodha THE ESSENCE of the conclusions of the World Resource Institute is aptly reflected in the Gujarati proverb, "What is mine is mine and what is yours is ours." Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain question this conclusion. In the first place, they find …
