city:beijing

  • Hutong on Behance http://www.behance.net/gallery/Hutong/8494003

    While Beijing is moving fast, developing new districts and constructing massive infrastructure projects, there are still some Hutongs which provide daily life which you would expect only in villages far away from modern metropoles as Beijing. The density and the warm and friendly atmosphere feels like entering a parallel universe.

    #photo

  • China commits billions in aid to Africa as part of charm offensive - interactive | Global development | The Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/interactive/2013/apr/29/china-commits-billions-aid-africa-interactive

    China has committed $75bn (£48bn) on aid and development projects in Africa in the past decade, according to research which reveals the scale of what some have called Beijing’s escalating soft power “charm offensive” to secure political and economic clout on the continent.

    The Chinese government releases very little information on its foreign aid activities, which remain state secrets. In one of the most ambitious attempts to date to chip away at this secrecy, US researchers have launched the largest public database of Chinese development finance in Africa, detailing almost 1,700 projects in 50 countries between 2000 and 2011.

    China’s financial commitments are significantly larger than previous estimates of the country’s development finance, though still less than the estimated $90bn the US committed over that period. Researchers at AidData, at the College of William and Mary, have spent 18 months compiling and encoding thousands of media reports to construct the database, and hope users will contribute further detail on the projects.

    The data, which challenges what has for years been the dominant story – Beijing’s unrelenting quest for natural resources – is likely to fuel ongoing debate over China’s motives in Africa.

    There are few mining projects in the database and, while transport, storage and energy initiatives account for some of the largest sums, the data also reveals how China has put hundreds of millions of dollars towards health, education and cultural projects.

    #Chine #Afrique #développement #cartographie

  • #H7N9 est en train de disparaître de l’actualité. Il faut le chercher pour le trouver. Raison ? données taries à la source : le CDC de Pékin a cessé de diffuser les chiffres en anglais.
    125 dont 23 ?

    China H7N9 Bird Flu Cases Rise By Five ; Four Provinces Report Illnesses In One Day - Forbes
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2013/04/28/china-h7n9-bird-flu-cases-rise-by-five-four-provinces-report-illnesses-in-on

    “Countermeasures have been effective so far, but the situation is still developing as new cases turn up,” Premier Li Keqiang said yesterday at a visit to the Chinese Center for Disease Control in Beijing. 

    The center has halted the publication of English-language figures about the spread of the disease since last Thursday. It didn’t give a reason.

    Du coup, il faut tenir le décompte soi-même…

    The number of confirmed H7N9 bird flu cases in mainland China rose by five on Sunday, the country’s official Xinhua news agency reported. Four provinces — Zhejiang, Shandong, Jiangxi and Fujian — reported illnesses, the agency said.

    Xinhua didn’t provide a total number of cases.

    Based on a figure of 120 mainland cases as of Saturday at 7 p.m. Beijing time reported by China National Radio, the total number of cases would be 125. The number of dead is 23, according to a report in today’s Shanghai Daily.

  • 44 dont 11
    premier cas confirmé à Pékin

    First human #H7N9 bird flu case in Beijing confirmed - The Times of India
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/First-human-H7N9-bird-flu-case-in-Beijing-confirmed/articleshow/19523938.cms

    BEIJING: A seven-year-old girl was confirmed as Beijing’s first human case of H7N9 bird flu on Saturday, local authorities said, as China’s outbreak of the disease spread to the capital.

    The girl, whose parents are poultry traders, was in a stable condition in hospital, the Beijing health bureau said. Her mother and father had been quarantined for observation but had shown no symptoms so far, it added.

  • Grim Cancer Statistics From China - Businessweek
    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-09/grim-cancer-statistics-from-china

    Cancer is the leading cause of death in Beijing, according to data released by the city’s Cancer Prevention and Control Research Office. A division of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the center has found that since 2007, more Beijingers have died each year from cancer than from cardiovascular disease, previously the top killer.

    Exposure to environmental pollution, as well as changing diet and more sedentary lifestyles, are contributing factors, says the center’s Deputy Director Wang Ning. Noting that the number of cancer diagnoses is rising in both rural and urban China, he told China Newsweek (no relation to U.S. Newsweek/Dailybeast) on April 7, “In the next 10 years, the cancer burden won’t be lowered – we can only hope to eventually stabilize it.” His research team estimates by 2020, the total number of cancer deaths in China will climb from about 2.5 million to 3 million annually.

    Rising vehicle emissions pose health hazards in large Chinese cities: Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau told the Beijing News last week that levels of two major air pollutants – nitrogen dioxide and PM10 (particulate matter less than 10 micrometers in diameter) – had risen steeply in the last year. The average levels of those two pollutants were nearly 30 percent higher in the first three months of 2013 than in the same months of 2012. (Meanwhile levels of sulfur dioxide, a third major pollutant, decreased slightly.) Nationwide, China just experienced its smoggiest March in 52 years, the China Meteorological Administration announced on April 1.

    While smoggy cities attract frequent headlines, the risks from pollution are often most acute in small towns and villages, where environmental regulators have little authority to rein in polluting industries that contribute substantially to the local tax bases. In February, China’s national Ministry of Environmental Protection for the first time acknowledged the existence of long-rumored “cancer villages” in China. “Toxic chemicals have caused many environmental emergencies,” as the text of a new plan for controlling hazardous chemicals put it. “There are even some serious cases of health and social problems, like the emergence of cancer villages in individual regions.”

    The increased transparency in China about worsening pollution is a sliver of a silver lining.

  • Beijing’s westward pivot will make the Gulf a critical ally
    http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/beijings-westward-pivot-will-make-the-gulf-a-critical-ally

    Where does the Arabian Gulf fit in China’s emerging new diplomacy? Based on the recent flurry of diplomatic activities involving the Gulf and China (Chinese premier Wen Jiabao visited three Gulf states in January last year and the speaker of the Federal National Council of the UAE, Mohammed Al Murr, met last week in Beijing the head of the Chinese parliament), the Gulf remains an essential part of China’s resource-focused diplomacy.
    China, already the world’s largest importer of crude oil, depends on the Gulf for 44 per cent of its oil imports.

    Given the worsening air-pollution in China, Beijing must also find the Gulf’s abundant natural gas supply attractive. To be sure, China has massive deposits of shale gas, but the geological challenges, lack of infrastructure, scarcity of water and uncertain property rights make it unlikely that China will start tapping into its shale gas as a source of energy any time soon.
    In the meantime, any sensible Chinese official in Beijing knows that he must get his hands on as much clean natural gas as possible. Compared with Russian gas, which will not start shipping until 2018, gas from the Gulf can be imported immediately.

    To some, Beijing may even have a long-term military design on the Arabian Gulf. With its growing military might, China will naturally want to protect its own energy sources. However, it is unlikely that Beijing would risk confronting the Americans by deploying its navy to the Gulf (at the moment, it simply does not have a blue water navy capable of being deployed far away from China). The Chinese are experienced free-riders. As long as the United States is keeping the international shipping lanes open for them, China needs not waste its own money duplicating the task.

  • 11 dont 4

    AFP : China reports fourth #H7N9 bird flu death
    http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jB0T4697pRby81h5oO3Csv6Xbt2w?docId=CNG.b731fbf3e0f95c167d536e90ee17529

    BEIJING — A man has died in China’s business capital of Shanghai of a new strain of bird flu, state media said Thursday, bringing the total number of deaths from the H7N9 virus to four.
    The 48-year-old poultry worker, from the eastern province of Jiangsu, was the eleventh person known to have been infected with H7N9 since the first human cases were reported earlier this year, according to China’s CCTV.

    Pas de risque de propagation dit l’OMS.

    The World Health Organisation on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of a pandemic because the sub-type is not thought to be transmitted from human to human, unlike the more common H5N1 strain.

    Ah, tant qu’on y est, grippe porcine aussi.

    In another development, a man in the central province of Hunan died from H1N1 (swine) flu on Wednesday, reported the Xinhua nes agency.

  • Cost of Environmental Degradation in China Is Growing - NYTimes.com

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/world/asia/cost-of-environmental-degradation-in-china-is-growing.html

    BEIJING — The cost of environmental degradation in China was about $230 billion in 2010, or 3.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product — three times that in 2004, in local currency terms, an official Chinese news report said this week.

    #chine #environnement #pollution

  • Ecuador auctions off Amazon to Chinese oil firms | World news | The Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/26/ecuador-chinese-oil-bids-amazon

    Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China’s insatiable thirst for energy.

    On Monday morning a group of Ecuadorean politicians pitched bidding contracts to representatives of Chinese oil companies at a Hilton hotel in central Beijing, on the fourth leg of a roadshow to publicise the bidding process. Previous meetings in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and in Houston and Paris were each confronted with protests by indigenous groups.

    Attending the roadshow were black-suited representatives from oil companies including China Petrochemical and China National Offshore Oil. “Ecuador is willing to establish a relationship of mutual benefit – a win-win relationship,” said Ecuador’s ambassador to China in opening remarks.

    According to the California-based NGO Amazon Watch, seven indigenous groups who inhabit the land claim that they have not consented to oil projects, which would devastate the area’s environment and threaten their traditional way of life.

    #Equateur #pétrole #Peuples_autochtones #Amazonie

  • As Pollution Worsens in China, Solutions Succumb to Infighting - NYTimes.com

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/world/asia/as-chinas-environmental-woes-worsen-infighting-emerges-as-biggest-obstacle.

    BEIJING — China’s state leadership transition took place this month against an ominous backdrop. More than 13,000 dead pigs were found floating in a river that provides drinking water to Shanghai. A haze akin to volcanic fumes cloaked the capital, causing convulsive coughing and obscuring the portrait ofMao Zedong on the gate to the Forbidden City.

    #chine #environnement #pollution

  • China, the Abnormal Great Power - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

    http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/03/05/china-abnormal-great-power/fo53

    China’s rising economic influence has leaders around the world on the edge of their seats. But Beijing is an abnormal great power. Its international potential is constrained by significant domestic economic vulnerabilities, and the inward-looking Chinese leadership has yet to craft a nimble and constructive international posture. And as the Chinese economy normalizes, its growing pains are laid bare. All this has the effect of elevating risks and aggravating insecurities in China’s neighborhood and beyond.

    #chine #brics #economie

  • Pollution : Pékin « sinise » ses particules PM 2,5 | L’empire Weibo
    http://weibo.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/03/02/pollution-pekin-sinise-ses-particules-pm-25

    Aussi xikeliwu (细颗粒物, littéralement « matière de particules fines ») le nouveau mot sur lequel se sont entendus « après d’intenses débats » météorologues, linguistes et experts de l’environnement pour designer en chinois les PM 2,5 a-t-il ravivé les soupçons d’une tentative « d’harmonisation » du cauchemar atmosphérique pékinois :

    « On dirait un nom de fortifiants en poudre », a remarqué l’avocat Yuan Yulai le jour où fut annoncé le vocable, le 28 février. "Ces experts ont vraiment trop de talent !", ajoute-t-il, sarcastique.

    Ce billet du Monde me donne l’occasion d’aller respirer l’air de Pékin.

    Tout d’abord, le Ministère de l’environnement de la RPC n’est pas aussi affirmatif. Il parle au futur http://english.mep.gov.cn/News_service/media_news/201303/t20130301_248681.htm

    PM2.5 Will Get Chinese Name
    2013-03-01
    China’s scientific authority is soliciting ideas to come up with a new Chinese name for PM 2.5, or particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter that can enter people’s lungs and bloodstream.

    The initiative has aroused public interest and caused an Internet buzz.
    (…)
    People nationwide are contributing creative terms, including ’Beijing grey’, ’toxic dust’, ’air pollution index’ and ’cough trigger’.

    Par ailleurs, une tempête de poussière en provenance de Mongolie intérieure vient s’ajouter à la pollution (1/03/13). C’est le début de la saison.

    http://english.mep.gov.cn/News_service/media_news/201303/t20130301_248682.htm

    Calm winds, temperature inversion, pollutants transformed from eastern and southern regions and large-scale dust from Inner Mongolia are behind the hazardous air pollution in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and east China’s Bohai Bay, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said Thursday.

    Même texte, au mot près, ici http://www.cityofbeijing.gov.cn/2013-02/28/content_16264361.htm


    Mais la légende de l’image dit :
    Strong winds and smog hit Beijing on Feb 28, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

    Calm or strong, that is the question ?

    Ceci dit, il n’y a pas lieu de s’inquiéter outre mesure, d’après le même site
    ’Smog readings in Beijing nothing to be concerned about’
    http://www.cityofbeijing.gov.cn/2013-02/19/content_16235417.htm

    Research showing high levels of nitrogen-containing compounds in the capital’s smog should not set off alarm bells, Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau said.

    suivi d’un bel exercice de #xyloglossie

    The remarks were in response to the latest research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which found a large amount of nitrogen-containing organic compounds in the recent smog that shrouded the capital and neighboring cities.
    The compounds are key components of the photochemical smog that shrouded Los Angeles during the 1940s and 1950s, causing hundreds of premature deaths and around 2,000 traffic accidents in a single day in 1954.
    Wang Yuesi, who led the research, said it was the first time that a large amount of organic compounds containing nitrogen had been found during winter.
    He said scientists are conducting further research on the particulate matter collected and calculating the threat, if any, these pollutants might pose to the public.

    Comme c’était la saison du nouvel an, le gouvernement, soucieux de la santé des citoyens a mis en place un indice pour les pétards et les feux d’artifice… http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/BeijingInformation/BeijingNewsUpdate/t1298660.htm

    The capital’s meteorological authorities said that they will begin publishing a “Fireworks Index” on Tuesday, providing indications whether the air quality is good enough for fireworks revelry.

    An official with the municipal meteorological observatory said that the index will include three categories for firework ignition: “proper,” "not quite proper" and “improper.”

    Big Chinese cities including Beijing had once instituted bans on fireworks, as they are blamed for polluting the air and resulting in injuries and even deaths.

    However, Beijing authorities lifted their ban in 2005 under public wishes that fireworks could create a more festive atmosphere. But the government restricted setting off fireworks to within certain areas during a 16-day period around the Spring Festival.

  • Philippines takes new aim at China

    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-01-210213.html

    Philippines takes new aim at China
    By Richard Javad Heydarian

    MANILA - After a year of failed multilateralism and bilateral brinkmanship, the Philippines has abandoned hope of pressing China into a compromise on territorial disputes in the South China Sea. While Manila’s recent decision to submit its case for United Nations mediation ups the diplomatic ante, Beijing’s out-of-hand rejection of the move indicates tensions could rise before they wane. [1]

    #chine #asie #philippines #mer-de-chine-méridionale

  • How Beijing is shaping the Amazon

    Pour illustrer en partie cet article inédit, une figure que nous avions commise il y a quelques années pour un rapport sur les forêts dans le monde pour la FAO et le PNUE... et qui explique un peu que tout est lié !

    https://dl.dropbox.com/s/byvigrz8hfo0k2q/syst%20amazonien.jpg

    Le Système amazonien

    #système #mondialisation #chine Brésil #amazonie

    By Jan Rocha

    Climate News Network
    28 Prince Edward’s Rd
    Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1BE

    Ne pas facebooker ou twitter avant vendredi 21 février 12:00

    China has now replaced the US and Europe as Brazil’s main trading partner. a position which gives it significant influence over what happens in the Amazon forest - and over attempts to protect it.

    SAO PAULO, 20 February - When I arrived in the Amazon in the 60s, there were no roads. The rivers were the highways, crowded with boats of all shapes and sizes.

    You travelled on what was available, be it a trading boat, stopping at riverside villages for fishermen to carry aboard giant pirarucu (one of the world’s largest freshwater fish, reaching up to two metres in length), or a precarious canoe powered by an outboard motor, getting soaked in sudden downpours.

    I slung my hammock in passenger boats and slept to the sound of the thump-thump-thump of the engines, or in cattle boats, kept awake by the restless shuffle of cows on the way to the slaughterhouse. Once I got a lift on a missionary boat which stopped at a lonely shack for a nervous young priest to give the last rites to a dying man.

    Occasionally we would be rocked in the wake of the big Booth Line steamers chugging their way a thousand miles upriver to Manaus after crossing the Atlantic from Liverpool.

    In the 70s the military, who had taken power, decided that the vast Amazon region must be “integrated” with the rest of the country, which had developed along the coast, to stop foreign powers occupying it to exploit its natural resources.

    They began building roads and moving in Brazilians from other regions to populate what they called an “empty” region, ignoring the existing population of indigenous peoples and descendants of the tappers who had migrated there during the turn of the century rubber boom.

    Huge forest loss

    Roads now link the Amazon region to the rest of the country, but ironically they have facilitated the penetration of foreign companies into every corner of the rainforest, as well as cattle ranchers, soy farmers, loggers and mineral companies from the more developed parts of Brazil. Almost 20% of the rainforest has been destroyed since the roads came.

    The Amazon basin is now China’s No.1 supplier of natural resources, replacing its Asian neighbours as their resources have become depleted. In a relatively short time, China has become Brazil’s major trading partner, overtaking the US and Europe.

    But China’s voracious demand for iron ore and timber, as well as soy and beef, is not only fuelling deforestation but negatively influencing Brazil’s environmental protection laws, in the view of researchers.

    In a 2012 paper entitled Amazonian forest loss and the long reach of China’s Influence¹, the authors found that “the rapid rise in exports of soy and beef products to China are two of the major drivers of Amazonian deforestation in Brazil”.

    The paper further argues that Chinese purchases of agricultural and forest land and Chinese imports of commodities such as timber and aluminium also cause environmental impacts in the Amazon.

    Chinese financing and investment in Amazonian infrastructure such as railways and mineral processing facilities have additional impacts. The authors say the “direct impact of commodity exports is only the tip of the iceberg of Chinese influence on Amazonia."

    “Money earned from this trade is strengthening Brazilian agribusiness interests, with profound effects on domestic politics that are reflected in legislative and administrative changes, weakening environmental protection”.

    This refers to the recent successful attempt by the agribusiness lobby in the Brazilian Congress to weaken the existing Forest Code, which, although often flouted, has still played an important role in conserving rainforest, rivers and biodiversity.

    “Impacts can also be expected from Chinese financing under negotiation for infrastructure such as a railway linking the state of Mato Grosso to a port on the Amazon river”, the authors write.

    "Mato Grosso, an Amazonian state twice the size of the US state of California, is a major focus of expansion of soy, cotton and intensified cattle production. Chinese purchases of land for agriculture and timber imply an increasing direct role in commodity production.

    “Other impacts come from exports from mining and from the processing of minerals, especially the demands for charcoal for pig-iron smelters and for electricity from hydroelectric dams for aluminium smelters”.

    They say Chinese demand for aluminium, an electricity-intensive industry, “contributes to Brazil’s push for a massive increase in building hydroelectric dams in Amazonia over the next decade.”

    "Brazil’s 2011–2020 ten-year energy-expansion plan (Ministry of Mines and Energy, 2011) calls for 30 large dams to be built in the Legal Amazon [the greater Amazon basin] by 2020, a rate of one dam every four months.

    “The Chinese-Brazilian alumina plant will be an important beneficiary of the Belo Monte dam, now under construction on the Xingu River, with transmission lines planned to connect Barcarena (where the plant is located) directly to the dam near Altamira, Para.”

    Belo Monte has environmental and social impacts that extend far beyond the areas that will be directly flooded, and the dam is likely to justify much larger upstream reservoirs to regulate the river’s flow, according to an earlier study by Fearnside in 2006.

    He also concluded from other studies that “the dam has functioned as a ’spearhead’ in creating precedents that weaken Brazil’s environmental licensing system and prepare the way for the many dams proposed under the energy-expansion plan” and that "the influence of both Brazil and China in expanding carbon credit for hydroelectric projects under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism has further increased the profitability of dams”.

    “It should therefore not come as a surprise that China exerts multiple influences on events in Brazil, often to the detriment of the Amazon forest”, concludes the 2012 paper.

    Exploit a cow, save a tree

    It notes that Brazil’s boom in agricultural commodities, which earned US$85 billion in 2011, has contributed hugely to the country’s recent economic growth and has reduced its vulnerability to external economic crises.

    Meanwhile a recent study produced by Imazon (Amazon Institute of People and The Environment), a well-respected research institute based in Belem, has shown that deforestation could be drastically reduced by increasing productivity.

    Traditionally, Amazon cattle farmers have never bothered about productivity, because it has been so easy just to clear more forest. The Imazon study shows that future projected demand could be entirely met without the need to cut down a single tree, if productivity was increased from the present average of 80 kilos of beef per hectare to 300 kilos.

    To help farmers learn the new techniques, Imazon suggests that an annual investment of about US$500 million would be enough to pay for technical assistance, reference centres for each region, and model farms to demonstrate good practice. Credit could then be linked to performance.

    Imazon points out that if nothing is done to increase productivity a further area of almost 13 million hectares will be cleared to meet demand, leading to an annual deforestation rate three to four times greater than the Government’s target of no more than 380,000 hectares a year until 2020.

    Traditionally the Government has relied on applying hefty fines for illegal clearing. This has two big disadvantages: the deforestation is detected only when it has already happened, and because of Brazils complex and lengthy judicial process, the fines are almost never paid. In addition, the powerful farmers lobby in Congress is adept at voting through “amnesties” at regular intervals to pardon unpaid fines.

    Now a more intelligent way to inhibit deforestation has been found, this time by the Central Bank. A bank resolution, passed in 2008, compels farmers to prove they are in compliance with environmental laws before they can obtain credit from any official bank.

    A study by the Nucleus for the Evaluation of Climate Policies of Rio de Janeiro’s Catholic University, PUC, found that, as a result, between 2008 and 2011 a total of 2,700 sq kms was saved from deforestation, because the farmers, deprived of capital, lacked the funding to extend their activities. The study found the correlation between credit and deforestation was stronger in cattle raising.

    The Government recently celebrated new statistics showing a reduction in deforestation, but as these various studies show, there are many variables involved. If China maintains or increases its demand for the natural resources of the Amazon and for the commodities produced in surrounding areas, the threat to the rainforest will continue. - Climate News Network

    ¹Philip M. Fearnside, Adriano M. R. Figueiredo and Sandra C. M. Bonjour

    Climate News Network
    28 Prince Edward’s Rd
    Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1BE

  • Etablir une carte des liaisons aériennes passagers entre la Chine et l’Afrique

    petite expérimentation crowdsourcing

    Je n’ai aucune idée préconçue, je ne sais pas si c’est pertinent, mais je voudrai quand même mettre en oeuvre une idée de carte (liaisons aériennes directes ou indirectes Chine-Afrique) juste pour voir si on peut en dire quelque chose du point de vue de l’intensité des échanges Afrique-Chine aussi bien que Chine-Afrique - dans les deux sens donc).

    Je mets l’idée au pot pour faire une petite et timide tentative de « crowdsourcing », et demander à tous ceux que ça intéresse d’envoyer en commentaires idées et liens, voir données sur cette question. Tous les contributeurs seront cités :)

    Mon esquisse 0 ressemble à ça :

    C’est totalement ésotérique mais c’est une hypothèse de départ, ce que j’appelle « l’intention cartographique ». Je vais collecter si possible les éléments suivants (mais je me contenterai de ce que j’aurai) :

    Liaisons directes et indirectes (ville départ et arrivée et escale)
    Fréquence
    Eventuellement type d’appareil (donne une indication approchée sur le volume de passagers transporté)

    ce serait donc une carte collective. J’essaye donc juste modestement, on verra bien ou cela nous mène...

    contact : reka@rezo.net

    #cartographie #cartographie-participative #chine #afrique #transport-aérien

    • SAA makes first non-stop flight to China - SouthAfrica.info
      http://www.southafrica.info/travel/saa-china.htm

      1 February 2012

      South African Airways has made its first non-stop flight to China. An SAA Airbus A340-600, specially branded in honour of the Chinese Year of the Dragon, left Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Tuesday, arriving in Beijing on Wednesday morning.

    • La représentation des relations Chine-Afrique doit-elle inclure les points de rencontre intermédiaires tels que Dubaï ? Une proportion non-négligeable du négoce emprunte ce type de circuit.

      Ceci dit, d’un point de vue social, le trafic de passagers allant touchant Chine et Afrique proprement dits est plus intéressant.

    • Si on inclut dans la représentation l’ensemble des trajets avec escale, le résultat sera illisible même avec deux couleurs - ou alors la couleur des vols avec escale doit être très claire. Ne représenter sous forme de liens que les vols direct peut être intéressant pour souligner l’apparition de liens renforcés entre certaines paires de villes. Pour compléter le tableau, on peut alors ajouter sous forme de points les escales typiques (généralement les hubs de compagnies actives en Afrique).

    • Je suis surpris de ne pas à trouver un Lagos - Shanghai. Il y a par contre un paquet de vols directs depuis Addis - mais c’est un cas particulier vu que c’est le hub d’Ethiopian Airlines. L’existence d’un Luanda-Beijing est un fait nettement plus intéressant.

    • Oui, le Nigeria n’a pas de grosse compagnie aérienne... A la louche, vers-depuis l’Afrique il y a Ethiopian, SAA, TAAG Angola, Egyptair, Kenya Airways... sans compter les compagnies chinoises...

    • Impressionnant, le réseau chinois d’Ethiopian : quatre destinations quotidiennes : PEK et CAN en 777, et HGH et HKG en 767. Avec un taux de remplissage théorique de 100%, ça ferait plus de 2000 passagers aller-retour par jour !

    • Dans le même registre, il faut signaler une étude de Jean-François Pérouse sur les liaisons aériennes Turquie-Afrique. D’ailleurs, le hub stanbouliote en développement correspond aussi à du passage Chine-Afrique et vice-versa : Les nouveaux horizons d’influence de la Turquie à travers l’indicateur des liaisons aériennes
      http://dipnot.hypotheses.org/45

    • Hello tout le monde

      Pardonnez mon silence, j’étais à l’extérieur toute la journée. Je viens de lire et exploiter commentaires et liens, je trouve cette première série de réactions déjà très riche, et toutes vos remarques me donnent déjà beaucoup d’idées à expérimenter, d’idées de visualisation, ce que je ferai demain vu l’heure tardive et vu que je suis complètement carbonisé (et c’est dommage parce que j’ai vraiment envie de m’y coller maintenant).

      je vois déjà plusieurs tendances :

      1. Une vision historique à 10 ou 15 montrerait qu’il n’y a pas si longtemps, il n’y avait aucune liaison directe, et que pour rejoindre la Chine à partir de l’Afrique, le passage par les grands hubs européens étaient quasi obligatoire. quelques liaisons étaient possibles via le Golfe, ou l’Inde mais pas pratique et pas fréquente. En tout cas, jusqu’à ce que les Chinois s’intéressent à l’Afrique et qu’une classe d’hommes d’affaires africains s’intéressent à l’Afrique, le lien de l’Afrique avec le reste du Monde passait essentiellement par les anciennes puissances coloniales.

      2. Point de vue carto, peut-être faut il prévoir deux images, une avec les vols directs et leur « intensité », l’autre avec les nouvelles routes indirectes, donc avec escales : Istanbul, Golfe (Qatar et Emirate Airways), Inde essentiellement. Et comme ces liaisons, d’après ce que je peux voir, se sont considérablement développées, je ne suis pas sur que la Chine ou l’Afrique utilisent toujours autant les hub européens comme escale (en plus ces liaisons sont certainement beaucoup plus chères). Sans compter qu’une escale au Duty Free Shop à Abou Dhabi, Dubaï ou Doha est l’expérience d’une vie...

      3. Les marges centrifuges, Afrique du Sud et Algérie essentiellement sont à étudier attentivement (vu l’implication de la Chine en Algérie, je n’ai pas encore regardé mais il y a peut-être des directs quotidiens), de même que Addis Abeba comme le signale @abillette (constructions de grandes infrastructures, route, rail, et énorme port de lamu, Corridor Lapsset soudan du sud-Ethiopie-Kenya) et Luanda comme le dit @liotier et où Michel Beuret (livre sur la Chine Afrique) disait que la Chine était très active.

      4. Vu aussi les investissements chinois en RDC (15 milliards de dollars alors que la Banque mondiale annonçait fièrement 900 millions SI les élections se passaient bien - et les élections se sont bien passées mais l’argent n’est pas venu... par contre les chinois eux, sont lancés dans la réalisation d’infrastructures). J’attends le jour où on annoncera un vol quotidien Kinshasa-Shanghaï ou Pékin en 747 ou équivalent...

      5. comme @rumor le signale, à regarder attentivement ce qui se passe à istanbul, pour y être passé plusieurs fois depuis ces deux dernières années, j’ai vu les changements : c’est maintenant un immense hub par lequel passent de plus en plus la liaison chine-Afrique

      je vais exploiter ces premières pistes et je posterai demain une série d’esquisses 1 pour que vous puissiez suivre l’évolution de cette petite recherche, je partagerai l’évolution et je mettrai à votre disposition les éléments finalisés (quand on y sera...). En attendant, reste des questions à explorer et des choix de représentation à faire !

      Mille mercis à tous, et très bonne nuit,

      Phil

    • Salut Philippe,

      En fait, les hubs européens sont encore importants pour le trafic Afrique-Chine en Afrique de l’Ouest qui est encore mal desservie par les compagnies du Golfe et la Turkish. Ca se voit clairement en simulant un achat sur les sites de comparateurs de vols : pour tout ce qui est à l’ouest d’une ligne virtuelle qui ferait en gros Tunis-N’Djamena-Kinshasa, la plupart des vols – et les moins chers – passent par Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, etc.

      Au sud de la RDC et Tanzanie, c’est surtout la South African et un peu Ethiopian. Et pour le grand quart nord-est du continent, Ethiopian et les gros transporteurs du Golfe...

    • @abillette c’est très intéressant ce que tu dis, et je crois qu’on peut imaginer une visualisation qui tient compte de cette réalité historico-politique (si je puis dire). Toutes ces infos aident beaucoup à sélectionner le mode de représentation. L’étape suivante sera d’évaluer l’intensité du trafic, le nombre de personnes transportées. Il y a des bases de données qui donnent potentiellement ces chiffres, mais elles sont hors de prix... (accessibilité même pas en rêve tellement c’est cher).

      Les esquisses arrivent

    • Pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest, il me semble que la plus grosse correspondance hors d’Europe est le hub de la RAM à Casa. Avant la guerre civile Libyenne il y avait aussi Afriqiyah Airways et son hub de Tripoli - garantie d’être l’option la moins chère et garantie de perdre les bagages en cours de route.

    • Avant de fournir les premières esquisses, par hasard, je reçois un message de mon pote Sani Magori, celui que j’appelle le « Jean Rouch Nigérien » parce qu’il fait des films bien comme ceux de Jean Rouch. Il me raconte que depuis que Turkish AIrline a ouvert une liaison avec Niamey, les avions sont pleins à craquer. Pour la Chine et l’Asie, mais aussi pour l’Europe. C’est beaucoup moins cher, les prestations sont les mêmes et ça détourne grandement le trafic du quasi monopole Air France.

    • Je suis en train de travailler sur cette (ces cartes), je passe en revue les Hubs. Sur la carte de Jean-François (pour @rumor) :

      1. je ne trouve aucune trace de liaison entre Mogadiscio et Istanbul bien que ce soit indiqué sur sa carte

      2. Je trouve un Kigali-Istanbul qui n’est pas indiqué sur sa carte

      3. Au Kenya je trouve Mombassa et Nairobi, sa carte n’indique que Monbassa

      4. Au Nigéria je ne trouve que Lagos et sa carte indique Lagos (et vraisemblablement Abuja)

      2. Je suppose que Le Caire, Alger, Casablanca, Johannesbourg, Tunis, Sfax ou Addis-Abeba sont des destinations anciennes et ne font pas partie de sa carte pour cette raison.

      Ces petites différences sont peut-être dues au fait que la situation évolue vite mais on peut alerter JF et lui demander ce qu’il en pense.

      En passant, je n’avais pas perçu à quel point Turkish Airline est maintenant « bien » implanté en Afrique. C’est nouveau et ça aura sans doute des incidences importante sur les circulations

    • Voici (enfin) les premiers résultats

      Vols directs Afrique-Chine :

      Seuls trois villes subsahariennes proposent les directs : Addis Abeba (Ethiopie) Luanda (Angola, et c’est une surprise) et Johannesburg (Afrique du Sud) et deux Villes nord-Africaines : Alger (Algérie) et Le Caire (Egypte).

      https://dl.dropbox.com/s/j5k5n5u92vvkm0o/vols%20directs.jpg

      Vu l’énorme implication des Chinois en Algérie, il parait normal qu’il y ait des relations aériennes directes. Luanda est une surprise mais l’activité chinoise dans la région (Angola, RDC en particulier)

      Mais les miens direct restant rares, pour essayer de mesurer le trafic, il faut se tourner vers les escales. Il semble qu’il y en ait cinq principales : Turkish airlines (Istanbul), Egypt Air (Le Caire), Ethiopian Arlines (Addis-Abeba), Qatar Airways (Doha) et Emirates (Abou Dhabi).

      Je pensais que Kenya airways était éligible vu son réseau africain mais la compagnie n’a pas (encore) de vol direct pour la Chine. Peutêtre bientôt.

      Vu ces réseaux, les ressortissants africains pourront, si ce n’est pas déjà le cas) éviter de passer par les hubs européens pour aller en Chine.

      Premières observations : le potentiel est énormes et les réseaux en Afrique déjà bien développés. D’une certaine manière, certains sont très complémentaires vu qu’ils ne desservent pas les mêmes villes africaines. Toutes ces compagnies desservent les mêmes villes en Chine (Pékin, Guangzhou et Hongkong), dans une moindre mesure Shanghai (c’est une surprise), avec une mention particulière pour Qatar Airways qui dessert déjà six villes chinoises et s’apprête à en desservir plus.

      https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ami9rku7fhoi56z/egyptair.jpg

      https://dl.dropbox.com/s/puiuy0irwx3to6v/emirates%20airways.jpg

      https://dl.dropbox.com/s/tgqndlajmn519fh/ethiopian%20airlines.jpg

      https://dl.dropbox.com/s/52otqdyqj0rd03t/qatar%20airways.jpg

      https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ynjv3806y7s5gu0/turkish%20airways.jpg

      –----

      https://dl.dropbox.com/s/cgsrsa5yj3pxhem/kenya%20airways.jpg

    • La difficulté sera de synthétiser en une représentation unique les plans des réseaux de ces six compagnies. Pour y parvenir, il me semble qu’il faudra se débarrasser des lignes, ou au moins les représenter en gris très léger. Restent alors les villes reliées directement, les villes reliées indirectement, les hubs... Seulement trois catégories de points - ça devrait être suffisamment lisible.

  • Wastelands of Beijing | Danwei
    http://www.danwei.com/wastelands-of-beijing

    This article is a tour through some of the more spectacular wastelands of contemporary Beijing, places that will surely be developed into something entirely different at some point in the future – when the interest groups that control the land and construction finally make a deal they can live with.


    #ghost_places #chine

  • China Voice: Brown skies obscure “beautiful China” ambitions - Xinhua | English.news.cn
    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2013-01/14/c_132102226.htm

    There is no reason to be too optimistic.

    BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) — Despite China’s ambitions and efforts to build itself into a beautiful country, residents and travellers in Beijing have been subjected to excessively bad air quality in recent days.

    For three consecutive days up to Sunday, Beijing was choked in dense smog. The municipal environmental authorities said air pollution in the capital hit dangerous levels: readings for PM2.5, airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, reached more than 700 micrograms per cubic meter at some monitoring stations, and as high as 993at others, on Saturday evening.

  • Signals in China of a More Open Economy - NYTimes.com

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/world/asia/chinese-leaders-visit-to-shenzhen-hints-at-reform.html?nl=todaysheadlines&e

    By EDWARD WONG
    Published: December 9, 2012

    BEIJING — In a strong signal of support for greater market-oriented economic policies, Xi Jinping, the new head of the Communist Party, made a visit over the weekend to the special economic zone of Shenzhen in south China, which has stood as a symbol of the nation’s embrace of a state-led form of capitalism since its growth over the last three decades from a fishing enclave to an industrial metropolis.

    The trip was Mr. Xi’s first outside Beijing since becoming party chief on Nov. 15. Mr. Xi visited a private Internet company on Friday and went to Lotus Hill Park on Saturday to lay a wreath at a bronze statue of Deng Xiaoping, the leader who opened the era of economic reforms in 1979, when Shenzhen was designated a special economic zone. Mr. Deng famously later visited the city in 1992 to encourage reviving those economic policies after they had stalled following the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1989.

  • Nosedive: Chinese shopkeeper cover story a new low for South African journalism, by KEVIN BLOOM & RICHARD POPLAK - Daily Maverick
    http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-10-30-nosedive-chinese-shopkeeper-cover-story-a-new-low-for-so

    #Afrique_du_sud : une critique intéressante (et marrante) d’un article idiot jouant sur la “peur du petit commerçant chinois”.

    the striking thing about Chinese shop owners is their very disassociation from Beijing, or any formal business network in mainland China.

    #chine

  • Revue de presse sur la #Chine semaine du 22.10.12

    #Présidentielle américaine : la Chine demande à être mieux considérée

    #Pékin a exigé mardi une atténuation de l’intransigeance face à la Chine affichée lors des débats par les #candidats #américains.

    La #Chine ou le bouc émissaire permanent des politiciens occidentaux durant chaque période électorale d’ampleur....On ne peut que comprendre la position de #Beijing.

    http://www.lepoint.fr/dossiers/monde/election-presidentielle-americaine-2012/presidentielle-americaine-la-chine-demande-a-etre-mieux-consideree-23-10-201

  • Mounting anti-Japanese protests in China

    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/sep2012/chjp-s19.shtml
    By John Chan
    19 September 2012

    Sino-Japanese tensions are rapidly rising amid the largest anti-Japanese demonstrations in China since the two countries normalised relations in 1972. For the past four days, the Beijing regime has allowed protesters to rampage against Japanese-owned businesses, Japanese diplomatic offices and Japanese nationals.

    The anti-Japanese rallies were triggered by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s provocative move last week to formally purchase the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the East China Sea from their private Japanese owner. Protests erupted in 52 Chinese cities last Saturday, and spread to 82 cities the next day.

    #chine #japon #mer-de-chine #diaoyu

  • Tensions between China and Japan flare over disputed islands

    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/sep2012/jpch-s13.shtml

    By Peter Symonds
    13 September 2012

    The Japanese government’s announcement on Tuesday that it had completed the purchase of three of the five Senkaku islands (known in China as Diaoyu) from their private owner threatens a new confrontation with Beijing, which also claims sovereignty over the islands.

    The Chinese foreign affairs ministry issued a statement opposing the decision, declaring that the purchase “cannot alter the fact [that] the Japanese side stole the islands from China.” Chinese defence ministry spokesman Geng Yangsheng registered “staunch opposition and strong protest,” warning that the Chinese military was unwavering in its determination “to defend national territorial sovereignty.”

    #chine #japon #frontières #conflit-frontaliers #revendications-maritimes #asie

  • Asia Times Online

    Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs
    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NH22Ak07.html
    By Pepe Escobar / Aug 22, 2012

    Ali Akbar Asadi, from the International Relations Dept at the University of Allameh Tabatabaei, expands on the key event of the next few weeks: the renewed diplomatic relationship between Iran and Egypt - which is drawing Washington’s unmitigated wrath; the State Department, in a childish move, is even saying that Iran “does not deserve” to host the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran, which will be attended by Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi. [8]

    Asadi goes to the jugular - the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) petro-monarchies are terrified that “Egypt may renew relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran or even enter into strategic relations with Turkey, thus working to undermine the influence and clout of the GCC in the new balance of regional power.”

    Egypt thumbs the nose at US
    By M K Bhadrakumar / Aug 21, 2012

    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NH21Ak02.html

    In sum, Morsi’s decision to open a line to Beijing and Tehran needs to be weighed against a big backdrop. The Brothers apprehend a US-Israeli plan to destabilize Morsi’s government if it doesn’t fall in line with Washington’s diktat. Therefore, they are looking for ways and means to whittle down the current level of Egypt’s over-dependence on the US and its Persian-Gulf allies by diversifying the country’s external relationships and adding countervailing partnerships that would help enhance the country’s strategic autonomy.

    Next week promises to be a defining moment in Middle Eastern politics and inter-Arab alignments when Morsi travels to Beijing and Tehran. With Egypt drifting away, the US’ regional strategies are in great disarray. The immediate question will be what is gained, after all, by conquering Damascus with such mindless brutal violence and bestiality if Cairo and Baghdad have already been lost.

    • Ajout : dernier article en date de Pepe Escobar dans Asia Times sur la Syrie, et plus précisément sur l’avertissement comminatoire d’Obama sur les armes chimiques syriennes et les réponses russe et chinoise :
      http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NH24Ak03.html
      En voici la conclusion :

      All the key players here - the US, Russia and China - know Damascus won’t commit the folly of using (or “moving”) chemical weapons. So no wonder Moscow and Beijing are extremely suspicious this “red line” gambit may be yet another Obama deception maneuver, as in “leading from behind” in Libya (this is nonsense; in fact the attack on Libya started with Africom and then was transferred to NATO).

      As Asia Times Online has been reporting for over a year, once again the big picture is clear; this is a titanic battle between NATO-GCC and BRICS members Russia and China. At stake is nothing less than the rule of international law, which has been steadily going down the drain since at least Agent Orange being sprayed all over Vietnam, through Dubya’s invasion of Iraq in 2003, and with the Libyan “humanitarian bombing” reaching an abysmal low. Not to mention Israel daily threatening to bomb Iran - as if this was a trip to a kosher deli.