The New Dominion

While Porfiriy’s away, I thought I’d step in and do some news updating. Today’s post includes veterans’ benefits for nuclear test participation, an update on the Ürümchi Dehui fire, educational policy, foreign trade news, awful weather, and improved standards for health and safety. All of this after the break.

According to the New York Times, the PRC has begun to provide extra pay to those army veterans, as well as some civilians, involved in the nuclear tests at Lop Nur. The subsidy began last year.

2 January 2008 saw a terrible fire take place at the Dehui International Square (德汇国际广场) department store on Qiantang Jiang Lu near the passenger train station in Ürümchi. The fire took five lives and caused millions of yuan in damage to property. Xinhua has a story on the outpouring of charity for the over 1200 families affected by the fire. Donations have already exceeded 14 000 000 RMB.

There have been more developments in the field of educational policy. At the recently-concluded 11th Meeting of the XUAR People’s Congress, several representatives pointed out the need to dramatically increase middle and high school enrollment in Southern Xinjiang, specifically in Qäshqär, Xotän, and the Qizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture, with an emphasis on skills training. In Qäshqär, the rate of high school attendance is only 23%, while, in other areas, it is lower than 20%. The meeting also emphasized the need to focus on “bilingual education” and on the “Two Basics” plan. As for the lack of Chinese-language teaching resources, a major impediment to spreading Mandarin in Southern Xinjiang, representatives had no answers, only noting the need for more training. Somewhat more concretely, the XUAR Education Office has set some goals regarding the spread of “bilingual education” in the near future. According to its figures, there are now more than 150 000 students enrolled in “bilingual” classes in Xinjiang, of which there are now over 5000. There will be a new emphasis on pre-school entry Mandarin language training, which currently enrolls 141 500 or so children. In the South, the Education Office wants to enroll 85% of children of age in such programs within four years. “Bilingual” training programs will also begin to train teachers from rural areas.

People and money are flowing through Xinjiang. In 2007, over 7 700 000 passengers passed through the Ürümchi airport, up 19.6% from 2006. In 2007, Xinjiang’s 1636 companies receiving foreign investment were offered 2.852 billion USD in contracts, eventually accepting 812 million USD thereof. Foreign investment in Xinjiang in 2007 exceeded 13.716 billion USD, up 50.7% from 2006, which the XUAR, naturally, wants to improve upon. The goal is to increase foreign investment 20% to 16.5 billion USD, of which 9.8 billion will be invested in regular XUAR companies and 6.7 billion USD in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. There is also the goal of increasing net profits from import and export to 16.5 billion USD.

Ürümchi is not a very nice place to be right now. Beginning on 18 January, the city experienced the coldest weather it’s had in ten years, dropping below -20C every day for five days. Luckily, it’s been rather noticeably nicer over the last couple of days. On the 24, Ürümchi got hit with an earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale. Did anyone feel this? Similarly, Qäshqär set a record low temperature, hitting -24 C around 27 January. Likewise was Southern Xinjiang to receive a 10-year record snowfall, getting a total accumulation of 5 to 15 cm.

Actually, all of Xinjiang is experiencing minor disasters. There occurred in Ürümchi’s Midong District on the afternoon of 24 January a mining accident that took one life. The Ili River is experiencing flooding caused by the thickening of the river’s surface ice, in turn brought about by the sustained record low temperatures, flooding herders’ houses and drowning livestock in Huocheng County and in the Chapchal Sive Autonomous County. 23 families of herders and 4640 livestock animals have been evacuated.

There is some hope. The Qaramay oil fields reached their goal in 2007 of zero on-the-job deaths. The Xinjiang Oil Field Company attributes their success to improved employee safety programs. In the medical field, on 20 January, the XUAR Health Office [better translation, anyone?], along with ten other concerned organs, ordered Xinjiang hospitals not to turn away non-job-related cases of carbon monoxide poisoning. Although signs of a measles epidemic in Ürümchi have been building since November, the city reportedly has over 100 outpatient clinics prepared to provide free measles vaccinations, and the city’s Disease Prevention Center has been spreading notices and information about measles. The PRC also plans to establish Ürümchi as a model city for heating production reform and energy conservation. Ürümchi would be the second such city to be established as such under a World Bank program. Unfortunately, it seems that the over 30 000 000 RMB to be provided for this project will, at this point, only go to the construction of two new phases of pre-existing apartment complexes.

Today’s news and photos, unless otherwise credited, came from the Xinhua News Network’s Xinijang channel.