MIDDLETOWN, United States — Five people are confirmed dead and at least 12 injured in a powerful blast that rocked a gas-fired power plant in Middletown, Connecticut State of the United States Sunday, the mayor said.

We know that 12 individuals have been injured. Five individuals are known to have lost their lives,” Mayor Al Santostefano told a news conference.

He, however, said the exact number of casualties is not yet available as it is not known how many workers were at the site when the explosion occurred at the Kleen Energy Plant at about 11: 30 local time.

Earlier reports said there were 50 workers at the site at the time of the blast.

“Multiple contractors were on  site – adding to the confusion on the number of employees actually working on site,” the mayor’s office said earlier in a statement.

The power plant is not yet fully on line and the explosion occurred during a testing procedure, the statement said.

A baby girl who was abandoned by her parents because she suffered life threatening birth defects is receiving medical treatment in Beijing after being taken by a woman without permission from a Tianjin hospital.

The newborn girl suffers from a congenital defect that blocks the anus, and other problems. Her family abandoned her in a local hospice because her condition cannot be cured.

China Daily has been told that on Friday morning at 2:30 am, a Beijing resident and four friends snuck into Tianjin Children’s Hospital and took the child without permission. They sent her to Beijing United Family Hospital, where she is now drinking milk and receiving proper medical treatment.

“I read a news report on Feb 3 and made the quick decision to snatch the baby because I was afraid that she would not survive for a long time without proper medical care,” said one of the volunteers, who asked to be known as Shenhai Shuiyao.

“When I rushed into the baby’s room at the hospice, the nurses were changing her diaper. I saw the little girl’s skinny arms and legs spread out like dry twigs but her belly was swollen like a purple watermelon.

“Her condition is much better now after being discharged from the intensive care unit to a ward. Her belly is smaller after the doctor set up a tube to help her defecate. While being fed with milk every two hours, the girl cries louder than before.”

The baby’s father, the Tianjin Children’s Hospital and doctors at Beijing United Family Hospital were unavailable for comment yesterday.

Shenhai Shuiyao said a surgeon at the Beijing hospital told her the baby’s condition could be treated because it was not serious.

The Child Welfare League of China (CWLC), a Beijing-based charity group, and Shenhai Shuiyao and her friends intend to share medical expenses.

Shenhai Shuiyao said the child’s parents had been asked by CWLC to consent to the child’s treatment in Beijing but had refused.

If the family continues to refuse consent, CWLC and the Beijing group have indicated they will attempt to sue the family for crimes of abandonment and indirect intentional homicide.

The baby was born on Jan 15 and received a series of medical treatments in hospital for an imperforate anus, swelling of the kidneys, and heart disease, Zhang Wen, director of CWLC, said last Friday.

But her family finally gave up 13 days later after they realized the baby’s condition was “hopeless” and could not be cured, and that the process was extremely painful for the baby, according to Zhang.

The father told media at the time: “I can’t bring myself to see the baby continue to struggle painfully along on the verge of life.

“Passing away quietly would be the best for her,” the father reportedly said, adding he told a lie to his wife that the baby had died due to congenital malformation.

The family’s decision sparked public uproar after the case was exposed on an online forum. More than 10 netizens even visited the hospice to protest the family’s decision and urged for action to cure the baby.

URUMQI: Authorities in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have restored partial access to 27 Internet sites, including the China Daily website, that had been blocked following last July’s deadly riot in the regional capital of Urumqi.

“We chose the 27 websites because all of them are very practical and popular in China,” Hou Hanmin, spokesperson of the regional government, told China Daily yesterday.

She said the regional government is preparing to restore access to more websites in the near future, but no fixed date has been set for the full restoration of Internet services in Xinjiang, because it will be “a step-by-step process”.

To prevent further unrest after last year’s July 5 riot in Urumqi, which left 197 dead and 1,700 injured, the government blocked access to the Internet and suspended international calls and text message services in the region 24 hours after the riot, because they were believed to be vital tools used to instigate the incident.

The regional government began to progressively lift the ban on the Internet in December by allowing access to a couple of official websites. International phone calls and mobile phone text messaging services were recently reinstalled, though people can only send 20 messages a day.

However, Hou told China Daily yesterday that the regional government is considering increasing the daily allowance for the number of text messages that a mobile user could send because “many people are complaining that 20 messages a day won’t be enough to send Spring Festival greetings to relatives and friends”.

Beside websites providing news services, popular online shopping and trading websites as well as air ticket booking websites are also on the list of the latest websites returned to Xinjiang.

But full access to the websites has not been restored. Xinjiang residents are only allowed to view the contents of online discussion forums of two official media: People’s Daily newspaper and Xinhua News Agency, but they are not able to leave comments or visit forums on other websites.

Xinjiang Internet users also cannot use email or blog services of the websites.

Some people are frustrated by the partial restoration of the websites.

“I can browse taobao.com to look at the online shopping items, but I cannot make a purchase because I wasn’t allowed to log on to my account. So what’s the point of resuming the online shopping site?” said Cheng Lina, an Urumqi resident in her 30s.

“Without email and blogs, I cannot communicate with people, which is the purpose of the Internet. Only receiving information is definitely not enough for me,” said 25-year-old Wu Fei from Hotan. “What we have now is a paralyzed Internet. I hope it gets well soon.”

Activities on the Internet and the content of text messages will be closely monitored by authorities, the regional government said earlier.

Three people have already been caught for spreading rumors and illegal content via text messages in Xinjiang, two weeks after the service was restored, according to local portal tianshannet.com.cn.

Reining in credit ‘an appropriate response’

Davos, Switzerland: China’s central bank stands ready to take more steps this year to ensure rapid lending growth does not cause the economy to overheat, a senior official said on Saturday.

Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, also said recent steps to rein in credit were an appropriate response to that problem and did not signal a departure from the country’s relatively loose policy stance.

“We are very carefully managing loan growth this year to slow down the path of loan growth and to make sure that investment will be at a smooth level to avoid overheating,” Zhu said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. “We will guide – we don’t want to use the word control because they (the banks) are commercial entities – the market and we would like to see smooth loan growth and smooth growth,” he said in an interview.

Fears that China, the world’s third-largest economy, may tighten monetary policy further spooked global financial markets on Jan 26 after Beijing ordered some banks to comply immediately with a planned increase in reserves.

Chinese banks extended 1.45 trillion yuan ($212 billion) in new loans during the first 19 days of the year as they scrambled to front-load lending, according to a report in the 21st Century Business Herald. Earlier this month, the central bank guided up the yield on its three-month bills for the second time this year, signaling its concerns over inflationary pressures and asset bubbles.

The Asian giant has been one of the main drivers of global economic recovery in the absence of a strong rebound in the West and investors fear a slowdown there would stunt its demand for commodities and other imported goods.

Zhu, who declined to comment on whether China had room to raise benchmark interest rates any time soon, suggested that financial markets had over-reacted to China’s moves.

“I really don’t understand why the European market had such a big response to the so-called China money market movements,” he said. “We don’t think this is a change of monetary policy. We still have a sort of modest and accommodative fiscal and monetary policy.”

Many traders believe the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will initially rely on quantitative measures such as raising bank reserve ratios, implementing “window guidance” on lending and sales of three-year bills before raising interest rates.

When mulling interest rate moves, Zhu said China would not only take domestic conditions into account, but also the global environment, given international efforts to coordinate strategies to exit from the economic crisis. The PBOC was keeping a close watch on inflation, which hit 1.9 percent in December, a marked acceleration from November’s reading of 0.6 percent. Although upward pressures on consumer prices were gathering steam, Zhu said he was confident that it would remain within the monetary authority’s expectations.

China’s 30 years of economic reform has gone through several stages – from price liberalization, enterprise regrouping and opening up to redistribution of power between the central and local governments. The next 30 years, I suppose, will see the focus shift to political reform. It is only logical that economic reform precedes political reform.

Although political reform has been attached great importance since the Deng Xiaoping era, it has not progressed enough. The slow pace, however, was not unexpected because the country had to build a learning curve to transform into a market economy and understand labor division.

There is a great hue and cry to democratize the political system further, because democracy is usually mistaken to be the panacea for all political ills. But democratization of a political system is only an optional means rather than the end. Let’s take a crude example. In market economy, we have the freedom to choose what and where to eat. On the contrary, if more than 50 percent of the people reach a consensus on a dinner menu or restaurant, the others will have no choice but to bow to the will of the majority. That means democracy could at times deprive the minority group of its rights even at the cost of sacrificing efficiency.

Thus, marketization of the economy is the more urgent task. If a country endeavors to establish political democracy and takes its benefits for granted before marketizing its economy in the real sense, the public will look to governments at different levels to solve problems that they actually could settle themselves.

There is not much sense in immediately reforming governments’ functions and efficiency through radical democratization, because history shows success is hard to come by this way. Almost every surviving democracy that was built before the establishment of market economy has gone through a bumpy and treacherous road. The corollary is: To avoid the treacherous journey before realizing political democracy, a country has to marketize its economy completely.

Democratization should be based on citizens’ rudimentary consciousness of responsibility, which first takes form, even though gradually, among the middle class. In fact, the history of the past 200 years is a history of the rising middle class. Economic globalization is nothing but the globalization of the middle class. Democracy entails a strong sense of responsibility among citizens, for your vote could create a great impact on others or even the entire community.

Without a strong middle class, the poor could become fickle in nature and be manipulated because of their needs. Such a situation could be easily exploited by the rich and powerful to reverse the reform process or at least prevent it from progressing further. What we would confront then is political status quo or stagnation.

Since the middle class is sandwiched between the rich and the poor, it acts as the buffer between the two extreme strata of society. If the middle class is not strong enough, the rich could give fairness and justice a silent burial or the poor could rise in revolt. In either case, chaos will descend on society. And only a mature market economy can ensure a middle class that is strong enough to fulfill its social responsibilities. So without a mature market economy neither can China complete its political democratization nor can the middle class perform its role.

Establishing the rule of law is the core task before complete democracy can be ushered in. Unfortunately, we have been undermining the authority of the courts in many cases. A large number of disputes could be settled only after higher authorities or governments intervened. But improper or uncalled-for government interference or intervention in social conflicts or problems often leads to social disorder. Only by making the judiciary foolproof can social stability be ensured. For that, social problems have to be settled as individual cases rather than complex collective issues. The authority of law and courts are the primary forces that can eliminate social complications.

Tang Degang, a researcher in macro-history theory, says China has undergone two grand structural transformations in its history. The first took about 200 years to complete. The transformation from feudalism to a system of prefectures and counties started during the reign of Qinshihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC), and ended with Hanwudi, the founding father of Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 24). The second transformation can be said to have begun with the First Opium War in 1840 and, as history shows, would need at least 200 years to complete. Which means it can be completed only by 2040. That makes the next 30 years the last chapter in the transformation and, like the past 30 years, the most important.

It may not be a once-and-for-all change, though, because the country could still have a huge number of technical issues to solve even after choosing the right direction.

The author is director of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. This is an edited version of his speech at the Annual Meeting of China’s Reform (2009).

The most crucial task for China in international climate talks is to seek an equal arrangement of emission rights that could guarantee its development interests and basic human rights, says Ding Zhongli, a renowned geologist and vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in an interview with China Daily.

While in allocating emissions rights – or the quota of emissions – for different countries, the reduction proposals of the IPCC (United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the G8 and the OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) did not consider that the cumulative emissions per capita of developed countries throughout modern history (from 1900 to 2005) has been 7.54 times that of developing countries.

They assigned developed countries 2.3-6.7 times the future emissions quota per capita more than developing countries, which would remarkably deprive the development and interests of poor countries.

Due to the gigantic differences in the historically cumulative emissions amounts and the current emissions base quota, if considering how much different countries have reduced in emissions in a bid to control atmospheric CO2 concentration, it would screen the differences in emissions in history and per capita, resulting in an unjustified outcome, Ding says.

In his paper on the major proposals for carbon emissions reduction and some related issues, published on February issue of “Science in China”, Ding analyzed the trap hidden in the dialogue on emissions reduction.

The “trap” consists of: First, demonstrating the high sensitivity of global temperatures to atmospheric CO2 concentration; second, emphasizing the catastrophic impacts of global warming on the biosphere and on humans; third, making the value judgment that the extent of temperature increases since the Industrial Revolution should be controlled under 2 C within this century; fourth, calculating that the atmospheric CO2 equivalent concentration should not exceed 450 parts per million by volume within the 2 C model; fifth, defining the responsibilities of developing countries in terms of long-term emissions reductions; sixth, fixing the quota of developing countries in long-term emissions reduction.

The key point here is that once the concentration target of 450 ppmv is established, the permitted emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production from 2006 to 2050 are fixed accordingly.

Even though the ocean and land continue to absorb 45 percent of carbon emissions, the total amount of emissions that people all over the world could discharge is at about 255.11 GtC. In the total amount of emissions, however, after developed countries determine their proportion of how much they should reduce, there is not much vacancy left for developing countries to exercise emissions freedom.

Developing countries may not be fully aware of the “trap”. For example, some negotiators from developing countries have long been stressing that developed countries should cut it by 40 percent by 2020 from the 1990 levels. In fact, regardless of whether developed countries can make that target or even though they reach that target, the emissions quota left to developing countries is very limited, Ding said.

Therefore, these proposals (including those of the IPCC, the G8 and the OECD) have violated the international principles of justice and fairness and also go against the principle of “common but different responsibilities” endorsed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. These proposals have no legitimacy to be taken as the basis of further international climate change negotiations.

As the world’s most populous country, it is normal that China’s emissions amount and methods are of great concern worldwide. But it goes without saying that China strives for emissions equality, given its huge development gaps among regions, its large impoverished population, high-speed industrialization and current urbanization rate of about 45 percent.

According to the three proposals, however, China should receive an emissions quota of less than 20 years, which means that no later than 2026 China has to buy emission rights from other countries. Certainly, China can’t accept this. This is the crux that concerns the impartiality of emissions rights distribution.

The world undoubtedly is mankind’s common system and the atmosphere is a public resource shared by everybody. It is men’s natural right in the use or distribution of any substance, including the composition emitted by anthropic activity that also should reflect the principle of impartiality. So, in discussion of future emissions rights, the historically cumulative emissions per capita of each country that has already emitted CO2 should be considered, and then the future emissions quota of each country should be calculated.

As a world power with responsibility, China could resort to the subject of “cumulative emissions per capita” in negotiations. If the international community could truly adhere to the principles of fairness and justice and control carbon emissions through cumulative quotas, China could not only strive for more emissions rights but also break the chains imposed on China by some countries, establishing an image of confident and responsible power in international affairs.

China plans to close thousands of offices established by regional governments in Beijing following longstanding allegations of corruption, the influential Outlook Weekly reported in its latest issue.

The report said that various offices representing administrative departments of regional governments, management committees of economic development zones or governments at county levels will be closed within six months.

It is estimated that there are more than 10,000 such offices, including 5,000 established by county-level governments.

Zhu Lijia, director of public administration studies teaching and research section of the National School of Administration, said that many offices have become mere “reception centers” instead of offering other functions.

“A modest calculation will put the total expenditure of those offices at more than 10 billion yuan,” the report said, citing an anonymous expert.

However, some offices, such as those set by provincial governments, autonomous regions and municipalities, will be kept to continue their work to promote regional economic growth and contributing to stability in Beijing.

It was also reported that the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, a powerful anti-corruption watchdog, began a major investigation of the offices in 2006. Other senior officials also warned against the corruption in these offices and urged authorities to strengthen regulations.

The problems with the Beijing offices targeted for closing, in addition to the large number, are the lack of clearly defined responsibilities and an underdeveloped supervision mechanism, according to the report.

The central government will shut down thousands of liaison offices set up by local governments in Beijing to prevent corruption, official media reported yesterday.

Those targeted are mainly offices set up by county-level administrative bodies, such as counties, county-level cities and districts, according to Outlook, a periodical under the official Xinhua News Agency.

But liaison offices set by provincial-level governments or agencies will remain.

Offices of city-level administrative bodies will be re-evaluated and approved by higher governments, the report said.

Experts said such offices, linking local and central governments, have played an active role in strengthening cooperation between Beijing and regions, but now there have been many of them, with unclear functions and inadequate supervision.

The report said there are 52 semi-provincial-or-above-level offices, 520 city-level offices, and more than 5,000 county-level and enterprise liaison offices currently in Beijing.

“A lot of county-level liaison offices have become reception centers for local officials who come to Beijing,” said Zhu Lijia, a professor from the Chinese Academy of Governance. “Actually, county-level governments rarely need to connect with central ministries, so it is reasonable to dismiss them.”

Li Chengyan, a professor on anti-corruption with Peking University, said the offices dismissed should not open any new offices under any excuse, and local governments should not permit or give financial support to establish new ones.

However, experts also said the decision could be very difficult to implement as too many people and interests are involved, and some of the offices’ functions are necessary.

Li said the existence of such a large number of liaison offices has its reasons.

“They’re in charge of coordination, reception, and information processing, which are necessary. Therefore, it is inevitable that some other channels will be worked out to replace these offices in their functions.”

If these needs cannot be satisfied in other ways, the Beijing offices of local governments will exist under different a pretext,” said Gong Weibin, a professor from Nankai University.

Ren Jianming, a professor from Tsinghua University, said that simply dismissing offices can only solve the problem temporarily as “the fundamental reasons why so many offices are there won’t be solved”.

“One reason is that the central government has a lot of resources that local governments need and they have to get it through connections, like construction projects, investment and even promotions,” Ren said.

“Besides, most Beijing offices of local governments work on keeping the stability of Beijing by communicating and pacifying local people who come to the capital to appeal to higher authorities”.

Ren’s words resonated in Zhang Peng, a Beijing office staff sent by a city government of Jiangsu province. Zhang said his main job is to seek business opportunities for his home city and although he would like to go back, his mayor “wants to send more people to Beijing”.

“I don’t think it would be that easy to dismiss the offices,” Zhang said. “We can just change a name for our office and stay.”

Rescuers found the bodies of seven people who had been missing in the mountainous area of Altay prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, following continuous snowstorms during the weekend.

Nine rescuers, who were acquainted with local conditions and familiar with extreme weather, were airlifted to the location where the seven were last seen by two military helicopters at 11 am on Saturday during rescue attempts.

After 6 hours of searching, the rescuers discovered the bodies of six men and one woman. But due to bad weather conditions, the bodies could not be transferred back to Altay city, about 120 km away, so the rescuers covered the bodies with sheets and planned to return to the scene the next day to collect them, the Xinjiang regional emergency office said.

The authorities did not confirm if the bodies were transported back yesterday, but said all seven bodies will be identified as soon as they arrive in Altay city.

The seven belong to a group of 23 illegal gold miners who had been trapped in a remote mountainous village for more than a month due to continuous blizzards.

Nine members of the group attempted to retreat to another village following a blizzard on Jan 12 as they were running out of food, but only two managed to reach the destination with severe frostbite after struggling for six days under extreme weather conditions. The other seven got lost on the way.

Helicopters airlifted the remaining 14 members to Altay city last Thursday after emergency services were informed about their situation the previous day. They were later sent to a hospital for medical checkups. Only one suffered from severe frostbite while the rest were discharged.

Xinjiang has been experiencing the worst winter in 60 years as the region has been suffering from extreme cold and continuous blizzards since December.

Transportation in snowstorm-hit areas such as Altay prefecture has been seriously affected. A number of remote villages in mountainous areas of Altay are completely isolated because the roads to the settlements are reportedly covered with 2 m of snow, obstructing vehicles.

The military helicopters that transported rescuers also airdropped 3.5 tons of relief goods during the weekend to three nearby villages, which have been cut off from the outside world for weeks due to the adverse road conditions.

So far, the PLA have saved 51 people from danger and airdropped 7 tons of relief goods to hard-to-reach areas.

Another spacecraft launch likely in 2010 to prepare for space lab

China plans to launch Chang’e-2, the country’s second lunar probe, at the end of 2010, space authorities announced yesterday.

The design and production of Chang’e-2 is complete, and the lunar orbiter is undergoing ground tests, the State Administration of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense said yesterday in a news release.

Chang’e-2 is expected to test the soft-landing technological capability for the Chang’e-3 and provide high-resolution images of the landing area, the administration said.

“Progress on six key technologies of Chang’e-2 has been made, including the lunar capture, orbit control and research on high-resolution stereo camera,” the administration’s spokesman said.

Ye Peijian, chief designer of the nation’s first lunar probe, had told China Daily earlier that the launch was expected in October.

The administration said that Chang’e-3, the country’s lunar lander and rover, is also well on the way toward liftoff. The project is now in the prototype stage.

Chang’e-2 and Chang’e-3 are part of the second phase of the country’s lunar exploration program, which consists of three stages – “orbiting”, “landing” and “returning”.

Ye said earlier that Chang’e-3 is likely to be launched before 2013. The country’s first lunar probe, Chang’e-1, was launched in October 2007 and ended its 16-month mission on March 1 this year.

China became the third nation – after the US and Russia – to send people into space when Yang Liwei went into orbit aboard the spaceship Shenzhou-V on Oct 15, 2003. Three other astronauts were sent to space in Shenzhou-VII and carried out the country’s first space walk in September 2008.

Shen Liping, deputy chief designer of China’s manned space program, was quoted by Guangzhou Daily as saying on Sunday that China’s first woman astronaut will be able to fly to outer space sooner than the targeted 10 years.