The contractors of Chengdu subway projects promised on Wednesday to replace all the electric cables used in the city’s subway lines which were provided by a company failing to meet standards, according to the subways official Weibo account.

The two contractors, China Railway Group and Power Construction Corporation of China, said the replacements will be made regardless of whether tests show the cables used in Chengdu subway lines meet the standards or not.

A planned cooperation with the electric cable company on Chengdu subway Line 2 will be canceled, said the announcement.

Eight people at Shaanxi Aokai Cable Corporation, based in Xi’an city in Shaanxi province, have been detained for providing substandard electric cables for Xi’an subway Line 3. The company has been shut down.

An online tip-off revealed last week that the electric cables provided by the company for Xi’an subway Line 3 were problematic, and questioned the process by which the company won the bid.

A subsequent investigation showed that all of the five samples of the low-voltage cables from Xi’an subway Line 3 failed to meet set standards.

The Xi’an metro company said at a news conference on Monday that it will replace all the substandard cables.

Wang Zhiwei, a legal representative from the company, knelt down and apologized to the public after the investigation result was published.

A joint probe examined the Xi’an subway Line 3 project’s data and documents, and looked into the supervision work carried out by administrative bodies and law enforcement departments, said Yang Xin, head of the commission for discipline inspection in Xi’an, the city’s top anti-graft authority.

The police have impounded the rest of the cable stock at Aokai and have taken samples for testing, Yang said.

Established in late 2012, the company was a private firm producing items such as electric cables, control cables and cables for rail transportation.

Xi’an subway Line 3 was put into use in November last year and carried 345,000 passengers on the first day of operation.

A report released Wednesday by China’s State Oceanic Administration warned that sea levels monitored last year reached the highest level since 1980.

The average sea level along the Chinese coast in 2016 was 38 mm higher than that of 2015 and 82 mm higher than the average level between 1993 and 2011, the report said.

Over the period from 1980 to 2016, sea level readings at China’s coastal regions rose at an average rate of 3.2 mm per year, according to the report.

The report ascribed this situation to influences of climate change as well as El Nino and La Nina events.

Sun Shuxian, vice director of the administration warned that higher sea level may result in aggravated risks of storm tides, floods, coastal erosion, salt tides and seawater encroachment.

Another report released by the administration on Wednesday stated that the marine environment in waters under China’s jurisdiction was “basically stable” in 2016.

However, it also noted some “outstanding problems” such as offshore pollution, an unhealthy marine ecosystem and environmental risks such as reoccurrence of red tides.

China’s cabinet, the State Council, has recently issued a guideline on intensifying crackdown on counterfeiting and Intellectual Property Right (IPR) infringements.

Fighting counterfeiting and IPR violations will help ensure implementation of China’s IPR strategy, protect market order and improve the business environment, the guideline says.

The document requires a better market supervision system and demands improvements to the law, regulations and standards with appropriate information technology utilized in supervision.

The document mandates cooperation among regions and government agencies, along with international collaboration, to handle problems in production, circulation and sales.

E-commerce platforms must strengthen scrutiny of business operators.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the
Labour Party,
commenting on today’s attack in Westminster, said:

“Today’s horrific attack in
Westminster has shocked the whole country. All our thoughts are with the
victims of this outrage, their loved ones, families and friends.

“Those victims include civilians
and police officers, Londoners and visitors, subjected to a brutal and
indiscriminate assault.

“Our thanks and gratitude go to
the police and emergency services who responded so bravely, and to those –
including the MP Tobias Ellwood – who went to the aid of the injured and dying.

“This was not only an attack on
innocent people. It was also an attack on our democracy.

“But I know that Londoners and
people across the country will stand together in defence of our values and
diversity.”

22 March 2017

Caroline Lucas, the co-leader of the Green Party, has responded to Wednesday’s attack in Westminster. 

She said:

“Our thoughts go out to all those affected by today’s attacks and we send deep thanks to the public servants who responded so quickly, bravely, and with care to treat the injured and minimise the number of casualties. We pay tribute to the lives that were so sadly lost and in particular to the police officer who died in the line of duty – we are truly in his debt.

“The response to such a heinous attack must be to strengthen our democracy, and refuse to give in to those who would harm it.”

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