Man arrested in China’s HK for pushing cleaner onto rail track

Police of China’s Hong Kong have arrested a man from Southeast Asia for pushing a cleaner onto a rail track in the town of Yuen Long, according to local media on Sunday.

A closed-circuit video posted online showed that a female cleaner standing on the edge of the platform was pushed onto a rail track by a man coming up behind her.

The attacker then fled the scene, and no train was passing by at that moment.

The 59-year-old cleaner got hurt and was sent to hospital. A police spokesperson said that officers arrested the 56-year-old suspect on Saturday near the rail stop on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The police are still investigating the case.




Mining suspended in NE China nature reserves

Mining has been suspended in all nature reserves in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, local authorities said.

A total of 11 mines are located in nature reserves in the province. All mines will be closed by the end of this year.

According to Li Yongtao, deputy director of Kuandian Manchu Autonomous County land resources bureau, the local government will start environmental restoration work soon as production ceases.

China has carried out environmental inspections nationwide as part of a campaign to fight against pollution and environmental degradation as decades of growth have left the country with smog, polluted water and contaminated soil.

Inspectors monitor prominent environmental issues, oversee local improvements and push for local government accountability.




New Fuxing trains carry 460,000 in 1st month at 350 kpm

The new high-speed trains, Fuxing, carried 460,000 passengers between Beijing and Shanghai in their first full month of operations at maximum speed, Beijing railway bureau said Saturday.

 

Fuxing bullet trains that travel at a consistent speed of 350 kilometers per hour begin operating on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway line, one of the busiest in China, on Sept. 21, 2017. [Photo by Sun Tao / China.org.cn]

On Sept. 21, China increased the maximum speed of Fuxing trains on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway to 350 kilometers per hour.

Fuxing trains are also used on Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway and Beijing-Tianjin intercity rail, but they are allowed to run at 300 kph only for the time being.

Fuxing trains on the Beijing-Guangzhou line reached 100 percent capacity, with 420,000 passengers carried.

The Fuxing, literally meaning Rejuvenation, became the world’s fastest train service some six years after speeds were reduced to 300 km per hour on the Beijing-Shanghai line.

China has the world’s longest high-speed rail network, with 22,000 km currently in operation. About one-third of the country’s high-speed railways were designed to run at a speed of 350 km per hour.

 




Debt defaulter fined for flying first-class

A court in south China’s Shenzhen City said Saturday it had fined a debt defaulter 100,000 yuan (15,000 U.S. dollars) for taking a first-class flight.

Zhang Li, which is not her real name, is on a national blacklist for failing to repay her debts.

People on the blacklist are, among other proscriptions, forbidden from taking first-class flights and are not able to book tickets with their identity cards.

However, Zhang was found to have bought a first-class ticket from Lijiang, Yunnan Province, to Shenzhen, on Oct. 13 using her passport.

On arrival, she was detained by police at Shenzhen airport.

According to the Futian District People’s Court, in November 2015 and April 2017 she was found liable and ordered to pay the debts of her private company of over 7 million yuan. She refused to make the payment and was added to the social credit blacklist.

Following her detention, she paid the fine together with the debts in question.

As authorities work to establish a reliable nationwide credit rating system, courts are exploring new ways of punishing those who do not pay their debts. Among them are the ban from first-class flights and lowering their score at Sesame Credit, a credit-scoring system by Alibaba subsidiary Ant Financial, so that they face upfront charges when renting a car or booking a hotel room.




China reaffirms opposition to Dalai Lama’s visits to foreign countries

A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official reaffirmed Saturday China’s opposition to Dalai Lama’s visits to foreign countries.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the 19th CPC National Congress, executive vice minister of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee Zhang Yijiong urged foreign governments to exercise “caution in both words and deeds.”