The Nation Newspaper

Tag: china

  • China to regulate online streaming on social media

    China to regulate online streaming on social media

    China’s press and publication regulator on Tuesday ordered social media platforms featuring video and audio programmes to obtain licenses.

    The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) have recently issued a document strengthening the regulation of video and audio programmes on social media platforms.

    “If organisations and individuals operate online streaming services on Weibo or WeChat without licenses, the social media platforms should be responsible for the content.

    “Platforms must monitor if content is suitable according to various requirements for managing video and audio programs,’’ SAPPRFT noted.

    It added that the scope of content cannot exceed the limit specified in the license issued to platforms.

    It said that online platforms are also prohibited from offering access to Weibo or WeChat accounts that defy regulations.

    “In addition, films and TV series circulated on social media platforms must obtain licenses for public airing.

    “Social media platforms are not allowed to repost user-generated video and audio programmes featuring political news,’’ it stressed.

  • ‘China doesn’t have two embassies in Nigeria’

    ‘China doesn’t have two embassies in Nigeria’

    There is no Taiwanese Ambassador to Nigeria and no embassy can be set up without the Federal Government’s approval, diplomats have said.
    They said it was illegal for Taiwan to appoint an Ambassador to Nigeria or establish an embassy without notice or approval for Nigerian government.
    Former Ambassadors to China Jonathan Coker and Sola Onadipe, former High Commissioner to Namibia Prince Adegboyega Ariyo and a former Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) Prof Bola Akinterinwa said Nigeria could not have two Chinese embassies in the country.
    The diplomats, who spoke in Lagos during the Nigeria/China Friendship Association (NICAF)’s 24th Annual General Meeting, were reacting to an online publication that there was a new Taiwanese ambassador with an embassy in Abuja.
    According to him, Nigeria was in full support of the “One China policy of Beijing”, adding that its relations with Taiwan only permitted it to have a trade office in Abuja and not an embassy.
    Ariyo said China was strategically important to Nigeria and urged the National Assembly to wade in and forestall any damage of relations between both countries.
    “There are currently some moves by people with vested interests to cause problems in Nigeria and China’s relations. And this should not be allowed. The Federal Government of Nigeria and the National Assembly should urgently wade into this selfish development. We have even discovered that some products with China labels in Nigeria are actually from Taiwan,” he said.
    Coker said China would continue to be Nigeria’s ally if both countries continue to sustain their mutually-beneficial areas of cooperation.
    Onadipe said it was imperative for Nigeria to take appropriate moves at investigating the alleged appointment of a Taiwanese Ambassador to Nigeria.
    Akinterinwa said Nigeria had historical, political and economic ties with Beijing and could not afford to abandon them in favour of engagement with Taiwan.
    NICAF, he added, would continue to uphold Nigeria’s foreign policy of one China.
    The high-point of the AGM was the election of Chief Jacob Woods as NICAF’s new chairman, following the death of Ambassador Victor Chibundu, on June 8, this year.
    Also elected were Onadipe as the association’s Nigerian Vice-chairman, Guo Sun as the Chinese Vice-chairman and Dr. Tunde Emmanuel as Secretary.
    Ariyo and the daughter of the late Chibundu, Mrs. Edith Udeagu, were appointed into the association’s Board of Trustees.

  • Wrongly executed man acquitted by court

    Nie Shubin, who was executed 21 years ago for rape and murder, had his conviction overturned by China’s top court on Friday.

    The second circuit court under the Supreme People’s Court revoked the verdict.

    Nie was convicted of raping and murdering a woman in Hebei provincial capital, Shijiazhuang in 1995 and executed the same year at the age of 21.

    The case re-emerged in 2005 when another man, Wang Shujin, admitted guilt in the case and said Nie was innocent.

    In December 2014, the SPC assigned the higher court of Shandong Province to review the case and the latter found there were too many questions about the previous trials to uphold the conviction.

    However, the SPC decided to retry the case in June 2016.

    The retrial panel of the second SPC circuit court reviewed all documents on the case, visited the crime scene, verified evidence and questioned former personnel who had handled the case.

    It also heard opinions from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, which insisted that the evidence presented in the original trial was insufficient.

    The SPC finally announced Nie was innocent on Friday.

    It ruled that the evidence was lacking, the time of the crime and tools used to commit the crime could not be confirmed and the victim’s time and cause of death could not be confirmed.

    It noted several key documents, including some records of the questioning of Nie and witnesses had been lost and the truth and legitimacy of Nie’s confession were questionable.

    “The evidence used to convict Nie was not accurate and sufficient and did not meet the requirements for a conviction,’’ it said. (Xinhua/NAN)

  • China to launch first e-commerce satellite in 2017

    China plans to launch its first e-commerce satellite in 2017, with the primary purpose of using satellite data in agriculture.

    Han Qingping, President of the Chinarocket Co., Ltd, on Monday announced the plan during an international aviation and aerospace forum in Zhuhai.

    He said at the forum that launching such satellite has become imperative because in an era of space economy, the potential of a commercial space industry is immeasurable.

    Qingping disclosed that in 2015, the value of the global space industry in China amounted to 330 billion dollars, 76 per cent of which resulted from commercial activities.

    Hu Chaobin, an official from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, said during the forum that Chinese authorities are making efforts, including legislation, to support and regulate the development of a commercial space industry.

    He said China is speeding up the making of space law, with the aim of having completed drafting the law by the end of this year.

  • Why China remains Nigeria’s friend

    Why China remains Nigeria’s friend

    “INVESTORS from all over the world are falling over themselves to come and do business in Nigeria”, said President Muhammadu Buhari in his recent National Day address to Nigerians. I know this to be true.

    Since my arrival in Abuja last month as China’s new Ambassador to Nigeria, I have been flooded with Chinese investors from Beijing and beyond, both active and prospective. The president of China-Africa Development Fund, the Chairman of the Overseas Investment Union of the Investment Association of China, the Chairman of CCECC, the CEO of CGCOC Group, the president of Star Times, the CEO of TIDFORE Group, to name just a few. Also impressive is the enthusiasm and optimism the local Chinese business community shown when I meet and greet them.

    Their core message to me is loud and clear: the potential of mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Nigeria is enormous and they want to invest more in Nigeria, be it in agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructural development or other fields. The “Made in Nigeria” project will go a long way for Nigeria and will go strong, while an initiative of “Made in Nigeria–with China” might help, as they say.

    Take agriculture. Food is vital for human survival. China’s top priority in running the country has always been to produce enough food for the over 1.3 billion people. China has succeeded in feeding about 20 percent of the world’s population with only around 9 percent of the world’s arable land. As a major agriculture producer, China leads the world in the output of grain, cotton, fruit, vegetable, tea, meat, poultry, egg, and aquatic products. China stands ready to share its advanced and applicable technologies and management expertise with Nigeria without any reservation so as to help the largest country in Africa achieve food self-sufficiency by re-invigorating agriculture.

    A CGCOC-invested agriculture and agribusiness park, with a Chinese Government-granted agriculture science and technology demonstration center will soon be built inside, is almost ready to play its due part. We are willing to work with Nigeria side to provide more effective platform to mobilize more Chinese investment in Nigeria’s Green Alternative.

    Then take manufacturing. As the world’s largest manufacturing country, China ranks the first in the world in the output of over 200 industrial products. Nigeria needs manufacturing and industrial development, whereas China has fairly strong capabilities in financing and spare production capacity in these fields. Each has so much to offer to the other side. Cooperation based on such complementary and mutual benefit will give an even stronger boost to China and Nigeria’s respective development.

    China supports the relocation of labor-intensive industries to Nigeria on a priority basis and the localization of Chinese companies to create more non-agricultural jobs, especially those suited to the young people. As a matter of fact, during President Buhari’s successful state visit to China this April, the two sides signed a MOU on industry, production capacity and investment cooperation and a forum for this purpose was also held in Beijing. Next month, the China-Nigeria Production Capacity and Investment Cooperation Forum is going to be held in Lekki Free Zone Lagos and the Forum hopefully will be an annual event there around November 20th African Industrialization Day.

    As the saying goes, good company on the road is the shortest cut. China and Nigeria, both large developing countries, regard each other as important strategic cooperation partners. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 45 years ago, particularly in the past 11 years of our strategic partnership, the all-dimensional, wide-ranging and high-quality cooperation between China and Nigeria has been a pacesetter in China-Africa cooperation.

    The volume of China’s concessional financial support to Nigeria’s development is close to US$4 billion. China has become a major source for foreign direct investment in Nigeria. The friendship and cooperation between China and Nigeria have delivered tangible benefits to our two peoples.

    China highly values its relations with Nigeria and is working closely with Nigeria in following through on the outcomes of President Buhari’s state visit to China and those of the Johannesburg summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and take China-Nigeria strategic partnership to a new height. As a strategic, dependable development partner of Nigeria, China will always stand shoulder to shoulder with Nigeria in its quest to fulfill the aspirations of its good people.

    As President Xi Jinping said in his address at the Opening Ceremony of the FOCAC Summit last November, “China-Africa relations have today reached a stage of growth unmatched in history. We should scale the heights, look afar and take bold steps. Let us join hands, pool the vision and strengthen the 2.4 billion Chinese and Africans and open a new era of China-Africa win-win cooperation and common development.”

    Standing at a crucial new start point, the relationship between China and Nigeria is blessed with important development opportunity. Let us take it.

    • Dr. Zhou Pingjian is the new Ambassador of China to Nigeria

  • Envoy: China to share ICT experience with Nigeria

    •Huawei launches $6m innovation, experience centre

    Chinese technology firms are ready to share their wealth of experience in the information communication technology (ICT) with Nigeria to pull the country out of recession, the Consul-General in Lagos, Mr. Chao Xiaoliang, has said.

    The envoy, who gave the assurance during the inauguration of the $6 million Huawei Customer Service Innovation Centre (CSIC) and the University of Lagos-Huawei JointLab in Lagos, at the weekend, said China was responding to the lull in global economy by restructuring its industries while Nigeria has chosen diversification as its strategy to fight the recession scourge.

    He said: “I am quite confident that ICT will be a new and strong growth point among our future pragmatic cooperation. China is willing to share our experience in ICT and help boost the social and economic development of Nigeria.

    “Against the backdrop of sluggish global economy, China is restructuring its industries while Nigeria is diversifying its economy. The highly complementary economies and development strategies of our two countries would ensure that our cooperation would achieve win-win results. The better Nigeria becomes, the better Chinese companies in Nigeria would be.

    “I would like to congratulate Huawei on the successful commissioning of the Innovation and Experien2ce Centre. Chinese companies, such as Huawei, are willing to share their experience in ICT innovation in order to boost the social and economic development of Nigeria. I wish China and Nigeria a long-lasting relationship and prosperous future.”

    Speaking on the occasion, Communications Technology Minister Adebayo Shittu said it was an epoch making event for a number of reasons, “but most importantly, the fact that the present government is easily the first government to come on stage leveraging the benefits of the digital revolution with strategic partnership with Huawei Chinese company as a leading global supplier of ICT products, solutions and services”.

    He went on: “Therefore I would like to use this opportunity to express my appreciation on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria to Huawei Technologies for partnering the Ministry in the area of human and institutional capacity development.”

    Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Ltd., Managing Director, Mr. Frank Li, said the firm was dedicated to investment of industry innovation driven by both customer needs and new technologies. “Huawei will continuously adhere to its strategic focus, investment, and the relentless pursuit of strategic breakthrough to face all challenges together with its partners,” he added.

    He said continuous investment and resources would be put into ICT innovation to drive the digital economy in Nigeria and other African countries.

    Huawei Innovation and Experience Centre was built  under the concept of cloud, which enables visitors to share Huawei global resources. It was set up to be an experience centre where people can witness global best practice, exchange ideas, explore business solutions through innovation and also a platform to develop win-win ICT ecosystem with latest cutting edge ICT technologies such as 4.5 G, Internet of Things (IoTs) and digital service innovation.

    The Innovation and Experience Centre will also serve as a training platform to nurture more ICT talents thus through the joint innovation memorandum of understanding (MoU) with University of Lagos (UNILAG) for this purpose.

    ICT industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in Nigerian with a 30 per cent yearly increase rate. Consequently at the second quarter of this year, ICT industry has occupied 9.8 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

  • Nigeria seeks better deal from China

    BENUE State Deputy Governor Benson Abounu  has said Nigeria wants a better business relationship with China.

    Speaking during the 45th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Nigeria and China in Abuja, he said Nigeria was interested in the Chinese helping the economy.

    He said: “We are interested in getting together with China to give us the technology. Nigeria is a very fertile ground for investment. Nigeria is not interested in memorandum of understanding. We have had series of memorandum of understanding, and they are piled up.

    “What Nigeria is looking for is a memorandum of understanding for action for us to establish joint venture companies with China, especially in areas where we have comparative advantage.

    “Nigeria is diversifying, in just a space of 12 months the oil revenue has dwindled to an extent that not even the economists were able to predict. Because of that, we are faced with diversification, and most states have comparative advantage in the area of agriculture.

    “Though, Nigeria is technically in recession but that does not mean that Nigeria does not have a very robust economy. The recession in Nigeria today is purely monetary phenomenon, it still does not mean that the productive base of Nigeria has been eroded.

    “What is happening now is temporary in nature and very soon the government is going to take action based on certain discussions that has been held in recent times especially within the purview of the national economic council which has prescribed certain economic policies that will be put in place in order to end the recession.”

    He said money would soon be injected into the economy to reflate it, adding that in three months, the economy would be back on track.

    “Benue is an agricultural state with very fertile ground, which is applicable to most states in the country. Nigeria is looking at agriculture as the main stay of the economy.

  • Lufthansa partners Air China

    The Lufthansa Group and Air China have signed a wide-reaching partnership agreement in Beijing which will enable the two aviation groups to jointly operate all connections between Europe and China as part of a commercial joint venture.

    This means that the two companies will successfully implement what they agreed to do as part of a memorandum of understanding in summer 2014.

    The joint venture aims to significantly expand their mutual code-sharing connections and enhance their commercial partnership. This will allow the Lufthansa Group to continue pursuing its partnership-driven Asia strategy. Following a joint venture with the Japanese airline All Nippon Airlines (ANA) and a joint venture with Singapore Airlines, which was signed in November 2015, this is now the Lufthansa Group’s third enhanced partnership in Asia.

    “As the flag carrier, Air China is the ideal partner for the Lufthansa Group in the People’s Republic of China. This ground-breaking joint venture will fundamentally strengthen our competitive position on routes between Europe and China. The significantly enhanced partnership will enable us to create additional benefits for customers,” said Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, at the signing of the agreement in Beijing.

    “The Chinese aviation market is one of the most important growth markets worldwide. We want to profit from this growth together with our Star Alliance partner Air China,” added Spohr.

  • China to build $1.85b Kano light rail

    China Railway Construction Corporation said it has won a $1.851 billion contract to construct the Kano city light rail.

    In an announcement yesterday, the company said it has received a provisional letter of award from Nigeria for the  the 74.3 kilometres rail track.

    The first phase of the project construction is billed to take two years, while the second phase of the four-line rail is expected to take another two years.

    It said the contract amountd of approximately $1.851 billion (equivalent to approximately RMB 120.3 Billion), accounting for two per cent of the Company’s 2015 revenue, under the China Accounting Standards,” the announcement read.

    Nigeria is investing heavily in capital projects, building infrastructure, and replacing half-a-century old rail lines, in the country.

    With over N1 trillion budgeted for capital expenditure in the 2016 appropriation Act, Nigeria is expected to invest the highest amount of money in capex in its 56-year history.

  • ‘Why China should support Nigeria financially’

    Budget and National Planning Minister Udoma Udo Udoma has made a strong case why the Chinese government should offer financial assistance to the Federal Government in the funding of some critical infrastructure projects.

    Senator Udoma spoke at the weekend from China at the coordinator’s meeting on the implementation of the follow-up actions of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

    He also used held talks discussions on issues of economic interests with that country’s Vice Minister for Commerce, Mr. Qian Keming and officials of the China EXIM Bank, where he stressed the mutually beneficial relationship the two countries will eventually enjoy by assisting Nigeria to grow its economy.

    At the Johannesburg Summit in South Africa in December, last year, China had agreed to assist African countries in ten strategic areas to boost their economy. It pledged $60 billion in aid, grants and concessional loans.

    The Federal Government has been trying to get as much of the Chinese funding for projects in the form of grants, aids, investments and loans.

    The loan component will however be within the Nigeria’s debt sustainability limits.

    Already, the government has proposed projects for the facility in the region of about $20 billion and the minister said a helping hand from the Chinese government will lift Nigeria.

    During the various meetings, Udoma stressed the need for special consideration for Nigeria, given its strategic relationship with China, its economic potentials, and its capacity to redeem its part of the transaction obligations.

    The minister said that following the meetings, both countries expressed satisfaction with the proposals and very anxious to proceed to the next level.

    During the Cooperation meeting attended by ministers from various countries in Africa, China’s President Xi Jinping, described the parley as an important step taken by China and Africa to implement the consensus of Chinese and Africa leaders and the outcomes of the FOCAC.

    “It is a significant measure to boost China-African cooperative development. The meeting demonstrates to the world once again that no matter how the international landscape may change, the resolve of China and Africa to pursue unity and win-win cooperation will never change”, Jinping said.