Beijing, The size of China's search engine market hit 5.53 billion yuan (USD 877 million) in the first quarter of 2012, according to new statistics. The figure represents a 70.4 percent year-on-year increase, but a 4.7 percent decline compared to the last quarter of 2011, showed the statistics from Analysys International, a Beijing-based tech and internet information provider. Dong Xu, an analyst with the firm, attributed the quarter-on-quarter decline to the traditional seasonality of Internet use. Thanks to its good overall performance, however, the keyword section has attracted steady advertising budgets, Xinhua quoted Dong as saying. Keyword advertising also meets the needs of brand marketing with advertisers, who are gradually recognizing its promotional value. Therefore, China's search engine market will keep a stable development, he ...
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Beijing, Chinese military experts feel that there is more to India's successful long-range nuclear-capable missile Agni-V than what New Delhi is saying. A Chinese researcher said the missile "actually has the potential to reach targets 8,000 kilometers away". Du Wenlong, a researcher at China's PLA Academy of Military Sciences, told the Global Times that the Agni-V "actually has the potential to reach targets 8,000 kilometers away". Du added that "the Indian government had deliberately downplayed the missile's capability in order to avoid causing concern to other countries". India Thursday test-fired the Agni-V missile that it said can accurately hit targets more than 5,000 km away. With this launch, India entered an exclusive club of nations that have this capability. Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor with the People's Liberation Army National Defense University, told the Global Times that according to China's standard, an ICBM should have a range of at least 8,000 km. "The Agni-V's range could be further enhanced to become an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile," he said. Global Times, a state-run daily, said Thursday India may have missiles that can reach most ...
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Beijing, Spain's nuclear energy sector has gained a strong foothold in China over the past quarter century, providing components or services to nine of the country's 14 operating nuclear power plants, and now is seeking to further expand its presence in the Asian nation, said authorities. The current goal is to gain participation in future nuclear power stations, both those already being built and those whose construction is pending approval, the Spanish Nuclear Group for China (SNGC) - an alliance of four Spanish nuclear companies, Equipos Nucleares SA, Tecnatom, ENUSA and Ringo Valvulas - told EFE. "There are many possibilities for boosting this participation," SNGC director Carmelo Palacios said during this week's Nuclear Industry China exhibition - the world's largest - in Beijing. "They're companies that aren't coming to China for the first time. They've been working here for some time and believe there are some very significant business prospects in their sector in the coming years," Spain's Ambassador to China, Eugenio Bregolat, said at the event. He said China is the "place to be" for Spain's nuclear industry and plenty of reasons for such optimism abound, ...
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Beijing, A magnitude-6 temblor hit China's Uygur Autonomous Region Friday, the China Earthquake Network Centre said. The temblor, which jolted the Hotan prefecture's Lop county at 6.50 a.m, had its epicentre in the heart of Taklimakan, China's largest desert,at a depth of 30 km at 39.4 degrees north latitude and 81.3 degrees east longitude, Xinhua reported. There were no immediate reports of any casualties, the regional earthquake bureau ...
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Beijing, A total of 328 women pilots have been trained by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force over the past six decades, according to government figures. The data was disclosed Thursday at a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the debut flight of Chinese women pilots, Xinhua reported. The PLA Air Force has recruited nine groups of women pilot trainees over the past 60 years, and eight groups have already graduated. Women pilots joined the flight mission of the PLA Air Force for the first time in March 1952. The first group flew planes over the Tiananmen Square in Beijing in a flight show. Since then, women pilots have successfully completed numerous missions, including disaster relief, research trial flights, and afforestation through sowing of seeds by ...
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Beijing, China's export and import growth is anticipated to slow to around 7 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2012 due to festival factors, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said Wednesday. Addressing a press conference, Chen said he believes China will continue to see modest increases in foreign trade this year, with the situation likely to get better in the second half of the year. "With our efforts, the annual target of 10 percent growth is attainable," he said. The General Administration of Customs will release the official trade data later this week, said Xinhua. For the first two months of last year, China's foreign trade totaled $495.83 billion, representing a 28.3 percent growth year-on-year. Chen attributed the slowdown in foreign trade to tighter environment at home and abroad amid the deepening of the global financial crisis, particularly the impact of the European debt crisis on consumption. Domestically, rising costs also pushed up prices of goods and service, he said. He noted China is able to achieve a 10-percent growth in foreign trade this year targeted by Premier Wen Jiabao's report to the parliamentary's annual session. ...
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Beijing, An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale hit near the east coast of Japan's Honshu island Wednesday, the Hong Kong Observatory said. The epicentre of the temblor that struck at 2.33 GMT, about 150 km southeast of Tokyo city, was initially determined to be near 35.2 degrees north latitude and 141.4 degrees east longitude, Xinhua reported. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to property. Last year, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan March 11 had left almost 20,000 dead or missing. ...
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Beijing, China launched a navigation satellite early Saturday. The orbiter was successfully launched into space at 12.12 a.m. It is China's 11th homemade navigation satellite, also called Beidou or Compass system. A Long March-3C rocket carried the satellite into space from Xichang launch centre in southwestern Sichuan province, Xinhua reported. Beidou satellites are used in transportation, weather forecasting, marine fisheries, hydrological monitoring and mapping. China built Beidou in 2000 to break its dependence on the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and create its own global positioning system by ...
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Beijing, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao met Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama in Beijing on Friday in the backdrop of top Communist party officials describing the situation in Tibet as "grave". The meeting took place after a senior Communist party official advised the government to prepare for "war against secessionist sabotage" by the Dalai Lama. There are clear indications that China has decided to adopt its traditional "strike hard" strategy to stanch the rising wave of dissent among a section of Tibetans. Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that the police in the western Sichuan province had shot and killed a monk and his brother. RFA said the 40-year-old monk, Yeshe Rigsal, and his brother, were hiding from police, which was looking for them for participating in an anti-government demonstration on January 23. Their bodies were found, shot dead by the police, RFA said, while also reporting another self-immolation by a monk in Qinghai province. The Communist party's regional chief for Tibet, Chen Quanguo, indicated the forthcoming meeting of the party's national congress in November will adopt a programme for a "decisive battle" against "revolting monks". The official Tibet ...
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