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Xi passes on greetings for the new year

President Xi Jinping continued a visit in Shaanxi province in the weekend preceding Chinese New Year's Day, heading to the city where his father set up a base for guerrilla forces more than 80 years ago and extended seasonal greetings to people in Xi'an.

On Feb 13 Xi returned to Liangjiahe village in Yan'an, Shaanxi province, where he spent seven years during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), and the following day went to Tongchuan to pay tribute to people who died in wars defending the base that was set up by his father, Xi Zhongxun, in 1933 to fight against the Nationalist Party.

On Feb 15 Xi visited a community in Xi'an where many employees of state-owned enterprises live and exchanged New Year's greetings with them. He also climbed the city wall in Xi'an, the best preserved city wall in China.

Environmental concerns dampen fireworks sales

Firecracker orders at Beijing retailers are down 20 percent this year, as authorities have slashed the number of permitted sales days and reduced retail spots amid pollution concerns.

Firecrackers are officially available at temporary retail spots across Beijing before the Lunar New Year. City authorities have cut the number of days when firecrackers may be sold from 20 to 11.

Authorities approved 942 firecracker retail spots this year, down more than 100 from a year ago. The city missed a key pollution reduction target last year and said there would be more stringent efforts and fiscal support to curb air pollution this year.

Firecracker retail spots opened for business in Beijing on Feb 13.

Merger creates major taxi-hailing platform

China's two largest taxi-hailing applications, backed by Alibaba Group and Tencent, have announced a merger that will help them cope with rising competition.

Hangzhou Kuaidi Technology Co, known as Kuaidi Dache, completed an alliance with Didi Dache, according to a joint statement e-mailed on Feb 14, which did not name the merged entity.

The deal will create China's biggest mobile platform for local transport, the companies said. Regulators recently cracked down on car-hailing apps, including Uber Technologies of San Francisco, California. The Transport Ministry banned private vehicles from acting as taxis last month, and endorsed services that employ licensed vehicles and drivers, such as car-rental firms.

Kuaidi holds 54.4 percent of China's car-booking market, with more than 200 million users in 358 cities in the country, including Hong Kong, the company said, citing research from Analysys International. Kuaidi has been competing with Didi in many Chinese cities over the past two years.

Pay rise and extra benefits for police

More than 2 million police officers are expected to get higher pay and better benefits in recognition of the pressures and risks of the job.

The increase is among measures from central authorities designed to build a more professional and efficient police force.

Increasing benefits for police is one of the highlights, making clear that officers should be paid more than public officials but less than military personnel. Their benefits are now similar to those of public officials.

The Ministry of Public Security said police officers suffer the most casualties among public employees. It said that 449 officers died on duty and 4,226 were injured in 2013, the latest year for which figures are available.

Terrorism suspects arrested in Indonesia

The Chinese and Indonesian governments exchanged information on nine terrorist suspects, believed to be from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, who fled to Indonesia after plotting an attack in China last year, Indonesian media reported.

The Indonesian police arrested four of the nine. Three fled into the jungle and two others escaped to Malaysia. The captured suspects are likely to be extradited to China as the two countries signed an extradition treaty in 2009, Jakarta Post reported.

The nine were believed to be part of the group that launched the terrorist attack at a train station in Kunming, Yunnan province, in March in which 33 people were killed and 133 wounded, said Saut Usman, head of the National Counterterrorism Agency of Indonesia

Saut made the remarks after he signed an agreement in Beijing with Meng Hongwei, deputy Public Security Minister of China, on Feb 10 as a part of efforts to further improve information sharing.

The suspects fled to Poso, Indonesia, by a land route through Myanmar, southern Thailand and Malaysia. From Malaysia they entered Indonesia with Turkish passports, posing as asylum seekers, Saut said.

Railway line built by China opens

A 1,344-kilometer railway that traverses Angola opened on Feb 14, becoming the fastest line in the country, says its builder, China Railway Construction Corp.

The Benguela Railway links the Atlantic port of Lobito on the west to the eastern border town of Luau, as well as to rail networks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, of Zambia and beyond, the Beijing-based infrastructure giant said. It is the second-longest railway to be built by a Chinese company for Africa, after the Tanzania-Zambia line, built in the 1970s.

The new line, which took a little more than 10 years to lay down, will eventually link with the Angola-Zambia railway and the Tanzania-Zambia railway, the company said, adding that it is all part of a "grand international rail passage" connecting the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

There are 67 stops and 42 bridges, significantly facilitating travel and trade, project engineers said.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 02/20/2015 page2)