GPS on your cellphone
March 25, 2009 by Chinatex
I just read this article and want to share with all of you. Old Chinatex’s sources tell him this is serious stuff. As I always say, China is different, they have a different system and government than most of our countries. But China is cool and there is a lot of opportunity here. Respect China and their rules and you will be cool too and won’t have to call me for help. Yeeha!!! Chinatex
Foreign GPS users risk arrest |
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Stephen Chen in Beijing Mar 26, 2009 |
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Foreigners using GPS devices on the mainland risk being detained by police or national security agents if they suspect them of conducting illegal mapping. “It’s better for [your] safety not to turn on the GPS function [on your cellphone],” a State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping official said. The bureau announced 10 days ago that it was launching a year-long crackdown this month on illegal surveying, with foreigners among its prime targets. Six ministries are involved in the campaign. Its announcement cites the detention in December 2007 of a foreigner in a village near Luoyang in Henan province. State security agents found a number of locations marked on his hand-held Global Positioning System device and used that as evidence for his arrest, the bureau said, without elaborating. The South China Morning Post spoke to a bureau official, who identified the detainee as American mining expert Calvin Herron. According to his online profile, Mr Herron is “an exploration geologist with more than 20 years experience in acquisition and management of precious and base metals projects in the western United States” and experience “managing gold and lead-zinc exploration programmes” on the mainland. The official said Mr Herron was deported four months later after the authorities confiscated his equipment and data and fined him 100,000 yuan (HK$113,700). Mr Herron could not be reached for comment. Xu Shijie, a guided-missile expert at Beihang University, said there were missile facilities near Luoyang and Mr Herron had probably been arrested because he was getting too close to them. He is not the only foreigner to have been detained for surveying and mapping on the mainland without approval. At least six Japanese visitors were reportedly arrested in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region between 2005 and 2007. Bureau deputy director Song Chaozhi told China News Service earlier that the bureau would intensify its watch on non-Chinese people using GPS devices for mapping and surveying purposes. “[Such behaviour] severely threatens China’s national security,” Mr Song was quoted as saying. An anonymous article, possibly inspired by the crackdown and entitled “How to Catch a Foreign Spy Mapping Chinese Terrain”, is circulating in mainland internet chat rooms, urging people to watch out for foreigners using GPS devices. Beijing bans foreigners from conducting a wide range of topographical activities, from plotting terrain to aerial photography. Non-Chinese institutions or individuals intending to use mapping devices on the mainland must file a request to the central government - which can take months to approve; they must also be “assisted” by mainland bodies and submit their data for vetting. |
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There is no U in labor
March 13, 2009 by Chinatex
In the event any of you were hoping for some relief in the form of a complete revocation of the labor laws, I hate to tell you that it’s not going to happen. Remember that the purpose of the new labor laws, effective January 2008, was not to cripple your manufacturing, trading and other businesses in China, but to build a new market for hungry labor lawyers. Maybe not, but really the purpose was to eliminate the many factories that were playing too far outside of the grid. You know what i mean by this - they were not paying taxes, not paying their employees a decent wage and the profits were being sucked out of China to Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries. While in some ways the labor law might have gone a little far, as the pendulum often does, it is here to stay as evidenced by the following article. Bottom line as old Chinatex tells his clients, make sure you have a contract with all of your employees and follow the labor law or you will end up calling me when one of the hungry Chinese lawyers or a disgruntled employee files a claim against you. Hope your 2009 is going well. Yeeha!! Chinatex
Changes ruled out to Labour Contract Law
Top lawmaker denies legislation is placing a significant cost burden on businesses
NPC & CPPCC
Cary Huang in Beijing
Mar 10, 2009
No change will be made to the controversial Labour Contract Law because it has had nothing to do with the widespread failures of exportoriented small and medium-sized firms in coastal regions, as entrepreneurs have claimed, a senior lawmaker said.
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Xin Chunying, deputy director of the legislative affairs commission of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, said yesterday a recent investigation had found that the law, in effect since early last year, increased business costs by only 2 percent. |
While factory owners decried the law as a crippling cost burden, workers hailed the new legislation. The law unleashed a flood of arbitration and labour dispute cases in manufacturing hubs, such as Guangdong’s Pearl River Delta, where many migrants work.
Recently, representatives of Hong Kong’s battered exporters embarked on a three-day trip to Beijing to step up efforts to lobby for an amendment to or a relaxed implementation of the law, to create a more investor-friendly environment. Some regional governments have gone ahead and relaxed implementation of the law over fears that stringent execution would lead to more factory closures amid the worsening economic environment.
But Ms Xin flatly ruled out such a possibility. ”[We] will not amend the law because of the economic crisis because there is no connection between the crisis and [the enactment of ] the Labour Contract Law,” she told a news briefing on the sidelines of the NPC session in Beijing.
Chen Wei, vice-president of the China Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, said the government should relax somewhat the implementation of the law, in view of difficulties faced by SMEs. He also dismissed Ms Xin’s claim that the law led to a 2 per cent increase in costs, saying some of the association’s member firms claimed that they had seen costs increase as much as 10 to 20 per cent.
There is growing anecdotal evidence of a strain on the mainland’s labour laws, a reflection of the difficult task the government faces in balancing economic growth and social stability during the downturn.
Official data also indicated a growing number of labour lawsuits since the enactment of the controversial law. Supreme People’s Court executive vice-president Shen Deyong said labour disputes had nearly doubled last year, compared with 2007, because of the economic downturn and the Labour Contract Law.
The national figure had increased by 95 per cent year on year, and the number nearly tripled in some eastern and southern coastal cities during the period, Mr Shen said recently. However, Ms Xin argued that the enactment of the law had helped keep relations between employers and employees stable during the downturn.
