China’s Exports Perch on Uncertain Truck System

But there is a surprisingly weak link in the Made in China chain.

Moving those goods from the factory floor to one of China’s enormous seaports — often a drive of less than two hours — typically means relying on an independent trucking company. And as vital as trucking is to China’s mighty export machine, the government seems to be ignoring the drawbacks of what analysts say is an increasingly disorganized, inefficient and even costly way to transport factory goods to seaports.

Trucking’s tenuous status has been underscored by recent protests and demonstrations by drivers. Last week, in an unusually bold display of public anger, 2,000 truckers went on strike in Shanghai to complain about the rising cost of fuel and unfair government transportation fees. Some protestors hurled rocks, tried to overturn police cars and smashed the windshields of truck drivers who refused to join the strike.

The Shanghai municipal government eventually ended the three-day strike by arresting protestors and threatening strike organizers, while also promising to lower some fees that trucking companies must pay to use the roads and seaport.

But the challenges that trucking pose to China’s $1.5 trillion a year in exports are still in place — and could become even greater, now that huge factories have begun relocating to poorer, inland regions to save on labor costs.

“Our concern is that as these factories move away from the coast, the service standards won’t keep pace,” said Ken Glenn, an executive at APL, a transportation services company. “Rail and barge are even less developed.”

Within China, thousands of small trucking companies, many of them family-owned, compete by promising low-cost delivery. Then they overload their 18-wheelers in dangerous ways, pay bribes to ward off highway inspectors and hope to eke out tiny profits.

Now, though, with global oil prices sending the cost of fuel soaring, many truckers say they are heading toward bankruptcy.

“We’re paying a lot more money for fuel than we did three years ago, but what we get paid for freight has stayed the same,” said Qi Zhenwei, a truck owner stationed at a dusty trucking depot near one of Shanghai’s busiest ports. “How am I supposed to survive?”

Mark Millar, a China logistics expert at M Power Associates in Hong Kong, sees Chinese trucking as “a seriously fragmented and brutally competitive industry.”

“Most of the drivers are owner-operators, and in order to make money, they carry more cargo than the truck is supposed to hold,” Mr. Millar said. “This is obviously not a healthy model.”

Not all trucking in China is such a seat-of-the-pants affair. Some global companies transport goods by truck in sealed shipping containers from factory to dock, sometimes accompanied by security escorts.

But more often, goods destined for export are delivered to seaports by small trucking companies — usually hired by logistics firms that bargain to get the lowest possible shipping price. To scrape by, many of the small trucking firms violate the law, pay bribes to avoid heavy fines and transportation restrictions, and even force drivers to sleep in the trucks overnight, sometimes in insecure parking lots.

These rigors might seem to contradict the heavy investment in infrastructure and expressways that China has made?to make its transportation network more efficient.

But many of this country’s modern roadways are expensive toll roads. And the government has placed tough regulations on many aspects of the transportation industry, which analysts say have burdened companies with heavy taxes, insurance and government fees. As a result, transporting goods by truck in China is relatively more expensive than doing so in the United States.

 

Trial in China Tests Limits of Legal System Reform

BEIJING — In a case that has galvanized lawyers across China and provided a window into how the next generation of leaders may view the country’s fragile legal system, a defense lawyer went on trial Tuesday charged with fabricating testimony in favor of his client.

The lawyer, Li Zhuang, a 50-year-old from Beijing, has been accused of inciting a client to fake testimony. Mr. Li was previously convicted on similar charges after one of his clients, a convicted gangster from the western city of Chongqing, testified against him late last year. Mr. Li is currently serving 18 months in prison.

Yet few Chinese commentators seem to believe that Mr. Li is guilty in either case. Many think he was framed for fighting what they see as a crude campaign against corruption.

“The Li Zhuang case is so important because it is an indicator of how far China has come on its legal reform,” said a Peking University law professor, He Weifang, who has also posted a sharp criticism of the case on his blog. “It sets China’s legal reform back 30 years.”

The unusual case began in 2007, when one of the country’s best-known politicians, Bo Xilai, took charge of Chongqing, a sprawling municipality of 30 million people in western China. The appointment was seen as a challenge for Mr. Bo, the son of one of China’s most powerful leaders. It also was widely seen as a sign that Mr. Bo was angling for a top job himself.

He had been minister of commerce, so it was a notable move because Chongqing was poor and suffered from some of the worst environmental problems in China and a plague of organized crime.

But Mr. Bo embarked on a series of spectacular actions to stay in the national limelight. Using methods reminiscent of political campaigns in the early era of Communist rule, he mobilized neighborhood cleanups and sent out greetings to local residents with old-style Communist slogans, although via text messages. Mostly, he began a ferocious crackdown on organized crime.

Caught up in the campaign was Gong Gangmo, whose family had hired Mr. Li in late 2009 to defend him. Mr. Li, a successful lawyer who had previously defended those accused of organized crime, traveled to Chongqing and met with Mr. Gong. A few days later, Mr. Gong told prosecutors that Mr. Li advised him to falsely testify that he had been beaten for eight days and nights.

Within a month, Mr. Li had been tried and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. This was reduced to one and a half years because Mr. Li was said to have cooperated. At the sentencing, however, Chinese news reports said that Mr. Li angrily called out that he had been framed.

On Tuesday, Mr. Li went back on trial. Prosecutors say that he was involved in fraud and that he enticed a witness to fabricate evidence.

Many Chinese say they are appalled at what appears to be a crude use of the courts for political gain. In both trials, Chinese court procedure has been ignored. Mr. Li has not, for example, been able to face his accusers, and his lawyers could not cross-examine them.

Newspapers and magazines have reported widely on this case, with, for example, one of the country’s leading magazines, Caixin, devoting a cover story to it and an editorial in the current issue. Several Web sites had minute-by-minute coverage. Many say that if Mr. Li is convicted, it will be impossible for other lawyers to defend their clients. “Defending Li Zhuang is defending the right to work as a lawyer in China and the ideal of justice,” Wei Rujiu, one of his lawyers, wrote on his blog on Tuesday.

The publicity is in striking contrast to the many lawyers who have been quietly rounded up in a recent political crackdown. One explanation, analysts say, is that Mr. Li is not a political dissident, making it acceptable for the Chinese media to report on the issue.

But it may also signal that forces are opposing Mr. Bo’s efforts to use Chongqing as a springboard back to Beijing, and possibly the Standing Committee of the Politburo.

“Bo is not uncontroversial in the party,” said Joshua Rosenzweig of the Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights monitoring group, in Hong Kong. “It feeds into concern over how Bo has handled criminal justice in Chongqing.”

That could have broader ramifications for China because Mr. Bo, should he win a seat on the Standing Committee, is also expected to be put in charge of law and order. That could make Mr. Li’s treatment a harbinger for the next government’s view of the legal system.

 

Sprint radar imaging system peeps inside walls, floors to detect bombs, tell-tale hearts

 Cambridge Consultants sprints ahead with innovative counter-terror search technology

New 'Sprint' in-wall radar imaging system unveiled

Cambridge Consultants, a leading technology design and development firm, today unveiled 'Sprint', a prototype handheld device which provides a 3D image of objects embedded within walls or floors. Based on Cambridge Consultants' proven short range radar expertise, Sprint enables an operator to rapidly form an image of subsurface structures such as pipes and cables, as well as detecting items of interest such as concealed explosives and contraband, revolutionising counter-terrorism and crime prevention search techniques.

Law enforcement and security agencies are constantly facing new challenges as criminals and terrorists look for ever more creative ways to conceal weapons or to smuggle contraband, and the Sprint system has been designed to tackle some of the most challenging threat detection scenarios. The London 2012 Olympics, for example, will be one of the toughest security challenges seen in the UK to date and security services will want to leave no stone unturned in the hunt for potential threats. Sprint can quickly and easily look inside anything from the floor to the roof, and the handheld system can simply be moved across a surface to build a larger picture. With many new buildings and facilities being developed for the 2012 games, this technology could provide a unique and innovative way of ensuring that they are clear of any threat.

Unlike existing transmission x-ray systems, the radar-based Sprint system does not require access to both sides of the object in order to scan inside, and provides an easily interpreted image of the wall structure, something which compact radar systems have previously not provided. This significantly improves its application potential and can enable much quicker deployment in scenarios where speed can be critical.

"Whereas other options, such as backscatter x-rays, are cumbersome, expensive and power hungry systems, and conventional radar systems have been difficult to interpret, Sprint's use of radar and processing technology makes it possible to look inside an opaque object or surface from one side safely, cheaply and quickly in a low power, handheld device," commented Sam Pumphrey, Senior Consultant at Cambridge Consultants.

The prototype Sprint device is the equivalent size of a standard sheet of letter paper and 15cm deep, weighing approximately 3.5kg with batteries. It is a multi-channel system, enabling full synthetic aperture processing, and it uses short pulses of energy with high bandwidth to enable the short range, high resolution imaging required. Other potential applications for the technology include industrial inspection, technical search, counter surveillance and a range of military applications.

Cambridge Consultants is currently conducting extensive performance testing to take Sprint beyond the prototype stage and ready it for future commercialisation.

Sprint has been developed to sit alongside Cambridge Consultants' Prism 200 device. Prism 200 is a handheld through-wall radar, designed to be used by police, special forces or the emergency services. It provides quick and covert intelligence on the movement and location of people in a room or building - without the need for invasive sensors.

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