ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
October 1, 2018
Hong Kong opens high-speed rail link with mainland China
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong has
opened a new high-speed rail link to inland
China that will vastly decrease travel
times but also raises concerns about
Beijing’s creeping influence over the
semi-autonomous Chinese region.
Costing upward of $10 billion and taking
more than eight years to build, the system
aims to transport more than 80,000
passengers daily between the Asian
financial center of 7 million people and the
neighboring manufacturing hub of
Guangdong province.
The train travels the 16 miles through
Hong Kong to Shenzhen across the border
in China in just 14 minutes, down from
about one hour currently. The through-
train to Guangdong’s capital of Guang-
zhou will take just over half an hour, about
90 minutes faster than current service.
Once across the border, passengers can
link up with China’s sprawling nationwide
high-speed rail network serving more than
44 destinations, including Shanghai,
Beijing, and the western city of Xi’an.
Passengers will clear Chinese immigra-
tion at the line’s newly built West Kowloon
terminus, the source of major legal
controversy when it was revealed that
mainland Chinese law would apply within
roughly one-quarter of the station’s area.
Some opposition lawmakers argued the
move would be a violation of the Basic
Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution under
which it retained its own legal system and
civil liberties after reverting from British
to Chinese rule in 1997. That guarantees
Hong Kong the right to maintain rights
such as freedom of speech and assembly —
which are routinely violated on the
mainland — until 2047. Legal matters
related to defense, foreign affairs, and
national security fall under Beijing
purview.
Will flying cars take off? Japan’s government hopes so
Continued from page 2
happy if you land a flying car in your backyard or on your
rooftop.”
Though the Japanese government has resisted Uber’s
efforts to offer ride-hailing services in Japan, limiting it to
partnerships with taxi companies, it has eagerly
embraced the U.S. company’s work on EVtol machines.
Uber says it is considering Tokyo as its first launch city
for affordable flights via its UberAir service. It says Los
Angeles and Dallas, Texas, and locations in Australia,
Brazil, France, and India are other possible locations.
Unlike regular airplanes, with their aerodynamic
design and two wings, Uber’s “Elevate” structures look
like small jets with several propellers on top. The
company says it plans flight demonstrations as soon as
2020 and a commercial service by 2023.
Uber’s vision calls for using heliports on rooftops, but
new multi-floored construction similar to parking lots for
cars will likely be needed to accommodate EVtol aircraft if
the service takes off.
Unmanned drones are legal in Japan, the U.S., and
other countries, but there are restrictions on where they
can be flown and requirements for getting approval in
advance. In Japan, drone flyers can be licensed if they
take classes. There is no requirement like drivers licenses
for cars.
Flying passengers over populated areas would take a
quantum leap in technology, overhauling aviation
regulations and air traffic safety controls, along with
major efforts both to ensure safety and convince people it’s
safe.
Uber said at a recent presentation in Tokyo that it
envisions a route between the city’s two international
airports, among others.
“This is not a rich person’s toy. This is a mass market
solution,” said Adam Warmoth, product manager at Uber
“Elevate.”
Concepts for flying cars vary greatly. Some resemble
vehicles with several propellers on top while others look
more like a boat with a seat over the propellers.
Mystery around disappearance
of Chinese star Fan Bingbing
Continued from page 3
a toll on her lucrative side-
line as brand ambassador,
throwing those companies’
plans
into
disarray.
Australian vitamin brand
Swisse issued a statement
saying it was suspending
use of her image and “con-
tinuing to monitor the situ-
ation and hope that it is re-
solved in the near future.”
British diamond giant
De Beers, who signed with
Fang just last year,
appears to have already
moved on: Another actress,
Gao Yuanyuan, repre-
sented the company at a
recent store opening in the
ancient capital of Xi’an.
Other firms she endorsed,
from duty-free chain King
Power to Louis Vuitton and
Montblanc are also taking
action.
“There’s a lot more risk
for celebrities in China
than in the United States,
because the government
takes much more of a moral
crackdown,” said China
Market Research’s Rein.
“So there’s a greater risk
for celebrities to get in
trouble with the law and
never be able to get a
chance at redemption.”
Ebihara, the flying-car chief at the Ministry of
Economy, Trade, and Industry, says Japan is on board for
Blade Runner style travel — despite its plentiful,
efficient, and well developed public transportation.
Japan’s auto and electronics industries have the
technology and ability to produce super-light materials
that could give the nation an edge in the flying-car
business, he said.
Just as the automobile vanquished horse-drawn
carriages, moving short-distance transport into the air
could in theory bring a sea change in how people live,
Ebihara said, pointing to the sky outside the ministry
building to stress how empty it was compared to the
streets below.
Flying also has the allure of a bird’s eye view, the stuff of
drone videos increasingly used in filmmaking, tourism
promotion, and journalism.
Atsushi Taguchi, a “drone grapher,” as specialists in
drone video are called, expects test flights can be carried
out even if flying cars won’t become a reality for years
since the basic technology for stable flying already exists
with recent advances in sensors, robotics, and digital
cameras.
A growing labor shortage in deliveries in Japan is
adding to the pressures to realize such technology, though
there are risks, said Taguchi, who teaches at the Tokyo
film school Digital Hollywood.
The propellers on commercially sold drones today are
dangerous, and some of his students have lost fingers with
improper flying. The bigger propellers needed for vertical
flight would increase the hazards and might need to be
covered.
The devices might need parachutes to soften crash
landings, or might have to explode into small bits to
ensure pieces hitting the ground would be smaller.
“I think one of the biggest hurdles is safety,” said
Taguchi. “And anything that flies will by definition crash.”
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FAST TRACK. A woman waves a British flag
outside the Western Kowloon Station during a
protest against the opening ceremony of the Hong
Kong Express Rail Link in Hong Kong. Hong Kong
has opened a new high-speed rail link to inland China
that will vastly decrease travel times but also raises
concerns about Beijing’s creeping influence over
the semi-autonomous Chinese region. (AP Photo/
Vincent Yu)
However, Beijing’s tight control over the
city’s politics and a continuing crackdown
on politicians calling for greater economy
and democratic reforms have spurred
worries about an erosion of Hong Kong’s
remaining autonomy.
The Hong Kong legislature’s passage in
June of the plan to allow Chinese law to
apply at the railway terminus was a
significant moment for the opposition,
coming four years after mass street
protests demanding reforms fizzled out
amid Beijing’s intransigence. Pro-
democracy legislators have been expelled
and charges brought against more than
100 protesters.
Supporters of the provision, including
the territory’s Beijing-backed chief
executive Carrie Lam, defended it as
promoting speed and convenience.
Mourners pay tribute at funeral
of Vietnam’s late president
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam’s late President
Tran Dai Quang was mourned as a great loss and praised
for his contributions to his country at his funeral.
Long lines of family members, officials including
General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister
Nguyen Xuan Phuc, police, and soldiers streamed through
the National Funeral House in downtown Hanoi. Some
wept as they passed his flag-draped coffin.
“He devoted his whole life and made numerous
contributions to the country’s glorious revolutionary
cause ... His passing is a great loss to our party, state, and
people,” Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh said in
a prayer ceremony broadcast live on state television.
Quang died September 21 at the age of 61. A
government doctor said he had battled a rare viral illness
for more than a year but did not reveal the virus.
“I think Vietnamese people from ordinary people have
great respect for him,” retired teacher Nguyen Thi Huan,
64, said outside the funeral house. “Some people felt like
they lost their loved ones when they learnt of his passing.”
For retired police colonel Tran Duc Thang, who had
known Quang for 38 years, Quang was an “affectional
comrade in arms.”
“His passing is a great loss to the state, family, and his
comrades in arms,” he said after paying tribute to Quang.
“I hope he will rest in peace and wish that he from his
world will continue to bless and support the country’s
development.”
He was buried in his home village in northern Ninh
Binh province.
Flags flew at half-staff and all entertainment activities
were cancelled during the two-day national mourning.
A career security officer, Quang rose through the ranks
to be minister of public security in 2011 and was elected by
the National Assembly as the nation’s president in April
2016.
Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh has been named
acting president, the country’s first woman to hold that
position. No date has been given for the election of a new
president.
The country’s other top leaders are party general
secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Nguyen
Xuan Phuc, and chairwoman of the National Assembly
Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan. Analysts say Quang’s death is
unlikely to shake up the Communist country’s politics,
which are led collectively.
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