China unveils nuke submarine, moving towards military transparency

China’s 1st fleet of nuclear submarine revealed for first time in 42 years CCTV News - CNTV English

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The world has been given a rare glimpse into China's nuclear-powered submarine fleet, with State-owned media carrying extensive coverage of the previously mysterious strategic deterrence force.

The unprecedented revealing of the underwater fleet is a demonstration of China's confidence in its sea-based nuclear strike capability and serves as a deterrent to any attempted provocation amid the changing geopolitical situation, said military observers.

Starting on Sunday, China Central Television carried serial coverage two days in a row on the submarine force of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's Beihai fleet in its flagship news program Xinwen Lianbo.

The People's Daily, the PLA Daily and the China Youth Daily on Monday all carried front-page stories, features and commentaries on the submarine force, applauding its achievements since the launch of China's first nuclear-powered submarine in December 1970.

According to the reports, the idea of building a nuclear submarine was initiated by Chairman Mao Zedong in the late 1950s to break the global military powers' "nuclear blackmailing and monopoly."

In September 1988, China launched a carrier rocket from a nuclear submarine, becoming the fifth country in the world to have the capability of sea-based nuclear strike.

While striving to improve its strike capability, the submarine force has also maintained a good safety record, with no single nuclear accident reported during the past four decades, said the reports.

The People's Daily on Monday hailed the submarine force as "a shield preserving world peace and stability" and "a cornerstone to safeguard state sovereignty, security and development interests."

Du Wenlong, a military expert, told the Global Times on Monday that the latest publicity shows the maturity in the submarine force's sea-based nuclear strike capability, and implies progress in the development of China's new generation of submarines.

According to military observers, the submarines shown in the CCTV report and newspaper photos are the old models, which were put into service in the 1980s. It is reported that the navy is replacing them with Jin-class submarines, and a newer model, the Tang-class, is reportedly in development.

Du said in comparison to foreign submarines, China occupies a seat within the leading group but lags behind the US and Russia in terms of the submarine's noise output and the number of missiles it can carry.

Li Jie, another military expert, shared similar views, noting Chinese submarines still fall behind US and Russian ones, but have better prospects than French and British ones.

The growing capability of the Chinese submarine force is in line with the global emphasis on sea-based nuclear strike capability.

Sea-based nuclear deterrence is more covert, so it gives the countries the capability to launch a counterstrike after their main nuclear bases are destroyed, Li explained, noting its development requires strong comprehensive scientific and technological capabilities.

In addition to the demonstration of more transparency in the military, Li said the revealing of the force is also a deterrent to foreign provocation.

According to reports, during the submarine force's drills, it has repeatedly been tailed and interrupted by foreign ships and aircraft, including one time in international waters in the West Pacific.

"The changing international situation has caused containment to China's growth. The US-Japan alliance and US pivot to the Asia-Pacific both apparently target China. The publicity of the submarine force is a warning to any country that attempts to provoke China, telling them whoever makes the first strike should think about the consequences," Li said.

CCTV commentary said the submarine force has equipped China with a more covert and reliable nuclear counterstrike capability in addition to its intercontinental ballistic missile and strategic bomber, which would make China's rivals abandon their war attempts for fears of the unbearable price they might have to pay.

- Contributed By Yang Jingjie Global Times

Malaysian Chinese Zombie wins the war !

Malaysian-made game a hit in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong

Scary source: Chan’s popular game is based on the 1980s zombie movies. 

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian zombie fans, forget Walking Dead or the Living Dead. There is a new zombie tale in town – the Chinese Zombie War.

According to its creator, Chan Kam Wai, 29, the zombies in this mobile app game are already part of Asian culture.

“They are based on the 1980s zombie movies we used to get from Hong Kong. Do you remember? Unlike the Western zombies, the Chinese zombies hopped around.

“The culture is familiar to many Asians, so when we came across it in our research for possible game ideas, we decided this was the one,” he said.

The familiarity of the horror genre resonated with many, especially from China and Taiwan, making it one of the most successful mobile apps from Malaysia.

The Chinese Zombie War was launched in May and has since become one of the Top 20 most downloaded apps in China.

“We have had more than 250,000 downloads, some 90% of the downloads are from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong,” said Chan.

Now with a second edition, Chinese Zombie War 2, the app game has generated more than RM60,000 in revenue since its launch on the Apple AppStore. It was also one of the top three most downloaded apps in China for three weeks.

The Chinese Zombie War tells of a rookie Taoist priest, Sung, who meets some Chinese zombies in the jungle. At a loss on how to fight them, he is rescued by a beautiful female ghost who trains him to defeat the living dead.

Said Chan: “Asian culture is rich and diverse, so we decided to tap into it and market it globally. Many Westerners accept Eastern culture like the Samurai, Ninja and Kung Fu culture, so it shows that they are interested in Eastern culture but may not be exposed to what else is available. We also wanted something that we could relate to.”

The Chinese Zombie War was developed under the MSC Malaysia Integrated Content Development Programme (Icon), one of the government initiatives run by the Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC) to drive forward the app developing industry in Malaysia.

Since Icon’s launch in 2008, 307 apps have been developed under the programme while some 1,115 people received basic programming training and over 300 were trained on mobile app developing on the iOS and Android platforms.

Unfortunately, the Chinese Zombie War is more the exception than the rule when it comes to local apps breaking into the global or even regional market.

Despite government initiatives to nurture the local app development industry, to date there are only around 680 active Malaysian app developers and some 600 Malaysian apps in the market.

This is only a fraction of the global market; earlier last week, Apple announced that its iOS App Store now has more than 1.5 million apps, which have been downloaded 60 billion times, while some US$60bil (RM192bil) have been paid out to app developers on its platform. There are an estimated 700,000 apps on the Android platform.

The app market boom is expected to grow, and as research firm Gartner estimated recently, the total number of app downloads worldwide will reach 268 billion by 2017.

MDeC Digital Enablement Division director Wan Murdani Mohamad said that about 80% of apps downloaded in Malaysia now are foreign content.

“Malaysians are overdependent on foreign content, so we need to get more local content out. Our local stories, history and culture make the ideal resource for generating content,” he said.

Once a mobile app is in the market, it is already in the global reach, so Malaysian app developers need not worry about making their content “international”, said Wan Murdani.

“You need to have an original idea to be successful as there are many apps out there. Try to globalise local content. Even Angry Birds started as a local app before it hit big.”

Contributed by Hariati Azizan The Star

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Malaysia's high property taxes may not stop prices going up, sub-sales residential houses likely to soar!

The increase in Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) will dampen speculation but it is unlikely to stop house prices from escalating and may even lead to a rise, say developers and consultants.

Real Estate and Housing Deve­lopers Association (Rehda) president Datuk Seri Michael K.C. Yam said the drastic increase to 15%-30% from 10%-15% previously would discourage any would-be speculator.
 
“Having said that, I have no strong evidence that speculation was one of the main reasons that pushed up property prices. There were some hot spots but it was definitely not on a nationwide basis,” he told The Star.

Property prices in the sub-sale market, added Yam, could increase if homeowners decided to defer selling to avoid the new tax rates.

The sub-sale market, he said, comprised 70% of residential transactions and a decrease in market supply would be inevitable if homeowners delayed selling.

“This means buyers will move to the new properties market and further increase the demand-supply imbalance there. So, a possible side effect is that it could even move prices higher,” he said.

The flat rate of 30% RPGT for six years on foreign-owned properties, said Yam, would also hurt developers during their promotions abroad.

CH Williams Talhar & Wong Sdn Bhd managing director Foo Gee Jen said the doubling of RPGT to 30% would lessen or stop speculation but that in the long-term, this would only make the market more manageable instead of stopping prices from going up.

However, he said limiting foreigners to buying properties worth RM1mil and above should only be applied to major cities like Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang.

Khong & Jaafar Sdn Bhd managing director Elvin Fernandez said increasing the RPGT at this stage would also arrest undue price hikes, which was usual before the implementation of Goods and Services Tax scheduled for April 2015.

Deloitte Malaysia RPGT leader Tham Lih Jiun said property price escalation was due to other factors besides speculation, including rises in construction cost and building materials as well as land scarcity.

However, Johor Rehda branch chairman Koh Moo Hing said the increase in the ceiling price for foreigners was expected to have a “negative impact” on the state’s property market, calling it “not good news” for Iskandar Malaysia.

 Value of sub-sales residential properties likely to soar

THE market value of sub-sales residential properties is expected to increase in Penang this year.

ERA Malaysia president Dr Lee Ville said this was because there was still a gap between sub-sales pricing and pricing of properties in the primary market.

“For example, the price for a sub-sales condominium in Gurney Drive area is 20% to 30% lower than that of new properties in the neighbourhood.

“Therefore, there is still room for sub-sales pricing to increase,” he said.

Dr Lee added that the sales of most ERA associate members were registered in the sub-sales segment.

He said there was a need in Penang for more properties with 1,300sq ft to 1,400sq ft in built-up area, priced at around RM400 per sq ft.

Dr Lee spoke at ERA’s Malaysia 2013 Business Conference & Gala Dinner held at Flamingo Hotel in Penang recently.

Also present was ERA Malaysia managing director Christopher Lim.

Dr Lee said the demand for properties in Penang had not softened.

“It appears to be so because bank loans are more difficult to secure these days. Some one-third of the housing loans get rejected, affecting the transactions of properties in 2012,” he said.

On the 2014 budget, Dr Lee said ERA hoped the Federal Government would leave the real property gain tax (RPGT) alone.

Meanwhile, Lim said there was no overbuilding of residential properties in Kuala Lumpur.

“There is still a strong demand for properties priced between RM600,000 and RM1.2mil.

“The population in the Greater Kuala Lumpur area, presently standing at about six million, is growing. It is expected to reach 10 million by 2020, so there is a need for more housing,” Lim said.

Sources: The Star/Asia News Network

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