China says 13 attackers killed in Xinjiang assault

BEIJING: Chinese police shot dead 13 people in Xinjiang after they drove into a police building and set off an explosion Saturday, regional authorities said, in the latest attack to hit the restive region.

The vast area in China´s far west, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, has faced a series of violent attacks in recent years.

Beijing has vowed a year-long crackdown on terrorism in recent weeks following several high-profile attacks blamed on Xinjiang militants, which since late last year struck outside the region and targeted ordinary citizens rather than government or security personnel.

"Today thugs crashed a car into the public security building of Kargilik county in Xinjiang´s Kashgar prefecture and set off an explosion. Police took decisive action and shot dead 13 thugs," the official Xinjiang government website Tianshan reported.

Three police suffered injuries but there were no other casualties, the report said, without providing further details. It was unclear if the attackers used one or more explosive devices.

The state news agency Xinhua described the vehicle as a truck and said the attack happened in the morning, adding that authorities were investigating and "local social order is normal".

China´s most powerful body, the Politburo Standing Committee, said in May that "cracking down on violent terrorist activities must be the focal point of the current struggle", Xinhua reported at the time.

Authorities have announced hundreds of detentions or criminal punishments, including the sentencing of 55 people in late May for offences such as terrorism at a ceremony in a stadium attended by 7,000 people.

This week China executed 13 people for "terrorist attacks" in Xinjiang and ordered the death penalty for three others for a car crash last October in Beijing´s Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of the Chinese state.

In that incident, the first major event blamed on Xinjiang residents to take place outside the region, three family members drove onto the popular tourist area, killing two people and wounding 40 before the car burst into flames and they themselves died.

China navy plane crashes on training mission: Xinhua

SHANGHAI: A Chinese navy plane crashed on a training mission over the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, the official Xinhua news agency said Friday, but did not say if there were casualties.

The military plane crashed late Thursday night in a mountainous area near the city of Yiwu, it said.

Xinhua said the plane belonged to the navy´s East China Sea fleet while the military news channel of the Sina website quoted sources as saying the aircraft was a fighter-bomber JH-7 "Flying Leopard".

The fleet´s area of responsibility includes disputed islands in the East China Sea, according to state media, which Japan administers and calls the Senkaku islands but which China also claims and names the Diaoyu islands.

For more than a year since Tokyo nationalised some of the islands in September 2012, Chinese vessels and aircraft have regularly approached them, playing cat and mouse with the Japanese coastguard.

Search and rescue teams were looking for the crew of the crashed plane, Xinhua reported, but did not say how many people were on board. The JH-7 typically carries two.

 

Twenty-two dead in southwest China coal mine accident

BEIJING: Twenty-two people were killed in an accident at a coal mine in the southwest Chinese city of Chongqing on Tuesday, state media reported.

The accident at the Yanshitai coal mine in Chongqing municipality´s Wansheng district occurred at around 5.40pm and was described as a "gas incident" by local authorities, official news agency Xinhua said.

Rescuers have recovered the bodies of all the missing miners, the news agency reported, citing local authorities.

Six of the 28 miners who were working in the shaft at the time of the incident managed to escape, Xinhua said.

The coal mine is owned by state-owned Nantong Mining Company, Xinhua reported.

Mining accidents are common in China, the world´s largest consumer of coal, where mine operators often skirt safety regulations.

The accident comes after 20 people died in April when a coal mine in China´s southwest Yunnan province suddenly flooded, leaving miners trapped.

Last year, China recorded 589 mining-related accidents, leaving 1,049 people dead or missing, according to the government. But both the number of accidents and fatalities were down more than 24 percent from 2012. (AFP)

Army Chief embarks on official visit to China

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Raheel Sharif left here for China on Monday on an official visit at the invitation of Chinese authorities.

According to a press release of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), during the visit, the COAS will call on China’s political and military leadership. The interaction will encompass Pak-China relations with particular emphasis on defence and security cooperation.

Earlier, the Army Chief was seen off at Nur Khan Air Base by senior military officials.

Microsoft to sell Xbox One in China in September

SHANGHAI: Microsoft will later this year start offering its Xbox One game console with a local partner in China, where such devices were banned for more than a decade.

"Today marks a monumental day for Xbox, as together with our partner BesTV New Media Co., we announced we will bring Xbox One to China in September of this year," Microsoft vice president Yusuf Mehdi wrote in a blog post.

"Launching Xbox One in China is a significant milestone for us and for the industry."

In January China formally authorised the domestic sale of game consoles made in its first free trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai, potentially opening up a lucrative market to players such as Microsoft and Japan´s Sony and Nintendo.

The relaxation of a decade-long ban -- despite which the devices are widely available -- does not apply to console imports. But Microsoft and BesTV set up a $237 million joint venture in the FTZ last year to produce home entertainment equipment.

BesTV, a subsidiary of state-owned Shanghai Media Group, confirmed the timeframe for the launch in a statement, adding it will work with Microsoft to develop video games with Chinese characteristics.

The companies said Xbox One will be the first of its kind to officially launch in China, a country with nearly 500 million game players, although they did not reveal the pricing.

China´s game revenue jumped 38 percent year-on-year to 83.2 billion yuan ($13.7 billion) in 2013, according to one industry estimate, although the market was dominated by online computer games.

Despite the announcement, Shanghai-listed BesTV ended down 0.35 percent at 33.83 yuan in Shanghai trading on Wednesday. (AFP)

China to outlaw eating of protected animal species

China will jail people who eat rare animals for 10 years or more under a new interpretation of the criminal law, state media reported, as the government seeks to close a legal loophole and better protect the natural environment.

China lists 420 species as rare or endangered, including the panda, golden monkeys, Asian black bears and pangolins, some or all of which are threatened by illegal hunting, environmental destruction and the consumption of animal parts, including for supposedly medicinal reasons.

Consumption of rare animals has risen as the country has become richer, with some people believing spending thousands of yuan on eating them gives a certain social cache.

"Eating rare wild animals is not only bad social conduct but also a main reason why illegal hunting has not been stopped despite repeated crackdowns," Lang Sheng, deputy head of parliament's Legislative Affairs Commission said, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Thursday.

The new interpretation "clears up ambiguities about buyers of prey of illegal hunting", the report added.

Knowingly buying any wild animals killed by illegal hunting will now be considered a crime, with a maximum penalty of three years in jail, Xinhua said.

"In fact, buyers are a major motivator of large-scale illegal hunting," Lang said.

Our goal is not to counter China, Obama says

President Barack Obama said a 10-year agreement signed on Monday to give the U.S military greater access to Philippine bases will help promote peace and stability in the region and that he hopes China’s dominant power will allow its neighbours to prosper on their own terms.

The Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement will give American forces temporary access to selected military camps and allow them to preposition fighter jets and ships.

“Our goal is not to counter China. Our goal is not to contain China. Our goal is to make sure international rules and norms are respected and that includes in the area of international disputes,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III at the Malacanang Palace.

“We don’t go around sending ships and threatening folks,” Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Aquino said the new agreement “takes our security cooperation to a higher level of engagement, reaffirms our countries’ commitment to mutual defence and security, and promotes regional peace and stability.”

Still, the increased U.S. military role drew consternation from some Filipino activists, who said the agreement reverses democratic gains achieved when huge American military bases were shut down in the early 1990s, ending a nearly century-long military presence in the former U.S. colony.

Some 800 of those activists burned mock U.S. flags and chanted “no-bama, no bases, no war” on the road leading to the gates of the palace where Mr. Obama met with Mr. Aquino.

Our goal is not to counter China, Obama says

President Barack Obama said a 10-year agreement signed on Monday to give the U.S military greater access to Philippine bases will help promote peace and stability in the region and that he hopes China’s dominant power will allow its neighbours to prosper on their own terms.

The Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement will give American forces temporary access to selected military camps and allow them to preposition fighter jets and ships.

“Our goal is not to counter China. Our goal is not to contain China. Our goal is to make sure international rules and norms are respected and that includes in the area of international disputes,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III at the Malacanang Palace.

“We don’t go around sending ships and threatening folks,” Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Aquino said the new agreement “takes our security cooperation to a higher level of engagement, reaffirms our countries’ commitment to mutual defence and security, and promotes regional peace and stability.”

Still, the increased U.S. military role drew consternation from some Filipino activists, who said the agreement reverses democratic gains achieved when huge American military bases were shut down in the early 1990s, ending a nearly century-long military presence in the former U.S. colony.

Some 800 of those activists burned mock U.S. flags and chanted “no-bama, no bases, no war” on the road leading to the gates of the palace where Mr. Obama met with Mr. Aquino.

China MH370 families protest at Malaysia embassy

BEIJING: Dozens of relatives of passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 held an overnight protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing demanding information from officials, two participants said on Friday.

The protest followed a chaotic meeting on Thursday between airline staff and relatives who have been waiting for nearly 50 days without any sighting of the plane, prompting police to step in to separate both sides.

About two-thirds of the 239 passengers aboard the missing plane came from China, and many of their relatives have waited with frustration at a hotel in Beijing for updates, often venting at airline or government officials who come to brief them.

"I spent the whole night outside the embassy, there are still many people waiting outside," said Wen Wancheng, whose son was on the flight. He estimated that several dozen took part in the protest.

Relatives, who are staying at the hotel at the airline´s expense, previously banned a Malaysian embassy official from attending daily briefings at the hotel, but are now demanding that the embassy send a replacement, Wen said.

Steven Wang, another relative, said about 100 people had waited outside the premises overnight. "We want somebody from the embassy to come out and tell us why they didn´t come," he added.

Police fanned out around the embassy on Friday morning, barring reporters from nearing the building. Embassy staff were not immediately available for comment.

Chinese relatives have for weeks complained bitterly about what they call Malaysia´s secretive and incompetent handling of the search.

Tensions boiled over at Thursday´s briefing, with some relatives claiming to be on "hunger strike" after airline representatives said a Malaysian embassy official would not arrive to answer their questions.

Nothing has been seen of the plane or its 239 passengers and crew since it vanished off radar screens during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.A multi-national search is continuing in a remote area of the Indian Ocean off western Australia where the plane is now believed to have crashed after veering dramatically off course.

China frees Japan ship after $28 mn paid in 1930s row

SHANGHAI: China on Thursday released a seized Japanese ship after its owner paid $28 million in compensation, a court said, in a business dispute dating to the 1930s which underlines tensions between the countries.

The Shanghai Maritime Court announced Saturday it had impounded a large freight vessel owned by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines in accordance with the law, as the Japanese company had failed to pay a Chinese firm.

But the case had political overtones given uneasy ties between the two Asian giants, which are locked in a territorial dispute over islands in the East China Sea.

"The court has delivered a ruling at 8:30 am on April 24, 2014, to lift the detention of the Baosteel Emotion ship," the court said in a statement.

Mitsui had "fulfilled its obligations" by paying compensation and additional court costs of around $390,000, the court said. It did not name the Chinese party awarded the compensation.

Japan had lodged a formal diplomatic protest over the seizure and warned it could "intimidate Japanese companies doing business in China".

Japanese media suggested the seizure of the ship was meant to underline China´s growing assertiveness before US President Barack Obama´s arrival in Tokyo on Wednesday on the first leg of an Asian tour.

Tokyo believes that the seizure undermines a 1972 joint communique that normalised ties between Japan and China, in which Beijing agreed to renounce any demands for war reparations.

China replied that the case was a civil matter and had nothing to do with war reparations.

The ship seizure comes as a set of lawsuits related to wartime forced labour have also been filed in China against Japanese corporations.

Mitsui´s predecessor chartered two ships from a company called Chung Wei, now referred to by mainland China as Zhongwei, in 1936.The ships were reportedly commandeered by the Imperial Japanese Navy and were sunk during World War II, media reports said.

A compensation suit was brought against Mitsui by the descendants of the founder of the Chinese company, and in 2007 a Shanghai court ordered Mitsui to pay compensation.

Mitsui said in a statement on Monday that it had been seeking an out-of-court settlement after China´s supreme court rejected its appeal in 2011, but the vessel was "suddenly" impounded.

The ship was expected to depart China later on Thursday, Japan´s Kyodo news agency said.

The Baosteel Emotion, designed to carry ore, was docked at Majishan island off Shanghai, according to Chinese media reports. (AFP)

Asian shares mixed, China manufacturing improves

HONG KONG: Asian markets were mixed on Wednesday following another Wall Street rally while a provisional report showed a slight improvement in Chinese manufacturing activity this month.

The dollar held on to recent gains against the yen, with traders keeping watch on US President Barack Obama´s visit to Asia that starts in Japan later in the day.

Tokyo rose 0.57 percent by the break, Sydney gained 0.69 percent and Seoul was up 0.21 percent but Shanghai eased 0.23 percent and Hong Kong was 0.30 percent off.

HSBC said its preliminary purchasing managers index (PMI) for China came in at 48.3 in April, up from 48.0 in March. While the figures points to a continuing contraction in manufacturing activity in the Asian economic giant, the rate has slowed.

A figure below 50 suggests shrinkage, while anything above points to growth.

The result will provide a little comfort to traders about the Chinese economy after data last week showed it grew 7.4 percent year on year in January-March, more than expected but sharply down from the previous three months.

"Domestic demand showed mild improvement and deflationary pressures eased, but downside risks to growth are still evident as both new export orders and employment contracted," HSBC economist Qu Hongbin said in a statement, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Eyes are now on the release of early PMI figures for Europe and the United States later in the day after recent figures have pointed to a pick-up in the global economy.

On currency markets the dollar bought 102.63 yen against 102.60 yen in New York Tuesday, while the euro bought $1.3802 and 141.69 yen, compared with $1.3804 and 141.65 yen.

The Australian dollar fell to 93.14 US cents from 93.75 cents after data showed Australian inflation was lower than expected in the first three months of the year. The figures raise the possibility the country´s central bank will lower interest rates to boost the faltering economy.

In New York the three main indexes enjoyed another positive day following a series of deals between pharmaceutical giants Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly that shuffled more than $20 billion in assets.

Added to that were solid or strong earnings from Comcast, Lockheed Martin, Netflix, Travelers and Xerox, among others. The S&P 500 added 0.41 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 0.97 percent, with each index clocking up a sixth successive advance after earlier this month suffering heavy selling.

The Dow climbed 0.40 percent, a third straight gain.

Analysts will be watching Obama´s three-day visit -- the start of an Asian trip -- for any mention of a Pacific-wide trade zone that has stumbled in recent weeks over differences between the US and Japan on the auto and agriculture sectors.

Oil prices were up. New York´s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for June delivery, was up six cents at $101.81 in early Asian trading. Brent North Sea crude for June rose 16 cents to $109.43. Gold fetched $1,283.97 an ounce at 0242 GMT, compared with $1,291.73 on Tuesday. (AFP)

More dead pigs found in China river: report

BEIJING: At least 170 dead pigs have been found in a Chinese river, state media reported Thursday -- the latest in a string of similar incidents that have raised fears over food safety.

The animals were found floating in a tributary of China´s second-longest waterway, the Yellow River, in northwestern Qinghai province, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The grim discovery follows a series of scandals involving dead pigs in Chinese rivers. Last year 16,000 carcasses were found drifting through the main waterway of the commercial hub of Shanghai.

In Qinghai -- the furthest west such an incident has been reported -- "the source of the dead pigs is still under investigation," Xinhua said, citing local authorities.

Industry analysts say sick pigs are sometimes dumped in rivers by farmers hoping to avoid paying the costs of disposing of the animals by other means.

Around 500 dead pigs are recovered every month from a Chinese reservoir in the southwestern province of Sichuan, state-run media reported in March.

Authorities also found 157 dead pigs last month in a river in central Jiangxi province. China is a major producer of pork, which surveys have found to be the country´s most popular meat.

 

Soldiers from India, China celebrate Bihu at border

Guwahati: In a show of brotherhood, soldiers of Indian Army and Peoples Liberation Army of China celebrated Bihu festival at the Indo-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.

According to an official release, the forward troops stationed in the remote areas near Bumla post celebrated the occasion on Monday by inviting PLA soldiers deployed on the other side of the border to play friendly matches of volleyball, tug of war and archery. 

The tunes of military band, followed by a cultural show which included Bihu and Bhangra dances, mesmerised all present on the occasion. 

"The guests from Peoples Liberation Army of China thanked their hosts and appreciated the Indians for their initiative, which will go a long way in creating a feeling of bonhomie, peace and tranquillity," the release said.

Both sides hoped that this initiative would go to the strategic level and take it to new heights as well as at the ground level, it said. The festivities came to an end with both the armies paying respect to their National Flags while the National Anthem was played.

China to start work on economic corridor shortly, says Li

BOAO: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has said China was ready to start the work on long-term plan of building a bilateral economic corridor by the end of this year.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference, Li said the two countries had agreed to build the corridor with bilateral practical cooperation.

He called for forging a “China-Pakistan community of Shared Destiny”, the Xinhua news agency reported. The corridor connecting Kashgar in China to the southwestern Pakistani port of Gwadar was proposed in an agreement between the two countries reached during Li’s visit to Pakistan in May 2013.

China would work with Pakistan to provide financial support for the construction of the corridor, he said. China would also like to enhance cooperation with terrorism, Li said, and hoped Pakistan would provide security for Chinese organisations and workers.

Prime Minister Nawaz said Pakistan would focus on promoting the corridor’s construction and would spare no effort to safeguard Chinese people and organisations. The prime minister said Pakistan was ready to further strategic cooperation to China and noted the relationship with China was the “cornerstone” of Pakistan’s diplomacy and the two countries were long-tested friends.Pakistan would make concerted efforts with China to fully implement cooperative deals between the two sides, he said.

 

The Hindu File photo shows Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin with Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh. Photo: V. Sudershan

India and China will hold the sixth round of their strategic dialogue in Beijing next week, discussing bilateral ties as well as expanding cooperation on common regional challenges such as the situation in Afghanistan.

With the strategic talks taking place amid the on-going Lok Sabha elections, expectations here are that the discussions will likely be routine and focus more on regional and international issues. Beijing, analysts said, is likely to adopt a cautious, wait-and-watch approach before pushing any new major diplomatic initiatives with India until the new government takes charge in New Delhi next month following the elections.

Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh will hold talks with Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin here on Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Ms. Singh is also expected to call on Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

“The two sides will have in-depth exchanges on bilateral relations, high-level exchanges, practical cooperation, and on international and regional issues of mutual concern,” spokesperson Hong Lei told reporters at a regular briefing.

“This dialogue is an important activity under the China-India friendly exchanges year. We believe it will enhance our strategic communication... and provide a strong boost... to our two countries.”

Mr. Hong said on Tuesday that China’s position on territorial disputes with India “was clear,” when asked about Wednesday’s Lok Sabha and State Assembly polls in Arunachal Pradesh, on which China has made territorial claims. China has in the past issued stapled visas to students and athletes from the State to underline its position that the territory was disputed.

Americans facing competition from India, China: Obama

AP President Barack Obama waves after speaking at Bladensburg High School in Bladensburg, Maryland on Monday.

The U.S. President was addressing students in Maryland on Monday.

United States President Barack Obama has said that Americans are facing competition from India and China and exuded confidence that young Americans can match or exceed anything that they do.

“You guys are all coming up in an age where you’re not going to be able to compete with people across town for good jobs —— you’re going to be competing with the rest of the world. Young people in India and China, they’re all interested in trying to figure out how they get a foothold in this world economy,” Mr. Obama said while addressing students in Maryland on Monday.

“That’s who you’re competing against. Now, I’m confident you can match or exceed anything they do, but we don’t do it by just resting on what we’ve done before. We’ve got to out-work and out-innovate and out-hustle everybody else.

We’ve got to think about new ways of doing things,” said the U.S. President.

Mr. Obama said he wants to make sure every student in America has a chance to get that moment.

“You’re also going to be leading this country. That’s the chance that this country gave to me and Michelle. And that’s the chance I want for every single one of you,” he said.

“From preschool for every four-year-old in America, to higher education for everybody who wants to go, every young person deserves a fair shot. I’m going to keep on doing everything I can to make sure you get that shot and to keep America a place where you can make it if you try,” he said.

Mr. Obama announced to launch a new competition, backed by America’s Departments of Education and Labor, to start redesigning some of high schools.

“We call it Youth CareerConnect. And we’re offering USD 100 million in new grants to help schools and local partners develop and test new curricula and models for success. We want to invest in your future,” he said.

Militants seek laughter, crying ban, China official says

BEIJING: The governor of China's restive far western region of Xinjiang wrote on Monday that Islamist militants were trying to ban laughter at weddings and crying at funerals, as he appealed to people to stamp out the "tumour" of extremism.

Xinjiang, resource-rich and strategically located on the borders of central Asia, has been beset by violence for years, blamed by the government on Islamist militants and separatists.

Exiles and many rights groups say the real cause of the unrest is China's heavy-handed policies, including curbs on Islam and the culture and language of the Muslim Uighur people who call Xinjiang home.

China's nervousness about Islamist extremism has grown since a car burst into flames on the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October, and 29 people were stabbed to death last month in the southwestern city of Kunming.

Beijing blamed Xinjiang militants for both.

Writing in the official Xinjiang Daily, Xinjiang governor Nur Bekri said that acts of terror had been made possible by extremists taking advantage of people's faith, especially "young people who have seen little of the world".

"In order to incite fanaticism and control believers, religious extremists have blatantly distorted religious teachings, making up heresy such as 'jihadist martyrs go to heaven,' 'killing a pagan is worth over 10 years of piety,' and 'one gets whatever one wants in heaven'," he wrote.

"They use this to bewilder believers into what they believe is 'jihad' in the form of suicide terrorist attacks or other violence," Bekri added. People who do not follow the strictures of the Islamists are condemned by them as "traitors" and "scum", he said.

China's ruling atheist Communist Party has issued similar warnings in the past about extremism, accompanied by a harsh crackdown on suspected militants.

Uighurs have traditionally followed a moderate form of Islam, but many have begun adopting practices more commonly seen in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, such as full-face veils for women, as China has intensified a security crackdown in recent years.

Bekri, an Uighur himself, accused the militants of ignoring the region's own traditions and of wanting to enforce a strict theocratic society.

"They ... push the banning of watching television, listen to the radio, reading newspapers, singing and dancing, not allowing laughter at weddings nor crying at funerals," he added. "They force men to grow beards and women to wear the burqa."

Extremists are also demanding that not only food, but also cosmetics, medicine and clothing be halal, and push the idea that government-subsidised housing is not halal and to be avoided, Bekri wrote.

"Resolutely eliminate the tumour of religious extremism," he added.

 

PM Nawaz to leave for China today

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will leave for China today (Wednesday) where he will also attend the 2014 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in Hainan province.

Sharif is visiting China at the invitation of the Chinese government and will deliver a speech at the opening plenary of the BFA on April 10. He will meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and other world leaders, including the Prime Ministers of Australia, South Korea and Kazakhstan.

The prime minister will discuss with his Chinese counterpart bilateral relations and other issues.

China search vessels find no clues for missing flight

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  AP/CCTV via AP Video In this image taken from video, a member of a Chinese search team uses an instrument to detect electronic pulses while searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, on board the patrol vessel Haixun 01, in the search area in the southern Indian Ocean on Saturday. 
   
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  AP A woman ties a message card for passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

After detecting signals possibly from the black box of the missing Malaysian plane, China’s search vessels failed to find any confirmed clues today to conclusively establish that the pings are from the MH370.

Vessels of China’s ministry of transport searching for the missing passenger jet have searched a total of 136,000 square kilometres by midday on Sunday, Zhuo Li, an official with the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center, said.

The centre had mobilised 62 merchant ships for their assistance in the search, he said.

Haixun 01 of the ministry and two Navy vessels continued the underwater search in southern Indian Ocean, three other ships were searching on the water surface. Two other vessels were searching in eastern Indian Ocean, Mr. Zhuo was quoted by official Xinhua news agency as saying.

China pressed 18 vessels, eight helicopters and three fixed-wing aircraft to trace the plane missing since March 8, along with 239 people on board.

Earlier in the day, three separate but fleeting sounds from deep in the Indian Ocean offered new hope in the hunt for the missing Malaysian airliner, as officials rushed to determine whether they were signals from the plane’s black boxes before their beacons fall silent.

The head of the multinational search being conducted off Australia’s west coast confirmed that a Chinese ship had picked up electronic pulsing signals twice in a small patch of the search zone, once on Friday and again on Saturday.

On Sunday, an Australian ship carrying sophisticated deep-sea sound equipment picked up a third signal in a different part of the massive search area.

“This is an important and encouraging lead, but one which I urge you to treat carefully,” retired Australian Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search, told reporters in Perth.

“We have an acoustic event. The job now is to determine the significance of that event. It does not confirm or deny the presence of the aircraft locator on the bottom of the ocean,” Mr. Houston said, referring to each of the three transmissions.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday that the patrol vessel Haixun 01 on Friday detected a “pulse signal” at 37.5 kilohertz (cycles per second) the same frequency emitted by flight data recorders aboard the missing plane in the southern Indian Ocean.

The British Navy ship HMS Echo, which is fitted with sophisticated sound-locating equipment, is moving to the area where the signals were picked up and will be there in the next day or two, Houston said.

The Australian navy’s Ocean Shield, which is carrying high-tech sound detectors from the U.S. Navy, will also head there, but will first investigate the sound it picked up in its current region, about 300 nautical miles (555 kilometres) away, he said.

Australian air force assets are also being deployed into the Haixun 01’s area to try to confirm or discount the signals’ relevance to the search, Houston said.

In Kuala Lumpur, families of passengers aboard the missing plane attended a prayer service on Sunday that also drew thousands of Malaysian sympathizers.

“This is not a prayer for the dead because we have not found bodies. This is a prayer for blessings and that the plane will be found,” said Liow Tiong Lai, the president of the government coalition party that organized the two-hour session.

Two Chinese women were in tears and hugged by their caregivers after the rally. Many others looked somber, and several wore white T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Pray for MH370”.

Two-thirds of the passengers aboard Flight 370 were Chinese, and a group of relatives has been in Kuala Lumpur for most of the past month to follow the investigation. Mr. Liow said some of them were planning to go home on Sunday.

After weeks of fruitless looking, the multinational search team is racing against time to find the sound-emitting beacons and cockpit voice recorders that could help unravel the mystery of the plane. The beacons in the black boxes emit “pings” so they can be more easily found, but the batteries last for only about a month.

Investigators believe Flight 370 veered way off-course and came down somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, though they have not been able to explain why it did so.

The crew of the Chinese ship reportedly picked up the signals using a hand-held sonar device called a hydrophone dangled over the side of a small runabout something experts said was technically possible but extremely unlikely.

The equipment aboard the Ocean Shield and the HMS Echo are dragged slowly behind each ship over long distances and are considered far more sophisticated than those the Chinese crew was using.

Footage aired on China’s state-run CCTV showed crew members in the small boat with a device shaped like a large soup can attached to a pole. It was hooked up by cords to electronic equipment in a padded suitcase as they poked the device into the water.

“If the Chinese have discovered this, they have found a new way of finding a needle in a haystack,” said aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of AirlineRatings.com. “Because this is amazing. And if it proves to be correct, it’s an extraordinarily lucky break.”

There are many clicks, buzzes and other sounds in the ocean from animals, but the 37.5 kilohertz pulse was selected for underwater locator beacons because there is nothing else in the sea that would naturally make that sound, said William Waldock, an expert on search and rescue who teaches accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

“They picked that (frequency) so there wouldn’t be false alarms from other things in the ocean,” he said.

But after weeks of false alarms, officials were careful on Sunday not to overplay the development.

“We are hopeful but by no means certain,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said of the detection of the signals.

“This is the most difficult search in human history. We need to be very careful about coming to hard and fast conclusions too soon,” Mr. Abbott told reporters during a visit to Japan.

The agency was formally told about the second Chinese detection on Saturday “in absolutely the normal way”, he said.

“China is sharing everything that is relevant to this search. Everything,” Mr. Houston said.

Still, the search agency will be adding a Chinese-speaking liaison officer “to make sure nothing falls through the cracks,” he said.

The signals detected by the Chinese ship were in the southern high priority zone, Mr. Houston said.

Up to 12 military and civilian planes and 13 ships took part in the search on Sunday of three areas totalling about 216,000 square kilometres (83,400 square miles). The areas are about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) northwest of the Australian west coast city of Perth.

Maxwell released report to expose Nehru’s mistakes that forced war on China

Veteran Australian journalist Neville Maxwell has said he chose to make public the classified 1962 Sino-Indian war report to “rid Indian opinion of the delusion” that the war had been the result of “an unprovoked Chinese aggression” and to expose mistakes made by Jawaharlal Nehru that “forced the war on China.”

In his first comments following his decision to make public last month the still classified Henderson Brooks war report, the release of which was first reported by The Hindu and subsequently triggered wide debate on the legacy of the war, Mr. Maxwell told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post that by doing so he had “deprive[d] the Government of India the excuse they’ve used to keep it secret, the false claim that it was to preserve national security”.

He said: “I hope to achieve what I have been trying to do for nearly 50 years! To rid Indian opinion of the induced delusion that in 1962 India was the victim of an unprovoked surprise Chinese aggression, to make people in India see that the truth was that it was mistakes by the Indian government, specifically Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, that forced the war on China.”

Mr. Maxwell said in the interview he had been trying “for years” to make the report public, including by making it available to several newspapers in India in 2012. The newspapers chose not to publish. His website has, however, been inaccessible in India after The Hindu reported that the war report had been made public. He said the website “collapsed under its own weight” and “not because of government censorship” as some Indian media reports suggested.

Mr. Maxwell repeated his long-held view that “all that talk about China’s ‘unprovoked aggression’ is utterly false, the truth is that India was the aggressor in 1962” — views he expressed in his 1970 book India’s China War.

Mr. Maxwell’s conclusions that China was all the while focussed on peaceful settlement and that India was to blame entirely for the war have, however, been questioned by other scholars, including John W. Garver.

Even in China, many scholars today see many factors, beyond Nehru’s mistaken “forward policy,” at play in China’s decision to launch an attack, from domestic turbulence in the wake of the 1958 Great Leap Forward famine to unrest in Tibet.