Word: weatherly
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...weird weather hit at a particularly bad time. Every year, in what is often called the world's largest annual migration, an estimated 180 million mainlanders go on holiday or travel home to be with their families to celebrate the Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year. Millions of these travelers are migrant workers - the real dynamo driving China's economic boom - who leave behind their jobs in factories and construction sites across the country for one of the few vacations many are allowed to take. But this year is different. Bad weather is making travel impossible; millions have...
...delayed by seven or eight hours," says an executive at the company surnamed Feng. The company also owns more than 200 trucks but the snow "affects our highway transportation more than it does railways," Feng says. "We used to ship two 40-foot containers daily, but given the weather conditions, we stopped our truck traffic completely on the 25th." Although it's hard to give an exact number for the losses the company faces, they "will no doubt be substantial," Feng sighs...
...possibility of reduced growth if the U.S. slumps into a recession. In China, "risks to growth also inevitably mean risks to [social] stability," says Patrick Horgan, China managing director for Washington, D.C.-based consultants APCO Worldwide. "On a big scale like this, it's no longer just about the weather but about the ability of the government to govern." And if you had to pick one area of the economy that scares the authorities in China the most it would have to be inflation, which hits citizens where it hurts most - in the wallet. The country's consumer price index...
...airs a special program called "Battling the Blizzard." An often repeated news clip shows Premier Wen Jiabao picking up a bullhorn and apologizing to a crowd of disgruntled travelers trapped in the train station in Changsha, the icy capital of Hunan province. (Even the Premier was inconvenienced by the weather: his plane couldn't land in Changsha and was forced to divert to Wuhan, 180 miles away. Wen arrived in the capital by train.) "I'm very sorry that you are stranded and not able to go home earlier," Wen told the throng. "We are doing our best...
...With tens of millions still on the road and forecasts predicting more bad weather, Wen may have committed the political sin of overpromising. But one political sin can often be expunged by another: deflecting the blame. A news clip airing on state television features an interview with a young migrant worker who insists loudly - and to the beaming approval of the collected cadres - that the crisis is "a natural disaster, not caused by administrative or leadership problems." True enough, but in a country where the public is constantly reminded of the omnipotence of the central government, some citizens...