Society

Feng Huang, 26, from Shanghai was killed early on Saturday after being run over by a car driven by an intoxicated police officer. Her boyfriend, Dennis Loffredo, is still in hospital.

"Feng's parents were frantic with grief at the loss of their daughter," a former college classmate surnamed Gong told China Daily.

"Her parents are trying to get a US visa so they can go and identify and claim the body," she said.

New York police said off-duty Jersey City police officer Martin Abreu, 25, was driving his 2007 Toyota Camry south on West Street when he ran into Feng and Loffredo at the intersection of Albany Street at 3:40 am on Saturday.

Feng was pronounced dead at the scene, while her boyfriend suffered a broken leg, police said.

Abreu was arrested and has been charged with manslaughter, vehicular assault and driving while intoxicated, a New York Police Department spokeswoman said.

Gong claimed Feng's parents are planning to sue the police, but they have made no statement to that effect.

New York police refused to provide the exact results of a sobriety test administered to Abreu other than to say it was above the legal limit, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.

It said the couple was walking back to their apartment near Battery Park City after a night out at the time.

It was not until Sunday that Loffredo found out his girlfriend was dead, it said.

Feng graduated from the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade and moved to the US four years ago, a former classmate surnamed Zhang said.

In 2007, she graduated from New York University's Law School and was scheduled to start a new job on Monday, she said.

"Feng was a lovely young woman and very sweet," Loffredo's mother said.

His parents said they were "distraught" and described the accident as "senseless".

A Chinese mainland official Wednesday promised that the Chinese government would ensure Taiwan is directly connected to the World Health Organization system on global health alerts.

The mainland had consulted the WHO secretariat to make arrangements to apply the International Health Regulations (IHR) to Taiwan, said State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Fan Liqing.

Addressing a Taiwan reporter's question about the island's desire to become an observer of the World Health Assembly, Fan said the mainland could discuss with Taiwan and make rational arrangements on its participation in the activities of international organizations on condition it would not result in "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan".

"We hope that both sides across the Taiwan Strait will make joint efforts to seek sound solutions for this issue," she said.

The mainland was sincerely concerned about the health of Taiwan people and was taking active and concrete action to help them, she said at a press conference in Beijing.

The regulations support a global health alert mechanism that prevents the international spread of disease, and provides a public health response, according to the WHO.

The WHO, which included Taiwan in the regulations in January, will send its global public health alerts to Taiwan directly, instead of through the mainland, and involve the Taiwan Center for Disease Control (CDC) in its discussions on the prevention of epidemics.

The WHO will also send experts to Taiwan in case of the outbreak of an epidemic.

Fan said the Chinese government's attitude showed that "we are highly responsible in regard to global epidemic prevention" and Taiwan health experts had open channels to receive technology and information from the WHO.

China's top quality supervisor has banned imports of Philippine pork products after the island country reported finding of Ebola-Reston virus in four pig herds on its Luson island at the end of last year.

It was the first time the lethal virus was discovered in livestock.

All pork products from Philippine already at Chinese ports should be turned back or destroyed, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) said in an on-line announcement here on Wednesday.

The administration also said no to pigs or pork products coming to China via delivery and travelers. Pork products found on foreign ships, planes or trains staying in the country will be frozen.

At the same time, the administration urged people from Philippines having symptoms such as fever, muscle pain, blood loss or fetter to report to quarantine institutes and seek medical help as soon as possible.

Ebola virus, first found in the 1960s, has four types. It could communicate among people via sweat, blood and saliva and cause fevers with a death rate over 80 percent. There has been few reports of human deaths from Ebola-Reston type so far.

Exports fell 17.5 percent in January from the same month in 2008, the third monthly decline and a sharper drop than December's 2.8 percent, according to customs data released Tuesday. JP Morgan said it was the biggest monthly decline since October 1998.

"The numbers are terrible. The environment is awful," said Citigroup economist Ken Peng. "The pressures on employment will be huge."

The plunge in exports exceeded analysts' forecasts of about 12-14 percent and could dampen hopes China's slump was bottoming out after data showed the contraction in its manufacturing easing and higher bank lending.

Some analysts said the downturn was not as severe as it appeared because the Lunar New Year holiday, during which many companies close for a week or more, reduced the number of working days in January. The holiday fell in February last year. But even with that factored in, they said trade dropped off in January.

The collapse in global demand for Chinese goods has devastated export-dependent coastal areas. The government says at least 20 million migrant workers have lost their jobs. It is rolling out a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) package to stoke consumer spending and has taken steps to help struggling exporters of textiles and other goods.

Imports also plunged in January, by 43 percent, reflecting a slump in demand for foreign components and raw materials used by Chinese export industries, as well as weaker domestic consumer demand. Up to half of China's $1 trillion in annual imports are materials used in goods that are re-exported.

"The decline in imports suggests there is not really that much of a recovery," Peng said.

Exports of machinery and electrical goods fell sharply. Shipments of Chinese-made motorcyles plunged 32.7 percent and those of electric motors 28.4 percent. Sales of toys were down 14.7 percent and those of textiles 12.3 percent.

Sales at the Fuzhou Ideal Bags and Luggage Co., an exporter in Fujian province in the southeast, fell 20 percent in January from a year earlier, said its sales manager, who would give only her surname, Yang. The company's suitcases and backpacks are sold in the United States, Europe and Latin America.

"Our customers in the U.S said their clients' purchasing power was shrinking," Yang said. "We certainly hope the market would come back later this year, but it will depend on the orders we get after the Lunar New Year holiday"

Imports of industrial raw materials dropped sharply — a painful blow to commodities suppliers. Chinese purchases of foreign rubber fell 77.7 percent and those of materials used in textiles by 57 percent.

Analysts say a recovery in trade depends on the United States and Europe emerging from their own slumps, and the timing of that is unclear.

"For 2009, China's export prospects are grim," said Sherman Chan of Moody's Economy.com in a report. She said full-year 2009 exports should shrink "since most parts of the global economy will remain in recession for much of the year."

A deputy commerce minister, Jiang Zengwei, appealed this week for other governments to support free trade. He said China would avoid "buy local" restrictions in its stimulus, rejecting protectionist measures like those in Washington's proposed plan that have provoked criticism abroad.

Beijing is trying to reduce reliance on exports with its stimulus, which calls for spurring consumer spending by injecting money into the economy through government outlays on highway construction and other public works.

Economists say the stimulus should start to take effect in the quarter beginning in April. Some say a recovery could begin as early as the second half of the year but there are no firm signs of an upturn yet. Indicators show manufacturing shrinking and investment and consumer spending weakening.

Because of the Lunar New Year effect, Merrill Lynch economists Ting Lu and T.J. Bond said combined figures for January and February will give a better idea of the state of exports.

But they still expect the trade decline in the combined period to be sharper than December's. Exports will shrink by 7 percent and imports by 20 percent in the first quarter of the year from a year earlier, Lu and Bond said in a report.

China's global trade surplus widened to $39.1 billion in January, the third-highest month on record and just ahead of December's $39 billion trade gap.

The politically sensitive trade surplus with the United States widened by 1.9 percent from the January 2008 to $12.3 billion, according to customs data.

China's import weakness could be a blow for its trading partners, especially Asian economies that rely on Chinese manufacturers as leading buyers of their exports of industrial components and raw materials.