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Chinese company wins Spratlys drilling deal

AFP , BEIJING

A Chinese firm has won a joint contract from the state oil companies of China, the Philippines and Vietnam to search for oil and gas in a disputed area of the South China Sea, state-run media said yesterday.

China Oilfield Services (COS), a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), was given the go-ahead to explore around the disputed Spratly Islands chain after agreement by the three nationalized conglomerates, Xinhua news agency said.

CNOOC, Philippine National Oil and Vietnam Oil and Gas Corp, also known as PetroVietnam, agreed in March to conduct seismic work programs -- setting off explosions to monitor the shock waves for pockets of oil and gas -- over three years over an area of about 143,000km2.

A CNOOC official hailed the contract, saying it was an important step by the three countries to jointly implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, Xinhua said.

The declaration, signed between China and ASEAN members in 2002, is a major political document on peacefully resolving disputes in the resource-rich South China Sea, it said.

Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia also have claims to the Spratlys Islands. All claimants, except Brunei, station troops on parts of the archipelago.

Analysts say the joint exploration of the region surrounding the Spratlys is part of China's quest for energy to run its booming economy.

Under the bid awarded on Friday, COS would handle a seismic exploration project, Xinhua said. No information was given on how much the deal was worth to the company.

The three national oil companies have also agreed to a more detailed three-dimensional project, but it was not immediately clear if a contract had been awarded.

COS is China's largest offshore oil field services company, with a 65 percent stake held by the CNOOC.

Representative in the US regrets protest by China

CNA , WASHINGTON

David Lee, the nation's representative to the US, said on Friday that he regrets the Chinese ambassador's protest over his participation in a "journey of ambassadors" activity organized by Senator Chuck Grassley.

Grassley, who concurrently serves as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has customarily organized a "journey of ambassadors" every other year for members of the diplomatic corps in Washington to visit his home state.

The Chinese embassy lodged a protest with Grassley's office upon learning that Lee was on the guest list. An embassy staff member claimed that Taiwan's representative was not qualified to take part because he is not an ambassador.

In response, Grassley told the Chinese official that both Taiwan's representative and the Chinese ambassador to the US are his friends and are welcome to take part in the activity.

The Chinese embassy later informed Grassley's office that in protest over Lee's invitation, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong would refuse to go on the trip.

Annoyed by China's puerile fit of pique, Grassley issued a public statement at the Senate, contemptuously criticizing Zhou's move as "childish." Grassley further said that China should follow the basic norms and principles of international engagements.

In a changing world, good grades remain paramount

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , SEOUL

Just as she did during the school year, Jeong Hye-jin, 15, spent the long, sweltering summer commuting to her high school by day and to private classes in the evening.

Summer school was mandatory not for students who had fallen behind, but for those who, as she put it, "have a chance of getting into good universities." Not attending was never an option for Hye-jin, who is ranked 17th out of 430 students in the 10th grade at Young Hoon High School in a working-class neighborhood in Seoul.

Good grades had earned her mother's promise to buy her a new model that was supposed to go on sale in a matter of days.

Hye-jin, who has had a cellphone since the seventh grade, sends text messages without even glancing at the keypad. In class she looks straight ahead holding a pen in her right hand, punching away messages with the left on her phone under her desk.

A new phone, a good university -- goals shared, no doubt, by her peers -- set the rhythm of Hye-jin's summer. In a country where every teen's existence seems centered on entering a top university, which can determine one's future here much more than in the US, such conformity is to be expected.

At the same time, hers is a generation coming of age in a fast-changing society. Hye-jin has only the slightest knowledge of the military governments that ruled South Korea until the 1980s. South Korea, especially since the financial crisis and deepening democratization of the 1990s, has transformed itself into the world's most wired society.

Longstanding assumptions about women's roles, marriage, South Korea's relations with North Korea and the US have been upended in half of her lifetime. The dizzying changes have created new possibilities, but they have also made Hye-jin's mother worry whether her daughter is tough enough for a radically different world.

The principal of Hye-jin's school says her generation demands more freedom -- as evidenced by its fight to choose its hairstyles, which are restricted by most schools. In keeping with the country's democratization, Young Hoon High School now allows students to select some of their summer school teachers.

As for Hye-jin, she thinks North Korea is a "poor country," not a "bad country." Like most South Koreans of her generation, though, she is against the peninsula's reunification as too heavy a financial burden on the South.

After classes recently, Hye-jin and two of her friends skipped the US$1 kimpap at a Korean restaurant and the US$0.30 ice cream at McDonald's. Since they were being treated to lunch they chose "Italian Fresco," opting for pizza and pasta. On a street near the school, Hye-jin bowed to an older classmate.

Hye-jin and another friend, Byun Hee-jeong, 15, sat at the ends of a booth, flanking Yoo Ji-hyun, 16. Ji-hyun is Hye-jin's best friend.

"When I met her in the seventh grade," Ji-hyun said of Hye-jin, "I thought she was a goody-goody. But now I think she's open-minded and hysterical."

While her friends choose their summer-school teachers based on competence, Hye-jin judges them on how nice they are.

Except on Sundays, Hye-jin usually comes home around 11pm, after her private evening classes. Going to sleep around midnight she wakes at 6am.

"Since everyone else is sending their kids to private classes," said the father, Jeong Byeong-sam, 43, a union organizer at the bank, "we can't leave her out."

The private classes for both Hye-jin and her 12-year old sister cost about US$1,200 a month -- a hefty sum that dissuades many South Koreans from having more than one or two children.

"I invest in my kids and expect to see returns reflected in good grades," said their mother, Lee Yang-ja, 40. "I'm not satisfied. I don't think she's trying her best."

After coming home at night, her mother explained, Hye-jin just watched TV or updated her blog on the popular Cyworld site.

"She's too nice," her mother said. "She's not persistent enough. Given the world we live in, I'm a bit concerned."

Hye-jin's father, though, saw possibilities for his daughters in a society where women's standing has risen considerably. A change in the centuries-old family registry system in the next two years will even allow women to become the legal heads of households.