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China Online DAVID D. HALE is an economist and Chair of Hale Advisers LLC. LYRIC HUGHES HALE is Founding Publisher of www.chinaonline.com.
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2008
Friday 16 May 2008 An earthquake in China kills several thousand people
An earthquake in China kills several thousand people ... more
Friday 16 May 2008
We are told that the Chinese are different. When China was presented to us as a faceless nation ruled by grey men wearing collarless tunics, when Chinese people were only represented to us as impossibly large numbers killed by famine, fallen in battle or smuggled overseas, this fiction was somewhat easier to maintain. It has served both the cognitive limitations of the Western media and the authoritarian tendencies of the country’s leadership quite well, but in the aftermath of Monday’s earthquake something has changed about the way that we are shown China and its people. As the citizens of Sichuan dig through the collapsed buildings where thousands lie trapped or dead, the media focus on human-interest stories: grieving parents mourning their only child, shell-shocked apartment dwellers in t-shirts and cargo pants forced to wander in search of water, overworked doctors doing what they can to treat survivors. They are us, in other words; they are modern people who dress like us and have the same stuff as we do, no more prepared for sudden privation than ourselves. It’s a subtle difference, but it elicits not just the empathy we should feel at the suffering of another human being, but the ability-indeed the reflex-to see ourselves in their shoes.
The Post’s Peter Goodspeed attributes this to the government’s realization that it couldn’t possibly clam up and suppress news of the disaster in an age of text messaging and online bulletin boards, but the shift in the way this story is being reported cannot just be attributed to the Chinese authorities. Government figures evidently see great value in appearing on television to console survivors and make a show of helping out on the front lines of the relief effort; Premier Wen Jiabao has been prominent in providing moral support to rescuers and showcasing the vigour of the government response to the disaster. After a few days of uncertainty, Beijing has agreed to welcome rescue teams from Japan, Thailand and even Taiwan, which is considered a rebel Chinese province by the People’s Republic. Meanwhile, fears are mounting that aftershocks will increase the death toll, both through the effects of the temblors as well as the risks to weakened dams and reservoirs upstream of populous cities. Today it is streaked with tears and dust, but for once China has a face.
—————————————————————–
THE LEADS:
THE NATIONAL: “The Survivors: As China tries to deal with the devastation, Michel Cormier talks to the people who are trying to pick up the pieces”
Tuesday 13 May 2008 Massive Earthquake in China A 7.9-magnitude earthquake in southwestern China has killed thousands of people.
Tuesday 15 April 2008 Relations between China and Taiwan appear to have entered a new phase. For the first time in nearly 10 years, Beijing and Taipei have agreed to reopen their official dialogue. The decision comes after a weekend meeting between Taiwan's Vice-president-elect Vincent Siew and China's president. Hu Jintao. China has claimed Taiwan as its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, and has pledged to bring the island under its rule by force if necessary. Relations between China and Taiwan deteriorated under outgoing Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bien who favoured formal independence from China. Taiwan's nationalist party, the Kuomintang, takes office late next month.
Monday 14 April 2008 Taiwan's vice president-elect and China's commerce minister held talks on economic cooperation on Sunday. The meeting between Vincent Siew and Chen Deming was held on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia on the southern Chinese island province of Hainan. Mr. Chen said that it is urgent that Taiwan and China normalize trade and economic ties. He said the matter is especially relevant in light of soaring prices for natural resources and global uncertainties. The meeting came a day after Mr. Siew met briefly with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the Boao Forum.
Sunday 13 April 2008 Green shoots
China's environmental activists - the first sign of a new society?
From Tibetan monks to human rights activists, recent events have shown that China can still be a dangerous place to be vocal. But when it comes to environmental lobbying, there are signs the system may be changing, reports Mukul Devichand.
China's President Hu Jintao has held a historic meeting with Taiwan's Vice-President-elect, Vincent Siew. The meeting at a business conference on China's Hainan Island was the highest-level contact between the two governments since their post-civil war split in 1949. Although the meeting was short, it signalled that both sides want to improve relations after several years of worsening ties. Mr. Siew is the running-mate of Ma Ying-jeou, who won a convincing victory in Taiwan's elections in March. He's pledged to improve the island's standing with Beijing once he takes office on May 20.
Saturday 05 April 2008 A daughter's fight to save Chinese 'spy' father
A Chinese businessman sentenced to death for spying for a Taiwanese organisation did not receive a fair trial, his daughter says. In a rare interview, Ran Chen tells the BBC's Michael Bristow in Beijing she fears her father, Wo Weihan, could have been forced to confess while he was kept isolated from the outside world.
 Stephen S. Poloz VP EDC Economics Weekly Commentary
Putting China’s Kitty in Perspective - March 19, 2008
Back in 2006, the level of angst skyrocketed as China’s reserves approached the $1 trillion mark. But by the end of 2007 China’s reserves were up to $1.5 trillion, more than 40% higher than a year earlier. Back in 2000, China only had $166 billion, so this number has been rising fast. Past issues | his WN page
Commentary podcast. 
Saturday 15 March 2008 China's resource hunger
China's hunger for natural resources has set off a global commodity boom. Developed countries worry about being left high and dry, but the biggest effects will be felt in China itself, says Edward McBride ... more
Sunday 09 March 2008 China's leading parliamentarian told the National People's Congress on Saturday that it must serve the leadership of the Communist Party. In his annual report, Wu Bangguo said that he would work to expand socialist democracy and the Congress' right to supervise the government. Mr. Wu was addressing 3,000 delegates at the annual 12-day session who are in Beijing to re-elect President Hu Jintao to a second five-year term, and to rename Wen Jiabao as prime minister. Mr. Hu will be re-elected on Saturday next week, while Mr. Wen will be renamed as premier on Sunday. As in most of China's parliamentary elections, only one candidate stands for each position.
Monday 03 March 2008 China's government is denying reports that it is considering a change to its one-child policy. Last week, the vice-minister of National Population and Family Planning Commission, Zhao Baige, said that China might slowly change the policy. He was also reported as saying that family planning had become a big issue among decision makers. But today the Beijing News said that the reports were incorrect, and that the content was not verified. The newspaper said that China will pursue its population policy even better than before. China introduced the one-child policy in the late 1970s to prevent the population from growing uncontrollably.
Sunday 10 February 2008 The global media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, says that the former president of a liberal newspaper in Guangzhou has been released from prison after four years. Yu Huafeng served one-third of a 12-year sentence for graft. Reporters Without Borders says that Mr. Yu was the victim of a conspiracy by Guangdong officials who wanted to punish him and his newspaper, Nanfang Dushi Bao, for its outspoken reports. One report described the death of a student at a local police station. Mr. Yu and his managing editor, Li Minying, were both arrested and sent to prison. More than 2,300 Chinese journalists signed a petition urging their release.
Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 Rats! China having wintry blast
Hundreds of millions of people in China are preparing to celebrate the Year of the Rat tomorrow with..
Tuesday 05 February 2008 A court in Beijing has upheld the death penalty for Wang Zhengdong, the chairman of a company that bilked investors out of more than $400 million. Wang and his company managers promoted a scheme that promised returns of up to 60 per cent. The company said that it was breeding ants for use in making liquor, herbal medicine and aphrodisiacs. One investor who lost his money later committed suicide. Wang was first sentenced to death one year ago. Fifteen of his colleagues received jail terms.
Tuesday Feb 5, 2008
News of China is not good. The crippling and unusual snow storms have wreaked havoc on the eve of Chinese New Year. Millions remained stranded on Monday ahead of the biggest holiday of the year as parts of the country suffered their coldest winter in a century. Freezing weather has killed scores of people and left travellers stranded before the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival — the only opportunity many people have to take a holiday all year
Friday 01 February 2008
Thursday 24 January 2008 China growth reaches 13-year high
China's economy expanded by 11.4% in 2007 - the fastest growth rate since 1994, officials say.
Wednesday 23 January 2008 China is reportedly calling on Burma's ruling military to allow a United Nations special envoy back into the country. The Chinese want Ibrahim Gambari to continue promoting a dialogue between the military government and the opposition Democracy Party. The Chinese request comes as Mr. Gambari claims the Burmese government is trying to delay his third visit to the country since a September crackdown on protests. At least 200 people were reportedly killed during the crackdown and some two-thousand others were imprisoned. The international community criticized the crackdown and called on China, Burma's ally, to convince the generals there to stop repression and free political prisoners.
Tuesday 22 January 2008 China wants to stop people who are ignoring the country's one-child policy. Officials are going to concentrate their efforts on wealthy people and celebrities who are increasingly abusing the policy by having more than one child. Officials say to counter the move, they will increase fines. The growing incomes of the wealthy have allowed them to get past the policy by paying a fine officially set at around 14-thousand dollars. China's family planning policy began in the late 1970s as a way to prevent the world's largest population from exceeding the country's capacity to feed it. Generally, urban families can have one child and rural families two, if the first is a girl.
Thursday 17 January 2008 China has released dissident Wang Dejia from prison in the southern city of Guilin. He was arrested last month on subversion charges after posting articles on the Internet that were unacceptable to the government. Chinese officials said Mr Wang will avoid further arrest if he stops writing about China's human rights situation. Mr. Wang's case comes at a time when a number of Chinese dissidents and activists have reported increased harassment and intimidation by Chinese officials. Observers say the government is trying to prevent dissent from being heard during this summer's Beijing Olympics. The Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders was also critical of Mr. Wang's arrest.
Wednesday 16 January 2008 China has decided to restrict the broadcasting of Internet videos to sites run by state-controlled companies. Under the new policy, Beijing also plans to control the content of online videos, including those posted on video-sharing websites. Among other things, providers are banned from broadcasting video that involves national secrets, hurt the reputation of China, disrupt social stability or promote pornography. The new regulations, which will take effect at the end of the month, will require service providers to delete questionable content and report it to the authorities. It wasn't immediately clear how the new rules would affect YouTube and other providers of Internet video that host websites available in China but are based in other countries.
Tuesday 15 January 2008 India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has asked China to help reduce a growing two-way trade imbalance, calling as well for greater economic integration. Mr Singh made his comments in Beijing on an official visit aimed at improving bilateral relations. He said that he wanted to discuss a wide range of questions, including climate change, energy security, international trade and counter-terrorism, as well as a lingering border dispute. Mr. Singh's three-day visit is the first by an Indian prime minister to China in five years. The world's two most-populous nations are seeking to overcome decades of mistrust.
Sunday 13 January 2008 Lives of Poverty, Untouched by China’s Boom
China has moved more people out of poverty than any other country in recent decades, but the persistence of destitution in places like southern Henan Province fits with the findings of a recent World Bank study that suggests that there are still 300 million poor in China — three times as many as the bank previously estimated. Poverty is most severe in China’s geographic and social margins, whether the mountainous areas or deserts that ring the country, or areas dominated by ethnic minorities, who for cultural and historic reasons have benefited far less than others from the country’s long economic rise.
Wednesday 09 January 2008 BEIJING: INTERNATIONAL TRADE MINISTER DISCUSSES HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA
At the end of his second day in China, Canada's international trade minister, David Emerson, said that Canada would not be deterred from raising issues of China's human rights and democracy. Speaking to local media, he said that Canada is open and candid with its views, but he also said that discussing human rights should not necessarily interfere with bilateral trade. China is Canada's second-largest trading partner after the United States. An aide to Mr. Emerson said that the minister had raised human rights issues during a meeting with China's commerce minister, Chen Deming. Mr. Emerson later commented that, in his opinion, China was more open than ever before to listen to constructive commentary about democracy. He expressed hope that negotiations on a tourism agreement could start again soon. China has tourism agreements with the United States and more than 130 other countries, but not with Canada. An agreement would allow Canadian tour agencies to market Canadian destinations actively in China. Mr. Emerson has warned China that he will appeal to the World Trade Organization if negotiations on tourism fail. He also suggested that Canadian companies take advantage of commercial operations in Hong Kong, a city that he described as a stable environment for investment. Mr. Emerson will next travel from Beijing to Mongolia, where Canadian mining companies have invested in the region's copper mines.
CALGARY: CHINA LOOKING TO INVEST IN CANADIAN MINES
Chinese companies have increased their interests in Canadian mines. The Jinchuan Group, China's largest producer of nickel, cobalt and platinum and a major producer of copper, is offering to purchase Tyler Resources of Calgary. Meanwhile, the Canadian company Ditem Explorations says that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with a subsidiary of China's Sinosteel to develop uranium properties in the Athabasca Basin of Western Canada. There has been some criticism of Chinese companies buying Canadian interests, but industry experts say that those fears are unfounded. Chinese businesses have been investing around the world in oil and mineral sectors to secure a supply of raw materials and energy to meet the rapidly growing demand of China's booming economy.
Tuesday 08 January 2008 HONG KONG : The shape of China's aviation industry could be remade in the coming months, with the possible emergence of one dominant Chinese airline, after Singapore Airlines was rebuffed Tuesday in an attempt to gain a foothold in the booming market.
A decision by minority shareholders of China Eastern Airlines to reject a tie-up with Singapore Airlines and a Singapore government investor has set the stage for an unusual corporate battle in China.
It has paved the way for a possible counterbid for China Eastern by China National Aviation Holding, the parent of Air China, the country's biggest carrier. China Eastern, which is based in Shanghai, has vowed to fight any counteroffer in order to retain its independence
Saturday 05 January 2008 China has decided to restrict the broadcasting of Internet videos to sites run by state-controlled companies. Under the new policy, Beijing also plans to control the content of online videos, including those posted on video-sharing websites. Among other things, providers are banned from broadcasting video that involves national secrets, hurt the reputation of China, disrupt social stability or promote pornography. The new regulations, which will take effect at the end of the month, will require service providers to delete questionable content and report it to the authorities. It wasn't immediately clear how the new rules would affect YouTube and other providers of Internet video that host websites available in China but are based in other countries.
2007
China - Infrastructure Apr 4, 2007 74 Photos
By Gerald Ratzer and/or menu
| page 2 | page 3 | page 4 | page 5 | page 6
China - Infrastructure Apr 4, 2007 74 Photos
By Gerald Ratzer and/or menu Shanghai has about 20 million people. You need a lot of highrise condos to house this number.
page 2 We visited many parks in China. It was Springtime so there were many trees and shrubs in bloom. Like visiting churches in Europe, after seeing the first dozen, the rest merge in the memory. Enjoy the landscaping and architecture.>
page 3 Bill had some top-of-the-line digital equipment and took some excellent shots.
Monday 24 December 2007 China's government is considering a new law that would prevent government-owned assets from being sold at cheap prices. The draft law proposes measures such as making accurate audits before assets are sold. The proposed law comes after complaints that the government was selling valuable properties to powerful multinationals. Earlier this year, a law was passed that requires foreign companies that seek to merge or take over Chinese firms to undergo security checks. China has also placed restrictions or bans on the sale of certain assets such as oil to foreign companies.
Sunday 23 December 2007 Police have banned a gathering of Chinese writers in Beijing. About 50 writers and intellectuals from across China had planned to hold a year-end dinner of the Chinese PEN society. PEN is an international association of writers. But police put some of the delegates under house arrest and issued warnings to others to refrain from attending. The chairman of the local PEN society, Liu Xiaobo, said that he was puzzled why police banned this year's dinner, whereas PEN dinners were tolerated for the past two years.
, January/February 2008 many essays
Reconsidering Revaluation
David D. Hale and Lyric Hughes Hale
Politicians in Washington are clamoring for currency revaluation in China to reverse China's trade surplus with the United States. But the trade imbalance is not the threat they make it out to be, and a stronger yuan is not the solution. Everybody should focus instead on properly integrating China into the global economy.
Read Preview
Sunday 09 December 2007 VIDEO
Ten Million Problems
Trucks are the mules of China’s spectacularly expanding economy — ubiquitous and essential, yet highly noxious.
Wednesday 05 December 2007 And there’s taekwondo in Cali
Sunday 02 December 2007 Britain's domestic spy chief is warning British corporations that China is spying on their computer systems. Jonathan Evans is the head of MI5. He has sent a letter of warning to about 300 corporate executives. The letter includes instructions on identifying methods that Chinese computer hackers supported by their government use to steal confidential information. His letter was published today in The Times newspaper of London. Britain's government has declined to comment on the letter. Late on Saturday, China's embassy in London had also issued no statement on Mr. Evans's allegation.
Sunday Dec 2, 2007 In China, you have to multiply every problem by 1.4 billion
We're getting a lot of China these days. Some good, some bad, some ominous. It has been well observed that, in any situation involving the Chinese, to get the true impact, you have to multiply by 1.4 billion.
Wednesday 28 November 2007 1:05 BEIJING: CHINA, CANADA REACH CONSUMER ACCORD
Canada and China have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand co-operation in consumer product safety. Health Canada says the agreement will establish technical working groups that will share information on testing procedures for consumer products such as toys and children's jewellery. Canada's health minister, Tony Clement, made the announcement in Beijing, where he attended a meeting on the importance of international co-operation on issues related to food safety. In recent months, China has had a series of recalls of exported toys, toothpaste and other consumer goods because of poor quality or toxic contamination.
Tuesday 20 November 2007 China Policy
China's e-waste mountain growing
GUIYU, China — The air smells acrid from the squat gas burners that sit outside homes, melting wires to recover copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. Migrant workers in filthy clothes smash picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing as much as 6.5 pounds of lead dust.
Thursday 15 November 2007 19:00 Beyond The Red Wall: The Persecution of Falun Gong airs on The Lens, Nov. 20, at 10 p.m. ET/PT and on CBC Newsworld, Nov. 24, at 11 p.m. ET/PT.
Sunday Nov 11, 2007 CBC is not credible or reliable LetterRe: "CBC delays Falun Gong film after Chinese protest" (Gazette, Nov. 8). Editing films and documentaries right up to the last minute does happen in television. What is extremely rare - and quite odd - is cancelling a scheduled broadcast hours or even minutes before its advertised time. This induces consumer, audience and stakeholder dissatisfaction and loss of company sponsorship. In cancelling Beyond the Red Wall, a film about the mistreatment of the Falun Gong movement in China, the CBC has let down all of the above. Its withdrawal also constitutes false advertising.
The CBC is neither credible nor reliable.
Charmaine Millott
Victoria
[Easy to condemn CBC on the basis of information that has surfaced, but rumor has it that there's a threat to withdraw the broadcast rights to the Olympics. Not an easy decision for the CBC ... let's wait til we get the full story. DTN]
OTTAWA: EXPORTS TO CHINA BOOMING
Statistics Canada says the country's exports to China have grown more strongly than those of the six other G7 nations because of the Chinese appetite for Canadian natural resources. For the first seven months of the year, Canadian exports to China grew by 43 per cent compared with the same period of 2006. Canada's exports to China almost doubled from 2002 to 2006 to $8.8 billion.
Tuesday 30 October 2007 Steel makers press EU for Asian import duties
BRUSSELS–European Union steel makers fired the first shot yesterday in what could be a major trade battle with China by asking Brussels to slap anti-dumping duties on Chinese and other Asian steel exports.
Sunday Oct 28, 2007 The leader of India's governing Congress Party is stressing the importance of an open dialogue with China. Sonia Gandhi made the comment on Saturday during a visit to Beijing. Speaking to students at Tsinghua University, Miss Gandhi admitted that the two countries have different views and perspectives on bilateral issues. But she also expressed confidence that dialogue could solve any problem. On her arrival to Beijing on Friday, President Hu Jintao told her that cooperation between India and China could change the look of Asia and the world. She will also visit the ancient city of Xi'an and Shanghai. India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, will visit China later this year.
Friday Oct 26, 2007 China's growth slows to 11.5%
The robust annualised 11.5 per cent jump in output for the three months to September revealed yesterday is down from the near- 12 per cent figure for the previous quarter. Next year, the IMF expects Chinese growth to slow to 10 per cent.
However, such a pace will put China on target to surpass Germany as the world's third-largest economy by early 2008 in local currency terms. Taking into account the undervalued Chinese currency, the renminbi, some economists place China second only to the United States in global importance even now.
Tuesday 16 October 2007
DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRACY … COMMUNISM
La Presse (not available online) and the Post (not available online)
front, as The
National, the
Globe, the
Star and the
Citizen go inside on Chinese President Hu Jintao’s speech at
Beijing’s first Communist congress in five years. Hu’s
fifty-eight-page speech delivered the agenda for China for the next five
years to 2,200 dutifully applauding delegates. It addressed some of the
country’s challenges, the Globe reports, such as corruption, the
widening gap between rich and poor, rising unemployment, and the wasteful
consumption of resources. While China’s state news agency, Xinhua,
rendered the speech as pro-democratic—even counting the number of
times Hu uttered the Chinese term for “democracy” (upwards of
sixty times, apparently)—the Globe characterizes Hu’s actual
proposals for democratic reform as “modest and small-scale, largely
limited to local initiatives and party procedures.” The Post writes
that Hu will continue to suppress basic rights such as press freedom and
freedom from censorship within his initiative to use such tools to
“give correct guidance to the public and foster healthy social
trends.” While he acknowledged his country’s growing
dissatisfaction with Communist rule, the Chinese leader stated that his
focus remained on economic development rather than political reform. The
Star reports that Hu reminded his delegates that China was transformed
from a country “on the verge of collapse” three decades ago
into the world’s fourth largest economy today. Reaffirming the
Communist party’s control of China, Hu stated: “We must uphold
the party’s role as the core of leadership in directing the overall
situation.”
Slide Show: Communist Party Opening Day
Ceremonies accompanied the start of the Chinese Communist Party's 17th National Congress in Beijing.
China’s Leader Closes Door to Reform
At the Communist Party Congress today, President Hu Jintao all but ruled out significant political change.
The opportunity in asset management in China
The country’s asset-management market will grow by 24 percent annually for the next ten years, but the multinational companies attempting to serve it face vastly increased competition.
Friday 05 October 2007 Share prices in China have taken on a life of their own
TRAFFIC jams were not only to be found on the streets of Hong Kong this week. Share-trading systems were also clogged up as investors piled in after a holiday to mark the founding of the People's Republic of China. Mainland markets were closed for the Golden Week, which only seemed to drive more money to Hong Kong. On October 2nd the Hang Seng index closed above 28,000 for the first time, rising 3.9% in one day. Shares of mainland Chinese firms climbed even higher amid talk of heavy buying by institutions in China able to invest in Hong Kong.
Thursday 27 September 2007 Thanks to China, an American recession need not cause the whole world to crash
Illustration by Bill Butcher
ECONOMISTS have long warned that the world economy could not fly for ever on the single engine of American demand. A one-engined plane is more likely to crash. With its housing market blighted and its consumers growing fearful, America now faces a mounting risk of recession. The good news, however, is that the world has found some powerful new engines in China and other emerging economies. Even as credit markets seize up, a world economy that is less dependent on the United States is more likely to stay aloft.
Sunday 23 September 2007 Can China continue to provide low-cost labour in high-tech industries?
Monday 17 September 2007 A Chinese official said Sunday Beijing is keeping a "close eye" on Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's plans for a referendum on seeking United Nations membership for the island. The statement comes after hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese took to the streets on Saturday in the southern city of Kaohsiung to promote the referendum on the UN bid, which has been criticised by China and the United States. Mr. Chen plans to hold the referendum -- on whether the island should apply to join the UN under the name "Taiwan" -- alongside the presidential election on March 22 next year. The island, under its official name the Republic of China, lost its UN seat to China in 1971.
Saturday 15 September 2007
China's Supreme Court has ordered the country's judges to use the death penalty less often. China regularly executes people for economic, non-violent and political crimes. The new order says crimes of passion, such as the murder of a family member, should not automatically result in the death penalty if compensation is paid to the victim's family. The court also says that those convicted of economic crimes should receive lighter penalties if they help authorities recover the stolen money. China does not officially release death sentence figures but it's believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than the rest of the world combined.
Wednesday 05 September 2007 China's boom may be environmental nightmare
Quebec's Minister for Economic Development, Raymond Bachand,
is on another trade mission to China this week - the third ...
| China vows defence transparency
China has agreed to start reporting its military spending to the UN and resume a practice of giving data about import and export of conventional weapons.
Beijing says the moves are an important step towards promoting military transparency.
China is currently in the middle of a long-term project to modernise its armed forces.
Monday 03 September 2007 China's government on Saturday urgently appealed to citizens to consume less energy. In launching a nationwide energy-saving campaign, Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said that the growing use of energy to support rapid industrial growth over the past 30 years has led to widespread pollution and harm to the environment. He urged people to help protect the environment by using re-usable rather than disposable items. The campaign has issued a booklet on energy-saving tips that recall earlier Communist eras. One tip recommends washing clothes by hand once a month. But other tips such as using more efficient light bulbs are familiar to those suggested by environmentalists in the West.
Sunday 26 August 2007 As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes
By JOSEPH KAHN and JIM YARDLEY
China’s pollution problem, like the speed and scale of its rise as an econo
China is making decisions today that will affect its energy use for the next 30 or 40 years. Unfortunately, in some parts of the government the thinking is much more shortsighted."
Saturday 25 August 2007 FPTV: Would the United States Go to War with China to Protect Taiwan?
With the world focused on Iraq, the standoff in the Taiwan Strait grows more explosive every day. Would the United States really go to war to protect Taiwan from China? Find out what top experts think about a clash between two nuclear superpowers in this first episode of FPTV. good videos
Thu Aug 02 2007 China cleans up for Olympics 02:39 video
Monday 13 August 2007 NEW POWER IN AFRICA
China, Filling a Void, Drills for Riches in Chad
By HOWARD W. FRENCH and LYDIA POLGREEN nyt
China is investing heavily in poor African countries like Chad, raising Western concerns.
Wednesday 08 August 2007 China's trillion-dollar reserves1
They start a search for a home
In 1900, for sanitary reasons, civil engineers reversed the Chicago River so that it would flow away from Lake Michigan and toward the Mississippi River basin instead. In today's China, financial engineers are attempting a similar feat with a different liquid: money. Their aim is to reverse the flow of capital in the world's most populous country.
Wednesday 08 August 2007 Hi,
Very interesting timing. One suspects that an impartial observer might have already concluded that now was the time to short the US$ and buy Yuan. The story seems to overlook the fact that this strategy would have exactly the effect the Fed needs to restrain inflation but for which it seems to lack political support. Blaming China would certainly offer a useful way out--and leave China with a revalued Yuan that would represent a public good for the global financial system.
Therefore the question suggests itself: is it a threat or a promise?
Hugs, Guy Stanley OWN
Wednesday 08 August 2007 The collapse of the dollar implies a , presumably serious, revaluation of the yuan against the dollar.If Chinese exports to the US (and to the dollar based part of the world) are price sensitive, Chinese exports fall, Chinese unemployment rises.That is the last thing the Chinese government wants/needs.
For history freaks; I remember an earlier version of the imminent dollar collapse, with the villains then being France and Germany, was put forward by Robert Triffin, then of Yale, about 1958. Tony
Tony Antal Deutsch Professor OWN of Economics
I agree with Tony. This conspiracy theory makes no sense from the Chinese perspective. The US is China's most important customer and exports are the job engine. If you use the nuclear option you'd kill the very US consumer the Chinese exporter is trying to sell to.
Peter Perkins OWN BCA
China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 1:48am BST 08/08/2007
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.
Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.
It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.
Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a "bargaining chip" in talks with the US.
"Of course, China doesn't want any undesirable phenomenon in the global financial order," he added.
He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further today, letting it be known that Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse if it choose to do so.
"China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings.
"China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan's exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar," he told China Daily.
The threats play into the presidential electoral campaign of Hillary Clinton, who has called for restrictive legislation to prevent America being "held hostage to economic decicions being made in Beijing, Shanghai, or Tokyo".
She said foreign control over 44pc of the US national debt had left America acutely vulnerable.
Simon Derrick, a currency strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon, said the comments were a message to the US Senate as Capitol Hill prepares legislation for the Autumn session.
"The words are alarming and unambiguous. This carries a clear political threat and could have very serious consequences at a time when the credit markets are already afraid of contagion from the subprime troubles," he said.
A bill drafted by a group of US senators, and backed by the Senate Finance Committee, calls for trade tariffs against Chinese goods as retaliation for alleged currency manipulation.
The yuan has appreciated 9pc against the dollar over the last two years under a crawling peg but it has failed to halt the rise of China's trade surplus, which reached $26.9bn in June.
Henry Paulson, the US Tresury Secretary, said any such sanctions would undermine American authority and "could trigger a global cycle of protectionist legislation".
Mr Paulson is a China expert from his days as head of Goldman Sachs. He has opted for a softer form of diplomacy, but appeared to win few concession from Beijing on a unscheduled trip to China last week aimed at calming the waters.
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China can cut emissions without hurting growth-Gore
07 Aug 2007 10:13:58 GMT
Source: Reuters
SINGAPORE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - China can cut its carbon emissions without jeopardising economic growth if it uses new technologies that do not emit greenhouse gases, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said on Tuesday. Gore cited the mobile phone industry as an example of a business that does not need to burn fossil fuels such as oil and coal. "There are ways to leap-frog the old, dirty technologies," said Gore, who was speaking at the Global Brand Forum in Singapore. China, like other developing nations, is worried that plans to cut carbon emissions would cripple its economic development. But Gore said the Chinese government needs to be more aggressive in fighting global warming because the country's chronic water shortage is tied to climate change. "China has a great deal at risk," he said. "The water crisis is very closely related to the climate crisis." Millions of people in China, which is on course to overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, have no access to clean drinking water. Chinese scientists said last month that rising temperatures are draining wetlands at the head of the Yangtze and green rivers, China's two longest rivers, choking their flow and reducing water supplies to hundreds of millions of people. While top Chinese leaders have "expressed themselves forcefully" on global warming, the comments do not "necessarily lead to immediate changes in the region," Gore said. CALL FOR CARBON TAX Gore, who became a climate crusader after he left the White House, also urged governments to impose carbon taxes because that would force businesses to think more carefully about their greenshouse gas emissions. "The single, most effective thing that governments can do to solve this crisis" is to have a CO2 tax, Gore said. He said that the introduction of the carbon tax in Norway has spurred businesses to develop the world's most advanced technology to bury heat-trapping greenhouse gases underground. Gore said that he was embarrassed that as vice president, he had only managed to persuade one senator to vote for the Kyoto Treaty. While he feels that the majority of them would vote for it today, he stressed the need for people to have a greater "sense of urgency" about global warming. Gore, who spearheaded last month's Live Earth concerts worldwide and whose documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Oscar, has not ruled out another bid for the presidency. "I haven't ruled out the possibility of running again at some point, but I don't expect to do so."
Jul. 9, 2007 | By Edward Burtynsky
A wave of more than 100 million rural workers has flocked to cities for factory work, fed by Western demand for cheap goods. If conditions aren't ideal, they are often better than farm life
Business| Made In China
Jul. 9, 2007 | By Jyoti Thottam
...Cool, Superdent and Everfresh Smile2 began their life in a factory in China --in this case, in Wuxi, a city of 4.5 million about...
Wednesday 01 August 2007 U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has renewed his efforts to persuade China to defuse growing bilateral tensions over the value of the Chinese currency. Mr. Paulson is in Beijing, where he held talks with senior officials, including central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Deputy Premier Wu Yi. Mr. Paulson's visit coincides with discussions in the U.S. Senate about imposing sanctions against China because of its undervalued yuan. Some lawmakers in Washington accuse Beijing of keeping its currency purposely low to give its exporters an advantage. There's also growing pressure in Washington to deal with the massive U.S. trade deficit with China. Mr. Paulson is also scheduled to meet with President Hu Jintao during his visit to Beijing aimed at improving economic relations.
Sunday 29 July 2007 China Moves to Change Damaged Global Image
SHANGHAI, July 26 — After years of being accused by Western nations of making only token gestures to fight fake goods and months of complaints about the safety of its exports, China is taking extraordinary steps to change its image.
“There’s no quick fix,” says Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization’s top representative in China. “China has perhaps been cutting some corners because the focus has been on growth. But they have 5,000 companies that produce medicine. That’s far too many.
Thursday 26 July 2007 The International Monetary Fund predicts China will become the largest driver of world economic growth this year. Revised IMF figures released indicate that China's economy will expand by 11.2 per cent this year, 1.2 points above the IMF's World Economic Outlook published in April. In contrast, the IMF lowered its 2007 forecast for the United States, the world's biggest economy, to 2.0 per cent.
Wednesday 25 July 2007 China has stopped the release of a study concerning the environmental damages of pollution. The Beijing News has reported that the release of a so-called Green Report about the cost of pollution and ecological degradation in 2005 has been indefinitely postponed. A senior expert at the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, Wang Jinnan, says local officials did not want to make public the cost of bad air, water and soil. They were apparently concerned that the results would lead to a huge fall in the quality of economic growth in some areas. A previous report for 2004 had calculated that environmental degradation that year cost nearly $68 billion, or 3.05 percent of gross domestic product, a figure some officials said at the time was shocking.
Tuesday 17 July 2007 Another toothpaste made in China is being recalled in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says Dent French USA is recalling fluoride mint toothpaste because it may contain a chemical used to make antifreeze. The Miami-based Dent French company says the toothpaste may contain diethylene glycol (DEG), a kidney and liver toxin and a central nervous system depressant. The FDA says it is not aware of any U.S. reports of illnesses or injuries from Dent Fresh toothpaste containing the chemical. Several other companies selling toothpaste made in China recalled their products last month due to similar concerns.
A HUMAN-RIGHTS ABOUT-FACE
by Daniel Tencer
July 17, 2007
Last November, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper was apparently
snubbed by Chinese President Hu Jintao during the APEC conference in
Vietnam, the Conservative leader took a blunt but impressively principled
stand on Canadian-Chinese relations. “I think Canadians want us to
promote our trade relations worldwide, and we do that, but I don’t
think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values,” Harper
said. “They don’t want us to sell that out to the almighty
dollar.” Harper was, of course, referring to China’s abysmal
human rights record, which includes, among other things, repression of
religious groups, mass resettlement of ethnic minorities and far and away
the world’s highest rate of executions. In taking such a stand, he
drew a clear distinction between his politics and those of the previous
Liberal government, which, under the leadership of Jean Chretien, placed a
great deal of emphasis on economic relations with China while downplaying
human rights concerns. Harper thus cleverly covered up an international
diplomatic embarrassment with a domestic political victory.
Yet what applies to China doesn’t seem to apply to Latin America.
Yesterday, in Bogota, the prime minister rushed to defend his decision to
open free trade talks with Colombia, a place that is described in The
National’s broadcast last night as “one of the most dangerous
countries in the world,” and which the NDP says has a record of
murdering trade unionists and disregarding indigenous peoples’ |
As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes August 26, 2007 
BBC
Three Gorges Dam is a disaster in the making, China admits 
