4th November

The Australian

Pepsi to invest $1.5bn in China

BEVERAGE and snack food group PepsiCo plans to spend $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) in China over the next four years, its largest investment so far in one of its fastest-growing markets, as sales stumble in the US.

The Age

No China rebound till 2009: Rio chief

RIO Tinto Group chief executive officer Tom Albanese says the economic slowdown in China, which buys 17% of the company's production, is quickening and demand won't rebound until 2009. "It is decelerating more in the fourth quarter than we saw in the third quarter," Mr Albanese said yesterday at the company's ilmenite mine in Madagascar. "That is going to lead to a deferred pickup in cumulative demand for most of the things we produce during the course of 2009."

International Herald Tribune

As the crisis churns, China's role in rescue is scrutinized

Beijing and the deep pockets of China Inc. are emerging as potentially vital players in limiting the economic damage from the worst global financial crisis in almost 80 years. China, with one of the largest economies in the world, clearly has the wherewithal to take a leading role. It has so far escaped the worst of the turmoil but Beijing's willingness to step up to the plate is in question. China has said it is willing to shoulder global responsibility, but President Hu Jintao has said the biggest contribution it can make is to keep its economy humming.

Asia Times Online

Myanmar’s farmers pay for China's oil thirst
By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK - The largest island off Myanmar's west coast is emerging as another frontier for China’s expanding plans to extract the rich oil and gas reserves of military-ruled Myanmar.
Initial explorations by a consortium, led by China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), has left a deep scar on Ramree Island, which is twice the size of Singapore and home to about 400,000 people. ''They have destroyed rice fields and plantations when conducting the seismic surveys and mining the island in search of oil,'' says Jockai Khaing, director of Arakan Oil Watch (AOW), an environmental group of Myanmar people living in exile.