9th December 08

Sydney Morning Herald

China demands big cuts in iron ore prices

CHINA, the world's largest iron ore consumer, may ask Rio Tinto and rivals to accept an 82 per cent price cut for the raw material after steel prices plunged, an industry official said. "Iron ore prices should keep pace with steel prices, which have fallen to the 1994 level," said Shan Shanghua, general secretary of the China Iron and Steel Association. "We are asking for a big drop in iron ore prices."

International Herald Tribune

Chinese paper says whistleblowers are sent to mental wards

BEIJING: Local officials in Shandong Province have apparently found a cost-effective way to deal with gadflies, whistleblowers and all manner of muckraking citizens who dare to challenge the authorities: dispatch them to the local psychiatric hospital. According to an investigative report published Monday by a state-owned newspaper, public security officials in Xintai city have been institutionalizing residents who persist in their personal campaigns to expose corruption or to protest the unfair seizure of their property. Some people said they were committed up to two years, and several of those interviewed said they had been forced to consume psychiatric medication.

Asia Times Online

India quakes over China's water plan
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - Even as India and China are yet to resolve their decades-old territorial dispute, another conflict is looming. China's diversion of the waters of a river originating in Tibet to its water-scarce areas could leave India's northeast parched. This is expected to trigger new tensions in the already difficult relations between the two Asian giants. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reported during his recent Beijing visit to have raised the issue of international rivers flowing out of Tibet. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has said that water scarcity threatened the very "survival of the Chinese nation".

Kaixin - Conventional Wisdom is that the next major war will be over water .............. yikes!!!

US-China dialogue is Paulson's vital legacy
By Jing-dong Yuan

MONTEREY, California - The fifth round of United States-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) was held in Beijing last week. Initiated in 2006, this high-power bi-annual event is the last for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who has led the US delegations of cabinet secretaries and heads of agencies over the past two-and-a-half years. Paulson may be remembered for his role in the George W Bush administration's efforts to salvage the falling US economy with the US$700 billion bailout and indeed has been criticized for his mishandling of the rescue package. But he deserves special praise for his steadiness, purpose and stewardship in working with his Chinese counterparts

China plays beggar thy neighbor
By Peter Navarro

The latest summit between the United States and Chinese officials graphically illustrates that China has learned to play two games from the West: hardball and beggar thy neighbor. China's hardball approach is evident in the announcement by its major sovereign wealth fund that it will no longer invest in the US financial sector. … As for the beggar thy neighbor, it has become clear over the past week that Chinese government officials intend to export their way out of the global economic crisis.