10th December 08

Sydney Morning Herald

BHP joins slow boat to China

Vale, based in Rio de Janeiro, halted output at two iron ore pellet plants in Brazil yesterday, citing an "unprecedented contraction" in demand. Pellets were the first product buyers cut because they were more expensive than alternatives, said Gilberto Cardoso, an analyst at Banif Securities in Rio de Janeiro. Chinese steel makers will seek an 82 per cent price cut for iron ore next year after steel prices plunged to 1994 levels, Shan Shanghua, the secretary of the China Iron and Steel Association, told Bloomberg yesterday.

Kaixin - The following article has more of an international relevance. It is well worth reading.

Human rights and climate wrongs

... But as an important new report by the International Council on Human Rights Policy on the links between climate change and human rights makes clear, the negative impacts on people of changes in climate do not always involve horrific headlines and images of hurricanes, floods or refugee camps. More commonly, they will be cumulative and unspectacular. Those who are already poor and vulnerable are and will continue to be disproportionately affected. Incrementally, land will become too dry to till, crops will wither, rising sea levels will undermine coastal dwellings and spoil freshwater, livelihoods will vanish. Carbon emissions from industrialised countries have human and environmental consequences. As a result, global warming has already begun to affect the fulfilment of human rights, and to the extent that polluting greenhouse gases continue to be released by large industrial countries, the basic human rights of millions of the world's poorest people to life, security, food, health and shelter will continue to be violated.

The age
China is faltering: RBA chief
Tim Colebatch and Peter Martin

RESERVE Bank governor Glenn Stevens has warned that China's giant economy is faltering, and its industrial sectors are going backwards, putting forecasts of its continued growth in doubt. His warning comes as leading Australian forecasters have predicted a recession, and a new survey shows business confidence has fallen below its lowest point of the last recession

International Herald Tribune

Cooperation with China critical for Obama

Thirty years ago this month, President Jimmy Carter held secret negotiations to establish formal diplomatic ties with a poor, insular Communist China. President-elect Barack Obama will inherit a relationship with a China whose wealth and influence are essential to rescuing the world economy. Resolving almost any international problem now - from reducing North Korea's potential nuclear threat to slowing global warming - requires Beijing's cooperation. The financial crisis also underscores China's importance: Its $1.9 trillion in foreign reserves will be indispensable in helping to avert a global economic meltdown.

China seeks to end dispute halting aid to Pyongyang

China on Tuesday distributed a draft proposal on how to verify North Korea's account of its atomic activities, the latest attempt to resolve a deadlock that has held up the implementation of a disarmament-for-aid accord reached last year. Verification is the focus of the international talks, which opened Monday in Beijing with North Korea refusing to let outside inspectors take samples, a key method of ensuring that the Communist regime is being truthful, from its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon.

Researchers put a microscope on food allergies

The daily struggle of living with Sean's allergies to nearly unavoidable foods and food products — soy, eggs and milk, traces of which can turn up even in nonfoods like lipstick — prompted Batson and her husband, Tim, to participate in a project that scientists are calling the most comprehensive food allergy study to date. The international study, led by Xiaobin Wang and Jacqueline A. Pongracic of Children's Memorial Hospital here, is searching for causes of food allergy by looking at hundreds of families in Boston, Chicago and Anhui Province in China.

Asia Times Online
SUN WUKONG
China plays Tibet card to the full
By Wu Zhong, China Editor

HONG KONG - China's strong reaction to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's weekend meeting with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile, is unprecedented. From Beijing’s perspective, there is ample reason to take a more hardline stance on what it sees as foreign intervention in the Tibet issue.
On Sunday, Beijing summoned the French ambassador to China, Herve Ladsous, and lodged a "strong protest", according to the state news agency Xinhua. … He (Foreign Minister He Ya fei ) said that France now must "correct its mistake with actual deeds to enable China-France relations to continue to be healthy and stable and advance forward". Or else France must be responsible for "serious consequences", hinting China may escalate the diplomatic row.

An unnecessary quarrel
By David Gosset

The ability to take the big picture into consideration and develop a strategic vision for the long term is what defines genuine leadership, but the current tension between the European Union (EU) and China over Tibet shows this is exactly what the EU is lacking. This year, Beijing has proved it is a cooperative and responsible member of the international community on three different but highly significant occasions. The Beijing Summer Olympic Games in August were in the words of Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, "truly exceptional".

China: Carpe Diem!

Alex Merk

China has a unique opportunity and responsibility to shape not only its own future, but also that of the global economy. While the country is by no means responsible for the plight the world faces, it has played an important role in allowing global imbalances to be built. If China decides to help prop up the world economic model that got us into trouble in the first place, we may face the same challenges again a few years down the road. Except then, China may not have US$2 trillion in reserves to rescue its economy, and could face severe challenges. China will ultimately act in its own best interest, but prudent she must be. The time for China to act is now.

Evraz shuffle overshadows China takeover

John Helmer

MOSCOW - A surprise board reshuffle announced last week by the Evraz group, Russia's largest steelmaker and part-owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich, has triggered a sharp negative market reaction. It has fueled speculation that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the board of the state bailout bank, Vnesheconombank (VEB), are unhappy with the way in which Evraz has heavily leveraged its Russian mills in order to buy foreign steelmaking assets, and are threatening more active state supervision of the company's operations.