15th September 08

The International Herald Tribune

China detains 19 in baby formula scandal

SHANGHAI: China said over the weekend that 19 people had been detained by the police as part of an investigation into how baby formula had become contaminated with an industrial chemical. The formula is implicated in the death of one infant, and at least 432 others have been afflicted with kidney problems.

From the Archive

ABC Radio National Audio Download

Austrade and China's renewable energy market

China is the world's second largest energy consumer and it gets 90 per cent of its needs from fossil fuels. Under the Kyoto protocol, China is not compelled to reduce its green house gas emissions. But it has set ambitious targets of its own to tackle climate change, which Austrade says offers tremendous opportunities for Australian companies specialising in renewable energy technologies. Austrade is taking a business mission to China to tap this new market in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics in August.

Asia Times Online

Gas pipeline gigantism (July)

By Robert M Cutler

MONTREAL - Ground was broken in Kazakhstan last week for construction of that country's segment of a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China, set to be the longest and most expensive such pipeline in the world - its length is usually given as 7,000 kilometers, and although this looks like a rounding-up of a distance exceeding 6,500 km it may when work is finished be a more accurate figure than the most recent construction estimate of US$26 billion. Skeptics about this pipeline remained even after groundbreaking for the Turkmenistan segment in August last year. However, with the Kazakhstan ceremony following by a scant two weeks a similar groundbreaking in Uzbekistan, the conclusion seems unavoidable that this pipeline will be built.

Property price slide a China success (July)

By Olivia Chung

New-home buyers in China's most prosperous cities along with leading developers such as China Vanke are, like their counterparts in the US, feeling the pain as property values tumble below their purchase price and sales slow. But where the US government is seeking to alleviate the distress of its citizens by encouraging mortgage payment rescheduling and other measures, the authorities in Beijing can congratulate themselves for engineering the price slide in urban centers such as Shanghai, Shenzhen and the capital itself.