9th January 09

Asia Times Online

China making leaps in space
By Peter J Brown

In 2009, China will be pursuing its ambitious plans for space in all sorts of ways. But in terms of missions and milestones, China will find it quite hard to surpass the stellar success of the spacewalk during the Shenzhou 7 mission in September. China ended 2008 with 11 successful launches, and set a new record for launches in a single year. China intends to set another new record this year.

China's role in commercial space on hold
By Peter J Brown

Just a few days ago, the organizers of the Google Lunar X Prize announced that one of the new international participants was a Shanghai-based German-Chinese team known as Team Selene. This team has proposed a Lunar Rocket Car (LuRoCA 1) equipped with HDTV cameras. "China's space program is controlled by the military. There is no separate civil space program, and it is unlikely that there will be a commercial effort, given the military's role," said Sattler, who added that the NASA-funded Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in the US and other private sector initiatives are succeeding.

International Herald Tribune

U.S. debt is losing its appeal in China

China has bought more than $1 trillion in American debt, but as the global downturn has intensified, Beijing is starting to keep more of its money at home - a shift that could pose some challenges to the U.S. government in the near future but eventually may even produce salutary effects on the world economy. "All the key drivers of China's Treasury purchases are disappearing," said Ben Simpfendorfer, an economist in the Hong Kong office of the Royal Bank of Scotland. "There's a waning appetite for dollars and a waning appetite for Treasuries. And that complicates the outlook for interest rates."

Taiwan grows somber as exports plummet

Taiwan's economic slowdown has snowballed with alarming speed. Exports, which were still growing fast as recently as August, have tumbled in the past few months. Meanwhile, the jobless rate has jumped to a five-year high, with many workers becoming semi-employed as manufacturers force workers to take unpaid leave as many as three days a week. The numbers could be a harbinger for other export-dependent Asian economies like Japan, South Korea and China, which are already showing similar signs of weakness.

Distressed bonds spread to Asia and Latin America

Distressed corporate bonds - defined as debt whose yields trade at levels more than 1,000 basis points, or 10 percentage points, higher than those of benchmark government bonds - were confined almost exclusively to U.S. shores a year ago. Now credit risk is rising in emerging markets. In Asia a year ago, only bonds of the largest Chinese tire maker, GITI Tire, traded at levels suggesting rising default risk. Today, the perceived risk as judged by bond investors is growing fastest in Asia, where 32 corporate bonds have reached distressed levels, according to data compiled for Reuters by Moody's Investors Service.