3rd of June

The New York Times

Chinese Company Buying G.M.’s Hummer Brand

GUANGZHOU, China — General Motors has reached a preliminary agreement for the sale of its Hummer brand of large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks to a machinery company in western China with ambitions to become a carmaker.

Kaixin

Pre Finance Meltdown

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrilly lynchily
Life is but a dream

Post Finance Meltdown

Row, row, row your boat
Quickly the other way
China sits there, open cheque ready ........
Humming all the way

One for the USA, that makes one
1 for China

One for Europe, that makes two
11 for China

One for Britain, that makes three
111 for China

One the Australia, that makes four
1111 for China

One for Japan, that makes five
11111 for China

Oh look! They have five and China has 15. Perhaps the west should buy an abacas.

Geithner Says China Has Faith in U.S.

BEIJING — Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner ended his first visit to China on Tuesday by saying that his meetings here had begun to lay the foundation for greater cooperation between Washington and Beijing on a wide range of issues, including the global finance and climate change.

Kaixin – It was not that long ago that America could not have cared less whether China had faith in it or no. This dialogue between China and the U.S., indeed the West, bodes well for the world in general and the planet in particular.

Australia Bristles as China’s Economic Shadow Grows

SYDNEY, Australia — If outlanders tend to associate Australia with kangaroos, broad-brim leather hats and an opera house, many Australians are different. They think of iron ore and bauxite, copper and coal, nickel, gold and uranium, a trove of mineral riches that is their nation’s birthright and the bedrock of its prosperity. Which explains much of the breast-beating that has ensued since the Chinese announced plans this year to buy a big chunk of it.

Kaixin hears that the fluff on Malcolm Turnbull’s (Australian opposition leader) jacket is from under the bed where he has been communing with Sir Robert Menzies (Australian Prime Minister in the 1950’s – 1960’s ) about these pesky reds.

The Australian

China hints at price revolution for iron ore contracts

CHINA has flagged a new structure for iron ore contract prices as it continues to resist falling in with the growing number of Asian steel mills signing contracts at levels above spot prices. In a move that could help BHP Billiton's plans to do away with the annual pricing system, the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) yesterday said it had a new proposal for the negotiations.

The Age

Rio ore deals cause rift in China

A SPLIT has occurred between China's steel industry and its representative body, the China Iron & Steel Association. The country's large steel mills are unhappy about the group's refusal to accept the iron ore price cut negotiated between Rio Tinto and other Asian customers.

Asia Times Online

Forget Tiananmen, thus spake Confucius
By Antoaneta Bezlova

"There would have been chaos, and our economic development would have suffered," said another student, Lan Pingli. "But we need many years of peace, stability and economic prosperity to be able to find our own Chinese way of political governance." If Lan sounds uncannily like a communist propaganda apparatchik, it is because she and many others among her peers believe Beijing's form of authoritarian governance combined with a market economy is the right formula for the world's most populous country. They subscribe to the idea that political change will come to China not by following the Western model of parliamentarian democracy, but China's own practices.

SUN WUKONG
Throwing the book at corruption
By Wu Zhong, China Editor

HONG KONG - Vice President Xi Jinping emerged as a dark horse to be the future successor of President Hu Jintao at the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) 17th National Congress in 2007. With the succession due to take place at the party's 18th Congress in 2012, now is the time for him to establish his own identity. He could start with problems facing officialdom...

Chongqing shows its muscle
By Olivia Chung

HONG KONG - In a gesture that could bring tears to the eyes of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his budget-stricken counterparts around the United States, the Chinese municipality of Chongqing plans to go on an US$8 billion overseas spending spree, scouring the world for assets that may eventually strengthen the economy of the central mainland region.

Better than war
By Julian Delasantellis

One wonders if, when China picks the United States up off the bargain basement floor, whether they will be similarly self pitying, or will they know a good deal when they see it better than poor Fanny?

Kaixin – A must read