3rd of November 2010
The Lion Awakes
Daily News, Culture & Current Affairs about China
Graeme has been using ChinesePod since 2007
"I highly recommend ChinesePod, I haven't found any Online teaching programmes that come close."
China Daily
SPECIAL FEATURE - Anatomy of the currency war
The buzzword "currency war" has been making headlines around the world in recent months since the Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega coined the phrase for the first time in September.
An army of experts and officials declared their thoughts on the issue as more and more economies joined in the intervention over exchange rates. Here we try to map out the cause and developing progress of the episode and work out a possible finale.
Upgrade urged to counter US probes
High-end exports will come under 'increased scrutiny' by Washington
BEIJING - China's ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) urged Chinese exporters to boost product upgrade as the United States shifts its focus from labor-intensive goods to investigate imports of high-end products from China.
Since the US Commerce Department announced a probe last month into China's clean energy sector over so-called government subsidies, it is clear that the US is increasingly looking critically at China's high-end products as part of its trade weaponry, Sun Zhenyu, China's top envoy to the WTO, said.
Beijing rejects US offer to host Diaoyu talks
Territorial dispute is the business of China, Japan, Foreign Ministry says
BEIJING - Beijing on Tuesday rejected Washington's offer to host trilateral talks with China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands.
China reiterated its sovereignty over the islands and made clear it is a bilateral issue between Beijing and Tokyo.
"The territorial dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands is the business of the two nations only," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu in a statement published on the ministry's website.
"It is absolutely wrong for the United States to repeatedly claim the Diaoyu Islands fall within the scope of the US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security," Ma said, reiterating that the Diaoyu Islands and adjacent islets are an inalienable part of China's territory.
"What the US should do is immediately correct its wrong position," said Ma.
Modernity can be two-way street for cultural heritage
Ethnic rituals and languages under increasing threat as transport and communication access improves to remote areas. Hu Yongqi reports from Qiandongnan.
Tucked away in the sprawling hills and mountains of Southwest China's impoverished Guizhou province, Tonggu is a village that almost defines the word "remote".
To get there from the nearest city takes three hours on narrow, pockmarked dirt roads that would test the endurance of even the most ardent traveler.
Tonggu's seclusion has for decades played a pivotal part in protecting the rare rites and rituals of its 2,000 or so residents. Yet, like in other rural parts of China, the cultural customs of this village in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture are today under threat.
Every new and smooth road that is built not only paves the way for incoming tourists but is also creating an "escape route" for younger generations, many of whom are leaving their heritage behind.
"The remote environment has helped many secluded villages preserve their traditions," said Cao Chunhan, director of the Qiandongnan Ethnic Museum 35 kilometers away in the prefecture's capital, Kaili.
But as this bubble slowly bursts, do villages risk losing more than they gain through modernization?
Cao thinks so. He warned that if more is not done to protect these traditions, "they will be confined to history".
Two ethnic Miao women hospitably serve a guest homemade rice wine at a village in Jianhe county, Guizhou province.
Sino-UK trade to top PM visit
LONDON - Boosting bilateral trade is set to top David Cameron's agenda during the British Prime Minister's first China visit this month since taking office in May.
Analysts, officials, and business leaders in the UK also said the two countries can move beyond a business-to-business partnership by having more cooperation in areas like healthcare and legal issues.
China allocates 57b yuan for education in rural areas
BEIJING - China's Ministry of Finance announced Tuesday it would allocate 56.63 billion yuan ($8.46 billion) from the central government budget to support nine-year compulsory education in the country's rural areas in 2011.
Kaixin OpEd – There is enormous capital locked up in rural China, both human and natural.
Education will help to unlock the human capital.
Will the first genuine Nobel Prize winner come from rural China?
Foreign input sought on next Five-Year Plan
BEIJING - As China prepares to outline its national economic and social development plan for the next five years, a public opinion campaign is being launched in which foreigners are being invited to submit their recommendations, officials said on Tuesday.
"Before the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) is finalized, it's necessary to listen to opinions and suggestions from all communities," said Zhang Ping, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Public input is welcomed on a series of key issues, such as encouraging domestic consumption, increasing the pace of urbanization and taking the process of opening-up to a new level, Zhang said at a press conference organized by the International Communication Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
China to adopt 'prudent' monetary policy in 2011
China is likely to continue the proactive fiscal policy but shift its monetary policy from "moderately loose" to "prudent" in 2011, China Business News reported on Tuesday, citing two sources close to policy makers.
The Central Economic Work Conference, usually held in December every year, will review the country's current "proactive fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy," according to the paper.
The policy adjustment could mean that China will further tighten its monetary policy following the central bank's first interest rate hike in three years in mid-October, the report said.
China may lower its money supply target and tighten credit control in 2011, said the sources.
China's GDP growth rate is expected to exceed 10 percent this year, and consumer prices may rise more than 3 percent from 2009, the paper said.
Trademarks a growing concern
Companies are urged to protect their brands
Beijing has seen robust growth in trademark registrations in recent years, but there is still a long way to go for the city to own more globally recognized trademarks, authorities said on Monday.
The city holds more than 250,000 trademarks and the number is rising every year, according to the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce (BAIC).
In Chaoyang district alone, from 2006 to 2009, trademark registrations grew by 24.7 percent each year.
The well-known traditional shop Goubuli (Go Believe) at Dashilar, Dongcheng district.
Retired women band together to protect community
A guard team made up of retired women is on patrol duty in a community of Hefei, Anhui province
China Daily Special Feature - Videos capturing special moments at Expo
Interesting comments by Noam Chomsky on China:
Chinese Zodiac
Jewellry
Global Times
Epic census launched
Census takers record information at a household in Lianxin village of Tengchong county, Southwestern Yunnan Province
Editorial - Asia should not be bound by a few islands
East Asia, one of the world's most dynamic regions featuring trade and economic wonders for the past few decades, is seemingly becoming a hot spot of anger and confrontation, as a result of recent sovereignty disputes.
The US vow to stick a hand into the already troubled situations around China only makes the mess even more difficult.
With territorial quarrels continuing to escalate, China has to rethink its priorities. Should it keep its focus on increasing trade and the economy, or should it be drawn into a quagmire that hurts both China and its neighbors?
This is not to say that China should forfeit its claims over the islands, but China has to be clear that its utmost strategic goal now is to keep growing strong.
The biggest beneficiary of a troubled East Asian region is the US, which wishes to diminish China's healthy ties with its neighbors and to realize its goal of leadership in the western Pacific.
Southeast Asian countries, out of a natural anxiety over the rise of China, may want to "balance" the rising power. Yet with many of them also on the fast track of development, they should cherish a stable neighborhood more than ever.
Being tough is sometimes necessary. But, history also teaches us the one who chooses to be tough was often the weaker player, and the stronger player often showed flexibility in dealing with the situation, as a result of its greater resources and confidence.
In terms of the recent island disputes, what China needs to do is not simply to get tougher. First of all, it should work toward a practical solution to end the disputes. If this is hard to achieve, China should at least try to avoid developing a situation that caters more to US interests than to Asia's.
China has to face the fact that these Chinese islands, which are currently under the control of Japan and Viet-nam, cannot be taken back in a short period of time.
Japan is also in the same situation: No matter how tough Japan appears to be in its claim of the Russian-con-trolled Southern Kurils, they will not be able to force the islands to change hands overnight.
It takes great wisdom to solve these territorial problems. To preserve the upward trend of China and East Asia's development, China needs to consider holding back a little bit on the island issues. How much China should hold back may depend on the joint efforts of all East Asian players toward a goal of common prosperity.
Dialogue - A 30 Minute Current Affairs Programme on CCTV - 9 (In English) where current issues are discussed by experts from China and Internationally:
Inclusive growth of next five years
Beijing vows to keep a lower but steady GDP growth rate in the next five-year plan. The blueprint is compared to a more sustainable strategy of inclusive development.
The consensus is generated at a landmark conference of the Chinese communist party that comes to a very fruitful conclusion on Monday. The strong visible hand of the central government has helped bail out a big continental economy in times of financial meltdown.
But is the Chinese mode of development healthy enough to sustain a sizable economy that will be based more on its domestic consumption and environmentally friendly manufacturing? How shall we examine the sense of global responsibility for China as its economy continues to pull the world economy out of recession?
CCTV - 9
News for Today
China Business Culture Science & Technology Travel
International News Sources
SEARCH KAIXIN FOR A TOPIC or KEYWORD or DATE
The Wall Street Journal - China RealTime Report
Picture China, Shanghai Special: Expo No More - Slideshow
Images from the last day of the Shanghai Expo: Ban Ki-Moon, “Pavilion Hats,” Haibao gets funky and more.
The Wall Street Journal
Pictures of China
Slideshows
Video: How A Rare Earth Magnet Works
Much in the news, rare earth elements arouse both excitement over their possible applications and fear over their limited availability.
Less discussed: What rare earth elements actually do.
China’s Billionaire Welfare Scandal
Late last week, not long after Chinese Communist Party leaders conceded the need for fairer economic development, some of China’s richest men were found on a list of people due to receive housing subsidies from the Shenzhen municipal government.
CRT Extra: More on New Taobao “Mall” Site
A plan to re-brand and expand the business-to-consumer platform of Alibaba Group’s online retail platform Taobao.com could lead to higher profits for the company (see yesterday’s story in The Wall Street Journal here ).
China Central Bank Still Worried About Inflation
BEIJING—China's central bank, fresh from its first interest-rate increase in nearly three years, said Tuesday it remains concerned about inflationary risks in the country's fast-growing economy, a problem that it indicated could be amplified by the easy-money policies in the U.S. and other developed countries.
Boeing Sees China Becoming World's No. 2 Jet Market
BEIJING—China will likely require 4,330 new commercial airplanes valued at $480 billion over the next 20 years, becoming the world's second-biggest airplane market after the U.S., according to a projection by Boeing Co.
Bid for Ghana Oil Field Rebuffed
Kosmos Energy of U.S. Rejects $5 Billion Offer From Cnooc and GNPC
Ghana's state-owned oil company and China's Cnooc Ltd. made an unsuccessful joint bid of $5 billion for a U.S. company's stake in one of Africa's most promising oil regions, an official of the Ghanaian company said Monday.
The New York Times
In Shanghai, a Roomy Loft From a Small Apartment
But Hebe Ting, a property investor from northern China who moved to Shanghai in 2001, has always been attracted to the traditional, specifically, the fast-disappearing early-1900’s lane houses in Shanghai’s former French Concession. “I didn’t want to live in a big new building where everyone has the same things,” said Ms. Ting, 40. “I wanted something private and special.”
Shanghai Expo Sets Record With 73 Million Visitors
David Barboza
The Chinese government made sure that the World Expo would reach its target of 70 million visitors and break the record set by Japan in 1970.
Asia Times Online
SUN WUKONG
Some may be more equal than others
By Wu Zhong, China Editor
Yanei, a name from classic Chinese literature, commonly describes the arrogance of the offspring of officials. Public thirst for justice is likely to be slated in an astonishing display of lawlessness by the son of a low-ranking policeman after being involved in a hit-and-run. But the incident raises the question of whether higher-ups would allow the weight of the law to fall on their offspring
The Age
Australia looks for a way
John Garnaut
AS FOREIGN Minister Kevin Rudd returns to Beijing today he has been holding up his "third way" of dealing with China as an example for the rest of the world.
"There is an unfortunate polarisation, internationally, of the view on China,'' he told visiting journalists from Caixin.
''One is that in any international engagement with China, you should always be so polite, that nothing of substance is said of the real things which are problems.
Kaixin OpEd – Kaixin has quietly argued all along that the way to engage China is with respect and quiet determination.
China is called the Middle Kingdom.
One of the characteristics of the Chinese way of thinking is finding the middle way.
Like every nation, they do not respond well to weakness, particularly when that weakness is manifest in not saying clearly where you stand.
China certainly does not respond to aggression.
China’s experiences of colonialism and the 20th century where it was raped and pillaged by Japan, then surrounded and isolated by America have gone deep into the Chinese psyche.
A miss-conception of the ‘west’ bought about by arrogance is that when the ‘west’ does state clearly what they stand on an issue China should meekly agree and acquiesce.
China does not have to do that any more, nor will it.
The peaceful middle way is all that is logically left if the world is to engage with China in a mature way.
Of course there is no simple way of doing this. The issues are complex, the societies different.
However with respect and quiet determination on both sides progress will be made.
Share Article 
