29th May 2010

The Lion Awakes 

News at a Glance

今天的中国新闻

A compilation of Headlines + Brief Summary from Chinese & International Publications relating to China.

Just 5 Minutes each day to be up-to-date on the News of China

Combined with Kaixin’s boutique SITE SEARCH ENGINE, it is a unique source of knowledge about China"

China News Archive

From 2008

China Daily

Work toward fighting social injustice

Two separate series of incidents that happened in recent months have had the effect of shocking the nation.

2010 Sino-US Dialogue

US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue

The S&ED is an ongoing and intensive mechanism for addressing the challenges and opportunities that the US and China face on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global areas.

Full Coverage

India's President visits China

China's President Hu Jintao (R) shows the way to India's President Pratibha Patil during a welcome ceremony inside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing

Asia's 'double engines' fine tune relationship

Beijing - China and India, dubbed the "double engines" of Asian economic development, are committed to a closer relationship that seeks further political and economic benefits, said the presidents of the two countries on Thursday.

President Hu Jintao and his Indian counterpart Pratibha Patil attended a signing ceremony in Beijing for three bilateral agreements including cooperation on visa application formalities for airline staff.

CCTV - 9

China, India to strengthen bilateral ties

Indian President Pratibha Patil is in China on a state visit, which coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India. Both Chinese president Hu Jintao and the Indian president have agreed to further enhance friendly relations between the two countries.

Chinese President Hu Jintao welcomes Indian President Pratibha Patil with a guard of honor on Thursday. It's the first time in 10 years an Indian president has paid a state visit to China.

China and India: Partner or competitor?

For more on Sino-India ties, we are now joined by our current affairs commentator, Gregory Yingnien Tsang.

This visit by Indian President Pratibha Patil will no doubt improve bilateral ties between India and China. How do you view the relationship between the two countries? Partner or competitor?

WATCH VIDEO  (Short Cartoon Intro - have patience)

Acts against stability condemned

China's position on sunken ROK ship will be fair, objective: Wen

Seoul - Visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed strong condemnation and disapproval of any action that threatens the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula, calling on all sides to keep calm and show restraint to avoid any regional conflict.

"China objects to and condemns any act that damages the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula," Wen told President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Lee Myung-bak, during talks about the ROK warship Cheonan that sank in March. Forty-six crew members of the vessel died in the incident.

Wen said China has attached great importance to the international probe on the sinking and any response to it.

He said "the Chinese government will decide its position by objectively and fairly judging what is right and wrong about the facts".

Wen called on all parties to stay calm, exercise restraint to avoid the escalation of the situation and jointly maintain the hard-won peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Hu calls for universal basic health care

BEIJING - Chinese President Hu Jintao has asked governments at different levels to endeavor to ensure all urban and rural residents to be covered by basic health care service, a key livelihood issue in the country.

Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the call at a group study of the members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Friday afternoon, said a statement issued on Saturday.

China's western development to get more support

BEIJING - China will increase support for its underdeveloped western regions in areas such as taxation and environmental protection, according to a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Friday.The meeting was presided over by Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

"The western part of the nation is strategically important and there should be special policies to support the region," the meeting's statement said.

Support should be increased with "greater resolution and force," the statement added.

The areas that should receive increased support include finance, taxation, investment, industry, land usage, pricing, the environment and human resource development.

CAD Fund to boost footprint in Africa

PE firm likely to raise $2 billion over next three years

BEIJING - The China-Africa Development Fund (CAD Fund), China's largest private equity (PE) fund focused on African investments, has kicked off its second-phase of fund raising to raise $2 billion over three years, a top fund official said on Thursday.

"The capital-raising plan will be open to qualified entities that have interest in making investments in Africa," Li Dongya, managing director for operations and management at the CAD Fund told China Daily.

He said the capital raised would be used for infrastructure construction, agriculture, manufacturing and electricity projects.

China orders review of local govt finances

BEIJING - China's Cabinet ordered a review Thursday of investment agencies run by local governments amid warnings that Chinese banks might face problems if they cannot repay multibillion-dollar borrowing.

The order was the highest-profile expression of government concern following warnings by the World Bank and others about heavy debt at such agencies, which invested in real estate and infrastructure as part of Beijing's stimulus.

"We must strengthen management of local financing platform companies in order to maintain economically sustainable healthy development and social stability," said a Cabinet statement issued after a meeting led by Premier Wen Jiabao.

Europe still key investment market, says forex regulator

BEIJING - Europe "was, is and will remain" a key investment market for China's foreign exchange reserves, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said on Thursday.

The euro and European capital markets rallied after China made the announcement.

The Financial Times, citing unidentified banking sources, reported on Wednesday that officials at SAFE had met with bankers in recent days on reviewing its holding of eurozone debt following concerns over the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

"This report is groundless," SAFE, which manages China's more than $2.4 trillion of foreign exchange reserves, said in a statement.

Shanghai to adopt more strict property measures

Shanghai - Authorities are working on detailed rules to cool down the property market in Shanghai, which will be more strict than central government policies, a municipal official said.

Chen Qiwei, a spokesman for the Shanghai municipal government, did not preclude the possibility of levying property tax when asked about this issue at a press conference on Friday.

"Shanghai will take more strict measures in line with the central government policy," Chen said, adding that more efforts will be made in building economically affordable houses and cracking down on speculative house purchasing

1,000 km of rail transit lines to cover Beijing by 2020

CHANGCHUN - Beijing will have more than 1,000 km of rail transit lines in operation by 2020 according to a new construction plan, Beijing vice mayor Huang Wei said Thursday.

The Chinese capital plans to have 15 rail transit lines in operation with a total length of more than 561 km by 2015, Huang told a forum on urban rail transit in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province.

China accelerates south-north water project

WUHAN - China is accelerating the construction of a massive project aimed at diverting water to meet growing demand in the parched north, project authorities said.

The south-to-north water diversion project will divert water from the Yangtze River to the dry north via three routes: eastern, middle and western.

"The construction of the south-to-north water project is going according to plan and being accelerated," according to a statement from the Office of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Commission of the State Council (SNWDPC) on Thursday.

Nature photographers zoom in on wild China

A boy herds a buffalo after school in Lianhua village, Chengtuan township of Liujiang county in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region 

Global Times Headline

Chinese premier promotes cooperation, good neighborliness in South Korea tour

SEOUL, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Seeking to increase cooperation and good neighborliness with South Korea, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday started his three-day official visit to the country.

TO SPEED UP ESTABLISHMENT OF FTA

A key issue during the visit is to speed up the establishment of the free trade area (FTA) between the two nations.

International News

Caixin Online

CNOOC's Fu Chengyu: A Market-Driven Oil Man

As a state-owned oil giant's longest-serving president, Fu Chengyu has tasted defeat but still has the will to plot a market course
 
(Beijing) – Toward the end of a grueling, three-hour interview, China National Offshore Oil Corp. President Fu Chengyu was asked about his personal plans.

The Wall Street Journal    China RealTime Report

Sky Has a Limit in China, ‘Supertall’ Designer Says

At 492 meters (1614 feet) the Shanghai World Financial Center is mainland China’s tallest building but its height may become “almost standard” around the country, according to the senior designer of the 101-floor center.

Photo Courtesly of WSJ - China RealTime Report

Pfizer Deal Highlights China's Clout

SHANGHAI—One $50 million divestiture shouldn't mean much to a $68 billion globe-spanning merger. But in the case of Pfizer Inc.'s sale of a Chinese business, it highlights the growing influence of China's government over Western mergers and acquisitions.SHANGHAI—One $50 million divestiture shouldn't mean much to a $68 billion globe-spanning merger. But in the case of Pfizer Inc.'s sale of a Chinese business, it highlights the growing influence of China's government over Western mergers and acquisitions.

Chinese Regulator Approves Big Fund Raisings

BEIJING—China's government has started approving a series of multibillion-dollar fund raisings by its banks despite souring market conditions—even as more domestic lenders line up to tap investors for much-needed capital.

The New York Times

Strike in China Highlights Gap in Workers’ Pay

FOSHAN, China — After years of being pushed to work 12-hour days, six days a week on monotonous low-wage assembly line tasks, China’s workers are starting to push back.

China Vows to Be Impartial on South Korean Ship

SEOUL, South Korea — Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China promised on Friday that Beijing “will not protect anyone” once it had concluded who was responsible for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

China Announces Development Plan for Restive Xinjiang Region

BEIJING — The new leader of the restive region of Xinjiang in western China has announced a series of economic measures to bolster confidence in the regional government, which was widely criticized by citizens after deadly ethnic rioting there last summer.

The Australian

In Hu's China, this baby doesn't exist

YANG Ruonan has big, dark shining eyes and a smattering of black hair. She gives a little coo as her mother pats her head. She was born on New Year's Eve last year, and like most five-month-old babies, she is gorgeous.

But Ruonan is a non-person in Hu Jintao's China - the second child in a one-child state. As a non-person, she cannot get hukou papers - China's household registration system, which allows holders to get state services in the area where they are born and registered. This means she cannot get an identity card. She is not eligible for state education, she cannot get public health services - such as they are - and is not permitted a state marriage.

Kaixin - This is a sad consequence of China's need to reign in its population. India will be next and the world will follow as the global pullulation inexorably grows. In Australia we delude ourselves into thinking we can grow and grow because we have plenty of open space. Yet this illusion is shattered by the dire state of the Murray-Darling and other environmental indicators. What is the solution Mr Sainsbury? I suspect your xenophobic bleeding heart has none. Throwing stones is easy, finding solutions and implementing them is hard. Be careful you do not live in a glass house before hurling rocks.

The Age

Paying an unlikely homage
JOHN GARNAUT

The legacy of former Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang, who died 21 years ago, is alive and well and can be found in the most unlikely places in contemporary China, despite attempts to expunge the reformer from official party history.

AT EACH Chinese New Year, President Hu Jintao travels a few blocks west from the exclusive Zhongnanhai leadership compound to the dusty, unrenovated courtyard house of his deceased mentor, Hu Yaobang.

Eyes on China as nuclear factor shifts Korean stand-off
JOHN GARNAUT, SEOUL

WHEN North Korea goes to ''war alert'' the sirens scream, tanks roll, militia scramble into uniforms and and everything else skids to a stop.

''Last time I experienced it my heart started thumping, it was terrifying. We ran from school to our bunkers,'' said Wilson Im, who lived in a town north of Pyongyang before finding refuge in the South.

Asia Times Online

SINOGRAPH
Tough love for an unstable neighbor
By Francesco Sisci

BEIJING - As with the traditional cry of ''wolf, wolf!", threats of war between North and South Korea have been heard many times in the 57 years since the end of the conflict on the peninsula. They sound so often that even the current situation could be considered a false alarm, especially since China stepped in and apparently managed to rein in restless Pyongyang.

But the crisis in the North is in fact deeper today than perhaps ever before in its history - and leads one to think that this time things could be different.

China pulls the strings
By Julian Delasantellis

But maybe the explanation is much easier. Thursday's big world stock market rally immediately followed upon reports from China that it had no intention of lightening up on purchases and/or holdings of euro-denominated bonds.

As we have learned so many times this decade, China has become the world economy's paterfamilias: we all beam when it smiles, cower when it frowns. Sometimes, it almost seems as if all of us, all the brokers and bankers and scribblers like me, are just the die-cast pieces on the monopoly game, like the race car or top hat. We spin around the board mostly aimlessly time after time, never collecting the $200 for passing "Go". Some guy in the People's Bank of China or Chinese Ministry of Finance gets to do that.

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