29th June 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.

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China News Archive

From 2008

China Daily

Landslide swallows 107 villagers, survival chance slim

BEIJING - Some 107 people from 38 families were buried or trapped under a rain-triggered landslide in Southwest China's Guizhou province on Monday, local authorities said.

There were no signs of life at the scene, State broadcaster CCTV reported.

Mainland to sign historical trade pact with Taiwan

CHONGQING - The Chinese mainland and Taiwan are set to sign a historical trade pact on Tuesday afternoon, a significant step to bring economic ties closer and usher in a new era for the development of cross-Straits relationships.

PLA set to hold sea drill

BEIJING - The People's Liberation Army (PLA) will launch a six-day, live ammunition drill starting on Wednesday in the East China Sea, a move that analysts said is in response to a joint exercise between the United States and Republic of Korea (ROK) navies in the Yellow Sea.

Obama pleased with 'first step' in RMB reform

TORONTO - US President Barack Obama believes that China's currency will rise by a large margin and Washington will be "paying attention" to Beijing's further exchange rate reforms in the coming months.

Chinese economists said the American president is indirectly urging China to further revalue its currency and is also calming down domestic critics of China's foreign exchange reform. But they believed it is unlikely that the renminbi will grow as much as the US expects in the short term.

Party democracy

Steps to boost transparency in Party affairs got a leg-up Monday with the appointment of a spokesperson for the Communist Party of China (CPC) Organization Department, which is responsible for the scrutiny and selection of Party officials for top administrative posts.

The criteria used to promote competent and honest officials to government positions are vital to ensure good governance as well as stable and effective policymaking.

As the only political party that wields power, the CPC must realize that inner-party democracy is important to consolidate itself and reform the nation's political system.

It is therefore necessary to keep all Party members and non-members informed about its workings and make sure that they effectively supervise Party affairs.

OpEd Contributer

China no answer to West's credit crisis

China is set for a hard landing. We now know that much of the credit explosion in 2009 that boosted economic growth went into local government entities where it was wasted on unproductive real estate and infrastructure projects. These entities are mostly insolvent and will create huge bad debts for the banks as credit is tightened this year.

It shows that China has its own sovereign debt crisis and is part of the global leverage problem, not the solution.

China may allow yuan stock funds in HK

Five to six Chinese brokerages and fund management companies may on a trial basis win approval to set up yuan-denominated funds in Hong Kong that invest in the mainland stock market, the China Securities Journal reported Tuesday, citing an unidentified person

Beijing's water shortage worsens as SNWD project delayed

In a bid to relieve Beijing's water shortage, 200 million cubic meters of water will be transferred from three reservoirs in Hebei province to the metropolis, rednet.cn reported.

Despite the water transfer efforts and underground water exploitation, there is still a lack of 400 million cubic meters of water every year in Beijing, where experts says that the gap between water supply and demand has reached a critical point.

Plastic bag ban yet to be enforced

Environmental fears increase as market vendors flout regulation. He Na in Beijing reports.

Above every stall in the Dongjiao wholesale market hangs a blue and white sign that reads: "We charge for plastic bags." Underneath is a price list for the various bags on offer. But walk around this bustling mall for 30 minutes and you would be hard pressed to find a vendor who actually does charge for the bags.

When China Daily reporters visited the market in Beijing's eastern Chaoyang district, vegetables were being piled into ultra-thin plastic bags even before customers had a chance to ask.

The central government's ban on free plastic bags has already been in force for two years. Although it made a huge impact early on, environmental campaigners say that in places like Dongjiao, as well as leading supermarket chains, the problem is still rampant.

Discarded plastic bags litter the dried river bed at Shangxi, a small village hidden in the mountains some 140 kilometers away from the picturesque city of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province. [Photo China Daily]

Taming the building beast within

To be sure, the dam and water diversion projects are bold in their aim of vastly improving the lives of the people and contributing significantly to the country's development.

But it can be hard to similarly justify the cost of local building projects like the bridge I recently saw. Construction trucks rumbled through the area on temporary dirt tracks, while sections of the verdant slopes were stripped bare to make way for concrete and equipment.

The scene serves as a reminder that authorities at all levels must weigh the benefits of infrastructure development against the considerable environmental costs for the country's dwindling pockets of nature.

Any effort to preserve selected pristine areas and the country's natural heritage from the onslaught of modernity for future generations must also involve a change in mindset on the ground - that building is not always better.

Global Times

Labor industry heads inland

Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics maker, has accelerated its relocation of production to inland areas, a move analysts say is aimed at cutting costs following a series of employee suicides that resulted in the company doubling workers' pay.

The shift may also indicate a move by labor-intensive manufacturers out of prosperous coastal regions.

Blindness to China's efforts on the Peninsula

US President Barack Obama groundlessly blamed China for "blindness" to North Korea's "belligerent behavior" in an alleged attack on the South Korean navel vessel the Cheonan while speaking at the G20 summit Monday.

His words on such an important occasion, based on ignorance of China's consistent and difficult efforts in pushing for peace on the peninsula, has come as a shock to China and the world at large.

As a close neighbor of North Korea, China and its people have immediate and vital stakes in peace and stability on the peninsula. China's worries over the North Korean nuclear issue are by no means less than those of the US.

The US president should have taken these into consideration before making irresponsible and flippant remarks about China's role in the region.

Justice for BP, none for Bhopal should anger Asian giants

By Shastri Ramachandaran

There is little in common between BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the December 1984 Union Carbide gas leak in the central Indian city of Bhopal that killed over 20,000 people and poisoned a million more, save that the US is involved in both.

In the BP case, the US is a victim, but in the other, it is the defensive fortress for the corporate criminals responsible.

The whole world is well informed of every aspect of the BP spill, its cause, consequences, and, of course, the costs. The oil spill and how US President Barack Obama made BP cough up $20 billion in compensation are all too well known. The US and the UK quickly came to terms on what needs to be done in the aftermath of the spill. There was little acrimony and very minor disagreements considering the scale of the disaster and the huge amount.

In stark contrast, Bhopal is not on the world's radar. Obama has no reason to be affected by Bhopal. Warren Anderson, Union Carbide's chief executive when disaster struck Bhopal 26 years ago, roams free and, despite an arrest warrant and extradition request out for him, is at no risk of being brought to account.

Dow Chemicals, which owns Union Carbide, has rejected liability and stonewalled attempts to make it clean up or pay for cleaning up the toxins that remain at the Bhopal site.

Like Seveso, Minamata, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, Bhopal is synonymous with one of the worst industrial disasters of the 20th century, the aftermath of which still haunts its long-neglected vic-tims.

THEMES

A selection of News and OpEd reflecting the main themes for

contemporary China starting from August 2008

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