30th 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.

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

Wen: economy heading in right direction, 'relatively fast' growth seen

China's government said the world's third-biggest economy is heading in the right direction and business people and economists expect "relatively fast" growth to continue.

Premier Wen Jiabao said the nation will "further cement and develop the positive economic trend," in a statement posted on the government's website today. He pledged both continuity and flexibility in policies amid an "extremely complicated" domestic and global outlook.

Scrap dollar as sole reserve currency: UN report

UNITED NATIONS - A new United Nations report released on Tuesday calls for abandoning the US dollar as the main global reserve currency, saying it has been unable to safeguard value.

But several European officials attending a high-level meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council countered by saying that the market, not politicians, would determine what currencies countries would keep on hand for reserves.

"The dollar has proved not to be a stable store of value, which is a requisite for a stable reserve currency," the UN World Economic and Social Survey 2010 said.

The report says that developing countries have been hit by the US dollar's loss of value in recent years.

Cross-Straits trade deal to cut tariffs, open markets

CHONGQING - Beijing and Taipei signed a historic trade deal on Tuesday to boost economic ties and further ease political tensions that have haunted cross-Straits ties for most of the past six decades

The deal, focusing on tariff concession and easier market access, will remove tariffs within two years on 539 Taiwan export items to the mainland worth $13.84 billion as well as 267 mainland export items to Taiwan valued at $2.86 billion

US arms sales to Taiwan on hold

Beijing - The US is holding back arms sales to Taiwan due to effective lobbying from the Chinese mainland, sources said.

The latest print edition of US-based Defense News on Monday quoted Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, as saying arms sales are on hold until at least the spring of 2011.

Economic pact ushers in new era of cross-Strait economic ties

BEIJING - The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan ushered in a new era in cross-Strait economic relations, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said in a statement late Tuesday.

The remarks were made after negotiators from the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), which handle cross-Strait issues on behalf of their respective authorities, signed the long-awaited ECFA in Chongqing Tuesday afternoon.

The signing of the ECFA was a result of the special efforts made by both sides across the Strait to bring about all-round and deep economic cooperation, said the statement.

Mainland's Taiwan affairs chief hails economic pact

CHONGQING - The Chinese mainland's Taiwan affairs chief, Wang Yi, hailed the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between the mainland and Taiwan Tuesday as a "milestone" in the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

See Kaixin's China & Taiwan

Workers clean up green algae on the beach in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, June 29, 2010. Though not poisonous and with no affect on water quality, the algae consumes large amounts of oxygen, threatening marine life. The unsightly algae also affected the number of visitors, Xinhua reported. Local authorities and residents in Qingdao have been struggling to remove a large mass of green algae that came ashore at the popular coastal tourist destination. The North China Sea Branch (NCSB) of the State Oceanic Administration said Monday that the floating green algae covered a 400-square-km area in the waters south of Qingdao  (Photo China Daily)

BYD, Changan approved for energy-efficiency subsidies

BYD Co，backed by billionaire Warren Buffett, and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co are among 16 Chinese automakers approved for a government energy- efficiency subsidy as China steps up efforts to curb pollution and cut fuel imports.

Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co and Beijing Hyundai Motor Co also make some of the 71 models approved for the discount of 3,000 yuan ($442) per car, the National Development and Reform Commission said on its website today. The agency didn't identify the other carmakers or any of the endorsed makes.

China rebuffs US criticism over DPRK

BEIJING: China on Tuesday rejected criticisms over its stance on the Korean Peninsular situation, saying it would never "pour oil on the fire" at a time when calm and restraint were needed.

"China's stance and efforts are fair and irreproachable. We will not do things like pouring oil on the fire," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a regular news briefing.

Qin said if the Korean Peninsular wanted long-term development and stability, that denuclearization must first be realized.

"We are willing to make joint efforts with parties concerned to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsular through pushing forward the six-party talks," said Qin.

Google changes mainland access

BEIJING - Google Inc will stop redirecting Chinese online users to its Hong Kong site in an attempt to renew its license for Google.cn, which is set to expire on Wednesday, the Internet search giant said on Tuesday.

The Chinese government has told US-based Google that re-routing users to Hong Kong is an "unacceptable" approach and said it would not renew its Internet Content Provider (ICP) license, said David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer.

Kaixin – Principle? Principle? I though it was all about Principle. Good to see Google has those deep American/Western values of profit before principle.

Baidu to hire US engineers to work in China

SHANGHAI - Baidu Inc, China's leading search engine, will start hiring software engineers directly from the United States early next month, as it seeks to expand its technological capabilities and raise its global profile.

In the first quarter, Baidu had 64 percent share of the search market in China, the world's largest Internet market by users, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.

Global Times

Cross-Straits trade pact signed

The Chinese  mainland and Taiwan signed a landmark trade pact Tuesday in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing to slash tariffs on hundreds of categories of goods traded across the Straits.

The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), deemed as a milestone in relations, is to formally take effect once both sides "complete due procedures" in follow-up talks.

Editorial

Patience promises a rosy cross-Straits future

Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou used a poetic metaphor to comment on the tariff-slashing economic pact signed Tuesday.

He said that with the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), peace and prosperity are no longer "roses on the horizon." They have become "touchable" instead.

True, after the historic cross-Taiwan Straits trade deal, the promise of a rosy future appears more real and nearer.

Words not enough to draw US students to China

US President Barack Obama said the US would send 100,000 students to China in four years during his first visit to China last year. But over the past half year, there has been no news how and when Obama will realize this wish. Is this just an expression? Is China capable to receive so many US students? What's Chinese  students' situation in the US? Global Times (GT) reporter Li Yanjie talked with Ray Wang (Wang), a dean and professor of California State Polytechnic University, on these issues.

Battle to stave off crisis in China just beginning

The eruption of the Greek crisis was a sign that the global financial storm had transferred from the US to Europe, and that US subprime crisis had morphed into Europe's sovereign debt crisis. The crisis will probably also hit other European countries and Japan as well.

The problems within the system are left unsolved, and powerful interest groups will look to move the effects elsewhere. China should take precautions now about the possibility of a crisis erupting here.

International News Sources

Caixin Online

Taiwan Banks Enter the Mainland Banking Maze

Will wandering through the tangled path of regulatory approvals and the increasingly competitive mainland market be too exhausting for Taiwan banks?

Filing through the bends and blends of the market, Taiwan banks are on the verge of having an unprecedented presence on the Chinese mainland. On June 24, four Taiwan banks were approved by Taiwan's banking regulator, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), to open branches on the mainland. The recently-concluded fourth round of the cross-straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) consultation put the financial industry at the top of the agenda for "early harvest" priorities.

The Wall Street Journal   China RealTime Report

What’s Next for Google in China?

Google on Monday announced a new approach to its operations in China. But the company’s late-night blog post leaves some questions about its new approach unanswered, and whether they fly with the Chinese government remains to be seen.

China and Canada Trade Kind Words

All eyes were on the G-20 meeting over the weekend, but for China and Canada the global summit came after another important event to improve their ties.

Chinese Upbeat on Spending

Chinese consumers are ready to shop but remain cautious in their spending, according to a recent survey by the Boston Consulting Group.

Mandelson and the ‘Legitimacy’ of Chinese Politics

Peter Mandelson (former E.U. Trade Commissioner and business secretary with the recently defunct United Kingdom Labour government) went on to praise China’s swift response to the global financial crisis. “I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say the U.K. government didn’t look to the speed in which the centralized system of China was able to dispatch resources with a certain degree of bureaucratic envy,” he said.

Welcome to China: Join My Golf Club?

It’s a “build it, they will come” mentality for golf in China. And if you’re going to build it, you might as well shell out to build it big.

Japan Welcomes Chinese Tourists

TOKYO—Swarms of Asian tourists disembark from a bus with tinted windows, snapping pictures and staring in awe at Japan's capital city while a petite tour guide waving a flag shouts instructions—in Mandarin.

Chinese tourists are to Japan today what the Japanese were to Manhattan and Honolulu during the late 1980s:

Beijing Rebuffs U.S. on North Korea

BEIJING—China brushed aside criticism by U.S. President Barack Obama over its refusal to blame its close ally North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship, as tensions between China and the U.S. over the incident escalated.

The New York Times

Google to Stop Redirecting China Users

SAN FRANCISCO — Google plans to stop automatically sending users in mainland Chinese to its uncensored Hong Kong site, in an effort to appease Beijing as it seeks to renew its license to operate in China.

The Australian

China's navy to match S Korea-US war games

CHINA has pushed back at criticism from US President Barack Obama over its handling of the North Korean sinking of the South Korean patrol boat Cheonan.

It has announced its own naval manoeuvres in response to those planned by the US and South Korea.

Kaixin - If you scan the news from China and International Sources you soon realise that the 'Aus' never has anything original to say and just about always manages to be xenophobic. I include it to allow readers to form their own opinion as to the standard of journalism.

This is the picture that accompanies most reports on China. You can form your own opinion.

The Sydney Morning Herald

$3000 iPhone 4 for sale in China

Privately imported iPhone 4 devices are available in the capital for as much as 17,000 yuan (US$2500), the China Daily said. That compares to a starting retail price in the United States of US$199.

Vendors were confident customers would pay the hefty mark-up as the iPhone 4, which boasts high-definition video, video chat and sharper screen resolution, is not expected to be officially launched in China for at least another six months, the paper said

Kaixin - Their certainly right. There is plenty of money in China for discretionary, luxury spending.

The Age

China's hard line wins conformity but not hearts and minds
JOHN GARNAUT, LHASA


Deadly violence in Tibet two years ago has left an occupied city in its wake.


Kaixin – John Garnaut is a well-regarded journalist. However Kaixin does not agree with his stance on democracy for China.

Also, Kaixin does not agree with his stance on Tibet. Mr Garnaut knows that the ‘west’ loves stories of dissent from Tibet. It is oh so easy to go to Lhasa and find a monk who wants to complain about China and praise the Dalai Lama – instant story.

Kaixin’s take is included in our detailed section:  ‘China & Tibet/Xi Zang’

Asia Times Online
    
SUN WUKONG
Special Expo guests make up the numbers
By Wu Zhong, China Editor

HONG KONG - Inspired by the success of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in 2008, China has set a big goal for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai - being the highest attended event in the world fair's history. The expo aims to welcome 70 million visitors during its 184-day run, from May 1 to October 31 - meaning it needs to attract at least 370,000 visitors a day.

The figure was carefully chosen.

China wary of currency 'drug'
By Antal E Fekete

Demands in the United States that China move towards a floating exchange rate mechanism wrongly assume that flexible rates are a foundation of foreign trade. The opposite is the case, with rate flexibility a debilitating drug, as the Japanese have learnt to their cost.

Paul Krugman's article "The Renminbi Runaround" in the June 24 edition of The New York Times is not only diplomatically insensitive: it also lacks economic justification. [1] The United States, with its unprecedented debt, is hardly in a position to lecture China and accuse it of bad behavior, acting in bad faith, playing games, and threaten it with trade sanctions. It is not China's house that needs to be put in order, but that of the US.

THEMES

A selection of News and OpEd reflecting the main themes for

contemporary China starting from August 2008

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