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
World moving toward balance of power: Chinese FM
MEXICO CITY - Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Friday said he disagreed with the theory that world power is shifting from West to East.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinoza, Yang said the world is witnessing a trend that various forces are moving toward a relative balance of power.He described the trend as an inevitable outcome when the world is becoming increasingly multiploar, economic globalization is developing in depth, and the scientific and technological revolution is bringing about rapid changes.
The process toward a multipolar world not only involves the rapid development of newly-emerging major developing countries, but also the strengthening of many developing countries as regional powers. This is evident in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Yang said.An outstanding problem at present is that many developing countries' reasonable stands and legitimate demands do not receive due respect and attention, he said, urging the developing countries to strengthen unity and strive for equal say and representation in international organizations and equal rights in international community.
This is a protracted and arduous process, yet an inevitable trend of the historical development, he said.
To safeguard and boost the common interests of developing countries and the fundamental interests of all peoples, China will actively promote South-South cooperation and South-North dialogue and push the international political and economic order forward in a more just and fairer way, he said.
Extending helping hands abroad
The experiences of three of China's foreign aid experts show how difficult yet rewarding this can be. Peng Yining, Cao Li and Wang Yan report.
China has provided aid to more than 160 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and in the South Pacific since 1950.
The nearly 2,000 aid projects include agriculture, construction, transport, medical care and education, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce.
In addition to the money and materials that have been sent to these countries and regions, China has also provided foreign aid experts, among them a doctor, a rice expert and an engineer.
Huang Dahui (in white shirt), a hybrid rice scientist, is seen with his students at the Booker Washington Institute in Liberia in October 2005. Huang was chief of the Chinese agriculture assistance team to Liberia, teaching locals how to grow hybrid rice. [Provided to China Daily]
China aims to make yuan convertible
BEIJING - The ultimate goal of China's exchange rate reform is to make the yuan a fully convertible currency, Yi Gang, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), said Friday.
Yi, also deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, the central bank, did not provide a timetable for the reform.
"There is no official timetable for a convertible yuan," he said in an interview with China Reform magazine posted on the SAFE website Friday.
He added that since China is a large country and its development is unbalanced, the issue becomes more complicated.
"Generally speaking, a convertible currency is one whose exchange rate can float freely," he said.
Asked whether the yuan may turn into a reserve currency, Yi said it depends upon the market demand.
"We should not push it hard. Do not be talked into the belief that the yuan is very close to a reserve currency. It, in fact, lags far behind that level," Yi said.
China abandoned a decade-old peg to the U.S. dollar five years ago by allowing its currency to fluctuate against a basket of currencies and appreciate by 2.1 percent.
China to punish illegal forex activities
BEIJING - China's foreign exchange regulator said Thursday that it will increase punishments for illegal foreign exchange activities.
The move aims to help curb the hot money inflows and promote sound development of the foreign exchange management, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the regulator, said in a statement.
Sovereign waters are not in question
BEIJING - China's defense spokesman said Friday the nation was opposed to "internationalizing" the South China Sea issue, the first time the military had commented on a fermenting dispute in which the United States said issues in the region were in its "national interests".
The spokesman also called on the US to "contribute to bilateral military exchanges". The Pentagon had called for the resumption of stagnated military ties that China cut off in January after the US offered to sell $6.4-billion of arms to Taiwan.
In the first public response to the South China Sea dispute, Senior Colonel Geng Yansheng, the new defense spokesperson, said China "has indisputable sovereignty over islands in the South China Sea and the surrounding waters".
China's defense expenditure at appropriate level: spokesman
BEIJING - China's defense expenditure has always been maintained at a reasonable and appropriate level, a Defense Ministry spokesman said here Friday.
China's annual defense expenditure has been around 1.4 percent of its GDP in recent years while the share of some major world powers is between 2 and 4 percent, Geng Yansheng, the ministry's new spokesman, said at a press conference two days ahead of the 83rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army, on August 1.
"We have always coordinated the national defense building with the country's economic development," Geng said.
He said China has and always will take the road of peaceful development and pursue a purely defensive national defense policy.
China overtakes Japan as No.2 economy: FX chief
BEIJING – China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, the fruit of three decades of rapid growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
False alarm: What's behind the Google search block report?
Google triggered a false alarm Thursday by posting a notice that its search engine and several other services had been cut off in China - a key market where the company has gained a second place in market share.
But what initially looked like a dramatic development turned out to be nothing more than a technological hiccup.
After the company's report of a complete blockage in China had been relayed by many foreign media, Google backed off the claim only several hours later.
Google embarks on a hiring spree in China
BEIJING - Search giant Google Inc has embarked on a hiring spree in China, despite its recent problems with the government that saw many top engineers and executives leaving the company
Urbanization expected to fuel economy
Beijing - Accelerated urbanization can keep the country's economy on the fast track for another 15 to 20 years, as more than half of its population will live in cities and towns by 2015, a top Chinese think tank said on Thursday.
The country's urbanization rate will hit 52 percent in 2015 and grow to 65 percent by 2030, the annual report on urban development by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) showed.
Labor unions to 'hire' leaders
Beijing - Labor union leaders across the country will receive their salaries from higher-level unions instead of companies that employ them by 2011, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has said.
The move aims to free union leaders of dependency on their companies so that they can better protect workers' rights.
Ministry pledges to raise rate of literacy
Beijing - Universal preschool education and a pledge to eliminate illiteracy are among the reforms of China's education system published in the country's national education plan for the next decade.
The pledges are among a host of promises listed in the Outline of China's National Plan for Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010-20), which was published in full on Thursday.
China's 10-year national education plan
BEIJING - China published in full the country's national education plan for the next decade Thursday, pledging to shape a learning society and turn China into a country rich in talent by 2020.
The following is a timetable of the formation of the "Outline of China's National Plan for Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020)":
-- In March 2008, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao respectively ordered relevant authorities to work out a medium and long-term education reform and development plan based on in-depth investigation.
Construction of S China nuclear power plant starts
NANNING - Construction on the first phase of a nuclear power plant started in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region Friday.
The project in Guangpo township, Fangchengang city, will have six one-million-kilowatt generators once complete.
It will be the first such facility in an ethnic minority area.
Chinalco inks African JV with Rio
Agreement covers development of Simandou ore project in Guinea
BEIJING - Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco) on Thursday signed a $1.35 billion agreement with global miner Rio Tinto to develop the Simandou iron ore project in the West African country of Guinea.
The move also marks the end of the stalemate between China and the global miner on cooperation after ties soured in June this year.
BP has declined Sinopec's offer to buy its assets
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), Asia's biggest refiner, said BP Plc has declined an offer by the Chinese company to buy some of its assets.
"We've talked to BP on some good assets, but they won't sell," Zhang Jianhua, senior vice president of the company known as Sinopec, said in an interview in Shanghai today, without naming the ventures. "We aren't in any talks with BP right now."
Global Times
Currency illusions dazzle US politicians
US senators often reprove China for severely undervaluing the yuan, which they claim would boost Chinese exports.
However, the exchange rate issue is quite a tricky one, and many outspoken Americans don't really understand it.
The appreciation of the yuan could make imported products cheaper and help ordinary Chinese buy more foreign goods.
However, Chinese consumers' average income is much lower than that of consumers in developed countries. Incomplete social security and welfare systems have also led to a high volume of savings.
In addition, the immature consumption environment and services in China do not adequately stimulate consumption by the wealthy class.
Therefore, the effect of yuan appreciation on trade would be quite limited.
Unfair demolition regulations must be torn down
Editor's Note:
Buildings marked with the Chinese character chai, "demolish," are a frequent feature of the Chinese urban landscape. Developers often hire thugs to intimidate or attack stubborn householders, and there are also numerous controversies over the seizure of land and the level of compensation paid to householders. It has been six months since the Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council (OLA) published the proposal to revise the current Regulations on the Dismantlement of Urban Houses, and the lack of progress has caused public worries. What restraints will be placed on developers? How can householders' rights be protected? Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Di talked to Shen Kui (Shen), professor and deputy director of the Law School of Peking University, on these issues.
News for Today
China Business Culture Science & Technology Travel
International News Sources
Caixin Online
Nimble Exporters Add Weight to Forex Reform
In an interview, central bank Deputy Governor Hu Xiaolian says China’s economy is proving the benefits of yuan rate reform
Not only did China's crucial export sector survive recent foreign exchange adjustments but some overseas traders actually came out ahead, according to a central bank deputy governor, adding weight to initiatives for rate reform.
The Wall Street Journal China RealTime Report
Google China Confusion — Again
How sophisticated is China’s Great Firewall? Well, it sure seems to have Google at sixes and sevens.
China Central Banker Says Growth to Slow Long Term
In remarks that echo the theme of a page-one story in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month, deputy Chinese central bank governor Yi Gang says China’s rapid economic expansion will inevitably slow in coming years.
Therefore, he suggests, China should focus more on the quality of economic growth, not simply on achieving high growth rates.
Will Yahoo China Find a Search Suitor?
After Yahoo Japan’s search deal this week with Google, the fate of Yahoo China is more unclear than ever.
That’s because Yahoo China, like Yahoo Japan, is not controlled by U.S.-based Yahoo Inc. and therefore could seek its own suitor to power its search service.
Backlash for Cantonese Protests
Less than a week after a seemingly peaceful protest in Guangzhou over the use of Cantonese on television appeared to signal China may be tolerating dissent on certain issues, state-run media quoted local officials as saying they had detained a man suspected of organizing the rally via the Internet.
Critics Say ‘Aftershock’ Whitewashes China’s Past
Just when “Aftershock,” the latest blockbuster movie on a devastating earthquake in 1976, is enjoying sweeping success across cinemas in China and praise from the mainstream media, it’s also attracting an unexpectedly harsh look from some of China’s intellectuals and commentators.
Kaixin OpEd – Xiaosui was ten years old at the time of the Tangshan Earthquake in 1976. She compares the response China was able to mount to the recent earthquakes in China to the feeling of despair and impotency they all felt after the Tangshan Earthquake.
After the Cultural Revolution, China was on its knees economically and emotionally. It is easy to point fingers in hindsight, and certainly there was obviously much to criticise in the governments handling of the situation. However the world has to carry some of that responsibility. The world had isolated China for decades and labelled it a pariah State. That not only crippled it economically, but made it deeply suspicious of the ‘west’. Combined with Mao’s paranoia it was a toxic mix for the Chinese people.
China, I think, wants to move forward not dwell too deeply in the past. Aftershock is a movie essentially to entertain, not to inform. It is not meant to be a documentary. If it initiates some discussion of history, that will be an added positive outcome.
Dollar Advances on Euro, Weakens Against Yen
TORONTO—The dollar advanced on the euro but retreated against the yen as a report on U.S gross domestic product stoked worries about a delayed rebound for the U.S. economy.
U.S. economic data out Friday were mixed but didn't persuade investors the economy is headed for a solid recovery. Doubts about growth were reinforced when data showed the U.S. GDP, or the total value of goods and services produced in the country, rose at an annual rate of 2.4% in the second quarter, slightly less that the 2.5% expected by economists. On the positive side, the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago ...
IMF Report Urges China to Consume More
BEIJING—China's trade surplus is set to balloon again unless the government takes more steps to support domestic consumption, including letting its currency strengthen, the International Monetary Fund warned in its annual review of the nation's economy.
Carlyle Sets First Close of China Fund
BEIJING—Carlyle Group LLC announced the first closing of its Chinese-currency-denominated fund after raising the equivalent of $350 million from a group of government and private-sector investors led by an arm of the Beijing city government.
The U.S. private-equity firm also said Friday that it has formed an investment-management joint venture to advise the new yuan fund with one of the fund's leading investors, the Beijing state-owned Capital Operation and Management Center, a city government-owned holding company with interests in steel making, coal mining, and transportation.
The closing, for which Carlyle received commitments of 2.4 billion ...
From Tiananmen Square to Possible Buffett Successor
Twenty-one years ago, Li Lu was a student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests. Now a hedge-fund manager, he is in line to become a successor to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
The New York Times
I.M.F. Urges Changes From China
In its lengthy report, which was released Thursday, the I.M.F. applauded Beijing’s aggressive and speedy response to the global financial crisis, saying the government’s stimulus plan led to a robust recovery.
Asia Times Online
China finds a friend in Germany
By Jian Junbo
SHANGHAI - China and Germany are moving toward a closer and friendlier partnership, a process that seemed highly unlikely just three years ago and which could provide Beijing with an influential ally on the world stage.
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A selection of News and OpEd reflecting the main themes for
contemporary China starting from August 2008
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China News Archive for daily News on China starting August 2008
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