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Prior to 2009 this page also included material on India

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• KMT votes to sell off party assets
  KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung introduces the ruling party's plans to sell off its assets and revamp the political organization Dec 30. (CNA)•Publication Date:12/31/2009 •Source: United Daily News The Central Standing Committee of the ruling Kuomintang voted Dec. 30 to sell off by June 30, 2010 assets controlled by its Central Investment Co. The motion to sell CIC assets was read to the CSC by Lin Yung-rui, head of the KMT’s administration and management committee. According to Lin, the CIC controls assets worth roughly NT$40 billion (US$1.23 billion). After liabilities are subtracted, the CIC has a net value of NT$22.9 billion. “Selling off CIC assets would help the KMT rid itself of the burden of history,” Lin said.
• Korea Faces Huge Challenge in Burgeoning China
  Lee Hang-su Around 100 Korean businesspeople from Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Guangzhou gathered at a hotel on Hong Kong Island on Sunday for a China investment seminar. The event was hosted by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the Hong Kong branch office of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency and the Korean Residents Association of Hong Kong. Participants spent four hours asking questions and discussing various changing investment conditions in the region as well as the latest policies involving the yuan and taxation. They were not optimistic. Business conditions have been deteriorating rapidly over the last several years, they agreed. When they entered the Chinese market in the early 1990s, the Chinese government provided various benefits including factory space, but they have disappeared and Chinese authorities are now applying strict environmental regulations, stringent fire prevention codes and new labor laws, while poring closely over tax filings. [China rising] [FDI]
• Uneasy Engagement China Willing to Spend Big on Afghan Commerce
  James R. Yeager/Associated PressA delegation from the state-owned Chinese company, China Metallurgical Group Corporation, visited the site of a copper mine in Aynak, a former al-Qaeda stronghold southeast of Kabul, in 2007. By MICHAEL WINES Published: December 29, 2009 KABUL, Afghanistan — Behind an electrified fence, blast-resistant sandbags and 53 National Police outposts, the Afghan surge is well under way. This is the ninth in a series of articles examining stresses and strains of China’s emergence as a global power. But the foot soldiers in a bowl-shaped valley about 20 miles southeast of Kabul are not fighting the Taliban, or even carrying guns. They are preparing to extract copper from one of the richest untapped deposits on earth. And they are Chinese, undertaking by far the largest foreign investment project in war-torn Afghanistan. Two years ago, the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion — $1 billion more than any of its competitors from Canada, Europe, Russia, the United States and Kazakhstan — for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak. Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about 11 million tons of copper — an amount equal to one-third of all the known copper reserves in China. While the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security. Its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce.
  “We do the heavy lifting,” he said. “And they pick the fruit.” [China rising] [Imperialism] [Unintended consequences]
• ITC ruling opens door to U.S. collecting duties on Chinese steel imports
  By Peter Whoriskey Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 30, 2009; 1:07 PM The U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled that a surge of subsidized Chinese steel has harmed or threatens to harm the U.S. industry, in one of the largest ever trade cases involving the two countries. The volume of steel pipes imported from China more than tripled between 2006 and 2008, rising from $632 million to $2.6 billion, according to the Commerce Department. [Protectionism]
• U.S. slaps punitive penalties on Chinese oil tubular goods
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-31 00:51:53 Print WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Wednesday slapped punitive penalties on imports of some 2.6 billion dollars of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from China, in the biggest U.S. trade action taken against China. The ITC "has made affirmative determinations in its final phase countervailing and antidumping duty investigations" concerning the oil pipes from China, it said in a statement. Further details will be released by the trade agency later Wednesday. [Protectionism]
• US$30 billion in Chinese funds may enter Taiwan after MOU: FSC
  2009.12.28 19:24:07 Taipei, Dec. 28 (CNA) China's qualified domestic institutional investors (QDIIs) will be allowed to invest up to an estimated US$30 billion (NT$968 billion) in Taiwan's stock market, Taiwan's top financial regulator said Monday, 30 times more than was originally anticipated. [ODI] [Straits]
• US think tank calls for 'asymmetric capabilities'
  •Publication Date:12/28/2009 •Source: China Times Taiwan should build up its “asymmetrical capabilities” rather than trying to purchase F-16 C/D jet fighters, a recent report released by the Center for a New American Security suggested. Co-founded by Michele Flournoy and Kurt M. Campbell, assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the U.S. Department of State, CNAS is a Washington-based think tank specializing in U.S. national security issues. In its new Policy Brief published Dec. 10, CNAS called for Washington to place importance on its relations with Taiwan by adopting three concrete steps. The first is to “expand trade relations with Taiwan and lend diplomatic support to countries seeking to do the same.” The next step is to “continue arms sales to Taiwan and help analyze its defense posture in a changing military and diplomatic environment.” The third step is to “plan appropriate high-level visits and express political support.” [Arms sales] [China confrontation] [Double standards]
• Tens of thousands march to protest trade pact with China
  2009.12.20 22:04:22 Taichung, Taiwan, Dec. 20 (CNA) Tens of thousands of Taiwanese marched in the central Taiwan city of Taichung to protest the government's plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China. The rally took place one day before Chen Yunlin, chairman of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) , arrives here to sign four economic agreements with his Taiwan counterpart Chiang Pin-kung, the chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), but the ECFA is not on the meeting's formal agenda. [FTA] [Straits]
• President vows to strive for FTAs after inking ECFA with China
  2009.12.20 20:14:51 Changhua, Taiwan, Dec. 20 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Sunday the government will continue its efforts to seal free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries after signing a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China. Ma also said during a meeting with representatives of stockings manufacturers in the central county of Changhua that the government will negotiate the ECFA with China based on the principle that Taiwan is the focus and that the interests of the public come first, and he also said the document will be subject to legislative review. The president reiterated that only Taiwan and North Korea among Asia Pacific countries have not signed FTAs with other countries in the region, which threatens to marginalize Taiwan. [FTA]
• President Ma talks up benefits of ECFA
  DPP supporters take to the streets of Taichung City Dec. 20 protesting against the Ma administration's perceived pro-mainland China stance and the upcoming cross-strait talks.(CNA)•Publication Date:12/21/2009 •Source: China Times President Ma Ying-jeou defended his administration’s stance on mainland China, reiterating that Taiwan’s sovereignty will not be jeopardized by signing the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement with Beijing. “The ECFA has nothing to do with downgrading Taiwan’s dignity, nor does it mean the government is adhering to a pro-Beijing position in its cross-strait policy,” Ma said during a series of ECFA forums attended by farmers and traditional industries’ representatives in central Taiwan Dec. 20. “If Taiwan does not enter into an ECFA with the mainland, it risks being marginalized and losing competitiveness in the international market,” Ma said. “Signing an ECFA with mainland China will be the first step for Taiwan to reach out to the world.” [FTA]
• China Builds Underground 'Great Wall' Against Nuke Attack
  The Chinese Army is believed to have built an underground "Great Wall" that stretches for more than 5,000 km in the Hebei region of northern China. Citing the People's Liberation Army's official newsletter, the Ta Kung Pao daily of Hong Kong on Saturday said China's strategic missile squadron, the Second Artillery Division, built a massive underground tunnel to conceal nuclear weapons, including the Dongfeng 5 intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 13,000 km. Since 1995, the Second Artillery Division has mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers to build a network of tunnels stretching for more than 5,000 km below the mountain regions of Hebei, China's state-run CCTV reported. "A missile base has been built hundreds of meters underground and can withstand several nuclear attacks," CCTV said. "People refer to the network of tunnels connecting to the missile base as the 'Underground Great Wall.'" In March 2008, CCTV broadcast a documentary which revealed that the PLA had been building underground facilities enabling it to launch a counterstrike in case of a nuclear attack. [Nuclear weapons] [China confrontation]
• Korean Media Unfairly Focus on China’s Negative Image
  "The South Korean media's hobby seems to include defaming the image of China," said Tang Ye, a Chinese student studying at Kunkuk University in Seoul. That sentiment is one of the most frequently mentioned complaints by Chinese students in South Korea, according to JoongAng Ilbo. [Image] [Media]
• The Rise of China's Auto Industry and Its Impact on the U.S. Motor Vehicle Industry
  November 16, 2009 The automobile industry, a key sector in China's industrialization and modernization efforts, has been developing rapidly since the 1990s. In recent years, China has become the world's fastest growing automotive producer. [Auto] [China rising]
• Japan’s representative to Taiwan resigns
  The Interchange Association Japan in Taipei confirmed Dec. 1 that Masaki Saito, Japan’s representative to the ROC, has tendered his resignation.(CNA) •Publication Date?12/02/2009 •Source? China Times The Interchange Association Japan in Taipei confirmed Dec. 1 that Masaki Saito, Japan’s representative to the ROC, has tendered his resignation. "Saito cited personal reasons for his surprise move," said Keiji Kamei, director-general of IAJ’s Tokyo office Dec. 1. "But his resignation will not take effect until it is approved in the IAJ board meeting Dec. 7, when the new representative will also be announced." Responding to Saito’s resignation, the ROC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it will respect the decision made by the Japanese government, though it has yet to receive any official notification. Saito, now 65, is a career diplomat who has been stationed in the Chinese mainland and has served as ambassador to Cambodia, New Zealand and Samoa. He specializes in issues related to the Asia-Pacific region. Saito caused an uproar in May when he remarked at an academic conference that Taiwan’s international status remained undetermined. Since then he has been denied access to the ROC’s top-level officials. A diplomatic source said Saito’s resignation is directly related to his inappropriate comments. [Straits] [Japan China Taiwan]
• The West has gotten it wrong on China for decades -- even as it embraces a market economy,
  it has shunned Western-style freedoms. And its power is only growing. By Martin Jacques November 22, 2009 The dynamics of President Obama's trip to China were markedly different from those evident on visits made by President Clinton and President George W. Bush. This time the Chinese made clear that they were unwilling even to discuss issues such as human rights or free speech. Why? The relationship between the countries has changed: America feels weak and China strong in their bilateral ties. This is not a temporary shift that will reverse itself once the U.S. has escaped from its mountain of debt. Rather, it is the expression of a deep and progressive shift in the balance of power between the two nations, one that is giving the Chinese -- though studiously cautious in their approach -- a rising sense of self- confidence. [Resurgence]
• New Zealand to grant visa-free privileges to Taiwanese
  2009.11.18 15:05:30 Foreign Minister Timothy C.T. Yang announces New Zealand grants visa-free privileges Taipei, Nov. 18 (CNA) New Zealand will become the third country this year after Britain and Ireland to grant visa-free privileges to visitors from Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced Wednesday. From Nov. 30, Taiwanese passport holders traveling to New Zealand for less than three months on business, as tourists, to visit friends or relatives or for short-term study, will no longer be required to apply for a visa before they travel, sparing them the cost of NT$2,850 (US$88.7) for a visitor visa or NT$1,350 for a group visa.
• New Zealand grants Taiwan visa-free entry
  MOFA Minister Timothy Chin-tien Yang welcomes the New Zealand government's decision to grant ROC citizens visa-free treatment Nov. 18.(CNA)Publication Date?11/18/2009 Source? Taiwan Today By Chiayi Ho The New Zealand government’s decision to grant ROC passport holders visa-free entry was roundly welcomed by officials from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei Nov.18. “I believe this move will promote bilateral relations between Taiwan and New Zealand and increase the number of tourists from Taiwan entering the country,” said MOFA Minister Timothy Chin-Tien Yang. Beginning Nov. 30, ROC citizens traveling to the “land of the long white cloud” for non- employment purposes such as business, tourism, study, and visits to relatives and friends can stay for up to three months without a visa.
• In Obama's China trip, a stark contrast with the past
  The U.S. tone toward Beijing is now much more conciliatory
  By Andrew Higgins and Anne E. Kornblut Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, November 18, 2009 BEIJING -- President Obama has emerged from his first trip to China with few breakthroughs on important issues, such as Iran's nuclear program or China's currency. Yet after two days of talks with the United States' biggest creditor, the administration asserted that relations between the two countries are at "at an all-time high." While one concrete advance emerged -- that the United States may offer a target for carbon- emission cuts to boost climate negotiations in Copenhagen next month if China offers its own proposal -- it was a relatively small step for a new president who had campaigned on a promise to enact far-reaching change in U.S. diplomatic interactions. If there was any significant change during this trip, in fact, it was in the United States' newly conciliatory and sometimes laudatory tone. [US China relations] [Decline]
• In Full: U.S.-China Joint Statement
  Posted by Brian Montopoli Following President Obama's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, the White House released a joint statement on the relationship between the two countries, "bilateral strategic trust," economic cooperation, regional and global challenges and climate change. Read it below.
  At the invitation of President Hu Jintao of the People?s Republic of China, President Barack Obama of the United States of America is paying a state visit to China from November 15?18, 2009. The Presidents held in-depth, productive and candid discussions on U.S.-China relations and other issues of mutual interest. They highlighted the substantial progress in U.S.-China relations over the past 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, and they reached agreement to advance U.S.-China relations in the new era. President Obama will have separate meetings with Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and Premier Wen Jiabao. President Obama also spoke with and answered questions from Chinese youth. [US China relations]
• Chinese official calls US negotiator irresponsible
  By KARL RITTER (AP) – 47 minutes ago COPENHAGEN — China's Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei on Friday said the chief U.S. climate negotiator either lacks common sense or is "extremely irresponsible" for saying that no U.S. climate financing should be going to China. In unusually blunt language, He said he was "shocked" by U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern's comments earlier this week that China shouldn't expect any American climate aid money and that the United States was not in any debt to the world for its historical carbon emissions. "I don't want to say the gentleman is ignorant," He told reporters at the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen. "I think he lacks common sense where he made such a comment vis-a-vis funds for China. Either lack of common sense or extremely irresponsible." [Resurgence]
• China unveils its new worldview
  By Willy Lam Chinese President Hu Jintao has signaled his administration's readiness to play a bigger - and perhaps more constructive - role in global affairs through the release of a five-pronged foreign policy game plan. Cited by the official Outlook Weekly as "Hu Jintao's Viewpoints about the Times", this far- reaching initiative consists of five theories on, respectively, "the profound changes [in the world situation], constructing a harmonious world, joint development, shared responsibilities and enthusiastic participation [in global affairs]". In a late November issue of Outlook Weekly (a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party - CCP), ideologue Zhang Xiaotong indicated that the party chief and president's "viewpoints" amounted to a "major theoretical innovation" based on the "scientific judgment of the development and changes of the times."
  Saluting impressive gains in China's industrial and technological prowess, Hu noted that the Chinese were living "in an era that is full of opportunities and challenges" - and that "the opportunities exceed the challenges". The Chinese "economic miracle" has made it possible for the CCP Fourth-Generation leadership under Hu to make radical departures from late patriarch Deng Xiaoping's famous diplomatic credo of "adopting a low profile and never taking the lead" in international affairs. [Resurgence]
• ECFA must be negotiated with China: premier
  2009.12.08 15:15:53 Premier speaks at a breakfast meeting with local businessmen Taipei, Dec. 8 (CNA) Taiwan must negotiate the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China in order to avoid marginalization of local industries in the Asia-Pacific region, Premier Wu Den-yih said Tuesday. Without the agreement, many exports from Taiwan to mainland China will be subject to an import tariff of 9 percent on average, Wu said. Meanwhile, after China joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2010, most of its imports from the other member countries will be tariff-free, he added. [FTA] [Straits]
• 'Made in China' products come of age
  By Zhang Zhengfu (China Daily) Updated: 2009-12-07 07:42 Comments(2) PrintMail  A 30-second TV commercial, "Made in China", is still a hot topic of discussion even almost two weeks after four Chinese industry associations launched an advertisement campaign on CNN. The ad, currently being aired on the International, US and Headline News sections of CNN, highlights the global involvement in the production of high-quality Chinese goods. Among other things, it features an MP3 "Made in China with software from the Silicon Valley" and clothes "Made in China with French designers". The TV ad has been designed to tell overseas consumers that Chinese firms work with overseas firms to produce quality products, said the China Chamber of Commerce for Imports and Exports of Light Industrial Products and Arts-Crafts, one of the ad makers. [Image] [Quality] [IM]
• China eyes industrial bases in Africa
  By James Lamont in New Delhi and Geoff Dyer in Beijing Published: December 3 2009 20:07 | Last updated: December 3 2009 20:07 The World Bank and Beijing are in discussions about setting up low-cost factories in new industrial zones in Africa to help the continent develop a manufacturing base and reverse its declining share in global trade. Robert Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, said Beijing had shown “strong interest” in proposals to set up manufacturing bases to help African countries achieve high growth paths similar to Asian ones. EDITOR’S CHOICE FT interview transcript: Robert Zoellick - Dec-02.View from the Top: Robert Zoellick - Dec-03.China seeks Africa joint ventures - Nov-09.In depth: Africa and China - Sep-30..“There is not only willingness but strong interest among some in China and I’ve discussed with the minister of commerce, Chen Deming, that there may be possibilities of moving some of the lower-value manufacturing facilities to sub-Saharan Africa – toys or footwear,” Mr Zoellick told the Financial Times [Globalisation] [Going out] [US China relations]
• Why Brooklyn Industries Manufactures in China
  Founders Lexy Funk and Vahap Avsar were better at retailing than manufacturing. So they researched and tested Chinese plants and decided to outsource [Offshoring]
• Lessons from China’s Three Gorges Dam
  Peter Bosshard The world’s largest hydropower project has reached its final dimensions. Peter Bosshard draws conclusions from the Three Gorges experience. Fifteen years after construction started, the water level of the Three Gorges reservoir is scheduled to reach its final height of 175 meters this fall. After 27 million cubic meters of cement have been poured, 39 cubic kilometers of water have been stored, and 1.3 million people have been resettled, it is time to take stock.  [Green]
• The Six Entrepreneurs You Meet in China
  Forget those perceptions that the Chinese rip off good ideas. Their startups are as scrappy and risk-taking as those in Silicon Valley By Sarah Lacy
  Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part Valley Girl series on entrepreneurs in China. The first three of six types of businessmen are featured below. Before my first trip to China earlier this year, a well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalist told me I should go to Japan or Singapore instead. "Chinese people aren't entrepreneurial," he said. "They don't create things. They're just good at ripping them off." I won't embarrass him by using his name here, but I'm glad I didn't take his advice. I've spent five weeks on two trips to China this year, meeting with entrepreneurs in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. These startup founders are as scrappy and willing to take risks as their peers anywhere, at times even surpassing the people who flocked to Silicon Valley in the late 1990s. [Spin] [IM] [Agency]
• Obama's China Visit Yields Little Progress
  As China's leaders accuse the U.S. of protectionism, it's unlikely Washington will get satisfaction on the yuan anytime soon By Dexter Roberts
  In Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People on Nov. 17, Chinese President Hu Jintao tried to emphasize how much he has in common with U.S. President Barack Obama. From climate change to nuclear nonproliferation, "China and the United States share extensive common interests and broad prospects for cooperation on a series of major issues important to mankind's peace, stability, and development," said an unsmiling Hu. Obama focused on common ground, too. "We meet here at a time when the relationship between the United States and China has never been more important to our collective future," Obama said, The two leaders released a lengthy joint statement calling for more collaboration on agriculture, global health issues, and counter-terrorism, as well more student exchanges and broader military cooperation. [Protectionism] [US China relations]

• China's role on world stage is no cause for alarm, says Barack Obama
  Tania Branigan The Observer, Sunday 15 November 2009 Barack Obama introduced himself as America's "first Pacific president" as he launched his four-nation tour of the region, vowing to deepen ties with Asia and arguing that China's rise should be welcomed rather than feared. Kicking off his visit in Tokyo, he also sought to thaw the chill in relations with his hosts, America's closest allies in the region. The new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has vowed to make Japan less dependent on the US, but the two men agreed to put off the issue of resolving the future of US forces in Japan.
  He held out a hand to North Korea again, calling for it to denuclearise; and to Burma, if it undertakes democratic reform and frees political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. [Media] [Spin] [US NK policy]
• China’s Role as U.S. Lender Alters Dynamics for Obama
  By HELENE COOPER, MICHAEL WINES and DAVID E. SANGER Published: November 14, 2009 When President Obama visits China for the first time on Sunday, he will, in many ways, be assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker. That stark fact — China is the largest foreign lender to the United States — has changed the core of the relationship between the United States and the only country with a reasonable chance of challenging its status as the world’s sole superpower. The result: unlike his immediate predecessors, who publicly pushed and prodded China to follow the Western model and become more open politically and economically, Mr. Obama will be spending less time exhorting Beijing and more time reassuring it. In a July meeting, Chinese officials asked their American counterparts detailed questions about the health care legislation making its way through Congress. The president’s budget director, Peter R. Orszag, answered most of their questions. But the Chinese were not particularly interested in the public option or universal care for all Americans. “They wanted to know, in painstaking detail, how the health care plan would affect the deficit,” one participant in the conversation recalled. Chinese officials expect that they will help finance whatever Congress and the White House settle on, mostly through buying Treasury debt, and like any banker, they wanted evidence that the United States had a plan to pay them back. It is a long way from the days when President George W. Bush hectored China about currency manipulation, or when President Bill Clinton exhorted the Chinese to improve human rights.
• Obama Says U.S. Seeks to Build Stronger Ties to China
  By HELENE COOPER and MARTIN FACKLER Published: November 13, 2009 TOKYO — The United States is not threatened by a rising China, President Obama said Saturday, but will seek to strengthen its ties with Beijing even as it maintains close ties with traditional allies like Japan. In a wide-ranging speech on his first trip to Asia as president, Mr. Obama drew on his own background to reassure the people of the fast-growing continent that even as the United States seemed preoccupied with conflicts in the Middle East and other regions, it was increasingly “a nation of the Pacific.” “I know there are many who question how the United States perceives China’s emergence,” Mr. Obama told an audience in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. But he added, “In an interconnected world, power does not need to be a zero-sum game, and nations need not fear the success of another.”
• China Focuses on Territorial Issues as It Equates Tibet to U.S. Civil War South
  By EDWARD WONG Published: November 13, 2009 BEIJING — The Chinese government had a special message for President Obama on Thursday: He is black, he admires Abraham Lincoln, so he, of all people, should sympathize with Beijing’s effort to prevent Tibet from seceding and sliding back into what it was before its liberation by Chinese troops: a feudalistic, slaveholding society headed by the Dalai Lama. “He is a black president, and he understands the slavery abolition movement and Lincoln’s major significance for that movement,” Qin Gang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a news conference. Mr. Qin added: “Thus, on this issue we hope that President Obama, more than any other foreign leader, can better, more deeply grasp China’s stance on protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” [Separatism]
• Taiwan's New Tech Dreams
  As the PC business declines, Taiwan's top tech players are shifting out of low-margin businesses and into smartphones, solar-power chips, and beyond Chou's HTC is now switching to Android handsets Photograph by Paul Hu/Assignment Asia By Bruce Einhorn This Issue November 23, 2009 At the depth of the global economic crisis, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) was in trouble. With factories operating at just a fraction of capacity, Morris Chang—TSMC's silver-haired founder—laid off hundreds of staffers, ordered the remaining workers to take unpaid leave, and took other cost-cutting steps such as dimming the lights in hallways. "It was terrible," Chang says in his office on the eighth floor of "Fab 12," a vast facility that serves as TSMC's headquarters.
• China Weakens Impact of Pressure on N.Korea
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday that his country is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, depending on the progress in its talks with the United States. It was a shift from the vow never to return to the six-party talks which the North made in protest against UN sanctions following its second nuclear test. But Kim's comments contain strategic pitfalls and ambiguities that are trademarks of the Stalinist country's diplomatic style.
• Chinese Foreign Investment: How Much and Where?
  by Derek Scissors, Ph.D. August 11, 2009 How Much is China Investing? Available data provide only a partial answer to the question of exactly how much China is spending overseas. We know that China's acquisition of overseas assets using accumulated foreign currency, though extremely large, is far from the largest in the world. US portfolio holdings overseas stood at USD 7.2 trillion at the end of 2007, having expanded by USD 1.2 trillion in 2007 alone. In comparison, China's official reserves stood at USD 1.53 trillion in 2007, or less than one-fourth of the US total. Official reserves increased by USD 460 billion in 2007. In addition, foreign currency holdings in the hands of CIC and state banks rose by as much as USD 160 billion. Combined with official reserves, that is still only about half of American investment for 2007. [ODI] [Going out]
• China and North Korea
  By Alan Romberg November 10th, 2009 Alan Romberg, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center, writes, “the issue for China at this point is not at heart to counter U.S. strategic advantage, but to protect Chinese strategic interests in its immediate neighborhood. So far, at least, Beijing’s conviction that pushing Pyongyang to the wall is counter-productive and likely to bring about chaos and perhaps even war will trump any putative benefit from going along with what it sees as a potentially risky U.S. policy.” [NK China]
• Lien, Hu to talk ECFA on sidelines of APEC summit
  Publication Date:11/10/2009 Source: United Daily News Former ROC Vice President Lien Chan and Chinese Communist Party General-Secretary Hu Jintao are expected to discuss the proposed cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement on the sidelines of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. “I will meet with CCP General-Secretary Hu Nov. 14 at the APEC leaders’ meeting in Singapore,” Lien said, adding that they would exchange views on issues associated with the ECFA. [Straits]
• ‘Made in China’ now made in Egypt
  PORT SAID: With cheap labour, investment incentives and unrestricted exports, one Chinese textile group has turned to Egypt as an ideal location to produce its ready-made garments, beating stiff competition at home. The Chinese-owned Nile Textile Group has set up shop in the Port Said free zone, overlooking the north entrance of the Suez Canal, and developed an industrial estate now hiring 600 workers, 20 percent of which are Chinese and the rest Egyptian. Cheap raw materials and favourable export conditions have given the company easy access to foreign markets. It’s a bargain for the Nile Textile Group, which imports 60 percent of its basic products tax free and then sends them outside Egypt, mainly to the United States. Most of their cut-price clothes are now labelled ‘Made in Egypt’ rather than ‘Made in China’.
  Around 950 Chinese companies have set up operations in Egyptian free zones, representing a total investment of nearly $300 million. Most of them work in industry (526 companies), 306 companies are in the service industry, 31 in the agricultural sector and eight in tourism, [ODI]
• China Data Shows Economic Rebound Picking Up Steam
  By BETTINA WASSENER Published: November 11, 2009 HONG KONG — Strong data from China, especially in factory output and retail sales, on Wednesday underscored the speed of the giant economy’s rebound, thanks to massive government stimulus measures that have put China on track to grow more than 8 percent in 2009. [Crisis] [China rising]
• China pledges $10 billion in low-cost loans to Africa
  By Barney Jopson and Jamil Anderlini Monday, November 9, 2009 SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT -- Wen Jiabao, China's premier, has pledged $10 billion in new low-cost loans to Africa over the next three years and has defended his country's engagement on the continent against accusations that it is "plundering" the region's oil and minerals. Wen made the pledge Sunday at a China-Africa summit here, at which he also urged the United States to keep its deficit to an "appropriate size" to ensure the "basic stability" of the dollar. China is the biggest holder of U.S. government debt, and Wen's comments reinforce similar ones made in March, when he expressed concern that Washington's deficit could erode the value of China's U.S. dollar assets. The loan pledge for Africa was double a $5 billion commitment made in 2006. At the summit, delegates on both sides stressed that their ties go beyond the Chinese acquisition of raw materials. "There have been allegations for a long time that China has come to Africa to plunder its resources and practice neo-colonialism. This allegation, in my view, is totally untenable," Wen said at a news conference. Trade between China and Africa jumped 45 percent to $107 billion in 2008, a ten-fold increase since 2000, and the new loans are likely to sustain the expansion. [China rising] [ODI] [Going out]
• For 1st time, China bests Korea in shipbuilding
  November 07, 2009 China’s rapidly growing shipyard industry beat Korean shipbuilders for the first time this month, as Chinese companies won a flurry of deals to produce low-priced bulk ships. Experts warned that now is the time for Korean shipbuilders to shift their focus to more high-end premium vessels in order to survive competition from Chinese companies. [China competition]
• Korean Businesses Thrive in 'Chindia' Through Localization
  The world is raving over China and India, which are increasingly referred to as "Chindia." There seems to be ceaseless admiration for the two nations as China has achieved some 10 percent economic growth over the past several years while India's economy has grown at an annual average rate of 9 percent over the last three years. Even during the recent global economic crisis China's economy grew 6.5 percent and India's 6.7 percent. Together the two countries have about 2.5 billion people, or 40 percent of the world's population. Their economic growth so far could be just the beginning of something bigger. Global business conglomerates are naturally eager to enter Chindia. China's consumer market was estimated at 10.68 trillion yuan last year, up 21.6 percent compared to the previous year. It is expected to grow 13 percent this year to 12.26 trillion yuan as the Chinese government tries to shift its focus for economic growth from exports to domestic consumption. The Indian market is also is thriving thanks to aggressive government efforts to boost domestic consumption. [Domestic demand] [IM]
• Fading American Dream Sends Young People to China
  The number of immigrants in the United States had dropped for the first time in 38 years, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Tuesday, chiefly because unemployment has soared in the recession. Instead, many young people worldwide including Americans are boarding planes bound for China. A sample survey of the American population shows the number of immigrants in the U.S. was 37.9 million in 2008, down 99,000 on-year and in sharp contrast to the yearly increase of 1 million between 2000 and 2006. Tough U.S. immigration policy also seems to have prompted immigrants to leave. America is cutting short-term employment programs using H-1B, H-2A, or J-1 visas. Screening of applications for green cards and citizenship has intensified, and crackdowns on illegal aliens have been stepped up. By contrast, China is emerging fast as the land of opportunity. About 210,000 foreign workers registered with the Chinese government in 2007, rising to 217,000 last year. China appeals to many American college graduates who are seeking jobs because it offers talented foreign personnel plenty of decent jobs thanks to its rapid economic growth. The government also provides housing and even financial support. It has opened the doors to the job market wide to foreigners. Chinese employers can get permission within 15 days of applying for a work permit for foreigners. In these circumstances, many talented Chinese immigrants who had worked or been educated in the U.S. are now returning to their homeland. The trend is also visible among Indians, whose home country offers similar opportunities. [Decline] [China rising] [Remigration]
• Lawmaker Warns of N. Korea’s Growing Dependency on China
  By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter North Korea has become more reliant on China for economic assistance year by year, posing a threat to the unification of the Korean Peninsula, a lawmaker said Friday. Rep. Song Young-sun of the Pro-Park Geun-hye Coalition, which has eight seats in the 299-member National Assembly, called on the unification ministry to find a role to play to prevent the trend from continuing. ``The needy North Korean economy has heavily depended on China for economic assistance over the past decade. And the role of China has increased in exploiting mineral resources in the North as well,'' Song said during an interpellation session at the National Assembly. [NK China] [Agency]
• U.S. is reaching out to East Asia's powerful nations
  Obama seeks influence in region to offset China's growing power
  By John Pomfret Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, November 7, 2009 Ever since taking office, President Obama has signaled that the United States wants to improve relations with the powerhouse nations of East Asia, and he'll put his personal imprint on that when he travels to the region for the first time next week. The new focus underlies the president's view that having influence in the region, especially as China grows as an international economic and military force, is critical to U.S. interests. As Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew said in Washington last week: "If you do not hold your ground in the Pacific, you cannot be a world leader."
  The United States and South Korea, for example, signed a free-trade accord in June 2007, but the Senate has yet to ratify it. Meanwhile, South Korea's parliament on Friday ratified a free trade agreement with India. Earlier this year the government in Seoul inked a free trade deal with the European Union that, ironically, was modeled on the languishing American accord. [China confrontation] [FTA]
• Flood Across the Border: China’s Disaster Relief Operations and Potential Response to a North Korean Refugee Crisis
  Drew Thompson and Carla Freeman, Ph.D. April 1, 2009
• The Real Bridge to Nowhere; China's foiled North Korea Strategy
  USIP, 2009; Drew Thompson co-authored with Carla Freeman [Agency]
• Geopolitics of Cross Strait Disaster Relief
  China Brief, 2009 The Geopolitics of Cross-Strait Disaster Relief Publication: China Brief Volume: 9 Issue: 18 September 10, 2009 By: Drew Thompson Typhoon Morakot swept across Taiwan in August, dumping over 100 inches of rain with entire villages wiped out by mudslides, leaving a trail of destruction including over 600 dead and missing. The aftermath of this natural disaster has become enmeshed in Taiwan’s domestic and cross-Strait politics while the United States, China and others provide financial and material assistance to on-going relief efforts.
• Border Burdens: China’s Response to the Myanmar Refugee Crisis
  Drew Thompson As trucks filled with the remnants of the Kokang army rumbled towards the Chinese border, soldiers plucked insignia from their uniforms. At their feet were green caps with the insignia of China’s People’s Armed Police border guards, ready to be put on at the check point that would place them out of reach of the Myanmar government soldiers that had just routed them. As they arrived at the invisible red line separating Myanmar from China, Chinese soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army and border guard units of the People’s Armed Police (PAP) disarmed them, removed their uniforms and provided blue work suits, then took them to well guarded camps on Chinese territory. At the same time that Chinese security forces were disarming these foreign soldiers, civilian officials from Yunnan province swung into action, setting up camps, housing and feeding many of the 37,000 civilian refugees that also fled to China for safety. With considerable professionalism, China averted one of the largest refugee and security crises to occur on its borders since 1979 when over a quarter-million refugees fled Vietnam to southwest China.
• Taiwan can learn from China on mobile Internet market: Lee Kai-fu
  2009.11.06 19:42:27 Lee Kai-fu (right) and Terry Gou (left) attend business leaders conference in Taipei Taipei, Nov. 6 (CNA) Defying conventional wisdom that China trails Taiwan in marketing savvy, Lee Kai-fu, founder of Innovation Works and former head of Google China, said Friday that China had gained an edge in mobile Internet marketing that could be useful to both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Speaking on trends in mobile Internet, Lee said if the two sides could combine their strength, great opportunities could be generated that will allow them to enhance their competitiveness and expand global markets. Although most people think Taiwan has more marketing experience and China's strength is production, Lee stressed that the model in the future should be the reverse, with Taiwan's strength in manufacturing combining with China's experience in the mobile Internet market. [Straits] [IM]
• Mainland is ‘first choice’ for boosting trade ties
  Publication Date:11/06/2009 Source: United Daily News President Ma Ying-jeou said Nov. 5 that Taiwan needs to boost cooperative ties with even more trading partners and that mainland China “is of course the first choice” in this regard as it is the island’s largest trade partner and main export market. Ma made the remarks in a speech just one day after Huang Chih-peng, director-general of the Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, arrived in Beijing on a low-profile visit to hold a fourth round of informal consultations on a cross-Taiwan Strait economic cooperation framework agreement. The visit seems to indicate that formal ECFA talks are just around the corner, although many people in every sector of society in Taiwan still have reservations about signing such a pact. [FTA] [Straits]
• Ma stresses importance of APEC summit
  Publication Date:11/06/2009 Source: United Daily News President Ma Ying-jeou reminded Taiwan’s delegation to the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore that maintaining the momentum from last year’s event is key to expanding the nation’s international space. Ma made the remarks during a briefing with Taiwan’s APEC delegation, headed by Lien Chan, former ROC vice president and honorary chairman of the ruling Kuomintang, at the Presidential Office Nov. 5. By participating in APEC, the delegation will help highlight some of the international and cross-strait accomplishments the administration has attained since it came to power May 2008. These include, for example, participating as an observer in the World Health Assembly earlier this year. In the future, Taiwan will seek to join other international organizations such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Civil Aviation Organization, Ma said. During this year’s APEC Leaders Meeting, scheduled to be held Nov. 14-15 in Singapore, Lien is expected to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and leaders of several other nations as well.
• Is China Ready to Challenge the Dollar?
  Internationalization of the Renminbi and Its Implications for the United States
  A Report of the CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies [Reserve] [China rising]
• NSC chief denies U.S. issued warning over strict beef import measures
  2009.11.05 14:42:52 Su Chi denies reports about U.S. backlash Taipei, Nov. 5 (CNA) National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Su Chi on Thursday dismissed media speculations that the U.S. government has issued a warning about the measures planned by the Taiwan government to block the importation of certain U.S. beef products. To date, the United States has not made any response to the Taiwan government's plans to effectively prevent certain beef products from entering the country because of public concerns over mad cow disease, Su said. The local media has been speculating that the U.S. issued a warning to the Taiwan government against undermining the beef protocol. In a statement issued Nov. 2, the U.S. said it was looking forward to Taiwan's move to "fully open its market to American beef and beef products on the basis of the bilateral protocol we have negotiated."
• China hides North Korea trade in statistics
  Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:40am IST By Chris Buckley BEIJING (Reuters) - China has stopped publicly issuing trade data about North Korea, veiling the potentially sensitive numbers about its wary neighbour under another category while the two countries seek improved ties. Destination and origin statistics on China's imports and exports for September issued on Monday gave no separate numbers for second straight month for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the formal name of the North, as they have long appeared in the tables. The trade tables for coal, crude oil, oil products and cereals issued by China's General Administration of Customs instead used another category, "other Asia not elsewhere specified", which for those commodities at least appeared to cover exclusively trade flows between China and the North. Analysts and officials have used Chinese statistics to gauge otherwise opaque ties between the two communist neighbours. But North Korea has stopped appearing in the Chinese data since last month, when statistics for August also avoided mention of it. [NK China] [Trade] [Double standards]
• Yulon to sell mainland minicars
  Publication Date:11/04/2009 Source: Economic Daily News Yulon Motor Co. Ltd. hopes Taiwan’s consumers will overcome doubts about the quality of mainland Chinese products and loosen their purse strings when the company releases a version of its mainland partner’s minicar in 2010. Yulon’s Tobe, which was developed by mainland China’s Geely Automobile Holdings, will be assembled in Taiwan using components shipped from the mainland. The minicar is expected to make its debut at the 2010 Taipei International Auto Show next month, according to company officials Nov. 3. Priced at NT$400,000 (US$12,270), the minicars are set to be the cheapest automobiles on the Taiwan market, even taking into consideration price increases caused by the cost of upgrading standard equipment to meet the nation’s strict safety requirements. According to Yulon, its Renault-based Luxgen attracts more than a thousand orders per month. Encouraged by this trend, the company believes local consumers are becoming increasingly open to ventures involving overseas companies. Separately, Yulon CEO Kenneth K.T.Yen will sign a memorandum of understanding with Geely Chairman Li Shufu next month to co-develop automobiles powered by lithium batteries. (TYH-JSM) [Image] [Auto] [Straits] [Quality] [Green]
• China Starts Work on Burma's Pipeline
  China's state-owned National Petroleum Corporation said Tuesday it has begun construction of a pipeline in Burma for transfer of Middle East oil. Officials say construction work started Monday on Burma's Maday Island in the Indian Ocean. The oil and gas pipeline will run through central Burma to China's southwestern Yunnan province. It will transfer oil from the Middle East and Africa as well as natural gas from Burma's Shwe fields. Chinese officials did not say when the oil pipeline would be ready for use. But they said it will be capable of carrying 84 million barrels of oil per year. Rights groups have criticized the project, saying it will harm local people and bring in huge revenues to Burma's ruling military. [Media][Double standards] [China confrontation]
• Formal ECFA talks to begin by year-end
  Zheng Lizhong, seen in this April 18, 2009 file photo, arrived in Taiwan Nov. 2 to meet his Taiwanese counterparts on the topics of the ECFA. (CNA)Publication Date:11/03/2009 Source: Economic Daily News Signs emerged Nov. 2 that talks over an economic cooperation framework agreement between Taiwan and mainland China may be entering a new phase. [FTA]
• Green Energy, Green Growth
  Byline:OSCAR CHUNG Taiwan is playing its part in APEC’s drive to promote more efficient energy use and slow global warming. Natural disasters caused by climate change around the world are goading Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies to get serious about energy conservation, green energy sources and the threat of global warming, and Taiwan is no exception. “I expect Taiwan’s society to think more deeply about this issue after floods ravaged the island this past August,” said Johnny Chiang, director of the Department of International Affairs of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, at a seminar on green economics in mid-August this year. Chiang was referring to the deadly flooding, mudflows and landslides caused by Typhoon Morakot, which claimed hundreds of lives in southern Taiwan in early August. While the extent of the tragedy can be attributed to many factors, few would deny that the torrential rainfall that accompanied the typhoon was the fundamental one, and scientists around the world are increasingly viewing such extreme climatic events as the result of global warming. [Green]
• On the Sinification of North Korea
  Oh Tae-gyu, Editorial writer North Korea and China are rapidly developing a close relationship as if they were a couple looking forward to their wedding day. It is troubling, however, to watch what seems to be an awkward honeymoon between the girl from a poor family sold into marriage against her will to the son with a luxurious mansion. The Sinification of North Korea that has become much more profound in recent years is not limited simply to political, economic and military areas. Its roots stretch into the deepest parts of daily life in areas like society and culture. When Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed early last month to maintain friendly relations between the two countries on through the future generations, and when China agreed to provide tens of millions of dollars in free food and crude oil assistance and build the New Amnok (Yalu) River Bridge, they provided a state-level confirmation of this trend and a signal that efforts would be made to further strengthen it. A particularly noteworthy case of China’s increasing influence over North Korea is the way in which the northern region of North Korea bordering the Amnok and Duman (Tumen) Rivers are being rapidly integrated into China’s three northeastern provinces. To put it simply, this region is becoming a fourth province of northeastern China. The construction of the New Amnok River Bridge suggests the impending establishment of a China-centered Sinuiju-Wihwado special zone. Meanwhile the Duman River basin is booming with infrastructure-building efforts linking China’s northeast with the Rajin and Chongjin ports in North Korea, and include a highway from Hunchun to Rajin, an extension to the Dongbiandao Railway running along the North Korea-China border on the Duman River, and orders received by Chinese businesses to develop the Rajin and Chongjin ports. China is filling the void of inter-Korean cooperation spawned by deteriorating inter-Korean relations, and is establishing development projects on its own in the regions around the North Korea-China border. [NK China]
• Chinese auto imports on the way
  November 03, 2009 The first Chinese automotive imports will arrive in Korea next year. Dongfeng Motor, the third largest automaker in China, signed a contract with Dongfeng Motor Korea to import the vehicles. DFMK will sell four models here: a one-ton truck, a commercial minivan and a six- and nine-passenger van from April 2010. DFMK opened in September with an initial investment of 1 billion won ($843,000). The company was established with top officials in the auto import market in Korea. Dongfeng Motor will also make an investment in the importer. “The vehicles are 30 percent cheaper than Korean vehicles and will therefore be competitive with private entrepreneurs,” said Lee Chul-woong, a DFMK executive. [China competition] [Autos]
• China’s retail revolution: An interview with Wal-Mart’s Ed Chan
  Wal-Mart China’s CEO outlines the strategy of the world’s largest retailer in the world’s most populous nation. Chinese suppliers have long played an important role in helping Wal-Mart Stores deliver low-priced products to shoppers in the United States and other developed markets. But since 1996, when the giant retailer opened its first stores in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Wal-Mart has had high hopes for selling in China as well as sourcing there. Today, the company, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, operates 260 outlets in China—ranging from its classic Supercenters to retail partnerships with local Chinese retailer Trust-Mart—and employs more than 90,000 associates. And as China CEO Ed Chan explains in this video interview, Wal-Mart sees enormous potential for further growth in the region. Todd Guild, a director in McKinsey’s Tokyo office, interviewed Chan at Wal-Mart China’s headquarters, in Shenzhen, in October 2009. [Services] [IM]
• Shades of Red: China’s Debate over North Korea
  Asia Report N°179 2 November 2009 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Pyongyang’s latest round of provocations (sic) has prompted Beijing to reconsider its North Korea policy. A rocket launch, the withdrawal from the Six-Party Talks, and the 25 May nuclear test all deepened doubts in China about its policies towards its neighbour. This series of escalating gestures coincided with reports that Kim Jong-il was seriously ill, which set in train succession plans. Together, the nuclear tensions and succession worries drew out an unusually public, and critical, discussion in China about its ties with North Korea. The debate took place between those proposing a stronger line against North Korea (“strategists”) and others advocating the continuation of substantial political and economic cover for China’s traditional ally (“traditionalists”). Beijing ultimately supported a strongly worded UN Security Council presidential statement and a resolution mandating a substantial sanctions regime, albeit one focused on missile and defence programs that would not destabilise the economy. Although many in the West have pointed to this debate as a sign of a policy shift, Beijing’s strategic calculations remain unchanged. As one high-level Chinese diplomat said, “Our mindset has changed, but the length of our border has not”.
  North Korea’s attempted satellite (sic) launch and nuclear test generated significant domestic and international pressure on Beijing, while its withdrawal from the Six-Party Talks stripped China of its primary strategy for dealing with the nuclear crisis. .or precipitous reunification with South Korea leading to a U.S. military presence north of the 38th parallel. [NK China] [Satellite] [Takeover]
• Kiwi cows give birth to China dairy operation
  By PATRICK CREWDSON - The Dominion Post Last updated 05:00 31/10/2009 Tangshan is not a typical New Zealand farm. Sitting on what used to be marshland before the Communists reclaimed it to grow rice, Tangshan dairy farm in China's Hebei province, about 2 1/2 hours' drive east of Beijing, may be owned by Fonterra but it is entirely foreign. [Dairy]
• Fonterra's Chinese milk shake
  By PATRICK CREWDSON - The Dominion Post Last updated 05:00 31/10/2009 As Fonterra extricates its Chinese business from the wreckage of the tainted milk powder scandal, the dairy giant is celebrating a milestone at its local farm – and deciding whether to expand. WHEN calf number 1249 – the product of New Zealand Friesian stock and American sex-sorted bull semen – was born on a Chinese farm not far from Beijing, it was a positive milestone in a topsy-turvy year for Fonterra's China operation. A milestone, because she was the first offspring of a Chinese-born cow on the 35-hectare farm 85 per cent owned by the New Zealand dairy giant. [Quality] Dairy]
• China to Launch CNN-Style News Channel
  CNN is about to get a new competitor -- from China. China's state-run Xinhua News Agency has been putting together its own 24-hour satellite news channel for the past year and will begin broadcasting reports from a Chinese perspective next month to viewers around the world in conjunction with CCTV's existing English-language channel. A Xinhua official on Thursday said that China International TV (CITV) will launch on Nov. 7, Xinhua's 78th anniversary. A media official in Beijing said the news channel will be headquartered in the Chinese capital and begin with a branch office in Hong Kong, gradually expanding to more overseas offices. "Just as Al Jazeera has an Arab point of view, CITV intends to report global news from a Chinese, rather than a Western, perspective," the official added. CITV will start broadcasting in Chinese and offer English-language reports from January. Initially it will target viewers in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and other Asian nations, with the ultimate aim to broaden its viewership to the entire world. [Media]

• Hu Jintao Invites Kim Jong Il to Visit
  Pyongyang October 29 (KCNA) -- Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and president of the People's Republic of China, met with the delegation of the Workers' Party of Korea led by Choe Thae Bok, secretary of the Central Committee of the WPK on a visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 28. Hu Jintao asked Choe Thae Bok to convey to General Secretary Kim Jong Il his invitation to visit China at a convenient time. He said he was accorded cordial hospitality by General Secretary Kim Jong Il and the party, the government and the people of the DPRK during his visit to the DPRK four years ago and recollected it with deep emotion.
• Chinese visit seals end of chilly ties with Australia
  By Michael Perry Reuters Wednesday, October 28, 2009; 10:01 PM SYDNEY (Reuters) - The arrival of China's Vice Premier Li Keqiang in Sydney on Thursday and a glowing editorial in one of China's most popular newspapers this week seem to seal the end of diplomatic tensions between Canberra and Beijing. Relations plummeted in June over a failed bid by China's state-owned metals firm Chinalco for a $19.5 billion stake in Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto and the arrest in China of an Australian executive with Rio over corporate espionage charges. China canceled a high-level diplomatic visit to Australia and its media accused Australia of interfering in China's affairs when Australia granted a visa to an exiled ethnic Uighur leader. But China's Ambassador to Australia, Zhang Junsai, said both countries had come to a consensus that they must manage their differences and that Li's visit to Australia reflected the long-term importance of Australia-China ties.
• Acer eyes position as No. 1 portable PC brand by 2010
  2009.10.28 17:46:16 Acer is the world's No. 2 personal computer maker Taipei, Oct. 28 (CNA) Acer Inc, the world's No. 2 personal computer maker, expects its shipments of portable PCs -- which include notebooks and netbooks -- to reach 40 million units next year, making it the world's biggest portable PC maker, Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said Wednesday. According to Acer Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci, the Taiwanese company is expected to ship more than 30 million portable PCs this year. [Brand] [IM]
• China to hunt remains at 1950 US bomber crash site
  By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN The Associated Press Tuesday, October 27, 2009; 2:53 PM BEIJING -- China will search for the remains of U.S. victims from an Air Force bomber that crashed nearly 60 years ago, state media said Tuesday, a likely gesture of goodwill just weeks ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's first visit to the country. Efforts to find missing servicemen are deeply symbolic for the U.S. and Chinese militaries, whose ties have been strained by U.S. criticism of China's military buildup and Chinese objections to U.S. surveillance operations. China last year yielded to a long-standing U.S. request to provide access to military records that might resolve the fate of thousands of U.S. servicemen missing from the Korean War and other Cold War-era conflicts. Obama is due to visit China on Nov. 15-18. [China confrontation]
• Mainland China completes ECFA preparations
  Taiwan and mainland China might discuss issues of the signing of an economic cooperative framework agreement at the end of the year, when both sides are scheduled to hold talks in Taichung. (Courtesy of www.ecfa.org.tw)Publication Date:10/26/2009 Source: China Times Mainland China has finished preparations for the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement, said Wang Yi, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office under the mainland’s State Council, Oct. 26 in Chengdu, China. If necessary, Wang continued, Taiwan and the mainland can begin formal negotiations over ECFA at the end of the year, when the fourth round of cross-strait talks are due to take place in Taiwan. The director’s remarks represent the clearest and most complete statement that the mainland has made on ECFA to date. [FTA]
• Anniversary of CPV's Entry into Korean Front Observed
  Pyongyang, October 25 (KCNA) -- The Korean people pay respect to the fallen fighters of the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) and the Chinese people calling back with deep emotion the heroic fighting spirit and brilliant feats performed by the volunteers. Rodong Sinmun Sunday says this in a signed article dedicated to the significant 59th anniversary of the entry of the CPV into the Korean front. The Chinese party and government sent their excellent sons and daughters to the Korean front when the Korean people were undergoing grim hardship due to the provocation of the Korean war by the imperialist aggression forces early in the 1950s, thus positively helping the Korean army and people, the article notes, and goes on: [Korean War events] [China NK]
• The Shrinking of China
  By Duncan Hewitt | NEWSWEEK Published Oct 24, 2009 From the magazine issue dated Nov 2, 2009
  For decades, rail travel in China meant an arduous overnighter in a crowded East German–designed train, riding along a rickety old track. Now China is undergoing a rail revolution. Over the next three years, the government will pour some $300 billion into its railways, expanding its network by 20,000 kilometers, including 13,000 kilometers of track designed for high-speed trains capable of traveling up to 350kph. Result: China, a nation long defined by the vastness of its geography, is getting, much, much smaller. [Railways]
• China ready for trade talks with Taiwan: Beijing official
  2009.10.25 19:41:19 Chengdu, China, Oct. 25 (CNA) China is ready for trade talks with Taiwan and may broach the issue in forthcoming cross-Taiwan Strait talks later this year, Beijing's chief official in charge of Taiwan affairs said Sunday. Wang Yi, chief of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said Beijing hopes the two sides can exchange views on the issue in the fourth round of talks between China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) , the two intermediary bodies in the absence of official ties. [FTA] [Straits]
• AIT director reaffirms US commitment to Taiwan
  By John Scott Marchant Taiwan has no reason to be concerned about the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and mainland Chinese leader Hu Jintao, according to Washington’s top envoy in Taipei Oct. 22. “Although this is President Obama’s first trip to China, I haven’t heard any particular concerns raised either by government officials or by the opposition about this meeting,” said William A. Stanton, director of the American Institute in Taiwan, at his first official news conference since assuming duties in August. Stanton said U.S. policy toward Taiwan had not changed under the Obama administration and remains based on the Taiwan Relations Act. “I don’t think we can expect any surprises in that regard. Interests and values are the bedrock of our relationship with Taiwan.” [Continuity] [China confrontation]
• China's Economy: Behind All the Hype
  Despite an impressive rebound, an innovation shortfall may hobble sustainable growth By Dexter Roberts and Pete Engardio November 2, 2009 At the parade marking the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, tanks and missiles trundled past the Forbidden City and down Beijing's Chang'an Avenue. Battalions of soldiers goose-stepped in perfect unison. Overhead, fighter jets soared in tight formation. But close on the heels of this military extravaganza came floats highlighting a less bellicose side of China, what the leadership calls "indigenous innovation." On one, a 10-foot-high microscope, giant test tubes filled with blue liquid, and a white telescope signified China's scientific and technological achievements. Another featured a replica of a bullet train and a passenger jet to represent China's ambitions in transportation. A green-energy float was studded with windmills and oil rigs and flanked by hundreds of red-helmeted energy-industry workers, each carrying a solar panel. That sense of triumph permeates China these days. The mainland's quick rebound from the worldwide financial meltdown seems to have vindicated its brand of state-led capitalism. As the West struggles to recover, China is on track for 8% growth this year and is about to overtake Japan as the world's No. 2 economy and Germany as the No. 1 exporter. Now the mainland is charging ahead in new industries, unveiling homegrown airliners, electric cars, and high-speed trains. But delve beneath the muscular statistics and hype about advances in strategic industries, and China doesn't seem so prepared to catapult into a role of global economic leadership [China rising] [Innovation]
• China Close to Registering Balhae Site on UNESCO List
  China may be close to registering the ruins of Sangyeong-seong, the largest of the capitals of Korea's Balhae Kingdom, on the UNESCO World Heritage list. According to a legislator on the Korean National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee, Beijing is pushing ahead with efforts to gain UNESCO recognition for the Balhae excavation site within this year. The Balhae Kingdom existed from the seventh to the 10th century. China is reportedly publishing a book on the ruins of Sanggyeong-seong and is also touching up restoration work at the site. Experts in Korea have been calling attention to the need for ways to stop China from laying claim to Korea's ancient history.
• Chinese shipbuilders beat Korea in orders received
  The global downturn has put a dent in demand for Korea’s costly vessels. October 23, 2009 Korean shipbuilders were outpaced by their Chinese rivals in terms of new orders received in the first nine months of the year, according to a London-based market researcher yesterday. [China competition]
• Taiwan to benefit from ECFA with Beijing
  The Council of Labor Affairs’ Oct. 22 report aims at clearing the public’s doubts about the benefits of signing an ECFA. (Graphic courtesy of CLA)Publication Date:10/22/2009 Source: United Daily News Signing an economic cooperation framework agreement with Beijing will have an overall positive impact on the economy of Taiwan, according to the conclusions of a report released Oct. 21. The report, commissioned by the Council of Labor Affairs and prepared by the Chihlee Institute of Technology, examined the issue from several points of view. The report found if Taiwan did not sign an ECFA with Beijing, the island’s gross domestic product would shrink by 0.179 percent, resulting in job losses for 47,000 workers. On the other hand, if Taiwan did sign an ECFA with the mainland, between 105,000 and 125,000 new jobs would be created, the report concluded. Workers in traditional manufacturing sectors and in the mining industry would be most adversely affected by ECFA, the report said. [FTA] [Straits]
• Chinese Prefer U.S. to S.Korea
  Chinese people seem to regard South Korea as a strong, clean, bright and helpful country, but feel less friendly toward it than the U.S. or Russia. This is suggested by a report published by Grand National Party lawmaker Gu Sang-chan of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee. The report was based on a recent survey among 1,322 Beijing and Shanghai residents. Some 28 percent of respondents said North Korea was the country they feel most friendly toward. Next were Russia (25 percent), the U.S. (22 percent), and South Korea (10.3 percent).
• Poll says Chinese see North as closest ally
  October 22, 2009 North Korea is China’s closest ally, according to a survey conducted by a Grand National Party lawmaker. Gu Sang-chan said yesterday that interviews he carried out earlier this month showed that 28.2 percent of the 1,953 Chinese people polled picked North Korea when asked about China’s relations with other countries. Russia and the United States followed behind at 24.9 and 21.6 percent, respectively, in the poll in which most respondents were aged between 10 and 30. [NK China]
• China thinks the Washington Consensus is dead!
  by Laurence Brahm Laurence Brahm (laurence@shambhala-ngo.org) is the founding director of the Shambhala Foundation. Bankers and economists in Beijing are saying that the Washington Consensus is dead. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner awoke to this during his recent China trip. Addressing a Peking University student audience he declared, “In the United States, we are putting in place the foundations for restoring fiscal sustainability.” When he said that China’s assets were “very safe in Washington,” students laughed. The tectonic plates of the global financial system have shifted. The post-colonial order created at Bretton Woods irreparably cracked, together with Wall Street, in September 2008. Time has come to replace it. [Reserve] [China rising]
• Senior US official reaffirms pledge to Taiwan
  Publication Date:10/21/2009 Source: United Daily News The United States has never missed an opportunity to reiterate to China its commitment to Taiwan, said Kurt M. Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Oct. 19. [China confrontation]
• China Becomes Battle Ground for Korean Retailers as Lotte Buys Supermarket Chain
  Lotte Shopping announced Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Chinese supermarket chain Times. The acquisition signals moves by the Korean retailer to expand its presence in the Chinese market, and is expected to intensify competition with Shinsegae, its biggest Korean rival, there. Times has 53 hypermarkets and 12 supermarkets across China. By gaining the 65 outlets Lotte Shopping becomes the 14th largest discount store chain in the world's fastest growing economy, where competition is fierce among major global retailers. French retail group Auchan (132 outlets) is the current market leader in terms of sales, followed by Carrefour (132 outlets) and Walmart (210 outlets). Lotte Shopping aims to rise to the top 10 by 2012 at the latest. [Domestic demand]
• Leader of China’s Uighur Minority Builds a Stage Across the Globe
  By ANDREW JACOBS Published: October 20, 2009 BEIJING — In what has become a familiar vocal pas de deux, Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled Uighur leader, stepped off a plane in Tokyo on Tuesday and immediately began accusing the Chinese government of secretly executing members of the Uighur minority and illegally detaining hundreds of others. [Separatism]
• Supreme Court to hear Uighurs' case
  Justices to consider whether judges can release them into U.S. By Robert Barnes Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 21, 2009 The Supreme Court set aside the objections of the Obama administration and said Tuesday that it will consider whether judges have the power to release Guantanamo Bay detainees into the United States if they have been deemed not to be "enemy combatants." The case, involving a group of Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs, again thrusts the court into the jangle of policy decisions and constitutional principles involving the approximately 220 men still held at the base in Cuba. And the court's decision to hear it could further complicate plans to close the military prison in January, a deadline the Obama administration recently said it might be unable to meet. [Separatism] [Double standards] [China confrontation]
• China secretly detained 43 Uighur men, group says
  By ALEXA OLESEN The Associated Press Tuesday, October 20, 2009; 9:59 PM BEIJING -- Three months after deadly ethnic rioting in China's far west, dozens of men from the Uighur ethnic group remain unaccounted for after being detained in police sweeps, a human rights group said Wednesday [Separatism] [Double standards] [China confrontation]
• New Zealand at Shanghai World Expo 2010
  The World Expo to be held in Shanghai, China in 2010 will be the biggest in world history. During the six months the expo will be open - 1 May to 31 October 2010 - it is expected to draw 70 million visitors.
• President urges Japanese law on exhibition of national treasures
  2009.10.20 20:03:12 President Ma Ying-jeou (right) receives Japanese dietmen Taipei, Oct. 20 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Tuesday that Japan will need to iron out relevant legislation before a proposed exhibition on national treasures from the National Palace Museum (NPM) can take place in Japan.
  Over the past decade, priceless NPM art works have been shown in Austria, France, Germany and the United States, which all have the relevant laws in place due to Taiwan's unique political status and concern that should such pieces leave Taiwan, Beijing might otherwise make an ownership claim on them.
• Lien Chan to be presidential envoy to 2009 APEC summit
  2009.10.17 16:29:17 Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) Former Vice President Lien Chan will be named as the special envoy of President Ma Ying-jeou to the leaders summit of the 2009 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum slated for Nov. 12-14 in Singapore, sources close to the president said Saturday. The Presidential Office is expected to announce the appointment after completing consultations on related details with the host country, the sources said. This will be the second consecutive year that Lien, who is an honorary chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) , represents Taiwan at the APEC leaders summit. Lien also attended last year's summit held in Peru, which made him the highest-ranking former Republic of China official ever allowed to take part in the annual summit. [Straits]
• Chinese Knockoffs Pose Headaches for Korean Online Game Makers
  Exports of Korean online games have surpassed US$1 billion to become one of the country's hottest new products, but the industry is being plagued by Chinese knockoffs. Korean companies are finding little relief as copyright infringement is difficult to prove in China and victims are reluctant to take legal measures, mindful of clashing with the Chinese government. [IPR] [Counterfeiting] [China competition]
• Beijing’s Air Is Cleaner, but Far From Clean
  BLUE-SKY DAY Tourists enjoying one of the better days for air quality in Beijing. There were 221 such “blue-sky days” this year through September, a city record since the index began in 1998. By MICHAEL WINES Published: October 16, 2009 BEIJING — This city’s network of arterials, five ring roads bisected by nine more freeways, is barely two decades old, but it already is sclerotic. Roughly four million vehicles clog Beijing roads, seven times the number about 15 years ago. On any given day, another 1,500 new vehicles join the crush. So it is no surprise that Beijing has some of the worst air pollution of any big city on earth. No, the surprise is this: Beijing’s air is actually getting cleaner.
  With the switch to Euro IV, Beijing environmental officials last year ordered a 90 percent reduction in the sulfur content of gasoline and diesel fuel, as well as significant new cuts in polluting compounds like benzene and aromatic hydrocarbons in gasoline. Nor is that all. More than 4,100 of the 20,000 city buses run on clean-burning compressed or liquefied natural gas — the largest such fleet in the world. The Beijing subway system, currently about 125 miles of tunnels and overhead tracks, is undergoing a breakneck expansion that will nearly triple its length in the next five years. Nor is that all, either. [Environment]
• U.S. welcomes positive cross-strait developments: scholars
  2009.10.16 21:06:10 President Ma Ying-jeou (right) receives American scholar Ralph A. Cossa (left) Taipei, Oct. 16 (CNA) American scholars attending a seminar on Taipei-Washington-Beijing relations said Friday in Taipei that the United States welcomed the positive development in relations between Taipei and Beijing and it is unlikely that Washington would play an intermediary role. At the seminar, some 200 scholars from think tanks in the United States and Taiwan discussed the cross-strait factor in U.S. Asia policy and the U.S. role in building cross-strait mutual trust mechanisms. The seminar was jointly sponsored by the Foundation on Asia-Pacific Peace Studies (FAPPS) in Taipei and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Ralph A. Cossa, CSIS Pacific Forum president, said that the administration of President Barack Obama is "absolutely delighted that China and Taiwan are talking over and working out their problems between them." Referring to the attitude of the U.S. government towards improved relations between Taipei and Beijing, and in response to a question by Professor George W. Tsai of the Chinese Culture University, Cossa said that the notion that the U.S. is worried about the two sides getting too close "is truly a minority point of view." [Spin] [China confrontation] [Straits]
• Think tank launched at Chengchi University
  Publication Date:10/16/2009 Source: China Times An opening ceremony for the MacArthur Center for Security Studies in Taiwan was held Oct. 15 at National Chengchi University. The center, sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in the United States, and affiliated with the Institute of International Relations at NCCU, will focus on the trilateral relationship between Taiwan, the U.S. and mainland China. Among those who attended the ceremony were Presidential Strategy Advisor Wang Li-shen, Cathay United Bank’s Have Love Foundation President Frederick Chien, American Institute in Taiwan Director William A. Stanton, NCCU President Wu Se-hwa, NCCU’s IIR Director Tuan Y. Cheng, and MCSS Executive Director Liu Fu-kuo.
  Wendell Minnick, Asia bureau chief of the magazine “Defense News,” observed that Taiwan plays an extremely important role in the U.S. military, and yet this role is scarcely understood by the American public. Minnick urged Taiwan to do a better job at making its importance understood. [China confrontation] [Straits]
• China's Forex Reserves Swell to Record Size
  China, which holds the world's largest foreign reserves, saw them rise even further to US$2.273 trillion as of the end of September. That is 10 times more than Korea’s annual budget this year of W267 trillion (US$1=W1,155). It is also 2.7 times larger than the market capitalization of all of the outstanding shares on the KOSPI and junior Kosdaq, which amounts to W947 trillion as of the end of trading on Thursday. Backed by such huge foreign currency reserves, China has been gobbling up global energy and metal resources. The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said foreign currency reserves rose 19.26 percent over the past year and grew by $61.8 billion in September alone. Bloomberg on Thursday reported that China’s foreign reserves are expected to surpass $3 trillion by the middle of next year. [Going out]
• Cross-strait talks set for December
  Taichung Mayor Jason Hu has confidence that security will be maintained at optimum levels during the upcoming cross-strait talks.(CNA)Publication Date:10/15/2009 Source: United Daily News The fourth round of talks between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation and mainland China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait will take place in the middle of December in Taichung City. [Straits]
• China 'Mostly Worried About N.Korean Regime Stability'
  China may be concerned about North Korea's nuclear armament but worries more about the stability of the North Korean regime, an academic said Monday. Yun Duk-min, a professor of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, told an international seminar on South Korea-China-Japan relations in Seoul sponsored by Dongseo University's Japan Center, "China has been attentive to the resumption of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks rather than to the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue. It merely talks about the principle of a peaceful resolution but offers no specific ideas." Yun said while the North's nuclear and missile provocations hurt China's basic interests by sparking debate about nuclear armament in South Korea and Japan, Beijing is hesitating to apply pressure on Pyongyang. "In the event the U.S. recognizes North Korea as a de facto nuclear power like India and Pakistan, China worries if participating in strong sanctions will weaken its position."
• Australians are honest people
  .....and made it clear they want to see China fail. They hate China and do everything to spoil relations. Latest proof a poll Australian attitudes to China are cooling, with 50 percent believing there is too much Chinese investment in Australia and half the population in favor of limiting China's influence, a poll suggested on Tuesday. Relations between China and Australia have been strained in recent months by political opposition to China's efforts to buy key stakes in Australian commodities and resources firms and the arrest of an Australian mining executive in China. The fifth annual "Australia and the World" poll by Sydney-based Lowy Institute for International Policy found half of Australians believed the government had allowed too much Chinese investment, while 42 percent said it was about right. When Australians were asked to rank their feelings toward China they registered a "lukewarm" 53 degrees, compared with 61 degrees in 2006, said the Lowy poll. This compared with Australian feelings toward neighboring New Zealand at 83 degrees and toward the United States at 67. The poll also found that 40 percent of Australians viewed the development of China as a world power as a critical threat to Australia's vital interests, up 15 points since 2006. And while a majority of 57 percent said it was unlikely that China would become a military threat to Australia in the next 20 years, a sizeable 41 percent minority said it was likely. Australia was one of the first countries to formally recognize China in 1972. China is now Australia's second-largest trading partner, with two-way trade last year worth $53 billion. But relations have been tense after Chinese state-owned metals firm Chinalco failed in a $19.5 billion bid for a stake in Rio and the arrest of four employees of Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto on suspicion of corporate espionage. A decision by Australia's government in July to grant a visa for an exiled Uighur separatist further soured ties. Some 91 percent of Australians said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government should undertake friendly cooperation and engagement with China, but 46 percent said the Australian government should actively work to limit China's power. [China confrontation]
• The Thrill Is Gone Australia falls out of love with China.
  by Andrew Shearer 08/31/2009, Volume 014, Issue 46 In 2007 China overtook Japan as Australia's largest trading partner. Australia has been selling raw materials to China as fast as it can dig them up and load them onto ships, generating jobs and revenue. More recently, demand from China has cushioned Australia from the worst effects of the global economic downturn. Just last week state-owned PetroChina signed up to buy around $41 billion of liquefied natural gas--the biggest resources deal in Australian history. No surprise then that Aussies developed something of a crush on China. The 2005 Lowy Institute Poll of Australians' views on foreign policy found that 69 percent had "positive feelings" towards China (while 58 percent had "positive feelings" for the United States). A year earlier former foreign minister Alexander Downer sent a tremor through U.S. defense circles when, visiting Beijing, he seemed to question whether Australia's alliance obligations would apply in the event of a U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan. There was palpable concern in Washington that a moonstruck Australia had succumbed to Beijing's "smile diplomacy" and was drifting into China's arms. The advent in Australia of a Mandarin-speaking prime minister must have looked like consummation of these fears. Suddenly, however, this budding romance is in trouble.
  China-boosters like to laud the Middle Kingdom's soft power, contrasting it with barely disguised glee with America's supposed loss of "moral authority" and fading influence. But what China is exercising vis-à-vis Australia looks much more like old-fashioned authoritarian hard power. [China confrontation] [Softpower]
• Let's not appease Beijing
  Michael Danby | August 14, 2009 Article from: The Australian THE arrest of Stern Hu, an Australian citizen working in China for the Rio Tinto mining group, has focused attention in Australia on the realities of commerce, politics and the legal system in the People's Republic of China. Since China began to open up to the West in the 1970s, Australians have been prone to naive illusions about our giant neighbour. In those days the illusions were of the romantic leftist variety, of China as the land of Maoist socialist egalitarianism. Since Tiananmen, some on the Left have become more sceptical. Now it is many in academe or those promoting business who suffer the most from illusions about China. Beguiled by the prospects of profit in the vast Chinese market, they have persuaded themselves that China is now a normal country where it is possible to do business much as one does in countries where the impartial rule of law applies, such as Asian democracies like Japan, Indonesia and South Korea. This is very far from the truth. China is not a normal country. It is a one-party state ruled by the Communist Party. Although Red Guards no longer rampage through the streets, the Communist Party still controls China with an iron grip. [China confrontation]
• Wary of China and warming to the US
  Michael Wesley and Fergus Hanson | October 14, 2009 Article from: The Australian IT'S time to put to bed old notions of an insular, parochial Australian public not much interested in international affairs. Australians are interested in the outside world: each year about six million travel overseas, almost half have passports and a million Australians live abroad. And Australians' opinions about international affairs increasingly matter. In recent years, the East Timor crisis and the Bali bombings showed just how passionate and engaged Australians have become about the world beyond our shores.
  The immediate explanation is to credit the replacement of Bush with Barack Obama in the White House, but this may be too simplistic a reading. There appears to be a slow cooling in feelings towards China and an emerging division over the implications of its rise. This year, 95 per cent of Australians polled said China already is or will become the leading power in Asia, but this group were almost evenly split between those who said they were comfortable about this and those who said they were uncomfortable. When it came to Chinese investment there was a similar division, with 50 per cent of Australians saying the government was allowing too much Chinese investment and 42 per cent saying it was allowing about the right amount; just 3 per cent said the government wasn't allowing enough.
• In Recession, China Solidifies Its Lead in Global Trade
  Jianan Yu/Reuters By DAVID BARBOZA Published: October 13, 2009 SHANGHAI — With the global recession making consumers and businesses more price-conscious, China is grabbing market share from its export competitors, solidifying a dominance in world trade that many economists say could last long after any economic recovery. China’s exports this year have already vaulted it past Germany to become the world’s biggest exporter. Now, those market share gains are threatening to increase trade frictions with the United States and Europe. The European Commission proposed on Tuesday to extend antidumping duties on Chinese, as well as Vietnamese, shoe imports. China is winning a larger piece of a shrinking pie. Although world trade declined this year because of the recession, consumers are demanding lower-priced goods and Beijing, determined to keep its export machine humming, is finding a way to deliver. The country’s factories are aggressively reducing prices — allowing China to gain ground in old markets and make inroads in new ones. The most striking gains have come in the United States, where China has displaced Canada this year as the largest supplier of imports
  Economists said it was a sign of an improving global economy and renewed strength for Chinese exporters. A similar tale is told around the world, from Japan to Italy. One reason is the ability of Chinese manufacturers to quickly slash prices by reducing wages and other costs in production zones that often rely on migrant workers. Factory managers here say American buyers are demanding they do just that.
  All told, in the first half of 2009, China exported $521 billion worth of clothes, toys, electronics, grains and other commodities to the rest of the world. Though that represented a 22 percent decrease from the first half of 2008, it compares favorably to other major exporters. German exports have fallen 34 percent over the same period. Japanese exports were down 37 percent and American exports 24 percent, according to Global Trade Information Services. [China competition] [Double standards]
• Baby bust threatens universities
  As the potential pool of students drops with the baby bust, many universities may have to close their doors. (CNA)Publication Date:10/13/2009 Source: China Times If university enrollment quotas are reduced by 2 percent per year, in 2021 there will still be a shortfall of 71,000 students, Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji said Oct. 12. Reporting to the Legislative Yuan on a “review of the current situation and strategies for the pursuit of excellence in higher education,” Wu admitted the baby bust phenomenon has seriously impacted higher education. In the future, some universities may have trouble operating. Legislators worried that within the next 12 years, 60 colleges could be closed. However, the ministry has mapped out an exit mechanism. [Ageing society]
• China at 60: No More Excuses
  Blaming Mao's chaotic years for the slow pace of reform is wearing thin as the vast majority of Chinese remain poor while their leaders grow more powerful
  It has been 60 years since Mao Zedong told his people on Oct. 1, 1949, that "the Chinese people have stood up" and declared the founding of the People's Republic of China. Anniversaries are usually arbitrary passing points in time carrying little true significance, but this one isn't. Leaders from Deng Xiaoping onward have been telling the world that China is assiduously laying the groundwork for political reform and eventually democracy—but only after it recovers from the chaos and destruction of the Mao years. Yet with China now in the midst of a weeklong holiday to celebrate the anniversary, the reform period since Deng Xiaoping took power will be nearing the completion of its 30th year—exactly half the age of modern China. The reform period will have exceeded Mao Zedong's 27 years of terrible rule. In reality, China's leaders have been deliberately moving further away from any fundamental reform, and using the excuse of Mao is wearing thin. [China confrontation]
• Chinese Premier Calls for Dialogue Between U.S. and North Korea
  By David Barboza Published: October 10, 2009 BEIJING — China’s prime minister called Saturday for the United States and North Korea to engage in a “conscientious and constructive dialogue” aimed at reviving multilateral talks over the North’s nuclear weapons program. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, suggested in a meeting with China’s premier last week that his country would return to multilateral talks if the United States held bilateral talks and if those negotiations went well. The United States has said it would hold talks with North Korea, but only if they quickly lead to the resumption of multilateral deliberations aimed at resolving the nuclear issue. The statement by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao seemed to indicate that China was ready to take a more active role in trying to end the standoff between the United States and North Korea, but it remains unclear if he won concessions from the North that will induce Washington to enter into bilateral talks. [Bilateral]
• Chinese Premier Briefs Press on Meeting with Kim Jong-il
  Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last Saturday gave a detailed account of matters he discussed with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during his visit to Pyongyang on Oct. 4-6, breaking with a long tradition of secrecy among the Chinese leadership on such issues. Speaking to reporters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Wen said a "correct understanding of what really happened" by the press "helps create an environment in favor of the resumption of the six-party talks" on the North Korean nuclear issue. Wen said he and Kim "talked about the North Korean nuclear issue for a combined total of 10 hours over several occasions. We talked for about four hours at a stretch." He said Kim "appeared flexible and said he did not oppose the talks." He quoted Kim as saying, "I hope to see conditions in place to resume the six-party talks after relevant issues are solved through bilateral and multilateral talks." Wen said North Korea wants to improve relations not only with the U.S. but with South Korea and Japan. "This was an important impression I received from my visit to Pyongyang."  
• It's China's world. (We just live in it)
  After a shopping spree for natural resources, the Chinese are shifting to automakers, high-tech firms, and real estate. Where will they strike next? By Bill Powell, contributor Last Updated: October 8, 2009: 9:35 AM ET (Fortune Magazine) -- You wouldn't think the men who run the oil-rich country of Nigeria would have much spring in their step these days. The nation is plagued by a never-ending guerrilla war, one that has trimmed the country's oil production to two-thirds of its potential capacity. But now Nigeria is in the process of renewing production licenses for some of its most prolific offshore fields, and there's a new player in town making the traditional oil powers from the West (Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA), Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500), Total (TOT)) very nervous -- and the Nigerian government very happy. CNOOC (CEO), one of China's three largest oil companies, is trying to pick off some of the licenses; indeed, the Beijing-based company wants to secure no less than one-sixth of the African nation's production. And CNOOC, apparently, isn't screwing around.
  So far this decade China has spent an estimated $115 billion on foreign acquisitions. Now that the nation is sitting on massive foreign-exchange wealth ($2.1 trillion and counting), it is eager to find something (anything!) to invest in besides U.S. Treasury debt. [ODI] {Going out] [China competition]
• Rebiya Kadeer visit to New Zealand
  Keith Locke MP 05 Oct 2009 Who: Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer When: 12 to 15 October 2009 Human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer will visit New Zealand from October 12 to 15 and will be hosted by Green Party MP Keith Locke. She will be speaking at public meetings, visiting Parliament to meet MPs, and talking with other interested people and organisations. [Separatism]
• Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World’s Prosperity Depends on It
  The emergence of China as an economic superpower is now widely recognized, but as Zachary Karabell reveals in his new book Superfusion, that is only one aspect of the story. Over the past decade, the Chinese and U.S. economies have fused to become one integrated system and how they manage their relationship will determine whether the coming decades witness increased global prosperity or greater instability. [China rising]
• China triumphal
  Published: October 1 2009 22:47 | Last updated: October 1 2009 22:47 The People’s Republic of China is riding high. As it celebrated its 60th birthday on Thursday – the most auspicious day in the Chinese calendar – it was hard not to be awed by the spectacle of a great civilisation stirring. Very soon, China will surpass Japan as the world’s second-largest economy and, by some reckoning, will overtake the US, in purchasing-power-parity terms, within a decade. Just as important, China has recovered its self-confidence, lost during 150 years of colonial humiliation, civil strife and poverty. It has hosted the Olympics. It is making its presence felt internationally, buying up global oil reserves and influencing countries from Asia to Africa. It has floated the idea of an international currency to replace the dollar, a sign it regards the days of US pre-eminence as numbered. [China rising] [Decline] [Reserve]
• We Must Keep a Close Eye on N.Korea-China Relations
  Park Sung-joon Park Sung-joon North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Monday told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was his father Kim Il-sung's "last wish." But he called once again for the U.S. to end its "hostile policies" toward the North through bilateral talks. And he added he was willing to return to "multilateral talks including the six-party talks" depending on progress in bilateral talks with the U.S.
• Officials question China aid promised to North
  October 08, 2009 After the conclusion of the meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and China’s premier Wen Jiabao, the South Korean government has grown concerned that China’s apparent offers of aid to the North may violate the existing United Nations Security Council resolution banning support to the North except for humanitarian purposes. Seoul is expecting a further explanation from Beijing on the matter.
• Message of Thanks to Kim Jong Il from Chinese Premier
  Pyongyang, October 6 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il, Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Yong Il, premier of the Cabinet, Tuesday received a message of thanks from Wen Jiabao, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the Communist Party of China and premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The message said:
  I and my party have already successfully wrapped up our official goodwill visit to the DPRK, a friendly neighbor of China. Before leaving your country, I would like to express our heartfelt thanks to you for your warm hospitality and minute organization. During the visit, we witnessed the beautiful scenery of the DPRK and saw for ourselves the admirable successes achieved by the Korean people in the cause of socialist construction under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea headed by you General Secretary Kim Jong Il and could feel warm and deep feelings of the Korean people toward the Chinese people. We reached wide-ranging common understanding through a frank and in-depth exchange of views on the matter of the Sino-DPRK relations and international and regional issues of common concern. The visit helped further deepen the mutual understanding and trust between the two sides and promote the exchange and cooperation in various fields of the two countries. We are satisfied over the success made by our visit. [NK China]
• China Aims to Steady North Korea
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: October 6, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s leader gave an unusually exuberant welcome this week to the prime minister of China, whose trip was intensely monitored by the rest of the world for progress on efforts to halt North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. But the deal struck by the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China had far more to do with the two countries’ shared goal — stability in North Korea. [NK China]
• Two newcomers make Taiwan's top 20 global brand name list
  2009.10.07 16:38:06 Taipei, Oct. 7 (CNA) Two companies and their brands have vaulted into the Taiwan Top 20 Global Brand list for the first time in 2009 with their high brand values and good business prospects, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said Wednesday.
  The two firms were among 20 companies that have been selected in leading global brand consultancy Interbrand's Taiwan Top 20 Global Brands survey for 2009. Other brand names making the list this year are, in alphabetical order, Acer, Advantech, Asus, Depo, D-Link, Genius, Giant, HTC, Johnson, Master Kong, Maxxis, Merida, MSI, Synnex, Transcend, Trend Micro, Uni-President and Zyxel. [Brand]
• China appreciates DPRK's commitment to realizing denuclearization of Korean Peninsular: FM
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-06 22:55:27 BEIJING, OCT. 6 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday expressed appreciation over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s commitment to the goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsular and its adherence to realizing the goal through multilateral dialogues including the six-party talks. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu made the remarks in response to questions on the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue.. China has always supported the DPRK-U.S. bilateral dialogue aiming at increasing mutual understanding and trust, and believed all sides should adhere to the six-party talks and make joint efforts for the early resumption of the process, Ma said in a statement. [Bilateral] [Six Party Talks]
• Taiwan visit on cards for US Cabinet official
  •Publication Date:10/07/2009 •Source: Liberty Times US President Barack Obama is likely to send Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki to visit Taiwan next spring, according to sources familiar with the matter. If Shinseki’s trip comes off, the retired U.S. Army four-star general will be America’s first incumbent Cabinet official to visit Taiwan in nearly 10 years. Pundits see such a move by the Obama administration as groundbreaking in that the long-standing practice of sending Cabinet officials to Taiwan every two years was discontinued by former President George W. Bush. The decision is believed to have come following the Obama administration’s recent completion of its Taiwan policy review. This was carried out by Jeffrey A. Bader, senior director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, Kurt M. Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and Wallace C. Gregson, assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs. [Continuity]
• US Supreme Court rejects sovereignty appeal
  •Publication Date:10/06/2009 •Source: United Daily News The United States Supreme Court Oct. 5 dismissed a lawsuit arguing the U.S. has had sovereignty over Taiwan since the end of World War II. The lawsuit, brought by Roger C.S. Lin, member of the Formosa Nation Legal Strategy Association, contended the U.S. was still Taiwan’s principal occupying power based on the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Lin’s case has drawn a lot of attention recently because former President Chen Shui-bian, sentenced to life in prison for corruption while in office, is suing U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, saying that the U.S. is an occupying power of Taiwan and should fulfill its duties as such.
  The suit alleged that the U.S. government has shelved the dispute over the sovereignty of Taiwan, resulting in the infringement of the human rights of the Taiwanese people. He demanded the U.S. government review Taiwanese residents’ inherent human rights and help Taiwan become an independent country according to the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the U.S. Constitution [Imperialism] [Legality] [Bizarre]
• China: A Sixty-Year Experiment with Free Markets
  Yiping Huang* October 2009 Newsletter When Mao Zedong arrived in Beijing sixty years ago with his comrades from Yan-an, a remote town in Northwestern Shaan-xi province, he probably did not intend to ban free markets across the country. The socialist transformation began when Mao set his eyes on overtaking the United States. This was to be achieved, according to him, through the development of heavy industries, especially the steel industry. [Marketisation] [Development strategy]
• The truth about China
  by David Mahon The hardest thing for New Zealand companies to face in dealing with China is the cost of establishing a base in the country. It is difficult to assess at what point it makes economic sense to spend money on employees, offices or even contracts with third parties to represent one’s company in China.
• China and New Zealand
  This is New Zealand’s chance to ally itself economically with the stronger centres of economic growth in the world A report by David Mahon, Managing Director, Mahon China Investment Management Limited S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9 Don’t let the doubts of the crowd interfere with an individual view, but don’t reject the words of others because of faith in your own opinion. Huanchu Daoren, 1600 Realigning New Zealand he world is recovering from the depths of the recession, but developing countries are recovering faster than developed ones. Some, like China, were never in recession, while India and Brazil faltered only briefly. These countries were sustained by strong domestic demand and populations which, while often living marginal lives, are not staggering along the fringes of insolvency like so many in the developed world. This is New Zealand’s chance to ally itself economically with the stronger centres of economic growth in the world, particularly China, but also South America, South East and Central Asia, India and the Middle East.
• China Expands Global Reach as U.S. Slumbers
  The American "hegemony" is receding, leading economist Jeffrey Sachs said Tuesday in an article for the Financial Times on the G20 Summit held in Pittsburgh. The article was titled "America has passed on the baton." In mid-September, 16 U.S. intelligence agencies released a document which pointed to Beijing as one of Washington's main global challengers in the future. All this shows that the U.S. is on the ebb in the 21st century, while China's international standing and influence are rising rapidly. [China rising] [Decline]
• America has passed on the baton
  By Jeffrey Sachs
  Published: September 29 2009 21:21 | Last updated: September 29 2009 21:21 The world has a new problem-solver. The summit of the Group of 20 in Pittsburgh last week confirmed that the leading economic powers, developed and developing, have cast their lot with collective economic leadership and systematic peer review. American conservatives are dyspeptic. The G20 seems to them both a fantasy in grand planning and a misguided sell-out of capitalist democracies to the miscreants of the third world. These fears are absurdly exaggerated but they do at least hint at an important truth: the G20 is an experiment. On its makeshift scaffolding the success of the planet now rests. The G20’s true significance is not in the passing of a baton from the G7/G8 but from the G1, the US. Even during the 33 years of the G7 economic forum, the US called the important economic shots. Although the US constitutes only about 20 per cent of the world economy, it has until recently been the indispensable leader, the key to nearly every significant regional military alliance and to global trade, finance and cutting-edge technology. [Decline] [China rising] [G20]
• Chinese Premier to Meet Kim Jong-il Today
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was greeted by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il upon arriving in Pyongyang, Sunday, on a three-day visit, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) reported. During the visit, Wen is to attend a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. He is also expected to hold talks with Kim as early as today and suggest the North return to the six-party denuclearization talks, North Korea watchers said.
• Chinese Premier Meets Kim Jong Il on NKorea Visit
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: October 4, 2009 Filed at 6:13 a.m. ET PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- China's premier met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Sunday at the start of a state visit, amid signs the North may be willing to restart talks over its nuclear weapons programs. No details on what was discussed were immediately released. Kim greeted Premier Wen Jiabao earlier in the day at Pyongyang's airport, a rare honor for a non-head of state and an indication that Kim remains firmly in charge despite recent reports of failing health.
  Washington is applying increasing economic pressure on the North's foreign trade, targeting private banks that might have North Korean ties. U.S. officials hope to block money that could be used for missiles and nuclear bombs and, ultimately, to drive North Korea back to disarmament talks. The U.S. administration said last month it and its top Asian allies had agreed that direct U.S.-North Korean talks may be the best way to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table. But the officials also suggested that China needs to lay more groundwork before President Barack Obama would decide to send his special North Korea envoy, Stephen Bosworth, to Pyongyang. [Bilateral] [China rising] [NK China]
• North Korea's Kim woos China's Wen on rare visit
  By Chris Buckley Reuters Sunday, October 4, 2009; 12:01 AM BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il made a rare appearance at Pyongyang's airport on Sunday to personally greet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the start of a top-level visit likely to test the North's stance on nuclear disarmament. Wen was "greeted at the airport" by Kim -- the secretive leader who dominates all big decisions in his country -- said a brief report from China's Xinhua news agency.
• National Palace Museum pieces will not be loaned to China: director
  2009.10.02 18:38:51 Taipei, Oct. 2 (CNA) National treasures at the Taipei-based National Palace Museum (NPM) will not be exhibited in China because that country does not have a law to prevent the seizure of artworks, NPM Director Chou Kung-shin said Friday. The NPM collections are national assets and if they are to be exhibited abroad, it will be only in countries that have laws that guarantee the return of the exhibits, Chou said. [Straits]
• China Is Wordless on Traumas of Communists’ Rise Sign in to Recommend
  By ANDREW JACOBS Published: October 1, 2009 CHANGCHUN, China — Unlike in other cities taken by the People’s Liberation Army during China’s civil war, there were no crowds to greet the victors as they made their triumphant march through the streets of this industrial city in the heart of Manchuria. Even if relieved to learn that hostilities with Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Army had come to an end, most residents — the ones who had not died during the five-month siege — were simply too weak to go outdoors. “We were just lying in bed starving to death,” said Zhang Yinghua, now 86, as she recalled the famine that claimed the lives of her brother, her sister and most of her neighbors. “We couldn’t even crawl.” In what China’s history books hail as one of the war’s decisive victories, Mao’s troops starved out the formidable Nationalist garrison that occupied Changchun with nary a shot fired. What the official story line does not reveal is that at least 160,000 civilians also died during the siege of the northeastern city, which lasted from June to October of 1948. [Sanctions] [Media] [China confrontation]
• All aboard China's new bullet train
  When China's $300 billion high-speed train system is completed, it will be the world's largest, fastest, and most technologically sophisticated. Photographer Benjamin Lowy captures the epic project and reveals its human side. [Photos]
• China's amazing new bullet train
  This year Beijing will spend $50 billion on what will soon be the world's biggest high-speed train system. Here's how it works.
  By Bill Powell, senior writer Last Updated: August 6, 2009: 10:06 AM ET (Fortune Magazine) -- When lunch break comes at the construction site between Shanghai and Suzhou in eastern China, Xi Tong-li and his fellow laborers bolt for some nearby trees and the merciful slivers of shade they provide. It's 95 degrees and humid -- a typically oppressive summer day in southeastern China -- but it's not just mad dogs and Englishmen who go out in the midday sun. Xi is among a vast army of workers in China -- according to Beijing's Railroad Ministry, 110,000 were laboring on a single line, the Beijing-Shanghai route, at the beginning of 2009 -- who are building one of the largest infrastructure projects in history: a nationwide high-speed passenger rail network that, once completed, will be the largest, fastest, and most technologically sophisticated in the world.
  n mid-July, Beijing announced that second-quarter growth came in at 7.9%, and that the quarter-on-quarter upswing was the fastest the nation had seen since 2003. Economists at Goldman Sachs now believe China will expand at 8.3% this year -- exceeding the 8.1% goal set by Beijing in January, and dismissed then as unrealistic by most private economists. That the government-led infrastructure spending, as Li says, is driving this growth is beyond dispute. A recent survey by Australia's mining industry shows that China's overall steel production capacity has actually increased by 10% to 12% over a year ago, despite the worst global downturn in decades. But nearly all that production is being used domestically, the survey said. [Railways] [Crisis] [Development strategy] [Decline] [China rising]
• Is China's Economic Rise Unstoppable?
  Japan has so far tried hard to play down China's rising economic status, calculating that the Chinese economy would eventually become weighed down by problems triggered by rapid growth and social unrest caused by the widening wealth gap. But things are changing. During the first half of the year, the United States accounted for just 13.7 percent of Japan's exports but China for 20.4 percent. It was the first time China took up more than 20 percent of Japanese exports during the six-month period. "Until recently, those who said Japan should ally itself with the U.S. and fight China are now shaking with fear over the prospect of becoming a tributary state to China," the Japanese international relations expert Takahiko Soejima said. Sixty years since the establishment of the People's Republic, the country has risen from poverty with less than US$50 in per capita income to an economic superpower. China is expected to overtake Germany this year as the world's largest exporter and Japan to become the world's second-largest economy. It is wielding its economic might to increase its global influence, including an open challenge to the supremacy of the U.S. dollar as the key currency in the world. [US Japan alliance] [China rising]
• China Must Not Undermine N.Korea Sanctions
  China and North Korea "will sign some cooperative agreements on trade, education and tourism" when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visits the North, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters Tuesday. "China has always been providing assistance to [North Korea] within its capacity to help it develop its economy and improve the livelihood of its people." The comments suggest that Wen’s visit will follow past precedent of Chinese leaders' trips to North Korea, which were accompanied by lavish aid to Pyongyang. [NK China] [Sanctions]
• [Editorial] Reflecting on China’s form of G2 leadership
  On the 60th anniversary of the day in 1949 when Mao Zedong announced to the world that the Chinese people had risen, China will once again announce its ambitions to the international community. Covered in a wave of Chinese flags, Tiananmen Square is scheduled to host a military parade with 52 kinds of advanced weapons all said to have been made in China. Chairman Hu Jintao is preparing to pledge to build a fairer and more harmonious society based on China’s economic accomplishments thus far. We congratulate the Chinese for the accomplishment of rising to the rank of G2 together with the U.S. just 60 years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which followed a painful century of civil war and foreign invasion. Chinese history over the last 60 years has been modern history’s great testing ground. Mao’s permanent revolution, represented by the Cultural Revolution, ultimately ended in failure even though it had stirred up a new inspiration in the socialist movement. Afterwards, Deng Xiaoping took China in the direction of reform and openness, promoting the slogan of “Some must get rich first.” In the 30 years that followed, China became an economic superpower with the world’s third largest economy based on an unprecedented average annual growth rate of 8.6 percent. The U.S. National Intelligence Council predicts the size of the Chinese economy will overtaken Japan’s in 2025 and the U.S.’s in 2050 to become the largest in the world. This is the reason people are already talking about a Pax Sinica.
  However, China has many tasks to resolve if it is to become a true G2 power [China rising]
• Kim Jong Il Felicitates Chinese Leaders
  Pyongyang, September 30 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il together with Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Yong Il, premier of the DPRK Cabinet, Wednesday sent a message of greetings to Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the PRC, Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress, and Wen Jiabao, Premier of the State Council of the PRC, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC.
• North Korea on Agenda at Regional Talks
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 28, 2009 SHANGHAI — The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea discussed nuclear disarmament and regional ties in annual talks Monday, with a special focus on recent developments in North Korea. The talks were meant to help set the agenda for a three-nation summit in Beijing on Oct. 10. A joint statement issued afterward did not include any major policy statements but emphasized a desire among all for deeper cooperation. [Overtures]
• Iran, China sign a major oilfield deal
  Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:05:09 GMT Chinese company CNPC won a deal in January to develop the North Azadegan oilfield. China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has signed a contract with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for the development of Iran's South Azadegan oilfield. The Chinese company will buy a 70 percent share of the whole project, according to an agreement signed Sunday in Lausanne, Switzerland between CNPC and NIOC's overseas investment subsidiary, Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO) that covers a 90 percent stake in the project. CNPC, which won a bid in January to develop the North Azadegan oilfield, now holds a 70 percent share of the project with NICO holding 20 percent, and Inpex of Japan having the remaining 10 percent. The South Azadegan project is slated to produce 260,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and its development will cost around $2.5 billion. The field, along the Iraqi border, holds reserves estimated at approximately 42 billion barrels of oil, one of the world's largest finds in the last 30 years. Iran provides 14 percent of China's demand for oil. The deal is couched in buy-back terms, in which CNPC will hand over the operation of the field to NIOC after development and will receive payments from the oil production for a few years to cover its investment. China's investment in Iran's energy sector has increased as some western countries, led by the US, have sanctioned Iran over its peaceful nuclear program. [Sanctions] [China rising]
• ROC military planners must target mainland weaknesses
  U.S. Assistant Secretay of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Wallace “Chip” Gregson believes Taiwan's armed forces should focus on exploiting mainland military shortcomings. (CNA)Publication Date:09/30/2009 Source: United Daily News Taiwan must exploit its “asymmetric” advantages to counter mainland China’s military buildup, said Wallace “Chip” Gregson, United States assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, Sept. 28. Speaking as keynote speaker for the 2009 U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference held in Charlottesville, Virginia, Gregson pointed out that “although there are many steps Taiwan can take to shift the cost ratio of its defense, one of the most important steps will be to seek out areas of asymmetric advantages.” “Asymmetry will not replace a layered defense or defeat the [mainland Chinese] forces, but it can deter them from fully employing the advanced weapons they are developing and undermine their effectiveness,” Gregson said. He suggested that Taiwan also maximize the efficiency of its defense strategy by focusing on two key priorities: integration and interoperability (sic). [US global strategy] [China confrontation]
• China Hints at Substantial Economic Aid to N.Korea
  China is apparently poised to give substantial economic aid to North Korea when Premier Wen Jiabao visits the impoverished country on Oct. 4-6. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters Tuesday that several agreements will be signed with North Korea in areas including economy, trade, education and tourism. She made the remarks in reply to a question whether Wen plans to conclude a cooperation agreement on food and energy with North Korea. "China has been providing assistance to [North Korea] within our capacity to improve their people's lives and help them develop their economy."

• While global FDI falls, China’s outward FDI doubles
  by Ken Davies* Columbia FDI Perspectives Perspectives on topical foreign direct investment issues by the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment No. 5, May 26, 2009 Editor-in-Chief: Karl P. Sauvant (Karl.Sauvant@law.columbia.edu) Editor: Lisa Sachs (Lsachs1@law.columbia.edu) In 2008 global FDI fell by around 20%, while outward FDI from China nearly doubled. This disparity is likely to continue in 2009 and 2010 as China invests even more overseas. What is driving this continuing surge in China’s outward FDI? [ODI]
• China seeks big stake in Nigerian oil
  By Tom Burgis in Lagos Published: September 28 2009 23:30 | Last updated: September 28 2009 23:30 An engineer working gears at an pil production site in Nigeria In the pipeline: oil production in Nigeria is at about two-thirds of capacity after years of rebellion and lack of investment A Chinese state-owned oil company is in talks with Nigeria to buy large stakes in some of the world’s richest oil blocks in a deal that would eclipse Beijing’s previous efforts to secure crude overseas. The attempt could pitch the Chinese into competition with western oil groups, including Shell, Chevron, Total and ExxonMobil, which partly or wholly control and operate the 23 blocks under discussion. Sixteen licences are up for renewal. CNOOC, one of China’s three energy majors, is trying to buy 6bn barrels of oil, equivalent to one in every six barrels of the proven reserves in Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest crude producer and a major supplier to the US. [ODI] [China competition] [China demand]
• Chinese Premier to Visit DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 28 (KCNA) -- Wen Jiabao, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, will pay an official goodwill visit to the DPRK from October 4 to 6 at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
• Looking back on China’s relations with Australia
  Author: Bob Hawke, former Australian Prime Minister
  September 27th, 2009 Next week will see the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the ‘new China’, the People’s Republic of China. No country other than China has a greater reason to look back with gratification and satisfaction over those 60 years of the remarkable development of China, than Australia. We have been an extraordinary beneficiary of China’s economic growth. [Opening]
• A consumer paradigm for China
  A more consumer-centric economy would allocate capital and resources more efficiently, generate more jobs, and spread the benefits of growth more equitably. It would also even grow more rapidly. AUGUST 2009 • Janamitra Devan, Micah Rowland, and Jonathan Woetzel ..The development paradigm that brought China two decades of rapid growth and lifted millions of people out of poverty is reaching the limits of its utility. Well before the US credit bubble imploded, China’s leaders recognized that this old economic model, with its heavy reliance on exports and government-led investments, was straining at the seams.1 The global recession that followed Lehman Brothers’ collapse put the model’s drawbacks into sharp relief. When exports plunged, factories closed, and millions of Chinese migrants lost their jobs, Beijing responded with a $600 billion stimulus package and a torrent of new lending by state-owned banks. But those remedies, while highly successful in restoring short-term growth, risk aggravating structural distortions that made China’s economy vulnerable to external-demand shocks in the first place. As the global crisis ebbs, China’s leaders realize more clearly than ever that they must unleash consumer spending to achieve sustainable growth. Stoking Chinese consumption has vaulted to the top of national—indeed global—policy agendas. But how, and how much, can it be raised? [Domestic demand]
• China's outbound investment to exceed FDI for first time in 2009
  + - 14:33, August 25, 2009 Chinese companies must improve investment ability on overseas market Against the backdrop of the international financial crisis, China's outbound direct investment is expanding rapidly while international capital flow, transnational investment, and mergers and acquisitions are dropping sharply. This year, China's outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) is expected to exceed FDI into China for the first time, reaching 150 billion U.S. dollars. China's actual use of FDI amounted to 48.4 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months of the year, down by 20 percent over the same period last year. China's overseas investment reached 52.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, nearly double that of 2007. China's outbound investment has upgraded from its early stage into a stage of rapid development, and China's role in the global economy will shift from "manufacturer" to "capital exporter."
  Holding the world's highest foreign exchange reserve of almost 2 trillion dollars, China has plentiful capital. [ODI] [China rising]
• China Becomes World's Biggest Energy Producer
  China has become world's largest energy producer thanks to its expanding capacity to supply energy in the six decades since the foundation of the People's Republic, it said Friday. At a press conference by the State Council Information Office on Friday, Zhang Guobao, deputy chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission and director of the National Energy Administration, said China produced 110 times more energy in 2008 than in 1949, with a self-sufficiency rate of over 90 percent guaranteeing energy security. In 2006, the NDRC announced it had become the world's second largest energy producer after the United States, and vowed to topple the U.S. in two years. That has now happened. According to the NDRC, the percentage of coal in China's total energy consumption dropped from 95 percent in 1952 to 68.7 percent, and that of petroleum increased 14.6 percent. The combined proportion of hydroelectric, nuclear and wind energy went up by 11.7 percent. China produced the largest amount of hydroelectric energy and had the largest solar energy collector area in the world. China's wind energy production, which has doubled for the last three years, has become the fourth largest in the world. When all nuclear power plants currently under construction are completed, China will take over the no. 1 spot in the world in the field as well, the NDRC predicted. [Energy]
• China's PM to Visit N. Korea Oct. 4-6
  China's Premier Wen Jiabao will visit North Korea for two days from Oct. 4, AFP reported Monday, quoting Yonhap News Agency. The broadcaster announced that Wen will make "an official friendly visit" at the invitation of the party and government.
• A China-Charged Bull Market for IPOs in Hong Kong
  The surging mainland economy and Beijing's expansionary policies have China-focused companies eager to capitalize on the bright outlook
  By Frederik Balfour and Bruce Einhorn After the collapse of Lehman Brothers a year ago, things were looking grim for American gambling tycoons Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson. The two had expanded into Macao, China's gambling hub, just as the Chinese economy was slowing and Beijing was tightening rules on travel to Macao in a bid to fight money laundering. That meant fewer Chinese were able to gamble at casinos owned by Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Adelson's Las Vegas Sands (LVS). How much brighter is the picture now? With the Chinese economy surging, Macao's gambling revenues jumped 17% in August year-on-year, according to brokerage CLSA. "Revenue growth should be explosive in the last four months of this year," says Aaron Fischer, a CLSA gaming analyst. "Companies have reduced costs so we will see a huge rebound in earnings." Confident the bad times are over, .
  What's true for Macao-based casinos is true for many other China-focused companies
  What explains the surge in dealmaking? Investors believe the recession in the U.S. is finally over. And they're upbeat about China's nearly $600 billion in stimulus spending and $1.2 trillion in bank lending, which have benefited infrastructure companies and consumer goods makers. Imports from Australia and Indonesia, traditional suppliers of raw materials for mainland factories, were up by 10%-plus in June, a sign that manufacturers expect a recovery in orders. And a survey by MasterCard Worldwide (MA) found 41% of Chinese urban households expect to increase spending in the next 12 months. That's about twice the number of a year ago, says Yu Wa Hedrick-Wong, economic adviser to MasterCard. "For China to maintain its high economic growth, it has to find demand from within," he says. [Crisis] [China rising] [Domestic demand]
• Carlyle Invests in China's Baby Formula Company
  Posted by: Frederik Balfour on September 20 Private equity powerhouse Carlyle has taken a minority stake in one of China’s largest infant formula makers, demonstrating strong faith in a sector that has been plagued by controversy over tainted milk powder and other dairy products during last year’s melamine scare. In a statement released on Sept. 20, Carlyle said it has acquired a 17.3% stake in Guangdong Yashili Group, through its investment fund Carlyle Asia Partners for an undisclosed sum. Carlyle is not the first private equity fund to invest in China’s dairy sector since toxic milk products rocked the industry. In June,Kohlberg Kravis Roberts announced the final completion of a series of investments in Ma Anshan Modern Farming (Modern Dairy), a dairy farming company headquartered in China’s central province of Anhui which plans to use part of the money to build as many as 30 large scale farms in China. One of Carlyle’s first tasks is to help Yashili recruit a Chief Quality Officer to ensure the safety of its products. Slipshod management of the supply chains of Chinese dairy companies last year whose tainted products were blamed for the deaths of six babies and kidney problems for hundreds of thousands of others [Quality] [FDI] [Dairy]
• Government blacklists Uighur leader
  Premier Wu Den-yih (left) and Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah confer over the decision to ban Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer from entering Taiwan. (CNA)Publication Date:09/25/2009 Source: Taiwan Today Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer will not be allowed to enter Taiwan on the grounds of jeopardizing national interests, according to Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah Sept. 25. “Kadeer is the president of the World Uighur Congress, which is closely connected with terrorist organization, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement. Many countries have taken precautions against this group, with the WUC secretary-general on Interpol’s wanted list,” Jiang told the Legislature. As a political activist, Kadeer’s intended visit could be related to Xinjiang independence movement, Jiang said. Kadeer is forbidden from entering Taiwan on the grounds of national interests, he added
  According to Local Chinese-language news reports, Beijing ordered all official and ordinary tour groups to steer clear of Kaohsiung, sending the city’s tourism-related businesses into a panic. [Straits] [Separatism] [Tourism]
• No decision yet on Uighur leader's visa
  Publication Date:09/23/2009 Source: United Daily News In response to reports that a local civil group has extended an invitation for exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer to visit Taiwan, Premier Wu Den-yih said Sept. 22 that the government has not reached a decision yet on whether to grant Kadeer an entry visa, but would give its answer before the weekend. Wu said that he respected the decision of Kaohsiung City Government to show, in spite of strong opposition from mainland China, a documentary on the life of Kadeer. He added that because of his busy schedule he would not be able to see the documentary in person. When asked about the visa question, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan said in the Legislative Yuan Sept. 22 that “everything will be handled according to law.” “The relationship between Taipei and Beijing will continue to move in the direction of peaceful and stable development,” she emphasized.
  Chung Shao-ho, deputy secretary-general of the Kuomintang caucus, told reporters that the tourism industry in southern Taiwan has been hit by a “political mudslide,” ever since Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu invited the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan last month. Several well-known hotels have already received 1,800 room cancellations, noted Chung. [Straits] [Separatism] [Tourism] [Customer boycott]
• Reports highlight concerns over graying population
  Publication Date:09/23/2009 Source: China Times Two international reports, both released Sept. 22, have simultaneously raised questions about Taiwan’s aging population, and the effects that a graying society will have on the nation’s economic structure. In its latest Asian Development Report, the Asian Development Bank stresses that Taiwan’s high savings rate has remained high. This is because the nation’s labor pension fund has never been adequately funded. The report recommends that authorities in Taiwan attempt to address this problem. Moody’s Investors Services Inc., in its latest sovereign credit report, notes that the aging of Taiwan’s population will increase Taiwan’s reliance on exports. [Ageing society] [IM]
• Korea-China trade to dip: KITA
  September 21, 2009 Trade between Korea and China continues to grow despite obstacles. But the global economic downturn that started last year has put a dent in the scale of that growth. According to the Korea International Trade Association yesterday, trade between Korea and China will break through the $200 billion barrier by 2013. But the Korean government initially hoped to hit that level by next year. According to KITA, the global economic crisis is to blame for the delay.
• Chinese cities wail sirens to mark 78th anniversary of Sept. 18
  + - 10:50, September 19, 2009 Sirens wailed in a number of Chinese cities Friday to remind people of the Sept. 18 invasion and occupation by Japanese troops in 1931. [Japanese colonialism]
• Kim Jong Il Meets Chinese Envoy  
          Pyongyang, September 18 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il today met with State Councillor of the People's Republic of China Dai Bingguo who is special envoy of Hu Jintao, President of the PRC, and his party on a visit to the DPRK. Present there was Kang Sok Ju, first vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK. On the occasion, the special envoy courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il a personal letter from Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President of the PRC. And he presented his own gift to Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Il expressed thanks for this and asked the special envoy to convey his regards to Hu Jintao. Then he conversed with the special envoy in an amicable atmosphere on the matter of invariably developing the friendly relations between the two countries and a series of issues of mutual concern  [NK China]
• Taiwan’s IT competitiveness tumbles to 15th
  Publication Date:09/18/2009 Source: Economic Daily News The United States leads the world in information technology industry competitiveness, while Taiwan fell to No. 15 in 2009, according to the latest study by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The EIU, the Economist Group’s independent research unit, with the assistance of the Business Software Alliance, surveyed the competitiveness of the information technology industry in 66 nations. The U.S. topped the list for the third straight year, with a score of 78.9. Taiwan slipped from second place in 2008, South Korea dropped from eighth to 16th, and mainland China moved up from 50th to 39th. [ICT]
• Recovery Picks Up in China as U.S. Economy Still Ails
  By KEITH BRADSHER Published: September 17, 2009 WUXI, China — Just eight months ago, thousands of Chinese workers rioted outside factories closed by the global downturn. Now many of those plants have reopened and are hiring again. Some executives are even struggling to find enough temporary staff to fill Christmas orders. The image of laid-off workers here returning to jobs stands in sharp contrast to the United States, where even as the economy shows signs of improvement, the unemployment rate continues to march toward double digits. In China, even the hardest-hit factories — those depending on exports to the United States and Europe — are starting to rehire workers. No one here is talking about a jobless recovery. Even the real estate market is picking up. In this industrial town 90 miles northwest of Shanghai, prospective investors lined up one recent Saturday to buy apartments in the still-unfinished Rose Avenue complex. Many of them slept outside the sales office all night. “The whole country’s economy is back on track,” said Shi Yingyi, a 34-year-old housewife who joined the throng. “I feel more confident now.” [Crisis] [China rising]
• Dai visits Pyongyang to restore China’s role as negotiator
  China’s visit sets stage for six-party diplomacy on nuclear issue   » Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo (third from the right), Chinese President Hu Jintao’s special envoy, holds talks with Kang Sok Chu (second from the left), and the First Vice Foreign Minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kang Sok Ju in Pyongyang on Sept. 16. (Xinhua)   Chinese State Councilor Dai Binggu visited Pyongyang on Wednesday. The timing of the visit comes at a turning point in North Korea-U.S. dialogue, which is expected sometime in Oct. One cannot help but focus attention on China’s role as mediator in the North Korean nuclear issue. [Six Party Talks]
• Views Exchanged between First-Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of DPRK and Chinese Envoy
  Pyongyang, September 16 (KCNA) -- Views were exchanged between Kang Sok Ju, first-vice minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, and State Councillor of the People's Republic of China Dai Bingguo who is special envoy of Hu Jintao, President of the PRC, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on Wednesday. Present there from the DPRK side were Kim Yong Il, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and officials concerned and from the Chinese side the special envoy's party and Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK. Both sides had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on the issue of developing the friendly relations between the DPRK and the PRC and regional and international matters in a comradely atmosphere.
• Government to release new UN strategy
  Publication Date:09/16/2009 Source: United Daily News Taiwan is unlikely to bid for U.N. representation this year, instead opting to seek participation in select specialized agencies of the world body, Foreign Minister Timothy Chin-tien Yang said Sept. 15. “We are continuing to promote Taiwan’s U.N. participation and will unveil our new approach and methods in terms of seeking representation within one week.” The move marks a significant change in government strategy concerning Taiwan’s participation in the world body. Since 1993, the nation has requested its diplomatic allies submit motions calling for membership or participation to be included on the agenda of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual session, which opened in New York Sept. 15. Yang said at present, the reality is that there is little likelihood of Taiwan being approved to apply for U.N. membership. “As a result, determining how to participate meaningfully in specialized agencies as an observer or through other methods is a priority.”
• Working Plan for Cooperation between DPRK and China Signed
  Pyongyang, September 15 (KCNA) -- A 2009-2011 working plan for cooperation in the field of public health and medical science between the ministries of Public Health of the DPRK and China was signed in Beijing on Monday. Present at the signing ceremony from the DPRK side were Choe Chang Sik, minister of Public Health, and his party and the DPRK ambassador to China and from the Chinese side were a vice-minister of Public Health and officials concerned.
• Chinese premier to visit N.K. next month
  Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is expected to visit North Korea early next month amid discussion between Washington and Pyongyang about possible bilateral talks aimed at denuclearizing the North, diplomatic sources said Monday. Wen is likely to visit the North after visiting Mongolia, sources told Yonhap News Agency by telephone, adding that his visit will be made about Oct. 4-6. A detailed itinerary, however, has not been revealed, according to Yonhap News. The move would come months after the premier canceled his earlier plan to visit the North, scheduled for the first half of the year, following Pyongyang's second nuclear test in defiance of opposition from the international community. Wen's visit is seen as an effort by China to play some kind of mediation role ahead of possible Washington-Pyongyang talks, observers say.
• ECFA negotiations to begin next month
  Premier Wu speaks on the government's schedule on the signing of a proposed trade pact with Beijing Sept. 13. (CNA)•Publication Date:09/14/2009 •Source: United Daily News Negotiations between Taipei and Beijing over the proposed cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement should get underway in October, according to Premier Wu Den-yih Sept. 13. “Ministries involved in the signing of an ECFA with mainland China need to be ready for the talks,” Wu said. “The pace of negotiation and signing the trade pact should be accelerated, but at a moderate speed.” The premier said the negotiation and signing of such an agreement with the mainland should comply with three fundamental conditions: need, public support and legislative monitoring. [Straits]
• From Moscow to Beijing: A journey from past to future
  * Posted on Friday, September 11, 2009 By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers BEIJING_ For passengers flying between Moscow and Beijing, the takeoff and landing are worlds apart. On one end is the Russian capital's shabby, dimly lighted Sheremetyevo airport, where the cigarette smoke can be thick and the seating scanty. At the other is Beijing's new $3.8 billion Terminal 3, a place of soaring glass walls, trickling fountains and an undulating roof meant to resemble a dragon in flight.
  Chinese exports slowed from the period of red-hot expansion, but the country has proved to be a massive economic engine, perhaps able to lead the world out of recession. [China rising] [IM]
• China: Highlights and key issues
  Oxford Economics A turn in the domestic investment cycle has been coupled with a dramatic slowdown in external demand, leaving China weathering storms on both fronts. But with the government announcing an unprecedented fiscal package and with fewer structural problems to contend with than in earlier downturns, China is likely to fare better than in previous domestically-driven slowdowns such as in the early-1980s and 1990s. [IM] [Domestic demand]
• Ex-president and wife given life sentences
  2009.09.11 21:45:32 Adds prosecutors' response, more charges to come Taipei Sept. 11 (CNA) Ex-president Chen Shui-bian and his wife Wu Shu-jen were both given life sentences and fined NT$200 million (US$6.13 million) and NT$300 million respectively after being found guilty by the Taipei District Court Friday on corruption, forgery and money-laundering charges.
• China’s recovery starts to accelerate
  By Geoff Dyer in Beijing and Jamil Anderlini in Dalian Published: September 11 2009 05:34 | Last updated: September 11 2009 19:46 China’s economy showed fresh signs on Friday that its recovery was gathering pace, with data showing that investment, industrial output and credit all expanded more rapidly in August, although the government still believes it is too soon to begin tightening policy. [IM]
• China Embraces Soft Power for Image
  By Sunny Lee Korea Times Correspondent BEIJING ? Harvard professor Joseph Nye may seriously want to consider moving to Tsinghua University here. The wealthiest university in China, which also often beats its rival, Peking University, in national academic rankings, will pay him better, give him a spacious office and treat him well with authentic Chinese cuisine. Most of all, he will be held in higher esteem here because the Chinese are now more pious believers of Nye's preaching of "soft power" than his compatriots. In fact, this week the alma mater of President Hu Jintao held an international conference on soft power and nation branding, as part of the country's 60th anniversary celebrations with a string of high-level guests ? academics, government officials and media experts from countries such as the United States, South Korea, Australia, and Pakistan ? to help brainstorm on China's charm offensive strategy. [Softpower] [China rising]
• Life Sentence for Taiwan Ex-President
  By EDWARD WONG Published: September 11, 2009 BEIJING — Chen Shui-bian, the former president of Taiwan who had been on trial since March for corruption, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday by a three-judge panel. The sentencing was expected, but nonetheless came as a serious blow to the political forces that Mr. Chen had led for decades in opposing the traditional ruling party of Taiwan, the Kuomintang. Mr. Chen’s wife, Wu Shu-chen, was also convicted of corruption and sentenced to life in prison. They were accused, among other things, of stealing and misusing public money from 2000 to 2008, while Mr. Chen was in office. They were both fined a total of $15 million. Under Taiwanese law, it is mandatory for the trial court to file an appeal in cases involving a life or death sentence, even if the convict chooses not to appeal.
• Wishes for Stronger Sino-DPRK Friendship Expressed
  Pyongyang, September 6 (KCNA) -- Dai Bingguo, state councilor of the People's Republic of China, and Yang Jiechi, Chinese foreign minister, separately met and conversed with the delegation of the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs led by its Vice-Minister Kim Yong Il on a visit to China in Beijing on Sept. 4. Dai Bingguo referred to the fact that events including the opening ceremony of "the year of China-DPRK friendship" were successfully held.
  Noting that this year marks "the year of China-DPRK friendship" in which falls the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-DPRK diplomatic relations, he hoped that two countries would continue to preserve the exchange and cooperation in the diplomatic field and the Sino-DPRK friendly and cooperative relations would be further boosted. [NK China]
• NGOs Go to International Court to Reclaim Gando
  By Do Je-hae Staff Reporter Ten NGOs filed a petition with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week to seek global recognition of Gando, in the northeastern region of China, as part of the Korean territory. Lawmakers have issued a resolution to reclaim Gando but the South Korean government has remained cool to the diplomatically sensitive issue. The civilian movement has been gathering momentum as this month marks the centenary of the Gando Convention signed between Japan and China. On Sept. 4, 1909, Tokyo and Beijing signed the convention, which recognized China's territorial rights over the northeastern region of Gando, territory regarded as Korean from ancient times until Korea lost its sovereignty to Japan in 1910.
• As Cheaper Chinese Tires Roll In, Obama Faces an Early Trade Test
  By Peter Whoriskey Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, September 8, 2009 ALBANY, Ga. -- At the vast Cooper Tire plant here, workers heard for years about their rivals in Chinese factories.
  In meetings, managers urged employees to run production lines faster and more efficiently to help the company keep up. Overseas laborers were toiling for as little as 20 cents an hour, they were told, and working harder. Even more ominously, while browsing the aisles of Kmart and Wal-Mart, Cooper employees could see that, sure enough, the Chinese tires were cheapest. "They would have these meetings and say we're up against the Chinese," said Larry Burkes, 29, who worked at the plant, which rises on the city's outskirts just beyond a mobile-home park. "We'd hear it all the time: 'They work for less.' There was pressure." Now the plant that employed 2,100 people in this small south Georgia city is being shut down, and the troubles afflicting the U.S. tire industry are at the core of what many consider to be one of President Obama's first major decisions on trade policy. By Sept. 17, Obama must decide whether to slap a 55 percent tariff on tires imported from China, as recommended by a federal trade panel, or leave the matter alone, as a phalanx of lobbyists representing manufacturers in China and U.S. companies that import from them are urging. [Protectionism] [China competition]
• SEF head sees no damage to cross-strait ties
  •Publication Date:09/07/2009 •Source: Commercial Times Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation, said Sept. 6 that the Dalai Lama’s recent visit to Taiwan was religious and had nothing to do with politics. “The government and people of Taiwan should be grateful for Beijing’s good will and loving consideration on this matter.” He added that given the wisdom of the leaders on both sides, the road to normalizing cross-strait relations will be a smooth one. “Taipei, Beijing, the agencies who invited the Buddhist leader and the Dalai Lama jointly conducted damage control during the Buddhist leader’s stay in Taiwan. Such an attitude between the four sides deserves positive affirmation,” Chiang said. [Straits]
• Learning to Live with China Stern Hu, Kevin Rudd, Governance and China Policy ….what China Policy?
  Stephen FitzGerald
  at the Australian Institute for International Affairs, NSW 25 August 2009 The title I suggested for this talk a couple of weeks ago seems more apt now even than I thought then. Because the question I want to discuss is not so much China as how Australia is managing itself, how the government is managing our interests, faced with a Chinese Super Power right here in our immediate habitat. Whether we think China is or will be more of a friend and partner or more hostile and overbearing, the question is the same. And there’s much resting on the quality of official policy and the people who run it.
  And finding effective strategies to persuade China that officially inspired anti-democratic (sic) demonstrations by Chinese students over Tibet, or the harassment of the Melbourne Film Festival, are not just unacceptable to us, but also not in its 17 own bilateral, regional or international interests, requires the application of all the minds and all the resources the government can bring to bear. [China confrontation] [Resurgence]
• Marking 60 years: China leaps from 19th to 21st century
  By David Klepper | Kansas City Star BEIJING — The van careens through busy streets, blurring the crowds, the neon and the oversized buildings of this capital city.
  Still, who could have predicted that China could jump from the 19th century straight to the 21st in just 60 years? “The country was devastated by civil war, by war with the Japanese,” said C.H. Tung, a former Hong Kong chief executive who led the former British colony after its handover to China. “From the ashes, China rebuilt. That was in 1949. Think about it. What China has done in 60 years. It’s like a miracle.” How do they do it? [China rising] [Development strategy]
• S. Korea-China History Flap Remains Tinderbox
  By Sunny Lee Korea Times Correspondent JIAN ? "You see the road ahead? That was newly paved with the tourism cash largely by South Koreans. The economy of this village has upturned significantly thanks to South Koreans," said Jin, a Chinese tour guide. Encouraged by the tourists' impact on the local economy, and to lure even more, the provincial authorities promoted this remote town to a city. Now, South Korean tourists make up 80 percent of the entire tourist pool that this fringe city in northeast China attracts. [Koguryo] [Tourism]
• Average real income shrinks to 1996 level
  2009.08.25 13:26:10 People look for better-paying jobs as average income is falling Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) Taiwan's average real income over the first six months of 2009 has fallen to a level equal to that posted in 1996, as companies adjust their hiring patterns to cope with the global economic slump. Real monthly earnings (including regular and irregular income) averaged NT$42,909 (US$1,305.81) in the first six months of the year, 6.84 percent lower than for the same period a year ago, according to figures released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) on Monday.
• Korean firms in China to expand
  August 25, 2009 About half of the Korean firms operating in China are considering expanding their business there amid signs of a global economic recovery, a poll showed yesterday. According to the survey of 636 Korean companies in China taken by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency this month, 48.6 percent of the companies polled are considering expansions in China and 41.17 percent plan to stay at their current size. Only 6.1 percent said they will scale down operations in China, while 0.9 percent are preparing to move to other countries and 0.3 percent will withdraw from the country. The biggest reason for Korean companies to invest in China was to target China’s expansive domestic market (34.0 percent), followed by cheaper labor costs (20.9 percent) and the deterioration of Korea’s business environment (10.6 percent). [Domestic demand]
• China: Recovery, Reach and Risks
  The recent turnaround in the Chinese economy has been nothing short of impressive, says Paul Gruenwald. He examines the recovery as well as its reach and risks after the downturn in late 2008 when from a blistering 13% GDP growth 2007, the pace of activity had fallen to near zero. By mid-2009, the economy had rebounded beyond expectations and returned to double-digit growth
  North Korea – doing business in a demanding environment Despite political obstacles within the system and internationally, it is possible to set up successful business in North Korea, says Felix Abt. Identifying partners and exploring market potentials are difficult tasks. Having completed them, one can count on a dedicated workforce.
• Changing population structure leading 'silent revolution' in Taiwan
  2009.09.01 13:17:02 Taipei, Sept. 1 (CNA) Taiwan's falling birth rate and aging population are combining to wage a silent revolution that is changing the basic social structure of the country and poses a mounting threat that must be countered. [Ageing society]

• Exports drive island’s economy in 2010
  DGBAS statistics show that exports will resume their role as Taiwan’s major economic growth engine in 2010. (CNA)•Publication Date:08/21/2009 •Source: Economic Daily News Taiwan’s exports will register double-digit growth starting from the fourth quarter this year, the Cabinet-level Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said Aug. 20. DGBAS data indicate a surge of 13.1 percent in exports for the coming quarter, with the annual gain advancing to 15 percent for 2010. According to economic analysts, exports look set to resume their role as the country’s major economic growth engine. The agency said that for 2010, Taiwan’s economy will move up by 3.92 percent, from which 2.03 percent will come from net foreign demand (exports minus imports).
  The director said mainland China’s economy is also expected to maintain an 8-percent growth rate this year. “IHS Global Insight anticipates the mainland keeping its growth momentum next year, and is forecasting a 10.1-percent gain for 2010. This is another important contributor to Taiwan’s exports.” The director cautioned that although robust growth is projected for exports in 2010, their value is estimated at US$231.62 billion—about US$15.05 billion lower than the 2007 level. “This may make the public think Taiwan’s economy is not recovering at a strong enough pace.” [Exports] [IM] [Straits]
• Shopping habits of China’s ‘suddenly wealthy’
  Published: August 21 2009 14:41 | Last updated: August 21 2009 14:41 In the past decade China has become the workshop for the world, its low-cost labour force toiling in factories to churn out cheap goods destined for western consumers. Many of the raw materials needed to feed this industrial juggernaut have to be imported from other countries and today China is the biggest driver of markets in commodities such as copper, oil and iron ore. But as well as a multitude of low-paid factory workers, the country’s manufacturing boom has also ­created a large and growing number of baofahu – literally, the “suddenly wealthy”. Their shopping habits and changing tastes are reshaping global trade flows at the other end of the production chain. [Domestic demand] [Dairy] [IM]
• Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister and His Party Visit DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- Wu Dawei, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of China, and his party visited the DPRK from Aug. 17 to 21. While staying in the DPRK, they visited the Kumsusan Memorial Palace to pay homage to President Kim Il Sung. They paid a courtesy call on Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Pak Ui Chun, minister of Foreign Affairs, and held talks with Kim Kye Gwan, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs. At the talks and conversations they had an in-depth discussion on the issue of boosting the DPRK-China friendly relations, regional situation and other matters of common concern. The guests enjoyed the grand gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang". [China NK]
• The Secrets of China's Economy: The Government Owns the Banks rather than the Reverse
  By Ellen Brown Global Research, August 18, 2009 “The banks -- hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. They frankly own the place.” -- U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, Democratic Party Whip, April 30, 2009 While the U.S. spends trillions of dollars to bail out its banking system, leaving its economy to languish, China is being called a “miracle economy” that has decoupled from the rest of the world. As the rest of the world sinks into the worst recession since the 1930s, China has maintained a phenomenal 8% annual growth rate. Those are the reports, but commentators are dubious. They ask how that growth is possible, when other countries relying heavily on exports have suffered major downturns and remain in the doldrums. Economist Richard Wolff skeptically observes: We now have a situation in the world where we have a global capitalist crisis. Everywhere, consumption is down. Everywhere, people are buying fewer goods, including goods from China. How is it possible that in that society, so dependent on the world economy, they could now have an explosive growth? Their stock market is now 100 percent higher than at its low -- nothing remotely like that hardly anywhere in the world, certainly not in the United States or Europe. How is that possible? In order to believe what the Chinese are saying, you would have to agree that in a matter of months, at most a year, no more, they have been able to transform their economy from an export-based powerhouse to a domestically focused industrial engine. Nowhere in the world has that ever taken less than decades.” How can China’s stimulus plan be working so well, when ours is barely working at all? The answer may be simple: China has not let its banking system run roughshod over its productive economy.
• North Koreans Spurn Tesco Ham as China Trade Withers
  By Bloomberg News Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- North Korean trade with China has slumped in the three months since Kim Jong Il’s regime tested a nuclear warhead, say merchants in the Chinese border town of Dandong, site of 40 percent of commerce between the countries. At one of Dandong’s two outlets of Tesco Plc, the U.K.’s largest retailer, North Koreans have slashed purchases of items such as ham, shirts and candy, Zhao Le’ai, who works at the customer service desk, said on Aug. 12. On Shiwei Street, next to the customs building, there were no buyers in shops selling tires, mining helmets and generators destined for the North. United Nations sanctions that followed the nuclear test in May have tightened the screws on the North’s economy, dependent on support from ideological ally China [NK China] [Sanctions] [Trade]
• Aid from mainland China arrives in Taiwan
  •Publication Date:08/19/2009 •Source: China Times Mainland China stands ready to help Taiwan in its hour of need, said Wang Yi, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office under the mainland’s State Council, Aug. 18. [Straits]
• China 'Used U.S. Reporters' Film to Crack Down on N.Koreans'
  Video footage shot by two TV journalists who were detained in North Korea after filming on the Chinese border was used by China to round up on North Korean refugees. China also deported one South Korean human rights activist who is seen in the footage and closed five orphanages that had protected North Korean children. The two reporters were sentenced to 12 years hard labor but freed after a visit to North Korea by former U.S. president Bill Clinton on Aug. 5. Chinese police also confiscated related materials including list of activists working for North Korean refugees in China, data on North Korean orphans, and video footage showing North Korean women who were sold into the Chinese countryside or appeared in porn videos. [Spin]
• DGBAS forecasts 4.04 percent negative economic growth
  2009.08.20 22:50:38 Typhoon Morakot is estimated to cause further negative economic growth Taipei, Aug. 20 (CNA) The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) has revised its projections for Taiwan's economic situation for this year to 4.04 percent negative growth, slightly more optimistic than the 4.25 percent projected in May.
• China, U.S. relay in resolving North Korea issue
  First Sino-North Korean contact since second nuclear test scheduled for Monday Chinese chief negotiator for the six-party talks Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei will visit North Korea on Monday. This is the first visit by a high-ranking North Korean official since North Korea’s long-range rocket launch on April 5 and second nuclear test on May 25.
• Mainland groups to spend big by year-end
  •Publication Date:08/14/2009 •Source: Economic Daily News The total value of orders placed with local firms by three mainland procurement groups organized under the auspices of the mainland Chinese Ministry of Commerce will total US$3.8 billion by year’s end. The remark was made by Chen Deming, mainland minister of commerce, to Wang Chih-kang, chairman of Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), during a meeting in Taipei Aug. 13. Chen said that when the third delegation from the Association of Economy and Trade Across Taiwan Straits arrives in Taiwan next week, the total procurement value initiated by the organization will reach 90 percent of its original target of US$4.2 billion. The delegation is expected to purchase automobile components and parts, machinery, and petrochemical products from local suppliers in the vicinity of US$1.2 billion. Members of the group include the mainland affiliates of several global automobile heavyweights, including Italy’s Fiat Automobiles SpA, France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen and Sweden’s Haldex Group. [Straits] [Globalisation]
• US-China Difference Over North Korea
  By Park Tae-woo Recent high-level bilateral dialogue between the U.S. and China ended without agreement over the sensitive issue of how to deal with North Korea if the Stalinist country suddenly collapses; this was an expected outcome in terms of their different approaches toward North Korea to secure national interests. The world has changed so much in that China has emerged in such a short time as a strong enough state to be recognized by the world as a superpower along with the United States. I cannot but say a few emotional words on this rapid change when I recall a solemn scene in my mind like a movie scene; when Deng Xiaoping's death was imminent, he summoned key members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When I teach ``international politics in Northeast Asia,'' I have always mentioned this moment of Deng's death. Just before he passed away, he clearly left a meaningful sentence to his key successors of the Chinese Communist Party. ``Don't confront Washington until our nation will have become as strong as the U.S. in all spheres of world affairs, though we are humiliated either by their words or any actions in international society.'' [China confrontation]
• Is China Behind N.Korea's Conciliatory Moves?
  Speculation is running high about the reason North Korea suddenly decided to discuss the release of a South Korean detained there incommunicado for 135 days with his employer, Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun, coming as it does hard on the heels of former U.S. president Bill Clinton's visit to the North. Sources familiar with North Korean affairs and defectors from the Stalinist country say the developments owe much to Pyongyang's staunch ally China, which is implementing unprecedentedly tough sanctions against the North. [SK NK relations] [NK China]
• WTO Upholds U.S. Claim Against China
  The United States has won a major dispute with China at the World Trade Organization over the import and distribution of audiovisual material in China. A WTO panel decided Wednesday that Beijing should revise rules that require U.S. media producers to route their business through Chinese state-owned companies. The panel said the rules violate China's WTO obligations. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk welcomed the decision Wednesday, two years after the U.S. initiated its claim. In a statement, Kirk called the ruling a significant victory for America's creative industries. He said it would "level the playing field" for U.S. companies and ensure legitimate U.S. products can get to the Chinese market and beat out pirated goods.
  The U.S. International Trade Commission says increased imports of Chinese tires are harming U.S. tire makers, a claim Beijing denies. U.S. President Barack Obama must decide by September 17 whether to follow the commission's recommendation to impose tariffs on Chinese tires for three years. China's vice commerce minister, Fu Ziying, called the proposed tariffs protectionism on Wednesday, and said they would break WTO rules. [Protectionism] [Double standards]
• China Halts Joint Venture with N. Korea
  Chinese Company's Abrupt Break with Sanctioned N. Korean Firm Comes on Heels of U.S.-China Talks
  (CBS/AP) A Chinese investment company has abruptly suspended a joint project with a North Korean firm that has been targeted under U.N. sanctions, a news report said Thursday. The suspension comes as the United States has been mustering international support for strict enforcement of the sanctions aimed at depriving North Korea of financing and material for its nuclear weapons program. The U.S. and Chinese officials discussed North Korean issues during high-level talks that ended Tuesday in Washington. China's cooperation in enforcing sanctions against its ally is seen as crucial to increasing pressure on North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament talks. Zhongkuang International Investment signed a deal with North Korea's Mining Development Trading Corporation, or KOMID, in 2006 to develop a bronze mine in the North and commissioned NHI Shenyang Mining Machinery, another Chinese company, to build facilities for the mine, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said. [Sanctions] NK China] [Resolution1874]
• China seizes smuggled metal bound for North Korea
  Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:08am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese border police have seized 70 kg (154 lb) of the strategic metal vanadium bound for North Korea, a local newspaper said on Tuesday, foiling an attempt to smuggle a material used to make missile parts. The U.N. Security Council has tightened restrictions on North Korea in response to its May 25 nuclear test. The sanctions are meant to cut off the North's arms trade. Although the seizure is in line with China's own export controls, Chinese analysts had predicted Beijing would step up inspections on road and rail traffic into North Korea to help enforce the tightened sanctions. [Sanctions] [NK China]
• Ma, Hu in historic direct exchange
  KMT spokesman Lee Chien-rong discloses the faxes between Ma and Hu at a news conference in Taipei July 28.(CNA)•Publication Date:07/28/2009 •Source: China Times Taiwan and mainland China have written a new page in cross-strait relations, following the first direct communication between the leaders of both sides in 60 years. The historic exchange took place following President Ma Ying-jeou’s election as Kuomintang chairman July 26. Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao sent the KMT’s new leader a congratulatory fax and Ma issued a courtesy response. [Straits]
• Poll finds majority want Ma-Hu meeting
  •Publication Date:08/04/2009 •Source: China Times A summit between the leaders of both sides of the strait is favored by the majority of respondents, according to a survey conducted by local daily “China Times.” The poll found that 47 percent support a meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou and the mainland Chinese leader Hu Jintao. Only 16 percent said there is no need for such an encounter. [Straits]
• Cross-strait steel companies sign cooperative deal
  2009.08.07 21:20:55 China Steel in Kaohsiung signs cooperation pact with Sinosteel Kaohsiung, Aug. 7 (CNA) Kaohsiung-based China Steel Corp. (CSC) has signed an agreement with China's Sinosteel Corp. to purchase raw materials and equipment from China's second-biggest iron ore trader while selling it steel products from Taiwan
• Choe Thae Bok Meets Chinese Party Delegation
  Pyongyang, August 6 (KCNA) -- Choe Thae Bok, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, met and had a friendly talk with the friendship delegation of the Communist Party of China led by Luo Shugang, permanent deputy head of the Publicity Department of its Central Committee, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on Thursday. On the occasion the head of the delegation noted that the traditional Sino-DPRK friendship was provided by the elder revolutionaries and that the two parties and countries have supported and cooperated with each other for many years. [NK China]
• China urges US to accomodate DPRK's 'security concerns'
  (Xinhua) Updated: 2009-07-29 15:44 WASHINGTON: China on Tuesday urged the United States to accommodate "reasonable security concerns" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) when it tries to work out a new package solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. China's Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya made the remarks at a press conference held at the conclusion of the two-day China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), which included discussions on the DPRK nuclear issue. "We believe that in order to solve the DPRK nuclear issue, the United States has a very important role to play," Wang said. "We welcome the willingness of the United States to have direct talks with the DPRK." As the United States considers ways to address the DPRK nuclear issue, "China believes that if the package solution that the US government is thinking about will accommodate reasonable security concerns of the DPRK, it will be attractive to the DPRK side," Wang said. [NK China] [US NK policy]
• Most Taiwan 30-somethings want jobs at Chinese firms: survey
  2009.07.21 20:23:27 Many Taiwanese young men and women like to work at Chinese companies Taipei, July 21 (CNA) Close to 77 percent of Taiwan's young men and women would like to work at Chinese companies, if such firms are allowed to set up in Taiwan and recruit local employees, according to the results of a recent survey. [Straits]
• China to deploy forex reserves
  By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing Published: July 21 2009 19:09 | Last updated: July 21 2009 19:09
  Beijing will use its foreign exchange reserves, the largest in the world, to support and accelerate overseas expansion and acquisitions by Chinese companies, Wen Jiabao, the country’s premier, said in comments published on Tuesday. “We should hasten the implementation of our ‘going out’ strategy and combine the utilisation of foreign exchange reserves with the ‘going out’ of our enterprises,” he told Chinese diplomats late on Monday. Mr Wen said Beijing also wanted Chinese companies to increase its share of global exports. The “going out” strategy is a slogan for encouraging investment and acquisitions abroad, particularly by big state-owned industrial groups such as PetroChina, Chinalco, China Telecom and Bank of China. Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at HSBC, said: “This is the first time we have heard an official articulation of this policy ... to directly support corporations to buy offshore assets.” China’s outbound non-financial direct investment rose to $40.7bn last year from just $143m in 2002.
  Mr Wen did not elaborate on how much of the $2,132bn of reserves would be channelled to Chinese enterprises but Mr Qu said this was part of a strategy to reduce its reliance on the US dollar as a reserve currency. [ODI] [Reserve]

• Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall plaque reinstated: MOE
  2009.07.20 18:19:45 Taipei, July 20 (CNA) The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall plaque was reinstated Monday at one of Taipei's principal landmarks, while the Liberty Square plaque was left in place, a move that a Ministry of Education official said should appease both sides of the controversial issue. "We believe that this compromise arrangement will contribute to social harmony," said Vice Minister of Education Lu Mu-lin. Lu was referring to controversy over the designation of the hall, dedicated in 1980 to commemorate the late President Chiang Kai-shek, who is regarded by some to have been a dictator and the culprit behind the tragic 228 Incident of 1947.
• Chinese security forces admit (sic) shooting dead 12 Uighur rioters
  Armed mob was fired on as it attacked civilians and ransacked shops, say officials
  The Chinese authorities today acknowledged shooting dead 12 Uighur rioters in Xinjiang this month, in a rare acknowledgement of deaths at the hands of security forces. Nuer Baikeli, governor of the north-western region, said police had exercised "the greatest restraint" as they sought to suppress riots in the capital Urumqi. Brutal inter-ethnic violence over several days left 197 dead and more than 1,700 wounded. Last week the government offered the first breakdown of fatalities, saying 137 Han and 46 Uighurs died. But until now officials have given few details of when and how people met their deaths. [Media]
• Military conscription to be abolished in 2015
  Taiwan aims to abolish the compulsory military service system starting 2015.(CNA)•Publication Date:07/15/2009 •Source: United Daily News Beginning in 2015, the compulsory military service system that generations of Taiwanese males have had to undergo will be abolished, it has been announced. In other words, males born after Jan.1, 1995 will not be required to undergo the one to two years of military service that has historically been required of all Taiwanese men. They will still need to receive four months of basic training, however.
• Mainland students constitute huge potential market
  •Publication Date:07/15/2009 •Source: China Times If a fraction of the mainland students trying to get into university came to study in Taiwan, their tuition, living expenses, and related costs would generate tremendous business opportunities. According to estimates, the number of students in the mainland who want to go to university every year but cannot adds up to at least 30 million, including those who fail the university entrance exam, graduates of technical and vocational schools, and working people who would like to get a degree. This year 10.2 million students registered for the mainland’s university entrance exam, including roughly 7.5 million graduating high school students. The 6.29 million students who will be accepted make up an acceptance rate of almost 62 percent, leaving about 3.8 million students with no place to study. [Services] [Straits]
• 'China Doesn’t Have Contingency Plan on NK'
  Prof. Han Suk-hee By Sunny Lee Korea Times Correspondent BEIJING ? China doesn't have a contingency plan to enter North Korea in case there is sudden turmoil, because the superpower will continue to provide aid to the impoverished country and keep it from imploding, making the need for such a plan unwarranted from the beginning, a South Korean scholar has claimed. ``There are many pending issues that define the North Korea-China relationship. But the key question that ultimately reveals China's strategy for North Korea is its contingency plan. If you are clear about it, other questions are all just commentaries," said Han Suk-hee, a Yonsei University expert on the China-North Korea relationship.
  One way China has been helping North Korea in this regard is economic assistance. Han said China's economic support for North Korea has recently undergone some change. ``In the past, they were providing free economic aid. But these days, China is keener to have Chinese firms invest in North Korea." On the North Korean side, he said, it reportedly abolished residence restrictions for Chinese businessmen. All this indicates that China and North Korea are preparing for a ``long-term" future. [NK China] [Irredentism] [Collapse] [Sanctions] [Takeover]
• China’s forex reserves pass $2,000bn
  By Richard McGregor in Beijing Published: July 15 2009 06:33 | Last updated: July 15 2009 19:07 Beijing’s foreign reserve holdings have surged through the $2,000 billion mark, as money pours back into China to take advantage of faster economic growth and rapidly inflating asset prices. The flow of funds threatens to renew pressure for a revaluation of the renminbi at a time when the government and domestic business are focused on financial stability. An economist at a state think-tank said Beijing was caught in a squeeze similar to the one that bedevilled policymakers earlier this century, with a flood of hot money trying to force the government’s hand on the currency.
• Toy Factory Melee Set Off Western China Violence
  By ANDREW JACOBS Published: July 15, 2009 SHAOGUAN, China — The first batch of Uighurs, 40 young men and women from the far western region of Xinjiang, arrived at the Early Light Toy Factory here in May, bringing their buoyant music and speaking a language that was incomprehensible to their fellow Han Chinese workers. Skip to next paragraph Related Rumbles on the Rim of China’s Empire (July 12, 2009) Times Topics: Uighurs “We exchanged cigarettes and smiled at one another, but we couldn’t really communicate,” said Gu Yunku, a 29-year-old Han assembly line worker who had come to this southeastern city from northern China. “Still, they seemed shy and kind. There was something romantic about them.” The mutual goodwill was fleeting. By June, as the Uighur contingent rose to 800, all recruited from an impoverished rural county not far from China’s border with Tajikistan, disparaging chatter began to circulate. Taxi drivers traded stories about their wild gazes and gruff manners. Store owners claimed Uighur women were prone to shoplifting. More ominously, tales of sexually aggressive Uighur men began to spread among the factory’s 16,000 Han workers. Shortly before midnight on June 25, a few days after an anonymous Internet posting claimed that a group of six Uighur men had raped two Han women, the suspicions boiled over into bloodshed.
  In the end, 192 people died and more than 1,000 were wounded, according to the government. Of the dead, two-thirds were Han, the authorities said. Uighurs insist the body count among their own was far higher. Shaoguan officials, who say the rape allegations were untrue, say violence at the toy factory was used by “outsiders” to fan ethnic hatred and promote Xinjiang separatism. “The issue between Han and Uighur people is like an issue between husband and wife,” Chen Qihua, vice director of the Shaoguan Foreign Affairs Office, said in an interview. “We have our quarrels, but in the end, we are like one family.” [Separatism]
• Chinese Expand Rio Tinto Allegations
  By DAVID BARBOZA Published: July 15, 2009 SHANGHAI — China stepped up its campaign against the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto on Wednesday, saying the company had bribed virtually every one of China’s big steel makers. The sweeping allegation, published on the front page of China Daily, the country’s official English-language newspaper, further inflamed a case that has rocked the country’s steel industry, strained relations between China and Australia and worried multinational companies doing business here. It began more than a week ago, when Chinese authorities detained four Rio Tinto employees, including an Australian national, on suspicions of espionage, stealing state secrets and harming the nation’s economic interests and security.
• Economy in China Regains Robust Pace of Growth
  By DAVID BARBOZA Published: July 16, 2009 SHANGHAI -- Fueled by an ambitious economic stimulus program and aggressive bank lending, China’s economy grew by 7.9 percent in the second quarter of this year, the government said Thursday, a surprisingly strong showing given the world economic crisis. The gross domestic product figures, released Thursday morning in Beijing by the National Statistics Bureau, are also surprising given how China’s exports have declined sharply after years of torrid growth. Late last year, Beijing had set a target growth of about 8 percent in 2009, though many analysts doubted it was possible, and the country seems to be accelerating on the pace, particularly in the past few months. That level of growth was seen by many analysts and policymakers as vital to helping maintain social stability in the country. The robust growth in China’s economy came as the United States and several other leading economies remain mired in recession, hobbled by the aftereffects of bad lending, weak real estate markets, and the uneven results of economic stimulus packages.
• China doubles down in Africa
  By Peter Lee "Obama to Africa: Drop Dead," echoing the famous admonition of president Gerald Ford to a cash-strapped New York City in the 1970s, was, for all practical purposes, the message the American president delivered to the African continent in Ghana on Saturday. Barack Obama, mindful of the shaky United States domestic constituency even for the bailout of the American economy, and loath to display favoritism to his father's home continent, decided against investing any political capital in a call to provide significant amounts of assistance to sub-Saharan Africa during the current global recession.
  However, China appears to have made a strategic decision to funnel in more aid and investment, as the West struggles with the consequences of the global recession and fights a losing battle to focus on Africa's needs for aid, trade and investment.
• Effects of Uighur unrest
  By Huma Yusuf Monday, 13 Jul, 2009 | 08:54 AM PST | Russia may have dismissed the recent violence in China’s western Xinjiang province as an ‘internal matter’, but the ethnic clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese could have a long-term effect on Sino-Pakistan relations. It may seem as if a showdown between the minority Turkic-speaking Muslims and Han migrants to the province has little to do with Pakistan. But the manner in which these ethnic tensions play out in the coming months could fracture the ‘all-weather’ friendship that Pakistan and China have long enjoyed.
  Under Gen Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan was able to preserve its friendship with China by addressing the Uighur problem head on. Uighurs as well as Uzbeks and Tajiks who sympathised with their pan-Turkic movement, were hunted down. From the late 1990s to 2003, Uighurs were expelled from madressahs and their businesses were shut down. In October 2004, Pakistani troops also killed ETIM leader Hasan Mahsum in South Waziristan. This aggressive stance against the Uighurs made Islamabad’s allegiance to Beijing on the Xinjiang issue clear. It also set aside any concerns that Pakistanis would want to extend a helping hand to their Muslim brothers and sisters in China. A similar level of commitment will be required of the Zardari government to keep Sino-Pakistan relations intact. Given the volatility in Xinjiang, it is necessary for Islamabad to take extra measures to ensure that none of the tumult in Pakistan exacerbates the militant threat in China. As the offensive against the Taliban heightens in North and South Waziristan, where most Uighur militants maintain bases, the army should be extra vigilant and aim to capture Uighur fighters for intelligence purposes. Pakistan’s relationship with China cannot afford to become a victim of collateral damage in our war against terrorism, even if many of Xinjiang’s problems are Beijing’s own creation. [Separatism] [Islam]
• Washington is Playing a Deeper Game with China
  By F. William Engdahl Global Research, July 11, 2009 After the tragic events of July 5 in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, it would be useful to look more closely into the actual role of the US Government's ”independent“ NGO, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). All indications are that the US Government, once more acting through its “private” Non-Governmental Organization, the NED, is massively intervening into the internal politics of China. The reasons for Washington's intervention into Xinjiang affairs seems to have little to do with concerns over alleged human rights abuses by Beijing authorities against Uyghur people. It seems rather to have very much to do with the strategic geopolitical location of Xinjiang on the Eurasian landmass and its strategic importance for China's future economic and energy cooperation with Russia, Kazakhastan and other Central Asia states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. [NGO] [Energy] [Separatism] [US global strategy]
• Al-Qaida threatens to target Chinese over Muslim deaths in Urumqi
  Algeria-based group issues threat to Chinese workers and projects within north Africa in retaliation for Uighur deaths * Tania Branigan in Beijing * guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 July 2009 11.05 BST * Article history Al-Qaida's north African wing has threatened to target Chinese workers and projects in the region in retaliation for Muslim deaths in Urumqi last week. It is the first time Osama bin Laden's terrorist network has directly targeted Chinese interests, according to experts at a London-based risk analysis firm. [Separatism] [Islam] [Global insurgency]
• What Should China Do About the Uighurs?
  Updated, July 8, 3:45 p.m. | Yan Sun, a political scientist at the CUNY Graduate Center, describes the reaction of her Han Chinese relatives in Xinjiang to the unrest there. [Separatism]
• China 'Preparing Its Own Sanctions on N.Korea'
  China is preparing to impose independent sanctions on North Korea, according to a senior U.S. State Department official. The official in a press briefing held on Wednesday said China is in the process of developing its own implementation plan to impose sanctions on North Korea. That suggests China is willing to cooperate with the U.S. The remarks come after a series of visits to China by Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Ambassador Philip Goldberg, the U.S. coordinator for the implementation of UN sanctions, in the wake of the UN Security Council's adoption in June of Resolution 1874 sanctioning North Korea for its nuclear test. [Sanctions] [NK China]
• China replacing U.S. as top trade partner in Latin America
  By Tyler Bridges | McClatchy Newspapers RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — All but invisible in Latin America a decade ago, China now is building cars in Uruguay, donating a soccer stadium to Costa Rica and lending $10 billion to Brazil's biggest oil company. It's supplanted the United States to become the biggest trading partner with Brazil, South America's biggest economy. China has moved aggressively to fill a vacuum left by the United States in recent years, as the U.S. focused on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the global economic crisis sapped its economy. [Decline] [China rising]
• After Her Rise in China and Expulsion, a Uighur Becomes the Face of Her People
  By ERIK ECKHOLM Published: July 8, 2009 WASHINGTON — As the global face of resistance to what she calls the worsening Chinese repression of the Uighurs, Rebiya Kadeer is displaying the tenacity and sense of destiny that drove her improbable climb inside China in decades past, from laundry girl to famed business mogul. The Beijing government that hailed her as a model citizen in the 1990s, before imprisoning her for stealing state secrets and sending her into exile in the United States in 2005, vilifies her as the unseen hand behind protests that erupted Sunday in the Uighur homeland of western China. [Separatism] [Double standards]
• Han Chinese clash with police
  By Kathrin Hille in Urumqi Published: July 7 2009 05:46 | Last updated: July 7 2009 08:35 Large vigilante gangs of Han Chinese, armed with sticks, knives and glass bottles were on Tuesday roaming the streets of central Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, as the authorities struggled to restore security in the wake of Sunday’s riots that left 156 people dead. The Chinese gangs formed to protect property and shops, but some also appeared to be hunting for ethnic Uighurs to conduct revenge attacks. Riot police reportedly fired tear gas to disperse them. [Separatism]
• Building a New Old City in Kashgar: China, Central Asia, Modernity
  Zhou Yu Joel Martinsen translator
  Old Kashgar is not long for this world. Quake fear, anxiety over ethnic unrest, and pursuit of development have spurred the authorities to launch a large-scale plan to demolish and redevelop 85% of the Old City. There has been considerable criticism of the project among Kashgar residents and in the world world media, but it has done little to stop the project
  Alimjan's grandfather recalled that over the 100 years since the home was built, it had always been rock-solid and never needed to be repaired. The lanes surrounding it were peaceful, and you could hardly feel the passage of time. But sudden changes crashed into this placid life. In 1958, Kashgar was electrified. This miraculous event changed the working habits of the inhabitants of the old city. Previously, even though they had kerosene lamps and candles, residents would still plan their days the way Allah intended, going to sleep as soon as it got dark and waking up at around 4 in the morning. Going out onto the balcony at night, you could see the moon half-hidden behind an earthen wall.
• Mainland invites DPP to attend conference
  * Publication Date:07/06/2009 * Source: China Times Several members of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party have been formally invited to attend a cross-strait economic and cultural conference in mainland China July 11-12. The conference, to be held in the city of Changsha, in Hunan Province, was originally billed as another meeting between the Chinese Communist Party and the ruling Kuomintang. The CCP and the KMT have met several times in the last few years, but so far the opposition DPP has not attended any such CCP-KMT summits.
• China says 140 dead in Xinjiang unrest
  By Kathrin Hille in Beijing Published: July 6 2009 04:28 | Last updated: July 6 2009 06:12 Around 140 people had been killed in a riot in Urumqi, the capital of China’s western-most region of Xinjiang, state media and local reports said on Monday, as the Beijing government faced the most severe unrest in ethnic minority areas since the rioting in Tibet last March. The unrest erupted at the weekend after an anti-discrimination protest by ethnic Uighurs, the region’s indigenous, largely Muslim inhabitants, was confronted by armed police.
• Scores Killed in Clashes in Western China
  By EDWARD WONG Published: July 6, 2009 BEIJING — The Chinese state news agency reported Monday that at least 140 people were killed and 816 injured when rioters clashed with the police in a regional capital in western China after days of rising tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese. The casualty toll, if confirmed, would make this the deadliest outbreak of violence in China in many years. The rioting broke out Sunday afternoon in a large market area of Urumqi, the capital of the vast, restive desert region of Xinjiang, and lasted for several hours before riot police officers and paramilitary or military troops locked down the Uighur quarter of the city, according to witnesses and photographs of the riot. At least 1,000 rioters took to the streets, throwing stones at the police and setting vehicles on fire. Plumes of smoke billowed into the sky, while police officers used fire hoses and batons to beat back rioters and detain Uighurs who appeared to be leading the protest, witnesses said. The casualty numbers appeared to be murky and shifting on Monday. A one-line report by Xinhua, the state news agency, giving the estimate of 129 dead and 816 injured attributed the numbers to the regional police department, but did not quote officials by name and did not have any details. Earlier, Xinhua had reported that three civilians and one police officer had been killed. One regional official reached by telephone put the death toll at 105 and said at least 800 people had been injured. One American who watched the rioting at its height said he did not see people being killed or corpses in the streets, though he said he did see Uighurs shoving or kicking a few Han Chinese. Images of the rioting on state television showed some bloody people lying in the streets and cars burning. [Separatism] [Islam]
• Death toll in Xinjiang riot rises to 140
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-06 13:28:24 Print by Xinhua writers Zhou Yan and Li Laifang URUMQI, July 6 (Xinhua) -- The death toll has risen to 140 following Sunday night's riot in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the regional government said Monday. Fifty-seven dead bodies were retrieved from Urumqi's streets and lanes, while all the others were confirmed dead at hospitals, said Liu Yaohua, the region's police chief, at a press conference midday Monday. He said the death toll would still be climbing. At least 828 people were injured in the deadly violence that erupted Sunday night. Rioters burned 261 motor vehicles, including 190 buses, at least 10 taxis and two police cars, said Liu. Several vehicles were still seen ablaze on Urumqi's streets Monday morning, he said. A preliminary investigation showed 203 shops and 14 homes were destroyed in the riot. Police have arrested several hundreds in connection with the riot, including at least a dozen who were suspected of fanning the unrest, Liu said. [Separatism] [Islam]
• 'Strange Liaison Between N. Korea and China'
  The recent two reports on the visit of Kim Jong-un, the ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's alleged heir, to China and the Chinese government's subsequent denial of the incident, twice, reveal two obvious things; journalists make mistakes and China has credibility problem, Chosun Ilbo reported Friday. The Japanese Asahi newspaper on June 10 reported that Jong-un made a secret visit to China and met with senior Chinese officials, in an apparent move by North Korea to "introduce" the new heir to the Chinese leadership. China's foreign ministry, however, denied it, saying the report was a fiction, "like a James Bond movie." A few days later, the British Financial Times yet again reported that Jong-un indeed made a visit to China, citing "military, intelligence and diplomatic sources." That report was again torpedoed by the Chinese foreign ministry. A spokesman of the ministry characterized it a product of "obsession" by media on the reclusive country. He also used the old Chinese expression of "zouhuo rumo" to discredit the report. The Chinese expression indicates a mentally dysfunctional state, in which one believes something that is not real. [NK China] [Media]
• Coping with 'Made in China' Scandals
  Global companies must ensure, in China and around the world, that their products meet safety and quality standards and that their brands are protected By Mark C. Goodman and LaRhonda Brown-Barrett When access to China became a reality, international enterprises with famous brands lined up to take advantage of the resources and market China had to offer. Doing business in and with China allowed many of these companies to expand their businesses and increase their profits to unprecedented levels. This growth and expansion came at considerable cost for some. Issues with the quality and safety of some Chinese products and ingredients have impacted the profits and the goodwill of brands that had taken decades to build. Companies like Mattel (MAT), Nestlé, Procter & Gamble (PG), and Mars have already realized such an impact as a result of lead contamination in "Made in China" toys and melamine contamination in Chinese-made pet food and milk products. [Image]
• Bank of China landing in September
  Publication Date:07/02/2009 Source: Commercial Times It is expected that the Bank of China will be the first mainland bank to establish a branch office in Taiwan. Bank of China President Li Lihui announced July 1 that he will lead a delegation to Taiwan to explore the opening of a branch office. He wants the branch to be operating by the end of the year. According to reciprocal cross-strait principles on opening up the banking industry, the seven Taiwan banks which now have representative offices on the mainland will all be able to upgrade to branch offices in September.
• Taiwan officially opens doors to Chinese investment
  2009.06.30 20:42:50 Deputy economics minister announces regulations on Chinese investment in Taiwan Taipei, June 30 (CNA) Taiwan began Tuesday to accept and handle investment projects by Chinese investors, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced that same day. The move represents a landmark in cross-Taiwan Strait relations, which had been stagnant until President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT) came to power last May. [ODI] [Straits]
• Chinese, Taiwanese view each other differently: poll
  2009.06.30 21:40:21 Taipei, June 30 (CNA) The majority of people in Taiwan view China as nothing more than a business partner, while most people in China see Taiwan as "kin, " according to the results of a survey released Tuesday. The poll, conducted jointly by agencies on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, found that 53.6 percent of the respondents in Taiwan see Chinese as "business partners, " while 13.1 percent said they are "friends." In China, 52.3 percent of the respondents said they see relations across the strait as existing between "family members, " while 16.2 percent said Taiwan is a "business partner." The survey, conducted in May by Taiwan's Global View monthly magazine and 104 Job Bank and a Chinese market research firm Oracle Added Value, also asked the respondents whether they thought the two sides would eventually unify, Taiwan would attain independence, or the status quo would be maintained. In Taiwan, 60 percent of the respondents said they foresee no change in the status quo, 16.1 percent said Taiwan and China will move toward unification, and 8.9 percent said Taiwan will gain independence. Responding to the same question, 64.2 percent in China said they believe the two sides will become one nation, 26.7 percent said the status quo will be maintained and 5.1 percent said Taiwan will become independent. [Straits]
• China's N.K. policy
  [EDITORIAL] On his visit to Tokyo Sunday, President Lee Myung-bak reaffirmed with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso their governments' joint efforts to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea. As much as Seoul and Tokyo pledged closer cooperation toward their common goal, greater distance is felt between China and its two neighbors to the east. The two leaders expressed their desire to hold five-nation "consultations," excluding North Korea from the six-party talks. But Beijing has already showed its adherence to the six-party format. Lee and Aso stressed arranging the five-party meeting "within the framework of the six-way talks" in recognition of China's reservations. Yet, since Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006, cracks have opened up in the coalition to end North Korea's nuclear program. The schism became more apparent as the North challenged the international community with its repeated missile launches and another nuclear test. After the hassle of adopting the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, Beijing came up with a liberal interpretation of the latest U.N. action to impose sanctions on the North. [Sanctions] [NK China]
• Farewell to Class, except the Middle Class: The Politics of Class Analysis in Contemporary China
  Yingjie Guo Anthony Giddens was right to emphasize that ‘[a] large part of the chequered history of the concept of class has to be understood in terms of the changing concerns of those who have made use of the notion, concerns which reflect changing directions of emphasis within sociology itself’ (1977: 99). It must be added, though, that those concerns also reflect value-ridden perceptions about the structure of societies and social models, and indeed the changing structures and prevailing political and social values in society. Even the shifting emphasis in social analysis that Giddens refers to may reflect emerging ideologies within the profession and within the broader context of social relations, notably paradigm shifts. This is certainly the case with the use of the class concept and methodologies of class analysis in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the last two to three decades.
  In fact, as of 2006, 0.4 per cent of households in China own around 70 per cent of the wealth of the nation (Han Honggang 2009), and there were nearly 420,000 people whose personal wealth exceeded one million US dollars, whereas the Chinese farmers’ average annual income was as low as 2,762 yuan (Li Peilin et al. 2007). In 2007, China’s Gini Coefficient rose to 0.496 (Xinhua 17 January 2007) from 0.22 in 1978 (Adelman and Sunding 1987). Within three decades Chinese society has changed from one of the most egalitarian in the world to one of the least.
• Did Kim Jong-un Visit China or Didn't He?
  Did Kim Jong-un, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's heir apparent, really visit China and meet Chinese government leaders? Despite repeated denials from Beijing, the Financial Times on Monday said Kim junior made a secret visit to China in mid-June.
• As Iraq Stabilizes, China Bids on Its Oil Fields
  By KEITH BRADSHER Published: June 30, 2009 HONG KONG — Oil companies from China, the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing consumer of oil, bid aggressively on Tuesday as Iraq began auctioning licenses in six large oil fields. A partnership of BP and the China National Petroleum Corporation, or C.N.P.C., won the first contract awarded, in the latest indication of Chinese interest in Iraq, a country that has until recently seemed to be firmly in the American sphere of influence for natural resources. In another sign of China’s interest in Iraqi oil fields, Sinopec, China’s refining giant, offered $7.22 billion last week to buy Addax Petroleum, a Swiss-Canadian company with operations in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and in West Africa. If Addax’s shareholders and Canadian regulators approve the deal, which Addax’s board is recommending, it would be China’s largest overseas energy acquisition. [China rising] [Decline]
• Honduras coup forces Ma to shorten Latin America visit
  Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi announces June 29 that President Ma Ying-jeou will shorten his 10-day trip to Central America. (CNA)Publication Date:06/29/2009 Source: Taiwan Today President Ma Ying-jeou will cut short his 10-day trip to Central America following a political coup in Honduras, Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi said June 29. “Under the current situation, there is no point in the president going ahead with a state visit to Honduras,” Wang said. “There are safety concerns as well.” Wang said Ma will depart as scheduled from Taipei June 29 for his visit to ROC allies Panama and Nicaragua. The presidential delegation will now fly directly from Nicaragua to Hawaii for a one-day stopover before returning to Taiwan late on the evening of July 6. As Ma prepared to set off on his state visit, Honduras was rocked by a military coup, which saw President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales seek political asylum in Costa Rica. The Honduran leader had been pushing for a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would have removed term limits on the presidency.
• Former president keeps a shrewd eye on China
  Former President Lee Teng-hui explained he is not opposed to more cross-strait interaction under the World Trade Organization framework, but believes Taiwan should stick closer to the United States and Japan at the same time. “I do not oppose closer links with China, but I am concerned that Taiwan might be reduced to a piece in China’s chess game,” Lee said June 27. “It does not matter if the three, four or five links across the strait will be implemented, so long as Taiwan maintains the status of a sovereign state.” [Straits]
• Can the U.S. Bring China on Side Over N.Korea?
  Washington is trying hard to persuade China to step up sanctions against North Korea under UN Security Council Resolution 1874 and join talks of five countries other than the North in the six-nation denuclearization talks, but China seems noncommital. [Sanctions] [NK China]
• Nuclear-Armed N.Korea Would Hurt China
  Chinaese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang in a press briefing on Thursday said measures taken over North Korea's nuclear test "should not affect the [North Korean] people's well-being, its normal trade and economic activities." "UN Security Council Resolution 1874 explicitly prescribes that actions taken by the Security Council should not affect people's well-being and development in [North Korea], should not affect the country's normal trade and should not affect humanitarian assistance there." He pointed out that Article 19 of the resolution stipulates that UN member countries, international financial institutions and credit ratings agencies will demand that no additional financial assistance and privileged loans be made, unless they involve "instances pertaining directly to humanitarian and developmental projects that have a direct relationship with the needs of North Koreans or stimulate denuclearization." China has interpreted that clause as meaning that the UN resolution guarantees the well-being of North Koreans and normal trade and economic activities. [Sanctions] [NK China]

• China Unwilling to Impose Sanctions on N.Korea
  China will not impose sanctions on North Korea independently of a UN resolution. The North depends on China for most of its energy and food. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Thursday said, "Measures related to North Korea should affect neither North Korean people's livelihood nor their normal economic and trading activities." He was answering views that the North would return to nuclear disarmament talks only if China suspends aid to the Stalinist country. "Even the UN Security Council resolution against North Korea carries a provision stipulating that no UN sanctions should affect the North Korean people's livelihood, economic or trading exchanges, or humanitarian aid," Qin added. The remarks amount to a polite rejection of U.S. requests for China to take direct actions against the North to make sanctions more effective. "China thinks it necessary to find a solution to the North Korean nuclear issue through dialogue and peaceful means," the spokesman said. [Resolution1874] [NK China]
• China Is Moving to Dominate the Global Auto Market
  China's Geely Auto unveiled a new model called the GE at the Shanghai Motor Show in April, grabbing the world's attention. The reason was that the model looked like a knockoff of the Rolls-Royce Phantom. Not only was the overall exterior the same, but the GE even copied the British automaker's trademark grill and "Spirit of Ecstasy" emblem complete with wings. However, there was one obvious difference between the two models, the price tag. While a Rolls-Royce Phantom costs more than W500 million (US$1=W1,272), a GE costs just W60 million. [Auto] [IPR]
• Chinese Stresses Dialogue with N.Korea
  China is stressing the need for dialogue with North Korea despite its support for a UN Security Council resolution sanctioning the Stalinist country over its second nuclear test. China helped soften sanctions stipulated in UNSC Resolution 1874, which was adopted last Friday, changing a requirement to search North Korean ships from "mandatory" to "advisory." "China is more concerned about the possibility that excessive pressure on North Korea will lead to internal chaos and collapse in North Korea, threatening the stability of China's northeast," a diplomat in Beijing said. [NK China] [Collapse]
• China's Influence Over N.Korea 'Limited'
  China and North Korea are no longer in a close military alliance, and Beijing has only limited influence on the North in the nuclear issue, Chinese experts say. Yang Wenchang, president of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs and a former minister, on Tuesday said, "Many people wonder why China does not exercise influence over North Korea. But history is only history. There has been a big change, and China's influence over North Korea is inevitably limited."
• Automaker making inroads in mainland China
  Publication Date:06/18/2009 Source: Commercial Times Taiwan’s China Motor Corp. will work with Germany’s Daimler AG to mass-produce automobiles in mainland China, a person familiar with the matter said. Fujian Daimler Automotive Ltd., a joint venture between CMC, Daimler and Fujian Motor Industry Group Corp., serves as Daimler’s producer of light vehicles for the Asia-Pacific region. FJDA will start producing the Viano multi-purpose vehicle and Vito minivan in July. Mainland consumers will be able to purchase the vehicles by October at the latest, and the firm has set a sales target of 10,000 to 15,000 units for 2010. Starting in early 2010, the firm will produce and market automobiles for export to India and Southeast Asia. These markets are expected to meet an annual sales target of 40,000 to 50,000 vehicles in the medium to long term.
• Swimmers 'test waters' ahead of mass cross-strait swim
  2009.06.17 19:37:07 Taipei, June 17 (CNA) Six swimmers from Taiwan and mainland China swam across a section of the Taiwan Strait Wednesday to test the waters in preparation for a historic mass swim across the Taiwan Strait slated for Aug. 15. [Straits]
• MOEA to seek mainland investment
  Publication Date:06/17/2009 Source: Commercial Times The Ministry of Economic Affairs will head up a delegation to mainland China to seek large-scale corporate investment in Taiwan, MOEA Minister Yiin Chii-ming said June 16. The list of industries in which mainland investment will be allowed is to be published June 30. The Executive Yuan passed regulations governing such investment early in June. The Taiwan-based Chinese National Federation of Industries expressed hopes June 16 that the government would increase the cap on the stake in local companies that can be taken by a mainland enterprise whose investment first passes through a third country’s enterprise from 30 percent to 50 percent. Yiin responded to this by saying that he is looking for restrictions on mainland investment to be lifted gradually. [ODI]
• U.S. not worried military secrets will leak through Taiwan
  2009.06.26 17:06:05 AIT director reaffirms U.S. commitment to Taiwan's security Taipei, June 26 (CNA) The United States is not concerned that advanced military technologies will be leaked to China through its weapon sales to Taiwan because Taiwan is capable of protecting such technologies, the top U.S. envoy to Taiwan said Friday. "I don't really think there is a great concern about the transfer of technology from Taiwan because I think that Taiwan has very effective means in the controlling of technology, " Stephen M. Young, director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) , said at a biannual press conference. [US military dominance] [Straits] [Decline]
• F-16 sales to Taipei may be too much for Beijing
  * Publication Date:06/11/2009 * Source: China Times Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Reynolds said June 9 if Washington sells F-16C/D fighter jets to Taiwan, the Obama administration risks crossing the line with Beijing. Reynolds, who was in charge of legislative affairs under the Bush administration, said the former president approved a multibillion-dollar arm sales package to Taiwan three months before leaving office. “The F-16C/D fighter jets were not included in the deal and in my opinion, selling fighter jets to Taiwan might be the ‘red line’ drawn by Beijing,” he said, adding that the U.S. government should be very cautious about selling advanced weaponry to Taiwan. [Arms sales]
• N. Korean Women Who Flee to China Suffer in Stateless Limbo
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, June 10, 2009 SEOUL -- For North Korean women who run off to China, rules are rigged on both sides of the border. This Story N. Korean Women Who Flee to China Suffer in Stateless Limbo North Korean Women Find Little Refuge in China North Korea regards them as criminals for leaving. China refuses to recognize them as refugees, sending many back to face interrogation, hard labor and sometimes torture. Others stay on in stateless limbo, sold by brokers to Chinese men in need of fertile women and live-in labor. [Refugee reception] [Manipulation] [Inversion]
• China launches green power revolution to catch up on west•
  Plan to hit 20% renewable target by 2020 • $30bn for low-carbon projects Julian Borger and Jonathan Watts in Beijing The Guardian, Wednesday 10 June 2009 Article history China is planning a vast increase in its use of wind and solar power over the next decade and believes it can match Europe by 2020, producing a fifth of its energy needs from renewable sources, a senior Chinese official said yesterday. Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-chairman of China's national development and reform commission, told the Guardian that Beijing would easily surpass current 2020 targets for the use of wind and solar power and was now contemplating targets that were more than three times higher. In the current development plan, the goal for wind energy is 30 gigawatts. Zhang said the new goal could be 100GW by 2020. [Green] [Energy] [China competition]
• China's Staunch Ties With N. Korea Eroding
  By Sunny Lee Korea Times Correspondent BEIJING ? ``Telephone conversation between China and North Korea before the nuclear test disclosed.'' That's the title of a new joke widely circulating on the Chinese Internet. It goes: North Korea: Big brother, I need to conduct a nuclear test. China: Okay. I see. When? North Korea: 10. China: 10? What's that? 10 days or 10 hours? North Korea: 9, 8, 7 … China: You b*****d! In the aftermath of North Korea's defiant nuclear test, China's attitude toward its staunch ideological ally is showing signs of erosion. Chinese experts on North Korea, who normally voice their opinions within the boundary of Chinese policies, have been given leeway to be unusually critical of Pyongyang this time in their views on the North in various publications. The best-selling Global Times recently even called on the Chinese government to ``review'' its North Korea policy. [NK China] [Bizarre]
• President suggests learning simplified Chinese characters
  2009.06.09 17:06:42 President chats with Chinese community leaders in U.S. Taipei, June 9 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou proposed Tuesday that people learning Chinese should learn to read the traditional Chinese characters used in Taiwan and Hong Kong but at the same time should also know how to use the simplified character system engineered by the communist regime in Chi [Straits]
• TECO gears up for mainland projects
  * Publication Date:06/08/2009 * Source: Commercial Times The TECO Group has announced plans to bid on a subway construction project and set up a software park in the mainland Chinese city of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province.
  With the group concentrating its resources in Nanchang, Qingdao and Xiamen, Huang said plans are afoot to gradually establish manufacturing operations in these areas. Besides electronic, home appliances and motor components, TECO is focusing on infrastructure projects as well as the renewable energy sector. Wind power is another area in which the group is seeking to establish a foothold. [Straits] [FDI]
• Australia needs to get its act together on China, and fast
  June 7th, 2009 Author: Peter Drysdale, ANU
  Last week the deal that would have seen Chinalco (the big Chinese metals conglomerate) take a US$19.5billion stake in Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto fell over. This was not just another of the many Chinese resource investment deals on the block. It would have been the largest ever Chinese commercial investment abroad and would have led to the creation of the first great Anglo-Australian-Chinese mining and metals company, probably headquartered in Australia. This company would have been positioned to play a lead role in the Chinese market. It was not just significant in the Australian scheme of things. It would have been significant in the Chinese and the world scheme of things. No-one has come out of Chinalco's failed bid looking good. Can Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) and Australian PM Kevin Rudd (R) build a stronger relationship? Photo: AFP Quite apart from whether it influenced the commercial outcome announced on Friday, the kerfuffle over the proposal in Australia prompts reflection on how Australia is managing the relationship with China. Australia’s management of its relationship with China is not merely of national significance; it is of regional and global importance because of Australia’s strategic role as an energy and resource supplier to China and, indeed, the whole Northeast Asian region. No one comes out of the Rio-Chinalco experiment looking good. The Australian press fell hook line and sinker for the feed of Australian vested interests in the play. Unfortunately there’s little ballast in the way of Chinese expertise in the fifth estate. Australian policymakers directly responsible for the deal looked like a bunch of stumblebums and will have to work hard to restore confidence in the Australian investment environment. Chinalco made some seriously bad calls while Rio was a house divided against itself. Opposition political leaders (Turnbull, Costello and Hockey) performed like a bunch of clowns (on a par with the self-confessed ignorance of Joyce and Xenophon) who couldn’t be trusted with managing the national estate. Australia’s political leadership was missing in action. And the analysts, like me, assumed too readily that lessons learned in the past are lessons learned permanently. [ODI] [China confrontation]
• China Creates Specter of Dueling Dalai Lamas
  By EDWARD WONG Published: June 6, 2009 DHARAMSALA, India — For centuries, the selection of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama has been steeped in the mysticism of a bygone world. On the windswept Tibetan plateau, his closest aides look for divinations in a sacred lake. A mountain god transmits oracular messages by possessing a high lama. Monks scour villages for boys precocious in their spiritual attunement. All that is about to change, as the current Dalai Lama and his followers in exile here in India compete with the Chinese government for control of how the 15th Dalai Lama will be chosen. The issue is urgent for the Tibetans because the current Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of all Tibetans and the charismatic face of the exile movement, has had recent bouts of ill health. He turns 74 in July. Both the Chinese and the Tibetan exiles are bracing for an almost inevitable outcome: the emergence into the world of dueling Dalai Lamas — one chosen by the exiles, perhaps by the 14th Dalai Lama himself, and the other by Chinese officials. “It’s a huge but ultracritical issue, with no clear outcome or solution except one: trouble,” said Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University. “It is going to end up with two Dalai Lamas and thus with long-running conflict, unless the Chinese agree to a diplomatic solution pretty soon.” The jockeying has put the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Communist Party in surprising positions. The Dalai Lama said late last month in an interview with The New York Times that all options for choosing his reincarnation were open, including ones that break from tradition. That could mean that the next Dalai Lama would be found outside Tibet, could be a woman or might even be named while the 14th Dalai Lama was still alive, before his soul properly transmigrated. Meanwhile, the party, officially atheist and accused of ravaging Tibetan culture, insists that religious customs must be followed. [Separatism] [Religion] [Media]
• Taiwan expects orders worth US$2.2 billion from Chinese buyers
  2009.06.05 14:40:05 TAITRA chairman (right) shakes hands with head of Chinese buying delegation Taipei, June 5 (CNA) The members of a Chinese purchase delegation that made a May 31-June 5 visit to Taiwan are expected to place orders worth more than US$2.2 billion, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said Thursday. More than 40 Chinese companies took part in the mission organized by China's Association of Economy and Trade Across the Taiwan Straits (AETATS) , an organization set up by China's Ministry of Commerce to handle cross-Taiwan Strait trade deals and promote commercial exchanges. Most of the participants have won bids to provide products under China's latest economic stimulus measures that encourage home appliance purchases by rural consumers. According to TAITRA Chairman Wang Chih-kang, the buyers had one-on-one sessions with more than 300 Taiwanese suppliers, mainly focusing on home appliances and consumer electronics such as television sets and computers. [Straits]
• N.Korea-China Spat Intensifies
  China and North Korea have been criticizing each other in strong language since the North tested another nuclear device. The spat intensified since North Korea on May 29 condemned China and Russia, which are discussing sanctions against the Stalinist country in the UN Security Council, for being "sycophants" to the United States. Top Chinese officials, usually known for their extreme caution, have changed their tune. Vice President Xi Jinping and Defense Minister Liang Guanglie have clearly protested against the nuclear test, though it is uncertain whether that will translate into actual change in bilateral relations. Observers say Beijing will not give up on its strategic alliance with North Korea, which acts as a cushion between China and the United States. But China has a powerful negotiating card. If it shuts down Dandong, the trade center between the two countries, North Korea will immediately suffer a shortage of food and fuel. But the problem for China is that this would be a point of no return. China has reportedly told the Korean government through diplomatic channels that it will not resort to extreme measures such as cutting off humanitarian aid to solve the current problem. "It is likely that China will search for ways to bring North Korea back to the six-party talks and closely observe the discussion in the UN Security Council for now," a diplomat in Beijing said.
• It is China that holds the key to North Korea
  By Dennis Wilder Published: June 4 2009 20:47 | Last updated: June 4 2009 20:47 North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is taking advantage of Beijing’s desire for stability on the Korean peninsula by engaging in provocative actions that could permanently alter the north-east Asian security situation. Mr Kim’s moves are calculated – they are designed to help secure a dynastic succession and North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons power. Fearful of a flood of refugees should Mr Kim’s regime implode, China has responded cautiously. Beijing apparently still believes that its national interests are best served by a weak North Korean regime that is dependent on China. [NK China]
• Report Says Valid Grievances at Root of Tibet Unrest
  By EDWARD WONG Published: June 5, 2009 DHARAMSALA, India — A group of prominent Chinese lawyers and legal scholars have released a research report arguing that the Tibetan riots and protests of March 2008 were rooted in legitimate grievances brought about by failed government policies — and not through a plot of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Chinese The lengthy paper is the result of interviews conducted over a month in two Tibetan regions. It represents the first independent investigation into the causes of the widespread protests, which the Chinese government harshly suppressed. The government blamed the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala for the unrest. The government has quashed the expression of any dissenting opinions on the causes of the protests, which spread quickly across western China. The research paper was quietly posted last month on Chinese Web sites, and an English translation was released this week by the International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group based in Washington. [Separatism] [Globalisation] [Media]
• North Korea Nuclear Test and Cornered China
  by Zhu Feng
  Zhu Feng (zhufeng@pku.edu.cn) is Deputy Director of the Center for International & Strategic Studies and Professor at the School of International Studies, Peking University. North Korea’s second nuclear test on May 25, 2009 was not unexpected. After threatening to strengthen its nuclear deterrent by all means, on April 28 Pyongyang clearly signaled it would go all the way in its defiance of the international community following its controversial missile test-firing April 5 and its April 14 announcement that it would withdraw from the Six-Party Talks and restore its nuclear facilities. As a result, the second nuclear test, the next step in the Dear Leader’s frenzy, did not stun Beijing. What has stunned Beijing for the moment is the way North Korea conducted the nuclear test. North Korea has habitually and uniformly blamed other states for its nuclear ambition and aggressive behavior. [NK China] [Test]
• Geithner Tells China Its Holdings Are Safe
  By Ariana Eunjung Cha and Annys Shin Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, June 2, 2009 BEIJING, June 1 -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Monday sought to reassure China, America's biggest creditor, that its hundreds of billions of dollars of holdings in U.S. government debt remain safe, even as investors dumped Treasurys amid signs that the global recession is easing. In recent months, Chinese officials have worried publicly that massive U.S. spending could undermine the value of Treasury securities. Geithner, on a two-day visit to China, responded Monday by pledging to reduce the U.S. budget deficit and gradually eliminate "the extraordinary government support" the Obama administration has put in place. [Reserve]
• Why China Won't Do More With North Korea
  Reading all the stuff about North Korea's nukes, one thing strikes me: the United States seems to want to outsource not just its jobs to China, but also its diplomacy. "It's up to China!" and "China can do more!" are the operative phrases emerging from DC-think-tanks and the US government. As if.... Here's where those easy exhortations break down and why I think it's naïve of us to expect that China can "do more," or in the words of John Bolton, "end this thing tomorrow." First, there's a silly assumption in Washington that our interests (no nukes in North Korea) are the same as China's. But they're not. China's first interest in North Korea is making sure the Kim regime doesn't collapse. China's second interest? Making sure the Kim regime doesn't collapse. From Beijing's perspective, nukes in North Korea rank somewhere around 10th. Why is China so intent on "regime maintenance"? If North Korea collapses a few things happen. [US NK policy] [Collapse] [China NK]

• North Korea's nuclear test puts China in a tight spot
  Decades after border town Dandong was rocked by the Korean war, Beijing is witnessing rising tensions with its troubled neighbour Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 May 2009 22.09 BST Article history North Korean workers on the Yalu river, which borders China. The country is heavily dependent on its old ally, which provides up to 90% of its energy and 40% of its food. Photograph: Dan Chung Grandfather Li sat by the Yalu river, feeding ice-cream to the little girl on his lap and gazing across to the desolate factories of Sinuiju, North Korea. "The first day the planes came over we were so scared," he recalled. He was 10 when the US bombed the nearby bridge to halt Chinese support for its neighbour in the Korean war; a few spans still stand as evidence of the raids. "When the war ended [in 1953], we were very happy, a bit proud for helping them – and relieved." It has been decades since American bombs rocked Dandong, the main crossing on the 800-mile Chinese-North Korean border. But this week another explosion shook China and the new threat is from its old ally. North Korea's nuclear test has raised tensions throughout the region – and increased pressure on China to rein in its neighbour.
• China may test N.K. sway after nuclear test
  China has the ability to cripple North Korea by cutting off shipments of food, fuel, and luxury goods that Kim Jong-il doles out to loyalists. Kim's nuclear detonation may put that leverage in play and test its impact on the leadership. China is increasingly frustrated by North Korea's defiance of United Nations resolutions designed to curb its atomic and missile programs and is concerned that a nuclear-armed government in Pyongyang could spark a new arms race in Asia, analysts and a person familiar with the Obama administration's policy said. [NK China]
• To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It
  Shiho Fukada for The New York Times Preservationists say the demolition of the Old City section of Kashgar is a blow to China’s Islamic and Uighur culture. By MICHAEL WINES Published: May 27, 2009 KASHGAR, China — A thousand years ago, the northern and southern branches of the Silk Road converged at this oasis town near the western edge of the Taklamakan Desert. Traders from Delhi and Samarkand, wearied by frigid treks through the world’s most daunting mountain ranges, unloaded their pack horses here and sold saffron and lutes along the city’s cramped streets. Chinese traders, their camels laden with silk and porcelain, did the same. The traders are now joined by tourists exploring the donkey-cart alleys and mud-and-straw buildings once window-shopped, then sacked, by Tamerlane and Genghis Khan. Now, Kashgar is about to be sacked again. Nine hundred families already have been moved from Kashgar’s Old City, “the best-preserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found anywhere in central Asia,” as the architect and historian George Michell wrote in the 2008 book “Kashgar: Oasis City on China’s Old Silk Road.” Over the next few years, city officials say, they will demolish at least 85 percent of this warren of picturesque, if run-down homes and shops. Many of its 13,000 families, Muslims from a Turkic ethnic group called the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs), will be moved. In its place will rise a new Old City, a mix of midrise apartments, plazas, alleys widened into avenues and reproductions of ancient Islamic architecture “to preserve the Uighur culture,” Kashgar’s vice mayor, Xu Jianrong, said in a phone interview. [Separatism] [Media] [China confrontation]
• China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules
  By KEITH BRADSHER Published: May 27, 2009 HONG KONG — Worried about heavy reliance on imported oil, Chinese officials have drafted automotive fuel economy standards that are even more stringent than those outlined by President Obama last week, Chinese experts with a detailed knowledge of the plans said on Wednesday. The new plan would require automakers in China to improve fuel economy by an additional 18 percent by 2015, said An Feng, a leading architect of China’s existing fuel economy regulations who is now the president of the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, a nonprofit group in Beijing. The plan is going through the interagency approval process, with comments sought from automakers, and is scheduled for release early next year, he said. The Chinese government tends to make few changes in automotive regulations once the interagency review process has started. The average fuel economy of family vehicles in China is already higher than in the United States, mainly because cars in China tend to be considerably smaller than those in the United States — and are getting even smaller because of recent tax changes. [Decline] [China rising] [Green]
• Majority optimistic on future relations with China
  2009.05.26 14:48:02 Taipei, May 26 (CNA) Up to 64.5 percent of Taiwan's people are optimistic on relations with China in the coming year, according to the results of a survey released by the Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Tuesday. The survey also found that 76.7 percent of respondents believe it necessary for Taiwan's SEF and China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) to exchange representative offices as interaction between Taiwan and China expands. The SEF, a quasi-official organization responsible for contacts with China in the absence of official ties, conducted the telephone survey of 1,133 adult respondents on May 13-14, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.91 percent and a confidence level of 95 percent. The survey also probed the Ma Ying-jeou administration's performance on cross- Taiwan Strait relations after a year in office. Just over 53 percent of the respondents expressed satisfaction with the government's handling of bilateral relations over the past year, while 66.3 percent of those surveyed felt that resuming talks with China that had been suspended for 13 years would help improve cross-strait relations. [Straits] [Public opinion]
• KMT chair arrives in Beijing for meeting with Chinese president
  2009.05.25 13:13:39 Wo Poh-hsiung and his wife depart from Taoyuan for Beijing Beijing, May 25 (CNA) Kuomintang Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung arrived in Beijing Monday morning for an eight-day visit that will be highlighted by a meeting Tuesday with China President Hu Jintao. It will be second meeting between the two since Wu assumed the leadership of the ruling party in 2007. The meeting will take place in the Great Hall of the People, and Hu will be present in his capacity as general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to KMT Spokesman Lee Chien-jung Sunday. [Straits]
• President pushes for cross-strait economic cooperation framework
  2009.05.24 17:07:45 Ma pitches comprehensive trade pact with China in WTO seminar Taipei, May 24 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou reiterated on Sunday his support for an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China and expressed his hope that a deal be reached by the end of this year or no later than 2010. Speaking at an international academic symposium held in Taipei on the future of the World Trade Organization, Ma said it may take more than five years for Taiwan and the mainland to complete all elements of the agreement before putting it into force. [FTA] [Straits]
• Gov't Targets Rising Chinese Consumer Market
  President Lee Myung-bak held his weekly emergency economic meeting Thursday, and the topic this time was China. The meeting focused on improving trade, looking at ways to benefit from the rapid growth in Chinese domestic demand spurred by Beijing's 4 trillion yuan or US$586 billion stimulus measures. Currently 93 percent of Korea's total shipments to China are industrial parts and equipment for manufacturers that operate factories there. About 25 percent of the goods coming out of Korean factories there then heads directly to Chinese markets and consumers, with the rest shipped off to other countries. So in total, Korea's direct sales to the rising Chinese consumer market only come to about 30 percent of total shipments to China.
• Flood Across the Border: China’s Disaster Relief Operations and Potential Response to a North Korean Refugee Crisis
  By Drew Thompson and Carla Freeman May 20th, 2009
  This report was originally published by the U.S.-Korea Institute (USKI) of the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the Nixon Center. Drew Thompson, Director of China Studies and Starr Senior Fellow at The Nixon Center, and Carla Freeman, Associate Director of China Studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, write, “Chinese authorities are likely to conclude that based on the challenges that they will undoubtedly face in addressing a North Korean refugee crisis unfolding in Yanbian and elsewhere in the border region, the best solution available to them is to prevent a refugee crisis from unfolding on Chinese territory at all. It is therefore possible that PRC authorities are considering mounting operations within DPRK territory to prevent the largest waves of refugees from reaching the border and overwhelming civilian agencies operating within China.” [Refugee reception]
• Taiwan to take part in 2010 World Expo in Shanghai
  2009.05.22 23:29:30 Taiwan to take part in 2010 World Expo Shanghai: Wang Chih-kang Taipei, May 22 (CNA) Taiwan will take part in the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai after a hiatus of 40 years, but it will do so as a nongovernment organization. Wang Chih-kang, chairman of Taiwan's leading trade promoter, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, told a news conference Friday that his council had received an invitation Thursday to set up a Taiwan pavilion at the fair which was slated for May 1 to Oct. 31, 2010. The invitation was extended by the Paris-based International Exhibitions Bureau, which regulates the fair, and means Taiwan will participate in the expo for the first time since 1970, when it was held in Osaka. [Straits]
• Where in the World is Dana Rohrbacher?
  And What About the 17 Uighurs at Guantanamo?
  China Hand
  Dana Rohrbacher is an ardently anti-Chinese Communist California Republican congressman. He’s also the ranking Republican member of the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight. Mr. Rohrbacher used that bully pulpit to call attention to the plight of the Uighurs in western China. He also championed the cause of the seventeen Uighur detainees at Guantanamo, to the point of co-authoring a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on June 19, 2008, urging that the 17 Uighurs be allowed to reside in the United States on parole:
  Now the Republican Party has made the decision to smear the seventeen Uighurs as a terrorist threat to the United States, in order to block the Obama administration’s plans to disperse the detainees at Guantanamo and close the prison. [Terrorism] [Separatism] [Imperialism] [Double standards]
• Tiananmen Now Seems Distant to China’s Students
  By SHARON LaFRANIERE Published: May 21, 2009 BEIJING — On April 30, the cellphones of the 32,630 students at Peking University, a genteel institution widely regarded as one of China’s top universities, buzzed with a text message from the school administration. It warned students to “pay attention to your speech and behavior” on Youth Day because of a “particularly complex” situation. Today’s Chinese students seem uninterested in protest or ideology. “You know where the line is drawn,” one student said. Few students had to puzzle over the meaning. Youth Day, on May 4, commemorates a 1919 student protest against foreign imperialism and China’s weakness in resisting it. Seventy years later, in 1989, students from Peking University were again massing in the center of Beijing, demanding democracy. The student movement shook the ruling Communist Party to its core and ended with a military crackdown and hundreds of deaths. And if a student today proposed a pro-democracy protest? “People would think he was insane,” said one Peking University history major in a recent interview. “You know where the line is drawn. You can think, maybe talk, think about the events of 1989. You just cannot do something that will have any public influence. Everybody knows that.”
• A helping Chinese hand
  By Brian McCartan CHIANG MAI - A new investment fund and loan package to help alleviate the impact of the global financial crisis for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) represents the latest overture of China's "soft power" campaign towards the region. Many believe the aid package unveiled in Beijing this month was strategically announced to steal a commercial and diplomatic march over the economically ailing United States. [Softpower] [Aid weapon] [Decline]
• Colonel Sanders Thrives in China
  The archetypal American fast-food chain KFC has closed 272 stores in the United States over the past four years, from 5,525 in 2004 to 5,253 last year. But in China, the number of KFC stores mushroomed 80 percent from 1,657 in 2004 to 2,980 last year. KFC's sales in China are more than double the money the chain makes at home. Last year, KFC's directly-operated stores in the U.S. generated US$1.2 billion in sales, while China sales totaled a record $2.5 billion. These days, many major American businesses are relying on increased consumption in China to generate more sales there than at home. [Rising China] [Globalisation] [FDI]
• About our Chinese service
  guardian.co.uk, Sunday 17 May 2009 21.59 BST Article historyIn an experimental project, the Guardian is collaborating with Yeeyan, a ground-breaking community translation website, to offer Chinese language versions of a selection of articles daily.
• David Miliband: China ready to join US as world power
  ???? | Read this in Chinese Julian Borger, diplomatic editor guardian.co.uk, Sunday 17 May 2009 21.42
  David Miliband today described China as the 21st century's "indispensable power" with a decisive say on the future of the global economy, climate change and world trade. The foreign secretary predicted that over the next few decades China would become one of the two "powers that count", along with the US, and Europe could emerge as a third only if it learned to speak with one voice. The remarks, in a Guardian interview, represented the most direct acknowledgement to date from a senior minister, or arguably from any western leader, of China's ascendant position in the global pecking order. [China rising]
• Chairman of China-Korea Friendship Association Interviewed
  Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- Wu Donghe, chairman of the China-Korea Friendship Association, was interviewed by KCNA before his departure from here after participating in the DPRK-China friendship city meeting. Noting that the traditional Sino-DPRK friendly relations have a long history, he recalled that President Kim Il Sung together with Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai and other Chinese revolutionaries of the elder generation provided the friendly relations between the two countries.
• As Detroit Crumbles, China Emerges as Auto Epicenter
  By Kendra Marr Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 18, 2009 America's auto titans are dismantling their global empires. But across the Pacific, it's as if the global economic forces that have pummeled Detroit never struck. Chinese auto sales are up, and this year China is projected to displace Japan as the world's largest car producer. Now, the auto world is buzzing that China's auto industry may try to pick up the pieces of Detroit -- at a bargain. Chinese companies have tried to dampen speculation, issuing regulatory filings that deny bids to buy Ford's Volvo or General Motor's Saab. But there's little doubt among analysts that Chinese automakers are interested in the United States and that Detroit's automakers are interested in them. Buying up iconic brands such as Hummer or Saturn could supply Chinese automakers with the technological expertise to help them leapfrog past long-established competitors, said Kelly Sims Gallagher, a lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, who wrote a book on Chinese automakers. "That's where Chinese firms are weakest," she said. "They have world-class business and manufacturing capabilities now. What they still lack is technological know-how, systems integration, being able to design new vehicles from scratch and get them to a manufacturing line." China still suffers from its reputation of being a copycat manufacturer. An acquisition could lend clout to some of the nation's 100 car companies that are largely unknown outside their home country. [China rising] [Decline] [Auto]
• Obama Said to Pick Utah Gov. as China Envoy
  SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Republican governor whose name has come up as a potential challenger to President Barack Obama in 2012 intends go to work for the president as ambassador to China, a source close to the governor said. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese from his days as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan, has accepted the appointment, said the source, who would speak only on condition of anonymity ahead of a White House announcement expected Saturday. Huntsman, 49, is a popular, two-term governor who served in both Bush administrations and has made a name for himself advocating a moderate agenda in one of the nation's most conservative states. [Continuity]
• Measuring China’s size and power
  May 10th, 2009 Author: Ian Castles, Crawford School, ANU In his review of the Australian Government’s defence white paper, Greg Sheridan, Foreign Editor of The Australian, says, ‘just for the record’, that the US economy is six times as big as China’s. He claims that the white paper’s assertion that China has the potential to overtake the US as the world’s largest economy by 2020 is ‘silly’ (‘A battle of words’, Weekend Australian, 2-3 May, p. 22). Sheridan also claims that the use of the purchasing power parity (PPP) method to compare the relative size of economies is ‘sleight of hand’ which gives rise to a ‘statistical illusion’ and ‘a meaningless measure’.
  He is wrong on all counts. [China rising]
• Bold leadership brings prosperity
  Publication Date:05/15/2009 By Chiayi Ho President Ma Ying-jeou said that while establishing closer economic relations with mainland China could present some challenges, the benefits for Taiwan far outweigh any possible risks. In response to criticism that the island’s economy could become overly dependent on the Chinese mainland, Ma stated: “The government’s role is to minimize risk while maximizing opportunity. We must not pass up chances out of fear.” Ma made the remarks during an interview with the Taiwan Journal not long before the anniversary of his first year in office May 20. During the one-hour talk, the president reviewed his administration’s policies in reviving the economy, as well as its efforts and achievements in improving cross-strait ties and boosting the island’s international status. [Straits]
• Secret Memoir Offers Look Inside China’s Politics
  Zhao Ziyang, with bullhorn, made his final appearance in Tiananmen Square with student protesters on May 19, 1989. Mr. Zhao's aide, Wen Jiabao, second from right, is now China's prime minister.
  By ERIK ECKHOLM Published: May 14, 2009 In May 1989, as he feuded with hard-line party rivals over how to handle the students occupying Tiananmen Square, China’s Communist Party chief requested a personal audience with Deng Xiaoping, the patriarch behind the scenes. In a forthcoming book, a former Chinese leader tells of the crackdown on the pro-democracy protests of 20 years ago. The party chief, Zhao Ziyang, was told to go to Mr. Deng’s home on the afternoon of May 17 for what he thought would be a private talk. To his dismay, he arrived to find that Mr. Deng had assembled several key members of the Politburo, including Mr. Zhao’s bitter foes.
• Excerpts From Zhao Ziyang’s ‘Prisoner of the State’
  Translated and Edited by BAO PU, RENEE CHIANG and ADI IGNATIUS Published: May 13, 2009 The following is a translation of excerpted audio recordings made by Zhao Ziyang, the purged Communist Party chief and former prime minister of China, who was removed from power in 1989 after he opposed the use of force against democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.
  Transcript of Mr. Zhao's Audio Clips in Mandarin(PDF) Related Secret Memoir Offers Look Inside China’s Politics (May 15, 2009) Times Topics: Zhao Ziyang(Excerpts of the original audio clips from which the memoir is based are located at the left.)
• Ma insists he will not talk unification with China during tenure
  2009.05.11 22:44:47 Taipei, May 11 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou reiterated Monday that the government will not conduct talks with Beijing on the sensitive issue of unification between Taiwan and China during his current four-year term, or during a second term if he were re-elected. [Straits]
• Chances of Yuan Becoming Int'l Currency 'Slim' Paul Krugman
  Nobel laureate Paul Krugman criticized China's economic policy in a lecture he gave in Beijing on Monday, offering a negative outlook for the Chinese currency becoming an international currency in his lifetime and saying that he cannot understand why China spends so much of its trade surplus to buying unprofitable U.S. national bonds. Citing the example of the euro, Krugman said while it became the common currency in Europe after long years of negotiation and planning, it still cannot compare with the U.S. dollar. Likewise, he said, it will take long years for the Chinese currency to become internationally viable, and this will be difficult to achieve in his lifetime [Reserve]
• So much to gain, so little to lose by signing an ECFA
  Publication Date:05/08/2009 By Daniel Hu There has been a great deal of controversy lately, over whether Taiwan should sign an economic cooperation framework agreement with Beijing. Critics claim the inking of such an agreement will harm Taiwan in three ways: it will make the economy overly dependent on mainland China’s; it will result in massive job losses; and it will erode national sovereignty. [Straits] [FTA]
• China Influence over North Korea Questioned
  For more than five years, China has been a major player in the six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. The conventional wisdom is that China is North Korea's staunchest ally and greatest source of support in the international community. Economically, Beijing is Pyongyang's major supplier of food and energy. Roughly 80 percent of consumer goods found in North Korea are made in China. Beijing is interested in North Korea's raw materials such as coal, iron ore and limestone as well as its precious metals such as gold. [China NK]
• China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants
  By KEITH BRADSHER Published: May 10, 2009 TIANJIN, China — China’s frenetic construction of coal-fired power plants has raised worries around the world about the effect on climate change. China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe and Japan combined, making it the world’s largest emitter of gases that are warming the planet.
  But largely missing in the hand-wringing is this: China has emerged in the past two years as the world’s leading builder of more efficient, less polluting coal power plants, mastering the technology and driving down the cost. While the United States is still debating whether to build a more efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses extremely hot steam, China has begun building such plants at a rate of one a month. [Green] [Decline]
• President broaches idea of Taiwan, China exchanging offices
  2009.05.08 22:35:14 Taipei, May 8 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Friday it may be high time for the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to consider the feasibility of exchanging offices to deal with certain issues. [Straits]
• Replica of Ming Dynasty ship looks to retrace ancient sea routes
  2009.05.07 17:14:00 (CNA Photos 68, 71, 72, 74) By Y.L. Kao CNA staff writer Southern Taiwan's Tainan City is building a replica of a 17th century Ming Dynasty hero's ship to commemorate him and to boost tourism in the island's former capital. The Chinese general, Koxinga, whose formal name is Cheng Chen-kung (1624-1662) , sailed to Taiwan in 1661 on a junk. He is revered in Taiwan, as well as China, for taking back the island from the Dutch, who had ruled it for 38 years, during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The replica - expected to be completed by the end of November - will be open to tours and will set sail on short-distance journeys in the region, in what some Taiwanese authorities hope will spark a new trend of historical tourism in Taiwan, especially at a time when there is an influx of Chinese tourists coming here. [Straits]
• China a 'peaceful force' in Beijing's response to defence paper
  Michael Sainsbury and Cameron Stewart | May 06, 2009 Article from: The Australian CHINA has called for Australia and other countries to have a more objective approach to its rising military power, in its first official response to the Rudd Government's defence white paper. "China is a peaceful force that forms no threat to any other countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhong Xu said in answer to questions from The Australian. "(We hope) neighbour countries will view China's military build-up objectively, without bias." Public response to the white paper in China has been subdued as Australian diplomats work behind the scenes in an attempt to quell any disquiet over the new document, which calls for a major Australian naval build-up to counter the rise of China. [China confrontation] [Dilemma]
• MND opposes return of defector
  2009.05.06 13:20:58 Taipei, May 6 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense opposes the return to Taiwan of World Bank Senior Vice President Justin Yifu Lin, who defected to China nearly 30 years ago when he was a Republic of China Army officer, a deputy defense minister said Wednesday.
  Justin Yifu Lin took up his World Bank position in June 2008, after serving for 15 years as a professor in Peking University's China Center for Economic Research, which he founded. He is on leave from the university while working at the World Bank. He went "missing" May 16, 1979 when he was serving as an ROC Army company leader on the frontline island of Kinmen. Lin, whose original name was Lin Cheng-yi, filed an application from Beijing in May 2002 to return to Taiwan to attend his father's funeral. He had admitted in many television interviews that he swam across the channel separating Kinmen and Xiamen in China's Fujian province on May 16, 1979 to seek a new life and new career.
• President calls for end to confrontation between overseas Chinese
  2009.05.05 23:27:11 Taipei, May 5 (CNA) The confrontation between pro-Taiwan overseas Chinese and pro-China Chinese people living abroad should be brought to an end, President Ma Ying-jeou said Tuesday. "We won't oppose overseas Chinese groups, which support us, to engage with China, " Ma said while receiving a delegation from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in New York, a group of ethnic Chinese people living in the United States. Ma noted that the political divide that used to exist between Taiwan and China has split overseas Chinese into two different camps depending on their affiliation with Beijing or Taipei, with the two camps sometimes confrontational toward each other. "I hope the confrontation will be wiped off gradually, " now that relations between Taiwan and China is improving, Ma told the group. [Straits] [Diaspora]
• Ex-president and wife face more charges
  2009.05.05 21:50:03 A leading prosecutor announces more charges against ex-president (Adds response from Chen Shui-bian's lawyer) Taipei, May 5 (CNA) Ex-President Chen Shui-bian and his wife Wu Shu-jen, who have been standing trial on charges of corruption and money laundering, on Tuesday were indicted on two more counts of corruption. [Corruption]
• China Rejects US Criticism Over Military Strength
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: May 6, 2009 Filed at 8:01 a.m. ET BEIJING (AP) -- China blamed the United States on Wednesday for the latest naval confrontation between the countries, after rejecting criticism by Washington that Beijing's rising military strength is focused on countering U.S power. A U.S. Navy ship ''violated'' international and Chinese laws by entering what China considers its ''exclusive economic zone'' without authorization, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said. ''It entered China's Exclusive Economic Zone in the Yellow Sea without permission from the Chinese side. China is concerned about it, and asked U.S to take effective measures to prevent a similar case from happening again,'' he said in a statement. The Pentagon said the latest encounter occurred Friday in international waters when two Chinese fishing vessels came dangerously close -- to within 30 yards (27 meters) -- of the USNS Victorious as it was operating in the Yellow Sea. The Victorious crew sounded its alarm and shot water from its fire hoses to try to deter the vessels in an hour-long incident, one official said.
  ''The U.S. has to create an imaginary enemy to find excuses to develop its military might,'' Li Jie, a military expert on the Navy, was quoted as saying in the Global Times, which is connected to the Communist Party's People's Daily. ''How on Earth can China threaten the U.S.?'' Last year, China announced a military budget of $61 billion, up nearly 18 percent over the previous year. It was the 18th year of double-digit growth of military spending in the past 19 years. China's spending, which puts it on par with Japan, Russia and Britain, is still dwarfed by U.S. military expenditures, which are nearly 10 times as large. [Inversion] [China confrontation] [Military balance] [Media] [Espionage]
• KMT legislative caucus wants Japan to recall its rep in Taiwan
  2009.05.04 22:31:54 Pro-independence activists gather to support Japanese envoy Taipei, May 4 (CNA) The leaders of the legislative caucus of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) adopted a resolution Monday urging the Cabinet to declared Masaki Saito, Japan's representative in Taiwan, persona non grata because he said Taiwan's status was still unclear.
  Saito, head of the Taipei office of the Interchange Association -- Japan's de facto embassy in Taiwan -- made the controversial assertion during a speech delivered at an annual meeting of the Republic of China International Relationship Association held in National Chung Cheng University in Chiayi county. He later apologized and retracted his remarks after Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Hsia summoned him, lodged a protest and demanded an explanation. According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saito told Hsia that it was purely his personal view that Taiwan's status was still unresolved and that his comment did not reflect the position of the Japanese government. [Separatism]
• Forget global imbalances, it is now a Sino-American imbalance –
  Posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 By bsetser Or perhaps a Sino-North Atlantic or Sino-Euramerican imbalance. Europe plays a supporting role in the drama. If oil averages $50 or so this year and $60 or so next year – and if intra-European surpluses and deficits are netted out – the world’s macroeconomic imbalances reduce to the United States external deficit (which the IMF estimates will be under 3% of US GDP in 09), a somewhat smaller EU deficit and China’s 10% of GDP surplus. On the surplus side of the global ledger, the IMF forecasts that there will soon be China – and almost no one else.
• NK Collapse May Trigger US-China Conflict
  By Kim Se-jeong Staff Reporter If North Korea collapses, possible intervention by South Korea and the United States would be the biggest fear for China, according to a U.S. military expert. China, one of the North's closest allies, has been preparing itself to counteract, said Larry M. Wurtzel. In a book, titled ``Beyond the Strait: PLA Missions Other Than Taiwan,'' published by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, he said that South Korean and U.S. intervention is ``certain.'' Therefore, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been prepared to move supplies into North Korea and forces to restore order and to secure the Sino-North Korean border, he said. [Takeover]
• In a Switch, Taiwan to Take Part in WHO Conference  
  By Jane Rickards Special to The Washington Post Thursday, April 30, 2009 TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 29 -- The Taiwanese government said Wednesday that it will send observers to a United Nations health conference next month, its first participation in a formal U.N. activity since 1971, when the world body switched recognition to mainland China. The announcement is a sign of considerable warming between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China, which had used its influence in the past to block Taiwan from participating in the U.N.'s World Health Organization. China apparently gave a green light this week for the WHO to invite Taiwan to the 62nd World Health Assembly, a gathering of the WHO's governing body, which begins May 18 in Geneva. [Straits]

• Eileen Chang's fractured legacy
  By Peter Lee In 1976, Eileen Chang's close friend, Stephen Soong, earnestly advised her not to risk her reputation as a cultural icon - and her position in the Taiwan literary market - by publishing an autobiographical novel entitled Little Reunion. "You might not only lose your reputation, your livelihood in the Taiwan literary arena might end and the goodwill accumulated over many years might be swept away. I'm not saying this just to alarm you. I have a lot of experience in PR, I've seen a lot, and I'm not pulling these fears out of thin air." What a difference 30 years - and a hit movie, a sea-change in cultural attitudes and the rise of a pan-Greater China cult of celebrity - can bring.
• Taiwan president: China okays island WHO role
  By PETER ENAV The Associated Press Wednesday, April 29, 2009; 1:50 AM TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's president announced Wednesday that China will allow the island's participation in a key World Health Organization body, a major victory in Taipei's campaign for international recognition. President Ma Ying-jeou's announcement that Taiwan would join this year's decision-making World Health Assembly in Geneva as an observer comes amid warming ties between the two sides, which split amid civil war in 1949. The mainland still claims the island as part of its territory. Beijing normally objects to Taipei's participation in any international organizations because that symbolizes national sovereignty, and has successfully blocked Taipei's participation in WHO since the early 1970s. After Ma's announcement, China's official Xinhua News Agency quoted the Chinese authorities saying that Taiwan had been invited to attend the WHA as an observer this year. [Straits]
• China Still Presses Crusade Against Falun Gong
  By ANDREW JACOBS Published: April 27, 2009 BEIJING — In the decade since the Chinese government began repressing Falun Gong, a crusade that human rights groups say has led to the imprisonment of tens of thousands of practitioners and claimed at least 2,000 lives, the world’s attention has shifted elsewhere. Yu Zhou, 42, of Beijing, was arrested last year and was found to be carrying Falun Gong materials. He died in police custody. The drive against the spiritual group has eliminated its leadership, decimated the ranks of faithful and convinced many Chinese that the group is an “evil cult,” as the government contends. But 10 years on, the war on Falun Gong remains unfinished.
• We Need Not Overestimate China
  A decade ago, White House National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers emerged as a troubleshooter in the Asian financial crisis. He was U.S. treasury secretary then. His arrogance and free and easy manner of speech were notorious. He moved his address at the International Monetary Fund annual convention, scheduled for later afternoon, to around noon, saying, "I'm too busy to come back here." Following his departure, the afternoon itinerary was a mess; all finance ministers' addresses were put off.
  China's international standing has climbed a notch and chances are that it will have the last laugh along with the U.S. But the government and press should reflect if they are not getting swept up in American overestimation of China. It is not pleasant to see foreign brokers classify Korea as belonging to the Chinese economic zone. If our past attitude of looking down on China was problematic, our current crawling posture looks equally wrong. [Reserve] [China rising] [Realignment]
• China's God (sic) Reserves Swell to 5th in the World
  China had the world's fifth largest gold reserves as of the end of last year, up five notches from 2003. Citing data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the China Daily on Saturday said the nation's gold reserves increased 76 percent from 600 tons in 2003 to 1,054 tons. The U.S. ranked first with 8,133 tons, followed by Germany (3,412 tons), France (2,508 tons) and Italy (2,451 tons).
• Western Media Fabrications regarding the Tibet Riots
  Fake Videotape used by CNN
  by Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, April 16, 2008
  On the day of the Lhasa Riots (March 14, 2008), there is evidence of media fabrication by CNN. The videotape presented by CNN in its News Report on the 14th of March (1.00pm EST) was manipulated. VIDEO: Tibet monks protest against Chinese rulers (CNN, March 14, 2008) The report presented by CNN's Beijing Correspondent John Vause focussed on the Tibet protests in Gansu province and in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. What was shown, however, was a videotape of the Tibet protest movement in India. Viewers were led to believe that the protests were in China and that the Indian police shown in the videotape were Chinese cops. [Media] [China confrontation]
• China's Stimulus Package Boosts Economy
  From increased sales for construction companies and automakers to a reawakened real estate market, China's stimulus plan is working—so far
  By Dexter Roberts here to find out more! Things are looking up for Xugong Group, China's largest heavy machinery maker. Driven by Beijing's five-month-old $586 billion fiscal stimulus, sales of its bulldozers, wheel loaders, and construction cranes reached an all-time high in March, a spokesman says. Although he won't reveal the exact amount of sales for the month, the Xugong spokesman says the company now expects to reach its 2010 revenue target of $7.4 billion a year early. Xugong, which has a small Shenzhen-listed subsidiary, earned pretax profits of $443 million on sales of $6 billion last year. Across China, steelmakers, cement producers, and construction companies are seeing sales soar as Beijing's stimulus plan opens the spigot on funding for railways, airports, and power plants.
• Advice on Unification, from a Chinese Expert on Korea
  "I've spent my entire youth on the Korean Peninsula. And South Korea is indeed an interesting country," said Xu Baokang, the Seoul correspondent for the People's Daily. Wrapping up ten years of work in Seoul, following a decade-long stint in Pyongyang, Xu is at last scheduled to return home on Saturday. After graduating from university with a degree in Korean, Xu worked in North Korea where he met Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il more than 10 times combined. He accompanied the senior Kim aboard a special train when the North Korean leader visited China. In the Kim Jong-il era, he enjoyed the privilege of flying to parties aboard North Korean helicopters. During two tours of duty in Seoul, he has covered a total of four presidents and a president-elect. He is a China's expert on the Korean Peninsula. [Unification] [Opening]
• China reveals big rise in gold reserves
  By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing and Javier Blas in London Published: April 24 2009 09:31 | Last updated: April 24 2009 19:06 China has quietly almost doubled its gold reserves to become the world’s fifth-biggest holder of the precious metal, it emerged on Friday, in a move that signals the revival of bullion after years of fading importance. Gold rose to a three-week high of more than $910 an ounce after Hu Xiaolian, head of the secretive State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which manages the country’s $1,954bn in foreign exchange reserves, revealed China had 1,054 tonnes of gold, up from 600 tonnes in 2003. The news could spark interest in gold among other central banks. “When the largest holder of foreign exchange reserves discloses an increase in gold holdings, other countries may decide to think more carefully about underweight gold positions,” said John Reade, a precious metals strategist at UBS.
  Ahead of the G20 summit in London this month, China suggested global reliance on the US dollar as a reserve currency should be reduced. China has been diversifying away from the dollar since 2005, when it broke the renminbi’s peg to the US currency and officially marked it to a basket of currencies, but it still holds more than two-thirds in US dollar-denominated assets by most estimates. [Reserve]
• Full steam ahead for Chiang-Chen talks
  Publication Date:04/24/2009 By Chiayi Ho Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, will lead a delegation to visit Nanjing April 25-29 for the third round of talks with Chen Yunlin, chairman of mainland China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait. SEF Vice Chairman and Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian made the announcement following a preparatory meeting in Taipei April 18 with ARATS Vice Chairman Zheng Lizhong. The two men finalized the time, venue and agenda for the upcoming Chiang-Chen talks. “Holding the preparatory session in Taipei for the first time is especially meaningful as it symbolizes that negotiations between SEF and ARATS are on an equal footing,” Kao said. “We have reached consensus on many issues, which I believe lays a great foundation for the upcoming talks.” [Straits]
• Cross-strait stock markets edge closer
  Publication Date:04/24/2009 By Adela Lin The Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange are in talks to forge closer ties. Items on the agenda include dual listings of jointly developed exchange-traded funds and the possible establishment of a trading platform that will make it possible for stocks already listed in the two markets as well as in Hong Kong to be traded. The development of ETFs in the three regions across the Taiwan Strait is an inevitable trend, Chi Schive, chairman of Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp., said April 21. “ETF operations in major international markets are experiencing growth and they account for 20-40 percent of trade in some bourses.” [Straits]
• China Uses Global Crisis to Assert Its Influence
  Along With Aid to Other Nations, Beijing Offers Up Criticism of the West
  By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, April 23, 2009 BEIJING -- With Jamaica's currency in free fall, unemployment soaring and banks heavily exposed to government debt, the Caribbean island's diplomats went into crisis mode earlier this year. They traveled to all corners of the world to seek help. Jamaica's traditional allies, the United States and Britain, were preoccupied with their own financial problems, but a new friend jumped at the opportunity to come to the rescue: China. When contracts for loan packages totaling $138 million were signed between the two countries in March, China became Jamaica's biggest financial partner. Headlines in Jamaica's leading newspapers, which only a year ago were filled with concern about China's growing influence in the region, gushed about its generosity. "The loan couldn't have come more in time and on more preferred terms," E. Courtenay Rattray, Jamaica's ambassador to China, said in an interview. While the island nation continues to value its close relationships with Western powers, he added, in some respects Jamaica has more in common with China. "Those are developed countries. They don't have such an in-depth understanding of the development aspirations of Jamaica as does China," he said. Overseas aid and loans are just one way China is asserting itself in its new role as a world financial leader. While polishing China's own image, Premier Wen Jiabao and other top leaders have blamed the West for the global economic crisis. Chinese officials increasingly are challenging the primacy of the dollar, warning other countries about the danger of keeping reserves in just one or two currencies, such as dollars and euros. And as the global economic crisis has eroded faith in U.S.-style capitalism, there's growing talk that a new "Beijing Consensus" will replace the long-dominant Washington Consensus on how developing countries should manage their economies. [Rising China] [Softpower] [Reserve]
• Shanghai Motor Show Draws Huge Global Interest
  Automakers from around the world have put their cars on display in Shanghai in efforts to increase their share in the world's largest car market. The 2009 Shanghai Motor Show opened Monday and continues until next Tuesday, with the press invited to opening events on Monday and Tuesday. The exhibition space measures 170,000 sq. m, over three times the size of Seoul Motor Show. About 870 cars were on show, approximately 50 of them new models. New cars are displayed at Chinese automaker Chery's booth at the Shanghai Motor Show on Tuesday. Foreign automakers are concentrating their energy on the Chinese market because China is the only economy that has been growing amid the global recession. Some 1.11 million vehicles were sold there in March, up 5 percent year-on-year, while car sales dwindled by 30 percent in the U.S. and 32 percent in Japan. China already outpaced the U.S. in terms of monthly car sales early this year and seems certain to become the world's largest car market this year. When asked by a Japanese journalist on Monday why the Mercedes-Benz group is putting the largest-ever number of car models on show in Shanghai show but will not take part in Tokyo Motor Show in October, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said, "You can find the answer to your own question if you look at sales records." China is turning into a car export base for automakers from around the world. Honda exports compact cars made in China to Europe, and Nissan and Toyota are expected to follow suit. Two Chinese car makers, Chery and Geely, export cars to Russia and South America. The Chinese government will focus on fostering two or three big automakers so they can lead the industry by producing more than 2 million cars a year, heralding massive restructuring of the 50 or so carmakers there over the next couple of years. [Auto]
• China, Friend or Foe?
  A cave complex blasted out of the rocky coastline on China's southern island province of Hainan is home to one of the newest and potentially most lethal weapons in Beijing's arsenal: a home-grown submarine designed to launch nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. So when the USNS Impeccable, a U.S. surveillance ship, was snooping in the area last month, China set a trap. Five Chinese vessels crowded around the U.S. ship. Crew members hurled chunks of wood into the Impeccable's path and used poles to try to snare its acoustic equipment. When U.S. sailors turned a fire hose on their assailants, the sodden Chinese crew aboard one of the vessels stripped to their underwear and closed to within 25 feet, the Pentagon said. The encounter in the South China Sea, which lasted for about 3½ hours, was intended to send a clear message. China says the Impeccable was violating international law by conducting surveillance activities in its exclusive economic zone. The U.S. and many other nations view such activity as legal. [Espionage] [China confrontation]
• Name Not on Our List? Change It, China Says
  By SHARON LaFRANIERE Published: April 20, 2009 BEIJING — “Ma,” a Chinese character for horse, is the 13th most common family name in China, shared by nearly 17 million people. That can cause no end of confusion when Mas get together, especially if those Mas also share the same given name, as many Chinese do. Ma Cheng’s book-loving grandfather came up with an elegant solution to this common problem. Twenty-six years ago, when his granddaughter was born, he combed through his library of Chinese dictionaries and lighted upon a character pronounced “cheng.” Cheng, which means galloping steeds, looks just like the character for horse, except that it is condensed and written three times in a row. The character is so rare that once people see it, Miss Ma said, they tend to remember both her and her name. That is one reason she likes it so much. That is also why the government wants her to change it. For Ma Cheng and millions of others, Chinese parents’ desire to give their children a spark of individuality is colliding head-on with the Chinese bureaucracy’s desire for order. Seeking to modernize its vast database on China’s 1.3 billion citizens, the government’s Public Security Bureau has been replacing the handwritten identity card that every Chinese must carry with a computer-readable one, complete with color photos and embedded microchips. The new cards are harder to forge and can be scanned at places like airports where security is a priority. The bureau’s computers, however, are programmed to read only 32,252 of the roughly 55,000 Chinese characters, according to a 2006 government report. The result is that Miss Ma and at least some of the 60 million other Chinese with obscure characters in their names cannot get new cards — unless they change their names to something more common. [ICT]
• For China's New Left, Old Values
  Emerging Movement Views State Power as a Remedy for Free-Market Inequalities
  By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, April 19, 2009 BEIJING -- Zuo Dapei took the microphone and declared that China's leaders were going in the wrong direction. The country had become too capitalist. Things would improve, he continued, only if the state reasserted its control over corporate assets. The crowd of about 220 people, who had come to hear Zuo and other authors and academics speak on the topic of "Unhappy China," cheered. For a growing number of Chinese, the solutions to the problems of the country's present -- including the income gap between rich and poor and the manipulation of the court system by state officials and company executives -- lie in its past, with the teachings of Mao Zedong.
• Korean Jajangmyeon Popular in China
  By Sunny Lee Korea Times Correspondent BEIJING ? Former President of South Korea Kim Dae-jung once characterized Koreans as unbending people who have never assimilated the Middle Kingdom's cultural influence despite the fact they lived next to the giant for thousands of years. The remark was meant to underscore Koreans' effort to preserve their cultural traditions. Koreans also seldom accepted anything foreign as given but modified it to suit their own taste whenever possible. After all, they were the people who put kimchi in a hamburger. Jajangmyeon was no exception. The history of it in Korea goes back to 1882 when a military mutiny broke out in Korea among factions that had different attitudes on the reform and modernization of the nation, compounded by the rivalry between China and Japan over the peninsula. The incident was quelled by Qing Dynasty general Yuan Shikai. Meanwhile, some 40 merchants also came to Korea with Qing's military and settled in today's Incheon, a port city, west of Seoul. In 1905, these Chinese immigrants introduced a black-bean noodle to Koreans, and the salty food (zhajiangmian in Chinese) soon metamorphosed into a sweet one called 'jajangmyeon,' with the addition of caramel into it, putting Chinese cuisine on a new course in Korea. Nowadays, Koreans cannot live without jajangmyeon. Every day, a whopping 7.2 million bowls of it are consumed in Korea, a country with 49 million people.
• Acer Boss Lanci Takes Aim at Dell and HP
  With new netbooks, laptops, desktops, and, yes, a smartphone, Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci explains why he expects to soon overtake No. 2 PC maker Dell By Bruce Einhorn
  Asian companies looking to rev up their performance by bringing in a Western boss don't have the best track record. Carlos Ghosn made some headway fixing Nissan (NSANY), but the Brazilian has never managed to close the gap between Japan's No. 3 automaker and its better-performing rivals Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC). After buying IBM's (IBM) PC division, Chinese computer maker Lenovo poached William J. Amelio from Dell (DELL) to make the company more global, but he lasted barely three years before leaving in February. And Sony (SNE) CEO Sir Howard Stringer certainly hasn't had much luck righting all the wrongs at the Japanese consumer electronics giant. As an Italian at the helm of a Taiwanese company, Acer Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci, 54, is also an outsider. But so far the former Texas Instruments (TXN) executive has a much better shot at success. Acer has become the world's No. 3 computer maker by market share, thanks largely to Lanci's focus on low-cost portable PCs, and the company is now closing in on leaders Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell. The Turin-born engineer, who splits his time between Milan and Taipei, says being the first European to run Taiwan's premier electronics group isn't as difficult as you might think. "It's a global market," says Lanci. "To run a company in any region of the world, in the end you use the same logic and the same rules everywhere." [Globalisation] [ICT] [Taiwan]
• China's Growing Role in UN Peacekeeping
  Asia Report N°166 17 April 2009 Over the past twenty years China has become an active participant in UN peacekeeping, a development that will benefit the international community. Beijing has the capacity to expand its contributions further and should be encouraged to do so. [China rising]
• China Outpaces Its Rivals on Road to Recovery
  As the United States and Europe reel from the impact of the global economic crisis, China is rising rapidly to capture the top spots in many global industries. As it uses powerful government-led policies to thwart an economic slump, China is overtaking its rivals by focusing on competitive industries. Many economic experts forecast China will lead a worldwide economic recovery. But some experts point out that it will take more time to be able to verify China's true economic might, since many of its industries rose to the top the easy way, by being fueled by its massive domestic market. [China rising]
• China Calls for Int'l Currency to Replace Dollar
  Zhou Xiaochuan China has directly challenged the authority of the U.S. dollar as the key currency, as the U.S. turns to quantitative easing -- or printing money -- to solve its immediate economic troubles. China seems unwilling to sit idle and watch the value of its foreign reserves drop. China holds some US$2 trillion, more than two-thirds of which are in U.S. dollar assets, including U.S. treasury bonds. [China rising]
• Deals Help China Expand Its Sway in Latin America
  By SIMON ROMERO and ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO Published: April 15, 2009 CARACAS, Venezuela — As Washington tries to rebuild its strained relationships in Latin America, China is stepping in vigorously, offering countries across the region large amounts of money while they struggle with sharply slowing economies, a plunge in commodity prices and restricted access to credit. China Sees a Slight Lift in Spring Factory Orders (April 16, 2009) In recent weeks, China has been negotiating deals to double a development fund in Venezuela to $12 billion, lend Ecuador at least $1 billion to build a hydroelectric plant, provide Argentina with access to more than $10 billion in Chinese currency and lend Brazil’s national oil company $10 billion. The deals largely focus on China locking in natural resources like oil for years to come. [China rising] [Decline]
• China Slows Purchases of U.S. and Other Bonds
  By KEITH BRADSHER Published: April 12, 2009 HONG KONG — Reversing its role as the world’s fastest-growing buyer of United States Treasuries and other foreign bonds, the Chinese government actually sold bonds heavily in January and February before resuming purchases in March, according to data released during the weekend by China’s central bank. Cutting Back China’s foreign reserves grew in the first quarter of this year at the slowest pace in nearly eight years, edging up $7.7 billion, compared with a record increase of $153.9 billion in the same quarter last year. China has lent vast sums to the United States — roughly two-thirds of the central bank’s $1.95 trillion in foreign reserves are believed to be in American securities. But the Chinese government now finances a dwindling percentage of new American mortgages and government borrowing. In the last two months, Premier Wen Jiabao and other Chinese officials have expressed growing nervousness about their country’s huge exposure to America’s financial well-being. [Reserve]
• Murder in Loudoun...Ten Years After the Bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade
  By China Hand Sunday, April 12, 2009
  In her blog at Foreign Policy, The Cable, Laura Rozen reports on the “spooky” murder of a retired Army officer, William Bennett, in Loudoun, Virginia. Bennett and his wife were battered by unknown assailants while they were on their early-morning walk. Ms. Rozen tells us: In 1999, sources bring to our attention, Bennett was a retired Army lieutenant colonel working at the CIA on contract as a targeter during the 78-day NATO air war on Kosovo. He was one of the people, according to a former U.S. intelligence source, found responsible by the Agency for feeding the target into the system that resulted in the May 7, 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The U.S. government declared that the bombing of the Chinese embassy was unintentional and the result of a targeting flub. Ms. Rozen’s source inform her that Mr. Bennett was the hitherto unnamed “CIA employee” who was fired in 2000 for putting “the X on the map in the wrong place”. Therefore, one of the theories floating around the Internet is that Bennett was murdered by the Chinese in retaliation for the 1999 bombing. Not likely, in my opinion. If the bombing was unintentional, as the United States insists, it would be rather petty and inexplicable for the Chinese to murder Bennett ten years later for his mistake. If the bombing was intentional, as many Chinese believe, one would think they would find more senior and suitable targets for their revenge. As Ms. Rozen points out, the mission that bombed the Chinese embassy was the only bombing package initiated by the CIA during the entire Kosovo war. Indeed, the entire mission was reportedly flown by the U.S. Air Force outside NATO channels. The idea that the CIA a) used their only targeting opportunity to take out Yugoslav Federal Directorate of Supply and Procurement and b) relied on an outdated map to fix the coordinates of this apparently insignificant bureaucratic outpost and c) mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy that happened to be sitting on those coordinates strains credulity. The most interesting theory is that the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed intentionally because the U.S. government suspected it was harboring components of an F-117 Stealth fighter that Yugoslavian air defense had been able to bring down the two weeks before. The theory, in addition to being interesting, is not outlandish. In fact, it’s rather plausible. [China confrontation]
• Economic Interests Shape Beijing's Pyongyang Policy
  By Evan Ramstad in Seoul and Gordon Fairclough in Shanghai China on Tuesday repeated a call for calm after North Korea's latest test of a multistage rocket, attempting to defuse anger in the U.S. and elsewhere at a time when its economic interest in the neighboring state is soaring.
  While other countries that tracked the launch say North Korea's rocket fell into the Pacific Ocean, Ms. Yu appeared to suggest that China accepts North Korea's story that it succeeded in its stated goal of putting a satellite in space. "This issue also involves a country's right to peaceful use of space," she said. "We believe the Security Council's response should be prudent and should be conducive to safeguarding the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and the region, and also the six-party talks as well." The diplomatic minuet is taking place after China increased trade with North Korea over the past four years. Last year, trade between China and North Korea jumped 41% to $2.79 billion, with most of that coming from increased exports by China. [North Korea trade chart] On Tuesday, truck traffic between the two countries resumed after a break Monday for a Chinese holiday. Dozens of trucks made the crossing in Dandong, a major city along the North Korean border. China has been North Korea's chief political and economic sponsor since the Soviet Union collapsed nearly 20 years ago. For much of that time, it served as donor of last resort, making up the difference when energy, food and donations to North Korea dropped off from other countries. That often amounted to $100 million to $200 million in aid. China broke from that pattern in 2005 by boosting its exports and widening its trade surplus with North Korea. Outside experts view China's trade surplus as the chief measure of its economic aid to North Korea because North Korea has no measurable debt instrument and little ability to narrow the trade gap. Chinese companies, sometimes with help from the Chinese government, are investing heavily in North Korea's mining industry, construction and light manufacturing such as textiles. Chinese consumer goods line store shelves and market stalls in North Korea. Many executives of Chinese companies in North Korea say it's a difficult place to operate. Among the challenges: getting money out of the country. China helped Panda Electronics Group, based in Nanjing, start a computer assembly factory with Taedong River Computer Corp. in North Korea five years ago. North Korea's currency, the won, can't be converted. To move money out of the country, Panda must buy commodities in North Korea and sell them in China for cash, an executive said. [NK China] [FDI] [Sanctions] [Satellite]
• Decline In China Exports Slowed In March: Paper
  By REUTERS Published: April 8, 2009 Filed at 4:51 a.m. ET Skip to next paragraph BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese exports in March were down by double digits from a year earlier, but the decline was smaller than in February, a newspaper linked to the Ministry of Commerce reported on Wednesday. The Chinese-language International Business Daily cited an unnamed ministry official for its information. Exports in February fell 25.7 percent from a year earlier. Economists polled by Reuters expect a 21.5 percent fall in March. If the report is borne out when the trade figures are released in coming days, it would be the latest piece of tentative evidence that the economy could be over the worst of a slump induced by the global credit crunch.
• China’s Dollar Trap
  By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: April 2, 2009 Back in the early stages of the financial crisis, wags joked that our trade with China had turned out to be fair and balanced after all: They sold us poison toys and tainted seafood; we sold them fraudulent securities. But these days, both sides of that deal are breaking down. On one side, the world’s appetite for Chinese goods has fallen off sharply. China’s exports have plunged in recent months and are now down 26 percent from a year ago. On the other side, the Chinese are evidently getting anxious about those securities. But China still seems to have unrealistic expectations. And that’s a problem for all of us.[Inversion]
• Conference examines direction of Taipei-Washington relations
  Publication Date:04/03/2009 By Chiayi Ho Washington strongly supports Taiwan's desire to expand its participation in the international arena and will continue assisting the nation in dealing with Beijing's escalating military threat, said Stephen Young, director of American Institute in Taiwan March 27. To mark the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, an international conference was held in Taipei from March 27-28 to discuss the legislation's continuance, possible changes and future goals. The two-day roundtable, co-hosted by the nongovernmental Institute for National Policy Research and Academia Sinica's Institute of European and American Studies, brought together experts from Taiwan, the United States, Hong Kong and Japan. They also examined the challenges that lie ahead of the Obama administration in regards to the TRA. [US Taiwan] [China confrontation]
• China Vies to Be World’s Leader in Electric Cars
  By KEITH BRADSHER Published: April 1, 2009 TIANJIN, China — Chinese leaders have adopted a plan aimed at turning the country into one of the leading producers of hybrid and all-electric vehicles within three years, and making it the world leader in electric cars and buses after that. The goal, which radiates from the very top of the Chinese government, suggests that Detroit’s Big Three, already struggling to stay alive, will face even stiffer foreign competition on the next field of automotive technology than they do today. “China is well positioned to lead in this,” said David Tulauskas, director of China government policy at General Motors. To some extent, China is making a virtue of a liability. It is behind the United States, Japan and other countries when it comes to making gas-powered vehicles, but by skipping the current technology, China hopes to get a jump on the next. [Leapfrogging] [Environment] [China rising]
• The Taiwan Relations Act at 30: Enduring Framework or Accidental Success?
  Publication Date:04/01/2009 Byline:VINCENT WEI-CHENG WANG Despite its pragmatic origin, ambiguous nature and transitory design, a unique piece of legislation has guided US-Taiwan relations for longer than many ever anticipated. On December 15, 1978, former United States President Jimmy Carter announced that the US government would terminate diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (ROC) in favor of recognizing mainland China. In Taiwan, many found the news deeply unsettling, with the mood on campuses turning gloomy and pessimism permeating throughout society. There was a widespread sense of betrayal, of worry about an increasingly uncertain future. While its "economic miracle" had taken off by 1978 and per capita gross national product (GNP) had reached US$1,958 (in current prices), Taiwan's democratic transition was still in its infancy. However, some 30 years later, Taiwan has evolved into a full-fledged democracy, one of the freest in Asia and the sole democracy in all ethnic Chinese societies, and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) has risen to US$17,000, or more than $30,000 in purchasing power parity.
• Not an Impeccable Argument
  By Mark J. Valencia
  April 1st, 2009 Mark J. Valencia, a maritime policy analyst based in Kaneohe, Hawaii, writes, “US government arguments and immediate follow up actions regarding the incident seem to constitute a ‘might makes right’ approach that only increases the damage being done to the US image in Asia. Real change is needed in US maritime diplomacy in Asia and elsewhere.”
  On 8 March 2009, according to the Pentagon, “five Chinese vessels shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity to USNS Impeccable in an apparent coordinated effort to harass the US ocean surveillance ship while it was conducting routine operations in international waters” [China’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)]. In the view of some senior US Naval and State Department lawyers, the U.S. was in the ‘right’ and China was in the ‘wrong’. However it is not that simple. Indeed, there is much more to this incident legally and politically than first meets the eye. The views of these pro-US advocates are fundamentally flawed by justification of their positions through extensive reference to and interpretation of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Why? The Convention was a package deal with many “bargains” between the maritime powers and the developing countries including extensive navigational rights for maritime powers in exchange for the deep seabed mining provisions. The U.S. did not hold up its end of the bargains i.e. it chose not to ratify the Convention and therefore is not a party. The advocates’ arguments are based on the false assumption that the U.S., as a non-party to the agreement, can pick and choose those parts and interpretations of the Convention favorable to it. It would be more transparent to make the real politik argument that the U.S. remains outside the Convention – a ‘rogue’ nation – and can and will declare and follow whatever it deems is ‘customary’ law.
  The positions and arguments put forth by such advocates beg the bigger question: is enforcing U.S. interpretations of the finer points of international law worth undermining US-China relations, particularly at this point in time? To some legal ‘warriors’ of a bygone era, perhaps it is. But there is a new commander-in-chief in town. And his mantra is change –not only in foreign policy but more importantly how it is conducted. The attitude and approach indicated by these advocates is a far cry from the open-minded, reasonable, conciliatory approach promoted by the Obama administration. Indeed, US government arguments and immediate follow up actions regarding the incident seem to constitute a “might makes right” approach that only increases the damage being done to the US image in Asia. Real change is needed in US maritime diplomacy in Asia and elsewhere. [Legality] [Continuity] [China confrontation]
• Chinese Inmates at Guantánamo Pose a Dilemma
  By WILLIAM GLABERSON and MARGOT WILLIAMS Published: March 31, 2009 WASHINGTON — Ilshat Hassan’s flight from China has brought refuge, a job at the consulting firm Booz Allen and an apartment in the Virginia suburbs. Mr. Hassan, an intense former college professor, is among some 300 exiles from western China’s Uighur Muslim minority who live peacefully in the Washington area, where the American government has supported their pro-democracy efforts. But while the United States is hosting Mr. Hassan and the others, it has been imprisoning 17 of their countrymen in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. “Their story is my story,” said Mr. Hassan, an edge in his voice. He meant his account of escape in 2003 from a repressive Chinese government. Not the particulars, which, in the cases of the 17 Uighur detainees, have included seven years of isolation and despair. The Uighurs have become something of a Guantánamo Rorschach test: hapless refugees to some, dangerous plotters to others. For the Obama administration, the task of determining which of those portraits is correct and whether the men can be released inside the United States has raised the stakes for the president’s plan to close the Guantánamo prison. Either choice is likely to provoke intense reaction. [Global insurgency] [Separatism] [Double standards]
• Is China the New America?
  By Harold James Posted March 2009 The Great Depression made the United States the world's unquestioned financial leader. The current crisis can do the same for China.
  In the Great Depression, as in the current economic crisis, the downturn was particularly severe because of a lack of leadership in the international order. The dominant financial power of the 19th century, Britain, was financially exhausted by the First World War. The new major creditor, the United States, had emerged as a strong economic player, but did not yet have leadership committed to the maintenance of an open international economic order. The simple diagnosis was that Britain was unable to lead, and the United States unwilling. [China rising] [Decline]

• China’s Way Forward? Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Hegemony and the World Economy in Crisis
  Mark Selden
  2008—Annus Horribilis for the world economy—produced successive food, energy and financial crises, initially devastating particularly the global poor, but quickly extending to the commanding heights of the US and core economies and ushering in the sharpest downturn since the 1930s depression. As all nations strive to respond to the financial gridlock that began in the United States and quickly sent world industrial production and trade plummeting, there has been much discussion of the ability of the high-flying Chinese economy to weather the storm, of the prospects for the intertwined US and Chinese economies, even of the potential for China to rise to a position of regional or global primacy. The present article critically explores these possibilities. [China rising] [Decline] [Environment [Migration]
• Ghost in the Machine
  A report from the Front Line in the Cyberwar
  Monday, March 30, 2009 The Information Warfare Monitor (a joint venture of Toronto University’s Citizen Lab at the Munke Centre for International Studies and a Canadian think-tank called SecDev) teamed up with the Tibetan Government in Exile for a nine-month multi-continent investigation to develop a remarkable report on cyberwarfare operations targeting areas of concern to the People’s Republic of China, including Taiwan and Tibet. [Cyberwar] [Surveillance] [Separatism]
• The snooping dragon: social-malware surveillance of the Tibetan movement
  Shishir Nagaraja, Ross Anderson March 2009
  Abstract In this note we document a case of malware-based electronic surveillance of a political organisation by the agents of a nation state. While malware attacks are not new, two aspects of this case make it worth serious study. First, it was a targeted surveillance attack designed to collect actionable intelligence for use by the police and security services of a repressive state, with potentially fatal consequences for those exposed. Second, the modus operandi combined social phishing with high- grade malware. This combination of well-written malware with well-designed email lures, which we call social malware, is devastatingly e ective. Few organisations outside the defence and intelligence sector could withstand such an attack, and al- though this particular case involved the agents of a major power, the attack could in fact have been mounted by a capable motivated individual. This report is therefore of importance not just to companies who may attract the attention of government agencies, but to all organisations. As social-malware attacks spread, they are bound to target people such as accounts-payable and payroll sta who use computers to make payments. Prevention will be hard. The traditional defence against social malware in government agencies involves expensive and intrusive measures that range from mandatory access controls to tiresome operational security procedures. These will not be sustainable in the economy as a whole. Evolving practical low-cost defences against social-malware attacks will be a real challenge.
  This material is based in part upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Grant Award Number 2006-CS-001-000001, under the auspices of the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P) research program. [Surveillance] [Separatism] [China confrontation][Cyberwar]
• North Korean Women Sold at $446 in China
  Female North Koreans who escaped the starving Stalinist country often become a target of human trafficking and are sold to rural China, usually to farmers who cannot find a wife, at prices as low as $446, Dong-A Ilbo reported Saturday. The practice, at least 10 years old, is usually arranged when a rural farmer places the "order" with a human trafficking organization with "specification" of a woman he wants, including age and appearance.   [Media] [Sanctions]
• Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries
  By JOHN MARKOFF Published: March 28, 2009 TORONTO — A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded. The Toronto academic researchers who are reporting on the spying operation dubbed GhostNet include, from left, Ronald J. Deibert, Greg Walton, Nart Villeneuve and Rafal A. Rohozinski. In a report to be issued this weekend, the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved. The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whom China regularly denounces, to examine its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware. [China confrontation] [Cyberwar] [Surveillance]  
• China’s ‘angry youths’ are novel heroes
  China is unhappy. So much is clear as a book stating just this and recommending confrontation with the west as a remedy has conquered the country’s bestseller lists and triggered a fierce online debate over China’s place in the world and its identity. Unhappy China argues that the country should stand up to the west to claim its rightful place as a global power, and it looks to a patriotic young generation as a source of national strength and unity. This comes just as China’s harassment of a US surveillance ship, which was branded by Washington as “aggressive, troublesome” behaviour, and Beijing’s proposal that the US dollar could be replaced as the main international reserve currency, gave powerful reminders of the country’s potential to become a global power both militarily and economically
  The nationalism of China’s “angry youths” shocked many in the west when they protested against the rejection of their Olympic torch run in Paris, attacked the western media for alleged bias and lies in its coverage of unrest in Tibet and called for a boycott of the French retailer Carrefour’s outlets in their country. [China rising] [Resurgence]
• China deploying its own lama in its battle over Tibet
  By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers BEIJING — In the propaganda war to implant its views of Tibet as widely as possible, China increasingly is deploying a lanky 19-year-old Tibetan with rimless glasses, a hint of a mustache and a husky voice. Beijing anointed the Tibetan, Gyaltsen Norbu, more than a decade ago as the latest incarnation of the Panchen Lama, the No. 2 leader in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, even though many Tibetans consider him a fake. [China confrontation] [Media]
• China Talks Tough with Call to Dump Dollar
  China's top central banker says it's time to replace the country's reliance on the dollar, but such a move likely won't happen any time soon By Dexter Roberts Just over one week before President Barack Obama and other world leaders meet in London for a summit focusing on the global recession, China is making clear it wants a greater say in managing economic policies worldwide. The latest blast from Beijing: a call by China's top central banker to dump the U.S. dollar as the world's most important currency. People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, in a paper released on the bank's Web site on Mar. 23, called for a new "super-sovereign reserve currency" to replace the current reliance on the dollar. The goal, Zhou writes, is to "create an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run." Not surprisingly, U.S. officials aren't welcoming the idea. Speaking on Mar. 24 at a congressional hearing in Washington, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke both said they categorically oppose the change. [Reserve]
• A Chinese view of governance and the financial crisis : An interview with ICBC's chairman
  Jiang Jianqing discusses the need for balance within an effective governance model and the ways the financial-services industry will change in China in the wake of the global economic crisis. MARCH 2009 • Dominic Barton, Yi Wang, and Mei Ye
• Australia rejects China bid for OZ Minerals
  Published: March 27 2009 06:12 | Last updated: March 27 2009 06:12 SYDNEY, March 27 – Australia rejected Chinese metals group Minmetals’ $1.7bn bid for Australian miner OZ Minerals on Friday, saying it would only approve the deal if it excluded the Prominent Hill copper-gold mine. Treasurer Wayne Swan noted in a statement that the Prominent Hill operation was situated close to a weapons-testing range in outback South Australia which was a sensitive defence facility. The government was willing to consider alternative proposals relating to OZ Minerals’ other assets and businesses, he said. [China confrontation]
• ‘Dual recognition’ not viable option for ROC
  Publication Date?03/27/2009 Section?National Affairs By Chiayi Ho Following Salvadorian president-elect Mauricio Funes’ expression of interest in switching recognition from Taipei to Beijing, President Ma Ying-jeou reaffirmed March 21 his government would not accept “dual recognition.” Describing the possibility of allowing ROC diplomatic allies to maintain relations with both sides of the Taiwan Strait as “unrealistic,” Ma explained Taiwan was not considering this option. “It is not pragmatic to seek dual recognition since it raises more questions than it answers,” he said. Local Spanish-language news outlets reported that in the wake of Funes’ March 16 presidential victory, the newly elected Central American leader said he would like to examine San Salvador’s links with Taipei and Beijing. The incoming president stated that pursuing “closer trade ties” with mainland China was of interest to his administration
• As Chinese Investments in Africa Drop, Hope Sinks
  Olivier Asselin for The New York Times Guinean and Chinese workers at the construction site for a $50 million, 50,000-seat stadium in Conakry, the capital. More Photos > By LYDIA POLGREEN Published: March 25, 2009 CONAKRY, Guinea — Chinese and Guinean workers toil shoulder to shoulder on a sun-blasted construction site at this crumbling city’s edge, building the latest symbol of an old and sturdy alliance: a $50 million, 50,000-seat stadium. This city is littered with such tokens of a friendship that first flowered when Guinea was an isolated and struggling socialist state in the late 1950s. But so far Guinea has not gotten what it really wants from the world’s fastest growing economy: a multibillion-dollar deal to build desperately needed infrastructure in exchange for access to the impoverished nation’s vast reserves of bauxite and iron ore. As global commodity prices have plummeted and several of China’s African partners have stumbled deeper into chaos, China has backed away from some of its riskiest and most aggressive plans, looking for the same guarantees that Western companies have long sought for their investments: economic and political stability.
• China calls for new reserve currency
  By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing Published: March 23 2009 12:16 | Last updated: March 24 2009 00:06 China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund. In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”. Analysts said the proposal was an indication of Beijing’s fears that actions being taken to save the domestic US economy would have a negative impact on China. “This is a clear sign that China, as the largest holder of US dollar financial assets, is concerned about the potential inflationary risk of the US Federal Reserve printing money,” said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist for HSBC. Although Mr Zhou did not mention the US dollar, the essay gave a pointed critique of the current dollar-dominated monetary system. [Reserve]
• Stimulus? U.S. to buy Chinese condoms, ending Alabama jobs
  By Mike McGraw | Kansas City Star Call it a condom conundrum. At a time when the federal government is spending billions of stimulus dollars to stem the tide of U.S. layoffs, should that same government put even more Americans out of work by buying cheaper foreign products? In this case, Chinese condoms. That's the dilemma for the folks at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has distributed an estimated 10 billion U.S.-made AIDS-preventing condoms in poor countries around the world. But not anymore. In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China. [Protectionism]
• The Rising Importance of Chinese Labour in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region
  John Walsh
  Migration is, fundamentally, a response to the uneven distribution of resources around the world or the variability of the environment, however broadly defined. [1] People move from one place to another place to take advantage of a better climate, possible access to better quality agricultural land, better-paying or more numerous jobs, freedom from oppression or discrimination and so forth. The phenomenon has dimensions such as degree of permanency and degree of voluntarism. In reality, it comprises a large number of categories and sub-categories and, as in the case of many of those Chinese people considered in this paper, people can pass through several categories as the result of changes in their own status and in that of the broader political context. [Migration]
• Tibet Protesters Are Held in China After Riot
  By DAVID BARBOZA Published: March 22, 2009 SHANGHAI — Nearly 100 people, most of them monks, were being held in a Tibetan area of northwestern China after a crowd attacked a police station there on Saturday, according to the state-controlled media. The authorities, who said they had restored order in the region, said 6 people were arrested and 89 others had “surrendered” to the police. The attack involved monks from the Ragya Monastery in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Golog in Qinghai Province. The riot was the latest and biggest skirmish this month between ethnic Tibetans and Chinese authorities and comes as Tibet and adjoining areas face growing tensions amid a series of historically delicate anniversaries. China’s Tibetan region consists largely of Tibet and several bordering provinces that have large Tibetan populations. The police said the unrest broke out Saturday after rumors spread in the region about a man being investigated by the police and then disappearing after he broke Chinese law by advocating Tibetan independence. China has sent thousands of troops to Tibetan areas in the northwest part of the country to guard against a repeat of the anti-Chinese riots that occurred last March, when Tibetans rioted in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, killing some Han Chinese. While China is celebrating the 50th anniversary of what it calls the liberation of Tibet from serfdom this March, many Tibetans are calling for independence and marking the date when China took control over the region (sic).and forced its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to flee into exile in India [Spin]
• Ma calls for repeal of anti-secession law
  Publication Date:03/20/2009 By Chiayi Ho On the fourth anniversary of Beijing’s anti-secession law, President Ma Ying-jeou urged the mainland to abandon its controversial legislation and remove missiles targeting the island. According to Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi, Ma said as the majority of people in Taiwan are in favor of maintaining the status quo, and do not support independence, there is no need for the legislation. “The law is unfeasible, as the peaceful development of cross-strait ties requires a reciprocal process with good will from both sides, rather than being decided unilaterally or non-peacefully by the Chinese mainland,” Wang added. Enacted March 14, 2005, the law authorizes the mainland to launch military action against Taiwan should the island move toward independence. Under the legislation, People’s Liberation Army forces can employ “non-peaceful means” and “other necessary measures” if Taiwan moves to “secede” from the mainland, or if all possibilities for peaceful reunification are exhausted. [Straits]
• China looks to Labour to learn secrets of spin
  Tania Branigan in Beijing The Guardian, Saturday 21 March 2009 Article historyIt is the world's largest political party and has held absolute power for 60 years through state control and media censorship. So when the Chinese Communist party decided to overhaul its propaganda machine, there was only one place to look: the spin tactics of New Labour. Research by Anne-Marie Brady, a political scientist at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, shows that officials were briefed in depth on the Blair government's handling of crises as they modernised their news management. Brady, a specialist on Chinese propaganda, said that following the 2002 Sars outbreak - which was originally covered up by officials - the party set about training "a legion of government spin doctors to handle any future political crisis". [Spin]
• Talks Held between Premiers of DPRK and China
  Pyongyang, March 18 (KCNA) -- Talks were held between Kim Yong Il, premier of the DPRK Cabinet, and Wen Jiabao, premier of the State Council of China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday. Present there from the DPRK side were the minister of Metal Industry, the minister of Agriculture, the minister of Foreign Trade, the minister of Culture and others and from the Chinese side were minister of Foreign Affairs, the minister of Commerce, the minister of Culture and others. At the talks Wen Jiabao asked Kim Yong Il to convey his warm regards to General Secretary Kim Jong Il. Kim Yong Il conveyed to Wen the greetings sent by Kim Jong Il to him. At the talks both sides exchanged views on the matter of further developing the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries and the issues of mutual concern. The DPRK side noted that the traditional DPRK-China friendly and cooperative relations have reached a new higher stage under the profound care of the top leaders of the two countries. The DPRK side clarified the stand to develop in depth, together with the Chinese comrades, the bilateral relations of cooperation in a multi-faceted way on the principle of mutual benefit with the "year of DPRK-China friendship" as an occasion. The Chinese side noted that the Sino-DPRK friendship provided by the revolutionaries of the elder generation of the two countries is the friendship which has grown strong through the struggle against the foreign aggressors and the acceleration of the revolution and construction in the two countries. Pointing out that it is of great importance to significantly observe the "year of Sino-DPRK friendship" this year, the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Chinese side expressed the belief that the exchange and cooperation between the two countries would become more brisk in various fields. The talks proceeded in a comradely and friendly atmosphere.
• N. Korean premier to meet with China's Hu
  BEIJING, March 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il was set to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday for talks that sources say will likely include a possible summit with North Korea's reclusive leader. The premier met with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao a day earlier, with the stalled six-party nuclear talks, regional issues and economic cooperation high on their agenda, according to Chinese state media. China has expressed concern over North Korea's planned rocket launch. The U.S., South Korea and Japan believe the launch is a cover for a long-range missile test. After a tour of local electronics firms, Kim will meet separately with Wu Bangguo, China's top legislator and the country's second-ranking official, before his meeting with Hu in the afternoon, the sources said. Speculation has mounted that the allies may arrange a summit this year between Hu and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to commemorate 60 years of their diplomatic relations. Kim last visited China in 2006, following a rare trip by Hu to North Korea a year earlier.
• Premiers unveil China-DPRK Friendship Year in Beijing
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-03-18 23:55:35 Print BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- With folk dances and songs, China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Wednesday unveiled their year-long exchange program, "China-DPRK Friendship Year." Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his DPRK counterpart, Kim Yong Il, attended the premiere of friendship year, together with ministers of foreign affairs, trade and culture of both countries. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) and his counterpart of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Yong Il wave during a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the China-DPRK diplomatic relations and the launch of the China-DPRK Friendship Year in Beijing, capital of China, March 18, 2009. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng) Photo Gallery>>> "It is of great significance for China and the DPRK to stage the Friendship Year, which coincides with the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations," Wen said in a speech at the start of the gala. Wen said the DPRK was among the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with China. The two countries forged diplomatic relations on Oct. 6, 1949, days after the People's Republic of China was founded.
• Coca-Cola’s $2.4bn China deal at risk
  By Sundeep Tucker in Hong Kong Published: March 17 2009 23:31 | Last updated: March 17 2009 23:34 Coca-Cola may abandon its proposed $2.4bn takeover of China’s leading juice company after antitrust regulators signalled it would have to relinquish the China Huiyuan Juice brand after the acquisition, people familiar with the matter said. The planned deal, the largest ever foreign takeover of a Chinese company, is the first major test of the country’s revamped anti-monopoly regime that was given extra teeth last August. Its failure would be a blow to multi-national companies seeking to make acquisitions in China.
• Kim Yong Il Arrives in Beijing
  Pyongyang, March 17 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Il, premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday by air to pay an official goodwill visit to the People's Republic of China. He was accompanied by the minister of Metal Industry, the minister of Agriculture, the minister of Foreign Trade, the minister of Culture and others.
• In Downturn, China Exploits Path to Growth
  By KEITH BRADSHER Published: March 16, 2009 GUANGZHOU, China — The global economic downturn, and efforts to reverse it, will probably make China an even stronger economic competitor than it was before the crisis. China, the world’s third-largest economy behind the United States and Japan, had already become more assertive; now it is exploiting its unusual position as a country with piles of cash and a strong banking system, at a time when many countries have neither, to acquire natural resources and make new friends. Last week, China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, even reminded Washington that as one of the United States’ biggest creditors, China expects Washington to safeguard its investment. China’s leaders are turning economic crisis to competitive advantage, said economic analysts. The country is using its nearly $600 billion economic stimulus package to make its companies better able to compete in markets at home and abroad, to retrain migrant workers on an immense scale and to rapidly expand subsidies for research and development. Construction has already begun on new highways and rail lines that are likely to permanently reduce transportation costs.
• China Gains Key Assets In Spate of Purchases
  Oil, Minerals Are Among Acquisitions Worldwide
  By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, March 17, 2009; Page A01 SHANGHAI -- Chinese companies have been on a shopping spree in the past month, snapping up tens of billions of dollars' worth of key assets in Iran, Brazil, Russia, Venezuela, Australia and France in a global fire sale set off by the financial crisis. The deals have allowed China to lock up supplies of oil, minerals, metals and other strategic natural resources it needs to continue to fuel its growth. The sheer scope of the agreements marks a shift in global finance, roiling energy markets and feeding worries about the future availability and prices of those commodities in other countries that compete for them, including the United States. Just a few months ago, many countries were greeting such overtures from China with suspicion. Today, as corporations and banks in other parts of the world find themselves reluctant or unable to give out money to distressed companies, cash-rich China has become a major force driving new lending and investment
• Recession Slams Chinese Exports Again
  China exports dropped an "ugly" 25.7% in February after January's 17.5% fall. The government is trying to boost domestic spending to alleviate the pain New data about China's economy is providing further evidence that the global recession is making the once mighty Chinese export machine sputter badly. After falling 17.5% in January, exports plunged a further 25.7% year-on-year in February, the government announced on Mar. 11. The drop was worse than what most analysts expected; a Merrill Lynch research note described it as "an ugly number." And the way things are shaping up in the rest of the world, the figure for this month isn't going to look very pretty either. While stock markets across most of Asia rallied on the strength of the previous day's rebound in the U.S., the Shanghai Stock Exchange fell 0.91% [Inversion]
• DPRK trade deficit with China nears 1.3 billion USD
  Posted Date : 2009-03-05 (NK Brief No. 09-3-5-1) As North Korean dependence on trade with China continues to grow, the amount of overall trade hit a record high in 2008, however its trade deficit rose along with it. According to recent statistics released by China’s Customs Bureau and the Ministry of Commerce, trade between the DPRK and PRC in 2008 was worth a total of 2.78 billion USD, a 41.2 percent increase over the mere 1.97 billion USD recorded in 2007. DPRK exports to China were worth 750 million USD, a 29.7 percent rise, while imports from China totaled 2.03 billion USD, up 46 percent, which led to a record 1.28 billion USD trade deficit. Mineral resources accounted for more than half (54.7 percent) of North Korea’s exports to China, while the majority of imports were machinery and electronic goods. The North’s trade deficit with China has continued to grow for the past five years straight. In 2004, the North’s trade deficit was a mere 210 million USD, but this more than doubled, to 580 million USD, in 2005, rose to 760 million USD in 2006, and then hit 810 million USD in 2007. The reason for the sudden jump in the North’s trade deficit appears to be the globally rising cost of raw materials, and therefore Pyongyang’s trade deficit is expected to continue to rise rapidly in the near future. This deficit is exacerbated by the North’s isolation from the rest of the international community, leaving it little choice but to continue trading at prices set by the Chinese. With the currently frigid relations between Pyongyang and Seoul, and the deadlock in 6-Party Talks, tensions on the Korean Peninsula make it increasingly difficult for North Korea to trade with other countries, so its dependence on China and Chinese goods is expected to continue to grow.
• China Uneasy About Proportion of Holdings in U.S. Treasuries
  By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, March 13, 2009; 11:17 AM SHANGHAI, March 13 -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday that he is "worried" about the country's vast $1 trillion holdings in U.S. Treasuries and that China will pursue a policy of diversification when comes to its future foreign exchange holdings. Wen's remarks, which were made at the close of the annual National People's Congress meeting in Beijing, echoed those that have been made by other high-ranking policymakers and bankers over the past year since the subprime crisis devastated the value of the mortgage-backed securities that made up a large chunk of China's U.S. holdings. "We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried," Wen said.
• Tempting the Dragon
  By Mark J. Valencia
  March 12th, 2009 Mark J. Valencia, Visiting Senior Fellow at the Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA), writes, “the real issue of course is China’s expanding blue water navy and its major submarine base on Hainan. Obviously it wants to protect its ‘secrets’ in the area including the activities and capabilities of its submarines and the morphology of the sea bottom. And just as intently, the US wants to know as much as it can about China’s submarine capabilities and the area it may one day need to do battle in. Thus such incidents are likely to be repeated and become more dangerous and they do not pertain to China and the US alone.” The ‘harassment’ of the US Navy military survey vessel Impeccable operating in China’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea is but the tip of an iceberg of maritime legal differences between China and the US. Indeed this is not the first such incident and unless a compromise can be negotiated it certainly won’t be the last. According to the 1982 UN Convention Law of the Sea, marine scientific research in a foreign EEZ can only be undertaken with the consent of the coastal state. This is because such research and activities may have direct bearing on the exploration, exploitation, conservation or management of the coastal state’s living and non-living resources. The research must also be for peaceful purposes only. China has ratified the Convention. The US has not although it maintains that most of it is binding customary law. [China confrontation] [Legality]
• China local, China global
  Kerry Brown
  China's domestic economic troubles and its high-level diplomacy take on a different aspect in the northeastern city of Harbin, finds Kerry Brown. 12 - 03 - 2009 In China's industrial zones today, there is a palpable feeling of the great wheels of this enormous, complex economy grinding down. The northeast city of Harbin is deep in state-owned-industry territory - part of the Heilongjiang region where the then-premier Zhu Rongji was in the 1990s willing to see millions laid off work in order to rationalise and streamline the state sector.
• Premier of DPRK to Visit China
  Pyongyang, March 10 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Il, premier of the Cabinet of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, will soon pay an official goodwill visit to the People's Republic of China at the invitation of Wen Jiabao, Premier of the PRC State Council.
• China hit by massive drop in exports
  By Geoff Dyer in Beijing Published: March 11 2009 03:30 | Last updated: March 11 2009 05:27 Chinese exports slumped 25.7 per cent in February, much higher than analysts had expected, as the global economic crisis began to take its full toll on the country’s export sector. However, the government also announced a strong increase in fixed asset investment in the first two months of the year, which economists said was a sign that fiscal stimulus measures were starting to have an impact. China’s exports have decreased for four months in a row, but until February the rate of decline had been much slower than seen in other Asian countries with large export sectors.
• Report: China Says Activity by US Ship Illegal
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 10, 2009 Filed at 2:11 a.m. ET BEIJING (AP) -- China has accused a U.S. Navy mapping ship of conducting illegal activity inside China's exclusive economic zone, a Hong Kong television station reported Monday -- Beijing's first response to the latest crisis between the two militaries. The U.S. Defense Department says Chinese ships surrounded and harassed the Navy vessel in international waters Sunday, at one point coming within 25 feet (8 meters) of the American boat and strewing debris in its path. However, Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television cited an unidentified diplomat at the Chinese Embassy in Washington as saying that Beijing considered the ship to be in violation of Chinese and international law and had sent ships to interdict it. [Economic warfare]
• Chinese vessels 'harassed US Navy ship'
  By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Monday, 9 March 2009
  The US Defense Department charged today that five Chinese ships shadowed and manouvered dangerously close to a US Navy vessel in an apparent attempt to harass the American crew. Related articles Officials in the Obama administration said yesterday's incident followed several days of "increasingly aggressive" acts by Chinese ships in the region. The incident took place in international waters in the South China Sea, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Hainan Island. [China confrontation] [Pentagon]
• For some Chinese Muslims, knowledge of Arabic translates into opportunity
  By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers TONGXIN, China—Arab oil wealth has begun to splash an unusual job opportunity on an ethnic minority in a depressed and remote area of China. Members of the Muslim Hui minority are finding that their grounding in Arabic, used to study the Quran, allows them to work as well-paid translators for the Arabic-speaking traders flooding into China. A boom in Arabic-language study has swept over small cities such as Tongxin, in the impoverished Ningxia Autonomous Region, which pumps out graduates with Arabic skills to send to coastal regions to work as translators.[Islam]
• Government sees need for cross-strait economic deal
  Publication Date:03/06/2009 By Adela Lin President Ma Ying-jeou said Taiwan must ink an economic cooperation framework agreement with mainland China as this may pave the way for signing free trade deals with other economies. “If we do not do this now, we will regret it tomorrow,” Ma said Feb. 27. “It can prevent us from being marginalized and is part of our internationalization efforts as we pursue similar trade agreements with other trading partners.” Ma explained that such a measure would help normalize cross-strait economic and trade relations and help put the island on an equal footing with competitors. The pursuit of an ECFA comes at a time when many of Taiwan’s trading partners are integrating economically in the region. [Straits] [FTA]
• China Outlines Ambitious Plan for Stimulus
  By MICHAEL WINES Published: March 4, 2009 BEIJING — Warning that China faces “unprecedented difficulties and challenges,” Prime Minister Wen Jiabao outlined a barrage of construction, increased subsidies and economic measures on Thursday aimed at continuing his nation’s modernization despite a world financial crisis. He also indicated that China’s leaders would seek to begin a fundamental shift in their economic strategy by encouraging citizens to spend and consume more goods, as in most Western economies. China’s startling growth has been driven so far by exports and abundant spending on roads, dams and other infrastructure projects, a trend that experts say cannot be sustained in the long term. But in a long speech to the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, he did not explicitly announce any new spending to combat the financial crisis beyond the $585 billion China committed to spend in November.
• In China, Despair Mounting Among Migrant Workers
  Millions Are Without Jobs, Options By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, March 4, 2009; Page A10 YIWU, China -- Li Jiang was hungry. Huddled in the freezing rain with more than 1,000 other people at 6 a.m., he stood patiently in line hoping he had come early enough to get some of the free rice porridge steaming in giant cauldrons nearby. It was an unfamiliar feeling for Li. For the past 11 years, he had been making a comfortable living on a steady stream of construction and factory jobs that afforded him fancy cellphones and other modern luxuries. But he was laid off two months ago, and it has been impossible to find work since. "This is an unfair society," said Li, 27. "The government isn't giving much help, and there are too many bosses who are out to cheat us." It is the first time in his life, he said, that he has felt such deprivation. Six months into what economists and labor experts say is China's worst job crisis since it began market reforms 30 years ago, many among the most vulnerable -- an estimated 20 million workers who lost their jobs after migrating from the countryside to cities -- are becoming desperate.
• Facing Counterfeiting Crackdown, Beijing Vendors Fight Back
  Sharon laFraniere Published: March 1, 2009 BEIJING — Any tourist who has stepped foot in this city’s famous Silk Street Market can testify that it is home to some of the wiliest, most tenacious vendors who ever tried to palm off a fake handbag on a naïve foreigner. Skip to next paragraph   The New York Times Some Silk Street Market stalls were shut down temporarily. So when the market managers temporarily shut down 29 stalls over the past month for selling counterfeit goods, no one expected the merchants to acquiesce quietly to the loss of business. “We expected trouble,” said Zhao Tianying, a legal consultant with IntellecPro, a Beijing firm specializing in intellectual property rights, who represents five foreign luxury-brand manufacturers that have sued the market for trademark violations. “But we never imagined this.” The vendors have responded with the same ferocity with which they nail down a sale. Dozens of them have staged weekly protests against IntellecPro lawyers who are pursuing the trademark case, mocking them as bourgeois puppets of foreigners. The vendors confronted witnesses who provided evidence of trademark violations and filed a countersuit asserting that only the government can shutter a business. A few characters scrawled in pencil on the wall outside IntellecPro’s office sums up the vendors’ message: “We want to eat!” The skirmish between the crafty but mostly uneducated hawkers and five of the world’s best known producers of designer goods is part of a much bigger fight over China’s vast counterfeit industry. American movie, music and software companies alone estimate that Chinese pirated goods cost them more than $2 billion a year in sales. [IPR]
• Eyewitness to History
  National Security Council Secretary General Su Chi's book gives an insider's view of Taiwan's changing relationship with mainland China. (Photo by Chang Su-ching) Publication Date:03/01/2009 Byline:ROBERT GREEN The secretary general of the National Security Council traces the pendulum swings in the relationship between Taipei and Beijing and provides an insider's account of the ruling party's approach to engaging mainland China. Books written by politicians tend to have a certain self-serving quality. They are often written during campaigns to outline policy positions, or written later in life to recast political episodes already closed. It takes an irrepressible personality, however, to write a political book that situates the author in the midst of a controversy over the most contentious issue in a nation's domestic and foreign policy just as the author takes office as a major figure in a new administration. The personality in question is Su Chi, who has spent his career moving back and forth between academia and politics. From 1999 to 2000 as chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the agency tasked with formulating new approaches to Taiwan's prickly relationship with mainland China, Su observed a sea change in attitude under former President Lee Teng-hui that ignited tensions with Beijing and bedeviled cross-strait relations until 2008. [Straits]
• Public views cross-strait ties’ future with optimism
  Publication Date:02/27/2009  By Chiayi Ho People in Taiwan are pleased to see that relations with mainland China have eased and are optimistic about the future development of cross-strait ties, the Mainland Affairs Council said Feb. 16. MAC Deputy Minister Liu Teh-hsun made the remark after disclosing the summarized results of 108 public surveys conducted by various local media and government agencies in 2008. Liu explained the study was necessary in order to make the government’s mainland policy more consistent with mainstream public opinion.  [Straits]
• China's Carmakers Zooming Ahead
  Chinese carmakers made headlines at the Detroit Motor show which drew to a close on Jan. 25, in stark contrast to the city's Big Three GM, Ford and Chrysler, to say nothing of Korea's Ssangyong. China is now the world's third-largest manufacturer of automobiles. Data compiled by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows China produced 9.34 million automobiles last year, taking third place after Japan (11.5 million) and the United States (10.7 million). It raced ahead of automotive powerhouse Germany a long time ago in terms of output and manufactures more than twice as many cars as Korea, which is ranked fifth. There are 19 major Chinese manufacturers of finished automobiles, and including minor producers the number rises to 130. And the Chinese market for automobiles is growing by the day. Last year, 9.38 million automobiles were sold in China, including 5.04 million passenger cars. What is especially impressive is the growth of domestic Chinese automakers that have not formed joint ventures with foreign manufacturers. These sold 1.3 million cars last year, accounting for 26 percent of the Chinese market.  
• China's Lunar Probe Lands on Moon
  China says its first lunar probe has landed on the moon, marking a significant step forward in its space exploration program. The state-run Xinhua news agency says the satellite hit the lunar surface Sunday, ending a 16-month mission through space. The landing was the first step in China's plans to land a vehicle on the moon to collect mineral samples in 2012. Before that happens, China plans to send another lunar probe to the moon to practice soft landings. China became the third country to send a manned flight into space in 2003, following Russia and the United States.  
• U.S., China End Talks With Plans for More
  Military Dialogue Described as Frank and Open
  By Maureen Fan Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, March 1, 2009; Page A13 BEIJING, Feb. 28 -- China and the Obama administration concluded their first military consultations Saturday without setting a timetable for high-level exchanges while agreeing to begin working-level talks Monday. The discussions reflected the Chinese military's greater international role and followed Beijing's suspension of most military contacts in October after the United States announced a $6.5 billion arms sale to Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province.
• Globalization, Global History and Local Identity in “Greater China”
  Q. Edward Wang[1] I would like to start with by defining what I mean by “Greater China.” It is a term used commonly in economics and investment communities around the world. It includes mainland China (hereafter China), Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan (Singapore, given its sizable Chinese community, is often included), despite the uneasiness of some Taiwanese scholars about the concept. At a cultural level, “greater China” corresponds with the term “cultural China,” coined by Tu Wei-ming during the 1990s when he spoke about the revival of Confucianism in the postwar period, arguing that instead of an impediment, Confucian values and ideals actually paved the way for the advance of economic expansion in many East Asian countries and regions.[2] This economic expansion continued subsequently powered by globalization. Here, I offer a brief survey of the differing interests in, and engagements with, the study of globalization and global history in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I argue that in the face of globalization, each of these regions developed distinct strategies to perceive and interpret its multifaceted impact. Thus, though I use the term “Greater China,” I intend to emphasize the very different approaches to the regional and the global in the case of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. [Globalisation]

• Hyundai Motor Beats All Japanese Auto Sales in China
  Beijing Hyundai Motor ranked fourth in China's vehicle sales in January of this year, beating all Japanese car makers. Last month, it sold 35,183 cars, up 17 percent compared to last year, in the Chinese market, taking a market share of 7.3 percent. Meanwhile, China's January demand for passenger vehicles fell 11 percent. Beijing Hyundai had maintained the fourth position in sales in the Chinese market until 2006, after which it tumbled to eighth spot, pushed out by Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Cherry, China's native automaker, in 2007. Hyundai Motor, however, last month outperformed all Japanese automakers, including FAW Toyota, Dongfeng Nissan, and Guangzhou Honda, which ranked fourth to sixth in annual sales last year. Shanghai Volkswagen ranked first, selling 40,642 cars with a market share of 8.4 percent last month, followed by FAW Volkswagen (38,771 cars) and Shanghai GM (36,062).
• Clinton goes to China
  The new secretary of state faces tough challenges when she visits Beijing – the US needs China's help in so many areas Comments (15) Nina Hachigian guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 February 2009 13.00 GMT Article historyThe debate about whether to engage China is over – we are now about 20 years into a common-law marriage. The debate about whether China will join the international community also is over. Beijing has been signing up for multilateral forums as if they were going out of style. The great challenge for US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, when she visits Beijing from Friday, is to influence China to play a larger role in preventing global catastrophes in these areas: the economy, nuclear proliferation, climate change and pandemic disease.
• Floral Basket to Kim Jong Il from Chinese Party
  Pyongyang, February 13 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il received a floral basket from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the occasion of his birthday. The basket was conveyed to an official concerned by Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Xiaoming on Friday.
• Chinese Exports Plummet in January
  By BETTINA WASSENER Published: February 11, 2009 China’s exports plummeted in January, the latest sign of the sharp downturn in demand that has hit Asian economies hard and slowed China’s once-booming economy and fanned concerns of growing joblessness and social unrest. The 17.5 percent decline from a year earlier was worse than most analysts had projected and could dash hopes among some economists, based on recent initial purchasing mangers’ surveys and bank lending data, that the downturn had begun to bottom out.
• U.S. Prepares to Broach Hard Issues With China
  By MARK LANDLER Published: February 10, 2009 WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to realign the United States’ relationship with China by putting more emphasis on climate change, energy and human rights, widening the focus beyond the economic concerns of the Bush years, according to senior administration officials. With Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton scheduled to visit Beijing next week as part of her first foreign trip in her new job, the administration is said to believe that a broader relationship with the Chinese could create opportunities for collaboration — not only on a response to the global economic crisis, but also on the environment and on security issues like the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs. Yet the new focus, which is being championed by Mrs. Clinton, carries risks, experts said, because it could aggravate tensions on delicate issues like China’s repression of Tibet and its position as the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases.
• China Passes Germany With 3rd-Highest GDP
  By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, January 15, 2009; Page A16 BEIJING, Jan. 14 -- China leapfrogged over Germany to become the world's third-largest economy in 2007, sooner than predicted, underscoring how quickly the concentration of global economic power has shifted. While earlier estimates had put growth of China's gross domestic product that year at 11.9 percent, revised figures released by the government statistics bureau Wednesday show that its economy actually expanded by 13 percent to $3.38 trillion. That compares with Germany's 2007 GDP of $3.32 trillion. [China rising]
• Global opinion of China and the U.S.
  A nearly equal percentage of people around the world think positively of China and the United States. Negative opinion is also nearly the same. That’s what the latest opinion tracking poll of the BBC shows. The results, available here, show that those polled holding a positive opinion of China and the United States is nearly the same – 39 and 40 percent, respectively. (This is among citizens of 20 large nations around the world.) But the trend lines are different. Positive opinions of China fell in the past year despite hosting the Summer Olympics. In 2008, 45 percent held a positive view of China, the poll says. And the election of President Barack Obama gave only a small bump to the perception of the United States. The percentage of positive impressions climbed from 35 percent in 2008 to 40 percent now. Negative opinions of China were at 40 percent, while for the U.S. they were 43 percent. A press release on the poll quoted Globescan Chairman Doug Miller saying: "Our poll results suggest that China has much to learn about winning hearts and minds in the world. It seems that a successful Olympic Games has not been enough to offset other concerns that people have [Image] [China rising] [Softpower] [Media]
• Chinese Government to Provide Free Aid to DPRK
  Pyongyang, February 4 (KCNA) -- The government of the People's Republic of China recently decided to offer free aid to the DPRK. The aid will be an encouragement to the Korean people in their struggle to accelerate the building of a great prosperous powerful nation.
• China auto sales seen surpassing US in January
  The Associated Press Published: February 4, 2009 SHANGHAI: Two years ago, China zoomed past Japan to become the world's No. 2 vehicle market. Now it looks poised to pass up the United States to be the biggest. While car sales in China have slowed lately, they haven't plummeted like those in the U.S., where January sales tumbled 37 percent from a year ago to 656,976 vehicles, a 26-year low. Official Chinese auto data comes out next week, but January sales are expected to decline 8 percent to 790,000 units, Zhang Xin, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Beijing, said Wednesday. "This is the first time in history that China has passed the United States in monthly sales," Mike DiGiovanni, General Motors Corp.'s executive director of global market and industry analysis, said in a conference call late Tuesday. DiGiovanni projects that Chinese auto sales could hit 10.7 million vehicles in 2009, more than his estimate of 9.8 million unit sales in the U.S. this year. Autodata Corp. forecasts 2009 U.S. sales at 9.57 million. [Decline] [China rising]
• Chinese TV Airs Protester Throwing Shoe at Premier
  By Maureen Fan Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, February 4, 2009; Page A11 BEIJING, Feb. 3 -- Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday night aired the full news footage of a protester throwing a shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a speech in Britain, an unusual step given the state-controlled media's routine censorship of incidents embarrassing to China. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he regretted the incident, which occurred while Wen was speaking at Cambridge University. The shoe landed on stage about three feet from Wen, a reminder of the shoe tossed by an Iraqi journalist at then-President George W. Bush in Iraq in December.
• China to go on European spending spree
  By Geoff Dyer and James Blitz in London Published: February 2 2009 17:27 | Last updated: February 2 2009 17:27 China will set up “procurement missions” to buy goods and technologies in Europe in an effort to stem protectionist sentiment in the region against its exports. Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier who was talking in London on Monday at the end of a five-day trip to Europe, said the procurement trips would be established as soon as possible. EDITOR’S CHOICE Downturn slashes 20m jobs in China - Feb-02Plan to boost Chinese farmers’ spending - Feb-02Editorial Comment: Bejing besieged by caution - Feb-02Video: ‘The mandarins’ mandarin’ - FT editor, Lionel Barber, profiles Wen Jiabao - Feb-02Wen looks at fresh Chinese stimulus - Feb-01Full transcript: Wen Jiabao - Feb-02“Confidence is the most important thing, more important than gold or currency,” Mr Wen said at a meeting with Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, and business leaders. China would seek to purchase commodities and technologies needed by its companies in an attempt to “help us restore and shore up confidence in the market”. He said Chinese companies had signed contracts totalling $15bn (€11.7bn, £10.6bn) during his trip to Europe. [Protectionism]
• Downturn causes 20m job losses in China
  By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing and Geoff Dyer in London Published: February 2 2009 07:10 | Last updated: February 2 2009 19:20 More than 20m rural migrant workers in China have lost their jobs and returned to their home villages or towns as a result of the global economic crisis, government figures revealed on Monday. By the start of the Chinese new year festival on January 25, 15.3 per cent of China’s 130m migrant workers had lost their jobs and left coastal manufacturing centres to return home, said officials quoting a survey from the agriculture ministry. The job losses were a direct result of the global economic crisis and its impact on export-oriented manufacturers, said Chen Xiwen, director of the Office of Central Rural Work Leading Group. He warned that the flood of unemployed migrants would pose challenges to social stability in the countryside. [Labour]
• Wen looks at fresh Chinese stimulus
  By Lionel Barber, James Kynge and Geoff Dyer in London Published: February 1 2009 22:00 | Last updated: February 1 2009 22:00 China has pledged to take all necessary measures to stimulate its economy and fuel consumer spending, but has rejected as “ridiculous” suggestions that its huge pool of domestic savings has been partly to blame for the global financial crisis. In a rare interview, Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, said in London on Sunday that Beijing was considering fresh measures to boost its economy beyond its Rmb4,000bn ($585bn, €458bn, £404bn) fiscal package launched late last year. He told the Financial Times: “We may take further new, timely and decisive measures. All these measures have to be taken pre-emptively before an economic retreat.” Mr Wen is on the fifth leg of a European tour aimed at reassuring trade partners that China will join the west in a co-ordinated effort to tackle the global economic crisis. Although Mr Wen declined to rule out explicitly a devaluation of the renminbi, he stressed that Beijing intended to keep its currency stable at a “balanced and reasonable level”.
• Obama, Hu to Work for Nuke-Free NK
  U.S. President Barack Obama has called Chinese President Hu Jintao to reaffirm his pledge to denuclearize North Korea through six-party talks, Yonhap News reported quoting the White House. "President Obama expressed appreciation for China's role as Chair of the Six-Party Talks and the two sides affirmed the importance of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
• China to Tighten Ties with N.Korea
  China is expected to strengthen relations with North Korea with a summit. Last week a senior Chinese official visited North Korea with a letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao inviting North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to Beijing. As 2009 marks the 60th year since the two countries established diplomatic relations, sources in Beijing told South Korea's Yonhap news agency that China plans several celebratory events with North Korea. With Kim accepting the invitation from his impoverished nation's most vital ally, many expect Hu to visit Pyongyang as well.

• China, Korea rank top in U.S. for electronic goods
  January 28, 2009 U.S. buyers for electronics products say that China and Korea are their top countries of choice for this year’s purchases. According to a survey by Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (or Kotra) of 211 U.S.-based buyers for electronics products, the number one destination for purchases this year, with 28 percent of responses, was China. Korea came in a close second with 27 percent. [China competition]
• NK Opens Consular Office in Dandong
  North Korea has opened a consulate office in Dandong, a major Chinese city bordering North Korea, displaying its intention to reinforce bilateral trade relations with China, a source here said Sunday. ``The North Korean consulate general in Shenyang recently established its office in Dandong and dispatched personnel there,'' said the source. ``The move signals the North's intention to increase its product procurement from China through brisker border trade and strengthen its consular affairs amid a growing North Korean population in the Chinese border city.''
  Bilateral trade and cooperation via Dandong are expected to grow further as China and North Korea are to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in 2009 and launch a joint ``Year of Friendship.'' Two-way trade is estimated to have topped $2 billion last year. [Opening]
• Korea Braces for China Shock
  By Kim Jae-kyoung Staff Reporter China has been emerging as the biggest threat to the Korean economy, with Korea's main export growth engine for over a decade losing steam at an unexpectedly fast pace in the wake of the global economic recession. Despite a four trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package, China's economic growth plunged to 6.8 percent last quarter, bringing down the 2008 annual growth to a seven-year low of 9 percent. High dependence on China has made Korea particularly vulnerable to emerging China risk. The country takes in around 23 percent of Korea's total exports, and accounted for 28 percent of Korea's GDP growth during 2003-2008. Many believe that the deepening slump in the U.S. is a major stumbling block to Asia's fourth largest economy and China would be a savior, but the ``China as savior'' story does not seem to be playing out any more as it is no longer a source of growth.
• Kim Jong-il Agrees to Visit China
  In his first-ever meeting with a foreign envoy since his alleged grave illness last August, Kim Jong-il agreed to visit China, SBS reported Saturday. In his meeting with the North Korea’s top leader, Wang Jiarui, chief of the international department in the Chinese Communist Party's central committee, read out a personal letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao, before giving it to Kim, Chinese state media CCTV reported. In the letter, Hu invited Kim to visit China. Kim "warmly accepted" the invitation, Xinhua news agency said. China is the North's biggest economic benefactor.
• Kim Jong Il Meets CPC Delegation
  Pyongyang, January 23 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il Friday met the visiting delegation of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China led by its Head Wang Jiarui. Present there were Kang Sok Ju, first vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Xiaoming.
• Obama Moves to Counter China With Pentagon-NASA Link
  By Demian McLean Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between the U.S.’s civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China. [Pentagon] [China confrontation] [Space race]
• Zheng He plan to lift exports
  Director-general Huang Chih-peng introduces the "New Zheng He Plan" at a Publication Date:01/02/2009 Section:Front Page By Eric Chao Concerned at the damaging effects of the global economic crisis on Taiwan's manufacturers, the government approved an NT$8.53 billion (US$258.7 million) plan Dec. 25, 2008 aimed at boosting the island's annual exports over the next four years. According to Huang Chih-peng, director-general of the Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the initiative will assist local companies to broaden their exports. This will be accomplished through a further opening of the mainland Chinese market, targeting emerging economies, expanding global marketing programs and enticing foreign companies to place more purchase orders. "We are seeking to generate export growth by helping local companies attract over NT$540 billion in orders for 2009," Huang said. He explained that the project was named after Zheng He, the legendary Ming dynasty (1368-1644) mariner who sailed to countries throughout Asia promoting Chinese products and conducting business in those regions. "This name symbolizes the government's commitment to overcoming difficulties during these challenging times." MOEA data indicates that Taiwan's exports last November fell 23.3 percent from a year earlier, marking the third consecutive month of decline. Export orders have posted single-digit growth since June 2008, with the indicator dropping by a record 28.5 percent.
• Direct links to provide new business opportunities
  Publication Date:01/02/2009 Section:Economy By Meg Chang The launching of direct transportation links between Taiwan and mainland China Dec. 15, 2008 amid the global economic downturn underscores the country's pivotal role in the region, and will create enormous business opportunities, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The new policy is set to benefit businesses as much as individuals. With bilateral trade reaching US$130 billion a year and the country's investments on the mainland well exceeding US$3 billion, Taiwan will save at least US$151 million a year in transportation costs alone, according to estimates provided by shipping and airfreight industries. Thanks to the new policy, same-day traveling between the two sides of the strait has finally become a reality after years in the making. For some, this is a belated present. "For the past 10 years, I have had to spend half a day to fly back to Taipei every month," explained Chang Tung-lung, who runs a hardware factory in Shenzhen, a city north of Hong Kong. "But now, home is only two hours away," he said. Based on estimates by the Straits Exchange Foundation, more than 1 million Taiwanese reside in the mainland for business purposes. [Straits]
• Kaohsiung Harbor ready for turnaround
  Publication Date:01/02/2009 Section:Economy By Meg Chang After a nearly 60-year wait, a cargo ship departed Kaohsiung Harbor Dec. 15 last year, and sailed directly to Tianjin Harbor in northern mainland China. With this historical journey, the southern port of Taiwan is set to reposition itself as a strategic transportation hub in the Asia-Pacific region. [Straits]
• Why China Helped Countries Like Pakistan, North Korea Build Nuclear Bombs
  By Alex Kingsbury Posted January 2, 2009 Former U.S. Air Force Secretary Thomas Reed knows nuclear bombs better than most people. For starters, he designed two of them when he worked at the Livermore National Laboratory as a weapons designer. His new book The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and Its Proliferation, co-written with Danny Stillman, the former director of the technical intelligence division at Los Alamos National Laboratory, rewrites much of the public understanding about how countries with nuclear weapons came to acquire them. All countries that built bombs, including the United States, spied on or were given access to the work of other nuclear powers. In particular, the book is a scathing indictment of the Chinese government, alleging that it intentionally proliferated nuclear technology to risky regimes, particularly Pakistan. [Proliferation]
• As Trade Slows, China Rethinks Its Growth Strategy
  By KEITH BRADSHER Published: December 31, 2008 HONG KONG — At the docks here, the stacks of shipping containers that used to loom above the highway overpass are gone. Logistics managers say they negotiate deeper discounts every week on ships that are leaving half empty. Government statistics show that exports plummeted 9.6 percent in November when measured in yuan, the Chinese currency. In nearby Guangdong province, so many factories are shuttering without paying employees that some workers are resigning pre-emptively and demanding immediate pay before their employers go bankrupt.
  In the last two weeks, Chinese officials have announced a series of measures to help exporters. State banks are being directed to lend more to them, particularly to small and medium-size exporters. Government research funds are being set up. The head of the government of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang, plans to seek legislative approval by late January for the government to guarantee banks’ issuance of $12.9 billion worth of letters of credit for exports. Particularly noteworthy have been the Chinese government’s steps to help labor-intensive sectors like garment production, one of the industries China has been trying to move away from in an effort to climb the ladder of economic development with more skilled work that pays higher wages. But now China has become reluctant to yield the bottom rungs of the ladder to countries with even lower wages, like Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh.