CSG news update -- 2006-05-09

[China Study Group <chinastudygroup@gmail.com>]

China Study Group news update

Rural democracy adds up to a book
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-05/09/content_584843.htm
China Daily | 2006-05-09
Wang Shanshan
Democracy in China. Some people, especially in some Western countries, do not believe it even exists. But it does, and journalist Zhang Yingping has written a new book about it.  The book will probably not be a commercial hit in a market increasingly inundated by leisure-reading or money-making ti...

Domestic and foreign beer brands escalating competition
http://en.ce.cn/Insight/200605/09/t20060509_6901236.shtml
China Economic Net | 2006-05-09
Chen Yan
The latest statistics from Beer Sector Commission of China National Food Industry Association (CNFIA) showed that large beer enterprises have consistently increased their market shares, and brand fight has been carried out in a full scale on the strategic level. The beer sales volume of China Resour...

Housing demand strong but unsold space climbs
http://en.ce.cn/Industries/Property/200605/09/t20060509_6903670.shtml
Shanghai Daily | 2006-05-09
China's real estate industry has seen a slew of contradictory information last month, confusing consumers more than ever and arousing heated discussions among pundits on the seemingly deadlocked question - why are China's home prices continue to fly high, and who should take the blame for it...

The Vatican's China problem
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-oe-faison09may09,1,4433814.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
LA Times | 2006-05-09
Seth Faison
WHEN Mao Tse-tung and his Communist forces swept across China and won its civil war in 1949, the pope's representative to China, Msgr. Antonio Riberi, sent a message from his office in Nanjing to the 5,500 Catholic missionaries spread across the country. It ordered the faithful to stay on post a...

Do not blame China for job losses in the US
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2006-05/09/content_584979.htm
China Daily | 2006-05-08
Guo Di
Many Americans, influenced by US media, believe that their jobs are being stolen by competitors from China.  This opinion, which is widely bought by workers in manufacturing sectors, has great influence on the US Government.  In view of this, it is necessary to analyze the employment situation i...

China campuses' Internet hall monitors
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/08/business/chinanet.php
New York Times | 2006-05-08
Howard W. French
SHANGHAI - To her fellow students, Hu Yingying appears to be a typical undergraduate, plain of dress, quick with a smile and perhaps possessed of a little extra spring in her step, but otherwise decidedly ordinary.  And for Hu, in her second year at Shanghai Normal University, coming across as ord...

Chinese plan to insure bank deposits could affect foreign lenders - report
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/05/08/afx2730136.html
AFX | 2006-05-08
The regulators here are developing a system to insure bank deposits in case a lender fails, as it prepares to liberalize the banking sector, the Wall Street Journal reported.  However, the newspaper said the plan has caused anxiety among foreign banks because it might force them to go down the cos...