CSG news update -- 2006-05-18

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

China Study Group news update

Amid media crackdown, China sentences journalist to 12 years
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/05/17/amid_media_crackdown_china_sentences_journalist_to_12_years/
AP | 2006-05-17
Joe McDonald
BEIJING -- A freelance writer was sentenced to 12 years in prison yesterday, receiving an unusually harsh penalty amid one of China's most severe media crackdowns since the 1980s.  The sentencing of Yang Tianshui on subversion charges was one of a flurry of court actions yesterday against Chin...

Administer remedies to unhealthy market
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2006-05/17/content_592549.htm
China Daily | 2006-05-17
Wang Xiaoguang
The sharply rising housing prices, which are beyond the means of many wage earners, point to one thing - an unhealthy real estate market.  This judgment is based on a number of factors.  To begin with, excessively rapid growth of investment in housing is largely responsible for the current gener...

Pursuit of profits can kill
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2006-05/17/content_592548.htm
China Daily | 2006-05-17
Investigation has brought to light almost the entire process for the production and sale of a faulty drug made by Qiqihar No 2 Pharmaceutical Company.  The drug has already killed five patients.  The drug contained the wrong chemical, which has been confirmed as the culprit for the deaths.  Bu...

China's spending on renewable energy ranks world No. 1
http://en.ce.cn/Industries/Energy&Mining/200605/17/t20060517_6993414.shtml
Xinhua | 2006-05-17
China has become the top investor in renewable energy in the world, experts said Tuesday at the ongoing forum for decentralized sustainable energy solutions in China.  Dr. Eric Martinot, a senior research fellow with the U.S.-basedWorldwatch Institute and senior visiting scholar of Tsinghua Univer...

Next Wave of Camera-Wielding Tourists Is From China
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/world/asia/17travel.html
New York Times | 2006-05-17
Howard W. French
BANGKOK — The way it began, with a buffet laid out on deck and "Moon River" oozing from the loudspeakers, it could have been just about any Bangkok sundown cruise.  But this one was unmistakably different. Before the boat even left the dock the food disappeared, right down to the last slice ...

More curbs loom as bank lending soars
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=5&art_id=18769&sid=7974270&con_type=1&d_str=20060516&sear_year=2006
Reuters | 2006-05-16
Jason Subler
The banking system continued to add new loans at a torrid pace last month, with total yuan loans growing 15.5 percent from a year earlier, reinforcing the case for further tightening measures.  The disclosure by the central People's Bank of China Monday followed its raising of the benchmark on...

Mainland car exports to sputter on strong yuan
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=1&art_id=18781&sid=7964353&con_type=1&d_str=20060516&sear_year=2006
The Standard | 2006-05-16
Alman Loong
Mainland automakers' export sales will drop as the yuan's appreciation crimps export growth, warns the executive vice chairman and secretary general of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.  "A strong yuan will have a negative impact on automakers' earning," Jiang Lei said in ...

The woman who sparked years of death and terror
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2176243,00.html
The Times | 2006-05-12
Jane Macartney
NIE YUANZI is a frail, slightly stooped 85-year-old woman who lives with her two Persian cats in a tiny borrowed Beijing bedsit.  It is hard to imagine that this was the person who sparked the Cultural Revolution, which cost tens of thousands of lives and destroyed the livelihoods of millions. But...