CSG news update -- 2006-09-26

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

China Study Group news update

Rural co-ops offer chance for growth
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2006-09/25/content_695820.htm
China Daily | 2006-09-25
You Nuo
This nation has the world's largest number of rural citizens and its economic growth has benefited immensely from collective farm reforms nearly 30 years ago. The reforms resulted in higher productivity and released abundant rural labour to help urban development.  Despite the changes, country...

China airbrushes the internet
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/09/25/china_airbrushes_the_internet.html
The Guardian | 2006-09-25
In the past, when China's Communist party wanted to erase an ousted leader from the history books, teams of officials would get to work airbrushing photographs and removing files from official archives, writes Peter Walker.  Now, it seems, all that is needed is a few clicks of a mouse.  Earl...

China's subtle corruption
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/1749
Foreign Policy | 2006-09-25
Mike Boyer
I spent Saturday in Laibin, a dusty outpost of about 200,000 inhabitants in China's southern province of Guangxi. Laibin is as close as China gets to the Wild West. Rough-necked workers in hard hats roam the streets. Shops sell cheap food, beer, and cigarettes – and not much more. A few stray ...

 Chinese graft case snares party boss
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/25/news/china.php
New York Times | 2006-09-25
Joseph Kahn
BEIJING - Chinese security officers have detained the powerful party boss of Shanghai for corruption, official media reported Monday, as President Hu Jintao expands a crackdown on graft that has focused on prominent political opponents.   Chen Liangyu, the Communist Party's top official in the...

China's plan to list non-traded shares may pressure market in 2008
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/09/25/afx3042237.html
XFN-ASIA | 2006-09-25
BEIJING - China's stock prices could face pressure in 2008 when all shares become tradable unless fresh moves are made to support the market, according to Carl Walter, a senior executive at JP Morgan.  The state may decide to sell more shares of listed companies while maintaining corporate con...

China builds an ultrafast Internet
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/25/business/chinet.php
AFP | 2006-09-25
BEIJING - China has built its own version of an ultrafast next-generation Internet network that promises to reduce the country's dependence on foreign companies, the state news media reported Monday.  The China Education and Research Network has linked 167 institutes and departments at 25 univ...

China's two-pronged rose strategy
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/25/business/flower.php
New York Times | 2006-09-25
Keith Bradsher
KUNMING, China - Americans are used to buying mass-produced shoes, toys and microwave ovens from China. So why not roses?   That is the thinking behind an elaborate Chinese government effort to export cut flowers, aimed not just at developing a new business to take on the world but also at redevel...

China may relax debt curbs
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/24/bloomberg/bxyuan.php
Bloomberg | 2006-09-24
Eugene Tang
BEIJING - China's foreign-exchange regulator is considering revising rules to let certain companies borrow more abroad, in what could mark a relaxation of controls aimed at preventing speculation on a rising yuan.   The change would replace an absolute loan quota with a rolling credit limit th...