CSG news update -- 2006-10-11

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

China Study Group news update

China's Beijing sets up IPR protection zone
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-10-10T191444Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-271652-1.xml&archived=False
Reuters | 2006-10-10
BEIJING - The government of Beijing's Chaoyang District has signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham-China) to create a special zone for protecting intellectual property rights, the business group said on Tuesday.  AmCham-China said in a state...

China: two systems, third way
http://mondediplo.com/2006/10/13china
Le Monde diplomatique | 2006-10-10
François Jullien
China's success may come from its ability to encompass two different traditions and allow them to cohabit, so that western culture cross- fertilises Chinese tradition. From Beijing's viewpoint, the world may now be returning to a proper balance after Europe's fleeting ascendancy.  By F...

Latin America's Chinese wake-up call
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HJ11Cb01.html
Asia Times | 2006-10-10
Jose Orozco
CARACAS - As China's economy expands rapidly, the emerging powerhouse is aggressively going out to search for energy resources and raw materials to keep its economic engine going. While China keeps its eye on the huge US market for its manufactured goods, it also increases its interest in raw ma...

Beijing 'resolutely opposed' to DPRK nuclear test
http://english.people.com.cn/200610/10/eng20061010_310269.html
China Daily | 2006-10-10
China is "resolutely opposed" to the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) yesterday, the Foreign Ministry said in a harshly worded statement.  "On October 9, the DPRK flagrantly conducted a nuclear test in disregard of the common opposition of the internat...

Woman tops China rich list
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7a64b676-585a-11db-b70f-0000779e2340.html
Financial Times | 2006-10-10
Andrew Yeh
A female paper recycling entrepreneur worth an estimated $3.4bn has topped the latest list of mainland China's richest people, marking the first time a woman has been ranked as the wealthiest person.  Zhang Yin "pole-vaulted" to the number one spot when her company, Nine Dragons Paper, was lis...

China's pension fund to invest $1b abroad
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/10/content_705038.htm
AP | 2006-10-10
BEIJING - China's state pension fund is preparing to make its first investments abroad, putting up to US$1 billion into foreign financial markets in an effort to improve returns on its reserves, the fund's chief said Tuesday.  The step comes as the 230 billion yuan (US$29 billion) National...

Abe's visit builds up hope for better ties
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/10/content_705384.htm
Xinhua | 2006-10-10
Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, concluded his visit to China on Monday, which was not only Abe's first foreign trip since he assumed the premiership, but also the first visit to China by a Japanese prime minister in the past five years.  The two-day trip symbolized the thaw of the ...

 'Harmonious society' the right choice
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/10/content_705388.htm
Xinhua | 2006-10-10
Experts have backed the decision by China's Communist Party (CPC) to prioritize the creation of a harmonious society at its ongoing Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee.  "This is a major strategic move taken by the party to build a fair and just society and attain sustainable s...

China, angered, takes harder line with North
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/10/news/china.php
New York Times | 2006-10-10
Joseph Kahn 
BEIJING - China's punctilious Foreign Ministry reserves the word hanran, which translates as brazen or flagrant, for serious affronts to the nation's dignity by countries that have historically been rivals or enemies.   When the previous Japanese prime minister visited the Yasukuni Shrine,...

China's Oil Safari
http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/2006/10/06/energy-african-oil-biz-energy_cx_jc_1009beijing_energy06.html
Forbes | 2006-10-09
Shu-Ching Jean Chen
China has a straightforward strategy for diminishing its dependence on Middle East oil: buy from Africa. This year Angola has replaced the world's largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, as China's main oil supplier.  A mere eight years after its first foray into Africa's oil fields, an in...

Speeding to the Lead in China
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-ft-chicars9oct09,1,6078780.story
Financial Times | 2006-10-09
Geoff Dyer
Chinese car manufacturers are on a roll. Only a few years ago, homegrown brands were the also-rans of the fast-growing Chinese market. This year, Chinese carmakers have been the leading group, gaining a market share of 27% in the first seven months of the year.  Aided by a booming domestic market ...

Censor sees through writer's guile in tale of China's blood-selling scandal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1890867,00.html
The Guardian | 2006-10-09
Jonathan Watts
Millions of pints of blood are pumped through underground pipelines from a big developing country to wealthy consumers in the United States and elsewhere. The blood trade has produced the most spectacular boom in human history. In just five years, the formerly dirt-poor state at the heart of the hae...

Africans Lash Out at Chinese Employers
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-chizambia6oct06,1,5661751.story
LA Times | 2006-10-06
Robyn Dixon
MAAMBA, Zambia — Deep in the tunnel of the Collum mine, coal dust swirls thickly, and it's stifling for workers such as Chengo Nguni. He describes his $2-a-day job with a sigh: His supervisor yells incomprehensibly in Chinese. His rubber boots leak. The buttons to control the flow of ore o...

Iran, Beijing's key to the Middle East
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HJ07Ad01.html
Asia Times | 2006-10-06
Dario Cristiani
China's decision to send 1,000 soldiers to southern Lebanon with the United Nations peacekeeping mission is the latest example of Beijing's increased involvement in the Middle East.  The overall importance of the broader Middle East for China's geostrategy is growing. China is searchin...

China's draft postal law angers private firms
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15140589/
Financial Times | 2006-10-06
Local and foreign express delivery companies have denounced the latest draft of China's Postal Law, saying it would create unfair competition, violate trade agreements and destroy non-state businesses employing hundreds of thousands of people.  A meeting last week between industry representati...

China mixes rice and neo-colonialism
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HJ11Cb01.html
Asia Times | 2006-10-05
Kent Ewing
HONG KONG - When China, one of the world's most corrupt countries, starts dishing out tens of billions of US dollars in aid and business contracts in Africa, the world's most corrupt continent, alarm bells go off in Washington and other Western capitals. The fact that China turns a blind eye...

China's long march to capitalism
http://www.marxist.com/china-long-march-capitalism021006.htm
International Marxist Tendency | 2006-10-02
[Note: The original draft of this document was written in April 2006 and was then discussed and voted at the July 2006 World Congress of the IMT] Introduction  After the October 1917 Russian Revolution the Chinese revolution in 1949 was the second most important event in history. It led to the ab...

Running outside the party in China - into resistance
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0928/p01s04-woap.html
Christian Science Monitor | 2006-09-28
Simon Montlake
WUHAN, CHINA – The polls closed at noon and by 2 p.m. Yao Lifa was hunkered down inside a restaurant with a group of first-time candidates, waiting to hear who had been elected to their local assembly.  Mr. Yao phoned another candidate who was supposed to be joining the gathering. Their conversa...