CSG news update -- 2006-12-19

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

China Study Group news update

Hospital gives new mums five-star treatment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1975165,00.html
The Guardian | 2006-12-19
Jonathan Watts
Wealthy new mothers in Shanghai will soon be able to sing away the postnatal blues at a luxury hospital that boasts a karaoke room, a golf course, a swimming pool and tennis courts, the state-run media reported today.  Dubbed China's first "five-star medical institution", the Xiyue Postnatal H...

Ageing population cannot be ignored
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-12/19/content_762496.htm
China Daily | 2006-12-19
Guo Zhe
According to the latest issue of China Economic Weekly, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security announced that the country's pension fund had a deficit of 800 billion yuan (US$100 billion) by the end of 2005.  Another sombre fact is that China is quickly becoming an ageing society.  A sam...

M&As 'to stay strong in 2007'
http://en.ce.cn/Business/Macro-economic/200612/19/t20061219_9798488.shtml
China Daily | 2006-12-19
Strong growth in China's merger and acquisition (M&A) market this year will continue into 2007 in the wake of sustained economic growth and the further opening of the domestic economy across a broader range of sectors, a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said yesterday.  Foreign corpora...

Cheap foot soldiers run China boom
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=20&art_id=34374&sid=11403446&con_type=1&d_str=20061219&sear_year=2006
LA Times | 2006-12-19
When he swings open the front gate on one of his brief visits home, Li Wen reveals a two-story white-brick house with bright tile mosaics of trees and pagodas. It contrasts sharply with the mud walls and rusted tin roofs more common in his village.  Over the past 15 years, Li has earned a living r...

Crowding people's market for cabbage: The price is right
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/19/asia/web.1219cabbage.php
New York Times | 2006-12-19
Jim Yardley
At 5:45 in the morning the cabbage line outside the Old Drum Tower Outer Street New People's Produce Market is nearly two hours old. First in line is a 72-year-old woman named Mrs. Wang, who awoke at 3, arrived at 4 and would wait until 8:30 for a single head of winter cabbage. Free.  Cabbage,...

China names key industries for absolute state control
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/19/content_762056.htm
China Daily | 2006-12-19
Zhao Huanxin
What are the key sectors critical to national security and the economic lifeline of China?  The answer, given yesterday, is: armaments, power generation and distribution, oil and petrochemicals, telecommunications, coal, aviation and shipping industries where the State must have "absolute control,...

Chinese Success Story Chokes on Its Own Growth
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/world/asia/19shenzhen.html
New York Times | 2006-12-19
Howard W. French
SHENZHEN, China — When Zhang Feifei lost her job in this booming Chinese factory town, she was not terribly concerned. Jobs had always been plentiful in Shenzhen's flourishing economy.  Then Ms. Zhang, a 20-year-old migrant laborer, lost her identity card and was shocked to find that no ...

Guangdong bank sale approved
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=10&art_id=34421&sid=11408820&con_type=1&d_str=20061219&sear_year=2006
AP | 2006-12-18
A Citigroup-led consortium has won approval to buy a Guangdong bank in a US$3.1 billion (HK$24.1 billion) deal that would give a foreign lender control of a mainland institution for the first time in the country's newly opened market.  Approval of the purchase of Guangdong Development Bank was...

New at Wal-Marts in China: A Communist Party branch
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/18/business/walmart.php
AP | 2006-12-18
Joe McDonald
Employees at the Chinese headquarters of Wal-Mart have set up a Communist Party branch, the company and the party said Monday, as part of a campaign by the party to expand at foreign companies.  The state-sanctioned labor body in China set up unions this year at Wal- Marts in the country.  Wal-M...

State sees red as green GDP plan fails deadline
http://en.ce.cn/Business/Macro-economic/200612/18/t20061218_9790627.shtml
Shanghai Daily | 2006-12-18
China will fail to meet its target of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by four percent this year, according to official figures from the National Development and Reform Commission.  China has set a unit energy consumption reduction target of 20 percent for the five-year period from 2006...

In Chinese Boomtown, Middle Class Pushes Back
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/world/asia/18shenzhen.html
New York Times | 2006-12-18
Howard W. French
SHENZHEN, China — When residents here in southern China's richest city learned of plans to build an expressway that would cut through the heart of their congested, middle-class neighborhood, they immediately organized a campaign to fight City Hall.  Over the next two years they managed t...