CSG news update -- 2007-05-30

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

China Study Group news update

China opposed more sanction over Sudan
http://en.ce.cn/National/Politics/200705/30/t20070530_11538532.shtml
China Economic Net | 2007-05-30
China said yesterday that it opposed expanded sanctions against Sudan as the United States unveiled tough new restrictions against the African country and pushed for another UN resolution on Darfur.  "Imposing new sanctions only makes the problem more difficult to resolve," China's recently-ap...

China triples stamp tax to cool stock market
http://en.ce.cn/stock/marketnews/200705/30/t20070530_11538105.shtml
China Daily | 2007-05-30
The stamp tax on securities trading has been raised from 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent beginning today, the Ministry of Finance said late last night.  An official with the ministry said the tax increase is intended to help promote the healthy development of the securities markets; and analysts said t...

CNOOC eyes overseas assets
http://en.ce.cn/Business/Enterprise/200705/30/t20070530_11538225.shtml
China Daily | 2007-05-30
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the country's top offshore oil company, is increasing overseas oil and gas assets and LNG imports to meet its bold 2010 energy supply target, the firm's chairman said yesterday.  "Rather than buying oil companies, we will look for more oil a...

Hospital sued over fatal jabs
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=10&art_id=45542&sid=13824449&con_type=1&d_str=20070530&sear_year=2007
Reuters | 2007-05-30
Families of mainland patients killed by a fake medical ingredient maker linked to widespread deaths in Panama have sued the southern Chinese hospital that gave toxic injections, media said.  The Panama deaths and claims of fake or tainted ingredients from China in a string of other products have r...

New rich yearn for designer lives
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=1&art_id=45600&sid=13826738&con_type=1&d_str=20070530&sear_year=2007
The Standard | 2007-05-30
Karen Cho
Posh cars, thousand-dollar shoes, university degrees, overseas getaways and chic cafes encapsulate what it means to be among the new and emerging affluent in the mainland, a survey has found.  The survey, conducted in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou last fall, found that a fast expanding economy a...

China, nuclear technology, and a US sale
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0530/p03s01-usfp.html
Christian Science Monitor | 2007-05-30
Mark Clayton
China has its heart set on buying a cutting-edge US design for a nuclear-power reactor, and the Bush administration has said it is willing to sell because the transaction will mean jobs for Americans and pave the way for a "nuclear [power] renaissance in the US."  But critics of the mammoth $5 bil...

China sentences former drug regulator to death
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/29/asia/29drug.php
International Herald Tribune | 2007-05-29
DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI: The former head of China's top food and drug safety agency was sentenced to death Tuesday after pleading guilty to corruption and accepting bribes, according to the state-controlled news media.  Zheng Xiaoyu, who served as director of China's Food & Drug Administration from its f...

Wal-Mart sneezes, China catches cold
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0529biz-walmartchina29-ON.html
Wall Street Journal | 2007-05-29
Gordon Fairclough
Shanghai - Several months ago, Chinese clothing executive Shao Zhuliang got bad news from his U.S. agent: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., his biggest customer, wouldn't be placing any orders for the spring 2008 season.  Now, Mr. Shao says, he is scrambling to line up other buyers from Europe, Japan and ...

China plans to empower workers
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_6010744
Mercury News | 2007-05-29
Nicole C. Wong
China's plans for dramatic changes to its labor laws could make it harder and more expensive for American companies planning to expand there.  But it remains to be seen whether these measures, which include bolstering unions' power and requiring companies to pay severance to short-term wor...

China holds rich-list businessman for fraud
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asiapacific/110986.htm
Reuters | 2007-05-29
Chinese police have arrested a businessman once listed as one of the country's 100 richest men on fraud charges, state media reported on Tuesday.  Sun Shuhua was arrested on Monday in the central province of Henan suspected of swindling 1.36 billion yuan (US$177.9 million) from several banks u...

The Chinese plot against capitalism
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9247909
The Economist | 2007-05-29
CHINA'S secret plan to bring down capitalism, especially in America, has become a little less secret in the past week or so. One clue came with a brave piece of whistle-blowing; a second when China started deploying its huge arsenal of capital. Congress was right to worry, after all. Those cunni...

China set for crude awakening
http://en.ce.cn/Industries/Energy&Mining/200705/29/t20070529_11526639.shtml
Shanghai Daily | 2007-05-29
The nation's annual crude oil demand may rise to about 550 million tons by 2020, or an incredible 11 million barrels a day.  This compares with last year's 320 million tons, China's top energy researcher said yesterday in Shanghai.  "My estimate is a bit higher than the projection ma...

Trade surplus to exceed US$250b in 2007
http://en.ce.cn/Business/Macro-economic/200705/29/t20070529_11532707.shtml
Reuters | 2007-05-29
China's trade surplus will reach US$250-300 billion in 2007, driven by the country's strong external demand, the top economic planner said on Tuesday.  China's surplus hit a record US$177.5 billion in 2006. In the first four months of this year the surplus totaled US$63.3 billion, up 8...

From a Chinese oil refinery to your Twinkie
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-0e-ettlinger29may29,1,1761762.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
LA Times | 2007-05-29
Steve Ettlinger
WHEN I began researching the ingredients for Twinkies, I naively thought that their raw materials were extracted from nuts, beans, fruit, seeds or leaves, and that they came from the United States. I was looking to link places with foods — along the lines of California wine or Maine lobster, b...

China's not so new nuclear strategy
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IE30Ad01.html
Asia Times | 2007-05-29
David Isenberg
WASHINGTON - A new study released by the US Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute is the latest addition to the "China is a worrisome threat" crowd.  The 51-page monograph is a sort of literary review, the result of exploiting sections of a doctrinal text, "A Guide to the Study of Cam...

In China, a Stake in Blackstone Stirs Uncertainty
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/business/worldbusiness/29blackstone.html
New York Times | 2007-05-29
Keith Bradsher and Joseph Kahn
HONG KONG  — From Washington, the Chinese government's purchase of a $3 billion nonvoting stake in the Blackstone Group looks like a shrewd alliance with a politically connected American private equity fund loaded with financial expertise.  The Chinese government is acquiring nearly 10 p...

Politicizing China's stock market bubble
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IE30Cb01.html
Asia Times | 2007-05-29
Wu Zhong
HONG KONG - In China, nearly everything can be easily politicized. The stock markets are no exception. As the stock-market bubble continues to inflate, some people are now tempted to make political interpretations.  According to one theory, what keeps the retail investors and speculators bullish i...

Share trading accounts in China hit 100m
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/dd04ddfa-0e3b-11dc-8219-000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=9c33700c-4c86-11da-89df-0000779e2340.html
Financial Times | 2007-05-29
Geoff Dyer
The number of share trading accounts established in China now exceeds 100m as the country's retail investors continue to ignore warnings about the risks of a stock market bubble and continue to put new money into the market.  The surge in the interest to buy shares among China's population...

Ex-China drug regulator to be executed
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4842797.html
AP | 2007-05-29
Audra Ang
BEIJING — China's former top drug regulator was sentenced to death Tuesday for taking bribes to approve untested medicines, as the country's main quality control agency announced its first recall system targeting unsafe food products.  The developments are among the most dramatic ste...

Who's afraid of the rise of China?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/foreign/richardspencer/may2007/chinarise.htm
Telegraph | 2007-05-29
Richard Spencer
Here's an interesting opinion poll that came out today, though it is interesting for a very bad journalistic reason: attitudes are much less sensational and shocking than conventional wisdom would suggest they are.  It's about the rise of China, and its most important findings are that con...

In China, a State Job Still Brings Benefits And Bragging Rights

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/28/AR2007052801132.html
Washington Post | 2007-05-29
Maureen Fan
BEIJING -- Tian Bing received his master's degree last month, which instantly made the law and computer science graduate a hot prospect in China's booming economy. Yet he has already rejected job offers from an aerospace company, a bank and the computer division of a prestigious foreign comp...

'One child' policy profiteering sparked south China riots
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070528/wl_asia_afp/chinaunrestpopulationrightscorruption_070528041156;_ylt=AhsjBB4h3wJhtlBTUVtHtsdPzWQA
AFP | 2007-05-28
Robert J. Saiget
SHAPI - Official corruption and profiteering contributed to the anger over coercive family planning policies that exploded in days of rioting in south China, locals and a rights activist said.  Bobai county in the Guangxi region erupted in violence 10 days ago after government work teams scoured t...