CSG news update -- 2007-06-05

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

China Study Group news update

Relief for Wuxi as water supply back to normal
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=10&art_id=46016&sid=13910784&con_type=1&d_str=20070605&sear_year=2007
AP | 2007-06-05
Tap water for more than two million residents in Wuxi city was turned back on after algae clogged a lake and polluted the water supply.  The water quality was stable and local health authorities said it met standards for drinking, Xinhua News Agency reported.  Fast-spreading, foul-smelling blue-...

Beijing climate-change strategy has no emission caps
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/04/asia/china.php
International Herald Tribune | 2007-06-04
Jim Yardley
BEIJING: China released its first comprehensive strategy for addressing climate change Monday, a plan that calls for improving energy efficiency and controlling greenhouse gas emissions but rejects mandatory caps on emissions that could harm the country's sizzling economy.  "Our general stance...

China's taste for luxury comes with risk
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/64f23910-12dd-11dc-a475-000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=9c33700c-4c86-11da-89df-0000779e2340.html
Financial Times | 2007-06-04
Adrian Michaels
China's attraction as a fast-growing market for luxury goods needs to be counterbalanced by its lack of suitable distribution channels and various economic and political threats, say industry experts at a luxury goods conference on Monday.  Stephen Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, sai...

China rejects U.S. warning on toothpaste
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/03/business/toothpaste.php
AP | 2007-06-03
BEIJING: China rejected a warning by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration urging consumers to avoid using Chinese toothpaste because it may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze.  Calling the FDA warning "unscientific, irresponsible and contradictory," China's General Administration...

Land-dispute clash hurts seven
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=10&art_id=45865&sid=13887010&con_type=1&d_str=20070602&sear_year=2007
AFP | 2007-06-02
Angry villagers in southern China, unhappy with a court ruling in a land dispute, clashed with about 170 members of a government enforcement team, injuring seven.  Two law enforcement officers were seriously injured in the clashes Thursday in Luocheng township in the Guangxi region, the Supreme Co...

Toxic Toothpaste Made in China Is Found in U.S.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/us/02toothpaste.html
New York TImes | 2007-06-02
Walt Bogdanich
Consumers were advised yesterday to discard all toothpaste made in China after federal health officials said they found Chinese-made toothpaste containing a poison used in some antifreeze in three locations: Miami, the Port of Los Angeles and Puerto Rico.  Although there are no reports of anyone b...

Gates Offers to Work With China's Military
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/washington/02gates.html
New York Times | 2007-06-02
Mark Mazzetti
SINGAPORE � Nearly two years to the day after his predecessor bluntly criticized China's rapid military buildup, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates struck a conciliatory tone toward Beijing on Saturday, saying the United States and China had the opportunity to "build trust over time.”  ...

A death of passing political importance
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IF05Ad02.html
Asia Times | 2007-06-02
Wu Zhong
HONG KONG - The death of Chinese vice premier Huang Ju, the country's No 6 leader in the Communist Party's hierarchy, will have little impact on the leadership reshuffle in the 17th Party Congress in the autumn. And it is unlikely that the vacancy in the Standing Committee of the Politburo l...

Pork prices spark political unease
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=20&art_id=45787&sid=13848559&con_type=3&d_str=20070601&sear_year=2007
AP | 2007-06-01
Christopher Bodeen
The Cabinet convened an emergency meeting. The highly popular premier hurriedly made public appearances broadcast on state television to reassure worried citizens.  Crisis has been in the air in China the past week - over pork. The price of the nation's staple meat has risen more than 43 perce...

Chinese activists turn to cellphones
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china1jun01,1,1611158.story
LA Times | 2007-06-01
Mitchell Landsberg
BEIJING � In the cat-and-mouse game that characterizes political protest in China, the mice won a round this week. They did it by finding a new way to use a familiar technology.  Opponents of a chemical plant being built in the coastal city of Xiamen used cellphone text messaging to distribu...

Big, Gritty Chongqing, City of 12 Million, Is China's Model for Future
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/world/asia/01chongqing.html
New York Times | 2007-06-01
Howard W. French
CHONGQING, China � Stand in the right spot in this gigantic city and hills draped with apartment complexes can remind you of Hong Kong, the density of habitation will recall Tokyo and the river-spanning brawn, replete with an immense new structure over the Yangtze that echoes the Brooklyn Brid...