CSG news update -- 2007-06-28

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

China Study Group news update

China: Playboy to Open Entertainment Complex in Macao
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/business/worldbusiness/28fobriefs-PLAYBOYTOOPE_BRF.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
New York Times | 2007-06-28
BLOOMBERG 
Playboy Enterprises will open a 40,000-square-foot entertainment complex, the Playboy Mansion Macao, with dining, entertainment and retail shops, in Macao in late 2009, the chief executive, Christie Hefner, said. The complex will be part of the Macao Studio City complex, with the gambling operations...

80 pct foreign companies in China won't hire hepatitis B carriers
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/28/content_6302722.htm
Xinhua | 2007-06-28
BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 80 percent of foreign companies refuse to employ hepatitis B carriers, according to a recent survey.      About 96 percent of the companies surveyed require job applicants to take a hepatitis B test, according to the survey conducted by Chinese Foundation for He...

Text Messages Giving Voice to Chinese
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062702962.html?hpid=topnews
Washington Post | 2007-06-28
Edward Cody
XIAMEN, China -- By the hundreds of thousands, the urgent text messages ricocheted around cellphones in Xiamen, warning of a catastrophe that would spoil the city's beautiful seaside environment and foul its sweet-smelling tropical breezes.  By promoting the construction of a giant chemical fa...

7 billion yuan misused, irregularities found
http://english.people.com.cn/200706/28/eng20070628_388212.html
China Daily | 2007-06-28
 The nation's top auditor said Wednesday that embezzled or misappropriated central government funds cost taxpayers nearly 7 billion yuan ($919 million) last year, while more than 37 billion yuan ($4.86 billion) was poorly managed.  In his annual audit report to the country's top legislatu...

Distrust of US, Russia and China growing around world
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C06%5C28%5Cstory_28-6-2007_pg7_50
Daily Times | 2007-06-28
WASHINGTON: Unease with American foreign policy and President George Bush has intensified in countries that used to be the closest US allies, while Russia and China also face growing international wariness, a survey released on Wednesday said.  Support for the US-led war in Iraq, the NATO military...

New virtual worlds to conquer in China
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IF28Cb01.html
Asia Times | 2007-06-28
Daniel Allen 
BEIJING - Having passionately embraced blogging, bulletin boards (BBS) and MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing games), China's burgeoning Internet population will soon have an array of three-dimensional virtual worlds and 3D social networks in which to work and play. By the end of...

China on the march in Latin America
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IF28Ad01.html
Asia Times | 2007-06-28
Loro Horta 
China's influence in Latin America has been growing since the late 1990s. According to Chinese economic data, trade between China and the region reached the US$50 billion mark in 2005. While minute compared with US trade with Latin America, one must remember that it has grown from $10 billion in...

China to launch nationwide crackdown on illegal labor
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/27/content_6299238.htm
Xinhua | 2007-06-27
  BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhua) -- China will launch a nationwide crackdown on illegal labor practices from July to August, focusing on small brick kilns, coal mines and workshops, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security said on Wednesday.      The two-month crackdown comes as the issue of forced la...

China growing old before it grows rich
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070627.wreynolds27/BNStory/robColumnsBlogs/home
Globe & Mail | 2007-06-27
NEIL REYNOLDS
OTTAWA — Economist Phillip Swagel has held positions with the U.S. Treasury, the International Monetary Fund and President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. Here is an excerpt from his observations, written last year after spending time in China, on the prospects of the world&...

China shuts 180 food factories for using formaldehyde, illegal dyes
http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/national_world/stories/2007/06/27/china.html
Columbus Dispatch | 2007-06-27
AUDRA ANG
BEIJING—China has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, state media said today.  The closures came amid a nationwide crackdown on shoddy and dangerous products launched in December that also uncovered use of recycl...

USA. Federal Agents seize $700 millions worth of counterfeit goods from China
http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=11001
BYM Marine & Maritime News | 2007-06-27
Twenty-nine defendants were charged in three separate complaints with conspiracy to smuggle over 950 shipments of merchandise into the United States principally from China - through ports of entry at Newark, N.J., Houston, Texas, Long Beach, Calif., New York Container Terminal in Staten Island, N.Y....

China moves to outlaw CFCs
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK24608020070627?feedType=RSS
Reuters | 2007-06-27
 BEIJING (Reuters) - China has banned the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in line with global agreements to phase out the use of ozone layer-depleting products, the country's environmental watchdog said in a statement.  Barring raw materials and aerosols used for medicinal purposes an...