CSG news update -- 2007-07-29

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

China Study Group news update

China sentences oil thieves to death
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/28/content_5445323.htm
China Daily | 2007-07-28
China has sentenced to death two leaders of a gang which stole crude oil by drilling into pipelines, causing 400 million yuan ($53 million) in damage, the Xinhua News Agency said on Saturday.  A court in Dongying city, in the eastern province of Shandong, gave a suspended death sentence to another...

Mine Spill Cuts Water Supply in China
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/28/AR2007072800596.html
Washington Post | 2007-07-28
BEIJING -- Mine runoff spilled into a central Chinese river, temporarily cutting off drinking water to more than 200,000 people, a state news agency reported.  The runoff from a lead-zinc mine polluted the Zijiang river in Hunan province on Thursday, cutting off supplies to the riverside city of L...

Extreme weather kills another two
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/28/content_5445110.htm
China Daily | 2007-07-28
BEIJING -- Strong wind and hail claimed two lives in east China's Anhui Province on Friday, leaving 13 others injured, according to the provincial disaster-relief office.  Gales and hail, which lasted for three hours and a half on Friday morning, affected 374,000 people in 12 counties, damagin...

Markets Around the World Are Marching in Lock Step
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/business/28markets.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1185637501-7JnIiDZzYiccb+zoz7jlgw
NYT | 2007-07-28
FLOYD NORRIS
Five months after stock markets around the world were shaken by a 9 percent plunge in the value of Chinese stocks, the markets have again come under severe pressure — this time made in America.  And China could not stop it.  But even after the worst week for the Standard & Poor's 500-s...

Spielberg May Quit Beijing Olympics Role Over Darfur
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-07-28-voa11.cfm?rss=united
VOA | 2007-07-28
A spokesman for Steven Spielberg says the film director may quit his involvement with the 2008 Beijing Olympics unless China does more to stop the violence in Darfur.  Andy Spahn told the ABC news network in an article on its web site that the director will decide in the next few weeks whether to ...

Bad News Tests China's Propaganda Arm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072700080.html?referrer=emailarticle
Washington Post | 2007-07-27
Edward Cody
BEIJING -- According to a report circulating among Beijing intellectuals, Li Changchun, China's senior propaganda official, went to President Hu Jintao recently suggesting a ban on the July issue of the magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu.  The scholarly monthly had published a long and daring article b...

Harvest turns 50
http://www.danwei.org/magazines/harvest_turns_50.php
Danwei | 2007-07-27
Joel Martinsen
The influential literary magazine Harvest (收获) celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this month. The July issue of the magazine includes a sixteen-page special feature that illustrates the history of the magazine with photos of famous writers, images of submitted manuscripts, and reproductions of ...

China's Hunan to HIV test "recreational workers"
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?rpc=401&storyId=PEK303757
Reuters | 2007-07-27
BEIJING, July 27 (Reuters) - HIV tests will be compulsory for workers at "recreational venues" in Hunan Province in central China, to try and stem an increase in sexually transmitted diseases, the Xinhua news agency said on Friday.  Prostitution is rampant in China, which also has hundreds of mill...

 SOEs rake $100.4b in profits in 1st-half
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-07/27/content_6003423.htm
China Daily | 2007-07-27
The State-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported 753.5 billion yuan (US$100.4 billion) in profits in the first half, up 31.5 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Finance.  A preliminary calculation by the ministry showed central SOEs reported total profits of 541.8 billi...

NOT Made in China
Business Week
 | 2007-07-26
John Carey
Amid growing awareness of food perils, companies that spotlight where ingredients originate are enjoying new demand  Earlier this year, Swiss ingredient maker DSM Nutritional Products launched a "premium" Vitamin C. The marketing gambit: It comes from tidy Scotland instead of sprawling China, whic...

Japanese comment on China's nationalism "illogical"
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/6224815.html
People's Daily | 2007-07-26
China on Thursday dismissed a Japanese official's comment that the country's economic boom will fuel nationalism as illogical.  "We are surprised and dissatisfied with the Japanese comment. The comment that China's economic development leads to nationalism is illogical and should not b...

China's Hu stronger, but no strongman
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSPEK14854320070724?pageNumber=1
Reuters | 2007-07-24
Benjamin Kang Lim
By Benjamin Kang Lim - Analysis  BEIJING (Reuters) - Almost five years in power, Chinese President Hu Jintao has grown in strength but a failed attempt to retire the chief official bodyguard illustrates a behind-the-scenes struggle as he seeks to consolidate power.  At 68, General You Xigui was ...