CSG news update -- 2007-07-31

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

China Study Group news update

Supply pipes dropped to trapped miners
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,22163185-5012782,00.html
Mercury | 2007-07-30
SIXTY-nine Chinese miners spent a second day trapped in a flooded coal pit, but they were safe and in contact with rescuers late today, state media said.  Rescuers installed pipes meant to deliver food and water to the miners, but they were still trying to work out how to propel the supplies down ...

More HK women find Mr. Right across border
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-07/30/content_6449880.htm
China View | 2007-07-30
 BEIJING, July 30 - An increasing number of Hong Kong women, especially single young white-collar workers, are looking across the border to search for future husbands, the Southern Metropolis Daily said Sunday.        The Hong Kong statistics department revealed earlier this month that one out of ...

China's H1 energy consumption per unit of GDP down 2.78 pct - Stats Bureau
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/07/30/afx3964806.html
Forbes | 2007-07-30
 BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China's energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half fell 2.78 pct from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said.  Electricity consumption per unit of GDP rose 3.64 pct year-on-year in the first half, the bureau said.  Chin...

Rainstorm death toll hits 80 in Hubei
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=325296
Shanghai Daily | 2007-07-30
Lydia Chen
FLOODS and landslides caused by heavy rain have killed 80 people in central Hubei Province since China entered its annual rain season on June 17, provincial officials said.  Twenty-eight were missing after eight storms ravaged the province where rain has added to swollen waters along the Yangtze R...

Heavy rains slow search for 69 trapped Chinese coal miners
http://www.pr-inside.com/rss/heavy-rains-slow-search-for-69-trapped-chinese-coal-miners-r188575.htm
PR Inside | 2007-07-30
BEIJING (AP) - Heavy rains Monday have hampered efforts to save 69 miners trapped for more than 24 hours in a flooded coal mine in central China, a state-run news agency reported. Thirty-three miners escaped but the 69 were trapped when the flood struck the Zhijian mine in Henan province's Shan...

China summer storm deaths approach 700
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSPEK28461320070730
Reuters | 2007-07-30
BEIJING (Reuters) - Deaths from floods, lightning and landslides across China this summer have reached nearly 700, state media said on Monday, with experts warning that global warming is likely to fuel more violent weather.  Over the weekend alone, fierce storms and hail killed 17 people across fo...

Heavy polluters to be banned from obtaining bank loans
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-07/30/content_6452567.htm
Xinhua | 2007-07-30
BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- China's environment watchdog is to draw up a blacklist on high-energy consuming and polluting industries that will effectively ban them from obtaining bank loans.      A new government policy requires the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) to regu...

Members of first mafia-style crime ring in Tibet convicted
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-07/30/content_6451634.htm
Xinhua | 2007-07-30
LHASA, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The Public Security Department of the Tibet Autonomous Region has revealed that 23 members of an organized crime ring, the first such case to be handled in the region, were convicted of multiple crimes and given prison sentences ranging from one year to 13 years back in Ja...

China Tightens Credit to Cool Economy
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/30/ap3965078.html
Forbes | 2007-07-30
JOE McDONALD
BEIJING -- China said Monday it will raise banks' required reserves for the ninth time in just over a year in a bid to curb excess liquidity.  The move, which has been expected, comes as Beijing has been stepping up efforts to correct imbalances in a red-hot economy in danger of overheating. ...

Two of China's biggest automakers announce partnership
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/30/business/AS-FIN-China-Auto-Tie-up.php
IHT | 2007-07-30
BEIJING: Two of China's biggest domestic car companies have formed a partnership to develop new models amid Chinese efforts to create producers able to compete with global automakers.  Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp. and Nanjing Automobile Corp. agreed to "comprehensive cooperation" on de...

China's shares hit new high despite government cooling efforts
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/30/business/AS-FIN-MKTS-China-Markets.php
IHT | 2007-07-30
SHANGHAI, China: China's shares rose to a new record high on Monday, boosted by investor expectations of strong corporate profits despite government efforts to rein in the sizzling economy.  The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended up 2.2 percent at 4,440.77, passing the previous all-time ...

China-U.S. Talks Continue, Amid Legal Volleys
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/business/worldbusiness/30chinatrade.html
NYT | 2007-07-30
STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, July 28 — A year after the United States began a high-level "strategic economic dialogueā€¯ with China, the word "dialogueā€¯ hardly seems to apply.  For a long time, the Bush administration has talked — and talked and talked — to China about economic issues. But sinc...

China's giant panda centre sees profit in poop
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200707301717.htm
The Hindu | 2007-07-30
Zhengzhou, July. 30 (PTI): The world's largest giant panda research base in southwest China's Sichuan Province has come up with a novel way to profit from panda dung - crafting money-spinning souvenirs out of it.  Researchers at the Chengdu centre have sculpted photo frames, bookmarks, fan...

The Big Play for Africa
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070729/6china.africa.htm
US News & World Report | 2007-07-29
Stefan Lovgren
Kigali, Rwanda—When the dusk settles over this swelling capital, Josh Gu simply moves from his downtown office to a modest residence on the outskirts of town and continues to work. Around 2 a.m., the calls from his employer, Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, begin trickling in from Shen...

3rd Sino-Brazilian satellite to be launched in Sept. or Oct.
http://english.sina.com/technology/1/2007/0729/120133.html
Xinhua | 2007-07-29
BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) -- China's National Space Administration announced on Sunday that China would launch the third Sino-Brazilian earth resources satellite in September or October.  The launch schedule was slightly different from what previously announced last month by Sun Laiyan, the di...

China Moves to Change Damaged Global Image
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/world/asia/29safety.html
NYT | 2007-07-29
DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI, July 26 — After years of being accused by Western nations of making only token gestures to fight fake goods and months of complaints about the safety of its exports, China is taking extraordinary steps to change its image.  Last week, Beijing unveiled new controls aimed at fighting...

US steelmakers attack China subsidies
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/630cd0e4-3de7-11dc-8f6a-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=9c33700c-4c86-11da-89df-0000779e2340.html
FT | 2007-07-29
Peter Marsh and Mure Dickie
China's steel industry has benefited from more than $52bn of government subsidies over the past decade, boosting Chinese manufacturing and giving local steel-consuming companies an unfair advantage over the rest of the world, according to a US industry report published on Monday.  The study sa...

Beijing Cracking Down on Rowdy Fans
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul28/0,4670,ChinaRowdyFans,00.html
Fox News | 2007-07-28
BEIJING —  Fearful problems might spill over to next year's Olympics, Beijing officials are cracking down on sports fans who chant obscenities at opposing players and referees.  Police official Li Zhongyi said an unidentified 20-year-old soccer fan had been banned for 12 months from atte...