CSG news update -- 2007-08-08

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

China Study Group news update

Why corruption is not a product of the reform
http://www.danwei.org/scholarship_and_education/why_corruption_is_not_a_produc.php
Danwei.org | 2007-08-07
Joel Martinsen and Xu Youyu
Last week the CPC's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that "an unprecedented inspection initiative has covered all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities together with key State financial institutions," China Daily reported. A call for corrupt officials to turn...

Beijing dips its toes in troubled waters
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IH08Ad01.html
Asia Times | 2007-08-07
Pallavi Aiyar 
BEIJING - For millennia, China's great rivers have snaked their long, meandering courses across the country, providing the life-blood for Chinese civilization: water. Along the banks of the Yellow River to the north and the Yangtze to the south, 5,000 years of history and culture have unfolded, ...

More Cash for Retirees of State Firms
http://www.china.org.cn/english/news/219769.htm
Xinhua | 2007-08-07
The government is to increase the level of pensions and housing subsidies for poor families in a bid to bridge the widening income gap.  A State Council meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday pledged to increase pensions for more than 40 million retirees from State-owned enterprises ov...

A year to go
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9613586
The Economist | 2007-08-07
CHINA'S leaders surely have no regrets about their successful bid to stage next year's Olympics. Some, however, may be ruing the rather slushy slogan adopted for the event: "One world; one dream”. In the run-up to Wednesday August 8th—exactly a year before the start of the games&#821...

 China under fire from all sides a year ahead of Games
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070807/ts_nm/olympics_beijing_dc_2
Reuters | 2007-08-07
Ben Blanchard
 BEIJING (Reuters) - Free Tibet activists on the Great Wall, a barrage of critical rights reports, a shroud of smog hanging over Beijing -- China's government must surely have imagined a more auspicious one-year countdown for the Olympics.   On top of that, the flood of food safety scandals s...

 China orders better pork management
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070807/ap_on_re_as/china_tainted_products_1
AP | 2007-08-07
 BEIJING - China issued an urgent notice Tuesday ordering stronger controls over unscrupulous pork selling practices amid soaring prices for the country's staple meat.   Separately, the Health Ministry reported 3,503 cases of food poisoning nationwide in the second quarter of this year, inclu...

 Trials start in China pension scandal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070807/ap_on_re_as/china_shanghai_scandal_1
AP | 2007-08-07
CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
 BEIJING - Trials have begun in a wide-ranging pension fund scandal in China's business hub of Shanghai that brought down the city's top official, a magazine reported.   Seven people have been indicted in Shanghai, with the trial of Wang Guoxiong, a manager with a city government investme...

 China blasted on rights as Games near
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070807/wl_asia_afp/olychn2008rightschina_070807104727
AFP | 2007-08-07
Dan Martin
 BEIJING (AFP) - China's communist leaders faced a barrage of criticism at home and abroad on Tuesday over human rights abuses, casting a shadow over Beijing's efforts to celebrate the one-year Olympics countdown.   Leading the calls for Beijing to start honouring Olympic ideals was a gro...

 McDonald's raising China pay after controversy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070807/bs_nm/mcdonalds_china_pay_dc_1
Reuters | 2007-08-07
 SHANGHAI (Reuters) - U.S. fast food giant McDonald's Corp. (MCD.N), facing accusations that it has been breaching China's minimum wage laws, said on Tuesday it would give its Chinese employees their first across-the-board pay rise.   From next month, McDonald's will increase workers&...

Press freedom group protests in Beijing
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_China_Press_Freedom.html?source=rss
AP | 2007-08-06
CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
BEIJING -- Police detained journalists at a rare protest Monday in Beijing, staged by a free-press advocacy group that accuses the government of failing to meet promises for greater media freedom one year ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games.  The detentions, which came during a visit to China by Inter...

We can't afford to pollute first and improve later
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2007-08/06/content_5448517.htm
China Daily | 2007-08-06
Lin Boqiang
By Lin Boqiang (China Daily) Updated: 2007-08-06 07:00  The key to solving China's environmental issues is to improve society's awareness. The common excuse that China is still at the early stage of economic development and needs to focus on alleviating poverty rather than protecting the ...

Medical Aid System Tried for Urban Low-incomers
http://www.china.org.cn/english/news/219765.htm
Xinhua | 2007-08-04
China is testing a medical assistance system for the low-income people in 1,865 counties and county-level districts, according to the latest report on China's medical development program.  More than 14.4 million urban low-incomers, 64 percent of urban poverty population, have been covered by t...