CSG news update -- 2007-09-23

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

China Study Group news update

Limited Reforms: Status Quo at the 17th Party Congress
http://www.jamestown.org/china_brief/article.php?articleid=2373662
China Brief | 2007-09-22
Willy Lam
The liberal faction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is doing eleventh-hour lobbying to have genuine political reform included in the agenda of the upcoming 17th Party Congress. Yet all signs point to the fact that General Secretary and President Hu Jintao will only promote the kind of "intra-pa...

Central Party School Scholar Discusses Limited Party-Government Separation
http://www.jamestown.org/china_brief/article.php?articleid=2373660
China Brief | 2007-09-22
Joseph E. Lin
With the 17th Party Congress less than one month away, an increasing number of Chinese scholars have come out in support of political liberalization in China. Most recently, in an interview with the PRC-owned Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao, Wang Guixiu, a professor at the Chinese Communist Party&#3...

China issues new rule to deal with large-scale gatherings
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJG5FMzutviW3xchFLaKucy8TroQ
The Canadian Press | 2007-09-22
BEIJING - China's government has raised fines and tightened police powers under a new rule intended to better control crowds at sporting events, temple festivals and other popular public activities less than a year before the Beijing Olympics.  The new regulation, signed by Premier Wen Jiabao ...

Deutsche Bank revises China GDP predictions
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-09/22/content_6126601.htm
China Daily | 2007-09-22
Xinhua
Deutsche Bank lifts China's GDP growth prediction from the previous 10.7 percent and 9.7 percent to 11.4 percent and 10.2 percent in 2007 and 2008 respectively.  Deutsche Bank chief economist in China Ma Jun said they lifted the figures because China's GDP growth in the second quarter reac...

China may limit investments in HK stock market
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/9/22/business/18964071&sec=business
 | 2007-09-22
Bloomberg
SHANGHAI: China plans to cap the amount individuals will be allowed to invest in Hong Kong equities, underscoring concerns that an exodus of capital could prompt a slump in the world's fourth largest stock market.   The government had yet to decide the investment limit for the proposed program...

 China expected to produce 8.5m autos in 2007
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-09/22/content_6126967.htm
China Daily | 2007-09-22
Xinhua
China's auto production saw an annual growth rate of 45.8 percent since 2002 and the country is expected to produce 8.5 million units of automobiles in 2007, a senior official with the top economic planner said at a forum Saturday.  By the end of 2006, output value of the country's auto in...

China observes 'Car Free Day' with the usual gridlock
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJEV9GHnbWB1O29cPvPeJem24A8w
AFP | 2007-09-22
BEIJING (AFP) — More than 100 Chinese cities including Beijing staged a "Car Free Day" Saturday to fight congestion and pollution, but the streets of the capital remained defiantly clogged with traffic jams.  Beijing's middle class climbed into their cars to go shopping and touring as us...

China tries to tackle food price inflation
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International__Business/China_tries_to_tackle_food_price_inflation/articleshow/2392567.cms
The Economic Times | 2007-09-22
 BEIJING: China will ensure ample food supply in the coming months to keep prices down, state media said Saturday, in yet another reaction to shock inflation figures released recently.  The price of food staples such as wheat, soybean and pork are to be kept at an affordable level by measures such...

Mattel sorry for smearing China's reputation
http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/saturday/chi-sat_mattel0922sep22,0,6366313.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
Chicago Tribune | 2007-09-22
Michael Oneal
BEIJING - Mattel Inc.'s weekslong effort to extract itself from a tainted-toy crisis took a humiliating turn Friday when the company publicly apologized to the Chinese people and acknowledged damaging the reputation of China's manufacturers.  Only days after Mattel Chief Executive Robert E...

Has China's one-child policy worked?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7000931.stm
BBC | 2007-09-20
Michael Bristow
In the first of a series of pieces on China's one-child policy, the BBC's Michael Bristow looks at whether the country's controversial regulations are working.   Some parents in China are happy with one child China's family planning policy has prevented 400 million births, offici...

China's 'perfect child' generation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7001561.stm
BBC | 2007-09-20
Michael Bristow
In the second of a series of pieces on China's one-child policy, the BBC's Michael Bristow looks at the effect the regulations are having on the country's children.   Children often have pressure from their whole extended family Childhood in China is often not as easy and carefree as...

China's Rising Leaders
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2007/gb20070920_103039.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business
Business Week | 2007-09-20
Dexter Roberts and Chi-Chu Tschang
A Communist Party Congress might seem like a throwback to an older, less dynamic China. What the public sees of these events, scheduled once every five years, are video clips of 2,000-plus bureaucrats in the Great Hall of the People, a monumental, socialist-realist edifice in the heart of Beijing. I...