CSG news update -- 2007-10-19

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

China Study Group news update

U.S. Upholds Tax on Chinese Goods
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/business/worldbusiness/19tariff.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin
NY Times | 2007-10-19
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 — The Bush administration, in an action likely to escalate tensions with China, reaffirmed on Thursday its provisional policy of imposing duties on certain Chinese imports, paving the way for possible tariff increases on a variety of imports.  In confirming a policy that ...

One third of workers in Hong Kong change workplace every 2 years
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/news/article_1366711.php/One_third_of_workers_in_Hong_Kong_change_workplace_every_2_years
Monsters & Critics | 2007-10-19
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
 Hong Kong - More than one in three workers in Hong Kong changes jobs about two years, with the banking and financial services sector having the highest turnover, local media reported Friday.  About 40 per cent of banking and financial services staff change jobs every two years followed by the med...

 Basic healthcare for all by 2020, govt pledges
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/19/content_6188989.htm
China Daily | 2007-10-19
Le Tian
The government has formulated a framework for reforming the healthcare system and will soon present it to the people for soliciting their opinion, a senior health official said Thursday.  "All people in urban and rural areas will enjoy basic medical care and health services by 2020," Vice-Minister...

Internet ban is clue to China's new leaders
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2690168.ece
Times Online | 2007-10-19
Jane Macartney
Chinese people who want to know the identity of the man who will be their leader into the next decade should log on to the internet.  But in a country where politics are opaque and the media is banned from reporting such state secrets as the lineup of the new Politburo Standing Committee, the clue...

PetroChina could soon be world's top company
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f1d3dfe4-7d9c-11dc-9f47-0000779fd2ac.html
FT | 2007-10-19
Ed Crooks
There is a new runner-up for the title of the world's biggest company. Soon, there may be a new winner too.  PetroChina, the state-controlled Chinese oil and gas group, this week overtook General Electric to become the world's second-biggest company by market capitalisation. After it lists...

Wal-Mart tip of union iceberg
http://english.people.com.cn/90002/92169/92187/6286460.html
China Daily | 2007-10-19
 Having resisted unionization in China for so long, Wal-Mart, the world's leading retailer, is making the country's top unionist smile.   "We have cracked a world-class hard nut," said Sun Chunlan, executive vice-chairwoman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), referring to...

Is China Messing With Google, Microsoft, And Yahoo?
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=CT2FZLL4HU2DOQSNDLPSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=202404418
InformationWeek | 2007-10-18
Thomas Claburn
 Who is hijacking Chinese Internet traffic and redirecting it to Baidu, the leading Chinese search engine? ADVERTISEMENT  Google on Thursday acknowledged that its Chinese users were being redirected to other Web sites but offered no insight into whether the Chinese government -- which exercises t...

Beijing backs media listings
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/89c01934-7d8f-11dc-9f47-0000779fd2ac.html
FT | 2007-10-18
Mure Dickie
China has fully opened the way for local newspapers, publishing groups and even government and Communist party news websites to issue shares on domestic and overseas exchanges, according to the industry's top regulator.  In an interview with the FT, Liu Binjie, head of the General Administrati...

China halts rail freight to N Korea
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bfc9a8a8-7d9c-11dc-9f47-0000779fd2ac.html
FT | 2007-10-18
Anna Fifield and Richard McGregor
China suspended key rail freight services into North Korea last week after 1,800 wagons carrying food aid and tradeable goods crossed into Kim Jong-il's hermit state but were never returned.  Absconding with Chinese wagons would be a strange move for North Korea because Beijing is Pyongyang&#3...

A Chinese village takes a stand against graft
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1018/p01s01-woap.html
Christian Science Monitor | 2007-10-18
Peter Ford  
Xiantang, China - On the face of it, the giant red banner strung across the entrance to the village hall here, urging support for Beijing's campaign against official corruption, seems unexceptional.  In fact, it is the rallying point for what may be the longest sustained act of defiance agains...

Understanding Hu's hot new terms
http://www.chinaelections.org/en/readnews.asp?newsid={BF65F4E0-1947-4D80-8645-5F37F6FFE077}
China Elections & Governance | 2007-10-18
Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), gave a wide-ranging speech when he addressed the opening ceremony of the Party's 17th National Congress on Monday. In the two-and-half-hour keynote speech, Hu used plenty of new terms to show th...

Year of the pig takes a positive turn
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1a2eb2f6-7d03-11dc-aee2-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=9c33700c-4c86-11da-89df-0000779e2340.html
FT | 2007-10-18
Richard McGregor
The stench filling the air outside the Good Breeding pig farm in an otherwise bucolic mid-autumn day on Beijing's rural outskirts is the best news Li Yongqiang has had for nearly a year.  After cutting production in 2006 because of rising feed costs and low pork prices, Mr Li late last year lo...

Buzz and buzzwords at the 17th Party Congress
http://www.danwei.org/media/buzz_and_buzzwords_at_the_17th.php
Danwei | 2007-10-18
Joel Martinsen
It's Party Congress fever in this city! The front-page article in today's Southern Weekly provides a snapshot of the various ways in which the congress has touched the lives of Beijing's inhabitants this week. The pull-quote:      This morning, Beijing residents Han Xiuying and Han Xiu...

China has 345,000 millionaires
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2007/10/17/afx4232758.html
Forbes | 2007-10-18
 BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China had 345,000 millionaires by the end of last year, the second-most in Asia after Japan, according to a new study by US investment bank Merrill Lynch.  The number of Chinese US dollar millionaires was up 7.8 pct from the year before, helped by a stock market that saw its ...

China 'will be most active M&A player' in US or Europe
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ffbfd314-7c49-11dc-be7e-0000779fd2ac.html
FT | 2007-10-17
Sundeep Tucker
Chinese companies are set to be Asia's most acquisitive in the US or Europe next year, according to a survey of the region's dealmakers.  Nearly 60 per cent of those polled believe mainland Chin-ese companies will outstrip rivals in countries such as India and Japan in outbound merger and ...

China condemns US for honouring Dalai Lama
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9caf0954-7c4c-11dc-be7e-0000779fd2ac.html
FT | 2007-10-17
Daniel Dombey, Andrew Ward, and Richard McGregor
China yesterday lashed out at US plans to honour the Dalai Lama, who is set today to be awarded the congressional gold medal - the US's highest civilian honour.  Liu Jianbao, spokesman for China's foreign ministry, said the award was a "gross interference" in China's internal affairs....

China's bubble may burst but the impact will be limited
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/20fdc7de-7c4a-11dc-be7e-0000779fd2ac.html
FT | 2007-10-17
Andy Xie
China's stock market is trading at 50-60 times earnings - we really don't know the number - and its residential properties are selling for 15-20 times average household income. Many draw parallels between China now and Japan of 1989 or Hong Kong of 1997. The comparison is wrong.  China&#39...

Yasuo Fukuda and the Future of the Sino-Japanese Relationship
http://www.jamestown.org/china_brief/article.php?articleid=2373727
China Brief | 2007-10-17
Christopher Griffin
The unexpected resignation of Shinzo Abe and election of Yasuo Fukuda as Japan's prime minister has turned a page in Sino-Japanese relations. Unlike his predecessors Abe and Junichiro Koizumi, Fukuda does not have a hawkish reputation, and is indeed considered to be relatively friendly to China....

China, Burma, and the "Saffron Revolution”
http://www.jamestown.org/china_brief/article.php?articleid=2373728
China Brief | 2007-10-17
Ian Storey
The violent crackdown against anti-government protesters in Rangoon at the end of September shone a spotlight on China's interests, influence, and objectives in Burma, Beijing's closest ally in Southeast Asia. The abortive "Saffron Revolution” was an unwelcome development for the Chinese l...

Gray Wall Dims Hopes of 'Green' Games
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR2007101501767.html?nav=rss_world/asia
Washington Post | 2007-10-16
Maureen Fan
BEIJING -- In summer, a gray industrial haze coats this city of more than 15 million, descending over the Great Wall, sticking to humid hillsides and obscuring skyscrapers. Soaring temperatures and a lack of wind conspire with gunk-spewing traffic to foul the air.  The pollution is so bad many vis...