SPEAKING FREELY
Obama needs new start with China
If Barack Obama's administration treated China as an equal partner, the gains accruing to the US would include reduced military expenditures and better prospects for world stability. Not least, improved relations would help save America's foundering economy. - George Koo (Dec 3,'08)



East Timor kills Chinese power deal
East Timorese judges have killed a US$390 million power project, hurting citizens' hopes of an improved electricity supply that would have also attracted investment to the impoverished nation. The Chinese power company that won the tender is among the losers. Opposition lawmakers and an oil-revenue fund are among the winners. - Matt Crook (Dec 2,'08)

Doubts bedevil China's stimulus
China's near-US$600 billion economic stimulus package aims at improving infrastructure, building low-cost homes and rebuilding earthquake-devastated areas. Above all, it aims to boost vital economic growth. The vast sums are failing to quell doubts whether much will be achieved beyond enrichment of some officials. (Dec 2,'08)

China's US$9bn hostage in the Congo war
General Laurent Nkunda claims his forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo's increasingly violent eastern region are defending minority Tutsis. At the same time, he demands cancelation of a US$9 billion venture giving China rights to vast mineral resources. The creation of a new US military command for Africa is a strained coincidence. - F William Engdahl (Dec 1,'08)

China sets a green standard
The Chinese government has won plaudits from US environmentalists for encouraging banks to guide loans away from high-pollution industries. The Western observers also recognize that Beijing could do more at home - and overseas. (Nov 24,'08)

China's mega-buck banquet
The sparse details emerging of China's much-touted economic stimulus package suggest that it will strengthen the hand of government and squeeze out private enterprises, while benefits for the less well off could prove elusive. One thing looks certain - the race to spend is serving up a trillion-yuan banquet for officials. - Stephen Wong (Nov 20,'08)

Bangladesh and Myanmar in fuel spat
A border dispute between Myanmar and Bangladesh, heightened by the search for offshore energy resources, threatens to complicate China's plans to pump fuel from the region to its landlocked Yunnan province. - Andrew Symon

US template wrong for China
Calls for China to boost domestic demand to help haul the world out of its financial predicament are misplaced and ignore key fundamentals of China's economy. The advice from George Soros that something else has to take the place of the US consumerist model is far closer to the mark. (Nov 19,'08)

China's New Deal
China shows with its US$600 billion fiscal stimulus plan that it has grasped quicker than Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke the futility of relying on interest rate cuts for rapid recovery. More, the spending involved may mark the beginning of the end of China's willingness to finance the budget and trade deficits of the US. - Peter Navarro (Nov 13,'08)

China's multi-billion dollar riddle
China's US$586 billion economic stimulus package, targeted at giving a lift to the domestic economy, has raised hopes of a much-needed boost to demand for commodities and value-added products sourced from overseas. How much may depend on the extent to which the stimulus involves new money. - Olivia Chung(Nov 11,'08)

SUN WUKONG
China's yuan in conspiracy crossfire
A conspiracy theorist's claims that China is the target of a corrosive currency war are easily dismissed as far-fetched and out of place in the real world. Yet the country's reluctance to become involved in international efforts to limit the global financial crisis suggests xenophobic shades still haunt some corridors of power in Beijing. - Wu Zhong (Nov 5,'08)

Chalco in the wings as Rusal stumbles
A breakup of Rusal, one of the world's biggest aluminum producers, is looking increasingly possible as Russian auditors take a closer look at the empire of the country's richest man, Oleg Deripaska. Cash-rich rival Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco) is well placed to pick up the pieces. - John Helmer (Nov 4,'08)

Myanmar's farmers pay for China's oil thirst
Residents of Myanmar's largest western island are paying the price for China's need for oil and their government's willingness to accept cash for exploration with little oversight. Destroyed rice fields and polluted waterways are part of the unpaid bill. Oppression backed by Chinese-made guns is another. (Nov 3,'08)

China's footprint in Myanmar expands
China's commercial embrace of Myanmar is underwritten by a policy of non-interference in the country. This has allowed China to invest heavily in Myanmar's resources and develop alternative supply lines for its own strategic needs. - Brian McCartan (Oct 31,'08)

China ties up Russia's crude - again
A Sino-Russian deal to build a pipeline delivering crude oil to China's refinery hub of Daqing ends more than four years of often bitter negotiations and is testament to the growing strength of Beijing's treasury. There again, the deal has been agreed to more than once before. - John Helmer (Oct 31,'08)

Citic Pacific stress tests HK
Hong Kong's role as an international financial center and the extent of its independence under the Chinese central government are coming under scrutiny as investigations start into the loss of as much as US$2 billion through unauthorized forex trading by locally listed and well-connected Citic Pacific. - Olivia Chung
(Oct 30,'08)

China wrestles its moment of opportunity
The massive bailout of Western financial institutions is remaking the world's financial order, spurring debate in China about what adjustments and financial instruments need to be on the table for Beijing to address domestic challenges and the international financial crisis. - Russell Hsiao (Oct 28,'08)

Microsoft comes knocking in China
Microsoft is sending messages to Internet users in China warning them against using pirated software, ubiquitous in the country. To help get the message across, the US company's software blanks out screens. Internet users are calling foul. - Wu Zhong (Oct 23,'08)

Crisis plays havoc with China's toymakers
Increased tax rebates for China's exporters may not be enough to help many weather the downturn in Western demand for their toys and other goods. The domestic market holds opportunities, but there, too, growth looks fragile. (Oct 22,'08)

Global storm hits China's sea-commerce
China's shipping lines, shipbuilders and ports are feeling the impact of falling US consumer demand for Chinese products and tightening credit from loan-leery banks. Now they are looking to domestic strengths to buoy business. - Chris Stewart (Oct 20, '08)

China confident in storm
Bolstered by vast foreign reserves and a protected currency, China is confident it has the wherewithal to withstand the economic storms sweeping the globe. - John Ng (Oct 17, '08)

A Caspian energy superpower is born
The immense scale of Turkmenistan's gas reserves, revealed after an independent audit, elevates the country to the top rank of gas producers. More, it renders Moscow's energy strategy obsolescent and rekindles United States and European hopes of loosening Russia's grip on Central Asian gas pipelines. Former invader China has its own trump cards to play. - M K Bhadrakumar (Oct 16, '08)

Zardari takes begging bowl to Beijing
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is in Beijing with concern growing elsewhere that the increasingly impoverished country will be unable to meet its international debt obligations. Increased trade with China may help ease matters. In the longer term, he would like to expand his country's use of nuclear energy. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Oct 15, '08)

Farmers can bank on land
The Chinese government is making the breakthrough step of giving its millions of farmers a right to trade the land they till. That could mean more money in their pockets and less in bureaucrats' bank accounts. - Verna Yu (Oct 9, '08)

Beijing restrains buying urge
The Chinese government, its coffers filled with cash, is being called upon to throw its weight behind ailing Western financial institutions and engage in setting new rules for the post-crisis world. So far, though, it prefers to stand aloof. (Oct 9, '08)

China lost in SE Asian space
Although ahead in the Asian space race, China's satellite communications industry is lagging far behind the US and Europe in key market Southeast Asia. China's satellites are cheap but unproven and the industry remains too close to the government, leaving Southeast Asian nations loathe to rely on such a powerful neighbor for the sensitive technology. - Peter J Brown (Oct 9, '08)

China's interest targeted on harmony
The Chinese central bank, confronted with falling though still enviable economic growth, is expected to follow others in the region by cutting interest rates. A liquidity crisis is not its problem. Keeping factories busy and workers in line is its priority. - Leanne Wang (Oct 8, '08)

SUN WUKONG
China takes stock in crisis
China's refusal to allow full convertability of its currency has left its economy relatively isolated from the financial crisis sweeping the world. But exporters will suffer, and market reforms that have been underway for three decades are likely to proceed at an even more cautious pace. - Wu Zhong (Oct 7, '08)

HK's low-risk investors burnt by Lehman
Hong Kong retail investors have seen their savings disintegrate after buying what they thought was a low-risk product from the failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers. - Kent Ewing (Oct 6, '08)

CHINA'S DOLLAR MILLSTONE
Gold, manipulation and domination
For China, the world's biggest creditor nation, to allow successful national development it must cease having its currency a derivative of the US dollar and stop relying on a US-dollar denominated trade surplus to finance domestic development. The historic role of gold and its manipulation tells it as much. - Henry C K Liu
(Oct 1, '08)
This is the fourth part of a continuing series.
Part 1: Breaking free from dollar hegemony
Part 2: Developing China with sovereign credit
Part 3: History of monetary imperialism

Chinese growth doubts weigh on commodities
Concern over the state of the global economy was weighing on commodity prices even before US legislators rejected Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's financial sector bailout plan. The impact of declining Chinese economic growth is also having an impact that is set to intensify. - R M Cutler (Oct 1, '08)

China eases open bonds door
A market for commercial corporate bonds may be emerging in China, which would greatly increase the opportunities for companies to raise cash without recourse to bank loans or share issues. Even so, serious obstacles to the development of capital markets remain.- Pieter Bottelier (Oct 1, '08)

Red capitalism, or market communism?
China's former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping cautioned there is no absolute demarcation between socialism and capitalism. That may comfort China's present leaders, oft criticized in the United States for not hastening the development of free markets, as they watch the US government buy up private assets at an unprecedented rate - and as Chinese provincial governments demand intervention in the property market. - Sally Wang (Sep 26, '08)

CHINA'S DOLLAR MILLSTONE, Part 3
History of monetary imperialism
Given US dollar hegenomy, China and Japan have little choice but to invest their export earnings in US Treasuries or other dollar-denominated assets. In consequence, China now lends to the US more than double the vast sums Washington lent to war-torn Europe in 1947 under the Marshall Plan. And the US is anything but war-torn. - Henry C K Liu (Sep 25, '08)
This series will be continued
Part 1: Breaking free from dollar hegemony
Part 2: Developing China with sovereign credit

China's leaders brace for battle with regions
China's leaders preparing for a key meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee may face the nightmare they fear most - a disgruntled middle class, hit by falling property and share prices, joining disadvantaged peasants and migrant workers in venting their grievances. - Willy Lam (Sep 24, '08)

Crisis curdles China's booming dairy market
The biggest names in China's newly born dairy sector are reeling from a national crisis over chemically tainted baby milk that has left three infants dead and thousands hospitalized. The US$19 billion sector's biggest player, the partially New Zealand-owned Sanlu Group, is scrambling to recall products and fend off allegations that it covered up the scandal for months. - Kent Ewing (Sep 17, '08)

China's imploding US ally
AIG, one of the few US companies to be founded in China, grew there under the pathfinding leadership of Maurice R Greenberg, who came to be a key player in developing personal and political ties between the two countries. Now Greenberg looks on from the sidelines and scared AIG customers dump their personal policies. - Richard Komaiko and Chris Stewart (Sep 17, '08)

China investors also want help
China's stock markets, unlike others in Asia, failed to respond positively to the weekend bailout that guaranteed the country's holdings of debt in the two leading US mortgage finance companies. Stricken share investors called for the government to give them a helping hand - Washington-style. - Olivia Chung (Sep 9,'08)

The ABCs of GSEs and SOEs
The failure and nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is an object lesson to finger-pointers in the US who decry the role in the Chinese economy of state-owned enterprises. Officials in Beijing can also learn from the collapse of the US mortgage guarantors. - Richard Komaiko (Sep 9,'08)

Paulson placates China, Russia - for now
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had little choice but to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with China and Russia holding large amounts of their debt. Doing nothing would have left no further reason for other countries to invest in US government-guaranteed obligations. That day of reckoning has now merely been delayed. - Julian Delasantellis (Sep 9,'08)

SUN WUKONG
Party time for China
Thirty years after Deng Xiaoping set China on the path of reforms that have transformed the country and the global economy, the communist government appears ready to switch its focus to political reforms that could give ordinary Chinese a bigger voice. Giving up a piece of its power, however, is not on the party's agenda. - Wu Zhong (Sep 9,'08)

Huiyuan Juice boss declares brand freedom
"Brand names should be free of country boundaries and the human race," Huiyuan Juice chairman Zhu Xinli said after the company's share price tumbled on concern that Coca-Cola's US$2.3 billion bid for the Chinese market leader could fall foul of the country's new Anti-Monopoly Law. Zhu is set to receive nearly $1 billion from the sale. - Olivia Chung (Sep 8,'08)

China trade outguns Europe's rights concern
French President Nicolas Sarkozy claims he fixes his own appointments, but his reluctance to meet the Dalai Lama and China's increased importance to European trade prompt concern over his and other European leaders' priorities regarding human rights. (Sep 4, '08)

CHINA'S DOLLAR MILLSTONE, Part 2
Developing China with sovereign credit
The privatization of China's public sector and opening of its financial sector to predatory global capital continues even as neo-liberals in the crisis-hit West clamor for government intervention. This is a con game China should not seek to emulate. - Henry C K Liu (Sep 3, '08)
This is the second part of a four-part analysis
Part I: Breaking free from dollar hegemony

Macau becomes a not so sure bet
Macau, recently transformed from a pleasantly sleepy former Portuguese enclave to being the world's leading gambling center, faces the first pause in four years of relentless growth. After repeated forecasts of perpetual sunshine, Macau isn't enjoying the cloudy outlook. - Muhammad Cohen (Sep 2, '08)

China's excess liquidity trap
China is awash with cash, thanks to high levels of savings, increased enterprise profitability, a government budget surplus and more foreign exchange reserves than it knows what do with. It sounds good - but the imbalances are creating hazardous challenges with significant implications at home and overseas. - Pieter Bottelier (Aug 28, '08)

China's banks churn out profits
China's banks, reaping the benefits of a fast-growing economy and relatively free of the US subprime morass afflicting their Western counterparts, are reporting surging second-half profits. The outlook is less positive. - Olivia Chung (Aug 26, '08)

Sportswear firms fail Olympics test
Sportswear companies pay costly sponsorship and licensing sums to associate their brands with the Olympic Games. Yet their products, even after years of bad publicity, are too often still made by underpaid, overworked men, women and children. (Aug 22, '08)

SUN WUKONG
China shares limp off the track
As China's Olympic athletes, doubtless strengthened by national pride, win record numbers of gold medals, the country's retail stock investors are seeing their savings drain away amid a plunging market. Blaming foreigners for the losses is an unpleasant side effect. - Wu Zhong (Aug 19, '08)

China turns tap on currency flows
Beijing, long concerned with restricting the flow of funds out of the country, is now seeking to limit speculative inflows through a batch of new measures. Critics argue that a stronger currency would do a better job. - Olivia Chung (Aug 19, '08)

SPEAKING FREELY
How to not get hacked in Chinese surgery
Multinational companies deploy a vast array of tools and mechanisms to foil criminal appropriation of their products and profits, but any unchecked assumption can leave the defenses worthless. - Richard Gould (Aug 18, '08)

Huawei's perfect Indian marriage
China's emergence as the world's factory has not been matched by the development of global-standard brand-name companies. A notable exception is Huawei, whose growth, aided by tapping into Indian software skills, is helping to shape the market for telecommunication equipment. - Pallavi Aiyar (Aug 15, '08)

China's growth slowdown to continue
China's economic growth is set to slow further as global woes, including rising prices, make more inroads, even as the government seeks to stabilize growth. - Olivia Chung (Aug 12, '08)

'Buzz' the in-word for China sales
Product recommendation by peer consumers is coming to be recognized as an important route to driving sales among China's increasingly affluent young workers. - Daniel Allen (Aug 8, '08)

High-jumping China's firewall
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are drafting a code of conduct for business operations in China and other countries with restrictive Internet policies as journalists at the Beijing Olympics fret about Internet access and other visitors are advised to go "naked" of digital devices. (Aug 8, '08)
Martin J Young surveys the week's developments in computing, gaming and gizmos.

Food security key to China's Doha line
China's decision to hold out against a final agreement on the Doha Round of trade talks, with agricultural tariffs the key issue, was not a political posture but marked the country's concern over food security and social stability. (Aug 6, '08)

China to ease economic brakes
China's leaders, faced with slowing growth rates and rising prices, are turning their attention to maintaining stable economic expansion rather then holding back what had been seen as an overheating economy. - Olivia Chung (Aug 4, '08)

Chargers join China's deadly imitations
Counterfeit chargers for devices such as game consoles can now be added to the range of fake products churned out by China and putting lives at risk around the world. An amoral fusion of Maoism and Confucianism has created the perfect economic, political and cultural laboratory for a piracy boom. - Peter Navarro (Jul 31, '08)

CHINA'S DOLLAR MILLSTONE, Part 1
Breaking free from dollar hegemony
China, by seeking growth through exports for US dollars, has trapped itself in a crisis-prone mismatch between domestic policies to assure sustainable growth and monetary policy dictated by dollar hegemony. Only sovereign credit can redress the numerous resulting problems, including a shortage of capital needed to develop its economy. - Henry C K Liu (Jul 29, '08)
This is the first part in a two-part analysis.

China narrows ASEAN trade gap
China, which imports more from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asia Nations than it exports to them, moved closer to a trade surplus with its junior neighbors in the first five months of this year, even as wages at home accelerated, driving up production costs. (Jul 28, '08)

New-age Chinatown has Laotians on edge
A proposed development near the center of the Laotian capital of Vientiane is raising concerns about the growing influence of China over its southern neighbor, with Chinese workers set to play a major role in construction of the project's shops, factories and hotels, and perhaps staying on in the new homes being built. - Brian McCartan (Jul 25, '08)

Court casts shadow over Rusal listing
A clash between two of Russia's leading companies has led to a British court ruling that throws doubt on the possibility of United Company Rusal, the world's biggest aluminum producer, listing its shares in Hong Kong. - John Helmer (Jul 23, '08)

China stirs over offshore oil-pact
China's protests at Exxon Mobil's move to explore for oil in the seas off Vietnam raise anew the dispute surrounding control of the Spratly and Paracel islands and interest in the role of China's deep-water navy.- Peter Navarro (Jul 22, '08)

China to maintain cooling efforts
The Chinese government, which appears to be scoring notable successes in reining in economic growth and inflation, is nevertheless likely to maintain its present monetary tightening policies. - Olivia Chung (Jul 18, '08)

Property price slide a China success
New-home buyers in China's leading cities are feeling the pain as the value of their property tumbles below the purchase price. Unlike similar woes in the US, this price slide marks a success in government policy. - Olivia Chung (Jul 17, '08)

Gas pipeline gigantism
The much-doubted Turkmenistan to China natural gas pipeline, which if completed will be the world's longest and most expensive such link, came closer to reality last week when ground was broken for construction of the Kazakhstan segment, soon after a similar start in Uzbekistan. With work already underway in Turkmenistan, the next stop is Shanghai. - Robert M Cutler (Jul 16, '08)

New life for coal in quake's aftermath
Privately owned coal mines may be among the beneficiaries of the earthquake that shattered China's Sichuan province in May as the disaster has prompted a critical new look at ambitious nuclear and hydro development plans. (Jul 14, '08)

China's veto just part of business
China's United Nations veto preventing sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's regime is the flip side of Beijing's determination to maintain access to the country's rich resources, ranging from platinum and chromium to tobacco. - Peter Navarro (Jul 14, '08)

China's quake offers nice pickings
China's mutual-help plan to fund reconstruction in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake in May should be a win-win-win policy, benefiting central government, devastated areas and, through increased growth, provinces that pitch in with aid. Yet other parties, not entitled, are already helping themselves from the aid table. - John Ng (Jul 10, '08)

Myanmar signs up energy partners
Companies from India's Bharat Heavy Electricals to Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production are securing multimillion-dollar deals with Myanmar's military junta, even as its rulers seek billions of dollars in emergency aid from international donors in the wake of the Cycone Nagris disaster. - Brian McCartan (Jul 9, '08)

China succor for foreign lenders
Citigroup, HSBC and other overseas banks hurt by the US subprime crisis are finding relief for their woes in China, as eased restrictions help them boost earnings from wealthy individuals and other customers in the world's fastest-growing major economy. One cloud on the horizon - their staff want more pay. - Olivia Chung (Jul 9, '08)

COMMENT
China's pollution Olympics
The algal bloom threatening to disrupt Olympic sailing events in Qingdao, China, is symptomatic of the country's water-pollution problems. These have far more dangerous effects than grounding a few boats, but the latest bloom might embarrass Beijing into confronting its environmental mess. - Peter Navarro (Jul 9, '08)

G-whatever, China is here
The voice of Beijing will be heard at the Group of Eight gathering in Japan of the world's so-called leading countries, if only in side discussions. Yet the present and future size of its economy and growing role in world affairs make China's presence unavoidable, to the extent that the very relevance of the G-8 is open to doubt. - Francesco Sisci (Jul 8, '08)

Midwest tests Sinosteel's edge
The recent 85% increase in iron ore prices agreed between China's steelmakers and miner Rio Tinto adds edge to Sinosteel's bid for Australian ore producer Midwest. Rival miner Murchison is hanging in with its own offer while hedge-fund king Philip Falcone is also a player in a high-stakes game whose outcome may yet be decided by bureaucrats. - Alan Boyd (Jul 2, '08)

Health support for China investors
China's tumbling stock market shows little willingness to turn around after a more than 50% decline since October. Yet as the economy continues its fast growth, pockets of strength remain. The healthcare system is one such as it emerges from its post-privatization shambles. - Peter Navarro (Jun 30, '08)

China's shoppers stock up on cards
The number of credit cards used by China's consumers doubled in the first three months of this year. That should please the issuing banks, and the government. The downside for the banks is that Chinese card users pay off their debt. - Catherine Jiang (Jun 25, '08)

Temblor shakes China's big dam ambitions
The earthquake that shattered much of China's Sichuan province last month has increased concern about the country's network of dams, many built on dangerous fault lines, and its plans to build many more to help fuel the country's economic growth. (Jun 25, '08)

CHAN AKYA
Vietnam's hard economic
lesson for China
The unraveling of the Vietnam investment story in the past few weeks shows dangers for other large Asian economies, in particular China, which faces the dual dangers of rapidly rising inflation and heightened risks in its financial sector. The term Middle Kingdom seems destined to mean something altogether less salutary in coming years (Jun 23, '08)

China steel pipes in US cross hairs
The US International Trade Commission's decision to back tariffs of up to 700% on Chinese-made circular steel pipes establishes the firm precedent that US companies harmed by Chinese subsidies can seek countervailing tariffs to offset China's mercantilist advantage. It also has implications for the US presidential race. - Peter Navarro (Jun 23, '08)

China fuel hike shakes up markets
International crude oil prices tumbled and China's motorists rushed to the pumps after Beijing unexpectedly raised the price of diesel, petrol and jet fuel by upwards of about 17%. The government raised subsidies to ease the impact on farmers and others, but more increases are expected to follow. - Olivia Chung (Jun 20, '08)

   China sharply hikes energy prices (AFP)

SUN WUKONG
Beijing lets punters sink
China's mainland-listed shares, in a near-continuous plunge since last October, have been held back from an even deeper abyss by a series of government interventions. Investors last week looked to Beijing for one more trick to protect their funds. There was none. - Wu Zhong (Jun 16, '08)

SUN WUKONG
'Cats' mistake cream for mice
Thirty years on, the consequences of Deng Xiaoping's decision to break with China's past and its Maoist command economy are now evident to the world in a vastly richer country and its more affluent population. President Hu Jintao's efforts to encourage imaginative efforts to continue this remarkable advance are having mixed success. - Wu Zhong (Jun 12, '08)

China's land income leaking away
Billions of dollars of land-sale proceeds are being hidden away, with much "misused", by officials in China's leading cities as they shun central government rules covering the increasingly valuable commodity. At the same time, illegal land grabs are soaring. - Olivia Chung (Jun 12, '08)

China stumbles in forging Russia gas deals
China, its demand for energy to fuel its fast-growing economy outpacing its local productive capacity, is handily placed next door to energy-rich Russia. It should be an ideal partnership, but inept negotiating by Beijing is slowing development of a much-needed gas partnershp. - John Helmer(Jun 10, '08)

China's (maybe) brilliant telecom call
China's long-awaited restructuring of its telecommunications sector should increase market competition, speed up technological development and open the doors to increased foreign participation. It may also leave space for China Mobile to further consolidate its monopoly power. - Peter Navarro (Jun 6, '08)

SUN WUKONG
Quake opens responsibility
fault line
The earthquake that recently devastated much of central China prompted an outpouring of donations from the country's citizens. Corporations also pitched in, but in the case of China's leading property developer, highly profitable China Vanke, some was not enough. - Wu Zhong (Jun 5, '08)

China strategy stamped on Afghan deal
Success in securing rights to Afghanistan's Anyak copper field last month underlines China's determination to strengthen links with its neighbors while developing its own remote western regions. Much more of that determination will be needed to overcome the obstacles that have so far prevented exploitation of Aynak's potentially vast resources. (Jun 4, '08)

China picks up the pieces
Enterprises hit last month by China's huge earthquake are getting back to business, some more quickly than others thanks to plants built to withstand such shocks. Supplies remain a problem, while the outlook for the tourism industry is poor. - Olivia Chung (Jun 3, '08)

Loans path eases for China's farmers
China's farmers, and the country's agricultural output, are set to gain from changes in rules covering rural banking and affecting lenders ranging from giants such as HSBC Holdings to local outfit UA Easy Lenders. - Olivia Chung (May 29, '08)

China presence in Cambodia grows
Ethnic Chinese families close to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen are playing a key role in putting Chinese companies in touch with top Cambodian officials, resulting in deals worth billions of dollars. (May 29, '08)

Rift knocks another chip off HK credibility
A family feud splitting the board of Hong Kong's biggest developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties, involving battling brothers, a long-time lover and claims of a false medical diagnosis, has caused much local amusement. It is also the latest incident this year to call into question the priority given in the city and elsewhere in Asia to corporate governance. - Kent Ewing and Olivia Chung  (May 27, '08)

West takes credit for China's emissions
China's insistence that it will not hold back economic growth to assuage concerns about the impact that expansion is having on the world's climate has attracted the opprobrium of many in the West, such as US presidential candidate John McCain. Yet Western companies are playing an important role in helping China clean up its act. - Craig Meer and Vincent Shie
(May 16, '08)

China's embrace leaves US in cold
China's determined efforts to improve relations with Southeast Asian neighbors and to strengthen transport and trade links should bring improved prosperity to the region. The success of Beijing's initiatives also underlines the diminishing role to be played in the region by the United States.(May 15, '08)

SUN WUKONG
'Devalue' call undermines yuan true faith
China for two years has let its currency steadily appreciate against the US dollar, all the time berated by the US and other leading trade partners who insist the yuan should strengthen even faster. Now a Bank of China analyst argues that Beijing should throw its currency policy into reverse and devalue. What gives? - Wu Zhong
(May 13, '08)

China's weakness the greater danger
Claims that China is an emerging superpower overlook the reality that the ineffectually governed country will struggle for decades to get and stay beyond subsistence. The West, rather than fearing China's expansion, should be preparing for a dramatic setback in Chinese economic growth and resulting breakdowns in domestic order.
(May 12, '08)

Pressure grows on China's grain prices
Good harvests, subsidies and a mix of government controls have isolated China from the worst of international grain price increases. That is unlikely to last as farmland is lost to urbanization and impoverished farmers flee the land. - Sally Wang (May 12, '08)

Hong Kong savers seek yuan protection
Residents in Hong Kong and other parts of greater China are increasingly moving their savings into mainland accounts to escape the impact of falling local currencies and low interest rates. With the yuan forecast to gain 15% against the US dollar by the end of the year, the flood of transfers is likely to grow. - Olivia Chung (May 6, '08)

China faces trade war climate challenge
China's growing economy has brought the country to the center of the debate on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Its reaction to moves by the US Congress to tax imports from other major greenhouse gas emitters could prove crucial in determining the most effective means of forcing international action on global warming.
(May 5, '08)

China's inflation carries long-term risks
Concern in China over rising inflation is justified, given the potential it can have for creating social unrest. Yet failure to recognize the core causes of higher prices, and whether these are imported from the global economy, may lead to the wrong decisions being made and unsought consequences. (Apr 30, '08)

SUN WUKONG
Moving markets and mountains
The new overseer of China's financial affairs was barely in office before polishing his "Mr Fix It" reputation by turning around the plummeting stock markets. Curbs on refinancing by listed companies are expected to be Wang Qishan's next mountain-moving stroke. All very impressive - but his is still a visible hand that would be better not seen. - Wu Zhong (Apr 29, '08)

India, China hold G8 options
European leaders such as British Premier Gordon Brown and President Nikolas Sarkozy of France are pushing for India and China to sign up for full membership of the rich nations' club known as the Group of Eight. But their counterparts in New Delhi and Beijing have good reason to hold back. - Sreeram Chaulia (Apr 28, '08)

Food prices dim biofuel glow
China's determination to promote biofuels as an alternative to polluting coal and oil is being undermined as growers of the core products find themselves squeezed by the rising cost of agriculture products and government control of fuel prices. (Apr 25, '08)

Tax cut reverses shares plunge
The Chinese government has scored at least a temporary success with its latest move to halt the plunge in the country's stock market, among the world's worst performers this year. Shares jumped almost 10% after an overnight cut in stamp duty, raised 11 months earlier, helped return confidence to investors. (Apr 24, '08)

   Chinese shares rocket (AFP)

US media the last hurdle for China buyouts
Chinese companies looking to expand overseas are already aware of potential hostility from Washington to encroachment on US companies. Yet even if legal barriers were not thrown up, another bar could prove insurmountable - the antagonistic US media. - Thomas H Wilkins (Apr 23, '08)

Guangdong keeps value in clear-out
Chinese government efforts to clear low-value manufacturers out of Guangdong province and encourage production there of more up-market goods may be bringing results if the exodus of shoemakers from the key manufacturing and exporting hub is any guide. - Olivia Chung (Apr 21, '08)

China caught in potash crunch
China has found that its market muscle counts for little when it comes to buying the fertilizer essential to maintain its output of rice and other crops. New contract terms more than doubled the price it pays for shipments from Russia, and competition with other consumers is set to intensify. Suppliers, meanwhile, are seeing their share prices soar. - John Helmer (Apr 21, '08)

China's exporters seek dollar balance
Exhibitors at China's largest trade fair face tough decisions this year as the country's currency continues its inexorable rise against the US dollar, in which most international trade is denominated. Ask customers to tie their purchases to the euro or see even further erosion to thinning profit margins. (Apr 21, '08)

Exposed: China's red billionaire village
It was a marriage made in heaven - the best of Mao Zedong thought partnered with the mechanics of a market economy. The money rolled into Nanjie village, the villas went up and the natives sat back while migrants did the chores. There was only one hitch - and now the bills are coming in. - Poon Siu-tao (Apr 17, '08)

China growth shrugs off freeze
China's central bank has further clamped down on the ability of lending institutions to hand out money as the economy expanded by more than 10% in the first quarter despite a fierce winter and inflation showing little sign of slackening. - Olivia Chung (Apr 17, '08)

TARGET IRAN, Part 2
Euro mantra undermines sanctions
Chinese exporters have a three-line code to beat United States-imposed sanctions on Iran. The mantra's heart - the euro and the Europe-focused SWIFT banking transaction network - point to the likely long-term winners and losers in this financial tug-of-war. (Apr 11, '08)
This concludes a two-part article.

US stocks open to China savers
Chinese can now invest their cash in US stocks under a deal signed this week. Such purchases might look attractive, given recent declines in Shanghai-listed equities, and will help channel some of China's vast US dollar holdings into the private sector rather than being parked in US government securities. But look for a trickle rather than a flood of funds. - Richard Komaiko (Apr 9, '08)

China gets energy issues down on paper
China has made a breakthrough in its approach to a central feature of its fast-growing economy merely by drawing up a white paper outlining a national energy strategy. As Beijing strives to meet its often conflicting challenges, it needs to set about refining that strategy, ideally with substantial help from the international community. (Apr 8, '08)

Strong yuan may be China's savior
Chinese writers and economists rarely share the United States perspective that the yuan should appreciate faster to ease the trade deficit between the two countries. Conspiracy theorists have popular support. Yet a major appreciation of the yuan could be the most effective way of bringing China's inflation under control. (Apr 7, '08)

Macau's rotten basket of riches
In the space of a few years, Macau has metamorphosed from a sleepy backwater into the richest place in Asia. New casinos are the driving force and their owners the main beneficiaries. Strip out the gambling money and another reality is evident - the locals are still picking up crumbs from the rich folks' table. - Kent Ewing (Apr 3, '08)

Global slowdown tests China's goals
The continuing global impact of the financial crisis in the United States complicates Chinese government efforts to curb inflation, boost investment in agriculture and drive ahead with economic restructuring.

Open skies a plus-plus for China, US
The number of flights operating between the United States and China is increasing, but slowly, with China appearing reluctant to recognize the economic benefits that would accrue if the present limits were thrown out. - Thomas H Wilkins (Apr 2, '08)

Power crisis for Guangdong industry
Manufacturers in Guangdong province, one of China's key industrial centers, face a long troubled summer as they battle rising costs, labor shortages and doubts over the strength of global markets, particularly the US. Adding to their burdens, the area is forecast to suffer its worst electricity shortages in three decades. - Olivia Chung (Mar 31, '08)

Flight, pain mark latest China revolution
Small-time foreign investors in China are closing their factory doors and catching the next flight home, leaving debts and unpaid workers behind, as they fail to keep pace with the country's changing industrial focus. Taking their place on incoming flights are better-heeled investors, more fully equipped to survive in the fast-modernizing economy. (Mar 27, '08)

China's insurers look to looser shackles
Consumers attracted by higher returns elsewhere have been shunning the once-buoyant Chinese life insurance industry, whose product attractions are limited by a government-imposed ceiling on interest rates paid on policies. Freedom to set their own rates, now under consideration, may help domestic companies win back customers and meet the challenge of increasing overseas competition. - Olivia Chung (Mar 26, '08)

Economic path opens for China reunification
The Taiwanese electorate's support for Ma Ying-jeou and Beijing's restraint in the runup to the island's recent presidential election have created an atmosphere in which economic ties can strengthen and help move China towards reunification. (Mar 26, '08)

Cambodian dam plans suffer
information drought
Cambodia, with its own fast-growing economy and a shortage of energy, plans to build a series of hydropower projects that would help to supply its own needs while creating an opportunity to supply electricity to neighboring countries. Yet even projects underway lack transparency while the strong presence of Chinese companies is also raising concern. (Mar 25, '08)

SPEAKING FREELY
China risks caution overkill
after Bear prudence
CITIC Group's decision to cancel its US$2 billion cross-shareholding deal with Bear Stearns highlights China's new mood of caution on investing in Western banks and may coincide with a rethink regarding its own financial organizations. Yet a return by China to the world of rigid financial sector compartmentalization would be in neither its own nor the global financial system's interests. - Sebastian F Bruck (Mar 25, '08)

Green challenge to China's mega-projects
China's fast pace of growth has come at huge cost in pollution and degradation of the countryside. Residents are now making their voice heard in protest against projects ranging from refineries to train lines. Assessment reports by the high-powered State Environmental Protection Administration will now play a key role - once it has some updated rules to follow. Candy Zeng (Mar 19, '08)

Strait talk boosts Taiwan stocks
Overseas investors are buying up Taiwanese shares on the prospects of this week's presidential elections leading to improved relations between Taipei and Beijing. - Olivia Chung (Mar 18, '08)

China opens door wider to foreign funds
The Chinese government, after a lull of more than a year, has reopened its doors to allow overseas funds - in this case reportedly Norway's global pension fund, one of the world's largest - to invest in the yuan-denominated share market. The move may help lift share prices, though retail investors see something more sinister at work. - Sally Wang (Mar 14, '08)

Big test for Taiwan prediction market
Taiwan's presidential election this month is more than a challenge for the island's political heavyweights. It will also test the accuracy of a market designed to forecast who will come out on top of such contests. Even if real money cannot be used, a successful outcome will help attract more converts in Asia to what is becoming a global phenomenon. - Jonathan Adams (Mar 13, '08)

Subprime blues hurt China shares goal
Beijing's plan to take some heat out of the economy by encouraging retail investors to buy overseas shares has been damaged by the impact on global markets of the US subprime crisis. Regulators are now expected to relax the rules so that a wider range of companies can list in Shanghai. - Olivia Chung (Mar 12, '08)

SUN WUKONG
Guangdong looks for
closer delta embrace
A rising star of China's Communist Party is looking to create a unified trade zone incorporating Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong province, a move that would help his own ascendancy while giving a boost to the Pearl Delta region, where industry is being eroded by rising costs. - Wu Zhong (Mar 11, '08)

SPEAKING FREELY
Don't be lazy, snooze at work
Asia's culture of napping has reached a new level in China, where the state has authorized sleeping on the job, at least for a little while. It's time to wake up to the age of the "cubicle nap" and experts say the results are eye-opening. Increased productivity, safety and morale surely put to bed any Western notions of the dangers of a work-day doze. - Matt Young (Mar 6, '08)

China looks to stamp duty cut
Pressure is building on the Chinese government to cut the stock trading stamp duty as a means of injecting new life into a market that has slumped from the record highs of last year. - Olivia Chung (Mar 6, '08)

China confirms inflation enemy number one
Premier Wen Jiabao told China's Parliament on Wednesday the government would take more steps to curb inflation and cool the economy. His determination was underlined by setting a GDP growth target well short of non-government forecasts. - John Ng and Olivia Chung (Mar 5, '08)

Iran gas: China waits as India wavers
The possibility of India buying Iranian gas by way of a pipeline running through mutual neighbor Pakistan has been a talking point for the past decade. Yet as Islamabad and Tehran prepare to sign a gas purchase agreement this month, India is holding back amid security concerns and US disapproval of the plan. Energy-hungry China may seize the opportunity. - Siddharth Srivastava (Mar 5, '08)

Taxmen hover over $22bn Ping An fund plan Ping An Insurance shareholders vote this week on a plan by the firm to raise more than US$22 billion by selling shares and bonds. Their decision might be swayed by the Chinese tax authority's move to run a rule over the insurer's acounts. - Sally Wang (Mar 4, '08)

Total recall in China
Headline-grabbing incidents of toxic Chinese-made products - from toys with lead paint to contaminated fish and adulterated drug products - mask the progress the country has made in cleaning up its act. More can be done and will be, if civil aviation safety and action over doping in sports are any guide. - Dali L Yang (Mar 4, '08)

HK-Macau bridge planners take costly option
A proposed 36-km bridge to straddle the Pearl River Delta between Hong Kong and Macau is to be developed under the build-operate-transfer system of funding, with a 50-year operating period. It is a remarkable choice given the wealth of the local governments involved. - Henry C K Liu (Mar 4, '08)

China business looks homewards
An appreciating currency and government policies that add to the expense of selling products overseas are encouraging China's exporters to look to domestic markets to maintain sales momentum. (Mar 3, '08)

SPEAKING FREELY
Cultural bias a drag on China business
Visitors to China easily assume a superior stance when faced with aspects of the country not to their liking. Business leaders risk losing out when they dismiss its apparently monolithic political culture as one without prospect of change. - Matt Young (Feb 28, '08)

Discounts mark China property price slide
China's government may be having some success in its efforts to cool the country's housing market. Land in Shanghai is selling at less than half the prices fetched last November, while developers are breaking new ground with discounts. (Feb 28, '08)

China turns up heat on hot money
Illegal banks responsible for moving billions of yuan across China's borders, notably into mainland and Hong Kong stock markets and property, are to get increasing attention from authorities concerned about the country's financial stability. - Olivia Chung (Feb 27, '08)

SUN WUKONG
Shares drive may drown a golden goose
The Chinese government, keen to reduce the amount of cash in the economy, is encouraging more companies to raise money in the stock markets rather than through bank loans. The result is a plethora of proposals for new share issues by listed companies such as insurance giant Ping An, whose need for the cash is open to question. - Wu Zhong (Feb 26, '08)

SPEAKING FREELY
China has poll breather on yuan pressure
Calls by the Group of Seven and the International Monetary Fund for faster appreciation of the yuan, allied to China becoming the US's biggest supplier of imports, are unlikely to stir Beijing into action this year, with US politicians and the public distracted by the battle for the White House. - Tim Brown (Feb 25, '08)

China's green race against urban surge
An unprecedented move to the cities by China's rural population will create huge demands for new housing over the next two decades - and concomitant pressures on the environment. Developers are taking some steps in the right direction to limit the damage. - Josh Adams (Feb 22, '08)

Squeeze to follow China freeze
The Chinese government looks set to step up its efforts to squeeze cash from the economy as January figures indicate numerous interest rate rises and curbs on bank lending have failed to do their job. Yet higher borrowing costs will hurt farmers and businesses trying to rebuild from a winter savaging. - Olivia Chung (Feb 21, '08)

Chinese bonds signal early end
to 'tight' money
The Chinese government made clear its determination to rein in inflation with an end-of-year announcement that monetary policy would be tightened. Yet the country's bond market suggests that nothing has changed - even that the policy direction might soon be reversed. - Mark A DeWeaver (Feb 21, '08)

China tightens grip on grain
Increased harvests in China are failing to meet growing demand for grain, raising concerns over China's ability to feed itself and prompting the government to curb the flow of grain exports. - Olivia Chung (Feb 20, '08)

China stakes much on new stock board
China is resurrecting plans to launch a growth board for listing small companies as a route to encourage more start-ups, further develop its venture capital industry, and soak up liquidity in the booming economy. - Candy Zeng (Feb 15, '08)

Wealthy sovereign, poor citizen
China's willingness to pour funds into the likes of Blackstone is a vote of confidence in the future of America's economy. Yet the Chinese government could instead distribute the foreign reserves it garners to its poorest residents. Only a few dollars a day; but when was the last time someone offered to triple your income? - Richard Komaiko (Feb 13, '08)

Macau loses as Asia’s Las Vegas
Revenues pulled in by southern China’s gaming haven are set to surpass southern Nevada’s. That won’t make it Las Vegas and Macau should be thankful. - Muhammad Cohen (Feb 12, '08)

China helps create a future for Congo
China's agreement to take on big infrastructure projects in the Congo in return for copper and cobalt reserves aroused deep suspicions and claims of neo-colonization. Yet the deal could help transform the African country's economy - and save President Joseph Kabila's political future. (Feb 11, '08)

Asia's SMEs see healthy outlook
Asia's small-business entrepreneurs are looking to expand domestically and internationally this year, as the prospects in strong regional economies outshine the creeping gloom from the US. - Olivia Chung (Feb 11, '08)

China’s retail rethink
Mall developments boasting Prada boutiques and Tissot displays are a growing feature of China's booming economy. But many are bedevilled by poor management, poor location, poor design, poor choice of tenants and worse, prices way beyond even the country's growing middle class. The way ahead for most is downmarket. - Josh Adams (Feb 8, '08)

Poisoned dumplings kill $500m merger
China-made snacks that sickened Japanese consumers, nourished conspiracy theories and gave a queasy turn to Beijing-Tokyo relations also nauseated executives at the world's third-biggest tobacco company as the poisoned dumplings killed off a US$500-million merger plan. (Feb 7, '08)

No cooling China's economic engine
The blizzards that have knocked out chunks of China's industry and wrecked the holidays of millions of workers will likely prove merely a storm in a teacup when it comes to their effect on the country's runaway economic growth. - Zhou Jiangong (Feb 7, '08)

Profits high from China's