http://chinadigitaltimes.net Covering China From Cyberspace Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:04:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en From Caijing.com.cn: For several months after China halved the car purchase tax rate January 20, vehicle sales soared. Sales Dealers sold 4.96 million units during the first five months of 2009, up 14 percent year-on-year, raising the possibility that annual sales could surpass 10 million. But the good times passed quickly. The ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/fork-in-the-road-for-chinas-car-purchase-tax/ From guardian.co.uk: Recently, Beijing announced new procedures to "give an effective guarantee" to rural citizens that their land rights would be respected by "standardising" arbitration procedures. This is explicit recognition that rural unrest remains a serious problem. But the problem in rural China is not bad legislation but enforcement. No ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/john-lee-chinas-empty-land-reform/ From AFP: Taiwan has benefited from its giant neighbour's measures to stimulate its economy by offering subsidies to consumers, the island's government said in a report. Taiwan exported 4.65 billion US dollars worth of goods to China in April, down 33.8 percent from a year ago, the Board of Foreign Trade said. The ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/taiwan-benefits-from-chinas-economic-stimulus/ Girls play a hand game in Taining, Fujian, by Caro http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/photo-girls-play-a-hand-game-in-taining-fujian-by-caro/ 26.9001806 117.1757508 A government researcher today recommended that only boosting domestic consumption would help China recover from the global financial crisis and international demand is still weak. From Bloomberg: China has to boost domestic consumption by increasing household income and not just through gains from property and stocks, Xia said. The central bank ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/china-needs-consumption-for-recovery-researcher-says/ Reuters reports: Torrential rain battering southern China has forced more than 150,000 people from their homes, toppled hundreds of houses and punched a dangerous hole in the spillway of a dam, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. The destruction after just three days of downpours was a reminder of the havoc that ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/heavy-rain-in-southern-china-forces-150000-to-flee/ ChinaGeeks translates a blog post written by a woman appealing for the release of her sister, a petitioner detained and mistreated in Beijing: [Li Chunhua] is from Longkou, Yantai, Shandong, living in the Lutou township behind the temple. This year, she is 49 years old. Because her husband was beaten so ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/%e2%80%9creturn-my-sister-li-chunhua%e2%80%9d/ 37.4638194 121.4479258 Police in Guizhou are investigating a case in which 80 baby girls were removed from their homes and taken to orphanages, and later adopted overseas. From AP: Family planning officials in impoverished Guizhou province's Zhenyuan County sent the babies to a state-run orphanage during 2003 and 2004 without properly investigating their ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/china-punishes-officials-after-babies-taken/ 27 107 From AFP: Several PC makers said Friday they were voluntarily including China's controversial Internet filter software in new shipments despite Beijing's decision to postpone making it mandatory. The government had been set to introduce the Chinese-made "Green Dam Youth Escort" programme but announced the delay hours before its implementation on July 1. Customer ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/pc-makers-offer-china-internet-filter/ From Caijing.com.cn: Inflation fears are spreading in China with expectations for an economic recovery. Sentiments have been on a roller coaster ride since the economy turned sharply from inflationary in the first half of 2008 to deflationary in the first half of this year. And if steep inflation re-emerges in the ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/consumer-inflation-knocks-at-chinas-door/ From Reuters: Proposals to impose "carbon tariffs" on imported products will violate the rules of the World Trade Organization as well as the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol, China's Ministry of Commerce said. In a statement posted on its website, the ministry said collecting carbon duties from foreign products would enable developed ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/china-says-carbon-tariffs-proposals-breach-wto-rules/ From AP: China's shares edged up Friday to a new one-year high on optimism about a possible economic revival, with real estate and dairies up but banks and metals mixed. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.67 points, or 0.05 percent, to close at 3,061.93, its highest level since June 10, 2008. ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/chinese-shares-rise-to-new-1-year-high/ Optimistic financial news from the New York Times: Fueled by renewed confidence in economic growth in China and perhaps the kind of frenzied buying that took place a few years ago, Chinese stock prices are once again soaring. The Shanghai composite index rose 52 points Thursday, to close at 3,060.25, putting the ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/markets-in-china-fly-high-once-more/ In the Guardian, author Diane Wei Liang writes about the Green Dam software brouhaha, Internet activism, and the 1989 protest movement: I was a student at Beijing University at the time. My generation and the generation before us had grown up with censorship; there were severe punishments for voicing dissent. My ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/diane-wei-liang-a-new-tiananmen-%e2%80%93-but-this-time-china%e2%80%99s-rebels-are-online/ Dameisha beach, Shenzhen, by janipenttinen http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/photo-dameisha-beach-shenzhen-by-janipenttinen/ From the Financial Times: When Bank of America was negotiating to take a stake in China Construction Bank four years ago, advisers who worked on the investment gave it the code name “Project Solidgold”. Yet the landmark “strategic” relationship between the US and Chinese lenders has conspicuously failed to glister. BofA was ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/exiting-the-dragon/ From THR.com/Asia A little-known deputy film censor has been promoted to oversee China's rapidly growing movie industry, sources inside the State Administration of Radio Film and Television told The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday. On June 25, Zhang Pimin was promoted to vice-director of SARFT, where he formerly was deputy director of the ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/china-media-body-gets-new-film-boss/ From the New York Times: On July Fourth, we think about our country and its future. But these days it’s impossible to think about America and its future role in the world without also thinking about China. This was the subject of a combative discussion this week at the Aspen Ideas ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/david-brooks-chinese-fireworks-display/ The Times of India reports that Sri Lanka has created a SEZ near the city of Colombo exclusively for Chinese companies: This is one of the decisions taken during meetings between Chinese leaders and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama over the past two days. The move is apparantly driven by ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/sri-lanka-creates-special-economics-zone-for-chinese-investors/ From AFP: China may allow foreign firms with investments inside the country to list domestically, as part of efforts to boost trader confidence during the global downturn, according to an official. "We will continue to actively work with relevant authorities to study and complete the policy of allowing foreign-invested companies to list ... http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/07/china-may-allow-foreign-firms-to-list-govt/