“China yesterday raised its benchmark interest rates for the first time in nine years, betraying its increasing concern about the future of its overheating economy. Oil and metal prices fell and mining stocks slumped on the London Stock Exchange after the central bank announced the 0.27pc point rise, which leaves the country’s one-year lending rate […]
Read MoreFrom Bloomberg: “China’s central bank jolted global financial markets by raising its benchmark interest rates for the first time in nine years to cool the world’s fastest-growing major economy. The one-year lending and deposit rates will rise 0.27 percentage point to 5.58 percent and 2.25 percent respectively, effective tomorrow, the Beijing-based People’s Bank of China […]
Read MoreChina is facing a major challenge with the rapidly growing number of elderly in the country, reports the China Daily: “About 7 per cent of China’s population is currently 65 or over. But a recent Chinese Academy of Social Sciences report predicts this will rise to 14 per cent within two to three decades… The […]
Read MoreIn the Guardian, Jonathan Watts analyzes Chinese media coverage of recent events, including the Daping mining disaster, and the difficult position editors are in trying to report the news while also toeing the party line: “With China in the throes of a remarkable transition, it cannot be easy for any of the country’s newspaper editors […]
Read MoreAsia Times has another article about the rise of social unrest in China, “Recent protests have been sparked by the near-fatal beating of a migrant worker, an illegal hike in taxi fees and low wages in an electronics plant – to name a few. These are but the tip of the iceberg in the nation […]
Read More“Thousands of workers have been staging protests and blocking main railway lines, roads and bus terminals in the provinces of Shaanxi and Anhui during the past month in further signs of brewing social dissent on the mainland.” Read the whole article on South China Morning Post (via China Study Group).
Read MoreFrom Bloomberg: “China’s lending restrictions cut loan growth at the nation’s four biggest state-owned banks more than at the dozen partly private lenders, such as China Minsheng Banking Corp., which have more autonomy to make loans. Local-currency loans at the four state lenders, led by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, grew 2 percent in […]
Read MoreThe Straits Times has reported on a suicide bid by migrant construction workers in Shenyang who had not received their pay and were worried about their families’ survival: “The group suicide bid was discovered in time by a co-worker. The man, surnamed Liu, had returned to the hostel from a nearby town where he had […]
Read MoreAsia Times published an article entitled “Paying China for pressuring Pyongyang“, written by Ehsan Ahrari. “The use of pressure tactics is one of the ancient principles of diplomacy. Not many nations practice it as effectively as the United States, the lone superpower. The focus of Washington’s pressure tactics this time is North Korea, and the […]
Read MoreChina Daily has reported that almost 7,000 officials have been investigated in China for “abuse or dereliction of duty” in the first nine months of the year. Of these cases, “A total of 1,780 officials were found to have been involved in 1,456 cases of abuse of power or negligence… The crackdown aims to prevent […]
Read MoreAccording to TheStreet.com: “Investors were looking at big profits in Chinese Internet stocks Wednesday after Sina (SINA:Nasdaq) reported a blowout third quarter after the bell. The aggressively traded Web portal said first-quarter earnings rose 24% from a year ago to $14.5 million, or 27 cents a share, on a 65% revenue increase to $52.5 million. […]
Read MoreFrom Associated Press (via: Yahoo News) today: “China’s official Communist Party-controlled trade union is threatening to sue foreign companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Dell Inc. and Eastman Kodak Co. if they don’t set up union branches in their China operations.” The story is here.
Read MoreWashington Post reported today: “Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was in China less than 24 hours this week, but that was enough to stir up a diplomatic tempest with some unorthodox and apparently unintended remarks about U.S. policy on Taiwan. The fuss demonstrated anew the high level of tension across the Taiwan Strait and […]
Read MoreThis BBC article reports on the “Reporters Without Borders” report ranking the countries most and least free of the press. North Korea, Cuba and Burma were ranked the worst three countries for media freedom while the top ten countries, with the exception of #9, New Zealand, were all in Europe. “These countries [at the top […]
Read MoreThis article talks about the growth in China’s economy and specifically focuses on the increase of “middle-class” citizens in China. This rise in the number of people who are considered “middle-class” can help to facilitate growth in China’s domestic economy. Look here for the full article.
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