Tag Archives: Country: China

NY Times: The chief United States representative to human rights discussions with China offered a cheerless portrait of those talks after their conclusion on Thursday, saying the United States was worried by “a serious backsliding” of freedoms in China and at loggerheads with Beijing officials over many aspects of the issue.

LifeSiteNews: The surfing champ was faced with a difficult decision earlier this year when it was announced that the prestigious 2011 World Tour would be held in Hainan, China. “I felt like I had two choices: I could go with my reservations and wear a ‘Free Tibet’ shirt, or something trite like that. Or, I could stand up for what I believe in and hopefully call more attention to these issues through a boycott,” she told the Del Mar Times.

AP: An American human rights envoy said Thursday that China provided no useful information when probed about specific cases of individuals who have been detained or who disappeared in a major crackdown on dissent in recent months.

AP: Entrepreneurs could face new challenges under a government plan to modernize Chinese industry that would expand the dominance of state companies in coal mining, steel and other fields.

AP: China will maintain the strict family planning policy it imposed a generation ago to keep the birth rate low and the economy growing, President Hu Jintao said in remarks before new census data are released.

The Hill: The American Chamber of Commerce in China said in its annual report that there is an emerging pattern of Chinese industrial policies that favor domestic companies while stifling foreign competition, including regulations related to indigenous innovation, licensing, standards, government procurement, competition law and intellectual property enforcement.

Washington Times: The International Monetary Fund says the “Age of America” will end in the ash heap of history in 2016, give or take a year or so, to be replaced by the “Age of China.”

Reuters on Yahoo: “When it comes to differences between China and the United States over human rights, the two sides can enhance mutual understanding on a basis of equality and mutual respect,” Hong told a regular news conference. “We oppose any country using human rights issues as an excuse to interfere in China’s domestic affairs.

Heritage Foundation Morning Bell: “The IMF’s assumption that our economy will be weak indefinitely is all too reasonable. China might run its economy into the ground, but we are running our economy into the ground. Reasonable people can sharply disagree over what to do, but what’s killing U.S. leadership is obvious to the IMF and anyone looking at the global picture: our budget deficit.”

Xinhuanet: China should reduce its excessive foreign exchange reserves and further diversify its holdings, Tang Shuangning, chairman of China Everbright Group, said on Saturday. The amount of foreign exchange reserves should be restricted to between 800 billion to 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars, Tang told a forum in Beijing, saying that the current reserve amount is too high.

For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China. And it’s a lot closer than you may think.According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 — just five years from now.

Wall Street Journal (via Google): As Easter approached this year, Beijing’s crackdown on all forms of dissent expanded to include a renewed assault on the right of Christians to worship freely. Authorities in the capital prevented the prosperous Shouwang congregation from occupying premises it bought to hold services

Peter Stein and Shai Oster at the Wall Street Journal (full text via Google): China is accelerating efforts to push its currency deeper into world markets, racing ahead with a series of moves toward a new financial ecosystem with the yuan at its center.

AP: China has released one of the most prominent activists taken into custody since a massive security crackdown was launched two months ago to stamp out any Middle East-inspired protests.

AP: “The Vatican has put a Chinese Catholic scholar who lived nearly five centuries ago on track for beatification, a move intended to raise the profile of the church in a country that keeps a tight grip on all religious expression.”

Baptist Press: Fulfilling a promise to hold a worship service outside despite government demands, a large Beijing unregistered church — saying it would rather obey God than the Chinese government — saw 47 church members arrested Sunday in a public square, one week after 160 of its members were arrested by Chinese officials.

Christian Today: Police arrested the senior pastor of one of the largest unregistered churches in Beijing on Saturday and have put many congregants under house arrest for trying to hold Sunday service outdoors, said a rights group focused on religious freedom in China.

One News Now: “Once again, Chinese police enforcing the government’s official one-child policy have used violence to force a pregnant woman to abort a second child.”

AP: His family denied the paper’s claims and said the government is trying to punish him for his social activism.

BBC: An unofficial Chinese church says it will continue to hold outdoor services, despite pressure from the authorities.

LifeSiteNews: No, the reason that the policy may be ended has nothing to do with human considerations at all, but with cold dollars and cents calculations. You see, as a result of the elimination of 400 million productive young people from the population over the past three decades, China now has a labor shortage.

China’s abuse of religious freedom, which often takes place behind the scenes, was on display for the entire world April 10 when approximately 200 members of an unregistered Protestant church were arrested and placed on a bus during broad daylight in Beijing, the nation’s capital.

AP: Beijing police on Sunday detained dozens of worshippers from an unapproved Christian church who were trying to hold services in a public space after they were evicted from their usual place of worship, a parishioner said.

AP: China has ordained a new Catholic bishop approved by the Vatican for the first time since ties between the sides soured last year, according to church figures with knowledge of the events.

AFP on Breitbart: China warned the international community it had “no right to interfere” in the case of outspoken artist Ai Weiwei, who has been detained for investigation of unspecified economic crimes.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers on Christian Newswire: “On March 21, Family Planning Officials entered the home of Xu Shuaishuai to seize his sister for a forced sterilization. When they could not find her, they beat Xu’s father. When Xu defended his father, one of the Family Planning Officials stabbed him twice in the heart with a long knife. Xu died on the way to the hospital.”

AP: “Behind some of the anonymous online appeals for pro-democracy protests in China that have roiled the authoritarian government is a group of 20 mostly highly educated, Internet savvy Chinese scattered inside and outside the country, the Associated Press has found.”

AP: “The European Union delegation in Beijing on Tuesday joined the U.S. and Britain in expressing concern over Ai’s case, deploring the ramped-up detention of government critics.”

Bloomberg: The administration is “scared to death to speak out on very sensitive issues” that might offend China and turn them against U.S. policy on Libya, Rep. Randy Forbes, co-chairman of the Congressional China Caucus, said in an interview yesterday.

Baptist Press: Beatings, torture, arrests, harassment and church demolitions are among the 90 recorded cases of persecution, a nearly 17 percent increase over 2009, according to a report released by ChinaAid on March 31.

Catholic Culture: Cardinal Joseph Zen has issued a bitter complaint against Church officials who seek to reach accommodation with the Chinese regime.

Baptist Press: A two-child policy to start in 2015 was proposed at the annual meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the National People’s Congress the week of March 6-12, according to The Lancet, a British medical journal. If enacted, the change would discard the current one-child policy in cities

AP: “Human rights groups say more than 100 bloggers, lawyers and activists have been detained.”

BBC: China is on course to overtake the US in scientific output possibly as soon as 2013 – far earlier than expected.

AP: That could hurt not just the world’s poor, but America’s reach in emerging markets where China has ramped up investment and provided easy credit.

“A group of Chinese scientists from the National Institute of Biological Scientists have appeared to find a way to regulate sexual preference in male mice.”

Guardian: “Chinese authorities have dismissed Google claims that they are to blame for technical problems with the country’s Gmail service.”

Reuters: “China, with Russia, India, Brazil and other developing countries have condemned the U.S.-led air strikes on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as risky and unwarranted overreaching by the West.”

AP: “Google said Monday the Chinese government is interfering with its email services in China, making it difficult for users to gain access to its Gmail program, amid an intensified Internet crackdown following widespread unrest in the Middle East.”

AP: “Jiang is among dozens of well-known lawyers and activists across China who have vanished, been interrogated or criminally detained for subversion in recent weeks, a crackdown that human rights groups say is on a scale and intensity not seen in many years.”

AP: “The crash is illuminating how casinos around New York in many ways treat the city’s Chinese-Americans as their bread and butter, a population with an ancient gambling tradition that will reliably hand over money.”

AFP: Two US Senators urged the White House to block Chinese mining projects in the United States and elsewhere until Beijing loosens its grip on the trade in so-called rare earths minerals.

Eureka Alert: “In the next 20 years in large parts of China and India, there will be a 10% to 20% excess of young men because of sex selection and this imbalance will have societal repercussions, states an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj.101368.pdf”

AP: “China will never adopt multiparty democracy or other Western-style political reforms that could challenge the Communist Party’s grip on power, the head of the country’s national legislature said Thursday.”

LifeNews: “Congressman Chris Smith and human rights activists addressed China’s brutal women’s rights record at a Monday press conference marking the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day.”

Wall Street Journal (via Google): “Just over 100 ago, the company we know as Caterpillar began building track-type tractors at a plant on the banks of the Illinois River. From these humble origins in East Peoria—the factory had 12 employees when it started—this icon of the American Midwest has grown into one of the world’s most competitive manufacturers, recently forecasting record profits for 2011. The question is, how come its home state of Illinois has so little to show for it? Part of the answer has to do with the unvirtuous circle created when organized labor—public as well as private—forgets it has an interest in a growth-friendly environment.”

“Note the source. It isn’t from a religious leader, or some religious think-tank. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is an instrument of the Chinese Communist government . . . ”

Reuters: China hopes to allow all exporters and importers to settle their cross-border trades in the yuan by this year, the central bank said on Wednesday, as part of plans to grow the currency’s international role.

AP: “China appears to be tightening restrictions on international media again, barring foreign journalists from working near a popular Shanghai park and along a major Beijing shopping street after calls for protests in those spots appeared online.”

AFP on Yahoo: “China’s holdings of US bonds reached $1.16 trillion at the end of December, almost $270 billion more than previously estimated, new data showed Monday.”

CNBC: “China should overtake the US to become the largest economy in the world by 2020, then be overtaken by India by 2050,” he predicted.

AP: “China plans to build at least 45 new airports in the next five years to serve booming travel, the top industry regulator said Thursday.”

CNBC: “As the U.S. Federal Reserve grappled with the aftershocks of financial crisis, the Chinese, like many others, suffered huge losses from their investments in American financial firms — from Lehman Brothers to the Primary Reserve Fund, the money market fund that broke the buck. The cables, obtained by WikiLeaks, show that escalating Chinese pressure prompted a procession of soothing visits from the U.S. Treasury Department . . . ”

AP: “China on Thursday warned the United States not to use calls for uncensored access to the Internet as a pretext to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries.”

Phyllis Schlafly writes at Townhall: “Some people foolishly call our relationship with China “free trade.” But there is nothing free or fair about it — we are in a trade war between a militantly protectionist communist government and a U.S. shackled by obsolete illusions about trade.”

Toronto Sun: “Finding one’s better half can be a tricky business in modern-day China, with hectic work schedules, nagging parents and a gender imbalance conspiring to make selecting a partner a nightmare for single men.”

AP: “China says it will conduct national-security reviews of foreign attempts to buy local companies in fields including farming and transportation in a move that might fuel complaints it is blocking access to its markets.”

LifeSiteNews (includes video of Chen): “Chen, a self-taught blind lawyer from the Linyi area of Shandong province, was imprisoned for exposing the violence used in enforcing the family planning policy in Linyi and providing legal assistance to peasants in 2005. In January 2007, he was found guilty of ‘intentional destruction of property and gathering a mob to disturb traffic’ at a hearing from which his lawyer and witnesses were absent because the lawyer had been beaten up and the witnesses kidnapped so that they could not appear in court.”

Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Ho’s health is declining, and his succession plan has run off the rails. He has at least 16 children by four women, three of whom are alive and retain the title of “Mrs. Ho.” The four families are jostling for control of his assets, estimated at more than $3 billion.”

Julia Duin writes at the Washington Post: “For decades now they’ve had plans to evangelize the Muslim world that lies along the old Silk Road route. This could be one of the most ambitious missionary enterprises in 2,000 years of Christianity. No national church has amazed the world as much as that of the Chinese. From 1 million at the time of the Communist takeover in 1949, it’s grown to 100 million followers, a breathtaking growth in 60 years.”

USA Today: “What the Chinese are very good at doing is achieving short-term goals,” says Jiang Xueqin, deputy principal of Peking University High School, affiliated with Beijing’s Peking University, known as the “Harvard” of China. “They’re good at copying things, not creating them.”

Christian Science Monitor: “China has limited coverage of the Egypt protest to its Xinhua news service and warned last week that websites that did not censor comments about Egypt would be ‘shut down by force.”

AP: “Yet America remains by far the No. 1 manufacturing country. It out-produces No. 2 China by more than 40 percent . . . American factories have seized upon complex and expensive goods requiring specialized labor: industrial lathes, computer chips, fighter jets, health care products.”

Philadelphia Inquirer: “Yet, if we are concerned about competition from China, we should look beyond Beijing’s growing military – and economic – might. Far better to focus on China’s progress, and our lag, in educating our future workforce. That’s where the real Chinese challenge lies.”

David Briggs writing at The Huffington Post: “No more than 15 percent of adults in the world’s most populous country are ‘real atheists.’ 85 percent of the Chinese either hold some religious beliefs or practice some kind of religion, according to the Chinese Spiritual Life Survey.”

Yahoo: “General Motors Co. sold more cars and trucks in China last year than it did in the U.S., for the first time in the company’s 102-year history.”

Wall Street Journal: “China’s biggest bank signed an agreement that would make it the first Beijing-controlled financial institution to acquire retail bank branches in the U.S., though regulators could still block the deal.”

Courthouse News Service: “A Chinese man who says he was persecuted in his home country for practicing Christianity got a second chance at asylum in the United States. In 2005, an immigration judge had rejected Lei Li’s petition because Li incorrectly answered ‘basic’ questions about Christianity.” | Li v. Holder, (9th Cir., Jan. 19, 2011) | Via Religion Clause.

Wall Street Journal: “House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) issued a statement saying the group discussed a range of issues including the need for China to provide stronger intellectual property protections and curtail North Korea’s aggressive behavior. It said the lawmakers ‘raised our strong, ongoing concerns with reports of human-rights violations in China, including the denial of religious freedom and the use of coercive abortion as a consequence of the “one child” policy.’”

Wall Street Journal editorial: “In an op-ed last week in these pages, Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center noted that a plurality of Americans, 47%, are under the erroneous impression that China is the world’s leading economy . . . The rise of China combines economic opportunities for the U.S. with competitive and strategic challenges. At a minimum, it’s an occasion to pull up our collective socks and rethink some welfare-state attitudes about work, investment, entitlements and spending.”

Michael Prell writing in The Washington Times: “‘If China becomes the world’s No. 1 nation … .’ That was the headline in the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, The People’s Daily, on the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s state visit to Washington. The article went on to boast how ‘China’s emergence is increasingly shifting to debate over how the world will treat China, which is the world No. 1 and has overtaken the U.S.’”

The Hill: “Emerging strengthened from the global recession with greater international leverage, China’s actions and rhetoric have grown increasingly hostile and provocative. It has seriously risked overplaying its hand. It threatens to destabilize much of Asia, already wary of rapid Chinese growth, and undermine volatile bilateral relations with the U.S. Such behavior can only fuel greater uncertainty in a fragile world struggling to recover from economic turbulence.”

LifeNews: One activist, former Tiananmen Square student leader Chai Ling, pointed out, “As we gather here in Washington, over 35,000 forced and coerced abortions are taking place today in China.”

ChristianNewsWire: “In China, there are at least 37 million more men than women, and that gap is growing each year . . . This gendercide is waging a war against Chinese girls every day, primarily as a result of the One-Child Policy.”

Congressman Chris Smith writing at LifeNews: “I urge President Obama to join us in speaking out for all those in China whose basic human rights are violated – for political prisoners . . . ”