Tag Archives: Country: China

The Epoch Times: “In his debut statement to the United Nations General Assembly’s Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee, the recently appointed Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, boldly demonstrated that he won’t ignore China, at once a permanent member of the Security Council and a chronic abuser of religious freedom.”

LifeSiteNew: “A victim of China’s coercive one-child policy has offered the world a bitter personal account of the country’s oppressive population control law, which officials have affirmed would continue following its 30th anniversary last month.”

The Straits Times: “Ms Wang belongs to the ‘post-1980s generation’, single children who are the product of China’s 1979 family planning policy and the people who are fueling the country’s rising divorce rate, experts say. According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 1.71 million couples filed for divorce last year, up 10.3 per cent over 2008.”

Associated Press: “A pregnant woman in south China was detained, beaten and forced to have an abortion just a month before her due date because the baby would have violated the country’s one-child limit, her husband said Thursday.”

AP: “The world’s second-largest economy grew 9.6 percent in the July-September quarter over a year earlier, official figures showed Thursday. That was down from the previous quarter’s 10.3 percent but still by far the highest of any major economy.”

Newsmax: “Outspoken talk-radio host Michael Savage warns that China is steadily wiping out the American industrial base and ‘burying’ the United States by keeping the value of its currency artificially low.”

NPR: “After running afoul of China’s One Child policy, a Chinese couple expected to be hit with a fine. But instead, officials demanded that the woman — who was in the eighth month of her pregnancy — have an abortion, according to a new Al Jazeera report.”

Associated Press: “China’s ruling Communist Party called Wednesday for its members to reject Western-style democratic notions amid a brewing debate on the direction of future political reform.”

New York Times: “China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted some shipments of those materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said this week.”

CNBC (Reuters): “A commerce ministry official denied a report that China would cut export quotas for rare earth metals by 30 percent next year, the China Business News said on Wednesday.”

CNSNews: “U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday urged Beijing to release Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, a day before Holder was scheduled to meet with top law enforcement officials in China.”

Christian Science Monitor: “Foreigners keep buying Treasury bonds, despite their low yields and the falling dollar. Are foreign governments deliberately manipulating the exchange rate?”

Christian Today: “In an emotional evening, participants of the Lausanne Congress heard the song that Chinese leaders barred from travelling had planned to sing and the Scripture verses that they picked out for their presentation.”

New York Times: “The Chinese government plans a further reduction, of up to 30 percent, next year in its quotas for exports of rare earth minerals, in an attempt to conserve dwindling reserves of the materials, the official newspaper China Daily said Tuesday.”

Wall Street Journal Editorial, “China’s Rare Earths Gambit” [full text via Google News]: “If this continues over the next few years, it will put big multinationals in a bind: Either move high-value production processes to China, or get out of certain lucrative businesses. Beijing has always driven a hard bargain with foreign firms, using the allure of its giant domestic market to force technology transfers. Rare earths represent an even bigger crowbar with which to pry out Western corporate trade secrets.”

Related: Chinese monopoly on rare earth elements poses grave danger

L. Gordon Crovitz writing in The Wall Street Journal, “In China, even the Premier is censored,” [full text via Google News]: “Consider Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. He has called for political reform several times in recent months, but censors have blocked domestic reporting of his comments. This led to an open letter from 23 well-known Communist Party elders calling for free speech. The letter was posted last week in a blog area of sina.com, one of the country’s largest websites, and widely shared before being removed.”

Associated Press: “China’s holdings of Treasury securities rose to $868.4 billion in August, the Treasury Department reported Monday. That’s up 2.6 percent and followed a smaller gain of 0.4 percent in July. China’s holdings had fallen 2.8 percent in June and 3.6 percent in May.”

Karen Sloan writes at the National Law Journal: “Other countries face much larger problems when it comes to regulating the number of law students and quality of legal education. Legal educators from India, China, Japan and France spoke at Harvard Law School Friday during a panel discussion about the challenges they face in producing an appropriate number of good lawyers.”

Catholic Culture: “In a significant victory for freedom of expression, the Hong Kong diocese has won approval to hold a prayer vigil for religious liberty in China, despite strong resistance from government officials.”

Christian Post: “China’s government is preventing Christian leaders in the country from attending a major international gathering of mission-minded leaders by stopping them as they reach the airport and confiscating their passports.”

Telegraph: “The remarks from China’s ministry of commerce came hours before the US was due to release a report on whether it considers China a “currency manipulator” as fears grow that tensions over the currency could lead to a protectionist trade war.”

AP: “President Barack Obama faces a deadline Friday that could test already fragile U.S.-China relations: He must decide whether to accuse Beijing formally of using its currency to gain unfair trade advantages against the United States.”

Victor Davis Hanson writes at Townhall: “. . . there is a growing sense of despair that even vastly increased income taxes cannot cover the colossal shortfalls . . . That bleak reality creates hopelessness — and anger — among voters, who feel they are being taken for fools by their elected officials. The public opposes tax hikes not because they don’t wish to pay down the debt, but because they suspect the increased revenue will simply be a green light for even greater deficit spending.”

AP: “Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned dissident Liu Xiabo encouraged crime in China, the government said Thursday, while telling his supporters to stop interfering in his case.”

AP: “Norway has urged China to lift restrictions imposed on the wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo after Norwegian diplomats were barred from visiting her in Beijing.”

AP: “A group of eminent Chinese Communist Party elders has issued a bold call to end the country’s wide-ranging restrictions on free speech, just days after the government reacted angrily to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo”

Reuters: “China has become the world’s largest energy user, having overtaken the United States, the head of the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.”

MySanAntonio.com: “State-owned Chinese energy giant CNOOC is buying a multibillion-dollar stake in 600,000 acres of South Texas oil and gas fields, potentially testing the political waters for further expansion into U.S. energy reserves . . . It also might pick up some American know-how about tapping the hard-to-get deposits trapped in dense shale rock formations, analysts said.”

AP: “China on Monday blocked European officials from meeting with the wife of the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner, cut off her phone communication and canceled meetings with Norwegian officials – acting on its fury over the award.”

Daniel Ikenson writing at Cato @ Liberty: “The Chinese currency issue is in full bloom this week, as the House of Representatives passed the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act of 2010 by a vote of 348-79 on Wednesday. Though there is so much to criticize about the bill and about the layers upon layers of misinformation, myth, and subterfuge that brought us to this point, this post concerns the dubiousness of the bill’s central premise: that Yuan appreciation will significantly reduce the bilateral trade deficit.”

Wall Street Journal / China Real Time Report: “In its first Global Wealth Report, Credit Suisse predicts that total household wealth in China could more than double to $35 trillion by 2015 from $16.5 trillion at the moment. China currently is third in terms of the total share of global wealth after the U.S. and Japan, at $54.6 trillion and $21 trillion respectively, and is 35% ahead of France, the wealthiest European country.”

Shawn Ambrosino writing at Townhall: “But over the past couple of decades – as more and more businesses deferred their production to the cheaper, overseas work-force – China has slowly gained more and more control over this market, till last year, they produced over 97% of the world’s supply or Rare Earth elements . . . Rare Earth metals are vital for many of our defensive entities, used in such things as the magnets that help direct the fins on our smart bombs to the silencing the whir of the blades on some of our combat helicopters.”

Associated Press: “European leaders on Tuesday urged China to let its currency rise and narrow a trade deficit that has strained relations, while promising Asian countries in return more power in global financial institutions.”

LifeSiteNews: “On Sept. 25, 1980, the Communist Party Central Committee issued a statement saying that ‘in 30 years, when our current extreme population growth eases, we can then adopt a different population policy.’ But while the 30th anniversary of China’s coercive one-child policy came and went this past week . . . ”

CNBC: “The US trade deficit and debt continue to grow and the authorities are reluctant to address the problem, preferring to print money, Winnifrith said. ‘America is practically owned by China,’ he said.”

Rasmussen Reports: “Speaking at a dinner of American and Chinese businessmen in New York last week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the China-U.S. relationship ‘enjoys a bright future because common interests between our two countries far outweigh our differences.’ But just 32% of Americans agree.”

Breitbart: “Bill Gates and Warren Buffett hosted a banquet Wednesday for China’s super rich that sparked debate about Chinese philanthropy, amid reports that wealthy invitees had been reluctant to attend.”

Associated Press: “Beijing police raided a popular outdoor hangout for gay men and took dozens in for questioning over the weekend as part of a security sweep ahead of China’s National Day holiday, an activist said Tuesday.”

Associated Press: “Hoping to reverse a ‘brain drain,’ the government and companies are scouring the globe for talent. Job fairs like the one Qiu attended – at the posh Prince Hotel in central Tokyo – are one of their tools, with dozens being organized around the world.”

“There is a constellation of factors tamping down fertility in America. And even with steady immigration, they represent our own, bottom-up adoption of a One-Child regimen.”

New York Times: “Education is not the only area in which China is making inroads in Central and Eastern Europe. From the Baltic states to the Balkans, Chinese companies, flush with money, are buying real estate and competing for public infrastructure contracts, especially as Poland and Ukraine work at breakneck speed to jointly play host to the 2012 European soccer championship.”

Bloomberg: “The U.S. has fallen behind emerging markets in Brazil, China and India as the preferred place to invest, a Bloomberg survey shows, though the world’s largest economy still ranks highest of all major developed countries.”

Associated Press: “A security expert and China hawk, Japan’s new foreign minister has already taken a tough stance toward Beijing amid escalating diplomatic tension over a territorial dispute between the two Asian giants.”

“’There is no question that the economic and trade policies of China represent clear roadblocks to our recovery . . . ‘ China spends an estimated $1 billion a day to keep the renminbi more or less pegged to the dollar.”

Newspost Online: “Hindus have applauded China for providing multi-religion religious service center and other facilities for religious services at the 16th Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou (China) from November 12 to 27.”

Telegraph: “A State Council think-tank in China has warned Washington that the US will come off worst in a trade war if it imposes sanctions against Beijing over the two nations’ currency spat.”

Associated Press: “Wu Yilong was one of dozens of dissidents detained in 1998 after attempting to register the China Democracy Party in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The attempt was crushed six months later with leading organizers sentenced to up to 13 years in prison, most on the vaguely defined charge of incitement to subvert state power.”

Associated Press: “China’s currency advanced to a fresh high against the U.S. dollar for the third straight trading day Tuesday, as U.S. lawmakers prepared for hearings on Beijing’s foreign exchange policies.”

LifeNews: “Chen Guangcheng, the blind attorney who stood up for thousands of men and women subjected to forced abortions and sterilizations in his city, may have been released from prison but now he and his family face persecution. They have been subjected to house arrest and there are concerns about his health.”

Breitbart: “California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday he hoped China would invest in his state’s future high-speed rail network as he wrapped up a trade mission to the world’s second-largest economy.”

USA Today: “An aging population and the need for more workers have prompted China’s Communist Party to consider relaxing the decades-long ban that restricts most couples to one child, a harsh policy marked by forced abortions, sterilizations and fines for those who have more than one.”

Associated Press: “A blind, self-taught activist lawyer who documented forced abortions and other abuses was released from a Chinese prison Thursday and promptly confined in his rural village with limited access to communication, a relative said.”

Washington Post: “The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison’s innovations in the 1870s . . . What made the plant here vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014 . . . Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China . . . ”

Baptist Press: “A Chinese pastor and his wife were slain Aug. 31 at Penglai Christian Church, where Lottie Moon, an icon of Southern Baptist mission work, served in the early 1900s in Penglai, China.”

Newsroom: “A series of high-level meetings between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) and an official from the People’s Republic of China is expected to lead to ‘regularized’ operations for the Church in China . . . ‘It is important to understand what the term regularizing means, and what it does not mean,’ Church spokesman Michael Otterson said. ‘It does not mean that we anticipate sending missionaries to China. That issue is not even under consideration.’” Via Religion Clause.

Howard W. French writing in The New York Times: “It has become a truism to observe that contemporary China is the scene of the most rapid, transformative change of any large country in the world today . . . As this society rapidly grows richer, its social fabric and mores have been changing in ways far more dramatic than even the physical landscape, and sexual choice and expression are arguably in the leading edge of this upheaval . . . Most interestingly for me, though, [a gender studies professor] mentioned the ‘sudden media exposure of lesbian and gay people’ in prime-time television in China.”

Hindustan Times: “Girls in Yunnan province are being given a booklet that teaches about chastity. The Yunnan provincial education department has asked all local high schools and universities to ‘teach girls how to
reject sexual requests until marriage’, the Global Times reported citing the Chuncheng Evening News . . . According to data collected from over 80,000 college students from across the country, 14 percent admitted to having sexual relations during their college days and about 70 percent held a tolerant attitude toward sex before marriage, the Nanjing Morning Post reported.”

“The Lins argue that the IJ and the Board erred by rejecting their claim that, because they have two children born in the United States, they have a reasonable fear of persecution if they are returned to Fujian province in the People’s Republic of China.”

AP: “China began requiring identification on Wednesday from anyone purchasing a new mobile phone number in what it says is a bid to stamp out rampant junk messages but that some say gives the government a new tool for monitoring its citizens.”

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “In another development from last week, this one virtually ignored by the establishment media, the Department of Defense released its annual Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China. According to the report, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) official budget, which has enjoyed double-digit annual increases for two decades, grew again by nearly 8 percent . . . More troubling, however, was what the report did not focus enough on: the threat to Taiwan. There is little discussion of the Taiwan military structure or its equipment . . . Meanwhile, while the Obama Defense Department is ignoring the threat to Taiwan, the Obama State Department has gotten off to a poor start defending human rights in China.”

New York Times: “China has increased spending on a military that is becoming larger and more effective even as Beijing has rebuffed exchanges with the Defense Department that could improve stability, according to a Pentagon study released Monday.”

Associated Press: “The figures underscore China’s emergence as an economic power that is changing everything from the global balance of military and financial power to how cars are designed. It is already the biggest exporter, auto buyer and steel producer, and its global influence is expanding.”

ChristianNewsWire: “Following two years of repeated evictions and harassment, Liangren House Church faced more uncertainty this week, when the church was evicted from the Zhuying Hotel on August 11th, and head Pastor Wang Dao was harassed, detained, and interrogated.”

Christian Today: “Christians in China now number just over 23 million, according to the results of the communist country’s first official faith survey. Although that figure amounts to only 1.8% of the total population, it represents 73 per cent of China’s religious population.”

Mercury News (AP): “A Hong Kong court began reviewing Monday a government decision to bar a transgender woman from marrying her male partner in the first such case to be heard in the city’s legal system, the woman’s lawyer said.”

Catholic Culture: “A Chinese bishop who left the ‘underground’ Church to join the government-backed Catholic Patriotic Association has been installed as the bishop of the Baoding diocese. To complicate matters, the ‘underground’ Church in Baoding already has a bishop, who has been imprisoned since 1997 . . . the appointment of . . . was made by the Patriotic Association without approval from the Holy See. ”

Wall Street Journal: “A new Google Inc. question-and-answer page for Chinese users was inaccessible in China on Monday less than two weeks after Google announced the service. Users in China reported problems viewing the site, www.google.com.hk/wenda, but a Google spokeswoman said the company was having no technical problems.”

CNBC: “China has overtaken Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy, the fruit of three decades of rapid growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.”

USA Today: “Centenary College, in New Jersey, is shutting down an M.B.A. program in Asia to contain a plagiarism epidemic. About 400 students are currently enrolled in the program at locations in Beijing, Shanghai and Taiwan.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “The country had been in the midst of highly publicized anti-pornography sweeps, and there had been no announcement of any change in government policy. Yet eight weeks later, the porn sites are still accessible. Still unanswered are questions about whether it’s an official change in policy, a technical glitch or some sort of test by the usually disapproving Chinese Internet police.”

Market Watch: “A top Chinese central bank official suggested switching away from the U.S. dollar as a benchmark for the yuan’s foreign-exchange rate, switching instead to a basket of currencies, according to remarks published Thursday.”

National Center for Policy Analysis: “News that China consumed more energy than the United States last year will be taken by many as another sign that a new epoch is upon us. Indeed, that’s how the International Energy Agency, source of the data, described its findings Monday. But the headline numbers only tell half the story. The underlying data say a lot about the challenges facing both economies, says the Wall Street Journal:

* China consumed half as much energy as the United States in 2000; last year, it burned through slightly more.

* Yet the energy mix for each country couldn’t be more different; coal accounts for 22 percent of U.S. energy consumption, but a full two-thirds of China’s, up from 57 percent in 2000.”

Reuters: “China is satisfied that U.S. Internet giant Google Inc is complying with Chinese laws after it tweaked the way it directs users to an unfiltered search page, a senior official said on Tuesday.”

NPR: “Alongside China’s astonishing economic boom, an almost unnoticed religious boom has quietly been taking place. In the country’s first major survey on religious beliefs, conducted in 2006, 31.4 percent of about 4,500 people questioned described themselves as religious. That amounts to more than 300 million religious believers, an astonishing number in an officially atheist country, and three times higher than the last official estimate, which had largely remained unchanged for years.”

Washington Post: “A group of nations — including the United States, China and Russia — have for the first time signaled a willingness to engage in reducing the threat of attacks on each others’ computer networks. Although the agreement, reached this week at the United Nations, is only recommendations, Robert K. Knake, a cyberwarfare expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, said it represents a ‘significant change in U.S posture’ and is part of the Obama administration’s strategy of diplomatic engagement.”

Wall Street Journal: “China, powered by years of rapid economic growth, is now the world’s biggest energy consumer, knocking the U.S. off a perch it held for more than a century, according to new data from the International Energy Agency.”

“Whether in China’s prudish culture the pulling down of an 18-year-old girl’s pants by officers who were using force to try to extract urine from her, jailing her until her family paid a fine equal to a third of her year’s wages, and feeding her tainted food in the jail amounted to persecution is an issue in the first instance for the Board to decide.”