Roundup - 11/12/2009

• New economic data suggests China is recovering well from the economic crisis. Figures for November show that year-on-year growth in industrial output is at 19.2% while retail sales grew 15.8% compared with last year. The growth comes after the governments massive stimulus package help to increase investment in factories and construction by 32.1% in the first eleven months of the year.
  
  The vast amount of credit, combined with rising food prices as China settles in for a harsh winter, also led to the first growth in the Consumer Price Index this year. CPI rose 0.6% in November year-on-year. Some experts suggest that inflation could reach 3% in 2010, mostly driven by rising food prices. The government is attempting to increase food prices to stimulate production. The Producer Price Index continued to show decrease, prices for manufactured products are not expected to increase until demand for exports pick up as the global economic recovery catches up with China.
  
  
  
• China has continued to place responsibility on developed nations to combat climate change. Using the phrase 'promises must be kept; actions must be resolute' (言必信,行必果) three times Yu Xintai called on rich countries to honour their commitment, pointing out that few countries met their commitments made in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He also said that rich countries owed reparations to the developing world because of their past greenhouse gas emissions.
  
  The comment came after US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern said that, though the US would pay into a climate fund, it was wrong to talk about blame.
  
  China's case was also supported by a letter from a 'Chinese citizen' published in the People's Daily. This said that, while it was terrible that so many foreign friends would suffer from climate change, some even losing their homelands, the citizen could not in good conscience ask families in his home village to remain poor for the sake of others. The letter compares the contrast between the developed and the developing world to hereditary rule.
  
  
  
• Execution by gunshot will no longer take place in Liaoning province. All cities in the province have now agreed to use lethal injections as the sole form of execution. The use of lethal injections has grown throughout China since they were first used in 1997. Beijing and Chongqing are expected to announce an end to execution by gunshot some time next year. The Higher People's Court of Liaoning released a statement saying that the exclusive use of lethal injections was a 'symbol of the progress of civilisation' while Wang Dawei, a professor from the Chinese People's Public Security University, said that it was 'a symbol of democracy and civilisation as it is the last form of respect for human life.' The numbers of people China executes is a state secret, according to an Amnesty International report this year at least 1,718 executions took place in 2008.
  
  
  
• A regulation allowing local governments to evict people from their homes and demolish them if the land is needed for other uses has been said to 'contradict the law' by the Law Committee of the 11^th National People's Congress. The National People's Congress is the country's top legislature. The committee announced that the regulation, which flamed public anger after the suicide by fire of Tang Fuzhen in Chengdu as authorities tried to demolish her home, should have been dropped following the 2007 Property Law.
  
  However, the State Council Legislative Affairs Office, in charge of administrative regulations, insisted that the rule was still in effect. Which group has greater authority is an unresolved issue in China's governmental structure but as long as there is a rift it is likely that the regulation will still be cited.
  
  
  
• Taiwan's parliament has passed a bill banning explicit images from print, TV and online media. The new bill comes after fines totaling T$1 million were imposed on the owners of the Apple Daily, a paper which has made a name for itself by animating crimes on its website. Taiwan's media is barely regulated and is one of the freest and most competitive media markets in Asia.