Roundup - 12/01/2010

• China has conducted a successful test of its missile interceptor technology, Xinhua says. China's HQ9 air defence system is designed to shoot down incoming missiles before they reach their targets in mainland china. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that 'the test was defensive in nature and targeted at no country.' However, Al Jazeera quotes Shi Yinhong, Renmin Universities leading expert on Sino-US relations, as saying that there was a 'connection' between the test and the US decision to carry on with the sale of Patriot missile components to Taiwan. Taiwan says that there are approximately 1,500 missiles pointed at its territory and it relies on US arms imports to guarantee its security. Taiwanese media has suggested that President Ma Yingjiu will stop off in the US during a visit to Honduras this month in a move that is likely to provoke further anger from the mainland.
  
  
  
• China's leading internet search engine was down on Tuesday morning after being hacked by pro-Iran activists. Baidu's DNS was altered to redirect traffic to a page saying 'This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army.' Below was a sentence in Farsi saying 'in reaction to the US authorities' intervention in Iran's internal affairs. This is a warning.' The name 'Iranian Cyber Army' was used by hackers who shut down Twitter last month.
  
  
  
• Google has apologised to 8,000 Chinese writers for scanning and publishing their books online without their permission. Google offered to publish a list of all Chinese works it has scanned in recent years. It also said that it would work to reach an agreement with Chinese authors by the summer. Currently more than 50 Chinese publishers have agreed to allow around 60,000 books to be published, Google said.
  
  
  
• China plans to build the world's highest airport on the Tibetan plateau state media reports. The 'roof of the world' project will cost 1.8 billion RMB (US$263.62 million) to build an airport at 4,436 meters above sea level. This will be 102 meters higher than Tibet's Bamda airport, currently considered the worlds highest. The new airport will serve the region of Nagqu in the centre of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Nagqu currently has a mainly Tibetan population of 400,000 though this may change as it is further opened up.
  
  
  
• China has scrapped restrictions on the use of foreign parts in its wind turbines. The decision by the National Development and Reform Commission was taken last year according to China Business News, but has only just been announced. Previously, manufacturers of China's wind turbine had to source at least 70% of their turbines from domestic markets. However, it is hoped that this move will open up China's wind turbine producers to foreign technology. China's wind power capacity was forecast to reach 20 gigawatts by the end of 2009 making China the world's third biggest wind power producer behind the US and Spain.
  
  
  
• Beijing-based iResearch has reported that the growth of China's internet gaming industry slowed to a nevertheless formidable 30.2% a year reaching 27.1 billion RMB (US$3.97 billion).
  

Roundup - 04/12/2009

• US President Obama's plan for Afghanistan is being discussed in China amid reports that the US is seeking a greater role for China in the country. China currently trains Afghan police and landmine-clearing teams as well as investing in the country's mineral deposits. Afghan Minister for Mines, Muhammad Ibrahim Adel, recently claimed that Chinese investment would likely triple Afghan government revenues within five years.
  
  Debate inside China's think-tanks is divided. Qi Huaigao from Fudan University believes that the troop surge will also help to isolate the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in Xinjiang and combat drug smuggling. Li Qingdong from the China Council for National Security Policy Studies on the other hand believes that it may force the Taliban to seek refuge in eastern China, exacerbating China's security problems. He also points out that it may put China's investments in the country at risk.
  
  Ding Xinghao, president of the Shanghai Institute of American Studies, said that, though it was unlikely China would send troops to Afghanistan, it may be willing to send peace-keeping forces under the UN flag.
  
  
  
• A court in Yangjiang, Guandong, has sentenced five people to death for their involvement in criminal gangs. 43 people were sentenced in total after a trial that began in June and produced a verdict that is reported to be 60,000 pages long. The convicts were part of a gang based in Yangjiang, nicknamed the 'knife and scissors capital' because of its cutlery industry. The gang is said to have begun by running a chain of gambling dens and then used the money and muscle to expand into the poultry, cement and trucking industries.
  
  Among the five given the death sentence are 'Spicy Qin' Lin Guoqin, said to be the brains behind the gang, and 'Hammerhead' Xu Jiangqiang who provided the muscle.
  
  
  
• China is mulling the cost of it announced cut in carbon intensity. A report from Renmin University claims that the cuts will cost $30 billion a year. It is likely that much of this cost will be carried by the Chinese consumer in the form of rising petrol and electricity prices. According to the 21^st China China Business Herald this could amount to an additional 440 RMB of expenditure each year for the average Chinese household.
  
  
  
• Chinese media is reporting the the National Human Rights Action Plan of China is progressing according to plan. The reports claim that much progress has been made since its inception in April. While the reports make such claims as 'migrant worker rights and interests were better championed,' no details or evidence has been given.
  
  The reports also admit that 'some local governments have not paid enough attention to the action plan.'
  
  
  
• Two people have been shot dead by police and eight injured during a protest at a Chinese owned copper mine in Peru. The Rio Blanco copper mine in Huancabamba is involved in a running dispute with local residents. They claim that the mine is polluting their land and that after protests in 2005 the mine owners arranged the kidnap and torture of some locals.
  
  
  
• The Austrian company Future Advanced Composite Components and been bought by the Xi'an Aircraft Industry Corporation and Hong Kong ATL. It is the first time a European aviation company has been bought by an Asian aviation company. FACC supplies composite structural components to Boeing, Airbus and Eurocopter among others.
  

Roundup - 29/11/2009

• The first civil law suit dealing with the melamine milk scandal has come to court in Beijing. Ma Xuexin, from Henan, is suing for $8000 and for his son's medical expenses to be paid for by the state-run milk compensation fund.
  
  Mr Ma's 20-month old son developed kidney stones after being fed hundreds of packets of milk supplied by Sanlu, the now defunct company at the centre of the scandal.
  
  Families were offered a one time payout of between 2000 and 200000RMB if civil cases were not brought. Nevertheless several families have felt that the compensation is not adequate. So far six lawsuits have been accepted by Chinese courts.
  
  
  
• A cargo plane crash at take-off at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport on Saturday, killing three American crewmen. Four other crewmen, including an American, an Indonesian and a Zimbabwean are recovering in the intensive care unit of the People's Hospital in Pudong.
  
  The plane, registered with Avient Aviation in Zimbabwe, was bound for Kyrgyzstan. On attempting to take off at 8.10 am reports claim that the tail hit the runway and a fire started on board.
  
  
  
• Attempts to rescue 16 coal miners, trapped by flooding in north-east China, have been called off due to the danger of another cave-in. The flooding, at Zhonghe Coal Mine in Meihekou, Jilin, began at 1.55pm on Friday. Since then rescuers have been attempting to fill in part of the cave to prevent further water from entering. However, new crevices pointed to the likelihood of a new cave-in and work had to be halted.
  
  
  
• The China State Construction Engineering Corporation has declared that it has no business relations with Dubai World. Dubai World recently was forced to ask for more time to repay 60 billion US dollars of debt. Since then, share prices have dropped in companies believed to be exposed. The Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Bank of Communications all declared on Friday that they did not hold bonds issued by Dubai World.