Hunan Valin Gets Australia’s Approval For Fortescue Stake

The second of the three big outstanding Chinese investments in Australian natural resources companies has got the nod of approval from Canberra. Hunan Valin Iron and Steel can go ahead with taking a $438 million stake in Fortescue Metals. The decision comes less than a week after Australia barred another state-owned Chinese firm, Minmetals, from [...]

Google Expands Music Search Service That Labels Hope Will Kill Piracy

Google has run a music search engine in China since last August. It is the only country where it has such a service (or at least for now). It does so in direct competition with Baidu, which has 60% of the search market in China and gets a substantial portion of its traffic from searches [...]

China Takes Its Place At Latin America’s Top Table

Much attention is being paid to China getting a bigger formal role in the International Monetary Fund. But there is one international financial institution it has already quietly joined: the Inter-American Development Bank.
China became the 48th member of the regional multilateral institution in January, subscribing $350 million dollars to the agency that promotes economic development [...]

China-Based CyberSpy Ring Hacks Asian Governments

Canadian researchers say they have uncovered a global cyberspy network that snoops into government computers, and is based mainly in China. The researchers say they have no evidence Beijing is behind the ring and authorities have denied it, too, but their report is bound to stir up old suspicions, and especially as it was prompted [...]

China Isn’t The Biggest Buyer Of U.S. Debt

Beijing is not the biggest buyer of U.S. government debt, though you would scarcely believe it from reading the public prints. U.S. money market funds bought  three times as much of U.S. Treasuries and Agencies last year as China, $942 billion vs $283 billion, according to Brad Setser at the Council On Foreign Relations. “I [...]

Australia Nixes One Chinese Mining Investment, Two Left

Of the three outstanding Chinese investments in Australian mining companies facing government review, one has just bitten the dust. China Minmetals Group’s A$2.6 billion offer for OZ Minerals has been blocked on national security grounds. One of OZ’s main mines is close to Woomera, Australia’s weapons testing site. The deal would have to be rejigged [...]

China, A New Global Currency And The IMF As The World’s Central Banker

Our man in New York tells us that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was caught off guard by a question at a Council On Foreign Relations discussion there on China’s recent trial balloons about the need for a global reserve currency that wasn’t the dollar. This was odd, our man reports, as Geithner’s boss, the [...]

Nike Cuts China Suppliers

Here’s a straw in the wind, and a bad one at that. Nike is dropping three of its China suppliers because of the global slowdown in demand for its sports shoes and apparel, and saying that more may follow as part of a global restructuring now in review. Nike uses 180 suppliers in China, so four [...]

China Mulls A New Long-Term Alternative To The Dollar

Another straw in the wind that China’s central bankers are toying with the idea of an alternative to the dollar as the global reserve currency: Hu Xiaolian, director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and a central bank vice governor, says that the IMF could raise funds quickly by issuing bonds, and that [...]

Soldier Killed In Chongqing Reflects Rising Armed Crime

Civilian attacks on the military are uncommon, so the report that a soldier standing guard outside a garrison in Chongqing had been shot and killed and his machine gun stolen is notable. The official word is that there was one assailant, but some reports say there were multiple attackers and other soldiers wounded.
Police and the [...]