Monthly Archives: January 2012
WTO Natural Resouces Ruling Not Prelude For Rare Earths
China’s WTO loss over certain natural resource exports shouldn’t overly encourage anyone who would like the same approach to be taken towards Beijing’s export restrictions on rare earths. These were introduced in 2010 to prevent environmental damage and unsustainable depletion … Continue reading
The Men On The Moon
The call by Newt Gingrich, the American politician who is seeking the Republican party’s presidential nomination, for the U.S. to establish a Moon base “by the end of my second term”, which, if it happens, would be 2020, throws down … Continue reading
Filed under Space
IMF Sees Sharp Dip In China’s Growth
The International Monetary Fund has sharply cut its forecasts for China’s growth this year and next. In its latest half-yearly update to its World Economic Outlook, the Fund has reduced its forecast for 2012′s GDP growth to 8.2% from the … Continue reading
Filed under Economy
Little Imminent Prospect Of Peace Along China’s Myanmar Border
Slow progress is being made at the truce talks China is hosting between the Myanmar government and the autonomy-seeking Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). Two more days of talks were held last week in Ruili, a border crossing town on the … Continue reading
Filed under China-Southeast Asia
Tang Dynasty Redux
This Bystander’s eye was caught by an assertion that modern-day China aspires to be a latter-day incarnation of the Tang dynasty. It was made by a serious figure. David Daokui Li is a worldly and respected academic economist, well-known in … Continue reading
Filed under Politics & Society
Still Water
The acquisition by China Investment Corp., China’s sovereign wealth fund, of an 8.7% stake in Thames Water, which supplies water to 14 million consumers in southern England, may prove in time be a precursor to more Chinese investment in European … Continue reading
Filed under Economy
Small Cities Astride A Social Fault Line
More than half of China’s population now lives in cities, as has been widely noted, making the country predominantly an urban nation for the first time. Two-thirds to three-quarters will likely do so by 2020. It was one in nine when Mao … Continue reading
Filed under Politics & Society
World Bank Sees China’s Growth Decelerating Into 2013
The World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects makes grim reading. It forecasts that the continuing ripple effects from the 2008 global financial crisis will slow world economic growth to 2.5% this year, with the eurozone contracting. In June, the Bank … Continue reading
Companies’ Growing Role In Natural Disaster Relief
Multinationals are taking an increasingly prominent relief role in humanitarian disasters, including those in China. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, has put the subject under its microscope, finding that corporations have become a central … Continue reading
Filed under Environment, Politics & Society, Sichuan earthquake
China’s Economy Slowing But Not Faltering Enough To Force Change
China’s economy continued to slow in the fourth quarter of last year, though not by as much as many economists, if not us, had expected. Gross domestic product rose by 8.9% in October to December, compared to the same period … Continue reading
