Chinascope – Page 1383

Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

{Editor’s Note: Amid the U.S. presidential election, Xinhua News Agency has published a commentary series titled “Spotlight on the U.S. Election.”

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

{Editor’s Note: Wu Guoguang is presently a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University, affiliated with the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI).

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

{Editor’s Note: In a recent article titled “U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized” published on Radio Free Asia,

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

{Editor’s Note: On each of the three consecutive days March 17th through March 19th, Xinhua News Agency published a commentary criticizing the U.S. from angles of ideology, image, and leadership, respectively.

Asylum Seeker Turned Away by Taiwan

Wu Yalin, a PRC citizen who applied for political asylum with Taiwan government, was declined the application. With his Taiwan visa expiring on January 2, Wu is concerned that he will finally be repatriated to China. In 1980’s, Wu was jailed for nine years for disclosing illegal election practices. In 2007, he was sentenced to 3 years in labor camp for encouraging friends to read the Nine Commentaries on Communist Party, according to Wu. He fled to Taiwan via Hong Kong and Thailand. Beijing issued an arrest warrantee with the charge of “attempt to overthrow the government by colluding with anti-China forces.”

Source: Voice of America, January 1, 2008
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2008-01-01-voa21.cfm

Briefings | | January 1, 2008 | Government/Politics

News Briefs

An overview of the top breaking news in China.

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Analyses | | January 1, 2008 | Opinion

On U.S. Anti-Terrorism

Shortly after the September 3, 2004, hostage tragedy at a school in North Ossetia, Beslan, Russia, Xinhuanet, the official website of the state-owned Xinhua News Agency of the Chinese government, published a series of articles as “Comments From Readers,” which accused western countries, particularly the United States, of protecting terrorists under the pretext of “human rights” and blamed western countries for the hostage tragedy, where hundreds of school children were killed.

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Analyses | | January 1, 2008 | Opinion

The Huai River: Ten Years of Cleanup with Few Results

As the Chinese leadership is busy in transforming China into an industrial powerhouse, the country’s living environment is also worsening rapidly due to increasing amounts of pollutants as a result of that development. Sixteen of the top 20 cities with the worst air according to World Bank are in China. The pollution of rivers and lakes, which are both draining vessels for waste and sources of drinking water, irrigation and food, can have potentially devastating effects. One of the most notorious examples is the Huai River Basin.

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Analyses | | January 1, 2008 | Opinion

Bank of China’s Ongoing Scandals Corrupt Officials and Swindled Depositors Overshadow BOC’s Stock Ma

While the Bank of China (BOC) vigorously prepares to go public on overseas stock markets, it seems that more disturbing news is just around the corner. It was just a short time ago that the president of the BOC’s Kaiping branch took 4 billion yuan (US$482 million) illegally and escaped out of the country. Now the Bank of China faces another scandal. The BOC’s Tianjin branch has stolen money from its clientele. A depositor involved has been jailed and tortured for the past two years. The scandal has tainted the BOC’s image as it prepares for its initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S.
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Analyses | | January 1, 2008 | Opinion

Mine Explosion Uncovers Hidden Child Labor in China

A series of serious mining accidents in China has recently brought mining safety into the spotlight. In several cases, casualties have been in the hundreds. As the accidents were being exposed, people shockingly discovered that child laborers were among the casualties.

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Analyses | | January 1, 2008 | Opinion

An EZ Pass for Capital Flight

Mrs. He Qinglian is a renowned economist and jornalist from China. Her book “The Trap of China’s Modernization” became a bestseller and an authoritative reference book for China’s economists. The Japanese translation of the book was also highly acclaimed. The updated version is now being translated into English. Because of her explicit views and analyses of China’s economic truth, based mostly on government released data, she is disliked by the authorities and has been forced into exile. She is now staying in the U.S. as a guest researcher.

The following is her comments on the impact of a new regulation regarding money transfer issued by the People’s Bank of China.

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Analyses | | January 1, 2008 | Opinion

The Risk Side of Investing in China’s State-Owned Banks

The Bank of China (BOC) and the China Construction Bank (CCB) —two of the country’s Big Four [1] state-owned banks—are both racing for initial public offerings (IPO) sometime in 2005, possibly on the New York stock exchange. “We hope that all our financial indices can reach the standard of a listed company at the time of our initial public offering,” said Li Lihui, President of the BOC.

Both banks are negotiating with potential strategic investors—probably more sophisticated financial institutions—who will buy stakes in the Chinese banks and help them streamline their operations, said the presidents of the two banks. They did not want to reveal the investors’ names, however, citing “commercial secret concerns.”

Why are the banks so eager to get listed on the overseas exchanges? What are the major risks for overseas investors if they choose to purchase their stocks?
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Analyses | | January 1, 2008 | Opinion