The Foreign Street China Brief

Issue 1: The Pope & China

A public end for an extraordinary papacy

Chris Buckley

324 words

4 April 2005

International Herald Tribune

BEIJING:

In China, Catholics joined in mourning the death of the pope, while the Chinese government offered its sympathies. "China offers its condolences on the passing of Pope John Paul II due to illness," said Lian Jianchao, the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, according to the Xinhua press agency.

International Herald Tribune

Media snippets greeted with an air of indifference

Vivien Cui

409 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

The Pope's death was briefly announced by the mainland media a few hours after he passed away.

Xinhua released a short article one hour after his death which set the tone for other official media.

SCMP.com Limited

Vatican seen as both friend and foe

By ANNA FIFIELD, JO JOHNSON, ROEL LANDINGIN, VIRGINIA MARSH and RICHARD MCGREGOR

699 words

4 April 2005

Financial Times

Page 4

It is a measure of Pope John Paul II's global influence that even China, which does not recognise the authority of the Vatican and broke off ties with the Holy See in the 1950s, offered its sympathies.

"China expresses its condolences on the passing away of Pope John Paul II," its foreign ministry said last night, adding that it remained open to improved Sino-Vatican relations with his successor.

The Financial Times Limited

Beijing to seek better ties under new pope

State-sanctioned church mourns loss, but grief is deeper in unofficial parishes

Nailene Chou Wiest in Beijing

458 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

Beijing yesterday expressed its condolences over the Pope's death and said it hoped Sino-Vatican ties would improve under his successor.

"We express condolences for the passing of Pope John Paul II," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao was quoted by Xinhua as saying. "We hope that under the leadership of the new pope, favorable conditions for improving China-Vatican relations can be made."

SCMP.com Limited

Beijing, HK 'thwarted dearest wish of pontiff'

Bishop Zen says a Chinese visit was the unfulfilled dream of John Paul II

Patsy Moy

552 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

It was "the greatest desire" of Pope John Paul II to visit China, but this aspiration was thwarted by Beijing and the Hong Kong government, says the local head of the Catholic Church.

Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun criticised the mainland for being "unfriendly" and "showing no interest" in opening dialogue with the Vatican.

SCMP.com Limited

HK's role in Sino-Vatican relations

'will not change' Holy See official says death could revive Beijing talks

Ambrose Leung

399 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

The Catholic diocese of Hong Kong will continue to act as a bridge between China and the Holy See in the papacy of John Paul II's successor, a Vatican official said.

The official and analysts also believe the death of the Pope would present an opportunity for re-establishing diplomatic negotiations, and praised Beijing's condolence message to the Vatican as a "positive sign".

SCMP.com Limited

Issue 2: Chinese textile exports

Dispute Over Chinese Textiles Heats Up

--- Surge in Exports Fuels Calls For Europe, U.S. to Impose Emergency Curbs on Beijing

By Mei Fong

735 words

4 April 2005

The Asian Wall Street Journal

HONG KONG -- A surge in Chinese garment exports this year is fueling demands in Europe and the U.S. that they impose measures that might trim some of China's newly gained power in the world textile trade.

The European Commission, the European Union's executive body, will meet Wednesday to discuss possibly applying emergency restrictions on Chinese imports. And in the U.S., unusually early release of first-quarter textile-trade data -- which show soaring imports from China -- is expected to spawn new pressure on policy makers to consider similar steps.

Dow Jones & Company Inc.

Chinese textile surge spawns backlash

MEI FONG

614 words

4 April 2005

The Globe and Mail

A surge in Chinese garment exports this year is fuelling demands in Europe and the United States that they impose measures that might trim some of China's newly gained power in the world textile trade.

The European Commission, the European Union's executive body, will meet Wednesday to discuss possibly applying emergency restrictions on Chinese imports. And in the United States, unusually early release of first-quarter textile-trade data � which show soaring imports from China � is expected to spawn new pressure on policy makers to consider similar steps.

Bell Globemedia Interactive

Stream of Chinese Textile Imports Is Becoming a Flood

By DAVID BARBOZA

908 words

4 April 2005

The New York Times

SHANGHAI, April 3 -- Imports of Chinese textile and apparel products into the United States soared in the first quarter, offering fresh evidence that the world's clothing trade is being drastically reshaped by the abolition of global quotas in January.

The United States Commerce Department said Friday that in the first three months of the year, preliminary data showed that United States imports of textile and apparel products from China rose more than 63 percent from a year ago.

New York Times Digital (Full Text)

West's dilemma over China textiles

David Barboza

677 words

4 April 2005

International Herald Tribune

SHANGHAI:

Imports of Chinese textile and apparel products into the United States soared in the first quarter of this year, offering new evidence that the world's clothing trade is being dramatically reshaped by the abolition of global quotas in January.

International Herald Tribune

Issue 3: Anti-Japan escapades

China web opposition to Japan's UN hopes targets Beijing.

By RICHARD MCGREGOR

467 words

4 April 2005

Financial Times

Page 6

China's internet-led campaign against Japan gaining a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council has begun to target the Beijing government itself because of anger over its failure to oppose openly Tokyo's bid.

Chinese websites have by their own count collected 22m signatures against Japan's UN ambitions in a campaign that has so far been sanctioned by a government sensitive to any form of political protest outside of its control.

The Financial Times Limited

Chinese protest Japan UNSC seat

Yasuharu Seki Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

337 words

4 April 2005

Daily Yomiuri

More than 2,000 people took to the streets Sunday in Shengzhen, Guangdong Province, China, where many Japanese firms operate, to protest Japan's bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

The protesters called for a boycott of Japanese products and collected signatures for their anti-Japan campaign.

Yomiuri Shimbun, The

Escalating outcry poses threat to Japanese trade, investments

589 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

As an old Chinese proverb goes, "a single spark can start a prairie fire", and sparks are indeed flying, with anti-Japan protests in several mainland cities looking set to spread and intensify.

While the protests have been largely peaceful, they have taken an ominous turn with protesters targeting Japanese shops and products.

SCMP.com Limited

International Relations

Technology Transfers Help Further Repression

By Fred Armentrout

957 words

4 April 2005

The Asian Wall Street Journal

A11

Those advocating the lifting of the arms embargo that was imposed on China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown may try to claim that Beijing has cleaned up its human-rights record, and thus can handle the responsibility that would come with an inflow of sophisticated-weapons technology. Beijing's use of previous technology exchanges, however, calls that claim into question. Chinese authorities have benefited from information-technology transfers with the West to further hone their skills of repression.

China's domestic-communications capacity is expanding exponentially. Related technology-transfer businesses from foreign suppliers are booming, and according to Gartner Consultants, at least three Chinese IT companies will become significant global competitors by 2010.

Dow Jones & Company Inc.

Lifting ban on China arms sales �a mistake'

PATRICK McLOUGHLIN

260 words

4 April 2005

The Globe and Mail

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said if the European Union ended a ban on selling arms to China it would affect its transatlantic defence trade with the United States.

EU leaders have repeatedly voiced support for lifting the embargo, which was imposed after the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But the European bloc wants to ensure its U.S. interests would not be hit by the move.

Bell Globemedia Interactive

Hu to Visit NK for 6-Party Talks

Unification Ministry

274 words

4 April 2005

Korea Times

The Unification Ministry said Sunday that Chinese President Hu Jintao's planned visit to Pyongyang will be closely related to the resumption of the stalled six-party talks, aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear weapons issue.

In a report, entitled ``analysis on North Korean Prime Minister Pak bong-ju's visit to China,'' the ministry said Hu's upcoming visit to Pyongyang will further cement Beijing-Pyongyang relations.

Hankook i.com

India and China

� a game of one-upmanship

Ashish Vachhani

1496 words

4 April 2005

Business Line (The Hindu)

China and India may well dominate the international economic and trading system two decades from now. But how and where India will stand vis-à-vis the powerful Chinese presence in the global market place depends on how well it builds on its strengths, addresses the reform gaps and steers clear of doctrines that threaten stability.

IF THE flow of Indian and Chinese modern economic history is any indication, both the countries are heading towards a phase of momentous change. Growth trends in both the countries have been twice that of the global economic growth rate for almost two decades.

Kasturi & Sons Ltd

There's room at the top for both India and China

Amitav Acharya , FOR THE STRAITS TIMES

1080 words

4 April 2005

Straits Times

INDIA and China are often described as 'historic rivals' in their bilateral relationship, or 'natural rivals' for the leadership of Asia. India is also described as a 'balancer' of China in South-east Asia.

Whatever the term, perceptions of rivalry dominate perceptions of interdependence and co-existence between the two Asian giants.

SPH AsiaOne Ltd.

Pakistan lines up key business deals for Wen's visit

S. N. M. Abdi in Calcutta

410 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

Pakistan hopes its already close ties with China will be broadened by Premier Wen Jiabao's three-day visit that starts tomorrow.

Mr Wen's four-nation South Asia tour will also take him to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. But Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the fact that Mr Wen was flying to Pakistan first highlighted the special relationship between the two countries.

SCMP.com Limited

Government, Law & Politics

Muzzled on Campus

Beijing cracks down on unruly student Web sites.

By Craig Simons

458 words

4 April 2005

Newsweek International

It was a quiet protest. Over three hours, several hundred students gathered around a monument at the center of Beijing's prestigious Tsing-hua University. They left paper cranes, handwritten notes and flower wreaths. One taped up a computer printout reading, GIVE BACK OUR SHUIMU, the name of the school's online bulletin-board service (BBS), one of the most popular and freest forums in Chinese cyberspace until earlier this month. "You could find everything on the BBS," says one engineering student who joined the mid-March protest.

For Beijing, that was the problem. In recent weeks universities across China have clamped down on school computer networks to conform with new Ministry of Education regulations. According to students and Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California, new rules call on administrators to block off-campus users and prevent students from posting anonymously to "enhance the moral and thought education of university students."

Newsweek, Inc.

Jailed Chinese "killer" freed after wife turns up alive.

378 words

4 April 2005

Reuters News

BEIJING, April 4 (Reuters) - A Chinese man jailed and badly beaten for his wife's murder has been freed after she turned up not only alive but with another husband, domestic media said on Monday, revealing a brutal arbitrariness to China's legal system.

She Xianglin's wife, Zhang Zaiyu, disappeared after a domestic dispute in 1994 and when a woman's body was found in a local reservoir, She was detained on suspicion of killing his wife, the China Daily said.

Reuters Ltd.

China Dam Project Devastates Town

--- `Ghost City' Troubles Show Strains in Beijing's Effort To Build Inland Economy

By Andrew Browne

1732 words

4 April 2005

The Asian Wall Street Journal

[First in a Series]

FENGDU, China -- Ghost City is doomed.

Dow Jones & Company Inc.

Crying foul over industrial pollution

Chua Chin Hon , China Correspondent

992 words

4 April 2005

Straits Times

BEIJING - OVER a glass of soda, farmer Wang Zhongfa relates the familiar story at the heart of China's growing pains.

For more than three years, pollution from a chemical industrial park has been killing off crops and poisoning peasants in his native Huaxiwu village in eastern Zhejiang province's Huashui county, he complains.

SPH AsiaOne Ltd.

Five-Year Evaluation of West China Development

by Hyung-June Park lovesong@donga.com

451 words

4 April 2005

Dong-A Ilbo Daily

The amount of money that China poured into developing its western provinces from 2000 to early this year has reached 460 billion yuan (about 55.2 trillion won) in direct funds from the central government and 500 billion yuan (about 60 trillion won) in indirect assistance including shared taxes and project subsidies.

Beijing has undertaken the �West Development Policy� to reduce the income gap between the eastern and western part of the nation by developing the western provinces. Regions subject to the project are Sichuan, Guizou, Yunnan, Gansu, Shanxi Provinces, Uyghur autonomous area in Xinjiang, and Zhuang autonomous area in Guangxi, which comprise 70.5 percent of the entire Chinese territory.

Dong-A Ilbo Daily

China freezes film, TV co-production

Regulator stalls joint venture approvals as it looks into whether foreigners are pushing too far too fast

mediaSidney Luk

523 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

China has pushed the pause button on its cautious opening of the film and television sector to foreign investment as a more conservative management team at the country's media regulator examines whether some overseas companies are pushing the industry's reforms too far too fast.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Commerce are said to have approved only one foreign-invested production joint venture, between Sony Pictures Television International and a China Film Group subsidiary - known as Huaso Film/Television Digital Production - since the sector was formally approved last November.

SCMP.com Limited

What are you waiting for, Beijing?

640 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

There is something unnervingly indecisive about the leadership in Beijing. It scores quite well on rhetoric, giving the impression of nationalism on Taiwan and Japan, and of steadiness on the domestic front. But, at least judging from the issue of the currency and financial system, the soothing words and right noises cannot hide the lack of willingness to make bold decisions.

It is all very well not to allow the yuan to be pushed around by the US, which is in no position to lecture any country on fiscal or monetary rectitude. America must look to its own miserable savings rate if it wants to find a cure for its trade deficit. But the Chinese government's failure to grasp the currency nettle at any time over the past 18 months is clearly in evidence in the lending excesses and localised property bubbles for which a hefty price will have to be paid.

SCMP.com Limited

Get back to basics

587 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

Fifteen years ago today, the Basic Law was promulgated, with high hopes that the post-1997 charter could insure Hong Kong against unforeseen damage to its systems and way of life under a new constitutional order.

Today, seven years and nine months after the Basic Law took effect, there are mixed feelings about its relevance and significance in the "one country, two systems" experiment.

SCMP.com Limited

Greater China & Provincial News

Tung should have read between the lines, says journalist

Larry Teo

626 words

4 April 2005

Straits Times

FORMER Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee Hwa has left behind a weakened office and widespread disillusionment with Beijing's 'one country, two systems' formula, a veteran journalist said at the weekend.

Beijing is unhappy to see the formula turn out to be 'a flop', even though each time it had to interfere in Hong Kong's matters - well against the formula's spirit - it blithely annexed some of the powers that rightly belonged to the Hong Kong government, according to Mr Ching Cheong, Chief China Correspondent for The Straits Times.

SPH AsiaOne Ltd.

Donald Tsang accused of disdaining patriotic values

Jimmy Cheung

351 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

Tension between acting Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and the pro-Beijing camp has surged after a DAB lawmaker criticised him as being arrogant and disrespectful of patriotic values.

Choy So-yuk said Mr Tsang, tipped as Beijing's favourite candidate for chief executive, was just lucky Beijing changed its policy on Hong Kong.

SCMP.com Limited

Taipei mayor calls for reform of KMT

Lawrence Chung , Taiwan Correspondent

681 words

4 April 2005

Straits Times

Ma Ying-jeou vows to rejuvenate party as he begins bid to become its chairman

TAIPEI - TAIPEI mayor Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday that if the Kuomintang (KMT) fails to carry out reforms it will not win Taiwan's 2008 presidential election.

SPH AsiaOne Ltd.

The cold shoulder

479 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

It is stating the obvious to say that Beijing winters are cold. The ever-approaching Gobi Desert and its winds make the northern climate that much more frigid. But Beijing's coldest times come twice a year for those of us living in buildings constructed in the years before the Olympic-sized "New Beijing" boom: early November and late March. And what makes these the coldest times is only partly the weather.

It has been decreed that the government shall decide when to turn on and off the central heating systems across the capital - and across the northern half of the country. November 15 and March 15 - every year - are the dates that have been chosen.

SCMP.com Limited

Babies among gas leak's victims, say villagers

Staff Reporter

351 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

The youngest victim of last week's chlorine gas leak in Huaian , Jiangsu province , was just seven months old, while several more were less than a year old, villagers have revealed.

Twenty-eight people were killed and more than 300 injured on Tuesday when an overloaded truck carrying 35 tonnes of liquefied chlorine hit a cargo truck after a tyre exploded. The spill led to the evacuation of nearly 10,000 people from three villages along the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway.

SCMP.com Limited

Business & the Economy

BHP eyeballs China on ore

Andrew Trounson

621 words

4 April 2005

The Australian

Commodities

BHP Billiton is refusing to give ground on its demand for a freight premium on iron ore sales, despite Chinese steel companies flatly rejecting its price push.

Nationwide News Pty Ltd.

CNOOC's bid attempt hits a snag

By FRANCESCO GUERRERA and JOE LEAHY

502 words

4 April 2005

Financial Times

Page 25

CNOOC's ambitions of bidding for US-based Unocal are believed to have hit a hurdle amid deepening dissent within China's third-biggest oil producer over the merits of the proposal.

There is concern that the proposed acquisition, believed still to have strong backing from some senior CNOOC executives, would be financially risky and politically difficult to execute, and that Unocal would not necessarily be a good fit. Unocal was understood to be anticipating a bid from CNOOC but this was now unlikely, at least in the next few weeks, people familiar with the situation said.

The Financial Times Limited

The Dawn of a New Oil Era?

China is the world's second-largest consumer of oil. It has about 20 million cars and trucks now. By the year 2020, that may be 120 million.

By Robert J. Samuelson

895 words

4 April 2005

Newsweek

The interesting question about the advent of $50-a-barrel oil is whether it signals a new era in the economics and politics of energy. To sharpen the question: have we entered a period when, owing to consistently strong demand and chronically scarce supplies, prices have moved permanently higher? We don't know, but the answer could be "yes" for at least one reason: China.

Newsweek, Inc.

New Loan Loss Mars the Veneer On Bank of China

--- Country's Showcase Lender, Polishing for Overseas IPO, Claims $78 Million Fraud

By Andrew Browne

762 words

4 April 2005

The Asian Wall Street Journal

HONG KONG -- Bank of China has revealed a new lending scandal that cost its Beijing branch about US$78 million, underscoring the tough task of preparing the huge state lender for an overseas stock-market listing that could come as early as this year.

The country's showcase bank has accused a Beijing real-estate developer of swindling it out of the money in a mortgage fraud, according to the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua. The alleged fraud dates back to December 2000, when the property developer borrowed money using forged house-purchase contracts, and the bank reported the case to police in 2002, Xinhua said, quoting bank spokesman Wang Zhaowen. Mr. Wang wasn't immediately available for comment.

Dow Jones & Company Inc.

China plays key role in Heller's world view

In a whirlwind interview with Dana Flavelle, HBC's CEO talks about everything from China and challenges facing retailers to his tenure at Canada's oldest company In a whirlwind interview with Dana Flavelle, HBC's CEO talks about everything from China and challenges facing retailers to his tenure at Canada's oldest firm In a whirlwind one-on-one with the Star, HBC's chief talks about everything from China and retailing challenges to his tenure at Canada's oldest company

Dana Flavelle

2186 words

4 April 2005

The Toronto Star

C01

The entry to George Heller's executive office is studded with weighty historic symbols, not least of which is the nearly 400-year-old charter King Charles II signed granting most of modern day western Canada to his cousin Prince Rupert in the name of the Hudson's Bay Co.

As head of the last national department store chain still owned by Canadians, Heller occupies a position unique in Canadian retailing. He refers often to his long tenure, more than 30 years in the industry, much of it spent at Canada's oldest and most storied company.

Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd.

Top banker talks up hometown advantage

- Chan Tze-ching is among a new wave of Hong Kong-bred executives to take key positions once occupied by expatriates

Enoch Yiu

1367 words

4 April 2005

South China Morning Post

NOT MANY BANKERS in Hong Kong have a public following. But Chan Tze-ching, Citigroup's newly appointed Hong Kong and Taiwan country officer, is remembered by much of the local investing public for his former stint as a moonlighting radio talk show host.

Prior to his 2003 transfer, which saw him head up Citigroup's Taiwan operations, Mr Chan was a part-time co-host of Metro Finance's popular radio show, Best of the Best. Each week, he and Alice Kwok spent an hour chatting on air with fixtures of the local business community, including Hopewell Holdings chairman Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung and Airport Authority chairman David Pang Ding-jung.

SCMP.com Limited

China sees beginning of a labor shortage

Jim Yardley and David Barboza

807 words

4 April 2005

International Herald Tribune

NINGXIANG, China:

The pipeline that pours young, eager workers into China's manufacturing juggernaut begins in the country's interior, at vocational schools like Hunan Top Software.

International Herald Tribune

After 37-Year Reign At AIG, Tumult Marks Chief's Final Days

--- Faced With Indictment Threat, Board Moves Quickly Against Mr. Greenberg --- Hopes Are Dashed for a Soft Landing

By Monica Langley

2179 words

4 April 2005

The Asian Wall Street Journal

In Bermuda on March 25, a lawyer for American International Group Inc. Chairman Maurice "Hank" Greenberg carted boxes of documents out of an AIG office and into a van, according to people familiar with the situation.

The next day, lawyers hired by the big insurer to handle a regulatory probe discovered certain records were missing, these people say. Then another jolt: They also learned that an AIG employee had destroyed some computer records and tape recordings of business meetings. There was a confrontation between the lawyers for AIG and their counterparts representing Mr. Greenberg over who should secure the rest of the documents.

Dow Jones & Company Inc.

Network opposes FTA with China

Katharine Murphy

343 words

4 April 2005

The Australian

AUSTRALIA should not legitimise China's poor record on human rights and environmental standards by negotiating a landmark free trade agreement with Beijing, the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network has declared.

As the Howard Government finalises the framework for the bilateral trade deal, which is expected to be announced by John Howard later this month, opponents are using a Senate inquiry into Australia's relations with China to argue the case against the new agreement.

Nationwide News Pty Ltd.

China's boom has led to only partial change

By JOE STUDWELL

822 words

4 April 2005

Financial Times

Page 19

As China's economy shows signs of a modest slowdown from annual growth officially reported at more than 9 per cent in 2003 and 2004 - but which physical indicators suggest probably exceeded 10 per cent - it is time to ask whether this latest "China boom" has been qualitatively different from previous ones.

The Financial Times Limited

Chinese seek Rover guarantees

Shanghai demands British government reassurance on car maker's future and pensions liability

Mark Milner and Larry Elliott

594 words

4 April 2005

The Guardian

The Chinese motor group negotiating a crucial financial deal with Rover, Britain's last volume car manufacturer, wants reassurance from the government that the company has a viable financial future for at least two years before it will sign up to an agreement to save the troubled Longbridge plant.

Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation (SAIC) has outlined its concerns about Phoenix Venture Holdings, Rover's parent company, in meetings with British officials who have flown to Shanghai in an attempt to save the deal. The talks are entering a fourth day.

Guardian Newspapers Limited

Plan to import Chinese cars seeks backers

More investors sought for visit to factories

James R. Healey

574 words

4 April 2005

USA Today

B.5

NEW YORK -- Colorful and controversial auto-industry veteran Malcolm Bricklin, trying to be first to distribute Chinese cars in the USA, has attracted only half the number of dealer-investors he wants just two weeks before they're scheduled to travel to China.

The number who make the trip is key. A potential dealer must put $2 million in an escrow account to go on the trip. If the dealer likes what he or she sees at the Chery auto company and signs a contract with Bricklin to sell Chery vehicles in the USA, that $2 million is released to Bricklin as start-up capital for his Visionary Vehicles.

USA Today Information Network

To Stop a Tech Deal

Taiwan shows how hard it is to control sales to China.

By Jonathan Adams and George Wehrfritz With Hideko Takayama in Tokyo and B. J. Lee in Seoul

860 words

4 April 2005

Newsweek International

It's no secret that the two firms share common DNA. The elder, Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp.--the world's second-largest contract chipmaker--owns the patents allegedly used by an up-and-coming Chinese competitor, He Jian Technology. In fact ex-UMC employees established He Jian in 2001 and UMC chairman Robert Tsao now admits to having coached the mainland start-up in the hope of acquiring it someday. The problem: this kind of technology transfer requires official approval. And UMC didn't get it. Last month Taiwanese prosecutors swarmed UMC headquarters and searched senior executives' homes. More than 20 He Jian employees visiting from the mainland were barred from leaving Taiwan, and prosecutors briefly detained He Jian head J. H. Shyu. After weeks of denouncing legislators critical of his firm as "clowns" and accusing prosecutors of practicing "white terror," Tsao flew out of the country.

Newsweek, Inc.

`Super Cycle' in Commodities Means Boom Has More Room

By Patrick Barta

1154 words

4 April 2005

The Asian Wall Street Journal

Bangkok -- EQUITIES ANALYSTS HAVE long touted natural-resources stocks as a way to cash in on China's booming economy. At present, some are super-sizing their predictions for commodities.

Last week, Goldman Sachs surprised investors when it warned of a potential "super spike" period that could push oil prices as high as $105 a barrel. On Thursday , Citigroup Smith Barney reiterated its prediction a "super cycle" for commodities, driven by long-term demand in China.

Dow Jones & Company Inc.

Hong Kong mulls easing reits rules

- Lifting the rule that bars overseas investments would be welcome - more in mainland China than in the territory, writes Jeff Wagner.

By JEFF WAGNER

911 words

4 April 2005

Financial Times

Page 7

A proposed easing of regulations on Hong Kong-listed real estate investment trusts could be a major boost for cash-strapped mainland Chinese developers desperate for ways to use their share of the booming mainland property market to raise funds.

Hong Kong's stock market regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission, last week launched a one-month consultation exercise on measures that include allowing locally listed reits to invest in properties abroad.

The Financial Times Limited

The Spanish dragon

2186 words

4 April 2005

El Pais - English Edition

The profile of the Chinese immigrant community has changed dramatically in recent years

H ong Guang Yugao is a young Chinese businessman. He's 34, with an affable face and a quick smile. When he says that there are no Chinese people in Spanish cemeteries, he looks like he's about to tell a joke. "Well," he laughs, "I think there are 30 graves in a cemetery in Getafe." Hong Guang knows that one of many stereotypes about the Chinese community in Spain is that sinister mafias get rid of the bodies of the deceased, but not their passports, which are immediately recycled by the living. But the apparent demographic anomaly that the Chinese in Spain don't die has a simple explanation, hence Guang Yugao's smile: "Chinese people, when they get old or die, go back to China. Only the young stay."

Diario El Pais Internacional S.A.

An unexpected problem

Labor shortages in China Workers gain the power to make demands

Jim Yardley and David Barboza

1413 words

4 April 2005

International Herald Tribune