The Foreign Street China Brief

Issue 1: China & the Vatican

Chinese Catholics caught between churches

Pope was unable to ease tension between Vatican, communist government

Paul Wiseman

1414 words

5 April 2005

USA Today

A.5

HONG KONG -- The pope who helped demolish communism in Eastern Europe couldn't make a dent in it in China.

Pope John Paul II never fulfilled his dream of visiting China, never brought the underground Chinese Catholic Church into the sunlight, never established diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the communist leadership in Beijing.

USA Today Information Network

Mourning has rules in China

Chris Buckley

1098 words

5 April 2005

International Herald Tribune

BEIJING:

Chinese Catholics crowded a Beijing cathedral on Monday to mourn the death of Pope John Paul II. The memorial Mass was attended by about 300, some of whom cried or said the rosary amid clouds of incense and solemn hymn-singing.

International Herald Tribune

China's State Catholic Church Honors John Paul

By JIM YARDLEY

466 words

5 April 2005

The New York Times

BEIJING, April 4 -- More than 300 Chinese parishioners filled a downtown cathedral Monday morning to honor Pope John Paul II in a public Mass held by the Communist Party's state-controlled Catholic Church.

The memorial Mass held at Southern Cathedral here captured the contradictions of Catholicism in China, where the church, officially known as the Catholic Patriotic Association, acknowledges the pope as a spiritual leader but rejects the authority of the Vatican over church affairs.

New York Times Digital (Full Text)

China and the Pope

629 words

5 April 2005

The Asian Wall Street Journal

A11

In a way there was no greater testament to the power of John Paul II's life and ideas that, as the 84-year-old Pope lay dying and news of this event dominated front pages in Asia and the world, Chinese authorities relegated the information in the state media to back pages or bottom items on television news. Fostering discussion of this champion of freedom was too dangerous, it seems.

China did offer condolences to the Vatican this past weekend, tacking on a hope for improved relations. Though the official Catholic church in China is not "Roman" but national, China does allow this "patriotic" church to recognize the Pope as a spiritual leader.

Dow Jones & Company Inc.

Hope grows for a new dawn in Sino-Vatican relations

While hailing late pontiff's integrity, mainland Catholics look to successor to bring flock in from the cold

Analysis Nailene Chou Wiest in Beijing

597 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

As the world mourns the death of Pope John Paul II, China is anticipating the dawn of a new era of Sino-Vatican relations under his successor.

In a requiem mass at South Cathedral in Beijing, the Pope was hailed as a fine pontiff whom Chinese Catholics looked to as a spiritual leader. Father Sun Shangen said in a homily that the Pope had wanted to visit China, but regrettably the Vatican kept its ties with Taiwan due to the "interference of certain conservative forces".

SCMP.com Limited

Vatican 'ready to cut Taiwan ties'

Staff Reporter and Jacky Hsuin Taipei

380 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

The Vatican is prepared to sever its ties with Taiwan in exchange for the resumption of diplomatic relations with Beijing, the head of the Hong Kong diocese said last night.

But Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun said there was no way the Vatican would commit itself to this position without first having talks with Beijing on the subject.

SCMP.com Limited

Issue 2: Hating on Japan

China Fights Enlarging Security Council

Colum Lynch

308 words

5 April 2005

The Washington Post

A15

-- China's U.N. ambassador on Monday challenged Secretary General Kofi Annan's proposal to enlarge the Security Council to 24 members by year's end, dealing a setback to the second major effort in a decade to expand the powerful 15-nation body.

China's top U.N. envoy, Wang Guangya, said more time is needed to reach agreement on the politically sensitive issue. Wang also insisted it is "essential" that an agreement on enlarging the council be reached by a unanimous vote in the 191-member General Assembly, a standard that would permit a single U.N. member to undercut any rival's candidacy.

Washington Post

Anti-Japanese protests rattle investors

Growth of Chinese consumer classes leaves foreign firms vulnerable in face of boycott tactics

GEOFFREY YORK

858 words

5 April 2005

The Globe and Mail

B13

After a weekend of violent attacks and consumer boycott activity, Japanese investors in China are increasingly jittery about their future in a country that is crucial to Japan's economic recovery.

The anti-Japanese protests and the boycott movement have exposed the risks of investing in China, showing that the growing muscle of China's new consumer class can be turned against foreign investors when political disputes arise.

Bell Globemedia Interactive

Koizumi voices fears over protests

Shi Jiangtao in Beijing

509 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

The anti-Japanese protests erupting across the mainland have further chilled ties, scholars warned, as Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called on China to ensure the safety of his country's businesspeople.

"I want China to consider ways to ensure that Japanese companies and citizens there can go about their business freely," Mr Koizumi said in Tokyo.

SCMP.com Limited

Leaders must show the way to reconciliation

655 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

When mainland football fans burned Japanese flags and overturned a Japanese diplomat's car after a match in August, restraint from the leaders of both nations helped keep bilateral relations on an even keel. The more recent events involving vandalism of Japanese department stores on the mainland arguably call for a stronger, more thorough response - one that goes far beyond simply preserving the shaky status quo between Asia's contending superpowers.

The smashing of store windows and large gatherings outside Japanese-owned shops in Shenzhen and Chengdu follows the mainland-wide circulation of a petition opposing Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. It also follows calls to boycott Japanese goods because the country's education ministry has approved textbooks seen as whitewashing Japan's imperial past. Millions have signed the petition and thousands have joined marches.

SCMP.com Limited

Pacific power play puts Japan and China between a rock and a hard place

Simon Tisdall

832 words

5 April 2005

The Guardian

An uninhabited Pacific reef 1,000 miles due south of Tokyo makes an unlikely battlefield. But wars have been fought over less. And Okinotori Shima, as this hazard to shipping is known, is rapidly becoming a focal point of rising tension between China and Japan.

Only two small outcrops of the reef, sovereign Japanese territory that is administratively part of Tokyo, remain above water at high tide.

Guardian Newspapers Limited

Issue 3: Rover-deal ups and downs

Rover's talks with Chinese stall

UK firm must remain solvent for at least two years, says SAIC

Mark Milner Industrial editor

601 words

5 April 2005

The Guardian

The fate of MG Rover, Britain's last domestically owned volume car maker hung in the balance last night after talks aimed at brokering a deal with its proposed Chinese partner were said to have stalled.

The directors of MG Rover's parent company, Phoenix Venture Holdings, are understood to be under pressure to address Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation's concerns about the financial position of the UK company, according to sources.

Guardian Newspapers Limited

Doubt over MG Rover's finances puts Chinese rescue deal on hold.

By JEAN EAGLESHAM and JAMES MACKINTOSH

351 words

5 April 2005

Financial Times

Page 2

MG Rover's efforts to secure a Pounds 100m loan from the government to back a Chinese rescue deal have stalled after Britain's last mass market carmaker failed to convince either side it could survive.

Rover's financial position was worse than either the government or Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp had realised, according to government insiders. They said the onus was now on Rover's directors to address the Chinese carmaker's questions about its finances.

The Financial Times Limited

Chinese step on brakes in Rover talks

Troubled carmaker's hopes of life-saving deal with Shanghai company ride on pounds 100m loan from the Government

By Christopher Hope Business Correspondent

578 words

5 April 2005

The Daily Telegraph

025

TALKS between cash-strapped British car maker MG Rover and Chinese motor giant Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation stalled last night, raising the prospect of thousands of job losses in Labour's key West Midlands heartland on the eve of the general election. Pressure has been mounting on the two sides to agree terms since officials from the Department of Trade and Industry flew to Shanghai last week to try to smooth the deal with a pledge of a pounds 100m bridging loan from the Government. However, officials claimed last night that the talks had run into trouble and that the Chinese were now pressuring the four men who own MG Rover, through parent company Phoenix Venture Holdings, to come back with better financial terms.

Telegraph Group Ltd

International Relations

North Korean official in China

Choe Sang-Hun

290 words

5 April 2005

International Herald Tribune

SEOUL:

An architect of North Korea's nuclear diplomacy met Monday with Chinese leaders in Beijing to discuss the resumption of six-nation talks intended to end North Korea's nuclear weapons program, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

International Herald Tribune

N. Korea Asks for `Face-Saving Exit' for Nuke Talks

592 words

5 April 2005

Korea Times

A high-level North Korean official visiting China showed Pyongyang's strong will to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program, while asking for a ``face-saving exit'' from the other nations in the disarmament talks, diplomatic sources said Monday.

First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju and four other North Korean officials are said to be on a secretive visit to Beijing since last Saturday to discuss ways to reopen the stalled negotiation as soon as possible with senior Chinese officials.

Hankook i.com

China's missile prowess poses growing threat

Michael Richardson , For The Straits Times

768 words

5 April 2005

Straits Times

CHINA insists that its new anti-secession law is intended to deter Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province, from declaring independence.

But the United States, Japan and many people in Taiwan worry that, by giving 'non-peaceful means' legal status, China is making a military strike more likely.

SPH AsiaOne Ltd.

Chinese premier on four-nation South Asia tour

397 words

5 April 2005

Hindustan Times

Indo-Asian News Service

Beijing, April 5 -- Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao Tuesday left on a four-nation South Asia tour during which he will discuss the lingering border dispute with Indian leaders, Xinhua reported.

Hindustan Times Limited

Chinese premier's Asia tour to highlight closer India ties.

By FARHAN BOKHARI, JO JOHNSON and RICHARD MCGREGOR

563 words

5 April 2005

Financial Times

Page 2

Signs of improving relations between China and India, two Asian states whose rise poses unprecedented foreign policy challenges for the US, will be in evidence this week when Wen Jiabao, China's prime minister, makes his first tour of south Asia.

"India and China between them account for over one-third of humanity and are the two powerhouses of Asia," said Nalin Surie, India's ambassador to Beijing. "Our two countries are in the process of rediscovering each other. Relations have progressed steadily over the last five years."

The Financial Times Limited

India, China models: Race is on

Lydia Lim , Senior Political Correspondent

604 words

5 April 2005

Straits Times

MM says LKY School is well-placed to compare and contrast the two systems

CHINA and India are propelling themselves into the front ranks but which has the better development model will only be clear by the middle of this century, Mr Lee Kuan Yew said.

SPH AsiaOne Ltd.

The next big East Asian power?

554 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

With Premier Wen Jiabao due in New Delhi on Saturday, and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a few weeks later, one is reminded of Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee arguing that Asia without India was like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.

The complaint was prompted by India's exclusion from the Asia-Europe dialogue spearheaded by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. But if the Asian community's internal dynamics now appear to welcome the entry of a politically stable and economically thrusting nation of more than 1 billion people that can hold the balance among the existing players, India, too, has much to gain from closer ties with East Asia.

SCMP.com Limited

Government, Law & Politics

Rights group takes aim at China's soaring execution rates

New data-gathering methods and more nations using the death penalty paint a grim picture in Asia, writes Tim Cribb

1347 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

It was business as usual for Asia's executioners last year, with nine countries within the region responsible for the majority of judicial killings, and a further nine imposing death sentences during the year.

China again topped the list for executions, with at least 3,400. Vietnam, with at least 64, trailed Iran's 159, but was ahead of the US on 59, down from 65 in 2003.

SCMP.com Limited

Mainland blamed for 90pc of the world's executions

But Amnesty says the true number of deaths is still unknown

Kristine Kwok and Tim Cribb

515 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

Almost 90 per cent of the executions recorded around the world last year were carried out on the mainland, according to Amnesty International's latest report on the death penalty, to be released today.

Of the 3,797 people known to have been executed in 25 countries last year, the human rights watchdog estimated that 3,400 were put to death on the mainland, accounting for 89.5 per cent of the total.

SCMP.com Limited

Greater China & Provincial News

Hong Kong resurgent

- again

Anthony Paul , Senior Writer

1005 words

5 April 2005

Straits Times

THE God of Luck is a Cantonese deity, very likely one from Hong Kong.

This is at least one explanation for the good fortune that this extraordinary place seems to be able to count on whenever it hits hard times.

SPH AsiaOne Ltd.

Tsang says DAB critic is well-intentioned

- His attempt to defuse tensions with the pro-Beijing camp comes after Choy So-yuk described him as disrespectful of patriotic values

Gary Cheung

552 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

Acting Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen yesterday sought to settle differences between himself and the pro-Beijing camp, describing as "well-intentioned" a DAB lawmaker's criticism that he had been disrespectful of patriotic values.

A spokesman for the acting Chief Executive's Office said Choy So-yuk, a legislator for the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, was a good friend of Mr Tsang and had been very supportive of his work.

SCMP.com Limited

Restoration of palace lake hangs in balance

Jane Cai

315 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

The fate of a controversial 150 million yuan lake restoration project at Beijing's Old Summer Palace on which work has been halted remains uncertain.

The State Environmental Protection Administration (Sepa) last week ordered a halt to the project.

SCMP.com Limited

The New China News Agency was the first to break the news that the Dalai Lama...

646 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

The New China News Agency was the first to break the news that the Dalai Lama had entered India following the crushing of the previous week's revolt in Lhasa.

The report said the ruler of Tibet and others had arrived in India on March 31. Indian border authorities had left Tawang, in Assam, to meet him and foreign correspondents in India were also trying to reach him.

SCMP.com Limited

Business & the Economy

Surge in Chinese clothing imports prompts U.S. investigation

462 words

5 April 2005

The Globe and Mail

B13

The United States will initiate trade cases against China to determine whether quotas should be re-imposed to protect textile and clothing manufacturers against a surge in Chinese imports, the Bush administration said yesterday.

The decision represents a major victory for U.S. manufacturers, who had been pressing the administration to bring these cases on its own rather than waiting for the industry to petition the government for relief, a process that could take a longer period of time.

Bell Globemedia Interactive

U.S. Begins Steps to Limit Import Surge From China

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and ELIZABETH BECKER

795 words

5 April 2005

The New York Times

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- The Bush administration, reacting to a flood of Chinese clothing imports since January, began a process on Monday to impose import quotas on shirts, trousers and underwear.

In an abrupt policy reversal, the Commerce Department said that it would begin an investigation into the need to re-impose trade quotas that were lifted just three months ago on a wide variety of Chinese apparel.

New York Times Digital (Full Text)

U.S. Opens Challenge To Chinese Textiles

Shipments Soar After Lapse of Quota System

Paul Blustein

876 words

5 April 2005

The Washington Post

A15

The Bush administration took a giant step yesterday toward imposing new caps on imports of Chinese clothing, responding to complaints that China's export juggernaut is starting to dominate the worldwide apparel market since the system governing the global industry was changed on Jan. 1.

A U.S. interagency panel said it will initiate proceedings to determine whether new limits should be slapped on imports from China of underwear, cotton trousers, and cotton knit shirts and blouses. In a statement, Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said the administration is committed "to providing assistance to our domestic textile and apparel industry consistent with our international rights and obligations."

Washington Post

Anxiety at EU plan to curb import of textiles.

By EDWARD ALDEN and RAPHAEL MINDER

467 words

5 April 2005

Financial Times

Page 9

The European Union's response to higher Chinese textile exports shows "a growing and worrying protectionist trend" which could eventually undermine the EU's economic competitiveness, Sweden's trade minister has warned.

Highlighting a growing divide within the 25-nation bloc over the benefits of trade liberalisation, Thomas Ostros told the FT: "There is an increase in protectionist ideas which I feel is very troublesome, not least in the light of the Lisbon strategy (to turn the EU into the world's most competitive economy.) In the long run, it will mean less economic growth and fewer jobs if we use that type of strategy."

The Financial Times Limited

Chevron Buys Unocal In $16.8 Billion Deal

--- Cnooc's Rival All-Cash Bid For U.S. Energy Company Falls Through at 11th Hour

By Russell Gold

932 words

5 April 2005

The Asian Wall Street Journal

ChevronTexaco Corp. agreed to buy Unocal Corp. for cash and stock valued at $16.8 billion, bringing together two energy companies with substantial oil and natural-gas production in Southeast Asia.

ChevronTexaco, the fourth-largest Western oil company by reserves, clinched the deal after a weekend that saw an all-cash offer for Unocal from China National Offshore Oil Corp. fall through abruptly. Italian oil giant Eni SpA also was in the bidding for Unocal, of El Segundo, California.

Dow Jones & Company Inc.

Chinese steel makers fight rise in ore price

David Lague and Wayne Arnold

844 words

5 April 2005

International Herald Tribune

China is applying diplomatic pressure on Australia in a bid to curb soaring iron ore prices as Melbourne-based BHP Billiton demands that Chinese steel makers pay double the rates they now pay for its ore shipments. Australian officials said their Chinese counterparts in Beijing and Canberra had been lobbying the Australian government and industry groups, warning that the price increases could hurt the Chinese economy and undermine long-term trade ties just as raw materials suppliers in Australia were enjoying a boom arising from China's soaring appetite for commodities.

International Herald Tribune

Chinese steel unites against iron ore price

By Aaron Patrick

411 words

5 April 2005

The Daily Telegraph

027

CHINA may have joined the World Trade Organisation but its steel manufacturers are still coming to terms with the global marketplace. In an unusual move, the China Iron and Steel Association is publicly complaining that the world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton, wants to charge too much for iron ore. Iron ore is a component of steel and the booming Chinese economy is the world's largest producer of the metal, last year increasing output 23pc to 276m tonnes. Chinese demand has squeezed the global market for iron ore, allowing producers to force through large price rises. BHP Billiton recently pushed prices up 70pc to $46 ( pounds 24) a tonne for its Japanese customers, a price that has set a global benchmark price. Although there are dozens of iron ore mines around the world, about three quarters of the trade is handled by three companies: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Brazil's CVRD.

Telegraph Group Ltd

China's banking system needs a cultural revolution.

By GUY DE JONQUIERES

949 words

5 April 2005

Financial Times

Page 19

John Paul Getty once observed that "when you owe the bank Dollars 100, that's your problem. When you owe the bank Dollars 100m, that's the bank's problem." In China, the late oil tycoon's adage has gone one step further: bankers there have made it their own.

The scale of fraud and embezzlement is breathtaking: at one branch, bank staff looted an entire town's deposits. Efforts to crack down on offenders appear so far to have been more effective in exposing the extent of the rot than in stopping it.

The Financial Times Limited

Chinese Cars Roll Into Russia

Anna Smolchenko

1043 words

5 April 2005

The Moscow Times

If Russian drivers have been slow to discover the pickup truck, some enterprising Siberians are more than ready to make the introduction -- by way of an affordable Chinese 4x4.

While Koreans, Japanese and Germans focus primarily on Russians' demand for quality cars and SUVs, a Novosibirsk-based company called Pekinsky Dzhip, or Beijing Jeep, is edging into the booming automobile market with a rugged Chinese-made pickup. If it all goes according to plan, Beijing Jeep will soon have a nationwide chain of dealerships and open a Russian assembly plant by next year.

IMH Media Limited

More Investors Develop a Taste For China's Top Winemakers

By Mary Kissel

944 words

5 April 2005

The Asian Wall Street Journal

Hong Kong -- CHINA'S YOUNG WINE industry may have legs.

Chinese consumers quaff a tiny fraction of the wine their French and U.S. counterparts enjoy. But that's changing, and China's top winemakers -- boasting healthy profit margins, rapid earnings growth and hefty market share -- are starting to catch the attention of investors and private-equity firms.

Dow Jones & Company Inc.

Arunachal upset over China claim that it is disputed

480 words

5 April 2005

Hindustan Times

Indo-Asian News Service

Itanagar, April 5 -- The Arunachal Pradesh state government Tuesday reacted sharply to China's claims that the region was a "disputed area", saying that it was erroneous and the state was an integral part of India.

Hindustan Times Limited

Goldman Makes Foray Into Chinese Property

--- Pidemco Tower Deal Marks Bank's First Big Investment In Country's Real Estate

By Laura Santini

387 words

5 April 2005

The Asian Wall Street Journal

HONG KONG -- Goldman Sachs has made its first big investment in Chinese property, paying US$107.6 million for a 24-story Shanghai office tower.

Purchase of the tower, near the city's famous waterfront area the Bund, shows the U.S. investment bank's belief that Shanghai real estate remains a good investment. Chinese authorities are seeking to cool the hot property market in Shanghai and other big cities.

Dow Jones & Company Inc.

Developing countries need better skills in trade talks

433 words

5 April 2005

Xinhua's China Economic Information Service

HANGZHOU, April 5 (CEIS) -- Chinese and United Nations officials Tuesday urged developing countries to be better equippedwith negotiation skills to get their voices heard and interests fulfilled in World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations.

Matthias Bruckner, an official with UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), said at an on-going regional workshop on trade facilitation that there is a clear link between each country's interest and the outcome of negotiation, therefore it is vital for developing countries to improve negotiation skills in a bid to fully and effectively participate in the Doha Round trade negotiations.

China Economic Information Service of Xinhua News Agency

Chinese Diaspora

FEW LEADS IN SEARCH FOR FOOD DELIVERER

BOB KAPPSTATTER and MELISSA GRACE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS WithAlison Gendar

290 words

5 April 2005

New York Daily News

COPS WERE stymied yesterday after searching hundreds of apartments in a Bronx building complex for a Chinese food deliveryman last seen there Friday night.

Ming Kung Chen, 35, who worked for Happy Dragon restaurant, made three deliveries at 40 West Mosholu Parkway South, a Van Cortlandt Village housing development, at about 8:30 p.m.

Daily News

By Foot and by Air, Search for Deliveryman Continues in the Bronx

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

561 words

5 April 2005

The New York Times

In New York, delivering food can be a dangerous trade. At least three times in the last five years, deliverymen for Chinese restaurants have been killed by their customers, and it is not uncommon for restaurants to blacklist certain addresses or insist on delivering only to the front door of an apartment building.

But Ming Kuang Chen, who disappeared Saturday after making three deliveries to Tracey Towers, a housing complex on West Mosholu Parkway in the Bronx, is known for bringing food to a customer's front door.

New York Times Digital (Full Text)

Feds detain 29 Chinese allegedly smuggled to LA in cargo ship

437 words

5 April 2005

Associated Press Newswires

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Federal authorities detained 29 men who appeared to have been smuggled into the Port of Los Angeles inside two cargo containers.

Port police alerted federal agents late Sunday after the men were spotted wandering in a cargo area.

Press Association, Inc.

Lee Man Fong to be honored in Singapore

Carla Bianpoen , Contributor, Singapore

809 words

5 April 2005

The Jakarta Post

On April 9, Art Retreat Singapore will launch a solo exhibition of Lee Man Fong, the renowned Chinese-born Indonesian painter who started his career as a humble, self-taught artist.

Art Retreat is a private museum owned by Indonesian collector Kwee Swie Teng, who received the Distinguished Patron of the Arts Award from the National Art Council last September.

PT Bina Media Sejahtera

Mouldy photo albums a golden find for history of Chinese in Victoria

CAROLYN WEBB

502 words

5 April 2005

The Age

A NEW Public Record Office exhibition offers a rare insight into Victoria's 19th century Chinese community.

Three years ago, at the Record Office's North Melbourne archives centre, researcher Pat Draper discovered 600 photographs of prisoners in Victorian jails. In six mouldy, dusty albums without titles or text were rows of portraits with just the name of each prisoner inscribed in ink.

F2 Australia & New Zealand Limited (Fairfax)

Earthquake Highlights Deep Economic Divide Isolated Indonesian

Town Reliant on Ethnic Chinese

Ellen Nakashima

1153 words

5 April 2005

The Washington Post

A20

The earthquake that savaged this ocean-side town the night of March 28 was discriminating in who it killed. Most of the 32 fatalities were ethnic Chinese, members of merchant families wealthy enough to live in multi-floor brick and concrete houses that came tumbling down on them with lethal force.

The quake also did major damage to the families' factories and company offices, which provide a majority of the jobs and income in the town. By a fluke of topography, the tremors raised the seafloor in the harbor, closing it off to the boats that in normal times carry out coconut oil, rubber and other exports.

Washington Post

Society & Culture

Ups & downloads

Cyber singers are carving careers that bypass traditional music industry methods. But as Joey Liu explains, the spectre of piracy looms ever larger

1164 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

WHEN POP MUSIC fan Yang Chengang composed Mice Love Rice in 2001, he was too lazy to knock on the doors of record companies. Instead, he gave the song to his friends. Two years later, one of his friends made it into a flash film and offered it for free online.

The song spread quickly on the internet. Last year it received the highest hits for months on the mainland's largest music search engine, baidu.com. The popularity of the song not only landed Yang a contract with Guangzhou Feile Record Company, but gave him the chance to show up at its Lunar New Year gala. Yang, who used to earn a living performing gigs in bars in Wuhan, Hubei province, became a household name.

SCMP.com Limited

A policeman's idea of hell

618 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

In Pan Ling's classic book, Old Shanghai: Gangsters in Paradise, life is described as an overlap of interests between corrupt officials and the mafia. Together, they profited against a backdrop of incompetent government, mayhem and crime.

The book should be recommended reading for anyone trying to understand China today. It would serve them well to have a good grasp of the social and economic conditions during the Republican period (1911-1949), which led to social decay and eventual breakdown. Presumably, it could never happen now, because of China's extensive and pervasive bureaucracy.

SCMP.com Limited

Musical revolution

447 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

The pop song Snail, by Taiwanese singer Jay Chou Jie-lun, has joined the revolutionary anthem The East Is Red on a list of approved songs chosen to build patriotism among Shanghai middle-school students.

It marks the first time that the city has picked popular songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan for the list in an effort to hold the attention of students in music classes, burnishing the city's reputation as the hippest on the mainland.

SCMP.com Limited

Education & Language

More from China, India head for LKY school

387 words

5 April 2005

Straits Times

THE Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy plans to study India and China and already has more students from both countries knocking on its doors.

Out of 190 applications it has received for this year's Master in Public Policy programme, 40 are from India and 30 from China.

SPH AsiaOne Ltd.

Pupils from ethnic groups doing best at Scots exams

Chinese, Indian and Pakistani kids more likely to pass Highers

By STEWART PATERSON

530 words

5 April 2005

Evening Times

PUPILS from ethnic minority backgrounds are performing best in Scotland's schools, according to the latest statistics.

Official figures released today show boys and girls from the Indian, Pakistani and Chinese communities are more likely to pass Highers than pupils of white UK origin.

Newsquest Media Group

Science & Technology

Language a barrier to open source in Asia

Sherman So

516 words

5 April 2005

South China Morning Post

Language and cultural barriers are preventing Asian programmers - especially those from China - from taking part in open-source projects, industry experts say.

Many open-source projects are based in English, a language mainland programmers do not feel comfortable using.

SCMP.com Limited