China takes over as largest consumer of power

The US owned that position for around 100 years. Wall Street Journal:

China, powered by years of rapid economic growth, is now the world's biggest energy consumer, knocking the U.S. off a perch it held for more than a century, according to new data from the International Energy Agency.

The Paris-based agency, whose forecasts are generally regarded as bellwether indicators for the energy industry, said China devoured 2,252 million tons of oil equivalent last year, or about 4% more than the U.S., which burned through 2,170 million tons of oil equivalent. The oil-equivalent metric represents all forms of energy consumed, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas and renewable sources such as hydropower.

The figures reflect, in part, how the global recession hit the U.S. more severely than China and hurt American industrial activity and energy use. Still, China's total energy consumption has clocked annual double-digit growth rates for many years, driven by the country's big industrial base. Highlighting how quickly its energy demand has increased, China's total energy consumption was just half the size of the U.S. 10 years ago.

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China locking poor behind gated communities

What could possibly go wrong with such a plan besides an infamous moment in history like this. What is with so many countries around the world blaming poor foreigners when times are tough? This latest policy in China is sick.

The government calls it "sealed management." China's capital has started gating and locking some of its lower-income neighborhoods overnight, with police or security checking identification papers around the clock, in a throwback to an older style of control.

It's Beijing's latest effort to reduce rising crime often blamed on the millions of rural Chinese migrating to cities for work. The capital's Communist Party secretary wants the approach promoted citywide. But some state media and experts say the move not only looks bad but imposes another layer of control on the already stigmatized, vulnerable migrants.

So far, gates have sealed off 16 villages in the sprawling southern suburbs, where migrants are attracted to cheaper rents and in some villages outnumber permanent residents 10 to one.

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China makes it official: Google license renewed

What kind of a deal was cut to allow this to happen? The Independent:

"We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP license and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China," Google's top lawyer, David Drummond, said in a statement.

The one-sentence statement gave no details. A Google spokeswoman, Courtney Hohne, said information on what services Google will offer in China would be released in coming weeks.

There was no immediate statement on the website of China's Internet regulator, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Google had to make concessions to get its license renewed, opting not to leave China completely so it could pursue its commercial ambitions — a music service, its mobile phone business, a Beijing development center and a staff to sell ads for the Chinese-language version of its U.S. search engine.

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Google expects China license to be renewed

So maybe the recent PR storm was all just PR after all. BBC:

Google boss Eric Schmidt has said he expects the internet giant to be granted a new licence to operate in China.

There had been speculation China would revoke the licence after Google began redirecting Chinese users to its unfiltered search site in Hong Kong.

This was in protest at China's stringent censorship laws.

But last month, Google said it would no longer automatically redirect users in a conciliatory move towards Beijing.

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Economist: China's real estate bubble bursting, will hit banks

If this analysis turns out to be accurate - and there is every reason to believe that bubble, like others, will burst - China is going to be facing one of it's most significant challenges in decades. There has been regular political dissent and protests but with a growing economy there was always plenty of money to throw around at the problems. This time it may not be as easy. What makes any analysis complicated is that China is so secretive about the details inside the banking system. Some still believe that there is limited credit bubble risk but that assumes the government story about real estate being paid in cash is accurate. Bubbles eventually always burst.

China's property market is beginning a collapse that will hit the banking system, Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University told Bloomberg Television.

Property transactions have dropped and prices are stagnating in the wake of steps in recent months by the central government to cool the market.

Xu Shaoshi, minister of land and resources, said at the weekend that he expected prices to start falling within a few months.

"You're starting to see that collapse in property and it's going to hit the banking system," Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, told the agency.

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New Zealand police investigating physical harassment of MP by Chinese security

Um, guys you're not in China where this behavior is rewarded. It's one of those little cultural differences that the guide books don't always explain. How's anyone supposed to know that in a foreign democracy, you can't harass a member of parliament including pushing and ripping the flag of Tibet out of their hands? Doing it to the leader of a political party makes it even stickier but let's hope it's a lesson learned and the friends at home will provide a "welcome home" gift.

Part of the investigation will include speaking with witnesses, viewing pictorial coverage and liaising with the Speaker of the House, who gives permission for lawful protests to take place in Parliament's grounds, police say.

Dr Norman is outraged that members of a Chinese delegation were able to push him, hit him with an umbrella and rip a Tibetan flag from his grasp.

He was protesting as Chinese Vice President Xi Jinpin arrived at Parliament greeted by a few dozen pro-China supporters.

Some of the group, believed to be Chinese security, took exception to Dr Norman waving a Tibetan flag and calling for democracy.

The MP brushed away attempts to have an umbrella placed in front of him, then clashed with security guards as they pulled the flag from his grasp and threw it on the ground.

He yelled they could suppress freedom of speech in China, but not in New Zealand.

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Chinese workers paying the price for economic boom with their health

Whether China's claim that they are moving faster to reform the situation than any other country at this stage is debatable though every country has been through this. My father had an uncle who died when he was thirty years old after working in a battery factory in Philadelphia back before WWII. The toxic fumes killed him and others who were employed there.

Terribly sad story out of China these days and you have to wonder about the health care these workers are receiving.

Since last year, there has been an explosion of lead poisoning cases close to smelting plants. Studies have shown that communities that recycle electronic waste are exposed to cadmium, mercury and brominated flame retardants. Elsewhere, there have been protests against chemical factories that are blamed for carcinogens that enter water supplies and the food chain.

Nationwide, cancer rates have surged since the 1990s to become the nation's biggest killer. In 2007, the disease was responsible for one in five deaths, up 80% since the start of economic reforms 30 years earlier.

While the government insists it is cleaning up pollution far faster than other nations at a similar dirty stage of development, many toxic industries have simply been relocated to impoverished, poorly regulated rural areas.

Chinese farmers are almost four times more likely to die of liver cancer and twice as likely to die of stomach cancer than the global average, according to study commissioned by the World Bank. The domestic media is increasingly filled with reports of "cancer villages" - clusters of the disease near dirty factories.

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State capitalism & you

Thanks to the BP spill and the excellent coverage of it by people like Chris in Paris and a host of others, the relationship between the state and capitalism is coming under the microscope — a very good thing. This post offers a bit of orientation, and a small peek forward.

So let's look at three concepts and see how they interact. The first two are:

• The state (the federal government, the People's Republic, the Thousand-Year Reich, whatever)


• The owners of the means of production (capitalists, bankers, the "Big Boys," that ilk)

The third concept to notice is the national interest (sometimes mislabeled "patriotism" or "chauvinism," after M. Chauvin).

The first group, the state, has all the political power — if it wishes to hold onto it. And the second group, the ownership class, has the money and economic power. So what are the various ways the state and the owners can be related, and how is the national interest affected?

1. Independence. The state and the capitalists (owners) can be more or less independent of each other. This version has flavors, ranging from laissez-faire capitalism to the modern notion of independence-cum-regulation.

Under the Independence model, the state controls what it cares about, and the owners control what they care about. National interest ("patriotism") is usually attended to, since it's something the state cares about. Mostly, the owners just want to roll around in cash.

This is the form of capitalism the U.S. used to be in.

2. Capitalists run the state. In this model, the capitalists have neutered the state, and taken over its territory as their own. The state still exists, but the owners (bankers & CEOs) tell it what to do.

What happens to patriotism in this model? Well, that tends to run to extremes. At one end of the spectrum, the capitalists operate a highly chauvinistic state — and one word for this form of government, in fact, is "fascism." You could look it up if you like.

And what about patriotism at the other end of the spectrum? Well, there is none. The capitalists still want to rinse down in loot, and since the state is an extension of what they care about, no one minds the "national interest" store. The only good news here is that the Big Boys usually work independently while they're busy selling out the national interest. Thus they they operate like a minor league check against each other.

This is the form of capitalism the U.S. is in right now.

BP owns our sorry butts, and you can bet this will continue. Eric Holder is putting on a very good show, but don't put money on it lasting. (If you want to put down money and roll in it like the Big Boys, wait until everyone says BP is D.O.A. thanks to the DOJ, then B-U-Y.)

3. State capitalism. I mentioned this model as a footnote in this post on Social Security. In this model, the state owns the means of production, period. The two groups have become one, with the state calling the shots.

We, the Chinese, and the Soviets have been mislabeling this model as "communism" ever since Lenin hijacked the real Russian revolution — the popular one — from the Mensheviks. This isn't communism in any meaningful sense, just another, particularly pernicious form of capitalism.

Since in this model the capitalists work for the state, state capitalism can create an especially powerful entity. Reason — the capitalists don't ever work against each other. Thus the state still serves the national interest, and the owners serve the state. If a state like this ever gets its act together, and if the economy in question is on the rise, defeating its goals becomes very difficult.

This is the form of capitalism that China is in.

My bottom line? You have two of the strongest economies in the world:

• One, an aging, but still attractive U.S. economy, which sold its manufacturing capability so that a short list of people could grow even richer than rich (and a whole lot of people could feel like they're still getting even with the hippies); and


• The other, a young, supple, my-best-years-are-ahead-of-me Chinese economy, which bought the U.S. manufacturing capability — because, well, it was for sale.

Both are now poised to duke it out over the next 30 years or so. The difference between them? In China, everyone serves the national interest. In the U.S., no one does. More here.

Serving the national interest,

Gaius Read More......

China property market 'more than [just] a bubble problem'

Despite previous talk about how this market could only go up (something that everyone in the US also used to hear) reality is starting to sneak in to the discussion. A collapse would be ugly in so many ways.

The problems in China’s housing market are more severe than those in the US before the financial crisis because they combine a potential bubble with the risk of social discontent, according to an adviser to the Chinese central bank.

Li Daokui, a professor at Tsinghua University and a member of the Chinese central bank’s monetary policy committee, said recent government measures to cool the property market needed to be part of a long-term push to bring high housing prices under control.

He added that there were still signs that the economy was overheating and recommended modest increases in interest rates and the level of the currency.

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European Commission: China's firewall a WTO issue

Oh no. Someone is standing up to the bullies in Beijing. The Independent:

China's internet "firewall" is a trade barrier and needs to be tackled within the framework of the World Trade Organization, Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission, told reporters in Shanghai today.

Dutch-born Kroes, who is also in charge of Europe's digital agenda, said the firewall was a trade barrier as long as it blocked communication for internet users, preventing the free flow of information.

"It is one of those issues that needs to be tackled within the WTO," said Kroes, who served as European Commissioner for competition until 2009.

Kroes spoke at the China headquarters of video-sharing company Tudou, a rival of Google's internationally popular video-sharing platform YouTube that is blocked in China.

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China opens Shanghai expo, rounds up dissidents

Same same, but different event. Is it possible for that regime to do anything without these tactics? The IOC didn't help during the Beijing Olympics when they looked the other way.

With security precautions at their height tonight, thousands of police are on duty, guards have been stationed at thousands of bus stops and 8,000 firefighters are on alert.

But campaigners say the event has also brought a crackdown on dissent. The Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network said officials have detained, harassed or placed under surveillance activists, intellectuals and petitioners across Shanghai and surrounding areas. One target has been those who have protested over the forced demolition of their homes to make way for the Expo site. According to official estimates, 18,000 households have been knocked down.

In a statement the CHRD urged: "The government must stop the practice of placing 'troublemaking' individuals under surveillance and restricting their movements on 'sensitive' occasions. These individuals should not be punished for exercising their freedom of expression or their right to defend human rights."

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China still searching for earthquake survivors - death toll at least 589

Another very deadly earthquake. The last time there was a much more deadly one in China, people became furious about the poor quality of the housing construction. The ever-sympathetic Beijing government would have none of it and harassed and jailed the so-called trouble makers. The death toll is likely to increase from this disaster but fortunately it should still be much lower. Still, hundreds of deaths is horrible.

Chinese rescue workers were scratching through rubble with their hands in the search for survivors tonight after the country's biggest earthquake in two years killed more than 589 people and left thousands injured in a remote part of the Tibetan plateau.

Amid warnings that the death toll was likely to rise, the government dispatched more than 3,000 paramilitary police and disaster response specialists to Yushu county, Qinghai province, where 85% of the buildings were said to have collapsed in the hardest hit community.

TV footage of soldiers scrabbling to reach children trapped or buried under collapsed schools rekindled memories of the earthquake that killed 87,000 in neighbouring Sichuan two years ago.

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China rejects parole for ill civil rights activist

As if it wasn't bad enough that China arrested Hu Jia and charged him with "incitement to subversion" because he dared to speak on behalf of those who were disenfranchised because of the Olympics, he's now possibly dying. The IOC did an incredible job of patting themselves on the back for the Beijing Olympics while ignoring people like this. Hu Jia remains in prison and is subject to labor despite a rapidly deteriorating health condition that may be pointing to cancer. What a great business trading partner for the west. More from Radio Free Asia:

Chinese authorities have denied jailed AIDS and civil rights activist Hu Jia’s request for medical parole, his wife said Monday.

Zeng Jinyan said that she appealed for Hu’s medical parole last Thursday to authorities at the Beijing Municipal Prison after her husband suffered deteriorating health over the course of several months. An initial application for medical parole in May 2009 was also rejected.

“The prison called Hu Jia’s mother on Monday morning, informing her that Hu’s application for medical parole was rejected. The reason was that the current condition of his cirrhosis doesn’t meet the requirement for parole,” Zeng said.

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China refuses Bob Dylan

Do they realize how silly they appear to the rest of the world when they make decisions like this? The Guardian:

Aged 68 and almost half a century past the zenith of his angry, protest-song youth, Bob Dylan must almost have forgotten what it was like to be deemed a threat to society. But it seems at least one place still sees him as a dangerous radical.

Dylan's planned tour of east Asia later this month has been called off after Chinese officials refused permission for him to play in Beijing and Shanghai, his local promoters said. China's ministry of culture, which vets planned concerts by overseas artists, appeared wary of Dylan's past as an icon of the counterculture movement, said Jeffrey Wu, of the Taiwan-based promoters Brokers Brothers Herald.

Dylan fans denied the chance to see their hero might also blame Björk, who caused consternation among Chinese officials two years ago by shouting pro-Tibet slogans at a concert in Shanghai, Wu told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.

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New report: if you have Chinese-made drywall, rip it out now

Wow, that's going to be expensive for quite a few people. Leaving it will probably be even more expensive. Let the lawsuits, begin. Rightly so as well. How can the world consider China to be a proper trading partner when stories like this or lead poisoning for kids toys come out? Chinese manufacturers need to foot the bill.

About 3,000 homeowners, mostly in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, have reported problems with the Chinese-made drywall, which was imported in large quantities during the housing boom and after a string of Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The drywall has been linked to corrosion of wiring, air conditioning units, computers, doorknobs and jewelry, along with possible health effects. Tenenbaum said some samples of the Chinese-made product emit 100 times as much hydrogen sulfide as drywall made elsewhere.

The agency continues to investigate possible health effects, but preliminary studies have found a possible link between throat, nose and lung irritation and high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas emitted from the wallboard, coupled with formaldehyde, which is commonly found in new houses.

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China censoring stories related to Google departure

They really are pathetic. There are even rules for addressing the story. Don't they realize how weak and ridiculous it makes them appear to the outside world?

These are the rules for news outlets - there are also other instructions for "interactive media", blogs and forums that involve careful monitoring and repression of discussion on the topic.

In addition, CDT also lists a series of extra rules.

Outlets are told "do not report about Google exerting pressure on our country via people or events" and that reporters and writers should not provide material that could be used by Google to attack Chinese government policy. A little ironic, then, that it is the government's own instructions on the subject that end up providing grist to the mill.

Whether you think Google's position is right or wrong, selfless or selfish, it's clear that it has irritated the government even more than has already been documented: the government in Beijing is doing its best to quash any signs of conflict.

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Chinese police: only tall, attractive women should apply

They're not even trying to hide the obvious sexism. Critics say this is all about show for the outside world. In the long run, discouraging qualified workers is never good news. How does anyone possibly think such treatment is the sign of an advanced society? More from Radio Free Asia:

Authorities in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing have recently advertised for new female recruits to their traffic department, but only women of "above average appearance" and about 165 cm in height need apply.

The advertisement, which rippled through Chinese cyberspace in recent days, drew widespread scorn from rights activists, as it came just days after dismal statistics showed the best qualified Chinese women struggle to find work.

"If anything, I think things have got worse," said Liao Tianqi, Germany-based chairwoman of the writers' group Independent Chinese PEN. "Women are treated like commodities."

Liao said the advertisement showed that Chinese women still have a long way to go before they are truly given equal treatment with men.

"If you look at the [recent] parliamentary sessions, you can see that the hostesses who fetch and carry things and who pour tea for everyone at the National People's Congress (NPC) are all very young and pretty," she said.

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Suddenly, Google founder wants US to talk more about human rights

OK we get it. You guys were losing badly and lost in China before taking your ball and going next door. You're not used to losing so this was a real blow for your inflated egos but if you must push it to this extreme, then let's talk more about your lack of respect for human rights when you first went into China. Is Sergey Brin who was born in Moscow and whose family grew up in the Soviet Union honestly telling the world that he had no idea about a regime like China? Nobody believes a clever person like that was so foolish. Again, welcome to the party but where have you been all of this time?

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called on Washington to take a stand against China's censorship of the internet, urging the US to make the issue a "high priority".

Brin, talking to the Guardian about Google's decision yesterday to lift censorship from its Chinese internet search engine, called on government and businesses to act in order to put pressure on Beijing. "I certainly hope they make it a high priority," he said. "Human rights issues deserve equal time to the trade issues that are high priority now … I hope this gets taken seriously."

The Obama administration has been playing down the growing conflict between one of America's most successful companies and the Chinese authorities, suggesting that the relationship between the two countries is "mature enough to sustain differences".

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Google makes it official. Out of China.

Though they are moving to Hong Kong where they will continue to operate Chinese language searches, though the Beijing government will censor "sensitive" search requests. The Chinese government is furious that Google didn't live up to its end of a deal. The deal to go along with censorship - which they did - in the beginning.

Google shut down its search service on the Chinese mainland last night after a two-month standoff with Beijing over online freedom and an alleged intrusion by hackers.

But Chinese authorities attacked the internet giant as "totally wrong" for its decision to shift its Chinese-language offering to Hong Kong.

The move allowed the firm to stop self-censoring the service, although the government's filtering system would still prevent mainland users from seeing the results of many sensitive searches.

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Google stops censoring search results in China

Hallelujah. Someone needs to inform the Republicans, and FOX News, that THIS is what totalitarianism looks like. Read More......