CHINA NOW

For years, engineers in Europe, America and Japan have struggled to achieve the perfect balance: a battery that is small and light enough to fit in a family car, yet capable of storing enough energy to keep it going for a practical range between top-ups. The Reva G-Wiz, Britain’s bestselling electric vehicle, has a range of no more than 48 miles between charges; the Smart ED, on trial in the UK, beats it by only 14 miles; and although the electric Mini claims a range of 150 miles, it is only a two-seater (the huge battery taking up the back seat), and BMW has no plans to put it into production.

New Power, by contrast, claims to have developed an electric four-seater with a range of 250 miles and plans to bring it to the UK “within the next couple of years”. Known as the Zhong Tai (the name translates roughly as “peace and safety for the people”), it has lithium-ion batteries that can be recharged in 6-8 hours from a conventional socket, or in two hours from a high-power recharging point. With a top speed of 75mph and an estimated price tag of between £16,300 and £20,500 in Britain, the Zhong Tai could be both practical and affordable enough to make drivers part with their internal combustion engines for good.

On first impressions the Zhong Tai looked anything but remarkable. The car’s basic bodywork and chassis are based on a 2006 Daihatsu Terios, a compact 4x4, the licence for which was bought and adapted for Chinese production, originally as a petrol car. The electric version looks identical to a conventional Terios from the outside, with the recharging point where the petrol cap should be and only the absence of an exhaust pipe giving the game away.

The interior feels a little dated but that reflects how much standards of comfort have advanced in the past three years. The dashboard display flashed up speed, distance travelled and the percentage charge left in the batteries — 75% when we first stepped into the car.

At New Power’s spartan headquarters, Mao Zhong, the company’s general manager, outlined how his car could “solve the emissions problems” plaguing both China — where the number of cars is predicted to hit 150m by 2020 — and the rest of the world. On paper, it seems astonishing that such a small operation, with a staff of just 30, should have produced China’s first production-ready all-electric car. But the Zhong Tai has been in development for six years, backed by Zotye, a mainstream car maker, of which New Power is a “green” subsidiary. Times Online

The EV has been in the works for 6 years now and the company believes that they are nearing production ready. Here’s how there drive went.

With the intent of pushing the car to see if the claimed 250 mile range was indeed true, the driver set out on his journey. Pushing the vehicle hard, he believes that the vehicle reaches the claimed 0-60 mph time of 12 seconds or less. When accelerating quickly from 18 to 54 mph, everything felt fine until the alarms inside the car went off and the engine shut down. A simple restart was needed and they were on their way. While trying to restart the car, someone had mistakenly touched the battery and received a jolt, but the company took care of that problem and the drive resumed.

Reaching the 250 mile ceiling would not be possible during the brief test drive, but the reviewer kept a keen eye on the charge meter. Assuming the meter was accurate, he started with about 75% percent charge, drove for 120 miles, and was left with 44% charge making it reasonable to assume the vehicle could have traveled 250 miles on a full charge.

The 250 mile claim applies only to stop and go driving. At highway speeds, the vehicle can travel 170 mile on a charge
http://www.autoracingdaily.com/news/cars/china-unviels-electric-4x4-with-250-mile-range/

China, you rock. I knew you were going to do this and the H20 systems are worth following up on too.

China’s efforts to clean up its roads – and its air – have become increasingly serious over the last few months and now an executive at one of the country’s largest automakers has revealed that the country plans to have 10 million EV-ready parking spaces in just over eight years.

“The government is working on a plan – and I think it will be announced very, very soon – and is basically calling for having, in 10 years, electric car parks of 10 million [spots] or above,” Wang Dazong, president of Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC), said at a conference this week in Detroit.

China’s industry has decided to shift gears to focus on EVs, not hybrids or even hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, signaling a change in direction that will undoubtedly have global ramifications. The Chinese market has become the world’s largest and, while growth is expected to be less robust in 2011 than it was in a heavily-subsidized 2010, the market will undoubtedly continue to increase in size and scope.

Because of the anticipated increase in demand for electricity, China is also reshaping the way it produces energy. The country says it is rapidly cutting back on its use of coal and is instead leveraging hydropower, wind, gas and nuclear power.

Government-backed incentives have pushed down the price of EVs in China by as much as $18,000 in some of the largest cities, effectively making them default purchases for many shoppers.

BAIC expects EVs to make up about 5 percent of its own market by 2020, an estimate considered conservative by many analysts.
read more at http://www.leftlanenews.com/china-on-track-to-have-10-million-ev-parking-spots-by-2020.html

Wall Street Journal - January 16, 2011
Hu Highlights Need for U.S.-China Cooperation, Questions Dollar

BEIJING—Chinese President Hu Jintao emphasized the need for cooperation with the U.S. in areas from new energy to space ahead of his visit to Washington this week, but he called the present U.S. dollar-dominated currency system a "product of the past" and highlighted moves to turn the yuan into a global currency.

Chinese President Hu Jintao delivers a speech at a plenary session of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in Beijing on Jan. 10. Mr. Hu's state visit to Washington begins Wednesday.

"We both stand to gain from a sound China-U.S. relationship, and lose from confrontation," Mr. Hu said in written answers to questions from The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

Mr. Hu acknowledged "some differences and sensitive issues between us," but his tone was generally compromising, and he avoided specific mention of some of the controversial issues that have dogged relations with the U.S. over the past year or so—including U.S. arms sales to Taiwan that led to a freeze in military relations between the world's sole superpower and its rising Asian rival.

On the economic front, Mr. Hu played down one of the main U.S. arguments for why China should appreciate its currency—that it will help China tame inflation. That is likely to disappoint Washington, which accuses China of unfairly boosting its exports by undervaluing the yuan, making its products cheaper overseas. The topic is expected to be high on U.S. President Barack Obama's agenda when he meets Mr. Hu at the White House on Wednesday.

Mr. Hu also offered a veiled criticism of efforts by the U.S. Federal Reserve to stimulate growth through huge bond purchases to keep down long-term interest rates, a strategy that China has loudly complained about in the past as fueling inflation in emerging economies, including its own. He said that U.S. monetary policy "has a major impact on global liquidity and capital flows and therefore, the liquidity of the U.S. dollar should be kept at a reasonable and stable level."

continued at link http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703551604576085803801776090.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEADNewsCollection

Q&A With Hu Jintao
The Wall Street Journal submitted a series of questions for Chinese President Hu Jintao ahead of his visit to the U.S. from Jan. 18 to 21. The Washington Post also submitted questions. China's Foreign Ministry supplied responses from Mr. Hu to seven questions, as follows:

1. How do you view the current state of China-U.S. relationship? What do you see as the most promising areas of mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the United States? What do you see as the major challenges to the long-term, sound and steady development of China-U.S. relationship?

read more at link http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703551604576085514147521334.html

More Confrontation Predicted between U.S., China 1/14/2011
"This is a new ballgame in the first inning," says Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer about China's rise. In an interview with WSJ's Rebecca Blumenstein, Bremmer discusses the growth of Chinese economic and military power and President Hu's U.S.visit.
http://online.wsj.com/video/more-confrontation-predicted-between-us-china/7DCDC0A4-92EB-4E7B-A8B1-E24AAD0D22EF.html?mod=WSJ_article_related

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior
Can a regimen of no playdates, no TV, no computer games and hours of music practice create happy kids? And what happens when they fight back?

read more at link http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

I emailed this to both my husband and daughter hoping they would get some tips out of this.

It's not as crazy as it sounds. As The Wall Street Journal's Lingling Wei reported Wednesday, the Bank of China here in the U.S. has started allowing American customers to open an account and to invest up to $4,000 per day—and a total of $20,000 a year—in Chinese yuan, or renminbi. Until now, you had few options to hold money in yuan, which is a "closed" currency managed, and protected, by Beijing.

Brett Arends explains why he thinks opening a Chinese Bank Account isn't as crazy as it sounds for American investors.

The bank has three U.S. branches—two in New York, and one in Los Angeles. You'll have to fill out paperwork to open an account and provide two forms of ID. And there's a minimum deposit of $500.

Is this a good idea? You may wonder why anyone would do this. Investing in Chinese currency may sound like something best left to speculators.

But in reality this may be no more exotic than, say, Peking duck. Holding some of your money in Chinese currency—as part of a diversified portfolio, as they say—might be a very sensible move for all of us.

China solidified its financial might in 2010, becoming the world's second-largest economy.

Why? Five reasons.

It's very unlikely to go down.

It's very likely to go up.

You won't miss out on a lot of interest elsewhere, as nowhere else is paying a lot of interest.

It will diversify your portfolio.

And, finally, it may offer you and your family something of a hedge against the decline of the U.S. economy.

Let's take these in order.

• First, it's very unlikely to go down. Of how many investments can you say that? The yuan has very little room to fall farther because it is already seriously undervalued. Beijing has spent hundreds of billions of dollars keeping the currency artificially cheap for years to boost exports.

What's the discount? Nobody really knows for sure. But right now each yuan costs about 15.1 cents. Most economists say fair value is somewhere north of 18 cents—and maybe a long way north. According to the International Monetary Fund, the value of the yuan in real, purchasing-power terms is about 27 cents.

Whatever the details, one thing is clear: Anyone buying yuan today is getting a pretty decent margin of safety. As a kicker, accounts at the Bank of China's New York branches – though not in L.A. - also come with FDIC deposit insurance, which will protect your deposit from outright forfeit if the bank were to fold (though not from exchange-rate fluctuations).

• Second, it's very likely to go up. Why? China is growing rapidly, is a manufacturing powerhouse and is running an enormous trade surplus. Countries like that usually have very strong currencies. Think of the Japanese yen, or the old German Deutsche mark.

Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy, Brown Brothers Harriman, gives his view on U.S. Dollar, the Euro, China & and the emerging markets. Dow Jones Wealth Advisers' Veronica Dagher has the interview.

And these days, a rising yuan may be in Beijing's interest. China no longer has the same need for such an artificially cheap currency. After all, the plan worked: It has now taken over a vast amount of manufacturing from the U.S. And it's moved up from making socks and toys to iPads and, now, stealth bombers. (You could argue the main thing the U.S. got in return was a housing bubble caused by artificially low interest rates.) Based on purchasing-power parities, the Chinese economy is now expected to overtake that of the U.S. within six or seven years.

Meanwhile, China's artificially low exchange rate is starting to backfire at home. Politically, the country is under international pressure to rein in its huge trade surplus. That is sure to be an issue when Chinese President Hu Jintao comes to Washington next week. But, more importantly in Beijing, the low exchange rate is also backfiring economically by fueling inflation. This is pouring gasoline on a Chinese economy that is already overheating.

Beijing is trying to tamp down the fires. Letting the exchange rate rise more quickly will help. It ought to happen, so it's reasonable to guess it probably will. In the past five years, China has already allowed its currency to rise 25%. It may have plenty more room to go.

• The third reason for holding some money in yuan: What else are you going to do with it? Interest rates elsewhere are minimal, so you won't be missing out on much. According to Bankrate.com, the highest-yielding six-month certificate of deposit pays just 1.3%, before taxes. The dividend yield on the stock market is 1.7%. You can earn better yields from government bonds—the 10-year Treasury is paying 3.3%—but that's also subject to federal taxes, and you can put yourself at risk from inflation.

In these circumstances, the so-called opportunity cost of having some of your money in Chinese currency, at least for now, has rarely been lower.

• The fourth argument for a yuan account: It makes you more diversified. That's the holy grail of investing. The yuan-dollar exchange rate probably has little, if any, correlation to any other asset in your portfolio. (As a bet against the dollar, it might have some correlation to gold.) The exchange rate between the renminbi and the dollar will follow its own path. This is unlikely to be dictated much, if at all, by developments in stocks or even bonds.

• The fifth and final argument for holding Chinese currency: It may help you offset the costs of U.S. economic decline.

Our share of the world economy, which was 24% a decade ago, is this year expected to sink below 20%—the lowest figure in modern times. We are running a current account deficit of 3.5% of gross domestic product. Our national debt has nearly tripled in a decade, and deficits stretch out as far as the eye can see. Will the greenback survive as the world's reserve currency? Why should it? The British pound didn't.

What makes the issue of decline particularly acute for you and me in financial terms is that we work here. Our financial lives are closely tied to the U.S. economy. Consider: If we still had the 5.5 million manufacturing jobs we lost in the last decade, mostly to China, our unemployment rate today would be far lower.

While trade can benefit both sides, of course it doesn't always do so. It may make sense to make bets within your portfolio that will pay off as China overtakes the U.S.—compensating you, as it were, for the lost opportunities.

read more at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704307404576080222812076888.html?mod=rss_about_china

China readies 10 million EV parking spots by 2020: executive
(Reuters) - The Chinese government is said to be looking to prepare at least 10 million car parking spots for electric vehicles by 2020 in a new comprehensive policy due to be announced soon, a top executive at a local automaker said on Thursday.

China relies on foreign oil for more than half of its oil consumption and is looking to promote alternative fuel vehicles in the world's biggest auto market, whose growth topped 30 percent last year to 18 million units.

"The government is working on a plan -- and I think it will be announced very, very soon -- and is basically calling for having, in 10 years, electric car parks of 10 million (units) or above," Wang Dazong, president of Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC), told an industry conference on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show.

Another industry executive said Beijing is expected to focus its efforts most on pure electric vehicles, as opposed to gasoline-electric hybrids or hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

Automakers from BAIC to Volkswagen AG, General Motors Co and China's Geely are all looking to tap what looks set to become a huge market for battery-powered electric vehicles, with some global automakers already announcing a timeline for producing them locally in China.

China's Minister of Science and Technology was quoted by state-owned Xinhua news agency in October as saying the country's production of electric vehicles could reach 1 million units by 2020, when many expect a total new-vehicle market of 40 million.

Consumers can now get incentives worth 120,000 yuan ($18,170) to purchase an electric car in 10 to 20 cities, Wang said.

Wang said BAIC expects its own ratio of electric cars to be around 5 percent by 2020, which he said is among the most aggressive projections.

To support the electrification of cars, China is also looking to cut back on coal, the cheapest but dirtiest fossil fuel. It has already launched a major drive into hydropower and, to a lesser extent, wind, gas and nuclear power to supplement the coal sector, which provides about 70 percent of China's electricity.

The government is due to unveil a new alternative energy plan within months to raise its targets for power generating capacity from such sources by 2020. China is planning to invest up to $1.5 trillion over five years in seven strategic industries, sources have said.

Beijing had come under criticism from the auto industry late last year for crafting a policy draft that would have required foreign automakers to produce at least one of the three core, high-tech components of electric vehicles in order to qualify for incentives in China.

read more at http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70C5S820110113

China has highest wind power capacity: report
BEIJING | Thu Jan 13, 2011 2:49am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has the world's highest wind power capacity after adding 62 percent or 16 gigawatts (GW) in new capacity last year, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

The country's total installed wind power capacity reached 41.8 GW at the end of last year, the report said, citing Li Junfeng, secretary general of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.

Installed wind capacity in the United States increased by about 5 GW to 40.2 GW at the end of 2010, the report said, citing data from the Global Wind Energy Council.

read more at http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70C1FA20110113?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r1:c0.091017:b40961380:z0



China power sector to boom as oil sector goes slower
A power station staff worker walks past a steam-turbine power generator in the Waigaoqiao No. 3 power station in Shanghai March 8, 2010.

By Judy Hua and Tom Miles

BEIJING | Thu Jan 6, 2011 1:08pm EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - China unveiled a raft of targets for its energy and power sectors on Thursday, revealing a plan for a rapid increase in power generation but a much slower rise in the country's oil refining capacity over the next five years.

China, already the world's top energy user, faces the challenge of keeping its growing economy fueled while cutting back on its staple fuel, cheap but dirty coal.

Although energy use is certain to grow, the government wants energy consumption to rise much more slowly than the economy overall, and hopes to bolster supplies of cleaner energy sources.

China has already said it will spend 5 trillion yuan ($755 billion) on clean energy over the next decade to lift the non-fossil fuel component of its supply to 15 percent of primary energy demand by 2020, up from 8 percent in 2009.

On Thursday, Zhang Ping, the head of the top economic planning body, said the country had met its five-year target to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent by the end of 2010.

Chinese officials are still deliberating energy intensity targets for the next five years, but media reports have said the figure for 2011-2015 could be 17.3 percent, one of the many targets to be set under a five-year plan which will be launched by the country's parliament in March.

Power generating capacity is expected to hit 1,440 gigawatts by 2015 and 1,760 GW by 2020, Liu Zhenhua, general manager of the State Grid Corp of China, was quoted as saying by state media.

Zhang Guobao, the head of the National Energy Administration, said generating capacity stood at 950 GW at the end of 2010, so Liu's forecasts imply growth of 52 percent in the next five years and then a further 22 percent rise in the following five years.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7052JT20110106

Very cute eMonkey. Let's face it. The way China is going without all of the upcoming earthchanges they would end up owning half of the globe by 2020 or sooner. Earth changes is something else again. Who knows what will be above water after the pole shift.

19 January 2011
China's Hu says 'a lot to be done' on human rights. Mr Hu spoke at a joint news conference on the first full day of his state visit to the US
Chinese President Hu Jintao has acknowledged that "a lot still needs to be done" in China over human rights. Mr Hu was speaking at a rare joint news conference with US President Barack Obama on the first full day of his state visit to the US.

Asked to justify China's human rights record, Mr Hu said China had "made enormous progress recognized in the world".

Mr Obama said he saw China's "peaceful rise" as good for the United States.

"The US has an interest in seeing hundreds of millions of people lifted out of poverty," Mr Obama said.

Earlier, the US president hailed relations with China, saying the two countries have a huge stake in each other's success.

At a White House ceremony to greet Mr Hu, he said the US and China would be more prosperous and secure when they worked together.

Mr Hu said co-operation should be based on mutual respect, and they should respect each other's development paths.

The two leaders' talks at the White House tackled issues from currency and trade to defence and security.

US officials revealed that a $45bn (£28bn) export deal had been signed with China, including Beijing's $19bn purchase of 200 Boeing aircraft.

Mr Obama said the deals would help create more than 200,000 jobs in the US.

read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12230982

WASHINGTON – Chinese President Hu Jintao (hoo jihn-tow) says the U.S. and China must respect each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests.

Hu's opening comments at a joint news conference with President Barack Obama at the White House focused on areas of cooperation between the two world powers, their common interests and mutual economic and security benefits to be gained.

But Hu's emphasis on China's sovereignty was an indication that there are areas where China will be unwilling to bend to U.S. interests.

Hu referred without elaboration to "some disagreements" in the economic and trade area, which he said the two countries would aim to resolve. The U.S. believes China's currency remains undervalued and is concerned with the trade imbalance between the two countries.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110119/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_china_news_conference_hu_1

On Drudge

China 'logs double-digit growth in 2010'...
Obama throws lavish state dinner for 200; dry-aged steak, lobster...
'Experience China' takes over NYC's Times Square...
PEW: 65% see as 'adversary' or 'serious problem'...
What is Plan B if China dumps its U.S. debt?
Oops? Sen. Reid calls Chinese President a 'dictator'...
Hu doesn't answer U.S. question on human rights; blames translation issues...

Hu Jintao (R) sips his drink as Michelle Obama looks on during the State Dinner in the White House Washington, 19 January 2011 Hu is not expected to receive as warm a welcome at the Capitol as he did at the White House

Chinese President Hu Jintao is to meet US politicians after White House talks aimed at smoothing differences between the world's two biggest economies.

Congress leaders have been critical of China's currency, the yuan, saying it is kept artificially low to help Chinese exporters.

In Wednesday's White House talks, Mr Hu and US President Barack Obama said they would co-operate in the yuan dispute.

Meanwhile, Mr Hu said China still needed to do "a lot" over human rights.

Newly released figures show China's GDP grew a faster-than-expected 10.3% in 2010, defying slowdown expectations.

At current growth rates, China is likely to surpass the US as the world's largest economy, probably sometime in the next decade although average living standards still be much lower, says BBC Economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

China also holds the world's largest foreign currency reserves at $2.85tn and a major share of US government debt.

President Hu spoke of his commitment to human rights at a news conference.

Just hearing a Chinese president deal with direct questions on human rights is incredibly rare. In China the heavily state-controlled media doesn't pose them”

End Quote Damian Grammaticas (New Timeline shift)
Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12238486

China Bank Moves to Buy U.S. Branches
ICBC Signs a Deal for Bank of East Asia's Retail Outlets
CHICAGO—China's biggest bank signed an agreement that would make it the first Beijing-controlled financial institution to acquire retail bank branches in the U.S., though regulators could still block the deal.

Under the deal, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., by some measures the world's largest bank, agreed to acquire a majority stake in Bank of East Asia Ltd.'s U.S. subsidiary. ICBC will pay $140 million for an 80% stake. Bank of East Asia, which is a publicly traded company based in Hong Kong, has a total of 13 branches in New York and California. ICBC and Bank of East Asia have talked to U.S. regulators about the deal, these people said.

China's largest bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., is the first Chinese bank to acquire a U.S. deposit-taking bank. Ken Brown explains why it could be the start of big expansions by Chinese financial institutions in the U.S.

The move represents what could be the start of big expansions by Chinese financial institutions in the U.S.

Signed in Chicago on the last day of Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to the U.S., the move, comes as both Beijing and Washington are calling for greater commercial ties between the two countries.
read more at link http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704754304576096002767228880.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

read more at link http://finance.yahoo.com/news/GMs-China-sales-pass-US-for-apf-2185790564.html?x=0&.v=2

Ford Counting on China
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F - News) and its joint venture partner in China, Chongqing Changan Automobile, are in talks to export China-made Ford vehicles to emerging markets. On the other hand, the automaker is exploring possibilities to export U.S.-made vehicles to China. The second plan is a part of a multi-billion dollar commercial deal that will be sealed on Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the U.S.

read more at link http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Ford-Counting-on-zacks-3099569684.html?x=0&.v=1

BEIJING — It's quite a shopping list — wine, mushrooms, bean curd, rice noodles, dairy drinks and cooking oil — but buyer beware. In recent months, fake or toxic batches of all these items have worried Chinese consumers nationwide and are a reminder that food safety is a major issue in a country where even government agencies have food grown for their staffs to avoid problems.

China's government promises tougher penalties, better supervision and greater transparency, yet the public will take some convincing. Almost 70% of China's consumers feel insecure about food safety, according to a survey released recently by Insight China Magazine and the Tsinghua University Media Survey Lab.

Now some individuals and companies are taking action to ensure the produce on their dining tables, or in work canteens, is fit to eat. A small but growing number of people are starting or joining organic farms that abide by the community-supported agriculture (CSA) model being used in the USA.

Tourism-researcher-turned-organic-farmer He Pinru opened his Foshan Leyang farm in December, in southern China's Guangdong province. He says almost 3,000 people have signed up for regular deliveries of seasonal vegetables.

"Food safety is a serious problem in China, and not all the so-called organic foods in shops are really organic," He says.

Shi Yan, 28, a rural development expert, says she was inspired by the CSA model when working for six months in 2008 at the Earthrise farm in Madison, Minn. Shi says she shocked her parents by choosing the life of a peasant despite her degrees from a top Chinese university.

At the Little Donkey Farm, which she opened in 2009 in Beijing's semi-rural suburbs, Shi hears from other people planning similar projects. "Their first question is usually 'Can I make money from this?' " Shi says. "The purpose is not making money, but sustaining farmers on the land, and teaching city people the importance of protecting our planet and the soil."

China has about 40 "real" CSA farms, she says. A CSA conference in Beijing last month attracted more than 250 people. At Shi's farm, about 100 members pay to work their own plot of land and 500 members pay a $600 annual fee for a weekly supply of vegetables grown without the chemical fertilizers and pesticides used on most Chinese farms.


read more at link http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-01-24-chinafood24_ST_N.htm




China sets classes in good manners for schoolchildren
Chinese children holding traffic signs undergo a class on traffic security and manners, at a school in Dongyang in China's Zhejiang province, 20 January 2011 Younger children will be taught about traffic rules, table manners and using courteous language

The Chinese government is making schoolchildren take classes in what it calls "civilised manners".
The education ministry says the aim is to enhance the ethical quality of the nation and China's influence abroad.

Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, authorities launched campaigns against things like spitting and littering to avoid offending foreign visitors.

The new classes range from basic table manners to the art of holding conversations and delivering speeches.

According to the education ministry's website, teaching courtesy should combine "the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation" and "the salutary achievements of civilizations in other parts of the world".

Detailed guidelines have been published, with classes tailored to the age of the child.
Concern over values

Among key lessons for primary school students are using courteous language, observing traffic rules and respecting the elderly.

Children a little older will be learning about phone and correspondence etiquette, how to dress properly and how to hold polite conversations with both Chinese and foreigners.

High school students are expected to master the etiquette of debate and delivering speeches, but they should also know how to keep a proper distance from other people when they are queuing or using a lift.

"The campaign is very necessary for our society now," Xin Tao, vice director of the National Assessment of Education Quality, told the Global Times.
read more at link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12269505

Extraterrestrials now live among us in China and in U.S.A., newspapers report
January 26th, 2011

A Canadian newspaper is reporting that Sun Shili, a retired foreign ministry official, states Extraterrestrials are living among us.
An extraterrestrial from Tau Ceti living in the U.S.A.

The China ET report is corroborative of this reporter Alfred Lambremont Webre's 4-part ExopoliticsTV interview and Examiner.com series with Jerry Wills, an apparent extraterrestrial from Tau Ceti who resides in the United States.

Jerry Wills is an accomplished healer, explorer, and musician with the band UFAUX who recently participated in a world webcast in which Mr. Wills discussed his identity as an extraterrestrial from the Tau Ceti star system (12 light years from Earth) left here as an infant as part of a project of the Council of Worlds for the betterment of Earth.

In a 4-part ExopoliticsTV interview with Alfred Lambremont Webre, Mr. Wills, who is 6 feet 8 inches tall, talks about how he was adopted by a human family, how he dealt with his unusual abilities growing up, how he was visited regularly by an extraterrestrial delegation that briefed him on his extraterrestrial identity and his mission, how during these visits he was told to watch for specific signs during the 18-year period preceding 2012 as to whether the earth and the human population would veer toward peace or war, and how these visits stopped on the day of September 11, 2001, Mr. Wills’ birthday and the date a regularly scheduled visit was of the extraterrestrial delegation to occur.

In conversation with Alfred Lambremont Webre, Mr. Wills speaks about the 2012-13 catastrophic timeline and the 2012-13 positive timeline and what this means to all of us.
Watch Part 1 of ExopoliticsTV interview with Jerry Wills and Alfred Lambremont Webre

Examiner.com readers can watch Part 1 of the 4-part interview with Jerry Wills and Alfred Lambremont Webre above in this article or by clicking the URL below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI8a4oSJ6do

Examiner.com article on Jerry Wills:
http://www.examiner.com/exopolitics-in-seattle/1-jerry-wills-council-of-world-s-extraterrestrial-from-tau-ceti-speaks-his-truth-on-2012-part-1
Canadian Newspaper report on Sun Shili (verbatim)

The Canadian Newspaper reports as follows:
Ex-China Foreign Ministry Official says Extraterrestrials live among us
by Paul Chen
Chinese scientists also say that aliens live among humans. This includes Sun Shili, a retired foreign ministry official who is now president of the Beijing UFO Research Society who also concludes that waixingren (extraterrestrials) are living among us.

Sun's first close encounter occurred in 1971, when he was sent to the remote countryside during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) to perform the grueling task of rice planting. One day while toiling in the field, his attention was diverted to a bright object in the sky, which rose and fell repeatedly.

At first, Sun assumed the spectacle was some sort of Cold War intelligence monitoring device - a reasonable deduction considering the times - however years later, after reading foreign materials on UFO sightings, he knew he had experienced a close encounter.

As the alien spacecraft reached the highest point of the building, it suddenly showed seven white lights evenly displaced around the outer edge of the craft. Reference: Nationalufocenter.com.

And Sun is not the only expert in the country taking these sightings seriously. According to the highly accredited Shen Shituan, an actual rocket scientist, president of Beijing Aerospace University and honourary director of the government-supported China UFO Research Association, every report of an alien encounter is worth investigating.

''Some of these sightings are real, some are fake and with others it’s unclear,'' said Shen Shituan, a real rocket scientist, president of Beijing Aerospace University and honorary director of the China UFO Research Association. ''All these phenomena are worth researching.''

Research [ethically-based] into UFO's could help spur new forms of high-speed travel, unlimited sources of non-polluting and non-fossil fuel based energy and faster-growing crops, claims Sun Shili, president of a government-approved UFO Research Association (membership 50,000).

These lights dimmed quickly as one large light lighted up and surrounded the craft before it abruptly disappeared. Reference: Nationalufocenter.com.

Shen Shituan does not readily dismiss UFO/ET reports like his counterparts in Western scientific communities, including the claims of one worker that aliens entered his Beijing home while his wife and child were present, and whisked him 265 kilometres east and back in only a few hours.

The best-known alien abduction story in China is the case of Meng Zhao Guo, a young tree farmer, from Wuchang, near Harbin in Heilongjiang province.

In June 1994 Zhao Guo and two other farm workers, working at Red Flag logging camp saw something unusual on nearby Mount Pheonix.

The complex and bizarre encounter that followed involved Meng being hit by a beam of light, as well as allegedly experiencing an abduction and a sexual encounter with a female alien.

Meng Zhaoguo
Meng Zhaoguo, a rural worker from northeast Wuchang city, explains he was 29 when he broke his marital vows for the first and only time -- with an extraterrestrial of unusually robust build.

"She was 10 feet [3.03 metres] tall and had six fingers, but otherwise she looked completely like a human,'' he says. "I told my wife all about it afterwards. She wasn't too angry.''
During September 2003 Zhang Jingping, a Beijing-based UFO researcher, had psychologists and police technicians subject Zhao Guo to hypnosis and a lie detector test in Beijing. Zhang indicated the test results proved the abductee was telling the truth.

He also indicated that doctors had indicated that Zhao Guo's scars "could not possibly have been caused by common injuries or surgery." Meng Zhao Guo, a humble farmer with only 5 year's schooling, also indicated that he had never heard of UFOs or UFOlogists until after his experience had been reported.

In China Bill Chalker, an Australia UFO scientist, was able to have extensive discussions with Professor Chen Gongfu, the principal researcher of the Meng Zhao Guo case. He has asked me to assist in getting his research translated and available to western audiences. We are well underway to achieving that goal.

Research on Cao Gong's contact with ETs
In December 1999 Cao Gong, a middle-aged man from Beijing, indicated to Bill Chalker, that he had been abducted by aliens and flown to Qinhuangdao in their UFO. "They looked like humans but had large hands and were very pale, " Cao said. He said he had also met a Chinese girl in the flying saucer. Zhang Jingping's research investigation began in April 2000. The first step was hypnosis. Zhang invited a famous psychologist from Suzhou and asked him to conduct hypnosis on Cao in helping him to remember the whole incident. Then he brought Cao to the Beijing Bureau of Public Security and gave him a lie detection test. "He passed the test," says Zhang. According to Cao, who is the principal of a private school in Fangshan District, he met a Chinese girl in the flying saucer, who looked around 13 years old. "The aliens cured her disease in the flying saucer," he claimed. In order to find the girl, Zhang brought Cao to the Tangshan Bureau of Public security in July 2000. "The policemen made up a computer image photo-fit of the girl's face according to Cao's description," says Zhang.
In November 2002, Zhang led a group of students from Beihang University and set out on a trip to Qinhuangdao, in search of the mysterious girl.

"There was only a narrow glimmer of hope of finding the girl with only a computer image of her," says Zhang. They arrived in Qinglong County to the north of Qinhuangdao, and began their blind search among the county's 400,000 population. "Amazingly, we found a clue on the second day of our search. An old man in the county recognized the girl in our picture," says Zhang. They found the girl soon after that. She was 15 years old. Zhang brought her back to Beijing to meet Cao Gong. She was identified by Cao as the girl he had seen in the UFO. Zhang has now spent three years investigating this case. “This case is fascinating and I was fortunate that while in China I was able to discuss the case in detail with Zhang Jingping and other researchers, and also talk to Cao Gong himself.

Fortunately in Beijing, Bill Chalker secured the services of Irene, an excellent translator, guide, and interpreter. Mr. Chalker and Irene have been working on a detailed translation of the case.

Over 400 members of Dalian's UFO Society have college degrees
In Dalian's UFO Society, 90 per cent of the 400 members have college degrees. "It's exciting for us to use science to decipher UFO sightings," said Zhou Xiaoqiang, secretary-general of the Beijing UFO Society.

While few Chinese claim to have managed to get quite as intimate with an extraterrestrial as Meng, a growing number of people in China believe in unidentified flying objects, or UFOs.
In fact, officially registered UFO associations in China have about 50,000 members, but some estimate the actual number of Chinese interested in the subject is probably in the tens of millions.

China has a bimonthly magazine -- circulation 400,000 - devoted to UFO research. The conservative state-run media also report UFO sightings on a regular basis, in contrast with Western government organization that, as a policy, denies verifiable human contact with Extraterrestrial. UFO buffs in China claim support from eminent scientists and liaisons with the secretive military, giving their work full scientific respectability.

"If something flies over [ET spacecraft], there's a very good reason for trying to understand why they're here, why they come to us, what is their relationship between us and them," he says.

Wong is the Chairman of Hong Kong's thriving UFO club -- exploring "unidentified flying objects" or, to the uninitiated, "flying saucers."

The club meets once a month to explore otherworldly topics like "E.T. Civilization" and alien philosophies.

"In order to understand UFO phenomena, we need to have a broad understanding of different disciplines," says Albert So, university professor and Hong Kong UFO club member, "including mathematics, physics, history, philosophy, even some sort of paranormal activities and all that."

[End of article omitted]
Full text of article:
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2007/02/07/01353.html


Continue reading on Examiner.com: Extraterrestrials now live among us in China and in U.S.A., newspapers report - Seattle exopolitics | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/exopolitics-in-seattle/extraterrestrials-now-live-among-us-china-and-u-s-a-newspapers-report#ixzz1CevzCk7D

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/breaking-news

China Raises Key Interest Rates to Counter Inflation
By Bloomberg News - Feb 8, 2011 1:56 AM GMT-1000

China Raises Lending and Deposit Rates by 25 Basis Points

The People's Bank of China in Bejing. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
China Raises Key Interest Rates to Counter Inflation

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- China raised key interest rates for the third time since mid-October after growth accelerated and inflation stayed above 4 percent for a third month. The benchmark one-year lending rate will increase to 6.06 percent from 5.81 percent, effective tomorrow, the People’s Bank of China said on its website today. Bloomberg's Margaret Conley reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

China raised interest rates for the third time since mid-October ahead of a report forecast to show inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in 30 months.

The benchmark one-year lending rate will increase to 6.06
Bank of China said on its website today. The one-year deposit rate will rise to 3 percent from 2.75 percent.

Oil and copper fell and emerging-market stocks extended losses on concern Premier Wen Jiabao’s campaign to contain consumer prices will slow the fastest-growing major economy. China joined India, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea in boosting rates this year as Asian policy makers seek to avert economic overheating in the region leading the global rebound.

“Global markets may begin to see the frequent rate hikes as a sign that a growth slowdown in China is inevitable,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, a Hong-Kong based economist at Credit Agricole CIB. “But in the end, the move will be seen as a sign of strength, with solid growth momentum allowing policy makers to raise rates.”

Oil for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell as much as 75 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $86.73 a barrel and was at $86.88 at 10:36 a.m. London time. Copper slid on the London Metal Exchange.

Yuan Climbs

In offshore trading in Hong Kong, the yuan climbed 0.1 percent to 6.5555 per dollar. Non-deliverable forwards strengthened 0.2 percent to 6.4275, signaling a gain of 2.6 percent in the next 12 months from the Shanghai close of 6.5938.

The central bank moved on the last day of a week-long holiday and before a report next week that may show consumer prices rose 5.3 percent in January, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists.

A drought that’s threatening grain production and a New Year surge in lending are adding to inflation risks after money supply jumped more than 50 percent in two years. Besides increases in rates and banks’ reserve requirements, Wen’s campaign spans sales of state-food reserves, subsidies for low- income earners, and crackdowns on speculation and hoarding.

The central bank raised rates for longer-term deposits by more than the 25 basis point increase for one-year savings. At the same time, the rates for loans of longer than one year were lifted by less than a quarter point.

Encourage Savers

“The goal is to encourage savers to keep their money in bank deposits rather than shifting to equities or property,” said Mark Williams, a London-based economist at Capital Economics Ltd.

China’s 0.75 percentage point of rate increases since the global financial crisis compare with India raising borrowing costs seven times for a total of 1.75 percentage points. In South Korea, where policy makers will meet this week to decide on rates, borrowing costs have been raised by 0.75 percentage point so far.

read more at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-08/china-raises-benchmark-one-year-deposit-lending-rates-by-25-basis-points.html

China Makes Fake Rice from Plastic? Vietnam Reacts
Posted by Mr.P 18 days ago ·



A number of Chinese companies have been involved over the years in various scandals involving fake or tainted goods. Perhaps the most dangerous of all involve food, including the now famous 2008 milk scandal in which Chinese-made milk was found to contain the toxin melamine. The end result was 290,000 victims who fell ill and 11 suspected cases of death.
Now there are reports from Singapore media that China is mass producing fake rice, which can be potentially very dangerous.
Original Korean article from: Weekly Hong Kong
Fake Plastic Rice from China
According to the Korean-language “Weekly Hong Kong” (which many Vietnam websites are referencing as well), Singapore media claim that fake rice is being distributed in the Chinese town of Taiyuan, in Shaanxi province. This “rice” is a mix of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and plastic. It is formed by mixing the potatoes and sweet potatoes into the shape of rice grains, then adding industrial synthetic resins. Since the rice does not behave like normal rice, it stays hard even after it has been cooked. Such synthetic resins can also be very harmful if consumed.
A Chinese Restaurant Association official said that eating three bowls of this fake rice would be like eating one plastic bag. Due to the seriousness of the matter, he added that there would be an investigation of factories alleged to be producing the rice. Meanwhile, the low cost of the fake rice is allowing wholesalers to make large profits.
Vietnam Increasingly Concerned over Food Safety
In Vietnam, there are have been various reports in the domestic media about tainted food, leading many to worry about the safety of the food supply. Here are some recent English articles from Vietnam:
Specifically involving food from China
January 21: “Contaminated food seized in HCMC”
January 18: “Smuggling diseased Chinese poultry into Vietnam increases as Tet approaches”
December 30: “Vietnam denies sale of fake eggs “
December 26: “Dangerous chemicals have been used in food for years”
Others
January 21: “Vietnam snake wines could induce biting headache”
Janury 20: “HCMC inspectors destroy unsafe eggs, seal borax-contaminated food”
January 14: “Vietnam finds carcinogen in spice samples”
January 10: “Nearly 470 workers hospitalized with food poisoning”
January 8: “Fake alcohol erodes rural people’s stomach”
January 4: “Food poisoning hits 700 in HCM City”
November 15: “Is unsafe food poisoning Vietnamese people?”


Love Always
mudra

WHY IS CHINA BUILDING GHOST CITIES? http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=260645

Oil Firms Hit by Hackers From China, Report Says
By NATHAN HODGE And ADAM ENTOUS
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703716904576134661111518864.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLETopStories
Hackers who appear to be based in China have conducted a "coordinated, covert and targeted" campaign of cyber espionage against major Western energy firms, according to a report expected to be issued Thursday by cybersecurity firm McAfee Inc.

Law-enforcement agencies said they are investigating the incidents, which McAfee said have been going on at least since late 2009 but may have started as early as 2007. The company said the attacks, which they dubbed "Night Dragon," were still occurring.

McAfee said the hackers targeted five multinational firms, but wouldn't identify the companies by name because some of them are clients. McAfee said it was sharing the findings "to protect those not yet impacted and to repair those who have been." Asked if they were victims of the hacking, BP PLC and ExxonMobil Inc., among other large oil companies, declined to comment. Chevron Corp. said it wasn't aware of any successful hacks into the company's data systems by Night Dragon.

Sensitive Internal Documents Taken
According to McAfee, the cyberattacks successfully took gigabytes of highly sensitive internal documents, including proprietary information about oil- and gas-field operations, project financing and bidding documents. And that pattern of espionage, the company said, should raise fresh alarms in the corporate world about information theft.

"While Night Dragon attacks focused specifically on the energy sector, the tools and techniques of this kind can be highly successful when targeting any industry," the report states.

McAfee and its competitors have an incentive for publicizing threats like Night Dragon because they are in the business of selling cybersecurity services. The company has informed the FBI of its report, which said it was investigating the attacks and took the matter seriously.

U.S. intelligence agencies have warned in recent years that China is developing sophisticated cyber warfare strategies which could be used to attack governments and key industries. China, the second-largest economy after the U.S., is keenly interested in competing for energy resources around the world to fuel domestic growth.

"It's important to get this out in public discussion, so companies can identify that kind of threat," said Ron Plesco, CEO of the National Cyber Forensic Training Alliance Foundation, a group that tracks cybercrime threats. "And sharing information adds toward the ultimate goal of mitigation."

The Night Dragon attacks used hacking tools that exploited Microsoft Corp. operating systems and remote administration tools to copy and extract information, according to McAfee. It appears to have been designed purely for spying. "We saw no evidence of sabotage activities" in these attacks, said Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee.

Trail Leads Back to China
Mr. Alperovitch said researchers were able to trace data taken from those companies back to Chinese Internet addresses in Beijing. The hacking tools used were mainly of Chinese origin, he said and the hackers didn't take steps to cover their tracks.

"These individuals almost seemed like company worker bees," he said. "They operated on a strict weekdays, nine-to-five Beijing time-zone schedule."

Through forensic research, McAfee identified one individual who appeared to provide the external servers used by the hackers. McAfee identified this individual as Song Zhiyue, based in Heze City, Shandong Province, China. It is unclear to what extent Mr. Song might have been aware of the espionage. McAfee believes many actors participated in these attacks.

Mr. Alperovitch said it was unclear if the attacks were done with any official sanction. "The facts point to Chinese hacker activity that is organized, so [it is] potentially directed either by the private sector or the public sector. But it's impossible for me to know for sure which one," he said.

Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said he had no knowledge of the report, but added that past allegations about Chinese hacking had been raised unfairly. "China has very strict laws against hacking activities, and China is also a victim of such activity," he said.

A 2010 Defense Department report to Congress on Chinese military capabilities said computer systems around the world, including U.S. government networks, had been the target of intrusions that appear to originate from China. The report added that it was unclear if those intrusions were done at the behest of the Chinese military of elements of the Chinese government.

Early last year, Google Inc. took the unusual step of complaining publicly about sophisticated cyberattacks that it claimed had originated in China. McAfee investigated those attacks, which it dubbed Operation Aurora. Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables collected by the WikiLeaks website included allegations that the attacks were ordered by top Chinese leaders.


IEA Casts Doubt on China's Economic Data
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576135624254712598.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews
BEIJING—China's oil demand growth will slow sharply this year, but by just how much isn't clear due to doubts about the accuracy of its gross domestic product figures and other official data, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

"China's oil demand outlook has become increasingly crucial for global oil balances. Predicting Chinese trends, however, is far from being an exact science, mostly because of huge uncertainties with respect to official data," said the IEA, a division of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

It said that there was a "vast discrepancy" between China's official GDP data for 2010...

THE END WILL BEGIN IN CHINA ( WHAT THEY ARE HIDDING ) PART 1/2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpq5ahTg_xA


Love Always
mudra

Pollution is world wide and had been killing people for the last few hundred years. There is a means to clean the waste prior to entering into the air but companies are too cheap and cost oriented to build in the safety factors that would save both the environment and lives.

Even the US was horrid with air pollution from factories and oil refineries for many years and still are where they can get away with it. This is what happens in a society that puts making a profit by cutting costs ahead of public health. If prevention methodology were incorporated from the onset it would raise productivity and be cost effective in the long run. Meanwhile, the workers and those who live nearby this types of situations are exploited.

For example, I used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area at in one of the surrounding areas were oil refineries were located and just happened to discover one of the refineries had a pipe that was buried underground and releasing toxic wasted in an area where people lived and they too suffered and died as a result. There was also a very high percentage of birth defects and miscarriages. How much money would it cost to deal with the fallout of negligent practices in providing lifelong health care and family assistance from these unnecessary tragedies? I'm sure it costs the tax payers far more to deal with the fallout of business public neglect when it comes to pollution that some of these businesses create.

The problem is' what is considered acceptable practices' by business when in comes to exploitation of the environment and humans. For example if this was forbidden... where a business would not be allowed to do business if their business had a negative impact on the environment and community - these types of abuses 'world wide' would not be allowed.

Japan's economy was worth $5.474 trillion (£3.414 trillion) at the end of 2010, figures from Tokyo have shown. China's economy was closer to $5.8 trillion in the same period.

Japan has been hit by a drop in exports and consumer demand, while China has enjoyed a manufacturing boom.

At its current rate of growth, analysts see China replacing the US as the world's top economy in about a decade.

"It's realistic to say that within 10 years China will be roughly the same size as the US economy," said Tom Miller of GK Dragonomics, a Beijing-based economic consultancy.

Overseas risk

Japan played down the significance of the shift in the economic league table, and the fact that it has been replaced as the second-largest economy for the first time in more than four decades.

"As an economy, we are not competing for rankings but working to improve citizens' lives," said Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano.

The minister added that China's booming economy was welcome news for Japan as a neighbouring country.

China is now Japan's main trading partner and is increasingly important to companies such as electronics firm Sony and carmakers like Honda and Toyota.

read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12427321

Chinese plans for a rail link in Colombia could compete with the Panama canal which transformed global trade when it was opened in 1914. Photograph: David Levene
It is a dream that bewitched Spain, ruined Scotland, stumped France and empowered the US: a path from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.

The ambition unleashed ruinous follies in Panama's jungles until the US finally finished a canal in 1914, an engineering feat that transformed global trade.

Now, almost a century later, China is envisaging a new link between the seas: a rail link through Colombia – a potential rival to the canal that would crown China's economic push into Latin America.

Beijing on Monday confirmed an announcement by the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, that both governments are considering a rail connection from Cartagena, in the Caribbean, to the country's Pacific coast 280 miles (450km) away. The president's office refused to say which Pacific site was being considered.

The railway would facilitate the export of raw materials such as coal, as well as opening the way for Chinese imports. "It's a real proposal ... and it is quite advanced," Santos told the Financial Times. "The studies [the Chinese] have made on the costs of transporting per tonne, the cost of investment, they all work out."

Few doubt China can carve a path through the northern tip of south America. It has, after all, carved a 550km railway to Tibet, rebuilt Angola's railways and is busy erecting a giant industrial port in Brazil. The question is whether the railway would be cheaper or faster than the Panama canal, which is only a third as long and undergoing a $5.25bn (£3.3bn) expansion to double its capacity.

Panama also has an 80km railway connecting both sides of the isthmus, but until now the canal's main competition has been the rail link from California to the US eastern seaboard, which is faster but more expensive.

Could Colombia's railway compete? President Santos seemed to have little doubt, stressing the "incredible" number of Chinese delegations pitching proposals. The railway would require a production and assembly hub in a new city south of Cartagena, he said. "I don't want to create exaggerated expectations, but it makes a lot of sense. Asia is the new motor of the world economy."
read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/14/china-rail-link-challenge-panama-canal

Whisper it, but could China be about to turn an environmental corner after more than three decades of filthy economic growth? Hopes for a cleaner future are rising ahead of a national blueprint to tackle pollution, waste and champion renewable technology.

The five-year plan, due in March, is being hailed as the greenest strategy document in the country's history. Sceptics warn that one environmental threat – industrial pollution – may be replaced by another – excess consumption.

The five-year economic plan, once an arcane exercise in communist fiat, has big implications for the outside world. It could affect the colour of the sky, the planet's temperature and the welfare of billions of people beyond the jurisdiction of the country's mandarins.

An army of cadres, officials and academics have spent years laying groundwork for the plan – the 12th since Mao Zedong started Soviet-style strategising in 1953. They have one of the world's most ambitious administrative tasks: plotting a course for a continent-sized nation, a 1.4 billion population and a $5 trillion economy that is growing at double-digit speed every year.

It has never been more important to the global environment.

China is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, number one energy user and arguably the most polluted nation on earth. The International Energy Agency noted that Europe's plan to extend 1990-2020 carbon dioxide cuts from 20% to 30% would equal only two weeks of China's emissions.

The final document will include measures to curb pollution, promote clean technology and initiate an environment tax, the Guardian understands.

read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/04/china-green-growth-boom-industry?intcmp=239