US President Barack Obama has arrived in Beijing, China after visiting Shanghai where he met with students and called for greater Internet freedom for the Chinese. Obama said in a town-hall style meeting with students that he believes the free flow of information strengthens societies. Obama will try to calm Chinese fears about Washington’s response to the global economic crisis. China is the world’s biggest owner of US Treasury bonds. Chinese leaders have said they fear that the US will try to devalue its way out of the massive obligations it has assumed to save the banking industry and to stimulate a faltering economy.
The government’s head of banking regulation, Liu Mingkang, Monday 16 November criticized the US Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy, saying it is having a “massive impact on global asset prices.” He said a weak dollar and low interest rates were endangering the economic recovery, especially in emerging econmies.
The US continues to call on China to revalue its currency, which it says is making Chinese exports cheaper and undermining other countries’ efforts to stimulate their economies. Economist, Financial Times, Reuters
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer is withdrawing from two tournaments after consulting with his team and doctors, he says, to let his body rest and recuperate after a tough year. He is pulling out of the Tokyo and Shanghai tournaments, in what he describes as “two of his favourite cities in the world”, after consulting with his team and doctors. In the first four hours after he posted the information on his Facebook page, more than 16,000 of his three million-plus fans had reacted.
China’s state prosecutor in Shanghai has formally charged four employees of Rio Tinto, an Australian mining giant, with illegally obtaining commercial secrets, a lesser charge than the “theft of state secrets” originally under consideration. The four, Australian Stern Hu and three Chinese employees, were arrested in early July and accused of spying. The prosecutor’s office said that “a fair verdict” would be handed down, which is interpreted to mean that the case will go to trial. The case has complicated relations between China and Australia, where two-way trade was worth $53 billion in 2008. Chinese-born Hu and his team were accused of illegally obtaining China’s negotiating position ahead of crucial iron ore price talks. NYT, Reuters, Xinhua
Liam Bates, aka Li-Mu, back in Switzerland
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Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Liam Bates arrived home to the Lake Geneva region in Switzerland from China 28 July with more than the six-month scholarship he won from the Chinese government as a finalist in its international university competition for Mandarin speakers: he had a broken leg plus damaged shoulder from a motorcycle accident and headed straight for the CHUV (university hospitals) in Lausanne, scheduled for an urgent skin graft.
He also had several hundred new fans from among the two million television viewers who watched the popular annual “Chinese Bridge” competition that rewards the world’s best students of China’s language and culture.
The competitor who hobbled onto the stage to give a speech four days after surgery on his leg, explaining why he wouldn’t be showing them wushu (kung fu) moves, caught the crowd’s eye.
But it was the large-screen background clip from a film of his travels across their country – a journey few Chinese have made – that sent his Chinese web site traffic zooming up by almost 10,000 percent in just days.
"Mao, Motorbikes and a Yak" film: the journey
Bates and three friends had completed a 7,000 km journey on motorcycles across China shortly before the competition, filming conversations with young Chinese about their dreams and hopes for the future.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – One of the popular attractions at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai, the largest-ever world fair, could well be a Swiss cablecar that “in a few seconds” will take visitors from city to countryside, playing on one of the fair’s themes: rural and urban interaction.
Shanghai, China (GenevaLunch) – Lewis Hamilton took a major step towards his first F1 championship by winning in Shanghai.
