Shanghai, China and Biel/Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Jura-based Swatch Group and Chinese hotel group Jin Jiang Thursday held a groundbreaking ceremony for restoration work on a waterfront Bund building that is designed to serve as an international art centre.
Title: China national circus
Location: Evian, France
Link out: Click here
Description: Two days only.
Start Date: 16 Dec 2008
End Date: 17 Dec 2008
The BBC has published a lengthy article on Tibet and Chinese rule there, pointing out that little media attention was given at the time to a statement by UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband 29 October when he said, “”Like every other EU member state, and the United States, we regard Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China.” The BBC says “many observers” believe the statement has weakened the Dalai Lama’s position in talks with China.
The situation not so long ago where foreign students could not get into US universities because of visa restrictions, appears to be changing, with record numbers of Chinese students heading for American universities since 2006. CNN
The Dalai Lama and Tibetan leaders in exile from around the world begin a six-day meeting Monday in India, to decide on their strategy since talks between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and the Chinese government broke down in the past two weeks. AFP, IHT, and background Al Jazeera
Yangtze River, China: 1985. © Ellen Wallace
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss Federal Councilor Moritz Leuenberger and Chen Lei, Chinese minister for water resources management, have agreed after what they described as fruitful exchanges, to push for an agreement between the two countries to work together in the area of water resources dangers, in particular related to flooding.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao opened a conference on climate change in Beijing by insisting that rich nations must reduce pollution, sparking anew a debate over who should pay how much to reduce carbon emissions. Wen called for rich countries to end their unsustainable lifestyle and to help poorer nations obtain pollution reduction technology. While China now has the highest level of carbon emissions it lags far behind the US and other countries in the per person level of CO2 emissions. Reuters
Some 800 protesters have surrounded the hotel in Taipei where Chun Yenlin, the highest ranking Chinese official to visit Taiwan in decades, is staying, reports the BBC, while Xinhua News in China reports that cross-straits agreements signed between Beijing and Taipei this week are drawing strong interest from airline and shipping companies.
More than 3,600 tons of animal feed found to have dangerous levels of melamine were destroyed in China as part of what the International Herald Tribune describes as “the biggest food safety crackdown in years”: 238 illegal feed plants shut down and 369,000 health inspectors involved in the sweep.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Melamine, a potentially dangerous chemical found in some powdered milk products in China and linked to the illness of thousands and deaths of some children has been found in caramels and biscuits sold in Switzerland. Read more…
Researchers at the University of Toronto have uncovered a security leak in Tom-Skype in China that allowed them to download thousands of instant messages identifying users. The messages appear to have been on eight computers that are part of a Chinese government surveillance system; their existance was discovered because the servers were improperly configured, making them accessible to the outside world. The researchers are part of a group that monitors politics and Internet security issues, Citizen Lab. The article notes that this is not the first time a government has been accused of using Skye to eavesdrop on its citizens: the US was reportedly doing so in 2005 as part of its anti-terrorism programme. International Herald Tribune
Chinese officials have arrested 22 people suspected of producing the melamine that has been used in baby milk, in northern Hebei province, after seizing 220kg of the material in a raid. BBC
No milk for sale here! (Beijing, 1985, copyright E Wallace)
Vevey, Switzerland (Genevalunch) - Multinational Nestlé, whose market in China was worth CHF1.6 billion in sales in 2006 and climbed by about 10% in 2007, says independent laboratory tests show its milk products are safe and have no melanine.
Update Tuesday 23 September: International concern is growing, as the number of children known to have fallen sick rises, reports CNN. The government in China said late Monday that 13,000 children remain in hospital, most being treated for kidney stones, and another 40,000 fell ill but have recovered. Li Changjiang, the quality supervisor for the country, resigned. The Chinese government earlier said eight hotlines have been set up in provincial areas and more are expected, to help families deal with children falling ill from melamine-tained baby milk. Four children have died and 6,200 have developed kidney stones, the government said Saturday, 20 September. Chinese government site
Powdered baby milk that was apparently tampered with, possibly contaminated with melamine, has so far put more than 1,200 babies in hospital and it has killed two children, in China. The Sanlu company, which makes the milk, is 43% owned by New Zealand company Fonterra, and that country’s president, Helen Clark, is accusing the company and local governments in China of responding too slowly. Some 10,000 children may have drunk the milk. BBC, China Daily, New Zealand Herald
The Financial Times reports in a leading story that it has obtained documents showing that China in 2007 convinced Costa Rica to sever ties with Taiwan when it bought US government bonds from the Central American nation. ““This is the first smoking gun that proves China uses its foreign exchange reserves for political purposes,” said Kerry Brown, senior fellow with the Asia programme at Chatham House in London,” reports the FT.
China’s consumer inflation rate in August fell to 4.9%, down sharply from the previous month and below forecasts. The lower rate “increase confidence that China has overcome an inflationary problem,” writes the Financial Times.
