7th August 09

The New York Times

China Sees Progress on Climate Accord, but Resists an Emissions Ceiling

BEIJING — China’s envoy to global negotiations on climate change expressed optimism on Wednesday that a new agreement to reduce greenhouse gases would be reached this year, and he said that his nation’s efforts to curb carbon pollution already had produced results that he called “second to none.”

China Investigates Top Nuclear Official

BEIJING — The top official of China’s civilian and military nuclear power programs is being investigated for “grave violations of discipline,” a phrase often used in corruption inquiries, the Chinese Communist Party’s disciplinary committee has announced.

China Faces Delicate Task Reining In Bank Lending

SHANGHAI — When China announced three weeks ago that its economy had grown by 7.1 percent in the first half of this year, this country appeared to be a lone bright spot during the global recession. But many economists now worry that too much of China’s growth was fueled by aggressive, state-directed lending that could eventually result in a soaring number of bad loans and mounting government debt.

Asia Times Online

Confucianism at large in Africa
By Bright B Simons

ACCRA, Ghana - A features writer for the Economist once insisted that the Mandarin character for Africa means "wrong continent". This is perhaps because there is a perception that the teachers have frequently been wrong-headed about Africa, and have tended to get it wrong whenever they have moved out of their comfort zones in trading and infrastructure development.

China's fishing fleet sets challenge to US
By Lyle Goldstein

With much attention focused on China's growing naval, shipbuilding and port infrastructure developments, it is easy to forget another important dimension of China's maritime rise: China's status as a major global fishing power. With a total haul of over 17 million tonnes in 2007, China's take is four times that of the nearest competitor, and far exceeds the catch of Japan, the United States and other major Pacific maritime powers [1].