China – News Stories About China - Page 179

Feb 6, 2008 4:09 PM CST

Google Tries Free Music in China

Revolutionary model could help GOOG face down a local rival

(Newser) - In an effort to compete with search rival Baidu, Google will join with music companies to offer free music downloads in China. The hometown search engine, which has 60% of the local market to Google’s 25%, has long hosted free searches for unlicensed music downloads, and piracy has largely...

Lights Coming Back in China

Feb 6, 2008 11:40 AM CST

Lights Coming Back in China

Respite from severe weather allows progress toward normalcy

(Newser) - After more than a week of darkness, power is finally coming back on in China—mostly. With Lunar New Year celebrations getting under way, power has at least partially returned in 169 of the 170 counties blacked out by fierce winter weather, Reuters reports. But some residents are skeptical. “...

FDA Plans to Open Outpost
in China

Feb 6, 2008 6:00 AM CST

FDA Plans to Open Outpost in China

Inspectors could block contaminated food from being exported to US

(Newser) - America's food imports from China are rising and the Food and Drug Administration is planning to start exporting American inspectors to protect the US food supply, Reuters reports. FDA officials hope to open a China office to help them raise food safety standards and to make it easier to act...

Freeze of Century Grips China

Feb 4, 2008 4:56 AM CST

Freeze of Century Grips China

Millions still still stranded in winter chaos

(Newser) - First it was the snow, now it's the cold wreaking continued havoc in China, leaving millions stranded and millions more without power in the coldest winter in a century. President Hu Jintao chaired an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss rescue efforts in the nation where scores have died, as desperate...

Pork Shortage Plagues China

Feb 3, 2008 6:09 PM CST

Pork Shortage Plagues China

Beijing dips into pork preserve to avoid crisis

(Newser) - Pigjacking is China's latest crime. Sounds like a joke? Crooks are scoffing the swine thanks to a boom economy and a pig shortage that has hogs highly valued. With a record winter storm stranding thousands and sparking unrest, Beijing is dipping into its official pork preserve—hoping to calm a...

India, China Growth Breaks Western Mold

OPINION

Feb 3, 2008 7:33 AM CST

India, China Growth Breaks Western Mold

Essayist says market reforms are only part of the big picture

(Newser) - Conventional wisdom chalks up the economic booms in China and India to their moves toward global capitalism in the '90s. It's a comforting thought for the West, writes Pranab Bardhan in the Boston Review, but the truth is far more complex. The astounding growth in both countries started well before...

China Exports Inflation to US

Feb 1, 2008 1:35 PM CST

China Exports Inflation to US

Coinciding factors exert upward pressure on prices

(Newser) - After years of pumping out cheap consumer goods, China is driving up American price tags, the New York Times reports. As costs rise domestically, prices down the supply chain rise at the same time that recession threatens in the US. “China has been the world’s factory,” said...

China Storms Strand Millions

Feb 1, 2008 9:14 AM CST

China Storms Strand Millions

Country still at standstill from rare snow onslaught

(Newser) - Close to six million people are trapped in train stations throughout China today, as freak snow storms continue to buffet the country. So far, the storms have killed at least 60, and caused $53.8 billion yuan ($7.5 billion) in damages, the Civil Affairs Ministry announced today. That damage...

China Storms Wallop
Winter Crops

Jan 31, 2008 6:05 AM CST

China Storms Wallop Winter Crops

Worst storms in 50 years wreak 'catastrophic' impact on food supply

(Newser) - Winter storms battering China have hit crops hard, the AP reports. "The impact on fresh vegetables and on fruit in some places has been catastrophic," said a Communist Party official, who added that emergency plans were in place to ensure a food supply to people and protect what...

China Economy Adrift as Snow Keeps Falling

Jan 30, 2008 4:18 PM CST

China Economy Adrift as Snow Keeps Falling

Inflation spirals as weather highlights precarious conditions

(Newser) - As more snow fell today across China, the unusual inclement weather continued to highlight how vulnerable the country's economy is to disruption. The snow has prevented deliveries of food and fuel—particularly coal—and dozens of factories remain closed. State television announced that the government would mount an "all-out...

China Shines Image for Olympics

Jan 30, 2008 2:29 PM CST

China Shines Image for Olympics

Bureaucracy in full spin mode with Games less than 200 days away

(Newser) - With less than 200 days to go before the Summer Olympics, Der Spiegel takes an in-depth look at China’s feverish preparations and finds a sprawling bureaucracy working overtime to project the perfect image to the world. But while Beijing might clean the smog, and even prevent rain, making communist...

China Snow Crisis Turns Deadly

Jan 29, 2008 7:46 AM CST

China Snow Crisis Turns Deadly

Wild weather continues to strand thousands, cripple power supply

(Newser) - China’s record snowstorm has killed at least 25 people when the bus they were riding in careened off a slick mountain road in the southwestern province of Guizhou, reports Reuters. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao today visited hordes of stranded train passengers in Hunan province, and the government urged migrant...

Foreign Buying Spree Reaches Deep Into US

Jan 28, 2008 7:01 PM CST

Foreign Buying Spree Reaches Deep Into US

With weak dollar driving acqusitions, lawmakers get skittish

(Newser) - As the dollar drops, foreign investors are buying up US enterprises large and small, from multi-billion-dollar stakes in Wall Street banks to ownership of chemical factories and construction companies in the likes of North Carolina. Canadian, British and German companies have been expanding their portfolios in the US for years,...

Snowstorm Disrupts Chinese Travel, Power

Jan 28, 2008 7:14 AM CST

Snowstorm Disrupts Chinese Travel, Power

Holdup comes week before Lunar New Year travel season

(Newser) - The biggest snowstorm in 50 years is wreaking havoc with China’s transportation and power-supply infrastructure and triggering widespread shortages the week before the Lunar New Year. Over a foot of snow fell in Nanjing, reports Bloomberg. "We face a very severe situation in ensuring supplies of coal, electricity,...

Chinese Divorce Rate Surges

Jan 25, 2008 3:00 PM CST

Chinese Divorce Rate Surges

Simplified procedures, one-child policy may be factors

(Newser) - The Chinese divorce rate shot up 18.2% last year, the Guardian reports. It's not a huge surprise: Simplified divorce proceedings have contributed to the long-term trend, and the social stigma appears to have dwindled considerably. Some sociologists have an additional theory: China's one-child policy has created a generation of...

Olympians Prepare Strategies for Beijing Smog

Jan 24, 2008 1:22 PM CST

Olympians Prepare Strategies for Beijing Smog

China promises clean air for Games, but teams are taking precautions

(Newser) - With the Summer Olympics set to begin Aug. 8 in one of the world’s smoggiest cities, competitors are looking for a Beijing edge. US athletes have been asking if they should train near busy highways to simulate Beijing’s noxious air, the New York Times reports, but trainers are...

US Sneeze Doesn't Spook Many at Davos

Jan 23, 2008 5:01 PM CST

US Sneeze Doesn't Spook Many at Davos

Economic power shift has many world execs cheery about prospects

(Newser) - Bigwigs spooked by the downturn in the US economy aren't spreading their usual cheer at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Fortune reports, but many other Davos attendees are smiling. Representatives say the Indian and Chinese economies are strong enough to weather recession; many agree with George Soros that “...

China Shut 44K Porn Sites
in '07, Jailed Hundreds

Jan 23, 2008 4:00 PM CST

China Shut 44K Porn Sites in '07, Jailed Hundreds

Ministry says 'young minds' are being 'perverted'

(Newser) - China took down 44,000 porn websites last year, arrested 868 people, and penalized 2,000 others. The Public Security Ministry said today that Internet pornography has “perverted China’s young minds,” the AP reports. Porn and paid sex are illegal in almost all forms in the country;...

US Makes Canadian Torture List

Jan 18, 2008 6:40 AM CST

US Makes Canadian Torture List

'Torture awareness' manual for diplomats includes US, Syria, Israel, Iran

(Newser) - The US, along with China, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and Israel, is listed in an official Canadian foreign ministry document of countries where prisoners are at risk of torture, the BBC reports. The "torture awareness" training manual classifies as torture some US interrogation techniques, including forced nudity, isolation, and sleep...

China Cracks Down on Online Games

Jan 17, 2008 12:03 PM CST

China Cracks Down on Online Games

Calls them 'spiritual opium'

(Newser) - China is cracking down on its booming, billion-dollar online game industry, which is seen as “spiritual opium” that threatens to hook the Chinese people, Reuters reports. The government today said it plans to regulate “undesirable” elements out of the game, which 41 million Chinese played this year. “...