China

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China to Buy $3B Stake in Blackstone

Beijing moves onto Wall Street with historic deal

(Newser) - The Chinese government will buy a 9.9% stake in Blackstone, the US private equity fund that's about to launch its IPO. The $3 billion purchase of nonvoting shares, the first time China has invested its enormous foreign reserves in commercial stock, is meant to exploit a private equity market...

Chinese Killer Supplied Corpse Brides

"Weddings for the dead" making a comeback in rural areas

(Newser) - Chinese authorities have arrested a man said to have killed six women in order to sell their bodies to families seeking "ghost brides"  to marry their deceased sons. He and three other corpse traders are reputed to be members of an underground supply network prompted by  a growing...

China Loosens Up on Yuan
China Loosens Up on Yuan
May 18, 2007 10:40 AM CDT

China Loosens Up on Yuan

Currency move may be concession to US—or attempt to pop a stock market bubble

(Newser) - Just days before a meeting with US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, China is taking baby steps toward letting its currency trade more freely. The government also raised interest rates and the reserve on bank loans today, signaling concern over the country's red-hot economy. China's trade surplus—which some American politicos...

Ban Chinese Ingredients? Easier Said Than Done

They're in virtually all processed foods. Six or more in the the Twinkie alone.

(Newser) - In the wake of the pet-food poisoning scandal, some of the biggest U.S. food manufacturers—Tyson and Mission Foods—have banned Chinese ingredients. But since China is the world's biggest supplier of the flavorings, vitamins and preservatives that are used in virtually all processed foods, the bans may be...

China's Drivers Steer Clear of Tolls

Thrifty motorists resort to detours, deception to get around steep fees

(Newser) - Tolls are literally taking a toll in China, where thrifty motorists try to steer around the tollbooths cropping up on the country's highways. An infrastructure boom has created 40,000 kilometers of new toll roads since 1990, and drivers are doing anything—from faking toll-exempt plates to making long detours...

Suicide Rises Among Young Chinese Women

At risk: young wives in rural areas bypassed by modernization

(Newser) - Young, rural women in China are killing themselves at startling rates. In a country whose overall suicide rate is double the American, suicides are shooting up among young wives caught between the promise of modernizing cities and the traditional subservience of women that persists in the countryside. "Whenever their...

Engineer Guilty Of Attempted Espionage

Jury convicts California man of trying to send defense docs to China

(Newser) - A Chinese-American engineer could get up to 35 years for trying to funnel classified U.S. defense technology to China. A federal jury in California convicted 66-year-old Chi Mak, a naturalized citizen who worked for an Anaheim defense contractor, of conspiring to send top secret plans for submarine propulsion technology...

Second Toxin Found in Lethal Pet Food

Cyanuric acid plus melamine could be fatal combination

(Newser) - Add cyanuric acid to the list of industrial chemicals found in the contaminated pet food that killed thousands of dogs and cats. Like melamine, it was used by Chinese animal feed producers  to fake higher protein content in their wheat and rice products, the New York Times reports.

Toxic Cough Syrup Causes Deaths in Panama

How a tailor in China passed glycol off as glycerin, and killed hundreds of children

(Newser) - American drugmakers are on the lookout this week for another in the growing list of potentially deadly Chinese exports. This time, it's diethylene glycol, a sweet-but-toxic chemical that masquerades as glycerin in common medications like cough syrup and that has already killed almost 400 people—many of them children—in...

Melamine Death Toll Passes 8,000 Pets

FDA says health risk for humans unlikely

(Newser) - More than 8,000 deaths of cats and dogs that may be linked to melamine-tainted food have been reported to the FDA in the two months since the pet food recall. The statistics come as the FDA tries to assure Americans that the tainted protein concentrates, also fed to hogs...

China Detains Pet Food Contaminator

Beijing cracks down on source of melamine-tainted gluten

(Newser) - Chinese authorities have jailed the head of a company accused of selling pet food makers  the melamine-contaminated gluten that's killed thousands of cats and dogs. The detention of Mao Lijun suggests Beijing is eager to cooperate with the FDA investigators currently on its turf, after initially disavowing any gluten sales...

US Opposes Taiwan's Missiles
US Opposes Taiwan's Missiles
May 3, 2007 6:43 PM CDT

US Opposes Taiwan's Missiles

Diplomats concerned about further escalation with mainland

(Newser) - As Taiwan threatens to go on the offense against China, the U.S. is wincing at the island's growing arsenal. Last month Taipei announced a missile program to hit Chinese sites, to the candid disapproval of Steven Young, the top American diplomat there. "The focus should be on defensive...

Safer Farms Sting Chinese Beekeepers

Cleaning up honey industry means facing swarms of opposition

(Newser) - Stung by recent scandals over tainted food exports, a small group of Chinese beekeepers is trying to sweeten up local honey production. They're throwing out standard practices, like using antibiotics to treat their colonies, and pushing natural options. But the old guard is using violence in its attempts to prevent...

Web Muckrakers Fight Corruption in China

Freelance journalists hired by citizens stay one step ahead of censors

(Newser) - A new breed of journalist is evolving out of China’s censored media: the web-based hired gun. The Washington Post reports on freelance muckrakers who investigate corruption the mainstream press can't touch and post the results on their sites. They're paid—if meagerly—by the aggrieved parties.

Venezuela to Leave IMF, World Bank
Venezuela to Leave IMF, World Bank
May 1, 2007 8:32 AM CDT

Venezuela to Leave IMF, World Bank

Chávez government exerts state control over privately owned oil projects

(Newser) - Hugo Chávez said yesterday he will pull Venezuela out of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, institutions the leftist leader blames for contributing to poverty in Latin America. Venezuela will also take control of foreign oil projects previously run by multinational companies, some U.S.-based, in...

Chinese Add Melamine to Animal Feed
Chinese Add Melamine to Animal Feed
Apr 30, 2007 7:04 AM CDT

Chinese Add Melamine to Animal Feed

Filler that tainted pet food is commonly used as fake protein

(Newser) - The compound that tainted pet food and is being blamed for hundreds of pet illnesses and deaths is a commonly used additive in animal feed in China, reports the New York Times. The coal derivative melamine, used in plastics and fertilizers, is nitrogen-rich, which triggers tests for protein content.

US Lets China Dominate Asia
US Lets China Dominate Asia
Apr 25, 2007 11:38 AM CDT

US Lets China Dominate Asia

Zakaria: America distracted and damaged in Iraq helps Beijing court allies

(Newser) - The U.S. is so wrapped up in the Middle East that it's sacrificing chances to improve relations with Asia, leaving China to dominate the region, Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria contends. "Beijing has become remarkably adept at using its political and economic muscle in a patient, low-key and highly effective...

Can Chinese Art Stay Hot?
Can Chinese Art Stay Hot?
Apr 20, 2007 12:35 PM CDT

Can Chinese Art Stay Hot?

It's all the rage in Europe, but will Chinese-themed art lose its market power?

(Newser) - After a year of high excitement and higher prices, Chinese artists are hot at influential European fairs. But the bubble may have grown too fast, and Portfolio's Alexandra Wolfe reports on speculation that it's about to burst. One curator says Chinese art is "a consumer category, not a collector...

Chinese Talk The Talk On Democracy
Chinese Talk
The Talk On Democracy 
Apr 20, 2007 12:26 PM CDT

Chinese Talk The Talk On Democracy

Officials court support by permitting calls for political reform

(Newser) - It's spring in China, and calls for democracy are in bloom, the New York Times reports. Articles are about the need for political reform are being published—even encouraged—and leaders are promising openness. But the outburst of rhetoric has more to do with the political calendar than with an...

FDA: Pet Food Poison Added Intentionally

Chinese may have used melamine to boost nutrition rating

(Newser) - The chemical which contaminated over 100 brands of pet food—with disastrous results for dog and cat lovers—may have been intentionally added by Chinese manufacturers in an effort to fudge nutrition ratings on their rice protein and wheat gluten. "That's still a theory, but it certainly seems to...

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