As the years-long drought in Texas subsides, I feel this would be a good time to remind everyone that water is not only precious, but scarce.

Indeed, Africa is seeing some of the worst droughts in recorded history. Drought doesn't only affect humanity, afflicting us with thirst, famine, and war, but wildlife too. And while the famine in Somalia (not directly water-related, but...) has been declared "over", countries like Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone face dismal prospects for the near future.

Hu Yuanyuan | Beijing | January 31

China Daily - China's major cities saw a drop in property sales during the Lunar New Year holiday, indicating a further correction in the real estate market.

SouFun Holdings Ltd, China's largest property website, said on Monday that among the 29 cities it monitors, 27 experienced a drop in property transactions.

Property sales in Guangzhou plunged by 81.5 percent year-on-year. Those in Shanghai and Shenzhen also fell by more than 30 percent on a yearly basis, according to SouFun. Statistics for Beijing are not available because the capital's website on property transactions was closed during the festival.

Four second-tier cities - Jinan, Wuxi, Harbin and Ningbo - saw no transactions at all, SouFun statistics showed.

Yara Bayoumy | Addis Ababa | Jan 28

Reuters - Standing on what was once Ethiopia's oldest maximum security prison, the new African Union headquarters funded by China is a symbol of the Asian giant's push to stay ahead in Africa and gain greater access to the continent's resources.

Critics point to an imbalance in what they see as the new "Scramble for Africa." But the prospect of growing Chinese economic influence is welcomed by African leaders, who see Beijing as a partner to help build their economies at a time when Europe and the United States are mired in economic turmoil.

And Africans are hoping for more Chinese largesse.

"The future prospects of our partnership are even brighter," Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Saturday at the new headquarters' multi-storey amphitheatre, where an African heads of states' summit will take place Sunday and Monday.

"China - its amazing re-emergence and its commitments for a win-win partnership with Africa - is one of the reasons for the beginning of the African renaissance," he said.

The brown marble and glass monolith was fully paid for by China, right down to the office furniture, and cost $200 million. The office complex and almost 100 metre (330 foot) tower is Addis Ababa's tallest building by far.

For the past decade, Africa has recorded economic growth of an average of 5 percent but its under-developed infrastructure has in part hindered its capacity to develop further.

Chinese companies are changing that. They are building roads and investing in the energy sector, and are active in areas such as telecoms technology.

China's most senior political adviser, Jia Qinglin, said trade between the two partners had grown to $150 billion, and the unveiling of the headquarters was a "milestone" in the ties between China and Africa.

Ignatius Banda | Bulwayo | Jan 27

IPS - From downtown shops that stock cheap clothing and shoes that fall apart after one wear, to mining concessions in platinum, gold and diamonds - the Chinese finger is now in virtually every Zimbabwean pie.

From city sidewalks to low-income suburbs, the Chinese have become part of the local population, and if some senior government bureaucrats have their way, the country could soon find itself adopting the Chinese Yuan as its official currency.

For some influential monetary policy czars, the massive assailing of the Zimbabwean economy by the Chinese now only requires the Yuan to strengthen these economic reconstruction efforts.

Invited by President Robert Mugabe as part of his infamous 2004 "Look East" policy to participate in driving the economy and employment creation, after relations with former traditional investment partners the European Union and United States soured, China has been able to create its own little sphere of influence and establish an ubiquitous presence in Zimbabwe.

This is despite being unpopular with Zimbabwe’s industrial and commercial players, and general members of the public who accuse the Chinese of poor labour practices and shoddy goods and services.

Late last year, Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, seen by many as a close ally of Mugabe, announced he was in favour of having the Chinese Yuan as the country’s official currency. After the Zimbabwean dollar was suspended in 2008, the country has been using a multi-currency regime, which includes the use of the U.S. greenback, the South African Rand and the Botswana Pula.

According to Gono, the Chinese Yuan would be introduced alongside the Zimbabwean dollar. Mugabe’s political supporters have been calling for currency reforms to bring back the Zimbabwean dollar.

Keith Bradsher | Hong Kong | January 23

NYT - Security forces opened fire on Tibetan protesters in western China on Monday, wounding at least 32 people and killing at least one of them in the largest violent confrontation in ethnic Tibetan areas of China since 2008, two Tibetan rights groups and the Tibetan exile government said.

Free Tibet, a group based in London, said tensions remained high into the evening after the shootings in Luhuo, which is known in Tibetan as Draggo and located in westernmost Sichuan Province, near the border with Tibet.

It was the second reported shooting of Tibetan protesters in the past week and a half. The previous one, on Jan. 14, in which two people were reported wounded, took place in Aba, also located in Sichuan Province and 100 miles northeast of Luhuo.

Brian M. Downing | Jan 14

Asia Times - Hopes for a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan are beginning once more, but the problematic Byzantine geopolitics are not readily apparent. It is not the bipolar confrontation between Britain and Russia that it was in the 19th century. Nor is it simply the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) against the Taliban.

The war in Afghanistan involves Pakistan against India, China against India, the Pashtun Afghans against the northern peoples, Saudi Arabia against Iran, and Russia against China. So arcane and intricate are these conflicts that the US is allied with enemies and at odds with allies.

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. . . so that 13 year-old Chinese pesants would only work half-day shifts manufacturing our gadgets. And yes, I have an iPhone. And yes, my conscience stings. An no, I probably won't do a fucking thing about it.

Yuan Yuan | December 26

Beijing Review - General practitioners are considered key to improving public medical services

Du Xueping, Director of the Yuetan Community Healthcare Center in downtown Beijing's Xicheng District, has been involved in China's general practitioner (GP) trial program since it began.

As an important part of the country's medical reform, the introduction of a national GP system has been planned for almost 20 years. The Yuetan center is one of the first clinics in the country to trial the system.

"The trial program started in this center in 1994 and I came here in 1995," said Du, who used to be a cardiovascular specialist at Beijing's prestigious Fuxing Hospital.

"At the time, people didn't understand why I gave up a job in a big hospital to work in a small community center," Du said. "Even now, few people would choose to work in a community healthcare center. But based on my experience, community healthcare centers are actually more important for people's health than big hospitals."

Chen Jia | Beijing | January 8

China Daily - Premier Wen Jiabao has urged the financial sector to strengthen its capability in supporting the production of goods and services and to prevent artificial factors from inflating the economy.

China should set up a long-term mechanism that will make sure the "real economy" gets sufficient investment for growth, to strengthen the foundation for economic growth in the post-crisis era, the premier said. He was speaking at the end of the two-day National Financial Work Conference on Saturday in Beijing.

"In future, China will stick to the principle of having the financial industry serve the real economy to prevent virtual bubbles from inflating the economy," Wen said.

The real economy is defined as production activity in sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and service, which is the basis of a country's GDP.

China's financial system is running on a stable course despite the global financial crisis, he said. However, apparent problems and potential risks still linger and the crisis is not over, Wen said.

Guangdong | january 4

Guardian - Murder most feline: poison cat stew blamed in death of Chinese tycoon

The sudden death of a billionaire in southern China is causing police to ask: was it murder by cat meat?

Long Liyuan, 49, died on 23 December in wealthy Guangdong province after sharing a dish of slow-boiled cat meat stew, a southern delicacy, with two men over a business lunch.

One of the men, local official Huang Guang, was arrested by police on Friday on suspicion of poisoning the hotpot with a toxic herb. Police say Huang and Long had economic disputes

Edward Wong | Beijing | January 3

NYT - President Hu Jintao of China has said that the West is trying to dominate China by spreading its culture and ideology and that China must strengthen its cultural production to defend against the assault, according to an essay in a Communist Party policy magazine published this week.

Mr. Hu’s words signaled that a major policy initiative announced last October would continue well into 2012.

The essay, which was signed by Mr. Hu and based on a speech he gave in October, drew a sharp line between the cultures of the West and China and effectively said the two sides were engaged in an escalating culture war. It was published in Seeking Truth, a magazine founded by Mao Zedong as a platform for establishing Communist Party principles.

Dec 29

Space.com - China has switched on its own satellite navigation system, marking a big step forward for a nation eager to reduce its reliance on the West for key strategic technologies.

The Beidou system — whose name translates as "Big Dipper" — began providing positioning and navigation services on Tuesday (Dec. 27), according to state news reports. The emergence of Beidou should make China far less dependent on the GPS constellation, which is operated by the United States military and is currently the world's dominant satellite navigation

"Countries build their own systems because owning an independent satellite navigation system is important to economic development and national security," said Pang Zhihao, deputy editor-in-chief of the publication Space International, according to the newspaper China Daily .

The initiation of Beidou follows closely on the heels of another Chinese space milestone. In November, the nation successfully docked two robotic spacecraft in Earth orbit, a key step in its quest to have a manned space station up and running by 2020.

Beidou currently consists of 10 satellites and covers a swath of the Asia-Pacific region from Australia in the south to Russia in the north. The system is accurate to within 82 feet (25 meters) and now serves China and surrounding areas on a pilot basis.

But those specs will all change. China plans to expand the satellite constellation and its coverage, making Beidou a truly global system. Six more satellites are due to launch next year, and the nation envisions having 35 in the constellation by 2020, according to China Daily.

Beidou's performance will improve as the constellation grows. The system should be able to pinpoint locations to within 33 feet (10 m) when the six additional satellites are lofted in 2012, officials said.

Kabul | Dec 26

AFP - Afghanistan has agreed to sign a deal with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) for oil exploration and extraction, the president’s office said in a statement Monday.

The state-owned Chinese oil giant will develop three oil fields, along with Afghan company Watan Group, located in the Amu river zone in Sar-e Pol and Faryab provinces in northern Afghanistan, the statement said.

“This is the first big contract for exploration and extraction of oil in Afghanistan,” the statement said.

“There are 87 million barrels of oil in the area.”

I was nine years old at the time. We were in school one morning when our teacher was called away. This was a very unusual occurrence. We sat quietly waiting, and when teacher returned, she was crying and shaking uncontrollably. All of us were worried and confused – teacher had never acted this way before. In fact we had never seen any emotion from her at all. “What has happened, teacher?”, someone called out. Sobbing, she replied – “Children, Great Teacher has died!”

It was as if you pushed a button in the room. Instantaneously all of us burst into tears, with many of us wailing “What is going to happen to us? Who is going to take care of us? How will we live?” It never occurred to any of us that our parents or some responsible adult would take care of us. From the moment we were aware of the outer world, we understood that all that was good, beautiful and intelligent in the world came from Great Teacher.

Tania Branigan | Beijing | November 25

The Guardian - There is no parliamentary cut-and-thrust; there are no televised debates or florid, adversarial rhetoric. But China's leaders are engaged in a vigorous debate about the country's direction as they jockey for position before next year's transition of power to a new generation. And, in a rare departure from the disciplined displays of unity that characterise the communist elite, they are beginning to air their differences in public.

"The gap between people holding different opinions is pretty large. It is also evident to the public, which is very rare," said Qiu Feng, a liberal scholar from the Unirule Institute of Economics in Beijing.

Lan Xinzhen | November 21

Beijing Review - After 130 years of using incandescent lamps, China is determined to abandon the energy-guzzling bulbs in favor of more energy-efficient ones.

On November 1, the Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and five other government departments jointly released a joint circular, vowing to gradually halt imports and sales of the traditional incandescent lamps.

Nov 14

MSNBC - President Barack Obama served notice on Sunday that the United States was fed up with China's trade and currency practices as he turned up the heat on America's biggest economic rival.

"Enough's enough," Obama said bluntly at a closing news conference of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit where he scored a significant breakthrough in his push to create a pan-Pacific free trade zone and promote green technologies.

Using some of his toughest language yet against China, Obama, a day after face-to-face talks with President Hu Jintao, demanded that China stop "gaming" the international system and create a level playing field for U.S. and other foreign businesses.

"We're going to continue to be firm that China operate by the same rules as everyone else," Obama told reporters after hosting the 21-nation APEC summit in his native Honolulu. "We don't want them taking advantage of the United States."

Peter Beaumont | Nov 11

The Guardian - Renewed disagreement over US budget deficit strategy in Washington has reawakened China's fears of default. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
The head of China's biggest ratings agency, Dagong Global Credit Rating, is warning that it may downgrade the US's sovereign debt rating again because of Washington's failure to tackle the federal budget deficit.

The remarks by Dagong's chairman, Guan Jianzhong, to be broadcast in an interview with al-Jazeera on Saturday morning, come at the end of another week of deep turmoil for the world economy.

Dagong, which has maintained a pessimistic outlook on US fiscal policy, has been leading the charge to downgrade US debt over the last 12 months, lowering the US rating from AA to A+ a year ago.

In August it downgraded US debt again, to A. Days later, Standard & Poor's followed in its wake, becoming the first western agency to downgrade US debt after the threat of a default was narrowly avoided following weeks of political squabbling in Washington over whether President Obama should be allowed to raise the US debt ceiling.

Guan's intervention comes as another embarrassing political standoff over budget policy looms in Washington. The cross-party "supercommittee" given the job of finding ways to cut the budget deficit is reportedly deadlocked, with Republicans refusing to countenance the tax rises being suggested by Democrats. The committee is due to report by 23 November, but there are fears they could fail to reach agreement, prompting a new crisis.
...
In an interview with Talk to Al-Jazeera, Guan agrees that it is almost inevitable that his agency will cut America's debt rating once again, arguing that the only solution open to the US economy is further quantitative easing.

April Sain-Ley-Berry | Beijing | October 27

IPS - China is contemplating new legislation to define terrorism more precisely, raising fears that the government is using the so-called ‘war on terror’ to crack down on Uyghur separatists in the country’s restive Muslim region of Xinjiang.

Beijing has laid the blame for a string of past violent uprisings in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, an arid and impoverished area in China’s far north-west, on organised terrorist groups, claiming that China faces a serious threat from fanatical Muslims in the region.

Overseas Uyghur independence groups, however, argue that such allegations are merely a justification for an increasingly tight state grip over the region.

Amir Mir | Islamabad | Oct 26

Asia Times - While Pakistan wants China to build a naval base at its southwestern seaport of Gwadar in Balochistan province, Beijing is more interested in setting up military bases either in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan or in the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) that border Xinjiang province.

The Chinese desire is meant to contain growing terrorist activities of Chinese rebels belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) that is also described as the Turkistani Islamic Party (TIP).

The Chinese Muslim rebels want the creation of an independent Islamic state and are allegedly being trained in the tribal areas of Pakistan. According to well-placed diplomatic circles in Islamabad, Beijing's wish for a military presence in Pakistan was discussed at length by the political and military leadership of both countries in recent months as China (which views the Uyghur separatist sentiment as a dire threat) has become ever-more concerned about Pakistan's tribal areas as a haven for radicals.

Beijing believes that similar to the United States military presence in Pakistan, a Chinese attendance would enable its military to effectively counter the Muslim separatists who have been operating from the tribal areas of Pakistan for almost a decade, carrying out cross-border terrorist activities in trouble-stricken Xinjiang province.

Peter Lee | Oct 22 | Asia Times

In recent weeks, China and the United States have both issued white papers outlining their visions of the world and Asian order. The Chinese version - its "White Paper on Peaceful Development" - set out a rosy vision of peace and prosperity driven by economic development. [1]

However, aggressive state capitalism is not a panacea for China or the world, a fact that China’s leadership may be ignoring at their peril.

The US version - in the form of a lengthy piece, "America's Pacific Century," published in Foreign Policy magazine under Hillary Clinton's name - is a misguided exercise in agenda-setting that may have even more serious long-term consequences. [2]

Its true message, if anyone still had any doubts, is that the short-lived "G2" romance at the beginning of the Obama administration - the hopeful idea that China would serve as America's favored Class 1 interlocutor on matters of global importance, instead of a distrusted adversary - is dead and buried in the US diplomatic graveyard, next to Iranian rapprochement.

Instead, it looks like rivalry with China is meant to serve as the raison d'etre of US diplomacy in Asia.

The theme of the Clinton article is the "strategic pivot" from the Middle East to East Asia. In other words, as the United States government sheds the incubus of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it will devote the majority of its energy and focus to East Asia.

A less flattering alternative explanation is that the US has shot its geopolitical bolt in the Middle East, and increasingly assertive governments in Tel Aviv, Riyadh, and Cairo are less interested in following the US tune.

Asia on the other hand, offers a more welcoming environment: one big and rather menacing country, China, and a lot of smaller countries interested in a US counterweight.more at link

Clifford Coonan | Oct 23

The Independent - The death of Yue Yue has provoked a bout of anguished soul-searching. Has Beijing's obsession with growth created a people devoid of empathy? Clifford Coonan reports

A little girl left bleeding to death on the side of the street after being struck by two goods vehicles, while 18 people passed her by and did nothing to help her.

A woman, six months pregnant, who died during a forced abortion to meet the terms of the one child policy of population control. These two incidents this week have left many people in China wondering aloud if rampant economic growth has come at the cost of the country's humanity. Is China becoming more dehumanised as incomes increase?

On the social networks, the talk is collective responsibility for the scandals. "We are all passers-by," one recently posted message read. The question is how this message of civic responsibility will go down with a generation reared on the principle that "to get rich is glorious".

money corrupts the soul :(

Jim Gomez | Manila | Oct 18

AP/The Guardian - About 3,000 U.S. and Filipino marines started two weeks of annual military drills in the Philippines on Monday that will include a hostile beach assault exercise near the disputed Spratly Islands.

U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Nick Eisenbeiser said the Oct. 17-28 maneuvers would focus on honing their joint capability to ensure regional security and were not aimed at China or any country as an imaginary target.

"They shouldn't get worried," Eisenbeiser told The Associated Press, when asked if the exercises were aimed at China, whose growing naval power has set off concerns in the region. "We're assisting the Chinese in ensuring that their region is peaceful."

The exercises would ensure that U.S. and Philippine forces could jointly respond to "anything that arises," he said.

The United States irked Beijing last year by asserting that Washington had a national security interest in the peaceful resolution of the disputes over the Spratly Islands.

The potentially oil-rich islands are located in the South China Sea, between Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia, and straddle some of the world's busiest sea lanes.

China seeks to resolve the disputes through bilateral talks with five other claimants, including the Philippines. Beijing has rejected any U.S. role in the resolution of the disputes over the islands.

Johannesburg | Oct 7

AFP - Desmond Tutu's last-ditch appeal to South Africa to grant a visa to the Dalai Lama on the eve of his 80th birthday was rejected Thursday, marring the start of the celebrations.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader on Tuesday cancelled a planned trip to South Africa because of delays with his visa, provoking a furious response from Tutu who blasted President Jacob Zuma's government as worse than apartheid and accused him of kowtowing to China.

British billionaire Richard Branson joined the chorus of condemnation in a blog post, saying he had written to Zuma urging him to allow the Dalai Lama's visit.

"How very sad therefore to see South Africa bowing to pressure from China to stop the Dalai Lama visiting South Africa to celebrate Archbishop Desmond Tutu's birthday this Friday, where together they were going to discuss peace and reconciliation," he said.

Zuma has refused to take a public stand on the visa, saying Monday that "I don't think that you can get a definite answer from me".

What an ass!

This is why we can't have nice things: we can't even talk about them without our corporate overlords overruling us.