China News Now

Men walk past an electronic board displaying market indices from around the world outside a brokerage in Tokyo. Credit: Reuters/Toru Hanai By Chikako Mogi TOKYO | Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:35pm EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares inched up on Tuesday as Chinese factory data lent support to Australian stocks, but concerns about the U.S. economy and the euro zone capped prices. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.2 percent, after posting just a 0.4 percent gain in April. Japan's Nikkei stock average .N225 extended losses from Friday to fall 1.1 percent as a stronger yen hurt exporters. The market was closed on Monday for a public holiday. .T Australian shares .AXJO extended gains to a rise on the day of 0.5 percent after data showing China's official purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to a 13-month high of 53.3 in April. The market had been up 0.2 percent before the data...

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with his Sudanese counterpart Ali Ahmed Karti in Moscow April 30, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Denis Sinyakov By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS | Tue May 1, 2012 1:20am EDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China and Russia are resisting a Western push for the U.N. Security Council to threaten Sudan and South Sudan with sanctions if the two countries fail to comply with demands to halt their escalating conflict, U.N. envoys said. The U.N. negotiations on Sudan and South Sudan, former civil war foes that split when the south seceded last year, follow weeks of border fighting that have raised fears Khartoum and Juba could launch an all-out war, after failing to resolve a string of disputes over oil revenues and border demarcation. Delegates from the 15-nation Security Council met on Monday for several hours at the U.S. mission in New York to try to reach an agreement on amending a ...

Men walk past an electronic board displaying market indices from around the world outside a brokerage in Tokyo. Credit: Reuters/Toru Hanai By Chikako Mogi TOKYO | Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:35pm EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares inched up on Tuesday as Chinese factory data lent support to Australian stocks, but concerns about the U.S. economy and the euro zone capped prices. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.2 percent, after posting just a 0.4 percent gain in April. Japan's Nikkei stock average .N225 extended losses from Friday to fall 1.1 percent as a stronger yen hurt exporters. The market was closed on Monday for a public holiday. .T Australian shares .AXJO extended gains to a rise on the day of 0.5 percent after data showing China's official purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to a 13-month high of 53.3 in April. The market had been up 0.2 percent before the data...

By JAY SOLOMON WASHINGTONâ€"The White House scolded China on its human-rights record on Monday as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared to depart for Beijing on a mission that holds the potential to redefine the Obama administration's relations with China. President Barack Obama upheld his administration's broad silence on the issue of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who late last week disappeared after escaping from house arrest, spurring widespread speculation that he is being harbored by American officials in Beijing. "Obviously, I'm aware of the press reports on the situation in China, but I'm not going to make a statement on the issue," Mr. Obama told reporters at the White House. "What I would like to emphasize is that every time we meet with China, the issue of human rights comes up." For Mrs. Clintonâ€"who positioned China at the top of her agenda after becoming Washington's chief diplomat three years ago and ...

Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:17pm EDT (Fixes typo in 5th paragraph, changing "ban" to "band") * U.S. businesses see fresh commitment to economic reforms * U.S. firms not yet worried about fallout from Chinese dissident * U.S. lawmakers more focused on market access than yuan By Rachelle Younglai WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - U.S. businesses are optimistic that vows of economic reform by Beijing will lead to an opening of China's financial system, and they are not worried diplomatic strains over a Chinese dissident will undermine high-level talks later this week. Despite tensions over blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who escaped house arrest last week and is believed to be under U.S. protection in Beijing, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are still heading to Beijing for annual meetings. "The fact that the trip is going forward for both cabinet ...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Strike two against China's once invulnerable domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang. An audacious escape by blind dissident Chen Guangcheng is the second uproar this year to hit Zhou, who has expanded China 's policing apparatus into a vast, costly and - now for all the world to see - a flawed tool of Communist Party control. But even one of the biggest domestic security embarrassments in more than a decade is unlikely to knock him out before a party congress late this year that will appoint successors to him and other retiring leaders, said several experts. The question will be whether his successor gets to rethink his legacy and rein in the domestic security establishment whose $110 billion budget exceeds the People's Liberation Army's. Chen outfoxed a cordon of guards and security cameras to flee home imprisonment in Shandong province in east China, escaping to what supporters have said is U.S. protection in Beijing. His feat was a rebuff to Zh...

By JOSH CHIN BEIJINGâ€"Activist Chen Guangcheng's apparent unwillingness to leave China could complicate any negotiations between Washington and Beijing over his fate, bringing the two sides into territory that has been largely uncharted in previous bids by Chinese dissidents seeking U.S. help. China-U.S. relations could hit a tense point as speculation rises that Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is being sheltered at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The WSJ's Deborah Kan speaks to reporter Josh Chin about what--if any--options the U.S. has. Chinese officials maintained their silence Monday about the location of Mr. Chen, the blind activist who acquaintances say escaped from his guarded home last week and made his way to Beijing. These people say they believe Mr. Chen sought U.S. protection. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which hasn't commented on the assertion but also hasn't denied it, also remained silent on the issue Monday. Mr. Chen earned official i...

HONG KONG (AP) â€" China Eastern Airlines is buying 20 Boeing 777 jets worth nearly $6 billion while also selling five Airbus A340s to the U.S. plane maker because they're costlier to run, the Shanghai-based airline said Monday. The airline said it's selling the Airbus A340-600 airplanes worth $708 million to Boeing because they have high operating costs and "relatively weak route competitiveness." The Airbus jets are about 8.3 years old, on average, and fly long-haul routes to New York and Los Angeles . China Eastern said list price of the 777-300ERs is $5.94 billion but it negotiated a discount. Airlines routinely get discounts from aircraft makers, and the final selling price for aircraft is rarely disclosed. Boeing said last week the deal needs Chinese government approval. The new jets will be delivered in stages from 2014 to 2018. The airline will pay for them using working capital, bank loans and other sources of financing. The 777 is...

Jason Lee/Reuters Paramilitary police officers patrolled near the United States Embassy, where it was thought that Chen Guangcheng was staying. WASHINGTON â€" The Obama administration rushed to contain a growing diplomatic crisis between the United States and China , sending a senior diplomat to Beijing to discuss the fate of a blind dissident who fled house arrest last week. Amid intense secrecy, including a nearly blanket refusal to comment, the administration sought to negotiate over the safety of the dissident, Chen Guangcheng, who is said to be in American hands in Beijing â€" though it remained unclear late Sunday whether he was in the embassy, in a diplomatic residence, or somewhere else. The senior diplomat, Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, arrived Sunday to meet with Chinese officials concerning Mr. Chen’s case, and to try to keep the matter from undermining the administration’s longstanding effort to improve economic and securit...

The Obama administration’s thinking (echoed by the foreign policy establishment and the media) on the fate of dissident Chen Guangcheng was summed up Sunday by White House counterterrorism advisor John O. Brennan , who opined that a “balance” had to be struck between Chen’s fate and positive relations with China. As the Wall Street Journal put it : “Sheltering Mr. Chen would present the U.S. with a dilemma. Keeping Mr. Chen at a U.S. facility could strain relations with China. Turning over Mr. Chen to Chinese authorities might subject him to harsh punishment, which could be politically damaging to the Obama administration.” In other words, human rights and defense of our ally Taiwan “complicate” our relationship with China. If only we could just push aside our national interests, things would go swimmingly with the Chinese rulers. It is not China’s problem, you see, but ours when we are confronted with a human rights situation. The “dilemma” is how to ignore C...

By LAURIE BURKITT BEIJINGâ€"Food safety regulators in northern China have shut down production at a beverage plant owned by Coca-Cola Co. as punishment after finding chlorine in a batch of drinks made in February. In a statement on Saturday, the quality regulator in the Chinese province of Shanxi said it found during an April inspection that a batch of drinks produced by Coca-Cola (Shanxi) Beverage Ltd. was made with water containing chlorine. The statement from the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision refers to the suspension as a penalty for the chlorine levels. The statement on the bureau's website didn't detail the findings and didn't say when the plant will resume production. A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said the Atlanta-based company found only trace levels of chlorine in the batch made between Feb. 4 and Feb. 8. The levels were just below the national standard of purified water in China of 0.005 milligrams per liter, the spokeswoma...

On a rooftop bar in Beijing, a twenty-something sips a raspberry Margarita and dishes the latest dirt on the scandal that has gripped China’s capital, if not most of the country. “I’ve heard the police and the military are supporting two different factions [vying for political power],” she says.  “Lots of people who were close to [disgraced former city chief] Bo Xilai are being arrested in Chongqing.” The next evening, a retired party member whispers conspiratorially: “Have you heard? Jiang Zemin has been spending time in Beijing,” referring to the former top leader of China. Jiang lives in Shanghai and, although he retired almost 10 years ago, still is the most powerful player in China’s byzantine politics. “He’s making sure his people are O.K.” A taxi driver scowls when asked about the intrigue surrounding the upcoming leadership transition and the fate of Bo: “Those who are capable don’t get promoted in China. Those who aren’t, they are the ones wh...

China ’s two stock exchanges will lower fees charged for trading yuan-denominated shares by 25 percent with effect from June 1, the nation’s securities regulator said in a statement on its website today. The Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses will charge both buyers and sellers 0.087 percent of the transaction value, while the Shanghai branch of the China Securities Depository & Clearing Corp. will set transfer fees at 0.375 percent of transaction value, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission. China’s capital market has expanded over the years as the number of listed companies and stock trading volumes increase, paving the way for lower fees, the CSRC said. The changes will ease the burden on investors and spur the “healthy development” of the market, it said. “The regulators are trying to revive and excite the trading in the A-share market, which has been a poor market over the last few years,” Khiem Do, the Hong Kong-based head of Asian multi...

Jason Lee/Reuters Paramilitary police officers patrolled near the United States Embassy, where it was thought that Chen Guangcheng was staying. WASHINGTON â€" The Obama administration rushed to contain a growing diplomatic crisis between the United States and China , sending a senior diplomat to Beijing to discuss the fate of a blind dissident who fled house arrest last week. Amid intense secrecy, including a nearly blanket refusal to comment, the administration sought to negotiate over the safety of the dissident, Chen Guangcheng, who is said to be in American hands in Beijing â€" though it remained unclear late Sunday whether he was in the embassy, in a diplomatic residence, or somewhere else. The senior diplomat, Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, arrived Sunday to meet with Chinese officials concerning Mr. Chen’s case, and to try to keep the matter from undermining the administration’s longstanding effort to improve economic and securit...

U.S.-China talks may yield little major progress - MarketWatch Bulletin Get news bulletins by email » U.S. stock indexes open week with single-digit declines