PetroChina to join Exxon on giant Iraqi oilfield

“China’s biggest energy firm PetroChina will join Exxon Mobil  in developing Iraq’s giant West Qurna oilfield and is in talks with Lukoil  to buy into a second project at the field, industry sources said on Friday. China is already the top foreign player in Iraq’s southern oilfields and a deal at West Qurna would boost its dominance and could make PetroChina the biggest single foreign investor. PetroChina partners BP  at Rumaila, Iraq’s biggest oilfield, and operates the Halfaya field. The company was the first foreign firm to sign an oil service deal in Iraq after U.S.-led forces toppled former president Saddam Hussein.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/09/petrochina-to-join-exxon-on-giant-iraqi-oilfield-source/

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China Tests Japan on Senkaku Island Claims After Philippine Success

China deployed ships to waters near islands disputed with Japan for a record 28 hours, drawing a formal protest as it repeated a strategy of pressing its territorial claims through bolder projections of maritime power. Ships from China’s newly formed coast guard remained in the Japanese-controlled waters for the longest time since Japan bought the islands last year, Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. Japan’s Foreign Ministry summoned a Chinese diplomat and ‘sternly protested,’ he said. The Chinese action around the islands comes two days after Japan unveiled the largest military ship it has produced since World War II.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-08/japan-files-china-protest-after-ships-approach-disputed-islands.html

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BRICS emerging economies to expand co-operation on internet & security

“Edward’s Snowden’s revelations about US cybersnooping appear to be pushing its rivals closer together as China and other major emerging economies agree to expand co-operation on internet security. The consensus to emerge from a meeting of senior security officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa shows a broad desire to carve out their own turf in cyberspace and reduce reliance on American technology.  The bloc is already collaborating on the BRICS cable, a US$1.5 billion marine fibre optic cable linking the BRICS countries and the US with 21 countries in Africa. It is due to begin service in mid-2015.”

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1276995/brics-emerging-economies-expand-co-operation-internet-security

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Mining the Gobi: The Battle for Mongolia’s Resources

“The country, whose economy has been growing faster than almost any other, is almost entirely dependent on the export of raw materials. Mongolia has things everyone wants — coal, copper, gold, uranium, rare earth minerals — and that potential wealth is reflected in the high-ranking visitors it draws. Donald Rumsfeld has been to Ulan Bator, as have Angela Merkel and several Japanese prime ministers. Beijing especially is making an effort to reach out to its northern neighbor. This July the first flat-bed trucks set out from Oyu Tolgoi to China, each bearing 36 tons of a brown, cement-like powder, from which copper and gold would be extracted.”

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/mining-the-gobi-desert-rio-tinto-and-mongolia-fight-over-profits-a-915021-druck.html

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Chinese baby ‘sold by doctor’ reunited with parents

“Zhang Suxia, the doctor responsible for the birth, allegedly persuaded the parents to give up their child last month after informing them he had serious congenital diseases.  The paper reported that a farmer with three daughters bought the baby boy from the alleged traffickers for 60,000 yuan ($9,800).  Trafficking of children is a serious problem in China, blamed in part on the ‘one-child’ policy which has put a premium on baby boys, with girls sometimes sold off, abandoned or put up for adoption. Chinese police rescued 89 children and arrested 355 suspects in December after breaking up a series of child trafficking rings.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/06/chinese-baby-sold-by-doctor-reunited-with-parents/

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Meet Tian Yu: The woman who nearly killed herself making your iPad

“Tian Yu worked more than 12 hours a day, six days a week. She had to skip meals to do overtime. Then she threw herself from a fourth-floor window.  Without its No 1 supplier, the Cupertino giant’s current riches would be unimaginable: in 2010, Longhua employees made 137,000 iPhones a day, or around 90 a minute. That same year, 18 workers – none older than 25 – attempted suicide at Foxconn facilities. Fourteen died. Tian Yu was one of the lucky ones: emerging from a 12-day coma, she was left with fractures to her spine and hips and paralysed from the waist down. She was 17.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/06/meet-tian-yu-the-woman-who-nearly-died-making-your-ipad/

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China Is Ending Its “One-Child Policy” – Here Are The Implications

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“The one-child-policy is very unpopular. [..] Currently, a second child is permitted if both parents are singletons. Rural families can have a second child if the first-born is a girl. Some provinces have even looser policies for rural families. There are also other exceptions for a second child, and minority ethnic groups are allowed to have two or even more children. Families which have more children than the policy allows are subject to fines under the name of social maintenance fees. The fee amount varies across the nation, but usually is at least 2-6 times of the higher of annual family income and average local household disposable income.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-04/china-ending-its-one-child-policy-here-are-implications

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Why U.S. Policy in East Asia is Dangerous

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“The United States contained the Soviets until the government collapsed because of economic stagnation and a plummeting price of oil—the only thing anyone ever wanted to buy from the USSR. Now, the United States’ latest pivot to East Asia is intended to reinforce the already existing containment policy towards China by building up U.S. military forces and augmenting Cold War alliances in the region. This is unlikely to stem China’s rise. While Russia was supposedly on the rise, their economy was sinking. In China’s case, their economy is largely the reason behind their new status as an international power broker.”

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=4677

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Visitors flock to Pakistani-controlled Kashmir valley in rare tourist boom

“Success stories can be rare in Pakistan, but business is booming in one Kashmir tourist spot as the region rebuilds after a devastating earthquake and shrugs off associations with violence. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistani tourists drawn to the lakes and glaciers of the Neelum valley are injecting desperately needed money into one of the poorest parts of the country. With a new road built by the Chinese after the 2005 earthquake killed 73,000 people and a ceasefire holding with India, Pakistanis are discovering the snow-capped peaks, glaciers, lakes and lush-green meadows of the Neelum valley.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/16/visitors-flock-to-pakistani-controlled-kashmir-valley-in-rare-tourist-boom/

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Wall Street Journal’s Chinese version site blocked in China

“Access to the Wall Street Journal’s Chinese-language edition has been cut off in China, where official censors routinely delete online content deemed sensitive but less often block entire websites. The Journal’s Chinese-language site has had certain articles blocked since it was launched in 2002, but rarely the whole site. The ruling Communist Party blocked the websites of the US media outfits Bloomberg and The New York Times last year after exposes revealed the huge fortunes amassed by relatives of President Xi Jinping and of former premier Wen Jiabao.”

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1294244/wall-street-journals-chinese-version-site-blocked-china

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