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• Sharp plans major cutbacks, sell-off of overseas plants
• Beijing Design Week: Where ‘Made in China’ is a Good Thing
• Bo scandal: Doubts over UK businessman’s death arise
• Bo scandal: Doubts over UK bizman’s death arise
• Chinese media mogul put on mat over graft
• Architectural ‘Moon’ Illuminates Hong Kong
• False start: Liu Xiang's image used in premature ejaculation ad
• Chinese Muslims start annual pilgrimage to Mecca
• Chinese auctioneers call for credibility amid market slump
• Chinese social media and expanding charity: Gates Foundation
• Taiwan, China discuss travel safety pact: Chinese official
• China's wind energy giants target European market
• Chinatrust's Koo joins bid for Next Media
• New coronvirus in Middle East as severe as SARS: China CDC
• OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR; When Growth Outpaces Happiness
• Top China Stories from WSJ: Gu Trial Skepticism, Ai Weiwei, New Cash Spigots
• 'Flaming moon' lantern lights up Hong Kong
• 'Bainport' workers seek Romney-Obama debate on outsourcing | Amy Goodman
• Another Term for Thein Sein?
• School building collapse injured 11 in central China

Sharp plans major cutbacks, sell-off of overseas plants Posted: 28 Sep 2012 05:10 AM PDT Sharp reportedly plans to delist from small stock exchanges in Japan, laying off 10,000 workers and selling its overseas factories in an attempt to restructure and end its profit-losing streak. Sour...

Beijing Design Week: Where ‘Made in China’ is a Good Thing Posted: 27 Sep 2012 08:52 PM PDT Geared toward international design buffs, Beijing Design Week shines the spotlight on both up-and-coming local designers and international heavyweights.

Bo scandal: Doubts over UK businessman’s death arise Posted: 27 Sep 2012 04:55 PM PDT A Chinese forensic scientist has cast doubt on the official version of the death of a Briton, which triggered a huge political scandal, ending the career of senior Communist Party leader Bo

Bo scandal: Doubts over UK bizman’s death arise Posted: 27 Sep 2012 04:55 PM PDT A Chinese forensic scientist has cast doubt on the official version of the death of a Briton, which triggered a huge political scandal, ending the career of senior Communist Party leader Bo

Chinese media mogul put on mat over graft Posted: 27 Sep 2012 04:51 PM PDT A Chinese newspaper baron, acclaimed in the west for trying to make a difference in the highly controlled publishing industry, has been put on the mat by the ruling Communist Party's investigators.

Architectural ‘Moon’ Illuminates Hong Kong Posted: 27 Sep 2012 07:56 PM PDT Hong Kong's annual mid-autumn celebrations are under way, and in addition to the city's traditional mooncakes and lanterns, a giant moon -- actually an outsize architectural sculpture -- is lighting up Victoria Park.

False start: Liu Xiang's image used in premature ejaculation ad Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:38 AM PDT An image of Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang has been used without the former Olympic gold medalist's permission in an advertisement for a sexual health clinic in Guangdong province, reports the Jiangsu-base...

Chinese Muslims start annual pilgrimage to Mecca Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:38 AM PDT A total of 332 Chinese Muslims flew to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, via a charter flight Tuesday evening for the annual pilgrimage. They are the first group among 13,800 Chinese pilgrims that will head to Is...

Chinese auctioneers call for credibility amid market slump Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:38 AM PDT Forty-four Chinese auction houses were honored Tuesday as Standardized Enterprise of Chinese Antiques and Artworks Auction for their good management and law-abiding practice. The list of distinctio...

Chinese social media and expanding charity: Gates Foundation Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:38 AM PDT China's social media companies put aside competition when they come to work together for social good, setting a great example from which other countries can learn, according to a senior officer of the...

Taiwan, China discuss travel safety pact: Chinese official Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:38 AM PDT Taiwan and China are looking at the feasibility of signing an agreement on travel safety and emergency responses, Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said i...

China's wind energy giants target European market Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:34 AM PDT Dozens of leading Chinese wind energy companies expressed great interest in overseas markets at the HUSUM WindEnergy 2012 trade fair in Germany this week amid a stagnating domestic market, reports the...

Chinatrust's Koo joins bid for Next Media Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:30 AM PDT Jeffrey Koo Jr, chairman of Taiwan's Chinatrust Charity Foundation, has reportedly joined the bidding race for Taiwan's top-selling newspaper Apple Daily, Sharp Daily and Next Magazine, and is determi...

New coronvirus in Middle East as severe as SARS: China CDC Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:30 AM PDT China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that the new coronvirus detected in Middle East is not SARS but as severe as it, while five people have been isolated in a hospital ...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR; When Growth Outpaces Happiness Posted: 27 Sep 2012 10:00 PM PDT It is startling to find that Chinese people's feelings of well-being have declined in a period of such momentous improvement in their economic lives.

Top China Stories from WSJ: Gu Trial Skepticism, Ai Weiwei, New Cash Spigots Posted: 27 Sep 2012 06:54 PM PDT A Chinese forensic expert cast doubt on Beijing's version of Gu Kailai's trial; artist Ai Weiwei said he would refuse to pay the remainder of a $2.4 million fine for tax evasion; China's central bank poured a record amount of cash into the nation's banking system this week.

'Flaming moon' lantern lights up Hong Kong Posted: 27 Sep 2012 03:03 PM PDT A huge 'flaming moon' lantern lights up a central Hong Kong park to launch China's mid-Autumn festival celebrations.

'Bainport' workers seek Romney-Obama debate on outsourcing | Amy Goodman Posted: 27 Sep 2012 09:14 AM PDT Freeport, Illinois hosted a famous 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debate. Now, its citizens ask why Bain is sending their jobs to China Freeport, Illinois is the site of one of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. On 27 August 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debated there in their race for Illinois' US Senate seat. Lincoln lost that race, but the Freeport debate set the stage for his eventual defeat of Douglas in the presidential election of 1860, and thus the civil war. Today, as the African-American president of the United States prepares to debate the candidate from the party of Lincoln, workers in Freeport are staging a protest, hoping to put their plight into the center of the national debate this election season. "Bainport" is the name the workers have given their protest encampment. A group of workers from Sensata Technologies have set up their tents across the road from the plant where many of them have spent their adult lives working. Sensata makes high-tech sensors for automobiles, including the sensors that help automatic transmissions run safely. Sensata Technologies recently bought the plant from Honeywell, and promptly told the more than 170 workers there that their jobs and all the plant's equipment would be shipped to China. You may never have heard of Sensata Technologies, but in this election season, you've probably heard the name of its owner, Bain Capital, the company co-founded and formerly run by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. When they learned this, close to a dozen Sensata employees decided to put up a fight, to challenge Romney to put into practice his very campaign slogans to save American jobs. They traveled to Tampa, Florida, joining in a poor people's campaign at a temporary camp called Romneyville (after the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression). They organized a petition drive, getting 35,000 people to join their demand to Romney to call on his former colleagues, to save their jobs. Since Freeport is close to two swing states, Iowa and Wisconsin, they traveled to a Romney rally and appealed directly to him there. Ironically, for appealing to Romney to save their jobs from being sent to China, the Sensata workers were jeered as "communists" at the rally, and removed by US secret service. Then, the workers established Bainport. Set up at the Stephenson County fairgrounds, with the full support of the community, the workers have spent more than two weeks camped out, with a dozen tents, a large circus-style tent serving as a covered gathering space and command center, and an outdoor kitchen. They built a stage with a banner reading "Mitt Romney: Come to Freeport" and signs like "Romney does have a jobs plan … too bad it's for China". Behind the stage, they have built a small bridge that carries the workers across a gully to and from their remaining shifts at the plant. One night last week, we arrived at Bainport at 10.30pm. A group of workers and their supporters were sitting around the campfire. I talked to them, one by one, before they made their way to their tents. Dot Turner had to be at work at 5am. I asked her how long she'd been at the plant. "For 43 years. I started in 1969. I was 18 at the time," she told me. Her message to Romney was clear: "If he was really concerned about the American people and if he was concerned about creating jobs – the 12m jobs that he always uses as his stump speech – he could 'create' this job by leaving it here." While Romney has yet to visit Freeport, a campaign spokesman addressed the issue of Sensata, turning the issue around, onto President Barack Obama: "Despite the president being invested in Sensata through his personal pension fund, and the government owning a major Sensata customer in GM, President Obama has not used his powers to help this situation in any way." Obama didn't respond to the specific charge, but on the campaign trail, he hits Romney hard on Bain outsourcing jobs to China: "When you see these ads he's running, promising to get tough on China, it feels a lot like that fox saying, 'You know, we need more secure chicken coops.'" Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp visited Bainport on the morning that we broadcast our DemocracyNow! news hour from the camp. He told me about his hopes for the workers, reflecting on his hometown's long history: "Freeport is the home of the Lincoln-Douglas debate site. We've invited both campaigns, President Obama and Governor Romney, to come to Freeport and debate in an old-style campaign. It would be a perfect opportunity for him, the architect who mastered how to send jobs over offshore, to come back here and reverse the trend. "We're 65 miles from Paul Ryan's hometown of Janesville. It's a perfect location to come, have your feet on the ground and meet a cross-section of America." Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column © 2012 Amy Goodman; distributed by King Features Syndicate US unemployment and employment data United States US politics US elections 2012 Barack Obama Mitt Romney Democrats Republicans American civil war China US economy Republican national convention 2012 Private equity Amy Goodman guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Another Term for Thein Sein? Posted: 27 Sep 2012 04:50 PM PDT Burma's President Thein Sein said he may consider serving another term in office if the country and people wants him to do so. "If I have my way, I will only serve one term," said the 67-year-old retired general, who assumed office for a five-year term in March 2011, at a forum in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. "But of course the future of the position depends on the needs of country and the wishes of the people," he said. Thein Sein was responding to a question from the floor at the forum hosted by the New York-based Asia Society on whether he intends to leave office after his term expires in 2015. It was believed to be his first direct response to a question on his future since he came to power under a nominally civilian government replacing decades of brutal military rule. Thein Sein, who has been praised for implementing political, economic and other reforms that have been rewarded by the lifting of long running international sanctions, had indicated privately in the past that he is not interested in a second term, reports have said. "The president has laid the foundation for the political reform and he is the founder of this transition," Ko Ko Hlaing, his top political adviser, said in a May 2 interview in Rangoon with Bloomberg news agency. "So after this tenure, if it is quite successful, he may be content with his works. The next steps toward democracy will be in the hands of other leaders," he said. Political pundits say the next election in 2015 will be crucial as it would determine whether the powerful military will accept a win by the popular opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which swept by-elections in April. Three years away from the next elections, few expect the military or Thein Sein's military-dominated ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) to allow any dilution of the military's powers. UN address Earlier, Thein Sein told the U.N. General Assembly Thursday that the reform process he is leading is "irreversible" and vowed to resolve the country's ethnic conflicts, including the Muslim Rohingya problem according to "international norms." In a speech that was simultaneously broadcast live on Burmese state television, Thein Sein said that Burma had made significant progress towards democracy since his government took power and that all groups "have been taking tangible irreversible steps in the democratic transition and reform process." Burma, he said, was now "leaving behind a system of authoritarian government," referring to the country's former military junta which had ruled the country for nearly five decades. His speech followed a U.S. announcement Wednesday that it would ease a ban on imports from Burma—the latest effort by Washington to reward sweeping democratic changes. Thein Sein listed a number of reforms his government had undertaken, including the granting of amnesties to prisoners, the convening of credible 2012 by-elections, the abolition of media censorship and the increased participation of the Burmese people in the country's political process. In particular, he noted the democracy building efforts of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently on a U.S. visit during which she received the Congressional Gold Medal—the country's top civilian award—and met with U.S. President Barack Obama. Imprisoned under house arrest for most of the last two decades by the former military junta, Aung San Suu Kyi was freed in 2010 and won a seat in parliament earlier this year along with a number of colleagues from her NLD party. Thein Sein's recognition of Aung San Suu Kyi's work is believed to be the first time a Burmese leader had mentioned the democracy leader at a world body. The president said that political progress in Burma is "enhancing its political legitimacy," which is creating stability and paving the way for economic and social transformation. Ethnic conflict Thein Sein called the cessation of all ethnic armed conflicts in the nation "a prerequisite for building genuine democracy," and said that his government is "working hard to bring an end to the longstanding difficulties in the regions of our ethnic nationalities." Since taking power, the government has signed ceasefire agreement with 10 armed ethnic groups, but three rounds of peace talks since November held with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Burma's Kachin state have yielded little outcome. As recently as the end of last month, Burmese government troops were pounding KIA positions in clashes that have raged since a 17-year peace agreement between the two sides was shattered in June last year. The war started when Burma won independence from Britain in 1948. Kachin organizations say that 90,000 people have been displaced—many across the border to China—in the fighting since the ceasefire ended. But Thein Sein said that the leaders of the Government Peace Work Committee and the KIA are holding informal consultations and "working together to further strengthen confidence building measures." Thein Sein also addressed concerns over communal violence in western Burma's Rakhine state, where June clashes between Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhist Rakhines left more than 80 people dead and tens of thousands displaced. He noted that a national level independent investigation commission, comprised of respected persons from a variety of faiths, had been established to investigate the issue and report its findings to him, and that the government had been facilitating visits to the area by representatives from a number of international agencies. But he said that the problem "cannot be solved overnight," adding that the government had short-term and long-term plans in place taking into account political, economic and social issues in the area. "I sincerely believe that as an independent and sovereign state, [Burma] has the right to secure our borders and also to safeguard and protect our sovereignty," he said. "We will do our utmost to solve this issue in line with international norms." Thein Sein had come under international criticism after he suggested following the June violence that the U.N.'s refugee agency take responsibility for many of the country's Rohingyas and that they should be deported. His proposal was swiftly rejected by the agency, but thousands of Buddhist monks took to the streets to back his call and protest against the Rohingyas, saying they do not belong in Burma. The Rohingya, whom the U.N. considers one of the world's most persecuted minorities, are not recognized as an ethnic group in Burma even though they have lived in the country for  decades. Many of the country's 800,000 Rohingyas are denied citizenship even though their families have lived there for generations. Reported by Joshua Lipes.

School building collapse injured 11 in central China Posted: 27 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT Library building in Qinyang Senior High School collapsed on September 27. /Picture from Weibo.com Henan, China – A library building collapsed while still under construction in Qinyang City Senior High School, Henan Province on September 27. The 6-floor school library collapsed around 3pm, injured 11 workers who were working in the area. Witness said the injured have taken to local hospital when 4 ambulance arrived at scene. 6 workers were slightly injured and 5 others suffered skin traumas, according to People's News The cave-in occurred to a hallway which connects two buildings when pouring concrete. The collapse was caused by a broken steel pipe in its supporting frame. Experts have arrived at the scene to further investigate the accident. FMN

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