Must-read China news by Danwei

Twelve Israelis are being held in the Turks and Caicos Island chain in the Caribbean by 300 Chinese workers, Ynet learned Thursday.

The Israelis, who are being held on West Caicos, were on the islands working for Ashtrom Engineering and Construction, an Israeli building company responsible for a large tourist project.

An Israeli working in the area told Ynet that the Israelis were taken hostage after the project was canceled, due to bank collapse.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 5:18 PM | Permalink

Once a village of open farmland in Linxian county, Henan province, it has, like many parts of rural China, been transformed in the past three decades into a modern suburb with factories and multi-story housing. Only a few acres of wheat and vegetables at the entrance to the village sit as a reminder of the village's past.

Nancy Jervis has been tracking these momentous changes in Linxian county for more than three decades. A New York anthropologist and one of the first American academics to study social and rural life in China, Jervis first visited the village in 1972, and has been coming back since.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 3:39 PM | Permalink

In yet another strong editorial, this one for Shanghai's Oriental Daily, which seems to be ramping up the strength of its editorial page, columnist Chang Ping (长平) argues that 'going to the heart of the problem' in cases like the Lifan mudslide and the milk powder scandal requires more attention to the question of media freedom.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:24 AM | Permalink

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 6:12 AM | Permalink

China's trade surplus widened to a record last month as exports withstood the global economic slowdown and falling commodity prices reduced the import bill.

Exports rose 21.5 percent from a year earlier to US$136.4 billion after gaining 21.1 percent in August, the customs bureau said on its Web site. The trade surplus climbed to US$29.3 billion, a figure derived by deducting the value of imports from the number for exports.

China has stimulated the world's fourth-biggest economy by cutting interest rates twice in a month to counter the financial crisis. The surplus swelled a record US$1.8 trillion in foreign-currency reserves, which may help the nation maintain growth of more than 9 percent as a global recession looms.

It's not a bad thing to have a relatively large trade surplus when there's a global financial crisis,' said Wang Qian (王黔), an economist at J.P. Morgan in Hong Kong.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 5:41 AM | Permalink

[F]acts lurking in reports from a handful of Chinese newspapers in recent days beg serious questions about the government's handling of a scandal China's leaders want very much to put behind them.

Specifically, there are indications that dairy companies and retailers are now employing aggressive sales promotion campaigns to offload products manufactured in the months before the scandal came to light -- products that could be harmful despite government reassurances.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:36 PM | Permalink

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:31 PM | Permalink

China has decided to continue allowing foreign reporters to interview anyone who consents after the current relaxed media rules expire next Friday, a Chinese source knowledgeable about the situation has said.

China implemented temporary media rules in January 2007 as part of its Olympics pledge to give international media complete freedom during the Summer Games, which were held in August.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:38 AM | Permalink