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Chinese artist Ai Weiwei wins fans in Los Angeles - Reuters

 

Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei closes the door to his studio after speaking to the media in Beijing June 23, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/David Gray

By Jordan Riefe

LOS ANGELES | Fri Sep 2, 2011 5:42pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is living a heavily restricted life in Beijing after being released from detention earlier this year, but his work is speaking volumes to people in the second-largest U.S. city.

Ai's touring installation, "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads," opened two weeks ago at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and has been introducing people here to the work of a man about whom, until recently, they may have only read about in headlines telling of his recent detention in China.

The work is a series of 12 massive, 800 lb. bronze heads depicting the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Standing among them on the museum's sunny North Piazza, people have been posing for photos standing next to the figures, leaning against them, and taking in the surface with their fingertips.

"I think he's questioning everybody, the entire idea of possession and of cultural permission and of nationalism," Franklin Sirmans, a curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) told Reuters about the installation.

"You see little kids going up to it and interacting with it in a way that is not necessarily about the same thing you or I might be interested in," Sirmans said. "Of course there are many other layers that come to mind as you learn more about the history behind the objects."

The installation is based on a series of sculptures carved by Giuseppe Castiglione, an 18th century Milanese artist and court painter to Ching Dynasty Emperor Kangxi. The original figures encircled a fountain in the Yuanming Yuan garden outside Beijing.

During the Second Opium War in 1860, the sculptures were looted by French and British troops. Of the original twelve figures only seven are known to exist, including two belonging to Yves St. Laurent which turned up at a 2009 auction.

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDLY

At the time, the Chinese government protested the sale, claiming the sculptures for China as a point of national pride. But Ai was among the first to ask whether they were even Chinese art, as they were made by Italian hands.

"It's interesting that the Chinese government used that (the auction) to take attention off of what is really happening domestically and sort of instill a sense of patriotism," said Stephanie Kwai of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

She wasn't the only one to notice.

With "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" Ai chooses the zodiac, a symbol of fate and destiny, to sculpt with his own hands as if to say he and he alone will shape his future -- not a government or ruler.

The internationally renowned artist has taken to Twitter in recent years, freely criticizing the Chinese government on various subjects ranging from the lax response to the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan to the Beijing Olympics.

For comments like those he was arrested in April this year and charged with tax evasion. When released in June after more than 80 days, he was sent home under heavy restrictions. He cannot be interviewed by journalists, meet foreigners, use the Internet or interact with rights advocates for a year.

Still, Ai has refused to stay completely silent. Just this week, he wrote a commentary that was published on the website of Newsweek magazine in which he called Beijing, "a city of violence." He criticized the Chinese government for rampant corruption and its policies toward migrant workers.

Fortunately his work can do a lot of his talking for him, in Los Angeles, and beyond. "Zodiac" will travel to Houston, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. where each new context will likely bestow new meaning on its audience.

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China Benefits as US Solar Industry Withers - New York Times

Some American, Japanese and European solar companies still have a technological edge over Chinese rivals, but seldom a cost advantage, according to industry analysts.

Loans at very low rates from state-owned banks in Beijing, cheap or free land from local and provincial governments across China, huge economies of scale and other cost advantages have transformed China from a minor player in the solar power industry just a few years ago into the main producer of an increasingly competitive source of electricity.

“The top-tier Chinese firms are kind of the benchmark now,” said Shayle Kann, a managing director of solar power studies at GTM Research, a renewable energy market analysis firm based in Boston. Pricing of solar equipment is determined by the Chinese industry, he said, “and everyone else prices at a premium or discount to them.”

Besides Solyndra, the other two American manufacturers that filed for bankruptcy in August were Evergreen Solar, of Massachusetts, and SpectraWatt, a New York company. Another company, BP Solar, halted manufacturing at its complex in Frederick, Md., last spring.

Those bankruptcies and closings represent almost one-fifth of the solar panel manufacturing capacity in the United States, according to GTM Research.

Solyndra and Evergreen in particular suffered because they pursued unusual technologies whose competitiveness depended on their using less polysilicon, the main material for solar panels. That has become less important because polysilicon prices have tumbled more than 80 percent in the last three years as output has caught up with demand.

Analysts say that two American companies remain strongly placed. One is First Solar, the largest American manufacturer, which uses a different technology but has its biggest factory in Malaysia. The other, SunPower, is much smaller but is an industry leader in the efficiency with which its panels convert sunlight into electricity, so that they sell at a premium to Chinese panels.

But with Beijing heavily supporting its industry, the Chinese companies are forging ahead.

“There is no question that renewable energy companies in the United States feel pressure from China,” said David B. Sandalow, the assistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the United States Energy Department. “Many of them say it is cheap capital, not cheap labor, that gives Chinese companies the main competitive advantage.”

China’s three biggest solar power companies — Suntech Power, Yingli Green Energy and Trina Solar — have all in the last two weeks announced second-quarter sales increases of 33 to 63 percent from a year earlier.

Yingli and Trina were also profitable in the quarter. Suntech posted a loss, mostly because it broke a longstanding agreement to buy solar wafers — critical components in the manufacturing process — from a Singapore affiliate of MEMC Electronic Materials of Missouri. Suntech aims to make more wafers itself.

Shares in large and small Chinese solar power companies have mostly rallied in the last two weeks on the New York and Hong Kong stock markets, as investors have welcomed their strong quarterly results and the prospect of dwindling competition from Western rivals. Besides the bankruptcies in the United States, solar power companies in Germany, another big producer, have been laying off workers and retrenching.

The recent strength of Chinese stocks “truly reflects the low cost base of the Chinese solar manufacturers, and it is great to see their positioning, particularly relative to their American and European counterparts,” said K. K. Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a Chinese clean energy investment company based in Beijing.

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Chinese billionaire to purchase big chunk of Iceland - CTV.ca

Updated: Sat Sep. 03 2011 7:05:57 AM

CTVNews.ca Staff

A Chinese adventurer and business tycoon is stirring controversy in Iceland by proposing to buy a chunk of the North Atlantic country for a luxury eco-resort.

Huang Nubo, who was a Chinese government official prior to making a fortune in real estate, plans to buy a tract of land equivalent to 0.3 per cent of Iceland's territory for $8.8 million.

Huang has been known to venture to remote corners of the Earth, having scaled Mount Everest and trekked Antarctica. During a visit to northeast Iceland he says he fell in love with a barren stretch of land known as Grimsstadir a Fjollum. And he wants to buy 300-square-kilometres of property there to build a $175-million luxury eco-tourism resort.

The government in Reykjavik, still reeling from a 2008 banking collapse, has welcomed the venture. But critics argue that Huang's close ties to China's communist party are cause for concern.

Could Beijing be using the deal to establish a presence closer to the Arctic, where climate change might open trade routes and opportunities for resource exploration? Could the Chinese government be seeking access to a deep water port 50 kilometres from the site, or water from a glacier runoff?

On Friday, Huang defended the project at a news conference at his company's headquarters, where he dismissed the conspiracy talk.

The project would be part of a chain of high-end nature retreats in China, the U.S. and Scandinavia, he said. It would also help preserve the local environment and Icelandic culture, Huang argued, and would use only private investment funds.

"If it involved politics or any other background (than tourism), I wouldn't go there," he said.

Iceland's ambassador to Beijing, Kristin Arnadottir, appeared alongside Huang, saying that the proposal fits with Iceland's twin goals of promoting foreign investment and tourism.

"Perhaps we are going to experience something much more positive as Iceland becomes a tourist destination," she said.

Critics of the deal include Jon Thorisson, an architect who has lobbied to keep foreign investors from snapping up Icelandic resources. Due to Iceland's small size, he said the proposal is equivalent to Washington selling off the state of Missouri.

"Will large-scale ownership allow them to exert political influence?" Thorisson said. "Is it possible that we Icelanders will end up like tenant farmers on our own land?"

Andri Snaer Magnason, a writer and eco-activist, questioned whether the resort was economically feasible due to its remote location. He said it evokes memories of the jetsetting Icelandic bankers whose investment practices destroyed their industry.

"It lacks all sense and logic," he said.

Similar deals have run into opposition in other countries -- including in Canada and the United States -- as Beijing has stepped up investment abroad. Critics have questioned whether the communist government may be involved in the business practices of Chinese firms seeking overseas investments.

The most high-profile case took place in 2005, when state-owned Chinese oil company CNOOC Ltd. abandoned a bid to buy U.S. oil and gas firm Unocal Corp. American politicians had complained that the sale went against Washington's national security interests.

But Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir has said her country would welcome Huang's investment.

The deal has yet to be approved, however. The government is reviewing investment rules that limit land ownership by foreigners, according to Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson.

Huang said he hopes to secure approval from officials in Beijing and Reykjavik by February, and finish the first phase of development for the resort by 2015.

With files from The Associated Press and a report from CTV's Beijing Bureau Chief Ben O'Hara Byrne

Please Add Comments

Don
China, Iceland and Canada against the US.Russia can join the new alliance too.

ronnie from montreal
why does he want to buy this ? hmmm like doesnt sound right , as Iwouldnt trust him 1 bit

Zane
China has always believed that they should rule the world. They now are trying to do so financially under the guise of capitalism, by a communist country. Unless the western world is to change there habit of materialism and more, China will succeed in owning a huge block of the world.

billionaire apparatchik
Ahhh tourism ...last refuge of the financially damned (that would be Iceland). I would be weary of any one who comes from The People's Republic of China (or the former Soviet Union for that matter) and has a great deal of money to invest. Hey, how about that derelict Soviet aircraft carrier that was purchased by a Chinese "tourism" company for a floating hotel and casino then reappears several years later as a fully operational aircraft carrier??

Ian in N.B.
I understand the whole, "Oh they're buying up a bunch of land that isn't theirs" argument, but I'm sorry when does 0.3% consitute a "Big" portion of land? Oh no, what are they going to do with the other 99.7% of the land they own?

LP
How does a "communist" country have billionaires? Personal wealth is the least communist idea out there. it's no coincidence that a former communist official was able to take advantage of the real estate market opening up in the country and become a multi billionaire. Pretty disgusting. Communist my butt.

AJC
Nice to see racism is alive and well on the interweb. I find the number of likes on the anti-China remarks and the overall suspicion here more disturbing than the article. If a white guy was doing this we'd all be excited and think it was a great idea... cue the dislikes.

uturn
Tell China to go to H_ll and Canada should lend them the money to protect the western hemosphere from Communist B.S.

slewshark
The americans really don't have to worry about the Chinese invading North America.In twenty years they will just evict everyone because they will own the place.

Gundula Baehre
This is the danger of so-called eco-tourism. I high--end 175 million dollar resort is going to put a huge amount of stress on the ecology, natural beauty of Iceland. And what's next, a similar type of resort in Antarctica or another ecologically delicate area? Not a good idea, and no matter what, tourism, even eco-tourism will stress nature, will have a negative effect (no matter how "green" one tries to make it).

Michael from Toronto
In China, NOTHING is PRIVATE PROPERTY. The simple fact is China's 1-party, non-elected government which has absolute power on all policies. The government can privatize anything at will, without answering to the judiciary or the people. Just look at how Venezuela's Chavez nationalized the media and oil companies... and he does not even have a party doctrine to back him up like Red China has. Iceland is a basket case. They need to realize they must work honestly to pay for the costs of their foolishness instead of jumping into more foolishness. This is how they got themselves in trouble the last time.

Gerald
With Hong Kong leading up to political uncertainty in the late 90's, thousands emigrated to Vancouver. I was living there at the time. Malls were built , a little bungalo would sell for $350,000, high rises and bridges were built, jobs were created and some really great Chinese Food restaurants were opened. A lot of Vancouver residents got really really rich in the process. There were no dark secrets. The residents of Vancouver weren't beaten and hauled away somewhere never to be seen again, they bought boats and BMW's with the money that was brought in.

al
Just give him the whole place, nothing there anyhow

novawar
And so the invasion of North America begins....

J.C.
If I were Iceland I would limit the amount of land designated for foreign investors. Why would he need as much land as the size of a US state to build a tourist resort? Doesn't make sense to me. I too would question his real purpose behind this investment. There are a lot of resorts around the world that do not use that much space!! I also wonder why China being a communist country with so many poor (communism basically where all is supposed to be shared equally) would have billionaires and how many of these rich were formerly in government!!

jerry law
world wide of chinatown?

Judy Thorne
If this is such a wonderful idea, ie. beautiful area for a resort, then Iceland should develop it for its tourism industry.I am sure that China has other motives in securing real estate in Iceland.

KJ in Kingston Ontario
Why shop in Iceland when there's lot's of FOR SALE signs all over North America...?

mikel
Another place where only the super rich can play vacation and pretend they are saving the world for us.

MDK
This will also give them some kinda opinion on the NW passage too I figure... they are trying to wade in on the rush to grab what they can up there now that we have trashed the rest of the world's resources.

manner
America take note! If Iceland is worth that amount, then perhaps you could eliminate your debt comepletely by selling Alaska to China, even throw in Sarah Palin as part of the deal.

James in Calgary
And the name of this park? The People's Armed Naval Fleet and Submarine Base By The Harbour. "Fun for the whole family" (no cameras allowed).

J.Bond
$10 and a pile of broken Chinese-made powertools says there will be a secret lair under the resort. Icelandic hencemen eh? Bet they can't shoot straight either.....

del
In short order the world will see that the Chinese military will be setting up on a big part of that area, therefore controlling northern oceans.

Donald L, Ont.
I'm confused. Why is there such a thing as a Chineese Billionaire ? Communism aint what it used to be.......well maybe it still is for the majority..

Jonathan Hinkle
The US-selling-Missouri analogy is inaccurate. Missouri makes up about 2% of the US's land area. Massachusetts, however, makes up about 0.3% and so would have made a better analogy.

Mike vdB - Chatham, ON
I remember living in BC when the Japanese and Chinese from Hong Kong (while stil a British colony) were buying up everything under the sun simply because they had the funds to do so. There were still the same old arguements from people like I am reading now (a lot that happened to be more xenophobic than anything). BC never became what people were scared of but instead grew from the investment. Take business ideas for just that....business ideas. Leave the rest of the bull out of it.

URU
Not sure why the US is pressuring other countries to focus so much on the deal, perhaps the Americans can't bear the fact that China is already a superpower and they need to do whatever it takes to stop the Chinese fear of nothing!!!!! The more the US tries to stop the development of other countries the more other countries will see throught the US's intents. The US is using PATHETIC political tactics, why not focus more on their own finances and internal problems before trying to cure what was never a problem. Maybe China should block all foreigners from buying land on their own soil and see what these billionaires thing of it?

Christine
I have visited Iceland in June. It's the most beautiful country I have been to so far. I highly recommend vacationing there!

KWG
Ummm....just like how Foreign companies own large tracts of Canada and strip mine or deforest our natural environment. Then sell it back to us for a profit.......sounds familiar........don't do it Iceland!

Anthony
Iceland's ambassador to Beijing, Kristin Arnadottir, appeared alongside Huang, saying that the proposal fits with Iceland's twin goals of promoting foreign investment and tourism....Ambassador obviously lost his senses. There will not be too many Icelanders frequenting this Chinese Resort in their own country, but there is a large probability in a few years hence, there will be more Chinamen in Iceland than there are in Vancouver !

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Philippines hopes sea dispute with China should ease - AFP

Philippines hopes sea dispute with China should ease(AFP) – 4 hours ago 

MANILA — The Philippines hopes a territorial dispute over the South China Sea will ease after President Benigno Aquino's trip to China, the nation's military chief said Saturday.

But Manila will continue to build its naval patrol capability, General Eduardo Oban said, adding that he expects the Philippine navy to acquire a second Hamilton-class cutter from the United States next year.

The broad hope is that the dispute with China and other claimants over supposedly oil and gas-rich areas of the sea will simmer down following Aquino's August 30 to September 3 state visit, he told reporters.

"That would probably be translated into such an eventuality," Oban said.

Aquino and his host President Hu Jintao issued a joint statement Thursday stressing their commitment to a peaceful dialogue to address the sea dispute.

Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim parts of the South China Sea, which straddles vital sea lanes.

Ahead of the trip the Philippine government had accused China of committing aggressive and unlawful acts in the area claimed by the Philippines, including firing on Filipino fishermen, laying buoys and markers, and hounding an oil vessel.

Oban said Filipino navy patrols over the Philippine-claimed areas of the sea would continue.

"It is our mandate to protect the resources of our islands, so we will have to perform that mandate anywhere in the archipelago," he said.

The navy is to get two more Hamilton-class cutters, with the first of the two to arrive early next year, he said.

The first cutter, renamed the Gregorio del Pilar, sailed into Manila Bay last month after a three-week voyage from the United States.

The navy said the ship would be deployed to protect the country's exclusive economic zone and its oil and gas exploration activities in the South China Sea.

The Philippine Air Force also expects to purchase six jets to train personnel to eventually fly fighter jets, he said, but gave no timetable.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

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Ford aims for more vehicle market segments in China - Baltimore Sun

An employee walks past new cars at the parking lot of Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co. Ltd, Ford Motor's joint venture in China, in Chongqing Municipality (STRINGER SHANGHAI, REUTERS / September 3, 2011)

BEIJING (Reuters) - Ford Motor plans to more than double its offers across vehicle segments in China, the world's top market, as it speeds up the launch of new models, a senior executive said on Saturday.

"If you think of the market as small cars, medium cars, large cars, SUVs, performance vehicles, all of those different pieces, we compete in about 22 percent of that market today," Will Periam, strategy director for Ford's Asia Pacific and Africa operations, told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry forum in Tianjin.

"In the future, we expect to compete in about 50 percent of that market. And that will be by new versions of the products we have and all-new products which aren't here today."

Most of the new models will be made at Ford's manufacturing plant in China, including the new Focus sedan and Kuga, a small SUV, Periam said.

China's auto market sizzled in 2010 with 18 million units sold. But it has now reverted to a more subdued growth pattern after the government ended tax incentives for small car sales and subsidies for van buyers in rural areas.

Dong Yang, secretary general of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, has cut his forecast for 2011 vehicle sales growth 5 percent from previous estimate of 10-15 percent.

Periam expects vehicle sales to reach 32 million units by 2020.

Ford currently makes the Focus, Mondeo, X-Max and Fiesta models in a three-party tie-up with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co and Mazda Motor . Its Transit van model is also manufactured at Jiangling Motors in which the U.S. auto maker owns 30 percent.

Ford, Mazda and Changan have applied to Chinese regulators to split their three-way tie into two 50-50 ventures and are awaiting approval, Periam said.

In the first seven months, Ford sold 306,830 vehicles in China, up 13 percent from a year earlier.

Periam attributed Ford's recent growth to the launch of a new Mondeo, solid demand for the Focus and Fiesta models as well as aggressive dealership expansions -- adding two outlets per week on average.

(Reporting by Fang Yan, Li Ran and Ken Wills; Editing by Ed Lane)

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Asia awaits key rate decisions, China data - MarketWatch

By MarketWatch

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Asian investors’ attention will turn to some key interest-rate decisions and a batch of Chinese data in the week ahead.

One of the week’s most awaited events comes Tuesday when the Reserve Bank of Australia meets. The central bank has been on an extended pause in its rate-hiking cycle, having last raised the benchmark cash-rate to 4.75% in November.

But with the global economy facing an uncertain future, some analysts are now betting the RBA’s next move will involve a rate cut rather than another increase.

Such speculation rose after Brazil, which like Australia has a commodities-focused economy, shocked markets last Wednesday by swinging from rate tightening to a half-point rate cut. See report on Brazil’s surprise rate-cut.

While the central bank is more likely to keep rates on hold at the coming meeting — particularly after RBA Gov. Glenn Stevens told a government panel late August that “inflation bears careful watching, but we can keep it under control” — the markets will watch the governor’s statement accompanying the decision for clues on Australia’s policy intentions.

On Thursday, the Bank of Korea is slated to hand down their own rate decision, and here the focus is more on potential tightening.

South Korea has seen a significant bump up in inflation, with August’s year-on-year 5.3% jump in consumer prices marking the largest rise since 2008.

Still, a majority of economists surveyed by Reuters see the South Korean central bank holding the benchmark rate steady at 3.25% at this month’s meeting, so the policy statement may also prove more important than the decision itself.

The Bank of Japan is due to give its policy decision Wednesday and is highly unlikely to change its 0-to-0.1% rate target. Here, the more important issue will be whether the central bank conducts more easing to fuel the recovery from Japan’s catastrophic March earthquake.

Apart from central banks, China will unleash a host of economic data Friday, with the focus squarely on inflation.

With food and fuel prices spiking, Chinese inflation hit a three-year high of 6.5% in July, prompting some monetary tightening moves from the People’s Bank of China.

However, many China-based economists believe the July level marked a peak and that the August result will show some easing. See Caixin report on Chinese economists’ inflation forecasts.

A recent report from the state-run Xinhua news agency tipped consumer inflation to come in between 6.1% and 6.3% for the month. Any upside surprise, especially a number above the July inflation, would be negative for stocks in China, and would likely also hurt equities elsewhere in Asia.

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Chinese Steelmakers Buy Into Brazil's CBMM - Wall Street Journal

RIO DE JANEIRO—A group of Chinese steelmakers together with China's CITIC bank have purchased 15% of Brazil's Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineracao, the world's biggest niobium producer, for $1.95 billion.

The Chinese consortium comprises Baosteel Group Corp., Shougang Corp., Anshan Iron & Steel Group Corp. and Taiyuan Iron & Steel Group Co., which currently buy niobium from CBMM, the Brazilian company said Friday. ...

RIO DE JANEIRO—A group of Chinese steelmakers together with China's CITIC bank have purchased 15% of Brazil's Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineracao, the world's biggest niobium producer, for $1.95 billion.

The Chinese consortium comprises Baosteel Group Corp., Shougang Corp., Anshan Iron & Steel Group Corp. and Taiyuan Iron & Steel Group Co., which currently buy niobium from CBMM, the Brazilian company said Friday. ...

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Aquino to use China visit to reconnect with Chinese roots - gulfnews.com

Manila: Philippine President Benigno Aquino III will use the last stretch of his five-day visit to China to reconnect with his roots in Fujian province, a statement issued by the palace in Manila said.

Aquino visited the hometown of his ancestors in Hongjian village, located in the township of Jiaomel, Longhai City, Zhangzhou municipality, Saturday.

Hongjian is a sleepy village that has about 1,700 residents with the surname Xu or Co. It is less than half an hour's drive from the bustling metropolis of the island of Xiamen.

During his visit Aquino led the traditional lighting of incense at the ancestral temple of the Xu (Co) clan. People in Xiamen, adhere to ancestor worship, unlike Catholicism, Christianity and other Abrahamic religions.

Article continues below

Aquino's trip to Fujian province a is a journey of sorts for the president. While Aquino's father Benigno Jr is Filipino, his mother, the late president Corazon Cojuangco Aquino is a fourth-generation Filipino-Chinese.

The palace said that Corazon had descended from Chinese immigrant  Co Yu Hwan from Hongjian village who settled in the Philippines in 1861.

At least one out of every four Filipino-Chinese trace their roots to immigrants from Fujian province it is for this reason that Hokkien counts as one of the more widely spoken languages in the country outside the native Tagalog and other Filipino dialects as well as English.

According to the Philippine Embassy, Co Yu Hwan had converted to Catholicism on reaching the Philippines during the mid-1800s and had changed his name to Jose Cojuangco.

Jose married and had a son named Melencio Cojuangco in 1871 who married another Filipino-Chinese named Tiakla Chico in 1894.

Among their children was Jose Cojuangco, Jr., father to the late former President Corazon C. Aquino, who is the mother of the incumbent President.

Successful trip

Aquino had said that his trip to the People's Republic of China has been very successful and has exceeded his expectations.

He said that as substantive portion of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) China Fund that has been set aside for the Philippines

The Asean China Investment Fund is a private equity fund providing capital for small and medium sized enterprises located within Asean and the People's Republic of China. The Swiss Government, the Asian Development Bank and United Overseas Bank are among the sponsors/investors of this fund.

Aquino said the keepers of the fund had found favorable the various programmes the government has been implementing with the help of the local and international community to uplift the lives of Filipinos.

Aquino is expected to be back in Manila on Saturday evening after visiting Beijing and Shanghai as well as Fujian.

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Hong Kong Rallies to Protect Freedoms After China VP's Goodwill Visit - Voice of America

Photo journalists hold placards that read, 'Pictures tell the truth,' during a protest outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong, August 20, 2011 (file photo)

Rights activists in Hong Kong have been highly critical of the local government following the recent visit of Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang. They say curbs on the press and high security during the visit were a stark example of the increasing erosion of the civil rights enshrined in law when Hong Kong's sovereignty reverted from Britain to China in 1997.

Li's official visit two weeks ago was supposed to demonstrate Beijing's concern for the six million residents of this Special Administrative Region of China.

Instead of generating the intended goodwill, the presence of the man widely tipped to succeed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in 2012 has caused a public uproar, focusing attention on claims of police brutality and a clampdown on press freedoms.

Mak Yin-ting, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists' Association, says that while repressive police tactics are common on the mainland, they are an emerging problem in Hong Kong.

"There was lots of harassment of press freedom as well as freedom of expression," Mak said. "And we are worried that it is not just individual cases - malpractice of frontline police - but it is a change of media policy."

Media were barred from more than one half of the 22 events Li attended. As a result, Mak says, the only source of news for much of the state visit was the sanitized output of the government information department.

Tiananmen arrest

Unlike in 2003, when Wen Jiabao mingled freely with the Hong Kong people, a series of restricted zones was created by the police, preventing media and the public from getting near the visiting dignitary.

At the Lam Tin housing estate, Li heard Hong Kong's middle-class complain about the government's inability to prioritize tackling social problems, particularly the growing wealth gap. Down the road, police arrested a man for wearing a T-shirt bearing a slogan supportive of the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising.

818 incident

Police officers are also alleged to have assaulted and illegally detained three students at Hong Kong University August 18, locking them up in a stairwell while Li attended the school's centenary celebration.

The school is alma mater to many of Hong Kong's political and business leaders, and the students' treatment has prompted an alumni backlash.

Some 270 alumni from across the political spectrum took out a front page newspaper advertisement last week, denouncing the so-called 818 incident. Among them was former education secretary Fanny Law, now a deputy to the National People's Congress in Beijing.

"This storm tells us there is still a difference between the values held by Hong Kong and the beliefs of our central government," said Jasper Tsang, the pro-Beijing president of the Legislative Council.

One country

Hong Kong citizens are protective of the freedoms of speech and protest enshrined in the Basic Law, the constitutional document that perpetuates the "One Country, Two-Systems" mechanism by which Beijing governs the islands.

"In the mainland, many people cannot enjoy such freedoms. People say we are getting more and more like the mainland," noted Emily Lau, a pro-democracy legislator.

Lau was referencing two particular issues of recent concern to the public. First, a perceived increase in meddling in domestic politics by Beijing's senior official in Hong Kong, Wang Guangya.

Second, the Tsang administration's announcement that it would introduce national education into the schools' curriculum to stimulate patriotic thinking, a move dismissed as brainwashing by many teachers.

Beijing exonerated

On Monday, Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee was forced to declare in a special meeting of the Council's security committee that Beijing had not ordered the police crackdown.

Mak Yin-ting says efforts by Chief Executive Donald Tsang's administration to limit any political damage have only fueled criticism of his government.

"More and more, government officials dare not face the media or explain policies via the media to the public," Mak said.  "More and more, they are using sources, closed-door briefings, to shy away from the public and, if necessary, shy away from responsibility."

Still, some officials are defending the government's actions. Chief Secretary Henry Tang - Tsang's number two and a contender to replace him next year, if Beijing approves - has dismissed the critics by calling allegations of civil rights violations "complete rubbish."

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Taiwan to Relax Rules on Banks Investing in China - Wall Street Journal

TAIPEI—Taiwan's financial regulator will relax restrictions on Taiwanese banks investing in China, a move widely expected by market participants who are now hoping the authorities will next allow Chinese banks to invest in their Taiwanese counterparts.

The Financial Supervisory Commission said Thursday it will allow local banks to have more flexibility in their expansion in China and increase their total risk exposure in the Chinese market to 100% of their net book value.

Domestic financial institutions will be allowed to have both branches and subsidiaries in China as well as acquire stakes in more than one Chinese bank, the FSC said.

Currently, financial institutions have to choose two of three options in their China expansion plans, namely, opening branches, establishing subsidiaries, and obtaining a stake in a local bank.

"The move will mostly benefit large Taiwanese banks in speeding up their expansion in China, and help them take full advantage of the lucrative yuan business. But if the government allows Chinese banks to invest in local banks, that will benefit the whole of Taiwan's banking sector, especially second-tier banks," said Polaris International Securities Investment Trust Deputy Chief Investment Officer Simon Liu.

Mr. Liu noted that a large interest-rate spread in China—more than 3%, compared with Taiwan's 1%—also suggests bigger risk. "Opening the door wider doesn't mean all banks can win the game. Taiwanese banks definitely need to enhance their risk management to avoid default."

The new measures are likely to be effective in one to two weeks' time, an FSC official told Dow Jones Newswires Friday.

Mega Securities Assistant Vice President Alex Huang said the development is positive, but markets had already priced it in.

The financial stock index was up 0.3% at 0318 GMT after ending up 1.7% Thursday.

The FSC said it will also remove the loan ceiling for domestic lenders' branches in China and raise the cap on deposits they may take from individual customers there to 3 million New Taiwan dollars (US$103,484) from the current NT$1.5 million.

Taiwanese banks' offshore banking units will also be allowed to expand their lending business to Chinese individuals or institutions, not only to Taiwanese or foreign businesses operating in China, it said.

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Chinese investor defends plan for Iceland resort - North County Times

Iceland is having a China crisis.

Devastated by a banking collapse, the North Atlantic nation welcomed a Chinese real estate tycoon's plan to buy a remote, treeless tract of wilderness for a resort. Then critics raised questions and Iceland had second thoughts.

Was this cover for Beijing to gain a strategic foothold? A way to gain access to a deepwater harbor _ even though it lies some 50 kilometers (35 miles) away _ or fresh water from a glacier-fed river? And should a foreigner be allowed to buy the equivalent of 0.3 percent of Iceland's territory?

Developer Huang Nubo defended his project Friday, saying it would simply be a high-end resort and that it would preserve the local environment and Icelandic culture.

Huang, an avid mountain climber, rejected suggestions by critics that the project might be a covert attempt by Beijing to establish a presence. He said the site in Iceland's northeast is slated to be one of a string of exclusive nature retreats in China, the United States and Scandinavia.

"This is all private investment," said Huang, a 55-year-old former government official, at a news conference at his company's Beijing headquarters tower.

Iceland's prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, said this week the country welcomes the investment. The interior minister, Ogmundur Jonasson, said the government, which limits land ownership by foreigners, was reviewing environmental and other aspects of the proposal before it decides whether to give approval.

Huang has agreed to pay private owners 1 billion Icelandic kronor ($8.8 million) for 300 square kilometers (120 square miles) in the country's northeast. The government also owns a portion of the land, known as Grimsstadir.

The proposal is in line with Iceland's hopes to promote both foreign investment and tourism, said the country's ambassador to Beijing, Kristin Arnadottir, who appeared with Huang.

"Perhaps we are going to experience something much more positive as Iceland becomes a tourist destination," she said.

The Icelandic public initially favored the plan.

But opposition arose as critics questioned whether it really was a tourism project and, even if it is, whether such a huge land sale is right for a country with just 320,000 people.

Among the naysayers is Jon Thorisson, an architect who has campaigned against foreign ownership of Icelandic resources. He said that in tiny Iceland the deal is the equivalent of the United States selling the state of Missouri.

"Will large-scale ownership allow them to exert political influence?" he said. "Is it possible that we Icelanders will end up like tenant farmers on our own land?"

The anxiety in Iceland echoes sentiments heard in the United States and other economies as China steps up investment abroad, prompting challenges by critics and questions about the communist government's role in business activity.

In the highest-profile deal, state-owned Chinese oil company CNOOC Ltd. withdrew a bid in 2005 to buy U.S. oil and gas producer Unocal Corp. after some American lawmakers complained it might jeopardize national security.

But most of China's other investments in the United States and elsewhere cause little controversy and many governments actively court Chinese money.

Huang founded his company, Zhongkun Group, in 1995 after working in the government's propaganda department and Ministry of Construction. It has built residential and commercial projects throughout China. Huang ranked 161st last year on Forbes magazine's list of the richest Chinese entrepreneurs with a fortune estimated at $890 million.

Icelandic critics also question his project's feasibility.

Huang's plan calls for 10,000 guests a year. Access would be a 2 1-2-hour flight from the capital, Reykjavik, to the town of Akureyri in the island's north and then either another flight or a drive over rural roads.

Andri Snaer Magnason, a popular writer and eco-activist, said the plan reminds him of jetsetting Icelandic bankers who overpaid for assets and wrecked their industry.

"It lacks all sense and logic," he said.

Huang said the resort would offer golf, mountain biking and sightseeing by plane.

"Nature there is very beautiful," Huang said.

He showed reporters photos of the grassy site with snow-blanketed hills in the distance and of himself, grinning broadly, meeting Iceland's president and visiting farmhouses during a visit there.

"That was the best Iceland promotion that I've seen for a long time," said Arnadottir, the Icelandic ambassador.

Huang said he hopes to win approval from the Chinese and Icelandic governments by February and to have completed the first phase of development by 2015.

Huang rejected suggestions his project was part of a possible Chinese government effort to gain access to a harbor on Iceland's northeast coast. He said he might buy a ship to bring in European tourists but otherwise his plans had no connection to the harbor.

"If it involved politics or any other background (than tourism), I wouldn't go there," he said.

Huang said he was unaware of the controversy in Iceland until he returned to Beijing after a trip to Tibet this week.

"I found the whole world was looking for me," he said.

___

Sigmundsdottir reported from Reykjavik.

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Exclusive: China curbs Iran energy work - Reuters

An Iranian oil worker on the Persian Gulf coast, in a file photo.

Credit: Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl

By Chen Aizhu and Chris Buckley

BEIJING | Fri Sep 2, 2011 9:17am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has put the brakes on oil and gas investments in Iran, drawing ire from Tehran over a pullback that officials and executives said reflected Beijing's efforts to appease Washington and avoid U.S. sanctions on its big energy firms.

The stakes are high for OPEC's second-largest producer, as China is one of the only powers on the international political stage capable of providing the billions of dollars of investment Tehran needs to maintain the capacity of its strategic oil sector.

Four energy executives in Beijing described retreats and slowdowns of Chinese ventures in Iran in recent months, even as China has bought more crude from its Middle East partner, which leans on Beijing for backing and investment to counter sanctions over its disputed nuclear plans.

The slowing of China's energy investments in Iran was prompted, at least partly, by Beijing's efforts since late 2010 to ease tension with the Obama administration and cut the risk of Chinese oil firms being hit by U.S. sanctions that Congress has vigorously backed, said officials.

President Barack Obama and key members of his cabinet have pressed Beijing to do more to help rein in Iran's nuclear activities, and Vice President Joe Biden raised the issue during his recent visit to China, White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told Reuters.

Obama, Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "all have stressed the need for continued Chinese restraint in investing in Iran's energy sector, by slowing down existing activities and by not concluding any new deals," said Hayden.

U.S. officials have literally come knocking at the doors of Chinese energy executives, one of the executives said.

"The Chinese are quietly taking credit with U.S. officials for being cooperative" on Iran, a senior U.S. Congressional aide who closely follows U.S.-China relations told Reuters.

"I really date it back to mid-to-late 2010, when they began to signal to us very clearly: 'We can't say it publicly, but you will notice that we're not proceeding with these new contracts,'" said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of diplomacy with China.

Tehran has noticed and has warned Chinese firms they need to make progress on energy projects. U.S. pressure appears to have compounded commercial tension over the terms of Chinese energy investments in Iran, and those strains have grown this year.

There are no signs China will risk rupturing its relationship with Tehran, but ties could become testier and harder to manage.

Beijing has worked to ensure United Nations sanctions on Iran do not imperil its energy investments and oil and gas purchases. But unilateral U.S. sanctions could be invoked to punish Chinese firms with operations in the United States for their work in Iran. The Obama administration has avoided taking that step, mindful that such a move is likely to anger Beijing.

Western powers believe Iran is using its nuclear program as a means to build weapons. Tehran says it needs nuclear-generated electricity.

DOUBLE WARNING FOR CNPC

Since June, CNPC, China's biggest state oil and gas group, was twice warned by its Iranian counterpart to speed up work at the giant South Pars natural gas field or risk losing the multi-billion-dollar deal, Iranian media have reported.

CNPC has delayed drilling exploration wells since it signed a $4.7 billion deal to develop phase 11 of South Pars in 2010.

The warnings to CNPC came after China's third largest energy firm CNOOC pulled its team from Iran's North Pars gas venture, two Chinese executives said. In late 2010, CNOOC was told by the Chinese government to stop work at the project, one said. The Chinese industry officials all spoke on condition of anonymity.

Company spokesmen declined to answer Iran-related questions.

China's second-largest oil and gas firm Sinopec Group, which Beijing-based oil sources said has done more work on the ground than the other two, has delayed the start date of the $2 billion Yadavaran oil development.

Those moves could also reflect Chinese unhappiness with business hardships in Iran. International oil firms have long seen the terms of Iran's contracts as unattractive. One Chinese executive described the Iranians as "tough negotiators."

But observers said an understanding between Washington and Beijing encouraged Chinese firms to slow down the Iran projects, reinforcing commercial reasons for doing so.

"My understanding is that there was a tacit agreement reached between the two countries, so that Chinese companies active in Iran would not undertake new investments -- specifically, they would not backfill -- and in return the U.S. would not sanction them for prior investments," said Erica Downs, a Brookings Institution expert on Chinese energy companies. Backfilling refers to firms jumping in to take over projects abandoned by rivals.

Chinese companies apparently hope they can keep their presence in Iran at "Goldilocks" temperature: neither too cold to risk a break, nor so warm as to risk sanctions from Washington, where Congress last year pushed through tougher potential penalties on companies that do business with Iran.

Downs, a former energy analyst for the CIA, said Chinese firms were playing for the longer term, biding time so they could be among those first in line when Iran opened back up.

KNOCK KNOCK, SANCTIONS MAN CALLING

Iran's other big Asian customers have cut back oil imports or are in payment disputes with Tehran. But China's slowdown in investment and work at Iran's fields have not been accompanied by any slowdown in the flow of crude.

Instead, it has bought more. The volume of imports in the first seven months of 2011 rose almost half on the year. At nearly 560,000 barrels per day, the flow was about a quarter of Iran's crude exports and is worth some $20 billion a year.

China refining giant Sinopec has lined up a new import deal for 90,000 barrels per day of condensate, a super light crude oil, this year, boosting China's Iranian oil buys to new peaks.

The Obama administration has probably not explicitly raised the threat of using unilateral sanctions against Chinese firms working on Iran's oil and gas fields, said the Congressional aide. The implied risk could well have encouraged Beijing to be more accommodating to U.S. pressure on Iran, he said.

U.S. officials have taken their case directly to Chinese oil companies, going beyond the usual channel of dealing with China's foreign ministry, said a senior Chinese oil executive and a Beijing-based researcher, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"He flew twice from Washington to talk to me in my Beijing office," the executive said of a U.S. sanctions official he met. "Whatever we do in Iran, the Americans were watching."

U.S. officials lobbying Chinese firms included Robert Einhorn, State Department special adviser for non-proliferation and arms control who helps steer policy over the Iran nuclear dispute, the researcher said.

"China places a high priority on energy security," Einhorn told a seminar held by the Arms Control Association in Washington D.C. in March, according to a transcript on its website (www.armscontrol.org).

"But we believe, for whatever reasons, they have exercised voluntary restraint. They've adopted what we call a 'go-slow' approach," Einhorn said of Chinese energy investments in Iran.

Chinese oil companies have felt direct pressure from their own government, which has sought to steady ties with Washington after a chain of disputes in the first half of 2010 over Internet policy, Taiwan, Tibet and other regional issues.

Until later in 2010, Beijing shunned U.S. requests to rein in energy investment in Iran, said the congressional aide. But that changed, echoing a broader Chinese effort to douse down tensions with Washington. "They have essentially put out the word, 'Hold off'," he said.

"The thing that I can tell you for certain is that the Chinese are taking credit for their restraint," he said.

Many U.S. lawmakers believe Beijing has not done enough to curtail ties with Iran. New legislation could increase pressure on the Obama administration to punish Chinese energy firms, said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington D.C.-based institute that favors stronger sanctions against Iran.

Moving into an election year, he said, "the administration will not want to be seen to be weak on this issue."

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Jeff Mason in WASHINGTON; Editing by Brian Rhoads)

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The lesson of the Chinese invasion - Salon

Children look out from a window of their classroom at a rural primary school in Min county, Gansu province June 1, 2011

If you peruse the typical American newspaper on any given day, you're likely to find a bevy of articles about China. Sometimes these dispatches are about the nation imploring us to get our fiscal house in order. Other days, you'll see reports about China's military or foreign policy. Regardless of specifics, though, all of theses articles focus on the biggest international news story of our generation: China becoming a world super power.

In that larger narrative, the Asian nation is inevitably portrayed as a monolithic achievement of unbridled development -- a super-modern Epcot Center of bullet trains, towering skyscrapers and gleaming new high-tech factories. Left out of the story is what author Michael Levy calls the "other billion" -- the majority of the Chinese population who live in the hard scrabble interior far away from the fast-developing coast.

As a Peace Corps volunteer, Levy spent two years in this ignored part of China and has just published a simultaneously hilarious and disturbing memoir about his journey entitled "Kosher Chinese." The book persuasively shows that if China is, indeed, the next global superpower, then the politics, ideology, education and economy of this "other billion" will shape the world. He argues that Americans should start understanding the difference between Tom Friedman's fantastical Shanghai dreams and crushing Guizhou realities if we hope to forge a constructive relationship with the most populous nation on earth.

Levy is a lifelong friend of mine since middle school, and I got a good firsthand taste of his experience when my wife and I met him and his Peace Corps colleagues in the interior province of Guizhou 2009. Expecting the utopia I had heard about in the American press, I found something more akin to dystopia -- and it almost killed me. At various points I was immobilized from drinking baijiu, from eating a fiery brew called "hot pot," and from the sheer upper respiratory pain of breathing in so much air pollution (you can read a day-by-day journal of my trip here).

Having survived my trip, I can confidently attest that while nothing fully substitutes for actually physically visiting interior China, "Kosher Chinese" comes close. Levy recently discussed the book and American misconceptions of China with me on my KKZN-AM760 radio show. Here's an edited transcript of our conversation -- you can listen to podcast the full interview here.

When people think about the Peace Corps, they often think of Africa or the Caribbean, but they don't necessarily think of China as a place for the Peace Corps, because I think when a lot of Americans think of China they think of Shanghai and Hong Kong, and that's about it. Talk a little bit about Peace Corps operations in China.

Peace Corps training is extraordinary. I couldn't speak a word of Chinese when I landed. Two years later I was at least conversational -- maybe a little bit closer to fluent -- and that is all thanks to the training. They pay you a stipend that puts you at the income level of the people in your community, so that was about a hundred dollars a month for me in Guizhou province, and you're really expected to immerse yourself in the culture. China is a beautiful, wonderful place, but as you say, Guizhou province is not what Thomas Friedman was writing about. This is not Beijing or the 2008 Olympics; this is really a different world where Communism is still very much alive.

To put it in regional terms that Americans can understand, were you serving in the Kansas or Kentucky of China, rather than, say, the New York City or Los Angeles?

Guizhou is definitely in flyover China, so when the Americans I talk to talk about China they visit Beijing and think it's fantastic. They visit the terracotta warriors and the Great Wall, but they've never heard of this place where I lived. As you said, it's out there, but from an American perspective, even though we were in the middle of nowhere, the capital city of the province has two million people. It's like North Dakota for the Chinese, but for us it was a huge city.

Your book looks at the time you spent there as a fish out of water, and food played a big role in your experience. You make the argument that food is a key part of how we relate to each other. What kinds of changes did you have to make?

For me personally, I left for China keeping kosher and I was a strict vegetarian. I had to decide how I was going to relate to the communities I was in when pork was a part of three meals a day. Even if I didn't want to eat pork, there was no way to continue to be a vegetarian unless I was climbing to the top of the mountain to the Buddhist temple every day where they had vegetarian food. So I decided very early on, which was actually before I left, that I was going to put everything I assumed was "normal" and "right" aside and really try to immerse myself and learn from the community.

Food is a big part of who we are. When people are growing up, we don't think a whole lot about our food. When you and I were in Philadelphia, there were hoagies and cheesesteaks, and we just ate it because it's delicious. For a lot of people, when we get a little older, you start thinking about it more and making different food choices. Your listeners know you're vegetarian. These are personal choices and they're really hard to make. So I did struggle with changing my diet, but I decided that to be a good guest and to integrate into my community in China, I was really going to say "yes" to a lot of things. That included the baijiu, which I drank way too much of it when I was there because it's a friendly culture, and I would eat what was served to me.

Did you ever have to eat something that made you truly uncomfortable?

t was challenging because I had to ask myself some pretty personal questions, and some moral questions. One of those questions is: Would I eat an animal that I would normally consider my best friend? Like, say, a dog.

The hardest part for me was at the very beginning when I was eating things that were wildly unkosher, insects in particular. But my hosts were just being kind and gracious. They were treating me like I was a part of the family, and that's how I responded.

Did your experience change your view of how we in America eat?

If you want get people fired up and they're eating a hamburger, you just ask how would they feel about a dog burger, and they say it's a completely different thing. My Chinese friends were baffled that Americans would eat pig, but not eat pig hoofs. Or that they'd eat chicken, but not chicken talons. I have to say that I have an absolute respect for my friends in China who ate every part of every animal. That's just honest. And it's environmentalism if you're not going to throw parts of it away.

Do you think the general portrayal of China in the American media is accurate? Or do you think our elite media misrepresents what's going on there?

It's absolutely ridiculous. There was a recent story in the Wall Street Journal where a businessman was marveling at how developed China is and he was saying they're beating us in their roads. We hear about this high-speed railway. That's an important story and it's a real story for about 400 million people. I'm really glad our journalists are covering it. But it completely ignores the other billion.

The reason that's a real problem is that when Beijing makes their decisions they don't care about Barack Obama, they care about that billion. That's why China does what it does. So, unless we understand those people, we're really going to be making decisions about our own China-related policies that don't make any sense.

Why do you think our media doesn't understand or pay attention to that "other billion?"

I think the reason is that it's really hard to get to interior China, and it's a really closed part of the country.

Beyond that, the people I met taught me a Chinese phrase that basically means "keep outsiders out and insiders in." I would say it took me a year and a half of living there, eating with people, visiting their homes, speaking Chinese, and teaching them before I heard any honest conversation about politics, religion, or the future. So, a flyby journalist or businessperson will never break in beyond the coastal cities. That's why Peace Corps is a very important part of our foreign policy.

Americans often think of China as a communist economy and Wal-Mart as the ultimate avatar of American capitalism. And yet, as you show, there are Wal-Marts in China. How can capitalist Wal-Mart exist in Communist China?

China is hugely growing market for Wal-Mart. The irony of the particular Wal-Mart I often visited is that Guizhou, as with many cities in China, has a giant statue of Chairman Mao -- the world's number one fighter against capitalism -- and Mao's outstretched hand waves at the smiley face of Wal-Mart. Seriously, they are fifty yards apart. It is unbelievable and that's one of the things I really wanted to understand: what do young people in China think when they walk past Chairman Mao and walk into Wal-Mart? It's mind-boggling.

That said, I was surprised at how well Chinese students were able to integrate these two parts of their world. But there's definitely a spiritual emptiness because the ideology of religion in China, which is communism, is irrelevant for most people in the way China actually works when you're walking around. It's still there in the books and in my classroom there were pictures of Mao, Marx, Lenin, and Engels that hung above me when I taught. But that's really all it is.

We hear a lot these days about how great the Chinese education system is, and how our schools are losing in a competition with China. You taught Chinese kids in a Chinese university. Is their education system all it's cracked up to be?

Every day here in the States, we are worrying about whether our schools are competitive internationally and are China's schools somehow training people better for math and science and engineering. Yet, in China's mind, our education system is absolutely wonderful and they want to emulate it. My Chinese friends couldn't believe that No Child Left Behind would require Americans to start testing more because to the Chinese the worst part of their system is the high-stakes testing. Every single person in the Chinese school system is worried about what the system is doing to people. The leading educator in China said that China trains the best test takers in the world and America creates the most talent in the world.

Is China's test-based education system the way it is because the government has a vested interest in the population not thinking critically?

I'm a schoolteacher here in the States and I'm confronting that question here every day. One of the things I'm really glad I'm able to do in an American classroom is try to inspire, try to get the kids to think for themselves, and ask them if they can understand the difference between good information and bad information. That doesn't happen in Chinese classrooms, and the consequence is a different political reality. I'm not sure it's deliberate, but if you look carefully at high-stakes testing. Question by question, you're going to really worry about who is writing the tests. In China we know the Communist Party is writing the tests, so politics is built into every answer.

The Chinese Communist Party is celebrating its 90th anniversary and there's some talk that the party may not be long for this world in its reign over China. How did your students look at the Chinese Communist Party?

My students had a lot of respect for their government, and they had a lot of good reason to have respect for their government. The Chinese Communist Party, along with all the things we've heard that are wrong, has raised more people out of poverty in the last thirty years than any government in human history. There is a lot to be proud of if you're Chinese, and there's a lot about the Communist Party they can be proud of. Is it ideologically communist? Absolutely not. But in terms of stability and assisting people in dire poverty, they really have done an incredible job.

But how much of that positive view reflects the Chinese government's success in indoctrinating the population?

Is it any more than students here are indoctrinated to fall in love with capitalism? I agree that people have a lot of trouble viewing their own situation objectively, but if you want to know whether I think the Communist Party will be overthrown, I didn't see anything like that. I saw people wishing for better lives and thinking this party will get them there.

How did the people you met in China look at the United States? Are we seen as an aggressor, a competitor, an enemy or a friend?

My students and friends in China have a real love for Americans. They might not love our government, but if you talk about Americans as a people, I felt nothing but respect. They had a lot of interesting questions. They don't know much in interior China, but there is friendship to be built.

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