Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now abandoned, 5 000 of the world’s rarest animals have been found drifting in a deserted boat near the coast of China. The pangolins, Asian giant turtles and lizards were crushed inside crates on a rickety wooden vessel that had lost engine power off Qingzhou island in the southern province of Guangdong.
Foul air, filthy water and contaminated soil have led to a surge of tumours in China, where cancer is the main cause of death, the state media reported this week. Raising fears that breakneck economic growth is having a dire impact on the nation’s health, a government survey blamed pollution for a sharp rise in cancer cases.
A huge shift in global capital flows is forecast after the Chinese government’s acquisition of a $3-billion stake in the sprawling United States private equity group Blackstone, owner of Café Rouge restaurants, Madame Tussauds and Center Parcs. The purchase is likely to be only the starting point of a $200-billion foray into world stock markets and private companies by the communist government in Beijing.
Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now abandoned, 5Â 000 of the world’s rarest animals have been found drifting in a deserted boat near the coast of China. The pangolins, Asian giant turtles and lizards were crushed inside crates on a rickety wooden vessel that had lost engine power off Qingzhou island in the southern province of Guangdong.
China plans to produce its own large commercial jet by 2020 to challenge the dominance of Airbus and Boeing in the world’s fastest-growing aircraft market. Beijing has accelerated the development of a home-grown passenger aircraft to compete for the billions of dollars it is spending on foreign planes.
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/ 29 January 2007
One of the most incongruous sights of the globalised age — the Starbucks coffee shop inside Beijing’s Forbidden City — could soon be a thing of the past after a furious online campaign. In response to this demonstration of "netizen” power, the palace’s guardians have announced plans to review the presence of the coffee shop.
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/ 11 December 2006
A parade of prostitutes aimed at naming and shaming sex workers in southern China has sparked a backlash by an unusual coalition of lawyers, academics and the All-China Women’s Federation. As part of a two-month crackdown on vice in the booming city of Shenzhen, public security officers hauled about 100 women and some of their male customers through the streets on November 29.
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/ 20 November 2006
Put yourself in the shoes of Imelda Marcos. At the height of your power you are the wife of a president, one of the 10 richest women in the world, intimate with the world’s dictators and the owner of arguably the biggest private collection of art — and footwear — on the planet. Then try to squeeze into those sling-backs again today.
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/ 10 November 2006
Strings of diamonds, cascades of champagne and tens of millions of dollars worth of gifts would be con-sidered ostentatious at any wedding. But in Burma, one of the poorest countries in Asia, the luxury on display in a video of the wedding laid on by the head of the junta, General Than Shwe, for his daughter, has left people up in arms.
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/ 15 September 2006
Ten classic English novels will go on sale in China in November under a new licensing deal with a local partner, writes Jonathan Watts.