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/ 6 November 2006
China’s foreign exchange reserves officially hit a record-shattering -trillion on Monday, and they could top -trillion sooner rather than later, economists said. Even if Chinese officials have vowed to slow the growth in this huge stash of cash, they are up against vast and inexorable economic forces and, just as important, a national policy of keeping the currency stable.
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/ 6 November 2006
Chinese sociologists said that the country should promote bolder attitudes towards sex, but that wife-swapping was off the agenda, state media reported on Monday. Chinese attitudes towards sex have relaxed in recent decades, triggering a boom in extramarital relationships.
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/ 6 November 2006
Chinese President Hu Jintao was to meet on Monday with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe amid accusations that Beijing’s ties help to shore up a pariah regime other governments avoid. China has faced criticism for not toeing the world diplomatic line in isolating Mugabe’s regime, which is accused by opponents and rights groups of using torture and arbitrary arrest to quell dissent.
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/ 5 November 2006
China on Sunday signed trade deals with 10 African nations worth ,9-billion, with the biggest contract involving aluminium production in Egypt, a Chinese official said as the China-Africa summit ended in Beijing. The contracts and agreements cover cooperation in natural resources, infrastructure, finance, technology and communications.
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/ 5 November 2006
As Beijing hosted 48 African leaders for a summit this weekend aimed at deepening trade and political ties, both the best and worst of its engagement were on display: investment that is fuelling the highest growth in decades in parts of Africa, but also its friendship with countries such as Zimbabwe and Sudan.
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/ 4 November 2006
China celebrated its friendly relations with Africa on Saturday by pledging to double aid to the continent over the next three years in a summit aimed at deepening political and trade ties with nearly 50 African nations. Chinese President Hu Jintao touted ”the common pursuit of friendship, peace, cooperation and development” with Africa”.
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/ 3 November 2006
China will announce a package of measures covering aid, investment, trade and social development for Africa, state media reported on Friday, as Beijing opened a ministerial summit hosting about 48 leaders from the continent. ”We take great pride in China’s strong and warm friendship with Africa,” Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said at the opening of the conference.
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/ 1 November 2006
Accused of supporting corrupt African regimes to facilitate its imports of oil and raw materials from the resource-rich continent, China is staging a grand diplomatic forum to defend its dealings with Africa. Leaders and officials from 48 African countries will attend the two-day Beijing summit this week.
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/ 31 October 2006
North Korea has agreed to return to talks on its nuclear programme and they could start within one month, the United States announced on Tuesday, just weeks after the regime stunned the world with an atomic test. Christopher Hill, Washington’s chief negotiator on North Korea, announced the sudden breakthrough after secret talks Tuesday in Beijing.
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/ 31 October 2006
China has not only rolled out the red carpet, it has also redecorated its capital in red as it prepares to host more than 40 African heads of state for a summit billed as a warm-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. About 1Â 700 delegates and hundreds of journalists are expected for the November 1 to 6 China-Africa forum.
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/ 30 October 2006
Legendary Hong Kong tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung, whose close links to Beijing alternatively led to him being called the ”Patriotic Capitalist” or the ”Godfather”, has died in Beijing at the age of 83. Fok, who died on Saturday night, was a vice-chairperson of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a property tycoon.
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/ 27 October 2006
French President Jacques Chirac visited the central Chinese industrial city of Wuhan on Friday, aiming to boost French efforts to tap into China’s fast-growing economy. Buoyed by more than -billion in deals bagged on Thursday in Beijing, where he met President Hu Jintao, the French leader openly lobbied for more contracts at a lunch with local business leaders.
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/ 26 October 2006
China’s trade with Africa is set to top -billion this year, officials said on Thursday, as Beijing gears up to host a China-Africa forum that will deepen much-scrutinised investment ties. China has defended its growing trade ties and its more than -billion worth of investments on the continent, whose energy and mineral wealth it covets to fuel its booming economy.
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/ 26 October 2006
European planemaker Airbus agreed on Thursday to sell 150 of its narrow-bodied A320 family of aircraft to China and reached a final deal to make the jets in the country, its chief executive said. The deal also involves options for 20 A350s, said Airbus president and chief executive Louis Gallois in Beijing, where French President Jacques Chirac is also visiting.
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/ 24 October 2006
Thousands of extra video cameras are being installed on Beijing’s buses in an effort to improve public politeness ahead of the 2008 Olympics, state press said on Tuesday. The campaign is aimed at raising standards of courtesy in the capital, such as giving up bus seats to the elderly, children, pregnant women and the handicapped, Xinhua news agency said.
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/ 19 October 2006
A Chinese entrepreneur is suing a Beijing trade bureau for denying him a permit to sell bags of ”World Cup air” and for scotching his plans to bottle and sell ”2008 Olympic air”, a newspaper said on Thursday. Li Jie, who describes himself as chief executive of the Lunar Embassy to China and once tried to sell land on the moon, sought a permit to sell ”World Cup air” for 50 yuan (,30).
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/ 18 October 2006
A gourmet with a taste for the good life, North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il will continue to enjoy his favourite French wines and foreign delicacies despite a United Nations embargo on luxury goods for Pyongyang, analysts say. A thriving black market will likely ensure Kim a steady supply of what he likes best, they said, with smugglers always ready to sneak over the border.
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/ 18 October 2006
Chinese officials accused the United States of double standards on Wednesday for criticising China’s oil investments in Africa, and insisted the country had a positive role to play in the continent’s development. China’s booming energy demand and Africa’s bountiful oil resources are mutually beneficial, the officials said.
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/ 17 October 2006
Lin Mu, regarded by Chinese liberal intellectuals as one of the nation’s pro-democracy pioneers, died suddenly at his home at the age of 79, his family said on Monday. His son said Lin, the former secretary of liberal Chinese leader Hu Yaobang, went for a nap on Sunday morning after reporting feeling unwell and never woke up.
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/ 17 October 2006
HIV/Aids in China has spread beyond high risk groups such as drug users, prostitutes and homosexuals and the country was becoming ”like Africa” in how the virus is transmitted, a senior health official says. ”There are 190 new HIV infections every day … and 1% of all pregnant women in China are infected,” said Hao Yang.
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/ 17 October 2006
A Chinese university aiming to produce ”socially elite” graduates is to make golf compulsory for students, state media reported on Tuesday. Golf was once reviled in Communist China as a symbol of western decadence, but has become hugely popular among the newly affluent since the first golf course opened on the mainland in the early 1980s.
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/ 16 October 2006
South Africa’s Retief Goosen retained his Volkswagen Masters-China title by three strokes on Sunday, the first successful title defence of his career. The world number seven shot a one-under-par 71 to finish the week with an impressive 21-under-par 267 total at the Yalong Bay Golf Club. The win was his first of 2006 and the 26th of his career, earning him  550.
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/ 13 October 2006
Title-holder Retief Goosen turned on the style at the Volkswagen Masters-China on Friday, rattling in a clutch of birdies and eagling the last to take a three-shot halfway lead. The world number seven, who has had a modest year by his standards, fired seven-under-par 65 for a two-day total of 129 at the Yalong Bay Golf Club.
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/ 13 October 2006
World powers moved closer on Friday to a response to North Korea’s nuclear test, with a United Nations draft resolution that retains economic and weapons sanctions but specifically rules out military force. North Korea has said it would consider tough UN measures as tantamount to a declaration of war and would respond in kind.
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/ 11 October 2006
China has warned image-conscious citizens against using the rack to lengthen their legs after several such operations went badly wrong, Xinhua news agency said. Ten people were reported to have been disfigured after they underwent stretching surgery last year, it added.
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/ 10 October 2006
China declined on Tuesday to rule out possible United Nations sanctions against North Korea for carrying out a reported nuclear test but said any military action was unimaginable. It said it had no information about widespread speculation that the secretive North might be ready to conduct a second test.
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/ 10 October 2006
A day after North Korea said it tested a nuclear device and seismic sensors registered tremors consistent with a small test, the question remains: What exactly happened at that mountain site near the Chinese border? Many scientists and most governments concerned have yet to definitively conclude whether it was a small nuclear device, a dud test of what might have been a much larger device.
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/ 10 October 2006
The $20-billion initial public offer (IPO) of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the mainland’s largest lender, drew intense interest on the its opening day, reports said on Tuesday. The IPO — expected to be the largest to date — attracted a wave of international orders of up to $56-billion, according to reports in Hong Kong’s English-language press.
North Korea is ”more or less ready” to conduct a nuclear test deep inside an abandoned coal mine but might hold off it can win concesssions from the United States, a Chinese source briefed by Pyongyang said on Friday. The source said a device would be detonated about 2Â 000 metres inside a mine near the border with China in the north of the country.
Defending champion Colin Montgomerie and Major winners Retief Goosen and Michael Campbell will spearhead next month’s UBS Hong Kong Open. The trio are among the first players to be confirmed for the -million tournament at the Hong Kong Golf Club on November 16-19.
Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher swept to a sensational victory at a rain-soaked Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday to seize the Formula One championship lead by the slimmest of margins. The seven-time world champion pulled level with Renault’s Fernando Alonso on points, 116-116, but is ahead 7-6 on race victories.
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/ 30 September 2006
World champion Fernando Alonso boosted his Formula One title chances on Saturday by taking pole position on an all-Renault front row at a rain-swept Chinese Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, two points behind the Spaniard in the standings with three races remaining, will start a distant sixth.