China calls for ‘severe punishment’ for US tech firms

Chinese state media lashed out at Google, Apple and other U.S. technology companies on Wednesday, calling on Beijing “to punish severely the pawns” of the U.S. government for monitoring China and stealing secrets.

U.S. companies such as Yahoo, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Facebook threaten the cyber-security of China and its Internet users, said the People’s Daily on its microblog, in comments echoed on the front page of the English-language China Daily.

It is not clear what sparked this latest round of vitriol, nor what information the U.S. firms are alleged to have stolen. But Chinese media have repeatedly attacked American tech companies for aiding the U.S. government’s cyber espionage since U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden revealed widespread spying programs including PRISM.

Read Full Article HERE

Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1kL4pgQ

U.S.-China Solar-Products Dispute Heats Up

China warned Wednesday that a preliminary U.S. decision to close a loophole that allowed some Chinese solar-equipment makers to avoid tariffs would worsen trade relations between the two countries.

Solar-energy products became a flashpoint in trade relations between China, the U.S. and the European Union as the global financial crisis slowed the implementation of big solar-energy projects just as production capacity for solar panels was growing sharply.

In the latest move, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Tuesday it would seek to impose antisubsidy tariffs ranging from nearly 19% to 35% on Chinese solar panels, even if the panels contained solar cells made outside of China. Solar panels are made from solar cells.

Read Full Article HERE

Liyan Qi and Wayne Ma, The Wall Street Journal via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1kL4oJZ

China Refuses to Defend its South China Sea Claims to UN Court

China refused to defend its territorial claims in the South China Sea to a United Nations tribunal because it doesn’t recognize international arbitration of its dispute with the Philippines.

“China’s position that it will not accept or participate in the tribunal case involving the Philippines hasn’t changed,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing today.

The UN’s Permanent Court of Arbitration announced yesterday it was giving China until Dec. 15 to respond to the complaint by the Philippines filed in March, when it asked the court to uphold its right to exploit waters within its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. So far China has refused any international efforts to resolve the dispute, insisting any discussions on the issue must be held directly between China and the Philippines.

Read Full Article HERE

admin via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1kCsfjO

China Set to Follow EU in Approving Giant Global Shipping Alliance

Chinese regulators are poised to give the green light to a giant shipping alliance between the world’s three biggest container operators this month, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would allow the alliance to start operating as early as the Fall.

Earlier Wednesday, European regulators said they wouldn’t raise antitrust issues with the deal, leaving Chinese approval as the only remaining, major regulatory hurdle. U.S. regulators said they wouldn’t object to the tie-up a few months ago.

A spokesman for European Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia said the watchdog wouldn’t open antitrust proceedings against the so-called P3 alliance, a tie-up proposed by Denmark’s A.P. Moeller Maersk’s Maersk Line, France’s CMA CGM and Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Co. The three companies have agreed to share ships, routes and logistics in a deal that would concentrate their control over some of the world’s busiest trade routes. The trio are already the world’s three largest container shippers by capacity.

Read Full Article HERE

Costas Paris, The Wall Street Journal via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1kL4jpz

China’s Rare Earth Toxic Time Bomb to Spur Mining Boom

The toxic time bomb set by China’s rare earths mining boom is set to boost the prospects for some of the $12 billion of projects being developed outside the world’s biggest supplier.

As part of its pollution clean-up, China, which controls 90 percent of the global market, is studying the introduction of new taxes and regulations for rare earths in the second half that are forecast to drive prices higher.

The measures will add to pressures loosening China’s stranglehold on the production of rare earths, 17 chemically similar elements used in products from Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPods to Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) hybrid-electric cars and Tomahawk cruise missiles made by Raytheon Co. (RTN)

Read Full Article HERE

David Stringer, Bloomberg via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1kL4jpq

Rich Chinese sue Canada over immigration rules

More than 1,300 Chinese mainland millionaires have decided to take Canada’s immigration authorities to court after Ottawa’s decision to terminate its popular immigrant investor program earlier this year, which had previously attracted worldwide entrepreneurs and investors to Canada.

According to South China Morning Post, each applicant is seeking C$5million ($4.57 million) in compensation (2.5 times of the application deposit) if the government refuses to assess their cases. According to Tim Leahy, the Toronto lawyer representing the case, 1,335 of his 1,446 clients had submitted their immigration applications in Hong Kong. Virtually all of the Hong Kong applicants are from Chinese mainland.

Canada’s 25-year-old federal Immigrant Investor Program (IIP) has offered a way for many rich foreigners to buy their tickets to Canada’s educational benefits and health plan, based on the condition that they have a net worth of C$1.6-million or more and were able to lend Ottawa C$800,000 interest-free for five years.

Although the government planned to call off the program in February, the program was actually slowed down by the immigration authorities about two years ago for further movement.

According to South China Morning Post, lawyer Leahy claimed that “the immigration authorities unfairly slowed the processing of applications well ahead of its cancellation”.

Immigration data shows that more than 60,000 would-be migrants were suspended in the program’s backlog, and many of them had paid their C$2million application deposit over a year ago. Among the applicants, over 80 percent had lodged their applications via Hong Kong.

Leahy’s clients also include a small share of applicants from Ankara, London, New Delhi, Paris, Port-of-Spain, Pretoria and Singapore, besides those applying via Hong Kong.

Prior to the case, a small group of 10 applicants in Beijing had filed a group lawsuit against Canada’s immigration authorities in March, and one of them reportedly had already bought a million-dollar house in Vancouver.

China Daily via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1kJQ18H

China plan to cap CO2 emissions seen turning point in climate talks

China said on Tuesday it will set an absolute cap on its CO2 emissions from 2016 just a day after the United States announced new targets for its power sector, signalling a potential breakthrough in tough U.N. climate talks.

Progress in global climate negotiations has often been held back by a deep split between rich and poor nations, led by the United States and China, respectively, over who should step up their game to reduce emissions. But the fact that the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases made unprecedented announcements on climate within 24 hours of each other sparked optimism among observers hoping to see the decades-old deadlock broken. The steps come ahead of a global meet on climate change starting on Wednesday in Germany.

China, the world’s biggest emitter, will set a total cap on its CO2 emissions when its next five-year plan comes into force in 2016, He Jiankun, chairman of China’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change, told a conference in Beijing.

Read Full Article HERE

admin via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1rHrcnn