China spending on renewable energy soars!

World’s biggest polluter spends £4bn a year on wind and solar power generation in single region as it aims to cut fossil fuel use

Although China is the world’s biggest CO2 emitter and notorious for building the equivalent of a 400MW coal-fired power station every three days, it is also erecting 36 wind turbines a day and building a robust new electricity grid to send this power thousands of miles across the country from the deserts of the west to the cities of the east.

Jiuquan alone now has the capacity to generate 6GW of wind energy - roughly equivalent to that of the whole UK. The plan is to more than triple that by 2015, when this area could become the biggest windfarm in the world.

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2161975/winds-change-blow-china-spending-renewable-energy-soars

China leader’s ouster roils succession plans:

Bo Xilai was removed as party boss of Chongqing, a sprawling urban region in the southwest that he turned into a bastion of Communist revolutionary-inspired “red” culture and egalitarian growth, a day after being rebuked by Premier Wen Jiabao in a news conference broadcast live across the country.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/15/us-china-chongqing-idUSBRE82E02Z20120315?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71

Shanghai dialect fights to survive in modern China:

As the government maintains a decades-old drive to promote Mandarin Chinese as the official language, banning dialects from media broadcasts and schools, many young people are unable to fluently speak — or fully understand — the native Shanghai tongue.

An influx of migrants from outside Shanghai and the city’s drive to become more international have also combined to water down the local patois.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Shanghai+dialect+fights+survive+modern+China/6207539/story.html

A scandal in southwest China reflects on a new world order:

The once in a decade power transition of the Chinese communist party may not go as smoothly as they had hoped.

It all began with Wang Lijun, deputy police chief of mega-city Chongqing, seeking political asylum at the US Consulate in Chengdu.
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/a-scandal-in-southwest-china-reflects-on-a-new-world-order#page1

China brings supermarket concept to North Korea:

Decidedly un-communist development in North Korea: A new culture of commerce is springing up, with China as its inspiration and source. The market-savvy Chinese are introducing the pleasures of the megamart to a small niche of North Koreans, and flooding the country’s border regions with cheap goods.

Outside Pyongyang, much of the country remains impoverished. Millions rely on state-provided food, but poor agricultural yields mean they’ll get only a fraction of what they need to survive, according to the World Food Program.

Still, there are signs that a new found consumer culture is taking hold both in Pyongyang and in the border towns where Chinese-made goods are bought and sold every day.

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20120229000788

The Chinese architect Wang Shu, whose buildings in a rapidly developing China honor the past with salvaged materials even as they experiment with modern forms, has been awarded the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

The selection of Mr. Wang, 48, is an acknowledgment of “the role that China will play in the development of architectural ideals,” said Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the prize and announced the winner on Monday.

Mr. Wang’s major projects, all in China, include two in Ningbo, a coastal city south of Shanghai: the Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum, completed in 2005, and the Ningbo Historic Museum, completed in 2008.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/arts/design/pritzker-prize-awarded-to-wang-shu-chinese-architect.html

Boost for Hollywood studios as China agrees to ease quota on US films:

Limit currently set at 20 blockbusters a year to be raised to 34 – but additional movies must be 3D or Imax versions.

Major American studios and independent film-makers alike are celebrating the deal to settle a long-running trade dispute, struck by Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.

It also allows foreign film-makers to keep a bigger share of box office takings: they will receive 25% instead of 13%. “This is a very big deal,” said Chris Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America.

This will be huge for the U.S. film industry.

Obama meets China’s leader-in-waiting:

US president Barack Obama has held his first meeting with the man who is expected to be leading China by the end of the year. Mr Obama told Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping that China must play fair in international trade, and vowed to keep pressing China to clean up its human rights record.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-15/obama-meets-china27s-leader-in-waiting/3830594/?site=newcastle

The Global Stagnation and China

China, now the world’s second largest economy after the United States, “is not immune” to the general economic slowdown, warns IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde. “Emerging Asia is also vulnerable to developments in the financial sector.”

So sharp were the IMF’s warnings, dovetailing with widespread fears of a sharp Chinese economic slowdown, that Lagarde was forced to reassure world business, declaring that stagnation was probably not imminent in China.

http://monthlyreview.org/2012/01/31/the-global-stagnation-and-china

Nevertheless, concerns regarding the future of the Chinese economy are now widespread. Few informed economic observers believe that the current Chinese growth trend is sustainable; indeed, many believe that if China does not sharply alter course, it is headed toward a severe crisis. Stephen Roach, non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, argues that China’s export-led economy has recently experienced two warning shots: first the decline beginning in the United States following the Great Financial Crisis, and now the continuing problems in Europe. “China’s two largest export markets are in serious trouble and can no longer be counted on as reliable, sustainable sources of external demand.”

Baidu Wants the World — and It Wants It Now

Baidu revealed that it plans on introducing its search platform in a dozen different foreign languages. Products in Arabic and Thai debuted four months ago, and more will clearly follow.

Is it too late for Baidu? Companies have been successful outside of their home market. Russia’s Yandex has a presence in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. Google may not be the leader in China, but it does lead in the world’s second most populous country: India.