Blast in China's Kashgar kills at least 3: reports, Posted by Meosha Eaton

(Reuters) - An explosion rocked the far-west Chinese city of Kashgar Sunday, killing at least three people including a policeman in the latest in a series of attacks in the region this month, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The explosion came about 16 hours after two other blasts were reported in Kashgar and eight people were killed in a knife attack in the city, in the restive Xinjiang region near Tajikistan.

Obama Appoints New Ambassador to China, Posted by Meosha Eaton

By Williams Ekanem

President Barack Obama has named Mr. Gary Locke as the  new United States Ambassador to China.

He replaces  Jon Huntsman, who  has decided to step down from his current job. 

Making the announcement, Obama said, “in replacing Ambassador Huntsman, I can think of nobody who is more qualified than Gary Locke.  More than 100 years ago, Gary’s grandfather left China on a steamship bound for America, where he worked as a domestic servant in Washington State.  A century later, his grandson will return to China as America’s top diplomat.” 

Going into Gary’s public offices, Obama said, “in the years between these milestones, Gary has distinguished himself as one of our nation’s most respected and admired public servants.  As our country’s first Chinese-American governor, he worked tirelessly to attract jobs and businesses to Washington State, and he doubled exports to China.”

According to the President,   “two years ago, I asked Gary to continue this work as Commerce Secretary.  I wanted him to advocate for America’s businesses and American exports all around the world, make progress on our relationship with China, and use the management skills he developed as governor to reform a complex and sprawling agency.  He has done all that and more.  He’s been a point person for my National Export Initiative, and last year, Gary’s department led an historic number of trade missions that helped promote American businesses and support American jobs.  He’s overseen an increase in American exports, and particularly exports to China, a country we recently signed trade deals with that will support 235,000 American jobs.”

He added, “as Commerce Secretary, Gary oversaw a Census process that ended on time and under budget, returning $2 billion to American taxpayers.  He’s earned the trust of business leaders across America by listening to their concerns, making it easier for them to export their goods abroad, and dramatically reducing the time it takes to get a patent.  When he’s in Beijing, I know that American companies will be able to count on him to represent their interests in front of China’s top leaders.

 “As one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, our relationship with China is one of the most critical of the 21st century.  Over the last two years we worked hard to build a relationship that serves our national interest -– addressing global security issues and expanding opportunities for American companies and American workers.  Continued cooperation between our countries will be good for America, it will be good for China, and it will be good for the world.  As the grandson of a Chinese immigrant who went on to live the American Dream, Gary is the right person to continue this cooperation.  I know he will bring the same skills and experience that he brought to Commerce Secretary to this new position that he’s about to embark on,” the President added.

In his response, Gary said “I’m eager to assume this new position.  And it’s a privilege and a solemn responsibility to serve you and the American people as the next United States ambassador to China.”

White House News: Obama Appoints New Ambassador to Chin

March 09, 2011

By Williams Ekanem

President Barack Obama has named Mr. Gary Locke as the  new United States Ambassador to China.

He replaces  Jon Huntsman, who  has decided to step down from his current job. 

Making the announcement, Obama said, “in replacing Ambassador Huntsman, I can think of nobody who is more qualified than Gary Locke.  More than 100 years ago, Gary’s grandfather left China on a steamship bound for America, where he worked as a domestic servant in Washington State.  A century later, his grandson will return to China as America’s top diplomat.”  

Going into Gary’s public offices, Obama said, “in the years between these milestones, Gary has distinguished himself as one of our nation’s most respected and admired public servants.  As our country’s first Chinese-American governor, he worked tirelessly to attract jobs and businesses to Washington State, and he doubled exports to China.”

According to the President,   “two years ago, I asked Gary to continue this work as Commerce Secretary.  I wanted him to advocate for America’s businesses and American exports all around the world, make progress on our relationship with China, and use the management skills he developed as governor to reform a complex and sprawling agency.  He has done all that and more.  He’s been a point person for my National Export Initiative, and last year, Gary’s department led an historic number of trade missions that helped promote American businesses and support American jobs.  He’s overseen an increase in American exports, and particularly exports to China, a country we recently signed trade deals with that will support 235,000 American jobs.”

He added, “as Commerce Secretary, Gary oversaw a Census process that ended on time and under budget, returning $2 billion to American taxpayers.  He’s earned the trust of business leaders across America by listening to their concerns, making it easier for them to export their goods abroad, and dramatically reducing the time it takes to get a patent.  When he’s in Beijing, I know that American companies will be able to count on him to represent their interests in front of China’s top leaders.

 “As one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, our relationship with China is one of the most critical of the 21st century.  Over the last two years we worked hard to build a relationship that serves our national interest -– addressing global security issues and expanding opportunities for American companies and American workers.  Continued cooperation between our countries will be good for America, it will be good for China, and it will be good for the world.  As the grandson of a Chinese immigrant who went on to live the American Dream, Gary is the right person to continue this cooperation.  I know he will bring the same skills and experience that he brought to Commerce Secretary to this new position that he’s about to embark on,” the President added.

In his response, Gary said “I’m eager to assume this new position.  And it’s a privilege and a solemn responsibility to serve you and the American people as the next United States ambassador to China.”

UN News: China, Middle East including the Palestinian question – Security Council Meeting , Posted by Menelik Zeleke

Statement by H.E. Mr. Li Baodong, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations. The United States vetoed a draft Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israeli settlement activity. The other 14 members of the Security Council voted in favour of the resolution, co-sponsored by a number of countries from various regions of the world.

Saudis, China dilute G20 Middle East text -sources, Posted by Meosha Eaton

As reported by Reuters:

PARIS, Feb 19 (Reuters) -

Saudi Arabia and China diluted Western efforts on Saturday to have the Group of 20 major world economies offer support to Tunisia and Egypt in their transition to democracy, delegates said. The diplomatic wrangle came as authorities in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen used lethal force to try to quash anti-government protests inspired by the popular uprisings that ousted authoritarian rulers in Tunisia and Egypt.

G20 president France urged finance ministers and central bankers of countries representing 85 percent of global economic output to welcome the change in the two north African Arab states and declare their willingness to provide resources to help their interim governments during the transition. "In the shorter term, France will ask you to be ready to join forces to accompany our Tunisian and Egyptian friends on the road to democracy, in making economic and social progress," President Nicolas Sarkozy told them in a speech on Friday.

Delegates said the wording of the draft G20 communique had been considerably watered down to remove any welcome of the popular uprisings but leave the offer of help. Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy with no elected parliament, strongly opposed any endorsement of the popular uprisings that toppled Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, they said.

"This sort of talk makes people like the Saudis rather nervous," one Western delegate said. "Understandably, the Chinese are weighing in as well."

Beijing argued that the Middle East situation was a matter for foreign ministers, not finance chiefs, he said.
"This is the nature of the G20, where we have democracies but also less democratic governments," the delegate said.

Most Western leaders have welcomed the popular wave sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, but analysts are nervous of how further civil unrest, economic disruption and a surge in migration will affect the rest of the world.

France, the formal colonial power in Tunisia and an influential voice with big economic interests in the Middle East, wants to see stable democracies take root in both countries, where it long had close ties with the ousted rulers.

(Reporting by Paul Taylor and Catherine Bremer, editing by Mike Peacock)

Flood of money needed to fix China's water woes, Posted by Meosha Eaton

By Lucy Hornby and Jane Lanhee Lee

    BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Feb 16 (Reuters) - China is now the

world's second largest economy, but hundreds of millions of its people still rely on fouled water that will cost billions of dollars to clean.

    Growing cities, overuse of fertilisers, and factories that heedlessly dump wastewater have degraded China's water supplies to the extent that half the nation's rivers and lakes are severely polluted.

    China needs to spend up to $20 billion a year to bring its urban water supplies up to standard, according to the World Bank. 

    Larger and wealthier cities have already started investing in the sector, but water supplies in smaller cities and the countryside still fall short, leaving about 800 million people without clean drinking water.

    Water infrastructure was given unusual pride of place this year in the government's first policy document of 2011, with 4 trillion yuan ($606.4 billion) allocated to water clean-up and rural water infrastructure over the next decade.

    "China is facing a grave challenge of water pollution," said Ma Jun, whose Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs names and shames water polluters.

    "If you travel along the coastal regions, which are the most populated areas in China, you can hardly find much clean

water... In the northern part of China you will find many rivers have either dried up or have turned into open sewers."

    While central planners worry that intense pollution could

choke crop production and poison the food chain, a prosperous

urban population wants clear tap water and clean showers.

    Foreign firms ploughed $1.7 billion into China's water

sector from 2004-2009, investing over $500 million in 2009

alone. The projects include wastewater treatment, municipal

water supply, industrial water supply and direct investment in Chinese water companies. 

         

    But undermining those ambitious plans is the stark fact that low Chinese water tariffs offer citizens and companies little incentive to save water.

    "It's still cheaper to just dump wastewater. The people

whose behavior will change if tariffs rise are residential

users, more than companies," said Michael Komesaroff, principal of Australia-based consultancy Urandaline Investments, who has studied Chinese industrial water use.

    "The industrial user knows he can probably talk his way out of any higher fees from the local government."

    China's water tariffs remain strikingly low among major

economies, despite the doubling in average water tariffs in

recent years to 39 U.S. cents a cubic metre, according to Global Water Intelligence.

    Of 19 major economies, only India charges less.

    

    CITY WATER

    Years of investment have already begun to pay off. Tap water in Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities is now drinkable,

although few Chinese are willing to do so without boiling.

    But even in the cities, tariffs remain an issue.

    French water giants Suez Environnement and Veolia

 are major players in the Chinese municipal water

market, with over 17 contracts apiece. 

    They face rising competition for contacts from China's

home-grown water treatment firms like Beijing Capital Co

 , many of which have evolved from city water bureaus

or water equipment suppliers.

    But low residential water tariffs -- and the city water

authorities' inability to raise them -- means thin profits are pushing Suez and Veolia to target industrial water contracts instead. 

    At 14 million people served, China accounts for 20 percent of Suez' water consumers but only 7 percent of its revenues. 

    "I think [foreign water companies] find it difficult to make money in the Chinese environment," said Paul Kriss, sector coordinator for Urban Development at the World Bank in Beijing. 

    "Prices are capped, so you need to be sure you are going to be paid. It's not a high-margin business. It's not iPads."

    

    PRICE POINTS

    Where water is expensive, companies are already moving to

reduce consumption.

    "Water intensive industries tend to save water when it is in their benefit," said the World Bank's Kriss.

    Coca-Cola , whose bottlers use 2 litres of water for

every litre of Coke sold, has reduced water use at its China

plants by 35 percent since 2004, employing more efficient

techniques.

    "Certainly if there is any rise in water price that will

impact our cost of production," said Brenda Lee, Coca-Cola's

vice president for public affairs and communications for Greater China.

    "What we can try to do is try to mitigate the water rates

impact by being a more efficient water user. That is one of the drivers for us to be more water efficient."

    Coke draws on municipal water for most of its plants, but a 90-kilometre benzene slick that polluted the Songhua river in 2005 convinced it to source some of its supply directly from groundwater.

    Many of the worst polluters have little incentive to change.

    Fines for polluting are still generally lower than the costs of retrofitting a plant, and many of the biggest industrial users control their own water supply, making higher tariffs irrelevant.

    Even wastewater treatment creates its own demons, in the

form of 30 million tonnes of toxic sludge buried or dumped each year into rivers and the sea.

    China's plans for water include limiting annual consumption to 670 billion cubic metres, although it is not clear what mechanism would be used.

    Even if the cap is as crudely applied as current efforts to rein in energy usage, the end result could be greater

efficiencies, Komesaroff said.

    Massive investments meant to upgrade state-owned energy and metals plants and reduce their fuel usage has had a knock-on effect in raising water efficiency.

    "The big, fixed asset investment we've seen has resulted in new plants that are state-of-the-art in efficiency," Komesaroff said.

    "Shutting old or outdated plants saves water as well as

fuel, because inefficient fuel burners need more water for

cooling.

    ($1=6.596 Yuan)

    (Editing by Daniel Magnowski)