Google remains at risk in China

China’s government confirmed that it renewed Google Inc’s Internet license, after the US company’s local venture pledged to allow its Web content to be supervised by regulators, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Beijing Guxiang Information Technology Co, operator of Google’s China website, has undertaken to comply with Chinese law and provide no law-breaking content, Xinhua reported, citing an unidentified official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Getting the go-ahead gives Google, which disclosed China’s decision to renew its license last week, a chance to win search share lost to market leader Baidu Inc and woo advertisers put off by the company’s half-year dispute with the government. Some Google operations were in jeopardy as it balked at censorship rules that require companies to filter Web content.

Google was surprised by how quickly China renewed the company’s Internet-services license, Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said in a July 9 interview. There were no formal negotiations between Google and Chinese officials over the decision, a person familiar with the matter said.

China renewed the license through 2012, and officials will revisit the decision annually. China’s government can still use its authority to yank the license if it deems Google’s compliance wanting, said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at Caris & Co. in San Francisco.

‘At risk’
“Google remains at risk in China,” Aggarwal said. “Chinese regulators gave them a back door.”

Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, went public with its dispute in January, saying it was no longer willing to comply with China’s filtering regulations.

“We look forward to continuing to provide Web search and local products to our users in China,” the company said on its July 9 blog. Spokeswoman Jessica Powell declined to say whether China had imposed any conditions on renewing the permit.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, won approval after changing the way it handled search requests. After closing its Chinese search engine in March, it had been automatically redirecting users to its unfiltered site in Hong Kong. To allay officials’ concerns, Google added an extra hurdle for Chinese Web surfers, directing them to a landing page that in turn pointed them to the Hong Kong site.

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Posted in: China,engine,Google,information,internet,license,searxh,technology

‘Q’ urges govt to adopt China model

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Q leader, and Chairman of Pak, China Institute, Mushahid Hussain Sayed Sunday urged the Pakistan government to follow the Chinese model of poverty alleviation as China has lifted around 400 million people out of poverty within a generation time.
He was addressing a unique gathering of around 400 youth from China and Pakistan assembled on the occasion of Pak, China Cultural Show held here at Pakistan, China Friendship Centre. The function was held to welcome the 100-member youth delegation from China.

Chinese ambassador Liu Jiang and officials of Pakistani ministry of culture were also present. Mushahid said the Sino-Pak ties were only one of its kind due to three strategic reasons. This is a strategic, friction-free and model relationship between the two neighbours. He said these ties were distinguished due to the exceptional bonds between the peoples and governments of both the friendly nations. “In a scenario when 21st century is an Asian century, China’s rise as a world giant is a positive development for peace, stability and development in Asia. This is also more important as the world’s balance is shifting from the West to the East,” he asserted. The founding chairman of the first Pakistani think-tank on Sino, Pak ties further added that Pakistan China Institute (PCI) would play a lead role in celebrations of the completion of 60 years of Pakistan, China diplomatic relationship. He said the services of the institute would go a long way in harnessing the people-to-people contacts between both the friendly countries. Besides the Chinese youth delegation, hundreds of students from Roots School System (RSS) led by Director RSS Faisal Mushtaq, and from Beaconhouse School System also attended the function and had a direct interaction with the Chinese youth. On the occasion, Faisal Mushtaq said the RSS would launch the first Chinese language classes in Pakistan in February 2011. He said the RSS had already hired the services of two leading Chinese instructors who would be arriving Pakistan soon. He said this would provide the Pakistani students an exclusive opportunity to learn the Chinese language which would be the language of the modern age. -APP

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Posted in: China,Chinese,development,Faisal Mushtaq,function,Institute,language,Pak,Pakistan,Pakistani,RSS,System

China traders to explore Pakistan

KARACHI: Muhammad Haroon Agar, Chairman, Pakistan Chemicals & Dyes Merchants Association, in a press statement, stated that on his invitation, a delegation of 24-member Business Tycoons of a large Chinese industrial group is visiting Pakistan on 20th January, 2011 to explore the opportunities to setup industrial base for raw-materials in the country.

Agar articulated that owing to exorbitant and unprovoked additional charges of shipping lines for earning high profits and increased valuation advices, the import business is facing a persistent upshot from the rising cost of doing business to an alarming situation.
Agar said that such unwarranted increase in prices of imported items and raw-material is acting as detrimental for the businesses.

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Posted in: China,Chinese,cost,delegation,exchange,explore,foreign direct investment,group,investment,investors,Pakistan,Pakistan Chemicals Dyes Merchants Association

Rising oil price adds to Asia inflation headaches

Rising oil prices present a new inflationary headache for Asia and further complicate the task of policymakers grappling with broader price pressures, an uneven growth outlook and surging dollar inflows. Central bankers in Asia are reluctant to stifle growth by raising rates and are wary of exacerbating yield differentials with western economies and Japan that would further attract potentially destabilising capital flows.

At the same time, rising prices are politically fraught in countries such as India and Indonesia, which must decide between taking the fiscal hit of offsetting fuel price increases through subsidies or pass costs onto inflation-wary consumers.
Inflation is also a big worry for global economic powerhouse China, whose leadership perceives rising costs of living as a threat to social peace and stability.
Beijing’s Christmas day rate rise — its second in two months — underscored how its focus has shifted from nurturing growth to getting prices under control and India is expected to follow, resuming a tightening cycle that has brought six rate increases since March.

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Posted in: Asia,China,demand,food,growth,India,inflation,price,prices,that

China backs rare-earth quota-cut

Says quota cut in line with WTO

BEIJING: China defended its export controls on rare earth minerals on Thursday, saying that they were in line with World Trade Organization rules, after a government move to slash export quotas on rare earths sparked trade concerns.
China, which produces about 97 per cent of the global supply of the metals used in the production of numerous high-tech products, cut its export quota by 35 per cent for the first half of 2011 compared with a year earlier, saying it wanted to conserve reserves.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu reiterated at a regular news briefing in Beijing that the quotas were necessary for environmental protection.
“This accord with relevant WTO rules,” she said. “In the future, China will continue to supply rare earths to the international market and will take effective management steps over their export in accordance with WTO rules.”

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Posted in: BEIJING,cent,China,companies,cut,European,Jiang,that,trade,US,WTO