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China orders milk powder probe after babies develop breasts

News Round Up


BEIJING: China’s health ministry said on Tuesday it had ordered food safety authorities in central Hubei province to investigate claims that milk powder has caused infant girls to grow breasts.
Officials had already begun tests on the baby formula after parents and doctors expressed fears that hormones in the milk powder made by NASDAQ-listed Synutra had caused babies to develop breasts prematurely.
"The Ministry of Health had attached great importance to this issue," spokesman Deng Haihua told a news conference, according to a transcript.
Local food safety authorities had earlier refused a parent’s request to investigate the formula made by Synutra, based in the eastern city of Qingdao, saying they did not conduct tests at consumers’ behest, state media reported.
Medical tests indicated the levels of hormones in three girls, ranging in age from four- to 15-months and who were fed the same baby formula, exceeded those of the average adult woman, China Daily reported on Monday.
A fourth case was reported in Beijing, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
The company’s shares plunged 27 per cent on Monday in New York to 12.72 dollars, their steepest fall since China’s 2008 tainted milk scandal.
Chinese dairy products were recalled worldwide in 2008 after it was found that melamine, which is used to make plastics, was widely and illegally added to the products to give the appearance of higher protein.
Melamine was found in the products of 22 Chinese dairy companies in a massive scandal blamed for the deaths of at least six infants and for sickening 300,000 others in China. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6286193.cms?prtpage=1

 

2. Death toll from NW China mudslides rises to 337, 1,148 still missing

Beijing: The death toll from rain-triggered mudslides in Zhouqu County,  Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China’s Gansu Province, has risen to 337, with 1,148 others still missing.

Another 1,242 people were rescued

Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has ordered rescuers to expand the scope of the search and intensify efforts to resettle the disaster-affected people and to provide them with food, shelter, medicines and other basic necessities.

 

3. Murdoch cedes control of Chinese TV channels

By Nick Clark in The Independent

Rupert Murdoch has sold a majority stake in three of his Chinese TV channels to a private equity fund backed by the government in Beijing.

The decision marks a shift in News Corporation’s strategy in the country and fuelled speculation yesterday that the media mogul could retreat from China, where his company has struggled to break through despite a long-standing commitment to the market.

News Corp announced yesterday that it had agreed to sell a controlling stake in the television assets to China Media Capital (CMC), the country’s first buyout fund specifically focused on the media industry. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

News Corp said it would retain "a significant stake" in the business but the company would not reveal how much. It added: "Both partners aim to develop the business by exploring new growth opportunities."

Mr Murdoch’s decision to cede full control prompted speculation that News Corp has become frustrated with the control the Chinese authorities continue to exert on the country’s media, despite encouraging commercialisation. There have also been suggestions that Mr Murdoch’s son James, an increasingly powerful force within the company, is not convinced that News Corp’s efforts in China will bear fruit in the near future.

However, insiders at the business rejected suggestions that the sale of the TV stakes signalled News Corp’s retreat from China. Alongside the remaining holding in its Star TV business, News Corp also has a 17.6 per cent holding in Phoenix Satellite Television, which runs three channels, as well as the Chinese operations of subsidiaries Dow Jones and MySpace. One possibility is that partnering with local state-owned operators may accelerate its expansion. A source close to News Corp said the move would help "open up the region".

Jack Gao, the chief executive of Star China, will take over as head of the joint venture, which will be based in Beijing, and have offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Chongqing. The company’s entire staff of 70 is moving with him.

James Murdoch, who is chairman and chief executive of News Corp in Europe and Asia, said: "The agreement with CMC recognises the value we have created in Star China and enables us to continue to grow it for the future."

Rupert Murdoch bought Star TV in 1993 and has been forced to make a series of concessions to the Chinese government, including barring the BBC from his satellite platform broadcasting in the region.

The state has consistently turned down his requests to make and broadcast programmes in the country.

Mr Murdoch has recently expressed frustration about his operations in China. In October last year, he gave an address in the country calling for a more open media industry.

A year ago, he restructured News Corp’s Asian business, getting rid of almost a third of the company’s staff in Hong Kong to focus on the Indian market. At the time, 75 per cent of Star TV sales came from India.

Yesterday’s deal will see CMC take control of News Corp’s two general entertainment channels, Xing Kong and Xing Kong International, as well as Channel Mainland China, a music channel aimed at young people. The move also includes the Fortune Star Chinese movie library, which has a total of 757 Chinese-language titles.

Li Ruigang, chairman of CMC, said: "This is an extension of our long-term co-operation with News Corporation."http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/murdoch-cedes-control-of-chinese-tv-channels-2048034.html

 

4. China’s Trade Surplus Climbs to $28.7 Billion

HONG KONG — The Chinese government announced on Tuesday the country’s biggest trade surplus in a year and a half, as an unexpected surge in Chinese exports and weakening of imports pointed to the prospect of renewed frictions with the United States and other countries over China’s international economic policies.

China’s surplus climbed to $28.7 billion in July, the highest since January of last year and much more than the consensus expectation of economists for a surplus of roughly $19 billion. The country had posted a trade surplus of $20 billion in June.

Exports leaped 38.1 percent from an already strong showing in the same month last year, the General Administration of Customs said, while imports rose a more modest 22.7 percent.

China’s central bank announced on June 19 that it would begin to allow the country’s currency, the renminbi, to fluctuate more against other currencies, a decision that the Obama administration and others expected to lead to the renminbi’s appreciation against the dollar. But the pace of that appreciation has been very slow so far, with the renminbi rising only 0.8 percent against the dollar since then.

A stronger renminbi would make Chinese exports more expensive in foreign markets, and would make foreign goods more affordable for Chinese buyers.

China’s policy of releasing a quick snapshot of trade less than two weeks after the end of each month provides one of the earliest glimpses of the strength of international demand, particularly for the consumer goods for which China increasingly dominates global markets. www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/business/global/11yuan.html?_r=1&ref=asia&pagewanted=print

 

5. China to close factories in energy drive

Beijing: China plans to close outdated factories owned by more than 2,000 companies in heavy industries in the clearest sign yet of Beijing’s determination to meet its low energy targets even at the expense of economic growth.

Beijing pledged five years ago to reduce energy intensity, a measure of energy consumed per unit of gross domestic product, by 20 per cent by the end of 2010. But the government has struggled to meet that goal.

The latest policy statement underscores how heavy industry, which accounts for more than half the country’s energy demand, will bear the brunt of the crackdown. The move is aimed at promoting energy conservation and speeding the shift of China’s economy away from energy-intensive industries.

Beijing said it would target 18 industries, including steel and cement, and took the unusual step of listing each company affected and the amount of production it must close by the end of September. The list included subsidiaries of large state-owned companies such as Chinalco, Angang Steel and the Shougang Group.

Those companies that fail to comply could have their business licences revoked or their power cut off. Banks would be forbidden from extending credit to the offending parties.

Some observers remain sceptical that the latest crackdown on heavy industries will result in permanent capacity closures, suggesting that production facilities might be closed this year only to reopen in the spring.

"What we’ve seen historically is that these threats are used for a short period of time while the situation is hot," an analyst at Macquarie said, citing similar efforts in 2007 and 2008.

Analysts said China’s industrial growth could slow during the second half as the government rushes to meet its energy targets by the end of the year.

"If they’re going to achieve this target of lowering energy intensity by 20 per cent by year-end, this could shave 1.5 per cent off industrial production growth," Wang Qing, China economist at Morgan Stanley, said.

China‘s previous efforts to reduce energy consumption were thrown off course by the $586bn stimulus package launched in 2008.

The stimulus and accompanying easy credit fuelled construction, in turn driving up demand for energy-intense products such as steel, and so boosting heavy industry. As a result, China’s energy intensity worsened in the first quarter of this year after years of continuous improvement.

At the end of 2009, China had reduced energy intensity by 15.6 per cent from 2005 levels, but energy intensity increased in the first quarter of this year by 3.2 per cent. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/08/09/china.energy.factories.ft/index.html?section=cnn_latest#fbid=pOiBHfSnjbc&wom=false

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