China Alarmed by US Money Printing

The US Federal Reserve's policy of printing money to buy Treasury debt threatens to set off a serious decline of the dollar and compel China to redesign its foreign reserve policy, according to a top member of the Communist hierarchy.

From The Telegraph
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee and now head of China's green energy drive, said Beijing was dismayed by the Fed's recourse to "credit easing".

"We hope there will be a change in monetary policy as soon as they have positive growth again," he said at the Ambrosetti Workshop, a policy gathering on Lake Como.

"If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies," he said.

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U.S. Will Pay $2.6 Million to Train Chinese Prostitutes to Drink Responsibly on the Job

And you thought the Stimulus Package was just for the benefit of the United States!

From CNSNews.com
By Edwin Mora

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.

Dr. Xiaoming Li, the researcher conducting the program, is director of the Prevention Research Center at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.

The grant, made last November, refers to prostitutes as "female sex workers"--or FSW--and their handlers as "gatekeepers."

"Previous studies in Asia and Africa and our own data from FSWs [female sex workers] in China suggest that the social norms and institutional policy within commercial sex venues as well as agents overseeing the FSWs (i.e., the 'gatekeepers', defined as persons who manage the establishments and/or sex workers) are potentially of great importance in influencing alcohol use and sexual behavior among establishment-based FSWs," says the NIH grant abstract submitted by Dr. Li.

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CHINESE MAN KILLED AFTER FILMING PROTEST

China's brutal city security force (Chengguan). The red slogan reads "Constructing Harmonious Society."

From The Guardian

A man who used his mobile phone to film a violent clash between villagers and officials in rural China was beaten to death by public order "enforcers", Chinese state media reported yesterday, bringing more unwanted attention to the country's unruly hinterlands.

The People's Daily reported that 24 residents of Tianmen, a city in central China's Hubei province, have been detained after Wei Wenhua, the general manager of a company owned by the local water resources bureau, was pulled out of his car and savagely beaten.

Wei was driving through the area when he stopped to film the protests, which were triggered by a decision to build a rubbish tip close to a residential area.

It was not clear whether he stopped on impulse or deliberately set out to record the clashes, in which villagers faced about 50 local officials and enforcers known as chengguan. But when it became clear what he was doing, the chengguan turned on him. He tried to flee but was beaten for 10 minutes, witnesses said. Among those being questioned by police is a senior government official, the state news agency Xinhua said.

Witnesses also revealed that at least five other people were taken to hospital when the chengguan tried to put an end to an ugly confrontation that began at new year after the authorities reneged on a promise to shut down a rubbish tip built close to a residential area.

Normally hired by local authorities to enforce relocation orders, crack down on "antisocial" behaviour and disperse crowds, the role of the chengguan has aroused concern about the power and accountability of Chinese officialdom.

One indignant contributor to a local online discussion group said that they were "inhuman" and "out of control". Another, worried that the news will be suppressed by government censors, urged fellow internet users to spread the message as far as they could.