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Their fingers bleed. If they don’t see through their day’s quota — 5,000 bulbs, they are beaten. The next day they report to duty under guards’ eyes. They thread the fine wire through plastic frames for Christmas lights to be strung for selling around the world. But their Christmas celebration is confined to being imprisoned. Their crime? Preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. This past year, 600 pastors alone were put behind Chinese bars. Their families? Left to fend for themselves.

James Gaussman and the Jewelled Pyramid of China Egyptian pyramids? Sure, everyone knows about the ones at Giza - and a few aficionados might know about the 138 others (!) scattered around them. Mesoamerican pyramids? Okay, a lot of folks know about them, too -- or even that the great one at Cholula is considered to be the largest one in the world. (reconstruction of a typical Chinese pyramid - image via) But, unfortunately, not many people know that pyramids have come in other flavors as well, including the mysterious and legendary ones in China. (photo by Santha Falia, ;...

The U.N. Climate Control Conference in Copenhagen ended in failure in that no binding agreement was reached to reduce CO2 emissions. China nixed the agreement by refusing to compromise on the issue of international verification as noted by a British newspaper called The Independent: When the [U.S.] President, in an unyielding speech, said that without international verification "any agreement would be empty words on a page", that was too much for [Chinese Premier] Mr Wen. He left the conference in Copenhagen's Bella Centre, returned to his hotel in the city, and responded with a direct snub of his own -...

"Oh, you are all here. I had some things to discuss with all of you so it’s good that you are together in the same room,” US President Barack Obama said as he strode into the room where the BASIC countries — Brazil, South Africa, India and China — were holding their last, intensive meetings in Copenhagen. “We really need a deal,” he said. “It’s better that we take one step forward rather than two steps back. I’m willing to be flexible.” And he rolled up his sleeves and sat down. Obama had come to meet China’s Wen Jiabao, in...

Harder to buy US Treasuries Created: 2009-12-18 0:13:35 Author:Zhou Xin and Jason Subler IT is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday. The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, referred to the overall situation globally, not specifically to China, the biggest foreign holder of US government bonds. Chinese officials generally are very careful about commenting on the dollar and Treasuries, given that so much of its US$2.3 trillion reserves are tied to their...

CHINA "hijacked'' the Copenhagen summit by blocking a legally-binding treaty, Britain's Climate Change Secretary David Miliband said. China vetoed attempts to give legal force to the accord reached at the United Nations climate summit. It also blocked an agreement on reductions in global emissions... "This was a chaotic process dogged by procedural games,'' The summit set a commitment to limit global warming to 2C but did not spell out the important global emissions targets for 2020 or 2050 that were the key to holding down temperatures. It also promised $100 billion for poor nations that risked bearing the brunt of...

The U.S. Navy is looking for a sufficiently impressive foe to help scare more money out of Congress. The Chinese Navy (or, more correctly, the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy) is now the favorites candidate, for navy and defense industry analysts, to become the new Big Bad. Just how dangerous are these Chinese sailors and their ships? It turns out that, on closer inspection, not very. This is the sort of thing that what went on during the Cold War. Russian military prowess was hyped by American the military, and their defense suppliers, to justify further increases in defense spending....

In Asia, 2010 Likely To Be As Bad As 1998 by: Peter Cooper December 20, 2009 The Hong Kong Monetary Authority warned in its latest quarterly report that the city may face ’sharp corrections’ in asset prices if hot money from the dollar carry trade decides to make a quick exit. The Hang Seng Index is up 50 per cent this year, while house prices have surged by almost 30 per cent. Hong Kong has been a major beneficiary of the global dollar carry trade as well as the Chinese stimulus package equivalent to half of GDP in the first...

One day after the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao snubbed President Obama at the United Nation's Copenhagen Climate Summit, the Chinese warned the United States that China's ability to continue buying U.S. Treasury debt was limited. Zhu Min, the deputy governor of the People's Republic of China, told the Shanghai Daily that it is getting harder for the People's Bank of China to buy U.S. Treasuries because the shrinking U.S. current account is reducing the supplies overseas. This was dire news for the Obama administration that in 2010 and for the foreseeable future will be dependent on China to buy...

Their families? Left to fend for themselves. So tomorrow more pastors jailed by Chinese atheists will string fine wire for Christmas light insertions into hard plastic containers. A workday: 16-20 hours. Then the items will be marketed global for believers to have Christmas lights for one more December. It goes on and on and on.

COPENHAGEN | Found a seat at meeting, worked out key accord with ChinaWASHINGTON -- It was almost unthinkable. The president of the United States walked into a meeting of fellow world leaders, and there wasn't a chair for him, a sure sign he was not expected, maybe not even wanted. President Obama didn't pause, however. "I'm going to sit by my friend Lula," he said, moving toward Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A Brazilian aide gave the U.S. president his chair, and Obama spent the next 80 minutes helping craft new requirements for disclosing efforts to fight global...

China Acts To Calm Its Overheated Real Estate Sector - And Misdiagnoses the Problem by: Patrick Chovanec December 20, 2009 China’s leaders are becoming increasingly alarmed that a bubble may be forming in the country’s booming real estate sector. That’s why, late last week, they announced the reimposition of a nationwide property sales tax in an effort to rein in speculative buying. But while their intentions are sound, the new tax takes China in entirely the wrong direction, and is more likely to make the problem worse rather than better. To understand why, it’s important to realize what the new...

In What's Next for Gold's Brutal Sell-Off?, apart from commenting on the current situation and suggesting that gold didn’t reach a major bottom yet, I also examined the situation in China. I wrote the following: Considering the high savings rate in China (mostly in the 30% to 40% area in the previous years), gold is a logical investment for the Chinese and it’s possible that billions of dollars in Chinese private investment could move into gold in coming years. Already there's talk of China overtaking India as the world’s largest consumer of gold. It was only in April of this...

Interesting announcement from small gold miner Firstgold. A unit of the Treasury department has informed it that it will seek to block a a planned investment from China.: ---- Firstgold Corp. (TSX: FGD) (PINKSHEETS: FGOC) ("Firstgold" or "the Company") has been advised by The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ("CFIUS") that they will, on Dec 21st, recommend to President Obama that he reject the proposed investment by the China-based company Northwest Non Ferrous International Investment Company Ltd. ("Northwest") in Firstgold. CFIUS has determined through their investigation that serious, significant and consequential national security issues existed. In particular...

By admin Created 19/12/2009 - 05:08 Cambodia is expelling 20 Chinese Muslim Uighurs who sought refuge there after July unrest in northwest China's Xinjiang region, a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP Saturday. "We have decided that they are illegal immigrants because they entered Cambodia without any visa papers," said ministry spokesman Koy Kuong. "They are illegal immigrants and according to Cambodian immigration law they should be expelled from the country. So we must expel them," he said, refusing to say when the group would be deported or what their destination would be. The group arrived at the UN High Commissioner...

Harder to buy US Treasuries Created: 2009-12-18 0:13:35 Author:Zhou Xin and Jason Subler IT is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday. The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, referred to the overall situation globally, not specifically to China, the biggest foreign holder of US government bonds. Chinese officials generally are very careful about commenting on the dollar and Treasuries, given that so much of its US$2.3 trillion reserves are tied to their...

WASHINGTON -- After a day spent frantically darting around Copenhagen trying to locate world leaders, getting snubbed by China's premier and crashing a meeting where he had initially been kept out, President Obama heralded a last-minute, largely toothless UN global-warming summit deal that drew fast fire from all sides as a sham. Almost no one was happy with the outcome of the two-week confab and even the president, who was slammed by liberals and Republicans alike, along with other world leaders, admitted that the pact doesn't legally commit any of the nations involved -- the point of the summit in...

In early December, the People’s Liberation Army's (PLA) publication, China Defense Daily (Zhongguo Guofang Bao), published a report that provided a rare glimpse into an underground tunnel that is being built by the Second Artillery Corps (SAC)—the PLA's strategic missile forces—in the mountainous regions of Hebei Province in northern China. The network of tunnels reportedly stretches for more than 3,107 miles (Ta Kung Pao, December 11; Xinhua News Agency, December 14). The revelation of the semi-underground tunnel highlights the strides being made by China's nuclear modernization efforts, and underscores a changing deterrent relationship between the United States and China. China's...

BEIJING - With 30,000 more United States troops on their way to Afghanistan, it is growing clearer that they will not suffice and that larger challenges loom. Afghanistan is also increasingly developing into a political proxy war between India and Pakistan. Pakistan, which backed the mujahideen against the Soviets in the 1980s and offered a safe haven and breeding ground to the Taliban in the 1990s, is now looking askance at the government of President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, which it sees as pro-India. Conversely, India has fond memories of the time when Kabul was firmly under Moscow's hands and...

PLA studies global warming impact, meteorological weapons UN CLIMATE SUMMIT Minnie Chan Dec 18, 2009 The People's Liberation Army is studying the impact of climate change on its operations - as well as the use of "climate weapons" in warfare....

Senior Obama administration officials describe quite a dramatic scene at Climate Change Conference. Officials say President Obama was frustrated. The conference was in complete chaos. At about 730 pm Denmark time – the president was supposed to have left an hour before -- he learned that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, with whom he was supposed to meet, was meeting with the leaders of India, South Africa, and Brazil – the main players holding up any sort of political agreement. The president heard about this and said he wanted to go to the meeting. “Four against one,” an official said to...

Copenhagen, Denmark (CNN) -- President Obama announced what he called a "meaningful and unprecedented" climate change deal with China and other key nations that was expected to be sealed before the president heads home from the Copenhagen summit late Friday. "For the first time in history, all major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action to confront the threat of climate change," Obama told reporters. The president said he met with leaders from India, China, Brazil and South Africa, and "that's where we agreed ... to set a mitigation target to limit warming to no more...

Barack Obama came, he spoke, and no one concurred: India and China have taken a united stand and walked out of the climate summit as Copenhagen talks fail.Tensions prevailed at the climate talks at Copenhagen today, as Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and China premier Wen Jiabao walked out of the summit along with their respective delegations, as talks failed. Obama feted Singh just this month, saying that they should be impressed that India got first crack at Obama’s state dinner agenda.  Apparently, Singh was less impressed than Obama presumed.Meanwhile, Obama is getting some pretty bad reviews for his intervention...

"We've done what we can here," a senior White House official in Copenhagen, Denmark, tells ABC News. "The Chinese are dug in on transparency and are refusing to let people know they're living up to their end of the agreement." After landing in Denmark early this morning, President Obama met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a bilateral at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to press the case that China needs to allow for transparency. "The President's priority is to make our economy far more focused on a clean energy economy that creates jobs," the official said....

Norman Spector at Canada's Globe & Mail correctly sizes up Obama and Copenhagen from the Chinese perspective The Chinese, who’ve been negotiating for a heck of a lot longer than the United States has been on the map, are fully aware of President Barack Obama’s stunning political weakness at the end of his first year in office. They also understand, as does Canada, the inconvenient truth that Bill Clinton and Al Gore did not even attempt to have the Kyoto Protocol ratified by the U.S. Senate — and there’s no assurance this time either, as can be seen in the...

China Facing Economic, Financial And Stock Market Crash Scenario Economics / Financial Crash Dec 18, 2009 - 03:38 AM By: Mike Shedlock Problems in China continue to mount. Money supply is growing rampantly out of control, property prices are in a bubble, exports are weak, commodity speculation is pervasive, and GDP growth is more of a mirage than real. Money Supply Growing Record 29.74% Please consider China Monthly New Loans Are 294.8 Billion Yuan, Above Forecast New local-currency loans totaled 294.8 billion yuan ($43.2 billion), compared with 253 billion yuan in October, according to data released by the People’s Bank...

MONTREAL - If the Chinese stock market is still an indicator of global investor appetite for risk, as analysts viewed it a few months ago, then that appetite has lately diminished. Perhaps they are finally absorbing some of the revelations about statistical manipulations. They may also be reacting to more recent revelations warning of bank fraud in China. In one case, the Royal Bank of Scotland is reportedly investigating suspected fraud in its China unit. Client losses could be worth up to US$3 million, the Financial Times has reported, citing local media. Whatever the reason, neither Chinese nor global stock...

With the Copenhagen conference lurching towards finality with no real resolution, fingers are being pointed as the UN and World Leaders look for someone to blame. Foremost among these is China, but are they really the root cause for blame shifting. What is difficult to comprehend is that almost one billion people in China have no electrical power at a household personal level. Statistical analysis with references for proof show this. What the UN and world leaders require is that China not only condemn these people to stay without that access to electrical power, but the demand is that they...

BEIJING (Reuters) - It is getting harder for governments to buy U.S. Treasuries because the United States' shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said on Thursday. The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, referred to the overall situation globally, not specifically to China, the biggest foreign holder of U.S. government bonds. Chinese officials generally are very careful about commenting on the dollar and Treasuries, given that so much of its $2.3 trillion reserves are tied to their value, and markets always watch any such comments closely...

Throughout the totalitarian West, the Marxist internationalist elites, while busily flooding their countries with tens of millions of third worlders, have introduced specific measures to keep the native populations down and in check. These measures have come in the form of hate crimes laws. The laws state that a crime is not just a crime if we can find a deeper motive, such as hate of a specific race, sex, religion or sexual orientation. Thus the Lords of Humanity have given themselves the power of God to know what is inside the hearts of men. In practical terms, what this...

FYI, The NASA press release below refers to 'holiday' or 'seasons' greetings six times. No mention of Christmas, of course. [comment deleted]! In a bizarre historical turnabout, religious activity on the space station has now become almost entirely dominated by the Russians. They fly icons blessed by priests (http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=6673) Photos: http://hochu.vkosmos.ru/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/ikona.jpeg and http://www.svet-valaama.ru/photoalbom/2006_05_icon_from_space/2006_05_icon_from_space_01.jpg Also http://www.interfax-religion.ru/img/2308.jpg I haven't seen anything remotely similar from the American side. What have I missed? For the next manned launch this Sunday, also expect Russian Orthodox priests from the newly-built church in Baykonur (news story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10729300) to bless the rocket and the crew. File photo: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Mp59h1-TVgE/SsKiot99hvI/AAAAAAAAAnA/1QV6t9vIfrs/s400/Best+Soyuz+Bless.jpg...

What is So Difficult About Transforming the Chinese Economy? By Liang Jing Dec 5, 2009 - 5:17:35 PM What is So Difficult About Transforming the Chinese Economy? by Liang Jing Everyone understands that to transform ChinaÂ’s economy, household consumption must increase, but few have real confidence in this strategy. What is so difficult about making over the Chinese economy? Overseas, people say that ChinaÂ’s consumption is inadequate because Chinese people save too much. This is actually a big misunderstanding. Some people save to buy property, to educate their children or in case of illness, but the bigger problem is that...

BLOCKING tactics by China and the developing world have brought the Copenhagen climate talks to the brink of collapse, leaving more than 140 world leaders facing the prospect of achieving only a weak political statement. The only hope for a deal, according to negotiators, were signs of splits in the powerful negotiating bloc of the G77 and China - with complaints that China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Pakistan were taking too hard a line and jeopardising the entire talks. An unnamed Chinese official has told Reuters that the Chinese are now suggesting the meeting conclude with only "a short...

Large pieces of a climate deal fell into place Thursday with new offers from the U.S. and China, but other tough issues remained before President Barack Obama and other leaders can sign off on a political accord to contain the threat of an overheated world. An announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the United States would contribute to a climate change fund amounting to $100 billion a year by 2020 was quickly followed by an offer from China to open its books on carbon emissions to international review. The U.S. delegation did not immediately react to the...

China, once a proud holder of United States post-World War II debt, is getting scared. For years the People's Republic has bought U.S. Treasuries, eventually becoming the largest holder of U.S. debt ($799 BILLION to be exact!). Those days are long gone, though. During 2009, China hasn't been buying many Treasuries and has been unloading dollars in a way that makes Geithner shiver at night. And other big U.S. debt carriers like Japan may follow suit if confidence is lost. This presentation, courtesy of RBS, takes a deeper look into China's holdings and associated volumes since 2005. Get ready for...

COPENHAGEN — China’s climate negotiators have told Western counterparts they can’t agree to an “operational agreement” on climate change that President Barack Obama had hoped to bring home from Copenhagen –- and will push for a short, noncommittal collective statement at the end of the talks, according to American staffers briefed on the situation. It’s not clear if remarks by Chinese officials, made during negotiating sessions on Wednesday night, signal the end of efforts to reach a significant agreement or simply represent an 11th hour bargaining tactic less than a day before Obama was due to arrive in Copenhagen. But...

Is Kim Jong-il Going to China? North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may be gearing up to visit China after a series of key aides went there and the North banned foreigners from entering for two months. The North has closed the border with China before when Kim was headed for Beijing to guarantee the paranoid leader's safety aboard his private armored train. Experts say Kim may have good reasons to visit China. Prof. Kim Hung-kyu of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security on Wednesday said Kim may want to visit to avoid "international isolation." Some speculate that Kim...

J-10: The New Cornerstone of Sino-Pakistani Defense Cooperation Publication: China Brief Volume: 9 Issue: 25December 16, 2009 03:46 PM Age: 11 hrs By: Tarique Niazi China and Pakistan have forged a formidable partnership in high-tech defense production. This partnership is born of their ever-deepening military and strategic cooperation that is also reflective of the burgeoning capacity of China's defense industries and the budding Sino-Pakistani defense relationship. The epitome of this bilateralism is the recent revelation that the Chinese have agreed to the sale of 36 J-10B fighter jets to Pakistan (Financial Times, November 10). The J-10 aircrafts are known to...

U.S. President Barack Obama has warned his Chinese counterpart that the United States would not be able to keep Israel from attacking Iranian nuclear installations for much longer, senior officials in Jerusalem told Haaretz. They said Obama warned President Hu Jintao during the American's visit to Beijing a month ago as part of the U.S. attempt to convince the Chinese to support strict sanctions on Tehran if it does not accept Western proposals for its nuclear program.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – China has told participants in the U.N. climate change talks that it sees no possibility of reaching an operational accord this week, an official involved in the Copenhagen talks told Reuters on Thursday. The official, who asked not to be identified by name, said the Chinese had suggested instead issuing "a short political declaration of some sort." It was not clear what that would say. The official said negotiations were continuing to try to achieve a breakthrough that would still allow an operational agreement to be signed. The development came as dozens of heads of state were...

As so-called "cap-and-trade" legislation winds its way through Congress, many Americans want to know how they their country's energy future might be impacted if the legislation becomes law. Because the mainstream media isn't being too honest about the topic, they have to find alternative sources of information, including the blog you're reading now. Another good source for insight about this dangerous legislation is the Institute for Energy Research.

China today announced it had begun construction of the world's longest sea bridge – barely 18 months after opening the current record-holder. The Y-shaped link between Hong Kong, Macau and China will be around 50km (31 miles) long in total, 35km of which will span the sea, said the state news agency Xinhua. Due to be completed by 2015, the 73bn yuan (£6.75bn) cost of the bridge will be shared by the authorities in the three territories.

HONG KONG – China has outstripped the U.S. in the amount of money raised from stock listings, underscoring the region's stronger economy and a resurgence in investment. Companies have raised nearly $52 billion from initial public offerings on exchanges in Hong Kong and mainland China so far this year, according to financial research firm Dealogic. That's about twice as much as the some $26.5 billion in American IPOs. In 2007, the amount of money raised from IPOs in Hong Kong and the mainland also exceeded the U.S. total. Hong Kong alone has drawn more than $27 billion this year, making...

After side-stepping human rights concerns in China earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Clinton firmly outlined the current U.S. diplomatic position on international human in her statement delivered at Georgetown University on Monday, December 14th. Confronting the issue head on, she underscored the State Department's commitment to human rights with a "pragmatic stance," asserting that U.S. human rights policy toward political and economic giants like Russia and China is often best conducted behind closed doors.

Peru to purchase Chinese tanks and Brazilian fighter planes Peruvian president Alan García defended his government’s decision to purchase Chinese tanks and Brazilian fighter planes just a few weeks after accusing Chile of an arms race and proposing an initiative to limit military expenditure in the region. García who presented his anti arms initiative to the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, argued that the purchase of Chinese tanks is not incoherent with his country’s policy, since it is only geared to replenish an obsolete military arsenal. “This does not contradict our commitment to stop an arms race in the...

N.Korea to Bar Foreigners North Korea reportedly plans to ban foreigners from the country from Sunday until early February, apparently to allow unrest caused by this month's shock currency reform to die down. Ju Sang-song, the minister of People's Security, is in China, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency, though it gave no reason for his visit. The trip by the North's top internal security official may aim to seek cooperation from Beijing in preventing a mass exodus of North Korean middle class citizens angry over the devaluation of their savings. One source in China said that Pyongyang...

TOKYO (AFP) – China's Vice President Xi Jinping on Monday kicked off an Asia tour in Japan, where a row has broken out over a breach of protocol for his hastily arranged meeting with Emperor Akihito. SNIP Hatoyama's government has drawn criticism for extending special treatment to Xi by allowing him to meet the emperor despite China having missed the usual deadline for requesting such an audience. SNIP Former prime minister Shinzo Abe, still an influential figure in the opposition conservative Liberal Democratic Party, lashed out at Hatoyama's "political use of the emperor" after the government asked the palace last...

Jim Chanos: We're Shorting Autos, China, And Commodities But Not Financials John CarneyDec. 15, 2009, 2:16 PM Kynikos Associates founder Jim Chanos stopped by the Fast Money set for an interview with CNBC's Melissa Lee this afternoon. A few highlights from the video: * He's not short the financial sector right now, although he thinks there may be another shoe to drop and more losses. He is short some select financial names but not the sector. * There are opportunities for shorting individual companies in this market but he would recommend shorting the market as a whole. * He's shorting...

Leaders are considering a hike of roughly $300 billion to the nation's $12.1 trillion deficit, though the final figure has not been nailed down, congressional aides said on condition of anonymity. Democratic leaders had previously hoped to raise the limit by at least $1.8 trillion, enough to take care of the government's debt needs through the November 2010 congressional elections. What was your first hint the former $1.8 trillion increase attempt was a bad idea? Perhaps this? Or was it China buying a literal zero of Treasury debt in October? Or was it the TIC report this morning (which I'm...

The video is here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9--Zp-d5Zs