How Many (non-UK) Slaves Work for YOU?

Methodology:
How did SlaveryFootprint.org come up with the total number of slaves working for me?

MY TOTAL SLAVERY FOOTPRINT represents the number of forced labourers that were likely to be involved in creating and manufacturing the products I buy.

This is determined based on information regarding the processes used to create these products as well as investigations of the countries in which these stages of production take place for known slave labour (within these specific processes.)

This number is compiled from multiple individual product scores (see below).

To create individual scores, SlaveryFootprint first chose to investigate slave labour usage in the supply chains of more than 400 of the most popular consumer products. SlaveryFootprint used the following definitions of slave labour:

How do we define Slavery? (Forced Labour):

Anyone who is forced to work without pay, being economically exploited, and is unable to walk away.

Note: Forced Labour, also known as involuntary servitude, may result when unscrupulous employers exploit workers made more vulnerable by high rates of unemployment, poverty, crime, discrimination, corruption, political conflict, or cultural acceptance of the practice.

Immigrants are particularly vulnerable, but individuals also may be forced into labour in their own countries. Female victims of forced or bonded labour, especially women and girls in domestic servitude, are often sexually exploited as well.

After investigating the slavery usage in individual product components, based on the most common places in which they are mined, grown or made, we assigned scores to each of these 400+ products.

These scores were based on a complex algorithm that determines the minimum number of slaves (forced laborers) used to produce each product. This algorithm is graphically represented in the diagram below:

Product Score

Represents the likely number of forced labourers that have been involved in creating the product at some stage in the process of production. Slavery must be known to exist to a significant degree in some stage of production.

Source Score

Represents the probability that each source is produced in a country using slave labour in its production to a significant degree.

Manufacturing/Assembly Score

Represents the probability that the final product is manufactured in a country using slave labour to a significant degree.

Weights, Measurements, and Reports

Each score therefore represents the likelihood of slavery used in production. This likelihood was developed from investigations and research drawn from the following sources:
The five main reports used were:

• 1. US Department of State “Trafficking in Persons Report 2011” The most comprehensive worldwide report on the efforts of governments to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons.
• 2. US Department of Labour (DOL) “List of Goods Produced by Child Labour or Forced Labour 2010” A list of goods from countries that the Bureau of International Labour Affairs has substantiated used of forced labour or child labour its production.
• 3. International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) “Committee of Experts Reports 2011-2003” The US Committee of Experts undertakes investigations of government reports on ratified conventions. The Committee's role is to provide an impartial evaluation of violations of international labour standards.
• 4. Transparency International‘s “Corruption Index 2010” This index is used to measure and quantify the levels of public sector corruption in 178 countries around the world.
• 5. Freedom House “Freedom in the World 2010 Combined Average Ratings – Independent Countries” The Freedom in the World 2010 survey contains reports on 194 countries and 14 related and disputed territories. Each country report includes a narrative on the following information: population, capital, political rights (numerical rating), civil liberties (numerical rating), status (Free, Partly Free, or Not Free), and a 10-year ratings timeline.

Additionally, SlaveryFootprint utilised published data pertaining to forced labour issues. This included vetted data drawn from a variety of international sources. The following inclusion criteria were used:

• Drawn from ONE Internationally credible source with expert review i.e. ILO, International Office for Migration, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Security Council
• Referenced in at least TWO multi-national reliable sources i.e. CNN, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International
• Reported on by at least THREE disparate and unrelated local news sources i.e. The Guardian, Swedwatch, Jakarta Post, Enough Project

Note: This data set will continue to be expanded based on emerging research and the results of further investigations that meet the aforementioned inclusion criteria.

Qualifications

To ensure peer review and confirmation of these data sets and their sources, methodology, and results, SlaveryFootprint convened experts on the issue from government, academia, non-government organizations, leading think tanks as well as independent experts.

Creating a Composite Score

To combine individual product scores into one composite score assigned to an individual, a survey was developed to assess and quantify an individual’s consumption.

To make this survey both meaningful and time-effective, iterative processes of inherent assumptions were utilised based on focus group assessments.

Assumptions were based on defining factors inclusive of, but not limited to, age, sex, domicile, and family size. Composite scores were quantified based conservative estimates.

Note: Slavery Footprint 1.0 is not based on specific brands or manufacturers.

For more information about SlaveryFootprint's methodology, scoring or organisation email info@slaveryfootprint.org or visit the SlaveryFootprint website.

Google Warning Gmail users on China Spying Attempts

Google is using automated warnings to alert users of its GMAIL messaging service about wide spread attempts to access personal mail accounts that may indicate wholesale spying by the Chinese government. The victims include one leading privacy activist.

Warnings began appearing when users logged onto GMAIL on Thursday, according to Twitter posts from scores of GMAIL users. Upon accessing their accounts, users encountered a red banner reading "Your account was recently accessed from China," and providing a list of IP addresses used to access the account.

Users were then encouraged to change their password immediately. Based on Twitter posts, there doesn't seem to be any pattern to the accounts that were accessed, though one target is a prominent privacy rights activist in the UK who has spoken out against the Chinese government's censorship of its citizens.

Alexander Hanff of Privacy International in the UK said he saw the warning when he accessed a GMAIL account this morning. Hanff set up the personal account, which Hanff created in 2005 when he operated the Torrent Web site DVDR-Core, an early target of the Motion Picture Association of America in its battle to stop copyright piracy.

Hanff said he immediately changed the password, at Google's suggestion, and said the attempts to access his account from China were recent - occurring within the past couple months.

He only rarely accesses the account and does not use it for e-mail related to his work for Privacy International. Still, he said the account is easily discoverable online for those looking to contact him via e-mail, which might have made it a target.

However, a survey of other GMAIL users who were warned suggests that the China-based attacks were widespread and lacked a clear pattern. Andrew Turnbull, editor of The Extraordinary Marketing Blog and a recent business school graduate from Alberta, Canada was one.

Others included media consultants, doctors and gamers from the U.S., Canada, Columbia and countries in Europe - most without any clear personal or professional connection to China. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hanff, of Privacy International, said he believed the attack on his account was random, not targeted at him as a privacy rights advocate. Those who accessed his account wouldn't have had access to any sensitive information related to his work for Privacy International, but would have found "a hell of a lot of spam," Hanff said.

However, he acknowledges that he may have come to the attention of the Chinese Government after a speech he gave at a EU-China Human Rights Network seminar that was attended by high level Chinese government officials. Hanff said he spoke about issues such as freedom of speech, differences between Europe and China and China's record of suppressing free speech.

Google and its GMAIL messaging system, along with the networks of other high profile U.S. and European firms, were known to have been compromised by attackers believed to be affiliated with the Chinese Military.

Those attacks, code named "Aurora" temporarily caused a rift in relations between the search giant and the Chinese government, with Google suspending all filtering of its search results in China. Recently, experts have warned that a new round of attacks similar to the original Aurora attacks had been detected, though its unclear if the e-mail hacking is related to that wave of activity.

China gearing up for WWIII

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/is-china-gearing-up-to-start-world-war-iii/9368?tag=nl.e539

The Great Firewall of China blocks EU trade into China

China's internet "firewall" is a trade barrier and needs to be tackled within the framework of the World Trade Organisation, Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission, told reporters in Shanghai today.

Dutch-born Kroes, who is also in charge of Europe's digital agenda, said the firewall was a trade barrier as long as it blocked communication for Internet users, preventing the free flow of information.

"It is one of those issues that needs to be tackled within the WTO," said Kroes, who served as European Commissioner for competition until 2009.

Kroes spoke at the China headquarters of video-sharing company Tudou, a rival of Google's internationally popular video-sharing platform YouTube that is blocked in China.

Chinese law requires internet companies to block or remove objectionable content, including pornography and any information deemed sensitive by the ruling Communist Party.

Social media platforms popular overseas, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr, are all blocked in China for fear they will provide a platform to organise or share illicit information.

"I am pushing wherever I can just to get European enterprises a level playing field in China and the other way around. It should be reciprocal," she said, adding that the amount of disruption from the firewall varied for each business.

The US has also explored taking China's internet restrictions to the WTO. In the past, the WTO has upheld China's right to censor printed and audiovisual content.

China Dictates: New Rules on Media Coverage and censorship

A new set of rules and instructions from the Chinese government itself suppresses and oppresses China media outlets from reporting almost anything about Google’s recent pull out from China.

The dictated instructions outline a series of rather disturbing edicts to media outlets that are attempting to cover the Google story. While this is nothing new, the Chinese government’s broad and suppressive mandates are particularly striking.

The next section includes not only the Chinese Government’s memo, but analysis of it;
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China’s Message to Media: A Breakdown
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China’s message is indented; the analysis is below each part. Important parts have been highlighted.

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“To all chief editors and managers:

Google has officially announced its withdrawal from the China market. This is a high-impact incident. It has triggered netizens’ discussions which are not limited to a commercial level. Therefore please pay strict attention to the following content requirements during this period:”
——————————–
Analysis: Clearly China is taking this incident very seriously. The government understands that Google’s move out of China could make its censorship methods more widely known among the Chinese populous and it could affect its relationships with other companies. They are not wrong.

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Section A
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"A News Section

1. Only use Central Government main media (website) content; do not use content from other sources
2. Reposting must not change title
3. News recommendations should refer to Central government main media websites
4. Do not produce relevant topic pages; do not set discussion sessions; do not conduct related investigative reporting;
5. Online programs with experts and scholars on this matter must apply for permission ahead of time. This type of self-initiated program production is strictly forbidden!
6. Carefully manage the commentary posts under news items.”
——————————–

Analysis: One of the government’s biggest tactics in controlling the media is controlling the source of news. By limiting news reporting only from a media source controlled by themselves, the government, it can control the message and the meaning of the message.

This same line of thinking also explains why it is openly and strongly discouraging investigative reporting, which is a key pillar of free speech and journalism in the western world.

Discussion, forums, and other online and offline mediums for expressing opinions are also being very strictly monitored and controlled, to ensure the message favours the Chinese government.

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Section B

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“B. Forums, blogs and other interactive media sections:

1. It is not permitted to hold discussions or investigations on the Google topic
2. Interactive sections do not recommend this topic, do not place this topic and related comments at the top
3. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which attack the Party, State, government agencies, Internet policies with the excuse of this event.
4. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which support Google, dedicate flowers to Google, ask Google to stay, cheer for Google and others have a different tune from government policy
5. On topics related to Google, carefully manage the information in exchanges, comments and other interactive sessions
6. Chief managers in different regions please assign specific manpower to monitor Google-related information; if there is information about mass incidents, please report it in a timely manner.”
——————————–

Analysis: Online media is being strongarmed as well. Don’t expect any forum topics, open-comment blog posts, or other interactive discussions on the China-Google standoff. The key to this section is that websites cannot have any media or stories that “have a different viewpoint or interpretation from government policy.”

The rows of flowers that Chinese citizens put in front of the Google logo sends the wrong message to its citizens, and China’s relying on the media to clean it up and tow the line.

——————————–
“We ask the Monitoring and Control Group to immediately follow up on monitoring and control actions along the above directions; once any problems are discovered, please communicate with respected sessions in a timely manner.

Additional guidelines:

– Do not participate in and report Google’s information/press releases
– Do not report about Google exerting pressure on our country via people or events
– Related reports need to put our story/perspective/information in the centre, do not provide materials for Google to attack the relevant policies of our country
– Use talking points about Google withdrawing from China published by relevant departments”
——————————–

Analysis: Overall, these guidelines are no surprise. The supression of free speech and diverse public opinion is how the Chinese government works. It’s a different culture from the West, with a different regime acting as a government, and along with that comes a very different set of rules.

In conclusion, it is clear that Google’s negotiations with the regime in China has put them under pressure, but it won’t be enough to break the censorship and oppresive chains that bind China’s Internet and nor should it.

This task should be in the hands of the Chinese people and in their development as a global nation, they should be able to decide on how, and by whom, they want their future to be shaped.

The China Strategy book - Author Edward Tse

The China Strategy

China for the World
In The China Strategy, Edward Tse, Booz & Company’s Chairman of Greater China, describes how to build the capabilities that business leaders need for operating an integrated China-global strategy.

Tse explains how to tell which Chinese companies can provide the best alliances for particular purposes, what parts of the country to enter first; how to manage Chinese financing; and how to establish a trajectory for growth that profits with the growth of, rather than just fighting against the growth of, the next wave of Chinese competitors.

Tse also discusses flexible “footprints” for locating innovation, manufacturing, and services; the adaptation of brand names in China’s many markets; and the integration of back-office functions between China and the rest of the world.

Additionally, Tse describes how success in China can be applied globally, using the market knowledge, networks of low-cost suppliers, and scientific talent that can be found there as a platform for reaching a worldwide scale.

In the world’s fastest-growing economy, the experience of the last ten years will not be the best guide to the next ten years. Business leaders around the world who want to be successful—not just in China, but anywhere—will need a new China strategy.

A new China strategy does not merely mean a set of plans for doing business in China. Most big companies are already selling to China’s markets and competing against Chinese companies. Many more, even relatively small enterprises, will join them. But a true China strategy is different. It is a one world strategy: a long-range developmental plan for doing business as a global enterprise in which China is a central and integrated component, in a world where China plays a very different role than it has in the past.

Together, the four drivers of change in China—Open China, Competitive China, Official China, and One World—will transform the way in which businesses operate everywhere.

Meeting The China Challenge - Strategy+Business

The China Challenge

For global companies, ignoring China is not an option. But they must adapt their strategies to the country’s changing markets, increased competition, and shifting government priorities.

IBM’s executives knew, from many years of firsthand experience, that this region in southern China had become home to one of the biggest pools of procurement talent in the world.

The company had arrived in 1993, manufacturing personal computers — a business it eventually sold in 2005, to Lenovo, a Chinese company. Over the years IBM had produced servers, retail store systems, storage devices, and printers in Shenzhen: first for overseas markets, and later, increasingly for the Chinese market.

It had seen massive supply networks develop in the Pearl River Delta. Some suppliers made parts for toys, sports shoes, and other low-end products; others made components for sophisticated computing and telecommunications equipment.

Still others provided logistics and supporting technology. IBM had also seen the Chinese government invest in business-friendly infrastructure: economic zones, industrial parks, highways and container ports, universities and training colleges.

By locating its global procurement headquarters in Shenzhen, IBM was not only strengthening its own supply base, but better positioning one of its core businesses: helping clients strengthen their supply chains.

H5N1 Avian Flu: Labs Producing Virulent Flu Strains

Engineered hybrids of H5N1 bird flu and H1N1 human flu strains have proven virulent in mice, raising the danger that a natural recombination would be deadly to humans.

For years, researchers have worried that H5N1 avian influenza would mix with human flu viruses, evolving into a form that keeps its current lethality but is far more contagious.

That hasn’t happened in the wild yet but the latest findings, published Feb. 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show how easily it can happen.

Mind the Gap
“Fortunately, the H5N1 viruses still lack the ability to transmit efficiently among humans.” However, the virus may soon be overcome this obstacle when it mixes with human flu strains. These are the findings of researchers led by University of Wisconsin virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka. “The next pandemic is inevitable and it will be more devastating than the last.”

Current strains of H5N1 have infected 478 people since 2003, and killed 286 of them. It’s has difficulty transmitting to humans. It requires close contact and exposure to an infected person, bird or animal.

H5N1 in Birds
In birds, however, H5N1 is far more contagious, and here the virus has killed tens of millions of fowl. Fortunately, cases have been concentrated in Africa and Eurasia, but as the swine flu pandemic demonstrated, any flu contagious to humans will quickly spread on a global scale. This is mainly thanks to air travel and the free movement of peoples across state boundaries.

Influenza viruses mutate and swap genes easily, with co-infections turning animals into mobile petri dishes. In 2008, hoping to learn more about how H5N1 might evolve, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention combined it with a common human flu strain.

The researchers engineered all 254 possible variants of hybridisation between the deadly H5N1 avian flu strain found in Borneo, and a, H1N1 human flu virus from Tokyo. They identified three strains that were both contagious and deadly, in mice.

The New Pandemic
A flu virus that kills mice won’t necessarily kill humans, but the results are very disturbing. All three killer hybrid strains possessed a protein taken from the human strain. Called PB2, the protein appeared to help the virus survive in the mice’s upper respiratory tract. As of now, bird flu stays in the lower respiratory tract, where it’s less likely to be casually transmitted.

Although the recent H1N1 pandemic has not proved to be as lethal as originally feared, it certainly exposed how unprepared the world is for new influenza strains. At the same time it also exposed the ability of pharmaceutical companies to frighten the WHO, governments and politicians into spending $Millions to stockpile ineffective vaccines.

Source of Infection
In May, Hong Kong University virologist Yi Guan, best known for finding the animal origin of SARS, was asked by Science Insider about the possibility of H5N1 and swine flu mixing.

“If that happens, I will retire immediately and lock myself in a sealed laboratory", said Guan. "But, historically the Chinese mainland would be the most likely source of such a virus."

Global Alert
Unfortunately, in such a situation, the imposed cover-up by local authorities would mean that the virus will have spread with a high rate of cross-infection and will have escaped globally, even before we are alerted to it's existance. We will not be alerted until it has spread to the Western world and many people have become infected and died.

Lethal Viruses Escape
The other issue is the development of virulent and lethal strains in laboratories and institutions. There has been a sad history of viruses erroneously 'escaping' from pharmaceutical labs and there is no reason to believe that this will not happen in the future, despite due diligence.

Mitigation
Should we live our lives in a bubble? No, definitely not but we should be aware of the dangers we are facing and how these may manifest themselves. Yes, there is a lethal danger from a mutant virus but this danger is greater if the world's health authorities are not communicating properly or collaborating on a global scale and this is something that can be mitigated against.

China closes biggest hacker training site | IT PRO

China closes biggest hacker training site IT PRO

The largest hacker training website in China has been closed down, seeing three of its members arrested in the process, according to reports.

The "Black Hawk Safety Net" website taught hacking techniques and provided malicious software downloads for its 12,000 members in exchange for a fee, the Wuhan Evening News newspaper reported this weekend, citing police in Huanggang, just east of Wuhan.

Hacking from China has received international attention since Google threatened to quit China last month after a serious hacking attempt originating from China, resulting in the theft of its intellectual property.

China has denied involvement in the hacking episode and said it does not condone hacking.

The website was shut in late November and three of its members arrested on suspicion of criminal activity, the newspaper reported, without saying why the news was only released now.

Wuhan happens to be home to the Communication Command Academy, which trains hackers, according to US congressional testimony by cyber expert James Mulvenon in 2008.

The popularity of hacking in China, and hackers' use of multiple addresses and servers, in Taiwan and elsewhere, makes it hard to prove how or by whom they are coordinated.

Would-be hackers in China do not have to look far to figure out how to do it, thanks to a healthy hacking industry and sites such as Black Hawk Safety Net (www.3800hk.com), which was unavailable on Monday.

China steals another Poland Infrastructure contract by underpricing strategy

Poland's motorway constructors have levelled claims that China is buying its way into the European infrastructure market by underpricing its bids.

Poland is claiming unfair competition against a Chinese group which has infiltrated their country's highways market.

"We note that the bid by the Chinese consortium is based on a price far below the value of the tender, which constitutes unfair competition," the constructors' lobby group, the OIGD, said in a letter to European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.

The letter alleged that Beijing was helping Chinese firms skew foreign markets. It was sent to Barroso and cited the commission polices competition rules across the 27-nation European Union.

The OIGD urged the commission to take anti-dumping measures against the China Overseas Engineering Group Company (COVEC)

In September, COVEC beat several European competitors in the race to build 49 kilometres (30 miles) of the A2 highway linking the Polish and German capitals, Warsaw and Berlin.

The construction is part of Poland's ongoing issuing of tenders as it drives to upgrade its infrastructure in time to co-host the 2012 European football championships.

China's Gas Pipeline Reaches deep into Central Asia, bypassing Russia

China has quietly rewritten the geopolitical landscape in Central Asia in recent years, breaking Russia's monopoly over the export of the region's energy resources also coveted by the West, experts say.

The proof came last week when Chinese President Hu Jintao travelled to the region for the inauguration of a natural gas pipeline snaking from Turkmenistan through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan into China's far western Xinjiang region.

"This creates a regional dynamic for China," said Thierry Kellner, a researcher at the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies.

"In the 1990s, no one thought that China would become such an important player."

Tom Grieder, an analyst at IHS Global Insight, said in a research note: "The pipeline project is important for China as part of its broader strategy of stepping up energy investments in Central Asia to gain access to resources."

Energy-hungry Beijing's campaign to secure a solid foothold in Central Asia -- a vast resource-rich region nestled between Afghanistan, China, Russia and Iran -- mimic its efforts in Africa, where its presence has exploded overnight.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor and China expert at Hong Kong Baptist University, said Beijing had used "the same methods, but on a more modest scale" in Central Asia that it has employed in Africa.

Those methods include increased trade, investments in energy resources and installations especially Kazakh oil and gas, loans at advantageous rates and a willingness to tackle projects the West has deemed too costly or difficult.

"Chevron also wants a stake in Turkmen natural gas. But the Western firms have only progressed to the negotiations phase," Kellner said.

For Cabestan, "China has opened up Turkmenistan, a closed regime, by managing to shatter the quasi-monopoly of Russia... which does not look too kindly on these developments."

"This is the result of an economic and trade dynamism seen in China, and also its diplomatic skills in handling regimes, some of which are not democratic," he added.

Chinese ISP hosts 1 in 7 Conficker infections - Network World

Chinese ISP hosts 1 in 7 Conficker infections - Network World

Security experts have known for months that some countries have had a harder time battling the Conficker worm than others. But thanks to data released Wednesday by Shadowserver, a volunteer-run organization, they now have a better idea of which Internet Service Providers have the biggest problem.

In terms of the total number of infected computers, China Telecom's Chinanet seems to have been hardest hit by the worm, which began spreading late last year.

The Chinese ISP had more than 1 million infected systems within its massive 94 million IP address network. That amounts to just over 1 percent of the company's network. But while Chinanet has the most total infections -- amounting to about 14 percent of all known copies of the worm -- it doesn't have the highest percentage of infected systems. Other, smaller ISPs show up on Shadowserver's list with infection rates as high as 25 percent.

"There's definitely a challenge at the ISP level with remediation," said Andre DiMino one of Shadowserver's founders.

Conficker got a lot of attention earlier in the year, including a late March segment on the 60 Minutes television program warning of an April 1 upgrade to the worm. Because Conficker is the most widespread botnet ever reported, security experts worry that it could be used to launch an unprecedented denial of service attack.

But, despite its size, the network of hacked computers has been associated with very little malicious activity. That's given computer users a false sense of security, DiMino said.

"The rate of remediation is not as good as we would have liked," he said. "The awareness and the alarm about Conficker kind of faded out after April 1st because nothing really dramatic happened."

Some ISPs, such as U.S.-based Comcast have taken to notifying users when their computers are infected or offering them free security software so they can get cleaned up. Comcast had a 0.05 percent infection rate, according to Shadowserver's numbers. AT&T was measured at 0.02 percent.

China's Intransigence Blamed for Breakdown of Copenhagen summit

China's Blocking Tactics Blamed for Breakdown of Copenhagen summit

Leaders have gathered for the final scheduled day of the UN climate summit, amid uncertainty over the shape of any eventual deal.

A draft political agreement drawn up by a small group of countries including the UK, US and Australia was rejected during overnight discussions.China is proving to be intransigent in working towards an agreement.

It appears their intention has been to block progress and disrupt global unity on Climate Change and Global Warming.

Delegates described the situation as "confusing" and "desperate". There is extreme pessimism that an agreement will be reached by the end of today, the last day of the conference.

US President Barack Obama flew in to a very difficult situation. He has berated the nations for being unwilling to reach an agreement and told the conference "not to talk but to act".

China defends protectionist high-tech procurement rules

The foreign ministry said the new high-tech policy "encourages all enterprises in China to carry out innovative activity and supports enterprises to increase their investment in research and development".

China on Tuesday defended rules that foreign companies claim lock them out of the multibillion dollar market for selling computers and office equipment to government departments.
Beijing stipulates that sellers of high-tech goods must have them accredited based on "indigenous innovation" -- meaning they must contain Chinese intellectual property -- to be included in a government procurement catalogue.

Accredited products will be favoured, according to the policy, which foreign firms say effectively excludes them from the process.

"The indigenous innovative product accreditation project is in line with ... international rules," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a fax to AFP.

The measure "abides by and accords with relevant WTO (World Trade Organization) rules" and "treats both domestic and foreign invested enterprises equally and without discrimination."

More than 30 industry groups from the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and South Korea last week lodged a protest with the ministries responsible for the measures, claiming they were "restrictive and discriminatory".

The rules "impose onerous and discriminatory requirements on companies seeking to sell into the Chinese government procurement market and contravene multiple commitments of China's leadership to resist trade and investment protectionism," the groups said in a letter dated December 10.

"The very restrictive and discriminatory programme criteria would make it virtually impossible for any non-Chinese supplier to participate -- even those non-Chinese companies that have made substantial long-term investments in China."

The letter was addressed to the heads of the science and technology ministry, finance ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission, which jointly issued the rule.

A separate letter sent by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China on Monday called on Beijing to delay the introduction of the rule to allow for "expert dialogue on its implications".

"There is particular concern regarding the lack of transparency in the drafting process of this accreditation system, as well as the impossibly short application period," the letter said.

The deadline for filing an application for accreditation was December 10 -- less than a month after the rule was posted on the science and technology ministry's website.

Government procurement was worth 599.1 billion yuan (87.7 billion dollars) in 2008, up 28.5 percent from the previous year, according to official data.

The dispute comes amid growing concerns about protectionism as the world recovers from its worst economic crisis in decades.

China has accused its trading partners, including the United States, of using protectionist measures against its products.

The foreign ministry said the new high-tech policy "encourages all enterprises in China to carry out innovative activity and supports enterprises to increase their investment in research and development".

"All products that meet the conditions can be accredited. Enterprises of all kinds will be treated equally," said spokeswoman Jiang.

China: Beijing cuts broadcaster's signal amid censorship and media crackdown

China has blocked the broadcasting signal for a popular television network, a company official said Monday, amid growing media censorship in the country.

Sun TV viewers on the Chinese mainland called the network's Hong Kong office on December 5 to report that they had lost their signal, the spokesman said, declining to give his name or job title.

"Some people in the audience called our broadcasting centre," he told AFP.

"We later confirmed that all the signals on the mainland are blocked, but we don't know the reason."

Chinese talk show celebrity Yang Lan founded Sun TV, which is owned by Hong Kong-listed Sun Television Cybernetworks Enterprise. Its programmes are aired in Hong Kong and throughout Southeast Asia.

It was unclear why China cut the signal, but the network's politically outspoken guests may have angered Beijing.

The move comes after China detained several thousand people in a crack down on internet pornography with authorities offering rewards of up to 10,000 yuan (1,465 dollars) to Internet users who report websites with adult content.

China's Communist Party has a history of blocking online content it deems unhealthy, which includes pornography and sensitive political information.

As of November 30, authorities had shut down over 400 video and audio websites this year for operating without a licence or for containing pornography, copyright-violating content or other "harmful" information.

Popular sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have also been blocked in China as authorities try to tighten the flow of information, especially following unrest in Xinjiang this year and Tibet last year

China: Gas pipeline from Turkmenistan nearly completed

China said Thursday a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to its Xinjiang region would be completed this month, as President Hu Jintao prepared for a weekend visit to the central Asian nation.


The pipeline will ship gas over more than 1,800 kilometres (1,120 miles) from Turkmenistan, through neighbouring Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China, vice foreign minister Wang Guangya told reporters. "The construction started in July 2008 and one of the two lines of the project will be completed in mid-December this year," Wang said at a briefing on Hu's upcoming trip.


According to earlier state press reports, the two-line project will have a total transmission capacity of 30 billion cubic metres (1.1 trillion cubic feet) of gas a year to energy-hungry China. Hu is due to leave for Kazakhstan on Saturday and will head on Sunday to Turkmenistan, where he will attend an inauguration ceremony of the so-called Central Asia-China gas pipeline.

China: Surge in Luxury cars sales for Audi, BMW & Mercedes

Strong Chinese luxury auto sales have lifted the prospects of German luxury car makers which were left behind in an earlier rush to buy cheaper models with 'cash-for-clunkers' subsidies, analysts say.

Audi, BMW and Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz, all reported better sales in November on a 12-month basis, with China clearly the fastest growing market for all three.

"China is outstanding right now," Metzler Bank auto analyst Juergen Pieper reports.

Already the biggest market for Audi's parent group Volkswagen, "within five years it will be the most important country for Daimler and BMW and in the next three or four years for Audi," Nord LB analyst Frank Schwope forecast.

Schemes approved by governments worldwide to boost the auto sector with credits for junking an old car mainly benefitted makers of cheaper autos, including VW which aims to overtake Toyota as the biggest automaker by 2018.

Budget conscious auto buyers shunned the kind of powerful cars that Germany is best known for and luxury auto sales slumped sharply early this year.

November deliveries thus compared favourably with what were already weak sales one year earlier, with Daimler reporting a gain of 16 percent, BMW one of 11.5 percent and Audi one of 8.9 percent.

"Since September, sales have been back on the growth track," BMW sales director Ian Robertson said in a statement. "We intend to continue this trend in December and continue to exploit the increasing demand in China," he added.

China: Slams foreign banks over 'evil intentions' behind derivatives losses

China has accused several foreign investment banks of "maliciously" selling derivative products to dozens of state-owned companies, which then booked more than 11 billion yuan in losses on the deals.

The losses were "closely associated with the intentionally complex and highly leveraged products that were fraudulently peddled by international investment banks with evil intentions," said Li Wei, vice chairman of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

"To some extent some international investment banks were the chief culprits and the root of ruin for the Chinese enterprises who encountered this financial derivatives Waterloo."

Li singled out Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup in the article published in the latest edition of the Study Times, an official Communist Party newspaper.

He said 68 of the more than 130 companies controlled by SASAC bought derivatives to hedge against rising commodity prices and fluctuating exchange and interest rates.

China: Regulator raises capital requirements for banks

China's banking watchdog has tightened capital requirements for banks amid concerns rampant lending will lead to a sharp rise in bad debts, state media reported Friday.

Wang Zhaoxing, vice chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said the minimum capital adequacy ratio for large banks (CAR, the amount of capital banks must hold against their risk) has been raised to 11%.

The CAR was previously set at a minimum of 8%. The move was in response to the "changing macroeconomic situation," Wang wrote in the latest edition of the central bank-backed China Finance magazine. Wang did not say when the new rules came into effect.

"The intention is to ask banks to convert more earnings into capital and provisions ... to withstand potential risks in the future," Wang said. The regulator has told small- and medium-sized lenders to maintain a CAR of at least 10%, he said.

The watchdog last month issued a rare warning that it will impose curbs on banks unless they strengthen their defences against bad loans as Beijing tries to put the brakes on record lending.

Those that fail to comply will face "restrictions on market access, overseas investment, and outlets and business expansion," the regulator warned.

New bank loans reached 7.4 trillion yuan (1.1 trillion dollars) in the first half of the year, hitting a record 1.89 trillion yuan in March, as banks heeded Beijing's calls to pump money into the world's third largest economy.

The figure declined significantly to 355.9 billion yuan in July before rebounding in August and September amid concerns that much of the money had been funnelled into stocks and property at the risk of spiking asset prices.

China: Reducing Barriers for Foreign Investors and Partnerships

Foreign firms and individuals will be allowed to form partnerships in China under new rules that legal experts say will make it easier for overseas investors to set up in the country.

The State Council, or cabinet, said the new rules will reduce bureaucratic red tape for foreigners wanting to start a business in China.

Lawyers said the rules would mostly benefit foreign companies in the services sector, such as restaurants and consultants.

The rules, which come into effect in March 2010, are designed to "stabilise and expand" foreign investment in China, the State Council said in a statement posted on its website this week.

They will "simplify bureaucratic procedures ... for foreign companies or individuals to set up partnerships within China," the statement said.

Foreign companies and individuals will be allowed to register their operations and will not need to seek the approval of the Ministry of Commerce.

"It will have a great impact on foreign investors. The rules offer an additional investment vehicle," said Zou Ji, a Shanghai-based lawyer with Allen and Overy.

China currently allows foreigners to invest in China through joint ventures or wholly owned foreign enterprises and are required to stump up a certain amount of cash, depending on the industry, Zou said.

Under the new rules "there is no clear requirement that investors have to contribute cash," she said.

Huang Kai, a Beijing-based lawyer with Lutong United Law Firm, said: "If I do not have much money and just want to open a restaurant, now I can choose to go with a partnership." It will be interesting to see what role the partner plays in this agreement and whether there are restrictions on elligibility of suitable partners.

The rules do not apply fully to private equity funds.

But Zou sounded a note of caution, saying: "You never know how they are going to enforce or implement these in practice. From the face of it there seems to be more flexibility."