US reassures China on investment

The White House has sought to assure China that its $1 trillion (£0.7tn) in investments in the United States is safe despite the economic downturn.

“There is no safer investment in the world than in the United States,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao earlier voiced concern and urged the US to remain “a credible nation”.

China’s huge US bond holdings make it the country with the most money invested in America.

Mr Wen added that his government was ready to introduce new economic stimulus measures “at any time”.

He said there was enough “ammunition” to add to a 4tn yuan ($586bn; £421bn) package already announced.

He was speaking at the end of China’s annual parliamentary session – the only time he takes questions from reporters.

‘Sound stewards’

Earlier, US President Barack Obama’s chief economic adviser sought to assure China its investments in the US were safe.

Larry Summers said Washington would be “sound stewards” of the investments.

Mr Summers said there was an “excess of fear” among Americans about the state of the economy.

He added there were some signs that were modestly encouraging, such as improved figures on consumer spending.

President Obama’s economic team are doing their best to lift the gloom and talk up the positives about the US economy, the BBC’s Jonathan Beale reports from Washington.

This is proving hard as America spends and borrows billions of dollars to lift itself out of recession.

China is now effectively bankrolling much of that debt, our correspondent notes, with $1tn invested in US treasury bonds and other assets.

Mr Wen had said: “I’d like to take this opportunity here to implore the United States… to honour its words, stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets.”

Need for confidence

Although Mr Wen said he expected China and the rest of the world to be better off in 2010, he said the government was ready to face tougher times.

Filed under: China, USA , China, Investment, US reassures China on investment, USA

China Amway cruise en route to shopping bonanza in Taiwan

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The first group of an expected more than 12,000 Chinese Amway employees was on its way to Taiwan on a cruise Sunday with tourism and shopping as its major aims.The trip is an incentive holiday to reward successful Chinese agents of the United States direct sales group. The first batch of 1,600 people left from Shanghai Saturday evening and is expected to arrive in Keelung on Monday morning.

Taiwanese authorities and businesses are expecting the tourists to spend lots of money on foods and fashions, up to NT$620 million, according to some forecasts. Amway Taiwan is planning to distribute NT$6 million worth of vouchers to the visitors, reports said.

The National Palace Museum and department stores around Taipei 101 made special arrangements to receive the groups by hiring extra personnel and setting up separate desks to handle the expected onslaught, cable stations reported yesterday.

The first group is also expected to visit the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and taste Taiwanese delicacies in the famous street market outside Keelung’s main temple Monday evening.

The cruise will then take them to the east coast town of Hualien and to Taichung. The government of the Central Taiwanese city said it would set up a special shopping quarter with specialty foods at low prices to welcome the Chinese tourists.

The first group will be followed by eight more which will be paying three-day visits to Taiwan until mid-May, the company’s Taiwan branch said.

The Amway group is the largest to visit Taiwan since the country agreed with China in June last year to open up tourism completely. The Chinese government made special concessions to Amway because it still bars residents from some Chinese provinces to visit Taiwan. The restrictions were lifted in this particular instance.

Source – http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=893171&lang=eng_news

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China raps Google for allowing ‘vulgar’ content

China’s government criticized Google and 18 other Web sites for failing to crack down on Internet pornography on Monday, increasing pressure on the companies to more aggressively filter sexual content.

Web sites that fail to comply with the demand risk being punished or shut down, according to a statement on a government-run news site.

By denouncing the companies by name, Chinese officials are taking one of their most aggressive stands yet to limit what they describe as “vulgar” material. They accused several of the Web sites, including Google, of ignoring demands to censor online pornography, which is illegal in China, but nevertheless proliferates.

The Ministry of Public Security and six other agencies said that they are working together “to purify the Internet’s cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors.” Officials have made similar statements for months

Sources – http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/06/BUBJ153UVJ.DTL

Filed under: China, Google , China, Content, Google, Vulgar Content