O Presidente do Observatório da China (simultaneamente Coordenador da UCCLA), Dr. Rui Lourido, participou no meetting da rede internacional de prestigiadas Universidades e Centros de Investigação com departamentos dedicados aos estudos sobre o Oriente - East Asia Net, em Veneza, no início de Dezembro de 2008.
Nele teve a oportunidade de apresentar e divulgar as relações e o trabalho do Observatório da China e da UCCLA (nomeadamente em Timor e Macau).

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The President of the Observatory for China (both UCCLA Coordinator), Dr. Rui Lourido, participated in the international network meetting of prestigious universities and research centers with departments dedicated to Eastern Studies - East Asia Net, in Venice in early December 2008.
Him had the opportunity to present and promote the relations and the work of the Observatory for China and UCCLA (notably in East Timor and Macau).

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After Saturday’s sputtering end of the U.N. climate talks in Poznan, Poland, it’s clearer than ever that the fate of the post-Kyoto negotiations will depend on whether China can be coaxed to adopt some sort of carbon emissions limits. But as this tug of war plays out in the next year and beyond, what’s most important is not what China says on the diplomatic front but what it does on the home front.

Ler mais em Climate Progress...

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The AP reports today from Shanghai:

BYD presented the vehicle, known as the F3DM, in a ceremony in the southern city of Shenzhen…. The vehicle can run up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) on its electric engine, and when it runs low on power shifts to a back up gasoline engine. Its battery can fully charge in nine hours from a regular electrical outlet, or much faster at BYD’s own charging stations, the company said in a statement.

The car will sell for 149,800 yuan ($22,000), about the same as many Chinese-made mid-sized cars, it said.

Ler mais em Climate Progress

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China produces dreadful trade figures, in a blow to the world economy

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JUST how worrying are the figures, published on Wednesday December 10th, showing that China’s exports and imports plunged in November? Exports fell by 2.2% last month from a year ago; imports plummeted by an astonishing 17.9%. One analyst sums up the news as “a shock figure”.

The gloom is spread all over the place. Exports dropped across all big traded goods and all parts of the world. Exports to America fell by 6.1%; those to the ASEAN countries, which had grown by 21.5% in October, fell by 2.4%. The faster decline in imports meant that China’s monthly trade surplus reached a record $40.1 billion. Exports last fell in 2001.

Ler no "The Economist"

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Um livro de referência, agora editado em Portugal, escrito como um guião conciso de uma viagem desde os primórdios da formação do país até à trasformação em superpotência económica.

Stephen G. Haw começa por explicar as civilizações pré-históricas de há quatro mil anos atrás, seguindo para o desenvolvimento do comércio das sedas. Aqui encontramos a origem das principais invenções da era pré-moderna - o papel, a pólvora, a bússola magnética -, que seriam transmitidas da China para o mundo ocidental. Das gloriosas dinastias Tang e Song, durante as quais nasceriam as grandes cidades chinesas, passamos ao período de declínio e do esforço ocidental para dominar este território gigante. Finalmente, Haw percorre os anos conturbados e as vitórias da Revolução Chinesa, bem como as mudanças progressivas que foram ocorrendo desde os anos setenta até aos dias de hoje, nomeadamente a transferência dos últimos territórios sob controlo ocidental para o Governo chinês e o desenvolvimento fulminante da economia do país.

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China 'faces mass social unrest'

Chinese authorities have already had to deal with workers' protests

Rising unemployment and the economic slowdown could cause massive social turmoil in China, a leading scholar in the Communist Party has said.

"The redistribution of wealth through theft and robbery could dramatically increase and menaces to social stability will grow," Zhou Tianyong, a researcher at the Central Party School in Beijing, wrote in the China Economic Times.

"This is extremely likely to create a reactive situation of mass-scale social turmoil," he wrote.

in BBC

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