O Observatório da China e a
Biblioteca Museu República e Resistência,
com o apoio da UCCLA (União das Cidades Luso-Afro-Américo-Asiáticas),
têm o prazer de convidar V. Exª para o
CICLO DE CONFERÊNCIAS: CHINA - MACAU:
Dia 5 de Maio (3ª F.), 18h30m
Rui Paiva, “A China no Mundo Globalizado – os desafios que se colocam na actual situação económica e financeira”, Investigador de estudos Chineses
António Graça de Abreu, "1977-2009, trinta e dois anos de viagens pela China", Poeta e especialista em assuntos chineses
A ter lugar na BMRR: Rua Alberto Sousa, 10ª, 1600-002 Lisboa (Cidade Universitária), Tel.: 21 780 27 60
A China poderá estar a viver a pior seca dos últimos 50 anos. A Austrália está também a viver a pior onda de calor de sempre (de que há registo humano, naturalmente). Este tipo de fenómenos extremos está a acontecer com cada vez maior frequência. A isto não será alheia a alteração climática.
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China is suffering another natural disaster -- this time, the worst drought in half a century. The land is parched and the irrigation dams have dried up. Crops and livestock are dying.
Water levels in some Chinese rivers are well below their average with 50 to 80 percent less rain than last year.
China on Thursday raised the drought-emergency-alert level from orange to red and allocated an additional $44 million dollars on top of the $13 million in emergency aid already released.
Ler mais CNN
If the Obama administration hopes to coax China to take action on global warming — and if the administration wants to give the U.N. climate negotiations a chance of success — it will need to solve the thorny problem of technology transfer. If it does so, however, it may face a quarrel with the clean-tech industry, one of its closest allies in the business community.
In the U.N. climate talks last month in Poznan, Poland, technology transfer emerged as one of the key stumbling blocks. China demanded that the United States and Europe agree to a strategy of transferring to developing nations a wide variety of energy-saving and emissions-reducing technologies to developing nations.
Ler resto em ClimateProgress
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
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"
 Chinese authorities have already had to deal with workers' protests |
"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
 China fears fast-rising unemployment could trigger social unrest |
Companies in two Chinese provinces, Shandong and Hubei, have been told they must seek official consent if they want to lay off more than 40 people.
The order highlights the Chinese authorities' concern over mounting job losses.
As China's main external markets plunge into recession and export orders shrink, layoffs have multiplied in the country's big manufacturing regions.
| During the period of reform, Beijing also accomplished the goal of securing the return of Hong Kong's sovereignty to the motherland in 1997 and Macau's in 1999, though relations with the breakaway island of Taiwan have been rocky. [...] |
Long known for high saving rates, China’s middle-class consumers are starting to spend like their American counterparts. Of China’s 11.4 percent growth in the gross domestic product last year, the largest segment, 4.4 percent, was in consumer spending. That sector still represents just 38 percent of China’s overall GDP, roughly half the percentage in more developed countries, but in the eyes of retailers that means more opportunity….
Meanwhile, some Chinese consumers are also adopting the biggest vice of American consumers: debt. Mesmerized by a banquet of Western-style financial products, some Chinese consumers are juggling multiple credit cards, consumer loans and installment plans to buy an ever-increasing quantity of cars, washing machines and vacations.»
Comentário: se o modelo a seguir pelos consumidores chineses fôr o norte-americano, então o futuro reserva-se muito sombrio para todo o planeta!
| By Michael Bristow BBC News, Beijing |
 As industrial output drops, workers are being laid off |
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says the effect of the global financial crisis on China is "worse than expected", according to reports.
It is the first time the premier's personal view on how the crisis is affecting China has been made public.
His words come days after the country announced a $586bn (£370bn) stimulus package to avoid the economy slowing.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said developed countries should change their "unsustainable lifestyles" to tackle global warming.
Mr Wen said richer nations should help poorer ones solve the global problem.
United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer said rich countries had to transfer cleaner energy technologies to developing nations.
The two were speaking at a two-day conference in Beijing discussing climate change.
Mr Wen said the international community must not waver in its determination to tackle climate change.
But he made it clear where the main responsibility lay.
Developed countries had a "responsibility to tackle climate change and should alter their unsustainable lifestyle", he said.
'Weightier problem for us'
Among others, Chinese officials have previously suggested that rich nations use 1% of their gross domestic product to pay for the transfer of clean energy technologies to developing nations.
While promising China will play its part, Mr Wen said his country faced a more difficult task than developed countries.
He said it took rich countries several decades to get round to saving energy and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming.
"China has to solve the same problem in a relatively much shorter period," he said.
China has so far declined to place a cap its greenhouse emissions.
Technology transfer
Mr de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, also said richer nations should pay more to tackle the problem.
"If international technology transfer happens, countries like China will be able to take action which is not affordable to them at the moment," he said, speaking at the same conference as the Chinese premier.
He urged developed countries to speed up the transfer of these technologies.
The current treaty that tries to limit greenhouse gas emissions - the Kyoto Protocol - runs out in 2012.
Negotiators will start discussing what will replace it in Poland next month.
In late September, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez visited China as his second stop on a multi-continent diplomatic mission. Cuba was his first stop, followed by China, Russia, Belarus, France and finally Portugal. During his brief time in Beijing, Chávez met with several high ranking Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao. The two countries signed several mutual cooperation agreements involving education, sports, trade, telecommunications, and most importantly, oil.
The Oil Deals
President Chávez has repeatedly asserted that he envisions China as an important global oil consumer. Some of the agreements reached by Caracas and Beijing will boost Venezuela's oil exports to China. By expanding China's share of Venezuela's oil consumption, the South American country could decrease its heavy dependence on the U.S. market, which has been the largest consumer of Venezuelan oil. According to the Venezuelan media, the two countries will cooperate to build four tankers and at least two refineries. The first refinery will be located in the oil-rich Orinoco Belt in Venezuela and the other in China's coastal province of Guangdong. Venezuela's state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) will be responsible for shipping the oil to its Asian counterpart. Additionally, the two nations will double the amount of capital invested in existing development projects jointly undertaken by Beijing and Caracas beginning a few years ago, from $6 billion to $12 billion. China will contribute two-thirds of the funds, with an allotted amount going toward increasing Venezuelan oil exports, according to Chávez. The South American leader's goal is to further diversify Caracas' petroleum client base through reaching an output of 500 thousand barrels of crude per day (bpd) to China by 2009 and to double that figure by 2012. Ultimately, the Venezuelan president optimistically hopes to become the top oil supplier to China.
Same Summit, Different Attitudes
President Chávez does not hide his intentions to strengthen a political alliance expand upon economic ties with China, which are already quite strong. China is about to launch the first Venezuelan satellite, the Simón Bolivar, on November 1, 2008. Moreover, the Southern American country leader has tried to link the two geographically remote countries together through a shared ideology; he has claimed that he is a "Maoist." During a trip to China in 2004, Chávez said that if Simón Bolivar and Mao Zedong had met, they would have been good friends for they upheld the same humanitarian ideals. Regardless of Chávez's grandiose statements, Beijing has remained cautiously careful regarding its relationship with the Venezuelan leader. When asked about Chávez's visit to China in a press conference staged by the foreign ministry in Beijing, the spokesperson Jiang Yu answered that bilateral ties between China and Venezuela were "normal state-to-state" relations.
Rhetoric aside, Venezuela also revealed more to the press about the detailed strategy on which the two countries will cooperate in the energy sector. For example, President Chávez disclosed the plan regarding the joint construction of four oil tankers as well as the expansion of a joint investment fund. On the other hand, China's official news agency, Xinhua, has used vague language to describe China-Venezuela relations. The oil cooperation between the two countries regarding oil refinery and transportation is collaborative in every aspect. Since the Venezuela-China agreement only represents four percent of Chinese imported oil, other countries' trade relationships with Venezuela will not be adversely affected, Beijing clarified.
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Lisboa 10-12 de Novembro de 2008 | Macau 27-29 de Novembro de 2008 |
O objectivo deste Simpósio é analisar um momento tão decisivo quanto controverso da história da Missão Jesuíta na China durante o reinado (1661-1722) de um dos mais destacados e esclarecidos soberanos chineses. É sabido como os interesses culturais, curiosidade científica e sensibilidade política do Imperador Kangxi (1654-1722) conduziram à admissão e permanência dos Jesuítas na Corte imperial, numa atitude de abertura que culminou na publicação do Édito de Tolerância de 22 de Março de 1692 permitindo a difusão e prática do Cristianismo na China. Demonstrou, com este gesto, o Imperador Kangxi uma invulgar abertura ao Ocidente da qual resultou não apenas o florescimento da Missão Católica e a confirmação da respeitabilidade do saber ocidental na China, como assegurou a frágil situação de Macau enquanto entreposto europeu no Império.
Para tal, foi decisiva a contribuição do Jesuíta Português Tomás Pereira (1645-1708), como o demonstra a transcrição do texto do próprio Édito de Tolerância, de par com um significativo elogio imperial, na sua pedra tumular. Também a Tomás Pereira se ficou a dever um esforço de apaziguamento da famosa controvérsia dos Ritos Chineses, resultante das animosidades político-religiosas geradas no Ocidente que acabaram por alterar a inicial atitude de benevolência do Imperador para com a Missão Católica na China.
Trabalhando na Corte do Imperador Kangxi durante mais de trinta anos (1673-1708), Tomás Pereira não só logrou manter uma relação pessoal, única e privilegiada, com o Imperador, como se impôs como um músico inovador e um hábil mediador das relações sino-russas. Tendo ocupando, pro interim, o cargo de Prefeito do Tribunal das Matemáticas e assumindo o papel de efectivo representante e protector da Missão Cristã na Corte imperial, a ele se ficou ainda a dever a construção da nova Igreja de Nantang em Pequim.
Adoptando uma perspectiva interdisciplinar e recorrendo a fontes primárias, o presente Simpósio pretende revisitar a vida e a obra de Tomás Pereira no contexto da Missão da China, da política chinesa e da cultura da Corte do seu tempo.
Tomando como fonte de inspiração para o futuro este momento ímpar de diálogo entre a China e o Ocidente, assinalar-se-á deste modo a passagem do 3º centenário da morte do Padre Tomás Pereira, cujo intelecto, dedicação, lealdade e autoridade moral, o tornaram num dos mais influentes e respeitados Jesuítas do círculo íntimo do Imperador Kangxi.
mais, aqui
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Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates met with Wang Gang, a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), on Monday and the two pledged efforts to expand exchange and cooperation in various fields between the two countries.
[23-09-2008] [ People's Daily Online ]
