Headlines on latest China news, China business from GUARDIAN

Guardian Letters: Rethinking capitalism in a spivs' paradise

1/22/2012 9:00:00 PM GMT
David Cameron believes he is on a crusade to drive a new "moral capitalism" (Report, 19 January). He should read Will Hutton on stakeholder capitalism and look to Germany, where employee representatives engage in corporate decision-making including levels of executive pay, local banks provide long-term support to business, apprenticeships remain common, stakeholders include suppliers and distributors, and community engagement stems from a responsibility to protect the interests of all employees.

Guardian Boom time in Beijing

1/22/2012 8:59:00 PM GMT
There was a minor riot in Beijing last week. The Apple store was attacked. Its offence? Not being willing to sell sufficient numbers of the iPhone 4S. Buyers had queued all night and things turned ugly when it became clear that many of those in line had not the faintest idea what an iPhone was. They belonged to teams hired by middlemen who knew that every handset bought was resaleable for an additional £100. The teams of tech-unsavvy people were identifiable to each other by homemade armbands, and when the store staff realised what was happening, they suspended sales. That was when the eggs started flying. In London they riot to steal things. In Beijing, they riot because they cannot buy them.

Guardian New year firework frenzy to send Beijing pollution readings rocketing

1/22/2012 12:33:04 PM GMT
The Beijing government has started informing the public about a hazardous form of air pollution as the population gears up for a new year firework frenzy that will see the skies filled with chemicals and particulates on Sunday night.

Guardian Beijing releases pollution data after public pressure

1/22/2012 4:44:03 AM GMT
Environmental authorities in Beijing, China's notoriously smoggy capital, have started releasing more detailed pollution data in response to public pressure.

Guardian The idea that we love our cities should not be surprising

1/22/2012 12:04:01 AM GMT
Urban theorists reassure us of the benefits of city living, such as lower per capita carbon emissions compared to rural life. The title of an influential book by Edward Glaeser says it all: Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier.

Guardian How the rise of the megacity is changing the way we live

1/21/2012 10:52:03 PM GMT
Amid a clutter of 24-hour arc lights, gigantic cranes and dumper trucks, a behemoth is rising out of a field of churned mud on the outskirts of Chengdu in south-west China. Commuters skirt its vast perimeter fence on their way to the new metro link that cuts under the city. They barely glance at what looks like just another huge construction project in a cityscape that changes every month.

Guardian New year, new fake partners for China's young singletons with parents to please

1/20/2012 8:16:05 PM GMT
Finding a new man to take home for the holidays proved surprisingly easy for Lily Li. He had to be reliable, taciturn – and available for a few hundred yuan.

Guardian Chinese economy: headaches to die for

1/20/2012 7:19:02 PM GMT
China is enduring the sort of problems other countries can only dream of. Like everywhere else, GDP has been a tad disappointing of late – but that means a growth rate of 8.9%, according to figures released this week, rather than 9.1%. (By way of comparison, Britain's final-quarter output figures are out in a few days and could well record growth that disappears in the margin of error, or even show flat-out shrinkage.) Exports are rather under par, too: Beijing estimates the trade surplus dropped to about $160bn (Britain runs a persistent trade deficit). And the big worry is whether Beijing can check overheating to engineer a "soft landing" – as opposed to the crash that hit the west in 2008, whose tremors are still being felt.

Guardian US accuses China of hacking emails

1/20/2012 10:09:05 AM GMT
Suspicion is growing that operatives in China, rather than India, were behind the hacking of emails of an official US commission that monitors relations between the United States and China, US officials said.

Guardian China sovereign wealth fund buys Thames Water stake

1/20/2012 8:44:03 AM GMT
China's $410bn (£265bn) sovereign wealth fund said it had bought a minority stake in Thames Water, the water network that serves London, marking the fund's first acquisition in Britain.

Guardian Introducing the RedPad - the iPad for the Communist hierarchy

1/19/2012 2:14:04 PM GMT
China's Communist party members can now carry a tablet computer to verify identification cards, read the blogs of cadres and manage state-owned firms without fretting that using a bourgeois Apple iPad will ruin their street cred.

Guardian China party officials using RedPads

1/19/2012 1:27:03 PM GMT
China's Communist Party members can now carry a tablet PC to verify identification cards, read the blogs of cadres and manage state-owned firms without fretting that using a bourgeois Apple iPad will ruin their street cred.

Guardian Chinese dissident who fled to US tells of beatings and harassment

1/19/2012 10:12:02 AM GMT
A Chinese dissident author has accused state security officials of hoodingand stripping him, beating him unconscious and threatening to post naked pictures of him online. Yu Jie and his family left China for the US last week, blaming harassment by the authorities.

Guardian Chinese premier defends oil trade with Iran

1/19/2012 7:53:02 AM GMT
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has defended his country's extensive oil trade with Iran against pressure from the west to impose sanctions, and yet has also warned Tehran against any effort to acquire nuclear weapons.

Guardian China jails writer for 10 years on 'subversion' charge

1/19/2012 7:43:05 AM GMT
A Chinese court has sentenced a writer to 10 years in prison on subversion charges for writing essays that urged people to defend their rights, according to a relative of the man.