May 13 – The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude quake that hit southwest China’s Sichuan province has reached 9,219. Those killed numbered 8,993 in Sichuan, 132 in Gansu, 85 in Shaanxi, eight in Chongqing and one in Yunnan, according to sources.The death toll is expected to increase as earthquake relief and rescue efforts progress.

Chinese president Hu Jintao has made earthquake rescue and relief top priority at all government levels with the army, armed police, paramilitary forces, and medical personnel deployed to quake-hit areas.

The State Disaster Relief Commission and the Civil Affairs Ministry has issued a Level I emergency response plan to deal with the disaster. The Level I emergency plan is for the highest degree of natural disasters.

(more…)

May 12 – Thousands are feared dead in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that struck Southwestern China’s Sichuan province on Monday. The 7.8 magnitude quake struck Wenchuan county at 2:28 p.m., leveling buildings and trapping those inside. Xinhua reported that 3,000 to 5,000 people were feared dead in Beichuan county near the quake’s epicenter. Roughly 80 percent of buildings in the county had been detroyed according to disaster relief officials. Current estimates are placing the dead at over 7,600 with as many as 10,000 injured, though that figure is expected to rise throughout the night as relief efforts intensify.

Earlier in the day, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said that the earthquake killed at least 107 people in the provincial capital of Chengdu, neighboring Chongqing, Gansu and Yunnan provinces. Up to 900 teenagers were feared buried when their high school buildings in suburban Chengdu collapsed. By the evening, at least 50 bodies have been pulled from the rubble. (more…)

May 12 (Updated 17:00) - A major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck Sichuan province in Southwest China at 2:28 p.m. on Monday.

The earthquake, centered in Wenchuan county – 146 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu – was felt as far away as Taiwan and Bangkok.

The U. S. Geological reported that aftershocks measuring 6.0 and 5.4 on the Richter scale followed the initial quake. On CNN, Bonnie Thie, country director for the Peace Corps, said that the aftershocks continued throughout the afternoon. State media is reporting that the aftershocks could continue into the evening, measuring from 2.2 to 6.0 in size.

The magnitude of the quake virtually assures that damage will be extensive and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is on his way to the area to personally oversee the relief effort. The government has already pledged aid for quake victims and the military has been deployed.

The remoteness of the region has limited damage and death reports, though Xinhua is now reporting that four primary students were killed and more than 100 injured when two schools collapsed in Chongqing.

May 12 - A major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck Sichuan province in Southwest China at 2:28 p.m. on Monday.

The earthquake, centered 146 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu, was felt as far away as Taiwan and Bangkok. There have been no reports of damage yet, but the magnitude of the quake would suggest that it could be extensive.

Office buildings in both Beijing and Shanghai – which swayed for up to three minutes following the quake – were evacuated as a precaution against further aftershocks.

Land line and mobile communication networks throughout the country have been erratic for the hour following the quake. Public street announcements in Beijing are urging people to continue to evacuate office buildings and all offices along Jianguomen and Chang An Avenues appear to have been evacuated.

More to come as this story develops.

Foreign criticism often misguided

By Chris Devonshire-Ellis

April 9 - With so much talk recently of Tibet for various reasons, and so much Western paranoia about even mentioning the name of the country (blogs running the name as T*bet or T1bet displays rather a lack of confidence, or a somewhat bizarre notion of harboring anti-China naughtiness. It’s almost become a trendy fashion to mistype the capital city that cannot, apparently be actually spelt for great fear of the Chinese police shutting them down) we decided to dig out an old, long deleted back issue of China Briefing about the investment environment there, which we ran in 2002 (click on cover to download the pdf).

Then, China Briefing hadn’t quite reached the glossy professionally produced standards it has today, but it was at the time – pre-blogging of course – pretty much the only source of China investment information available concerning FDI legal and tax issues about China, at least for free. 40,000 print copies were produced for this issue and distributed across China, and online. The issue followed meetings I had with the Tibetan autonomous regional government, at the time headed up by Guo Jinlong, the Party Secretary. Guo, now the mayor of Beijing, spent some time with me explaining the issues China faced with Tibet, and was a generous host, treating us to Tibetan banquets, dancing and singing. He was also obviously a man who enjoyed getting out and about in Tibet’s harsh sunshine; he had become very dark tanned indeed. (more…)

April 7 - Investing in China’s Western regions has long been a favorite topic of China Briefing – the magazine released its first overview of them way back in 2002 in an out-of-print issue that we have resurrected for you. The region was subsequently covered by us again in 2003 and we also produced a financial comparison, again in the magazine, about investing in China’s central and western regions some 18 months ago (click on the relevant cover to download the issue).

Foreign businesses in the Western regions, as the Senior Partner of Dezan Shira & Associates, Chris Devonshire-Ellis advises, have all been centered on the local market, and with just a few exceptions, not for export at this stage of the regions development. (more…)

April 7 - The increase in used foreign direct investment in China’s western regions exceeded the nation’s average by 128 percentage points in the first two months this year, said an official of the ministry of commerce on Sunday.

During the first two months, the western regions’ actual use of foreign investment was US$1.393 billion, more than double the same period of 2007. A total of 254 foreign companies were approved to invest in the region, said a ministry spokesperson at the ongoing 12th Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East and West China.

Ji Xiaofeng,a ministry official in charge of foreign investment management attributed the increase to the nation’s encouraging policy for foreign investment to the middle and western regions. She said the ministry was advocating a transfer of foreign investment from the eastern regions to the western areas and encouraging local governments to use the investment in an innovative way. (more…)

Jan. 28 – Construction will hopefully start this year on two railways linking China’s westernmost Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region with the central Asian nations of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Xinjiang government sources said.

The railway, expected to be completed within the year, will link Korgas on the China-Kazakhstan border with China’s inland railways. From the border, the US$861 million railway will extend west, joining the Sary-Ozek railway of Kazakhstan to become the second cross-border rail link between the two countries. (more…)

By Andy Scott

VIENTIANE, Laos, Jan. 23 - The Lao call them Jin, and since the late 1800s when groups of marauding Chinese on horseback called Haw Jin first arrived, they have been coming into Laos in search of fortune.

Southeast Asia has long had Chinese immigrants, and from Thailand and Singapore to Indonesia and the Philippines, many of the region’s wealthiest and most powerful families trace their ancestry back to the mainland. Former Thai Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra and former Philippine President Corazon Aquino are just two example of this. While nationalism has hindered many of Chinese descent in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia from taking office, they long ago became the de facto merchants and bankers of the region.

Today, a new wave of Chinese immigrants is flooding south. Far from the rich and powerful families that preceded them, these Chinese come from the country’s interior, a location that has missed much of the economic transformation of China’s eastern coast. These cooks, laborers, merchants and tourists are leaving behind their economically depressed regions, often for destinations even poorer. (more…)

By Andy Scott

VIENTIANE, Laos, Jan. 17 - Trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has boomed in the past 15 years, growing more than 20 percent a year and reaching US$202.5 billion in 2007. The two sides are each other’s fourth-largest trading partners. When completed, the China-ASEAN FTA will be the world’s largest, encompassing around 1.7 billion consumers and with total trade estimated at US$1.2 trillion.

Much of that trade is dependent on a modern highway system throughout the region, but so far, the dream of a connected Southeast Asia is still just that. The infrastructure has yet to catch up with hard economic reality.

To see the challenge set out, one only needs to board a bus in Kunming, bound for the border. At the first gas station south of Kunming, trucks and busses wait to fill their tanks for the journey. The road, four divided lanes of limited-access black asphalt, cuts through mountains and across valleys, at one moment soaring almost above the clouds, the next in a deep ravine. The Kunming-Jinghong Highway is as much a testament to China’s rise as the Three Gorges Damn or the city of Shenzhen. (more…)