Friday____________________ June 14

Three GM soybeans approved

China's agricultural authorities have approved three new overseas varieties of genetically modified soybeans, allowing them to be imported as raw materials for domestic processing.

The approved GM soybeans included CV127 from German chemical producer BASF and MON87701 and MON87701 x MON89788 from Monsanto Far East Ltd. The three fare better against insect attacks and herbicide, and have been approved for commercial planting or consumption in other countries.

Huang Dafang, a researcher from the Biotechnology Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that China began to import some varieties of genetically modified agricultural products as early as 2003 or 2004 to satisfy domestic demand.

Online tuition payments launched

Chinese students at more than 300 American universities can go online and pay their tuitions in renminbi because of a new cooperative effort between Hangzhou-based Alipay and peerTransfer in Boston.

Alipay is China's leading third-party online payment provider; peerTransfer is a top provider of global payments for the education institutions in the US.

"It is a wonderful solution to pay though Alipay, as my mother used to have to go to a bank in China at least three times and spend around 10 hours waiting in line for the money transfer to pay my tuition in the US," said a 25-year-old Chinese student in San Francisco.

Monday____________________ June 17

US Treasuries reduced by $5.4 billion

China, the largest foreign buyer of US Treasury securities, trimmed its holdings by $5.4 billion to $1.26 trillion between April and March, the US Treasury said.

The reduction in China's US debt holdings by just under have of a percentage point was part of the first overall drop in foreign demand for US Treasuries in more than a year.

Foreigners' flight from US government debt in April came as signs of a US economic recovery prompted talk among US Federal Reserve officials about when the central bank should begin to cut monthly purchases of Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities.

Liquor industry expected to grow

Despite the government's crackdown on luxury banquets, China's liquor industry is expected to have impressive growth potential in the future, according to a US- based market consultancy.

Sales revenue from white spirits is expected to grow from 110.9 billion yuan ($18 billion) in 2007 to 926.5 billion yuan in 2016, with a compound annual growth rate of 26.6 percent, said Frost & Sullivan.

At the end of last year, the central government unveiled anti-graft rules called "The Limitation of the Three kinds of Government Consumption". They include the regulation that receptions for high-ranking military officials should no longer include liquor or luxurious banquets, which has led to a sharp decrease in the purchase of white spirit by government and business organizations. Some high-end white spirit brands have faced a sharp decrease in demand and sales volume. (Photo 1)

Tuesday____________________ June 18

China back on top with fastest computer

China has the world's fastest supercomputer, outshining the United States and Japan.

How fast is the fastest computer? Tianhe-2 can do 54.9 quadrillion calculations per second, according to TOP500, an organization that evaluates high-performance computers worldwide.

The computer will provide an open platform for research, education and high performance computing services for southern China.

Tianhe-2 was built in 15 months with a calculation capability 11 times its predecessor Tianhe-1A, which headed the TOP500 list in November 2010 and was the first Chinese supercomputer champion.

The leading position was lost by the end of 2012 to the K computer from Japan, and the Sequoia and the Titan from the US.

Global competition in high-performance computers is fierce, and Tianhe-2, facing rivals from the US and Japan, may only keep its edge until 2015.

Li Nan, deputy chief designer and spokesman for the Tianhe-2 project, said the US still dominates the high-performance computing field, accounting for half of the top 500 supercomputers in the world. (Photo 2)

Sinopec, Iceland in talks on oil exploration

Sinopec Group, China's second-largest domestic oil company and Asia's top refiner, is holding preliminary talks with Iceland over oil exploration off the northeast coast of the Nordic country, a company source confirmed to China Daily.

The source said the talks are being held between the Icelandic government and Sinopec Star Petroleum Co Ltd, a clean energy subsidiary wholly owned by the group, but the person declined to provide more details. However, the source said that since there has been cooperation between Sinopec and Iceland in the geothermal energy sector, it is very likely that the two parties will cooperate further in oil and natural gas.

Wednesday

__________ June 19

Fitch warns shadow banking threatens economy

The growing shadow-banking sector in China, if not dealt with properly, could puncture the country's credit bubble and spark a financial crisis, Fitch Ratings warned.

Charlene Chu, senior director of financial institutions at the global ratings agency, said in a speech in Hong Kong that at the end of 2012 Chinese lenders were involved, directly or indirectly, in three-quarters of the 11.7 trillion yuan ($1.91 trillion) of outstanding credit "in the shadows" or extended by non-bank financial institutions.

The shadow credit sector accounts for a third of the country's total 34 trillion yuan of non-loan credit.

Any stress put on non-bank financial institutions will gradually work its way into its banking system, and put pressure on balance sheets, Chu said.

China's credit levels have been growing rapidly since 2008, when the government flooded the market with liquidity to kick-start its crisis-hit economy.

New home prices rise at slower rate

New-home prices rose year-on-year in 69 of the mainland's 70 major cities in May, but in 34 cities new-home prices increased by a smaller percentage point compared with April.

The National Bureau of Statistics said that of the 70 major cities it tracks, only Wenzhou in Zhejiang province experienced a drop in new-home prices in May. For pre-owned houses, 30 of the 70 cities' growth rates declined. (Photo 3)

Thursday________________ June 20

Wanda to build hotels in New York, London

Dalian Wanda Group Corp Ltd plans to build a five-star hotel in New York and in central London, and will pay 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) for overall control of the UK luxury yacht manufacturer Sunseeker, famous for providing yachts for James Bond movies.

Wanda will invest $1 billion to build a five-star, 160-room hotel on the South Bank overlooking the Thames River, and $1 billion to build a hotel and an adjacent apartment building in New York, where it is seeking potential partners, Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda, told Reuters in Beijing.

Wanda, one of China's largest property developers, set the current record for the biggest Chinese takeover of a US company when it bought the AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc cinema chain for $2.6 billion last year.

Wing Loong drone attracts buyers

At least five countries are negotiating to buy China's domestically developed Wing Loong drone.

"Wing Loong is quite competitive in the international market and we have delivered it to up to three clients," Ma Zhiping, general manager of China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corp, said at the 50th International Paris Air Show.

"Currently five to six nations in Africa and Asia have expressed their intention of buying Wing Loong and we are negotiating over that," Ma said.

All the techniques used on Wing Loong were developed by Chinese researchers without any foreign assistance, said Nie Haitao, deputy director of AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, which designed the drone. (Photo 4)

Three red pandas, Huan Huan, Mei Ke and Ya Ya, appear in the lower right photo taken on June 16 at the Straits Panda Research Center in Fuzhou, Fujian province. They will be sent as presents to the Taipei Zoo for the purpose of enhancing the cross-Strait cooperation for wildlife breeding and educating Taiwan residents about wildlife from the Chinese mainland. Two of the three pandas are shown in the other photographs. Xinhua

(China Daily USA 06/21/2013 page8)