Content about Nature

Imports of rare earths, especially the medium and heavy variety, should be increased to meet demand and protect dwindling resources, an industry leader said.

Companies should be encouraged to explore the possibilities of boosting imports of rare earths, Liu Yinan, vice-chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters, said.

The price of pork in China is likely to edge higher in September until the end of the year, driven by a surge in world grain prices as a result of a record drought in the United States, and an end to a current domestic over supply of pigs, according to leading industry experts. 

However, by early next year, some Chinese farmers could be facing losses because of the double pressure, meaning possible pork shortages. 

China’s preeminent position in rare earths exports is likely to change after a couple of mining operations in the United States and Australia begin to produce the materials next year.

Liu Yinan, vice-chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters, said the new production could lead to greater fluctuations in the materials’ global price.

China is now the source of 90 percent of the rare earths used in the world.

View caskets bearing designs of Chinese dim sum, teddy bears or effigies of sophisticated doll houses, miniature bakeries or ice-cream carts that can be custom-made from paper and light wood.

Full story: Business of dying

By Jennifer Lo

Additional reporting by Ruby Leung

How does it feel to have your identity as a mother regulated and terminated by a contract? It’s a question not very easy to answer for hordes of poor women who carry and deliver babies for other infertile couples.


The mother of all ironies is that they are never called mothers, and they are told that their wombs are just a temporary nine-month home for the newborn.


That’s the name of a billion-dollar trade called surrogacy, a job that, when completed, spurns any sentimental or legal strings with the babies.


But is it as simple as that?


To live with a smile: That is the message Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao left with a Japanese family that lost almost all of its possessions in the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 24,000 dead or missing.


That is also the message the 69-year-old senior leader wanted to deliver to China’s afflicted neighbor, dealing with so much adversity.


Though varying factors across the world, including the US government’s deficit, the lingering European sovereign debt crisis and the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, have heightened the sense of economic uncertainty, they are unlikely to derail global recovery. Besides, China’s exports will probably rebound thanks to the strong demand from Japan, which is struggling to emerge from the impact of the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear plant accident.


Usually thronging with tourists, Nakamise shopping street in Asakusa, Tokyo, was almost deserted during the weekend. From Hokkaido to Okinawa, the domestic tourism industry has taken a battering in the wake of the March 11 earthquake-tsunami disaster, with foreign visitor numbers in March plunging 50 percent compared with the same period last year.


According to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey, at least 80,000 foreigners have called off visiting Japan and cancelled hotel bookings and tours since the Japan earthquake. Some foreign airlines have also cancelled flights to this country.


Japan’s government has downgraded its assessment of the economy for the first time in six months to reflect last month’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, while wholesale prices rose at the fastest pace in more than two years in an ominous sign for company profit margins.


A loss of electricity from a crippled nuclear power plant and radiation leaks could weigh on the outlook for some time, the government warned, though it still expects the economy to recover later this year as reconstruction begins in the northeastern areas wrecked by the tsunami.


As relief efforts plod along in the Tohoku region, the human cost continues to mount. The death toll now exceeds 12,000 and more than 15,000 remain missing. But any dog or cat lover will add another tragic reality to this list: the loss or separation of untold numbers of pets from their owners.


“Honestly, not too many animals survived, especially in the areas that were leveled by the tsunami,” Animal Friends Niigata founder Isabella Gallaon-Aoki tells China Daily Asia Weekly. “In the hardest hit areas you mainly see dogs running around.”


The export of Chinese bicycles to Japan is unlikely to rise following the earthquake and tsunami, despite expectations in some quarters that it would. 


Jilin-based East Asia Economy and Trade News reported that the March 11 temblor had stimulated bicycle sales significantly in Tokyo, but Chinese manufacturers said the disaster would not have a noticeable effect on their annual exports.