November 2005 China News

BEIJING (Reuters) - China aims to maintain average annual economic growth rate of 7.5 percent from 2006 to 2010, in line with the country's long-term goals, the country's development chief said in an article published on Tuesday.

The targeted growth rate would deliver an objective in the recent five-year plan for 2010 per-capita gross domestic product to be double the level of 2000, said Ma Kai, head of the Development and Reforming Commission.

Ma said the economy needed now needed to grow just 5.7 percent annually between 2006 and 2010 for GDP to double its 2000 level, because average annual growth rate from 2001 to 2005 had been around 8.8 percent, whereas only 7.2 percent had been needed.

But China needed stronger growth in the decade than previously planned, because its population, now about 1.3 billion, would expand, Ma said.

"Taking into account of population growth, the goal of doubling per capita GDP is achievable if only annual growth reaches 7.5 percent in the 11th five-year plan period," Ma said in a speech published on the commission's Web site (www.ndrc.gov.cn).

State media have said per capital gross domestic product in China would be lifted to about $1,600 to $1,700 by 2010.

Economists expect the economy, which in the third quarter was a robust 9.4 percent larger than a year earlier, to grow at least 9 percent for all of 2005 before slowing marginally next year.

China's strong economic performance in recent years has routinely exceeded the annual official target of around 7 percent. The government finally raised its target for this year, to 8 percent, but even that is now likely to be exceeded.

Chinese policy markers have tried to play down the significance of the growth targets, a legacy of central planned economy.

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A Chinese man has paid $100,000 for a 90-minute voyage that will make him China's first tourist in space, the China Daily said on Friday.

Jiang Fang, president of a Hong Kong company that acts as the China agent for U.S.-based space tourism firm Space Adventures, would experience zero gravity on one of the company's sub-orbital flights due for launch in 2007, the China Daily said.

That same year, China plans to launch its third manned space flight, which should include the country's first spacewalk.

American millionaire Gregory Olsen returned earlier this month from a one-week stint on the International Space Station arranged by Space Adventures at a price of $20 million.

Space fever is running high in China after safe return of its second manned space mission, the Shenzhou VI, on Monday and could spike again when a television show offering an insider's view of the national space program hits screens this month.

"Shenzhou" tells the story of 2003's Shenzhou V mission, which carried Colonel Yang Liwei, China's first man in space, on 14 orbits of Earth, the Beijing Morning Post said.

Yang, now a national hero, served as consultant to the show, helping the lead actors understand the feeling of being in space and demonstrating how actions like pushing buttons and eating pastry mooncakes were done in zero gravity, it said.

Tomb scan reveals buried treasure

BEIJING, China (AP) -- A magnetic scan of the unopened tomb of China's first emperor has detected a large number of coins, suggesting Emperor Qin was buried with his state treasury, a news report said Thursday.

Qin, who ruled in 221-210 B.C., already is renowned for the thousands of terra cotta statues of soldiers found buried around his immense tomb outside the former imperial capital of Xi'an.

The latest finding was announced by Chinese and German archaeologists at a conference Wednesday in Xi'an, where the tomb was discovered in the 1970s, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Qin, also known as Qin Shihuangdi, or "First Emperor Qin," founded China's first imperial dynasty and is believed to have spent decades building his tomb.

Archaeologists have refrained from opening it until they decide how to preserve the treasures it is believed to contain.

The magnetic scan revealed new details of the tomb's structure and a "remarkable amount of coins," Xinhua said, citing Michael Petzet, president of the International Council on Monuments and Sites.

Coins of that era likely were made of bronze, with some perhaps made of silver.

The Xinhua report did not give any details of how the scan was conducted.

"Excavation sometimes means destruction," said Petzet. "Let them sleep underground. It's safer. No excavation should be done for fun or curiosity."

Qin was legendary for his cruelty. He reputedly press-ganged some 700,000 workers into building his mausoleum and had dissident scholars buried alive.

Qin's son was overthrown three years after his death by founders of the Han dynasty, which lasted four centuries and is considered one of the pinnacles of classical Chinese civilization.

Source

The following futuristic scenario is based on a series of interviews with auto executives and analysts. While they all warned that none of the changes projected are certain, they also believe that if troubled U.S. automakers make some key moves, the companies could see a relatively quick turnaround.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -- From the perspective of 2015, it's tough to remember that only a decade ago, in 2005, the nation's automakers were just about on the ropes.

As 2015 comes to a close, Detroit's Big Three are all posting solid profits in their car and truck operations at home, higher sales and profits from overseas than seemed possible a decade ago, and a product lineup that's just about the envy of their Japanese competitors.

Back in 2005, General Motors and Ford were both losing market share and tons of money on their core North American auto operations. Practically the only way they could get cars moving quickly out of dealer lots was to offer heavy incentives and below-cost "employee pricing."

DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group was doing a little better but it was still a distant No. 3 in danger of becoming No. 4 behind fast-charging Toyota.

Today the three have just a slightly bigger slice of the market than a decade ago. But rising sales across the industry have helped them, along with some key new products and alliances. And new and refurbished plants finally helped the automakers get costs under control and produce cars and trucks with far fewer workers.

The modern Big Three assembly line can switch quickly between production of different models based on market demand, an advantage essentially held only by the U.S. plants of Japanese competitors back in 2005.

The financial situation of the industry in 2005 could only be described as dire. Early in the year, GM and Ford both had their debt cut to junk bond status. By 2006, both had slashed their dividend payments in an effort to conserve cash.

Then in the fall of 2005, Delphi, the auto-parts maker once owned by GM, filed for bankruptcy -- the biggest ever in the domestic auto industry -- and its president and some analysts suggested GM might eventually follow. Talks between the United Auto Workers union and GM about curbing health care costs for union members, retirees and their families seemed to be going nowhere.

But perhaps due to the shock of the Delphi bankruptcy filing, the UAW eventually agreed to give GM at least some of the health care cost concessions the world's largest automaker was seeking. The deal was followed by one at Ford early in 2006, and it paved the way for relatively smooth contract talks in 2007 that helped the automakers start to narrow the gap in health care costs between them and their Japanese competitors.

In 2005, the then-shocking price of about $3 a gallon for gas helped curb the runaway popularity of big SUVs and pickups, the profit engines for the domestic automakers. And as happened during the oil shocks of the 1970s and early '80s, Detroit once again found itself far behind Japanese automakers when buyers' eyes turned to more fuel efficiency. While many of Detroit's offerings got good mileage ratings, their product lineup was far more heavily weighted towards the less fuel efficient light trucks than the Japanese automakers.

But this time the Big Three played a better game of catch up. By 2010, efficient gas-electric hybrid engines were widely available on the big vehicles Americans wanted from GM and Ford.

The Big Three's traditional gas-only engines were also getting better mileage. And Chrysler, with a lift from its German parent, got Americans used to buying the cleaner diesel-powered vehicles long popular in Europe.

Even with gas nearing $5 by 2015, fuel economy was not as much of a drag on Big Three auto sales as it had once been.

And the soaring price of gasoline gave a big boost to private and government investment in fuel-cell technology. Vehicles using the cleaner, hydrogen-powered engines are just now finding their way into dealer showrooms. Customers are going on waiting lists or paying above-market prices for some of the hotter models.

Despite the steady rise in oil prices, population and economic growth helped demand for autos keep growing. U.S. auto sales in 2015 are now expected to reach 18.6 million vehicles, the fifth straight record and more than 1 million above the pre-2005 record, 17.4 million, set in 2000.

Of course, the steady climb in domestic sales was nothing compared with the explosive growth in China and India.

And U.S. automakers responded. They opened plants overseas to serve those growing markets. Besides lifting their sales and profits, that helped them create a new base of lower-cost Asian parts makers who could help supply their U.S. plants as well.

There were even some exports of U.S. made luxury brands to those countries, especially after communism fell in China soon after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

While it wasn't easy, the decisions by GM and Ford to drop their weakest selling brands in 2008 helped them focus on building better cars and trucks.

And the 2007 alliance between GM and Nissan, followed by a similar pact the next year between Ford and Volkswagen -- by far the most significant partnerships for either automaker as the industry was consolidating -- also gave a lift to the U.S. automakers' product offerings.