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Chinese dairy companies involved in the tainted milk scandal have apologised in a New Year text message sent to millions of mobile phone subscribers.
“We sincerely apologise…and we beg your forgiveness,” read the note from 22 dairy firms, led by the now-bankrupt Sanlu, China’s state news agency said.
At least six babies died and 290,000 became ill [...]

China’s graduates will find it tougher than ever to get jobs in the coming year, as China’s economy slows down and unemployment rises.
Experts say a chronic over-supply of graduates and a shortage of “high end” jobs had already been causing difficulties, but the mass lay-offs and business closures in recent months has made the situation [...]

Scientists in China say they believe a group of dinosaur fossils discovered in the east of the country could be the largest collection ever found.
The researchers, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, say they have unearthed 7600 dinosaur bones since March in Shandong province.
Most of the bones date back to the late Cretaceous period which [...]

Economic woes and key anniversaries portend trouble
FOR China’s leaders, a perfect storm is brewing. Economic growth, which has helped keep the Communist Party in power, is faltering. The new middle class, hitherto a pillar of the party’s support, is plunging into despondency. The coming months are studded with politically sensitive anniversaries that will focus disaffected [...]

BEIJING: China is expected to start work on four nuclear power stations in 2009, according to a senior government official.
The four power stations are in Haiyang, Rongcheng in eastern Shandong province, Sanmen in eastern Zhejiang province, and Yaogu in southern Guangdong province, Zhang Guobao, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in [...]

BEIJING: China has finally decided to open up its vast market for the next generation 3G mobile networks by issuing them with licenses. The move
is expected to open up a vast $41 billion worth of market for makers of 3G equipment.
The State Council, which is the country’s cabinet, today decided to allow the issuance [...]

THE leaders of the Chinese Communist Party are always quick to highlight the risks of social turmoil and of loosening their grip on power. That vigilance, sometimes bordering on skittish paranoia, helps explain why they have stayed around so long.
But this year really will, in President Hu Jintao’s words, test the Communist Party’s ability to [...]

YOU can leave China, but it doesn’t leave you. It’s not the proud China on public display that grips you, but the wry, private world where people are disarmingly frank, a world in which Australians can feel readily at home.
The culture on show at last year’s Beijing Olympics, the thousands of soldiers drumming to a [...]

Factories slashed output and workers at a record pace last month and manufacturing activity overall fell for a fifth month as the financial crisis hit export demand, a survey by brokerage CLSA showed.
The figures, which CLSA said showed a sector close to recession, spell further gloom ahead for the economy.
”Chinese manufacturing activity was very weak [...]

Overseas investment projects amounting to more than 100 million yuan (HK$113.44 million) that are backed by government loans will have to undergo a review by the Commerce Ministry.
Companies will have to show they are able to see projects through to the end in order to be approved for low-interest or no-interest loans from the mainland [...]

A group of scared parents whose babies suffered from melamine-tainted milk called for urgent research into the long-term effects of the chemical, as five others said they were detained by police in Beijing.
”The issue of adding melamine into food is a new problem. No one has scientific information or evidence,” Jiang Yalin, a 33-year-old mother [...]

Premier Wen Jiabao has again urged business managers, store owners and farmers to be confident in prospects for economic growth, state media reported.
Wen visited ports, factories, stores and households in Shandong, saying China was determined to boost domestic spending to weather ”a harsh winter.”
Wen said China would devise more detailed programs to boost domestic consumption [...]