The insurance industry, real estate development, building industry, mining and processing oil and gas industry and other six industries, averaged scores between 20 points and 40 points, which placed them at the “infancy” level. The rest of the industries averaged scores below 20 points, which is the ‘bystanders’ stage.

More than 70 percent of China’s top corporations do not engage in corporate social responsibility, according to a recent report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CAS).

The CAS released “The Blue Book of Corporate Social Responsibility: Research Report on Corporate Social Responsibility of China(2010),” and according to the report, the overall index of China’s corporate social responsibility lags behinds the world average.

There were 300 companies that participated in the evaluation, and only China Ocean Shipping Group Company (COSCO) scored 80 points, putting it into the “excellent” category.

There were 13 enterprises awarded the “leader” level. There were 218 corporations that scored below 20 points, which means they are regarded as “bystanders.” These enterprises have management systems that are incomplete, they lack transparency and do not engage in socially responsible business practices.

The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, has directed six heavyweight commercial banks to increase their reserve requirements in an apparent bid to control market liquidity. And, the Foreign Exchange management agency under the central bank said in a statement that China will be stricter in thwarting overseas “hot money” from entering, lured by a rapidly growing economy and the prospect of a strengthening Chinese currency, the yuan.

But market analysts say that Chinese authorities should keep vigilant that any stronger tightening measures might cause a slowdown in the broad economy and worsen unemployment, particularly amid the global concern about a sputtering recovery from the Great Recession.

The six biggest lenders – The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the China Merchants Bank and the China Minsheng Bank, were told to increase reserved by 50 basic points to17.5 percent of their deposits.

The foreign exchange administration said Tuesday that officials have detected increasing sums of overseas money flowing to China, buying housing and stocks. Chinese media has reported that the forex reserve probably has surpassed US$2.5 trillion by the end of September, because of the inflow of hot money.

The economists have warned that inflation could hit a new yearly high in September, to 3.7 percent or even higher, as prices of all staples, including grain, vegetable, fruit and meat, are rising. Meanwhie, the central government has launched a six-month effort to limit the housing prices, but, so far, to no avail in all major cities. Public grievances and demands for more tightening measures abound.

China’s rapid growth is easing after hitting 10.3 percent in the second quarter. The growth rate for the July-September quarter, to be announced next week, is expected to be around 10 percent.

Chinese banks last year were ordered to step up lending in support of Beijing’s stimulus, which helped China rebound quickly from the global crisis. But regulators tightened controls early this year after the credit boom fueled a surge in stock and real estate prices, prompting concerns about dangerous price bubbles.

The policy-makers have raised reserve requirements this year but has avoided an interest rate hike that it worries might derail China’s recovery.

Chinese banks will be allowed to lend a total of 7.5 trillion yuan (US$1.1 trillion) this year, down from a record 9.6 trillion yuan (US$1.4 trillion) in 2009.

As development also refers to environment, ASEM members will have talks on climate change, energy supply and availability of green technologies.

Cross-border challenges, such as terrorism and organized crime, but also disaster relief and prevention will be on the 8th ASEM agenda.

Apart from global issues, regional issues are also expected to be addressed during the meeting, including the Korean Peninsula question, the Iranian nuclear issue and developments in Afghanistan.

Finally, ASEM leaders will discuss how to promote people to people relations as a way of strengthening EU-Asia relations, for instance through academic and cultural exchanges. During the summit, the 48 participants will also suggest initiatives to increase ASEM visibility on the global scene.

The Asia-Europe Meeting is a biennial meeting launched in 1996 to discuss common issues and global challenges, focusing on the relationships between the two regions. With the accession of Russia, Australia and New Zealand in 2010, ASEM now counts 48 members, representing 58 percent of global population, 50 percent of global GDP and over 60 percent of global trade.

Leaders from the 27 European Union (EU) Member States and 16 Asian countries, including China, along with the European Commission and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat, will hold their 8th ASEM meeting on October 4 and 5 to discuss common issues under the new motto “Quality of life.”

ASEM participants are expected to discuss the final way out of the economic and financial crisis, with a focus on defining new supervisory arrangements and addressing public deficits.

Sustainable development, in particular Millennium Development Goals, will be at the heart of the debate.

Leaders will address economic development, with a special attention to innovation, sectoral developments and food security.

Air China, the flagship carrier of China and also the world’s largest carrier by market value, will use these extended range planes to expand its international routes.

Marlin Dailey, vice president of Sales and Marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said the order for the 777 model aircraft also underscores Air China’s confidence in the world’s most successful twin-engine, long-haul airplane.

The 777-300 ER extends the 777 family’s span of capabilities, bringing two-engine efficiency and reliability to the long-range market.

The airplane can carry 365 passengers up to more than 7,900 nautical miles ( around 14,700 kilometers).

“The investigation is under way. But one thing for sure is that the company, to some degree, should be held responsible for the disaster,” Tang Hao, secretary-general of the Guangdong provincial government, said at a press conference on Sunday.

A dam at the Xinyi Yinyan Tin Mine, owned by Fujian-based Zijin Mining Group, in Maoming city of Guangdong, collapsed on Tuesday after being hit by a landslide, leaving 28 people killed or missing, sources with the Guangdong provincial government said.

A special team, headed by Zhu Mingguo, deputy Party chief of Guangdong province, arrived at the dam on Thursday to conduct the investigation after many local villagers reported illegal practices of the Xinyi mine to the provincial government following the landslide.

An initial investigation showed that the Xinyi mine destroyed vegetation along the upper reaches of a local river during its operation in the past years.

However, water discharged from the dam has been tested to have no harmful chemicals, sources with Guangdong provincial environmental protection authorities said.

According to Hong Kong-based Takungpao, several managers of the Xinyi mine have been held by police to provide assistance in the investigation.

“It is a human-made disaster rather than a natural one. The mine should be blamed for the disaster,” a local villager surnamed Li told the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily.

Floods and landslides triggered by Typhoon Fanapi have so far claimed 75 lives in Guangdong province, with some 61 still missing, local authorities said on Sunday.

Typhoon Fanapi was the 11th and the strongest to hit the country so far this year, battering most of the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong provinces with heavy rains and strong winds last week.

Some 128,000 people in Guangdong province had to be evacuated, with 16,000 houses completely destroyed, sources with the Guangdong provincial government said.

Soldiers clean up floating debris along the upper reaches of a river on Sunday in Gaozhou, Guangdong, to safeguard a local reservoir from possible threat. Floods and mudslides triggered by Typhoon Fanapi caused heavy death tolls in the province. (Xinhua Photo)
In total, 1.56 million people in nine cities in western and eastern parts of Guangdong have been affected by the floods and landslides.

As of Sunday, some 24 roads in the western parts of Guangdong, many of which are connected to villages hard hit by the floods and landslides, are still blocked.

“We are organizing all possible forces to repair the roads. We have assured people affected by the disaster that they will move to new and safe houses by the end of this year,” Tang said.

After Fanapi, one or two more strong typhoons are expected to again batter the province this year, according to Qiu Dehua, director of the Guangdong provincial flood control and drought relief center.

China’s urbanization rate is currently around 47 percent and is increasing by about 1 percentage point each year. If the nation continues its urbanization-friendly policies, the rate could rise to 65 percent by 2020, according to the report released on Tuesday by the China Development Research Foundation.

To accommodate this increase in the urban population, the report said the country may need to invest at least 16 trillion yuan in roads, railways, power plants, water systems and social services. But it added that this could be a conservative estimate.

“If the ratio of urban infrastructure investment to the country’s gross domestic product reaches 4 percent, which is the average rate in developing countries, then the total investment could amount to 24 trillion yuan.”

New transportation networks, including roads, bridges and subways, will account for about 56 percent of the estimated investment, the report said.

Financing the expected urban expansion poses a major challenge.

The report said that in 2008, about 32 percent of the funding for urban infrastructure came from the government, 30 percent from bank loans and the remainder from the relevant enterprises. However, at present, all local government finance channels rely on land prices, as they either sell land to raise money or use land to secure loans.

Such a financing model will not be sustainable, the report concludes. Once the property market cools, it will have a detrimental effect on the ability of local governments to raise funds.

To meet the projected financing requirements, the report suggests non-State investors should provide a larger proportion of funds for future urban infrastructure projects.

“China will not go down the path that Japan did and give in to foreign pressure on the yuan’s exchange rate,” Li said at an industry forum in Beijing.

“I think there is still a huge potential to boost China’s domestic consumption,” he added.

Many Chinese officials and researchers are wary of the experiences of Japan, which bowed to pressure from the US in 1985 to sign the Plaza Accord that allowed the Japanese yen to rise sharply to reduce a bulging US trade deficit.

But as money poured into Japan to chase the yen higher, loose monetary policy inflated an asset price bubble that burst in the beginning of the 1990s, ushering in two decades of economic stagnation for Japan.

Li said on Sunday that the economic circumstances in China today are very different from those in Japan in 1985.

“The biggest difference is that China has a huge domestic market,” he said, noting that domestic consumption and the country’s urbanization can sustain China’s GDP to grow more than 9 percent annually in the next 10 years.

During the past few weeks, US lawmakers have been pressing for legislation that would require the US government to apply punitive sanctions against China and other countries with allegedly undervalued currencies.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said last week in congressional testimony that the US will use every available tool to urge China to let its currency rise more quickly and blamed the slow pace of yuan appreciation for US’ trade deficit.

However, China has largely reduced its trade surplus during the past few years, Li said.

“But what has the US done to reduce its trade deficit?” Li said. “The US should pay much more attention to its own problems.”

China vowed to make the yuan’s exchange rate more flexible on June 19, ending a two-year peg to the US dollar. Since then, the yuan has gained 1.5 percent.

Earlier this month, China reported that its trade surplus shrank in August from July, as imports picked up.