China

As Timothy F. Geithner moved closer yesterday to confirmation as U.S. Treasury secretary, he signaled a more confrontational approach toward China, bluntly stating that the new administration thinks Beijing is "manipulating" its currency and it will act "aggressively" using "all the diplomatic avenues" to change China's currency practices, The Washington Post reported.

China sentenced two men to death and imposed life in prison on Sanlu Group Co.’s former head for their involvement in the tainted-milk scandal that claimed the lives of at least six babies, Xinhua news agency said. Sanlu’s former chairwoman Tian Wenhua was sentenced to life in prison by the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People’s Court today, the news agency said. Zhang Yujun, who made and sold melamine- laced protein powder, and Geng Jinping, who produced and marketed toxic food, were sentenced to death, Xinhua said.

Car sales growth in China, the world's second-largest auto market, slowed to a single-digit rate last year for the first time in at least 10 years as consumer confidence waned with a slowing economy, spurring government steps to bolster demand, The Korea Herald reported. Analysts said the outlook for this year remained bleak, although tax incentives and other measures may help to keep the market from shrinking, while some automakers such as the Japanese have been able to cushion the blow by introducing new models.

China has bought more than $1 trillion in American debt, but as the global downturn has intensified, Beijing is starting to keep more of its money at home, a shift that could pose some challenges to the U.S. government in the near future but eventually may even produce salutary effects on the world economy, the International Herald Tribune reported. The declining Chinese appetite for U.S. debt, apparent in a series of hints from Chinese policy makers over the past two weeks, comes at an inopportune time.

A failed business venture in China helped send Niagara Machine Products Corp. of St. Catharines into receivership, according to a representative of the company's Toronto receiver, Zeifman Partners Inc., The Standard reported. "They had a significant investment, a joint venture in China, and that went sideways," Allan Rutman said about the collaboration with Chinese steel producer Baosteel. Niagara Machine, which employs 210 workers, announced in a news release Monday that it is under receivership.

Factories in China and India joined much of Europe in slashing output and jobs at a record pace in December, another sign the biggest emerging markets were wilting under the recession gripping industrialized nations, Reuters reported. Economists and policymakers had seen China, Russia, India and Brazil, with their vast markets and rising wealth, as the engines of growth that could save the world from recession. Those hopes are fading fast and forecasts are getting gloomier.

China's Lenovo Group, the world's No.4 personal computer maker, is considering a restructuring because of tough economic conditions, China Business News reported on Wednesday. The influential business newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying Lenovo might merge its Greater China and Russia operations with its Asia Pacific operations. David Miller, president for the Asia Pacific region, is expected to resign and Chen Shaopeng, now president of the Greater China region, would head the merged operations, the newspaper said.

Sanlu Group, which was at the center of China's melamine-tainted milk scandal, has leased its plants to a subsidiary of Beijing Sanyuan Foods Co. Ltd., officials said on Tuesday, the Xinhua News Agency reported. The two sides signed the lease on Monday, and the Hebei Sanyuan company will soon start production at the plants, which shut down on Sept. 12, according to the information office of the Shijiazhuang government, Hebei Province. The plants include four producing dairy products, one packing plant and milk cow farms.

Twenty-two Chinese dairy firms will pay $160 million into a compensation fund for families of babies that died or fell ill after drinking tainted milk, Agence France-Presse reported. At least six babies in China died this year and another 294,000 fell ill after drinking milk laced with the industrial chemical melamine, which is normally used to make plastic. According to the China Business News, the new fund will come into effect from January and pay for medical treatment and operations for diseases caused by the tainted milk.

U.S. car parts maker Delphi Corp. has suspended work at a factory in Suzhou due to shrinking demand amid the global economic slump, a media report and a staff member said Monday. The factory west of Shanghai in the city of Suzhou makes compressors for General Motors Corp. "Unfortunately our only customer in 2009 is GMNA, and this has placed the Suzhou compressor plant in a very dangerous position," the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post quoted a Delphi internal document as saying.