Filed under: China

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Pols want answers on Heparin contamination

Lawmakers scolded the FDA for still not knowing what or who was behind the contamination of the Baxter International’s blood-thinning drug Heparin, nearly three years after launching its investigation.

“It has been almost three years since the the FDA linked deaths and serious allergic reactions of patients to supplies of Heparin that came from China,“ Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), wrote in a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg Wednesday. Upton said the House Energy and Commerce committee, which he chairs, will conduct its own probe into the matter. Get the full story »

Judge: Motorola can’t transfer Huawei technology

A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction that prohibits Motorola Solutions Inc. from transferring confidential information by Chinese company Huawei Technologies to Nokia Siemens Networks, which is planning to buy Motorola’s networks business in a $1.2 billion transaction.

Huawei sued Motorola last month, arguing that the deal with NSN would represent a misappropriation of Huawei trade secrets. Motorola and Huawei have commercial agreements dating back a decade, during which Motorola bought Huawei network technologies and resold the equipment under its own brand. Get the full story »

Groupon prepares to go into China

Deals Web site Groupon Inc. appears to be making preparations to start operations in China, a move that could shake up the market for group buying, even though challenges lie ahead for the young U.S. company.

Chicago-based Groupon, which opened in 2008 selling discounted products and services from local merchants such as restaurants and nail salons, faces a huge Internet market that has confounded some of the world’s biggest players. Get the full story »

U.S. asks WTO to judge two trade spats with China

The United States said on Friday it had asked the World Trade Organization to decide on two disputes with China, one on restrictions Beijing has imposed on U.S. specialty steel exports and the other on access to its credit and debit card market. Get the full story »

Report: Hackers in China hit Western oil companies

Hackers operating from China stole sensitive information from Western oil companies, a U.S. security firm reported Thursday, adding to complaints about pervasive Internet crime traced to the country.

The report by McAfee Inc. did not identify the companies but said the “coordinated, covert and targeted” attacks began in November 2009 and targeted computers of oil and gas companies in the United States, Taiwan, Greece and Kazakhstan. It said the attackers stole information on operations, bidding for oil fields and financing. Get the full story »

Facebook opens Hong Kong office

Facebook Inc. opened an office in Hong Kong Tuesday as part of its plan to expand operations in Asia, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday, citing the company’s executives.

The move came after Facebook opened offices in India in March and  Singapore in April, the newspaper reported. Get the full story »

China hikes interest rates to quell inflation

China’s central bank raised interest rates on Tuesday, its second increase in just over a month, intensifying its fight against stubbornly high inflation. Get the full story »

U.S. panel OKs final duties on China drill pipe

A U.S. trade panel Monday approved combined final duties ranging up to nearly 450 percent on steel drill pipe from China used in oil production.

The U.S. International Trade Commission said there was sufficient evidence U.S. companies are threatened with harm by unfairly low priced competition from China. Get the full story »

Easier to get in Harvard than China’s Hamburger U.

From Bloomberg News | McDonald’s Corp.’s management training center, on the outskirts of Shanghai in McDonald’s China headquarters, gets 1,000 applications for every eight slots. That’s a selection rate of less than 1 percent, lower than Harvard University’s record low acceptance rate last year of about 7 percent, according to the school’s official newspaper. Get the full story>>

Caterpillar to spend $1B to boost China output

A top executive with Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of earth-moving construction and mining equipment, said Friday the company plans to spend more than $1 billion to increase its manufacturing capacity in China.

In an interview at an event tied to the U.S. visit this week of Chinese President Hu Jintao, Rich Lavin, a group president at Caterpillar, said his company’s current network of 11 Chinese plants was not enough to produce the “market-leading volumes” Caterpillar hopes to be producing by 2015. Get the full story »

China to seek FAA certification of passenger jet

China’s top aviation regulator said Friday that it aimed to work jointly with U.S. authorities on certifying the planned new C919 passenger jet.

The aircraft is seen as the first shot in China’s effort to break the duopoly in large civil aircraft held by Airbus and Boeing Co.  and securing approval from overseas regulators will be crucial in finding customers outside the country’s fast-growing domestic market. Get the full story »

Deals to boost Illinois soybean sales to China

China’s growing appetite for Illinois soybeans was on display Thursday at a ceremonial signing of purchase agreements that could trigger as much as $450 million in Illinois soy sales to Chinese companies this year.

The potential sales represent a hefty slice of business for Illinois farms and soy operations, which have seen agricultural exports to China grow in recent years to more than $500 million annually, from $149 million in 2007, according to data from Gov. Pat Quinn’s office. Get the full story »

GE’s Immelt calls for truly free U.S.-China trade

General Electric Co.’s Jeffrey Immelt said Wednesday he wants the United States and China to open their borders for truly free trade between the world’s top two economies, rather than hiding behind protectionist walls.

But the chief executive of the largest U.S. conglomerate acknowledged in an interview with Reuters Insider that he treads carefully in going into business with Chinese companies. Get the full story »

Boeing to benefit from $45B U.S.-China trade deal

The United States and China reached agreement on export deals worth $45 billion, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

The agreements included a $19 billion deal with Boeing in which China will purchase 200 Boeing aircraft. Get the full story »

Motorola, Boeing in White House huddle with Hu

Before Thursday night’s big bash in Chicago where Mayor Richard Daley will welcome China’s President Hu Jintao  to the Windy City, several business executives with Chicago connections met with the Chinese leader and President Barack Obama in a Wednesday afternoon gathering at the White House.

Attending the meeting were James McNerney, chairman and chief executive of Chicago-based Boeing Co. and Greg Brown, the president and chief executive of Motorola Solutions Inc. in suburban Schaumburg. Get the full story »