BEIJING/SHANGHAI, March 31 (Reuters) – Twenty minutes’ drive
from Shanghai’s glitzy financial district, dozens of migrant
workers are preparing to abandon homes in old shipping
containers, as one of the more unusual solutions to China’s
housing shortage faces the wrecking ball.

Cheap but crowded neighbourhoods are being cleared across
China as part of a stepped-up “urbanisation” campaign by China’s
new leaders. The country aims to spend an estimated $6 trillion
on infrastructure, including housing, as a projected 400 million
people become urban residents over the next decade.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Growth in China’s vast manufacturing sector picked up in March after a holiday dip, a preliminary survey of factory managers showed on Thursday, pointing towards solid but not spectacular first-quarter growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index for March revived to 51.7 in March from 50.4 in February, but remained below a two-year high of 52.3 reached at the beginning of the year.

BEIJING, March 21 (Reuters) – Growth in China’s vast
manufacturing sector picked up in March after a holiday dip, a
preliminary survey of factory managers showed on Thursday,
pointing towards solid but not spectacular first-quarter growth
in the world’s second-largest economy.

The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index for March revived to
51.7 in March from 50.4 in February, but remained below a
two-year high of 52.3 reached at the beginning of the year.

MELBOURNE/BEIJING, March 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. government is investigating top global miner BHP Billiton Ltd for possible corrupt practices, the company confirmed, after media reports said it was being probed for its sponsorship of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Australia’s Fairfax Media reported that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) were investigating allegations that BHP provided inducements, hospitality and gifts to Chinese and other foreign officials.

BEIJING, March 12 (Reuters) – China, the world’s second
largest corn consumer, has bought more of the United States’ new
corn crop due to be harvested after September, taking total
orders since February to around 600,000 tonnes, spurred by low
U.S. prices, traders said.

The additional cargoes were bought by private animal feed
mills, which had already bought 240,000 tonnes in late February,
with domestic prices expected to remain high.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese poultry producer Liuhe Group Co is back to normal operations but with strengthened protocols, its controlling shareholder said, after being named for supplying chicken with excessive antibiotics to KFC.

In December, state television reported that poultry suppliers to fast-food chain KFC had fed chickens drugs and hormones to accelerate growth. Chinese food safety authorities also said they had found excessive amounts of antibiotics in samples tested from 2010 and 2011.

BEIJING, March 11 (Reuters) – China should sell down
state-held shares in mid-sized commercial banks to less than 50
percent, the largest shareholder in the country’s only sizeable
privately controlled bank told reporters on Monday.

China said last year it would allow private investors
greater entry into a number of restricted sectors, including
finance. China’s banking sector is dominated by big state-owned
banks, and the state also owns a majority share in nine of the
10 second-tier commercial banks.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Diners looking for some beef hotpot on a chilly evening in Beijing pay more per pound than their counterparts in Boston, a discrepancy that shows the challenges China faces in reviving growth as inflation pressures make an untimely return.

China’s consumer price index rose 3.2 percent in February from a year earlier, a 10-month high, official data released on Saturday showed. The pick up in inflation from just 2 percent in January was driven by a 6 percent increase in food costs.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Commerce Minister called for clearer guidelines from the United States on its security review procedures for foreign investment, while saying that China does not target specific countries for overseas investment.

China is studying the procedures of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, as it sets in motion its own security review, Chen Deming told reporters on Friday at a briefing at China’s annual parliament session.

BEIJING, March 7 (Reuters) – Bright Food Group is seeking to
buy a sugar company abroad, fresh on the heels of four overseas
acquisitions in the past three years that have made it one of
the most active Chinese state-owned firms in terms of
international expansion.

China’s second-largest food manufacturer by revenue is
looking at potential targets in Southeast Asia, Australia and
Brazil, vice president Ge Junjie told Reuters on Thursday.