Small funds, big story?, July 3
China’s hunt for minerals and mining assets, particularly in Australia, has received a lot of press in the past months, culminating in Chinalco’s failed attempt to raise its stake in Rio Tinto to 18%. With a bid price of US$19.5 billion, the Chinalco deal would have been big news indeed. But headline grabbing, multi-billion dollar deals are only part of the story of China’s hunt for minerals mining assets. "The biggest [strategic] difference that we see for energy acquisitions has been in the mining and mineral sector. What we’ve seen is a new influx of small but flexible private equity companies that have been recently put together to take advantage of less visible, under the radar, smaller stakes,"said Jennifer Richmond, director of China analysis for STRATFOR, a Texas-based global intelligence company… In a broad sense, these small investment funds could eventually turn into the big story for Chinese outbound investment.
Shocking out the internet addiction, July 20
Last week, the Ministry of Health (MoH) stopped a clinic for internet addiction from administering shock treatments to young patients who broke its rules. The MoH said it ordered the treatment stopped because there was no proof that it didn’t have negative side effects. This neatly sidestepped a more important question: Was the shock treatment – or the clinic itself – effective? Probably not… While patients were punished if they violated any of the clinic’s 86 rules, including eating chocolate or taking pills before meals, there wasn’t actually much in the way of treatment. All patients apparently had to do was say they weren’t addicted to the internet anymore… A better treatment might have been to find out why these kids had gone to find solace in the online world in the first place – and how authorities, health professionals and parents can prevent that from turning into an addiction.
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