A Factory Burns in CHINA

The city of Dehui, in China’s northeast—the region of the world known as Manchuria—has, until now, benefited from the country’s expanding appetites. The slaughterhouse industry has surged to keep up with a population of urbanizing consumers. In 2011, the city produced a quarter of a billion chickens.


But just after dawn on Monday, Dehui’s Mishazi plant, which belongs to Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry, caught fire. At the time, some three hundred people were inside. Exactly what happened next will take a while to sort out, but the significant facts are already clear: by Monday afternoon, a hundred and nineteen people were dead, and scores of others were injured—the deadliest fire in China in thirteen years, and the worst factory blaze that anyone can remember.

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CHINA: Purchasing managers' index

CHINA'S manufacturing activity contracted in May for the first time in seven months, according to data from Markit and HSBC, a bank. Meanwhile spending declined in the three other BRIC economies. This is a worrying sign for the rest of the world: the BRICs accounted for around 60% of worldwide economic growth last year. China’s factory-sector index fell more than expected to 49.6 (a figure below 50 indicates shrinking output) on HSBC’s poll. Yet the figure touted by the Chinese government was 50.8 for May, up from 50.6 on the previous month. The discrepancy arises from the fact that different groups were questioned. The government’s survey includes state-owned giants, whereas the bank asks smaller, more independent firms. Economists seem to favour the bank’s figures. Both the IMF and the OECD, a rich-country club, cut their forecasts for China’s GDP growth this year to about 7.8%. That still looks healthy compared with the West but may be a cause for concern.

CHINA: Fold the front page

Like the sun, newspaper circulation rises in the east and falls in the west

THE World Press Trends report collects masses of data about newspaper circulation and revenues in over 70 countries. The headline figure shows circulation falling modestly from 537m in 2008 to 530m in 2012, but that masks huge regional variations. The report makes for particularly gloomy reading if you happen to be employed by a newspaper in America or western Europe. Since 2008 circulation in America has fallen by 15% to 41m while advertising revenue has plummeted by 42%, accounting for three-quarters of the global decline in advertising revenue in the same period. In Europe, circulation and advertising revenue have both fallen by a quarter. And revenues from digital sources such as websites, apps and so on have not made up the shortfall. Digital advertising accounts for just 11% of the total revenue for American newspapers. Looking further east, though, things look brighter. Circulation in Asia has risen by 10%, offsetting much of the decline elsewhere. With 114.5m daily newspapers, China has surpassed India to become the world's biggest newspaper market.

CHINA: Xi's Not Ready

Why Obama should skip the shirt-sleeves summit with China's new leader.