Aquagold International Inc (AQUI)

[Bull Trader]

Frozen assets
Feb 7th 2008 | NANCHANG
From The Economist print edition

So long as people criticise the weather, the government can weather the criticism


AFTER a week of anguish, Liu Xiaoqiang could heave a sigh of relief. So too, perhaps, could China's government. By the eve of the lunar new year holiday, unusually severe winter weather and crippling transport bottlenecks had eased. Power cuts and food shortages persisted in many parts of southern China. But the worst appeared to be over.

AP

And the trains don't run on timeFor Mr Liu, a migrant from rural Anhui who has spent the past year as a building worker in Nanchang, victory came on February 5th, when he finally secured a train ticket home. For the previous week he had spent the days battling crowds in the cold, damp and dirt of Nanchang's station. Nights were passed in a shabby room nearby. He felt lucky to find it, but it cost hundreds of unbudgeted yuan—and he earns just 1,000 yuan ($139) a month.

A heavy police presence at Nanchang's station (and the minefield of human excrement on the pavements just outside) attest to how fraught things have been. In southern and central China, snow, ice and freezing rain left millions stranded on the roads or at railway stations. Fallen transmission lines, frozen equipment and coal shortages caused power cuts across 17 provinces; at least 11 electricians died making repairs. In some places water supplies have failed, and food has run short. Almost everywhere food prices have risen.

For a government that bases its claim to legitimacy on its competence and ability to guarantee the supply of basic necessities, all of this might seem threatening. Yet like many others, Mr Liu blames what he calls “the worst weather in decades”, rather than the authorities.
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