Chinese Official Brushes Aside Calls to Buy European Debt By REUTERS Published: February 13, 2012 RECOMMEND TWITTER LINKEDIN SIGN IN TO E-MAIL PRINT REPRINTS SHARE BEIJING — The head of China’s $410 billion sovereign wealth fund has brushed aside a call by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to buy European government debt, saying Monday that such investments were “difficult” for long-term investors. In comments ahead of a China-European Union summit meeting starting Tuesday, Lou Jiwei, chairman of the China Investment Corp., said any fresh injection of funds into Europe would be in industrial and other “hard” assets, not government bonds. His comments struck a sharper tone than a commentary in The People’s Daily, a Communist Party newspaper, which sought to reassure the Union that China did not intend to “buy up Europe.” Speaking at a forum in Beijing, Mr. Lou said Mrs. Merkel had asked the sovereign fund and other long-term investors to buy European government debt when she visited Beijing this month. “For European bonds like the government bonds of Italy and Spain, only central banks with certain responsibilities can invest,” he said. But it was more “difficult for long-term investors like us” to make such investments, he said at the annual meeting of China Economists 50 Forum, a club of government officials and economists. “Investment opportunities may lie in areas like infrastructure and industrial projects,” he said, “and these projects can help economic recovery.” Xia Bin, an adviser to the Chinese central bank, echoed Mr. Lou’s harder line on buying European government debt. “We may be poor, but we aren’t stupid,” Mr. Xia said on the sideline of the forum. “We must follow commercial principles in making such investments. That means we want returns.” Mr. Lou, who predicted that Europe would “inevitably” fall into recession, said Mrs. Merkel had asked the sovereign fund to look at French and German government debt. In keeping with Mr. Lou’s comments on infrastructure, the sovereign fund recently bought a minority stake in Thames Water, a private British utility. The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, had said during Mrs. Merkel’s visit that Beijing was considering increasing its participation in rescue funds set up by the Union to address the debt crisis, though he did not make any explicit commitments. Possibly setting up China’s position on the issue ahead of its summit meeting with senior E.U. officials on Tuesday, The People’s Daily said in a front-page commentary that helping Europe was in China’s interests. “China has no appetite or ability to ‘buy up Europe’ or ‘control Europe’ as some European commentators have said,” wrote Feng Zhongping, director of the Institute of European Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. “China has from the beginning strongly supported the E.U. and the euro, in clear contrast to the ‘talking down’ of Europe in the international community,” Mr. Feng wrote in the piece, carried in the paper’s overseas edition. With more than $3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves — dwarfing those of other countries — China is seen as having the financial firepower to help ease Europe’s debt crisis. Chinese leaders have repeatedly expressed confidence that Europe will find solutions to the crisis, while refraining from making firm financial commitments of support. Instead, Beijing has urged Europe to take further steps on its own, a position reiterated Monday by the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Liu Weimin. “We have always supported the proactive measures the E.U. has taken to deal with the euro debt crisis,” Mr. Liu said. “We believe that aside from taking some emergency relief steps, the E.U. should continue taking fiscal and financial structural and fundamental reforms to give a clearer signal to the international community.” “Heavily indebted countries should, according to their national condition, adopt appropriate fiscal policies,” he continued. “The international community should continue to proactively support the E.U.’s efforts to deal with the crisis.” The E.U.-China summit meeting, rescheduled from December, will bring together Mr. Wen and the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, with the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, and the European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy.

Obama Finds Oil in Markets Is Sufficient to Sideline Iran By ANNIE LOWREY President Obama’s determination cleared the way for severe new sanctions intended to slash Iran’s oil revenue and press Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Obama Finds Oil in Markets Is Sufficient to Sideline Iran By ANNIE LOWREY President Obama’s determination cleared the way for severe new sanctions intended to slash Iran’s oil revenue and press Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Vida e espirito

3 Pois o inimigo me perseguiu; abateu-me até o chão; fez-me habitar em lugares escuros, como aqueles que morreram há muito.
4 Pelo que dentro de mim esmorece o meu espírito, e em mim está desolado o meu coração.
5 Lembro-me dos dias antigos; considero todos os teus feitos; medito na obra das tuas mãos.