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China Society

Mayo priest’s experience of ministering in atheist China

It’s the summer of 2008 and the concrete has barely set in the grounds of a Catholic seminary in Shijiazhuang, a city of 11 million people in Hebei province in northern China and also the centre of Chinese Catholicism. In 2008 China is a giant building site, in the midst of a decades-long splurge of […]

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China

Boosting soya sector in China

With the inflationary impact of the Russia-Ukraine war and growing tensions with western trading partners, China has been pushing to boost soyabean output and increase food security. Food security concerns have driven China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to push Chinese soyabean output in the past two years as tension  grows with its main western […]

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China

China backs local infant formula – but weak birth rate threatens whole market

A falling birth rate means China is perhaps no longer the attractive infant-formula market it once was. China’s efforts to encourage the growth of domestic infant-formula manufacturers have weighed on overseas players but Beijing’s attempts to boost the country’s birth rate have failed, reducing overall demand. Beijing has been rolling out its Action Plan for the […]

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China

Beef deal with China not all it seems

There’s been so much positivity and expectation around Ireland being allowed into the Chinese beef market. It’s easy to be optimistic given China imported 688,557 tons – more than the equivalent of Irish beef export capacity – of frozen beef in 2017, compared to 60,524 tons in 2012 so obviously there’s a market if you’re […]