Archive for November, 2013

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09/11/2013

India, Kuwait to take relationship beyond buyer-seller partnership – The Hindu

India and Kuwait on Friday held talks in the areas of investment, trade, and security, and of joint ventures in the energy sector, to take their relationship beyond the present buyer-seller partnership.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh welcomes his Kuwaiti counterpart, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al- Sabah, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: R.V. Moorthy

Five pacts signed

As Kuwait holds over $350 billionin surplus funds and accounts for 10 per cent of India’s oil imports, talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah centred around these two aspects. As many as five pacts were signed in the presence of the two leaders.

Strategic partnership

In his statement, Dr. Singh said the two leaders discussed the development of a more strategic partnership in the energy sector through long-term supply contracts and the establishment of upstream and downstream joint ventures in the petroleum and petrochemical sectors.

An indication of the importance attached by India to these areas came from separate talks between the Kuwaiti leadership and Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, besides a luncheon meeting with leading industrialists.

India has proposed several specific projects for investments by the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.

Dr. Singh noted that Sheikh Jaber’s response was encouraging.

“I am hopeful that we can translate some of these proposals into concrete symbols of cooperation very soon,” he said.

A delegation of the Kuwait Investment Authority is expected visit India to explore opportunities for investing in the country as part of the $350 billion fund which is growing by $25 billion annually.

India expressed interest in a $100 billion Kuwaiti infrastructure renewal programme.

Security cooperation

The two leaders also discussed security cooperation and agreed to strengthen cooperation in counter-terrorism through institutionalised dialogue and training.

Joint Secretary (Gulf) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Mridul Kumar said, “We thought we will move our relationship from a buyer-seller relationship to a more strategic relationship. Now let us not only buy oil, but look at joint ventures in petrochemical complexes, fertilizers and working together in third countries.”

via India, Kuwait to take relationship beyond buyer-seller partnership – The Hindu.

Posted in Economics, energy, FDI, India alert | Leave a Comment »

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09/11/2013

Chinese tourists: Mind your manners | The Economist

IT’S HARD being a Chinese tourist. Reviled for bad behaviour one day and ripped off by everyone from taxi drivers to pickpockets the next, China’s newly minted travelling classes are having a tough year.

In typical fashion, the Chinese government appears intent on regulating away some of that pain. On October 1st China’s tourism industry came under a new set of rules, most intended to curb corruption in domestic travel and ease the burden on guides, groups and tourists travelling within the country. The law includes at least one clause that seems to have been inspired by a series of incidents that have revealed the apparently bad manners of Chinese tourists, on the mainland and overseas.

The number of Chinese travelling at leisure, both domestically and abroad, has grown tremendously in recent years, boosted by rising incomes, a less restrictive passport regime and softer limits on spending. The new tourism law aims to help the tourists themselves, mainly by preventing practices like the forced-march shopping excursions that are often led by ill-paid tour guides. The law also provides helpful advice to the many millions of mainland Chinese who do their pleasure-seeking abroad.

Section 13 advises Chinese tourists to behave themselves wherever they go in the world. The article is a nod to high-profile embarrassments like the one that a teenager caused by carving his mark—“Ding Jinhao was here”—into an ancient wall in the Egyptian ruins at Luxor earlier this year. Chinese tourists have drawn scorn after posting online snapshots of themselves hunting and devouring endangered sea clams in the Paracel islands, and others have produced fake marriage papers at resorts in the Maldives, in order to take advantage of free dinners. (Closer to home, the new law might have given pause to the group of Chinese tourists on Hainan island who inadvertently killed a stranded dolphin by using it as a prop in group portraits.) Spitting, shouting and sloppy bathroom etiquette have made the Chinese look like the world’s rudest new tourists, from London to Taipei and beyond.

A vice-premier, Wang Yang, made note of the problem a few months ago, calling on his countrymen to watch their manners when travelling abroad. The new regulations add legal force to his plea.

“Tourists shall respect public order and social morality in tourism activities, respect the local customs, cultural traditions and religious beliefs, take care of tourism resources, protect the ecological environment and respect the norms of civilised tourist behaviours,” as Section 13 instructs.

Although it might be difficult to regulate such sensitive matters by fiat, this kind of nudge can have an impact in China. These few headline-grabbing humiliations, along with an ongoing campaign that mainland visitors face in Hong Kong, have made many relatively seasoned Chinese travellers more careful about the way they comport themselves abroad. In Paris, ever a favourite destination for Chinese tourists and shoppers, polite French-speaking Chinese guides shepherd their flocks through the sites, apologising when any of their charges bumps into others.

via Chinese tourists: Mind your manners | The Economist.

Posted in Affluence, bad behaviour, China alert, Economics, Social & cultural, Tourism, tourist | Leave a Comment »

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09/11/2013

China’s outward investment: The second wave | The Economist

HAS China arrived at its Rockefeller Centre moment? In the late 1980s as Japan’s miracle economy was soaring, the Mitsubishi Estate Company bought the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan, a landmark complex built by the eponymous oil and banking clan. Alas, Mitsubishi had to sell, at a big loss, after Japan’s asset bubble popped. Now it is Chinese firms that are seeking such trophies in New York.

Fosun International, a Chinese conglomerate, has just agreed to pay $725m for 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, a skyscraper near Wall Street, commissioned by David Rockefeller and completed in 1961. This follows a recent investment by Greenland, a Chinese state-owned firm, in Atlantic Yards, a big development in Brooklyn. Earlier this year a consortium involving Zhang Xin, a founder of Soho China, a private property giant, bought a stake in the General Motors Building in Manhattan.

It does not necessarily follow that this assault on New York will also end in tears. Whereas Mitsubishi overpaid, the Chinese investors seem to be negotiating reasonable deals. Michael Cohen of Colliers International, a property-services firm, says that although Fosun must modernise the ageing Chase tower, “The price per square foot appears to be a bargain.”

A shift is under way in China’s overseas direct investment (ODI), which is growing fast but is still dwarfed by foreign investment into China (see chart). The first wave largely involved state-owned firms, and was directed at acquiring energy, minerals and land in poor countries. Resource insecurity lingers—witness the 20% stake taken this week by Chinese state firms in Libra, a giant Brazilian offshore oilfield—but it is no longer the driving force. New motives propel the second wave.

China’s government is keen to boost the miserable yields it gets on its overseas investments, argues Thilo Hanemann of Rhodium Group, a consultant. So it is now encouraging state firms to invest in property in prime locations, and in infrastructure and other assets in mature markets. In Britain, they have invested in Thames Water and Heathrow airport. This week the British government said a consortium involving Chinese state firms could build a nuclear-power station in the west of England.

Private firms seeking brands and technology are also playing a big role in this second wave. Geely, a Chinese carmaker, bought Volvo of Sweden. Dongfeng, another Chinese firm, is said to be considering buying a stake in Peugeot-Citroën, an ailing French carmaker. On October 22nd Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant, said it would open a new division in America to invest exclusively in internet start-ups. And Lenovo, a computer-maker, is preparing a bid for Canada’s BlackBerry.

As a result, the share of Chinese ODI going to rich countries has shot up from just a tenth in 2002 to two-thirds last year. Like Japan before it, China could yet experience a crash. But the shift in investment from free-spending state firms seeking resources to frugal private ones chasing markets and innovation is a positive sign.

via China’s outward investment: The second wave | The Economist.

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09/11/2013

The Skyscraper Hater Behind the Year’s Best Skyscraper – Businessweek

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat chose the best skyscraper of 2012 last night: Beijing’s CCTV building, the headquarters of the Chinese Central Television designed by Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture.

The China Central Television (CCTV) Headquarters in Beijing

It is one of the more unusual designs ever to have been built, on any scale, with two 44-story towers linked by a 13-story connecting bridge that takes a 90-degree turn. While the locals have likened it to a big pair of boxer shorts and a woman on her knees, it strikes this writer as a tower that started out ready to soar, thought better of it, took a turn, and plunged back into the ground.

The CCTV building is the product of an architect who not many years ago pronounced his interest in destroying the entire notion of the skyscraper, protesting the normally vertical and incrementally higher designs of his colleagues. “When I published my last book, Content, in 2003, one chapter was called ‘Kill the Skyscraper,’” said Koolhaas in a statement from the Council on Tall Buildings. “Basically it was an expression of disappointment at the way the skyscraper typology was used and applied. I didn’t think there was a lot of creative life left in skyscrapers. Therefore, I tried to launch a campaign against the skyscraper in its more uninspired form.”

via The Skyscraper Hater Behind the Year’s Best Skyscraper – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Construction, Economics | 2 Comments »

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09/11/2013

Big Money Behind Chinese Soccer Strategy – China Real Time Report – WSJ

If money can buy success in the world of sport, then in China, it matters greatly to whom it belongs.

As China stands on the cusp of its first taste of international soccer success, with Guangzhou Evergrande taking on FC Seoul in the final of the Asian Champions League on Saturday night, it’s clear that without huge sums of money, this may never have been possible. And not just any money, but real estate money.

As preparations took place outside Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou’s business district on Saturday morning, the clout and wealth of the local team’s owner, Evergrande Real Estate Group, was plain to see. Rows of trucks bearing the name “Evergrande Music” lined up outside the stadium in preparation for huge post-match bash. With a two-goal advantage after a 2-2 draw in Seoul last month (away goals count for more), Evergrande are the favorites to win Saturday night’s match.

Guangzhou-based Evergrande is owned by Xu Jiayin, who according to the latest Hurun Report rich list has a net worth of $7.7 billion. He also has political clout, as a member of the country’s top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

He bought the disgraced Guangzhou Pharmaceutical club in 2010 for 100 million yuan ($16.4 million), after the team was relegated over a match-fixing scandal dating back to 2006. After that, he signed China’s national team captain Zheng Zhi, as well as three players from South America.

“There will be no chance for a state-owned company to compete against private real estate money,” said sports columnist Yan Qiang.

China’s real estate developers may not necessarily be the biggest or most profitable companies in the country, especially compared to state-owned behemoths. But the industry is a source of some of the more colorful and freewheeling businesspeople — a number of whom are willing to take risks on sports teams for the prestige they bring.

In the 2013 Chinese Super League season, state-backed Shandong Luneng Taishan placed second but lagged far behind Evergrande in points. Beijing Guoan, backed by state-owned conglomerate Citic Group, placed third. Real estate money came into play for Guizhou Renhe which ranked fourth. The team received large sums of money from developer Renhe Commercial Holdings Co. Ltd. in 2010, after the team, which was then based in Shaanxi province, flirted with relegation to the second division.

Other teams in the Super League propped up by real estate interests include Guangzhou R&F, which finished 6th this year and Hangzhou Greentown, which finished 12th.

via Big Money Behind Chinese Soccer Strategy – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, Economics, real estate, Social & cultural, sports | Leave a Comment »

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09/11/2013

Supporters of China’s disgraced Bo Xilai set up political party | Reuters

Did you know that there are “eight government-sanctioned non-Communist parties, whose role is technically to advise rather than serve as a functioning opposition.”

“Supporters of China\’s disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai, who has been jailed for corruption, have set up a political party, two separate sources said, in a direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party\’s de facto ban on new political groups.

Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai stands trial inside the court in Jinan, Shandong province, August 22, 2013, in this file photo released by Jinan Intermediate People's Court. REUTERS/Jinan Intermediate People's Court/Handout via Reuters/Files

The Zhi Xian Party, literally \”the constitution is the supreme authority\” party, was formed on November 6, three days before the opening of a key conclave of top Communist Party leaders to discuss much-needed economic reforms, the sources said.

It named Bo as \”chairman for life\”, Wang Zheng, one of the party\’s founders and an associate professor of international trade at the Beijing Institute of Economics and Management, told Reuters by telephone.

\”This is not illegal under Chinese law. It is legal and reasonable,\” Wang said.

A second source, who asked not to be identified but who has direct knowledge of the party\’s founding, confirmed the news.

Calls to the Communist Party\’s propaganda department seeking comment went unanswered.

The party announced its establishment by sending letters to the Communist Party, China\’s eight other political parties, parliament and the top advisory body to parliament, Wang said, adding that no ceremony was held.

It also sent a letter to Bo via the warden of his prison informing him that he would be their \”chairman for life\”, she said. It was not immediately clear if Bo would agree.

The party was set up because it \”fully agrees with Mr Bo Xilai\’s common prosperity\” policy, according to a party document seen by Reuters, a reference to Bo\’s leftist egalitarian policies that won him so many supporters.

Asked if party members included Communists, government officials or People\’s Liberation Army officers, Wang said she could not discuss the matter to protect them because it was politically \”sensitive\”.

China\’s constitution guarantees freedom of association, along with freedom of speech and assembly, but all are banned in practice. The constitution does not explicitly allow or ban the establishment of political parties.

Bo, once a rising star in China\’s leadership circles who had cultivated a following through his populist, quasi-Maoist policies, was jailed for life in September on charges of corruption and abuse of power after a dramatic fall from grace that shook the Communist Party.

History suggests the Communist Party will not look kindly on the establishment of this new party, even more so because its titular head is a former member of its own top ranks.

China\’s Communist rulers have held an iron grip on power since the 1949 revolution, though they allow the existence of eight government-sanctioned non-Communist parties, whose role is technically to advise rather than serve as a functioning opposition.

The Communist Party views the founding of opposition parties as subversion.”

via Supporters of China’s disgraced Bo Xilai set up political party | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Internal politics, political party, Politics | Leave a Comment »

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09/11/2013

China army says roots out ‘illicit’ apartments in graft fight | Reuters

Even the PLA is not immune to anti-corruption campaign.  This means Xi and Li have a stronger grip of power than some of their recent predecessors.

“China\’s People\’s Liberation Army has discovered in a corruption probe that its troops \”illicitly kept\” more than 8,000 apartments and 25,000 vehicles, state media said on Tuesday.

But those who benefitted will apparently escape punishment and only have to give them up.

President Xi Jinping, who as chairman of the Central Military Commission is also China\’s top military official, has called corruption a threat to the Communist Party\’s very survival, and vowed pursue powerful \”tigers\” as well as lowly \”flies\”.

China intensified a crackdown on rampant corruption in the military in the late 1990s, banning the PLA from engaging in business. But graft has intensified in recent years due to a lack of transparency and checks and balances.

The PLA said its probe had \”uncovered more than 8,100 apartments and more than 25,000 vehicles kept illicitly by its personnel\”, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

There was, however, no mention of punishment.

\”Various PLA units have promised to return illegal housing and eliminate secretaries that were not allowed; they have also vowed to strictly regulate the use of military vehicles,\” Xinhua said.

\”PLA units have held criticism and self-criticism meetings and submitted reports to echo a Communist Party of China drive to clean up undesirable work styles such as … bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.\””

via China army says roots out ‘illicit’ apartments in graft fight | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, corruption, Good news, Military, Politics | Leave a Comment »

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09/11/2013

China’s Coming Terrorism Wave | China Power | The Diplomat

Prediction time: China will experience unprecedented terrorism over the next few years.

China

On October 27, a carload of Xinjiang residents made headlines by crashing into a Tiananmen Square crowd, killing two people while injuring 38. Then, on Wednesday, a series of explosions rocked the provincial Communist Party headquarters in Shanxi province, killing one person while injuring 8.

This recent uptick in political violence is not an anomaly for China, but a harbinger of terrorist violence to come.

Several long-term trends put China at risk.

China’s footprint on the world stage is growing while the United States is retrenching internationally. The recent travel schedules of Xi Jinping and Barack Obama are telling. At a time when Barack was cancelling trips to attend the APEC Summit in Indonesia, the East Asia Summit in Brunei, and his planned visits to the Philippines and Malaysia, Xi was wrapping up tours of Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Tanzania, South Africa, the Congo, Mexico, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kurdistan, and Turkmenistan. Look for Xi and he’s probably overseas. Look for Obama and he’s probably at home, wrangling with Congress.

Historically, Americans have been the preferred target of international terrorism, while China has been virtually spared. Americans have been the most popular target because of their country’s hegemonic position around the globe, which inevitably breeds mistrust, resentment, and ultimately counterbalancing. Professor Robert Pape at the University of Chicago has found that foreign meddling is highly correlated with incurring suicide terrorist campaigns. With its comparatively insular foreign policy, China has understandably elicited less passion and violence among foreign terrorists.

But the trajectories of the U.S. and China are now inverting. Reeling from its botched counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States is engulfed in an unmistakable wave of isolationism. Meanwhile, China is rapidly converting its rising economic power into ever greater international leverage. This newfound orientation makes sense geopolitically, but will not come without costs.

Moving forward, China will contend with not only international terrorism, but also the domestic variety. This is because China is likely to follow (albeit belatedly) the post-Cold War Zeitgeist towards democratization. China will neither become a Jeffersonian democracy nor continue to disenfranchise political dissidents. Instead, it will inch closer to a “mixed” regime, a weak democratic state. This regime type is precisely the kind that sparks domestic political unrest. Such governments are too undemocratic to satisfy citizens, but too democratic to snuff them out.

Add to this brew globalization and the government’s critics at home and abroad will be better informed about both Chinese policy and how to mobilize against it, including violently.

via China’s Coming Terrorism Wave | China Power | The Diplomat.

Posted in China alert, Dissident, Ethnic clash, Inequalities, Instability, Insurgency, Internal politics, Politics, public protest, separatism, terrorism, unrest | Leave a Comment »

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08/11/2013

Why banking mints the most women CEOs in India – Economic Times

As Arundhati Bhattacharya gets set to take charge as the chairperson of the country\’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI), she looks likely to join the steadily expanding club of women currently holding the top job in Indian banks.

Bhattacharya will be the latest entrant, joining the likes of Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO of ICICI Bank; Shikha Sharma, MD and CEO, Axis Bank; Naina Lal Kidwai, country head, HSBC; Kaku Nakhate, president and country head (India), Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Vijayalakshmi Iyer, CMD, Bank of India; Archana Bhargava, CMD, United Bank of India and Shubhalakshmi Panse, CMD of Allahabad Bank.

via Why banking mints the most women CEOs in India – Economic Times.

Posted in Banking, Economics, Gender imbalance, Gender issues, India alert, Social & cultural, Women's rights | 1 Comment »

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08/11/2013

Chinese Back to Buying Japanese Cars as Territorial Tensions Ease – Businessweek

A year ago, Honda Motor (HMC) salesman Liu Hao had one of China’s most hopeless jobs: persuading local consumers to purchase Japanese cars. After a territorial dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea flared up in late summer of 2012, Chinese protesters took to the streets to denounce their Asian neighbor, overturning Japanese autos and attacking Japanese factories and restaurants. The unrest had a chilling effect on Japanese auto sales in China. Amid angry talk of boycotts, Honda sales fell more than 50 percent in October of last year and continued to drop well into 2013.

Burned cars at a Toyota dealership after they were set on fire by anti-Japan protesters in Qingdao, China, in November 2012

Today the two nations are still arguing about the islands, controlled by Japan and claimed by China, but tensions have eased, and customers are in the mood to buy Japanese products again. On a recent November afternoon, about 20 people crowded into a Honda showroom in central Beijing, checking out the new Jade sedan, launched in September for the Chinese market. Local buyers “trust the good reputation and engine of Honda,” says salesman Liu, 31. Besides, he says, fighting between China and Japan “would destroy the world, so there won’t actually be a war.”

Honda’s sales in China jumped 212 percent in October from the same period the year before, following a 118 percent increase in September. One potential customer is Mr. Song, a 28-year-old banker who won’t give his full name. He’s buying a Honda Civic and isn’t worried that a revival of anti-Japanese sentiment might endanger his vehicle. Given public revulsion at official corruption reported by the state media, he says, drivers of cars with government license tags “should be more worried about citizen anger and the danger of having cars smashed” than Honda drivers in Beijing.

via Chinese Back to Buying Japanese Cars as Territorial Tensions Ease – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Good news, Neighbour conflict, Politics, Territorial dispute | Leave a Comment »

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