Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
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India’s second-biggest manufacturer of commercial vehicles, Ashok Leyland, is suspending production at several units from five to 18 days in September, triggering fears that the slump in the automotive sector shows no sign of letting up. The BBC’s Nitin Srivastava reports.
Ram Mardi is worried he may lose his job. He works for a company that makes spare parts for cars and heavy vehicles in Jamshedpur, an industrial city in eastern India. But he has worked only 14 days in August.
“We had a comfortable life until recently. Now, it’s hard to arrange food or pay for the children’s education,” Mr Mardi says.
The factory he works at temporarily suspended production for half of the month to reduce inventory in the face of shrinking demand.
Industry heavyweights such as Maruti, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra have all announced production cuts over the past several months.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption India’s automotive industry employs some 35 million people
India’s economy is facing a slowdown. It grew at 5% in the quarter ending June 2019 – its lowest in five years. This – along with a drop in private investment and a banking crisis that has made it hard to access credit – has weakened consumer demand.
The Indian government is also pushing for a transition to electric vehicles over the next decade, which some experts believe, has contributed to falling vehicle sales.
As the automotive industry declined for the 10th month in a row in August, car sales dropped by 41% – the steepest fall in two decades.
The industry is one of India’s biggest, considering it employs some 35 million people, directly or indirectly, and contributes more than 7% to the country’s GDP.
By some estimates, more than 100,000 workers, many of them contractual, have lost their jobs so far. Now fears are rising that if demand continues to fall, forcing lower production, more jobs could disappear.
Small and medium businesses – thousands of ancillary units that supply to the big manufacturers – have been hit the hardest. And daily wage labourers such as Mr Mardi are the most vulnerable.
And employers are also concerned. “I have never had so much trouble keeping my factory up and running”, says Sameer Singh, who heads a family-owned business in Jamshedpur that makes spare parts for vehicles.
“My employees are jobless for a few weeks and I feel for them. If this continues they may move out, perhaps find another job. But I can’t even look out for a job. My life starts and ends here”.
Mr Singh says it’s also been hard for business owners, companies and consumers to borrow money because banks have tightened credit lines after a spike in bad loans in recent years dented their balance sheets.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption Car sales in India have dropped to their lowest in 20 years
“The fall [in production] is so large and so dramatic that it has affected every single product – two-wheelers, car, commercial vehicles,” says Sanjay Sabherwal, member of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India, an industry body.
Auto executives have been demanding tax cuts and easier access to financing for manufacturers, sellers and consumers. The government recently announced a slew of measures – this includes a delay in increasing the registration fees for new vehicles and asking banks to lower interest rates on loans for cars and two-wheelers.
But, will that be enough? That is hard to say with experts calling this the worst downturn to ever hit India’s automotive industry.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India will only sign a 16-member Asia-Pacific trade pact if its local industry is protected and if the deal would not lead to indiscriminate imports, the trade minister said on Wednesday.
Talks are ongoing to negotiate the China-initiated Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Piyush Goyal said, without specifying whether India would sign the deal in 2019.
New Delhi had asked South Korea and Japan to review free trade agreements with India, he added.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with an American delegation visiting China for a dialogue with Chinese entrepreneurs and exchanges views with them on China-U.S. trade relations in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2019. The delegation consists of U.S. business entrepreneurs and some former high-level officials. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) — Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday met with American delegation visiting China for a dialogue with Chinese entrepreneurs and exchanged views with them on China-U.S. trade relations.
The delegation consists of U.S. business entrepreneurs and some former high-level officials.
This year marks 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the United States. Over the past 40 years, the two countries have witnessed forward-moving economic and trade ties with win-win results, Li said.
While stressing the importance of extensive common interests between China and the U.S., Premier Li suggested that both sides, in accordance with the consensus reached by the two heads of state, should follow principles of equality and mutual respect, seek common ground and continue to explore approaches accepted by both sides to resolve differences.
China will open only wider to the outside world, and is committed to creating a market-oriented, law-based international business environment where domestic and foreign enterprises are treated equally and protection of intellectual property is given priority to.
China has fully liberalized its manufacturing sector and accelerated the opening up of its service sector, the premier said.
“China has a vast market. We welcome enterprises from all countries, including those from the United States, to expand economic, trade and investment cooperation with China and achieve mutually beneficial results,” Li added.
The American entrepreneurs said that U.S. companies, which were inspired by China’s new measures to open up, are looking at the current U.S.-China trade frictions from a long-term perspective, opposing actions to weaken economic relations with China and economic decoupling between the two countries.
They also voiced their hope that bilateral economic and trade consultations will gain ground with an agreement being reached at an early date.
Police in Fujian ask people who picked up notes to ‘be rational and return the money’
Impulse move caused traffic jams as pedestrians ran into road to grab what they could
The man from Shishi city in Fujian province who tossed US$14,000 into the air after a bad day at work has asked for help in getting it back. Photo: Weibo
The man from southeastern China who caused a cash frenzy on the street after he threw more than 100,000 yuan (US$14,052) into the air because he’d had a bad day at work is asking for his money back, authorities said.
Huang, 42, said he acted on impulse after he withdrew cash from a bank in Shishi city, Fujian province, on Monday.
His actions caused a traffic jam and passers-by fell over each other to grab what they could, the municipal police bureau said on Tuesday.
The man, who said he was having trouble at work, now regrets what he did and is hoping he will get the money back, the police statement issued on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging platform, said.
Police in Fujian said Huang’s impulsive move had caused him a lot of trouble and asked the public to return the money he threw away. Photo: AFP
Officers criticised Huang for his “inappropriate behaviour” and urged those who picked up the cash to take it to the police.
A video clip shared on Weibo on Tuesday showed motorists pulling up sharply in the street to pick 100 yuan banknotes off the road.
In another video, pedestrians were seen rushing into the middle of the road to join in the frenzy.
Banknotes falling from the sky send crowd into a frenzy in Hong Kong neighbourhood of Sham Shui Po
Some of the money had been returned by Tuesday evening, the Shishi police Weibo account said.
“Huang is from an ordinary family and not rich at all. A sudden impulse has caused big trouble for himself and his family. Please be rational and return the money,” it said.
On December 24, 2014, Hong Kong Police appealed to the public for help after a G4S Hong Kong van carrying HK$525 million (US$66.9 million) crashed on a main road near Wan Chai district, causing major traffic jams as motorists abandoned their cars to collect notes.
While armed police were quickly on the scene and closed off two lanes of the road, witnesses reported money being taken. One office worker said she saw a “regular Hong Kong lady” walking briskly away from the scene with 10 bricks of notes.
In March 2017, a woman threw away more than 16,000 yuan (US$2,250) in cash at a busy crossing in southwestern Chongqing municipality, but passers-by simply looked on instead of scrambling to pick up the money, the Chongqing Morning Post reported.
Police collected the bills quickly and found the owner. She said she threw the money because she was “in a bad mood”.
Chengdu school teaches boys to build model rockets while girls learn about knitting
Handicrafts show at school prompts question, ‘Why can’t boys knit and girls build rockets?’
Pupils and staff at Chengdu Caotang Elementary School in Sichuan show off knitting from their Boys and Girls are Vastly Different class. Photo: Weibo
A school in southwest China that teaches boys to grow “heroically” and wants “tranquil feminine examples” for its girls has generated a heated debate about sexism.
Chengdu Caotang Elementary School in Sichuan province developed a course that teaches boys to build model rockets and girls to knit alongside mainstream subjects such as maths, languages and art, in the hope of “increasing their gender knowledge”.
The course, called Boys and Girls are Vastly Different, started last semester because school managers believed that “boys and girls have been shaped in the same way recently”, principal Fu Jin told the Chengdu Economic Daily on Monday.
That “led to boys lacking enough space to grow heroically and girls lacking gentle and tranquil feminine examples to follow, so there’s some gender dislocation”, she said.
Chengdu Caotang Elementary School wants its boys to be “heroic” and its girls to be “tranquil”. Photo: Weibo
Last semester, pupils learned the differences between female and male bodies. This semester, boys are learning how to build model planes, rockets and cars, while the girls are being taught knitting by teachers and mothers who volunteer to help out in classes.
On Monday, a show of handicrafts and jumpers hosted by the school to promote the class led to a backlash on social media, with members of the public criticising the school for sexism and enforcing gender stereotypes.
“They are tying the hands of girls when young, and when these girls grow up, people would say there are only a few female scientists because girls are born unfit for that role,” a Weibo user said.
What Chinese summer camps taught teens about gender values
“It’s typical gender discrimination,” another said. “Why can’t boys knit and girls build rockets?”
Authorities cracked down on controversial classes for Chinese children after some extreme examples of gender education. In December, a Weibo account highlighted a lurid “virtue” class where a sobbing woman was seen on video confessing to teenagers at a summer camp in Wenzhou, eastern Zhejiang province that “promiscuous women got gangrene”.
“I dressed myself up in a fashionable and revealing way, and that’s an invitation for others to insult me and rape me,” she told her audience.
“Three drops of sperm are equal to poison, and they will hurt unclean women,” she said. “I’m afraid my body will rot, will stink and ache, and they’ll have to amputate my legs.”
The camp was condemned and shut down by the local government.
Agriculture ministry says long-term goal is achievable despite the loss of a third of domestic livestock owing to impact of disease
Observers believe foreign producers will never be able to produce enough to satisfy the world’s largest market for the meat
A pork vendor sleeps at a stall at a Beijing wholesale market. Photo: Simon Song
China will continue to strive for self-sufficiency in pork production although its farming industry has suffered a devastating blow after African swine fever wiped out about one-third of its hog herds, officials said on Wednesday.
Yu Kangzhen, a vice-minister for agriculture, said it was unrealistic for China to pin its hope on imports in meeting the country’s demand for pork.
Last year, China consumed about half of the world’s pork but more than 95 per cent was sourced from domestic supplies, which have taken a serious hit this year due to swine fever.
The disease is deadly for pigs, although not for humans, and there is currently no cure or vaccine.
“Even at its highest level, imports accounted for about 2 per cent of China’s domestic production,” said Yu at a press conference in Beijing.
“So from the statistics alone, we can see that we must adhere to the principle of self-sufficiency if we are to meet our demand for meat, and this also explains why we have put forward a 95 per cent self-sufficiency target.”
According to Yu, the total global trade in pork last year was 8 million tonnes – less than 15 per cent of China’s total production of 54 mi
Peng Shaozong, an official from the pricing department of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), expressed confidence that foreign suppliers would be interested in filling any gaps in the Chinese market.
“Imports are guided by the market. If there is money to be made [in selling to China], they will definitely come,” said Peng on the sidelines of the press conference.
Pan Chenjun, from agribusiness bank Rabobank, said China’s pork production was expected to continue to fall in the coming year, putting pressure on the country’s US$140 billion pork industry.
In July, China’s pig population had fallen by 32.2 per cent from a year earlier, and was down 9.4 per cent compared with the previous month, according to latest government figures.
However, Pan said the government’s 95 per cent self-sufficiency target was in line with market realities.
China’s domestic pig stocks have fallen by a third. Photo: AP
“In any case, the 95 per cent [self-sufficiency] goal is reasonable, as China’s pork market size is too big, and imports, despite rising this year, still represent just a small part,” Pan said.
Although China’s domestic shortfall may offer a windfall to foreign suppliers, they must obtain government approval before they could sell to China.
On Monday, Beijing approved imports from 25 Brazilian meat factories, bringing the country’s total number to 89.
On Wednesday, Danish officials completed a three-day trip to China, saying they expected to increase pork exports to China.
Danish food minister Mogens Jensen attended the opening of a new meat processing facility near Shanghai operated by Danish Crown.
China imported 230,000 tonnes of pork from Denmark in 2018, according to the country’s foreign ministry.
On Tuesday, the Chinese State Council issued a new set of guidelines to support the industry, outlining measures such as increased subsidies to boost domestic production in the face of worsening pork shortages that have sent prices to record highs.
The consumer price index released on Tuesday reinforced the bleak picture of a tight market supply as the data showed that pork prices rose by 46.7 per cent in August compared with a year earlier, almost double the 27 per cent rise witnessed in July.
Prices of pork are one of the major indicators used by Chinese citizens to gauge their well-being and, at the moment, that well-being is being eroded rapidly.
According to NDRC, China has already spent a total of 3.23 billion yuan (US$454 million) in subsidies so far this year to tackle the pork shortage crisis.
“As much as 1.1 billion yuan has been newly added under the budget of the central government, with the focus on supporting western provinces in the Yangtze River basin to carry out farm improvement works to control pollution and reduce livestock and poultry waste,” Peng from the NDRC said.
However, a report published by research firm Gavekal Dragonomics on Wednesday cautioned that the government’s plans to soften the blow on the industry might not be effective.
“As the overhaul of pig-raising practices to eliminate the disease would take years even if the government was moving more aggressively, high prices and pork shortages are going to persist,” the report said.
Image copyright APPLEImage caption The iPhone 11 Pro is said to last four hours more than before, while the Pro Max is said to last five hours longer
Apple has unveiled its iPhone 11 range of handsets, featuring more cameras and more battery life. But will it be enough to capture one of the world’s only growing smartphone markets?
Samsung has traditionally held dominance in the Indian “premium smartphone” segment, which refers to mobiles that cost 40,000 rupees (£451; $558) or more.
But this year, for the first time ever, Apple surged ahead of the Korean electronics giant in India. It swept up 41.2% of the premium smartphone market in the second quarter of 2019, according to research firm International Data Corporation.
“The Indian smartphone market is a game of changing fortunes,” technology journalist Mala Bhargava told the BBC. “There isn’t a company, no matter how dominant a position it commands, that can afford to sit idle.”
Apple’s latest mobile phones – the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max – will be available in India from 27 September.
And the iPhone 11, Ms Bhargava added, is primed to find success in the Indian market.
In recent months, Apple dropped its price for the iPhone 11’s predecessor, the iPhone XR, from 73,900 rupees to 53,900 rupees. The 20,000 rupee price drop was significant enough to make an impact.
“Consumers in India are known to be discount and deal-oriented,” Ms Bhargava said. “Seeing the iPhone as an aspirational product, many snapped up the mobile once prices were slashed.”
Media caption WATCH: Taking a slowfie with the iPhone 11
This, she said, is also what gave Apple the lead for the first time in India in the smartphone market.
The latest iPhones feature more cameras than before and a processor that has been updated to be faster while consuming less power. There are two Pro models, which the company said would last between four to five hours longer than their XS predecessors.
The entry-level iPhone 11 is the “perfect successor” to the iPhone XR, Ms Bhargava said.
It will start at a price of 64,900 rupees – which is not drastically higher than what the iPhone XR currently sells for.
“The discounted iPhone XR played a big part in bolstering sales in India, so it’s likely that with such a price for the iPhone 11, the company can really extend its market share,” she added.
Image copyright APPLEImage caption The entry-level iPhone 11 is said to last up to one hour longer than the earlier XR
Apple also launched the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, which at 99,990 rupees and 109,900 rupees a piece, will not be a key attraction as consumers will find that unaffordable.
“But at the same time, this gap could still benefit the company, leaving the field open for older iPhones and for the new iPhone 11 to increase Apple’s share in the country,” Ms Bhargava said.
The company is still selling the iPhone XR, along with the older iPhone 8, which will give consumers more choices and prices to choose from.
“With the sales of smartphones falling in the rest of the world, Apple can’t help but look to consolidate its position in India – it is almost the only market growing at an enthusiastic pace,” she added.
In the second quarter of 2019, 36.9 million handsets were shipped in India – up 9.9% from last year.
In comparison, the premium global smartphone market collapsed 8% in the first quarter this year, with much of the decline pushed by a 20% drop in Apple’s shipments.
“India still has millions of first-time phone buyers,” said Ms Bhargava, “and many of those who have been using budget phones are read to buy something better.”
BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s upcoming visit to Russia will open up broader space for pragmatic cooperation between the two countries in the new era and boost bilateral ties, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said Monday.
At the invitation of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Li will pay an official visit to Russia from Sept. 16 to 18 and co-chair the 24th regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government with Medvedev, Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said at a press briefing.
The visit comes as the two countries are embracing the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties and ushering in a new era in their relations.
Noting that the China-Russia relationship has become more mature, stable and tenacious over the past 70 years, Le said it is now a major-country relationship featuring the highest degree of mutual trust, coordination and strategic value.
“China and Russia enjoy solid political mutual trust and firmly support each other on issues concerning core interests and major concerns, while their all-round mutually beneficial cooperation has continued to expand and their interests have been more closely interconnected,” Le said, adding that the bilateral trade volume exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars for the first time last year.
According to Le, the two countries also have close and effective communication and coordination in international affairs.
The upcoming meeting between the two countries’ heads of government will focus on two major objectives, Le said. The first is to promote the implementation of the major consensus reached by the two countries’ heads of state, deepen the integration of interests and consolidate the material basis of bilateral relations.
The second is to contribute the two countries’ wisdom to and voice their support for safeguarding multilateralism, open economy, and the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, Le said.
During the visit, Li will hold talks with Medvedev in St. Petersburg and sign a joint communique of the 24th regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government. Li will also meet with Putin in Moscow
NANNING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday pledged to enhance cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on artificial intelligence (AI).
Chen Wu, chairman of the regional government, said at the First China-ASEAN AI Summit that Guangxi will actively promote technical cooperation, trade, investment and industrial exchange in the AI sector with the ASEAN countries.
Toward this end, the region will speed up the construction of platforms for infrastructure, information sharing and technical cooperation, among others, Chen said.
Guangxi, which boasts both sea and overland links with ASEAN, is building the China-ASEAN Information Harbour to boost digital cooperation with Southeast Asia.
“The summit has sounded the clarion call for the development of AI and big data industry in Guangxi,” said Wang Jingjing, Guangxi regional director of the Chinese AI firm iFlytek.
Hailing the region’s policy and geographical advantages on ASEAN cooperation, Wang said iFlytek hopes to set up an institute on ASEAN languages in Guangxi to facilitate communication between China and ASEAN countries
Deity has all the necessary travel documents for seven-day journey bringing blessings to coastal communities
The statue of Chinese sea goddess Mazu on board the train for her seven-day tour of eastern China. Photo: Weibo
High-speed rail travellers in eastern China may find themselves in exalted company this week as one of China’s most beloved deities is on a seven-day tour.
Mazu, protector of seafarers, boarded the train at Putian in Fujian province on Friday with an entourage of 230 worshippers for one of her regular “inspection tours”. And, like any modern traveller, the sea goddess had the necessary identity card and ticket for the journey.
Mazu, known as Tin Hau in Hong Kong, began life more than 1,000 years ago as a mortal named Lin Mo, according to Chinese folk belief. As a girl she is said to have saved some of her family members when they were caught in a typhoon while out fishing. In another version of the myth, Lin Mo died while trying to rescue shipwreck victims.
She fell out of favour in mainland China during the Cultural Revolution, when her ancestral temple on Meizhou Island in the southeastern province of Fujian was destroyed to make way for a People’s Liberation Army garrison. In the late 1970s the temple was rebuilt and in 2009 the beliefs and customs surrounding Mazu were recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by Unesco.
Inspectors on China’s high speed rail will find everything in order if they ask to see the goddess Mazu’s ticket during her seven-day tour. Photo: Weibo
Staff at the Meizhou Mazu Temple applied for an ID card for the goddess, in her earthly name of Lin Mo. Tickets were also organised for two other fairy figures who traditionally protect her, according to Chinese folklore.
“Not only Mazu but Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind-Accompanying Ear were all bought tickets,” a temple representative told the Southern Metropolis News.
This is not the first time the trio have been bought travel tickets. Two years ago their airfares were paid for when they visited Malaysia and Singapore and, a year later, they took a cruise ship to the Philippines.
This year’s tour includes a visit to Kunshan in Jiangsu and Shanghai, before Mazu returns to her home temple on the island of Meizhou. At each stop, devotees believe Mazu blesses the location with her presence and protects its residents from harm.
Taiwanese tycoon Gou thanks sea goddess for presidential inspiration
The tour has been organised jointly by the Meizhou Temple as well as the Huiju Mazu Temple in Kunshan and the Lugang Mazu Temple in Taiwan.
News of the celestial train journey quickly went viral on Chinese social media, with posts on Mazu receiving 460 million views on Weibo, the Twitter-like microblogging platform, since Monday. “First, respect. Second, she takes up a seat so it’s not crazy to buy her a ticket,” one comment read.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 