Archive for ‘China alert’

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19/11/2014

Xi Jinping Visits Tasmania, Is Given (Authentic) Lavender-Filled Teddy Bear – China Real Time Report – WSJ

What does one give to China’s visiting head of state as a keepsake to mark the occasion? Angela Merkel went with an old map that had a less-than-politically correct interpretation of China’s borders. Vladimir Putin presented an example of Russia’s cutting-edge consumer technology. Nahendra Modi handed over a bound copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text, in Chinese.

Alighting from his flight to Hobart, the capital of the Australian state of Tasmania, schoolchildren presented President Xi Jinping with a lavender stuffed teddy bear (at 48 seconds). Mr. Xi didn’t appear surprised or puzzled by why he was bring presented with potpourri. Then again, Bobbie Bear is a minor celebrity in China, and has done more than anyone to put Tasmania on the map for Chinese tourists.

Mr. Xi didn’t get to visit Bridestowe Lavender Estate which produces the bears – and where he would have been limited to buying one bear only, a measure taken by the farm’s management late last year to ensure sufficient supply to satisfy the busloads of Chinese tourists. Factories in China have produced knock-offs in numbers that far exceed the farm’s own production capacity, says owner Robert Ravens, which means a visit to Tasmania is the only way to be sure the bear you buy is real.

For Tasmania, Bridestowe holds potential of what China – hungry for clean and healthy produce, and with tourists increasingly willing to travel off the beaten track – can do for a struggling economy.

On Monday, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced at a dinner for the Chinese first couple at Parliament House that Bridestowe Lavender Estate had won the inaugural Australia-China Achievement Award for entrepreneurship. The award went to the farm for its “pro-active and innovative market entry into China and promoting Tasmania as a destination for Chinese tourists.”

Mr. Xi and his wife’s taking custody of Bobbie rounds out a busy schedule of cuddling as many Australian marsupials as possible. And while Bobbie might not have the same novelty value as Australia’s menu of unique fauna, it’s likely the only one the first couple will be taking home with them.

via Xi Jinping Visits Tasmania, Is Given (Authentic) Lavender-Filled Teddy Bear – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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13/11/2014

China, U.S. agree limits on emissions, but experts see little new | Reuters

China and the United States agreed on Wednesday to new limits on carbon emissions starting in 2025, but the pledge by the world’s two biggest polluters appears to be more politically significant than substantive.

U.S. (L) and Chinese national flags flutter on a light post at the Tiananmen Square ahead of a welcoming ceremony for U.S. President Barack Obama, in Beijing, November 12, 2014. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic

As China’s President Xi Jinping agreed to a date for peak CO2 emissions for the first time and also promised to raise the share of zero-carbon energy to 20 percent of the country’s total, President Barack Obama said the United States would cut its own emissions by more than a quarter by 2025.

via China, U.S. agree limits on emissions, but experts see little new | Reuters.

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13/11/2014

China offers ASEAN friendship treaty as South China Sea tension bubbles | Reuters

China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang proposed a “friendship” treaty with Southeast Asian countries on Thursday but reiterated that territorial disputes in the South China Sea should be settled directly between the countries involved.

(L-R) Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, China's Premier Li Keqiang, Myanmar's President Thein Sein, U.S. President Barack Obama, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak and Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev pose for a photo before the East Asia Summit (EAS) plenary session during the ASEAN Summit in Naypyitaw November 13, 2014. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

China, Taiwan and four Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have competing claims in the sea where concern is growing of an escalation in disputes even as the claimants work to establish agreements to resolve them.

“China … stands ready to become the first dialogue partner to sign with ASEAN a treaty of friendship and cooperation,” Li told leaders at a summit of East Asian countries in Myanmar.

The treaty is seen as an attempt by Beijing to dispel any notion it is a threat.

Li added China was willing to sign legal documents with more countries in the region on good-neighborliness and friendship.

Still, the Chinese premier reiterated Beijing’s resolve to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and its position that disputes concerning the South China Sea should be settled directly rather than collectively or through arbitration.

The competing maritime claims have formed an undercurrent of tension at the East Asian and ASEAN summits in Myanmar this week.

The Philippines, one of the ASEAN claimants, has previously irked Beijing by seeking international arbitration over China’s claims to about 90 percent of the South China Sea.

Diplomatic sources from the Philippines reacted coolly to China’s treaty proposal, saying that it lacked substance and was similar to a 2012 proposal made by Manila and ignored by Beijing.

Li will meet the heads of ASEAN countries behind closed doors later on Thursday, with Southeast Asian leaders hoping to persuade their giant neighbor to take a less bellicose approach to overlapping claims in the South China Sea.

The Philippines and Vietnam have sought closer U.S. ties to counter what they see as China’s aggression in the region.

via China offers ASEAN friendship treaty as South China Sea tension bubbles | Reuters.

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11/11/2014

Chinese Workers Get Nice Raises but Japanese Get Stiffed – Businessweek

American workers aren’t the only ones wondering when they’ll finally be getting a raise. In Japan, companies benefiting from the weak yen are enjoying record profits, but they’re still reluctant to agree to significant wage increases for their workers. In a survey of expected 2015 salary increases in 17 Asian countries, Japan comes in second-to-last, according to human resources consulting company ECA International. Only Macau, the Chinese gambling enclave hit by high inflation, will do worse.

Car manufacturing in Wuhan, China

Even what appears to be good news turns out to leave households struggling. Last week, the Japanese government announced average monthly wages increased 0.5 percent in September. While that was the best performance in more than six years, workers shouldn’t get too excited. After adjusting for price increases, total cash earnings (including bonuses and overtime payments) fell for the 15th consecutive month, dropping 2.9 percent.

Until recently, Japanese workers could at least rely on deflation to provide a boost to their earnings. But with the yen falling, taxes rising, and the Bank of Japan starting a new round of stimulus, that’s no longer the case. “With deflation going on, actually people were much better off than they were in previous years,” Lee Quane, ECA regional director for Asia, told Bloomberg TV on Monday. Now, however, “because of the impact of the consumption tax increases and other inflationary impacts, actually workers aren’t going to be very well off in 2015 vs. this year.”

via Chinese Workers Get Nice Raises but Japanese Get Stiffed – Businessweek.

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11/11/2014

For APEC, Beijing Briefly Cleans Up Its Skies, but Can’t Help the Sewage – Businessweek

Beijing has, once again, cleaned up the air to impress the foreign dignitaries visiting for this week’s APEC summit. The phenomenon is so predictable that there’s even a new phrase on Chinese social media, “APEC blue,” used to refer to something that is beautiful or enticing, but also fleeting. As in, “He’s not that into you, it’s just APEC blue.”

A riverbank in Beijing

Yet while China’s government can order factories in and near Beijing to shut down for about a week to clear the skies, it can’t as quickly clean up the capital’s dirty urban waterways. A new investigation by the newspaper Economic Information highlights one nasty but lingering problem in Beijing and other large Chinese cities: lack of adequate sewage treatment facilities.

Xiong Jianxin, an official in Beijing’s municipal water bureau, told the newspaper that some sewage plants on the outskirts of the capital are easily overwhelmed. While plants are built to handle up to 550,000 tons of water daily, at peak times they send as many as 100,000 tons of unprocessed sewage daily back into rivers or channels. Officials in several other large cities shared similar horror stories.

via For APEC, Beijing Briefly Cleans Up Its Skies, but Can’t Help the Sewage – Businessweek.

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11/11/2014

COMAC signs deal for 30 C919 jets with China Merchants Bank: source | Reuters

Chinese state-owned plane maker Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) has signed an initial agreement to sell 30 of its C919 single-aisle commercial jets to the financial leasing arm of China Merchants Bank (600036.SS), a person with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters on Tuesday.

The nose of China's home-grown airliner C919 is unveiled in Chengdu, Sichuan province, July 31, 2014. REUTERS/China Daily

The order, sealed at China’s premier air industry trade show in Zhuhai, lifts COMAC’s order book for the C919 to 430, mostly from domestic companies. Still in development, the C919 will be the first Chinese-built jet of its type, targeted at eventually competing with Boeing Co (BA.N) and Airbus Group NV (AIR.PA).

Financial terms of the order weren’t disclosed.

via COMAC signs deal for 30 C919 jets with China Merchants Bank: source | Reuters.

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11/11/2014

Airbus aims to double China component sourcing value to $1 billion by 2020 | Reuters

European jet maker Airbus Group NV (AIR.PA) aims to double the annual value of aircraft components it sources from China to $1 billion by 2020, the firm’s China Chief Operating Officer, Rafael Gonzalez-Ripoll-Garzon, said on Tuesday.

A flight test engineer holds an Airbus Group flag after the first flight of the Airbus A320neo (New Engine Option) in Colomiers near Toulouse, southwestern France, September 25, 2014. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

The Airbus executive’s comment, made on the sidelines of China’s premier airshow in Zhuhai, came as the European firm’s chief rival Boeing (BA.N) said it’s also seeking to ramp up China component sourcing.

Kent Fisher, Boeing Commercial Airplane’s vice-president and general manager of supplier management, said that over the next few years his company is looking to double the $2 billion worth of aircraft parts it has sourced from China in total over the last 30 years. Fisher was speaking at a separate press briefing at the air show and didn’t provide further details.

Boeing also said it had signed a deal with Aviation Industry Corporation of China to produce composite tail parts for the Boeing 777 program, beginning in 2017.

Airbus and Boeing have been competing fiercely in China, which will need over 6,020 new planes worth $870 million the next 20 years, according to Boeing’s latest forecast.

Both have been increasing their sourcing in China, using locally made composite materials and parts like emergency doors in aircraft like the Airbus A330 and Boeing B787 jets.

via Airbus aims to double China component sourcing value to $1 billion by 2020 | Reuters.

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11/11/2014

China unveils sophisticated stealth fighter aircraft | Reuters

China unveiled a sophisticated new stealth fighter jet at an air show on Tuesday, a show of muscle during a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama for an Asia-Pacific summit.

A J-31 stealth fighter of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force is seen during a test flight ahead of the 10th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, November 10, 2014. REUTERS/Alex Lee

China hopes the much-anticipated J-31 stealth aircraft, developed by the Aviation Industry Corp of China (Avic), the country’s top aircraft maker, will compete with U.S.-made hardware in export markets.

The twin-engine fighter jet was unveiled at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in the southern city of Zhuhai, an annual event at which China shows off its military technology, a Reuters witness said.

The J-31 conducted a demonstration but was not put on display afterwards although a mock-up version was on show.

via China unveils sophisticated stealth fighter aircraft | Reuters.

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10/11/2014

Xi Jinping’s Ice-Cold Handshake With Japan’s Shinzo Abe – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Well, it’s a start.

Photo

After years of tensions over disputed territory, disputed history and visits to a certain shrine, China and Japan drew closer to establishing a more functional diplomatic relationship with a handshake on Monday between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing.

As the video above suggests, the encounter was a tad on the chilly side, with Mr. Xi apparently refusing to return his counterpart’s greeting and looking throughout the photo op as if he’d rather be shaking hands with one of the goats that are said to be stripping the aforementioned disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands of their scant vegetation.

As WSJ’s Yuka Hayashi reports, however, a subsequent sit-down between the two leaders appears to have been somewhat more productive:

Speaking to reporters shortly after the meeting, Mr. Abe said, “I believe Japan and China took the first step toward improving our relationship as we go back to the principle of mutually beneficial strategic relations.”

The meeting, in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, lasted just short of 30 minutes. It followed weeks of intense, behind-the-scenes negotiations, as officials from Asia’s two biggest economies sought to arrange for Messrs. Abe and Xi to get together on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

…“I am aware that our neighbors in Asia and many countries beyond had been hoping to see dialogue between Japanese and Chinese leaders,” Mr. Abe said. “We were able to respond to such wishes and begin taking steps toward repairing our ties.”

China and Japan had earlier issued a surprise announcement that they planned a gradual resumption of diplomatic and security dialogues, though each side translated the text of the agreement in ways that made it look like the other had folded. That subtle sniping continued on Monday, when China’s official Xinhua news agency emphasized that the meeting between Messrs. Xi and Abe came “at the request of the Japanese side” — a message Mr. Xi’s expression during Monday’s handshake helped reinforce.

It wasn’t the first time onlookers have felt a chilly blast when the prime minister of Japan met China’s president. In November 2010, for example. then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan met then-Chinese President Hu Jintao. The meeting saw a few arms-length handshakes exchanged. Mr. Kan read out his greetings to Mr. Hu from a memo. A Chinese fishing trawler had collided with a Japan coast guard boat that September near disputed islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

via Watch: Xi Jinping’s Ice-Cold Handshake With Japan’s Shinzo Abe – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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10/11/2014

China, Vietnam willing to handle maritime issues through dialogue | Reuters

China and Vietnam have agreed to handle maritime disputes through dialogue, Chinese state media reported on Monday, months after ties between the two countries hit a three-decade low in a row over a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters.

Photo

The two Communist neighbors must respect each other and focus on long-term interests, President Xi Jinping said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

“Sino-Vietnamese relations have been advancing continuously since the two nations established diplomatic relations, despite some twists and turns,” he said.

Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang said his country was ready to “properly deal with maritime issues through friendly consultation so that the issues will not affect its relations with China”, according to Xinhua.

via China, Vietnam willing to handle maritime issues through dialogue | Reuters.

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