Archive for ‘China alert’

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02/02/2013

* China’s Environmental Protection Racket

WSJ: “Beijing’s choke-inducing air – which blanketed the city for nearly a week before being cleared away by a bout of sorely-needed wind on Friday — prompted Premier Wen Jiabao to call for action to protect the environment and public health.

If the premier and his colleagues can see through the smog on the policy front, they might consider something that has been all but overshadowed by the capital’s plight: the sorry track record of the environmental watchdog in little Nantong in east China’s Jiangsu province.

The problems in Nantong are a tale of environmental protection gone seriously wrong in a country where money clearly talks. They may also be small but critical components of an increasingly toxic environment.

According to a series of newspaper reports, online versions of which appear to have vanished into the country’s not-so-thin air, more than 30 environmental and other officials from the Nantong area were implicated in a scandal that involves bribery and turning a blind eye to pollution problems. Thanks to the reporting of the Shanghai-based China Business News (in Chinese here and here), it’s now fairly clear that Nantong environmental officials were running something closer to an environmental protection racket.

The newspaper, which had been following the story since the summer of last year, reported earlier this month that the scandal had reached the highest level of the local environmental protection bureau. Contacted by the Wall Street Journal, an official with the Nantong Environmental Protection Bureau was unable to elaborate beyond the official posting on the Nantong discipline inspection committee’s website, which stated that former bureau director Lu Boxin was found guilty of accepting bribes and sentenced to 12 years in prison (in Chinese).

This brief report, posted under the banner headline of “Study the Spirit of the 18th Communist Party Congress, Promote and Deepen the Anti-corruption Campaign and the Building of Clean Government,” said that the bribes were taken on more than one occasion.”

via China’s Environmental Protection Racket – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/economic-factors/greening-of-china/

Posted in China alert, Consumer protection, corruption, Economics, Environment, Green, Illegal practices, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

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02/02/2013

* Earl Grey descendants sell English tea to China

Taking coal to Newcastle and tea to China!

Reuters: “An estate owned by descendants of the 19th century British aristocrat for whom Earl Grey tea was named is turning history on its head by selling English tea to China.

Wesley Goldsworthy picks tea leaves at the Tregothnan Estate near Truro in Cornwall January 14, 2013. REUTERS-Stefan Wermuth

The Tregothnan estate in the southwestern English county of Cornwall started selling tea from its tiny plantation in 2005 and last year produced about 10 metric tons (11.023 tons) of tea and infusions.

Although a drop in the ocean of global tea production, which the UK Tea Council estimated to be about 4.3 million metric tons, Tregothnan has found a niche for its products by trading on England’s historical reputation as a nation of tea-lovers.

“It’s unique. There’s no one else who’s growing tea in England and putting English tea on the market,” owner Evelyn Boscawen told Reuters.

The long history of immersing tea leaves in hot water for a refreshing drink is not lost on the son of the current Viscount Falmouth and a descendant of British Prime Minister Charles Grey, for whom the bergamot-flavored Earl Grey tea is named and whose Reform Act of 1832 sowed the seeds of modern parliamentary democracy and universal suffrage in Britain.

Chinese tea has been coming to Britain since the East India Company first imported it in the 17th century for consumption by wealthy aristocrats.

By the Victorian era, taking tea had become a regular ritual at almost every level of society from elaborate afternoon tea for the rich in country houses to tea and gruel for the working poor as depicted by author Charles Dickens.

But the Boscawens at Tregothnan are bucking the historic trend of tea flowing from East to West by beginning to export some of their wares to China and elsewhere.

“We do see China as an opportunity at the moment,” Boscawen said. “The Chinese are great lovers of buying exotic things from all over the world. Even if it might have come from China (originally).”

Tea, native to Asia, is not traditionally grown in Britain but can be cultivated outdoors at Tregothnan, which is situated in England’s southwest and benefits from an unusual microclimate similar to that of Darjeeling in India.

Less similar to India is the tiny scale of production at Tregothnan, which might be large enough to be considered a small Darjeeling tea garden, the English estate’s commercial and garden director Jonathan Jones said.

“We went into this right from the outset as being able to put the English into English tea,” Jones said. “We weren’t ever looking at being the new India or China, that’s ridiculous.””

via Earl Grey descendants sell English tea to China | Reuters.

See also: For all the Tea in China by Sarah Rose: the smuggling of and transplanting tea from China into India took several years to effect though eventually, British tastes turned to Indian tea in preference to Chinese tea.

 

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02/02/2013

* Coming of age: China’s used car market outpaces new sales growth

This also means that tyre companies will be selling tyres to replace the original sets.  Invest in rubber company shares!

Reuters: “Used car sales in China grew faster than new car sales for a second straight year in 2012, and should account for half of all sales within seven years as the world’s biggest autos market matures.

People select automobiles at a second-hand market in Shenyang, Liaoning province December 10, 2011. REUTERS/Sheng Li

While new cars still outsold used vehicles by more than 3 to 1 last year, they are sputtering after a period of breakneck growth, and the potential for the pre-owned market to be the industry’s growth engine is prompting foreign automakers to open more used-car outlets.

A key target for them are buyers like Jiang Meng, a 32-year-old office worker in the southeastern city of Guangzhou, who this month went shopping for a sport utility vehicle, and hadn’t considered a second-hand car until she came across a used car dealer run by Nissan Motor Co’s (7201.T) local joint venture.

“I wanted an SUV, but I wasn’t sure of getting a used one until I stepped into the store. There are so many models and they offer a warranty,” said Jiang, who traded in her 2-year-old Nissan Tiida sedan for a 4-year old silver Qashqai. The deal cost her 25,000 yuan ($4,000). A new Qashqai is priced at around 189,000 yuan.

“The car was very clean inside and outside and it drives very well. Many of my friends thought it’s new,” she said.”

via Coming of age: China’s used car market outpaces new sales growth | Reuters.

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02/02/2013

* Venezuela seeks $4 billion China loan, $2 billion Chevron credit

Reuters: “Venezuela‘s government and state oil company PDVSA are in urgent talks over a long-expected $6 billion in loans from China and U.S. energy giant Chevron that would help relieve the nation’s strained finances, sources close to the discussions said.

Workers stand in front of a drilling rig at an oil well operated by Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA in Morichal July 28, 2011. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said this week that PDVSA had no plans to issue any more dollar-denominated bonds, confounding widespread speculation that one was planned to address a chronic shortage of dollars for local businesses.

That has left the government in the OPEC member seeking other forms of financing, amid pressure to order a devaluation of its currency that would ease the pressure on its cash flow by providing more bolivars for every dollar of oil sales.

Its top priority is a deal agreed last year with China Development Bank for a $4 billion loan this year.

Venezuela has borrowed $36 billion from China in recent years – repaid with oil shipments – making Beijing the single biggest foreign source of funding for the country’s socialist government, according to finance ministry data.

But a source close to the talks told Reuters that the Chinese team wanted to toughen the terms of the deal.

“The Chinese have introduced a clause that the Venezuela team decided to reject,” the source said, without describing the proposed change. “That was holding things up until recently, but they are coming to an agreement on the amendment.””

via Exclusive: Venezuela seeks $4 billion China loan, $2 billion Chevron credit – sources | Reuters.

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31/01/2013

* Less is more at annual meets

China Daily: “Fewer staff, shorter speeches, modest dinners and less printing ― meetings of local legislators and political advisers across China are getting slimmer, simpler and greener.

Less is more at annual meets

Having cut down on the number of staff members involved in the Shanghai People’s Congress by 20 percent from last year’s meeting, the organizer also reduced spending on food and accessories.

“The budget for the first meeting of the 14th Shanghai People’s Congress was nearly 18 percent lower than last year,” said Ni Yinliang, a senior officer of the organizing office of the congress.

The suggested length of speeches is eight minutes in most regions of the country.

“I’ve noticed that the majority of deputies gave shorter speeches in discussions with better quality advice, which enables us to finish the meetings on time and leaves more time to submit our written comments and proposals,” said Zhuang Shaoqin, a Shanghai lawmaker and head of the city’s Fengxian district.

Similarly in Shanxi province, the number of attendees for this year’s two sessions decreased by 144 and the number of staff members was cut by 295, and the length of the congress was reduced from eight days to six and half days, said Ma Wei, director of the organization department of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference‘s Shanxi committee.

Decorations for meetings across the country have been simplified.

Fewer fresh flowers were seen, and red carpets were not rolled out to welcome meeting participants in many regions including Shanghai and Guizhou province.

Shanghai and Shanxi suggested participants use public transport and arranged 15 direct shuttles to travel between subway stations and meeting venues.

No police cars were deployed to escort vehicles carrying meeting participants, and traffic was not suspended to make way for them.

“I’ve taken the subway since the first day of the congress, and I’ve found a great many of deputies have done the same thing in the past four days,” said Wu Jiang, a Shanghai lawmaker.

Many provinces and cities are using online systems to reduce printing.

Shanghai continued its operation of the online submitting system and sent out e-copies of documents to the deputies instead of printing them out.

Wu added that he is very satisfied with the online submitting system of written comments and proposals, which is convenient and saves energy and resources.

The online system has also been applied in other places including Tianjin and Guizhou.

In Tianjin, more lawmakers and political advisers have become aware of using both sides of a piece of paper while taking notes, people.com.cn reported.

In addition, dining expenses have been reduced.

The organizer of Shanghai People’s Congress session offered only six hot dishes served buffet style.

“The buffet allows us to choose what we like and avoid the unnecessary waste of food, which is a very wise decision,” said Shanghai lawmaker Zhuang.

In Guizhou, meeting participants are served with hot water instead of tea.

“Replacing the tea with hot water will definitely minimize the costs of labor and materials,” said Wang Shaoer, a member of the provincial political advisory body.

Hebei province has come up with another way to save resources.

Passes that are valid for five years were given to deputies and committee members.

Passes will be kept by the organizers after the first-year congress and be reused for the following four years. Lawmakers and political advisers serve five-year terms. They used to be given a new pass each year.”

via Less is more at annual meets |Politics |chinadaily.com.cn.

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30/01/2013

I wonder if the map is complete. It seems to indicate there are no major military units to the West of 100 degrees East, namely none in Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai and Gansu; nor any in the far north, namely none in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang. Some Muslims in Xinjiang and Tibetans in Tibet, Qinghai and Gansu have been known to be anti-central government. And, in the past, there have been confrontations with Russian army units up north.

Of course, I am forgetting the 1.5m People’s Armed Police.  Maybe that’s where they are mainly posted.

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30/01/2013

* Panicked property fire sale in China amid corruption fight

Sydney Morning Herald: “Thousands of Chinese communist officials have been panicked into a fire sale of their illicit properties and billions of pounds have been smuggled overseas as the country’s new leaders intensify a campaign to root out corruption.

Corruption-fighter Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan in Beijing, China.

Luxurious properties are being dumped on the market in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for anyone able to pay in cash as officials try to cover their tracks. A report by the party’s anti-corruption unit, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said “a wave of luxury home sales began last November and has accelerated since December”.

It said the volume of deals had intensified by “a hundred times” after Xi Jinping, the incoming Chinese president, warned that corruption could kill the party and put one of the country’s most vigorous and resolute politicians, Wang Qishan, in charge of stamping out graft.

Fu Zongmo, an estate agent in Sanya, Hainan, said his colleagues had sold two houses recently for government officials. In recent years, the tropical beaches and golf courses of Sanya have attracted plenty of speculators but recently the market has stalled.”

via Panicked property fire sale in China amid corruption fight.

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27/01/2013

* China could prove ultimate winner in Afghanistan

SCMP: “China, long a bystander to the conflict in Afghanistan, is stepping up its involvement as US-led forces prepare to withdraw, attracted by the country’s vast mineral resources but concerned that any post-next year chaos could embolden Islamist insurgents in its own territory.

chiafgh.jpg

Cheered on by the US and other Western governments, which see Asia’s giant as a potentially stabilising force, China could prove the ultimate winner in Afghanistan – having shed no blood and not much aid.

Security – or the lack of it – remains the key challenge: Chinese enterprises have already bagged three multibillion dollar investment projects, but they won’t be able to go forward unless conditions get safer. While the Chinese do not appear ready to rush into any vacuum left by the withdrawal of foreign troops, a definite shift towards a more hands-on approach to Afghanistan is under way.

China is the only actor who can foot the level of investment needed in Afghanistan to make it succeed and stick it out

Beijing signed a strategic partnership last summer with the war-torn country. This was followed in September with a trip to Kabul by its top security official, the first by a leading Chinese government figure in 46 years, and the announcement that China would train 300 Afghan police officers. China is also showing signs of willingness to help negotiate a peace agreement as Nato prepares to pull out in two years.

It’s a new role for China, as its growing economic might gives it a bigger stake in global affairs. Success, though far from guaranteed, could mean a big payoff for a country hungry for resources to sustain its economic growth and eager to maintain stability in Xinjiang.

“If you are able to see a more or less stable situation in Afghanistan, if it becomes another relatively normal Central Asian state, China will be the natural beneficiary,” says Andrew Small, a China expert at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, an American research institute. “If you look across Central Asia, that is what has already happened. … China is the only actor who can foot the level of investment needed in Afghanistan to make it succeed and stick it out.””

via China could prove ultimate winner in Afghanistan | South China Morning Post.

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27/01/2013

* Grandparents without borders

Another aspect of the on-going migrant workers issue that needs resolving by the government soon – before it blows up in their faces.

China Daily: “Migrant grandparents who leave their homes to live in the cities and take care of their children’s children are a growing demographic. Liu Zhihua highlights changes they have to face in adapting to their new lifestyles.

Grandparents without borders

In villages across China, grandparents have set aside their dreams of retirement to raise children left behind by their reluctant parents, who migrate to the cities in pursuit of making more money than at home. At a totally different level up the economic pyramid, in urban households, grandparents are now migrating from their homes to take care of their grandchildren in cities hundreds and thousands of miles away – as families scatter across a rapidly transforming China. Their children need to work, and are reluctant to hire a full-time babysitter, either due to distrust of a stranger, preference for family, or financial restraints.

As a result, grandparents, especially grandmothers, shoulder the responsibility of being primary caregivers, when they could be at their leisure after retirement.

But it’s not always easy to adapt, especially at what may be a relatively advanced age.

While staying in Shanghai last year to take care of her pregnant daughter, and later, her newly born grandson, Deng Chengying, 55, felt as if she was in a prison.

Xiong Jiayi enjoys quality time with his grandmother. [Provided to China Daily]

The Jingzhou native of Hubei province doesn’t understand the Shanghai dialect, but in the community where the family lives, nearly all the elderly neighbors speak only Shanghai dialect.

Deng does have one frequent visitor, a friendly old woman who is an empty nester , but conversation is difficult because she speaks only the Shanghai dialect.

If it wasn’t for the traders in the morning market speaking Mandarin, Deng would have few opportunities to speak her native tongue with those in her community.

When her daughter and son-in-law go to work and the housework is finished, she generally stays in the apartment and plays online games.

“I’m so thrilled I just jump if I meet someone whose language I understand,” Deng once confided to her relatives at home in Jingzhou during a phone call.”

via Grandparents without borders |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.

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Posted in Ageing population, China alert, Economics, Migrant workers | 2 Comments »

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27/01/2013

* China’s mobile phone users reach 1.11 billion

China Daily: “The number of Chinese mobile phone users reached 1.11 billion as of the end of 2012, according to official data unveiled Thursday.

China's mobile phone users reach 1.11 billion

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a statement that mobile phone users represent 80 percent of all phones users in the country.

A farmer in Huojiatai village, Yongdeng county, Northwest China’s Gansu province, receives a text message on his phone from the local agricultural technician about growing vegetables, Jan 22, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

The number of mobile phones owned by every 100 people reached 82.6 by the end of 2012, up by nine from a year earlier, according to the statement.

Last year, the country recorded 125.9 million new mobile phone users, among whom 104.38 million were 3G mobile phone users, bringing the total number of 3G users to 232.8 million, the MIIT said.

The ministry said the number of Internet users rose by 51 million to 564 million people, among whom 74.5 percent, or 420 million people, surf the Internet with their mobile phones.

The Internet penetration rate reached 42.1 percent by the end of last year, up 3.8 percentage points from a year earlier.”

via China’s mobile phone users reach 1.11 billion |Economy |chinadaily.com.cn.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/economic-factors/information-technology/

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