Archive for ‘China alert’

17/09/2012

* Foshan driver jailed in toddler hit-and-run case

BBC News: “A man who knocked down a toddler in a hit-and-run case that caused outrage in China has been jailed for three-and-a-half years, state media say.

Hu Jun hit two-year-old Wang Yue on 13 October last year in the southern city of Foshan and drove off.

Security camera footage showed 18 pedestrians and cyclists failing to stop as they passed the little girl lying in the road.

A woman finally came to her aid but the girl died in hospital a few days later.

The report, by Xinhua news agency, said Hu was convicted of “involuntary homicide” by a Foshan court.

He thought he had hit something but did not stop to check, the agency said, citing a court statement.

He received a lenient sentence because he surrendered himself to police and paid part of the toddler’s medical expenses, it said.

The accident prompted a public outcry about morality in the country and a discussion about why those who passed by did not stop to help.

The rubbish collector who did help the little girl, Chen Xianmei, was later named a “national role model”.

The BBC’s John Sudworth in Shanghai says a spate of cases in which injured people sued their rescuers is said to have led to people in China being too frightened to intervene.

But some commentators wonder whether China’s rapid development and urbanisation has undermined old moral certainties, suggesting that new legislation is, at best, only part of the solution, he adds.”

via BBC News – Foshan driver jailed in toddler hit-and-run case.

17/09/2012

* United States to File W.T.O. Case Against China Over Cars

NY Times: “The Obama administration plans to file a broad trade case at the World Trade Organization in Geneva on Monday accusing China of unfairly subsidizing its exports of autos and auto parts, a senior administration official said late Sunday, in a move with clear political implications for the presidential elections less than two months away.

The W.T.O. case accuses China of providing at least $1 billion worth of subsidies from 2009 to 2011 for exports of autos and auto parts. While China exports virtually no fully assembled cars to the United States, it has rapidly expanded exports to developing countries, and those exports compete to some extent with cars exported or designed in the United States.

President Obama plans to announce the move on Monday during a visit to Ohio, one of the most important of the battleground states and a place where the president is trying to capitalize on his bailout of the auto industry. A poll by NBC News, The Wall Street Journal and Marist College last week showed Mr. Obama building a significant lead in Ohio.”

via United States to File W.T.O. Case Against China Over Cars – NYTimes.com.

15/09/2012

* Thousands protest against Japan’s ‘island purchase’

China Daily: “Protests against Japanese government’s move to “purchase” and “nationalize” the Diaoyu Islands continued outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Friday.

Plain-clothes police officers instruct demonstrators to move during a protest outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing September 14, 2012. REUTERS-David Gray

Protesters started to gather in front of the embassy compound in the morning. By 6 pm, more than 5,000 people including wheel-chaired elderly and kids had taken part in the protests.

Police told the protesters in advance to be rational in their protests.

Also on Friday, about 100 people protested against Japan in Tengchong, a city in the southwestern province of Yunnan, while attending a public memorial for soldiers killed during the anti-Japanese war in the 1940s.

The protestors waved China’s national flags and shouted slogans including “Do not forget national humiliation, safeguard sovereignty, and Diaoyu Islands are China’s territory.”

During the anti-Japanese war, Japanese forces occupied Tengchong for two years and committed appalling crimes there.

via Thousands protest against Japan’s ‘island purchase’ |Politics |chinadaily.com.cn.

15/09/2012

* Home Depot closes stores as it shifts focus

Home Depot closes stores as it shifts focusChina Daily: “Home Depot Inc, the largest home-improvement retailer in the United States, said it is closing its remaining seven big box stores in China as it shifts its focus to specialty and online outlets in the world’s second-largest economy.

The move will affect about 850 employees, and the company will record an after-tax charge of about $160 million, or 10 cents per diluted share, in the third quarter, it said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Employees of Home Depot gather outside the company’s Xi’an store on Friday as the home-improvement retailer declared that it will close all its seven stores in China. [Photo/China Daily]

“Closing stores is always a difficult decision,” said Frank Blake, the company’s chairman and CEO. “We’ve learned a great deal over the last six years in China, and our new approach leverages that experience.”

The company said it will keep its two recently launched specialty outlets – a paint and flooring store and a home decoration shop – in Tianjin.

It is also in talks with several Chinese e-commerce websites to explore selling its products online, it said, a combination believed to be more adequate to Chinese customers’ needs and shopping preferences.

The Atlanta-based seller of building materials and home-improvement products will also keep its R&D team in China, as well as the 170 workers in its sourcing offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen, the statement said.

Home Depot has 2,249 retail stores in operation globally. Excluding the charges related to the store closures, Home Depot expects its fiscal 2012 diluted earnings per share to rise 19 percent to $2.95 for the year.

The company’s success story in the global market did not translate well in China, where the do-it-yourself home decoration-retailing concept has failed to inspire Chinese homeowners, industry analysts said.

The US company acquired a local peer, The Home Way, in 2006 and took over its 12 outlets in China. However, it has closed five outlets since 2009. The company has also replaced three top executives since its establishment in the country, a move that did not alter its sales decline.

Though specialized home-improvement retail is an upcoming trend, Home Depot arrived in China too early, at a time when the country’s decoration culture and consumption behaviors were not ready for the concept, said Chen Lei, a retail analyst at China Galaxy Securities. Despite the construction boom, the low labor costs made the DIY decoration concept irrelevant, he said.

Chinese homeowners rarely paint houses or lay out wooden floors themselves. Rather, they prefer to hire decoration companies, which often find products with more competitive prices from local building material stores, Chen said.

In addition, the company’s strengths in the United States, including its lower prices due to its global sourcing channels, have been diluted in China.

“You can always find local brands that are cheaper, and consumers in various regions have very different preferences,” Chen said. “Winning the market through a price war is not going to work for a foreign retailer in China.””

via Home Depot closes stores as it shifts focus |Companies |chinadaily.com.cn.

06/09/2012

* China to spend massively on farmland improvement

Xinhua: “The government will spend 37.36 billion yuan(about 5.93 billion U.S. dollars) to improve the quality of farmland this year, the Ministry of Finance said Thursday.

The fund, which is a part of the country’s comprehensive agricultural development plan, includes 21.92 billion yuan from the central budget and 12.05 billion yuan from local budgets, the ministry said.

The government plans to improve the quality of 15.47 million mu (1.03 million hectares) of medium- and low-yield land and build 13.31 million mu of high-quality farmland by the end of 2012, said the ministry.

The government will also support improvements for 45 water-saving projects in medium-sized irrigation districts, said the ministry.

The projects will add or improve irrigation on 25.82 million mu of land, aiming to increase agricultural production capacity, it said.”

via China to spend massively on farmland improvement – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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06/09/2012

* China Approves 25 Subway Projects

WSJ: “China has recently approved 25 subway projects by local governments, data from the country’s top economic planning agency show, as part of the central government’s efforts to boost sluggish growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

The National Development and Reform Commission has approved a total of 710.8 billion yuan ($112.1 billion) worth of investments by 18 local governments to build city subways, according to statements posted on its website Wednesday.

Most of the approvals came between June and August, according to the NDRC. The projects are expected to have an average construction time of 4.6 years, with local governments providing 40% of the funding.

Beijing has significantly accelerated approvals for new infrastructure projects by local governments as it seeks a range of avenues to jump-start growth, which slowed to a more-than-three-year-low of 7.6% in the second quarter. Recently-released key economic data from the manufacturing, trade and industrial sectors added to the gloom.

Nomura economist Zhang Zhiwei said the recent number of city subways approved was comparable with the 23 approved in early 2009, when the government unleashed a 4 trillion yuan stimulus package.

“This news suggests that the pace of fiscal policy easing has picked up,” Mr. Zhang said.”

via China Approves 25 Subway Projects – WSJ.com.

China is at it again, using infrastructure spend to boost the economy. At least this time its aimed a specific need, easing urban traffic and speeding urban travellers.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/economic-factors/chinas-infrastructure/

06/09/2012

* Beijing Updates Parables, ‘The 24 Paragons of Filial Piety’

NY Times: “Reading it now, six centuries after Guo Jujing wrote this paean to parental devotion, “The 24 Paragons of Filial Piety” comes off as a collection of scary bedtime stories. There is the woman who cut out her own liver to feed her sick mother, the boy who sat awake shirtless all night to draw mosquitoes away from his slumbering parents and the man who sold himself into servitude to pay for a father’s funeral.

While the parables are even more familiar to most Chinese than Grimms’ Fairy Tales are to Americans — the text remains a mainstay of educational curriculum here — they have understandably lost much of their motivational punch.

But when the government, in an effort to address the book’s glaring obsolescence, issued an updated version last month in the hope that the book would encourage more Chinese to turn away from their increasingly self-centered ways and perhaps phone home once in a while, it wasn’t quite prepared for the backlash.

Compared with its predecessor, the new book brims with down-to-earth suggestions for keeping parents happy in their golden years. Readers are urged to teach them how to surf the Internet, take Mom to a classic film and buy health insurance for retired parents.

“Family is the nucleus of society,” intoned Cui Shuhui, the director of the All-China Women’s Federation, which, along with the China National Committee on Aging, published the new guidelines after two years of interviews with older Chinese. “We need family in order to advance Chinese society and improve our economic situation.”

So far, those good intentions appear to have prompted mostly ridicule. But they have also unintentionally kicked up a debate on whether the government, not overextended children, should be looking after China’s ballooning population of retirees.

In a fast-aging nation where hundreds of millions of people have left their former homes in the countryside in search of jobs, “The New 24 Paragons of Filial Piety” strikes many as nearly as out of touch with the problems of modern China as the old parables.”

via Beijing Updates Parables, ‘The 24 Paragons of Filial Piety’ – NYTimes.com.

See also: China’s aging population

05/09/2012

* Guangzhou Moves to Limit New Cars

NY Times: “It is as startling as if Detroit or Los Angeles restricted car ownership.

The municipal government of Guangzhou, a sprawling metropolis that is one of China’s biggest auto manufacturing centers, introduced license plate auctions and lotteries last week that will roughly halve the number of new cars on the streets.

The crackdown by China’s third-largest city is the most restrictive in a series of moves by big Chinese cities that are putting quality-of-life issues ahead of short-term economic growth, something the central government has struggled to do on a national scale.

The measures have the potential to help clean up China’s notoriously dirty air and water, reduce long-term health care costs and improve the long-term quality of Chinese growth. But they are also imposing short-term costs, economists say, at a time when policy makers in Beijing and around the world are already concerned about a sharp economic slowdown in China.

“Of course from the government’s point of view, we give up some growth, but to achieve better health for all citizens, it is definitely worth it,” said Chen Haotian, the vice director of Guangzhou’s top planning agency.

Nanjing and Hangzhou in east-central China are moving to require cleaner gas and diesel. Cities near the coast, from Dongguan and Shenzhen in southeastern China to Wuxi and Suzhou in the middle and Beijing in the north, are pushing out polluting factories. And Xi’an and Urumqi in northwestern China are banning and scrapping cars built before 2005, when automotive emissions rules were less stringent.

“There’s a recognition finally that growth at all costs is not sustainable,” said Ben Simpfendorfer, the managing director of Silk Road Associates, a Hong Kong consulting firm.

Facing public pressure to address traffic jams and pollution, municipal governments from across China have been sending delegations to Guangzhou. But the national government in Beijing is pushing back against further car restrictions because of worries about the huge auto industry, said An Feng, a senior adviser in Beijing to transportation policy makers.

“This has really become a battle,” Mr. An said.”

via Guangzhou Moves to Limit New Cars – NYTimes.com.

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04/09/2012

* Healthcare system to get 400b yuan injection

Chronic Disease

Chronic Disease (Photo credit: tamahaji)

China Daily: “Increase in cases of chronic diseases can mean opportunities for medical firms

Deng Jianping currently spends around 500 yuan ($79) a month on medicine for blood pressure, diabetes and coronary heart disease.

The 68-year-old Beijinger said his wife has more chronic diseases and her medication costs even more, while his two sons, 42 and 38, also need to take medicine every day for hypertension and heart illness.

Wang and his family are among the more than 260 million Chinese people, around a quarter of the nation’s population, who have been diagnosed with chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases.

The Ministry of Health said that around 10 million people in China have contracted chronic diseases every year since 2002.

“Prevention and control of chronic diseases will be one of the seven top tasks of China’s medical care reform by 2020,” said Health Minister Chen Zhu.

The central government will invest a total of 400 billion yuan by 2020 in the seven key projects, which also involve improvements to the grassroots healthcare system, psychological disease prevention, the construction of a digital public health information network, medical device innovation, the development of traditional Chinese medicine, and the training of general practitioners.

According to the ministry, 85 percent of deaths in China are caused by chronic diseases, with expenditure on the treatment of these accounting for 69 percent of China’s total healthcare costs last year.

Foreign pharmaceutical companies have an advantage in this sector, according to Song Yingtong, a senior analyst at Beijing Chnmed Consulting Co Ltd, a domestic pharmaceutical consulting firm.

“They have accumulated rich experience in chronic disease treatment in developed markets,” he said.”

via Healthcare system to get 400b yuan injection |Hot Issues |chinadaily.com.cn.

Hot on the announcement of expanded care is news of cash injection to make it real.  President Obama “eat your heart out.”

04/09/2012

* China’s next leader buoyed by fresh setback for Hu

Reuters: “China’s next leader, Xi Jinping, looks to have emerged politically stronger after ruling Communist Party elders foiled a second attempt by outgoing President Hu Jintao to stack the top echelon of the new administration with his own allies.

China's Vice President Xi Jinping speaks with Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi (not pictured) during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing August 29, 2012. REUTERS/How Hwee Young/Pool

Hu had been maneuvering to promote his star protege, Hu Chunhua, to the party’s supreme decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, as part of the current leadership transition, but other senior party figures have opposed the idea, two independent sources said.

Hu Chunhua, who is not related to Hu Jintao, is instead likely to be given one of China’s biggest but also most testing political assignments as new party chief of southwestern Chongqing, the job from which disgraced politician Bo Xilai was ousted, said the sources with ties to the top party leadership.

The sideways move for Hu Chunhua, currently party boss for Inner Mongolia, follows the demotion of another of Hu Jintao’s closest allies at the weekend – both taken as signs that Xi may have a relatively freer hand to forge consensus among peers.

“Hu’s (Jintao) loss is Xi’s gain,” one of the sources with ties to the leadership told Reuters, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. “Xi is in a less difficult situation.”

China, currently mired in an economic downturn, faces growing calls for it to step up the pace of economic and social reforms, a task that could prove trickier for Xi if the Standing Committee were to include politicians reluctant to make changes to the cautious direction set by Hu over the past decade.

But the situation remains fluid, with the make-up of the new Standing Committee, currently comprising nine members, still to be finalized in a once-in-a-decade transition to be unveiled at the party’s 18th congress, expected next month at the earliest.”

via China’s next leader buoyed by fresh setback for Hu: sources | Reuters.

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