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08/02/2019

Spotlight: Chinese New Year celebrations delight other side of the Pacific

NEW YORK, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) — While Chinese New Year celebrations are in full swing in China, cultural activities held across North America to mark the most important festival of China are no less enthralling, spreading the joy to the other side of the Pacific.

Dragon and lion dances, Chinese cuisines, Peking opera performances, light shows… a flurry of events in the United States and Canada have deepened people’s understanding of the meaning and charm of the festival. And sometimes, they may even find themselves a bit richer when they are bestowed with red packets of “lucky money,” part of the festival tradition.

A FEAST FOR EYES AND PALATES

Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, fell on Feb. 5 this year. In China, celebrations begin about a week in advance and end with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the new year. It is an occasion for family members to reunite, bid farewell to the past year and celebrate the advent of a new spring, with its promise of renewal and hope.

The value placed in family and the universal wish for a new start partly explain why the traditional Chinese festival can so easily transcend borders and be embraced elsewhere. For kids who are not worldly enough to grasp the significance behind it, colorful events such as dragon dances and delicious Chinese food prove to be reason enough to enjoy the festival.

In New York, the landmark Empire State Building was glowing red, blue and yellow on Monday and Tuesday for the Chinese New Year. It is for the 19th consecutive year that the 443-meter skyscraper above midtown Manhattan shone in honor of the Chinese New Year.

The light show event will allow “native New Yorkers to experience a bit of beauty of the Chinese traditional cultural festival,” said Chinese Consul General in New York Huang Ping.

In Times Square, an array of calligraphers from both China and the United States on Tuesday gave away their handwritings of “Fu,” a Chinese character meaning fortune and luck, and red scarfs printed with the same character to hundreds of visitors at the “Crossroad of the World.” Receivers of the gifts, upon learning the meaning of Fu character, were filled with joy and expressed their best wishes to the Chinese people around the world.

During an NBA game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, spectators enjoyed dragon and lion dances during halftime. They also received giveaways including red packets as well as pig dolls as the New York Knicks team celebrated the Chinese lunar Year of the Pig. A spectator won 600 U.S. dollars during a game called ‘Name the Pig.’

In Chicago, more than 70 guests crowded a Chinese restaurant on Monday to enjoy traditional Chinese cuisine and the legendary “face-changing” performance. Performers of “face-changing” instantly switched masks by raising a hand, swinging a sleeve or tossing the head, to the thunderous applause and cheers from the audience.

“It is amazing and exciting. I have never seen it before,” Rhonda McDonald, who came from the U.S. city of Houston to attend the celebration, told Xinhua, “I love Chinese food and Chinese culture. Every year, my kids and I celebrate the Chinese New Year.”

In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed, dressed in red that represents happiness and good luck in Chinese culture, on Tuesday launched official celebrations of Chinese New Year in the city’s Chinatown.

Among the crowd, a 15-year-old high school student named Logan said he was happy to be a part of the exciting celebrations, and he came for the event every year.

“Each new year is different, and I can always feel something new from the thrilling festivities,” Logan said.

Breed said that there will be a market fair this week in Chinatown, where one can find flowers and goodies, such as red packets for kids and oranges which in Chinese are a popular symbol for “good luck.” She will also attend San Francisco’s grand Chinese New Year Parade scheduled for Feb. 23, a Chinatown tradition that dates back to the 1860s.

The parade will feature beautiful floats, outfits, costumes, firecrackers, newly crowned Miss Chinatown U.S.A, as well as the dance performance of an 88-meter-long golden dragon operated by 180 men and women from a local martial arts group.

The Niagara Falls on Canada side was lit up in red to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Ontario, Canada on Tuesday. On the night of Jan. 28, the CN Tower in Toronto was lit up in red to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the fifth consecutive year to do so.

A FESTIVAL FOR CLOSER TIES

By celebrating the Chinese New Year together, people from both sides of the Pacific have deepened their understanding of each other’s cultures and made the ties closer, officials have said.

“There is no better way than to celebrate the Chinese New Year through cultural exchanges,” said David Whitaker, CEO of Choose Chicago, the official tourism organization for the city, on Tuesday as the city kick off Chinese New Year celebrations.

“The more we learn about China, the better we understand each other,” Whitaker told Xinhua.

During a show titled “Charming Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei” featuring Chinese artists performing folk music, Tai Chi, Peking opera, acrobatic and martial arts, on Jan. 25, Vice Mayor of Beverly Hills John Mirisch said his city enjoys a great relationship with China.

“We welcome the Chinese, and think sharing some of their interesting cultural experiences with American audiences right here in Beverly Hills makes us understand and appreciate each other more.”

The Empire State Building’s lighting of Lunar New Year serves as a symbol of friendship between the peoples of the United States and China, said Huang, the consul general.

After putting a Chinese couplet on the door of the governor’s office at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri Governor Mike Parson and First Lady Teresa Parson held a Chinese Lunar New Year reception at their mansion on Monday evening.

“I truly appreciate how the Asian American community has come from across the state to Jefferson City to celebrate the Lunar New Year in the Missouri State Capitol. We’re excited to have this opportunity to share the diversity and cultural traditions of all Missouri,” Parson said. “Rest assured that we will continue to lead the state with a noble vision and an open heart.”

Source: Xinhua

Posted in celebrations, China alert, chinese new year, Pacific, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

08/02/2019

Feature: Returning to organic farming: next generation of Chinese farmers

BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) — Wang Xin, 33, is a landscape designer by profession and farmer in practice. The strawberries coming from his organic plantation in the southern outskirts of Beijing are believed by his clients to be “the best of China.”

Every day in Beijing, when men and women of his age are sucked in heavy traffic and endless meetings, Wang lives a life in the countryside, far from the maddening crowd.

He rises with the sun, works all day in the field or goes to farmers’ market to sell fresh produce. At the end of the day, he goes to bed with sore muscles and falls into a deep sleep.

He does not take the time to consider whether it is hard work, preferring to get on with the job. “It has become a lifestyle. This is the life I chose to live.”

In a country where food is so central to the culture, many well-educated city dwellers like Wang have returned to the countryside to dedicate themselves to fresher, healthier food.

RESEARCH FARMERS

Every Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday, Wang brings freshly-picked strawberries to the organic farmers’ market in Beijing. The fruits are grown naturally in nutrient-rich soil, without use of fertilizers, pesticides, growth hormones or chemicals.

“I don’t plan to be filthy rich, or I wouldn’t have gone for organic farming,” Wang said. With his firm athletic build and healthy tan, it is hard to imagine him the designer who used to spend days and nights in front of a computer screen.

Majoring in landscape botany, Wang has always been a plant lover. When he was 25, he realized his sedentary life made him put on weight, and he could no longer stand being an office drone. He quit his job, rented two plantation sheds in the suburbs and started his career from scratch.

On Tuesday, Wang presented this winter’s first batch of fruit he planted in September. But work had begun in July, when he prepared all-natural organic matter to enrich the soil.

The formula has been perfected through years of research in collaboration with Beijing University of Agriculture, to simulate the formation of the fertile dark forest soil in Northeast China, known for its high crop productivity.

Logically, the true foundation of organic farming lies in soil content: if the soil is right – as a living organism with a complex organic structure – the outcome is safe and tasty food farmed without the need for fertilizing chemicals, according to Wang.

But quality produce is not the only objective. Wang hopes to build a production model that rehabilitates the soil itself – in regular plantations, the soil can degrade within a matter of years after being over-exploited.

Wang’s work on the farm has not always been a smooth ride. But after a rough start he believes he has learned valuable lessons. He has gone back to the university and visited his colleagues in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, to study the most modern organic farming techniques.

“For the organic farming to become truly sustainable, to revitalize the soil is key. I am certain that in three to four years, the soil that I have been reviving will keep getting healthier and healthier,” he said.

Wang is not alone.

In Araxan, a semi-arid region located in northwest China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Ma Yanwei has spent years reinvigorating saline soil by applying water-saving methods to cultivate fruit and crops suitable for local conditions.

Sweet melon is the best-selling produce on Ma’s farm. The sweetness of the melons comes from many years of study, experiment and hard work in the desert. Ma aims to find an ideal organic farming methodology to maximize the utilization of scarce water resources and mend the soil. “As long as the soil improves, it is natural to harvest healthy produce,” Ma said.

In the last six years, he has seen more and more young people returning to the countryside to take on farming. In 2017 Ma set up a network for these new farmers to communicate, exchange experience and help each other. “So we could avoid longer detours and mistakes previously made by others,” he said.

AN IDYLLIC FARM REBUILT

For 18 years, Zhang Zhimin, a former foreign trade expert, has been building an idyllic farm in the far southwestern end of Beijing to produce food and preserve biodiversity.

Zhang speaks several languages, so was designated to work in food imports and exports when China opened its market to the world outside. She believes that “agriculture is the art of man and nature working together.”

On her bio-farm, the nature rules over man. Instead of eliminating weeds and pests, the wholesome biosphere works on its own to render seasonal harvests.

“Agriculture is the management of life, and life should be nourished by life itself,” she said. On her farm Heaven’s Blessings, trees, bushes, grass, insects, birds and cattle coexist in harmony. It is more like a habitat than a farm. In early summer she chops tender leaves and branches of weed under peach trees to feed the cattle and make room for the gramineous crops to thrive. In early autumn, she let cows roam free to finish the weeding.

In Wang’s vegetable shed, the natural ecosystem works for the harvest to be healthy while no intervention from the outside is necessary.

“I have observed that the grass that coexists with the crops functions as a regulating factor of the microclimate by keeping the soil humid,” Wang said.

Also, a native breed of spiders that leaves webs among the vegetables, feeds on the whiteflies that are usually hard to detect due to their miniscule size, preventing the need for harmful insecticides.

Wang has also gone back to ancient Chinese agricultural traditions to find inspiration to better coordinate human actions with nature, after learning the latest farming models in Japan, Germany and Israel.

At a “Farmers’ Assembly” held in China Agricultural University (CAU) last month, Professor Meng Fanqiao with CAU’s College of Resources and Environmental Sciences said organic/ecological farming is an important measure to improve the quality and safety of agricultural products.

“Organic/ecological farming is of vital significance for economic development as well as environmental protection in rural areas, for which it should play an imperative role in China’s rural revitalization and the building of an ‘ecological civilization,'” Meng said.

“The green development of the countryside is a strategy that goes hand-in-hand with the food supply security and the income level improvement,” said Jin Shuqin with the Ministry of Agriculture’s Research Center for Rural Economy. “To revivify ecology constitutes a crucial aspect of overall rural revitalization.”

“It is our hope to promote healthy eating to become a mainstream choice, as well as the organic way to produce healthy foods,” said Ma Xiaochao, project officer with Know Your Food, a self-publishing community focused on food sustainability.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in China alert, farmers, next generation, organic farming, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

07/02/2019

Chinese blood plasma ‘cleared’ as authorities give mixed messages on HIV contamination

  • Batch that health commission said was contaminated is cleared by drug watchdog whose officials are being investigated over last year’s rabies vaccine scandal
  • Shanghai regulator says it has recalled the batch and halted production at the company that produced it
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 07 February, 2019, 2:38pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 07 February, 2019, 3:15pm

COMMENTS: 2 

Inspectors from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) said on Wednesday that samples they had examined from a batch of 12,229 bottles of intravenous immunoglobulin were free of HIV and hepatitis B and C.

The administration’s clearance of the batch, produced by state-owned Shanghai Xinxing Pharmaceutical Company, contradicted a notice from the National Health Commission on Tuesday announcing its contamination and warning hospitals to immediately suspend use of the treatments.

The provincial health commission and disease control centre in eastern China’s Jiangxi province had detected traces of HIV in the batch, although the disease control centre told The Beijing News on Wednesday that it had not yet discovered any cases of patients having contracted HIV.

12,000 Chinese blood plasma treatments contaminated with HIV

The batch of 50ml bottles are due to expire in June 2021, a source from the state food and drug regulator told the China Business Journal.

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Immunoglobulins are antibodies produced by white blood cells that are used to treat immune deficiencies caused by illnesses such as leukaemia, hepatitis and rabies.

https://widgets.scmp.com/video/video_iframe.php?id=8o9m3a&poster=https%3A//cdn3.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/video/images/2019/01/11/vaccine_protest_web.jpg

The NMPA – which was at the centre of a major rabies vaccine scandal last July – immediately told regulators in Shanghai to conduct on-site inspections at the pharmaceutical company and sent officials to Jiangxi, it said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai regulator said in a separate statement that it had halted production at the company, recalled all affected treatments and sent samples for inspection.

China disciplines more than 80 officials linked to major vaccine scandal

This latest blow to confidence in China’s health services comes less than a month after it was revealed that 145 children in the eastern Jiangsu province were treated with expired polio vaccines, sparking widespread protests from parents and the investigation of 17 local officials.

Last July, 252,600 faulty rabies vaccines made by Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology, one of China’s biggest vaccine firms, were found to have been administered to thousands of toddlers.

In the 1990s, thousands of cash-strapped villagers in China’s central Henan province contracted HIV after being persuaded to sell their blood illegally on the black market.

1 in 8 who sold blood have HIV, says Henan

Rapid spread of blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B was caused by reuse of needles, lack of screening for diseases, false health records, and mixing of blood before re-injecting the separated red blood cells back into the donors.

A study of 280,000 villagers in Henan who had sold their blood found that more than 36,000, about one in eight, had HIV or Aids.

The NMPA’s apparent clearance of the blood plasma treatments on Wednesday came four days after Wu Zhen, the former deputy head of the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) – which oversees the NMPA – was handed over to the judiciary system for investigation by the Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog in relation to the rabies vaccine scandal. Wu, one of four CFDA officials being investigated, was in charge of China’s vaccine regulation at the time.

As new vaccine scandal grips China, parents say they’ve lost faith in the system

State-run news agency Xinhua said the allegations against Wu included nepotism and taking bribes.

Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology was handed a 9.1 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) fine in October after it was found to have fabricated records. The authorities had failed to act immediately after finding inconsistencies in the company’s records in late 2017.

Source: SCMP

Posted in blood plasma, China alert, contamination, HIV, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

07/02/2019

China Focus: 2022 Olympics preparation warms up winter sports, economy

BEIJING, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) — Although winter vacation has come, 11-year-old Wang Aoyun still goes to school every day, for skating.

As school athletes, Wang and 20-plus teammates practice speed skating on a cornfield-turned ice rink at Taipingzhuang central school in Beijing’s Yanqing District.

In three years, the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province.

While construction of stadiums and infrastructure projects has been accelerated, winter sports and the related economy at the venues have also been heating up.

With its ice rink built in 2016, Taipingzhuang school is the first that had an ice rink in Yanqing District, where competitions of alpine skiing, bobsled, skeleton, and luge will be held in 2022.

Teachers take shifts to water the ice rink every night in winter, said Ding Jianpei, principal of the school.

“Most of our students may not be engaged in winter sports in the future, but we think it’s worth it if they feel the happiness in the sports,” Ding said.

Winter sports used to be a luxury 20 years ago in Beijing. People had to travel hundreds of miles to find a ski slope. The first large ski resort in the Chinese capital, Shijinglong, was not open until the late 1990s, in Yanqing.

Local villager Guo Junhua, 35, was among the first batch of ski lovers. Last year, she quit her job as a ski coach in southwest China and opened a ski training school in Yanqing District. To date, she has trained 50 children.

The district government also encourages local people to learn winter sports.

“Influenced by the atmosphere of the Winter Olympics, more and more residents show up on ice rinks and ski fields,” said Ma Zhiyong, sports bureau deputy chief of Yanqing District, adding that more ice rinks and ski training bases are mushrooming.

This winter, Shijinglong resort received 60,000 visitors, up 10 percent year on year.

Five km away from the 2022 alpine skiing competition venue, local resident Zhang Haichao has rented and decorated 10 households, with more being constructed.

Zhang, general manager of a homestay brand company, is confident about the prospective of homestay market near his hometown.

“My friends and I love skiing, but bringing heavy snowboards to hotels is very inconvenient,” Zhang said. “Now that the Winter Olympics are coming, more visitors will come to ski, a golden opportunity for homestay business.”

He is also consulting some ski gear companies, planning to offer ski gear renting service at his homestay houses.

The district has attracted over 120 homestay brands, with the reservation rate of some brands reaching 90 percent for the Lunar New Year, said Zheng Aijuan, deputy director of Yanqing’s tourism commission.

Song Haitian, deputy director of Winter Olympics preparation office of Yanqing District, said the 2022 Winter Olympics would have a profound impact on Yanqing’s development.

“We hope the global sports event not only stimulates the sustainable development of Yanqing, especially the winter economy, but also helps upgrade the quality of both people’s health and civil society,” Song said.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in China alert, economy, Olympics, Uncategorized, winter sports | Leave a Comment »

07/02/2019

Hong Kong holds fireworks show to celebrate Lunar New Year

CHINA-HONG KONG-SPRING FESTIVAL-FIREWORKS (CN)

 

Fireworks illuminate the sky over the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, south China, Feb. 6, 2019, to celebrate the Spring Festival. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

HONG KONG, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) — Spectacular flower patterns of fireworks roared above Victoria Harbor, followed by patterns of green “8” and yellow golden ingots, sending traditional blessings to locals.

It was the opening scene of the fireworks show in China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The show started at 8:00 p.m. local time Wednesday, the second day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar.

A total of 23,888 fireworks lightened up the sky during the 23-minute show.

In one scene, a lot of fireworks went across the harbor with a racing speed effect, as if playing hide-and-seek.

“The scene symbolizes that we should set our goals for the new year and work hard towards goals with faith. Eventually, we will achieve the targets,” said Wilson Mao, CEO of a multi-media production company which designed the firework show.

Another scene echoed the approaching Valentine’s day. It displayed miscellaneous shades of strobes and waterfall-like movements to create heart-thumping effects and send blessings of everlasting love bond.

In the last scene, dazzling fireworks filled the sky with high intensity and lasted for 25 seconds, bringing the show to an end.

A Hong Kong resident surnamed Lo said he enjoyed the show, especially the powerful sounds of the fireworks.

Sharing his wishes for the lunar new year, Lo said he hoped “Hong Kong continues to prosper, and people have good jobs and stay healthy.”

Source: Xinhua

Posted in China alert, Fireworks, Hong Kong, lunar new year, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

07/02/2019

Spotlight: Cross-border infrastructure helps promote tourism in Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area

HONG KONG, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) — Benefiting from the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) witnessed a record high of tourist arrivals last year.

Data released by the Hong Kong Tourism Board showed that the overall tourist arrivals soared to around 65.1 million in 2018, up 11.4 percent from that of 2017. Among the overall growth, visitor arrivals from the mainland saw a rise of 14.8 percent to 51 million.

As the cross-border infrastructure further ties up the Hong Kong SAR and the mainland, Hong Kong will further promote tourism in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area), said tourism industry insiders.

“From the latter half of 2017, Hong Kong began to see an upturn in tourism, and witnessed a continuous increase in the number of tourists in 2018,” said Yiu Si-wing, member of the Legislative Council of the HKSAR.

“Since the operation of the Express Rail Link and the bridge, we see an apparent growth in visitor arrivals to Hong Kong.” Yiu pointed out.

He viewed tourists from the mainland as the driving force to push Hong Kong’s visitor arrivals to a new high. “It takes less time and fewer procedures for those visitors to Hong Kong via the Express Rail Link than before when they need to transfer to Hong Kong after first arriving at Shenzhen,” said Yiu.

Cross-border infrastructure has facilitated the transportation between the mainland and Hong Kong by integrating the SAR into the national high-speed railway network.

An increasing number of tourists traveled by the Express Rail Link to Hong Kong, and to meet their demand for in-depth tour, new routes featuring natural and cultural characteristics have been introduced, said Ng Hi-on from China Travel Service.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board has promoted “Old Town Central” and “Hong Kong Neighborhoods” as tailored tours for travelers to experience Hong Kong.

Besides, tourists can enjoy festivals and events in Hong Kong, such as night parade, horse racing and flower markets.

Cruise tour is another product the Hong Kong Tourism board has promoted. After the launch of the Express Rail Link in September 2018, the Dream Cruises company introduced a “rail cruise” route in November, welcoming more than 1,000 tourists from Hubei and Yunnan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to Hong Kong for a land-sea trip.

Tourism in the Greater Bay Area has huge potential, as cities in the area can work with one another to develop multi-destination travel with cross-border infrastructure, according to Anthony Lau, the executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Yiu said that travelers can travel through cities in the Greater Bay Area via transport links and the tour pattern enriches their trip.

He called for more efforts by Guangdong Province, and the Hong Kong and Macao SARs to forge closer bonds so as to build the Greater Bay Area into a tourism brand.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in China alert, Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong, Infrastructure, Tourism, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

07/02/2019

Railway trips up on short-distance travel demand

BEIJING, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) — The national railway operator has predicted the number of passengers to continue to grow during the Spring Festival holiday due to rising short-distance travel demand.

The China Railway Corporation said it will add 208 trains on Wednesday to handle a total of 7.67 million railway trips expected, up 8.5 percent year on year.

Local railway bureaus have increased services in remote towns and villages, worked to help passengers transfer to buses and subways, offered better Wifi access and allowed fast security checks for the elderly and disabled.

Around 4.22 million railway trips were made Tuesday, up 9.6 percent year on year.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese go back to their hometowns to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year each year, creating an annual travel rush around the festival that often puts the transport system to the test.

This year’s Spring Festival travel rush started from Jan. 21 and will last till March 1, with railway trips expected to hit 413 million in total, up 8.3 percent.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in China alert, railway, short-distance, travel demand, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

07/02/2019

Xinhua Headlines: Made-in-China diamonds poised to shape global market

Xinhua Headlines: Made-in-China diamonds poised to shape global market

A worker checks a man-made diamond at Zhengzhou Sino-Crystal Diamond Co., Ltd. in Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan Province, Jan. 30, 2019. (Xinhua/Feng Dapeng)

by Xinhua writers Wang Zichen, Shi Linjing

ZHENGZHOU/BRUSSELS, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) — A diamond is forever but its chemical composition is just carbon, the fourth most abundant element in the universe.

Before being cut and polished to what may cost over 2,000 U.S. dollars per carat — one-fifth of a gram, or the weight of two grains of rice, diamonds have traditionally been mined from earth where they were forged in extreme pressure and heat over millennia.

But companies in China and elsewhere have mastered the technologies to manufacture them en masse in a matter of weeks or days, with the products practically indistinguishable from those mined from earth.

China, long a major consumer of mined diamonds, now has a realistic chance to become a supplier of man-made ones and shape the industry, analysts said, but the scenario for substitution — when consumers become indifferent to provenance — is far from certain and depends on public perception.

OVER ONE MILLION CARATS, FROM ONE FACTORY

By Chinese industry estimates, the country has been producing well over 10 billion carats of diamond annually for almost a decade, but most of the products have gone to industrial use such as in abrasives.

Before foraying into consumer use, Chinese manufacturers provided them for aeronautics, oil rigs and electronic chips and honed their craft, said Hu Junheng, head of gemstone business at Henan Huanghe Whirlwind, which calls itself the world’s largest synthetic diamond manufacturer with an annual production of 1.2 billion carats, mostly for industrial use.

As competition intensified and technology matured, these companies, mainly based in central China’s Henan Province, have ventured from abrasives to jewelry.

The English-language “product list” of Henan Huanghe Whirlwind now starts with “superhard materials” and ends with “Lab-Grown Diamond (Gem Quality)”.

Liu Yongqi, general manager of Sino-Crystal, another Henan-based company, said it now produces between 2 million and 3 million carats a year, over half of which are for jewelry.

“We began our transformation in 2014 to expand to gem-grade diamonds,” said Liu, citing over-competition for industry use and a “blue sea” consumer market.

“It is important to understand that even if synthetic diamond production is initially lower quality, the diamonds can be ‘enhanced’ with processes that turn lower quality goods into higher-quality,” Paul Zimnisky, an independent diamond analyst in New York, told Xinhua.

If even a fraction of Chinese production is upgraded to jewelry-quality diamonds, it would have a very significant impact on the global supply which is only in the low-millions-of-carats, Zimnisky said.

“China, and by extension Asia, is the main producer of synthetic diamonds,” Margaux Donckier, spokeswoman for Antwerp World Diamond Center, told Xinhua. “Synthetic goods only represent about 3-5 percent of the [consumer] market, but the share is growing rapidly.”

ICE IN A FRIDGE, ICE IN A RIVER

A major boost to man-made diamonds, Chinese manufacturers said, came from De Beers, the dominant giant that popularized the saying, “a diamond is forever.”

Reversing its previous position of shunning the man-made sector, De Beers took a U-turn in 2018 by selling man-made diamonds through its Lightbox Jewelry brand.

“Since De Beers embraced man-made diamonds, the market has been developing rapidly,” said Liu, citing expanding sales in Japan and recent visits to his company from major jewelry brands.

Man-made diamonds’ growing prospects are their increasing quality at decreasing cost. It is now impossible to tell a man-made diamond from a mined one with the naked eye, despite the latter’s exorbitant price.

Experts with professional equipments can distinguish the two, but that distinction is so irrelevant to the Federal Trade Commission of the United States, that the previously specified “natural” origin within the FTC’s definition of a diamond was removed in 2018.

In its Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries, the FTC ruled “based on changes in the market, the final Guides eliminate the word ‘natural’ from the definition of diamond…because lab-created products that have essentially the same optical, physical and chemical properties as mined diamonds are also diamonds.”

Zang Chuangyi, a scholar at Henan Polytechnic University, believes a diamond is a diamond no matter how it was formed — grown in a lab or mined out of the ground.

“It’s like comparing ice in a fridge at your home, with ice in a river,” Zang said.

ONLY AS FASHION JEWELRY?

But in the view of De Beers and others with ties to the established diamond profession, there are still insurmountable differences between man-made diamonds and mined ones.

“Our research consistently shows that people see synthetic diamonds as a different product category from natural diamonds, just as they see synthetic rubies, emeralds and sapphires as different product categories from their natural counterparts,” the company told Xinhua in a statement.

It is with convictions like this that De Beers decided to wade into men-made diamonds, intending to grab a growing sub-market and in the process solidifying the perception that man-made diamonds are inferior to mined ones, which will also safeguard its original business, experts said.

The Antwerp World Diamond Center largely follows the prevailing rationale in this regard, spokesperson Donckier said. “Diamonds and synthetic diamonds should be seen as two different products. They are certainly not interchangeable.”

Current regulations in China and elsewhere require that man-made and natural diamonds are clearly labeled so that consumers know what they are buying.

Man-made diamond jewelry will fall into the category of “fashion jewelry” while natural diamonds will remain “fine jewelry,” Zimnisky said.

But there are also outliers who say a diamond should not be forever even from the beginning, and consumers, many of whom are increasingly budget conscious, already have too many bills to pay excluding an overhyped and overpriced stone.

Yonden Lhatoo, the chief news editor at the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, wrote in a scathing column: “Anyone with a basic education should know by now that the ridiculous tradition of men having to buy diamond engagement rings for women before marriage was wholly concocted.”

Diamonds are such a waste of money, he wrote: “If you must buy a diamond, it makes much more sense to go for a lab-manufactured one.”

HUGE POTENTIAL AHEAD

The man-made diamond jewelry market will grow 22 percent annually from 1.9 billion U.S. dollars to 5.2 billion by 2023, Zimnisky said.

Liu, of Sino-Crystal, said that man-made diamonds might not cannibalize sales of mined diamonds, but that market alone boded well for Chinese manufacturers.

“Could they compete with De Beers? Yes, they certainly could. It just concerns technology that almost anyone can obtain these days, so why could a Chinese manufacturer not make the same product as well as anyone else?” Donckier said.

“The quality of Chinese synthetic diamond production appears to be advancing quite rapidly from what I am seeing. I have seen some Chinese product that rivals that of Lightbox,” Zimnisky said.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in Antwerp World Diamond Center, China alert, de Beers, dimonds, Federal Trade Commission, global market, Made in China, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

06/02/2019

China banks on lending to ease slowdown

By Robin Brant
BBC News, Shanghai
  • 5 February 2019
Man next to conveyor belt in Alibaba fulfilment centre.Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Build stuff or buy stuff? China has long been a believer in the former to deal with a slowdown in its economy. Now it’s trying to shift the emphasis to the latter.

This year will be a big test of how far it’s come in the transition from state-backed investment to domestic consumption as the main driver of growth.

China’s President Xi Jinping has warned of a “struggle” as his country faces an economic slowdown, the likes of which it hasn’t seen for almost 30 years.

A series of stimulus measures have been unveiled by the government not to boost the economy, but to manage the slowdown.

“China’s goal is not growth, it’s stability,” says economist Andy Xie.

“The option for stimulated growth again, that is not on the table. The debt level is simply too high, not like in 2008.”

‘Less room to manoeuvre’

China’s debt has doubled in the aftermath of the global financial crisis 10 years ago, to around 300% of the size of its economy.

“The level is so high now it’s not easy to move the economy,” Mr Xie says.

Andy Xie
Image captionEconomist Andy Xie says China’s debt levels limit its options

Whether it wants to borrow more to build, or to encourage people to buy, he thinks China’s ruling Communist Party has far less room to manoeuvre.

“It’s not easy to move the needle when the base is so large,” he says.

So what is it doing?

It’s cutting some taxes, to put more money in peoples’ pockets. It’s reduced the reserve rate for banks, so they don’t have to keep as much capital in the safe, and can – in theory – lend more out and boost spending.

And yes, it is splurging cash on big infrastructure projects – railways, bridges, and a vast new city near Beijing.

‘High risk’ firms

Only one of those measures is likely to help Wu Yijian.

Mr Wu is a consumption success story. He is the co-founder of a tech start-up that makes desk top robots, in various sizes, which help China’s children play and learn.

Xiao Bai – or Little White – is powered by voice recognition and artificial intelligence that Mr Wu and his co-founders have spent 20 years developing.

As we stood in his office in Shanghai he called its name. It swivelled towards us and blinked. But private firms like his aren’t the focus of China’s stimulus efforts.

He told me sales “increased” in 2018 “but it’s not as good as we planned”.

Venture capital – private money – helped get them to where they are.

He says they won’t be turning to China’s state-owned banks – almost all of the banks here are state-owned or controlled – for help if things get tough in 2019.

Wu Yijian and Robin Brant on a screen
Image captionWu Yijian depends on venture capital to fund projects like this robot

“Government banks have very low interest rates but that kind of money is not suitable for the company like us.”

He told me that’s because banks “hate” risk and his company is still considered “high risk”.

It’s mostly big, state controlled firms that benefit from those low interest loans. That kind of preferential treatment has long been a central tenet of a Communist government that treated private enterprise as second class.

“Traditional banks, they prefer collateral, like property. But tech companies like us we don’t have properties. The biggest assets are human resources,” Mr Wu told me.

He likes the tax cuts though. He hopes that will mean more parents buying more desk top robots.

President Xi has talked about his “two unwaverings” – an unwavering commitment to state-backed firms and the private sector.

It’s the latter after all that creates by far the most new jobs.

The government has promised new efforts to boost sales of new cars and household goods. One province here has even touted the idea of a longer weekend, so people can shop more.

A good year ahead

Song Junfu is well placed to deal with whatever 2019 throws at him.

His business is paper. Most importantly, paper for the furniture industry. Mr Song’s company makes advanced paper used to imprint patterns on synthetic leather. Which is why he is based in Haining, a city developed by the government to focus on furniture.

“For our business, I would say, it won’t be affected that seriously… partially because of the advanced features of our product, [plus] there’s a big need for the product in China.”

As we stood in front of a long, green, four metre high piece of machinery at his plant he said “we feel confident in the market”.

He also has the support of the Agricultural Bank of China, one of the big four state-owned banks.

Song Junfu at his paper factory in Haining.Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionSong Junfu’s company has benefitted from government support

“The support of the government can be a plus, let’s say, to help the development of the business,” he told me.

“Financially we can get support, to maybe move your project a little faster.”

Global Trade

More from the BBC’s series taking an international perspective on trade:

Mr Song’s company is private, and it’s taken decades of first study, then development and investment to get to where it is now.

It is very far from the often inefficient, behemoth state-owned entities.

But as a manufacturer, he’s more likely to benefit from any direct stimulus measures than the robot makers of Shanghai.

He doesn’t need the help though. Even with a trade war with the US causing huge anxiety for many of China’s manufacturing exporters like him, he thinks he can absorb any hit.

There is a “big, nice margin” on the products they export to the US he told me, so “even if we make 5% or 10% less, for us it’s still good business.”

Source: The BBC

Posted in China alert, lending, slowdown, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

06/02/2019

Chinese state-owned broadcaster registers with US as foreign agent under anti-propaganda law

  • CGTN America chose to comply ‘in the spirit of cooperation with US authorities’
  • Russian state-backed English-language news outlet RT registered in 2017
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 06 February, 2019, 6:33pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 06 February, 2019, 6:33pm

COMMENTS:  

CGTN America – the US division of China Global Television Network – denied that it was engaged in any “political activities” as defined by the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), a federal law from 1938 that monitors the operation of overseas lobbyists and propagandists.

China Global Television Network was, until January 2017, the name of the international operation of state-owned broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV).

https://widgets.scmp.com/video/video_iframe.php?id=2a0t5n&poster=https%3A//cdn3.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/video/images/2018/12/25/uschina_web_text.jpg

CGTN America said it had “elected to file this registration statement out of an abundance of caution and in the spirit of cooperation with US authorities”.

It identified itself as the Washington news bureau of CCTV to produce material for 24-hour broadcasts that target English-speaking audiences in more than 100 countries.

CCTV disagreed with the decision by the US Department of State to characterise CGTN America’s relationship with a foreign government and a foreign political party as one of interest to Washington, it said.

Xi to shake up propaganda, cyber chiefs as overseas image suffers

CGTN America’s registration was filed as Beijing and Washington sought to end a damaging trade dispute.

On Friday, a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He concluded two days of talks in Washington, while a US party – to be led by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer – is expected in Beijing this month.

Those talks may pave the way for a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump before a trade war truce expires on March 1.

CGTN America’s registration took place about six months after Washington ordered it and Xinhua News Agency to acknowledge their affiliation with Beijing and disclose ownership and budgets. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said at the time this order was “politicising” media activities.

Xinhua, one of the major official mouthpieces of the Communist Party, has not registered.

Under the registration act, which was enacted to counter Nazi Germany’s propaganda efforts in the US – CGTN America must update its registration filing with the US government every six months and submit copies of reports to the justice department for scrutiny within 48 hours of distribution.

Satire and sexual moaning out as China cracks down on video apps

Washington’s surveillance of foreign media has intensified since late 2017 when RT, the Russian state-backed English-language news outlet, was ordered by the justice department to register as a foreign agent amid investigations into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.

While chairing a UN Security Council meeting in September, US President Donald Trump accused Beijing of planning to interfere in November’s congressional election because of his trade policies against China, although those accusations were not substantiated.

Source: SCMP

Posted in anti-propaganda law, China alert, foreign agent, state-owned broadcaster, Uncategorized, US | Leave a Comment »

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