Archive for ‘Chindia Alert’

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04/03/2013

* David Beckham takes up China football ambassador role

BBC: “David Beckham has become a global ambassador for Chinese football to help the image of the country’s game.

David Beckham

The Chinese Super League has recently been hit by the exit of ex-Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, while also suffering from a match-fixing scandal.

Beckham, 37, will combine the role with playing for Paris St-Germain.

“I am honoured to have been asked to play such an important role at this special time in Chinese football history,” he said in a statement.

His role will involve attending league matches in China and visiting clubs to help promote the game to children.

“I’m excited by the prospect of promoting the world’s greatest game to Chinese sports fans as I’ve seen first hand the growing interest in football there,” added Beckham.

“This is a wonderful sport that inspires people across the world and brings families together, so I’m relishing the opportunity of introducing more fans to the game.”

Drogba, 34, joined Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua in June 2012 on a two-and-half-year deal after helping Chelsea to win last season’s Champions League.

But the Ivory Coast international left the Chinese club in January 2013 for Turkish side Galatasaray, in a controversial loan move.

Drogba’s former Chelsea team-mate and ex-France striker Nicolas Anelka also left Shanghai in a short-term loan move to Italian side Juventus.

The departures have been a blow to the Chinese game ahead of the 2013 Chinese Super League season starting on 8 March.

There have also been problems with corruption, which resulted in the country’s former top referee being jailed and 58 officials being banned for match-fixing by Fifa and the Chinese Football Association.”

via BBC Sport – David Beckham takes up China football ambassador role.

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03/03/2013

* Spill in China Lays Bare Environmental Concerns

NY Times: “The first warning came in the form of dead fish floating in a river.

 

Then officials in this city got confirmation that a chemical spill had taken place at a fertilizer factory upstream. They shut off the tap water, which sent residents into a scramble for bottled water. In the countryside, officials also told farmers not to graze their livestock near the river.

The spill, which occurred on Dec. 31, affected at least 28 villages and a handful of cities of more than one million people, including Handan. Officials here were irate that their counterparts in Changzhi, where the polluting factory was located, had delayed reporting the spill for five days. For the past two months, Changzhi officials and executives at the company running the factory, Tianji Coal Chemical Industry Group, have generally stayed silent, exacerbating anxiety over water quality.

The conflict over the Changzhi spill has drawn attention to the growing problems with water use and pollution in northern China. The region, which has suffered from a drought for decades, is grappling with how industrial companies should operate along rivers. Local officials are shielding polluting companies and covering up environmental degradation, say environmentalists.

“Problems with water weren’t so serious before, but they have become much worse with industrial consumption,” said Yin Qingli, a lawyer in Handan who filed a lawsuit in January against Tianji, which uses water to convert coal to fertilizer at the factory in Changzhi.

Environmental degradation has led many Chinese to question the Communist Party’s management of the country’s economic growth. Addressing the problem is one the greatest challenges for the administration of Xi Jinping, the new chief of the Communist Party. Environmental issues will most likely be on the agenda at the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, scheduled to begin on Tuesday.”

via Spill in China Lays Bare Environmental Concerns – NYTimes.com.

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03/03/2013

* We will defeat Maoists design through development: Jairam Ramesh

Times of India: “The Centre would “fight” Naxals through welfare and empowerment schemes and protect tribals from being used as shields by the ultras, union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said.

Cropped from image of Jairam Ramesh the Indian...

Jairam Ramesh the Indian Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“In the name of forest dwellers, Maoists have created an atmosphere of fear (in the society). Our fight against Maoists is continuing. Through schemes for tribal welfare and women empowerment, with a strong political willpower, we will defeat their design,” he told a meeting of Adivasi Adhikar Samavesa at Narla in Odisha’s Kalahandi district.

Stating that Maoists were using tribals as shields, Ramesh said the Naxal issue can be tackled by strengthening Gram Sabhas and accelerating political processes and greater participation among forest dwellers.

As promised, the UPA government had undertaken several developmental schemes for uplift of tribals and many more were in the offing, Ramesh said.

Union Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo, who also attended the function, said tribals remained deprived as benefits of developmental schemes failed to percolate to them and they should be brought into the social mainstream.

A large number of tribal representatives from different parts of Kalahandi and adjoining districts drew the attention of the two union ministers to various problems, including the issue of fake caste certificates.

In a major step to empower forest dwellers, Jamguda in tribal dominated Kalahandi became the first village in Odisha and second in the country to exercise its community right to harvest bamboo under the Forest Rights Act.

With transit passes given to gram sabha, residents of Jamguda are now free to harvest and sell bamboo and not wait wait for the government’s special permission.”

via We will defeat Maoists design through development: Jairam Ramesh – The Times of India.

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03/03/2013

* China village Shangpu defies officials to demand democracy

SCMP: “Villagers in southern China were locked in a standoff with authorities on Sunday and were demanding democratic polls after a violent clash with thugs linked to a local official over a land transfer.

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Just over a week ago, residents of Shangpu in Guangdong province fought with scores of attackers whom they claimed were sent by the village Communist Party chief and a business tycoon after they protested against a land deal.

Now police are blockading the settlement to outsiders while residents refuse to let officials inside, days before the annual meeting of the country’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC).

The situation recalls a similar episode in Wukan, also in Guangdong and around 100 kilometres from Shangpu, which made headlines worldwide 15 months ago.

At the main entrance of the village of 3,000 people, 40 police and officials stood guard, barring outside vehicles from entering. Not far away, a cloth banner read: “Strongly request legal, democratic elections.”

Shangpu’s two-storey houses, typical of the region, and low-slung family-run workshops are surrounded by fields awaiting spring planting. But the main street is lined with the wrecks of cars damaged in the clash, with glass and metal littering the ground.”

via China village Shangpu defies officials to demand democracy | South China Morning Post.

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03/03/2013

* A push for change in China as new leaders take the helm

Reuters: “For Chen Qiuyang, the new Chinese leadership that formally takes over this month can radically improve her life by doing just one thing: providing running water in her village in a remote corner of the northwestern province of Gansu.

Chief of China's Communist Party Xi Jinping is seen in a picture during a visit in Yuangudui village, Gansu Province February 12, 2013. Communist Party chief Xi Jinping, who takes over as China's new president during the annual meeting of the legislature beginning on March 5, visited Yuangudui in February to highlight the poverty that still reigns in huge swaths of the country. Closing a yawning income gap is likely to be one of the policy priorities of his administration and the impoverished villagers are fully conscious of the inequality plaguing China, even if some of them had never heard of Xi Jinping before he showed up in town. Most young people have left for the provincial capital of Lanzhou, where they can make 1,000 yuan ($160) a month, more than the average village income of 800 yuan a year. Picture taken on February 12, 2013. REUTERS-Carlos Barria

“We have to carry water from the well on our shoulders several times day. It’s exhausting,” Chen, who looked older than her 28 years, said in Yuangudui village, resting on a stool outside her home after completing another trip to the well.

Communist Party chief Xi Jinping takes over as China’s new president during the annual meeting of parliament beginning on Tuesday and bridging the widening income gap in the vast nation is one of his foremost challenges.

Xi has effectively been running China since assuming leadership of the party and military – where real power lies – in November, and has already projected a more relaxed, softer image than his stern predecessor Hu Jintao.

But there will be pressure on him to tackle problems accumulated during Hu’s era like inequality and pervasive corruption, which have given rise to often violent outbursts in the world’s second-biggest economy, sending shivers through the party.

Outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao will likely address these issues in his last “state of the nation” report at the National People’s Congress to nearly 3,000 delegates, whose ranks include CEOs, generals, political leaders and Tibetan monks – as well as some of China’s richest businessmen.

China now has 317 billionaires, a fifth of the total number in the world, and is on track to overtake the United States as the largest luxury car market by 2016.

Yet the United Nations says 13 percent of China’s 1.3 billion population, or about 170 million people, still live on less than $1.25 a day.

While parliament is a regimented show of unity that affirms rather than criticizes policies, income redistribution is likely to be a hot topic, along with other issues like ministry restructuring, corruption and the environment.

In January, the State Council, or cabinet, issued a new fiscal framework designed to make rich individuals and state corporations contribute more to government coffers and strengthen a social security net for those at the bottom.

But tackling China’s wealth gap will need more than just taxes. Analysts say state-owned enterprises will have to be privatized and the household registration, or hukou, system that prevents migrants from enjoying the benefits of urban citizens, will have to be dismantled.

“Fiscal reforms and changes to let private firms advance and the state retreat will decide whether this round of reforms can succeed,” said Xia Bin, an economist at the cabinet think-tank Development Research Centre and a former central bank adviser.

“There is definitely no way out,” he wrote in the latest edition of China Finance, a magazine published by the central bank.

via A push for change in China as new leaders take the helm | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Economics, income-wealth gap, Low income | Leave a Comment »

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03/03/2013

* Migrant workers feel like outsiders in mainland cities, says survey

SCMP: “Despite spending years working in mainland cities, migrant workers still feel like outsiders and say their only sense of happiness comes from their families, a Renmin University survey has found.

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They also see themselves as the bottom of society and feel alienated because they have no influence on their lives or society in general, the survey found, with young migrant workers even gloomier about their prospects.

The findings underscore the challenge facing the new administration in realising premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang‘s high-profile commitment to people-oriented urbanisation.

The survey of 2,011 migrant workers, conducted in 20 major cities, found their sense of happiness came mainly from the satisfaction of their basic needs, such as income and education, how close they were to home and how often they could see their children.

Most said they felt that their social standing was very low and they were less happy than those who thought more highly of themselves. More than half of those with low opinions of themselves felt lonely, bored and incapable of having an impact on their lives or society.

The survey also found that migrant workers were not necessarily happier in more economically developed cities, with those in central and western regions where competition was less fierce generally more content.

Professor Hu Ping , from Renmin University’s psychology department, which conducted the survey, said the government should pay more attention to the well-being of migrant workers.

“Not just their basic living requirements and food but also their social needs such as being recognised, accepted and respected by society,” Hu said. “Their needs to participate in social life should also be met.”

Compared with a similar survey last year, migrant workers’ living standards had improved but their sense of happiness from social involvement and social standing had dipped.

Wang Junxiu , a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Science, said the survey showed that the sense of happiness of migrant workers was not entirely based on how much money they made but also how they felt about the future.

“The core of urbanisation is how to make these migrant workers urban residents and from the survey we see the migrant workers are not … wanting different levels of needs one by one,” Wang said. “Instead, they need to fulfil their needs at the same time and the government should do more to make them integrate into society.”

Hu said the government should be alert to the class awareness of migrant workers and work out strategies to effectively resolve conflicts among different social strata to avoid conflict.

Professor Ye Yumin , from Renmin University’s school of public administration and policy, said urbanisation should mean not only that people could move from place to place but also allow them to move up the social ladder. “Otherwise it is not successful,” she said.

Ye said it was the government’s job to create a fair channel for migrant workers to move up and the most effective way was through education.

via Migrant workers feel like outsiders in mainland cities, says survey | South China Morning Post.

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03/03/2013

Another indication of China’s industry going up-stream.

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02/03/2013

* China targets 15 pc of satellite launch market

SCMP: “China is looking to increase its share of the global commercial satellite launching business, targeting a 15 per cent share by 2020.

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China has just 3 per cent of the market now, but the goal laid out on Saturday by a leading space programme official points to its ambitions to be a major player in space.

The deputy head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Liang Xiaohong, told the official Xinhua News Agency that China hopes to accomplish that by establishing strategic alliances with major launch services providers and satellite manufacturers, along with developing its own technology.

China’s main competition in the launch market comes from Europe and the US

Liang said China’s first solid-fuel rocket that could be launched on short notice would make its first flight by 2016.”

via China targets 15 pc of satellite launch market | South China Morning Post.

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02/03/2013

Oh dear. It’s a case of “one the one hand, but on the other … “

Posted in China alert, Economics, energy, GeoPolitics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

01/03/2013

* China’s billionaires on rise

China Daily: “China has had more billionaires created by its stock markets this year than in the United States – 212 compared with 211 – a new survey revealed on Thursday.

China's Rich List – The Inside Story

According to the latest Hurun Global Rich List 2013, there were 1,453 people in the world with personal wealth of $1 billion or more at the end of January.

Another significant sign of more wealth being created in the East came with figures showing Asia was home to the highest number of billionaires, with 608, followed by 440 from North America and 324 from Europe, said Hurun researchers.

Among individual countries, the US and the Greater China area dominated with 408 and 357 respectively, followed by Russia, Germany and India.

Between them, the US and China now have half of all billionaires on the planet.

Moscow, with 76 billionaires, is the billionaire capital of the world, followed by New York, Hong Kong, Beijing and London, according to the report.

Mexican telecom czar Carlos Slim, 73, was ranked as the “Richest Man on the Planet” with a personal fortune of $66 billion, followed by US investor Warren Buffett with $58 billion in wealth.

Founder of fashion brand Zara, Amancio Ortega of Spain, shoots into the top three with $55 billion in wealth.

Real estate, telecommunications, media, technology and retail were the most common sources of wealth, the report added.”

via China’s billionaires on rise |Economy |chinadaily.com.cn.

Posted in Affluence, China alert, Economics | Leave a Comment »

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