It is a a fair change when Chinese journalists and newspapers can challenge the authorities about censorship. Let’s see how this plays out. Was it a provincial initiative or did it have the blessing of Beijing?
04/01/2013
* Poorest Chinese province to settle 100,000 in new homes
This is one way of lifting the very poor out of their poverty. China seems to be the only country capable of doing so; not India, Brazil or any of the other countries with huge slums and large clusters of the ultra poor.
Xinhua: “A southwestern Chinese province with the largest impoverished population in the country will relocate more than 100,000 destitute rural residents into modern communities before spring 2013.
The move was part of a poverty alleviation project initiated last year to move 2 million farmers out of the province’s poverty-ridden mountainous and desert areas within nine years.
According to the province’s office on poverty relief and ecological migration, Guizhou built 180 new communities for the project in 2012, with a cost of 1.81 billion yuan (287.9 million U.S. dollars).
The first batch of 101,300 farmers are expected to move into their new homes before this year’s Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on February 10, an official from the office said.
Guizhou is home to 11.49 million rural residents who are struggling below the national poverty line for farmers, which was raised to 2,300 yuan in per capital annual income in 2011.
The official said most of the communities were adjacent to towns and industrial parks where job opportunities abound, and the local governments will offer job training to help the farmers adapt to their new lives.
Those relocated near towns will also have access to education, medical services and other social welfare enjoyed by urban dwellers.
Officials in Guizhou said the project would relocate another 250,000 farmers in 2013.”
via Poorest Chinese province to settle 100,000 in new homes – Xinhua | English.news.cn.
04/01/2013
* China’s investment in UK will be ‘explosive’
United Kingdom (Photo credit: stumayhew)
China Daily: “China’s investment in the United Kingdom will continue its “explosive” growth, with high-end manufacturing and infrastructure leading the way, a senior diplomat predicted.
“The UK is the most open economy, and also the most market-oriented,” in Europe, said Zhou Xiaoming, minister counselor of the Chinese embassy in the UK.
Chinese companies have been answering the call from some members of the European Union for capital.
In 2011, the UK was the third-largest EU destination for Chinese investment, following Luxembourg and France, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
China’s overseas direct investment in the UK in 2011 was $2.5 billion, it said.
But Zhou said the real figure was far more as Chinese overall investment in the UK experienced “explosive” growth.
“It is estimated that the Chinese capital that flew into the country in 2011 reached $6.5 billion,” said Zhou.”
via China’s investment in UK will be ‘explosive’ |Economy |chinadaily.com.cn.
See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/13/pattern-of-chinese-overseas-investments/
02/01/2013
* The Word From Beijing: Thank You for Not Smoking
WSJ: “China’s government has a New Year’s resolution: to stamp out smoking.
Leaders aim to reduce smokers to 25% of the population by 2015, down from 28% in 2010, according to a smoking-cessation plan the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published recently. The work of the ministries of health, finance and foreign affairs, as well as the administrations of tobacco, safety, customs, industry and commerce, it plots moves to ban smoking in public places and end ads and sponsorships by tobacco companies.
China is home to 300 million smokers, a quarter of the world total, and they burn up a third of the world’s cigarettes, according to a study from the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
The stub-smoking initiative comes weeks after World Health Organization officials urged China’s government to reduce smoking rates by at least 30% by 2025 through programs teaching that habits such as tobacco use and excessive salt intake can lead to chronic diseases and early death.
Smoking-related sicknesses kill more than one million Chinese citizens each year, according to the WHO, and smoking contributes to the country’s high rates of chronic disease—which accounts for 80% of deaths and 70% of health expenditure.
Critics of China’s tobacco plan say enforcement details are lacking. A smoking ban in public places such as hotels and restaurants, announced in 2011, has been only loosely applied.
“Apart from the legal codes legislated by various local governments on banning smoking and installing ‘no smoking’ signs in public places, there are hardly any specific rules to enforce the ban,” an editorial in the state-owned China Daily said, adding, “Besides, very few smokers have received due punishment violating the ban.” The editorial also notes that cigarette packages lack graphic health warnings—which in other parts of the world can include gruesome images.
Beijing has said long said it is determined to tackle the country’s smoking problem, but so far has had little success. Cigarettes remain cheap—available for less than $1 for a pack, according to the WHO, which recommended last year that China triple its tobacco tax to 70% to discourage young would-be smokers from buying.”
via The Word From Beijing: Thank You for Not Smoking – China Real Time Report – WSJ.
Related articles
- New study shows: more smoking bans and taxes lead to fewer smoking-related deaths (smartsign.com)
- The Hazy History of Smoking Bans (smokingsigns.com)
02/01/2013
* China’s taste for pork serves up a pollution problem
This is but an indication of what is going to happen when billions of poor people become affluent enough to want the things that affluent Westerners take for granted.
The Guardian: “Fan Jianjun points to a concrete pipe jutting from the lake bank. Sludge spews from its mouth and arcs across the water, the surface bubbling with the bodies of flies.
Fan has lived in Houtonglong village all his 31 years. The water was clear, he says, before the pig farm was built and people’s health began to suffer.
No one consulted the villagers before Shengtai pig farm was built 100 metres from their homes. The farm produces 10,000 animals a year – a relatively small concern in the world of industrialised farming – but there is so much waste to dispose of, the village air is thick with the stench. In the rainy season manure escapes from the farm, covering the roads. Villagers are developing respiratory problems and Fan struggles to raise chickens and ducks, which die soon after hatching.
In the 10 years since the farm arrived, the villagers have tried to get it dislodged. “We pulled down the walls several times, and blocked the gate with mud and trucks,” said Fan, a self-employed businessman. Complaints to the local government have gone unanswered, so Fan turned to internet forums to raise awareness. “We can only hope the farm will stop polluting our environment,” he added. “Our village was once a very beautiful place.”
Pork is China’s favourite meat: last year the country produced 50m tonnes – more than half the world’s total – and as the disposable incomes of China’s 1.3 billion people rise, their appetite is growing. “Pork is wrapped up in ideas of progress and modernity,” said Mindi Schneider, a sociologist at Cornell University. Until the 1990s typical families only ate meat at Chinese new year.
Memories of the devastating famine that killed tens of millions in the early 1960s still weigh heavy on the Chinese psyche. “I’ve heard people talking about eating meat in ‘revenge,'” Schneider said. “It was so limited before. Now it’s like: ‘look at this progress, we can eat as much meat as we want.'”
In 1980 the average Chinese person ate 14kg of meat. Today that person eats over four times more, almost 60kg. In comparison, the average American eats 125kg of meat each year and the average Briton about 85kg.
The livestock industry is transforming accordingly. Seen from a hilltop 200 miles from Houtonglong, the future of Chinese pork production takes the form of 32 identical redbrick pig sheds, shaded by leafy trees.”
via China’s taste for pork serves up a pollution problem | World news | The Guardian.
02/01/2013
* Obama Eyes $108 Billion Annual Asia Prize Vying With China Trade
Bloomberg: “More than a century and a half after Millard Fillmore dispatched an emissary to Asia to transform commerce across the Pacific, a U.S. president again sees an historic opportunity to strengthen America’s role in the region.
Barack Obama sent his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, to Asia for a record 86 days in his first term, including — for the first time — stops in all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Obama himself became the first sitting commander-in-chief to visit Myanmar, a nation the International Monetary Fund says may be the next economic frontier in Asia.
As in the wake of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1850s voyages to Japan, American companies are seeking greater opportunities, with General Electric Co. (GE) and Ford Motor Co. backing Obama’s plan for an 11-country Pacific trade deal that could bring in $108 billion a year. Instead of Perry’s gunships, what may propel Asian nations toward Obama’s vision is concern from Japan to Vietnam that China’s ascendance may pose a threat.
“The U.S. is serious about its commitment to Asia and sees Asia as the future in terms of economic growth in the 21st century,” said Simon Kahn, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore and Google Inc. (GOOG)’s chief Asia-Pacific marketing officer. “That has a very real impact in discussions with business counterparts in terms of thinking about long-term investments.”
Personal History
The connection is part personal for Obama, 51, who lived in Jakarta from 1967 to 1971. In his second year in office, the president returned to Indonesia’s capital, addressing an audience of about 6,000 at the University of Indonesia highlighting prospects for deeper economic ties, “because a rising middle class here means new markets for our goods, just as America is a market for yours.”
Less than two years after Obama’s visit, Boeing Co. (BA) confirmed a record 230-plane order valued at $22.4 billion at list prices from PT Lion Mentari Airlines, a budget carrier in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most-populous nation.
“If you look at global growth, obviously this region is where the action is,” Bill Ford, executive chairman of the second-biggest U.S. automaker, said in a response to questions while on a visit to Thailand, where he toured a $450 million plant that the Dearborn, Michigan-based company opened this year. The administration’s support for U.S. manufacturers has helped Ford expand its exports of the Explorer sport-utility vehicle to more than 90 nations, he said.
Growth Prospects
The IMF forecasts developing countries in Asia to grow 7.7 percent in 2017, almost triple the pace of advanced economies, increasing demand for everything from toothpaste and automobiles to missile systems as nations protect their newfound wealth.
Asian stocks also demonstrate the region’s lure, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Excluding Japan Index climbing 100 percent since Obama took office, a period when the MSCI World Index rose 56 percent. Price-to-earnings ratios present “no obstacle” to more gains, according to Nomura Holdings Inc. equity strategists led by Michael Kurtz in Hong Kong. Kurtz’s team targeted 530 for the MSCI Asia Pacific Excluding Japan Index in 2013 in a note dated Dec. 3, marking a 14 percent gain from current levels.
Obama’s trade strategy is built around the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Negotiators from 11 countries — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam — will meet in Singapore in early March for the 16th round of talks aimed at bringing down tariffs, strengthening patent protection and allowing greater access to government contracts.
Stepping Up
“There are significant risks to the U.S. of being marginalized in Asia if they do not step up to the trade plate,” said Deborah K. Elms, head of the Temasek Foundation Centre for Trade & Negotiations in Singapore. “They have to be able to push the TPP past the finish line.”
Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines are all considering joining the TPP talks — a move that, along with an entry by Indonesia and 11 mostly smaller nations, could bring the U.S. annual income of $108 billion a year, according to Asia-Pacific Trade, a website whose contributors include Peter A. Petri, a Brandeis University professor.
The U.S. aims to complete the TPP talks by the end of next year and have it take effect by 2015, Michael Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, said in an interview.”
via Obama Eyes $108 Billion Annual Asia Prize Vying With China Trade – Bloomberg.
Related articles
- You: In talks with Obama, Noda again plays up TPP (japantimes.co.jp)
- Obama Turns to a Place Where the Economy Grows – Bloomberg (blog) (bloomberg.com)
- Trade alliances to reshape Asia far from settled (pacific.scoop.co.nz)
- https://chindia-alert.org/political-factors/geopolitics-chinese/
01/01/2013
* Reform now or there’ll be a revolution, Chinese leaders told
The Times: “China faces the prospect of “violent revolution” if the Government fails to implement political reform, a group of prominent intellectuals is warning six weeks after the country’s change of leadership.
The call, from 73 of China’s leading scholars, came as dramatic footage emerged yesterday of activists pushing past security officials to reach Liu Xia, the wife of the Nobel Prizewinning dissident Liu Xiaobo.
In a pointed open letter, the academics warn: “If reforms to the system urgently needed by Chinese society keep being frustrated and stagnate without progress, then … China will again miss the opportunity for peaceful reform, and slip into the turbulence and chaos of violent revolution.”
Drafted by Zhang Qianfan, a Law Professor at Peking University, the letter has garnered signatures from such prominent figures as Zhang Sizhi, a lawyer who is known in China as “the conscience of the legal world” and is best known abroad as the man who defended Mao Zedong’s widow at her 1980 trial. Other well-known signatories include Hu Xingdou, a noted economist at the Beijing Institute of Technology, and Jiang Ping, the former dean of the Chinese University of Political Science and Law.
The letter was circulated on the internet but was quickly removed from Chinese news sites, and links to it have been removed from Mr Zhang’s profile on the microblog Weibo.
Entitled “An Initiative on Reform Consensus”, it has echoes of Charter 08, a manifesto published in 2008 calling for the protection of human rights and an end to one-party rule. The main author of that manifesto, Liu Xiaobo, was arrested on charges of subversion and sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment in December 2009.
In a separate development Hu Jia, one of China’s leading dissidents, broke through a security cordon to enter the apartment of Mr Liu’s wife, who has been kept under house arrest since her husband won the peace prize. In a video clip of the confrontation, which was posted on YouTube yesterday, a security official is shown telling Mr Hu and two other activists that it will not be possible for them to see Ms Liu. In response, the three force their way past, saying: “Who are you to tell us it’s not possible?”
Although the petition, signed by the 73 academics last week, raises the spectre of violent revolution, the demands made are not as radical as those found in Liu Xiaobo’s 2008 charter. The signatories to the latest letter urge China’s new leaders to rule according to the country’s constitution. In particular, the letter underlines the Government’s duty to protect freedom of speech, the press and the right to demonstrate, to deepen market reform and to allow for an independent judiciary.
These advocates of reform may have been encouraged by signals sent out by Xi Jinping, China’s new leader, who succeeded Hu Jintao as General Secretary of the Communist Party in November.
Commentators have noted Mr Xi’s easy-going style compared with his predecessors and his decision to do away with red carpets for officials.
He has been quoted in the state press saying: “The Government earnestly wants to study the issues that are being brought up, and wants to perfect the market economy system … by deepening reform, and resolve the issues by strengthening rule of law.”
Judged by actions, the signals sent out by the new government have been mixed. An apparent easing of internet searching restrictions, during which it was possible to search Chinese microblogs for the names of top officials for the first time in months, was followed by legislation that critics say will discourage free commenting online by requiring real-name registration for internet users.
Similar hopes that Mr Hu would prove to be a reformer, which were aired when he first took office, were later dashed by years of stagnation on political reform, a period that has come to be known by many as the “lost decade”.”
via Reform now or there’ll be a revolution, Chinese leaders told | The Times.
Related articles
- Release Liu Xiaobo and wife (point4counterpoint.wordpress.com)
- Nobel laureates urge China to free Liu Xiaobo (guardian.co.uk)
- Chinese activist’s wife describes his imprisonment (independent.co.uk)
- China Scholars Demand Ruling Party Relax Grip on Govt (bloomberg.com)
31/12/2012
* Report confirms blog’s power in fighting graft
This research report confirms what has been obvious for several years: the power of the Internet over formal communications channels.
China Daily: “Micro blogs, like the social networking site Sina Weibo, have improved authority’s efficiency in handling anti-corruption cases, but also pose challenges in distinguishing true from false, according to a recently released report by Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Public Opinion Research Lab.
Of the 24 widespread micro blog reports this year, nine have been confirmed as frauds, the report said.
“The micro blog plays a major role in fighting corruption nowadays, but posts online need to be carefully sifted to find what is reliable information,” the report said.
As more netizens become familiar with and participate in fighting corruption, more messages spread each day that await authorities’ attention, said Xie Yungeng, an expert in public opinion and new media at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
“A regulation should be established on what kind of reports discipline authorities should respond to and set time limits for their response,” he said.
“The new way of fighting corruption is testing the wisdom and ability of disciplinary bodies,” said Zhu Lijia, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Governance.”
via Report confirms blog’s power in fighting graft[1]|chinadaily.com.cn.
Related articles
- China: Anti-corruption tsar hears calls for transparency (chindia-alert.org)
31/12/2012
* Reform plans published for migrants’ education
A good news item to end the year with – moves to embrace migrant workers rather than treat them as a short-term anomaly.
China Daily: “China’s Beijing and Shanghai cities and Guangdong Province on Sunday published plans to gradually allow migrant workers’ children to enter senior high schools and sit college entrance exams locally.
They are the latest in a total of 13 provinces and municipalities to formulate plans to ensure that rural children who have followed their parents to cities can enjoy the same rights as their urban peers in education.
Beijing will allow migrant workers’ children to attend local vocational schools in 2013 and allow them to be matriculated by universities after graduating from the vocational programs in 2014, said a statement from the city’s commission of education.
The eastern metropolis of Shanghai took a step further, saying it will allow migrant children in the city to enter local senior high schools, vocational schools and sit college entrance exams (commonly known as gaokao) locally starting in 2014.
Guangdong, a manufacturing heartland in south China and a magnet for migrant workers, has asked its cities to start recruiting migrant workers’ children in local senior high schools in 2013.
The province will allow these children to sit gaokao and compete with local residents on an equal footing in college entrance starting in 2016, Luo Weiqi, head of the province’s education department, told Xinhua.
Luo said the restrictions would be relaxed gradually and “step by step” as the province must solve the conflict between its gigantic migrant population and a scarcity of education resources.
Migrant workers, whose children could be benefited by the new plans of the three regions, must have residential permits, stable jobs and incomes, and meet other local requirements, according to the plans.
China’s hukou, or household registration system, used to confine children to attending schools in their home provinces. A 2003 regulation amended this by allowing migrant workers’ children to receive the nine-year compulsory education in cities where their parents work.
But the country has in recent years faced mounting protests from its migrant workers, whose children under current policies had to either return to the countryside for further schooling or risk dropping out of school if they chose to stay with their parents in cities where the parents work.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education asked Chinese cities to formulate plans before the end of this year regarding the further education and gaokao of migrant workers’ children.
Official figures show that China has more than 250 million farmers-turned-workers living in cities. An estimated 20 million children have migrated with their parents to the cities, while more than 10 million are left behind in their rural hometowns.”
via Reform plans published for migrants’ education |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.
Related articles
- * Testing time for China’s migrants as they demand access to education (chindia-alert.org)
- * Top China official urges residency permit reform (chindia-alert.org)
- * Wealth gap to be cut, Han Changfu tells Central Rural Work Conference (chindia-alert.org)
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 