Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi (R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe (L) in Cairo, Egypt, March 25, 2019. (Xinhua)
CAIRO, March 25 (Xinhua) — Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi pledged to further enhance defense cooperation with China during his meeting with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe on Monday.
During the meeting, Sisi recalled the long-standing China-Egypt relation during which the two sides had achieved fruitful results from their cooperation in all fields and highlighted China’s contribution to world peace.
He hailed China’s great achievements in its development, saying that Egypt firmly supports the Belt and Road Initiative and expects to enhance cooperation in the field of infrastructure construction with the Chinese side.
Sisi also expressed his hope that the two sides can further enhance defense cooperation and conduct more cooperation in the fields of counter terrorism, joint military drills, armed forces buildup as well as defense industry.
Noting that the friendship between China and Egypt has a long history, Wei highlighted the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, adding that it has gone deeper and achieved pragmatic results.
Wei said that China appreciates Egypt’s important role in international and regional issues, supports Egypt’s efforts to defend its independence and sovereignty, adding that China is ready to enhance cooperation and work together with Egypt to promote the Belt and Road Initiative to achieve better and faster development of bilateral relations.
Under the leadership of the two heads of state, the military cooperation between China and Egypt has achieved fruitful results. “We are willing to work together with the Egyptian armed forces to implement important consensus between the two leaders and develop a higher level of relations between the two armies,” Wei said.
Wei also met with Egyptian Defense Minister Mohamed Zaki on Sunday.
Angela Merkel says Europe is still keen to participate in infrastructure scheme despite concerns about spread of Chinese influence
EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker seeks to reassure Chinese leader Xi Jinping that view of China as ‘strategic rival’ is a compliment
Xi Jinping and Angela Merkel and the Paris meeting. Photo: EPA-EFE
European leaders sought to reassure China over trade and cooperation on Tuesday by suggesting they were still open to joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who is hosting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the final leg of his European tour, had invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to the meeting in Paris, where the four stressed their support for multilateralism and the pursuit of cooperation between major powers.
The visit took place amid growing European scepticism about China’s influence and follows a decision by Brussels to brand China a “systemic rival” in a policy paper earlier this month.
“We understand that China does not like the expression ‘rivals’, but it is a compliment describing our shared ambitions,” Juncker told a press conference.
However, the EU and China also share concerns about the growing US trend towards protectionism – as manifested in the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing.
For his part, Xi stressed that China was determined to protect the world’s multilateral system, and was ready to continue with “opening up”.
He also invited European countries to join the belt and road scheme – which Washington has characterised as a Chinese “vanity project”.
The scheme has caused increased concern in the West about the extent to which it will help spread Chinese influence, especially since Italy became the first G7 economy to join the project over the weekend.
But Merkel stressed it was an important project that Europeans still wanted to participate in.
She continued: “We, as Europeans, want to play an active part and that must lead to a certain reciprocity and we are still wrangling over that a bit.
“We are seeing the project as a good visualisation of interaction, interrelation and interdependence.”
Xi also said China’s process of opening up its economy to the world had allowed the country to achieve in the space of 40 years what the Europeans had managed over the course of the industrial revolution.
“We will continue to open up,” he said, “and to make the world a better open economy.”
“The Belt and Road Initiative has enriched the world’s multilateral system, we welcome all countries, including France, to join,” Xi said.
The US has also put increasing pressure on European countries to block the Chinese tech giant Huawei, which it sees as a security threat, from playing a role in European communications networks.
Despite her support for Xi’s stance on multilateralism, Merkel was still keen to express support for America’s role in upholding global order.
“The triangle between EU, China and US is very important. Without the US, we will not be able to have multilateralism. Our relations from the European side are obviously very important,” Merkel said.
However, she also noted that the trade war between the US and CHina was “hitting our German economy” and disturbing the balance.
Image captionFrank Liu says his company Intco was the victim of intellectual property theft
There was no break in, no hold up. No glass was smashed. But the factory on the outskirts of Shanghai was the scene of a very modern crime. Someone stole a hoard of intellectual property.
“A couple of years ago one of my IT managers copied ten thousand pages of my entire company’s profile,” Frank Liu told me. His company Intco has been around for 25 years.
He told me the stolen download included “our technology information, our customer list, our purchasing and supply information. Everything.”
Intco is a business that makes medical devices, skirting boards and photo frames. I visited its offices at a business park in Shanghai, and a factory that sits either side of a tree-lined road south of the city.
The company recycles polystyrene waste sent to China from all over the world. Then, using heat moulding and imprinting techniques, it turns it into an array of products which end up on the floors of houses in Brazil or Russia, or hanging on walls displaying photos in the US and Britain.
“We actually have the record of how he stole it,” Mr Liu told me. “He just sold it to establish another company, as his investment.”
Mr Liu feels he has no recourse. He told me he went to the police but nothing happened. He said he still intends to pursue it.
His story is increasingly common here, for both local businesses and foreign firms.
Top officials from the US and China will hold their next round of trade talks this week and protecting intellectual property (IP) is a key demand for Washington. They argue American and other foreign companies in China have endured decades of theft and infringement.
China has taken some steps to address the problem. The country only established copyright laws in the 1980s, but things have progressed relatively quickly since then.
China now has specialist IP courts, albeit – like every aspect of the judicial system – subservient to the ruling Communist Party. They are supposed to settle cases within 12 to 18 months.
Their creation was not due solely to outside pressure from foreign firms.
Chinese business figures like Mr Liu have also called for the country’s legal system to better protect the innovators and entrepreneurs who have turned China into much more than the “copycat” economy it was once labelled.
Benjamin Qiu, an IP lawyer with US law firm Loeb & Loeb, told me that the Chinese are now just as litigious as foreign firms.
Foreign firms are just as likely to win a case – a good case, Mr Qiu added – as domestic plaintiffs. In the past few years Lego and New Balance have both won high-profile cases against copycat manufacturers.
There is no doubt that the trade war with the US has sped up the pace of reform in China.
The Foreign Investment Law states that the transfer of technology from foreign investors to any domestic partner must be voluntary. China has always defended this highly contentious practice by insisting it’s part of an agreed commercial arrangement.
The new law also bars government officials from passing on details of foreign investors IP.
A new era?
Now though comes the hard part – enforcement.
Mr Qiu told me the next step is “detailed regulation coming out after this law, and we want to see actual cases in local courts and also from enforcement agencies.”
If that follows, then he thinks “potentially the foreign IP owners will have more to protect [them] in China.”
Both the EU and American Chambers of Commerce welcomed the new law, but both also criticised what they said was ambiguity in the legislation. The Americans also had concerns that it was rushed through without proper consultation.
Many foreign companies have been stung over the years in China. Most have found the lure of the massive market, or what was once rock bottom labour costs, irresistible.
Some though feel the risk is too high.
A fruit industry executive recently told me his firm wanted to buy new conveyor belts for their farms in China, but the European manufacturers said no. They feared their systems would be copied here, and they’d be wiped out.
Mr Liu can’t do that. He is Chinese and wants to stay in China. But he has taken steps to try to prevent another IP theft.
Image captionProduction line used to create photo frames at an Intco factory in Shanghai
He is chief executive of the company he founded, but this year he told me he’s changing his title to include head of research and development. Because he can’t trust anyone else with the firms’ commercial secrets.
Protecting original ideas, techniques and information in China – “it’s a human right” he told me.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Smartphone retailers in China say it’s a tough sell of late with consumers reluctant to upgrade, put off by chill economic winds.
Even so domestic brands led by Huawei have made big strides, wooing consumers with top-notch hardware and innovative features as they move upmarket in the $500-$800 price range. The result: a loss of share in a key segment for Apple Inc and fresh price cuts for iPhones by Chinese retailers.
“Of those people who are upgrading, there are many switching from Apple to Chinese brands but very few switching from Chinese brands to Apple,” said Jiang Ning, who manages a Xiaomi store in the northern province of Shandong.
Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, Xiaomi Corp, Oppo and Vivo once sought to grab share in the world’s biggest smartphone market with value-for-money devices, but consumer demand for better phones has prompted strategic rethinks.
“People are more attached to their phone than ever and have higher expectations for the function and experience it offers. The response has been constant upgrading of hardware specs,” Alen Wu, global vice president at Oppo, told Reuters.
He Fan, CEO of Huishoubao which buys and resells used phones, said he has seen a consumer shift to Huawei from Apple, driven by the Chinese love of selfies and emphasis on camera quality. Huawei has had a tie-up with German camera maker Leica since 2016.
“Huawei’s cameras have become noticeably better than Apple’s in that they suit the tastes of Chinese consumers more,” he said.
Compared to dual-cameras common in most smartphones, Huawei’s P20 Pro device boasts three rear-facing cameras, with the additional one improving zoom capabilities.
It is one of several new devices in its P20 and Mate 20 lines, which helped Huawei’s share of the $500-$800 segment in China surge to 26.6 percent last year from 8.8 percent, data from research firm Counterpoint shows.
Apple, by contrast, saw its share of the segment tumble to 54.6 percent from 81.2 percent, also hurt by its decision to move even further upmarket with the iPhone X series.
“Most Chinese smartphone buyers are not ready to shell out beyond $1,000 for a phone,” said Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint. “This left a gap in the below-$800 segment, which Chinese vendors grabbed with both hands.”
Shipments of phones priced above $600 in China grew 10 percent in 2018, data from research firm Canalys shows. By contrast, the overall market shrunk 14 percent, marking a second year of contraction.
OVERSEAS GAINS
The weaker cachet for Apple in China was underscored this month when several major retailers simultaneously cut iPhone prices for a second time this year.
A 64GB iPhone 8 sold at Suning.com Co Ltd now costs 3,899 yuan ($580), roughly 25 percent less than it did in December. That’s also lower than its $599 price tag in the United States, where iPhones typically cost less to buy than in China. Most iPhone models through to the iPhone 8 series have seen prices in China cut, albeit not equally.
In earnings too, it seems to be a tale of divergent fortunes. Apple’s October-December revenue from the Greater China region fell by about a quarter from a year earlier. Greater China currently accounts for 15.6 percent of its overall revenue.
Huawei, the world’s No. 2 smartphone maker, has estimated revenue for 2018 rose 21 percent, which analysts attribute in large part to robust smartphone sales.
More broadly, fewer sales for Apple means fewer customers for its App Store and media streaming services. The shift to higher-end phones by Chinese brands has also meant greater inroads in overseas markets.
Huawei’s shipments in Europe jumped 55 percent in the latest quarter and it now has 23.6 percent market share, according to Canalys. That’s not far behind Samsung Electronics and Apple which saw small declines in shipments.
OPPO, VIVO
If Huawei is taking the lion’s share of turf that Apple once had in China, Oppo and Vivo – brands owned by electronics hardware conglomerate BBK – are the newest threats.
In June, Vivo launched the Nex which starts from 3,898 yuan ($610) and in July, Oppo launched the Find X, priced at 4,999 yuan ($755).
The models mark the first time the brands have priced a phone above $600, a sharp departure from their roots selling $300-$500 models to young consumers in second-tier cities.
The devices came with features unavailable in the iPhone, including under-the-glass fingerprint sensors and “notchless” displays, both of which increase the size of usable screen.
Xiaomi too is going upmarket, announcing in January it would split off its low-budget Redmi range of phones into a sub-brand. In doing so, it is taking a leaf out of Huawei’s book which has for years sold cheaper devices under the Honor brand, helping differentiate its products.
Redmi will target international markets and e-commerce sales, while the flagship Xiaomi brand will target China and offline retail markets, company founder Lei Jun told reporters.
Last month, Xiaomi unveiled the Mi 9, its latest flagship device with a price tag of 2,999 yuan ($450). But the company also said it might be the last time a Xiaomi flagship phone would be priced under 3,000 yuan.
“Xiaomi’s flagship series phones were once always set at 1,999 yuan,” said Lei. “This was a contributing factor to our rise, but it also became an obstacle to our growth,” he said.
The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, said last year that his government had reached its target of providing every village in India with electricity.
“Yesterday, we fulfilled a commitment due to which the lives of several Indians will be changed forever,” Mr Modi tweeted in April 2018.
In the run-up to the Indian election, which gets under way on 11 April, BBC Reality Check examines claims and pledges made by the main political parties.
So does this claim stand up to scrutiny?
Let’s start by looking at villages.
There are almost 600,000 villages in India, according to the 2011 census.
The government defines a village as fully electrified if 10% of its households, as well as public places such as schools and health centres, are connected to the grid.
By this definition, all villages have now been electrified, according to official data.
However, much of the work had been done under the previous governments.
When Mr Modi took office, 96% of all the villages in India were already electrified. That left about 18,000 villages to go.
Before the BJP came to power, India had the world’s largest electricity access deficit – 270 million people.
That accounted for just under a third of the overall global deficit, according to the World Bank’s 2017 State of Electricity Access report.
The World Bank estimates that nearly 85% of the entire population now has access to power supply – that’s slightly higher than the government estimate of 82%.
What about households?
The project Mr Modi launched in September 2017 aimed to provide electricity to all Indian households by December 2018, covering 40 million families, primarily targeting rural India.
Virtually all Indian households have now been electrified, according to the government’s data. As of March, just 19,753 households are left.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionThe quality of the electricity supply is weaker in the northern and eastern states.
The current government has suggested it has been electrifying villages at a faster rate than the previous one.
However, using central electricity authority data, we found that under the previous Congress-led government, an average of more than 9,000 villages a year were being electrified compared with the Modi government’s average of more than 4,000 villages a year.
Problems with supply
Although substantial progress has been made to electrify Indian villages – both by the current and previous administrations – the quality of the supply remains a problem, especially in rural areas.
Only six out of 29 states receive a 24-hour power supply, according to a government response to a question in India’s parliament.
Just under half of villages have more than 12 hours of domestic electricity a day and a third receive between eight and 12 hours, according to government data.
States with the highest percentage of villages that receive between just one and four hours of electricity a day include Jharkhand, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian tax authorities are hoping for a windfall with the auction on Tuesday of rare oil paintings that were once part of fugitive billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi’s collection and have been seized by the government.
Auctioneers say the sale is the first of its kind in a country where tax authorities have usually auctioned property, gold and luxury items, but not art.
After a court order allowing the auction to take place, tax authorities, who are pursuing Modi over the country’s largest bank fraud, appointed professional auction house Saffronart.
The sale in Mumbai of some 68 works is expected to fetch anywhere between 300 million and 500 million rupees ($4.4 million-$7.3 million).
“Until a few years ago, the tax authorities really didn’t know the value of art,” said Farah Siddiqui, an art adviser who is advising clients eyeing Modi’s collection.
The 48-year-old Modi, whose diamonds have sparkled on Hollywood stars, is one of the prime accused in a $2 billion loan fraud at state-run Punjab National Bank. Modi denies the charges and believes they are politically motivated.
The auction comes just weeks before a national election and as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces pressure to bring back Nirav Modi (no relation), who fled the country last year and has been residing in the United Kingdom.
He was arrested last week by British authorities and remanded in custody after he appeared before a London court. India asked Britain last August to extradite Modi.
The auction includes works by Raja Ravi Varma, a 19th century painter considered among India’s finest, and V.S. Gaitonde, a modern artist known for his abstract and often monochromatic paintings.
“We believe that the collection’s intrinsic value will garner a positive response from collectors,” said Saffronart Chief Executive Dinesh Vazirani.
India Law Alliance, a law firm representing the company controlled by Modi that owns the artwork, said it was challenging the court order that allowed the auction. The case will be heard by the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, a lawyer at the firm told Reuters.
Vijay Aggarwal, a lawyer for Modi, declined to comment.
Rahul Ganghi at a rally in Sriganganagar, Rajastan, on Tuesday. (Congress/Twitter)
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the promise of minimum income guarantee is his party’s “surgical strike on poverty” that will ensure there is no poor in the country after 2019. Gandhi said the Congress’s promise of minimum income guarantee is “an explosion”.
“It will set off a bomb…This is the Congress’s surgical strike on poverty. They (the BJP) tried to eliminate the poor. We will eliminate poverty,” said Gandhi at a public rally in Rajasthan’s Ganganagar.
‘Surgical strike on poverty’: Rahul Gandhi counters BJP on minimum income promise
A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party tried to discredit the Congress’ promise of a minimum income guarantee scheme in case it comes to power, Congress President Rahul Gandhi countered the BJP’s criticism.
Gandhi hit out at the Narendra Modi government in his speech alleging that the current regime has brought back people who were uplifted from the below poverty line by the Congress-led UPA rule. “The fact that 25 crore people are living in poverty in the 21st century India is a shame,” Gandhi said.
The Congress president said nowhere such a scheme has ever been implemented. “There should not be a single poor person in the country,” he said addressing the Congress’s Jan Sankalp Rally at Suratgarh in Ganganagar district.
On Monday, Gandhi promised that his party would, if it comes to power, guarantee an income of at least Rs 12,000 a month for 20 per cent of India’s poorest families by giving them Rs 6,000 a month. He said the minimum income guarantee scheme, named NYAY (standing for Nyuntam Aay Yojana) meaning justice, would cover 5 crore families or 25 crore people, who constitute the poorest 20 per cent of Indian households.
The scheme, if implemented, is expected to cost Rs 3.6 lakh crore, around 2 per cent of India’s GDP. Gandhi has insisted that it is fiscally prudent.
At his Rajasthan rally, Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to “create two Indias” in the last five years giving all the benefits of the government to select few rich people while insisting that if voted to power, the Congress will eradicate poverty completely.
“If Narendra Modi can give money to the rich, the Congress will give money to the poor,” said Gandhi, who also took a swipe at the prime minister’s chowkidar campaign. The Congress president said PM Modi is a chowkidar but “serves rich people like Anil Ambani instead of the poor”.
The BJP has rejected the minimum income guarantee promise of Gandhi with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley calling it a “bluff announcement” in his blog. Jaitley also said that the total promised by the Congress (Rs 72,000 a year) is just around two-thirds of what the NDA gives the poor.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the city is fighting the upcoming Lok Sabha election on the agenda of granting full statehood to Delhi.
PTI | New Delhi | March 26, 2019 2:42 pm
Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday promised to build infrastructure equalling “ten Singapore” if full statehood was granted to Delhi.
Addressing a public rally at Patparganj in east Delhi, he called for people’s support in the upcoming elections to ensure that Delhi gets full statehood.
“We will build ten Singapore in Delhi. We will ensure that a flat is given to everyone who is staying in huts in Delhi,” he said.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kejriwal claimed when the PM was unable to handle Pakistan, how could he be expected to take care of Delhi Police.
“Let us handle Delhi Police and you (PM) take care of Pakistan. You are not able to handle Pakistan, how can you be expected to handle Delhi Police?” he said.
Accusing the Centre of creating hurdles for Delhi’s development, the AAP leader said he faced several obstructions at various stages to get clearances from the central government.
He said the people of Delhi pay Rs 1.5 lakh crore worth Income Tax and receive only Rs 325 crore from the Centre.
“Why should we pay so much and get so less in return? What have Delhiites done to the central government to deserve this? The situation is similar to the time before India got independence.
“First Britishers looted us, now the central government is looting us,” the chief minister said.
“Just for political enmity, PM Modi stopped the development work for the common man of Delhi. Last time you voted for him, but this time do not vote for him, otherwise he would not let me work for development,” he added.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said full statehood for Delhi will ensure that children scoring even 60 per cent marks get admission in colleges in Delhi.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the city is fighting the upcoming Lok Sabha election on the agenda of granting full statehood to Delhi.
Raising the slogan of ‘Poorna Rajya Banao Jhadu ka Button Dabao’, the party is busy convincing people to vote for AAP to get full statehood for Delhi.
The election to the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital will be held on May 12.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and his wife Peng Liyuan disembark from the airplane upon their arrival in Rome, Italy, on March 21, 2019. Xi arrived in Rome Thursday for a state visit to Italy to map out the future of the bilateral relationship and move it into a new era. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)
ROME, March 21 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Rome Thursday for a state visit to Italy to map out the future of the bilateral relationship and move it into a new era.
It is the first visit by a Chinese head of state to the European nation in 10 years.
Two Italian fighter jets escorted Xi’s plane as it entered the country’s airspace.
Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were greeted by senior Italian government officials at the airport.
While delivering a written speech upon arrival, Xi said that the China-Italy relations have withstood the test of time and international vicissitudes since the two countries forged diplomatic ties 49 years ago.
Upholding the principle of mutual respect, trust and benefit, China and Italy have constantly promoted their friendship and cooperation, setting an example of developing bilateral ties between two countries of different social systems, cultural backgrounds and development stages, Xi said.
The practical cooperation between the two countries has yielded fruitful results, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples, said Xi, adding that the bilateral cultural and people-to-people exchanges are rich and colorful, and have enhanced mutual understanding and friendship.
The Chinese president noted that he is looking forward to meeting the Italian leaders to jointly draw the blueprint for the future development of bilateral relations.
“I believe with the concerted efforts of both sides, the China-Italy comprehensive strategic partnership will enjoy a better tomorrow,” Xi said.
Italy is the first stop of Xi’s three-nation Europe tour, which will also take him to Monaco and France.
Motorist kills six as he ploughs into passers-by, before being shot dead by police
A man drove a car into a crowd on Friday morning, killing six and injuring seven in Hubei province. Photo: Thepaper.cn
Police in central China shot dead a man who drove a car into a crowd on Friday morning, killing six and wounding six others, including children, Chinese media reported.
The police received calls at around 6am about someone driving into pedestrians in the township of Taiping in Hubei province. Officers shot the driver dead, taking the death toll to seven.
The Zaoyang municipal government, which administers Taiping, said the motorist was 44-year-old restaurant owner Cui Lidong.
The government said Cui attacked his wife and daughter that morning before driving his car into the crowd.
One child was among those killed and four children, including the daughter, were wounded.
A police investigation into the incident was under way.
A video published by news portal Thepaper.cn shows several people lying on the ground as an ambulance arrives at the scene.
One witness identified only as Wang said the car ploughed randomly into pedestrians and other vehicles, the Beijing News reported.
Another witness said: “There were bodies everywhere on the street.”
The reports prompted debate online about whether the incident was yet another case of “revenge on society”, where the suspect lashes out at the public to settle personal scores or draw attention to a dispute.
There have been several such revenge cases in recent years, including car crashes, knife attacks and bombings in which the victims were mostly pedestrians or schoolchildren.
In March, police in Tangshan, Hebei province, arrested a man for attacking several pupils outside a primary school. In September 2018, a driver crashed a car into a crowd in central China before attacking pedestrians with a knife and shovel, killing 11 and wounding 44.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 