Economics | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

01/05/2014

The U.S. Is Big and Rich. China Is Just Big – Businessweek

Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that China’s economy is on the verge of surpassing the U.S. economy in size. (By one measure, anyway—purchasing power parity as calculated by the World Bank’s International Comparison Program.) What does it mean?

Start with what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean China is rich. All that gross domestic product has to be spread around more than a billion people. On a per-capita basis, the highest-income country in the world in 2011 was the oil-soaked and lightly populated Gulf monarchy of Qatar, at $146,000 per person. The U.S., as this chart shows, was No. 12, at just under $50,000.

China? China was No. 101, at a little less than $10,000 per capita. It’s not labeled on the chart, but if it were, it would appear between Serbia and Dominica.

via The U.S. Is Big and Rich. China Is Just Big – Businessweek.

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

Tags: China, Dominica, Gross domestic product, Purchasing power parity, Qatar, Serbia, United States, World Bank

01/05/2014

Will ‘Mega-Trader’ China Turn Into a Free Trader? – China Real Time Report – WSJ

For more than a decade, China has been accused of one protectionist move after another: subsidizing state-owned firms, blocking imports, manipulating currency. Just yesterday, the U.S. Trade Representative put China, once again, on its “Priority Watch List” for ripping off intellectual property.

But if Standard Chartered is right, all that may soon be changing. China depends so much on global trade, the bank argues in a new report, that Beijing will likely become a “champion of free trade.”

Here’s the logic: China has become the world’s first “true mega-trader” since Britain in the 1800s, the report says, borrowing mega-trader terminology coined in a report last year by two Peterson Institute for International trade researchers.

As the Peterson Institute researchers describe it, a country qualifies as a mega-trader if it is has a big share of global trade and also if its economy depends greatly on trade. By that definition, the U.S. hasn’t really made the cut even though the U.S. and China both had about 12% of global merchandise exports at their height. That’s because the U.S. economy is far less dependent on exports than China’s is.

Once a country reaches such an exalted status, Standard Chartered reasons, it recognizes that its interest lies in opening markets overseas and at home.

“Our view is that because China is a highly competitive exporter and also needs substantial imports, it will increasingly recognize that it is in its self-interest to encourage global free trade,” said John Calverley, the bank’s head of economic research in an email. He adds that China’s reform agenda “would be well-served by increasing opening, including closer to a free-trader position on issues like services, intellectual property, competition policy” and other areas.

Well, maybe.

via Will ‘Mega-Trader’ China Turn Into a Free Trader? – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, Economics, free trade, GDP, Trade | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, Britain, China, Economy of the People's Republic of China, International trade, Standard Chartered, United States, World Bank

01/05/2014

Two attackers among three killed in China bombing | Reuters

Two of the assailants who carried out a bombing in western China were among the three people killed, state media said on Thursday, in an attack which also wounded 79 and has raised concerns over its apparent sophistication and daring.

The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, said on its official microblog that “two mobsters set off bombs on their bodies and died”, though the report did not call it a suicide bombing.

The other person who died was a bystander, the People’s Daily said.

Knives and explosives were used in the assault on a railway station in Urumqi on Wednesday, the first bomb attack in the capital of Xinjiang region in 17 years. The attack was carried out soon after the arrival of a train from a mainly Han Chinese province, state media said.

The bombing was possibly timed to coincide with a visit to the region with a large Muslim minority by President Xi Jinping, when security was likely to have been heavy.

On Thursday, dozens of black police vans were parked around the station, while camouflaged police with assault rifles patrolled its entrance. Despite the security, the station was bustling and appeared to be operating normally.

The government blamed the attack on “terrorists”, a term it uses to describe Islamist militants and separatists in Xinjiang who have waged a sometimes violent campaign for an independent East Turkestan state – a campaign that has stirred fears that jihadist groups could become active in western China.

State media accounts did not say if any other attackers had been killed or captured. Nor did they say if Xi, who was wrapping up his visit, was anywhere near Urumqi at the time.

Pan Zhiping, a retired expert on Central Asia at Xinjiang’s Academy of Social Science, described the attack as very well organized, saying it was timed to coincide with Xi’s visit.

“It is very clear that they are challenging the Chinese government,” he said.

“There was a time last year when they were targeting the public security bureau, the police stations and the troops. Now it’s indiscriminate – terrorist activities are conducted in places where people gather the most.”

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

via Two attackers among three killed in China bombing | Reuters.

Xi demands action after China blast

Posted in China alert, Dissident, Economics, Ethnic clash, Politics, Religious clash, separatism, Separatist, terrorism, unrest | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Academy of Social Science, Ürümqi, China, chinese communist party, Han Chinese, People's Daily, President Xi Jinping, State media, Western China, Xi JinPing, Xinjiang, xinjiang region

29/04/2014

China vs. the U.S.: It’s Just as Cheap to Make Goods in the U.S.A. – Businessweek

An entire generation of Americans has come of age laboring under the assumption that the U.S. can’t compete in the manufacturing arena with low-cost competitors such as China and Brazil. That may have been true a decade ago, but it’s no longer true today.

An employee of Rebecca Minkoff handbags at the Baikal manufacturing facility in New York.

I recently completed a review of manufacturing costs in the top 25 export economies with my colleagues Justin Rose and Michael Zinser. Our research shows that when the most important economic factors are considered—total labor costs, energy expenses, productivity growth, and currency exchange rates—Brazil is one of the highest-cost manufacturing nations in the world, Mexico is cheaper than China, China is virtually even with the U.S. (as are most of the traditionally “low-cost” countries of eastern Europe), and the low-cost leader in western Europe is none other than the country that launched the Industrial Revolution: the United Kingdom.

So throw away the old playbook. Welcome to the new era.

via China vs. the U.S.: It’s Just as Cheap to Make Goods in the U.S.A. – Businessweek.

US, Mexico Are ‘Rising Stars’ in Manufacturing Cost Competitiveness

Posted in China alert, Economics, Manufacturing, Offshoring | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Brazil, China, Industrial Revolution, Justin Rose, Mexico, Michael Zinser, United States

28/04/2014

Experts: Patent process needs update – China – Chinadaily.com.cn

Spiking demand for intellectual property services shows large room for growth

Experts: Patent process needs update

China’s patent mechanisms need to be upgraded with foreign expertise, amid a growing demand for international intellectual property services from domestic enterprises, experts said.

The number of patent applications, the demand for legal support, and intellectual property consultation in various sectors have soared in recent years, inspired by the central government’s call to develop intellectual property strategies.

But the development also poses challenges to the country’s immature patent services, they said.

The State Intellectual Property Office said China has 1,001 patent agencies and 8,861 professional practicing agents registered under the office. The entire patent agency industry generated income of more than 8.7 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), including application and managing fees, last year.

There is still room for the industry to thrive as lots of IP-related services have not yet been fully developed in China, said He Hua, the office’s deputy director.

“The skyrocketing demand in the patent application processing each year shows how big the industry is going to be, and the industry is far from realizing its potential,” He said at an IP symposium held by the All-China Patent Attorneys Association on Saturday.

China received 825,000 invention patent applications last year, a 26.3 percent increase year-on-year. The 2.38 million patent applications filed was the highest in the world for the third consecutive year, the office said earlier this month.

Chinese companies are paying more attention to international patents, with a rising awareness of their IP edge in the global market. The country received 22,924 international patent applications according to the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2013, a 15 percent increase from 2012.

But of all the domestic and foreign patent applications filed last year, only 60 percent were processed through patent agencies, a 15 percent drop from 10 years ago.

Local agencies’ lack of knowledge of the international IP system and legal frameworks in overseas markets has forced major innovation companies to seek patents on their own.

Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei Technologies developed a 300-staff intellectual property rights department in 1995 and processed almost half the applications of its more than 30,000 international patents, said Cheng Xuxin, deputy director of Huawei’s IPR department.

via Experts: Patent process needs update – China – Chinadaily.com.cn.

Posted in China alert, Good news, Intellectual Property Rights | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Huawei, Intellectual property, Law, Patent, Patent application, patent applications, Patent Cooperation Treaty, State Intellectual Property Office

28/04/2014

Labour unrest: Danger zone | The Economist

THE Pearl river delta in the southern province of Guangdong is no stranger to strikes, most of them small and quickly resolved. But a walk-out by workers at factories owned by a Taiwanese company, Yue Yuen, the world’s largest maker of branded sports shoes, including big names such as Nike and Reebok, has been remarkable for its scale and duration. It began on April 5th and has grown to involve tens of thousands of employees. On a sprawling industrial estate, angry workers watched by riot police rage about an issue few cared much about until recently: their pensions. For bosses and officials, this is a worrying sign of change.

The government has imposed a virtual news blackout on the unrest in the city of Dongguan, a place synonymous with the delta’s manufacturing heft (nearly 80% of its 8.3m people have moved there from other parts of China over the past three decades, or are the children of such migrants). Foreign journalists have been allowed onto Yue Yuen’s main estate in Gaobu township, a Dongguan suburb, but strikers complain that Chinese media are kept away. This contrasts with a relatively free rein given to Chinese reporters in 2010 to report on a large strike over pay by workers at a factory owned by Honda in Foshan, another delta city. That incident involved putting pressure on a Japanese company, an uncontroversial target for most Chinese. This latest, bigger strike (one of the largest in years involving a non-state enterprise in China) has touched a more sensitive government nerve.

In this section

Danger zone

Yearning to breathe free

The promised land

The red and the green

Reprints

China’s Pollution Police Are Watching – Businessweek

At 7 a.m. on a recent March morning, Xu Xiaoshun hops behind the wheel and turns the key. His Chang’an Leopard truck puffs out some black smoke and shivers to life as Xu begins his daily gamble. Every morning, including weekends, he leaves the one-room apartment he shares with his wife, drives almost 10 kilometers (six miles) to a market, picks up construction materials, and delivers them to job sites in and around Hangzhou, a city of 8.8 million. Often, his route takes him through areas of the city where his truck is banned because of its dirty emissions. “This truck isn’t allowed on some roads,” Xu says as he steps on the gas. “But when an order comes, I must take a risk.”

China's Pollution Police Are Watching

As air pollution in China becomes a national crisis—only three of the 74 cities monitored last year had acceptable air quality, according to a March report from the Ministry of Environmental Protection—Hangzhou and other cities have declared war on dirty cars and trucks. High-emission vehicles such as Xu’s must display yellow stickers on their windshields. (Cleaner cars are marked with green ones.) In Hangzhou, yellow-tagged cars and trucks are banned from the city’s main areas from 6 a.m. to midnight.

About 13 percent of China’s 224 million vehicles had yellow labels as of 2012, but they accounted for more than half of carbon monoxide emissions and more than 80 percent of airborne particulates, government statistics show. Cities across the nation must meet a national goal of forcing all yellow-label vehicles off the roads by 2017. In Hengshui, one of China’s most polluted cities, officials have mandated a phaseout of diesel-powered vehicles more than nine years old, triggering grumblings from owners in online forums.

via China’s Pollution Police Are Watching – Businessweek.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Ecology, Economics, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: air pollution, China, Hangzhou, Particulates, Pollution in China, Public participation, Xi'an, Xu Xiaoshun

26/04/2014

Government Study Finds 60 Percent of China’s Groundwater Polluted – Businessweek

At 59.6 percent of sites monitored by the Chinese government, the groundwater quality was “very polluted” or “relatively polluted”—that is, unfit for drinking—in 2013, according to a study released on Tuesday by China’s Ministry of Land and Resources.

A polluted canal in Beijing

The government tested 4,778 sites in 203 cities. The study showed that China’s water quality had worsened somewhat from the previous year, when 57.4 percent of test sites were classified as polluted.

Groundwater supplies about a fifth of China’s total water consumption. In the water-short north and northwest of China, groundwater accounts for 50 percent to 80 percent of water usage.

via Government Study Finds 60 Percent of China’s Groundwater Polluted – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Environment, Pollution, water scarcity | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, China’s Ministry of Land and Resources, chinese government, Drinking water, environment, Groundwater, groundwater quality, Ma Jun, Ministry of Land and Resources of the People's Republic of China, Water quality

24/04/2014

China-Europe railway relaunches – China – Chinadaily.com.cn

A freight train on Wednesday began a journey from central China’s key city of Wuhan to Poland’s Lodz, restarting the Wuhan-Xijiang-Europe rail route after it was suspended for technical reasons.

Its 15-day journey will pass along the Silk Road economic belt through major cities in central and northwest China, Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus before arriving in the destination.

The rail trip is about one month quicker than the maritime alternative, and costs a fifth as much as air freight, according to the Wuhan Transport Committee.

“It will greatly improve the competitiveness of exports made in Wuhan and nearby regions,” said Yu Shiping, director of the committee.

He predicted that it will contribute to the realization of the Silk Road economic belt, the regional trade infrastructure proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The train is loaded with 41 40-foot containers holding goods valued at more than 12 million U.S. dollars.

Most of them are products made by Hon Hai/Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia in its plant in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province.

Although railway transport is costly compared to maritime transport, it is a superior option bearing in mind how wildly electronic products prices fluctuate. They are more sensitive to the time-cost in transportation, according to the Foxconn plant in Wuhan.

In a month, the export value of one consignment of electronic products might devalue by about two percent, about several tens of thousands of dollars.

via China-Europe railway relaunches – China – Chinadaily.com.cn.

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

Tags: Belarus, China, Hubei, President of the People's Republic of China, Rail transport, Silk Road, Wuhan, Wuhan-Xijiang-Europe, Xi JinPing, Yu Shiping

24/04/2014

Disillusioned office workers: China’s losers | The Economist

ZHU GUANG, a 25-year-old product tester, projects casual cool in his red Adidas jacket and canvas shoes. He sports the shadowy wisps of a moustache and goatee, as if he has the ambition to grow a beard but not the ability. On paper he is one of the millions of up-and-coming winners of the Chinese economy: a university graduate, the only child of factory workers in Shanghai, working for Lenovo, one of China’s leading computer-makers.

Man wearing suit on escalator

But Mr Zhu considers himself a loser, not a winner. He earns 4,000 yuan ($650) a month after tax and says he feels like a faceless drone at work. He eats at the office canteen and goes home at night to a rented, 20-square-metre (215-square-foot) room in a shared flat, where he plays online games. He does not have a girlfriend or any prospect of finding one. “Lack of confidence”, he explains when asked why not. Like millions of others, he mockingly calls himself, in evocative modern street slang, a diaosi, the term for a loser that literally translates as “male pubic hair”. Figuratively it is a declaration of powerlessness in an economy where it is getting harder for the regular guy to succeed. Calling himself by this derisive nickname is a way of crying out, “like Gandhi”, says Mr Zhu, only partly in jest. “It is a quiet form of protest.”

via Disillusioned office workers: China’s losers | The Economist.

Posted in China alert, Economics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Asia, China, Chinese, Chinese language, Economy of the People's Republic of China, Lenovo, Luxury good, Mr Zhu, Shanghai

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

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The U.S. Is Big and Rich. China Is Just Big – Businessweek

Will ‘Mega-Trader’ China Turn Into a Free Trader? – China Real Time Report – WSJ

China vs. the U.S.: It’s Just as Cheap to Make Goods in the U.S.A. – Businessweek

Experts: Patent process needs update – China – Chinadaily.com.cn

Labour unrest: Danger zone | The Economist

China’s Pollution Police Are Watching – Businessweek

Government Study Finds 60 Percent of China’s Groundwater Polluted – Businessweek

China-Europe railway relaunches – China – Chinadaily.com.cn

Disillusioned office workers: China’s losers | The Economist

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