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

31/01/2014

Feng Shui Masters at Odds Over Prospects for Year of the Horse – China Real Time Report – WSJ

The Year of the Horse, which begins Friday, is a dangerous one for investing, according to Master Koon, a Hong Kong-based feng shui master.

The Chinese zodiac runs on a 60-year cycle, as the 12 animals occur in combination with each of the five elements of traditional Chinese cosmology: wood, water, fire, metal, and earth. The “wood horse,” which is up this year, represents “instability and disruption,” Master Koon said. A previous wood horse year, 1894, saw war break out between China and Japan – hardly an auspicious sign.

“Property, the stock market, the economy, politics—they’re all unstable,” said Master Koon. “So investments need to be conservative.”

Master Koon’s analysis flatly contradicts that of brokerage CLSA, which argued in a recent report that the Year of the Horse would be a good one for stocks. Based on its own survey of five feng shui diviners, CLSA calculates the Hong Kong stock market’s benchmark Hang Seng index will likely rise 28% over the next year.

It seems the masters of feng shui are no more in agreement than professional economists, whose prognostications for China’s growth vary from an export-driven resurgence to financial meltdown. It isn’t clear which profession has a better record of forecasting.

via Feng Shui Masters at Odds Over Prospects for Year of the Horse – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, Chinese Zodiac, Economics, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, China and Japan, Chinese zodiac, CLSA, Feng shui, feng shui master, Hang Seng Index, Hong Kong, Horse (zodiac), Year of the Horse

31/01/2014

Lenovo to buy Google’s Motorola in China’s largest tech deal | Reuters

Lenovo Group said on Wednesday it agreed to buy Google Inc\’s Motorola handset division for $2.91 billion, in what is China\’s largest-ever tech deal as Lenovo buys its way into a heavily competitive U.S. handset market dominated by Apple Inc.

The logo of Lenovo is seen on a computer monitor during a news conference in Hong Kong May 27, 2010. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

It is Lenovo\’s second major deal on U.S. soil in a week as the Chinese electronics company angles to get a foothold in major global computing markets. Lenovo last week said it would buy IBM\’s low-end server business for $2.3 billion.

The deal ends Google\’s short-lived foray into making consumer mobile devices and marks a pullback from its largest-ever acquisition. Google paid $12.5 billion for Motorola in 2012. Under this deal the search giant will keep the majority of Motorola\’s mobile patents, considered its prize assets.

via Lenovo to buy Google’s Motorola in China’s largest tech deal | Reuters.

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

Tags: Apple, China, Chinese language, Google, IBM, Lenovo, Motorola

31/01/2014

China’s Xi Jinping calls for less pollution in year of the horse – FT.com

The Mongolian steppes was where Chinese president Xi Jinping offered his televised New Year’s greeting as Chinese people worldwide celebrated the year of the horse with fireworks and feasting.

While the content of his message varied little from previous years, the choice of setting shed light on the great strains confronting today’s China.

And this year, the message was pollution.

The lunar new year, which began on Friday, is the main holiday in the Chinese calendar. Far-flung families, gathered for holiday meals, inevitably tune to state television, which this year emphasised Mr Xi’s theme of a “Chinese dream” and urged viewers to lay off on fireworks in order to reduce pollution.

Urging “continued struggle with one heart and mind” and prosperity for the motherland, Mr Xi did not address specific policies directly. But Chinese leaders’ New Year’s visits often coincide with priorities for the year ahead, including visits to coal miners, Aids patients and impoverished country villages.

This year the wide-open grasslands framed behind Xi’s dark winter coat and black fur hat are a fitting symbol for the country’s new focus on pollution, which clashes with its enormous appetite for coal.

The herders applauding Mr Xi in the freezing wind at Xilin Gol, Inner Mongolia, have been on the receiving end of a black gold rush, as state-backed mining companies from richer provinces rip up the grasslands in search of coal.

China’s leadership is now trying to reduce coal pollution in wealthier cities, but renewed plans for coal development in the north and west could cause new stresses in arid and ethnically distinct areas like Xilin Gol.

via China’s Xi Jinping calls for less pollution in year of the horse – FT.com.

Posted in China alert, Good news, Politics, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, Chinese calendar, chinese new year, Chinese people, Inner Mongolia, New Year, pollution, Xi JinPing

29/01/2014

Corruption: Less party time | The Economist

FOR a sense of how President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign is doing, a recent report by Xinhua, the official news agency, is a good place to start: it said that 56 five-star hotels in China had asked to be downgraded last year in order to survive, as local governments have been prohibited from using luxury hotels. Chen Miaolin, chairman of New Century Tourism Group, told Xinhua that revenues at his group’s (mostly five-star) hotels fell by 18% last year.

In big cities business is down at many of the best private clubs and restaurants. A number of luxury brands have reported sharp falls in revenues. Rémy Cointreau saw sales of its flagship cognac fall by more than 30% in the last three months of 2013 over the previous year, mostly owing to falling Chinese demand.

The campaign begun more than a year ago by Mr Xi has been surprisingly broad and sustained, and is intensifying as it enters a second year. The Central Commission for Discipline and Inspection, the party’s watchdog, says that 182,000 officials were punished for disciplinary violations in 2013, an increase of more than 20,000 over 2012, and of nearly 40,000 over 2011. Thousands of officials have been disciplined for extravagances such as hosting lavish banquets, weddings and funerals, spending public funds inappropriately on travel, the improper use of government vehicles and constructing luxurious government buildings. But two recent developments illustrate the difficulty and sensitivity of the task the party has set itself.

On January 21st a report by a team of media outlets led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), an American organisation, revealed the secret offshore holdings of close relatives of some of China’s elite, including Mr Xi’s brother-in-law and the son of Wen Jiabao, the former premier. Then on January 22nd authorities began criminal trials in Beijing of independent anti-corruption activists who campaigned for, among other things, public disclosure of official assets (see article).

The message from Mr Xi is that the party, and only the party, will patrol itself, and is perfectly capable of doing so. But the ICIJ report hints at the failures during decades of self-policing.

via Corruption: Less party time | The Economist.

Posted in austerity, China alert, corruption, Economics, Good news, Internal politics, Politics, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, British Virgin Island, Center for Public Integrity, China, ICIJ, luxury hotels, New Century Tourism Group, Rémy Cointreau, Wen Jiabao, Xi JinPing

29/01/2014

China’s Homegrown Answers to Apple and Samsung – China Real Time Report – WSJ

China is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets and several homegrown brands, such as Oppo and Coolpad, are seeking to challenge Apple and Samsung’s duopoly. As Lorraine Luk and Juro Osawa report:

Virtually unheard of outside China, several homegrown brands are gaining ground and seeking to challenge the technology giants’ duopoly. Working in their favor: advanced hardware at lower prices, strong relationship with Chinese carriers, as well as creative ways to build a fan base through social media and online forums.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese mobile users still haven’t replaced their basic phones, making the country a critical battleground for global smartphone brands at a time when growth is slowing in the U.S. and other mature markets.

China’s mobile market is so big that some local handset vendors, despite focusing mainly on the domestic market, already sell more smartphones overall than global competitors. In the third quarter of last year, Coolpad, the smartphone brand of China’s Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific (Shenzhen) Co., was the sixth-biggest smartphone vendor by units sold world-wide.

via China’s Homegrown Answers to Apple and Samsung – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, Digital communications, Economics, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Apple, China, Chinese language, Coolpad, Samsung, Shenzhen, Smartphone

29/01/2014

Chinese-led international mission to explore South China Sea for oil | South China Morning Post

The first scientific ocean drilling expedition led and sponsored by China sails from Hong Kong tomorrow into the South China Sea – the subject of territorial disputes between Beijing and neighbouring countries.

Thirty-one geologists will drill at three sites for sediment and rock cores during the 62-day international expedition aboard the American scientific drill ship Joides Resolution.

Scientists said the samples would reveal the tectonic evolution of the South China Sea, and pave the way to map oil and natural gas fields.

\”Oil and gas fields lie close to the coast, but the key is to open the treasure box buried beneath the basin,\” said Wang Pinxian, a marine geologist and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

And Lin Jian, one of the chief scientists involved, said: \”The basalt retrieved from the basin is like a book that records the formation of the South China Sea.\”

Proposed by Chinese scientists in 2008, the trip marks the first sailing of the 2013-2023 International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP), an international scientific research effort established by the United States in the 1960s.

Dozens of proposals for the programme were submitted by the 26 IODP member countries. The proposal to drill in the South China Sea did not win the most votes, but the generosity of the Chinese government – which is paying US$6 million, or 70 per cent, of the expedition\’s cost – was a deciding factor.

China also submitted a proposal last year to examine the northern reaches of the South China Sea, the area so far identified with the richest oil and gas resources, said Li Chunfeng, another scientist on the expedition.

The 31 scientists on the ship come from 10 countries and regions: 13 are from mainland China, nine from the US and one from Taiwan.

via Chinese-led international mission to explore South China Sea for oil | South China Morning Post.

Posted in China alert, Economics, energy, oil & gas, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hong Kong, Joides Resolution, Li Chunfeng, South China Sea, United States, Wang Pinxian

28/01/2014

REFILE-India close to buying Japan-made military aircraft in $1.65 bln deal | Reuters

India is set to become the first country since World War Two to buy a military aircraft from Japan, helping Prime Minister Shinzo Abe end a ban on weapons exports that has kept his country\’s defence contractors out of foreign markets.

The two countries are in broad agreement on a deal for the ShinMaywa Industries amphibious aircraft, which could amount to as much as $1.65 billion, Indian officials said on Tuesday.

However, several details need to be worked out and negotiations will resume in March on joint production of the plane in India and other issues.

New Delhi is likely to buy at least 15 of the planes, which are priced at about $110 million each, the Officials said.

\”Its a strategic imperative for both sides, and it has been cleared at the highest levels of the two governments,\” said an Indian military source.

For the moment, a stripped-down civilian version of the US-2i search and rescue plane is being offered to India, to get around Japan\’s self-imposed ban on arms exports. A friend or foe identification system will be removed from the aircraft, another defence official said.

via REFILE-India close to buying Japan-made military aircraft in $1.65 bln deal | Reuters.

Posted in Economics, GeoPolitics, India alert, Military, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: India, Japan, Military aircraft, New Delhi, Shinzō Abe, United States, World War II

27/01/2014

* China to Cut Dependence on Coal for Energy as Smog Chokes Cities – Bloomberg

China to Cut Dependence on Coal for Energy as Smog Chokes Cities

China plans to cut its dependence on coal as the world’s biggest carbon emitter seeks to clear smog in cities from Beijing to Shanghai.

English: Shanghai Smog (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The nation is aiming to get less than 65 percent of its energy from coal this year, according to a government plan released today. Energy use per unit of gross domestic product will decline 3.9 percent from last year, compared with 2013’s target for a 3.7 percent decrease.

The plan may help President Xi Jinping’s drive to reduce pollution as environmental deterioration threatens public health and the economy. More than 600 million people were affected by a “globally unprecedented” outbreak of smog in China that started last January and spread across dozens of provinces, the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs based in Beijing said Jan. 14.

“China previously targeted to cut coal consumption to below 65 percent in 2017,” Helen Lau, an analyst at UOB-Kay Hian Ltd. in Hong Kong, said by phone today. “Now they have officially pulled it earlier to 2014, which reflects that they want to speed up restructuring energy consumption and are determined to reduce air pollution.”

China’s coal use accounted for 65.7 percent of its total energy consumption in 2013, the 21st Century Herald newspaper reported Jan. 13, citing an official it didn’t name.

via China to Cut Dependence on Coal for Energy as Smog Chokes Cities – Bloomberg.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Economics, energy, Environment, greenhouse gas | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, Coal, coal consumption, Coal Power, energy, energy consumption, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shanghai Smog, Smog, Xi JinPing

27/01/2014

* Nearly 100 mln people suffering from poverty in China – Xinhua | English.news.cn

The latest statistics show there are still nearly a hundred million people suffering from poverty in China. Officials in charge of China\’s poverty alleviation work said in a briefing that China has made remarkable progress in terms of poverty reduction.

Under the international standards of poverty relief, China has helped more than six hundred million people out of poverty. China will promote rural poverty alleviation through an innovative mechanism. Officials said that China has now decided to set up a precise poverty reduction mechanism, and make sure those in need will receive adequate support.

China also plans to establish a complete database covering all poverty-stricken people by the end of this year. Officials also pointed out that there are still challenges facing China\’s poverty reduction work, including a detailed monitoring of the allocation of poverty-relief funds.

via Nearly 100 mln people suffering from poverty in China – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

See also:

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

Tags: Asia, China, China - Xinhua, Facts and Statistics, Poverty, Poverty in the People's Republic of China, Poverty reduction, World Bank

27/01/2014

India Gold Import Curbs Review Seen in March on Deficit Control – Businessweek

India can review gold import curbs by the end of March if Asia’s third-largest economy controls the current-account deficit, said Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram.

“We can revisit curbs on gold imports by end of the year but let me hasten to add that it will happen only after we get a firm grip on the current-account deficit,” Chidambaram said in New Delhi today. Shipments rose in December from a month earlier, Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose said at the same event, and confirmed that the minister was referring to the financial year ending March 31.

The rupee has rebounded about 9 percent from a record low against the dollar in August after the government raised the tax on imports three times in 2013 and linked purchases to re-exports. The government is seeking to trim imports to 800 metric tons in the financial year ending March from 845 tons a year earlier and the restrictions helped cut the deficit in the quarter ended September to the lowest level since 2010.

via India Gold Import Curbs Review Seen in March on Deficit Control – Businessweek.

Posted in Economics, India alert | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Asia, Chidambaram, Current account, current account deficit, finance minister, Fiscal year, gold imports, import curbs, India, New Delhi, p chidambaram, Sumit Bose

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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Lenovo to buy Google’s Motorola in China’s largest tech deal | Reuters

China’s Xi Jinping calls for less pollution in year of the horse – FT.com

China’s Homegrown Answers to Apple and Samsung – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Chinese-led international mission to explore South China Sea for oil | South China Morning Post

REFILE-India close to buying Japan-made military aircraft in $1.65 bln deal | Reuters

* China to Cut Dependence on Coal for Energy as Smog Chokes Cities – Bloomberg

* Nearly 100 mln people suffering from poverty in China – Xinhua | English.news.cn

India Gold Import Curbs Review Seen in March on Deficit Control – Businessweek

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