30/04/2020
- European nations are divided over how best to deal with Beijing, which looms larger in their policy and public debates
- Think tanks came together and reported on China’s much-touted medical aid and ‘mask diplomacy’ during Covid-19 crisis
European nations are looking to be more cohesive in their approach towards relations with China. Photo: Bloomberg
As Beijing steps up its pressure campaign on Europe in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, their relations look set to become more diverse and contested amid growing distrust and wariness of China’s expanding influence, according to new research.
The study, based on analysis of China’s role in 19 European countries’ handling of the coronavirus crisis, showed that Europe remained largely divided over how to deal with Beijing, which has figured ever more prominently in policy and public debates in many parts of the continent.
A total of 28 experts from 21 think tanks across the continent, collectively known as the European Think-tank Network on China, were involved in the research.
It came on the heels of a diplomatic debacle in the past week that saw the European Union reportedly bowing to pressure by China. The EU reportedly toned down part of a report documenting Beijing’s disinformation efforts to deflect the blame and rewrite the global coronavirus narrative.
Although a spokesperson for the EU denied those allegations, the saga has “moreover revealed the pressures that China has placed on
officials during the crisis”, according to John Seaman, editor of the report and a research fellow at the French Institute of International Relations.
In a phone call on Wednesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shrugged off concerns about their discord and vowed to boost the fight against the virus and boost economic recovery, according to Xinhua.
Germany ‘rejected China’s bid for positive spin’ on pandemic response
According to Seaman, the Covid-19 crisis hit at a time when traditionally trade-driven China-EU relations had grown more complex and competitive after the European Commission said for the first time last year that Beijing was a systemic rival.
“Debates over the need to adopt more coherent strategies towards China have been emerging across Europe. In many ways, the current crisis has become a catalyst for a number of trends that have been shaping Europe-China relations in recent years, while in other ways it has turned the tables,” he said in the report.
“It has simultaneously brought Europe and China into closer cooperation, pushed them further apart, and seemingly underlined the fractures that exist within Europe on how to approach an increasingly influential China.”
A growing number of European countries, including
Sweden and Britain, have joined the United States and
Australia in calling for an international inquiry into China’s handling of the pandemic. Leaders from Germany and France have also pressed Beijing for greater transparency about the origin of the deadly virus.
The European think tanks’ report was also focused on China’s unusually aggressive coronavirus diplomacy, with Chinese embassies and ambassadors shifting the blame on to Western democracies and promoting Beijing’s messaging “with varying degrees of dogmatism, divisiveness and moderation” on Twitter and in traditional media.
“While China’s increasingly proactive public diplomacy is widespread, and there appears to be a relative degree of consistency in messaging, there is a diversity in method that ranges from low key (Latvia or Romania) to charm offensive (Poland, Portugal, Italy or Spain) to provocative or aggressive (Sweden, Germany or France),” the report said.
It examined China’s much-touted medical aid and “mask diplomacy” and found “a correlation between Chinese companies with commercial interests in the country and donations from these companies” in countries including Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
Boxes of medical supplies from China in Rome. Some European nations are growing wary about China’s diplomatic overreach and apparent willingness to alter the coronavirus narrative. Photo: Xinhua
Many countries have pushed back against China’s diplomatic overreach and its preferred narrative that has served to “[underline] the apparent successes of its autocratic governance model, ignoring its clear downfalls in managing the crisis initially, while sowing doubt on the effectiveness of liberal democracies”, according to Seaman.
While the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned of Beijing’s geopolitical game to expand its influence through spinning and “politics of generosity”, countries such as Germany and Sweden have moved to tighten investment screening, 5G and industrial policies targeting Chinese firms.
Zhang Ming, China’s top envoy to the EU, last week dismissed the concerns about China’s alleged ploy to use the vulnerabilities of other countries to advance China’s geopolitical interests, such as with the country’s embattled tech giant Huawei and the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.
“Disinformation is our common enemy and we need to make joint efforts to eradicate it,” Zhang said, claiming China had been a victim of unspecified disinformation campaigns.
The report also noted that China’s actions towards Europe in times of crisis looked set to amplify the fractures across the continent and prompt further debates about the need for a coherent EU strategy on China.
A poll of more than 12,000 people across the 28 EU member countries by German think tank Bertelsmann Stiftung in September last year showed 45 per cent of Europeans saw China as a competitor while only 9 per cent believed their countries shared the same political interests or values with China.
Another survey of 16 European countries released by the Pew Research Centre in December also showed the continent remained deeply divided over how to approach China.
While people in most of western Europe and some of Central and Eastern Europe, such as Slovak and Czech, saw China negatively, 51 per cent in Greece had a positive view of China and those in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria and Lithuania tended to see China more favourably.
Source: SCMP
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23/04/2020
- Travel restrictions and continued uncertainty about when campuses will reopen has reduced enrolments from America’s biggest group of international students
- Demand was already softening due to worsening US-China relations before Covid-19 pandemic struck
The coronavirus is making many Chinese youngsters think twice about pursuing a higher education in the US. Photo: Xinhua
The
Covid-19 pandemic has upended the appetite for prestigious US degrees among Chinese students, jeopardising US$15 billion in revenue for American colleges.
The disease – which has spread to more than 185 countries, infected more than 2.6 million people and claimed more than 180,000 lives worldwide – has caused unprecedented disruption. Borders are closed and travel has been significantly limited to contain the spread.
For American schools, it has meant reduced Chinese demand for higher education in the 2020-21 academic year, according to a Congressional report into the cascading economic impacts of the pandemic published on Tuesday by the US China Economic and Security Review Commission.
The report identified a host of issues, from delays or cancellations of US entrance exams in China, through to indefinite travel restrictions and continued uncertainty about when US college campuses will reopen. The consequences could be severe, with nearly a third of all tuition payments to US public universities coming from international students.
Amid outbreak, universities contend with dependence on Chinese students
China has remained the largest source of international students for the US in the past decade, with 369,548 Chinese students enrolled in US higher education programmes in 2018, more than three times the count from nine years earlier, according to the Institute of International Education. The group together contributed US$15 billion in tuition payments.
University administrators told the authors of the report that cancelled recruitment events in China and an inability to work with local recruitment agencies could further depress Chinese student enrolment in US university programmes.
The blow will be severe as international students typically pay full tuition, with only 17 per cent receiving grants or scholarships from their institution, according to a report published by World Education News & Reviews in December.
Wuhan, Los Angeles officials talk about getting back to work after lockdown
The sudden decrease in enrolments added to a softening trend in Chinese student numbers in recent years as US-China relations have become more hostile. Tensions between China and the US over tariffs and trade disputes put more strain on academic exchanges between the two countries.
Before the coronavirus disrupted international travel and school terms,
US schools had already seen a decline in enrolments from Chinese students. Last June, Beijing warned its students about the risks of studying in the US and China’s education ministry said some were encountering problems with the duration of their visas limited and an increase in visa refusals.
“This has affected Chinese students going to study in the United States or smoothly completing their studies,” it said.
“The education ministry reminds students and academics of the need to strengthen risk assessment before studying abroad, enhance prevention awareness and make corresponding preparations.”
Chinese students battle rising tide of prejudice in US
Chinese students and scholars have attracted scrutiny from the Trump administration, with claims some could be helping Beijing to obtain trade and technological secrets. US lawmakers are also concerned about China’s growing ambition through effort to influence through its own narratives globally.
, for example, which are based on college campuses and funded by Beijing to promote Chinese language and culture, have been investigated over espionage allegations. Two dozen US schools closed the cultural centres on their campuses in the past two years. The most recent closure, in January, was also the oldest Confucius Institute in the country – at the University of Maryland – which had been operating since 1985.
Tuesday’s report said that as well as the decline in Chinese enrolments, tourism from China would also suffer. Together, higher education and tourism make up the US’ top services exports to China, which will lead to a narrowing in its services trade surplus with China, it said.
Source: SCMP
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20/04/2020
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China expects to import more soybeans and pork this year following the novel coronavirus outbreak and African swine fever, which has decimated its pig herds.
Soybean imports are forecast at 92.48 million tonnes this year, rising to 96.62 million tonnes in 2025 and 99.52 million tonnes in 2029, an official from the agriculture ministry told a video conference on the outlook for agriculture released on Monday.
Pork imports this year are seen rising to 2.8 million tonnes, a 32.7% increase from the previous year.
China is a key buyer and consumer of soybeans and pork globally, and typically imports millions of tonnes of soybeans per year to crush for meal to feed its livestock.
The African swine fever outbreak, however, had slashed China’s pig herd by over 40% last year, reducing supplies in the world’s biggest pork consumer.
Combined with the coronavirus outbreak, which hit the transport of pigs and delayed the restart of slaughtering plants, prices of China’s favourite meat rose to record levels in February.
China has been increasing pork imports in recent months to make up for the drop in domestic supply.
Despite the expected surge in imports, China’s 2020 pork consumption is forecast to fall to 42.06 million tonnes, down 5.6% year-on-year, hit by high prices and a fall in consumer demand due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to the agriculture ministry.
In line with the slowing consumption, China’s slaughtered pig herd this year will fall 7.8% year-on-year to 501.49 million heads. Pork output this year will also decline to 39.34 million tonnes from 2019, but will rebound to around 54 million tonnes in 2022.
In the longer term, however, pork imports are expected to gradually fall, the ministry forecast, while beef and mutton imports are set to increase in the next decade.
Meanwhile, China’s domestic soybean output is seen at 18.81 million tonnes in 2020, a 3.9% gain from the previous year, while crushing volumes were pegged at 85.98 million tonnes.
Soybean consumption will increase steadily and continue to rely mainly on imports in the next 10 years, said a ministry official.
The ministry also said China’s corn acreage and output are both set to increase in 2020, with production forecast to reach over 260 million tonnes this year, while annual rice output is expected to hold steady above 200 million tonnes per year in the next 10 years.
Source: Reuters
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07/02/2020
- Hong Kong and Thailand are likely to suffer most from the novel coronavirus outbreak because of close their economic ties with China
- A drop in Chinese tourist arrivals and imports, as well as supply chain disruptions are likely to weigh on regional economy
Thailand’s economy could be one of the most affected by the coronavirus outbreak due to its close ties with China, especially in the tourism sector. Photo: Bloomberg
Hong Kong and Thailand are likely to be the hardest hit Asian economies outside mainland China from the deadly coronavirus outbreak, according to analysts.
The 2019-nCoV, which had claimed the lives of nearly 640 people and infected more than 31,000 in mainland China by Friday, is viewed as even more damaging than the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic in 2002-2003 because of prolonged factory closures and transport restrictions that have locked down many Chinese cities.
China has become more closely integrated with the rest of Asia since the Sars outbreak, meaning the disruptions to China’s industrial and export sectors, combined with a sharp drop in economic activity in the first quarter, will have significant repercussions across the region, particularly through tourism and trade, analysts said.
“A collapse in tourism arrivals from China will be the first shock wave for the rest of the region,” said Gareth Leather, senior Asia economist at Capital Economics. “Factory closures in China will affect the rest of the region by disrupting regional supply chains.”
A collapse in tourism arrivals from China will be the first shock wave for the rest of the region. Factory closures in China will affect the rest of the region by disrupting regional supply chainsGareth Leather
Hong Kong would likely be the most affected because of its status as a trade hub, its tight linkages to the Chinese economy and the sharp decline in tourism expenditure that is expected, UBS economist William Deng noted.
“Due to the risk of infection, domestic households significantly reduced such activities as dining out, shopping and entertainment,” Deng wrote in a recent note. He cut Hong Kong’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to minus 1.8 per cent for 2020, against his previous projection of a 0.5 per cent drop.
A community outbreak spread by human-to-human transmission has started in the city, said
Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a top microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Thailand could be the next most affected due to its dependence on Chinese tourism. Outside Hong Kong and Macau, the country has the highest exposure to China as a share of GDP in the region.
China locks down Hangzhou, mega-city far from epicentre of coronavirus outbreak
ANZ Bank’s head of Asia research Khoon Goh said that the novel coronavirus could knock US$760 million from Thailand’s economy in the first quarter. Hong Kong could could see losses of US$1.4 billion. Travel services as a share of GDP were 11.2 per cent in Thailand and 9.4 per cent in Hong Kong.
“The Thai economy would expand at a slower rate in 2020 than previously forecast and much further below its potential due to the outbreak of coronavirus,” Bank of Thailand said in a statement after it slashed interest rates to a record low on Wednesday.
South Korean and Taiwanese businesses will also have negative spillover effects from the coronavirus outbreak because of
supply chain disruptions and weaker consumer sentiment inside and outside China, analysts said.
South Korean car and tech companies that rely on parts from Chinese suppliers are exposed to potential production disruptions stemming from factory closures and the evacuation of Korean workers from China-based production lines, said Sean Hwang, corporate finance group analyst at Moody’s Investors Group.
Coronavirus: here are the places and airlines restricting travel to China
For instance, Hyundai Motor Company closed some if its South Korea-based plants on February 4 because of a shortage of wiring harnesses.
Korean customers are also limiting their trips to bricks-and-mortar retail stores such as E Mart and Lotte Shopping to avoid crowds amid the outbreak, potentially leading to a significant decline in revenue and earnings, Hwang said.
Although Singapore is not as closely tied to China as Hong Kong, the city state could still see a knock-on effect from China’s expected near-term downturn, as its economy has become much more integrated with the world’s second largest economy since the Sars outbreak.
The number of Chinese tourists rose six times from 568,000 in 2003 to 3.4 million in 2018, said Irvin Seah, senior economist at DBS Bank.
Coronavirus outbreak: global businesses shut down operations in China
“We expect a decline of about 1 million tourists or about SGD1 billion (US$722 million) of lost tourism receipts for every three months of travel ban,” Seah said. “We have lowered our full-year GDP growth forecast to 0.9 per cent, down from 1.4 per cent previously.”
Taiwan has banned Chinese visitors as well as foreigners who have visited Hong Kong and Macau from entering the island due the coronavirus. International cruise ships are also unable to dock on the island, which will lead to at least 112 liner visits cancelled by the end of March, affecting around 144,000 passengers, said the Taiwan International Ports Corporation.
Capital Economics’ Leather said the economic impact on Taiwan from 2019-nCoV could stand out from the rest of Asia, as it had the most exposure in value-added, intermediate exports to China – 18 per cent of GDP.
20 coronavirus infections confirmed on cruise ship in Japan, as thousands remain under quarantine
Elsewhere, Malaysia’s commodity driven trade growth this year has been threatened by the almost 20 per cent fall in crude oil prices, a decline triggered by fears that the coronavirus outbreak would dampen China’s imports. Malaysia’s purchasing managers’ index, a survey of manufacturers, dropped to 48.8 in January from 50.0 the prior month prior, data released this week showed. The drop was blamed on slowing output, with new orders dropping the most since September amid a decline in exports.
“The Bank Negara Malaysia’s surprising policy rate cut at the last meeting on 22 January, just around the time the coronavirus started to dominate headlines, tells us that the central bank is ahead of the curve in recognising the risk,” said Prakash Sakpal, Asia economist at ING Bank said.
India and Indonesia will be the least affected given the small contribution the tourism sector makes to their economies, and the low share of visitors from China, ANZ’s Goh said.
Source: SCMP
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07/02/2020
- Some companies polled by Shanghai’s American Chamber of Commerce said they were speeding up plans to move operations out of mainland
- Transport bans and strict public health measures have disrupted economic activity
China’s economic growth may drop to 5 per cent or lower because of the outbreak, according to a government economist. Photo: Bloomberg
The majority of US firms with operations in China expect
a virus outbreak
to cut revenue this year, and some are accelerating plans to shift their supply chains out of the country, according to a poll by Shanghai’s American Chamber of Commerce.
Nearly a quarter of the firms forecast revenue would fall by at least 16 per cent this year due to the outbreak, while over a fifth said it would decline by 11-15 per cent. Only 13 per cent of respondents said revenue would see very little or no impact from the virus.
The survey covered 127 companies, including 20 with China-sourced revenues of over US$500 million and 27 with China revenues of US$100 million to US$500 million.
Sixteen per cent of respondents expected China’s gross domestic product to fall by more than 2 per cent due to the outbreak.
China tries to get back to work amid coronavirus outbreak
The death toll from the virus in China has topped 600, with more than 31,000 people infected. Widespread transport bans and strict public health measures have disrupted economic activity in much of the country, and factory closures are starting to ripple through global supply chains.
China faces dilemma as it tries to get back to work amid coronavirus outbreak fears
A government economist said last week that China’s economic growth may drop to 5 per cent or even lower due to the outbreak, possibly pushing policymakers into introducing more stimulus measures.
Sources said Chinese policymakers were preparing measures, including more fiscal spending and interest rate cuts, amid expectations the outbreak would have a devastating impact on first-quarter growth.
In response to the virus, some survey respondents said they were shifting operations out of China and moving more production to other areas, including India.
“Not innovative, but our suppliers are moving operations to Taiwan. This has been considered before, options and planning were being made, but they are pulling the trigger now,” according to one respondent in the survey.
“Our company will directly source from Taiwan and eliminate the mainland China supply chain for more and more products.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in China, China’s, coronavirus outbreak, disrupted, Economic growth, expect, Gross domestic product, hit, mainland, move, operations, plans, products, public health measures, Revenue, Shanghai's, speeding up, Supply chain, Taiwan, Transport bans, Uncategorized, US firms |
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19/12/2019
- Families appeal to city authorities and toy company for help to recover fees already paid for classes
- Four outlets shut their doors in aftermath of contract dispute
Families in Shanghai are appealing to authorities for help to recover money paid for lessons at closed Lego Education Learning Centres. Photo: Weibo
Hundreds of Shanghai parents are appealing to Danish toy company Lego for help after four of its authorised learning centres suddenly closed their doors, leaving families tens of thousands of yuan out of pocket.
Shanghai Jixiao Information Science and Technology, which ran three Lego Education Learning Centres in the city, said in an online statement on Monday that it was left with no choice but to close the centres after Lego Education in China ended its agreement with its Chinese partner, Beijing-based Semia.
The closure of the centres – the Ruihong, Jinqiao and Haiwaitan branches – came just weeks after the Lego centre in Nanxiang shut down.
Semia was authorised by Lego Education to operate learning branches across mainland China and authorisation third parties to do as well, according to Shanghai-based Jfdaily.com.
Rachel Wang, a mother of a six-year-old boy, said that in various online forums about 650 families had reported losing a combined 5.2 million yuan (US$742,000) in prepaid classes at the three stores. Another 130 families whose children were enrolled at the Nanxiang store were seeking 900,000 yuan in refunds, she said.
Wang said the parents had appealed to the Shanghai municipal government to pressure Lego to look at the case.
“We are planning to sue the learning centre, and in the meantime we hope Lego Group can pay attention to this case and help us. Many of the parents chose these centres as we saw on Lego’s website they were listed as among the company’s authorised stores,” she said.
“We are angry and very disappointed with Lego.
“It made a lot of money in China because we trusted it.”
Lego and Tencent will develop games and videos for kids in China
Tao Lina said everything appeared fine when he took his five-year-old daughter to the Haiwaitan centre on Sunday.
“But the next day, we were told that the store had closed. I was so surprised,” Tao said.
“We had never heard of Semia and we were not aware of its existence. We all thought that the learning centres was franchised directly by Lego.”
He said he had paid for 144 classes at the centre and his daughter had attended about 60 of them, each costing 160 yuan. Tao said he hoped his daughter could continue attending the classes – which use Lego products to teach children about subjects such as robotics – but had not been able to contact the centre’s managers.
Shanghai Jixiao said the termination of the Semia-Lego Education agreement had scared off parents, cutting cash flow and forcing it to close the centres.
In its online statement, the company said its troubles started in September, when it received a lawyer’s letter from both Semia and Lego Education.
“It required us to promise not to use the [Lego Education] logo after December 31, 2019 and to stop teaching Lego courses after August of next year,” Shanghai Jixiao said.
On October 11, Lego Education said on WeChat that it had terminated its cooperation with Semia. Most of the 137 Lego learning centres in China would be allowed to use the Lego brand until December 31 and continue teaching Lego courses until July 31 next year.
But after the announcement, many parents sought refunds, causing a cash-flow crisis for the Shanghai company.
Shanghai Jixiao also said that the lawyer’s letter sent in September required all learning centres to sign an agreement absolving Semia of all responsibility.
If it signed the agreement, it would have three months to change the brand and products, which Shanghai Jixiao said was impossible. If it did not sign it, it would have to stop using the Lego brand at once.
Shutting the centres down was the only option after their various efforts, including joint appeals with other mainland learning stores to Lego, visiting Lego headquarters in Denmark and calling Lego’s executives, were unsuccessful, the Shanghai company said.
Chinese teens put to the information age test in global Pisa education study
5 Dec 2019
It offered two mobile phone numbers for parents to contact them but the phones were powered off on Wednesday and Thursday.
Lego did not respond to a request for comment from the South China Morning Post.
But on Wednesday, Lego said it ended the contract with Semia to improve the company’s learning centres, adding that it had no business relations with the closed stores, Thepaper.cn reported.
A manager at Semia’s franchising department identified only as Wei was quoted by Jfdaily.com as saying that the authorisation contract for the three stores owned by Shanghai Jixiao actually ended between October 2018 and February this year.
“They were waiting for us to renew the authorisation contract with Lego, but we failed to reach an agreement with Lego. So these learning centres lost their authorisation,” she was quoted as saying.
Wei said all the authorised stores operated independently.
“Legally speaking, their problems should be solved by themselves,” she said, adding that she could not contact Shanghai Jixiao’s owner either.
There are 19 Lego Education branches across Shanghai, according to Lego Education’s WeChat account.
Market regulation authorities in Pudong and Huangpu districts had started to look at the case, Jfdaily.com reported.
Source: SCMP
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01/09/2019
- The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday, was 49.5 in August
- Figure adds to a month of woe for policymakers in Beijing, even ahead of planned US tariff increases on September 1, October 1, and December 15
China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell by 0.2 points in August as the trade war continued to bite. Photo: Xinhua
As the trade war with the United States continues to gather pace, manufacturers in China remain gloomy about their prospects, with the sector activity contracting for the fourth successive month in August.
The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday, stood at 49.5 in August, down from a reading of
, and below analysts’ expectations. The median result of a survey of analysts by Bloomberg expected a reading of 49.6.
The PMI is a gauge of sentiment among factory operators, with 50 being the demarcation line between expansion and contraction in sector activity. In the survey, manufacturers are asked to give a view on business issues such as export orders, purchasing, production and logistics.
That the index has remained in contractionary territory for six of eight months this year shows that the effects of US tariffs are resonating through the Chinese economy. The manufacturing PMI only showed expansion in March and April of this year.
New and higher US tariffs scheduled to enter force on September 1, October 1 and December 15 could provide some very temporary boost to Chinese exports and therefore manufacturers, should they inspire American buyers to make early purchases to pay lower tariff rates. However the long term trajectory is negative, with many manufacturers scoping out or already relocating to production sites outside the world’s second largest economy.
Also released on Saturday was the official non-manufacturing PMI, a survey of the construction and services sectors. This stood at 53.8, up from 53.7 in July, showing that these sectors have remained more robust in the face of a general slowdown in China’s economy. The Bloomberg survey of analysts had expected non-manufacturing PMI in August to remain unchanged.
Composite PMI, a combined reading of both manufacturing and non-manufacturing, was 53, down from 53.1 in July.
The August PMI decline “indicates downward pressure on the economy,” said Zhang Liqun, an analyst with the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, which produces the index with the NBS.
“Corporations’ forecasts of the market outlook were quite poor while being cautious on their production operations,” Zhang said. The PMI indicated a drop in new orders, which also reflected a lack of domestic demand. Given that the US is escalating tensions with China, downward pressure on external demand is also apparent, Zhang said.
August was a month to forget for policymakers in Beijing, with a series of negative data highlighting the serious economic challenges facing the nation. With the trade war threatening to tip the global economy into a recession, China remains heavily exposed.
The trade war is having a significant impact on Chinese manufacturing. Photo: Xinhua
While exports grew by 3.3 per cent in July, a sign of front-loading, imports fell by 5.6 per cent, emphasising the issues with consumption in China. This problem was also clear in retail sales figure, which came in at a disappointing 7.6 per cent for July, down from 9.8 per cent growth in June.
, a measure of output in China’s manufacturing and mining sectors, grew by just 4.8 per cent in July, the lowest reading since February 2002.
Gross domestic product in China for the second quarter of 2019 grew at 6.2 per cent, the lowest rate since NBS quarterly records began in 1992.
Source: SCMP
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21/05/2019
- Local officials have devised creative ways to cover up their lack of action on tackling pollution
- Falsified monitoring information risks directing clean-up efforts away from where they are needed most
China’s efforts to cut pollution are being hampered by local officials who use creative methods to hide their lack of action. Photo: Simon Song
China’s notoriously lax local government officials and polluting companies are finding creative ways to fudge their environmental responsibilities and outsmart Beijing’s pollution inspectors, despite stern warnings and tough penalties.
Recent audit reports covering the past two years released by the environment ministry showed its inspectors were frequently presented with fake data and fabricated documents, as local officials – sometimes working in league with companies – have devised multiple ways to cheat and cover up their lack of action.
Local governments have been under pressure to meet environmental protection targets since Chinese President Xi Jinping made it one of his top three policy pledges in late 2017.
The performance of leading local officials is now partly assessed by how good a job they have done in cleaning up China’s much depleted environment.
According to the reports released this month by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, pollution inspectors have found evidence in a number of city environmental protection bureaus of made-up meeting notes and even instructions to local companies to forge materials.
Cao Liping, director of the ministry’s ecology and environment law enforcement department, said many of the cases uncovered were the result of officials failing to act in a timely manner.
“In some places, local officials didn’t really do the rectification work. When the inspections began, they realised they didn’t have enough time, so they made up material,” he said.
China ‘still facing uphill struggle in fight against pollution’
While some officials are covering up their inaction, others are actively corrupt. According to Guangzhou’s Southern Weekend, since 2012 there have been 63 cases involving 118 people in the environment protection system involved in corruption.
In the southwest province of Sichuan, 32 current and former employees of Suining city’s environmental protection bureau were found to be corrupt, raking in illicit income of 6.32 million yuan (US$900,000).
Fabricated notes
The party committee of Bozhou district in Zunyi, Guizhou province in southern China, was found to have fabricated notes for 10 meetings – part of the work requirement under the new environmental targets – in a bid to cheat the inspectors.
The case was flagged by the environment ministry in a notice issued on May 10, which said party officials in Bozhou lacked “political consciousness … the nature of this case is very severe”.
Watering down results
Environmental officials in Shizuishan, in the northwest region of Ningxia, tried to improve their results in December 2017 by ordering sanitation workers to spray the building of the local environmental protection bureau with an anti-smog water cannon.
The intention was to lower the amount of pollutant particles registered by the building’s monitoring equipment.
The scheme may have gone undetected if the weather had been warmer but the next day a telltale layer of ice covered the building and the chief and deputy chief of the environmental station in the city’s Dawokou district were later penalised for influencing the monitoring results.
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Similar tactics were deployed in Linfen, in the northern province of Shanxi in March 2017, when former bureau chief Zhang Wenqing and 11 others were found to have altered air quality monitoring data during days of heavy pollution.
The monitoring machine was blocked and sprayed with water to improve the data and Zhang was also found to have paid another person to make sure the sabotage was not captured by surveillance camera.
According to the environment ministry, six national observation stations in Linfen were interfered with more than 100 times between April 2017 and March 2018. In the same period, monitoring data was seriously distorted on 53 occasions.
Zhang was sentenced to two years in prison in May last year for destroying information on a computer.
Bad company
A ministry notice on May 11 flagged collusion by local officials and businesses in Bozhou in southeast China’s Anhui province. Companies were given advance notice of environmental inspections, with instructions to make up contracts and temporarily suspend production in a bid to deceive inspectors.
In Henan province, central China, inspectors found a thermal power company had been using a wireless mouse to interfere with the sealed automatic monitoring system. They were able to remotely delete undesirable data, eliminating evidence of excessive emissions, and only provided selective data to the environment bureau.
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In another case, from 2017, an environmental inspection group in Hubei province, central China, found a ceramics company had been working with the data monitoring company to alter automatically collected data on sulphur dioxide emissions.
Criminal offence
Cao said that while the cheating by grass-roots officials was serious, the involvement of companies in falsifying data was a major issue that made the work of inspectors even harder.
“Some fraudulent methods are hidden with the help of high technology, so it’s hard for us to obtain evidence. Besides, the environment officials are not totally familiar with these technologies,” he said.
The environment ministry was working on solutions to the problems, he said, adding that falsifying monitoring data was now a criminal offence.
Fake data was particularly serious, he said, because it could directly influence his department’s decisions about where to deploy resources.
Wang Canfa, an environmental law expert at the China University of Political Science and Law, said the problem of fake data could damage the government’s credibility but also prevent it from taking measures in time.
“If the water pollution or air pollution is severe in one place but the local government has said it’s not a big deal, then the investment needed to control the situation might go to other places,” he said.
Zhou Ke, a professor of environment and resources law at Renmin University, said there was an incentive for local officials to cheat because the inspection results were directly related to their career prospects.
Officials ended up cheating or forging materials to protect local interests or their own political achievements, he said.
Source: SCMP
Posted in among, Anhui province, Bozhou, Cao Liping, ceramics company, China University of Political Science and Law, China’s green efforts, Chinese President Xi Jinping, corruption, ecology and environment law enforcement department, environmental law expert, fabricated, fake data, grass roots, Guangzhou, Guizhou Province, Henan province, hit, hubei province, Linfen, local governments, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, professor of environment and resources law, Renmin University, shandong province, Shizuishan, sichuan province, Southern Weekend, Suining city, Uncategorized, Wang Canfa, Zhang Wenqing, Zhou K, Zhou Ke, Zunyi |
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