Archive for ‘parties’

28/05/2020

China’s Civil Code adopted at national legislature

BEIJING, May 28 (Xinhua) — Chinese lawmakers Thursday voted to adopt the country’s long-expected Civil Code at the third session of the 13th National People’s Congress, the top legislature.

The Civil Code will take effect on Jan. 1, 2021.

In addition to general provisions and supplementary provisions, the Civil Code, the world’s latest modern-day civil law, has six parts on real rights, contracts, personality rights, marriage and family, succession, and tort liabilities.

The personal rights, property rights and other lawful rights and interests of the parties to civil legal relations shall be protected by law and shall not be infringed upon by any organization or individual, reads the Civil Code in its opening chapter.

Lawmakers say the codification is not about formulating a new civil law but rather systematically incorporating existing civil laws and regulations, modifying and improving them to adapt to new situations while maintaining their consistency.

A major innovation of China’s Civil Code, jurists say, is embodied in the personality rights part. While some countries have related law provisions, few have a specific law book in civil code dedicated to protecting personality rights.

The personality rights part covers stipulations on a civil subject’s rights to his or her life, body, health, name, portrait, reputation and privacy, among others.

The personality rights part shows that China has reached a new height in protecting the dignity of people, said Chen Jingying, a national lawmaker and vice president of East China University of Political Science and Law.

The Civil Code is a milestone in developing the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, and will greatly boost the modernization of China’s system and capacity for governance, said Wang Yi, dean of the law school at Renmin University of China.

Source: Xinhua

25/04/2020

Coronavirus: China’s belt and road plan may take a year to recover from slower trade, falling investment

  • But trade with partner countries might not be as badly affected as with countries elsewhere in the world, observers say
  • China’s trade with belt and road countries rose by 3.2 per cent in the January-March period, but second-quarter results will depend on how well they manage to contain the pathogen, academic says
China’s investment in foreign infrastructure as part of its Belt and Road Initiative has been curtailed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Xinhua
China’s investment in foreign infrastructure as part of its Belt and Road Initiative has been curtailed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Xinhua
The coronavirus pandemic is set to cause a slump in Chinese investment in its signature

Belt and Road Initiative

and a dip in trade with partner countries that could take a year to overcome, analysts say.

But the impact of the health crisis on China’s economic relations with nations involved in the ambitious infrastructure development programme might not be as great as on those that are not.
China’s total foreign trade in the first quarter of 2020 fell by 6.4 per cent year on year, according to official figures from Beijing.
Trade with the United States, Europe and Japan all dropped in the period, by 18.3, 10.4 and 8.1 per cent, respectively, the commerce ministry said.
By comparison, China’s trade with belt and road countries increased by 3.2 per cent in the first quarter, although the growth figure was lower than the 10.8 per cent reported for the whole of 2019.
China’s trade with 56 belt and road countries – located across Africa, Asia, Europe and South America – accounts for about 30 per cent of its total annual volume, according to the commerce ministry.

Despite the first-quarter growth, Tong Jiadong, a professor of international trade at Nankai University in Tianjin, said he expected China’s trade with belt and road countries to fall by between 2 and 5 per cent this year.

His predictions are less gloomy than the 13 to 32 per cent contraction in global trade forecast for this year by the World Trade Organisation.

“A drop in [China’s total] first-quarter trade was inevitable but it slowly started to recover as it resumed production, especially with Southeast Asian, Eastern European and Arab countries,” Tong said.

“The second quarter will really depend on how the epidemic is contained in belt and road countries.”

Nick Marro, Hong Kong-based head of global trade at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said he expected China’s total overseas direct investment to fall by about 30 per cent this year, which would be bad news for the belt and road plan.

“This will derive from a combination of growing domestic stress in China, enhanced regulatory scrutiny over Chinese investment in major international markets, and weakened global economic prospects that will naturally depress investment demand,” he said.

The development of the Chinese built and operated special economic zone in the Cambodian town of Sihanoukville is reported to have slowed, while infrastructure projects in Bangladesh, including the Payra coal-fired power plant, have been put on hold.

The development of the Chinese built and operated special economic zone in the Cambodian town of Sihanoukville is reported to have slowed. Photo: AFP
The development of the Chinese built and operated special economic zone in the Cambodian town of Sihanoukville is reported to have slowed. Photo: AFP
Marro said the reduction of capital and labour from China might complicate other projects for key belt and road partner, like Pakistan, which is home to infrastructure projects worth tens of billions of US dollars, and funded and built in large part by China.

“Pakistan looks concerning, particularly in terms of how we’ve assessed its sovereign and currency risk,” Marro said.

“Public debt is high compared to other emerging markets, while the coronavirus will push the budget deficit to expand to 10 per cent of GDP [gross domestic product] this year.”

Last week, Pakistan asked China for a 10-year extension to the repayment period on US$30 billion worth of loans used to fund the development of infrastructure projects, according to a report by local newspaper Dawn.

China’s overseas investment has been falling steadily from its peak in 2016, mostly as a result of Beijing’s curbs on capital outflows.

Last year, the direct investment by Chinese companies and organisations other than banks in belt and road countries fell 3.8 per cent from 2018 to US$15 billion, with most of the money going to South and Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan.

Tong said the pandemic had made Chinese investors nervous about putting their money in countries where disease control measures were becoming increasingly stringent, but added that the pause in activity would give all parties time to regroup.

“Investment in the second quarter will decline and allow time for the questions to be answered,” he said.

“Past experience along the belt and road has taught many lessons to both China and its partners, and forced them to think calmly about their own interests. The epidemic provides both parties with a good time for this.”

Dr Frans-Paul van der Putten, a senior research fellow at Clingendael Institute in the Netherlands, said China’s post-pandemic strategy for the belt and road in Europe
might include a shift away from investing in high-profile infrastructure projects like ports and airports.
Investors might instead cooperate with transport and logistics providers rather than invest directly, he said.
“Even though in the coming years the amount of money China loans and invests abroad may be lower than in the peak years around 2015-16, I expect it to maintain the belt and road plan as its overall strategic framework for its foreign economic relations,” he said.
Source: SCMP
27/11/2019

Modi’s loss in state election raises questions about bullet train

MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s richest state is set to be ruled by parties opposed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, jeopardising a Japanese-backed bullet-train project opposed by farmers.

The BJP’s inability to pull together voters in the westerly state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is capital, has meant that three parties, including a former BJP ally, will form the government. That is a major setback for Modi after his landslide victory in general elections this year.

It could also hinder the bullet train project, a $17 billion investment largely financed by a long-term, low-cost loan from Japan. The BJP was in power in both Maharashtra and Gujarat states when work began on project in 2017.

“We have always opposed the bullet train,” said Manisha Kayande, a spokesperson for the Shiv Sena, a former BJP ally whose leader is now set to head Maharashtra. “Our state is giving a major chunk of money for the project, when most of the track is in another state. This will definitely be re-framed,” .

The train will run from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat state, a distance of 508 kilometres (315 miles). But it has run into obstacles acquiring land amid opposition from fruit farmers.

Any delay of the project is likely to undermine investor confidence, at a time when growth has slowed to its weakest pace in years.

Critics say India does not need the high-speed train and investment should go instead to improve the existing network.

“We are not against development or infrastructure projects, but at the same time farmers’ interests can’t be ignored. We will rethink about projects that farmers are opposing,” said a senior leader of Nationalist Congress Party, which is a part of the coalition government.

National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL), the government agency overseeing the project, had no immediate comment.

The authorities have acquired 548 hectares land out of the total requirement 1,380 hectares and the project was targeted to be operational by 2023 , the government told parliament in July.

Protests against land acquisitions are common in India, where tens of millions of farmers till small holdings. A planned $44 billion refinery to be run by a consortium including Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, is also struggling to secure land in Maharashtra.

Source: Reuters

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