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04/11/2019

Li urges China, ASEAN to uphold multilateralism, free trade

THAILAND-BANGKOK-LI KEQIANG-CHINA-ASEAN LEADERS' MEETING

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang addresses the 22nd China-ASEAN (10+1) leaders’ meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 3, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

BANGKOK, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday called on China and ASEAN to uphold multilateralism and free trade, resist risks and realize common development at the 22nd China-ASEAN (10+1) leaders’ meeting in Bangkok.

Since China and ASEAN established dialogue relations, they have brought benefits to each other and the wider region, Li said, adding that China always supports ASEAN’s central role in East Asian cooperation.

Noting that the mounting downward pressure on the global economy brings new severe challenges, Li said China and ASEAN countries should jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade, withstand risks and realize common development.

The premier said China and ASEAN countries should stick to the principle of shared benefits and win-win outcomes, and speed up the work to upgrade economic and trade cooperation.

He called for an early conclusion of the negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) so as to lay the foundation for East Asia’s economic integration, and the implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Upgrade Protocol to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.

Li said China and ASEAN countries should enhance strategic mutual trust and safeguard peace and stability in the region.

The Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea is an upgraded version of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). Last year, China proposed that all parties should try to finish the COC talks in three years. The first reading of the single draft negotiating text of the COC in the South China Sea has been completed ahead of schedule, and the second reading has been launched.

Li said he hopes all sides will actively carry forward the consultations according to the previously agreed timetable, meet each other halfway, and safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.

The premier also said China and ASEAN countries need to carry forward their friendship from generation to generation, and stay ready to enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges in such areas as media, health, education and tourism.

China is willing to train 1,000 administrative health staff and technical professionals in the following three years for ASEAN and will support projects such as the China-ASEAN Young Leaders Scholarship, said the premier.

Stressing that China will unswervingly pursue the path of peaceful development and an opening-up strategy of mutual benefit, Li said China is willing to synergize the Belt and Road Initiative with the development strategies of ASEAN as a whole and its members as well.

He urged to accelerate the construction of the existing economic corridors, promote infrastructure connectivity cooperation, as well as support the building of the Brunei Darussalam Indonesia Malaysia Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area.

Li encouraged innovation cooperation in the areas including digital economy, artificial intelligence, big data and cyber security, and the establishment of a China-ASEAN partnership on blue economy to enhance maritime exchanges and cooperation.

Thailand’s Prime Minister, also the rotating chair of ASEAN, Prayut Chan-o-cha, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Brunei’s Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Myanmar’s State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen attended the meeting. Li and Prayut co-chaired the meeting.

At the meeting, ASEAN leaders expressed congratulations on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, saying that the ASEAN-China partnership is the most dynamic one in all the partnerships ASEAN has forged.

Speaking highly of the new cooperation progress over the past year, the leaders said their countries would like to take an active role in building the Belt and Road, expand cooperation in areas of inter-connectivity, science and technology innovation, e-commerce, smart cities and blue economy, and increase two-way investment.

They also expressed the hope that the ASEAN-China trade volume can exceed 1 trillion U.S. dollars at an early date.

The leaders also applauded the new progress made in the COC negotiation, saying that their countries would like to maintain the momentum and advance the process.

During the meeting, China and ASEAN agreed to make an action plan to implement The Joint Declaration on China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity (2021-2025), issued statements on the Belt and Road Initiative, smart cities and media exchanges, and announced that the year 2020 will be the year of China-ASEAN digital economy cooperation.

Li arrived in Bangkok late on Saturday for an official visit to Thailand and a series of events including the 22nd China-ASEAN (10+1) leaders’ meeting, the 22nd ASEAN-China, Japan and South Korea (10+3) leaders’ meeting, and the 14th East Asia Summit.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in 14th East Asia Summit (EAS), 22nd ASEAN-China, Japan and South Korea (10+3) leaders' meeting, 22nd China-ASEAN (10+1) leaders' meeting, 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ASEAN, Bangkok, Brunei Darussalam Indonesia Malaysia Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area, China alert, China-ASEAN Young Leaders Scholarship, Chinese premier Li Keqiang, Code of Conduct (COC), cultural exchanges, Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), East Asian cooperation, education, free trade, Health, media, multilateralism, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), South China Sea, Tourism, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

02/11/2019

Germany, India sign wide-ranging agreements to deepen bilateral ties

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed wide-ranging agreements in New Delhi on Friday to deepen strategic cooperation and exchanged notes on ways to boost bilateral trade.

Merkel, accompanied by several cabinet colleagues and a business delegation, is in India on a three-day visit that began on Thursday.

“We’re encouraging our private sectors to give an impetus to our growing bilateral trade and Chancellor Merkel and I will meet some of the top business and industry leaders,” Modi told a joint news conference with the German leader.

“We’re encouraging our private sectors to give an impetus to our growing bilateral trade and Chancellor Merkel and I will meet some of the top business and industry leaders,” Modi said.

Bilateral trade between the two countries rose to $24.06 billion (18.5 billion pounds) in the 2018/19 fiscal year ending in March from $22 billion the previous year, while German companies have invested nearly $12 billion in India since 2000.

Germany is India’s largest trading partner in Europe and more than 1,700 German companies are operating in India.

The agreements struck on strategic cooperation, included agriculture, cyber security and artificial intelligence. Modi said the two countries would also bolster ties to combat “terrorism and extremism”.

Germany and India also agreed to join hands in the area of education.

“As many as 20,000 Indian nationals are studying in Germany and we would like to see more,” Merkel said.

Although Merkel and Modi didn’t mention anything about restarting talks on finalising a free trade agreement between India and the European Union, sources earlier said the two leaders could take up the trade deal.

Eric Schweitzer, president of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), earlier said India had enormous potential but there has been uncertainty among companies after an investment protection agreement between the two countries ended in 2016.

“Small and medium-sized German companies stand in a labyrinth of regulations and shy away from larger investment. Negotiations should restart and Merkel’s visit could help,” he said.

VDA, Germany’s car industry association that counts automakers like Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), Daimler, BMW and Audi as members, also wanted India to restart the FTA talks.

Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi dominate India’s luxury car market.

Source: Reuters

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24/10/2019

China to tighten up plastic use in schools

BEIJING, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) — Chinese authorities demand primary and middle schools to step up education on environment protection and reduce the use of plastic, according to a statement issued Wednesday.

The schools should not force students to use plastic book covers, especially substandard ones, which could damage children’s health, said the statement.

The statement also requires low-carbon consumption in curricular and extracurricular activities and in school management so as to raise the environmental awareness among the students.

Source: Xinhua

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18/10/2019

China, Mauritius sign free trade agreement

BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) — China and Mauritius signed a free trade agreement (FTA) here Thursday, the first FTA between China and an African country, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

The China-Mauritius FTA is the 17th FTA signed by China.

The agreement covers trade in goods and services and investment and economic cooperation.

The FTA will not only provide a more powerful institutional guarantee to deepen bilateral economic and trade relations, but also boost China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, according to the MOC.

Negotiations on the China-Mauritius FTA were officially launched in December 2017. The two sides formally concluded the negotiations on Sept. 2, 2018, after four rounds of intensive negotiations.

In the area of trade in goods, China and Mauritius will eventually achieve zero tariffs on 96.3 percent and 94.2 percent of product tariff items, respectively, involving 92.8 percent of import volume for both countries from each other.

For the remaining tariff items of Mauritius, the tariffs will also be greatly cut, and the maximum tariffs for most of the involved products will not exceed 15 percent.

China’s main exports to Mauritius, such as iron and steel products, textiles and other light industrial products, will benefit from it.

Special sugar produced in Mauritius will also enter the Chinese market gradually.

The two sides also agreed on rules of origin, trade remedies, technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary issues.

In the area of trade in services, China and Mauritius both promised to open up more than 100 sub-sectors.

Mauritius will open up more than 130 sub-sectors in important service fields such as communications, education, finance, tourism, culture, transportation and traditional Chinese medicine to China.

This is the highest level of opening up in the field of services in Mauritius so far.

In the field of investment, the agreement has been greatly upgraded from the 1996 China-Mauritius bilateral investment protection agreement in terms of protection scope, protection level and dispute settlement mechanism.

This is the first time that China has upgraded the previous investment protection agreement with an African country, which will not only provide stronger protection for Chinese enterprises to go to Mauritius, but also help them further boost investment cooperation in Africa through the platform of Mauritius, according to the MOC.

Meanwhile, the two sides also agreed to further deepen economic and technical cooperation in agriculture, finance, medical care, tourism and other fields.

The two sides will undergo respective domestic procedures for the agreement to take effect.

Source: Xinhua

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13/10/2019

Vice premier stresses education, healthcare for Greater Bay Area

BEIJING, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) — Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan has called for efforts to boost social causes such as education and healthcare in south China’s Guangdong Province to better serve the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during a three-day research tour in Guangdong that ended Saturday.

She visited major higher education and medical institutions in the province and presided over a symposium in Shenzhen, asking local departments to make more specific policies and measures to serve the construction of the Greater Bay Area, enhance their coordination and help push the development of the area to a new level.

Sun urged efforts to optimize the structure of higher education of the Greater Bay Area and encouraged universities in Guangdong to open up their resources in scientific research to universities and research institutes in Hong Kong and Macao.

She also asked for further cooperation and exchanges of talent in medical care within the Greater Bay Area, better implementation of the policies that grant Hong Kong and Macao’s medical institutions and doctors access to the mainland, and deeper cooperation in traditional Chinese medicine.

Li Xi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, attended the events along the tour.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, education, guangdong province, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), healthcare, Li Xi, medical institutions, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Shenzhen, Sun Chunlan, symposium, Uncategorized, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan | Leave a Comment »

02/10/2019

Commentary: New China turns 70, witnessing a golden age

BEIJING, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) — While turning 70 often signals the beginning of a person’s twilight years, for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) it marks a golden age full of hope and vigor.

The PRC celebrated its 70th birthday on Oct. 1. China’s transformation from an agricultural society isolated from the West into the world’s second-largest economy open wide is nothing short of a miracle.

More importantly, it has charted a new path for developing countries to modernize.

Seven decades ago, the war-ravaged country started from scratch. Observers are astonished at China’s large-scale modernization, its reduction of the number of people living in poverty and the sheer volume of its consumer market. Their heads have been turned not only because of the speed of the transition but also by the unique path taken to realize this great transformation.

Reflecting on its past and present, and through experimentation, China has identified and will continue down the right path — socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Reform is the engine of China’s miracle. There is no ready-made solution for the development issues facing China. From creating special economic zones to building free trade pilot zones, from carrying out family-based production contracts to revitalizing state-owned enterprises, China has been one of the most successful countries in piloting reforms over the past decades. Now the reform is more in-depth and more comprehensive in economic, political, cultural, social and ecological sectors.

The Chinese government stresses being effective and responsive to the public interest. Development outlines are far-sighted. For example, the five-year plans are made to deal with comprehensive aspects that concern human development: food, transportation, communication, environment, health and education. These plans are a priority for the government.

Of course these achievements could never have been realized without the leadership of the CPC.

From the people and for the people, the CPC has always upheld its principle of striving for the happiness of the people and the rejuvenation of the nation.

At a life-or-death moment, the CPC shouldered the mission of saving the nation from existential peril. After 28 years of bloody struggle, it led the Chinese people to overthrow the “three mountains” placed on their heads and put an end to the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society of old China. Gone are the days where any attempt to bully China with “fists” or “intimidation” would succeed.

Despite overseas doubts, misunderstandings and predictions that its survival would be short-lived, the CPC has stunned the world with its leadership, innovative theories and ability to unite and organize the people.

It abolished the agricultural tax that had been in place for more than 2,600 years; it established a political system in which people are masters of their own affairs; it did its utmost to help people shake off poverty and keep nearly 1.4 billion people well-off.

No ruling party in the world can match the CPC’s record of adhering to the truth, versing itself in self-reform and self-purification, and turning impossibility into certainty in the face of difficulties and challenges, again and again.

The 70-year journey was never smooth. Trials and hardships abounded. The Chinese people dealt with floods and massive earthquakes and guarded against SARS and financial tsunamis. Yet these twists and turns never blocked China’s way forward but made it more sober, determined and mature.

Today, more than at any other time in history, China is closer to, more confident and more capable of achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. However, lofty goals are never easily reached.

The world has been undergoing tremendous changes unseen in a century. Resistant external forces and headwinds still remain. “Zero-sum game” and “superior civilization” mentalities, among others, are prevailing.

The CPC will continue to lead the Chinese people to fight trade bullying, blackmailing and hegemonism. Only the CPC can lead China to emerge as a stronger country.

It all started long ago, and the journey is far from over.

Source: Xinhua

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01/10/2019

China anniversary: How the country became the world’s ‘economic miracle’

Local women sell produce in the market. Zhongyi market, located at the southern gate of Dayan ancient city, in Lijian, Yunnan Province in China

It took China less than 70 years to emerge from isolation and become one of the world’s greatest economic powers.

As the country celebrates the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, we look back on how its transformation spread unprecedented wealth – and deepened inequality – across the Asian giant.

“When the Communist Party came into control of China it was very, very poor,” says DBS chief China economist Chris Leung.

“There were no trading partners, no diplomatic relationships, they were relying on self-sufficiency.”

Over the past 40 years, China has introduced a series of landmark market reforms to open up trade routes and investment flows, ultimately pulling hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

Chart showing gross domestic product of US, China, Japan and the UK

The 1950s had seen one of the biggest human disasters of the 20th Century. The Great Leap Forward was Mao Zedong’s attempt to rapidly industrialise China’s peasant economy, but it failed and 10-40 million people died between 1959-1961 – the most costly famine in human history.

This was followed by the economic disruption of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, a campaign which Mao launched to rid the Communist party of his rivals, but which ended up destroying much of the country’s social fabric.

‘Workshop of the world’

Yet after Mao’s death in 1976, reforms spearheaded by Deng Xiaoping began to reshape the economy. Peasants were granted rights to farm their own plots, improving living standards and easing food shortages.

The door was opened to foreign investment as the US and China re-established diplomatic ties in 1979. Eager to take advantage of cheap labour and low rent costs, money poured in.

“From the end of the 1970s onwards we’ve seen what is easily the most impressive economic miracle of any economy in history,” says David Mann, global chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank.

Through the 1990s, China began to clock rapid growth rates and joining the World Trade Organization in 2001 gave it another jolt. Trade barriers and tariffs with other countries were lowered and soon Chinese goods were everywhere.

“It became the workshop of the world,” Mr Mann says.

Take these figures from the London School of Economics: in 1978, exports were $10bn (£8.1bn), less than 1% of world trade.

By 1985, they hit $25bn and a little under two decades later exports valued $4.3trn, making China the world’s largest trading nation in goods.

Poverty rates tumble

The economic reforms improved the fortunes of hundreds of millions of Chinese people.

The World Bank says more than 850 million people been lifted out of poverty, and the country is on track to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020.

At the same time, education rates have surged. Standard Chartered projects that by 2030, around 27% of China’s workforce will have a university education – that’s about the same as Germany today.

Rising inequality

Still, the fruits of economic success haven’t spread evenly across China’s population of 1.3 billion people.

Examples of extreme wealth and a rising middle class exist alongside poor rural communities, and a low skilled, ageing workforce. Inequality has deepened, largely along rural and urban divides.

“The entire economy is not advanced, there’s huge divergences between the different parts,” Mr Mann says.

The World Bank says China’s income per person is still that of a developing country, and less than one quarter of the average of advanced economies.

China’s average annual income is nearly $10,000, according to DBS, compared to around $62,000 in the US.

Slower growth

Now, China is shifting to an era of slower growth.

For years it has pushed to wean its dependence off exports and toward consumption-led growth. New challenges have emerged including softer global demand for its goods and a long-running trade war with the US. The pressures of demographic shifts and an ageing population also cloud the country’s economic outlook.

Still, even if the rate of growth in China eases to between 5% and 6%, the country will still be the most powerful engine of world economic growth.

“At that pace China will still be 35% of global growth, which is the biggest single contributor of any country, three times more important to global growth than the US,” Mr Mann says.

The next economic frontier

China is also carving out a new front in global economic development. The country’s next chapter in nation-building is unfolding through a wave of funding in the massive global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative.

Map showing Chinese investment as part of the Belt and Road initiative

The so-called new Silk Road aims to connect almost half the world’s populations and one-fifth of global GDP, setting up trade and investment links that stretch across the world.

Source: The BBC

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29/09/2019

China expands access to public services for travellers from Hong Kong and Macau

New system to enable businesses and government agencies to verify mainland-issued travel permits

The new system is expected to expand access to the public transport system on the mainland. Photo: Roy Issa

Hong Kong and Macau residents and “overseas Chinese” may soon be able to have full access to public services on the mainland using their China-issued travel documents, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Xinhua reported on Wednesday that the National Immigration Administration was putting a platform in place to enable government agencies and businesses to verify mainland-issued travel permits for Hong Kong and Macau residents.

“As soon as the platform becomes operational, these overseas travellers can, from October, have access to 35 public services, ranging from transport, to finance, education, communications, medical care and accommodation,” the report said.

According to the report, “overseas travellers” cover Hong Kong and Macau residents and ethnic Chinese living overseas.

But it did not say why the new measures did not apply to people from Taiwan.

The administration did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Will Hong Kong anti-government protests ruin city’s role in Beijing’s Greater Bay Area plan? Depends on whom you ask

The new measure appears to be part of a long-term strategy by Beijing to foster closer ties between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macau.

In the last few years, the central government has launched a host of incentives for Hong Kong and Macau residents and businesses, including opportunities in the Greater Bay Area development plan in southern China.

Ivan Zhai, executive director of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce in China-Guangdong, welcomed the new measure.

“If such an arrangement can be fully implemented, Hong Kong businesspeople who operate on the mainland will be thrilled,” Zhai said.

The Hong Kong business community has long lobbied for relaxation over areas such as train ticketing and hotel registration.

Zhai said that although Hong Kong and Macau residents could now book high-speed train tickets with their mainland-issued travel permits, there were few ticket machines that could automatically read the permits, complicating the process.

“There are also hotels on the mainland that can only entertain guests with Chinese identity cards and currently Hong Kong travellers can only go to hotels that are authorised to accept the mainland-issued travel permits,” he said.

China’s regulator relaxes currency conversion rules throughout Shenzhen, sharpening city’s edge in Greater Bay Area

According to the report, there will be stiff penalties for departments or businesses misusing information collected through the platform.

Zhai said Hong Kong businesspeople who travelled to the mainland often were more likely to be concerned about convenience than the risk of invasion of privacy.

“If you are a frequent traveller in China, you would have expected that the relevant departments of the Chinese government already have information about you anyway,” he said.

Source: SCMP

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29/09/2019

Are China’s grandparents reaching their limits on free childcare?

Millions of Chinese children are raised by their grandparents but some seniors are demanding compensation

For generations in China grandparents have provided childcare, but some are no longer willing to do so for free. Photo: Shutterstock

The traditional role of grandparents in caring for China’s children has been called into question with two recent lawsuits sparking debate about whether seniors should be paid for their efforts.

Two grandmothers took their demands for compensation to court in separate cases which have highlighted the reliance of Chinese workers on their parents to provide childcare while they pursue professional advancement.

A woman in Mianyang, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, was awarded more than 68,000 yuan (US$9,500) by a local court after she sued her son and daughter-in-law for the costs of raising her nine-year-old grandchild, according to Red Star News.

The woman, identified only by her surname Wang, had been the child’s full-time carer for eight years after his parents left home to seek better-paid jobs elsewhere. Wang said she had taken care of most of her grandson’s living expenses and had decided to seek compensation when his parents said they were considering a divorce.

They should respect our contribution. Grandmother Wang, Sichuan province

“I only want to let them know through this lawsuit that it’s their obligation to raise their children,” she was reported as saying. “The young ones should not take it for granted that old people ought to look after their grandchildren. They should respect our contribution.”

Despite winning the case, she has not received a penny and the boy still lives with her.

In another case, three months ago, a Beijing court supported a woman’s demand for compensation for helping to raise her granddaughter since her birth in 2002.

The stories of the two women generated a public reflection on the Chinese way of childcare which, for generations, has involved leaving most – if not all – of the burden on grandparents.

One of 60 million: life as a ‘left-behind’ child in China

From a cultural perspective, it has been a matter of course in a country with a long history of several generations living under one roof, for grandparents to participate in child rearing, according to Xu Anqi, a researcher specialising in family studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

“Today, as people face fierce competition and great pressure from work, it’s still common to rely on their old parents to look after their children,” she said.

While rapid urbanisation in recent decades has broken up multi-generational households, Chinese elderly still take an active role in child rearing, with many relocating to their children’s cities to take on the job.

Millions more families do it the other way round – with parents leaving children in their hometown with the grandparents while they seek better paying jobs in the cities. In August last year, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, China had nearly 7 million “left behind kids”, as they are known.

My little granddaughter is adorable, and generally I enjoy doing all this.Li Xiujuan, grandmother

“Many grandmothers like me would joke that we are ‘unpaid nannies’, but at the same time we feel it’s our responsibility to help them out – they would be in financial stress if one of them quit or they hired a nanny,” said Li Xiujuan, who relocated from her hometown in the central province of Henan to Shanghai two years ago to help look after her granddaughter.

“I’m a 24-hour nanny for my grandkid. I prepare food for her, wash her clothes, attend early childhood classes with her, take her for a walk in the park twice a day, sleep beside her at noon and night …” she said.

“I never cared for my daughter when she was little like I do her daughter now. You know, it was also her grandmother who mainly took care of her daily life when she was young,” Li said, laughing.

“My little granddaughter is adorable, and generally I enjoy doing all this. The hard part is that I miss my friends and relatives back home. We don’t have friends here. I have plenty of things to do at home, but here, nothing but babysitting. People are polite, but it’s difficult to make new friends,” she said.

‘Left behind’ sisters cry when parents leave home to go to work

In a 2017 study of about 3,600 households in six major cities including Beijing and Guangzhou, the Chinese Society of Education found almost 80 per cent of surveyed households had at least one grandparent as carer before children began primary school.

The study also showed that 60 per cent of parents still relied on help from grandparents after children were old enough for primary school at the age of six.

Whether grandparents should be compensated for their efforts split a poll of 49,000 users conducted by social media platform Weibo in late June, with half believing that the older generation should be paid for raising their grandchildren. Only 2.3 per cent said babysitting grandchildren was “an unalterable principle” for the elderly.

“This arrangement could be well managed and improve blood ties if children reward the elderly in their own ways, such as sending gifts on holidays and taking them on trips,” Shanghai researcher Xu said.

I think what they need more is words of appreciation, which many of us have neglected. David Dai, Beijing parent

Grandmother Li agreed: “I think regular payment is a little awkward, but I do expect some kind of reward, like cash gifts on festivals and daily necessities as presents.”

David Dai, a 30-year-old white collar worker in Beijing, said how to reward grandparents for their contribution depended on the financial situation of each household.

“My parents are farmers – they are in good shape and not so old – in their late 50s, and if they didn’t come all the way from my hometown in Anhui to Beijing to look after my son, they would still be taking some odd jobs,” he said.

“Therefore, besides covering their living costs at my place, I give them cash gifts on their birthdays, the Spring Festival and other important occasions, because babysitting their grandchild means they lose the opportunity to work,” he added.

“In some families, the grandparents might have retired and have a good pension. They don’t lack money and enjoy spending time with their grandkids. I don’t think they need to be paid. I think what they need more is words of appreciation, which many of us have neglected,” Dai said.

China boosts childcare and maternal health services in bid to lift birth rate

But for those who never show any gratitude, their parents have every reason not to offer child rearing help or to demand payment, Xu said.

Zhang Tao, a lawyer at the Hiways Law Firm in Shanghai, noted that as long as at least one parent of a child was living, the grandparents had no obligation to help with childcare.

“The grandparents should be compensated for the money they have paid for the child’s education, medical fees, and accommodation from the beneficiary,” he said.

But whether they should be paid has become the latest controversy as more grandparents find it a burden.

Source: SCMP

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29/09/2019

China anniversary: The deep cuts of 70 years of Communist rule

Children waving Chinese flags — Image caption China’s version of its past is a story of prosperity, progress and sacrifice for the common good

China’s extraordinary rise was a defining story of the 20th Century, but as it prepares to mark its 70th anniversary, the BBC’s John Sudworth in Beijing asks who has really won under the Communist Party’s rule.

Sitting at his desk in the Chinese city of Tianjin, Zhao Jingjia’s knife is tracing the contours of a face.

Cut by delicate cut, the form emerges – the unmistakable image of Mao Zedong, founder of modern China.

The retired oil engineer discovered his skill with a blade only in later life and now spends his days using the ancient art of paper cutting to glorify leaders and events from China’s communist history.

“I’m the same age as the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” he says. “I have deep feelings for my motherland, my people and my party.”

Zhao Jingjia with a paper cut of Mao Zedong — Image caption For people like Zhao Jingjia, China’s success outweighs the “mistakes” of its leaders

Born a few days before 1 October 1949 – the day the PRC was declared by Mao – Mr Zhao’s life has followed the dramatic contours of China’s development, through poverty, repression and the rise to prosperity.

Now, in his modest but comfortable apartment, his art is helping him make sense of one of the most tumultuous periods of human history.

“Wasn’t Mao a monster,” I ask, “responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of his countrymen?”

“I lived through it,” he replies. “I can tell you that Chairman Mao did make some mistakes but they weren’t his alone.”

“I respect him from my heart. He achieved our nation’s liberation. Ordinary people cannot do such things.”

On Tuesday, China will present a similar, glorious rendering of its record to the world.

The country is staging one of its biggest ever military parades, a celebration of 70 years of Communist Party rule as pure, political triumph.

Beijing will tremble to the thunder of tanks, missile launchers and 15,000 marching soldiers, a projection of national power, wealth and status watched over by the current Communist Party leader, President Xi Jinping, in Tiananmen Square.

An incomplete narrative of progress

Like Mr Zhao’s paper-cut portraits, we’re not meant to focus on the many individual scars made in the course of China’s modern history.

It is the end result that matters.

Mao Zedong declares the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 Oct 1949 — Image caption Mao Zedong pronounces the dawn of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October 1949

And, on face value, the transformation has been extraordinary.

On 1 October 1949, Chairman Mao stood in Tiananmen Square urging a war-ravaged, semi-feudal state into a new era with a founding speech and a somewhat plodding parade that could muster only 17 planes for the flyby.

This week’s parade, in contrast, will reportedly feature the world’s longest range intercontinental nuclear missile and a supersonic spy-drone – the trophies of a prosperous, rising authoritarian superpower with a 400 million strong middle class.

It is a narrative of political and economic success that – while in large part true – is incomplete.

New visitors to China are often, rightly, awe-struck by the skyscraper-festooned, hi-tech megacities connected by brand new highways and the world’s largest high-speed rail network.

Shanghai skyline — Image caption Those in China’s glittering cities may accept the trade-off of political freedom for economic growth

They see a rampant consumer society with the inhabitants enjoying the freedom and free time to shop for designer goods, to dine out and to surf the internet.

“How bad can it really be?” the onlookers ask, reflecting on the negative headlines they’ve read about China back home.

The answer, as in all societies, is that it depends very much on who you are.

Many of those in China’s major cities, for example, who have benefited from this explosion of material wealth and opportunity, are genuinely grateful and loyal.

In exchange for stability and growth, they may well accept – or at least tolerate – the lack of political freedom and the censorship that feature so often in the foreign media.

For them the parade could be viewed as a fitting tribute to a national success story that mirrors their own.

But in the carving out of a new China, the knife has cut long and deep.

The dead, the jailed and the marginalised

Mao’s man-made famine – a result of radical changes to agricultural systems – claimed tens of millions of lives and his Cultural Revolution killed hundreds of thousands more in a decade-long frenzy of violence and persecution, truths that are notably absent from Chinese textbooks.

Archive image of a starving woman and child during the famine in China — Image caption Tens of millions starved to death under Mao, as China radically restructured agriculture and society

After his death, the demographically calamitous One Child Policy brutalised millions over a 40-year period.

Still today, with its new Two Child Policy, the Party insists on violating that most intimate of rights – an individual’s choice over her fertility.

The list is long, with each category adding many thousands, at least, to the toll of those damaged or destroyed by one-party rule.

Chinese baby in front of Chinese flag — Image caption Beijing still regulates how many children families can have

There are the victims of religious repression, of local government land-grabs and of corruption.

There are the tens of millions of migrant workers, the backbone of China’s industrial success, who have long been shut out of the benefits of citizenship.

A strict residential permit system continues to deny them and their families the right to education or healthcare where they work.

And in recent years, there are the estimated one and a half million Muslims in China’s western region of Xinjiang – Uighurs, Kazakhs and others – who have been placed in mass incarceration camps on the basis of their faith and ethnicity.

China continues to insist they are vocational schools, and that it is pioneering a new way of preventing domestic terrorism.

The stories of the dead, the jailed and the marginalised are always much more hidden than the stories of the assimilated and the successful.

Viewed from their perspective, the censorship of large parts of China’s recent history is not simply part of a grand bargain to be exchanged for stability and prosperity.

People holding pictures of Mao and the Little Red Book in Tiananmen Square, 1966

Getty

Timeline of modern China

1949 Mao declares the founding of the People’s Republic of China
1966-76 Cultural Revolution brings social and political upheaval
1977 Deng Xiaoping initiates major reforms of China’s economy
1989 Army crushes Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests
2010 China becomes the world’s second-largest economy
2018 Xi Jinping is cleared to be president for life

It is something that makes the silence of their suffering all the more difficult to penetrate.

It is the job of foreign journalists, of course, to try.

‘Falsified, faked and glorified’

But while censorship can shut people up, it cannot stop them remembering.

Prof Guo Yuhua, a sociologist at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, is one of the few scholars left trying to record, via oral histories, some of the huge changes that have affected Chinese society over the past seven decades.

Her books are banned, her communications monitored and her social media accounts are regularly deleted.

“For several generations people have received a history that has been falsified, faked, glorified and whitewashed,” she tells me, despite having been warned not to talk to the foreign media ahead of the parade.

“I think it requires the entire nation to re-study and to reflect on history. Only if we do that can we ensure that these tragedies won’t be repeated.”

People with poster of Mao Zedong — Image caption Can progress really be attributed to the leadership?

A parade, she believes, that puts the Communist Party at the front and centre of the story, misses the real lesson, that China’s progress only began after Mao, when the party loosened its grip a bit.

“People are born to strive for a better, happier and more respectful life, aren’t they?” she asks me.

“If they are provided with a tiny little space, they’ll try to make a fortune and solve their survival problems. This shouldn’t be attributed to the leadership.”

‘Our happiness comes from hard work’

As if to prove the point about how the unsettled, censored pasts of authoritarian states continue to impact the present, the parade is for invited guests only.

Mao's portrait hanging in Tiananmen Square — Image caption Mao’s portrait will, as it always is, be watching over the events in Tiananmen Square

Another anniversary, of which Tiananmen Square is the centrepiece, is also being measured in multiples of 10 – it is 30 years since the bloody suppression of the pro-democracy protests that shook the foundations of Communist Party rule.

The troops will be marching – as they always do on these occasions – down the same avenue on which the students were gunned down.

The risk of even a lone protester using the parade to mark a piece of history that has largely been wiped from the record is just too great.

With central Beijing sealed off, ordinary people in whose honour it is supposedly being held, can only watch it on TV.

Back in his Tianjin apartment, Zhao Jingjia shows me the intricate detail of a series of scenes, each cut from a single piece of paper, depicting the “Long March”, a time of hardship and setback for the Communist Party long before it eventually swept to power.

“Our happiness nowadays comes from hard work,” he tells me.

It is a view that echoes that of the Chinese government which, like him, has at least acknowledged that Mao made mistakes while insisting they shouldn’t be dwelt on.

“As for the 70 years of China, it’s extraordinary,” he says. “It can be seen by all. Yesterday we sent two navigation satellites into space – all citizens can enjoy the convenience that these things bring us.”

Media caption What was China’s Cultural Revolution?

Source: The BBC

Posted in 1 October 1949, 70 years, 70th anniversary, agricultural systems, ancient art, authoritarian superpower, backbone, Beijing, benefits, Censorship, chairman mao, China anniversary, citizenship, Communist Party leader, Communist rule, consumer society, corruption, Cultural Revolution, dawn of the People's Republic of China, dead, deep cuts, Deng Xiaoping, domestic terrorism, education, ethnicity, faith, founder of modern China., healthcare, hi-tech megacities, high-speed rail network, Highways, industrial success, intercontinental nuclear missile, jailed, Kazakhs, local government land-grabs, Long March, Mao Zedong, Mao's man-made famine, marginalised, mass incarceration camps, migrant workers, missile launchers, motherland, Muslims, one-child policy, paper cutting, Party, People, People's Republic of China (PRC), President Xi Jinping, prosperity, radical changes, religious repression, residential permit system, skyscraper-festooned, stability, supersonic spy-drone, tanks, Tiananmen Square, Tianjin, Tsinghua University, Uighurs, Uncategorized, vocational schools, Xinjiang | Leave a Comment »

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