Posts tagged ‘China’

« Older Entries  |   Newer Entries »
08/12/2013

South Korea expands air defense zone to partially overlap China’s | Reuters

China two weeks ago that has sharply raised regional tensions.

Beijing\’s declaration of an air defense identification zone in an area that includes islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan has triggered protests from the United States and its close allies Japan and South Korea.

Announcing the expansion of its own zone to include two territorial islands to the south and a submerged rock also claimed by China, South Korea\’s Defence Ministry said the move would not infringe on neighboring countries\’ sovereignty.

\”We believe this will not significantly impact our relationships with China and with Japan as we try to work for peace and cooperation in Northeast Asia,\” defence ministry head of policy Jang Hyuk told a briefing.

\”We have explained our position to related countries and overall they are in agreement that this move complies with international regulations and is not an excessive measure,\” he said, adding the ministry\’s top priority was to work with neighboring countries to prevent military confrontation.

via South Korea expands air defense zone to partially overlap China’s | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Defence, GeoPolitics, Military, Neighbour conflict, Politics, Territorial dispute | 1 Comment »

Tags: , , , , , ,
07/12/2013

Commentary: China must find unique way to build ecological civilization – Xinhua | English.news.cn

China must find a way different from the industrialization in the West to build ecological civilization and realize sustainable development, which concerns the future of both the nation and the world.

After solving the food and clothing problems of its 1.3 billion people, the world\’s second-largest economy has encountered a bottleneck as its fast growth has led to adverse side effects for the ecological environment.

How to curb environmental pollution is a totally new issue for China, as it has no precedents to follow.

China cannot copy the industrialization in Western countries, who did not turn to environment management until they became rich and transferred their highly polluting sectors to developing countries.

The environmental problems faced by China happened over a short period of 30 years, while it took industrialized countries more than two centuries to resolve the issue.

\”China cannot be like developed countries, whose peak carbon emissions appeared when gross domestic product (GDP) per capita hit 40,000 U.S. dollars,\” said Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China\’s National Development and Reform Commission.

He said China started to adopt measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions when its GDP per capita reached 3,000 dollars.

Besides, factors such as the international division of labor led to China receiving many polluting industries from developed countries. Few chances remain for China to transfer these sectors abroad.

With the coexistence of insufficient development and accompanying side effects, tackling pollution in China and many other developing countries requires more determination and courage than required of developed countries.

In China, building ecological civilization has been elevated to a high level of state will and strategy.

At the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2007, then Chinese President Hu Jintao advocated ecological progress for the first time in his report.

The 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 incorporated building ecological civilization into the overall development plan, while the just-concluded Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee made clear arrangements for deepening the institutional reform of ecological civilization.

via Commentary: China must find unique way to build ecological civilization – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Climate change, Ecology, Economics, Environment, Green, greenhouse gas, Politics, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , ,
06/12/2013

China cheats on international education rankings.

The release of the 2012 scores from the Program of International Student Assessment, an exam given every three years that tests students around the world, on reading math and science, is going to provoke a lot of hand-wringing in the United States, and for good reason. U.S. students are sliding down the rankings in all three categories and perform lower than the OECD average in math.

105362561

The second wave of coverage is going to be about how East Asian countries are now dominating the rankings. There’s some truth to this narrative too, but also some problems with it.

The three “countries” at the top of the PISA rankings are in fact cities—Shanghai, Singapore, and Hong Kong—as is No. 6, Macau. These are all big cities with great schools by any standards, but comparing them against large, geographically dispersed countries is a little misleading.

Shanghai’s No. 1 spot on the rankings is particularly problematic. Singapore is an independent country, obviously, and Hong Kong and Macau are autonomous regions, but why just Shanghai and not the rest of China?

As Tom Loveless for the Brookings Institution wrote earlier this year, “China has an unusual arrangement with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the organization responsible for PISA.  Other provinces took the 2009 PISA test, but the Chinese government only allowed the release of Shanghai’s scores.”

As you might imagine, conditions in a global financial capital are somewhat different from the rest of China, a country where 66 percent of children still live in rural areas

via China cheats on international education rankings..

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

Tags: , , , , , , ,
06/12/2013

China-Taiwan Relations Thaw Even as Beijing Alienates Most of Asia – Businessweek

China’s tense relationships with its neighbors have recently grown even worse. Ties with Japan, already frosty over an island dispute, soured further after Beijing announced a new air defense zone in the East China Sea that overlaps with Japan’s. The expanded China zone also covers territory claimed by South Korea, but Korean air force planes are ignoring it. In the South China Sea, site of another island quarrel with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia, the Chinese were late and stingy in sending relief to the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan: First they offered $100,000 in aid, then a still-puny $1.6 million. Out west, the Chinese foreign ministry cautioned India not to complicate the Sino-Indian relationship after President Pranab Mukherjee visited a Himalayan region that China considers part of Tibet.

Chen with Yen Cho-yun, the wife of the late chairman of Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation, on Dec. 2. During his eight-day visit, Chen was feted by a host of high-level dignitaries

But when it comes to China’s ties with Taiwan, traditionally its most fraught relationship, Beijing’s leaders couldn’t be friendlier. Consider the schedule of Chen Deming. As head of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, Chen is the official responsible for negotiating with the island, even though he’d never been there until last month. In late November he arrived for an eight-day visit to meet with the mayor of Taipei, the governor of the central bank, and the honorary chairman of the ruling Kuomintang, or Chinese Nationalist party.

Taiwanese officials marked the occasion by making it easier to do business with China. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou raised the daily quota of visitors from the mainland by 50 percent, to 3,000, while the two sides increased the number of direct flights across the Strait by almost 25 percent, to 828 per week.

via China-Taiwan Relations Thaw Even as Beijing Alienates Most of Asia – Businessweek.

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

Tags: , , , , ,
06/12/2013

One Silver Lining of China’s Lopsided Labor Market: Shrinking Income Inequality – Businessweek

In the same week that international educators are debating the comparative merits of global school systems—and whether China’s PISA scores are overhyped—a new report from China Economic Quarterly sheds light on an unintended consequence of China’s recent push to expand higher education.

The annual supply of fresh college graduates far exceeds the number of white-collar positions available in China. Meanwhile a dwindling pool of young people willing to work in Chinese factories has driven up assembly-line wages. The result, conclude GK Dragonomics analysts Andrew Batson and Thomas Gatley, is an unexpected narrowing of China’s worryingly high level of income inequality.

Over the past decade, China has rapidly expanded access to higher education. University enrollment tripled from 2000 to 2010, from 2.2 million to 6.6 million students. Unfortunately, job creation didn’t keep pace. According to survey results from China’s labor ministry obtained by China Economic Quarterly, there were 100 job applicants in mid-2013 for every 80 white-collar jobs in China. For blue-collar positions, however, the scenario was reversed: There were 100 applicants for every 125 slots in China.

via One Silver Lining of China’s Lopsided Labor Market: Shrinking Income Inequality – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Economics, income-wealth gap, Labour | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , ,
04/12/2013

IT push aims to boost domestic demand |Sci-Tech |chinadaily.com.cn

Work on 4G licenses and broadband

Internet access to be speeded up

China is to promote consumption of IT-related products and services as it seeks to spur domestic demand and push economic upgrading.

It will speed up work to issue licenses for the fourth generation (4G) mobile network this year and accelerate development of broadband Internet access, according to a statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Li Keqiang.

The nation is aiming for annual average growth of 20 percent in the information consumption industry from 2013 to 2015, the statement said.

The meeting demanded implementation of the “Broadband China” strategy, stepped-up efforts to construct and upgrade network infrastructure, pushing forward the FTTH (Fiber To the Home) project and improving Internet speed.

China, which has the largest number of mobile phones in the world at 1.2 billion, is already building 4G trial networks in major cities.

China Mobile, its largest telecom carrier, is promoting the homegrown Time-Division Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) 4G standard and hopes to start commercial 4G rollout as soon as possible.

via IT push aims to boost domestic demand |Sci-Tech |chinadaily.com.cn.

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

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
04/12/2013

UK and China agree £45m pig semen export deal | World news | theguardian.com

So that’s how the £5bn trade deal is made up!

“Britain has won the right to export pig semen to China in a deal worth £45m a year.

A pig

Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, who is accompanying David Cameron on his trip to China, has also embarked on negotiations to export pigs\’ trotters – a local delicacy – to China.

Under the deal with China, the \”porcine semen\” can be flown to the country in frozen and fresh form. Pigs will not be flying but their seed will take to the air.

A No 10 spokesperson said: \”We\’re doing all we can to ensure that businesses up and down the country reap the rewards from our relationship with China. And that includes our pig farmers. This new deal to export pig semen will be worth £45m to UK firms and means Britain\’s best pigs will help sustain the largest pig population in the world.

\”And we\’re not stopping there, we\’re talking to the Chinese about serving up pigs trotters on Beijing\’s finest dining tables. That would be a real win-win – a multimillion pound boost for Britain and a gastronomic treat for Chinese diners.\”

The exports start in the first quarter of next year. Four UK artificial insemination centres, based in England and Northern Ireland, will start making preparations for the exports in the new year.

Half of the world\’s pigs are in China but the country needs to improve pig genetics. A government source said: \”China has an interest to increase the efficiency of their production, while minimising the environmental impact of increased production. The UK industry for pig production can play a large and important role in helping China achieve greater efficiency through the provision of high-quality genetic stock.”

via UK and China agree £45m pig semen export deal | World news | theguardian.com.

Posted in agriculture, China alert, Economics, exports | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , ,
03/12/2013

The banquet that wasn’t — and then a gift horse | The Times

If I had been asked before this visit, I would have predicted that PM Cameron would have been feted with the traditional 10-12 course Chinese banquet that foreign dignitaries have been used to. To my shock and surprise, China‘s leaders are “walking the talk”, at least regarding frugality and austerity at banquets.  This is almost on the boundary of ‘losing face’; such is their determination to re-educate the CCP cadres in the right behaviour wrt to the people’s money.

Incidentally, I wonder if Mr Cameron or his protocol advisors realise the signal honour he was accorded to be hosted not only by his counterpart PM Li (as is appropriate) but also by President Xi (whose presence is only required when meeting a foreign head of state (which, of course is the Queen and not Mr Cameron).

“From a humble bowl of creamy mushroom soup to a political biography of Margaret Thatcher, yesterday’s gifts and meals were freighted with meaning.

David Cameron and Li Keqiang

Within hours of landing in Beijing and meeting Li Keqiang, his Chinese counterpart, David Cameron was entertained at a lunch with “banquet” in the title — but austerity very plainly on the menu.

Behind the grandeur of the setting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the lunch held in Mr Cameron’s honour — a frugal repast that included bamboo fungus and boiled sea bass — was a reflection of a Chinese government campaign against sumptuous official banqueting and ostentatious expenditure from the public purse.

In the earliest days of his leadership of the Chinese Communist Party this year, Xi Jinping held a meeting of the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and said that officials should “conduct all their undertakings industriously and thriftily and stand fast against lavishness, hedonism and extravagance”.

Officials scrambled to swap their Rolexes and Hèrmes belts for dowdier accessories that would not be noticed by eagle-eyed citizens, and their lunches and dinners were downsized. Mr Xi made a mantra of the term “si cai yi tang” — the “four dishes and a soup” that qualify as China’s most basic meal.

As a People’s Liberation Army band played to accompany their lunch, Mr Cameron was served a meal that came acceptably close to four dishes and a soup. The soup was creamy mushroom and a “beef steak of Chinese style” provided the mainstay of four dishes that followed. In a culinary flourish that may have reminded the Prime Minister of school lunches in his youth, he was served sago pudding for dessert.

Mr Xi’s campaign against luxury has had a chilling effect on many restaurants in Beijing and on the producers of the high-end liquor that is now largely absent from the dinner tables of Chinese officials and military officers.”

via The banquet that wasn’t — and then a gift horse | The Times.

Posted in austerity, China alert, Economics, Politics | 1 Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
03/12/2013

China’s yuan surpasses euro as 2nd most-used currency in trade finance: SWIFT | Reuters

China\’s yuan currency overtook the euro in October, becoming the second-most used currency in trade finance, global transaction services organization SWIFT said on Tuesday.

100 Yuan notes are seen in this illustration picture in Beijing November 5, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee

The market share of yuan usage in trade finance, or Letters of Credit and Collection, grew to 8.66 percent in October 2013. That improved from 1.89 percent in January 2012.

The yuan, also known as the renminbi, now ranks behind the U.S. dollar, which remains the leading currency with a share of 81.08 percent.

The top five countries using the yuan for trade finance in October were China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany and Australia, SWIFT said in a statement.

\”The RMB is clearly a top currency for trade finance globally and even more so in Asia,\” Franck de Praetere, SWIFT\’s Asia Pacific head of payments and trade markets said.

The RMB remained the 12th payments currency of the world, with a slightly decreased share of 0.84 percent compared with 0.86 percent in September.

RMB payments increased in value by 1.5 percent in October, while growth for all payments currencies was at 4.6 percent.

The world\’s second-largest economy is accelerating the pace of financial reform to promote its currency to international players beyond Hong Kong. China aims to lift the yuan\’s global clout and reduce its reliance on the U.S. dollar.

via China’s yuan surpasses euro as 2nd most-used currency in trade finance: SWIFT | Reuters.

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

Tags: , , , , , , ,
03/12/2013

BBC News – Pisa tests: UK stagnates as Shanghai tops league table

Far be it for me to defend the UK‘s scholastic standards.  But comparing a country’s average against three single cities is a bit unfair!

“The UK is falling behind global rivals in international tests taken by 15-year-olds, failing to make the top 20 in maths, reading and science.

Maths scores

England\’s Education Secretary Michael Gove said since the 1990s, test performances had been \”at best stagnant, at worst declining\”.

Shanghai in China is the top education system in the OECD\’s Pisa tests.

Within the UK, Scotland outperformed England at maths and reading, but Wales is below average in all subjects.

Mr Gove told MPs that his reforms, such as changing the curriculum, school autonomy and directing financial support towards poorer pupils, were designed to prevent schools in England from \”falling further behind\”.

He highlighted the rapid improvements that had been made in countries such as Poland, Germany and Vietnam.

Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt called on Mr Gove to take some responsibility for the lack of progress and said the results showed that collaboration between schools and teachers was more effective than market forces.”

via BBC News – Pisa tests: UK stagnates as Shanghai tops league table.

Posted in China alert, education | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , ,
« Older Entries  |   Newer Entries »
CCChang

Law of Unintended Consequences

continuously updated blog about China & India

ChiaHou's Book Reviews

continuously updated blog about China & India

What's wrong with the world; and its economy

continuously updated blog about China & India