Posts tagged ‘China’

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24/04/2013

* China’s Xinjiang hit by deadly clashes

BBC: “Clashes in China’s restive Xinjiang region have left 21 people dead, including 15 police officers and officials, authorities say.

Map

The violence occurred on Tuesday afternoon in Bachu county, Kashgar prefecture.

The foreign ministry said it had been a planned attack by a “violent terrorist group”, but ethnic groups questioned this.

There have been sporadic clashes in Xinjiang in recent years.

The incidents come amid rumbling ethnic tensions between the Muslim Uighur and Han Chinese communities. In 2009 almost 200 people – mostly Han Chinese – were killed after deadly rioting erupted.

Nothing is stopping foreign journalists from booking flights to Xinjiang after hearing reports of violence there. However, simply travelling to the region doesn’t guarantee the ability to dig out the truth behind this story.

In 2009, dozens of foreign reporters were permitted to join an official tour of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, after clashes between minority ethnic Uighur residents and majority Chinese Hans killed 197 people.

Their experiences were mixed. Some reporters were able to speak to a variety of people on the ground, while others faced harassment and intimidation.

The situation remains the same today. Reporters who travel to the area are closely followed by government minders. Locals often hesitate to answer questions, fearing reprisals from government authorities.

Uighur exile groups often provide accounts that differ from the official Chinese government reports. Reconciling the two can be tricky.

The situation isn’t any easier for Chinese journalists. China’s propaganda departments have warned domestic news outlets against conducting their own independent reporting on sensitive Xinjiang stories, ordering them to reprint official stories from China’s major state news agencies.

It is very difficult to verify reports from Xinjiang, reports the BBC’s Celia Hatton.

Foreign journalists are allowed to travel to the region but frequently face intimidation and harassment when attempting to verify news of ethnic rioting or organised violence against government authorities.”

via BBC News – China’s Xinjiang hit by deadly clashes.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/prognosis/chinese-challenges/

Posted in China alert, Culture, Dissident, Ethnic clash, History, Instability, Insurgency, Internal politics, Politics, terrorism, unrest | 2 Comments »

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22/04/2013

* China’s Shale-Gas Potential and Peril

Businessweek: “In China there’s a giddy feeling that the next energy gold rush is about to begin. Beneath the mountains of Sichuan province, the deserts of Xinjiang, and elsewhere, China contains twice the shale- gas reserves as the U.S., says the U.S. Energy Information Administration. China’s national planners enthusiastically back boosting natural gas production, which accounts for just 4 percent of the country’s total energy mix now. The government wants to double that share by 2015. “There’s a lot of exuberance,” says Zhou Xizhou, who leads the research firm IHS Cera’s China Energy practice. “In Beijing, if you work in energy, you probably receive a shale-gas conference notice every week.”

The impact of a shale-gas boom in China will be enormous, with the potential benefits and likely environmental costs perhaps even greater than in the U.S. So far, though, the output in China has been a trickle because of the challenging geography and the monopolistic structure of China’s oil and gas sector. While about 200,000 of the horizontal wells used in fracking have been drilled in the U.S., China has about 60. China has 1,275 trillion cubic feet of shale-gas reserves, compared with 637 trillion cubic feet for the U.S.

The U.S. shale-gas revolution was launched largely on the flatlands of Texas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and other accessible areas. In China’s mountainous Sichuan basin, “the formations seem to be more faulted and folded, which makes it more difficult and less economic to drill long horizontal well bores,” says Briana Mordick, an Oil & Gas Science Fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council and formerly a geologist at Anadarko Petroleum.

Sometimes the Chinese must cut new mountainside roads to move trucks and equipment to remote sites. With higher upfront costs, “it will be significantly more challenging in China to make the wells pay for themselves,” Mordick says. “The technical learning curve is very steep. What works in one place may not work in another.“

The inflexible structure of China’s state-controlled oil and gas industry hampers efforts to exploit reserves. “In the U.S., it was not the oil and gas majors that started the shale boom” but rather small wildcat operators “willing to accept a high-risk, high-reward proposition,” says Melanie Hart, an analyst on energy policy and China at the Center for American Progress in Washington. “In a market system, you can have many small and large players all specializing in different pieces of the process.””

via China’s Shale-Gas Potential and Peril – Businessweek.

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21/04/2013

* Stephen Schwarzman unveils $300m China scholarship fund

BBC: “US private-equity magnate Stephen Schwarzman has launched a $300m (£200m) scholarship programme to send 200 foreign post-graduate students to study in China each year.

Blackstone boss Stephen A Schwarzman (file)

Mr Schwarzman is donating $100m of his personal $6.5bn fortune to the fund, and is raising a further $200m.

Selected students will spend a year at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Mr Schwarzman said he hoped to foster “a win-win relationship of mutual respect” between China and the West.

The Schwarzman Scholars programme aims to rival the 111-year-old Rhodes Scholarship programme which enables foreign students to study at the UK’s University of Oxford.

It is being backed by major, mainly Western firms, many with interests in China.”

via BBC News – Stephen Schwarzman unveils $300m China scholarship fund.

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

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19/04/2013

# China’s Growth: The Making of an Economic Superpower – Dr Linda Yueh

On Thursday 18th April, I attended an excellent lunch-time lecture on this topic at the RSA, London  by Dr Linda Yueh which is based on her recent book – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chinas-Growth-Making-Economic-Superpower/dp/0199205787.

Linda Yueh is BBC’s chief business correspondent, director of the China Growth Centre and fellow in economics at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. She is also adjunct professor of economics at the London Business School; and visiting professor of Beida, Beijing.

Her talk covered two main areas:

For the growth drivers, I refer you to an excellent MindMap – http://mcgilljd.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/lsechina1.jpg?w=960&h=483 – by Jan D McGill, who wrote a very good summary of the LSE lecture on the same subject in March by Linda that Jan attended – http://mcgilljd.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/chinas-growth/.

I will summarise the Re-balancing challenges here – with my own thoughts following each headline:

  • Increasing internal market and reduce dependency on exports. This includes boosting services instead of manufacturing and infrastructure, and is slowly coming to bear and is highly dependent on the next factor.
  • Increase consumption, reduce savings. As this recent article by Reuters shows, this is probably not going to be an issue with the new generation of Chinese who are spending and not saving – http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/18/us-china-consumer-2020-insight-idUSBRE93H18K20130418
  • Increase private sector and reduce SOE. This is happening gradually and the pace needs to be increased. SOE is already down to between 30% and 50% of the economy. But there are concerns that in fact the pace is slowing and possibly reversing – http://www.economist.com/node/21564274
  • Increasing innovation and reducing imitation. On the face of it China is charging ahead with patents and new technology – https://chindia-alert.org/prognosis/how-well-will-china-and-india-innovate/ But some experts suspect the quality of the innovation.
  • Increasing opening up and globalising of Chinese firms.  The latter has yet to make an impact.

All in all, Linda’s prognosis is that, assuming political stability and continuity is maintained, there is every reason to believe that China will be an economic superpower within 30 years.

Posted in China alert, Economics | 5 Comments »

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19/04/2013

* Supreme Court criticizes official bureaucracy

Xinhua: “The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) on Thursday named six officials and institutions that have violated eight bureaucracy-busting guidelines announced by central authorities late last year.

English: a Balance icon ‪中文(繁體)‬: 天平圖示

English: a Balance icon ‪中文(繁體)‬: 天平圖示 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The officials involved in the cases have been punished, according to a statement from the SPC.

Since the election of the new leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in November, the CPC has launched a high-profile campaign to stamp out bureaucracy, formalism and the improper spending of public funds.

The bureaucracy- and formalism-fighting guidelines were introduced by a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in December.

In one of the cases, officials from the Intermediate People’s Court of the city of Huanggang in central China’s Hubei Province spent 14,396 yuan (2,329 U.S. dollars) on two dinners and were reimbursed by the court. Two officials involved in the case have been punished.

Another case involved two judges from a court in Xishui County in southwest China’s Guizhou Province who left the office on a weekday afternoon to play cards at a teahouse on Jan. 8. The two officials have been punished with administrative discipline.”

via Supreme Court criticizes official bureaucracy – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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19/04/2013

* Govt vows to further curb public spending

China Daily: “China’s central government has pledged to slash 126 million yuan ($20.38 million) from its spending on public-funded vehicles, receptions and overseas trips this year, a move that experts said lives up to the new leadership’s promise to be frugal.

Departments under the central government and organizations that receive public funds are planning to spend 7.97 billion yuan this year to buy and use cars, travel overseas and host meetings — collectively known as “the three public expenses” — the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday.

Spending on public receptions, which decreased 64 million yuan, or 4.3 percent year-on-year, will drop the most among the three.

Although laws require central government departments to release their budgets in 20 working days after authorities approve them, it is the first time that these departments included the three public expenses in the disclosure. Previously, the amount of public spending was usually withheld until July, when departments released their final figures from the previous year.

Experts said the budget cuts have echoed the pledge of the central leadership, which has made cutting red tape and reducing the number of ceremonies one of its priorities since its election.

China’s new premier, Li Keqiang, has promised that public spending in the Cabinet will only go down — one of the three commitments he made in his first news conference as premier in March.

Before that, the new leadership of the Communist Party of China called upon officials in December to adhere to the “eight disciplines”, which asks the governments to cut pomp, ceremonies, and bureaucratic visits and meetings.

Ye Qing, deputy director of the Hunan provincial Statistics Bureau, said the central government has made progress in slashing the three public expenses, although spending is still high and needs further reduction.

Specifically, the authorities have earmarked nearly 4.4 billion yuan — about 55.2 percent of the budget — for buying and maintaining vehicles, while the amount for overseas trips is 2.1 billion yuan, and about 1.4 billion yuan for public receptions.

“It is astonishing that officials spend nearly 4.4 billion yuan on using cars each year. Reform of car use is imminent,” Ye said.”

via Govt vows to further curb public spending |Politics |chinadaily.com.cn.

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19/04/2013

* China’s 2020 consumer is in a town you’ve never heard of

Reuters: “Wearing a floral brocade cardigan and toting a Huawei smartphone, Guo Qian, 22, gushes over her latest purchases on Taobao, China’s largest e-commerce platform. As an administrative worker, Guo makes only 3,000 yuan a month and spends most of it.

Customers selects hats at a street stall at the business area of Jiaozuo, China's central Henan province, December 20, 2012. REUTERS-Aly Song

Not only does she spend nearly all of her own money, Guo also fritters away most of her father’s 1,000 yuan monthly pension on trinkets and clothes on Taobao. “Sometimes I feel guilty using his money, so I buy him some clothes.”

Guo, a Zhengzhou native, already owns an apartment – her parents helped finance the purchase last year – and is on the upward climb to join China’s burgeoning middle class.

As Beijing tries to engineer a crucial macroeconomic shift– toward more consumption and less investment, the crucial “rebalancing” China’s new leadership is committed to, and the rest of the world is counting on — it is young consumers like Guo Qian who may hold the key to the transition.

Raised in an era of unprecedented prosperity, Guo, like many other members of what is known as the `post-80s’ generation (anyone born after 1980) has a very different answer than her parents when it comes to a central economic question: whether to spend the money she has, or save it?

“I don’t save at all,” she told Reuters. ” Why should I?”

Her “spend it if you’ve got it” attitude, some economists argue, may help unlock the surge in consumption that China urgently needs to rebalance its economy over the next decade, ending an era of lopsided, investment driven growth.

“This 18-35 group, for a variety of reasons, are much more optimistic and more open to risk, because they haven’t yet experienced bad times at all,” says Benjamin Cavender associate principal analyst with China Market Research. “They tend to have high disposable income relative to their earning power, and they tend not to be saving heavily.”

This generational change in mindset, harnessed to the sheer number of people growing more prosperous in once poor provinces throughout the country – such as Guo’s native Henan – is recasting China’s economic landscape: both the composition of growth, and its geography, are about to change significantly.”

via Insight: China’s 2020 consumer is in a town you’ve never heard of | Reuters.

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16/04/2013

* Henan villagers ‘beaten up by hundreds of rail workers’ over land dispute

SCMP: “Villagers in central China’s Henan province who were protesting a land grab in Huangchuan county said they were beaten up by hundreds of employees from the China Railway 13th Bureau at the weekend.

rail.jpg

The villagers were demonstrating against the bureau, which planned to build a new railway line. They said they were “indiscriminately” attacked on Sunday morning by more than 300 uniformed construction workers with metre-long sticks, news portal Dahe.cn reported on Monday.

The protesters said the attackers spoke in northeastern Chinese accents and destroyed 30 mobile phones of those who had tried to film the incident. A villager’s car was also smashed up.

Police were called in but were “forced to turn back” by the 300 workers, the report said.

More than 10 people were injured and two were still in hospital on Monday.

The land dispute arose after villagers tried to prevent the bureau from acquiring the land for a new line for the Nanjing-Xian Railway. Villagers said the compensation offered to them was too low.

The China Railway 13th Bureau is a large state-owned construction enterprise and subsidiary of the China Railway Construction Corporation. Prior to 1948, it was part of the People’s Liberation Army Railway Corps No 3 Division.”

via Henan villagers ‘beaten up by hundreds of rail workers’ over land dispute | South China Morning Post.

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16/04/2013

* China’s freeway to North Korea: A road to nowhere

Reuters: “A new stretch of China’s G12 expressway arcs toward the northernmost tip of North Korea, connecting one of the world’s most vibrant economies to probably its most stagnant. It is a symbol of China’s long-term goal of building economic ties with its unpredictable neighbor.

A woman stands in a gift shop in central Rason city, part of the special economic zone northeast of Pyongyang, in this August 30, 2011 file photo. REUTERS-Carlos Barria-Files

But the thin traffic along a highway lined with fallow fields in China’s Jilin province, two years after it was finished, shows how far there is to go and why plans for high-speed rail links to Chinese cities along the border look misplaced.

The problem for Beijing is twofold: getting Pyongyang to buy into the idea of economic reform and the reluctance of Chinese businessmen to venture into one of the world’s riskiest investment destinations.

While China is frustrated with Pyongyang over its threats to wage war on South Korea and the United States, its efforts to build economic links with North Korea from places like Jilin help explain why Beijing is unlikely to crack down hard on the reclusive state.

Since then-Premier Wen Jiabao went to North Korea in 2009 – just months after Pyongyang’s second nuclear test – China has sought to stabilize the Korean peninsula by stepping up its effort to steer the North toward economic reform. China is not about to give up that goal even though it’s under U.S. pressure to get tough after North Korea’s third nuclear test, on February 12.

“It’s not even shepherding anymore. It’s more of just inundating North Korea with all of these influences from the Chinese side where the idea is to essentially corrupt them, show them what it tastes like to make money,” said John Park, a North Korea expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard Kennedy School.”

via Insight: China’s freeway to North Korea: A road to nowhere | Reuters.

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16/04/2013

* China, India, Singapore could join new Arctic Circle forum

Reuters: “China, India, Singapore and other countries far from the Arctic Circle could be part of a new global forum to widen the discussion about the fate of the planet’s Far North, Iceland President Olafur Grimsson said on Monday.

Map of the Arctic with the Arctic Circle in blue.

Map of the Arctic with the Arctic Circle in blue. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The non-profit forum, Arctic Circle, will hold its first meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, in October.

Such a gathering is needed, Grimsson said, because, while most countries have a stake in the melting of Arctic ice, only eight – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States – are members of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental group set up in 1996.

Some non-Arctic countries can observe the deliberations, but they have no formal voice on the Council about sustainable development and environmental protection in the region.

The Icelandic leader said he had discussions about the Arctic this year with officials from China, India and Singapore. The first agenda item of these discussions was when these countries would get a seat on the Arctic Council.

The Arctic Circle forum will be “an open, democratic tent where everybody who wants to participate will actually be welcome,” Grimsson said at an event at the National Press Club.

He said concerned citizens, representatives of non-governmental organizations, scientists, researchers can join governments and corporations to be part of this discussion.

And while it may take a while for the Arctic Council to decide which countries might become permanent observers at its meetings, these same countries can send representatives to the Arctic Circle to make the case for inclusion.

He also mentioned that China and Iceland announced a new free trade agreement on Monday.

Arctic sea ice is a key indicator of climate change and a powerful global weather-maker. Last year, Arctic sea ice melted to its lowest levels on record, authorities have said.

Besides making global sea levels rise and influencing world weather, the ice melt means new water routes are opening between Europe, Asia and North America, a trend that will have a profound impact on global shipping.

Last year, as summer sea ice shrank, the first Chinese icebreaker made the trip from Shanghai to Iceland via the Northern Sea Route along the Russian coast.

By mid-century, the quickest way to get goods from Asia to the U.S. East Coast might well be right over the North Pole, according to a University of California-Los Angeles study.”

via China, India, Singapore could join new Arctic Circle forum | Reuters.

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