Posts tagged ‘China’

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29/09/2012

* Bo Xilai expelled from CPC, public office

China Daily: “Bo Xilai has been expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and removed from public office, according to a decision made at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Friday.

The meeting also yielded the decision to transfer Bo’s suspected law violations and relevant evidence to judicial organs for handling.

The decisions were made after attendees at the meeting deliberated over and adopted an investigation report on Bo’s severe disciplinary violations, which had been submitted by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

At a meeting held on April 10, members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee were briefed on the investigation into the incident in which former Chongqing Vice Mayor Wang Lijun entered the US Consulate General in Chengdu without permission as well as the reinvestigation into the suspected murder of British citizen Neil Heywood by Bogu Kailai, Bo’s wife.

Based on Bo’s mistakes and responsibilities in the two cases, as well as evidence of his other discipline violations uncovered during the investigations into the two cases, the CPC Central Committee decided to suspend Bo’s membership in the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and the CPC Central Committee and the CCDI filed the case for investigation.

Investigations have found that Bo seriously violated Party disciplines while heading the city of Dalian, Liaoning Province, and the Ministry of Commerce and while serving as a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and as Party chief of Chongqing Municipality.

Bo abused his power, made severe mistakes and bore major responsibility in the Wang Lijun incident and the intentional homicide case of Bogu Kailai.

He took advantage of his office to seek profits for others and received huge bribes personally and through his family.

His position was also abused by his wife Bogu Kailai to seek profits for others, and the Bo family accepted a huge amount of money and property from others.

Bo had or maintained improper sexual relationships with a number of women.

He was also found to have violated organizational and personnel disciplines and made erroneous decisions in the promotion of personnel, resulting in serious consequences.

The investigation also uncovered evidence that suggests his involvement in other crimes.”

via Bo Xilai expelled from CPC, public office[1]|chinadaily.com.cn.

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Posted in Chindia Alert, corruption, Crime, Illegal practices, Politics | Leave a Comment »

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29/09/2012

* China Alters Its Strategy in Dispute With Japan

As the article below (and this one – https://chindia-alert.org/2012/09/27/japanese-car-plants-in-china-whos-feeling-the-heat/) demonstrates so clearly, today no country is an island. Economic inter-dependency means that compromise and pragmatism must win the day. However, the enmity between China and Japan goes back to the late 19th Century when Japan joined the eight nations that sacked Beijing, followed by the yet-to-be admitted by the Japanese atrocities of the Sino-Japan war.

We can only hope that common sense will prevail. From afar (in the UK) one cannot see why China and its neighbours, including Japan, cannot agree to sharing the bounty of the sea and that underwater. Why should lines drawn on a map dictate that oil, gas or whatever lies beneath belong to one nation and not another? But then I was trained as an engineer and not a politician or lawyer!

NY Times: “After allowing anti-Japanese demonstrations that threatened to spin out of control, China has reined them in and turned instead to hard-edged diplomacy over disputed islands in the East China Sea to lessen any potential damage the conflict might have inflicted on the nation’s softening economy and a delicate leadership transition.

With relations between the two Asian powers at a low point, China decided to go ahead with a scaled-back reception here on Thursday night to honor the 40th anniversary of the resumption of their diplomatic ties on Sept. 29, 1972. A member of the Politburo’s Standing Committee, Jia Qinglin, attended with several other Chinese officials.

But Beijing sent a not-so-subtle message to Tokyo by not granting clearance to the plane that would have brought in an important Japanese guest, the chairman of Toyota. Other Japanese attended the event, though, and at the United Nations in New York, the two sides met in private and sparred in public.

Around the disputed islands in the East China Sea, called the Diaoyu by the Chinese and the Senkaku by the Japanese, a large flotilla of Chinese patrol boats was being monitored Friday by about half of Japan’s fleet of coast guard cutters, the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported.

The protests in more than 80 cities, including in urban centers where Japanese car dealerships and electronics plants were damaged, suggested that the Chinese leadership approved the outpouring of nationalism in part as insulation against criticism of the party itself during the transition of power that formally is scheduled to take place at the 18th Communist Party Congress, now set to begin on Nov. 8. But the protests threatened to turn against the Chinese government itself, diplomats and analysts said.

Even though China has overtaken Japan as the biggest economy in Asia, Beijing’s handling of the dispute, precipitated by the Japanese government’s decision to buy three of the islands from their private Japanese owners, highlighted the interdependence of the Chinese and Japanese economies, and the limitations on what the leadership could allow.

Notions of punishing Tokyo economically for buying the islands, whose status was left unclear after World War II, are unrealistic, said Hu Shuli, editor in chief of Caixin Media and one of China’s chief economic journalists. So many Chinese workers are employed at Japanese-owned companies, she said, that any escalation of tensions leading to a boycott of Japanese goods could lead to huge job losses.

This would be disastrous in an already shaky Chinese economy, Ms. Hu wrote in the Chinese magazine Century Weekly.

At a time when overall foreign investment in China is shrinking, Japan’s investment in China rose by 16 percent last year, Ms. Hu noted. The Japan External Trade Organization reported $12.6 billion of Japanese investment in China last year, compared with $14.7 billion in the United States.

Not just China, but all of Asia, could face a serious economic downturn if Japanese investments in China were threatened, said Piao Guangji, a researcher at the China Academy of Social Science.”

via China Alters Its Strategy in Dispute With Japan – NYTimes.com.

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Posted in China alert, economic inter-dependence, Economics, FDI, Politics, Territorial dispute | 3 Comments »

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27/09/2012

* Japanese Car Plants in China: Who’s Feeling the Heat?

WSJ: “Explosive anti-Japanese sentiment in China forced Toyota, Honda and Nissan to idle factories across the country this month. Media reports suggest that fresh shutdowns may be coming again in October.

Halting production is never good news. But who’s got the bigger headache – the Japanese or the Chinese?

There is no question that Toyota, Nissan and Honda will lose sales and market share to competitors. It’s already happening. And lost sales matter because China accounts for 15% of global profits at Toyota and Honda and as much as 25% at Nissan.

And yet, the pain could become even greater for China.

All Japanese cars made in China are produced at joint-venture factories owned on a 50-50 basis with Chinese partners. When the plant doors close, Chinese executives who run those joint ventures will immediately confront two frightening realities: a dramatic drop in revenue and tens of thousands of idle workers.

Take Hong Kong-listed Guangzhou Automobile Co for example. GAC, a subsidiary of the powerful Guangzhou municipality, runs world-class car assembly joint ventures with Honda and Toyota that employs just under 13,000 people.

Guangzhou Honda and Guangzhou Toyota also buy car parts from hundred of suppliers based in Guangdong province that employ tens of thousands of more people. Honda and Toyota products are sold through more than 900 dealers owned by Chinese business people. Count several more thousands of jobs there.

As China steps its way through a delicate political transition expected to formally begin in October, the last thing the leadership in Guangzhou wants to deal with is a crush of workers with too much time on their hands. If an argument between workers at a Foxconn 2038.HK +0.78% plant in Taiyuan can trigger rioting by thousands, imagine what might happen should Guangzhou workers start wondering about future job security.

Guangzhou Automobile isn’t an isolated case.”

via Japanese Car Plants in China: Who’s Feeling the Heat? – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, Economics, employment, joint venture | 1 Comment »

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27/09/2012

* Rudd Sees More Economic Reforms in China

WSJ: “Australia’s former prime minister and longtime China watcher Kevin Rudd said Thursday that China’s incoming leadership will be strongly reform-minded on the economy and usher in a new era of diplomacy in the region.

As territorial disputes between China and Japan escalate, Mr. Rudd said Chinese leaders also face numerous challenges, including the flight of capital among the nation’s wealthy and a slowing economy. However, he expressed confidence in the ability of presumptive next leader Xi Jinping and his team to manage domestic challenges and foreign relations, calling him “the sort of leader that the Americans can do business with.”

The U.S. has sought to expand its influence in Asia to counterbalance China’s growing regional clout, announcing plans to increase its naval presence in the Pacific and sending top officials to canvass the region. Such moves have complicated relations between the two powerhouses, but Mr. Rudd—who said he spent much time with Mr. Xi when he was Australia’s prime minister—said he anticipates Mr. Xi’s rise will help alleviate such tensions.

“I believe that Xi Jinping will want to work…with the Americans on a common road map for the region’s future,” Mr. Rudd told The Wall Street Journal at the end of a two-week trip to China and Hong Kong. Mr. Xi’s ascension will allow the U.S. and China to “carve out a different period of strategic cooperation.”

Mr. Rudd said he expects further privatization of Chinese state-owned firms after the new leadership takes over, in part to address private sector companies’ concerns about their business prospects, which has led to some capital outflows. He also expects further currency liberalization and said that change is necessary, because the current growth model can’t sustain full employment in China.”

via Rudd Sees More Economic Reforms in China – WSJ.com.

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25/09/2012

* Working Conditions: The Persistence of Problems in China’s Factories

WSJ: “A riot involving 2,000 workers at a factory in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan on Sunday night has once again shined a light on conditions at factories owned by Apple Inc. supplier Foxconn. The cause of the riot appears to have been a fight between workers that somehow escalated into larger-scale unrest. While the precise dynamics that led workers in the factory to run rampant remain unclear, it’s noteworthy that news of the incident comes with Apple recently announcing that advance sales of its iPhone5 have broken all previous records.

The success of the iPhone and similar products means competition among companies like Apple and Samsung, both of which rely heavily on Chinese factory supply chains, is likely to increase. This increase in competition, in turn, will crank up pressures in factories whose workers are already struggling under harsh conditions.

Associated Press

In this Monday Sept. 24, 2012 mobile phone photo, police in anti-riot suits cordon off a road near Foxconn’s plant in Taiyuan, capital of Northern China’s Shanxi province. The company that makes Apple’s iPhones suspended production at a factory in China on Monday after a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees at a nearby dormitory injured 40 people.

Recent reports have not only described the difficult conditions for full-time workers who are hired directly by these factories, but have also spotlighted the treatment of two other classes of employees– “dispatch labor” and “student interns”– in factories that manufacture components for both Apple and Samsung.”

via Working Conditions: The Persistence of Problems in China’s Factories – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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Posted in China alert, Economics, Inequalities, Labour, Migrant workers | Leave a Comment »

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25/09/2012

* China carrier a show of force as Japan tension festers

Reuters: “China sent its first aircraft carrier into formal service on Tuesday amid a tense maritime dispute with Japan, a show of naval force that could worry its neighbors.

China's first aircraft carrier, which was renovated from an old aircraft carrier that China bought from Ukraine in 1998, is seen docked at Dalian Port, in Dalian, Liaoning province in this September 22, 2012 file photo. China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, officially entered naval ranks on September 25, 2012 the country's Ministry of Defence announced, in a move that it said would help project maritime power and defend Chinese territory. REUTERS-Stringer-Files

China’s Ministry of Defense said the newly named Liaoning aircraft carrier would “raise the overall operational strength of the Chinese navy” and help Beijing to “effectively protect national sovereignty, security and development interests”.

In fact, the aircraft carrier, refitted from a ship bought from Ukraine, will have a limited role, mostly for training and testing ahead of the possible launch of China’s first domestically built carriers after 2015, analysts say.

But China cast the formal handing over of the carrier to its navy as a triumphant show of national strength — at a time of bitter tensions with neighboring Japan over islands claimed by both sides.

Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated sharply this month after Japan bought the East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, from their private owner, sparking anti-Japan protests across China.

“China will never tolerate any bilateral actions by Japan that harm Chinese territorial sovereignty,” Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said on Tuesday. “Japan must banish illusions, undertake searching reflection and use concrete actions to amend its errors, returning to the consensus and understandings reached between our two countries’ leaders.”

The risks of military confrontation are scant, but political tensions between Asia’s two biggest economies could fester.

For the Chinese navy, the addition of carriers has been a priority as it builds a force capable of deploying far from the Chinese mainland.

China this month warned the United States, with President Barack Obama’s “pivot” to Asia, not to get involved in separate territorial disputes in the South China Sea between China and U.S. allies such as the Philippines.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in turn urged China and its Southeast Asian neighbors to resolve disputes “without coercion, without intimidation, without threats and certainly without the use of force”.

The timing of the carrier launch might be associated with China’s efforts to build up patriotic unity ahead of a Communist Party congress that will install a new generation of top leaders as early as next month.

Narushige Michishita, a security expert at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, said he thought the timing had nothing to do with the islands dispute.”

via China carrier a show of force as Japan tension festers | Reuters.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/political-factors/chinese-tensions/

Posted in China alert, Politics, Territorial dispute | 1 Comment »

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25/09/2012

If this article is correct, then it is good news, indeed. Mr Wen may yet achieve what he didn’t quite do while Premier for a decade. It all depends upon whether then new top two leaders (probably Xi and Li) are pro-reform or not.

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21/09/2012

* China’s Xi seeks to reassure Southeast Asia on sea dispute

Reuters: “China’s leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping sought to reassure Southeast Asian leaders on Friday that his country wanted only peaceful relations with them, following months of growing tensions over the strategically located South China Sea.

China's Vice President Xi Jinping listens to U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (not pictured) in a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, September 19, 2012. REUTERS/Larry Downing

Speaking at the opening of a trade fair in southern China for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, Vice President Xi said China’s own prosperity could only be guaranteed by having good relations with its neighbors.

“The more progress China makes in development and the closer its links with the region and the world, the more important it is for the country to have a stable regional environment and a peaceful international environment,” Xi said.

“Having gone through numerous vicissitudes in modern times, we are deeply aware of the importance of development and how valuable peace is,” he added, according to state media.

Beijing’s assertion of sovereignty over a vast stretch of the South China Sea has set it directly against Vietnam and the Philippines, while Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia also lay claim to other parts of the region, making it Asia’s biggest potential military troublespot.

At stake are potentially massive offshore oil reserves. The seas also lie on key shipping lanes.

Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is one of the ASEAN leaders attending the trade fair, held in the city of Nanning.

Xi said China – currently also involved in a dispute with Japan over a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea -wanted the peaceful resolution for its diplomatic arguments.”

via China’s Xi seeks to reassure Southeast Asia on sea dispute | Reuters.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/political-factors/geopolitics-chinese/

Posted in China alert, Diplomacy, GeoPolitics | 1 Comment »

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21/09/2012

* Shaanxi bus crash: China sacks ‘smiling official’

BBCNews: “A safety official in China who sparked a public outcry after images showed him grinning at the scene of a fatal bus crash has been sacked, officials say.

Police officers and rescuers inspect the wreckage of a bus and tanker in Yanan, 26 Aug 2012

Yang Dacai has been stripped of all his official duties for “serious wrongdoing”, Shaanxi province officials said in a statement.

Pictures of Mr Yang smiling while visiting the site where 36 people died on 26 August were posted online.

Outrage grew when netizens found images of him wearing luxury watches.

An investigation into Mr Yang’s “inappropriate behaviour of ‘grinning’ as well as wearing luxurious watches” found him guilty of “serious wrongdoing”, the Communist Party’s discipline commission in Shaanxi said.

Officials are still further investigating “trails of [Mr Yang’s] other wrongdoing”, according to the online statement.

Mr Yang, head of Shaanxi’s Provincial Bureau of Work Safety, fielded questions on his Twitter-like weibo microblog after netizens posted images of him wearing expensive watches on various occasions.

Responding to criticism that he grinned at the scene of the crash he said: “My heart was heavy when I reached the scene… Junior officials appeared nervous when they were updating me on the situation.

“I was trying to get them to relax a little, so maybe, in an unguarded moment, I got a little too relaxed myself.”

He also explained that he “used legal income” to buy a number of watches, saying that the most expensive one he owned was worth 35,000 yuan ($5,550, £3,420).”

via BBC News – Shaanxi bus crash: China sacks ‘smiling official’.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/08/31/beleaguered-official-faces-netizens-online/

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21/09/2012

* Chinese democracy experiment marked by protest a year on

Reuters: “One of China’s most celebrated experiments in grass-roots democracy showed signs of faltering on Friday, as frustrations with elected officials in the southern fishing village of Wukan triggered a small and angry protest.

Villagers gather outside the Wukan Communist Party offices to protest against the land grab disputes in Wukan village in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong September 21, 2012. REUTERS-James Pomfret

On the first anniversary of an uprising that gave birth to the experiment, more than 100 villagers rallied outside Wukan’s Communist Party offices to express anger at what they saw as slow progress by the village’s democratically elected governing committee to resolve local land disputes.

“We still haven’t got our land back,” shouted Liu Hancai, a retired 62-year-old party member, one of many villagers fighting to win back land that was seized by Wukan’s previous administration and illegally sold for development.

The small crowd, many on motorbikes, was kept under tight surveillance by plain-clothed officials fearful of any broader unrest breaking out. Police cars were patrolling the streets.

“There would be more people here, but many people are afraid of trouble and won’t come out,” Liu told Reuters.

A year ago, Wukan became a beacon of rights activism after the land seizures sparked unrest and led to the sacking of local party officials. That in turn led to village-wide elections for a more representative committee to help resolve the rows.

Friday’s demonstration was far less heated than the protests that earned Wukan headlines around the world last year. But the small rally reveals how early optimism has soured for some.

Nevertheless, Wukan’s elderly village chief and former protest leader, Lin Zuluan, who was voted into office on a landslide, stressed these grievances were natural teething problems with any fledgling democracy.

He stressed his administration had made concrete strides including wresting back 253 hectares and implementing clean, legal and open administrative practices including full disclosure of village finances and open tenders for projects.

“At this starting point for Wukan there will definitely exist some problems but it doesn’t mean there hasn’t been democracy or that we have made major mistakes,” he said.

In March, expectations were high in this village, built near a sheltered harbor fringed by mountains, after Lin and his fellow elected leaders pledged to swiftly resolve the land issue.

Lin said complex land contracts and bureaucratic red-tape were hindering their work, with nearly 700 disputed hectares still unaccounted for.

Some critics say the village committee, which includes several young leaders of last year’s protests, lacked administrative experience, failed to engage the public and allowed itself to be out-maneuvered by higher party authorities.”

via Chinese democracy experiment marked by protest a year on | Reuters.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/03/05/wukan-village-elects-own-committee-hint-of-jasmin-spring/

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