Posts tagged ‘Xi JinPing’

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03/03/2013

* Spill in China Lays Bare Environmental Concerns

NY Times: “The first warning came in the form of dead fish floating in a river.

 

Then officials in this city got confirmation that a chemical spill had taken place at a fertilizer factory upstream. They shut off the tap water, which sent residents into a scramble for bottled water. In the countryside, officials also told farmers not to graze their livestock near the river.

The spill, which occurred on Dec. 31, affected at least 28 villages and a handful of cities of more than one million people, including Handan. Officials here were irate that their counterparts in Changzhi, where the polluting factory was located, had delayed reporting the spill for five days. For the past two months, Changzhi officials and executives at the company running the factory, Tianji Coal Chemical Industry Group, have generally stayed silent, exacerbating anxiety over water quality.

The conflict over the Changzhi spill has drawn attention to the growing problems with water use and pollution in northern China. The region, which has suffered from a drought for decades, is grappling with how industrial companies should operate along rivers. Local officials are shielding polluting companies and covering up environmental degradation, say environmentalists.

“Problems with water weren’t so serious before, but they have become much worse with industrial consumption,” said Yin Qingli, a lawyer in Handan who filed a lawsuit in January against Tianji, which uses water to convert coal to fertilizer at the factory in Changzhi.

Environmental degradation has led many Chinese to question the Communist Party’s management of the country’s economic growth. Addressing the problem is one the greatest challenges for the administration of Xi Jinping, the new chief of the Communist Party. Environmental issues will most likely be on the agenda at the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, scheduled to begin on Tuesday.”

via Spill in China Lays Bare Environmental Concerns – NYTimes.com.

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Posted in China alert, Economics, Environment, Manufacturing, Pollution | 1 Comment »

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03/03/2013

* A push for change in China as new leaders take the helm

Reuters: “For Chen Qiuyang, the new Chinese leadership that formally takes over this month can radically improve her life by doing just one thing: providing running water in her village in a remote corner of the northwestern province of Gansu.

Chief of China's Communist Party Xi Jinping is seen in a picture during a visit in Yuangudui village, Gansu Province February 12, 2013. Communist Party chief Xi Jinping, who takes over as China's new president during the annual meeting of the legislature beginning on March 5, visited Yuangudui in February to highlight the poverty that still reigns in huge swaths of the country. Closing a yawning income gap is likely to be one of the policy priorities of his administration and the impoverished villagers are fully conscious of the inequality plaguing China, even if some of them had never heard of Xi Jinping before he showed up in town. Most young people have left for the provincial capital of Lanzhou, where they can make 1,000 yuan ($160) a month, more than the average village income of 800 yuan a year. Picture taken on February 12, 2013. REUTERS-Carlos Barria

“We have to carry water from the well on our shoulders several times day. It’s exhausting,” Chen, who looked older than her 28 years, said in Yuangudui village, resting on a stool outside her home after completing another trip to the well.

Communist Party chief Xi Jinping takes over as China’s new president during the annual meeting of parliament beginning on Tuesday and bridging the widening income gap in the vast nation is one of his foremost challenges.

Xi has effectively been running China since assuming leadership of the party and military – where real power lies – in November, and has already projected a more relaxed, softer image than his stern predecessor Hu Jintao.

But there will be pressure on him to tackle problems accumulated during Hu’s era like inequality and pervasive corruption, which have given rise to often violent outbursts in the world’s second-biggest economy, sending shivers through the party.

Outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao will likely address these issues in his last “state of the nation” report at the National People’s Congress to nearly 3,000 delegates, whose ranks include CEOs, generals, political leaders and Tibetan monks – as well as some of China’s richest businessmen.

China now has 317 billionaires, a fifth of the total number in the world, and is on track to overtake the United States as the largest luxury car market by 2016.

Yet the United Nations says 13 percent of China’s 1.3 billion population, or about 170 million people, still live on less than $1.25 a day.

While parliament is a regimented show of unity that affirms rather than criticizes policies, income redistribution is likely to be a hot topic, along with other issues like ministry restructuring, corruption and the environment.

In January, the State Council, or cabinet, issued a new fiscal framework designed to make rich individuals and state corporations contribute more to government coffers and strengthen a social security net for those at the bottom.

But tackling China’s wealth gap will need more than just taxes. Analysts say state-owned enterprises will have to be privatized and the household registration, or hukou, system that prevents migrants from enjoying the benefits of urban citizens, will have to be dismantled.

“Fiscal reforms and changes to let private firms advance and the state retreat will decide whether this round of reforms can succeed,” said Xia Bin, an economist at the cabinet think-tank Development Research Centre and a former central bank adviser.

“There is definitely no way out,” he wrote in the latest edition of China Finance, a magazine published by the central bank.

via A push for change in China as new leaders take the helm | Reuters.

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

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01/03/2013

* China plans bond overhaul to fund $6 trillion urbanization

Reuters: “China plans major bond market reform to raise the money the ruling Communist Party needs for a 40 trillion yuan ($6.4 trillion) urbanization program to buoy economic growth and close a chasm between the country’s urban rich and rural poor.

A man walks past a construction site for a new stadium in Mentougou district, suburb of Beijing February 28, 2013. REUTERS-Kim Kyung-Hoon

The Party aims to bring 400 million people to cities over the next decade as the new leadership of president-in-waiting Xi Jinping and premier-designate Li Keqiang seek to turn China into a wealthy world power with economic growth generated by an affluent consumer class.

The urban development would be funded by a major expansion of bond markets, sources with leadership ties, and a senior executive at one of China’s “Big Four” state banks, who was formerly at the central bank, told Reuters.

“The urbanization drive will push the domestic capital market liberalization agenda,” the senior bank executive said on condition of anonymity. “Urbanization is Li Keqiang’s big project. He has to get it right and he is willing to pursue innovation to make it a success.”

Set to be confirmed as premier at the end of the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, which opens next week, Li must find ways to pay for the urban development that he has made a policy priority.

Central and local governments, as well as bank loans, will fund the costs, the sources said. But, sweeping reforms to create a fully-functioning municipal bond market, boost corporate and high-yield bond issuance and actively steer foreign capital into the sector, are crucial to raising the sums of money China will need, they added.

Despite its ranking as the second-largest economy globally after three decades of stellar growth, China remains an aspiring middle-income country riven with inequality and dependent on state-backed investment.

“If we continue to walk down the path of government spending, it’ll be like wearing new shoes, but walking the old road,” a source with leadership ties said, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for speaking to foreign media without authorization.”

via Exclusive: China plans bond overhaul to fund $6 trillion urbanization – sources | Reuters.

Posted in Chindia Alert, Economics, urban development | 1 Comment »

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27/02/2013

* Chinese Intellectuals Urge Ratification of Rights Treaty

NYT: “More than 100 Chinese scholars, journalists, lawyers and writers urged their national legislature on Tuesday to ratify a major human rights treaty, in the latest challenge from intellectuals seeking to curtail arbitrary Communist Party power.

Flag of the Chinese Communist Party 贛語: 中國共產黨黨...

Flag of the Chinese Communist Party  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The petition calling on the party-controlled National People’s Congress to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights came a week before the congress holds its annual full session, which is to install Xi Jinping as China’s president, succeeding Hu Jintao.

Copies of the document appeared on Chinese blogging Web sites and Internet forums, but were often often removed and quickly reappeared. It was unclear whether government censors demanded the removals.

The proposal “was originally intended for a Thursday release through a prominent Chinese newspaper,” David Bandurski, a researcher at the China Media Project of Hong Kong University, wrote in a comment on a translation of the petition. “Authorities, however, learned of the letter by late Monday and the authors had no choice but to release it to the public” on Tuesday, Mr. Bandurski wrote, citing unnamed sources.

Ratification of the treaty would “promote and realize the principles of a country based on human rights and a China governed by its Constitution,” the petition said. “We fear that due to the lack of nurturing of human rights and absence of fundamental reverence and assurances for individuals’ freedom, rights and dignity, if a full-scale crisis breaks out, the whole society will collapse into hatred and brutality.”

The call, also circulated by e-mail, carried the names of 121 backers, including several who said they lived in Hong Kong or Macau.

The petition was the latest display of the demands for political change confronting China’s new leadership. Several people who signed it said they hoped to press Mr. Xi and his colleagues to live up to vows of greater respect for the rule of law and citizens’ rights that Mr. Xi and other officials have made since he became Communist Party leader in November, when Mr. Hu retired from that post.”

via Chinese Intellectuals Urge Ratification of Rights Treaty – NYTimes.com.

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24/02/2013

* Migrant workers invited to prominent holiday gala

Xinhua: “Four migrant workers were invited to a high profile gala on Saturday evening, which was once mainly reserved for distinguished intellectuals.

Chinese leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli were present at the event organized by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee to mark the upcoming Lantern Festival.

New guests to this year’s show also include representatives from different sectors and model workers.

Liu Yunshan hosted the gala and in his speech highlighted the contribution of intellectuals and ordinary workers to the country’s achievements and called for joint efforts from ordinary workers in all walks of life to contribute to the nation’s great rejuvenation.

China has 260 million migrant workers by 2012. They usually leave their hometown to seek employments in urban areas.

The Lantern Festival falls on Sunday this year and traditionally marks the end of the Spring Festival season.”

via Migrant workers invited to prominent holiday gala – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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24/02/2013

* Will China Ever Be No. 1?

Foreign Policy: “Will China continue to grow three times faster than the United States to become the No. 1 economy in the world in the decade ahead? Does China aspire to be the No. 1 power in Asia and ultimately the world? As it becomes a great power, will China follow the path taken by Japan in becoming an honorary member of the West?

English: Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singa...

Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore,  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Despite current punditry to the contrary, the surest answer to these questions is: No one knows. But statesmen, investors, and citizens in the region and beyond are placing their bets. And U.S. policymakers, as they shape the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia, are making these judgments too. In formulating answers to these questions, if you could consult just one person in the world today, who would it be? Henry Kissinger, the American who has spent by far the most time with China’s leaders since Mao, has an answer: Lee Kuan Yew.

Lee is the founding father of modern Singapore and was its prime minister from 1959 to 1990. He has honed his wisdom over more than a half century on the world stage, serving as advisor to Chinese leaders from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping and American presidents from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. This gives him a uniquely authoritative perspective on the geopolitics and geoeconomics of East and West.

Lee Kuan Yew’s answers to the questions above are: yes, yes, and no. Yes, China will continue growing several times faster than the United States and other Western competitors for the next decade, and probably for several more. Yes, China’s leaders are serious about becoming the top power in Asia and on the globe. As he says: “Why not? Their reawakened sense of destiny is an overpowering force.” No, China will not simply take its seat within the postwar order created by the United States. Rather, “it is China’s intention to become the greatest power in the world — and to be accepted as China, not as an honorary member of the west,” he said in a 2009 speech.

Western governments repeatedly appeal to China to prove its sense of international responsibility by being a good citizen in the global order set up by Western leaders in the aftermath of World War II. But as Kissinger observes, these appeals are “grating to a country that regards itself as adjusting to membership in an international system designed in its absence on the basis of programs it did not participate in developing.”

via Will China Ever Be No. 1? – By Graham Allison and Robert D. Blackwill | Foreign Policy.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/prognosis/superpowers/

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15/02/2013

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/13/pattern-of-chinese-overseas-investments/

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09/02/2013

* Mysterious China blogger comes out

SCMP: “For weeks, a mysterious microblog has been lifting a veil from around China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, with candid snapshots from his travels that defy the typically stiff and staged images of the leadership presented in state media.

Xi Jinping 习近平

Xi Jinping 习近平 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ordinary Chinese, foreign reporters and even China’s own state media have speculated over who or what might be behind the blog – ostensibly registered to a female tech school graduate. Is Xi’s own team surreptitiously trying to humanise the leader in the guise of citizen journalism? Is this a crusader’s attempt to bring China’s leaders down a notch and send them a message?

It turns out it’s the brainchild of a male college dropout and migrant worker, Zhang Hongming, who said in an exclusive interview that he is both a genuine fan of China’s new leader and intent on making him more accessible to the country’s people.

“It is just me. It’s completely an individual act,” said Zhang, who started the “Fan Club of Learning From Xi” on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo on November 21 with a simple thought: Like other foreign leaders in these times, Chinese leaders should have an online following.

Zhang said he initially wanted to keep a low profile, but now wants to come forward to end the rampant speculation about his identity and intentions.

The account shares photos gathered from citizen volunteers and local reports throughout the country of Xi on his visits out in the field – and the candid images aren’t always flattering. There are shots of him visiting a vegetable market, serving food to the elderly, looking sideways. One shows him napping in a van.

The microblog even tracked Xi’s recent trip to Gansu province step by step, beating state media in reporting Xi’s activities. National broadcaster CCTV complained on its own microblog: “What happened? The Study Xi Fan Club is quicker and closer to him than us.”

The unexpected popularity of the microblog speaks to the Chinese public’s demand to humanize their typically aloof leaders.

“Our leaders used to appear to be out of reach for the masses. They always appeared to be mysterious. Now the public can feel closer to their leader with timely and transparent information,” Zhang said. “Xi is a national leader, but take his official title away, he’s an ordinary person.””

via Mysterious China blogger comes out | South China Morning Post.

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06/02/2013

* China bans luxury gift adverts in austerity push

Interesting, China links austerity with anti-corruption, rather than – as in the West – with  a difficult economy.

BBC: “China has announced a ban on radio and TV adverts which encourage extravagant gift-giving, saying they promote incorrect values, state media report.

A woman shops for handbags at a Gucci luxury boutique at the IFC Mall in Shanghai June 4, 2012

The move is part of a government campaign to crack down on corruption and extravagance.

Expensive watches, gold coins and liquor are among the items affected, said the Xinhua news agency.

The giving of gifts, often to gain favour with officials, is common during lunar new year, which begins next week.

But China’s TV watchdog, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft), said that adverts on some channels had been encouraging people to give luxury items.

This, it said, had promoted “incorrect values” and encouraged a bad social ethos, Xinhua reports.

It quoted a Sarft official as saying that the move was in response to repeated calls by the authorities for people to practise thrift and shun extravagance and waste.

New Communist party leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed the need to tackle corruption and has banned displays of extravagance at party and army functions.

The new restrictions coincide with a pledge by the government to tackle the growing and politically sensitive gap between rich and poor in the country.

Its plan includes raising the minimum wage to 40% of average urban salaries by 2015.

The government says that the reforms are necessary to make income distribution fairer. Correspondents say the move reflects Communist party concern that growing inequalities could threaten political stability.”

via BBC News – China bans luxury gift adverts in austerity push.

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05/02/2013

* The party may be over, but the hangover is only just beginning

The Times: “12 (or 6) is the number of bottles of fantastically fine vintage claret (or, possibly, dismally mundane bottles of table plonk) consumed in a private room of the Huafa private members’ club in Zhuhai.

drinking wine

There are two very distinct versions of what happened around the table that night in mid-January. Wine investment around the globe may depend on which is the more credible.

In one version, Zhou Shaoqiang, the general manager of the state-owned Zhuhai Investment Holdings Group, hosted a full-bore knees-up for a select gang of local finance officials and state-owned bank executives. In a show of baronial largesse, Mr Zhou poured some of the world’s finest wines down his guests’ necks.

As the collection of emptied Latour and Haut-Brion bottles swelled, so did the bill, with the cost of booze alone hitting somewhere well above the £8,000 mark by the time the party started to wrap up and the Chinese taxpayer (via Mr Zhou’s state-owned company wallet) picked up the tab. The Huafa club, of which Mr Zhou is thought to be a member, has only five private rooms: each comes with a minimum charge of £1,000. As Chinese internet users have pointed out, the cost of those officials’ Premier Cru hangover was the equivalent of an annual white-collar wage.

All of this might have remained Zhou’s little secret, except that one of the diners, a senior local official called Chi Tengfei, snapped a picture of the impressive row of empties, posting the evidence on the internet with the faintly sozzled message: “Drank 12 bottles this evening. What am I going to do tomorrow?”

So far, so outrageous. The Chinese public has all but run out of patience with lavish abuse of the state coffers by officials and state-run companies. Xi Jinping, the incoming president, is well aware of this and twice now has called for a big show of thrift. No more opulent banquets, no more pricey booze has been his mantra and recent weeks have suggested that some were taking it to heart. Including, it seems, Mr Zhou.

Because, after a two-week inquiry by the Zhuhai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, a second version of the evening has emerged. In it, Mr Zhou did, indeed, host a banquet, but he was ever so responsible about it. Before the evening began, he had made arrangements with the Huafa club to waive its minimum charge and, when the wine list was brought around, he ordered only six bottles of the cheapest red they had — a dreary draught costing about £18 a bottle. The six bottles of extraordinarily good Bordeaux names were brought — empty — to the table so that the guests could “study great wines from the club sommelier” by staring at empty bottles.

The dinner itself was a staid affair of simple dishes. The only reason the bill was paid by the State, it has since emerged, was because Mr Zhou had forgotten his cash. He rectified that by coming back two weeks later (just before the inquiry’s results were announced) to settle up from his own pocket.

Chinese internet users find this second version of events less plausible than the first, but is their scepticism justified? There is a great deal riding on the answer. China, as everyone in the high-end wine trade knows, has become a monstrously big buyer of the great vintage names. A sizeable chunk of that appetite arises from a tangle of business and bureaucratic relationships where gifting and largesse are the currency.

Mr Xi’s edicts about frugality have already hurt the share price of Moutai, China’s biggest domestic liquor brand. If he really means business, and business dinners more resemble the second version of Mr Zhou’s dinner than the first, the top-end wine market might feel a bump, too.”

via The party may be over, but the hangover is only just beginning | The Times.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Illegal practices, Inequalities, Politics, social media | Leave a Comment »

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