News » Society » Li Xueying lands gold for China
News » Society » Li Xueying lands gold for China |
- Li Xueying lands gold for China
- New era for China in the pool
- China's top seeds make progress
- Parents urged to take care in choosing study trips
- Film probe uncovers kickback scheme
- Green-tea urine stirs up debate
- Chan named Hong Kong development secretary
- Man spread false rumor to inflame pipeline foes
- Global warming threatens highest railway
- Lanzhou witnesses biggest flood peak since 1986
- Bird flu `epidemic' sparks chicken cull
- European firms rejoice in lap of luxury
- Fueled by surging demand in China, luxury goods makers are bucking the global economic slowdown and reaping huge profits on sales of high-end handbags, jewelry and perfumes.
- Uneasy calm after violent protests
- UnionPay row takes swipe at China bank cards
- Hong Kong parents protest China patriotism lessons
- China Move Reflects Sensitivity on Pollution
- Previous Post
- China to launch key projects, spur private investment
- HK tycoon named in trading probe
| Li Xueying lands gold for China Posted: 30 Jul 2012 10:14 AM PDT China's Li Xueying set a new Olympic record in winning the women's 58kg weightlifting with a combined total of 246kg. |
| Posted: 26 Jul 2012 01:10 AM PDT World champion Sun Yang leads a team of 50 Chinese swimmers at London 2012 looking to make an impact for the first time |
| China's top seeds make progress Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:59 AM PDT China's top seeds in the men's and women's singles secure impressive wins at London 2012. |
| Parents urged to take care in choosing study trips Posted: 30 Jul 2012 10:38 AM PDT AUTHORITIES are warning Chinese parents planning to send their children on an "overseas study tour" to give it more thought as many such trips are little more than tourist attractions. Although many Chinese parents don't hesitate before spending lavishly on their children, the mother of Xiang Miao, a high school sophomore who took part in a 16-day summer study tour abroad last year, regrets her careless spending. Xiang's mother paid 30,000 yuan (US$4,700) for the so-called "overseas study tour," which boasted of homestay accommodation, collective learning and sight-seeing activities in a foreign country. "I would rather have taken him abroad myself if I had known about this kind of study tour. It is an eye-opener at best, rather than a way of truly enhancing his English skills or making preparations for future overseas study," she said. However, the number of applicants for such programs still saw "explosive" growth this year, according to Zhou Xiaolan, marketing director of the New Oriental Education & Technology Group. More than 10,000 students in Beijing alone will travel abroad for the group's summer study tour. "Tour packages to popular destinations such as the US and Britain were booked up three months in advance and less costly tours were also nearly packed," she said. A three-week trip may cost anywhere from 20,000 yuan to 43,000 yuan, depending on the destination. Most of the applicants are middle school students. Parents generally expect their children to gain a great deal from their overseas experience, and some have purposefully put their children in such programs as a warm-up before future overseas study. However, observers have warned students and their parents against profiteering and other shady practices. Parents are said to have complained about too many sight-seeing and shopping activities instead of programs that help their children improve language and communication skills. Jiang Nan, an adviser for "global study tour" programs, advised parents to make sure they are clear about the purpose of any trip they choose to sign their children up for. "When checking the itinerary and credentials of the program's organizer, parents have to make sure at the same time that their children are really interested in exploring the place they are going," he said. |
| Film probe uncovers kickback scheme Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:47 AM PDT A CORRUPTION investigation into two officials is said to have uncovered a kickback scheme which inflated the cost of a widely panned video made for China's Ministry of Railways. The revelation has again put renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou at the center of the storm of criticism as he is said to have benefited from the huge 18.5 million yuan investment in the project. The Beijing New Times Film Cultural Development Co Ltd, acting as a middleman between the ministry and Zhang, paid Zhang 2.5 million yuan and another 1.178 million yuan in tax, an anonymous company employee told the Economic Information Daily yesterday. The five-minute video, "Chinese Railways," cost just under 7 million yuan and the other 11.5 million yuan went to corrupt officials and Zhang, the employee told the newspaper. An initial probe into the case showed that the ministry's audio and video department gave more than 14 million yuan to New Times instead of the contracted 18.5 million yuan, leaving 4 million yuan missing, Xinhua news agency reported. However, it has not yet been determined whether the missing money was taken by New Times employees or ministry staff. The company is said to have won the project without going through a public bidding process because it promised it could persuade Zhang to film the video, an unnamed official with the ministry's publicity department told the newspaper. "We will sure file a lawsuit against the company," the official said, adding that the ministry would also launch an investigation into corrupt officials. According to an agreement between the ministry and the company, Zhang was entrusted to film and edit the video. The finished video includes the credit "Zhang Yimou Works." However, its contract with Zhang showed the director had just offered suggestions and specifically banned the company from using his name on the video, the paper said. Zhang told the paper that he didn't know about the huge investment until the video gained notoriety. He said he just offered suggestions in the project's early stages and only commented on the first version. He said that although he didn't know that the project had not gone through a public bidding process, he still felt responsible and welcomed any investigation. The video was played at the opening of the 7th World Congress on High-Speed Rail in Beijing in December 2010 as well as in high-speed trains. It showed China's railway development by simply showing running trains. People who saw it called it boring and wondered how so much money could have been spent on such a poor video. That led to suspicion of violations or corruption, and triggered an investigation early this month into Chen Yihan, deputy general secretary of the ministry's literal and arts department, and her husband Liu Ruiyang, deputy director of the vehicle department. Chen used to work at the ministry's publicity department. Inspectors seized more than 10 million yuan in cash and at least nine property ownership certificates from their home, an anonymous insider said. On the same day, they discovered "a large number of" bank deposit books and shopping cards in Liu's office. |
| Green-tea urine stirs up debate Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:46 AM PDT SOME privately owned hospitals in China have been accused of overprescribing patients in a TV program where a reporter who used green tea as a sample in a urine test was diagnosed with various diseases. But some doctors questioned the reporter's method of using green tea to judge the accuracy of medical tests. They told Shanghai Daily it was very "unprofessional" for the reporter to use green tea as sample. In the China Central Television program, an undercover reporter went to a major public hospital in Beijing for a health check and his results all turned out to be fine. Then he went to several private men's health hospitals and, during the urine test, gave a small cup of green tea as a sample. He was stunned when doctors at a hospital in Shijiazhuang, in Beijing's neighboring Hebei Province, told him they found an excessive level of white blood cells in his "urine," indicating that he was suffering prostatitis, an inflammation of the prostate gland, and orchitis, swelling in the testicles. A doctor told him that he would need to undergo seven days of treatment, with each day costing him 546 yuan (US$86). At another private hospital in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, a doctor checked the same green tea sample and diagnosed that he had spermatoceles, or cysts near his reproductive organs, and needed immediate surgery, costing 5,000 yuan. A third hospital in Changchun, capital of Jilin Province, told him he needed to pay 8,000 yuan for a health check. The program sparked a public outcry online. Some people said they wouldn't know where to seek medical help after watching the program. "He could have just used his own urine sample to go through the test to see whether the doctors were diagnosing him randomly," said a netizen on Weibo.com. "Oh, no! Did his investigation show that we'd better not drink green tea anymore?" was another comment on the microblog. "The same thing happened to me when two doctors in a Shijiazhuang hospital told me that I had lung cancer and needed to be treated immediately, but then a Beijing hospital said I'm just having a cold," Jiang Yu posted. "This shows that you will sure be diagnosed with some disease once you're in hospital, whether you're ill or not," Pan Xueyan wrote. However, others said the journalist shouldn't have set up such a trap for hospitals because a doctor should believe the sample was from the patient, without having to check its authenticity. Otherwise, they said, it would be a waste of medical resources to verify samples or complaints by the patients. "Equipment is designed to check biochemical indicators like white cell counts in blood or urine for medical purpose, not checking whether it is urine or green tea," said Dr Wang Guisong from Shanghai's Renji Hospital. |
| Chan named Hong Kong development secretary Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:00 AM PDT HONG Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said yesterday in a statement that Paul Chan was "devoted to serving the public and has been involved in various public duties for many years" and he was pleased to have Chan join his political team. Earlier in the day, China's State Council, or Cabinet, appointed Paul Chan as secretary for development of the Hong Kong government. Paul Chan replaced Mak Chai-kwong, who resigned on July 12 for being suspected of abusing a civil service rent-reimbursement system. "He has outstanding leadership and coordination abilities. He is also familiar with the operation of the Legislative Council. I am pleased to have him join my political team," Leung said in the statement. Aged 57, Chan has just finished his term of office as the Legislative Council member of the Functional Constituency (Accountancy) and was the president of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants in 2006. He was a non-official member of the Commission on Strategic Development from 2005. On Saturday, Hong Kong-listed Wharf Holdings, owners of HK's two major shopping centers and the city's cable TV operator, said Chan has resigned as an independent non-executive director. "He has decided to resign because he wishes to pursue other career interests," it said in the statement filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. |
| Man spread false rumor to inflame pipeline foes Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:00 AM PDT A MAN has been detained for attempting to escalate the public outcry by spreading false rumors of police killing two youngsters in a street protest against the construction of a Japanese paper mill's pipeline to the sea in Qidong, a costal city of Jiangsu Province, local police said. An Internet user surnamed Sun fabricated the story that on July 28, police trampled a nine-year-old girl to death and then beat an 18-year-old university student to death, Qidong police said on its website yesterday. Sun was sentenced to 10 days under the administrative detention for disturbing the social order by disseminating rumors and was fined 500 yuan (US$78.40), the announcement said. Qidong residents were highly irritated after the Oji Paper Group's factory in Nantong City, which administers Qidong, was approved to establish a pipeline leading to the sea for industrial waste discharges. They petitioned against the construction on the grounds that it would pollute the nearby Lusi Fishery, a major fishery in China. The Qidong government announced on Saturday that the project has been canceled, and residents, who had taken to the streets, dispersed. The Japanese company insisted the pipeline "is just a supporting project item" and wastewater would be discharged only after being processed properly, it said on its website. Records showed the paper manufacturer invested US$2 billion on its Nantong plant, with annual production of 800,000 tons of high quality paper and 714,000 tons of pulp. Oji Paper's Nepia tissue has become one of the top-selling brands in the Chinese market. |
| Global warming threatens highest railway Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:00 AM PDT CHINA'S Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest rail system, is being threatened by desertification on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as a result of global warming, experts concluded after conducting a probe. About 443 kilometers of the 1,956-kilometer railway are in areas affected by desertification, including 103km that lie in seriously desertified areas, Wang Jinchang, a senior engineer with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company, said yesterday. Wang cited research showing that the threat of soil erosion has grown very fast in recent years, mostly near rivers and wetlands from Golmud and Lhasa, and the amount of affected rail tracks almost doubled from 2003 to 2009. Touted the "Road to Heaven," half of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was built on areas at an elevation of about 4,000 meters, crossing mountains, ravines, the Gobi Desert, frozen earth, and other hostile environments. An Fengjie of China's State Forestry Administration and an expert in soil erosion, said the plateau region suffered from desertification long before the railway arrived. "The railway did not cause the problem, but it gives us an opportunity to witness the severity and scale of soil erosion on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," An said. Sands buried rail racks and disrupted train services over 1,362 times from 1984 to 2002 on the Xining-Golmud section of the railway, in operation since 1984. The main part, the Golmud-Lhasa section, went into operation in 2006. Since becoming fully operational, the railway has transported 52.76 million passengers, according to the railway company's estimate in July. Work has begun to expand the railway from Lhasa to Xigaze, a historical Tibetan city and home to Panchen Lamas. Engineers set up walls or simply lay big rocks along the tracks to prevent sands from encroaching on the rail tracks. "These emergency control measures have been effective, but we still need to address the root problems of desertification," An said. One of the most prevalent theories blames global warming for the ecological deterioration in the plateau region. Sun Zhizhong, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said temperatures on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau rose over 2 degrees Celsius on average over the past three years, leaving large chunks of frozen earth to thaw. The moisture is soon lost, however, as water quickly evaporates under the plateau's blazing sun. The soil begins to dry up and eventually becomes desert, Sun explained. |
| Lanzhou witnesses biggest flood peak since 1986 Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:00 AM PDT Residents overlook the Lanzhou section of the Yellow River in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, yesterday. Up to yesterday, the water flow in the Lanzhou section of the Yellow River reached 3,780 cubic meters per second, close to the 4th warning criteria for flood prevention which is 4,500 cubic meters per second. Lanzhou witnessed its biggest flood peak since 1986, according to the local authority. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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| UnionPay row takes swipe at China bank cards Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:42 AM PDT  Source: Caixin By Wen Xiu and Zhang Yuzhe BEIJING ( Caixin Online ) — Central bank officials regularly defend UnionPay Co. Ltd. against critics including U.S. government officials who use the word "monopoly" to describe China's only domestic bank card services provider. The Chinese position was upheld recently by a special panel of the World Trade Organization, which rejected a U.S. Trade Representative claim that UnionPay monopolized China's bank card market. Before the July 16 ruling, the panel spent more than a year studying a USTR complaint rooted in years of disputes between U.S.-based Visa, the world's largest bankcard service, and UnionPay. Yet, Unionpay's critics also found reason to cheer: The panel separately ruled the Chinese government had violated WTO rules by requiring that all domestic bank cards carry the UnionPay logo, and that every merchant in China use UnionPay-compatible swipe machines. The panel's rulings are not binding, but it could be adopted by the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body at the end of a 60-day period set for appellate report and consultation between the U.S. and Chinese governments. Chinese government officials are waiting for a definitive decision and say they're willing to cooperate. "We will certainly implement the WTO's final rules on the dispute," said a senior Ministry of Commerce official. Meanwhile, though, monopoly arguments persist — and have spread to banks and retailers who are required by the People's Bank of China to channel all card transactions through UnionPay and put its red, blue and turquoise logo on every bank card. "UnionPay in recent years has used its control over the system and network to gradually, consistently assume all authority for approving and issuing bank cards," said a source at a major bank in charge of bank cards. "If a bank prepares to issue a new card, UnionPay will demand they first report to them for approval." Moreover, a state-owned bank vice president charged, UnionPay puts more emphasis on its own financial interests than those of member-banks. UnionPay's "many types of bankcard service charges are not determined as a result of market competition," he said. Another domestic industry expert said UnionPay Chairman Su Ning, a former central bank vice governor in charge of UnionPay supervision, is only "half right" when he argues that the service was created to break the global dominance of Visa, MasterCard and other major, non-Chinese bankcards. "UnionPay's international strategy can be said to have this goal," the expert said. "But what about the domestic market?" Clashing bank cards UnionPay socks banks with brand management fees, collects 0.6 yuan ($1 = 6.38 yuan) for each interbank deposit and withdrawal, and earns a commission on every card transaction. The Shanghai-headquartered service, reportedly a joint-venture owned by dozens of Chinese financial institutions as well as some foreign investors, said it handled 15.9 trillion yuan in transactions last year, up more than 40% from 2010. The UnionPay logo was first introduced as a symbol of interconnected banks. The amount of money handled through the network has exploded with China's economic development over the past decade to the point where it's unclear whether the logo can be considered "a symbol of network interconnection or a commercial organization's brand," said Lin Caiyi, chief economist at Guotai Junan Securities and a former UnionPay research chief. Displaying the logo as a trade group symbol owned by the government would be incompatible with pursuing commercial interests, Lin said. UnionPay has indeed pursued commercial businesses overseas — in business territories Visa has adamantly fought to defend. Since August 2011, Visa has required that its member-banks worldwide use its system for settling all overseas transactions by holders of Chinese bank cards that are linked to one yuan account and one foreign currency account. A member-bank that settles through UnionPay's system faces heavy fines. UnionPay fought Visa's move by telling its card-issuing banks in China that this type of dual-currency cards would no longer be available, pending a positive outcome for ongoing negotiations with Visa. UnionPay argued that Chinese consumers overseas should be able to choose its less expensive settlement channel over Visa's, which can be 1% to 2% costlier due to currency conversion fees — fees imposed because the Chinese government bars Visa from doing business in yuan. UnionPay fired another volley in March by threatening to interfere with Visa's business in China unless the U.S. company amends its overseas transaction rules. That threat apparently stands. A Visa source said if the company yields to UnionPay, it would lose a revenue source made possible by the Chinese government's yuan controls. Moreover, he said, bank card services in other countries worldwide "will follow suit, threatening the survival of Visa globally." "Foreign transactions are Visa's core interest and are also the only business that we can currently do in the China market," said a Visa executive. "We cannot share this market with UnionPay." And in fact, Visa helped UnionPay get off the ground. The American company provided technical support a decade ago for the project to build China's nationwide electronic payments system. The central bank had initially agreed in those days to let several foreign institutions including Visa and the banks HSBC, Citigroup and Bank of East Asia buy shares of UnionPay. "Visa was promised it could buy $5 million worth of UnionPay shares," said a Visa source. Later, though, Visa was locked out. The tables turned after the then-president of China Construction Bank, Wang Xuebing, said the government should wait for UnionPay to grow before introducing foreign investments. The National Development and Reform Commission's Finance Division echoed that recommendation, and Visa was denied a stake. If it were not for the change, UnionPay would not have had an opportunity to develop an independent brand and expand abroad, said an industry source involved in launching UnionPay. Today, though, it's the world's third-largest bank card service in terms of transaction volume, behind Visa and MasterCard. A UnionPay statement released after the WTO panel's decision said the company would "continue as usual to integrate relevant parties in the bank card business and promote the use of bank cards, and improve the services UnionPay provides." The USTR complaint claimed China had, by joining the WTO in 2001, agreed to open its market to electronic payment firms offering domestic and cross-border services. It further argued — and the WTO panel agreed — that electronic payment services fall under China's General Agreement on Trade in Services commitment to the WTO, which says Beijing supports "all payment and money transmission services, including credit, charge, and debit cards, travelers cheques and bankers drafts (including import and export settlement)." One roadblock to a settlement, however, has been that the United States and China have offered different interpretations of the expressions "all payment and money transmission services," said Stephen Kho, a former USTR lawyer who now oversees WTO issues as a partner at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. A Chinese central bank official agreed with Kho, explaining that in the eyes of the Beijing government payment and money transmission services are separate from settlement and clearance businesses, even though in other countries this is not the case. The question remains, though, whether UnionPay's market position would be significantly undermined by an opening of the bank card market to rival companies. Some industry experts say UnionPay might not be able to stand up to the challenges of bank card payment liberalization. But a UnionPay source said the service "has grown up and is big enough. If the market is opened up now, I would not be worried." Some retailers, meanwhile, have joined bankers in calling for a competitive market. Some have recommended China launch a completely new domestic bank card service to share the sector with UnionPay. "A second UnionPay should be established as quickly as possible," Zheng Xiaoyan, chairman of Anhui Province-based Hefei Department Store, said last year at a National People's Congress meeting. Zheng is a Congress member whose views mirror other retailers. Starting a bank card system "really isn't that complex," said a foreign industry source. "You can do it with a few IBM mainframes and a few hundred million yuan. "The key is whether the (Chinese) government intends to liberalize the market." Lin said UnionPay would easily survive in a competitive environment because, thanks to early-stage administrative support, it's strong and has a good foundation in the domestic electronic payment service market. Besides, it has a strong incentive mechanism to attract and retain talents, which has contributed to its high staff quality and overall competitiveness, Lin said. As long as UnionPay accepts change and adapts accordingly, it is fairly capable of dealing with the challenge, she said. However, "if people could fill their stomachs lying down, perhaps no one would be willing to sit up," she said.   |
| Hong Kong parents protest China patriotism lessons Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:49 AM PDT  Source: By Beh Lih Yi (AFP) HONG KONG — Thousands of stroller-pushing Hong Kong parents and activists Sunday protested a plan to introduce national education lessons, slamming it as a bid to brainwash children with Chinese propaganda. Organisers said 90,000 demonstrators took part in the noisy protest, which was led by parents and young students. Police put the figure much lower at 32,000. "As a parent, I'm very angry, this is a blatant brainwashing," mother-of-three Sandra Wong said as she marched in the sweltering heat accompanied by her husband and pushing her two-year-old daughter in a stroller. "The curriculum only paints a rosy picture about the Communist Party… This is just an attempt to introduce the mainland agenda in Hong Kong schools," she said. Sunday's protest underscored rising anti-Beijing sentiments, coming weeks after the city's biggest demonstration in nearly a decade, as new leader Leung Chun-ying was sworn in before Chinese President Hu Jintao. A poll released by the University of Hong Kong last month showed the number of people in the former British colony identifying themselves as citizens of China had plunged to a 13-year-low. More identified themselves as Hong Kongers. The government has rejected the brainwashing claims and vowed to push ahead with the plan, although it announced the formation of a special committee to monitor the implementation of the subject following the mass protest. The committee will ensure the subject is taught in a way "to educate our students to have independent thinking, to be able to analyse situations and come to an objective judgement", Chief Secretary Carrie Lam told reporters. Under the proposal, students would take 50 hours of lessons a year focusing on "building national harmony, identity and unity among individuals". There would be no exams. "There is nothing wrong with national education but it shouldn't be done in a biased way," high school student Shirley Cheung said at the protest. "Currently the curriculum makes no mention about issues like the Tiananmen Square crackdown or who is (Chinese dissident) Ai Weiwei, so we are not convinced it can encourage independent thinking," the 17-year-old added. The protest came after a teaching booklet called "The China Model", which heavily praised China's one-party system, was sent to local schools in recent weeks, further fuelling debates over the lessons. The plan to introduce national education has been on the government's agenda for years but the fresh push came weeks after the new government led by Leung, seen as pro-Beijing, took office. Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 as a semi-autonomous territory with its own political and legal system that guarantees civil liberties not seen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and association. Anti-Beijing protests are a regular fixture in the regional financial centre of seven million people.   |
| China Move Reflects Sensitivity on Pollution Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:46 AM PDT  Source: Wall Street Journal By Carlos Tejada BEIJING—The cancellation over the weekend of a second Chinese industrial project in a month following fierce environmental protests demonstrates the government's growing sensitivity to China's pollution problems. Photos posted online by residents showed crowds swarming around government offices and filling nearby streets, as well as at least one overturned car. Later Saturday, Qidong officials said on their website that the government of Nantong—the city-level government that oversees Qidong—had decided to stop the project, without releasing additional details. Nantong Mayor Zhang Guohua appeared on TV to announce the news. Calls to Qidong city officials weren't picked up on Saturday. The plant is owned by Japan's Oji Paper Co., according to government officials. The company didn't immediately respond to calls for comment. Locals worried that the water would pollute the nearby Yangtze River or the nearby sea, which is a prime fishing area. Oji Paper said in a statement that reports that there are carcinogenic substances in the water are totally "groundless." The company also said that its purification treatment clears China's national standards and that the company handles water treatment with a sense of responsibility. The successful public outcry follows a similar situation earlier this month in Shifang, a small city in China's southwestern Sichuan province. Officials there on July 3 scrapped a planned metals plant following protests that led to violent clashes with police. Photos from those clashes showing bloodied protesters sparked a national outcry on the Chinese Internet. China is grappling with extensive pollution problems as a consequence of its rapid economic growth. The issue has risen in importance in recent years and is sometimes cited as one reason that many wealthy Chinese consider moving abroad, according to surveys. In a nod to those growing concerns, Chinese central government officials have embarked on a number of measures to reduce China's dependence on fossil fuels and to tighten environmental regulations. Still, officials also appear to worry about the prospects of such protests spreading. The term "Qidong" appeared to be blocked on Saturday in China's popular Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service, which serves as the closest thing to a national forum on domestic issues in a country that keeps a tight rein on political discourse. Qidong's police authority warned residents on its microblog account on Saturday not to further gather or "spread rumors"—a term often used by the authorities in China to curb discussion of sensitive topics. The Qidong pipeline is a long-simmering local issue, with online discussion stretching back to at least 2010. On Thursday, a notice on the community's website said local officials would take local concerns into consideration but warned residents against illegal gatherings.   |
| Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:41 AM PDT Have You Heard…   |
| China to launch key projects, spur private investment Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:51 AM PDT  Source: Reuters (Reuters) – China's government said on Monday it would make investments in key projects in a bid to encourage private sector finance to play a greater role in developing vital industry sectors including railways, utilities, finance and healthcare. "The cabinet meeting urged various regions and government departments to take candid and effective measures to implement policies to create an environment that is fair, transparent and predictable to all market players including the private ones," the central government said in a statement on its website, www.gov.cn. China must "launch some key projects, as soon as possible, to allow private investment in railways, public utilities, energy, telecommunications, financial, health and education industries, in order to set up examples," the State Council said, after a meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao. There was no specific mention of the sums involved or if any of the cash earmarked for the projects was net new spending. The NDRC said last week that it had issued 42 news rules for attracting and removing impediments to private investment. The push to open state controlled industries leaves some analysts skeptical and anticipating resistance from state-backed giants which enjoy preferential access to finance and government contracts. "I'm not quite optimistic about the short-term results," said Zhiwei Zhang, Nomura's China economist in Hong Kong. Zhang said there was mismatch between the sectors the government would like to open up and the profitable ones that private investors would really like to put their money in. China signaled in May that it would boost private investment in the most determined push since joining the World Trade Organisation to reduce the role of the state sector in the economy. The State Council said China was facing rising downward pressure and it urged industry to hasten the restructuring of Chinese economy and boost investment as well as consumption. "At a time when the domestic economy faces rising downward pressure, we must take timely and forceful measures to encourage companies to use new technology, new material and new equipment to speed up industry upgrade," the statement said. INVESTMENT SPENDING To bolster growth, China has been "fine-tuning" policies since autumn and accelerated the pace recently, cutting interest rates twice in June and early July, fast-tracking investment projects and encouraging energy-efficient consumer spending. Zhang said the recipe to bolster China's slowing economy in the short run was still heavy state-backed infrastructure investment. Beijing has so far refrained from labeling any of its policy efforts as outright stimulus. China's Communist Party leadership remains acutely sensitive to the inflationary and speculative forces unleashed by the 2008 program which the government is still struggling to bring back under control, particularly in the real estate sector. China's economy experienced its slowest three months of growth in more than three years in the April-June period, which expanded by 7.6 percent – only just above Beijing's target rate of 7.5 percent. The economy is on track for its slowest full year of growth since 1999, albeit at a rate that economists in a Reuters poll forecast at 8 percent.   |
| HK tycoon named in trading probe Posted: 30 Jul 2012 12:54 AM PDT Shipbuilder China Rongsheng Heavy tries to calm investors after a separate firm controlled by its chairman is implicated in an insider trading scandal. |
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