News » China » Communication stressed to break China-Japan stalemate

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• Communication stressed to break China-Japan stalemate
• China launches self-developed high-end server
• 120,000 demobilized armymen find jobs since 2001
• China unveils merger targets to upgrade industry
• Economic downshift bites into fiscal revenues
• Norway urged to mend ties
• Chinese ambassador: China has indisputable sovereignty over South China Sea islands
• Macao's crime rate drops by 12 percent in 2012
• China stresses normal exchanges amid Japanese leader's visit
• Xi Jinping vows "power within cage of regulations"
• Tibet records 152 pct rise in foreign trade
• FM spokesman: Myanmar-China border area stable
• China's 2012 fiscal revenues rise 12.8 pct
• Philippines sends China to UN arbitral tribunal
• Chinese deep-sea base to start operation in 2014
• Myanmar-China border area stable
• Wachowski laments China's 'Cloud Atlas' cut
• Xi vows unswerving fight against corruption
• Bo Xilai appoints lawyers for trial
• Planes briefly lost due to wireless interference

Communication stressed to break China-Japan stalemate Posted: 22 Jan 2013 11:59 AM PST BEIJING - A Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday stressed that communication between China and Japan could help in problem solution as a Japanese politician came to Beijing trying to "pave the way for dialogue." "China has long maintained normal communication and exchanges with Japan's ruling and opposition parties, as well as its non-governmental organizations," spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily press briefing. Hong's comments came hours after Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of the New Komeito party, the smaller of Japan's two ruling parties, arrived in Beijing. Yamaguchi is the first senior member of the Japanese ruling bloc to travel to Beijing since the Japanese government announced in September that it would "purchase" part of the Diaoyu Islands, a move that contributed to the disintegration of bilateral relations. "I'd like to make a step toward opening the door to normalizing relations," Yamaguchi said. "I want to pave the way for dialogue." When asked about China's expectations for his visit, Hong said the exchanges between China and Japan can "enhance bilateral communication, properly promote solutions for related issues and boost the development of bilateral relations." Hong said the China-Japan Friendship Association is arranging Yamaguchi's visit. "Yamaguchi is acting as a messenger of Japan's ruling bloc, trying to break the ice between the two countries," said Gao Hong, a scholar in Japanese affairs with the China Academy of Social Sciences. Prior to his Beijing visit, Yamaguchi told reporters that settlement of the dispute over the sovereignty of the uninhabited islands, known as Diaoyu Islands in China, should be left to future generations. Analysts said Yamaguchi's remarks reflected a sensible voice in Japan and a pragmatic attitude to mend ties with China. The New Komeito party has a lasting bond with Beijing for a few decades and played an important role in helping normalizing China-Japan ties in 1972. Yamaguchi also had a track record of mediating Japan-China ties, including his visit to Beijing and meet with Chinese leader in 2010 when China-Japan relations got strained over the boat collision incident. "Yamaguchi's ongoing visit showed the consistent attitude of the New Komeito party. In a degree, he can play a role of bridge," Liu Jiangyong, a scholar in Japanese affairs with Tsinghua University. Analysts, however, said there are some uncertainties about Yamaguchi's visit. "Although they are part of ruling bloc, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Yamaguchi disagree with each other on some foreign policies," Gao said. "We can not put expectations too high for the Abe's government to cancel the former government's decision to purchase the Diaoyu Islands." Whatever may come out of Yamaguchi's visit, analysts said dialogue is the only correct path to breaking the stalemate between China and Japan.

China launches self-developed high-end server Posted: 22 Jan 2013 11:59 AM PST BEIJING - The first high-end server independently developed by a Chinese company was officially put on the market Tuesday, a step that it is thought will help break the dominance of foreign companies. The Tiansuo K1 System, a fault-tolerant server developed by the Shangdong-based Inspur Group Co., made its debut in Beijing after four years of research and development costing 750 million yuan (about 120 million U.S. dollars). The server's debut ends a situation in which core equipment for China's information network has been controlled by foreign companies, Yang Xianwu, deputy director of the high and new technology department under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said at the launching ceremony. China has been dependent on imports for high-end servers for a long time, and the technology and market are monopolized by international giants including IBM and HP. High-end servers have much higher processing capacity than regular ones and are core equipment for financial, telecommunication, energy and other important industries. Yang said a weak domestic industry and the country's reliance on foreign products not only raised the costs for China's drive toward informationization, but also brought about data security risks. Xu Wen, an official with China's Banking Regulatory Commission, said the banking industry has strong demand for high-end servers, but prices of imported products are usually much higher than those on foreign markets. A survey showed that the average price for such servers in China are 2.4 times those found in the United States. Some 15.2 billion yuan were spent on high-end servers in China in 2012, according to Sun Pishu, chairman of Inspur Group. "It is going to be a new challenge for the company to win a share in a market totally dominated by foreign companies," Sun added.

120,000 demobilized armymen find jobs since 2001 Posted: 22 Jan 2013 11:59 AM PST BEIJING - About 120,000 demobilized army officers have succeeded in finding jobs by themselves since the option was made available in 2001, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) on Tuesday. In an effort to push forward the policy, the ministry initiated an experimental training program on December 11 for 40 armymen, who were demobilized in 2012 and chose to try to find jobs by themselves. The training included business visits and 15-day internship in enterprises. The event was a worthy attempt at arranging civilian work for demobilized military personnel, He Xian, vice minister of the MHRSS, said at a promotional meeting for the employment of the officers on Tuesday. The meeting attracted more than 50 private enterprises which planned to hire the officers. He urged the demobilized officers to work hard in their new careers and expressed hope that their employers would give full play to their talents. Prior to the program, the ministry had also launched online courses to guide demobilized officers in their hunt for work.

China unveils merger targets to upgrade industry Posted: 22 Jan 2013 11:59 AM PST BEIJING - The government has set targets to increase the number of mergers in nine sectors to reshuffle China's industrial structure and enhance big enterprises' global competitiveness. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), along with 11 other authorities, said in a guideline Tuesday that the government is encouraging mergers in the automaking, steel, cement, shipbuilding, electrolytic aluminum, rare earth, electronic information, pharmacy and agricultural sector. Zhu Hongren, MIIT chief engineer, said economies of scale play an important role in these sectors, but scattered and outdated production capacity led to redundant projects and an overcapacity problem. The guideline says the government aims to incorporate production capacity in the coming years and upgrade industrial structures in order to increase enterprises' international competitiveness. Zhu said China welcomes foreign capital to hold stakes in related enterprises or engage in mergers under supervision. China aims to foster three to five large automakers with core competitiveness, and increase the concentration ratio of top ten auto makers to 90 percent by 2015, according to the guideline. Concentration ratio, the measurement of industrial concentration, indicates the degree of market dominance in a sector by a few large enterprises. China will fully support the development of home car brands and encourage them to go overseas for cross-border mergers, the guideline says. At the same time, the country will work to cut a large number of steel producing enterprises and phase out outdated capacity through mergers, in a bid to raise the concentration ratio of top ten steel producers to around 60 percent by 2015. China will also slash the number of firms in the rare earth business through mergers and concentrate production capacity in the sector into a number of large enterprises, the guideline says. The country aims to promote mergers in the remaining six sectors, and will try to raise the concentrate ratios of leading enterprises in those fields by 2015. In November, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said the country will step up efforts in industrial structure adjustment in 2013. A central economic work conference in December agreed that the government would work to adjust industrial structure and resolve overcapacity problems that have hobbled some sectors.

Economic downshift bites into fiscal revenues Posted: 22 Jan 2013 11:59 AM PST BEIJING - China's fiscal revenue growth slowed sharply in 2012 due to an economic downshift and tax breaks, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Tuesday. National fiscal revenues rose 12.8 percent year on year to 11.7 trillion yuan ($1.9 trillion), with the growth rate dropping 12.2 percentage points from a year earlier, the MOF said in a statement. The ministry attributed the slowdown to a softening economy, weakening corporate profits, milder inflation and structural tax breaks. Of the total fiscal revenues, tax revenues reached 10.1 trillion yuan, up 12.1 percent from a year earlier, but the growth rate was down 10.5 percentage points from the 2011 level. Fiscal revenues in China include taxes, as well as administrative fees and other government income, such as fines and income from state-owned assets. Revenues from value-added taxes increased 8.9 percent to 2.6 trillion yuan, while those from business taxes went up 15.1 percent to 1.6 trillion yuan. In breakdown, business tax revenues in the property and construction sector jumped 11.6 percent and 18.6 percent, respectively, while those in the financial industry surged 32.7 percent due to increases in loan interest. Corporate income tax revenues gained 17.2 percent year on year to 2 trillion yuan. Banks paid 41.9 percent more for income tax, while the income tax revenues of industrial enterprises inched up 2.6 percent, weighed on by slowing profits growth in 2012. Individual income tax revenues dipped 3.9 percent to 582 billion yuan, affected by the government's move in September 2011 to raise the threshold at which individuals must pay income taxes from 2,000 yuan to 3,500 yuan. On a quarterly basis, China's fiscal revenue growth recovered to 19.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 from 14.7 percent in the first quarter, 10 percent in the second and 8.1 percent in the third quarter. The fourth-quarter rebound was mainly caused by a low base in the same period of 2011, the MOF said. The central government collected 5.6 trillion yuan in fiscal revenues in 2012, up 9.4 percent year on year, while local governments saw fiscal revenues grow 16.2 percent to 6.1 trillion yuan. Given the slowing economic expansion, sluggish external demand and property sector curbs, local authorities started to lower their fiscal revenue target for 2013. East China city Hefei set its annual growth for fiscal revenue at 10 percent in the next five years, 14.6 percentage points lower than that of the 2008-2012 period, while Beijing predicted 9-percent growth following the 17.3-percent real annual increase in the past five years. Liu Shangxi, deputy director of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science under the MOF, forecast that national fiscal revenue growth will slow to a single digit but fiscal expenditure will retain a robust increase in 2013. The Chinese government will target structural tax reduction and aid for small enterprises to boost the slowing economy, instead of massive stimulus measures, he said. China's economic growth quickened to 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, ending a seven-quarter slowdown after the government cautiously eased its monetary policy and fast-tracked investment projects. However, impacted by the faltering global economy and a cooling domestic property market, the world's second-largest economy still recorded its slowest annual growth rate since 1999, expanding 7.8 percent in 2012. The government has vowed to maintain a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy in 2013. The country's total fiscal expenditure climbed 15.1 percent year on year to 12.6 trillion yuan in 2012, according to MOF data. Spending on education recorded the fastest growth, surging 28.3 percent to 2.1 trillion yuan. The central government spent 6.4 trillion yuan in 2012, including 4.5 trillion yuan in tax rebates and transfer payments given to local governments. Local governments saw outlays rise 15.3 percent to 10.7 trillion yuan in 2012, the MOF data showed.

Norway urged to mend ties Posted: 22 Jan 2013 11:59 AM PST Following Oslo's agreement to support China's application for permanent observer status to the Arctic Council, Beijing on Tuesday urged Norway again to take concrete measures to improve China-Norway ties. Observers were optimistic that the two countries can improve relations in the future. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a daily news briefing that China hopes Norway will take concrete steps to create conditions for improving bilateral ties and China expects Norway to respect China's core concerns. The Arctic Council was established in 1996 to provide a means for promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic states, with the involvement of the indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants on common issues. Issues of sustainable development and environmental protection are core topics for the council. When asked if Norway's latest stance supporting China's bid for permanent observer status could be enough to improve bilateral ties, Hong said that mending relations is up to Norway. "China always maintains that Arctic nations and non-Arctic ones should cooperate on Arctic issues on the basis of respecting each other's rights and understanding all parties' concerns, in order to ensure peaceful and sustainable Arctic development," Hong said. "Arctic-related issues are not only regional matters, but also cross-regional matters involving climate change and navigation," he added. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barthe Eide said on Monday that Norway will support China's application. "We are supportive of the enlargement of the number of observers and we are now working with other members toward a decision at the coming ministerial meeting in May," Eide said at a news conference after signing the agreement on setting up the Secretariat of the Arctic Council in Tromso, a northern Norwegian city. Norway wants to discuss Arctic-related issues with all relevant countries, including China, said Eide. "You know, Norway and China are neighbors with only one country between us," added the Norwegian foreign minister. Bilateral ties between China and Norway suffered in 2010 when the Norwegian Nobel committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to writer Liu Xiaobo, who was convicted of inciting subversion of state power in 2009. He was sentenced to 11 years in jail and deprived of his political rights for two years, according to Xinhua News Agency. Soured relations between China and Norway are the result of the Norwegian government's support of the Nobel committee's wrong decision, and the decision made in 2010 severely infringed upon China's internal affairs and judicial sovereignty, Hong said in a previous news briefing on Oct 12, 2012. He emphasized that it is up to the Norwegian government to make efforts to get bilateral ties back on track. By backing China's bid for permanent observer status to the Arctic Council, Oslo is making an effort to improve strained relations with Beijing, said Feng Zhongping, director of the Institute of European Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. Oslo is attempting to create a favorable atmosphere to improve ties, said Chen Mingming, former Chinese ambassador to Sweden. But it does not mean that Oslo has corrected its mistake. Whether bilateral ties improve depends on how Oslo deals with its wrong decision in Liu's case, he said. Xinhua contributed to this story.

Chinese ambassador: China has indisputable sovereignty over South China Sea islands Posted: 22 Jan 2013 04:50 AM PST Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Ma Keqing reiterated Tuesday China's principled position that China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and its adjacent waters, after the Philippines announced it had taken the disputes to the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal.

Macao's crime rate drops by 12 percent in 2012 Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:38 AM PST A total of 9,283 criminal cases were recorded in Macao last year, decreasing by 12.5 percent over 2011, the Judiciary Police chief of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) announced Tuesday.

China stresses normal exchanges amid Japanese leader's visit Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:38 AM PST A Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday said China has conducted normal exchanges with Japanese parties hours after a Japanese political leader arrived in Beijing.

Xi Jinping vows "power within cage of regulations" Posted: 22 Jan 2013 03:46 AM PST Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), vowed to unswervingly fight against corruption and keep power reined within the cage of regulations.

Tibet records 152 pct rise in foreign trade Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:32 AM PST Foreign trade for southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region topped 3 billion U.S. dollars last year, a year-on-year increase of 152.02 percent, ranking first among China's provincial-level economies.

FM spokesman: Myanmar-China border area stable Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:32 AM PST A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that the border area between China and Myanmar is stable following the Myanmar government's announcement that it would cease fighting with the ethnic Kachin Independence Army in northern Myanmar.

China's 2012 fiscal revenues rise 12.8 pct Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:52 AM PST China's fiscal revenue growth slowed sharply in 2012 due to economic downshift and tax breaks, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Tuesday.

Philippines sends China to UN arbitral tribunal Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:40 AM PST The Philippines government has brought the South China Sea disputes to an Arbitral Tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). • China has indisputable sovereignty over S. China Sea

Chinese deep-sea base to start operation in 2014 Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:40 AM PST Construction on a national deep-sea base will begin in May 2013 in east China's Shandong province and will be completed by the end of 2014, local authorities said Tuesday.

Myanmar-China border area stable Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:40 AM PST A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that the border area between China and Myanmar is stable following the Myanmar government's announcement that it would cease fighting with the ethnic Kachin Independence Army in northern Myanmar.

Wachowski laments China's 'Cloud Atlas' cut Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:56 AM PST A director expressed disappointment that Chinese people could not watch the full version of new sci-fi epic "Cloud Atlas" due to censorship at the film's Chinese premiere yesterday.

Xi vows unswerving fight against corruption Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:18 AM PST Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), vowed to unswervingly fight against corruption during a CPC disciplinary watchdog meeting on Tuesday.

Bo Xilai appoints lawyers for trial Posted: 21 Jan 2013 11:55 PM PST Bo Xilai, former member of the Political Bureau of Party's Central Committee, has appointed two defence lawyers to represent him at his future trial on bribery and other charges, the attorneys' staff said.

Planes briefly lost due to wireless interference Posted: 21 Jan 2013 11:42 PM PST Since December, several planes lost their radar signal while flying above Dangyang city, Hubei province, due to the use of illegal wireless devices on the ground, Wuhan evening news reported Tuesday.

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