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China Daily: ICBC to Take over the International Branch of Standard Bank

China Daily recently reported that the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which is the largest commercial bank in China, will acquire 60 percent of the International Market Division of the Standard Bank of South Africa for US$765 million. The International Market Division is headquartered in London. If approved, ICBC’s control will make it the first large Chinese state-owned bank to have large-scale operations in London. The British authorities used to refuse Chinese banks wanting to establish branches in London. Standard Bank of South Africa is the largest commercial bank in Africa. In 2008, it sold 20 percent of its stock to ICBC. In recent years, the Standard Bank has been shifting its focus to high growth regions in Africa. The latest deal will also give ICBC a five-year right to acquire an additional 20 percent of the International Market Division from Standard Bank.
Source: China Daily, January 31, 2014
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hqgj/jryw/2014-01-31/content_11143594.html

Xinhua: HK Government Announced Phase One Sanction against the Philippines

On January 29, Xinhua reported that the Hong Kong government announced a phase one sanction against the Philippines. The sanction is in response to the refusal from the Philippines to apologize for the Manila Hostage Incident which occurred on August 23, 2010. It caused the death of eight Hong Kong residents during the rescue mission. The latest sanction will remove the 14-day visa waiver for Philippine’ official passport holders. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately announced its official support of the Hong Kong government’s position. The Philippines Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded on January 30 that the Philippine’ government regretted seeing the outcome of the Incident, but did not intend to issue an official apology. 
Source: 
Xinhua, January 29, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/gangao/2014-01/29/c_126080168.htm
China Radio International (CRI), January 31, 2014
http://gb.cri.cn/42071/2014/01/31/6071s4410562.htm

Xinhua: Around Ten Thousand Students Took the SAT in Hong Kong

Xinhua recently reported that, on January 25, around ten thousand students from mainland China participated in the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) offered by the U.S. College Board and hosted by the Hong Kong AsiaWorld-Expo. The U.S. SAT is widely recognized in China as the equivalent of the Chinese National College Entry Exam. Over the past several years, more and more Chinese students have decided to go to the United States for their undergraduate college education. It has become a “hot trend.” The SAT currently has no designated testing location in mainland China. Therefore, Hong Kong became the nearest and the top location choice to take the test. Hong Kong AsiaWorld-Expo is the largest location and it is the only location that can house ten thousand test-takers. 
Source: Xinhua, January 27, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/gangao/2014-01/27/c_126067287.htm

BBC Chinese: Most Illegal Miners Ghana Expelled Were Chinese

BBC Chinese recently reported that Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Information announced that the government expelled 4,700 illegal gold miners last year. The majority of these illegal miners were Chinese citizens. Ghana’s Special Forces had arrested all these people. In Ghana, small scale gold mining is legal. However, this rule does not apply to foreigners. Over the past several years, with the increase in the international price of gold, a large number of foreign miners have gone to Ghana to mine for gold. The Chinese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, visited Ghana last month. Wang promised that the Chinese government will assist in resolving the issue of the large number of Chinese gold miners. In addition to the Chinese, those expelled also included people from Nigeria, Russia, and South Africa.
Source:  BBC Chinese, January 23, 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/world/2014/01/140123_brief_ghana_china_workers.shtml

China News: Beijing Resident Takes Daily Photo as Pollution Record

China News recently reported that, since January 27, 2013, a Beijing resident by the name of Zou Yi has been taking a photo every day to record the pollution level. Zou has been taking the pictures with the exact same background (the Beijing TV Station Building) at the same time (7:30AM) every day for the entire past year. He posts his pictures on his microblog and has attracted a large number of followers. Some people from other cities have started to do the same thing. Zou said he wanted to use this new approach as a wake-up call for environmental protection. According to Zou’s pictures, during around half of the days last year, the capital city suffered from poor air quality and visibility. This result is in line with the city’s official data published by the Beijing Bureau of Environmental Protection: there were 176 days in the past year that were considered good, which represent 48.2 percent of the days.
Source: China News, January 27, 2014
http://www.chinanews.com/sh/2014/01-27/5785288.shtml

People’s Daily: CAS Released New Operating System

People’s Daily recently reported that, on January 15, the Software Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced the availability of the China Operating System (COS). CAS fully owns the intellectual property of the new operating system, which is deigned to “break the monopoly” currently enjoyed by foreign operating systems such as those made by Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Due to the various security issues that open source operating systems have, the COS is designed to be “closed-source” in order to offer better security. The new operating system is aimed at all market segments including personal computers, hand-held devices, set-top boxes, and “smart” appliances. The COS claims to be built from the ground up, without any dependency on any other operating systems. Although hundreds of millions of Chinese end-point machines are currently running “foreign” operating systems, the Chinese Academy of Sciences is determined to face the challenges and join the competition against the international mainstream.
Source: People’s Daily, January 16, 2014
http://gd.people.com.cn/n/2014/0116/c123932-20406940.html

Netease Financial: ICBC Stock Fell below Net Asset Value

Netease Financial, a well-known Chinese online financial news site, recently reported that the stock value of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) fell below the Bank’s net asset value on January 15. ICBC ranked number one in China’s banking industry in terms of corporate loans and corporate deposits and Euromoney named ICBC the “Best Bank in China.” Ninety percent of the publicly traded Chinese banks are now suffering below net asset market prices. At the same time, 143 companies listed on the Chinese stock market fell below net asset value. Based on the outcomes of the recent central government audit reports, local government debts are at all-time highs. Most of them were funded by state-owned commercial banks. It seems the landslide of the banking industry’s stocks has not ended yet. 
Source: Netease Financial, January 15, 2014
http://money.163.com/14/0115/15/9IL0MURF00251LJJ.html

Study Times: How to Improve China’s Global Influence

The Chinese Communist Party Central Party School’s magazine, Study Times, recently published an article discussing how to enhance the power of China’s global influence. The article set a two-step goal for the Chinese economy: to catch up with the United States in the total volume of its economy within fifty years and to surpass the U. S. in per-person average GDP in another fifty years. To achieve these goals, the author offered a four-point strategy: 1) To push the construction of a green economy, which will solve the issue of resource constraint and achieve sustainability; 2) To push the reform of China’s income structure to achieve more fairness in the distribution of wealth; 3) To push innovation-driven growth to take advantage of a wiser population; 4) To construct a strong financial system, aimed at the U.S. dollar, the U.S. central bank, and the highly efficient U.S. financial market. The author concluded the article by calling for a stronger leadership of the Communist Party to lead the nation to the new global high ground. 
Source: Study Times, January 13, 2014
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/shtml/xxsb/20140113/3729.shtml