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Briefings - 1032. page

Domestic Pressure on RMB to Depreciate

The Journal of China’s Academy of Social Science, a government think tank, published an article stating that the external appreciation of the RMB might lead to domestic inflation. The Chinese RMB is facing two challenges: one from the international market to appreciate and the other from domestic market to depreciate. There are three reasons. First is that the settlement system for Chinese exports prohibits the free flow of foreign exchange – all exchange earned by exporters must be sold to the State at the official rate. The State has increased the money in circulation by 15,000 bn RMB for the $2,400 bn foreign exchange reserves. Second is that the relaxed monetary policy has led to staggering loans reaching 9,500 bn RMB. Third is that the various bank deposits represent potential purchasing power.

Source: China Review News, April 22, 2010
http://www.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1012/9/7/0/101297006.html?coluid=7&kindid=0&docid=101297006

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

International Herald Leader: U.S. and Japan Control China’s Access to the Ocean

China’s navy has nine access paths to go to the ocean, but only three or four paths on the east side of China, between Japan and Taiwan, can be used frequently and do not require notification to other countries, the International Herald Leader reported. The U.S. and Japan have beefed up their military and surveillance capabilities to closely monitor and contain China’s navy. The report quoted an anonymous Navy official’s suggestion: China should use these ocean access channels more frequently and familiarize itself with the environment, build large surface ships to cover submarines to go to the ocean during wartime, and improve its capability to control these key access paths.

The report is a comment on the Japanese media’s heavy coverage of ten of China’s navy ships, including two submarines appearing in international waters between Okinawa and Miyako Island on April 10.

Source: International Herald Leader, April 26, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2010-04/26/content_13424980.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

China’s Internet of Things Is Growing Rapidly

The “Internet of Things” refers to utilizing the Internet and modern technology, such as RFID, censoring, GPS, and scanning, to identify, locate, track, and manage object movement. Deng Shoupeng, the Vice Chairman of the China Federation of IT Promotion pointed out at the “2010 Wireless Communication Application Conference,” that 2009 is the first year that China has entered the “Internet of Things” market. In 2010, the “Internet of Things” market in China will have reached 200 billion Yuan, including IC, censor, software, and other related industry chains. The size will grow to 750 billion Yuan by 2015.

Deng listed five areas in which China is currently lacking: standards, core technology to support the "Internet of Things," coordination among regions and industries, policies and regulations, and people who understand both the Internet and business.

Source: Xinhua, April 22, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/internet/2010-04/22/content_13399614.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Beijing News: High Ranking US Officials Took Training on ‘China Model’

Beijing News reported on April 24 that around 20 “bureau chief level” US officials from the Federal Executive Institute recently completed a week-long training session at Tsinghua University on topics such as Chinese political, economic and military management and decision making. Most of the US officials are from the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. The teachers are Chinese government acknowledged experts specializing in various fields. It took China two years to settle on the course contents with the US side. One Chinese expert believes that the training may soften the atmosphere during the tough times of the China-US relationship.

Source: Beijing News, April 24, 2010
http://epaper.bjnews.com.cn/html/2010-04/24/content_92210.htm?div=-1

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

International Herald Leader: US Labeling Other Countries Again

The International Herald Leader, under Xinhua, recently published an article discussing the fact that Foreign Policy Magazine is now grouping Venezuela, Iran and Russia into a new acronym, “VIRUS.” Foreign Policy believes these countries are a threat to the U.S. and the entire order of the West.

The author of the International Herald Leader article suggested that the U.S. is fond of labeling other countries, such as the “Axis of Evil” label that the earlier administration came up with. However the author thought the U.S. is only pretending to have moral superiority because the label “Totalitarian Dictatorship” does not apply to Saudi Arabia and “Democratic Bridgehead” won’t apply to democratically elected Hamas. The article concluded that the labels may reflect U.S. policy directions, and that some of them are worth monitoring.

Source: Xinhua, April 22, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2010-04/22/content_13402389.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: Bridging Financial Institutions and Culture Enterprises

Xinhua recently reported that nine government units, namely Peoples’ Bank of China, the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture, the State General Administration for Radio, Film & Television, the State Administration of Press & Publications, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities & Futures Commission, and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, jointly released a guidline on financial industry support of the culture industry. The report called for successful implementation of the guidline in three areas: (1) widely publicizing the policies; (2) establishing a smooth bridge between financial and culture industries; (3) carefully performing groundwork.

Source: Xinhua, April 22, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/video/2010-04/22/content_13402020.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China Review News: Sino-US dispute over the exchange rate will be a long-term one

On April 22, 2010, www.chinareviewnews.com published an article, “Sino-US dispute over the exchange rate will be a long-term one” by Wang Dong, a Chinese researcher in Beijing.

Wang said that Obama’s government has never given up on pressuring China to increase the RMB (Chinese currency) value, resulting in the current Sino-US trade friction and a growing number of disputes. Wang further said that the depreciation of the U.S. dollars will cause drastic shrinkage of China’s foreign currency reserve assets, lead to global inflation, and make China’s exports more difficult.

However, Wang pointed out that RMB appreciation will increase Chinese people’s confidence in domestic assets calculated in RMB and thus ease inflation pressure. In addition, a stronger RMB will inevitably speed up the internationalization of the RMB and thus diversify the international currency pattern.

Source: www.chinareviewnews.com, April 22, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1012/9/8/0/101298092.html?coluid=123&kindid=0&docid=101298092&mdate=0422163437

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Song Wenyu: More than 20 provinces have set up special funds for culture industries

According to Xinhua on April 22, 2010, the People’s Bank of China in conjunction with the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, the General Administration of Press and Publication, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued a “Guidance on Financial Support to Culture Industries’ Revitalization, Development and Prosperity.”

Song Wenyu, director of the Culture Division at the Ministry of Finance, told Xinhua that currently more than 20 provinces around the country have set up special funds for culture industries. The special funds will be used to build national culture industry bases, nurture state-owned large enterprises and support reconstruction of culture organizations – changing non-profit culture institutions into profitable culture enterprises.

Source: Xinhua, April 20, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/video/2010-04/22/content_13402126.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics