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Briefings - 1033. page

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

Lin Jun: Use Overseas Chinese as a bridge to spread China’s soft power

According to www.chinareviewnews.com on April 23, 2010, China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese held a Culture and Propaganda Work Conference in Sanya, Hainan on April 22.

Lin Jun, chairman of China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, said that the China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese at all levels must take advantage of recreational and cultural exchange activities to 1) guide overseas Chinese media; 2) increase the amount of hometown news in overseas Chinese publications; 3)  introduce China’s economic and social development situation as well as relevant policies; 4) give information on major incidents and emergencies; 5) propagandize China’s peaceful foreign policy and the idea of building a harmonious world; and “use overseas Chinese as a bridge” to brighten China’s image and voice by cooperating with China’s diplomatic, foreign affairs and propaganda departments.”

Source: www.chinareviewnews.com, April 23, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1012/9/8/7/101298787.html?coluid=151&kindid=0&docid=101298787&mdate=0423101105

Briefings | | |   Grapevine

Half of Chinese Luxury Goods Used as Gifts

China has become one of the major luxury goods consumers in the world. A recent Bain survey showed that, in 2009, Chinese spent $9.6 billion on luxury goods, which accounts for 27% of the world total, while China’s GDP only accounts for about 5% of the world GDP. According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the consumption of luxury goods in Chinese will reach 40 billion USD by 2015; Bain’s estimation for 2015 Chinese luxury goods expenditures is 14.6 billion USD. According to another consulting firm, McKinsey, about half of the Chinese luxury goods are used as gifts. 

Source: Radio Free Asia, April 22, 2010 
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shechi-04222010100130.html
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources