Economy/Resources - 115. page

China News recently reported that, based on the newly released Ministry of Commerce international trade report, in the first half of this year, Chinese cross-border e-commerce trade volume reached RMB 3.6 trillion (around US$542 billion). This represents a 30.7 percent year-over-year growth. Among the RMB 3.6 trillion, RMB 2.75 trillion was the total for exports. International e-commerce has become the primary growth engine for China’s international trade. The Chinese government has established the strategy to support China’s international e-commerce industry so it will scale up, standardize, enhance industrial clustering, and be structured more properly. The Chinese strategy focuses on technology, logistics, business model innovation, and cooperation with foreign partners. The goal is to participate actively in forming the international standards and to blend into various international retail systems. Analysts expressed their belief that China’s plan can take good advantage of China’s manufacturing power to expand international sales channels.

Source: China News, November 7, 2017
http://www.chinanews.com/cj/2017/11-07/8370579.shtml

According to an opinion article that Caixin published, the Ministry of Finance may need time to establish legislation and outline the requirements during property tax reform. The article reported that, currently, the tax rate, the limit of how much is taxable, and the amount collected varies in each region. Property tax reform will directly impact local tax revenue as well as the existing system of the municipal government that uses the land to derive its financial revenue. In a recent article that the Minister of Finance wrote following 19th National Congress, it specified that the property tax should be based on assessed value rather than the trading value, as has currently been adopted in Shanghai and Chongqing. Caixin reported that this is the first time the property tax base has been officially defined.

Source: Caixin, November 9, 2017
http://opinion.caixin.com/2017-11-09/101167863.html

Weibo reported that a Chinese woman was caught at the Auckland airport in New Zealand for carrying three different passports. She planned to take the SAT test and the test for Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) for other people (hence the need for the different passports).

China has a “flourishing” underground market for test takers. This woman charged nearly US $100,000 for taking just one test.

Earlier this year, the FBI arrested four Chinese citizens for hiring other people to take the TOEFL {the most widely respected English-language test} for them. They are facing the charge of “conspiracy to cheat the U.S.” and could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Source: Weibo, November 4, 2017
https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404170487788924371&ssl_rnd=1510093760.2751

China.com recently reported that, at a recent press conference, Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of China’s central bank, expressed his views on “systemic financial risks.” He proposed that the bottom line of China’s risk control should be to get prepared for stopping any kind of “severe adjustment” in the economy when China faces its Minsky Moment. A Minsky moment, named after U.S. economist Hyman Minsky, is a sudden major collapse of asset values which is part of the credit cycle or business cycle. Such moments occur because long periods of prosperity and the increasing value of investments lead to increasing speculation using borrowed money. As part of Zhou’s further explanation, he gave examples about China’s debts, especially company bonds and local government debts (channeled through local financial platforms). Zhou emphasized the importance of taking this issue seriously.

Source: China.com, October 20, 2017
http://economy.china.com/domestic/11173294/20171020/31588932.html

The China Securities Journal recently reported that SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) released its September report. The report showed that the usage of China’s currency (the RMB) in international transactions fell to 1.85 percent. Among all currencies, the RMB was ranked number six for September, down from number five in August (1.94 percent). The report also pointed out that there is no clear relationship between the size of an economy and the usage of its currency in international transactions. The U.S. GDP is 25 percent of the global total, while the U.S. Dollar accounts for nearly 40 percent of all global transactions. China’s GDP takes a 15 percent share in the global economy, but the RMB accounts for less than two percent of the usage internationally. Although many RMB clearing centers have been established across the globe, the internationalization of the Chinese currency seems to have a long way to go to catch up with the Euro or even the British Pound.

Source: China Securities Journal, October 17, 2017
http://cs.com.cn/xwzx/hwxx/201710/t20171017_5518850.html