Economy/Resources - 226. page

On October 19, Xinhua reported that China has started research and development on a super high-speed train that can exceed 500 km (310 miles) per hour. China has become the largest country with such a high-speed train capability and scale. At the end of September, China had two high-speed railroads under construction. One will cover 7,055 km and another over 10,000 km. On September 28, 2010, during a test run on the Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed railroad, “Harmony” CRH308A, China’s own high-speed train, set a world record of 416.6 km per hour.

Source: Xinhua, October 19, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-10/19/c_12674953.htm

The Hurun Report recently published its 2010 list of the wealthiest individuals in China. The average wealth of the top 1,000 increased 26% from last year. The most rapid increases were in the medical, IT, retail, and apparel industries. The number of billionaires reached 1,363 this year, and 97 reached the 10-billion level. Ten years ago, those numbers were 24 and 1, respectively. Also, most of the wealthiest women in the world are from China. Out of the top 20 self-made female billionaires in the world, 11 are from China.

The Hurun Institute publishes the report. It is a "leading luxury publishing and events group," comprising a magazine and an active events business targeted at China’s high net worth individuals. It was established in 1999 by Rupert Hoogewerf. The Wall Street Journal (US Edition Jan 2008) commented that “people often aren’t considered truly rich until anointed by the Hurun Report.”

Source: China News Service, October 12, 2010
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/cj/2010/10-12/2580858.shtml

The Chinese Ministry of Land and Natural Resources recently announced that, in order to further implement State Council policies, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Supervision jointly decided that the provincial level governments will be held accountable for stabilizing housing prices. An assessment system will be established and there will be a follow-up for poor performance. The three ministries are demanding a nationwide increase in housing supplies as well as an increase in the speed of development of low-income housing projects. Effective land supply management is also a requirement and is being put under the monitoring program. Stronger market supervision was also mentioned in the announcement.

Source: China Review News, October 12, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1014/7/2/0/101472005.html?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=101472005&mdate=1012084341

On October 11, 2010, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, notified six banks that it will increase the required reserve ratio for them by 50 basis points. The six banks include the four major state-owned banks and 2 publicly traded banks, China Merchants Bank and China Minsheng Bank. “The market anticipates this action will only last for 2 months. The main purpose is to react to the high number of new loans that banks issued in September of this year.”

Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said that there hasn’t been enough evidence to show that the quantitative tools that the central bank adopts, including reserve ratio and open market operation to absorb liquidity, cannot meet the goal of controlling inflation.

Source: China Review News, October 12, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1014/7/1/6/101471619.html?coluid=10&kindid=253&docid=101471619&mdate=1011170343

Hu Siyi, the Deputy Minister of Water Resources, recently announced that the situation regarding the lack of water in northern China is getting worse due to the double pressures of global climate change and large-scale economic development. For example, the Haihe River Basin surface water level dropped 41% during the past two to three decades. The urbanization of China is speeding up rapidly. Meanwhile, the acceleration of industrialization is resulting in a rapid increase in water usage. During the past four years, just the energy and heavy chemical industries alone consumed 10 billion cubic meters more water. Hu believes that water conservation faces unprecedented challenges.

Sources: Xinhua, October 7, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-10/07/c_12633704.htm

Xinhua republished a commentary article from China Securities Journal on U.S. currency policy. The article said that after the European debt crisis surfaced, the E.U. and the U.S. began to diverge in their currency policies. The United States insists on having the original loose policy, whereas the E.U. has started to implement a financial tightening policy in order to reduce the deficit. The article concluded that an important avenue that the U.S. uses to get out of a crisis and repair an economic imbalance is to depreciate its currency and produce inflation. … The above is most likely the U.S.’s mid to short term goal. From the perspective of the mid to long term goal, as soon as the short term goal is reached, the U.S. will most likely appreciate the U.S. dollar by suppressing the euro, thus reestablishing the hegemonic position of the U.S. dollar.

Source: Xinhua, September 29, 2010
http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/comments/2010-09/29/c_12619061.htm

The Chinese Minister of Commerce, Chen Deming, recently published an article suggesting China should push forward to become a “strong trade power,” as well as a large investor. Chen believes the financial crisis significantly changed the world order. Opportunities and risks coexist.

He suggested that China should focus on five areas: (1) emphasizing improvement in comprehensive economic efficiency; (2) balancing the “go out” and the “bring in” strategies to realize the conversion from “product export” to “capital export”; (3) optimizing regional economic development; (4) enhancing global strategic planning; (5) improving policies, rules and protection in international trade.

Source: China News Net, September 29, 2010
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/cj/2010/09-30/2564861.shtml

As early as 2006, the China Coal Miner Pneumoconiosis Treatment Foundation reported that pneumoconiosis [1] patients in China accounted for 50% of the total pneumoconiosis patients around the world. Out of all the Chinese pneumoconiosis patients, 50% of them were coal workers.

Four years later, on September 30, 2010, China News Service (CNS) reported that "according to incomplete statistics, cases of pneumoconiosis in the coal industry account for about 50% of the total number of those in China with pneumoconiosis." The statement was made by Zhao Tiechui, Deputy Director of China’s State Administration of Work Safety. 

[1] A person with pneumoconiosis has damage to the lungs, caused by years of exposure to some type of dust, such as coal, silica or asbestos. There is no cure.

Source: China Coal Miner Pneumoconiosis Treatment Foundation, 2006
http://www.cfbjjh.org.cn/mtbd.asp
China News Service (CNS), September 30, 2010
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/2010/09-30/2566948.shtml