Economy/Resources - 241. page

China has expanded the trial regions that may use the RMB to settle cross-border trade from Hong Kong, Macao, and ASEAN countries to all countries. The Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs, the State Taxation Administration, and the Banking Regulatory Commission jointly issued an order on June 22, 2010. The number of trial provinces increased to 20. For 8 bordering provinces, all enterprises with import or export permission are allowed to use the RMB for trade. For other provinces, only approved trial enterprises can use the RMB for settlement and the number of those trial enterprises are increasing.

Source: China News Service, June 22, 2010
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/cj/cj-gncj/news/2010/06-22/2355716.shtml

With the approval of the Central Bank of Zambia, on June 14, Bank of China issued the first RMB debit card in all of Africa. The debit card is branded under UnionPay, which is the dominant credit card issuer in China. The theory behind this move is that typical international traveler’s checks only support seven western currencies, which are not accepted by most Chinese businesses. UnionPay is widely accepted in China. Thus the new debit card benefits the African customers visiting China. Bank of China in Zambia was approved to offer full RMB based services in 2009. Its RMB services include RMB accounts and RMB cash. Since the services were made available to the public this past March, the Bank has received total deposits of RMB 50 Million.

Source: Xinhua, June 15, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2010-06/15/c_12224377.htm

According to People’s Daily, on June 10, 2010, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a report with statistics showing that, by the end of 2009, there were 113.09 million Chinese who were 65 years old or older in China. This represented an increase of 3.22% over the previous year. Those 65 and older accounted for 8.5% of the total population, and this represented an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the previous year. The population of 60 years old and over accounted for 12.5% of the total population with a total of 167.14 million aged people in China.

Source: People’s Daily, June 11, 2010
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026/11845158.html

A Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs report shows that, during 2009 in China, in as many as 479 million times, people were victimized by all sorts of natural catastrophes; 1,528 people died or disappeared; 47.2 million hectares (116.7 million acres) of crops were damaged; and 0.84 million buildings collapsed. The direct economic loss amounted to 252.3 billion yuan (US$36.9 billion). 

China Review News (CRN) recently published an article discussing U.S. agro-based products invading Chinese markets en masse. In fact, China is the largest market for U.S. produce, amounting $10.6 billion for the first half of 2010. China now buys more than half of the total U.S. soybean export volume. U.S. soybean companies control 40% of the Chinese soybean processing capabilities and 90% of the imports. Chinese external dependency on vegetable oil has risen to 60%. After the soybean monopoly, U.S. corn is attacking China too – the Chinese import of U.S. corn has been growing rapidly since last year. The article called for 100% or 101% food self-sufficiency as a “strategic weapon.” The author quoted Henry Kissinger in its conclusion, “If you control oil, then you control all nations; if you control food, then you control everyone.”

Source: China Review News, June 3, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/4/1/8/101341854.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101341854&mdate=0603000947

Xinhua republished a report by China Business Times on worries about the rapid increase in local debts. The report referred to government sources on the fact that local debts have risen from RMB 4 trillion to 7 trillion in only a few months. The State Council met on May 26 to arrange regulations on local financing platforms and debts. Experts believe that the actual amount of local debts is very hard to find out. Local governments utilize various platforms to borrow money that are not included in the official budget. The transparency of these loans is typically poor. One of the causes of this situation is the irrational distribution of funds between the central government and local governments. Current Chinese law prohibits local governments from issuing bonds.

Source: Xinhua, June 3, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-06/03/c_12174046_2.htm

"People’s Forum" Magazine, which is under People’s Daily, published an article on June 1, 2010, titled “High Apartment Prices Make the Middle-class Fall – China may have become an “M-Type” society." Here is a partial translation from the article:

1. "Recently, ‘the ant race’ has become one of the most frequently used terms on the Internet and in society. “The ant race” refers to the college graduates who have no jobs or low-income jobs after graduation and have to live together in a crowded place at the outskirts of a big city, near the countryside. These people were born in the 1980s. The growth of the “ant race” is primarily caused by high apartment prices."
2. "China’s social structure may have turned into an ‘M-type’ differentiation one due to the growth of the ‘ant race.’"

Source: "People’s Forum" Magazine, June 1, 2010
http://house.people.com.cn/GB/11753145.html