Economy/Resources - 259. page

China’s Transition Institute (Zhuan Zhixing), a think tank like NGO for socio-economic transformation published a 2008 Handbook of Citizen’s Tax Rights. The book lists sources of government waste:

"There are about four million government vehicles in China that cost the government an annual 200 billion Chinese Yuan (30 billion USD) to operate; however, only about one third of the use is for official business."

"Rough estimates say the government spends at least 200 billion Yuan on dining costs each year, which is equivalent to the cost of the Three Gorges Damn Project."

"In the past year travel overseas for government officials on fact finding/training trips has continued for many locations. At present China’s officials spend more than 300 billion Yuan (44 billion USD) on travel abroad."

"Waste from political building projects–a number of local governments went into debt building ultra-luxurious public squares, theaters, gyms, airports, golf courses, etc. A poor county government in one province spent 70 million Yuan (10 million USD) on a government building, which is equivalent to one third of that county’s yearly income."

Source:
2008 Handbook of Citizen’s Tax Rights
http://www.zhuanxing.cn/search.asp#

According to news released yesterday by the Ministry of Education of the PRC, China has sent 1,391,500 students to study overseas via various avenues over the last 30 years. Among them, about one million remained abroad. Only 390,000 returned to China, a return rate of 28 percent.

Source: China News Agency, March 26, 2008
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/edu/kong/news/2009/03-26/1618111.shtml

After Coca-Cola’s acquisition of Hui Yuan failed the antitrust review by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the news quickly gained media attention. The failed acquisition triggered a range comments.

Many Foreign media cited trade protectionism as the cause. Because the case sets the precedent for Chinese Antitrust Law governing a foreign acquisition, Chinese researchers indicated that the reported reactions reflected a worry about future foreign acquisitions. The Wall Street Journal insisted this was a warning to foreign investors.

Foreign media also brought up the potential negative effect on Chinese investments overseas. Chinese experts dismissed this view as they believed the ruling was merely based on protecting healthy competition as they stated that there was no bias against international corporations.

Source: Xinhua News/International Herald Leader, March 23, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-03/23/content_11056881.htm

On March 13, Chinese Premier Wen Jia Bao suggested in a press conference that before 2008 China waive more than 40 billion RMB worth of debt from 46 lesser developed countries while providing over 200 billion RMB of foreign aid to developing countries. He also mentioned that the United States provided less than 1/4 of promised aid in 2005.

Beginning in 1950, the Chinese foreign aid program now tops developing countries. During fiscal year 2006 to 2007, India only provided USD $500 million in aid although USD $1 billion was promised. Brazil, another large developing country, received more aid than it provided.

Chinese aid does not have political conditions attached, which makes it well received by developing countries. Currently there are more than 140 countries receiving aid from China.

Source: Elite Reference, March 21, 2009
http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/200903/news-gb2312-820112.html

Ren Yuling, a State Council advisor, was recently quoted by China Economic Weekly, a magazine owned by the People’s Daily newspaper. Ren refers to the grave income inequalities across the population. In metropolitan areas, the top 20 percent of the population possesses 66.4% of the financial assets, while the bottom 20 percent owns only 1.3%. With the wealth concentrated in a very few, majority of the people are lack of consumption power. This is the fundamental reason for a low domestic personal expenditure, a major target of the 4 trillion yuan government stimulus package.

Source: Voice of America, March 16, 2009
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2009-03-16-voa54.cfm

China’s Ministry of Water Resources website says that soil erosion has deprived the country of 1 million mu* of arable lands on a yearly basis. From 2001 to 2005, there were more than 150,000 squared kilometers of annual new land losses due to construction activities. Total land loss has amounted to 3.56 million squared kilometers, 37.1% the country’s size. If the trend continues, the 1.4 million mu of black soils in Northeast China will disappear in 50 years, causing a 40% drop in grain production; the lithified land in the southwest will double in 35 years, leaving 100 million people nowhere to stay.

Source: Xinhua, March 18, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-03/18/content_11030156.htm

*mu is China’s traditional unit of measurement of areas. 1 mu = 666.7 squared meters.

A sample survey shows that 7.5% of the country’s mid-and-small-size companies have gone out of business since the end of 2008, according to Li Yizhong, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology. The percentage amounts to an estimated more than 300,000 businesses, using total of 4.3 million in year 2007. Li said that mid-and-small-size companies account for 99% of the nation’s enterprises, 80% of the total employment, and 60% of the size of the economy. Amid the current financial crisis, they are particularly hit hard.

Source: Ta Kung Pao, March 11, 2009
http://www.takungpao.com/news/09/03/11/ZM-1046497.htm

Chinese currency is quickly being adopted as settlement currency, claimed International Herald Leader under Xinhua on February 16, 2009. Since Dec 2008, China has entered into agreements with eight of its neighboring countries including Vietnam, Myanmar, Russia, Mongolia and South Korea to use Chinese RMB as settlement currency. On Feb 8, 209, China entered into a currency exchange agreement with Indonesia worth 80 billion yuan which allows Indonesians to borrow RMB at banks in Indonesia. China views the international financial crisis an opportunity to “internationalize” its currency to make further inroads into the international economies.

Source: Xinhua, February 16, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-02/16/content_10825739.htm