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Study Times Article on Sino-African Relations

Study Times, a weekly newspaper under the Party School of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, published an article discussing China’s policies in Africa. The following excerpts contain a few recommendations mentioned in the article.
“What also needs to be incorporated into China’s Africa policies is the enhancement of the voices and the representation of the African countries in international organizations so they can play their roles in the international community. For example, China should make its position clear in supporting African countries to join the permanent members of the United Nations and to be represented in the IMF and the World Bank. This is not only a crucial means of balancing the global power structure, but an important manifestation of China’s responsibility to Africa.”
“China has a clear roadmap for Sino-Africa relations. The development of the relationships needs not only a long-term and systematic overall planning and strategic design, but also specific policy measures. The new government has laid out detailed initiatives in this regard. China will continue to expand its investment and financing cooperation with Africa, fulfilling the promise of providing a US$20 billion line of credit to Africa within three years (now increased to US$30 billion), and implementing the ‘partnership with Africa on transnational and trans-regional infrastructure development.’ China will actively implement the ‘African Talent Program’ to train 30,000 professionals from African countries within three years and offer 18,000 government scholarships for African students in China. Through investment, financing, and cooperation, China will encourage Chinese enterprises and financial institutions to be involved in cross-border and trans-regional infrastructure construction and operation management in Africa. China has promised zero tariffs for ninety-seven percent of imports from Least Developed Countries that have established diplomatic relations with China. These measures will be in place by 2015. These concrete initiatives have provided notably favorable conditions for Africa’s infrastructure construction, personnel training, capital accumulation, and trade with China, contributing to closer Sino-Africa relations.”
Source: Study Times, May 26, 2014
http://www.studytimes.cn/shtml/xxsb/20140526/5072.shtml
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Xi Jinping: Pushing China-Iran Friendly Cooperation Forward

The Chinese Central Government Official Site (gov.cn) recently reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Iranian President Rohani in Shanghai on May 22. At the meeting, both Presidents agreed to work closely together to push forward broader cooperation in a number of areas. Xi Jinping emphasized that China is willing to make continued contributions towards a comprehensive and proper resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue. Both sides expected an expansion of cooperation in trade, energy, and transportation infrastructure areas, as well as in anti-terrorism and anti-extremist activities. Xi expressed China’s respect for Iran’s right to the peaceful usage of nuclear energy. He also offered to play a “constructive role” in the peaceful negotiation process. President Rohani expressed his appreciation and welcomed China’s continued positive help.
Source: Chinese Central Government Official Site, May 22, 2014
http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2014-05/22/content_2684906.htm
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China and Russia Speed up Settlements Using RMB and Ruble Directly

Well-known Chinese news site Netease recently reported that China and Russia signed a series of agreements in the financial area during the presidential summit on May 20 and 21. One of the agreements allows the rapid expansion of direct use of the currencies of the two countries for financial settlements. Today, China-Russia trade settlements are largely done in U.S. Dollars. Similar experiments started in 2008 on a very small scale in some areas on both sides of the China-Russia border. The two nations have decided to expand the use of their native currencies significantly instead of using the U.S. Dollar, especially after the Ukraine incident. The recent China-Russia announcement delivered at the Summit set a goal of a total trade volume of US$100 billion in 2015, and US$200 billion before 2020. However, the new agreement still faces challenges. For example the Chinese RMB is still not a freely exchangeable currency, while the Russian Ruble does not have a stable valuation in the global market. More improvements on both sides will be required.
Source: Netease, May 22, 2014
http://money.163.com/14/0522/02/9SQKCS2F00253B0H.html
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People’s Daily: President Xi and President Putin to Meet for Seventh Time in a Year

People’s Daily recently announced that, per the invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit China on May 20. This will be the seventh time these two presidents have met since last March. During the visit, the Chinese Navy and the Russian Navy will conduct a joint exercise. Due to the situation in Ukraine, China and Russia will speed up the negotiations on energy deals, while “trade cooperation” will be a primary highlight of the event. It is widely expected that a Russian natural gas supply contract will be signed during Putin’s visit as well as more investment and military deals, although some of them are still being negotiated out of the public’s view. The report expressed the belief that China-Russia cooperation is “deepening.” 
Source: People’s Daily, May 16, 2014
http://world.people.com.cn/n/2014/0516/c1002-25025902.html
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Confucius Institute Inaugurated Its Latin American Center in Chile

The Confucius Institute, the government-backed Chinese language teaching program, hit another milestone in its overseas expansion. On May 12, it held an opening ceremony in Santiago, Chile, for the Regional Center of the Confucius Institutes for Latin America. Xu Lin, the Chief Executive of the Confucius Institute Headquarters and the Director-General of Hanban, the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, inaugurated the center together with former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle.
Xu Lin said that the establishment of the Regional Center in Latin America marks the regular cooperation and exchange mechanism and a new service platform for all Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in the region. It will contribute greatly to promoting the development of the Confucius Institutes in Latin America. Xu Lin also said that, over the years, China and Latin American countries have always maintained s good cooperative relationship in the fields of politics, the economy, culture, and education. Currently, 14 countries in Latin America have a total of 31 Confucius Institutes and 10 Confucius Classrooms. The Latin American Center, the second regional center overseas after the U.S. Center, aims to coordinate the work of the entire Latin American region and strengthen exchanges and cooperation between all Confucius Institutes in the area.
Former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle pointed out in his speech that the inauguration of the Latin American Center is the result of good bilateral political, economic, and cultural relations. The two governments should further strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the field of culture and strive to see that language is no longer a barrier of communication between the two peoples.
Source: Xinhua, May 13, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2014-05/13/c_1110665413.htm
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China Review News: Xi Jinping’s International Strategy

China Review News published a commentary on Xi Jinping’s international strategy for China. A few points it mentioned follow:

1. China wants a peaceful development path; it also needs other countries to take the peaceful approach. If some country takes China’s restraint and patience as a sign of weakness, and takes advantage of China’s suggestion of solving conflicts via political dialog and the diplomatic approach, it will pay dearly for it. “China is not afraid of conflict, nor does it want conflict. One should not separate peaceful development from safeguarding our national interest. China’s core national interest is not allowed to be attacked or harmed.”

2. China is working on the following international relationships:

– Establishing a new type of relationships with major countries. For the U.S., take the approach of no-confrontation, mutual respect, and cooperation for a win-win situation. For Russia, treat each other as the largest and most important strategic partner. For the Europe Union, focus on the trend of change there and the on development opportunities. For India, take the advantage of the rapid development trend in both countries and engage in cooperation and joint-development.

– Advance the diplomatic relationship with neighboring countries. In the next five to ten years, create win-win situations, push for regional security cooperation, and establish a public opinion base for a sense of community.

– Set up the right view of righteousness and interest in order to strengthen and develop the cooperation with developing countries. For those countries that have been a long-term friend of China but are having a hard time with their own development, China should give greater consideration to their interests.

– Be more active in international affairs.

Source: China Review News, May 7, 2014
http://hk.crntt.com/doc/1031/7/0/1/103170107.html?coluid=151&kindid=11513&docid=103170107&mdate=0507000519

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Qiu Shi: China’s African Investment Model Upgraded

Qiu Shi, a magazine of the Communist Party Central Committee, recently published an article discussing the strategy of investing in Africa. The author expressed the belief that China’s pace of entering the African market is speeding up. China’s primary investment focus has shifted from mines to infrastructure-building. In its plans for the future, agricultural and financial cooperation are the next steps. For the past five years in a row, China has been Africa’s largest trading partner. The trade volume in 2013 was over US$200 billion. China has been helping many African countries turn natural resources into economic power sources by spending money made in mining to develop hospitals, roads, the education system, and water processing facilities. Africa’s high speed economic growth is opening up many new market segments, such as communications. For example, Large Chinese companies such as ZTE, Huawei, and Shanghai Bell have already established footholds in the African communications market. With more and more Chinese investments pouring in, the Chinese currency has become the number one choice of reserve currency for Angola, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. 
Source: Qiu Shi, May 7, 2014
http://www.qstheory.cn/jj/jjyj/201405/t20140507_346875.htm
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Xinhua: China Imposes Taxes on EU Polysilicon as Punishment

Xinhua recently reported that China’s Ministry of Commerce announced, at the end of April, that China reached a final decision on taxing solar grade polysilicon imported from the European Union for anti-dumping and anti-subsidy reasons. The decision took effect on May 1 and will remain in effect for two years. The announcement suggested that the EU’s unfair dumping and subsidy behavior seriously damaged China’s polysilicon industry. However the Ministry accepted the pricing adjustment promise that a German company made, as an exception. At the same time, electronic grade polysilicon based semiconductor products such as integrated circuits and discrete devices were excluded from the scope of the investigation and the resulting taxes. Based on the decision that the Ministry of Commerce made, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council issued an order to implement the new policy.
Source: Xinhua, April 30, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2014-04/30/c_1110494176.htm
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