{Editor’s Note: The Hong Kong people are continuing their protests into the 7th month against the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to destroy democracy and the rule of law in Hong Kong. Continue reading
Financing Difficulties Caused 400 Chinese Real Estate Companies to Go Bankrupt
The real estate industry has been the first to bear the brunt of the Chinese government’s actions to tighten corporate finance. A mainland Chinese paper The 21st Century Business Herald quoted from court data that at least 408 real estate firms have declared bankruptcy. Guangdong province is leading the number of bankruptcies, followed by Zhejiang and Jiangsu.
At the same time, a researcher at the Guangdong Real Estate Research Association, who observes China’s real estate dynamics, said that the information mainly comes from the court’s bulletin board, and that there is room for the discussion of some data. The researcher pointed out that most of the companies that entered into bankruptcy procedures were small and medium-sized firms that had been plagued by financing problems. He also said that firms that have difficulty do not necessarily choose bankruptcy. Some will “sell the project as well as the land to large companies.” Meanwhile the Chinese government and state banks maintain a high degree of vigilance over the industry and exert tight control over the scale of housing credit. A major shock to the market will bring about systemic risks.
September and October are traditionally the peak season for the Chinese housing market. However, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the sales price of new commercial residential buildings in 70 large and medium-sized cities increased by 8.4 percent in September. That was 0.4 percentage points lower than the increase in August. It was the smallest climb in the past year, while the housing prices have been on the rise for 48 months in a row.
Source: Central News Agency, October 30, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201910300291.aspx
Xi Jinping’s New Book on the CCP’s Leadership
According to China’s official Xinhua news agency, on October 27, the Institute of Party History and Literature, a research body of the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party, published general secretary Xi Jinping’s new book. The book, Ensuring the Party’s Leadership over All Work, contains over 70 “key discourses” from Xi’s speeches and other documents written between November 2012 and July 2019. A partial list of titles included are translated below:
Ensuring that the Party Has Always Been the Strong Leadership Core of the Cause of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics,
Strengthening the Party’s Leadership in Economic Work,
Doing Propaganda and Ideological Work Better,
The Key to Doing a Good Job in Ethnic Work Is in the Party and in the People,
Strengthening and Improving the Party’s leadership in Literary and Art Work,
Implementing the Party’s Leadership in the Whole Process and all Aspects of Governing the Country by Law,
Ensuring the Party’s Absolute Leadership over the Army Is the Soul of a Strong Army.
On Strengthening the Party’s Leadership in United Front Work,
Social Organizations Must Consciously Adhere to the Leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,
Ensuring the Party’s leadership in News and Public Opinion Work.
Ensuring the Party’s Basic Policy on Religious Work and Doing a Good Job in the New Situation,
Ensuring the Party’s Leadership over State-owned Enterprises Is a Major Political Principle,
Strongly Holding the Party’s Leadership over the Work of Colleges and Universities,
Strengthening and Improving the Party’s leadership in the Work of Agriculture, Farming, and in Rural areas,
Ensuring that the Control of Diplomatic Work Lies in the Central Committee of the Party,
Resolutely Shouldering the Political Responsibility of Developing Ecological Civilization.
Source: Xinhua, October 27, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/leaders/2019-10/27/c_1125158604.htm
China to Inspect Elementary and Middle School Libraries Nationwide for “Illegal” and “Inappropriate” Books
On October 21, 2019, the website of China’s Ministry of Education published a “Notice on Launching a Special Campaign to Examine and Cleanse Books in Nationwide Elementary and Middle School Libraries.” The notice states that, in order to conduct an “in-depth study of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” and to create a healthy and safe environment for educating people, the Ministry requires that schools do self-checks and cleanups according to the published guidelines. The local education authorities must also run spot-checks to make sure that the schools have implemented the Notice. Books and periodicals that endanger national unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and that violate the “Party’s principles and policies” and contradict the core values of socialism will be cleaned up.
According to the “Elementary and Middle School Library Book Review and Clearing Standards” attached to this notice, the books to be cleansed are classified into “illegal books,” “inappropriate books,” and “books with a poor appearance so they are not worthy of preservation.” Electronic books are not spared.
“Illegal books” include: books that violate the existing laws and regulations such as the Constitution, including those that endanger national unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; books that violate the CCP’s principles and policies, and that defile and demonize the Party, state leaders, and heroic figures; books that joke about the history of the Party, the country, and the military; books that violate religious policy; foreign books obtained through informal channels; and books that the authorities have ordered to stop circulating.
“Inappropriate books” include: books that do not conform to the “social core values”; books in which the world view, philosophy and values are biased; books that promote narrow nationalism and racism; and books that are of poor taste and unhealthy.
Source: Central News Agency, October 30, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201910300288.aspx
Beijing’s Subway System to Use Facial Recognition for Security Checks
The Beijing Subway Company announced that it plans to use facial recognition technologies to perform security checks and establish a database. Beijing Metro will also establish a passenger “white list,” which enables the company to enforce the notorious social credit system.
An official with the Beijing Metropolitan government observed that the current method of security inspections is inefficient, considering the massive volume of passengers using the rail transit. In addition to continuously optimizing security inspection equipment, the Beijing Subway will also apply facial recognition technology to classify passengers and do research to establish “personnel classification criteria” to build a corresponding “facial database.” The facial recognition system will screen the passengers and tell the security personnel what different measures to take .
The Beijing Subway currently has 21 routes with a total operating mileage of 699 kilometers. The annual transportation volume is 3.848 billion riders, with an average daily ridership of approximately 10.54 million.
Source: Central News Agency, October 29, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201910290107.aspx
Xinhua: Xi Jinping Asks for Innovation in Blockchain Technology
Xinhua recently reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized, in the eighteenth Collective Study of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party Central Committee, that blockchain technology should be a focal core innovation area for the Chinese industrial development strategy. It should be treated as a break-through point. Xi asked for a clear development direction, coupled with heavy investments, and to push forward the industrialization of a set of core blockchain technologies. Xi mentioned that blockchains are penetrating various key economic areas like digital finance, the Internet of things (IoT), smart manufacturing, supply chain management, and digital asset trading. Leading countries in the world are all strategically developing blockchain technology, and China should quickly improve technological support on blockchain standardization, application, innovation, and commercialization. Xi wants to improve China’s say in international collaborations and rule-making. Connecting blockchain technology and artificial intelligence and big data technologies was specifically mentioned. Deploying blockchains in all aspects of society is also being planned.
Source: Xinhua, October 25, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-10/25/c_1125153665.htm
German MP: It Is Pure Insanity for Germany to Continue Low-interest Loans to China
According to a German newspaper, Bild, an MP recently asked the federal government to stop providing low-interest loans to China immediately. He said, “It is pure insanity” for such a practice to continue. It supports China in surpassing Germany in the high-tech field.
The Chinese channel of the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle quoted the Bild article titled, “Blanker Irrsinn (Pure Insanity).” In 2017 alone, Germany’s total development aid to China reached 628 million euros. In addition, since 2013, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW, Credit Institute for Reconstruction) and Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (GED, German Investment Corporation) have provided 630 million euros in low-interest loans for vocational training in China’s machinery manufacturing, chemical, electronics and automotive industries.
Olaf in der Beek, a Member of Parliament at the German Bundestag and head of the Free Democratic Party’s (FDP) Development Committee, said, “If anyone still gives money to China and supports them in surpassing us in the high-tech field, it is pure insanity.” He pointed out, “No one really believes that the offensive campaign under the name ‘Made in China 2025’ is just a coincidence. China wants to surpass Made in Germany, and the German federal government has been using low-interest loans to finance China. This phenomenon must end.”
The article said, “Experts believe the reason that China strongly opposes the revision of its developing country status is that it does not want to give up the benefits of the status it has as a developing country. In fact, China does not need to rely on foreign assistance and China is already one of the world’s largest foreign aid providers.”
Source: Deutsche Welle, October 23, 2019
https://p.dw.com/p/3RmlH
CNA: Government Paying Off Debt Is Now a Political Duty
Primary Taiwanese news agency CNA (The Central News Agency) recently reported that Chinese Deputy Premier Liu He tasked all levels of the government, as a “political duty,” to pay off their debts owed to private sector companies. Currently, privately owned companies are facing high pressure from both internal challenges and international threats. Liu indicated that this important task is tightly related to the government’s reputation, economic growth, social expectations, and the job market. The measures of the task were established to, by the end of this year, clear up half of the debts that the government and state-owned companies owe as well as all debts that the central government owned companies owe. The urgent task reflected a growing problem that the government, for many years, has been dragging out the payments owed to the private sector. The current domestic and international economic challenges have now brought that issue to a tipping point. Private companies in China face a very unfair business environment.
Source: CNA, October 23, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201910230098.aspx