Chinascope – Page 684

People’s Daily: Apple Watch Faces Copycats

People’s Daily recently published a report based on news from RFI (Radio France International) and Agence France-Presse that Chinese mobile device manufacturers released a large number of Apple Watch look-alikes before Apple started selling its long-awaited Apple Watch. All of these Chinese watches appeared to look just like Apple Watch, even with identical user interface and icons. However they all ran the Android mobile operating system and they were priced at around one sixth the cost of the lowest priced Apple Watch model. One owner of these Chinese factories told a French reporter that his smart watches match the Apple Watch in both appearance and performance and have a much lower price – his products even offered slightly more functionalities than Apple. One of his factories can manufacture around 2,000 smart watches a day, with a monthly volume of 50,000. Even Apple Stores didn’t carry Apple Watches on the release date of April 24. They were only available via online reservations or in certain luxury stores in a few cities around the globe.

Source: People’s Daily, April 24, 2015

http://it.people.com.cn/n/2015/0424/c1009-26900110.html

Briefings | | April 28, 2015 | Information/Technology

China Daily: Australia Put a Hold on Significant Investor Visas

China Daily recently reported that the Australian government announced on April 24 that it had put the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) program on hold. It will review the program and adjust it in the next two months. The SIV program is to grant permanent residency to significant investors who meet certain government established financial criteria. According to the numbers that the Australian Bureau of Immigration published, among the SIV immigrants who applied and have already been approved, 89.1 percent are from China. The SIV program started in 2012. So far, 1,600 applications have been filed and 751 visas have been granted. Australian media reported that the revised program will be shifting the investment focus to venture capital and start-up companies. Some reports also indicated that the government may be trying to cool down the real estate market, since the housing market is now considered a high risk field associated with money laundering. Based on the recent 100-person red international warrant that the Chinese authorities recently issued, North America and Australia have become the top destination countries for the Chinese who have amassed a large amount of money through corruption.

Source: China Daily, April 24, 2015

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/interface/toutiao/1138561/2015-4-24/cd_20532311.html

Briefings | | April 28, 2015 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Minister of Finance on Areas to Help China Overcome the Middle Income Trap

Phoenix Chinese News and Entertainment reported that, on April 24, when attending the Tsinghua China high-level economic forum held at Tsinghua University, Lou Jiwei, China’s Minister of Finance, said that there is a 50 percent chance that China will fall into the middle income trap [where a country attains a certain level of income and then gets stuck at that level] in the next 5 to 10 years due to its fast becoming an aging society. Lou listed five areas that will help China to overcome this problem.

1) Agricultural reform: to promote agriculture imports and reduce farm subsidy spending. Lou believes this will shift the labor force in the countryside to supplement the labor shortage in the manufacturing and service sectors while keeping salary increases below the growth of productivity.

2) Reform of household registration: to break the registration barriers. Lou said that since the reform initiation published in July 2014, only 14 provinces have introduced a plan to execute the reform and none of these are in the areas where most people wish to migrate. Therefore, in order to break the barrier, the government must provide education and medical resources that will help the migrant workers to have stable living conditions in the city.

3) Labor relations: to allow employers and the employees to manage labor relations themselves in order to promote flexibility in the labor market.

4) Land reform: Once the construction land is bought out, it can be freely traded, just like urban land. The government is not allowed to expropriate land and evict the tenants.

5) Social Security: the government needs to allocate more funds so as to reduce the social security rate. More changes are needed in social security payments and in collection and investment. Otherwise, China will not be able to deal with its aging population.

Source: Phoenix Chinese News and Entertainment, April 26, 2015
http://finance.ifeng.com/a/20150426/13664167_0.shtml

Briefings | | April 27, 2015 | Economy/Resources

Qiushi Theory on the Challenges to Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

Qiushi Theory published an article on the challenges to socialism with Chinese characteristics. The article summarized three challenges that the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics will inevitably face.

The first is external Pressure. The article said that Western countries take the growth in China as a threat to their value system. Therefore, they have strengthened their effort to prevent the infiltration of Chinese ideology. A number of conflicts also exist in China’s neighboring countries. China needs to have superior wisdom in order to face these challenges.

The second is growing Pains. The article stated that, as China grows, it faces new challenges and risks in its economic development and reform. Different social issues exist, which affect whether China advances or retreats. Therefore, China must have the courage to deal with these growing pains.

The third is major tests for the country’s leadership. The article said that how the Party manages the major tests and risks it is facing is a key to how the Party accomplishes its goals. Therefore the Party must be determined while increasing its effort to enforce strict discipline within the Party.

Source: Qiushi Theory, April 23, 2015
http://www.qstheory.cn/dukan/hqwg/2015-04/23/c_1115069787.htm

Briefings | | April 27, 2015 | Government/Politics

China Review News Agency on Why China Is No Longer the Largest Holder of U.S. Debit

China Review News Agency carried an article titled, “Why China Is No Longer the Largest Holder of U.S. Debit.” The article said that, in February, Japan surpassed China and became the largest holder of U.S. debit. The article called it good news because China has found a better way to invest its money elsewhere. It is an indication that China is trying very hard not to be trapped in U.S. treasury bonds. The article stated that the reason for China to reduce its holding of shares of U.S. Treasury Bonds is that China has shifted its investments into other assets that have a better return. Meanwhile China plans to make investments in other areas, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Silk Road fund, and BRICS (an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). In addition, China also needs to protect the stability of its own currency. The article predicted that holding U.S. debit will remain as the largest share of China’s foreign reserve. It could also go up if needed but the overall trend will decrease.

Source: China Review News Agency, April 26, 2015
http://hk.crntt.com/doc/1037/2/6/7/103726774.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=103726774&mdate=0426080653

Briefings | | April 27, 2015 | Government/Politics

People’s Daily: The U.S. and the Philippines Held Joint Military Exercises to Intimidate China

The Philippine military announced that the Philippine-U.S. joint military exercises codenamed "shoulder to shoulder" opened on April 20. People’s Daily reported on a CCTV interview of China Institute of International Affairs researcher Teng Jianqun, who commented on the military exercises. Teng said that more than 10,000 people from both sides took part in the exercises, more than double the number from last year. In addition, the exercise site was only 220 km. away from the nearest Chinese Huangyan Island. The sudden increase in the number of people in the exercises is indeed surprising. It is a manifestation that the United States and the Philippines have ulterior motives in the South China Sea. The Philippines chose to use the exercise area close to China in order to intimidate China.

Teng pointed out that, in 1991, after the end of the Cold War and according to the law, the United States should have withdrawn all of its troops from the Philippines. The United States offered to conduct joint military exercises with the Philippines so that that it could continue to station its troops there.

Teng stated that the U.S. and the Philippines’s military alliance has a long history. The United States has been providing military protection for the Philippines and has a large number of long-term troops stationed in the Philippines, especially since Aquino took office. He has tried to win over the United States to strengthen their military presence in the Philippines. In the current military deployment in the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and other countries, the U.S. has basically achieved its "Air Sea Battle" strategic plan in the South China Sea.

Teng said, "According to figures released by the United States itself, the number of U.S. military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region each year will reach 170-200. The U.S. will have a military exercise almost every other day. Military exercises have become a symbolic action of the United States’ return to the Asia-Pacific."

Source: People’s Daily, April 21, 2015

http://military.people.com.cn/n/2015/0421/c1011-26879925.html

Briefings | | April 23, 2015 | US-China Relations

Government Reduces the Amount of Land Available for Commercial Development

On April 21, the Ministry of Land and Resources released major economic statistics for the first quarter of 2015. The statistics showed that the amount of state-owned land available for commercial real estate development declined by 38.7 percent year on year. Beijing, Guangzhou, Harbin, and other cities have published an estimated 2015 land availability forecast for real estate development. On a year on year basis, the availability in Guangzhou decreased 24 percent, Beijing 27 percent, and Harbin about 50 percent. The reduction is in response to the sluggish housing market and the high inventory of available housing.

According to sources familiar with the government promotion of sales of state-owned land, the issue is not that local governments want to cut back on the sale of land; it is that the decline in the market has forced the reduction of such sales. In fact, local governments have been very enthusiastic about the sale of land because it has been a major source of revenue for them.

Based on the numbers the National Bureau of Statistics of China released, in the first quarter of 2015, housing developers reduced the amount of land they acquired by 32.4 percent year on year.

Source: 21st Century, April 22, 2015

http://jingji.21cbh.com/2015/4-22/xOMDA2NTFfMTM4MTcxOA.html

Briefings | | April 23, 2015 | Economy/Resources

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.