Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that, last year, China surpassed the United States to become Australia’s largest foreign investor. The investments, however, were concentrated mainly in real estate. As the Chinese anti-corruption movement deepened, Chinese investments in Australia also sped up. According to the latest report that the Australian Foreign Investment Review Bureau (FIRB) released, half of the approved Chinese investments last year (around US$22.1 billion) were for real estate. Chinese investments took a 17 percent share of all foreign investments in Australia. Australian real estate market experts expressed the belief that the demand of the investors from China and other Asian countries is still on the rise. If the Australian dollar depreciates more, Australian real estate will become even more attractive to Chinese buyers.
Qiushi: Control the Internet û Stop Criticism of the Government and Better Lead Public Opinion
The article suggested the following measures to control Internet:
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the “One Belt, One Road” Strategy
China Review News republished an article that Chinese economist Xian Langping wrote discussing China’s rise. Xian stated that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and China’s "One Belt, One Road" strategy are tightly integrated to support China’s continued economic growth and its international influence.
Xian explained that, on October 24, 2014, China and 20 other countries, including India and Singapore, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the AIIB. These 20 countries share some commonalities: first, they are China’s neighbors; second, they are in the "One Belt, One Road" zone; and third, they are cooperating or have the intention to cooperate with China to build high-speed railways.
China’s "One Belt, One Road" strategy is to build roads and railways to connect the countries in the zone. It will create economic growth opportunities (e.g. the export of high-speed railway system and construction materials) for China and will also expand international trade (so that China can export more goods to these countries).
Even though the contributions of the AIIB member countries are based on their GDPs and in theory, the U.S. can have the loudest voice if it joins, Xian believes that the U.S. will not join. To him, the bank was created to serve infrastructure development; more specifically, high-speed rail construction. China has a big advantage in this field. If the U.S. were to make any contribution, it would only benefit China.
Source: China Review News, April 26, 2015
http://hk.crntt.com/doc/1037/2/6/7/103726773.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=103726773&mdate=0426080715
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People’s Daily: Apple Watch Faces Copycats
China Daily: Australia Put a Hold on Significant Investor Visas
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
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