Skip to content

China Sets New Trade Surplus Record in 2014

China’s General Administration of Customs reported China’s trade data for 2014. The total import and export volume was 26.43 trillion yuan (US$4.26 trillion), a 2.3 percent increase over the previous year. The trade surplus was 2.35 trillion yuan (US$379 billion), an all-time high.

Exports were 14.39 trillion yuan (US$2.32 trillion), an increase of 6.1 percent over the previous year and also an all-time high. However, the increase rate of 6.1 percent was the lowest in the past five years.

China had a 5.4 percent increase in its trade with the U.S., to 3.41 trillion yuan (US$550 billion) and an 8.9 percent increase in trade with the European Union, to 3.78 trillion yuan (US$610 billion).

Source: Caixin Online, January 13, 2015
http://datanews.caixin.com/2015-01-13/100773846.html

Xinhua: Major Signals in Xi Jinping’s Important Speech

On January 13, Xi Jinping gave a speech at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Communist Party Central Committee’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Xinhua interviewed a number of scholars and published an article delineating six major signals in Xi’s speech.

Xi had stated that China should "adhere to [conduct the anti-corruption campaign] with no-exclusion areas, full coverage, and zero-tolerance; seriously punish the corrupt elements; and strive to create a political atmosphere in which [people] dare not, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt."

The scholars that Xinhua interviewed read six signals from Xi’s speech:
1. A basic read of the situation: The situation in the anti-corruption fight remains severe and complicated. Not only did Xi make this exact statement, but he also stated that the campaign "has yet to achieve an overwhelming victory." Xi is still far from making substantive progress on seeing that officials "dare not, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt."
2. A firm determination to keep high pressure on the campaign.
3. A straightforward attitude to correct official’s improper working styles.
4. A clear requirement emphasizing [that officials] follow the Party’s discipline and its rules.
5. A regulatory focus: to strengthen supervision of the leadership of the state-owned enterprises.
6. A permanent cure: to revise a number of important Party regulations.

Source: Xinhua, January 13, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015-01/13/c_1113982665.htm

Global Times: High-Ranking Vietnamese Official Berates Chinese Company

Global Times recently reported that the Vietnamese Minister of Transportation went on national TV to berate the representative of a Chinese company. The company was responsible for a light rail project which caused an accident in which someone died. After that the Vietnamese government sent a diplomatic note to the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam and threatened to blacklist this Chinese construction company. The Vietnamese Minister asked the Chinese company to replace the Chief Executive and the Advisor on that project with Vietnamese citizens. The Vietnamese national TV report had a large number of viewers and the publicity was very damaging. The light rail project was based on a priority loan of US$300 million that China provided. The new incident has apparently cast a negative shadow on the already unfriendly relationship between China and Vietnam. 
Source: Global Times, January 10, 2015
http://world.huanqiu.com/exclusive/2015-01/5375506.html

CASS: Real Estate Purchasing Limits May Be Phased Out

China News reported that the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) recently released a research report on the Chinese real estate market. The CASS Report found that an across-the-board decline was the dominant theme of the 2014 Chinese real estate market. “Continued adjustments” are expected to be the primary market trend for 2015. The current Chinese housing market suffers the problem of high inventory; at the same time demand remains low. A total of 46 city governments established policies that limit real estate purchases. As of now, only five of them still have these policies in place. The CASS Report expressed the expectation that all cities will drop these limitations within this year. More and more government administrative operations will be done via the market instead of direct government policies. In the new year, most of the real estate companies are planning to focus on reducing their inventory.
Source: China News, January 12, 2015
http://finance.chinanews.com/house/2015/01-12/6956881.shtml

Xinhua: Li Ka-Shing Is Restructuring His Assets

Xinhua recently reported that Li Ka-Shing, the wealthiest person in Hong Kong, announced on the 9th that his two flagship companies (Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa) are being restructured to form two new companies to cover real-estate and non-real-estate businesses. The plan involves re-organizing Li Ka-Shing’s assets, which are valued at approximately HK$1 trillion (around US$129 billion). According to the numbers that Forbes released in March 2014, Li ranked number 20 in the list of the world’s wealthiest people. The most remarkable move in this re-organization is that the new companies will be registered in the Cayman Islands instead of Hong Kong, where the previous companies were registered. Analysts expressed their concerns on this registration choice since Mr. Li previously made a promise that his companies would always be registered in Hong Kong. Li argued in his announcement that the new companies will still be traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange just as they have been. In recent years, Li Ka-Shing has been moving out of the Chinese Mainland market and has been making a large number of investments in Europe and Canada. The latest development triggered a widespread discussion as to whether this means that assets valued in RMB (the Chinese currency) now face increasingly higher risks.
Source: Xinhua, January 10, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2015-01/10/c_1113948866.htm

CCDI Teams Co-locate with Key Party and Government Offices

On January 12, 2015, Xinhua reported that the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) has sent teams to co-locate with key Party and government offices. 

So far CCDI teams have co-located with 59 departments under the Party’s Central Committee, State level organizations, ministries under the State Council, the People’s Supreme Court, the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office, the People’s Daily, and the State Grid Corporation of China.   

According to Xinhua, “CCDI teams co-locating with government organizations is an important part of CCDI work. This work will only be strengthened and not weakened. The General Office of the CPC Central Committee, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Central United Front Work Department, the National People’s Congress organs, the General Office of the State Council, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference are the central nerve of the Party and State governance system, with centralized power and status. This makes it even more important to strengthen overall supervision. In December 2014, the central government decided that CCDI will send working teams to these seven units. This means that, before the Party discipline and the law of the land, no special organs or individuals will lack oversight.” 

CCDI teams will be sent to co-locate with over 80 additional Party and government offices.

Source: Xinhua, January 12, 2015                                                                                                       http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015-01/12/c_1113953913.htm

Land Reform Guideline Issued; the Land Remains State-Owned

Jinghua Times reported that the Ministry of Land and Resources has issued new guidelines on land reform, indicating that the reform of China’s rural land system is about to enter a pilot phase. 

According to the Ministry of Land and Resources, the guidelines on the eminent domain of rural land reform apply to the narrow scope of land acquisition, standardizing the eminent domain records, improving the mechanism for the mediation of disputes, publishing comprehensive public land acquisition information, and perfecting the mechanisms that are reasonable and standard in providing farmers with a number of means of protection. 
The Ministry of Land and Resources indicated that, regardless of rural land system reform, the land remains State-owned. 
Source: Jinghua Times reprinted by Huanqiu, January 12, 2015 
http://finance.huanqiu.com/hongguan/2015-01/5382272_2.html

First China-CELAC Forum Ministerial Meeting Concludes in Beijing

The first ministerial meeting of the Forum of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) concluded in Beijing on January 9 with the announcement that the forum’s next meeting will be held in Chile in 2018.
The two-day meeting, co-chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Costa Rican counterpart, Manuel Gonzalez Sanz, passed three documents: the Beijing Declaration, a five-year cooperation plan, and the regulations for the China-CELAC forum. China and CELAC have also reached a consensus on deepening political mutual trust, expanding cooperation, and promoting development of the forum. Wang said that President Xi Jinping’s remarks at the opening ceremony will guide the development of the China-CELAC forum. Gonzalez said that the historical meeting has launched overall cooperation between China and the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean region, which will build a closer CELAC-China relationship.
Source: Xinhua, January 9, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2015-01/09/c_1113939483.htm