Ministry of Commerce: Foreign Direct Investments Fell by Fourteen Percent
BBC Chinese: HK Poll Showed Half of the People Do not Support Political Reform Proposal
[Editor’s note: Beijing has rejected open nominations in favor of having a nominating committee select who can run.]
Chinese Economists on Compensation Reform in State Owned Enterprises
China Economic Online published an article on the general concern that reform is needed in setting the annual compensation scale for the top managers in State Owned Enterprises (SOE). According to the article, those managers are paid, on average, five times more than their peers in private sectors. In addition, their compensation does not line up with their job performance. The SOE’s are also under the management of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). The article said that the commission’s effort to reshape the board of directors in SOE’s has been unsatisfactory so far. It quoted one Chinese economist who stated that the compensation adjustment effort will involve changes in other areas first: who should set the pay scale and who can make the final call – the board of directors or SASAC? According to the economist, it requires that the government function should be separated from the enterprise management. "The enterprise should be under the management of diversified equity and mixed ownership." He recommended that, "The board members in the SOE’s should be independent, professional, and have accountability."
According to the article, based on the list of compensation in 2013 for the board of directors of the SOE’s, as published by China Economic Research Institute, 259 SOE’s are publicly traded companies. The average annual compensation in 2013 for 83 of the chairmen of the board who received compensation was 840,630 yuan (US$136,894) while 19 of them had annual compensation of over one million yuan (US$162,853). The top management in the financial and banking industry had the highest pay with annual income averaging 940,000 yuan (US$153,077), while the chairmen of the board and bank CEOs were paid at 1.71 million (US$ 278,470) and 2.35 million (US$382,692) respectively.
Source: China Economic Online, September 21, 2014
http://www.ce.cn/cysc/newmain/yc/jsxw/201409/21/t20140921_3570080.shtml
China National Coal Association Will Continue to Limit Production and Reduce Imports in Q4
China Financial and Economic News reported that, according to China National Coal Association, the coal industry in China continues to suffer hardship. Currently close to 70 percent of the coal enterprises have to make pay cuts and 30 percent of the coal companies are in arrears on paying wage. With 300 million tons of coal in their inventory on hand, the Association said it will continue to limit production in Q4 in order to bring the coal price back up, hopefully by 20 percent. The association also proposed to reduce coal imports by 20 million tons in the 4th quarter of 2014. According to the statistics, coal production in the first 8 months of 2014 was 2.5 billion tons, down 1.44 percent from the same period in 2013; sales were 2.4 billion tons, down 1.62 percent from the same period in 2013.
Source: China Financial and Economic News, September 22, 2014
http://economy.caijing.com.cn/20140922/3705114.shtml
State Language Affairs Commission: 30 Percent of Population Not Able to Speak Mandarin
Xinhua published an article on September 21 in which it reported on the status of the promotion of the Mandarin language. According to the article the Ministry of Education, the State Language Affairs Commission, and the Hebei provincial government jointly hosted Speak Mandarin Week in Luanping County of Hebei Province. According to the State Language Affairs Commission, Mandarin language promotion began 17 years ago, but there are still 400 million people, amounting to 30 percent of the population, who are not able to communicate in Mandarin. The language experts who participated in the event said that promoting Mandarin was not meant to eliminate local dialects but rather to promote more social exchange by breaking through dialect barriers.
Source: Xinhua, September 21, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2014-09/21/c_1112564719.htm
China Further Tightening Control of Internet TV Industry
On September 18, 2014, China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) asked all Internet video companies to remove video applications from their offerings so that they will no longer be available for mobile phone users to download them.
Xinhua Commentary: [U.S.] Should Not Use a Double Standard to Combat Terrorism
Xinhua published a commentary article on the United States’ effort to combat the cross-border extremist terrorist organization "Islamic State" through establishing an anti-terror coalition with 40 countries participating.