Chinascope – Page 761

Use of Chinese Currency in the U.S. Significantly Increased

The well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the number of financial settlement activities using the Chinese currency RMB has tripled in the United States. This was based on official numbers released by SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) for the first four months of this year. The total number of RMB transactions in the U.S. is now the third largest outside China – after Singapore and Great Britain. Starting in 2009, China lifted the restrictions on using the RMB overseas. The Chinese government has been encouraging the import/export companies to settle in RMB instead of the US dollar. According to SWIFT, between January and April, 2.6 percent of global RMB transactions were settled in the United States, making the U.S. a bigger RMB settlement center than Taiwan. SWIFT also reported that the Chinese RMB ranks seventh among all currencies in the world.

Source: Sina Finance, June 3, 2014

http://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/usstock/c/20140603/153919300724.shtml

Briefings | | June 10, 2014 | US-China Relations

More High School Students Choose to Study Aboard

The “Gaokao,” China’s annual national college entrance exam, started on June 7 this year. Xinhua reported that over 9.39 million high school seniors participated in the three-day exam. The total number of Gaokao participants has been declining since 2008, but 2014 was the first year that saw an increase. The number increased by 270,000 from 2013. According to China Youth Daily, the Ministry of Education has worked with China’s National Development and Reform Commission to release the 2014 college admissions number. The number the 12th National People’s Congress approved for 2014 was 6.98 million. Of those 3.63 million are four year college students and 3.35 million are vocational school students. The local colleges are currently working on their 2014 admission plan based on directions from the Ministry of Education.

According to an article in Sina more and more high school students have chosen not to take the Gaokao and have instead applied to study aboard. The article said that the college admission process in China is highly competitive. The students get only one chance and their score from Gaokao determines their future. Moreover, colleges in China are often criticized for being bureaucratic, driven by economics, and having many cases of corruption both in the academic field and in the college admission process. The National Institute of Education Science released statistics on one million high school students who gave up the Gaokao in 2010. Of those, 201,100 or 21 percent did so because they chose to study abroad. That number is increasing by 100,000 each year. In Beijing and Shanghai, 20 to 25 percent of high school students choose to study overseas each year. The education community in China has a major concern that China is losing its elite students to overseas colleges. The article reported that many are calling for a reform of the college admission process in China.

Sources:
China Youth Daily, June 7, 2014
http://zqb.cyol.com/html/2014-06/07/nw.D110000zgqnb_20140607_7-01.htm
Sina, June 9, 2014
http://news.sina.com.cn/o/2014-06-09/053030319964.shtml
Xinhua, June 7, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2014-06-07/c_126589298.htm

Briefings | | June 9, 2014 | Social Stability

Hurun and the Chinese HNWI Issued 2014 Emigration White Paper

The Hurun Report and the immigration agency’s Visas Consulting Group recently released the Chinese High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) White Paper. According to the 2014 white paper, in 2013, 9.3 million Chinese emigrated, making China the fourth ranking country in the world next to India, Mexico, and Russia. The U.S. and Canada were their top choices for emigration. According to the white paper, the top three reasons for emigrating overseas were to provide a better education for their children, environmental pollution, and food safety. Other reasons included social warfare, medical care, and the safety of personal assets. Among the families interviewed by Hurun, the average preferred amount to spend on investment immigration is 5 million (US$830,000).

Source: China Economy, June 7, 2014 http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/201406/07/t20140607_2937886.shtml

Briefings | | June 9, 2014 | Economy/Resources

China Military Experts Rebut U.S. Annual Report on China’s defense

On June 5, the U.S. Department of Defense issued its 2014 annual report on China’s Defense. On June 8, Xinhua published an article titled, “Clichés That Are Full of Anxiety and Have Ulterior Motives – China’s Military Experts’ Analysis of the U.S. Report on China’s Defense.” The following is a summary of several military experts’ reactions to the annual report.

One expert said that the annual report followed the usual “China Threat” theory and “cold war” mentality. It showed that the U.S. is using the strategy of connecting with China while being precautionary at the same time. The U.S. anxiety about the growth of China’s national defense does not contribute anything good to mutual trust between the two countries and should stop. Another expert’s reaction was that the U.S. tries to create trouble for China in the South and East China Sea and intends to use this report to “damage China’s international image or even demonize China.” Another one said that the U.S. demonstrates its “psychological weakness and mental illness” in reacting to China’s effort to build its national defense.

Source: Xinhua, June 8, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2014-06/08/c_1111033758.htm

Briefings | | June 9, 2014 | US-China Relations

China Military Online: Whichever Country Provokes China Will Pay a Heavy Price

People’s Daily republished a commentary from China Military Online (http://www.81.cn/), stating that the U.S. will live in a nightmare for the next 100 years for being hostile to china.

The commentary stated, “In a speech before the closing session of the 13th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 1, PLA Deputy Chief of General Staff Wang Guanzhong refuted the malicious accusations against [China] that some individual countries uttered. This stems from the U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel who, at the dialogue meeting, publicly accused China of ‘destabilizing the South China Sea.’ It is worth noting that U.S. President Obama, in a May 28 speech at West Point, said the United States has the ability to maintain global leadership for a hundred years. At the same time, he also accused China several times in his speech, stating that [the U.S.] should be ready to respond to China’s ‘aggression’ toward neighboring countries in the South China Sea.”

The commentary threatened, “While the U.S. foreign policy has not accomplished anything and has been in a mess, such moves will make people feel that America’s global leadership is establishing the basis for suppressing China. If it makes China its enemy, the United States will be destined to live in a nightmare for the next hundred years.”

“After 30 years of reform and opening up, China has become the world’s second largest economy. [China’s] military strength has steadily increased. For the country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and core interests, China will make thorough preparations. No matter which country, big or small, whoever insists on provoking China is bound to pay a heavy price.”

Source: People’s Daily, June 5, 2014

http://military.people.com.cn/n/2014/0605/c1011-25109016.html

http://www.81.cn/sydbt/2014-06/04/content_5938754.htm

Briefings | | June 6, 2014 | US-China Relations

Survey Finds Sixteen Percent of the Land in China is Polluted

On April 17, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Land and Resources released an "Official Report on National Soil Pollution," based on an eight-year survey of over 6.3 million square kilometers of land across the country. The report found that about 16 percent of the country’s soil and 19 percent of its arable land were polluted to one degree or another. The vast majority of the pollution came from cadmium, nickel, copper, arsenic, mercury, lead, DDT and PAHs. The latest results contrast with the situation in October 2011, when 8.3 percent of the arable land was polluted.

In his government report earlier this year, Chinese premier Li Keqiang announced the initiation of a "Soil Remediation Project." However, Chinese scholars estimated that soil pollution prevention and remediation demands trillions or even tens of trillions in investment, while the central government’s budget for soil remediation during the twelfth five-year plan period, or 2011 to 2015, is only 30 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion).

Source: China Youth Daily reprinted by Xinhua, June 6, 2014

http://news.xinhuanet.com/2014-06/06/c_126585250.htm

Briefings | | June 6, 2014 | Economy/Resources

China’s Agricultural Population May Decline to 10 Percent

According to Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, China‘s agricultural population may decline to about 10 percent. Currently, about 40 percent of China’s population is engaged in agriculture.

Zhao Hui, an official from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, stated in an interview that as urbanization continues, fewer and fewer people will engage in farming. It is likely that the agricultural population will drop to about 10 percent of the total population. The land used for rural development, however, is about 3.5 times the land used for urban development. That is, it is 70 percent of the total land for development is used for rural development. To avoid having 10 percent of the population use 70 percent of the land, Zhao urged that China should have breakthrough in the institutional mechanisms to allow a rational allocation and flow of population and resources.

Source: Beijing Business Today reprinted by Xinhua, June 6, 2014

http://news.xinhuanet.com/2014-06/06/c_126584660.htm

Briefings | | June 6, 2014 | 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.