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China’s Reaction to Trump’s Election Win

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Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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

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

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China Has Become the World’s Fifth Largest Arms Exporter

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a respected think tank based in Sweden, China has become the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter. Pakistan is the largest recipient of Chinese arms, accounting for 55 percent of Chinese arms exports.

“China replaced Britain in the list of the top five arms-dealing countries for the period between 2008 and 2012. According to SIPRI, the United States and Russia dominated the group, accounting for 30 percent and 26 percent of weapons exports.” Germany and France ranked third and fourth on the list of arms exporters.

China is also the world’s second largest arms importing country. The number of arms China imported from 2008 to 2012 accounted for 6 percent of the global total. The top arms importers between 2008 and 2012 were India, China, Pakistan, South Korea, and Singapore.

Source: Reuters Beijing and BBC Chinese, March 17 – 18, 2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/17/us-china-arms-exports-idUSBRE92G0L120130317
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/03/130318_china_arms.shtml  

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

People’s Daily: Xi Jinping Will Soon Visit Russia

People’s Daily recently reported that the new Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang, said at a press conference that the new Chinese President, Xi Jinping, will soon visit Russia. This will be the first country Xi visits as President. Li suggested that this planned visit itself represents the importance of the China-Russia relationship. Li expressed the belief that the political relationship between the two countries is currently “very good, so that the focus should be on actionable cooperation plans.” Li also suggested that the China-Russia trade volume could easily increase several times more “without a problem.”
Source: People’s Daily, March 17, 2013
http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2013/0317/c164113-20816833.html
Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: Li Keqiang Commented on Pollution and Food Safety

Xinhua recently reported that, in his first press conference as the Premier, new Chinese Premier Li Keqiang discussed his views on pollution and food safety. Li expressed deep regret about the recent massive air pollution covering Beijing and a large part of eastern China. He suggested that action had already been taken to deal with known sources of air pollution, as well as water and soil pollution. Li also emphasized the importance of fighting the illegal activities that threaten food safety. He promised to enforce the laws that govern the food supply industry. Additionally, Li also suggested four new actions: (1) raising environmental protection requirements; (2) replacing outdated manufacturing equipment; (3) holding the government responsible; (4) improving information transparency.
Source: Xinhua, March 18, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/tech/2013-03/18/c_124469231.htm
Briefings | | |   Social Stability

CRN: Chinese Currency Supply Causes Concern

China Review News (CRN) recently published a commentary that discussed the newly released currency supply level number. According to China’s central bank, February’s M2 number reached RMB 99.86 trillion, which represents a 15.2 percent increase over last year. M2 is a broader classification of money supply. Economists use M2 when looking to quantify the amount of money in circulation. The Chinese central bank expressed a strong intent to manage the risk of inflation. The new number set a record for the money supply in Chinese history. It is also the highest in the world, which is 1.5 times higher than the U.S. Dollar. However the author of the commentary suggested that China needed to print more money to satisfy the rapid increase in currency demand in the services industry, which includes the financial sector that historically has suffered low-efficiency. In spite of some special cases that temporarily created currency demand, the article called for more conservative money supply policies.
Source:  China Review News, March 16, 2013
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1024/7/1/2/102471261.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=102471261&mdate=0316072620
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

RFA: Scholars Challenge China’s WTO Commitments

In a press conference held during the National Congress, Chen Deming, Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce denied the claims that China has not come forth with any new initiatives since it joined the WTO. Chen insisted that China has fulfilled the commitments it made when it joined the WTO. As to the requirement for the Chinese government to break up its monopolies and the other special rights it holds, Chen insisted that there will be reforms in state owned enterprises with the condition that the status of the socialist economic system of public ownership is maintained.

Many Chinese scholars believe that issues remain with China’s open door policy where China should make further efforts to open its doors in both domestic and foreign markets, break up the monopolies of the State Owned Enterprises, and return the gains back to the people. Hu Xindou, an economist from Beijing, told RFA that, since China joined the WTO, its monopoly in the finance industry has remained an unsatisfactory condition, especially in the banking industry and in the free exchange of currency. Sun Wenguang, a retired professor from Shandong Province stated that there are many issues in terms of whether China has been following the common regulation since it joined the WTO. For example, there is unfair trade because Chinese movies and cultural products are exported overseas while many Hollywood movies are banned in China. Sun stated that China is not an economic market country. Its telecommunication, coal mine industry, and railroads are state owned. This results in corrupt interests that only benefit special classes.

It was reported that the Agreement on Government Procurement that China submitted in December 2012 was said to be protective of its domestic enterprises, since state owned enterprises’ procurements are excluded from the agreement, while the total coverage in the agreement only accounts for 2-3 percent of China’s total procurement market.

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 8, 2013
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/xl-03082013110340.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Report Suggests that, in 2013, Real Estate Remains Top Choice for China’s Wealthy

People’s Daily carried an article which was originally published by Dongfang Daily. According to the article, the “2013 Personal Wealth Investment Report” issued by the Agricultural Bank of China to its personal banking clients advised that wealthy Chinese, who have personal asset over 100 million yuan (US$16 million), should consider investing in real estate and the stock market. It also recommended investing in art collections and the red wine market. The report indicated that if China’s domestic real estate policy continues to change, wealthy Chinese may shift to investing in the overseas real estate market such as Hong Kong or the U.S. The report suggested that the least favorite investment option is the gold market.

Source: People’s Daily, March 13, 2013
http://finance.people.com.cn/money/n/2013/0313/c218900-20770252.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Poll Suggests that Majority of Hong Kong Residents Willing to Return to Britain

On March 12, 2013, the Hong Kong English newspaper South China Morning Post posted the following question on “Today’s Poll” on its website: “Given the option, would Hong Kongers vote to return to being a British overseas territory?”  By March 16, several thousand people had voted. The results showed that 91 percent voted yes. Since Saturday March 16, that vote has been the most popular topic on the newspaper’s website. It has generated heated discussions and many commentaries in other social media websites as well.

Some readers’ feedback was that they did not like the poll. Some thought the poll was biased, as the majority of the newspaper’s readers are the 600,000 Hong Kong residents who hold passports issued by Western countries or they are foreigners who live in Hong Kong. Some commented that the results will shock the government of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Beijing.

The South China Morning Post has over 100,000 readers each week. It just introduced the new edition at the end of August 2012.

Source: BBC Chinese, March 16, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/03/130316_scmp_poll.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

SASAC: Not Being Able to Layoff Makes SOE Reform Difficult

Huang Shuhe, a deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) spoke about the difficulty of State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) reform. Huang said, for an enterprise to develop, it has to travel light. SOEs still carry many heavy burdens, such as retired workers and companies running social security. Huang said that during the 2008 financial crisis, none of the central government enterprises laid off employees, although all the Western multinational companies laid people off. This was to maintain social stability. Huang believed that the reform of SOEs still faces many difficulties, as the government has yet to transform its functionalities and the social security mechanism for 5-6 million retired workers is not in place.

Source: China News Service, March 14, 2013
http://finance.chinanews.com/cj/2013/03-14/4643414.shtml

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources