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Steady growth of China’s private investment

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China’s private investment has kept growing at steady and sustained pace this year, a senior official said Saturday. Private investment plays a critical part in Chinese economy, Zhang Yong, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference on the sidelines of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The growth cooled down last year after the country’s total fixed-asset investment lost steam and the property and manufacturing sectors underwent a difficult time, he said. Despite the hardships, private investment increased 6 percent in the first nine months this year, 3.5 percentage points higher than the same period a year ago.Private investment growth has anchored from last year’s weakness, he said. Zhang underlined the importance of implementing supportive policy for private investors such as streamlining administrative procedures and cutting red tape, lowering market threshold, applying negative-list approach and increasing market transparency. Private investment should play a bigger role in the future, he added.Private investment accounts for at least 60 percent of China’s total fixed-asset investment. It generates 80 percent of China’s jobs, 60 percent of the GDP and 50 percent of the tax revenue.

 

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Smugglers prep to capitalize on skyrocketing price of sanctioned fish

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The price of North Korean seafood for sale in China’s Yanji City has spiked recently due to coordinated sanctions from the international community against the regime. Since United Nations Security Resolution 2371 came into effect on August 15th, North Korean seafood sales have slumped in China’s markets. “At the beginning of this year, pollock was selling for about 8 yuan apiece, but the price has nearly doubled to about 15 yuan since the sanctions,” said an inside source in China during a telephone conversation with Daily NK on October 13. “It’s risen to practically the cost of gold, so most people won’t consider buying it. Before the implementation of the sanctions, North Korean pollack was relatively cheap. Some Chinese merchants expanded their procurement at that point. They waited for the sanctions to go into effect so they could take advantage of the scarcity by selling at a higher price and increasing their profit margins,” the source said. A separate source in China close to North Korean affairs told Daily NK that some smugglers are freezing as much fish as they can get their hands on. They anticipate that the sanctions will loosen up in future, and are making the appropriate preparations.

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China will appoint Guo Shuqing, icon of liberal market, as the next governor of the central bank

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China is likely to name Guo Shuqing, a key figure in China’s market reform camp as the next central bank governor. Guo, the current chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, is currently ahead of the other candidates for the post including Jiang Chaoliang, the Hubei party secretary; Yi Gang, a deputy governor at the People’s Bank of China and Liu Shiyu, the chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission said one source, who declined to be named. If the appointment of Guo, 61, who holds similar liberal views to the retiring governor Zhou Xiaochuan, is confirmed in the coming weeks, it will ensure the presence of a well-known market believer in President Xi Jinping’s economic team  a development that could help to shore up confidence that Xi is not totally sidelining market liberalisation. Guo was a deputy central bank governor and the chief of State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe), the agency that runs China’s capital control and foreign exchange reserves, from 2001 to 2005.

He became chairman of China Construction Bank in 2005 after his predecessor was toppled for graft. In that role he restarted the bank’s joint-stock restructuring and floated its shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai. “Both Zhou and Guo have a liberal streak in their thinking and both understand market economics very well,” John Wong, a professorial fellow at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, said. Guo’s experiences in different posts as a scholar, a banker, a provincial governor and a regulator had made him “politically very shrewd”, he said, another critical skill that is needed to navigate the vested interests within the government and to seek compromise and consensus. In the latest institutional move, for instance, China decided to create a financial development and stability committee that is likely to be headed by a vice-premier. The central bank will have an office to run the day-to-day affairs of the agency. “Guo is of the same vein [as Zhou in understanding what China needs],” Fraser Howie, director of Newedge Financial in Singapore, said. “The problem though is, as Zhou states, too much interference and fear from other ministries.”

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Xi Jinping’s leadership reshuffle revealed: meet the pair poised to become two of China’s most powerful men

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President Xi Jinping’s trusted ally Li Zhanshu stands a good chance of becoming chairman of China’s parliament while Communist Party organisation chief Zhao Leji is likely to head its corruption watchdog, sources have told the South China Morning Post. Li is widely expected to be elevated to the Politburo Standing Committee – the ruling party’s top echelon of power – on Wednesday, a day after the party’s 19th national congress closes in Beijing. Most observers had predicted he would succeed Wang Qishan as anti-corruption. “Li Zhanshu will succeed Zhang Dejiang”, a source familiar with the situation said, adding that Zhao would also be promoted into the Politburo Standing Committee and was likely to succeed Wang Qishan in leading anti- corruption work. The moves were confirmed separately by another source. Li was one of the key officials who accompanied Xi to Hong Kong in July for celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of its return to Chinese sovereignty. Professor Lau Siu-kai, vice-chairman of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said Xi had clearly spelled out political directions for Hong Kong during that visit. “Whoever takes over from Zhang Dejiang will only be an implementer”, he said. “I believe Xi will continue to watch over Hong Kong affairs. But given the strong ties between Xi and Li, if Li takes charge of Hong Kong affairs, he will understand the president’s thinking better than others”.

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Xi heralds ‘new era’ of socialism

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The Communist Party of China (CPC) rolled out “Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” and embarked on a journey to build a “great modern socialist country” at the opening of its 19th National Congress on Wednesday. General secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping delivered a 3.5-hour speech to the congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday morning, during which he mentioned several times a “new era” for socialism with Chinese characteristics. Xi said the new era “will be an era of securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and of moving on to all-out efforts to build a great modern socialist country”. The principal contradiction facing Chinese society now is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life, Xi said. “The phrase ‘new era’ represents the changes in China after 40 years of development”, Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the Chongqing Committee, told the Global Times on Wednesday. “And by pointing out the new contradiction in Chinese society, Xi also revealed the key emphasis of future work – more balanced development in rural and remote areas with science and technology driving the economy”. China will see socialist modernization basically realized in the first stage from 2020 to 2035 and then become a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful from 2035 to the middle of this century, Xi noted in the report.

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19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to plan for political reform

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The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will map out overall reform measures about the country’s political system and other systems, a spokesman for the congress said Tuesday. Based on the systematic review of achievements and experience of reform in the past, the congress will strive to address outstanding issues that have emerged in practice and work out overall reform measures, Tuo Zhen told reporters. “We will unswervingly move toward the goal of improving and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernizing China’s state governance system and capability”, Tuo said.  “All the achievements China has made in reform and development since the launch of reform and opening up nearly four decades ago will not be possible without political system reform, and this will remain the case in the future”, he said. The spokesman said China has achieved major and historic achievements in political system reform, which have provided important guarantee for deepening reform in other fields and created better conditions for economic and social development. China will not copy and replicate the models of other countries in political system reform, the spokesman said. “Our unique cultural traditions, unique historic experience and unique national conditions determine that we must pursue a path of development suited to our own features”, he said.

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France urges China and EU to unite to protect Paris climate deal

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China and the European Union should set aside differences on trade and strengthen cooperation on climate change to “act as a shield” to protect the landmark Paris climate accord, France’s environment minister said. In an interview, French Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition Nicolas Hulot also urged China to step up its efforts towards a greener economy and take a lead role alongside France to implement the international climate accord reached in the French capital two years ago and now under threat from the US’ withdrawal. “It is China and the EU that have taken the leadership role on climate issues and they have to continue to play the leadership role in the implementation of the Paris Agreement … And if they coordinate they will be able to cover much larger areas,” he said during a brief trip to Hong Kong on Monday. The EU and China failed to agree an official climate statement during a bilateral summit in June over a long-standing trade spat, underlining their tense relationship and casting a shadow over their commitments to fighting global warming together in the absence of the US. Hulot said France and China held their first senior official dialogue on the low-carbon economy in June and companies from both countries were teaming up on various projects related to energy efficiency, sustainable cities, the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, carbon markets and green financing. The minister said the US’ retreat from the Paris deal was not a catastrophe even though it dealt a heavy blow to the global effort on climate change and had caused difficulties for poor countries most vulnerable to global warming. In response to comments by senior White House officials who said the US might reconsider its stance on the Paris agreement if other countries agreed to accommodate Washington’s concerns over economic costs and energy security, Hulot said the Paris deal was not renegotiable.

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Xi Jinping’s debt-relief recipe: how China’s biggest bond defaulter unloaded its liabilities

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The massive steel plant in Dengshahe, which dominates a brutal, industrial landscape 50km northeast of downtown Dalian, is a source of pride and shame for the local economy. Ultimately owned by Liaoning’s provincial government, it produces the country’s best steel, with its high-quality products used in Chinese spaceships and rockets. But it is also the country’s biggest ever bond defaulter and a textbook example of President Xi Jinping’s approach to tackling China’s ballooning corporate debt. Dongbei Special Steel has failed to repay 10 batches of corporate bonds worth 7.1 billion yuan (US$1 billion) since March last year, leading to a year-long legal battle between the company and its 1,911 creditors, which include state banks, local lenders and small investors. In the past two years, as Dongbei Special Steel was talking with its creditors, China’s steelmaking landscape changed dramatically, with more than 100 million tonnes of obsolete or unwanted capacity shut down. Meanwhile, the benchmark Shanghai rebar price has almost doubled in the past 18 months, giving those steelmakers allowed to keep operating fat profits. According to official data, steelmakers’ profits were up 106.9 per cent year on year in the first eight months of this year. The Dengshahe steel plant, a key underlying asset of Dongbei Special Steel, made a gross profit of 320 million yuan in the first half of this year, ending years of operating losses, the official China News Service reported.

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China’s trade with North Korea slumped after nuclear sanctions

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China’s trade with North Korea slumped in September, amid United Nations sanctions aimed at deterring Kim Jong-un from pursuing his missile and nuclear weapons programmes. Exports to the restive state in the month fell 6.7 per cent from a year ago, while imports fell 37.9 per cent, customs administration spokesman Huang Songping said at a briefing in Beijing. North Korea’s deficit with China in the first nine months more than tripled from the same period of 2016, to US$1.07 billion, he said, without elaborating. With China’s support, the UN has agreed on two rounds of sanctions since the beginning of August, including bans on North Korean exports of iron, coal, lead, seafood, textiles, and oil import restrictions.  China’s overall trade with North Korea for the first nine months of the year rose 3.7 per cent year on year to US$4.03 billion, slowing from 7.5 per cent for the January through August period. China’s exports to North Korea from January to September rose 20.9 per cent to US$2.55 billion while imports fell 16.7 per cent to US$1.48 billion. The customs agency said it would publish details of its trade in specific products with North Korea on October 23.

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Bigger role of China in Unesco after US withdrawal

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The US withdrawal from Unesco could give China scope to take a bigger role in the world heritage body, analysts say, as Beijing seeks to boost its international soft power. Irina Bokova, director general of Unesco, expressed her “profound regret” at the decision. The loss of its biggest donor could seriously undermine the operation and functioning of Unesco, and China will likely take on a greater role, according to Jin Canrong, an international relations expert at Renmin University in Beijing. “It is inevitable that China’s importance in this organisation will increase, but I don’t think China wants to take over the role of the United States”, he said. Beijing on Friday said it would continue participating and cooperating with other countries in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation after Washington announced it would leave the agency the previous day. “China values the importance of Unesco and would like to contribute more to the organisation’s cooperation”, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing in Beijing. China is the third largest contributor to Unesco, providing 7.9 per cent of funding to the organisation. That compares to the 22 per cent the United States used to provide, and 9 per cent from Japan.

 

 

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