Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2016 i Beijing Review

ITALY Performers take part in a parade celebrating the city of Rome’s 2,769th birthday at the capita l on April 24 HUNGARY Cyclists hold up their bikes during a demonstration at Margaret Island in Budapest on April 25 . The protest ride was organized to raise awareness about the need to improve cycling conditions in the city NEPAL People in Kathmandu mark the one-year anniversary of the massive earthquake which struck the country on April 25, 2015, leaving nearly 9,000 people dead and tens of thousands of homes destroyed MEXICO President Enrique Peña Nieto (right) inspects a petrochemical plant in Coatzacoalcos on April 21 after a deadly explosion, which claimed at least 28 lives NORTH KOREA An underwater test-firing of a submarine ballistic missile is conducted off the country’s eastern…

When the fifth meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) opened in Beijing on April 28, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for continuous efforts to build a common, comprehensive and sustainable Asian security architecture on the basis of cooperation. In his speech at the opening ceremony, Xi said peace and stability are the common aspirations of all Asian people. While economic growth and regional integration have seen Asia’s place in the world rising, still, there are both conventional and unconventional challenges to Asia’s security. They include regional conflicts and terrorism. Against such a backdrop, Asian countries need to work side by side to strengthen regional security. He also stated China’s stance on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. Reiterating…

Egypt’s former Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said that deepened exchanges between China and the Arab world will help promote the development of the Belt and Road Initiative. Sharaf was among a delegation of politicians and scholars from 16 Arab countries. The delegation attended a dialogue session with members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) from April 21 to 24 in Yinchuan, the capital city of west China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Ningxia has a population of about 6.6 million—more than a third of whom are Muslims. The session discussed national governance, anti-terrorism, and environmental protection. It also pushed forward the Belt and Road Initiative, a development initiative proposed by China aiming to increase economic connectivity among countries along the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk…

Jack Ma’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group recently announced that it had overtaken Walmart to become the world’s largest retail platform by the end of the 2015 fiscal year. This achievement not only displays the strength of China’s consumer market, but also marks the moment when the largest retail marketplace moved to the online world. To put things into perspective, if Alibaba’s online platforms were a province it would be the sixth largest provincial economy in China, said Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai in a blog post. Annual revenues surpassed 3 trillion yuan ($476 billion) and the company’s online trading volume accounted for approximately 10 percent of China’s total retail sales. In just 13 years, Alibaba has changed everything—creating 15 million jobs and generating billions of dollars without a single…

On April 19, a yuan-denominated gold benchmark price trading began operations in the Shanghai Gold Exchange, with the price set twice a day. The launch of the benchmark price, dubbed Shanghai Gold, will drive the development of gold derivatives and China’s pricing power in the international gold market. Gold is an important component of glob-al finance. Therefore, many countries desire the power to set prices, or at least have some influence in the process. Currently, over 80 percent of gold-pricing power is contained within London and New York, which hold the aces in setting rules and transaction practices. London Gold, for example, was set up in 1919 and has remained the pricing center for global spot trading. The London Gold Fixing is not only used extensively for settling transactions between…

Rebuilt Life Premier Li Keqiang talks with local residents about infrastructure reconstruction and tourism development in Longmen, an ancient town in Lushan County, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, on April 24. In April 2013, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lushan, killing 196 people, displacing more than 100,000 families and destroying roads and schools. Law-Making Tasks Chinese lawmakers will review draft laws on international criminal judicial assistance and national defense transportation this year, according to the plan released on April 22 by the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee. The national defense transportation draft law aims to improve coordination between different departments. This year, laws on environmental protection, tax, public culture services and community correction will also be tabled before the NPC Standing Committee for the first reading. The top legislative body will…

Since the 1990s, there has been an explosion in the number of terror attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. The United States’ devastation on September 11, 2001 marked a watershed moment in global history—indicating no one was safe from acts of violence and terror. The attacks served as a catalyst for the birth of a new initiative, the global war on terrorism, led by the United States and other Western powers. However, rather than ushering in peace and stability, the war on terrorism only spurred the expansion of terrorist means and forces. What are the reasons behind this outcome? Guiding principles Terrorists are global antagonists. Terrorist activity undermines social stability and economic security not just in one country, but also threatens peace and security on a global scale. UN conventions…

La Patota had been on Feng Luyao’s wish list for a long time. The Argentinian film tells the story of Paulina, a rape survivor, as she tries to put her life back together. “This movie triggers thoughts on what is real justice,” the Beijing-based lawyer said after watching it at the Sixth Beijing International Film Festival. “Without this film festival, this movie might not have been known to many Chinese even though it was screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and won international awards earlier. Such movies expand our horizon from box-office winners in China, Hollywood and European countries to movies from other countries, helping us explore their life and culture.” Despite his busy schedule, Feng booked tickets for three movies at the festival, held from April 16 to…

High-speed train maker CRRC Corp. Ltd. is building a stronghold in the U.S. market and is looking forward to more orders from local operators. On April 15, CRRC signed a contract supplying the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) with 846 new railcars. The order, worth $1.31 billion, is the largest subway car order in the CTA’s history. The CTA is purchasing a base order of 400 subway cars with the option of purchasing the remainder of the cars in the coming years. Prototypes of the car models are expected to be completed in 2019, and the cars will be put into service in 2020 after testing. In a statement on March 11 when CRRC clinched the deal, the Chinese train maker said that the order represents its second major breakthrough in…

Get on the subway in China and what you see is some are dozing off and some are hunched over their cellphones. “They can read instead of being tied to their phones,” suggested Zhang Lijuan, founder of Qingfanqie Culture Media, a cultural company promoting reading among the public. “People can borrow and return books at any coffee shop with the ‘In Library’ sign.” And it’s free. Qingfanqie, founded in August 2010, started the In Library program almost three years later. Thanks to it, people living in Shenzhen in south China’s Guangdong Province, where the company is based, can borrow books from select coffee shops located along subway routes. Qingfanqie has set up library corners at nearly 1,300 coffee shops and in over 30 automobile sales services shops. Corporates are welcome…

Stable Job Market China’s registered unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 4.04 percent at the end of March, down from 4.05 percent at the end of 2015, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on April 22. An additional 3.18 million urban jobs were created in the first three months of 2016, ministry spokes-person Li Zhong said at a press conference. “The data indicates that China’s job market remains stable,” Li said, attributing the increase and low unemployment rate to the “slower but reasonable economic growth, the government’s deepened reform and innovation drive, as well as proemployment policies.” Creating more jobs is one of the Chinese Government’s priorities to keep employment stable as millions of workers face redundancy due to mergers and reorganization in industries faced with…

Boosting bilateral relations is the common goal of China and Australia. The two countries have seen multiple successes in recent years, forging closer partnerships in trade, industries, science and technology, in addition to educational and personnel exchanges A recent achievement is the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that went into effect last year. Under the FTA, more than 90 percent Australian products pay no tariff when exported to China. Australian exporters are eager to tap into the second largest economy in the world. China is the largest buyer of Australian goods, ranging from milk powder and wine to wool and iron ore. In turn, Australia has also become a preferred destination for Chinese investors. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, trade between the two countries reached $107.21 billion in…

North China’s Hebei Province is notorious for its bad air quality. Seven cities in the province were among the 10 cities with the worst air quality in a list of 74 metros in China published by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2015. Therefore, the task of curbing smog in Hebei is a daunting one. The province has set a goal to improve its air quality significantly during the 13th Five- Year Plan (2016-20) period. The provincial government has occupied itself with finding a way to strike a balance between economic growth and environmental protection and promoting green and environmentally friendly development. It has also set out to realize energy conservation and emission reduction goals and is seeking to reduce pollution as it undergoes economic development. Handan’s transformation Handan used…

Is there an audience for a Mauritanian director promoting a movie about Mali in China? It depends on the director and the film. French speakers, film students and film lovers packed the China Film Archive auditorium to watch Abderrahmane Sissako’s film Timbuktu with the director himself. In 2015, Timbuktu was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. The same year, it won seven Cesars, the French Oscars, with Sissako becoming the first African director to win the best director trophy. The movie has moved critics around the world with its sensitive depiction of the incursion of jihadists in the Malian city of Timbuktu in 2012. Its screening launched the 2016 Francophonie Festival in Beijing, followed by a discussion between Sissako and award-winning Chinese Director Yang Chao. The…