Innholdsfortegnelse for 11/10/2016 i Beijing Review

The international community is step-ping up efforts to fight corruption. A research body focusing on interna-tional anti-graft cooperation was established in Beijing in late September, based on the G20 leaders’ communiqué released at the conclusion of the Hangzhou Summit on September 5. The institution, named the Research Center on International Cooperation Regarding Persons Sought for Corruption and Asset Recovery in G20 Member States, is the first of its kind among G20 countries. The establishment of the research center has not only created an exchange platform for G20 members to carry out cross-border anti-corruption cooperation and recover ill-gotten assets, but will also strengthen mu-tual understanding among these countries and contribute to global efforts to fight graft. Common aspiration The G20 communiqué declares that the organi-zation has recognized the detrimental effects of…

This September, Qufenqi, a financial platform that provided loans to college students and allowed repayment through installments, announced its retreat from campus as it moved toward more financially in-dependent credit card consumers. In October, Wolaidai, another platform that focused on campus loans, also announced its withdrawal from the student loan market. Several other credit companies have begun to turn to white-collar workers, too. Why are they retreating? Some incidents may point to part of the answer. Recently, a college student in central China’s Henan Province, who had accumulated more than 580,000 yuan ($85,700) of debt by taking out loans from several platforms, killed himself. Incapable of paying off the high debt and seeing no way out, he jumped from a high building to his death. Unfortunately, this is not the…

Premier Li Keqiang arrives in Bishkek, capital of the Kyrgyzstan, on November 2 for an official visit to the country and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) prime ministers’ meeting. The SCO, established in Shanghai in 2001, provides a way for China to cooperate with Russia and four Central Asian nations—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. During the eight-day trip, Li also visited Kazakhstan, Latvia and Russia and attended a meeting with heads of government from Central and Eastern European countries in Riga, Latvia. Better Preservation Wang Zhidong stores his corn in a special container at Changping Village in Zhaodong, northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, on October 31. With subsidies from the local government, Wang pays only about 500 yuan ($74) for the barn, which can store 20 tons of corn and prevent…

The Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which concluded on October 27, saw two documents being ap-proved. With the theme of the session being strict governance of the Party, the documents too were related to it. While one was on the norms of political life within the Party in the new situation, the second was a regulation on intra- Party supervision. The communiqué issued after the session has received intense attention from various social sectors. Session highlights The session had three highlights. First, it focused on fundamentals. The practice of governing the Party strictly since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 has demonstrated that a serious and meticulous approach to intra-Party political life is the foundation for the comprehensive and…

The author is a professor of investment at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management Chinese bicycle-sharing apps Mobike and Ofo have caused quite a stir recently. Tencent and private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Sequoia Capital participated in a $100-million funding round for Shanghai- based Mobike. And, Xiaomi, Citic PE and Coatue Management similarly pumped $130 million into Beijing-based Ofo, in which China’s domi-nant ride-hailing service provider Didi Chuxing is also, reportedly, an investor. Bike-sharing is being proclaimed as a new frontier for both Didi and China’s sharing economy. But the reality is not what many suppose it to be. Basically, bike-sharing is nothing like Didi, Grab, Ola, Uber, AirBnb and the other sharing economy platforms. At this point, its economics are far more like those of the vending machine…

The Supreme People’s Court, China’s highest court, recently announced that financial institutions which impose un-necessary charges or extremely high interest rates on loans will not be supported in related disputes, stressing equal protection of the non-state economy to boost private investment. The court also requires courts at all levels to properly handle cases involving borrowing, finance leasing and private lending in order to protect financial innovations and help address financing difficulties and high borrowing costs for private companies. This statement is expect-ed to stimulate investment of private capital in the real economy. In the first seven months of this year, private investment had been declining dramatically. With various incentive policies instituted by the government, the downward trend was reversed in August and September. However, the scale of private investment is…

It’s not easy for people to understand tai chi. The traditional Chinese exercise is not a re-ligion, a science or a sport. Instead, it can be thought of as a system for developing people’s ability to connect with their inner energy, or life force, and to use it to empower the body and mind. Tai chi was likely first practiced by Taoists centuries ago with the objective of purifying the mind and building the body’s ability to ward off disease. Many practitioners suc-ceeded: Generations of masters have enjoyed anxiety-free pure souls over the course of disease-free long lifespans. Yang Xinhua is a highly regarded tai chi master teaching at Nanjing University. She is the daughter of a great master, Yang Chenjie, a descendant, in the 19th generation, of tai chi…

The mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen in Nanjing welcomed a new guest on October 31, as Hung Hsiu-chu, Chairperson of the Kuomintang (KMT), chose the capital city of Jiangsu Province as the first stop of her first visit to the Chinese mainland as the KMT leader. Climbing up the 392 steps to the mausoleum despite the rain, Hung and her delegation paid their respects to Sun, the founding father of the KMT and a forerunner of China’s anti- feudal revolution. “Sun Yat-sen’s ideology is highly praised on both sides of the Taiwan Straits,” Hung said. “I believe we will be able to rejuvenate our nation and improve the livelihood of our people under his spirit. We can certainly work hand in hand to create prosperity in the future.” It was the…

The possibly catastrophic consequences of a warming atmosphere motivate gov-ernment officials from countries all over the world to gather together every year and negotiate over fighting global climate change. After a legally binding climate deal was reached in Paris among nearly 200 nations last year, the world is now on the way to making the agree-ment become reality. The 22nd Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), formally known as the COP22, is taking place from November 7 to 18 in Marrakech, Morocco. “It’s the first climate change conference after the Paris agreement came into force, [so] it is deemed as a chance to put the unprecedented deal into practice,” said Xie Zhenhua, China’s special representative on climate change affairs. First…

Wang Wenbiao grew up in Hobq, the sev-enth largest desert in China, where the barren sand ruled the lives of people with an iron hand, relegating them to grinding poverty. So in 1988, when he was elected director of a local salt field, Wang began commissioning roads across the desert to make the transport of salt easier. Trees and grass were planted along the roads to improve the environment and prevent the sand from encroaching. From then to now, thanks to his vision, more than 500 km of highway and over 70,000 hectares of green belt have been created in the arid desert. In 1995, the Elion Resources Group was formed with Wang as its chairman. Elion began to develop green industries, investing over 30 billion yuan ($4.46 billion) to…

In early October, BYD—China’s leading electric car maker—announced it would build an assembly plant for its vehicles in Hungary. As a big investmen tproject by a Chinese business in Europe, the plan has been warmly welcomed by the Hungarian Government. While announcing the plan along with BYD management representatives, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said at a press conference that the production of electric buses will both improve competitivenessa nd contribute toward Hungary’s environmental policy goals. How can BYD replicate its success in China in an overseas market? Beijing Review asked Isbrand Ho, BYD Europe’s Managing Director, to elucidate the company’s plans. Beijing Review: BYD just an-nounced a plan to build an assembly plant in Hungary with an investment of 20 mil-lion euros ($21.93 million). Could…