Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 61/No. 14 i Beijing Review

CO2 Emissions Target Reached China’s carbon trading system enabled the country to reach its 2020 carbon emissions target in 2017, China’s special representative on climate change said. At the Green Carbon Summit held in Shanghai on March 26, Xie Zhenhua reported that by the end of 2017, China had cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit of GDP by 46 percent from the 2005 level, fulfilling its commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 40 to 45 percent from the 2005 level by 2020. From 2005 to 2015, China’s economy grew by 1.48 times, and at the same time, carbon intensity dropped by 38.6 percent. In 2016, the rate continued to fall by 6.6 percent year on year. According to China’s commitment to the Paris Agreement, it will have to cut…

Beijing Review: The theme of the 2018 BFA Annual Conference is An Open and Innovative Asia for a World of Greater Prosperity. How was this theme formulated? What is the BFA expecting to achieve at this year’s conference? Zhou Wenzhong: In May 2017, the BFA started to solicit advice from its 29 founding countries, its board of directors, council of advisors, members, partners, think tanks and the media on the theme of the annual conference and topics for discussion. We also held three seminars and a special meeting of the board of directors to discuss the theme. During the process of consultation, we had a common understanding that—given the fact that anti-globalization sentiment and trade and investment protectionism are on the rise, and that globalization is partially facing setbacks—Asia, as…

Every spring since 2002, high-ranking government officials, entrepreneurs with global influence, herds of journalists and photographers—like a great migration—have flocked to the very south of China’s Hainan Province and crowd into a small town for several days, not for vacation, but for an economic forum. The town, named Boao, was chosen as the permanent venue for the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in 2001 and the first BFA annual conference was held there the following year. Why Boao? With more than 1,000 years of history, Boao has had a written record since the Song Dynasty (960-1279) with “fishing residents” being the earliest known inhabitants. The meaning of the word Boao is “abundant fat fish,” which also meant the source of ample food and clothing for the…

When the school day finishes at 4 p.m., Liu Xiao goes home for dinner, but his studies are far from over. After dinner, the 14-year-old middle school student in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, goes to his desk and begins his homework. His mother, 38-year-old Zhang Yanjun, watches him as he does his assignments which can sometimes go past 10 p.m. This is very common among Chinese families with children, especially primary and secondary school-aged students. According to data released at the end of 2017 by Afanti, a Chinese educational technology company, from 2015 to 2017, primary and secondary school students in China spent 2.82 hours finishing homework every night on average, which is about three times the global average. The data also showed that 80 percent of…

In mid-March, U.S. President Donald Trump blocked Singapore-based chipmaker Broadcom’s proposed acquisition of its U.S. counterpart Qualcomm under the pretext of protecting national security. Though China had nothing to do with the deal, the country has again been used as an excuse to scuttle the merger. Advising Trump to block the deal, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS), an inter-agency tasked with reviewing foreign investments in the country, said if the deal were approved, China’s telecommunication firms could displace Qualcomm as the leader in developing the upcoming 5G mobile network. It is yet another instance of a far-fetched U.S. Government warning against Chinese businesses. In January, CFIUS rejected a deal between Ant Financial, an affiliate of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, and MoneyGram International “for potential national security threats.” Washington…

It seems, with the current state of technological advances and continual development of infrastructure, that almost every corner of the world is now accessible by some means of transport. Air travel means that a journey that would have previously taken weeks is now shortened to a matter of hours. For me to reach China from my home in the middle of the United States would have seemed borderline impossible without flying. Now, however, it takes less than 24 hours from leaving my house in the mountains of Colorado to walking in the front door of my urban residence in Beijing. However, while convenience may abound, the enchantment of such expedited travel is largely left wanting. In the fall of 2014, I set out to see as much of China as…

The inauguration ceremony for China’s new National Supervisory Commission takes place in Beijing on March 23. Zhao Leji (left), member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, attended the ceremony. Zhao called on commission officials to faithfully perform their duties as stipulated in the Constitution, the Supervision Law and the CPC Constitution to secure victory in the fight against corruption. According to China’s newly amended Constitution, the National Supervisory Commission is the highest supervisory organ in the country.…

UNITED STATES A screen shows the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s closing numbers at the New York Stock Exchange on March 22. The Dow plunged over 700 points after U.S. President Donald Trump announced tariffs on imported products from China PERU Martin Vizcarra (center) is sworn in as president of Peru on March 23, replacing Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who resigned amid a vote-buying scandal EGYPT People wait to cast their ballots in the presidential election at a polling station in Cairo on March 27. Incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win a landslide victory MYANMAR U Win Myint (right), who was elected Myanmar’s president, attends a session of the Myanmar Union Parliament in Nay Pyi Taw on March 28 PAKISTAN Jets color the sky during an air show to mark…

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong Un recently paid an unofficial visit to China. Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Kim. Edited excerpts of a Xinhua News Agency report on the event follow: At the invitation of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese President, Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol…

After introducing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, U.S. President Donald Trump again caused sensation on March 22 by signing a memorandum allowing the United States to levy tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China and restrict Chinese investment. The memorandum is reportedly the result of a Section 301 investigation launched last August into alleged Chinese intellectual property and technology transfer practices. Derived from a 1974 trade law, Section 301 was once used liberally in the 1980s and early 1990s, allowing previous U.S. administrations to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions on foreign countries, but has been rarely used since the World Trade Organization (WTO) came into being in 1995. “The investigation, based on U.S. domestic laws, goes against the rules of international trade,” said Wang…

Zheng Yu is in love with cats. Her childhood dream to own one was finally realized last year when she started working and got her own apartment. However, over the course of several months, Zheng’s assumptions on keeping a cat have completely changed. She never knew that domesticated cats had spawned an entire industry with a range of products and services that beggars belief. Toys, nail clippers, fur care powder, pooper scoopers, hygiene products and furniture are but a few. “It’s totally beyond my imagination,” she told Beijing Review. Zheng is part of a growing legion of pet owners across China fueling an unprecedented boom in this industry. According to a white paper jointly published in 2017 by the Chinese Pet Products Association and other organizations, 134 billion yuan ($21.3…

Tea-Picking Dance Locals perform a dance drama based on tea culture at a tea garden in Longtou Village of Pingli County, Ankang City, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, on March 25. The drama includes ballads as well as depicting scenes of the tea picking and tea making processes. Clean Water Beijing is planning to clean all polluted rivers and ponds by the end of this year. According to the Beijing Water Authority, there were previously around 140 polluted rivers in the city, 57 of which have already been cleaned. The rest will be cleaned by the year’s end. The city uses over 1 billion cubic meters of recycled water per annum and has built or renovated 50 water treatment facilities over the past few years. Beijing is perennially troubled by water…

With European nations collectively plagued by economic slowdown and the United States resorting to protectionism in an attempt to preserve domestic jobs, global economic patterns are now in the midst of a reshuffle, and it increasingly looks to be Asia that will emerge from this rearrangement on top. A platform for high-level dialogue between government officials, business elites and industry experts, the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2018, a four-day event scheduled from April 8 to 11 in Boao in China’s southernmost island province of Hainan, is set to focus on the theme of An Open and Innovative Asia for a World of Greater Prosperity. Innovation and opening up, concepts fancied by this year’s BFA conference, also chime with China’s tune for future economic development. As Premier Li…

Personal income tax is an issue of direct concern to many, and is always a major focus at each year’s sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. This year, in his Report on the Work of the Government delivered to the First Session of the 13th NPC on March 5, Premier Li Keqiang revealed that China will raise the threshold for personal income tax. Over the past five years, China’s per-capita disposable income has been growing 7.4 percent every year, reaching 25,974 yuan ($4,033) in 2017. Yet the personal income tax threshold has remained at the 3,500-yuan ($552.92) level set seven years ago. Raising the tax threshold will be of great benefit to many of China’s citizens. In 2014,…

Dear Readers, Forum is a column that provides a space for varying perspectives on contemporary Chinese society. We invite you to submit personal viewpoints on past and current topics (in either English or Chinese). yanwei@bjreview.com Please provide your name and address along with your comments In March 1978, 21 teenagers between the ages of 11 and 16 were enrolled in the Special Class for the Gifted Young of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), becoming the first such students of their kind. Four decades have passed since the program was first launched at USTC, which has since been expanded into the School of the Gifted Young. What has become of these once prodigious alumni, and how much of an effect has their expedited education had on their…