Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 61/No. 16 i Beijing Review

UNITED STATES Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a joint hearing of the Senate judiciary and commerce committees in Washington, D.C. on April 10. He admitted responsibility for not preventing the social media platform from being used for harm BRAZIL Former President Lula da Silva waves to his supporters in Sao Bernardo do Campo on April 7. The popular former president said that he is ready to serve a 12 year sentence on corruption charges which he has repeatedly denied GERMANY Police officers stand guard at the site where a vehicle drove into a crowd in Muenster on April 7. Three people died including the perpetrator with a dozen more injured NAMIBIA People take part in a carnival parade in Windhoek on April 7. Windhoek Carnival features performances by musicians…

Wen Tiejun, 67, sees himself as a typical middle class Chinese male. Five years ago, very much a wealthy urbanite, he made a decision which shocked those around him by selling the family’s multi-million-yuan property in downtown Beijing and relocating to a village in southeast China’s Fujian Province. “There is no pollution [here in the village], only fresh air, clean water and safe food. This is [a better] life,” he told Beijing Review. That idyllic lifestyle was something Wen, an agricultural economics expert, found in abundance as a delegate to the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2018 on Hainan Island, especially clean air, top-level infrastructure and public services. Wen’s decision to return to the countryside is mirrored by his academic research achievements and career turnaround. In 2013, he…

Judging from his appearance, 23-year-old Ning Xianhai could easily be mistaken for a college student, but he is in fact a world champion in his trade. In October 2017, Ning stepped onto the podium of the 44th WorldSkills Competition in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, having secured a gold medal for welding “I’ve put in six years of effort for today. After competing with international counterparts, I feel more confident about China’s welding industry,” Ning said on his social media account a few hours after receiving the honor. At the Abu Dhabi skills Olympics, the Chinese team participated in 47 categories, winning a total of 15 gold medals, including Ning’s. It was the best haul since China first started sending a delegation to the competition in 2011. In recent…

On March 22, Donald Trump signed a memorandum, invoking Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, announcing U.S. plans to impose tariffs on $60 billion of Chinese imports, lodge a dispute with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over China’s technology licensing and restrict China’s investment in strategic industries and technologies. From March 23, the Trump administration began imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum imports. At the same time, Trump further exempted the European Union (EU), Australia, Argentina, South Korea, and Brazil, albeit only through May 1, 2018. It is suspected that Trump’s tariffs are intended to launch a trade war against China. Theoretically, there are three possible roles that the EU might play in such a dispute. Potential scenarios It is possible that…

Rising sea levels, frequent acid rains, days darkened by heavy smog, all these intractable problems conspire to blight the living environment of humankind. A solution admits of no delay. Metal smelting, an indispensable process of economic development, has long been pinpointed as a major culprit behind this degradation, while coke, a vital fuel that provides energy for metallurgy, is known for its role in consuming energy and emitting pollutants. As the largest iron and steel making country in the world, China looks poised to resolve the dilemma with a significant breakthrough in coking technology developed by state-owned enterprise ACRE Coking & Refractory Engineering Consulting Corporation, in the form of a 7-meter, top-loading coke oven. Industry pioneers Also known as high temperature carbonization, coking is a process which heats coal to…

Call me a calligraphy and Chinese painting junkie. While other women spend their money on designer clothes and shoes, I spend mine on a painting with avant garde plum blossoms, a faux Qi Baishi or a misty Yellow Mountain scene in autumn. So, naturally, when a Chinese calligraphy master invited me to his studio, I was excited. What a treat! My limited exposure to calligraphy up to that point consisted of strolling through the National Art Museum of China exhibits or admiring elderly men “painting” characters on Beijing’s sidewalks with large brushes, water and a few flicks of the wrist. Calligraphy master and painter Wang Xing is an internationally renowned prizewinning artist who is involved in many associations promoting calligraphy. His spacious apartment in the outskirts of Beijing doubles as…

Camel-Riding Holiday Tourists ride camels on their way to visit the Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring scenic zone in Dunhuang, northwest China’s Gansu Province, on April 5. China had over 100 million domestic tourist trips during the three-day Qingming Festival holiday, up 8.3 percent from 2017, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Xi’s Book Goes Online E-books of the English and French editions of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s book on poverty relief were officially released on April 9. Xi, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, was the Party chief of Ningde City in southeast China’s Fujian Province from 1988 to 1990. Titled Up and Out of Poverty, the book contains 29 of his speeches and articles,…

The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference provides heads of state, government officials, scholars and entrepreneurs an opportunity to share their insight. Around 60 formal discussions were held this year, where participants exchanged ideas on issues ranging from innovation and the sharing economy to new retail. Comments to zanjifang@bjreview.com…

On March 22, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum targeting China’s so-called “economic aggression,” threatening to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China based on an investigation into alleged Chinese intellectual property and technology transfer practices under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974. He also directed the U.S. Treasury Department to propose restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States. While warning that the Chinese side will fight to the end in any trade war, China on April 2 launched a countermeasure in response to a previous U.S. move to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The Ministry of Finance announced the suspension of tariff concessions on 128 items of U.S. products. Subsequently, on April 4, the Office of U.S. Trade…

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development bank, has helped many Asian countries improve their infrastructure, deepen regional integration and accelerate poverty reduction, according to Supee Teravaninthorn, Director General of AIIB’s Investment Operations Department. “We have three mandates: sustainable infrastructure, regional connectivity and private capital mobilization. As the Chinese proverb says, ‘Better roads lead to a better life’,” Teravaninthorn said. AIIB promotes green infrastructure, helping countries to meet their environmental and development goals. As far as regional connectivity is concerned, the bank prioritizes cross-border infrastructure, ranging from roads and rails, to ports, energy pipelines and telecommunications across Central Asia, the maritime routes in Southeast and South Asia, the Middle East and beyond, the AIIB official explained. Concerning private capital mobilization, AIIB devises innovative solutions to catalyze private capital…

Yuan Jianglei, 27, is one of a handful of people who can say they have cycled through Africa completely solo. Beginning his epic adventure in the West African country of Benin, Yuan finished 10,544 km and 333 days later in his hometown of Ningbo, east China’s Zhejiang Province. The journey, which came to a celebratory end in September 2017, took him through 16 countries. “This was an amazing experience,” Yuan told Beijing Review. “Personally, I love outdoor sports. I can have greater freedom, look at the varied scenery and experience different cultures and lifestyles, especially in Africa, a continent which is very dear to my heart.” The ride was underpinned by a charity program initiated by Yuan, aimed at improving local people’s access to drinking water and electricity in Benin,…

Keep a Close Watch A worker oversees a production line at a textile company’s smart workshop in Haian, east China’s Jiangsu Province, on April 10. Textile companies in Haian have been encouraged to introduce intelligent manufacturing equipment and build intelligent plants in an effort to raise product quality and efficiency. In 2017, the output value of the local textile industry increased 4.2 percent year on year. Booming Consumption As China’s economic transition swiftly continues, consumption has become a ballast for stable economic growth, official data showed on April 10. Final consumption contributed 58.8 percent to economic growth in 2017, up from 45.3 percent in 2007, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website. Retail sales, a main gauge of consumption, rose 9.7 percent year on year in the…

Amid a rising tide of trade protectionism in some parts of the world, Chinese President Xi Jinping has declared that China will expand its opening up and continue to advance cooperation with its economic partners. Xi made the announcement while delivering a keynote speech to more than 2,000 politicians, scholars, and leaders in business and media from over 60 countries and regions at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2018 on April 10 in south China’s tropical Hainan Province. The four-day conference is the first major diplomatic event to be hosted by China this year. A series of key measures will be unders taken to broaden market access, create a more attractive investment environment, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) and expand imports. A more open…

President Xi Jinping’s address at the annual Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) on Hainan Island occurred within a particular domestic and international context. The domestic one is that 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the start of the reform and opening-up era from the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978. As with many of these anniversary events, it will allow for some stocktaking and reflection on what has been achieved. Some of these issues were contained in Xi’s speech—lifting people out of poverty, improving the material conditions of the Chinese people, dramatically opening China’s domestic economy to the outside world. No doubt there will be much more focus on these as the year proceeds toward December, when the famous plenary…

Despite ups and downs, the Sino-Indian relationship has generally maintained a friendly and cooperative orientation in past decades. After experiencing a border stand off last year, the two countries’ bilateral relations are gaining momentum. Low ebb Last June, a border stand off erupted between the two sides when Indian military personnel entered Chinese territory in the Donglang area from India’s Sikkim State in the west, intervening in construction work by Chinese border forces. In the aftermath, regarding the incident as having harmed its territorial integrity and national security, China conducted firm negotiations while showing respect and restraint, which ultimately resulted in a peaceful solution without direct military confrontation. Thereafter, there have been several further acts by India which have continued to harm the development of the two country’s bilateral relationship.…

In October 1929, the U.S. stock market crashed. Over the course of the following weeks and months, billions of dollars in wealth evaporated, banks failed, companies collapsed, and millions of ordinary people in the United States and around the world lost almost everything and were left unemployed. The Great Depression had begun. In the U.S. the immediate response was an attempt to protect American industry and agriculture as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was signed into law on June 17, 1930. The act established an isolationist trade policy for the United States by increasing tariffs on more than 20,000 imported products. While the act was being deliberated, governments from around the world protested, warning of retaliation. More than 1,000 U.S. economists signed a letter urging President Herbert Hoover, who was himself…

China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) China’s Non-Manufacturing PMI China’s Comprehensive PMI (Source: National Bureau of Statistics) ($1=6.29 yuan) 13.6% Year-on-year growth of China’s fiscal revenue in the first quarter of 2018 35% Year-on-year decrease of Chinese direct investment in the United States in 2017 100 bln yuan Planned investment by Chinese real estate conglomerate Evergrande Group in hi-tech sectors such as aviation, new energy, artificial intelligence and modern agriculture in the next decade 2.02 mln units China’s passenger vehicle sales in March, up 3.3 percent year on year 3.2% Hong Kong’s projected economic growth in 2018, according to the Asian Development Bank 53.4% China’s logistics performance index for March, up from 50 percent in February 16 bln yuan Investment by FDG Electric Vehicles Ltd. in a 400,000-unit new-energy vehicle plant…