Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 62/No.47 i Beijing Review

Easier Financing Top banking and taxation authorities have pledged to further deepen their collaboration and provide more concerted support for private and small firms. To better alleviate enterprises’ financing difficulties, efforts will be made to help them turn taxation credit into financing credit, said a recent notice jointly issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the State Taxation Administration. A direct link between taxation and banking data should be promoted while banks should be encouraged to upgrade their credit products, said the notice. In the meantime, local taxation and banking departments must ensure data security and confidentiality to protect enterprises’ business secrets. Banking and taxation authorities launched the interactive mechanism in 2015 in a bid to solve the information asymmetry during the fundraising activities of small companies.…

Noting that the summit was held at a time when crucial developments are taking place in the world economy and international landscape, Xi pointed out that a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is in the ascendant, and the unstoppable rise of emerging markets and developing countries has injected strong impetus into the reform of the global economic governance system. Nevertheless, there are also causes for concern, Xi said, referring to rising protectionism and unilateralism; greater deficit of governance, development and trust; and growing uncertainties and destabilizing factors in the world economy. Faced with profound changes rarely seen in a century, Xi said, the BRICS countries should grasp the trend of the times, respond to the call of the people, and shoulder their responsibilities. “We must remain true…

In China, when beef is mentioned, people normally think of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north, where the lush extensive prairies provide the best feed for cattle. Conversely, when Chongqing, a municipality in southwest China, is mentioned, spicy hotpot is one of the first things that come to mind. It is difficult to relate beef cattle to mountainous Chongqing whose red soil is not conducive to growing grass. Yet Fengdu, a county in Chongqing, has become a core area for rearing beef cattle, forming a full industrial chain that has integrated feed production, ecological breeding, deep processing, research and development, and marketing. The local government envisions that by 2020, the number of cattle heads raised in Fengdu will reach 400,000 and the output value of the entire industry will…

At 3 a.m. on November 11, Jin He, a teacher in his 20s based in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, finished paying for all the goods in his shopping carts on Tmall, the digital marketplace of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, and another e-commerce platform JD.com. For him, waiting for flash sales that start at midnight on the annual 11/11 online shopping festival has become a ritual since 2012. Jin spent about 8,000 yuan ($1,142) on Tmall and 2,000 yuan ($285) on JD.com this year, buying products ranging from clothes to household appliances. According to him, about a third of these commodities were pre-ordered during promotional activities starting in late October. “The prices offered for the event were really good with big discounts, and the delivery was fast,” he told…

In May 2018, Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing service company, suspended its hitch carpooling service from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. as part of its response to the murder of a woman passenger. On November 6, Didi announced that it would resume this service, but in order to ensure the safety of women passengers, it would ban women from using the service after 8 p.m. The plan was supposed to be put into practice as a pilot in seven cities on November 20, but was canceled as a result of a public backlash, which labeled the move as discrimination against women. Although it was canceled, the plan led to debate and discussion on what new rules Didi should adopt when it resumes this service and problems concerning this type of…

Luo Shugang (right), Minister of Culture and Tourism, and Pansy Ho Chiu-king, daughter and representative of Macao-based tycoon and collector Stanley Ho Hung-sun, unveil a red bronze horse-head statue at the National Museum of China in Beijing on November 13. Stanley Ho decided to donate the horse head statue to the National Cultural Heritage Administration on the same day to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 20th anniversary of Macao’s return to China. The statue, one of 12 decorative Chinese zodiac signs, was located in the former imperial resort of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Yuanmingyuan. Also known as the Old Summer Palace, Yuanmingyuan was built in 1707 in northwestern Beijing and often referred to as “the garden of gardens” for its…

CUBA Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel (left) and Spanish King Felipe VI inspect the honor guard in Havana on November 12, during the first official visit to the Caribbean country by a Spanish monarch INDONESIA Police officers stand guard at the scene of a suicide bombing at the Medan city police headquarters, which injured at least six people, on November 13 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES People visit the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference on November 11. With the theme Oil and Gas 4.0, the event focused on the fourth industrial revolution and highlighted the impact of digitalization and emerging technologies on the sector YEMEN A child receives treatment for malaria at a hospital in Sanaa on November 13. Yemen is in a health emergency, battling malaria and dengue fever ZIMBABWE…

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Port of Piraeus, a 30-minute drive from downtown Athens, on November 11 during his recent state visit to Greece, the port was the picture of hustle and bustle. One of Europe’s busiest ports, its terminals were packed with containers from all over the world. Ships docked in at regular intervals and the cranes remained busy loading and unloading the cargo. Rows of trucks shuttled back and forth. And it’s not only sea-faring vessels that the port serves. Some of the goods stored there are destined to be shipped by land. They will be carted off along the rail routes of the China-Europe Land-Sea Express that link the port to Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic and other parts of Europe. But 11 years ago,…

Located in downtown Shanghai, Yuyuan Garden, which was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), is a classical Chinese garden with an exquisite design. On the evening of November 5, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan invited visiting French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron to tour the garden and have dinner at one of its pavilions. Macron began his second state visit to China in Shanghai on November 4. During his three-day trip, he attended the Second China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai and held talks with Xi in Beijing. Macron’s trip, which marked the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, brought Sino-French ties to a new high, something that is expected to act as a stabilizer in…

As many e-business owners hailed surging sales during China’s November 11 online shopping festival, e-cigarette merchants were forced to watch from the sidelines during the flurry. Makers and sellers of e-cigarettes were ordered to shut down their online shops and remove any related online ads, according to a government notice released by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation on November 1. Four days later, several Internet companies where e-cigarette products were still available were told to take them down by market regulators in Beijing. “Our department started to work on product promotion for the shopping festival a month ago, which ended up being for nothing,” Li Guoxing, marketing manager of a medium-sized e-cigarette shop located in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province of south China, told…

($1=7 yuan) 2.4% Year-on-year increase in China’s 25.63-trillion-yuan foreign trade in the first 10 months of this year 230 Number of companies from all over the world that have already signed up for the Third China International Import Expo, with pre-ordered exhibition area exceeding 84,000 square meters 5.4% Year-on-year increase in the operating revenue of major Chinese electronic information manufacturing companies in the first nine months of 2019 235.43 tln yuan Volume of futures trading in China in the first 10 months of the year, an increase of 37.38 percent from a year earlier 5.6% Year-on-year growth of China’s value-added industrial output in the first 10 months of the year 661.3 bln yuan China’s new yuan-denominated loans in October, a year-on-year drop of 35.7 billion yuan 40 tln yuan Volume…

Winter on the Horizon A man collects hay in a meadow in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province in northwest China, on November 8. Local herds people were busy storing food for their livestock ahead of winter. Income Growth Rural residents in poverty-stricken areas saw a robust growth in their disposable income in the first three quarters of the year, official data showed. Their per-capita disposable income was 8,163 yuan ($1,167), up 10.8 percent year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The income increased 8 percent from the same period last year after deducting inflation. The growth rate was 1.6 percentage points higher than that of rural residents nationwide and 1.9 percentage points higher than the national average. Their per-capita wages expanded 12.2 percent year on…

It was the middle of March and most places in Mozambique were in chaos and ruins after Cyclone Idai devastated the country, affecting over 70,000 people. Buzi, a relatively populous district in Sofala Province, was dangerously isolated until China Search and Rescue Team (CSAR) managed to land there. Dispatched at the request of the Mozambican Government, CSAR deployed 65 members, including medical specialists, search and rescue personnel, logistics personnel and liaison officers. Unlike other rescue teams in Mozambique, which focused mainly on medical services and evaluation, it also had water rescuers and rubber boats. In total, CSAR members carried about 20 tons of materials and equipment with them to Mozambique. Fulfilling tasks “We were one of the first teams to arrive at the devastated areas,” said Fu Jie, CSAR’s liaison…

From extensive exploitation to the utilization of cutting-edge technologies, Wang Qimin, 82, has seen the growth of the Daqing Oilfield located in Heilongjiang Province in northeast China over the past 60 years. Born in Huzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Wang chose to major in petroleum at the Beijing-based China University of Petroleum by chance, never imagining that he would be closely connected with the oilfield and see its key turning points. The oilfield was discovered as the largest in China on September 26, 1959, and began to be exploited in 1960. Its name, which means great celebration, was chosen to mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Daqing Oilfield is now a subsidiary of the country’s largest oil producer China National Petroleum…

The Beijing Subway carriage looked different. It was newly painted in ivory, red and yellow, and had striking images painted on the ceiling, walls, seats and floor. There were images of ancient Chinese bronze artifacts, like the famous ritual vessel more than 3,000 years old displaying the head of a goat with long, curled horns on each of its four sides, and the famous Terracotta Warriors from Xi’an in northwest China. Every image had an inscription. For instance, next to a celadon candle holder shaped like a sheep was written: “Shedding light on your future.” The original candle holder, unearthed in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province in east China, in 1958, was used during the Kingdom of Wu, one of the three major kingdoms during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280). Next to…