Innholdsfortegnelse for March 31, 2016 i Beijing Review

Patent Filings China continued to perform strongly in international patent and trade-mark filings against the backdrop of a moderate worldwide intellectual property filing growth, according to the latest figures released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on March 16. International applications filed under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) grew to 218,000 in 2015, up 1.7 percent year on year, marking the PCT’s slowest growth in five years. China’s PCT applications ex-ceeded 29,800 last year, increasing 16.8 percent over the same period last year. The country maintained its No.3 ranking for the third year in a row, following the United States and Japan The top three companies with the most applications were China’s Huawei, U.S.-based Qualcomm and China’s ZTE Corp. Huawei has consecutively held the top spot since 2013. Costlier…

Comments to dengyaqing@bjreview.com China shattered economic growth records over the past few decades, yet in 2015 it recorded its slowest growth figures in 25 years. China now turns to its supply side in search of new growth sources throughout its 13th Five-Year Plan period, lasting from 2016-20. “At present, structural contradictions are conspicuous in economic development. What’s most glaring is the supply side’s failure to respond to changes in demand, which has affected the manufacturing, service and even agricultural sectors,” Xu Shaoshi, Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference held on March 6. “Therefore, the current priority should be given to correct the misallocation of production factors, expand effective supply and enhance the adaptability and flexibility of supply structure,” Xu added. In the past,…

Comments to yulintao@bjreview.com The Japanese Government appointed Yutaka Yokoi ambassador to China on March 25. Yokoi, 61, is classified as a “China-school” diplomat, and is the first of such to be named ambassador to China since 2010. A China-school diplomat refers to employees of the Japanese Foreign Ministry who underwent language training in China. The announcement bears special connotations against the backdrop painted by an enduring chill in China-Japan relations. Though the appointment is widely regarded as a positive signal for detente, many scholars have noted that the deadlock between the two countries is a result of a variety of factors. If these underlying problems cannot be addressed, it is hard to envision an adequate thaw in relations. A positive approach The appointment is viewed by many as a constructive…

Comments to yuanyuan@bjreview.com After more than 10 years of drafts, hearings and revisions, the nation’s first law on charitable activities reached its final form on March 16, against a backdrop of scandals in philanthropic organizations and an unrelated boom in posts soliciting charity donations on the Internet, especially through social media. Such adverse conditions were not expected by Wang Ming, President of the NGO Research Institute at Tsinghua University and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), when he took part in the original drafting process of the law more than a decade ago. “When the Ministry of Civil Affairs for the first time suggested drafting a law on charities in 2004, charity was still an uncommonly thought of concept for many people…

Comments to wangjun@bjreview.com Last year, the Chinese economy recorded its slowest annual growth rate in a quarter of century at 6.9 percent. Although official statistics have not yet been released, the market, however, is optimistic about the economic status of the world’s second largest economy in the first quarter of 2016. The view is shared by top officials. Major economic indicators were showing signs of improvement until early March, said Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli at the opening of the China Development Forum 2016 held in Beijing on March 20. “If we can overcome this year’s challenges, we may have better prospects for next year,” he added. Pan Jiancheng, deputy head of the China Economic Monitoring and Analysis Center under the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), interpreted “better prospects” as healthier…

Premier Li Keqiang meets with representatives from industrial, financial, academic and media circles attending the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in Boao, south China’s Hainan Province, on March 24. This year’s conference, themed Asia’s New Future: New Dynamics and New Vision, lasted from March 22 to 25. At the event, more than 2,000 participants from over 60 countries and regions discussed a wide range of topics including the macroeconomy, politics, entrepreneurship, innovation, the Internet, public well-being and culture.…

BELGIUM People are evacuated from the Brussels airport on March 22 after deadly blasts rocked the city. The death toll had risen to 34 as of March 23 RUSSIA Rescuers work at the crash site of the Boeing 737-800 Flight FZ981—operated by Dubai-based budget carrier Flydubai—at the Rostov-On-Don Airport in Russia on March 19. The crash took all 62 lives on board CUBA U.S. President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro take part in a press conference at the Revolution Palace in Havana during Obama’s maiden trip to Cuba on March 21 MALAYSIA People hold umbrellas to take shelter from the extreme heat in Kuala Lumpur, which was caused by a strong El Nino phenomenon INDIA A widow dances during a pre-celebration of the Holi festival, held in…

Comments to yushujun@bjreview.com China’s iron and steel industry is shackled by problems derived from excess production capacity over the past years, triggering a plunge in the price of steel. “[Overproduction in the industry] is a widely known fact,” said Ma Guoqiang, head of the China Iron and Steel Association and President of the Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp. (WISCO), in an interview by the website of People’s Daily. Ma added that the surplus in production was a result of the fast growth that both the global and domestic economies had witnessed in previous years. During the heydays of economic growth, the industry had to keep up with the growing demand on raw materials such as iron and steel, which led to decisions to expand capacity. In the iron and…

Comments to wanghairong@bjreview.com Lu Guoyi, deputy head of Beijing’s Fangshan District, went on trial at the Beijing No.4 Intermediate People’s Court on November 25, 2015, not for any personal wrongdoing, but on behalf of the defendant — the district government. The intermediate court, established at the end of 2014, was created as a pilot for judicial reform. “The Beijing No.4 Intermediate People’s Court pushes forward administrative litigation, where staff of administrative organs have appeared in courts in 100 percent of cases, substantially contributing to the settlement of administrative disputes,” said Zhou Qiang, President of China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC), in the work report he delivered to the National People’s Congress on March 14 in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. Previously, administrative cases in the various districts of the capital…

Comments to yanwei@bjreview.com When Sun Xiaomeng left the city of Zaria in north Nigeria after finishing her master’s in the famed Ahmed Bello University in 2005, she went to say an emotional goodbye to an unusual group of acquaintances—the Hausa vendors at the local market where she used to buy her groceries during her two-year stay. “It was a moving experience,” said the now-38-year-old, who serves as the dean of the School of Asian and African Studies at the prestigious Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) in the Chinese capital. “When I went to Nigeria in 2003, I was the only Chinese person in the city and a novelty to the people in the market. When they heard me speaking in Hausa, their native language, they were astounded. ‘Where did you…

Hand in Hand Attendants of the First Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting—Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Vice President of Myanmar Sai Mauk Kham (left to right)—pose for photos in Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province, on March 22. The meeting was held on March 23 with the theme “Shared River, Shared Future.” Higher Sea Levels China’s average annual rise in sea levels from 1980 to 2015 was 3 millimeters, higher than the global average, according to a report released by the State Oceanic Administration on March 22. The decade between 2006 and 2015 saw the fastest rise in the past 30 years, with the mean sea level increasing by 32…

Comments to liuyunyun@bjreview.com Saudi Arabia rolled out a series of changes in its domestic and foreign affairs in 2015 as it responded to a rather complex set of circumstances. In the face of challenges put forth by the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) militant group, the sharp decline in global oil prices, the continued war in Yemen, the ongoing conflict in Syria and the deterioration of Saudi-Iran relations, Saudi Arabia’s somewhat new King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has taken rare steps in order to maintain political and economic control of these situations. Though some international media outlets are pessimistic about Saudi Arabia’s outlook, the current domestic political and economic situation is in fact—at least for now—relatively stable. However, the kingdom may face even more challenges in the months to come…

The European Central Bank (ECB) has recently issued a package of measures to ease its monetary policy. These actions include cutting main interest rates in the euro-zone to zero, reducing the deposit rate further from minus 0.3 percent to minus 0.4 percent, expanding quantitative easing (QE) to 80 billion euros a month from 60 billion euros, and purchasing more assets by expanding its money printing program. These “gifts” from the ECB will affect not only the eurozone, but also the global market. The ECB should change its anti-deflationary policies. Otherwise by prescribing too much “medicine” in the form of its easy monetary policies, the economy in the eurozone may overdose, which would have dire consequences for the global economy, too. The ECB has racked its brains to lift the European…

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 Google’s AlphaGo computer system defeated South Korea’s Go grandmaster Lee Se Dol 4 to 1 in March, marking a historic milestone for computer programmers and artificial intelligence (AI) researchers. The match between Google’s computer software and Lee, who topped the world’s Go player ranking from 2007 to 2011, attracted attention from the world as they competed for a $1-million prize. Mastery of Go, an ancient East Asian board game, has long been regarded as a real challenge for AI given its complexity and number of…