Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 60/No. 29 i Beijing Review

IRAQ The scene in Mosul on July 10 after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared the old city liberated from the “Islamic State” militant group THAILAND A bus accident takes the lives of two and injures 24 on Phuket Island on July 10. The bus was carrying Chinese tourists MONGOLIA New President Khaltmaa Battulga (front left) attends the inauguration ceremony for his government in Ulaanbaatar on July 10 UNITED STATES A boy crawls through a mud pit during the Kids’ Obstacle Challenge event in El Monte, Los Angeles, on July 8 UNITED NATIONS The UN Security Council decides to establish a second mission for the Colombia peace process at the UN headquarters in New York City on July 10 SWITZERLAND The International Olympic Committee solidifies an unusual plan to…

Comments to liuyunyun@bjreview.com The G20 Summit in the German city of Hamburg will be remembered for both the disagreements among the leaders of the 20 members in the conference hall over issues like climate change and the violent pro-tests outside. The participants were upset at the withdrawal of the United States, represented in Hamburg by President Donald Trump, from the Paris climate change agreement. But their frustration injected a greater sense of purpose, and they succeeded in isolating and cornering Trump. The G20 went ahead minus Trump to announce support for the Paris deal. The leaders also decided against any kind of “renegotiation” of the agreement signed in Paris in 2015 though Trump had previously suggested a revised version could make him change his mind. There was greater unity of…

Comments to wanghairong@bjreview.com A row of dilapidated adobe houses dot the slope of a loess hill in Zhaojiawa, a laidback village in Xinzhou, central Shanxi Province in north China. Many of them have been abandoned as their resi-dents moved out of the village in search of greener pastures. Some of the villagers who have stayed on are grappling with extreme poverty. Wang Sannu is one of them. The 68-year-old lives with her orphaned granddaughter and grandson, who are both mentally challenged. Their bedroom, bereft of any other furniture or ornament except a brick bed with newspapers pasted on the walls and the ceiling, mirrors their stark condition. Xinzhou, due to its inhospitable loess land and steep ravines, is one of China’s poorest places. The mountain-dominated landscape and drought-prone weather make…

Comments to dengyaqing@bjreview.com Following on the heels of the two stock connect schemes between Shanghai and Shenzhen and their Hong Kong counter-parts in 2014 and 2016, the Chinese mainland’s Bond Connect with Hong Kong was launched on July 3. This marks a new chapter of mutual financial market access between the mainland and Hong Kong. In the initial phase, the long-expected cross-border bond trading link will allow only international and Hong Kong investors to trade onshore bonds. In other words, it’s only northbound for the time being. As stipulated in the joint statement by the People’s Bank of China (PBC) and Hong Kong Monetary Authority released on July 2, the “northbound” Bond Connect, which makes it possible for qualified overseas in- vestors to buy bonds in the mainland interbank bond…

Comments to lifangfang@bjreview.com At the 41st session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Poland on July 7, Hoh Xil was inscribed as a new world natural her itage site, making it the largest natu- ral heritage site in China, with an area of 45,000 square kilometers. Hoh Xil, which means “beautiful girl” in Mongolian, is located in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the world’s largest and highest plateau. With an average elevation of 4,000 meters above sea level, the Qinghai- Tibet Plateau contains the headwaters of most of the major river systems in the region, including China’s Yellow River and Yangtze River. A paradise for wildlife, Hoh Xil is home to more than 230 wild animal species including endan- gered creatures such as the Tibetan antelope and…

On a Mission Soldiers see off a naval ship at a port in Zhanjiang, south China’s Guangdong Province, on July 11. The ship is part of a flotilla that carries military personnel who will set up a support base of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Djibouti in Africa. It was decided to establish the base after friendly negotiations and it accords with the common interest of the people from both sides, according to the PLA Navy. The base will ensure China’s missions such as escorting, peacekeeping and humanitarian aid in Africa and West Asia. Startup Push The central authorities have pledged to go further on innovation-driven development and entrepreneurship, with more policy incentives for entrepreneurship from overseas. According to a set of guidelines released after a State Council Executive…

Comments to liuyunyun@bjreview.com The author is a researcher with the China Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai This is an election year for Europe. The UK and France have already gone to the polls, and Germany, the Netherlands and Italy will soon do likewise. While the public is worried about the rise of far-right parties, a spate of terrorist attacks has distracted people’s attention. This is especially so in the UK, where four terror- ist attacks within four months have cast a shadow over the whole country. The root causes In the past few decades, some Western countries interfered with other nations’ internal affairs through military means, often in the name of protecting human rights and democracy. However, when chaos arises after the original power balance is broken, they walk…

Comments to zanjifang@bjreview.com Rapid development and mass urban- ization in China in the last 30 years have brought about massive transfor-mation in the social fabric of the country. As China enters the “new normal” of eco- friendly and sustainable development in an innovative and service-oriented economy, a slow return to traditions and to the charms of country life is now transforming villages. Anhui is the archetype of this new trend. Once one of China’s poorest prov- inces, it is now home to a thriving tourism sector and a source of inspiration for the multitudes in search of their ancestral roots and traditions. Back to the countryside If China’s urbanites once used to embrace all the trappings of the modern world, they are now increasingly eager to connect with rural life.…

Inflation Steady China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.5 percent year on year in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on July 10. The June expansion remained unchanged from May’s reading, and increased from April’s 1.2 percent and March’s 0.9 percent. On a monthly basis, however, the CPI declined 0.2 percent, according to the bureau. The NBS attributed the monthly decline in the CPI to lower food prices, which dropped 1 percent month on month in June. Fruit prices dropped 4.2 percent month on month in the same period. Pork and vegetable prices fell 3.4 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. Year on year, food prices dropped 1.2 percent in June, while non-food prices rose 2.2 percent. Jiang Chao, chief economist at Haitong Securities,…

Comments to liuyunyun@bjreview.com The author is an op-ed contributor to Beijing Review and a researcher at the Pangoal Institution The annual summit of the Group of 20 (G20) has always been the cen-ter of the world’s attention ever since it was first held in 2009. The international community antici-pates progress from these meetings in terms of cooperation on fostering world economic recovery and global governance. But growing differences in policies and subtle changes in relations between major powers have influenced the solidarity of the G20—the summit hosted by Germany in Hamburg on July 7-8 hinted as much. The world wonders where a changing G20 will lead it. Changing landscape The U.S. presidential election and Brexit last year caused dramatic political changes in the United States and Western Europe. These changes…

Comments to yulintao@bjreview.com Amid hard bargaining and compromises, the G20 Summit in Hamburg concluded with a joint communiqué issued without the U.S. However, it was still a better-than-expected result in view of U.S. President Donald Trump firmly holding his “America first” flag. After all, better aught than naught. In the communiqué, the members reiterated their support for globalization, opposed trade protectionism and committed themselves to open markets. They decided to establish a stable international trade system to promote transnational investment. The leaders of the member countries and the European Union also agreed on closer cooperation to fight terrorism, fulfill existing anti-terrorist commitments and strengthen information sharing. There was consensus on capping terrorists’ sources of financing as well as combating terrorist activities using the Internet. In addition, they launched an initiative…

Comments to yulintao@bjreview.com In the past three decades, Asia was the most dynamic region in the world for economic growth with the emergence of a handful of emerging economies. It is home to more than two thirds of the world’s population and ac-counts for one third of the global economy. But at the same time, Asian countries also face a variety of traditional and non-traditional threats, including territorial disputes, terrorism, extrem- ism and poverty. In response, scholars and political celebrities from 26 member states and 14 observing countries of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) as well as repre- sentatives of international organizations have proposed deeper regional integration as a promising solution. They reached the consensus at the Second Conference of the CICA Non-Governmental Forum held…

Comments to zanjifang@bjreview.com In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, comprising the development plans of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. The initiative aims to im-prove infrastructure and economic cooperation along these routes. Yantai, a coastal city in east China’s Shandong Province, had been one of the starting points on the northern Maritime Silk Road. The city is well-known for its gold reserves and its abundant production of apples, cherries and wine. Rich history and resources Back in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Yantai was considered to be an important harbor be- fore the Opium Wars in the mid-19th Century. However, the subjugation of the then Qing Government (1644-1911) by foreign powers and the signing of unequal treaties had a big…

Comments to zhouxiaoyan@bjreview.com With specific goals and a clear timetable, China is determined to improve the ef-ficiency of its state-owned enterprises (SOEs). By the end of this year, China will basically have completely restructured SOEs, according to the 36th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform. A modern corporate system, which separates government administration from business operations, will allow SOEs to func-tion as efficiently as other business entities, according to Li Jin, chief researcher with the China Enterprise Research Institute. According to the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council, over 90 percent of the subsidiaries of central SOEs had been restructured by the end of 2016, while the ratio of enterprises supervised by provincial-level state asset regulators also reached over 90 percent.…