Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 60/No. 50 i Beijing Review

KENYA The third session of the United Nations Environment Assembly kicks off in Nairobi on December 4. More than 4,000 delegates from across the globe attended the meeting to talk about measures to combat pollution SYRIA A bus laden with explosives blows up in a neighborhood of the city of Homs on December 5, killing at least eight people ZIMBABWE President Emmerson Mnangagwa attends the newly elected cabinet’s inauguration ceremony in Harare on December 4, during which he vowed to revive the nation’s economy FRANCE First lady Brigitte Macron attends a naming ceremony for the panda born four months ago at Beauval Zoo in SaintAignan on December 4. The cub is called Yuan Meng, which means “a dream comes true” in Chinese BRAZIL Performance artists join the local celebration of…

‘I’ve been under the weather recently.” “Where does it hurt?” “Could you be more specific?” “When did it start?” This seemingly conventional conversation between a patient and a doctor appears normal enough, but all is not as meets the eye. The exchange in fact took place between a patient and a robot named Wangzai at the exhibition center hosting the Fourth World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, east China’s Zhejiang Province. Wangzai, whose technical name is Sogou01, has been developed as part of a collaboration between Sogou Inc., one of China’s leading Internet product and service providers, and the Tiangong Institute for Intelligent Computing of Tsinghua, a department at one of the country’s top academic institutions, with the help of experts from robotics laboratories around the world. Utilizing the latest…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) submitted in mid-November a statement to the WTO refusing to grant market economy status (MES) to China. The U.S. decision, which was made public on November 30, confirms that it holds the same position as the EU of opposing China “automatically” obtaining MES. The USTR submitted the statement as a third-party brief in support of the EU. In December 2016, China brought a case against the EU because the latter refused to grant MES to China and continued using the surrogate country approach in its anti-dumping cases against China. According to Section 15 of China’s accession protocol, signed upon the nation’s WTO entry in 2001, the surrogate country approach expired on December 11, 2016, and all WTO members must abandon the approach…

The lowering of tariffs on a wide range of consumer goods will benefit foreign brands in the Chinese market, and in the long run will also give a boost to domestic producers. Effective as of this month, tariffs on products in 187 different categories including baby formula, diapers and cosmetics, will be reduced from 17.3 percent to 7.7 percent on average, whilst those currently imposed on certain types of baby formula and disposable diapers will be cut to zero, the Ministry of Finance said on November 24. The reduction will afford consumers cheaper access to those high quality and specialty products that cannot be produced at home in a bid to meet increasing domestic demand, the ministry said. The new plan echoes the government’s pledge to bolster imports, open up…

Villages’ Transparency Central authorities have called for the setting up of supervisory commissions on village affairs, according to a guideline released on December 4. The village affairs supervision commissions will help to “overcome unhealthy tendencies, curb corruption, promote harmony and stability and improve governance in villages,” according to the guideline issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council. The commissions will be made up of three to five people to specialize in management or accounting. They will be voted in at the village meeting or villagers’ assembly. The commissions will be responsible for supervising village affairs and financial management, as well as consulting villagers’ suggestions. The commissions will ensure decision-making processes are in accordance with standard procedures, and ensure full disclosure…

For Zigong, a southwestern city with a population of 3 million, winter is perhaps its most glamorous season. Every year during the Chinese New Year holiday, a largescale Lantern Festival, famed as one of the most gorgeous in the country, is held there, brightening up this usually grey, industrial city in Sichuan Province. The centuries-old tradition of the lantern festival has gained increasing popularity in recent years, especially since Zigong was featured on China’s premiere national television network CCTV. During the festival, tourists flock to the city from neighboring towns and provinces, its streets awash with visitors. But the excitement soon subsides, and after the festival the city returns to relative obscurity. Now the city is striving to change the situation. “Zigong is accelerating its transformation from an old industrial…

Surrounded by boundless desert and buffeted by sandstorms, unfrozen at minus 20 degrees Celsius, a massive project quietly came into production in the Qaidam Basin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau on November 30. Designed to effectively utilize the lithium, boron and potassium resources of the Yiliping Salt Lake, the project is now running with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons of potassium chloride, a chemical with multiple uses in agriculture, medicine and food production. This signifies the first successful major collaboration between the country’s leading mining group, China Minmetals Corp. (CMC), and engineering procurement construction giant, the Metallurgical Corp. of China (MCC), since their strategic merger in 2015. An arduous task On February 24 this year, the China MCC5 Group Corp. Ltd., a member company of the MCC, won the…

PMI According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) was 51.8 percent in November, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from last month. The latest figure showed the steadily rising momentum of the manufacturing industry. The PMI of large enterprises was 52.9 percent, decreasing 0.2 percentage points from last month while remaining firmly in the expansion range; that of medium-sized enterprises was 50.5 percent, increasing 0.7 percentage points from last month and moving back above the threshold; and that of small enterprises was 49.8 percent, up 0.8 percentage points from last month. Among the five sub-indices composing PMI, the production index and new orders index were higher than the threshold, while the main raw materials inventory index, employed persons index and supplier delivery time index…

The task of governing the world’s most populous nation is anything but simple. The challenges China has faced during its transition toward economic development can serve as a reference for ruling parties elsewhere, especially amongst developing countries themselves. China’s success comes at a time when many countries are looking for new paradigms on which to base their development, and as power gradually shifts away from traditional strongholds in the West. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said the CPC is willing to work with other political parties around the world to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and to create a better world. Xi made the remarks while delivering a keynote speech at the…

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held its 16th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government in the Russian resort city of Sochi from November 30 to December 1. It was the first meeting of its kind since the regional bloc expanded its membership in June to include India and Pakistan. The SCO now has China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan as its full members. The participants not only discussed the current international and regional security situations, but also focused on the potential for economic cooperation and cultural exchanges under the SCO framework. In a joint communiqué issued after the meeting, all member countries promised to actively carry out the agreement reached during the 17th SCO Meeting of Heads of State, held in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana in…

Industrial restructuring, tough environmental protection policies and a government campaign to remove excess capacity has taken its toll on some Chinese companies, with many struggling to adjust to these challenges. For those companies, reorganization could be an effective solution, Bai Guohong, CEO of Huarong Yufu Capital, said during a parallel session at the Ninth Global Private Equity Beijing Forum held on December 2. Bai provided a case to elucidate how his firm functioned in the current situation. His example honed in on a sewing machine factory in east China’s Zhejiang Province. With financial problems looming, namely unregulated expansion and overcapacity, bankruptcy seemed inevitable for the plant, but Huarong’s Zhejiang branch came to their aid, purchasing all the company’s bonds at a discounted rate and supplying abundant liquidity. As a result,…

Hainan is a place of dreams to Wang Yanfen, who went on a long-planned visit to the southernmost province of China, the same latitude as Hawaii, in late November. With its warm weather and beautiful scenery, Hainan, hailed as the “back garden” of China, is welcoming its peak tourism season as winter gets into full swing and temperatures plunge to zero or even lower in the northern part of the country. In addition to the weather, the hospitality of the local people has also impressed Wang deeply. “I feel I’m at home, and actually, this is the first time I’ve come to Hainan,” Wang told Beijing Review on the beach of Wuzhizhou Island. The island is a famous tourist destination in Sanya, with the best preserved coral reef and diving…