Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 61/No. 43 i Beijing Review

Private Investment The Chinese Government’s intensified efforts to encourage the private sector’s participation in infrastructure investment for healthy economic growth are yielding results. By the end of September, over 1,200 local infrastructure projects worth at least 2.5 trillion yuan ($362 billion) had been promoted among private companies, the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s economic planning agency, said. The firms reportedly have shown interest in 150 projects worth at least 250 billion yuan ($36 billion). At the same time, they signed eight airport construction agreements with investment totaling nearly 50 billion yuan ($7.2 billion). Infrastructure schemes comprise energy and transportation projects, highways, garbage disposal facilities and reservoirs. The private sector accounts for more than 60 percent of China’s total fixed assets investment. It rose 8.8 percent year on year in…

Allen Chen starts his normal work day in his office at Standard Foods Co., located in the Xiamen Area of the Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ). Standard Foods, headquartered in Taiwan, signed an investment contract with the FTZ authorities in November 2015 and Chen was put in charge of the project. In the past two years, the time he has spent more time in Xiamen than in Taiwan. “I feel comfortable investing, working and living here,” he said. This is Xiamen’s strength. The coastal city in southeast China’s Fujian Province sees millions of tourists every year, drawn by its lush greenery, mountains and pristine beaches. In addition, investors also flock to the city, which pioneered the FTZ trend in China, persuaded by its efficient, convenient and transparent investment climate.…

As the ferry slowly approaches Sanqiutian Wharf on Kulangsu Island off Xiamen in southeast China’s Fujian Province, the excitement is palpable. From the distance, amid the patches of lush vegetation, rows of impressive, century-old European-style buildings and villas, restored to their former architectural glory, stand proudly scattered over the idyllic landscape. Those villas and buildings on Kulangsu were built by foreigners during the mid-19th century, and later were abandoned or converted into apartments. As the signal for reform and opening up spread all over China in 1978, economic development became the priority. The seeds of entrepreneurship were sown and Xiamen was on the frontlines, becoming one of the first four special economic zones in 1979. After three decades of tremendous economic growth and increasing prosperity, and with the prospect of…

Widely known in the past as China’s heavy industry base, northeast China is now in the midst of tremendous change. After wading through a period of economic stagnation, the region has been going all out to pursue a transformation and win favor from both domestic and foreign investors. At a symposium on pushing forward the revitalization of northeast China held in Shenyang in Liaoning Province on September 28, Chinese President Xi Jinping noted that efforts should be made to improve the business environment and foster new growth engines, stressing the importance of equipment manufacturing for the development of the real economy. On October 11, German luxury carmaker BMW and its Chinese partner Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. jointly announced the prolongation of the validity of their joint venture agreement until…

($1=6.9 yuan) $70 bln Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the first half of 2018, making China the largest FDI recipient worldwide in that period 1.38 tln yuan China’s new yuan-denominated loans in September, up from 1.28 trillion yuan in August 81.05% Year-on-year growth of China’s new-energy vehicle sales in the first nine months of 2018 56.7% Average price cut for 17 anti-cancer drugs newly included in China’s basic medical insurance program $40 bln Cumulative two-way investment between China and Germany by October 14 853.97 points Average China Export Containerized Freight Index in September, up 2.9 percent from a month earlier 9.9% Year-on-year growth of China’s foreign trade in the first nine months of 2018, reaching 22.28 trillion yuan 440.1 bln yuan Total sales volume of 30 Chinese listed property…

Girls perform a bamboo pole dance in Sanya, south China’s island province of Hainan, on October 5. The State Council rolled out a plan to develop Hainan into a pilot free trade zone (FTZ) on October 16. Under the plan, the island will be granted more autonomy to reform, speed up the fostering of a law-based, international and convenient business environment, as well as create a fair, open, unified and efficient market environment. The future FTZ is also expected to display the country’s ecological progress, build an international tourism and consumption center and a zone offering services and support for the country’s major strategies.…

TURKEY Police officers at work outside the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul on October 15. A Turkish team entered the consulate to conduct a search since Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared after entering the consulate and Turkish media reported he was killed inside MOROCCO The mangled coach of a train that derailed on October 16, killing six passengers. The service connected the northern cities of Casablanca and Tangier FRANCE A bridge is shut down in Lagrasse, Aude Province, on October 15 due to massive floods. The death toll in the southern province rose to 13 overnight JORDAN Cars from Jordan traverse a key border crossing with Syria on October 15. The Jaber-Nasib checkpoint reopened that day BELGIUM British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the European Council in Brussels on…

Seven years ago, Loic Leclercq, the cofounder of an interior designing company in Shanghai, made a “crazy decision”: to leave the financial hub and open a French restaurant in a coastal city. He relocated to Xiamen in southeast China’s Fujian Province and it changed his life. “I had always wanted to be a chef, even when I was a kid,” the 34-year-old told Beijing Review. However, his father’s opposition forced the French national to become a computer graphics and 3D design major instead, and later, an interior designer. “But the passion stayed inside me,” he added. The turning point came in 2011 when Leclercq first visited Xiamen on holiday. He fell in love with the city at first sight. “I discovered such a relaxed place with great weather and an…

Tajikistan abounds in a variety of high-quality cantaloupe due to its unique geographical position. However, underdeveloped domestic transportation has long been a hurdle to the delicious fruit being exported to and enjoyed in other parts of the world. But, since August 2016, when the Vahdat-Yovon Railway started operation, the situation has changed greatly. Constructed with Chinese concessional loans and technology from Chinese companies, the railway—the first since the founding of the republic in 1991—is now well connected with the old railway network from the Soviet Union era. This has helped Tajikistan become more interlinked and turned the landlocked country into a hub of international railway transportation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, pushing forward the quick development of the resource-rich country by linking it wider to the…

U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade battle with China has no end in sight and seems to have gone beyond tariffs. After imposing tariffs on $250 billion of imports from China, Trump threatened to “levy even more, with the possibility of substantially more than doubling that number.” Then in a speech on October 4, Vice President Mike Pence launched a broader attack, accusing China of intellectual property (IP) theft, military aggression and attempts to interfere in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections. “The lack of trust in the U.S. about China and the lack of knowledge is so pro-found that the tension is not only going to stay on trade,” Peter Walker, a former senior partner at McKinsey & Company, told the media on the sidelines of the 2018 U.S.-China Relations Conference…

Broadly speaking, the wave of economic transformation produced by reform and opening up in China over the past four decades has swept across the country from south to north. The development of certain regions, from Shenzhen in Guangdong Province to the Pudong New Area in Shanghai, has served as a powerful centrifugal force, exerting influence on surrounding areas and beyond, and grabbing headlines around the world via rapid economic progress in the process. Now, it seems to be time for northeast China’s Liaoning Province to assume the spotlight. At the end of August, the China Top 500 Private Enterprises Summit 2018 was held in Shenyang, the province’s capital. Representatives from Fortune Global 500 companies, as well as some of the most prestigious business figures in China, joined the discussion and…

Illegal Vaccine On October 16, Chinese authorities handed out penalties totaling more than 9.1 billion yuan ($1.32 billion) to a company for the illegal production of a human rabies vaccine. Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd. violated China’s laws and regulations on drug management and production, according to an administrative penalty decision made by national and local drug authorities. Violations included blending different batches of vaccine fluid, falsifying dates of production and using expired fluid to produce some of the batches. The National Medical Products Administration annulled the rabies vaccine approval document and certificates for related products from the company and imposed a fine of 12.03 million yuan ($1.73 million). The Jilin Food and Drug Administration revoked the company’s pharmaceutical production license, confiscated the illegally produced vaccines and took control of…

A survey conducted between August and September shows that Chinese people’s impression of Japan has improved since 2014, matching the momentum of improved bilateral ties. The result was released ahead of the 14th Beijing-Tokyo Forum held in Tokyo on October 14-15, the highest platform for civil diplomatic dialogue between China and Japan. According to the survey, 40 percent of the 1,500 respondents across China said their feelings toward Japan have “improved” or “comparatively improved” this year, a two-fold increase from 20.4 percent in 2017. Also, 30.2 percent believed that relations between China and Japan are “getting better,” while 24.1 percent felt the opposite. The figures were 14.7 percent and 44.5 percent, respectively last year. However, 38.2 percent of the respondents thought bilateral ties would be “better” or “relatively better” in…

For 42-year-old Zeng Guo, sandstorms are a lasting horrible memory. He was born and raised in the Gobi Desert in Alahake, a town in Altay, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In the past, residents had no way to resist a sandstorm. As a result, when it came, they were forced to hide indoors. “The problem of sandstorms was severe in the Gobi Desert. Every three or five days, a wave of sandstorms would arrive, lasting five to seven days. Standing in my family’s field, I could only see our patch of land; the rest of the world was full of yellow sand,” Zeng told Beijing Review. But now, through planting gaubau kender, a special herb found only in the Gobi Desert in Altay, the once sandstorm-torn town has turned…

Against the backdrop of accelerated technological progress and shorter technology updating cycles, private enterprises in China can no longer maintain a leading position in the industry just by relying on traditional methods such as imitation and copying. They must strengthen research and development and accelerate technological innovation to gain competitive advantages and realize leapfrog development. During the process of economic transformation, private businesses are facing several severe challenges. Rapid growth in investment in China in the past few years has led to excessive production capacity in many traditional industries. Of the 39 major industrial sectors, nearly 21 report overcapacity. Because of market access restrictions and other reasons, most private enterprises belong to the traditional industries with overcapacity. They have been facing great difficulty in getting financing, with the problem intensified…

At the Beijing Gold Lacquerware Art Museum in southeast Beijing, Wan Zi, an inheritor of the ancient technique, works on creations with her two apprentices. Archaeological findings show that lacquerware techniques, which were listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008, originated in China 7,000 years ago as a process to protect material such as bamboo, wood and metal. It gives the materials a waterproof coating due to its hard, resinous finish. It later became a decorative technique. Beijing’s gold lacquerware technique originated during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) as a palace art form. It was popularized among the masses during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). After graduating from high school in 1979, Wan joined Beijing Lacquerware Factory where she learned the highly revered skill. Over the past decades, Wan…