Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 62/No.29 i Beijing Review

Penalty for Defaulters A new guideline released by the China Securities Regulatory Commission for the recently launched science and technology innovation board highlights information disclosure and strengthens sanctions on credit defaulters. Companies applying for listing on the new board will face tougher scrutiny while credit defaulters will be exposed. Companies blacklisted by other government departments or in other sectors will be flagged during the examination. Credit defaulters, including those registering with false information or violating information disclosure laws and regulations, will be placed on a blacklist circulated among various authorities and departments. The blacklist will prevent them from applying for fiscal funds, serving as legal representatives and chief executives of their companies, receiving honorary titles and prizes, and boarding planes or trains. The tougher punishment will help create a better…

When Hong Kong-headquartered headwear company Yangzhou Everbright decided to open a base in Yunnan Province in southwest China, it took only 45 days from the first field trip to the spot it had chosen, the industrial park in Ruili City, to the new plant there to begin production on May 8. “It was not just Ruili’s advantageous location as a Chinese gateway to the Southeast Asian market that made us invest here,” Yuan Xiaobing, Director of Yangzhou Everbright’s new plant in Ruili, said. The city’s strategic position as one of China’s key experimental zones for development and opening up and the all-around service and customized solutions that the industrial park provides were the clinching factors for his company’s quick decision to build the new plant here. Besides headwear manufacturing, which…

The Botanical Pavilion at the International Horticultural Exhibition 2019 in Beijing is one of the four main venues of the expo. Themed Wisdom of Plants, it covers an area of about 10,000 square meters and is divided into three floors. With an area of about 3,000 square meters and more than 600 plants, the first floor is a massive tropical greenhouse. There is a diversity from the plant kingdom, including artificial mangroves, tropical rainforests, palm plants, ferns, plasma plants, insectivorous plants and dwarf moss. It fully demonstrates the wisdom of plants in adapting to various environments. The second floor is a multi-functional lecture hall where different thematic exhibitions are held. The third floor is a cafe and bookstore for visitors to take a break and shop for books and souvenirs.…

For Jiang Ying, a resident in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province, picking a restaurant for a family dinner is a decision which includes many requirements. Her parents, both in their 60s, prioritize the quality and safety of food, while her 4-year-old son loves theme restaurants with entertainment facilities. Jiang focuses more on restaurant evaluations provided by other customers. “Service is also very important,” she said. “It is better if the restaurant can be reserved online or by a mobile app.” All of Jiang’s concerns can now be met as a new pattern has developed in the catering industry in recent years. “There is a lot of information on Dianping.com or from WeChat posts. Based on the ratings of a selection of candidates, I can find the restaurant that meets my…

($1=6.9 yuan) 337 mln tons China’s carbon trading by the end of June 64.22 mln The amount of active monthly users in China’s fitness sports industry by the end of May, rising 1.7 percent year on year 114.6% Year-on-year growth of China’s mobile data consumption in the first five months of the year, reaching 45.2 billion gigabytes 116 mln The number of market players in China by the end of June, with an average of 19,400 enterprises newly established on a daily basis, up 7.1 percent year on year 40 tln yuan Outstanding loans by Chinese financial institutions to private businesses at the end of May, marking a 5.8-percent increase from the start of the year 800 mln The estimated number of 5G smartphones to be delivered in 2023 globally,…

Attendants show souvenirs on bullet train G305 from north China’s Tianjin to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on July 10. With a capacity for more than 1,100 passengers, it will take about 10 hours to arrive at Hong Kong West Kowloon Station. The 2,450 km-long route will run through several stations including Baiyangdian Station in Xiongan New Area. The direct high-speed train service between Tianjin and Hong Kong is part of a new national train diagram launched on the same day.…

PERU Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra and Colombian President Ivan Duque (from left to right) attend the 14th summit of the Latin American Pacific Alliance trade bloc in Lima on July 6 AUSTRALIA Robots play soccer during the Standard Platform League competition at the RoboCup 2019, an international event showcasing the cutting edge of robotics technology, in Sydney on July 5 GREECE Outgoing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (right) welcomes newly elected Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to the Maximos Mansion, the official seat of the Greek prime minister, in Athens on July 8 INDIA People stand by a damaged bus on the outskirts of Agra district in Uttar Pradesh on July 8. The death toll from the bus accident stood at 29, while…

After Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit at the end of June in Osaka, Japan, and agreed to restart economic and trade consultations, trade tension between the two largest economies in the world glimpsed a ray of hope after the stalemate of the past couple of months since trade negotiations broke down in early May. Where do current China-U.S. trade and economic relations stand and where are they heading? A group of prominent politicians, scholars and business leaders gathered in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) for a two-day forum themed U.S.-China Trade and Economic Relations: What Now, What Next on July 9-10, in an attempt to answer these questions. Cohosted by two think tanks, the China Center for…

China unveiled its updated special administrative measures (negative lists) for foreign investment market access on June 30, further cutting off-limit items in its pursuit of further opening up. Jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the two new lists will take effect on July 30. It is the fifth time that the negative lists have been revised over the past six years. Items restricting foreign investment on the list for pilot free trade zones (FTZs) that enjoy higher-level opening up have been cut from 45 to 37, while on the list for non-FTZ areas, items have been slashed from 48 to 40. The reforms will expand the country’s market access and allow foreign investors to run majority-share or wholly-owned businesses in…

With Suning.com, one of China’s leading retailers, announcing it was purchasing a controlling stake in French retailer Carrefour’s business in China, retail in China gets a fresh impetus. Suning now joins the two tech giants Alibaba and Tencent in turning to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) businesses for growth. Home appliance specialist Suning runs one of China’s largest business-to-consumer e-commerce platforms. A company report said it had over 8,800 stores in more than 700 cities by the end of the first quarter this year. Eyeing the greater opportunities brought about by New Retail, a concept introduced by Alibaba founder Jack Ma that refers to the integration of online, offline, logistics and technology in a single business, Suning is now improving the weak points in its grocery and fresh food arm. The…

Guillermo Memo Mata realized a childhood dream in China. The former U.S. marine founded and coached China’s first juvenile tackle football team in Shanghai, east China. Teaching Chinese kids how to play U.S. football helps Mata stay grounded thousands of miles away from home. Li Mianjun, founder of Beijing-based Shenmo Education, which specializes in mental math, introduces Chinese abacus calculations to kids in a small neighborhood school in South Central Los Angeles, making the wonder of the ancient calculating tool known to more people on the other side of the Pacific. Though the two specialize in different fields, they have one thing in common: bridging different cultures on their own. They are accidental diplomats, who find ways to get along by simply getting to know their counterparts half the world…

Maiden Voyage The MSC Gulsun docks at the Tianjin Port Pacific International Container Terminal in north China’s Tianjin on July 8. The world’s largest container vessel by carrying capacity, it set sail from north China’s port city of Tianjin on July 8, heading for northwestern Europe. Afforestation Drive Since the project of returning farmland to forest and grassland was launched in 1999, forests have increased by 33.5 million hectares, a forestry official said on July 9. The increased area accounts for 42.5 percent of China’s artificial forests, Zhou Hongsheng, an official with the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, told a press conference. About 335,000 hectares of farmland has been returned to grassland, accounting for 2.2 percent of the total artificial grassland area. Two rounds of returning farmland to forest and…

Avaccine administration law was adopted by the National People’s Congress (NPC) of China, the top legislative body of the country, on June 29, marking the beginning of improved vaccine administration. The law will go into effect on December 1. Whole-process supervision As biological products used on healthy people, mostly infants, vaccines pertain to public health, and hence to public safety and national security, said Jiao Hong, head of the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), at a press conference on June 29 at the Great Hall of the People to announce the adoption of the law. “Vaccine supervision will cover the whole process, from vaccine development, production and distribution to vaccination,” she said, noting that in light of their unique characteristics, vaccines should be subject to the strictest regulation. The law…

China’s consumption market has maintained overall stability so far this year, retaining medium-high speed thanks to a slew of government policies. As the biggest driver of China’s economy, consumption remained stable overall during the January-May period, with the total retail sales of consumer goods up 8.1 percent year on year. It is expected to hit 8.2 percent in the first half of the year, said Wang Bin, Deputy Director of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce. China’s online retail sales, a key consumption growth driver in 2019, came in at 3.86 trillion yuan ($562 billion) in the first five months, accounting for over one fifth of the country’s total retail sales of consumer goods, industrial data showed. JD.com, the e-commerce giant that created…

Recently, some lawmakers have proposed that given China’s aging population, the current legal age for marriage should be lowered from 22 for men and 20 for women to 18 for both. The proposal has triggered a heated discussion. In a survey by The Beijing News newspaper, 60 percent of respondents opposed it, with only 20 percent expressing their support. Another survey by the People’s Daily had a whopping 82.8 percent of the participants opposing it. Most people believe that lowering the age will not necessarily encourage more people to get married earlier. The dipping marriage and birth rates are due to various factors. For example, in big cities especially, people don’t marry early usually due to all kinds of pressures at work and in their daily life, not because of…