Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 62/No.48 i Beijing Review

YEMEN Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik (center) is interviewed upon returning to Aden on November 18, after a power-sharing deal was signed with the Southern Transitional Council (STC) earlier this month. The STC had forced the government to go into exile in Saudi Arabia ITALY People walk on a trestle bridge in flooded Venice on November 15. The city declared a state of emergency with the waters rising up to 1.8 meters, devastating the tourist paradise EGYPT A freighter sails on the Suez Canal in the city of Ismailia on November 17, the day the strategically important waterway was officially opened 150 years ago SRI LANKA New President Gotabaya Rajapaksa addresses the nation in Anuradhapura on November 18 following his swearing-in ceremony CUBA The 500th founding anniversary of capital Havana is…

Although it was a little chilly after strong winds that swept much of the fall foliage away, Uncle Yao, a 71-year-old resident of Huilongguan in Beijing’s northern outskirts, still kept to his routine of playing the saxophone in a neighborhood park accompanied by several other seniors playing either the saxophone or the flute. The Huilongguan Sport and Cultural Park was buzzing with activities, with grannies trailing after their toddling grandchildren, joggers running along a winding green synthetic track, dancers spinning and swirling on a circular terrace surrounded by trees, singers indulging in their own tunes and people playing various ball games. “The park looks much prettier than before. More varieties of trees were planted, gently sloping mounds were created, decorative structures were built and sports facilities were added,” he told…

The UN found itself with a deficit of $230 million at the end of September. UN Secretary General António Guterres said on October 8 that he had written to member states “about the worst cash crisis facing the UN in nearly a decade.” This is not the first time the UN has been struggling financially. These problems emerged as early as the 1980s, deteriorating later and reaching a peak in the 1990s. Due to $1.3 billion in unpaid dues in the past two years, the UN is once again facing extreme difficulties. According to the UN website, as of November 12, only 135 of the 193 member states had paid their 2019 regular budget assessments in full. Political defaults Why does this UN financial crisis occur repeatedly? As an intergovernmental…

When the annual online shopping craze pushed the total sales volume of Alibaba’s business-to-customer marketplace Tmall to a record high of 268.4 billion yuan ($38.27 billion) on November 11, Zong Ning posted his total earnings for the day at 199,000 yuan ($28,375) on his WeChat Moments, the app’s news feed feature. It represented income from memberships for his online course, which covers how to earn money from independently operated social media accounts, known as self-media or We Media in China. Subscribers pay 1,800 yuan ($257) to join Zong’s WeChat group, where he gives instruction on running self-media accounts on social media platforms Weibo and WeChat, news aggregators Baidu and Toutiao and video-streaming app Kuaishou, among others, something he has been doing since 2014. Born in 1982, Zong moved to Beijing…

Robert C. Merton, a U.S. economist and professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1997 for his pioneering method for determining the value of derivatives. He attended the China-Singapore Demonstration on Strategic Connectivity Financial Summit 2019 in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing on November 4-5. In an interview with China Focus, an online magazine published by the China International Publishing Group, Merton shared his views on China’s economy, its business environment and China-U.S. trade tensions. An edited version follows: China Focus: At present, the global economy faces downward pressure. How do you view the current state of the Chinese economy, as well as its digital economy, artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging industries? Robert C. Merton: In the short…

The average life expectancy of the Chinese has risen from 35 before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to 77 years in 2018. That’s what I’ve often read in books or heard in documentaries about China. And there is a good reason for that as the Chinese strive to do sports regularly and follow a balanced diet. This is what I have seen during my stay in capital Beijing, where I have been living since the end of last February. This ability to do sports regularly has been made possible thanks to the numerous parks scattered throughout the capital. The same is also true in some provinces where during my travel I saw public places designated for sports with no fees. They often have table tennis…

Cave of Wonders The world’s largest stone coral forest in the Snow Jade Cave in Fengdu County, Chongqing in southwest China, on November 9. It is the youngest karst cave to be discovered and developed in China. Fewer Dropouts The number of students dropping out of compulsory education in China’s impoverished areas has reduced significantly, according to the Ministry of Education. Data from the ministry showed the number of students who drop out of compulsory education, which covers primary and junior high school, in the 832 national-level impoverished counties decreased from 290,000 to 65,000 by the end of May. To better address the issue, the ministry has organized three nationwide inspections to verify the number of dropouts and has set up an online database that records detailed information on them…

Global challenges from regional conflicts and terrorism to widening income gaps and climate change have nudged humanity to a crossroads: globalization or anti-globalization, multilateralism or unilateralism, integration or isolation. While some are retreating to the easier option of unilateralism and isolationism, Chinese President Xi Jinping has been leading a spirited defense of multilateralism to make economic globalization more invigorated, inclusive and sustainable. This commitment featured in Xi’s state visit to Greece and his trip to Brazil for the 11th BRICS Summit in mid-November, where he called for global efforts to uphold multilateralism and steer the world toward the vision of a community with a shared future for humanity. “We are meeting at a time when crucial developments are taking place in the world economy and international landscape,” Xi told the…

In an age of sci-fi and animation films, one of the most acclaimed movies released in China in late October, surprisingly, is based in school. Better Days, directed by Tsang Kwok-cheung, starts out with a 12th grader preparing for gaokao, the national college entrance examination, but then becomes a universal tale of school bullying, depression and teen angst shared by millions of youngsters the world over. The film shines a light on school bullying, which is a problem in China as well. According to an ongoing survey launched in 2013 by the National Survey Research Center at Renmin University of China, over 50 percent of the primary schoolchildren surveyed said they had been bullied in school. It also says the figure was 61.2 percent in junior middle school and 49.6…

China continues to see an uptrend in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow as investors remain bullish on tapping into a huge market with growing ease of doing business. Data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on November 18 showed that FDI into the Chinese mainland expanded 6.6 percent year on year to 752.41 billion yuan ($107 billion) in the first 10 months of the year. In October, China’s year-on-year FDI growth almost doubled from that of September. The 7.4-percent rise is enviable given the significant uncertainties that could impact the scale and contours of FDI in 2019 and 2020. According to the latest Global Investment Trends Monitor report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, global economic growth has fallen and growth forecasts have continued to be revised…

In the library of the Kibii Primary School, around 40 km east of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, the children are all smiles—and with good reason. They have just got their hands on a batch of brand new books, a perfect addition to the school’s new building, which opened five years ago. The books and the school building have something in common. They were donated as part of a Chinese assistance project. The China-Africa Project Hope is a joint initiative of ToJoy, a Chinese company that provides financing and operational support to help enterprises access different markets, and China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF), a non-governmental organization (NGO) in China, launched in 2011. The international assistance project is helping some of Africa’s poorest rural areas improve their educational environment by building schools, providing…

Economic Census Results of China’s fourth national economic census were released on November 20, showing that the country’s economic structure continued to improve between 2013 and 2018. At the end of 2018, the aggregate business capital in the secondary and tertiary industries reached 914.2 trillion yuan ($130.38 trillion). The secondary industry, which includes industrial and construction enterprises, accounted for 19 percent of the total assets, while the tertiary industry, or the service sector, accounted for the remaining 81 percent. There were 18.57 million corporations in the secondary and tertiary industries at the end of 2018, of which 98.8 percent were domestically funded companies, 0.6 percent were corporations with investment from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and 0.6 percent were foreign-funded enterprises. The secondary and tertiary industries employed a total of…

When my family and I came to Xiamen in southeast China for the first time in 1988, I quickly fell in love with China and became a foreign teacher at Xiamen University. At that time, the living conditions were harsh. Every day, the running water was out once or more, power outages were frequent, and transportation wasn’t convenient. But the people were warm, friendly and hospitable. In order to get acquainted with the real China, I decided to travel around China in my own way. So in 1994, I drove with my wife and sons all around China. We drove up the coast to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Qingdao, over to Beijing, down to Xi’an, to Qinghai, Tibet, through Yunnan and south China, and back to Xiamen, so pretty much…

A diehard fan of her mother’s dumplings, Liu Jun had often longed to share the “taste of mom’s cooking” with more people and finally in 2016, she put her dream into action. The entrepreneur from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China started her dumpling business in her hometown Beitun, naming her company Beitun Nanhuwan Food after the city. Though a new player, Liu feels confident about the prospect of her business, especially after the new pro-business policies introduced by the government. “The recent tax and fee reductions have been a boon for us startups,” Liu said, calculating how she has benefited. Implemented since January 1, one of the new measures is the revision of value-added tax (VAT). Earlier, it had to be paid by all businesses with monthly sales…

107.75 bln ton-km Transport turnover of China’s civil aviation sector from January to October, up 7.5 percent year on year 20 tln yuan Total assets of China’s insurance companies at the end of September, up 8.9 percent from the start of the year 7.6% Year-on-year decline of China’s bicycle output in the first three quarters of the year 14.6 bln m3 Output of China’s natural gas in October, up 8.2 percent year on year 93.94 bln yuan Total profit of China’s home appliance sector during the January-September period, up 5.9 percent year on year 6.3% Year-on-year growth of retail sales of China’s convenience stores during the first three quarters of the year 82.17 bln yuan Business revenue of China’s postal sector in October, up 21.4 percent year on year 4%…

The boom of live-streaming video and e-commerce platforms in China has attracted many social influencers, or Internet celebrities, to advertise certain brands and products. The number of influencers and their fans is surging. In 2018, sales based on live-streaming marketing amounted to more than 100 billion yuan ($14.3 billion), up by almost 400 percent year on year. Influencer marketing is making itself a force that can’t be ignored. However, a growing number of cases of influencers making fools of themselves while advertising products are shedding light on a pressing issue. While reaping huge profits, some influencers are turning a blind eye to the quality of the products they are pitching. For example, online celebrity Li Jiaqi, who once sold 15,000 lipsticks within five minutes and was dubbed “the king of…