Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.63/No.40-41 i Beijing Review

Sixteen people from six poverty-stricken families became the biggest test for Xie Wanju, First Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Zhadong Village Branch, in the second half of this year. Zhadong, a remote village in Hechi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China, is surrounded by mountains. It lacked roads and arable land, which led to its underdevelopment. The 16 were the last group of people to be lifted out of poverty with improved housing, clean drinking water and electricity by the end of September. By the end of 2019, more than 200,000 CPC members had been appointed as first secretaries in all the registered poverty-stricken villages like Zhadong. Entrusted with targeted poverty alleviation and helping improve local governance in the villages where they are sent, these first secretaries…

The truck, laden with farm produce and baskets of raw silk cocoons, was ready to leave. The driver started the engine and Qin Yongfu, standing in front of his two-story house, waved goodbye to him. Soon the truck vanished on the new concrete road, leaving the village of Zhadong behind. The mountainous village, located in the city of Hechi in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China, is an important silkworm base today. It has a history of planting mulberry and raising silkworms for over 470 years. Qin has been in this industry for 17 years. Before the concrete road came up, selling the silkworm cocoons used to be challenging. Finding a way Zhadong is a picturesque village but living there was tough in the past. Surrounded by mountains, it had…

Yoshihide Suga, a long-time right-hand man of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was elected to the top government post at an extraordinary parliamentary session on September 16. His campaign slogan was to carry on Abe’s unfinished mission. The political turmoil in the 1990s and at the turn of the 2010s led to a strong desire for stability in Japanese society. The long administration of Junichiro Koizumi (2001-06) and Abe (second, third and fourth terms, 2012-20) gave the people just that, even if they didn’t help tackle the country’s deep-rooted problems. Thus Abe’s abrupt resignation in late August due to health concerns, though shocking, did not reversed the tendency. Against this backdrop, Suga will likely continue much of Abe’s policies. Suga assumed the post of prime minister after succeeding Abe…

Both domestic and foreign-funded companies in China have been readjusting their supply chains amid dynamics in total costs, uncertainty in tariffs, vulnerabilities of globalized supply chains and governmental push for reshoring. Nonetheless, the supply chain shifting outside of the global manufacturing powerhouse doesn’t mean companies are leaving China, according to experts. The globalization of supply chains over the past quarter century has improved economic efficiency, but at the cost of economic resilience and sustainability, partner and emerging market strategist with Macro Research Board Partners Mehran Nakhjavani said recently. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, arriving on the back of the U.S.-China trade tensions, has clearly demonstrated the vulnerability of global supply chains, Lucy Qiu, strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management, told Xinhua on September 16. It is likely that some…

Four years ago, when Xie Wanju, a military veteran, was selected to head the poverty alleviation work in Zhadong, a mountainous village in Hechi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China, he was reluctant. The job came with a lot of pressure and would leave him little time for his family. Though he finally accepted his new position—First Secretary of the Communist Party of China Zhadong Village Branch—all he wanted was the two-year term to come to an end as soon as possible, even before he had gone there. But when he finally reached the village, the abject poverty he saw there jerked him out of his reluctance. “There was only a small path in the mountains and it took me four hours to reach my first household,” Xie told…

Discussions about a possible China-U.S. decoupling have been ongoing for over a year, with scholars from many countries airing various opinions. Even though the U.S. hasn’t formally defined its policy, related remarks by President Donald Trump and his team, as well as their actions over the past two years, show that their decoupling has both long-term and near-term considerations. Ultimately, they want to cut off exchanges in all aspects between the two countries and downgrade bilateral interactions to the level of the U.S.-Soviet Union relationship during the Cold War, as Trump said the U.S. reserves “complete decoupling from China” as a policy option. Currently, the U.S. strategic orientation is to make every effort possible to limit, restrain and reduce cooperation with China and suppress China by all means. Unrealistic attempts…

At the 99 Giving Day, an annual charity event held on September 9, donations poured in from Internet users, enterprises and the Tencent Charity Foundation of technology company Tencent. They totaled more than 3 billion yuan ($443 million), marking a new high in the cause of charity in China. On that day, various charitable activities were held across the country. Many charities live-streamed their projects on various social media platforms while viewers donated during the live shows. The Changchun XinYu Volunteer Association in Jilin Province in northeast China received funding from several charitable foundations. The association engages volunteers from local universities to raise funds for disabled children and children from poor households and offer them tutoring services and psychological counseling. Launched in 2015 by Tencent, together with other organizations and…

The annual China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT), held in Xiamen, Fujian Province in southeast China, from September 8 to 11, had an online version too for the first time, this being a special period of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic prevention and control measures. Matching its new form, it focused on new themes as well, such as new infrastructure, the digital economy and technological innovation, exhibiting products with new technologies. Besides CIFIT, other expos held recently in China have also adopted new technologies and new forms to promote economic activities while ensuring COVID-19 prevention measures. The spring China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), once postponed, was held online in June, a first in its history. Advertising campaigns, matchmakings between buyers and sellers, negotiations and all other…

($1=6.9 yuan) Fixed Assets Investment Growth in China (% y.o.y.) Fixed Assets Investment Growth in China by Sector January-August (% y.o.y.) Primary industry: Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery Secondary industry: Mining, manufacturing, construction, and electricity, thermal, fuel gas and water production and supply Tertiary industry: Services Fixed Assets Investment Growth in China by Region January-August (% y.o.y.) (Source: National Bureau of Statistics) The National Development and Reform Commission approved six fixed assets investment projects with investment totaling 88.2 billion yuan in August. The projects were mainly in the transportation and information industries. 8,408 companies were listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) as of September 18. Launched in 2013, NEEQ offers small and medium-sized enterprises a new financing channel with low costs and simple listing procedures. China’s…

Arecent investigative report by a Chinese monthly magazine, Renwu, gave an insight into the working conditions of China’s food delivery people, circulating widely on social media. It revealed how food delivery drivers are pushed by companies to deliver food in an increasingly short timeframe, all at the behest of algorithms that often turn a blind eye to real-life situations including traffic conditions and regularly send them on dangerous routes (against traffic, down footpaths and on highways), and penalize them if meals are even one second late. The system constantly assesses a driver’s on-time performance and assigns a ranking, which affects whether he is assigned more work. As a result delivery people are constantly risking their life to deliver meals on time, resulting in a rising number of traffic accidents. Meituan…

XIE ZHENYE WINS MEN’S 200 M Sprinter Xie Zhenye clocked a 20.72-second win in the men’s 200-meter race at the 2020 Chinese National Athletics Championships on September 17, adding to his 100-meter title. The 27-year-old is the Asian record holder in the men’s 200-meter race after he broke Nigerian-born Olympian Femi Ogunode’s record at the London stop of last year’s Diamond League with a timing of 19.88 seconds. He also became the first Chinese to finish the run under 20 seconds. Despite heavy rain on September 17, Xie dominated the race from the start. It was his second gold at the championships after winning the 100-meter race with a timing of 10.31 seconds on the opening day of the event. Children’s Meals People’s Daily September 18 The saying “when the…

Chinese President Xi Jinping co-hosted a China-Germany-EU leaders’ meeting in Beijing on September 14 via video link with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Germany holds the EU’s rotating presidency. The leaders reached an agreement on strengthening cooperation in major fields such as a bilateral investment treaty (BIT), climate change and the digital economy. They also announced the signing of a bilateral geographical indication (GI) deal, which demonstrates that China-EU cooperation is on track to make new progress. GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. For example, if suppliers label cheese products not originating from Feta as Feta cheese, they infringe…

The number of registered charitable organizations has risen rapidly. By the end of 2019, there were over 7,500 registered charity organizations, up by 40 percent year on year. In comparison, last year saw the number of social organizations in China grow by 6.2 percent to 867,000. Overseas non-governmental organizations (NGOs) became more active in China in 2019. There were 534 overseas NGOs registered in China, mostly in Beijing and Shanghai as well as Guangdong, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. They carried out programs in a wide range of areas including education, medical care and poverty alleviation, becoming an important force in promoting charity. The number of volunteers has also increased. By March 16, the number of volunteers registered with real names reached 169 million, up 13.9 percent from 2018. The total…

The top 500 private enterprises in China have all registered growth in 2019, with the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, east China, maintaining its reputation as home to the largest number—39—for 18 consecutive years. However, despite the growth in revenue, they face several challenges, with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) this year being a new hurdle. These are among the key facts that emerged from the Top 500 Private Enterprises Summit 2020 held in Beijing on September 10, where the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce released their annual list of the top 500 private firms and a survey report on them. Last year, 94.6 percent of these companies took the initiative in pursuing business transformation toward high-quality development, the report said. “Despite the challenges of increasing economic downward…

When U.S. President Donald Trump allegedly downplayed the severity of the novel coronavirus in the early days of its spread, did he take his country’s best interests into consideration? In his new book Rage, veteran journalist Bob Woodward has quoted Trump as saying that he kept information about the virus’ deadliness from the public because he did not want to “create a panic.” Unsurprisingly, Trump’s narrative has failed to convince Americans. When White House trade adviser Peter Navarro tried to dodge a question on September 13 about why Trump was not straightforward with the American people, a CNN host cut the interview short with a pointed statement: “The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, and the United States has more than 20 percent of the…