Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.64/No.1 i Beijing Review

China’s Central Economic Work Conference, which took place between December 16 and 18, 2020, is a regular event occurring at the end of every year. Reviewing the economic efforts of the past year, analyzing the current situation and making preparations for the new year’s undertakings, the conference has become a focal point of society. As the conference revealed, in 2021, China’s overall economic narrative will focus on eight areas, such as to strengthen the national strategic science and technology, create more independent industrial and supply chains, boost domestic consumption, push forward reform, tackle the housing problem in big cities, step up anti-monopoly efforts and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital. Based on the current economic development and the scientific assessment of future economic momentum, the eight tasks were identified after…

Compared with the progress and status of China’s economy and trade, its financial system seems to be much less impressive and powerful. Many analysts regard it as a major vulnerability in China’s economic development. The basic facts, however, underscore the success of the system and its global importance today: China has the second largest stock market and bond market in the world; and the four biggest Chinese banks are consistently among the top 10 financial institutions in the world. Actually, China has come a long way in building up a modern financial system, despite many complex challenges. More dramatic progress is anticipated in the next five years, as outlined in the proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). Recent progress China’s financial system is generally composed of the banking…

China’s National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Commerce have jointly issued new measures for security review of foreign investment. Issued on December 19, 2020 under the approval of the State Council, the new measures are set to take effect on January 19. According to the new measures, foreign investment that will be subject to security review include those relating to military industries, other national defense and security fields, locations close to military facilities or military industrial facilities, as well as major agricultural products, energy, and certain fields that have importance to national security. Foreign investors or the relevant Chinese parties will be required to proactively report any foreign investment within the aforementioned scope to the office in charge before making the investment. Any illegal practices such as failure…

Though China’s new Export Control Law came into force at the end of last year, on December 1, 2020, its coming was anticipated earlier. In November, the prices of rare earth elements, of which China is the largest exporter in the world, had jumped in anticipation of possible restrictions once the law took effect. Rare earth elements are used to manufacture electronic items such as smartphones. Japan, the U.S. and some European countries buy large quantities of rare earth from China because they need them for advanced manufacturing, and they are afraid that they will find it harder to import rare earth from China after new regulations are in place, Zhou Shijian, former Vice President of the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters, told…

Upon receiving the news that Taijiquan was decorated with a world intangible cultural heritage accolade on December 17, 2020, Chen Ziqiang was teaching a Taijiquan class in his hometown. The 43-year-old Taijiquan coach’s phone was soon buzzing with congratulatory messages from his students all over the world. A gala was held at Wenxian County, Henan Province in central China in celebration of the event. Chen’s hometown, Chenjiagou Village in this county, is reputed as a birthplace of Taijiquan. “China has made several attempts to list Taijiquan as a world intangible cultural heritage since 2008,” Chen told Beijing Review. “We knew that we stood a good chance to make it this time.” A long history “Taijiquan is a traditional physical practice characterized by relaxed, circular movements that works in concert with…

NEW FACE AMONG FORBES CHINA’S RICHEST Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Nongfu Spring Co., a bottled water company, is the third richest person with $53.7 billion in China’s 400 Richest 2020 by Forbes China, following Alibaba’s co-founder Jack Ma and Tencent founder Pony Ma. Zhong, 66, worked as a construction worker, a newspaper reporter and a beverage sales agent before starting his own business. In 1996 he set up Nongfu Spring in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, east China. The company has grown into China’s largest packaged water supplier and one of the top 20 beverage companies in China today, holding the No.1 spot in market share. Zhong owns 84.4 percent of Nongfu’s shares. In September 2020, the company started trading on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. Recruitment Anxiety Guancha.gmw.cn December…

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October 2020 decided to comprehensively promote consumption and further its fundamental role in driving economic development. A major task during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period will be to adapt to the general trend of consumption upgrading and accelerate unleashing the consumption potential of 1.4 billion people to lay a solid foundation for high-quality development. Structural upgrading Statistics during the past few years show that consumption in China has not only grown rapidly in scale, but is also rapidly upgrading in structure with service consumption as the focus. Although the novel coronavirus disease outbreak had a short-term impact on resident consumption, the long-term trend of consumption growth remains unchanged. The demand for service…

China has begun to implement its plan to vaccinate priority groups against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) within this late winter-early spring timeframe. The southern province of Guangdong had vaccinated 180,000 people in priority groups as of December 22, 2020, Duan Yufei, Director of the Health Commission of Guangdong Province, said, adding that so far there had been no adverse events. Emergency vaccination of priority groups was also kicked off on December 24, 2020 in Wuhan, the city in Hubei Province in Central China that first reported the disease. “Vaccines will be given first to priority groups, which include those handling imported cold chain products and people working in highly exposed sectors such as port inspection and quarantine, aviation, public transport, fresh markets, medical treatment, and disease control,” Cui Gang,…

When Xing Zuzhong, a medical worker in Hunan Province, central China, went to neighboring Hubei to help control the novel coronavirus epidemic in early 2020, he had no idea that he would become a statistical milestone. On December 22, 2020, after the situation was well under control, Xing received an unexpected gift from his coworkers in Hubei. The package also happened to be the 80 billionth package delivered by the country’s courier sector in 2020, according to data from the State Post Bureau (SPB). While medical workers were busy combating the virus, delivery workers were also contributing to the battle, taking medical and daily supplies to the people staying indoors. The SPB estimated that the annual revenue of the courier sector was expected to cross 869 billion yuan ($133 billion)…

Investment Catalog The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce released a revised industry catalog on December 28, 2020, that names more sectors encouraging foreign investment. It will come into effect on January 27. Compared with the current version, the new list has 127 more items, a rise of 10 percent. Meanwhile, up to 88 existing items have been modified to expand their coverage. The increase is relevant particularly in the context of items related to manufacturing, producer services, and those in central and western regions. The sub-catalog of competitive industries in those regions encouraging foreign investment has 62 new items and 37 modified ones. New sectors added to the national-level sub-catalog include respirators, ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) devices, online education service and 5G mobile telecommunication technologies.…

The year 2021 is a big year for the People’s Republic of China. Mid-year will see the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. It will also mark one of the nation’s centennial goals, referred to over the last few years, when the country achieves a moderately prosperous status. A lot of planning has already gone into how things will happen in July. At least, within China, there will be a lot going on. A torrid year Internationally, though, China had a torrid year in 2020. After the novel coronavirus disease struck, and the global outbreak, the tone of diplomacy generally changed. Part of this was due to the Donald Trump presidency, and the way in which from 2017 onward, he adopted an approach, and language,…

After U.S. National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe proclaimed that “China is National Security Threat No.1” in a Wall Street Journal article on December 3, 2020, he followed it up with a Fox News interview a few days later, claiming that China is “altering DNA” of its 2-million-strong military personnel, “trying to make them stronger through gene editing.” These two comments alone had people in China scratching their heads and wondering how many Americans actually take seriously remarks by this high-ranking official, who apparently gets his daily intelligence briefings from Marvel Comics. Ratcliffe’s Oscar-caliber performance has a market. His mind-blowing assertions triggered Fox host Maria Bartiromo to exclaim that China is making super soldiers who are “more equipped to handle extreme weather and chemical attacks.” Ratcliffe’s “China experts” get rewarded for…

My eyes witnessed the shining miracle,And my ears heard the sound of time flying;I met an old Chinese man,His words had tea garden, Kungfu and Tai Chi;I met a young Chinese man and he talked aboutLights, skyscrapers and high technology. This is a poem Italian high school student Giovanni Stoppoloni wrote in Chinese, showing his perception of China as a country with both an ancient culture and impressive progress in modern science and technology. The 15-year-old studies at the Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome, which hosts the biggest Confucius classroom in Italy. Learning Chinese provides foreign students like Stoppoloni opportunity to understand a real China today. Max Horne, a 19-year-old American student at Harvard, who had taken part in the 11th Chinese Bridge Proficiency Competition in 2018, an…

As the world’s biggest developing country and also the second-largest economy, China is working hard to eradicate poverty. In September 2020, I had the chance to visit Yunnan Province in southwest China with fellow Africans at the invitation of Beijing Review. During this trip, I was able to witness to what extent this province, and in particular the counties of Malipo and Jinping, can be an example for other countries to follow in the fight against poverty. By the end of 2019, all the villages in Malipo County were able to rise out of poverty, thanks to the targeted measures used to fight poverty. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was assigned to partner with the county and plays an important role in leading local people to step out of…