https://www.scmp.com/rss/16347/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com China pulled out all the stops for the 2017 Big Data Industrial Summit that took place in Beijing last week, led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The main goal was to explain to the IT industry China’s 2016-2020 big data development programme, which MIIT came up with as part of the nation’s 13th five-year plan. The target is for the big data industry, including related goods and services, to exceed 1 trillion yuan (US$144 billion) in revenue by 2020. Achieving this... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2086229/beijing-thinking-big-switch-big-data-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2086229/beijing-thinking-big-switch-big-data-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Apr 2017 15:12:28 +0000 Two events, somewhat related, attracted most comments from the mainland press last week. One was Wen Jiabao's final National People's Congress press conference. The other was the dismissal of Bo Xilai, the once high-profile Communist Party boss of Chongqing, one of the four provincial-level megacities. The Communist Party Central Committee's decision to dismiss him was announced on Thursday, the day after Wen's press conference. Wen's press conference touched upon the recent leadership crisis... https://www.scmp.com/article/995878/bos-fall-brings-out-his-fans-and-also-harsh-critics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/995878/bos-fall-brings-out-his-fans-and-also-harsh-critics?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Confucius has many disciples indeed. He would be happy if he were brought back to life at the annual National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing. No longer content to serve as a mere rubber-stamp body, many lawmakers at the current session have complained, as reported by the mainland press, about the heavy tax burden on the people. The 2010 NPC is remembered as the first time that mainland lawmakers campaigned for tax cuts. Confucius protested against heavy taxes when he lived in the 6th and... https://www.scmp.com/article/995157/tax-cut-bandwagon-rolled-out-again-makes-no-headway?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/995157/tax-cut-bandwagon-rolled-out-again-makes-no-headway?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 It's not unusual for China's officials to publish papers before they move to a higher position. But no one had ever written one on the importance of consumption - until now. Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, widely tipped to become the nation's next premier, used the pages of the latest edition of Qiushi, a theoretical journal of the Communist Party, to extol the virtues of something the party used to scorn as the epitome of bourgeois economics. Yet his celebration of spending and shopping could not... https://www.scmp.com/article/994429/li-strikes-chord-talking-shop?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/994429/li-strikes-chord-talking-shop?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 It is a common way to complain about the state of affairs on the mainland. When things do not look good, the familiar refrain is that the glory days are over. That's not so much a statement as a question, however: who can bring back the good old days? A glaring issue today is over what to reform and how to go about it, says the Global Times, an English-language subsidiary of the official People's Daily. The biggest controversy, the newspaper says, is about political reform. Western-style... https://www.scmp.com/article/994477/questions-reform-intensify-transition-countdown-begins?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/994477/questions-reform-intensify-transition-countdown-begins?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Official media don't usually mess up important dates. So, why was Deng Xiaoping's call for reform in Shenzhen in January 20 years ago being remembered so fondly last week? Maybe some media managers wanted to time the activities for closer to the annual session of the National People's Congress, which starts in Beijing in a week. Whatever the reason, Xinhua got the ball rolling with a lengthy article analysing the lasting lessons from Deng. The January-February double issue of the... https://www.scmp.com/article/993705/better-late-never-stirring-echo-past?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/993705/better-late-never-stirring-echo-past?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The central government appointed He Yafei, a professional diplomat, as vice-director of the State Council's Overseas Chinese Affairs Office yesterday in a move that appears to put him in line to replace office director Li Haifeng. He, 57, has been in the diplomatic service since the 1980s and was chief of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' department of North American and Oceanian affairs from 2002 to 2006. He served as a vice foreign minister from 2008 to 2010 before being appointed ambassador... https://www.scmp.com/article/993218/diplomat-he-take-job-overseas-chinese-affairs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/993218/diplomat-he-take-job-overseas-chinese-affairs?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 For the last few weeks, Chinese leaders and US politicians have been addressing their chief domestic audiences. The main difference is that while the Americans see their middle class as an endangered species, Chinese leaders see them as saviours of the nation. Last week the Communist Party journal Qiushi published a commentary by Vice-Premier Li Keqiang , widely expected to become China's premier next year. In it, Li stressed the need for China to enlarge its share of 'middle-income earners'.... https://www.scmp.com/article/993118/beefing-middle-class-meat-economic-sandwich?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/993118/beefing-middle-class-meat-economic-sandwich?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China is ready to play a bigger role in resolving the European sovereign debt crisis, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday. Speaking to the press with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso after the 14th China-EU leaders' meeting in Beijing, Wen said China's support in helping Europe tackle its debt crisis was 'sincere and determined'. 'China is ready to get more deeply involved in participating in solving the European debt issue,' Wen... https://www.scmp.com/article/992673/beijing-strengthens-pledge-aid-eu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/992673/beijing-strengthens-pledge-aid-eu?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Vice-President Xi Jinping will visit the United States this week. But what exactly will he be doing there - apart from visiting a family he stayed with in Muscatine, Iowa, in 1985 when he visited as an agricultural official, and perhaps watching a National Basketball Association match? Xi has three missions, said Professor Jin Canrong , deputy dean of Renmin University's school of international relations. The first is to 'give a signal' to the US that, however unfavourable its domestic politics... https://www.scmp.com/article/992468/xis-all-set-his-mission-america-what-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/992468/xis-all-set-his-mission-america-what-it?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Two investigative reports shown on China Central Television about the alleged low quality of furniture retailer Da Vinci's products were 'basically factual', the central government said, though the reporter on the stories was not a licensed journalist. The findings were posted by the General Administration of Press and Publication - one of several media regulators - on its website on Friday after Da Vinci complained that CCTV's coverage was biased. In July 2011, CCTV ran two programmes hosted ... https://www.scmp.com/article/992413/regulator-backs-reports-da-vinci-furniture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/992413/regulator-backs-reports-da-vinci-furniture?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The Ministry of Finance has pledged more funding this year to build homes for low-income households. The ministry has recommended a variety of fund-raising options for local governments, and says they must 'effectively guarantee' their share of the funding needed to sustain affordable-housing projects under their control, while 'not leaving any gap' between the plans and their financing. With the increasing emphasis on such housing, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang on Monday called for more efforts... https://www.scmp.com/article/992020/more-cash-low-income-housing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/992020/more-cash-low-income-housing?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 A credibility crisis may be looming for McDonald's on the mainland, where many consumers are sceptical of a company statement issued to reassure the public about controversial ingredients used in its burgers. At the centre of the row is 'pink slime', which refers to boneless lean beef trimmings that are left over after all the choice cuts are removed. Pink slime is used for dog and chicken food in Britain, but is legal for human consumption in the United States after it is treated with ammonium ... https://www.scmp.com/article/991820/mcdonalds-takes-heat-pink-slime?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/991820/mcdonalds-takes-heat-pink-slime?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The world's press reported Wednesday's free vote for an election committee in Wukan - the Guangdong fishing community where villagers were involved in a stand-off with the authorities for months over shady land deals - as a sign of progress. Many Wukan residents alleged that village officials had misused their land rights since 2006 and embezzled more than 700 million yuan (HK$860 million) in public funds. From September to December, they staged petition drives and demonstrations, which turned... https://www.scmp.com/article/991818/wukans-poll-pompous-and-wasteful-or-upholding-fairness?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/991818/wukans-poll-pompous-and-wasteful-or-upholding-fairness?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China said yesterday that Japan's naming of four uninhabited islets surrounding the disputed Diaoyu Islands was illegal, following a report that Tokyo had given the islets Japanese names. The Central News Agency cited Japan's Sankei Shimbun daily as saying yesterday that Tokyo had named three islets near Huangwei Yu and one near Chiwei Yu - two major islands in the Diaoyus, known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands. Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Osamu Fujimura, said this month that it would... https://www.scmp.com/article/991303/china-lays-japan-over-naming-islets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/991303/china-lays-japan-over-naming-islets?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 As the global economy becomes more volatile, China has to rely more on its own consumers to sustain growth. Few economists in Beijing dispute that line of thinking, but questions remain about how it might be achieved. A look at the annual statistical reports for last year released by provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions shows some big differences in retail performance, with National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) spokesman Li Pumin quoted in an analysis piece in the... https://www.scmp.com/article/991197/bid-boost-spending-storm-clouds-gather-over-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/991197/bid-boost-spending-storm-clouds-gather-over-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Authorities last week released statistics on the economy's overall performance in 2011. In the National Bureau of Statistics' (NBS) preliminary report, gross domestic product was 47.16 trillion yuan (HK$58.03 trillion), showing annualised growth of 9.2 per cent. By comparison, according to an NBS correction in September, the mainland's 2010 GDP was 40.1 trillion yuan, based on growth of 10.4 per cent from the previous year. The mainland press spotted a few trends in the economy in 2011. One to... https://www.scmp.com/article/990863/lower-growth-cards-alongside-other-worrying-trends?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/990863/lower-growth-cards-alongside-other-worrying-trends?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Zhang Zhenfeng, who owns a street-side photo-print shop in Beijing, says he has never been happier with business conditions than in the past couple of months. 'I used to pay a monthly tax of some 800 yuan (HK$983). And it was a fixed rate,' he said. 'I had to pay it whether I had business or not. Now I just have to pay around 100 yuan.' It is the first tax cut he has seen since opening his shop eight years ago and a welcome boost for small businesses, who have been struggling recently, 20 years... https://www.scmp.com/article/990626/nations-small-traders-squeezed-dry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/990626/nations-small-traders-squeezed-dry?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The economy in the nation's capital slowed last year in part because of the government's curbs on private cars, home sales and polluting industries, a municipal official said yesterday. Last year, Beijing's year-on-year gross domestic product growth was 8.1 per cent, compared with national GDP growth of 9.2 per cent, according to Yu Xiuqin, deputy director of the municipal bureau of statistics. Additionally, she said the city's population surpassed 20 million people by the end of the year,... https://www.scmp.com/article/990605/slowdown-capital-all-part-citys-plan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/990605/slowdown-capital-all-part-citys-plan?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 One of Deng Xiaoping's most famous quotes on his historic southern tour 20 years ago was: 'Only development counts.' It gave a green light to all forms of development, and in particular to private enterprise. At the time, China was still feeling the effects of the Tiananmen crisis of 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, and private enterprise was still viewed as an experiment - one that had only barely been allowed to proceed. There were about 90,000 private... https://www.scmp.com/article/990625/private-enterprise-spreads-its-net-unevenly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/990625/private-enterprise-spreads-its-net-unevenly?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 It is rare for Xinhua's Cankao Xiaoxi (Reference News) to lavish a whole page on one report. But it did last Friday, for the Chinese translation of an article in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs by Francis Fukuyama, author of the 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man, and now senior fellow at the Centre on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. The translators only changed the original title from 'The future of history: can liberal democracy survive the... https://www.scmp.com/article/990256/crisis-capitalism-no-longer-seen-someone-elses-problem?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/990256/crisis-capitalism-no-longer-seen-someone-elses-problem?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong says the average price of new housing in the capital fell 11.3 per cent last year thanks to heavy government intervention in the real estate market. Guo outlined developments in the Beijing property sector yesterday while presenting the city's programme for 'scientific development' this year to municipal lawmakers and political advisers. Members of Beijing's municipal people's congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have been holding their... https://www.scmp.com/article/990001/intervention-sees-price-new-housing-drop-113pc?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/990001/intervention-sees-price-new-housing-drop-113pc?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 There may be many mysteries in Chinese politics, but whether the state propaganda machine is surrounded by many competing voices is not one of them. A leader among those voices is Han Han, a 29-year-old professional rally driver and self-described amateur writer, whose blog has received 520 million visits since he started it in 2006. The system never really took the young writer seriously, despite his occasional iconoclastic postings. But who could have expected that, as if to usher in the... https://www.scmp.com/article/989555/young-iconoclasts-dim-view-revolution-strikes-chord-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/989555/young-iconoclasts-dim-view-revolution-strikes-chord-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 A book that is supposedly the oldest Confucian classic, Shang Shu (Book of Historical Documents), has been declared a fake in parts by a Tsinghua University professor. By comparing the present edition of Shang Shu with ancient documents written on bamboo strips - known as 'the Tsinghua strips' - Professor Liu Guozhong, a specialist in ancient documents and their protection, found that part of the present edition contains some passages that could not possibly have been edited by Confucius, Xinhua... https://www.scmp.com/article/989253/oldest-confucian-classic-fake-parts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/989253/oldest-confucian-classic-fake-parts?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Premier Wen Jiabao has warned that China's economy could face difficult times in the first quarter, but said the government was ready to 'fine-tune' monetary policy. Wen (pictured) said people should be confident the nation would surmount economic hurdles and usher in stable growth. 'We have a relatively cool market, which is the core of today's problems,' he told local businessmen during a tour of Hunan province on Sunday and Monday. The premier said China had to deal with the twin... https://www.scmp.com/article/989146/china-bracing-sluggish-start-wen-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/989146/china-bracing-sluggish-start-wen-says?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The Communist Party journal Qiushi ran a lengthy editorial in its New Year's edition fiercely defending the country's moral status quo amid an increasingly heated debate on moral and ethical issues. Politically, the editorial was seen as a rebuttal of remarks made by Premier Wen Jiabao in April about a crisis of morals in society following a series of food safety issues that resulted in deaths, although it did not mention Wen. The journal also published an extract of a speech by President... https://www.scmp.com/article/989089/party-paper-defends-state-morals-society?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/989089/party-paper-defends-state-morals-society?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 It would be 'unthinkable' for the central government to close down all of the country's Twitter-like microblogs, or weibo, however troublesome they could be for the government, said a senior spokeswoman for the Beijing municipality. 'It would be an impossible task,' said Wang Hui (pictured), general director of the capital city's information office. 'So many people are using weibo [the Chinese name for 140-character microblogs], and they all love using them.' This was because weibo is... https://www.scmp.com/article/987713/beijing-municipality-embraces-weibo-fad?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/987713/beijing-municipality-embraces-weibo-fad?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Separation of powers - translated into Chinese as san quan fen li (three divisions of power) - is one of the main features of Western-style democracy and any attempt to transplant it to the mainland, where the Communist Party controls the legislature, executive and judiciary, is strictly prohibited. But wielding so much power - over all people and all things - can be a tiring game to play, just as running the old planned economy was. As an editorial in Hangzhou's Du Shi Kuai Bao declared:... https://www.scmp.com/article/987499/division-powers-set-be-given-trial-run-capital?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/987499/division-powers-set-be-given-trial-run-capital?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 China will focus on boosting exports to emerging economies next year in the face of 'severe challenges' from sluggish demand in Europe and the US and rising costs at home, a senior trade official said yesterday. 'Next year I think that we will face severe challenges in our exports and imports,' Wang Shouwen, director of the Ministry of Commerce's foreign trade department, said on the release of a white paper on foreign trade marking the 10th anniversary of China joining the World Trade... https://www.scmp.com/article/987166/china-eyes-emerging-markets-exports?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/987166/china-eyes-emerging-markets-exports?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Where do mainlanders get their news, on any given day? Increasingly, they're turning to microblogs - Twitter-like forums that allow messages in short bursts of up to 140 characters - not only to read what's happening, but also get word out. On Friday morning for instance, no sooner had winter's first flakes of snow fallen on the capital than Beijing residents were uploading videos and photos of the event onto their feeds. If they logged on to Beijing Capital International Airport's microblog... https://www.scmp.com/article/986758/does-blogs-blooming-mean-schools-thought-can-contend?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/986758/does-blogs-blooming-mean-schools-thought-can-contend?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Despite speculation that 'big money' had been behind leaks of classified economic data by two central government officials now in jail, media reported yesterday that court documents did not mention any 'exchange of interests'. The defence lawyer for Wu Chaoming, a former central bank official who was jailed for six years for leaking state secrets, said his client did so only 'out of vanity'. There was no word on whether Sun Zhen, a former National Statistics Bureau official jailed for five... https://www.scmp.com/article/986266/pboc-official-leaked-secrets-out-vanity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/986266/pboc-official-leaked-secrets-out-vanity?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 One prominent feature of the market economy with Chinese characteristics is the common claim by companies to be designated 'special suppliers' to powerful government bodies. It is a practice described by mainland commentators as 'sycophantic marketing', and the key to its appeal is its ability to make customers feel as if they belong to the privileged official class. One body that seems to have dished out more special supplier titles than others is the Great Hall of the People, the setting for... https://www.scmp.com/article/986060/special-suppliers-blur-boundaries-between-politics-and-business?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/986060/special-suppliers-blur-boundaries-between-politics-and-business?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Countries disputing China's claim to the South China Sea would be making a mistake in mistaking Beijing's goodwill and self-restraint for softness and weakness, an outspoken military strategist has warned. Major-General Luo Yuan, a researcher with the Academy of Military Science of the People's Liberation Army, said any countries making such a mistake 'can only get the opposite of what they wish for'. However, he said that China always hoped the disputes could be solved through peaceful... https://www.scmp.com/article/985936/goodwill-not-weakness-general-warns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/985936/goodwill-not-weakness-general-warns?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Chinese think tank researchers are split in their views on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade initiative proposed by US President Barack Obama at the Apec summit in Hawaii this month. The latest advice, given by Zhang Yunling, a senior member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a former director of its Japan and Asia-Pacific studies institutes, is that 'sooner or later, China will have to join the TPP'. The key issue, he said, is not how long it will take China to negotiate its... https://www.scmp.com/article/985863/beijing-undecided-pacific-trade-pact?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/985863/beijing-undecided-pacific-trade-pact?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 It's not hard for China to feel cornered in its traditional maritime disputes with its neighbours. That feeling intensified last week with two developments: the unveiling of plans by the United States and Australia to establish a US military base in Australia's Northern Territory, and the proposal by the US - described by Premier Wen Jiabao as an 'outside force' - to discuss the South China Sea during the East Asia Summit in Bali, Indonesia, this weekend. China claims a swathe of the South... https://www.scmp.com/article/985408/fears-encirclement-south-china-sea-tensions-continue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/985408/fears-encirclement-south-china-sea-tensions-continue?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Last week's official approval of a United States firm's takeover of Little Sheep Group, a popular Hong Kong-listed Chinese restaurant chain, was seen as an example of fair market competition in China, even though the approval process by antitrust regulators took seven months. Bing Ho, a Shanghai-based partner of Baker and McKenzie, one of the world's largest law firms, said the deal's clearance could be seen as 'a sign of relief' to investors worried about a possible shift by China to an... https://www.scmp.com/article/985038/us-takeover-deal-brings-foreign-relief?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/985038/us-takeover-deal-brings-foreign-relief?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Many political commentators have been advising the leadership in Beijing that with all the developed economies in trouble, it's a good time for China to expand reform. But having seen the problems in both Soviet-style socialism and free-wheeling capitalism, what kind of political system should China build for itself? Different commentators point in different directions. Their continuing debate reflects, first of all, that it is hard for the country to remain committed to Marx's dictatorship... https://www.scmp.com/article/984707/mainland-drifts-away-marx-questions-where-next?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984707/mainland-drifts-away-marx-questions-where-next?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The euro-zone debt crisis should be solved by Europeans, and the best help China can offer is to develop its own economy in a balanced way, Liu Mingkang, former chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said yesterday. Liu made the comments at a financial conference in Beijing, after US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, speaking in Honolulu on Thursday ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum summit, urged Asia to do more to stimulate global growth to offset the... https://www.scmp.com/article/984584/europe-told-solve-crisis-itself?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984584/europe-told-solve-crisis-itself?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The central government's decision to launch an anti-monopoly investigation into two of the mainland's biggest telecommunication service providers is being welcomed by the public, but analysts say it remains unclear whether Beijing will expand the investigation to more industries. Xinhua yesterday quoted Li Yi, secretary-general of the China Mobile Internet Industry Alliance, as saying: 'If the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) can prompt the reduction of internet fees and help... https://www.scmp.com/article/984508/after-telecoms-whos-next?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984508/after-telecoms-whos-next?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 This year could well be remembered as the one in which international retail companies took a giant step back in China. Some of the largest names in retailing have been struggling. Perhaps most telling is that four global supermarket chains have replaced their directors of China operations - the UK's Tesco in March, France's Carrefour in August, Canada's Metro Inc in September and then the US's Wal-Mart in October. The latest brouhaha came on Monday when Beijing said Johnson & Johnson should... https://www.scmp.com/article/984516/mainland-marketing-tough-sell?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984516/mainland-marketing-tough-sell?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Premier Wen Jiabao said China would remain firm in its control of the real estate market, while expressing confidence for the first time in two years that the government was capable of lowering the average price of housing in coming months. 'We will absolutely not relax [housing price] controls, even though the prices have started to cool off during the past month,' Wen was quoted as saying by China News Service as he met Chinese diplomats, business representatives and military-exchange... https://www.scmp.com/article/984180/firm-controls-property-will-stay-wen-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984180/firm-controls-property-will-stay-wen-says?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Internal political games are intensifying in Beijing in the run-up to the scheduled leadership transition at the Communist Party's 18th national congress in the second half of next year. Different power circles are attempting to have their own input in the transition process. The government-controlled media does not reflect their opinions, but when their views spread on the internet, officials do not usually try to clean them up either, even though they may not like them. The neo-Maoist website... https://www.scmp.com/article/984055/princelings-lobby-behind-scenes-more-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984055/princelings-lobby-behind-scenes-more-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Nearly half of the mainland's super-rich are considering emigration, according to a survey of people with assets of more than 10 million yuan (HK$12.17 million) that has raised concern about the country's worsening social and business environment. The survey, released jointly by the Hurun Report, which also publishes an annual China rich list, and the Bank of China, also found that 14 per cent of the 980 millionaires surveyed had either already moved overseas or were applying to do so. The... https://www.scmp.com/article/983511/super-rich-want-leave-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983511/super-rich-want-leave-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 A video clip showing Jiang Zemin recounting how he became the general secretary of the Communist Party at a critical time in 1989 became an instant hit among internet users over the weekend. Jiang (pictured), who was filmed in 2009 while on a tour of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, was seen gesturing in a suit to a corporate group, before launching into a four-minute monologue about the national mission, his personal fate and his life achievements. Had it not been for the June 4 incident in that... https://www.scmp.com/article/983436/jiang-had-his-sights-academic-role-until-june-4?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983436/jiang-had-his-sights-academic-role-until-june-4?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Mainland police arrested 12,125 suspects and confiscated more than 300kg of illicit drugs in a nationwide crackdown on narcotics sold through online chat rooms. It is the first time authorities have smashed a nationwide drug distribution system which used the online media as its main transaction platform, Xinhua reported yesterday. In the campaign, which started in March, police busted 144 drug rings involved in narcotics trafficking and 22 drug-making plants. The report did not specify what... https://www.scmp.com/article/983417/12000-arrested-selling-drugs-online?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983417/12000-arrested-selling-drugs-online?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Another year of crisis. Another meeting of heads of state. President Hu Jintao is scheduled to fly to Cannes, France, this week for the G20 summit - just one week after European leaders reached an agreement in Brussels to help contain the region's debt crisis. At this juncture, the world is asking what role China, with its bulging pockets and economic growth largely unscathed by the global financial crisis, can play in helping the world - and in particular Europe - with financial support. At... https://www.scmp.com/article/983392/what-do-about-europes-debt-prompts-soul-searching-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983392/what-do-about-europes-debt-prompts-soul-searching-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 A senior Ministry of Finance official has called on national lawmakers to extend a pilot property-tax scheme - the first of its kind on the mainland - to the rest of the country. Assistant Finance Minister Wang Baoan said at a National People's Congress Standing Committee session on the construction and administration of subsidised housing that the scheme, which was levied on owners of relatively large flats, was going well in Shanghai and Chongqing . 'The next step we should take is to learn... https://www.scmp.com/article/983147/minister-pitches-wider-property-tax?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983147/minister-pitches-wider-property-tax?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Some 10 per cent of investigations of companies for breach of the United States' Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the past five years involve companies doing business in China, international lawyers say. At least 10 cases concern multinational companies offering bribes in China, said Paul McNulty of Baker & McKenzie, one of the largest global law firms. That means some of the companies' actions suspected of being corrupt, although under investigation in the US, occurred in their dealings... https://www.scmp.com/article/982929/china-big-factor-us-probes-graft?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/982929/china-big-factor-us-probes-graft?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 What do the Chinese people think of the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement as it spreads to many countries? What lessons can people learn and what ideas are they swapping with each other in the limited public sphere allowed by the central government? Last Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Beijing had noticed the movement and its opinions, and considered them 'thought-provoking'. For the mainland media, which usually cling to orthodox ideology, the protest on Wall Street offers a... https://www.scmp.com/article/982723/beijing-sees-handy-straw-man-occupy-wall-street-protests?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/982723/beijing-sees-handy-straw-man-occupy-wall-street-protests?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Migrants will be among the beneficiaries of a public housing scheme for low-income groups launched by the Beijing municipal government. It is the first time migrants will be able to enjoy subsidised housing in the capital, even though they make up a third of its residents. Until now only those with a Beijing household registration, or hukou, have been entitled to subsidised housing schemes introduced by the government. Over the past few years many cities have provided low-rent housing or given... https://www.scmp.com/article/982463/beijing-opens-public-housing-migrants?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/982463/beijing-opens-public-housing-migrants?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000