GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Some 80,000 police are reported to be involved in the manhunt in China for a man from Sichuan named Zeng Kaigui for robbing and murdering at least seven people in as many years, in Chongqing and Changsha provinces.
The suspect, who always dresses in black for his crimes and who is a former armed police officer, according to Xinhua news agency, is accused stealing 200,000 yuan ($31,700) from a man who had just withdrawn it from a bank in Nanjing’s Dongmen Street 6 January 6. He shot his victim in the head and fled in a car.
Links to other sites: chinadaily_pdf, CNN, Guardian
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A Chinese real estate investor’s plans to build a luxury golf club in Iceland were turned down recently by the government there, which said Huang Nubo would own too large a percentage of the country’s land if he bought the Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum stretch in the northeast of the country.
Now the minister of the Industry, Energy and Tourism says she is in favour of leasing the land to him, since this would not fly in the face of ownership issues, and Huang Nubo says he is interested.
But the plans are causing concern over the water in Canada, where suspicions are being voiced that China is interested in the land because of the possibility of a polar water route some day.
Links to other sites: The Globe & Mail, Ice News
Photo: Shangrila Farms, Yunnan Province, China
BERN, SWITZERLAND – “Switzerland’s free trade agreement negotiations with China are in a rather early stage but they are well underway” following the third round of talks between the two countries, Swiss Ambassador and Delegate for Trade Agreements Christian Etter has told GenevaLunch.
Switzerland, which has a trade surplus with China despite the former’s small size, has taken a European lead in working out a free trade agreement (FTA) with Asia’s giant economy since the two signed a Memorandum of Understanding 28 January 2011, says Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey.
“It shows we’re not afraid,” she said, smiling, at a press conference in Geneva 28 November. She was treating it lightly, but Switzerland is keen to keep the negotiations moving, particularly in the wake of a slowdown in negotiations between China and Iceland and China and Norway.
Both sides have said they would like the talks to move swiftly.
EU’s Almunia says stable trade framework is the way forward
The comments come as the European Union’s anti-trust boss called for less bickering and a better trade framework between the EU and China, at the EU-China Forum held in Brussels this week, organized by the Friends of Europe. Joaquın Almunia is quoted by Dow-Jones 29 November as saying that “everything linked with intellectual property rights, innovation, know-how, is not well-solved in our relations, we are discussing with our Chinese partners but I don’t find we have a stable framework to benefit from both sides of our common understanding.” He added that “playing this same kind of game means these pressures, these intensities will increase.”
Swiss-China trade picks up while Swiss-EU trade slows
Switzerland is China’s ninth largest trading partner in Europe, with the smaller country having a trade surplus for 2011 of CHF2.13 billion by the end of October. China is Switzerland’s largest trading partner in Asia. During the first 10 months of the year Switzerland’s exports to China grew by 26.2 percent, while imports from China slipped by 3.3 percent.
China is Europe’s largest trading partner and its trade surplus with Europe is €160-€180 billion in 2011, according to the Wall St Journal.
Trade has been stagnant between the EU and Switzerland during the first 10 months of the year, with exports to the EU down 0.5 percent and imports up 3.1 percent.
Iceland was the first European country to start FTA negotiations with China but its talks have cooled down, with Iceland’s application to join the European Union. Negotiations began formally in July 2010; EU membership would exclude implementing a separate FTA with China.
And talks with Norway have slowed down since China expressed its displeasure over the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Third round of negotiations covered hefty list of topics
The latest round of talks in the free trade negotiations between Switzerland and China took place in Montreux 8-10 November. The talks were launched in Davos in January, with talks held once in Bern and once in Beijing.
The two teams in Montreux held expert level discussions and exchanged information on respective regulatory systems and FTA-practices covering several areas: trade in goods, trade in services, rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), trade remedies, intellectual property rights, competition and dispute settlement.
The heads of of the two delegations and experts discussed investment promotion, cooperation on trade and sustainable development, and cooperation on government procurement, and agreed on follow-up work in all areas.
The fourth round of negotiations are expected to take place in China in early 2012.
Background
- World Trade Organization, most recent trade policy review for China, June 2010
- EU / China Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The United States will station 250 Marines in Australia starting in 2012, with the number expected to grow to 2,500 at some point, US President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard agreed Wednesday 16 November. The BBC reports that “The deployment is being seen as a move to counter China’s growing influence. But Mr Obama said the US was “stepping up its commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific”, not excluding China.”
The Sydney Morning Herald, in an opinion piece, notes that ”‘It’s absolutely clear that this is all about China,’ says Hugh White, formerly the top strategy planner in the Australian Defence Department. And the real significance of yesterday’s announcement was that Australia’s US alliance is being shaped around the China threat.”
Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, for its part makes no comment in its straightforward English-language news article on the agreement, but AFP/Yahoo, in an article where it refers to China being “rankled”, says “The deployment of US Marines to Australia’s tropical north came as the allies adapted their military posture to face a new security era marked by the rise of China, which sparked an immediate negative response from Beijing. ‘It may not be quite appropriate to intensify and expand military alliances and may not be in the interest of countries within this region,’ China’s foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – World headlines include the following, over the weekend:
- Clocks go back in the US, a week after Europe moves from summer to winter time – NPR
- Chinese mine workers, some 200-strong, pulled out 45 miners Saturday who had been trapped for more than 48 hours after an explosion – CBS, Xinhua
- Pakistan charges 7 in Bhutto death in 2007 – Aljazeera, Reuters Canada
- Syria: 553 of some 15,000 prisoners released, but 20 killed Friday – Aljazeera, Xinhuanet
- Colombia: Farc leader Alfonso Cano killed, but now what? – CS Monitor, Guardian, Jakarta Post
Chinese tourists overtake Italians, catching up with French, British
Chinese tourists on Mt Saentis 29 October, next to Switzerland's first mountain peak weather station, commissioned in 1882: on a clear day six countries are visible from this point
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss franc continues to have a strong impact on European and US visitors to Switzerland, with the number of overnight stays by foreigners in September down 6.8 percent compared to the same month a year earlier.
Foreigners accounted for a little more than half of the industry’s 3.3 million overnight stays in September.
The overall figure for the year to date is down 2 percent, but in September overnight stays fell 3.4 percent.
The decline in European stays continued, with Bern attributing this largely to the over-valued Swiss franc against sterling and the euro. Visits by foreigners were down 6 percent, but European visitors’ stays fell by 11 percent.
German tourist numbers were down 13 percent, British 13 percent, Dutch 12 and Italian 11 percent. US visitors are down 9.4 percent, although the number of overnight stays by Canadians rose
Chinese tourists to Switzerland: rapid increase as Alps tug Asians
Mt Saentis 30 October: a popular destination for German tourists, is attracting Chiense visitors
Asian numbers and in particular overnight stays by Chinese tourists continue to rise, with a 12 percent overall increase that includes a 43 percent increase by Chinese visitors, some 20,000 overnight stays. For the year to date, Chinese tourists show a 58.6 percent increase.
Germany remains by far Switzerland’s largest tourist client country, with some 470,000 overnights to date in September. The US was second with 172,000, Britain third with 152,000, France fourth with 100,000 – and then the surprise of China, with 67,000 overtaking Italy, with 65,000.
Wanted: British skiers, snowboarders, holiday fans and winter hikers
The British figures are likely to cause particular concern, with the crucial ski season coming up. Swiss statistics show 1.43 million overnights from January to the end of September, and the fourth quarter tends to be low, but the industry is holding its breath looking at winter ski season reservations.
British statistics register “visits” by its citizens abroad rather than overnight stays, and in 2010 the number of visits was down to 896,000 from a 2008 figure of 1.16 million. The first quarter of the year, with the ski season, saw 294,000 British visitors in 2011, compared to 350,000 a year earlier.
British tourists travelled again in the second quarter of 2011, but with the weakening pound, travel increased to North America, remained stable in the European Union and dropped to countries outside the EU, which includes Switzerland. Travel outside the EU during April to the end of June was at a level last seen in 2009 and before that, iln 2005.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Four miners have died and 50 are missing in a coal mine explosion in Sanmenxia in Henan province. Reports about how many miners managed to escape, but at least 14 men made it out and 7 have been pulled out, injured. It appears that a small earthquake had hit the area shortly before a rock exploded but it’s not clear if the two incidents are related.
The mine is owned by the state.
Safety in mines has been a huge issue in China in recent months and a number of illegal mines have been closed.
Links to other sites: BBC, Winnipeg Free Press (AP)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss companies share first place at the bottom of the list, but for a change this is a good thing: the list is Transparency International’s (TI) rankings of countries most likely to bribe abroad. Russia heads the list, with China close behind. The last two invested $120 billion overseas in 2010.
The Netherlands and Switzerland are the countries whose companies are the least likely to bribe. The report ranks 28 major international and regional exporting countries by the likelihood of their firms to bribe abroad, based on surveys of 3,000 business executives.
The annual report on bribery looks, for the first time, at business to business bribery rather than just bribes paid to government officials. Story continues …
Source: Transparency International, November 2011
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Beijing residents are not only complaining about the city’s infernal early winter smog, but also about how much of it there is and how the government is measuring it. Wiebo-users, China’s microbloggers, have taken to the Internet to vent about the city’s air, asking why the government’s measurements differ significantly from US measurements. Wednesday the city’s government vowed to clean up its act and the city’s pollution problem, which exacerbates the problems provoked by cold wet winters and icy, sandy blasts from the Gobi desert to the north.
Links to other sites: AFP, CNN, China Meteorology forecast for Beijing (Ch), Telegraph
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Double 10 holiday in Taiwan and China, to celebrate the 10 October 1911 Wuchang Uprising that ultimately led to the end of imperial rule in China had a special significance yesterday, as it marked the 100th anniversary of the event and drew a line under a very slight thawing in relations between the two Chinas that sprang up in its wake. Not surprisingly, the day was marked with some differences, with colourful celebrations in Taiwan, which considers this its national holiday and traditionally celebrates it with a flourish, and in a more muted way in mainland China.
The Taiwan community in Denver, Colorado held a special celebration, for Sun Yat-Sen, father of the Republic of China (Taiwan), against whom the Communists fought in the years after the Wuchang Uprising, was actually in Denver the day of the uprising, seeking funds.
Links to other sites: Huff Post-Denver, CNN commentator, Xinhuanet
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Money invested in mental health comes to a global average of only $3 per capita, according to the World Health Organization, and in some developing countries it is as low as $.25, with most funds spent on long-term hospitalization. Only two percent of all health resources are invested in mental health services and prevention is badly underfunded, the Geneva-based group says in its Mental Health Atlas 2011, published Friday 7 October.
The report “finds that the bulk of those resources are often spent on services that serve relatively few people”, with 70 percent of scarce funding going to mental institutions.
A key problem is that “in lower income countries, however, shortages of resources and skills often result in patients only being treated with medicines. The lack of psychosocial care reduces the effectiveness of the treatment.”
Half of the world’s population lives in areas where there is only one psychiatrist per 200,000 people.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – China and Russia used their vetoes in the UN Security Council late Tuesday to stop a United Nations draft resolution that threatened sanctions against Syria. It would have been the first such UN decision since March, when President Bashar Assad’s military regime began using tanks and soldiers to crack down on protester. US Ambassador Susan Rice walked out after the vote and remarks against the US by Syria.
The double veto 4 October was the first by the two countries since 2008, when they opposed sanctions against Zimbabwe and it came after several attempts to renegotiate the draft text failed.
The vote was 9-2, with four countries abstaining: India, South Africa, Brazil and Lebanon.
NPR in the US reports that “Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council after the vote that his country did not support the Assad regime or the violence but opposed the resolution because it was “based on a philosophy of confrontation,” contained “an ultimatum of sanctions” and was against a peaceful settlement of a crisis. He also complained that the resolution did not call for the Syrian opposition to disassociate itself from ‘extremists’ and enter into dialogue.
Ria Novosti reports that Russia “stands firmly against any mention of sanctions citing the example of Libya where the Nato countries largely overstepped the UN mandate in a military operation against Muammar Qaddafi’s regime, said the text of the document was ‘unacceptable’ despite several changes to the draft. The Russian news agency cites Churkin’s complaint that “the document did not contain provisions on the unacceptability of an external military intervention.”
China’s Ambassador Li Bandong says that China is concerned about the violence but that sanctions achieve little and can complicate the situation rather than help it.
Links to other sites: BBC, The Globe & Mail, NPR, Ria Novosti, Xinhua
CHINA – Two Tibetan monks set themselves on fire, 26 September, in protest over China’s tight rein over Buddhist practices.
Xinhua News Agency said the monks were rescued by police, and had “suffered slight burns but were in stable condition.”
China has previously said that religious law requires that the “reincarnation of the Dalai Lama be born in a Tibetan area under Chinese control.” However, the Dalai Lama has said his successor could be born in exile and has considered the idea of choosing his own successor while still alive — “perhaps even a woman.”
Links to: Winnipeg Free Press.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Concern is growing, say UN and national authorities in three countries after a 6.9 earthquake shook remote Himalayan areas in India, Nepal and Tibet Sunday. The regions hardest hit by the earthquake that was centered in the northern Indian state of Sikkim are difficult to reach and mountain roads have been blocked by debris in several areas.
At least 70 people have died, including three in Nepal when a British embassy wall collapsed, and the death toll is expected to rise. Structural damage has been heavy in several areas and officials in India say at least 1,000 homes collapsed.
Links to other sites:
BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14967812
Times of India, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sikkim-earthquake-toll-climbs-to-66-rescue-work-hampered-by-landslides/articleshow/10041847.cms
Xinhuanet, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-09/19/c_131147529.htm
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – China has recognized Libya’s new government, the NTC, handing a final international political blow to the Qaddafi regime. The news comes this week as the National Transitional Council in Libya announced that the new government’s main source of law will be moderate Islam.
Earlier this week, 13 September Amnesty International issued a report on crimes against humanity by the Qaddafi regime but it also noted that the NTC may have committed war crimes.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Google’s license to operate in mainland China has been renewed for a year. The company has lost market share since it started re-directing traffic to its Hong Kong operations after it was unable to resolve its spat with the Chinese government over censorship. The Chinese license nevertheless allows it to pick up advertising from Chinese companies keen to reach the world outside China.
PC Magazine reports that Google now has just over 18 percent of the search market in China, compared to Baidu’s more than 75 percent.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, PC Magazine
Tourists meet the local cows, hiking down from the Jungfraujoch
BERN, SWITZERLAND – July 2011 was not the disaster for Swiss tourism that some people expected, given the high Swiss franc, but European visitors’ overnight stays were down by 3.5 percent compared to July 2010, with foreigners’ overnight stays down 4 percent.
Two of Switzerland’s traditionally largest groups of European visitors, Germans and the British, were down 11.6 and 10.5 percent respectively.
The Swiss Statistical Office attributes the drop to the combination of a very high franc and unusually cold, wet weather for mid-summer.
Chinese (without Hong Kong) tourists, while still a small part of the overall number, had a positive impact with a 61 percent increase, to 76,787 overnight stays. Germans had 527,612, the largest group.
For the first six months of the year, Chinese visitors’ overnight stays rose 42.5 percent, faster than Indian visitors’, which increased by more than 25 percent, and the Chinese are now not far behind Indians as a key tourist group.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The new US ambassador to China, former Washington state governor Gary Locke, unwittingly made a major and positive impact in China, thanks to a US businessman who had his camera handy. Locke was wearing a backpack and buying himself a coffee at Starbucks at the Seattle airport, en route to his new job in China in mid-August, when US-Chinese businessman ZhaoHui Tang photographed him.
Tang introduced himself to Locke and wished him good luck, according to AP, then posted the photo on Sina Weibo, a social media network, where it rapidly went viral, generating a massive number of comments and 40,000 re-posts. AP interviewed Tang: “‘This is something unbelievable in China,’ said Tang, a Chinese-American citizen. ‘Even for low-ranking officials, we don’t do things for ourselves. Someone goes to buy the coffee for them. Someone carries their bags for them.’”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – US Ambassador to the UN Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe was quick to praise a resolution condemning Syria, taken by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council Tuesday 23 August. The council also agreed to set up a commission of inquiry to further investigate the human rights situation in Syria.
The vote was 33 in favour, 4 against and 9 abstentions. Russia called the draft resolution one-sided and politicized, saying it was essentially aimed at removing a legitimate government. China said that the correct way to protect human rights was not through accusations and that a response to the crisis should respect Syria’s sovereignty and the promotion of dialogue.
The council stated at the close of the meeting, the second special session on Syria called this year:
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The new US ambassador to China, Gary Locke, told reporters at his first press conference in Beijing Sunday 14 August that the US is committed to “getting our fiscal house in order”, in response to Chinese criticism in recent days of what official media have called the American “addiction to borrowing”. China reportedly held $1.16 trillion in US debt, government securities, at the end of May, more than any other country. The criticism followed the downgrading of US credit by rating agency Moodie’s earlier this month.
Locke is a third-generation Chinese-American, whose family emigrated from Hong Kong, with roots in southern Guangdong province. He became the first US state governor of Chinese descent in 1996, re-elected to the post in 2000. He has most recently served as US secretary of commerce. He speaks fluent Cantonese.
He and his wife and three children arrived in Beijing 11 August.
Links to other sites: Economic Times of India, New York Times, Politico, Xinhua
Can Switzerland's environmental policies help China achieve a better balance between nature and humanity?
BERN, SWITZERLAND – A David and Goliath meeting on climate policy will take place from 14 to 21 August when a high-level Chinese delegation visits Switzerland to learn how the Swiss have developed their climate policy. China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is making environmental protection and climate change a priority in its new five-year plan for 2011 through 2015.
The Swiss Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement 9 August about the visit that “Beijing is especially counting on international cooperation, and has launched an analysis of the different economic and legal instruments existing in certain countries. Hence, in 2010, China extended an invitation to Switzerland, via the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), to participate in the revision of the legal framework on the fight against air pollution and in the development of a draft law on the climate.”
Switzerland will be presenting an overview of “instruments developed to contribute to the implementation of Swiss climate policy, ranging from voluntary measures subscribed to by the economic sector, to the levying of a CO2 tax”, says Bern. The delegation will meet with experts from several federal offices, members of parliament and some private sector companies, with a visit to a company that employs voluntary climate protection measures.
The visiting Chinese team includes representatives from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Science, and representatives of the Academy of Social Sciences.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The price of food rose 14.8 percent in July in China, led by a rise in the price of pork, a staple, which jump nearly 57 percent compared to a year earlier. The higher food prices led to an overall inflation rate increase of 6.6 percent year on year, up from a 6.4 percent y/y increase in June, despite the government’s vow to keep food prices from rising. The government has allowed interest rates to rise five times in nine months, to rein in inflation. Analysts are divided over whether or not its efforts are taking hold and inflating is peaking.
Higher food prices hit low-income workers hardest, with one-third of their income going for food, according to AFP sources.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The AFP reports today 26 July that local journalists in China are being banned from investigating a crash between two high-speed trains that killed 39 and left hundreds of people hurt.
The trains involved in the 23 July collision, were the first generation of China’s high-speed trains designed to travel at a top speed of 250 kilometres per hour.
A first train was stopped by a power outage caused by lightning, and a second train following on the same line crashed into it.
Further details: France 24 (AFP), background information on the crash GenevaLunch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Chinese authorities say the death toll has risen to 35, with nearly 200 injured people in hospital following a crash in southeastern China between two high-speed trains, each of them carrying 1,500-2,000 people.
A first train was stopped by a power outage caused by lightning, and a second train following on the same line crashed into it. The first train was stopped on a bridge and two of its cars went over, creating major problems for rescue workers. The accident forced the suspension of 21 bullet trains in and out of Fujian Province, on a line with 30 high-speed trains a day.
Details and photos: Xinhua
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A British-Chinese love affair has just started off with a bang, following the opening in Shanghai of the Chinese version of the West End musical “Mamma Mia”, centred around songs by the Swedish pop group Abba, which takes place on a Greek island.
The Friday night opening 8 July drew enthusiastic applause and Chinese media have since been giving the first Western-style major musical in China the thumbs up in reviews. The show runs in Shanghai until November, when it begins touring.
The West End version is now in its 14th year in London.
Links to other sites: China.org, video on CCTV (Chinese television in English)
Nestle in Chinese sweets deal, Lonza goes for American biochem
Update 15:25 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Vevey-based Nestlé has entered into an agreement with the founding family of Hsu Fu Chi, one of China’s main snack and sweets manufacturers, with four large plants and 16,000 employees. In the deal worth CHF1.4 billion, the Swiss company will ultimately control 40 percent of the company, which is listed in Singapore.
The deal will need government approval.
Nestlé intends to acquire 60 percent of Hsu Fu Chi while the Hsu family will own the remaining 40 percent, the Vevey multinational said in a press release Monday 11 July. Hsu Fu Chi’s chairman and chief executive officer, Hsu Chen, will continue to lead the company in the new partnership.
The Swiss company says of the deal that Hsu Fu Chi has a large range of “affordable products”, with a portfolio that “includes sugar confectionery, cereal-based snacks, packaged cakes and the traditional Chinese snack sachima. Hsu Fu Chi’s products are tailored to Chinese consumers’ needs and habits, and complement Nestlé’s existing product portfolio in China, which includes culinary products, soluble coffee, bottled water, milk powder and products for the foodservice industry.”
Bloomberg points out that the Chinese company’s growth rate in 2010 was three times that of Nestle’s worldwide, noting that “Nestle’s Bulcke, 56, has set a goal of getting 45 percent of revenue from developing countries by 2020, compared with about a third now.”
Basel company takeover of US firm to create world’s largest microbial control firm
Basel-based Lonza will become the world’s largest microbial control company in terms of sales, which are estimated at CHF1.6 billion, once its agreement to buy Arch Chemicals, a Connecticut-based US company, goes through. The deal to take over Arch’s outstanding shares of common stock at a price of $47.20 per share in cash will give Arch Chemicals an enterprise value of $1.4 billion (approximately CHF 1.25 billion), the two companies said in a statement released Monday 11 July.
Lonza Group Ltd is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science industries. Arch Chemicals, Inc. is a global biocides company that provides “innovative solutions to destroy or to selectively inhibit the growth of harmful microorganisms”.
Microbial control is the process of inhibiting or preventing the growth of microorganisms, generally by using agents that either kill them or inhibit their growth. Agents that kill or called “cidals” and those that inhibit are “static agents”.
“Currency factors will help Lonza in the case of Arch,” reports the Financial Times. “The group will borrow to finance the deal, benefiting both from ultra low US interest rates and the strength of the franc.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A rare cross has created a charming little creature, a donkra, also known as a zonkey, at a wildlife park in Xiamen Haicang, in China, where crowds are pressing against the fences to see the little fellow. He (sex is not yet known) has the striped legs of his mother, a zebra, but the brown top of his father, a donkey. The parents mated of their own accord in the park where the animals roam freely.
The new donkra was born 4 July.
Raw footage from AP:
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Chinese Communist Party was established 1 July 1921 and today is arguably the most successful Communist Party in the world, but it remains subject to heavy criticism from outside the country over several issues. China is celebrating this week with a series of events for the Party faithful as well as for the public, the culmination of months of planning.
Chinese media are praising the government’s record since the Communists took power in 1949, but also focusing on the problem of corruption and efforts to reduce it. Xinhua, the state news agency, carries an article about the government’s corruption watchdogs, which harks back to the days when the population was closely watched by local officials.
Foreign media are pointing to more negative aspects, with the BBC noting that celebrations are accompanied by the authorities’ “their biggest crackdown against dissidents in almost 20 years”, while Bloomberg attributes a rise in young members to elitism: “added 1.24 million university students as members last year, an 8.2 percent increase from 2009. Founded 90 years ago today to build a socialist Utopia for the laboring classes, the party has become a ticket to elite jobs in government and state-owned businesses that offer security, power and a path to wealth.” An audio tape from NPR‘s Morning Edition in the US to be released at 09:00 Eastern Daylight Time there will recount one official’s efforts to fight corruption.
Even leftist Liberation in France contents itself with an article, far from the front page, about how residents of Chongqing were being asked to learn revolutionary songs, long forgotten, for the celebrations.
Links to other sites: Euronews, Wall St Journal blog
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Five years of Chinese-Russian talks and the promise of a nearly done deal were not enough to put ink on paper and seal what would be “one of the largest energy deals in history” worth billions of dollars, as the Moscow Times puts it. The two appeared so close to agreement that it was to be at the centre of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which ended 18 June, and a four-day visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Moscow.
Officials from both sides are now saying more talks are needed. Russia’s “Gazprom sold pipeline gas to Europe in the first half of 2011 for an average of $346 per 1,000 cubic meters and may raise the price for long-term contracts to $500 per 1,000 cubic meters by December on the back of high oil prices. China is seeking a discount on the price at which Gazprom sells gas to its European customers”, reports the Moscow Times.
Bloomberg quotes the head of Gazprom, interviewed last week, as saying a deal should still be feasible in 2011.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It will cost you only about CHF100 to go 300kph in China, on the Beijing-Shanghai route, but you won’t be behind the wheel, you’ll be in a passenger seat on the new high-speed train. The Chinese government 14 June unveiled the price schedule for the trains, which go into operation at the end of June, cutting travel time from the current high-speed train trip of 10 hours to under 5 hours.
China’s railway company will run 126 trains at 300kph every day and 54 trains at 250kph, as well as continuing to run 136 “normal” trains for the 1,318km journey. The fastest trains were originally scheduled to run at 350kph but the government decided to reduce the speed for cost and safety reasons.
Ticket prices in yuan will be RMB555 for second-class seats and RMB1,750 for first-class, for the 4-hour 48-minute journey. By comparison, a regular full-fare airplane ticket costs nearly RMB1,400 and the flight takes one hour, 40 minutes flying time.
Xinhua, the official news agency, issued a puzzling statement based on remarks by Vice Minister of Railways Hu Yadong at a press conference, that “Prices will float according to the market and for the good of passengers.”
China will continue to run 250kph trains, with tickets costing RMB410 to 650 for second and first class, respectively.
The new high-speed lines will also make it possible to “increase cargo transportation capacity by 140,000 tons per day and 50 million tons per year, according to Xinhua.
