10/16/2009 Source: People’s Daily

A total of 135 officials have violated laws or Party discipline in handling the country’s economic stimulus projects, as teams were dispatched to supervise the allocation of matching funds from local governments and oversee the flow of the stimulus money.

Among the 135, six violated laws and have been handed over to the prosecutors, according to a statement issued by the Communist Party of China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The others received administrative or disciplinary punishment, it said.

In a major case listed in the statement, Lan Shaowei, deputy head of Hanyuan county in Sichuan province, took bribes totaling $85,700 from bidders for a reservoir project.

He was expelled from the Party and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The commission pledged to closely supervise the projects involving huge government investment and punish rule breakers.

Inspection teams, that include officials from the commission, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, focus on projects with large investments and those closely related to public interests. They check investment plans and management, supervise bidding and application processes and review outcomes, the 21st Century Business Herald reported.

The key of the mission is to oversee the projects funded by the central government, as well as the matching funds from local governments. They also will find problematic projects and reform them.

Local capital urged

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance for the first time issued a circular, allowing local governments to use the proceeds of land sales to bankroll the stimulus projects.

In the circular, the ministry, for the third time in a month, urged local governments to secure funds needed for the stimulus package.

Last year, China announced an economic stimulus package worth 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion), part of which is expected to come from local governments.

But many local governments are finding it difficult to secure needed funds due to the economic slowdown.

Since the stimulus plan was announced last November, the central government has allocated funds in four batches – 100 billion yuan, 130 billion yuan, 70 billion yuan and 80 billion yuan.

It will issue the fifth batch of funds this month to bring the total to 550 billion yuan.

And local governments are required to provide 1.18 trillion yuan for stimulus projects by the end of this month.

Su Ming, deputy director of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science, told the 21st Century Business Herald that it is unknown if proceeds from the land deals can solve the cash shortage of local governments.

In 2007, local governments reaped only 400 billion yuan in net profits from land sales.

Worse still, not all of the money can be spent on stimulus projects, analysts said.

In Yunnan province, for example, only 40 percent of its 1.6 billion yuan in net profits from land sales last year could be spent on urban planning and construction. Other parts of the money go to fields including land resources management, welfare housing and farmers’ pension fund.

Therefore, land proceeds can only solve the problem temporarily, analysts said.

10/12/2009 source: Xinhua

Thirty-one people went on trial Monday in two court cases for allegedly running organized crime gangs in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality.

It is expected to be the first in a series of organized crime trials resulting from investigations into 14 alleged mafia-style gangs, said a spokesman with the municipal public security bureau.

Nine people — Yang Tianqing, Li Xianguang, Zeng Chuan, Liu Chenghu, Jian Shaokun, Liu Yu, He Pengyu, Zou Meng and Li Yu — are on trial in First Intermediate People’s Court on 10 charges, including organizing a crime gang, murder, intentionally causing injury, illegally possessing guns or ammunition, false imprisonment, robbery and extortion and forging resident identity cards.

The charges spanned the last eight years, said an official with Chongqing Higher People’s Court.

Yang is accused of organizing the other eight by means of coercing them to take illegal drugs and alcohol and by involving them with prostitution.

Yang allegedly imposed strict rules on the gang members that banned them from discussing the organization’s affairs with each other.

Meanwhile at in Third Intermediate People’s Court, 22 people, allegedly led by Liu Zhongyong, are facing a total of 11 charges, including organizing a crime gang, murder, intentionally causing injury, disrupting public services, being responsible for major incidents at illegal coal mines, assault and illegal mining,.

The Higher People’s Court official said Liu faced eight charges, including opening illegal small coal mines and hiring others to guard the mines with weapons.

The gang is alleged to have been responsible for major incidents that left three people dead, and carried out 19 other crimes that left one person dead, three seriously injured and four slightly injured.

The trial is continues, the official said.

The spokesman for the municipal bureau of public security said the number of people involved in the cases ranges from more than 10 to 70 and some cases are expected to continue for more than two weeks.

10/12/2009 Source: People’s Daily

The soon-to-be new owner of Hummer said the company will try to make the gas-guzzler adapt to the times.

“Tengzhong has been aware of the importance of energy-efficient vehicles,” said Yang Yi, CEO of Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co, in an exclusive interview with China Daily.

Tengzhong signed a previously announced deal with General Motors (GM) on Friday in Detroit to purchase Hummer, a deal Yang says is likely to get Chinese government approval this year or early next year.

“A series of fuel-efficient vehicles including electric and renewable fuel models have already been under development. And environmentally-friendly products will be introduced to the market soon,” said Yang, who was in Detroit to sign the deal.

The Sichuan-based company will attempt to parry the unfavorable gas-guzzling image of Hummer and cultivate markets outside the United States.

“If Tengzhong adheres to the strategy of developing greener Hummer vehicles, there will be a bright future for the business,” said Jia Xinguang, chief analyst with the Chinese National Automotive Industry Consulting and Development Corp.
Hummer’s daunting gas tanks could be a challenge to Beijing’s efforts to foster energy-efficient consumption. Earlier this year, the Chinese government halved the purchase tax on cars with 1.6-liter or smaller engines to encourage sales of small vehicles.

The deal also needs to be approved by the US government.

If the deal goes through, Tengzhong would be the first Chinese company to purchase a famed Western auto brand.

The Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday it has not yet received an application about Tengzhong’s bid for Hummer.

The size of the deal was not revealed, but the Associated Press said it was $150 million, citing an unnamed source. Yang said Hummer’s production would remain in the US and GM would provide key components and assembly services over transitional period. Tengzhong plans to maintain Hummer’s headquarters in Detroit and retain existing senior management and operational team.

Some analysts doubt whether the deal itself is worthwhile.

“The labor cost of Hummer’s 3,000 employees who have been kept according to the deal is much higher than in China. Tengzhong, with an annual output of 3 billion yuan ($440 million), can hardly afford such a burden,” said Ma Guangyuan, a public policy researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“The deal does not include Hummer’s core technology needed to make the vehicles,” Ma said.

Yang shrugged off concerns that Tengzhong, a long-time manufacturer of heavy machinery equipment such as road and bridge components and construction and energy industry equipment, lacks the experience in the automobile business.

“We have already made several automobile-related acquisitions prior to the deal, and plan to focus more on the high-end sport-utility vehicles.”

According to Yang, Tengzhong will devote marketing efforts to areas outside the US where year-on-year sales of Hummer plunged 64 percent from January to September.

“There is market demand for all terrain vehicles like Hummer in places with complex landscapes such as southwest China, and there are rich people who can afford it,” said automotive analyst Jia.

10/09/2009 Source: China Daily

A US government probe that could lead to anti-dumping levies of nearly 100 percent on imports of Chinese steel pipes could escalate trade disputes between the two countries, industry analysts said yesterday.

Rising trade protectionism, in the name of anti-dumping and countervailing measures, would ultimately derail economic recovery, they said.

The US Commerce Department launched an investigation on Wednesday on whether to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports of seamless steel pipes from China.

The decision came one day after the European Union announced that it would slap five-year duties of up to 39.2 percent on steel pipe imports from China citing material injury or threat to local producers from rising Chinese imports.

The US case involves steel pipes used for moving natural gas, water, steam and other liquids. The US commerce department said it accepted a petition asking for the probe from the US Steel Corp, V&M Star LP, TMK IPSCO and the United Steelworkers union. It said imports of the product from China rose nearly 132 percent by volume from 2006 to 2008, Reuters reported.

The US petitioners requested a 98.37-percent anti-dumping duty against the Chinese imports and additional countervailing duties to offset alleged Chinese government subsidies. The US International Trade Commission is scheduled to make its preliminary injury determination at the beginning of next month.

The move comes less than a month after US President Barack Obama agreed to slap hefty duties of up to 35 percent on imports of Chinese tires. Also last month the US imposed preliminary duties ranging from 10.9 to 30.6 percent on imports of Chinese steel pipes used for oil drilling. That case involved $2.7 billion worth of steel pipes and a final decision would be announced on Nov 23.

Comments from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce were not available.

“Trade protectionism is rising amid the global economic crisis and has led to abuse of anti-dumping and countervailing measures. That would ultimately harm the global economic recovery,” said Zhang Yuqing, a panelist with the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The number of anti-dumping or countervailing cases worldwide could double and surge to a record high this year, the WTO said in July. China has been the biggest victim and 17 countries and regions initiated 79 trade remedy investigations against China in the first eight months of this year, up 16.2 percent year-on-year, according to the Chinese commerce ministry. The cases involved Chinese exports worth $10.035 billion, up 121.2 percent over the same period last year.

“Threat of material injury is rarely cited as a reason for anti-dumping ruling practice. It is strictly defined by the WTO rules and members should be highly prudent in such cases,” said Zhou Shijian, a senior analyst at the Sino-US Relations Research Center of Tsinghua University.

China’s commerce ministry said the EU should come up with more evidence to prove the accusation under world trade rules. China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) said it might submit an application to the WTO to settle the dispute.

Exports of Chinese-made seamless steel pipes to the EU decreased by 70.96 percent year-on-year from January to August this year, according to CISA.

10/09/09 Source: www.chinaview.cn

Director of the BBC’s Global News Richard Sambrook said here Thursday that the BBC would continue to report all sorts of different dimension of China as fully as possible to the rest of the world.

Richard Sambrook, also Co-chairman of the first-ever World Media Summit(WMS), made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Xinhua before the convening of the WMS.
“In this ever more connected and interdependent world, we think it’s very important to reach out to China and to report China as fully as possible back to the rest of the world,” Sambrook said.

“Recently we moved our main hub bureau for Asia to Beijing and we have put more staff and more resources into that bureau, ” he said, adding the BBC was constantly looking for ways to report China more fully.

The BBC is trying to get more opportunities to report China in many different ways as it can, he said, citing the example of a successful China Week special program in 2005 and the Wild China series made as a partnership between the BBC and CTV (a subsidiary of CCTV).

Sambrook said it was important that China’s voice was heard around the world, and also that other voices from around the world heard within China.

“Communication is very important, particularly in the modern world where we face all the issues and problems together,” he said.

Sambrook said he was very much looking forward to the discussion at WMS.

“I am not expecting any easy answers to the problems we face together, but I’m quite sure that we can learn much from sharing experience.”

Sambrook admitted the BBC’s difficulty in coping with the impact of financial crisis, he said the BBC was still exposed to economic changes to property prices and the cost of doing business.

Although BBC is going through a difficult time, there are opportunities as well, particularly with new Technology and opportunities to create content in a new and more flexible way, he said.

He recalled his first time visiting China in 1986 for Queen Elizabeth’s royal visit, when he use a huge and expensive satellite to send the pictures back to Britain.
“Today our reporters can do the same thing with just laptop and mobile phone, that’s much cheaper and easier. technology helps us through these changes if we adapted it and explored it in the right way.” He said.

Sambrook was also keen to participate in the social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook, where he found a lot of creativity, innovation and energy.

“I think there is a profound change the internet is bringing to communication and to all the media, we all need to understand it and being involved to it,” he said.

10/06/2009 Source: Xinhua

China’s nationwide campaign against illegal labor exports has born fruit as the government has seized 72 suspects involving in 48 cases, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

The campaign, from June 10 to Aug. 31, has dealt with 1,376 contractors without business licenses, and 27 brokers who had violated business rules.

These cases involved a total value of about 80 million yuan (11.76 million U.S. dollars), and three suspects were still at large, said the ministry.

China had sent 4.87 million workers abroad as of the end of August, and 766,000 were still working abroad, the ministry said. Labor disputes were rising due to illegal labor exports and poor operations by some overseas contractors.

10/06/2009 Source: Xinhua

The amount of non-cash payments in China’s eastern coastal region started to rise in the second quarter this year after three consecutive quarters of decline, according to the People’s Bank of China.

Non-cash payments, including commercial papers and bank cards, in China’s eastern provinces went up 2.3 percent in the second quarter this year, the central bank said in its latest report.

China saw its first-ever decline in non-cash payments in the third quarter last year, a proof of a less active economy amid the global economic downturn, according to a central bank report.

In the second quarter, transactions made with non-cash payment tools rose 25 percent to 4.44 billion times valued at 157.5 trillion yuan (23.06 trillion U.S. dollars), according to the report.

The report also showed non-cash payments in China’s central, western and northeastern regions grew faster than in the east, by 26.4 percent, 10.5 percent and 52.5 percent year on year respectively.