Iconic images celebrate the country's 60-year journey

By Zhou Liming (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-02 08:01

A stunning photography series commemorating the 60-year journey of the People's Republic of China was launched as part of China Daily's 28th birthday celebrations Monday.

State Council Information Office Director Wang Chen (2nd from left) prepares for a toast as China Daily Editor-in-Chief Zhu Ling (on his right) applauds during China Daily's 28th anniversary celebration in Beijing Monday night. [Photo by Xu Jingxing/China Daily] Related Video: Focus on China

The photo collection, aptly named "China 1949-2009", is a retrospective of 362 pictures taken by 248 of the nation's top photojournalists. It chronicles China mostly from the perspective of ordinary people. In the images are the gravitas of history and warmth of humanity.

The front cover of a photo collection named "China 1949-2009", which is a retrospective of 362 pictures taken by 248 of the nation's top photojournalists. [chinadaily.com.cn] Related Video: Focus on China

To add a touch of history to the occasion, 90-year-old Hou Bo, who took the iconic picture of Chairman Mao Zedong at the exact moment when he announced the establishment of the People's Republic atop Tian'anmen Rostrum, attended the book launch and recounted her story. She also told how Premier Zhou Enlai pulled her back from falling over the railings.

The retrospective is the latest addition to China Daily's renowned photographic series, which started in 2003 when the country was hit by the SARS epidemic. On the cover of that collection was a man, who though lying on his back, held out his hand and made a fist. That was Dr Yin Peigang, who contracted the virus while treating other patients.

Images from the earthquake and the Beijing Olympics are included in the photo series.

Wang Chen, director of the State Council Information Office, wished China Daily a "happy birthday" and congratulated the paper for "bringing out better cultural products to present China's peaceful development and to foster communications between China and the rest of the world".

China Daily Editor-in-Chief Zhu Ling thanked "our readers, including peers and clients" for the continuous support. He was proud that the paper was "an authoritative voice on China and a platform for the voice of the people".

He said China Daily would "continue to provide in-depth news and insightful analysis crucial to understanding this vast and changing country and world."

Commenting on the coincidence that the paper's birthday falls on June 1, Children's Day, Zhu Ling joked that "China Daily will always be like a kid, full of youthful energy."

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Remembered...     http://www.cctv.com/english/special/512anniv/homepage/index.shtml

Chinese ordered to smoke more to boost economy

Local government officials in China have been ordered to smoke nearly a quarter of a million packs of cigarettes in a move to boost the local economy during the global financial crisis. By Peter Foster in Beijing. 2009.05.04.

The edict, issued by officials in Hubei province in central China, threatens to fine officials who "fail to meet their targets" or are caught smoking rival brands manufactured in neighbouring provinces.  Even local schools have been issued with a smoking quota for teachers, while one village was ordered to purchase 400 cartons of cigarettes a year for its officials, according to the local government's website.

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The move, which flies in the face of national anti-smoking policies set in Beijing, is aimed at boosting tax revenues and protecting local manufacturers from outside competition from China's 100 cigarette makers.  In total, officials have been ordered to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-branded cigarettes worth £400,000.

 

China's government has ordered massive government spending at both national and provincial levels to prop up the economy following plummeting demand for Chinese exports abroad, however imposing a cigarette quota is unusual.

 

China has 350 million smokers, about a million of whom die each year from smoking-related illnesses. Despite anti-smoking campaigns, cigarette taxes form a major component of China's annual tax-take at local level.

 

Earthquake - The Aftermath 1 year on.  China Daily.  2009.05.07.

CHENGDU -- A total of 5,335 students in Sichuan were dead or missing from May 12 earthquake, said Tu Wentao, head of the education department of the Sichuan province at a press conference Thursday morning.

Full Coverage: Sichuan, One Year On Related readings: Post-quake schools will be 'safest'DNA identification helps quake survivors find dead Quake orphans struggle to carry on Another baby, solace for bereaved in quake zone After fatal lesson, China builds stronger school in quake zone

Another 546 students were handicapped in the southwestern province, Tu said.

Thousands of schools collapsed in Sichuan in the magnitude 8.0 quake last May. Statistics from the Sichuan provincial education department showed that 3,340 schools needed to be rebuilt after the earthquake.

The government has pledged to have 95 percent of the students back in school buildings, rather than tents or prefabricated structures, before the end of this year. All students should be in regular school buildings by next spring.

New houses are under construction in Qingchuan county, southwest China's Sichuan province Wednesday May 6, 2009. [Xinhua]

Huang Mingquan, head of the provincial civil affairs department, said in the same press conference that the death toll from the earthquake, which took place on May 12 last year in Sichuan Province, was 68,712, and another 17,921 people in Sichuan were missing after the disaster.

The province, epicenter of the quake, has so far received about 15.75 billion yuan ($2.31 billion) in quake donations, according to Huang Jinsheng, head of the provincial finance department.

He said that the provincial government has received 9.13 billion yuan, while the rest of the funds were forwarded to prefectures and counties in the province.

The official vowed to strictly monitor the use of the donations and make public the use the donations.

Reconstruction work is progressing.

According to Yu Wei, spokesman with the provincial government, more than 241,000 houses in the rural areas of the quake zone and 105,000 apartments in cities and townships are under construction, with another one million in rural areas and 33,000 in cities already finished.

Rebuilding of rural houses is expected to be finished by the end of this September, while those in cities will be completed by next May, he said.

To date, construction of 46.2 percent of the damaged clinics and hospitals has started, Yu said, adding that the rebuilding work of 99 percent of basic public service facilities including clinics and hospitals across the province will be completed in two years.

Governments have helped nearly 1.3 million quake-affected people find new jobs, Yu said.

China fears bond crisis as it slams quantitative easing

China has given its clearest warning to date that emergency monetary stimulus by Western governments risks setting off worldwide inflation and undermining global bond markets.  By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.  2009.05.07.

China fears bond crisis as it slams quantitative easing

"A policy mistake made by some major central bank may bring inflation risks to the whole world," said the People's Central Bank in its quarterly report.   "As more and more economies are adopting unconventional monetary policies, such as quantitative easing (QE), major currencies' devaluation risks may rise," it said. The bank fears a "big consolidation" in the bond markets, clearly anxious that interest yields will surge as western states try to exit their QE experiment.

 

Simon Derrick, currency chief at the Bank of New York Mellon, said the report is the latest sign that China is losing patience with the US and aims to diversify part its $1.95 trillion (£1.3 trillion) foreign reserves away from US Treasuries and other dollar securities.   "They are concerned about the stability of the global financial system so they are not going to sell US bonds they already have. But they are still accumulating $40bn of fresh reserves each month, and they are going to be much more careful where they invest it," he said.

 

Hans Redeker, head of currencies at BNP Paribas, said China is switching into hard assets. "They want to buy production rights to raw materials and gain access to resources such as oil, water, and metals. They know they can't keep buying bonds," he said

Premier Wen Jiabao left no doubt at the Communist Party summit in March that China is irked by Washington's response to the credit crunch, suspecting that the US is engaging in a stealth default on its debt by driving down the dollar. "We have lent a massive amount of capital to the United States, and of course we are concerned about the security of our assets. To speak truthfully, I do indeed have some worries," he said.

 

Days later, the central bank chief wrote a paper suggesting a world currency based on Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund.

 

Some economists say China is suffering from "cognitive dissonance" by anguishing so much over its reserves, accumulated as a result of its own policy of holding down the yuan to promote exports. Quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve and fellow central banks may have saved China as well, since the country's growth strategy is built on selling goods to the West.

 

China's fears of imported inflation may reflect its concerns about over-heating. The M2 money supply rose 25pc in March on a year earlier, and there has been explosive credit growth since the government relaxed loan restraints. There are concerns that the stimulus is leaking into a new asset bubble rather than promoting job growth. The Shanghai bourse is up over 50pc since November.

Mainland companies to invest in Taiwan.  By Xie Yu & Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)  2009.04.27.

NANJING -- Chinese mainland companies can soon invest in Taiwan for the first time in six decades.

The mainland and Taiwan Sunday agreed on the long-awaited move at the third cross-Straits talks between the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

Chen Yunlin (R), president of the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), shakes hands with Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), during their talks in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, on April 26, 2009. [Xinhua] more photos

ARATS, representing the mainland, and the Taiwan-based SEF signed three agreements to replace chartered flights with regular ones, jointly combat crime and boost cooperation in finance.

Taiwan "sincerely welcomes" mainland companies and will expand the field for them gradually, SEF said in a statement. The details of the investment regulations will be "announced in one to two months", SEF Vice-Chairman Kao Koong-lian told a press conference.

Zhang Guanhua, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' institute of Taiwan studies, said the move is "vital to the realization of direct trade across the Straits".

The central government has been calling for direct cross-Straits links in transport, postal services and trade since 1979, and allowed Taiwan companies to invest on the mainland in the 1980s.

But mainland companies were not allowed to invest in Taiwan. Only the mainland's real estate companies can enter the island's market at present, and that too under strict conditions.

"Since the top negotiators of ARATS and SEF have agreed on the investment issue and Taiwan has promised to take specific measures within two months, mainland companies should be able to invest in the island soon. This will turn the one-way investment process into a two-way affair," Zhang said.

The Taiwan authorities have been trying to boost cross-Straits relations since the end of last year and hope to seek the mainland's cooperation in industrial sectors, including in solar energy, herbal medicine, automobiles and aviation, Zhang said. It's these areas that are likely to be the first to be opened to mainland companies.

"Companies in these areas may have a greater chance of investing in Taiwan since the island authorities are eager to seek cooperation in these fields," Zhang said.

The Taiwan authorities, however, may not allow mainland investment in the island's pillar industries such as semiconductors for the time being, Zhang said.

Related readings:  Talks agree to boost mainland investment in Taiwan  Mainland, Taiwan clinch financial regulatory mechanism  Mainland, Taiwan vow co-op in fighting crimes  Mainland's Taiwan affairs chief meets SEF chairman  Taiwan chief negotiator in Nanjing for cross-Straits talks

"Nevertheless, as the cooperation progresses, I believe the scope for mainland companies will widen," he said.

ARATS and SEF signed an agreement yesterday to set up a regulatory framework for financial services firms to invest and do business in each other's markets. They agreed to gradually set up a clearing system for the Taiwan dollar and the yuan.

"This will drive new investment in the domestic market and bring strong interest from foreigners as well," Reuters quoted Standard Chartered economist Tony Phoo as having said.

"Even though there's nothing really (unexpected) that came out, it's something positive - something that's been holding back for too long," he said.

High hopes over the deals have supercharged Taiwan's stock market this year, making it the world's best performer after Shanghai.

 Tibet: building highway to China´s last roadless county. 

Source: Xinhua | 2009.04.20.  Editor: Du Xiaodan  Special Report:   Tibet Today

NYINGCHI, Tibet,  On Monday began building a highway to the country's last roadless county, Medog in Tibet, to end the county's isolation from the outside world.   Costing 950 million yuan (139 million U.S. dollars), the 117 km-highway will link Zhamog Township, the county seat of Bome, and Medog in 2011 as scheduled, said Wong Mengyong, deputy Transportation Minister.

Photo taken on April 20 shows the road in Medog, Nyingchi  Prefecture, southeastern Tibet, is under construction.  China on Monday began building a highway to the country's  last roadless county, Medog in Tibet, to end the county's  isolation with the outside world. (Xinhua Photo)

Situated at Tibet's border with India and nestled among snow-capped mountains, there are only mountain paths connecting villages and towns. Tough terrains, complicated geological conditions, lack of funds and poor technologies had failed seven attempts to build a highway in the area since the 1970s.   "We have no road, no postal services, and little communication with the outside world.  Local residents rely on horse and mules for transportation," said Ngodrup Doje, Medog's county head. "Many people in the county haven't seen vehicles.  Our life will change a lot once the road is completed," he continued.

 

A cornerstone laying ceremony for building a highway to  China's last roadless county, Medog, is being held in Medog,  Nyingchi Prefecture, southeastern Tibet, on Monday, April 20,  2009.(Xinhua Photo)

"Our life will change a lot once the road is completed," he said.

As the first phase of the project, more than 300 technical staff from an armed police unit are digging a 3.3-km tunnel through the Galung La mountain, about 4,000 meters above the sea level in Tibet's Nyingchi Prefecture.

The tunnel, expected to be finished in two years, will withstand earthquakes measuring up to a 6.5 magnitude, said Liu Genshui, who is in charge of the tunnel project.

 

Photo taken on April 20 shows the tunnel through the Galung  La mountain in Nyingchi Prefecture, southeastern Tibet. (Xinhua Photo)

"When it is completed, the progress for the rest of the project will be smoothed," he said.

The sparsely populated Medog, which means "flower" in the Tibetan language, has about 10,000 inhabitants, mostly in rural areas. It is the last of the country's 2,100 counties to be connected via a highway.Editor:Du Xiaodan

Photo exhibition shows life in China in 1870s  By Peter Foster in Beijing  2009.04.11.

A remarkable set of photographs portraying life in China in the late Qing Dynasty is to go on public display for the first time.

    Taken between 1870 & 1871 by Scottish photographer John 'China' Thomson,the images reveal a cast of characters from orphans and street gamblers, to beautiful peasant girls and high born ladies.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5137176/Photo-exhibition-shows-life-in-China-in-1870s.html  see related articles...

 

Hailed as a pioneer of photojournalism, Thomson spent two years travelling more than 5,000 miles in pursuit of the images that historians say are unique in their empathy towards their subjects.   Photo exhibition shows life in China in 1870s  view... Click the Link

 

As well as shooting traditional, stiff-backed portraits of Manchu noblemen, Thomson plied the streets in search of scenes that would bring the exotic world of China to life for a curious public back in England.

 

"These pictures are fascinating because they reveal a world that most artists of that period ignored," said Betty Yao, who has organised the exhibition that opens in Beijing next week.  "Most material from this late Qing era is stuffy, formal and posed, but Thomson's work is full of life."  What is doubly remarkable, added Mrs Yao, was that Thomson captured such intimate moments while using cumbersome equipment and glass-plate negatives that needed to be coated with emulsion before exposure.  "He was the original photojournalist, and he used incredible persistence and hard work to get precisely the pictures he wanted.  He never gave up," she said.

 

Among the images that testify to that persistence is a rare picture of a woman's bare, bound foot. Thomson later admitted, in perhaps an early example of "chequebook journalism", that he had paid the woman "handsomely" to expose her withered foot.  In other pictures, Thomson captured the sorry inmates of a "foundling" hospital where orphaned children were offered for free to "respectable people", and a public street slide-show where the public could see images from exotic and faraway places often to gasps of amazement.

 

When he returned to London, Thomson used his pictures to illustrate talks and lectures of his own, which earned him the moniker "China" Thomson.  An early herald of globalisation, Thomson recognised that the days of China's isolation from the world were passing, observing that "through the agency of steam and telegraphy, [China] is being brought day by day into closer relationship with ourselves".

 

Shortly before he died in 1921, Thomson offered to sell his glass negatives to Henry Wellcome, the pharmacist-philanthropist and keen collector, and it is from the archives of the Wellcome Library in London that the images have been taken, many to be exhibited in public for the first time.

Note:  After visiting four cities across China, starting in Beijing at the Beijing World Art Museum this week, the organisers say the exhibition will come to Liverpool early next year.  

Qingming - Tomb Sweeping Day. China mourns earthquake victims - China Daily Link

China in a graveyard crisis

Buying a place to live in China's cities has long been beyond the pocket of most ordinary Chinese thanks to a massive boom in property prices, but now affording a final resting place is out of reach. By Peter Foster in Beijing   2009.04.03.

As millions of Chinese pause to honour their ancestors and tidy their graves this weekend at the annual Qingming, or "Tombsweeping" festival, the sky-rocketing price of cemetery plots and funeral services has become a focus of national anger.

"Too poor to live, to poor to die" is how one newspaper the northeastern city Harbin headlined a report complaining that cemetery plots were now costing more per square metre than luxury apartments.

 

The spiralling cost of funerals is doubly sensitive in China where filial piety, including honouring and respecting one's ancestors, ranks even above love for one's country among the traditional Confucian hierarchy of virtues.  The subject was also taken up at this year's China's annual parliament, the National People's Congress, where delegates complained of the lunacy of urns costing more than televisions and tombs more than houses.

 

The high costs cause resentment among ordinary Chinese and also explain how the funeral industry first entered an annual list of the top ten "colossal profit businesses" in China in 2003 and has continued to feature every year since.

 

Outside, the usually grey ranks of gravestones were garlanded with bright paper flowers for the festival as those lucky enough to have bought plots years ago - when prices were a fraction of their current rate - came to sweep their ancestors' tombs.

 

Miao Fei, a 24-year-old student in Beijing, was smartening up the grave of her grandparents whose ashes share the same small plot which cost just 200 yuan per square meter in 1988, equivalent to about 3,500-4,500 yuan (£350-£450) at today's prices.  "I've left some cigarettes and rice wine for my grandfather because that was his favourite," she said, stooping to wipe clean the inscription on the headstone, "and some strawberries for my grandmother."

 

The cost of funeral arrangements is now so high in China that many of those coming to pay their respects said to departed loved ones said that they would prefer something far simpler when their time comes.  "I want my ashes scattered over the ocean," said Tang Qinghui, a 47-year-old engineer who was repainting the Chinese characters on his grandfather's tomb in gold paint, "but we do this because our parents' generation would have expected it."

 

His wife, Liu Shaofen, agreed. "I have told our children that they must not spend money on us like this when we go," she said, "it is better that they spend the money on the living than the dead."

 

However the old traditions die hard in China. The lease on her own father's grave, in Babaoshan Cemetery (Beijing), is due for renewal in three years' time, but there was no question of allowing it to lapse.

 

"For Chinese people, this is the way we show respect for our parents and what they did for us. For these things, there can be no budget, you just spend what you need to spend."

 NPC - action amid crisis. 

Full coverage: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009ncp/index.html 

China will be a democracy by 2020, says senior party figure.

China will transform itself into a working democracy in just over a decade, according to one of the country's most influential reformers. By Malcolm Moore (Telegraph) in Shanghai 14 Oct 2008

 Police in Beijing try to persuade demonstrators against bad air quality to stop protesting. Photo: AP

 

Zhou Tianyong, an adviser to the Communist Party's Central Committee and one of its most liberal voices, told the Daily Telegraph that "by 2020, China will basically finish its political and institutional reforms".  He added: "We have a 12-year plan to establish a democratic platform. There will be public democratic involvement at all government levels."  Mr Zhou also predicted "extensive public participation in policy-making, such as drawing up new legislation".

 

Mr Zhou is deputy head of research at the Central Party School, the most important institution for training senior leaders. President Hu Jintao is among its former directors.

 

After two weeks of heightened tension between China and Taiwan because of a £3.5 billion American arms sale to the island, Mr Zhou said the transition to democracy was "essential for relations with Taiwan and a possible peaceful reunification".  His comments appear to rebuff the widespread belief that Chinese political reform had stalled after the riots in Tibet in March and a security clampdown before the Olympic Games in Beijing.

 

Instead, Mr Zhou said the government was determined to reform itself, but that there had been some infighting between different departments. He called for the number of ministries in Beijing to be halved to between 19 and 21 in order to form a "modern government structure".

 

Mr Zhou added that civil society in China would also play an important role. "There will be many more non-governmental organisations, chambers of commerce, industry associations and other social groups. He added. "We should recognise that the government should serve the people and society."

But Mr Zhou did not predict the end of the one-party state, nor the demise of the Communist Party's monopoly of power.

 

Any transition to democracy is likely to be a slow process. China already has grassroots elections in over 660,000 villages, although these contests are often rigged. However, there are already small signs of change, with larger cities, such as Nanjing and Guangzhou, recently opening more important posts to public competition. 

No secrets to China's success

China's rapid growth is no accident: it has had the right policies both practically and from the viewpoint of economic theory

  John Ross  of The Guardian.  2009.08.18.

A major international debate has broken out on the success of China's economic stimulus package. Taking non-Chinese writers, I am on one side with Jim O'Neill, chief economist of Goldman Sachs, Professor Danny Quah of the London School of Economics, Mark Weisbrot and others who hold, naturally with differences on "why" and on scale, that China's package is being successful.

 

On the other side are the Guardian's Larry Elliot, Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach, Michael Pettis of Peking University, Martin Wolf of the Financial Times and others who consider, again with significant differences on why and scale, that China's economic strategy is wrong, its stimulus package is misconceived, or both, and therefore it will end badly.

 

The practical importance of this issue is evident. The scales of economic processes involved, as Danny Quah put it, are visible "from outer space". This year China will probably account for the whole of net world economic growth. China's GDP growth is projected to be 8.0% or above. Its economy grew by 7.9% year-on-year in the second quarter and was accelerating. Urban investment increased by 34%, retail sales by 15%.

 

China's performance is stellar in conditions where this year most major economies will shrink. Compared to such results, talk of possible "green shoots" in other economies relates to minor improvements.

 

China has good reasons for not seeking to promote its economic model to other countries, or dissuade others from following it. It states its system is "with Chinese characteristics", emphasising its specifically Chinese character. The Chinese authorities rightly constantly explain that their primary duty is to lead a country with more than 1.3 billion people to economic development. But that China does not seek to promote its economic model does not mean that others cannot learn from it.

 

China's economic success is explicable by normal economics. The specific combination of these policies is, of course, unique and indeed has "Chinese characteristics". But the elements of that economic model are universal in character.

 

It is therefore worth setting out succinctly why China has had such success in confronting the economic crisis and why its policies are right not only practically but from the viewpoint of economic theory. The mistakes of critics of China's stimulus package can be set out against that framework.

 

China has a series of interconnected and mutually reinforcing policies.  The first is the economy's high proportion of exports – crucial to its "opening" process. Every economist since Adam Smith has known that the division of labour is a decisive lever in raising the level of productivity, and division of labour in a modern economy is necessarily international. A high level of exports and imports is the way of participating in such a division of labour – as well as benefiting from advantages such as economies of scale.

 

Economic theory therefore confirms what economic practice already demonstrated. That the alternative to China's open approach, that of inward-looking "import substitution" policies lead to inefficiency in capital use and low productivity.

 

Critics of China's "export-led growth" confuse two ideas. The first is a high level of exports in GDP, rightly integral to China's growth model, the second is a high trade surplus – not integral to China's model, which appeared only after 2005, and is now disappearing rapidly.

 

Second is China's high level of investment. Modern econometric research shows conclusively that, following division of labour, the largest element in economic growth is the growth of fixed investment. This applies not only to a developing economy such as China but also to developed economies. Dale Jorgenson, the world's leading expert on productivity growth, notes that "investment in tangible assets is the most important source of economic growth in the G7 nations. The contribution of capital inputs exceeds that of total factor productivity for all countries for all periods."

 

Criticisms of China's high level of investment would be valid only if China used that investment inefficiently, and contrary to claims made without evidence, all studies on productivity show that China uses that investment with an efficiency rate from respectable to high (pdf).

 

Third, a decisive point showing China has a "socialist market economy" and not "market capitalism", is its method of macro-economic regulation.

 

Keynes noted in the final chapter of his General Theory, in a point highly relevant to a situation where mass unemployment is again soaring, that "a somewhat comprehensive socialisation of investment will prove the only means of securing an approximation to full employment".

 

That "somewhat comprehensive socialisation of investment" is impossible in a private sector-dominated economy. The decisive advantage China has in the present crisis is that it does not have to rely only on indirect means (reduction of interest rates, budget deficits etc) to attempt to reverse the plunging investment that is the driving force of this as with every major recession. China can use its large state-owned company sector to increase investment and instruct its state-owned banks to lend. That is why its economy is growing, while Alistair Darling is still pleading ineffectually for UK banks to increase their lending and while UK investment in housing and transport is plunging by 30% and more.

 

Other points could be added but these three fundamentals are by themselves sufficient to ensure economic success.

 

For the last 30 years China has enjoyed the world's most rapid economic growth not by accident but because its policies conformed to the basic laws of economic development. Its economic stimulus package is so successful for the same reasons.

Protesting Chinese tycoon won't pay £13m auction bid for statues looted from Beijing by British.  By Ian Sparks  2009.03.02.

   National pride: The bronze rat, left, and rabbit heads were plundered from China’s Imperial Summer Palace in Beijing by British and French troops in 1860.   'Hero': Businessman Cai Mingchao said  he only did 'what any Chinese would do'.

A Chinese man who sucessfully bid £13million for two bronze statues at auction in Paris is refusing to pay for them - because they were looted from Beijing 150 years ago.  Cai Mingchao is being hailed as a hero in China after sabotaging the sale of the relics, which British and French troops plundered from China’s Imperial Summer Palace in 1860.

The statues went up for sale last week after a French court over-ruled a legal bid by the Chinese government to halt the auction.  They were part of a massive sale of artwork by millionaire French collector Pierre Berge - co-founder of the Yves Saint Laurent fashion empire.  Berge had further enraged China by saying he would happily return the statues to China for free, in return for democracy in Tibet - an offer Beijing officials branded “ridiculous’.

 

But unable to stop the sale of the bronze rat’s head and rabbit’s head through the courts, Chinese auction house owner Mr Cai deluged Christie’s with false telephone bids until he won the auction.  He told a press conference in Beijing today: ‘At the time, I was thinking that any Chinese would do this if they could. I only did what I was obliged to.  ‘What I need to stress is that this money cannot be paid.’

 

Mr Cai bidded with the support of China’s National Treasures Fund, which is dedicated to retrieving their nation’s relics from abroad.  The fund’s vice head Niu Xianfeng added: ‘This was a noble gesture on the part of Mr Cai. The money can not be paid.  ‘The fund faced great pressure and risks by bidding for the two sculptures, but this was an extraordinary method taken in an extraordinary situation, which successfully stopped the auction.

 

But Mr Niu added: ‘We are still within the payment period and it is not known right now whether or not the deal will go through.’ After the sale, China reacted furiously with government authorities warning Christie’s it would face reprisals such as tougher checks on its Chinese operations.  The State Administration of Cultural Heritage said last week the auction had “harmed the cultural rights and hurt the feelings of China’s people”.

  Auction: The objects were put on sale at Christie's in Paris, above, by Yves Saint Laurent founder Pierre Berge after a failed legal protest by China's government

A statement said: ‘The administration resolutely opposes and condemns all auctions of artefacts illegally taken abroad.   ‘Christie’s must take responsibility for the consequences created by this auction.’

The bronzes were once part of a fountain that displayed the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.  Four of the bronzes were returned to China after being bought by their country’s biggest arms seller and are now on display at a Beijing museum.  Gaming magnate Stanley Ho scooped up another one in 2007, a horse head for £5million, which is now on display at his Lisboa casino in Macau.

 

Christie’s said today that successful bidders at last Wednesday’s auction had seven days to pay for the items - so Mr Cai wastechnically still within the time limit.  A spokeswoman for Christie’s in Beijing added: ‘We will review the situation when the time limit expires on Tuesday evening.’

 

 China built enormous stake in US equities just before crash. Photo: BLOOMBERG - The People's Bank of China, Beijing. The shift to riskier investments was the result of a power struggle between the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance.  From Malcolm Moor in Shanghai. 2009.03.02. 

The Chinese government more than tripled its investments in the US stock market to $99.5bn (£70 bn) just months before the financial crisis, it has emerged.

Provisional figures from the US Treasury department showed that Beijing was holding $99.5bn of shares in June 2008, up from $29bn in 2007. Two years ago, China only held $4bn in US equities, preferring to concentrate on Treasury bills.  However, economists said the latest figures suggested that China may have bought as much as $150bn of equities worldwide, or 7pc of its vast foreign exchange reserves.

Brad Setser, an economist with the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, said the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), a branch of the Chinese central bank charged with looking after the foreign reserves, was responsible for the buying spree.

 

Last year, a Sunday Telegraph investigation revealed that SAFE had built holdings of £9bn in companies listed in London. The new figures suggest that SAFE has now become one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, although it is likely to have been badly burned by falling markets during the financial crisis.

 

The shift into riskier investments was the result of a power-struggle between China’s central bank and the Ministry of Finance, both of which wanted to show they were capable of managing China’s huge wealth.  The Ministry of Finance runs the $200bn China Investment Corporation (CIC), the country’s official sovereign wealth fund, but has been heavily criticised for taking loss-making stakes in Blackstone and Morgan Stanley.

 

Mr Setser estimates that only $8bn of the $99.5bn of US equities were bought by CIC, with the rest being purchased by SAFE. “SAFE wanted to show that it could manage a portfolio of 'risk’ assets,” he said, in order to make sure that more of its funds were not passed over to CIC.

 

However, an official from the China Banking Regulatory Committee said that SAFE had little idea of how to make overseas investments, and lacks a proper team of analysts and stock-pickers.  The head of SAFE, Hu Xiaolian, is one of the few women at the top of a major Chinese government department. However, she has little commercial experience, having spent her entire career at the central bank and graduated from the bank’s own university.

 

Nevertheless, Arthur Kroeber, an economist at Dragonomics in Beijing, said China is likely to continue buying equities despite the slumping markets.  “They would have seen a considerable erosion in value by now, but I think they are absolutely playing a long game. Fundamentally, what choice do they have? What short game is there that is making money these days?” he said.

 

“SAFE is saying: the market may be problematic, but if we buy now for the long-term, we’ll probably finish up.” He added that the Chinese public was relatively content with the management of the country’s wealth, since SAFE does not disclose any information about its buying activities.  “As long as they don’t build a big stake in a high-profile company that blows up, they will be ok,” he said, adding that he thought it was possible for the central bank to put as much as 10pc of its foreign reserve holdings into equities. “I would be surprised, however, if they were authorised to put more than 10pc into shares,” he said.

Tibet avalanches close Sichuan - Tibet highway.  Source: Xinhua.  2009.02.27.

LHASA -- Traffic on a highway linking Tibet with the neighboring province of Sichuan was halted Thursday noon after four avalanches, local authorities said.

Soldiers shovel snow from a road blocked by an avalanche on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway between Baxoi and Bomi counties in southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, February 26, 2009. [cnr.cn]

The avalanches occurred on a section straddling Tibet's Baxoi and Bomi counties, 1.5 kilometers away from the Midui Glacier, after continuous snow from Wednesday, said Liu Hongchun, an armed police officer in charge of clearance work.

Two road sections each with a length of about 130 meters were blocked. No casualties had been reported, he said.

About 30 people were stranded at the site and many travelers in Bomi County and Ra'og Town, Baxoi County, were also stranded, he said.

The snow stopped at 5 p.m..

A soldier drives a front-end loader to shovel a road blocked by an avalanche on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway between Baxoi and Bomi counties in southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, February 26, 2009. [cnr.cn]

A soldier drives a front-end loader to dig the snow off a road blocked by an avalanche on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway between Baxoi and Bomi counties in southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, February 26, 2009. [cnr.cn]

Tibetans usher in New Year  WATCH VIDEO  Source: CCTV.com | 2009.02.26.

Special Report:   Tibetan New Year

Ethnic Tibetans in China are celebrating their most important holiday -- the Tibetan New Year, or Losar.

Many Tibetans pray in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa  on the first day of the Tibetan New Year, which falls on  February 25 this year. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com/ Xu Liuliu]

Basang is a Lhasa resident and a father of three. Providing for his family in the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region means he needs to work hard to earn enough money.

And he has done just that. Making use of his second-hand jeep, he became a tourist guide a few years ago. Although his business is not thriving he makes enough income to live a comfortable life and send his children to college.

Before the Tibetan New Year his family does what every other Tibetan does they purchase goods and make a delicious New Year's dinner.

Tibetan cuisine is essential during the Tibetan New Year. Here the family is wrapping fillings inside a kind of dough called barley flour.

 

And even more celebrations begin after dinner.

Basang waves a straw-made torch into each and every room to expel evil spirits. And then he and his family set off firecrackers and fireworks, hoping the coming year will be an auspicious one.

Basang's daughter said, "I enjoy being with my family. I hope the New Year will be a prosperous one. "

The Tibetan New Year is also a religious occasion.

First thing in the morning after the New Year is ushered in, Basang worships the deity in his family. He puts forward an offering of barley flour and grain praying for a good year for his business.  Editor Zhang Ning.

China warns against protectionism. Editor: Liu Anqi. 2009.02.17. Source: CCTV  WATCH VIDEO 

China is calling on countries around the world to discard "buy local" conditions in their stimulus plans.

Commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian warned on Monday that  trade protectionism will only worsen the global slump. (File photo)

Commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian warned on Monday that trade protectionism will only worsen the global slump. He says China hopes other governments will not introduce regulations that favor local goods. He says the Chinese government believes its stimulus measures will create more opportunities for overseas investment despite the drop recorded in January.

Yao Jian, spokesman of Ministry of Commerce, said, "Some countries have raised their imports tariffs as they deal with the crisis. They also adopted some measures to restrict trade, including some technical trade barriers. In some country's economic stimulus plans, there are articles to prioritize the purchase of domestic products. We are very concerned about these. China is against all forms of protectionism. We advocate solving issues through dialogue and negotiations. "

World's largest market falls silent as China suffers

The two-mile corridors of the world's greatest bazaar in Yiwu are packed with 60,000 Chinese companies desperate for business. By Malcolm Moore in Yiwu. 2009.02.17. 

Malcolm Moore visits a Pakistani trader in Yiwu market. ; http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1488655367/bctid12084729001 http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=1139053637

In the heyday of China’s economic miracle, buyers from all over the world flocked to Yiwu, an unremarkable city in the southern province of Zhejiang.

Inside the halls of Futian Market, which sprawl over the equivalent of 800 football pitches, they haggled over hundreds of thousands of low-cost goods – everything from candles and fake flowers to eyeglasses and DVD players. Their orders would then be shipped across the globe to high street shops and supermarkets, fuelling China’s incredible growth.

Li Xuhang, the city’s deputy mayor, said: “If you spent only three minutes with each Chinese manufacturer and spent eight hours here each day, you would need over a year to make your way around the whole market.”

During the decade-long boom, Yiwu attracted buyers not only from American and European companies, but also increasing numbers of Arabs, Russians, and Africans. Scores of Pakistani, Korean and Middle-Eastern restaurants line the streets and there is even an Iraq Hotel.

But now, as the Chinese economic miracle unravels, the labyrinthine halls of Yiwu have emptied of foreign buyers. The latest figures from China’s customs office show exports plunged by 17.5 per cent in January, the biggest fall in more than a decade.

Chen Chunyong, the 28-year-old manager of Rong Long Toys, a company that manufactures remote-controlled cars and helicopters said: “We have not had a single order this year. We only had a handful of orders at the end of last year, and our sales dipped 40 per cent.”

One of the few foreign buyers still at Yiwu, Shabbir Ahmed Awan, confirmed that in the ten years he has lived in the city he has never seen such bad business. “The past nine years have been very good, but 2008 was very very bad,” he said. “Ever since the Olympics, business has been terrible.”

Mr Awan said he sent his goods to Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. But even in these resources-rich countries, the appetite for Chinese goods has waned as the oil price has tumbled. “Everything has stopped. We are waiting for our clients to call us. There have been no orders in the last two months.”

As the world turns its back, the Chinese government has stepped in to try to boost confidence. More than 150,000 “countryside stores” will be built over the next year to sell the sort of products that Yiwu supplies.

A propaganda campaign has been launched, with politicians announcing that “spending money is patriotic”. Li Zhe, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference announced in Beijing: “Everyone and every institution should spend what they make in one year just on buying things.”

In the southern town of Hangzhou, the local government has announced civil servants will receive one-tenth of their pay in shopping vouchers in order to set an example.

However, Yiwu’s small, family-owned companies, have suffered badly.

Hu Zhizhong, the 30-year-old owner of Boxin, a company producing camping equipment, folding chairs and sun loungers, said: “My wife is pregnant with our first child, and we have had to lay off half of the 500 workers in our factory.”

As families economise in the downturn, orders for his leisure goods have plummeted.

“I set this company up when I was 18. Back then, there was a real boom in outdoor pursuits. We grew by 25 per cent each year, until we hit the peak in 2007. Now the buyers are very cautious.

“We are not going to change our products this year, but we don’t know what to do and we do not know when things will get better,” he said glumly.

World Press Photographer 2008 Awards. Winner Spot News Single Photograph

Rescue troops carry an earthquake survivor in Beichen County.  Photo: Chen Qinggang

Valentine's Day in China: lovers woo, merchants too

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-12 11:15

SHANGHAI -- Wu Yiran, 23, booked a table at a Korean restaurant for dinner with her boyfriend on Friday night as part of an early St. Valentine's Day celebration, which falls on Saturday.

"I put it a day earlier because restaurants will be overcrowded and meals will be overpriced on the Valentine's Day," said Wu, who works for a Shanghai-based joint venture.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the western Valentine's Day celebrated on February 14 has become a one-hundred-percent spending spree in China. And this year, crisis or not, neither merchants nor lovers are going to leave this festive weekend alone.

Shopping malls, supermarkets, restaurants and entertainment venues prepared a week before the festival with roses, balloons, gifts and discounts.

Special counters for jewelry, flowers, teddy bears, chocolates and other gifts were set up in most shopping centers, and love songs echoed from every corner.

Beijing's Grand Pacific department store transformed its entrance into a wedding scene for the Valentine's Day promotion even on the night of the Chinese traditional Lantern Festival, which came five days earlier.

Both western-style and Chinese restaurants were advertising wine-and-dine packages at differing price tiers to attract different groups.

Quanjude, a 145-year-old restaurant chain known for Peking roast duck, also promoted Valentine's Day package menus this year in its branches in Beijing, Shanghai and Qingdao, an eastern coastal city widely known for brand worship.

The Beijing Happy Valley theme park said it would offer a free ticket to ladies who came with their partners and arrange special activities for lovers during the Valentine's Day weekend.

Even blood donation centers were offering special gifts to donors. The Changsha Blood Center in central Hunan Province said they would present roses and movie tickets to lovers who donate blood on February 14, a tradition they have followed for the past four years.

Valentine's Day is symbolic of caring for others, and in that spirit, more than 700 people across the city donated blood last Valentine's Day, twice as much as on usual days, Xu Zhaoxian, an employee with the center, told Xinhua.

For lovers who are racking their brains to make arrangements for the special day, Google China has launched a special map that provides information on recommended gifts, performances, theaters, bars, KTVs, hotels, scenic spots, parks and discounts for Valentine's Day in Beijing.

A candlelight dinner and a romantic movie are standard for many lovers in China, and a one-or-two-day tour is also a hot choice as Valentine's Day falls on a weekend this year.

Statistics from Ctrip, a leading online travel agency in China, showed that the number of short tour-reservations for this weekend doubled from usual weekends.

Ma Xing, a Ctrip PR staff member, said spas and skiing were favorite activities of customers in Beijing and Shanghai during this year's festival.

Due to the global financial crisis, many merchants decided not to give luxurious offers such as deluxe suites. Netizens also discussed ways to save money on Valentine's Day.

Cooking meals at home and folding paper roses were among popular online suggestions for an inexpensive romantic Valentine's Day.

"With good ideas, we still can cut the spending without discounting the romance," said a netizen from Hubei Province on qq.com.

Wu preferred staying at home in Shanghai on Valentine's Day and hanging out with her boyfriend some other time.

"It's not a big deal if we don't celebrate Valentine's Day," she said. "We all know it's a lucrative festival for merchants."

World Bank $710m Disaster loan.  Source: Xinhua | 2009.02.13.

Special Report:   Post-quake reconstruction

BEIJING, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank (WB) China Office announced here on Friday the approval of a 710 million U.S. dollars loan for the reconstruction of areas devastated by the 8.0- magnitude earthquake that shook China last May.

Sichuan and Gansu, the two provinces that suffered the most losses from the earthquake, will receive 510 million dollars and 200 million dollars respectively from the WB project named the Wenchuan Earthquake Recovery Project.

According to the World Bank, the fund will go primarily toward financing the recovery and reconstruction of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water supply systems and waste management, as well as medical facilities in selected counties in both provinces. In Gansu, funds will also aid the reconstruction of education facilities.

"This project will assist many quake-stricken communities rebuild their lives by restoring essential services," said project manager Mara Warwick, a senior urban environment specialist of the World Bank.

Warwick said World Bank hoped to share its experience in post-disaster reconstruction, management and prevention with China through the project, though it accounted for only a small part of the government's overall recovery effort.

Of China's four trillion yuan (about 585 billion U.S. dollars) national economic stimulus plan issued at the end of 2008, one trillion yuan is designed for quake-zone reconstruction.

Official statistics showed the earthquake claimed 69,227 lives, with 374,643 people injured and 17,923 missing by Sept. 25, 2008.

Of the total direct economic losses estimated at 845.1 billion yuan, Sichuan took up 91.3 percent, Gansu 5.8 percent.  Editor: Zhang Ning. CCTV.

Chinese economy: Sparks of revival..  Jiangyin. 2009.02.10. 

Half the steel mills in one of China's key industrial regions have closed down, with some companies admitting that orders collapsed by as much as 90pc during the financial crisis.

Jiangyin Hetai Industrial general manager, Xi Dongqing.  Photo: Kevin LEE

 

"Before last August, we were shipping between $30m and $40m of steel a year to Europe," said Xi Dongqing, the general manager of Jiangyin Hetai Industrial, a major steelmaker in the heart of China's factory belt. "Now we only have one-tenth of the exports we had," he added, glumly.

 

Mr Xi's plant lies in the coast province of Jiangsu, in the heart of the Yangtze River Delta. The 110,000 residents of Jiangyin became some of the richest people in China during the rapid growth of the past decade.  Their appetite for iron ore helped create the commodities boom that drove prices sky-high and led to fierce criticism of China. In its heyday, China produced four times as much steel as Japan and five times as much as the United States.  The past six months, however, have wiped them out, with half of the town's 50 steel mills shutting their gates. At Hua Qiang Steel, one of the largest producers in the region, the plant is silent and the workers absent. "We have suffered, but we do not want to talk about it," the manager says, asking not to be named.

 

"I do not understand it," said Mr Xi. "We are being told by our customers in Europe that prices are now even lower than the cost of us exporting the steel, and that's not including the freight charges. It is very strange. I think distributors must be trying to sell off their stocks, raise cash and restart their businesses. Since the financial crisis started we have lost $500,000."  He added: "These days, we do not know what to do. Compared to the old times we are now watching the television more, reading newspapers and the internet to try to see what will happen next."

 

The mood elsewhere in the once-prosperous town is equally grim. "The big companies have stopped using subcontractors because they do not have as many orders," said Zhu Longgao, the 40-year-old owner of Huashi Steel Supplies, a construction materials store. The government has already said it wants smaller firms to go out of business, and is only placing orders with larger companies. Although China is the world's largest steel producer, its production is spread among tens of thousands of smaller companies, ruling out efficiency savings.

 

However, there are already small signs of revival in Jiangyin, which may in turn send ripples out through the global market. One Australian iron ore supplier said he felt the worst had past. "I sense that things have stabilised after several tough months and they are not as dire as are being reported," he said. "There are also substantial Chinese investment in iron ore in Western Australia, and that continued during the downturn, suggesting they want to control a share of the supply."

 

Mr Xi has turned to markets in South American and the Middle East. "We have made contact through the internet," he said. "It is just a start, but in the old times we neglected customers from these regions because it was just too difficult."

 

Xi Jinping, the Chinese vice president who many tip to take over as leader when Hu Jintao steps down, is currently on a tour of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil as China tries to drum up trade ties. Another politburo member, Hui Liangyu, is visiting Argentina, Ecuador and the Caribbean. Meanwhile, China formally became a member of the Inter-American Development Bank last month, offering $350 million for financing projects in the region to curry favour.

 

Then there is the effect of the £400 billion Chinese fiscal stimulus plan, which will pour money into construction projects this year, boosting steel demand. "I believe China now has the highest steel prices in the world," said Mr Xi. "We have switched 80pc of our production into the domestic market."

 

Since China's State Council, the equivalent of the Cabinet, announced a bail-out plan for the steel industry in January prices have risen to around £380 (GBP) a tonne in Beijing, according to Mysteel, an industry research company. Shares in Baosteel, the country's largest producer, have also rallied, on predictions that China will consume 490m tonnes of steel this year, up 10pc from last year.

 

Steel from Ukraine and Russia is also flowing into China, and shares in Severstal, Mechel, NLMK and Magnitogorsk have all risen by nearly a fifth in the past fortnight and India's iron ore mining federation has announced that it expects iron ore prices to double this year. Two-thirds of India's iron ore goes to China. Since the end of the Chinese New Year, the quantity of iron ore entering China's major ports rose by 7pc.

China to create 775,000 jobs via rural retailing (Xinhua) Updated: 2009-02-09 19:32 BEIJING -- China will establish 250,000 rural retail stores by next year to create 775,000 jobs for migrant workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the global economic crisis, a Ministry of Commerce official said Monday. A woman sells local candy sticks at an alley in the capital city of Beijing, China Thursday February 5, 2009. China will establish 250,000 rural retail stores by next year to create 775,000 jobs for migrant workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the global economic crisis. [Agencies] Vice Commerce Minister Jiang Zengwei said this year the ministry would set up 150,000 stores. This and the building of ancillary services, including delivery centers and post offices, which would create "a large amount of jobs" for migrant workers. Related readings:  China speeds up expansion of rural retail network  Unemployment deters rural consumption push  $4b boon to aid rural workforce  China promotes home appliance subsidy program in rural areas He said that since the government started the "Thousands of Villages Project," which encouraged village retail store development, the ministry had established 260,000 such stores, with one store offering about three jobs on average for rural residents. These stores helped ensure product quality in the rural market as well. Jiang said the ministry had strict criteria for rural retail stores in terms of finance. For instance, companies based in the relatively developed eastern region must have registered capital of at least 3 million yuan (about US$428,571) and those based in the central and western regions must have no less than 2 million yuan. "The core problem we face this year is to support the establishment of delivery centers for village retail chain stores, " he added. About 20 million migrant workers had returned home after losing their jobs as the global financial crisis took a toll on the economy, said Chen Xiwen, director of the office of the Central Leading Group on Rural Work last week.

Transparency key to budget system reform

By Qin Xiaoying (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-10 07:49

For many years in the past, the public had been in the dark about government budget, knowing little about how it was laid out and how the money was spent. At the annual National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, part of whose work is to review and vote the central budget for the next fiscal year, and at People's Congress gatherings held by local governments, even deputies have great difficulty in understanding the lengthy and technically-worded budgetary report within such a short period

However, this has not stopped information-hungry people from taking an increasing interest in the financial ways of the central and local governments. With the robust development of various communication means in the country, a wide range of issues relating to the country's budgets are now openly debated by the public. The issues range from government spending on education to whether the country's disaster relief funds are put in the right place and effectively used, to how much of the country's $586 billion stimulus package aimed at economic revival is to be spent on infrastructure construction and to whether expenditures by central and local governments are reasonable.

This is an unequivocal indication of Chinese people's increasing awareness as taxpayers and their increasing concerns over the distribution of national wealth. It also best demonstrates Chinese people's growing desire to enjoy larger access to more government information and their rights to carry out necessary supervision in the form of a civic society.

There is no doubt that the ever-growing interest and concern among the public over government budgetary information are linked to the ushering in of the country's reforms. A more open and transparent budgetary system has become a focal point of attention for the whole society.

A regulation on openness of government information was promulgated by the State Council, the cabinet, as early as two years ago and took effect last May. The document explicitly states that governments at various levels should voluntarily make public their budgetary reports and final accounts. This indicates the Chinese government has been well aware that it is its most basic responsibility and obligation to make public the financial budget in a taxpaying era.

In recent years, public finance has become a household term throughout the country. But the realization of such a goal requires extensive public participation and monitoring. An effective and extensive public participation and oversight, however, depend on openness and transparency of the country's financial budgetary system. Certainly, a large number of difficulties and problems are expected to emerge in the country's application of the principle of budgetary openness.

Because of their technical nature as well as the large volume of materials involved, a lot of budgetary reports submitted by governments at various levels to the People's Congresses at the same level are usually difficult to be effectively reviewed or understood within a short period. Also, without special knowledge or certain academic background, most of deputies are usually unable to make an effective and thorough review of the jargon-filled budgetary reports read to them in a dull tone.

To overcome these systematic obstacles, a number of regulations concerning the National People's Congress system should be improved or revised. A short-term and long-term revision and designing program needs to be evolved. It could help the People's Congress system play its pivotal role as the monitor in the review of budgetary reports by governments at different levels.

The great efforts to push for information openness have come along with the country's efforts to set up an open and transparent budgetary system and push forward reforms of democracy and legal reconstruction. Together these fully indicate the country's commitment to deepen its reforms of economic and political systems.

In recent years, the frequently exposed budget problems have pointed to the existing loopholes in the budget drafting and supervision system. The insufficient budget for education, housing and medical care has provoked public controversies. Also, banquets and tours funded with public money as well as the unrestrained use of government vehicles have remained a long-standing issues of public discontent. All these problems should be attributed to the lack of the public voice in the country's budgetary management and supervision. To reverse this , the country should try to reform its budget system and push for an effective mechanism for its future economic and political reform packages.

There is no doubt that viable budgetary reforms will not only reflect the essence of people's democracy, but will also serve as an important part in the push for a corruption-free, clean government. A scientific and highly efficient budgetary arrangement is expected to help the country overcome its current fund shortage in the context of the ongoing global financial crisis. It will also help effective coordination of the interests of various parties and promote a harmonious development of the society.

Last spring, Premier Wen Jiabao promised to push for reforms of the country's financial systems and serve the people better by using taxpayers' money more effectively. One of the challenges of 2009 would be to develop such reforms into a powerful force to boost the development of the country's economy and society.

The author is a researcher with China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies.

SOEs to be supervised for corruption in projects

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-08 22:03

China's state assets watchdog will closely watch over projects implemented by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the country's massive stimulus package to prevent corruption, an official said on Sunday.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Management Commission (SASAC) will strictly look into the progress and fund use of projects by SOEs directly under the central government, said the SASAC director Li Rongrong.

Related readings:  Central gov't cashes in another US$19B for stimulus plan  Better supervise over State companies  China to audit gov't spending, stimulus projects

Many projects are estimated to see over tens of millions of yuan put in, making it a more important task to fend off corruption, he said at an SOE meeting on disciplinary inspection work.

China unveiled a stimulus package with a total investment of 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) in November to boost domestic demand and offset the world economic slowdown.

Of the total, 100 billion yuan had been allocated by the central government by the end of last year.

Li said inspectors will particularly focus on projects in such sectors as power grids, telecommunications, transportation, equipment, construction and metallurgy.

The SASAC will also check whether the projects cause environmental hazards, consume too much energy and resources or result in excessive capacity, said Li.

A total of 4,960 Chinese officials above the county level were punished in a year ending November 2008, data show. They were involved in corruption and commercial bribes, hurting people's interests.