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Topic: China (Read 116298 times)
Power User
Posts: 4465
Re: China
Reply #550 on:
February 19, 2014, 09:29:54 PM »
Jane Goodall alarmed China plundering Africa, but admits destructive habits changing
(02-18 11:30)
China is exploiting Africa's resources just like European colonizers did, with disastrous effects for the environment, acclaimed primatologist Dr Jane Goodall told AFP.
On the eve of her 80th birthday, the fiery British wildlife campaigner is traveling to world capitals lecturing on the threats to our planet.
During the past decade China has been investing heavily in African natural resources, developing mines, oil wells and running related construction companies.
Activists accuse Chinese companies of paying little attention to the environmental impact of their race for resources.
In Africa, China is merely doing what the colonialist did. They want raw materials for their economic growth, just as the colonialists were going into Africa and taking the natural resources, leaving people poorer,'' she told AFP in an interview in Johannesburg in South Africa.
The stakes for the environment may even be larger this time round, she warns.
China is bigger, and the technology has improved... It is a disaster.''
Other than massive investment in Africa's mines, China is also a big market for elephant tusks and rhino horn, which has driven poaching of these animals to alarming heights.
But Goodall, who rose to fame through her ground-breaking research on chimpanzees in Tanzania, is optimistic.
I do believe China is changing,'' she said, citing as one example Beijing's recent destruction of illegal ivory stockpiles.
I think 10 years ago, even with international pressure, we would never have had an ivory crush. But they have,'' she added.
I think 10 years ago the government would never have banned shark fin soup on official occasions. But they have.''
Her organization Roots and Shoots, founded over two decades ago to instil conservation values in children, has also become involved in China.
We work with hundreds of Chinese children, and they are not different from children we work with here. They all love nature, they love animals, they want to help, there's no difference because they're Chinese,'' she said.
Young people's enthusiasm to change the world gives her hope.
These young people will become the next parents, the next teachers, the next lawyers, the next business people and the next politicians, some of them.''
The biggest problem is that people understand but don't know what to do,'' she said.
If you have one thousand, one million or eventually several million people all making the right choice, all thinking about the consequence of their behavior, then we're going to see big change.''
Another glimmer of hope is this amazing resilience of nature,'' she continued, citing as an example the China's Loess Plateau on the Yellow River bouncing back after massive soil erosion.
It was set to be the biggest totally destroyed ecosystem in the world,'' she said.
A US$400-million project funded by the Chinese government and international donors introduced better farming methods in the area, which greatly reduced erosion and lifted 2.5 million people out of poverty, according to the World Bank.
That took a lot of money, but if you look at it now, it's all green, lush and farmland, and children have come back from the cities. It's even got a whole area for wildlife,'' said Goodall.
We still have a small window of time to change things.''
Power User
Posts: 4465
Re: China
Reply #551 on:
February 19, 2014, 10:07:20 PM »
while speaking of Jane goodall one must watch this video and as noted anyone who watches should bring their hanky along;
It is the window video in the third picture box 3 minutes long:
bahttp://www.care2.com/causes/the-heartfelt-hug-that-said-it-all-chimp-thanks-jane-goodall-for-rescue.htmlck in the wild
Power User
Posts: 33354
Richard Young; Marc Faber:Bankruptcies coming and it won't be pretty
Reply #552 on:
March 20, 2014, 02:43:46 PM »
SHOCK: Wave of Bankruptcies Set to Hit China
March 17, 2014 by Young Research
Print This Post
In a shocking admission Chinese Premier Li Keqiang warned lenders in the country to prepare for a wave of defaults on debt in the coming year. China had so far been able to prevent embarrassing defaults among its corporations, even by presumably bailing out the worlds largest bank earlier this year (no one knows exactly what happened here but common sense would point to a hidden government bailout). But the government couldnt, or wouldnt, act fast enough to save Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy last week. Its a signal from the Communist Party that Beijing is getting out of the bailout business. Borrowers, lenders and investors should take heed. Phillip Inman reports that the Middle Kingdom is facing serious challenges.
Lis warning followed the failure of Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy to make a payment on a 1bn yuan (£118m) bond last week. The default was the first of its kind for China and widely seen as pointing to the end of 11th-hour government bailouts for troubled enterprises.
Some analysts said the decision to let some indebted firms collapse was a sign the authorities had learned from the Japanese boom and bust experience of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Tokyo was plunged into two lost decades of stagnation after it prevented zombie companies from declaring bankruptcy even blocking petitions from bondholders in the courts when a property collapse exposed debts many times the value of their businesses.
However, figures this week revealed that Beijing is copying the Japanese tactic of ramping up public infrastructure spending to replace the steep slowdown in private sector investment. Fixed asset investment, a measure of government spending on infrastructure, expanded 17.9% during the first two months of 2014, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
If Chinas economic troubles force it to reduce purchases of U.S. treasury securities, and the Fed continues to taper its own purchases, theres no telling what could happen to interest rates. There could be serious risks to Americas ability to fund itself. You can find our advice on profiting from the risks and opportunities of such shocks in our premium strategy reports, Richard C. Youngs Intelligence Report and Young Researchs Global Investment Strategy.
Power User
Posts: 6485
Re: China
Reply #553 on:
March 21, 2014, 10:36:05 PM »
"If Chinas economic troubles force it to reduce purchases of U.S. treasury securities, and the Fed continues to taper its own purchases, theres no telling what could happen to interest rates. There could be serious risks to Americas ability to fund itself. "
I think they mean there could be serious risks to our continuing ability to
fund ourselves.
Power User
Posts: 6485
China Property Collapse Has Begun
Reply #554 on:
April 14, 2014, 02:39:23 PM »
As predicted here...
China Property Collapse Has Begun
Nothing is going right for Hangzhou at this moment. Walmart will be closing its Zhaohui store in that city on April 23 as a part of its overall plan to dump marginal locationsabout 9% of the totalin China.
Thanks to the worlds largest retailer, another large block of space in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, will go on the market at a time when there is generally too much supply. The problem is especially pronounced in the citys premium office market. Hangzhous Grade A office buildings at the end of 2013 had, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, an average occupancy rate of 30%.
The real weakness, however, is Hangzhous residential sector. The cause is simple: massive overbuilding. Sara Hsu of the State University of New York at New Paltz writes that Hangzhou faces burgeoning swaths of empty apartment units.
Hangzhous market has not yet collapsed. There are still secondary sales, for instance. Singapores Straits Times reports Allen Zhao, a businessman, has been looking to sell his two-bedroom flat in Hangzhou for 2 million yuan. His neighbor just let go a similar unit for 1.7 million. If Zhao also sells for that amount, he will make a profit, but he will be disappointed. That is not much more than the price I paid in 2012, Zhao told the paper. Now Im regretting not selling earliermore bad news about the property market keeps coming in every day.
New homes also face price pressure. Developers in Hangzhou are now offering deep discounts, and investors and owners are noticing. And not just in that city. It seems that the 30% price cut in Hangzhou really changed the way Chinese people think about real estate, writes Anne Stevenson-Yang of J Capital Research, and I doubt there is any turning back from here. (more at link)
Power User
Posts: 33354
China housing bubble about to burst 2.0?
Reply #555 on:
April 15, 2014, 12:02:43 PM »
Power User
Posts: 33354
WSJ: China's growth struggles
Reply #556 on:
April 21, 2014, 07:19:12 AM »
Addresses themes I have discussed here for years, but comes to a more optimistic sense of things. I can't this this is wrong though , , ,
China's Growth Struggles
Market reform is crucial to avoiding the middle-income trap.
Updated April 20, 2014 5:16 p.m. ET
China's first quarter growth of 7.4% beat expectations last week, but it was a six-quarter low and below Beijing's 2014 target of 7.5%. Some analysts worry the country is vulnerable to a property market collapse and explosion of bad bank loans. So is the main engine of global growth about to stall?
One thing most everyone agrees on: China is in transition from a go-go phase driven by abundant capital and labor (think of the U.S. in the late 19th century) to a more mature development track in which growth depends on productivity gains. At this point other countries such as Brazil and Malaysia fell into the "middle-income trap" and stagnated, while South Korea and Taiwan powered through to become wealthy, although not without crises along the way.
Through the 2000s, Beijing struggled to rein in growth to avoid inflation, and any time the economy looked to be slowing it simply eased restrictions on investment and was off to the races again. Now gross capital formation, which averaged 15% from 2000-10, is around 10% as costs rise and profits are squeezed. The economy is overleveraged, with total debt (government and private) exceeding 200% of GDP. Negative purchaser managers index (PMI) indicators reflect the realization that companies can't rely on high GDP growth to repay loans.
Beijing's new leaders seem to recognize that financial reform and a period of deleveraging are needed to meet this challenge. Since slower growth is a necessary part of this program, the current slowdown could be read as a positive sign that the days of growth at any cost are over. The announcement last month that deposit rates will be liberalized over the next two years signals an end to financial repression, by which interest paid on savings was kept low to make borrowing cheaper. That suppressed consumption and led to the most lopsided economy the world has ever seen, with investment accounting for about 50% of GDP.
Like many of China's past reforms, de facto deposit-rate liberalization started well before the official announcement, in the form of what's been called the shadow banking system. While dangerous risks may be hidden here, there is a considerable upside: The state banks created entities to attract deposits at market rates of interest.
This "reform" came about because banks found that profit margins were shrinking on traditional loans to state-owned companies and local governments. So they sold high-return "wealth-management products" (WMPs) to investors and used the money to lend at still higher rates to private companies. By pricing risk, WMPs make the allocation of capital more efficient.
Another piece of good news is that access by private companies to bank loans has grown dramatically, surpassing the loans to state enterprises in 2012. This would have happened even faster if Beijing's post-2008 stimulus hadn't given a big boost to state firms. Private firms now account for two-thirds of investment, up from 40% a decade ago.
Over the last decade, demographic trends have pushed wages up faster than productivity growth. You wouldn't know it with all the angst about high inequality, but this trend has put pressure on managers to find efficiency gains. And it will help force Beijing to sell off state-owned enterprises that can't keep up. All of this suggests that China may follow South Korea and Taiwan and avoid the middle-income trap.
But it doesn't say whether a crisis is brewing in the next few years. Most crisis scenarios concern the property market, which accounts for almost a quarter of the economy. The problem is not so much high prices, since the average cost of an apartment has tracked rising urban incomes. Nor is it leverage, since regulations restrict mortgages and many buyers pay with cash. It is simply volume.
A side-effect of China's low bank-deposit rates and dysfunctional stock market is that many households have put their savings into empty apartments, which are so numerous they have spawned "ghost cities." When prices begin to fall, most owners will likely hold on and wait for a rebound. That means a long period of stagnation as the excess supply gradually comes onto the market.
The loss of such a big driver of growth will be painful, but by itself it shouldn't trigger the kind of financial crisis the U.S. saw in 2008. Chinese firms, ever flexible, will seek out new opportunities, and that could pay some surprising dividends. One reason China has been slow to produce innovative firms or global brands is that much of the country's talent and capital have been sucked into the production of empty buildings.
China's economic slowdown recalls Adam Smith's remark, often quoted by Milton Friedman : "There is much ruin in a nation." It is a reminder that even though many things go wrong, market forces, if allowed to operate, generally bring about a positive outcome. We can't rule out that there is so much malinvestment on balance sheets that a crisis is coming. But the fact that China's leaders still have the courage to expand the market's role gives hope that this slowdown doesn't herald the end of its growth story.
Power User
Posts: 33354
WSJ: China RE buble bursting
Reply #557 on:
May 05, 2014, 11:24:15 AM »
Power User
Posts: 33354
PoTH: Chinese economy looking shaky
Reply #558 on:
July 17, 2014, 10:52:08 AM »
Power User
Posts: 4465
Gertz: China making intercontinental hypersonic missles.
Reply #559 on:
July 20, 2014, 12:32:02 AM »
"A line drawing of the scramjet-powered vehicle shows that the concept being studied for eventual construction is nearly identical to an experimental National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scramjet vehicle called the X-43."
Duh how'd that happen?
Anyway the article:
****Report Reveals Chinese Military Developing New Scramjet-Powered Hypersonic Missile
BY: Bill Gertz
July 9, 2014 5:00 am
Chinas military is working on a jet-powered hypersonic cruise missile in addition to an advanced high-speed glide warhead that was tested earlier this year.
A Chinese technical journal disclosed new details of research on what Chinas defense researchers are calling a hypersonic cruise vehicle.
A line drawing of the scramjet-powered vehicle shows that the concept being studied for eventual construction is nearly identical to an experimental National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scramjet vehicle called the X-43.
Publication of details of work on the powered hypersonic cruise vehicle indicates China is pursuing a second type of ultra-fast maneuvering missile capable of traveling at speeds of up to Mach 10nearly 8,000 miles per hour. Such speeds create huge technical challenges for weapons designers because of the strain on materials and the difficulty of control at high velocities.
Large numbers of Chinese military writings in recent years have focused on hypersonic flight. However, few have addressed scramjet powered hypersonic flight.
The Washington Free Beacon first disclosed Jan. 13 that China has conducted the first test of an unpowered hypersonic glide vehicle that U.S. intelligence agencies believe will be used to deliver strategic nuclear warheads through U.S. missile defenses.
The January test of the Wu-14 hypersonic vehicle signaled the beginning of what analysts say is the start of a new high-technology arms race to build high speed maneuvering strike vehicles.
The United States is developing both scramjet-powered and glide-hypersonic missiles. Russias government has made development of hypersonic missiles a priority.
The Chinese report outlines in technical detail how a scramjet-powered cruise vehicle operates at speeds greater than Mach 5 and discusses how to integrate airframe design with scramjet propulsion.
A scramjet is an engine that uses supersonic airflow to compress and combust fuel, creating a highly efficient propulsion system with few parts.
The report analyzed preliminary design methods for airframe/engine integrative configuration.
The analysis may serve as a basis for quick preliminary design and performance evaluation of airframe/engine integrative configuration for a future Chinese hypersonic cruise vehicle, the report said.
The scramjet cruise vehicle was described in a technical military journal called Command Control & Simulation. The article was published by the 716 Research Institute of the state-run China Shipbuilding Industry Corp., Chinas largest maker of warships, submarines, and torpedoes.
Chinese drawing of hypersonic cruise missile Command Control & Simulation
Chinese drawing of hypersonic cruise missile / Command Control & Simulation
The study by Chinas major naval weapons builder is a sign the PLA may be considering the strike vehicle for use against U.S. aircraft carriers and warships as part of what the Pentagon calls anti-access, area denial weapons.
Chinas hypersonic weapons are among the most secret programs within the Chinese military, along with anti-satellite weapons and cyber warfare tools. However, Chinas Defense Ministry confirmed the test asserting that it was normal scientific experiment and not aimed at any foreign state.
Military experts said the disclosure of the scramjet cruise missile is unusual and part of Chinas large-scale high-technology arms buildup.
China long ago identified hypersonics as a critical future military technology and has invested heavily in its development for future weapons, said Rick Fisher, with the International Assessment and Strategy Center. The old Bush administration concept of Prompt Global Strike using hypersonic non-nuclear warheads may be dormant in Washington, but it is very much alive and flourishing in Beijing.
Fisher said a scramjet vehicle would have advantages over the Wu-14 glide vehicle, including better-sustained speeds, some maneuvering, and a depressed trajectory that would complicate efforts by U.S. missile defenses to intercept the ultra-fast maneuvering strike missile.
Chinas Chengdu Aircraft Corporation has been leading the development of a hypersonic scramjet engine test platform similar to the decade-old Pentagon-NASA X-43, Fisher said.
Pentagon-NASA X-43 hypersonic scramjet powered vehicle NASA
Pentagon-NASA X-43 hypersonic scramjet powered vehicle / NASA
Fisher said the Chinese report does not make clear whether China is concentrating on scramjet power for future weapons. However, it could signal that researchers have made advances in such engines and materials.
Larry Wortzel, a former China-based military intelligence officer, said Chinese hypersonic arms are what Beijing calls assassins mace weapons that will give China a strategic edge in any future conflict with the United States.
China is continuing with a number of programs to develop what Beijing considers to be assassins mace weapons that defeat conventional defenses, including these hypersonic strike vehicles, Wortzel said in an email. The United States must move forward with its airborne and ship-borne laser programs and electromagnetic guns if we are to be able to counter Chinas new weapons.
U.S. hypersonic missile programs have been limited by the federal defense spending crisis that has constrained advanced weapons research.
Congress approved $70.7 million for an Army hypersonic missile programan amount that is considered far less than what both China and Russia are investing in hypersonic arms.
Alan R. Shaffer, principal deputy assistant defense secretary for research and engineering, told a defense industry conference that a U.S. scramjet-powered hypersonic prototype, the X-51, is a leading choice for a military system of conventional rapid precision strike.
We, the U.S., do not want to be the second country to understand how to have controlled scramjet hypersonics, Shaffer said.
The Air Force Research Laboratory announced July 3 it will set up a new High Speed Experimentation Branch to study hypersonics at Arnold Air Force Base.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said July 3 that Russian missile manufacturers must master the technology for both precision-guided and hypersonic weapons. Moscow has set a goal of 2020 to build its first hypersonic missile prototype.
The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), in a strategic review published last year, stated that new U.S. hypersonic weapons and other nations development of hypersonic arms pose a major threat to Chinas national security.
The review said new weapons capable of striking land from space will have a serious impact on national security.
Among the weapons being developed by foreign powers, the Chinese military said, are near space craft, spacecraft, and transatmospheric vehicles.
It was the first time China mentioned the threat posed by the new generation of hypersonic threats in a public document. The report, Strategic Review 2013, was published by the PLA think tank Center for National Defense Policy.
It warned that the role of space power is changing from information support, to space command operations and space-to-ground attacks.
The United States is intensifying the construction of its space confrontation capabilities and building a rapid responsive space system, the report said, adding that the shift has begun from using space for support to ground attacks.
The report noted the U.S. development of near-space strike vehicles, including the X-51, a scramjet powered hypersonic vehicle developed by Boeing, the HTV-2, a glide strike vehicle, and the X-37 space plane launched atop a rocket. The PLA review called these weapons new measures of power and stated that they were a bid to eliminate the boundary between air and space.
Lee Fuell, a technical intelligence specialist at the Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence Center, told a congressional hearing in January that Chinas hypersonic glide vehicle was a ballistic missile-launched system that glides and maneuvers to its target at speeds up to Mach 10 (about 7,611 mph).
Fuell said U.S. intelligence agencies believe that the glide vehicle is associated with [Chinas] nuclear deterrent forces. Hypersonic strike vehicles also could be used for conventional precision-guided strikes, he said.
A Chinese-language version of article is available from the Canada-based Oriprobe information services.
This entry was posted in National Security and tagged China. Bookmark the permalink.
Power User
Posts: 33354
Re: China
Reply #560 on:
July 20, 2014, 09:17:28 AM »
Please post in the Military Science thread as well.
Power User
Posts: 33354
Stratfor: The End of Consensu Politics in China
Reply #561 on:
August 09, 2014, 12:35:53 PM »
The End of Consensus Politics in China
Geopolitical Weekly
Tuesday, August 5, 2014 - 03:02 Print Text Size
By John Minnich
Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign is the broadest and deepest effort to purge, reorganize and rectify the Communist Party leadership since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and the rise of Deng Xiaoping two years later. It has already probed more than 182,000 officials across numerous regions and at all levels of government. It has ensnared low-level cadres, mid-level functionaries and chiefs of major state-owned enterprises and ministries. It has deposed top military officials and even a former member of the hitherto immune Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest governing body. More than a year after its formal commencement and more than two years since its unofficial start with the downfall of Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, the campaign shows no sign of relenting.
It is becoming clear that this campaign is unlike anything seen under Presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. Both carried out anti-corruption drives during their first year in office and periodically throughout their tenures as a means to strengthen their position within the Party and bureaucracy and to remind the public, however impotently, that Beijing still cared about its well being. But that was housekeeping. This appears to be different: longer, stronger, more comprehensive and more effective.
With this in mind, we ask: What is the fundamental purpose of Xi's anti-corruption campaign? An attempt to answer this question will not tell us China's political future, but it will tell us something about Xi's strategy -- not only for consolidating his personal influence within the Party, government and military apparatuses, but also and more important, for managing the immense social, economic, political and international pressures that are likely to come to a head in China during his tenure. Getting to the heart of the anti-corruption campaign -- and therefore understanding its inner logic and direction -- provides insights on the organization and deployment of political power in China and how those things are changing as the Party attempts to remake itself into an entity capable of ushering China safely through the transformation and crises to come.
The Campaign Continues
The announcement July 29 of a formal investigation into retired Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang marked something of an end to the first major phase of Xi's anti-corruption campaign. By all accounts, Zhou was one of the most powerful men in China throughout the 2000s. During his tenure on the Standing Committee, Zhou controlled the country's domestic security apparatus, a pillar of the Chinese government's power. Prior to that, he had served as Party secretary of Sichuan province, an important inland industrial center and breadbasket with historically strong regionalist tendencies. And before Sichuan, Zhou chaired state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., the country's most powerful energy firm and the direct descendent of the Ministry of Petroleum. Zhou was known to sit at the apex of at least these three power bases, and his influence likely extended deep into many more, making him not only a formidable power broker but also, at least in the case of his oil industry ties, a major potential obstacle to reform. Certainly, Zhou and his vast networks of influence and patronage were not the sole targets of the Xi administration's crackdown, but he and his associates, including former Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, widely seen as an early competitor of Xi, formed its central axis.
Now begins another phase. There are indications that it will center on the military. There are other signs that it will target Shanghai, the primary power base of Jiang Zemin and the locus of financial sector reform in China. Further neutralization of Zhou's allies in energy and public security will likely be necessary, too, as the Xi administration seeks to accelerate market-oriented reforms in the oil and natural gas sectors and to reinforce its internal security footprint in peripheral regions like Xinjiang as well as the Han Core. But ultimately, it is unclear which individuals and networks will anchor the next phase. The possibilities are as numerous as the Xi administration's myriad near- and medium-term policy goals.
The question of who or what will be targeted next is subordinate to that of why. Not why, specifically, they will be targeted, but why the campaign must and will continue. This brings us back to our question regarding the fundamental purpose of the anti-corruption campaign. It may be impossible to divine, beyond mere speculation, its future on a tactical level -- that is, what will come in three, five or eight months' time. But the direction of the campaign so far, combined with other actions by Xi, such as the formation of a unified National Security Council chaired by Xi himself and his apparent wresting of the reins of economic and social reform from Premier Li Keqiang, suggest that some other and deeper shift is underway, one for which the anti-corruption campaign is at once a vehicle and a symptom. Stratfor believes this shift involves nothing less than an attempt to rework not only the way the Communist Party operates but also the foundations of its political legitimacy.
To understand why, we look first not at Xi and what he has done thus far but at China and what it will undergo over the next decade. This will give us a sense of the external constraints and pressures of which Xi's administration is no doubt aware and to which it has no option but to respond. These constraints and pressures, more than any other factor, will shape Xi's actions and the Communist Party's evolution in the years to come.
A World Constrained
Over the next decade, the defining constraints on China will emanate from within. They are fundamentally economic in nature, but they cannot be disassociated from politics and society.
China is in the midst of an economic transformation that is in many ways unprecedented. The core of this transformation is the shift from a growth model heavily reliant on low-cost, low value-added exports and state-led investment into construction to one grounded in a much greater dependence on high value-added industries, services and above all, domestic consumption. China is not the first country to attempt this. Others, including the United States, achieved it long ago. But China has unique constraints: its size, its political system and imperatives, and its profound regional geographic and social and economic imbalances. These constraints are exacerbated by a final and perhaps greatest limit: time. China is attempting to make this transition, one which took smaller and more geographically, socially and politically cohesive countries many decades to achieve, in less than 20 years.
The bulk of this work will take place over the next 10 years at most, and more likely sooner, not because the Xi administration wants it to, but because it must. The global financial crisis in 2007-08 brought China's decadeslong export boom cycle to a premature close. For the past six years, the Chinese government has kept the economy on life support in the form of massively expanded credit creation, government-directed investment into urban and transport infrastructure development and, most important, real estate construction. In the process, local governments, banks and businesses across China have amassed extraordinary levels of debt. Outstanding credit in China is now equivalent to 251 percent of the country's gross domestic product, up from 147 percent in 2008. Local governments alone owe more than $3 trillion. It is unknown -- deliberately so, most likely -- what portion of outstanding debts are nonperforming, but it is likely far higher than the official rate of 1 percent.
Despite claims that China's investment drive was and is irresponsible -- and certainly there are myriad anecdotal cases of gross misallocation of capital -- it nonetheless fulfills the essential role of jumpstarting the country's effort to "rebalance" to a new, more urban and more consumption-based economic model. But the problem, again, is time. China's real estate sector is slowing. Sales, home prices and market sentiment are falling, even in the face of continued expansion of the overall credit supply. The days of high growth in the housing construction sector are numbered and prices, along with overall activity, are on a downward trend -- one that can and will be hedged by continued high levels of investment and credit expansion, but not one that can be stopped for long. Real estate and related construction activity will remain the crucial component of China's economy for the foreseeable future, but they will no longer be the national economic growth engines they were between 2009 and 2011.
This means that in the next few years, China faces inexorable and potentially very rapid decline in the two sectors that have underpinned economic growth and social and political stability for the past two or more decades: exports and construction. And it does so in an environment of rapidly mounting local government and corporate debt, rising wages and input costs, rising cost of capital and falling return on investment (exacerbated by new environmental controls and efforts to combat corruption) and more. Add to these a surge in the number of workers entering the workforce and beginning to build careers between the late 2010s and early 2020s, the last of China's great population boom generations, and the contours emerge of an economic correction and employment crisis on a scale not seen in China since Deng came to power.
The solution, it would seem, lies in the Chinese urban consumer class. But here, once more, time is China's enemy. Chinese household consumption is extraordinarily weak. In 2013, it was equivalent to only 34 percent of gross domestic product, compared to 69-70 percent in the United States, 61 percent in Japan, 57 percent in Germany and 52 percent in South Korea. In fact, it has fallen by two percentage points since 2011, possibly on the back of the anti-corruption campaign, which has curbed spending by officials that appears to have been erroneously counted as private consumption. There is reason to believe that household consumption is somewhat stronger than the statistics let on, but it is not nearly strong enough to pick up the slack from China's depressed export sector and depressive construction industries. China's low rates of urbanization relative to advanced industrial economies underscore this fundamental incapacity.
Whatever the Chinese government's stated reform goals, it is very difficult to see how economic rebalancing toward a consumption- and services-based economy succeeds within the decade. It is very difficult to see how exports recover. And it is very difficult, but slightly less so, to see how the government maintains stable growth through continued investment into housing and infrastructure construction, especially as the real estate market inevitably cools. This leaves us with a central government that either accepts economic recession or persists in keeping the economy alive for the sake of providing jobs but at risk of peril to its reform initiatives, banks and local governments. The latter is ugly and very likely untenable under the current political model, which for three decades has staked its claim to legitimacy in the promise of stable employment, growth and rising material prosperity. The former is absolutely untenable under the current political model.
The pressures stemming from China's economy -- and emanating upward through Chinese society and politics -- will remain paramount over the next 5-10 years. The above has described only a very small selection of the internal social and economic constraints facing China's government today. It completely neglects public anger over pollution, the myriad economic and industrial constraints posed by both pollution and pervasive low-level corruption, the impact of changes in Chinese labor flows and dynamics, rising education levels and much more. It completely neglects the ambivalence with which many ordinary Chinese regard the Communist Party government.
It also neglects external pressures and risks, whether economic or military. What would another global economic crisis and recession do to China's already hobbled export sector? What would a prolonged spike in oil prices -- the result, perhaps, of deepening crises in Russia or Iraq -- mean for Chinese industry and its change to China's growing army of car drivers? What impact will structural changes in the East Asian and world systems, such as Japan's attempt at a national economic and military revival, have on China's overseas economic and maritime interests, or on Chinese society's confidence in the strength of its military and government? The potential risks, many of them of moderate to high probability, are legion. It takes only one to materialize to dramatically reduce the likelihood that the Communist Party, as currently constituted, survives China's transformation.
The Old Model Breaks Down
Xi knows this. He and his advisers know China's virtually insurmountable challenges better than anyone. They know how little time China has, how fragile the Party's political legitimacy -- its claim to the Mandate of Heaven -- has become over the past three decades and how great the consequences of inaction will be. But they also know how much potentially greater are the consequences of failure. Knowing all these things, they are acting to reconstitute the Party one cautious step at a time.
The anti-corruption campaign is one of those steps. It serves many overlapping functions: to clear out potential opponents, ideological or otherwise; to consolidate executive power and reduce bureaucratic red tape so as to ease the implementation of reform; to remind the Chinese people that the Communist Party has their best interests at heart; and to make it easier to make tough decisions.
Underlying and encompassing these, we see the specter of something else. The consensus-based model of politics that Deng built in order to regularize decision-making and bolster political stability during times of high growth and that effectively guided China throughout the post-Deng era is breaking down. It can no longer hold in the face of China's transformation and the crises this will bring. Simply put, now that its post-1978 contract with Chinese society -- a social contract grounded in the exchange of growth for stability -- is up, the Party risks losing the public support and political legitimacy that this contract undergirded. A new and more adaptive but potentially much less stable model is being erected, or resurrected, from within the old. This model is grounded more firmly in the personality and prestige of the president and more capable, or so Chinese leaders seem to hope, of harnessing and managing the Chinese nation through what could well be a period of turmoil.
This does not necessarily mean a return to Imperial China, nor does it mean a return to the days and methods of the Great Helmsman, Mao. It doesn't even mean the new model will succeed, even remotely. What it means will be decided only by the specific interplay of structure and contingency in the unfolding of history. But it is this transformation that serves as the fundamental, if latent, purpose for Xi's anti-corruption campaign.
Editor's Note: Writing in George Friedman's stead this week is Stratfor Asia-Pacific Analyst John Minnich.
Read more: The End of Consensus Politics in China | Stratfor
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Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces
Reply #562 on:
September 26, 2014, 04:41:38 PM »
Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces at Work in the Nation-State
Geopolitical Weekly
Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - 03:00 Print Text Size
By Zhixing Zhang
"Here begins our tale: The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been." This opening adage of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, China's classic novel of war and strategy, best captures the essential dynamism of Chinese geopolitics. At its heart is the millennia-long struggle by China's would-be rulers to unite and govern the all-but-ungovernable geographic mass of China. It is a story of centrifugal forces and of insurmountable divisions rooted in geography and history but also, and perhaps more fundamentally, of centripetal forces toward eventual unity.
This dynamism is not limited to China. The Scottish referendum and waves of secession movements from Spain's Catalonia to Turkey and Iraq's ethnic Kurds are working in different directions. More than half a century after World War II triggered a wave of post-colonial nationalism that changed the map of the world, buried nationalism and ethnic identity movements of various forms are challenging the modern idea of the inviolable unity of the nation-state.
Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces at Work in the Nation-State
Yet even as these sentiments pull on the loose threads of nations, in China, one of the most intractable issues in the struggle for unity the status of Tibet is poised for a possible reversal, or at least a major adjustment. The long-running but frequently unnoticed negotiations have raised the possibility that the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, may be nearing a deal that would enable him to return to his Tibetan homeland. If it happens, it would end the Dalai Lama's exile in Dharamsala, India an exile that began after the Tibetan uprising in 1959, nine years after the People's Republic of China annexed Tibet. More important, a settlement between Beijing and the Dalai Lama could be a major step in lessening the physical and psychological estrangement between the Chinese heartland and the Tibetan Plateau.
Tibet, the Dalai Lama and Self-Determination
The very existence of the Tibetan issue bespeaks several overlapping themes of Chinese geopolitics. Most fundamentally, it must be understood in the context of China's struggle to integrate and extend control over the often impassable but strategically significant borderlands militarily and demographically. These borderlands, stretching from northeast to the southwest Manchuria, Mongolian Plateau, Xinjiang, Tibet and the Yunnan Plateau form a shield, both containing and protecting a unified Han core from overland invasion. In attempting to integrate these regions, however, China confronts the very nature of geographic disintegration and the ethnic identities in these restive borderlands, which have sought to resist, separate or drift away from China at times when weak central power has diminished the coherence of China's interior.
Tibet in many ways represents the extreme edge of this pattern. Indeed, while the formidable geography of the Tibetan Plateau (its altitude averages 4.5 kilometers, or almost 2.8 miles, above sea level) largely inured it from most frontier threats to the Han core compared with the more accessible Manchuria, Mongolian Plateau or Xinjiang. Perhaps no borderland is as fraught with as much consequence as Tibet under China's contemporary geopolitical circumstances. The Tibetan Plateau and its environs constitute roughly one-quarter of the Chinese landmass and are a major source of freshwater for China, the Indian subcontinent and mainland Southeast Asia. The high mountains of the Himalayas make a natural buffer for the Chinese heartland and shape the complex geopolitical relationship between China and India.
Historically, China's engagement with the Tibetan Plateau has been lacking and not characterized by national unity. Starting in the 7th century, China made sporadic attempts to extend its reach into the Tibetan Plateau, but it wasn't until the Qing dynasty that the empire made a substantial effort to gain authority over Tibetan cultural and social structures through control of Tibetan Buddhist institutions. The weakening of China after the Qing dynasty led peripheral states, including Tibet, to slip from Chinese central rule.
Since the People's Republic of China began ruling over Tibet in 1950, the perennial struggle manifested as political, religious and psychological estrangement between political power in Beijing and the Dalai Lama, the charismatic political and spiritual symbol of the Tibetan self-determination movement, who consistently has resisted China's full domination over Tibet. Here, the nominally impersonal process of geopolitics confronts the rare individual who has a lasting impact. The Dalai Lama has concentrated the Tibetan cause into himself and his image. It is the Dalai Lama who represents the Tibetan identity in foreign capitals and holds a fractious Tibetan movement together, holding sway over both indigenous Tibetans in the homeland and the old and new generations of Tibetan exiles.
Perennial Struggle and Contemporary Moves
Under the People's Republic, China has some of the clearest physical control and central authority over one of the largest and most secure states in China's dynastic history. However, the ancient compulsion to secure the Chinese periphery did not go unaddressed by China's Communist leadership.
Over the years, the central government has pushed aggressively to bolster Han Chinese economic and demographic dominance over the borderland while attempting to overcome the physical barriers of distance through grandiose infrastructure projects, including road and rail links. And yet, the estrangement with the Dalai Lama has left Beijing dealing with the perception that its control over the Tibetan Plateau is partial and of questionable legitimacy. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama's international prestige exposed the central power in Beijing to numerous international critics. Moreover, it offered New Delhi an opportunity to exploit Beijing's concerns by hosting the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Beijing sees no space to allow the autonomy demanded by the Tibetan exile movement; it is a short path from robust autonomy to direct challenge. Beijing's strategy has been to try to undermine the Dalai Lama's international prestige, constrain interaction between the exile community and Tibetans at home and hope that when the spiritual leader dies, the absence of his strong personality will leave the Tibetan movement without a center and without someone who can draw the international attention the Dalai Lama does. Central to Beijing's calculation is interference in the succession process whereby Beijing claims the right to designate the Dalai Lama's religious successor and, in doing so, exploit sectarian and factional divisions within Tibetan Buddhism. Beijing insists the reincarnation process must follow the Tibetan religious tradition since the Qing dynasty, meaning that it must occur within Tibetan territory and with the central government's endorsement, a process that highlights Tibet's position as a part of China, not an independent entity.
Beijing's plan could work, but the cost would be high. Without recognition from the Dalai Lama, Beijing's appointed successor and by extension, Beijing's authority in Tibet can hardly be accepted by the wider Tibetan community. To resist Beijing's attempt at interference, the Dalai Lama has in recent years made various statements signaling that the ancient traditions of the succession process could break. In particular, the Dalai Lama has discussed the potential for succession through emanation rather than reincarnation. This would place his knowledge and authority in several individuals, each with a part of his spiritual legacy, but none as the single heir. Emanation can occur while the Dalai Lama is alive, thus giving him the ability to manage a transition. He has also mentioned the possibility that no successor will be named that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama will end, leaving his legacy as the lasting focus for Tibetans.
More concretely, the Dalai Lama has split the role of spiritual and political leadership of the Tibetan movement, nominally giving up the latter while retaining the former. In doing so, he is attempting to create a sense of continuity to the Tibetan movement even though his spiritual successor has not been identified. However, it also separates the Dalai Lama from any Tibetan political movement, theoretically making it easier for the spiritual leader and Beijing to come to an accord about his possible return as a spiritual but not political leader. But the maneuvering by the Dalai Lama reflects a deeper reality. The Tibetan movement is not homogenous. Tibetan Buddhism has several schools that remain in fragile coordination out of respect for the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan political movement is also fragmented, with the younger foreign-born Tibetans often more strongly pressing for independence for Tibet, while the older exiles take a more moderate tone and call for more autonomy. The peaceful path promoted by the Dalai Lama is respected, but not guaranteed forever, by the younger and more radical elements of the Tibetan movement, which have only temporarily renounced the use of violence to achieve their political goals.
The future of the Tibetan movement after the Dalai Lama's death is uncertain. At a minimum, the spiritual leader's fame means no successor will be able to exercise the same degree of influence or maintain internal coherence as he has done. Just as the Dalai Lama was concerned that an extremist wing of the new Tibetan generation would undermine his moderate ideology and dilute the movement's legitimacy, Beijing fears that the post-Dalai Lama era would enable multiple radical, separatist or even militant movements to proliferate, leaving Beijing in a much more difficult position and potentially facing a greater security threat.
Beijing and the Dalai Lama have shown a willingness to reach a political settlement in the past, but their attempts failed. As uncertainties loom for both sides amid concerns about the spiritual leader's age and the changing domestic dynamics facing China's new president, Xi Jinping, both sides could see a departure from previous hostilities as a reasonable step toward a low-cost settlement. In other words, both Beijing and the Dalai Lama and by extension his mainstream followers understand how little time they have and how, without a resolution, the uncertainties surrounding the Tibet issue could become permanent after the spiritual leader's death.
Optimism Now, but Caution Ahead
The report of the Dalai Lama's possible return to Tibet comes as Beijing has resumed talks with representatives of the spiritual leader. This round of negotiations comes after nine rounds of failed talks over the past decade and four years after the last attempt. Nonetheless, the mood appears at least somewhat optimistic on both sides. In recent weeks, the Dalai Lama has offered conciliatory comments about Xi and intimated that he could be open to returning to Tibet, a longstanding desire of the 79-year-old spiritual leader. For its part, Beijing has released some Tibetan political prisoners and reportedly allowed the Dalai Lama's image and words to be used in certain Tibetan regions after years of prohibition.
Of course, many uncertainties surround the return of the Dalai Lama; it is even uncertain whether it could happen at all. Indeed, overcoming 55 years of hostile relations takes enormous effort, and even if the Dalai Lama is allowed to return to Tibet, it is only one of several steps in much broader negotiations between Beijing and the Tibetan exile community over how to reach a resolution, including the possible resettlement of 200,000 Tibetans in exile, the status of the government-in-exile, the authority of the Dalai Lama and, ultimately, the succession process for the spiritual leader.
Over the years, the Dalai Lama repeatedly has expressed a strong desire to return to the Tibetan homeland, seeing it as an end goal in his longstanding efforts to gain Tibetan autonomy. Although Beijing had always left the option open, it repeatedly emphasized that any dialogue with the Dalai Lama would be confined to the scope of an arrangement for the spiritual leader and would carry no political implications. In other words, any agreement will be based on the premise that expanded Tibetan autonomy is not an option and that Beijing's authority over Tibetan regions and by extension, the borderland in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia will remain intact. Similarly, the Dalai Lama will not accept a weakening of his spiritual authority among the Tibetan community or of his role in choosing successors. Nonetheless, with Beijing's concern over the proliferation of radical wings of the Tibetan movement abroad, allowing the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet could mitigate some of the tension and give Beijing a way to divide and weaken the Tibetan movement.
In moving toward an agreement, both sides would have to prepare for some political risk. For Beijing, the foremost concern would be managing the enormous religious influence of the Dalai Lama at home, where he is seen as a challenger to the Communist Party's political leadership. For the Dalai Lama, the main concerns would be managing the role of the Tibetan political leadership overseas and the potential repercussions within the exile movement from the developing settlement's contrast with their goal for Tibetan autonomy.
Perhaps more important, even if there were signs of a resolution developing, the succession issue is likely to be a roadblock. Beijing is unlikely to give any concession in its authority to appoint a reincarnated spiritual leader, and the Dalai Lama shows little intention of allowing Beijing's unilateral move.
Confronting a Geopolitical Curse
Despite various uncertainties, questions and risks, the potential ramifications of even the slim possibility of rapprochement illustrate China's ancient geopolitical dynamism at work.
Again illustrating how an individual can play a role in geopolitics, the potential for reconciliation between Beijing and the Dalai Lama could affect the balance between China and India. China has long viewed India's decision to host the Tibetan government-in-exile as a hostile gesture. However, India's ability to exploit China's concerns about Tibet has diminished along with the government-in-exile's influence and claim to represent Tibet as a legitimate entity. Already, New Delhi has shown waning enthusiasm for accepting Tibetan refugees and greater concern that the internal fragmentation of the Tibetan community will make hosting the exile community more of a liability than a benefit. However, a settlement would not eliminate the underlying geopolitical rivalry between India and China on other fronts from their 4,000-kilometer land border to the maritime competitions in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea and their competition for energy and other resources.
Even if a settlement on the Tibet issue emerges in the distant future, it does not mean the end of the China-Tibet struggle. Indeed, since 2009 there have been many Tibetan self-immolations, and Beijing's economic developments in many parts of the ethnic borderlands widely are perceived as flawed or incomplete. Quite likely, a detente with the Dalai Lama will result in radicalized and more extremist elements emerging overseas, seeking self-determination and, like many of their counterparts around the world from Scotland to the Kurds in the Middle East challenging the centripetal forces of nation-states.
Historically, when Han China is strong, so is its control over these buffer regions. Control of the buffer regions, in turn, is a key precondition for a strong and secure Han China. This arrangement will become crucial as Beijing grapples with the potential challenges in the social, economic and political transformation in the Han core in the coming years. Therefore, despite the flux mentioned in the aphorism from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, for Beijing the ultimate goal is to confront an ancient geopolitical curse by cementing its control over its borderlands and uniting China permanently and irreversibly, however unrealistic this goal might be.
Editor's Note: Writing in George Friedman's stead this week is Stratfor Asia-Pacific Analyst Zhixing Zhang.
Read more: Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces at Work in the Nation-State | Stratfor
Follow us: @stratfor on Twitter | Stratfor on Facebook
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Similar to noises I have made
Reply #563 on:
January 08, 2015, 03:46:36 PM »
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Posts: 4465
Re: China
Reply #564 on:
January 25, 2015, 08:23:29 PM »
Are these leaks being done with "inside" help? Must be:
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Re: China
Reply #565 on:
March 10, 2015, 12:28:39 PM »
I have often spoken of Chinese demographic issues , , ,
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WSJ: China Deflation
Reply #566 on:
March 10, 2015, 03:25:37 PM »
A modest pickup in Chinas consumer inflation in February has failed to ease concerns among economists over Chinas deflation risks. On the factory side, China now has seen industrial deflation for three full years, meaning manufacturers cant raise prices and will have a difficult time justifying hiring and investment. Policy makers still need to further ease policy to head off deflation risks, many economists say.
The consumer price index, a major gauge of inflation, was up 1.4% from a year ago in February compared with Januarys 0.8% increase, a five-year low. The rebound in Februarys CPI was mainly due to a faster increase in food prices during the Lunar New Year holiday.
The producer price index, which measures prices at the factory gate, slid 4.8% from a year ago, worsening from Januarys 4.3% drop and marking three full years of declines. It was also the biggest fall in the PPI since October 2009.
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China's edebt crisis: addressing the problem but missing the mark
Reply #567 on:
May 16, 2015, 10:51:42 PM »
China's Debt Crisis: Addressing the Problem but Missing the Mark
May 15, 2015 | 09:15 GMT
Text Size
A Chinese commuter rides past the CCTV office in the Central Business District in Beijing. (AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON)
China is granting local governments greater autonomy by allowing them to swap up to $160 billion in outstanding loans for lower-interest, slow-maturing government bonds.
The program will provide a crucial buffer against local government debt crises in 2015 and beyond.
The initiative may reduce economic stress in the near term but fails to address the largest contributor to China's crisis: corporate debt.
A significant evolution is underway in how China manages its rising levels of local government debt. On May 14, the Chinese government announced that by September, it would complete the first phase of a new plan that allows local governments to swap outstanding loans for low-yield, slow-maturing local bonds. Under the plan, localities would have a steady and stable repayment path for the more than $3 trillion in local government debt accumulated during the past six years of rapid, post-financial crisis spending. It will also have the added benefit, Beijing hopes, of lowering local government debt-servicing costs, thus freeing up tens of billions of yuan in liquidity in the short run. For now, local governments will be able to exchange only a small portion of outstanding loans (about $160 billion) for local bonds, but if successful, the program will likely expand substantially in the years to come.
The debt swap plan comes at a crucial time for China's economy. In recent years, the country's slowing growth rate has steadily eroded the local governments' abilities to service outstanding debts, much less sustain the level of investment needed to keep the economy humming. By allowing localities to swap 50 percent or more of maturing outstanding debts this year, the new plan will provide a much-needed buffer against local government debt crises in the near term and beyond, if the program expands as Beijing intends. Although the plan is a welcome departure from the Chinese government's previous ad hoc methods of managing local government debt maturation, it fails to address the most pressing problem: outstanding corporate debt.
At the end of 2014, Chinese businesses owed more than $16 trillion, accounting for 61 percent of China's total outstanding debt and equal to nearly 180 percent of the country's gross domestic product. That compares with $3.38 trillion owed by local government financing vehicles (LGFVs), the means through which local governments raise virtually all of their cash.
Local Bonds
The idea of allowing local governments to issue their own bonds is not new to China. Until recently, central government leaders consistently rejected the idea of granting localities greater autonomy. For most of the 2000s, the central government opted to keep virtually all financing under the control of a handful of major state-owned commercial banks and their local affiliates. When the global financial crisis forced Beijing to rapidly ramp up spending and investment after 2008, the central government refused to allow localities to issue their own debt and created a legal framework for LGFVs to operate and draw capital from state-owned banks, ultimately falling under the central government's control.
In 2008, when the country was facing a potentially destabilizing economic crisis, the decision to bind local government finances to the state-owned banking system via LGFVs was reasonable. Beijing was worried that economic imbalances between coastal and inland provinces could fuel political instability and fragmentation. From the vantage of 2008, LGFVs seemed to provide the central government a means to dramatically expand local governments' spending capacity local governments cover 85-90 percent of all government expenditures, including for infrastructure development and social services while retaining a degree of control over how and when that money was spent.
This state-controlled strategy, however, began to break down after 2010, when Beijing attempted to ease lending to LGFVs. The decrease in loans from state-owned banks resulted in the creation of "shadow lending" tools thanks to a persistent demand from businesses and LGFVs. By 2013-2014, shadow lending some of it in the form of off-balance sheet lending by state-owned banks themselves accounted for an uncomfortably large share of China's total outstanding debt and new credit creation. The new economic reality forced the central government to clamp down and correct the growing reliance on shadow lending, a process that partly explains the timing of the start of China's real estate and broader economic slowdowns in early 2014.
Even in the face of declining economic growth, Beijing is loath to reverse the trend. For one, the slowdown and the reform and restructuring it implies is a crucial step on the path to rebalancing China toward an economic growth model grounded in private consumption, high value-added manufacturing and services. More to the point, the sheer scale of outstanding credit and industrial overcapacity, combined with the rapid deterioration in credit's return on investment, means that reversing the current decline would require unsustainable levels of new spending. With little option but to allow the economy to falter, the Chinese government has instead turned its focus to managing the slowdown. Enabling local governments to repay their old debts while maintaining a baseline of spending is central to this effort.
Enter the new debt swap program. By exchanging higher-interest, fast-maturing loans for low-interest, slow-maturing bonds, Beijing aims to prolong but soften the pain of repaying those debts and free more cash for local governments to spend in the near term. In short, Beijing hopes that this new process of gradually granting autonomy to the local governments will cut down on a number of entrenched problems and force the localities to think more carefully about how they spend their money going forward. The simple fact that Beijing is proceeding with the creation of local bond markets suggests that the central government understands it no longer has any choice but to allow greater local fiscal autonomy. It is no coincidence that this process coincides with a sharp consolidation of the central leadership's powers in other spheres of Chinese political and economic life. China's leaders are aware that the country is moving toward a consumption-driven economic growth model. To mitigate future challenges posed by this transition, the government is moving rapidly to ensure maximum control over central party, government and security apparatuses.
The Elephant in the Room
The debt swap program has gotten off to a somewhat choppy start. In late April, Jiangsu province delayed an 81 billion-yuan ($13 billion) bond issuance, likely because of a lack of interest among commercial banks in purchasing the low-yield, slow-maturing securities. In response, the central government allowed commercial banks to use bonds bought from local governments as collateral for low-cost loans from the central bank, thus offsetting the impact of swapping higher-interest loans for low-interest local bonds on commercial banks' balance sheets. As the program expands, bonds will become an increasingly viable alternative financing route, and the room for error will grow. In the near term, local government debt defaults remain a real risk, especially in areas where growth is slowing the most and LGFV reliance on shadow lending is highest. But the debt swap program provides a viable and likely stable blueprint for metabolizing the debts accumulated by local governments over the past decade or so.
However, this plan does not address the larger and more pressing issue of corporate debt, and no comparable plan for managing corporate debt exists. The corporate debt is more than four times the size of local government debt and is also that which sustains the vast majority of employment in China. For the time being, Beijing seems to be counting on the ability of service industries and agriculture, with financial help from the banking sector, to absorb the employment leftover from industrial consolidation both government-driven and economically induced and corporate closures. As the slowdown continues, the rate and scale of corporate debt crises is likely to grow substantially. Unemployment among manual laborers and manufacturing is also expected to grow. Although a plan to improve local government solvency and boost local governments' liquidity could provide a buffer against social and political instability in the near term, the corporate debt must be addressed and eased to ensure China's long-term prosperity.
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Re: China
Reply #568 on:
May 17, 2015, 02:12:29 AM »
If only our debt crisis were so manageable.
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China: Lawsuit seeks damage for pollution
Reply #569 on:
May 18, 2015, 12:48:45 PM »
Te-Ping Chen
May 18, 2015 4:54 a.m. ET
BEIJINGAn environmental dispute involving a stone quarry in southeastern China marks the first test of a new Beijing effort to use the courts to help clean up the countrys massive pollution problems.
In a lawsuit that began trial on Friday in a court in Chinas southeastern Fujian province, environmental groups accused four mine operators of stripping a mountainous area of trees and causing about two hectares worth of damage. They are suing the defendants to either restore the area themselves or pay 1.1 million yuan ($177,000) for a third party to do so. For their part, the defendants have said that the group doesnt have the right to sue and disputed the sum requested, saying that the way it was calculated was flawed. They also said the damage caused wasnt intentional.
Experts say the case, brought by environmental groups Friends of the Earth and Fujian Green Home, is the countrys first public-interest suit lodged under its new environmental law. Revised for the first time since 1989, the revamped environmental law came into effect in January and gave nonprofit groups greater ability to sue on behalf of the public for environmental damages.
While Chinese official statistics show that regulators have pursued more criminal cases against alleged polluters, experts say private lawsuits havent yet caught up. To help private citizens, separate new rules that went into effect in May have made filing private lawsuits easier. Already, a Chinese court earlier this month accepted a series of suits from tourism groups seeking 40 million yuan in damages from ConocoPhillips over alleged damages from the 2011 Bohai Bay oil spill in the waters off northeastern China. ConocoPhillips didnt respond to a request for comment.
The test in the case in Fujian is whether more nonprofit groups will be encouraged to make use of the new rules enacted in January despite remaining hurdles that include high fees and lack of experienced legal personnel. Just because a group is qualified to sue doesnt mean they have the ability to bring a suit, much less that they have that aspiration, said environmental lawyer Xia Jun. The law cant force people to sue.
In 2014, the number of criminal actions related to the environment totaled about 16,000 cases, according to a government judicial work report released in March. The official news agency Xinhua said that marked a rise of more than eight times from 2013. The number of civil cases involving damages from pollution rose by 51% to 3,331, the agency said, though Zhang Bao of the Central South University School of Law said that the numbers have fluctuated in recent years without an obvious increase.
Prior to the new environmental law, courts rarely accepted environmental suits brought by nonprofits. Even when government-backed groups such as the All-China Environment Federation brought suits, they faced serious barriers. In 2013, the federation attempted to lodge eight cases, and all were rejected by the courts, it said.
Since the new law went into effect in January, the number of cases accepted by the courts on environmental issues has remained in the single digits, environmentalists say. In part, that is because few nonprofits have been trying, said Wang Canfa, founder of the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims. Before, some expected that thered be a great surge in cases. In fact, that didnt happen, he said.
The new law requires nonprofits to have worked in the environmental sector for five years and to be registered with the government. According to the government, several hundred nonprofits are eligible to bring suits under the new law.
Bringing a case can rack up thousands of dollars in legal billsa challenge in a climate in which nonprofits ability to fundraise is already strictly curtailed. Courts often require plaintiffs to hire independent bodies to help appraise the monetary value of the environmental damage claimed, compounding the expense. The number of nonprofits with the interest and ability to bring such suits, said Mr. Xia, the environmental lawyer, is pitifully small.
A traditional Chinese reluctance to bring lawsuits is also a factor, says Ge Feng of Friends of Nature. The group recently set up a 300,000 yuan legal fund backed by the Alibaba Foundation, which was founded by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. , to help support lawsuits.
Lawyers said they were cautiously optimistic about the outcome of the case in Fujian, saying that several of the individuals being sued had already been sentenced to prison stints of about a year.
In addition to empowering nonprofits to sue polluters, the government has also set up hundreds of environmental courts specializing in the issue across the country in recent years. Many environmental courts have languished, though, with some judges even transferred to assist with regular cases due to their low caseload, lawyers say.
Lilian Lin contributed to this article.
Write to Te-Ping Chen at
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|Pads have plastic backers to protect and increase durability; Contoured cushions utilize a molded foam for superior comfort and durability
|Frame Description
|Each frame receives an electrostatic powder coat finish to ensure maximum adhesion and durability; Standard rubber feet protect base of the frame and prevent the machine from slipping; Urethane paint guards to protect paint; 11-gauge steel frame ensures maximum structural integrity
|Hand Grips
|Grips retained with aluminum collars, preventing them from slipping during use; Hand grips are an extruded thermo rubber compound that is non-absorbing and wear-and-tear resistant
|Instructional Placards
|Easy-to-follow instructions illustrate proper use and muscles trained
|Technical Specifications
|Structural Frame (Coatings excluded): 10 year limited; Guide rods, grips and bearings: 1 year; Items not Specified: 90 day; Upholstery, hardware, belts, springs: 90 day; Warranties outside the U.S. may vary
|Dimensions (L x W x H)
|55 in x 57 in x 54 in (140 cm x 145 cm x 138 cm)
|294 lb (134 kg)
|Product Code
Signature Plate-Loaded complements your existing Signature Single Stations as well as your cardio equipment.
Signature Plate-Loaded is designed to precisely fit the way the human body moves, whether that body is 4'11" (150 cm) or 6'5" (198 cm).
This is the most welcoming Plate-Loaded equipment out there thanks to a design that focused on removing barriers to use so more people would experience the benefits.
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Each machine mirrors the body's natural points of weakness and strength and provides extra challenge where necessary for effective workouts that feel great.
Visually enhanced graphic placards are placed in plain sight and provide clear instructions for correctly performing each exercise.


text:
You talking to IR?
he needs to have a man back there if Aswhin is gonna keep bowling in that same spot.
What happened to Ashwin's action? It's diabolical.
WWCC - Loyaulte Mi Lie
"People make me happy.. not places.. people"
"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." - Samuel Johnson
"Hope is the fuel of progress and fear is the prison in which you put yourself" - Tony Benn
#408. Sixty three not out forever.
wtf Australian cricket. Just wtf.
The one, the only CW Black
Code:47.3 W Coppinger to Heads Smacked the ball straight into the groin of Iwuajoku who has fallen over, miraculously with the ball still caught in his scrotal area! Out!
awe that was in the air.. Zak bowling well but we need wickets desperately.
Twatto bringing the pain.
omg Ashwin stop bowling short.
hahaha that's out
Originally Posted by Peter Mooresforever 63*
Review it.
World Scrabble Champion 2014. National Scrabble Champion 2009, 8th, 11th and 5th in 2009/2011/2013 World Championships, gold medal (team) at Causeway, 2011 Masters Champion
Australias Darren Lehmann is a blatant loser insists Stuart Broad
Countdown Series 57 Champion
King of the Arcade
Reply from mods to my prank bans in public:
Reply from mods to my prank bans in private:
MSN - evil_budgie @ hotmail.co.uk
Why do they keep putting the camera on Kohli? He didn't do anything ffs.
Good shout that
That should've been out.
RIP Phil Hughes. Forever 63*
Ah love the comments from Dirk on TMS. Saying how he kind of wants all the bad decisions to go against India because of their stance on UDRS. Best Dutch/Australian skier commentating on cricket ever.
How many other people would actually say that instead of pissing about being 'diplomatic'?
Last edited by Scaly piscine; 28-09-2012 at 10:15 AM.
Harby is ageless. Doesn't seem to have changed at all in 11 years.
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text:
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HOME College Ohio State Buckeyes Gear Ohio State Buckeyes Shorts & Pants (111 items) Product ID: 848464
Main Content
This item ships within one business day.
$4.99 flat rate shipping. See other shipping options.
Whether you're hitting the gym, running the track, or using your b-ball skills to school your buddies on the court (once again), these Ohio State Authentic basketball shorts from Nike will provide you with ample flexibility, comfort and agility while letting you show off your Buckeyes spirit. Designed in the same style your favorite OSU players wear on the court, these authentic shorts feature perforated side panels with printed team graphics. They also feature Nike's moisture-wicking Dri-FIT technology for the ultimate performance. You never know, these shorts will provide you with such comfort that you may even improve your game!
- 100% Recycled polyester
- Dri-FIT technology for ultimate comfort
- Elastic waistband with drawstring and adhesive bands
- Imported
- Inseam size XL measures approx. 13"
- Officially licensed collegiate product
- Screen print graphics
- Two front pockets
Special event items are produced by manufacturers only after the outcome of a game or event. These are advanced sale items and will ship immediately after they are received in our warehouse.
Manufacturer direct items are shipped directly from the manufacturer. These items are not available for international or expedited shipping.
Customized items can be personalized with options such as your name, your favorite number, and/or designs. Some options may be limited by league rules.


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Called the "People's Pastor" for his long activist career, Herbert Daughtry in 1953 was convicted of armed robbery and assault charges. In prison, he had a religious conversion to Pentecostalism which led him to become a pastor in Brooklyn, New York. In 1980 Daughtry helped establish the National Black United Front, which helped organize the national campaign for reparations and has worked alongside the […]
Herbert Daughtry
April 9, 2010 by John Perazzo 5 Comments
Filed Under: DTN Profiles Tagged With: activist, al sharpton, America, assault, Black, Brooklyn, campaign, career, Church, conversion, Cynthia McKinney, France, Georgia, Haiti, Hashim Nzinga, Herbert Daughtry, house, Iraq, January, Jersey City, Jesse Jackson, Larry Holmes, Lord Ministries, louis farrakhan, Malik Zulu, March, Michigan, National, New York, New York City, number, Organization, pastor, prison, Ramsey Clark, Rep. John Conyers Jr., robbery, Savannah, South, Southern Christian, united-states, Washington


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As the Light Music Club rehearses for their performance at the school festival, they realize that they're not officially registered as a club. They need to quickly find a faculty advisor, but that's not something that a little blackmail can't fix. As their new club advisor, Miss Yamanaka coaches Yui to become the frontman of the band and pushes her to the point of losing her voice. Mio is forced to be the lead vocalist in her stead, but can she overcome her stage fright?
Later, the Light Music Club celebrates Christmas with a party and gift exchange, and soon another school year begins. If they want the Light Music Club to live on even after they graduate, they're going to have to recruit new members, and that means another performance at the freshman reception!
Special Features: Interview with Cristina Vee (Mio), Fuwa Fuwa Time, Music Video (English Version), Trailers.
Spoken Languages: English, Japanese, English subtitles.
This item has customer reviews! See what other people think.
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To commemorate the World Environment day Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation is welcoming the renowned Artist Bipasha Sen Guptha to showcase her line of paintings "HOW BLUE IS MY OCEAN" on Sunday, June 5, 2011 from 8:30 at National Art Gallery. The art exhibition which will be held for two days in Male' will be moved to Waldorf Astoria hotels Beach House and Zitahli Resorts & Spa.
The World Environment Day, 5th June is observed each year throughout the world, to focus attention on emerging environmental issues, and to induce public action. The art exhibition "HOW BLUE IS MY OCEAN" depicts the serious impact of global warming and the gradual disappearance of coral reefs. This set of acrylic on canvas will show the importance of their preservation, the delicate environment – and the significance of this to the world.
As an avid environmentalist, the Self taught artist Bipasha Sen Guptha is highly influenced by the effects of Global Warming and the rapid disappearance of the Coral Reefs during her visit to the Maldives & the Andaman Islands, she realized how important it was for humankind to preserve the nature. "Coral reefs are probably the most complex ecosystems on the planet. The damage being caused to reefs and the open ocean is one of the most serious effects of global warming. The jewels under the ocean are fast disappearing and the treasure chest might be very soon empty", says Bipasha.
Bipasha Art exhibition "HOW BLUE IS MY OCEAN" is schedule to be held in Maldives from 5th June – 14th June.
Sunday, 5th June, 2011 ‐ 20:00hrs – Opening Function ‐ National Art Gallery
Monday, 6th June, 2011 ‐ 10:00hrs – 16:00hrs/1900hrs‐21:00hrs – National Art Gallery
8th June – 10th June, 2011 ‐ Waldorf Astoria Hotels Beach House
12thJune – 14th June, 2011 ‐ Zitahli Resorts & Spa
For more information please contact:
Maldives marketing and PR Corporation
Telephone: +960 332 3228
Facsimile: +960 332 3229
Email: email@example.com
Website: www.visitmaldives.com


text:
When I was in Sicily, either it slipped my mind, or my mind is slipping, because for one evening, I was supposed to be responsible for making something for dessert. I was offered a number of beautiful things to cook or bake with, and my mind kept wandering back to the heavenly ricotta cheese that we'd seen being made earlier that day.
Since we brought home a few big strainers of the just-set ricotta, I couldn't resist putting one to use in ice cream. I blended up the cheese with some milk, a few spoonfuls of local honey, and made a luxurious pine nut brittle to crumble into the ice cream, called a croccante. I figured, "Heck, we're in Sicily. I'm dumping a whole bunch of pine nuts into ice cream. Whee! Here I go…!", assuming they were not so expensive there.
My gracious hostess didn't say anything, but I didn't realize until later that I used what was probably the equivalent of the monthly mortgage on the house to mix into my single batch of ice cream. Fortunately everyone ate every last spoonful of ice cream, so they didn't go to waste. (Whew!) But when I got home, I decided when I shared to recipe, to take an easier…and less-costly…route.
Sicilian gelato is traditionally made with milk and no eggs, but I decided to go with cream when I got home because the ice cream would become very hard to scoop otherwise. (After the recipe, I give guidelines to make the version I made without eggs, although I recommend using half-and-half or cream for a better texture.) Gelaterias get around that problem by storing their ice cream in freezers that aren't as cold as home freezers, so the ice cream is scoopable.


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Bodacious Bull Riding DVD
This Bodacious Bull Riding DVD features Bodacious, the "World's Most Dangerous Bull". Bodacious was the only bull so dangerous that he was retired to protect that lives of bull riders everywhere. If you love extreme, thrill-a-minute videos, this is it! Watch this DVD and you will agree, there is only one Bodacious, master of disaster. Read more...
In the Bodacious Bull Riding DVD, you'll discover why Bodacious struck terror in the world's greatest championship bull riders. This video includes the original "Master of Disaster," plus four new videos, including one with interviews from Bo's owner.
100% Satisfaction Guaranteed - Your Money Back Any Time, for Any Reason.
Smith Brothers is proud to offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on all of our products. We stand behind the quality of our products, and should you not be satisfied with your purchase, simply return it and we will refund, replace or exchange it for you.


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By choosing this rate plan you will earn 15% off. Further details on our booking engine.
What is an SSL Certificate?
An SSL certificate is a bit of code on your web server that provides security for online communications. When a web browser contacts your secured web site, the SSL certificate enables an encrypted connection. It's kind of like sealing a letter in an envelope before sending it through the mail.
SSL certificates also inspire trust because each SSL certificate contains identification information. When you request an SSL certificate, a third party (such as Thawte) verifies your organization's information and issues a unique certificate to you with that information. This is known as the authentication process.
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Our Price: $7.69
Three solid cover scent wafers and container.
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Type : AttractorSpecies : DeerVolume : N/AQuantity : 3 per pack
Reviews of Hunters Specialties 01024 Natural Pine Deer Scent Wafers
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Don Iovino's 6" Straight Tail Worm - $11.49 to $22.49
The Don Iovino 6" Straight Tail Worms was designed by the "Godfather of Finesse," legendary bass angler Don Iovino. Hand-poured, its super soft to provide the ideal action for drop shot and finesse tactics. Available in a variety of proven colors, the Don Iovino 6-in Straight Tail Worm is a great bait for targeting finicky or highly pressured bass.
18 Available Colors Sign up for Don Iovino Soft Baits news and updates.
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Customer Reviews Back to Top
Comments: I've only been bass fishing for about a year and half. First 7 months...May 2012 to Dec 2012, I had tough time catching. I only caught around 12-15. I bought and tried every thing that had great reviews from Tacklewarehouse and other websites. Spent thousands of dollars...but no results. Then in March 2013, I met Don at the Fred Hall show. This man totally revolutionized the way I fished. He showed me his worms and how he rigged them. I ended up buying just about everything he was selling. Immediately I was catching. I caught over 300 bass from March to Sept 2013 thanks to Iovino worms...particularly Honeycomb color. I joined a local bass club and I tied for 5th over all. I would've been third place but missed a meeting. My fishing for bass has improved and it's been a fun and exciting journey. Recently sold my fish n ski boat and bought a new Ranger. The first bass I caught on my new boat was my personal best...almost an eight pounder! Caught her with non other than Iovino Honey Comb color worm. You want to catch more, buy some Honey Comb. I'm already on my third pack and I'm almost out.
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Craigslist told Congress Wednesday that it had permanently terminated its Adult Services section in response to criticism that it was facilitating child exploitation and prostitution. And it was criticized by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a group with whom it had worked, which characterized the shutdown as "progress" and said the classifieds […]Read More...
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text: Felix Rey founders Lily Rafii and Sulaika Zarrouk named their accessories brand after the doctor who stitched up the remainder of Vincent Van Gogh's left ear. But rest assured: There's nothing macabre about the pair's playful bag, umbrella, and hat collection. Woven straw clutch purses, jungle-print minaudières, printed silk scarves, and roomy basket totes get dressed up with shiny fruit appliqués, brass mesh, graphic hearts and nylon ruffles. As of now, earlobe charms are not available, but a smattering of gold sequins proves just as alluring.