A million millionaires, but continued economic slowdown, repression & overseas expansion: News update, May 29

Chuang posts round-ups of China-related news about once a fortnight.

Image from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhAXGaF_lT4.

Highlights

China has more than 1 million millionaires

CNN Money (May 27)

China is now home to more than one million millionaires, thanks to soaring private wealth in the world’s second-largest economy, according to a report by Bain and Co. The biggest concentration — at least 100,000 — is to be found in Guangdong province.

PBOC Sees Increased Downward Pressure on China’s Economy

China’s central bank urges Beijing to maintain ample liquidity to support growth

WSJ (May 29)

China’s central bank said Friday the world’s second-largest economy faces increased downward pressure this year as domestic levels of debt continue to rise. The People’s Bank of China said in its annual financial stability report that Beijing still needs to maintain ample liquidity in the financial markets amid slower economic growth.

Global Times Accidentally Plugs Open Letter on June 4

CDT (May 29)

Chinese censors recently removed a Global Times editorial attacking an open letter recounting the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen pro-democracy protesters due to the unintended publicity the editorial allowed the letter.

Activism on the rise in ‘world’s workshop’

The Japan Times (May 28)

Once renowned for their cheap wages and docility, the protest at the Taiwanese-owned plant is an example of how employees in the workshop of the world are increasingly standing up for greater benefits.

Chinese Bike Light Strikers Occupy Factory, Face Firings and Arrests

Elaine Hui, Labor Notes (May 20)

Workers who make bike lights at a factory in Shenzhen, China, have been on strike since April 30, demanding that the company pay up what it legally owes them. The strikers stayed overnight in the factory, stopping production and delivery for two weeks, until police came to evict them and arrest worker leaders on May 13.

China Deployed Artillery Vehicles on Disputed Island, U.S. Says

NYT (MAY 29)

The United States has spotted a pair of mobile artillery vehicles on an artificial island that China is building in the South China Sea, a resource-rich stretch of ocean crossed by vital shipping lanes, American officials said.

China’s construction program on previously uninhabited atolls and reefs in the Spratly Islands has already raised alarm and drawn protests from other countries in the region, whose claims to parts of the South China Sea overlap with China’s. The United States has also become increasingly vocal about its objections in recent days.

Mystery Surrounds Chinese Investment in Nicaraguan Canal Project

RFA (May 26)

A controversial multibillion-dollar mega-canal project in Nicaragua will reportedly bring tens of thousands of jobs to the second-poorest nation in the Americas but at a cost of environmental damage, lost species and forced relocations. The Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company Ltd. (HKND), run by Chinese telecom magnate and billionaire Wang Jing, formally broke ground on the 172-mile, U.S. $50-billion Grand Inter-Oceanic Canal last December with the blessing of the Nicaraguan government… But not all environmentalists and villagers who live along the proposed route of the canal are buying it.

(Also see video here.)

80,000 U.S. Workers Now Employed By Chinese Companies

Andy Szal, MBT (May 27)

A recent report says the number of American workers employed directly by Chinese companies increased more than five-fold in the past five years. The analysis, compiled by New York research firm Rhodium Group and the National Committee on United States-China Relations, found that U.S. employment by Chinese-affiliated firms jumped from less than 15,000 in 2009 to more than 80,000 in 2014.

Inter-imperialist rivalry

Pentagon chief urges end to island-building in South China Sea – Reuters

Pentagon chief urges end to island-building in South China SeaReutersHis remarks at a military ceremony in Hawaii came just a week after the U.S. Navy sent a P-8 reconnaissance plane carrying Navy and television camera crews to film Chinese island-building activity in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.Carter Warns China That U.S. Will Go Wherever Global Law Permits

China lodges complaint with U.S. over spy plane flight | Reuters

The nationalist Global Times, a tabloid owned by the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, said war was “inevitable” between China and the United States unless Washington stopped demanding Beijing halt the building of artificial islands in the disputed waterway.

Whatever Is Behind China’s Spratly Island Showdown, It Isn’t Drilling For Oil – Forbes

China is building airbases in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea, dredging sand and dirt to create 2,000 acres of land where little more than rocky reefs existed before. Its biggest project is on Mischief Island, which sits less than 150 miles…

China issues first white paper on military strategy – China Daily

For the first time, the paper noted that “some offshore neighbors take provocative actions and reinforce their military presence on China’s reefs and islands that they have illegally occupied”. “It is thus a long-standing task for China to safeguard its maritime rights and interests.” Vietnam and the Philippines have kept building on some of China’s islands in the South China Sea. Accordingly, the paper said the navy of the People’s Liberation Army will “gradually shift its focus from ‘offshore waters defense’ to a combination of ‘offshore waters defense’ and ‘open seas protection’”. It also mentioned an adjustment in preparations for military struggle. Following the guideline set in 2004 in order to win “informationized local wars”, the new expression highlighted maritime military struggle.

Capital

Even Wall Street’s China bulls are worried – Business Insider

In a recent note, HSBC economists revised China’s 2015 GDP-growth forecast down to 7.1% from 7.3%. According to a survey of 54 economists conducted by Bloomberg earlier this month, the consensus on Wall Street was already low at 7.0% growth.

Is China easing losing its mojo? – CNBC

China is pulling out all the usual easing props to counter its slowing economy, but the old hats don’t appear to be working as well as they used to. “The sluggishness of China’s economy reinforces our view that further easing measures will be needed,” …

Surging Shanghai stocks a bubble: China strategist – CNBC

There’s a “total disconnect” between this year’s strength in Shanghai stocks and the slowing Chinese economy, strategist Patrick Chovanec said Wednesday. The main stock gauge in China, the Shanghai composite, closed Wednesday at a seven-year high, …

China markets plunge 6% in record turnover as margin traders take fright
By Reuters | 28 May, 2015

China’s stock markets plunged on Thursday, with indexes dropping over 6 per cent in record high turnover as investors rushed to sell after more brokers tightened margin trading requirements for clients and the central bank drained money market liquidity.

China’s top banking regulator warns of rising bad loans, credit risk | Reuters

China’s top banking regulator warned of rising credit risk from real estate, local government debt and unconventional forms of finance, sources with direct knowledge told Reuters, highlighting Beijing’s struggles to prevent risky debt from engulfing a stuttering economy. The sources cited a speech given by Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), during a teleconference in early May. The amount of non-performing loans in the first quarter has already reached 56 percent of the total amount last year, Shang said, according to the sources. Unconventional forms of credit – which usually refers to instruments like entrusted loans and letters of credit – were also on the rise, he said.

Chinese local governments agree to settle bills after being sued – FT

Yan Jiehe, founder of the Nanjing-based China Pacific Construction Group, sued six local governments in January for debts totalling more than Rmb900m. But repayment agreements have now been hammered out with four of the debtors according to Mr Yan, who vowed to pursue the other two administrations in Hunan and Shandong provinces, which owe more than Rmb200m, to China’s Supreme People’s Court “if needed”

China’s Shadow Banking Slowing Less Than Advertised

WSJ (May 28)

A plunge in one of China’s main measures of credit doesn’t mean Beijing is tightening lending. It just means the People’s Bank of China has moved the goalposts. Shadow banking – a catch-all term for nonbank financing – is crucial to the workings of the Chinese economy. In a country where the big banks are controlled by the government and famously cater to the biggest companies, shadow banking is a necessity for just about everybody else.

China Blows Its Debt Bubble Bigger

Bloomberg (May 26)

There are plenty of reasons one could argue China isn’t on the verge of a debt crisis: The country has $3.7 trillion in currency reserves, a closed financial system and ambitious leaders who claim to be on the case. And doesn’t the biggest rally in Chinese stocks since 2008 count for anything?

But like Japan and other highly-indebted countries that have struggled to deleverage, China isn’t showing the requisite tolerance for pain. A case in point was the government’s May 15 decision to order banks to prop up the same local-government financing vehicles, or LGFVs, that it claimed to be reining in. Then the People’s Bank of China decided this week to guide the three-month Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate to its lowest level since 2008. By manipulating “shibor” in this way, the People’s Bank of China is helping regional leaders accelerate their unsustainable borrowing.

As Economy Slows, China Slashes Duties in Bid to Spur Spending – WSJ

The Ministry of Finance said Monday that it will cut duties by half, on average, on imports including suits, fur garments and shoes beginning June 1. A tariff on cosmetics will fall to 2% from 5%, while a duty on diapers will decline to 2% from 7.5%, according to the ministry. The tax cuts come as China’s government looks for ways to boost spending within its borders.

China to Ease Limits on Overseas Investments

WSJ (May 28)

China’s campaign to turn the tightly controlled yuan into a global currency is crossing a new threshold, as the government plans to make it easier for individuals and companies to invest overseas.

China sets up giant gold fund to expand its market power – MarketWatch

China has set up its largest gold-investment fund ever, expected to total 100 billion yuan ($16 billion), aiming to invest in mining projects in the region and enhance Chinese influence in global gold markets, local media…

China invites private investors to help build $318 billion of projects | Reuters

China’s state planning agency on Monday released a list of more than 1,000 proposed projects totalling 1.97 trillion yuan ($317.75 billion) that it is inviting private investors to help fund, build and operate. The National Development and Reform Commission said the 1,043 projects, in sectors such as transport, water conservancy and public services, will be done as public-private partnerships (PPP).

China’s yuan ‘no longer undervalued’: IMF

For years, China has been criticized for keeping its currency from strengthening too much against the dollar. But those days may be over — the International Monetary Fund has declared that the yuan is “no longer undervalued.”

Foxconn’s Future Ambitions

WSJ (May 28)

Foxconn, Apple’s major assembler, made a rare showcase of some of its new technologies and products at an expo in southwest China this week. The company, officially known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., has been diversifying its operations beyond manufacturing consumer electronic gadgets like iPhones and Playstations as competition for Apple’s orders intensifies and wages in China, where it manufactures most of the products, continue to rise. Based on interviews with a dozen Foxconn officials, here are five things of the company’s future ambitions to keep an eye on.

Environment

China warned over ‘insane’ plans for new nuclear power plants | The Guardian

He Zuoxiu, a leading Chinese scientist, says the country is not investing enough in safety controls after lifting of post-Fukushima disaster reactor ban.

Residents of Beijing Community Renew Protest against Waste Incineration Plant – Caixin

Locals voiced their opposition to a facility in Asuwei area back in 2009, and news that building plans were moving forward spurred them to demonstrate again

Surveillance & control

Leaked Emails Reveal Details of China’s Online ‘Youth Civilization Volunteers’ · Global Voices On May 17, a hacker nicknamed XiaoLan leaked a package of emails revealing details of the recruitment of college students by the Shanghai League of Communist Youth, one of the most significant Chinese Communist Party organizations under the single party regime. The students serve as voluntary online commentators that spread positive energy and “purify” the internet. The existence of the commentators is not a state-secret: the latest round of massive recruitment was revealed in a document issued by the China Communist Youth League back in February which set the target of recruiting no less than 20 percent of its members to serve as “civilization volunteers” by spreading positive energy and acting as models for “good netizens”.

China’s latest law-enforcement gadgets – BBC News

China might not yet spend as much on internal security as the US, but its budget for law and order is growing fast. For the past few years, law and order spending has outstripped what is spent on national defence. The BBC’s John Sudworth reports.

[Beijing’s video surveillance network upgraded]北京3万余个监控探头覆盖所有重点街面|监控探头|北京_新浪新闻

市公安局介绍，全市目前纳入街面巡控的监控探头3万余个，基本实现了对街面重点复杂、要害部位的“全覆盖”。这3万余个巡控探头分为三个级别。一级探头对各区县的核心地区、重点地区等实行24小时盯控，譬如东城区的王府井、西城区的西单和金融街、朝阳区的三里屯、丰台区的东大街以及各郊区的城关地区；二级探头则对繁华街区、交通枢纽、学校周边、商市场周边、近期案件高发地区进行巡控，如商场在客流量大的时段、公交场站在车多人多时开启巡控；三级探头则对辖区内其他道路、巡逻盲区进行不定时巡控。

Dissent

Thousands Protest High Cancer Rates Linked to Pollution in China’s Tianjin (RFA, May 27)

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in a township near the northern Chinese city of Tianjin in recent days in protest at alleged carcinogenic pollution from a nearby iron and steel plant, residents said on Wednesday. The protests continued on Wednesday amid a strong security presence outside the gates of the Rongcheng Iron and Steel plant in Tianjin’s Gegu township after several thousand angry local residents clashed with police on Tuesday.

Tibetan Mother of Two Burns to Death in Protest (RFA, May 27)

Sangye Tso, aged about 36, staged her protest in the early hours of May 27 outside Chinese police headquarters in Chone (in Chinese, Zhuoni) county in the Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, sources in exile said, citing local contacts.

Shanghai artist detained after depicting Xi Jinping as Hitler

A Shanghai-based artist was detained on criminal charges yesterday after publishing an image that some speculate was meant to compare Chinese President Xi Jinping to Adolf Hitler.

And the law won | The Economist

In the end, however, the lawyers fell victim to their own success. The party became suspicious of their networks, and their rapid deployment at scenes of confrontation with officialdom, such as protests by residents enraged at the bulldozing of their houses by government-backed developers. In 2006 Luo Gan, then China’s security chief, urged that “forceful measures” be used against saboteurs of the system who operate “under the guise of weiquan”. That is when the men on the cover of Asia Weekly, already by then under intense official scrutiny, became China’s most wanted. President Xi is now finishing the job of locking them away.

Duelling superstitions in an age of alienation

[Chinese] Communist Party To Purge Officials Of Faith In ‘Jerusalem Of The East’ – Eurasia Review

The latest anti-Christian campaign in the city will see the party probe its own ranks, the state-run Global Times reported, following 18 months in which authorities have removed crosses and destroyed churches across Zhejiang province. “Whoever loses loyalty in the party will be expelled,” it said. “The daily performance of potential members and the possibility that they practice a religion will be examined.” The planned purge follows a visit late last year by the inspection team of the Communist Party’s Central Disciplinary Committee, which reported that “individual party members in some places participate in religious activities and believe religion”.

Healthcare woes

Heard in the Hutong: How Chinese Feel About Health Care Reform – China Real Time Report – WSJ

In China’s health care system, as elsewhere in the world, frustrations abound – but authorities pledge that help is on the way. On Sunday, China’s Cabinet announced a plan to reform several aspects of the health care system. They include the problem of profit-seeking at public hospitals, which often rely on drug sales to boost their income, as well as ballooning costs for consumers. Under the new proposal, authorities would bring down medical spending by individuals to less than 30% of all health care spending in the country. But will they succeed? China Real Time hit the streets to find out about the health care experiences and opinions of Beijing residents.

Gender & sexuality

Hong Kong legislature to discuss same-sex unions – Shanghaiist

The Hong Kong legislature is set to debate the legalisation of civil unions between gay couples this year, reports Gay Star News.

Gender Imbalance: How China’s One-Child Law Backfired on Men – Newsweek

Zhang Wei, a 29-year-old male resident of Beijing, is at first glance an unlikely exemplar for the power of women in modern China. But hear him out. A junior executive at a state-owned energy company, Zhang has not yet been able to save enough money to …

Labor

China’s Workers Earned More in 2014, but Percent Raises Shrank –Caixin

The average annual salary for Chinese workers rose by about 9 percent to nearly 50,000 yuan last year, the National Bureau of Statistics…

Golf club employees in Dongguan stage protest after being laid off (CLB – 21 May)

Around 150 golf club employees in Dongguan marched to the local township government offices in Songshanhu on 18 March in protest at being laid off without any compensation when the club suddenly announced closure last week.

Five years on, Nanhai Honda workers [still] want more from their trade union (CLB – 15 May)

Honda workers take a united stand against the union on 31 May 2010. Photograph: Bobby Yip, Reuters.

Five years ago, on 17 May 2010, more than a thousand workers at the Nanhai Honda automotive components plant in Foshan walked off the job, initiating a high-profile, ground-breaking strike that came to symbolize the rise of the workers’ movement in China. The strike secured the workers a 35 percent (500 yuan per month) pay increase plus the promise of more effective union representation after the official trade union was humiliated in its attempts to get the strikers back to work. his week, China Labour Bulletin returned to Foshan and talked to some of the strike veterans about what has changed over the last five years and what still needs to be done.

Chinese labor news and commentary

罢工第21天，听说新全轮抓了几个工人，现在怎么样了？ 2015-05-19

5 月19日上午，龙岗盛平拘留所的大门里走出来2位四十多岁的大姐，她们身形略显疲惫。她们不是因为偷抢或者别的违法犯罪行动被拘留，而是为了维护自己的权益被拘留了7天。两位大姐在维权过程中，因为没有别的办法而跪地抱住资方总经理的大腿，恳求他不要抢货，尽快解决劳资矛盾而被抓，并以“扰乱单位秩序”为名拘留了5天（实际上从5月13日到19日应为7天）。她们分别在工厂干了10、8年，如今青春已逝，马上就要到退休年龄了，工厂却从未给她们买过养老保险，即将面临老无所养的窘境。

16个省份要搞居住证！底是萌萌哒，还是“蒙蒙TA”？2015-05-29

去年就业人员平均工资为49969元，快看你拖后腿了吗2015-05-28

工人代表老板想炒就炒？——看看法律怎么说2015-05-28

退休女工彭小梅：养老保险延缴延退的幸与不幸2015-05-27

工伤停工留薪期单位要掏护理费2015-05-26

女工伍忠芬：打工30年，退休要维权2015-05-26

缺票子没房子：打工青年，你是大城市的“过客”吗？2015-05-22

工伤处理十大弊端影响工伤职工维权2015-05-22

高龄外来工困境2015-05-21

郑小琼：凉山的民工2015-05-21

Other Chinese news and commentary

市场、阶级、国家——抗日神剧背后的“意识 2015-05-25