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Congressional Issues
Political and
International News
National People's
Congress
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Food/Consumer Product
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Cross - Straits
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US Chamber China Trade & Investment News
March 07, 2008
Trade
March 07: China denounces Canadian ‘non market’ determination in AD, CVD
case.
China Trade Extra
March 07: ITA extends deadline for preliminary AD review of garlic from China.
China Trade Extra
March 07: The European Union is to send a team of senior policymakers to
Beijing next month for talks on climate change, the EU's trade deficit with China
and other economic issues, officials in Brussels said. On climate change, there is
much for the Europeans and Chinese to discuss. China already consumes almost
as much power as the EU, according to European energy experts, and on present
trends will consume 50 percent more within a decade.
Financial Times
Congressional Issues
March 07: Pelosi Underscores Need For Bipartisanship In China Discussions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Congress needs to examine, in a
bipartisan manner, a host of issues in the US bilateral economic and trade
relationship with China.
China Trade Extra
March 07: Senate passes CPSC reform bill.
China Trade Extra
Political and International News
March 07: China vigorously defended its policy on Darfur against critics seeking to
link Beijing's close relations with Sudan to this summer's Olympic Games. Liu
Guijin, China's special envoy for Darfur, said Beijing was working hard to help end
the humanitarian crisis in the troubled Sudanese region, where five years of
fighting between rebels and government troops. The communist government is
anxious to defuse any issue that could substantially tarnish the Olympic Games'
image. Moves by pressure groups to prod China to use its influence with Sudan by
invoking the Olympics have set off an unprecedented display of public diplomacy
by Beijing.
Washington Post; Washington Post
March 06: China's peacekeepers in Darfur have made contributions to the
Sudanese region's peace, stability and development, an official with the Ministry of
National Defense said in Beijing. China, the first nation outside Africa to send
peacekeepers to Darfur, has pledged to send a 315-member multi-functional
engineering unit.
People's Daily Online
National People's Congress
March 07: Chinese President Hu Jintao stressed stability and social harmony in
the Tibet Autonomous Region, joining a panel discussion with lawmakers at the
ongoing session of the National People's Congress, the top legislature.
Lawmakers in Tibet should carry out the Scientific Outlook on Development and
promote the sound and rapid economic development, Hu said.
National People's Congress
March 06: Chinese President Hu Jintao urged Hong Kong and Macao to seek
further progress in economic and democratic development in the two special
administrative regions. During Meeting 280 deputies to the National People's
Congress (NPC) and members of the National Committee of Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from Hong Kong and Macao, Hu said
he hopes both SAR governments would work hard to develop their economies,
improve people's livelihood, advance democracy and promote social harmony in a
tolerant and reconcilable social atmosphere.
People's Daily Online
March 06: China's tightening macro controls are both an opportunity and a
challenge for banks, said bankers. The recent measures taken by the central bank
are in line with the economic situation that China faces now, and we think they
make sense," said Ma Weihua, president of China Merchants Bank and a CPPCC
member.
People's Daily Online
March 06: Year 2008 session of the National People's Congress, as the
legislature in known, marks the start of a new five-year term of government (it will
elect Wen to serve until 2013). Wen Jiabao, China’s Prime Minister echoed recent
calls in the state-owned media to “liberate our thinking”, at the opening of the
country's annual session of parliament.
The Economist
Economy
March 07: China's central-bank governor said a stronger currency isn't the best or
only way to fight inflation, countering widespread expectations that the Yuan's
gains will accelerate as the nation's prices rise at their fastest pace in more than a
decade. "Faster currency appreciation helps to rein in inflation, but not a lot," Zhou
Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said. "To curb inflation, we
will rely more on domestic policies. There is no need to use exchange-rate reforms
as a way to fight inflation."
The Wall Street Journal; Washington Post
March 07: The central bank is trying to encourage outflows of capital from China
to relieve pressure on the renminbi and reduce excess liquidity that is feeding
rising inflation. Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China said
Beijing remains committed to reducing controls on offshore investment by its
citizens in spite of concern among other parts of the government that such a move
could trigger a collapse in the mainland stock market.
Financial Times
March 07: According to the Ministry of Agriculture’s wholesale price index, food
prices were about 30 percent higher than in the same month a year earlier. This
index tends to be quite a good predictor of food CPI, suggesting overall inflation in
China could make double-digits in February. Statistical quirks could bring the
published number lower, but it is still likely to be high enough to be scary. The 8
percent GDP growth rate is only a bottom line growth rate, and the real target of
Beijing's policymakers is around 10 percent.
Sampa
March 06: China faces growing pressure for prices to rise due to food shortages
and a credit boom but is confident inflation can be held to its 4.8 percent target this
year, financial officials said. "We will face increasing pressure for price rises and
they need to have our full attention, because they have a direct bearing on the
performance of our economy," the chairman of China's planning agency, Ma Kai,
said at a news conference during the annual session of the national legislature.
Washington Post
March 06: China's move to control the industrial use and exports of grain to curb
domestic price increases will contribute to the stability of the world grain market,
an analyst said. Premier Wen Jiabao said the country "must strictly control
industrial use of grain and grain exports". This was one of the powerful measures
that would be taken to prevent the overall price level from rising rapidly. Last year,
the country's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, rose 4.8 percent
year-on-year, its fastest pace in 11 years. Food prices surged 12.3 percent,
accounting for 4 points of the 4.8 point CPI rise.
Xinhua
Food/Consumer Product Safety Issues
March 07: A German company is recalling some batches of the blood thinner
heparin that were made using an active ingredient from China, broadening the
scope of safety worries about the widely used drug. The FDA said that in the wake
of the German report, it was asking all makers of finished heparin and the active
heparin ingredient to run a new regimen of tests that would detect a contaminant
that has been found in some batches of the Baxter heparin. The agency said it still
hasn't identified the source or the identity of the substance, which wasn't picked up
by standard tests done to check the drug's quality.
The Wall Street Journal
March 07: Criminal charges were filed against four executives at two American
companies who imported toothpaste from China that contained a poison used in
some antifreeze, the city attorney in Los Angeles said. The chemical, diethylene
glycol, which is banned from certain ingestible items in the United States, was
discovered in almost a million tubes of toothpaste last May and led to recalls in 34
countries. The chemical, commonly used in antifreeze and as a solvent, can lead
to kidney damage or liver disease.
The New York Times
March 06: Federal drug regulators said that a critical blood thinner that had been
linked to at least 19 deaths and whose raw components were produced in China
contained a possibly counterfeit ingredient that mimicked the real drug. Heparin is
made from pig intestines. Scientific Protein Laboratories, based in Waunakee,
Wis., bought raw heparin produced in some cases in small, unregulated family
workshops in China and processed it in plants in Wisconsin and China, according
to heparin traders and producers in China.
The New York Times
Insurance & Finance
March 07: A senior official at China's $200 billion sovereign-wealth fund said there
is no need for a code of conduct sought by Western nations to push state-run
investment funds into accepting outside scrutiny. Such state-owned investment
vehicles have been met with suspicion by some US and European politicians who
worry that the investments may be used for political purposes. "The claim that
sovereign-wealth funds are causing threats to state security and economic
security is groundless," Mr. Wang, who is also CIC's chief risk officer, said.
The Wall Street Journal
March 07: Most of the initial public offerings of stock are quite large or are being
launched by brand names and niche players sheltered from downturn. Meanwhile,
key investors and hedge funds that ensure the success of such deals remain on
the sidelines. And smaller deals have yet to get off the ground. In recent days,
China Railway Construction Corp. raised the maximum $5.4 billion it was seeking
following hefty demand from institutions and individual investors, making it the
world's second-biggest IPO this year, after Visa Inc.'s pending $19 billion deal.
The Wall Street Journal
March 07: China is putting in place the final preparations for the launch of an
equity market for smaller companies, the head of the country's capital markets
regulator has said. However, officials are also aware that large state-owned
companies have been the main beneficiaries so far from the resurgence of the
mainland capital market. Citigroup calculates that 12 big state-owned groups
accounted for 85 percent of the money raised in the mainland last year from initial
public offerings.
Financial Times
March 07: China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, the nation's largest oil refiner,
spent $559 million in cash to buy a controlling stake of 60 percent in AED Oil Ltd's
fully-owned assets, with an aim to boost its production in Australia, according to
AED's statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. The deal values AED's assets,
which includes the Puffin and Talbot oil fields in northwest Australia, at
approximately $926 million, according to the statement. Sinopec, Asia's top oil
refiner and a wholly-owned unit of China Petrochemical Corp, will take over as the
operator of the joint venture.
China Knowledge
March 07: Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. said its fiscal first-half underlying profit,
excluding revaluation and disposal gains, rose 17 percent on higher rental income
from its offices and shopping malls in Hong Kong. Vice Chairmen Thomas Kwok
and Raymond Kwok said they expect Hong Kong's property market to continue to
benefit from low interest rates, but a slowing US economy may add uncertainties
to the Hong Kong market. Hong Kong's interest rates track US rate movements.
The Wall Street Journal
March 07: A foreign sovereign fund has been approved as a QFII investor, in an
effort to bolster qualified overseas institutions’ confidence to invest in China’s
equity market for the long term, Hu Xiaolian, head of the State Administration of
Foreign Exchange. The approval was granted under China’s Qualified Foreign
Institutional Investor scheme, Hu said, but she decline to name the agency and
give details on the QFII quota.
China Knowledge
March 07: ING Aetna Insurance Co may buy a 5 percent to 10 percent stake in
Fubon Financial Holding Co, a prominent financial holding company in Taiwan,
according to sources. The primary reason behind the move is in view of Fubon's
marketing network for banking and insurance products, as well as the Taiwan
firm's prospective presence in China, the report said.
China Knowledge
March 07: PCCW Ltd.'s bottom line swelled 20 percent in 2007, driven by lower
costs and improved results at the company's mobile and broadband-television
operations. Net profit for the year rose to 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars ($192.6
million) from 2006's HK$1.25 billion, Hong Kong's dominant fixed-line
telecommunications operator said.
The Wall Street Journal
March 07: China Railway Construction Corp, China's largest railway and
construction contractor in terms of contract value of new overseas projects, raised
HK$18.3 billion ($2.35 billion) in its Hong Kong IPO, sources reported. The
Beijing-based company that built more than half the nation's rail lines since 1949
sold a total of 1.71 billion new shares, or a roughly 14 percent stake at HK$10.70
apiece, the top end of the indicative range. It is also the largest public offering in
Hong Kong this year.
China Knowledge
March 07: China Life Insurance, the country's largest insurer, is seeking overseas
acquisitions and foreign investors as it has sufficient capital for overseas
expansion, said Chairman Yang Chao. "We are interested to expand overseas.
And the right opportunities are the most important. We must think a lot before we
start action." Yang said. He said earlier that the second quarter and beyond
presented a good opportunity for its expansion.
China Knowledge
March 06: China’s banking regulator would continue to push for the local
incorporation of foreign banks. The China Banking Regulatory Commission also
urged locally incorporated foreign banks to build a wall separating themselves
from parent banks and remaining Chinese branches. They should also set up
independent risk control, accounting and IT systems to prevent overseas risk
overflow, a statement on the CBRC website said.
China Briefing
Science & Technology
March 07: China is planning to conduct its first spacewalk in October from a
Shenzhou VII spacecraft, senior space engineers said. There will be three
taikonauts, as China's astronauts are known, aboard the Shenzhou VII. One of
them will be conducting the spacewalk. The spacewalk requires high technical
standards for security and the life support and energy supply systems, as the
taikonauts will spend three to five days in space.
Xinhua
March 06: China will establish 30 high-tech industrial bases, according to a
circular on the National Development and Reform Commission. The NDRC
requires governments of all-levels to give policy support to ensure the
establishment and development of these high-tech bases. High-tech bases have
played an important role in transforming the economic growth mode and
upgrading industrial structure.
People's Daily Online
Defense & Exports Control
March 07: Defense-related think tanks and contractors, as well as the Pentagon
and other federal agencies, were the target of repeated computer network
intrusions last year that originated in China, the Department of Defense said this
week. In annual report to lawmakers on China's military power, the department
said the intrusions "appeared to originate in" China, but added that "it is unclear if
these intrusions were conducted by, or with the endorsement of," the Chinese
government or military.
Washington Times
March 07: A Chinese commander called on all military officers and soldiers to
strengthen their sense of mission and get further combat-ready. "Preparations for
military struggle shall be continued, which is now the most important, practical and
imperative task", said Jing ZhiYuan, commander of the Second Artillery Force of
the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Xinhua
March 06: A senior officer of the People's Liberation Army has said that China
maintains a limited military power only to secure the nation's independence,
sovereignty and territorial integrity, and won't pose a threat to any country.
Chinese government has persisted in the "coordinated development" of national
defense and economic growth, and raised military spending "moderately" with the
backdrop of rapid economic development and growing fiscal revenue, said Liao
Xilong, Director of the PLA General Logistics Department.
The China News
Cross - Straits
March 07: Taiwan voters elect a successor to President Chen Shui-bian later this
month, their self-ruled island will get a fresh start in vital ties with the United States
that have deteriorated on Chen's watch. However, is a complex tangle which has
seen China boosting its military readiness to enforce its claim of sovereignty over
Taiwan, even as the United States seeks closer ties with Beijing despite
commitment under its own laws to help defend the island.
The New York Times
March 07: The European Union said that the "referendum on UN membership"
pursued by the Chen Shui-bian authorities in the Chinese province of Taiwan
would foment cross-straits tension. "The EU has a significant stake in the
maintenance of cross-strait peace and stability," a statement by the EU
Presidency said, reiterating its one-China policy and the position that "the Taiwan
question must be solved peacefully between the parties concerned."
Xinhua
General News
March 07: The mayor of China's Shanghai city, Han Zheng said that they have
applied to the Chinese central Government to build a Disneyland, the third
Disneyland in Asia after Japan and Hong Kong. According to Han, they haven't
got any document of approval from the National Development and Reform
Commission yet, and Shanghai will abide by the Central Government's decision,
as any big-scale project of this kind is subject to the approval from the central
government.
China Knowledge
March 06: Canon Inc has planned to boost production of digital cameras in China
and build a new laser printer plant in Vietnam, aiming to meet booming demand in
developing countries. Canon is looking to double its production capacity of
compact digital cameras at a factory in China's Guangdong province to 10 million
units a year by 2009, said a company spokesman, who declined to be identified.
The New York Times
March 06: China's 210 million migrant workers living in urban centers are
expected to enjoy greater social security services as the country will do more in
these areas. The country will ensure migrant workers get paid in full and on time,
extend social security coverage to more of them and work out a suitable pension
insurance system.
People's Daily Online
March 06: A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said China will ensure foreign
tourists' safety during the Beijing Olympics in August. "Especially on the occasion
of the Beijing Olympics, there will be a great number of foreign tourists here and
we will definitely take more effective measures in this regard," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Qin Gang, said.
People's Daily Online
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