Chinese censors crack down on jokes about phallic-shaped People’s Daily building

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 3, 2013 at 11:34 AM - 0 Comments

An image of the People's Daily building in Beijing from the blogging site Sina Weibo.

The new headquarters for the Chinese state-run newspaper People’s Daily has an image problem: it really looks like a penis.

The platforms atop the under-construction building in Beijing make it look pretty comical and censors that try their best to control online conversations in the country are working overtime as they attempt to remove phallic jokes from the Internet, particularly on Sina Weibo — a Chinese micro-blogging site, similar to Twitter.

Censors have even blocked searches on Weibo for “People’s Daily” and “building” as the 150-metre tall building is erected, reports AFP. But, some comments did make it though the censors. “Of course the national mouthpiece should be imposing,” said one user. And another quote from a blogger read: “It seems the People’s Daily is going to rise up, there’s hope for the Chinese dream.” Continue…

How to lower tariffs and not give China preferential treatment

By Mike Moffatt, Canadian Business - Friday, May 3, 2013 at 11:31 AM - 0 Comments

(Adrian Wyld, AP Photo/The Canadian Press)

This article first appeared in Canadian Business.

The government’s latest position on Budget 2013’s tariff changes is that the modifications are necessary to ensure that China does not receive special treatment. As the prime minister put it, “we do not think it is appropriate to have special tariff reductions only for companies from countries like China.” This is problematic and not simply because these changes affect 72 countries, of which China is only one. The truth of the matter is that the existing treatment of imports from China is not particularly favourable but there is a much better way to ensure that imports from China receive Canada’s least favourable tariff treatment.

The Customs Tariff is exceedingly complex, with up to 16 different tariff treatments (rates) for each product, based on the country of origin of that product. Countries can be assigned multiple tariff treatments and, for a given product, are assessed the lowest of the multiple rates that apply.

Continue…

Still trying to explain those tariff increases

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments

The Prime Minister again raised the notion of special deals for China yesterday as an explanation for the government’s decision to increase tariffs.

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure the leader of the Liberal Party understands the issue of tariffs. Let me be clear. The position of the government has been that we have progressively reduced a wide range of tariffs for all Canadians. Canadians have benefited from that to the tune of over half a billion dollars a year.

At the same time, we do not think it is appropriate to have special tariff reductions only for companies from countries like China. The Liberal Party apparently thinks that is appropriate. That is the wrong policy. The right policy is lower tariffs for Canadians and to ensure that Chinese companies pay their fair share.

That leaves only 51 other countries—the 71 other countries that are now subject to higher tariffs, minus the 20 who have trade deals with Canada—to account for.

Two weeks ago, Jim Flaherty suggested that increasing tariffs was about leverage in trade negotiations, but Mike Moffatt notes that Canada is only currently known to be negotiating trade deals with seven of the countries that are now subject to higher tariffs.

It also would seem to remain difficult to square the Harper government’s tariff increases with the Conservative party’s advertising in this regard.

In other news, Canada Border Services Agency has still so far failed to offer an explanation as to how imported iPods might be exempt from tariffs. It has been nearly three weeks since I asked.

See previously: A tax on imported blankets, The Commons: Ted Menzies challenges everyone to find a tax increase in the budget, A tax on bicycles, baby carriages and iPods, The Great iPod Tax Crisis of 2013, The iPod tax: The finance department responds, Will the Conservatives repeal the iPod tax?, Breaking news: Your imported hockey helmet will cost less and Letters from Justin

Book review: A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel

By Bookmarked and Brian Bethune - Friday, April 19, 2013 at 11:05 AM - 0 Comments

As a lurid tale of wealthy and powerful people behaving badly, the authors’ account of what has been unfolding in China since November 2011 can’t be beat. There’s the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood by Gu Kailai, the ambitious wife of Bo Xilai, an even more ambitious princeling (as the children of the founding fathers of the Chinese Communist Revolution are known), and their joint downfall. There’s even the high-speed crash of a Ferrari carrying yet another princeling (third generation, this time) and two young women, all engaged in an intricate—given a Ferrari’s interior space—sex act.

This detailed recreation argues, however, that the story is not just one of a Chinese Lord and Lady Macbeth reaching too high and falling far. It’s also part of a vicious political struggle within a corrupt regime that still lacks an orderly means of distributing spoils and high offices. Fine, except that the writers’ own scrupulousness in noting which claims are well grounded and which are not, highlights a tale that is largely a collection of facts in search of a unifying narrative.

Take the Ferrari crash, an isolated incident in that nothing else in the book depends on it. That the male driver was naked when pulled from the wreckage is mentioned as something unquestioned, but that the two women passengers were “semi-naked” is put in the “reportedly” category. The authors’ conclusion? “Allegations of che zhen (‘car sex’) have not been substantiated.”

When it comes to the murder, far more crucial to the storyline, such uncertainty is even more disorienting. Gu may not have poisoned the Briton—there may not have been a murder at all given his heart condition. It all leads to the key truth Ho and Huang do illuminate: the effect of social media on China has not (yet) been what so many hoped for, to cast a revealing spotlight on the ruling caste, but instead to fire up a kaleidoscope of misdirection and spin.

Visit the Maclean’s Bookmarked blog for news and reviews on all things literary

The cautionary tale of the EU carbon market

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 12:05 PM - 0 Comments

The European Union’s carbon market is in shambles. Bryan Walsh considers what went wrong and what it means.

Backloading failed because even in very green Europe, economic concerns seemed to trump environmental ones. European Parliamentary members worried that any action that would cause the price of carbon to rise would add to European industry’s already high energy costs. Europe, unlike the U.S., doesn’t have relatively cheap, relatively clean natural gas to help cushion that blow. At the same time, European nations like Germany are rethinking some of their renewable energy policies, concerned by the rising cost of electricity. It looks like a textbook example of what Roger Pielke Jr. calls the “iron law of climate policy“: when climate policy starts to hurt economically, even the greenest states start to back away.

It’s possible that backloading may get a second chance before the European Parliament, and even without a viable carbon market, Europe is still the global leader in climate action. Nor is the ETS the only game in town. California launched its own cap-and-trade system this year—though that’s come under political pressure as well—and Australia has introduced a price on carbon. China may do so as well. But the hope that we may be able to reduce carbon emissions the same way we cut pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide—through a well-run cap-and-trade —seems to be dimming, a victim of its own complexity and a sluggish global economy. That might leave the door open for other policies, including a straight carbon tax, more support for renewables or increases R&D funding for carbon-free power. We could use all three, but carbon markets may be finished. If carbon trading can’t make it in Europe, it can’t make it anywhere.

China is apparently undeterred.

The developments in Europe might be interpreted in one of two ways: either it is evidence that carbon markets won’t work or it puts the onus on those who propose carbon markets to explain how their proposal accounts for the shortcomings of the European system.

There is, it seems to me, another looming issue, another one which the NDP will have to account for. Let’s say that, by 2015, British Columbia has expanded its carbon tax (as the BC NDP currently proposes), Alberta has increased its carbon tax (as the Progressive Conservative government there seems to be considering), Quebec has a cap-and-trade system linked with California (as both jurisdictions are moving towards) and, say, one other province has implemented a carbon-pricing mechanism of some kind (Manitoba? Ontario? Newfoundland?). How then does the NDP reconcile its proposal for a national cap-and-trade system with all of that? What do the Liberals—Mr. Trudeau having offered vague support for a price on carbon—propose? Do we end up with a number of different approaches—carbon taxes, carbon markets and regulatory regimes—functioning within the country? Does that make sense? Is it feasible or political possible to build a national carbon-pricing mechanism, or at least a national approach that takes into account provincial jurisdiction?

Jean Charest thinks the country is headed towards a carbon tax. Somewhere Stephane Dion is either nodding grimly or screaming.

Update 4:19pm. Further to this post, I sent along a question to the NDP side: How would an NDP government reconcile a national cap-and-trade system with provincial jurisdictions that already have carbon-pricing mechanisms? The response from Thomas Mulcair’s office is as follows.

We will deal with this as we’ll deal with every other issues of shared responsibility: by cooperation.

I’ve asked a few smart people if they have any thoughts on the way forward and hope to post those in the next while.

Copper theft: a worldwide, and sometimes lethal, epidemic

By Andrew Hepburn - Friday, March 29, 2013 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Note: column height indicates the number of hits produced when performing a news search for the term “copper theft." Source: Factiva.

What killed Thelma Morrow?

At first glance, the answer seems obvious and not all that unusual. On the night of September 7, 2011, a car struck the 52-year old Miami woman as she crossed the road.

It’s tragic, but pedestrian-car accidents happen all the time.

Yet something about Morrow’s death was different, and it had nothing to do with Morrow, the driver, or weather conditions.

As a local news outlet reported at the time, “A 30-block stretch of road was unlit because copper wiring had been stolen from the street lights, rendering them inoperable.”

Emergency personnel at the scene were convinced the dimly-lit street made the unfortunate difference.

“We all feel if the street lights were on, she wouldn’t be fighting for her life,” an official with the Miami Fire Rescue was quoted as saying.

Thelma Morrow was killed by copper theft.

Continue…

The scariest housing bubble

By Chris Sorensen - Sunday, March 24, 2013 at 8:00 PM - 0 Comments

Stringer/Reuters

In Ordos, a city of 1.5 million in Inner Mongolia, there sits a mostly vacant district that was built to house and service another one million people, complete with huge public squares and museums. In Dongguan, more than 2,500 km to the south, the sprawling New South China Mall opened in 2005 to host an expected 70,000 shoppers each day, but remains mostly empty. Other so-called “ghost cities” are strewn across China.

When China’s economy was flying, such spending was little more than a curiosity, an inevitable by-product of a rapidly urbanizing country of 1.3 billion where construction investment accounts for nearly half of GDP. But these days, economic growth is slowing—the government is targeting 7.5 per cent this year, compared to more than nine per cent a few years ago—and all those empty apartments are beginning to look more sinister. Are they evidence of an epic real estate bubble waiting to burst, with global consequences, or just another relatively harmless sideshow of China’s centrally managed economy?

There’s little doubt that Beijing’s policy-makers are wrestling with an overheated property market. In a bid to clamp down on speculators who are driving up prices on units they don’t plan to live in, the government recently unveiled plans to introduce a new 20 per cent tax on profits from home sales, while raising down-payment requirements in certain cities. That, in turn, sparked a buying frenzy ahead of the new rules. In Beijing, home sales spiked 280 per cent during the first week of March, compared to the same period a year earlier. Adding fuel to the fire was a recent 60 Minutes report in which a reporter toured vacant development projects and interviewed Wang Shi, the chairman of Vanke, one of China’s biggest real estate developers. Wang said he believes China is currently in the grips of a real estate bubble and its burst would trigger an Arab Spring-like uprising. The stocks of several Chinese developers plummeted soon after the program aired.

Continue…

China leaders pledge cleaner government, less waste

By The Associated Press - Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 6:39 AM - 0 Comments

BEIJING, China – China’s new leaders struck a populist tone Sunday as they got down to the painstaking work of governing, promising cleaner government, less red tape and more fairness to enlarge a still small middle class and help struggling private businesses.

In appearances that mark the completion of a months-long, orchestrated leadership transition, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang stressed the urgency of reining in runaway official corruption to restore the Communist Party’s frayed public credibility.

Li made specific pledges to slash official perks and government extravagance to free up money for social welfare programs at a time of slower economic growth. He said a ban will be put on building new government offices, government payrolls will be reduced, as will spending on banquets, travel and cars — behaviour that has fueled public anger and protests.

“If the people are to live a good life, their government must be put on a tight budget,” Li said in his first news conference as premier after the end of the annual session of the national legislature.

Continue…

Morbid tradition of ‘ghost marriages’ persists in rural China

By Manisha Krishnan - Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 4:19 PM - 0 Comments

A scene from last year's Qingming Festival, thought to be a lucky occasion for celebrating ghost marriages. (kevinykchan / Flickr)

It’s a strange and morbid tradition, all but abandoned by modern China. But ghost marriages, the pairing of a deceased bachelor and bride to keep each other company in the afterlife, are quite the moneymaker for those willing to get their hands dirty.

Four men in China’s central Shanxi province were recently sentenced to more than two years in prison each for digging up the bodies of 10 female corpses, cleaning them, tampering with medical records to make them appear newly deceased and selling them on the black market for a sum of $39,000.

The ancient custom, which dates back to the 17th century BCE, rests on the belief that burying an unmarried young man with a “bride” can prevent his soul from becoming restless and lonely. It was outlawed in 1949 when Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong came to power, but is still practised in rural parts of several provinces, including Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Guangdong. In Shaanxi, where coal money has resulted in an affluent but stubbornly superstitious population, families are willing to pay top dollar for suitable dead spouses, sometimes employing a matchmaker or even purchasing remains straight from the hospital morgue. Younger and more attractive bodies tend to cost more.

Continue…

Some Chinese peasants are more equal than others

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 1:25 PM - 0 Comments

Article 1 of China’s constitution describes “a socialist state” led by “the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants.” Squaring that with the reality of its parliament—with 83 delegates worth more than $1 billion—is a sensitive topic for Xi Jinping, who assumes the presidency next week, and has launched a campaign against extravagance and corruption.

The Hurun Global Rich List found 31 billionaires at the National People’s Congress gathering. Another 32 are delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body. The CPPCC’s richest member, with an estimated $32 billion, is Victor Li, who launched the redevelopment of
Vancouver’s Expo lands.

But soaring above other delegates, at least in height, is retired Houston Rocket Yao Ming. It’s in the best interests of the wealthy to keep a hand in politics, Fang Xingyuan Feng of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Financial Times. “When business people amass a fortune they need to protect it,” he said.

Heir Zhang Jiale under fire for extravagance, becomes China’s own ‘Rich Kids of Instagram’

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 11:11 AM - 0 Comments

Photos of Zhang Jiale, the daughter of Chinese Sino Life Insurance chairman Zhang Jun, living the high life — at parties, in fast cars and on private jets — are spreading on the Chinese Internet, in much the same way that the Rich Kids of Instagram tumblr blog went viral last year.

Photos of Zhang – who is thought to be 22 years old, has short hair and dresses in masculine clothes — are making the rounds on Weibo, a Chinese social networking site. Continue…

Carbon pricing: Beyond the talking point

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, February 22, 2013 at 3:15 PM - 0 Comments

Michael Den Tandt wonders if the Conservatives will have to stop freaking out about the NDP’s cap-and-trade proposal if they hope to see the Keystone XL pipeline approved by the United States. If the Conservatives think likewise, we’ll presumably see a different tone on Monday when the House returns to business (the Conservatives certainly weren’t shying away from their preferred talking point when the House was sitting a week ago).

Meanwhile, China is talking about a carbon tax and Ontario is thought to be moving forward with cap-and-trade and here is what the woman thought to be President Barack Obama’s choice to lead the EPA told an audience of regulators yesterday.

Addressing a room full of familiar faces at a workshop of state and federal regulators, McCarthy applauded local efforts, such as the nine-state carbon cap-and-trade program in the Northeast United States, for showing Washington a path forward on combating climate change.

“At the EPA we will do our part to build on your success,” she said at the Georgetown University Law Center. “We can find a way instead of having national solutions…to open up opportunities for states to use all the flexibility, the ingenuity, the innovation that you have shown could be done, and just simply get it done.”

Stephen Gordon talks to Global about what international developments might mean for Canada.

As the rest of the world starts to put a price on carbon, any Canadian exporter is going to have start paying that price regardless of where it is located,” said Laval University economics professor Stephen Gordon. Carbon taxes are usually applied to imports as well, so local producers are not disadvantaged, according to Gordon.

The U.S. is Canada’s largest trading partner and accepted $330.1 billion worth of exports from Canada in 2011. China ranks number three when it comes to Canada’s largest export destinations, accepting $16.8 billion in exports in 2011. “If Canadian exporters are already paying for it why not send that tax revenue to Ottawa instead of Washington or Beijing,” Gordon said.

And PJ Partington compares coal regulations in Canada and the United States.

The U.S. ambassador has made it crystal clear that as America steps up its climate action it expects us to do better too. The new line from the Harper government is that we’re already there, particularly on curbing emissions from coal power. Foreign minister John Baird recently suggested “maybe the United States could join Canada” on “taking concrete direct action with respect to dirty, coal fired electricity generation,” adding that “we’re the only country in the world that’s committed to getting out of the dirty coal electricity generation business.”

Sadly, Canada isn’t the shining example of coal-curbing excellence that Harper’s ministers are claiming. When it comes to regulating greenhouse gases (GHGs) from coal power, we’re doing about the same as our neighbours to the South — and may well be eclipsed before too long. While coal power is America’s biggest source of GHGs, accounting for over a quarter of national emissions in 2010, it accounted for about 11 per cent of Canada’s in the same year. As for “getting out of the dirty coal electricity generation business,” Canada won’t be fulfilling that commitment until 2062.

Why are the Chinese so sad?

By Mitch Moxley - Monday, February 4, 2013 at 11:39 AM - 0 Comments

Bobby Yip/Reuters

The Chinese have an expression to describe coping with hardship: chi ku—to eat bitterness. The sensation is familiar to Wang Hui, a 50-year-old salesman in Beijing. Wang earns less than $6,000 a year, struggles to put his son through school, and is openly jealous of those around him who have made out better in the new China. A former colleague, for example, who invested in real estate at the right time, now owns four apartments and a Mercedes-Benz.

“I’ve seen so many people get rich so quickly,” says Wang, whose missing bottom tooth and cracked watch seem to accentuate his Willy Loman predicament. “If I worked for 50 years, I wouldn’t make that much money. Of course I’m envious.”

Wang isn’t alone. In fact, he reflects a widespread dissatisfaction in China, one that at first glance might seem counterintuitive. It’s been more than 30 years since Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping opened the country and the Communist party embraced the mantra “to get rich is glorious.” In the decades since, hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty. In 2010, China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy. The Chinese today are four times richer than they were 20 years ago, and people like Wang have opportunities and creature comforts unheard of a generation ago. Continue…

China hacks the New York Times after getting bad press

By Jesse Brown - Friday, February 1, 2013 at 11:09 AM - 0 Comments

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Hackers from China, likely affiliated with the PRC government, infiltrated the New York Times‘ computer system and spied on it for the past four months, the paper of record reports. 

The infiltrations began once the Times reported on the secret wealth of billionaire relatives of China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. When reporter David Barboza was investigating the story, the Times received threats from Chinese government officials that exposing the net worth of Wen’s relatives would “have consequences”. AT&T was instructed to keep close watch on the Times‘ information systems, and they quickly detected suspicious activity. Security firm Mandiant was brought in, and began documenting four months of infiltrations which, they concluded, originated in China, and are consistent with Chinese government hacks of the past. The PRC has denied any involvement.

So what were the hackers after? According to Marc Frons, the New York Times‘ Chief Information Officer, this was a campaign of espionage, not sabotage. The hackers were looking for the name of David Barboza’s source. They didn’t find one, because there wasn’t one. Barboza’s reporting was based entirely on publicly available documents that allowed him to piece together a picture of the Wen family fortune.

Nevertheless, in their fruitless search, the hackers were able to steal passwords for every Times employee. Every reporter’s drafts, every email–all of it could have been compromised. Even worse, the hackers had the power to take down the New York Times entirely. When asked if the hackers could have stopped the Times from publishing on the evening of the recent U.S. federal election, CIO Frons replied “yes, they could have”.

Instead, the hackers limited their intrusions to the personal computers of 53 employees. The Times tolerated the espionage for four months in order to get a complete picture of their exposure before shutting it down. They report that no customer data has been compromised.

According to the Times, they were not alone in being compromised. “The attacks,” they report, “appear to be part of a broader computer espionage campaign against American news media companies that have reported on Chinese leaders and corporations.”  The Wall Street Journal has since come forth to report that they have been compromised as well. 

All of this raises some questions:

• Was anyone else compromised?
• The F.B.I. is probing these hacks as a matter of national security.  Does that suggest a military response?  Is this also a trade issue?
• How do you respond when you can’t conclusively prove who’s to blame?
• How can journalists act responsibly to protect their sources when such attacks occur? 

Independent thought alert

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

The CBC reports that three Conservative MPs put their concerns about the Nexen deal in writing.

A third Conservative MP, LaVar Payne of Medicine Hat, Alta., wrote to Paradis Aug. 21, 2012 to raise “grave” concern about the human rights record of China — calling it “far from stellar.” “It is my belief that Canadian laws must prevail, and that if we were to allow a state-owned company of a foreign nation that brutally represses its own citizens to buy a strategic asset here, we would be setting a very dangerous precedent,” he wrote. He also flagged potential problems with the “lack of environmental concern” by the regime in Beijing.

“I do believe that the Chinese administration has little to no regard for environmental preservation, and this is another area of concern,” he said.

That actually makes four MPs who are on record as objecting after James Bezan’s objections were disclosed last November.

China imposes anti-dumping duties on 2 chemicals from U.S., EU

By The Associated Press - Saturday, January 26, 2013 at 4:43 AM - 0 Comments

BEIJING, China – China says it will impose anti-dumping duties on two chemicals from the United States and European Union for five years.

The Ministry of Commerce said it ruled that U.S. and EU companies have been selling the chemicals at unfairly low prices, hurting China’s domestic industry.

The two chemicals, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and diethylene glycol monobutyl ether, are widely used in applications such as metal cleansing, paint stripping, dry cleaning and printing.

The ministry said in a statement Friday that it will impose a 10.6 per cent duty on those chemicals manufactured by American companies Equistar Chemicals LP and Eastman Chemical Co., and a 14.1 per cent duty on those made by Dow Chemical Co. and all other U.S. companies.

It said it will levy duties of 9.3 per cent to 18.8 per cent on the products from EU companies.

Trade disputes are common between China and its major trading partners, which often accuse Beijing of illegally subsidizing Chinese companies.

Beijing has blamed the weak global economy and protectionism for the disputes. It also has become more assertive in appealing anti-dumping measures against it and in bringing similar charges against its trading partners.

Chinese workers angry at 2-minute toilet breaks, fines for tardiness hold 18 bosses hostage

By The Associated Press - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 4:12 AM - 0 Comments

BEIJING, China – Hundreds of Chinese factory workers angry about strictly timed bathroom breaks and fines for starting work late held their Japanese and Chinese managers hostage for a day and a half before police broke up the strike.

About 1,000 workers at Shanghai Shinmei Electric Company held the 10 Japanese nationals and eight Chinese managers inside the factory in Shanghai starting Friday morning until 11.50 p.m. Saturday, said a statement from the parent company, Shinmei Electric Co., released Monday. It said the managers were released uninjured after 300 police officers were called to the factory.

A security guard at the Shanghai plant said Tuesday that workers had gone on strike to protest the company’s issuing of new work rules, including time limits on bathroom breaks and fines for being late.

“The workers demanded the scrapping of the ridiculously strict requirements stipulating that workers only have two minutes to go to the toilet and workers will be fined 50 yuan ($8) if they are late once and fired if they are late twice,” said the security guard, surnamed Feng. “The managers were later freed when police intervened and when they agreed to reconsider the rules.”

The plant makes electromagnetic coils and other electronic products. It was closed Tuesday, said a man who answered at the plant but refused to identify himself. He said no workers were on strike and staff would return to work on Wednesday.

Strikes have become commonplace in China, as factories operating in highly competitive markets try to get more productivity from their labour force and workers connected by mobile phones and the Internet become more aware of their rights.

Shinmei Electric’s statement didn’t say specifically what the workers were protesting, but said management reforms and labour policies were believed to be a cause. It said talks were under way with workers at the plant and that police were questioning staff.

A man who refused to give his name from the press office of the Shanghai police bureau said he had no information about the incident and referred calls to the Shanghai government press office, where calls rang unanswered.

Ottawa covers expenses for top CEOs travelling with Harper on China tour

By Jennifer Ditchburn, The Canadian Press - Monday, January 21, 2013 at 5:16 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – The Conservative government covered expenses for some of the country’s top executives as they accompanied the prime minister around China a year ago, a move business leaders and officials defend as a good investment.

The trip signalled a change of approach for Stephen Harper, who for years eschewed the idea of leading big trade offensives abroad.

The Public Accounts of Canada show that between 2006 and 2011, his wife Laureen Harper — and for many years his personal stylist Michelle Muntean — were the most common add-ons to the government tab.

Then came the China trip last February.

Continue…

China cracks down on jaywalkers

By Mika Rekai - Friday, January 11, 2013 at 3:07 PM - 0 Comments

In China’s densely populated cities, it’s not uncommon to see cars driving on the wrong side of the street, barrelling down bike lanes or even parked on the sidewalks. In the last two decades, as the number of motorists has grown astronomically, Chinese roads have become a Wild West of traffic violations. In 2011, nearly 70,000 people were killed in traffic accidents, and tens of thousands more were injured. But last month, traffic wardens began fining some of China’s most prevalent lawbreakers: pedestrians.

While some have lauded the government for enforcing any traffic laws at all—speed limits and red lights are routinely ignored—critics say targeting pedestrians is ineffective and unfair.

“Chinese drivers don’t stop at traffic lights, so either you jaywalk or you don’t cross the street,” says Tyler Ehler, a Canadian student living in Nanjing. The problem, says Ehler, is the driving class has simply grown too large, too fast—“teenagers are learning to drive at the same time as their parents.” A country full of new drivers, he says, is bound to have its share of traffic accidents.

While some dismiss traffic accidents as mere growing pains, others question whether China’s thousands of road fatalities are an inevitable consequence of its rise.

World’s longest high-speed rail line opens connecting Beijing with southern China

By The Associated Press - Wednesday, December 26, 2012 at 5:06 PM - 0 Comments

BEIJING, China – China on Wednesday opened the world’s longest high-speed rail line that more than halves the time required to travel from the country’s capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in southern China.

The opening of the 2,298 kilometre (1,428 mile)-line was commemorated by the 9 a.m. departure of a train from Beijing for Guangzhou. Another train left Guangzhou for Beijing an hour later.

China has massive resources and considerable prestige invested in its showcase high-speed railways program.

But it has in recent months faced high-profile problems: part of a line collapsed in central China after heavy rains in March, while a bullet train crash in the summer of 2011 killed 40 people. The former railway minister, who spearheaded the bullet train’s construction, and the ministry’s chief engineer, were detained in an unrelated corruption investigation months before the crash.

Trains on the latest high-speed line will initially run at 300 kph (186 mph) with a total travel time of about eight hours. Before, the fastest time between the two cities by train was more than 20 hours.

The line also makes stops in major cities along the way, including provincial capitals Shijiazhuang, Wuhan and Changsha.

More than 150 pairs of high-speed trains will run on the new line every day, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Ministry of Railways.

Railway is an essential part in China’s transportation system, and the government plans to build a grid of high-speed railways with four east-west lines and four north-south lines by 2020.

The opening of the new line brings the total distance covered by China’s high-speed railway system to more than 9,300 km (5,800 miles) — about half its 2015 target of 18,000 km.

World’s longest high-speed rail line opens connecting Beijing with southern China

By The Associated Press - Wednesday, December 26, 2012 at 7:51 AM - 0 Comments

BEIJING, China – China on Wednesday opened the world’s longest high-speed rail line that more than halves the time required to travel from the country’s capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in southern China.

The opening of the 2,298 kilometre (1,428 mile)-line was commemorated by the 9 a.m. departure of a train from Beijing for Guangzhou. Another train left Guangzhou for Beijing an hour later.

China has massive resources and considerable prestige invested in its showcase high-speed railways program.

But it has in recent months faced high-profile problems: part of a line collapsed in central China after heavy rains in March, while a bullet train crash in the summer of 2011 killed 40 people. The former railway minister, who spearheaded the bullet train’s construction, and the ministry’s chief engineer, were detained in an unrelated corruption investigation months before the crash.

Trains on the latest high-speed line will initially run at 300 kph (186 mph) with a total travel time of about eight hours. Before, the fastest time between the two cities by train was more than 20 hours.

The line also makes stops in major cities along the way, including provincial capitals Shijiazhuang, Wuhan and Changsha.

More than 150 pairs of high-speed trains will run on the new line every day, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Ministry of Railways.

Railway is an essential part in China’s transportation system, and the government plans to build a grid of high-speed railways with four east-west lines and four north-south lines by 2020.

The opening of the new line brings the total distance covered by China’s high-speed railway system to more than 9,300 km (5,800 miles) — about half its 2015 target of 18,000 km.

China says it will maintain prudent monetary policy in 2013

By Joe McDonald, The Associated Press - Sunday, December 16, 2012 at 6:51 PM - 0 Comments

BEIJING, China – China’s new Communist Party leaders promised Sunday to be ready to spend more if needed to shore up a shaky economic recovery and pledged more market-opening reforms.

In the first statement of their economic goals, the leadership wrapped up a two-day planning meeting by pledging continuity with earlier party plans aimed at making China’s economy more productive and spreading prosperity to its poor. They gave no indication of plans for major changes.

The world’s second-largest economy is gradually pulling out of its deepest slump since the 2008 global crisis, but weaker-than-expected November trade data prompted suggestions the rebound might be faltering.

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Groceries are getting ever pricier. Blame China?

By Andrew Hepburn - Thursday, December 13, 2012 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

This is part one of a series. Next up: Andrew Hepburn will look at whether low inventories and supply shocks are responsible for food price spikes. In the next and last article, Hepburn will examine the role played by financial speculators, as well U.S. subsidies for biofuel.

As Maclean’s noted yesterday, a report by the University of Guelph suggests that food prices in Canada could rise by 3.5 per cent in 2013. That might not be a shocking increase, but it’s still a significant one and it is a timely reminder of how expensive food has become in recent years.

As the following chart from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) demonstrates, since 2004 food prices have levitated:

FIPA’s worst critics, speaking anonymously for the PM

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 12:24 AM - 0 Comments

John Ivison’s latest column is mostly about the F-35 F-18 replacement  F-35, but it includes a bit about the CNOOC-Nexen deal as well.

“The public seems to appreciate that the takeover of a relatively minor player, for a whopping premium, at a particularly ticklish time in the Canada-China trade relationship was a prudent move. The government will now use this as a bargaining chip in the attempt to strike a more reciprocal rapport with the Chinese, as we move toward exploratory talks on a broader free trade agreement.”

The notion that CNOOxen is a “bargaining chip” is one we’ve seen fairly frequently lately. From the Globe:

“Senior federal government officials told The Globe and Mail that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been increasingly concerned with how Canada might gain more bargaining power to open up markets for Canadian companies in China. The Conservatives, they say, feel that the two-way investment relationship is overwhelmingly in Beijing’s favour right now.”

And from, well the Globe:

“People close to the federal government said the idea of gaining more leverage with foreign governments came to be a key factor in Mr. Harper’s thinking.”

It’s too bad the government had to use a Chinese takeover of a Canadian energy firm as the long-sought bargaining chip. It’s too bad the government didn’t have some sort of treaty that could protect Canadian investors in China hey waitaminnit —

For indeed the government has spent very nearly all of Calendar Year 2012 proclaiming it has just such a treaty in hand: the notorious Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement, or FIPA.  Continue…