China was no threat to the US until Trump came into power. Suddenly, Russia is no longer a threat.
Go figure out why.
Go figure out why.
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ChiCon Land Bagus!
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China should sentence more of its criminals to death in a mass culling exercise to achieve greater purity and supremacy! After all, many countries including holy and democratic USA also hold culling exercises and uphold the death penalties in many of its states.
5 things to know about China's national drink, baijiu
image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
Baijiu is the most consumed spirit in the world, thanks to huge demand in China AFP/HECTOR RETAMAL
17 Jun 2019 01:01PM
Share this content
LUZHOU, China: Baijiu is China's national drink much like vodka is to Russia.
Yet while the latter has become a staple of bars, homes and restaurants abroad, baijiu is either unknown overseas or viewed as undrinkably strong and harsh.
Now major producers are looking to expand into global markets. Here are five things to know about China's favourite tipple, which may soon be coming to a bar near you.
What is baijiu?
Baijiu, pronounced "buy-joe" means "white" or "clear alcohol" and is distilled mainly from sorghum, but rice, wheat, barley, millet or a mixture of cereals also are used.
It has a resulting wide flavour range, but nearly all baijiu features an intense and complex flavour profile prized by connoisseurs.
Advertisement
Production methods vary but generally involve steaming grains then fermenting them for months after adding a yeast-like substance called "qu".
The fermented grains are then distilled and the resulting liquor is aged, often for years.
How much is consumed?
Around 10.8 billion litres of baijiu (2.9 billion gallons) was consumed in 2018, more than whisky, vodka, gin, rum and tequila combined.
That much baijiu would take an hour to slosh over Niagara Falls and weigh as much as 1,000 Eiffel Towers, says Jim Boyce, a Beijing drinks blogger who launched the Aug 9 World Baijiu Day several years ago.
China produces enough baijiu each year to fill 4,000 Olympic swimming pools, he adds, and if you poured all that into shot glasses and stacked them up, they would reach the moon.
What's baijiu's story?
Production goes back several hundred years and has mostly been a mom-and-pop affair.
But Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and other Communist rebels were big fans, quaffing baijiu to ease the rigours of revolution, and after taking over China in 1949 they merged local producers into larger companies and created production standards.
The official support helped trigger a baijiu boom.
In particular, Kweichou Moutai - now the world's most valuable spirits company - gained enduring fame when Premier Zhou Enlai and President Richard Nixon raised glasses of it to toast the historic 1972 US-China rapprochement.
But baijiu came to rely excessively on procurement by the government and military, and President Xi Jinping's launch of a crackdown on corruption and official excess in 2012 has jolted producers into exploring new revenue streams.
Where does it come from?
Baijiu is produced nationwide but its epicenter lies in the neighbouring southwestern Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou.
There, Guizhou giant Kweichow Moutai, along with Sichuan rivals Luzhou Laojiao and Wuliangye Yibin, form what's known as baijiu's "Golden Triangle".
The rugged area is famed for producing baijiu's most celebrated flavours, attributed to a unique terroir including clean local water and a warm, humid climate conducive to the micro-organisms that help convert grain into alcohol.
How strong is it?
Baijiu's alcohol content ranges between 35-55 per cent.
That's more or less on par with spirits like gin, vodka and tequila, but baijiu's reputation for potency is enhanced by the way it is consumed.
Unlike many spirits, baijiu is drunk straight up as shots during meals, usually in the form of a toast and with a cry of "ganbei!" which means "dry the glass!".
Baijiu producers and bar owners, however, know this will be a tough sell for foreign consumers, which has prompted a movement to create baijiu cocktails, something long considered sacrilege in China.
Source: AFP/aa
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...about-china-s-national-drink--baijiu-11633858
image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
Baijiu is the most consumed spirit in the world, thanks to huge demand in China AFP/HECTOR RETAMAL
17 Jun 2019 01:01PM
Share this content
LUZHOU, China: Baijiu is China's national drink much like vodka is to Russia.
Yet while the latter has become a staple of bars, homes and restaurants abroad, baijiu is either unknown overseas or viewed as undrinkably strong and harsh.
Now major producers are looking to expand into global markets. Here are five things to know about China's favourite tipple, which may soon be coming to a bar near you.
What is baijiu?
Baijiu, pronounced "buy-joe" means "white" or "clear alcohol" and is distilled mainly from sorghum, but rice, wheat, barley, millet or a mixture of cereals also are used.
It has a resulting wide flavour range, but nearly all baijiu features an intense and complex flavour profile prized by connoisseurs.
Advertisement
Production methods vary but generally involve steaming grains then fermenting them for months after adding a yeast-like substance called "qu".
The fermented grains are then distilled and the resulting liquor is aged, often for years.
How much is consumed?
Around 10.8 billion litres of baijiu (2.9 billion gallons) was consumed in 2018, more than whisky, vodka, gin, rum and tequila combined.
That much baijiu would take an hour to slosh over Niagara Falls and weigh as much as 1,000 Eiffel Towers, says Jim Boyce, a Beijing drinks blogger who launched the Aug 9 World Baijiu Day several years ago.
China produces enough baijiu each year to fill 4,000 Olympic swimming pools, he adds, and if you poured all that into shot glasses and stacked them up, they would reach the moon.
What's baijiu's story?
Production goes back several hundred years and has mostly been a mom-and-pop affair.
But Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and other Communist rebels were big fans, quaffing baijiu to ease the rigours of revolution, and after taking over China in 1949 they merged local producers into larger companies and created production standards.
The official support helped trigger a baijiu boom.
In particular, Kweichou Moutai - now the world's most valuable spirits company - gained enduring fame when Premier Zhou Enlai and President Richard Nixon raised glasses of it to toast the historic 1972 US-China rapprochement.
But baijiu came to rely excessively on procurement by the government and military, and President Xi Jinping's launch of a crackdown on corruption and official excess in 2012 has jolted producers into exploring new revenue streams.
Where does it come from?
Baijiu is produced nationwide but its epicenter lies in the neighbouring southwestern Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou.
There, Guizhou giant Kweichow Moutai, along with Sichuan rivals Luzhou Laojiao and Wuliangye Yibin, form what's known as baijiu's "Golden Triangle".
The rugged area is famed for producing baijiu's most celebrated flavours, attributed to a unique terroir including clean local water and a warm, humid climate conducive to the micro-organisms that help convert grain into alcohol.
How strong is it?
Baijiu's alcohol content ranges between 35-55 per cent.
That's more or less on par with spirits like gin, vodka and tequila, but baijiu's reputation for potency is enhanced by the way it is consumed.
Unlike many spirits, baijiu is drunk straight up as shots during meals, usually in the form of a toast and with a cry of "ganbei!" which means "dry the glass!".
Baijiu producers and bar owners, however, know this will be a tough sell for foreign consumers, which has prompted a movement to create baijiu cocktails, something long considered sacrilege in China.
Source: AFP/aa
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...about-china-s-national-drink--baijiu-11633858
Tough sell: Baijiu, China's potent tipple, looks abroad
image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
Ranging from around 35 to 55 percent alcohol, baijiu packs a searing, sickly-sweet punch, an intensity that evolved to match the powerfully spicy cuisine of southwestern China, the spirit's heartland AFP/HECTOR RETAMAL
17 Jun 2019 12:40PM
Share this content
LUZHOU: It may be China's national spirit, but for London bartender Ellie Veale it's clear from the first swig why baijiu has not caught on overseas.
After some initial fruity notes, Veale crinkles her noise as the crystal-clear booze reveals its intense, earthy essence.
"I worked on a cattle farm in Australia and this kind of aftertaste reminds me of the smell of ... cow manure, hay, and horses," she says, in the London bar Demon, Wise & Partners.
"It's not the beverage for me," she concedes.
And yet baijiu's popularity in China has propelled demand - making it the most consumed spirit in the world, and its major producers the most valuable distilleries globally.
"Baijiu belongs to China, but also the world," says Su Wanghui, information director at Luzhou Laojiao, one of the country's biggest and oldest brands.
Advertisement
"We hope to have people around the world try baijiu, and like baijiu," she adds.
image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/ima...-wine-and-spirit-research-1560745736299-2.jpg
Around 10.8 billion litres of baijiu (2.9 billion gallons) was consumed last year, nearly all in China, according to International Wine and Spirit Research AFP/HECTOR RETAMAL
There's just one problem: The taste.
Kinder critics say it evokes truffles or burning plastic, while less generous descriptions have included "industrial cleaning solvent" and "liquid razor blades".
Ranging from around 35 to 55 per cent alcohol, baijiu packs a searing, sickly sweet punch, an intensity that evolved to match the powerfully spicy cuisine of southwestern China, baijiu's heartland.
Many foreigners in China relate horror stories of being bombarded by baijiu toasts at banquets.
"The foreign view of baijiu is: Very spicy, like a rocket blasting to heaven," Su told AFP at Luzhou Laojiao's headquarters on the upper Yangtze in rugged Sichuan province.
ROCKET FUEL
Most Chinese people cannot imagine major celebrations without it, particularly the Chinese New Year holiday, when excessive toasting leaves revellers staggering toward brutal hangovers.
Around 10.8 billion litres of baijiu was consumed last year, nearly all in China, according to International Wine and Spirit Research.
That's more than whisky, vodka, gin, rum and tequila combined and would take an hour to slosh over Niagara Falls according to WorldBaijiuDay.com.
But baijiu has been on a roller-coaster in recent years.
A government corruption crackdown launched in 2012 hit hard: Premium brands had become the go-to gift for bribing Communist officials.
Sales fell off a "cliff", Su says.
And many younger Chinese, exposed to French wine and German beer, shun a rotgut they equate with rural regions and drunken businessmen.
Forced to adapt, manufacturers have found success with milder new varieties and brightly packaged single-serving mixed drinks.
Sales have recovered, igniting share prices.
image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/ima...he-lunar-new-year-holiday-1560745736299-4.jpg
Most Chinese people cannot imagine major celebrations without baijiu, particularly the Lunar New Year holiday AFP/HECTOR RETAMAL
In 2017 the market value of Shanghai-listed Kweichow Moutai surged past London-based Diageo, maker of Johnnie Walker whiskey and Smirnoff vodka, to become the world's most valuable distiller.
Now around 900 yuan (US$130) per share, it could become China's first 1,000-yuan stock.
Emboldened distilleries are now looking abroad, staging tastings and developing smoother, export-oriented brands, while touting centuries-old artisanal production methods.
At Luzhou Laojiao, sorghum is fermented for months in deep microbe-rich earthen pits, some in continuous use since 1573.
Staff, resembling Shaolin monks in bright yellow and red outfits and performing all work by hand, distill the fermented mash in steaming-belching wooden pot stills. The end-product is then aged, sometimes for decades, in giant clay pots in nearby caves.
CHALLENGE FOR CUSTOMERS
Water, soil, climate and other factors make baijiu from different regions as "different from each other as a whiskey is to a mescal," said Bill Isler, CEO of Ming River, an export-only brand created by Luzhou Laojiao.
But he says there is a "lot of prejudice" to overcome, before baijiu can follow once-obscure "local" spirits such as vodka and tequila and go global.
A wave of "baijiu bars" opened in China, the US, and Europe in recent years as a buzz swelled. But many have since closed.
"It's a challenge for the customers. It hasn't really caught on in the West yet," said Demon, Wise & Partners owner Paul Mathew.
The price of top brands is one hurdle. Mathew charges £12 (US$15) for a glass of Kweichow Moutai.
"It is also a very unfamiliar flavour for guests, so we need to tell them the story, how baijiu is made, why it has the characteristics it has, before it becomes more accessible," he said.
Jim Boyce, a Beijing blogger on China's booze scene who launched annual the Aug 9 "World Baijiu Day" in 2015 to raise awareness, said baijiu is hampered by how it's consumed in China: straight up, with food.
"The fact is, people, at least in North America and Europe, don't drink lukewarm straight 52 per cent alcohol, so the people promoting this tend to be really into traditional baijiu culture," he said.
image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/ima...sumed-spirit-in-the-world-1560745736299-3.jpg
China's baijiu is the most consumed spirit in the world AFP/HECTOR RETAMAL
Boyce advocates creative cocktails or novelties like baijiu ice cream, suggestions that provoke blank stares from Chinese baijiu executives seeking his advice.
"It's been frustrating, frankly," he adds.
Overseas sales are growing, however. Kweichou Moutai earned 2.89 billion yuan (US$418 million) abroad last year, up 27 per cent year-on-year. But that's a drop in the bucket of its 73.6 billion yuan overall revenue.
"We're trying our best to make the world understand, to spread the word about baijiu, just like whiskey and red wine are now known within China," Su said.
"But there is still a long road ahead."
Source: AFP
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/baijiu-china-alcohol-spirit-overseas-markets-11633706
image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
Ranging from around 35 to 55 percent alcohol, baijiu packs a searing, sickly-sweet punch, an intensity that evolved to match the powerfully spicy cuisine of southwestern China, the spirit's heartland AFP/HECTOR RETAMAL
17 Jun 2019 12:40PM
Share this content
LUZHOU: It may be China's national spirit, but for London bartender Ellie Veale it's clear from the first swig why baijiu has not caught on overseas.
After some initial fruity notes, Veale crinkles her noise as the crystal-clear booze reveals its intense, earthy essence.
"I worked on a cattle farm in Australia and this kind of aftertaste reminds me of the smell of ... cow manure, hay, and horses," she says, in the London bar Demon, Wise & Partners.
"It's not the beverage for me," she concedes.
And yet baijiu's popularity in China has propelled demand - making it the most consumed spirit in the world, and its major producers the most valuable distilleries globally.
"Baijiu belongs to China, but also the world," says Su Wanghui, information director at Luzhou Laojiao, one of the country's biggest and oldest brands.
Advertisement
"We hope to have people around the world try baijiu, and like baijiu," she adds.
image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/ima...-wine-and-spirit-research-1560745736299-2.jpg
There's just one problem: The taste.
Kinder critics say it evokes truffles or burning plastic, while less generous descriptions have included "industrial cleaning solvent" and "liquid razor blades".
Ranging from around 35 to 55 per cent alcohol, baijiu packs a searing, sickly sweet punch, an intensity that evolved to match the powerfully spicy cuisine of southwestern China, baijiu's heartland.
Many foreigners in China relate horror stories of being bombarded by baijiu toasts at banquets.
"The foreign view of baijiu is: Very spicy, like a rocket blasting to heaven," Su told AFP at Luzhou Laojiao's headquarters on the upper Yangtze in rugged Sichuan province.
ROCKET FUEL
Most Chinese people cannot imagine major celebrations without it, particularly the Chinese New Year holiday, when excessive toasting leaves revellers staggering toward brutal hangovers.
Around 10.8 billion litres of baijiu was consumed last year, nearly all in China, according to International Wine and Spirit Research.
That's more than whisky, vodka, gin, rum and tequila combined and would take an hour to slosh over Niagara Falls according to WorldBaijiuDay.com.
But baijiu has been on a roller-coaster in recent years.
A government corruption crackdown launched in 2012 hit hard: Premium brands had become the go-to gift for bribing Communist officials.
Sales fell off a "cliff", Su says.
And many younger Chinese, exposed to French wine and German beer, shun a rotgut they equate with rural regions and drunken businessmen.
Forced to adapt, manufacturers have found success with milder new varieties and brightly packaged single-serving mixed drinks.
Sales have recovered, igniting share prices.
image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/ima...he-lunar-new-year-holiday-1560745736299-4.jpg
In 2017 the market value of Shanghai-listed Kweichow Moutai surged past London-based Diageo, maker of Johnnie Walker whiskey and Smirnoff vodka, to become the world's most valuable distiller.
Now around 900 yuan (US$130) per share, it could become China's first 1,000-yuan stock.
Emboldened distilleries are now looking abroad, staging tastings and developing smoother, export-oriented brands, while touting centuries-old artisanal production methods.
At Luzhou Laojiao, sorghum is fermented for months in deep microbe-rich earthen pits, some in continuous use since 1573.
Staff, resembling Shaolin monks in bright yellow and red outfits and performing all work by hand, distill the fermented mash in steaming-belching wooden pot stills. The end-product is then aged, sometimes for decades, in giant clay pots in nearby caves.
CHALLENGE FOR CUSTOMERS
Water, soil, climate and other factors make baijiu from different regions as "different from each other as a whiskey is to a mescal," said Bill Isler, CEO of Ming River, an export-only brand created by Luzhou Laojiao.
But he says there is a "lot of prejudice" to overcome, before baijiu can follow once-obscure "local" spirits such as vodka and tequila and go global.
A wave of "baijiu bars" opened in China, the US, and Europe in recent years as a buzz swelled. But many have since closed.
"It's a challenge for the customers. It hasn't really caught on in the West yet," said Demon, Wise & Partners owner Paul Mathew.
The price of top brands is one hurdle. Mathew charges £12 (US$15) for a glass of Kweichow Moutai.
"It is also a very unfamiliar flavour for guests, so we need to tell them the story, how baijiu is made, why it has the characteristics it has, before it becomes more accessible," he said.
Jim Boyce, a Beijing blogger on China's booze scene who launched annual the Aug 9 "World Baijiu Day" in 2015 to raise awareness, said baijiu is hampered by how it's consumed in China: straight up, with food.
"The fact is, people, at least in North America and Europe, don't drink lukewarm straight 52 per cent alcohol, so the people promoting this tend to be really into traditional baijiu culture," he said.
image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/ima...sumed-spirit-in-the-world-1560745736299-3.jpg
Boyce advocates creative cocktails or novelties like baijiu ice cream, suggestions that provoke blank stares from Chinese baijiu executives seeking his advice.
"It's been frustrating, frankly," he adds.
Overseas sales are growing, however. Kweichou Moutai earned 2.89 billion yuan (US$418 million) abroad last year, up 27 per cent year-on-year. But that's a drop in the bucket of its 73.6 billion yuan overall revenue.
"We're trying our best to make the world understand, to spread the word about baijiu, just like whiskey and red wine are now known within China," Su said.
"But there is still a long road ahead."
Source: AFP
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/baijiu-china-alcohol-spirit-overseas-markets-11633706
Ah tiongs land Bagus
In China's Chongqing, high-rises buck property slowdown
More than 31 million square metres of new homes were sold last year in the city and sales of new
More than 31 million square metres of new homes were sold last year in the city and sales of new homes increased by two thirds in March. (Photo: AFP)
19 Jun 2019 12:33PM
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CHONGQING, China: In many Chinese cities, government restrictions have cooled formerly feverish property markets, but in the southwestern city of Chongqing, construction is booming and sales soaring as investors rush in.
The most audacious evidence is one of the newest additions to the city's skyline, a mega project of eight futuristic high-rises, six of which are connected by a vertiginous skybridge.
The behemoth Raffles City Chongqing looms over a bend in the Jialing river, where its dark-green waters meet the muddy currents of the Yangtze.
The 73-storey towers, part of a project built at a cost of US$4.8 billion, are unmistakeable proof that a slowdown which has seen sales slump nationwide has not taken hold in Chongqing.
The huge development, which will feature apartments, offices, a high-end shopping mall and three
The huge development, which will feature apartments, offices, a high-end shopping mall and three public transport hubs, will start opening in phases in mid-2019. (Photo: AFP)
In recent years, Beijing has banned capital flight, curbing investments in foreign projects like a luxury development built by Chinese developers in Malaysia.
And authorities have tightened regulations in the country's main cities, requiring buyers to show proof of residence before purchasing homes.
Those rules have benefitted places like Chongqing, a key logistics staging point in China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Six of the towers at Raffles City are joined together by a 300-metre 'conservatory'
Six of the towers at Raffles City are joined together by a 300-metre 'conservatory'. (Photo: AFP)
The city is China's largest market in terms of area of residential apartments sold: some 31.23 million square metres of new homes were sold in 2018, with sales of new homes jumping 64.3 per cent in March, compared to a 0.6 percent drop nationally.
And the sales came despite Chongqing's economy losing steam after years of double-digit growth, with its gross domestic product growing just 5.3 per cent in 2018 - well below the national pace.
The scale of construction has been so rapid that prices have begun to drop as supply stacks up, but the lower prices are helping attract buyers.
"Chongqing is now at a point where there is an abundance of supply and it's in a phase of market correction," said Andrew Deng, managing director for western China at property consultancy CBRE.
"It's a buyer's market and many are taking advantage of that," he added.
Prices for a 98-square-metre one-bedroom unit at Raffles City starts at 4 million yuan (US$580,000), and developers say three-quarters of the project's 1,400 residential units have been sold.
With prices at Raffles City starting at $580,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, it is well out of
With prices at Raffles City starting at US$580,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, it is well out of reach for most of the city's local residents who earn US$880 a month on average. (Photo: AFP)
Potential buyers reportedly including diplomatic missions, as well as tech and finance firms.
But for many locals, whose average monthly salary in 2016 was 6,100 yuan (US$880), properties like Raffles City represent another out-of-reach part of the cityscape.
"I suppose there will be some influence on the housing price nearby, which will probably go up," said local Wang Mingjun.
He noted that traditional porters working the docks in the area had been cleared out during the property's development
"Some people consider that it's too modern and it will damage the traditional dock culture," he added.
Source: AFP/ic
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MH17 crash probe set to name suspects
FILE PHOTO: The reconstructed wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 which crashed over Ukraine
The reconstructed wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 which crashed over Ukraine in July 2014 is seen in Gilze Rijen, Netherlands, on Oct 13, 2015. (Photo: Reuters/Michael Kooren)
19 Jun 2019 11:55AM
(Updated: 19 Jun 2019 12:53PM)
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THE HAGUE: International investigators are on Wednesday (Jun 19) expected to announce charges against several suspects in the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine five years ago in an attack which killed all 298 people on board.
The Dutch-led probe has said it will first inform families, and then hold a press conference to unveil "developments in the criminal investigation" into the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.
READ: Australia, Netherlands start talks with Russia over MH17 downing: Dutch minister
The breakthrough comes nearly a year after the investigators said that the BUK missile which hit the plane had originated from a Russian military brigade based in the southwestern city of Kursk.
The airliner travelling between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur was torn apart in mid-air on July 17, 2014 over territory in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatists.
Ukraine's deputy foreign minister Olena Zerkal told Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Tuesday that four people would be named over MH17, including senior Russian army officers.
"The names will be announced. Charges will be brought, Zerkal said, adding that a Dutch court would then "start working to consider this case".
Zerkal added that the transfer of weapons like the BUK anti-aircraft missile system "is impossible without the (Russian) top brass's permission" and said others would have been involved beyond those being charged.
'FIRST STEP TO TRIAL'
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the attack - which includes Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine - has declined to confirm that it will announce charges.
The Netherlands and Australia said last May that they formally "hold Russia responsible" for the disaster, after the findings on the origin of the missile were announced.
Of the passengers who died, 196 were Dutch and 38 were Australian.
A monument for the victims in the Dutch town of Vijfhuizen displays their names
A monument for the victims in the Dutch town of Vijfhuizen displays their names. (Photo: AFP)
Moscow has vehemently denied all involvement.
Dutch broadcaster RTL, quoting anonymous sources, said the suspects could be tried in absentia as Russia does not extradite its nationals for prosecution.
"I expect there will be important new information. That means the inquiry is advancing," Piet Ploeg, president of a Dutch victims' association who lost three family members on MH17, was quoted as saying by broadcaster NOS on Friday.
"It's the first step to a trial."
Investigative website Bellingcat said separately it will also name "individuals linked to the downing of MH17" on Wednesday. It said its reporting was "totally independent and separate from the JIT's investigation."
RUSSIAN DENIALS
The JIT said last year that MH17 was shot down by a BUK missile from the 53rd anti-aircraft brigade based in Kursk, but that they were still searching for suspects.
They showed videos and animation of the BUK launcher as part of a Russian military convoy, using video clips found on social media and then checked against Google Maps, as it travelled from Kursk to eastern Ukraine.
Investigators said they had also identified a 'fingerprint' of seven identifying features that were unique to the BUK including a military number on the launcher.
A serial number on a part of the BUK missile that was fired
A serial number on a part of the BUK missile that was fired. (Photo: AFP)
Russia insisted last year that the missile was fired by Kiev's forces, adding that it was sent to Ukraine in the Soviet era and had not been returned to Russia.
The Netherlands said it would study the information but added that details previously provided by Russia - such as the alleged presence of a Ukrainian jet near the airliner on radar images - were incorrect.
A part of the Russian-made missile that hit the plane
A part of the Russian-made missile that hit the plane. (Photo: AFP)
Ties between Moscow and The Hague were further strained last year when the Dutch expelled four alleged Russian spies for trying to hack into the Dutch-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The war in eastern Ukraine and the MH17 disaster continue to plague relations between Russia and the West.
Since 2014, some 13,000 people have been killed in the war in the east, which erupted after a popular uprising ousted Ukraine's pro-Kremlin president and Russia annexed Crimea.
Kiev and its Western backers accuse Russia of funnelling troops and arms to back the separatists. Moscow has denied the claims despite evidence to the contrary.
Source: AFP/ic
In China's Chongqing, high-rises buck property slowdown
More than 31 million square metres of new homes were sold last year in the city and sales of new
More than 31 million square metres of new homes were sold last year in the city and sales of new homes increased by two thirds in March. (Photo: AFP)
19 Jun 2019 12:33PM
Share this content
Bookmark
CHONGQING, China: In many Chinese cities, government restrictions have cooled formerly feverish property markets, but in the southwestern city of Chongqing, construction is booming and sales soaring as investors rush in.
The most audacious evidence is one of the newest additions to the city's skyline, a mega project of eight futuristic high-rises, six of which are connected by a vertiginous skybridge.
The behemoth Raffles City Chongqing looms over a bend in the Jialing river, where its dark-green waters meet the muddy currents of the Yangtze.
The 73-storey towers, part of a project built at a cost of US$4.8 billion, are unmistakeable proof that a slowdown which has seen sales slump nationwide has not taken hold in Chongqing.
The huge development, which will feature apartments, offices, a high-end shopping mall and three
The huge development, which will feature apartments, offices, a high-end shopping mall and three public transport hubs, will start opening in phases in mid-2019. (Photo: AFP)
In recent years, Beijing has banned capital flight, curbing investments in foreign projects like a luxury development built by Chinese developers in Malaysia.
And authorities have tightened regulations in the country's main cities, requiring buyers to show proof of residence before purchasing homes.
Those rules have benefitted places like Chongqing, a key logistics staging point in China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Six of the towers at Raffles City are joined together by a 300-metre 'conservatory'
Six of the towers at Raffles City are joined together by a 300-metre 'conservatory'. (Photo: AFP)
The city is China's largest market in terms of area of residential apartments sold: some 31.23 million square metres of new homes were sold in 2018, with sales of new homes jumping 64.3 per cent in March, compared to a 0.6 percent drop nationally.
And the sales came despite Chongqing's economy losing steam after years of double-digit growth, with its gross domestic product growing just 5.3 per cent in 2018 - well below the national pace.
The scale of construction has been so rapid that prices have begun to drop as supply stacks up, but the lower prices are helping attract buyers.
"Chongqing is now at a point where there is an abundance of supply and it's in a phase of market correction," said Andrew Deng, managing director for western China at property consultancy CBRE.
"It's a buyer's market and many are taking advantage of that," he added.
Prices for a 98-square-metre one-bedroom unit at Raffles City starts at 4 million yuan (US$580,000), and developers say three-quarters of the project's 1,400 residential units have been sold.
With prices at Raffles City starting at $580,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, it is well out of
With prices at Raffles City starting at US$580,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, it is well out of reach for most of the city's local residents who earn US$880 a month on average. (Photo: AFP)
Potential buyers reportedly including diplomatic missions, as well as tech and finance firms.
But for many locals, whose average monthly salary in 2016 was 6,100 yuan (US$880), properties like Raffles City represent another out-of-reach part of the cityscape.
"I suppose there will be some influence on the housing price nearby, which will probably go up," said local Wang Mingjun.
He noted that traditional porters working the docks in the area had been cleared out during the property's development
"Some people consider that it's too modern and it will damage the traditional dock culture," he added.
Source: AFP/ic
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MH17 crash probe set to name suspects
FILE PHOTO: The reconstructed wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 which crashed over Ukraine
The reconstructed wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 which crashed over Ukraine in July 2014 is seen in Gilze Rijen, Netherlands, on Oct 13, 2015. (Photo: Reuters/Michael Kooren)
19 Jun 2019 11:55AM
(Updated: 19 Jun 2019 12:53PM)
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THE HAGUE: International investigators are on Wednesday (Jun 19) expected to announce charges against several suspects in the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine five years ago in an attack which killed all 298 people on board.
The Dutch-led probe has said it will first inform families, and then hold a press conference to unveil "developments in the criminal investigation" into the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.
READ: Australia, Netherlands start talks with Russia over MH17 downing: Dutch minister
The breakthrough comes nearly a year after the investigators said that the BUK missile which hit the plane had originated from a Russian military brigade based in the southwestern city of Kursk.
The airliner travelling between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur was torn apart in mid-air on July 17, 2014 over territory in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatists.
Ukraine's deputy foreign minister Olena Zerkal told Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Tuesday that four people would be named over MH17, including senior Russian army officers.
"The names will be announced. Charges will be brought, Zerkal said, adding that a Dutch court would then "start working to consider this case".
Zerkal added that the transfer of weapons like the BUK anti-aircraft missile system "is impossible without the (Russian) top brass's permission" and said others would have been involved beyond those being charged.
'FIRST STEP TO TRIAL'
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the attack - which includes Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine - has declined to confirm that it will announce charges.
The Netherlands and Australia said last May that they formally "hold Russia responsible" for the disaster, after the findings on the origin of the missile were announced.
Of the passengers who died, 196 were Dutch and 38 were Australian.
A monument for the victims in the Dutch town of Vijfhuizen displays their names
A monument for the victims in the Dutch town of Vijfhuizen displays their names. (Photo: AFP)
Moscow has vehemently denied all involvement.
Dutch broadcaster RTL, quoting anonymous sources, said the suspects could be tried in absentia as Russia does not extradite its nationals for prosecution.
"I expect there will be important new information. That means the inquiry is advancing," Piet Ploeg, president of a Dutch victims' association who lost three family members on MH17, was quoted as saying by broadcaster NOS on Friday.
"It's the first step to a trial."
Investigative website Bellingcat said separately it will also name "individuals linked to the downing of MH17" on Wednesday. It said its reporting was "totally independent and separate from the JIT's investigation."
RUSSIAN DENIALS
The JIT said last year that MH17 was shot down by a BUK missile from the 53rd anti-aircraft brigade based in Kursk, but that they were still searching for suspects.
They showed videos and animation of the BUK launcher as part of a Russian military convoy, using video clips found on social media and then checked against Google Maps, as it travelled from Kursk to eastern Ukraine.
Investigators said they had also identified a 'fingerprint' of seven identifying features that were unique to the BUK including a military number on the launcher.
A serial number on a part of the BUK missile that was fired
A serial number on a part of the BUK missile that was fired. (Photo: AFP)
Russia insisted last year that the missile was fired by Kiev's forces, adding that it was sent to Ukraine in the Soviet era and had not been returned to Russia.
The Netherlands said it would study the information but added that details previously provided by Russia - such as the alleged presence of a Ukrainian jet near the airliner on radar images - were incorrect.
A part of the Russian-made missile that hit the plane
A part of the Russian-made missile that hit the plane. (Photo: AFP)
Ties between Moscow and The Hague were further strained last year when the Dutch expelled four alleged Russian spies for trying to hack into the Dutch-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The war in eastern Ukraine and the MH17 disaster continue to plague relations between Russia and the West.
Since 2014, some 13,000 people have been killed in the war in the east, which erupted after a popular uprising ousted Ukraine's pro-Kremlin president and Russia annexed Crimea.
Kiev and its Western backers accuse Russia of funnelling troops and arms to back the separatists. Moscow has denied the claims despite evidence to the contrary.
Source: AFP/ic
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Police allege 'professional beggars' flown from China to Melbourne CBD
UPDATED ABOUT AN HOUR AGO
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VIDEO 0:57
Police allege professional beggars targeted Melbourne's CBD.
ABC NEWS
Police have charged seven people over an alleged "professional begging" operation in which elderly Chinese people were flown to Melbourne on tourist visas to target passers-by in the CBD.
Key points:
Police said they arrested three women aged 65, 67 and 71 and two men aged 68 and 72.
Begging or gathering alms is a crime in Victoria which can carry a penalty of one year in jail.
Acting Inspector Travaglini said those charged were claiming to be homeless but officers later discovered they had access to shared housing in the CBD.
He confirmed the alleged offenders were in Australia on tourist visas and a number of them had recently transferred Australian dollars into Chinese yuan.
Inspector Travaglini said while all begging was illegal, the false claims of homelessness were "deceitful" and concerning.
PHOTO Police said those charged were offered referrals to support services.
ABC NEWS: LILY PARTLAND
"You've got your traditional style of begging if you like, that we see on Melbourne streets and the CBD and like I said, different metropolitan communities," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"Generally speaking those people are vulnerable and in need and are genuinely homeless, whereas these people have flown into the country just to make money off Melburnians' goodwill.
MORNINGS
The group of people charged had been offered referrals to homelessness support agencies through the Salvation Army, but only one had taken up the offer, Inspector Travaglini said.
Victoria Police said it was working with the Australian Border Force, Australian Federal Police, the City of Melbourne and the Salvation Army to investigate the issue.
While the seven people were charged with offences, Inspector Travaglini said they were still free to leave the country.
A video published on Reddit two weeks ago claimed to reveal an organised "syndicate" of fake beggars in the CBD.
Police today confirmed one of the women featured in the video was among the group charged this week.
Talk of the existence of professional beggars in Australia had also been circulating on Chinese social media platform WeChat.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
VIDEO 1:29
'Professional beggars' arrested in Melbourne
ABC NEWS
Mayor 'gobsmacked' by organised begging
Melbourne's Lord Mayor, Sally Capp, said she was "gobsmacked" at the suggestion that beggars were being flown in from China on tourist visas to collect money in the CBD.
"I think it's clear now that they are part of an organised system but that many of those people are really quite vulnerable themselves and they've been pulled into this situation," she said.
"We face this complexity of people at their most vulnerable but needing to be able to take strong action and the right action to actually make a difference."
Ms Capp said she hoped the operation would highlight the illegality of begging and discourage well-meaning people from giving money to beggars.
"It's a really hard message to get out to caring Melburnians to say 'please do not give to beggars'," she said.
She urged people concerned about a homeless person to direct them to specialised support services instead of offering them cash.
Meet Melbourne's rough sleepers
Some of the hundreds of people sleeping rough on Melbourne's streets talk about how they ended up there.
Salvation Army 'uneasy' about elderly beggars
It is not the first time a spotlight has fallen on professional begging in Melbourne's CBD.
A 2015 study by the Salvation Army found a small number of professional beggars were earning up to $400 a day and intimidating women and international tourists.
The organisation's Major Brendan Nottle said the investigation was sparked when police brought a number of elderly Chinese people who had been begging to the Salvation Army.
"The sight of those people actually made me feel physically sick … just the appearance of it seemed really wrong and we were deeply concerned about their welfare," he said.
'We'll be judged the same now'
Melbourne woman Chez told the ABC she had been in and out of homelessness for the past 20 years and was concerned that the alleged actions of the organised group could deepen community stigma towards homeless people.
"Once one person does one thing, we're all put in the same basket, [under the] same umbrella," she said.
"We'll be judged the same now."
PHOTO Chez and her friend Scott are concerned reports of the professional beggars could feed into negative stereotypes.
ABC NEWS: DANIELLE BONICA
Chez said she was not a fan of begging — known on the streets as "coalbiting" — and no homeless person in Melbourne needed to do it in order to survive.
"Nobody in the City of Melbourne goes hungry. No-one," she said.
"I don't believe in it [begging], I've never believed in it, I've never done it in my life."
The arrests were a topic of conversation among the Chinese community in Australia.
A post on Chinese language website Our Steps received more than 5,000 replies, most condemning the alleged actions.
"It makes sense. Air tickets to China are really cheap now. I guess it wouldn't take long for them to get their investment back," one person said.
"I need to complain here as I'm someone desperately waiting for visa for my aged parents to come here but being implicated by these people," wrote another.
Earlier this year the Bangkok Post reported that six Chinese nationals, including three in wheelchairs, were arrested for begging on Bangkok's streets.
All had entered the country on tourist visas and most had overstayed.
POSTED ABOUT 8 HOURS AGO
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SearchMore from ABC
NEWS HOME
Police allege 'professional beggars' flown from China to Melbourne CBD
UPDATED ABOUT AN HOUR AGO
Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp
VIDEO 0:57
Police allege professional beggars targeted Melbourne's CBD.
ABC NEWS
Police have charged seven people over an alleged "professional begging" operation in which elderly Chinese people were flown to Melbourne on tourist visas to target passers-by in the CBD.
Key points:
- The group have been charged with begging and possessing property suspected of being the proceeds of crime
- Police said some of the people charged had recently converted Australian dollars into Chinese Yuan
- Australian Federal Police and the Australian Border Force have joined the investigation
Police said they arrested three women aged 65, 67 and 71 and two men aged 68 and 72.
Begging or gathering alms is a crime in Victoria which can carry a penalty of one year in jail.
Acting Inspector Travaglini said those charged were claiming to be homeless but officers later discovered they had access to shared housing in the CBD.
He confirmed the alleged offenders were in Australia on tourist visas and a number of them had recently transferred Australian dollars into Chinese yuan.
Inspector Travaglini said while all begging was illegal, the false claims of homelessness were "deceitful" and concerning.
PHOTO Police said those charged were offered referrals to support services.
ABC NEWS: LILY PARTLAND
"You've got your traditional style of begging if you like, that we see on Melbourne streets and the CBD and like I said, different metropolitan communities," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"Generally speaking those people are vulnerable and in need and are genuinely homeless, whereas these people have flown into the country just to make money off Melburnians' goodwill.
"We're a generous bunch but we've got a zero tolerance to that sort of behaviour."
'Please do not give to beggars': Lord Mayor Sally Capp tells ABC Melbourne's Ali Moore there are other ways of helpingMORNINGS
The group of people charged had been offered referrals to homelessness support agencies through the Salvation Army, but only one had taken up the offer, Inspector Travaglini said.
Victoria Police said it was working with the Australian Border Force, Australian Federal Police, the City of Melbourne and the Salvation Army to investigate the issue.
While the seven people were charged with offences, Inspector Travaglini said they were still free to leave the country.
A video published on Reddit two weeks ago claimed to reveal an organised "syndicate" of fake beggars in the CBD.
Police today confirmed one of the women featured in the video was among the group charged this week.
Talk of the existence of professional beggars in Australia had also been circulating on Chinese social media platform WeChat.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
VIDEO 1:29
'Professional beggars' arrested in Melbourne
ABC NEWS
Mayor 'gobsmacked' by organised begging
Melbourne's Lord Mayor, Sally Capp, said she was "gobsmacked" at the suggestion that beggars were being flown in from China on tourist visas to collect money in the CBD.
"I think it's clear now that they are part of an organised system but that many of those people are really quite vulnerable themselves and they've been pulled into this situation," she said.
"We face this complexity of people at their most vulnerable but needing to be able to take strong action and the right action to actually make a difference."
Ms Capp said she hoped the operation would highlight the illegality of begging and discourage well-meaning people from giving money to beggars.
"It's a really hard message to get out to caring Melburnians to say 'please do not give to beggars'," she said.
She urged people concerned about a homeless person to direct them to specialised support services instead of offering them cash.
Meet Melbourne's rough sleepers
Some of the hundreds of people sleeping rough on Melbourne's streets talk about how they ended up there.
Salvation Army 'uneasy' about elderly beggars
It is not the first time a spotlight has fallen on professional begging in Melbourne's CBD.
A 2015 study by the Salvation Army found a small number of professional beggars were earning up to $400 a day and intimidating women and international tourists.
The organisation's Major Brendan Nottle said the investigation was sparked when police brought a number of elderly Chinese people who had been begging to the Salvation Army.
"The sight of those people actually made me feel physically sick … just the appearance of it seemed really wrong and we were deeply concerned about their welfare," he said.
"How could you make enough money from begging that would justify an air fare and accommodation and so forth?
"We're really confused by the story but at the same time, just feeling really uneasy about seeing elderly people on the streets begging."'We'll be judged the same now'
Melbourne woman Chez told the ABC she had been in and out of homelessness for the past 20 years and was concerned that the alleged actions of the organised group could deepen community stigma towards homeless people.
"Once one person does one thing, we're all put in the same basket, [under the] same umbrella," she said.
"We'll be judged the same now."
PHOTO Chez and her friend Scott are concerned reports of the professional beggars could feed into negative stereotypes.
ABC NEWS: DANIELLE BONICA
Chez said she was not a fan of begging — known on the streets as "coalbiting" — and no homeless person in Melbourne needed to do it in order to survive.
"Nobody in the City of Melbourne goes hungry. No-one," she said.
"I don't believe in it [begging], I've never believed in it, I've never done it in my life."
The arrests were a topic of conversation among the Chinese community in Australia.
A post on Chinese language website Our Steps received more than 5,000 replies, most condemning the alleged actions.
"It makes sense. Air tickets to China are really cheap now. I guess it wouldn't take long for them to get their investment back," one person said.
"I need to complain here as I'm someone desperately waiting for visa for my aged parents to come here but being implicated by these people," wrote another.
Earlier this year the Bangkok Post reported that six Chinese nationals, including three in wheelchairs, were arrested for begging on Bangkok's streets.
All had entered the country on tourist visas and most had overstayed.
POSTED ABOUT 8 HOURS AGO
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The
There would be nobody left in china.
Last edited:
Despite all the horror stories coming out from China, you can bet that the Malaysian Chinese will find someway to support it.
If you are in any chatgroup or forum with Malaysian Chinese inside, you will be bombarded with news and videos of how great is China and all things Chinese.
They are call cursing Trump and now support the CCP against the Hong Kong protestors-ignoring the fact that these Hongki's are even more Chinese than them.
If you are in any chatgroup or forum with Malaysian Chinese inside, you will be bombarded with news and videos of how great is China and all things Chinese.
They are call cursing Trump and now support the CCP against the Hong Kong protestors-ignoring the fact that these Hongki's are even more Chinese than them.
I am not surprised. Alot of m&ds are fuckeins and Hakkas and look at the Taiwanese supporting ah tiong land and u get the gist. Alot of m&ds speak Cantonese but they are not Cantos...tat why I always called these scum the enemy within
No worries! China has a lot to spare. I worry more for countries like Malaysia Indonesia and the Philippines.
Commentary: The real reasons for China’s rise
The rise of China widely attributed to its state capitalism, whereby the government, endowed with huge assets, can pursue a wide-ranging industrial policy and intervene to mitigate risks, says Zhang Jun.
China's national flag is seen behind hostesses waiting for delegates outside the Great Hall of
China's national flag is seen behind hostesses waiting for delegates outside the Great Hall of the People during the second plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China March 8, 2017. (Photo: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/Files)
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SHANGHAI: China’s rapid economic rise in recent decades has astonished the world. Yet the reasons behind the country’s success are often misunderstood and misinterpreted.
The rise of China widely attributed to its state capitalism, whereby the government, endowed with huge assets, can pursue a wide-ranging industrial policy and intervene to mitigate risks.
READ: The incredible resurrection of state capitalism in China, a commentary
Accordingly, China owes its success, first and foremost, to the government’s “control” over the entire economy. This explanation is fundamentally wrong.
China keeps tight control over any negative headlines during party gatherings
China keeps tight control over any negative headlines during party gatherings (Photo: AFP/WANG ZHAO)
ECONOMIC LIBERALISATION AND STRUCTURAL REFORMS
True, China has benefited from having a government with the capacity to implement comprehensive and complementary policies efficiently.
With leaders not subject to the short election cycles that characterise Western democracies, China’s central leadership can engage in visionary and comprehensive long-term planning, exemplified by its Five-Year Plans.
Moreover, the Chinese state’s power has buttressed its implementation capacity, which dwarfs that of most developing and transitional economies.
A strong state – and the social and political stability that it underpins – has been essential to enable China’s rapid advancement in areas like education, health care, infrastructure, and research and development.
READ: In the eye of a trade war storm but China still takes the long view, a commentary
It is telling, however, that China is using its long-term planning and robust implementation capacity not to entrench state capitalism, but rather to advance economic liberalisation and structural reform.
It is this long-term strategy – which has remained unswerving, despite some stumbles and short-term deviations – that lies at the heart of the country’s decades-long run of rapid economic growth.
Interestingly, elements of this strategy come directly from the advanced countries.
Over the last 40 years of diplomatic normalisation with the United States, American-style capitalism has gained a solid foothold in China, not least among the country’s intellectual and business elites.
China's President Xi Jinping vowed to press ahead with economic reforms but made clear that
China's President Xi Jinping vowed to press ahead with economic reforms but made clear that Beijing will not deviate from its one-party system or take orders from any other country (Photo: AFP/WANG Zhao)
So, while China’s government has always placed a high priority on stability, it has also worked to apply global best practices in many areas, including corporate governance, finance, and macroeconomic management.
Yet this process of economic liberalisation and structural reform is also uniquely Chinese, insofar as it has emphasised local-level competition and experimentation, which in turn have supported bottom-up institutional innovation.
The result is a kind of de facto fiscal federalism – and a powerful driver of economic transformation.
THE RISE OF TECH GIANTS
The fruits of this approach are irrefutable. In the last decade, a number of Chinese private financial and tech giants have emerged that, unlike their state-run counterparts, have managed to establish themselves as global leaders in innovation.
The recently released Fortune Global 500 list for 2019 – which ranks firms by operating revenues – includes 129 Chinese companies, compared to 121 from the US.
Among China’s Fortune 500 firms are e-commerce giants Alibaba, JD.com, and Tencent, the company behind the popular mobile app WeChat.
READ: How China the copycat became a tech giant to rival the US
A picture illustration shows a WeChat app icon in Beijing
A picture illustration shows a WeChat app icon in Beijing. (Photo: REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/Files)
The tech giant Huawei managed to rise 11 places since last year, despite US President Donald Trump’s campaign against the company. And the nine-year-old Xiaomi, a smartphone manufacturer, made history as the youngest firm ever to make the list.
READ: Can China's superstar tech giants win over reluctant US customers? A commentary
The spectacular rise of these companies – and the prosperity and competitiveness that they have helped to foster – was not enabled primarily by top-down industrial policies, but by economic liberalisation and the bottom-up innovation it has facilitated.
At a time when the US is accusing China of using state-capitalist tools – such as subsidies for domestic companies and entry barriers for foreign firms – to gain an unfair advantage, it is worth highlighting the extent to which the country does not owe its economic success to such policies.
GOVERNANCE REFORMS
This is not to suggest that China’s own leaders should not also take note of its unfinished reform programmes.
After three decades of double-digit GDP growth rates, a slowdown was inevitable.
But, even as China’s central government accepts some decline in annual growth, it must be alert and remain committed to addressing the structural factors that are compounding the trend, such as the rising cost of finance and declining return on capital.
Meanwhile, China’s government must continue to encourage private entrepreneurship and innovation (and has already committed to doing so), while reinforcing its system of competitive quasi-federalism.
China's economy expanded at its slowest pace for nine years in the third quarter, fuelling
China's economy expanded at its slowest pace for nine years in the third quarter of 2018. (Photo: AFP/Johannes EISELE)
The rise of China widely attributed to its state capitalism, whereby the government, endowed with huge assets, can pursue a wide-ranging industrial policy and intervene to mitigate risks, says Zhang Jun.
China's national flag is seen behind hostesses waiting for delegates outside the Great Hall of
China's national flag is seen behind hostesses waiting for delegates outside the Great Hall of the People during the second plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China March 8, 2017. (Photo: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/Files)
Share this content
Bookmark
SHANGHAI: China’s rapid economic rise in recent decades has astonished the world. Yet the reasons behind the country’s success are often misunderstood and misinterpreted.
The rise of China widely attributed to its state capitalism, whereby the government, endowed with huge assets, can pursue a wide-ranging industrial policy and intervene to mitigate risks.
READ: The incredible resurrection of state capitalism in China, a commentary
Accordingly, China owes its success, first and foremost, to the government’s “control” over the entire economy. This explanation is fundamentally wrong.
China keeps tight control over any negative headlines during party gatherings
China keeps tight control over any negative headlines during party gatherings (Photo: AFP/WANG ZHAO)
ECONOMIC LIBERALISATION AND STRUCTURAL REFORMS
True, China has benefited from having a government with the capacity to implement comprehensive and complementary policies efficiently.
With leaders not subject to the short election cycles that characterise Western democracies, China’s central leadership can engage in visionary and comprehensive long-term planning, exemplified by its Five-Year Plans.
Moreover, the Chinese state’s power has buttressed its implementation capacity, which dwarfs that of most developing and transitional economies.
A strong state – and the social and political stability that it underpins – has been essential to enable China’s rapid advancement in areas like education, health care, infrastructure, and research and development.
READ: In the eye of a trade war storm but China still takes the long view, a commentary
It is telling, however, that China is using its long-term planning and robust implementation capacity not to entrench state capitalism, but rather to advance economic liberalisation and structural reform.
It is this long-term strategy – which has remained unswerving, despite some stumbles and short-term deviations – that lies at the heart of the country’s decades-long run of rapid economic growth.
Interestingly, elements of this strategy come directly from the advanced countries.
Over the last 40 years of diplomatic normalisation with the United States, American-style capitalism has gained a solid foothold in China, not least among the country’s intellectual and business elites.
China's President Xi Jinping vowed to press ahead with economic reforms but made clear that
China's President Xi Jinping vowed to press ahead with economic reforms but made clear that Beijing will not deviate from its one-party system or take orders from any other country (Photo: AFP/WANG Zhao)
So, while China’s government has always placed a high priority on stability, it has also worked to apply global best practices in many areas, including corporate governance, finance, and macroeconomic management.
Yet this process of economic liberalisation and structural reform is also uniquely Chinese, insofar as it has emphasised local-level competition and experimentation, which in turn have supported bottom-up institutional innovation.
The result is a kind of de facto fiscal federalism – and a powerful driver of economic transformation.
THE RISE OF TECH GIANTS
The fruits of this approach are irrefutable. In the last decade, a number of Chinese private financial and tech giants have emerged that, unlike their state-run counterparts, have managed to establish themselves as global leaders in innovation.
The recently released Fortune Global 500 list for 2019 – which ranks firms by operating revenues – includes 129 Chinese companies, compared to 121 from the US.
Among China’s Fortune 500 firms are e-commerce giants Alibaba, JD.com, and Tencent, the company behind the popular mobile app WeChat.
READ: How China the copycat became a tech giant to rival the US
A picture illustration shows a WeChat app icon in Beijing
A picture illustration shows a WeChat app icon in Beijing. (Photo: REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/Files)
The tech giant Huawei managed to rise 11 places since last year, despite US President Donald Trump’s campaign against the company. And the nine-year-old Xiaomi, a smartphone manufacturer, made history as the youngest firm ever to make the list.
READ: Can China's superstar tech giants win over reluctant US customers? A commentary
The spectacular rise of these companies – and the prosperity and competitiveness that they have helped to foster – was not enabled primarily by top-down industrial policies, but by economic liberalisation and the bottom-up innovation it has facilitated.
At a time when the US is accusing China of using state-capitalist tools – such as subsidies for domestic companies and entry barriers for foreign firms – to gain an unfair advantage, it is worth highlighting the extent to which the country does not owe its economic success to such policies.
GOVERNANCE REFORMS
This is not to suggest that China’s own leaders should not also take note of its unfinished reform programmes.
After three decades of double-digit GDP growth rates, a slowdown was inevitable.
But, even as China’s central government accepts some decline in annual growth, it must be alert and remain committed to addressing the structural factors that are compounding the trend, such as the rising cost of finance and declining return on capital.
Meanwhile, China’s government must continue to encourage private entrepreneurship and innovation (and has already committed to doing so), while reinforcing its system of competitive quasi-federalism.
China's economy expanded at its slowest pace for nine years in the third quarter, fuelling
China's economy expanded at its slowest pace for nine years in the third quarter of 2018. (Photo: AFP/Johannes EISELE)
China's 'participatory authoritarianism' plans to boot out bad personal behaviour in a few clicks
PHOTO Chinese authorities are planning to get serious on combatting "uncivilised" behaviours such as public spitting. PXHERE
Getting cut in line, stepping on people's fresh spit, or a dog's fresh droppings aren't exactly situations that are going to make your day.
Within some Australian jurisdictions, those responsible for these urban living no-nos may be met with fines, or a strong word from a disgruntled fellow citizen watching on.
But in China's national capital region — a municipal council incorporating the cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Heibei known as Jing-Jin-Ji — authorities have taken things to a whole new level, as they are giving residents a chance to vote on what "civilised" and "uncivilised" behaviours the city should encourage and punish.
Currently, an online survey is open to all residents wishing to log their views on these behaviours, and doing soinvolves explaining why they support the council's move (there is no survey section where citizens can lodge a dissenting view).
According to the survey, some forms of "uncivilised behaviour"include distracting public square dancing, engaging in "feudal superstition", and donning the "Beijing bikini" — a habit of predominantly older men who roll their shirts up exposing their midriff to keep cool on hot days.
For those looking to be "civilised", donating blood, returning dropped money or discouraging smokers in public are some of the deeds that could give a citizen a credibility boost in the eyes of municipal authorities.
'Socialism with Chinese characteristics'
PHOTO President Xi has sought to reinvigorate the Chinese Communist Party's political rhetoric among ordinary Chinese. AP: NICOLAS ASFOURI, POOL
The survey joins a list of other initiatives from Chinese cities — part of Beijing's ambitious Social Credit System — that have sought to punish "uncivilised" behaviours in a variety of ways ranging from public shaming to fines.
In the eastern city of Jinan for example, efforts to outlaw the Beijing bikini involve verbal warnings and public naming and shaming.
While it might be notably ironic that some Chinese citizens are able to vote on decisions that may go on to punish their peers, Beatriz Carrillo Garcia — a Chinese social development expert at the University of Sydney — told the ABC that surveys like Beijing's were not anything new.
In April, this was foreshadowed in a speech from by Mr Xi.
"In order to conscientiously implement the decision-making arrangements of the central and municipal committees, vigorously promote the core values of socialism, and constantly improve the quality of civilized citizens in the capital and the level of civilized city construction, we are now conducting a questionnaire survey," it read.
Delia Lin a senior lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute, told the ABC that the survey is emblematic of the Chinese Government's desire to use democratic characteristics to prove that Communism is a better alternative to democracy.
'Every behaviour says something about who a person is'
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Video 0:58
Could China pull off a Social Credit System by 2020?
The World
While the survey may appear to give those in and around Beijing agency, Dr Lin said that the method is a cunning form of authoritarian social control.
"Framing social problems with the discourse of [civility] has been so effective that it's shaped how people view social problems and their cures," she said.
She explained that the survey speaks to a governing process where ordinary citizens are authors of the punishment they may one day face.
While some of the behaviours officially listed by Jing-Jin-Ji authorities are not too far from behaviours considered a breach of Australian social and legal rules, the difference lies in how the state attempts to modify them.
For the time being, Jing-Jin-Ji's behavioural survey is open to the public and the authority's plan to the responses will be implemented in coming months.
While the survey may touch on broader existential and political concerns about China's urbanisation and its political system, it also may just highlight our desire to be free from bodily fluids in public.
Posted Tue at 3:34am
Getting cut in line, stepping on people's fresh spit, or a dog's fresh droppings aren't exactly situations that are going to make your day.
Within some Australian jurisdictions, those responsible for these urban living no-nos may be met with fines, or a strong word from a disgruntled fellow citizen watching on.
But in China's national capital region — a municipal council incorporating the cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Heibei known as Jing-Jin-Ji — authorities have taken things to a whole new level, as they are giving residents a chance to vote on what "civilised" and "uncivilised" behaviours the city should encourage and punish.
Currently, an online survey is open to all residents wishing to log their views on these behaviours, and doing soinvolves explaining why they support the council's move (there is no survey section where citizens can lodge a dissenting view).
According to the survey, some forms of "uncivilised behaviour"include distracting public square dancing, engaging in "feudal superstition", and donning the "Beijing bikini" — a habit of predominantly older men who roll their shirts up exposing their midriff to keep cool on hot days.
For those looking to be "civilised", donating blood, returning dropped money or discouraging smokers in public are some of the deeds that could give a citizen a credibility boost in the eyes of municipal authorities.
'Socialism with Chinese characteristics'
The survey joins a list of other initiatives from Chinese cities — part of Beijing's ambitious Social Credit System — that have sought to punish "uncivilised" behaviours in a variety of ways ranging from public shaming to fines.
In the eastern city of Jinan for example, efforts to outlaw the Beijing bikini involve verbal warnings and public naming and shaming.
While it might be notably ironic that some Chinese citizens are able to vote on decisions that may go on to punish their peers, Beatriz Carrillo Garcia — a Chinese social development expert at the University of Sydney — told the ABC that surveys like Beijing's were not anything new.
"The Chinese have been running social surveys for some time now, mainly to establish what people think are the key social issues," she said.
In recent years, forging new, creative ways to engage with the Chinese people has been a concern of the country's ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).In April, this was foreshadowed in a speech from by Mr Xi.
"In the new era, Chinese youth should establish their belief in Marxism, faith in socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the confidence of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the Chinese dream," he said.
Even within the Jing-Jin-Ji's municipal survey, this ethos is also reflected."In order to conscientiously implement the decision-making arrangements of the central and municipal committees, vigorously promote the core values of socialism, and constantly improve the quality of civilized citizens in the capital and the level of civilized city construction, we are now conducting a questionnaire survey," it read.
Delia Lin a senior lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute, told the ABC that the survey is emblematic of the Chinese Government's desire to use democratic characteristics to prove that Communism is a better alternative to democracy.
"Even though democracy is listed as the CCP's core social values, they don't really recognise democracy as a good system for human society," Dr Lin said.
"Under President Xi Jinping, he wants to create a new political system that is going to work better than a democratic system … [the state] wants to say they're better than democracy."'Every behaviour says something about who a person is'
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Video 0:58
Could China pull off a Social Credit System by 2020?
The World
While the survey may appear to give those in and around Beijing agency, Dr Lin said that the method is a cunning form of authoritarian social control.
"Framing social problems with the discourse of [civility] has been so effective that it's shaped how people view social problems and their cures," she said.
She explained that the survey speaks to a governing process where ordinary citizens are authors of the punishment they may one day face.
"[This is] what I like to call 'participatory authoritarianism," she said.
"[President] Xi has taken it to an ideological level, in the sense that socialist core values are everywhere in China — it's something everyone needs to be conscious of."While some of the behaviours officially listed by Jing-Jin-Ji authorities are not too far from behaviours considered a breach of Australian social and legal rules, the difference lies in how the state attempts to modify them.
"Embedded in Confucian governing is shame, which is a ubiquitous feeling around the world, but in China it's considered a good thing," Dr Lin said.
She said this manifests in a specific cultural attitude, where people's mistakes are seen as a direct value judgement of their worth in society, rather than simply being seen as a small misstep.For the time being, Jing-Jin-Ji's behavioural survey is open to the public and the authority's plan to the responses will be implemented in coming months.
While the survey may touch on broader existential and political concerns about China's urbanisation and its political system, it also may just highlight our desire to be free from bodily fluids in public.
"Please hurry up, I can't stand people spitting everywhere while walking," one Weibo user wrote.
The ABC contacted the relevant municipal authorities for comment but they were unable to reply by the time of publication.Posted Tue at 3:34am
The coming crisis of China’s one-party regime | The Strategist
On 1 October, to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, President Xi Jinping will deliver a speech that unreservedly celebrates the Chinese Communist Party’s record since 1949. But, despite Xi’s apparent confidence and optimism, the CCP’s rank and file are increasingly concerned about the regime’s future prospects—with good reason.
In 2012, when Xi took the reins of the CCP, he promised that the party would strive to deliver great successes in advance of two upcoming centennials, marking the founding of the CCP in 1921 and the PRC in 1949. But a persistent economic slowdown and rising tensions with the United States will likely sour the CCP’s mood during the 2021 celebrations. And the one-party regime may not even survive until 2049.
While there’s technically no time limit on dictatorship, the CCP is approaching the longevity frontier for one-party regimes. Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party retained power for 71 years (1929–2000); the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ruled for 74 years (1917–1991); and Taiwan’s Kuomintang held on for 73 years (from 1927 to 1949 on the mainland and from 1949 to 2000 in Taiwan). The North Korean regime, a Stalinist family dynasty that has ruled for 71 years, is China’s only contemporary competition.
But historical patterns aren’t the only reason the CCP has to be worried. The conditions that enabled the regime to recover from the self-inflicted disasters of Maoism and to prosper over the past four decades have largely been replaced by a less favourable—and in some senses more hostile—environment.
The greatest threat to the party’s long-term survival lies in the unfolding cold war with the US. During most of the post-Mao era, China’s leaders kept a low profile on the international stage, painstakingly avoiding conflict while building strength at home. But by 2010, China had become an economic powerhouse, pursuing an increasingly muscular foreign policy. That drew the ire of the US, which began gradually to shift from a policy of engagement towards the confrontational approach evident today.
With its superior military capabilities, technology, economic efficiency and alliance networks (which remain robust, despite President Donald Trump’s destructive leadership), the US is far more likely to prevail in the Sino-American cold war than China. Though an American victory could be Pyrrhic, it would more than likely seal the CCP’s fate.
The party also faces strong economic headwinds. The so-called Chinese miracle was fuelled by a large and youthful labour force, rapid urbanisation, large-scale infrastructure investment, market liberalisation and globalisation—all factors that have either diminished or disappeared.
Radical reforms—in particular, the privatisation of inefficient state-owned enterprises and the end of neo-mercantilist trading practices—could sustain growth. But, despite paying lip service to further market reforms, the CCP has been reluctant to implement them, instead clinging to policies that favour state-owned entities at the expense of private entrepreneurs. Because the state-owned sector forms the economic foundation of one-party rule, the prospect that CCP leaders will suddenly embrace radical economic reform is dim.
Domestic political trends are similarly worrying. Under Xi, the CCP has abandoned the pragmatism, ideological flexibility and collective leadership that served it so well in the past. With the party’s neo-Maoist turn—including strict ideological conformity, rigid organisational discipline and fear-based strongman rule—the risks of catastrophic policy mistakes are rising.
To be sure, the CCP will not go down without a fight. As its grip on power weakens, it will probably attempt to stoke nationalism among its supporters, while intensifying repression of its opponents.
But this strategy cannot save China’s one-party regime. While nationalism may boost support for the CCP in the short term, its energy will eventually dissipate, especially if the party fails to deliver continued improvement in living standards. And a regime that is dependent on coercion and violence will pay dearly in the form of depressed economic activity, rising popular resistance, escalating security costs and international isolation.
This is hardly the uplifting picture Xi will present to the Chinese people on 1 October. But no amount of nationalist posturing can change the fact that the unravelling of the CCP’s rule appears closer than at any time since the end of the Mao era.
Author
Minxin Pei is a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. This article is presented in partnership with Project Syndicate © 2019. Image: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images.
Tags
On 1 October, to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, President Xi Jinping will deliver a speech that unreservedly celebrates the Chinese Communist Party’s record since 1949. But, despite Xi’s apparent confidence and optimism, the CCP’s rank and file are increasingly concerned about the regime’s future prospects—with good reason.
In 2012, when Xi took the reins of the CCP, he promised that the party would strive to deliver great successes in advance of two upcoming centennials, marking the founding of the CCP in 1921 and the PRC in 1949. But a persistent economic slowdown and rising tensions with the United States will likely sour the CCP’s mood during the 2021 celebrations. And the one-party regime may not even survive until 2049.
While there’s technically no time limit on dictatorship, the CCP is approaching the longevity frontier for one-party regimes. Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party retained power for 71 years (1929–2000); the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ruled for 74 years (1917–1991); and Taiwan’s Kuomintang held on for 73 years (from 1927 to 1949 on the mainland and from 1949 to 2000 in Taiwan). The North Korean regime, a Stalinist family dynasty that has ruled for 71 years, is China’s only contemporary competition.
But historical patterns aren’t the only reason the CCP has to be worried. The conditions that enabled the regime to recover from the self-inflicted disasters of Maoism and to prosper over the past four decades have largely been replaced by a less favourable—and in some senses more hostile—environment.
The greatest threat to the party’s long-term survival lies in the unfolding cold war with the US. During most of the post-Mao era, China’s leaders kept a low profile on the international stage, painstakingly avoiding conflict while building strength at home. But by 2010, China had become an economic powerhouse, pursuing an increasingly muscular foreign policy. That drew the ire of the US, which began gradually to shift from a policy of engagement towards the confrontational approach evident today.
With its superior military capabilities, technology, economic efficiency and alliance networks (which remain robust, despite President Donald Trump’s destructive leadership), the US is far more likely to prevail in the Sino-American cold war than China. Though an American victory could be Pyrrhic, it would more than likely seal the CCP’s fate.
The party also faces strong economic headwinds. The so-called Chinese miracle was fuelled by a large and youthful labour force, rapid urbanisation, large-scale infrastructure investment, market liberalisation and globalisation—all factors that have either diminished or disappeared.
Radical reforms—in particular, the privatisation of inefficient state-owned enterprises and the end of neo-mercantilist trading practices—could sustain growth. But, despite paying lip service to further market reforms, the CCP has been reluctant to implement them, instead clinging to policies that favour state-owned entities at the expense of private entrepreneurs. Because the state-owned sector forms the economic foundation of one-party rule, the prospect that CCP leaders will suddenly embrace radical economic reform is dim.
Domestic political trends are similarly worrying. Under Xi, the CCP has abandoned the pragmatism, ideological flexibility and collective leadership that served it so well in the past. With the party’s neo-Maoist turn—including strict ideological conformity, rigid organisational discipline and fear-based strongman rule—the risks of catastrophic policy mistakes are rising.
To be sure, the CCP will not go down without a fight. As its grip on power weakens, it will probably attempt to stoke nationalism among its supporters, while intensifying repression of its opponents.
But this strategy cannot save China’s one-party regime. While nationalism may boost support for the CCP in the short term, its energy will eventually dissipate, especially if the party fails to deliver continued improvement in living standards. And a regime that is dependent on coercion and violence will pay dearly in the form of depressed economic activity, rising popular resistance, escalating security costs and international isolation.
This is hardly the uplifting picture Xi will present to the Chinese people on 1 October. But no amount of nationalist posturing can change the fact that the unravelling of the CCP’s rule appears closer than at any time since the end of the Mao era.
Author
Minxin Pei is a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. This article is presented in partnership with Project Syndicate © 2019. Image: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images.
Tags
Commentary: China lifted 850 million people out of poverty but now faces bigger challenges
China created the world's largest middle class by pursuing industrialisation, liberalising the private sector, welcoming foreign investment and embracing global trade, says an expert.
File photo of Chinese workers. (Photo: AFP)Share this content
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ANN ARBOR, Michigan: This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to poverty reduction.
In the Nobel Committee’s view, the economists’ use of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to test whether specific interventions work – a method adapted from medical sciences – has “considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty”.
READ: Indian-born Nobel prize-winner comes from 'family of economists'
But while some celebrate the recognition of a new way to tackle an old problem, others doubt that “dividing this issue into smaller, more manageable questions”, as the Nobel Committee puts it, can really reduce poverty on a large scale.
CHINA’S SUCCESS IN ERADICATING POVERTY
Conspicuously missing from this debate is the experience of China, which has accounted for more than 70 per cent of global poverty reduction since the 1980s, the most successful case in modern history.
Over the last four decades, more than 850 million people in China have escaped poverty. As Peking University’s Yao Yang notes, this had “nothing to do with RCTs”, nor did it involve giving handouts to the poor.
Instead, it was the result of rapid national development.
Since Deng Xiaoping launched “reform and opening up” in 1978, China has pursued export-driven industrialisation, liberalised the private sector, welcomed foreign investment, and embraced global trade. As millions of farmers moved from fields to factories, they earned wages, saved, and sent their children to school.
A float carrying a portrait of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping moves through Tiananmen Square during the 70th founding anniversary of People's Republic of China, Oct 1, 2019. (Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Peter)
This, together with a surge in private entrepreneurship, helped to create the world’s largest middle class.
INEQUALITY AND CORRUPTION
What Yao fails to acknowledge, however, is that China’s impressive record of poverty reduction has been accompanied by two serious problems: Inequality and corruption.
When President Xi Jinping took office in 2012, China’s Gini coefficient (the standard measure of income inequality, with zero representing maximum equality and one representing maximum inequality) stood at 0.47, higher than in the United Kingdom or the United States.
READ: Commentary: China’s rise this time is different
A Chinese household survey reported an even higher coefficient of 0.61, nearly on par with South Africa.
A rising tide lifts many boats, but some rise far higher than others. So, while millions of Chinese were lifted just above the poverty threshold, a few individuals were catapulted to the heights of opulence.
The skyline of Pudong, the financial district of Shanghai, is pictured on Apr 7, 2018. (Photo: AFP/Johannes Eisele)
This was not only a matter of luck or even entrepreneurial spirit. Although some of China’s wealthy amassed their fortunes through hard work and risk-taking, plenty of others did so by cosying up to government officials willing to trade lucrative privileges for bribes.
Recognising the risks posed by high inequality and pervasive cronyism, Xi has launched two simultaneous campaigns. One vows to eliminate rural poverty by 2020, using “targeted” poverty alleviation measures such as job placements and welfare subsidies.
READ: Commentary: Has China given up on pursuing growth?
Another aims to root out corruption. Under Xi’s leadership, more than 1.5 million officials, including some of the most senior members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), have been disciplined.
LESSONS FROM CHINA
China’s experience holds important lessons for development economics.
For starters, while RCTs and the targeted programmes they evaluate can play a role in reducing poverty, the most powerful means of doing so at scale is economic growth. Oxford’s Lant Pritchett found that no country has reached the point where more than 75 per cent of all households lived on more than US$5.50 per day until median income exceeded US$1,045 annually.
READ: Commentary: The invisibility of the poor in Crazy Rich Hong Kong
Given this, anyone interested in large-scale poverty reduction should seek to understand what drives sustained economic growth, by studying history, political economy, international trade, and systems thinking (connecting parts of a development strategy).
If RCTs are equivalent to “plumbing,” as Duflo and Banerjee describe, then systems thinking is the work of mapping out and overhauling the entire drainage network.
Simply put, we cannot lose sight of the big picture.
File photo of rural residents in China doing their washing. China's boom has seen it rise to become the world's second-largest economy, but inequality remains stark. (Photo: AFP / MARK RALSTON)
The second lesson from China’s development experience is that growth may not always be equitable. Welfare programmes and the delivery of public services like education and healthcare are needed to distribute the gains from economic growth.
Here, the work of this year’s Nobel laureates can help, with RCTs being used to assess the performance of targeted interventions.
READ: Commentary: Chinese leaders must convince others of China’s peaceful rise
Finally, adaptive governance is essential. Contrary to Yao’s argument that China owes its economic success to following “the advice of classical economists”, the country has actually defied many standard policy prescriptions – most notably, the belief that Western-style democratisation is necessary for development.
That does not mean that authoritarian rule enabled Chinese prosperity, as many believe. Under Mao, China suffered disastrous outcomes, including mass famine during the Great Leap Forward.
China created the world's largest middle class by pursuing industrialisation, liberalising the private sector, welcoming foreign investment and embracing global trade, says an expert.
File photo of Chinese workers. (Photo: AFP)Share this content
Bookmark
ANN ARBOR, Michigan: This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to poverty reduction.
In the Nobel Committee’s view, the economists’ use of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to test whether specific interventions work – a method adapted from medical sciences – has “considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty”.
READ: Indian-born Nobel prize-winner comes from 'family of economists'
But while some celebrate the recognition of a new way to tackle an old problem, others doubt that “dividing this issue into smaller, more manageable questions”, as the Nobel Committee puts it, can really reduce poverty on a large scale.
CHINA’S SUCCESS IN ERADICATING POVERTY
Conspicuously missing from this debate is the experience of China, which has accounted for more than 70 per cent of global poverty reduction since the 1980s, the most successful case in modern history.
Over the last four decades, more than 850 million people in China have escaped poverty. As Peking University’s Yao Yang notes, this had “nothing to do with RCTs”, nor did it involve giving handouts to the poor.
Instead, it was the result of rapid national development.
Since Deng Xiaoping launched “reform and opening up” in 1978, China has pursued export-driven industrialisation, liberalised the private sector, welcomed foreign investment, and embraced global trade. As millions of farmers moved from fields to factories, they earned wages, saved, and sent their children to school.
A float carrying a portrait of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping moves through Tiananmen Square during the 70th founding anniversary of People's Republic of China, Oct 1, 2019. (Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Peter)
This, together with a surge in private entrepreneurship, helped to create the world’s largest middle class.
INEQUALITY AND CORRUPTION
What Yao fails to acknowledge, however, is that China’s impressive record of poverty reduction has been accompanied by two serious problems: Inequality and corruption.
When President Xi Jinping took office in 2012, China’s Gini coefficient (the standard measure of income inequality, with zero representing maximum equality and one representing maximum inequality) stood at 0.47, higher than in the United Kingdom or the United States.
READ: Commentary: China’s rise this time is different
A Chinese household survey reported an even higher coefficient of 0.61, nearly on par with South Africa.
A rising tide lifts many boats, but some rise far higher than others. So, while millions of Chinese were lifted just above the poverty threshold, a few individuals were catapulted to the heights of opulence.
The skyline of Pudong, the financial district of Shanghai, is pictured on Apr 7, 2018. (Photo: AFP/Johannes Eisele)
This was not only a matter of luck or even entrepreneurial spirit. Although some of China’s wealthy amassed their fortunes through hard work and risk-taking, plenty of others did so by cosying up to government officials willing to trade lucrative privileges for bribes.
Recognising the risks posed by high inequality and pervasive cronyism, Xi has launched two simultaneous campaigns. One vows to eliminate rural poverty by 2020, using “targeted” poverty alleviation measures such as job placements and welfare subsidies.
READ: Commentary: Has China given up on pursuing growth?
Another aims to root out corruption. Under Xi’s leadership, more than 1.5 million officials, including some of the most senior members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), have been disciplined.
LESSONS FROM CHINA
China’s experience holds important lessons for development economics.
For starters, while RCTs and the targeted programmes they evaluate can play a role in reducing poverty, the most powerful means of doing so at scale is economic growth. Oxford’s Lant Pritchett found that no country has reached the point where more than 75 per cent of all households lived on more than US$5.50 per day until median income exceeded US$1,045 annually.
READ: Commentary: The invisibility of the poor in Crazy Rich Hong Kong
Given this, anyone interested in large-scale poverty reduction should seek to understand what drives sustained economic growth, by studying history, political economy, international trade, and systems thinking (connecting parts of a development strategy).
If RCTs are equivalent to “plumbing,” as Duflo and Banerjee describe, then systems thinking is the work of mapping out and overhauling the entire drainage network.
Simply put, we cannot lose sight of the big picture.
File photo of rural residents in China doing their washing. China's boom has seen it rise to become the world's second-largest economy, but inequality remains stark. (Photo: AFP / MARK RALSTON)
The second lesson from China’s development experience is that growth may not always be equitable. Welfare programmes and the delivery of public services like education and healthcare are needed to distribute the gains from economic growth.
Here, the work of this year’s Nobel laureates can help, with RCTs being used to assess the performance of targeted interventions.
READ: Commentary: Chinese leaders must convince others of China’s peaceful rise
Finally, adaptive governance is essential. Contrary to Yao’s argument that China owes its economic success to following “the advice of classical economists”, the country has actually defied many standard policy prescriptions – most notably, the belief that Western-style democratisation is necessary for development.
That does not mean that authoritarian rule enabled Chinese prosperity, as many believe. Under Mao, China suffered disastrous outcomes, including mass famine during the Great Leap Forward.
China due to introduce face scans for mobile users
Image caption China has for years been trying to enforce rules to ensure that everyone using the internet does so under their "real-name" identities
People in China are now required to have their faces scanned when registering new mobile phone services, as the authorities seek to verify the identities of the country's hundreds of millions of internet users.
The regulation, announced in September, was due to come into effect on Sunday.
The government says it wants to "protect the legitimate rights and interest of citizens in cyberspace".
China already uses facial recognition technology to survey its population.
It is a world leader in such technologies, but their intensifying use across the country in recent years has sparked debate.
What are the new rules?
When signing up for new mobile or mobile data contracts, people are already required to show their national identification card (as required in many countries) and have their photos taken.
But now, they will also have their faces scanned in order to verify that they are a genuine match for the ID provided.
China has for years been trying to enforce rules to ensure that everyone using the internet does so under their "real-name" identities.
In 2017, for example, new rules required internet platforms to verify a user's true identity before letting them post online content.
The new regulation for telecom operators was framed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as a way to "strengthen" this system and ensure that the government can identify all mobile phone users. Most Chinese internet users access the web via their phones.
Jeffrey Ding, a researcher on Chinese artificial intelligence at Oxford University, said that one of China's motivations for getting rid of anonymous phone numbers and internet accounts was to boost cyber-security and reduce internet fraud.
But another likely motivation, he said, was to better track the population: "It's connected to a very centralised push to try to keep tabs on everyone, or that's at least the ambition."
Are people worried?
When the regulations were announced in September, the Chinese media did not make a big deal of it.
But online, hundreds of social media users voiced concerns about the increasing amount of data being held on them.
"People are being more and more strictly monitored," one user of the Sina Weibo microblogging website said. "What are they [the government] afraid of?"
Video caption In your face: China's all-seeing surveillance system
Many others complained that China had already seen too many data breaches. "Before, thieves knew what your name was, in the future they'll know what you'll look like," said one user, receiving more than 1,000 likes. Another criticised the policy, saying: "This is being implemented without the consent of the public."
Another said they often received scam calls from people who knew their name and address, and asked: "Will they be able to tell what I look like now?"
But others were less cynical, saying that the move was simply in line with "technological progress".
China already extensively censors and polices the web, removing and blocking content it does not want its citizens to see and talk about.
How widespread is facial recognition in China?
China is often described as a surveillance state - in 2017 it had 170 million CCTV cameras in place across the country with the goal of installing an estimated 400 million new ones by 2020.
The country is also setting up a "social credit" system to keep score of the conduct and public interactions of all its citizens in one database.
The aim is that by 2020, everyone in China will be enrolled in a vast national database that compiles fiscal and government information to give a "ranking" for each citizen.
Facial recognition plays a key role in the surveillance system and it has been lauded as a way of catching fugitives. Last year, media noted that police were able to pick a fugitive out of a crowd of 60,000 at a concert using the technology.
In the western region of Xinjiang, where up to a million Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities have been detained for what the authorities call "re-education", surveillance cameras use facial recognition to specifically track Uighurs, based on their appearance , the New York Times reported earlier this year.
But facial recognition is increasingly becoming a part of daily life and commercial transactions in China. It's used more and more, for example, to pay in shops and supermarkets.
However there has been some blow-back. Earlier this year, a university professor sued a wildlife park for making facial recognition mandatory for visitors - sparking a wider debate about the state's mass collection of data on its citizens.
Video caption The BBC visits the camps where China’s Muslims have their "thoughts transformed"
In September, the Chinese government said it planned to "curb and regulate" the use of facial recognition technology in schools after reports a university was trialling using it to monitor the attendance and behaviour of students.
Mr Ding said it was clear that there is increasing backlash against China's widespread adoption of facial recognition technology.
Such criticism used to focus on fears of data theft, hacking and abuses by commercial companies, he said. However, increasingly, citizens seem willing to criticise how the Chinese government might exploit such data to track the population.
- 01 December 2019
- China
People in China are now required to have their faces scanned when registering new mobile phone services, as the authorities seek to verify the identities of the country's hundreds of millions of internet users.
The regulation, announced in September, was due to come into effect on Sunday.
The government says it wants to "protect the legitimate rights and interest of citizens in cyberspace".
China already uses facial recognition technology to survey its population.
It is a world leader in such technologies, but their intensifying use across the country in recent years has sparked debate.
What are the new rules?
When signing up for new mobile or mobile data contracts, people are already required to show their national identification card (as required in many countries) and have their photos taken.
But now, they will also have their faces scanned in order to verify that they are a genuine match for the ID provided.
China has for years been trying to enforce rules to ensure that everyone using the internet does so under their "real-name" identities.
In 2017, for example, new rules required internet platforms to verify a user's true identity before letting them post online content.
The new regulation for telecom operators was framed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as a way to "strengthen" this system and ensure that the government can identify all mobile phone users. Most Chinese internet users access the web via their phones.
Jeffrey Ding, a researcher on Chinese artificial intelligence at Oxford University, said that one of China's motivations for getting rid of anonymous phone numbers and internet accounts was to boost cyber-security and reduce internet fraud.
But another likely motivation, he said, was to better track the population: "It's connected to a very centralised push to try to keep tabs on everyone, or that's at least the ambition."
Are people worried?
When the regulations were announced in September, the Chinese media did not make a big deal of it.
But online, hundreds of social media users voiced concerns about the increasing amount of data being held on them.
"People are being more and more strictly monitored," one user of the Sina Weibo microblogging website said. "What are they [the government] afraid of?"
Many others complained that China had already seen too many data breaches. "Before, thieves knew what your name was, in the future they'll know what you'll look like," said one user, receiving more than 1,000 likes. Another criticised the policy, saying: "This is being implemented without the consent of the public."
Another said they often received scam calls from people who knew their name and address, and asked: "Will they be able to tell what I look like now?"
But others were less cynical, saying that the move was simply in line with "technological progress".
China already extensively censors and polices the web, removing and blocking content it does not want its citizens to see and talk about.
How widespread is facial recognition in China?
China is often described as a surveillance state - in 2017 it had 170 million CCTV cameras in place across the country with the goal of installing an estimated 400 million new ones by 2020.
The country is also setting up a "social credit" system to keep score of the conduct and public interactions of all its citizens in one database.
The aim is that by 2020, everyone in China will be enrolled in a vast national database that compiles fiscal and government information to give a "ranking" for each citizen.
Facial recognition plays a key role in the surveillance system and it has been lauded as a way of catching fugitives. Last year, media noted that police were able to pick a fugitive out of a crowd of 60,000 at a concert using the technology.
In the western region of Xinjiang, where up to a million Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities have been detained for what the authorities call "re-education", surveillance cameras use facial recognition to specifically track Uighurs, based on their appearance , the New York Times reported earlier this year.
But facial recognition is increasingly becoming a part of daily life and commercial transactions in China. It's used more and more, for example, to pay in shops and supermarkets.
However there has been some blow-back. Earlier this year, a university professor sued a wildlife park for making facial recognition mandatory for visitors - sparking a wider debate about the state's mass collection of data on its citizens.
In September, the Chinese government said it planned to "curb and regulate" the use of facial recognition technology in schools after reports a university was trialling using it to monitor the attendance and behaviour of students.
Mr Ding said it was clear that there is increasing backlash against China's widespread adoption of facial recognition technology.
Such criticism used to focus on fears of data theft, hacking and abuses by commercial companies, he said. However, increasingly, citizens seem willing to criticise how the Chinese government might exploit such data to track the population.
Yankee land is toast
Big Deal: China Has Finally Figured out How to Build Powerful Jet Engines
Officials in China have begun talks to sell sophisticated aerospace technology and manufacturing equipment to Germany for the production of high-performance jet engines.
As China moves to rapidly build its commercial and military aviation industry, the nation has made significant engineering breakthroughs, most notably in turbine blades, which convert the heat from fuel combustion into thrust. Turbine blades are one of the most critical components of an airplane, determining a jet engine’s safety, power and endurance.
Engineers in China have developed new processes that can make lighter and stronger blades using a hollow structure as well as single-crystal alloys that can withstand high temperatures and a special coating to facilitate cooling. These advances mean Chinese-made turbine blades are able to withstand temperatures several hundred degrees Celsius higher than the melting point of metallic alloys.
Dec
6
1790
The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia.
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These advances are at the center of a possible sale to Germany along with manufacturing equipment that uses lasers to drill ultra-fine holes in turbine blades to keep blades cool by increasing air flow.
“Our machine has outperformed [Germany’s] on some benchmarks,” an anonymous source involved in the negotiations told the South China Morning Post. “The Germans have seen and grown interested in our technology.”
Discussions for the sale are still in the early stages, but even the possibility of an agreement with Germany, which created the world’s first production-ready jet engine and has long been revered for its design and manufacturing prowess, is a major victory for China as it seeks to shift its reputation away from cheaply made knockoffs to high-end innovation.
Aerospace is one of the key sectors of the “Made In China 2025” initiative, which calls for massive government investment to create thriving self-sufficient domestic industries. But long before the initiative was announced, China has been hard at work developing domestically-produced military aircraft.
In 2011, China stunned the world with the J-20, the nation’s first stealth fighter meant to rival America’s F-22 Raptor. With the J-20, China became only the second nation after the United States with a tactical stealth jet in service.
Just three years later, China unveiled the J-31 stealth multirole fighter jet, which looks remarkably like the American-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Analysts believe the Chinese built the J-31 using stolen F-35 blueprints.
China’s fifth-generation fighters currently rely on Russian engines, but recent breakthroughs have given the nation the ability to manufacture their own. In September, images revealed China had built a stealth engine for the J-20 equipped with serrated afterburner nozzles and interior flaps to help minimize its radar signature.
As China turns its attention to commercial airliners, it is only a matter of time before it begins to produce jet engines for commercial use.
In China’s rapid rise, it has previously turned to German aerospace companies to gain intellectual property and industrial know-how. In 2013, China acquired Germany’s Thielert Aircraft Engines after it filed for bankruptcy. The agreement included Thielert’s technology as well as their manufacturing facilities and equipment.
More recently, China has set its sights on purchasing Cotesa, an innovative German aerospace manufacturer that supplies parts for Airbus and Boeing. But the deal is currently on hold pending a review by the German government under new rules that grant the state more authority to block foreign takeovers.
The rules were passed in the midst of growing concerns of Chinese companies acquiring German and other EU companies operating in sensitive industries like aerospace, robotics and computer chips.
China’s plan to supply Germany with jet engine turbine blade technology is likely to face similar hurdles as Germany partners with Pratt & Whitney, General Electric and other American engine manufacturers. Even if German authorities approve the deal, the sale could still be blocked by the U.S. government which considers jet engine manufacturers as strategic domestic companies.
Regardless of whether this deal succeeds or not, it is apparent that China is quickly becoming an elite player in the Jet Age.
Eugene K. Chow writes on foreign policy and military affairs. His work has been published in Foreign Policy, The Week and The Diplomat. This first appeared in January 2018.
Big Deal: China Has Finally Figured out How to Build Powerful Jet Engines
![[Photos] This Is What Scientists Found At The Bottom Of The Niagara Falls That Left Them So Disturbed](https://images.outbrainimg.com/transform/v3/eyJpdSI6ImFhMzA1NjMyNWNlNThiNDYxODQ4M2NhNzIzNDgzMjliMjRjNDc2MGFmOTUzNmY4YTU1YWM4YmY4YjFkNTY5Y2YiLCJ3IjozMTUsImgiOjIyMCwiZCI6MS41LCJjcyI6MCwiZiI6NH0.webp "[Photos] This Is What Scientists Found At The Bottom Of The Niagara Falls That Left Them So Disturbed")
Officials in China have begun talks to sell sophisticated aerospace technology and manufacturing equipment to Germany for the production of high-performance jet engines.
As China moves to rapidly build its commercial and military aviation industry, the nation has made significant engineering breakthroughs, most notably in turbine blades, which convert the heat from fuel combustion into thrust. Turbine blades are one of the most critical components of an airplane, determining a jet engine’s safety, power and endurance.
Engineers in China have developed new processes that can make lighter and stronger blades using a hollow structure as well as single-crystal alloys that can withstand high temperatures and a special coating to facilitate cooling. These advances mean Chinese-made turbine blades are able to withstand temperatures several hundred degrees Celsius higher than the melting point of metallic alloys.
Dec
6
1790
The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia.
sponsored
sponsored
sponsored
add this to your site
These advances are at the center of a possible sale to Germany along with manufacturing equipment that uses lasers to drill ultra-fine holes in turbine blades to keep blades cool by increasing air flow.
“Our machine has outperformed [Germany’s] on some benchmarks,” an anonymous source involved in the negotiations told the South China Morning Post. “The Germans have seen and grown interested in our technology.”
Discussions for the sale are still in the early stages, but even the possibility of an agreement with Germany, which created the world’s first production-ready jet engine and has long been revered for its design and manufacturing prowess, is a major victory for China as it seeks to shift its reputation away from cheaply made knockoffs to high-end innovation.
Aerospace is one of the key sectors of the “Made In China 2025” initiative, which calls for massive government investment to create thriving self-sufficient domestic industries. But long before the initiative was announced, China has been hard at work developing domestically-produced military aircraft.
In 2011, China stunned the world with the J-20, the nation’s first stealth fighter meant to rival America’s F-22 Raptor. With the J-20, China became only the second nation after the United States with a tactical stealth jet in service.
Just three years later, China unveiled the J-31 stealth multirole fighter jet, which looks remarkably like the American-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Analysts believe the Chinese built the J-31 using stolen F-35 blueprints.
China’s fifth-generation fighters currently rely on Russian engines, but recent breakthroughs have given the nation the ability to manufacture their own. In September, images revealed China had built a stealth engine for the J-20 equipped with serrated afterburner nozzles and interior flaps to help minimize its radar signature.
As China turns its attention to commercial airliners, it is only a matter of time before it begins to produce jet engines for commercial use.
In China’s rapid rise, it has previously turned to German aerospace companies to gain intellectual property and industrial know-how. In 2013, China acquired Germany’s Thielert Aircraft Engines after it filed for bankruptcy. The agreement included Thielert’s technology as well as their manufacturing facilities and equipment.
More recently, China has set its sights on purchasing Cotesa, an innovative German aerospace manufacturer that supplies parts for Airbus and Boeing. But the deal is currently on hold pending a review by the German government under new rules that grant the state more authority to block foreign takeovers.
The rules were passed in the midst of growing concerns of Chinese companies acquiring German and other EU companies operating in sensitive industries like aerospace, robotics and computer chips.
China’s plan to supply Germany with jet engine turbine blade technology is likely to face similar hurdles as Germany partners with Pratt & Whitney, General Electric and other American engine manufacturers. Even if German authorities approve the deal, the sale could still be blocked by the U.S. government which considers jet engine manufacturers as strategic domestic companies.
Regardless of whether this deal succeeds or not, it is apparent that China is quickly becoming an elite player in the Jet Age.
Eugene K. Chow writes on foreign policy and military affairs. His work has been published in Foreign Policy, The Week and The Diplomat. This first appeared in January 2018.
Revealed: How China's Military Caught Up With America and Russia So Fast
Key point: The United States has become increasingly aggressive about slowing down or halting China’s industrial espionage efforts.
As the People’s Republic of China (PRC) emerged from war and revolution in 1949, it became apparent that the Chinese economy lacked the capacity to compete with the U.S. or the U.S.S.R. in the production of advanced military technology. Transfers from the Soviet Union helped remedy the gap in the 1950s, as did transfers from the United States and Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. Still, the Cultural Revolution stifled technology and scientific research, leaving the Chinese even farther behind.
Thus, China has long supplemented legitimate transfers and domestic innovation with industrial espionage. In short, the PRC has a well-established habit of pilfering weapons technology from Russia and the United States. As the years have gone by, Beijing’s spies have become ever more skillful and flexible in their approach. Here are five systems that the Chinese have stolen or copied, in whole or in part:
J-7:
In 1961, as tensions between the USSR and the PRC reached a fever pitch, the Soviets transferred blueprints and materials associated with its new MiG-21 interceptor to China. The offering represented an effort to bridge part of the gap, and suggest to China that cooperation between the Communist giants remained possible.
Dec
26
1799
4,000 people attend George Washington's funeral where Henry Lee III declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
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The offering didn’t work. Sino-Soviet tensions continued to increase, nearly to the point of war in the late 1960s. The Chinese worked from the blueprints and other materials, and eventually produced the J-7, a virtual copy of the MiG-21. The Chinese eventually sold the J-7 (F-7 export variant) in direct competition with the MiGs sold by the Soviets. Indeed, after the US-PRC rapprochement of the early 1970s, the Chinese sold J-7s directly to the Americans, who used them as part of an aggressor squadron to train US pilots to fight the Soviets.
J-11:
The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s heralded a thaw in Russia-China relations. Russia no longer had strong reasons to withhold its most advanced military technology from the Chinese. More importantly, the huge Soviet military industrial complex needed customers badly, and the Russian military could no longer afford new equipment. For its part, the PRC needed new sources of high technology military equipment after Europe and the United States imposed arms embargoes in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Accordingly, the 1990s saw several huge arms deals between Moscow and Beijing. One of the most important involved the sale, licensing, and technology transfer of the Su-27 “Flanker” multirole fighter. The deal gave the Chinese one of the world’s most dangerous air superiority fighters, and gave the Russian aviation industry a lifeline.
But the era of good feelings couldn’t hold. Details remain murky and disputed, but the Russians claim that the Chinese began violating licensing terms almost immediately, by installing their own avionics on Flankers (J-11, under Chinese designation). The Chinese also began developing a carrier variant, in direct violation of agreed-to terms. The appropriation of Russian technology undercut the relationship between Russia and China, making the Russians far more wary of transferring their crown jewels to the Chinese military.
J-31:
Even before the Snowden leaks established extensive Chinese industrial espionage, Americans analysts suspected that China was stealing information associated with the F-35. The likely reality of this theft became clear when information about the J-31 stealth fighter became available. The J-31 looks very much like a twin-engine F-35, without the VSTOL capabilities of the F-35B.
The J-31 also presumably lacks much of the advanced avionics that have the potential to make the F-35 a devastating fighter. Nevertheless, the J-31 may eventually operate from carriers, and could potentially compete with the Joint Strike Fighter on the export market.
UAVs:
In 2010, China lagged woefully behind the United States in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology. Since that time, the Chinese have caught up, and are now producing drones capable of competing with US models on the international arms market. How did the Chinese catch up so fast?
According to US intelligence, Chinese hackers appropriated technology from several sources, including the US government and private companies (General Atomics) associated with the production of UAVs. The newest Chinese UAVs closely resemble US aircraft visually and in performance, a remarkable turn-around time for China’s aviation industry.
Night Vision Technology:
After the Vietnam War, the United States military decided that it would invest heavily in an effort to “own the night.” This led to major advances in night vision technology, including equipment that allowed individual soldiers, armored vehicles, and aircraft to see and fight in the dark. This equipment has given the US a huge advantage in several conflicts since the 1980s.
China is seeking to end this advantage, and has geared some of its espionage efforts towards acquiring and replicating US tech in this area. This has included some cyber-theft, but also several old-style ops in which Chinese businessmen illegally acquired export-controlled tech from US companies.
The Last Salvo:
The United States has become increasingly aggressive about slowing down or halting China’s industrial espionage efforts. This has included indictments of PLA officers, broad condemnations of Chinese spying, and targeted reprisals against some Chinese firms. But given the extensive commercial contacts between China and the United States, stopping the flow of technology is virtually impossible. Moreover, China has developed a large, innovative technology economy in its own right. Indeed, as Chinese technology catches up with American (and in some cases exceeds Russian) we may see the Chinese run into the same problems with foreign espionage.
Robert Farley, a frequent contributor to the National Interest, is author of The Battleship Book. He serves as a senior lecturer at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. His work includes military doctrine, national security and maritime affairs. He blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money, Information Dissemination and the Diplomat.
This first appeared in August 2016.
Image: Reuters.
Key point: The United States has become increasingly aggressive about slowing down or halting China’s industrial espionage efforts.
As the People’s Republic of China (PRC) emerged from war and revolution in 1949, it became apparent that the Chinese economy lacked the capacity to compete with the U.S. or the U.S.S.R. in the production of advanced military technology. Transfers from the Soviet Union helped remedy the gap in the 1950s, as did transfers from the United States and Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. Still, the Cultural Revolution stifled technology and scientific research, leaving the Chinese even farther behind.
Thus, China has long supplemented legitimate transfers and domestic innovation with industrial espionage. In short, the PRC has a well-established habit of pilfering weapons technology from Russia and the United States. As the years have gone by, Beijing’s spies have become ever more skillful and flexible in their approach. Here are five systems that the Chinese have stolen or copied, in whole or in part:
J-7:
In 1961, as tensions between the USSR and the PRC reached a fever pitch, the Soviets transferred blueprints and materials associated with its new MiG-21 interceptor to China. The offering represented an effort to bridge part of the gap, and suggest to China that cooperation between the Communist giants remained possible.
Dec
26
1799
4,000 people attend George Washington's funeral where Henry Lee III declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
sponsored
sponsored
sponsored
add this to your site
The offering didn’t work. Sino-Soviet tensions continued to increase, nearly to the point of war in the late 1960s. The Chinese worked from the blueprints and other materials, and eventually produced the J-7, a virtual copy of the MiG-21. The Chinese eventually sold the J-7 (F-7 export variant) in direct competition with the MiGs sold by the Soviets. Indeed, after the US-PRC rapprochement of the early 1970s, the Chinese sold J-7s directly to the Americans, who used them as part of an aggressor squadron to train US pilots to fight the Soviets.
J-11:
The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s heralded a thaw in Russia-China relations. Russia no longer had strong reasons to withhold its most advanced military technology from the Chinese. More importantly, the huge Soviet military industrial complex needed customers badly, and the Russian military could no longer afford new equipment. For its part, the PRC needed new sources of high technology military equipment after Europe and the United States imposed arms embargoes in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Accordingly, the 1990s saw several huge arms deals between Moscow and Beijing. One of the most important involved the sale, licensing, and technology transfer of the Su-27 “Flanker” multirole fighter. The deal gave the Chinese one of the world’s most dangerous air superiority fighters, and gave the Russian aviation industry a lifeline.
But the era of good feelings couldn’t hold. Details remain murky and disputed, but the Russians claim that the Chinese began violating licensing terms almost immediately, by installing their own avionics on Flankers (J-11, under Chinese designation). The Chinese also began developing a carrier variant, in direct violation of agreed-to terms. The appropriation of Russian technology undercut the relationship between Russia and China, making the Russians far more wary of transferring their crown jewels to the Chinese military.
J-31:
Even before the Snowden leaks established extensive Chinese industrial espionage, Americans analysts suspected that China was stealing information associated with the F-35. The likely reality of this theft became clear when information about the J-31 stealth fighter became available. The J-31 looks very much like a twin-engine F-35, without the VSTOL capabilities of the F-35B.
The J-31 also presumably lacks much of the advanced avionics that have the potential to make the F-35 a devastating fighter. Nevertheless, the J-31 may eventually operate from carriers, and could potentially compete with the Joint Strike Fighter on the export market.
UAVs:
In 2010, China lagged woefully behind the United States in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology. Since that time, the Chinese have caught up, and are now producing drones capable of competing with US models on the international arms market. How did the Chinese catch up so fast?
According to US intelligence, Chinese hackers appropriated technology from several sources, including the US government and private companies (General Atomics) associated with the production of UAVs. The newest Chinese UAVs closely resemble US aircraft visually and in performance, a remarkable turn-around time for China’s aviation industry.
Night Vision Technology:
After the Vietnam War, the United States military decided that it would invest heavily in an effort to “own the night.” This led to major advances in night vision technology, including equipment that allowed individual soldiers, armored vehicles, and aircraft to see and fight in the dark. This equipment has given the US a huge advantage in several conflicts since the 1980s.
China is seeking to end this advantage, and has geared some of its espionage efforts towards acquiring and replicating US tech in this area. This has included some cyber-theft, but also several old-style ops in which Chinese businessmen illegally acquired export-controlled tech from US companies.
The Last Salvo:
The United States has become increasingly aggressive about slowing down or halting China’s industrial espionage efforts. This has included indictments of PLA officers, broad condemnations of Chinese spying, and targeted reprisals against some Chinese firms. But given the extensive commercial contacts between China and the United States, stopping the flow of technology is virtually impossible. Moreover, China has developed a large, innovative technology economy in its own right. Indeed, as Chinese technology catches up with American (and in some cases exceeds Russian) we may see the Chinese run into the same problems with foreign espionage.
Robert Farley, a frequent contributor to the National Interest, is author of The Battleship Book. He serves as a senior lecturer at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. His work includes military doctrine, national security and maritime affairs. He blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money, Information Dissemination and the Diplomat.
This first appeared in August 2016.
Image: Reuters.
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