Economist: Chinese people’s incomes may hit $12,000

A renowned economist has said that the income per capita in China will reach 8,800 dollars in 2020, and may even hit 12,000 dollars, which would enable China to become a high-income country by UN standards.

Justin Yifu Lin, former chief economist at the World Bank, made this remark at the ongoing 3rd Global Think Tank Summit in Beijing on Saturday.

Justin Yifu Lin revealed that China’s GDP in 2020 is expected to be double of that in 2010. Specifically, unskilled workers who now earn an average of roughly 400 dollars annually would see their yearly income rise to 1000 dollars in 2020.

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Economists downplay fears of financial crisis after central bank’s squeeze policy

When banks that are normally perceived as cash warehouses are caught in a credit crunch and there appears to be dim hope for an injection to quell the thirst for capital, it is hard for the market not to panic.

Thus, it seems natural that bank stocks fell out of favor with China’s investors last Monday after the People’s Bank of China (PBC), the country’s central bank, published a hands-off response to the recent liquidity squeeze. Its warning letter railed against rapid credit expansion sowing trouble in the financial sector, although the PBC’s urging of large banks to play their part helped interbank borrowing costs fall.

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Land market at 5-year high

Statistics show continued rapid growth in sector in 10 key cities

China’s land market sizzled in May, with the land transfer fees in the country’s 10 key cities reaching a record high since 2008, industry statistics showed, indicating pressure for further home price hikes in the market.

The land transfer fees in the 10 major cities monitored by E-House China Real Estate Research and Development Institute stood at 66.99 billion yuan ($11.2 billion) last month, an increase of 392.6 percent year-on-year, a report from the institute showed.

Meanwhile, the average price of transacted land parcels was 3,015 yuan per square meter in May, up 215.7 percent over the same period last year. It also reaching a three-year high, according to the report.

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Massive debt plagues local govt

How much have China’s local governments borrowed? The answer has always been shrouded in mystery.

The last official update was released by the National Audit Office in mid 2011. It put the nationwide figure at 10.7 trillion yuan ($1.75 trillion) by the end of 2010.

Last week, the audit office issued a new report, a much less comprehensive one covering only 36 local governments at different levels. This said debt in the selected areas had grown 13 percent in the last three years. Extrapolating the audit office’s report’s 13 percent rise in local government debt across the entire country, Moody’s Investors Service estimates the direct and guaranteed debt of local governments could have been 12.1 trillion yuan at the end of 2012.

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Fugitive terror suspect nabbed

Leaders call for enhanced anti-terror efforts as more details released about latest attack

The only suspect who fled the scene after a terror attack in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region last week was arrested on Sunday, local police said.

A group of terrorists launched the attack on Wednesday in Lukqun township, Turpan prefecture, leaving 35 people dead, including 11 suspected terrorists.

Ahmetniaz Stek, the suspected gang leader, has been allegedly organizing its members for extreme religious activities and instigating people to carry out terror attacks since February, Xinjiang police said.

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China and South Korea Reaffirm Efforts Aimed at North

SEOUL, South Korea — The leaders of China and South Korea agreed at a summit meeting in Beijing on Thursday to work together to resume six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, calling them a “serious threat” to stability in East Asia.

A joint statement issued after the meeting between the leaders, President Xi Jinping of China and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, also said they had agreed on the importance of faithfully carrying out United Nations Security Council resolutions that called for sanctions against North Korea, as well as a multilateral agreement in 2005 under which the North was obliged to give up its nuclear weapons programs in return for economic and diplomatic benefits.

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China calls Xinjiang unrest a ‘terrorist attack’, ups death toll to 35

(Reuters) – China’s state media has raised to 35 the death toll from unrest this week in far western Xinjiang region, and denounced the clashes, the deadliest in four years, as a “terrorist attack”.

Xinjiang is home to a large Muslim Uighur community and violence focusing on its discontent had been confined recently to southern districts. The altercations in Shanshan county on Wednesday marked a return of unrest to Xinjiang’s north.

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Sui-Lee Wee, Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/ZyOaoxq5Oz8/

China appoints Ding Xuedong as new CIC chairman -sources

(Reuters) – China’s $500 billion sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC) has appointed cabinet official Ding Xuedong as its new chairman, two sources said on Friday, ending a three-month search.

The appointment of Ding, a vice secretary general of China’s cabinet and a former vice finance minister, was announced within the fund on Friday, a source with knowledge of the situation said.

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China’s Leaders Talk Tough on Reform, but Action May Prove Tougher

China’s leaders are talking tough on much-needed reforms. Turning words into meaningful action, though, isn’t guaranteed.

The recent cash crunch signals Beijing is serious about restraining runaway credit growth. The government has also taken a strict line on stamping out corruption.

The latest tough-to-tackle area that officials are taking on: the hukou household-registration system, which restricts the access of migrant workers to social benefits like health care and unemployment insurance when they move around the country.

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Abheek Bhattacharya, The Wall Street Journal via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/Itopl8HP7ig/

EU opens new front in China trade battle with stone case

(Reuters) – The European Union has opened a new front in its trade battle with China by launching an investigation into alleged dumping by Chinese producers of stone used for counter tops and tiles.

The European Commission said on Friday it was starting the study after a complaint lodged last month by A.St.A., the European association of manufacturers of agglomerated stones.

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Philip Blenkinsop, Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/QUGAhBYg9WM/

IPOs likely to resume in H2

Small firms, miners expected to dominate potential list of offerings

Initial public offerings are expected to resume in the Chinese mainland stock market in the second half, mostly driven by small enterprises, but the issues will have little impact on the A-share market, Ernst & Young said on Thursday.

The draft of IPO issue reforms, released by the China Securities Regulatory Commission earlier this month, was “a big step” toward a market-oriented system, which is expected to lower the administrative limit and encourage more enterprises to go public based on their needs, the company said.

In the first half, there were no IPOs in the mainland, as the CSRC suspended approvals for such issues in November.

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8 held over deaths of Shanghainese in PNG

Eight bakery workers are in police custody following the killing of four Shanghainese who were hacked to death in their store in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea, the Chinese Embassy said yesterday.

The eight had been hired by the victims and were working in the store at the time of the incident, Cao Junjun, an official with the embassy, told the Xinhua news agency.

The embassy response follows a local newspaper report that four people had been arrested over the brutal killings at Koki, Port Moresby, on Monday night.

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BOC Warns Sluggish Economy Could Cause Employment Problems

The country is likely to see its employment situation take a turn for the worse if the economy remains sluggish, a June 26 report by the Bank of China’s International Finance Institute says.

The bank, one of the Big Four state banks, said that despite the fact the country’s economy has continued to slow this year, the government has refused to introduce stimulus policies, mainly due to the sound employment situation.

However, as exports decline further, the country will begin to feel pressure on employment.

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SKorean President in Beijing for Summit With Xi

The Chinese and South Korean presidents called Thursday for a swift resumption of six-nation North Korean nuclear disarmament talks after a summit that brought together Pyongyang’s archrival and its biggest ally.

President Park Geun-hye’s four-day visit marks her first formal discussions with the new Chinese administration led by President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. Talks will also focus on booming economic ties between the two countries, highlighted by the unusually large, high-powered trade delegation traveling with Park.

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Christopher Bodeen, The Associated Press via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/WeTNCyNa6uk/

EU-China trade spat widens

China announced a new trade sanction on Thursday that targets chemical producers in the European Union, the latest salvo in a growing dispute between the key trading partners.

The duty on toluidine imports from Europe, unveiled by China’s commerce ministry, will take effect on Friday and last five years.

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U.S. exec Chip Starnes freed from China factory

BEIJING — U.S. businessman Chip Starnes walked to freedom Thursday after paying off the workers who held him hostage for six days in the factory he founded close to the Chinese capital. And now he plans to re-hire some of the very people who held him.

The dispute, sparked by worker worries about lay-offs and unpaid salaries, highlights the widespread lack of trust between employees and their employers in China, as well as the often desperate measures Chinese workers adopt to protect labor rights that are enshrined in Chinese law but regularly abused in the real world.

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Calum MacLeod, USA Today via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/oKVVwzjRrc8/

Chinese Defense Ministry Accuses U.S. of Hypocrisy on Spying

BEIJING — The Chinese Ministry of National Defense accused the United States on Thursday of hypocrisy over cybersurveillance and said the disclosures made by Edward J. Snowden bolstered the case for China’s security efforts on the Internet. These were the harshest public comments so far from the Chinese government about Mr. Snowden’s revelations.

Until now, the Chinese government’s comments on the disclosures have come through the Foreign Ministry, which has used relatively muted words to answer reporters’ questions about Mr. Snowden’s allegations. Mr. Snowden, a former C.I.A. employee, has described the United States’ monitoring of Chinese Internet sites and installations, and Prism, a National Security Agency program to mine Internet information.

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Chris Buckley, The New York Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/g556NVoMMm0/

China ‘most promising’ in FDI

China moved up from the sixth to the third place in 2012 in terms of outward foreign direct investment – after the United States and Japan – while a recent survey listed the world’s second-largest economy as “the most promising source” of FDI, according to an annual report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

The organization’s World Investment Report 2013 – subtitled Global Value Chains: Investment and Trade for Development – was released on Wednesday.

In 2012, FDI outflow from China continued to grow, reaching a record 84 billion U.S. dollars, while total outward FDI from East and Southeast Asia rose 1 percent to 275 billion U.S. dollars amid a sharp decline in global FDI outflows, the report said.

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GDP target in sight for 2013

China’s economic growth will pick up in the third quarter despite the recent liquidity crunch, and the government’s full-year target of 7.5 percent expansion can be achieved, Bank of China Ltd said in a quarterly report on Wednesday.

The GDP growth rate will reach 7.8 percent in the third quarter, with 7.6 percent growth for the second half overall, according to the report.

The first-quarter expansion of the world’s second-largest economy moderated to 7.7 percent amid sluggish external demand and soft investment.

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PBOC ends credit crunch, needs to go further

China’s central bank took a sharp turn Tuesday evening, when it promised to inject money into a temporary liquidity shortage after rejecting banks’ pleas for cash over the past two weeks.

The move has been interpreted as regulators’ decision to end the credit crunch that caused interbank rates to surge to double digits and pounded the stock market into bearish territory.

The People’s Bank of China, or PBOC, has changed its stance, as starving the financial system of cash has been crippling the economy in a broader scope. The Shanghai Composite Index reported its biggest slump in four years on Monday, after the PBOC published an internal notice implying tight liquidity. The benchmark further tumbled 6 percent Tuesday before reversing the retreat on rumors of a declaration of support, which was issued by the bank on Tuesday night.

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China slams Japan’s new defense white paper

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman slammed an overview of Japan’s Defense Ministry’s white paper for 2013, urging the country to conduct some introspection and do more to facilitate regional peace and stability.

“China adheres to a road of peaceful development and pursues a national defense policy with a defensive nature,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular press conference, adding that China is transparent in its military’s strategic intent and poses no threat to any country.

China’s national defense development is aimed solely at maintaining national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and peace and stability in the region and the world at large, Hua noted.

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Door opens on better homes for poor

Premier Li Keqiang pledged to improve housing conditions for the underprivileged and promote urbanization by accelerating shantytown reforms.

The overall condition of the Chinese economy has been stable since the start of this year and the government is determined to carry out measures that can ensure steady growth, restructure the economy and promise immediate as well as long-term benefits, according to a statement published after an executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Li on Wednesday.

“Reforming shantytowns is not only an important public welfare project, but also a significant development drive,” the statement said.

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Asian Markets Calmed by China Central Bank

HONG KONG — Mainland Chinese stocks slipped slightly on Wednesday, and European and many other Asian markets edged higher, as investors reacted to moves by China’s central bank late Tuesday to assuage concerns about a lingering credit squeeze in the country’s financial system.

The Shanghai composite index ended down 0.4 percent after a day that was calm compared with the previous two days. On Monday, the index had plunged 5.3 percent, and on Tuesday, it had gyrated wildly. Interbank lending rates, which determine how costly it is for banks to borrow money from one another, also continued to relax on Wednesday, falling slightly – though remaining well above where they have been over the past year.

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Smithfield workers wary over China deal

Thick hands and muscled forearms acquired from hours of fast-cutting hog meat mark pork processors on either side of the Pacific.

American and Chinese workers in vast industrialized meat-processing plants also share a willingness to trade a life of backbreaking work for a taste of upward mobility, if only a taste. And, most important, a dream: that their children never have to work in places like these.

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Gregg Zoroya and Calum MacLeod, USA Today via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/xnNt4uJFq-A/

With Snowden Gone, Hong Kong Focuses on U.S. Surveillance

HONG KONG — The abrupt departure from Hong Kong on Sunday of Edward J. Snowden, the American former national security contractor, with the explicit approval of the Hong Kong government, has drawn the ire of the United States. But in Hong Kong the focus remains on Mr. Snowden’s exposure of American intelligence-gathering operations in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Leung Chun-ying, the territory’s chief executive, has called repeatedly for the United States to explain its surveillance activities here, brushing aside White House criticism that Mr. Snowden was allowed to fly to Moscow despite a pending American request for his arrest.

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Keith Bradsher, The New York Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/1eYr0pyFLfU/

China faces test over plans to cut industrial capacity

BEIJING, June 26 (Reuters) – China is set to release new plans soon to slim down bloated industries from steel to shipbuilding, but applying measures on the ground will be tough after years of lax oversight during a stimulus-fueled rush to expand in Asia’s biggest economy.

The new rules, which will also target aluminium, cement and glassmaking, could be announced within weeks. Despite fairly resilient demand, all these sectors have been hit by overcapacity and failure to rein in production gluts could put more pressure on already weak markets.

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David Stanway, Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/ohv5Q2uWxb4/

China to include App Store, Taobao, Amazon in supervision plan

The National Copyright Administration said Tuesday that it will add Apple’s App Store, Taobao and Amazon to its copyright supervision plan in this year’s campaign against online piracy.

These online platforms will be required to report on their measures for protecting copyrights and handling complaints filed by title holders, according to a statement issued by the administration.

The administration will also extend its supervision to music videos for the first time. Major video portals like Baidu, Tencent and Sina have been included in an initial list of 24 websites to be supervised.

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Economy glides to soft landing: DBS

The Chinese economy has already “soft-landed” as a result of well-orchestrated government maneuvers, Singapore-based DBS Bank Ltd said on Tuesday.

Senior economist Chris Leung shrugged off the scenario of a hard landing suggested by many analysts apparently spooked by the recent surge in money market rates.

Leung told a news briefing in Hong Kong that growth could further slow to 7 percent in the worst-case scenario where some banks lapse into default, but the possibility is basically zero that the whole economy would derail.

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China Brushes Aside U.S. Warnings on Snowden

BEIJING — China brushed aside on Tuesday the Obama administration’s warning that allowing Edward J. Snowden, the former national security contractor, to flee Hong Kong would have negative consequences, and said that the relationship between the United States and China should continue unimpeded.

On Monday, the White House effectively put responsibility for Mr. Snowden’s departure on Beijing, not on the Hong Kong authorities.

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Jane Perlez and Chris Buckley, The New York Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/fp4F1bzHZYw/

China Rate Swap Declines for Third Day as PBOC Halts Bill Sales

The cost of locking in China’s interest rates fell for a third day, the longest run of declines in a month, as the central bank refrained from selling bills amid the worst cash crunch in at least a decade.

The People’s Bank of China sold three-month bills on May 9 for the first time since 2011 and has held twice-weekly auctions of the securities in all but one of the last six weeks. It won’t sell bills or conduct open-market operations today, according to traders at primary dealers required to bid at the auctions. The nation’s liquidity risk is controllable and money-market rates will be kept at a “reasonable” level, PBOC official Ling Tao said today in Shanghai.

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Kyoungwha Kim & Andrea Wong, Bloomberg News via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/7p6xW012N8Q/

China says Shuanghui-Smithfield deal unrelated to food safety

(Reuters) – Chinese meat company Shuanghui International’s proposed purchase of Smithfield Foods Inc is unrelated to food safety issues and its market is open to pork from the United States, China’s Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday in its first response to concerns raised by U.S. lawmakers about the planned deal.

Earlier this month a number of U.S. senators urged the Obama administration to consider whether the proposed $4.7 billion deal posed a threat to the U.S. food supply that could justify blocking it.

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Chinese Billionaire Says Nicaragua Canal Has Investors

Wang Jing, the Chinese billionaire behind a $40 billion plan to cut a canal through Nicaragua, said he’s successfully attracted global investors for a project that has been on the drawing board for more than 150 years.

Work on the waterway should start by the end of 2014 and be completed within six years, Wang, chairman of Hong Kong-based HKND Group, a privately-held infrastructure development company he wholly owns, said at a press briefing in Beijing today. He didn’t identify any of the investors.

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Credit Warnings Offer World a Peek Into China’s Secretive Banks

BEIJING — China’s hidden banking system is coming out of the shadows as the government seeks to rein in the excessive lending that it fears could spin out of control.

The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, let the world know on Monday that it was putting the nation’s banks on notice: the loose money and the speculation it fed had to stop. It said banks had to step up risk controls and improve cash management. And they had to do it, the bank said, by avoiding a “stampede” mentality.

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David Barboza, The New York Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/CRqHqchwsl0/

China under Pressure to Cover Aging Population: Official

China will face financial pressure to cover the growing population of senior people with its social insurance funds, a government official said on Monday.

Chen Liang, an official with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MoHRSS), told an international symposium that the country needs to increase financial input into the funds and diversify investment channels to enhance returns.

To tackle the payment pressure, Chen, the director of the Social Insurance Funds Management Department under the MoHRSS, said China has to preserve and increase the value of its social insurance funds and ensure the sustainability of its policies.

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Xinhua via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/4r06ysU3gss/

‘Exploration part of Chinese dream’

President speaks highly of three astronauts on Shenzhou X mission during a video call

China will take bigger steps in space exploration in pursuit of its space dream, President Xi Jinping said during a video call with the astronauts on the Shenzhou X manned mission on Monday.

Speaking via a video link from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, Xi said the space dream is part of the dream to make China stronger.

“With the development of space programs, Chinese people will take bigger strides to explore further into space,” Xi said.

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Liquidity squeeze bleeds equities

Central bank says lenders must solve their own credit problems

The central bank hinted on Monday it won’t shore up liquidity to address the credit crunch, a move analysts said reflects top policymakers’ increasing tolerance for slower growth.

The central bank said on Monday in a circular that the liquidity level of the financial system was “reasonable” and urged lenders to strengthen their control of credit expansion.

The announcement took a heavy toll on the stock market.

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WU YIYAO and Xie Yu via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/RB0L7qFV9lo/

China Said to Have Made Call to Let Leaker Depart

BEIJING — The Chinese government made the final decision to allow Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, to leave Hong Kong on Sunday, a move that Beijing believed resolved a tough diplomatic problem even as it reaped a publicity windfall from Mr. Snowden’s disclosures, according to people familiar with the situation.

Hong Kong authorities have insisted that their judicial process remained independent of China, but these observers — who like many in this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely about confidential discussions — said that matters of foreign policy are the domain of the Chinese government, and Beijing exercised that authority in allowing Mr. Snowden to go.

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Jane Perlez and Keith Bradsher, The New York Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/nKWea7z93iU/

South Korea’s Park set to charm China, show up the North

(Reuters) – When the presidents of China and South Korea meet in Beijing this week, they will likely use a rapport that blossomed eight years ago to find common ground on North Korea as well as seek ways to boost already vibrant economic ties.

With her self-taught Mandarin and interest in Chinese culture, South Korea’s Park Geun-hye will get a warm welcome during a four-day state visit that begins on Thursday.

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Ju-min Park, Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/wpcLzIeFQGs/

U.K., China Reach Currency Deal

China and Britain have reached a three-year deal to swap their currencies when needed, the first such agreement between Beijing and a major developed economy and a move that could help boost the Chinese yuan outside Asia.

In a statement released late Saturday, the Bank of England said Governor Mervyn King and his counterpart at the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, signed an agreement to set up a three-year swap line with a maximum value of 200 billion yuan ($32.6 billion). It means that Bank of England could draw on the line with the PBOC when there is a sudden shortage of yuan funds in the U.K. market—and make the yuan, also known as renminbi, available to banks under its jurisdiction.

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Lingling Wei and Paul Hannon, The Wall Street Journal via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/cbOCbjSyjqQ/

China stock market plunges 5.3%

BEIJING — The Shanghai Composite Index fell 5.3% Monday, notching its largest single day drop since August 2009 and hitting its lowest level since December, amid fears that some Chinese banks are facing a liquidity crunch and the overall economy is slowing.

The Shenzhen Component Index plunged 6.73% amid a selloff in Asia that saw Japan’s Nikkei drop 1.26% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fall 2.2%.

In Shanghai, major losers included midsized banks. China Minsheng Bank and Industrial Bank both lost nearly 10%. More than 100 companies dropped 10%, the daily limit, before trading was halted.

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Julie Makinen, The Los Angeles Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/uaIMM7VnBLo/

China’s stock market to lift ban on shares worth 5 bln USD

China’s stock market will lift a ban on restricted shares with a combined market value of 30.9 billion yuan (5 billion U.S. dollars) during the next trading week, according to the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

From June 24 to 28, restricted shares from 24 listed companies will become tradable, with the combined market value of restricted shares from three of the companies alone reaching more than 3 billion yuan.

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admin via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/QGJrqqFjLcs/

London and Beijing agree currency swap

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King and his Chinese counterpart Zhou Xiaochuan agreed to a three-year currency swap line to promote financial stability and aid trade between China and Britain.

The maximum value of the arrangement is 200 billion yuan ($33 billion), according to a statement published by the UK central bank on its website in London. The People’s Bank of China put the sterling value at 20 billion pounds ($31 billion) in a statement on its website.

“The establishment of a sterling/renminbi swap line will support UK domestic financial stability,” King said in the news release. “In the unlikely event that a generalized shortage of offshore renminbi liquidity emerges, the bank will have the capability to facilitate renminbi liquidity to eligible institutions in the UK.”

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US ‘stole’ Chinese statistics

Cyberattacks on China that originate in the United States may be partly backed by the US government, Chinese experts have said, a situation they would like Washington to explain.

Their call came after US National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden told a Hong Kong newspaper that US spies have hacked into Chinese mobile phone companies and a backbone Chinese network to steal text messages and data of millions of Chinese citizens.

The South China Morning Post revealed Snowden’s claims on Sunday, a few hours before the former contractor for the US National Security Agency left Hong Kong.

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admin via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/vlDU0U0e6IM/

Rosneft to double oil flows to China in $270 billion deal

Russia’s Rosneft (ROSN.MM) agreed a $270 billion deal to double oil supplies to China on Friday, as the Kremlin energy champion shifts its focus to Asia from saturated and crisis-hit European markets.

The deal, one of the biggest ever in the history of the global oil industry, will bring Rosneft $60-70 billion in upfront pre-payment from China, the holders of the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves.

It will also allow Rosneft, the world’s biggest publicly listed oil firm, to steeply cut its heavy debts and develop new remote Arctic fields.

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Denis Pinchuk, Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/XoEK2Qz6ro4/

China flexes its space muscles with lesson in zero gravity

Hong Kong (CNN) — In a further sign that China is edging ahead as the world’s dominant space power, Wang Yaping — the second Chinese woman in space — gave a physics lesson to school children from zero gravity.

Speaking through a video link from the Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft to a class of middle school students in Beijing, Wang demonstrated the effects of zero gravity on water and a pendulum.

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Peter Shadbolt, CNN via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/lDWBL3cLicE/

Tencent invests in Fab, takes on Alibaba

US e-commerce website Fab.com said on Wednesday it had raised investment of $150 million from companies including Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Analysts said Tencent may help Fab enter the Chinese online market, which is expected to record nearly 2 trillion yuan ($326 billion) in sales by the end of this year.

Shenzhen-based Tencent said it will make a “minority investment” in the US company, but has not disclosed the value of its investment.

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Gao Yuan via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/jszxYZZY_Jw/

Nation to invest big on road construction

China will invest 4.7 trillion yuan ($767 billion) in road projects by 2030, strongly boosting the domestic economy, a senior official said on Thursday.

The country will have more than 400,000 kilometers of national roads and highways by 2030, compared with 173,000 km by 2012, Dai Dongchang, chief planner of the Ministry of Transport, said at a news conference.

The conference released a national plan for the country’s road network from 2013 to 2030, approved by the State Council in May.

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Wang Qian via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/Phfz_EUwo6M/

BOC denies monetary default report

Bank of China (BOC), the country’s leading commercial bank, on Thursday evening denied a media report claiming the bank had defaulted earlier in the day.

The BOC statement came after the official Sina Weibo account for 21st Century Business Herald said the bank had defaulted on Thursday afternoon, deferring transactions for half an hour due to a fund shortage, citing anonymous sources.

BOC responded in a post on its official Sina Weibo that it has never had monetary defaults and had timely completed all outbound payments on Thursday.

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admin via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/RhiG8Bs2zBI/

China, Vietnam Talk Amid South China Sea Tensions

Vietnam’s president was being feted by China’s leaders on a visit through Friday as Beijing continues to shun another rival for South China Sea territory that has challenged its claims on legal grounds, the Philippines.

President Truong Tan Sang is on a three-day visit to boost economic ties with China, Vietnam’s communist ally and biggest trading partner. How to manage their disputed territorial sea claims — which last month led to a damaged fishing boat and allegations of a crew’s lives being put at risk — is also on the agenda.

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The Associated Press via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/RR2zpZyHLiw/

China Facing Cash Squeeze as Rising Rates Crimp Lending

HONG KONG — China’s financial system is in the throes of a cash squeeze, with interbank lending rates spiking on Thursday and bank-to-bank borrowing nearly stalled, as the government tries to restructure the economy and punish speculators.

With China’s interbank and money market rates soaring over the last two weeks, banks and other financial institutions are afraid of lending to one another. Those in need of short-term cash, or liquidity, must pay dearly; failure to do so raises the possibility of defaults.

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Neil Gough and David Barboza, The New York TImes via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/Zb2-U2AgYgY/