China’s Wen Warns of Inequality and Vows to Continue Military Buildup

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China entered his final days in power on Tuesday with a warning that the nation remained troubled by divisions between the urban rich and rural poor and unbalanced economic growth, and he vowed that the government would continue building up its military, which received a 10.7 percent increase in spending for 2013.

Mr. Wen delivered his sometimes gloomy assessment of the state of Chinese society in his final annual work report to the national legislature, the National People’s Congress, which will elect a new prime minister and government leadership at the end of the annual meeting.

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Andrew Jacobs and Chris Buckley, New York Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/waP3L-cCIQ0/

China Fund Warns Japan Against a ‘Currency War’

The president of China’s giant sovereign-wealth fund warned Japan against using its neighbors as a “garbage bin” by deliberately devaluing the yen, joining growing international griping about a potential currency war.

In unusually strong language, Gao Xiqing, president of China Investment Corp., echoed alarms from Latin America to Europe that the new Japanese government is aiming to boost its exports at other countries’ expense via a weaker currency—allegations often leveled at China itself by the U.S. and others.

Mr. Gao’s comments in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, among the strongest remarks yet by a senior Chinese official, signaled growing concern in Beijing about the impact on the Chinese economy of a wave of more-aggressive easing under Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which the country says is aimed at ending persistent deflation.

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Lingling Wei, Wall Street Journal via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/Anh86r7HaPE/

China village seethes over land grabs as Beijing mulls new laws

Torched vehicles and violent clashes in the Chinese village of Shangpu as farmers protest the loss of land to developers is an uncomfortable reminder to Beijing’s incoming leadership that, for many, pledges of reform to prevent land grabs ring hollow.

Seizures of land across China have been fuelled by soaring prices and Beijing’s urban expansion drive. But outdated laws mean farmers have little legal recourse to oppose land grabs – commonly where village leaders sell off plots to a developer with little or no consultation – or to demand fairer compensation.

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James Pomfret, Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/WQLFe5y3u8E/

For App Makers, China Is Untapped and Untamed

China is emerging as the next battleground for global app makers—but cracking the world’s largest smartphone market is proving to be vexing.

App makers must navigate dozens of app stores with looser rules than in the U.S., fend off a proliferation of cloned apps, and steer around a thicket of regulations and intense competition from local developers.

What’s more, companies that charge for their apps are finding they need to get more creative about business models in China since users there are accustomed to getting most digital content free.

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Jessica E. Lessin, Wall Street Journal via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/LJ5YGvVzUrc/

China faces social, financial risks in urbanization push

China’s urbanization drive could fuel social unrest over land disputes and pose financial risks if money is thrown around recklessly, a senior communist party official and a leading economist said on Thursday.

Shifting people from the countryside to cities is a policy priority for China’s new leaders as they seek to sustain economic growth that last year slowed to a 13-year low of 7.8 percent. The government hopes 60 percent of China’s population of almost 1.4 billion will be urban residents by 2020.

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Kevin Yao, Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/wveyUZFVnQ0/

China Promises Flexibility on Renminbi

China will press ahead with currency overhauls to allow more flexibility in the renminbi’s exchange rate, while maintaining a relatively steady value, a senior central bank official said Wednesday.

The comments from Yi Gang, who reiterated an assertion that the central bank — the People’s Bank of China — had reduced intervention in the foreign exchange market, emphasize the stability that Chinese policy makers want to ensure, even as they try to turn the renminbi into a more freely traded currency.

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Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/5mBTwUK-HVY/