Chinese Economics Thread

Yvrch

Junior Member
Registered Member
Finally, fourth time is a charm.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


China Secures MSCI Inclusion as $6.9 Trillion Market Goes Global
By
Sam Mamudi
and
Ben Bartenstein
June 20, 2017, 5:47 PM GMT-3 June 20, 2017, 8:48 PM GMT-3
  • Index compiler gives the nod after three years of rejection
  • China has opened further to foreigners with Shenzhen link

MSCI Approves China A-Shares Inclusion

China’s domestic equities will join
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
’s benchmark indexes after three failed attempts, a landmark step in the nation’s integration with the global financial system.

The decision, announced by the New York-based index compiler on Tuesday, will give China’s $6.9 trillion stock market a bigger role in everything from exchange-traded funds to 401(k) retirement plans. It also advances President Xi Jinping’s ambitions to make the yuan a global currency.

640x-1.jpg

play-076012604d.svg

MSCI CEO Fernandez Speaks on Bloomberg TV About the Decision to Add China Stocks to the Benchmark Indexes

(Source: Bloomberg)
While China’s locally-traded A shares will comprise just 0.7 percent of MSCI’s global emerging-markets gauge, with 222 companies being added, the weighting could increase over time if the country enacts further reforms. The inclusion will be done in two steps: the first in May 2018 and the second in August of next year.

Follow our TOPLive blog on MSCI’s Annual Market Classification Review

“International investors have embraced the positive changes in the accessibility of the China A shares market over the last few years and now all conditions are set for MSCI to proceed with the first step of the inclusion,” Remy Briand, the managing director and chairman of the MSCI Index Policy Committee, said in a statement.

Also Tuesday, MSCI put off decisions on whether to reclassify Argentina as an emerging market and to demote Nigeria to standalone status. It included Saudi Arabia on its watch list for potential classification as an emerging market.

The inclusion of Chinese shares punctuates an extraordinary period during which the country has sought to enter the mainstream of international finance while still maintaining a semblance of control over its markets. Since MSCI first considered adding Chinese shares to its indexes in 2014, the market has experienced an epic boom and bust, a bout of heavy-handed government intervention and -- more encouragingly for foreign investors -- a steady stream of initiatives to connect local exchanges to the outside world.

The MSCI inclusion "will provide a modest boost to sentiment and flows into China," said David Loevinger, a former China specialist at the U.S. Treasury who is now an analyst at fund manager TCW Group Inc. in Los Angeles. "More importantly it strengthens Chinese reformers that want to open China’s markets. The small index weight looks like a compromise between those asset managers that wanted China in and out."

MSCI’s announcement provided a small fillip to the offshore yuan and a bigger boost to U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds, with the Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF jumping as much as 3 percent in post-market trading.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


MSCI, which has been working directly with China’s securities regulator to resolve hurdles to inclusion since at least 2015, helped bridge the gap between Beijing and reluctant global asset managers with a less ambitious proposal unveiled in
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

To address investor concerns about the number of suspended shares, stocks halted for more than 50 days in the past 12 months weren’t eligible for inclusion. All companies to be added are large-cap shares accessible to foreigners through China’s cross-border exchange links with Hong Kong, including those with dual-listings.

"The next inclusion is probably going to have a larger inclusion factor -- it was 5% of the market cap of those large capitalization stocks -- and potentially, as well, the inclusion of the mid caps," Henry Fernandez, chief executive officer of MSCI,
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
in a Bloomberg Television interview. "The second category is something that we’re very focused on, we’d like to expand the universe of shares that are available to international investors."

The addition of mid-cap shares would depend on factors included improved accessibility to China’s stock market for overseas investors, the relaxation of daily trading limits, progress on trading suspensions and easing of restrictions on the creation of index-linked investment vehicles, according to MSCI’s
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

International money managers can now buy and sell more than 1,400 domestic Chinese stocks after authorities opened the Shenzhen Connect in December, about six months after last year’s MSCI
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. The first link with Shanghai started in late 2014.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


Inclusion in MSCI indexes will spur about $8 billion to $10 billion more in fund flows to China’s A shares, according to Lucy Qiu, an analyst at UBS Wealth Management’s Chief Investment Office, which oversees strategy for $2.2 trillion in assets.

"Over the long term, assuming further liberalization and regulatory reform of the mainland stock markets, the depth of China’s A-share market could mean China gains substantial weight within those broader indices," said Nick Beecroft, an Asian equity portfolio specialist at T. Rowe Price.

Given their tiny initial weighting, domestic Chinese shares will be dwarfed by the nation’s overseas-traded stocks. The country already has the largest position in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, thanks to Hong Kong-listed companies like Bank of China Ltd. that joined the gauge years ago. The country’s dominance has only increased recently with the addition of U.S.-traded firms including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


In 2017, internationally-listed Chinese stocks have proven a better bet than their local counterparts. The MSCI China Index has advanced 25 percent, trouncing a 1.2 percent gain in the Shanghai Composite Index.

1000x-1.png

For many investors, China’s local shares represent the future. Not only is the market massive -- the second-biggest worldwide after America’s -- it’s also home to many of the companies most aligned with China’s consumer and service industries, which are seen as key drivers of the $11 trillion economy’s long-term expansion. And while the yuan has been under pressure recently, so-called A shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen give global investors exposure to a currency that’s likely to play a growing role as China expands its economic clout overseas.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


"This is the start of a process through which Chinese equities will achieve a prominence in global investors’ portfolios that reflects the size and significance of China’s domestic stock market and its economy," Helen Wong, HSBC’s Chief Executive of Greater China, said in a statement.
 

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
Ford Focus is a good car I had it for 10 years and run like new Now ford is updating the design and will built world class factory in China instead of US or Mexico.The Chinese car has ARRIVED
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Ford’s Signal to the Auto World: Here Comes China


By
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
JUNE 21, 2017

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
Share This Page
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
’s plans to build its
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, rather than Michigan or Mexico, is a milestone in China’s automotive rise. Chinese auto industry leaders praised the move as long-awaited confirmation that the country’s factories have become as efficient and high-quality as those in the United States and Europe.

The question now is how political leaders greet the development, amid rising skepticism in the United States over Chinese trade policies and the benefits of free trade in general. Though the White House so far has been muted in its reaction to Ford’s move, President Trump in particular was strongly critical of Chinese trade policies during his campaign last year. China’s high tariffs on imported cars and auto parts have already emerged as
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
e

“Ford’s moving production to China shows China’s competitiveness in manufacturing is continuously increasing and our industrial supply chain is improving,” said Cui Dongshu, the secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, a government-backed trade group in Beijing. “But this is obviously against Trump’s policies — it is quite complicated and may cause some friction in Sino-American trade in the future.

China represents a competitive challenge and a profitable opportunity for American carmakers.China is already the world’s largest automaker, with annual car production roughly equal to that of the United States and Japan combined. Chinese players have long wanted to develop underused factories dotting major cities to increase production and export the excess.

For years, it has been a quixotic dream. Such factories tend to churn out lower-quality, domestic-brand rides that would not pass muster with American or European consumers.

But China is angling for a big share of the future. Beijing has put very heavy pressure on Western automakers to transfer their latest, most cutting-edge technology to China as a condition of doing business. Many companies, including Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford, have plans to shift more research and development to China, particularly around
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

China has an increasingly global auto presence. General Motors began exporting the Buick Envision compact sport utility vehicle to the United States last year, although the Envision is a much lower-volume model than the Focus. Volvo, which is owned by a Chinese company, started exporting S60 sedans from China to the United States in 2015, while Cadillac this spring started shipping its Shanghai-made CT6 Plug-in hybrid to the United States.

Ford’s decision will significantly ramp up the country’s car exports. The Focus would more than triple China’s exports of fully built cars to the United States.

As a manufacturing base, China holds strong appeal for Detroit’s automakers. Auto factory pay in China is similar or slightly higher than in Mexico at around $1,250 a month, including government-mandated benefits like contributions to savings funds with which workers can buy housing. Overtime adds roughly $300 a month. But that pay is much lower than in the United States, where workers earn several times as much even before overtime.

Auto parts are also much cheaper in China than in the United States, because labor tends to be a larger share of the cost than final assembly. The global auto parts industry has shifted much of its production to China, partly because of low costs and partly because China’s steep tariffs make it impossible for multinational manufacturers to compete in the Chinese market unless they produce in China.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
And quality is high at Chinese factories run by Western carmakers.

Global automakers already have built some of their most modern factories in China. A Ford factory in Hangzhou
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. A somewhat smaller General Motors factory in Shanghai has 530 robots that make Cadillacs with all-aluminum bodies — one of the latest and toughest manufacturing challenges even in the West.

G.M.’s China-made Buick Envision ranks slightly above average in initial quality surveys of American consumers among 13 compact sport utility vehicles, according to J.D. Power and Associates, the international quality rating company. The top three concerns of the Envision’s American buyers involved the ease of use of its voice recognition system and other consumer electronics — concerns indicating that American consumers were basically satisfied with the actual car.

Chinese domestic automakers still lag in quality surveys. But among the global brands, cars made in China come from assembly lines that are identical in almost every respect to factories in the West — except that the factories in China, because they are new, tend to be more automated. Jeff Cai, the general manager of the China automotive practice at J.D. Power, said that the relative newness of Chinese factories tended to balance out the limited experience and high turnover of Chinese workers.

“In terms of the building quality,” he said, “it’s pretty similar.”

Industry insiders fear that all the auto factory capacity will encourage China to increase exports if homegrown demand slows down. Thanks to a cut in sales taxes last year, car sales in China in 2016 grew by an amount almost equal to the entire Japanese market. That helped absorb some of China’s overcapacity. But with the partial expiration early this year of the sales tax cut, demand is starting to slow.

Ford’s sales in China in the first five months of this year were down 11 percent from the same period last year. But Sinead Phipps, a Ford spokeswoman, denied any connection to the new export plans.

“We’ve made the decision because it allows us to reduce global Focus production by one plant, improve the health of our Focus business, save $1 billion in investment costs and further improve our scale in China,” she said.

The Chinese government is so worried about overcapacity that in June it tightened the approval process for any further auto assembly plants. But automakers are still rushing partially built factories to completion.

Ford’s decision could shift work away from American auto parts factories, which are heavily concentrated in Ohio, Indiana and southern Michigan. The Focus made in Michigan currently has 40 percent of its parts manufactured in the United States and another 26 percent in Mexico, where business activity tends to involve a lot of materials imported from the United States. By contrast, United States government data shows that only 2 percent of the Envision’s parts come from the United States.

Ford was a relative laggard in China compared with G.M. for many years. Today, it is increasingly part of an industry shift across the Pacific to China. Shortly before he was replaced last month as Ford’s chief executive, Mark Fields said in Shanghai, “You can see from our series of announcements, we are not holding back.”
 

Equation

Lieutenant General
Ford Focus is a good car I had it for 10 years and run like new Now ford is updating the design and will built world class factory in China instead of US or Mexico.The Chinese car has ARRIVED
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Ford’s Signal to the Auto World: Here Comes China


By
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
JUNE 21, 2017

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
Share This Page
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
’s plans to build its
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, rather than Michigan or Mexico, is a milestone in China’s automotive rise. Chinese auto industry leaders praised the move as long-awaited confirmation that the country’s factories have become as efficient and high-quality as those in the United States and Europe.

The question now is how political leaders greet the development, amid rising skepticism in the United States over Chinese trade policies and the benefits of free trade in general. Though the White House so far has been muted in its reaction to Ford’s move, President Trump in particular was strongly critical of Chinese trade policies during his campaign last year. China’s high tariffs on imported cars and auto parts have already emerged as
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
e

“Ford’s moving production to China shows China’s competitiveness in manufacturing is continuously increasing and our industrial supply chain is improving,” said Cui Dongshu, the secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, a government-backed trade group in Beijing. “But this is obviously against Trump’s policies — it is quite complicated and may cause some friction in Sino-American trade in the future.

China represents a competitive challenge and a profitable opportunity for American carmakers.China is already the world’s largest automaker, with annual car production roughly equal to that of the United States and Japan combined. Chinese players have long wanted to develop underused factories dotting major cities to increase production and export the excess.

For years, it has been a quixotic dream. Such factories tend to churn out lower-quality, domestic-brand rides that would not pass muster with American or European consumers.

But China is angling for a big share of the future. Beijing has put very heavy pressure on Western automakers to transfer their latest, most cutting-edge technology to China as a condition of doing business. Many companies, including Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford, have plans to shift more research and development to China, particularly around
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

China has an increasingly global auto presence. General Motors began exporting the Buick Envision compact sport utility vehicle to the United States last year, although the Envision is a much lower-volume model than the Focus. Volvo, which is owned by a Chinese company, started exporting S60 sedans from China to the United States in 2015, while Cadillac this spring started shipping its Shanghai-made CT6 Plug-in hybrid to the United States.

Ford’s decision will significantly ramp up the country’s car exports. The Focus would more than triple China’s exports of fully built cars to the United States.

As a manufacturing base, China holds strong appeal for Detroit’s automakers. Auto factory pay in China is similar or slightly higher than in Mexico at around $1,250 a month, including government-mandated benefits like contributions to savings funds with which workers can buy housing. Overtime adds roughly $300 a month. But that pay is much lower than in the United States, where workers earn several times as much even before overtime.

Auto parts are also much cheaper in China than in the United States, because labor tends to be a larger share of the cost than final assembly. The global auto parts industry has shifted much of its production to China, partly because of low costs and partly because China’s steep tariffs make it impossible for multinational manufacturers to compete in the Chinese market unless they produce in China.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
And quality is high at Chinese factories run by Western carmakers.

Global automakers already have built some of their most modern factories in China. A Ford factory in Hangzhou
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. A somewhat smaller General Motors factory in Shanghai has 530 robots that make Cadillacs with all-aluminum bodies — one of the latest and toughest manufacturing challenges even in the West.

G.M.’s China-made Buick Envision ranks slightly above average in initial quality surveys of American consumers among 13 compact sport utility vehicles, according to J.D. Power and Associates, the international quality rating company. The top three concerns of the Envision’s American buyers involved the ease of use of its voice recognition system and other consumer electronics — concerns indicating that American consumers were basically satisfied with the actual car.

Chinese domestic automakers still lag in quality surveys. But among the global brands, cars made in China come from assembly lines that are identical in almost every respect to factories in the West — except that the factories in China, because they are new, tend to be more automated. Jeff Cai, the general manager of the China automotive practice at J.D. Power, said that the relative newness of Chinese factories tended to balance out the limited experience and high turnover of Chinese workers.

“In terms of the building quality,” he said, “it’s pretty similar.”

Industry insiders fear that all the auto factory capacity will encourage China to increase exports if homegrown demand slows down. Thanks to a cut in sales taxes last year, car sales in China in 2016 grew by an amount almost equal to the entire Japanese market. That helped absorb some of China’s overcapacity. But with the partial expiration early this year of the sales tax cut, demand is starting to slow.

Ford’s sales in China in the first five months of this year were down 11 percent from the same period last year. But Sinead Phipps, a Ford spokeswoman, denied any connection to the new export plans.

“We’ve made the decision because it allows us to reduce global Focus production by one plant, improve the health of our Focus business, save $1 billion in investment costs and further improve our scale in China,” she said.

The Chinese government is so worried about overcapacity that in June it tightened the approval process for any further auto assembly plants. But automakers are still rushing partially built factories to completion.

Ford’s decision could shift work away from American auto parts factories, which are heavily concentrated in Ohio, Indiana and southern Michigan. The Focus made in Michigan currently has 40 percent of its parts manufactured in the United States and another 26 percent in Mexico, where business activity tends to involve a lot of materials imported from the United States. By contrast, United States government data shows that only 2 percent of the Envision’s parts come from the United States.

Ford was a relative laggard in China compared with G.M. for many years. Today, it is increasingly part of an industry shift across the Pacific to China. Shortly before he was replaced last month as Ford’s chief executive, Mark Fields said in Shanghai, “You can see from our series of announcements, we are not holding back.”

Don't forget Tesla is setting up a factory in China as well.;)

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 

Attachments

  • upload_2017-6-21_17-18-45.png
    upload_2017-6-21_17-18-45.png
    30.5 KB · Views: 1
  • upload_2017-6-21_17-19-3.png
    upload_2017-6-21_17-19-3.png
    30.5 KB · Views: 1
now I read
Economic Watch: China's sharing economy facing more market competition, government support
Xinhua| 2017-06-22 16:37:39
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


China's sharing economy is facing mixed prospects for growth: market competition is increasing and weighing on players, while the government is trying to offer more support to create an enabling environment.

Bicycle-sharing, representative of China's popular sharing economy, has been making headlines in the past week. Wukongbike, a bicycle-sharing app developed by a Chongqing-based company, announced it will stop service on June 13, citing rising cost burdens due to lost bikes. It is the first bicycle-sharing market player to be pressured out of the sector.

The two bicycle-sharing giants Ofo and Mobike also face many uncertainties in the future despite having deep pockets, as their respective major investors Monday debated online over which firm will take the lead.

About 30 bike-sharing brands have sprung up in China, placing millions of bicycles on streets around the country and attracting over 100 million users.

"The bicycle-sharing sector is now undergoing a reshuffle and weak players might be forced out of the market by the end of this year," according to Wang Chenxi, analyst with Analysys, a domestic data analysis provider.

While the market can be cold-hearted, the good news is that the central government has decided to nurture the sharing economy's sustainable growth.

The State Council, China's cabinet, Wednesday announced its decision to facilitate the healthy development of the sharing economy, amid its efforts to boost mass innovation and entrepreneurship.

The sector will enjoy easier access, greater policy transparency, and better protection of legitimate rights of platform companies, resources providers, and consumers, according to the statement released after the State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

These moves will help mass innovation and entrepreneurship thrive, create more jobs and provide more diverse and efficient services at a lower cost, the statement noted.

"We should give credit to the sharing economy as a reinvigorating force in China's economic growth," Li said.

Entrepreneurs are encouraged to explore the sharing economy, while the authorities aim to adjust administrative approval and business registration procedures in light of new business models.

Authorities are tasked with improving public services in terms of data sharing, government service procurement, urban planning and resources management innovation, the statement said.

Financial institutions are encouraged to provide innovative services and products tailored to the demands of companies in the sector while cutting edge companies are encouraged to go global, establish their presence and build their brand name.

Sharing, whether bicycles, automobiles, property or any other asset, has become popular in China, as people seek to make their lives easier and save resources.

The trading volume of China's sharing economy more than doubled year on year to 3.45 trillion yuan (about 505 billion U.S. dollars) last year, according to a report released by the State Information Center.

The sharing economy will grow at an average annual rate of 40 percent over the next few years and will account for more than 10 percent of the country's GDP by 2020, the center predicted.

The rapid development of the sharing economy also bring challenges for urban management. For example, haphazardly parked shared bikes has led to congested city sidewalks.

The Ministry of Transport (MOT) issued draft rules last month requiring real-name registration for the bike-sharing service while urging local governments to better manage bike sharing and arrange for orderly parking.

"The regulation of sharing economy should be tolerant while prudent, as there is still much yet to be learnt about new business models. We should avoid simply applying traditional methodology on sharing economy," Li said.
 

Equation

Lieutenant General
China has the potential to safely sustain strong 6+% GDP growth over the medium term
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
| June 21, 2017 |
2ce9f587cdad50507483c4850d1fc32d-730x430.png



Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


The First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund David Lipton said the IMF was confident that China will once again find its way through the challenges ahead. China has the potential to safely sustain strong growth over the medium term.

ADVERTISING
While some near-term risks have receded, reform progress needs to accelerate.

specific recommendations build on the progress achieved and the government’s existing reform agenda. In particular:

China needs to further boost consumption . Continued increases in public spending on health, pensions, education, and transfers to poor households would reduce excessive precautionary savings and, combined with making the tax system more progressive and greener, would boost growth while reducing China’s high income inequality and pollution.

To increase the role of market forces, the existing reform agenda for state-owned enterprises (SOE) should be accelerated and broadened to include phasing out implicit support and increasing tolerance for default and exit. Building on recent announcements, barriers to entry should be removed, especially in the highly closed service sector. Efforts to reduce overcapacity should have more ambitious targets both in the coal and steel sectors and in other sectors, with greater reliance on market forces.

A more sustainable macro-policy mix would include focusing more on the quality and sustainability of growth and less on quantitative targets, a gradual fiscal consolidation, and less accommodative monetary policy. To reduce nonfinancial sector debt, the focus should be on greater recognition of losses, especially of underperforming SOEs and zombie enterprises. Reducing the flow of new debt and increasing its efficiency requires cutting off-budget public investment and imposing hard budget constraints on SOEs.

The critically important recent focus on tackling financial sector risks should continue, even if it entails some financial tensions and slower growth. We will have more detailed analysis and recommendations on the financial sector in our five-yearly Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) review, which we expect to be completed by the end of the year.

The old IMF GDP forecast projected

2ce9f587cdad50507483c4850d1fc32d-1024x930.png


If the new forecast were realized then China might be about $15.3 trillion in 2020 or about three times the size of Japan GDP.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 

PiSigma

"the engineer"
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
China can keep up 6%+ for a decade easily.

Also 6.7% growth in absolute values in first yr is 1009467, whereas 6.4% in 2nd yr is 1133224. So it is actually growing more on absolute basis. Considering population is not growing that much or at all, 6.4% is actually more. The greatness of compounded growth!

If we consider economies like USA, China and India, very minor growth is pretty much adding whole small countries of economy to it every year.
 

Equation

Lieutenant General
This will bad news for all those haters and doubters that likes to point out how China and the CPC is not doing enough to combat pollution.:D

China’s blueprint to clean lakes and stop algae blooms is working
BY
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
June 22, 2017 at 12:59 PM EDT
Chaohu-Lake_RTR24QAT-1024x681.jpg

A fisherman fills his cupped palms with water from the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 16, 2009. The country has invested $116 billion towards projects and regulations aimed at curbing water pollution since 2006. Photo by REUTERS/Stringer

China is making significant headway in preventing toxic algal blooms, by decreasing a pollutant — phosphorus — in its lakes.

Phosphorus, a mineral and an ingredient in farm fertilizer runoff that can prompt algae to multiply, dropped 60 percent in Chinese lakes from 2006 to 2014, according to a new study that analyzed 862 lakes across the country. By showing where Chinese water pollution policies succeeded and where they fell short, this study offers a blueprint for other industrializing and developing nations, where algal blooms threaten drinking water, kill aquatic life and pose dangers to children, pets and livestock.

The researchers point to the Chinese government’s efforts to reduce water pollution as the main catalyst for the decline.

“We wanted to check the long term trend of phosphorus concentrations of Chinese water bodies in terms of the five-year plans in China,” said Yan Lin, a scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research and an author of
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

In the most populated areas, in eastern and middle China, the most successful measures have been improved sanitation in the urban and rural residential areas.
Every five years, China reviews and revises its national plan to control water pollution. According to Lin’s study, 34 laws or regulations targeting domestic and industrial wastewater discharges have been issued from the China State Council and the Ministry of Environmental Protection since 2006.The Chinese Central Government has also invested upwards of $116 billion on these controls.

Lin’s team examined phosphorous levels in four parts of the country — eastern, middle, western and northeastern China — taking population density, economic development and geographic characteristics into how they demarcated the regions.

Each area saw unique changes based on implemented government policies.

“In the most populated areas, in eastern and middle China, the most successful measures have been improved sanitation in the urban and rural residential areas,” Lin said. Household waste is a major contributor of phosphorus to the environment. Washing machine detergents, dishwasher soap and personal care products contain phosphorous that readily seeps into water supplies.

Taihu-Lake_RTR1ZJDY-1024x683.jpg

Ducks swim in the algae-filled Taihu Lake in Huzhou, Zhejiang province on April 16, 2008. Since then, this lake in eastern China has witnessed a significant drop in phosphorous pollution, which spawns algae blooms. Photo by REUTERS/Stringer

While improved sanitation reduced phosphorous in western China too, the study argued further gains could have been achieved with policies aimed at agriculture and aquaculture. Most phosphorus in that area comes from big crop and livestock farms as well as the phosphate chemical industry, such as companies that mine phosphate deposits for sale on the global fertilizer market.

Any policies that keep phosphorus in the soil and soil on the ground will decrease phosphorus runoff into aquatic systems, said Jessica Corman, an
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
who was not involved in the study. Human activities like deforestation, overgrazing and overcropping can loosen soil and make it prone to erosion by wind and rain. Erosion can then carry phosphorus in the soil into nearby water bodies.

Farmers should only use fertilizer when they need it, and be efficient in their use to avoid waste
Farmers should only use fertilizer when they need it, and be efficient in their use to avoid waste, Corman said.

But it’s difficult to make sure all farmers are following specific policies, Lin said.

“There are guidelines for farmers on how to do fertilization. However, it is hard to control every single farmer as strictly as point sources like wastewater treatment plants. It is impossible to check every single farmer’s practices,” said Lin. “We suggest that different regions in China should have more flexibilities to develop their own strategies.”

Meanwhile, northeastern China is bucking the national trend. Phosphorous levels increased in the region over the study period, but researchers are unsure why. Many lakes in northeastern China have low nutrient levels, so the increase in phosphorus could be part of a natural shift.

Sign up to get our Science email
We'll explore the wide worlds of science, health and technology with content from our science squad and other places we're finding news.
Email Address

Another explanation, Lin argued, could be extra rainfall due to climate change. When combined with the area’s heavy deforestation, precipitation can cause soil erosion and wash naturally occurring phosphorus in the dirt into into lakes and streams. Substantial amounts of phosphorus may have also entered the atmosphere in northeastern China due to atmospheric deposition — where weather patterns launch loose soil particles including phosphorous into the sky, which then return to the ground via rain, snow and fog.

A guidebook for other nations?

China is not the only country attempting to control the levels of phosphorus in its waters.

Lake Erie suffered from a massive algal bloom in 2014, due high phosphorous levels, which caused a water crisis in Toledo, Ohio. Phosphorous continues to plague the region’s water supply, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that phosphorus levels to
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. Lakes often retain phosphorous for years and algal blooms, which
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, are becoming more frequent in coastal areas worldwide, including the Gulf of Mexico, along West Coast and in the Mediterranean. The event typically happens in the hotter summer months.

But the United States and Europe are still ahead of China because they implemented policies to clean up lakes in the 1970s, though the U.S. did not start monitoring lake conditions until the
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
program was introduced in 2007. In the United States, median phosphorus levels in lakes hover around 20 micrograms per cubic liter. In Europe, 40 micrograms per cubic liter. In 2006, 22 percent of Chinese lakes had over 200 micrograms of phosphorus per cubic liter — four times the threshold for a harmful algal bloom, according to Lin’s study. Though by 2014, only 7 percent of those lakes contained more than 200 micrograms per cubic liter and the median level hovered around 51 micrgrams per liter, meaning China’s water bodies are improving but there is a long way to go.

Chaohu_RTX1J2T8-1024x649.jpg

China still has a long way to go toward hindering algal blooms, as evidenced by this worker trying to clear blue-green algae from Chaohu Lake, Hefei, Anhui province, China on July 4, 2015. Photo by REUTERS/Stringer CHINA OUT.

Corman said governments need to rethink their consumption of phosphorous because of the depletion of the resource in the world’s biggest mines, such as those in
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
,
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
and
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. Less phosphorous means less fertilizer and food shortages.

In 2008, fertilizer prices skyrocketed, as
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. The fertilizer price spike played a major role in a
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
to food riots in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

“So thinking about phosphorus as a resource and not just as a pollutant – that shift of thinking might help create more holistic policies that have multiple benefits for food security and water quality,” Corman said.

The next step for China’s next step is keeping its phosphorous levels low, while also monitoring levels of nitrogen–another chemical that can also disrupt ecosystems and cause algal blooms.

“I’m eager to see what happens in these lakes over the next 10 to 15 years,” Corman said.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
I now read
Government debt risk under control: official
Xinhua| 2017-06-23 22:46:02
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

China's government debt risk is "largely controllable" and authorities have rolled out new measures to strengthen local government debt management, Zhang Shaochun, vice minister of finance, said Friday.

Zhang made the remarks when delivering a State Council report on the final accounts for 2016 to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) during its bi-monthly session.

"Fresh steps have been taken to better manage China's local government debt, with strengthened supervision efforts on local financing platforms and the establishment of cross-department surveillance and risk prevention schemes," Zhang said.

By the end of last year, combined debt of central and local governments in China stood at 27.3 trillion yuan (about 4 trillion U.S. dollars), with a debt-to-GDP ratio at around 36.7 percent, official data showed.

The central government was improving the information disclosure of local government financing activities and continued to hold officials accountable for illegal financing activities, he added.

Public-private-partnerships will also be carried out in a more standardized manner, he stressed.

Chinese financial regulators are increasing financial risk control and deleveraging, as solid economic growth in the first quarter provided more room for such adjustments, conducive to long-term growth.

Central government departments in 2016 spent 4.83 billion yuan on the "three public consumptions": overseas trips, vehicles and receptions, down 10.2 percent from 2015, Zhang said.
 
now I read
China Focus: Xi's Shanxi tour steps up war on poverty
Xinhua| 2017-06-24 23:06:34
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

While China has seen 55.64 million rural people lifted out of poverty in more than four years, "abject poverty" remains, and so President Xi Jinping has put himself on the frontline.

Abject poverty persists in areas around old revolutionary bases, ethnic minority regions, border areas, and places with poor infrastructure, delicate environmental conditions and frequent natural disasters.

A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB

The Lyuliang mountain region in north China's Shanxi Province is just such an area. It was an important staging-post on Xi's visit to Shanxi from Wednesday to Friday.

In Zhaojiawa, a hillside village of mud huts, on Wednesday morning, Xi went into a hut and took a seat on the kang, a brick bed heated by fire, once widely used in the countryside but rarely seen nowadays.

"Let's chat," Xi said to Liu Fuyou and his wife, both over 70 years old, inviting them to sit beside him on the kang.

"Are you still able to do farm work? Is the drought serious this year? Your children work away from the village. Do they help you out?" the President asked.

"Our family made less than 7,000 yuan (1,024 U.S. dollars) last year. We earned about 500 yuan by growing grain. The rest came from the government," said Liu, who lives with his 92-year-old mother. His five children left the village when they married.

Xi turned to local officials: "What are you doing for this family? How many such cases are there in this county?"

"We are ready to resettle them in a better area. There are 3,537 people in 115 villages in similar situations," answered Wang Zhidong, Party chief of Kelan County which administers Zhaojiawa.

"How much will be spent on the resettlement? What are the new houses like? What will the villagers do after relocation?" Xi continued. His questions were every bit as detailed in another two households.

Precision is a key word in Xi's war on poverty, taking the right measures, at the right time, in the right way, according to the situation .

China has set 2020 as the target year to finish building a moderately prosperous society, which means complete eradication of poverty. The task becomes more difficult and costly as the process nears its end.

There must be better support and more effective measures, Xi told a symposium in Taiyuan, Shanxi's capital on Friday.

The central authorities coordinate the entire program, provinces take responsibility, while cities and counties ensure implementation of policies. Party and government chiefs hold the responsibility for all the work.

People stricken by extreme poverty must join the "moderately prosperous society" along with the rest of the nation, Xi said.

ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS

Lyuliang was just the latest stop on Xi's tour of the most needy regions since becoming general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in 2012.

In Xi's mind, if rural China, particularly those impoverished areas, is left behind, there will be no "moderately prosperous society."

The CPC must put people first and use socialism to concentrate resources and accomplish big things, Xi said during the tour.

"The Party and government serve the people. It is our duty to give people better lives," he said.

At Zhaojiawa, Xi visited the office of the poverty-alleviation team.

The office is in an abandoned mud shack, once occupied by villagers who had left the village. On the wall were charts and analyses.

"The team work and live here. We will not leave until the village is free of poverty," said Jia Yuchun, the county official in charge of the work.

Like Jia, more than 770,000 officials from government, universities, state-owned enterprises and civil associations work hard in the countryside across the nation.

"The policies of the CPC Central Committee are in line with the situation. As long as we implement the policies, progress can be made," Jia said when responding to Xi's questions on the difficulties of the job.

At Songjiagou New Village in Kelan County, Xi trudged through the rain to see the new houses for those to be relocated. Roads, water, broadband and cable televisions are in place. Schools, clinics, public squares and libraries have been built.

"I lived in the shack with no water. Now I live in a new house without having spent any money," said villager Zhang Guiming. "The CPC cares for me. I will always stand by the CPC."

Xi said it was just the first step. People must really settle down and become comfortable after relocation.

"The CPC Central Committee can lead the people to unite to shake off poverty and become comfortable," Xi told the villagers and called on them to, "roll up your sleeves and work harder, together with the CPC Central Committee."

A FOE THAT CAN BE DEFEATED

By 2020 people in rural areas should have no more worries about food and clothing, be guaranteed education, basic medical care and housing. Disposable income will increase faster than the national average. All the rural population will rise above the poverty line.

The government should focus more on the poorest areas in terms of funds and programs. Public services, infrastructure and medical care must be guaranteed, Xi told the symposium attended by Party chiefs of Qinghai, Shanxi and Yunnan, as well as Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Party chiefs of some poverty-stricken prefectures, cities and counties also attended to report on their progress.

Xi talked about developing industries that benefit people in the poorest areas. Transportation, water resources and ecological protection should engage as many poor people as possible.

The rich east of the country and central government departments must do more, he said, adding that efforts should be made to prevent corruption and fraud.

"As long as we pay great attention, think correctly, take effective measures and work in a down to earth way, abject poverty is absolutely conquerable," Xi said.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
marked:
FXRax.jpg
 

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
It is not easy to eradicate poverty in isolated village with no road and services. The last mile is the hardest
They try to move people from those isolated place in put it into new village that can be better service But where is the job? And these people has no other skill other farming
Japan has been successful in developing specialized product agriculture,tourism, etc
 
Top