Post #94 4 April 2016

Gentlefolk,

This post contains the News Summary for March 2016.

I compile a monthly summary of news items, with a focus on news on China.  

There is so much competition for space in Western media outlets that usually only the unusual, sensational, or bizarre gets a mention. Hopefully this summary will give you a better idea of some of the things happening in China.

The events/items included are not necessarily the headlines, but rather things which caught my eye.

The second list shows international events reported in China.  There are so many things happening around the world (information overload!), that I find it useful to have such a list to look back at. 

These news items were all sourced from the China Daily newspaper 1 – 29 March 2016. 

Actual events usually occurred a day or two before they appeared in the China Daily newspaper. 

Currency shown is US$, and the exchange rate used this month is US$1 = Yuan 6.5.

Remember: the China Daily is a government newspaper whose main purpose in life is to make the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese Government look good.  But if you strip away the propaganda, there is still quite a lot of interesting stuff in the paper. 

Events which made the news in China in March 2016

(a) Domestic (in China) events and news

1 Mar	The Govt said that protection of judges would be increased after the shooting of Ma Cai Yun of Beijing’s Changping District Court. The killer, who later committed suicide, was angry at the property settlement in his divorce.
	To boost liquidity China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, reduced the reserve ratio requirement (RRR) of banks by 50 points.
	To reduce pressure on pensions from an ageing society, the Govt announced that it is considering raising the retirement age, currently 55 for women and 60 for men. 16% of China’s population (about 230 m) are 60+ years of age.
	Baidu’s revenue in Q4 2015 was $2.9 billion; its share price rose to $176.
2 Mar	Beijing Municipal Govt said that it plans to almost double its subway by 2020. The subway now covers 554 km (18 lines, 334 stations) and is planned to be close to 1,000 km by 2020. The subway carried over 3.4 billion passengers in 2015.
3 Mar	WeChat will charge 0.1% on money transfers made via its ‘digital wallet’. Digital hongbao (red envelopes) totalling $5 billion were sent via WeChat during the Spring Festival period (7 – 12 February).
	Annual meeting of the China People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) opened in Beijing. 2,100 delegates. The meeting will conclude on 15 March.
	By 2020 27 provinces and regions will amend their hukou (household registration) requirements to give migrant workers in cities equal access to social services such as education and health care. An estimated 13 million Chinese have no hukou.
	The govt has set aside $2.5 billion to assist the almost-2 million workers expected to be laid off in industries with chronic over-capacity, mainly in shipbuilding, steel, coal and iron ore mining, and cement.
	An online survey by the China Daily listed the top concerns of respondents as: environment 15%; healthcare 12%; education 11%; corruption 10%; housing affordability 9%.
	Beijing will double the number of air quality monitoring stations in the city, from 35 to 70.
	To better target young gay men, Beijing has introduced five mobile HIV testing laboratories.  Testing will be free, and no ID will be required.  Results will be available within 15 minutes.
	134 registered marathons were run in China in 2015, up from 83 in 2104.
	The Royal No. 1 Nightclub in Zhengzhou, Henan, was busted for gambling and prostitution.  Two ‘bosses’ got life imprisonment and 85 others lesser sentences.
	China Resources will buy SAB Miller’s 49% shareholding in Snow Breweries for $1.6 billion.  In 2014 Snow had 24% of the beer market, Tsingtao 18%, Budweiser 14%, and Yanjing 12%.
	Danish company Lego will open a 1,000 sq m store near the new Shanghai Disney Resort.  Lego had worldwide revenues of $5.2 billion in 2015.
	Opening of Kung Fu movie Ip Man 3 Sword of Destiny starring Donnie Yen and Mike Tyson.   Accusations of box office fraud followed, with the producers buying tickets to inflate attendance figures.
4 Mar	China is developing a domestic aircraft industry; forty State Owned Companies (SOEs) were amalgamated to form the Aircraft Engine Corporation of China.
	An estimated 40,000 Chinese have commercial pilots licenses.
	National lottery sales (Welfare Lottery and Sports Lottery) totalled $56 billion in 2015,  4% less than in 2014. The National Audit Office has found that 25% of lottery funds were not used for designated purposes.
5 Mar	Annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) opened in Beijing; it will conclude on 16 March; main task to approve the 13th Five Year Plan (2016 – 2020).
	In 2015 China had an estimated 668 million internet users, 72% of whom were urban residents, 28% rural.
7 Mar	Discovery of a 43 year old woman’s body in an elevator in Xian.  She was trapped inside when the power was turned off by workmen before the Spring Festival break.
8 Mar	In 2014 China’s population totalled 1,368 million; 701m males and 667m females. Females represented 50% of High School students, 52% of college undergraduates, and 37% of PhD students. Life expectancy rose from 73.3 years in 2000 to 77.4 years in 2010.
10 Mar	In 2015 China’s grain production totalled 622 million tonnes, the 12th consecutive year of increased production.
14 Mar	4.09 passenger motor vehicles were sold in China in the first 2 months of 2016, and increase of 4% on the same period in 2015.
15 Mar	An estimated 7.65 million students will graduate from college in mid-2016.
16 Mar	The number of gyms increased from 2,930 in 2009 to 3,650 in 2014.
	The State Administration of Industry & Commerce said that in 2015 it received 146,000 complaints (up 87%) related to online shopping, mainly about poor quality of goods and false advertising. It closed 1,134 online shops.
	CCTV’s annual “315 Gala” program for World Consumers Day identified unlicensed vendors on online food company Ele.me platform.  This sector has grown rapidly. Ele had 34% market share, Meituan 33%, and Baidu Takeout 19%.
18 Mar	In 2015 523,700 Chinese students were studying overseas (14% up on 2014); 409,100 students returned to China after studying overseas (12% up on 2014).
19 Mar	Disney’s latest animation, Zootopia, took $127 million in its first two weeks in China.  Flash the sloth, in role of a civil servant, was a great hit.
	Mother and daughter team arrested in Jinan, Shandong for selling Category 2 vaccines which were improperly stored and/or past use-by date. They made sales totalling $88 million between 2010 and 2014. Category 1 vaccines are mandatory, and carefully controlled by the Govt; Category 2 vaccines are optional and have been less strictly controlled. Many netizens expressed anger.
21 Mar	Moodys cut its credit rating on China and its biggest banks from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’, citing rising debts and inadequate reforms.
	Winners of the 21st Century Coca Cola National English Speaking competition: Zhu Xue won the college level (there were 110,000 participants, 67 finalists); Wang Xi Wen won the High School level (500,000 participants, 172 finalists).
	In 2015 China’s exports totalled $2.2 trillion and imports $1.6 trillion (trade surplus was $59.8 billion); foreign exchange reserves end 2015 were $3.2 trillion, still by far the world’s largest.
25 Mar	The Public Security University of China has introduced a new major in “Counter terrorism Studies”.  4 year undergraduate program.
	Chinese Super League (soccer) clubs spent $373 million on buying foreign players for the 2016 season.
	Sichuan Jin Qiang (Blue Whales) won the Chinese Basketball Association championship, beating Liaoning Fei Bao 4-1.
	The Govt announced that the current 10% ‘parcel tax’ on foreign purchases would be replaced by a value-added tax.
26 Mar	To cool rising property prices, Shanghai residents who already own a home will have to put down a deposit of 50% on additional purchases; the down-payment rises to 70% on properties valued over $700,000. Shenzhen has been the hottest property market, with a rise of 53% in 12 months; average price now $6,600 per square meter.
	Shanghai Disneyland will open on 16 June 2016.  Regular tickets will cost $56, at peak times $77. Free admission for children less than 1 meter in height.
	Chinese Anti-doping Agency denied swimming cover-up following article in The Times newspaper (London).

(b) International events

1 Mar	Japan’s 2015 Census reported a total population of 127 million, a decrease of about 1 million on 2010. It was the first fall since the Census started in 1920.
	Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar at the Academy Awards, for his role in The Revanant. He is very popular in China.
3 Mar	Astronauts Scott Kelly (US) and Mikhail Kornienko (Russia) landed safely after 340 days on the International Space Station. Kelly used Twitter and Instagram to communicate with people back on earth.
4 Mar	DPRK test-fired rockets – angry at annual South Korean + US military exercises.
7 Mar	IMF estimated GDP growth figures for 2015: US 2.4%; EU 1.8%;  Japan 0.4%; China 6.9%; India 7.5%; Brazil -3.8%; Russia -3.7%. In 2015 China represented 15% of the world economy and 25% of global economic growth.
	Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won Louisiana, but Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders are still in the primaries races.
	Australia govt agreed to the purchase of Van Diemans Land Dairy Company by Moon Lake for A$280m.
8 Mar	Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos announced his retirement; he will be 40 next month. After 18 years in the NFL he retires with two Super Bowls (2007 & 2016) and 186 wins (equal with Scott Favre).
9 Mar	Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova announced that she had tested positive for meldonium/mildronate at the Australian Open in late-January. She claims to have taken it for medical purposes for 10 years. WADA added it to the banned list from 1 January 2016. She has won 5 Grand Slams; the first when she was 17 in 2004.
10 Mar	Google’s AlphaGo AI beat current world champion Go master Lee Se Dol in the first of 5 games.  AlphaGo ended up winning the contest 4-1. China’s Go champion, Ke Jie, said he might play AlphaGo next.
11 Mar	Balkan countries close off the ‘migrant’ routes to north Europe. Negotiations underway that ‘migrants’ will be returned from Greece to Turkey.
	China Railway Rolling Stock Corp won a tender to supply 846 rails cars to Chicago Transit Authority. They will be assembled in Illinois, creating 169 jobs.
12 Mar	Highest earning actors & actresses in 2015: Robert Downey Jr ($80m); Jackie Chan ($50m); Vin Diesel ($47m); Bradley Cooper ($42m); Adam Sandler ($41m); Jennifer Lawrence ($52m); Scarlett Johansson ($35m); Melissa McCarthy ($23m); Fan Bing Bing ($21m); Jennifer Aniston ($17m).
15 Mar	Suicide car bombing in Ankara, Turkey, killed 37 and injured 100+. The following week, another bombing in Istanbul; five dead, dozens injured.
	Angela Merkel’s CDU Party lost ground in three regional elections in Germany.
	Big protests in Brazil to indict ex-President Lula on corruption charges.  Current President Dilma Rousseff appointed Lula to her Cabinet, causing more controversy.
	Lin Dan beat Tian Hou Wei to win his 6th All England Badminton men’s singles title. It was the only title won by Chinese players this time, their worst result for more than a decade.
16 Mar	Hou Yi Fan beat Maria Murzychuk to become the Womens World Chess Champion. Her 3rd time, she first won the title in 2010 at the age of 16.
	World Happiness Report by Gallup ranked 150 countries. First was Denmark, then Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, The Netherlands, NZ, Australia, and Sweden. USA was #13, Indonesia #79, China #83, India #118.
18 Mar	Chinese company Midea will pay $1 billion for a majority share-holding in Toshiba’s white goods business. Huawei recruited Lionel Messi as a brand ambassador for their mobile phones.
19 Mar	Opening of the joint Sino-USA Center of Excellence on Nuclear Strategy and Security in Beijing. China has 30 nuclear reactors in operation (installed capacity 29 gigawatts) and 24 under construction.
21 Mar	President Obama and family make official visit to Cuba, the first visit by an American President for 88 years. The following week, the Rolling Stones held a free concert in Havana.
23 Mar	Terrorist bombs at two locations in Brussels: Airport and Subway.
	Lancang Mekong Cooperation Meeting in Hainan – leaders of the countries along the Mekong River (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, China). China offered $1.5 billion in cheap loans for infrastructure projects. The river starts in China where it is called the Lancang River.
	The annual BOAO Business Forum meets in Hainan. Theme “New dynamics, new vision”. Bob Hawke, 86, attended.
	Taxi drivers in Jakarta stage violent anti-Uber protest.
	Apple launched the iPhone SE, smaller, cheaper.
25 Mar	Debris, ‘almost certainly from MH370’, found on the coast of Mozambique.
	More than 2 million New Zealanders voted 57% – 43% to keep current flag design.
26 Mar	ChinaChem announced $43b takeover bid for Swiss agricultural company Syngenta.
	David Beckham’s company bought land in Miami as site for his new soccer team/stadium.
	Johan Cruyff, renowned Dutch soccer player, died of cancer at 68. He has been likened to Pele, Maradona, and Platini.
28 Mar	President Xi Jin Ping made an official visit to Czech Republic, before going on to Washington DC to attend the Nuclear Security Summit.
31 Mar	Suicide bomb in public park in Lahore, Pakistan killed at least 76, many injured.
	Fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

…

Best wishes to you all, keep well and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah

English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao

www.upc.edu.cn

Monday 4 April 2016