Today’s Links:
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT *
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT1. Made in China: Beijing plans new wave of state firm consolidation | Reuters China is poised to embark on a fresh round of industrial consolidation, as part of a sweeping plan to reinvigorate the country’s inefficient state-owned enterprises and raise the global competitiveness of domestic industry. The initiative, dubbed “Made in China 2025″, focuses on promoting key sectors, led by railways and nuclear power plant construction, in offshore markets, in Beijing’s latest move to create leading international giants.
Related: China Prepares Mergers for Big State-Owned Enterprises – WSJ China’s leadership is preparing to radically consolidate the country’s bloated state-owned sector, telling thousands of enterprises that they need to rely less on state life support and get themselves ready to list on public markets. Economic slowdown has heightened the imperative to eke better returns out of the state firms that tower over China’s economy, from the giants that dominate oil, banking and other strategic sectors, to smaller ones that run hotels and make toothpaste. But instead of scaling back their role, as called for by economists both inside and outside China, the plan could tighten the state’s grip over economic activity and make already inflated behemoths even bigger.
Related: 经济参考网 -中石油混改大步推至上游核心区: 民营资本对高技术、高投资、高风险行业特性持谨慎态度 2015年，中石油的混合所有制改革终于迈开大步。《经济参考报》记者两会期间独家获悉，中石油已敲定新疆为勘探开发领域混改试点，将拿出区内油田区块不超过49%的股权引入地方资本，目前其旗下第三大油田塔里木油田塔中区块已与新疆能源集团及阿克苏地区政府签订合作协议，马上将进入实施阶段，其他拟出让区块的合资开发也正在洽谈中。
Related: China state-owned company share gains highlight market risks | Reuters Shares in five Chinese state-owned firms rose by their daily limit last week ahead of the companies filing potentially market-moving news, raising questions over whether Beijing’s plans to restructure the state sector are reaching some investors ahead of them being made public. Securities regulators have struggled for years to restore the reputation of China’s stock market as a place for retail investors to safely park their savings. But the multi-tiered bureaucracy and heavy regulation have proved tough to manage. Companies need to cultivate political contacts within the bureaucracy to gain approval to list or restructure, and that chain of communication can be vulnerable to leaks.
2. China’s Biggest Shipyard Is Now a Ghost Ship – Caixin Once China’s largest shipbuilder, Rongsheng is on the verge of bankruptcy. Orders have dried up and banks are refusing credit. Questions have been raised about the shipyard’s business practices, including allegations of padded order books. And Rongsheng is apparently behind on repaying some of the 20.4 billion yuan in combined debt owed to 14 banks, three trusts and three leasing firms, sources told Caixin. The few hundred shipyard workers left – survivors of what’s now a three-year downsizing – are wondering whether they’ll ever see their overdue paychecks. Those with an uncertain future include a worker who cuts steel from abandoned ships into pieces that can be sold for scrap. “We haven’t been paid since November,” the worker said.
3. National security? China ready to slam door on foreign NGOs. – CSMonitor The Chinese government is drafting a new foreign NGO law that is widely expected to make work more difficult, if not impossible, for many of the 6,000 overseas non-profits that operate here in a broad range of fields from education and the environment to HIV-Aids and legal education. Under the new law, foreign non-profits would not be allowed to open more than one office, or to raise funds locally, or be allowed to fund projects deemed counter to what is being called “Chinese society’s moral customs,” according to excerpts seen by The Christian Science Monitor of the still unpublished bill.
4. The Journal of Asian Studies – Inside Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement: Twenty-Four Days in a Student-Occupied Parliament, and the Future of the Region “Say goodbye to Taiwan,” wrote political scientist John Mearsheimerin a widely read article in the March-April 2014 issue of The National Interest.1 Threatened by China’s rising economic might and abandoned by a weakening United States, one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies was facing, in his “realist” analysis, an almost inevitable annexation via economic if not military force. “Time,” he wrote, “is running out for the little island coveted by its gigantic, growing neighbor.” But only days after publication, on March 18, activists and armchair analysts alike said hello to a new reality.
Related: China Demolishes the Taiwan Consensus | The National Interest Given what has been achieved under the Consensus, it would be logical to assume that Beijing would seek its continuation. However, recent comments by Chinese President and CCP Chairman Xi Jinping, as well as articles appearing in official Chinese media, indicate that the Consensus no longer suffices. What Beijing seems to have in mind could have serious ramifications for cross-strait stability and is sure to cause a storm in Taiwan’s political scene, where the framework is already regarded as controversial and unpalatable to the DPP. Xi now insists that future exchanges will be contingent on the Taiwanese side acceding to the Consensus minus the part about “different interpretations.” In other words, the built-in flexibility that has made the Consensus a success is to be obviated, and the baseline has moved. Beijing’s new position is that there is only “one China,” of which Taiwan and “the Mainland” are indivisible components.
5. China Must Press On With Fight against Corruption – Caixin – Hu Shuli Editorial A cure involves systemic change. Apart from the eight rules on official behavior aimed at cutting extravagance and waste, as well as efforts to overhaul officials’ salaries and compensation, the crackdown on graft itself may guide the government on changes needed. For example, numerous modifications to the party discipline apparatus have been made over the past two years, thanks to the problems unveiled by the commission’s relentless crackdown. A larger framework of governance that encourages official propriety will in the end require comprehensive reform of the political and economic systems. This means putting limits on power; reducing opportunities for rent-seeking; streamlining and redrawing the scope of administrative functions; and allowing the market to play a key role in resource allocation. For two years, the anti-corruption crackdown has been shadowed by all kinds of doubts and speculation. These must be debunked.
6. China’s Tensions With Dalai Lama Spill Into the Afterlife-NYTimes Chinese Communist Party leaders are deathly afraid that the Dalai Lama will not have an afterlife. Worried enough that this week, officials repeatedly warned that he must reincarnate, and on their terms…The sight of Communist Party officials defending the precepts of reincarnation and hurling accusations of heresy at the Dalai Lama might have Marx turning in his grave…“I don’t think the Dalai Lama would mind if you saw this through the prism of Monty Python,” Robert Barnett,
Related: Chinese official urges Dalai Lama to “forsake evil ways” – Xinhua “We hope the Dalai Lama can abandon his separatist stance and his deceptive ‘middle way’ approach,” said Zhu Weiqun, head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China’s top political advisory body. The core contents of the “middle way” approach, proposed by the political exile in the 1980s, are “Greater Tibet” and “high-level autonomy” of the southwestern Chinese autonomous region. Zhu, also a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, called on the Dalai Lama and his followers to stop inciting self-immolation among the Tibetan people and sincerely discuss with the central government about the future of himself.
7. China issues opinions to encourage mass entrepreneurship, innovation – Xinhua The State Council vowed to provide a better environment for popular entrepreneurship and mass innovation by lowering barriers, strengthening public services and encouraging college students, scientists and engineers to start new businesses. China will pilot equity-based online crowd funding and encourage banking and financial institutions to provide loans as financing channels to support small businesses, said the announcement. More than 1,000 investment agencies fund entrepreneurs in China, holding a capital sum of over 350 billion yuan (56.8 billion U.S. dollars), said Wan Gang, minister of science and technology, on Wednesday at a press conference on the sidelines of the national legislature’s annual session. Technology deals in 2014 increased 15 percent year on year to hit 857.7 billion, said Wan.
Related: 国务院办公厅关于发展众创空间推进大众创新创业的指导意见_政府信息公开专栏 国办发〔2015〕9号 各省、自治区、直辖市人民政府，国务院各部委、各直属机构：为加快实施创新驱动发展战略，适应和引领经济发展新常态，顺应网络时代大众创业、万众创新的新趋势，加快发展众创空间等新型创业服务平台，营造良好的创新创业生态环境，激发亿万群众创造活力，打造经济发展新引擎，经国务院同意，现提出以下意见。
8. 中石化董事长回应油品质量不高:地方政府做主–法治–人民网 Sinopec Chairman Fu Chengyu responds to allegations that big oil worsens air pollution by keeping the quality of gasoline lower than it could be, blames local governments… // 京华时报:国内成品油质量为什么不高? 傅成玉:国家有标准,但是各省级政府可以自己选择使用哪种标准的油,这就导致了几种不同标准的油在全国同时存在,有的人希望油价便宜,因此选择使用更低标准的油,所以当地的油品质量就没法提上去。事实上,中石化具备生产国Ⅳ、国Ⅴ等更清洁油品的能力,但不是我想卖到哪儿就卖到哪儿,而是政府批到哪儿我就到哪儿。
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