XI HAILS TIES WITH LEADERS OF ECUADOR, TAJIKISTAN

China stands ready to promote international cooperation in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic to secure the final victory over the global public health crisis, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.

Xi made the remark in a telephone conversation with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon. He also spoke by phone with Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno on Tuesday night.

Mutual support and assistance between China and Tajikistan in responding to the novel coronavirus outbreak have demonstrated the spirit of their joint building of a community of common development and security, Xi told Rahmon.

While saying Tajikistan lent a hand to China when China was experiencing a hard time in its fight against the contagion, Xi also mentioned China's assistance to the Central Asian nation in curbing the virus by sharing anti-epidemic experience and sending a medical experts team to it.

Xi said China-Tajikistan relations are at a new historical juncture. He called on the two countries to make coordinated efforts to promote trade exchanges while ensuring epidemic control measures are implemented so that key Belt and Road cooperation projects can be carried out.

He also underlined the need to make plans about bilateral cooperation in fields such as trade and economy, investment, energy, mutual connectivity and agriculture to enable bilateral cooperation to make new progress after the pandemic.

Rahmon said China's effective response to the outbreak and its success in socioeconomic development have demonstrated the outstanding governance capacity of the Chinese government.

While saying his country will strengthen Belt and Road cooperation with China, he stated that Tajikistan firmly abides by the one-China principle and firmly supports China's measures to safeguard its national sovereignty and security.

In a telephone conversation with Moreno, Xi said China will continue to carry out anti-epidemic cooperation with other countries to jointly push forward the building of a community of health for all.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, only solidarity and cooperation from all countries can help secure the victory over the contagion, he said.

Xi said that China supports efforts to strengthen coordination on macroeconomic policies among countries, to bolster the stability of the global economy and improve global governance.

China will continue to firmly support the South American country's anti-epidemic efforts, provide necessary assistance within its capability and discuss cooperation on vaccine research and production, Xi added.

He noted that China values developing China-Ecuador relations and is willing to overcome difficulties brought by the epidemic.

Moreno said that the assistance and support from China and its people have played a significant role in his country's fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Ecuador hopes to learn from China's experience and strengthen cooperation with it in order to combat the virus and restore economic development, he said.

FLIGHTS CANCELED AFTER BEIJING RAISES EMERGENCY RESPONSE LEVEL

Hundreds of flights to and from Beijing have been canceled on Wednesday as the capital raised its public health emergency response from the third to the second level due to the new cluster of local COVID-19 infections.

As of 9 am on Wednesday, about 850 inbound and outbound flights from Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport have been canceled, according to data from aviation statistics provider VariFlight.

Interprovincial shuttle bus services at Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport have also been suspended.

Airlines including Air China and China Southern Airlines said on Tuesday evening they would offer full refunds to passengers who purchased flights from or to Beijing.

China's railway operator will allow passengers, who booked train service to or from Beijing as of Tuesday, to cancel their tickets nationwide without charging fees as well.

The measure will be taken starting from Wednesday, as part of the efforts to facilitate Beijing's epidemic prevention and control work, said China State Railway Group on Wednesday.

Under the policy, passengers who have previously purchased train tickets at railway stations, online railway ticket-booking platform 12306 or other channels may cancel their tickets and get refunds for free. The purchases of railway accident insurance shall be handled together, the company said.

Some long-distance interprovincial buses heading to and from Beijing have stopped operations.

Beijing reported 31 new confirmed domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases and six new asymptomatic cases on Tuesday, the municipal health commission said Wednesday.

INDIA URGED TO HALT BORDER VIOLATION

China urged India on Tuesday to stop all infringements and provocative actions and work with China to return to the correct track of dialogue and talks to resolve disputes.

Senior Colonel Zhang Shuili, spokesman for the Western Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, said that there was a serious violation of commitment when Indian troops on Monday night crossed the line of control at the Galwan Valley region at the border area of China and India and engaged in provocative attacks, which resulted in "fierce physical confrontations and casualties".

Indian border troops seriously violated accords between the two countries and the consensus reached at talks between high-ranking officers at the group army commander level of both sides, Zhang said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

He stressed that the region has always been Chinese territory and that India's actions seriously harm bilateral military relations.

"We demand that the Indian side strictly restrain its front-line troops, immediately stop all infringements and provocative actions, and work together with China to return to the correct track of dialogue and talks to resolve differences," he said.

China and India have been locked in a standoff in the border areas for weeks, and the two countries have tried to maintain communication via diplomatic and military channels to ease the tension.

Chinese and Indian military officials held commander-level talks earlier this month at the border personnel meeting point at Moldo to discuss ways to resolve matters related to the recent border situation and safeguard peace and stability in the border area.

LAM: HK'S ENEMIES SMEAR LAW ON SECURITY

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor warned on Tuesday those who have smeared and demonized the proposed national security law, saying that by doing so, they are making themselves enemies of Hong Kong people.

The legislation has won support from the general public in Hong Kong, Lam said, stressing that the law is to secure the long-term stability and prosperity of the special administrative region.

Lam said objections to the proposed law are unfounded, and that foreign governments should accept the "constitutional and legitimate "power of the central government to enact such a law for the HKSAR, given how they put their own national security safeguards in place.

Speaking to reporters before the weekly Executive Council meeting, Lam said she has gained general support on the legislation during meetings with foreign consuls, chambers of commerce and other commercial organizations.

She also said that nearly 3 million Hong Kong residents signed a petition to support the legislation during a 10-day signature campaign. People support the legislation because they abhor the yearlong street violence and foreign interference, Lam said.

She pledged that the SAR government will keep listening to feedback and concerns from various sectors over the legislation, and relay them to the central government.

Lam reiterated that even though the legislation is drafted under the mainland's legal system, it shares legal principles with Hong Kong's common law system, such as the presumption of innocence and no double jeopardy.

She called on the public not to worry about future implementation of the law, stressing that it will be in strict accordance with legal principles, and the only objective is to better protect Hong Kong and the whole country.

CHALLENGES REMAIN FOR EMPLOYMENT

Though the nation has progressively reduced its unemployment rate, it is still facing mounting pressure to stabilize hiring this year.

Data cited from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in May, the nation's surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas was 5.9 percent, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous month, sustaining a relatively stable job market. The rate in May 2019 was 5 percent.

Bureau spokesman Fu Linghui said in a release posted on the bureau's website on Monday that the resumption of work and production laid a solid foundation for stabilizing employment.

He said that more workers have come back to their positions in the past few months.

"According to our latest surveys, the proportion of companies in which over 80 percent of their employees have returned to work rose by 1.2 percentage points from late May to early June compared with our previous survey," he said.

However, the nation still faces challenges in relieving the pressure of the job market due to the huge number of job seekers and companies' diminished ability to recruit new employees after being hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak, he said.

From January to May, there were 4.6 million jobs created in urban areas, a year-on-year fall of 1.37 million.

Some key groups-for example, college graduates-are facing ever-increasing pressure to find jobs this year, he said.

"The job market this year is not good, so graduates are having even more difficulty finding work," said Li Qiang, vice-president of Zhaopin, an online recruitment platform in Beijing.

Li said that part of the problem for graduates is that most don't have a clear idea about their ideal jobs. Further, their skills or qualifications may not be sufficient for certain positions.

"Capability of managing emotions, leadership and innovations are also elements that companies would consider in recruitment," he said.

According to the statistics bureau, in May the surveyed unemployment rates of vocational school students and college graduates from ages 20 to 24 were respectively 1.7 and 3.3 percentage points higher than in April.

"The population of college graduates will reach a record high of 8.74 million, which will possibly drive up the group's unemployment rate," he said.

Employment has continued to be the priority for government and was heavily emphasized in the government's work report in May, which said that over 9 million new jobs will be created in urban areas this year, with the urban surveyed unemployment rate to hover around 6 percent and the urban registered unemployment rate around 5.5 percent.

Companies and human resources authorities have been making great efforts to hit these targets by promoting employment, especially to key groups including graduates, rural migrant workers and demobilized military staff members.

According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, about 32,000 graduates will be recruited for grassroots positions nationwide this year, with 5,000 more vacancies than in 2019.

FORMER OFFICIAL RECEIVES 11-YEAR SENTENCE

Xiang Junbo, former chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, was sentenced on Tuesday to 11 years in prison for bribery.

Xiang was also fined 1.5 million yuan ($212,000). He said in court he accepted the judgment and would not appeal. All properties gained from bribery will be handed over to the State treasury.

The Changzhou Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu province made the ruling on Tuesday. The court said Xiang abused his power while serving in several positions from 2005 to 2017, including vice-governor of the People's Bank of China, Party secretary and head of the Agricultural Bank of China, as well as Party secretary and chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

The court said he took advantage of these posts to offer benefits to organizations and individuals in matters such as project contracting, loans, qualification approval and employment and promotion. It said he illegally received gifts and properties worth 18.6 million yuan.

According to the court, Xiang's acts constituted the crime of bribery, and the amount of it was particularly large. Because Xiang surrendered himself to the police, pleaded guilty and willingly returned all ill-gotten gains, he was punished leniently.

Xiang was placed under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection for violating Party discipline in April 2017. In May 2017, the State Council removed him from his position as chairman of the insurance commission, and in September, the discipline watchdog expelled him from the Party for seriously violating Party discipline.

Xiang was prosecuted for bribery in April 2018, and the first trial was in June 2018.

SPECIAL TREASURIES TO MITIGATE COVID-19 PAIN, FUNDING WOES

China is likely to complete the 1 trillion yuan ($141.3 billion) special issuance of central government bonds by the end of July as part of its efforts to mitigate the economic fallout from the novel coronavirus epidemic and ensure sufficient liquidity in the financial sector, said experts.

The first two batches of COVID-19 special treasuries, totaling 100 billion yuan, will be offered for bidding on Thursday. The first batch of bonds will mature in five years, while the remaining will be for a period of seven years, according to a notice released by the Ministry of Finance late on Monday.

The coupon rates and the underwriters of the two batches will be disclosed around the bidding date, and the treasuries will be traded from June 23, the notice said.

People who participated in a preparatory meeting of the issuance told China Daily on Tuesday that all the special treasuries will be publicly issued, and the funds should be raised by the end of July. The central government will repay all the interest and 300 billion yuan of the principal, while the balance 700 billion yuan will be paid by local governments.

A report from China Securities Journal said on Tuesday that individual investors can also purchase the special treasuries once they open an account and trade through the stock exchange system or at the underwriters.

The country's budget reports, which have been approved by the nation's top legislature in May, showed that the COVID-19 central government special bonds "will be mainly used for local public health and other infrastructure construction and epidemic responses, while some funds will be reserved for local governments at the primary level to solve special financing difficulties".

"Efforts will be made to improve coordination and alignment between COVID-19 bonds and other fiscal funds, and more decision-making power will be given to local authorities over the use of funds," the budget reports said.

A senior official of the Ministry of Finance said last week that the ministry would build a new transfer payment mechanism for provincial-level governments to pass the funds on to lower-level governments, while a supervisory system will be established to prevent embezzlement.

The public offering of the COVID-19 treasuries indicates that the Ministry of Finance has refused to monetize the fiscal deficit, a system in which the central bank directly purchases treasuries in the primary market, said Ming Ming, a senior analyst with CITIC Securities. "The government wants to let the market decide the price of the treasuries."

Experts close to the Ministry of Finance said that the "bottom line" has been set by the central bank law and the budget law, which stipulates that the government should not overdraw from the central bank and monetary authorities should not buy government bonds in the primary market.

"But the monetary policy will have to coordinate with the bond issuance, to maintain sufficient liquidity and keep financing costs at a low level," said Ming.

Local government bond issuance rose to 1.3 trillion yuan in May, a monthly record, and led to an upward momentum in bond yields during the past week. On Tuesday, the 10-year treasury bond yields remained almost above 2.8 percent.

Analysts said that the government may need to raise more than 4 trillion yuan from the domestic bond market between June and September, which is a significant amount and the People's Bank of China, the central bank, will have to take measures to facilitate the bond issuance.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Today the real test of power is not the capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it. - Anne O'Hare McCormick