KEY MEETING SETS TONE FOR FURTHER OPENING-UP

Chinese leaders have vowed to strengthen the country's economic opening-up drive, which is not in conflict with its recent emphasis on boosting domestic demand but will benefit the global economic recovery, analysts said.

China will continue to be committed to reform and opening-up and efforts in that respect will be strengthened, according to a decision made at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on Thursday. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

The country's top leadership has on various occasions, including Thursday's meeting, reaffirmed the idea of a dual-cycle development pattern, meaning the country's growth will rely on both domestic and international economic developments, with the domestic cycle being the mainstay.

Such a focus on domestic demand is rational due to the serious fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has dampened domestic economic activities and reduced international demand for Chinese products and services, analysts said.

"In the new era, the domestic cycle is the main link, supported by the international cycle, and as the advantage of China's super-large domestic market is brought out and its domestic economy is revitalized, there would be new impetus for the country's overall growth," said Liang Haiming, chairman of the Guangzhou-based China Silk Road iValley Research Institute.

The emphasis on domestic development does not mean China will withdraw from the international division of labor, nor does it mark its shift away from its opening-up orientation, said CITIC Securities in a research note.

"It does not mean China will close its door," said Zhu Jianfang, chief economist at CITIC Securities.

China will continue to open up its economy and be committed to ushering in more international companies to participate in the nation's high-quality development, contributing to the building of a new development pattern featuring both domestic and international cycles, said Liang, who is also dean of the Hainan University Belt and Road Research Institute.

"China's reform and opening-up will be further strengthened in the future and the country will explore higher-level and more liberal opening-up policies," he said.

Such policies would include the accelerated building of the free trade port in Hainan province, where a taxation management mechanism featuring low tariffs, low tax rates and simplified taxation procedures will be established to achieve the free flow of goods, personnel, capital and data, Liang said.

They would also include efforts to accelerate implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, encourage the signing of regional comprehensive economic partnership agreements and bilateral free trade negotiations with some of its trade partners, and explore the management model for pre-establishment national treatment and a negative list, he said.

Pre-establishment national treatment means that foreign investors and their investments will be granted treatment no less favorable than that granted to domestic investors and their investments at the initial entrance stage of the investment.

The financial sector would also be further opened to establish a highly accommodative, competition-based and inclusive system, Liang predicted.

This year will be one when China will further expand its opening-up drive, said Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

US SENATOR DEFENDS CHINA AGAINST LAWSUIT

A United States senator described China as a "respectable nation", and that "it is a huge mistake" to allow American citizens to sue China over coronavirus damage as she defended the nation in a firm speech against a bill authorizing such a move.

"Where I live, we hold China as a potential trading partner, as a country that has pulled tens of millions of people out of poverty in a short period of time, and as a country growing into a respectable nation amongst other nations," Senator Dianne Feinstein (Democrat, California) told her fellow lawmakers during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday.

"I deeply believe that. I've been to China a number of times. I've studied the issues… the United States has the most to lose by permitting civil lawsuits against China, for harms arising from COVID-19," she added, referring to testimony from recent committee hearings.

Feinstein's comment came as the judiciary panel convened Thursday to discuss the Civil Justice for Victims of Coronavirus Act, a bill introduced by Senator Martha McSally (Republican, Arizona), which would allow US citizens to sue the Chinese government in federal court for damages stemming from the pandemic.

The proposed legislation, supported by some Republican politicians, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, passed with a 13-9 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. It is on its way to the senate for consideration.

Graham, also a co-sponsor of the bill, alleged that "the Chinese Party deceived the world and manipulated information about coronavirus".

He suggested amending the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which establishes limitation as to whether a foreign sovereign nation may be sued in US courts, to allow exceptions for lawsuits against China.

Feinstein cautioned that stripping China of its sovereign immunity could lead to retaliatory measures against the US from other countries.

"We launched a series of unknown events that could be very, very dangerous. I think this is a huge mistake," she said.

Chimene Keitner, a professor of international law at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, a witness at the hearing, argued that private litigation will not bring China to the negotiating table, nor will it produce answers or compensation for US victims.

"If these claims were actually litigated, it would provide attorneys for China with a captive audience to catalog the shortcomings in US local, state, and federal responses to a threat that was reportedly highlighted by the intelligence community in the President's Daily Brief as early as mid-January," she argued.

It's more important now to focus on the immediate needs of the American people, Keitner said.

As a sovereign state, China is immune from the jurisdiction of any foreign court. Under most international legal systems, China would need to consent to having litigation filed against it before it could be sued, so it's highly unlikely for such a lawsuit to prevail in court, experts said.

"We don't have an international court system where a state is compelled to appear before the court unless they've consented," Natalie Klein, a law professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia, said.

ECONOMIC REFORM UNDERLINES EFFICIENCY, INNOVATION

China's growth over the last 40-plus years has been called an economic miracle, but there are logical explanations for the country's achievements.

Partly the growth is due to the high rate of savings that allowed the fast accumulation of productive capital and infrastructure. Partly it is due to large investments in scientific and technical education. Yet, the key enabler of China's growth has been a long series of market-based, productivity-enhancing reforms that started in the late 1970s and are still picking up steam today.

During a trip to Jilin province in late July, President Xi Jinping stressed that the government must quicken its steps to transform its functions and foster a business environment that is in line with market principles, the rule of law and international standards.

Xi also highlighted the need to make the economy more competitive, innovative and able to resist risks as part of efforts to further bolster the real economy, especially the manufacturing sector, and improve the level of entire industrial chains.

Such a strong emphasis on improving productivity will pay off in the long term by raising living standards. The only way a country and all its people can get richer is by raising real productivity.

It's almost impossible for me to imagine a current American politician giving serious speeches, much less implementing policies, about improving productivity and the business climate in the same way President Xi and other Chinese leaders do regularly.

Good or bad policies can change the fate of the nation over the long term. Of course, China's high growth rate over the last 40 years is the prime example of productivity-enhancing reform.

On the other hand, the lack of consensus on productive policies in the United States since the 1960s has led to stagnant growth and wages plus a rapid rise in inequality. China today very much reminds me of the US in its productivity-growth heyday−the 1950s into the 1960s when new technologies were being deployed and the government largely focused on widespread productivity growth and rising wages.

ALERTS ISSUED AS HEAVY RAIN FORECAST TO HIT

Two typhoons and a monsoon are expected to lash vast areas in southern and northern China with downpours in the coming four days, authorities warned.

The National Meteorological Center issued a blue alert, the lowest in the country's four-tier color-coded weather warning system, for Typhoon Hagupit on Sunday.

With a maximum wind speed of 72 kilometers per hour at its center, the fourth typhoon of the year was in waters 690 km southeast of Cangnan county in Zhejiang province at 10 am on Sunday, the center said.

It said the typhoon was moving northwest at 15 to 20 km/h and is expected to make landfall on the coast between Zhejiang and Fujian provinces on Monday night.

"The cyclone will quickly weaken after it lands," the center added.

Gales will strike some areas in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces as well as Shanghai and Taiwan from Sunday to Tuesday, and vast stretches of Zhejiang and Fujian will be battered by downpours for two days starting Monday, it said.

UNDERSEA RAIL TUNNEL PLAN COMPLETE

The technical proposal for the Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway, China's first high-speed railway line with an undersea segment, has been completed, the Ningbo Evening News reported on Saturday.

After two years' preparation, the core technical proposal for the project's 16.2-kilometer-long undersea tunnel, the longest in the country, passed assessment by a panel of experts headed by Qian Qihu, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, on Thursday.

Connecting the Zhoushan Islands in Zhejiang province with the mainland, the 77-km Ningbo-Zhoushan railway line will run through the tunnel and over several bridges from Ningbo to Zhoushan via Jintang Island.

The project will allow high-speed trains and vehicles to travel across the sea via separate tunnels.

Unlike the 6.7-km immersed tube tunnel that is part of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the undersea tunnel on the Ningbo-Zhoushan railway line will be built using a shield and be deeper, creating multiple difficulties for the construction crew.

At a maximum optimal depth of 78 meters and with a diameter of 14 meters, the undersea tunnel's shield will be 10.87 km long upon completion, setting a new world record, according to Tang Xiongjun from China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group, who is in charge of the undersea tunnel project.

When it is completed, trains traveling at 250 km/h will be able to go from Ningbo to Zhoushan in just 30 minutes. Driving between the two places, made possible by a series of bridges, currently takes about three times as long.

Trains using the tunnel will be able to travel from Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, to Zhoushan in one hour and 20 minutes.

Officials said construction of the line is likely to start this year, with the project to take six to seven years to complete.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

People treat you the way you treat yourself. - Michael Bassey Johnson