FOREIGN MINISTRY CALLS ON US TO STOP EXCHANGES WITH TAIWAN

China warned some United States officials on Wednesday not to have illusions on issues concerning China's core interests after US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar's visit to Taiwan and urged him to stop criticizing China's anti-pandemic efforts.

Despite China's opposition, Azar finished his three-day visit to the Taiwan region on Wednesday, during which he met with Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen and signed a memorandum of understanding on health cooperation with the island. In a speech during his controversial visit, Azar claimed that China did not alert other countries about the coronavirus or work with the world on battling the virus.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily news conference that China firmly opposes official exchanges between the US and Taiwan under any pretext, and those who play with fire will get burned.

The spokesman warned the Democratic Progressive Party authorities not to go further down the wrong path, saying that being a puppet of and relying on other countries and seeking "independence" under the pretext of the pandemic will only lead to a dead end.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said that China opposes Azar's visit to Taiwan, which violated the one-China principle as well as the three China-US joint communiques.

The move by the DPP authorities to hype up his visit is a farce, Ma said.

In response to Azar's remarks on China's handling of the pandemic, Zhao said, "We don't know how he can be so unabashed to blatantly criticize China's anti-pandemic efforts," and urged him to focus on saving the lives of US people.

Despite the severe pandemic situation in the US, the US health secretary ignored the millions of Americans who suffered from the disease, and went to Taiwan to "put on a political show" instead of staying on the front line of the fight against COVID-19 to contain the pandemic in his own country, Zhao said.

"His behavior again proved that in the eyes of some US officials, the lives of the American people mean nothing when compared to their selfish political gains," he said.

MOST US FIRMS CONFIDENT IN CHINA OUTLOOK

Despite an unprecedented downturn in relations between the world's top two economies during the COVID-19 pandemic, United States businesses are not leaving the Chinese market, where most are making profits and optimistic about future growth, the US-China Business Council said in its annual member survey on Tuesday.

The survey was conducted in late May and June among more than 100 of the council's member companies doing business in China; half of them are manufacturers, and 45 percent provide services.

It found that projections by the companies for the five-year business outlook in China seem bullish, with nearly 70 percent expressing optimism about market prospects, and 87 percent saying they have no plans to shift production out of China.

Only a small fraction−4 percent−of those that are planning to move their operations out of the China market are planning to return to the US, the survey found.

China was reported to be either the top or among the top five priorities for their companies' global strategy, according to 83 percent of respondents.

The findings suggest US companies remain committed to the China market over the long term, despite years of trade friction and ever-rising calls for economic decoupling by political hawks.

Profitability is also a key component of long-term confidence in the China market, the survey found, as 91 percent of companies indicate their China operations are profitable, albeit at a lower margin than in years past.

"According to our data, the primary restraint on profitability is COVID-19 and its impact on the economy," it said. "The majority of respondent companies also saw an increase in revenue last year."

But despite long-term optimism, bilateral trade friction and especially the outbreak of COVID-19 are weighing on the investment decisions and near-term economic prospects of US companies in China.

When asked "Why did your company reduce or stop planned investment in China in the last year?", 93 percent of the US companies said the top reasons were increased costs or uncertainties arising from US-China tensions and COVID-19.

Only 11 percent cited "better business prospects in another country" as a reason to curtail their activities in China.

The tensions between the two countries seem to be escalating, observers say, with the US administration churning out a barrage of hard-edged actions against China, mostly citing national security concerns.

In 2020, the most debilitating impact of bilateral trade tensions−according to half of respondents−was lost sales due to customer uncertainty about continued supply, the US-China Business Council survey said.

"Recent US policies restricting the sales of certain products and services to some Chinese companies have begun to impact more commercial interactions between US companies and their Chinese customers," it said.

"US-China trade and investment supports about 2.6 million American jobs," USCBC President Craig Allen said. "We need to sustain and grow those jobs in future years, while finding ways to reduce conflict in other areas of the relationship."

RAIL NETWORK GETS BOOST; MORE TRACKS TO BE HIGH-SPEED

China aims to raise its global competitiveness in the railway sector by expanding its railway networks with wider coverage and higher speeds, according to the country's top railway operator.

The nation plans to build 200,000 kilometers of railway by the end of 2035, including about 70,000 km of high-speed tracks, according to the latest national railway plan, issued on Wednesday by China State Railway Group.

With the blueprint in place, all cities with a population of more than 200,000 will be connected to the railway network by then, and those with a population of over 500,000 will be on high-speed rail lines, the company added.

As of July, the country's railway network topped a total length of 141,400 km, among which 36,000 km were high-speed railways, already being in the front rank of the world, according to the company.

The plan also said that by 2035, the country will build a travel system to limit commutes within cities to one hour. Travel times within city clusters would be limited to two hours and between neighboring provincial capitals or city clusters to three hours.

Systems for speedy logistics will also be completed to strengthen domestic goods delivery within three days at most, the company said.

The country's railway network handled 3.66 billion passenger trips and carried 4.32 billion metric tons of cargo last year, an increase of 93.3 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively, compared with 2012, it added.

To facilitate the goal, China has also intensified its efforts in research and upgrading of conventional train service to a speed of 400 km per hour and above. It also is working on the next-generation magnetic-levitation train with a top speed of 600 kph.

The maximum speed of China's current bullet trains rose to 350 kph when the Fuxing (Rejuvenation) bullet trains started operating between Beijing and Shanghai in 2017. The country's maglev train conducted a successful test run in June, reaching a designed speed of 600 kph.

Research and development of high-speed freight trains and 30,000-ton heavy-duty trains, as well as new special trains for standardized containerized freight, cold chain logistics and cross-border freight transportation will also be speeded up, the company said.

"China's railway passenger and cargo transportation is still seeing steady growth due to their positive characteristics of high capacity, high speeds and eco-friendliness, and the expansion plan of railways should be moderately ahead of the current needs," he said.

'CHINA'S HOLLYWOOD' MAKES A COMEBACK

The town where 70 percent of China's films and TV series are shot every year — Hengdian, in Dongyang, Zhejiang province — has been speeding up the resumption of work since mid-April. All photography and related production activities have resumed. Movie crews, which come in large groups, give a boost to the local service industry, including restaurants and hotels.

CHINESE STUDENTS RETHINK US PLANS

China is the largest source of international students in the world, with 662,100 leaving the country to study overseas in 2018. Almost half chose to study in the US.

Since 2009, China has been the biggest source of international students for US schools. According to the US-based Institute of International Education, one in three of the more than 1 million overseas students in the US came from China in the 2018-19 academic year.

However, implementation of a string of US government policies seen as unfriendly and its blaming of China for the pandemic, as well as protests over racial issues, have made many Chinese students reconsider plans to study in the US.

The UK has beaten out the US for the first time to become the preferred overseas study destination for Chinese students, according to a new report by New Oriental Education and Technology Group, an overseas study agency based in Beijing.

In a survey of 6,673 Chinese students by the company, 42 percent hoped to study in the UK, compared with 37 percent who preferred the US. That is a significant turnaround from four years ago, when 30 percent of respondents hoped to study in the UK and 46 percent planned to go to the US.

The idea that studying overseas guaranteed access to better education resources is gaining less traction among parents and students, especially as Chinese universities continue to improve academically.

A report by EIC Education, an education consultancy based in Beijing, found that 16.3 percent of students are uncertain about whether to go abroad to study, while 14.5 percent have delayed their overseas study plans by half a year and 11.3 percent have delayed them by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While education quality remained the most important factor considered by Chinese students when deciding which country to study in, safety was the second-most important factor this year, up from seventh place last year. The degree of xenophobia was seventh this year, up from 13th place last year, according to the EIC report.

12 MONKS REACH HIGHEST TIBETAN BUDDHISM DEGREE

Twelve monks passed the annual Dharma debating exam and were accredited as Geshe Lharampas — the highest academic degree of Tibetan Buddhism — at Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, on Monday, China News Service reported.

The new Geshe Lharampas are from some key monasteries in different cities and prefectures of the Tibet autonomous region.

They monks attended a weeklong preliminary examination in Lhasa's Gandan Monastery in July last year. The annual exam usually consists of sutra debate of content in the five volumes of Tibetan Buddhism teachings, along with tests focused on other cultures.

Following strict examination and assessment by the evaluation committee, Chogyal Nampal of Champaling Monastery, won first place on Monday, while Lobsang Choklang of Tashilhunpo Monastery came in second and Ngakwang Kunchen of Drepung Monastery won third.

During the award ceremony, the 12 new Geshe Lharampas were presented with five-colored silks, monk's robes and cash by Meng Xiaolin, vice-chairman of the regional government. They were also presented with degree certificates.

PILOT PLAN TO BUOY SERVICES TRADE GROWTH

China has expanded the pilot program to spur innovative development of the services trade to 28 cities and regions, underscoring the country's efforts to stabilize foreign trade and foster new growth drivers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, issued the approval on Tuesday, allowing more areas to carry out the pilot program, which aims to facilitate a higher level of opening-up in the country's services trade by further refining government policies and reforming the existing administrative and regulatory systems.

Many of the newly included cities such as Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, and Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, are from the country's middle and western regions as policymakers are hoping that the services trade could be a new growth driver for the country's less-developed areas.

The expansion of the pilot program in the services trade was seen by experts as China's latest effort to stabilize foreign trade and push a higher level of opening-up by adopting new measures to further liberalize trade and investment in sectors such as medical insurance, education, tourism and sports.

In contrast to merchandise trade, trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transportation, healthcare, product development, logistics, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising, computing and accounting.

China's international trade in services dropped by 14.7 percent on a yearly basis to 2.2 trillion yuan ($316.27 billion) in the first half of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and weak overseas demand. Despite the decline, the country's services exports outperformed imports, with the deficit narrowing by 46.1 percent from the same period of last year to 401.7 billion yuan.

Ma Yu, a senior researcher at the Beijing-based China Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that the expansion of pilot cities and regions will not only further lower the market-entry threshold in sectors such as education, medical services and sports for foreign companies, but also remove the operational and investment barriers for foreign-invested firms.

"The government should enhance its service capacity during the new round of the opening up of the services trade by focusing on the development of digital technologies," Ma said.

Policies should also be drafted in a way that better meet the changing demands of domestic consumers in areas such as healthcare and high-end services, he said.

CHINA TO SET UP MORE CBZS THIS YEAR

China will expand the number of comprehensive bonded zones (CBZs) to 150 by the end of this year, especially in its central and western regions, to further stabilize foreign trade and investment, a top Customs official said on Wednesday.

New policy measures will be enacted to encourage participation from more companies and projects, especially setting up CBZs within national level new areas and economic development zones later this year, said Ni Yuefeng, minister of the General Administration of Customs.

A comprehensive bonded zone is a special Customs supervision area established by the Chinese government with reference to the free trade zones (parks) that are commonly used internationally.

In addition to an abundance of preferential policies for foreign trade and comprehensive functions, the CBZ is also proficient in developing bonded processing, logistics and services, and other businesses.

The value of imports and exports of China's comprehensive bonded zones stood at 1.4 trillion yuan ($201.69 billion) during the first six months of this year, up 13.2 percent on a yearly basis, accounting for 9.97 percent of the nation's total foreign trade volume, according to GAC data.

Ni said the administration will also support Hainan Island's development into a high-level free trade port and advance reforms for the regulation of cross-border e-commerce to help businesses better tap the global market.

Ni reiterated that China's foreign trade has the conditions and capabilities to achieve high-quality development, though the COVID-19 epidemic has dealt a heavy blow to the global market.

According to World Trade Organization estimates, global merchandise trade volume is likely to slump by around 18.5 percent on a yearly basis in the second quarter of this year.

Under these circumstances, China's foreign trade has beaten market expectations in recent months. Total foreign trade volume rose 6.5 percent on a yearly basis in July, with exports and imports up 10.4 percent and 1.6 percent respectively.

With many economies seeking practical solutions to boost their job market, goods and service exports, China's share of foreign trade is growing steadily, indicating the sector's rising competitiveness and capacity to counter pressure, Ni said.

He attributed the sector's resilience to the government's timely measures to curb the spread of the contagion. These moves created conditions for foreign trade businesses to resume operations, along with a string of other policies to help businesses tide over difficulties.

The government has also optimized services for companies and increased export tax rebates. Official data show China granted export tax rebates or exemptions worth 812.8 billion yuan in the first half of the year to relieve the financial pressure on companies.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Facts are too busy being true to worry about how you feel about them. - Dan Wells