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CHINA NEWS

9 January 2020

XI CALLS FOR UNREMITTING SELF-REFORM EFFORTS

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, called on Wednesday for unremitting efforts to deepen self-reform of the Party to enable the whole Party to remain true to its original aspiration and keep its mission firmly in mind.

Xi, who is also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a meeting summarizing an education campaign on the theme of "staying true to our founding mission".

For the Party to always win the support of the people and fight for the eternal well-being of the Chinese nation, it is important to resolutely remove whatever undermines the Party's purity and advanced nature, and rid the Party of any tumor on its body, Xi said.

He highlighted the importance of preventing all dangers that go against the Party's original aspiration and missions and rock its foundations.

The whole Party must use the thematic education campaign as a new starting point and continuously deepen its self-reform so that it always remains true to its original aspiration and keeps its mission firmly in mind, he said.

The thematic campaign, which was launched throughout the Party in June, has achieved its desired purpose and attained major results, he noted.

The campaign was a vivid chapter for the Party to deepen its self-reform and ensure strict Party governance in the new era, and it has helped the Party to become more unified in its thoughts, politics and actions, he said, adding that it has prioritized efforts to oppose the practices of formalism and bureaucratism, and enabled officials at the primary level to devote more efforts to fulfilling their duties.

Going forward, Xi said, remaining true to the Party's original aspiration and keeping its mission firmly in mind must be a continuous subject in the Party building process and a lifelong pursuit for all Party members.

Party organizations at various levels and all members must be guided to keep examining themselves, remaining true to their original aspiration and shouldering their missions, he said.

He underlined the significance of pushing forward the Party's self-reform, with courage to face problems head on.

The whole Party must maintain revolutionary ideals and a vigorous fighting spirit to improve its conduct, enforce discipline and fight corruption, he said, adding that unrelenting efforts must be made to strengthen the Party's ability to purify, improve and reform itself and to make itself even stronger.

It is important to give play to this fighting spirit and daringly assume responsibilities so that the whole Party can always stay alert and devote itself to a great struggle in the new historic conditions, he said.

He encouraged Party officials to bolster their talents in the face of challenges, cope with major challenges, prevent major risks, overcome major obstructions and solve major conflicts.

Xi also called for measures to refine and develop a mechanism inside the Party to enable a long-term mechanism for the thematic campaign, saying that Party and State bodies and officials must take the lead in remaining true to their original aspiration and keeping their missions firmly in mind.

 

GOVT PUSHES TO PAY OFF MONEY OWED TO BUSINESSES, MIGRANTS

China will work to ensure that government departments and State-owned enterprises clear their undisputed arrears owed to private and smaller businesses as much as possible by the end of this year, and resolute efforts will be made to see the task through, the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang determined on Wednesday.

"Much work has been done to tackle this problem over the past year," Li said. "There must be no letup. This problem is primarily about wage payments that departments and SOEs owe to private companies, small and medium-sized enterprises and migrant workers. It has directly affected the government's credibility, the business environment, expectations of private businesses and people's lives."

It was noted at the meeting that as of the end of last year, some 75 percent of the more than 890 billion yuan ($128 billion) of the arrears identified nationwide had been paid, exceeding the original target of making no less than half the delinquent payments in 2019.

Supervision from higher levels of government and public scrutiny will be applied to repayments of large sums, it was decided at the meeting. Provincial governments have overall responsibility for the payments and must formulate plans for any cities and counties that are unable to complete the task, ensuring that no arrears are left unaddressed. Large State-owned enterprises must coordinate with their subsidiaries to make sure the late payments are made.

Going forward, when it comes to construction projects, sufficient capital will be allocated and issued on time in accordance with contracts for wage payments to migrant workers, it was determined. Governments at all levels, and State-owned enterprises−and public institutions in particular−must not fall into arrears on payments to migrant workers for any reason, it was decided.

"New government officials must not be allowed to disavow obligations undertaken by their predecessors," Li said. "Undisputed arrears must be paid off by the end of this year."

 

CHINA'S CPI UP 2.9% IN 2019

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.9 percent year-on-year in 2019, within government target of 3 percent, official data showed Thursday.

The growth picked up from 2.8 percent in the first 11 months and was above the 2.1-percent annual increase in 2018, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

In December, the CPI climbed 4.5 percent year-on-year, unchanged from that in November.

The hike was mainly driven by food prices, which soared 17.4 percent year-on-year last month, contributing 3.43 percentage points to the increase in December.

As government measures at national and local levels to restore hog production started to take effect, the soaring trend of pork prices affected by the African swine fever and cyclical factors has softened in the past month.

Pork prices surged 97 percent year-on-year in December, slowing from the 110.2-percent growth seen in November. Prices of other kinds of protein including beef, mutton and poultry saw slower growth last month.

Non-food prices gained 1.3 percent last month, faster than the 1-percent growth in November, the bureau said.

The CPI in urban and rural areas posted a year-on-year growth of 4.2 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, ticked up 1.4 percent year on year in December, flat with that in November.

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, dropped 0.3 percent year-on-year in 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

It was down from a growth of 3.5 percent recorded in 2018, according to the bureau.

In December, the PPI dropped 0.5 percent year-on-year, shrinking from the 1.4-percent decline in November.

Factory prices of capital goods decreased 1.2 percent year-on-year in December, shrinking from the 2.5-percent declining in November.

Among major industries, prices for ferrous metal mining and calendering increased by 8.8 percent in December over one year ago, while non-ferrous metal mining and calendering saw producer prices rise 1.1 percent year-on-year.

The producer prices for the oil and natural gas extraction industry ended a losing streak and edged up 5.8 percent year-on-year in December.

 

WORLD BANK SEES BENEFITS OF US-CHINA TRADE THAW

Additional progress on US-China trade negotiations that leads to less trade policy uncertainty could lead to higher-than-expected US growth, the World Bank said Wednesday, as it forecast global economy growth to edge up 2.5 percent this year.

In an updated economic outlook released Wednesday, the 189-member lending institution predicts US GDP growth to slow from 2.3 percent in 2019 to 1.8 percent in 2020 and then decelerate further to 1.7 percent in both 2021 and 2022.

The report said US growth has let up amid slowing investment and exports.

"Notwithstanding the recent trade deal with China, rising tariffs have increased trade costs, while policy uncertainty has weighed on investment and confidence," it said.

The World Bank report was unveiled a week before top Chinese and US trade negotiators are scheduled to meet in Washington. US President Donald Trump has announced that a phase one US-China trade agreement will be signed in mid-January, and after that he will travel to China for continued talks.

The report noted that trade tensions between the world's top two economies escalated throughout most of 2019. "These tensions, and the ensuing increase in policy uncertainty, have resulted in sizable aggregate losses for world trade," it said.

For China, the World Bank expects its growth to moderate to 5.9 percent in 2020 and 5.8 percent in 2021 — 0.2 percentage point below previous projections in both years, amid a slowdown in labor productivity growth and continued external headwinds.

In the same way, it pointed out that a "permanent and lasting" resolution of trade disputes with the US that builds upon recent progress could bolster China's growth prospects and reduce reliance on policy support.

It said the United States and China together represent nearly 40 percent of global GDP, nearly a quarter of global trade, and an even larger share of capital goods trade.

"Accordingly, renewed disruption to US-China economic ties could result in damage not only to these two economies but to the rest of the world, as its effects would propagate through trade, financial, and commodity linkages," it said.

On the upside, further de-escalation of trade tensions between the two countries could continue to mitigate global policy uncertainty and bolster activity, according to the World Bank report.

Globally, the economy will grow only slightly from 2.4 percent in 2019 to 2.5 percent this year, the weakest performance since the 2008 financial crisis, the World Bank said.

It cautioned that despite a recent notable reduction in the threat of protectionism, risks to the global outlook remain on the downside. A re-escalation of global trade tensions could further weigh on world activity.

In contrast, the International Monetary Fund predicted in October that global growth in 2020 would improve modestly to 3.4 percent.

"With growth in emerging and developing economies likely to remain slow, policymakers should seize the opportunity to undertake structural reforms that boost broad-based growth, which is essential to poverty reduction," Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, vice-president for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions at the World Bank Group, said in a statement.

"Steps to improve the business climate, the rule of law, debt management, and productivity can help achieve sustained growth," she said.

 

NEW VIRUS BEHIND PNEUMONIA OUTBREAK IN WUHAN

A new virus has caused the pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei province, that resulted in 59 reported cases in the city as of Sunday, an initial evaluation showed.

An expert team found a new coronavirus on Tuesday at a lab after analyzing samples collected from the cases, and 15 of them tested positive for the virus, China Central Television reported on Thursday. The team will continue efforts to identify the cause of the outbreak, the report said.

The coronavirus can cause respiratory and intestinal diseases. Of the six coronaviruses known to humans, four are common and less toxic, while the other two can cause severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, the report said.

 

MINISTRY WARNS 15 APPS OF STORE REMOVAL OVER VIOLATIONS

A total of 15 apps were warned by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Wednesday for infringing on users' rights and not yet amending their mistakes, according to the Beijing News.

Apps including Luckin Coffee, Lagou, Yidian Zixun and Tianya Forum were on the Wednesday notification via the MIIT's WeChat public account and represented the second batch of its kind.

According to the notification, the apps have problems such as collecting personal information without permission, excessively asking for users' permission for offering personal information, banning use if a user did not give permission for collecting personal information, and obstructing logoffs.

The MIIT will move to punishment procedures if the mistakes are not corrected by Jan 17.

The MIIT said in the Wednesday notification that it had removed from app stores three apps -- Renren Video, Chunyu pedometer and Wesing -- which had not corrected violations by Jan 3, the deadline for the first batch.

The first batch contained 41 apps including QQ, Sina Sports and Xiaomi Finance, which were required to correct their mistakes before Dec 31.

 

 

Comments (0)


Today
8:03am
Hi Jenna! I made a new design, and i wanted to show it to you.
8:03am
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8:12am
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8:13am
FYI it was done in less than a day.
8:17am
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8:18am
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Monday
4:55pm
Hey Jenna, what's up?
4:56pm
Iam coming to LA tomorrow. Interested in having lunch?
5:21pm
Hey mate, it's been a while. Sure I would love to.
5:27pm
Ok. Let's say i pick you up at 12:30 at work, works?
5:43pm
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5:44pm
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5:27pm
No worries

Today
2:01pm
Hello Jenna, did you read my proposal?
2:01pm
Didn't hear from you since i sent it.
2:02pm
Hello Milly, Iam really sorry, Iam so busy recently, but i had the time to read it.
2:04pm
And what did you think about it?
2:05pm
Actually it's quite good, there might be some small changes but overall it's great.
2:07pm
I think that i can give it to my boss at this stage.
2:09pm
Crossing fingers then

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