Hungary Wants Strategic Partnership With China Without Conditions
Hungary’s prime minister says Central European countries, the “motors of European growth,” should establish a “strategic partnership” with China to expand economic ties.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday repeated his disdain for the West’s “democracy export,” saying “we have to understand each other without having the need for the other to change themselves.” He said that Hungary respects China’s political system and will not accept any limits to the relationship.
Orban, speaking at a conference about relations with China, said that what is good for China and Central Europe is also good for all of Europe.
Beijing is helping finance the renovation of the Budapest-Belgrade rail line.
– AP
Surveys Show Consistent Support for the Chinese Government
If you are an ill-informed or naïve listener to the Western media, China’s economy is in the doldrums, support for the Communist Party of China (CPC) is evaporating at an unprecedented pace, and China is on the verge of systemic collapse. However, contrary to perceptions perpetuated by Western and other press, the reality tells a whole different story.
Perennial surveys by US-based polling organizations and academic studies show strong widespread support for policies of the Chinese government and for President Xi Jinping’s tough on-going anti-corruption campaign. This week, a sweeping poll of over 3,100 Chinese respondents over the spring conducted by Washington-based Pew Research Center (PRC) found consistent public satisfaction with China’s economic performance and optimism both about people’s personal future economic fortunes and that of the country.
Due to the country’s transition to a more consumption-led economic model and lackluster global growth as a whole, China’s economy has slowed from the heydays of 10+% to the sub 7% of today. In spite of this, however, views about the economy remain widely positive. Nearly 9-in-10 respondents to the PRC survey described China’s economic situation as either “very good” (33%) or “somewhat good” (54%) with most anticipating continued progress in the coming year. More important, the public remains optimistic about China’s long-term economic prospects with 82% expecting their children to be financially better off than they currently are. This finding is buttressed by PRC’s previous global surveys pointing to Chinese positivity compared to others around the world.
Chinese survey-takers gripe about many problems; namely, air and water pollution, food and medicine safety, the yawning gap between the rich and poor, but the one that trumps all is political corruption. Over 80% thought corruption within the ranks of the CPC and in the halls of government was either a major problem or a moderately big issue. On balance, the Chinese public is nonetheless optimistic that corruption will be reined in over the next five years, especially under President Xi Jinping’s watch. A nearly 2/3 majority (64%) said corruption will decline with only 19% thinking it will do the reverse. Since entering office in 2013, Mr Xi has made anti-corruption a major hallmark of his governance, successfully bringing down some of the biggest-name ‘tigers’ as well as swatting ‘flies’ at the grassroots.
These findings are confirmed by in-depth studies made in 2010 and 2014 by George Washington University political scientist Bruce Dickson whose results were compiled into his book The Dictator’s Dilemma released over the summer. Chinese pollsters commissioned by Professor Dickson conducted face-to-face interviews with over 4,000 Chinese citizens in 50 cities across the country. The Washington Post recently interviewed Mr Dickson about his findings which he ascribed as “surprising” but actually should not be to scholars familiar with the topic.
Commenting on the discrepancy between his findings and the plethora of negative portrayals in the Western press, he said while the Chinese people have many things to complain about, just like a lot of Americans, they do not desire a change in government to deal with them. “…They say ‘Of course not’. They just want the current system to work better. The findings from my surveys are different from the messages that we often get in the media, but they are consistent with every academic study I’ve seen that has looked at regime support in the country…(W)hen you step back and look at things from a broader perspective, you find that, despite the frustration about specific policy areas, there is still strong support for the regime.”
From his findings, he took away two conclusions: First, people indicated their incomes were rising and remained optimistic about future income gains. Mr Dickson commented so long as incomes continue to rise “pocketbook” issues [one’s personal financial well-being] often outweighs “sociotropic” concerns [one’s assessment of the prospects of the broader economy]. Second, on corruption, because his surveys were conducted before President Xi first assumed office and following his hardnosed anti-corruption campaign afterwards, the results showed people witnessing corruption situation on the mend and that even very high-ranking officials could be brought down.
Interestingly, on the issue of censorship, Mr Dickson found “…only a relatively small segment said they had experienced censorship. Among the people who had experienced it said it didn’t matter, that they weren’t bothered by it. Out of the entire set of respondents, only about 7% or 8% said that they were actually angry about encountering censorship. It seems as though most people don’t encounter censorship because they’re not doing political things online. They’re not searching for political sensitive information. They are not going to foreign websites. They’re playing games. They’re checking email. They’re shopping. The ones that do encounter censorship seem to take it in stride because this has been the nature of the web in China from the very beginning.”
The PRC surveys and Professor Dickson’s studies provide ear-to-the-ground monitoring of Chinese views which are far more accurate than the overwhelmingly negative and misguided depictions of the Western press that only serve to distort China’s realities.
7 Things China is Doing to Fight Climate Change
Against the patent lies the Trump campaign is spreading against China’s efforts to rein in its carbon emissions, here’s an informative article for the layman about the direction of Chinese policies that indicate its government’s seriousness in combating climate change.
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Here are seven things China is doing to curb its climate-warming emissions:
— Limiting coal use. Just a week after that 2014 announcement with Obama, China released an energy strategy that called for capping coal consumption by 2020. China also put a three-year moratorium on new coal mines, starting this year, and it’s been shutting down existing coal mines. Cutting back on coal not only reduces carbon emissions; it combats poor air quality, which has been causing serious health problems in notoriously polluted Chinese cities such as Beijing and Wuhan.
— Carbon trading. Next year, China will launch a nationwide carbon market, the world’s largest. It will cover six of the biggest carbon-emitting sectors, starting with coal-fired electricity generation. This cap-and-trade program will build on programs China has already created in two provinces and five cities.
— Cleaning up cars and trucks. China is the largest car market in the world. Cutting pollution from automobiles, like cutting pollution from coal plants, is essential not just to reducing CO2 emissions but to clearing the air in cities: The government estimates that roughly one-third of Beijing’s epic smog is from automobiles. China is pulling old, inefficient cars off the road, providing incentives for buying hybrids and electric cars, and enforcing stricter fuel-efficiency standards for new cars.
— Making buildings more energy efficient. Two years ago, China started issuing requirements for buildings to be given energy-efficiency upgrades. The energy savings are just beginning to be felt, but given that buildings can last for decades or even centuries, there could be a long payoff period.
— Building renewable capacity. China knows it needs alternative sources of energy to replace coal, so the government is investing heavily in developing wind and solar energy. “China has emerged as a leader in renewable energy,” reported Song and one of his colleagues in a blog post in April. “Investment soared from $39 billion to $111 billion in just five years, while electric capacity for solar power grew 168-fold and wind power quadrupled.” In Paris, China promised that at least 20 percent of its energy portfolio will come from non–fossil fuel sources by 2030.
— Building nuclear reactors. Whatever you think of nuclear energy, it is one of the lowest-carbon forms of electricity out there. Earlier this month, China announced it will build at least 60 new nuclear power plants within a decade.
— Building high-speed rail. A wealthier citizenry in a more industrialized country will be traveling a lot more. To limit transportation emissions, China is rapidly building high-speed rail. It already has more than 11,800 miles of high-speed rail that carry 2.7 million riders daily, and expansion plans are on the drawing board.
China will surely encounter hurdles and hiccups as it continues trying to rein in its emissions. The nation’s economy has recently been slowing down for cyclical reasons, as well as the structural ones mentioned above. After years of debt-fueled corporate investment and growth, Chinese companies are paying down their debts at the same time that the government is reining in industrial overcapacity and winding down the stimulus spending that got it through the Great Recession. China’s economy will eventually pick up again, and when it does, citizens will likely buy more cars, air conditioners, and electronic goods, leading to more electricity and gasoline use and perhaps greater carbon emissions.
But the policies China is enacting are designed to ultimately create a higher standard of living without more emissions. Since China has enormous low-lying cities that will be largely underwater in a century if climate change continues spinning out of control, the country has plenty of reason to curb its emissions and has shown that it is serious about doing it. That’s true whether Republican politicians in Washington choose to believe it or not.
– Ben Adler for Grist
For the entire article see: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/10/7-signs-that-china-is-serious-about-combating-climate-change.html
RMB Joins the IMF Currency Basket
On October 1st, China’s National Day, the renminbi (RMB) joined the US dollar, the Japanese yen, the British pound, and the euro in the IMF’s currency basket, heralding its eventual emergence as a reserve currency of choice for many coutnries .
However, RMB internationalization expert Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University and a former head of the China Division at the IMF, argues, and I would tend to agree with him, that it will be a long while before the RMB becomes entrenched as an international reserve currency.
Mr Prasad told the press, “It’s happening before the RMB actually becomes a major reserve currency. It seems like the IMF is getting a little ahead of the game. But part of the reason the IMF is doing this is to bring China into the fold, so to speak, and acknowledge that China has become a great economic power. The currency still has a long way to go, though.”
“Traditional attributes of a reserve currency—open capital account, flexible exchange rate—are not there for China yet. It’s become a reserve currency just because China is so important in terms of world GDP and world trade … It accounts for about 13% of the world trade and it’s been the biggest contributor to global growth. So it’s largely size that’s driving this as if now”, he said.
“If China doesn’t stumble in terms of growth, if they continue with their economic and financial market reforms, make the currency more market determined, open up the capital account, it could very well rival the Japanese yen, the pound sterling, and perhaps even erode the euro share to a significant extent,” he said. “It will start playing a significant role in the Asian region and perhaps another region such as Africa and Latin America, which are very tied in to trade with China.”
Another factor holding back renminbi from top status is that the country’s financial markets and institutions aren’t as transparent as those of other major currencies, argues Prasad.
“China’s not there yet in terms of its financial market development and in terms of its data and government transparency,” he said. “So I think that is a long way to go even for the renminbi.”
– Yahoo Finance
The Era of US Dominance is Over: Former CIA official
Many Americans and some Canadians may be loathe to admit it but this is coming from a former CIA spy master:
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Eurasia is the greatest landmass of the world, embracing Europe and all of Asia — some of the oldest and greatest centers of human civilization.
Eurasia increasingly means “Asia” in which the “Euro” part figures modestly. Furthermore, China has now become the center of Eurasia as the world’s second-largest economy. Not surprisingly, China — like the Muslim world — projects a decidedly “anti-imperial” bent based on what it sees as its humiliation at the hands of the West (and Japan) during its 200-year eclipse — during one of its dynastic down cycles. But China is very much back now into a classic “up-cycle” mode of power and influence again and is determined to project its weight and influence. India, too, now is now a rapidly developing power with regional reach.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/graham-e-fuller/america-global-dominance-over_b_12011012.html