BRICS AND DEVELOPMENT

BRICS NATIONS TO HAVE DEVELOPMENT BANK

UPI, March 27, 2013

DURBAN, South Africa, March 27 (UPI) -- The BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agreed to set up a bank for infrastructure development, China's finance minister said.

Speaking in Durban, South Africa, site of the fifth summit of the BRICS nations, Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei confirmed the agreement on the bank during a meeting of fellow financial ministers of the five countries.

He said the ministers "have agreed that the set-up of the development bank is feasible and reasonable," the official Chinese Xinhua News Agency reported.

Lou said it was agreed a bank to fund infrastructure projects in the member nations is needed, but that the meeting did not discuss details like initial investment of each country to the bank.

"What we have now is just a general picture," Lou said, adding details may be worked out by next year.

The Chinese minister, apparently allaying any concern a BRICS bank might challenge institutions such as the U.S.-led World Bank or the Asian Development Bank, said the bank would complement such existing institutions.

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XI GOES TO AFRICA

CHINA SEEKS TO WOO RESTIVE AFRICAN STATES

David Malingha Doya and Robert Mbakouo

Post, March 26, 2013

Chinese President Xi Jinping will set out plans for mining and infrastructure development on a trip to Africa this week, as China seeks to reassure leaders on the continent who have voiced unease about its trade relations.

During his eight-day trip Xi stops in Tanzania, the Republic of Congo and South Africa, where he will sign business co-operation deals and attend a summit of the Brics nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Annual trade between Africa and China has doubled since 2007 to more than $200 billion (R1.85 trillion) and Chinese investment stands at $20bn, according to Standard Bank.

While African nations welcome the investment and the job creation that comes with it, leaders from Botswana’s Ian Khama to Nigerian central bank chief Lamido Sanusi are asking whether the relationship has benefited Africa as much as it has China.

That is a shift in tone after officials welcomed China for taking a different strategy from the West by offering investment without demanding structural adjustments, open markets, democratic reforms or anti-corruption measures.

“There’s a belief that since Africa got a raw deal from the colonial West, then the Chinese must be Africa’s best friend,” George Ayittey, a Ghanaian economist and president of the Free Africa Foundation based in Washington, said.

(...) [article here]

CHINA: THE NEW FOREIGN POLICY TEAM

FOCUS OF CHINA’S FOREIGN POLICY

Jabin T Jacob

The New Indian Express, March 25, 2013

The first annual session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) in China has just ended with the ‘election’ of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang as President and Premier respectively and approval of a new cabinet of ministers. Despite the NPC’s largely rubber-stamp role — candidates approved by Congress were pre-selected by the Chinese Communist Party — the first sitting of the NPC was important because, among other things, it announced the line-up of China’s new foreign policy team.

It is important to note that major foreign and security policy initiatives are the preserve not of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) as part of the Chinese government but of the Communist Party. As General Secretary, Xi Jinping directs foreign policy through a body which comprises representatives not only from the MFA but also from the military and the departments and ministries handling national security and foreign trade.

What then are foreign policy implications of this leadership transition in China?

First of all, Xi might wield considerably more influence in foreign and security policies than Hu Jintao. For one, as the scion of a prominent Communist Party family, he has long-standing personal links with many of China’s present crop of leaders — both civilian and military — who are similarly the children of former senior Party officials. These bonds, particularly in the PLA, have ensured that Xi has the strong backing of the armed forces, considerably strengthening his foreign policy hand.

For another, by securing the appointment of a Vice-President, Li Yuanchao, who is not a member of the Party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee — in effect, the collective of seven people that rules China — the Presidency again has relatively more influence in foreign policy than was the case in the Hu Jintao regime.

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CHINA AND INDIA IN AFRICA

IN RACE FOR AFRICA, INDIAN ELEPHANT RIVALS CHINESE DRAGON

Rohit Bansal

New York Daily News, March 24, 2013

Call it a deliberate clash of dates or mere coincidence, the Indian elephant and the Chinese dragon were caught courting Africa on exactly the same dates this month!

New Delhi hosted the CII-Export Import Bank Africa Conclave, an annual converge now in its 9th edition, where more than 500 projects worth some $70 billion were discussed by 900 delegates from 45 countries.

Beijing, on its part, set the stage for President Xi Jinping's visit to Africa beginning Sunday, his second overseas, hosting the Forum on Chinese Businesses in Africa and dangling lines of credit worth $20 billion. A blunt warning that investing businessmen must learn to behave followed!

The charge of the elephant remains a modest mix of development assistance (India's national budget for next fiscal assigns a modest Rs.300 crore or $54 million for Africa), lines of credit via the Export-Import Bank, and hopes that the famed Indian entrepreneurial class will manage to deliver like their predecessors have done over the decades, more often than not without state backing.

The dragon, true to form, hisses loud enough for the world to take notice, with a politico-corporate cabal led by some of the largest contingents of stationed diplomats and state-owned banks loading benign – and often fuzzy – interest regimes to sweeten the deal.

The result? Two-way trade has ballooned from about $10 billion in 2000 to almost $200 billion in 2012. Africa is now Beijing's second largest project contracting market and the fourth largest investment destination. As per data cited until April 2012, its accumulative investment in Africa had reached $15.3 billion, compared to none just over a decade ago.

India's bilateral trade with Africa has no doubt witnessed a five-fold increase in the past seven years. But it still stands at $65 billion. The target has been set now at $100 billion by 2015, against $90 billion earmarked earlier.

Despite the asymmetry between the Asian competitors, Africa isn't eating off Beijing's hand. Evidence lies in the unusual warning from the Chinese vice foreign minister to businessmen Monday.

(...) [article here]

CHINA IN CENTRAL ASIA

CHINA, RUSSIA MULL INTERESTS IN CENTRAL ASIA

Raw materials and energy reserves in Central Asia make the region of particular interest to both China and Russia. The two countries share interests in region but are also each others biggest competitors.

Deutsche Welle, March 23, 2013

The relationship between Russia and China is complicated by both cooperation and competition. That could make the first official visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow a tense one. Bilateral political and economic issues are set to dominate the agenda when Xi meets Russian Putin Vladimir Putin for two days of talks, which started Friday.

The countries enjoy what experts have often called a strategic partnership, but that does not mean relations are without problems. The energy sector often crops up as a bone of contention between the nations as both look to increase their power and influence in Central Asia.

Competition for raw materials and trade lanes

Russia and China have never been able to find common ground when it comes to Central Asia - and are unlikely to do so in the future, according to Günter Knabe, a German expert on the issue.

"They have a number of common interests that are temporary and limited," he said. "But there are many more issues on which they are competitors - if not even enemies."

China is currently driven by one main interest: expanding its own economy. That's one of the goals the leaders of China's Communist Party set themselves.

"China needs raw materials and energy and it is trying to get them wherever it can using whatever means it can," Knabe said, adding that Central Asia looks like a treasure chest of raw materials and energy reserves to leaders in Beijing.

(...) [article here]

CHINA AND NK’S SANCTIONS

CHINA COMMITTED TO ENFORCING NORTH KOREA SANCTIONS, U.S. SAYS

Bloomberg News

Bloomberg, March 22, 2013

China is committed to making sure United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea have an impact, a U.S. Treasury official said after meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing.

The U.S. believes that China sees the North’s recent actions as a threat to its interests, David Cohen, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told reporters today. He was referring to a nuclear test the North conducted in February and Security Council sanctions that were imposed in response.

“We have sensed in our meetings yesterday and expect as well today that the Chinese government is fully committed to implementing this resolution in a way that gives it real effect,” Cohen said. “The Chinese government is looking at what’s been happening in North Korea recently as threatening the stability of the peninsula in a real way that implicates Chinese interests.”

China and the U.S. worked together to craft a resolution that imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea at the UN Security Council this month after the nuclear test. China is the North’s biggest trading partner and diplomatic ally.

An editorial in the state-run Global Times newspaper published in February, after the test and before the sanctions, said China must give the North a “friendly warning”

“We must not join the camp of the U.S., Japan and South Korea, or actively cooperate with the U.S.-led sanctions against North Korea,” the editorial said. “To do that would be extremely stupid strategically.”

(...) [article here]

NORTH KOREA’S CYBERATTACKS

HACKING HIGHLIGHTS DANGERS TO SEOUL OF NORTH'S CYBER-WARRIORS

Ju-min Park

Reuters, March 21, 2013

SEOUL, March 21 (Reuters) - A hacking attack that brought down three South Korean broadcasters and two major banks has been identified by most commentators as North Korea flexing its muscles as military tensions on the divided peninsula sky-rocket.

Officials in Seoul traced Wednesday's breach to a server in China, a country that has been used by North Korean hackers in the past. That reinforces the vulnerability of South Korea, the world's most wired economy, to unconventional warfare.

China's Foreign Ministry said that hacking attacks were a "global problem", anonymous and cross-border.

"Hackers often use the IP addresses of other countries to carry out their attacks," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

One government official in Seoul directly blamed Pyongyang, although police and the country's computer crime agency said it would take months to firmly establish responsibility.

Jang Se-yul, a former North Korean soldier who went to a military college in Pyongyang to groom hackers and who defected to the South in 2008, estimates the North has some 3,000 troops, including 600 professional hackers, in its cyber-unit.

Jang's alma mater, the Mirim University, is now called the University of Automation. It was set up in the late 1980s to help North Korea's military automation and has a special class in professional hacking.

(...) [article here]

MALAYSIA’S INCOME

HIGH INCOME FOR MALAYSIANS LIKELY BEFORE 2020

The ETP report pointed out that the country's investment as a whole grew by 19.9 per cent in 2012.

AsiaOne, March 20, 2013

PETALING JAYA, Malaysia - Malaysia has the potential to achieve a per capita Gross National Income (GNI) of US$15,000 (S$19,002) earlier than the targeted 2020, based on current projects and barring unforeseen circumstances.

With a robust economic growth surpassing both Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and GNI targets last year, the Government also recorded its highest ever revenue last year, estimated at about RM207bil.

The newly released Economic Transforma­tion Programme (ETP) annual report for 2012 said the country's GNI had risen to US$9,970 (RM31,131) last year from US$6,700 (RM20,920) in 2009, a 48.8 per cent jump in just a period of two years.

Private investments, it said, had also surpassed its 2012 target by 9.1 per cent to reach RM139.5bil, driven by high capital expenditure in the manufacturing, services and mining sectors.

Since the start of the ETP, Malaysia's private investment had tripled to a 22 per cent growth last year as compared to 12.2 per cent in 2011 and an average of 6.7 per cent between 2000 and 2010.

Against the backdrop of a sluggish global economy due to the Eurozone crisis and concerns of fiscal policy reforms in the United States, the Malaysian economy has displayed resilience, buoyed by a robust investment pipeline and expansion in domestic consumption.

(...) [article here]

CHINA’S GROWTH AND FOREIGN TRADE

DOES FOREIGN TRADE DRAG DOWN ECONOMIC GROWTH?

People’s Daily, March 19, 2013

China's GDP increased by 4.78 trillion yuan year-on-year to 51.93 trillion yuan in 2012, with consumption, investment and net exports contributing 51.8 percent, 50.4 percent and negative 2.2 percent to the GDP respectively, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Some people believe the negative net exports contribution means foreign trade dragged down the economic growth. Is it right or not?

According to economic theory, a country's GDP consists of total investment, consumption and net exports (including exports of goods and services). Net exports are the difference between the total value of exports and that of imports; its contribution to economic growth is the ratio between increase of net exports and that of GDP.

Yu Miaojie, associate professor at Peking University's national development research institute, said negative net exports only mean the increased volume of net exports, or trade surplus, are less than that of the previous year, which is almost not related to the economic growth.

The NBS data showed that from 2008 to 2012, the contribution of net exports to economic growth varied from 9 percent to negative 44.8 percent, while GDP growth rate during this period all exceeded seven percent, which means the fluctuations of net exports did not cause the China's economic fluctuations. It only has close relation with the trend of China's foreign trade.

(...) [article here]

CHINA AS ARMS EXPORTER

CHINA IS FIFTH-LARGEST ARMS EXPORTER

Pakistan the main customer as Beijing exceeds Britain's share of weapons market while remaining far behind US and Russia

Reuters/The Guardian, March 18, 2013

China has become the world's fifth-largest arms exporter, according to a Swedish-based thinktank. It is China's highest ranking since the cold war, with Pakistan the main recipient.

China's volume of weapons exports between 2008 and 2012 rose 162% compared with the previous five-year period, with its share of the global arms trade rising from 2% to 5%, said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

China replaces Britain in the top five arms-dealing countries between 2008 and 2012, a group dominated by the United States and Russia, which accounted for 30% and 26% of weapons exports, Sipri said.

"China is establishing itself as a significant arms supplier to a growing number of important recipient states," Paul Holtom, director of the Sipri Arms Transfers Programme, said in a statement.

The shift, outlined in Sipri's Trends in International Arms Transfers report, marks China's first time as a top-five arms exporter since the thinktank's 1986-1990 data period.

(...) [article here]

NK’S THREAT

THREE YEARS AFTER NAVAL VESSEL SINKING, N. KOREA POSES GREATER SECURITY THREAT

Park Boram

Yonhap News, March 17, 2013

SEOUL, March 17 (Yonhap) -- Three years after North Korea's deadly attack on a South Korean Navy ship in the Yellow Sea that killed 46 sailors, the communist country has ratchet up tensions and is posing a much greater security threat to Seoul along the sea demarcation line that separates the two Koreas.

March 26 marks the third anniversary of the sinking of the corvette Cheonan southwest of Baengnyeong Island. An official investigative team set up by the government said a torpedo, probably launched by a North Korean mini submarine, tore the 1,200-ton ship in two in the night attack.

The provocation triggered punitive measures that effectively cut inter-Korean exchanges and economic cooperation, and forced South Korea to build up its defensive capabilities along the Northern Limit Line (NLL) that acts as the de facto border at sea.

Despite steps taken and Seoul's repeated warnings that it will strike back hard if provoked in the future, the North is now showing signs it may be ready to provoke the South once again. According to official reports, the western sea border region has borne the brunt of military provocations from the North. Of the 535 military provocations carried out since 1990, 77 percent occurred in the region. It is the site of three bloody naval battles since 1999 that resulted in the loss of life for both sides.

(...) [article here]

CHINA: A MORE ASSERTIVE FOREIGN POLICY?

CHINA’S NEW FOREIGN TEAM WILL REFLECT RISING TENSIONS WITH U.S., JAPAN

William Wan

The Washington Post, March 16, 2013

BEIJING — China has appointed two men to its top foreign policy positions who have devoted their careers to China’s relations with the United States and Japan, reflecting in part the rising tensions with both countries, according to former diplomats and foreign policy experts.

Saturday’s announcement elevated Yang Jiechi — China’s current foreign minister and former ambassador to the United States — to state councilor, the nation’s highest-ranking official on foreign policy, and made Wang Yi, former ambassador to Japan, the new foreign minister.

For years, China’s foreign policy has been dominated by a sometimes uncoordinated mix of leaders within China’s military and its ruling Communist Party. Some had hoped China’s next generation of foreign policy leaders would help strengthen the relatively weak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, providing a central coordinating point internally as well as better access to decision-makers for other countries’ diplomats.

But neither Yang nor Wang has a seat on the party’s powerful Politburo, meaning they, like their predecessors, will continue to be outranked by at least 25 other leaders, who will drive most of the policymaking.

In the most recent demonstration of that dynamic, many within the party say China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, has taken the lead on a task force dealing with a territorial dispute with Japan over a small group of rocky islands that has flared tempers in both countries.

(...) [article here]

PRIME MINISTER LI KEQIANG

LI KEQIANG MADE PREMIER OF CHINA

Rubberstamp appointment puts Li Keqiang in charge of an economy that has faltered and a people impatient at inequity

The Guardian, March 15, 2013

China's ruling Communist party has appointed Li Keqiang as premier, bringing a highly orchestrated leadership transition nearer its end.

The party-controlled legislature overwhelmingly selected Li, the only candidate for the office, which is China's number two position politically and its top job in practical terms. There were 2,940 votes in favour with one opposed and six abstaining. A day earlier the legislature similarly appointed Xi Jinping to the ceremonial post of president, making him China's pre-eminent leader following his ascent last November to head the Communist party and the military.

The final vote was a foregone conclusion but choosing the candidates had taken years of fractious behind-the-scenes bargaining. Li Keqiang is a protege of the now-retired President Hu Jintao, while Xi Jinping is the son of a revolutionary veteran with backing among party elders.

(...) [article here]

PRESIDENT XI JINPING

CHINA’S NEW LEADER TAKES FULL POWER IN DELICATE BALANCING ACT

Chris Buckley

The New York Times, March 14. 2013

HONG KONG — China’s new Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping, completed his formal transition to power on Thursday, assuming the presidency during a parliamentary meeting which has sent signals that his government will try to be more responsive to an impatient public while defending the party’s top-down control.

The National People’s Congress anointed Mr. Xi as president four months after he was appointed as Communist Party general secretary and chairman of the Central Military Commission, giving him all three offices – party, army and state – through which he is likely to wield power for the next decade.

There was never any doubt that compliant delegates to the annual party-run parliament would overwhelmingly endorse Mr. Xi for president. They also voted in his ally Li Yuanchao as vice president. Among the 2,956 delegates who cast valid ballots in the grandiose Great Hall of the People, one contrary soul voted against Mr. Xi, while three abstained.

Now Mr. Xi faces rival expectations of how he will apply the power in his hands – expectations that he has kindled. Since succeeding Hu Jintao as party leader in November, he has used meetings, speeches and visits to a frenetic coastal city and a dirt-poor village to signal he wants some economic liberalization, more room for citizens to criticize the government, and a crackdown on the official corruption that has increasingly infuriated Chinese citizens.

(...) [article here]

CHINA’S ECONOMY AND THE IMF

EMBRACE CONSUMPTION, IMF'S ZHU URGES CHINA

Chen Weihua

China Daily, March 13, 2013

A top International Monetary Fund official warned on Tuesday of the need for China to follow through on plans to shift its economy from an investment-driven model to one that relies on domestic consumption.

Zhu Min, one of the IMF’s three deputy managing directors, said the key to this transition is economic reform and the quality, rather than the rate, of growth. Chinese GDP grew 7.8 percent in 2012, better than the government’s adjusted forecast of 7.5 percent. Although it was China’s slowest rate of economic expansion since 1999, the performance was among the strongest in the world. This year, GDP is expected to grow 8 percent to 8.25 percent.

Zhu pointed out that China’s economy has been moving from a long-established focus on exports to investment. However, the 48 percent of Chinese GDP that investment accounted for last year was far too high, he told a seminar at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

Overcapacity is a major challenge in China, where utilization of manufacturing resources has dropped to 60 percent, a level Zhu described as risky.

“Over-investment is a big concern and the quality of growth is a big concern,” he said.

(...) [article here]

CHINA’S NEGLECTED ENVIRONMENT

CHINA WRESTLES WITH COST OF CLEANER ENVIRONMENT

Firstpost.com, March 12, 2013

Beijing: Facing public outrage over smog-choked cities and filthy rivers, China's leaders are promising to clean up the country's neglected environment - a pledge that sets up a clash with political pressures to keep economic growth strong.

An array of possible initiatives discussed by officials and state media ahead of this week's meeting of China's legislature include tightening water standards and taxing carbon emissions. No change is expected at the National People's Congress, which will be dominated by the installation of a new Cabinet under Communist Party leaders who took power in November. But the meeting offers a platform to try to appease the public by discussing possible changes.

Pollution and public frustration about it are hardly new to China. But now, the ruling party is under pressure from entrepreneurs and professionals who are crucial to its development plans and want cleaner living conditions. Pressure intensified after this winter's record-shattering smog in Beijing and other cities left office workers wheezing.

For industry, pollution controls could cause a costly upheaval after three decades of breakneck growth with little official concern about damage to China's air, water and soil. Party leaders have given no timetable and have yet to make clear how far they are willing to go if such measures wipe out jobs or force factories and power plants to close.

(...) [article here]

NORTH KOREA’S RHETORIC

ANXIETY IN SOUTH AS N KOREA RHETORIC ESCALATES

Lucy Williamson

BBC News, March 11, 2013

Over the past week, newspapers here in the South have turned Pyongyang's threats into front-page spreads: its promises of "pre-emptive nuclear strikes", "all-out war" and withdrawal from the 60-year-old Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War.

South Koreans normally approach these kinds of declarations with a weary stoicism, barely pausing over their cappuccinos as they absorb the latest threats from their neighbour.

This time, though, the atmosphere here in Seoul is a little more anxious. While some dismiss it as just more of Pyongyang's bluster, others are worried by the volume and tone of the latest proclamations.

That goes for older South Koreans, in particular, say some.

Some see the North's Kim Jong-un (seated) as "not strong"

"Young Koreans are very desensitized," one friend told me. "If it enters their heads at all, it dissipates very quickly, replaced with the latest celebrity (gossip). But the older generation do feel differently on security issues."

"I didn't care about this issue until now," said another. "But I do worry this time around. The young North Korean leader is not strong, and I don't trust the new government here in the South."

(...) [article here]

UNEVEN RECOVERY IN CHINA

CHINA DATA SHOW UNEVEN ECONOMIC RECOVERY

The Malaysian Insider, March 10, 2013

HONG KONG, March 10 — China’s uneven economic recovery signals a looming dilemma for policymakers as official data released at the weekend showed inflation at a 10-month high in February while factory output and consumer spending were weaker than forecast.

Data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed the consumer price index rose 3.2 per cent in February from a year ago, versus expectations of a 3.0 per cent rise, while annual industrial production (IP) growth in January and February combined at 9.9 per cent was the lowest since October 2012 - the starting point of China’s nascent economic recovery.

The NBS numbers revealed state-mandated fixed asset investment (FAI) was the key driver of economic growth in the first two months of the year, up 21.2 per cent and the strongest in 12 months, while annual retail sales growth of 12.3 per cent was the slackest January and February combined since 2004.

“This data shows that the economy is in the process of a mild recovery and that it is still fragile,” Xu Gao, chief macro-economic analyst at Everbright Securities in Beijing, told Reuters.

“It faces a lot of uncertainties.”

(...) [article here]

NK: SANCTIONS AND DIALOGUE

SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA MUST BE CARRIED OUT, BUT DIALOGUE IS ALSO NEEDED

The Hankyoreh, March 9, 2013

The biggest threat of war in the 19 years since the 1994 nuclear crisis is clouding over the Korean Peninsula. From the rhetoric coming out of North Korea, it would not be overstating matters to say that the area stands poised at the brink of war.

For the past few days, North Korea has been issuing increasingly intense threats over United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2094, which imposes additional sanctions following the country's recent nuclear test, and the Key Resolve joint exercises between South Korea and the US, which are set to begin on March 11. Kim Yong-chol, who handles anti-terrorism operations and psychological warfare as head of the (North) Korean People's Army reconnaissance general bureau, started things off on March 2 with a KPA supreme command spokesperson's statement warning of the nullification of the armistice agreement and turning Seoul and Washington into seas of fire. A few hours before the UNSC resolution was adopted, the North Korean foreign ministry objected vehemently in a spokesperson's statement, saying it would be "difficult now to avoid a second Korean War" and warning that it would "exercise the right to a preemptive nuclear strike against the stronghold of the aggressors." After the resolution, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea declared the non-aggression agreement with South Korea null and announced the severing of the communication channel between the two countries' Red Cross organizations at Panmunjom. Kim Jong-un rallied the troops with inspection visits on March 7 to the Warrior Hero Defense Unit and the Changjae Island Defense Corps, which carried out a 2010 artillery attack on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island. It is like watching a runaway train.

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INDIA AND THE WOMEN’S DAY

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2013: INDIA BATTLES RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT; NEW CRIMINAL LAW MAY BE BEST GIFT

International Business Times, March 8, 2013

"There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had once said.The world observes March 8 as International Women's Day, and the United Nations has chosen the theme, "A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women", for this year.

The theme is seen appropriate in the wake of the brutal Delhi gang-rape that triggered mass protests across India.

The 16 December, 2012 incident, in which a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was brutally gang-raped and murdered, shocked not only India but also made headlines around the world. The incensed public took to the streets demanding stringent punishment for rapists, in an effort to put an end to such crimes.

Several rape cases have been reported after the horrifying Delhi gang-rape incident. A three-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped while she sleeping and was gang-raped in Malappuram district of Kerala a few days ago. Another minor aged seven was raped in a Delhi school on 27 February.

In another shocking incident, three minor girls, sisters, aged six, nine and 11 went missing on 14 February, and their bodies found in a well in Bhandara district of Maharashtra. Post-mortem reports confirmed that they were raped. These are some of the several instances of crimes that have been reported in the past couple of months.

(...) [article here]

CURRENCY REFORM IN CHINA

CHINA CENTRAL BANK EYES REFORM, MORE FLEXIBLE YUAN IN 2013

The Star, March 6, 2013

BEIJING: China will press ahead with reforms to allow more flexibility in the yuan's exchange rate and the remaining barriers to creating a cross-border currency trading zone could be cleared in the first half of this year, senior officials said on Wednesday.

Yi Gang, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, reiterated Beijing's commitment to currency reform on the sidelines of the annual meeting of China's parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC).

"We will continue to reform and open up. I'm confident that the renminbi (yuan) exchange rate will be more balanced and flexible and basically stable," Yi, who also heads the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), China's FX watchdog, told reporters on the sidelines of the NPC.

Sources with knowledge of the latest PBOC thinking have told Reuters that China is set to use swelling offshore holdings of its tightly-managed currency worth around 1 trillion yuan ($160 billion) to justify a landmark shift in tactics to relax capital controls.

Separately Zhang Ping, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planning agency, told an NPC news conference that plans for China's currency trading pilot program were progressing smoothly.

Zhang said only six of 22 measures needed to get a $45 billion special economic foreign exchange trading zone up and running in Qianhai, near the border with Hong Kong, were outstanding and likely to be resolved in the first half of 2013.

"We are hopeful of coming up with plans to solve those problems in the first half of this year," Zhang said.

(...) [article here]

CHINA: DOMESTIC DEMAND AS A LONG-TERM STRATEGY

CHINA PUTS FOCUS ON CONSUMERS TO DRIVE GROWTH

Kevin Yao and Aileen Wang

Reuters, March 5, 2013

BEIJING (Reuters) - China put its fast-growing consumer class at centre-stage as outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao set out a reform plan on Tuesday to spread the fruits of economic growth more evenly in the country of 1.3 billion.

Wen said unleashing the power of China's consumers was vital to the future of the world's second biggest economy and called for accelerated reform of the rigid hukou household registration system to drive an urbanisation effort that he said underpinned the country's programme of economic development.

"We should unswervingly take expanding domestic demand as our long-term strategy for economic development," Wen told delegates assembled in the Great Hall of the People for the once-a-year meeting of China's National People's Congress (NPC).

"To expand individual consumption, we should enhance people's ability to consume, keep their consumption expectations stable, boost their desire to consume, improve their consumption environment and make economic growth more consumption-driven."

Wen made consumers the cornerstone of an economic strategy designed to deliver an overall growth target of 7.5 percent in 2013 - a level China barely beat in 2012 when growth eased to its slowest pace in 13 years, expanding by 7.8 percent.

Rebalancing growth away from the investment-driven, export-oriented model that has delivered three decades of double digit growth, lifted hundreds of millions of people from rural poverty and turned China into the world's biggest trading economy, has been a policy priority for much of Wen's decade in office.

(...) [article here]

AUSTRALIA AND INDIA

BALLAST FOR AUSTRALIA-INDIA RELATIONS

Ramesh Thakur

The Japan Times, March 4, 2013

CANBERRA – Based on common colonial links and political systems, Australia’s relations with India should be close and comfortable and those with China contentious. For example, Indian contingents fought alongside the ANZACs at Gallipoli that is so central to the founding myth of Australian (and New Zealand) identity.

In fact, compared to the substantial and mutually beneficial relations with China, Australia has had sparse and troubled relations with India.

With India’s history of opposition to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and its refusal to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the nuclear irritant to the bilateral relationship assumed a symbolic importance out of proportion to the objective dimensions of the problem. Each side was firmly convinced of its own intellectual and moral rectitude and therefore smugly contemptuous of the other. The stark reality that India today matters more than Australia has provided the strategic rationale for Canberra to modify a key and long-standing plank of its anti-nuclear policy.

(...) [article here]

JAPAN, THE US AND CHINA

NO FREE HAND GIVEN TO JAPANESE HAWK BY US

Ching Cheong

The China Post, March 3, 2013

BEIJING - Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has failed to get a blank check from his American ally to underwrite his hawkish policy over the disputed Senkaku (Diaoyu to the Chinese) islands.

At the joint press briefing during Abe's visit to Washington last week, U.S. President Barack Obama did not mention China or the disputed islands at all. What Japan wanted most from him — to openly reiterate that the islands fell within Japanese administration — was not delivered.

In fact, American reception of Abe was at best lukewarm. This is because mainstream views in the U.S. do not support Japanese claims over the islands.

For example, Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times wrote last September: “On balance, I find the evidence for Chinese sovereignty quite compelling. The most interesting evidence is emerging from old Japanese government documents and suggests that Japan in effect stole the islands from China in 1895 as booty of war.”

Even the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a U.S. think tank critical of China, urged Abe to exercise restraint. On the eve of the PM's U.S. visit, AEI scholar Michael Auslin, in an open letter, urged him to undertake that “Japan will never fire the first shot, nor endanger civilian life.”

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BRICS AND MULTILATERALISM

MULTILATERALISM IN A MULTIPOLAR WORLD

Andrew Sheng

The Star, March 2, 2013

Who has that vision of global public responsibility?

After the Chinese New Year holidays, I visited Rio de Janeiro for a conference to discuss the state of the global economy.

I last visited Brazil in 1986, when the whole of Latin America was suffering terribly from the Latin American debt crisis. Today, Brazil is the B in the BRIC economies, with a population of over 190 million population, the fifth largest in the world, with nominal GDP of US$2.5 trillion, 7th largest in the world. There is quiet confidence in air, especially since Brazil's largest neighbour, Argentina, has once again gone back to recession due to mismanagement.

In fact, other than Asia, which has benefited from the rise of China, India and South-East Asia (particularly Indonesia), Latin America is increasingly an important emerging region. Within Latin America, the Pacific countries, such as Chile, Colombia and Peru are emerging as growth leaders, moving to 5% annual growth because of their openness to trade and ability to increase domestic investments.

What is most remarkable is the growth in international trade between the leading Latin American countries with China. In 2000, China moved from 36th place and 35th place in trade with Colombia and Venezuela respectively to 2nd largest trading partner with both countries. Today, China is the largest export market for Brazil, Chile and Peru, so there was no doubt how keen Brazilians are to learn about China.

As one of the members of G20, Brazil has been an important supporter of multilateralism, since free trade has been seen as beneficial. But there are subtle changes in their views on capital flows. Large inflows of short-term capital have driven the Brazilian real upwards, and while commodity exports have benefited from a strong real, manufacturing exports are affected. Brazil is watching closely whether a global currency war will emerge, particularly if there are major moves in the yen and East Asian currencies.

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CHINA’S MANUFACTURING GROWTH

CHINA’S MANUFACTURING EXPANDS AT BELOW-FORECAST PACE: ECONOMY

Bloomberg News

Bloomberg, March 1, 2013

Two Chinese manufacturing indexes showed a slower-than-estimated pace of expansion, a signal the nation’s economic recovery may be losing steam.

The official Purchasing Managers’ Index was 50.1 in February, the weakest in five months and down from 50.4 in January, a report from the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing showed today in Beijing. A separate gauge from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics dropped to a four-month low of 50.4 from 52.3. Readings above 50 indicate expansion.

Contractions at small and mid-sized manufacturers in the official survey underscore the headwinds China’s new government will face when it takes power this month after the annual session of parliament. Li Keqiang, set to become premier, faces the task of sustaining a rebound in growth without triggering a resurgence in inflation and banks’ bad debts.

“The recovery is obviously weak,” said Xie Dongming, a China economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore. “The official PMI is almost at the line between expansion and contraction and seasonal factors from the Chinese New Year holidays alone can’t explain this.”

The official index compares with the 50.5 median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 31 analysts. The median forecast of 14 economists for the HSBC gauge was 50.6, after a preliminary reading of 50.4 issued Feb. 25. A measure of new orders in the government survey fell to 50.1, a five-month low, while export orders showed a second month of contraction.

(...) [article here]