Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has repeatedly claimed that it wants to bring its economy in line with the world, its approach runs counter to the world and is still far from internationalization.
According to an article written by the Secretary General of the China-EU Association, China is losing its attractiveness to foreign companies due to 3 major factors, and the percentage of foreigners who have a favorable opinion of China is at a record low. At the same time, the China-EU investment agreement was frozen and Beijing’s request for help from France was decisively rebuffed. In addition, on Friday, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would sanction companies sponsoring the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Xi Jinping has said “time and momentum are on China’s side,” but the war-wolf diplomacy has left Xi’s good hand in tatters.
Goldman Sachs says China has lost its ability to control commodity prices.
Power shortage hits Guangdong! Manufacturing companies in the province have seen widespread shutdowns and production restrictions and are facing huge losses.
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed an amendment to lower tariffs on hundreds of Chinese goods, but the amendment is said to have four major flaws.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.
China’s European Association Secretary General: 3 factors China’s loss of attraction to foreign companies…
Adam Dunnett, secretary general of the European Union Association of China, said in an opinion piece published Friday (28) that due to political and economic factors, China has gradually lost its attractiveness to foreign companies, which has led to a significant decline in the number of foreigners in China, according to estimates by the European, American and Canadian Chambers of Commerce, the number of foreigners in China has fallen by 30 to 40 percent over the past five years.
Dunnett pointed out that despite China’s talk of internationalization and openness, foreign residents still account for less than 0.1 percent of China’s total population over the past 10 years, according to new census figures, especially in foreign communities in international hubs such as Shanghai and Beijing, where foreigners account for less than 1 percent of the total population, with foreign populations declining by 22 percent and 41 percent, respectively; compared to Seoul, South Korea, where the foreign population accounts for Compared to Seoul, South Korea, where the percentage of foreign population is 2.8%, Tokyo, Japan, 4.2%, New York, USA, 23% and London, UK, 37%, China is still far from internationalization.
He believes that the three main reasons for China’s loss of attractiveness to foreign companies and the resulting retreat of expatriates are political, economic and administrative factors, implying that the honeymoon period of China’s rise as a great power is over. He cited recent Pew Research Center survey data showing that China’s appeal is rapidly disappearing, with the number of Americans, Britons and Canadians who have a favorable attitude toward China dropping to 22%, 22% and 23% respectively, a new low.
In addition, the cost of living in Chinese cities is becoming more expensive, leading to a sharp rise in costs for expatriate families. The average cost of attending an international school for a child is approximately $30,000 to $40,000 a year, which would have been 100% offset by education taxes, but as a result of China’s tax reform, these tuition fees are considered part of income, making expatriates subject to a 45% income tax rate.
In addition, China has administratively imposed many restrictions on expatriates returning to China due to the restrictions imposed by the New Crest Pneumonia (CCP) epidemic, including cumbersome visa applications and quarantine measures such as mutual recognition of vaccines.
Goldman Sachs: China has lost its ability to control commodity prices
China, the biggest buyer of many commodities, is struggling to contain the rally due to inflation concerns, and Goldman Sachs says China’s efforts to control soaring commodity prices may be futile and it has lost its ability to dominate the market.
A note drafted by Jeffrey Currie, head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, said the speed of the rally in advanced economies, particularly the U.S., means China is no longer the marginal buyer that dominates commodity pricing.
Experts analyzed the sharp drop in commodity prices after the Chinese Communist government warned of speculation and as a “clear buying opportunity” given that raw materials such as copper and soybeans remain in an uptrend of tight supply.
As Curry points out, while commodity prices have pulled back about 3% following China’s warning about onshore commodity speculation, the fundamental path for key commodities such as oil, copper and soybeans remains oriented toward incremental tightness in the second half of the year, with little evidence of a supply response sufficient to derail the bull market.
U.S. analysts point out that U.S. manufacturing is passing on the advantage of commodity prices to the end consumer in dollar terms. This higher pricing power of U.S. companies has allowed them to respond more effectively to rising commodity prices.
“There is growing evidence that commodities are no longer China-centric.” Analysts say the greater U.S. pricing power is a direct result of the massive fiscal stimulus in the U.S., while China is not.
In addition, there are structural factors that have contributed to a paradigm shift. China no longer benefits as it once did from its low-cost labor, global trade and apparent disregard for the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions, which will ultimately lead to a significant reduction in its onshore profit margins.
The doctor involved in the “tumor treatment blackout” in mainland China was fined, but the mystery remains to be solved.
On April 18, 2021, Dr. Zhang Yu, a medical oncologist at Peking University Third Hospital, posted an article on the Internet to expose the “shady practices of tumor treatment”, which aroused widespread concern. Recently, the latest development of the incident has been made.
The doctor involved in the “shady tumor treatment”, Lu Wei, was suspended from practice for 6 months and fined 30,000 RMB (the same below); Shanghai Jia Kang Biological Engineering Co. .
Pictured are Yan Zhihua (right) and Yan Xiaoyan (left), a father and daughter who went to the United Nations headquarters in November 2018 to submit a complaint to WHO about shady medical practices in China.
After learning of the latest punishment, whistleblower Zhang Yu posted at around 12:00 p.m. on May 28 that he had “mixed feelings and it’s hard to evaluate” and said his wish was simple: “I hope that the public will receive standardized medical treatment and that there will be fewer and fewer bad medical practices.
Looking back on the whole incident, although the doctors and medical units involved were fined, the heavy dark secret behind it still seems to be unresolved.
On April 2, Dr. Zhang Yu publicly questioned his fellow doctors online. According to his account, a patient with liver metastasis from stomach cancer was “deliberately tricked into treatment” by Lu, a general surgeon at a tertiary hospital in Shanghai, resulting in “a significantly shorter survival period and costing his family more than 10 times the conventional treatment.
On April 18, Zhang Yu issued another long article. He said, “In the past year or so, I alone have encountered more than a hundred cases of tumor patients in dozens of hospitals receiving inappropriate or even wrong treatment, i.e., treatment that clearly violates the accepted basic principles of the oncology community.” Among these hospitals, there are not only ordinary local hospitals, but also many oncologists from tertiary hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, who have obvious misconduct in tumor treatment.
In response to Dr. Zhang Yu’s public challenge, on April 19, the CPC Health Care Commission said it would organize an investigation to verify the case. on April 27, the Health Care Commission responded to the incident in a press conference, saying that after expert and peer review, the principles of treatment were considered to be largely in line with the norms. Regarding whether there is an improper exchange of benefits in genetic testing and NK cell immunotherapy, the Shanghai Health and Wellness Commission has been asked to conduct another investigation.
Dr. Zhang Yu expressed outrage at the response from the Health and Welfare Commission, and on May 5, he posted another article saying that he hoped the Commission would give him the opportunity to debate the case with a panel of experts against Dr. Lu Wei. In the article, he said, “The findings of the Health Care Commission are like a bang on the head, clearly telling me and everyone else that there is basically nothing wrong with Dr. Lu Wei’s principles of treating patients, and that there are only minor mistakes.”
He believes that the expert panel’s opinion was wrong and that the conclusion that Dr. Lu Wei’s treatment plan was basically in line with medical principles was an outright lie.
Under the pressure of public opinion, the incident was reversed on May 24. On that day, the CPC Shanghai Health Care Commission published “Lu Wei’s Health and Health Administrative Punishment Case” on its official website. However, the public announcement of the Health Care Commission avoided the focus of the “tumor treatment shady” incident, behind which there are still many shady secrets.
Guangdong manufacturing companies face huge losses due to power shortages and production restrictions
With the escalating restrictions on electricity consumption in some areas of Guangdong since May, some manufacturing companies are facing huge losses such as lack of production capacity and default.
According to a report by China First Financial on May 27, after the May 1 holiday this year, some enterprises in Guangdong Province have received notices to restrict electricity consumption one after another, i.e. “open five and close two” (open five days and close two days) every week.
But recently there is a new notice of electricity restrictions. Liu Hao, the person in charge of a medical device company in Guangzhou, revealed that he received a new notice on the night of the 25th, requiring the implementation of the “open four stop three” from May 26.
Liu Hao said: “Our enterprise production depends on precision high-end equipment, are large machine tools, large equipment, which can not be replaced by hand. If long-term power restrictions, many enterprises, especially those relying on large equipment production, production capacity will certainly not be able to keep up. In addition, employment will also be affected, the normal commuting time of employees is disrupted, in the long run, employees will also have ideas, which is also a new problem for enterprises.”
Many manufacturing enterprises in Guangdong have received a notice of power restrictions in May, opening the “open five stop two” or “open four stop three” mode of operation.
Since late April, Guangdong Province continued to high temperature, compared with the same period last year, the temperature is 4 ℃ higher. High temperatures, electricity demand is also rising, the highest load demand in Guangdong Province has exceeded last year’s annual maximum load. The CPC Guangdong Provincial Energy Bureau said to the public on May 21, the province’s electricity demand has maintained high growth this year. In particular, the secondary and tertiary industries continue to have strong demand for electricity, January to April electricity consumption increased by 32.2% and 40.2% respectively compared to last year.
In addition, the supply of electricity to Guangdong’s Yunnan Province has not yet entered the flood season, resulting in the western electricity in Guangdong during the tight power supply can not increase the power delivery.
At present, a number of enterprises in Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan and Jiangmen have received notices of power restrictions.
Ltd. began to implement the “open five stop two” on May 21, currently, the orders of Fulikai with clear delivery date have been scheduled to July and August.
If it is only one or two weeks, the impact is not big, but if the whole summer is implemented, the most direct impact in the short term is that the production plan is not in place, and the delivery cannot be made on time, if the customer does not accept (extension), only air freight can be chosen, so the freight cost will increase, and the operating cost of the factory will also increase. In the long run, it will affect the credibility of the brand.”
The foreign trade enterprises with compact orders will have a more obvious impact on the export business if they cannot deliver on schedule due to capacity constraints. The person in charge of a hardware products enterprise in Jiangmen City said, “Now the implementation of peak electricity, production capacity is limited, the delivery date in a moment and can not be postponed or changed, the container are ordered in advance, then there will be containers but can not ship the situation, our exports are greatly affected.” And a container to 7000 (yuan, the same below) ~ 8000 yuan, and the current order cabinet is still very difficult, but also in advance to order people to book.
Many companies said that for the time being, they do not know how long the power restriction will be implemented.
In addition to Guangdong, Yunnan, Zhejiang, Shandong and other provinces have also issued an orderly power consumption program for 2021.
U.S. lawmakers propose sanctions against Beijing’s Winter Olympics sponsors
International calls for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics are intensifying. Bipartisan members of the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would sanction companies that sponsor the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The bill, introduced Friday by the U.S. Congress, explicitly instructs the heads of executive agencies and the Department of Defense not to enter into contracts with companies or individuals that “engage in commercial cooperation with the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Committee or the International Olympic Committee. The ban will be lifted if companies withdraw their sponsorship support for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
According to the official website of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the main partners include Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and other world-famous brands.
Thawing the China-EU investment agreement? Beijing’s plea for French help decisively rebuffed
After the CEIBS was frozen, Beijing repeatedly shouted to the EU to continue cooperation, but failed to do so. Recently, China asked France for help in lobbying the EU to promote the agreement, but France decisively rejected it.
On May 25, Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao held a video conference with Franck Riester, the French Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade. Wang expressed his hope that the French side would play an active role in promoting the signing and entry into force of the China-EU Investment Agreement as soon as possible.
Photo: Riester delivers a speech at the Elysee Palace in Paris on May 6, 2020.
But Lister rebuffed the Chinese side’s request and reiterated the position of France and the EU.
According to AFP, Lister said, “It is unacceptable for China (the Communist Party) to sanction MEPs, which, as the European Commission recently said, prevents us from taking another step forward in ratifying the agreement. I made this clear to China (the Communist Party).”
At the same time, Lister also reiterated to the Chinese side the concerns of France and the EU about the “human rights situation in Xinjiang.
The China-EU Investment Agreement, which took seven years of difficult negotiations to reach, ended up being a waste of Xi Jinping’s time.
U.S. Senate passes amendment to lower tariffs on hundreds of Chinese goods
Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio took to Twitter on Thursday (May 27) to express his anger and disappointment. That’s because the Senate voted 91 to 4 to pass an amendment that cuts tariffs on hundreds of products imported from China.
In his tweet, Rubio said, “The ‘China (CCP) Act’ now lowers tariffs on hundreds of products made in China. Why should we cut tariffs on China (CCP) in a bill designed to improve America’s ability to compete with China (CCP)?”
The amendment, which was passed at more than 280 pages, makes significant changes to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA). The bill was previously known as the Endless Frontier Act. This provoked Rubio’s anger.
An internal analysis of the amendment concluded that it had four major flaws, including.
First, it would break precedent by creating the first Office of Inspector General (IG) in the Executive Office of the President.
Second, it eliminates tariffs on personal protective equipment (PPE), which would reduce the capacity of U.S. manufacturers. These manufacturers have invested heavily in capacity as a result of the outbreak.
Third, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (United States Trade Representative, USTR) provides new enforcement tools in digital trade that do not effectively promote U.S. industry, but are supported by Google and other large technology companies to use them as a means to avoid foreign-related regulations and taxes.
Finally, the amendment re-authorized the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB). This bill unilaterally reduces tariffs on thousands of products made in China.
The amendment also includes a long list of chemical products needed for research and production in many industrial and technological sectors. The tariffs on each of these items would be eliminated or reduced.
The list also includes clothing and apparel products, electrical equipment products and parts, numerous automotive parts, and pumps, including turbomolecular pumps, among others.
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