WEEKLY WATCH

WEEKLY WATCH

OPINION

Expired Goods

It’s only been one month since Hainan Province began practicing its offshore dutyfree policy, but already the policy seems to be overshadowed by a recent scandal involving expired cosmetics. The duty-free shop in Sanya said the cosmetics in question were labeled with incorrect production dates by the shop’s new employees.

Hainan’s offshore duty-free policy has kindled Chinese tourists’ enthusiasm for consumption, but this scandal is just pouring water on a recently lit fire.

These shops are state-run entities, so the quality of commodities being sold w ill reflect on the government’s image. The policy is still in its experimental phase and it is critical now more than ever to build that image and establish a solid reputation.

Already, the public is not believing the shop’s explanation that it’s a w rong label by the new employees. Despite the shop’s promise to compensate consumers, the negative influence w ill be hard to shake.

The offshore duty-free policy is meant to promote Hainan as an international tourism destination. More importantly, it means to stimulate domestic consumption by lowering commodity prices after cutting taxes. Sanya’s duty-free policy could serve as an example to implement elsewhere in China.

Chinese travelers spent about $923 m illion on various goods while traveling to France in 2010. Perhaps the domestic market needs to reconsider the way it treats domestic consumers.

Xinmin Evening News

Cheap Vegetab les

China’s M inistry of Commerce recently issued several notices to local commercial departments to work out more detailed measures to help farmers sell their vegetables.

The difficulty for farmers to sell vegetables has been discussed heatedly by the media.Some suggest a direct link between farmers and supermarkets, subsidies to farmers and exemption of market management fees.

Apart from these solutions, we have to realize that farmers in China operate on their own and are scattered about the vast countryside.

Vegetable farmers or sales agents are traveling around the country in an effort to sell their products to wholesale markets. This movement objectively has increased the cost in the distribution process, further pushing up retail prices.

However, despite lowering vegetable purchase prices, some farmers remain calm and confident, and their vegetable bases are making big profi ts. One thing they share in common is they are members of local agricultural cooperatives.

Throughout China, farmers of vegetables,fruits and grains operate by themselves or w ith a fam ily unit. Their relative isolation from larger urban centers puts them at a disadvantage in terms of access to information, transportation and capital. They are thus vulnerable to even the smallest fluctuations in the market.

Agricultural cooperatives prove to be effective as they can help farmers struggle through various market storms. Shandong Province has 6,393 registered agricultural cooperatives, while Henan Province has 7,255 registered rural professional economic associations.

Agricultural cooperatives are now set up based on farmers’ free w ill. In these organizations, members help each other and are united in dealing with difficult market situations.

This new vegetable crisis tells us that to revitalize the rural economy and help protect farmers’ rights and interests, professional agricultural cooperatives are a good solution.

Guangzhou Daily

Cartoon Produc tion

The Seventh China International Cartoon and animation Festival recently released a report on China’s cartoon and animation industry. The report pointed out China’s annual cartoon production reached 220,000 minutes,surpassing Japan as the world’s top cartoon producer.

However, some industry insiders say domestic animated products are costly garbage. Despite years of progress, the quality of domestic cartoons remains low. China’s 3D technology falls at least 20 years behind that of developed countries. More importantly,cartoon makers seem to be more interested in making money than working to produce content for children. W ith a massive production lines at their disposal, producers can make as much money as they want, but how many of these poorly produced cartoons w ill stand the test of time? How many of them can even compete w ith foreign cartoons or secure a footing in the international market?

Why are foreign cartoons prevalent all over China? Because they are able to give children and even adults a deep impression by presenting cute figures and interesting stories.Can our domestic cartoons manage to do this?

The real question is: What is the objective of making cartons? Is it to entertain children or just to promote the cartoon industry and turn a profit? Carton producers must put children fi rst and always remember to bring them joy and make them laugh, instead of concentrating on the number of cartoons being produced.

Arbitrary Fines

Lindian County is a state-level poverty-stricken county in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. The local Transport Management Station of the county harvested 3 million yuan ($ 460,000) road-related fines and forfeits in 2010. The fines were collected for staff’s salary payments, the station said recently.

Of the station’s 40 staff members, only 19 are formally employed, so to pay the rest, the station can only turn to fines. This explains why the fines the county collected are higher than in other counties.

This explanation seems reasonable, but the question is, why is this station so heavily overstaffed? In general, the staff size of these agencies is a result of careful calculation based on the amount of work.

These extra employees are not officially appointed and therefore do not have law enforcement power. But they are empowered by the station to fine drivers. The station has to hand in the fines to the county government, and then the government appropriates funds to the station. The more fines the station collects, the more funds they’ll get from the government.But, China’s Administrative Punishment Law forbids financial departments to refund forfeits or fines to law enforcement departments.

Throughout China, overstaffing and arbitrary fines are not lim ited only to impoverished counties. They often happen even in rich areas. Because of this profi t-oriented objective, it’s easy to understand why the collection of road tolls is so hard to eradicate in China despite the public’s strong desire to abolish it.

Dazhong Daily

FESTIVAL OF TOONS:The Seven th International Cartoon and Anim ation Festiva l is held on Ap ril 28-May 3 in Hangzhou,capital o f Zhejiang Province. Cartoon charac ters in anim ated m ovies parade dow n the streets in the city du ring the festiva l

SOCIETY

Floating Allow ances

China has established a system to peg basic living guarantee allowances for lowincome groups to consumer prices.

Local governments should take the basic subsistence costs, local Engel’s coefficient or the expenditure-income ratio, into account when setting their own allowance standards,said a circular jointly issued by the M inistry of Civil Affairs, the National Development and Reform Comm ission, M inistry o f Finance and the National Bureau of Statistics on May 18.

Local plans of setting and adjustment of allowance standards, approved by local governments, should be published via websites,newspapers and other media for the public,the circular said.

H1N1 Virus

Hong Kong’s quarantine authorities announced on May 18 two pig samples taken in a flu virus test were positive for H1N1,but no significant genetic re-assortment of viruses was found.

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said the result came from a regular influenza virus surveillance in pigs conducted by the University of Hong Kong from February to April.

A CFS spokesman said, given the w ide transmission of the pandemic H1N1 virus in humans, detection of the virus in pigs would not be a surprise. It was expected positive findings might appear from time to time in the surveillance program in the future.

Wild Birds’ Recovery

The population of 100 rare birds living in the wild is increasing in China due to intensified environmental protection, said the State Forestry Administration.

For example, the number of crested ibis has risen from merely seven to more than 1,600 over three decades.

But some of the country’s rare birds are still at risk due to shrinking habitats and increasing human activity, according to the adm inistration.

The administration said it would extend the protection network for birds and w ild animals in the future by building more natural reserves and setting up more monitoring stations for animals in the w ild.

Coalm ine Safety

A sharp decline in coal mining deaths w as reported in China for the first four months of this year.

The mortality rate fell 39 percent from the same period of last year, according to figures released by the State Adm inistration of Work Safety.

The death toll dropped to 2,433 in 2010 from 5,938 in 2005, while the country’s annual coal production jumped to 3.24 billion tons from 2.15 billion tons in the same period, said Zhao Tiechui, deputy director of the adm inistration.

China has more than 20 coal mines with a depth of more than 1,000 meters, and the number has been increasing every year. Gas emissions rise as mining goes deeper.

Large and medium-sized coal m ines in China are 456 meters deep on average, while the deepest is 1,365 meters.

CARE FOR THE DISABLED A w om an w earing an eye m ask feels her w ay typ ing as a person w ith vision d isab ility on M ay 15, the 21st National Day o f Assisting the Disab led in China

ECONOMY

New Top Trader

The EU has replaced Japan as China’s No.1 import source region based on trade figures in the fi rst four months of this year,China’s M inistry of Commerce (MOFCOM)announced on May 17.

Trade between China and the EU rose 23.5 percent in the fi rst four months from a year earlier to $170.01 billion, according to MOFCOM spokesman Yao Jian.

His remarks came after the EU slapped its first-ever anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duty on coated fine paper imported from China on May 14. China claimed on May 16 that EU members had subsidized domestic production of potato starch exported to China.

Joint Investm ent

China Petroleum and Chem ical Corp.(Sinopec) announced on M ay 17 the company w ill establish a new polycarbonate production p lant w ith an annual capacity o f 260,000 tons w ith Saudi Basic Industries Corp. at their existing joint venture in north China’s Tianjin Municipality.

The new polycarbonate production plant is expected to be put into operation by 2015,said Sinopec.

Polycarbonate is an essential p lastic used for producing components of automotive parts, compact discs and a variety of consumer products as well as other industrial components.

Upgrading Pow er Grids

The National Development and Reform Comm ission (NDRC) on May 16 issued a notice asking local governments to upgrade their rural power grids in a bid to boost the nation’s rural power infrastructure and improve the lives of rural residents in the next five years.

The uniform pricing of electricity w ill be realized between rural and urban areas,said the NDRC notice. Further, the Central Government will add more funds to support these projects.

WINDY CITY Workers exam ine w indm ill hubs in Shandong Rongchuan Port Machinery Manu fac tu ring Co. Ltd. in Rongcheng, Shandong Province, on May 16, 2011. Being a coastal city, Rongcheng attrac ts large energy com panies to invest in w ind pow er p ro jec ts w ith operationa l and under-construc tion insta lled capac ity to ta ling 250,000 kw and accum u lative elec tricity generation o f 600 m illion kw h

Banking in HK

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted a banking license to Shanghai Pudong Development Bank on May 16.

Incorporated on the Chinese mainland,Shanghai Pudong Development Bank is the 10th largest in the country in terms of Tier-1 capital (core capital) according to the July 2010 issue ofThe Banker.

W ith the bank’s acquisition of a license,the number of licensed banks in Hong Kong has increased to 149.

Largest Chem ical Market

China is expected to overtake the United States as the world’s largest chemical market by the end of 2011, Tim Hanley, chem ical sector leader of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Global M anufacturing Industry, said in Beijing on May 17.

Hanley said the key grow th driver for the Chinese chemical industry is the rapid grow th of the Chinese economy and high demand for chemical materials from the automotive, construction, textile, packaging, agriculture and other end-user industries in the country.

Hanley said Chinese chem ical companies should speed up industry restructuring and technical innovation to produce more advanced and high value-added products.

1. EU

IMF Deputy Managing Direc tor Nem at Shafik(le ft) speaks w ith Luxem bou rg’s Prim e M inister and Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker be fo re a m ee ting at the EU headqua rters in Brussels on May 16. European finance m inisters app roved an EU-IMF bailou t o f Po rtuga l, am ounting to 78 billion euros ($111 billion) that day

2. JORDAN

An injured Palestinian refugee ho lds his nationa l flag du ring a dem onstration on May 15 near the Jordanian-Israeli border.Israe li po lice barred dem onstrato rs from m arching on Israel’s border on the Nakba Day,an annua l even t fo r the Pa lestinians to m ou rn their su fferings during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

3. TURKEY

Musicians from the China Nationa l Opera House perfo rm at a concert in Ankara on May 17 in ce leb ration o f the 40th anniversary o f the estab lishm ent o f d ip lom a tic re la tions betw een China and Turkey

4. BELGIUM

TheSo lar Im pu lse, a pioneering Sw iss so lar-pow ered airc ra ft, flies above Brussels on May 13 during its first internationa l fligh t from Sw itzerland to Be lgium

5. THE UNITED STATES

U.S. space shuttleEndeavourlifts o ff from the Kennedy Space Cen ter in Florida on May 16 fo r its fina l m ission

6. IRELAND

Irish President Mary M cAleese g reets Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as she arrives in Dub lin on May 17 fo r a state visit, the first by a British m onarch to Ire land since its independence