China Economy Forum

[Bussard Ramjet]

Does anyone know the real growth rate of the Chinese economy here?

 

[Mista]

Jack Ma reiterates importance of honour, says Singapore is a great example

Alibaba founder Jack Ma has recently come under fire for commenting that China's unbranded goods are usually better than their branded counterparts.

"The problem is that the fake products today, they make better quality, better price than the real product, than the real names," he said in Hangzhou at Alibaba's investor's day on Tuesday (14 Jun).


Noting that the "way of doing business has changed" due to the presence of Chinese factories marketing their lower cost, brand-free imitations to consumers via e-commerce platforms like Alibaba, Jack Ma still holds true to his company being able to handle the problem "better than any government, any organisation, any people in the world".

He admits, though, that the problem cannot be eradicated completely, due to the 'human instinct' retaining a market for cheaper goods. Yet, the seemingly lack of efforts to date has been the subject of increasing scrutiny, with the Chinese government criticising the company for failing to curb fakes, and the US government issuing a stern warning that the company can be put back on the "Notorious Markets List" if they fail to be stricter on pirates.

However, professor of law and co-director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University Peter Yu has come to the e-commerce merchant's defence, stating that Jack Ma was "most likely referencing "A-grade" goods that are so difficult to tell apart that they can only be verified by lab technicians or the original manufacturer".

He added, "The part of the story that isn't emphasised is how much money and effort those auction sites have already put in to police the networks."

As a long-time advocate of building a 'trust system', Jack Ma has spoken at length on various occasions on how the success of Alibaba came from a strong value system, and has recently emphasised that "China should not look to rely on having cheaper products, but instead rely on the trust or honour between people."

While it is easy to jump the gun and point out the hypocrisy of Alibaba and Jack Ma after his recent comments, perhaps his speech for the Honour International Symposium 2016 held in Singapore from 19 to 20 May would give us a clearer insight.

Building trust through honesty

During the speech, he reiterated the importance of honour and trust, and stated that Singapore is a great example for the Chinese speaking world.

"I fully agree with the beliefs of the Singapore government, the level of development that it has achieved today, and its international status, but the most important factor is its steadfast commitment to 'honour', which includes respect, righteousness, integrity (and) responsibility."

As founder of an e-commerce giant, it comes as a surprise that Jack Ma did not think highly of businessmen in the past, because to him, the societal value that they created was very limited.

However, after starting his own business, he realised that decisions made related to money and profits are not strategic, but those made based on values have a higher guarantee of bringing longevity and success to the company.

When he first started Alibaba, people around had no faith in the venture, "Everyone said we were lunatics or cheats". He cites their survival though, not to money, resources or human talent, for they had none, but to the strong company values and beliefs they held.

Alibaba started out by connecting Chinese foreign trading companies with their overseas orders - a year after, though, the overseas transactions could not break even the annual fee Alibaba charged them.

Disappointed in the results and themselves, the staff decided to speak to the clients with full honesty, even offering them a refund and that no hard feelings will be held if they don't sign up for another year.

"E-commerce will have a great future, but results may not be instant."

Instead of creating animosity and a loss of trust, what actually resulted was Alibaba earning the trust and belief of clients, who encouraged the staff, and expressed that they understood that it will take time for foreign clients to move to an online platform.

"Do not bribe"

Jack Ma also states that success has nothing to do with capability, but correct critical choices.

"As a businessman, the most important decision to determine a company's destiny has nothing to do with money."

He recalls back to 2002, when Alibaba was in a difficult situation and wasn't even able to hit their goals of a $1 profit, due to the internet bubble burst.

Their lifeline was to win a website design business, but it also required them to offer bribes (a common under the table technique), and it was a fork in the road that they took an all-day meeting to discuss.

The final decision was they that would rather close down than offer bribes, opting to find more jobs to maintain the integrity of the company. Their risky choice paid off, and they began making profits again soon enough.

However, it was at a year end review that he found out that 60 per cent of the sales profits came from two employees who were actively offering bribes. To stay true to their words, they had no choice but to let the two employees go, choosing their values over profits.

From then, the rule "do not bribe" was written into the employees' code of conduct, with immediate expulsion being the result of its violation.

"Do not take bribes"

The situation soon turned around when companies started offering Alibaba employees bribes. To counter that, every Alibaba contract has this written on it:

"Thank you for doing business with us. We hope that in our future business interactions, our employees cannot ask for bribes and you will not offer us bribes. If we discover any such situation, our group will never do business with you."

By enforcing rules that don't even allow employees to take free rides or any types of gifts, Jack Ma says that his staff have grown to be respected within the business and working world - not simply because of how big the company is, but due to their strong value system.

Building a system of trust

Taobao, Alibaba's online marketplace, garnered much popularity at its opening, but Jack Ma realised that while a lot of communication was happening between sellers and buyers, transactions were not taking place due to the lack of trust between both sides.

That year, he participated the World Economic Forum in Davos, and in reaching there found out that all the business owners were talking about corporate social responsibility. It was then he realised what e-commerce in China needed - a system which promoted societal development.

On that day itself, he created Alipay, which seeks to address the nagging problem e-commerce in China had - a lack of trust.

With the implementation, Alibaba created a system of trust by having users provide reviews, Alipay facilitating transactions and its data-driven system which promotes credibility and ratings.

Ending off with "If there is a significant human potential that has not been realised, I believe mutual trust and credibility is the biggest undiscovered fortune. Only when we pay attention and care about 'honour', will we 'honour' ourselves. I believe it is only then that we can earn other people's 'honour'.", we can only guess that this speech came, albeit early, as a response to his critics.

http://business.asiaone.com/news/jack-ma-reiterates-importance-honour-says-singapore-great-example

 

[oprih]

Does anyone know the real growth rate of the Chinese economy here?

Faster than india's real growth rate.

 

[ahojunk]

Gordon Chang and other doomsayers will be disappointed.

-------
China maintained stable growth in Q2: UBS
2016-07-04 15:56 | Xinhua | Editor: Gu Liping

The upcoming release of official Chinese economic indicators will show the country maintained stable growth in the second quarter of 2016, UBS predicted in a report on Monday.

The Swiss bank put China's Q2 growth at 6.7 percent year on year, flat with the first quarter.

"Property sales may have moderated further and industrial production growth stabilized. Infrastructure investment likely stayed strong to offset downward pressures from still-weak private investment," it said.

The forecast came less than two weeks ahead of the official release of data including GDP, industrial output, fixed-asset investment (FAT) and retail sales for the past quarter.

UBS believes Q2 will mark a peak of growth momentum in the ongoing mini-cycle, and it forecast moderation during the remainder of 2016.

But it said it expects the government to intensify policy support if necessary to ensure the country meets a full-year growth target of 6.5 percent to 7 percent.

As for June's data, UBS forecast rising FAT, milder consumer price growth, narrowed industrial deflation and falling export growth. New total social financing probably picked up from May, and foreign exchange reserves dropped, it said.

 

[JSCh]

Chinese firm Midea gets over 50% of Germany’s Kuka
AFP•July 7, 2016

Shanghai (AFP) - Chinese appliance giant Midea has secured majority control in German industrial robotics supplier Kuka, it said Thursday, with a multi-billion-euro offer that stoked controversy in Europe.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-firm-midea-gets-over-50-germany-kuka-105512310--finance.html

------------------------------------
​

China's June forex reserves unexpectedly rise to $3.21 trillion
3 hours ago

BEIJING, July 7 (Reuters) - China' foreign exchange reserves in June unexpectedly rose $20 billion to $3.21 trillion, central bank data showed on Thursday, rebounding from a 5-year low in May.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-june-forex-reserves-unexpectedly-082255436.html

 

[ahojunk]

:
China's June forex reserves unexpectedly rise to $3.21 trillion
3 hours ago

BEIJING, July 7 (Reuters) - China' foreign exchange reserves in June unexpectedly rose $20 billion to $3.21 trillion, central bank data showed on Thursday, rebounding from a 5-year low in May.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-june-forex-reserves-unexpectedly-082255436.html

.
Damn! More disappointment for Gordon Chang and other doomsayers.

 

[onebyone]

Gordon Chang: China Headed for Crash in 6 Months
Published on Jul 1, 2013
'The Coming Collapse of China ' author Gordon Chang gives his outlook for China's economy.

Gordon Chang: The Reasons For China's Imminent Bust

Uploaded on Nov 18, 2011
This podcast was presented on November 18, 2011

The global dominant narrative about China is wrong, claims Gordon Chang. Don't expect it to be the

Gordon Chang: China is Going Backwards Right Now

Uploaded on Nov 16, 2011
Subscribe to Conversations with Casey for free: http://bit.ly/Caseys_Daily
At the Casey Research/Sprott Summit When Money Dies, Gordon Chang, a columnist for Forbes, spoke with Stefan Molyneux about the past, present and future of China.

Gordon Chang: "The Coming Collapse of China" - FoxNews 110119
Uploaded on Jan 19, 2011
http://video.foxnews.com/#/v/4501190/...
http://www.gordonchang.com/collapse.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_G...

 

[ahojunk]

This Gordon Chang has zero shred of credibility.

He is a clown but a "clever" one. Why? He is able to make a very good living in the US.

He has been postponing his prediction for more than 15 years, yet he is still highly sought after by the China bashers.

 

[JSCh]

Large gas field discovered in SW China
Source: Xinhua 2016-07-08 01:03:20

BEIJING, July 7 (Xinhua) -- China Geological Survey (CGS) said a large natural gas field that could meet the needs of 10 million people has been discovered in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Geologists discovered four layers of shale gas and oil gas in Anye Well 1 in Zunyi, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources' CGS.

A test conducted in one of the layers found a steady daily output of 100,000 cubic meters, the CGS said in a statement.

The accessible gas reserve in the well is estimated at about 100 billion cubic meters, which can meet the residential, industrial and agricultural needs of a region with 10 million people.

 

[Dungeness]

This Gordon Chang has zero shred of credibility.

He is a clown but a "clever" one. Why? He is able to make a very good living in the US.

He has been postponing his prediction for more than 15 years, yet he is still highly sought after by the China bashers.

Some Chinese believe Gordon Chang is actually working for Chinese government. You may want to give him some credit for what the wonderful job he has done so far, strategic deception.

Let's look at this way, his 2001 "The Coming Collapse of China" worked perfectly well with China's strategy then "Hide your strength and buy your time", and since then he has been busy keeping up revising the date of "China's Imminent Collapse". The Uncle Sam may have bought into Gordon Chang's theory and go easy with China in the past 15 years, until woke up recently in state of shock that China has now grown into a giant with his own size and it is now freaking unstoppable.

China can't be where it is today without Gordon Chang's selfless contribution.

 

[bobsm]

China built first cable-suspended bridge for Africa
2016-07-08 17:26:55 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Huang Shan



Mohammed VI Bridge in Morocco, the largest cable-stayed bridge in Africa built by China's MBEC, opened to traffic on July 7, 2016. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]


Africa's longest cable-suspended bridge, built by China's Zhongtie Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., LTD, officially opened to traffic on July 7, 2016.

952 meters long and just over 30 meters wide, the Mohammed VI Bridge is Morocco's first cable-suspended bridge, and links the capital Rabat with the northwestern city of Sale.

Completion of the bridge is regarded as a landmark in China's bridge construction capability, and the country's bridge building activities around the world.

The bridge is part of the 42 km-long Rabat motorway bypass, and is expected to play a positive role in enhancing "One Belt One Road" initiatives.

http://english.cri.cn/12394/2016/07/08/4001s933502.htm

 

[TaiShang]

US expert: China's economic transformation breathtaking
By Xue Yujie, Qiu Lijie (People's Daily Online) 09:30, July 10, 2016


San Francisco, June 8, — There are enormously effective improving economic performance in China. No one is free of problems if you are trying to manage the economy. I don't feel China is doing badly," Nicholas Hope, director of the Stanford Center for International Development (SCID) recently told People's Daily Online, looking back at China's economic development in the past decades.

Worked as the Chief of the World Bank External Debt Division, Hope recalled China's economic policy reform when he first visited China in 1993. He told People's Daily Online, "It worked very well. The macro reform that attempted to set up the most socialist market economy, that also worked very well."

In his opinion, he divided China's reform era into two parts. From 1978 to 1993, goods and services were still provided partially by the government. But the free market was sprouting. By 1993, the reform of the household responsibility system happened in rural areas. And there were boom and bust cycle beginning in 1994 and continuing now, which was sort of reemphasized by the 3rd Plenum of the 18th Party Congress . "So that second era is in some way even more challenging than the first, the first was difficult because we had a command economy that suddenly wanted to become a market economy," he said.

In November 1993, China announced the establishment of the socialist market economic system in the Third Plenum of the 14th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and put forward the Fifty Decisions that involved a series of reforms aimed at overhauling its economy over the next decade. "It was extremely ambitious, and it involved just about everything you could think of it," Hope told People's Daily Online.

In 1994, Hope came back to Washington, D.C. as the Country Director for China at the World Bank. In 2000, Hope joined Stanford University and was involved with Chinese economy on a day-to-day basis.

"I had high hopes that foreign banks would involve themselves more heavily in the Chinese financial system, particularly after the WTO accession, and that hasn't really happened to a very large extent. The financial system still does not allocate resources in a market-determined fashion," Hope said. To illustrate this, he took China's "zombie firms" for example. Although some firms were bankrupt but kept alive by local decision makers. "Partly because I guess they don't want unemployed workers and others to be unhappy. "A lot of the loans that are made to these firms are simply used to pay wages and sometimes pensions, and they are not used for productive investment.

In addition to human capital, Hope emphasized the importance of greater efficiency in investment to economic growth, "China over the years has done wonderful job in investing in infrastructure." Infrastructure development remains a top priority for China's government mainly in roads and rails, electricity, and telecommunications. Hope added that China should improve its investment efficiency in other industries.

According to a report released by the government in January 2016, China's GDP growth rate moderated to 6.8 percent for the fourth quarter and 6.9 percent for 2015. The annual pace was the weakest in the quarter century. When asked about China's economic slowdown, Hope told People's Daily Online, "A few years ago at a conference with Tsinghua University, we had a very distinguished panel making presentations on the likely growth under China's 12th Five-Year Plan. At the 12th Five-Year Plan people were suggesting that the growth would be 7 to 8 percent. That didn't surprise me. Nothing grows at 10 percent forever, and China is the same."

He said "Slower growth in China was inevitable, now the concern I think the government has in the current situation is to grow slow faster than desirable, given the sort of constraints that the Chinese government has to deal with, given job creation, given migration from rural areas into urban areas, given the expectations of the Chinese citizens for continuing improvements and wellbeing. "

In March, the Government Work Report emphasized strengthening supply-side reform through cutting low-end supply while increasing high-end supply and public products and services. Chinese president Xi Jinping also called for "resolutely push forward supply-side structural reform" in a speech on May 16. "My response is that the supply-side reform proposals all make senses," Hope said. Meanwhile, he suggested that Chinese government should be more cautious when taking actions.

Hope raised a case in the steel industry as example. "When you talk about reducing excess capacity of steel production, you couldn't reproduce the extent of 300 million tones a year then you cut the other production to 150 million times the next year. That is not going to solve the problems, but it creates problems, " Hope said. Such bold and aggressive actions would create a large amount of displaced workers that need to be retrained and moved, and require a large fiscal capacity to take care of the unemployed workers.

"It was a unique event in world history, in which so many people improved their wellbeing by so much, over such a short period. It's a most extraordinary triumph for humanity. The transformation of the Chinese economy has been breathtaking. China as the second economy, almost equal to the US in the trading economy in terms of goods and merchandise trade, has played a major role in the evolution of the global economy."

@Beidou2020

 

[Mangus Ortus Novem]

The current five years plan focuses on transformation of Chinese economy into an innovation led growth. If you look at the ground realities it is already beginning to happen. Just look at the number of patents claimed by chinese firms.

The shift from quantity to quality is just amazing... just the speed of it!

Give China five years and see how it brings many out of poverty and reaches a middle income level for most chinese.

Can you imagine the impact of that on the world?

Chinese development model can be great thing to copy by countries like Pak.

 

[Pakistanisage]

China is unstoppable future ECONOMIC POWER.

 

[Mangus Ortus Novem]

China is unstoppable future ECONOMIC POWER.

True. What can your country learn from your friend?

What can your people and establishment learn from them?

This a golden opportunity for your country to set up its own 5 years plans cycle for the next 25 years. Even if executed to 50% level the poverty in your country will vanish and your people won't have to go GCC to labour.

Imagine the dignity and pride...

Copy the success of others shamelessly. Change your fortunes... You will find great willingess at levels in China to come and help. Many of your countrymen don't realise how much goodwill is there in China for you. At common chinese level!!