Chinese Economy/Development thread (updated regularly)

[Brotherhood]

Chinese automakers seek to lead global electric bus market - People's Daily Online November 09, 2010

The great scale of the electric bus market has attracted numerous automakers to enter, particularly the emerging enterprises, according to the 25th World Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exposition Symposium and Exhibition held in Shenzhen.

Industrial insiders said the annual new bus demand in China's domestic bus market stands at 400,000 units. If all of these are electric buses, the annual sales of electric buses will top 60 billion yuan. Domestic automakers are all seeking to carve out a share of the huge market.

During the conference, various well-known auto brands from around the world launched their upgraded electric buses to attract consumers. It is known that the global electric vehicle conference that was last held in China 11 years ago attracted attention of many media agencies.

"As electric vehicles do not use motors, the electric vehicle market is the only market segment where Chinese enterprises have opportunities to lead across the world," said Chen Qingquan, academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, chairman of the World Electric Vehicle Association and president of the international guiding committee of the conference.

The opportunities include the research and development of electric buses. Chen said that there are currently 75 million vehicles in service in China. Of them, 400,000 are buses with an average service life of eight years, so the annual new bus demand will reach 50,000 units. According to the new-energy vehicle development plan of the conference host city Shenzhen, the city plans to put a variety of a total of 34,000new-energy vehicles into service by 2012, including 4,000 buses that are expected to form China's largest electric vehicle fleet.

An officer from Wuzhoulong Electric Vehicle Center said that 16 units of the 7.5-meter-long electric feeder buses will be put into operation in three bus routes of Shenzhen Bus Group in November, forming China's first electric bus-only lane. BYD Sales Company Vice President Wang Jianjun said the company will make more investments in the electric bus sector than in the electric car sector in the future.

By People's Daily Online

 

[Brotherhood]

Unmanned underground transport trials in Guangzhou - People's Daily Online November 09, 2010

The APM system in Guangzhou (Photo by People's Daily Online)

The world's first underground automatic passenger transportation machine (APM system) performed a trial run in southern China’s Guangzhou City on Nov. 8.

The unmanned APM has two separate carriages and took 23 minutes to run a round trip of 8 kilometers from the starting station to the terminal station.

The APM line connects the two top business districts in Guangzhou City and also strengthens ties with southern districts without taking up ground resources, thus it will become the inner city "gold Express."

The terminal station of the APM system is to be temporarily closed on the opening day because of the upcoming Guangzhou Asian Games, and another two stations located in the core area of the Asian Games will not be opened until Nov. 26, one day before the closing ceremony of the Asian Games.

According to the Guangzhou Metro Corporation, the APM system is a fully underground, totally closed and unmanned short-haul passenger transport system. Its carriage is similar to a subway train but has rubber tires like a bus, which run on concrete tracks instead of rails.

The automatic system is run under the control of a main control center. Its maximum operating speed is 60 kilometers per hour with daily delivery capacity of 50,000 passengers.

Currently, the system has two separate carriages and is capable of loading 276 people on board every time. It may be increased to three carriages in the future depending on the traffic situation.

There are only four seats on each carriage of the unmanned APM system because it is designed so that most passengers will stand, and there will be no working staff at every station in the long run.

Passengers can use intercom facilities at station halls and platforms to communicate with the main control center when they need to achieve intelligent traffic.

By Li Mu, People's Daily Online

 

[ThatDamnGood]

HEARD ON THE STREET: Internet Plus China Equals Screaming Baidu - WSJ.com

Internet Plus China Equals Screaming Baidu

As a recipe for investor euphoria, it is hard to beat the heady mix of China, the Internet and search. Throw in a mostly benign competitive environment plus the likelihood that the dollar will continue depreciating against the Chinese yuan, and you have Baidu.com's extraordinary surge. The ADRs, listed on Nasdaq, have risen more than 4,000% to $111 since their 2005 debut at a split-adjusted $2.70.

The company's stunning sales growth in that time shows it is no dot-com mirage. As measured in yuan, this year's revenue is set to eclipse 2005's by a factor of 25. Measured in depreciating dollars, that grows to 30 times.

*Graph in article

Baidu, which already dominated Chinese search, gained even more of a stranglehold when rival Google had to limit operations after falling afoul of the Chinese government in the third quarter. At 73%, Baidu's share of China search revenue ticked up another three percentage points, after adding six points in the second quarter, says Beijing research firm Analysys International. Meanwhile, Google's share has dropped to 22% from 31% since the first quarter. No other competitor has even a 1% share.

But Baidu's biggest boost, according to Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell, has been an internal technology initiative that encourages advertisers to spend more. The move is similar to what Google does in the U.S., encouraging flower shops, for instance, to put advertisements next to search results not just for "roses" but also related keywords like "Valentine's Day." As a result, Baidu's revenue growth is actually forecast to accelerate—to 78% this year from 39% last year, says Mr. Mitchell. Operating profit margins are above 50%.

Online commerce and advertising in China has a long way to go to catch up with the U.S. in terms of sophistication and profit potential. Meanwhile, just 32% of the Chinese are online, says the government; developed countries have rates closer to 80%. Chinese GDP growth is expected to be 10% this year, says the World Bank. And consumption should start to grow as a percentage of the economy as it starts to rebalance away from its huge reliance on exports. All should put upward pressure on the yuan, fueling Baidu profits in dollar terms.

A short-hand valuation method suggests much of this optimism is already factored into the shares. Google's enterprise value is about $170 billion, and a bit less than half of its business is in the U.S. Figure Google's U.S. operations are worth $80 billion. Also figure that China's economy will be half as large as the U.S.'s within four years. Baking in that growth, and assuming Baidu retains its dominant position, could make it worth some $40 billion. That is only just above its current $38 billion enterprise value.

There are risks. One is the possibility that the Chinese economic miracle has morphed into a credit bubble, which could pop. Also, rivals could make headway. Though far behind today, powerful rival Alibaba.com could chip into Baidu's growth with its new search engine powered by Microsoft. Last, investors should remember that this is China. Profits are ultimately at the mercy of the Communist Party, which has an interest in keeping close control of the Internet.

Such fears are likely to be set aside as investors bet on a falling dollar and on fast-growing emerging markets enjoying an extra boost from Federal Reserve policy. But with the shares worth nearly 50-times next year's earnings, Baidu bulls risk running ahead of themselves.

 

[Martian2]

IPTV is an acronym for Internet Protocol TeleVision.

ZTE IPTV technology

The end-to-end IPTV solution provided by ZTE consists of the Head End, Content Delivery Network (CDN), Middleware, Conditional Access/Digital Rights Management (CA/DRM) System, Set-Top Box (STB), and Network Management System (NMS), as shown in Figure 1.

IPTV is a fast-growing worldwide market. [Disclosure: My mother is one of the subscribers on the IPTV chart. She watches KyLin IPTV (e.g. 40 channels of Mandarin television programs) in the U.S.]

ZTE awarded "2010 IPTV Equipment Vendor of the Year" accolade - ZTE Corporation

"ZTE awarded "2010 IPTV Equipment Vendor of the Year" accolade
2010-09-29

29 September 2010, Shenzhen –ZTE Corporation, (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has been recognized as the "Best Practice Award-2010 IPTV Equipment Vendor of the year", marking the second time it has received the accolade. It received the award based on research conducted by leading consulting company, Frost & Sullivan.

Among IPTV vendors, ZTE ranked third in the world IPTV middleware market in terms of subscribers in 2010 H1, and was the leader in the IPTV middleware markets of Asia and China in 2010 H1.

With the development of the global broadband market, IPTV content and application has become more important. As one of the latest broadband applications, IPTV has attracted industry attention.

As Europe, Asia and North America begin to experiment and play TV programs through the IP transmission network, market growth in IPTV is likely to accelerate. The number of global IPTV subscribers is likely to increase to 62.1 million by the end of 2010, and is tipped to reach 267.9 million in 2014. The global IPTV market revenue is likely to grow to US$17.5 billion until 2010 and is forecast to increase to US$46.5 billion in 2014.

According to the research, by 2014 most of the new subscribers are expected to come from emerging markets, with China, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Thailand and Philippines tipped to account for 62.0 percent of additional subscribers between 2009 and 2014.

ZTE has great influence in some regional markets, such as Asia, South America and the Middle East. In the Asian IPTV middleware market in 2010 H1, ZTE was ranked No. 1 in terms of its financial position, investment level, and business prospects. In the China IPTV middleware market 2010 H1, ZTE was also ranked No. 1 by achieving the leading edge based on its long-term R&D effort and market performance.

On the basis of large-scale IPTV deployment with China Telecom, ZTE has cooperated with many other operators, such as VNPT, the largest operator in Vietnam; Telkom Indonesia, the largest operator in Indonesia; and CANTV, Venezuela's biggest operator.

"We are honored to win 'Best Practice Award-2010 IPTV Equipment Vendor of the year' again, We believe it is a significant milestone for ZTE's sustainable developments and a clear endorsement of our IPTV solutions by the industry." said Mr. Yu Yifang, Vice President of ZTE, general manager of service product line. "ZTE has been engaged in R&D and the industrial promotion of IPTV. ZTE has built the world's largest H.264 IPTV network and had 2.52 million subscribers as of June 2010."

ZTE also actively promotes IPTV application around the world. By the end of June 2010, ZTE's IPTV products have been sold to major IPTV markets in Asia, the Americas and Europe, with over 5 million users. The 2005–2010 compound growth rate of ZTE's IPTV products reached 60.0 percent, making ZTE the fastest growing mainstream IPTV system provider."

 

[中国万岁-ProsperThroughCo-]

Chart of the week: China’s surplus is not as big as it seems

November 8, 2010 2:21pmby beyondbrics | Share
By Valentina Romei and Ranjit Lall

The debate on global imbalances often revolves around China’s gigantic current account surplus. Yet as this week’s beyondbrics chart (after the break) shows, China’s current account surplus as a percentage of GDP is smaller than many of its emerging market peers.

To what extent that point will be recognised in debates over the global economy at this week’s G20 meeting in Seoul is another matter.

Countries above the horizontal axis on the chart run surpluses and those below have deficits. The bigger the circle, the larger the balance is in absolute terms. The further the country is from the horizontal axis, the larger the balance as a proportion of GDP. The further it is from the vertical axis, the more its balance has grown or shrunk in the past decade.

To be sure, the absolute size of China’s surplus (forecast to be $270bn in 2010 by the IMF) is striking. It’s roughly equal to the sum of the next ten largest surpluses combined. Given the enormity of the US’s deficit (the dotted line circle), it is little surprise that the debate on global imbalances has turned into a slanging match between the US and China.

But as a percentage of GDP, the measure most commonly used by economists, China’s surplus is not particularly large. At 4.7 per cent of GDP, it only marginally breaches the 4 per cent cap on current account balances proposed by US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner last month. China curtly dismissed the proposal anyway, saying it harked back “to the days of planned economies”.

A quick glance at the chart corrects another common misperception: that emerging markets mostly run current account surpluses. Two of the Brics - India and Brazil - run deficits, as do a number of second tier emerging markets such as South Africa and Turkey. The countries running current account surpluses, as one would expect, tend to be major commodities exporters.

Nor is it true that these surpluses and deficits have been growing over the last 10 years. Most balances have shrunk during the crisis, including China’s: at its pre-crisis high it was 10 per cent of GDP. Russia’s surplus as a proportion of GDP has declined by almost 15 percentage points. Even oil exporters such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia have seen their surpluses fall, largely due to the oil price collapse in 2008.

All of this calls for a nuanced view of emerging market current accounts. Despite its prominence in the debate on global imbalances, China is not representative of most emerging markets. Both investors and policymakers would do well to remember this.

This feature appears every Monday on beyondbrics, presenting a chart that tells the story of a current economic or financial issue from emerging markets

Immelt to Beijing: we feel welcome

November 9, 2010 12:43pmby Jamil Anderlini | Share
“Pai Ma Pi” or “stroking the horse’s bottom” is a beautifully expressive Chinese phrase used to describe the act of flattering someone who has power and influence over you. Today it is one of the first phrases that senior executives of multinational companies learn on their increasingly frequent trips to China.

Beyondbrics was unable to determine whether Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, had been practicing the phrase during his latest trip to Beijing on Tuesday.

But a GE spokesman said Immelt was in town to display the company’s “confidence in and commitment to China” and to highlight the fact that GE “feels welcome” in the country.

Immelt is clearly on a charm offensive after venting his spleen in July about the difficulties of doing business in China.

GE is expected to fall well short of the target Immelt set three years ago of doubling annual revenues in the country to $10bn by the end of this year. The company’s 2009 China revenues were $5.3bn.

To underscore its “confidence and commitment” to the country GE announced on Tuesday that it will invest over $2bn in China between now and the end of 2012.

A quarter of that will be spent on upgrading research and development facilities and building new ones across the country while the rest will fund joint ventures with Chinese state-owned enterprises.

“China is the world’s fastest-growing market for aviation, energy, transportation, healthcare and financial services,” Immelt said in a statement. “The commitments we are announcing today will bring GE’s technology and innovation strengths to help meet these growth challenges in China.”

While the figure sounds impressive at first, the $2bn of investment is not all new and includes a large chunk that GE had already planned to spend in the country over the next two years, according to a company spokesman.

Nevertheless, after his latest visit to the celestial capital, Immelt is no doubt hoping that it will be enough to satisfy China’s leaders.

Looks like Mr Immelt made a U-turn.

 

[Brotherhood]

World's first capsule robot for diagnosing illnesses invented - People's Daily Online November 09, 2010

World's first capsule robot for diagnosing illnesses. (photo by Zhang Jinhui, Chongqing Daily)


If everything goes well, a type of "capsule robot," which can both move automatically in people's stomachs and diagnose illnesses will be put on the market by the beginning of 2011.

Reporters learned on Nov. 7 from the Chongqing Jinshan Science and Technology (Group) that they have successfully developed the world's first moveable "capsule robot."

It is quite different from the traditional capsule endoscopy, which can only move passively along with the stomach's peristalsis. Meanwhile, the Jinshan PH capsule, which is used for diagnosing gastroesophageal reflux disease was also successfully developed by the group, making them one of the only two companies in the world that have successfully developed the PH capsule.

Wang Jinshan, Board Chairman of the Jinshan Group, disclosed that the traditional capsule endoscopy can only "travel through the alimentary canal passively" after being swallowed, but cannot be controlled remotely. The "capsule robot" took the Jinshan Group eight years to develop, and is only one-third the size of the traditional capsule endoscopy, but has integrated MEMS, communications and automatic control technologies.

After a patient swallows it, the doctor can examine suspicious areas of infection from different angles by using the advanced position controller so that diseases can be diagnosed more effectively. The "capsule robot" is sold at a price of about 2,000 yuan per unit.

What will be put on the market together with the "capsule robots" are the PH capsules developed by Jinshan Group. Compared to PH capsules developed by Medtronic Incorporated, one of the Top 500 Enterprises in the World, the Jinshan PH capsule can monitor patients for 96 hours and its price is only a little more than 1,000 yuan.

The Medtronic PH capsule can only monitor patients between 24 and 48 hours and the medical charge for one monitoring is as high as 2,000 U.S. dollars in foreign countries. According to the evaluation, after the Jinshan PH capsule is put on the market, its demand on the domestic market alone will be as high as 2.7 billion yuan.

By People's Daily Online

 

[Brotherhood]

Trial run of China's 4.5 generation optoelectronic displays launched - People's Daily Online November 09, 2010

The OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) optoelectronic display project conducted by the Irico (Foshan) Group is China's first 4.5 generation AMOLED (Active Matrix/Organic Light Emitting Diode) production line. Its first phase trial manufacture and also the commencement ceremony of the second phase of the project, was held in Foshan, Guangdong Province on Nov. 8.

This project is the second 4.5 generation AMOLED optoelectronic display production line worldwide following South Korea's Samsung. It also leads the direction of the third generation "dream display" development. The project is independently developed by the Irico Group and is in line with the international standards of OLED optoelectronic displays.

According to sources, the project will be completed in three years and will become China's largest OLED industrial base. This indicates that China's optical display industry is accelerating to catch up with the world advanced level. The second phase of the Irico Group's OLED project is to construct two 4.5 generation AMOLED production lines with a total investment of nearly 9.5 billion yuan, and the two production lines will be launched in November 2010 and October 2011, respectively.

By People's Daily Online

 

[Brotherhood]

Driverless tube put into use in S China - People's Daily OnlineNovember 10, 2010

The photo taken on Nov. 9, 2010 shows city commuters aboard a carriage of the Automated Passenger Mover Systems (APM) in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province. The four-kilometer-long driverless tube, which was officially put into use on Monday, is an alternative north-south link in Guangzhou, the host city of the incoming Asian Games. It is believed that the new link could ease the traffic pressure in and out of the central business district. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua)

 

[Brotherhood]

GE makes $2b Chinese investment - People's Daily Online November 10, 2010

Multinational conglomerate General Electric (GE) said on Tuesday it will invest more than $2 billion through 2012 in China to set up joint ventures with Chinese companies and expand its innovative capacity in the country.

More than $1.5 billion will be used to fund technology and financial services joint ventures with Chinese State-owned enterprises (SOEs), GE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt said. The rest of the investment will be used to enhance research and development (R&D) capabilities and establish customer-oriented innovation centers, which is expected to create 1,000 new jobs.

"China is the world's fastest-growing market for aviation, energy, transportation, healthcare and financial services," Immelt said. He said the country is also one of the fastest-growing markets for GE and the company has a long-term commitment to the nation.

Under the $1.5-billion joint venture umbrella, the US-based company signed energy and railway agreements with four SOEs.

A 50-50 venture with Wuhan NARI Co Ltd, owned by the State Grid Corporation of China, will manufacture and market grid monitoring and diagnostics products.

Similarly, GE will carry out a joint acquisition with Shanghai Electric Power Co, also owned by State Grid, for a controlling stake in Shanghai Tianling Switchgear Co, a green power distribution equipment maker.

The company signed a framework agreement to form a 50-50 venture with the CSR (China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation) Chengdu Locomotive & Rolling Stock Works to develop propulsion system sets, sub-assemblies and parts for diesel locomotives. It also plans to enter a 50-50 joint venture with Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signal and Communication to supply railway and urban transit signaling systems.

These deals follow the company's partnership with Harbin Power Equipment Company for wind turbine production and marketing, and a diesel engine joint venture with CSR.

Immelt did not reveal the details of the financial joint ventures. "The joint ventures are in line with our strategy to build partnerships in China to support our business here and globally," he said. "And our customer innovation centers will add more than 1,000 new R&D, marketing and application engineers to work more closely with customers and partners to advance development and delivery of GE products and technology."

GE will set up the centers in six Chinese cities to conduct R&D with clients. The first batch of candidate cities are Shenyang, Chengdu and Xi'an - all traditional industrial bases in China - and construction is expected to begin next year.

The facilities will better service the western, northern, central and southern areas of the country as well as combine current R&D facilities in Shanghai, Beijing and Wuxi to cover areas including rural healthcare, renewable and clean energy, smart grids, energy-efficient lighting, rail and aviation.

Source:China Daily

 

[Brotherhood]

Sales of Expo products tops 30 billion yuan - People's Daily Online November 10, 2010

The tremendous business opportunities brought about by the Shanghai World Expo have helped many industries in the city achieve record sales. The gross sales of licensed products of the World Expo exceeded 30 billion yuan as of the end of October, with the sale of food as well as gold, silver and jewelry being the highest, according to a comprehensive monitoring report on the sales of companies in Shanghai during the Expo, released by the Shanghai Commercial Information Center on Nov. 8.

to the huge number of visitors to Shanghai, the city's hotel and restaurant industry, which benefited most from the Expo, witnessed a rapid growth in retail sales. Statistics show that the total revenue of restaurants in Shanghai from May to September 2010 rose over 36 percent from the same period of last year.

Furthermore, the large number of Expo visitors enabled the occupancy rates of hotels in Shanghai to remain at high levels for several consecutive months, which greatly boosted the hotel catering sales. Among all kinds of catering services, the sales of hotel catering services witnessed the largest increase, and the sales of Western food catering services enjoyed the fastest growth.

The Bailian Outlets Plaza in Qingpu District, suburban Shanghai became extremely popular during the Expo. More than 60 percent of customers at the plaza were visitors who just finished their tour of the Expo, including those from Euro-American countries, South Korea, Japan, India, and Southeast Asian countries. The plaza was full of customers even on scorching days, and its gross sales from May to October this year grew 40 percent from last year. Overall, the plaza exerted a strong attraction with its distinctive business pattern during the Expo.

The Shanghai New World Company also carried out an activity under the slogan "A visit to Shanghai is not complete without going to Nanjing Street." The company invited the curators of more than 100 pavilions at the Expo to visit the centuries-old Nanjing Street. The curators experienced the business features and culture of Shanghai by riding in cable cars and visiting old buildings, time-honored stores, and the New World City, a department store owned by the company.

In addition, the Oriental Department Store provided shopping guidebooks written in Chinese, English, Japanese and French, which were very convenient for domestic and foreign customers. During the Expo, major department stores in Shanghai all deployed teams of bilingual salespeople at each floor so visitors from all around the world could have pleasant and enjoyable shopping experiences.

People's Daily Online

 

[ThatDamnGood]

Looks like Mr Immelt made a U-turn.

In dogfights there is Immelmann turn.
In biz world there is the Immelt turn

 

[unicorn]

First C919 order expected at Airshow China
By Ghim-Lay Yeo

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) is likely to announce the first order for its C919 narrowbody jet at Airshow China in Zhuhai next week.
The first customer, which could be a Chinese airline or lessor, is expected to be unveiled on 16 November, the first day of the airshow.
Comac, which has declined to comment on its C919 programme, will also feature a cabin mock-up of the aircraft at the show.
First flight of the C919 is scheduled for 2014, followed by entry into service in 2016. The joint definition phase of the aircraft is underway, with a major design review planned for year-end.
Comac, which is developing the ARJ21 regional jet as well, is also expected to announce new orders for that aircraft at Zhuhai.

 

[Speeder 2]

China Could Surpass U.S. in 2012

By Luca Di Leo

China’s continued rapid growth should make it the main driver of the global economy next year as the U.S. slows down, the Conference Board said in a report published Wednesday.

In just two years, the Asian country could even overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy — at least by one economic measure, the research group said in its annual global outlook.

China’s economy should grow by 9.6% in 2011 after expanding by 10% this year. By contrast, the U.S. economy is seen slowing to just 1.2% growth next year from 2.6% in 2010.

According to the most commonly used way to compare economic size, the gap between second-place China’s $5.0 trillion economy and the U.S.’s nearly $15 trillion output remains large. By that measure, it could take China more than a decade to match the U.S. even at the current very high growth rates, which will be hard to sustain for the Asian country.

But things look different when considering purchasing-power parity (PPP), which takes into account the goods and services a country’s currency actually buys at home and is a measure that’s closely watched by some professional economists, including at the Conference Board. Taking into account the difference in prices of the same goods between countries — in other words, measuring the real purchasing power people have in each country — the think tank predicts China could have a larger economy than the U.S. by 2012.

The Conference Board sees the U.S. economy slowing by almost 1.5 percentage points in 2011 due to slower spending by consumers, companies and the government. At only 1.2%, growth in the U.S. next year would be lower than both Japan and Western Europe, which are expected to grow by 1.5%. But thanks to strong emerging economies like China and India, the global economy is seen growing by 4.2% in 2011.

Looking further ahead, China could account for almost one quarter of the global economy in 2020, compared to 15% for the U.S. and 13% for Western Europe, or the 15 original European Union countries that include Germany and France. India, meantime, is expected to have 8% of the world’s output in ten year.

Bart van Ark, chief economist at the Conference Board, cautioned the main risks to the projections are if China’s fast-growing economy is hit by uncontrolled inflation or asset bubbles.

But his baseline scenario is that together with India, China will account for half of global growth from 2010 to 2020. Over the next decade, growth in emerging economies is expected to be more than three times faster than growth in advanced economies.

Becoming the world’s largest economy would pose “big challenges” for China by increases its responsibility to ensure the global economy runs smoothly while still dealing with a fragile domestic economy, van Ark said.

For now, China has shown few signs of wanting a leadership role in the world economy like the U.S. currently has, refusing to bow to pressure from other countries to abandon its policy of boosting economic growth by keeping the value of its currency artificially low.

The U.S., meantime, is experiencing the downsides of being global economic leader and having a currency that’s used internationally to trade all sorts of goods. Last week’s decision by the Federal Reserve to print $600 billion to buy government debt in an effort to boost a weak domestic economy is being attacked by countries from around the world because one of the side effects is that it weakens the U.S. dollar. Leaders from the Group of 20 biggest advanced and emerging economies are meeting in Korea this week to discuss currencies and the global economy.

Indicating they’re not ready to take a leadership role, politicians in China have argued the country is still lagging behind others in technology and that most of its huge population live in poverty. And
they’re right.

In another measure of economic well-being — output per person — China is lagging far behind the United States. In 2009, U.S. gross domestic product per capita stood around $46,000, according to the International Monetary Fund. By comparison, China’s GDP per capita was less than $4,000.

China Could Surpass U.S. in 2012 - Real Time Economics - WSJ




(*** I personally think it's a bit over-bloated due to the PPP measure; yet then again it's a matter of opinions and news is news, as the Conference Board is one of the most respected economics think tanks in the western world)

 

[unicorn]

British PM Urges More Political Freedom in China
VOA News 10 November 2010

British Prime Minister David Cameron has urged China to embrace political reforms as it evolves into a global economic power.

In a speech to students at Peking University Wednesday, Mr. Cameron said the rise in economic freedom in China has been hugely beneficial both to the nation and the world.

The British leader said he hopes this will lead to a "greater political opening" in China, because that is essential to preserve economic prosperity.

Mr. Cameron told the students that the British political process, where his Conservative Party shares power with left-leaning Liberal Democrats, "makes our government better and our country stronger."

Before his speech, Mr. Cameron met with Chinese President Hu Jintao at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. China's official Xinhua news agency says Mr. Hu told the British leader that cooperation between the two countries was stronger than competition, because their economies were compatible with each other.

Mr. Cameron is traveling in China with more than 40 British business leaders and four Cabinet members - the largest official delegation Britain has sent to China.

On Tuesday, British companies signed a number of trade deals with China. In the biggest deal, British engine maker Rolls-Royce won a $1.2 billion order from China Eastern Airlines for engines to power 16 Airbus A330 aircraft.

Mr. Cameron has said he wants to double the value of annual British trade with China to $100 billion in five years.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

 

[no_name]

Said to be the C919 cockpit.