Africans In China

By Liu Zhirong

I’ve spent the last few years in Africa, meeting a range of people from
government ministers, governors, businesspeople, tribal chiefs and
village heads and all levels of African society to try to understand how
Africans view the Chinese.  We can take the Africans as a kind of mirror
to ourselves, and take a look at what the Africans in their hearts see
in the Chinese so that we can adjust our own behavior accordingly, and
become better accepted by Africans.  Just as the Tang Dynasty [Prime
Minister] Wei Zheng  who said, “We can use copper as a mirror to see how
our clothing looks, or we can take history as a mirror to understand the
rise and fall of states, or we can take people as a mirror, to come to
understand our our strengths and shortcomings.”

Portugal arrived on Africa’s west coast in 1418, and after that Africa
was never isolated again.  Africa become the stage upon which a
continuing tragedy of European colonial exploitation, massacres,
plundering and slave taking played out.  By 1914, except for Ethiopia
and Libya, all of Africa had been divided up by European colonialists.
Africans had no choice but to give up the languages they had spoken ever
since they descended from the trees and to begin speaking the languages
of the colonial powers. After the Second World War,  the African
countries became independent one after another and the European rulers
were forced to retire from Africa in defeat. The economic vacuum they
left behind was filled by the Indians and Pakistanis with whom they had
long been trading. In today’s world of economic globalization, Africa
is not longer black Africa but the last remaining gold mine on Earth.
Prospectors of all skin colors come to Africa to prospect and seek their
fortunes, including about one million Chinese. The African black people
know well the whites from a century or two of colonial rule;  the
Chinese, economic explorers who arrived late on the scene, are much less
familiar.  They look at us, just as we look at them, starting with
remarking on exoticism and with curiosity and gradually from an
impression based on guesses, observation, and evidence.

Summary of  points on African views of Chinese in Africa:

1. Chinese work very hard and work all the time. Africans enjoy
life. Do Chinese get their joy in working all the time?
2. Chinese are frugal and self controlled. In many countries in
Africa, a man might have more than one wife. Africans see that
Chinese have only one wife but might live in an African country
for two or three years without her.  Do Chinese get an anti-sex
injection before they leave China?  Why don’t Chinese men need
women?  It seems like they just like to sit around and drink tea.
3. China makes cheap, poor quality products.  China also makes good
products but doesn’t export them to Africa.  Many people made this
comment about clothing, cars, and other items.
4. Chinese are scofflaws.  In one case a Chinese company laid off
workers in a way inconsistent with local labor laws. The workers
took the Chinese company to court and won.  China perhaps because
of its feudal traditions doesn’t understand the rule of law.
However, Africans learned this from the Europeans so Chinese
companies operating in Africa need to understand this so that they can
operate successfully there.
5. Chinese are not careful of sanitation. In Francophone Africa, they
mistake bidets in hotel rooms for urinals. They won’t obey local
rules such as no smoking in the washroom.
6. Chinese disrupt markets. Their bids are often one third the price
of a bid by a French competitor, making the French so angry that
they tear out their own hair. Later the Chinese companies are very
polluting, use poor materials, or break their contract.  Africans
are often angry at being underbid by Chinese who they see as
forcing them out of their own market.  Some Africans say that
wherever the Chinese go they disrupt markets.
7. Chinese are fractious.  Chinese unlike Africans, won’t help
someone from their own country, but rather combine according to
the part of China they come to and fight against other Chinese.
Africans notice the fight to the death competition between Chinese
companies in Africa.  The worst tricks Chinese business people
play isn’t against Africans but against other Chinese.
8. Chinese are atheists. They see that Chinese work all the time but
Africans feel that finding a purpose in life is a spiritual quest,
and that the purpose of life is to return to be with God.
9. Chinese will eat anything.  Chinese need to be careful in Africa.
In Ethiopia, they should not eat donkeys or dogs. One local
official said once Chinese came to build a road and ate up all the
pigs in the area.  Next time you come, tell us a year in advance
and we will ask the farmers to raise a lot of pigs.

Full Chinese report at: http://blog.scol.com.cn/zuoguantianxia/archives/212561.html

(boxun.us)

Rwanda is on the hunt for investors to pump up to $770 million into its construction industry and reap returns from surging demand for tiles, glass, cement.

The Rwanda Development Board is aiming to lure investors to pour funds into the one of the fastest growing construction industries in the country - product manufacturing.

“Rwanda is currently the largest importer of construction materials in the region. This is because we have few manufacturers in the industry yet according to last year, the construction industry is growing by 16 percent,” said Rosemary Mugisha Mbabazi, the RDB acting director general for investment promotion.

Mbabazi cited the example of Cement where CIMERWA, the country’s sole cement manufacturer has an annual output worth US $100m but imported cement is also worth the same amount, which is a clear sign of shortages.

“To address this shortfall, we have identified key areas of possible investment worth US $600m and we will encourage investors to invest here because the returns are massive since the demand of materials such as tiles, glass, cement and others is very high,” she explained.

The Republic of Rwanda, a small landlocked country in east-central Africa, is home to over 10 million people who mostly engage in subsistence agriculture.

The country’s major export markets include China, Germany and the US.

Ruth Liew

(financialstandard.com.au)

China has been quietly investing in multiple business ventures in Africa. Millions have been pumped into various African countries in the form of aid and investment and millions have also been written off. The global economic downturn did not halt its investing strategies and it waited for them to yield returns. The returns have started flowing in , in the banking sector at least, with the Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) receiving 219 million dollars from Standard Bank South Africa. The ICBC is the world’s largest bank in terms of market capitalization, and has a 20% stake in Standard Bank South Africa. With this investment it has become the single largest shareholder of the South African bank and has 305 million shares in its name. The 7.7 % return has proved to be higher than what the bank’s overseas bonds have yielded. ICBC Bank and Standard bank South Africa are together involved in global financial markets, investment funding, investment banking, corporate and resource banking.

The two banks have together invested in 65 projects. They have also been selected by the government of Botswana as the principal loan providers for the Morupule B Power Station, which is Africa’s largest power project to date. ICBC is flush with funds and is eyeing global acquisitions at a time when the prices of assets are low and cash needed desperately by those putting up such businesses for sale. ICBC has been extremely supportive of Chinese business ventures in Africa, extending export credit, and wanting to earn lead bank status for export credit finance. The figures for export credit financing have already reached $1.1 billion till the first quarter of 2009.

ICBC and Standard Bank are interested in co-financing large mergers and acquisitions in African countries as well as infrastructure projects. It is interesting to note that the two banks have adopted this strategy at a time when the rest of the world’s banks have stepped back from lending abroad especially in potentially risky projects. These two banks are extremely optimistic about their investments in the African continent.

Source : Suppliers Africa

Have you ever wondered why, in today’s modern times, people across the world still tend to think that South Africa is a primitive country where you have lions walking around in your back yard, or that we don’t have the internet!? I mean, really, come on people! That would be like me thinking that Australians ride to work on kangaroos! But just how far does it go?

We hereby present to you a list of snappy answers to really stupid questions about South Africa:

Q: Does it ever get windy in South Africa ? I have never seen it rain.
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.

Q: Will I be able to see elephants in the street? (USA)
A: Depends how much you’ve been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Durban to Cape Town - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it’s only two thousand kilometres, take lots of water…

Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in South Africa ? (Sweden )
A: So it’s true what they say about Swedes..

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in South Africa? Can you send me a list of them in JHB, Cape Town ,Knysna and Jeffrey’s Bay? (UK)
A: What did your last slave die of?

Q: Can you give me some information about Koala Bear racing in South Africa? (USA)
A: Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the pacific. A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe which does not…oh forget it. Sure, the Koala Bear racing is every Tuesday night in Hillbrow. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is north in South Africa ? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 90 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we’ll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into South Africa ? (UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys’ Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is…oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Hillbrow, straight after the Koala Bear races. Come naked.

Q: Do you have perfume in South Africa ? (France)
A: No, WE don’t stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in South Africa ? (USA)
A: Anywhere where a significant number of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in South Africa where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in South Africa ? (France)
A: Only at Christmas.

Q: Are there killer bees in South Africa ? (Germany)
A: Not yet, but for you, we’ll import them.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Cape Town and is milk available all year round?
A: No, we are a peaceful civilisation of vegan hunter-gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in South Africa who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca, which is where YOU come from. All South African snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.

Q: I was in South Africa in 1969, and I want to contact the girl I dated while I was staying in Hillbrow. Can you help? (USA)
A: Yes, but you will probably still have to pay her by the hour.

Q: Will I be able to speek English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you’ll have to learn it first.

Do you have some of your own snappy answers? Feel free to drop them in the comments.

(blog.travelcrossings.co.za)

By Loro Horta*
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is home to 22 percent of the world’s population, but has only 7 per cent of its total arable land.

Following the Chinese people’s recovery from the humanitarian disaster of the “Great Famine,” which according to one authoritative account contributed to the death of 36 million Chinese between 1958 and 1961, the Beijing government has made it a priority to ensure self-sufficiency in the supply of basic products for the Chinese diet (e.g. rice and grain).

In the past three decade, the country’s breakneck economic growth has led to the rise of a new wealthy class in Chinese society made up of hundreds of thousands of Chinese people whose dietary demands have changed and who consumes more food.

Starting in the 1990s, in order to accommodate this growing demand, China began encouraging its citizens to establish agricultural-businesses overseas.

Initially, most of this investment went to nearby countries such as Laos, Burma and Cambodia. Yet, scarcity of land and sprawling overpopulation in these countries have led to political backlashes that prompted the central government to turn its attention to Africa at the beginning of this decade to fill its people’s rice bowl.

To put this growing demand into perspective, the Chinese were consuming 25 kilograms (kg) of meat a year in 1985. Two decades later, its consumption reached 52 kg, and it is expected to climb as high as 70 kg by 2020.

The consumption of more agriculturally intensive products such as soybeans, potatoes and cereals has increased between 16 and 30 per cent in the past decade. Rice consumption is declining as a more wealthy urban population develops a taste for a Western-style diet.

The consumption of seafood has increased significantly in the past decade, with shortages of certain products now common. The increase in China’s food consumption also comes at a time when arable land in the country is sharply shrinking as a result of over planting and land loss due to environmental damage caused by rapid industrialization.

According to Yang Xiong at the ministry of agriculture, China lost 8.9 million hectares of farmland between 1995 and 2007.

The Scramble for African Land

African nations, with their vast and sparsely populated fertile lands, offer China a solution to its rising food demand. Most Chinese investment in African agriculture is concentrated in southern Africa: Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi and, increasingly, Angola.

The first major Chinese investment in Africa’s agricultural sector was in 1995 when Zhongkan Farm, a private company, invested $220,000 in a farm project in Zambia. By 2007 China had some 63 agricultural investment projects in southern Africa ranging from small-scale farms to large cattle-raising grounds.

In the past two years the central government has taken the lead and encouraged Chinese state-owned enterprises to invest in Africa’s farms.

In August 2008, the Governor of China Development Bank Chen Yuan told a gathering of African finance ministers in Mauritania: “China Development Bank is anxious to work in the area of agriculture. Given the current scenario of a great shortage of food and food price hikes I believe African countries should put agricultural development as their top priority.”

Mozambique, Tanzania and Angola

In early 2008 the Chinese government pledged to invest $800 million to modernize Mozambique’s agricultural sector. The plan includes increasing the rice production of the former Portuguese colony from its current 100,000 tons to 500,000 tons per year in the next five years.

With this objective in mind, Beijing is bankrolling the establishment of an Advance Crop Research Institute and several other small agricultural schools throughout the country. Over 100 Chinese agricultural specialists are currently stationed in Mozambique, including teams from the Hunan Hybrid Rice Institute, China’s top institution in the field of hybrid rice research.

Other major Chinese projects include the construction of numerous irrigation and canal networks, including a massive canal connecting land-locked Malawi by way of Lake Malawi—the second largest in the continent—to rivers and dams in Mozambique.

In the past two years, the search for new land has led Beijing to aggressively seek large land leases in Mozambique, especially in its most fertile areas, such as the Zambezi valley in the north and the Limpopo valley in the south. The Zambezi valley is the richest agricultural region of Mozambique with an area of 230,000 kilometers spread between Tete and Zambezia provinces.

Chinese investment in the Zambezi valley started in mid-2006 when China’s state-owned bank Eximbank (Import Export Bank) granted $2.3 billion in soft loans to the Mozambican government to build the Mpanda Nkua mega dam on the Zambezi stretch of Tete province.

Since then China has been requesting large land leases to establish Chinese-run mega farms and pasture areas for cattle raising. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was reportedly signed in June 2007, under which an initial 3,000 Chinese settlers were to move to Zambezia and Tete provinces to run farms along the valley.

The Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania, Liu Xinsheng, announced in April 2008 that China may invest upward of $400 million to modernize the local agricultural sector while in Beijing the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has pledged to assist Africa in creating a “green revolution,” a process of rapid increase in agricultural production that results from the introduction of advanced biotechnology, modern irrigation and better managerial skills.

According to a ministry of commerce official, China currently has 1,134 agricultural experts serving in Africa and has given $600 million in assistance to the sector since 2002.

This assistance ranges from major irrigation projects to donations of agricultural equipment to extending generous credit lines. Another former Portuguese colony, Angola, is fast becoming a major destination for Chinese agri-business.

Angola is already China’s biggest trading partner in Africa and its single largest oil supplier accounting for 15 percent of the PRC’s total oil imports. The country, with its vast land—1,246,700 square kilometers—and a population of just 16 million, offers China great opportunities, particularly in beef production, but also in some luxury items now in ever greater demand in China such as coffee, spices, tropical fruits, sugar and cotton.

China’s agricultural investments, which were primarily concentrated on Southern Africa, are now slowly spreading to other parts of the continent such as Guinea Bissau in West Africa where China recently established several hybrid rice experimentation farms. In early 2007 Chinese businessmen pledged to invest $60 million in the country’s cashew nut industry, which is one of the biggest such industries on the continent.

While China may be primarily motivated by its need to meet its rising food demand, the modernization of the African agricultural sector is also likely to benefit the people of that continent.

In 2007 the Ugandan government thanked China for its support in developing the country’s agricultural industry. After serious food shortages last year that degenerated into violent riots, the Senegalese government was eager to attract Chinese investment.

According to Professor Li Anshan, one of China’s top African specialists at Beijing University: “Africans desperately need to modernize their agriculture both to insure their food security and to earn hard currency by exporting it. China needs to deal with its growing food demand and Africa seems to offer the solution.”

Conclusion

If China is indeed able to help launch a “green revolution” in Africa, millions of Africans will have a chance at a better future. At the same time, however, if China’s ambitious plans are not carried out with proper considerations for the environment and its impact on Africa’s agricultural land, the continent may one day find itself in a similar predicament to the one confronting China today.

For instance, various NGOs in Mozambique and foreign experts have began to express concern over the environmental impact of the Mpanda Nkua mega dam on the ecosystem of the Zambezi valley.

Daniel Ribeiro, a biologist and the head of Justica Ambiental, a local NGO, argued that, “No serious environmental impact study was conducted, the people whose land will be flood were not consulted or properly compensated. No doubts that we need electricity and to modernize our agriculture [sic]. But at what cost?”

While considerable attention has been paid to Chinese interest in African oil and other mineral resources, it is perhaps in the agricultural and food processing sector where China may have a more significant impact on the continent’s future.

Yet, whether Beijing’s grand plans for Africa will really materialize and help the continent alleviate its chronic food shortages, or will it become another of the many empty promises made to Africa remains to be seen.

*Loro Horta wrote this article on the blog of Grain, an NGO that promotes sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity, particularly in developing nations.

(greenbusinessafrica.com)

For years debate on African development has been dominated by two ageing rock stars, Bono and Bob Geldof. With passionate appeals, they have mobilised millions of people to join campaigns to cut African debt and boost aid. Bono has been received in the White House and Mr Geldof has offered advice to the leaders of the Group of Eight countries on how to untie their purse strings. In years to come, people will wonder how it came to be that these Irish rockers acquired such moral authority that they stifled debate on the aid issue and crowded out African voices.

The age of “glamour aid” is passing. An African voice, in the form of Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist, is being hailed as the “anti-Bono”. Her book, Dead Aid – a jab at Mr Geldof’s 1985 Live Aid concert – has become an unlikely bestseller in the US. She has just been named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2009.

Her thesis is that foreign aid keeps Africa in a “permanently childlike state”. It fosters corruption, stunts the development of skills among government officials and hinders the formation of a stable middle class. The pouring of $1 trillion in aid to Africa over 50 years has served only to impoverish the continent. Aid, she says, “is no longer part of the potential solution. It’s part of the problem. In fact, it is the problem.”

Half a million foreigners earn their living administering this failed aid system, while every year 60,000 of African’s best and brightest emigrate to seek better lives abroad. Her solution is radical: all African leaders should get a phone call to say that the aid will stop in five years time, and they had better get ready to live within their means.

Ms Moyo’s thesis has been widely criticised as simplistic and failing to take account of the real successes of aid. Critics point out that South Korea was pumped up with US aid during the Cold War which helped it to become the economic success story it is today.
Aid professionals warn that millions could die if her ideas are followed. But no one can deny that, for the first time, an African woman, with beliefs no less passionately held than Bono and Geldof, has wrestled the debate from the hands of elderly white men. There is a “yes we can” attitude to her argument that has struck a nationalist chord among many Africans tired of being cast as the world’s helpless victims.

To replace aid doled out by foreign governments she advocates commercial borrowing, microfinance and foreign investment. What is important is that governments should take responsibility for their finances. Aid professionals smell a rat: just as western donor countries have run out of money to give to Africa thanks to the world financial crisis, here comes a smart, glamorous African economist telling them they can forget their colonial-era obligations.

There is of course no conspiracy. All Ms Moyo is guilty of is perfect timing and a gift for publicity. The old paradigm cannot be sustained, and many economists lacking her star quality have been saying it. With or without Ms Moyo, a new paradigm is emerging in African development.

Part of it was apparent as she was writing. She is a great supporter of China’s push into Africa, where it is acquiring rights to oil, metals and foodstuffs. Unlike many who worry about China’s rising influence, she sees Beijing as Africa’s friend. If Africans are concerned about exploitation of labour, they can make appropriate policy responses. Its interests are clear for all to see, and Chinese investment will bring benefits in the long term. Western aid has failed, and its only effect seems to be to keep Africa poor.

The second element is more recent. The quest for food security is reshaping the relations between capital-rich countries, such as the UAE, and the poorer parts of Africa. Aid budgets will soon be dwarfed by investment in agricultural land, a move prompted by last year’s food price shock, when some grain surplus countries banned exports. Capital is now flowing into Sudan, Ethiopia, Pakistan and other countries to lease agricultural land. The prospect of food scarcity has raised the value of farm land, and the water that goes with it, to such an extent that what was long neglected is now a commercial asset.

This week The Economist, a bastion of free-market thought, was in hand-wringing mode as it discussed the effects of Chinese and Arab investment in African farming. It would be graceless, it said, to write off foreign investment in some of the most miserable places on earth. But the magazine could not suppress a “nagging unease” about the protectionist aspects of some of these deals.

The rise of investment, not aid, fits in with Ms Moyo’s thesis that African countries must make their own way in the world. Not surprisingly there are many questions to be answered whether this influx of capital into agribusiness will succeed in poor areas lacking roads and infrastructure. Everything in agriculture is a long-term investment, and these giant projects will require careful handling of water rights, and the sensitive treatment of local people.

But there is no turning back. The future of Africa has to be based more on trade and investment than aid, difficult as this has been to achieve so far. Managing these vast agricultural investments will be a stiff test for the governments of Sudan and other countries. The world will also be looking – with some scepticism – to see if Arab investors, both state-linked and private, can achieve what decades of aid from western donors has failed to do. Ms Moyo’s theory is about to be tested. We will see if African governments can, as she proclaims, rise to the challenge.

aphilps@thenational.ae
(thenational.ae)

By Renee Bonorchis

(Bloomberg) — Standard Bank Group Ltd., Africa’s largest bank, and its 20 percent shareholder, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., will visit four countries on the continent next month as the two lenders seek investments.

ICBC chairman, Jiang Jianqing, 56, will visit Nigeria, Botswana, and Uganda after visiting South Africa to co-chair the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town next month, Jacko Maree, Standard Bank’s Chief Executive Officer, said in an interview in Johannesburg today.

ICBC, the largest bank in the world by market value, and Standard Bank announced on May 12 the first of what they said would be many African partnerships when they arranged as much as $1.6 billion in financing for the expansion of Botswana’s Morupule B power station.

Standard Bank said in a trading update after its annual shareholder meeting today that it’s unlikely to match last year’s profit in 2009 as South Africa slips into recession and loan losses increase. In the four months to April normalized headline earnings, a measure of profit that excludes some one- time items, fell 14 percent to 4.1 billion rand ($499 million).

The bank fell 2.4 percent to 83.21 rand in Johannesburg trading today, giving the company a market value of 129.4 billion rand.

To contact the reporter on this story: Renee Bonorchis in Johannesburg at rbonorchis@bloomberg.net

(Bloomberg)

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has dedicated three high schools constructed by the Chinese government in Bomi and Montserrado counties, describing them as a fulfilled promise.

Speaking Monday at the dedicatory ceremonies, President Johnson Sirleaf said Government will continue to strive to provide affordable and quality education that is accessible to all citizens throughout the country.

The Liberian leader described the dedication of the schools as a fulfillment of some of the promises made to the Liberian people - that education will reach, particularly, those who have been neglected.

In an apparent reference to the dedication of a newly constructed high school in Suehn Meca district, the President said too often development in the area did not benefit the people of Suehn Meca district due to its inaccessibility. “I am delighted that this time, the people of this district, are part of the process,” she emphasized.

The President said the provision of quality education remains at the center of Government’s national development objective, and will continue to ensure that resources are provided to meet that objective.

The Liberian leader praised the partnership between Liberian and its development partners, particularly China and the United States, for their continuous support toward Government’s development agenda. “They have responded to our agenda needs…the schools they are building is responding to what we have planned,” the President asserted.

The schools, President Sirleaf said, were built in response by China, to Government’s agenda needs, in line with Liberia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), which remains at the center of the development agenda of the country.

Liberia’s PRS articulates the Government’s overall vision and major strategies for moving toward rapid, inclusive and sustainable growth and development during the period 2008-2011.

The PRS will be implemented between April 1, 2008 and June 30, 2011 (the end of the 2010/2011 fiscal year). This period is of critical importance as Liberia shifts from post-conflict stabilization to laying the foundation for inclusive and sustainable growth, poverty reduction, and progressing toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the PRS paper states.

The donor-dependent US$1.6bn program is crafted with four major pillars including enhancing peace and national security, governance and the rule of law, economic revitalization and rehabilitation of infrastructures and delivery of basic social services.

Revitalizing and improving the educational system are central under the PRS.

The President acknowledged that schools have not yet been built in many places around the country, but noted that progress has been made in the construction of schools in several parts throughout the country. “We will continue on that path until we reach all the Liberian children,” the President noted.

The Liberian Chief Executive also spoke of other development projects throughout the country, including the construction of the Bopolu-Belle Yella Road, urging citizens and officials of counties benefitting from the projects to maintain and protect them to enable Government attract more assistance to their communities.

“The facilities now belong to us; it is up to us to keep them; to maintain them properly; to protect them and used them properly for the good of the children,’ the Liberian leader admonished a cheering crowd during the dedicatory ceremonies.

Chinese Ambassador, Zhou Yaxiao, whose country aided the construction of the schools, said the construction was in fulfillment of his Government’s promised during the China-Africa Cooperation Summit in Beijing, at which time China pledged to build 0ne-hundred schools in Africa.

“If that in our figure is equally distributed, then Liberian would get two instead of three, but with the extra effort made by Madam President and myself and the Chinese embassy here, Liberia got three,” Ambassador Zhou recalled.

Ambassador Zhou praised President Johnson Sirleaf’s insistence to have one of the schools built in rural Liberia despite the embassies reluctance to do so, given the cost and difficulties involved in transporting construction materials away from Monrovia.

The Chinese ambassador described education as a key to sustainable development, pledging his Government’s continuous support to the educational sector of Government’s national development.

Areas benefitting from the newly constructed schools are Suehn-Meca district, in Bomi County, the New Georgia Community and the Kendeja/Rehab Community in Montserrado County.

Meanwhile, the newly constructed New Georgia High School has been named in honor of the founding father of the Liberia Unification Party, the late William Gabriel Kpolleh.

Announcing the decision, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said the naming of the school in the late Kpolleh’s memory was intended to honor his memory for his sacrifices and dedication toward the educational development of the country.

The late William Gabriel Kpolleh was a school teacher, who taught in Bong and Montserrado Counties, before entering politics in 1985, to contest general and Presidential elections. He was reportedly killed when the civil crisis erupted in Liberia in 1989.

President Johnson Sirleaf is reported to have recommended that the school be named in the late Kpolleh’s honor, resisting an offer to have it named in her honor.

Accepting the honor, Madam Rosetta Kpolleh, who, along with other family members travelled to Monrovia for the event, thanked the President for the recognition bestowed on her late father, and extended heartfelt appreciation on behalf of the Kpolleh family for the noble gesture.

Under the PRS program the government hopes to increase access to quality education by building more schools across the country, equipping them with modern libraries, better sanitary conditions and well as safe drinking water.

Under one of the strategic objectives in the implementation matrix, the PRS seeks to expand access to quality, safe, and hygienic schools. It promises to build 240 primary classrooms (40 schools) and 54 secondary classrooms (4 schools); repair 200 primary class rooms (33 schools) and 72 secondary classrooms (6 schools); construct 14,150 chairs and 82 well water wells with hand pumps.

However most of these are yet to be done and the need for them are dire, but students of the dedicated schools will now learn in a very conducive environment, not worrying about rain or sun like most of their colleagues in other government schools across the country.

(ALLAFRICA)

Cape Town, South Africa, – The deepening international financial crisis and increasing uncertainty in international markets, the price of oil and in credit markets will strengthen the economic relationship between Angola and China, researcher Lucy Corkin concluded in a periodical publication published by Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Noting a visit to China by Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos to China, the second in a five month period, Corkin said that Angola was increasingly looking to China as a source fo economic stability.

“Despite policies outlined in Luanda to diversify the Angolan economy and its economic partners, following global financial uncertainty, China is considered to be a guarantee for difficult times. Especially when Angola’s access to foreign capital is limited,” said Corkin, a researcher at the Asia-Africa Centre at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), of the University of London.

In the “China Monitor” publication of the Centre for Chinese Studies of Stellenbosch University – the latest edition of which is themed “Chinese Involvement in Angola: Mutually Beneficial Commercial Pragmatism?” Corkin analysed the possible effects of the current economic crisis on relations between Angola and China, concluding that Beijing would know how to take advantage of the crisis, at least in relation to Angola.

The researcher said that the global economic crisis had made the Angolan state’s financial position weaker, particularly because the drop in oil prices had reduced the influx of foreign currencies, investment, revenue and capital. The adoption by Western oil companies of a more conservative risk profile in terms of oil investments had also reduced Angola’s room for manoeuvre, Corkin said.

“China thus has more trump cards, as one of the few buyers with capacity to increase oil imports. As well as this, Chian’s considerable incvolvement in funding Angola’s government projects puts Beijing in a stronger position, particularly in the current economic climate and because the national reconstruction project was seens as one of the most important political priorities,” she added.

“With oil at high prices it was easy to play between the interests of the new arrivals [China] against more traditional investors such as Brazil and Portugal, but with funding drying up over the last six months, the Angolan government’s options have also dried up,” said Corkin.

The author also cited World Bank official as saying that China may already have granted Angola funding that had not been announced of up to US$8 billion. (macauhub)

Is China interested in Africa mainly because of its oil and minerals?  “No!” said experts in Washington last week.

Whereas Beijing has significant trade with Africa in raw materials, there are other “grand strategy” reasons for China’s increasing its sights on Africa, said Dr. Arthur Waldron, Trustee of The Jamestown Foundation and a chaired Professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.

The “grand strategy” is different from the 1960s and 1970s when China wanted to build an ideological fit with developing nations to replicate Chinese-style communism and offer an alternative for Western colonialism. Today, the “grand strategy” combines political and economic considerations.

China is an autocratic success story and the leadership wants to preserve its autocracy. “The guiding principle of Chinese policy is to keep the Party in power. China is also seeking security by developing a constituency of friends, particularly among states in Africa and South Asia. She is also seeking to make her supply of raw materials independent of international markets, again by relying on countries like Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo where Western business is less active. ” said Professor Waldron.

This China in Africa conference was sponsored by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank which focuses on Chechnya, China, North Korea and Terrorism. Officially speaking, it describes itself as “without political bias” and research and analysis oriented. However, Political Research Associates at www.publiceye.org listed this group in its radar “tracking militarists’ efforts to influence U.S. foreign policy.”

“China hopes that African people can favorably relate to China. China’s professed respect for sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs is appealing to many African leaders, “said Drew Thompson, Director of China Studies at the Nixon Center.

The China-Taiwan relationship was described as in a state of war, but the two sides “are working on a declaration of peace, “ said Victor Zhikai Gao, Director of the China National Association of International Studies in Beijing. As the keynote speaker he pointed out that the African continent has 53 nations, of which only 4 have relations with Taiwan. The rest recognize Beijing. “Each nation has one vote at the United Nations” and China’s seat in the Security Council of the United Nations underscores her need to court the African nations.

While the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) lost its bid to acquire the American oil company, Unocal, CNOOC “is now working deals all over,” said the politically savvy Gao, once an English interpreter for the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and a vice president of CNOOC.

Because oil is fungible, meaning oil stored in Africa can be swapped for oil stored in Asia, and because the US dollar presents problems for China, China’s strategy going forward will be heavily influenced by monetary and distance considerations. “Many Chinese people increasingly fear the rapid erosion of the American dollar. We still call the dollar American gold. But the United States should not assume that this will never change.” Gao pointed out this conclusion in his recently published Op-Ed essay “China’s Heart of Gold” in the New York Times.

Gao argued strongly that “I don’t think China can export its model to Africa because the model was developed for the Chinese people, not for the African people.” He was referring to China’s one party rule which controls enormous resources.

China’s grand strategy for Africa is a combination of political and economic motivations, but as Tanzania’s first President, Jules Nyerere said of his China-similar collectivization of agricultural “I failed. Let’s admit it.”

(chinastakes.com)

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) shakes hands with President of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma during their meeting in Beijing, capital of China, on May 26, 2009. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) Photo Gallery>>>

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) — China pledged Tuesday to continue aid and preferential measures for Sierra Leone to help its economy.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told visiting President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone that China was ready to support economic construction through enhanced bilateral cooperation in agriculture, infrastructure and resource exploration.

Amid the global downturn, Wen urged the international community to support less developed countries. China was willing to cooperate closely with African countries to implement follow-up actions to the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in November 2006, and work out new cooperation plans to cement the China-Africa new strategic partnership, he added.

Koroma said Sierra Leone and China had enjoyed traditional friendship and sound relations, and his visit demonstrated Sierra Leone’s determination to promote relations with China.

Jia Qinglin (R), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, shakes hands with President of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma during their meeting in Beijing, capital of China, on May 26, 2009. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) Photo Gallery>>>

In an earlier meeting with Chinese top political advisor Jia Qinglin, Koroma voiced his hope that the two countries would expand cooperation in economy, trade and agriculture to cope with the downturn, and enhance coordination under the China-Africa Cooperation Forum.

Koroma reaffirmed his country’s firm adherence to the one-China policy.

Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said China was committed to deepening political trust with Sierra Leone and expanding substantial cooperation in education, public health and human resources.

Koroma arrived in Beijing on Sunday for his first state visit to China since taking office in September, 2007. His seven-day trip will also take him to central China’s Hunan Province and the financial hub of Shanghai

(XINHUA)

By: Matthew W. Sharp

After turning down advances from China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) earlier in the year, MTN (OTC: MTNOY) revived merger talks with India’s Bharti Airtel (BOM: 532454). If the deal goes through, the resulting telecom giant would intensely rival China Mobile’s expansion initiatives in emerging markets.

According to a Reuters report dated 25 May 2009, Bharti and MTN are mulling an initial deal worth over $23 billion, under which Bharti would pay cash and shares to end up with 49 percent of MTN, after MTN pays cash and stock for an effective 36 percent stake in the Indian firm. Ideally, trading equity stakes would eventually result in a total merger. By combining India’s largest mobile operator with MTN’s networks across 21 African and Middle Eastern markets, the merger would create the world’s third largest cell phone group by subscribers behind China Mobile and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD). The new firm would have 200 million users. Annual sales of $20 billion, however, would be dwarfed by both larger rivals, with China Mobile at $60 billion and Vodafone at $65 billion.

Trading equity stakes would give both firms exposure to new emerging mobile markets, while a full merger would yield cost savings, allow for technology sharing, and provide the financial muscle for more expansion, analysts say. And that expansion could be right in China Mobile’s backyard.

As China’s urban and rural mobile markets become rapidly saturated, the largest mobile operator in the world has its eyes set on emerging markets in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, and Africa - locations where the Bharti-MTN giant would be well-positioned to grow.  Indeed, MTN already operates in virtually untapped markets such as Afghanistan and Sudan, as well as throughout the rest of Africa, where some analysts believe users could almost double to 700 million by 2013.

The report did not hesitate to point out potential barriers to the deal, however:

MTN has been eyeing a big deal for some time and held failed talks last year with both Bharti and rival Reliance Communications. The Bharti talks collapsed when the South African firm proposed a new structure that would have seen Bharti become an MTN unit. [...] A full merger would need government and regulatory approval. South Africa’s powerful trade union COSATU, which has clout with new President Jacob Zuma and almost derailed Vodafone’s takeover of MTN rival Vodacom this month, said there were “worrying aspects” of the deal and it was looking at it closely.

(digitaleastasia.com)

China Great Wall Computer Group Corporation and the Algerian broadband network operator EEPAD have reached an agreement to jointly invest USD4 million to set up a manufacturing joint venture in Algeria.

The new joint venture, in which Great Wall Computer will own about a 30% stake, is expected to produce 100,000 netbooks in the first year of its operation and its production capacity will be increased to 200,000 netbooks in the second year.

According to Huang Maoqing, general manager for the brand management center of Great Wall Computer, the joint venture has already received a contract of 150,000 netbooks in the African market. Huang said the ultimate goal of this joint venture is to reach annual production capacity of 500,000 netbooks. However, this is only the first step for Great Wall Computer’s expansion in the African market and the company will build more manufacturing bases in Africa in the future.

At the same time, Great Wall Computer revealed that its acquisition of the 99% stake in China Great Wall Computer (H.K.) Holding has been approved by China’s Ministry of Commerce. Upon the completion of this acquisition, Great Wall Computer will take over a 17.11% stake in the monitor manufacturer TPV Technology, owner of the AOC brand, from China Great Wall Computer (H.K.) Holding, increasing its total shareholdings in TPV Technology to 26.58%.

Great Wall Computer’s annual financial report for 2008 shows that the company’s revenue from the domestic Chinese market was CNY2.595 billion, accounting for 66% of its total revenue, while its revenue from the overseas markets was CNY1.14 billion, accounting for 34%.
(chinatechnews.com)

by Xinhua Writers Gu Zhenqiu, Wang Xiangjiang & Baijie

NEW YORK, (Xinhua) — “I think China is an enormous success story, clearly in economics and it has had the most dynamic economic development in world history during the last 30 years,” a famous U.S. professor has said.

Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, said in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua that “We all believe, at least I believe, that China will … relatively soon, within the next three decades perhaps … become the world’s largest economy.”

“So I think China has a unique position in the world. It’s not only the most populous country but it will become the largest economy in the world, and that’s rather natural because it’s such a large size with so many talented people but it means a special kind of responsibility,” he said.

However, “China also faces tremendous internal problems in its development, especially the environmental challenges because the water, the energy, air pollution and so forth, are major question for China’s development — also, the scale of the urbanization,” he said.

“This is a very complicated process but I think China has done a tremendous job of having rapid development,” he said. “Now it has to turn more attention to the physical environment and to the human well being in health care and so on.”

Sachs is also quetelet professor of sustainable development and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University. He is also special advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. From 2002 to 2006, he was director of the UN Millennium Project and special advisor to then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by the year 2015.

Asked whether he thinks that China can maintain a healthy growth rate in the wake of the global financial crisis, Sachs said, “I do because I think in the last decade, China has been using its savings to invest in the U.S., but China has a lot of good use for its savings in China to deal with the infrastructures of China’s cities, to clean the water supply, to develop an efficient, sustainable energy system.”

China will be able to achieve the economic growth target of about 8 percent in 2009, if proper policies and measures are taken, said Premier Wen Jiabao in his government work report to the National People’s Congress’ annual session on March 5.

“So I think that China should deploy its savings domestically rather than financing the U.S. which is a big, rich country already,” he said. “China should finance its long-term development and if it does that, it means increasing the internal demand through building of infrastructure: highways, water sanitation, pollution control, new energy systems.”

“This to me would be very good investments for China and I think China is completely capable of doing it,” he said. “In fact, I expect China to be the first country to pull out of this global economic crisis.”

On China’s strategy for sustainable development, he said, “I think China needs such a strategy first of all because China has more than, well, about 20 percent of the world’s population, and about 7 percent of the world’s land area, and about 7 percent of the world’s water so China has a big squeeze of resources: land, water, air so it needs a sustainable strategy.”

“That’s very important for China. I think there are clearly some areas of success for China, like a developing solar industry but in fact, China remains a coal-based economy and that’s a big problem for China, for its air pollution and for the carbon emissions,” he said. “And, China has a tremendous amount of water pollution and there needs to be major investments in cleaning up the water ways of China and I think that’s one of the most priority areas for China in the coming years.”

At present, Professor Sachs is helping the Chinese government in hammering out the strategy for the mid-term sustainable development in China, known as China 2049 Program, which was named after the 100th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

“We asked the question to many Chinese policy makers and leaders: What should China aim for in the 100th anniversary of the people’s republic in the year 2049? Where will the cities of China be with another 400 or 500 million people coming into the cities? How will the air remain clean? How will there be enough water? How will the food security be achieved? What kind of transport system? What kind of power system? What kind of health care system?” he said. “The Chinese scientific and policy counterparts of this project thought those were all very interesting questions.”

“And I think they are very important questions for China and for the world and I hope that we do a similar study about the U.S. situation so that we can also think ahead two generations,” he said. “So we’re starting this project in depth this summer in Beijing and we will have meetings with policy makers and analysis and scientists to work on the problems of water, to work on the problems of urbanization, to work on the problems of energy systems to work on the macroeconomic challenges.”

On the U.S. strategy for sustainable development, he said, “I think the U.S. has made some good policies in the last 30 years doing relatively well in cleaning up a lot of rivers and in cleaning up the air pollution.”

“The U.S. has not done a good job in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions so you can’t learn very much from the U.S. in this but in certain areas, in water pollution and in air pollution, the U.S. has definitely some good examples,” he said. “In terms of urbanization, the U.S. has some good examples but I also think it has some bad examples.”

“I think New York City is a very good example,” he said. “It’s a very densely populated city. It has public transport that is quite good. Its emissions of greenhouse gases are about one-third of the U.S. average so that’s a big plus, or maybe even one-fourth in some ways.”

“And so, New York City is a good example of a relatively sustainable city that still can do more,” he said.

“Los Angeles, on the other hand, I think is not a good example for China because Los Angeles is a big, sprawling city,” he said. “Whenever you want to go somewhere in Los Angeles, you have to get in a car and you drive and you drive and its tremendously energy using, it emits a lot of greenhouse gasses, it’s vulnerable to environmental change.”

On his message to China as the nation is going to celebrate its60th anniversary in October, he said, “First a message of a happy birthday. It’s a very wonderful anniversary.”

“And I think China has an enormous amount to be proud of because the recent decades have been decades of great accomplishment and I believe China will continue to have many, many decades of great accomplishment so I am very excited about that,” he said. “I believe China can play a major constructive role in the world on helping to solve global problems.”

“I know that in Africa, where I work a lot, we see China’s contributions more and more to solve the poverty problems, to building infrastructure, to building roads, to building the energy systems and I want also to thank China for that and also encourage China to continue to provide that kind of leadership,” he said.

On China’s role in helping the world reach the target of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), he said, “China is of course, has made great progress on the Millennium Development Goals because poverty and hunger have been very sharply reduced compared to the 1990s. So China has made tremendous strides.”

“China’s biggest remaining challenges are in the environmental area because that’s MDG number seven, so clean water, safe water, and environmental sustainability,” he said. “And China also is undertaking another part of the goals which is to ensure access to good health care all through the country. China is now scaling up its health care system and that’s a very exciting development.”

“But China’s role in the MDGs is not only within China but also internationally and there with China’s role in Africa, China is making a very, very positive contribution to help Africa achieve the Millennium Development Goals and I am very much hopeful that China will continue that leadership role as well,” he said.

Professor Sachs is widely considered to be the leading international economic advisor of his generation. For more than 20 years Professor Sachs has been in the forefront of the challenges of economic development, poverty alleviation, and enlightened globalization, promoting policies to help all parts of the world to benefit from expanding economic opportunities and wellbeing.

He is also one of the leading voices for combining economic development with environmental sustainability, and as director of the Earth Institute leads large-scale efforts to promote the mitigation of human-induced climate change.
Editor: Mu Xuequan

By David Prosser

It is another symbol of the way in which the world of capitalism is shifting on its axis. PetroChina, the listed arm of China’s state oil business, has become the largest company in the world, surpassing its rivals in the West.

Traders in Shanghai, where the stock is listed, marked PetroChina up by 3 per cent yesterday morning, giving it a market value of $336bn. The gains were enough to propel the company to the top ranking in the list of the world’s most valuable companies.

The margin is thin – a mere $100m – but PetroChina is now ahead of Exxon Mobil of the US in those rankings and, on present trends, it may not take long to widen the lead. Chinese shares are up by 43 per cent this year, while the US market has slipped by 1.8 per cent.

Moreover, the long-term outlook for Chinese energy companies is one of growth – certainly much more so than in the US and elsewhere, giving global investors every reason to drive PetroChina higher. “If you have to buy an energy stock, you want to buy the dominant one in China,” said Gordon Kwan, head of energy research at Mirae Asset Securities, a Hong Kong-based investment company. “China’s fuel demand is growing, while in America and Europe demand is actually falling.”

The company’s ascendancy mirrors that of China’s national economy, which overtook Germany in January to become the world’s third largest. Economists believe China will move ahead of Japan, currently number two on the list, within three to four years, leaving only the US ahead of it. China could be number one by 2030.

Chinese companies are already well represented in the global rankings, accounting for four of the top slots, with Industrial Bank of China, China Mobile and China Petroleum in addition to PetroChina. The US also has four – Exxon, Walmart, AT&T and Microsoft – while Russia’s Gazprom is also up there. Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, completes the top 10.

(.independent.co.uk)

Skeptics have dismissed Beijing’s talk of de-emphasizing the U.S. dollar, but China is making moves that could soon lead to a convertible yuan

Chinese Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan
Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images

By Steve LeVine

Are the Chinese finally getting serious about loosening their ties to the dollar—and even replacing the greenback with the yuan as the global economy’s reserve currency? The evidence is mounting that they are.

For the last two months, China’s leadership has been complaining about the country’s dangerous dependence on the dollar. Beijing holds $2 trillion in dollar assets, accumulated through years of exports to America and massive purchases of Treasuries by the Chinese government. If Washington can’t rein in its mounting budget deficit, both Treasuries and the greenback could weaken considerably—and the Chinese could be big losers as a result.

The Chinese began generating attention on the issue in March, when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said he was worried that the country’s dollar assets could slide. Ten days later Chinese central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan suggested replacing the dollar as the international reserve currency. One idea, Zhou said, was to replace the dollar with a basket of currencies supervised by the International Monetary Fund.

Free Convertibility for the Yuan?

Skeptics said the Chinese were merely talking. The dollar is too entrenched as the international currency of choice, with the U.S. by far the world’s largest economy, went the thinking. And in any case, the Chinese act so deliberately that, even if they did wish to elevate the yuan globally, they wouldn’t do it in the short or medium term. Finally, if the Chinese were to bring the yuan into competition with the dollar as a medium of international trade, they would have to turn the yuan into a convertible currency whose value would be dictated by the market, with traders, investors, governments, and companies around the world freely buying and selling it. Such a loss of control, said many Western investors, would never be allowed by the authoritarian Chinese. It would mean lowering all kinds of financial trade barriers, allowing foreign access to Chinese securities markets and more. No way.

Now some observers are changing their tune. China’s financial moves during the last two months have persuaded Western experts that the nation’s leadership intends to make the yuan freely convertible into other currencies—the first big step toward open confrontation with the dollar—within a few years.

Why have perceptions started to change? Last month, Beijing completed the last of a series of so-called currency swaps—providing yuan to other central banks for use in trade with China—with Argentina, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and others. These arrangements theoretically removed any need for these trading partners to use the dollar as an intermediary currency in dealing with China. Last week, Beijing denominated a bilateral trade deal with Brazil in the two countries’ currencies, rather than in dollars; the value of the agreement was not specified. The value of the other agreements comes to $95 billion. By way of comparison, U.S.-Chinese trade amounted to $333 billion in 2008.

Mind the Dollar’s “Safe Haven Aspect”

Big hurdles remain for the Chinese. Making the yuan freely convertible is one: Major central banks would be loath to hold any large sums of any currency—the purest definition of a reserve currency—if they could not sell or trade it without limitation. Another is the absence of a large market for yuan-denominated bonds. One key sign of acceptance as a reserve currency would be if Western countries such as the U.S. purchased bonds denominated in yuan and sold at market rates. Until now, yuan-denominated bonds have been sold only by Chinese banks, along with multilateral banks such as the Asian Development Bank and International Finance Corporation, and the bonds have been sold only in China.

Yet there was movement even on that aspect last week: HSBC Holdings (HSBC) and Bank of East Asia said they would become the first foreign banks to be authorized to sell yuan-denominated bonds in China.

Doubts remain that the Chinese can challenge the greenback. Former Brazilian Central Bank chief Gustavo Franco poured cold water on the notion that Brazil and China would fully abandon trading in dollars, calling it “pure idle talk.” Others agree. “For now, the safe haven aspect of the dollar has overwhelmed other concerns. When people need liquidity, they go to the United States,” says Morris Goldstein, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

Still, what is more or less a consensus among Western experts on China seems to have formed that the Chinese are on an unmistakable path toward challenging the dollar. What remains lacking is a political decision to shift from acting on the margins to making a decisive move, many experts say.

That resolve may be forming. A Chinese official said on May 20 that the yuan could be a serious reserve currency by 2020. Zhang Guangping, vice-head of the Shanghai branch of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, told reporters that this date would coincide with the timetable of making Shanghai an international financial center like London and New York. Turning Shanghai into China’s money capital would be meaningless if the yuan were not convertible.

A Convertible Yuan by 2012?

That rough timeline—a 10- or 15-year transition—coincides with the projections of many Western experts.

But among those predicting that the Chinese may move more rapidly is Nicholas Lardy, a China expert at the Peterson Institute. Lardy says the idea of making the yuan convertible is not new: The Chinese first raised the issue in the 1990s but were derailed by the 1997 Asian economic crisis. “They could do it in two or three years,” Lardy said. “We tend to underestimate how far they’ve come in reforming various aspects of their financial system.”

Whatever the timing, such a move would be dramatic in terms of the Chinese economy. Until now, Beijing has maintained a tight grip on the value of the yuan—many experts believe it is undervalued—including limiting who can convert it to hard currency and how many dollars flow into the country. “China has maintained the currency at below the market clearing rate to help its exporters,” said Brad Setser, a currency specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations, for whom he writes a blog, Follow the Money.

In addition, there is the matter of China’s massive reserve of dollar assets. “If the Chinese stop buying dollars, the value of their assets will fall,” said Rachel Ziemba, a China analyst at RGE Monitor, a financial think tank. “So the change is not going to be tomorrow or next year.”

One way the Chinese can lessen their exposure to dollar assets over time is to shift their reserves from long-term Treasuries into shorter-term U.S. bonds. That shift would give the Chinese more flexibility in easing away from the dollar. The New York Times reported last week that the Chinese seem to be maintaining dollar-asset ownership levels, but shifting their holdings into maturities of a year or less—something they have not previously done.

LeVine is a correspondent in BusinessWeek’s Washington bureau.

(businessweek.com)

Furniture shopping: Everyone’s done it… a sturdy new coffee table, a firm yet all encompassing easy chair for the TV room – or a full-size, extra cozy couch the whole family can enjoy.

Canadian couple Doris Moore and her husband Douglas decided to make such a purchase – and chose a lovely, brand-new, brown leather set: Couch, loveseat and chair…

What they did not purchase was the particular shade of brown they got.

The tags, boldly appearing on each piece, told the Moores in no uncertain terms that the color of their comfy new set was actually “Nigger-brown.” Enough to shock even the staunchest bigot where they stand…but that wasn’t the worst part – it was their 7 year old daughter who discovered the flagrantly fiendish flub.

Curiously poking around just after the delivery men left, little Olivia asked mommy what the word meant.

Ms. Moore then got on the phone and began a journey find who was responsible for the insulting label.

A Chinese software company called Kingsoft Corp. acknowledged that the issue was created by a translator program it had written – one that would make the English speaking world understand what they were printing on their furniture’s labels.

Kingsoft apologized and indicated the “N” word was simply misspelled. It was supposed to be “Niger” coined after the river of the same name – which is dark brown in color.

The Moore’s however, aren’t satisfied. They retained counsel and are looking for more than just a simple apology.

“Something more has to be done. We don’t just need a personal apology, but someone needs to own up to where these labels were made, and someone needs to apologize to all people of color,” Moore said. “I had friends over from St. Lucia yesterday and they wouldn’t sit on the couch.”

(link)

(weirdasianews.com)

Chinese President Hu Jintao held talks with his Sierra Leone counterpart Ernest Bai Koroma here Monday, both agreeing to push the bilateral friendly and cooperative ties to a new height.

Hu gave Koroma a red-carpet welcome, including a 21-gun salute and parade, at the Great Hall of the People. He started their talks by congratulating the Sierra Leone and African people on the 46th anniversary of Africa Day, a festival to celebrate the founding of the Organization of African Unity, which was succeeded by the African Union in 2002.

Hailing the traditional friendly exchanges between the two peoples and ruling parties, Hu said “the Chinese people would never forget the two countries’ forging diplomatic ties in the 1970s, nor would they forget the precious support Sierra Leone offered for the restoration of China’s legitimate seat in the United Nations.”

He expected Koroma’s current trip to further step up traditional friendship and facilitate cooperation.

Koroma said his country was grateful to the selfless assistance China offered over the years, adding the one-China policy is a cornerstone of Sierra Leone’s China policy.

Taiwan and Tibet, both historically and geographically, are inalienable parts of the People’s Republic of China, he added.

Calling the two countries “good friends and partners”, Hu said the China-Sierra Leone traditional friendship remains unchanged despite the turbulence of international situations.

Hu said President Koroma highly treasures bilateral ties and firmly sticks to the one-China policy. Bilateral relations have shown a sound momentum of accelerated growth since President Koroma took his office.

The two heads of state agreed to explore cooperation in the areas of infrastructure construction and resource exploitation.

To boost bilateral ties, Hu proposed to keep close contacts among the two countries’ leaders, maintain friendly exchanges between lawmaking organs and ruling parties, and make joint efforts to facilitate bilateral education, public health and human resources programs.

He told Koroma China values its trade ties with Sierra Leon, and is committed to helping speed up the country’s economic reconstruction.

Hu welcomed more Sierra Leone young people to study in China, pledging to foster more professionals for the country.

China had offered scholarship to altogether 311 Sierra Leone students since 1976.

Hu also vowed to promote the accomplishment of existing bilateral projects as scheduled, offer aid to Sierra Leone’s education, culture, public health programs, and enhance coordination with it on major issues including peacekeeping, poverty reduction and fighting against global challenges.

Koroma said his country welcomed increased investment from China to aid his country’s economy, vowing to create sound environment and conditions.

“Sierra Leone highly values relations with China, and is ready to cement all-round cooperation with the country and learn from its development experience,” he said.

Koroma called on enhanced bilateral cooperation on international and regional issues, in particular African issues, to further push forward Sierra Leone-China and Africa-China ties.

The two presidents attended a signing ceremony for three cooperative agreements including one on China’s providing anti-malaria medicines to Sierra Leone.

The West African country, once British colony, gained independence in 1961 and founded the Republic of Sierra Leone. With a population of over 6.1 million and an area of some 71,740 square kilometers, the country is the lowest ranked country on the Human Development Index and seventh lowest on the Human Poverty Index, following years of civil wars.

China forged diplomatic ties with Sierra Leone on July 29, 1971. Between that date and this March, China had invested 33.9 million U.S. dollars in the country and helped build more than 30 projects including hydropower stations, a national stadium, hospitals and government buildings.

Sierra Leone rolled out its first CDMA network in the country last month with help from Chinese equipment vendor Huawei Technologies. Sierratel, the country’s government-owned telecommunication company, received a delivery of 16.6 million U.S. dollars worth of wireless telecommunication equipment from Huawei, funded by the Chinese government’s preferential loan.

Chinese ambassador to Sierra Leone Qiu Shaofang said China would build two hydropower dams in Sierra Leone in the next three years.

“China has offered long-term economic aid to Sierra Leone and has promised not to reduce assistance in spite of the global slump,” said Qiu.

Bilateral trade topped 83.71 million U.S. dollars last year, up 30.4 percent year on year. With the global downturn, total bilateral trade in the first four months of the year was down 40 percent to 12 million U.S. dollars.

China mainly exports machinery and electrical products, textiles and chemical products to Sierra Leone, while imports logs, natural rubber and coco beans.

Koroma’s ongoing China trip will also take him to central China’s Hunan Province and the country’s financial hub Shanghai.

Editor: Deng Shasha

(china-wire.org)