China News
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Poll: Housing price delays marriage
About half of the 20,000 people polled in a recent survey have to delay their wedding because of the high price of housing, Legal Evening News reported.
While home prices in Beijing have been on the decline, it is still too high for young couples.
A secondhand two-room apartment within the 4th Ring Road of the capital costs about 2 million yuan, which would mean monthly mortgage payments of more than 7,000 yuan ($317,800).
The average personal income in Beijing remained at 4,500 yuan a month in 2011, which is not enough for a couple to afford the mortgage, the paper said, quoting data from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.
Poll: Housing price delays marriage<br/> |Chinese Media|chinadaily.com.cn
About half of the 20,000 people polled in a recent survey have to delay their wedding because of the high price of housing, Legal Evening News reported.
While home prices in Beijing have been on the decline, it is still too high for young couples.
A secondhand two-room apartment within the 4th Ring Road of the capital costs about 2 million yuan, which would mean monthly mortgage payments of more than 7,000 yuan ($317,800).
The average personal income in Beijing remained at 4,500 yuan a month in 2011, which is not enough for a couple to afford the mortgage, the paper said, quoting data from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.
Poll: Housing price delays marriage<br/> |Chinese Media|chinadaily.com.cn
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China's oil giants lag behind foreign competitors
China's largest oil companies still lag far behind their foreign counterparts in terms of degree of internationalization, despite active forays into the global market through mergers and acquisitions last year, according to a research report released Thursday.
The report said the gap between China's three State-owned oil giants, namely China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Sinopec Group and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), and their foreign competitors remains huge in terms of percentage of overseas business and "transnationality Index (TNI)", a means of ranking multinational corporations by the ratios of foreign assets, foreign sales and foreign employment to their total amount, local newspaper Beijing Times reported Friday.
The TNI of the three oil giants average only 30 percent, about 50 percent lower than the international oil giants such as BP and Exxon Mobil.
The report is drafted by a think tank of CNPC.
The report also found China is becoming increasingly dependent on oil imports. In 2011, imported oil occupied more than 55 percent of the total consumption. The figure is expected to top 57 percent in 2012 as more than half of the imported oil is from the volatile Middle East.
China's oil giants lag behind foreign competitors | Industries | chinadaily.com.cn
China's largest oil companies still lag far behind their foreign counterparts in terms of degree of internationalization, despite active forays into the global market through mergers and acquisitions last year, according to a research report released Thursday.
The report said the gap between China's three State-owned oil giants, namely China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Sinopec Group and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), and their foreign competitors remains huge in terms of percentage of overseas business and "transnationality Index (TNI)", a means of ranking multinational corporations by the ratios of foreign assets, foreign sales and foreign employment to their total amount, local newspaper Beijing Times reported Friday.
The TNI of the three oil giants average only 30 percent, about 50 percent lower than the international oil giants such as BP and Exxon Mobil.
The report is drafted by a think tank of CNPC.
The report also found China is becoming increasingly dependent on oil imports. In 2011, imported oil occupied more than 55 percent of the total consumption. The figure is expected to top 57 percent in 2012 as more than half of the imported oil is from the volatile Middle East.
China's oil giants lag behind foreign competitors | Industries | chinadaily.com.cn
Iamanidiot
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@Brigadier we will only post the news here we will post our personal opinions in another thread
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Breaking the urban bottleneck
China needs to solve the problems of migrant workers and provide them every possible help to become permanent members of cities
According to the 2011 data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's urban population has reached 51.27 percent of the total, thus exceeding the rural population for the first time in history.
This is a critical point for China's urbanization. From now on, China needs to promote both the quality as well as the quantity of urbanization. For that purpose, the emphasis should be put on making rural people true urban residents, not simply introducing them to cities.
The greatest challenge for this is the problems of migrant workers, whose number has reached 242 million and is still growing. It is their labor that has made China's urbanization possible: a recent survey shows that migrant workers contribute 34 percent to the urbanization of Beijing and 30.6 percent to that of Shanghai, providing most of the labor for sectors such as construction.
But, though the cities have been built on the sweat of their labor, these workers are not formal residents of the cities they toil in. This is because their hukou, or permanent residence permits, are not registered there. We have already heard too many sad stories about migrant workers being discriminated against by urban residents and we do not want to hear more.
The following is an incomplete list of basic public services that exclude or partly exclude migrant workers: compulsory education, pension, medical insurance, lowest living standards insurance and public housing.
The result of such discrimination, which widens the gap between migrant workers and urban residents, has already caused mass incidents in provinces like Guangdong. Urban administrators need to help improve migrant workers' lives to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Such discrimination has not only caused social injustice, but also become a bottleneck to urbanization because it seriously restricts domestic needs by limiting migrant workers' consumption power. A 2010 research shows that the average Engel's coefficient - which measures the percentage of a household's expenditure on food to its total spending - of migrant workers is more than 50 percent, which seriously restricts both the willingness and the ability to consume, in turn curbing domestic demand.
Therefore, to further propel urbanization, China needs to solve the problems of migrant workers by helping them become permanent members of the cities in which they live, with equal access to public services and benefits.
The central government addressed the problem in its 2011 Central Economic Work Conference. In its concluding document, the conference claimed it would orderly guide qualified migrant workers to become permanent urban residents, and solve their education, healthcare and housing difficulties. That is a praiseworthy move for it might break the barrier between urban and rural residents.
In fact, many regional governments have already taken measures to include some migrant workers into their public service systems. For example, many counties in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai have already started to let migrant workers enjoy endowment insurance like local residents. Some other cities like Nantong in Jiangsu province have also tried to offer public housing to migrant workers.
But to really address the issue the hukou system, the fundamental mechanism of China's urban-rural division, must be reformed to finally end these inequalities. However, local governments cannot make great progress in this regard, as the power to totally reform the hukou system belongs exclusively to the central government. The central government mentioned the problem in 2009 and reiterated it in 2011, but it needs to do more in the future to provide support for such reforms.
While gradually altering the division, the cities also need to change other discriminative policies to diminish the differences between local residents and migrant workers. And more importantly, they need to provide equal education opportunities for the children of migrant workers, for that will prevent inequality from being inherited by the next generation.
Of course, turning migrant workers into true urban residents is a huge program that involves the interests of tens of millions of people, so we cannot expect it to be done all at once. The problems can only be solved step by step, with priority given to those with the most urgent needs.
Metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai already have extremely large populations, so it is important to guide the population flow into small and medium-sized cities.
But to ensure China's urbanization proceeds smoothly the State needs to take measures to honor its promise of helping turn migrant workers into true urban residents.
The author is a researcher on urban development at the National Development and Reform Commission. The Chinese text first appeared in China Development Observation magazine.
Breaking the urban bottleneck|Op-Ed Contributors|chinadaily.com.cn
China needs to solve the problems of migrant workers and provide them every possible help to become permanent members of cities
According to the 2011 data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's urban population has reached 51.27 percent of the total, thus exceeding the rural population for the first time in history.
This is a critical point for China's urbanization. From now on, China needs to promote both the quality as well as the quantity of urbanization. For that purpose, the emphasis should be put on making rural people true urban residents, not simply introducing them to cities.
The greatest challenge for this is the problems of migrant workers, whose number has reached 242 million and is still growing. It is their labor that has made China's urbanization possible: a recent survey shows that migrant workers contribute 34 percent to the urbanization of Beijing and 30.6 percent to that of Shanghai, providing most of the labor for sectors such as construction.
But, though the cities have been built on the sweat of their labor, these workers are not formal residents of the cities they toil in. This is because their hukou, or permanent residence permits, are not registered there. We have already heard too many sad stories about migrant workers being discriminated against by urban residents and we do not want to hear more.
The following is an incomplete list of basic public services that exclude or partly exclude migrant workers: compulsory education, pension, medical insurance, lowest living standards insurance and public housing.
The result of such discrimination, which widens the gap between migrant workers and urban residents, has already caused mass incidents in provinces like Guangdong. Urban administrators need to help improve migrant workers' lives to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Such discrimination has not only caused social injustice, but also become a bottleneck to urbanization because it seriously restricts domestic needs by limiting migrant workers' consumption power. A 2010 research shows that the average Engel's coefficient - which measures the percentage of a household's expenditure on food to its total spending - of migrant workers is more than 50 percent, which seriously restricts both the willingness and the ability to consume, in turn curbing domestic demand.
Therefore, to further propel urbanization, China needs to solve the problems of migrant workers by helping them become permanent members of the cities in which they live, with equal access to public services and benefits.
The central government addressed the problem in its 2011 Central Economic Work Conference. In its concluding document, the conference claimed it would orderly guide qualified migrant workers to become permanent urban residents, and solve their education, healthcare and housing difficulties. That is a praiseworthy move for it might break the barrier between urban and rural residents.
In fact, many regional governments have already taken measures to include some migrant workers into their public service systems. For example, many counties in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai have already started to let migrant workers enjoy endowment insurance like local residents. Some other cities like Nantong in Jiangsu province have also tried to offer public housing to migrant workers.
But to really address the issue the hukou system, the fundamental mechanism of China's urban-rural division, must be reformed to finally end these inequalities. However, local governments cannot make great progress in this regard, as the power to totally reform the hukou system belongs exclusively to the central government. The central government mentioned the problem in 2009 and reiterated it in 2011, but it needs to do more in the future to provide support for such reforms.
While gradually altering the division, the cities also need to change other discriminative policies to diminish the differences between local residents and migrant workers. And more importantly, they need to provide equal education opportunities for the children of migrant workers, for that will prevent inequality from being inherited by the next generation.
Of course, turning migrant workers into true urban residents is a huge program that involves the interests of tens of millions of people, so we cannot expect it to be done all at once. The problems can only be solved step by step, with priority given to those with the most urgent needs.
Metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai already have extremely large populations, so it is important to guide the population flow into small and medium-sized cities.
But to ensure China's urbanization proceeds smoothly the State needs to take measures to honor its promise of helping turn migrant workers into true urban residents.
The author is a researcher on urban development at the National Development and Reform Commission. The Chinese text first appeared in China Development Observation magazine.
Breaking the urban bottleneck|Op-Ed Contributors|chinadaily.com.cn
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To express love or to be on to a good thing
Like other holiday seasons, Spring Festival, which ended on Monday, is one of the most expensive times of the year. It is also the time when people shower relatives and friends with gifts. This is not to say that our love affair with gifts is not evident during the rest of the year.
Beijing-based China Gift Industry Research Institute estimates that we spend 800 billion yuan ($127 billion) on gifts every year. It is a lot of money, more than the GDP of some countries, such as Myanmar and Somalia, according to the 2010 statistics of the World Bank.
Chinese people give gifts on many occasions, not all of which are special. Gifts can range from something as simple as fruits to very expensive products. But Chinese avoid gifting items that could embarrass or offend the recipient. For example, they avoid giving clocks because the root of the Chinese word for clock symbolizes death and funerals.
Like most Asian people, Chinese regard giving gifts as part of their culture. It helps develop or strengthen interpersonal relationships. Often, people are invited to dinner and given gifts to build critical relationships and associations.
On the business front, our love for gifts has literally saved many luxury brands. A recent study quotes Bruno Lannes, head of Bain & Company's consumer products and retail practice in Greater China, as saying: "In less than five years, Chinese consumers have transformed from a niche emerging market to a core target for global luxury brands."
But unlike their counterparts in Japan and South Korea, many Chinese buy luxury products to give as gifts. A study of the luxury market by Bain & Company shows that Chinese consumers purchased 212 billion yuan worth of high-end products in 2011. It also shows that more than 30 percent of the luxury goods bought in 2010 and 2011 were meant to be given as gifts.
It is an open secret that building a network of connections is critical to running a successful business. But building networks also requires people to host expensive dinners, entertain guests, and give costly gifts and, sometimes, cash even before starting a business in earnest. Gifts are an important way of earning trust and gaining respect.
Usually, successful people have a network of friends, acquaintances, relatives and associates that are helpful in more ways than one. For such people, giving and getting gifts becomes even more important, all of which leads to a question some companies are not quite sure how to answer: What do you call it then: gift, grease, graft or guanxi?
Businesspeople give high-end products as "business" gifts to show their taste and status. People who receive them feel honored and obliged. No wonder, businesspeople believe gifts are a good way of keeping the wheels moving.
People born in the 1950s and 1960s are the largest group receiving such gifts. They are courted because they occupy most of the important positions in government departments at all levels.
China needs a strict anti-graft and corruption law even though it has rules prohibiting public officials from accepting expensive gifts. And the total value of gifts an official can accept should defined clearly.
It is said that 78 of the 100 bribery cases heard by Beijing Dongcheng District People's Court, Beijing Haidian District People's Court and the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court from 2005 to 2007 were against officials accused of having accepted bribes during the Lunar New Year period.
Moreover, a new type of business is taking shape around the large number of the high-end gifts that officials dispose of for money. In Wuhan, Hubei province, for instance, some stores buy bottles of Moutai, a famous brand of Chinese liquor, for 800 yuan each and resell them for 1,200 yuan. This, by any yardstick, is a very profitable business.
Given that expensive gifts have the potential to influence officials' decisions, the government should ban them from accepting any kind of gift. If you want to express your appreciation and gratitude, a nice card will do, as long as there's nothing inside it but a note.
The author is a senior writer with China Daily.
To express love or to be on to a good thing|Op-Ed Contributors|chinadaily.com.cn
Like other holiday seasons, Spring Festival, which ended on Monday, is one of the most expensive times of the year. It is also the time when people shower relatives and friends with gifts. This is not to say that our love affair with gifts is not evident during the rest of the year.
Beijing-based China Gift Industry Research Institute estimates that we spend 800 billion yuan ($127 billion) on gifts every year. It is a lot of money, more than the GDP of some countries, such as Myanmar and Somalia, according to the 2010 statistics of the World Bank.
Chinese people give gifts on many occasions, not all of which are special. Gifts can range from something as simple as fruits to very expensive products. But Chinese avoid gifting items that could embarrass or offend the recipient. For example, they avoid giving clocks because the root of the Chinese word for clock symbolizes death and funerals.
Like most Asian people, Chinese regard giving gifts as part of their culture. It helps develop or strengthen interpersonal relationships. Often, people are invited to dinner and given gifts to build critical relationships and associations.
On the business front, our love for gifts has literally saved many luxury brands. A recent study quotes Bruno Lannes, head of Bain & Company's consumer products and retail practice in Greater China, as saying: "In less than five years, Chinese consumers have transformed from a niche emerging market to a core target for global luxury brands."
But unlike their counterparts in Japan and South Korea, many Chinese buy luxury products to give as gifts. A study of the luxury market by Bain & Company shows that Chinese consumers purchased 212 billion yuan worth of high-end products in 2011. It also shows that more than 30 percent of the luxury goods bought in 2010 and 2011 were meant to be given as gifts.
It is an open secret that building a network of connections is critical to running a successful business. But building networks also requires people to host expensive dinners, entertain guests, and give costly gifts and, sometimes, cash even before starting a business in earnest. Gifts are an important way of earning trust and gaining respect.
Usually, successful people have a network of friends, acquaintances, relatives and associates that are helpful in more ways than one. For such people, giving and getting gifts becomes even more important, all of which leads to a question some companies are not quite sure how to answer: What do you call it then: gift, grease, graft or guanxi?
Businesspeople give high-end products as "business" gifts to show their taste and status. People who receive them feel honored and obliged. No wonder, businesspeople believe gifts are a good way of keeping the wheels moving.
People born in the 1950s and 1960s are the largest group receiving such gifts. They are courted because they occupy most of the important positions in government departments at all levels.
China needs a strict anti-graft and corruption law even though it has rules prohibiting public officials from accepting expensive gifts. And the total value of gifts an official can accept should defined clearly.
It is said that 78 of the 100 bribery cases heard by Beijing Dongcheng District People's Court, Beijing Haidian District People's Court and the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court from 2005 to 2007 were against officials accused of having accepted bribes during the Lunar New Year period.
Moreover, a new type of business is taking shape around the large number of the high-end gifts that officials dispose of for money. In Wuhan, Hubei province, for instance, some stores buy bottles of Moutai, a famous brand of Chinese liquor, for 800 yuan each and resell them for 1,200 yuan. This, by any yardstick, is a very profitable business.
Given that expensive gifts have the potential to influence officials' decisions, the government should ban them from accepting any kind of gift. If you want to express your appreciation and gratitude, a nice card will do, as long as there's nothing inside it but a note.
The author is a senior writer with China Daily.
To express love or to be on to a good thing|Op-Ed Contributors|chinadaily.com.cn
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The small commentary was to invite those not aware of the news to read it and take it to another place to discuss.
To that effect, you are absolutely right.
Take what you want to another thread and let's discuss!
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Maintaining Sino-US relations
Updated: 2012-02-10 13:52
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Two opinion polls made public concurrently in China and in the United States Friday indicate that Chinese and Americans do not have a favorable impression of each other's country. Nonetheless, an overwhelming majority of those surveyed in both countries say that maintaining Sino-US ties is very important.
The surveys, released right before Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to the United States on Feb 13, were conducted by China Daily and the Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy Group in China, and the Gallup Poll in cooperation with China Daily in the US.
Given the power of public opinion, we hope that the results of these polls will have positive implications for bilateral ties and help decision makers better grasp the dynamics of Sino-US relations and there is no denying that Sino-US cooperation has become wider and deeper in recent years. Exchanges between the two peoples have flourished and the two economies have never been so closely interwoven.
Both countries realize that their cooperation goes well beyond the boundaries of bilateral ties and has now assumed global significance. However, there are still thorny issues arising out of a perceived US disrespect of China's core interests and major concerns. These make for a bumpy road from time to time, and fuel unfavorable public sentiment towards the US in China.
When Chinese President Hu Jintao paid a successful state visit to the US in January 2011, he and US President Barack Obama vowed to "work together to build a cooperative partnership of mutual respect and mutual benefit." Since then, Beijing has been working with Washington to translate this into action.
However, Washington has continued to flout China's concerns and interests with arm sales to Taiwan, Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama, and taking issue with the exchange rate of the RMB. These are among the major impediments that throw bilateral ties off the track from time to time.
People on both sides of the Pacific recognize the importance of continuing to maintain Sino-US relations. The only way to ensure that these are smooth relations is for the US to cease stepping on the toes of its bilateral partner.
Maintaining Sino-US relations|Web Comments|chinadaily.com.cn
Updated: 2012-02-10 13:52
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Two opinion polls made public concurrently in China and in the United States Friday indicate that Chinese and Americans do not have a favorable impression of each other's country. Nonetheless, an overwhelming majority of those surveyed in both countries say that maintaining Sino-US ties is very important.
The surveys, released right before Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to the United States on Feb 13, were conducted by China Daily and the Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy Group in China, and the Gallup Poll in cooperation with China Daily in the US.
Given the power of public opinion, we hope that the results of these polls will have positive implications for bilateral ties and help decision makers better grasp the dynamics of Sino-US relations and there is no denying that Sino-US cooperation has become wider and deeper in recent years. Exchanges between the two peoples have flourished and the two economies have never been so closely interwoven.
Both countries realize that their cooperation goes well beyond the boundaries of bilateral ties and has now assumed global significance. However, there are still thorny issues arising out of a perceived US disrespect of China's core interests and major concerns. These make for a bumpy road from time to time, and fuel unfavorable public sentiment towards the US in China.
When Chinese President Hu Jintao paid a successful state visit to the US in January 2011, he and US President Barack Obama vowed to "work together to build a cooperative partnership of mutual respect and mutual benefit." Since then, Beijing has been working with Washington to translate this into action.
However, Washington has continued to flout China's concerns and interests with arm sales to Taiwan, Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama, and taking issue with the exchange rate of the RMB. These are among the major impediments that throw bilateral ties off the track from time to time.
People on both sides of the Pacific recognize the importance of continuing to maintain Sino-US relations. The only way to ensure that these are smooth relations is for the US to cease stepping on the toes of its bilateral partner.
Maintaining Sino-US relations|Web Comments|chinadaily.com.cn
