Category: China

Chinese SOE Reform has Attracted a lot of Attention

The further reform of China’s state-owned enterprises has attracted a lot of attention and triggered debate since it was discussed last year at the third plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Central Committee (the Third Plenum). Three areas need to be addressed if reforms are to be meaningful and comprehensive: reforming the property rights system of SOEs by developing a ‘mixed ownership economy’; shifting from managing state assets to managing state capital; and promoting a modern corporate system.

The Dynamics of a Slower Growth China

The Chinese economy is widely perceived to have entered a ‘new normal’ — annual GDP growth has slowed to between 7 percent and 7.5 percent from the double-digit levels of previous years. This was something that policymakers expected: an inevitable result of economic restructuring.

Shanghai FTZ Reforms Moving Toward Targets

Since the release of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone blueprint in September 2013, plans for similar reforms in the rest of China have emerged — and are to be implemented within the next three years.

Why are Chinese Officials Accelerating Financial Market Reforms?

In late 2013 the Chinese authorities put together a reform agenda for the financial sector, focusing on reducing entry barriers, liberalising market mechanisms and improving financial regulation. This could be the final frontier of China’s financial reform, which — according to the plan — should make critical progress by 2020.

So why did the leaders decide to accelerate reform efforts in this area?

China Takes Steps to Separate City and Farmland

China recently announced strict controls to stop big cities expanding on to neighbouring farmland. The Minister for Land and Resources Jiang Daming justified these controls by claiming that good farmland has been ‘eaten by steel and cement’. To safeguard food security, land on the outskirts of cities will be ‘permanent basic farmland’ that can be used only for cultivation.

China’s Rural to Urban Migrants Follow a Moderately Easier Path

The household registration (‘hukou’) system in China, originally adopted in 1958, was finally put on the national reform agenda in July 2014. But how significant are the reforms?

‘Xiism’ May be China’s New Ideology

It became clear in 2014 that Xi Jinping was the dominant leader of China. Even President Obama recognised this at the end of the year, stating that no recent Chinese leader had consolidated power as quickly as Xi since Deng Xiaoping.

China’s New Diplomatic Strategy Receives Support from Putin

China is working to make the international order suit its interests better and put China front and centre in global affairs. Xi Jinping’s new diplomatic focus on multilateral diplomacy includes giving new profile to existing arrangements where China can lead, such as the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). He is also pushing his own initiatives, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, while pursuing economic reform and military modernisation.

China’s Challenges, though Daunting, are Surmountable

As we count down the days and now the hours towards the beginning of 2015, what preoccupies most soothsayers of the outlook for the global economy in the coming year is the shape of the Chinese economy. Nudging the United States as the world’s biggest economy in real terms — measured in purchasing power parity it already accounts for 16 per cent of global output — anxiety about how long its growth rate, at more than twice the global average, might continue at this pace is on the rise.