Category: China

Bank of China Opens its First Branch in Taiwan

The Bank of China opened its first bank branch in Taipei yesterday to much media fanfare as decades of tension cool. China’s third largest bank has a global banking network, but it is the first time that any mainland Chinese bank has received approval from Taiwan’s financial regulators for commercial banking licenses.

With the aim of forging closer ties with Taiwan, Bank of China yesterday became the first Chinese lender to set up a branch in Taiwan, with the opening ceremony attended by Taiwanese officials and top banking executives.

China Confident of 10% Export Growth This Year

Despite the economic slowdown in China and its key trading markets such as the eurozone and the United States, China’s trade ministry says it has seen some “satisfying” indications of a trade rebound, after it posted a massive $31.5 billion trade deficit in February.

At a press briefing in Beijing today, spokesman for the Commerce Ministry Shen Danyang said preliminary trade data for June was “pretty good” and has “kept the pace seen in May” when trade shipments were more than double what analysts had forecasted.

Chinese Officials Forced To Auction Off Luxury Cars To Pay Off Debt

Government officials across China have been selling off their luxury cars in order to boost their local revenues, reported the Financial Times on Monday, as the nation’s economic slowdown continues to affect the municipal-level budgets of local authorities.

According to FT, the trend began sometime last year when cities such as Changzhou and Nanchang began auctioning off their Audis and BMWs in exchange for locally produced cars.

Qatar Seeks $5bn Investment in China

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, one of the largest funds in the world, is seeking a $5 billion quota to invest in China’s capital market.

According to the Xinhua news agency, Qatari investment officials are seeking an investment quota five times the current cap of $1 billion, and will invest the funds mostly in China’s equity markets and initial public offerings, with some investment in fixed-income assets.

China Opens Labour Market To Taiwan

Chinese companies will begin offering more jobs to Taiwanese citizens under new preferential employment policies, reported the China Daily on Monday, as both governments seek to promote more cross-Straits trade and people-to-people exchanges.

China Stockpiling Oil At Record Rate

China, the world’s second largest consumer of oil, has been building up its oil reserves at a rate not seen since 2008, reported Bloomberg News on Thursday, as the country embarks on the second stage of a plan for strategic reserves in order to manage price swings.

China Triples its Investment in Europe: Study

Chinese companies tripled their investment in Europe to $10 billion and that figure is expected to reach $500 billion by 2020. According to a report released yesterday, outbound global investments could hit $2 trillion by 2020.

As the European debt crisis extends into its fourth year, Chinese firms are increasing their investments into European companies as a way of acquiring new skills and technology as well as gaining access to new markets.

China Censors Web After Ominous Sign Stirs Echoes of Tiananmen

China’s online community buzzed with excitement and conspiracy theories yesterday as the country’s leading stock exchange, the Shanghai Composite Index, opened with an ominous numerological sign linked to the 23^rd anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.

In an unlikely coincidence unwelcomed by China’s ruling communist party and government censors, the Shanghai stock benchmark fell 64.89 points on Monday – a number that bears uncanny relevance to the June 4, 1989 pro-democracy crackdown that took place in Beijing.

China Pursues Greater Afghan Role As Western Influence Wanes

China will push for greater economic and security ties with Afghanistan during a joint conference this week, claimed a report by Reuters on Sunday, with officials from both governments keen to deepen their relationship amidst an ongoing military pull-out by Western forces.

EU Firms Ponder China Pull-out

Nearly a quarter of all European companies operating in China are considering a switch of their investments away from the country, claimed a survey by the European Union Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, as higher labour costs and an increasingly difficult regulatory environment continue to weigh heavily on companies’ profit margins.

According to existing data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, foreign direct investment from the EU has already slumped in the first four months of 2012 – by 27.9 percent compared to the same period last year.