Europe Day in Beijing & Verhofstadt

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Europe may have its share of problems – as Guy Verhofstadt told us the same evening – such as, a lack of unity, total inertia (in dealing with the current crisis). At least in Beijing we feel happy all together as a big Europe – joining the Europe Day party organized in the EU delegation, thanks to our sympathetic Ambassador Serge Abou.
I felt bad there – so much good-looking food from all the EU countries and I couldn’t touch it really because of my other dinner the same evening.


I did take a few pictures of – well yes – our Belgian Ambassador Bernard Pierre who again showed his singing talents (I have two of his CDs…). And of course (being me) of cute girls performing.
Sometimes Beijing sucks but we do have our rewards. Believe me.
So later I was in the residence of the Belgian Ambassador to have dinner with former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt who talked about his books – and I walked away with a signed copy of his Chinese version “The United States of Europe”. He promised to send us a copy of new book “The Way out of the Crisis. How Europe can save the world”.
The former PM is not too optimistic with the lack of action in the EU towards the economic downturn. He might have a point. But contrary to the USA and China where we need more and better railways, highways, bridges and other infrastructure, the EU has not so many obvious infrastructure projects to do – except if it builds the “bridges to nowhere” like in Japan. But it is true that drastic reforms in the banking sector – among others – are badly needed. The lack of action in the past in Japan on that level resulted in a long and difficult recovery – the bad scenario awaiting the EU.

The EUCCC looks at Chinese economy & trade

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

See here the full text of an interview published by China Daily on 9 May. Excellent overview and overall my own position on the matter. Joerg remains diplomatic but clearly indicates there are some worrying trends. As chairman of the EUCCC Working Group “Public Procurement” I look very much into issues of market access and since years China has been very good at keeping out EU companies whenever it feels so – despite all the lip service and denials.
Chamber head: China will ‘bottom out’ this quarter
By Wang Xin (China Daily)
China’s economic downturn will bottom out in the second quarter of this year, according to Jörg Wuttke, president of EU Chamber of Commerce in China.
“But whether the recovery line will be the shape of a ‘V’ or ‘W’ is not known,” he added.
He cited heavy government-led investment in fixed assets, abundant lending by major State-owned banks and rising stocks bolstering confidence as reasons for his optimism.
Yet he said he is unsure of whether or when a second bottom might be felt in China because the global economy will not recover so soon.
What he is sure of is that the markets in the United States and the European Union are shrinking dramatically.
“The worst is not over yet,” said Wuttke echoing Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan.
While China is struggling to maintain continuing growth, seeking to realize a 7 to 8 GDP percent increase, Germany – the biggest economy in Europe and also the homeland of the chamber president – has dropped by 5 percent, contributing significantly to an overall decline on the continent, Wuttke said.
So Europe will contract this year, not to mention the epicenter of the recession, the US.
“If US and Europe are lucky next year they will not go down but go flat,” Wuttke said. “And that is, if we are lucky enough.”
“China cannot wait until Europe and US come back, because they will come back too late,” Wuttke said. “Chinese exporters have to understand that the good times of big US and Europe buying are over.”
Instead of waiting for others to pull it out, China has to depend on itself by stimulating domestic consumption, restructuring its economy and shifting the growth pattern, he said.
Wuttke predicted that China will over the next five or 10 years turn from a supply-side economy producing for the world to a demand economy that will consume more and have stronger import growth.
The “timely, big and broad” stimulus package China’s government announced last November targets comparatively weak infrastructure in areas such as railways and has already had an impact on the economy.
Being “part of China” – as the president of EU Chamber of Commerce repeatedly stressed – European-funded companies “have been hit as China has been hit and got stronger as China feels the results of economic stimulation”, Wuttke noted.
Companies in the sectors related to infrastructure construction such as cement, steel, building materials, rails and trains have benefited enormously from the package.
Wuttke suggested more investment should be made in what he called “soft areas” like education, healthcare and pensions, rather than in “unnecessary additional hard infrastructure”. “When people feel safe, they become more ready to spend,” he said, though he noted expanding a social security network is a time-consuming task.
Low-income people should be the target of the stimulus plan, he said, as the poor tend to spend more as they need more, while the rich probably choose to save more.
In addition to spurring domestic demand, China is also extending a hand to help other nations revive.
Commenting on a string of visits of Chinese trade delegations around Europe, Wuttke said he agreed with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that they are confidence-building tours.
Despite the limited impact on trade figures, the purchase groups have showed a gesture of goodwill, he noted. “In contrast to US conservative efforts, China is buying from us.”
“China is virtually the only big economy that is still growing. Of course everybody is trying to gain a standing in it.”
For European-funded companies, the Chinese market itself is now the focus as it is no longer just a manufacturing base for exports, Wuttke said.
However, as some of the European ventures serve Chinese exporters, indirectly they were also hit badly in the foreign trade collapse, he added.
Even worse, with heightened pressure from the crisis, protectionism is markedly rising.
Protectionism, “the ugly sister of recession”, results in distortion of market conditions, Wuttke said. Such short-sighted thinking has a long-range bad impacts, he pointed out.
“It is politically easy to do”, but as a whole, it makes business more expensive, disrupts supply chains and results in consumers paying higher prices with fewer choices, which in turn causes people less willing to consume and actually delays economic recovery, he said.
“Protectionism has obviously proved to be a disaster, but is hard to avoid, especially during a slowdown, unfortunately.”
Currently no severe protectionism is looming yet “there are such tendencies,” he said.

Some officials fail in their duties

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Is it the Internet or are Chinese citizens really fed up with some officials failing in their duties, committing crimes and getting away with it? Even China Daily starts to show its displeasure with officials who were “demoted – reprimanded – etc.” and some months later receive promotions in other locations. Some key figures in the milk scandal are good examples but others exist. People are asking questions. The terrible things that happened in Sichuan last year are another sad demonstration of how officials totally fail in their duties. Tofu engineering is denied while it is so damned clear that those officials knew what was going on. The poor parents who dare to complain are put in a prison, or mental hospital or “isolated coz they are suspected to have the swine flu”.
I am sad to read all that. Some officials really do a good job but the bad apples are shamelessly protected by the system.
A beauty shop worker stole hair (value 4,840 RMB) in the shop and got one year jail.
But a Sichuan tax bureau chief who had sex with a girl who was under the age of 14 has been fined 5,000 Yuan by police and allowed to walk free, the website of the Sichuan Daily reports.
Lu Yumin, tax bureau director of Yibin district, told a hot pot restaurant owner he liked young girls and was willing to spend big money to take a woman’s virginity, according to Sichuan Online. The restaurant owner approached a middle-school student to ask her to sleep with Mr. Lu. The student refused, but persuaded a classmate to do it and introduced her to the businesswoman. Mr. Lu had sex with the girl in a cheap country hostel in December. Mr. Lu paid 6,000 Yuan. The girl received just 1,000 Yuan, with the rest going to her classmate and the restaurant owner. (as reported by SCMP)
Now imagine a foreigner would do the same. The whole country would revolt. Pathetic really.
Kids are being stolen, like in Dongguan. Police often refuses to help (who cares about the second-class citizens – the migrants?). Even China Daily starts looking into all that and dares to mention the voices that disagree with the “official versions of the facts”. Thumbs up for China Daily.
Yes, we are better off here than in many other countries. But the government must do more to protect its own citizens.
Those brainless young cyber-extremists should look at real issues rather than criticize actress Zhang Ziyi for silly reasons. They are totally un-patriotic themselves. (I compare them to British soccer hooligans).

Beijing Pollution Data: finally!

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Further to my earlier entry I finally took the time to table at least the results for the first 4 months of 2009. So, no more guessing – these are the official figures from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau. The API refer to one measuring point (exact location unknown) – Dongsi in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is supposed to be not too far from where I live (Gongti Xi Lu).
The data normally refer to a 24 hour average from 12 noon – 12 noon on the mentioned date.
One can argue about the accuracy and the fact it is a 24 hour average. But this is what we got.
Those data you cannot find anywhere as the Bureau promptly removes them after one day, so the tables are unique!


I have the data now for nearly a full year.
Dongsi is not the best but also not the worst location.
In the past “Qianmen” was always by far the worst but it was simply dropped from the list – no explanation needed here!

Chinese Jews

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Oscar Weil and Benjamin Oppenheimer are Jews, and were sitting in a Chinese restaurant in Shanghai.
“Oscar,” asked Benjie, “Are there any Jews in China?”
“I don’t know,” Oscar replied.
“Why don’t we ask the waiter?”
When the waiter came by, Benjie asked him, “Are there any Chinese Jews here in Shanghai?”
“I don’t know sir, let me ask,” the waiter replied, and he went into the kitchen.
He returned in a few minutes and said, “No, sir. No Chinese Jews.”
“Are you sure?” Benjie asked.
“I will check again, sir” the waiter replied and went back to the kitchen.
While he was still gone, Oscar said, “I cannot believe there are no Jews in China , our people are scattered everywhere.”
When the waiter returned he said, “Sir, no Chinese Jews.”
“Are you really sure?” Benjie asked again.
“I cannot believe there are no Chinese Jews.”
“Sir, I asked everyone,” the waiter replied exasperated. “We have orange Jews, apple Jews, tomato Jews and grape Jews, but no one ever hear of Chinese Jews!
If you want, we have Chinese Tea.”