Unemployment: China’s Biggest Economic Woe

By He Qinglian on December 29, 2015
Source article in Chinese: 2015年中国经济关键词：失业
This abridged translation first appeared in the Epoch Time on February 2, 2016


If you are looking for a single word to summarize China’s economic situation in the year just gone by, it is “unemployment.” The flood of bankruptcies, flight of foreign investment, 300 million migrant workers losing their jobs, the government forcing troubled state-owned corporations to remain open, its giving jobs to veterans, and policies encouraging migrant workers to return to their hometowns to start new enterprises—these are all about unemployment.

Regulatory Capture and the Chinese Stock Market

By He Qinglian on November 19, 2015
Source article in Chinese: 2015年金融反腐（2）：权力与资本的关系能否重构？
This adapted and abridged translation first appeared in the Epoch Time on November 30, 2015

The Chinese leadership’s recent attempt to save China’s stock market, after its extraordinary meltdown this summer, failed. While key officials of China’s securities industry are being investigated, the big question is whether corruption and insider trading in China’s stock market will really disappear.

The Chinese way of Development Threatens Survival

©Getty Image

By He Qinglian on February 13, 2012

(translated by kRiZ cPEc)

Serious pollution problems in the soil, water and air of China

Apart from economic restructuring, China faces another challenge that is more serious: to change the way in which it develops. This change comprises two aspects, the first is that China must shift the way it uses energy from the high consumption pattern to the low consumption one; the second is remediation of the land. To start with, the huge number of polluting industries should be suspended from operation; and from now on, big money should be continuously allocated to gradual repair of the severely contaminated ecosystem, so that food and water in the country could return to their safety standards.

China Model in Overseas Setting (Two)—International Community Stops Believing the Dishonest China

By He Qinglian on February 6, 2012

(Translated by kRiZcPEc)

The obstacles that Chinese enterprises encounter when they invest overseas result from their rent-seeking approaches being rejected by the people under regimes similar to the Communist Party and distrust from the people in democratic countries because of the lack of integrity, an innate disease of Chinese enterprises and the products they made.

China Model in Overseas Setting (One)—Why the country's investments overseas attract frequent criticism?

By He Qinglian on February 2, 2012
(Translated by kRiZcPEc)

In recent years, China has been making rapid moves in overseas investments. According to the report published by Price Waterhouse Coopers in mid-January, the total worth of assets Chinese companies acquired in 2011 surge to 42.9 billion dollars, a twelve-percent growth from 2010; the number of total transactions rose to a record high of 207 instances, an increase of 10% from the previous year. Judging from the data alone, it seems that Chinese capitals are hugely popular worldwide.

High GDP growth: China's two bubbles remain

By He Qinglian on January 30, 2012

(Translated by kRiZcPEc)

China has again created a “world miracle” in economic growth rate. In 2011, the country's total GDP was RMB 47.1 trillion (USD 7.4 trillion), the annual GDP growth rate was 9.2%, and its nominal growth reached as high as 17.5%.

Such a growth rate could be deemed exponential anywhere in the world, but that didn't mean China's economy was growing steadily and soundly. Apart from showing an expansion in the country's economy, GDP growth did not indicate its structural problems had been resolved.

A look back at Deng Xiaoping's speech in southern China two decades ago

By He Qinglian on January 19, 2012

(translated by kRiZcPEc)

This January 18 marked the 20^th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's tour around southern China (Southern tour). When the younger generations talk about the economic reform that Deng initiated, they have completely no idea that it almost went dead at the turn of 1980s and 1990s, and came back to life only after Deng went to the south and gave a speech in January 1992.

Reality of China

Reality of China: A Mess of Wanton Graffiti Drawn with the Pen of Power

By He Qinglian on November 3, 2011

I remember when Mao Zedong came to be the ruler of China, he described the country as a destitute state, a sheet of blank paper on which the newest and most beautiful picture can be drawn. After that, for three decades Mao Zedong ruled and he left on China his powerful drawings, done in a manner that was willful and wild. In the three decades that followed, officials at various levels at the central and local governments have been painting the country with a host of methods at will. Now, with little white space left, the drawings on the blank sheet of China are testing the lowest limits of human esthetic values and moral principles.

China’s mouthpiece media lack social pain nerves

By He Qinglian on January 3, 2012
 

In late December 2011, the People’s Daily picked as usual the top ten news stories of the year. Unfortunately in that list I found that the social pain nerves of the most superior mouthpiece have ceased to function altogether. That newspaper would soon become rouge powder that Beijing uses to make itself look good.

Has China the Capacity to Save Europe?

Has China the Capacity to Save Europe?
Written by He Qinglian on November 3, 2011

(translated by krizcpec)
[Words in brackets are added by translator]

In this half a year or so, the expectation that China would invest and rescue the EU became the pillar of faith that hold up the Euro market. On October 28, after being lobbied by various EU members, China's Vice Foreign Minister, Fu Ying, officially announced that “the proposition of China rescuing Europe does not exist”. The topic that was being heatedly discussed for months has finally settled. Now that Beijing is determined not to assume the role of “White Knight” to save Europe, European leaders like Nicholas Sarkozy will have to discard their illusion and rely on themselves to weather this crisis.

On “Occupy Wall Street” and Its implications

On “Occupy Wall Street”and Its implications
By He Qinglian  
Translated from: http://biweekly.hrichina.org/article/1238

Before Oct 15, the world thought “Occupy Wall Street” was the problem of the United States alone. Beijing in particular saw it as the American people's opposition to American capitalism, and said explicitly, merrily that this time round it got even with U.S. media which had been reporting for years "negative news" of China. It was after the day the Occupy movement was held in seventy-one countries across the world that people began to realize things are not so simple. The theme of the Occupy movement is to oppose such economic and social problems as unfair financial order, and the wealth gap. Many protesters also called on their government to cut expenditure. To be fair, no country in the world is not troubled by these problems. It's only that the institutional causes of such problems and the measures governments have taken to deal with them varies significantly.

How deep is China's quagmire of local debts?

How deep is China's quagmire of local debts?

Written by He Qinglian on June 17, 2011
(translated by krizcpec)

These days Beijing became really anxious, the heavy debts of local governments had worried them. After spending more than two years indulging itself in the imaginary title of the “Savior of the world's economy,” China has now to rescue its own banking system, which balance sheet revealed dire problems that had long been hidden. Just when the China Banking Regulatory Commission announced plans to strictly control the credit risk of local financing platform, people discovered that the debt-to-capital ratio of the Railways Ministry had reached the tolerance limits, posing huge potential risks.

China's Economy: a cycle of arson and firefighting (II)

China's Economy: a cycle of arson and firefighting (two)

Written by He Qinglian on September 29, 2011

(translated by krizcpec)

On September 25 Euromoney named Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People's Bank of China, as Euromoney's Central Bank Governor of the year 2011. The interesting thing was what Zhou Xiaochuan listed as the reasons for being awarded in his speech delivered at the award presentation ceremony.

The reasons he gave were:

First, in response to financial crisis, China's central bank has taken a moderately loose monetary policy and expanded the money supply, effectively supporting the real economy;
Second, since the beginning of this year China has adjusted timely its monetary policy and implemented a prudent monetary policy, namely monetary tightening.

China's Economy: a cycle of arson and firefighting (I)

China's Economy: a cycle of arson and firefighting (one)
Written by He Qinglian on September 22, 2011

(translated by krizcpec)

In this past six months, I have almost completely stopped discussing China's economy. There's nothing more to say after I have done repeated analyzes of its various aspects. However, it's interesting that Premier Wen Jiabao, despite being responsible for managing the country's economy, has been talking enthusiastically about politics instead of economy for more than a year now.