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FILE PHOTO: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks at the opening ceremony for the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, China November 5, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/Pool/File Photo
April 17, 2019
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit China next week to meet its leaders and deliver a keynote speech at the vast Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, the South Asian nation’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday, as economic anxiety grows at home.
China has pledged about $60 billion in infrastructure loans for Pakistan, touted as a success story of its Belt and Road initiative, which aims to build road and maritime trading routes across the globe.
But Pakistan’s economy has hit serious turbulence over the past year and Islamabad is now finalizing a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stave off a balance of payments crisis, despite more than $10 billion in short-term loans from allies such as China and Saudi Arabia.
Khan will visit China from April 25, and give a keynote speech at the three-day Belt and Road Forum that starts the following day. The high-profile gathering is one of China’s biggest annual state events.
“In addition to participating in the Belt and Road Forum, the Prime Minister would also hold bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang,” the ministry said in a statement.
The two countries will sign several pacts to enhance cooperation, and Khan will meet corporate and business leaders, it added.
Khan’s visit to Pakistan’s all-weather friend China comes as his government, in power since August, faces a deepening economic crisis, with a ballooning current account deficit and fast-depleting foreign reserves.
It initially tried to avoid an IMF bailout by securing loans from friendly countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates but has since changed tack and said it had agreed in principle to turn to the IMF.
The long-delayed rescue package would be Pakistan’s 13th IMF bailout program since the late 1980s.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China April 1, 2019. Kenzaburo Fukuhara/KYODONEWS/Pool via REUTERS
April 17, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping offered praise on Wednesday for what he called the achievements of the southwestern city of Chongqing, one of the country’s most important cities, hit by two major graft scandals in recent years.
Chongqing has been ground zero for Xi’s war against graft, with two of its former Communist Party chiefs, both once seen as contenders for China’s top offices, jailed for corruption.
On a visit to the city, Xi “gave affirmation to the achievements Chongqing has made in its work”, the official Chongqing Daily said, after he heard a report from party and government officials.
Xi said he hoped that the city could ensure party instructions are fully implemented and continue to create a “pure and honest political ecology”, the paper added.
“Cultivate a team of high-quality cadres who are loyal and clean,” it paraphrased Xi as saying. “Maintain high pressure on punishing corruption and consolidate the overwhelming victory in the anti-corruption struggle.”
Last year, a court sentenced former Chongqing party boss Sun Zhengcai to life in prison for corruption.
Before being jailed, Sun had been abruptly removed from his post, and replaced by Chen Miner, who is close to Xi.
Another former Chongqing party boss, Bo Xilai, was jailed in 2013 for bribery, corruption and abuse of power in a dramatic scandal kicked off by his wife’s murder of a British businessman.
The Chongqing Daily report said Chen attended the meeting in Chongqing with Xi, but did not say if Xi had directly talked about the cases of Sun or Bo.
Xi has presided over a sweeping corruption crackdown since coming to power in 2012, vowing to target both “tigers” and “flies”, a reference to elite officials and ordinary bureaucrats.
The campaign has led to the jailing or punishment of thousands of officials and brought down dozens of senior party and military officials.
Beyond issues of bribery and use of public money to funds lavish lifestyles, the anti-corruption effort has taken aim at those who express doubt in public about party policies or are found lacking in political loyalty.
China has rebuffed criticism that the campaign is as much about settling political scores as about stamping out criminal acts.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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FILE PHOTO: JD.com founder Richard Liu attends a Reuters interview in Hong Kong, China June 9, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip
April 17, 2019
By Cate Cadell
BEIJING (Reuters) – The personal life of JD.com chief Richard Liu returned to the spotlight of China’s social media on Wednesday, drawing 360 million views to briefly become the top trending item on the Twitter-like Weibo, after a civil lawsuit accused him of rape.
Liu, who was briefly arrested after a University of Minnesota student accused him of rape last August, maintained his innocence throughout the investigation, which ended in December, with prosecutors declining to press charges.
The civil case brought by the student comes as the e-commerce giant faces a backlash over layoffs and its work culture after Liu railed against “slackers”, with his social media backing seeming to wane, in contrast to its support after his initial arrest and release.
“Now it’s coming to light how hard he’s working people and they’re trying to cut staff … Suddenly the sympathy can evaporate pretty quickly,” said Mark Natkin, a managing director at Beijing-based tech consultancy Marbridge Consulting.
Earlier, people had been more willing to commiserate when the business appeared to be going well and employees were being treated well, he added.
Liu’s accuser, identified in the civil lawsuit for the first time as Liu Jingyao, a Chinese student at the U.S. university, has sought undisclosed damages in a Minneapolis court from both Liu and JD.com.
In a statement on Tuesday, Liu’s attorney, Jill Brisbois, said, “Based on the Hennepin county attorney’s declination to charge a case against our client and our belief in his innocence, we feel strongly that this suit is without merit and will vigorously defend against it.”
She was referring to prosecutors who declined to charge Liu after last year’s investigation.
A lawyer for JD.com, Peter Walsh of Hogan Lovells, said it would defend the company against the claims, which he described as “meritless”.
On Wednesday, some of the highest-trending Weibo comments on the new case contrasted the accusations with Liu’s recent comments that the number of “slackers” in his firm had grown.
“How did he find the time to commit such bad crimes in Minnesota when he was working 996 hours?” said a Weibo user, whose posting received more than 1,200 likes.
The reference is to a practice in the Chinese tech industry of working 72-hour weeks, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on six days, which has figured in online debate and protests on some coding platforms.
A JD.com spokesman has declined to comment on layoffs but said the company was making adjustments as a normal part of business.
Another user joked that Liu himself was the company’s “least cost-effective” employee, with the arrest wiping out billions of dollars in shareholder value.
Shares of JD.com are still down 4.5 percent from the period before Liu was arrested. That is despite a slight rise this year following last year’s fall of about 16 percent, for a loss of more than $7 billion in value in the week after his arrest.
“At that time it felt obvious to me that the woman sought to make some money from the situation,” said Gao Wei, a student in the Chinese capital, whose posts defending Liu on messaging app WeChat after his initial arrest drew hundreds of likes.
“I think there is a better understanding of Liu’s character now because of the 996 … even though these are not directly related issues,” Gao, 22, told Reuters.
(Reporting by Cate Cadell; Additional Reporting by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by Tony Munroe and Clarence Fernandez)
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FILE PHOTO: A general view shows the headquarters of Anbang Insurance Group in Beijing, China, February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
April 17, 2019
BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co said it would reduce its registered capital by nearly one-third, the latest government-directed step of a massive restructuring of the debt-laden conglomerate to curb financial risks.
A state takeover work group, which has seized control of Anbang since February last year, has decided to trim the company’s registered capital to 41.5 billion yuan ($6.21 billion) from 61.9 billion yuan, pending approval from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, Anbang said in a statement released on Tuesday.
The capital reduction will not influence the company’s operations or cause any major impact on its solvency and financial situations, Anbang said.
The move is the latest step by Beijing to steadily clean up the aftermath of a harsh government crackdown on Anbang – once one of China’s most aggressive dealmakers overseas with a series of major acquisitions that have caught the attention of global regulators and investors.
Anbang’s former chairman, Wu Xiaohui, who masterminded the overseas deal spree including the purchase of New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, was sentenced in May 2018 to 18 years imprisonment for fraud and embezzlement. His appeal against the conviction was rejected by a Chinese court in August last year.
Creditors of the company may request Anbang to pay off its debts or provide repayment guarantees within 45 days after the announcement, the company added.
(Reporting by Cheng Leng in BEIJING and Shu Zhang in SINGAPORE; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
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FILE PHOTO: Chinese staffers adjust U.S. and Chinese flags before the opening session of trade negotiations between U.S. and Chinese trade representatives at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via REUTERS
April 17, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – Frustrated U.S. businesses can no longer be counted on as a “positive anchor” in U.S.-China relations, a top U.S. business lobby said on Wednesday, arguing any deal to end trade tensions must address structural problems in China’s economic system.
Long considered the ballast in a relationship fraught with geopolitical frictions, the U.S. business community in China in recent years has advocated a harder line on Beijing’s trade policies.
“Crucially, the mood has shifted,” the American Chamber of Commerce in China said in a statement accompanying its annual report on China’s business climate.
“The U.S. business community in China, so long an advocate of good bilateral relations, can no longer be relied upon to be a positive anchor. U.S. companies continue to face an uncertain operating environment in China amid decreasing optimism about their investment outlook,” it said.
The world’s two biggest economies are nine months into a trade war that has cost billions of dollars, roiled financial markets and upended supply chains.
U.S. President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on $250 billion of goods imported from China to press demands for an end to policies – including industrial subsidies, forced technology transfers, and market access barriers – that Washington says hurt U.S. companies.
China has responded with its own tit-for-tat tariffs on U.S. goods.
The chamber said tariffs had negatively impacted many of its members who “are not necessarily supportive” of their use, but earlier attempts at dialogue had failed to balance economic relations.
“We understand that any true resolution of the current dispute requires addressing the structural issues … that have long hindered importation of U.S. goods and services and operations of U.S. businesses in China,” the chamber’s chairman, Timothy Stratford, said in the report.
A chamber survey in February showed a majority of its members favored the United States retaining tariffs on Chinese goods while Washington and Beijing try to hammer out a deal to end the trade war.
It noted then that 19 percent of its companies were adjusting supply chains or seeking to source components and organize assembly outside of China as a result of tariffs.
Many in the business community have expressed concern that Trump could settle for a deal that increases commodity sales to China, while doing little to change China’s underlying trade practices and industrial policies.
Reuters reported on Monday that U.S. negotiators have tempered demands that China curb industrial subsidies as a condition for a deal after strong resistance from Beijing.
But Trump and U.S. negotiators have repeatedly said talks with China were going well.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday that he hoped the two sides were close to a final round of negotiations, and that a deal – if reached – would go “way beyond” previous efforts to open China’s markets to U.S. companies.
(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Neil Fullick)
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FILE PHOTO: A Cathay Pacific Airways Airbus A350-900 airplane approaches to land at Changi International Airport in Singapore June 10, 2018. REUTERS/Tim Chong
April 17, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd Chief Executive Rupert Hogg said he was “relatively confident” the air cargo market would pick up in the second half after a weak start to the year.
“We tend to do quite well in cargo but the volumes do go up and down due to general economic sentiment,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of a media event in Beijing on Wednesday.
“I’m relatively confident that cargo will get stronger in second half this year.”
The Hong Kong-based airline is one of the world’s largest cargo carriers and has previously said it was keeping a close eye on U.S.-China trade tensions.
Cathay Pacific has said that its cargo volumes fell by 5.5 percent in the three months ended March 31, but that the decline was smaller in March than in January and February.
The International Air Transport Association last month nearly halved its annual forecast for traffic growth in the air cargo market to 2 percent, citing trade frictions, Brexit and anti-globalization rhetoric.
(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Brenda Goh; writing by Jamie Freed; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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FILE PHOTO: A model of the nuclear reactor “Hualong One” is pictured at the booth of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) at an expo in Beijing, China April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
April 17, 2019
By David Stanway
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China plans to gamble on the bulk deployment of its untested “Hualong One” nuclear reactor, squeezing out foreign designs, as it resumes a long-delayed nuclear program aimed at meeting its clean energy goals, government and industry officials said.
China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, was once seen as a “shop window” for big nuclear developers to show off new technologies, with Beijing embarking on a program to build plants based on designs from France, the United States, Russia and Canada.
But after years of construction delays, overseas models such as Westinghouse’s AP1000 and France’s “Evolutionary Pressurised Reactor” (EPR) are now set to lose out in favor of new localized technologies, industry experts and officials said.
China signed a technology transfer deal with the United States in 2006 that put the AP1000 at the “core” of its atomic energy program. It also pledged to use advanced third-generation technology in its safety review after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.
But by the time the world’s first AP1000 and EPR made their debuts in China last year, Chinese designs had become just as viable.
Though China has yet to complete its first Hualong One, officials are confident it will not encounter the delays suffered by rivals, and say it can compete on safety and cost.
Beijing has already decided to use the Hualong One for its first newly commissioned nuclear project in three years, set to begin construction later this year at Zhangzhou, a site originally earmarked for the AP1000. [nL3N2152KM]
“The problem with AP1000 – the delays, the design changes, the supply chain issues and then the trade problems – has forced their hand, and it has become Hualong,” said Li Ning, a nuclear scientist and dean of the College of Energy at Xiamen University.
He added that China’s licensing procedures would also be an advantage for the home grown tech. “For the Hualong, there are four reactors already under construction and one of them is near completion already. It is a Chinese design so it wouldn’t be very hard to license the next four,” he said.
EDF, France’s state-run utility, which helped build the EPR project at Taishan in Guangdong province, declined to comment. Westinghouse, now owned by Brookfield after entering bankruptcy restructuring, also did not respond to a request for comment.
INTERNATIONAL AMBITIONS
China’s ambitions for the Hualong One extend overseas as well. The first foreign project using the reactor is under construction in Pakistan and the model is in the running for projects in Argentina and Britain.
“(Hualong One) is competitive,” said Li Xiaoming, assistant general manager of the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). “The technologies are now just about the same as those of the United States, France and Russia.”
“This is the foundation that we will rely on for our future survival and our international competitiveness,” Li said.
China already has four Hualong Ones under construction, with the first, in the southeastern coastal province of Fujian, set to go into operation late next year, ahead of schedule, said Huang Feng, a member of the expert committee of the China Nuclear Energy Association.
“China has already become one of the small number of countries that has independently mastered third-generation nuclear power technology, and it has the conditions and comparative advantages to scale up and go into mass production,” he told an industry conference.
As Beijing gets ready to commission eight reactors a year in order to meet its 2030 clean energy and emissions targets, construction speed will be a crucial consideration, benefiting local developers.
Huang said the estimated costs of Hualong One and the AP1000 were now roughly the same, and much now depended on scaling up production to cut costs and allow the Chinese design to compete not only with other reactors, but also with coal-fired power.
Li of CNNC said while foreign-designed projects would still be built, it would “make no sense” to rely on foreign technology if China’s own domestic reactors were equally safe and reliable.
“There are probably some technologies where we will continue to cooperate, but overall we will gradually turn to our own,” he said.
($1 = 6.7139 yuan)
(Reporting by David Stanway; editing by Christian Schmollinger)
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FILE PHOTO: Buildings are seen in Beijing’s central business area, China, April 1, 2018. Picture taken April 1, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
April 16, 2019
By Kevin Yao
BEIJING (Reuters) – China is expected to report on Wednesday that economic growth slowed to its weakest pace in at least 27 years in the first quarter, as policymakers seek to head off a sharper slowdown that could stoke job losses.
But China’s trading partners and investors likely will focus on readings for March, hoping for signs that months of stimulus are starting to stabilize activity in the world’s second-largest economy at a time when global demand looks shaky.
“The data is likely to show the clearest evidence yet of economic recovery,” though questions remain over the strength of any rebound and how long it will last, analysts at Nomura said in a research note on Tuesday, reflecting high expectations in the market.
Beijing has stepped up fiscal stimulus this year to shore up growth, announcing billions of dollars in additional tax cuts and infrastructure spending, while Chinese banks lent a record 5.8 trillion yuan ($864.8 billion) in the first quarter, more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Switzerland.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect China to report GDP grew 6.3 percent in the January-March quarter from a year earlier, which would be the slowest pace since the first quarter of 1992, the earliest quarterly data on record.
That would mark a further loss of momentum from the previous quarter’s 6.4 percent, which was the weakest since the global financial crisis.
But data for March, which will be released at the same time (0200 GMT), is expected to show stronger growth in industrial output, investment and retail sales, according to analysts polled by Reuters, suggesting the economy may be bottoming out, even if a turnaround is too early to call.
Premier Li Keqiang recently said changes in the economy in March had exceeded expectations, with the economy operating in a steady manner in the first quarter.
Prices for steel reinforcing bars used in construction shot to 7-1/2 year highs this week, while steel mills have ramped up output to nine-month highs as winter pollution restrictions are eased.
Analysts say an unexpectedly strong lending report on Friday set the stage for a recovery in investment in the second half of the year, though other data showed imports shrank for a fourth month and auto sales fell again, indicating domestic demand remains sluggish.
Upbeat March activity readings would add to growing optimism over China’s outlook amid signs that Washington and Beijing may be nearing a deal to end their bruising trade war.
But analysts do not expect a sharp rebound in China like recoveries in the past, which created a strong reflationary pulse worldwide, noting its latest stimulus measures have so far been relatively more restrained.
MORE SUPPORT SEEN NEEDED
Some China watchers have dialed back their expectations of further policy easing in light of better-than-expected March credit and export data, and improvements in factory surveys.
But most economists believe more support will still be needed to ensure a sustainable recovery.
Earlier growth-boosting measures will take time to fully kick in, and corporate balance sheets are expected to remain under stress if profits are slow to recover from their worst slump in more than seven years.
The central bank has cut banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRR) five times since early last year to free up more funds for lending. It has also pressed banks to keep lending to struggling firms despite the risk of more bad loans, and has guided interbank interest rates lower to reduce financing costs.
Economists in the latest Reuters poll released on Friday (before the credit data) forecast three more RRR cuts of 50 basis points each in this quarter and the next two.
But the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has so far refrained from cutting benchmark lending rates as it did in past downturns, suggesting policymakers are treading more carefully in pump-priming an economy that is laden with debt from past credit sprees.
The OECD echoed those concerns in a report on Tuesday, saying stimulus measures will shore up economic growth this year and next but may undermine the country’s drive to control debt and worsen structural distortions over the medium term.
China’s economic growth cooled to 6.6 percent in 2018, weighed down by multi-year clampdowns on riskier lending and pollution that deterred fresh investment, and by escalating U.S. and Chinese tariffs on each others’ goods.
Economists polled by Reuters expect a further pullback to 6.2 percent in 2019 – the slowest in nearly 30 years but roughly in the middle of Beijing’s 6-6.5 percent target range.
(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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FILE PHOTO: Richard Liu, founder and chief executive officer of e-commerce company JD.com, leaves the Great Hall of the People after the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China March 5, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
April 16, 2019
(Reuters) – A University of Minnesota student who said she was raped last August by Richard Liu, the chief executive officer of China’s e-commerce retailer JD.com Inc, filed a civil lawsuit against him in a Minneapolis court on Tuesday, nearly four months after prosecutors declined to press criminal charges.
Liu, through his lawyers, maintained his innocence throughout the investigation of the woman’s allegation.
The lawsuit in Hennepin County court seeks more than $50,000 in damages and names Richard Liu and JD.com as defendants. It identifies the student as Liu Jingyao.
Richard Liu’s attorney, Jill Brisbois, could not be immediately reached for comment on the lawsuit. A spokesman for JD.com also could not be immediately reached for comment.
(Reporting by Koh Gui Qing and Lawrence Delevingne in New York; editing by Grant McCool)
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FILE PHOTO: A surveillance camera is seen outside an Apple store in Beijing, China December 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
April 16, 2019
By Stephen Nellis
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Reuters) – A trial opened Tuesday in a complex contract and anti-trust dispute between Apple Inc and Qualcomm Inc with the iPhone maker using a fried chicken analogy to explain its claim that the chip company is abusing its market power.
Tens of billions of dollars and the fate of Qualcomm’s business model are at stake in the case. Apple alleges that Qualcomm engaged in illegal patent licensing practices to maintain a monopoly on the market for premium modem chips that connect smart phones to wireless data networks.
Qualcomm in turn says Apple uses innovations that Qualcomm spent billions to develop without proper compensation and that Apple has interfered in Qualcomm’s longstanding business relationships.
A jury of three women and six men will hear the case over five weeks in the San Diego federal courtroom of Judge Gonzalo Curiel. On Tuesday, attorneys sought to cut through the technological complexity and frame key elements of the case in terms the jury could understand.
Apple has objected to a practice that it calls “no license, no chips” under which Qualcomm will not sell chips to a company that has not signed a patent license agreement.
Apple attorney Ruffin Cordell likened Qualcomm’s policy to a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant that refuses to sell a bucket of chicken to customers.
“You first have to go over to this different counter, KFL – Kentucky Fried Licensing,” Cordell said. “You have to go pay that ‘eating license’ fee before they’ll sell you any chicken.”
Qualcomm had not yet given its arguments as of mid-morning, but the company has argued in court papers that its portfolio of 130,000 patents contains technologies used by virtually all mobile devices.
The company’s position is that mobile phone makers need a license to its patents regardless of whether they choose its chips and that it has followed longstanding industry practices by charging a license fee as a percentage of a device’s adjusted selling price.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Diego; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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