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Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts

Tuesday 12 March 2024

Why West misreads new development paradigm

 

A view of Beijing's CBD area. [Photo/VCG] - China Daily/ANN

IN all ancient civilisations, especially in Asia, material and socio-cultural-spiritual development progressed more or less hand-in-hand. Hence, there was generally balanced human progress, even though all the civilisations had their share of shortcomings.

A major disruption occurred with the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Spurred by new productive forces, the Industrial Revolution facilitated epoch-changing discoveries in science and innovations in technology, which exponentially raised many European nations’ capability to generate material prosperity.

As a result, European countries became fabulously wealthy.

However, the European countries used, rather misused, the new productive forces to consolidate their hold on their colonies in Asia, Africa and Latin America. They ruthlessly exploited and pillaged the colonies’ resources, seeking to destroy native cultures and establish European civilisational superiority.

Their fierce internal rivalry, though, led to two horrific world wars, which claimed millions of lives and ruined the economies of both the victims and perpetrators.

Hence, Western nations, despite their superior material wealth, became culturally, morally and spiritually impoverished. Even the birth of the United States was an outcome of the sordid history of colonisation. European powers literally mass-annihilated almost all the Indigenous peoples in the Americas in their lust for land and riches.

The United States, in the last century, contributed to the further explosive growth of productive forces with revolutionary advances in science and technology, especially in computers and the Internet, heralding the “information age”.

Nevertheless, these productive forces, being at the service of an uncontrolled capitalist system, have been misused leading to the extreme concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a minority.

Moreover, US administrations have abjured neither the Western instinct for global domination nor the habit of using their country’s powerful productive forces to launch illegitimate wars.

The importance of the rise of “new quality productive forces” in China needs to be understood against this historical background. Many in the West have dismissed it as just another “buzzword” meant to divert the international community’s attention away from China’s economic slowdown.

However, the concept can be properly understood only in the context of the Chinese leadership’s goal of developing “China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful”.

Seen from this perspective, the new quality productive forces, wedded to people-centric and planet-protective development, could be the harbinger of a significantly different kind of, and balanced, human development.

The rise of new quality productive forces in China will have both domestic and global impacts. It is accompanied by, and is contributing to, positive changes in the West-dominated world order.

For the first time in modern history, China is surging ahead of Europe and the United States in scientific research and innovations in technology, especially in deploying new technologies and innovations.

China’s new quality productive forces are primarily in the areas of new energy, new materials, new hi-tech manufacturing systems and new applications of artificial intelligence.

In terms of the production and use of solar photovoltaic panels and other clean and green energy products, China is far ahead of the rest of the world. In fact, China installed more solar panels in 2023 than the United States has ever built, setting new standards in low-carbon footprints.

Besides, there are more industrial robots in Chinese factories than in any other country. In space and ocean research, too, China is advancing at a pace faster than the West. For instance, it is developing the world’s first quantum communications satellite network. China now ranks No. 1 in science and technology innovation clusters in the world.

While China is making rapid strides in developing its strategic industries, its agriculture and traditional industries are also becoming smarter and more innovative. As a result of the huge innovation-led increases in productivity, quality and efficiency, the Chinese economy is sure to navigate its current challenges satisfactorily.

However, China’s new development paradigm differs from that of the West in the past in one crucial respect: Chinese leaders have time and again emphasised that China will never seek hegemony irrespective of how prosperous it becomes. China is not trying to replace the West in global domination. Instead, it aims to help improve the world order by making it equitable, fairer, more representative and more democratic.

Five features set apart China’s new quality productive forces from the Western template.

First, China has not become the world’s second-largest economy by colonising any other country or by exploiting or stealing other countries’ resources. On the contrary, it has made much of the self-reliant technological advances despite the unlawful sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western countries.

Second, China has not misused its technological prowess by waging deadly wars against far-off countries. As a matter of fact, it advocates resolving disputes through dialogue.

Third, China aims to use the scientific and technological breakthroughs primarily for boosting all-round development so its vast population can lead a high-quality life and the country can achieve common prosperity. It has already lifted about 800 million people out of extreme poverty within a short span of four decades – a feat unparalleled in history.

The fact that the common people are living much better lives, as I have seen during my travels across the country, shows China is committed to using its resources to enrich its human capital, an obligation many Western governments have nearly abandoned.

Fourth, China is sharing its development experiences with other countries so they can learn from them and apply them, if necessary, to boost their development. As a matter of fact, the Belt and Road Initiative shows China is committed to helping build a community with a shared future for mankind.

And fifth, in its 5,000-year history, China has achieved great feats in arts, culture and science and technology, while seeking harmony in society – and in the world at large – although it has suffered many setbacks and foreign aggressions.

Now that China has become a moderately prosperous society in all respects, it views its development propelled by new quality productive forces as a contributor to the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and a driving force behind the creation of a better world order.

Most Western observers fail to understand this civilisational wisdom guiding China’s modernisation. — China Daily/ANN

By Sudheendra Kulkarni,  an advocate of India-China-Pakistan cooperation for a New South Asia and was an aide to former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The views expressed are the writer’s own.

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Thursday 15 February 2024

Is the future in America or China?



 

Oh my! What a “leading question”. I’ll bet all the trolls came out on this one, eh?

Let’s try to answer this question REASONABLY.

[Basic point herein]

A “future” is a personal perspective. A Summer with a lot of rain will make the farmer happy, but will really upset the football player.

No one can really answer that question for you.

You have to take your personal perspective, and then frame how you live your life relative to your projected needs and desires.

[What the future looks like]

Both China and the United States will exist in the future. Even if there is a catastrophic war, both will continue to exist simply due to their enormous size.

But both nations are on different trajectories based upon their structure, their leadership and the composition of their individual societies.

[The United States]

We can expect that (barring significant course corrections) the United States will evolve and develop in the following directions…

Greater freedoms and even privileges for LGBT+ individuals.

Higher inflation rates.

Substantial changes in the use of the USD and banking systems.

Changes in the structure of urban life, and alterations to rural life.

Continued stratification of society resulting in zero middle class and great disparity.

Continued balkanization of general society creating enclaves of closed communities.

[China]

Increased growth of the middle class.

An expansion of public spaces, and utility access.

Continued technological advancements.

Continued expansion of the manufacturing base.

An integration of global society resulting in a “melting pot” of respected cultures.

Breakthroughs at all levels to include electronics, AI, technology, and space exploration.

[Conclusion]

I envision that the United States will continue to be the nation of choice for the wealthy, stockbrokers, finance, banking, and related professions. Such as attorneys, accountants, and tech specialists. I can also see possibilities for real estate speculators, and opportunities in the social and medical fields.

I see great opportunities in China, for technical specialists, family businesses, craftsmen, workers of all types, factory and manufacturing experts, and people involved in the sciences.

As I see it, the bifurcated evolution of the world will offer great opportunities for the self-directed individual no matter what your background, or interests lie. the future looks great. Don’t get caught up in the neocon fantasies and doom and gloom of the selfish. The future is quite bright.

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Wednesday 10 January 2024

First US private lunar lander mission fails

The spacecraft carrying the Peregrine, a commercially built American lunar lander, may be facing a critical failure after its launch Monday. Derrick Pitts, the chief astronomer at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, joins CBS News with details on the spacecraft's apparent fuel leak.

Damaged Peregrine moon lander beams back photo, time running out on power

An historic commercial US mission to the Moon will fail after suffering a critical loss of fuel, organizers admitted Tuesday, ending for the time being America's hopes of placing its first spacecraft on the lunar surface since the Apollo era.

Astrobotic began reporting technical malfunctions, starting with an inability to orient Peregrine's top-mounted solar panel towards the Sun © - / Astrobotic/AFP

Fixed to the top of United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket, Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander blasted off Monday from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, then successfully separated from its launch vehicle.

But a few hours later, Astrobotic began reporting malfunctions, starting with an inability to orient Peregrine's solar panel towards the Sun and keep its battery topped up, owing to a propulsion glitch that also damaged the spacecraft's exterior.

The company said it had "no chance of soft landing" on the Moon.

Peregrine has about 40 hours of fuel remaining and Astrobotic said it planned to operate the spacecraft until it ran out of propellant.

NASA had paid the company more than $100 million to ship scientific hardware to a mid-latitude region of the Moon to answer questions about the surface composition and radiation in the surrounding environment, as it prepares to send astronauts back to Earth's nearest neighbor later this decade.

The United States is turning to the commercial sector to stimulate a broader lunar economy and cut costs, but Astrobotic's failure could increase scrutiny about the strategy.

Astrobotic however said it was continuing to receive valuable data to prepare for its next contracted mission, sending the Griffin lander transporting a NASA rover to the lunar south pole, later this year.

Latest commercial failure

It is the latest private company to have tried and failed to achieve a soft lunar landing.

Israel's Beresheet lander, the first attempt by a non-government entity, was destroyed on impact with the Moon in April 2019, while Japan's private Hakuto mission, operated by iSpace, crashed in April 2023.

For now, the feat has only been accomplished by a handful of national space agencies: the Soviet Union was first, in 1966, followed by the United States, which is still the only country to put people on the Moon.

China has successfully landed three times since 2013, while India was the most recent to achieve the feat on its second attempt, last year.

The next commercial attempt will be by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which is launching in February, bound for the Moon's south pole.

In addition to its scientific instruments, Peregrine is carrying more colorful cargo on behalf of its own private clients. These include a physical Bitcoin and cremated remains and DNA, including those of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, legendary sci-fi author and scientist Arthur C. Clarke and a dog.

The Navajo Nation, America's largest Indigenous tribe, had objected to sending human remains, calling it a desecration of a sacred space. Though they were granted a last-ditch meeting with White House and NASA officials, but their misgivings failed to change matters.

2024 AFP

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Tuesday 17 October 2023

IMF sees China remains biggest contributor driving global growth of economy

 

Robot arms make automobiles in a factory in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province on Dec 20, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua]

Country to remain biggest contributor to global growth 

Economic engine: Cargo ships at Qingdao port in China. — AFP

China will likely remain the biggest contributor to global growth this year and next despite recent economic headwinds from the real estate sector, the International Monetary Fund said on Friday.

Steven Barnett, senior resident representative of the IMF in China, said although the fund has revised down its GDP growth forecast for China, the country is expected to contribute roughly one-third of global growth this year and next.

According to the IMF's World Economic Outlook in October, global economic output is forecast to expand by 3 percent this year, to which China is expected to contribute 0.9 percentage point, Barnett said.


He made the remarks at a launch of the publication in Beijing on Friday. The event was organized by the IMF Resident Representative Office in China and the International Monetary Institute at the Renmin University of China.

By comparison, the United States is forecast to contribute 0.3 percentage point while India's contribution might be 0.5 percentage point, Barnett told China Daily on the sidelines of the event.

In 2024, China is forecast to contribute 0.8 percentage point of the 2.9 percent global growth, just under one-third and still higher than 0.2 percentage point of the US and 0.5 percentage point of India, he said.

The WEO, published on Tuesday, has lowered the 2023 economic growth forecast for China to 5 percent from 5.2 percent, citing the pressures brought by the weakness in the real estate sector.

According to Zou Lan, head of the People's Bank of China's monetary policy department, the country's real estate market has recently seen positive changes, with reviving housing market transaction activity in key cities and marginal improvements in home sales and market expectations.

In terms of credit, real estate development loans and personal mortgages issued by major banks increased by more than 100 billion yuan ($13.68 billion) in September compared with August, Zou said at a news conference on Friday.

Zou also said the central bank's efforts to reduce the interest burden of existing mortgages have made rapid progress as 49.73 million in mortgages — representing 98.5 percent of the mortgages eligible for interest rate reduction and worth 21.7 trillion yuan in total — had interest rates reduced during the week starting Sept 25.

The weighted average interest rate of those mortgages decreased by 0.73 percentage point on average to a weighted average of 4.27 percent, Zou said, adding the alleviated interest rate burden will help boost investment and consumption.

While China faces real estate headwinds, it has the scope to boost the economy by reorienting fiscal stimulus to consumer spending and implementing further monetary accommodation given the lack of inflationary pressure, Barnett said.

To boost medium-term growth, it is critical for China to accelerate structural reforms, without which China's growth could slow to 3.4 percent in 2028, resulting in a slightly lower contribution to global growth of less than a quarter, Barnett said.

Ruan Jianhong, a PBOC spokeswoman, said China's central bank will continue to implement a sound monetary policy in a targeted and effective manner, aiming for overall and lasting improvements in economic performance.

Ruan said the country's macroeconomic leverage ratio came in at 291 percent for the second quarter of the year, up 9.4 percentage points compared with the end of last year and up 1.5 percentage points from the end of the first quarter.

Adding to signs that China's economic recovery is gaining momentum, financing activity picked up in September as the increment in aggregate social financing — the total amount of financing to the real economy — amounted to 4.12 trillion yuan, up by 563.8 billion yuan from a year earlier, the PBOC said on Friday.

The amount was also up from 3.12 trillion yuan in August and beat the market expectations of about 3.7 trillion yuan.


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Friday 1 September 2023

300 million smokers and counting

The world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco, it has an estimated 300 million smokers, nearly a third of the world’s total.

Despite years of anti-smoking campaigns – Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly gave up smoking in his 40s and banned smoking in government buildings – many continue to light up, driven by social mores, cheap cigarettes, a lack of public education and, crucially, the protection of Big Tobacco.

Cartons of smokes are considered appropriate business gifts while tobacco shops dot the streets, with prices ranging from as little as 10 yuan (RM6.40) a packet to over 200 yuan (RM127.70). Convenience stores prominently display a dizzying array of varieties.

But kicking the habit is far harder than simply going cold turkey. The tobacco industry is both regulated and controlled by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA), an agency that provides jobs for over half a million people across the country.

In recent years, the problem has taken on a new dimension with the startling popularity of electronic cigarettes, making nicotine palatable – and readily available – even to the young.

How did the world’s second-largest economy get so addicted to smoking? And as the world moves towards tobacco-free societies, would it ever be truly possible for China to kick the habit?

Cigarette normalisation

Shortly after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Beijing declared that tobacco farms and cigarette manufacturing would be consolidated and managed by local governments.

When the country was put through rationing in those early years, cigarettes were among the “essentials” doled out to villagers and residents who registered with the local authorities, allowing officials to document the population.

Cigarette manufacturers also tapped iconography significant to China’s national consciousness. Brands like Xiongmao (Panda), Chunghwa (a metonym for China) and Zhongnaihai (a former imperial garden that now houses China’s leadership complex) all date back as far as the 1930s.

By the time STMA and its commercial arm China National Tobacco Corporation were created in the 1980s to consolidate and centralise tobacco production and sales, smoking was widely accepted.

Leaders ranging from Mao Zedong to Premier Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping have all been photographed holding cigarettes, with ashtrays and spittoons commonplace in offices and government buildings across the country.

And it continues to play a significant role in society today.

When bistro owner Jeanne He was a bridesmaid in 2022 at a childhood friend’s wedding in Yunnan province – the country’s largest producer of tobacco – she had an important responsibility.

“I was in charge of arranging the cigarettes on trays for bridesmaids to hold up and offer to guests before the wedding dinner,” she said.

“The groomsmen had trays of snacks and candy.”

In much of China, working in the tobacco industry is seen to be as prestigious as being in the civil service, with its stable income, generous salaries and employee benefits.

In surveys of fresh graduates, China’s big tobacco firms – largely state-owned enterprises (SOE) – are consistently rated some of the best companies to work for, with degree holders happy to take on blue-collar jobs on the factory lines.

Some 98% of China’s tobacco firms are SOEs with little wiggle room for other market players. Manufacturing some 2.4 trillion cigarettes a year, the industry raked in 132 billion yuan in profits in 2022, nearly 12% up from the 118 billion yuan the year before.

China National Tobacco Corporation does not report sales figures but posted a record-breaking taxable income of 1.44 trillion yuan in 2022.

The second-highest tax payer, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, reported taxable income of 109 billion yuan.

The pressure that STMA exerts on the government is largely why tobacco regulation has hit a roadblock, said Dr Gan Quan, director of the China office of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, a Paris-headquartered non-profit organisation aimed at eradicating tuberculosis and lung disease.

While major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have been able to completely ban smoking indoors since 2007, this has been far more challenging in other cities like Chongqing.

In 2020, the city passed a law banning smoking in public places, but a loophole meant that certain establishments such as restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues were allowed to set up indoor smoking areas, exposing countless others to second-hand smoke.

“Smoking is strictly prohibited in the indoor areas of public places where smoking areas can be designated,” said the text of the law.

Dr Gan, who has spent his career studying China’s tobacco control policies, said: “It has become a pattern that whenever sub-national jurisdictions try to pass smoke-free laws, you have the STMA following them (to exert pressure to water down the laws) because they don’t want the momentum to spread from big cities like Beijing and Shanghai.”

Crucially, there is no national-level smoke-free legislation that will make it mandatory for all provinces and regions to adhere to, wrote Peking Union Medical College’s Dr Xia Wan in CCDC Weekly, a publication by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, in an article in 2022.

In November 2014, the State Council released a draft on national tobacco control guidelines to meet its obligations under the WHO FCTC, the first time such guidelines had been introduced at a national level.

“This draft was supposed to finish seeking advice, opinions and comments from the public by the end of 2014,” Dr Xia wrote.

“But unfortunately, the draft is still stuck in that stage and has not progressed further.”

Furthermore, regulation across cities remains lax, and it is not an uncommon sight to see people lighting up under “no smoking” signs in eateries.

STMA did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2021, China’s top health body, the National Health Commission, released its second report detailing the ill effects of smoking – an update from a 2012 version.

With more than half the male population smoking, over one million people lose their lives to tobacco use every year, a number that could double by 2030.

It also noted that “e-cigarettes are unsafe and pose a health hazard” but offered no solutions to the issue.

Electronic cigarettes

Electronic cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery systems – more commonly known as vapes – have been regulated in China since 2022, and cartridges with flavours have been banned in a bid to stop young people from picking up smoking.

But results are mixed: While such vapes are no longer easily available, one can still walk up to any number of e-cigarette shops dotting the streets, where retailers pull out flavoured stock from under the counter.

In private chats on social media platform WeChat, sellers also directly market to consumers, sending catalogues every time a new flavour hits the market.

At a shop in Beijing, where this reporter was offered an ice lemon tea-flavoured vape, the shop assistant said it was impossible to stamp out demand.

“We’re just more discreet about it and don’t display what we have on offer. Also, if we see young people coming in to buy, we won’t sell to them,” said the assistant, who wanted to be known only by her surname Su.

In eateries and even shops across major cities, people can still be seen puffing away indoors, leaving cloyingly sweet vapour in their wake.

With smoking so socially accepted, those who have successfully quit say it usually takes a life-changing event to provide a much-needed jolt.

Aircraft engineer Li Peng, 52, kicked the 30-year habit only after discovering nodules in his lungs during a medical check two years ago.

“I’ve been smoking since I was a young apprentice nearly 30 years ago, and even though my wife kept urging me to quit, I found it hard because it’s such a social activity, too,” he said.

“After the medical scare, where the doctor told me I could either quit or risk it developing into something more severe, I got the boost I needed to go cold turkey.

“But I’ll admit it was very difficult in the beginning, especially during mornings in the toilet.”

Yet, given the industry’s strong hold over the market, China is unlikely to go cold turkey any time soon.

Dr Gan said: “The anti-smoking lobby is calling for the tobacco monopoly to be broken up from the regulator, but I don’t think the government is willing or interested in doing that because it takes huge political will and capital.”

Since 2021, STMA has been swept up in a corruption probe that has involved nearly two dozen current and former senior executives, including the retired head of an Anhui subsidiary who killed himself after investigations started.

The arrests and investigation of several top STMA officials for corruption are merely part of the anti-corruption campaign rather than an attempt to reform and rein in the tobacco industry, Dr Gan noted.

“The main issue is really a lack of (anti-smoking) education... for instance, if you compare cigarette packets to places like Hong Kong and Singapore, the language is very weak and not prominently displayed,” he said.

“And we don’t do that because of opposition from the tobacco monopoly.” — The Straits Times/ANN

The writer,ELIZABETH LAW  is the China Correspondent at The Straits Times.

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