finance & economics
1. Pimp my house: China edition
Yesterday, the State Council issued a plan to renovate 39,000 old urban residential areas this year, benefitting around seven million households.
We love a good home makeover.
But we’re slightly less excited about the timeline:
- The plan for the institutional framework and policy system for these renovations won’t be done until 2022.
- The actual rebuilding aims to be finished by the end of 2025.
Who’s paying for all this?
- The details have not been worked out, but in principle the central government, local governments, and residents will all contribute to the cost.
Get smart: Residents in old urban residential areas have long asked for renovations and upgrades – especially for accessibility for the elderly or disabled, such as elevators. Government involvement should help to move things along.
Get smarter: This is a big piece of Beijing’s economic support package and should total several trillion RMB in investment.
read more
Gov.cn: 国务院办公厅印发《关于全面推进城镇老旧小区改造工作的指导意见》
21st Century Biz: 落实“六稳六保”一线见闻丨城镇老旧小区改造全面推进 资金建立多方共担机制
The Paper: 老旧小区改造指导意见出台，投入或超4万亿元
Xinhua: China releases guidelines on urban community renovation
politics & policy
2. Party updates election rules
On Monday, the Central Committee released new regulations governing elections for grassroots Party organizations.
Elections? In the CCP?
Yeah, they’re a thing.
- In fact, these “new” rules aren’t that new at all.
- They’re really just a small tweak of rules passed in 1990.
These elections have some very Chinese (Communist Party) characteristics.
- The Party has considerable scope to pick candidates and signal its preferred winners.
The upshot: You don’t get a lot of upstart candidates being elected.
Get smart: This update is part of a comprehensive review of all Party rules and regulations instituted by Xi Jinping. Dude is OBSESSED with trying to make the Party function more effectively.
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Gov.cn: 中共中央印发《中国共产党基层组织选举工作条例》
3. CPPCC brainstorms and sets FYP meeting date
Yesterday, the leaders of China’s top political advisory body (CPPCC) met for a brainstorming session in Beijing.
Top of the agenda: Rules of consultation.
It was pretty wild (Xinhua):
- “Applauding the achievements in the institutional construction of the CPPCC, the political advisors called for strengthening the awareness of consultation, and improving consultation capability and effectiveness.”
- “The principles, contents, forms, and procedures of the CPPCC’s consultative work were also discussed, among other topics.”
Calm down you crazy cats!
Joking aside, don’t dismiss the group, as lots of people do. Its proposals can become actual policies – especially ones that affect businesses.
Prior to the brainstorming fun, CPPCC Chairman and Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Yang also presided over a meeting CPPCC chairpersons.
The meeting decided that:
- The CPPCC National Committee will hold a session on August 25-27 to discuss the formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (FYP).
Get smart: We get asked a lot about what will be in the 14th FYP. The simple answer is it’s too early to tell – but we might know more after this upcoming meeting.
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Xinhua: 全国政协主席会议成员务虚会在京召开 汪洋主持并讲话
Xinhua: Senior political advisors brainstorm ideas on consultation rules
4. Tech cold war comes to Europe
The hits just keep on coming for Huawei…
- Last Tuesday, the UK announced that it would ban the Chinese tech giant from participating in the rollout of Britain’s 5G network.
Now, China has reportedly formulated a “nuclear option” should more European countries follow suit. According to the Wall Street Journal:
- “Beijing is considering retaliating against the Chinese operations of two major European telecommunication-equipment manufacturers, [Nokia and Ericsson]…according to people familiar with the matter.”
- “China’s Ministry of Commerce is mulling export controls that would prevent Nokia and Ericsson from sending products it makes in China to other countries.”
But the hypothetical export controls look to be a last resort:
- “One person added that this was a worst-case scenario that Beijing would use only if European countries came down hard on Chinese suppliers and banned them from their 5G networks.”
On Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin dismissed the claims as false (Yicai):
- “This…is groundless and malicious fake news.”
- “China remains open to participation…by telecom enterprises from various countries, including Nokia and Ericsson.”
Get smart: Beijing is unlikely to escalate a technology fight with Europe at a time when US-China decoupling already poses a major challenge for Chinese tech firms.
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Wall Street Journal: China May Retaliate Against Nokia and Ericsson If EU Countries Move to Ban Huawei
Yicai: 汪文斌：
5. Xi calls Zambia and Palestine
How do you get rid of a bad case of the Mondays?
- If you’re Xi Jinping, you get on the phone to foreign leaders and promote win-win cooperation!
On Monday, Xi called up:
- Zambian President Edgar Lungu
- President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas
Xi reeled off some of his greatest rhetorical hits to Lungu (Xinhua 1):
- “Xi stressed that in recent years, the friendly and cooperative relations between China and Zambia have maintained a good momentum, and they have supported each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests.”
- “The two countries should step up coordination and cooperation to firmly defend international fairness and justice, uphold multilateralism, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, said Xi.”
And Xi told Abbas that he had his back (Xinhua 2):
- “Xi said…that the Palestine question has always been the core issue in the Middle East region, and China supports the ‘two-state solution.’”
- “China firmly supports Palestine’s just demands, as well as all efforts conducive to resolving the Palestine question, Xi said.”
Get smart: As China’s reputation sinks to new lows in the West, it makes sense for Beijing to shore up relations with countries in other parts of the world.
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Xinhua: Xi says anti-coronavirus cooperation helps boost China-Zambia ties
Xinhua: Xi says Palestine question always the core issue in Middle East
6. Xinjiang plagiarizes Beijing
On Monday, China reported 11 new confirmed COVID-19 down from 22 on Sunday.
Here’s the deets of the new cases (NHC):
- Three were imported from abroad.
- The other eight were all domestically transmitted in Xinjiang – down from 17 in Xinjiang on Sunday.
Additionally, in Xinjiang (Xinjiang HC):
- Five new domestically-infected asymptomatic cases were also reported on Monday – down from nine on Sunday.
To deal with the Xinjiang outbreak, over the weekend the State Council sent three expert teams to guide the region in:
- Epidemic control
- Treatment of patients
- Epidemiological investigations
By the end of Monday, 3,119 people had been placed under quarantine in Xinjiang.
Get smart: Xinjiang is trying its hand at Beijing’s epidemic prevention tactics – ramping up testing and applying targeted lockdowns.
What to watch: We should know whether they were successful in containing the outbreak in about a month’s time.
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NHC: 截至7月20日24时新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情最新情况
Xinjiang HC: 截至7月20日24时新疆(含兵团)新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情最新情况
Xinhua: 国务院应对新冠肺炎疫情联防联控机制专家组赴新疆开展工作
Caixin: 乌鲁木齐全市检测核酸 有医院日检8000人份