Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China’s President Hu Jintao had sent a message of congratulation to Hollande, who has vowed to slow the pace of Sarkozy’s public spending cuts ….

Asian markets and the euro slumped on Monday amid concerns that victories for Hollande in France and for opposition parties in Greece marked a backlash against austerity measures designed to contain the eurozone crisis.

Both Japan and China hold huge amounts of euro-denominated debt and Tokyo has said it will monitor Hollande’s economic policies closely.

Europe is China’s top export market, and the current eurozone crisis — which has seen a wave of credit-rating downgrades and brought Greece to the brink of default — has caused major concern in Beijing.

Accordingly, instead of celebrating the first election of a Socialist French president in 24 years, Global Times saw the result as a sign of Western democracies’ lack of direction. Democratic systems, it said, were creating an increasing number of problems, with politicians pandering to public whims and indulging in “celebrity-style performances”.

An administration change cannot generate the strong will needed to kick-start public debt reform in France. The change has to come from reflection of a wider scope. But protests against austerity measures from Greece to France have suggested that this much-needed reflection is far from coming. Statesmen are busy pleasing voters, not leading reflection ….

From neighboring Japan to faraway France, China has witnessed the power of democracy, and also the damage it can do if it goes to extremes ….

The French election saga, eye-catching as it is, looks like a waste of the French people’s political passion. In countries with a weaker social governance base, political games can incur broad social disaster.

A commentary at Xinhua was more diplomatic, stressing the “highly expected” continuation of a fruitful partnership between the two countries:

Now at the helm of his country and in the cockpit of Europe, the president-elect faces an uphill task to drive France out of the current economic quagmire and help steer Europe out of its still raging debt maelstrom.

In his endeavors, the new host of Elysee Palace will find in China a trustworthy partner both in improving bilateral and broader Europe-China relations and in tackling major challenges and pursuing common development.

China is a long-time cooperation partner of France, with bilateral ties having been witnessing steady progress. As has been amply proved, a closer China-France partnership carries a benefit and significance well beyond their borders.

Thus it is highly expected that the new French leadership will act in concert with its Chinese counterpart to further explore their cooperation potential and push bilateral relations further forward.

For analysis of the challenges facing the new president, see Xinhua and The Economist.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: democracy, elections, euro, european debt crisis, France, France relations, Global Times, Greece, Japan, socialism, Xinhua
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China’s response to the allied campaign has been the most forceful, with warnings that the assault could bring about a “humanitarian disaster.” In a regular news briefing on Tuesday, Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, called for an end to hostilities. “We’ve seen reports that the use of armed force is causing civilian casualties, and we oppose the wanton use of armed force leading to more civilian casualties,” she said.

China, long an opponent of foreign military intervention, was one of five countries to abstain from the United Nations resolution that authorized the allied airstrikes against the forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, which have been seeking to crush a rebellion against his four-decade rule. Russia, Brazil, India and Germany also abstained, while South Africa joined nine other Security Council members in supporting the resolution approved last week.

In its decision to abstain rather than block the resolution through its veto power, China said it was heeding the wishes of the Arab League and the African Union, which supported the imposition of the no-fly zone.

The airstrikes and recent unrest have severely affected Chinese business interests in the country. From Business Standard:

As allied forces stepped up air strikes to oust Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya, China has decided to halt all its investments activities in the North African country amid reports that some of its companies may have suffered heavy losses due to the crisis.

China will not make new investments in Libya in the short term until the Libyan situation stabilises, an official with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce was quoted in the official media here as saying.

“Before the situation becomes clear, the exchanges between China and Libya in terms of trade, construction contracts and investment will be seriously affected. I am afraid that China is unlikely to make any new investments there soon,” the official said ….

No official figures have been released yet, but experts predict the losses Chinese companies incur from the Libyan unrest will be big.

China dramatically evacuated some 36,000 citizens from Libya soon after unrest broke out, an operation praised in The Diplomat as “a genuine foreign policy success, and an example of some nimble Chinese diplomacy.”

Key to China’s success was the assistance it secured from Greece and Malta, which was made possible by the close bilateral relations China has with these two nations. For example, when Greece was engulfed by a financial crisis late last year, China didn’t just stand idly by. Instead, Premier Wen Jiabao visited Greece and publicly declared his support for the country, including offering to buy Greek bonds.

Such diplomacy no doubt made it easier for China to utilize two vessels from Greece to make several trips to transport more than 10,000 Chinese workers during the Libyan pullout. Indeed, when these workers reached Crete, the Greek prime minister welcomed them personally.

China’s relations with Malta are also good, helped along by a little personal diplomacy on the part of Chinese President Hu Jintao last year. When Malta’s president had a fall last year during a visit to Shanghai, Hu visited him in hospital before arranging for a new flight, and instructed a Foreign Ministry official to accompany him back to Malta. Maltese President George Abela was said to be extremely grateful to the Chinese government, and Hu personally.

chinaSMACK’s translated comments show mixed reactions to the attacks from Chinese netizens:

网易重庆市网友:

Last time they attacked Iraq it was for oil, what about this time? It can’t be for prostitutes, can it? 5 mao come out and give us an explanation.

网易上海市黄浦区网友:

I think this is justice!

网易北京市网友:

Good attack! Support the Western countries’ military operations!

网易广东省深圳市网友:

Fatty Kim [Kim Jong Il] is frightened silly now.

网易河北省邢台市网友:

Muammar Gaddafi will definitely be the next Saddam Hussein, his family definitely must die. His level of brutality is worse than Iraq and Afghanistan. This kind of person must die. Warn all the dictators in the world that the unjust are doomed to destruction. Despotic governments like North Korea, Cuba, Iran must one by one be annihilated. America, France, and England are the true democratic countries of the world, and I really admire the leaders of these democratic countries. I thank these countries and leaders for the contributions they have made for world democracy.

网易重庆市网友:

France has impressed me this time. In the past, it always really disappointed me.

网易云南省曲靖市网友:

France is such a joke, only knowing how to bully weaker countries. Sarkozy is simply a clown.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: BRIC, Greece, Libya, United Nations
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While US emissions fell substantially in 2009, to levels not seen since 1995-96, China surged ahead with an increase of more than 13% on the previous year – the equivalent of adding the yearly emissions of Germany, Greece and Peru combined ….

The map reveals how heavily future emissions trends depend on China, which overtook the US as the world’s biggest emitter in 2006-07. China’s emissions have so far risen just as fast as its runaway economic growth, but the government is hoping to “decouple” the two in the next decade, reducing the country’s emissions per unit of GDP by 40 to 45% by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. Doing so will be essential if global greenhouse gas emissions are to fall in line with scientific warnings.

But green campaigners want to stop western companies using the focus on China and their own falling output as an excuse for backpedalling on climate change. They have urged governments in developed countries to strengthen their emissions targets to prevent businesses from taking what would amount to an “emissions holiday”.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs has published a new Air Quality Transparency Index together with the Renmin School of Law. Beijing-based doctoral student Angel Hsu writes:

Building off of similar indices aimed to gauge the availability and access of environmental information, such as the Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI), the AQTI’s aim is to compare the transparency of air quality information in 20 Chinese cities and 10 international cities, mainly from North America and Europe.

The AQTI is significant start in providing greater and much needed context for air quality data in China, which have often been criticized for being confusing and misleading at times. Moreover, international agencies such as the World Bank has reported harrowing statistics suggesting China is home to some of the post polluted cities in the world. While reports like these do point to the serious environmental and health hazards caused by air pollution in many Chinese cities, it is important to note that international scrutiny of China’s air quality data would not even be possible of China didn’t make the data publicly accessible in the first place.

Of the Chinese cities included, only Beijing manages to scrape past New Delhi, ranked 10th and last among the international cities. Mexico City, in 9th place, lies some way ahead. Nevertheless, Beijing might take some comfort in a record streak of Blue Sky Days, surpassing even the two long periods in summer 2008 when authorities implemented exceptional anti-pollution measures to coincide with the Olympics.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: air quality, Beijing, Beijing Olympics, blue sky, carbon emissions, environmental data, Germany, Greece, mexico, New Delhi, Peru, World Bank
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China’s forceful intervention in the Greek debt crisis this week has given harassed European leaders meeting at today’s EU summit a sharp reminder of the challenges posed by Beijing’s relentless, expansive, and not always benign pursuit of global interest and influence. What was seen in Athens as a potential financial lifeline was, for others, a troubling sign of a future made in China.

Chinese vice-premier Zhang Dejiang agreed shipping, tourism and telecommunications deals worth several billion euros during the second visit to Athens in four weeks by a high-ranking Beijing official. The investment package, reportedly the biggest ever by China in Europe, was a welcome shot in the arm for the beleaguered Greek government.

But Radio Free Europe commentator Breffni O’Rourke highlighted the intervention’s wider significance for Europe as a whole. “The Chinese are hard-headed realists and they recognise in Greece the ideal portal for exports to the Balkans. They have decided to establish a bridgehead there at a moment when the terms are most favourable,” he said.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: China's rise, europe china's rise, Greece
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It looks like Greece will be all right. After years of denial and budget blow-outs that left the country’s public finance in a dire mess, it was announced after the summit of EU leaders on 11 February that – in one way or another – the eurozone will support Greece in getting its economy back on track… Europeans asking each other for help and getting it (albeit in undefined terms) looks like good news for the European Union. But there is one worrying element to this Greek tragedy that people seem to have forgotten: Greece went to China first.

In late January, Greece, through the good services of Goldman Sachs, offered China €25 billion of its public bonds.

We know we are living through a power shift from West to East. We also know that Europe has difficulty coping with pressing global issues. But this opening by Greece to China highlights a few more disturbing trends for Europe…But if China accepted the Greek offer, what leverage would China gain over Europe? China’s investment funds cannot be seen to be so willing to pour money into failing public budgets unless there is a very good reason to do so. True, China has lent huge amounts of money to Russia, Brazil and western African nations. But these were trade-offs for equally huge natural resource deals. Unless we count the craftiness of Ulysses’ scions as a natural resource, Greece does not have much to barter with.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Greece, oversea investment
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Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Greece on Monday for a three-day meeting coinciding with a $1 billion port deal. The deal gives Chinese company Cosco Pacific Ltd. a 35-year concession to manage container operations the port of Piraeus, Greece’s main port.  Greece and China have strengthened ties since the 2008 Olympics. As the article comments,

Last year, the volume of trade between the two countries was euro2.9 billion ($3.7 billion) with Chinese exports making up more than 95 percent of that figure, according to data from the Hellenic-Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

The visit comes on the heels of Hu’s visit to Latin America, as posted in this CDT article.

Regarding the potential benefits of the visit, the BBC comments:

Greek officials say the visit heralds a new era in increasingly warm relations between the two countries.  Greek entrepreneurs have been urged to use Mr Hu’s trip as an opportunity to boost exports to China.

© ecary for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: foreign policy, Greece, Hu Jintao
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The Greek government wants to boost education cooperation with China, especially between universities of the two countries, said Greece’s Education Minister Marietta Yiannakou.

Yiannakou told Xinhua ahead of a visit to China that she would sign a cooperation agreement with the Chinese Education Ministry during her stay in Beijing in a bid to push forward bilateral education exchanges and cooperation.

© Michael Zhao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: education, Greece, universities
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