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China news tagged with: World Bank (37)

• It’s China’s World We’re Just Living in It

  

  An article in Newsweek looks at the ways China is trying to rewrite the rules of global engagement:

  It’s easy to forget that big international bodies like the IMF and the World Bank were created by just a few nations, led by the United States. These economic organizations have global reach, but that globe used to be dominated by the American superpower, and their policies were suffused with U.S. values. When Beijing was a small-stakes player its leaders didn’t always like the setup, but they lived with it, even facing down fierce grassroots opposition to join the World Trade Organization.

  But now China has more worldwide clout, and public opinion at home has taken on a combative (and sometimes downright jingoistic) tone. So with one eye on China’s national interests and the other on domestic critics accusing the regime of “coddling” the West, Beijing has begun to push harder to reshape international systems to make them more China-friendly (and, in the process, to raise the regime’s chances of survival).

  Ironically, U.S. officials often complain that Beijing isn’t more involved in running the world—declining to help security efforts in Afghanistan, for instance. But in most such cases, China is being asked to take part in a system it didn’t set up—one it views as inherently biased in favor of the West. The Chinese are far more eager to participate in groups they’ve had a hand in building, like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a sort of Central Asian NATO in which China (as might be guessed from the name) plays the leading role. While that alliance started out as something of a joke in 1996, it’s grown into a pillar of regional security.

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  • March 12, 2010 9:53 PM

• World Bank Raises China’s Growth Forecast to 7.2 %

  

  From Caijing.com.cn:

  The World Bank raised its forecast for China’s 2009 economic growth to 7.2 percent in its China Quarterly Update published on June 18, up from a 6.5 percent forecast in March.

  The Washington-based international financial institution based its revision on China’s record amount of loans and surging investment, which resulted from the massive 4 trillion yuan stimulus package announced last November.

  China, the world’s fastest expanding economy and its third largest, has witnessed strong retail sales and a recovery in real estate and imports in the past quarter.

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  • June 20, 2009 3:05 AM

• China Turns a Corner as Spending Takes Hold

  

  From the Wall Street Journal (subscription required):

  The signs augur well for the global economy. China has been one of the world’s most voracious consumers of raw materials. While its aggressive spending plan reflects the power of its state-dominated economy, there are signs that its thrify consumers are starting to spend more.

  Car sales hit a monthly record in March, according to figures issued Thursday, marking the third consecutive monthly rise. Housing sales in major cities have also picked up, with lower prices attracting buyers. The optimistic outlook has spread to businesses. The National Bureau of Statistics said this week that its survey of managers’ confidence rose in the first quarter after plunging in the final quarter of 2008.

  Overall, it appears that the state’s push has helped keep China from slipping into a downward spiral where poor economic conditions and declining confidence feed off each other. The impressive size of China’s stimulus gets some credit for that: Along with the U.S. plan, it is one of the largest in the world. But the vestiges of China’s command economy have also proved useful.

  “China is unusual in that it has this incredible capacity to mobilize all its institutions,” said Vikram Nehru, the World Bank’s chief economist for Asia. The government’s ability to direct bank lending and investment spending has meant its stimulus efforts have worked faster than many initially expected. “There is now a growing degree of confidence that the stimulus package is having an impact,” he added.

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  • April 10, 2009 5:36 PM

• Developing Countries Wield More Clout

  

  From the International Herald Tribune: The G-20 is meeting in England this weekend, with the developing nation members of Brazil, Russia, India and China asking for more representation in the IMF and the World Bank:

  In a joint statement, the four nations said private investment is evaporating this year and next year and “it is imperative that multilateral financial institutions should expand their lending to offset the massive decline.”

  Existing resources for the International Monetary Fund are “clearly inadequate and should be significantly increased” they said, asking the IMF to speed up efforts to raise up to $11 billion by selling 400 tons of gold.

  They also warned the U.S. and the European nations that share the euro that they needed economic policies that were “more balanced, proactive, coordinated and countercyclical” to promote global economic recovery.

  See past CDT posts on the G-20 summit.

  » Read more
  • March 14, 2009 7:58 PM

• World Bank Head Praises China’s Economic Steps

  

  President of the World Bank Robert Zoellick, who is in Beijing for three days to meet with Chinese leaders, commended the country for having taken the appropriate steps to stabilize its economy in light of the deepening global financial crisis. From VOA:

  Zoellick … says China has been helping the world by helping itself.

  “I think the best way China can help support the world economy this time is through the efforts China has taken to strengthen its own growth and recovery,” Zoellick said.

  China last month announced a nearly $600 billion stimulus program that will be spent on infrastructure, tax cuts, subsidies for consumers in rural areas and social security programs.

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  • December 15, 2008 2:18 PM

• China Needs to ‘Rebalance’ Economy, World Bank Says

  

  Th World Bank announced today that China needs to rebalance its economy in the midst of the global financial crisis by focusing more on services and consumption. Bloomberg reports:

  “Additional measures are necessary to make headway with rebalancing the pattern of growth,” the Washington-based lender said today. Steps should include extra spending on health, education and social welfare and raising energy and resource prices, it said.

  The World Bank cut its forecast for China’s economic growth next year to 7.5 percent from 9.2 percent in the previous quarterly report after the global financial crisis deepened. More than half of the expansion will come from “government-influenced spending,” after the State Council this month announced measures including infrastructure projects, the report said.

  Read the World Bank report here.

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  • November 25, 2008 3:01 PM

• World Bank, France Lend China $900M for Rebuilding

  

  China is receiving financial support from France and the World Bank to rebuild areas devastated by the May earthquake in Sichuan. From AP:

  The official Xinhua News Agency said the World Bank will provide a loan of $710 million to China — $510 million of which will be allocated to southwestern Sichuan province, hardest hit by the May 12 quake that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.

  The rest will go to neighboring Gansu province, Xinhua said, citing Ede Ijjasz, a World Bank manager for China and Mongolia. Xinhua said the loans still need board approval by the international lending institution in December.

  The money will be used for the construction of roads, bridges, water pipelines, hospitals and child care facilities, the report said.

  » Read more
  • October 26, 2008 9:38 PM

• China in Africa Round-up 08.01: ICC Indictment, Chinese Troops in Darfur, Anti-Dumping Investigation in SA, China Funds in Africa, and A Chinese Color War

  

  From Xinhua:

  China Urges Security Council to Suspend ICC Indictment of Sudanese Leader

  China on Thursday urged the UN Security Council to suspend the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

  “China supports the reasonable request by the African Union and other organizations for the council to take early measures in accordance with the relevant provisions to suspend ICC’s indictment of the Sudanese leader,” he said.

  “The proposed indictment of the Sudanese leader by the ICC prosecutor is an inappropriate decision made at an inappropriate time,” Wang said. “It will seriously undermine the mutual political trust and cooperation between the UN and the Sudanese government.” [...]

  Wang said the parties involved in the Darfur peace process are currently engaged in vigorous political efforts to resolve the issue, and that no headway would be possible without the full cooperation of the Sudanese government.

  China’s UN Ambassador Wang Guangya made the appeal after the 15-member body adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the UN-African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur (UNAMID), which expires Thursday. [...]

  In related news, from AlJazeeraEnglish:

  China Sends Troops to Darfur as Promised – 27 July 2008
  

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  From CNN:

  Senators Call for Truce in Darfur During Olympics

  A bipartisan group of U.S. senators called for an Olympic truce in Darfur during the Beijing Olympics.

  The senators introduced a resolution Thursday that urges China to pressure trading partner Sudan to end the violence that has claimed an estimated 300,000 lives and displaced 2.7 million others.

  “The Chinese government hoped to show the world a new China with the Olympics, but instead the spotlight will be on their same old policies that disregard the rights of human beings,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., one of the resolution’s sponsors.

  “It would be a tremendous step toward peace and human rights across the globe if China, joined by the international community, would commit to helping to bring an end to the bloodshed in Darfur and elsewhere in Africa.”

  From AllAfrica:

  China ‘Dumps’ Kitchen Sinks in Country

  SA’s International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) has begun antidumping investigations into stainless steel sink imports from China and Malaysia after local manufacturers claimed that almost half the product value of these imports came from state incentives.

  The antidumping [allegation] [...] claims China’s imports have surged to 60% of total imports from nothing only three years ago. Despite an import duty of 20% on stainless steel sinks, the price of imported products still undercuts locally manufactured sinks.[...]

  In an agreement that trade consultants had warned could compromise local industries, SA had granted China market economy status and agreed to enhance debate on antidumping in return for China agreeing to the imposition of import quotas on cheap clothing and textile from that country. SA has not had a single successful antidumping investigation against China since granting it market economy status.

  [A separate allegation] claims that Chinese manufacturers benefit from a host of incentives, including special economic zone incentives , grants for export performance, preferential loans, grants, preferential tax, reduced land use fees and preferential purchases from state-owned enterprises.

  From Reuters:

  China Dev. Bank to Invest More in African Farming

  The China Development Bank plans further African farming investments as the continent tries to raise output to curb food inflation and shortages, Governor Chen Yuan told African finance ministers and bankers on Friday. [...]

  “China Development Bank is anxious to work in the area of agriculture. Given the current scenario of a great shortage of food and food price hikes I believe African countries should put agricultural development as their top priority,” he said.

  Addressing the IMF and World Bank Africa Caucus in Mauritania, Chen said African countries should grow cereals as well as cash crops such as rubber and pine, and upgrade their processing capacity to make value added agricultural projects. [...]

  “China Development Bank is willing to share its experience and provide financing to agricultural development in Africa,” he said. [...]

  China’s trade with Africa has surged in recent years, reaching $73 billion in 2007, Chen said.

  In related news, also from Reuters:

  Africa Finance Chiefs Eye Consensus on China Funds
  

  African finance ministers and central bankers met IMF and World Bank counterparts on Friday hoping to hammer out guidelines on handling a tide of new investment into the continent, much from resource-hungry China. [...]

  Traditional lenders like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank worry African states now benefiting from debt relief may run up new debt mountains they may find hard to sustain, especially if a commodities boom runs out of steam. [...]

  Besides loans, deals with China often involve Chinese workers building roads and other infrastructure projects, while natural resources move the other way, and the sums are awesome.

  Opposition politicians and anti-graft groups in Niger have criticised the lack of transparency surrounding a deal between the government and China’s state oil company CNCP which could be worth $5 billion to one of the poorest countries on earth. [...]

  “The advantage of the new financiers is that they respond to a need that Africa has, which is infrastructure, whereas traditional donors focus on things like education,” said a finance official at the meeting who declined to be named. [...]

  “A big concern is debt. Lots of debt has just been wiped out, and now with China coming, are we going to see a new cycle? Prices of oil and other resources are high at the moment, but if prices drop, African countries will still have to pay interest on loans from China,” the delegate said. [...]

  The Chinese Developent Bank’s presence at the IMF-World Bank meeting demonstrated the sea change in African finance in recent years.

  “Like it or not, China is a big part of Africa now,” another delegate said.

  From Time:

  A Chinese Color War

  [...]The post-apartheid government [in South Africa] instituted an affirmative action program called Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) to redress the massive imbalance of economic power in favor of whites. BEE legislation relies for the most part on apartheid’s definitions of “black.” It is held to cover those excluded from power and privilege in the old order — African, Colored and Indian. But although they were also excluded, Chinese South Africans were passed over. The Chinese community fought back, and on June 18 this year, it won a ten-year legal battle to redress that slight. At a stroke, around 10,000 Chinese South Africans who had been South African citizens under apartheid officially became black, qualifying for the benefits of the BEE.

  [A] book called Colour, Confusions and Concessions: the History of Chinese in South Africa by Melanie Yap and Daniel Leong Man [...] documents how a tiny minority in a land delineated by race have long been abused from all sides. [...]

  Yap and Man [...] reveal evidence that Chinese may have settled in Africa long before the 17th century arrival of settlers from Europe. The first known map of southern Africa was drawn by Chinese cartographer Chu Ssu-pen in 1320. Sung dynasty porcelain (960-1279 AD) has been found at archaeological digs in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Chinese admiral Zheng He explored Africa’s east coast between 1405-1433. Most compelling of all, until a few years ago, there lived, north of Cape Town, tribes with light colored skin, Mongolian features and a language tonally similar to Mandarin, who traced their origins to 13th century Chinese sailors and call themselves Awatwa or “abandoned people.” Given the fact that not only the white population, but also the black African population migrated to what is now South Africa from further afield, Chinese South Africans feel as rooted here as anyone else.

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  • August 1, 2008 11:05 AM

• The Man Who Swam To China Floats To The Top Of Global Banking

  

  From The Observer:

  With the credit crunch almost a year old and still far from over, fighting poverty risks sliding down the list of priorities for rich countries struggling against inflation and recession. Justin Yifu Lin, the World Bank’s new chief economist, has the unenviable job of persuading governments and the public to remember their responsibilities to the developing world, even when times are hard.

  Affable and self-deprecating, Lin is the first holder of the post from a developing country. Until recently, he was a professor at the Beijing University’s China Centre for Economic Research, which he founded, and has been a key player in advising the government on China’s breakneck economic development, including serving as a deputy on the policy-making People’s Congress.

  Economists are rarely known as fine specimens of physical fitness, but Lin arrived in China after a dramatic 2,000-metre swim for freedom. He was born and brought up in Taiwan, but during his national service, in 1979, when he was serving on Kinmen island, just off the Chinese mainland, he dived into the sea and defected to the communist state, which was just beginning to open up to the outside world.

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  • July 27, 2008 6:29 AM

• Confronting Income Inequality in China

  

  The World Bank’s chief economist, Justin Yifu Lin, addresses income inequality in China in a recently released essay. Reuters reports (via IHT):

  In “China’s Dilemma,” a collection of papers co-published by the Australian National University and the Asia Pacific Press, Lin argued that fundamental flaws in China’s economic model were partly to blame for the yawning gap between rich and poor.

  Lin criticizes a basic Communist Party economic tenet that puts, in the name of “efficiency,” the interests of corporations before those of workers and leaves it to government redistribution policies to deal with the ensuing inequalities.

  “It is our task to ensure that in the course of development, the income of the poor grows faster than that of the rich, but it should not be accomplished by redistribution,” Lin writes.

  Companies may be achieving high profits thanks to the emphasis on “efficiency,” but it is only because the state shields them from market competition and lavishes subsidies on them, Lin argues.

  “Essentially, however, these profits are a kind of wealth transfer that will inevitably lead to social instability,” he warns.

  » Read more
  • July 21, 2008 9:31 PM

• World Bank: China Narrows Africa’s Infrastructure Deficit

  

  The World Bank today released a 100-page report (PDF) that outlines the many desperately needed infrastructure projects (hydropower, railways, ports, dams, highways, etc.) China is funding in poor countries throughout Africa. China is working on infrastructure finance deals with more than 35 African countries with Nigeria, Angola, Sudan and Ethiopia receiving about 70 percent of Chinese finance.

  The report, “Building Bridges: China’s Growing Role as Infrastructure Financier for Sub-Saharan Africa” argues that many of these infrastructure projects are driven by strong economic growth in the region, an improved business-friendly climate, and rising demand for petroleum and other commodities from China and India.

  From the World Bank’s announcement:

  The report notes that the investment commitments being made by emerging financiers are unprecedented, both in scale and the focus on large infrastructure projects.  In a changing world, with new actors and financing modalities coming into play, there is a learning process for investors and recipients.  This will place new demands on national capacity to negotiate complex and innovative deals, and apply appropriate environmental and social standards needed for the long-term success of such partnerships.

  Sub-Saharan Africa’s natural resource exports to China have grown exponentially, from just over $3 billion in 2001 to $22 billion in 2006.  Petroleum dominates, accounting for 80 percent of total exports to China.  Nevertheless, the bulk of Africa’s oil exports still go to the United States and Europe, which together receive 57 percent of the total, compared with only 14 percent going to China. Other important African export commodities are iron ore and timber, followed by manganese, cobalt, copper and chromium.

  Detailed findings from the report:

  * China’s financing investments in Africa started from a low base (less than $1 billion per year before 2004) but rose to over $7 billion in 2006, and dipped to $4.5 billion in 2007

  * China has committed $3.3 billion for ten projects which can potentially boost Sub-Saharan Africa’s hydropower generation by 30 percent or 6,000 megawatts of installed capacity

  * China is financing the rehabilitation of 1,350 kilometers of railway and constructing 1,600 kilometers of new railway lines across the region, an important contribution to the continent’s existing 50,000 kilometer rail network

  * Financing terms vary by country but typically involve a grant element of 33%, close to the benchmark level for concessional finance

  * Some 35 African countries have received Chinese infrastructure finance. Many projects are less than $50 million each

  * There have also been a handful of transactions worth more than $1 billion, showing China’s ability to provide large sums of money for specific infrastructure projects

  As background to the publication of today’s report, last year the World Bank and China’s Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) signed a cooperation agreement with particular focus on Africa, which was to tap into China’s development experience and the World Bank’s expertise in analysis and capacity building.

  China Exim Bank has had enormous impact on development activity around the world and African economies in particular. The bank lends over $20 billion a year, almost as much as the World Bank. China Exim Bank is expanding its loans by 15-20% per year. A growth rate of 15% would increase its lending to approximately $40 billion in 2010 – considerably more than the lending of any other export credit agency or the World Bank.

  That cooperation agreement was interesting since in the past the World Bank had accused China and the Exim Bank of financing projects rejected by others because of environmental and human rights concerns. Then again, despite criticisms from the World Bank, China has been increasingly winning civil works contracts under World Bank bidding, consistent with the Bank’s safeguards.

  With this report, it now appears the World Bank has fully come around to welcoming China as a major agent of development in Africa.

  Related news coverage:

  * China laying key foundation for Africa growth: World Bank (AFP)

  * China leads new financiers in Africa-World Bank (Reuters)

  » Read more
  • July 10, 2008 6:13 PM

• China and Africa

  

  In an Opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune, Hany Beseda reviews policy issues regarding China’s growing engagement in Africa and how China has been dealing with mounting criticism.

  [...] [I]n recent months, Chinese leaders have come to defend their policies in Africa and tried to counter arguments that their engagement in Africa had resulted in more harm than good. In a bid to improve its standing as a responsible economic partner in Africa, China has recently agreed to cooperate and work with Western institutions, such as the World Bank, to develop aid projects on the continent. In December 2007, Chinese diplomats met with Western donors in Kinshasa to try and co-ordinate their development schemes.

  In Sudan, China played a vital role in convincing Khartoum to allow an UN-African Union peacekeeping force being deployed in Darfur. China was severely criticized in the past for not putting pressure on the government of President Omar al-Bashir to put an end to the conflict in Darfur – which has claimed the lives of more than 300,000 Sudanese, and displaced 2 million others. Beijing even sent some 275 military engineers to the region. In southern Africa, China ordered a ship, stranded on the coast, back in April 2008, following a refusal by South African dock workers to unload the military cargo of the ship, destined for Zimbabwe’s autocratic regime of Robert Mugabe.

  [...]

  China’s more active engagement with Africa is part of its continuing emergence as a truly global player and, as such, it is no different from what major powers do traditionally. Beijing has acted and behaved no differently from the way European powers did decades and centuries ago. Secondly, China’s global and regional diplomacy pursues multiple objectives, just like that of all great powers, resulting in tension between values and interests at both national and global level. China can no more be expected to subjugate its commercial and strategic interests than Western powers have done in their global policies.

  In a separate article, Keith Richburg of The Guardian takes another look at the state of affairs in Africa ten years after he wrote Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa. Richburg finds that, for all the improvements in recent years, repression and poverty still reign in many African countries. Still, he notes that:

  [...] a continent that seemed left out of the global investment boom now seems to be getting its share of attention from China, hungry to feed its roaring economic growth. In Nairobi and Johannesburg I was taken aback by the amount of Chinese economic activity – the construction, the Chinese goods in the markets, even new Chinese restaurants. Some pockets, particularly parts of southern Africa, those countries around Zimbabwe, are experiencing economic growth.

   

  » Read more
  • June 21, 2008 8:57 PM

• China Beats Japan in Purchasing Power

  

  From Financial Times:

  China has passed Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy, while India is in fourth place, the World Bank confirmed on Friday, as it unveiled a report examining the relative purchasing power of global economies. The report found that developing economies’ share of total global output had risen significantly in the past decade, as nations such as India and China had grown far faster than their richer counterparts.

  As a result, developing nations accounted for 41 per cent of $58,600bn (€37,000bn, £29,600bn) in total global economic output in 2006 – up from 36 per cent in 2000. “When we measure economies on a comparable global scale, the growing clout of developing countries comes into sharp relief,” said Alan Gelb, the World Bank’s acting chief economist.

  » Read more
  • April 12, 2008 10:58 AM

• First Chinese for World Bank Job

  

  From BBC News :

  The World Bank has appointed its first chief economist from a developing country to work at the institution.

  Justin Yifu Lin , a leading academic from Beijing University who is originally from Taiwan, is the first Chinese citizen to hold the position.

  Former chief economists include US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz.

  World Bank President, Robert Zoellick, said Professor Lin brings unique skills and experience to the job.

  Professor Lin is set to assume office at the end of May, taking over from France’s Francois Bourguignon., who served at the bank from 2003 to October 2007.

  » Read more
  • February 5, 2008 11:59 AM

• World Bank Cuts China Growth Forecast

  

  From AP:

  The World Bank cut its 2008 economic growth forecast for China to 9.6 percent from 10.8 percent on Monday due to cooling global export demand and said storms battering southern China should have little long-term impact.

  Growth should be buoyed by expected strong demand from China’s own consumers, though a possible U.S. slowdown might hurt the country’s large export sector, the bank said in a quarterly report.

  Economists have slashed forecasts for China’s fast-growing economy amid worries that a U.S. recession could cut American imports and hurt other Chinese markets such as Europe and Japan.

  » Read more
  • February 4, 2008 7:11 PM

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