The Chinese government has expanded the use of the yuan in international trade deals.
Originally China restricted the use of the yuan to just five cities, for trade with Southeast Asian nations. Later it was expanded so 20 provinces could use the yuan in all their international payments. Now, the People’s Bank of China gave permission to all businesses in China, to use the yuan for international trade payments.
Chinese officials say the decision was influenced by the crashing U.S. dollar.
China’s Foreign Minister says the United Nations, not U.S. led NATO, should lead post-war efforts in Libya. He added that China will help rebuild the country, but only if the UN is in charge.
Rumors of poisoned water in Tripoli, has rebels confused. A BBC reporter said he overheard rebels arguing about whether the water was safe or not. So far, no one has confirmed the story of two people going to hospital after drinking poisoned water.
Gaopeng.com, the Chinese arm of U.S. based Groupon Incorporated, has been laying off Chinese workers on a weekly basis, and has threatened current employees if they reveal the lay offs.
Many current and former employees are revealing the lay offs through social media.
One micro blog, called Gaopeng Will Fail (loose English translation), said the U.S. owned company started laying workers off last month, but made it official on August 19. They also ordered employees not to talk about it.
At least 30% of Gaopeng employees, and contract workers, will lose their jobs.
Ouyang Yun, Gaopeng’s chief operating officer, said that the company is just “…experiencing a reshuffling of personnel and only dismissed (employees) for poor performance.”
However, business analysts say Gaopeng can not blame employees, Gaopeng itself is a poor performer: “Backed by Groupon, Tencent and other venture capitals, Gaopeng should not be running low on cash. So its shrinking profitability indicates it needs more innovative ways to lure clients.”-Chen Shousong, Analysys International
U.S. citizen Hunter Levan, 29, came to China in 2009. Initially it was to learn Chinese: “I realized if I ever wanted to learn Chinese, I would have to move here and ‘do as the Romans do’.”
But after learning the language, Levan realized it was a good place to find a job: “I sent out e-mails and resumes in Chinese, and got feedback in less than five days.” He now works as a consultant for Spring Airlines in Shanghai.
Alison Watts, 28, knew little about China: “But all my friends who have been here said it was incredibly fantastic, so I decided to take the big step forward.”
Watts’ experiences with journalism got her a job hosting an English-language TV show in Shanghai. She says “…amazing opportunities keep popping up.”
Ted Hornbein, a U.S. businessman, has worked in China since the early 1990s. Now he’s a board member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. He says a lot has changed since the 1990s: “Today you have local and Western restaurants and your whole family here with you…I have seen a 180-degree shift from my first July 4 party in China.”
In January 2011, CNN asked the U.S. Department of State how many U.S. citizens were leaving for jobs in China. The official response was that it was difficult to know because U.S. citizens are not required to tell the state department about living and working in China.
However, international employment agencies say they’ve seen a big jump in U.S. workers going to China for jobs, ever since 2007.
The Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business at Indiana University, says Shanghai and Beijing are the big hot spots for U.S. workers, but in the past couple of years other regions of China are opening up.
Seems like China is doing more to find jobs for U.S. citizens, than the U.S. government is doing here in the United States!
Japan says it will offer less developed countries money, and other aid, to help them develop infrastructure and industries, in exchange for exclusive mining rights for rare earth minerals.
China has been using the same tactic for decades. Japan says they’re adopting such a policy in order to compete with China.
Rare earth minerals are used in high tech products like cell phones and hybrid cars. Because of the rapid development of high tech devices, and the increasing global dependence on them, rare earth minerals could become the “oil” of the 21st century.
“China should move progressively to cut its holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds and use it as leverage to ask Washington [DC] to further open its markets, including the high-technology sector, to Chinese investment.”-Xiang Songzuo, University of China
U.S. Vice President Biden is in China, trying to reassure the Chinese government that the U.S. will “…ensure the safety, liquidity and value of U.S. Treasury obligations for all of its investors.”
Chinese economist say it’s too late, the U.S. economy is too far gone: “But there is very little room left for the U.S. government to revitalize its economy. Low growth and high unemployment will be regular features of the U.S. economy in the future.”-Wei Liang, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations
Even officials with Morgan Stanely, an international finance company based in New York City, say the United States has lost all economic legitimacy: “The U.S. debt crisis has taken a serious toll on China’s confidence in Washington’s [DC] economic stewardship. China is no longer willing to risk financial and economic stability on the basis of Washington’s hollow promises and tarnished economic stewardship.”-Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley Asia
A record amount of Chinese government bonds have been issued in Hong Kong. And investors are buying them up.
Several types of yuan based bonds, which mature between 2 and 10 years, were sold, totaling U.S.$3.1 billion, a record.
This was the third Chinese yuan bond issue in Hong Kong.
Demand was so high for this latest issue of yuan bonds that orders had to be stopped. There were 4.6 times more demands to buy the yuan bonds than there were yuan bonds to sell!
Analysts said China plans to issue more yuan bonds, with the goal to help promote the yuan as the next world currency, replacing the U.S. dollar.
So much for saving the environment by recycling plastic bottles. One city, Wen’an, serves as the plastic recycling center for Beijing. The problem is that the process of recycling plastic was actually destroying the local environment.
The recycling is done by very small businesses, or even families, and their processes of recycling plastics has destroyed their air and water. It got so bad the Chinese government shut down the whole city.
To make sure the locals didn’t restart their recycling operations, the Chinese government cut off electricity to most of the city. Also, Chinese police patrol the roads leading to the city, to stop any vehicles that look like their carrying plastic to be recycled.
You can see more in the Chinadaily video report.
Israeli military industries have long had cooperative relationships with Chinese military industries. Now the Israeli government is making big moves towards wooing the Chinese government.
On August 14, General Chen Bingde, of China’s People’s Liberation Army, met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in Tel Aviv. Barak visited China two months ago.
The Israelis are trying to win increased support from the Chinese. Possibly they realize the United States government is flat broke, and can’t continue to give Israel billions of the U.S. taxpayers’ money.
A Jewish commentator, Eran Shayshon, stated, on the same day that General Chen showed up in Israel, that Israel must adopt an “open tent” policy towards the BRIC economies. BRIC stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China. They’re the only countries with good economies.
This is the first time a Chinese military official has visited Israel. General Chen will be there for the next three days.
“The Chinese policy mix includes a tool box of administrative measures … In general, one of the lessons that the United States and others can learn (from China) is that to have supervisory policies for bank regulatory systems can be a useful part of the tool set.”–Robert Zoellick, World Bank president
Zoellick gave a speech in Australia, August 14, and made it clear that China was a shining example of how economic policies should work. In fact he said that China’s yuan may help the world pull through “a time of danger.”
Zoellick did warn that the current inflation situation, in China, might be tougher to control than Chinese officials think.
The World Bank president also hinted that China’s cooperation with the bank, creating a “catalyst for consensus”, would benefit China in the near future.