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The Dalai Lama spoke Saturday at Penguin Books India’s annual lecture in New Delhi, but with ground rules: No political questions.

His Holiness says he no longer sees himself as a political figure and, while speaking at New Delhi’s India Habitat Centre, kept to spiritual matters rather than get embroiled in discussions about China’s displeasure at his presence here.

Read more on India Real Time.

In recent years, China has re-invigorated its support for leading state-owned enterprises in sectors it considers important to “economic security,” explicitly looking to foster globally competitive national champions.

The Chinese government seeks to add energy production capacity from sources other than coal and oil, and is focusing on nuclear and other alternative energy development.

China is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with an average growth rate of 10% for the past 30 years.

Nevertheless, key bottlenecks continue to constrain growth.

The two sectors have differed in many respects.

The technological level and quality standards of its industry as a whole are still fairly low, notwithstanding a marked change since 2000, spurred in part by foreign investment.

The market-oriented reforms China has implemented over the past two decades have unleashed individual initiative and entrepreneurship, whilst retaining state domination of the economy.

China now ranks as the fifth largest global investor in outbound direct investment (ODI) with a total volume of $56.5 billion, compared to a ranking of 12th in 2008, the Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday.

From January to June, the ODI in financial sectors was up by 44 percent to $17.9 billion, and in July alone, the ODI recorded $8.91 billion, the highest this year.

China reiterated the nation’s goals for the next decade – increasing market share of pure-electric and plug-in electric autos, building world-competitive auto makers and parts manufacturers in the energy-efficient auto sector as well as raising fuel-efficiency to world levels.

China’s challenge in the early 21st century will be to balance its highly centralized political system with an increasingly decentralized economic system.

Even with these improvements, agriculture accounts for only 20% of the nation’s gross national product.

China is the world’s largest producer of rice and wheat and a major producer of sweet potatoes, sorghum, millet, barley, peanuts, corn, soybeans, and potatoes.

Due to improved technology, the fishing industry has grown considerably since the late 1970s.

Oil fields discovered in the 1960s and after made China a net exporter, and by the early 1990s, China was the world’s fifth-ranked oil producer.

There are also deposits of vanadium, magnetite, copper, fluorite, nickel, asbestos, phosphate rock, pyrite, and sulfur.

China also has extensive hydroelectric energy potential, notably in Yunnan, W Sichuan, and E Tibet, although hydroelectric power accounts for only 5% of the country’s total energy production.

Although a British crown colony until its return to Chinese control in 1997, Hong Kong has long been a major maritime outlet of S China.
Rivers and canals (notably the Grand Canal, which connects the Huang He and the Chang rivers) remain important transportation arteries.

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Elephant in Room for Dalai Lama: China

Billionaire business tycoon Anil Ambani has been appointed to the board of Warwick Business School, becoming the first Indian to be a part of the well-known British institution’s board.

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Anil Ambani appointed to Warwick Business School

India’s talks with Qatar, for an additional 3-4 million tonnes liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year – over and above the current imports of 7.5 million tonnes of LNG a year by Petronet LNG Ltd -, reportedly came to a standstill on Friday over the crucial question about the pricing of the fuel.

According to the information shared by `inside’ sources, the India-Qatar LNG negotiations – which were being held during Qatar Energy Minister Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada’s India visit – got stuck when Qatar said that it wanted a price of $16 per million British thermal unit.

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Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese president and Communist party chief, made a surprise appearance in public Sunday for the first time since he was reported to be seriously ill– and possibly dead –three months ago. Mr. Jiang, who is 85 years old, took a seat on stage among other Chinese leaders at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing during a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the revolution that overthrew the Qing dynasty imperial government in 1911. State-run China Central Television showed Mr. Jiang, who retired as party chief in 2002 and as president in 2003, waving and listening to speeches during the ceremony, although his hair seemed to have thinned and at one moment he appeared to be falling asleep. Mr. Jiang, who came to power after the military crackdown on pro-democracy protests around Tiananmen Square in 1989, failed to appear at a similar ceremony in July to mark the 90th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party’s founding, sparking widespread rumors that he was either dead or at the point of death. The Chinese government is extremely secretive about the health of its leaders, not least because the deaths or funerals of previous party chiefs have often been triggers for political unrest, including the Tiananmen demonstrations in 1989. Chinese censors suppressed the rumors about Mr. Jiang’s health online and forbade state media from reporting them, but at least one media outlet in Hong Kong –a former British colony which is allowed greater media freedom–reported that he had actually died in early July. The state-run Xinhua news agency eventually published a rare denial, quoting “authoritative sources” saying the reports were “pure rumor.” Although Mr. Jiang hasn’t played an active role in day-to-day decision-making since his retirement, he has still been consulted on major party decisions, copied in on many important internal documents, and permitted to write notes alongside them, according to Chinese and Western political analysts. Those observers say he and other retired leaders also have a say in the selection of the next Party Politburo Standing Committee – the top decision-making body – which is due to see seven of its nine members retire next year in the biggest shakeup in a decade. Vice President Xi Jinping, 58, has already been anointed as the next party chief and president through his promotion to a key military post last year, but other seats on the Standing Committee are up for grabs and will be decided through horse-trading and maneuvering between various interest groups. Mr. Jiang helped to promote several key allies to the 25-person Politburo and the Standing Committee to preserve his political influence after he was succeeded as party chief by Hu Jintao in 2002, according to political analysts. – Jeremy Page

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Jiang Zemin Appears, Squelching Death Rumors

As the largest foreign holder of US Treasurys, China has a heft in bond markets that no other creditor can claim. The Asian giant is so powerful, in fact, that it could — if it chose — help the White House end the debt-ceiling impasse.

Any threats from Chinese officials that the country plans to slash its Treasury holdings in response to a US downgrade would likely prompt a market selloff. And yet that could have a desirable, longer-term impact if the plunge was sharp enough to help the White House make its case to holdouts in Congress who are blocking a deal.

So far, Treasury prices have been barely dented by the political vacillation in Washington. But a bigger drop in prices might change lawmakers’ minds and hasten an agreement, as it would expose the costs of dithering. In turn this would likely boost Treasurys again and China’s holdings would return to square one. All would be well in the world again.

But would China ever play such Machiavellian game? Not likely, say China experts.

Continue reading on MarketBeat

In recent years, China has re-invigorated its support for leading state-owned enterprises in sectors it considers important to “economic security,” explicitly looking to foster globally competitive national champions.

The Chinese government seeks to add energy production capacity from sources other than coal and oil, and is focusing on nuclear and other alternative energy development.

China is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with an average growth rate of 10% for the past 30 years.

Available energy is insufficient to run at fully installed industrial capacity, and the transport system is inadequate to move sufficient quantities of such critical items as coal.

Agricultural output has been vulnerable to the effects of weather, while industry has been more directly influenced by the government.

China has acquired some highly sophisticated production facilities through trade and also has built a number of advanced engineering plants capable of manufacturing an increasing range of sophisticated equipment, including nuclear weapons and satellites, but most of its industrial output still comes from relatively ill-equipped factories.

Over the years, large subsidies were built into the price structure, and these subsidies grew substantially in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Both forums will start on Tuesday.

In 2009, global ODI volume reached $1.1 trillion, and China contributed about 5.1 percent of the total.

China is expected to have 200 million cars on the road by 2020, increasing pressure on energy security and the environment, government officials said yesterday.

In large part as a result of economic liberalization policies, the GDP quadrupled between 1978 and 1998, and foreign investment soared during the 1990s.

Despite initial gains in farmers’ incomes in the early 1980s, taxes and fees have increasingly made farming an unprofitable occupation, and because the state owns all land farmers have at times been easily evicted when croplands are sought by developers.

Except for the oasis farming in Xinjiang and Qinghai, some irrigated areas in Inner Mongolia and Gansu, and sheltered valleys in Tibet, agricultural production is restricted to the east.

China ranks first in world production of red meat (including beef, veal, mutton, lamb, and pork).

Growing domestic demand beginning in the mid-1990s, however, has forced the nation to import increasing quantities of petroleum.

Alumina is found in many parts of the country; China is one of world’s largest producers of aluminum.

Coal is the single most important energy source in China; coal-fired thermal electric generators provide over 70% of the country’s electric power.

Although a British crown colony until its return to Chinese control in 1997, Hong Kong has long been a major maritime outlet of S China.
Rivers and canals (notably the Grand Canal, which connects the Huang He and the Chang rivers) remain important transportation arteries.

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How China Could Break the Debt-Ceiling Impasse, And Why It Won’t

Author: Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister of Australia

We frequently question China’s military build-up without paying regard to China’s own circumstances. Their nuclear armoury, for example, is not much larger than Israel’s and probably on par with Britain and France.

So far it has only been a deterrent force in fixed silos. But for such a deterrent force to be effective it would need to be housed in submarines whose location cannot be easily found.

In Australia the press seems quite hostile to China in ways I believe are misleading and damaging. A more reasoned consideration od China’s defence posture is called for.

China has on its borders some of the world’s most unsettled and dangerous countries.

North Korea is unpredictable. The outcome in Iraq is problematic. In Afghanistan there is little sign of real military progress. Then there is Pakistan. Here, an overwhelming number of Pakistanis believe the US has required Pakistan, in the name of the war against terror, to do things contrary to Pakistan’s own interests. India and Pakistan, dangerous rivals capable of starting a nuclear war, are right on China’s borders.

These unsettled borders give China a strong external rationale for reinvigorating her armed forces. But China’s military development is miniscule compared to the 60 per cent of world expenditure on arms which derives from the US alone. Even Japan’s military forces are far more formidable than many believe.

The United States’ attempts under the Bush administration to persuade Japan, India and Australia to participate in an anti-ballistic missile shield could only be regarded as inimical to China’s interests. And it was foolish of Australia and of Japan to consider participating in such arrangements.

In recent years successive governments have believed they best served Australia’s interests by doing whatever the US wanted. Such attitudes do not strengthen the alliance but weaken it because most Australians believe we have Australian interests which do not always coincide with those of the US. Blind submission on the part of government undermines public support for the alliance. Participation in the Iraq War was a classic example. ANZUS was invoked, but ANZUS is a treaty strictly limited by geography. Iraq and Afghanistan are far beyond its bounds.

It was not only a question of going to war at America’s behest. We also accepted, unlike the UK, that the US had the right to imprison Australians in Guantanamo Bay and subject them to torture. There was no protest from the Australian Government. Instead, there was connivance in a trial that would have been regarded as illegal in Australia or in Britain. 

America now moves in a different direction but the legacy of debt and over-extended commitments created in the Bush era have left President Obama with intractable and extraordinarily difficult problems.

What happens at the end of President Obama’s first term is enormously important not only to America but to the world. Whatever the criticisms might be from time to time ,America has done so much for the world and American leadership remains the best hope for peace and cooperation.

Australia has always had a sense of dependence. We had no defence or foreign policy up to the time of the second war — we relied on Britain. When British help proved unavailable we immediately turned to the US, where for too many people it has remained ever since. That has infected the relationship, especially in recent years.

Too few people know that when the Chinese were shelling the Quemoy and Matsu offshore islands in the Taiwan Straits in the middle 1950s, at a time when President Eisenhower moved the Pacific Fleet in or close to those Straits, Prime Minister Menzies quietly told the President that if there were a war with China over Taiwan that was their affair and not Australia’s. Contrast that attitude with attitudes expressed by recent governments.

The last Defence White Paper was arguably the worst White Paper published in over 40 years. It has been the most damaging, the most destructive, the most extravagant and arguably the most foolish statement of Austrlain interests.

The US alliance is important but it does not mean we should do exactly what America wants. We must have a mind of our own and carefully judge Australia’s interests. We have not done that in recent times.

We have not all fully accepted that we are part of one world and being one world does not just imply financial deregulation and freedom of trade. It implies, in all respects, policies that are free of racism and discrimination on any grounds whatsoever.

The debates that continue in our Federal Parliament do us great damage and demean Australia. In my view, they do not represent the best of Australia which would support quite different policies if given the lead.

These may be sobering thoughts but they are ones that Australians need to consider if we wish, as we should, to play a constructive role in Asian and world affairs. We have done good things in the post war years. We need to build on them and put aside the negatives. With other middle-ranking powers we could do much to create a more secure world, and especially a securer Asia.

The Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser AC CH was the Prime Minister of Australia from November 1975 until March 1983. This is a digest of a speech he presented at ANU Asia Pacific Week 2011. 

1. The Australian Defence Force and Timor-Leste: looking toward 2020
2. China’s Defence White Paper in brief
3. Australian-American partnership in 21st century Asia Pacific

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China’s defence posture and Australian interests

Chinese online retailer 360buy.com said Tuesday it will now ship books overseas, opening up a selection of 500,000 titles to Chinese-language readers overseas who can’t easily get to their nearest Chinatown bookstore.

The service would be welcome by many people for whom access to original copies of Chinese books is difficult or impossible. Previous options have been limited to going through a scattering of overseas Chinese book dealers, usually located in major cities with large Chinese-speaking populations, or buying them directly in China and hauling them back. China has a number of online document-sharing services through which users swap electronic copies of books, and some online merchants offer books cheaply in PDF-format, but many such copies are unlicensed.

The new service promises to make the process a lot more convenient. Still, buyers should beware of expensive, non-refundable shipping fees.

Operated by privately-held Beijing Jingdong Century Trading Co., 360buy will offer the books for the same price as it does to buyers in China, so “overseas readers will be able to purchase books at the most affordable prices,” the company said. Books will be delivered by DHL within one week and payments can made in U.S. dollars through eBay’s PayPal, based on an exchange rate set by 360buy.

Among the offerings are Huang Tieying’s popular “Haidilao: You Can’t Touch This” (海底捞你学不会), detailing the customer-first business strategy of one of China’s best loved hotpot chain (around $3.70), and Wang Xiaofang’s reliably entertaining fiction series, “Stationed in Beijing” (驻京办主任), about the corrupt dealings of local government representatives in the capital (roughly $10.50 for the box set).

China history geeks can now mail order one of three different versions of the Qing Dynasty classic, “Complete Library of the Four Treasuries” (四库全书) instead of lugging the tome back on the plane (between $50 and $130).

Meanwhile, fans of Tiger Mother Amy Chua can discover how her book on parenting sounds when translated into Chinese (我在美国做妈妈; roughly $2.50) or compare it with Yi Jianli’s perennial parenting best-seller “A Good Mom Beats a Good Teacher” (好妈妈胜过好老师; around $2.60)

A scan of the company’s shipping rates, however, shows that delivery fees would be hefty. For standard air shipping, customers in North America will have to pay 50 yuan per item ordered, plus a 150 yuan shipping fee. The fees “include order-based freight, export duties and other taxes,” according to 360buy’s website, though customers would be responsible for any fees collected by destination countries, the website says.

The company estimates delivery time to be one week, but warns that it will not bear responsibility for any time or money lost if shipments are embargoed by Chinese Customs or held up by other customs procedures. Customers entitled to refunds may request returns within 15 days, but only product payment and collection charges can be refunded, not the cost of shipping.

In addition, overseas customers will not be entitled to pricing guarantees, coupons, order discounts, promotional offers or gift card payments.

Dangdang, a 360buy competitor that listed on the New York Stock Exchange last December, ships outside Greater China for a fee of 50% of the order total, with a minimum fee of 50 yuan, and delivers in four to eight weeks, according to its website.

A 360buy spokeswoman said that the company had received many requests for the company to ship its products internationally from overseas Chinese customers who couldn’t easily find Chinese books outside of China. Like Amazon, 360buy’s online offerings for consumers inside China include a broad range of products such as electronics and cosmetics. The company was founded in 2004 by the owner of a brick and mortar electronics retailer, and has become one of the biggest e-commerce websites in China.

– Loretta Chao. Follow her on Twitter @lorettac

Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis that adjusts for price differences, China in 2009 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US, although in per capita terms the country is still lower middle-income.

One demographic consequence of the “one child” policy is that China is now one of the most rapidly aging countries in the world.

China is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with an average growth rate of 10% for the past 30 years.

The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978.

Agricultural output has been vulnerable to the effects of weather, while industry has been more directly influenced by the government.

The technological level and quality standards of its industry as a whole are still fairly low, notwithstanding a marked change since 2000, spurred in part by foreign investment.

The market-oriented reforms China has implemented over the past two decades have unleashed individual initiative and entrepreneurship, whilst retaining state domination of the economy.

Globally, foreign investment decreased by almost 40 percent last year amid the financial downturn and is expected to show only marginal growth this year.

Last year was the eighth consecutive year that the nation’s ODI had grown.

It also aims to sell more than 15 million of the most fuel-efficient vehicles in the world each year by then.

In large part as a result of economic liberalization policies, the GDP quadrupled between 1978 and 1998, and foreign investment soared during the 1990s.

Even with these improvements, agriculture accounts for only 20% of the nation’s gross national product.

China is the world’s largest producer of rice and wheat and a major producer of sweet potatoes, sorghum, millet, barley, peanuts, corn, soybeans, and potatoes.

Livestock raising on a large scale is confined to the border regions and provinces in the north and west; it is mainly of the nomadic pastoral type.

There are also extensive iron-ore deposits; the largest mines are at Anshan and Benxi, in Liaoning province.

Alumina is found in many parts of the country; China is one of world’s largest producers of aluminum.

Major industrial products are textiles, chemicals, fertilizers, machinery (especially for agriculture), processed foods, iron and steel, building materials, plastics, toys, and electronics.

Although a British crown colony until its return to Chinese control in 1997, Hong Kong has long been a major maritime outlet of S China.
Rivers and canals (notably the Grand Canal, which connects the Huang He and the Chang rivers) remain important transportation arteries.

Continue reading here:
Chinese Books Now Available by Airmail, For a Price

The British aren’t the only ones who can put on a royal wedding.

On April 18, a Chinese couple in Nanjing organized a regal celebration for themselves complete with British-like ceremonial garb (including the famous Beefeater-style hats), a horse-drawn carriage for the procession and an archway of swords, according to the Associated Press. Total price: more than 50,000 yuan (US$7,600).

That’s a bargain, of course, compared to the estimated cost of the real royal wedding on Friday—the range is broad and starts at 20 million pounds (US$33 million)– of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Of course, that figure includes the costs of the wedding itself, as well as the price of security and street cleaning. And the couple’s horse-drawn carriage will have five horses; the Chinese couple’s carriage in Nanjing had just one.

The ceremony was that latest manifestation of China’s shanzhai (山寨) culture – a tradition of deliberately cheap fakery that has produced comically bad knock-offs of everything from iPhones to television shows, even pandas.

As with most things shanhzai, the Chinese wedding didn’t go off smoothly. The wedding parade of 50 people, a dozen cars and the horse-drawn carriage hit a glitch, according to reports, when firecrackers – a traditional element of any Chinese celebration – went off prematurely. The horse got rattled and handlers had to step in to calm it down.

Photos of the wedding posted online elicited mixed responses from Chinese Internet users, with some offering advice on how it could have been better executed.

“Maybe if you only had the horse carriages and not the cars in the background, you’d get more admiration,” one commenter from Yunnan province wrote on the Netease news portal. “As it is, it looks neither rural nor ‘royal.’”

Others were more impressed. “Give Chinese people enough to eat, and there’s nothing they won’t do,” wrote a Netease reader from Henan province.

The 23-year-old groom, Wang Xueqian, who bore the cost of the pageantry, hired wedding planner Hu Lu to plan the nuptials. Apparently Mr. Wang and his new bride aren’t the only ones who want a royal-themed wedding; the planner has three more weddings next month with similar processions planned.

“Every bride wants to be princess Snow White when they get married,” the wedding planner said, according to AP.

–WSJ staff

In recent years, China has re-invigorated its support for leading state-owned enterprises in sectors it considers important to “economic security,” explicitly looking to foster globally competitive national champions.

The Chinese government seeks to add energy production capacity from sources other than coal and oil, and is focusing on nuclear and other alternative energy development.

China is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with an average growth rate of 10% for the past 30 years.

Available energy is insufficient to run at fully installed industrial capacity, and the transport system is inadequate to move sufficient quantities of such critical items as coal.

Agricultural output has been vulnerable to the effects of weather, while industry has been more directly influenced by the government.

The technological level and quality standards of its industry as a whole are still fairly low, notwithstanding a marked change since 2000, spurred in part by foreign investment.

China’s increasing integration with the international economy and its growing efforts to use market forces to govern the domestic allocation of goods have exacerbated this problem.

The growth in both outbound investment from, and inbound investment to, China reflects the nation’s rising economic power and attractiveness as an investment destination.

From January to June, the ODI in financial sectors was up by 44 percent to $17.9 billion, and in July alone, the ODI recorded $8.91 billion, the highest this year.

China is aiming to be the world’s largest new energy vehicle market by 2020 with 5 million cars.

Although China is still a developing country with a relatively low per capita income, it has experienced tremendous economic growth since the late 1970s.

Agriculture is by far the leading occupation, involving over 50% of the population, although extensive rough, high terrain and large arid areas – especially in the west and north – limit cultivation to only about 10% of the land surface.

Except for the oasis farming in Xinjiang and Qinghai, some irrigated areas in Inner Mongolia and Gansu, and sheltered valleys in Tibet, agricultural production is restricted to the east.

Hogs and poultry are widely raised in China, furnishing important export staples, such as hog bristles and egg products.

Coal is the most abundant mineral (China ranks first in coal production); high-quality, easily mined coal is found throughout the country, but especially in the north and northeast.

There are large deposits of uranium in the northwest, especially in Xinjiang; there are also mines in Jiangxi and Guangdong provs.

China also has extensive hydroelectric energy potential, notably in Yunnan, W Sichuan, and E Tibet, although hydroelectric power accounts for only 5% of the country’s total energy production.

After the 1960s, the emphasis was on regional self-sufficiency, and many factories sprang up in rural areas.

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Latest China Knock-off: The Royal Wedding