China Tech News

CHINA and Britain have vowed to continue and strengthen cooperation on a wide range of economic, financial and trade issues, including speeding the introduction of a Shanghai-London stock connect program.

In a joint statement, coinciding with an official visit to China by British finance minister Philip Hammond, the countries also said they opposed trade protectionism and reaffirmed their support for the World Trade Organization as a key pillar of the global trade system.

The statement comes as China, in an unusual step, accused the United States and the European Union of breaking promises that they made when China joined the WTO.

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CHINESE leadership opened the annual economic work meeting yesterday, drawing plans for 2018 with a target of high-quality growth while minimizing financial risks.

The Central Economic Work Conference will review the economic work of the past five years, and make policy priorities for 2018 with a focus on implementing the decisions from the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Observers believe that the decisions to be made at the meeting will reflect China’s new development concept featuring high-quality development.

The event is being closely watched as it marks the first economic work conference since the 19th CPC National Congress was held in October at which the leadership declared China’s economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development.

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GERMANY’S competition watchdog said yesterday that Facebook was abusing its dominant position to “limitlessly” harvest user data from outside websites and apps, allowing its advertisers to target customers with hyper-specific ads.

In a preliminary assessment, the Federal Cartel Office said it had focused its probe on the US social media giant’s use of third-party sites to track users’ browsing behavior, often without their knowledge.
“The authority holds the view that Facebook is abusing this dominant position by making the use of its social network conditional on its being allowed to limitlessly amass every kind of data generated by using third-party websites,” the FCO said in a statement.

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The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the US tax code in 30 years, sending a sweeping US$1.5 trillion tax bill to President Donald Trump for his signature.

In sealing Trump’s first major legislative victory since he took office in January, Republicans steamrolled opposition from Democrats to pass a bill that slashes taxes for corporations and the wealthy while giving mixed, temporary tax relief to middle-class Americans.

The House approved the measure by 224-201, passing it for the second time in two days after a procedural foul-up forced another vote on Wednesday. The Republican-led Senate had passed it 51-48 in the early hours of Wednesday.

“We are making America great again,” Trump said, echoing his campaign slogan at a White House celebration with Republican lawmakers. “Ultimately what does it mean? It means jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Trump, who emphasized a tax cut for middle-class Americans during his 2016 campaign, said at an earlier Cabinet meeting that lowering the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent was “probably the biggest factor in this plan.”
It was uncertain when the bill would be signed. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said the timing depended on whether automatic spending cuts triggered by the legislation could be waived.

The administration expects the waiver to be included in a spending resolution Congress will pass later this week, a White House official told reporters. Cohn told Fox News Channel on Wednesday night that Trump could sign the bill as soon as today if the resolution was passed by then.

“If not, most likely we’ll sign it in the first week of the new year,” Cohn said.

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Different policies on different housing will support first-home buyers and upgraders in China and curb speculation in 2018, an official has said.

“We should stick to the principle that housing is for living in, not for speculation, and improve the long-term mechanism to promote a steady, healthy housing market,” Wang Meng*hui, minister of housing and urban-rural development, said at a meeting.

Market monitoring and analysis should be improved to ensure the accuracy of policies, he added.
“We should move faster to put in place a housing system that ensures supply from multiple sources, provides housing support through multiple channels, and encourages both house purchases and rental,” he said.
Large and medium-sized cities with net population inflow should step up the development of the housing rental market and set up state-owned home renting companies, Wang said.

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CHINA needs annual growth of 6.3 percent in 2018-2020 to realize the target of doubling the 2010 GDP by 2020, an official has said.

“Judging from current economic performance, there will not be any huge barrier in meeting the goal,” Yang Weimin, deputy head of the office of the central leading group on financial and economic affairs, said at an economics forum.

Five years ago, China decided to double 2010 GDP and per capita income by 2020 as an important component of becoming a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

The country’s gross domestic product grew 6.9 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2017, above the government’s target of around 6.5 percent for the whole year.

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THE Ministry of Commerce yesterday determined to turn China into a “strong economic and trading nation in all respects” by 2050.

In the past five years, China’s domestic consumption, foreign trade and investment all surpassed most other economies, laying a solid foundation for strengthening the economy and trade, Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan said at a meeting.

Before 2020, China should consolidate its position as a large economy and trader. The goal of becoming a strong trading nation should “be basically realized” by 2035 and be accomplished in all respects by 2050, according to Zhong.

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THE year 2017 has seen the overland Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road reach more peoples and more lands.

The year may mark a milestone in materializing the Belt and Road initiative. Both a vision and a solution from Chinese wisdom valuing peace and harmony, the initiative seeks common prosperity and safeguards globalization amid uncertainties and challenges such as a surge in protectionism, nationalism and isolationism in Western countries.

“China is an inspiring example for many countries,” said Andrei Vinogradov, a political expert with the Russian Academy of Sciences. “Its success and historical experience make it possible to provide the world with a solution based on win-win cooperation.”

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A cyclist passes an advertisement in Frankfurt yesterday. Germany’s unemployment rate hit a record low of 5.5 percent in December, the lowest level since German reunification in 1990, the Federal Labour Office said. In 2017, the rate fell to 5.7 percent from 6.1 percent.

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CHINA’S foreign exchange reserves rose for the 11th month in a row to US$3.14 trillion at the end of December, data from the central bank showed yesterday.

This marked the highest level since September 2016, according to the People’s Bank of China.

The reserves gained US$20.7 billion from a month earlier, faster than the market forecast, which estimated the reserves to stand at US$3.13 trillion.

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