1. Bloomberg: Employers in U.S. boost hiring while China cools: Global economy
Employers in the U.S.
took on more workers in March than a month earlier and the jobless rate fell, indicating companies
were confident sales will rebound from a weather-related setback, according to economists. The Labor Department’s report caps a week of global economic data that include Japanese business sentiment and euro-area inflation. Central bankers in Europe, Australia and Brazil also convene for policy decisions. The European Central Bank and the Reserve Bank of Australia are forecast to keep interest rates at record lows. Prospects for higher inflation in Brazil will probably prompt that country’s central bank to raise its benchmark rate to the highest level in more than two years.
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2. Reuters: China's Xi turns to panda diplomacy to seek EU trade deal
Chinese President Xi Jinping will use two pandas to break the ice and soften European opposition to a free-trade deal with China during a visit to Belgium which starts on Sunday. As the first Chinese leader to visit the European Union's headquarters
since Brussels established ties with Beijing four decades ago, Xi will also seek to send a message that China is a less confrontational partner, ready to resolve trade disputes. "Our common interests far outweigh our differences," said China's ambassador to the EU, Yang Yanyi. "We need to explore ways to deepen our partnership." Xi will say hello to China's two ursine envoys Xing Hui and Hao Hao, loaned to Belgium last month, at a wildlife park near Brussels - part of a Chinese tradition of using pandas to foster better relations around the world. Chinese officials hope the "panda diplomacy" will strike a different tone from a year ago, when the EU and China narrowly avoided a trade war, and help Xi
tackle difficult issues ranging from human rights to the West's tug of war over Ukraine.
China's President Xi Jinping waves to media following a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after an agreement signing, at the Chancellery in Berlin March 28, 2014. Reuters photo.
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3. Reuters: Germany, China say renminbi hub in Frankfurt will boost trade
A decision by Germany and China to make Frankfurt a European hub for financial transactions in the Chinese currency will give new momentum to trade between the two economic powers, Chinese President Xi Jinping and a German minister said on Saturday. In a speech to politicians and business leaders in the city of Duesseldorf, Xi said setting up the hub for the
renminbi in Germany "represents an important step on the road of the
internationalisation of our currency," according to a translation. The Bundesbank and the People's Bank of China signed an agreement on Friday to facilitate transactions in the Chinese currency in Frankfurt and to cooperate more closely in clearing and settlement arrangements of
renminbi payments. Up to now, transactions in China's currency, the
renminbi or yuan, have been impractical for all but very large European companies that are able to involve China's central bank in a deal, because the
renminbi is not freely convertible.
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4. Reuters: China seizes $14.5 billion in assets from family, associates of former security chief
Chinese authorities have seized assets worth at least $14.5 billion from family members and associates of retired domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, who is at the center of China’s biggest corruption scandal in more than six decades, two sources said. More than 300 of Zhou’s relatives, political allies, proteges and staff have been taken into custody or questioned in the past four months said sources who have been briefed on the investigation. The sheer size of the asset seizures and the scale of the investigation makes the corruption probe unprecedented in modern China and would appear to show that President Xi Jinping is tackling graft at the highest levels. But it may also be driven partly by political payback. Zhou angered Xi and other leaders by opposing the ouster of former high-flying politician Bo Xilai, who in September was sentenced to life in prison for corruption and abuse of power.
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5. Reuters: China unveils anti-graft rules for urbanization drive -state media
China has unveiled plans to tackle corruption and abuse of power in the real estate sector, state media said, as it tries to smooth the way for the mass migration of millions of Chinese into cities from the countryside. The anti-graft plans are part of an
urbanization program designed to underpin a restructuring of China's economy, the world's second largest, away from exports towards one based mainly on domestic consumer demand. Corruption is rife in China, particularly within the state administration where many officials and their dependants have grown rich by abusing their authority, often in the areas of real estate and land ownership. The new draft rules set conditions for the application, allocation, use and rent of public housing as well as subsidies and administrative oversight, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.
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6. Reuters: China's war on smog will be won or lost in polluted Hebei
China's war on pollution is only a few weeks old, but the battle lines are already being drawn between Beijing and Hebei, the province most synonymous with dirty air. A succession of Hebei officials used the annual session of parliament in Beijing this month to urge the central government to boost subsidies to help with job losses and other costs from mandated cuts in industrial production across the country. One local official said Hebei was taking on too much of the burden. The pleas came after Premier Li Keqiang, in his opening address to parliament on March 5, declared war on pollution in an attempt to head off growing anger over the quality of China's air, water and soil.
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7. FT: Bad loan writedowns soar at China banks
China’s biggest banks more than doubled the level of bad loans they wrote off last year, in a sign that financial strains are mounting as growth in the world’s second-largest economy slows. The five
biggest Chinese banks, which account for more than half of all loans in the country, removed Rmb59bn ($9.5bn) from their books in debts that could not be collected, according to their 2013 results. That was up 127 per cent from 2012, and the highest since the banks were rescued from insolvency,
recapitalised and publicly listed over the past decade.
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8. WSJ: China's 'bad bank' conundrum
China's "bad bank" experiment is entering uncharted territory. China Cinda Asset Management, 1359.HK +6.02% created as a
bailout vehicle for China's bad debts, is scooping up distressed loans at a blistering pace. Assets rose by 51% last year to 384 billion yuan ($62 billion), much faster than earlier management guidance of 20% to 30%, according to a Morgan Stanley MS +0.03% note. It's also levering up, with the ratio of assets to equity rising to 4.6 from 4.2 in 2012, according to the company's first quarterly report as a public company. With debt distress among Chinese companies popping up daily, it makes sense for Cinda, listed in Hong Kong and majority-owned by the Ministry of Finance, to expand during the down cycle.
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9. WSJ - China Realtime: China will dominate the world, Americans need to get ready, Fed official says
It won’t be long until the U.S.
is eclipsed economically by China—and Americans need to start thinking about how to adjust to such a world. That’s according to Federal Reserve Board of St. Louis President James Bullard, who spoke to the Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of a conference during a recent visit to Hong Kong. “Attitudes in the U.S.
are going to have to change, because the U.S.
will not permanently be the global leader,” Mr. Bullard said. China is already the largest economy in the world after the United States, and is growing much faster than the U.S. Not too far in the future — estimates range from as soon as 2016 to as “
distant” as 2028 — it will surpass the American economy in size. Most likely, China will eventually match the U.S.
in per capita income terms as well. With a population about four times as large as America’s, that would imply a massive shift in the global balance of power.
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10. AP: Hagel to host Asia meeting; travel to China, Japan
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will travel to the Pacific next week to convene a meeting of defense ministers from Asia against the backdrop of the massive regional response to the loss of the Malaysian jetliner. Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Thursday that Hagel will also stop in Japan and travel for the first time as defense chief
to China and Mongolia. He visited Japan late last year.
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11. President Obama's 2014 trade policy agenda
The
House Ways and Means Committe will hold a hearing on President Obama’s trade policy agenda with U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman on April 3 at 9:30am. Later that day, the
Senate Finance Committe will also hold on a hearing on the same subject with USTR Froman at 2:00pm.
12. CD: Premier promises support for growth
Premier Li Keqiang said the central government will "take seriously" the increasing pressure on economic growth and introduce "effective policies" to target the problems that local officials have complained about. He said China has the ability, the confidence and the conditions to keep the economy moving along "within a reasonable range". He made the comment during a meeting with senior officials from five provincial-level governments during a fact-finding trip to Liaoning province. Li didn't say whether the central government will launch a new financial stimulus package to buoy economic growth. Economists have estimated that first-quarter GDP growth probably fell to its slowest pace in almost five years. In the Chinese context, what "a reasonable range" means is a rise in GDP of around 7 percent, with inflation no higher than 3.5 percent. China's economic situation is still "generally stable", with positive changes in some areas, the premier said, adding that the country still has "great resilience for development and large room for maneuver".
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13. Xinhua: Xi expects his visit to boost China's ties with Belgium, Europe
Chinese President Xi Jinping said here Sunday that he intended to promote China's relations with Belgium and Europe at large through his visit. Xi, who is on a state visit to Belgium, made the remarks while meeting with Belgian King Philippe. The Chinese leader noted that the two sides have seen sound development of bilateral ties, saying he appreciated the positive role the Belgian royal family has been playing in achieving that. Xi noted the European Union (EU) is headquartered in Belgium, a country that is the heart of Europe and China's key partner within the EU, adding that it is his first visit to Belgium and the EU headquarters since he assumed
Chinese presidency in March 2013. "I hope that through my visit this time China-Belgium relations and China-Europe ties can be further promoted," he said.
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14. Xinhua: Xi urges German entrepreneurs to seize "China opportunities"
Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed here Saturday that China's efforts to comprehensively deepen reform and further open up are bringing huge opportunities for bilateral cooperation. The visiting Chinese president said he believes by joining hands and sincere cooperation, China and Germany will be able to achieve their own dreams, in an address to the two countries' entrepreneurs.
Economic and trade ties are the cornerstone and propeller of China-Germany relations, Xi said, adding deepening cooperation in economic, trade and financial sectors is one of the priorities of his ongoing state visit to Germany. Noting that multiple cooperation documents have been inked between Chinese and German authorities, the president said it is a major positive signal to the enterprises of both countries, for it will further promote economic, trade exchanges and mutual investment, as well as play an exemplary role in China-Europe economic and trade ties. Establishing the two "century goals," China will comprehensively deepen its reform to spur development. The country will lift its open economy to a higher level and push forward
new-type industrialization,
informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization, said Xi.
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15. Xinhua: CPC leaders vow high standards in anti-decadence campaign
Senior leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have vowed to implement high standards in the Party's anti-decadence campaign to raise officials' ideological levels and bring about changes to their work style. Party officials are ordered to treat organizational discipline as a lifeline. Chief leaders in Party committees are asked to play a leading role in conducting self-analysis in a manner that does not take into account who they are and makes criticism sessions demanding, according to an official statement released on Sunday. As part of the second round of a CPC campaign to improve Party-people relations and deter harmful work styles, each of the seven Standing Committee members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee was allocated a county to supervise its progress recently. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has been paired with Lankao county. Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, are taking charge of supervision work in counties respectively in
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and provinces of Fujian, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Shandong and Jilin. The second phase of the mass line campaign is scheduled to run from January to September, targeting more low-level departments and leaderships, while the first phase was focused on central and provincial-level departments.
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16. Caixin: Turbulent past, uncertain future
China's history is not a thing of the past and eminent historian Jonathan Spence explains why.
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17. LAT: China looks abroad for greener pastures
With 1.3 billion people to feed in a nation grappling with tainted food and polluted land, Chinese companies are investing in farmland overseas.
The Shenzhen River separates the high-rises of Shenzhen, China, from farmland in Hong Kong. China has come under criticism for the amount of agricultural land it has paved over
in its push for economic development. Bloomberg photo.
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18. FT - Peter Sands Oped: China’s debts do not signal imminent implosion
Beijing’s problems are very different from what happened in the US and EU.
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19. WSJ - Stephen Peter Rosen Oped: The national security generation gap
Young Americans have become skeptical about the use of U.S.
power abroad.
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