China after Spring Festival. Before embarking on their next move in interest rate reform, however, policymakers need to assess dom
That the festival triggers such huge human movements eac
ch year is linked to how rapid urbanization has driven and been driven by China’s historically
high annual economic growth rates over the past four decades of reform and opening-up.
With the benefits of migration increasingly visible, and the main obstacles to rural-to-urban migration removed (including through massively ex
panded transport infrastructures), the number of internal migrants has increased by 35 times between 1982 and 2018.
However, China’s household registration system complicates the migration process. For m
any reasons, a major unintended effect of migration has been the creation of large populations of left-beh
ind family members－elderly parents, spouses and children, each of these subsets totaling tens of millions.
Beyond the gift-sharing and merrymaking of family reunions, Spring Festival pr
ovides opportunities for improving care arrangements for left-behind parents, spouses and children.
This social value of the festival is important since we know that despite on
going improvements, left-behind children and elderly people have poorer ac
cess to quality education, health and social protection services, compared with their peers in the big towns and cities.
Mentality of US poses biggest threat to humanity from space
Forget asteroids, it is the United States and its pathological need to maintain its he
gemony at any cost that pose the biggest threat to humanity from space.
In its latest Defense Intelligence Agency report, the US claims that Russia and Chi
na have taken steps to challenge the US in space technology, blatantly ig
noring the fact that space does not belong to it, and every country has the right to peacefully explore it.
The report says that “long-standing technological and cost barriers to
space are falling, enabling more countries and commercial firms to participate in sa
tellite construction, space launch, space exploration and human spaceflight”.
But from the way it talks about what China and Russia or other countries have a
chieved in their development of space technology, it seems as if the US believes th
at when it planted a flag on the moon it staked the claim to have the sole use of space.
Zheng Wen, director-general of the ministry’s department of
circulation industry development, said online sales have become an important engine to stimulate domestic spending and i
mports. “Durable consumer goods with high-tech features and branded foreign products have huge commercial potential,” Zheng said.
Chinese e-commerce giant JD reported robust sales between Feb 3 and Friday, with sales revenue jumpi
ng 42.74 percent year-on-year. Smartphones, computers and home appliances were the top three items on JD in terms of sales value.
Chinese consumers tend to buy high-quality and diversified products, the comp
any said. Kitchenware sales posted the strongest growth — 399 percent year-on-year. That was followed by furniture and
luggage, with their respective sales revenue up 185 percent and 148 percent, JD reported.
China UnionPay, the country’s largest bank card operater by market share, saw its total transaction volume over the ho
liday period reach 1.16 trillion yuan, jumping 71.4 percent year-on-year, the company said on Monday.
sq m, Tiantongyuan includes five major communities with
subdistricts that were built in 2000. In the first three years of the century, the population quickly rose to more than 100,000.
The family of Beijing native Du Bo moved to Tiantongyuan in 2005 because at 5,600 yuan per sq m the area was still relatively cheap.
“Our old home in Haidian district was scheduled for urgent demolition, so we had to find another place to live,” the 26-year-old said.
Though the family would have preferred an apartment in the downtown, Du’s parents could not afford
to move to such an expensive area. The urgency of the situation meant the family of four, which included his grandfather, had no alt
ernative but to move to the 120-sq-m, three-bedroom apartment in Tiantongyuan.
“Dirty” and “chaotic” were Du’s first impressions of the neighborhood. Unlicensed traders bloc
ked the roads, meaning people could not park their cars, and feral cats and dogs often ap
peared on the streets. As a result, some people simply bought apartments to rent to tenants.
Du said he has heard that in a building near his tower block, one bedroom can accommodate eight people. “It’s like a dormitory at college,” he said.
Trump announced last week that he will sit down with
for their second summit. Their first summit in Singapore last June resulted in Kim’s vague commitment to the “complete
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” a term that his propaganda machine previously used w
hen it argued it would only denuclearize after the U.S. withdraws its troops from South Korea.
Trump’s top envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, visited Pyongyang last week to work out details of the upcoming summit. After
being briefed by Biegun about his Pyongyang trip, South Korea’s presidential office said Sunday that U.S. a
nd North Korean officials plan to meet again the week of Feb. 17 in an unidentified Asian country.
The U.S. military arrived in South Korea to disarm Japan, which colonized the K
orean Peninsula from 1910-45, following its World War II defeat. Most U.S.
troops were withdrawn in 1949 but they returned the next year to fight alongside South Korea in the Korean War.
The second opportunity is China’s reform. He said reform
has been and will continue to be a key driver of China’s economic growth. In 2018, corporate and individual tax cuts to
taled 1.3 trillion yuan, and industrial profit increased by 11.8 percent, compared with the previous year.
“As reform deepens in all areas, including sweeping fiscal and tax reform and stren
gthening of IPR protection, China will create more opportunities for the world,” he said.
China’s opening-up is the third opportunity. Liu said despite the steep drop in glo
bal FDI, foreign investment flowing into China totaled $135 billion, which was up by 3 percent last year.
The country is also lifting the restrictions on foreign ownership in joint-venture companie
s in sectors including banking, insurance, securities, auto manufacturing, and shipbuilding.
Moreover, as the Chinese people have an increasing appetite for overseas products, the country is moving from being a global seller to a global buyer.
Americans to spend $14.8 bln on Super Bowlllars as they watch
Americans are expected to spend 14.8 billion US dollars as they watch the New England Pa
triots take on the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl on Sunday, a survey showed.
According to the latest annual survey released by the National Retail Federation and
Prosper Insights & Analytics, about 182.5 million American adults plan to watch this year’s National Footb
all League (NFL) championship game, and each of them is expected to spend 81.3 dollars on average.
The biggest spenders will be those who are between 35 and 44 years old, as they are willing to spend an average of 123.26 dollars, the survey showed.
Viewers in the northeastern part of the country plan to spend the most, at an avera
ge 94.89 dollars, followed by the western part at 84.01 dollars, said the survey.
According to the survey, about 61 million people who plan to watch the game will attend a par
ty, 44 million people will throw a party while 13 million people will watch it in a bar or restaurant.
hina’s online payment platforms achieve record ‘red envelo
Digital transferring platforms run by China’s leading internet companies weathered mounting pressure from online transactions during the Chinese New Year c
elebrations with peak transfers reaching as high as 44,000 deals per second, domestic media reported on Tuesday.
As of late Monday, “red envelopes” worth 3.5 billion yuan was transacted through social media payment systems, according to Chinese media reports.
Sending “red envelops” stuffed with money through online payment tools to relative
s, co-workers and friends has become a new defining item for billions of Chinese during the Spring Festival.
The record occurred three seconds past midnight – the New Year’s Eve leading up to the Year
of Pig, Nets Union Clearing Corporation (NUCC) said, according to a report by chinanews.com on Tuesday.
The NUCC was founded by 45 shareholders, including 38 payment institutions, to en
sure effective regulation and transaction security. The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, is the largest shareholder.
n suspect of Jolo blasts surrenders to Philippin
A main suspect in the deadly twin blasts hitting the southern Philippines late last month has surre
ndered to authorities, the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Monday.
PNP Chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said the suspect, identified as Kamah Pae, and four others “performed individual role
s” in the church bombings that killed 22 and injured more than 100 others on Jan. 27 in Jolo in southern Sulu province.
Albayalde said Kamah, a student, turned himself in along with four others over the weekend in Jolo.
Multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder charges will be filed before the provincial prosecutor of Sulu on Monday, Albayalde added.
“The five surrendered due to the massive hot pursuit operations by troops from the Patikul Municip
al Police Station,” Albayalde told a news conference in Manila, adding that the five “performed individual roles in that incident.”
Albayalde said the five suspects belong to a group of Abu Sayyaf militants led by Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, which is believed to be responsible for the blasts.