Restructuring China's State Corporatist Industrial Relations System: the Wenling experience

Intensifying labour conflict in China has posed a serious challenge to the industrial relations system. Under growing pressure, the Chinese government has sought to reform the system but the results are meagre. Among the supposedly successful cases, the development of collective bargaining in Wenling, Zhejiang province has been hailed as a model of labour relations to be replicated elsewhere. Based on a detailed case study of Wenling, this study aims to analyze the process whereby local government reconstructs the industrial relations system by organizing and incorporating the interest of employers and workers, leading to regularized wage growth and reduced labour dispute. This restructuring, the study argues, is designed to create a functional state corporatist system by means of expanding union representation and instituting tripartite collective bargaining. However, the tensions in the state corporatist structure may still undermine any attempt by the government to reconstruct industrial relations.     

Implications of WTO Membership for China's State-owned Banks and the Management of Public Finances: Issues and strategies

WTO membership will dramatically change the environment within which China's financial institutions operate. It increases the urgency of many reforms, including the re-capitalization of state-owned commercial banks and the establishment of a healthy credit culture. The severe under-capitalization of state banks and many state enterprises is part of a growing domestic debt problem that cannot be solved through normal fiscal policy adjustments. It will require the sale or securitization of state assets on a much larger scale than has been undertaken so far. The approach that was taken by the government's four Asset Management Companies to non-performing loan clean-up in 1999 and 2000 was flawed and should not be repeated. State banks should play a larger role in absorbing their own accumulated losses. China should leverage its external financial strength for domestic financial clean up. If the balance of payments remains strong, a mild appreciation of the nominal exchange rate--when the risk of deflation has passed--may serve China's interest. A large and growing proportion of state assets is held in the form of non-tradable shares in partially privatized state companies. To protect state solvency, many of these shares will have to be made tradable and sold in the next 5-10 years. A further strengthening of the fiscal system, along with rapid development of domestic capital markets is essential. Breaking up some or all of the four large state-owned commercial banks into smaller units may facilitate their restructuring and eventual privatization.     

ACRE: Transforming the Prospects of the Coking Industry

正Rising sea levels,frequent acid rains,days darkened by heavy smog,all these intractable problems conspire to blight the living environment of humankind.A solution admits of no delay.Metal smelting,an indispensable process of economic development,has long been pinpointed as a major culprit behind this degradation,while coke,a vital fuel that provides energy for metallurgy,is     

Asian Banks: Leading the Way to Recovery

The global financial crisis has rocked the American and European Union banking system leaving many Western banks teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.But in the East,Asian banks have fared well so far.     

中国共产党八十年的奋斗历程和历史经验

２００１年是不平凡的一年 ,这是人类进入２１世纪的头一年 ,也是一个领导着拥有近１３亿人口大国的中国共产党诞生８０周年。站在新世纪的门槛上 ,回顾中国共产党走过的８０年光辉而曲折的奋斗历程 ,从中吸取智慧、力量、经验和启迪 ,这对走进新世纪的中国共产党和中国人民是很有意义的。８０年在人类历史的长河中不过是短暂的一瞬 ,在悠久的中国历史上也是很小的一段。但是 ,在这８０年不同寻常的岁月里 ,古老的中国却发生了翻天覆地的大变化。正如毛泽东当年所说 :“中国产生了共产党 ,这是开天辟地的大事变。”１００多年来中国人民梦寐…     

Brain Banks Among the Best

China's colossal number of think tanks on international relations are earning greater international recognition and exerting increasing influence on China's foreign policymaking.Leading think tanks,such as the China Institute of International Studies,China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations,China Center for Contemporary World Studies and Shanghai Institutes for International Studies,have made significant progress in the past decades.Beijing Review reporter Li Li recently interviewed Professor Jin Canrong,Associate Dean of the School of International Studies,Renmin University of China,to find out the latest development trends of these organizations.     

Banks Sparkle

There is no doubt that China's banking system is a calm port in the global financial storm. Moreover, a great regulatory firewall and an easing monetary environment have enabled Chinese banks to increase lending and help shrug off the economic downturn. Yi Xianrong, a researcher at the Institute of Finance and Banking under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, discussed this topic in a recent article in the Shanghai Securities Journal. Edited excerpts follow:     

转变政府职能：基于和谐理念平台上

在落实科学发展观的过程中,如何基于和谐理念的平台上转变政府职能?基于和谐理念的平台上认真转变政府职能,就要在这个平台上树立新思想、明确职能定位、强化协调均衡公共关系的职能、提供和发展公共服务和肩负培育和谐社会的两大责任指向,切实实行自身职能的转变。     

政府职能转变路径探讨

我国具有较为显著的城乡二元经济结构。在统筹城乡发展的过程中,欲破解城乡二元经济结构难题,政府必须主动调整职能和政策,以适应统筹发展的要求。本文研究结论给出了政府必须发挥在统筹城乡发展中的主导作用之重要信息,要把农村和城市视为一个整体,将统筹城乡发展的问题视为一个系统,并以系统的举措去解决。这意味着政府必须转化自身职能,力求形成"政府-企业-社会"的良性合作局面。与之相伴的一系列有关农村的政策亟需适当的调整。     

China's Space Program: the great leap upward

Since China's great leap into space in late 2003 with their first taikonaut reaching orbit and safely returning to Earth, much attention has been given to the question regarding the future of China's space program. Concerns abound about the Chinese military's role in the space program but hope remains that China's space program will follow a path to a peaceful multilateral exploration of outer space. This paper looks at a possible future for the Chinese space program, one in which the People's Liberation Army (PLA) retains tight control over the direction of the program.     

Transforming Desert Into Forest

<正>The 13th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification was held in Ordos,Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,in September.Delegates to the session were impressed by the success that China has made in curbing desertification.The following is an edited version of an article published on the website of Xinhua News Agency on September 13 on the measures that local people have taken to harness the Kubuqi Desert.     

China's WTO Membership and the Non-Market Economy Status: discrimination and impediment to China's foreign trade

This article provides a Chinese perspective on the terms of China's WTO accession, highlighting the negative impact of some discriminatory conditions that China accepted in order to join the WTO on its foreign trade and global competitiveness in the last decade. The author uses the non-market economy status of China as a case study to support the argument that these discriminatory conditions imposed on China upon accession have not only impeded the healthy development of China's foreign trade, but also violated the ‘non-discrimination’ principle of the WTO.     

商业银行提高核心竞争力探析

文章认为,商业银行的核心竞争力由品牌与企业文化、非凡的创新能力、人才和诚信四个要素组成。应对市场竞争,商业银行需从七个方面入手创新和提高其核心竞争力。     

China's Move to Preferential Trading: a new direction in China's diplomacy

China was a latecomer to the preferential trading bandwagon that has swept East Asia in the years since the financial crises. The Chinese government was unwilling to go down the path of negotiating bilateral and minilateral agreements until the terms of its accession to the World Trade Organization were finalized. Since then, it has become one of the most active participants in the negotiation of preferential trading arrangements, currently being engaged in negotiations with more than 20 countries. The paper will address the following questions about China's move to preferential trade: (a) What forces are driving China's approach to the negotiation of preferential trade agreements? (b) To what extent is it possible to untangle economic and political motivations in China's choice of partners for PTA negotiations? And, which economic interests are being pursued most aggressively? (c) How are conflicting domestic interests reconciled in the policy-making process? (d) To what extent will the new PTAs facilitate Chinese-dominated production networks in the regions? (e) What overall impact will the PTAs have on the Chinese economy?     

中国残疾人体育事业发展和权利保障

前言体育对包括残疾人在内的每个人的生活都具有重要价值。残疾人体育是残疾人增强体质、康复身心、参与社会、实现全面发展的有效途径;是人们认识残疾人潜能与价值、促进社会和谐共进的独特渠道。发展残疾人体育,对于保障残疾人平等权利、促进残疾人融合发展、推动残疾人共享经济社会发展成果,具有重要意义。残疾人体育重在参与,这是残疾人的一-项重要权利,是人权保障的重要内容。     

China's Monetary Reform: The counterrevolution from the countryside

Until the late 1990s, the rapid development of rural cooperative funds as semi-formal financial institutions in the countryside attracted little attention. In many provinces, these funds took over large swathes of rural finance, before the State Council in March 1999 issued a secret decree requesting that they be immediately dissolved. This paper explores the reasons for the rapid development of rural cooperative funds in many localities, examines why this has been an issue of contention, and explains why it has taken the central government such a long time to come up with a coherent—and, furthermore, drastic—response. Although rural cooperative funds are now being dissolved across the country, they may already have achieved their purpose of revolutionizing financial intermediation in the countryside.     

Three Signals for Banks

<正>The business performance of China’s five major state-owned banks has drawn wide attention.While their total net profit is still growing,remaining above 2.5 billion yuan($362.84 milion)daily,the growth is slow,and the net profit of some of them is even declining.     

China's macroeconomy: Review and perspective

This article attempts to analyze China's economic development since 1980 by examining major macroeconomic issues. The analyses focus on a central issue: will the Chinese economy maintain high growth and low inflation in the period 1998–2010? To answer this question, the article examines GNP growth, unemployment, external balance, inflation, government budget deficit, and structure changes during the period 1980–1997, and provides an outlook on the economy. If the political situation is stable, China will achieve annual economic growth of 6–7% during 1998–2010, because the major factors that contributed to the high growth during the period 1980–1997 will continue to exist. However, it is less likely that the economic growth will continue at two‐digit level, because new and greater challenges have emerged in the economy: there has been excessive capacity in the industrial sector; it is difficult to maintain a high export growth; and the weak financial sector is highly likely to cause financial instability. Moreover, the increasingly large unemployed population will become a serious problem for both economic development and political stability.     

China's Foreign Trade:A History

China's foreign trade has been developing in tandem with the pulse of the country's overall economic development.During the first