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CHINA DAILY Wednesday, August 7, 2019 | 3Renminbi :
Label will
‘complicate’
trade issues
He reiterated the need for
respect for Hong Kong police for
their “resolute and just law
enforcement” and said they have
“the strong support of all Chinese”.
Yang said all who participated
in violent and criminal activities
will be held accountable in accord-
ance with the law. “Don’t ever mis-
judge the situation and mistake
our restraint for weakness,” he
said in a warning to criminals.
“Don’t ever underestimate the
resolve and strength of the cen-
tral government and the Chinese
people to maintain Hong Kong’s
prosperity and safeguard the fun-
damental interests of the nation,”
he added.
“The central government has
unswerving support for Chief
Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-
ngor. The opposition’s attempt to
force her to resign is doomed to
fail,” Yang said.
“We believe the HKSAR govern-
ment and the Hong Kong police
are fully capable of punishing vio-
lent crimes in accordance with
the law and restoring social
order,” he said.
“In the Hong Kong’s current
chaos, those who stand at the
front are a small number of vio-
lent radicals; in the middle are
some citizens who have been mis-
guided to join.”Interference opposed
“Anti-China forces inside and
outside the city who have been try-
ing to mess up Hong Kong are the
behind-the-scenes masterminds
who have bolstered illegal activi-
ties,” Yang said.From page 1“They have openly emboldened
violent radicals, directed and fund-
ed them. They have called black
white and played up fallacies,
attempting to drag all Hong Kong
residents into political wrangling.
“Since February, some Western
politicians and Taiwan authorities
have openly made a lot of irrespon-
sible remarks to support the pro-
testers and interfere in Hong
Kong’s affairs,” Yang said.
They included United States
House of Representatives Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, who called the large
demonstrations in Hong Kong “a
beautiful sight to behold”.
In response, the spokesperson
for the Office of the Commissioner
of China’s Foreign Ministry in the
HKSAR on Tuesday urged US poli-
ticians including Pelosi to stop
openly supporting violent oppo-
nents of the law and interfering in
China’s internal affairs.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
Hua Chunying said on Tuesdaythat any attempt to create chaos
and undermine Hong Kong’s
prosperity and stability will be
resolutely opposed by all the Chi-
nese people, including Hong
Kong compatriots.
The Democratic Alliance for the
Betterment and Progress of Hong
Kong, the largest political party in
Hong Kong’s Legislative Council,
said in a statement that defending
the rule of law is the only way to
resolve current political disputes
and stop the violence.
The alliance also called on the
people of Hong Kong to speak up
against violence and join the
efforts to keep Hong Kong a safe
place.
Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of
China’s leading Hong Kong affairs
think tank, the Chinese Associa-
tion of Hong Kong and Macao
Studies, said that the priority mis-
sion is to curb violence and restore
social order. Without the rule of
law, the government would not be
able to deliver effective governance
and improve economic and liveli-
hood issues to ease social tensions,
he added.
The Hong Kong General
Chamber of Commerce, one of
the city’s most international
business organizations, said in a
statement on Tuesday that the
escalating violence has not only
affected Hong Kong’s reputation
as an international financial cen-
ter but also the small and medi-
um-size enterprises, and most
importantly has undermined the
safety and livelihood of ordinary
Hong Kong people.Contact the writers at
[email protected]Area added to
Shanghai FTZ
to spur sectors
Goal is to replicate development model
nationwide, enhance competitiveness
By ZHONG NAN and JING SHUIYUChina announced on Tuesday
that it has added the Lingang area
to the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free
Trade Zone to enhance investment
and advance trade liberalization
with plans to replicate the concept
nationwide, senior officials said.
Under the plan, the new area will
be set up to the south of the Dazhi
River, east of Jinhui Port, and south
of Xiaoyangshan Island and Pu-
dong International Airport in
Shanghai.
The area launched in this phase
will cover 119.5 square kilometers,
according to the plan for the area,
issued by the State Council.
Vice-Commerce Minister Wang
Shouwen said the new area will facil-
itate investment and operations,
free import and export of goods, ease
fund flows and open transportation
and convenient access to informa-
tion with offshore markets.
He said all these factors will ena-
ble the Shanghai FTZ to better serve
and integrate major national strate-
gies and contribute to the overall
strategic arrangement of the coun-
try’s opening-up.
Under the plan, the Lingang area
will have a relatively mature institu-
tional system of investment and
trade liberalization and facilitation
by 2025.
By 2035, it will be built into a spe-
cial economic zone with strong
global market influence and com-petitiveness, helping China further
integrate with the global economy.
To ensure smooth business devel-
opment, Wang said the government
will form a comprehensive risk
management system from different
dimensions including supervision
and border security to improve the
nation’s capability of risk preven-
tion and control in the zone.
For companies in the zone in key
industries — such as integrated cir-
cuits, artificial intelligence, biomedi-
cine and civil aviation — the business
income tax rate will be 15 percent
within five years of establishment.
Such an arrangement will help
foster and develop advanced tech-
nologies and drive the development
of relevant areas, said Chen Yin,
executive vice-mayor of Shanghai.
“We will continue to explore
incentive policies related to individ-
ual income taxes of overseas talent,
and will actively explore tax policies
for investment and financing, as
well as free trade accounts,” Chen
said.
The new Lingang area will be
granted greater administrative
power for self-development, self-re-
form and self-innovation, and will
regularly share its experience to
spearhead a new round of reform
and opening-up in the Yangtze Riv-
er Delta, according to its develop-
ment plan.Contact the writers at
[email protected]China suspends purchase
of US agricultural goods
By MO JINGXI and LIU ZHIHUAChina urged the United States on
Tuesday to honor its commitments
and create necessary conditions for
bilateral agricultural cooperation.
The remark came after Beijing
announced on Tuesday that Chi-
nese companies have suspended
buying US foodstuffs due to Wash-
ington’s “serious violation of the
consensus reached by the leaders of
the two countries during their
meeting in Osaka”.
“We hope the US will earnestly
act on the consensus,” Foreign Min-
istry spokeswoman Hua Chunying
said in a statement released on the
ministry’s website on Tuesday.
The suspension came less than a
week after US President Donald
Trump proposed on Thursday plac-
ing new 10 percent tariffs on anoth-
er $300 billion worth of Chinese
goods from Sept 1. Trump’s move
aroused strong opposition and the
possibility of countermeasures
from Beijing.
The Customs Tariff Commission
of the State Council will not exclude
the possibility of imposing tariffs on
US agricultural products that were
purchased after Saturday, Hua said.
According to the National Devel-
opment and Reform Commission,
Chinese companies had made deals
for 130,000 metric tons of soy-
beans, 120,000 tons of sorghum,
75,000 tons of hay, 60,000 tons of
wheat, 40,000 tons of pork and
pork products, 25,000 tons of cot-
ton, 5,700 tons of dairy products,
4,500 tons of processed fruits and
400 tons of fresh fruit from the USbetween July 19 and Friday.
Considering the huge Chinese
market, there are bright prospects
for importing quality agricultural
products from the US, the Ministry
of Commerce said in a separate
statement, also released on Tuesday.
During their meeting on the side-
lines of the G20 Summit in Osaka,
Japan, in June, President Xi Jinping
and Trump agreed to restart trade
talks, and the US said it would not
impose any new tariffs on Chinese
products.
“The meeting spurred optimism
because of the constructive consen-
sus they achieved,” said Zhou Mi,
deputy director of the ministry’s
Institute of American and Oceania
Studies of the Chinese Academy of
International Trade and Economic
Cooperation.
Since then, China has made a
series of US agricultural product
purchases, “only to face a new
round of tariff threats from the US”,
Zhou said.
It takes efforts from both sides to
maintain a consensus, not just
from China, Zhou said, adding that
the US should take concrete action
to demonstrate sincerity for the
economic and trade talks, instead
of applying pressure.
“Washington should take action
to solve problems rather than dam-
aging its credibility,” said Huo Jian-
guo, vice-chairman of the China
Society for WTO Studies.Zhong Nan contributed to the story.Contact the writers at
[email protected]Workers excavate an archaeological site at Chengdu Sports Center in Sichuan province on Monday.
Over several years, significant discoveries have been made at the site including structures from the
Tang Dynasty (618-907) and palace architecture from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
ZHANG LANG / CHINA NEWS SERVICEDigging in
A photo exhibition held in
Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Monday
celebrates the improvements
Shanghai has made since
1949 as part of events marking
the 70th anniversary of the
founding of the People’s
Republic of China.
MO CHENGXIONG / CHINA NEWS SERVICECelebratory
shots
Beijing urges caution on Indian border
By MO JINGXI
[email protected]China urged India on Tuesday to
exercise caution in its words and
deeds and avoid making moves that
could further complicate the bound-
ary situation.
“Recently, the Indian side has con-
tinued to undermine China’s territo-
rial sovereignty by unilaterally
changing its domestic laws. Chinacannot accept this practice, and it
will not have any efficacy,” Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chun-
ying said in a statement released on
the ministry’s website.
Hua’s remarks were in response to
New Delhi’s decision to announce
Ladakh, which includes part of the
western section of the China-India
border, as union territory on Monday,
as a result of the South Asian coun-
try’s recent decision to revoke India-controlled Kashmir’s special status.
Hua said China always opposes
India’s inclusion of Chinese territory
in the western section of the boundary
under its administrative jurisdiction,
and this position “remains firm and
consistent and has never changed”.
The eastern, central and western
sections of the China-India bounda-
ry have never been officially demar-
cated. China and India have been in
negotiations to resolve territorial dis-putes in recent years.
In a separate statement, Hua also
expressed China’s serious concerns
over the current situation in Kash-
mir, calling on India and Pakistan to
exercise restraint, act with caution
and avoid taking actions that unilat-
erally change the status quo and
exacerbate tensions.
Recently, the militaries of India
and Pakistan — both of which claim
the entire region — have exchanged
fire and targeted each other’s posi-
tions along the Line of Control that
divides Kashmir. Tensions in India-
controlled Kashmir increased lastweek after India sent additional par-
amilitary troops to the region.
“China’s position on the Kashmir
issue is clear and consistent. It is an
issue left over from the past between
India and Pakistan, and this is also
the consensus of the international
community,” Hua said, urging both
sides to peacefully settle this issue
through talks and consultations and
safeguard peace and stability of this
region.May 28 that the country was not a
currency manipulator in its semi-
annual currency report.
China’s current account sur-
plus to GDP ratio was 0.4 percent
last year.
“The US accusation does not
have supporting evidence; it is an
action that will complicate the
trade issue,” said Zhao Qingming,
chief economist at the Institute
for Financial Derivatives of the
research arm of the China Finan-
cial Futures Exchange.
The US Treasury’s statement
pushed the dollar and stocks
sharply lower and bolstered gold.
In the US, the Nasdaq Composite
Index dropped 278.03 points, or
3.47 percent, to close at 7,726.
on Monday. The S&P 500 was
down 87.31 points, or 3.7 percent,
and shares of S&P 500 technolo-
gy companies, which are highly
exposed to the China market,
dropped 4.1 percent.
Fears rose in global financial
markets and sparked greater
vulnerability since last week, as
the US decided to impose tariffs
on another $300 billion worth of
Chinese goods starting on Sept 1.
“The recent financial market
vulnerability reflected investors’
concerns that trade tension esca-
lation would further stall global
economic growth,” said Zhao.
Wu Ge, chief economist at
Changjiang Securities, called the
US Treasury’s move “an impru-
dent decision”.
“A country cannot be desig-
nated as a currency manipulator
only because of one or two days’
exchange rate fluctuations,” he
said.
Last month, the International
Monetary Fund confirmed that
the exchange rate of the renminbi
had become more flexible and
registered real appreciation over
the past decade.
Yi Gang, the PBOC governor,
reiterated in a statement on
Monday that China will not pur-
sue a competitive devaluation of
the RMB, nor will it use exchange
rates as a means for competition
or coping with trade disputes.
Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the
Ministry of Commerce’s Interna-
tional Trade and Economic Coop-
eration Institute, said the
renminbi is unlikely to depreciate
sharply because its value is sup-
ported by the stable fundamen-
tals of the Chinese economy and
its longtime trade surplus, which
is likely to continue to increase.
The recent weakness of the ren-
minbi against the dollar reflected
the increasing influence that
market forces have had on the
RMB exchange rate, and its fluc-
tuations were normal, he said.
“Market forces drove the yuan
down, thanks to Trump’s latest
tariff threat,” said Gary Hufbauer,
an economist at the Peterson
Institute in Washington. He said
China’s action was not “manipu-
lation” but rather a decision by
the PBOC not to intervene.
The renminbi’s fall is not cur-
rency manipulation but the
exact opposite, said Ann Lee, a
specialist in China’s economic
relations at New York University.
“China’s regulators are proba-
bly just going to let it follow mar-
ket forces at this point instead of
using its precious dollar reserves
to defend the currency,” Lee said.
Liu Zhihua contributed to
this story.
Contact the writers at
[email protected]
From page 1
A country cannot
be designated
as a currency
manipulator only
because of one or
two days’ exchange
rate fluctuations.”
Wu Ge, chief economist
at Changjiang SecuritiesWe believe the
HKSAR government
and the Hong Kong
police are fully
capable of punishing
violent crimes in
accordance with the
law and restoring
social order.”
Yang Guang, spokesman for the
Hong Kong and Macao Affairs
Office of the State CouncilInside
World, page 11HK : ‘Don’t ever underestimate resolve,
strength’ to protect country’s interests