China and the United States have achieved significant progress in negotiations for a bilateral investment treaty (BIT), senior advisers said. Pre-established national treatment and the “negative list” will be at the core of the BIT, according to Long Yongtu, Secretary General of the Boao Forum for Asia. “What’s left is detailed negotiations on the content and the items on the negative list,” he said. The 12th round of negotiations on the treaty was held in Washington DC in early March. Charlene Barshefsky, Senior International Partner of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr and former top U.S. WTO negotiator, said that from the U.S. point of view, the top difficulties for the BIT talks include the negative list, performance requirements, technology transfers and IPR protection. On the Chinese side, the biggest issues are investment reviews and transparency. Barshefsky added that it will be very important for the U.S. to be totally transparent so that investors from China know what can be done easily and what is more difficult. “Often it’s just changing the structure or laying the groundwork with regulators. That makes all the difference with respect to whether the investment will be accepted or not”, she said. “The rate of growth of Chinese investment is very fast, but it is still small in relation to total investment in the U.S.,” she added. Last year, Chinese investment in the U.S. exceeded U.S. investment in China for the first time. “Chinese investment in the U.S. reached USD4.23 billion in 2013, exceeding U.S. investment in China of USD3.35 billion, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

China-Belgium trade and investment has followed a sound track of development due to the lasting efforts by governments from both sides over the years, Sun Yongfu, Director General of the European Department of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), writes in the China Daily. Over the past decade, trade between the two countries has registered an annual growth of more than 16%, rising to almost USD30 billion in 2011 from some USD10 billion in 2005. Belgium is now China’s sixth-largest trade partner in the European Union, while China has been the second biggest trade partner－excluding EU members－to Belgium for years. Last year, bilateral trade exceeded USD25 billion, the third highest in history, despite the weak demand in Europe. Transactions in mechanical and electrical products accounted for the largest proportion of 35% among China’s exports to Belgium. Of China’s imports, diamonds and automobiles are the main focus, making up nearly one-third of the total. Belgium has become one of the top destinations in Europe for Chinese companies to invest, with a total investment of USD3 billion covering a wide range of sectors including finance, agriculture, hotels, ports and telecommunications. Belgian-funded projects in China numbered 912 by the end of last year, with a combined USD1.33 billion in investment in sectors including construction materials, energy, food and chemicals. Belgium has also consistently been one of China’s most important sources of technology with 774 technology projects involving USD3.5 billion implemented in China.

Lifestyle changes have led to growing rates of diabetes among Chinese. In the early 1980s, the prevalence of diabetes among adults in China was 0.67%. In 2008, it increased to 9.7%, said diabetes specialist Xu Zhangrong, who is also Director of the Diabetes Treatment Center of the 306th Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In 2010, under new diagnostic criteria, the prevalence hit 11.6%, the highest in the world. China now has one-third of the world’s diabetic population, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2013. The prevalence of pre-diabetes among Chinese adults was estimated to be 50.1% in 2010. Up to 113.9 million Chinese adults have diabetes and 493.4 million have pre-diabetes. Only 25.8% of diabetics are treated in China, and only 39.7% of those treated have adequate glycemic control, according to the study published on JAMA. With people’s livelihoods improving quickly in rural areas, unhealthy diets, unsafe food, less exercise and poor prevention awareness have led to rising rates of obesity and higher blood lipid levels, all of which can be triggers for diabetes. “Diabetes has become a major challenge for China’s public health,” Xu Zhangrong said.

Courts in China settled about 100,000 intellectual property rights cases last year, according to a recent work report by the Supreme People’s Court, a sharp rise over the average of 55,600 between 2008 and 2012. Experts said the increase indicates both improved IP awareness and more cases of infringement. At the same time prosecutors nationwide filed criminal charges against more than 8,800 suspects for alleged violations of trademark, patent, copyright and trade secret laws, according to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s work report.

The HSBC Flash China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 48.1 in March from February’s final reading of 48.5. The latest figure was the lowest since August. “The March reading shows that the magnitude of the economic slowdown is larger than expected, and the weakness is not merely driven by Lunar New Year distortions,” Zhu Haibin, Chief Economist for China at JPMorgan, said. The production reading dropped from February’s 48.8 to 47.3 in March, the lowest reading in 18 months, while new orders fell by 1.7 points to 46.9, the lowest in eight months. The only silver lining was that new export orders rose to 51.4, the highest reading since December 2012 and compared with 48.5 in February. Qu Hongbin, Chief Economist for China at HSBC, expects measures to be unveiled to stabilize growth. “Likely options include lowering entry barriers for private investment, targeted spending on subways and public housing, and guiding lending rates lower,” Qu said. Pessimism deepened after China announced that industrial production growth eased to 8.6% in January and February – a five-year low – and down from 9.7% in December. Fixed-asset investment (FAI) rose 17.9% in the first two months, the slowest since 2002, while retail sales growth softened to 11.8%, the weakest since 2005, the Shanghai Daily reports. First-quarter GDP growth is likely to fall below the annual growth target of 7.5%, according to HSBC.