China and Thailand have launched construction of a high-speed railway at Chiang Rak Noi station in Thailand’s central Ayutthaya province, where the project’s operations center will be located. The 845-kilometer line, which is divided into four sections, will pass through 10 Thai provinces. It will use the 1.435-meter standard gauge with trains operating at top speeds of 180 kph. China’s State Councilor Wang Yong attended the launch ceremony alongside Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Prajin Jantong. The railway will improve connectivity between Thailand and other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states. It will be part of the Kunming-Singapore Railway. The project will use China’s technology, standards and equipment, with Thailand responsible for civil works, power supply engineering, and some of the construction materials.

China and Russia have signed more than 30 deals, with Premier Li Keqiang saying that production capacity and equipment manufacturing are two highlights of future cooperation between the two countries. The deals were signed after the 20th China-Russia Prime Ministers’ Regular Meeting in Beijing. The talks were co-chaired by Li and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The total value of the deals was not disclosed. The two leaders said in a joint statement that reinforcing the relationship “will be a diplomatic priority for both sides”. The documents signed cover fields such as energy, investment, finance, high-technology, customs, education and tourism. The deals included one between China’s Silk Road Fund and Russian natural gas firm Novatek, seeking share transfers, and with the fund offering a 15-year loan of €730 million. and Rosneft signed an memorandum of understanding (MOU) on oil and gas projects in eastern Siberia while CNPC and Gazprom inked a deal on the design and building of the cross-border section of the China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline. At a joint news conference following the meeting, Li said the two countries face the task of adjusting their economic structures, and there is “enormous potential for cooperation”. Li and Medvedev also attended the closing ceremony of the China-Russia Year of Youth Exchanges and the opening ceremony of the China-Russia Year of Media Exchanges.

Automotive

• Search engine firm Baidu has set up its automobile business unit and plans to manufacture self-driving cars in the next three years. Baidu’s rival Alibaba Group and Leshi Internet Information and Technology Co are also moving into car-related businesses by teaming up with automobile makers.
• Continental Tires (China) Co has expanded the capacity of its factory in Hefei, Anhui province, to around 14 million tires, according to Ralf Cramer, Continental’s President and CEO in China. China’s total tire output in the first half of the year was 455 million tires, down 3.9% from the same period a year ago.
• China’s vehicle leasing company Panda New Energy has placed an order for electric cars worth USD12 billion from Chinese-owned carmaker National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), formerly Saab. The company, whose core strategy is to produce 100% electric vehicles for the Chinese market, has only produced cars from late 2013 to May 2014. NEVS will provide Panda with 150,000 sedan electric vehicles by the end of 2020, based on Saab’s 9-3 platform.

Finance

• Song Hongbing, the high-profile Chinese author of a controversial financial bestseller, was attacked in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, by angry investors who blame him for losing CNY40 billion. He had promoted financial products managed by the Fanya Metal Exchange, which is at the center of an investment scandal. Shan Jiuliang, Founder of the Fanya Metals Exchange, a Chinese online investment platform that defaulted on more than CNY36 billion in July, has gone missing. Shan set up Fanya in Yunnan in 2010. The platform allowed people to trade 14 rare metals and borrow money from retail investors online with a 20% downpayment.
• South Korea became the first foreign country to sell a yuan-denominated bond in China’s domestic market. The CNY3 billion so-called “panda bond” was sold at a yield of 3%. The South Korean panda bond was assigned the highest AAA rating by Chinese rating agency CCXI.
• China Huarong Asset Management, one of the country’s four largest buyers and sellers of non-performing loans (NPLs), last week offered nearly USD8 billion in bad debt to investors, its largest such sale since 2010. The total value of collateral is CNY50 billion, covering 97% of the bad debt. The assets will be available for sale for 90 days on an online Taobao platform.
• Apple and Samsung have signed separate deals with China UnionPay, the biggest bankcard association in China, to introduce their mobile payment services using the near-field communication (NFC) function. The user’s device must be linked to a UnionPay bankcard before use. The new payment services are designed to be easier to use than existing apps such as Alipay and WeChat. Transactions completed on mobile payment apps reached CNY2.4 trillion in the third quarter, up 64.3% year-on-year.
• Non-financial companies in the Shanghai’s free trade zone (FTZ) are now allowed to convert foreign currencies they borrowed offshore into yuan freely. Previously, firms had to show proof of intent to use the funds before they could convert.
• The yuan weakened for the 10th day against the U.S. dollar on December 17 as China’s central bank set the official reference rate at the lowest since 2011 following the U.S. interest rate hike. The yuan fell 0.16% to close at 6.4837 against the U.S. dollar in Shanghai. It is the second time since November that the yuan has been weakening for 10 straight days.
• The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) raised USD300 million by launching its first international bond on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The three-year bond is the first dollar-denominated issue by a Chinese lender on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market, the ICBC said. Nikhil Rathi, CEO of LSE and Director of International Development, said the landmark listing demonstrates the UK’s position as the leading gateway for Chinese firms looking to access global capital.
• Chinese police said they had taken “coercive measures” against suspects at Ezubao, the country’s largest online peer-to-peer (P2P) platform by lending figures. Ezubao had lent out CNY70 billion and counts Bank of China (BOC), the country’s fourth-biggest lender, as its major creditor.
• The U.S. Congress ratified an IMF reform plan, increasing China’s quota of special drawing rights (SDRs) from 3.996% to 6.394%, making the country the third-largest shareholder in the IMF – up from sixth – and enabling it to play a bigger role in decision-making.

Foreign investment

• The China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has signed an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell to expand the jointly-owned ethylene-cracking facility in Huizhou, Guangdong province, which is expected to double its capacity to 2 million tons a year. Shell will also introduce new technologies for the production of epoxyethane and ethanediol. The joint venture was set up in 2000 with an investment of USD4.1 billion and began operating in 2006.
• AstraZeneca plans to invest more than USD800 million in China in the next 10 years and strengthen cooperation with local partners. The UK company has an option to acquire Wuxi AppTec’s biologics manufacturing capacity in Wuxi with an overall investment valued around USD100 million. The drugmaker will also invest USD50 million to expand its development on top of its existing manufacturing site in Wuxi to support both local and overseas markets.
• Chinese investment in Australia totaled AUD8.35 billion in 2014, and for the first time, private sector investment exceeded that by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the number of deals as well as in total value, according to the report “Demystifying Chinese Investment in Australia” by KPMG and the University of Sydney’s China Studies Center. The agribusiness and food sector is becoming more important as an investment destination.

Foreign trade

• China plans to conclude more free trade agreements (FTAs) with most of its neighbors, to further open up its own markets and achieve closer integration with its “One Belt, One Road” strategy. It will thereby also counter the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which challenges its trade and investment in the region. Free trade pacts between China and South Korea, and China and Australia, took effect on December 20.
• Chinese and international animal welfare groups have urged the government to ban the import of commercial seal products so as to end the “cruel slaughter” of the animals. Canada signed a trade agreement with Beijing in 2011 to sell seal meat to China, but the deal was called off after the Chinese government called for a review of the case.
• Moscow and Beijing have signed agreements on the control of grain quality, which technically open the Chinese market to Russian grain. Russian food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor and the Chinese government body in charge of quality control signed two food safety documents on Russian wheat, maize, rapeseed, soybean and rice at a ceremony in Beijing. China agreed to allow supplies only from several Siberian regions.

Macro-economy

• Guo Guangchang, Chairman of conglomerate Fosun International, who went missing, reappeared at a company meeting in Shanghai on December 14. It was reported he had been assisting in a corruption investigation. Fosun International’s stock has tumbled to a three-month low after it resumed trading. Rating agency Moody’s said it is closely monitoring the developments at Fosun. Meanwhile, Guo also traveled to New York.
• More than 1% of Chinese billionaires identified by the Hurun Report as the country’s richest over the past 17 years have been jailed, charged and a few even executed, mainly for bribery, embezzlement or economy-related crimes. The Hurun Report said 35 of the more than 3,000 billionaires that have featured on its annual Rich List have run into trouble with the law. The biggest number (11) were real estate tycoons, followed by nine finance industry executives.
• China’s overall advertising expenditure this year is estimated to grow 9.3% from a year ago to USD50 billion, compared with the 4.7% growth globally, according to a report by media agency ZenithOptimedia. China’s ad spending only accounts for around 5% of GDP this year, compared to 10% in the U.S.
• More than 2,000 delegates from over 120 countries and regions attended the second World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, covering topics ranging from internet governance and cyber security to e-commerce and cyber culture. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered the keynote speech, listing “imbalanced development, inadequate rules and inequitable order” as problems and challenges facing the internet. He emphasized the concept of cyber sovereignty, allowing each country to decide on how to regulate its own internet.
• Shanghai eyes between 6% and 7% annual economic growth in the next five years, according to the city’s draft 13th Five Year (2016-2020) Plan. Issues including care for the elderly, job creation, energy consumption and the rise of people’s income will be high on the agenda of the government in the next five years.
• China’s power use increased 0.6% in November from a year earlier as the economy showed signs of stabilization. Electricity consumption totaled 465.8 billion kilowatt-hours last month, the National Energy Administration said. In the first 11 months, power use rose 0.7% year-on-year to 5.05 trillion kWh.
• China’s economy is likely to grow between 6.6% and 6.8% next year, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said. China’s fixed-asset investment growth may slow to a single-digit rate next year while exports will continue to shrink in 2016. A research team at the People’s Bank of China forecast 6.8% growth for 2016, helped by rising exports and a more stable environment for property investment. The International Monetary Fund is predicting a 6.3% growth for 2016; JPMorgan, 6.6%; and Goldman Sachs, 6.4%.
• A quarterly survey of over 2,100 businesses by China Beige Book International showed sales revenue, volumes, output, prices, profits, hiring, borrowing and capital expenditure of Chinese companies were all weaker on-quarter, creating more uncertainties for the economy. “While it is only one quarter, the profit numbers are particularly disturbing, with the share of firms reporting profit gains slipping to the lowest level we’ve ever recorded due to the sharpest on-quarter drop since mid-2012,” the report said.
• Lower investment growth of 9% and decreasing consumer confidence will further dent China’s economic growth next year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission’s Economic Research Institute. Growth in household spending would also slow to single digits.

Real estate

• The downward trend in Hong Kong’s housing sector will last for two to three years, with the market pressured by rising mortgage costs and an increasing supply of new homes. “In the short term, home prices will drop within 5% in the first half of 2016. Some owners of small flats who are not financially strong will cut prices to offload assets amid the unfavorable environment,” Thomas Lam, head of valuation and consultancy at Knight Frank, said.
• China’s richest man, property tycoon Wang Jianlin, has bought an GPB80 million luxury mansion in London at 15A Kensington Palace Gardens. The 20,000 sq ft home has 10 bedrooms and was previously occupied by Ukraine-born businessman Leonid Blavatnik.

Science & technology

• A Long March 2-D rocket carrying China’s first Dark Matter Particle Explorer satellite was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province on December 17. The satellite was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit 500 kilometers above earth. Dark matter is a hypothetical substance that cannot be seen with telescopes but accounts for most of the matter in the universe. The existence of dark matter is inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter.
• A gene-editing technique known as CRISPR that was used by Chinese scientists to modify human DNA has been named by the influential U.S. journal Science as 2015’s breakthrough of the year, due to its potential to revolutionize health and medicine.
• China is on track to launch the world’s biggest spook-proof quantum communications system in the next six months, as it will send the world’s first quantum communications satellite into space in June. Quantum technology is considered to be unbreakable and impossible to hack. It encrypts messages with a key of quantum particles and detects third-party attempts to intercept the particles.

Stock markets

• Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services downgraded CITIC Securities and its subsidiary CITIC Securities International because a police investigation of senior executives and a regulatory probe into the firm’s compliance practices “has significantly undermined” the business of both firms.
• The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE) recorded an increase in the number of suspensions at 522 in the first half of 2015 compared to 309 in the same period last year. The number of trading halts between July and November this year went down to 305, the same level as 2014.
• Equity funds operated by foreign institutions underperformed against domestic mutual funds last month as China’s stock market continued a moderate rebound. Funds managed under the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) program logged an average return of 1.46% in November, research firm Lipper & Co said in its report, behind an average return of 3.62% posted by domestic funds investing in China’s yuan-denominated stock market.
• China General Nuclear Power Co (CGN) has listed its non-nuclear power assets on the A-share market by acquiring a controlling stake in a listed company. Shares of the listed-company, China Dalian International Economic & Technical Cooperation Group Co, climbed by the 10% daily limit to CNY15.9. CGN will also raise CNY2.8 billion through a private placement after the resumption of trading. It is not only the first Chinese nuclear company to go public, but also the first listed pure nuclear power asset in the world.
• Securities regulators in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong approved the first batch of cross-border mutual funds. Four mainland and three Hong Kong funds gained the regulatory green light to sell their investment products to investors in each other’s markets, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). The mutual recognition will allow foreign investors to gain greater access to the Chinese stock and bond markets. The CSRC will cap the sales value of Hong Kong mutual funds in the mainland market at no more than 50% of the funds’ total asset value.
• Yirendai opened flat in its trading debut at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as the first Chinese peer-to-peer lending platform to go public in the United States. Yirendai’s initial public offering (IPO), the last one of the year on U.S. exchanges, raised USD75 million. Yirendai has ambitions to set up a benchmark for the industry via its IPO.
• China Vanke Co unexpectedly suspended trading, saying in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that it is planning to issue new shares for capital restructuring and assets acquisition. The statement came after Vanke’s Chairman Wang Shi openly opposed the Baoneng Group’s acquisition of shares that would make it the company’s biggest shareholder. Experts have speculated that the suspension may be Vanke’s strategy to deter the investor. Vane’s Chairman is concerned that the developer’s credit score will be lowered by Baoneng Group, thus adding to the property developer’s borrowing cost.
• Chinese stocks soared to three-week highs following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates. The sharp rise was mainly due to financial and industrial stocks.

Travel

• Yangtze River Airlines, the Shanghai-based freight subsidiary of HNA Group, inaugurated its first passenger service from Shanghai to Sanya, Hainan province, and it will also open another two routes from Shanghai to Zhuhai, Guangdong province, and Guiyang in Guizhou province. The carrier got its second Boeing 737-800 aircraft for passenger traffic on December 13 and more Boeing 737 aircraft will be delivered next year. It currently runs 26 cargo planes on more than 40 domestic and international routes.
• New extensions to Metro Lines 11, 12 and 13 in Shanghai went into operation. The three extensions have 27 stations, taking the total in the city to 366. The length of the city’s subway network is 617 kilometers. Another four Metro lines are slated for construction by the end of 2020.
• China Southern Airlines is buying 30 Boeing 737 Next Generation and 50 737 Max aircraft, while its Xiamen Airlines unit is buying 30 737 Max jets. The combined deals are worth about USD10 billion before discounts. The order comes nearly three months after Boeing signed a deal with state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) to build its first final assembly plant in China for 737 aircraft.

VIP visits

• China and the United Arab Emirates agreed to set up an investment cooperation fund worth USD10 billion. After a meeting in Beijing, President Xi Jinping and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on establishing the fund. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) also extended a currency swap agreement with the UAE’s central bank, worth CNY35 billion valid for three years.
• Closer trade ties were at the top of China’s agenda at a two-day meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Zhengzhou, Henan province. China’s Silk Road Fund signed an agreement with Kazakhstan’s export and investment agency, under which the fund will set aside USD2 billion for industrial capacity cooperation projects between the two countries. The SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting was hosted by Premier Li Keqiang.

• Shenzhen-based Longhaitong has used loopholes in gold trading to help it and other companies evade up to CNY6 billion in taxes. The company used 143 invoices to buy CNY868.8 million in spot gold through members of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, who are not required to pay a 17% value-added tax (VAT). At a 6% fee, it sold invoices to other companies allowing them to trade in gold tax-free.
• China’s three biggest internet conglomerates formed an “Internet-Plus alliance” at the World Internet Conference. Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, will chair the alliance, which includes Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, collectively known as BAT.
• Beijing issued its second “red alert” for smog, closing schools and ordering half of all private cars off the road from December 19 till 22. It will be Beijing’s third period of prolonged heavy pollution in less than a month.
• Police in China have detained 10 company officials for fabricating pollution data as the government steps up inspections of businesses. Some of the companies involved could face criminal lawsuits. Chinese law prescribes jail terms of up to seven years for pollution offenders.
• China’s carbon emissions could peak by 2025, five years earlier than the 2030 government target, according to Liu Zhenya, Chairman of the State Grid Corp. of China. At its peak, the country’s carbon emissions would total 10.5 billion tons. The London School of Economics (LSE) has also published a research study that said China’s greenhouse gas emissions were likely to peak around 2025.
• The H1N1 flu virus has become the major influenza strain in Shanghai this winter and there has been a rise in the number of cases. It is the first time the virus has been the most prevalent strain since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to an H1N1 epidemic in August 2010. Local experts said that there is no evidence of an epidemic this time.

FCCC Chinese New Year Reception – KBC Bank, Havenlaan 2, 1080 Brussels

Speakers :

• Mr Bert De Graeve, Chairman, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce
• His Excellency Mr Qu Xing, Ambassador of the PRC in Belgium (to be confirmed)
• Mr Geert Bourgeois, Minister-President of the Government of Flanders, Flemish Minister for Foreign Policy and Immovable Heritage

Organized by the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce. Register here.

24,2 (incl. 21% VAT) Non-Members: €54,45 (incl. 21% VAT)