China is leading the world in facial recognition algorithms with its best algorithm able to recognize 10 million people without a single mistake in less than a second. The top five of the 39 facial recognition algorithms in the world come from China, according to the Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the U.S. Department of Commerce, which released the test results for 2018. YITU Technology, a Shanghai-based company that claimed both the top and second spot on the list, told the Global Times that its top algorithm can accurately recognize nearly every person in a sample base of 10 million. In comparison, “it is very likely for a human brain to make a mistake in recognizing the identities of 100 people,” the company said. Algorithms from Beijing-based company SenseTime won the third and fourth spot, while the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) came out fifth in the test.

YITU said that high facial recognition accuracy means that users gain better experiences when using related products. For example, when a user uses facial ID for payment on a smartphone, the device will not authorize the payment for someone else with a similar appearance as the user, the company noted. China is heading the Sharp Eyes project, which uses surveillance cameras, artificial intelligence (AI), facial recognition and big data to provide security. Police in Guiyang, Guizhou province, are already deploying a facial recognition system that can catch fugitives and suspects who have managed to hide their identities for years. Some 39 companies and institutes around the world participated in the FRVT, including Russia’s NtechLab, Ever AI from the U.S. and Germany’s Cognitec. The FRVT is considered to be the gold standard in the global facial recognition industry.

In the past decades, China has been transformed from a country with almost no home ownership – private property was still not protected by law – into the world’s biggest housing market, with USD1.7 trillion of new home sales last year, seven times the total transactions in the U.S., according to Stansberry Churchouse Research.

One of the pioneers was Meng Xiaosu, who became President of China’s first real estate firm – the China National Real Estate Development Group (CNRED) – and devised a plan to develop property in the country. In 1984, Deng Xiaoping had made a speech supporting private housing ownership. In 1987, Shenzhen’s authorities sold the first land-use rights in China. A year after Shenzhen’s pioneering move, a national law was enacted to officially define the concept of “economically affordable housing” and “commodity housing,” or privately owned homes. In Shanghai, Guo Guangchang’s Fosun Group built the company’s first residential project, now known as Fosun Garden. Country Garden, also founded in 1992, would go on to become China’s largest property seller today.

The real estate transformation made billionaires out of property developers, including Evergrande’s Chairman Xu Jiayin at USD36 billion, Country Garden’s Vice Chairman Yang Huiyan at USD21.6 billion, and Wanda Group’s Chairman Wang Jianlin at USD20.2 billion. Residential housing construction became one of the main pillars of China’s extraordinary growth over the past four decades, helping to create a thriving middle class. Once a very American dream, home ownership is now also a Chinese dream and has become the ultimate symbol of success in China.

But as prices have soared and investors have hoarded flats, many Chinese – especially young adults – now find themselves worrying that owning just one home may forever be beyond their reach. If the property bubble burst, China’s economy could be in trouble. “That is the biggest potential risk as property is a major source of Chinese families’ assets,” said Gan Li, Professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. “The poorer the family, the heavier their properties weigh in their wealth. If home prices collapse, the wealth of most Chinese will largely shrink and that will end up with a plunge in consumption.”

Chinese citizens devote as much as 74% of their savings toward housing, more than double the 35% in the U.S. Today, 90% of Chinese families own a home, while about one out of four Chinese households own multiple homes, according to China’s Southwestern University. Home prices have skyrocketed 325% in the past two decades. the South China Morning Post reports. Meanwhile, Chinese property buyers are spending less overseas – in Sydney, London and New York – as a tightening of capital control regulations in the past year has reduced the amount of money they can remit overseas.

The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce and VKW Limburg organized the workshop: ‘Negotiating with the Chinese: Cultural Roots & Practical Recommendations’ on 19 November 2018 at VKW Limburg in Hasselt. Mr. Bo Ji, Chief Representative Europe & Assistant Dean Global Executive Education of the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, was the keynote speaker.

This seminar offered guidance to business leaders on how to leverage cultural differences, complexity, uncertainty, and conflicts during the negotiation process with their Chinese partners.

Attendees gained a comparative understanding of the practical Chinese and Western approaches to negotiation as well as sharpened their own negotiation skills through learning from multiple case studies and real-life contexts. Furthermore, they identified the cultural roots behind business scenarios, providing them with the knowledge to reshape their strategies and tactics. The attending business leaders also learned to optimize their approach to a win-win value creation through negotiating with the Chinese to achieve a sustainable partnership.

Following registration and lunch, Ms Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, delivered the opening remarks. Subsequently the topics covered included: “China vs West: different cultural negotiating models”, “Chinese cultural roots and elements to shape the negotiating skills” and “Strategies that lead you to a better negotiation outcome”. A Q&A session, group discussion and networking concluded the event.

On 23 July 2018, it was announced in the State Council executive meeting that the super deduction rate for R&D expenses will be raised from the current 50% to 75% for all types of companies. It was previously only available to medium and small sized technology companies. Earlier this year, more incentives have been implemented and are available to enterprises in China. For example, the reduced 15% enterprise income tax rate granted to qualified technologically advanced service enterprises in selected cities was rolled out nationwide. In addition, high and new technology enterprises (HNTEs) may now carry qualified losses forward for ten years instead of the normal five years. Companies operating in China will have more flexibility to arrange their legal and business structure to enjoy various types of tax incentives, on the basis that compliance requirements are properly satisfied. We’ll discuss:

• Updates on R&D super deduction.
• Updates on tax incentives to high and new technology enterprises.
• Updates on tax incentives to technologically advanced service enterprises.
• Compliance requirements and actions to be taken for the entitlement of the incentives.

Learn about the changes and implications that these new rules have brought that may affect your tax planning, which ultimately may affect your group effective tax rate.

Register here

China and the United States have restarted discussions over their trade dispute, ending a three-month hiatus, ahead of a planned meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1. The two sides are “maintaining close contact” following a November 1 phone call between Xi and Trump, said Chinese Ministry of Commerce Spokesman Gao Feng. China urged the U.S. to strive for “mutually acceptable solutions” on issues of common concern through consultations. But U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said that China should first change its behavior in economic, military and political activities to pave the way for reaching an agreement. Still, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he does not anticipate the U.S. and China will secure a full deal by January.

Xi and Pence also expressed divergent views in their speeches to the APEC Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, with each laying the blame for the trade war and growing geopolitical rivalry at the other’s doorstep. “We have great respect for President Xi and China, but as we all know, China has taken advantage of the United States for many, many years and those days are over,” U.S. Vice President Pence said, adding: “The U.S. will not change course until China changes its ways.” Neither Xi nor Pence listened to the other’s speech, both of which were delivered from a conference room on a cruise ship moored in Port Moresby harbor. Pence presented the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. APEC leaders failed to agree on a final communique for the first time in the organization’s history amid sharp differences between the U.S. and China.

President Xi Jinping said China was committed to giving more market access to foreign companies as he criticized protectionism and called on the Asia-Pacific nations to protect the global trade system as he addressed the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Papua New Guinea. Xi also defended China’s Belt and Road Initiative, insisting it was neither a closed club nor a debt trap. Xi told delegates: “The world is currently going through big changes, the trend of globalization must go forward, but unilateralism and protectionism are overshadowing economic growth. Mankind will have to choose between cooperation or resistance – opening up for mutual benefits or a zero-sum game.” President Xi Jinping added: “History has shown that confrontation, whether in the form of a cold war, a hot war or a trade war will produce no winners.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said that the U.S. had made progress towards resolving the trade dispute with China after receiving a response from Beijing to his demands, however adding that it was missing four or five big things. “China wants to make a deal, they sent a list of things they are willing to do which is a large list and it is just not acceptable to me yet, but at some point I think that we are doing extremely well with respect to China,” he said. “Hopefully, we will make a deal, and if we don’t, we are doing very well just the way it is right now,” Trump added. The U.S. President’s comments signal the large gap that still remains between the two sides.

China’s exports to the United States are still growing, thanks to a strong American economy and consumers’ preference for Chinese products, The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said. The delivery of previously placed orders and “front-loading” by Chinese shippers also contributed to a robust performance so far this year, it added. As such, the impact of the U.S. trade war on China’s trade and broad economy will be “limited” with “total risks under control”, the Ministry concluded in a report. China’s exports to the U.S. rose 13.3% in the first 10 months compared with a year earlier while its imports from the U.S. increased by 8.5% in the same period, according to China Customs data. In October alone, Chinese exports to the U.S. rose by 13.2% while its imports from the U.S. fell 1.8%, earning Beijing a trade surplus of USD32 billion last month.

China’s financial condition weakened in October, pointing to a further deceleration in the economy amid the trade war with the United States. While Beijing has been pressing the country’s banks to boost lending to the “real economy”, newly granted loans nearly halved to CNY677 billion in October, from CNY1.38 trillion in September, according to the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). While October is a seasonally weaker month for Chinese credit data, the fall was sharper than all economists’ estimates. Total social financing shrank to CNY728.8 billion in October, or just a third of the CNY2.17 trillion of September. Moreover, the government’s fiscal revenue has dropped 3.1% in October from a year earlier, the first fall in 2018.

Premier Li Keqiang said that the Chinese government has no plans to resort to a “massive stimulus” similar to that of 2008 as a way to manage its slowing economy. Instead, Beijing will focus its policies on “energizing the market, in particular market entities” and creating “fair and equal regulations” to maintain momentum in the economy, Li said in a speech before attending the annual summit of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore. “Despite the downward pressure, we will not resort to massive stimulus,” Li added. A further escalation of the trade war between the United States and China could force Beijing to take more expansive measures to stimulate the Chinese economy, according to asset manager PineBridge Investments.