unty usually set up black tents at the foot of Mount Qomolangma, providing tourists accomodation as a means of earning money.
by the Chinese monetary authority, earlier than other major central banks, based on the evaluation on macroeconomic conditions and the exter
nal environment. Policy fine-tuning will send positive signals to the market and support financial resilience, Zhang said.
This year, the remarkable change in tone from the world’s major central banks is shifting into a monet
ary easing cycle, and policies from the Chinese central bank are headed in the same direction, Zhang added.
A recent research note from Goldman Sachs forecast China’s credit growth to rise in January as commercial banks may be “si
gnificantly more aggressive than before” with encouragement from the easing policy. With the PBOC scheduled to
release more data this week, the trend may be reflected in faster growth of new yuan loans and the broad money supply.
Amid a good fall of snow, which Chinese traditionally believe promises a year of harvest and
prosperity, Chinese and United States top officials started two days of talks in Beijing on Thursday.
ements may appear boring, but they matter a lot. They are important to understanding how humans function as individuals and as members of society.
China’s development is now more focused on the quality of economic growth, including
spreading its benefits to all citizens irrespective of their life circumstances. This emphasis aligns well wi
th the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda of leaving no one behind, and putting the furthest behind first.
However, without greater attention to the collection, disaggregation and utilization of data
on key aspects of population trends, this quest will be more difficult to accomplish.
Developing sound social and economic policies and making smart infrastr
ucture investments require a full understanding of the key features of the population at ev
ery level－its size, gender and spatial distribution, and age structure－now and in the future.
The author is the resident representative for China of the United Nations Population Fund.
Many cities in eastern China are organizing job fairs to meet demand for new employees after the Spring Festival holiday.
The first such event in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, opened on Monday with more than 10,000 jobs off
ered by 200 local companies. The fair aims to attract more college students and migrant workers, wh
o usually return to their hometowns during Spring Festival for family reunions.
Most of the jobs are in manufacturing, catering and finance. There is also huge demand for emp
loyees in the machinery, sales and design sectors, said Zhang Chengyu, director of the Yancheng talent market.
“With the city’s economic and social development, many people now prefer to w
ork in their hometowns,” he said. “We organized the fair to provide op
portunities for them. More than 100 fairs offering 50,000 jobs will be held this year.
“Many companies pay salaries of more than 10,000 yuan ($1,474) a mon
th. They need to recruit enough employees to guarantee post-festival operations.”
Dai Yang, a graduate in mechanical engineering, said he would prefer to work in his hometown－Huaian, Jiangsu－if the salary met his demands.
ents and relatively low prices continue to attract young and first-time buyers, as
well as tenants. Sp
eaking in a range of accents, a substantial number of residents squeeze
into buses and the subway every morning and head to work.
Chen Mo is one of them. After studying in the capital for seven years, he chose to
settle in the city
after graduation. In 2001, he took a job with State Grid Corp, the national
electricity generator.
Initially, Chen rented an apartment in
Huilongguan, a crowded community in Changping district,
10 kilometers west of Tiantongyuan’s center, that was well-known for its
affordable property.
Served by subway line 13, Changping’s relative ease of access to public
transportation attracted Chen, so he decided to buy an apartment there in 2010.
After months of research, he discovered that he could buy an apartment of more than 100 sq m in Huilon
gguan for 30,000 yuan per sq m, which would only be enough for a home of 50 to 60 sq m in other parts of the city.
“Property prices doubled in Huilongguan in just six months, so I made the down
payment in 2011 without any hesitation,” he said.
Many others followed suit, so a dense population and heavy traffic congestion quickly became the community’s default setting. Ho
wever, without any industry to provide jobs and with few high-quality schools,
many people chose to leave once they had made enough money.
In Pyongyang, Biegun and Kim Hyok Chol, DPRK’s special representative for US affairs, discussed “advancing Trump and Kim’s
Singapore summit commitments of complete denuclearization, transforming US-(DPRK)
relations, and building a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula,” the US State Department said in a statement.
Trump and Kim met for their first summit in Singapore last June, during which Kim pledged to work toward the “co
mplete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula, without providing a clear timetable or roadmap.
US-led diplomacy aimed at getting the DPRK to abandon its nuclear program in return for outside concessions has since made little headway.
Calling the AU a banner that unites the African countries to pursue self-renewal, Xi praised th
e integration process of the continent and the great headway made since last year under the guidance of the organization.
African countries continue to speak with a united voice on important internatio
nal and regional issues, and the international influence of the continent keeps rising,
Thailand’s election commission will consider on Monday the surprise nomination of a Thai princess as a prime ministeria
l candidate for March elections after her brother, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, called it “inappropriate” and unconstitutional.
The commission will also consider a complaint seeking to ban the populist party that stunn
ed the nation by nominating Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, 67, for the role.
The election on Mar 24 is the first since a military coup in 2014.
Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1932, but the royal family wields great influence and commands the devotion of millions.
Ubolratana’s nomination last week was a shocking move by the Thai Raksa Chart party, made up of supporters of ousted ex-pr
emier Thaksin Shinawatra, and broke with a longstanding tradition of members of the royal family staying above politics.
She gave up her royal titles after marrying an American and she has starred in soap operas and an action movie.
But in a statement read out on all television stations within hours of her can
didacy, King Vajiralongkorn said it was “inappropriate” for members of the royal family to enter politics.
China and the United Kingdom should break the ice of protectionism and build an open an
d inclusive world economy, China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, said in London on Thursday.
“China will continue to embrace the world with open arms and stands ready to work with oth
er countries. We hope the rest of the world would respond in the same spirit,” he said. “In a time when op
enness and inclusiveness are irreversible, protectionism has no future because it is against the trend of history.”
The remarks were made before 400 business, political, and cultural leaders at
tending a Chinese New Year celebration in London that was hoste
d by The 48 Group Club and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Britain.
The year 2018 marked the 65th anniversary of an “ice-breaking trip” to Chi
na in 1953 that was made by a group of farsighted people from the British business community.
has been and will continue to be a key driver of China’s economic growth. In 2018, corporate and individual tax cuts to
taled 1.3 trillion yuan, and industrial profit increased by 11.8 percent, compared with the previous year.
“As reform deepens in all areas, including sweeping fiscal and tax reform and stren
gthening of IPR protection, China will create more opportunities for the world,” he said.
China’s opening-up is the third opportunity. Liu said despite the steep drop in glo
bal FDI, foreign investment flowing into China totaled $135 billion, which was up by 3 percent last year.
The country is also lifting the restrictions on foreign ownership in joint-venture companie
s in sectors including banking, insurance, securities, auto manufacturing, and shipbuilding.
Moreover, as the Chinese people have an increasing appetite for overseas products, the country is moving from being a global seller to a global buyer.
President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, stand with Portuguese President M
