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News Research

CE: HK knows more about its future now

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-06-21 09:14

Donald Tsang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said Hong Kong has experienced a lot in the past 10 years and these experiences have proved the principle of "one country, two systems" an unprecedented success.

"Hong Kong is now stronger, maturer, and knowing more about its own future," said Tsang in Cantonese-accent Mandarin when interviewed by Xinhua.

Wearing his trademark bowtie, Tsang said he began to learn Mandarin when he was 45 years old. Though not perfectly fluent, he tried to use Mandarin every time when interviewed by reporters from the Chinese mainland.

Donald Tsang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region speaks during an interview with Xinhua news agency. [Xinhua]

Tsang said that Hong Kong experienced a series of difficulties in the past 10 years, including the Asian financial crisis, bird flu and SARS.

"Every event has caused some economically or socially changes in Hong Kong, but we have survived all these difficulties," said Tsang, adding that with the ups and downs, Hong Kong has enhanced its capability in dealing with emergencies.

After the Asian financial crisis, Hong Kong's financial market has become more resistible to international speculators' attacks, and after the SARS, Hong Kong has upgraded its sanitary system and now it is more capable of dealing with urgent sanitary crisis, said Tsang.

"In Hong Kong, we could always learn about something in everything," said Tsang, " the tradition will keep on. It's the basic Hong Kong spirit that we 'never give up'"

Tsang, serving the Hong Kong government on different positions, witnessed every change of Hong Kong in the past 10 years. In June 2005, Tsang was first elected as the chief executive of the HKSAR when his predecessor Tung Chee Hwa resigned mid-way through his second term due to ill health.

On March 25, 2007, Tsang won a landslide election for the third term chief executive of HKSAR. He will begin serving his new term on July 1, 2007, which will end on June 30, 2012.

He said that in the past 10 years, the central government always stood by Hong Kong's side and gave an all-out support to Hong Kong whenever it needed. In the meantime, Hong Kong's identity was getting clearer day by day and Hong Kong residents are heartily proud of the rapid development of the motherland.

"In the past 10 years, Hong Kong's life style, core value, freedom, a fair society, everything Hong Kong citizen valued most, is not weakened but getting stronger," he said.

He added that while keeping its own core value, Hong Kong is contributing to the motherland in a lot of fields, for example, in the financial development.

"Currently speaking, 'one country' and 'two systems' have both been put into effect in Hong Kong and proved a success," he said.

As for the linkage with the motherland, Tsang said that in China's 11th five-year plan, which outlines the development of the whole country from 2006 to 2010, the central government has set an accurate orientation for Hong Kong as keeping its financial, trade and shipping center.

"The rapid development of the whole country has given a great opportunity to Hong Kong," said Tsang. "It shows the support and expectation of the central government to Hong Kong."

Tsang admitted that there will be competition between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland in some fields, but he added that Hong Kong as an international financial center, 90 percent of its economic power comes from service industry. Hong Kong's development orientation will be different from that of the Chinese mainland and it will always adjust itself according to the need of the market and the development of the mainland.

"Everything I do, I bear the thought on how to get a 'win-win' result for both the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong," said Tsang.

As Hong Kong's third term CE, Tsang has a detailed plan for the city's development in the next five years. He said that he will try to go out more to contact Hong Kong residents and let them fully join in the work of the HKSAR government.

"I have the confidence to bring Hong Kong's development to a new height in the next five years," said Tsang.

International News

China not manipulating currency - US Treasury

By Xin Zhiming (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-06-14 06:53

Despite pressure from the US Congress, the Bush administration yesterday refused to cite China as a country that manipulates its currency to gain an unfair trade advantage.

In its semi-annual currency report, the administration said that China did not fit the technical profile of a country that is manipulating its currency.

The Treasury Department said while it was "obvious that the Chinese government was controlling the value of its currency against the dollar", it could not determine that this action was being done for the purpose of "gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade." That is the standard set in the law.

But it said China's currency is undervalued and pledged to keep pushing for further appreciation.

A group of Senators said yesterday they would introduce legislation to make it easier for the United States to pursue economic sanctions against China if the country does not allow its currency to rise more quickly against the dollar.

But Chinese analysts warned that any unilateral punitive measures would backfire and incur tit-for-tat measures.

Beijing "will respond" if the legislation is passed and leads to higher tariffs on Chinese goods, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said earlier.

Many economists agree that the US trade deficit stems from structural economic problems, such as a low savings rate and unrestrained consumption. The yuan revaluation will not help reduce its trade deficit, but shift the source of imports to other low-cost countries.

The US Senators' move to push for legislation against China, therefore, is not a rational move but an unleashing of emotion, Chen Xingdong, deputy managing director and chief economist of BNP Paribas Peregrine Securities, told China Daily.

"Politicians run the show to win voters."

He said it is "quite likely" that the legislation will be passed by Congress, but it remains to be seen whether it secures a two-thirds majority, which will override a presidential veto.

The legislation, in a sense, may not be a bad thing, said Mei Xinyu, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation attached to the Ministry of Commerce. It will disillusion the US public as reduced Sino-US trade will hurt the interests of US consumers and companies.

The yuan, meanwhile, has become more flexible as it fluctuated more dramatically in recent days.

The renminbi's central parity rate was 7.6282 against the US dollar yesterday, up 0.25 percent from Tuesday's 7.6475 and the second-largest single-day rise after Tuesday's 0.4 percent rise.

Industry News

Securities become residents' top investment option

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-06-21 14:45

Recent interest rate hikes and stock market corrections have not affected people's enthusiasm for stocks and funds. According to a survey released today by the central bank, more than 40 percent of Chinese residents favor stock and fund investments, for the first time taking the place of savings as Chinese people's favorite investment option.

Conducted in late May among residents in 50 Chinese cities, the survey shows 40.2 percent of residents name stocks and funds as their preferred investment choice, almost 10 percent higher than in the first quarter. In contrast, the number of residents choosing to save dropped for the third consecutive season to a six-year low of 26.3 percent.

In the second quarter, bank deposits accounted for only 52.3 percent of residents' major financial assets, on average 15.7 percent lower than in 2005.

The survey also shows the percentage of residents satisfied with current price level has declined for the past five quarters to 8.4 percent, while 29.5 percent claim the high prices "hard to accept". Of those surveyed, families with medium and low incomes are affected more seriously by the price hike for meat and eggs. Forty percent of households earning less than 2,000 yuan (US$263) a month expressed their dissatisfaction with the current price levels.

Residents' willingness to consume also fell to 19.5 percent from 28.2 percent a year ago. Interest in buying property and consumer products dropped to their lowest points at 15.8 percent and 25.5 percent respectively, according to the survey.

Domestic News
Remembering a cross-talking legend

By Liu Jun (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-06-25 07:51

Cross-talk fans across China were mourning the loss of legendary xiangsheng actor Hou Yaowen, who passed away on Saturday aged 59. Hou died of heart attack at 6:30 pm at his home in northern Beijing.

Hou Yaowen, China's renowned cross-talk master, performs in Xi'an, captital city of northwest China's Shannxi Province in 2006. [sina.com]

The former vice-chairman of the Chinese Ballad Singers Association and the deputy director and arts supervisor of the China Railway Art Troupe was the third son of Hou Baolin (1917-93), one of the best-known exponents of xiangsheng, a comic performance routine featuring two or more players.

Chang Xianglin, art critic and a close friend of Hou, remarked in The Beijing News that Hou was one of four pillars of xiangsheng together with famous performers Jiang Kun, Feng Gong and Li Jindou.

"Hou was the most important driving force in xiangsheng's development," Chang said.

In recent years, Hou had lured many rising xiangsheng stars to his China Railway Art Troupe, where he insisted performers sharpen all four basic skills of xiangsheng: talking (shuo), imitating (xue), cracking jokes (dou) and singing (chang).

"Hou once said many people regarded xiangsheng only as a show, or a handy step towards political gains. But he had always treated xiangsheng as his career, his very own life," Chang said.

Over the past five years, five xiangsheng masters had already passed away: Gao Yingpei, Ma Sanli, Guo Quanbao, Ma Ji and Zhao Shizhong.

A crosstalk fan, nicknamed "Shoelace", wrote that the xiangsheng circle without the masters had become scattered without a "commander".

"At a time when most people pursued immediate economic gains, and the weight of money increased in the xiangsheng circle, Hou remained single-minded in developing the folk art," he remarked.

Beijing-born Hou was one of five children. His elder brother Hou Yaohua has also been a famous comedian on television. Their father Hou Baolin only had three months of schooling and insisted that the children study hard before learning xiangsheng.

Young Hou loved xiangsheng and all the other folk arts and when his father's friends visited, the boy would sit on a stool outside the door and eavesdrop on the guests telling stories and sharing their techniques.

Hou first appeared on stage in 1960 as a 12-year-old boy and over the next 47 years had become a master of the art.

He created new comical mini-dramas, such as A Day of a Hero's Mother (1989, with Zhao Lirong) and Playing Poker (1994, with Huang Hong). These programs were instant hits on China Central Television's gala show on the eve of the Spring Festival.

Wei Yuancheng and Zhao Weiming are the last disciples of Hou. The two actors in Xi'an of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province met Hou in 1998, but didn't go through the traditional ceremonies to become Hou's formal disciples until last July.

They found their teacher very amiable and even "like a big kid", bringing happiness to everyone present.

In 2005, when Hou was 57, he became dissatisfied with the appearance of his eyes and underwent a double-fold eyelid operation. "My father told me, a good actor must let the audience see his eyes on the stage," he said at the time. "An actor expresses himself through his eyes. Sometimes, a look is more powerful than a move."