Pro-democracy general could help shape Xi's vision for China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-03-31

Liu Yazhou presents before the Indonesian Ministry of Defense in Jakarta
last year. (Photo/Xinhua)

One of president Xi Jinping's closest military advisors is general Liu Yazhou, the political commissar at the PLA's National Defense University and son-in law of former Chinese president Li Xiannian. The 60-year-old is said to part of Xi's inner circle and political commentators believe that Liu, widely known for his pro-democracy stance, has and will continue to play a vital role in shaping the president's strategies and world view.

Liu was born in eastern China's Anhui province in 1962 and joined the PLA during the Cultural Revolution. He was selected by the army at the age of 20 to study English at Wuhan University in central Hubei province, and was later a visiting scholar in Asian language studies at Stanford University in the US. During his time in America, Liu was once said to have confidently claimed that China would be ruled democratically within 10 years.

The general is known for his pro-democracy stance, with his support for a democratic China beginning in the early 1980s when he was a military reporter for the PLA. When he was not reporting on the army, Liu penned several novels, some of which stirred controversy in China as they were judged to bear a pro-democracy slant and belittle the country's military power.

In 1996, Liu joined the political department of the Beijing military region air force and later became the political commissar of the air force in Chengdu, the provincial capital of southwestern Sichuan. In December 2009, he switched to the PLA's National Defense University to lecture elite military officers and was promoted to general in April last year.

In an internal speech to mid-level officers in 2009, Liu supported the decision of former PLA general Xu Qinxian to refuse to suppress student demonstrators during the violent Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

A year later, in an interview with the Hong Kong-based Phoenix Weekly magazine, Liu boldly claimed that China must either embrace US-style democracy or accept a Soviet-style collapse.

"If a system fails to let its citizens breathe freely and release their creativity to the maximum extent, and fails to put those who best represent the system and its people into leadership positions, it is certain to perish," the magazine quoted Liu as saying.

"The secret of the United States' success is neither due to Wall Street nor Silicon Valley, but its long surviving rule of law and the system behind it. A bad system makes a good person behave badly, while a good system makes a bad person behave well. Democracy is the most urgent thing; without it there can be no sustainable growth," he said.

When penning the foreword to China Dream: The Great Power Thinking and Strategic Positioning of China in the Post-American Age by Liu Mingfu, a professor at Beijing's National Defense University, Liu said that the 21st century is a race between China and the US, and the winner will be the country that can develop better and best lead the world.

Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the Moscow 

State Institute of International Relations on

March 23. (Photo/Xinhua)

Related Article:

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Dutch finance ministry denies Starbucks tax secrecy claims

DutchNews.nl, Thursday 28 March 2013

The Netherlands has denied claims by a Starbucks executive that the Dutch tax office asked it not to release details of its tax agreements, the Financial Times reports.

The coffee company’s chief financial officer told a British parliamentary inquiry in November he was bound by confidentiality agreements not to say what tax rate Starbucks pay in the Netherlands.

But junior finance minister Frans Weekers has now told parliament this is not true and companies are not required to keep tax agreements secret.

‘There is no hindrance from the Dutch government or tax authorities for individual companies to publicise their arrangements,’ the FT quoted the minister as saying. Weekers also said he is to contact the British parliamentary committee to make this clear.

Dutch hearings

According to the FT, Dutch MPs are to press Starbucks to explain its tax rulings in the Netherlands at hearings of their own.

Starbucks' European headquarters and its roasting facility for Europe, the Middle-East and Africa are located in Amsterdam.

British MPs are angry Starbucks UK pays a 4.7% fee to the coffee giant's Dutch arm for the right to use its branding and coffee recipe. The fee, which the paper says has been as high as 6%, reduces its UK tax bill.

Earlier stories

• Spanish, Italian, Portuguese firms use Dutch tax route
• Research into tax schemes is biased, say critics
• Multinationals and French state firms use Dutch tax deals
• Starbucks under fire in Britain over Dutch tax deal
• EU wants an end to letterbox companies
• Letterbox companies largely exempt from tougher rules
• The Netherlands is a popular tax haven for FTSE 100 firms
• Holland no longer a US tax haven
• More tax levied over tax haven income

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Starbucks to review UK tax arrangements

“.. A 6% premium had previously been charged by the business in the Netherlands. But this was negotiated down to 4.7% by Starbucks and the Dutch authorities. A similar negotiation could take place with HMRC. …”

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Should Indonesia be the I in Brics?

BBC News, Karishma Vaswani, Jakarta, 27 March 2013

Both India and Indonesia are growing fast, but lately the smaller of the two
has seen its economy expand the fastest

Related Stories

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Entry into the Brics club is a seen as a sign of success - a statement that you have made it as an emerging economy.

When the phrase was first coined back in 2001 by Jim O'Neill from Goldman Sachs he intended it to encompass just four fast growing emerging-market countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China.

South Africa was added in 2011 - despite protestations from Mr O'Neill.

Being a part of Brics means you are instantly branded a sure bet - or at least that is the perception among investors.

Economists say the Brics make up approximately 20% of global gross domestic product (GDP), and by 2030 could possibly rival the combined economies of the G7 countries (the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan).

But already there are concerns that the fast growing economies of the grouping are seeing some trouble ahead.

'Policy paralysis'

Take India, which once saw its economy growing at a rate of 9%, but is now suffering from "policy paralysis", caused by a combination of stalling economic reforms and political haggling, according to Ajit Ranade, chief economist with the Aditya Birla Group.

Corruption and political inefficiency are
often  cited as reasons why India's
growth rate is slower than it was

"The government has had a lot of political dramas, with corruption scandals unfolding over the last few years, and opposition parties stalling economic reform at every juncture," he says.

"But fundamentally, India's economy is still stable, its medium-term growth drivers are intact. Some policy momentum is visible these days."

The Indian government says it expects the country to grow between 6.1% and 6.7% this year, faster than in 2012, when GDP grew by 5.3%.

Middle class

The slowdown in economic growth in India lies behind the suggestion that perhaps Indonesia should be the "I" in Brics instead.

On the face of it, India and Indonesia's economies have a lot in common - certainly more than just their first initials.

Both have large and young populations in fast growing economies driven mainly by domestic consumption.

But India's economy is six or seven times the size of Indonesia's, and it has many more mouths to feed, with a population of more than 1.2 billion compared with Indonesia's 240 million.

While India has seen its economy stumble recently after many years of strong growth, Indonesia's strengths have made it the darling of international investors - although it too has also seen economic growth decline moderately.

The two nations also face many of the same problems, with their messy political systems, shoddy infrastructure in desperate need of upgrading, corruption and crippling poverty.

Open economy

One of the comments you always hear about Indonesia's potential is the rapid emergence of its affluent middle class, which is set to almost double by 2020 to 141 million people, the Boston Consulting Group forecasts, which means more than half the population would be classified as middle-income class or richer. Domestic consumption helps power the economy and attracts plenty of foreign companies into this relatively open economy.

India has a large domestic market too, but restrictions on foreign ownership make it difficult for foreign firms to get involved.

Leaders of the Brics group of emerging
market  economies are meeting in
Durban

So last year, the global cosmetics giant L'Oreal chose Indonesia when it invested some $130m (£86m) in a state-of-the-art factory just outside Jakarta to produce 700,000 products per day, ranging from whitening creams to shampoos for both the domestic market as well as for exports to neighbouring countries.

The company has also opened a research and development facility in India and now sees both markets as equally important, according to Vismay Sharma, L'Oreal's president in Indonesia, who has also worked in India.

Bricsi?

Indonesia's growing importance relative to India has done little to remove some of the real challenges for retailers and distributors doing business here, however, such as the fact that it is made up of islands.

"You can't use road or rail everywhere, so you end up using ships," says Mr Sharma.

"You end up depending on ports, and that starts to put a lot of strain on the infrastructure."

Neither India nor Indonesia have good infrastructure, and both governments have pledged to spend billions of dollars to improve it.

But such lofty ambitions do not always deliver results. Last year, a much-lauded land acquisition bill was passed in Indonesia, but it has failed in its ambition to make it easier for the government to push ahead with infrastructure projects.

Obstacles such as these have resulted in analysts dismissing the idea that India should be replaced by Indonesia in the Brics grouping.

"You can add it as a sixth Brics, perhaps, making it Bricsi," says PK Basu, regional head of Maybank in Singapore.

"But replacing India doesn't make sense from any perspective. It's the first year in the last 15 years that Indonesia's real GDP grew faster than India. There's a dynamism in the Indian economy - in manufacturing, agriculture, services - that just isn't there in Indonesia."

HS Dillon, Indonesia's special adviser on poverty alleviation, agrees.

Each nation has moved into fast-growing economy status, each taking its own path to get there, but neither country has "made it", he says, insisting that "the rate of growth means nothing without the quality of growth".

Widespread poverty is there for all to see just a few kilometres outside of Jakarta's fancy financial district, where urban slums have cropped up in many parts of the city, as migrants from other parts of the archipelago have come here to find work. India's big cities too have seen mass migration into fast-growing cities that are becoming increasingly densely packed.

The poor in both countries are prone to avoidable diseases, resulting from poor sanitation, regular flooding and a lack of affordable healthcare.

"People say all the time we are one of the largest economies in the world, we are in the G20, we are this, we are that," says Mr Dillon.

"But what," he asks, "does that mean for the poor?"

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BRICS Wrangle Over New Development Bank

BRICS Wrangle Over New Development Bank

Jakarta Globe - AFP, March 26, 2013

Image provided by the South African government shows President Jacob
Zuma speaking in Pretoria on March 24, 2013. (AFP Photo) 

    

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Durban, South Africa. BRICS emerging powers on Tuesday sought a deal on setting up a development bank that would rival Western-backed institutions, trying to iron out significant differences ahead of a leaders' summit in Durban.

The grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and hosts South Africa are racing to flesh out proposals for an infrastructure-focused lender that would challenge seven decades of dominance by the World Bank.

Just hours before leaders kick off the summit at 17:30 GMT, finance ministers were still working to agree key elements of the plan.

Disputes remain over what the bank will do, with each side trying to mold the institution to their foreign or domestic policy goals and with each looking for assurances of an equitable return on their initial investment of around $10 billion.

Failure to secure a deal would be a major embarrassment for many of the participants and would play into the hands of those who argue the BRICS have little to bind them together.

Xi Jinping, who has underscored the growing importance of the group by making Durban his first summit as China's president, earlier expressed hopes for "positive headway" in establishing the bank.

In a keynote speech in Tanzania on Monday Xi vowed Beijing's "sincere friendship" with the continent, and a relationship that respects Africa's "dignity and independence."

Meanwhile host President Jacob Zuma has lauded the summit as a means of addressing his country's chronic economic problems including high unemployment.

"BRICS provides an opportunity for South Africa to promote its competitiveness," Zuma said in a speech on the eve of the summit.

"It is an opportunity to move further in our drive to promote economic growth and confront the challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment that afflicts our country."

A failure to take concrete steps would raise questions about whether the BRICS grouping can survive.

"Ironically it may be the cleavages within the BRICS grouping that more accurately hint at the future of the global order: tensions between China and Brazil on trade, India on security, and Russia on status highlight the difficulty Beijing will have in staking its claim to global leadership," said Daniel Twining of the German Marshall Fund.

But if the leaders succeed it would be the first time since the inaugural BRICS summit four years ago that the group matches rhetorical demands for a more equitable global order with concrete steps.

That would send a loud message to the United States and European nations that the current global balance of power is unworkable.

Together the BRICS account for 25 percent of global GDP and 40 percent of the world's population.

But members say institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Security Council are not changing fast enough reflect their new-found clout.

Diplomats say it could start with $10 billion seed money from each country, but the exact role of the bank is up for debate.

Indian officials have pressed for a BRICS-led South-South development bank, recycling budget surpluses into investment in developing countries.

Many developing nations inside and outside BRICS will hope that is a way of tapping China's vast financial resources.

Meanwhile China would no doubt like the bank to invest in trade-multiplying projects.

Aside from the development bank, the group will also try to establish a foreign exchange reserve pool worth as much as $240 billion to be drawn on in financial crises.

China has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, worth $3.31 trillion at the end of 2012, and establishing currency swap lines could help other BRICS tap that massive resource.

Later on Tuesday Brazil is to sign a bilateral accord with China to promote trade in their national currencies.

BRICS leaders will also establish business and think tank councils.

With Syria's two-year long civil war escalating through the suspected use of chemical weapons, BRICS leaders will also have to weigh a call from President Bashar al-Assad to intervene.

In a message to the summit leaders Assad asked "for intervention by the BRICS to stop the violence in his country and encourage the opening of a dialogue, which he wishes to start," said his senior adviser Bouthaina Shaaban after he delivered the message to Zuma.

Agence France-Presse

This handout photo on March 26, 2013 shows South African Finance Minister

 Pravin Gordhan (C) poses with his counterparts (L-R) Minister Chidambaram 

Palaniappan of India, Minister Xiaochuan Zhou of China, Minister Guido Mantega

 of Brazil and Minister Anto Siluanov of Russia on the margins of the 5th BRICS

 summit held at the Inkosi Luthuli International Conference Centre in Durban,

on March 26, 2013. AFP PHOTO / GOVERNMENT HO/ ELMOND JIYANE

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"The U in Kundalini"- Oct 18, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Kundalini, Unification, EU, Nobel Peace Prize 2012, Middle East, South America, Only 5 Currencies on Earth, Old Souls, Duality will dismiss, 3D Humanity will melt with Multi dimensional higher self, Global Unity… etc.)

Cyprus strikes last-minute EU bailout deal

Agreement set to involve heavy losses for wealthy investors, while those with savings under €100,000 will be spared

The Guardian, Ian Traynor in Brussels, Monday 25 March 2013

Cypriots queue at a Laiki ATM. Under the new deal the bank will be closed with
 deposits over €100,000 seized and its 'good' assets transferred to Bank of Cyprus.
Photograph: Hasan Mroue/AFP/Getty

European leaders reached an agreement with Cyprus early on Monday morning that closes down the island's second-biggest bank and inflicts huge losses on wealthy savers.

Russians would lose billions of euros under draconian terms that are aimed at preventing the Mediterranean tax haven becoming the first country forced out of the single currency.

"Herman Van Rompuy has brokered an agreement between the troika and Cyprus," said an EU source, referring to the president of the European council and Cyprus's trio of creditors: the European commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

A meeting of eurozone finance ministers that started six hours late reached an agreement in the early hours of Monday morning to finalise the fine print of the deal. Savers with deposits of less than €100,000 (£85,000) would be spared but it was thought there would be heavy losses inflicted on the deposits of the wealthy.

Laiki, or Cyprus Popular Bank, is to be closed, with its good assets transferred to Bank of Cyprus, the country's biggest bank, where savers would suffer big losses in return for equity shares. Those with more than €100,000 in Laiki would also be hit hard.

Negotiations got under way amid a hardening of the stance by the IMF and Germany, which insisted that depositors must take the hit for bailing out the eurozone's latest crisis economy.

There were signs of panic in Cyprus as a €100 limit was imposed on ATM withdrawals, with more stringent capital controls to follow if the deal is finalised.

The European Central Bank had threatened to cut off funds propping up Cypriot banks on Monday, which would have precipitated the island's exit from the euro if agreement was not reached at the emergency meeting.

"The numbers have not changed. If anything they've got worse," said Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister. He said the aims of last week's agreement to raise €5.8bn – details of which were rejected by Cyprus – had to be achieved. This time, however, savers with less than €100,000 will be spared, meaning the burden falls much more heavily on the wealthy than the 9.9% levy proposed last week for their accounts.

Germany is determined that the island deflate a bloated financial sector that exceeds the size of the Cypriot economy by a factor of seven.

"It is well known that I won't allow myself to be blackmailed by no one or nothing," said Schäuble. "I'm aware of my responsibility for the stability of the euro. If we take the wrong decisions we'll be doing the euro a great disservice," he told a German Sunday newspaper.

Russians are estimated to hold more than €20bn of the €68bn deposited in Cypriot banks. Bank of Cyprus holds €28bn in deposits although it was not clear how much of that would qualify for the "haircut". But it was clear that the losses would amount to several billion.

The Cypriot president, Nicos Anastasiades, held meetings with EU officials in Brussels before the meeting of the euro group – the 17 finance ministers of the single-currency area – which included troika representatives Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, Mario Draghi, president of the ECB, and Olli Rehn, European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs.

Little progress was reported from the earlier meetings on resolving the stalemate over how to structure a €17bn bailout, with creditors unwilling to offer more than €10bn while expressing dissatisfaction with Cypriot proposals to supply the remainder.

The agreement outlined early on Monday came close to what Lagarde had demanded a week ago and which had been rebuffed by Anastasiades.

Over the weekend Nicosia moved on legislation to wind up Cyprus Popular Bank and introduce capital controls to try to prevent a bank run and the flight of money out of the country.

Cypriots attend Sunday service at Saint-Mamas Orthodox church in

the capital Nicosia on March 24, 2013 (AFP/File, Barbara Laborde)

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Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, Feb 18, 2013)

"... The Rothschild faction of the Illuminati, which governed its empire from London and the Vatican, lost its media foothold along with its other powers in that part of the world. A section of the Illuminati’s Rockefeller faction, headquartered in Washington, DC, and New York City, still has influence on major media in the US as well as on Wall Street; and their lingering foothold in Congress is evident in the intransigence that has stagnated progress. .."

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore

Romano,  cardinals attend a meeting at the Vatican, Monday,

March 4, 2013. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

Archangel Michael on the World’s Movement into the Golden Age, March 24, 2013 – Part 2/2 - New

“… GW: Shifting to events that are taking place in Europe at this point in time, it seems that the events in Europe are reaching or about to hit a breaking point of some kind. Several leaders, including Nigel Farage and allegedly Russian Prime Minister Medvedev have suggested that people should be removing their money from their accounts as the cabal may attempt a last ditch grab for money.

Now, I know, and perhaps many know, that the current system is corrupt and that there will have to be a degree of change in the current system before people will be willing to embrace the new system.

I don’t wish this question to sound alarmist to people, but is what is happening now one of the final, if not the final, straw that will help expose the banking cabal and allow the new system to be implemented? Is this new system ready? Or is it already being implemented? Or is it still only limited to preparatory work?

AAM: No, it is already underway. It is already being implemented. And yes, we do not wish to sound alarmist either, and so we also wish people to know that their resources, what they think of as their money, for those who have saved and put their faith in banking systems, they will be protected to a certain extent. So do not think that you have need to run out and remove all your monies, or that it will be completely gone. But yes, this is the beginning of a transition.

The expression of the lack of faith in particularly the European banking system causes enormous disruption, more significant perhaps than anywhere else. And so yes, it does have a domino effect, but it is not one simply shutting down [the old system] and a new system emerging. It is coming into balance with the new emerging as the old simply fades away.

Is it a last ditch effort on the part of those who have clung to the old paradigm of the 3rd, what you call the cabal? Yes, it is. But it matters not, because it is not going to work for them. Seldom are things such as this situation so black and white. There is always room for free choice and free movement and adjustment.

But in this situation it is simply evolution and expansion. And the expansion of the new, of the new paradigm, of what you think of as Fifth-Dimensional financial systems does not allow for systems that are based on greed and theft and control — and unfairness, basic unfairness, usury.

So, it is rather clearly defined. You have an expression that you use on Earth, “Out with the old.” And this is one of those situations where it is, in fact, the truth.

GW: Okay. So, along the lines of the leadership, or at least some of the leadership of what’s taking place in the financial sector globally, it has been reported that the apartment of the IMF managing director Christine Lagarde was raided last week.

Was this an attempt to expose her as part of the banking cabal, or was it an attempt to stop her from fulfilling the reforms that she is allegedly trying to bring to the international banking system?

AAM: It was an attempt to gather information and perhaps even destroy documentation that she is trying to bring forth for the reform of the financial situation. It was an unsuccessful raid.

GW: Okay. So what I’m hearing in your answer, then, is that Christine Lagarde is working for, I guess, the forces of light to bring the greater change to the IMF. Am I correct?

AAM: Yes. This one has had a real turn-around. No, we do not ever categorize individuals or groups or people as light or dark. But this one has truly committed herself to reformation.

She sees and she has the experience very clearly of knowing what does not work. And therefore she has committed her mission, her purpose to this reformation.

GW: Okay. And could the same be said about the new US Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew? Is he on board with all the changes and working for the reformation as well with Lagarde?

AAM: He is an agent and an angel of change. He could not be simply on board. He is a moving force. ‘…‘’

Petition against Maldives rape victim flogging

Google – AFP, 22 March 2013 

Maldive President Mohamed Waheed speaks at the United Nations General

Assembly on September 27, 2012 in New York (AFP/File, Stan Honda)

COLOMBO — More than half a million people have signed an online petition condemning the Maldives over the sentencing of a 15-year-old rape victim to 100 lashes for pre-marital sex with another man.

The petition, started two days ago by New York-based campaign group avaarz.org, calls on Maldives President Mohamed Waheed to intervene and had been signed by 650,000 users on Friday afternoon.

"Let's build a million-strong petition... then threaten the islands' reputation through hard-hitting ads in travel magazines and online until he steps in to save her and abolish this outrageous law," Avaaz said on its website.

Last month the unidentified Maldivian girl was sentenced to a public flogging after police investigating a complaint that she was raped by her stepfather found that she had also been having consensual sex with another man.

President Waheed had expressed shock and asked the state attorney general to appeal the conviction amid an international outcry and condemnation from rights groups such as Amnesty International.

Under law in the Maldives, a low-lying archipelago of coral-fringed islands populated by 330,000 Sunni Muslims, the flogging will be carried out when the girl reaches the age of 18.

Premarital sex is illegal in the popular honeymoon destination, which observes elements of Islamic Sharia law as well as English common law. The fornication law is not known to have been applied to foreign tourists.

The child's stepfather is accused of rape and the murder of a baby born to his stepdaughter as a result. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

In September, a court in the Maldives ordered the public flogging of a 16-year-old who confessed to premarital sex. Her lover was jailed for 10 years.

The Avaaz.org petition can be seen .

On the Net:

• here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/maldives_global/?wSxzsdb

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SBY Says He Hopes No One Else Is Victimized by Tax Data Leaks

Jakarta Globe, Ezra Sihite, March 21, 2013

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono submits his tax returns to the Finance
Ministry on Thursday (Photo Courtesy of Presidential Office)  

   

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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Thursday that he hoped no one else would be victimized by the leakage of confidential tax data the way he and his family were.

“I’m very concerned that the tax returns are still being leaked. This is a crime because the information is confidential and protected by the Constitution,” Yudhotono said after handing in his 2012 tax returns to the Finance Ministry.

“I hope the Taxation Directorate General [of the Finance Ministry] will investigate and act on it. If we don't prevent it, it can be used to blackmail taxpayers. I have been victimized, and media gave the impression that I did not fulfill my tax obligations,” he added.

Recent media reports revealed discrepancies between the annual earnings of Yudhoyono, his first son Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, an army major, and his second son Edhie Baskoro, a lawmaker, and the amount of money in their bank accounts that were opened in the same year. 



Yudhoyono reportedly earned Rp 1.37 billion ($141,000) during 2011 plus Rp 107 million income from royalties. But in the same year, he opened bank accounts totaling Rp 4.98 billion and $589,188, according to an Indonesian newspaper.



The president said these figures were different from data supplied by the Taxation Directorate General at the Finance Ministry, according to antaranews.com, but declined to explain further as he was not authorized to do so because of a law stipulating “tax secrecy.”

“I didn't pay even Rp 1 less than what I had to; it's not good,” he said, adding that he was very disciplined in paying his taxes and checked them thoroughly before and after paying them.

The president said the tax directorate general must act quickly to clarify the suspicion that the confidentiality of tax reports has been compromised.

“In my case, even though it was eventually clarified, the damage has been done. I just want to prevent the damage from happening to anyone else,” he said.

Chinese investments welcomed abroad except in US: commerce minister

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-03-10

China's commerce minister Chen Deming at a press conference in Beijing.
(Photo/CNS)

Chinese investments have been welcomed around the world except by the United States, which only approved one third of all foreign investments from China, according to Chen Deming, China's commerce minister.

During a press conference of the 12th National People's Congress in Beijing on Friday, Chen said China's Go Out policy — in which the government encourages domestic businesses to make direct foreign investments — has received a warm welcome around the world.

Chen said he has met with senior officials from more than a hundred countries in the last five years, including those from two African countries which have benefited greatly from Chinese investments recently.

However, individual members in the parliaments of certain developed counties do not approve China's policy, said Chen, adding that they still viewed Chinese businesses with a Cold War mindset and an ideological perspective. He said he believes they are not the mainstream voices of those countries nor reflect the opinion of the general public.

The minister also said Chinese investment has become increasingly popular in the US, which had previously only approved one third of foreign investments from China. Chen said he believes the situation will change as he has met with several US governors, mayors and state congresses who welcome Chinese investments. The US government also finally approved state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp's acquisition of Canadian energy firm Nexen in February, despite "several unfair, slightly discriminatory" terms, Chen said. The acquisition was the China's largest foreign investment overseas to date.

The deal suggests the US government is evaluating the situation to fine-tune their policies. The minister believes the number of countries welcoming Chinese investment will increase as Chinese businesses explore other markets and work with companies in other countries.

The Chinese government will help its businesses protect their rights overseas and ask other foreign governments to protect Chinese investments in accordance with their laws, Chen said. To this end, the ministry will sign investment protection agreements with other countries, especially developed ones, reported the state-run China News Service.　

References:

Chen Deming　　陳德銘

What The FUQ? - Frequently Unanswered Questions of the "Australian Government" - Documentary

Learn more at http://www.truth-now.net

Join us on the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/FUQAG

Frequently Unanswered Questions of the "Australian Government" - a Documentary questioning those claiming Government status as to whether they really are Government. Follow the process of importing a 1959 Chevrolet Corvette as the Department of Transport blocks import, to the Department of Environment getting in the way. Finally, see what happens when "Customs" demands GST and Luxury Car Tax.

A must see for anyone dealing with "Government."

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The One Peoples Public Trust Forecloses on Major Corporations, Including Banks (Press Release)


CNBC Admits We're All Slaves To Rothschild Central Bankers Global Government

The Large Families that rule the world

Who Controls America? Who Controls Wall Street? (72% Jews)

These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America


A summary of what the Iluminati have done can be read in “I Accuse” - New

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, Feb 18, 2013)

"... The Rothschild faction of the Illuminati, which governed its empire from London and the Vatican, lost its media foothold along with its other powers in that part of the world. A section of the Illuminati’s Rockefeller faction, headquartered in Washington, DC, and New York City, still has influence on major media in the US as well as on Wall Street; and their lingering foothold in Congress is evident in the intransigence that has stagnated progress. ..."