Need2LearnChinese Blog

Foreign auto makers will display a large number of new models at the Beijing auto show next week, hoping the booming market in China will offset sales slumps elsewhere in the world.

Big global names saw their sales growth far outpace the industry average in China, where passenger car sales rose 20 percent to 1.85 million in the first quarter.

But new vehicle sales in the United States hit a 15-year low as consumers held back due to concerns about soaring oil prices and the spreading credit crisis.

The biennial Beijing auto show has attracted all the world's major auto makers - including General Motors, BMW, Toyota and Honda - and none of the big names will be absent, the organizers said.

Ford Motor Co plans to show 55 vehicles in its 5,500-square-meter exhibition space, the largest for a single company in the history of the auto show.

The US auto giant boosted its China sales by 47 percent in the first quarter compared with a year ago, while its US sales dropped 14 percent in March. 

Ford had recorded fast growth in China for four consecutive years and would introduce more models and technologies to expand the business in China, Ford China CEO Robert Graziano said last week.

Volkswagen AG will wheel in a record 31 vehicles at the biggest event of the Chinese automotive industry. The largest European auto maker will debut two sedans tailor-made for the Chinese market and showcase the highly anticipated Passat CC sedan and Tiguan sport-utility vehicle for the first time in China.

Volkswagen reported a 32.5-percent jump in China sales in the first quarter, with its two Chinese ventures at the top of the domestic sales rankings. Its first-quarter sales rose only 7 percent globally and declined 0.7 percent in the US.

The first foreign auto maker to produce in China would sell a record 1 million cars in the country this year and maintain its position as an industry leader, Volkswagen China CEO Winfried Vahland said.

German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz, which saw its first-quarter sales soar 40 percent in China, nearly four times the global rise, will show 33 vehicles, including the super luxury Maybach and a particularly clean diesel hybrid model.

The fast growth in the world's fourth-largest economy had resulted in a growing rank of nouveau riche and made luxury cars affordable to an increasing number of people.

Vehicle production and sales both surged more than 20 percent to a record 8.8 million units in China last year, in contrast to weakening sales worldwide. Foreign brands held three-fourths share of the Chinese sedan market.

Analysts forecast that both China's auto output and sales will continue to expand at double-digit rates in 2008 to 10 million as the economy grows rapidly and the government tries to encourage people to spend money.

Posted by jialilyus at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

options

"I've heard some news about that," Yi said through an interpreter Thursday, one day after completing his rookie season with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks. "Right now, I'm not too worried about it. I still have full confidence that these kinds of protests are not going to influence the Beijing Olympics in any way."

Will he be asked to carry the torch?

"I hope so," Yi said, bypassing his interpreter to speak in English.

After an up-and-down rookie season with the Bucks, Yi said he was looking forward to the Olympics.

"I'm very excited," Yi said, through his interpreter. "Often, I catch myself thinking and imagining about the Olympics right now. And right now, to play and have the Olympics right at our front door and look and see across the stadium and it's all Chinese fans, this is something I'm really excited about."

Yi played in 66 games for Milwaukee, averaging 8.6 points. He wore down toward the end of the season, sitting out much of April with nagging injuries.

Yi, whose handlers initially said he wouldn't play for the Bucks after last year's draft, said his first season there turned out to be an "interesting experience" - especially with all that cold and snow.

"I felt that it was a really interesting experience," Yi said. "This is (my) first time living in America for so long. This is the first time being in a place with this much snow that's this cold." "I'm going to put a lot of hard work into playing," Yi said.

Bucks center Andrew Bogut, who will play for Australia in the games, said players from his country have been asked not to make politically charged statements.

"I don't like politicians and I don't like politics, so it's kind of tough to follow," Bogut said. "It's a tough subject to comment on in a way because everyone has their different opinions and people will judge you on what you say.

But it's a tough time for both sides of it. Hopefully nothing drastic will happen with these Olympic games."

Posted by jialilyus at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

options

People in Shanghai are to be able to access broadband wireless networks in the city through Shanghai Mobile's services at a lower cost than at present, the city's biggest mobile phone operator said yesterday after signing agreements with the city agency for IT industry promotion.

Shanghai Mobile is to establish 666 additional Wi-Fi base stations at the Olympic Games and World Expo sites. At present, it has about 100 to 200 Wi-Fi sites at hotels and airports.

Meanwhile, Shanghai Mobile plans to establish a total of 3,000 3G base stations to cover the region within the Outer Ring Road, which will also provide wireless broadband services besides mobile communications functions. "As a modern city, Shanghai should have a wireless Internet network without the limit of space and time.

People can enjoy video, game and commercial applications through the wireless networks," said Zheng Jie, Shanghai Mobile's general manager.

Shanghai Mobile has established a 2.75G mobile network citywide, which is also able to provide wireless Internet access but with a slower speed compared to 3G.

People can choose the services they require and pay for different packages according to speed.

The final cost will be determined by the base of users, but will be "much lower than the current level", according to Henry Fan, a Shanghai Mobile market manager.

Posted by jialilyus at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

options

A Chinese man is hoping to get in the record books after creating what he claims is the world's largest working mobile phone.

Mr Tan, of Songyuan city, says his 3ft high phone, which weighs 48lbs, is an exact copy of his own phone - but 620 times bigger.

A local journalist tested the phone by making calls and sending text messages and pronounced it completely functional, reports City News.

Tan says it has all the functions of a normal phone, with a built-in camera and internet access but has to be plugged into the mains as he hasn't managed to build a big enough battery.

Apparently, the only thing the phone is missing right now is the vibration feature. After 6 months of hard work and disturbing the neighbours and the family, no wonder he pissed off his wife.

Posted by jialilyus at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

options

China’s currency rose steeply against the dollar this week, feeding speculation that Chinese authorities were allowing their currency to appreciate more rapidly.

The currency, known as the yuan or renminbi, rose 0.9 percent this week -- faster than over any week since China stopped pegging it to the dollar on July 21, 2005. Thursday, the yuan rose 0.37 percent, the largest one-day increase since the peg ended. On Friday, it rose 0.18 percent, to close at 7.3041 to the dollar in Shanghai trading.

Yao Jingyuan, the chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics in China, said Chinese officials were trying to figure out their next currency move.

"It is certain that the yuan will appreciate -- the time frame and magnitude of the adjustment is difficult to confirm at the current time. We are busy studying this issue right now," he said in a telephone interview. "What I can say is that it will be dependent on China's overall economic environment and outlook."

Yu Yongding, the director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and until last year a member of the monetary policy committee of China's central bank, said that rising inflation at home was making it much easier for the Chinese government to accept a stronger yuan.

Until recently, the government worried that allowing the currency to rise would let in more imports and stifle exports, leading to deflation. But China's consumer price index was up 6.9 percent in November compared with a year earlier, led by an 18.2 percent rise in food prices.

A sustained appreciation of the yuan could ease frictions somewhat with the United States, the European Union and Japan.

The comments by Mr. Yao and Mr. Yu are the latest in a series of hints from current and former officials that suggest the country’s leadership is beginning to see some advantages to a stronger currency.

On Thursday, the newspaper China Securities Journal reported that Ba Shusong, a deputy director at the government's elite State Council Development and Research Center, had called for yuan appreciation to slow the rise of food and fuel prices. China imports half of its oil, but relatively little of its food. And on Monday, a newspaper in Shenzhen reported that central bank officials had suggested to the State Council, China's cabinet, a one-time increase in the yuan's value.

The central bank has long favored a stronger yuan, but the commerce ministry and interest groups have blocked it. Mr. Yu, like most of his Western counterparts, said the government is less likely to opt for a one-time revaluation and more likely to choose a faster pace of daily appreciation.

The danger of allowing a steady rise in the yuan's value, instead of a quick jump, is that it may encourage speculators to pour more money into China in an effort to ride the increasing value. The country's foreign exchange reserves are already rising by roughly US$1 billion a day, mainly because of a trade surplus that has continued to grow despite a 7 percent increase in the yuan against the dollar this year.

By comparison, the yuan rose just 3.3 percent against the dollar in 2006.

Mr. Yu said that China has become less attractive to speculators. He pointed to the ranking of China's stock markets as among the world's costliest in terms of price-to-earnings ratios; limits on foreign investments in already high-priced real estate markets; and restrictions on foreign money entering domestic money markets.

Hong Liang, a Goldman Sachs economist based in Hong Kong, expects faster appreciation next year but not a one-time revaluation.

Bloomberg News found that the median estimate of 28 analysts was for the yuan to reach 6.88 to the dollar next year; that would mean a further increase of 6.2 percent from the close Friday.

Stock markets fell across China Friday, partly in reaction to Thursday's stock market drop on Wall Street but also on the prospect that a stronger Chinese currency could narrow profit margins for many Chinese exporters. The Shanghai A share index declined 0.89 percent, the Shenzhen A share index fell 0.45 percent and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong plunged 1.7 percent.

Opposition to faster yuan appreciation has come from three directions in China, according to Chinese political and currency experts.

The most vocal bloc consists of exporters, who worry that an ever more valuable yuan will result in narrower profit margins. Chinese factories also face higher costs after Jan. 1 as a new labor law takes effect that could make it much harder to dismiss less productive employees.

But after years of having their prices beaten down by Wal-Mart and other big corporate buyers, Chinese factories have discovered this year that they can push through price increases.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics price index for American imports from China fell steadily from when the American government began calculating the series at the end of 2003 until February of this year. But it jumped 2.4 percent from February through November as businesses in China experienced such strong demand that they were able to raise prices and still keep assembly lines full.

Opposition to faster appreciation also has come from political leaders worried about urban unemployment.

But this worry seems to be abating as exporters have shown their ability to thrive even with currency appreciation, with Chinese exports 22.8 percent higher last month than a year earlier.

Until very recently, the third obstacle to a much stronger yuan has been the danger that it would lead to cheap food imports that would drive down the prices realized by China's farmers. This has been particularly important because many officials, from President Hu Jintao on down, want to narrow the gap between rural and urban incomes.

Higher food prices have benefited many peasant farmers this year, increasing their incomes as they sell their crops for more money. Not all peasants have gained, however, as part of the inflation has occurred because of an epidemic among Chinese pigs as well as drought in areas of southern China.

Posted by jialilyus at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

options

President Hu Jintao lit a cauldron with the Olympic torch in Beijing's Tian'anmen Square Monday morning, launching the official start of the worldwide torch relay of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Hu then passed the torch to hurdler Liu Xiang, the men's 110m Olympic and world champion, who ran across the Golden Water Bridge in front of Tian'anmen Rostrum.

Thousands of spectators gathered at the world's largest square to welcome the arrival of the flame with a grand celebration which included the performance of Peking opera, folk acrobatics and ethnic dances.

The flame was ignited in ancient Olympia on March 24 and after a torch relay in Greece, was handed over to the hosts in Athens on Sunday. It was carried back on a specially-chartered Air China plane to the capital at around 9 am yesterday.

Vice-President Xi Jinping expressed his best wishes to the Olympic torch relay and the Olympic Games at the welcome ceremony.

"The Chinese government and people warmly welcome athletes and friends from all countries and regions to Beijing for the grand Olympic event

"Starting from here, the torch relay of the Beijing Olympic Games will pass across land and sea, connect the hearts and minds of people of five continents, and spread the message of 'one world, one dream' to every corner of the world," Xi said.

The Beijing Olympic 2008 torch relay is the longest in Olympic history, passing 134 cities in 130 days with 21,880 torchbearers covering 137,000 km.

The relay will take the flame to five continents, including 21 cities outside the Chinese mainland, 113 cities of all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the Chinese mainland and Mount Qomolangma (Everest), the highest point on Earth.

Xi said the torch relay will further imbue the Olympic spirit among 1.3 billion Chinese people.

"It will release the passion of all the Chinese people for the Olympic Games, create an enthusiastic and vibrant atmosphere in the whole society and showcase the commitment of Chinese people to welcome, participate and contribute their share to the Olympic Games," he said.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said in a message read out by IOC Coordination Commission Chairman Hein Verbruggen at the ceremony: "It is the torch's ability to touch us that allows it to reach out to the world, beyond the host city, to bring the Olympic values closer to society and call the people of the world to the Games."

Rogge said the Olympic torch is one of the most well-known and potent symbols of the Olympic movement, heralding not just the arrival of the Games but also spreading a message of peace, or "Ekecheiria" as the Greeks call it, to the world.

"I am certain that the Games will not only be a moment of sporting excellence, but also an opportunity for the people of China and the world to learn, discover and respect each other."

Many Beijing Olympic torchbearers expressed their good wishes for the journey.

Marcos Antonio Terres, a 39-year-old Filipino, told China Daily that he wished the global torch relay is "as harmonious as planned".

"The torch relay is supposed to be a symbol of peace, goodwill and friendship; and people should be inspired by those values," he said. "I feel upset that some people are trying to disrupt the torch relay and it should not be tinted with politics."

Chinese torchbearer Tu Yueming, a Beijing resident who keeps a close eye on the relay news, said: "I am praying it will be a success and I hope my friends can cheer for me on the streets," he said.

The international leg of the "Journey of Harmony" begins today at the Kazakh city of Almaty.

The flame finally arrives at the National Stadium in Beijing on Aug 8 for the opening ceremony.

Posted by jialilyus at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

options