Keywords:  central leadership,  anti-corruption, GDP, carbon emissions, property trading tax, labour, Huawei, HIV

Politics

• Xi Jinping, a new Politburo Standing Committe member, has officially succeeded Vice-President Zeng Qinghong as Beijing’s top man overseeing Hong Kong affairs. A local delegate to the CPPCC said Mr Xi who has served as Fujian governor and party secretary of Zhejiang was acquainted with Hong Kong affairs, as many Hong Kong businessmen invested in the two provinces.
• The latest white paper, titled ‘On China’s Poltical Party System’, dedicated many of its 15000 words to explaining why rule by the Communist Party was necessary and the right choice for the country. The mainland has in recent years used such papers to counter criticism of its policies on issues such as human rights and military expansion. In 2005, it issued a 74-page white paper on its democratic achievements after the US government issued an even lengthier report detailing what it viewed as the mainland’s lack of democracy.
• The Lanshi town post office director He Liqiong will soon stand trial, accused of siphoning off about 1.8 billion yuan in savings account deposits to pay off her gambling debts in Macau and make investments, according to mainland media reports. The depositors including state-owned and private enterprises, villagers and He’s friends had been told that, over 3 years they could earn 5% annual interest or about 2% points more than standard bank rates if they opened postal savings accounts in He’s branch and deposited money for 3 years.
• Nothing is more politically sensitive and riskier on the mainland than publiclly speculating about the personal lives and family members of top government and Party leaders. Earlier this month, TVBS, a Taiwanese cable news station, reported that Zhang Peili, Mr Wen’s wife, loved Taiwanese-made jewellery and had bough earrings and rings worth 2 million yuan a piece at an international exhibition in Beijing last year. Last Tuesday, the dealer and the group leader representing the Taiwanese jewellery makers a the Bejing exhibition took the unusal move of putting an advertisement in some Chinese-language newspapers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, apologising to Ms Zhang and accusing the media of distorting facts and misleading the public.

Economy

• The tax authority has no immediate plans to impose tax on gains from shares and property trading despite requiring high-income earners to declare such earnings. The tax bureau issue revised guidelines saying that from the start of next year, people with an annual income exceeding 120000 yuan would have to declare their earnings from stocks and property investments.
• Premier Wen Jiabao revealed that the mainland’s GDP was set to reach 11.5% this year, a figure much higher than his forecast when he delivered his government report in March. ‘The first measure is to prevent the economy from developing a bit too fast and becoming overheated. The second is to prevent spiralling commodity prices from being manifested as inflation.’  Mr Wen said.
• Wen Jiabao criticised Shenzhen banks for limitinig cash withdrawals, saying other tactics could be used against the illicit flow of funds to Hong Kong. The controls have faced a backlash from business and the general public, with many observers saying the immature nature of the mainland banking system was to blame. Mr Wen said about half the nation’s cash withdrawals were made in Shenzhen and the government would not allow money flows involving underground banks. Some of the nation’s biggest companies have been implicated. Sinopec has ceased dealings with the Hong Kong customers using allegedly illegal underground financiers to help them buy cheap fuel.

Environment

• Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to keep China’s carbon emissions at 2005 levels as East Asian leaders agreed to a weaker-than-expected climate change pact. Speaking on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Singapore, he also reiterated China’s pledge to reduce energy consumption by 20% per unit of GDP. The final declaration pledged setting voluntary goals by 2009 and expanding forest areas by at least 15 million hectares by 2020.
• Plans are well advanced for the mainland’s first national exchange for trading pollution quotas, which would cover an unprecedented at least 12 chemicals. The China Beijing Equity Exchange, the mainland’s second biggest, helps unlisted companies, particularly unlisted state-owned enterprises, sell assets, in this case pollution credits. A regional emissions trading platform began running this month in Jiaxing, Zhejiang.
• China has announced plans to confront environmental and geological problems around the Three Gorges Dam, even as a landslide in the region Tuesday killed one construction worker, injured a second and trapped 2 others beneath a moud of fallen earth. State media described ‘seven projects’ focused on guaranteeing safe drinking water, curbing municipal and industrial dumping, and instituting an environmental monitoring system.

Society

• The Agricultural Bank of China has caused a furore by placing 2 half-page announcements in a Guangzhou newspaper listing the personal details including debtor’s names, identification card numbers, university and amount owed of 535 college graduates who owe it money. An academic said the release of information was not illegal because the students were at fault.
• Employers who force job applicants to take hepatitis B test will face a 1000 yuan fine under new labour ministry rules, measures which rights activists have hailed as the first concrete steps to fight discrimination against mainland carriers.
• Telecommunications hardware giant Huawei has suspended a controversial plan to persuade thousands of long-serving employees to resign ahead of a new labour law after All-China Federation of Trade Unions stepped in.

Foreign Affair

• The Chinese government announced that it had confirmed the presence of poison on toy beads exported around the world, while the US, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said that 7 more children had been sickened.
• China will relax a long-standing rule that bars foreigners with HIV from entering the country, a health official said. The 1994 law bans foreigners with HIV, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases or turberculosis. The law has stopped those with HIV or AIDS from attending conferences on the disease in China.

Taiwan

• Taiwan says it blocked the planned appointment of the first WTO judge from the mainland because of concerns about a lack of impartiality. Acting Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokewoman said ‘There have been countless examples of foul play by China to try to discriminate against and suppress Taiwan since we joined the WTO, and we couldn’t help but think our rights and interests could be undermined if a judge is to represent China.’
• Taiwan’s high court has reversed a district court decision in June that annulled the electoral victory of the Kaohsiung mayor – Chen Chu of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Ms Chen was elected mayor last December by a razor-thin margin over her KMT opponent, Huang Chun-ying. According to the ruling, although Ms Chen’s camp was suspected of having damaged the reputation of Mr Huang by accusing him of vote-buying, there was no stipulation in the election and recall law to penalise such tactics.

Hong Kong/ Macau

• The DAB scored a landslide victory in Sunday’s polls, a reversal of fortunes that also saw the pan-democrats suffer their worst defeat in a district council election. Analysts attributed the pan-democrats’ crushing defeat to the DAB’s strong electioneering machinery and an upturn in social sentiment. The DAB and its allies were dealt a severe blow in the 2003 election amid the social and political greviances that spurred half a million people to take to the streets on July 1 that year.
• Hong Kong has been admitted to the C40 group of cities tackling climate change – but does not have to reach any particular benchmarks to stay. Donald Tsang accepted an invitation to join after pledging in his policy address to seek a 25% reduction in ‘energy intensity’ by 2030 in line with Apec’s Sydney Declaration. The group is working with member cities, through the Clinton Climate Initiative set up by former US president Bill Clinton, on projects to help cut emissions, including a digita measurement tool for computing total CO2 emissions and on procurement deals for buying affordable eco-friendly technology.
• A plan to set up a non-mandatory central provident fund was unveiled by Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho as part of his package to tackle snowballing social problems. He admitted inadequacy in estimating and coping with social problems that surfaced in the city’s economic development.