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MONDAY, December 26, 2016

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COOPERATION

Healthy relations ‘will beneﬁt both’ By JING SHUYU and ZHONG NAN in Beijing

China will continue to develop mutually beneﬁcial and complementary trade relations with the United States regardless of US change of administration, said Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang on Friday. It is too early to predict whether bilateral trade will decrease in the next few years, though Sino-US trade volume fell slightly this year, he said at a news conference. In the first 11 months of this year, total Sino-US trade declined by 1.7 percent year-onyear to 3.08 trillion yuan ($442 billion), according to the General Administration of Customs. China’s exports to the US also declined, by 6.6 percent in dollar terms, between January and November. But the yuan-denominated volume remained roughly unchanged, said Shen. He said that the two economies are complementary in many ways, such as natural resources, human resources, market, capital and technology. Bilateral investment increased between January and November.

China-US trade (2014-2016) Trade volume (trillion yuan) 3.47 3.5 3.41 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.1 3.0 2014 2015 Year-on-year change(%)

6.4

5.4

3.08 2016 (Jan - Nov)

-1.7

China’s exports to US (2014-2016) Export volume (trillion yuan) 2.5

2.54 2.43

2.0

2014 2015 Year-on-year change(%)

6.4

4.5

2.30 2016 (Jan - Nov)

-0.9

Source: General Administration of Customs LIU LUNAN / CHINA DAILY

US investment in China rose by 15.1 percent to $2.21 billion, while China’s nonfinancial direct investment in the US grew by 159 percent year-onyear to $18.63 billion. “China and the US are mutually dependent. Economic and trade cooperation will benefit

both, while confrontation only hurts both,” he added. Earlier this week, Trump appointed Peter Navarro, reportedly a hard-liner on trade with China, as head of the newly formed White House National Trade Council, a choice that aroused public concerns. Experts say the two countries’ economic and trade ties will see a bright future despite short-term challenges. Lin Guijun, vice-chancellor of the University of International Business and Economics, said: “China and the United States should pursue a mutually beneficial solution to disputes through dialogue. It will produce a win-win situation for economic and trade cooperation.” Zhou Mi, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said bilateral economic and trade ties will remain close. Zhou predicted that trade volume will increase early next year, spurred by a more robust US economic recovery. Contact the writers at jingshuiyu@chinadaily.com. cn

Dashing through the waves The “Water-Skiing Santa and his Kneeboarding Reindeer” stage their 31st annual Christmas Eve performance on the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia, on Saturday. JOSHUA ROBERTS / REUTERS

AVIATION

China targets export sales with its latest advanced ﬁghter jet By ZHAO LEI in Beijing zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn

ANTI-MONOPOLY

GM China ﬁned in price-ﬁxing By WANG YANFEI and LI FUSHENG in Beijing

The Chinese unit of General Motors has been fined 201 million yuan ($28.9 million) for infringing on the rights of consumers and its competitors through price-fixing since 2014, the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic regulator, said on Friday. The amount was about 4 percent of SAIC GM’s sales in China last year. It was also the second time a US company was fined this month as the nation strengthens anti-monopoly regulation. Earlier this month, the commission imposed a fine of 119 million yuan on the China unit of US company Medtronic, a leading supplier of high-end medical devices, for price-fixing.

Zhang Handong, director of the NDRC’s Price Supervision Bureau, said last week that no one should read too much into the timing of the penalty decisions or the businesses that were targeted, referring to the General Motors case. The penalty came after US president-elect Donald Trump pledged to impose higher tariffs on Chinese exports and after a phone call between him and Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen on Dec 2 strained Sino-US relations. Xu Xinyu, a commission official who was in charge of the GM case, said the investigation was launched in 2014, after the commission got clues from its price report platform about the company’s monopoly practices. “The fine is fair,” said Xu. “We just aim to improve market order.”

As of Friday, the commission had issued fines on automakers totaling 2.25 billion yuan since 2014. John Zeng, managing director of LMC Automotive Consulting (Shanghai), said the fine itself will not hurt the joint venture’s profit too much, but will force SAIC GM and the industry to reconsider how to handle relations with dealers. GM’s behavior is a common practice for automakers setting minimum prices for their cars, according to Zeng. The company will provide full support to its joint venture in China to ensure that all appropriate actions and responses are taken with respect to the matter, GM China said after it was fined. Contact the writers at wang yanfei@chinadaily.com.cn

An improved version of China’s FC-31 Gyrfalcon stealth fighter jet has conducted its maiden flight in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, according to aviation industry sources. Previously known as the J-31, the twin engine, radar evading aircraft is still under development by Shenyang Aircraft Corp, part of the Aviation Industry Corp of China. The first test flight of the FC-31’s second prototype took place on Friday morning at Shenyang Aircraft Corp, four years after the first prototype took to the skies, sources said. Aviation enthusiasts posted pictures on Chinese websites, showing what they said was the second prototype in flight. A publicity officer at AVIC who declined to be named confirmed the flight test but said he was not authorized to disclose details. The FC-31 was unveiled in October 2012, when the first prototype made its maiden flight, becoming the country’s

Compared with the ﬁrst FC-31, there are a lot of improvements on the second prototype.” Wu Peixin, aviation industry observer

second fifth-generation fighter jet following the J-20, which conducted its first flight in January 2011. Deliveries of the J-20 to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force have started. Fifth-generation fighters are the most advanced available. The new FC-31 seems to have better stealth capabilities, improved electronic equipment and a larger payload capacity, said Wu Peixin, an aviation industry observer in Beijing. “Compared with the first

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MILITARY

NPC SESSION

Liaoning departs for Pacific drill Aircraft carrier heads out for long-range mission to expand naval defense capacity, test logistics By ZHAO LEI zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn

The CNS Liaoning aircraft carrier battle group has set off for the Western Pacific where it will take part in an open-sea exercise, a spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army Navy has announced. Senior Captain Liang Yang did not provide further details of the exercise on Saturday, but did say that it was part of the group’s annual training schedule. According to the PLA Navy, the group carried out “full-element” training in the East China Sea on Saturday, which mainly involved J-15 carrierborne fighter jets. The planes performed air tactical confrontation drills and air refueling operations, while ships conducted resupply training, the navy said.

“From the Bohai Sea to the Yellow Sea, and farther into the East China Sea, the carrier battle group … has been exploring integrated, systematic and realistic training methods and performed ‘fullelement’, joint exercises among the Liaoning, carrierborne aviation units and escort ships,” read a navy news release. Footage broadcast by China Central Television showed Admiral Wu Shengli, commander of the PLA Navy, aboard the Liaoning as he oversaw the battle group’s drills. It is not known whether Wu will remain aboard for the Western Pacific exercise. The Japanese Defense Ministry said on Sunday it had spotted the Liaoning group on Sunday morning as the fleet was passing through the Miyako Strait toward the

A J-15 fighter takes off from the Liaoning on Friday during a fleet training exercise in the Yellow Sea. MO XIAOLIANG / FOR CHINA DAILY

Western Pacific. The group consists of the aircraft carrier, three Type 052C and Type 052D guided missile destroyers and two Type 054A guided missile frigates, according to a Japanese news agency. In mid-December, the Lia-

oning group carried out its first live-fire exercise in the Bohai Sea. The carrier performed drills with destroyers and frigates, with scenarios including reconnaissance, aircraft interception, sea strikes and missile

defense. Multiple groups of J-15s fired missiles at designated targets, the Chinese navy said. Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said a long-distance training mission in the Western Pacific indicates that the Liaoning group has gained initial combat capability. “This will expand the Navy’s defense range and deter enemies’ offensive operations,” he said, adding that the major exercise will also test the group’s logistics ability. The PLA commissioned the CNS Liaoning in September 2012 in Dalian, Liaoning province. Its battle group took shape in December 2013, when the carrier and several escort vessels, including two guided missile destroyers, two guided missile frigates and an attack submarine took part in a long-range formation drill in the South China Sea.

HEALTHCARE

Doctors probed over drug kickbacks By ZHANG YI zhang_yi@chinadaily.com.cn

The top health authority has urged local officials to look into allegations of payment-forprescription schemes between doctors and pharmaceutical companies. Teams from the National Health and Family Planning Commission have been sent to hospitals in Shanghai and Hunan province to investigate claims that doctors have been accepting bribes, according to a statement on Sunday. The statement came a day after China Central Television broadcast the findings of an eight-month undercover investigation at six hospitals in the two places. Sales representatives from pharmaceutical companies were found to be paying doctors kickbacks to prescribe their medicine. According to the CCTV expose, they usually visited a doctor’s office at lunch, counted the medicine they had prescribed over the past month and handed them cash in an envelope. One doctor received 12 yuan ($1.70) for every box of medicine prescribed, which worked out at a total of 1,800 yuan for 150 boxes. The national health commission said it will look into the pharmaceutical companies mentioned in the CCTV program as well as work with other government departments to step up supervision and punish violations. Medics who accept kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies or accept “red envelopes” (envelopes stuffed with cash) from patients face tough penalties and even dismissal. Rules banning doctors from promoting brand-name medicines or taking commission for prescriptions were introduced in December 2014 by the national health commission and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. “Doctors aren’t well paid and their work is not respected by today’s society, so when they’re given the chance to get cash from sales representatives it’s hard for them to resist the temptation,” said Fu Hongpeng, a researcher for the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Japan food fears spark Taiwan protest Residents of New Taipei City, Taiwan, protest against Japanese food imports on Sunday, as the island’s food and public health authorities hold a public hearing on the risks of importing food from Japan after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station accident. The plant was damaged by a tsunami on March 11, 2011, which resulted in a leakage of radioactive substances. HUANG SHIQI / CHINA TIMES

New supervision minister appointed By CHINA DAILY

Yang Xiaodu has been named minister of supervision, the latest in a handful of appointments for senior positions in the central government. The announcement was made on Sunday during a meeting of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee after a vote. Yang, 63, has been deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party’s top anti-graft body, since January 2014. He has spent most of his career in the Tibet autonomous region and Shanghai.

He started as deputy manager of a pharmaceutical company in Tibet and then worked Yang Xiaodu for the local government. He was vicechairman of the autonomous region between May 1998 and May 2001. Yang served as deputy mayor of Shanghai between May 2001 and October 2006 and also held other positions in the city, including the head of the local discipline commission, before joining the CCDI in 2013.

More efforts pledged to boost work safety By XINHUA

China will do more to ensure that workplace safety rules are better enforced, State Councilor Wang Yong said Saturday. “Despite progress, work safety remains in a severe situation,” he said while answering legislators’ questions at a joint inquiry meeting. The meeting was part of the bimonthly session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee that ended Sunday. Legislation on work safety will be improved, and supervision and inspections will be stepped up, Wang said. He added that the authorities will focus on key industries and sectors to prevent serious accidents. In answer to a legislator’s question about coal mine accidents, Yang Huanning, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, said such accidents were the result of inadequate investment in equipment and weak safety management. Supervisors will be sent to more than 7,000 coal mines nationwide along with 30 secret investigation teams, he said, adding that regions or mines that are found to have work safety problems will be named and shamed. At Saturday’s meeting, Chen Zhenggao, minister of

Despite progress, work safety remains in a severe situation.” Wang Yong, State Councilor

housing and urban-rural development, called for standardized supervision on the construction quality of homes in rural areas, as frequent accidents have occurred. Vice-Minister of Agriculture Chen Xiaohua also said over 1,000 people a year are killed in accidents involving farm machinery. “We have improved management of license plates for tractors and combine harvesters and driver’s licenses, and provided subsidies for farmers to buy better-quality machinery,” Chen said. He said China has about 25 million tractors and combine harvesters. Legislators also discussed a report on traffic safety. Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng promised to make it easier for the public to report illegally modified or overloaded trucks and vowed tougher penalties for violations.

WILDLIFE

Positive signs for panda after intestines op By HUANG ZHILING in Chengdu huangzhiling@chinadaily.com.cn

A giant panda that underwent surgery this month to remove an intestinal blockage is recovering well, according to experts at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Despite the rain, Nan Nan, a 3-year-old female, was seen on Sunday morning leisurely eating a breakfast of bamboo leaves on a hillside in Sichuan province. “She is recovering from her operation to remove an obstruction in her intestines,” a condition that can prove fatal for pandas, said Lan Jingchao, head of the base’s animal hospital. In fact, Nan Nan could be the first to survive the surgery, according to Zhang Zhihe, director of the research base. He said that in the 1990s a panda with the same symptoms died after a similar operation. On the morning of Dec 1, keepers noticed that Nan Nan was restless and was having trouble defecating. Veterinarians went on to remove about 2 kilograms of droppings

Nan Nan, a female giant panda, undergoes surgery on Dec 3 for an intestinal blockage at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan province. ZHANG ZHIHE / FOR CHINA DAILY

from her transverse colon, descending colon and recta. “We thought she was OK, but the symptoms returned in the evening,” said Yang Zhi, who is in charge of disease prevention and control at the base. An ultrasound examination showed a large blockage affecting Nan Nan’s colon, descending colon and sigmoid flexure. Again, nearly 2 kg of droppings were removed, but the vets could not access the

upper part of her colon. “We had to ask experts from the Nuclear Industry 416 Hospital in Chengdu for help,” Lan said. He said that on the morning of Dec 3, a team of 11 surgeons, anesthetists and nurses from the hospital performed surgery on the panda at the base. In an operation that lasted two hours, doctors cut open Nan Nan’s intestinal wall and extracted about 2.8 kg of droppings.

Yet the work was only half done. Pandas have sharp claws, and when Nan Nan feels itchy, she will scratch, which could reopen the wound and cause an infection, according to Yang Kuixing in the base’s animal management office. Two workers have been taking turns to stay in her den around the clock. Whenever she tries to touch, bite or lick her wound, panda keeper Dai Sha said they shout “Nan Nan, stop!” She added, “Although she can’t understand what we say, it diverts her attention.” Before the operation, Nan Nan would usually eat more than 10 kg of food a day. Over the past two weeks, her appetite has gradually started to recover and she is now eating 2 to 3 kg of bamboo leaves and bread a day. “We fear too much food could be detrimental to her recovery, but she is getting enough nutrients, as she gets a liquid made of trace elements, protein and amino acid,” Lan said. Doctors have said it will take Nan Nan at least six months to make a full recovery, he added.

TCM: Law defines clear boundaries for treatment of patients CHINA DAILY USA

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Tel:Annually, 416-481-5706 they receive an average 910 million visits nationwide, it said. “The law will help bring more competent TCM doctors to the patients,” said Wang Guoqiang. By clearly setting the boundaries of treatment, the CHINAhelps DAILY (ISSN 0748- fake law eliminate TCM whoexcept often 6154) is doctors published daily boast they can cure all disweekends by China Daily USA, eases, Deng said. 1500 Broadway, Suite 2800, “That protects patients’ rights and healthPeriodical and the New York, NY 10036. reputation of TCM,” he said. postage paid at New York, TCM products and NY services can be advertised only and additional mailing offices. with approval POSTMASTER: Send from addressthe local TCM authority, the law changes to CHINA DAILY USA, stipulates. To Broadway, safeguard consumers’ 1500 Suite 2800, New health, the law also calls for York, NY 10036. strengthened management © 2016 China Daily over and quality control Rights Reserved and TCM All raw materials 36 — No. 11044 relatedVol.procedures including raising, planting, collecting and stocking such materials. Highly toxic pesticides A member cannot be used toofcultivate medicinal it said. the Asiaherbs, News Network

Advertising: 212-537-8916 Follow on: law stipulates Theusnew that practitioners must pass twitter.com/chinadailyusa exams highlighting practical facebook.com/chinadailyusa skills treatment outWebsite:and www.chinadailyusa.com comes by provincial-level These materials are distributed TCM authorities, and obtain by China Daily Distribution Corp. recommendations from two on behalf of China Daily Beijing, certified practitioners. China. Additional information is on That’s a major breakﬁle with the Department of Justice, through as “many compeWashington, DC. tent TCM doctors work underground since they WASHINGTON couldn’t pass the exams for National Press Bldg, Suite medical doctors that1108 focus 529 Western 14th Streetmedicine NW on or the Washington, DC 20045 English tests”, he explained. law also makes it easTel:The 202-662-7249 ier open individual pracFax: to 202-662-7247 tices and clinics by requiring only the filing of a record at SAN FRANCISCO the local health authority, 575 Market Street, Suite 1875 instead of an approval, he San Francisco, CA 94105 added. Tel:There 415-348-8288 are 3,966 TCM hosFax: 415-348-8388 pitals and 42,528 TCM clinics across the country with roughly SEATTLE452,000 practitioners, according to a white 800 Fifth Ave, Suite 4100 paper on TCM issued by the Seattle, WA 98104 State Council Information Tel:206-922-2868 Office this month.

CHINA Monday, December 26, 2016

Tibetan patients always show deep gratitude toward doctors, which is rarely seen elsewhere.”

Xxxxxxxx

Yu Yabin, pediatrician from the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital

CHINA DAILY USA » CHINADAILYUSA.COM

EDUCATION

Briefly

Postgrad test-takers set record

BEIJING

Xi: Key to stability is Party regulation President Xi Jinping has given instructions to strengthen the intra-Party regulation system. Xi said improving Party regulations is a long-term and fundamental strategy toward achieving stricter Party governance. The Party should employ the spirit of reform and innovation to establish a relatively complete regulatory system by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, he said.

Ever-growing number means greater difficulty landing job in China next year

New guideline set for western China The Guideline on Western China Development for the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) was approved at a State Council meeting on Friday, which was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang. Li urged western China to align with the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt to achieve healthy and sustainable growth. CHINA DAILY — XINHUA

By ZHAO XINYING zhaoxinying@ chinadaily.com.cn

Cold fish Fishermen display their catch on frozen Changling Lake in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, on Sunday to mark the start of a two-monthlong ice-fishing festival. SUN YAN / FOR CHINA DAILY

CHARITY

Girl with leukemia dies after fundraising effort By XINHUA in Shenzhen

A 5-year-old girl with leukemia has died one month after her father’s fundraising blog received wide attention from Chinese netizens. The girl, nicknamed Xiao Xiao, died at Shenzhen University Health Science Center at 6 am on Saturday. Her parents donated her body to the center for clinical research. Gao Min of the Shenzhen Red Cross Society told Xinhua News Agency that Xiao Xiao’s parents had bought her some new clothes and planned to

dress her up as Santa Claus to celebrate Christmas. The father, Luo Er, first wrote about the infant on Nov 25. She was diagnosed with a low blood platelet count in September and hospitalized soon after. To raise money for her treatment, Luo began writing about his daughter and her illness on WeChat. His journals were not widely read until Xiaotongren, a Shenzhen-based finance company, said it would donate 1 yuan ($0.15) for each reposting of the article. The father’s article entitled

“Luo Yixiao, Stop” went viral. Luo described how he was signing up for the Red Cross Angel Plan. “I do not want to take advantage of the government,” he wrote. “I want to tell my daughter that I am doing all I can, but she must wait for me.” “Luo Yixiao, don’t run away,” he wrote. “You must be a good girl and come home with me.” He gently chided her: “If you run away to heaven, even if you are an angel, one day when we meet there, I will not talk to you.” As of Nov 30, the article had been read and liked by more

than 100,000 people on WeChat, raising more than 2 million yuan from Xiaotongren and from readers. As Luo’s journal grew in popularity, people became interested in his private life. It was soon disclosed that he owns three apartments, implying that he perhaps had the means to fund his daughter’s treatment without requiring donations from the public. Suddenly, far from drawing the sympathy of millions, Lou was denounced as a cheat who had taken advantage of people’s kindness.

Luo made no secret of having three apartments, but said he was planning to use the money raised to set up a foundation for children living with leukemia. Luo said he was in mourning when contacted by Xinhua by telephone on Saturday. He added that he hadn’t expected his daughter to pass away so quickly and expressed his gratitude to everyone who tried to help.

Inside Inside Comment p12 Comment >> p9

NATURAL RESOURCES

Geothermal energy could help cut emissions By JU CHUANJIANG and ZHAO RUIXUE in Jinan

A source of geothermal energy that has the potential to supply millions of people with heating and electricity for decades has been detected in Shandong province. The province’s No 1 Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources has detected rock temperatures as high as 110 C at a depth of 1,240 meters beneath the earth’s surface. Jing Xiaodong, from the institute, said temperatures could reach 150C to 200 C at the drill hole maximum depth

of 4,000 meters. “This hot dry rock resource can be used to produce power in a very environmentally friendly way, and the cost of generating power from hot dry rock is much lower than with coal,” Jing said. The institute has located two regions of hot rock under the cities of Weihai and Yantai. If just 2 percent of the geothermal energy contained in those two regions was utilized, it could supply Shandong with heat and electricity for 38 years, Jing said. “We still need two more years to carry out detailed sur-

Hot dry rock could make a great contribution to cutting China’s emissions and solving our energy problems.” Wang Bingchen, official from National Geothermal Energy Center

veys on the two regions to collect data for overall exploration work,” Jing said. China started developing geothermal energy from hot dry rock in 2012. Geological and mineral resources explorers in Northwest China’s Qinghai province detected rock temperatures as high as 153 C at a depth of 2,230 meters beneath the earth’s surface in 2014, making the region the first known hot dry rock resource in China. “Hot dry rock could make a great contribution to cutting China’s emissions and solving our energy problems,” said

Wang Bingchen of the National Geothermal Energy Center at a geothermal energy forum held in Beijing in November. Wang said the most complex technology for developing hot dry rock involves the drilling of the production well. “The technology for drilling the production well to reach the hot rock is in its fledging step in China. Supporting technologies of developing hot dry rock should be developed as soon as possible,” Wang said. Contact the writers at zhaoruixue @chinadaily.com.cn

A record-breaking 2 million people registered to take the national entrance examination for postgraduates, which were held over the weekend. The figure, released on Saturday by the Ministry of Education on its micro blog, represented a 14 percent increase over last year, when 1.77 million people applied to take the two-day exam. Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, an education think tank, said the surge was partly due to a newly implemented policy requiring people who apply for part-time postgraduate programs to take the exam. The number of people who applied for part-time programs was not released. Previously, such applicants only had to submit required documents and pass interviews organized by universities. Xiong said China’s economic and employment environment is a major reason for the surge in the number of people registering to take the exam. Statistics from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security showed that the number of college graduates in 2017 is expected to reach nearly 8 million, which would be a record high. The ever-growing number of graduates has made it increasingly difficult for students to land jobs. “Under such circumstances, taking the exam and then pursuing further education would be a good option,” Xiong said. An online survey conducted by eol.cn, a Chinese education portal, found that 35 percent of respondents chose to take the exam to add to their competitiveness in the job market, because students holding only a bachelor’s degree will not stand out when applying for jobs. In addition, 31 percent of respondents said that they wanted to take the exam and

Postgrad test-takers Number of people taking the national entrance test for postgraduate studies, by enrollment year Unit: million 2017 2.01 1.77 2016 1.65 2015 2014 1.72 2013 1.76 1.66 2012 1.51 2011 1.41 2010 Source: Ministry of Education and education portal eol.cn LIU CHEN / CHINA DAILY

Taking the exam and then pursuing further education would be a good option.” Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute

pursue a higher-level degree to “improve their academic research ability”. Li Shengwei, a senior student of international law at Central University of Finance and Economics, took the exam in Beijing over the weekend. The 22-yearold said he hoped to pass the exam and be admitted to Tsinghua University, because attending one of China’s top universities “would offer a better platform, both in terms of academic and employment prospects”. As a threshold for people who want to pursue postgraduate studies in China, the exam has received more than 1.5 million applicants since 2011. Although the number of applicants fell for two consecutive years in 2014 and 2015, it surged last year. The number of people passing the exam and being admitted to a master’s program has remained at about 500,000 annually in recent years. Li Hongyang contributed to this story.

HEALTH

Doctor-sharing making a difference in Tibetan hospitals By PALDEN NYIMA and DAQIONG in Lhasa

While awaiting surgery to remove tumors from her uterus, Tibetan Lingkyi Drolkar said she was pleased to hear that it was a doctor from Beijing who would perform the operation. “I heard Lhasa People’s Hospital had been sent doctors from Beijing as part of an aid program, so I chose this hospital for my surgery,” the 49-year-old said. Since 1995, China’s central government has been sending doctors to the Tibet autonomous region to improve its healthcare system.

Last year, the Communist Party of China Central Committee’s Organization Department expanded the Aid-Tibet Program. As part of the program, 16 medical teams consisting of more than 300 doctors were dispatched to Tibet over the past 15 months by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning. The first batch was relieved by a second group of 179 doctors in July. They have come from some of Beijing’s best hospitals and have been distributed among seven key hospitals in Tibet’s cities and prefectures. Yu Yabin, a pediatrician

from the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, is one of 15 doctors who were assigned to Lhasa People’s Hospital. She works alongside three other Beijing doctors in the obstetrics and gynecology department. “Tibetan patients always show deep gratitude toward doctors, which is rarely seen elsewhere,” she said. In addition to performing surgeries, the visiting doctors have a secondary role training local medical staff — something that they hadn’t been required to do in the past. Every Tuesday and Thursday, 32-year-old Lyu Tao — another Beijing doctor work-

ing in the obstetrics and gynecology department of Lhasa People’s Hospital, who came to Tibet six months ago from Beijing Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital — operates on patients while being observed by three local doctors. In the first week Yu Yabin’s team was in Tibet, a 2-year-old suffering from pneumonia was treated. The child had swallowed a melon seed that was stuck in his windpipe. As the hospital in Lhasa did not have a bronchoscope — a piece of medical equipment that is used to inspect and pass other instruments into the airways — the doctors were una-

ble remove the seed. Yu asked Beijing Children’s Hospital to lend them a professional bronchoscope, which the team was able to use to operate on the child two weeks later. To prevent a repeat of such events, Yu’s team bought a new bronchoscope for the hospital’s pediatrics department and trained two local doctors to use it. The team’s next goal is to set up a diagnosis center for heart disease. “They have a solid foundation here, but there is a lack of high-tech devices, so we hope to create a cardiac care unit in the hospital,” said Yu, adding

Yu Yabin, a pediatrician from Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, conducts a health check on a Tibetan girl. PALDEN NYIMA / CHINA DAILY

that they were also focused on improving the level of prenatal care in the region. “With the thin air and risk of high blood pressure, it is important to encourage Tibet-

an pregnant women to have regular examinations.” Contact the writers at palden_nyima@ chinadaily.com.cn

C H I NA 5

C H I N A DA I LY USA Monday, December 26, 2016

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Payment services make global expansion push Ant Financial intends to serve 2 billion globally over the next decade By CECILY LIU in London and HE WEI in Shanghai

When 33-year-old Shanghai resident Xu Lei walked into the Santa Claus Village tourism office in Rovaniemi, Finland, he was surprised to spot a sign with the Chinese word zhi. That’s the logo of Alipay, the fast-growing mobile payment service of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba. It meant Xu could use the Alipay mobile app on his phone to scan a QR code provided by the tourism office to pay for his Arctic Circle visit certiﬁcate, just like he would do in China.

A big footprint on foreign soil

Alipay can be used for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Grab in 70 countries.

Alipay has more than 40 million overseas users. The countries with the most users are Russia, the United States, Spain, France and Brazil.

Alipay supports tax refund services in 23 countries.

Alipay is accepted by numerous brick and mortar businesses overseas, including about 200,000 local merchants in Germany alone.

We aim to have at least 1 million merchants outside the Chinese mainland.” Douglas Feagin, senior vicepresident of Ant Financial

“I was shocked, and felt that I now truly understood what a powerful and global organization Alipay is,” Xu said. In Japan, Li Yiying, a 25-yearold Chinese woman traveling in Tokyo, also benefited from payment services provided by Chinese companies. “I often prefer to use Alipay or WeChat Pay (mobile payment provided by China’s Tencent) instead of cash so I don’t need to take a lot of paper money with me. It is also easier to keep track of transactions with the app,” Li said. From buying luxury bags to paying Uber bills, from convenience stores to theme parks, China’s top wireless payment providers are tapping into the international market in the footsteps of globe-trotting and big-spending Chinese visitors. Alipay has emerged a frontrunner. Created in 2004 as a tool to facilitate transactions on Alibaba’s Taobao e-commerce site, it is now accepted by more than 100,000 merchants overseas, according to a report from Ant Financial, the division of Alibaba that owns Alipay. Ant Financial banks on its 450 million users in China as it rolls out business abroad. Alipay handled around half the estimated $738 billion Chinese spent online last year by offering an escrow service in collaboration with overseas

Ant Financial is connecting with services worldwide, investing in India’s Paytm and Thailand’s AscendMoney, and helping start South Korea’s ﬁrst internet bank.

Ant Financial has six branches overseas, in Australia, the US, Singapore, South Korea, the UK and Luxembourg.

Ten international airports accept payments through Alipay.

Source: Ant Financial

CHINA DAILY

China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba introduces its Alipay payment services at the Santa Claus Village in Finland on Dec 6, with a promotional event. Alipay is accepted by over 100 merchants in Finland. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

partners such as banks, ﬁnancial institutions and online payment providers, according to iResearch. In Finland, Alipay is accepted by over 100 merchants, including hotels, shops and restaurants, through a partnership with local mobile payment

Alipay supports 18 currencies, including the US dollar, British pound, Australian dollar, Thai baht and Chinese yuan.

firm ePassi. In Germany, its partnership with payment processing service Concardis gives it access to more than 200,000 local merchants. Alipay also works with BNP Paribas, Barclays, Yusin Bank, SIX, Wirecard, Ingenico Group and other agencies in

Europe, which helps it cover some 930,000 merchants in the continent. In Japan, where Chinese tourists often buy expensive household electronics products, jewelry and cosmetics, Alipay is available at nearly 3,000 vendors. To quench the thirst of

wealthier Chinese buyers, Alipay was introduced to 10 major overseas airports across Germany, Japan and New Zealand in October. Departure tax refund services processed by Alipay are also available in 23 countries. It can be used to pay for Uber and Grab ride services in 70 countries. Other domestic wireless payment provides like WeChat Pay and Baidu Wallet are also expanding overseas. Tencent Holdings, a social networking giant, has allowed foreign stores since late 2015 to apply to be part of its WeChat payment system as long as they have a trading license and a website or an app. So far, the WeChat mobile system has been accepted in over 10 countries and regions. Online search giant Baidu announced in September that it would join with Israeli startup Travelers Box to provide a convenient way for Chinese travelers to exchange their unused foreign money before returning home. Travelers can choose to credit their Baidu Wallet accounts by

depositing money at Travelers Box kiosks at airports in some of the most popular countries for Chinese tourists, including Japan, Italy and Canada. The collaboration between Chinese and foreign companies is beneﬁting both sides. Shops that accept Chinese wireless payment systems, for example, see more Chinese customers. But the ambitions of payment providers does not stop there. Ant Financial intends to serve 2 billion customers over the next decade globally, with more than 60 percent of those users from outside the Chinese mainland. Apart from setting up six branch offices — in the United States, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Australia — the company picked ex-Goldman Sachs banker Douglas Feagin to smooth the way for its global push. Through signing pacts with financial institutions and distributing technology to retailers, the company is preparing the ground for what could become a major rival to banking monopolies and the likes of Visa. In the US, Ant Financial teamed up with payment technology providers First Data Corp and Verifone to expand its presence through their extensive merchant networks. “We aim to have at least 1 million merchants outside the Chinese mainland accepting Alipay in three years. Working with our network of global partners like First Data and Verifone will help us achieve the goal,” said Feagin, senior vice-president of Ant Financial and head of Alipay International, in a speech at the Money 2020 event in Las Vegas. Jeongwen Chiang, a professor of marketing at China Europe International Business School, praised the potential of online payment by comparing Alipay with China’s UnionPay, the world’s third-largest payment network by value of transactions processed. UnionPay trails only Visa and MasterCard, according to November statistics compiled by the US research service BI Intelligence. “UnionPay is great in helping Chinese travelers make payments overseas, but it still requires consumers to carry a card,” Chiang said. “Alipay is amassing a large amount of data on its customers’ spending habits, and its big data capabilities are currently greater than UnionPay’s. It helps European merchants more efficiently target Chinese shoppers.” China’s BigData-Research found that transactions via mobile payment services, worth 9.3 trillion yuan ($1.3 trillion) in 2015, are expected to increase to 15 trillion yuan in 2017. Cai Hong in Tokyo contributed to this story. Contact the writers at hewei@ chinadaily.com.cn

Popularity of WeChat Pay rising Alibaba rival Tencent Holding Ltd’s mobile wallet is pacing up overseas expansion, thanks to its smash hit messaging app WeChat. As of June, about 300 million users had linked their bank cards to the payment service, the company said. More than 10 countries and regions support WeChat payment, and the number is expected to rise rapidly over the next year or two. The dominance of WeChat in China has given an edge to its payment functions, which took off at a later date than Alipay. WeChat serves a surging number of Chinese tourists who are heavy users of the mobile payment application at home. For instance, mobile data consumed through WeChat makes up 70 percent of all data used by Chinese traveling in South Korea, according to combined data from the country’s telecom carriers. Therefore, merchants tend to encourage the use of WeChat among Chinese buyers, because such means of payment makes them feel at home. “We saw revenue rise signiﬁcantly after we began accepting payment via WeChat,” said Ko Kye-young, senior manager of the Shilla Duty Free Shop’s China marketing group in Seoul. Tencent is also partnering with Japanese social data provider Hotto Link to roll out its WeChat Pay service in 10,000 stores in Japan by the end of the year and 20,000 stores as soon as possible to match China UnionPay cards, the most popular payment method for Chinese tourists in Japan, the Nikkei Shimbun reported. Japan’s Haneda Airport introduced WeChat Pay services at some stores in its domestic and international passenger terminals on June 1, according to Japan Airport Terminal Co Ltd and Tokyo International Air Terminal Corp. Haneda is the ﬁrst Japanese airport to offer WeChat Pay services. Tencent allows Japanese businesses to promote their products and services, and offer discounts via Hotto Link’s page on WeChat.

Contact the writer at hewei@chinadaily.com.cn — HEI WEI AND CAI HONG

6 CH INA

Monday, December 26, 2016

C H I N A DA I LY USA

COMMUNICATION

RECREATION

Mastering English an uphill struggle

Nanjing creating soccer schools

Language proficiency in China remains at a low level, despite record investment in school programs By ZHAO XINYING zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn

Liu Jian started learning English while in middle school at age 13. It was a compulsory subject, and he took classes in it every day. He continued to learn the language in high school and college, until he began a master’s degree program in 2009. Now, at age 30, he says he is still not confident in his English ability. “To be honest, I worked very hard when learning the language at school and got satisfactory test scores,” said Liu, who works at a State-owned petroleum company. “But I still need to look up words in dictionaries when I read English books. I can’t speak fluently and confidently when I have to talk with a native English speaker. And what’s more, I sometimes can’t understand the English news on TV.” Liu’s feelings are typical for people his age. In the sixth English Proficiency Index, recently published by Swedish education company Education First, China ranked 39th out of 72 countries and regions. The level of English proficiency among Chinese remains at a low level globally and lags behind a number of other Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan, according to the report.

Younger starting age Despite China’s low ranking in the Education First report, Chinese have historically spent a lot of time and money on learning English. A report by Shenzhen-based consultancy CIConsulting showed that with almost onefourth of its population learning the language, China is the world’s largest market for English education. The report said Chinese people spent 30 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) on learning English in 2013, a figure it projected would increase by 15 percent each year. A series of regulations released in 2001 by the Education Ministry called on the nation’s primary schools to start teaching English in the third grade. That is earlier than Liu and his peers began learning, but in reality, many schools in first-tier cities such as Beijing begin English courses even earlier, from the first grade. Parents are also keen on having their children learn beginning at younger ages. A survey by First Leap, an English-language education institute for Chinese children aged 2 to 15, showed 88 percent of parents choose to send their children to study English before age 5, because of the belief that children are

better at picking up languages between 3 and 5 years old. Why, then, has China had such seemingly low returns on its investments? It is a question Chinese educators have pondered for years. Han Baocheng, an English professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, who is also deputy director of the National Research Center for Foreign Language Education, has called for a closer look at the textbooks and teaching materials used in schools. He said most textbooks teach only “survival English”, such as introductions, shopping and asking for directions, which are useful for studying abroad. But for students in China who seldom have the opportunity to practice such English in their daily life, this content is impractical, according to Han.

Learning from others Christopher McCormick, senior vice-president for academic affairs at Education First, said a dominant test-oriented learning approach, in which both teachers and students pay more attention to memorizing vocabulary and grammar, may have undermined English learning among Chinese. He compared the situation in China with Sweden, which has consistently placed highly in Education First’s annual rankings. Although the official language of Sweden is Swedish, many residents can also speak English fluently, McCormick said. Sebastian Magnusson, an information officer at the Swedish embassy in Beijing, said the high English proficiency of Swedes might be the result of an immersion approach to learning the language. The 31-year-old started learning English when he was 10, and now he can speak fluent English and has also mastered Chinese. “In Sweden, people learn English not only with textbooks or courses at school but in daily life, such as through TV programs, computer games and movies imported directly from English-speaking countries like the United States, without the help of Swedish subtitles or translations,” said Magnusson, speaking in Chinese. Such an approach might likewise help Chinese learners to improve their level of English, he added. To help achieve better teaching and learning of English in China, a series of reforms have been drafted and carried out in recent years, including a reform of the English test in the national college entrance exams, reform of the college English curriculum and tests and a reform to establish a

By CANG WEI in Nanjing cangwei@ chinadaily. com.cn

Students at the No 4 Primary School in Changxing county, Zhejiang province, perform during the school’s English drama festival. XU YU / XINHUA

English proﬁciency Ranking of Asian countries and regions in English language proﬁciency High

Intermediate

Low

Extremely low

Kazakhstan Mongolia South Korea China

Japan

Pakistan Taiwan

Hong Kong

India

Macau

Laos Cambodia Thailand Malaysia Singapore

How China compares with the rest of the world

55.3 56.5

51.1 54.6

18-20

21-25

A teacher from the United States talks with students at a community in Fuyang city, Anhui province, in English. WANG BIAO / FOR CHINA DAILY

EnglisheducationinChina Indonesia

Scores in English language proﬁciency by age group 60

Philippines

Vietnam

China 50.9 53.2

Global average 50.4 51.9

47.7 49.3

40 30 20 10 0 26-30

Source: Education First English Proﬁciency Index 2016

unified national English proficiency testing and rating system. As it’s still early for such reforms, the effects remain to be seen. But McCormick is positive about developments in Chinese people’s English proficiency. “It takes a long time to make

31-40

Above 40 CHINA DAILY

a difference in education and see the results,” he said, adding he finds the progress being made by younger people, particularly those aged 18 to 25, encouraging. “Things are heading in the right direction and the youth of China are speaking better than ever before.”

Important moments for English learning in China over the past four decades: 1978: English became one of the subjects tested in the gaokao, the national college entrance exam, which resumed in 1977. English learning has gained in importance ever since. 1982: Follow Me!, a television program made by the BBC that provided a crash course in English learning, was broadcast on China Central Television and attracted large audiences. Viewers learned by following conversations and imitating pronunciation. 1987: College English Test Band 4 was launched in China’s institutions of higher education. Two years later, College English Test Band 6 was also introduced. To encourage language learning, some colleges and universities

even stipulated that those failing the tests would not be able to obtain their bachelor’s degrees. 1990s: Young Chinese began heading overseas to study in greater numbers. As many families could not afford the tuition fees, students had to work hard to win scholarships by scoring well in tests such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language, the International English Language Testing System and the Graduate Record Examinations. 2000s: Organizations providing English tutorial classes began to spring up, catering to the needs of language learners in a wide range of age groups. Some agencies offering these courses, such as New Oriental, became giants in the language learning industry. CHINA DAILY

SPORTS

Township building reputation as major baseball hub By QIU QUANLIN in Zhongshan, Guangdong qiuquanlin@chinadaily.com.cn

In the Pearl River Delta, Dongsheng township was previously best known for manufacturing office furniture and its fishing industry, having greatly benefited from China’s policy of reform and openingup since the 1980s. However, in the past 10 years, the 75-square-kilometer township with a population of about 174,000 has become better known for its leading position in China’s development of baseball, with more than 500 students from its 20 schools involved in the sport. “We already know that baseball should be played in schools and we have been consistent in our efforts to pro-

mote the sport among local students,” said Feng Xiaolong, chairman of the Zhongshan Baseball and Softball Association. The township was in the news in early December when six young local players were included in the Chinese national U12 team to compete in the Ninth Asian U12 Baseball Championship. “The championship, a flagship event held by the Baseball Federation of Asia every two years, has greatly helped promote the sport in local schools and communities,” Feng said. “From primary and middle to high schools, we are building a training system covering all ages of students. We are glad to see that a rising number of parents and children

Chinese player Yun Yongteng, 11, from Dongsheng township, pitches a ball at the 9th Asian U12 Baseball Championship held in Zhongshan, Guangdong province. QIU QUANLIN / CHINA DAILY

have developed an interest in the sport,” Feng added. The plan of developing the township into a major baseball hub was not made over-

night. Dongsheng has a long tradition associated with the sport. Dongsheng, in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, is the

birthplace of Liang Fuchu, who was influential in bringing baseball to China in the early 20th century. Liang, widely regarded as the father of Chinese baseball, created the Panda Cup in Shanghai in 1939. Liang’s team received wide attention after beating international giants of the game, including the United States, Portugal, Britain and the Philippines. His son, Liang Youwen, then-82 years old, returned to his hometown and began coaching a local teenage baseball team in 2007. “Since then, we have been building the township into a major baseball hub within China,” Feng said. To promote the sport, the local government and the baseball association launched

an annual teenage tournament called Panda Cup in 2011 in memory of Liang Fuchu. “The international tournament has played an important role in enabling young local players to promote exchanges of the sport with their overseas counterparts,” Feng said. According to Feng, a 2,000capacity international youth baseball stadium has recently been constructed in the township. “We are extremely happy to be able to play baseball after class and become friends with international players,” said Yun Yongteng, 11, a native of Dongshen and a member of China’s U12 baseball team. Yun started playing the sport at age 8.

The provincial capital of East China’s Jiangsu province will establish 120 specialized soccer schools and hire foreign coaches in 2017 to improve students’ health. According to Nanjing’s education bureau, 208 sports teachers from 166 schools have been trained to teach at the specialized soccer schools, while 107 teachers from 62 schools have received training to be referees. In addition to primary and middle schools, 13 kindergartens in Nanjing will have soccer teachers, including former professional players and foreign coaches. Wu Xingli, director of Jianye District Experimental Kindergarten, said that such employees, hired by Nanjing Education Bureau, will bring a lot of fun to the children’s school activities. “While the 3-year-old children will mainly play soccer, the 4-year-olds will begin to receive simple training in movement, and the 5-year-olds will be taught techniques such as shooting and dribbling.” “Chinese coaches used to pay too much attention to physical training,” said Qin Xiang, a sports teacher at Xincheng Middle School. “Students get tired and bored easily. Foreign coaches usually bring games and lots of fun to their classes, and they have scientific training methods that we should learn.” While some foreign students start playing soccer in preschool, most Chinese students begin playing in middle school, where no professional soccer teachers are available, he added. Zhang Ningsheng, director of Nanjing Sports Bureau’s soccer development office, said that he hopes the level of soccer in schools can be greatly improved within two years, adding that the participation of foreign coaches will speed up such progress. “Chinese students like the way foreign coaches teach soccer,” Zhang said. “They begin the class and leave the playground with big smiles on their faces.” He added that the aim of establishing specialized soccer schools is not to develop more professional players, but to enable students to have fun. In addition to soccer skills, they can also improve their social and teamwork skills as well as their physical health. To guarantee safety, many schools have bought soccer safety insurance for their students to gain parents’ approval. More playgrounds will also be constructed in the city’s schools. To become a foreign coach in China, applicants need to pass several rounds of interviews. During recruitment in 2015, more than 1,600 people from countries including Argentina, the Netherlands and Germany applied for jobs. Among them 200 were given final interviews and 58 were employed. By 2017, the Ministry of Education will establish about 20,000 specialized soccer schools across China.

C H I NA 7

C H I N A DA I LY USA Monday, December 26, 2016

NEW BRANCH

DEBATE

Learning Italian fashion in Shenzhen

Can helping clean campus cultivate self-discipline?

Istituto Marangoni’s second China campus also offers opportunities to study abroad By LI WENFANG in Guangzhou liwenfang@chinadaily.com.cn

Italian fashion school Istituto Marangoni has opened its second China branch in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, to help to meet the demand for talent from the local fashion industry. Classes began last month at the Istituto Marangoni Shenzhen Fashion and Design Training Center, which offers a three-year program in fashion design as well as short courses. The school also has campuses in Milan, London, Paris and Florence, Italy while its Shanghai branch opened in 2013. “Shenzhen is sharpening its status as a fashion capital and has also set the goal of becoming an international consumption and economic center. To do this, it needs to upgrade its soft power,” said Joe Zhou, director of the training center. “Apart from high-end fashion designers, the city also lacks quality buyers and professional luxury goods managers, among other things. We hope very much that Istituto Marangoni can fill the gap in high-end fashion education.” In addition to classes in fashion design and marketing, the Shenzhen campus will also provide tailor-made corporate training classes based on Istituto Marangoni’s philosophy of creating balance between creativity and commercial interests. All the teaching staff have come from the school’s Milan campus, and students on the three-year course have the choice of continuing their studies in Europe after completing the required classes in Shenzhen.

By SU ZHOU suzhou@chinadaily.com.cn

A university in Qingdao, Shandong province, has replaced some of its cleaning staff with students, saying this could “help cultivate an awareness of self-discipline and service among students”. Students at Qingdao University of Technology have been tasked with cleaning the school twice a week in groups of four or six. Their performance is being graded, and whichever of the university’s eight colleges receives the highest grade is awarded 10,000 yuan ($1,440) each month. However, some students are not happy about the practice, especially with final exams approaching.

Teachers grade students’ work at the Istituto Marangoni Shenzhen Fashion and Design Training Center in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Students are taught in English with translation and have the opportunity to take additional classes on language and culture if they wish to study in Europe. Laura Egoli, Italian consul general in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, said that since its founding in 1935, Istituto Marangoni has become one of the most prestigious fashion schools in the world. “You may have come across some big names in Italian fash-

ion: Dolce & Gabbana, Moschino, Valentino, Versace, Prada, and Armani. These iconic brands have one thing in common — many of their fashion designers were alumni of Istituto Marangoni,” she said. “Students at Istituto Marangoni are given the best tools to stimulate their own growth and are equipped to confidently face the working world. In the meantime, students from all over the world meet and interact through a continuous exchange of

ideas, projects, stimuli and vision.” Guangdong ranks first in China for its garment industry, fashion brands, industrial chain and fashion designers. French fashion design school Esmod launched its Guangzhou campus in 2014, while the Italian Istituto Secoli also opened a branch there earlier this year. “Guangdong is already wellknown for being a fashion manufacturing base, and is proving its design capabilities

with more local brands coming to the global market. We strongly believe that the opening of two Italian fashion schools in this province will reinforce the design capacity of Guangdong, and even southern China, in terms of creativity and craftsmanship,” Egoli said. “We hope that more and more Italian universities will broaden their offerings and cooperate with China, grasping the opportunities offered by this exceptional country.”

COLLABORATION

Sino-French arts management school to open By ZHANG KUN in Shanghai zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn

The China Academy of Fine Arts celebrated the inauguration of its new campus in Shanghai on Dec 4. Located in the suburb of Lingang New City, the campus will be home to the SinoFrench Institute of Arts and Design Management, an unprecedented collaboration between China’s leading college of fine arts and the Kedge Business School in France. “We decided to build this partnership because there is a very strong need in China and throughout the whole world for people who can bridge art, design and management,” said Thomas Froehlicher, director general of Kedge. The partnership between CAFA and Kedge was established last year while China and France were celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations. During a visit to Lingang

New City, CAFA President Fan Di’an convinced the local administration to give the new institute a home. CAFA has more than 10 years experience providing art and management courses, Fan said, adding that the new institute will bring international vision and help to cultivate new talent needed in the development of China’s creative industries. When completed, the campus will cover an area of 35,000 square meters by Dishui Lake in Lingang. The first phase of construction, consisting of classrooms, exhibition spaces and a library, is complete. Work on the second phase, which includes support facilities such as sports fields and landscaping, is underway by Shanghai Gangcheng Development Co. All educational equipment and research facilities will be provided by CAFA. Lingang New City is already home to five universities and

Thomas Froehlicher, director general of Kedge

Fan Di’an, president of the China Academy of Fine Arts

institutions, many of which have no specialization, or focus mainly on science, according to Wu Qiang, deputy director of Shanghai Lingang Area Development Administration. About 70,000 students are currently living and studying in the area. Wu said he hopes the introduction of an art school such as CAFA will create new opportunities for the develop-

ment of cultural and creative industries in Lingang. Xu Tao, director of the Education Ministry’s department of international cooperation and exchanges, said the new institute will fill a void in China’s educational development as the country’s education sector enters a new era of communication and collaboration. The number of private museums in China has mush-

roomed in recent years, and professional managers who understand art and design are needed, said Yu Ding, head of the institute’s preparation group. Classes are scheduled to begin in September next year, with the program of study involving three years at the institute and one year at Kedge in France. Graduates will be awarded two bachelor’s degrees, one in art and one in management, and will be able to further their studies in France at the Paris-Sorbonne University, the National Superior School of Decorative Arts or Orsay Museum, specializing in subjects such as art and design, museum management or executive management and design. The program will be trilingual, as the curriculum is in Chinese and English, but students are required to be proficient in French, Froehlicher said.

COLLEGE

Collaborative technology institute wins approval By LI WENFANG in Guangzhou liwenfang@chinadaily.com.cn

Approval has been granted for the Guangdong TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology to be established in Shantou, Guangdong province. Formed in partnership with the Israel Institute of Technology, or Technion, and Shantou University, the GTIIT aims to facilitate research and innovation in China, with plans to recruit 2,960 students by 2026 and 5,000 by 2036. Courses on offer when it opens next year will include biotechnology and food engineering, chemical engineering and materials engineering,

60 percent the proportion of GTIIT staff who will come from Israel

with spaces for 300 students. “It will become a leading school in Guangdong and in China,” said Peretz Lavie, president of the Israel Institute of Technology. “We are already recruiting faculty members from all over the world who will work for both the GTIIT and Technion. Some of them will have laboratories in Shantou and in Haifa, Israel. We will have exchanges of researchers and students and joint research programs. “Putting together Israel’s

spirit of innovation and capacity for thinking outside the box and China’s ability to produce everything with such efficiency and speed. This is a winwin.” About 60 percent of the teaching staff will come from Technion and the rest from global recruitment, said Li Jiange, chancellor of the GTIIT and chairman of the Sun Yefang Economic Science Foundation. Aaron Ciechanover, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2004, will serve as vice-chancellor of the GTIIT. Once complete, its campus will cover an area of about 42 hectares. Construction of the first phase began

in September last year. The provincial education department of Guandong said that the GTIIT will be devoted to cultivating professional talent with international vision, who will be able to participate in global affairs and competitions. It is expected that the institute will provide talent to support the province’s innovation-driven development strategy. Both the provincial and Shantou city governments have budgeted 4 billion yuan ($576 million) for construction of the GTIIT, according to the department. The Li Ka Shing Foundation has also played an active role

in bringing about the new institute. In a recent visit, Zhu Xiaodan, governor of Guangdong, called for the GTIIT to be built into a world-class university, adding that work would soon begin on a Sino-Israeli technology and innovation zone in Shantou. The GTIIT is the latest collaborative university to gain approval in Guangdong, after the Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, to be jointly run by Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Beijing Institute of Technology, received approval in October. Of the nine universities of this type in China, four are located in Guangdong.

YES “I think it is a good way for students to realize the importance of keeping public spaces clean. Many students are spoiled by their parents and don’t know the hardships that cleaning staff face. University is not only a place for students to learn and take exams, but also to practice other skills. Many have said that the university instigated this practice because it wants to save money. However, it has to pay extra money to reward the students who perform best. It is not physical punishment but an innovation of education. Besides, one hour of cleaning every day is not very long, not to mention the fact that students can take shifts.” Liu Zhen, a middle school teacher in Nanjing, Jiangsu province “Back in the days when I was in college, we had to clean the whole campus and no one complained

about it. It was our campus, and we were happy to keep it clean. Nowadays, youngsters pay too much attention to themselves and think less about others. Going to college is not like purchasing a product, where after you have paid the money, you can do whatever you want. Students in college should think about how to contribute to society by first thinking how to contribute to the university.” Li Haiying, a retired doctor in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province

NO “Spending tens of thousands of yuan on rewarding students for cleaning is a waste of educational resources because professional cleaning staff may cost less money. Educational resources are public resources; the university should think about whether this is the best way to spend this money. Education is all about guiding, not forcing. I don’t think students can really learn anything if universities only want to motivate students with money.” Guan Hongtao, a pharmaceutical researcher in Beijing “The cultivation of selfdiscipline and service could be done without making students clean. There is no evidence to show that physical work can replace or enhance a college education. The tuition fees students pay to universities include the public service fee. It is the responsibility of the university to provide this service. Besides, the standard for judging students’ quality of work should be their devotion and willingness to take responsibility.” Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute

VISIT

Join in while abroad, says US university head By ZHAO XINYING zhaoxinying@ chinadaily. com.cn

Chinese students at US colleges should take advantage of every opportunity to engage with people from other nations, a visiting university head has advised. Michael McRobbie, president of Indiana University, led a delegation to Beijing earlier this Michael month to McRobbie expand relations with higher education institutions and meet with alumni. “It’s perfectly natural for foreign students to congregate among themselves because it’s more comfortable and easier and less challenging,” he said. “But that means you don’t necessarily get full exposure to everything that a new country has to offer.” Indiana University has more than 9,000 international students, about 40 percent of whom come from China. McRobbie, a native of Australia, said he benefited a lot from interaction with classmates and peers from diverse backgrounds during his own time in overseas education. “One of the best ways of building international understanding is through international engagement,” he said. Indiana University has

long been popular among Chinese students, mostly at postgraduate level, although in recent years more have enrolled as undergraduates, McRobbie said. It has more than 5,800 alumni affiliated with China. McRobbie said Indiana University has signed cooperative agreements with some leading institutions in China, such as Tsinghua University and Beijing Normal University. He said that it is working to encourage more students to study abroad and the number of Indiana University students in China for exchange or short-term programs has increased greatly since he became president. “I’d like to see that number continue to increase,” he said, adding that they would try to achieve the goal by developing relationships with more Chinese universities. Having made eight official trips to China since becoming the university’s president in 2007, McRobbie said he was particularly impressed when he attended Tsinghua University’s centennial celebrations in 2011, which he described as “pretty remarkable”. “It stuck in my mind because we’ll have a bicentenary in 2020. So it was a good way of seeing how another great university used all its assets to carry out a really distinctive celebration.”

LIFE Monday, December 26, 2016

CHINA DAILY USA » CHINADAILYUSA.COM THEATER

INSPIRATION

GIVING THE BARD A COMMON TOUCH

ne of William Shakespeare’s tragedies, King Lear, is being translated into Mandarin for a stage production, which will open in Beijing on Jan 20. The play is a production by the National Center for the Performing Arts and is part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 10-year cultural exchange project, entitled Shakespeare’s Folio Translation Project. In November, the Royal Shakespeare Company collaborated with the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center on a new Chinese production of Henry V, which kicked off this latest translation project. For the King Lear production, Chinese director Li Liuyi is working on the script, which is based on Daniel S.P. Yang’s translation of King Lear. Li has also read seven other Chinese translations for reference, including the versions of Zhu Shenghao (1912-44) and Bian Zhilin (1910-2000). According to Weng Shihui, the project manager of the Shakespeare’s Folio Translation Project, the latest translation is for the stage adaptation of the play, and a large part of the translation has been done during the rehearsals. “Audiences here are familiar with Shakespeare because his plays have been translated by many scholars and have been staged many times in China,” Li says. “But many of the translations and adaptations do not portray the characters’ innermost thoughts. “What I want to do with this play is to make Shakespeare accessible and easy to comprehend for Chinese audiences.” Li, a Chinese director and playwright of the Beijing People’s Art Theater, has been to the United Kingdom twice to visit the Royal Shakespeare Company —

The National Center for the Performing Arts is putting up a Mandarin version of King Lear, and this work aims to make the playwright more relevant for contemporary audiences. Chen Nan reports.

Pu Cunxin will play the role of King Lear, which he says is a dream come true.

Japanese costume designer Emi Wada says the Chinese adaptation will be the best of her King Lear projects.

PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

mainly to discuss the script with Shakespeare experts. He says that his visits made him realize that, for the stage adaptation, it is important to translate Shakespeare’s plays without too much poetic and literary decoration. Explaining his motivation for doing the play, he says: “This year marks the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, as well as that of Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu. We are celebrating these two great playwrights. But,

What I want to do with this play is to make Shakespeare accessible and easy to comprehend for Chinese audiences.” Li Liuyi, director of King Lear

how do we make their works relevant for contemporary audiences? That’s a question I want to answer with this play.” Pu Cunxin, a Chinese actor and the deputy director of the Beijing People’s Arts Theater, plays King Lear, while actresses Lu Fang, Zhao Qian and Wan Qianhui play the king’s three daughters. Speaking about his role, Pu, 63, says: “It’s a wonderful challenge for actors to do a profound tragedy like King Lear, and it is exciting for the

audience to see how they tackle the script, which is from another time and another culture. “I have always dreamed about doing a role like this. With my experience, it is perfect timing for me to play King Lear.” Meanwhile, director Li has also invited Japanese costume designer Emi Wada to work on King Lear. Wada, 79, has worked with some of the greatest Japanese and international directors in film, opera and dance. She has also worked in Chinese projects, such as Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s films — Hero in 2002 and House of Flying Daggers in 2004 — composer Tan Dun’s opera, The First Emperor, and dancer-choreographer Fei Bo’s ballet piece, The Peony Pavilion. She is also known for her Academy Award-winning costumes for Akira Kurosawa’s Ran in 1986, which was inspired by Shakespeare’s King Lear. Sounding very enthusiastic about her association with the project, she says: “I love Shakespeare’s works and I want to do costumes for all of his works. “But what I care most about in a project is whether I can try something new. I have done costumes for King Lear, but I think this Chinese play will be the best of my King Lear projects.” She says that all the costumes for the play are handmade, including the embroidery. Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go 7:30 pm, Jan 20-Feb 2, except Jan 27 and 28. NCPA, 2 West Chang’an Avenue, Xicheng district, Beijing. 010-6655-0000.

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

Hamilton composer Manuel Miranda still on a roll By ASSOCIATED PRESS in New York

Winning a Pulitzer Prize and a clutch of Tony Awards in a single year would be enough for almost anyone. Not LinManuel Miranda. Not in 2016. The Hamilton writer-composer picked up those honors and also earned a Golden Globe nomination, won the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, wrote music for a top movie, and inspired a bestselling book, a best-selling album of Hamilton covers and a popular PBS documentary. A new honor came on Wednesday when Miranda bested Beyonce, Adele and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, among others, to be named The Associated Press Entertainer of the Year, voted by members of the news cooperative and AP entertainment reporters. “There’s been more than a little good luck in the year itself and the way it’s unfolded,” Miranda says after being told of the honor. “I continue to try to work on the things I’ve always wanted to work on and try to say yes to the opportunities that I’d kick myself

forever if I didn’t jump at them.” When he hosted Saturday Night Live in October, he somewhat tongue-in-cheek acknowledged the rarity of having a theater composer as host, saying: “Most of you watching at home have no idea who I am.” They surely must by now. Miranda was virtually everywhere in popular culture this year — stage, film, TV, music and politics, while engaging on social media as he went. Like a lyric he wrote for Alexander Hamilton, it seemed at times that the nonstop Miranda was working as if he was “running out of time”. Julio D. Diaz, of the Pensacola News Journal, says Miranda “made the whole world sing, dance and think. Coupled with using his prestige to become involved in important sociopolitical issues, there was no greater or more important presence in entertainment in 2016.” Among the things Miranda did this year are asking Congress to help dig Puerto Rico out of its debt crisis, getting an honorary doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, performing at a fundraiser for

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton composer and actor, receives a Grammy Award in New York in February. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

There’s been more than a little good luck in the year itself and the way it’s unfolded.” Lin-Manuel Miranda, writer-composer

Hillary Clinton on Broadway, lobbying to stop gun violence in the United States and teaming up with Jennifer Lopez on the benefit single Love Make the World Go Round. He and his musical Hamilton won 11 Tony Awards in June, but perhaps his deepest

contribution that night was tearfully honoring those killed hours before at an Orlando nightclub with a beautiful sonnet: “Love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love, cannot be killed or swept aside,” he said. “Now fill the world with

music, love and pride.” He started the year onstage in the Broadway hit Hamilton and ended it with a Golden Globe nomination for writing the song How Far I’ll Go from Moana, which was on top of the box office for three weeks this month, earning $165 million. “I’ve been jumping from thing to thing and what’s been thrilling is to see the projects that happen very quickly kind of exploding side-by-side with the projects I’ve been working on for years,” Miranda says. Though theater fans have long cherished his fluency in both Stephen Sondheim and Tupac, Hamilton helped Miranda break into the mainstream in 2016. The groundbreaking, biographical hiphop show tells the true story of an orphan immigrant from the Caribbean who rises to the highest ranks of American society, told by a young African-American and Latino cast. The show’s effects were felt across the nation this year, cheered by politicians, stars and rappers alike and even helping shape the debate over the nation’s currency (Hamilton stays on the $10 bill, in part due to Miranda’s show.)

But the musical also sparked controversy when the cast delivered a pointed message about diversity to the vice-president-elect, Mike Pence, while he attended a performance in November. President-elect Donald Trump demanded an apology, which did not come. That kerfuffle was part of a Hamilton-heavy fall that included an album of celebrity covers and songs called The Hamilton Mixtape, as well as a documentary on the show that aired on PBS and attracted more than 3.6 million television viewers. Erin O’Neill of The Marietta Times says Miranda dominated entertainment news this year but, more importantly, “opened a dialogue about government, the founding of our country and the future of politics in America”. There’s more Miranda to come in 2017, including filming Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns with Emily Blunt (due out Christmas 2018) and an ambitious TV and film adaptation of the fantasy trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle. “I’m back in a planting mode after a harvest,” Miranda says, laughing.

Pudgy pop stars aim at obesity prejudice By REUTERS in Tokyo

Competition is cutthroat among Japan’s thousands of pop-idol wannabes, but a unique concept is winning fame for a band of “chubby” girls deploying their cheeky cuteness to combat prejudices against obesity. Despite one of the lowest rates of obesity in the developed world, Japan has a growing number of underweight young women, who rely on excessive dieting to satisfy society’s emphasis on being slim. Heavy people are the frequent target of jokes in the media and use of the derogatory debu, or “fatso”, remains common. Enter Pottya, a pop group named after a slang word for chubby and consisting of four young women who are not especially hefty to Western eyes, but well above average weight in Japan.

Michiko Ohashi performs with other members of Pottya at a fan meeting in Tokyo. REUTERS

“People assume that being chubby is a sign of laziness or lack of self-discipline,” says Michiko Ohashi, the group’s heaviest member at 87 kilograms and a height of 1.67 meters. “I became an idol with the hope of changing that image. If they see us working to make our dreams come true, we can show that chubby people can work hard.” First treated as a quirky joke at its debut in 2015, the group’s image is changing, with the release of two albums and a growing roster of live concerts and television appearances. Members range in weight from 63 kg to 87 kg for the 26-year-old Ohashi, and their average of 76 kg is about 26 kg over the Japanese average for women 13 to 18 years old, according to the Health Ministry. Their body mass index, which compares weight to height, ranges from 27.4 to 31.2. Doctors consider an individual with a BMI above 25 to be overweight, and one above 31 obese. “We’re really heavy, but we want to use that to shake up the idol world,” Ohashi says. Pottya has passionate devotees, many of whom describe themselves as overweight. Fans gather to meet Pottya members for a high-calorie lunch each month, with the menu of one recent meal featuring rice, noodles, chicken and potatoes — all fried. The group was an inspiration, says Miho Kishi, who was bullied about her weight as a child. “They’ve come out and are actually selling themselves as chubby, which has given us chubby women a lot of hope and courage,” says the 25-year-old.

Travel | LI F E 9

C H I N A DA I LY USA Monday, December 26, 2016

72 hours

China Daily explores three-day itineraries in cities around the country in the series.

Shanghai was once heralded as the ‘Paris of the East’ and remains perhaps the country’s most cosmopolitan city. Resident Alywin Chew devises a three-day itinerary.

GO COSMO

hanghai is a mega city that’s the engine of China’s financial and innovation development. It offers a captivating blend of modernity and old-world charm like no other place in the country. Lujiazui district’s towering skyscrapers are a symbol of Shanghai’s rapid ascent as one of the world’s most prominent financial hubs. Yet the countless old alleyways, shikumen houses and unmistakable beauty of the former French Concession serve to temper the city’s image as a modern behemoth with insatiable global ambitions. Shanghai and neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces offer 144hour visas. But China’s most metropolitan metropolis is worthy of three days’ exploration.

DAY 1 The Bund The Bund is a destination in itself, worth a full day. Check into the Fairmont Peace Hotel, a historical property that dates to before World War II. It features brilliant art deco-inspired interiors that pay homage to this style of visual arts, which came into prominence in the 1930s. Then, take a stroll along Shanghai’s most famous tourist stretch. This waterfront area overlooks the Huangpu River and the Lujiazui skyline, which is anchored by the iconic Oriental Pearl Tower and the 632-meter-high Shanghai Tower. There’s no shortage of excellent dining options around the Bund. Three on the Bund is home to a number of acclaimed Western eateries, including three restaurants by culinary maestro Jean-Georges Vongerichten — Jean-Georges, Mercato and Chi Q. Relax at the Fairmont Peace Hotel’s jazz bar on the ground level where the city’s most-renowned and oldest jazz musicians — they average about 80 years old — demonstrate age is just a number. A short walk from the hotel, The Nest offers a variety of nightcap options and an impressive selection of sophisticated bar bites. DAY 2 Soup dumplings No trip to Shanghai would be

sandwich at Madison Kitchen, which also offers roast beef sandwiches and peanut butter-and-almond cookies. Contemporary art museum Take a tour of the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art. Designed by the acclaimed local company Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects, the museum features a surreal mix of contemporary Chinese and international artworks.

Clockwise from top: The Bund, Shanghai’s most-famous tourist destination, overlooks the Huangpu River and the Lujiazui skyline; Commune Social’s baked bone marrow; commercial streets at Yuyuan Garden. PHOTOS BY GAO ERQIANG AND ALYWIN CHEW / CHINA DAILY

complete without sampling xiaolongbao, the quintessential local snack. Jia Jia Tang Bao is arguably the city’s most renowned hole-in-thewall institution for this soup dumpling. Another beloved Shanghainese snack is the shengjianbao. Like xiaolongbao, it also contains a delicious broth but it is considerably larger, has a thicker skin and is pan-fried instead of steamed. Locals swear by those made at Fengyu, which has multiple stores across the city. Shanghai Old Town Admire architecture that dates

back to dynastic rule in Shanghai Old Town, between Remin Road and Zhongshan Road. You’ll also find street vendors selling snacks, souvenirs and antiques. Have lunch at Jian Guo 328, a popular Shanghainese dining establishment that serves hearty, homecooked fare at very affordable prices. If Shanghainese cuisine is too sweet for your liking, head to Canton 8, which was in 2016 crowned as the world’s cheapest restaurant with two Michelin stars. The establishment serves Cantonese cuisine and a sumptuous dim sum spread.

Fuxing Park Get a glimpse into the daily lives of the Shanghainese at Fuxing Park. This manicured green space hosts tai chi practitioners, dancing middle-aged women and old men chatting with cigarettes in one hand and bird cages in the other. Hairy crabs are a must-try Shanghai delicacy. Xin Guang Jiu Jia, where customers are spared the hassle of dissecting the crustaceans, is celebrated. Cooks separate the flesh and roe for customers. Massage Enjoy a soothing foot massage at

Taipan Massage, where the service is complemented with a free flow of beverages and small servings of noodles. Noodles A nameless, hole-in-the-wall noodle joint at 166 Zhaozhou Road, near Ji’nan Road, offers an utterly local dining experience. Featured on Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown travel-and-food series, the “long leg” noodles here come with pork, lard, soy sauce, vegetables and a delectable broth.

DAY 3 Breakfast Green eggs and ham come on a

Sightseeing tunnel Hop onto a tram at the Shanghai Bund Sightseeing Tunnel that takes you under the Huangpu River to Lujiazui. The experience is admittedly a little kitschy, but there’s no doubt that the psychedelic lighting makes for great photographs. Admire the breathtaking cityscape from the observation deck on the 119th floor of the Shanghai Tower, the second-tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Nightcap Round up your last night with a nightcap at Speak Low, which came in second in the inaugural 2016 Asia’s 50 Best Bars. Helmed by Japanese cocktail veteran Shingo Gokan, it offers creatively crafted tipples in cozy surrounds. Contact the writer at alywin@chinadaily.com.cn

A river that flows with culture

Where East meets West for dinner

By ZHOU WENTING in Shanghai zhouwenting@chinadaily.com.cn

By XU JUNQIAN in Shanghai xujunqian@chinadaily.com.cn

Many world-class cities are endowed with a first-rate river. Shanghai has two. Suzhou Creek and the Huangpu River are tributaries of the metropolis’ appeal. Suzhou Creek in particular is worth exploring. The “mother of Shanghai”, as it’s also called, serves as an umbilical link to the city’s early life — concessions, industrialization and improved living quality. It snakes 17 kilometers from the Waibaidu Bridge downtown to western Shanghai’s outer ring road. The bridge is an icon that appears in many movies set in the city. Dozens of couples flock to the structure every day for wedding photos. The “garden bridge”, as Waibaidu is also called, marks the point where Suzhou Creek begins and intersects with the Huangpu. It flashes with colored lights at night. The 106-meter-long bridge — the first large one built in the city — was designed by a British company and built in 1873. It no longer serves as a traffic artery — nearly 40 other bridges have been erected over the waterway — but stands as a

Guidebooks advise sampling Shanghai’s “must-tries” like xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), redbraised pork and hairy crabs. But the city’s best-kept open secret is haipai xican, which literally translates as “Hai-style Western fare”. It shows every dimension of the metropolis’ culture — down to its cuisine — exists at the intersection of East and West. It’s perhaps the closest you’ll find to Western Chinatowns’ food in the country, yet is its own distinctive group — a melting pot of ancient indigenous dishes with a dash of French, Italian and German influence. It’s considered fine dining and often savored during important or romantic occasions. “It’s a kind of Western cuisine that you can use chopsticks to eat, even though most people wouldn’t,” local food writer Kong Mingzhu explains. Haipai staples include potato salad, fried pork chops and borsch. These three dishes are used as the litmus test to determine if a cook has mastered local culinary arts. Yet all these are different from how they’re classically prepared in their countries of origin. The potato salad, for instance,

Suzhou Creek, also known as the “mother of Shanghai”, serves as an umbilical link to the city’s early life — concessions, industrialization and improved living quality. GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY

pedestrian way for tourists. It’s a Shanghai tradition for a grandmother to carry a 1-monthold grandchild across a bridge. It indicates the blessing that the newborn has navigated all the twists and turns so far and will be safe and happy throughout life. Suzhou Creek’s banks hosted the textile mills, chemical plants and factories that propelled Shanghai’s 1920s industrialization. They produced modernization — and pollution. The water was devoid of fish and no longer suitable for taps by the 1930s. Things started to turn around

in the 1990s. Factories were replaced by sought-after high rises. Changning district hosts a 5-km waterfront that has become a popular place to walk and sit on lawns. A boardwalk flanks 3 km on either bank. As 29-year-old resident Xiao Xu puts it: “Jogging on the different sides offers different feelings. The north side is next to the water, while the south side is next to high rises, which makes it like running through the jungle.” Presumably, she means the concrete kind.

Butterfly-shaped, sugar-sprinkled cookies are widely enjoyed in Shanghai, especially when they come fresh out of the ovens. GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY

lacks the medley of other vegetables the Moscow original contains. Potatoes and processed ham are cubed and mixed with a sauce made from egg yolk and cooking oil. Fried pork chops remain truer to the Vienna cutlet from which it’s derived. The lip-puckering spicy soy sauce is Shanghai’s addition. The dialectical pronunciation of borsch, luosong — the soup believed to have originated from Ukraine — is homophonic with the Chinese word for Russian, the nationality who brought it to the city. Beetroot wasn’t grown in China when borsch arrived, so it instead

features an assortment of veggies and sausage slices in a tomato broth. Adaptation according to available ingredients is the hallmark of haipai, says retired Red House chef Hou Genquan. Even baking includes a mix of culturally influences. A butterfly-shaped, sugar-sprinkled pastry is widely enjoyed during afternoon tea and creates long lines at stores like Deda and Park Hotel every afternoon, when it comes fresh out of the ovens. Visitors to the city should of course try its iconic dishes — and save room for a helping of haipai.

10 WO RLD

Monday, December 26, 2016

C H I N A DA I LY USA

TECHNOLOGY

FRANCE

Real-life science of deep space travel

Undersea spies snoop on oyster bed raiders

Company using grant from NASA to explore possibility of turning sci-fi fantasy into reality By AGENCE FRANCEPRESSE in Los Angeles

From Aliens to Interstellar, Hollywood has long used suspended animation to overcome the difficulties of deep space travel, but the once-fanciful sci-fi staple is becoming scientific fact. The theory is that a hibernating crew could stay alive over vast cosmic distances, requiring little food, hydration or living space, potentially slashing the costs of interstellar missions and eradicating the boredom of space travel. But the technology has

always been unattainable outside the fertile imaginations of filmmakers from Woody Allen and Ridley Scott to James Cameron and Christopher Nolan — until now. Atlanta-based Spaceworks Enterprises is using a $500,000 grant from NASA to leverage techniques used on brain trauma and heart attack patients to develop “low metabolic stasis” for missions to Mars and the asteroid belt. “It takes about six months to get out to Mars ... There are a lot of demands, a lot of support equipment required to keep people alive even during

LIBYA

that period,” said SpaceWorks CEO John Bradford The aerospace engineer told a panel in Los Angeles marking the release on Wednesday of Passengers, the latest movie to explore suspended animation, that his company was adapting the medical technique of induced hypothermia to astronautics. Hospitals lower the core temperature of trauma patients by around 12 C to achieve a 70 percent reduction in metabolism, although they are “shut down” for a couple of days rather than the months astronauts would need. “We’re evaluating it. We think it’s medically possible,” Bradford said. Morten Tyldum’s Passen-

gers stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence as strangers on a 120-year journey to the distant colony of Homestead II when their hibernation pods wake them 90 years too early. While the research being done by SpaceWorks could make 180-day journeys to Mars much more affordable, the technology is not capable — not yet — of extending human life to allow for the thousands of years required to reach our next nearest star. Even at the relatively small Mars-like distances, “induced torpor” is not without its challenges, says Bradford, especially on short missions where astronauts have little time to recover after being woken from stasis.

“You’re going to be tired. In this process, you’re not really sleeping, your body doesn’t enter a (rapid eye movement) state,” said Bradford. “If we look at animal hibernators, they will actually come out of hibernation to sleep and then go back into hibernation.” Passengers screenwriter Jon Spaihts says he found himself running into tensions between the dramatic requirements of the movie and “hard science” when it came to designing his hibernation pods. Neither induced torpor nor any of its most realistic alternatives are “states in which Sleeping Beauty in her bed would look particularly gorgeous,” he said.

“The hibernation in this movie is a little more magical just because we need people to look cute in those pods. People floating in a sea of sludge or frozen like popsicles are a little less romantic.” NASA says the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, launching in 12 months, will seek out yet more new worlds among the galaxy’s brightest stars, where the discovery of Earthling-friendly planets is deemed more likely. But what are the odds of finding such a planet — a reallife version of the Homestead II depicted in Passengers? “We simply don’t know. It must be out there,” said Tiffany Kataria, a weather specialist with NASA.

NETHERLANDS

Unlikely saviors stand guard over Roman remains By AGENCE FRANCEPRESSE in Leptis Magna, Libya

Ali Hribish stands by the Arch of Septimius Severus which dominates Libya’s ancient city of Leptis Magna, brandishing letters of thanks for his efforts to protect the site. The former electricity company employee, who is in his 50s, has become the Roman city’s unlikely savior, protecting it from looting and vandalism as chaos rocks the country following the 2011 downfall of dictator Muammar Gadhafi. Despite having no background in archaeology, Hribish gathered a band of fighters who dedicated themselves to preserving the ancient Roman city, a UNESCO World Heritage site. While others set up armed groups to protect banks and public buildings, “we immediately thought of Leptis Magna,” says Ashraf Mohammed, 33, one of the first fighters to join Hribish’s group. “A bank can be rebuilt, but our monuments and our history are things we can’t replace,” he said. The group of 20 young men, Kalashnikov assault rifles in hand, go on a routine patrol around the 50 hectare site. They inspect the hippodrome, the basilica and the open-air theater that used to host some 15,000 spectators on its terraces, with a sublime view of the Mediterranean. Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, who was born in Leptis Magna and ruled Rome from 193 to 211 AD, favored his hometown and turned it into one of the most beautiful cities in the empire. He endowed it with monuments including a vast basilica over 30 meters high, and renovated the thermal baths built during the reign of Hadrian (76-138 AD). The open-air pool is still intact.

Hribish, from the nearby city of Khoms, fears for the site’s safety. The jihadists of the Islamic State group, which destroyed priceless artifacts in Syria and Iraq, are still active in Libya despite having been ousted from Sirte, their North African bastion. But “we are much more worried about looting and acts of vandalism,” Hribish said, adding that he knows “every stone of the site”. Hribish says he was “appalled” when IS blew up UNESCO-listed Roman-era temples and looted ancient relics in Syria’s Palmyra. But he says that unlike the country’s other historical sites, “Leptis Magna has been protected from acts of looting and we are continuing to monitor it.” “We will not allow IS or anyone else to touch it,” he said. In 2015, his men discovered and defused a bomb weighing several kilograms in a cafe close to the site. But he doubts it was put there by jihadists, in a country where multiple armed groups are struggling for power. Islamist extremists are not the only threat to the site, he said, pointing out that it was developers who destroyed part of the city of Cyrene, an ancient Greek and Roman city in eastern Libya, in order to build houses there. “We have prevented acts like that here,” he said. Walid Abu Hamid, 33, says the city needs restoration work to tackle the effects of erosion. “We have told the Department of Antiquities, but in vain,” he said. “Gadhafi marginalized our history and our heritage for more than 40 years. It’s time for us to look after it and show it to the world.”

Rally against extremists Tunisian women shout slogans during a demonstration outside parliament in the capital Tunis against allowing citizens who joined the ranks of jihadist groups to return to the country. FETHI BELAID / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Dutch DJs Domien Verschuuren and Frank van der Lende with 6-year-old Tijn Kolsteren at a charity event in Breda, the Netherlands. SANDER KONING / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Terminally ill Dutch boy’s nail varnish challenge rakes in millions By AGENCE FRANCEPRESSE in The Hague

A terminally ill six-year-old Dutch boy, who hoped to raise a few hundred euros by daring people to paint their nails has raised more than 2.5 million euros. Tijn Kolsteren, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in May, launched the appeal only three days ago, but it fired the imagination of the public. The charity drive raised more than $2.6 million. “With his nail-painting dare he wanted to help chil-

dren suffering from pneumonia,” the Dutch public newscaster NOS reported. “It was an enormous success — from DJ Armin van Buuren to Prime Minister Mark Rutte and many other famous celebrities had their nails painted,” it said. “Paint your nails, make a donation and then challenge three of your friends to do the same,” dared the donation page, which invited participants to share their pictures on social media using the hashtag #lakaan (meaning “the polish is on”).

The appeal is part of a traditional event in The Netherlands where radio DJs lock themselves away for several days without food or drink to raise money. This year, proceeds are going to the Red Cross. Rutte joined the DJs late on Friday and opted for a deep blue for his own nails. Tijn’s family learned only last week that a course of chemotherapy had failed to reduce the size of his cancer. “Despite this bad news, we wanted to do something for children who won’t maybe

even make it to 6,” his father Gerrit told the NOS. “We came up with the idea together: Tijn had already painted his nails with a friend and liked it. I wanted to do something similar to the Ice Bucket challenge and men painting their nails is a bit taboo,” he added, referring to the internet craze that raised millions. The Dutch press hailed the boy as a hero, with the tabloid AD on Friday putting a picture of him dressed as a superhero under the headline “SuperTijn”.

By AGENCE FRANCEPRESSE in Bouff, France

Electronic spies come in all shapes and sizes, but none is as funny looking as an oyster impersonator called the Flex Spy now infiltrating the waters off western France. Looking for all the world like the bivalves it is protecting, the plastic imposter is fitted with a circuit board that allows it to snitch on thieves. Invented by French startup Flex-Sense, the device has been on the market since September. After the first prototypes were tested in Vietnam, the gadgets are now making their appearance in the oyster beds off France’s Atlantic coast, with a major deployment planned in February. Several dozen tons of oysters are stolen each year out of France’s total production of 100,000 tons. “It may not be a big proportion, but it is a lot for the operator who is robbed” after seeing much of his production wiped out by a mystery disease for the past several years, said oyster farmer Gerald Viaud, president of the national shellfish farmers’ association. Theft is a “real problem” in the sector, which is “always on the lookout for solutions”, from surveillance cameras to ground, sea and air patrols, he said. One quirkier approach is to fill an oyster shell with cement stamped with the farmer’s phone number in the hope that a vendor who finds it among stolen oysters will contact the victim. Enter Flex-Sense, which was founded some 18 months ago specializing in wireless telemetry in complex environments. Initially it was interested in offering shellfish farmers a way to monitor water temperature, salinity and oxygen concentration from a distance to enable them to limit the mortality rates of their mussels and oysters. But customers were also interested in ways to prevent thefts, which spike ahead of the holiday season. After months of development, the electronic oyster was hatched. The electronic spy kicks into action if it detects suspicious movement, transmitting an alert to the oyster farmer’s phone or computer. The user can then track the oysters’ movements for up to a week. It is too early to judge the device’s effectiveness, however, since no thieves have yet been caught. The company wants to go on to adapt the device for use in the construction industry, said Sylvain Dardenne, co-founder and commercial director of Flex-Sense.

UNITED KINGDOM

Queen hails unsung heroes in Christmas message By AGENCE FRANCEPRESSE in London

Queen Elizabeth II will pay tribute to inspirational unsung heroes in her Christmas Day broadcast to the Commonwealth on Sunday. The 90-year-old monarch will put the focus on “ordinary people doing extraordinary things”, according to the text of her annual message. The monarch will urge people to achieve “small things with great love” in the speech, which is an integral part of Christmas Day traditions in Britain, and for millions around the world. “I often draw strength from meeting ordinary people doing extraordinary things: volunteers, carers, community organizers and good neighbors; unsung heroes whose quiet dedication makes them

special,” she said, in the prerecorded message. “They are an inspiration to those who know them, and their lives frequently embody a truth expressed by Mother Teresa. “She once said: ‘Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love’.” Recalling the Rio 2016 Olympics, Queen Elizabeth was to pay tribute to Britain’s 67 medalists who propelled the country to second in the medals table — the nation’s best performance in an away Games. “There was a time when British Olympic medal winners became household names because there were so few of them,” she said. She said the athletes spoke of being inspired by previous generations, and were now inspiring the next. The monarch also singled

Queen Elizabeth sits at a desk in Buckingham Palace after recording her Christmas Day broadcast. YUI MOK / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

out Grenada, the Bahamas, Jamaica and New Zealand — four countries where she is also queen — which won more Olympic medals per head of population than other nations. Though she recalled the

Games and her 90th birthday celebrations, the head of state did not mention the referendum in which Britain voted to leave the European Union, the dominating feature of 2016 in the UK.

She chose to focus on smaller-scale decisions instead. “Even with the inspiration of others, it’s understandable that we sometimes think the world’s problems are so big that we can do little to help,” she said. “On our own, we cannot end wars or wipe out injustice, but the cumulative impact of thousands of small acts of goodness can be bigger than we imagine.” A heavy cold will keep the queen from attending the traditional Christmas morning church service near her Sandringham estate in rural Norfolk, England. It is extremely rare for the queen to miss the service, which is a cornerstone of the royal family’s Christmas celebrations and brings the monarch into contact with local residents.

COMMENT

Monday, December 26, 2016

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Monday, December 26, 2016

C H I N A DA I LY USA

2016 YEAR-END: SOCIETY Editor’s Note: This is the last one of our six-part year-end review series. Today, four commentators review China’s society and give their predictions for next year.

W O R D S O F T H E Y E A R | WA N G Y I Q I N G

These words got a buzz and more out of 2016

aowenjiaozi, an influential Chinese language magazine which publishes China’s top 10 buzzwords every year, has just released the list for 2016. The buzzwords reflect people’s spiritual orientation. “Craftsmanship spirit”, which refers to the dedication with which craftsmen work to make every product as perfect as possible, became intensely popular after it was used by Premier Li Keqiang in this year’s Government Work Report. The premier said the country will “encourage enterprises to use flexible and custom-tailored production processes and foster a craftsmanship spirit of striving for the best, so that

more types of products, products of higher quality, and brand products will be made”. Although the term has been lifted to a high level of national strategy, it actually talks about the spirit that many ordinary people have. Carrying forward the spirit of craftsmanship is a sign that the values important to ordinary people, be they craftsmen or grassroots manufacturing workers, are being recognized and promoted in society. Craftsmanship spirit also promotes a healthy social environment that encourages innovation and the pursuit of perfection, which is crucial to China’s transformation from a big manufacturing country to a great manufacturing power.

Besides national strategy, this year’s buzzwords also reflect a lot on social trends. “Prehistoric power”, a magic natural power creating the world, first appeared in a popular Chinese fantasy TV drama The Journey of Flower in 2015. But the word went viral only after 20-year-old Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui used it during a TV interview at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro to describe how she has tried her best in the competition. The public immediately fell in love with Fu, not only because she used a popular internet buzzword during a live TV interview that reflected her liveliness and humor, but also because of her spirit of optimism and

love for swimming. Fu said she was satisfied with herself and the result, because she had overcome many difficulties to achieve her best timing ever. The term “prehistoric power” she used during the Rio Olympics, where Fu won the bronze medal in 50-meter backstroke, represents the spirit of the Olympic Games.

Sportsmanship is not only about the results and medals that athletes achieve, but also about the spirit of trying their best and transcending beyond themselves. Olympic medals are special, but the unimaginable efforts Fu and many other athletes like her make are laudable and special too. Chigua qunzhong, or internet onlookers, refers to people standing together and eating melons. They are big groups that frequently appear on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, and their popularity reflects public opinion to a certain extent. Although they always mock themselves as “the people who are kept in the dark”, in reality they express opinions on

P O P U L A T I O N | M U G UA N G Z O N G

The general trend in China is one of a gradual decline in the total fertility rate, and the continuous low birth rate has become a new demographic normal. According to the national sample survey in 2015, which covered 1 percent of China’s population, the total fertility rate has declined to as low as 1.05. After the previous change in the family planning policy — which allowed couples to have two children if either of them was the only child of their parents — gradually took effect in 2014, there was

no baby-boom as some people had feared. Of the 11 million eligible couples according to the previous policy, only 920,000 applied by the end of 2014 to have a second child; the figure increased to 1.39 million by May 2015. The figures show an overwhelming majority of Chinese couples may not be interested in having a second child. And the factors responsible for that — such as strict birth control in the past decades, low fertility desire and the huge cost of raising children — have left China staring at a low fertility rate trap. Chinese people’s fertility rate is generally between 1.6 to 1.8, which means the policy that allows all couples to have two children is not likely to achieve its goal. Given the rising living and housing costs, couples in general delay the decision to have even their first child, with many not even thinking of having a second child. In other words, couples who desire to have two children comprise just a small percentage of all the childbearing-age couples, and those who truly have a second child are much fewer than those who have the desire to do so. The policymade fertility rate is about 1.8, the wanted fertility rate is less than 1.5 and the actual fertility rate is less than 1.3. Although the number of

offers information on online charity more transparently and frequently. Despite the positives, however, the development of online charity this year has not been without glitches. Late last month, it was revealed that Luo Er, who went online to seek public help to save his 5-year-old from leukemia, had hidden from people the fact that he owned three apartments — one in Shenzhen and two in Dongguan in South China’s Guangdong province. Luo eventually returned the more than $360,000 money he had received to the donors but only after raising a controversy. Some have called Luo “a liar” and blamed online charity for giving him the chance to fool the Good Samaritans. What such people forget is that the truth came to light only because of the internet.

CAI MENG / CHINA DAILY

newborns is expected to increase in the short term, the fertility and birth rates will remain low. For instance, in East China’s Zhejiang province, 152,000 couples eligible to have a second child according to the previous family planning policy had applied by the end of 2015 to do so. But they accounted for just about 20 percent of all the eligible couples in the province. In the long run, the number of newborns relative to Chi-

na’s total population will remarkably decrease because of the low birth rate, as the number of women of childbearing age declines. In the decade from 2015 to 2025, the population of women between 24 to 29 years old, considered ideal childbearing age, will decline from 73.87 million to 41.16 million. This means the number of newborns will decrease by a half even if the fertility rate remains unchanged in

the next decade. In the next few decades, therefore, China will face the challenge of shrinking and aging population. The author is a professor at the Population Research Institute of Peking University.

Real people, real issues deserve media focus

sweeping across social networks and media outlets, and it further intensified in 2016. Some might argue amusement and entertainment news is a trend today because that is what most people want. True, readers and viewers fond of entertainment news are to partly blame for the trend, but the fact is, the pan-entertainment section takes up so much space on screen that even those looking for serious news stories have difficulty finding them. No wonder when some mainstream media outlets recently reported the moving deeds of some scientists, many people asked why these people

The author is a writer with China Daily. wangyiqing@ chinadaily.com.cn

Internet ushers in new age of charity

S O C I A L T R E N D S | B I YA N TA O

henever I check my cellphone for news, I’m greeted by entertainment news promos: One celebrity is having an extramarital affair while another faces a divorce. Sometimes these promos are hidden under the cover of “social news” in order to attract more clicks. In the late 1800s, US newspapers were using so much pulp news to amuse, and thus attract more readers that their style came to be known as “yellow journalism”. Today, Chinese media outlets seem to be doing the same. A pan-entertainment trend has been

social problems raised by netizens have gone viral online and led to their solution. The popularity of internet onlookers actually shows an ever-increasing and improving sense of public participation, which is conducive to building a harmonious society. These buzzwords reflect different aspects of China’s social development in 2016. Hopefully, more people will carry on the craftsmanship spirit with “prehistoric power”, as society continues to evolve in 2017 with more interactions among the “internet onlookers”.

PHILANTHROPIES| WA N G Z H E N YA O

Two-child policy has demographic limits he new family planning policy allowing all couples to have two children took effect on Jan 1, but the number of newborns this year has been less than expected. The total number of newborns is expected to be just over 17.5 million, which is only 950,000 more than the 16.55 million in 2015, and 630,000 more than the 16.87 million in 2014. The estimated number of newborns as a result of the new family planning policy accounts for 24 percent of the births in 2016. Given that about 90 million couples are eligible to have a second child, the actual number of secondborn children will account for only 1 percent of the newborns in 2016.

the internet by retweeting, writing online comments or simply pressing the “like” button. The so-called internet onlookers’ views, to a certain extent, tells us what the social environment is like. You can know what people love or hate the most and weigh the pros and cons through the overwhelming opinions people express on the internet. More importantly, the internet onlookers actually form a “public opinion field”, which sparks public discussions, and public supervision to some extent. Although we can’t make a judgment on a certain issue based only on netizens’ opinions, we cannot deny many

were never heard of before. We have excellent teachers, workers, soldiers and farmers, yet seldom do media outlets focus on any of them. More importantly, China is undergoing social transformation with many newly emerg-

ing problems. Too much media focus on celebrities will divert people’s attention from the really important problems that deserve serious attention. For example, the higher education system’s problems can be solved only by deepening the ongoing reform. Experts need to think more about these problems and help the leadership make the decisions and guide the reform in the right direction, which they have not yet done to their full potential. It’s time media outlets stopped violating the code of ethics of journalism. Journalists have the obligation to report about real issues and

share with readers both the progress we have made and the challenges we are facing. In 2016, journalists have done a good job by highlighting some milestone judicial cases that will further promote the rule of law, and spreading the sportsmanship spirit during the Rio Olympic Games. These are values that should be cherished in the society. Hopefully, the pan-entertainment trend will start fading next year as people pay more attention to what truly deserves their attention. The author is a professor in communications at Hainan Tropical Ocean University.

he development of internetbased charity activities has been amazing this year. Three landmark developments — legislation, the total amount of online donation, and rational public discussions — deserve the credit for the progress. The annual session of the National People’s Congress, the top legislature, in 2016 passed the Charity Law, which includes online charity law. And even though China lags a little behind some other countries in terms of modern charity legislation, it is taking the lead in online charity activities and making efforts to streamline the sector. Internet makes it convenient for Chinese people to embrace modern charity. Online charity has grown pretty fast in China and has huge potential to expand further. There are several reasons why online charity has grown at such a fast pace. The traditional practice was to donate money to charity organizations, thank yourself for doing a good deed and forget about it. That used to be the case partly because donors had little information about where the money they donated went and who benefited from it. But today the internet

While a few internet users hold radical opinions and blame Luo for everything, the majority have kept the discussion on a rational level. As a result, when Luo decided to return all the money he had received as donation, he could do so without much of a hitch. The Luo incident also made netizens discuss what measures should be taken to make sure the information released on online charity platforms is complete and factual. The government, on its part, should take measures to better regulate such platforms and protect both the donors and those receiving the donations. The internet will continue playing an influential role in promoting charity in the future, and the internet will propel China’s online charity sector toward greater success. Wang Zhenyao is the dean of China Philanthropy Research Institute at Beijing Normal University. The article is an excerpt from his interview with China Daily’s Zhang Zhouxiang.

BUSINESS

Monday, December 26, 2016

CHINA DAILY USA Âť CHINADAILYUSA.COM

PROPERTY

Office realty joins sharing economy :+2 5(176 :+$7 :+(5( $1' )25 +2: 08&+

Popularity of the cowork space business spreads like wildfire among entrepreneurs, stoking a new culture

These days, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Shanghai 189 Laneâ&#x20AC;?, CITIC Capitalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s colorfully decorated and brightly illumined seven-story shopping complex in downtown Shanghai, sees an endless stream of young people entering and exiting, morning till late night. The year-end winter chill is no bar for them â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but Christmas shopping isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t what they are here for. They are the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals, out to view the floor plans of the top two stories of the complex. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where lots of co-work spaces have been installed of late. Shanghai 189 Lane is one of the 200odd co-work space sites that have mushroomed across the city. Zhang Yueqiang, a startup co-founder who is expecting to launch a visual reality content design outfit soon, said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve visited 18 sites in Shanghai in the last one week, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m thinking of moving into one of them at the beginning of 2017. Some are offering discounted rates at the year-end. But my co-founder said we should visit some more as there are plenty of choices now. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We need to choose the most cost-effective one, taking rental, location and services into consideration.â&#x20AC;? Convenient, flexible and affordable, co-work spaces have become the first choice of many startups, freelancers, independent players and selfemployed professionals on the lookout for offices in Beijing and Shanghai. According to a research note by JLL, a real estate services provider, the number of co-work spaces in Beijing and Shanghai has jumped to over 500 from no more than 10 just five years ago. A research note from Shanghai-based Ruiyi Consultancy Ltd said the co-work space market by floor space grew 71 percent annually on average from 2007 to 2015, and is projected to grow 68 percent annually from 2016 to 2018. SEE â&#x20AC;&#x153;TENANTâ&#x20AC;? PAGE 14

By WU YIYAO in Shanghai

A comparison of various classes of tenants and features of their work spaces

By WU YIYAO in Shanghai wuyiyao@chinadaily.com.cn

&R ZRUN VSDFH

7enant 5

ental tenure

ental fee (in central Shanghai)

,QFXEDWRU

2IILFH EXLOGLQJ

Startups, freelancers, self-employed professionals, SMEs, creative teams from big enterprises

Fresh graduates, researchers seeking to commercialize their projects, startups

1 month to 1 year

Yearly, but most of the incubated projects can stay no longer than ďŹ ve years

Longer term (ďŹ ve years or more)

$70-500 per desk per month

up to $60 per square meter per month

$300-500 per desk per month

Enterprises, big ďŹ rms, organizations

(xpenses that

may be incurred in setting up an office (including decoration, maintenance, etc.)

ime needed /taken to move in

1 M2

Almost all are included in rental

Where freelancers, startups party 24x7

Almost all are included in rental

At least $28,000

Less than a week

Less than a month

Depends on decoration works. Some need to wait for months if the tenant wait list is long

Maintenance, catering, recreation, hospitality, fund-raising, networking, facilities, housekeeping

Maintenance, catering, fund-raising, networking

Concierge, security, events, catering

Sitesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; internal funding, networking, matchmaking services

Startup competitions, government awards, matchmaking services

You have a business idea and have even raised some money for your dream startup, but without a proper space to work, the business may run aground. But, most startups tend to be cash-strapped initially, and hence unable to afford to rent, let alone own, a full-fledged office straightaway. Such startups are a global phenomenon now, and are particularly ubiquitous in urban China. To meet their needs, the commercial property industry has invented co-work spaces, in line with the trend of the sharing economy. Take, for instance, the US-based co-work space firm WeWorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s site in central Shanghai. Jasmine Jin walks into her six-desk, 12-square-meter office at 9 am, grabs a cup of freshly brewed coffee at the pantry, and joins her small army of co-workers of OneMoreCloset, a startup whose online platform allows users to share their fashion. For co-founder Jin and her staff, the morning coffee, and many other conveniences that are part of the WeWork package, make a huge difference. Operating from WeWork, OneMoreCloset has been in business with no more than a couple of wardrobes as its office fixtures. The cupboards hold fashion like all-black evening dresses to studded pants. All else â&#x20AC;&#x201D; furniture, printers, internet, pantry, housekeeping, meeting rooms, so on â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are provided by WeWork. Thousands of entrepreneurs such as Jin and startups such as OneMoreCloset wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t settle for anything less these days.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like a 24-hour party of entrepreneurs. Everyone wants to know about everyone elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business.â&#x20AC;? Jasmine Jin, a startup co-founder and a tenant at WeWorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s co-work site in Shanghai

Co-work spaces such as WeWork are not owned or rented by an individual or a company. Individuals or groups rent workstations or portions of office space on yearly, monthly, weekly or even daily subscriptions. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, when entrepreneurs from different paths work on the same premises, a vibrant community evolves. Connections develop. Networking ensues, which could help foster mutual growth. Conceivably, office-sharing could lead to success-sharing. For instance, OneMoreClosetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office sits opposite a onedesk office of a catering services provider. Next to them is a more spacious office portion that hosts tens of providers of financial services. A neighbor could be a potential customer or a future partner. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The best part of being a tenant here is that you can make full use of various services, and you see opportunities everywhere. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like a 24-hour party of entrepreneurs. Everyone wants to know about everyone elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;How SEE â&#x20AC;&#x153;NETWORKâ&#x20AC;? PAGE 14

6ome of the value-added services that may be offered

)und-raising channels for startups

Not applicable

MA XUEJING / CHINA DAILY

Sources: DTZ, ma3office.com, WeWork, UR Work, CBRE

An entrepreneur works at his desk in the ATLAS Workplace in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. The co-work space will open a site in Shanghai this year. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

TECH

Data-rich Tesla wrests lead in race for fully functional autonomous vehicle By BLOOMBERG

There was, in hindsight, a clear element of risk to Tesla Motors Incâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision to install autopilot hardware in every car coming off the production line since October 2014. It paid a price, with federal regulators probing the deadly crash of a Model S while in driver-assist mode and critics slamming Tesla for rolling the technology out too soon. But there was also a reward. The company has collected more than 1.3 billion miles of data from autopilot-equipped vehicles operating under diverse road and weather conditions around the world.

In the frantic race to roll out the first fully functional autonomous vehicle, that kind of mass, real-world intelligence can be invaluable. In that way, for now, the electric-car maker has a leg up on competitors including Google, General Motors Co and Uber Technologies Inc. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no question that Tesla has an advantage,â&#x20AC;? said Nidhi Kalra, a senior information scientist at the Rand Corporation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They can learn from a wider range of experiences and at a much faster rate than a company that is testing with trained drivers and employees behind the wheel.â&#x20AC;? The autonomous autos Goo-

A test driver demonstrates autopilot features in a Tesla Model S electric car in California, the US, in October last year. REUTERS

gle developed have covered 2 million real-world miles â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with employees on board â&#x20AC;&#x201D; since 2009, according to the

company. Parent Alphabet Inc last week spun the self-driving project into a business called Waymo.

Uber, which has been piloting self-driving rideshare vehicles in Pittsburgh, recently deployed a fleet in San Francisco in its partnership with Volvo Cars. Each SUV is staffed with two employees, one ready to grab the wheel and the other on the lookout for pedestrians. Uber made the move without approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles and state prosecutors have threatened to seek a court order to force the company to stop. An Uber executive said itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s acting â&#x20AC;&#x153;just like Tesla.â&#x20AC;? As for GM, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be putting its flotilla on the streets in Michigan, now that Governor Rick

Snyder has signed a law allowing public-road testing of cars without steering wheels, gas or brake pedals â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or any need for human control. But GM engineers will be in the front seats, as they are in test-trips that have been taking place in Arizona and California. Ford Motor Co has been doing its controlled runs on Michigan roads since 2015, including when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s snowing. The fatal accident occurred in May when a man drove his 2015 Model S under the trailer of an 18-wheeler on a Florida highway. Neither the driver nor autopilot noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the

brake wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t applied, according to the company. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in October that the upcoming Model 3, due out in late 2017, as well as all Teslas now being made at the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fremont, California, factory, will ship with an improved hardware suite that will enable total self-driving. While heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s said he wants to demonstrate an autonomous cross-country drive within a year, other automakers have generally ruled out total selfdriving capability until sometime after 2020.

14 BUS IN E S S

Monday, December 26, 2016

GOING GLOBAL

Making group investment viable

Tenant: Foreign and local brands in fray FROM PAGE 13

CMIG leads Chinese companies in new model in Cambodia to help reduce risks, multiply advantages By ZHANG HAIZHOU in Phnom Penh zhanghaizhou@ chinadaily.com.cn

Cambodia has never been a popular destination for Chinese investors. Not for long though. Particularly for State-owned enterprises or SOEs that, in recent years, have spent lavishly acquiring landmark projects in North America, western Europe and bigger economies in the ASEAN region, Cambodia has been a bit of a no-no. For, among its Southeast Asian peers, Cambodia ranks only eighth in terms of economy size. According to the International Monetary Fund’s 2015 data, Cambodia’s GDP per capita of less than $3,500 contrasts with Singapore’s nearly $85,000, and sits at the bottom of the 10-country bloc. Yet, for Dong Wenbiao, chairman of China Minsheng Investment Group or CMIG, Cambodia’s poor foundation may be hiding many opportunities. The country will be an ideal destination for China’s leading private enterprises, if they go and invest together rather than individually. Toward this end, CMIG is pioneering a “group investment” model. CMIG comprises 59 private enterprises. It was founded in Shanghai in 2014 with a registered capital of 50 billion yuan. CMIG’s total assets have since snowballed to 200 billion yuan. According to Dong, to reduce risks and multiply their advantages, Chinese private-sector enterprises from different sectors would be better off investing abroad in groups, given that they can’t match the financial muscle of SOEs. Dong has been so enthusiastic in promoting the model that nothing, not even constant power failures during a media conference at a new luxury hotel in Phnom Penh, would dent his belief in Cam-

Dong Wenbiao (left), chairman of China Minsheng Investment Group, meets Cambodian Premier Hun Sen (middle) and his wife during the first-ever Cambodia-China Business and Financial Development Forum held in Phnom Penh on Dec 1. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

bodia. For Dong, embarrassments like power failures not only reflect the severe infrastructure shortage in the country but represent potential opportunities for foreign investors. That is what he told the first-ever Cambodia-China Business and Financial Development Forum on Dec 1, organized by CMIG and Ly Yong Phat or LYP Group, a local conglomerate. “Cambodia has huge room to develop infrastructure… Many of the CMIG’s shareholders are leaders in water, electricity and gas infrastructure. They will work with local governments in the future,” he said. Dong said CMIG’s plan also includes helping Cambodia to develop clean energy, real estate, and financial services. Three related deals were signed as a result of the forum. They include a $1.5 billion deal to develop CambodiaChina Friendship City by LYP Group and SRE Group of Shanghai. The city will be a

Cambodia has huge room to develop infrastructure … Many of the CMIG’s shareholders are leaders in water, electricity and gas infrastructure.” Dong Wenbiao, chairman of China Minsheng Investment Group

subdivision of a 2,000-hectare satellite city in northern Phnom Penh. What was more significant than the forum was that China’s leading private-sector tycoons from various industries gathered together in Cambodia, under the aegis of CMIG, to seek investment opportunities. The CMIG-led delegation included real estate developer SRE Group, and financial institutions Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank and Fudian Bank. In the run-up to the forums, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen even held a meeting with Dong in Phnom

Penh in September. Li Huaizhen, president and CEO of CMIG, said the forums typify the potential of the group investment model to band together industrial and financial players for a common goal of “coordinated development” abroad. “Such a model will have strong vitality.” China is CMIG’s focus with more than 80 percent of its business in the domestic market. But Li noted that it is consistently seeking business opportunities overseas, including along the vast area covered by the Belt and Road Initiative.

CMIG International Holding, a subsidiary of CMIG, acquired Sirius International Insurance Group in Singapore in August 2015, marking CMIG’s entry into global insurance. The group had said in 2015 that it will guide dozens of leading Chinese private enterprises to jointly invest $5 billion in Indonesia to construct CMIG Indonesia Industrial Park. CMIG later pledged 100 million yuan ($14.5 million) to fund executive education in China of Indonesian managers and Chinese executives seeking investment opportunities in the archipelago for 10 years. Under the first Belt and Road Initiative-CMIG-Tsinghua Pilot Program for Indonesian Entrepreneurs, 15 students started classes at the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management in late July. They are the founders or senior executives of Indonesian enterprises in fields such as agriculture, manufacturing, trade and services.

REALTY

Ikea Centres to increase megamalls in China By WANG YING in Shanghai wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn

Ikea Centres China, Ikea Group’s megamalls unit that entered the country in 2009, is firming up plans to replicate its success in three Chinese cities across the country. Beginning 2020, it will open one megamall per year. Typically, a megamall is a shopping mall with an Ikea store, and the future ones may also have apartments, hotel or offices. The megamalls developed by Ikea Centres China are also known as Livat shopping centers. In China, its megamalls are located in Beijing, Wuxi in Jiangsu province and Wuhan in Hubei province. They involved investment of 10 billion yuan ($1.44 billion). Ding Hui, president of Ikea Centres China, said the three centers have been like tests, and produced encouraging results. Hence, Ikea has decided to expand across China. New shopping centers may come up in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as in second-tier cities such as Chongqing, Xi’an, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Qingdao. The fourth in the country, which will entail an investment of about 4 billion yuan,

will be a commercial complex in Changsha of Hunan province, Central China, according to Ding. “It’ll have a shopping mall, Ikea store, apartments, a hotel as well as offices. It will be the first of its kind as other centers don’t house apartments, hotel or offices,” Ding said. The Wuxi center, the first Livat venture in the Chinese mainland, opened in June 2014. According to Ding, over the past two fiscal years, it saw a 32 percent growth in revenue and 27 percent growth in guest flow to 14.1 million. The three shopping centers registered 52.6 million visits in Ikea’s fiscal year between September 2015 and August 2016. Combined sales were up 36 percent at 7 billion yuan. “Through the last year’s budget, Ikea Centres China funneled 25 billion yuan into the development of shopping centers. This will continue until 2025, to ensure one new project comes up per year from 2020,” said Ding. “Land deals and project sales can no longer generate sustainable profits. So, the competition between shopping malls will become even fiercer in the foreseeable future. This will be a good opportunity for companies

The Livat shopping center, developed by Ikea Centres China, in Wuhan, Hubei province, is a popular destination for local consumers. MIAO JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY

Land deals and project sales can no longer generate sustainable profits. So, the competition between shopping malls will become even fiercer.” Ding Hui, president of Ikea Centres China

such as Ikea Centres China,” said Ding. Furniture giant Ikea’s malls foray signifies how iconic companies are diversifying for long-term sustainability.

The Nikkei Asian Review recently reported that railway and hospitality group Odakyu Electric Railway is joining forces with the operator of Muji stores to open a

hotel next year in China. “In the past few years, Chinese conglomerates diversified successfully in China. Now, international brands like Ikea and Muji are trying to do the same for better localization,” said Chen Sheng, president of the China Real Estate Data Academy. Livat shopping centers in China will house companies and brands like Ikea Retail, Auchan Hypermarket, Suning Electronics, Jinyi Cinema, Decathlon, Zara, Mango, H&M, C&A, Gap, Uniqlo. Besides, there will be food and beverage facilities, and entertainment areas for children. “Ikea Centres China is in talks with leading international hotel brands, including Marriot, InterContinental and Hilton for the hotel space,” said Ding. According to him, the hotels will be of three-star variety, but will provide fourstar hotel experience to customers like middle-income families and business travelers. Tastefully done up flats complete in all respects will target young working professionals and newly-weds. Offices will offer shared spaces like pantry, meeting rooms and conference chambers to tenant companies.

C H I N A DA I LY USA

Companies from different fields such as real estate (UR Work, Soho 3Q), hospitality (Naked Hub which owns several resorts and hotel sites), and media (KrSpace) have entered the co-work space market and expanded quickly. That’s not all. Foreign brands in this segment like WeWork from the US are trying to meet China’s rising demand for co-work spaces. WeWork received $430 million in funding from China’s Legend Holdings. The latter’s private equity arm Hony Capital valued WeWork at more than $15 billion. WeWork has opened two co-work sites in Shanghai. It is preparing to launch a third one now, and is also expanding to Beijing. Mao Daqing, founder of UR Work, said his co-work space brand aims to increase the number of its sites from 40 across 10 cities by this yearend to 60 in 2017. Naked Hub announced in late November that it will accelerate its regional expansion and enhance its property resources via Gaw Capital Partners, aiming to add up to 30 new locations, or about 150,000 square meters and 30,000 members across the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and other key cities in Asia. A research note from CBRE on innovative sectors’ leasing trends said that China’s small enterprises and startups are favoring co-work spaces because their cost is “lower” and their atmosphere appeals to young talent, particularly those working in the TMT (technology, media and telecommunication) space. Sam Xie, research director of CBRE China, said innovative talent tends to work at sites in convenient locations. And when they work together, they can form a “cluster”. “Co-work spaces are meeting these demands, so they are increasingly favored,” said Xie. Tenants have other considerations too, said real estate agents. Feng Yunxi, a real estate agent with Shanghai-based Fengxiang Real Estate Co, said: “Innovation and entrepreneurship have become a national aspiration. An

increasing number of startups are emerging. All of them need a decent space to operate from. They can actually work from their homes or even rented residential flats to save on costs. “But they are looking for a community, where they can feel that they are not alone, where they can get resources, such as business opportunities from other tenants, on short-term lease basis. That’s so because startups do realize there’s no certainty they will survive in the long run and thrive. If they do, they may need to move to a larger office.”

$430 million the funding WeWork received from China’s Legend Holdings for its expansion in China

That would be a risk though, from the space provider’s perspective. Whether tenants’ businesses succeed or fail, they would eventually likely move out, leaving the office desks empty. So, operators are evolving new strategies to make their own business viable in the long run. In addition to startups and freelancers, mid-sized and large enterprises are also being courted by co-work site operators. “Co-work spaces may no longer be an exclusive zone for small businesses. Operators’ huge investments need a stable turnover. So, a balanced tenant portfolio becomes necessary to hedge risks. “In the US where co-work spaces first emerged, and in Hong Kong where co-work spaces are common, bigger businesses such as banks and technology companies have moved some of their teams to co-work spaces. “The younger generation among their staff prefer such atmosphere and some creative arms of established businesses may not find a fixed seat comfortable and suitable. I think in the Chinese mainland, more co-work spaces will allocate more resources to bigger tenants in the future,” said Kenneth Rhee, CEO of Huhan Business Advisory (Shanghai).

Network: Communal, flexible, convenient FROM PAGE 13

I can help others through my business?’ That’s what drives us. You can have a shower late at night because this space is open 24x7. You’ve all the flexibility, all the convenience and all the joy of being a part of an innovative community,” said Jin. Encouraged by the experience so far in Shanghai, OneMoreCloset is planning to open an office in the United States, again at a WeWork site. “You can set up an office and start operations quickly in overseas markets,” said Jin. That’s because co-work spaces abroad offer loads of “value-added” services. The website of one such co-work space provider lists the following among its features: workstations, conference rooms, photocopying and printing, free or discounted access to events, high-speed Wi-Fi, 24x7 power backup, lockers, document storage, food and beverages, lounge, cafe, games area, gym, shower area. “A desk can be rented for some 3,000 yuan ($435). Given other freebies, savings work out to more than what you would pay toward rent for a conventional office. For example, you don’t have to decorate the office, thus saving hundreds of thousands of yuan. You don’t have to hire a housekeeping team, a receptionist, an admin person, a facility manager — all these

services are provided at very low prices or free of cost. That helps you save at least 200,000 yuan in the first year of operations,” said Hu Jinwen, an entrepreneur whose startup in Wuhan develops children’s reading materials. As competition intensifies, co-work space operators are pulling out all the stops to attract and retain tenants. “Free coffee and snacks are old hat. Free networking events and facilities renting are a plus. The best operators even help tenants find potential investors and facilitate funding,” said Hu. Some operators even help their tenants get exposure to public. Why, a few actually fund their tenants’ startups that offer bright prospects, giving co-work spaces the dimension of business incubators. That could be happening because ride-hailing giant Uber hit pay dirt in Philadelphia in the US operating out of a co-work space spanning almost an entire floor. So, it is not uncommon anymore to see some developers transforming a couple of floors of an office building into co-work sites. “Co-work spaces aren’t denting the market share of office buildings. Instead, they are becoming part of the office building market. Some wellrun projects are brightening the reputation and brand of developers and office-building projects,” said Albert Lau, CEO of Savills China.

BUSI NE S S 15

C H I N A DA I LY USA Monday, December 26, 2016

PROFILE

Servant leader out to help businesses Han Weiwen leads Bain & Co’s China unit, now in its silver jubilee, toward exciting solutions By CAI XIAO caixiao@chinadaily.com.cn

Han Weiwen, president of the China branch of Bain & Company, the global management consulting firm, comes across as a cerebral executive who is consumed by his own insights into what makes a company a winner. He gets excited and animated while discussing management — evidently, he is passionate about it — and has even co-authored a book on the subject (Founder’s Mentality, whose Chinese version is out), spilling some secrets. “After 10 years of research into 100 companies across 40 different sectors in China and globally, we’ve found that founder’s mentality is the secret (to winning for companies),” he said. Even before your mind could wonder if this is some digital-age management mumbo-jumbo, the sharpbrained Han, as if sensing your thoughts, holds forth. Many companies, he said, experience predictable crises of slowing growth, but those with founder’s mentality grow at a very healthy rate. This insight has been gathered from Chinese companies, and is relevant to the current context of China’s slowing economic growth. Han said an economy can be only as healthy as its constituent companies. By saying that, he makes a case for more and more Chinese companies developing founder’s mentality. What exactly is founder’s mentality? Han said there are three main elements to founder’s mentality.

First, the founder has a clear mission, sees himself as an insurgent and wages war on his industry and its standards on behalf of underserved customers. Second, he or she has an owner’s mindset. Third, he or she must be obsessed with the front line of the business, its employees. “Maintaining that founder’s mentality is also very important for a partnership firm like Bain, so we are pushing very hard internally to really distill it, to continue to be successful,” said Han. As Bain & Co’s point man in China, his focus is on three key areas: the firm’s operations in China, the firm’s clients in the country, and how those two areas could dovetail with the goals of the larger economy. Toward that end, the insurgent mission for Bain & Co in China, he said, is to make its clients more valuable, by helping them make, and implement, better decisions, including learning to be driven by results rather than reports. To achieve that, Bain & Co’s China branch has 25 partners or co-owners, including Han, who are obsessed with the front line, and with being close to the clients and their front lines. Han joined Bain 14 years ago. He took the local arm’s reins in September. His ambition, he said, is to ensure Bain’s continued success in China, more so because 2016 marked the silver jubilee of the local arm. “We have had tremendous growth in the past years and this year has been a particularly good year for us.” How good? Han declined to

Han Weiwen, president of Bain & Co’s China branch, is keen to see the consultancy firm helping local companies build new business models, expertise, talents and organizations. ZHANG WEI / CHINA DAILY

We need to ... codevelop solutions that may not exist (anywhere yet).” Han Weiwen, president of consultancy firm Bain & Co’s China branch

share revenue figures, but said they are closely related to the number of partners. “We want to accelerate our growth in China. But that growth is subject to the quality of our clients, services and talents, so we won’t sacrifice quality to just simply grow.” So, should we “simply” take his word for “good”? Well, he said, one-third of Bain’s clients in China are local companies now (while two-thirds are foreign multinationals).

To serve them, Bain has expanded its resources to more than 200 consultants across six sectors, including financial services, private equity, healthcare, and consumer and retail. That resulted in double-digit growth this year. Although he has been at the top for only four months now, Han takes pride in the achievement because he has been involved in hiring for Bain for about 10 years now. He personally recruited staff for the China operations and helped nurture the talented group. Although some of them have left Bain to pursue their careers elsewhere, seeing them succeed and thrive made him proud that he played a role in their professional development, he said. That role has many hues. There was a time when he was a client leader, he said. Now he will be a “servant leader”. As a client leader, he worked with local Chinese clients on

strategy and operations. With companies’ founders, he was always direct, to be able to influence them and their management teams, he said. “Being the head of more than 20 partners and 200 plus consultants requires a little bit different leadership style. Essentially, I need to lead from behind and make sure that the partners and the leadership team have a common goal and direction.” No less than Bain’s worldwide managing director, Bob Bechek, acknowledged in a statement that Han is a trusted adviser who brings a unique perspective to his work. Looking ahead, Han said there are a lot of opportunities in China because the micro environment is changing. “Most Chinese companies have not experienced change in the past 30 years. So, Bain is uniquely positioned to help them build new business models, expertise, talents and organizations.” As for challenges, he said Bain needs to innovate and transform itself to align with the new environment, given that many current business models are years old and belong to developed markets. “We need to adapt to the demands of local Chinese companies and work closely with these clients to co-develop solutions that may not exist in the world or in China. I think the next 10 years will be very exciting for both our clients and Bain in China.” To cope with all that excitement, Han’s strategy is to make the most of his weekends, which are usually spent in the company of his wife and two sons, 14 and 2, the older one being an aspiring swimmer. Han himself loves exercising, watching movies and listening to music.

Onthemove Zhang Ping next president of Yashili, Hua COO The board of milk formula producer Yashili International Holdings Ltd has named Zhang Ping as its next president, and promoted Hua Li, vice-president, to chief operating officer. Zhang, the current CEO of European dairy company Food Union, is expected to boost sales of Yashili by coordinating internal and external resources. He brings 30 years of experience in supply chain management, according to the company board. In 2017, Yashili will focus more on e-commerce. Swannell, M&S chairman, to step down in 2017 After six years in office, Robert Swannell will step down next year as the chairman of Marks & Spencer, the British multinational clothing and food retailer. Swannell was once known for saving M&S from a takeover bid from British businessman Sir Philip Green in 2004, but is seen as having failed to maintain a good performance during his term as the chairman. M&S has been going through a major sales slump in recent years, and has tapped Steve Rowe to replace Marc Bolland less than a year ago as the CEO, to turn things around. Wu replaces Zhao as head of Mic Finance of Xiaomi Wu Zheng has replaced Zhao Minghui as the CEO of Mic Finance, the financial services arm of Chinese tech major Xiaomi. According to Wu, Mic Finance will help connect different business sectors of Xiaomi and help roll out diversified and innovative financial products in the future. Zhao will stay on as a board executive to guide the company’s business strategies. Mic Finance

was launched this September. Starbucks founder Schultz to relinquish CEO post Howard Schultz, the founder of the US coffeehouse chain Starbucks Corp, announced he will hand over the CEO post next April to Kevin Johnson, the current president. Schultz will retain the board chairman position and shift focus to the highend coffee business. Although the company’s stock price dropped by 3.35 percent upon the shake-up, Schultz is confident about continued growth in Starbucks’ core businesses under Johnson’s leadership. Schultz has been leading the coffeehouse chain expansion globally, and China as a highly valued market will see 5,000 coffeehouses open for business by 2021. Kent to make way for Quincey at Coca-Cola top Muhtar Kent, 64, will step down on May 1, 2017 as CEO of Coca-Cola Co, the US multinational beverage manufacturer. James Quincey, the company’s current COO, will take over from Kent. CocaCola’s mainstream soda sales are sliding, and facing resistance from increasingly health-conscious consumers. Kent will stay on as chairman. Quincey, who joined Coca-Cola 20 years ago, has said he wants to modernize the company’s marketing and distribution to be in alignment with the trends in the e-commerce era. To deal with consumers’ concerns about calorie-intake from sugary drinks and colas, Quincey is considering launch of smaller bottles of beverages. In his book, less sugar makes better marketing. CHINA DAILY & AGENCIES

16 BUS IN E S S

Monday, December 26, 2016

C H I N A DA I LY USA

STOCKS

IPO

Long correction in A shares may end as 2017 promises profit rise

Surge-plunge game bedevils HK GEM, sparks scrutiny By BLOOMBERG

Prudent money policy, expected ‘aggressive’ fiscal stance hold key By WU YIYAO in Shanghai wuyiyao@chinadaily.com.cn

Analysts have a bullish outlook for the A-share market in 2017, with more confidence in macroeconomic fundamentals and companies’ profitability. Fast-growing emerging industries have become strong drivers of China’s overall economic growth, particularly after regulators, policymakers and market players expressed clear views on reform and transformation. Also, the central government mapped out growth guidelines for 2017 last week. “Monetary policy is officially set to be prudent and neutral in 2017, but fiscal policy will not only remain aggressive, but also become more forceful and effective,” said Xing Dong Chen, chief economist with BNP Paribas. “While limited in breakthroughs regarding the SOE reform, central economic policy is committed to improving private property protection and increasing the government’s creditworthiness in order to regain private investor confidence and business enthusiasm.” Profitability of companies has been recovering based on their performance in the last quarter of 2016. While emerging industries’ growth has been accelerating, reforms of State-owned-enterprises and “supply-side reform” measures have had evident impact on traditional industries such as coal mining and steel making, which have achieved capacity reduction and recovery in net profits, according to

An investor appears unimpressed by the yawning gap between his expectations and actual stock prices at a brokerage in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Dec 19, when the Shanghai Composite Index closed almost flat. XING QU / FOR CHINA DAILY

Fiscal policy will not only remain aggressive, but also become more forceful and effective (in 2017).” Xing Dong Chen, chief economist with BNP Paribas

8 percent estimated year-on-year net profit growth of the A-share companies at the end of 2017

Xun Yugen, analyst with Haitong Securities. “It is estimated that the consumption, healthcare, information technology, and telecommunications industries can maintain net profit growth at 25 percent year-onyear, and traditional industries, including energy and raw materials, can grow their profits at somewhere between 20 percent and 25 percent,” Xun said. “The overall A-share market’s net profit growth is estimated at 8 percent year-onyear at the end of 2017, putting an end to a four-year-long correction.” Listed companies will also see better liquidity because their debt service cycle is approaching the end, and another round of financing

and capital expansion may start soon in 2017, according to Dai Kang, analyst with Huatai Securities. “Companies’ incentives for inventory replenishment and investment are rising as fundamentals are recovering to a much better level than that at the beginning of 2016. These fundamentals are likely to support companies’ profitability growth in the next 12 months,” Dai said. Companies focusing on consumption-driven businesses (foods and beverages, healthcare and medical services), pan-entertainment sectors (sports, media, and filmmaking) and the hospitality sector (restaurants, hotels and commercial real estate developers) are likely to see robust growth in revenues

and profits, said a research note from Guosen Securities. In 2017, institutional investors will play a bigger role in the A-share market since pension funds are expected to be allowed to enter the market. “Institutional investors usually attach more importance to fundamentals and long-term value. They play the role of an ‘anchor,’ bringing more stability to the market and requiring more transparency and better regulations, such as disclosure and compliance efforts,” said Cao Jianfei, chairman of Yuanshi Asset. “This will benefit the A-share market in the long run and will, in the short term, boost blue-chip stocks which are undervalued.”

Hong Kong’s Growth Enterprise Market has seen a string of the world’s best stock debuts this year. It’s also been home to some of the biggest plunges, wiping out gains and raising questions about how the exchange operates. Vegetable supplier Goal Forward Holdings Ltd, whose shares jumped 1,500 percent on their October debut, is trading 20 percent below its offer price. It’s a pattern that plays out regularly on the city’s exchange for small companies. Concentrated holdings, preferred investors during initial public offerings and low trading volumes all contributed to the roller-coaster performances, which have caught the attention of the city’s chief regulator. Ashley Alder, head of the Securities and Futures Commission, said last month he wants his agency to look at the issues connected to the GEM. The scrutiny comes as mainland investors start to trade the city’s small-cap shares through the stock-trading link with Shenzhen that opened on Dec 5. “You can see now nobody would chase or buy stocks on the Growth Enterprise Market if they aren’t crazy enough,” Ringo Choi, Asia Pacific IPO leader at Ernst & Young Global Ltd, said in a Dec 12 interview in Hong Kong. “Speculators obviously win big time.” Eighteen of the 20 top global IPO debuts this year are from GEM listings, all of which recorded a first-day gain of at least 500 percent, according to data. But the surges rarely last. For example, Expert Systems Holdings Ltd, a provider of technology infrastructure, jumped 1,100 percent on its April 12 debut but is now 16 percent below its offer price. The initial moves “created

500 percent first-day gain for 18 IPOs on GEM this year, but such surges rarely last beyond a few days

the misleading illusion for Hong Kong investors that whatever’s going up must be good — or that whatever goes up, must go up even further,” said Mike Leung, an investment manager at local brokerage Wocom Securities Ltd. “A lot of investors don’t understand the market that well.” An external spokeswoman for Goal Forward said the company’s stock price is solely determined by the market, adding it believes the stock market is promising and will continue to develop. While Alder has voiced his concerns, officials at bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd have suggested a review of its second exchange, though without providing concrete promises. HKEX chairman Chow Chungkong said a decision on whether to hold a GEM consultation would be made early next year, the city’s Oriental Daily newspaper reported on Dec 11. Many in the market say the issue is the closely-held nature of GEM companies, and the fact that IPO placements see shares handed to a small group of hand-picked investors. The SFC made eight announcements this year about companies on the exchange that have highly concentrated shareholdings, alerting investors that share prices could fluctuate substantially and that they should exercise extreme caution. “They need to review the way placements are done, so the first-day value of a company is reflected more accurately,” said Bernard Pouliot, chairman of Hong Kong Securities firm Quam Ltd.