< style="color: #0069a6;">FOREIGN AFFAIRS

< style="color: #163449;">China, Nepal, India can forge trilateral partnership focusing on growth:  Nepali PM

Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said on Wednesday that China, Nepal and India can forge a successful trilateral partnership with sole focus on economic growth and development. Inaugurating a two-day seminar entitled "Nepal and India: Exploring New Vistas" jointly organized by New Delhi-based India Foundation and Kathmandu-based Neeti Anusandhan Pratisthan, the Nepali premier said "Nepal's location in between two growing economies of India and China offers promising future. We can forge a successful trilateral partnership." He said the partnership, with focus on economic growth and development, will be economically rewarding and beneficial to people of all three countries. The seminar is being organized coinciding the state visit of Indian President Pranab Mukherjee to Nepal, which began on November 2. Source: Global Times

< style="color: #163449;">China to increase scholarships for SCO members to boost people-to-people exchanges

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on November 3 pledged to offer more scholarships for Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members to enhance the foundation of people-to-people exchanges. Li made the remarks at the 15th SCO prime ministers' meeting in Bishkek. China is willing to sign agreements with other parties on establishing an SCO university and support its efforts to foster talents for SCO members, said the premier. He added that China will continue to host summer camps for primary and secondary school students from SCO countries and hold a series of nongovernmental exchange activities. Source: Global Times

< style="color: #0069a6;">POLITICS AND SOCIETY

< style="color: #163449;">Xi Jinping warns against leaving Taiwan’s independence push left unchecked

Mainland China’s Communist Party would be overthrown by the people if it failed to properly deal with Taiwanese pro-independence, President Xi Jinping told the head of the Kuomintang party in Beijing this week.The reports, quoted unidentified sources who attended the meeting on November 1 as saying Xi said Beijing’s opposition to Taiwanese independence was “based on the prospect of the great rejuvenation of the China nation”. “From the position of Chinese people’s nationalism, 1.3 billion people on the mainland would not agree to Taiwan’s formal independence,” Xi was quoted as saying. “The Communist Party would be overthrown by the people if the pro-independence issue was not dealt with.” Beijing “would not let other international forces intervene” should Taiwan declare independence, Xi reportedly told KMT leader Hung Hsiu-chu. Source: South China Morning Post

< style="color: #163449;">President Xi urges strict implementation of reform policies

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for solid implementation of reform measures at a high-level meeting on Tuesday. Xi asked officials to comprehensively follow the communique released after the sixth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and unwaveringly carry out reform policies. The remarks were made at the 29th meeting of the central leading group for deepening overall reform, which Xi heads. In addition, guidelines and plans on green agriculture, environmental protection, new circuit courts and construction of personal credit system were approved at the meeting. Source: China Daily

< style="color: #0069a6;">ECONOMY

< style="color: #163449;">Local GDP data indicates China economic resilience

China's local economies are showing resilience as the country attempts a transformation to more quality growth. Of the 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions that have released GDP growth figures for the first three quarters of the year, 18 reported faster or equal growth to that in the first half. Jilin, a province in China's northeast industrial heartland, announced on October 29 that its GDP grew 6.9 percent year on year in the January-September period, exceeding the national average for the first time since the first quarter of 2014. While restructuring and reinvigorating traditional industries, the province has invested in new industries to help the recovery. A hi-tech industrial park to pool photoelectric and intelligent manufacturing firms is under construction in capital Changchun, targeting 20 billion yuan (3 billion US dollars) in output by 2020. Of the other two provinces in the old industrial rust belt, Heilongjiang seems likely to report 6.7 percent growth. Liaoning is expected to show some improvement after shrinking in the first two quarters. Central and western regions with good industrial bases and more room for fixed asset investment are among the best performers, with Chongqing continuing to race ahead with a staggering 10.7 percent growth, with Guizhou not far behind on 10.5 percent. Source: Xinhua News Agency

< style="color: #163449;">Turkey, China sign 36 business deals

Turkish and Chinese companies on November 1 held business talks and signed 36 deals worth nearly 300 million US dollars. The agreements cover Turkey's featured products like marble, chrome ore, soybean oil, flaxseed oil, clean wool, hazelnut, pistachio nut and cotton linter. China is currently Turkey's second largest trading partner. A business delegation sent by China's Ministry of Commerce is in Turkey for talks about advancing bilateral economic and trade exchanges, boosting practical cooperation between Chinese and Turkish businesses and promoting bilateral trade in a balanced way. Addressing the business talks in Istanbul, the Chinese speakers referred to the fact that China's imports stood at 1.68 trillion dollars in 2015, making it the second largest importer in the world for seven years in a row. Source: Xinhua News Agency

< style="color: #163449;">China's key manufacturing indicators hit two-year high

Two key manufacturing indicators — one covering large factories, the other tracking smaller ones — rose to their highest respective levels in two years in October, a signal that China’s economy is stabilising. But economists warn that industrial output may be dragged down by a slowdown in investment, and that the rising prices of goods could add to inflation in the consumer market. The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics, and the Caixin General Manufacturing PMI converged at 51.2 for October. The PPI in September rose 0.1% from a year earlier, the first expansion since January 2012. Increases in product prices may have benefited manufacturers, but might cause inflation in the consumer market and put pressure on the economy, said Deng Haiqing, chief economist of JZ Securities. Source: Caixin Online

< style="color: #0069a6;">SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

< style="color: #163449;"> How China’s new J-20 fighter jet compares with the US’s F-22 and F-35

But Justin Bronk, a Research Fellow specialising in combat airpower at the Royal United Services Institute, said the display left many questions unanswered. On paper, the J-20 represents a “big leap forward in terms of the capabilities of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) have on scene,” said Bronk. Compared to the US’s current fifth-generation fighter jets, the F-22 and the F-35, the J-20 has “longer range, more internal fuel capacity, and larger internal weapons capability,” said Bronk. This combination of factors presents a real risk to US forces in the Pacific. Long range, capable strike fighters like the J-20 put US “AWACS , refuelling tankers, and forward bases at risk much more than current types if flying in relatively large numbers” should any kind of kinetic conflict flare up in the Pacific, said Bronk. However, US Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein told Breaking Defence he was not overly troubled by the new Chinese jet. Source: South China Morning Post

< style="color: #163449;"> China initiates country's first centimetre-level positioning system

China has launched its first centimetre-level positioning system, which can significantly improve the accuracy of its domestic navigation satellite system. Kuilong, the new positioning system, is a crucial part of the country’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS). By calculating and analysing data received from over 300 satellite navigation stations worldwide, the system can precisely calibrate orbit and clock errors, which are the main factors disrupting positional accuracy, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) on November 1. CASC explained that the revised data will be sent to the satellite navigation terminal via five geosynchronous satellites and over 60 low-Earth orbit communication satellites, improving data accuracy to the centimeter level. The system will provide four data signals, respectively offering sub-meter, sub-decimeter, centimeter and aviation security-level services. Formally launched in 1994, the BDS project is considered one of the world’s leading positioning systems, along with the Russian GLONASS system, European Galileo system and American Global Positioning System. Source: China Daily

< style="color: #163449;">China developing fastest supercomputer again

China has started to build a prototype supercomputer system with an estimated peak performance of over 1,000 quadrillion calculations per second, ten times that of the current fastest computer, researchers said on November 2. The exascale supercomputer is being developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology (NRCPC) and will be installed at the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan. The project follows the announcement of China's independently developed Sunway Taihulight as the world's fastest supercomputer in June at the 2016 International Supercomputing Conference in Germany. Challenges and uncertainties accompany the project, said Yang Meihong, director of the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan. "It is a test for the effectiveness of China's independently developed technologies," Yang said. China has launched three projects for developing exascale supercomputers, led respectively by the NRCPC, National University of Defense Technology and Sugon Information Industry, Yang said. Supercomputers can support various tasks, including oil exploration, high-end equipment manufacturing, biological medicine and animation design. Source: Xinhua

< style="color: #0069a6;">BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Max Fisher, “Rodrigo Duterte Plays U.S. and China Off Each Other, in Echo of Cold War”, New York Times, November 3, 2016
2. Peter Lee, “Sino-India relations the British forgery at the heart of India and China’s Tibetan border dispute”, South China Morning Post, November 1 , 2016
3. Jun Maiand Josephine Ma, “How did China’s Xi Jinping secure ‘core’ status in just four years?”,South China Morning Post, November 4, 2016
4. “Hung's visit bridges gap across Taiwan Straits”,China Daily, November 2, 2016
5. Song Shengxia, ‘Counterfeit notoriety won’t get in way of Alibaba’s journey to global expansion’ Global Times, November 2, 2016
6. ‘Gender equality in China would bring huge economic benefits’ South China Morning Post, October 31, 2016
7. “Terrified of ever being unconnected? Find yourself staring at a tiny screen, ignoring your dining companions? Then read this...”, South China Morning Post, November 2, 2016

< style="color: #0069a6;">Contributors:

• Amblika Guha
• Pratnashree Basu
• Sreeparna Banerjee
• Swagata Saha

 

• China Foreign Policy
• China
• China Weekly Report
• November

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