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Media Report
January 31 , 2018
  • Bloomberg：Don't Fear China's Arctic Takeover
    Bloomberg comments: "Last week, China said it plans to build a "Polar Silk Road" that will open shipping lanes across the largely pristine region at the top of the world. It's an ambitious idea for a country that lacks an Arctic border, and it has raised concerns around the world about China's ultimate intentions and its capacity for environmental stewardship. Although these are reasonable worries, they're almost certainly overblown. In theory, melting Arctic ice will create a significant economic opportunity. By one account, the region holds 22 percent of the world's oil and gas reserves. As the ice recedes due to climate change, those reserves will be easier to mine. As new shipping lanes open, they should also be easier to transport. A cargo vessel going from Shanghai to Rotterdam via the Northwest Passage, rather than through the Panama Canal, will shave 2,200 miles off its journey. Already, some 900 Arctic infrastructure projects are at various stages of development.To be sure, most won't get anywhere. It's hard to predict exactly how and where polar ice will melt. Some hoped-for shipping lanes may not open until the 2070s, and those routes that have already opened are unlikely to support profitable shipping businesses, thanks to their remoteness and the high cost of insurance. In 2016, only 19 vessels traversed the Northern Sea Route between Asia and Europe -- hardly evidence of an Arctic 'gold rush' or competition for the Panama Canal. Yet China is taking the long view. In the past decade, Chinese academics have started publishing papers on the role of the Arctic in China's economic and geopolitical future. Policy makers have begun describing China as a 'near-Arctic state' and an Arctic 'stakeholder,' despite having no coastline or other obvious territorial claims in the region. In 2016, China published a 356-page guidebook on navigating Canada's Northwest Passage -- then made a successful voyage through the fabled sea route just a year later."
  • The Wall Street Journal：China Creates Nuclear Powerhouse
    The Wall Street Journal reports: "China is putting two of its largest nuclear-power firms back together as it seeks to bolster its state-owned enterprises and create a corporate powerhouse that can better compete for contracts in other countries. The country's state-asset regulator said Wednesday it approved the merger of China National Nuclear Corp., which develops and produces nuclear power, and China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Group, which builds nuclear-power plants. The megamerger would create a company with combined assets of about $100 billion and a workforce of more than 140,000 people. The merger has been in the works since at least March 2017, when the publicly listed units of both companies each said their parents were planning to restructure. The two companies split up in a previous round of government-sponsored restructuring in 1999. Beijing has been systematically combining and strengthening its state-owned enterprises over the past two years to boost their market power and efficiency. China's two largest steelmakers merged in 2016, while its top coal miner and one of its biggest power producers combined less than a year later. By merging the two companies, Beijing hopes vertical integration can reduce costs and make its nuclear giant more competitive, especially overseas, where it hopes to follow in the footsteps of other Chinese firms' success abroad in winning contracts for rail and power-grid construction and operation."
  • CNBC：Trump vows to protect US intellectual property, without naming China
    CNBC reports: "U.S. President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to protect American intellectual property, but made no mention of China, which his administration has accused of trade abuses, in his first State of the Union speech to Congress. Trump had been expected to deliver strong warnings to countries about unfair trade practices, including stealing intellectual property and providing state aid to their industries. Instead, his comments on trade during the speech were restricted to three sentences in which he repeated that 'fair and reciprocal' trade were necessary, but did not elaborate. 'We will work to fix bad trade deals and negotiate new ones,' Trump said, adding: 'We will protect American workers and American intellectual property, through strong enforcement of our trade rules.' Trump has threatened to walk away from trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, and the U.S-South Korean Free Trade Agreement, unless they bolster U.S. manufacturing and American jobs. Last week, he imposed tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels in his first major trade actions since withdrawing the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement within weeks of taking office last year. Trump is considering broad tariffs or quotas on steel and aluminum following investigations by the U.S. Department of Commerce into whether rising steel and aluminum imports represent a threat to national security."
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