A series of deputies to the annual gathering of China's parliament, beginning this week, have called on the government to sharply cut back its intervention in economic affairs, state media said yesterday.
The demands, ahead of the National People's Congress (NPC) session starting tomorrow, illustrates how far China's nominally-communist economic policy has reversed under two decades of market-based reforms. But whatever the changes since economic opening-up began, three deputies quoted Sunday by the Xinhua news agency insisted reform was not fast enough.
Fang Xiaoyu said bluntly the government must "improve its performance," especially in economic matters, and that this was the biggest challenge facing China following its entry last year to the WTO.
Authorities should stop intervening in business decisions made by state-owned firms or trying to develop certain industries, as these initiatives "could be best decided by businesses", Xinhua quoted Fang as saying.
Another deputy, Sun Qianfu, the manager of an alcoholic drink factory in central China, said his firm was having a "hard time" due to orders by local authorities to acquire other businesses and to diversify.
The government should keep out of economic affairs and instead concentrate on matters such as public services and the environment, they and a third representative said.
While such utterances could appear heretical in a country where the sole ruling party still styles itself as communist, the fact such demands are being covered by state-run media indicate the degree of official support they enjoy.
President Jiang Zemin's widely-touted personal contribution to communist theory -- the "Three Represents" theory -- decrees that the Communist Party is also the home of so-called "elite forces," including capitalists.
He has additionally proposed the deeply controversial plan of allowing private businesspeople to join the previously restricted party ranks. Almost 3,000 delegates are set to begin 10 days of discussions in Beijing today.
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA