"What word would you use to describe the year 2006 in China?"
The word "promising" was the answer most often given when Xinhua
interviewed foreigners on Internet forums and in the street.
As the world's rich economies show signs of slowing down, the
global economy is being driven more than ever before by strong
performance in developing countries, especially China, the World
Bank says in its latest report on the global economy.
For the more than 150,000 foreigners who work and live in China,
China's boom is something they can feel in their everyday life.
Their hope is that the auspicious year of the Golden Pig in 2007
will see the country continue its peaceful rise.
Xinhua made a series of interviews of foreigners in Beijing,
Shanghai and Guangzhou, to understand how foreigners saw China in
2006.
Investment paradise
Sho Minekawa, general manager of the Sino-Japan joint venture
Guangzhou Honda Automobile Co., Ltd., has witnessed China's
transition from a "kingdom of bicycles" into a "new world of cars"
during his three-year career in China.
The company based in the capital of south China's Guangdong
Province produced and sold 260,000 sedans this year, and has raised
its target for next year to 310,000 sedans.
Car sales in China have grown 29 percent this year to more than
4 million, and China will soon overtake Japan to become the world's
second-biggest car market after America.
Minekawa thinks 2007 will see Sino-foreign car ventures further
lift their local development and innovation capacities. Gone are
the days when Chinese auto manufacturers were simply assemblers of
foreign brands. Guangdong Honda will found a new research center in
Guangdong in 2007.
All the big carmakers from Europe, America, Japan and Korea are
represented in China. Volkswagen, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Nissan
have already built their own research or technical centers in the
country.
Having attracted more foreign investment than any other
developing country for 15 consecutive years, China now has about
US$1 trillion in foreign exchange reserves.
Foreigners attracted by China's housing market
Daniel Cotterall, a foreign media worker living in Beijing, is
thinking of joining the house-buying spree in Beijing.
In 2006, Daniel made the big decision to make Beijing his home
for the next 20 years, and brought his youngest son to live with
him.
"I want to have a home in the city where I live," said the New
Zealander, who has been in China a little over a year, and who has
fallen under the spell of life in Beijing.
Now living in a rented apartment in an old downtown community,
Daniel enjoys cosy neighborhood relations and the convenience of
having all the basic amenities on his doorstep.
"Beijing is full of energy and opportunities. Ideally, I will be
able to buy a house we can live in. If not, I will buy a property
as an investment," said the journalist in his 40s.
Daniel is keen to buy a renovated warehouse or a courtyard
house. But he worries about the restrictions that prevent foreign
buyers acquiring that kind of old asset, which often involve
property rights wrangles.
In big Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, new luxury real
estate projects target Chinese nouveaux riches and foreign
customers.
To Daniel, China's economy is strong enough to continuously
drive up housing prices. The 2008 Beijing Olympics will simply
consolidate the momentum for another decade, he said.
His only worry is the security of private property. "I think I
will make the purchase after China's new Property Law is enacted
next year, because it will give better protection to private
property, so that I don't have worry that my property will be
demolished someday, maybe due to new urban planning or road
construction," said Daniel.
Opportunity and pressure for foreign bankers
Noyan Rona, chief representative of the Turkishy Garanti Bank to
China, was recently commended by China Unionpay, China's national
electronic payment network, for his contribution to the upcoming
launch of Chinese Unionpay cards in Turkey.
With equal market access, the Turkish bank card holders will
soon enjoy the convenience of being able to pay with their own
cards when making purchases in China.
Rona is among some 60,000 foreigners working in China's
financial center of Shanghai. He said that local competition from
foreign banks is getting fierce.
By the end of September, foreign banks will have set up 283
representative offices or subsidiaries in China. Foreign banks will
compete fully in the Chinese market in 2007, said Rona.
China's new regulations on the administration of foreign-funded
banks took effect this month, opening the country's banking sector
fully to foreign competitors.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) on December 24
gave nine foreign banks, including HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Citigroup
and Standard Chartered Bank, permission to incorporate subsidiaries
on the mainland.
Chinese and foreign banks are now governed by a unified
regulatory system, which will intensify competition in the banking
sector and give customers more choice, said Rona.
The total assets of foreign-funded banks in China reached
US$105.1 billion at the end of September, accounting for 1.9
percent of the total assets of all banking institutions in the
country, according to CBRC statistics.
Pollution darkens the horizon
Holly Naylor traveled to China six times before finally settling
in Beijing for a long-term stay in 2006. But now she frets about
whether her health will allow her to stay as long as she plans.
"One day in spring, I woke up and rushed out of the room,
shouting 'Oh my God, the house is on fire!' In fact it was simply
the smell of pollution that woke me and made me feel like I was
choking," said the asthma sufferer.
A public relations staffer working for Hong Kong-based Chi-Heng
Foundation, Naylor's work helps AIDS-affected children and adults
in China. She finds her work in Beijing rewarding, but the city air
is so smoggy that her asthma is worsening.
Heavy industry, sandstorms and exhaust fumes from the
fast-rising number of cars contribute to grey, smoggy days in major
Chinese cities, while most roads are choked with slow-moving
traffic.
In Xinhua's interviews of foreign reporters, pollution resulting
from industrialization and environmental accidents was constantly
cited as a blot on China's image and a negative factor in terms of
the country's international status.
As it wakes up to the huge cost in environmental degradation it
is paying for its rapid economic growth, China is now more than
ever before eager to borrow solutions from other countries to limit
the environmental fallout from economic development.
Corrado Clini was the first foreigner to be nominated for
Beijing's Environmental Protection Star awards this year. The
Italian environmental protection official helped Beijing build a
solar energy system for the city's Olympic Village, supplying hot
water and electricity for the Games in 2008 and beyond.
Olympics bolster nation's aspiration
The facelift that Beijing is undergoing for China's first-ever
Olympic Games is by far the most extensive urban maintenance
operation since Kublai Khan designed the old city in the 13th
century, said Laurence Brahm, a veteran China watcher.
However, foreigners wonder whether some of China's less
attractive social habits -- like spitting and jumping queues -- can
be upgraded as quickly as the Olympic infrastructure estimated to
cost US$40 billion.
"Beijing's preparations for the Olympics are more than just
huge, bold physical structures. Social and cultural preparations
are afoot too," said Sylvia Jurcynska, a broadcast services manager
with Beijing Olympic Broadcasting.
Based in Beijing for six months, the upbeat Polish woman said
she is proud to serve for European broadcasters on behalf of the
Beijing Olympic Committee. A global audience of 4.5 billion viewers
is expected to tune in to watch the Games in 2008.
More than 5,000 reporters have registered to come to China to
cover the Games. However, when Xinhua surveyed foreign reporters
attending the Olympic World Press Briefing in Beijing in September,
more than half said they were more interested in political reforms
and in the social development of the emerging Asian power than in
its construction boom.
Foreign media reports on China in 2006 focused on China's huge
capital market, the burgeoning Chinese middle class, the income gap
between the haves and the have-nots, corruption and environmental
problems.
"The world is watching China. With the 2008 Olympic Games in
Beijing, China will step squarely onto center stage," said Peter V.
Ueberroth, Chairman of the US Olympic Committee.
(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2006)
