China's Emergence As A Global Superpower

[Billy T]

BEIJING -- China's procuratorial organs investigated 36,907 officials suspected of corruption from January to November in 2013, the country's Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said on Sunday. The officials were allegedly involved in 27,236 cases, with 21,848 of them being major and important, according to a SPP statement. Major and important cases accounted for 80.2 percent of the total. Procuratorial organs investigated and dealt with 16,510 cases that directly resulted in losses for the people, which involved 23,017 officials, the statement said.

Of these cases, 12,824 are major and important, with more than 5.51 billion yuan (910.57 million U.S. dollars) involved, it added.

China is changing. Sales of expensive goods as "gifts" (bribes in reality) are way, way, down - almost dangerous to give now! Stores keep records for the SPP now.

BEIJING - The Communist Party of China's discipline watchdog closed graft investigations into eight high-profile officials and handed over their cases to prosecutors in 2013, said a senior discipline inspector here on Friday.

The officials were Zhou Zhenhong, Liu Tienan, Ni Fake, Wang Suyi, Li Daqiu, Tong Mingqian, Yang Kun and Qi Pingjing, said Huang Shuxian, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and minister of supervision, at a press conference.
They were among 31 high-profile officials investigated by the CCDI last year and the remaining 23 are still under investigation, including Jiang Jiemin, former head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and Li Dongsheng, former vice minister of public security, Huang said.

Last year, the Communist Party of China's discipline inspection agencies punished about 182,000 officials nationwide, 13.3 percent more than in 2012, according to Huang.

In 2012 or earlier, if you were a top CCP official, you could safely take bribes, with rare exceptions, but no more.

 

[Billy T]

More like post 1321:

NANNING - A court in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has handed down one suspended death penalty and jail sentences to 64 members of a large crime ring. Cen Ruiyi, head of the gang, was sentenced to death with two years' reprieve for the crimes of organizing and leading a criminal gang, intentional homicide and injury, said a statement issued by the Intermediate People's Court in Wuzhou City on Saturday.

The other 63 members received jail terms ranging from a year and a half to life, said the statement. The gang engaged in usury and gambling house operation, which is illegal on the Chinese mainland, from 2006 to 2012. One person was killed and eight others injured in cases connected to the gang that included extortion, robbery, illegal detention and intentional homicide, according to the statement.

 

[Billy T]

China’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries increased $12.2 billion to a record $1.317 trillion in November, data released on the Treasury Department’s website showed. ... Japan’s holdings rose $12 billion to $1.186 trillion, the figures showed.

China is rich & growing richer, with ever more gold too.

China's foreign exchange reserves rose to $3.82 trillion at the end of 2013, $509.7 billion more than a year earlier, a central bank official said on Wednesday. Growth of the nation's foreign exchange reserves was back on the fast track in 2013 with a quarterly increase of around $160 billion for both the third and fourth quarter. The net increase in 2013 also sharply overrode the $130 billion net increase in 2012.

The data came after the nation's customs authority said last week that the trade surplus widened to $259.75 billion in 2013, an increase of 12.8 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, foreign direct investment (FDI) in China kept expanding. Government data showed the country's FDI inflow stood at $105.51 billion for the Jan-Nov period, up 5.48 percent year on year.

The nation's foreign exchange reserves totaled around $100 billion in 1996. It took only a decade for China to surpass Japan to become the largest holder of foreign exchange reserves in 2006, when reserves topped $1 trillion. Currently, the nation's foreign exchange reserves are almost three times that of Japan.

Or, the same with a POV:

The speed at which China has built its foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, is alarming.
It should take all possible measures to boost outward investment and increase imports to slow down, if not stop, excessive capital inflows.

On one hand, the rise of China as the world's largest trading country in goods contributed significantly to the more than 15 percent increase in its forex reserves. Its imports reached $1.95 trillion and exports $2.21 trillion last year, resulting in a trade surplus of $259.75 billion.

On the other hand, the attraction of the world's second-largest economy as the fastest-growing major economy remains obvious for international investors, who largely ignored its economic slowdown in the first six months of 2013. China attracted $105.5 billion in foreign direct investment in the first 11 months despite the decline in FDI worldwide.

 

[Billy T]

Commemorative stamp of the Year of Horse. Horse has a very special meaning to Chinese people. It means fortune and luck. A good year for gold backed RMB bonds?