Chinese Economics Thread

[Martian]

China launches Pakistani communication satellite PAKSAT 1R

China's Long March III B launches with Paksat-1R satellite payload

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"China successfully launches communications satellite in Pakistan 1R
August 12, 2011 1:27

Xinhua Xichang August 12 (Xinhua Li Qinghua, Zhang Liwen) at 0:15 on the 12th, China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the "Long March III B" carrier rocket, will be Pakistan's communications satellite 1R (Paksat-1R) successful delivery into orbit. This is my first time to Asia the user to "in-orbit delivery 'exports of satellites, but also our first time this year to provide commercial satellite for international users export services.

About 26 minutes after the rocket launch, Xi'an satellite monitoring center of the data showed that normal star separated from the rocket, the satellite perigee of 204 kilometers into accurate, apogee 41,985 km, orbital inclination of 24.8 degree geostationary transfer orbit, launching a complete success.

The launch tasks in accordance with China Great Wall Industry Corporation and Pakistan's Space and outer atmosphere, the Research Council in 2008, Pakistan signed 1R communications satellite in-orbit delivery contract implementation. According to the contract, Pakistan, China Great Wall Industry Corporation will deliver a high-power in-orbit communication satellites, provide training and assist in building the ground in Pakistan, two control stations.

"Pakistan star 1R" communications satellite project, in July 1990 following the Long March II rocket carrying bundled Pakistan launched a small satellite (BADR-A), the Pakistani cooperation in the aerospace field again. In Pakistan the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations, "Pakistan star 1R" the successful launch of the "Sino-Pakistani friendship year" has added new luster.

"Pakistan star 1R" communications satellite and the "Long March III B" carrier rocket, by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation China Academy of Space Technology and China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology Development. "Pakistan star 1R" use "East is Red IV" satellite platform, satellite loaded with two 30-band transponders and three road antenna, satellite beam coverage in South Asia, Middle East, Africa and eastern Europe, some cities and regions, mainly used to meet Pakistan in the telecommunications, broadcasting and broadband multimedia services and other areas of communication needs.

"Long March III B" is our ability to geosynchronous transfer orbit carrying the largest launch vehicle, can be mass 5500 kg payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit. The launch is the "Long March III B" rocket's 15th launch, is the Long March series of carrier rockets of the first 143 flight."

Paksat-1R uses China's most-advanced DFH-4 satellite platform with a 15-year service life

Long March III B rocket

Paksat-1R technical specifications

A closer look at the Paksat-1R solar panels

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YouTube video
[video=youtube;Vb07n3bftLA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Vb07n3bftLA[/video]

[Note: Thank you to Antibody for the article post, Grey Boy 2 for the pictures, and HouShanghai for the pictures and video.]

 

[CottageLV]

Speaking of this, it reminded me of a chart I recently observed from another forum. It was the general population's negative attitude towards China. Of course without a surprise, Japan and Australia ranked top, but surprisingly, Pakistan ranked even lower than China itself.
There must be something that China done that made the Pakistanis love them more than themselves do. LOL

 

[bladerunner]

Why do they always speak so fast?

 

[Player 0]

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(CNN) -- Sasha drags bulging shopping bags onto a trishaw as he heads back to his hotel, ending another hectic day in Beijing. It's hectic but lucrative.

He typifies the transient traders who come to Beijing on shopping expeditions, making hefty profits buying goods and reselling at home.

Beijingers used to call them "da daoye" (big traders). Now they are simply "hao pengyou" (good friend) -- favored customers and trading partners.

They congregate in Yabaolu, once a quiet Beijing neighborhood of mostly one-story courtyards, now a bustling trading hub dotted with shops and high-rise shopping malls.

Much of China-Russia trade is done along their border crossings in northeastern China. In the Chinese capital it all happens in Yabaolu.

"Most of the people here are Russians buying clothes, leather, and furs," says a Ukrainian trader nicknamed Alex. "They ship to all Slavic countries and Russia."

Here bargaining is tough but business is good. The most successful, traders say, can resell their items for 20 times their investment. Small wonder many Poles, Ukrainians, Yugoslavs and other East European traders make the long trip, too.

Local Chinese make money as well. Pedicab drivers, speaking in pidgin Russian, offer to haul the traders for about $2 a ride. Local shop keepers and restaurant owners also make brisk business.

The Chocolate -- an over-the-top nightclub that features scantily dressed Russian women dancing burlesque-style and a Russian band singing Russian and Western songs -- attracts a regular stream of Chinese and Russian customers.

Over the years, I've observed trading in Yabaolu grow from small to big. Twenty years ago, traders loaded up scores boxes of goods -- mostly cheap clothes -- onto decrepit trailer trucks bound for train stations.

Now, they employ shipping companies to move various goods that include silk dresses and shirts, fur jackets, toys and handbags.

Vladimir Turkov is the general manager of Express Capital Trading, a company that exports steel from China to Russia. His 5-year-old company now employs 15 people in Yabaolu and has opened a Moscow branch to handle marketing and distribution.

"Everyone here got into the business around the same time," Turkov said, "and because of that, we grew in success together. There was a need for products, and there still is."

Turkov's success is emblematic of the improved China-Russia ties that over the years have zigzagged between cooperation and conflicts.

In the 1950s, China and the former Soviet Union were locked in a bear hug as firm Communist comrades.
But in the 1960s, they turned into bitter foes, even fighting over a border dispute in 1969.
Ties have since improved and Sino-Russian relations look more promising.

They have settled border disputes, struck multi-million-dollar energy deals and have agreed to drop the U.S. dollar in favor of their own currencies to boost bilateral trade.

Last year, China overtook Germany as Russia's largest trading partner.
On a visit to St. Petersburg last June, Chinese president Hu Jintao told a gathering of business executives that China and Russia now seek to increase bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015 and $200 billion by 2020.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union twenty years ago, Sino-Russian borders have seen a spike in traffic. Some 3 million people from China and Russia now visit each other's country annually.

They include traders like Turkov and Sasha.

Turkov attributes his success to good inter-personal relations between Chinese and Russians.

"We've all been in China for so many years," he says, "We know how to interact with the Chinese. We may have differences but we also have much in common and have learned to live with our differences."

Turkov says he is not deterred by problems of bureaucracy, corruption and business conflicts that sometimes bedevil businessmen in China.

"If you play according to the rules, you won't get into trouble," he says.

"Many traders are only interested in coming to Beijing, buy products, and then go back to Russia to sell them," says Ekaterina Davydova, marketing manager at Express Capital Trading. But Russians like Turkov,
she says, are in China for the long haul.

"We are helping the Chinese economy and our success is obviously dependent on the world economy," Turkov says.

Will business remain bullish, given the economic downturn in the U.S. and Europe?

"Business is good, at least for now," he says, "While you can't always foretell the future, I'm optimistic."

 

[antiterror13]

quote
"Paksat-1R uses China's most-advanced DFH-4 satellite platform with a 15-year service life"

How this baby compared to the most advanced American communication satellites or EU or Russian

 

[Martian]

China's DFH-4 matches Western standards for modern communication satellites

quote
"Paksat-1R uses China's most-advanced DFH-4 satellite platform with a 15-year service life"

How this baby compared to the most advanced American communication satellites or EU or Russian

The characteristics of a modern communications satellite are:

1. It is the size of a city bus and weighs about 10,000 pounds.

2. It lasts for 15 years.

3. It has approximately 32 transponders.

China's DFH-4 satellite bus (or platform) designed and built by CGWIC (i.e. China Great Wall Industrial Corporation)

DFH-4 satellite technical specifications

"A typical satellite has 32 transponders. Transponders each work on a specific radio frequency wavelength, or “band.” Satellite communications work on three primary bands: C, Ku and Ka. C was the first band used and, as a longer wavelength, requires a larger antenna. Ku is the band used by most current VSAT systems. Ka is a new band allocation that isn’t yet in wide use. Of the three, it has the smallest wavelength and can use the smallest antenna."
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China's DFH-4 is comparable to Western satellites. Its 30 transponders (or perhaps the Pakistanis weren't willing to buy more than 30 transponders) are very close to the average of 32 transponders on a modern satellite. At 5,200 kg or 11,440 pounds, it is approximately the same weight as Western satellites in the 10,000-pound class. The DFH-4 uses the "three primary bands: C, Ku, Ka," and L bands. Its solar panels generate the standard 8 kW of power.

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"China Looks To Boost Satellite Manufacturing With DFH-4 Line
By PETER B. de SELDING
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 18 October 2006
03:30 pm ET
...
PARIS -- The first of a new line of high-power telecommunications satellites produced in China and already sold to two export customers is scheduled for launch in late October for China's Sinosat direct-broadcast television provider, Chinese space officials said.

The Sinosat-2 satellite, the first of the DFH-4 spacecraft built by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), has faced several delays but is now expected to be launched in the coming weeks by a Chinese Long March 3B rocket from China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

If it functions as planned, the DFH-4 satellite design will bring China's domestic satellite manufacturing industry closer to the level of its U.S., European and Japanese counterparts.

DFH-4 is the third generation of China-built telecommunications spacecraft and carries some 800 kilograms of payload -- four times the capacity of the previous Chinese product, the DFH-3. Weighing up to 5,300 kilograms at launch, the DFH-4 platform is built to operate for 15 years -- double the DFH-3's life expectancy -- and provide up to 10 kilowatts of power at the end of its service life.
...
Wang said CAST has tested the DFH-4 design to a maximum capacity of 54 transponders, 38 in Ku-band and 16 in C-band. The satellite's upper limit would be around 5,600 kilograms, he said in the presentation. (article continues)"

 

[airsuperiority]

Thats nice but it seems people have forgotten about Macau. So Ill put in a plug for it.

Macau now has a GDP of more than $40,400 per capita making it the wealthiest city in Asia and the 20th-richest economy in the world.

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When you think of the most profitable gambling city, it’s probably Las Vegas or Monte Carlo and not Macau, China.

But, it turns out that in just four years this 11-mile outpost in the Pearl River Delta has become the biggest gaming city in the world.

David DeVoss looks at how the gambling and tourism industry transformed Macau into the wealthiest city in Asia.

Viva Macau

It’s Saturday night in Macau. Jetfoils packed with Hong Kong Chinese are pulling into the ferry terminal every 15 minutes. One mile north, at the land border with China, new arrivals are elbowing their way toward customs checkpoints in a hall longer than a football field. By 9 p.m. visitors are coming at the rate of 16,000 an hour. They carry pockets full of cash and very little luggage. Most will stay a day or less. They will spend almost every minute in one of Macau’s 40 casinos.

Outside the Wynn Macau, an artificial lake is roiling with bursts of flame and “Luck Be A Lady Tonight” echoes through the porte-cochère. Inside, however, it’s clear this Wynn resort is no Vegas clone.

There are no lounge singers or comedians, and refreshment consists mainly of mango nectar served by middle-aged women in brown pantsuits. In Macau, gambling alone rules.

Macau Economics

Macau is the only entity on the Chinese mainland where gaming is legal.
Galaxy Casino Greeters

Galaxy Casino Greeters - photo by David DeVoss

“In 2007 Macau surpassed Las Vegas as the biggest gaming city in the world,” says Ian Coughlan, president of the Wynn Macau. “Every day Macau casinos earn more than $10.2 billion (PATCAS), and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

In 1999, Portugal formally handed administration of Macau back to the Chinese, and the city became a Special Administrative Region. The designation is part of China’s policy of “one country, two systems,” under which it allowed the newly reunited entities autonomy over their own affairs, except when it came to foreign policy and national defense. In 2002, the new Macau government allowed five outside concessionaires—three of them American—to build competing resorts and casinos that would reflect China’s growing wealth and power.

“China wanted Macau to have growth, stability, American management standards and an international appreciation of quality,” says the director of the city’s Gaming Inspection & Coordination Bureau, Manuel Joaquim das Neves.

Just 12 months after opening the Macau Sands, the Las Vegas Sands Corp. had recouped its entire $265 million investment and earned enough profit to start building a grander casino, the Venetian Casino and Resort Hotel. Completed in the summer of 2007 at a cost of $2.4 billion, the complex is 10.5 million square feet—the biggest building in Asia and the second-biggest building in the world. Its 550,000-square-foot casino is three times larger than the biggest one in Las Vegas.

Macau’s casino revenues for 2010 increased 26 percent over the year before to $30 billion—more than those for Atlantic City and the state of Nevada combined. With a population of just 531,000, Macau now has a GDP of more than $40,400 per capita making it the wealthiest city in Asia and the 20th-richest economy in the world. Says Philip Wang, MGM’s president for international marketing: “It took 50 years to build Las Vegas, and this little enclave surpassed it in four.”
St. Paul's Facade

St. Paul's Facade is all that remains of the 1630 church and college built to symbolize Portugal's continuing presence in China. Photo by David DeVoss.

Macau History



The Portuguese once called Macau “The City of the Name of God in China, No Other More Loyal,” after the Ming Dynasty Emperor Shizong allowed them to set up an outpost here in 1557. Jesuit and Dominican missionaries arrived to spread the Gospel, and merchants and sailors followed.

The Jesuits opened the College of Madre de Deus in 1594 and attracted scholars from throughout Asia. By 1610, there were 150,000 Christians in China, and Macau was a city with Portuguese mansions in the hills and Chinese living below.

In 1630, the Portuguese completed St. Paul’s Church, a massive house of worship that became the grandest ecclesiastical structure in Asia. St. Paul’s accidentally burned in 1835 leaving little beyond its façade, but by then Macau was largely a Chinese city with concerns other than Catholicism.

“Every night Macau sets out to have fun,” French playwright Francis de Croisset observed after visiting the city in 1937. “Restaurants, gambling houses, dance halls, brothels and opium dens are crowded together, higgledy-piggledy.”
Senate Square Macau

Senate Square Macau - Located in the center of old Macau in front of the Senate building. Photo by David DeVoss.

The Portuguese legacy is easily seen in Senate Square, the 400-year-old plaza where black and white cobblestones are arranged to resemble waves arriving onshore. Colonial-era buildings surround the square, but two of them are dominant: the two-story Loyal Senate, which was the seat of secular authority from 1585 to 1835, and the three-story Holy House of Mercy, an elaborate symbol of Catholic charity, with Ionic columns and airy balconies. “Prior to the transition [in 1999], I worried about the fate of Portugal’s patrimony, but it seems China intends to protect our old buildings,” says Macau historian Jorge Cavalheiro.

Macau Transformed

The city is growing not by clearing old buildings, but by reclaiming new land from the sea. This is most visible in the area called Cotai, which links Taipa with Coloane, the other former island that belongs to Macau. There three of the six gaming concessionaires are finishing $16 billion in construction on 16 mega resorts that will have 60,000 rooms.
Old & New Macau

Old & New Macau - Old Chinese temple near the Club Militar slumbers in the leafy shadow of a new casino. - Photo by David DeVoss

“This is the largest development project in Asia,” says Matthew Pryor, the Las Vegas Sands Corp. senior vice president in charge of implementing the $13 billion worth of construction for the Sands. “By the end of this year, three of the world’s five largest buildings will stand alongside this road.”

Carlos Couto, who arrived in Macau in 1981 as the director of planning and public works and today runs the city’s leading architectural firm, CC Atelier de Arquitectura, Ida, has approved plans for nearly $9 billion worth of upcoming construction. “Portuguese here are working harder than ever before,” Couto says, “because China’s ‘one country, two systems’ model depends on Macau becoming an international city.”

Not all Macau residents are pleased with their city’s transformation. When Henrique da Senna Fernandez, an 84-year-old lawyer, looks out the window of his office building on what once was Macau’s Pria Grande, he sees a forest of casinos and banks, not the languid quayside. “The sea used to be here,” he sighs, looking at the sidewalk below. “Now all the fishing junks are gone, and Macau is just a big city where people only talk about money.”

Around midnight Macau’s streets are full of Chinese. They are the pampered products of one-child families raised under a capitalistic form of communism. Unlike their parents, they enjoy enough disposable income to travel, gamble and buy camera phones.
Prosperity Tree at Wynn Casino

Prosperity Tree at Wynn Casino attracts hundreds of spectators who OOOH in ecstasy when the gold-covered tree and gold boulders rise from beneath the floor. - Photo by David DeVoss

In Macau glitz rules whether it’s the solid gold bars embedded into the acrylic lobby floor of Macau’s Grand Emperor Hotel or the Wynn Casino’s Tree of Prosperity. Covered in 24-karat gold and surrounded by gilded boulders, the 33-foot tree appears twice an hour on a pedestal that rises from beneath an atrium floor to bathe the gold in laser light.

Next to the Tree of Prosperity is a hallway lined with shops selling luxury goods. Those shops may be the most profitable commercial real estate in the world.

On Friday and Saturday nights lines form outside the Louis Vuitton store, which often records monthly sales in excess of $3 million. Says one foreign diplomat: “Westerners who come here cross into China to buy fakes, while the Chinese come here to buy the real stuff.”

By David DeVoss for PeterGreenberg.com. David DeVoss is editor & senior correspondent of the East-West News Service.

richer than hk? **gasp** sob...

 

[Martian]

Macau ($49,745) is first Chinese enclave to surpass U.S. ($47,132) in per capita GDP

richer than hk? **gasp** sob...

Richer than U.S.

Macau ($49,745) is first Chinese enclave to surpass U.S. ($47,132) in per capita GDP

List of nominal 2010 per capita GDP for select countries from IMF:

Macau $49,745 (from article below)
United States $47,132
Singapore $42,653
Japan $42,325
Germany $40,512

United Kingdom $36,298
Hong Kong $31,799
New Zealand $31,588

Czech Republic $18,721
Republic of China (Taiwan) $18,303
Slovakia $15,906
Hungary $13,210
Poland $11,521
Russia $10,521

Reference:

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Macau Venetian

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"Macao's per-capita GDP reaches $49,745
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-26 08:08

MACAO - Macao's GDP for the whole year of 2010 reached 217.32 billion patacas ($27.16 billion), with per-capita GDP amounting to 398,071 patacas, the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) said on Friday.

According to the figures, Macao's GDP rose by 26.2 percent in real terms last year and economic growth for the fourth quarter of last year stood at 27.9 percent in real terms.

Macao's per-capita GDP of 2010 rose by 94,079 patacas over 2009, an increase of 25.8 percent year-on-year.

The DSEC said that revival of the world economy and the robust economic growth in the Chinese mainland created favorable conditions for a rapid rebound of Macao economy.

As a result, gross gaming revenue and total visitor spending of last year soared substantially upon outstanding performance of the tourism and gaming sector.

In respect of the GDP structure, the notable increase in exports of tourism and gaming services pushed up net exports of goods and services to surge by 66.8 percent, far higher than the level of economic growth, bringing its relative importance to GDP to rise apparently from 41.9 percent in 2009 to 55.4 percent in 2010, the DSEC said."

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Note: 8 Macau Patacas = 1 U.S. Dollar

From article: Macau's 2010 "per-capita GDP amount to 398,071 patacas."

Calculation: 398,071 patacas / 8 patacas per U.S. dollar = $49,759 U.S. dollars (which is virtually the same as the headline $49,745)

 

[Martian]

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"China becomes ASEAN’s largest trade partner
Updated : 8:40 AM, 14/08/2011

China has become the largest trade partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with two-way trade last year reaching US$230 billion.

Indonesian Vice Minister of Trade Mahendra Siregar made the statement on the sidelines of the ASEAN - China Economic Ministers’ Meeting in Manado, Indonesia on August 12.

ASEAN total exports to China was US$113.5 billion last year, representing a year-on-year rise of 39.1 percent, while the bloc’s imports from China were up 21.8 percent to US$117.7 billion.

The same day, at the 14th ASEAN+3 Economic Ministers’ Meeting in Indonesia, Chinese Trade Minister Chen Deming underlined that China considers ASEAN, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK) as its important trade and investment partners.

Last year, total trade turnover between China and ASEAN, Japan and the RoK accounted for 27 percent of China’s trade turnover. Meanwhile, the total amount of capital ASEAN, Japan, and the RoK poured into China made up 12.4 percent of the total foreign investment in the country.

Therefore, China attaches importance to trade cooperation among ASEAN+3 member countries. China is willing to promote economic cooperation in the East Asian region, contributing to the economic development in the region and common prosperity among the East Asian countries.

VNA/VOVNews"

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My earlier post #874 from last year:

The China-ASEAN FTA (i.e. free trade agreement) came into full effect on January 1, 2010. You can read the economic ramifications of the China-ASEAN FTA at the following link:

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"China-ASEAN free trade area starts operation

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2010-01-01 13:13:26

NANNING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) kicked off their free trade area (FTA) on Friday.

The world's largest FTA embracing developing countries covers a population of 1.9 billion and China-ASEAN FTA sets stage for economic integration involves about 4.5 trillion U.S. dollars of trade volume.

The average tariff on goods from ASEAN countries to China is cut down to 0.1 percent from 9.8 percent."

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"Big jump in exports to China
Thursday April 1, 2010

MALAYSIA’S exports to China increased by 143% last year compared with 2006, said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed.

The export value was RM8.4bil last year with a total of 23,424 certificates of origins issued, he said.

“This means that Malaysian companies are benefiting from increasing exports after the implementation of the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in July 2005,” he said.

Under the Asean-China FTA, the import duties were reduced in stages.

On Jan 1, import duties were abolished when 90% of products traded in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and China became duty free.

“The import duties of the remaining 10% would be reduced eventually,” he said in his reply to Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang).

Mustapa said products exported to China included rubber, vegetable oil, stearic acid, raw palm oil and acetic acid.

Total exports of Malaysia to China was RM67.24bil while imports from China was worth RM60.66bil last year.

“Malaysia enjoys a trade surplus of RM6.58bil with China,” he said.

Mustapa said the ministry had yet to receive any negative feedback from local industries on the implementation of Asean-China FTA.

“The iron and steel industry sector is worried about the stiff competition from China,” he said.

Mustapa said the Government would monitor the impact of the FTA and would take the necessary steps to ensure that the local industry could compete with China.

“Malaysia will continue to discuss with other Asean countries to ensure that Asean-China FTA would not bring adverse effects to Asean,” he said.

Currently, the Government ensures that imported products from China met the standards in all aspects including health and security."

 

[lostsoul]

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Safe Haven? Record Dump Of US Treasurys By Non-Central Bank Foreigners In June

The PRC Economists are idiots ?

There was little to smile about in today's Treasury International Capital data for June (as always 2 months delayed). As usual the press release was chock full of irrelevant gross level data, so here is the bottom line. The good news: despite all the posturing China, continued to buy Treasurys, with its total increaseing from $1160 billion to $1165.5 billion. The bad news: China was more or less the only one buying, as total LT Treasury activity saw a net sale of $4.5 billion in June: the first net sale of US paper since May 2009, and only the third time we have seen a net sale of US paper since the start of the Second Great Depression (the third time being, paradoxically, just after the bankruptcy of Lehman, see chart below). The bad news gets downright ugly when digging into the foreign transactions. As is well known, total foreign purchases (or sales as the case may be) consist of central bank transactions, as well as those by non-monetary authorities, i.e., retail and institutionals. And here is where we get today's record: at $18.3 billion in total non-central bank sales, this was the biggest one month sale of US Treasurys in history! Luckily, in keeping with the maintenance of the optics of the global ponzi, this was buffered by central bank purchases of $13.8 billion. With everyone needing someone else to buy their debt we wonder just how much longer, everyone will be able to buy everyone else's debt, even as sales are bound to increase month after month. And the last really ugly news (for ponzi'ists): while China may be posturing, Russia is doing anything but: its holdings have plunged to a fresh multi-year low after Putin gave the green light to dump another $5 billion in US paper, bringing Russia's total to just $110 billion, a 38% drop from the $176 billion in October. A little birdie tells us gold is the primary beneficiary of this asset roll over.