Tag Archive for: China

China has sold Pakistan a powerful tracking system in an unprecedented deal that could speed up the Pakistan’s missile programme and military’s development of multi-warhead missiles, according to South China Morning Post.

News of the sale to Islamabad – and evidence that Beijing is supporting rapidly developing Pakistan’s  missile programme – comes two months after India tested its most advanced nuclear-ready intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a range long enough to hit Beijing or Shanghai, the article in the Chinese daily observes.

According to the publication, Chinese authorities declassified information about the deal on Wednesday.

A statement on the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) website said China was the first country to export such sensitive equipment for high performance tracking system for Pakistan’s missile program.

Zheng Mengwei, a researcher with the CAS Institute of Optics and Electronics in Chengdu, Sichuan province, confirmed to the South China Morning Post that Pakistan had bought a highly sophisticated, large-scale optical tracking and measurement system from China.

Alarming arms race among Pakistan, India and China

The country’s military recently deployed the Chinese-made system “at a firing range” for use in testing and developing its new missiles, he said.

India’s January 18 test of its Agni-V ICBM, with a range of more than 5,000km (3,100 miles), is seen as a message that the country can deploy a credible nuclear deterrent against China, and Beijing is determined to counter it.

While the Hindu-majority country’s single-warhead missiles are bigger and cover longer distances, Pakistan has focused its efforts on developing multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs), a type of missile-carrying several nuclear warheads that can be directed towards different targets.

The US Defence Intelligence Agency officially confirmed in March that Pakistan conducted the first test launch of its nuclear-capable Ababeel missile in January 2017, “demonstrating South Asia’s first MIRV payload”.

China’s multi-nuke missile capable of striking anywhere in world to be ready soon

Although the Ababeel missile has a range of only 2,200km, it can deliver numerous warheads to different targets. The technology has the potential to overwhelm a missile defence system, wiping out an adversary’s nuclear arsenal in one surprise attack.

SOURCE: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1666541/9-china-provides-high-performance-tracking-system-pakistans-missile-programme/

BEIJING: Growth in China’s manufacturing sector picked up more than expected in March as authorities lifted winter pollution restrictions and steel mills cranked up production as construction activity swings back into high gear.

The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released on Saturday rose to 51.5 in March, from 50.3 in February, and was well above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.

The findings add to a growing amount of data which suggest that the economy of China’s manufacturing sector has carried more momentum into the first quarter from last year than analysts had expected, which should keep synchronized global growth on track for a while longer even as trade tensions build.

February’s print had been the lowest in 1-1/2 years, but many analysts suspected it was due to disruptions related to the long Lunar New Year holidays, not a sharp drop in consumption.

Indeed, the March survey showed manufacturers shifted into higher gear as usual as seasonal demand picked up at home and abroad. The sub-index for output jumped to 53.1 from 50.3 in February, while total new orders rose to 53.3 from 51.0 and export orders climbed to 51.3 from 49.0.

The China Logistics Information Centre, in a commentary on the PMI figures, said it expected first-quarter economic growth to be about 6.8 percent.

Large companies saw a modest pickup in growth, while small firms’ activity expanded marginally after shrinking in February.

Helping drive positive sentiment, exports have been better than expected in the first two months of the year, particularly for tech products, the fastest-growing segment of China’s industrial sector. Though a sub PMI for hi-tech manufacturing eased in March, growth remained solid.

SPRING FORWARD OR FALL BACK?

This spring China’s manufacturing sector could see a major test of Chinese manufacturers’ surprising 1-1/2-year run.

In the first quarter, China’s steel companies defied expectations for a winter lull and continued to ramp up output in response to strong sales, while boosting borrowing, capital expenditure and hiring, a survey from the China Beige Book showed on Wednesday.

Production increased further after winter smog controls expired on March 15 in many areas. A separate PMI on the steel sector rose to 50.6 in March from 49.5 in February, the China Logistics Information Centre (CLIC) said.

But the burst in output has pushed steel inventories to multi-year highs, sending prices sharply lower and reducing mills’ profit margins.

At the same time, growth in property sales and new construction starts appears to be slowing, and Beijing has hit the brakes on some local governments’ infrastructure spending due to concerns over high debt levels.

Those factors, along with rising borrowing costs, should weigh on activity eventually, with economists sticking to forecasts that China’s growth will cool to around 6.5 percent by the end of the year.

Boosted by government infrastructure spending, a resilient housing market and unexpected strength in exports, China’s manufacturing and industrial firms helped the economy produce better-than-expected growth of 6.9 percent in 2017.

Source: https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/03/31/chinas-manufacturing-sector-posts-stronger-than-expected-growth-in-march/

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the main focus of the 10^th annual report issued by the Lahore-based Burki Institute of Public Policy. The programme is still not fully formed; it will develop as its implementation proceeds. Economists call this way of developing a programme, ‘learning by doing’. The only other foreign-funded programme of approximately this size implemented by Pakistan was the Indus Waters Replacement Works. In current dollar terms, it was as large as CPEC but its overall aim was more limited. It was designed to replace the water from the Indus River System that India was allowed to use for its own development. CPEC has come to Pakistan not that well formed. It will develop over time in a situation that will be highly dynamic.

To realize its full potential, the large CPEC programme must have the support of the entire citizenry. With highways, railways, ports, power plants and industrial estates, there will hardly be a part of Pakistan the CPEC programme will not touch. It will profoundly change the structure of the country’s economy and alter the lives of all people. There are, therefore, good reasons to explain to the citizenry what will be the consequences for them of the initiative when, in terms of implementation, it has achieved a degree of maturity.

Given the reach of the programme and the fact that it is sponsored by the country that now has the world’s second-largest economy, there is reason to believe that some of China’s rival powers are attempting to throw blocks in the way as the initiative proceeds. Some of what we have begun to hear and read in newspaper coverage uses phrases that were manufactured abroad and exported to Pakistan. One repeatedly comes across statements that the programme has been launched to colonise Pakistan; that the ultimate aim of the Chinese enterprises and thousands of their employees who have entered the country has a historical precedence, the British East India Company that came in the 18^thcentury to trade but stayed on to rule; that through the programme, China is engaged in achieving its aim of global domination without any interest in promoting Pakistan’s progress. This kind of talk is aimed to instill fear into Pakistani hearts. We must guard against this reading of the initiative and ride over the obstacles that are being thrown in the way of the programme’s successful implementation.

Competition among Chinese companies

Given the size of the China-financed programme and its dynamic nature, it has arrived in Pakistan not fully defined and developed. Its content and scope will change as it progresses. All the governments involved in developing and implementing this vast enterprise — the governments in Islamabad and Pakistan’s provincial capitals as well as the one in Beijing — will build on the programme’s successes. They will also work to mitigate the problems as the implementation of the programme proceeds. But it should be emphasised — as the Burki Institute’s report does — the programme will bring about positive change in Pakistan. The term we have used in many places in the report is that it will be a ‘game changer’ for Pakistan. It will add possibly as much as two percentage points to the growth rate in Pakistan’s GDP. If that does occur, Pakistan’s economic growth trajectory will begin to match that travelled by China and the ‘miracle’ economies of East Asia.

CPEC will bring about greater integration of Pakistan’s backward areas with those that are more developed. We can expect considerable narrowing of the per capita income gap between the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, on the one hand, and Punjab, on the other. This will happen in part by taking the sector of agriculture towards the production of higher-value products such as fruits and vegetables. These would be processed and exported to western parts of China that don’t have the local capacity to provide for the anticipated increase in their population.

Sheer size of CPEC portfolio appals IMF

China also has a growing appetite for livestock products, a sector that has done well but remains relatively underdeveloped in Pakistan. Supplying meat, milk and milk products to western China could help this sector to grow. Since women are actively involved in this sector, its development would help increase their income and independence.

The CPEC initiative will link Pakistan with the global economic system from which it has remained relatively detached. One way this initiative could bring Pakistan’s economy closer to that of the rest of the world is by making the country’s small engineering enterprises enter the supply chains to feed into the production of final products. The global automobile industry is a good example of the way parts and components manufactured in different parts of the world get used to produce the final product. The large car and truck-manufacturing industry in the United States is heavily dependent on the parts made in Mexico. China is now on the way to becoming the world’s largest automobile manufacturer. It too could import parts made in Punjab’s ‘golden triangle’ bounded by the cities of Lahore, Gujranwala and Gujrat.

Pakistan’s latest shot at industrialization under CPEC needs homework

These are some of more important outcomes of the CPEC initiative which we should take into account while planning for the country’s future. We should also recognize that there are foreign interests that are interested in derailing the programme. The attempts that are being made should be understood in terms of what they are. They have been launched to hurt Pakistan while attempting to keep China out of the strategic area of which Pakistan is an important part.

Source: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1663755/6-cpec-and-its-critics/

ISLAMABAD: Rising disparity in bilateral trade and revenue losses will be witnessed as both Pakistan and China have reached an agreement to offer zero percent duty on 70 percent tariff lines to each other under the revised Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

A senior official aware of the developments revealed Pakistan and China are expected to sign a deal soon, reported Dawn.

The effort from Pakistan to get unilateral concessions from China failed as China showed reluctance to open its market unilaterally and demanded similar compromises from Islamabad.

This will add to Pakistan’s woes, as it will be divested from customs duty collections. Pakistan suffered losses of Rs32 billion in FY 2016-17 due to duty exemption on imports from China.

Pakistan’s revenue losses could double in case of provision of further exempt duty on imports considering the government is facing challenges on budget deficit front.

In a high-level meeting conducted on Thursday in Commerce Division, all the relevant parties were apprised regarding the details of the deals.

This understanding between the two sides was reached recently in 9^th round of negotiations on China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Beijing recently.

The source shared China agreed to requite zero percent duty on 70 percent tariff lines under the second phase.

According to the suggested plan, Pakistan would decrease customs duty to zero percent on 70 percent tariff lines over 15 years, while China would reciprocate the same to it in five years’ time.

Although, the source stated the timelines weren’t finalized and will be debated further.

A written query has been forwarded to the Commerce Division regarding exact number of tariff lines to be offered for duty decreases.

Mohammad Ashraf, Commerce Division Spokesman stated that talks were still being conducted and details would be provided at a relevant time.

The source told Pakistan had been able to safeguard its interest by getting more items of its interest added in the suggested deal.

As per this suggested agreement, China would provide 90 percent tariff lines in value terms of Pakistan’s total exports for duty decrease.

And Pakistan would provide 60 percent tariff lines of total Chinese exports value to the country.

The source added that Pakistan had provided no assurance on levying of regulatory duties on items which come under purview of the FTA.

Source: https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/03/17/pakistan-china-fta-on-verge-of-finalization/