October 26:
"Defaults in the onshore bond market have only just begun in earnest, 34 years after its reopening," the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports. After government-controlled Sinosteel postponed its interest payment on a two billion yuan bond last week, China began a "wave of bond defaults that started in the offshore market and have spread to the domestic market." In response, Beijing intervened and delayed redemption of principal until next month. In the past, authorities allowed few defaults, and bonds are still financed primarily by banks, which control 76 percent of all financial assets. If Beijing is to realize a fully-functioning bond market by 2020 it must disrupt the banks' grip on financing without producing a landslide of defaults.
October 27:
China is the first country to buy Russia's latest S-400 Triumf air defense systems and talks are underway on an additional contract for Sukhoi Su-35 fighters, said Anatoliy Isaykin, general director of Rosoboronexport, Russia's state-owned arms trader. "I will not be disclosing the details of the contract, but yes, China has indeed become the first buyer of this latest Russian air defense system, which underlines the strategic nature of our relations. Many countries want to buy S-400s," Isaykin said. Russia plans to deliver S-300 air defense systems to Iran, the Russia's Interfax reports. "At present, there are no factors at all that would stop this contract being honored," Isaykin said.
November 3:
According to recently revised official statistics, China has drastically underestimated its coal consumption since 2000 – burning up to 17 percent more coal per year than previously disclosed. The new data suggests from 2011 to 2013 China released about 900 million metric tons more Co2 than previously reported – an 11 percent increase in emissions over the previous estimate of 8.25 billion tons in 2012. In 2012, China used an additional 600 million more tons of coal, an amount equal to more than 70 percent of total U.S. coal consumption that year, the New York Times reports. In 2013, China consumed 4.2 billion metric tons of coal, primarily in heavy industry producing steel, coal chemicals and cement. "Our basic data will have to be adjusted, and the international agencies will also have to adjust their databases. Many forecasts and commitments were based on the previous data," said Lin Boqiang at Xiamen University.
[Editor's Note: President Xi Jinping has vowed to halt Co2 emissions growth by 2030; although, he did not specify at what level. The new numbers mean that the peak will be higher. This is not the first time China has underestimated its coal consumption. In the late 1990s, small coalmines were ordered to close, but many just stopped reporting to the government, thus creating the erroneous impression of economic growth without increasing emissions.]
China faces a serious problem of "convicts with money or power illegally seeking commutation, parole or non-prison sentences," Cao Jianming, president of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, told a meeting of the National People's Congress Standing Committee chaired by Zhang Dejiang. "The public are strongly discontented that some criminals with money and power get commutation, parole or non-prison sentences illegally. Some criminals and their family seek lighter sentences through social relations and bribery." Between 2010 and August 2015, there were "more than 88,800 cases where criminals were illegally released on probation, served their sentence outside of prison or have had jail terms commuted improperly," the official China Daily reports.
November 8:
President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping and the President of the Republic of China Ma Ying-jeou held a historic meeting in Singapore. The meeting took place without any flags and the two leaders addressed each other as "Mr." The director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, Zhang Zhijun, said the meeting was arranged "given the situation of the irresolution of cross-strait political differences." Taipei originally proposed the meeting during the summit of Asian and Pacific leaders last November, but Beijing turned down that request. An anonymous diplomat told the New York Times that in the lead up to Taiwan's elections, "Xi must be looking to do Ma a favor, he has been asking for this for a long time. The Xi meeting may show that the Kuomintang is better able to deal with China than the [opposition] DPP." Washington welcomed the meeting, but reserved judgment on its meaning. The official Qianjiang Evening newspaper and Dushihuai newspaper in Hangzhou, Zhejiang gave the Xi-Ma meeting a full front page spread.
[Editor's Note: Last year, representatives from Taipei and Beijing met officially for the first time in decades in Nanjing, Jiangsu, the New York Times reports. Cross-strait trade has more than doubled during Ma's presidency, and Taiwan has eased restrictions on Chinese travelers.]