Xi gets out the hammer to take charge of China’s economy



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At the annual gathering of China’s national legislature, which concluded Monday, Xi introduced a series of sweeping changes to the country’s regulatory framework, allowing the party’s top leaders to assert more direct control over financial policy and bank regulation. Appointments for allies of Xi to key regulatory roles and additional shake-ups are expected in the coming days, further cementing the party’s oversight of the financial system.

“It’s very consistent with what Xi Jinping has been rolling out over the past 10 years,” said Max Zenglein, chief economist at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin. “Whenever he’s confronted with a problem, the solution is greater centralisation to the party.”

The moves were the latest evidence of how Xi continues to reshape China’s business climate, steering the world’s second-largest economy away from the free-market policies that underpinned its ascent. While past Chinese leaders sought to maintain a buffer between the party and the private sector, Xi has erased those lines and made clear that businesses are there to advance the party’s agenda.

Xi underscored that message on March 6 when he declared that the party had always regarded the private sector as “our own people” and that while it had a responsibility to support businesses in difficult times, it also needed to “offer guidance” in times of confusion.

With the economy growing near its slowest pace in decades, it is essential to Xi that the financial sector comply with his vision. He needs bankers to allocate capital in the ways that China wants its money spent and prevent domestic funds from moving overseas, while exercising caution to avoid overextending loans and jeopardising the financial system.

In what appeared to be a precursor to the structural changes in the financial regulatory bureaucracy, China’s top anti-graft watchdog also published a not-so-veiled warning to bankers last month. It said it would “seriously investigate and deal with the people who neglect the party’s leadership in financial work and state-owned enterprises.”

Echoing the message of “common prosperity,” one of Xi’s hallmark slogans to narrow the wealth gap in Chinese society, the watchdog said bankers should embrace the party’s values and avoid the ideologies of the “financial elite.” The group said bankers should not emulate the West with its singular focus on money.

Heads are already starting to roll. Bao Fan, a prominent investment banker and chief executive of China Renaissance Holdings, vanished last month. After initially saying that it was unable to contact Bao, China Renaissance said it had learned that the banker was cooperating with an investigation being carried out by certain Chinese authorities.

Bao Fan, a prominent investment banker and chief executive of China Renaissance Holdings, vanished last month. The company has said it had learned that the banker was cooperating with an investigation being carried out by certain Chinese authorities.

Last month, China’s top prosecutor charged Tian Huiyu, the former president of China Merchants Bank, one of the country’s biggest commercial lenders, with abuse of power and insider trading. When he was expelled from the Communist Party in October, the party said in a statement that Tian had led “a corrupted life with loose morals” for accepting lavish gifts as well as invitations for banquets, travel and golf.

The pointed rhetoric, targeted oversight and crackdowns on high-profile figures are reminiscent of China’s so-called rectification campaign of the past few years in the technology sector. This resulted in huge fines, the upending of business strategies and tycoons driven underground.

But unlike the technology industry, which had been flying high and amassing greater influence in society, the financial sector is under tremendous pressure partially because of the shaky balance sheets of local governments and the banks that lend to them. ANZ Research estimates that Chinese local government debts have grown 16 per cent annually over the past five years.

After three years of footing the bill for China’s strict “zero COVID” policy of constant testing, local government finances are depleted, a situation worsened by a property market collapse that has diminished a once-reliable revenue stream from leasing state-owned land to real estate developers.

On Friday, China’s legislature, known as the National People’s Congress, approved a proposal to create a new regulatory body called the State Bureau of Financial Supervision and Administration to oversee China’s 400 trillion yuan, or $US57 billion ($85.3 billion), financial system. The new entity was formed out of China’s existing banking and insurance regulatory commission, and it will absorb some roles played by other agencies including the central bank and the securities regulator.

Darrell Duffie, a professor of management and finance at Stanford University and a close watcher of China, said the changes are consistent with how China turns to additional regulation to redress past mistakes. In this case, he said, it wanted to correct the “excess financial exuberance” that has caused dozens of real estate developers to default on loans and left the sector awash in debt.

It is a delicate dance, Zhaopeng Xing, senior China strategist at ANZ Research, wrote in a report, because the authorities need to make sure that banks and companies don’t binge on risky loans, while not suffocating the economy, because credit “remains the most important driver of growth.”

Analysts say this latest campaign to clean up the financial sector is also rooted in growing concern about the adequacy of the country’s financial regulation, which had been called into question in recent years by a series of missteps and scandals that tested the party’s ability to maintain order.

“Whenever he’s confronted with a problem, the solution is greater centralisation to the party.”

Peer-to-peer lending initially took off in China around 2014 without much oversight until a series of defaults and scandals unleashed a wave of protests that forced the government to shut down the sector several years later. Last year, demonstrations erupted when depositors in rural banks in Henan province in central China said the institutions froze their savings accounts and refused to let them withdraw their money.

Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura, a Japanese brokerage, said some of these changes were long overdue because “many problems” emerged in recent years reflecting the challenge of local governments supervising the financial institutions that they rely on.

In addition to the new government financial regulator, the Communist Party is expected to resurrect a policy-setting committee that will report directly to top leadership. The Central Financial Works Commission was formed in 1998 after the Asian financial crisis so that party leaders could play a role in regulation. It was disbanded five years later when China established a banking regulator.

In the reincarnation, the commission is expected to work closely with the new regulator, and it will be headed by a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the inner circle of power in Chinese politics comprising mostly Xi loyalists and the party’s top leaders who oversee the day-to-day running of the country. Bloomberg earlier reported the revival of the committee.

The revamp confirms what many in China already know. Whether it is politics, the military or the economy, all roads lead to Xi. On Friday, the 2,952 delegates of the national legislature endorsed Xi for a rare third term as president. There was not a single dissenting vote.

Source: The Age

   

Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari passes away



International Desk, Barta24.com
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Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of a heart attack.

The 63-year-old politician died on Thursday (March 28) around 8:30 pm while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Earlier, the jail authorities took him to the district's Rani Durgavati Medical College Hospital after he fainted in the jail last Tuesday. Later a team of nine doctors provided immediate medical attention to him. But, despite their best efforts, he died after 14 hours in the ICU.

Indian media NDTV reported that this 5-time MP from Uttar Pradesh has been in jail since 2005.

A large contingent of police was deployed outside the hospital soon after Ansari was taken to the hospital and prohibitory orders under Section 144 have been issued across Uttar Pradesh following his death, news agency PTI reported.

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Prashant Kumar said additional policemen have been deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi districts as well as Central Reserve Police Force.

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The ICJ ordered Israel to take steps to stop the famine in Gaza



International Desk, Barta24.com, Dhaka
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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Israel to take necessary and effective measures to stop the spread of famine in the besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip.

On Thursday (March 28), the International Court of Justice unanimously gave the order to Israel. But Hamas leaders say a ceasefire is necessary to prevent a humanitarian crisis.

South Africa asked the court for new measures as part of a case accusing Israel of state-led genocide in Gaza. Later the court gave this order.

The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to take necessary and effective measures to ensure basic food supplies for the Palestinian population and to stop the spread of famine, Reuters reported. The order came as Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters battled around Gaza's Al Shifa hospital.

The people of Gaza are going to face worse conditions, the court judges said. The court observed that the people of Gaza are not only at risk of famine but that famine has already begun, the judges said in the order.

Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said the verdict was not enough. Israel must be ordered to cease military attacks to end the suffering.

He added, "We welcome any new demands to end the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, but we hope that the court will order a ceasefire as a solution to the misery our people in Gaza are living through."

There was no immediate comment from Israel's Foreign Ministry on the International Court of Justice ruling.

The UN Security Council voted on Tuesday to demand an immediate ceasefire and the immediate unconditional release of all hostages. The United States abstained from voting, but did not veto.

 

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76 more killed in Gaza, death toll rises to nearly 32,500



International Desk, Barta24.com, Dhaka
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Even after the UN Security Council passed a cease-fire resolution, the Israeli barbaric attacks on the Palestinian-besieged Gaza have not stopped. Another 76 Palestinians were killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours by Israeli attacks. The death toll has increased to about 32,500 people. The number of injured has reached about 75000 people.

Al-Jazeera reported this information in a live update on Thursday (March 28).

Quoting the Ministry of Health of Gaza, the report said that since last October, the number of dead in Palestine has reached 32490 in the Israeli barbaric attack in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, an emergency ceasefire resolution was passed in the besieged Gaza Strip. The resolution passed by the UN Security Council on Monday (March 25) calls for a cease-fire in Gaza as well as the immediate and unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas.

In this proposal, 14 countries of the Security Council voted in favor of the proposal. Israel's close ally, the United States, abstained from voting.

Welcoming the proposal, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, after a long wait, the Security Council has passed a resolution regarding the cease-fire in Gaza. This proposal must be implemented. Failure of any party to implement the ceasefire and its terms would constitute an unforgivable offence. 

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Israel wants to wipe out Palestinians: UN



International Desk, Barta24.com, Dhaka
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Gazans are going through one of the worst times in living memory. The lives of Palestinians are in danger due to the long-term killings and severe food shortages. The world is criticizing the surprise attack on the destitute Gazans. However, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu is unwilling to stop the attack. In this situation, the international organization, which could not find any solution after repeated efforts, said that Israel is going to wipe out the Palestinians.

On Monday (March 25), the special envoy for human rights in Palestine, Francesca Albanez, released her detailed report. She said that since the start of the attack, Israel has targeted Gazans. The Israeli forces assumed that these Gazans could be attacked, killed, or even destroyed. Israel's genocidal action has become clear through this. They are trying to erase Palestinians from Palestine.

The news agency AFP reported this information.

According to the report, Albanez attacked Israel in harsh language at the meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council. She said Israel destroyed Gaza. She also said, 'What is happening in Gaza shows the intention of genocide. We cannot turn away from it. We have to face it, we have to stop this genocide and action must be taken against those who took this step.''

Francesca Albanez is working as Special Envoy for Palestinian Human Rights. She told the United Nations Human Rights Council last Monday that the organization's member states should end arms embargoes against Israel and arms supplies to Israel.

Support for the UN expert panel, which has been working on allegations of genocide against Israel since the start of Israel's assault on Gaza, has been growing in Palestine. Various countries are now showing interest in investigating the allegations of genocide.

Ambassadors of different countries are supporting this report of Albanez. Ambassadors from Muslim and Arab countries, as well as Latin American countries, are among those supporting Albanez's report to hold Israel accountable.

Pakistan has supported this Albanez report on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The OIC has also called for an arms embargo on Israel. When Albanez presented the report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Pakistan's representative said, "We appreciate your courage in documenting the genocide in Gaza."

Accusations of genocide against Israel are intensifying as it continues to operate in Gaza's Rafah area in defiance of international calls. The Ministry of Health of Palestine said on Wednesday that 76 people were killed in the attack in the last 24 hours. With this, 32490 people have been killed in Israel's attacks since October 7.

The representative of Egypt, on behalf of the Arab countries, said they were deeply concerned about Israel's structural and systematic attack on the Gaza Strip, making it uninhabitable. Qatar represented the Gulf countries in the meeting. They want international action to stop the war that Israel is waging in Palestine. 

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