Highlights from the last week of China business news.

Defusing tensions
Taiwan elected economic pragmatist Ma Ying-jeou as its President in a landslide that saw Ma win over 58% of the vote. Ma, who favors bolstering economic ties with China, was widely seen as Beijing’s preferred candidate. He got right to the hard work of talking about mending fences with the mainland by hinting at a resumption of economic dialog, particularly in the areas of direct flights across the Straits, mainland access for Taiwanese banks, and tripling the number of Chinese tourists allowed to visit the island. The market responded with good cheer to the potential warming of relations, with tourism firms among the big gainers. But the US crashed the party by admitting it had accidentally delivered intercontinental ballistic missile fuses to Taiwan in 2006 in place of helicopter batteries (a simple enough mistake, really). China’s foreign ministry was not amused.

Movers, shakers, steelmakers
The metal industry was bubbling over with news this week. Rio Tinto’s CEO Tom Albanese said in Beijing that he wanted to work with Chinese firms to develop mining projects across the globe, in part to ease tensions over iron ore contracts with Chinese steelmakers. Albanese, however, had no plans to meet with any Chinese companies during his visit, notably Chinalco or Baosteel. Speaking of Baosteel, the leading steel-maker may face new competition from a merger by Laiwu Iron & Steel Group and Jinan Iron & Steel Group. The new company, Shandong Iron & Steel Group, will be the world’s seventh-largest steel producer. Meanwhile, Chinalco, which recently bought a share in Rio, announced it planned to spend between US$2.8 and 4.2 billion on acquisitions this year, with non-ferrous metals as a major focus. Xinjiang Non-Ferrous Metal Industry is also in talks to bring in state-owned firms as strategic investors and expand its rare metals unit.

You can also get the weekly news by e-mail. Just subscribe here.

A nice meta-piece on the media machinations behind the NPC sessions in the Straits Times (of Singapore; subscription required) today.

Correspondent Tracy Quek reports that Premier Wen Jiabao’s usually staid post-NPC press conference was given a shot in the arm this year.

The event usually starts at 10am, after the NPC session has officially ended, and lasts for more than two hours. It’s held in a room on the third floor of the Great Hall of the People. Quek notes that the premier handles all questions (which are usually pre-selected) with the same genial smile he flashes so often on television and in photographs.

Questions to the Premier - no matter how leading or provocative - are met with polite replies spoken in measured tones, occasionally capped with a slight poetic flourish.

But this year’s press conference was different. The premier brought along some special guests, setting off a “lightning storm” of camera flashes.

A gasp ran through the crowd when instead of just Mr Wen alone, the three newly appointed vice-premiers walked into the room. With them was incumbent Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu.

But the vice premiers weren’t there to talk. Instead, it appeared that they had been invited simply to observe Wen in action. A cheeky German reporter, however, seized the chance to ask potential future premier Li Keqiang a question.

There was some uneasy shifting about on stage before Mr Jiang Enzhu, the official chairing the conference, cut in.

He said: ‘I said earlier that this is Premier Wen’s press conference. There will be other occasions to hear from Mr Li and the other vice-premiers. Now, Premier Wen will continue to answer your questions.’

Without missing a beat, a smiling Mr Wen reclaimed his place in the spotlight.

Another amusing episode involves a reporter with a question that involved “a word starting with the letter T,” after a series of questions concerning Tibet.

To a reporter who said his question involved a word starting with the letter ‘T’, Mr Wen quipped: ‘Thank you for raising yet another question with a word starting with ‘T’.’

Before launching into his reply to a Taiwanese reporter who asked about furthering cross-strait economic cooperation, he said: ‘Please…convey my regards to our compatriots in Taiwan.’

So, while the many reports on Wen’s statements on Tibet and inflation will dominate headlines today, it’s nice to get a look at the workings of the NPC media machine once in awhile.

Highlights from the last week of China business news: Billionaires galore in two rich lists released this week; new major military postings, apparently with a conflict in Taiwan in mind.

(more…)