PHNOM PENH, November 14 -- Cambodia’s rice export fell 13.2% in the first 10 months of 2018 due to two factors, the European Union stopped buying Cambodian rice and the 300,000 tonnes quota to China was not fulfilled, Kann Kunthy, vice president and managing director of Amru Rice Cambodia, said.

Kunthy was commenting on a report from the Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export which said in the first 10 months of 2018, Cambodia exported 434,807 tonnes of rice, compared to 492,115 tonnes over the same period in 2017.

Meanwhile, China remained the country that imported the largest portion of rice from Cambodia, or 110,000 tonnes, France 60,000 tonnes and Malaysia 30,000 tonnes. “We use dollar for the rice export and the trade war between the US and China has inflated the Chinese currency by 10%, making it expensive for China to buy rice from us," the Khmer Timeson Wednesday quoted him as saying.
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“The decline was mostly on the white rice export due to high prices and altogether Vietnam bought a lot of rice from Cambodia. Then the EU is now buying rice from Myanmar. It is all related to international politics,” he added. However, he said his company’s rice export was stable, sending 5,000 tonnes of milled rice abroad.

Hun Lak, vice president of the Cambodia Rice Federation, said a combination of factors led to the decrease in rice exports. Lak said high production costs, coupled with a lack of budget to purchase rice for storage in warehouses for processing; adding that Cambodian millers do not have enough rice to process for export impacted the export figures.

“The merchants from the neighbouring countries came and purchased rice (unprocessed rice) from farmers who were happy to sell their products because they want quick money after the harvest.
“We need a precise mechanism and we need to cooperate with the stakeholders to stabilise milled rice export,” Lak said.

According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Cambodia exported 389,264 tonnes of rice in the first nine months of 2018, a drop of 8.4% from last year. China continues to be Cambodia’s top export market.

BEIJING, November 13 -- On Sunday, TOP500 pushed out the November 2018 top 10 supercomputer list. There were entrants from the U.S., China, Switzerland, Japan, and Germany but the list was topped by the U.S. and it managed to secure five of the ten places in the list.

Coming in first and second place were IBM’s Summit and Sierra supercomputers on behalf of the U.S., Summit increased its High Performance Linpack (HPL) score from 122.3 to 143.5 petaflops since its June debut while Sierra went from 71.6 to 94.6 petaflops. The U.S. holds onto the lead that it snatched away from China’s Sunway TaihuLight, which has remained stagnant in performance as the country develops a new exascale supercomputer which is in the prototype phase.

While China didn’t have a stellar year in terms of its top 10 performance, the country did put up the largest number of supercomputers in the top 500. China now claims 227 systems, or 45%, while the United States’ number of supercomputers is in decline reaching a new low of 109, or 22%. With that said, the U.S.’ supercomputers are more powerful and on average have an aggregate system performance of 38% compared to China’s 31%.
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In total, 429 supercomputers managed to score more than one petaflop on the Linpack benchmark, this is up from 272 in June. The entry point in the top 500 list was 874.8 teraflops, while those in the top 100 scored at least 1.97 petaflops. The aggregate performance has also jumped from 1.21 exaflops in June to 1.42 exaflops this time around.

VIENTIANE, Nov. 7 -- The second Laos-China Film Festival with open-air movies being screened across Laos has expanded cultural exchange.

The Chinese embassy to Laos in cooperation with the Lao Department of Cinema under the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and China Radio International in Laos (CRI Laos) jointly opened the second Laos-China Film Festival Tour in Lao capital Vientiane on last Friday.

"The event brought three excellent Chinese movies dubbed into Lao language with subtitles in Chinese," said the political counselor at the Chinese embassy, Zhao Chenggang.

The Chinese and Lao films have started open-air screenings in the provinces of Savannakhet, Champassak, Attapeu, Vientiane, Xayaboury, Xieng Khuang and Huaphan in November and December, CRI Laos told Xinhua on Wednesday. To make the Chinese films more appealing to local audiences, CRI invited local stars to dub characters' voices into Lao. "Films have become an important part of encouraging cultural exchange between peoples," Vientiane Times quoted Zhao as saying.

Speaking at last Friday's launch, Lao Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Boua Ngeun Xaphouvong said the festival played an important role in boosting the exchange of culture between the two nations. It would particularly encourage Lao people to learn about Chinese culture through the medium of motion pictures. Boua Ngeun hoped the festival would play a part in continuing to enhance relations and cooperation between the two countries.

SHANGHAI, November 5 --  Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Monday to boost the nation's total imports to more than US$40 trillion in the next 15 years, while warning that US protectionism has "dealt a blow" to the global free trade system amid a mounting trade war with Washington.

"Risks and challenges have been growing" as "unilateral trade protectionism has been emerging," Xi said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo, adding his country is eager to "voluntarily open its markets to the world."

Protectionism will "result in trade stagnation" and "hurt the global economy," Xi said, as China and the United States under President Donald Trump are engaged in tit-for-tat rounds of punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other's imports. As this year marks the 40th anniversary of the country's reform and opening-up policy, the Asian power, by holding the expo for imports, will try to brush aside criticism that Chinese markets are closed given that they are mainly controlled by the government.
China sees the expo as one of this year's most important diplomatic events, along with the Boao Forum for Asia, billed as the region's answer to the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a Chinese-led security bloc.

About 3,600 companies from more than 170 nations, regions and international groups are taking part in the country's first national-level expo for imports, the Chinese government said. Among them are some 180 US firms such as Google LLC and Microsoft Corp. Xi gave a 30-minute speech in front of government officials and business leaders from abroad on the eve of US midterm elections on Tuesday, the result of which will determine the outlook for trade negotiations with the US. To bolster imports, Xi promised to further cut tariffs and ease regulations against foreign enterprises in the medical and education fields, expressing a willingness to promote free trade talks and deepen cooperation in state-of-the-art technology with other countries.

As China has been lambasted for stealing technology rather than developing it independently, Xi also committed to implementing measures to protect intellectual property rights. Chinese local governments have sent a large number of buyers to the expo. The Chinese leadership has urged them to actively make contracts, as Washington has put pressure on Beijing to curb China's trade imbalance by increasing imports, sources close to the matter said.
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In Shanghai, many firms have been trying to increase sales in the Chinese market with a population of 1.4 billion. The expo will end on Saturday. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and other foreign political leaders attended the opening ceremony.

BEIJING, Nov. 2 -- President Xi Jinping held talks with the Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina in Beijing Friday, pledging to promote common development.

China and the Dominican Republic established diplomatic ties half a year ago. Xi said the decision of President Medina to establish ties with China conformed to the trend of the times and the historical inevitability, which allowed the Dominican Republic to have more than 1.3 billion Chinese friends.
"Although China and the Dominican Republic have only recently established diplomatic relations, our hearts have long been linked together," Xi said. "The establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries has given China a good partner with mutual respect, equal treatment and mutually-beneficial cooperation."

He expressed China's willingness to work with the Dominican Republic to promote accelerated development of bilateral relations, turn the good vision of cooperation between the two countries into more tangible results, promote common development and bring benefits to the people. "History and facts will prove that the decision to establish diplomatic relations between China and the Dominican Republic is completely correct," said the president.

The relations between China and the Dominican Republic have released a wellspring of vitality and shows the unlimited broad prospects since the two countries forged diplomatic ties half a year ago, said Xi.He encouraged both sides to enhance the top-down design and political guidance, calling on the Dominican Republic to adhere to the one-China policy so as to lay a solid foundation for the lasting and stable development of bilateral ties. He suggested that both sides strengthen overall planning and coordination to advance bilateral cooperation in various areas through partnership in the Belt and Road Initiative, and conduct cooperation in areas including infrastructure construction, finance, investment, tourism and aviation in the principle of a government-guided, business-led and market-driven approach for win-win progress.
Xi expressed his welcome to Medina's participation in the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) scheduled for Nov. 5 to 10 in Shanghai, and called on the Dominican Republic to make the best use of the platform to promote its products. The president also encouraged both sides to intensify cultural and people-to-people exchanges and mutual understanding and to promote exchanges at high and local levels and from governments to legislature bodies so as to gain extensive public support for China-Dominican Republic cooperation.

China stands ready to carry out cooperation with the Caribbean country in areas such as human resources training and sports, and will send medical teams there, Xi said. He also called for coordination on international affairs and joint efforts to safeguard international peace and security as well as the common interests of developing countries. Noting that China and Latin American countries, including Caribbean countries, are developing countries, Xi said both sides are at a similar stage of development thus providing opportunities for each other.

Cooperation between China and Latin American countries conforms to the trend of the times and is the common aspiration and choice of both sides, he said. China-Latin America cooperation has been mutually beneficial and greatly promoted economic development and improvement of the people's livelihood in Latin American countries, Xi said.

Medina expressed admiration for China's achievements in development and poverty reduction. Noting that the establishment of diplomatic ties with China is completely in the interests of the Dominican Republic, Medina said his country is willing to develop closer ties with China and deepen the friendship of the two peoples.
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"The Dominican Republic hopes to promote cooperation with China under the Belt and Road Initiative, in such areas as trade, infrastructure construction, energy, electricity and tourism," Medina said.
After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.

BEIJING, November 2 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday held a telephone conversation, speaking of bilateral trade and the Korean Peninsula issue while agreeing to meet bilaterally during the upcoming G20 summit in Argentina.

Trump said during the conversation that he looks forward to meeting Xi during the G20 summit so that they can have an in-depth discussion about some major issues. The U.S. president added that he hopes their two countries will make joint efforts to prepare for the meeting. The United States attaches importance to U.S.-China economic and trade cooperation and would like to continue to expand export to China, he said, adding that the economic teams from the two sides need to enhance exchanges and consultations.
Trump also voiced his support for the China International Import Expo (CIIE) to be held from Nov. 5-10 in Shanghai, which is the first of its kind in China.

It is very important for the heads of state of the United Stats and China to keep frequent, direct communication, Trump said, and he and Xi should keep in touch with each other. Trump also said he attaches importance to a good relationship with Xi and is willing to extend, through Xi, his good wishes to the Chinese people. In the telephone conversation held at the invitation of Trump, Xi said he is glad to talk with Trump over phone. And he also attaches importance to a good relationship with Trump.
Xi said he is willing to meet Trump during the G20 summit in Argentina and further exchange views on bilateral ties and other major issues.

Xi said both he and Trump have good visions for a healthy, stable development of the China-U.S. relations as well as expanding economic and trade cooperation, and they should make efforts to realize the wishes.
Xi noted in the conversation that China has repeatedly made clear its stance on bilateral ties, and hopes that both countries will promote a healthy, stable development of bilateral ties in accordance with the important consensuses reached between him and Trump.

The essence of the China-U.S. cooperation on economy and trade, said the Chinese president, is mutual benefits and win-win results. The two sides have disagreed on trade issues for some time, Xi noted, saying that it has caused a negative impact on the relevant industries in both countries as well as on the global trade. This is not what China wants to see, said the Chinese president.

The upcoming CIIE has shown China's willingness to increase import and further expand its opening-up, Xi said, adding that he is glad to see many U.S. companies enthusiastically participate in the event.
There were successful examples in the past that China and the United States solved their trade differences through coordinated cooperation, said Xi, urging the economic teams of the two countries to increase their contacts and conduct consultations over issues of mutual concern so as to reach an agreement which is acceptable for both sides.

The two sides also exchanged views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Xi emphasized that since the beginning of this year, the Korean Peninsula situation has undergone positive changes.
China appreciates the historic meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which promotes denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue, said Xi.

China hopes that the United States and the DPRK take care of each other's concerns and further advance the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in parallel with the building of a peace mechanism on the peninsula, Xi said, adding that China will continue to play a constructive role.
Trump said that since the beginning of this year, talks between the United States and the DPRK have made positive progress. The U.S. side attaches great importance to China's important role in the Korean Peninsula issue and is willing to continue to strengthen communication and coordination with China, he added.

ROTTERDAM, January 25 -- Welcome to “Catching Tigers and Flies,” China’s new interactive tool for tracking and, we hope, better understanding the massive campaign against corruption that China’s President, Xi Jinping, launched shortly after he came to power in late 2012.

Corruption is a long festering canker on both the work and popular reputation of China’s Communist Party, and one that Xi’s predecessors also sought to combat. But Xi has undertaken the task with unprecedented zeal and acumen. Scything through the Chinese Communist Party’s cadre ranks, Xi’s deputies—most prominent among them the Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Qishan and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) which he commands—have felled officials of both high and low rank, or as Xi himself put it in a memorable phrase, both “tigers and flies.”

To date, tens of thousands have been swept out of office. Whether their fortunes have suffered primarily because of their corrupt acts or rather—as many both inside and outside of China argue—as a direct or indirect result of Xi’s consolidation of power remains, nearly three years into Xi’s tenure, an open and hotly debated question. Information about targets of the campaign abounds, but so too do speculation and rumor.

Meanwhile, the campaign continues. Just last week, the CCDI released a communiqué promising to maintain “unabated forces and unchanging rhythm” in pursuing the goal of a China where, as Xi put it, officials are “unable and unwilling to be corrupt.”
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“Catching Tigers and Flies” is designed to give users a sense of the scope and character of the anti-corruption campaign by graphically rendering information about nearly 1,500 of its targets whose cases have been publicly announced either by the CCDI, its official media partners, or related Chinese government organs.

For the time being, we have confined this database to figures whose cases have been announced by official Chinese sources. Given the flood of available information on the campaign, this struck us as the best way to impose limits on the data we are presenting. It does mean, though, that the tool does not include some highly probable targets of the campaign whose cases have been reported widely by reputable media organizations both inside and outside of China.

At ChinaFile, we have only begun to explore the data we have collected ourselves. Our hope is that by making it available to you and to the journalists and scholars who follow the campaign most closely, we’ll help produce new insights on the ways it has been pursued thus far, and the direction it will take going forward. Below, you will find a form for submitting comments and corrections. Please make use of it.
In the meantime, a few preliminary observations drawn from our data as it stood the day we published. We update our database daily:

• The cases we have tracked span the period from January 1, 2010 to the present. A couple dozen individuals in the database were under investigation for corruption before Xi’s rise to power, but the vast majority have fallen as a result of the campaign.
• Of the more than 1,460 targets included in the database, the vast majority are officials at the local and provincial level. Our tool allows you to break out individuals in the fields of Mining, Petroleum, Law (and law enforcement), Media, Military, Real Estate, and Rail. But there are also sizeable groups in the fields of higher education (78) and public security (36, including Zhou Yongkang and the recently sentenced Li Dongsheng). 175 of the people in our database worked for state-owned enterprises.
• Like Chinese officialdom itself, our database skews heavily male, with only 69 females in total. Just three women, in a pool of 146, are Tigers (those whose rank is above or equivalent to that of Deputy Provincial or Deputy Ministerial level officials).
• One mind-boggling task our tool accomplishes is to tally up the total ill-gotten gains of people in the database convicted of corruption. We pull these figures from sentencing documents—which, in most cases, are easily accessible on the websites of Chinese courts and in the official Chinese media. To date, the sentenced individuals in our database, just 231 people, are responsible for having embezzled, stolen, taken as gifts, or otherwise misused more than 6 billion yuan, close to a billion U.S. dollars.
• Sentencing documents often include other lurid details. Yang Yueguo, a relatively minor Yunnan official, purchased 200,000 RMB’s worth of jade jewelry using public funds. Quan Xiaohui, a municipal official in Henan, kept three mistresses. And Yan Yongxi, who once presided over Beijing’s rural Mentougou district, tried to hide his embezzled millions in his mistress’ gardening company.
• Geographically, the cases in our database are spread throughout the whole country, but certain provinces, including Guangdong, Henan, and Shanxi (the stronghold of Hu Jintao’s former top aide, Ling Jihua) have seen the highest numbers, after Beijing, of individuals targeted. Fujian and Zhejiang, both provinces Xi Jinping once led, have now seen high-level officials toppled, but they appear to be among the provinces dealt with more leniently.
• So far this year, the CCDI has announced 17 new investigations, including probes into several local officials, the head of the “clean and honest governance” unit of the prominent Fosun group, and a deputy director of the Beijing office in charge of Taiwan affairs, whose investigation was announced just days after Taiwan elected a new president whose party favors greater independence from the mainland.

“Catching Tigers and Flies” was built for ChinaFile by Schema, a Seattle-based design firm, and conceived by its Creative Director, Christian Marc Schmidt, and ChinaFile’s Visuals Editor, David Barreda. It is built off of a database compiled by a tireless group of ChinaFile interns and editors and we continue to update daily. We have also collected much more data than we are currently able to display, and we look forward to upgrading our tool to be able to better capture it in the coming months. We expect to continue offering insights as we update and refine the tool in the weeks and months ahead. In the meantime, we invite you to explore for yourself