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Growing number of Chinese students head to US
2010-3-3 这无聊的生活 0 comment | Browse:
SHANGHAI: The visa application process on the Chinese mainland for the United States continues to grow rapidly, while the number of applications from other countries is declining, a US consular said on Friday.
Michael D. Kirby, the principal deputy assistant secretary for the consular affairs, announced that the overall number of all visa applications in the mainland for 2009 is 596,231, a year-on-year increase of 50,000, with student visa applications accounting for 98,500 of them.
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Top political advisory body begins annual session
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BEIJING: The Third Session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body, opened in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Wednesday.
More than 2,000 CPPCC National Committee members, from across the country, will discuss major issues concerning the nation's development during the annual meeting scheduled to conclude on March 13.
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Finance expert optimistic about inflation
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China will face inflationary pressures in 2010, and its Consumer Price Index (CPI), a main inflation gauge, will probably grow by around 3 percent this year, said Xia Bin, director of Finance Research Institute at the Development Research Center under the State Council.
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Wen: Only democracy sustains governance
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Top "livelihood concerns" of Chinese people such as employment, medicare, housing and widening wealth gap were key topics in Premier Wen Jiabao's online chat with netizens on Saturday.
Employment Pressure
China is facing serious challenges in employment, though labor shortage has been found in booming coastal cities recently, Wen said.
He attributed the labor shortage to possible economic recovery, lack of skilled worker and workers' growing awareness of their own rights and interests who would weigh choices for better salaries.
Although the labor shortage in certain areas signals a stabilized and recovering economy, the serious employment situation has not changed in general, Wen said.
"Every year 150 million migrant workers leave their rural homes to seek jobs in cities, 24 million urban unemployed are waiting for jobs, and the number of university graduates will hit a record high of 6.3 million this year, all adding up to the employment pressure," Wen said.
"I hope the employment situation is better than last year," he said.
Wen encouraged university graduates to start their own businesses.
Medicare
Wen said China has started to reform government-run hospitals, the most difficult part of the entire healthcare reform, with maintaining public good as its goal.
Public hospitals in 16 cities have started the reform this year.
China had about 14,000 public hospitals by November 2009. The State Council, or Cabinet, passed a medical reform plan last January which promised to spend 850 billion yuan (123 billion U.S. dollars) by 2011 to provide universal medical service to the country's 1.3 billion population.
Public hospitals in China enjoyed full government funding before 1985. Later, they embarked on a market-oriented reform.
Wen said the situation of hospitals making profit from drug prescriptions would be changed to alleviate high medical costs.
Housing Prices
Housing price hikes have become a top headache for Chinese people. Wen said he was determined to tame the "wild horse" of the country's soaring housing market and to "keep the prices at a reasonable level."
Traditionally in China, an apartment of one's own is a must-have for marriage or a "well-off" life, although the government has tried to encourage people to rent rooms before they can afford to buy one.
Home prices have climbed from year-earlier level since June last year, fueled by record bank lending and favorable tax breaks, with January 2010 posting a 9.5 percent year-on-year growth, the fastest in 19 months.
"I really understand the complaints", Wen said, "housing prices in some cities rise too fast."
To rein in the price hikes, the government has kicked in a series measures, including harsher property sales tax, increasing supply of affordable houses, restraining land purchases, and controlling bank credit.
"In China, huge population with limited land makes people's access to housing a problem", Wen said, adding that the key to solve the problem is to increase housing supply.
The government would also provide support on land, finance and tax to help people buy homes for their own use, and use economic and legal methods to curb property speculation, Wen said.
"It is the government's responsibility to guide the property market", he said, "I am confident that the government would ensure a healthy development of the property market."
Distribution of Social Wealth
Wen said it is the government responsibility to "make the cake of social wealth as big as possible" and the government conscience to "distribute the cake in a fair way."
"It is unfair if a society's wealth is in hands of a small number of people, and in that case, the society must be unstable," he said.
The fair distribution of social wealth concerns social justice, he said.
He called for an increase of the proportion of residents' income in the distribution of national income, and the use of fiscal and taxation instruments to help "the disadvantaged groups."
Wen said the country had about 270 million low-income residents. "We should give care to all of them," he said.
Education
Wen called for changes to education bureaucracy, a problem that plagues China's education development.
He said schools should be run by educationists "who love to teach and know how to teach, and those who have been teachers for life."
China has made a mid- and long-term outline for education reform and development which gives priority to reducing academic workload of students, so that they can develop in an all-around way.
Household Registration
Wen said China would advance the reform of its household registration system to solve problems for new-generation migrant workers.
He said the reform is key to help the country's young rural migrant workers, who have lived and worked in cities for long, to blend into urban society.
Migrant workers have already become a main force of China's industrial forces, Wen said.
Under the current system, migrant workers' registered permanent residences, or "hukou" in Chinese, remain in the countryside, making it hard for them to obtain welfare in urban workplaces. ... Read More
Employment Pressure
China is facing serious challenges in employment, though labor shortage has been found in booming coastal cities recently, Wen said.
He attributed the labor shortage to possible economic recovery, lack of skilled worker and workers' growing awareness of their own rights and interests who would weigh choices for better salaries.
Although the labor shortage in certain areas signals a stabilized and recovering economy, the serious employment situation has not changed in general, Wen said.
"Every year 150 million migrant workers leave their rural homes to seek jobs in cities, 24 million urban unemployed are waiting for jobs, and the number of university graduates will hit a record high of 6.3 million this year, all adding up to the employment pressure," Wen said.
"I hope the employment situation is better than last year," he said.
Wen encouraged university graduates to start their own businesses.
Medicare
Wen said China has started to reform government-run hospitals, the most difficult part of the entire healthcare reform, with maintaining public good as its goal.
Public hospitals in 16 cities have started the reform this year.
China had about 14,000 public hospitals by November 2009. The State Council, or Cabinet, passed a medical reform plan last January which promised to spend 850 billion yuan (123 billion U.S. dollars) by 2011 to provide universal medical service to the country's 1.3 billion population.
Public hospitals in China enjoyed full government funding before 1985. Later, they embarked on a market-oriented reform.
Wen said the situation of hospitals making profit from drug prescriptions would be changed to alleviate high medical costs.
Housing Prices
Housing price hikes have become a top headache for Chinese people. Wen said he was determined to tame the "wild horse" of the country's soaring housing market and to "keep the prices at a reasonable level."
Traditionally in China, an apartment of one's own is a must-have for marriage or a "well-off" life, although the government has tried to encourage people to rent rooms before they can afford to buy one.
Home prices have climbed from year-earlier level since June last year, fueled by record bank lending and favorable tax breaks, with January 2010 posting a 9.5 percent year-on-year growth, the fastest in 19 months.
"I really understand the complaints", Wen said, "housing prices in some cities rise too fast."
To rein in the price hikes, the government has kicked in a series measures, including harsher property sales tax, increasing supply of affordable houses, restraining land purchases, and controlling bank credit.
"In China, huge population with limited land makes people's access to housing a problem", Wen said, adding that the key to solve the problem is to increase housing supply.
The government would also provide support on land, finance and tax to help people buy homes for their own use, and use economic and legal methods to curb property speculation, Wen said.
"It is the government's responsibility to guide the property market", he said, "I am confident that the government would ensure a healthy development of the property market."
Distribution of Social Wealth
Wen said it is the government responsibility to "make the cake of social wealth as big as possible" and the government conscience to "distribute the cake in a fair way."
"It is unfair if a society's wealth is in hands of a small number of people, and in that case, the society must be unstable," he said.
The fair distribution of social wealth concerns social justice, he said.
He called for an increase of the proportion of residents' income in the distribution of national income, and the use of fiscal and taxation instruments to help "the disadvantaged groups."
Wen said the country had about 270 million low-income residents. "We should give care to all of them," he said.
Education
Wen called for changes to education bureaucracy, a problem that plagues China's education development.
He said schools should be run by educationists "who love to teach and know how to teach, and those who have been teachers for life."
China has made a mid- and long-term outline for education reform and development which gives priority to reducing academic workload of students, so that they can develop in an all-around way.
Household Registration
Wen said China would advance the reform of its household registration system to solve problems for new-generation migrant workers.
He said the reform is key to help the country's young rural migrant workers, who have lived and worked in cities for long, to blend into urban society.
Migrant workers have already become a main force of China's industrial forces, Wen said.
Under the current system, migrant workers' registered permanent residences, or "hukou" in Chinese, remain in the countryside, making it hard for them to obtain welfare in urban workplaces. ... Read More
Bilingual teachers needed for Xinjiang Uygurs
2010-3-3 这无聊的生活 0 comment | Browse:
Schools in northwest China's vast inland region, home to the country's densest population of Uygur ethnic group, are in dire need of bilingual teachers, fluent in both Mandarin (putonghua) and the Turkic dialect, a political advisor told Xinhua on Wednesday.
A former military veteran in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Qiu Yanhan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the nation's top political advisory body, said the growing shortage of bilingual teachers is alarming.
By 2014, another batch of 69,500 bilingual teachers will be needed for the region's elementary and junior high schools, and even more for the more demanding high schools and colleges.
Qiu suggests in his political advice, to be submitted to the annual CPPCC meeting, that ethnic bilingual education be nourished with a flexible compensation system as well as other preferential policies, advocating college graduates, especially those of ethnic people, to return to their homeland.
The annual national CPPCC meeting kicked off at 3 pm on Wednesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. ... Read More
A former military veteran in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Qiu Yanhan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the nation's top political advisory body, said the growing shortage of bilingual teachers is alarming.
By 2014, another batch of 69,500 bilingual teachers will be needed for the region's elementary and junior high schools, and even more for the more demanding high schools and colleges.
Qiu suggests in his political advice, to be submitted to the annual CPPCC meeting, that ethnic bilingual education be nourished with a flexible compensation system as well as other preferential policies, advocating college graduates, especially those of ethnic people, to return to their homeland.
The annual national CPPCC meeting kicked off at 3 pm on Wednesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. ... Read More
Beijing's foreign trade up 83.9% in Jan
2010-3-3 这无聊的生活 0 comment | Browse:
Beijing's total imports and exports hit $21.95 billion in January, a year-on-year increase of 83.9 percent, according to Beijing Customs, Xinhua News Agency reported today.
Xinhua reported the foreign trade volume in the capital city rose sharply, rebounding to the level reached before the global financial crisis.
Exports reached $4.53 billion, up 19.9% year-on-year, while imports hit $17.42 billion, increasing 1.1 times from a year earlier.
This makes Beijing the fourth-largest region in China in terms of foreign trade volume, accounting for 10.7% of the total in the country.
Officials from Beijing Customs said the European Union remains the largest trade partner of the capital, whereas mobile phones and crude oil were the largest exports and imports respectively, Xinhua said.
Beijing's total trade volume of 2009 was $214.76 billion, down 20.9% compared with 2008. The exports and imports were $48.36 billion and $166.4 billion respectively in 2009. ... Read More
Xinhua reported the foreign trade volume in the capital city rose sharply, rebounding to the level reached before the global financial crisis.
Exports reached $4.53 billion, up 19.9% year-on-year, while imports hit $17.42 billion, increasing 1.1 times from a year earlier.
This makes Beijing the fourth-largest region in China in terms of foreign trade volume, accounting for 10.7% of the total in the country.
Officials from Beijing Customs said the European Union remains the largest trade partner of the capital, whereas mobile phones and crude oil were the largest exports and imports respectively, Xinhua said.
Beijing's total trade volume of 2009 was $214.76 billion, down 20.9% compared with 2008. The exports and imports were $48.36 billion and $166.4 billion respectively in 2009. ... Read More
Leaders listen more to netizens' voices
2010-3-3 这无聊的生活 0 comment | Browse:
BEIJING: Top Chinese leaders are attaching greater importance to voices from cyberspace by engaging directly with netizens.
On Saturday, Premier Wen Jiabao answered netizens' questions about hot-button issues like hefty housing prices and unemployment during an online chat on the central government's website (www.gov.cn).
Wen said the nation's 400 million netizens represent a cross-section of society, so listening to opinions via the Internet provides a new way to gather advice.
This is not the first time the IT-savvy premier has appreciated the passion of netizens.
On March 14, 2005, Wen said at the third plenary session of the 10th National People's Congress that he was deeply moved by netizens' concerns about State affairs and that the advice raised by netizens was worthy of consideration.
On Feb 28 last year, Wen held a two-hour online chat with netizens on two State Web portals in Beijing, answering questions on issues such as the financial crisis and anti-corruption.
On June 20, 2008, President Hu Jintao also held his first live online chat with netizens, telling them that different voices can be heard across the country.
As communication between leaders and netizens increases, the Internet is providing an easier and faster way for people to express their emotions and offer their opinions to the country's top leaders.
Some netizens who dubbed themselves fans of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, even created a website in September 2008 called "Shijinbabaofans", which plays on the leaders' names as well as the name of a delicious dessert in Chinese.
The site collects accounts of Hu and Wen's activities, remarks and photos and allows the public to post suggestions about government work.
These fans have even formed Internet words using Hu and Wen's names, such as "Brother Tao" and "I love Baobao". ... Read More
On Saturday, Premier Wen Jiabao answered netizens' questions about hot-button issues like hefty housing prices and unemployment during an online chat on the central government's website (www.gov.cn).
Wen said the nation's 400 million netizens represent a cross-section of society, so listening to opinions via the Internet provides a new way to gather advice.
This is not the first time the IT-savvy premier has appreciated the passion of netizens.
On March 14, 2005, Wen said at the third plenary session of the 10th National People's Congress that he was deeply moved by netizens' concerns about State affairs and that the advice raised by netizens was worthy of consideration.
On Feb 28 last year, Wen held a two-hour online chat with netizens on two State Web portals in Beijing, answering questions on issues such as the financial crisis and anti-corruption.
On June 20, 2008, President Hu Jintao also held his first live online chat with netizens, telling them that different voices can be heard across the country.
As communication between leaders and netizens increases, the Internet is providing an easier and faster way for people to express their emotions and offer their opinions to the country's top leaders.
Some netizens who dubbed themselves fans of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, even created a website in September 2008 called "Shijinbabaofans", which plays on the leaders' names as well as the name of a delicious dessert in Chinese.
The site collects accounts of Hu and Wen's activities, remarks and photos and allows the public to post suggestions about government work.
These fans have even formed Internet words using Hu and Wen's names, such as "Brother Tao" and "I love Baobao". ... Read More
Urbanization, income gulf may put nation in economic peril
2010-3-3 这无聊的生活 0 comment | Browse:
Dual sessions must also address soaring housing prices
With the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee opening today and the session of the National People's Congress (NPC) approaching, people online have grown more interested in the potential topics at the two sessions, from the fight against corruption and building a clean government, to improving the country's social security system, distribution of income, and measures to curtail soaring home prices.
Due to the increasing income gap between the rich and poor, the country's aims to promote redistribution of wealth and curb the intolerably high housing prices will most likely top the agendas of the two sessions.
Although fighting corruption and building a clean government still remains a top concern to Chinese people, it is unrealistic, the public believes, that the government will make substantial steps to resolve such a major political issue during the two weeks of the sessions.
Cleaning up corruption and ensuring a clean government can only be advanced through the country's long-term political reform and its effective measures to restrain the unbridled power of officials. This is common sense. Similarly, improving the country's social security system, which is closely related to household interests, is not expected to be resolved within a short period.
Amid the global recession, ensuring steady economic growth is expected to be the focus of this year's Government Work Report, which will be delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao to NPC deputies for their review to start the sessions. The central government has vowed on many occasions to keep its macroeconomic policy unchanged, take practical measures to steady the country's imbalanced economic structure and further change its economic growth model to ensure sustainable growth.
To this end, concrete, workable measures have been promised to change the country's previous excessive dependence on investment and exports and to boost consumer demands as a means of propping up economic growth. To facilitate this much-needed change, the country should adopt binding measures to improve the incomes of citizens in a bid to narrow the expanding wealth gap.
The current low consumption level of the majority of Chinese people is mainly attributed to the divide in the country's wealth distribution and the lingering existence of unreasonable government policies, power of the administration in overriding market rules, excessive government interventions into the country's resources and an unreasonable wealth distribution model.
China's uneven distribution of wealth has hampered the spending power of Chinese people. The structure of the country's economic growth is unstable and a series of uncertain social factors have cropped up to endanger long-term development and social stability.
To reverse this tendency, practical measures should be adopted to raise the level of laborers' incomes and reduce administrative interventions in the market. The government should also try to reduce its involvement in the economy and turn to a democratic and transparent decision-making process to minimize the existence of vested departmental interests.
The steps to accelerate the country's urbanization, a process that will help redistribute people's incomes, is also expected to become a contentious economic topic at the upcoming sessions.
The agendas of this year's two sessions are expected to be dominated by the issue of housing prices. Soaring home prices have not only hurt Chinese urban residents, but have posed a prominent threat to the country's financial stability and security. It has also arrested the country's urbanization process and its effort to promote change in the country's economic growth model.
In the past few years, houses have been looked upon as an investment tool instead of as a residence. Fueled by investment and speculation, ever-ascending home prices have seriously thinned out the spending ability of citizens. The real estate market has also developed into a main tool by some to accumulate and transfer social wealth, a tendency that is very detrimental to the majority of the people. This, if not changed, will seriously harm people's interests and give rise to negativity in society.
Stopping home prices from further climbing is thus expected to be a focus at the forthcoming two sessions, in terms of either the government's efforts to fulfill its oft-reiterated commitments to improve people's livelihood, or its efforts to push forward the economic development strategy and maintain the country's economic and financial security.
The author is a researcher with the Institute of Finance and Banking under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. ... Read More
With the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee opening today and the session of the National People's Congress (NPC) approaching, people online have grown more interested in the potential topics at the two sessions, from the fight against corruption and building a clean government, to improving the country's social security system, distribution of income, and measures to curtail soaring home prices.
Due to the increasing income gap between the rich and poor, the country's aims to promote redistribution of wealth and curb the intolerably high housing prices will most likely top the agendas of the two sessions.
Although fighting corruption and building a clean government still remains a top concern to Chinese people, it is unrealistic, the public believes, that the government will make substantial steps to resolve such a major political issue during the two weeks of the sessions.
Cleaning up corruption and ensuring a clean government can only be advanced through the country's long-term political reform and its effective measures to restrain the unbridled power of officials. This is common sense. Similarly, improving the country's social security system, which is closely related to household interests, is not expected to be resolved within a short period.
Amid the global recession, ensuring steady economic growth is expected to be the focus of this year's Government Work Report, which will be delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao to NPC deputies for their review to start the sessions. The central government has vowed on many occasions to keep its macroeconomic policy unchanged, take practical measures to steady the country's imbalanced economic structure and further change its economic growth model to ensure sustainable growth.
To this end, concrete, workable measures have been promised to change the country's previous excessive dependence on investment and exports and to boost consumer demands as a means of propping up economic growth. To facilitate this much-needed change, the country should adopt binding measures to improve the incomes of citizens in a bid to narrow the expanding wealth gap.
The current low consumption level of the majority of Chinese people is mainly attributed to the divide in the country's wealth distribution and the lingering existence of unreasonable government policies, power of the administration in overriding market rules, excessive government interventions into the country's resources and an unreasonable wealth distribution model.
China's uneven distribution of wealth has hampered the spending power of Chinese people. The structure of the country's economic growth is unstable and a series of uncertain social factors have cropped up to endanger long-term development and social stability.
To reverse this tendency, practical measures should be adopted to raise the level of laborers' incomes and reduce administrative interventions in the market. The government should also try to reduce its involvement in the economy and turn to a democratic and transparent decision-making process to minimize the existence of vested departmental interests.
The steps to accelerate the country's urbanization, a process that will help redistribute people's incomes, is also expected to become a contentious economic topic at the upcoming sessions.
The agendas of this year's two sessions are expected to be dominated by the issue of housing prices. Soaring home prices have not only hurt Chinese urban residents, but have posed a prominent threat to the country's financial stability and security. It has also arrested the country's urbanization process and its effort to promote change in the country's economic growth model.
In the past few years, houses have been looked upon as an investment tool instead of as a residence. Fueled by investment and speculation, ever-ascending home prices have seriously thinned out the spending ability of citizens. The real estate market has also developed into a main tool by some to accumulate and transfer social wealth, a tendency that is very detrimental to the majority of the people. This, if not changed, will seriously harm people's interests and give rise to negativity in society.
Stopping home prices from further climbing is thus expected to be a focus at the forthcoming two sessions, in terms of either the government's efforts to fulfill its oft-reiterated commitments to improve people's livelihood, or its efforts to push forward the economic development strategy and maintain the country's economic and financial security.
The author is a researcher with the Institute of Finance and Banking under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. ... Read More
Severe allergic reaction to meat may not be rare
2010-3-3 这无聊的生活 0 comment | Browse:
WASHINGTON - Eating meat may be a much more common trigger for anaphylaxis -- a severe and potentially deadly allergic reaction -- than previously thought, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.
A study of 60 patients who had unexplained severe allergic reactions suggests that a compound in meat known as alpha-galactose may be the culprit, according to research presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in New Orleans.
They found immune system proteins called IgE antibodies in 25 out of 60 patients who had unexplained allergic reactions.
"We believe that the presence of IgE antibody to this sugar is wider spread in the human population as a whole than we had initially expected," Dr. Scott Commins of the University of Virginia, who led the research, said in a telephone interview.
"What we're finding is that this traditional notion of allergy to meat being very rare may, in fact, not be true," Commins added.
Alpha-galactose is produced in most mammals but humans and great apes make an antibody to the sugar, Commins said.
"So the problem becomes when people make IgE antibody to this sugar and then they eat meat or dairy products that contain the sugar then they get a delayed reaction," Commins said.
The anaphylaxis may seem to appear out of the blue because the meat or dairy may have been eaten four to six hours earlier, Commins said.
"The typical scenario has been if you don't react to food within two hours, then it's not the food, in this case that doesn't seem to be true, Commins said.
Typically, anaphylaxis occurs within minutes.
Commins and colleagues screened blood samples from 60 patients, testing for the antibody to alpha-galactose. The people in the study -- 22 at the University of Virginia, 20 at the University of Tennessee and 18 at John James Medical Center in Australia, had anaphylaxis and no apparent cause for it, Commins said.
Twenty-five tested positive for alpha-galactose and no other patterns were found that would have otherwise explained the cause of their anaphylaxis, the researchers said. ... Read More
A study of 60 patients who had unexplained severe allergic reactions suggests that a compound in meat known as alpha-galactose may be the culprit, according to research presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in New Orleans.
They found immune system proteins called IgE antibodies in 25 out of 60 patients who had unexplained allergic reactions.
"We believe that the presence of IgE antibody to this sugar is wider spread in the human population as a whole than we had initially expected," Dr. Scott Commins of the University of Virginia, who led the research, said in a telephone interview.
"What we're finding is that this traditional notion of allergy to meat being very rare may, in fact, not be true," Commins added.
Alpha-galactose is produced in most mammals but humans and great apes make an antibody to the sugar, Commins said.
"So the problem becomes when people make IgE antibody to this sugar and then they eat meat or dairy products that contain the sugar then they get a delayed reaction," Commins said.
The anaphylaxis may seem to appear out of the blue because the meat or dairy may have been eaten four to six hours earlier, Commins said.
"The typical scenario has been if you don't react to food within two hours, then it's not the food, in this case that doesn't seem to be true, Commins said.
Typically, anaphylaxis occurs within minutes.
Commins and colleagues screened blood samples from 60 patients, testing for the antibody to alpha-galactose. The people in the study -- 22 at the University of Virginia, 20 at the University of Tennessee and 18 at John James Medical Center in Australia, had anaphylaxis and no apparent cause for it, Commins said.
Twenty-five tested positive for alpha-galactose and no other patterns were found that would have otherwise explained the cause of their anaphylaxis, the researchers said. ... Read More
Super-rich have craze for luxuries
2010-3-3 这无聊的生活 0 comment | Browse:
Chinese mainland among world's top buyers of expensive goods
Beijing: A private jet will set you back $20 million, not including the nearly $2 million a year needed to maintain it, but the expense is not enough to stop China's super-rich from acquiring such a "luxurious toy" - along with a slew of other luxury items.
Only some 100 super-rich with assets of at least 1 billion yuan ($143 million) on the Chinese mainland can afford one, said Meng Pengjun, CEO of Luxury Asia Limited China markets.
Last year alone, mainland billionaires bought 15 business jets from Meng's company, almost double the eight sold in 2008, he told China Daily on Tuesday.
He aims to sell 20 business jets on the mainland this year.
"It's feasible, because in just two months this year we've already sold four jets," he said.
Yet the sales of other luxury goods are even brisker in China.
Last year, affluent Chinese lavished $9.4 billion on luxury goods, making China the world's second largest consumer of luxury goods behind Japan, a report by the World Luxury Association said.
China's super-rich bought 27.5 percent of the world's luxury goods last year, it said.
"China will become the largest consumer of luxury goods in the world sooner or later. It's just a matter of time," Meng said.
The booming luxury goods market in China reflects the rise of a newly rich generation, said Ouyang Kun from the World Luxury Association.
China has 825,000 individuals worth more than 10 million yuan and 51,000 individuals with more than 100 million yuan, according to Hurun, a research company that has tracked China's rich and famous for 11 years.
The company found 57 percent of these multi-millionaires spend between 1 million and 3 million yuan a year, and another 18 percent spend more than 3 million yuan a year - and their biggest expenditure is luxury goods.
According to Meng, most luxury goods they buy are gifts.
A rich 45-year-old businessman from Ningbo, Zhejiang province, who declined to reveal his name, said he buys small items like scarves and purses of famous brands, "with price tags intact" for business partners. ... Read More
Beijing: A private jet will set you back $20 million, not including the nearly $2 million a year needed to maintain it, but the expense is not enough to stop China's super-rich from acquiring such a "luxurious toy" - along with a slew of other luxury items.
Only some 100 super-rich with assets of at least 1 billion yuan ($143 million) on the Chinese mainland can afford one, said Meng Pengjun, CEO of Luxury Asia Limited China markets.
Last year alone, mainland billionaires bought 15 business jets from Meng's company, almost double the eight sold in 2008, he told China Daily on Tuesday.
He aims to sell 20 business jets on the mainland this year.
"It's feasible, because in just two months this year we've already sold four jets," he said.
Yet the sales of other luxury goods are even brisker in China.
Last year, affluent Chinese lavished $9.4 billion on luxury goods, making China the world's second largest consumer of luxury goods behind Japan, a report by the World Luxury Association said.
China's super-rich bought 27.5 percent of the world's luxury goods last year, it said.
"China will become the largest consumer of luxury goods in the world sooner or later. It's just a matter of time," Meng said.
The booming luxury goods market in China reflects the rise of a newly rich generation, said Ouyang Kun from the World Luxury Association.
China has 825,000 individuals worth more than 10 million yuan and 51,000 individuals with more than 100 million yuan, according to Hurun, a research company that has tracked China's rich and famous for 11 years.
The company found 57 percent of these multi-millionaires spend between 1 million and 3 million yuan a year, and another 18 percent spend more than 3 million yuan a year - and their biggest expenditure is luxury goods.
According to Meng, most luxury goods they buy are gifts.
A rich 45-year-old businessman from Ningbo, Zhejiang province, who declined to reveal his name, said he buys small items like scarves and purses of famous brands, "with price tags intact" for business partners. ... Read More
