Chinese government to issue 5G licenses to 3 major state-owned companies – to rival the US

Recently the Nihon Keizai Shimbun Electronic Edition reported the following:

中国政府、国有大手3社に5G免許交付へ　米に対抗

ファーウェイ 中国・台湾

2019/6/3 19:14

【北京=多部田俊輔】中国政府は近く国有通信大手3社に次世代通信規格「5G」の免許を交付する。トランプ米政権が5Gの技術を多く持つ中国通信機器最大手、華為技術（ファーウェイ）の排除を進めていることに対抗し、中国政府は5G免許の交付で総額で20兆円規模とされる5G投資を加速させ、ファーウェイなど中国企業を支援する構えだ。

中国国営の新華社が3日、中国政府で情報通信行政を担う工業情報化省が近く5Gの免許を交付すると報じた。同省関係者は、早ければ6月中にも中国移動通信集団、中国電信集団、中国聯合網絡通信集団の国有通信大手3社に与えるとしている。

業界関係者によると、通信大手3社合計で15億件以上の携帯電話の契約件数を抱える中国の5G投資は総額で20兆円に達する見通し。日本ではNTTドコモとKDDIがそれぞれ5年で1兆円程度の投資を見込むのに比べて投資規模は桁違いに大きい。

中国政府はもともと2019年に試験的な商用サービス、20年に本格的な商用サービスを始める計画だった。中国移動（チャイナモバイル）など国有3社の上場子会社3社が3月に明らかにした19年の5G投資の合計は5千億円にとどまっていた。

3日の新華社の報道によれば、工業情報化省は「19年を5Gの商用元年」と位置づけた。業界関係者は「5G投資が前倒しになる可能性が出てきた」と指摘する。中国移動が1月に実施した5G基地局の入札でも半分はファーウェイが占めており、ファーウェイの収益押し上げを狙っている可能性もある。

ファーウェイや小米（シャオミ）などスマートフォン（スマホ）中国大手は5G対応製品の国内投入の準備を進めている。5G免許交付にあわせて新製品を投入すれば、勢いを欠く国内消費を押し上げる効果が期待できる。

トランプ米政権の圧力にもかかわらず、工業情報化省は5Gの研究開発でフィンランドのノキア、スウェーデンのエリクソン、米国のクアルコム、インテルなど外国企業と深い協力によって5Gの商用インフラが整ったと強調する。外国企業の中国市場参入を歓迎すると対外開放もアピールした。

米中貿易摩擦がハイテク覇権争いに発展し、ハイテク産業の供給網（サプライチェーン）が米中で分断される懸念が浮上している。中国の巨大な5Gの商機にどう向き合うのか。米国半導体大手を含む外国企業は難しい経営判断を迫られそうだ。

Translation

[Beijing = Shunsuke Taida] The Chinese government would issue licenses for the next-generation communication standard the "5G" to three major state-owned telecommunications companies. In response to the US government's Trump administration's exclusion of Huawei, the largest telecommunications equipment company with many 5G technologies, the Chinese government by granting 5G licenses estimated to worth 20 trillion yen in total was planning to accelerate 5G investment to support Chinese companies such as Huawei.

On the 3rd, China's state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that was in charge of information and communications administration of the Chinese government would grant 5G licenses soon. According to the Ministry, permits would be handed over to China Mobile Communications Group, China Telecom Group, and China Integrated Network Telecommunication Group, the three major state-owned communications companies as early as June.

According to sources of that business sector, China's 5G investment among these three major telecommunications carriers which had a total number of mobile phone contracts over 1.5 billion was expected to reach 20 trillion yen in total. Compared to NTT DoCoMo and KDDI each expecting investments of around ¥ 1 trillion in five years in Japan, the scale of investment was by far much larger.

The Chinese government originally planned to launch experimental commercial services in 2019 and full-scale commercial services in 20 years. The total amount of 5G investment in 2019 revealed by the three state-owned companies of their three listed subsidiaries such as China Mobile (China Mobile) in March was only 500 billion yen.

According to a report by Xinhua on the 3rd, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had positioned 2019 as "the first year of 5G commercial business." The industry related people pointed out that "the 5G investment has come to the fore." Half of the 5G base station bid conducted by China Mobile in January was taken up by Huawei, which might be aiming at boosting Huawei's earnings.

Major Chinese smart phones such as Huawei and Xiaomi were preparing to launch 5G products in the country. If new products were introduced in line with 5G licensing, it was expected to boost domestic consumption that was now without momentum.

Despite the pressure of the US Trump administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasized that 5G commercial infrastructure had been set up by deep cooperation with foreign companies such as Nokia in Finland, Ericsson in Sweden, Qualcomm and Intel in the US in 5G research and development. It welcomed foreign companies to enter the Chinese market, and it also appealed to opening it to the public.

The US-China trade friction had developed into a high-tech supremacy contest, and there was a concern that the supply network of the high-tech industry (supply chain) would be divided among the US and China. How to face this China's huge 5G business opportunity? Foreign companies, including US semiconductor giants, were likely to face difficult business decisions.

          It seems that China is ahead of other countries in using 5G technology in the country. One advantage of a one-party government is its high efficiency, due to the fact that it has absolute control over the mass media and there is no opposite parties to interfere with all government decisions.

中國對世貿組織收回稱自己為市場經濟的訴訟

Recently Yahoo Finance reported the following:

Yahoo Finance

China pulls WTO suit over claim to be a market economy

Reuters  By Tom Miles,Reuters Mon, Jun 17 3:26 AM PDT

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GENEVA (Reuters) - China has halted a dispute at the World Trade Organization over its claim to be a market economy, a panel of three WTO adjudicators said on Monday, meaning Beijing must accept continued EU and U.S. "anti-dumping" levies on cheap Chinese goods.

One trade official close to the case said so much of the ruling had gone against Beijing that it had opted to pull the plug before the result became official.

"They lost so much that they didn't even want the world to see the panel's reasoning," the official said.

Without a WTO ruling in Beijing's favor, the EU and United States can keep imposing duties on cheap imports from China while disregarding its claim that they are fairly priced.

China had insisted that they treat it as a "market economy", countering their view that the price of Chinese exports could not be taken at face value due to state interference in the economy.

It took legal action saying that under its 2001 WTO membership terms it must be recognized as a "market economy" after 15 years.

"China believes that there can be no other plausible reading of this simple and unambiguous treaty language," China's WTO ambassador Zhang Xiangchen said at a WTO hearing in 2017, calling the text "crystal clear".

But the United States and the EU disagreed. They said Chinese goods -- especially commodities such as steel and aluminium -- were still heavily under-priced because of subsidies and state-backed oversupply, giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage.

The row had become an explosive issue for the United States, with President Donald Trump threatening to quit the WTO if the organisation did not "shape up".

Chinese, EU and U.S. officials did not immediately comment on the suspension.

Beijing launched disputes against Brussels and Washington at the WTO in December 2016. It only pursued the case against the EU, but asked to suspend legal proceedings on May 7, the panel said.

After an EU request to take certain considerations into account, China reiterated its request to suspend legal proceedings. The panel accepted and halted the case on Friday.

The official said China was on course to lose the bulk of the case, with only some minor points going in its favour.

"They were going to win something, but it was overshadowed by the huge defeat that they had on the main claim."

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Hugh Lawson)

Translation

雅虎財經

 日內瓦（路透社） - 中國已經停止了與世界貿易組織關於其市場經濟的爭議，週三世貿組織的三人裁決小組稱，北京必須接受歐盟和美國對廉價中國貨徵收的“反傾銷”。

一位接近此案的貿易官員表示，因有如此多的決定是針對着北京方面，在裁決結果公佈前它已選擇停止案件繼續。

“他們失去了太多，他們甚至不希望世界看到小組的論証，”這位官員說。

如果沒有世貿組織對北京有利的裁決，歐盟和美國可以繼續對來自中國的廉價進口產品徵收關稅，同時無視其聲稱價格合理的說法。

中國堅稱他們使用“市場經濟” 處理，反對由於中國對經濟的干預，就說中國出口產品價格不能按表面價格計算的觀點。

中國在採取法律行動中說，根據其2001年世貿組織成員資格條款，它必可以在15年後被承認為“市場經濟”。

“中國認為，沒有其他方法可以合理地解讀這種簡單明確的條約語言，”中國的世界貿易組織大使張向晨在2017年的世界貿易組織聽證會上表示，該成員資格文本“清晰”。

但美國和歐盟不同意。他們表示，由於補貼和國家支持的供過於求，中國商品 - 特別是鋼鐵和鋁等商品 - 的價格仍被嚴重抑制，這給中國出口商帶來了不公平的優勢。

對於美國而言，這一行已成為一個爆炸性的問題，如果該組織不“重组”，總統唐納德特朗普就有可能退出世貿組織。

中國，歐盟和美國官員沒有立即對此次暫停訴訟程序發表評論。

2016年12月，北京在世界貿易組織發起了針對布魯塞爾和華盛頓的爭端。該案僅針對歐盟提起訴訟，但在5月7日要求世界貿易組織小組暫停訴訟程序。

在歐盟要求將某些考慮因素放在考慮之列後，中國再次要求暫停法律程序。小組在周五接受要求, 並停止了此案。

該官員表示，中國在大部分案件中受挫败，只有一些小問題對其有利。

“他們會贏得一些東西，但相對他們在主要要求的巨大挫败是黯然失色。”

Comments

It is unbelievable that mainland China has a market economy. I think this topic is one of the focus of the present trade war between the US and China. China is at a cross road on economy reforms.

Model guns made in Japan (4)

Model guns of Colt .45 – two versions made by Marushin

Two versions of the Colt.45 by Marushin

Colt Government M1911A1 by Marushin

In the 1980s Marushin manufactured two versions of the Colt. 45: one was the regular M1911A1 model which is same as the one made by MGC introduced in my earlier blog. The other is Colt .45 the ‘Colt’s Combat Commander’ model. The only different between these two guns are the length of the slide: The Commander model has a shorter slide. As indicated in Marushin’a instruction manual (取扱い説明書) the material used for the model is shock resistant ABS (耐衝撃ABS製). ABS is Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. It looks like plastic.

The firing-pin and the extractor look real

The focus of Marushi in making these two models is more on the appearance rather than on the smooth firing of the gun. I say this because the cartridge of Marushin’s Colt .45 cannot be extract smoothly when a shot is fired. Yet this deficiency is compensated by the authentic look of the model. For example, in the design of the magazine locking system. Like the real gun, the locking system uses a spring. Also, the cartridge extracting system looks real from the outside although it is not a full-length extractor (legend no. 6: extractor extension). The same is also true regarding the firing pin (legend no. 60: firing pin). From the outside of the gun, you can see a firing pin while in fact it is only a fraction of the normal length.

A drawing on the gun's parts with a legend

This model gun can be field stripped by pushing the ring (legend 11: barrel pushing) to the left and then pressing down the round button (legend 16: plug). Another great feature of the gun is its grip safety catch (no. 31: grip safety), it is perfectly made and can function perfectly. Thank to this grip, this pistol can be fired only when properly held in the hand of the user. This is important because this can avoid accidental firing.  Such a safety design can only be found in Colt .45 pistols.  I think it was one of the selling points of the Colt.45 pistol and enabled it to get the production contract from the US military in the early 20^th century.

Steps to dis-assemble the Colt.45 pistol

My conclusion is that the Colt .45 M1911A1 model gun made by Marushin is done perfectly. Another plus of this model is the fact that it is not more expansive than the M1911A1 made by MGC.

75% of the young people in Hong Kong: "I am a Hong Konger" - the highest after Hong Kong sovereignty reversion

Yesterday the NHK News On-line reported the following:

香港の若者 75％が「自分は香港人」 返還後で最高

2019年7月5日 22時40分

自分は中国人というよりも香港人だと考える香港の若者は75％に上り、1997年の中国への返還以来最も高くなったことが香港大学の調査でわかりました。容疑者の身柄を中国本土にも引き渡せるようにする条例の改正案をめぐって大規模な抗議活動が続いていることが、市民の帰属意識にも影響を及ぼしていることが浮き彫りになりました。

香港大学の研究所、「民意研究計画」は２度の大規模なデモが行われた直後の先月17日から20日にかけて、18歳以上の市民を対象に帰属意識に関する調査を行い、1015人から回答を得ました。

調査は自分は何人だと考えるかについて、「香港人」、「中国人」、「香港の中国人」、「中国の香港人」の４つを示して回答を求めました。

それによりますと「香港人」と回答した人は全体の52.9％を占め、特に18歳から29歳の若い層は去年12月の調査結果よりおよそ16ポイント急増して75％に上りました。

全体、若者のいずれも香港が中国に返還されて以来、最も高くなっています。一方、「中国人」と回答した人は10.9％と返還以来、最も低くなりました。

これについて「民意研究計画」は「条例改正に反対する抗議活動が香港市民の帰属意識や中国に対する感情に影響を与えている」と分析し、一連の抗議活動で若者を中心に香港と中国本土とを切り離して考える意識が高まっていることが浮き彫りになっています。

Translation

75% of Hong Kong young people thought that they were Hong Konger rather than Chinese, and the Hong Kong University survey found the percentage to be the highest since Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997. It had become clear that the large-scale protests seen over the revision of an ordinance that would allow suspects to be handed over to mainland China also affected the citizen's sense of belonging.

The Hong Kong University's research institute had a "Public Opinion Research Program" that conducted a survey from 17th to 20th on the sense of belonging among citizens aged 18 and over. It was immediately after the two large-scale demonstrations and got answers from 1015 people.

The survey asked respondents on who they thought they were and showed them four answers respectively “Hong Konger,” “Chinese,” “Chinese in Hong Kong,” and “Hong Konger of China” and asked them to reply.

According to it, those who answered "Hong Konger" accounted for 52.9% in total, especially among young people aged 18 to 29, the percentage jumped from the survey results of last December by 16 points to reach 75%.

Overall, the youngsters had been the highest since Hong Kong returned to China. On the other hand, 10.9% had answered "Chinese" and the figure was the lowest since the return.

Regarding this, the “Public Opinion Research Program” analyzed that “the protests against the revision of the regulations affect the sense of belonging of Hong Kong citizens and their feelings towards China”. A series of protests had highlighted the growing awareness, especially among the young people, over detaching Hong Kong from mainland China.

Comments

The suggestion that the proposed ordinance revision has affected the citizen's sense of belonging is something quite serious. I think Hong Kong political leaders should deal with it as soon as possible.

資金悄悄地外逃令中國的影響力下降 - 1.2萬億美元“消失”

 Recently the Nikkei Asian Review reported the following:

DATAWATCH

Quiet capital flight dents China's sway as $1.2tn 'disappears'

Beijing faces waning global clout with current-account deficit looming

JUNE 23, 2019 02:00 JST

The IMF forecasts that China's current-account balance will turn negative in 2022.

BEIJING/TOKYO -- China has flexed its financial muscle to strengthen its international influence in recent years, but the country is fast approaching a point where it may have to rethink its strategy.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts that China's current-account balance will turn negative in 2022, due to the effects of the U.S. trade war and other developments. Under the surface, a huge outflow of money is widening beyond the control of the government's strict regulators.

The trend raises the possibility of a shift in the global balance of power.

A total of $1.2 trillion has "disappeared" from China's statistics in a little over a decade, potentially undermining the clout the country has sought to build through the Belt and Road infrastructure initiative and huge investments in U.S. government bonds.

The IMF says China had $2.1 trillion in external net assets as of 2018 -- the third-largest total after Japan's $3.1 trillion and Germany's $2.3 trillion, but well below its current-account surplus.

Normally, a current-account surplus moves in tandem with an increase or decrease in external net assets. But while China's surplus grew by $2 trillion from 2009 to 2018, its external assets rose by only $740 billion in the same period.

What explains the $1.2 trillion difference?

Yu Yongding, an economist and former member of the People's Bank of China monetary policy committee, offered a theory. If a Chinese company exports products worth $1 million to the U.S., it logs the amount as sales in trade with the U.S., according to Yu. But sometimes, only $500,000 ends up in the company's bank account in China, while the other half remains abroad.

Yu said the accumulation of such money explains a portion of the $1.2 trillion.

In China's official statistics, a category called "net errors and omissions" covers such hazy transactions. For the 2009-2018 period, China recorded minus $1.1 trillion in this segment -- suspiciously close to $1.2 trillion.

China's net errors and omissions apparently include losses on emerging-market currencies in its foreign reserves. But as they tend to increase when the yuan falls in value, an informal outflow of funds is believed to account for a large portion of the errors and omissions.

Soon, according to the IMF, China will see its current-account balance turn negative. The international body expects a deficit of $6.6 billion in 2022.

The country's travel-account deficit is also a drag on the balance -- and this is not just due to tourists' shopping sprees.

A Chinese man who works for a company in Beijing last year purchased a second-hand studio apartment in Tokyo for 10 million yen ($93,000). He paid by pooling small amounts of funds he had brought whenever he visited Japan for pleasure or business.

"Part of the travel expenditures is capital flight, and has been used to purchase financial products and property," Yu said.

China's travel-account deficit began to increase sharply in 2014. It accounts for roughly 80% of the deficit in service trade, and is calculated from currency exchanges at banks in China, payments by credit cards and smartphones, withdrawals of cash from ATMs, and other transactions by tourists going overseas and students studying abroad.

One study suggests that 60% of the travel balance deficit is due to capital flight.

The bottom line is that, due to capital outflows around Beijing's regulations, China's net external assets have not increased as much as its current-account surplus and its income balance remains in the red.

Tadashi Nakamae, president of Japan's Nakamae International Economic Research, predicts a Chinese current-account deficit will become an established trend.

"Downside pressure on the yuan will increase more in the future," said Zhang Ming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Translation

資金悄悄地外逃令中國的影響力下降 - 1.2萬億美元“消失”

由於經常賬戶赤字迫在眉睫，北京面臨全球影響力下降

JUNE 23, 2019 02:00 JST

國際貨幣基金組織預測，中國的經常賬戶餘額將在2022年轉為負值。

北京/東京 - 中國近年來已經發揮其財務實力以加強其國際影響力，但該國正在快速接近一程度可能需要重新考慮其戰略。

國際貨幣基金組織預測，由於美國貿易戰和其他發展的影響，中國的經常賬戶餘額將在2022年轉為負值。表面上看，巨額資金外流正在擴大，超出了政府嚴格的監管機構的控制範圍。

這一趨勢提高了全球力量平衡轉變的可能性。

在十多年的時間裡，總計有1.2萬億美元從中國的統計數據中“消失”，可能會削弱該國通過“一帶一路”基礎設施倡議, 和對美國政府債券的巨額投資里面尋求建立的影響力。

國際貨幣基金組織表示，截至2018年，中國擁有2.1萬億美元的外部淨資產 - 僅次於日本3.1萬億美元和德國2.3萬億美元之後的第三大總額，但遠低於其經常賬戶盈餘。

通常，經常賬戶盈餘與外部淨資產的增加或減少同時發生變化。但是，儘管從2009年到2018年中國的順差增長了2萬億美元，但同期其對外資產僅增加了7,400億美元。

什麼能解釋了1.2萬億美元的差異？

中國人民銀行貨幣政策委員會前成員經濟學家余永定提出了一個理論。據余提供出的理論，如果一家中國公司向美國出口價值100萬美元的產品，它會記錄與美國貿易的銷售額。但有時，該公司在中國的銀行賬戶中只有50萬美元，而另一半則留在國外。

余永定說，這筆錢的積累解釋了1.2萬億美元的一部分。

在中國的官方統計數據中，一個名為“網絡錯誤和遺漏”的類別涵蓋了這種模糊的交易。在2009-2018期間，在這一部分中國這減了1.1萬億美元 - 可疑地接近1.2萬億美元。

中國的淨誤差和遺漏顯然包括在外匯儲備中新興市場貨幣的損失。但由於人民幣價值下跌時損失往往會增加，因此資金的非正式流出被認為是造成錯誤和遺漏的主要原因。

據國際貨幣基金組織稱，中國的經常賬戶餘額將快將會轉為負值。該國際機構預計2022年將出現66億美元的赤字。

該國的旅遊賬戶赤字也拖累了這一平衡 - 這不僅僅是因為遊客購物狂潮。

去年在北京為一家公司工作的中國男子以1000萬日元（93,000美元）的價格在東京購買了一套二手工作室公寓。他通過匯集他每次去日本旅遊或商務時帶來的少量資金來支付。

“旅行支出的一部分是資本外逃，並已用於購買金融產品和財產，” 余永定說。

中國的旅遊賬戶赤字在2014年開始大幅增加。它佔服務貿易逆差的大約80％，是根據中國銀行的貨幣來兌換 -- 信用卡和智能手機支, 或從ATM提取現金, 以及海外遊客和留學生的其他支出交易。

一項研究表明，60％的旅遊赤字是由於資本外逃造成的。

底線是由於資本外流是圍繞北京的法規，中國的淨外部資產並沒有像其經常賬戶盈餘那樣地同步增加，其收入餘額仍處於虧損狀態。

日本Nakamae國際經濟研究中心主席Tadashi Nakamae預測，中國的經常賬戶赤字將成為一種既定趨勢。

中國社會科學院研究員張明表示，“人民幣下行壓力將在未來增加。”

Comments:

No wonder in the past few years China has been trying to restrict mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong to use their credit cards to buy insurance.  In recent years some insurance companies in Hong Kong have been enjoying a boom due to the large number of customers from mainland China.

Joint development at Colombo port: Japan-India etc. - China glares at it

Recently the Nihon Keizai Shimbun Electronic Edition reported the following:

コロンボ港、日印などで共同開発　中国にらみ

【イブニングスクープ】

政治 南西ア・オセアニア

2019/5/20 18:00日本経済新聞　電子版

Colombo port in Sri Lanka         (Source:CNN)

政府はインド、スリランカと共同で、スリランカにあるコロンボ港を共同開発する。夏までに3カ国で覚書を交わし、2019年度中にも工事に着手する方針だ。コンテナの取扱量を増やし、南アジア地域の物流拡大につなげる。広域経済圏構想「一帯一路」を進める中国の動きをにらみつつ、日本が唱える「自由で開かれたインド太平洋構想」を後押しする。

スリランカ西部に位置するコロンボ港は同国の海運貨物の9割を扱う。欧州や中東、アフリカ地域とアジアを結ぶ海上物流の一大拠点だ。コンテナ取扱量は南西アジア最大規模で、17年は20フィートコンテナ換算で621万個を取り扱った。南西アジア地域の経済成長で取扱量は年々増えており、同港の処理能力は限界を迎えている。

3カ国が整備するのはコロンボ港を新たに拡張した地域にあるコロンボ南港の東コンテナターミナルだ。水深を深くし大型コンテナ船が入港できる施設を整える。事務レベル協議を進めており、夏までに事業規模や運営形態、参加企業などを詰める。事業費の一部は政府開発援助（ODA）を充てる方針だ。

中国はインド洋やその周辺で影響力を強めている。中国からの巨額融資で整備されたスリランカ南部のハンバントタ港は融資返済の見通しが立たず、99年間にわたって港湾や周辺用地が中国に貸与されることが決まっている。日本政府関係者は「コロンボ港の整備が遅れると、その分の積み荷はハンバントタに移ることになりかねない」と指摘する。

日本にとってシーレーン（海上交通路）に位置するインド洋沿岸国の港湾機能が充実すれば海上保安能力も向上し、タンカーや商船の安全確保につながる。太平洋からインドにまたがる地域で経済や安全保障の協力を進める日本政府の「自由で開かれたインド太平洋構想」とも合致する。

Translation

The [Japanese] government would in collaboration with India and Sri Lanka jointly develop a port in Colombo of Sri Lanka. Memorandums would be exchanged among these three countries by the summer, and construction would begin in 2019. It increased the handling volume of containers which could lead to an expansion of logistics in South Asia. While noting China’s moving towards promoting its "One Belt One Road" concept, this project would supported a "Free and open Indo-Pacific concept" advocated by Japan.

Colombo port which located in western Sri Lanka handled 90% of the country's shipping cargo. It was a major maritime logistics hub connecting Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Container handling volume here was the largest in South West Asia, handling 7.21 million pieces in 20-foot container equivalent in 2017. With an economic growth in the South-West Asia region, the volume handled was increasing year by year, and the processing capacity of the port was reaching its limit.

The three countries would develop the East Container Terminal of Colombo South Port which located in an area where Colombo Port had newly expanded. The water depth was deepened, facilities for large container vessels to enter had been prepared. Administrative level consultations were proceeding and would sort out by summer regarding the scale of operations, types of operation, and the companies participating. A part of the project cost would be assigned from the Official Development Assistance (ODA).

China had become more influential in and around the Indian Ocean. Hambantota Port in the southern part of Sri Lanka, which had been developed with a large-scale loan from China, had no prospect of making loan repayments. It had been decided that the port and the surrounding land would be lent to China for 99 years. A Japanese official said, "If the completion of Colombo Port is delayed, the affected cargo may be transferred to Hambantota."

For Japan, if the port functioning of the Indian Ocean coastal countries located in the sea lane (sea transportation route) was enhanced, their maritime security capability would be improved, and this could ensure the safety of tankers and commercial vessels. It was also consistent with the "Free and open Indo-Pacific Initiative" of the Japanese government in promoting economic and security cooperation in the region that was now spreading in the Pacific Ocean and India.

     So, Japan and India are countering the effort of China in dominating the sea route around the Indian Ocean.