[华尔街日报亚洲版].WSJA-080910-A-COMPLETE.pdf

VOL. XXXVNO. 6Wednesday, September 8, 2010 ASIA Asof12p.m.ETDJIA 10365.74 g 0.79% FTSE100 5407.82 g 0.58%Nikkei225 9226.00 g 0.81%ShanghaiComp. 2698.36 À 0.08% HangSeng 21401.79 À 0.22%Sensex 18645.06 À 0.46% S sales of men s im- portedwalletshavemore than doubled. “Given the economy and the new price transparency, while the Japan premium will not go away, it will be diffi- cult to maintain going for- ward,” Brian Salsberg, a prin- cipal at consultant McKinsey Beijing: 86-10 6581 4090; Shanghai: 86-21 5836 8228; Indonesia: 62-21 527 7592; Japan:81-3 6269-2760;Korea:82-2 756 1695; Malaysia: 60-3 2026 4061; Philippines: 63-2 848 5873; Singapore:65-6415 4000;Thailand: 66-2 652 0871; India: 91-11 6462 0215. Or email: servicewsj-asia.com ADVERTISING SALES worldwide through Dow Jones International. Hong Kong: 852-2831 2504; Singapore: 65-6415 4300; Tokyo: 81-3 6269-2701; Frankfurt: 49 69 29725390; London: 44 207 842 9600; Paris: 33 1 40 17 17 01; New York: 1-212 659 2176. Or email: wsja.publisherdowjones.com Trademarks appearing herein are used under license from Dow Jones Singapore 6415 4000;Japan 0120-440-971;India 1800-102-4783 Influencing Asias Influential. 4THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.Wednesday, September 8, 2010 WORLD NEWS: ASIA China hits positive note in U.S. talks BEIJINGChinese leaders accen- tuated the positive in the U.S.-China relationship in meetings with visit- ing White House officials, signaling Beijing s concern that tensions over currency and other issues are again threatening ties between the world s two key economies. China and the U.S. “should not regard each other as rivals,” Pre- mier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday in a meeting with U.S. National Eco- nomic Council Director Lawrence Summers and Deputy National Secu- rity Adviser Thomas Donilon. “Cur- rently the mainstay of China-U.S. re- lations is dialogue and cooperation. The two countries should overcome disturbanceandmoveforward firmly.” Mr. Summers and Mr. Donilon arrived Sunday for a series of meet- ings with senior Chinese officials that end Wednesday. The trip marks the start of several months of high- level U.S.-China diplomacy, includ- ing expected visits by Mr. Wen and Chinese President Hu Jintao to the U.S. The officials have a range of thorny issues to deal with, from U.S. frustration over China s currency policy to Chinese anger over U.S. in- volvement in the South China Sea. Economic and trade issues could come to a head soon with U.S. con- gressional hearings on China s cur- rency policies next week and mid- termelectionsloomingin November. Vice Premier Wang Qishan, in a separate meeting Tuesday, said the U.S. and China should “avoid politi- cizing economic matters.” China and the U.S. “should strengthen under- standing and mutual trust through dialogue and communication,” Mr. Wang told the U.S. officials, accord- ing to a Chinese government state- ment. Yet there is increasing frustra- tion in Washington that the Chinese yuanhasrisenlessthan0.6% against the dollar since Beijing s an- nouncement in June that the ex- change rate would be more flexible. And with lawmakers gearing up for U.S. midterm elections in No- vember, observers think it is in- creasingly likely that Congress will push for legislation to penalize China for tightly controlling its cur- rency. “On currency, the risks of leg- islation are definitely rising,” John Frisbie, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said in an inter- view Friday. Chinese officials have consis- tently said that they won t change key economic policies because of foreign pressure, and argued that the exchange rate has little bearing on the U.S. trade imbalance with China. “Our exchange-rate reform can t be pressed ahead under exter- nalpressure,”ForeignMinistry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular press briefing Tuesday. But senior Chinese officials have tried to address growing complaints by foreign businesses recently that they are facing greater discrimina- tion and barriers to entry in China. Vice President Xi Jinping, speak- ing at a southeastern China forum Tuesday, said foreign companies won t face discrimination in govern- mentprocurementaparticular concern of U.S. and European busi- nesses recently. China “will adopt an open and transparent plan to let foreign companies and technological products enjoy equal treatment” in government purchases and con- struction projects, he said. On Monday, China s deputy inter- national trade representative, Chong Quan, said Beijing will encourage more imports to narrow its trade surplus. Trade officials have made similar comments before, and it is unclear how the government will follow through. China s monthly trade surplus in July was the largest since January 2009. Some economists expect the surplus will continue to widen to about $30 billion in August. Al- though the U.S. is China s second- largest trade partner following the European Union, China s trade sur- plus with the U.S. accounted for two-thirds of July s total surplus. “China certainly won t meet the U.S. demands on yuan appreciation,” said Chen Fengying of the China In- stitutes of Contemporary Interna- tional Relations, a government think tank in Beijing. “China will make some promises in opening up its market, but the U.S. will still be un- satisfied.” “Contradictions can t be avoided in the China-U.S. relationship, but the overall relationship won t be af- fected as the U.S. needs China,” Mr. Chen added. In addition to Mr. Wen and Mr. Wang, who is in charge of trade and financial policy, Mr. Summers and Mr. Donilon met with State Coun- cilor Dai Bingguo, a top foreign-pol- icy official, as well as Li Yuanchao, a member of the Communist Party s rulingPolitburo.Theyarealso scheduled to meet President Hu. The coming months will present several opportunities for leaders of the two nations to talk through the issues in the relationship. In about two weeks, Mr. Wen travels to New York for a meeting of the United Na- tionsGeneralAssembly,during which he is also likely to meet U.S. President Barack Obama. November will see both at a bilateral meeting on U.S.-China trade issues, and the summit of the Group of 20 econo- mies in Seoul. And U.S. and Chinese officials are discussing a possible visit by Mr. Hu to Washington around January. Liu Li Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, right, meets U.S. National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers in Beijing Tuesday. ZUMApress.com U.S. presses Afghans for Kabul Bank probe KABULThe U.S. is pressing Af- ghan authorities to investigate alle- gations of financial improprieties at Afghanistan s largest bank, fearing that anything short of a thorough inquiry will further undermine Pres- ident Hamid Karzai s credibility. The Karzai administration has deep ties to Kabul Bank, which de- positors have thronged since last week, after news leaked that its two top executiveswho are also its two largest shareholdershad resigned and been replaced by a central-bank official. The president s brother is Kabul Bank s third-largest share- holder. Central bank Gov. Abdul Qadir Fitrat said Monday that the situa- tion at the lender was returning to normal, despite long lines and heavy security at many of its branches for a fifth day. Mr. Fitrat declined to say how much money has left the bankor how much remains. He blamed the bank s problems on “propaganda” carried in Western news reports. Kabul Bank remains solvent, Mr. Fitrat said, and customers who wanted to withdraw money were getting it, despite accounts by de- positors who had trouble getting cash over the past few days. The central bank was ready to help the lender, if necessary, Mr. Fitrat said. But as of now, “they re still using KabulBankmoney,theirown money,” he told reporters. A U.S. official in Kabul with knowledge of the investigations into the bank said Monday he wasn t happy with the efforts so far, but declined to elaborate. Following Mr. Fitrat s comments, demand for withdrawals dropped sharply Tuesday, which was the last working day before a pair of holi- days that will keep Afghan busi- nessesbanks includedshut until Saturday, at the earliest The once-panicked depositors were apparently calmed by the cen- tral bank s assurance their money was safe, discouraged by the diffi- culties withdrawing money over the past few days, or busy preparing for the holidays, or a combination of all three. “Yesterday,Iwenttotwo branches and I came to the main branch, too. But it was too crowded and I was not able to withdraw my money,” said Abdul Hadi, 45, who was taking out $1,000 from the bank s main Kabul branch Tuesday. U.S. and Afghan officials caution that these are still early days. The investigations into Kabul Bank are slowly picking up pace, they say, building on continuing anticorrup- tion probes that touched on malfea- sance at the lender. U.S. and Afghan officials are fo- cused on stabilizing the lender, which handles many of the govern- ment s accounts and distributes the salaries of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, police and teachers. There are widespread fears that Kabul Bank s woes could wreak political and economic havoc in Afghanistan just as U.S. and Afghan forces are preparing to ramp up operations against the Taliban in the insur- gentssouthern heartland. U.S. officials said one positive sign was the move by the central bank to prohibit four major share- holders from selling property, much of it believed to have been pur- chased with still-unpaid loans from Kabul Bank. But the order, sent to Kabul mu- nicipal officials, excluded Mr. Kar- zai s brother, Mahmood, the bank s third-largest shareholder. Mahmood Karzai, who holds a 7% stake in the lender, said in an interview this year that he owns no property in Afghan- istan. In that interview, Mr. Karzai said he has major interests in Afghani- stan s only cement factory and a housing development outside the southern city of Kandahar, where U.S. and Afghan forces are making a push against the Taliban. Some U.S. officials say problems at Kabul Bankand the need for U.S. Treasury experts to help re- solve themcould indirectly help combat the corruption that has hin- dered their efforts to restore confi- dence in Mr. Karzai s government, a pillar of the strategy to overcome the Taliban. NeitherKabulBank sformer chairman, Sherkhan Farnood, nor its former chief executive, Khalilullah Fruzi, could be reached to comment. The bank s new management hasn t yet commented on its financial af- fairs. Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article. BYMATTHEWROSENBERG ANDMARIAABI-HABIB A soldier stands guard before a crowd on Monday at Kabul Bank, the largest bank in Afghanistan, which has been hit by customer withdrawals. Reuters Wednesday, September 8, 2010THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.5 6* *THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.Wednesday, September 8, 2010 WORLD NEWS BOJ renews pledge to protect economy TOKYOThe Bank of Japan kept its superloose monetary policy un- changed Tuesday but expressed stronger concern about the yen s surge to 15-year highs, saying it will take timely and appropriate action to shield an economy from growing downside risks. BOJ Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa sig- naled the central bank wouldn t be forced into action by short-term movements in financial markets but would instead adjust policy based on its assessment of the economic outlook. Speaking after the BOJ s policy board voted unanimously to leave policy unchanged, keeping its unse- cured overnight call loan rate at 0.1%, where it has been since De- cember 2008. The central bank gov- ernor said that despite the BOJ s newfound tough love, it wasn t turn- ing a blind eye to the currency s ap- preciation, and he warned about the perils that its rise poses to the na- tion s export-driven economy. “We are aware that Japanese ex- porters have been significantly af- fected by the yen s strength,” Mr. Shirakawa said, adding that the BOJ is “very carefully watching” the im- pact of the stronger yen on the Jap- anese economy. In early U.S. trading Tuesday, the yen hit a fresh high against the dol- lar, trading as high as 83.51 yen, as traders interpreted the BOJ gover- nor s remarks as ruling out direct intervention to stop the yen s near- term advance. Mr. Shirakawa stressed that the central bank is going to weigh pos- sible policy options, including their merits and demerits, while taking into account economic, price and fi- nancial market developments. “We are always considering various pos- sible policy options,” he said. Under intense pressure from the government to do more to fight the yen s rise, the BOJ last week ex- panded a special lending program at an emergency policy meeting, a step that temporarily stalled the yen s rise. The BOJ also offered domestic financial institutions 10 trillion yen worth of six-month loans, in addi- tion to the 20 trillion yen in three- month loans it has been offering over the past few months. BYTOMOYUKITACHIKAWA ANDMEGUMIFUJIKAWA Resorttownfindsavirtualgoldmine The virtual-girlfriend videogame “Love Plus+” is putting some zip back into Atami, a faded resort town about an hour from Tokyo that has become a favorite spot for players to take their electronic dates. Some local businesses have been quick to see opportunity. Korean barbecue-inspired restaurant Hien offers a Love Plus set menu complete with a heart- shaped version of the Korean rice dish bibimbap that the restaurant calls the rabumbap (rabu being Japanese for “love”). “At first I was a little embarrassed,” said Kanji Nagasawa, the restaurant s owner. “For a 54-year-old man to name a dish the Rabumbapis embarrassing.” And the concerns of some business owners that the city would be overrun “by nerdy men toting backpacks” haven t come to pass, says Kan Iwamoto, chairman of Atami s shopping district union and operator of a women s clothing store. Instead, he says, the game fans have been courteous, pleasant and, perhaps most important, “normal-looking.” The game, available only in Japan, has done well for a niche genre: Since Konami launched “Love Plus” last September, it and the follow-up title (with the added plus sign) have sold 423,000 units, according to Japanese videogame researcher Enterbrain. And Atami is not the only place where the virtual world has met reality. On Twitter last month, Konami reminded players across Japan of the coming birthday of Rinko Kobayakawaone of the game s girlfriend choicesand asked how they planned to spend the day with her. Nothing makes a virtual girlfriend angrier than having her birthday forgotten. Daisuke Wakabayashi Twitter Japan is tweeting all the way to the bank Twitter s Japanese arm may well be on its way to turning a profit the old-fashioned way: through ad sales. Digital Garage Inc., the Tokyo- based technology company that provides Twitter to millions of Japanese chirpers, said in its revised business plan that the revenue of its newly restructured social-media unit is expected to more than doub