Briefs | PBOC, South Africa agree on yuan clearing arrangement

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the South African central bank to establish a yuan-clearing center in South Africa. The PBOC announced yesterday that it had signed the memo in South Africa and will later designate a bank to conduct yuan clearing there; however it did not specify when. China hopes the arrangement will facilitate cross-border trade and investment between the two nations’ companies and financial institutions using the RMB. This will be the first yuan clearing arrangement in Africa. RMB clearing abroad has become a major tool in promoting globalization of the currency. Such business has been established in Hong Kong and Macau, as well as foreign cities including Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Seoul, Paris, Luxembourg, Doha, Toronto and Sydney.

PRC not taxing tobacco products enough, WHO says

Taxing cigarettes up to 75 percent of their retail price is among the most effective ways to reduce tobacco use. But too few governments, including China, levy high enough taxes according to a World Health Organization global report released yesterday. The WHO’s 2015 report on the global tobacco epidemic said more than half of the world’s countries — encompassing about 2.8 billion people — had implemented at least one of six sets of agreed-upon tobacco-control policies. The figure is up from 2.3 billion when the previous report was released in 2013. But it said many nations continue to have very low tobacco tax rates or no taxes at all. The report and officials said tobacco taxation could be a key source of funding to implement health and development goals. In China, research suggests that raising taxes on cigarettes to 75 percent of retail prices — up from 40 percent in 2010 — would avert nearly 3.5 million deaths that would otherwise be caused by cigarette smoking, the report said.

Director Zhang Yimou sues ex-production partner for USD2.5m

Zhang Yimou

Chinese director Zhang Yimou has sued a production company that he has worked with for more than a decade, seeking 15 million yuan (USD2.5 million) he says he is owed as his share of the distribution money of one of his movies. His lawyers argued yesterday at Beijing Chaoyang District Court that Zhang hadn’t received his share of money for his 2009 film “A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop,” a dark comedy about a noodle shop owner scheming to murder his wife and her lover. In its defense, Beijing New Picture Film Co. argued that Zhang started his lawsuit in 2014, after a deadline expired, the court said on its microblog. Zhang and the production company have worked together on many films, including two of Zhang’s best-known: “House of Flying Daggers” and “Hero.” Zhang wasn’t in court for the hearing, and the court didn’t say when the judgment would be announced. Zhang is making his first English-language film, a $150 million Chinese-Hollywood fantasy movie “The Great Wall” starring Matt Damon. It’s due to be released late next year.