RMB second most used documentary credit currency

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-02-28

Renminbi banknotes. (File photo/CFP)

China's currency the renminbi (RMB) strengthened its position as the world's second most used currency for documentary credit transactions, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) on Thursday.

The renminbi's share of activity for documentary credits has increased from 7.3% in January 2013 to 9.4% in January 2015, behind the US dollar, the share of which is nearly 80%.

"Letters of credit and documentary collections are widely used instruments to finance trade across Asia," said Andre Casterman, Global Head, Corporate and Supply Chain Markets at SWIFT, "China's position as one of the main exporting and importing countries in the world is supporting the increasing use of the Chinese currency."

The RMB held its position as the fifth most used payment currency in the world with an activity share of 2%.

China, Singapore and Hong Kong remained the top three countries using the RMB for documentary credits, with nearly 95% of all RMB documentary credit transactions.

A letter of credit is a document from a bank guaranteeing that a seller will receive payment in full as long as certain delivery conditions have been met.

Indonesia to gradually stop sending domestic workers to abroad

Want China Times, CNA 2015-02-28

An Indonesia domestic worker and the elderly man she cares for at a
Chinese New Year event, Feb. 8. (File photo/Yang Han-sheng)

Indonesia plans to begin measures to stop sending domestic workers to Taiwan in 2017, as the Southeast Asian country is moving forward with a plan to stop sending domestic workers abroad in an effort to protect the country's dignity, according to an Indonesian official.

To move forward with President Joko Widodo's policy of preventing any more Indonesians from working abroad as domestic workers, Nusron Wahid–head of the Agency of Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers–said his country will stop sending domestic workers to the Middle East, starting this year, as the first step.

From 2017, it will gradually stop sending domestic workers to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Macau and other countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region, he said Wednesday during an interview with Indonesian media Liputan6.com.

Rather than sending domestic workers overseas, he said, Indonesia will begin exporting trained and skilled workers. To that end, he said, his government is preparing to provide training programs to help give them skills.

He said he believes this policy will help Indonesian migrant workers get better salaries.

He was appointed after Widodo was inaugurated as Indonesia's new president in October.

The new government has made improving the rights and benefits of migrant workers and their overall working conditions one of its top administrative priorities.

During an interview with CNA in December, the official said he understands Taiwan's need for domestic helpers from Indonesia and suggested a solution to maintain the flow of workers in informal sectors.

Taiwan should comprehensively raise wages for Indonesian domestic helpers based on its own minimum wage regulations, and work hours should be limited to a level consistent with local law, he said, adding that domestic helpers should not live under the same roof as their employers but should be housed in dormitories.

Related Articles:

Indonesia complains of high broker fees needed to work in Taiwan

Hong Kong woman gets six-year sentence for abusing maid

Bangladeshis protest after atheist writer Avijit Roy hacked to death

Hundreds rally against fundamentalism in Dhaka as Islamists claim responsibility for murder of prominent US-Bangladeshi blogger

The Guardian, Saad Hammadi in Dakha and Mark Tran, 27 February 2015

Bangladeshi secular activists take part in a torch-lit protest against the murder
of Avijit Roy, founder of the Mukto-Mona (Free-mind) blog site. He had received
 death threats from Islamists before arriving in the country. Photograph: Munir Uz
Zaman/AFP/Getty

Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of Dhaka in protest at the murder of a prominent secular American blogger of Bangladeshi origin who was hacked to death with machetes after he allegedly received threats from Islamists.

Avijit Roy and his wife, Rafida Ahmed, were attacked on a crowded pavement as they were returning from a book fair at Dhaka University. Ahmed, who is also a blogger, lost a finger and remains under treatment at the Square hospital in Dhaka.

The attack took place about 8.45pm on Thursday evening when a group of men ambushed the couple as they walked toward a roadside tea stall, with at least two of the attackers hitting them with meat cleavers. The attackers then ran off into the crowds. Two blood-stained cleavers were found after the attack, said police.

A tweet from Ansar Bangla 7, a previously unknown fundamentalist group, said: “Anti-Islamic blogger US-Bengali citizen Avijit Roy is assassinated in capital #Dhaka due to his crime against #Islam.”

Roy, founder of the Mukto-Mona (Free-mind) blog, which featured articles on scientific reasoning and religion, had been receiving threats for some time. A Facebook posting this month said that he would be killed once he arrived in the capital. The couple arrived in Dhaka on 15 February.

“There have been Facebook posts stating Avijit Roy cannot be killed because he lives in America. He would be killed when he arrives in Dhaka. They must have followed his movement,” Ajoy Roy, Avijit’s father, told the Guardian. He criticised the police for failing to act despite being allegedly just metres away from the scene of the attack.

Police said the murder was being given high priority and had been referred to the detective branch.

“This is being treated as a highly important and sensitive case, which is why the case has been handed to the detective branch,” Shibly Noman, assistant police commissioner of the Dhaka metropolitan police, told the Guardian.

Several hundred people – including teachers, publishers and fellow writers – joined a rally on Friday near the site of the attack carrying banners saying: “We want justice” and “Down with fundamentalism”.

Imran Sarker, head of the Bangladesh bloggers’ association, said the protests would not let up unless those responsible for Roy’s killing were caught. “Avijit’s killing once again proved that there is a culture of impunity in the country,” Sarker told Agence France-Presse. “The government must arrest the killers in 24 hours or face non-stop protests.”

Roy, who was 42, had been a target of extremist groups for at least five years because of his writings on secular and lesbian and gay issues in his columns and blogs, his father said. “There isn’t one specific writing I can think of which caused this attack on him,” he added.

Roy, a mechanical engineer, was a regular columnist of the Bangladeshi news agency bdnews24.com. He had written about 10 books, including the best-selling Biswasher Virus (Virus of Faith), as well as his blog, which championed liberal secular writing in the Muslim-majority nation.

“His murder only highlights the point, being made consistently by many, that much more needed to be done to protect these people and the state has been failing to do its job,” Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor of bdnews24.com, told the Guardian.

Roy is the second blogger suspected to have been killed by fundamentalist groups in two years. Ahmed Rajib Haider was killed in February 2013 for posts antagonising extremist groups. After Haider’s death, Bangladesh’s hardline Islamist groups started to protest against other campaigning bloggers, accusing them of blasphemy and calling a series of nationwide strikes to demand their execution.

The government reacted by arresting some atheist bloggers. It also blocked about a dozen websites and blogs to stem the furore over blasphemy, as well as stepping up security for the bloggers. In 2004, Humayun Azad, a prominent writer and teacher at Dhaka University, was seriously injured in an attack when he was returning from the same book fair.

The attacks starkly underline an increasing gulf between secular bloggers and conservative Islamic groups, often covertly connected with Islamist parties. Secularists have urged authorities to ban religion-based politics, while Islamists have pressed for blasphemy laws to prevent criticism of their faith.

Islam is Bangladesh’s state religion but the country is governed by secular laws based on British common law, and Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, has repeatedly said she will not give in to religious extremism.

The latest murder comes against a backdrop of political violence since the beginning of January. More than 100 people have been killed in Molotov cocktail attacks amid a political deadlock. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party is demanding a fresh election administered by an independent interim government, which the ruling Awami League flatly rejects.

Robert Gibson, the British high commissioner, expressed his shock at Roy’s murder and the recent violence in the country. Baki Billah, a friend of Roy and a blogger, told Independent TV that Roy had been threatened earlier by people upset at his writing.

“He was a free thinker. He was a Hindu but he was not only a strong voice against Islamic fanatics but also equally against other religious fanatics,” Billah said.

Hong Kong woman gets six-year sentence for abusing maid

A Hong Kong court has sentenced a local woman to six years in jail for abusing her Indonesian maid. Publicity from the case has triggered outrage across Asia.

Deutsche Welle, 27 Feb 2015

The sentence handed down by Judge Amanda Woodcock on Friday was one year short of the maximum sentence faced by Law Wan-tung, 44, who had been convicted on 18 of the 20 abuse charges against her earlier this month. She was also handed a fine of HK$15,000 ($1,930, 1,725 euros).

In handing down the sentence, Woodcock said Law had "showed no compassion" to Erwiana Sulistyaningsih and that she regarded the maid and other members of her domestic staff as "people that are beneath her."

"She was given little rest, sleep and nutrition which left her a shadow of her former self," the judge said.

Among the charges that Law had been convicted on were causing grievous bodily harm and criminal intimidation against both Sulistyaningsih and another Indonesian maid. During the trial, prosecutors told the court that Law had used household items such as a mop, a ruler and a clothes hanger as weapons against her maids.

Trapped and unhappy

The judge also used the ruling to highlight the plight of many foreign domestic workers in the former British colony, saying among the contributing factors were "significant fees" charged by agencies in their home countries and a legal requirement for them to live at their employers homes.

"There must be an element of exploitation here... the domestic helper becomes trapped when they are unhappy, but cannot leave or change employers because the debt needs to be paid off," Woodcock said.

Sulistyaningsih returned to Indonesia in January of 2014 after having worked for Law for a period of eight months. Doctors who examined her said burns to her body were caused by boiling water, and pictures of her bruised body, which were posted on the Internet, sparked international outrage. Then-Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono described the treatment she had been subjected to as torture.

pfd/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters)

Related Article:

Hong Kong woman guilty in Indonesian maid 'torture' case

Indonesia, Malaysia Promise Greater Protection of Migrant Workers

Myanmar conflict: Chinese mercenaries said to be fighting with rebels

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-02-26

An injured Myanmar Red Cross volunteer lies on the ground after their convoy
 was attacked near the self-administered Kokang capital of Laukkai on
Feb. 17, 2015. (Photo/CFP)

Chinese mercenaries have been taking part in the armed conflict between the Myanmar government and ethnic rebel forces near the Myanmar-Chinese border, reports the Chinese-language Guancha Syndicate.

At a press conference in the Myanmar capital of Naypyidaw on Feb. 21, a Myanmar Armed Forces spokesperson said the Chinese mercenaries have been fighting for the rebel's National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) led by Pheung Kya-shin, the chief of the Kokang Special Region in northern Myanmar who only re-emerged late last year. Pheung, 84, had been laying low since the violent Kokang incident in August 2009 when he was driven out by his competitors in the army loyal to the Myanmar government.

The information was said to have been divulged by eight rebel militants captured by government forces during a deadly clash in Kokang on Feb. 9. The captives also revealed that some of the Chinese mercenaries are retired People's Liberation Army soldiers.

Zaw Htay, director of Myanmar's presidential office, said Naypyidaw believes Beijing would not interfere in Myanmar's internal political situation because China has nothing to do with the Kokang rebels' long-term struggle for autonomy and independence from the government.

Pheung is suspected, however, of having contacts at the grassroots level in China as there is evidence that members of the NDAA have received medical treatment at a Chinese hospital near the border, Htay added.

Htay also denied killing civilians in the Feb. 9 conflict as alleged, claiming that Kokang rebels had "infiltrated the town and were pretending to be civilians." Government soldiers "shoot only when there is strong evidence," he said, adding, "I would like to categorically state that these accusations are untrue."

Since the latest round of clashes began, the goverment has lost seven officers and 47 soldiers, with more than a hundred others wounded, Htay said, whereas the NDAA has lost a total of 72 people.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a Feb. 16 press briefing, "China always respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar and does not allow any organization or individual to spoil China-Myanmar relations and undermine stability of the border area on the Chinese territory."

"We hope that all conflicting parties of Myanmar can exercise restraint, and prevent the situation from escalating and affecting the stability of China-Myanmar border area and the security on the Chinese side," Hua said, adding, "China is ready to continue with its constructive role in the peace process within Myanmar in accordance with the wish of the Myanmar side."

　

China sends kindergarten teachers to learn from Taiwan

Want China Times, Chien Li-hsin and Staff Reporter 2015-02-25

Members of the Taoyuan police department pose with kindergarteners
during a visit, Feb. 2015. (Photo/Yang Ming-fung)

Various provincial education authorities in China have been sending educators to Taiwan to study how to improve their local educational model, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

Lin Pei-rong, head of the Department of Early Childhood Education at the University of Taipei, said China's government has budgeted 50 billion yuan (US$8 billion) for a three-year project to provide quality childhood education and give more children access to preschool education.

Over 70% of kindergartens in Shanghai are government-funded, according to Lin, compared to under 30% in Taipei. Even Shanghai's suburbs are rife with kindergartens, especially in farming and blue-collar communities.

China's government is not only determined to combat the shortage of early childhood education but is now also improving the quality of existing institutions. In this respect they have much to learn from Taiwan, said Lin. China's provincial authorities are also planning to impose a certification system to produce qualified kindergarten teachers, a system they have replicated from Taiwan, he added.

Lin said the characteristics of Taiwan's preschool education is the combined essence of material and educational methods from both West and East.

"When I led a group of Chinese early childhood educators to visit kindergartens in Taipei, New Taipei and Yilan, they were surprised at how well we could implement the theories of the Montesori and Waldorf (Steiner) education systems. Children appear to be playing and having fun, but were able to express themselves and be sensitive to beauty. They were not only playing, but also developing their creativity. This is what they are still unable to achieve in Shanghai," Lin said.

The northern China municipality of Tianjin, which has a population of 15 million, has also signed an agreement with Taipei to send 15 delegations to visit kindergartens and attend classes in order to learn the Taiwanese know-how of early childhood education.

Critics tear their hair over Malaysia PM's wife

Yahoo – AFP, 24 Ferbuary 2015

Malaysia's first lady, Rosmah Mansor, pictured during an 

interview with AFP, in Putrajaya, in 2009 (Photo: Saeed Khan/AFP)

The wife of Malaysia's prime minister, who is widely mocked over reports of her taste for luxury, drew fresh scorn on Tuesday after she complained about the rising cost of house calls from hairdressers and tailors.

Rosmah Mansor, 63, is a controversial figure in Malaysia, where she is routinely portrayed by critics as out of touch with ordinary citizens struggling to make ends meet.

The wife of Prime Minister Najib Razak handed her critics new fuel with comments on Monday lamenting the 1,200 ringgit ($330) she has to spend on house calls by stylists to dye her substantial head of hair, and 500 ringgit for tailored dresses.

"We have to make beautiful clothes to attend functions, but the prices are way too high. For those who can afford, it's all right. But what about housewives like us, with no income?" she was quoted as saying by the Malaysian Insider news portal.

Malaysia's minimum wage is 900 ringgit per month, though critics say it is seldom enforced.

Rosmah made the comments at a public event to discuss the introduction of a new consumer tax in April.

"Is this woman for real? Some families have to live on what she pays to have her hair dyed," said one Facebook user, among a flood of social media postings poking fun at her on Tuesday.

Said a post on Twitter: "I hope to become a poor housewife of a civil servant just like you Rosmah."

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (C-L) arrives with his wife Rosmah 

Mansor for an official dinner in Nusa Dua, on Indonesia's island of Bali, in 

October 2013 (Photo: Dita Alangkara/AFP)

Since her husband took office in 2009, Rosmah has faced periodic criticism over reports of luxury overseas shopping sprees.

The New York Times ran a report earlier this month detailing purchases of high-end US real estate by people close to Najib, and said it also had obtained documents showing millions of dollars in jewellery purchases for Rosmah.

In a statement to AFP after the New York Times report, the prime minister's office said "We prefer not to comment on unsourced speculation concerning the private finances and spending of the prime minister and his family."

Malaysian police on February 14 seized a shipment of books lampooning Najib and Rosmah by one of the country's best-known political cartoonists.

Last year an opposition lawmaker was charged with sedition for producing a satirical video that included a character widely viewed as representing Rosmah.

Related Article:

Inside Malaysia's Shadow State

Iran sees progress but 'long road' ahead in nuclear talks

Yahoo – AFP, 23 Feb 2015

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (R) and US State Secretary
John Kerry have held numerous talks in a bid to smooth the way towards a
nuclear deal (AFP Photo/Rick Wilking)

Tehran (AFP) - Talks with world powers on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme have made progress but significant work remains for a final deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday.

"Some progress was made on certain subjects but there is still a long road ahead to reach a final agreement," Iranian media quoted Zarif as saying after talks in Geneva with US counterpart John Kerry.

The foreign minister said talks had been "serious, useful and constructive with the P5+1 countries, especially with the American side".

A senior US administration official in Geneva said a new round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany will take place next Monday in Switzerland.

The meeting will be held at the level of political directors, the official said after the Kerry-Zarif discussions on Sunday and Monday.

Wang Yi and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javid Zarif

give a press conference in Tehran, Feb. 15. (Photo/Xinhua)

Related Articles:

China calls for 'sprint finish' to Iran nuclear talks marathon

Leaked cables show Netanyahu’s Iran bomb claim contradicted by Mossad - New

US helped Israel with H-bomb - 1980s report declassified

First death-free day of Ukraine ceasefire, US sees no compliance - New

AAM on the Ukrainian “Nuclear Bomb” and Peace

Golden Age of Gaia, Steve Beckow, February 21, 2015

A concerned reader asked what about the galactics’ promise that no nuclear bombs would be exploded on the planet? How does that fit with the explosion in the Ukraine? I asked Archangel Michael the question in a reading I had with him on Feb. 20, 2015.

He also acknowledged that he wants to leave the last step in bringing peace on Earth to us, which is a theory that I’d been coming to recently. Here are his comments.

Steve: Was the nuclear bomb in the Ukraine a real nuke?

Archangel Michael: You mean the one that was disarmed?

S: Was it disarmed? I thought the tactical nuclear bomb had exploded.

AAM: It has been absolutely disarmed. Was there an explosion? Yes. Was the nuclear component taken out of it by your star brothers and sisters? Yes.

It is the promise that has been made to Gaia.

S: What happened around the peace initiative.  I’ll give you my take on what happened. You want us to walk the last step.

AAM: Yes!

The beginning has happened and it has happened more in unseen ways.

But you are not done yet. Now I know that many of you are tired. So you are saying, “Oh, I do not need another campaign.”

But it is like a campaign, within and without, observer, participant.

And the more that is created of peace within, it explodes. It doesn’t simply softly, gently caress. Now if you want to talk about nuclear implosion and explosion, the peace will explode upon the planet.

And as the lightworkers, loveholders are holding that energy, what you do not full understand is the tacit support, the permission that yuou are giving to those who are involved in violent action of the entire range to say “No” [to war?] and to say “Yes” to peaceful solutions. So does the initiative continue? Yes, it does.

"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Fukushima / H-bomb nuclear pollution and a warning about nuclear  (> 20 Min)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  8 - The End of War

The last one is the best. For thousands of years on this planet, Human Beings have warred with each other. If you take a look at the reasons they warred with each other, you will quickly see there aren't any good ones - land, resources, greed. Those are not reasons. That is a description of old energy. Those are not reasons. Reasons would be perhaps defense against an aggressor. But what if there is no longer the consciousness of the aggressor?

When I appeared in my partner's life more than 20 years ago, I said to him privately that the first messages we're going to give will be unbelievable. There would be laughter. We told him that Human nature and consciousness itself would change, and that the seeds of peace would be planted and there would come a time where there is no more war. Indeed, the laughter was great because humans look at history and they see patterns based on an absolute energy called Human Nature. "Impossible! There always has to be war. There always has been. Therefore, there always will be." This is you, in a box, in a black and white potential, where you can only see the black and white of what is and the black and white of what has been. You have no idea the shades of color that are there in your consciousness and the beauty of the love of God.

North Korea is on the edge of change, as we told you it might be. What did this require? The death of the old energy, and I want you to watch this take place. The advisors of the young leader are going to do their best to pull him back into an old energy. This free choice of his will be far different than his father, for he sees some color. Watch for these things. They'll take longer than you want, but it is the beginning of the beginning.

You'll see a fresh unification of South America sooner than not, for what is going to take place potentially this year in Venezuela. You'll see Iran changing. We have no clock. These are the potentials. These can change with free choice. These are not prophecies. This is a reality shift, dear ones, so number eight becomes the propensity not to war again. This is what Humans are going to want. This is what governments are going to want. There is a wisdom factor that will begin to happen on the planet that is grander than what you think is possible. For when you look at government, what do you think about? You see dysfunction, and there is an axiom that says the more people that try to do something together, the worse it gets. It all settles to the lowest common denominator. I'm telling you even those things are going to become old energy concepts. Instead, you're going to watch wisdom become the top potential.

I have no clock. I cannot tell you when. I can just tell you it is in the works, and there will be the seeds of it for you to observe soon - right now, in every single of the eight categories I showed you.

There are those who will say, "Well, Kryon, you're doing a lot more predictions than you used to." I want to tell you what's going on, dear one. I am not predicting anything. I am just telling you what's already there in the potential soup of your reality. That's what Humans are doing on this planet, and for those who believe this communication, you should breathe a sigh of relief and say, "It's about time." ….”

Swiss account secret of HSBC chief Stuart Gulliver revealed

Leaked files covering 2005-2007 show bank chief executive sheltered £5m of his own money at Panamanian company with Swiss HSBC account

The Guardian, James Ball, Juliette Garside, David Pegg and Harry Davies, 22 February 2015

Stuart Gulliver in Hong Kong in 2012: leaked files show that the HSBC chief
 executive was a client of the bank’s Swiss subsidiary at the centre of the scandal.
Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Stuart Gulliver, the HSBC chief executive who has vowed to reform the crisis-hit bank, sheltered millions of pounds in a Swiss account through a Panamanian company and remains tax domiciled in Hong Kong.

Leaked files show that the Derby-born Gulliver, who is due to present HSBC’s annual report on Monday in the wake of the international controversy over its Geneva-based private bank, was also one of its clients, holding about £5m in a Swiss account.

The bank executive was listed as the beneficial owner of an account in the name of Worcester Equities Inc, an anonymous company registered in Panama, containing a balance in 2007 of $7.6m. It was through this entity that Gulliver’s HSBC bonuses were paid until 2003. He also held a second account in the name of Worcester Foundation, which had been closed before 2007.

Although now based in the UK, where HSBC has its headquarters, Gulliver is domiciled in Hong Kong for legal and tax purposes.

The banking details have emerged as the 55-year-old Oxford University graduate, who became chief executive in January 2011, is due to face questions from reporters and investors for the first time since the Guardian and other media outlets published the leaked HSBC files, which revealed misconduct at the bank’s Swiss subsidiary.

The documents, covering 2005-07, detailed how the private bank was complicit in tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, doled out bricks of cash in mixed currencies to clients, and provided banking services to criminals, drug smugglers, and friends and families of dictators.

Gulliver has already personally signed a “sincere apology” which appeared in three newspapers last Sunday, saying “the standards to which we operate today were not universally in place in our Swiss operations 8 years ago”.

The bank is expected to announce on Monday full-year profits for 2014 in excess of £13bn – and Gulliver’s total compensation package has been predicted to be around £7.5m, although it was reported over the weekend that he may surrender some of his remuneration because the bank agreed to pay fines to settle unrelated allegations of foreign exchange rigging last year.

In response to queries from the Guardian about his personal account as revealed in the leaked files, a representative for Gulliver said he had made use of HSBC Suisse to hold his bonus payments prior to 2003, when he moved from Hong Kong to London.

Lawyers for Gulliver said that Hong Kong tax had been paid on this income – and explained that he “followed this procedure because he wanted his taxed bonus earnings to remain private from his then colleagues in Hong Kong, which they would not have done if he had kept them in an HSBC Hong Kong account”.

The Guardian asked Gulliver why he used a Panamanian company to hold the funds, given Swiss accounts already offer secrecy. His lawyers declined to answer.

Gulliver’s legal representatives added that his Swiss accounts have “for a number of years” been voluntarily declared to UK tax authorities. They declined to specify the exact date they were first declared.

Gulliver is also among those current and former clients of HSBC Suisse to take advantage of non-dom status. Gulliver is a registered non-dom based on his long residence in Hong Kong – now a special administrative region of China – which he considers to be his home, despite his UK-based position.

A representative for Gulliver said: “Having lived there since the 1980s, our client has become a permanent Hong Kong resident with right of abode, as has his wife who is an Australian national. Hong Kong continues to be their home albeit that our client now works primarily in the UK. As a matter of law, our client is domiciled in Hong Kong.”

Non-dom status can confer several tax advantages on those who claim the status compared with those domiciled in the UK. These include advantages in how inheritance tax is applied, but can also exempt worldwide income earned from outside the UK from incurring UK taxes – a system known as the remittance basis.

Gulliver’s lawyers confirmed he was “entitled to claim the benefit of the remittance basis”, but did not say whether or not he did so. If Gulliver were on the remittance basis, he would not need to pay tax on investment income held outside the UK – which would include holdings in Swiss bank accounts.

A representative for Gulliver said that he had paid all relevant income taxes: “Full UK tax has been paid on the entirety of his worldwide earnings less a credit for tax paid additionally in Hong Kong (where he is also tax resident) on that part of the same earnings doubly taxed.”

John Christensen, director of the Tax Justice Network, which has campaigned for abolition of non-dom tax benefits in the UK, said the non-dom quirk was particularly attractive for anybody who had accumulated assets such as homes and bonuses offshore, because any gains on offshore assets would be sheltered from UK tax.

“For my part I think it illustrates the absurdity of the rule, which should have been abolished many years ago. It serves no useful purpose and is hugely discriminatory against ordinary UK taxpayers,” he said.

Separately, Gulliver did not become employed by HSBC’s main holding company when he took over as chief executive of the bank in 2011. Documents seen by the Guardian at the time showed that Gulliver took the job of chief executive officer as a secondment from the Dutch-headquartered HSBC Asia Holdings, rather than take a straightforward appointment to the UK parent company.

A spokesman for HSBC said around 350 of its staff were employed through the Netherlands. “About 350 of the bank’s most internationally-mobile employees are employed by HSBC BV,” he said. “This enables them to be employed/seconded to any part of the global group without the need to change contracted employer.”

Representatives for Gulliver declined to explain for what purpose he was employed through the Netherlands subsidiary.

Gulliver has repeatedly emphasised to the public and to lawmakers that the culture of the bank, as well as its safeguards, has changed – both in the wake of the HSBC Files, and previous scandals including Libor rigging, and involvement with Mexican money laundering.

Since the publication of the HSBC files, the bank has been keen to stress that it has downsized the Swiss business, reducing the number of clients by 66%, to around 10,000. However, the total value of assets in those accounts – $68bn (£44bn) – has fallen by only 42%.

Douglas Flint and Stuart Gulliver appear before the Treasury select committee. 

Photograph: Reuters TV

Related Articles:

HSBC scandal caused horrible damage to bank's reputation, says chairman - New
HSBC boss Stuart Gulliver called to answer MPs' questions on Wednesday

Swiss raid HSBC in money laundering probe

HSBC bank 'helped clients dodge millions in tax'
HSBC files: Swiss bank hid money for suspected criminals

HSBC banker-priest in eye of SwissLeaks storm

Switzerland, Singapore join clampdown on bank secrecy

HSBC helped La Fayette scandal suspect's son avoid taxes
Argentina charges HSBC with helping tax evasion

Belgium charges HSBC with fraud involving diamond dealers

HSBC apologised for its lapses, said reforms had been put in place, and

admitted it was 'horrified' by what it found. Photograph: Gary Cameron/Reuters

HSBC 'sorry' for aiding Mexican drugs lords, rogue states and terrorists
HSBC failed to act on money laundering, says US Senate

'Havoc' as HSBC prepares to close diplomatic accounts

Syncretist Celebrations of Imlek, Lent and Tolerance

Red-Letter Day: Catholics and Confucians join in shared celebrations across Indonesia

Jakarta Globe, Novianti Setuningsih & Carlos Paath, Feb 20, 2015

In Malang, East Java, a model in Chinese costume celebrates Lunar New Year,
which starts the Year of the Goat. (AFP Photo/Aman Rochman)

Jakarta. With the Chinese New Year coinciding with the second day of Lent, Chinese Catholics and Confucians in several cities across Indonesia staged joint ceremonies on Thursday in a show of religious tolerance.

Joint prayer ceremonies were observed at the Hallowed Cross Catholic Church in Cilincing, North Jakarta, where parishioners say the church has staged Chinese New Year celebrations for the past 10 years.

“This year’s celebration is much simpler because it coincides with our pre-Easter rituals,” said Widiyoko, the church’s Chinese New Year chief organizer.

Celebrations at the church, where 25 percent of its 6,000 members are ethnic Chinese, began at 8 a.m. with a mass and ended with a lion dance performance.

The church also gave alms to hundreds of impoverished locals, mainly Muslims.

“Events like this add to the spirit of togetherness. It makes us appreciate one another and not differentiate people based on their ethnicity or religion,” churchgoer Florentina Ninie said.

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin wished Indonesians a prosperous Chinese New Year on Thursday, urging that celebrations be allowed to take place with tolerance.

“I think our society has already been shown to be tolerant, even though there are many religious communities who do not accustom themselves to Imlek,” said Lukman, referring to the Lunar New Year by its Indonesian name.

A similar joint celebration was also observed at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Cibinong, Bogor, according to Bogor’s bishop, Paskalis Bruno Syukur, who presided over the mass.

The Jakarta Police deployed more than 3,000 officers to boost security in the city ahead of the festivities.

The festivities at the start of the Lunar New Year are most commonly associated with ethnic Chinese, but are also celebrated by other communities, including those who identify as Korean (who call it Seollal) and Vietnamese (who speak of Tet).

During the 32-year rule of the late strongman Suharto, the festivities for the start of the Lunar New Year, as well as other expressions of Chinese cultural identity, were banned.

In 2001, then-president Abdurrahman Wahid, popularly known as Gus Dur, revoked the discriminatory regulations and in 2002, then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri declared Chinese New Year a national holiday; it was celebrated as such for the first time in 2003.

Related Articles:

Imlek 2566

Henan man invents 'green firecracker' to fight New Year smog

Norwegian Muslims form ring around Oslo synagogue - New

Norwegian Muslims form ring around Oslo synagogue

Crime-fighting London Jews claim model for Muslim cooperation

The work of the 25-strong "Shomrim" patrol in London has 

caught the eye of US Secretary of State John Kerry, who praised

the neighbourhood patrol group's "remarkable courage" 

(Photo by leon Neal, AFP file)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."