ZGBriefs March 24, 2011
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FEATURED ARTICLE
Now, after decades in the control of local politicians, during which it was revamped as a theater and hall and later left to deteriorate, the cathedral is nearing the end of a renovation by a Chinese Protestant organization. Later this year, this historic church will reopen to what is expected to be a crush of worshippers once dozens of faux stained-glass plastic windows have been replaced with the real thing. |
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WEBINAR
The Emerging Urban Church in China: A New Movement to Impact the World for Christ April 5, 12 pm PDT
Since the opening up of China in the early 1980's, the story of the growth of China's economy is surpassed only by the spectacular growth of the church. Rapidly spreading across the countryside, the church in China has now entered all the major urban centers. Join us as we hear about this newly emerging urban church and how it will not only impact China with the Gospel, but will have an important role in missions to impact the world for Christ.
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GOVERNMENT / POLITICS / FOREIGN AFFAIRS
China calls for immediate cease-fire in Libya (March 22, 2011, AP) China called Tuesday for an immediate cease-fire in Libya where the U.S. and European nations have launched punishing airstrikes to enforce a U.N. no-fly zone. All parties must "immediately cease fire and resolve issues through peaceful means," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regularly scheduled news conference, citing unconfirmed reports that the airstrikes had caused civilian deaths. China and India were among the five countries that abstained from last week's vote on the U.N. resolution to allow "all necessary measures" to stop Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's assault on rebel-held towns. It was approved with the backing of the United States, France and Britain.
China approves death sentence for 7 in Xinjiang (March 23, 2011, AP) Seven people allegedly involved in plotting terrorist activities have been sentenced to death for robbery and murder in China's far western region of Xinjiang, a state-run news website said Wednesday. China's Supreme People's Court recently approved the death penalty meted out to seven people by a court in the Silk Road city of Kashgar in Xinjiang's west, the Tianshan website said.
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HEALTH
China suspends officials over tainted pork scandal (March 18, 2011, AP) A state news agency says three senior officials in central China have been suspended and more than two dozen others punished after pigs in farms there tested positive for a banned chemical that is dangerous to humans. Tainted pork has become the latest food safety scandal to shock China after state broadcaster CCTV ran an expose that showed a subsidiary of the country's largest meat processor using illegal additives in pig feed. The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday the heads of three animal husbandry bureaus in Henan province were suspended. Another 27 were in police custody, sacked or suspended. Xinhua says 52 pigs out of about 1,500 tested positive for clenbuterol, a drug used by farmers to bulk up livestock.
WHO flu center established in China (March 20, 2011, China Daily) The National Influenza Center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has been designated as a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Influenza, making China the first developing country to house such an institution. Under the coordination of the World Health Organization, the center in China is now to join four others - those in Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States - in monitoring, researching and responding to outbreaks of influenza, as well as making plans to combat pandemics.
China to ban smoking in public places (March 24, 2011, BBC News) China is set to introduce a smoking ban in most public places. According to the Health Ministry, the new regulation will come into effect on 1 May in public places including buses, restaurants and bars. But an allowance has been made - smoking will still be permitted in workplaces. Almost a quarter of China's population smoke and more than one million people die every year from smoking-related illnesses.
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SOCIETY / LIFE
Beijing targets luxury ads amid wealth gap (March 21, 2011, AFP) China's capital has banned outdoor advertising that promotes hedonistic or high-end lifestyles as the government seeks to ease public concerns about the country's widening wealth gap. The Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce said in a recent statement that businesses were given an April 15 deadline to rectify such ads, along with any that excessively promote "foreign" things. It gave no details on which "foreign" things were deemed objectionable. Such promotions help create a politically "unhealthy" climate, it said. Violators could face fines of up to 30,000 yuan ($4,600), the state-run China Daily said Monday.Newly forbidden words include "supreme", "royal", "luxury" or "high class", which are widely used in Chinese promotions for houses, vehicles and wines, it said.
Young labor force dry up in China: expert (March 24, 2011, Xinhua) China's available labor force of those 35 years old and under has dried up, and one economist says low salaries are to blame. Zhang Zheng, an expert in rural economy at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, told China Business News that his survey showed the labor force of this "golden age group", which cities need becasue of its higher work efficiency, has been exhausted in rural areas. He cited figures saying that among the country's total rural workforce - which stood at 550 million in 2009 - only 200 million were at or below 35. At the same time, industries employed some 230 million farmers-turned workers. "Judging from these figures, I believe the rural workforce at and below age 35 has been used up," he said. But he also added that there is a surplus of middle-aged laborers in the countryside.
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BUSINESS / ECONOMICS / TRADE
China raises bank reserves to cool lending (March 18, 2011, AP) China on Friday ordered its banks to raise the amount of money they hold in reserves in another move to curb lending and cool a spike in inflation. The People's Bank of China said banks must raise reserves by 0.5 percent of deposits. This is the third such move this year by the central bank and follows six reserve increases in 2010. Reserves vary by institution but are about 20 percent for China's biggest state-owned lenders.
Google accuses China of blocking Gmail (March 21, 2011, AFP) Google accused the Chinese government on Monday of interfering with its Gmail service, after weeks of online disruptions that have coincided with calls for protests emulating those in the Middle East. "There is no technical issue on our side -- we have checked extensively. This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail," Google said in a statement to AFP. Internet users in China have complained for several weeks of difficulties in accessing their Gmail accounts, and popular proxy servers that enable netizens to circumvent China's web censorship system have also been disrupted.
China rejects Google claims of e-mail interference (March 22, 2011, BBC News) China's foreign ministry has rejected claims by Google that Beijing is disrupting access to its e-mail service in the country. "This is an unacceptable accusation," ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news conference on Tuesday.
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ENVIRONMENT / SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY
China bombs ice, reduces Yellow River flood risk (March 22, 2011, Xinhua) Chinese explosive experts on Tuesday blew to pieces a 2-km long ice blockage in a part of the Yellow River prone to flooding in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Yan Xinguang, spokesman for the Inner Mongolia Yellow River Ice Runs Control Headquarters, said the bombing reduced the flood risk caused by the build-up of floating ice in Yellow River section of Hangjin Banner (County), Ordos City. The Yellow River, China's second longest, freezes and thaws at different times, posing flood risks mainly in Inner Mongolia and east China's Shandong Province.
4.6 magnitude quake hits Kashgar, Xinjiang (March 23, 2011, Xinhua) An earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter Scale hit Kashgar in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at 13:55 p.m.Beijing Time on Wednesday, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. The epicenter was monitored at 36.4 degrees north latitude and 76.5 degrees east longitude with a depth of about 112 kilometers, the center said.
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LINKS TO DETAILED ARTICLES AND ANALYSIS
For all this, there is something of a Potemkin village about the Chinese state. It is, after all, not terribly hard for a dictatorship to build roads and railways faster than a democracy can. Multinational companies and the educated middle classes are doing well from the state, but the poorer majority in this ever more unequal country get a raw deal. And even if some of its leaders are trying to move closer to Singapore's model, there are countless stronger forces pushing in the opposite direction.
At least one unelected life-long world leader has decided to hand over power to his citizens, and it hasn't come on the heels of protest in the streets. On March 10, the anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising for independence in 1959 and of a wave of major protests that began in Lhasa three years ago, the Dalai Lama announced that he intends to retire from his political responsibilities. This will not change his spiritual role, or end his travels round the world. Nor will it avoid almost certain conflict over his reincarnation, as the Chinese government still insists only it has the right to choose.
As China gears up for a hydropower push in its earthquake-prone south-west, it should pause to consider events in Japan, two geologists tell Liu Jianqiang on World Water Day.
While a great deal of attention has lately been paid to restrictions on foreign press in China, a more interesting long-term question is how the role of Chinese journalists has lately evolved. Contrary to common stereotypes, the reporters themselves, as distinct from the system in which they find themselves, are hardly unblinking toadies.
Revolution is in the air in the Middle East and North Africa, causing some to question whether China's government ought to be worried about its stability.
As recession-hit families struggle to maintain historic chateaux, Chinese investors are seen by some as saviours
The gargantuan, largely earthen buildings of Yongding, built by the ethnic Hakka and Minnan people of rural Fujian, are the ultimate architectural expression of clan existence in China.
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LINKS TO BLOGS
Zheng Yun, a social media pioneer in China, gives valuable insight into surviving in China's online world. Zheng discusses the surprisingly cordial antics of Internet monitors and the consequences of carelessness, such as being invited for "a cup of tea," code for an official berating.
In theory, Beijing public schools report to Beijing's education bureau, which then reports to the Ministry of Education. In practice, each public school is an independent kingdom that pays nominal deference to education authorities. To understand this relationship, think of Beijing's education bureau as the United Nations: It has neither financial nor political control over schools, so it projects the illusion of authority by issuing meaningless proclamations and convening boring conferences.
U.S. companies in China are increasingly concerned over the country's business climate even as many of them are experiencing increased profitability in the world's second largest economy, a poll conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in China shows.
A week after panic over radiation from quake-damaged reactors in Japan sent table salt flying off the shelves across China, the country is engaged in debate over who was responsible and who should have to foot the bill.
The focus of this piece will be on this March 11th announcement, which has been overlooked or given briefer mention in articles. This is because much of the focus has looked at the general step-up of Internet censorship in China. The point of this exercise is to, with one example, give you a more detailed look at how creepy all of this stuff going on is.
On Monday, the New York Times ran a story on the tightening of internet controls in China.
A natural disaster is not the worst of our fears: much worse is a society in disarray.
A microblog post has called Chinese netizens' attention to another difference in education between China and the U.S. - elementary school disciplines. An overwhelming majority said the Chinese version rings hollow and has no substance as to regulating student behavior. Some net users even said that the perfectionistic code should be used to educate corrupt officials instead of school children, who are mostly innocent and honest.
What are the reasons undergirding the decline of Chinese soft power? I would like to suggest five fundamental reasons. There are quite a few sub-reasons. I am sure you can come up with a few of your own.
From the perspective of Zhongnanhai, the people responsible for planning and building China's Internet filtration systems are geniuses. Not only did they foresee the threats from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, they also built the systems to effectively neutralize them.
Here's what's hot on the Chinese internet right now!
According to tests done by www.greatfirewall.biz, the download speed of Gmail in China has plummeted to an average of 34 kbps. That's 45 times slower than QQ's speed of 1514 kbps. Or if you'd like your fractions another way, Gmail is now operating at 2.2% the speed of QQ.
On March 21, a reporter visited the No.2 Women's Detention Center in Fuzhou and captured on film the lives of some of the prison's youngest inmates. Most of them under the age of 25, they spend their time focused on a fresh start instead of dwelling on their past mistakes. The reporter also captured a special open house, where family members were allowed to visit and experience the lives of the inmates.
Should China ban foreign letters entirely? |
LINKS FOR RESEARCHERS
With China's fertility now well below replacement level, what lies ahead for this demographic overachiever?
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RESOURCES
Just as China is feeling the talent squeeze of rapid growth, Chinese women are emerging as a deeply qualified and ambitious talent pool, rivaling not only Chinese men but also their US counterparts. The study reveals the extent to which Chinese women are surpassing their peers, but also how they're impacted by cultural traditions and demographic trends that are quite different from their female counterparts in other nations. |
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| Contributions to support the production of ZGBriefs are always welcome and can be made at our secure online giving page for ZGBriefs. Click here to give online. Thank you. |
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