ZGBriefs March 31, 2011
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FEATURED ARTICLE
A lack of trust in officialdom triggers panic buying, and a rare ballot-box backlash. |
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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
Nobel jury concerned about Chinese winner (March 24, 2011, AP) The spokesman for the Norwegian Nobel Committee says the panel is very concerned over the lack of information about Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned Chinese dissident awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. Permanent Secretary Geir Lundestad says the committee hasn't received any updates about Liu's whereabouts or wellbeing since October, when the prize was announced and Liu's wife went to visit him in prison. While several previous Nobel laureates have been prevented by their governments from collecting the prize, Lundestad called the total silence surrounding Liu "unprecedented."
Chinese dissident gets 10 years for subversion (March 25, 2011, Reuters) A Chinese court sentenced a leading Chinese dissident to 10 years in prison for urging democratic reform of the one-party state, an unusually harsh sentence that rights campaigners say could bode ill for other detained activists. The Suining Intermediate People's Court in the southwestern province of Sichuan ruled Friday that Liu Xianbin was guilty of "inciting subversion of state power," Liu's wife, Chen Mingxian, told Reuters by telephone. Liu Xianbin's sentence is the second-longest term ever handed down for inciting subversion after Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo, who is serving since 2009 an 11-year sentence for co-writing the Charter 08 manifesto that called for sweeping political reforms, rights groups said.
Missing Australian writer contacted in China (March 30, 2011, AFP) A Chinese-born Australian spy novelist who disappeared in China has been contacted and says he is in a hospital, though a friend claimed Wednesday he may be in the custody of secret police. The Sydney-based spy novelist and political blogger Yang Hengjun disappeared shortly after phoning his assistant from Guangzhou airport in southeastern China on Sunday to say three men were following him, said his friend Feng Chongyi, an associate professor in China Studies at the University of Technology in Sydney. He later phoned his sister to give a prearranged signal that meant he had been detained by the secret police, Feng said. Feng said one of his students in Guangzhou was able to phone Yang on Wednesday. Yang told the student he was in a hospital but was healthy and had been out of contact because his cellphone ran out of power.
Paramilitary troops defuse large China protest (March 31, 2011, AFP) Media reports and eyewitnesses say paramilitary troops and riot police have defused a large-scale, five-day protest by thousands of farmers who were upset about being moved off their land in central China. State media on Thursday called the protest that began last Friday one of the largest to roil China this year. Reports say some 2,000 farmers blocked a road in the county seat of Suijiang to protest what they say was inadequate compensation for being relocated for a dam.
China's army chief of staff to visit US in May (March 31, 2011, AFP) China said Thursday its army chief of staff would visit the United States in May, as the two countries try to bolster military relations amid their growing rivalry. "The two armies are now faced with new opportunities for development of their relations," defence ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng told reporters as China released a white paper outlining its defence policy. He said Chen Bingde, chief of staff at the People's Liberation Army, would visit the United States in May as part of efforts to strengthen military ties -- a major point of friction in wider Sino-US relations.
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HEALTH
China 'to pull dairy licences in safety drive' (March 28, 2011, AFP) More than one fifth of China's dairy producers will lose their licences after inspections aimed at preventing a repeat of a huge 2008 milk-contamination scandal, state media reported Monday. China's product safety watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), has ordered all licensed firms checked in a bid to restore consumer confidence in the industry.
China plant manager held in lead poisoning case (March 28, 2011, Reuters) The general manager of a battery plant in eastern China faces environmental pollution charges after lead emissions from the plant poisoned nearly 170 villagers, including 53 children, state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday. Ying Jianguo, manager at the Taizhou Suqi Storage Battery Co. Ltd in Zhejiang province, was detained on Friday, said Pan Fangdi, a local official. He added that three government officials, including the deputy chief of the district's environmental protection office, were suspended for failing to supervise the region properly. In the latest of a string of heavy metal pollution cases in China, 168 villagers in the Shangtao village near Taizhou city were found to have elevated lead levels in their blood, Xinhua reported, citing local officials and a provincial health department statement. Three of the adults had more than three times the safe limit for humans, the report added, although nobody was found to be suffering from severe lead poisoning.
China reports wider outbreak of wheat diseases (March 30, 2011, Reuters) China's wheat crop is suffering from a serious outbreak of disease and the spread of pests this year due to the dry spring, the ministry of agriculture said. Areas suffering crop damage from pests increased by as much as 110 percent, with the density of pests four times greater than last year in parts in the north, the country's bread basket, said the ministry. Besides pests, outbreaks of diseases are also widespread, strip rust hit about 40 million mu 2.67 million hectare) of wheat, with epidemics in the southwest and northwest areas, while blight affected 65 million mu of wheat in the central wheat areas, it said. The diseases could reduce yields.
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EDUCATION / CULTURE
Shanghai dialect being recorded in vocal database (March 25, 2011, Xinhua) Eloquent speakers of Shanghai dialect may have the privilege of having their voices recorded, as Chinese linguists move to the eastern economic hub to build a vocal database of local dialects and ethnic languages in China. Local residents who master the distinctive dialect of Shanghai will be asked to impart local legends, recall old customs, and even sing operas using the dialect in front of language experts and recording equipment. Starting on Thursday, the two-year project in Shanghai will be the third of its kind to complete a nationwide vocal database, an ambitious move of China to better preserve its linguistic diversity.
Chinese imperial scroll fetches 31 million dollars at French auction (March 26, 2011, Xinhua) A Chinese imperial scroll fetched a record 22.1 million euros (31 million U.S. dollars) on Saturday at an auction in southwest France. The scroll shows the army of the Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) at a military review and the winning bid was the most paid for a Chinese artwork at a French auction. It was originally estimated to sell for 5-6 million euros (7-8.4 million dollars) by the Toulouse-based auction house, Labarbe. The 24-meter scroll delicately depicts about 9,000 different figures in a grand army review.
NYU Reaches Deal to Open College in Shanghai (March 28, 2011, Wall Street Journal) New York University has reached an agreement with Chinese officials to build a new liberal-arts and science college in Shanghai, school officials announced Sunday. NYU's new Shanghai school will be the university's second major international campus. In 2010, it opened a school in Abu Dhabi. Like its school in Abu Dhabi, the construction and educational costs of NYU Shanghai will be funded by the local government. It will also be the first American school in China to have legal independent status. The new university's first undergraduate class will start school in the fall of 2013. NYU Shanghai will eventually have 3,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. Students in Shanghai will also have the option of studying at the university's New York and Abu Dhabi campus and other away-sites for up to three semesters.
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SOCIETY / LIFE
Beijing bomber says foreigner was a target (March 30, AP) A Chinese state newspaper says a 22-year-old man charged with setting off a homemade bomb that injured an American student in central Beijing was targeting foreigners. The China Daily said Thursday that Lei Sen told a Beijing court he detonated the bomb using firecrackers, wires and a battery in October as the American approached. The victim suffered minor leg injuries. Lei told the court he "intended to target foreigners." The report said the motive was "to avenge a personal grudge against society," but it did not elaborate.
China executes three Filipinos for drugs smuggling (March 30, 2011, BBC News) China has brushed aside appeals for clemency and executed three Philippine citizens arrested in 2008 for smuggling heroin into the country. Philippine Vice-President Jejomar Binay said he had received word of the executions on Wednesday from Philippine diplomats. The two women and one man were arrested separately carrying packages containing at least 4kg (8lb) of the drug. They were allowed to see their families before their executions.
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BUSINESS / ECONOMICS / TRADE
China's Sina drops Google search service (March 29, 2011, AFP) China's largest Internet portal Sina said Tuesday it has replaced Google's search service on its websites with its own technology, further denting the US giant's presence in the Asian nation. "Our contract (with Google) ended this month and the whole websites are now using our own search technology," Liu Qi, a spokesman for Sina, told AFP, adding the Chinese firm no longer had any cooperative agreements with Google.
China report claims Google-linked companies broke tax rules (March 31, 2011, Reuters) Chinese authorities have found three companies linked to Google broke tax rules and are continuing to probe for possible tax avoidance, a state-run Chinese newspaper said on Thursday, raising the possibility of a new bout of pressure on the Internet search giant. Google, the world's largest Internet search company, responded to Reuters' questions about the report with a statement saying, "We believe we are, and always have been, in full compliance with Chinese tax law." The Economic Daily called the three companies "Google enterprises in China." But it was not immediately clear whether they are businesses run by Google or possibly separate entities that may do business with it, through, for example, selling advertising on web pages.
France, US call for flexible exchange rates at G20 (March 31, 2011, AFP) French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday called for more flexible exchange rate regimes as G20 nations met on global monetary reform in China. The pair, speaking at the start of the talks in the eastern city of Nanjing, also urged a widening of the basket of currencies underlying the IMF's international reserve asset, while keeping the dollar and euro stable. The West wants to see the yuan become part of the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket as part of its efforts to prod Beijing into opening up its tightly managed and controversial currency regime.
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ENVIRONMENT / SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY
Lenovo launches 'LePad' tablet in China (March 29, 2011, AFP) Chinese computer giant Lenovo has launched its own tablet computer at home as it tries to compete for a share of an increasingly crowded market dominated by Apple's iPad. The LePad -- powered by Google's Android software -- was launched in China on Monday at a Chinese-media only event. Lenovo will begin selling LePad directly to Chinese consumers this week through its own retail stores and it will put it on sale outside China by June, spokesman Jay Chen told Dow Jones Newswires.
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LINKS TO DETAILED ARTICLES AND ANALYSIS
Future leaders are now chosen by a couple of hundred people instead of a handful of party elders and most of today's power brokers are patrons for powerful economic interests. That means the current leaders must not offend too many special interests if they hope to get their people to succeed them. The problem is it also means that the political and economic reforms necessary to keep China stable and growing are increasingly being delayed or watered down.
Great powers often try to use culture and narrative to create soft power that promotes their advantage, but it is not an easy sell when it is inconsistent with their domestic realities.
In a country where most media are controlled by the state, information is heavily censored and free-flowing opinions are sharply constricted, Chinese have turned to a new platform to openly exchange unfettered news and views: microblogs, similar to Twitter.
The seemingly endless flow of young Chinese workers that helped to create the country's economic miracle has now finally "dried up", according to a leading economist.
The battle of Chinese censors to block political commentary on the internet is akin to "a snake swallowing its own tail," said Isaac Mao, an influential Chinese blogger.
Bob Dylan's first China concerts next month could be a sign the times are a-changing as the world's biggest promoters make a push to bring more international music stars to the mainland.
The 35-kilometer Hangzhou Bay Bridge, built just to the south of Shanghai, is transforming the economy of Zhejiang province and its port of Ningbo. Travel times have been drastically shortened, investment is booming two years after the bridge's opening, and curious tourists are crossing it in the millions.
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LINKS TO BLOGS
Frustrated at the inability of traditional propaganda and fines to improve the behavior of its citizens, the government of Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, has teamed with local media to produce a city-wide name-and-shame list.
China's banknotes have more bacteria per square meter than anywhere else and some of that bacteria is pretty scary. China's banknotes lead in Bacillus cereus, Staph aureus, and Salmonella and they rank high in E. Coli also.
This week we have further hints that China's deep reds, as we might call them, those who hearken back to a bygone era of Marxist glory and mercilessly attack capitalist infection, are enjoying something of a resurgence at the moment. At the very least, they seem to have been emboldened, and no longer blush at tossing out terms from the conservative playbook, like the "Four Basic Principles" (四项基本原则) and "dictatorship" (专政).
Published late last year, the book pairs insider accounts from respected current and former Chinese journalists with essays by some of the field's most engaged academic observers, and covers everything from public opinion on the Internet to the development of Chinese military journalism. The volume was edited by Susan Shirk, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs during the Clinton Administration. |
LINKS FOR RESEARCHERS
Yet, the outline of the 12th Five-Year Blueprint on Economic and Social Development for 2011 to 2015 (hereafter Blueprint), which was released at the end of the National People's Congress (NPC) last week, had a lot to say about the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) new imperative of imposing tighter control over the populace.
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RESOURCES
A list of essential reading about China |
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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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These are important updates to understand China's market. Investors are likely to decide depending on the social and financial scenario.
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