ZGBriefs June 2, 2011
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FEATURED ARTICLE
The school day has ended but class is not yet over for students heading for their local community center and a very different sort of classroom -- one built from shipping containers. The children, who are from China's "floating population" of migrant workers, don't hold Beijing residency, which means they do not have the right to access free education at public schools. |
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GOVERNMENT / POLITICS / FOREIGN AFFAIRS
China blast toll hits four, including suspect (May 30, 2011, AFP) The death toll from a series of explosions at government buildings in eastern China carried out by a jobless man last week has risen to four including the suspect, state media said Tuesday. The latest victim of the three blasts in Jiangxi province's Fuzhou city, a 34-year-old man, died in hospital on Sunday, Xinhua news agency cited a local government official as saying. Four people were still in hospital following the May 26 explosions, one of them in critical condition, the report said.
China vows to address Mongol grievances (May 31, 2011, AFP) China vowed Tuesday to act to address problems that have sparked protests by ethnic Mongols while also warning of unspecified "overseas" forces fanning the unrest in Inner Mongolia. The vast region has seen a wave of demonstrations over the past week, sparked by the killing of a protesting Mongol herder and fuelled by resentment over Chinese rule and rapid exploitation of the area's rich natural resources. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said "local authorities will respond positively and will also try to protect the local environment and handle the issues between economic development and environmental protection." Her comment at a regular press briefing was the latest in a series of statements by the government and state media aimed at tamping down Mongol anger by acknowledging their grievances.
China mulls compensation for Tiananmen dead: group (May 31, 2011, AFP) Chinese police have for the first time raised the possibility of compensation for those killed in the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, families of victims said Tuesday. Police have met twice with relatives of one victim beginning in February, the Tiananmen Mothers said, in a possible sign that the Communist government is changing its view on the brutal June 4 crackdown in the heart of Beijing. "They only raised the question of how much to pay, emphasising that this was meant for that individual case and not for the families in the group as a whole," the group said in an annual open letter to mark the June 4 anniversary. The letter said, however, that police did not discuss a formal apology for the killings or a public account of who ordered the shootings -- two of the group's long-standing demands.
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HEALTH
Chronic diseases country's top killer (May 30, 2011, China Daily) Chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, are the leading cause of mortality in China, representing 85 percent of all deaths, said a senior health official. Kong Lingzhi, deputy director of the disease prevention and control bureau under the Ministry of Health, made the remarks on Saturday at the Forum of Prevention and Control of Chronic Disease. "China is facing a great challenge from chronic diseases, which has a serious impact on both the economy and society," said Kong. Each year, about 3.7 million people die before they reach 60 because of chronic diseases. There are currently 200 million hypertension patients and 90 million diabetics in China, official statistics show.
China orders death penalty in deadly food scandals (May 30, 2011, AP) China's supreme court has ordered judges across the country to issue harsher sentences, including the death penalty, to people convicted of food safety violations as the government struggles to clean up the nation's food supply after repeated scandals. The Supreme People's Court said courts should impose longer jail terms and larger fines on people found guilty of violating food safety regulations and that death sentences should be given in cases where people died. The directive was announced Friday in a report by the official Xinhua News Agency that the high court posted on its website. The directive runs counter to efforts by China's top court and legislature to reduce the use of the death penalty.
More than 100 children infected with viral encephalitis in E China (June 1, 2011, Xinhua) More than 100 children in Fujian Province have been infected with viral encephalitis since the beginning of May, local health authorities said Wednesday. Hospitals in Anxi County have reported 200 such cases since June 1, of which 115 have been confirmed, said Wu Zhengxin, director of the county's health bureau. An investigation by experts from the Ministry of Health and local disease control centers has indicated that the outbreak was caused by the ECHO30-type intestinal virus, according to Wu. |
RELIGION
Funding Sought to Catalyse Christian Publishing in China (June 2, 2011, Christian Post) For all its dramatic growth, Christianity in China is facing a dearth of Christian books. The founder of the Robert Morrison Project believes that a relatively small amount of funding will catalyse Christian publishing in the world's most populous nation. There are a mere 600 Christian book titles in legal circulation for 30 million to 100 million Chinese Christians. Opportunities abound for Christian publishing in China; that is, if Christians are willing to offer their financial support. Approved Christian titles include biographies, old historical books and marriage and family books. And there are many good Christian titles that belong to those genres. There is a major challenge that stands in the way of a significant enlarging of the stream of Christian books in China. This is funding. In such a context, the Robert Morrison Project seeks to give individuals the opportunity to help provide financing to publish good Christian books in China. The longer term aim of the Project is to help Christian publishing companies attain financial independence or to at least start them along that road. |
EDUCATION / CULTURE
China to build nationwide digital library network (May 31, 2011, China Daily) China will launch a national project to promote the building of a digital library network in the next five years. The project aims to build a nationwide digital library network with the National Digital Library of China at the center, integrating local libraries, said a statement jointly issued by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday. The focus of the project will be promoting the construction of an interconnected digital library platform and a group of widely-spread resource libraries that provide multi-media library services for the public, the statement said. The services will be available in public libraries and through the Internet, mobile phones and mobile televisions.
China faces challenge of employing graduates (June 1, 2011, China Daily) The State Council, or China's cabinet, acknowledged that the country faces a heavy task in creating jobs for millions of college students who will graduate between 2011 to 2015, as it forecasts a steady increase in the number of graduates over the next five years. Graduates are encouraged to seek job opportunities in less-developed regions or to become self-employed, according to a circular issued by the State Council on Tuesday. Local authorities are required to adopt supportive policies to help college graduates find jobs, the circular said. According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, China will have about 6.6 million college graduates in 2011. Last year, the figure was 6.3 million.
Students gear up for college entrance exams (June 2, 2011, Xinhua) China's upcoming annual college entrance exams, which will be taken by students across the country from June 7 to 9, have got the nation's pupils in frenzy as they prepare to take the difficult tests. Seventy-thousand of Beijing's high schoolers recently signed integrity commitments ahead of the exams. These students pledged not to cheat or plagiarize during the tests. Examinees who seriously break their commitments will be disqualified from taking the exam and will be prohibited from signing up for next year's exam as well, an official with the Beijing Education and Examination Institute said Thursday. In China, students and parents face intense pressure ahead of the college entrance examinations, which can have far-reaching effects on students' future careers, depending on their scores. Teachers, parents and other people across the country are trying their best to create a stress-free environment for students as they prepare for the arduous tests... More than 9.57 million students competed for 6.57 million places in China's universities and colleges last year. Although national education authorities have not yet released the exact number for this year, the estimated number of examinees is about 9.20 million. |
SOCIETY / LIFE
NGO registration rules to be relaxed nationwide: civil affairs minister (May 25, 2011, Global Times) China is expected to roll out a plan that would ease NGO registration by allowing more social organizations to register directly with civil affairs departments without first requiring a supervisory body, a senior official said. Li Liguo, minister of civil affairs, said during an inspection tour in Beijing Monday that associations in the fields of charity, welfare and social services would benefit from the new rule, the Beijing Times reported. Currently, social organizations must find a government agency to act as a supervisory body before they can be legally registered as an NGO, which observers say is a major hindrance to the NGO sector's development in China because very few government agencies agree to supervise social organizations, particularly those formed at grassroots level. At least 3 million NGOs exist in China but only 440,000 of them were registered with civil affairs departments at the end of last year, according to government figures.
Beijing bullet train set to scrap luxury suites (May 30, 2011, Shanghai Daily) Luxury VIP suites on the forthcoming Shanghai-Beijing High Speed Railway are to be removed and more standard seats installed in their place. The news came after the first phase of month-long trial runs on the route had been carried out, according to Legal Evening News over the weekend. Some luxury seats, similar to those on passenger planes, will remain in business-class carriages, the reports said.
The rail link is due to be in service by the end of June. The planned VIP suites had attracted heavy criticism from passengers complaining about high ticket prices and the difficulty of buying even standing tickets during the annual Spring Festival rush.
Migrant population to grow to 350 million: report (May 31, 2011, China Daily) About 350 million Chinese people will travel from their hometowns to other parts of the country, according to a newly released report, China News Agency said Monday. Released on Monday, the Annual Report on Urban Development of China points out that China's mobile population reached 221 million in 2010, and will hit 350 million in 2050 if policies stay mainly unchanged. However, the growth rate of the mobile population will slow down in the next four decades, decreasing from the current nearly 6 million a year to 3 million a year in 2050, the report says. What's more, they will be better educated. Families will also join the migration to settle down in new places. The migrants' destinations are mainly coastal or riverside areas, though the financial crisis deflected their routes recently, the report says. The report also foresees changing demographics in industry workers, saying that instead of picking up farm work in farming seasons, more migrant workers will focus on their jobs in cities.
China's social security to cover expats (May 31, 2011, China Daily) China plans to include all foreign workers in its social security system starting from July, a senior social security official said on Monday. "The move will ensure foreign employees in China enjoy the same social insurance benefits as Chinese nationals do," Xu Yanjun, deputy director of social security center with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said at a news conference. Target groups include foreign workers employed by Chinese and overseas-funded enterprises, social groups, law firms and foundations that register in China, as well as foreign workers assigned to China by overseas registered companies, he said. "All foreign employees who work in China for longer than six months must be included in the social security system," said Xu.
Tiananmen dissident in fight for baby girls (June 1, 2011, AFP) A leader of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement is teaming up with US lawmakers in a push to end abortion of girls, warning of security risks as millions of Chinese men fail to find wives. Chai Ling was one of the most visible organizers in the 1989 protests, serving as "general commander." She escaped Beijing's clampdown, fleeing to France and then the United States where she became an Internet entrepreneur. After initially taking a low profile in exile, Chai Ling was baptized last year as she embraced Christianity. She speaks passionately of her faith, saying she has experienced "amazing transformations" and feels, "I am home, at last." She launched the group All Girls Allowed, which aims to end what she described as "gendercide," the elimination of millions of girls in China and elsewhere through sex-selective abortion.
Van plows into crowd at Beijing school; 3 killed (June 2, 2011, AP) Chinese authorities say two students and a teacher were killed when a van plowed into a crowd outside a school on the outskirts of Beijing. The Pinggu district government says the incident happened early Thursday as students were arriving for class at Machangying Elementary School. District spokesman Zhang Yiyang says the van's driver apparently lost control and plowed into students and others arriving at the school gates. Authorities say at least 20 people were injured, 19 of them students. The driver, a man surnamed Liang from neighboring Hebei province, has been held for questioning.
Over 5,000 couples divorce each day in China (July 2, 2011, Xinhua) China's civil affairs organizations have dealt with more than 465,000 cases of divorce in the first quarter of this year, an average of over 5,000 per day. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs posted on its website, the number of divorces in the first three months increased 17.1 percent year-on-year. "Marriage in China has entered a phase of uncertainty," Chen Yijun, an expert of sociology in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying in Thursday's People's Daily. Less communication between husbands and wives and increasing extramarital affairs are the big killers of marriage, said Chen. Chinese men and women are becoming increasingly independent in terms of personality and finance, he said.
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BUSINESS / ECONOMICS / TRADE
Chinese e-commerce giant opens furniture showroom (May 29, 2011, AP) China's e-commerce giant is stepping up its heated rivalry with bricks-and-mortar retailers with the launch of a five-story home furnishings showroom in Beijing. Alibaba Group's Taobao, an Internet platform through which an estimated 3 percent of all retail sales in China pass, opened the showroom Friday for customers to try out sofas, tables and other big-ticket items before placing an order online with one of its merchants. The mall is a new intrusion into the territory of China's real-world retailers by e-commerce rivals that are growing so fast some suggest they could become the country's leading retail force - its version of Wal Mart. Taobao says its Beijing mall is aimed at overcoming a hurdle hampering the growth of China's Internet commerce even though online retailers offer significantly lower prices: Customers don't like to buy furniture and other major items without examining them in person.
Yuan at record high versus dollar after Treasury report (May 30, 2011, BBC News) China's yuan has hit a record high against the US dollar after the US Treasury department said the Chinese currency was undervalued but not manipulated. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) fixed the yuan's mid-point at 6.4856 against the US dollar on Monday. China has been accused by the US and other developed economies of keeping the value of its currency artificially low to boost its exports. China is the world's biggest exporter.
China raises power prices for non-residential users (May 31, 2011, BBC News) China has raised electricity prices for industrial, agricultural and commercial users in 15 provinces as the government grapples with a large power shortage. The new tariff will see users paying an average of 16.7 yuan ($2.50; £1.60) extra per megawatt hour, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. This is the first time China has raised electricity prices since November 2009. The new tariffs will take effect from 1 June.
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ENVIRONMENT / TECHNOLOGY
Yangtze drought affects 5% of China's farmland (May 30, 2011, Xinhua) Droughts have negatively impacted 104.4 million mu (6.96 million hectares), or more than 5 percent, of China's farmlands as of Sunday, the country's top drought relief authority said. A lingering drought has affected 3.29 million people and 950,000 livestock in the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan, according to the latest statistics from the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (SFDH).
China rejects Gmail spying claims (June 2, 2011, BBC News) China has rejected allegations of involvement in a cyber-spying campaign targeting the Google e-mail accounts of top US officials, military personnel and journalists. A foreign ministry spokesman said it was "unacceptable" to blame China. Google has not blamed the Chinese government directly, but says the hacking campaign originated in Jinan. The US company said its security was not breached but indicated individuals' passwords were obtained through fraud. Google said Chinese political activists and officials in other Asian countries were also targeted from the Shandong city, which is 400 km (250 miles) south of Beijing.
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LINKS TO DETAILED ARTICLES AND ANALYSIS
This fall, young girls in China's southern Guangdong province will be learning a new subject in school: how to avoid becoming a mistress. Although Chairman Mao kept a stable of women at his disposal, extramarital peccadilloes were frowned upon during China's more fervent socialist years. But as economic reforms have helped Guangdong become one of the nation's wealthiest regions, the province has been beset by a flood of ernai, literally, "second breast," as mistresses are commonly known in China.
It has long been an object of controversy in China, but its pedigree -- it was a pet project of Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China's modern economy -- made it a mostly off-limits subject for criticism. That all changed last week when China's State Council announced that there were "urgent problems" with the dam, including issues with pollution and the relocation of populations displaced by the project.
Stocking shelves in a Chinese grocery store, Thiago warned that he didn't want to be caught chatting during working hours. Within seconds, however, the Brazilian unleashed a pent-up flood of complaints about the owners, who lingered just beyond hearing distance.
Internet search in the world's most populous country is a bit of a contradiction in terms. If so, then China, known for it's heavy-handed censorship, may have helped create Baidu in its own image.
The world closely monitors the temperature of China's economy, so crucial has it become to the health of global business and finance. This spring, as economists at Western investment banks have been reducing their growth forecasts for China, the specter of slackening Chinese demand has helped send world prices for industrial commodities like copper falling by 10 percent or more.
China is the global leader for the number of corrupt officials who are sentenced to death, and actually executed each year. But, judging by the seemingly endless "public demand" for this kind of punishment and the surging popular anger, it would seem that there is actually not enough of it. While so many people are "beheaded," executives at all levels are still determined to brave death by trying to make the most of corruption.
Beijing appears unready to take its battle for global recognition to the high echelons of the International Monetary Fund and have its own nominee succeed former managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The domestic consensus seems to be that the current IMF is not the IMF that a Chinese would like to head.
China's weather-modifying programme is straining to meet demand to alleviate the worst drought for more than 100 years.
The engineering feat, called the South-North Water Diversion Project, is China's most ambitious attempt to subjugate nature. It would be like channeling water from the Mississippi River to meet the drinking needs of Boston, New York and Washington.
Situated next to the Summer Palace, an 18th century imperial retreat in suburban Beijing's northwest, the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China - the Central Party School - is like no other university or college in the country.
The state wants its "The Founding of a Party" to top the charts around the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party's first congress on July 1. So it's packed it with stars - and delayed the release of 'Transformers 3' and 'Cars 2.' |
LINKS TO BLOGS
There are different views on what constitutes the biggest threat to stability in China. For anyone who follows China's domestic news on a daily basis, it doesn't take long to figure out that many of the social disturbances and much of the popular discontent can be attributed to two things: the unbridled privileges claimed by officials and an almost universal disregard for rules.
Jim Rogers recently appeared on BBC's HardTalk, arguing that despite the problems China faces, it remains more attractive in terms of investment than the "bankrupt" West. Echoing his warning in a recent Shanghai Daily interview, he claims that water is the one potentially fatal issue confronting China.
For all the crazy stories you've heard about China, the world's biggest country is going to keep blowing your mind.
Through my new two new wēibó-s 微博 (pzAlbert and pzEnglish, NOTE: you have to be a member of sina or weibo to view them) I've been exposed to some interesting new language.
Earlier this month, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger published On China. Kissinger's work has received, understandably, a significant amount of attention: not only does On China cover the inside story of Richard Nixon's landmark 1972 visit to the People's Republic, it's also full of Kissinger's musings on the past, present, and future of Chinese foreign policy. Here, in a special On China reading round-up, we've compiled a list of the reviews so far, as well as some links for further reading and listening.
China's effort to make the yuan an international currency is running into complications, including the deeply ironic outcome that it is actually boosting the country's massive stockpile of foreign currency.
Chinese politicians may not need to worry about democratic elections, or an independent media, but there are still moments that can make or break a Communist Party career. One such moment came last week for Hu Chunhua, the 48-year-old Communist Party chief of the northern region of Inner Mongolia.
Based on expert analysis of China's 2010 census' data, a recent Southern Weekend article claims that China's population will reach its peak of 1.386 - 1.4 billion people sometime between 2020 and 2023. After that, the population will drop dramatically to approximately 750 million by the year 2100.
Thanks partially to the inability to express criticism on the internet, it seems that a new style has emerged - a new feature of internet slang, to rant about their dissatisfaction. It's called paoxiaoti (咆哮体), or "the roaring mode of writing".
China already has more than 150 cities with populations of more than one million people and could have as many as 221 cities with one million or more people by 2025, according to the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). Yet relatively few of China's larger cities, each with its own special history and contributions to China's development, are known outside of China.
I first went to Datong in 1984 and was immediately taken by this gritty city in China's northern Shanxi Province... It was one of those cities that seemed to exist in a world of black and white: the streets and buildings were covered with soot and grime from nearby coal mines, while outside town, farmers toiled on the bleached soil of the Loess Plateau, creviced and exhausted after millennia of human demands.
Start with Jeffrey Wasserstrom's book, China in the 21st Century, which is accurately subtitled "What Everyone Needs to Know. It is 192 pages and it can (and should be) easily read on the plane between meals. It is meant to be basic and it is, but it is a good a first book as can be found and it is not in any way simplistic.
Social networking sites, founded on the promise of free expression, have run into political trouble in China. |
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