ZGBriefs June 30, 2011
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FEATURED ARTICLE
In order to understand China today, it's helpful to understand this simple rule: nothing is as it seems. In fact, I would say this rule applies when observing and analyzing nearly all segments of life in China: politics, economy, social relationships and even religion. To put it another way, whatever China seems to be at any given moment, it is in fact, the opposite. This can be difficult for Westerners because we tend to be dichotomist in our thinking, wanting something to be either this or that. We don't do well with this and that. |
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GOVERNMENT / POLITICS / FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei appeals tax bill, fines (June 29, 2011, AP) Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's design firm on Wednesday challenged the $1.85 million tax bill delivered by authorities shortly after Ai was released from nearly three months in detention, a lawyer for the company said. Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang said an appeal was filed with the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau by Ai's wife, Lu Qing. She is the legal representative of his design company Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd. The appeal demands proof of the alleged tax evasion and a review of the case, Pu said. Ai's family previously denied he evaded any taxes and activists say the accusations were a false premise for detaining Ai, who spoke out against the authoritarian government.
China's army develops 'online war game' (June 29, 2011, AP) After setting up its own cyber-warfare team, China's military has now developed its first online war game aimed at improving combat skills and battle awareness, state press said Wednesday. "Glorious Mission" is a first-person shooter game that sends players on solo or team missions armed with high-tech weapons, the China Daily reported. Weapons used in the game are part of the actual arsenal of China's People's Liberation Army, it added. The final version of the game, which took nearly three years to develop and test, was launched on June 20.
UN: China should arrest al-Bashir (June 30, 2011, AP) The U.N.'s top human rights official criticized China on Thursday for failing to arrest Sudan's president so that he can be brought to trial on war crimes charges. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told reporters in Geneva she was "disappointed" that China welcomed Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir during a visit this week, rather than arrest him to ensure he stands trial. Pillay said that "the whole world favors trial" for al-Bashir on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and three counts of genocide, the first time the world's permanent war crimes tribunal issued genocide charges. China has a duty to enforce warrants by the International Criminal Court, she said, despite the fact that it's not a member of The Hague, Netherlands-based tribunal. The Sudanese leader defiantly rejects the charges and the authority of the court.
China's Mongolian herders protest over lead mine (June 30, 2011, AP) Ethnic Mongolian herders protested a lead mine operating on grazing land in the latest tension in a Chinese border region that recently saw its biggest demonstrations in two decades, a rights group and a local resident said Thursday. The herders in Inner Mongolia's Bayannur township were upset that the Bayannur Lead Mine was discharging large amounts of toxic waste that was damaging the environment and killilng livestock, said the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center. The herders marched to the mine last Friday and shut down a water pump that supplied a shaft, the New York-based group said. Riot police moved in Saturday and "many herders were beaten severely," the group said in a statement. A local resident said there were about 100 protesters, four people were hurt, two of them police, and a police car was overturned.
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RELIGION
China detains Vatican-backed Catholic priest (June 30, 2011, AFP) Chinese police detained a Vatican-backed Catholic priest and blocked his ordination as a bishop, a parishioner said Thursday, in a move likely to raise tensions with the Holy See. The detention of Joseph Sun Jigeng came as China's state-run Catholic church reportedly ordained another bishop without the consent of the Vatican, which stipulates ordinations can only go ahead with the Holy See's blessing. "Joseph Sun Jigeng was taken away by police on June 26 and he has not been released," a member of the Handan Catholic church in northern China's Hebei province told AFP by phone. "On June 29, we had planned to have the ordination ceremony, but the police have blocked the road and no ceremony can be held. Police said it was an 'illegal activity'," said the church member, who refused to be named. But the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) -- which controls the state-backed church -- denied Sun, 43, had been detained when contacted by AFP, while police in Handan refused to comment. |
SOCIETY / LIFE
Demolitions cause most social unrest (June 27, 2011, China Daily) Demolitions caused the most social conflict and public discontent in Chinese society in 2010, according to a recent report published by a Beijing-based social research center. Measuring the amount of discontent generated by various social conflicts last year, demolitions and relocations scored almost 50 percent higher than all other factors combined, said the report filed by the Research Center for Social Contradiction. It had become a spike point among all conflicts in Chinese society, the report said. The center operates under the Office of Letters and Calls of Beijing, which handles petitions. The report was conducted with the help of Horizon Research Group, a Beijing-based privately run polling company.
China starts panda census (June 27, 2011, China Daily) China has started its once-a-decade census of endangered giant pandas, according to forestry authorities in southwest Sichuan Province, a major habitat of the rare species. The census, the fourth since it was first launched in the 1970s, began Sunday with a pilot survey in the Wanglang National Reserve in the city of Mianyang, which is believed to have the largest number of wild pandas in the country, said Yang Xuyu, an official with the provincial forestry administration, on Monday. About 70 trackers are currently being trained at the nature reserve and will start their work in two or three days, Yang said. The pilot survey is expected to end by early July, and then the nationwide census will start, he said.
Chinese tourists to California to 'grow 18%' (June 27, 2011, China Daily) A delegation of California's travel industry representing major destinations and attractions will travel to Beijing and Shanghai in October to promote tourism, according to California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC). After the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan, China has become the fourth-largest source of international tourists for California. In 2010, the number of Chinese visitors to California grew by 49 percent year-on-year to 399,000 and they spent $648 million in the Golden State. CTTC forecasts the number of Chinese visitors from China to California will increase 18 percent this year.
Attn: parents of mixed Chinese kids (June 28, 2011, Global Times) Shanghai Exit-Entry Administration Bureau on Monday strongly advised parents of biracial infants born in China with Chinese nationalities to make sure their paperwork is in order before arriving at local airports, after some 100 families have been prohibited from taking their infant children out of the country this year. Mixed children with a Chinese nationality require a "pass certification" before they are permitted to go abroad, according to Chinese law. "But the majority of parents are unaware of the policy, or cannot be bothered apply for the certificate, which mixed kids living in China need," Li Feng, a press officer for the bureau, told the Global Times on Monday. "If their parents don't get the certificate, then biracial kids are not legally allowed to leave the country."
New railway links major Silk Road towns in Xinjiang (June 29, 2011, Xinhua) A passenger train began its maiden run Tuesday along the newly-opened railway linking Kashgar and Hotan, two major Silk Road towns in northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Passenger train 5828 travels daily from Hotan in southern Xinjiang to Kashgar in the far west before steering to a link to the regional capital Urumqi, the Urumqi Railways Bureau said at a press release. The 2,073-km train trip between Hotan and Urumqi takes about 34-37 hours, according to railway officials.
Beijing-Shanghai high-speed train makes debut (June 30, 2011, AFP) High-speed trains linking Beijing and Shanghai made their passenger debut Thursday on a $33 billion track China hopes will help ease its overloaded transport system. Premier Wen Jiabao declared the link "in operation" at Beijing South rail station before boarding the first sleek-nosed white train that will take passengers to Shanghai, the country's commercial hub, in less than five hours. He said the high-speed line -- launched on the eve of celebrations to mark the 90th birthday of China's communist party -- would be key to "improving the modern transport system... and satisfying people's travelling needs." The line, which has been operating on a trial basis since mid-May, halves the journey time between the country's two main cities and could hurt airlines on the busy route plagued by delays and cancellations.
China eases tax burden on poor with law change (June 30, 2011, AP) China's legislature raised the threshold for paying income tax, effectively exempting tens of millions of workers in a new effort Thursday to defuse tensions over surging inflation and a yawning wealth gap. The change comes on the eve of celebrations of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party, which faces public rancor over high prices and corruption and protests over minority and migrant worker rights. The Standing Committee of China's legislature raised the minimum personal income required to pay taxes from 2,000 yuan ($300) a month to 3,500 yuan ($540). That will reduce the number of taxpayers from 84 million, or 28 percent of workers covered by the law, to about 24 million, or just 7.7 percent, said a tax official, Wang Jianfan. The income tax law covers about 300 million urban workers but not most of China's hundreds of millions of farmers, who pay tax under a different system.
Banana-eating campaign to aid farmers (June 30, 2011, China Daily) China's netizens have started a new movement, calling on people to buy and eat bananas in a bid to help banana growers who have recently suffered from poor harvests and rumors that their fruit is artificially ripened. The campaign was launched after a banana grower from China's southern island province Hainan posted an online plea on popular Chinese microblogging site weibo.com, saying "my bananas can't be sold. Who can help me?" The campaign has generated over 250 million online posts, with netizens providing tips on different ways to eat the fruit and generally expressing support for the province's banana growers.
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BUSINESS / ECONOMICS / TRADE
CNPC opens Iraqi oilfield (June 27, 2011, China Daily) China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's biggest oil company by output, said that the first phase of the Al-Ahdab oilfield in Iraq with an annual capacity of 3 million tons started operations on June 21. The project marks "significant progress" in CNPC's construction of key oil and gas cooperative areas in the Middle East, Jiang Jiemin, general manager of CNPC, said in a statement posted on the company's website on Monday. The oilfield, located 180 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, is the first major oil project to begin operation in Iraq for more than 20 years.
China's 'Twitter' Sina Weibo hit by virus (June 29, 2011, china.org.cn) Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging service, was hit by a hacker attack around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, affecting over 30,000 users, the National Business Daily reported Wednesday. Many Weibo users received private messages or comments containing malicious links that when clicked would post another malicious link on their microblog automatically. The deception thus became a vicious cycle infecting more and more users. Users affected by the virus automatically followed a Weibo user named "hellosamy," who is believed to be the maker of the virus. The account had more than 30,000 followers when Sina Weibo finally located and deleted it. The incident is the first attack on Sina Weibo since its launch at the end of 2009.
Beijing issues pay rise guidelines for this year (June 30, 2011, China Daily) Enterprises in Beijing are advised to give their employees a wage rise of about 10 percent and no less than 5 percent this year, according to a living cost adjustment guide issued on Wednesday by Beijing Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security. The guide is intended as a basis for employers and employees to collectively discuss wage adjustments this year, but is not obligatory. For those enterprises that are not making money the wage rise can be less than 5 percent or even zero, but wages should not be below Beijing's minimum wage, which is 1,160 yuan ($179) a month.
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ENVIRONMENT / TECHNOLOGY
China opens world's longest sea bridge - 26 miles (June 30, 2011, AP) China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge. The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26 miles (42 kilometers) long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the island of Huangdao. State-run CCTV says the 110-foot (35-meter)-wide bridge is the longest of its kind and cost more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion). CCTV says the bridge passed construction appraisals on Monday and the bridge and an undersea tunnel opened to traffic on Thursday.
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LINKS TO DETAILED ARTICLES AND ANALYSIS
In recent months the battle lines in China's politics have become clearer. They are drawn between universalists, who believe China must eventually converge on democratic norms, and exceptionalists, who believe that China must preserve and perfect its authoritarianism.
With China emerging more forcefully onto the world stage, understanding its foreign policy is becoming increasingly important. But what exactly is that policy, and how is it made?
Young, well-educated Chinese like Wu are becoming increasingly interested in Christianity. Each week, about 4,000 people go for religious services at St. Paul's Church, which was established in 1923 as the city's first Christian church. Jiangsu is home to 1.8 million Christian worshippers and 4,300 places of worship. Forty percent of these Christians regularly attend church services and participate in Bible study groups.
A former expat on what cartoons and propaganda films tell us about modern China-and how channel 32 always transports her back.
In China today, what-or whom-do people believe in? In the magazine this week, I profile Han Han, the blogger, novelist, and magazine-cover-model who, at age twenty-eight, is one of the most unlikely icons in Chinese public life.
China opens its 820-mile Beijing-Shanghai high speed rail link to the public this week ahead of schedule, just three years after construction began. Our China Correspondent, Peter Foster, was given an advance preview and details the journey.
The Chinese Communist Party's more than 80m-strong membership makes it the biggest political party in the world. Its tight organisation and ruthlessness help explain why it is also still in power. The party oversees and influences many aspects of people's lives - what they learn at school and watch on TV, their jobs and housing, even the number of children they are allowed. It is made up largely of government officials, army officers, model workers and farmers.
The rapid growth of China's economy over the past three decades has been greeted with largely unquestioned assumptions that increasing affluence would lead to a happier, wealthier and more equitable society.
The ruling Communist Party, which celebrates its 90th anniversary on Friday, fought to power on the back of restive peasants. Now young migrants from the villages are making greater demands to be heard and respected in the cities.
The Chinese concert pianist, Lang Lang, combines a classical repertoire with pop-culture showmanship. For many of his countrymen, he ranks as a hero alongside basketballer, Yao Ming, and hurdler, Liu Xiang. He also appeared on the Olympic stage - performing at the opening of the Beijing games.
With local protests driven by official corruption plaguing China, how much longer can Communist Party last?
The rules of Treasury auctions may not sound like the stuff of high-stakes diplomacy. But a little-noticed 2009 change in how Washington sells its debt sheds new light on America's delicate balancing act with its biggest creditor, China.
Reclusive Chinese painter Ge Xiaoguang's art has gazed over one of the world's most famous city squares for decades. For 30 years, he has painted the portraits of former paramount leader Mao Zedong that look across Beijing's Tiananmen Square. The giant oil paintings of the "Great Helmsman" have kept watch from the Gate of Heavenly Peace since the Communist Party won the civil war and declared a New China on October 1, 1949.
After just a few years of explosive growth, China's mega-city of Chongqing has emerged as a major industrial hub, thanks in part to a "Go West" policy to open up China's less-developed inland.
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LINKS TO BLOGS
China is building a gigantic special economic zone on a cluster of islands on the other side of the Taiwan Strait some 150 km from the port city of Taichung, for the sole purpose of enhancing cross-straits industrial cooperation. The Taiwanese are aware that it is the latest plan to lure Taiwan into an ever-closer economic embrace.
Despite early fears freedoms would be curtailed after their colony was returned to Beijing, many in Hong Kong now see ties as an opportunity.
As the CPC's 90th anniversary approaches, a recent "Red Song" campaign is receiving a lot of attention in the foreign media. Many of my colleagues from foreign news outlets have been looking for "Red Song choirs" to interview and to film. Some articles are even calling the campaign a "Red Revival" and see possible parallels to the Cultural Revolution. However, is that true? Does singing "Red Songs" really signify a new revival of the old Party spirit? Or is it something that has been happening all along but makes for easy headlines with Bo Xilai's recent Chongqing campaign and the CPC anniversary just around the corner?
Local officials in Huili, Sichuan have been the target of mockery and satire after a clearly-doctored photo of their inspection of a highway was posted on the government website.
As China's influence intensifies across the world, interest in the study of its official language is also growing.
Occasionally the traffic in Beijing can get so soul-crushingly bleak that it can make rush hour in Los Angeles feel as free and breezy as the autobahn.
China is gearing up to celebrate July 1st - the 90th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party. Central to the celebrations - a revival of 'red songs', many of them from the glory days of Communist propaganda in the Mao era. |
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