ZGBriefs July 28, 2011
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FEATURED ARTICLE
With China's government stepping up its campaign to bring the country's underground Christian churches into line, The Wall Street Journal reports on a growing group of Protestant leaders who have begun a new unified effort to push back. Here reporter Brian Spegele offers an account of his experiences attending services at two so-called "house churches," one in wealthy Beijing and another in an impoverished corner of the Chinese countryside. |
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GOVERNMENT / POLITICS / FOREIGN AFFAIRS
U.S. Senate confirms Gary Locke as ambassador to China (July 27, 2011, Xinhua) The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed former Commerce Secretary Gary Locke as ambassador to China, making him the first Chinese-American ever to take the post. Locke, 61, won unanimous confirmation in the Senate voice vote. He succeeds Jon Huntsman, a Republican who has resigned to run for the White House in 2012. U.S. President Barack Obama tapped Locke for the post on March 9, saying that no one is better qualified for the diplomatic post than Locke.
China downplays capability of first aircraft carrier (July 27, 2011, AFP) China sought to downplay the capability of its first aircraft carrier Wednesday, saying the vessel would be used for training and "research", amid concerns over the country's military build-up. China recently confirmed it was revamping an old Soviet ship to be its first carrier, a project that has added to regional worries over the country's fast military expansion and growing assertiveness on territorial issues. "We are currently re-fitting the body of an old aircraft carrier, and will use it for scientific research, experiments and training," defence ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng told a news briefing. Asked whether the carrier's addition to China's military arsenal would significantly raise the country's military capability, Geng said only that to "overrate or underrate the carrier's role are both incorrect".
China tells US to halt spy plane flights (July 28, 2011, AFP) China has demanded that the United States stop spy plane flights near the Chinese coast, saying they have "severely harmed" trust, but the Pentagon insisted Wednesday it was within its rights. The dispute comes after Taiwanese media reported two Chinese fighter jets attempted to scare off an American U2 reconnaissance plane that was collecting intelligence on China while flying along the Taiwan Strait in late June. Beijing's defence ministry said the US must end such flights, calling them a "major obstacle" as the two Pacific powers try to put a series of military disputes behind them, China's state-run Global Times reported.
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HEALTH
Private hospitals offer women 'twin' pills (July 27, 2011, China Daily) Some private hospitals in Guangdong province are providing medicines that stimulate ovulation to women who are trying to bypass the family planning policy by having multiple births. Some Internet stores are avoiding supervision and selling these medicines, dubbed "multiple baby pills", although they can be supplied only with a doctor's prescription for the treatment of infertility. Most of the private hospitals interviewed said they prescribe such medicines only in treating infertility, but some said they do so to give their clients a higher chance of having multiple births, reported Guangzhou Daily. "We have helped 60,000 couples get pregnant in the past 15 years and twins are common. Regular hospitals don't do it," said a customer service person at one hospital. The medicine costs a few hundred yuan and the hospital monitors the pregnancy and guides the client during the process, the person said. |
RELIGION
Academics talk about religion and law (July 20, 2011, China Daily) A summer training program on religion and the rule of law is held in Beijing. The two-week program started on July 18. Topics discussed during the program include religious legislation, politico-religious relationship, and the non-governmental organizations in modern society. A total of 12 experts in the fields of law and religion from six countries are invited to speak in the sessions. "These are all hot topics frequently discussed in the academic field," said Liu Peng, a researcher of religions in the United States in the institute of American studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and also director of the Pu Shi Institute for Social Science. He said the program aims at improving the theoretical attainment in religious legislation among law and religious professionals, as well as the government administration sections, so as to promote religious legislation in the country. "The rule of law is the best help for the freedom of faith," he said. Liu's institute, coupled with the Center for Constitutional and Administrative Law in Peking University, sponsored the program. The program enters its second year this summer.
China to ordain more non-Vatican bishops (July 22, 2011, BBC News) A senior church official in China has announced that the country's state-controlled church plans to ordain seven more bishops. The statement was carried by the state-run China Daily newspaper. The announcement comes amid increased tension with the Vatican, which insists the Pope is the only authority who can ordain bishops. The Beijing government sees this as foreign interference. The Vatican and Beijing have not had ties since 1951. The Reverend Joseph Guo Jincai, the vice-chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, did not specify when the ordinations would take place, just that local churches in seven dioceses were preparing for them.
Underground church pastor sent to China labor camp (July 26, 2011, AP) An underground Protestant leader has been sentenced to two years in a labor camp as China cracks down on unapproved churches that are getting bolder in confronting government religious policy, a U.S.-based monitoring group said Tuesday. The expansion and growing influence of unofficial churches has unsettled China's rulers, always suspicious of any independent social group that could challenge Communist authority. China Aid Association said Pastor Shi Enhao, 55, was sentenced over the weekend for organizing illegal religious gatherings. He had been detained June 21 in the eastern city of Suqian in Jiangsu province. Labor camp sentences are handed out without trial on the recommendation of police and can be extended beyond the usual two-year term.
Methodist Leaders Meet Top Church Leaders in China (July 26, 2011, The Christian Post) Bishop Dr Robert Solomon led a five-member delegation to Shanghai and Suzhou recently to meet officials of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) as well as leaders of the China Christian Council/Three-Self Patriotic Movement (CCC/TSPM) and other Chinese church leaders. The visitors were warmly received by Elder Fu Xianwei, Chairman of the National Committee of TSPM, on the morning of April 8, 2011.
Catholic priest says denied entry to China (July 26, 2011, AFP) An outspoken Hong Kong Catholic priest said Tuesday he has been denied entry into China due to an escalating row between the Vatican and Beijing over the ordination of bishops. Italian-born Franco Mella said Chinese immigration officials barred him on July 19 after he tried to enter the mainland through a checkpoint between Hong Kong and the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen. Mella, who has joined recent Hong Kong protests against China's controversial ordinations, said he had a valid Chinese visa and no previous problems travelling to the mainland over the past two decades. |
SOCIETY / LIFE
China's most wanted fugitive arrested after extradition (July 23, 2011, Reuters) China arrested its most wanted fugitive in the capital Beijing Saturday after Canada deported him to end a decades-long saga that had plagued Sino-Canadian relations, but concerns remained among activists about whether he would receive a fair trial. Beijing has sought the deportation of Lai Changxing, 53, accusing him of running a multibillion-dollar smuggling operation in the southeastern city of Xiamen in the 1990s in one of China's biggest political scandals in decades. Lai arrived at Beijing's international airport, where Chinese police "announced his arrest and read him his rights, including hiring lawyers to defend himself, after he was transferred by the Canadian side," state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the ministry of public security.
China Steps Up Web Monitoring, Driving Many Wi-Fi Users Away (July 25, 2011, The New York Times) New regulations that require bars, restaurants, hotels and bookstores to install costly Web monitoring software are prompting many businesses to cut Internet access and sending a chill through the capital's game-playing, Web-grazing literati who have come to expect free Wi-Fi with their lattes and green tea. The software, which costs businesses about $3,100, provides public security officials the identities of those logging on to the wireless service of a restaurant, cafe or private school and monitors their Web activity. Those who ignore the regulation and provide unfettered access face a $2,300 fine and the possible revocation of their business license.
China philanthropist hires gymnast-turned-beggar (July 26, 2011, AFP) In a spectacular reversal of fortune, a champion Chinese gymnast who was forced into stealing and begging after an injury ended his career has landed a job with one of the nation's richest men. The case of Zhang Shangwu -- who was recently discovered performing stunts for money in Beijing -- has caused outrage in China, where athletes who have devoted their lives to sport are often discarded once their careers are over. The 27-year-old told AFP on Tuesday that Chen Guangbiao, a wealthy recycling magnate and philanthropist, had offered him a position as a fitness instructor at his company.
China seeks to muzzle reporting on train crash (July 26, 2011, AP) China has ordered its media not to probe a deadly high-speed train crash that has triggered public anger and raised questions over the rush to develop the rail system, reports said Tuesday. Journalists have been ordered to focus on "touching stories" and avoid questioning official accounts of the disaster, which killed at least 39 people, Chinese bloggers and the US-based China Digital Times website said. China's railway minister said Saturday's accident, which left nearly 200 people injured and was the worst to hit the country's rapidly expanding high-speed rail network, had taught the country a "bitter lesson".
China orders safety inspections after train crash (July 26, 2011, AP) The Chinese government on Tuesday ordered a two-month, nationwide safety campaign for its railway system after a collision between two bullet trains killed at least 39 people. The Railways Ministry said in a statement on its website that all local railway bureaus were to draw lessons from Saturday's accident in the eastern city of Wenzhou and immediately launch safety inspections. One train rammed into the back of another that had stalled after being hit by lightning, causing six carriages to derail and four to fall about 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters) from a viaduct. More than 190 people were injured.The ministry says local railway bureaus in various cities around the country such as northwestern Urumqi, southwestern Kunming, Harbin in the northeast and elsewhere have already begun safety checks.
Adopted children from 90 American families begin root-seeking journey in China (July 27, 2011, Xinhua) Adopted Chinese children from 90 American families attended a welcome ceremony in Beijing on Wednesday, marking the start of their root-seeking journey which will feature a whirlwind of tours to China's ancient relics. The adopted children, aged from four to 18, have been invited to return to their birthplace or orphanage and attend activities that would help them have a better understanding of China, an unnamed official with China's Ministry of Civil Affairs told Xinhua. Most of the adopted children are from China's southern provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangdong as well as Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Hundreds riot in China over vendor's death (July 27, 2011, AFP) Hundreds of people rioted in southwest China after security forces reportedly beat a disabled street vendor to death, government authorities and state media said. The crowd gathered in Guizhou province's Anshun city Tuesday afternoon after the hawker died, the local government said, in an incident that bore a close similarity with riots last month in China's southern industrial heartland. A police spokesman said the one-legged man had argued with the "chengguan", the official Xinhua news agency said Wednesday, referring to a municipal security force charged with regulating street hawking and similar activities. Comments posted by netizens said the "chengguan" -- two men and one woman -- beat the disabled vendor to death. The Xinhua report said an investigation was under way to find out how he died.
China rescues dozens of infants from human traffickers (July 27, 2011, Reuters) Chinese police rescued 89 infants kidnapped for sale and arrested 369 people they said were linked to two human trafficking rings this month, state media reported Wednesday. In the first case, the traffickers, who were mostly Vietnamese residents, abducted children from Vietnam and sold them in China's southern regions of Guangdong and Guangxi, the China Daily newspaper said, citing an unnamed officer from Guangdong's provincial department of public security. In mid-July, police detained 39 suspects in connection with trafficking and rescued eight infants, aged 10 days to seven months, who had been drugged with sleeping pills, the newspaper said. In another crackdown this month, police arrested 330 people suspected of involvement in the trafficking of baby girls, the newspaper said. The police operation took place across 14 provinces. The 81 infants rescued were aged 10 days to four months and are now in the care of institutions, the report said.
Flaws in railway signal system lead to fatal collision: railway authorities (July 28, 2011, Xinhua) Design flaws in the railway signal equipment led to Saturday's fatal high-speed train collision near Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, the Shanghai Railway Bureau said on Thursday.Having been struck by lightning, the signal system at Wenzhou South Railway Station failed to turn the green light into red, causing the rear-ending, said An Lusheng, head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau, at an investigation meeting held by the State Council in Wenzhou on Thursday. The accident has left at least 39 people dead and 192 others injured.
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BUSINESS / ECONOMICS / TRADE
China's CNOOC to buy Canadian oil sands developer (July 20, 2011, AFP) Chinese oil giant CNOOC has agreed to take over Canadian oil sands developer OPTI for about $2.1 billion, the companies said Wednesday, as China moves to secure more resources in North America. State-run CNOOC said its subsidiary CNOOC Luxembourg would make the acquisition, which is still subject to approval from Chinese and Canadian regulators. They expect the deal to be finalised in the fourth quarter.
New carrier Tibetan Airlines starts flight services (July 26, 2011, Xinhua) Tibetan Airlines, the first airline based in Tibet Autonomous Region, commenced flight operations on Tuesday morning in Lhasa. The newly launched airline made its maiden flight on Tuesday from Gonggar Airport in Lhasa to Kunsha airport in Ngari Prefecture, said Xu Bo, chairman of Tibetan Airlines. In addition to the Lhasa-Ngari route, the airline will provide flight services from Lhasa to other cities in China, such as Chengdu and Chongqing, and it is expected to connect to all airports in Tibet, and eventually expand its connections to South Asian countries, Xu said.
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ENVIRONMENT / TECHNOLOGY
Giant Meteorite Discovered in China (July 25, 2011, Space) A massive space rock - one that could rank as one of the largest meteorites ever recovered - has been found in a remote and mountainous region in northwest China, according to news reports. The huge and oddly-shaped rock was found in the Altai mountains in China's Xinjiang Uygur province, according to Sky and Telescope magazine. Earlier this month, Baolin Zhang, a meteorite specialist at the Beijing Planetarium, led a small team up a 9,500-foot (2,900-meter) summit to investigate reports of the supposed meteorite. The large brown stone juts out from beneath a larger granite slab and the portion above ground measures about 7.5 feet (2.3 m) long and half as wide, reported Sky and Telescope. Zhang estimates that the meteorite's mass could range between 25 to 30 tons, which would make it one of the largest meteorites known. If so, this space rock would surpass the current largest one in China, a 28-ton meteorite that was discovered in 1898 in the same region, reported Sky and Telescope.
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LINKS TO DETAILED ARTICLES AND ANALYSIS
Imagine not being allowed to go outside, have a shower or drink cold water for an entire month. It might sound like a kind of house arrest. But every year tens of millions of Chinese women submit to this willingly. This is the traditional Chinese practice of confinement during the month after childbirth, with some modern twists.
As Beijing grows, so its garbage spreads. The city has surrounded itself with rings of rubbish - first there was one just beyond the fourthring road, now there's another one beyond the sixth ring road. "If you take a walk around these unofficial dumps, you realize that it's a lucrative business," says Wang Jiuliang, a photographer who recently exhibited images from his visits to 400 dumps outside the city.
America's movers and shakers can't seem to stop ogling Chinese authoritarian chic. While few would defend China's repressive political system, numerous politicians, business executives, and pundits bow before China's state-directed capitalism, equating authoritarianism with efficiency and ruthlessness with enlightenment.
Apple says its Chinese outlets - two in Beijing and two in Shanghai - are now the four most heavily trafficked Apple stores in the world. They also generate the most revenue, outselling even the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in Manhattan, which is open around the clock. (Apple plans to open another store in Grand Central Terminal.) Analysts say few global brands have achieved such a feat in China.
In a country that spent the last three decades getting rich, Yang Lan wants to show that giving back is glorious. Yang, a television host and one of China's wealthiest women, is leading a movement to encourage the growth of philanthropy.
For the past two years, Li Qicai, 28, has made a career out of waiting in line. What's more, he now outsources the waiting to others. He employs four full-time queuers and a host of freelancers, who, for a cost of about $3 an hour, will do the waiting for you.
Family influence, personal experience and keen interest in Christianity are the major reasons for a fast growing popularity of the religion in China. Tan Weiyun reports.
The seeds of China's bullet train disaster on Saturday were laid in the high-speed growth responsible for the economic achievements of the past 30 years. An autocratic system has been the engine of Beijing's advances, but the 39 lives will have been lost in vain unless the government conducts a thorough review of nationwide railway expansion and of the wider decision-making processes.
Every Sunday, large numbers of Christians, Chinese and foreign alike, go to churches in different parts of Beijing to attend worship services. Christianity in the capital of China has existed for a long period of time; its spread and growth has been closely linked with the fate of the nation.
For years the Chinese government refused to acknowledge any dark side to its proudest engineering feat, the largest hydropower project in the world that is also designed to prevent the sort of catastrophic floods that have stricken millions of farmers in the Yangtze Basin for millenniums. Begun in 1994, it opened in 2008. Two months ago, however, the State Council, China's cabinet, recognized that the dam had caused "urgent problems ... regarding the smooth relocation of residents, ecological protection, and geological disaster prevention."
On a recent Sunday at the Beijing Zion Church, Pastor Jin Mingri laid out a vision for Christians in China that contrasts starkly with the ruling Communist Party's tight reins on religion. (subscription required)
China's Bureau of Religion reacted as stung by the Vatican's threat to excommunicate bishops ordained without the permission of the Holy See, but nevertheless indicated for the first time that China's government has no desire to rule the religious affairs of the Catholic Church. The real issue for China is who controls the Church as a socio-political entity.
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LINKS TO BLOGS
Ever since China's much-vaunted high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shanghai opened on June 30, it has been open season for criticism. Much of the criticism has stemmed, of course, from very real malfunctions and delays, which have happened daily since July 10, and have been reported in real time on Chinese social media.
In a challenge to China's controversial one-child policy, a regional leader has asked for permission from the central government to relax the policy in his area.
Although Michael is from Austria, the school that hires him tells his students that he's American because they prefer a native speaker. Sometimes he forgets whether he told a student he was from Connecticut, or Chicago. Michael was hired without any previous teaching experience and given no training. Just thrown into a room with students and told, "go teach".
The following orders were sent out after the high-speed train crash in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. As reported by Reuters, the directives issued by the central government this time did not seem to work very well to contain public outrage. Heated discussions are still active on micro-blogs, social networking sites, discussion forums and many other online communities.
For months, doubts and accusations have swarmed on the margins of China's high-profile push to develop its high-speed rail system. But harder questions - about corruption, waste, quality, safety, service and intellectual property - were submerged by feel-good propaganda, pushing claims of technological superiority to win political points.
A torrent of outrage over a deadly high-speed train accident grew further on the Chinese Internet Tuesday, reflecting the mounting challenge China's leaders face in managing opinion of their governance among an increasingly wired and demanding public.
This purported video of the Wenzhou train collision has been burning up the internet since it was first uploaded onto the video-sharing site, Youku.
In the same week that China's Yao Ming landed in Shanghai to announce his retirement from the NBA, China's former "key athlete," Zhang Shangwu, was found begging in a Beijing subway station.
China recently experienced a spate of violent protests in the North and South. Impressed by the scale and intensity of these incidents, some foreign media have portrayed them as preludes to a bigger wave of grassroots resistance that could crack open the authoritarian state.
China's journey from a seriously poor, autarkic, economy to the "shop floor of the world," took a bit more than two decades. Today, less than a decade later, it appears poised to evolve into becoming a leading global innovator; but can China actually make this next great leap forward?
As the New China News Agency, Xinhua, takes over a 60 foot by 40 foot billboard in Times Square in New York, the same could be said for that media outlet. Xinhua is news. It has been the media mouthpiece of the world's largest nation for over six decades, and it should be looked at in objective detail.
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RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHERS
But as "Grandpa Wen" relinquishes the reins next year, the question of who will take his place remains unsettled. Unlike Xi Jinping, whose lock on the presidency and party chairmanship seems certain, the candidate who was once considered a shoe-in for premier, Li Keqiang, no longer looks so invincible. Instead, the stock of a reform-minded contender seems to be rising.
The Opium War is a touchy subject, admits Julia Lovell. The Chinese often refer to the conflict that began in 1839 as the beginning of colonial submission, while for many British it has faded to the footnotes of history. But the myths of the war are still relevant, as they explain China's complicated relationship with the West, Ms. Lovell argues in her new book, "The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China."
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RESOURCES
This glossary includes all common infectious diseases, disorders, disabilities, chromosomal abnormalities, neurodegenerative disorders, mental disorders, phobias, and so on. Some entries include the formal medical titles, former names and colloquialisms in brackets.
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