ZGBriefs August 25, 2011
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FEATURED ARTICLE
A glossy software office in Chengdu seems a long way from the images of centrally directed, belching factories seeking to dominate the global economy. But a close examination of the emerging Sinosphere - or Chinese sphere of influence - shows an economy that is globally dispersed, multinational and increasingly focused on the high-tech and service sectors.
In this feverish context a message that spread online through social media the preceding week drew 12,000 people onto the streets. Remarkably, the people who responded to the call didn't know who sent it. Without knowing the leader or whether he or she could be personally trusted, they came -- some stridently, some partly out of curiosity. They came on short notice. They came on a drizzly Sunday morning. |
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GOVERNMENT / POLITICS / FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Foreign Ministry won't publish expenses to protect state secrets (August 23, 2011, Shanghai Daily) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not publish its spending on overseas travels, receptions, entertainment and car use as it involves national secrets, Beijing News reported today. The ministry became the first central government department that clearly stated it wouldn't disclose the expenditure in the three aspects. At an anti-graft meeting on March 24, the State Council, China's Cabinet, announced that all government departments were to publish their expenditures in the three categories by the end of June. It reiterated the order on May 4. It was part of its efforts to root out corruption and promote clean government.
Pentagon: China military growing rapidly (August 24, 2011, AP) A Pentagon report says China's development of a new stealth fighter, an aircraft carrier and a record number of space launches over the past year puts it on pace to achieve its goal of building a modern, regionally focused military by 2020.The report released Tuesday says Beijing has closed critical technological gaps, and is rapidly modernizing its military equipment, all with an eye toward preventing possible U.S. intervention in a conflict with Taiwan. It also warns that the military expansion could increasingly stretch to the western Pacific in a move to deny U.S. and allied access or movement there. The Pentagon says the new stealth fighter along with longer range missiles could give Beijing the ability to strike regional air bases and other facilities.
Japan protests over China ships in disputed waters (August 24, 2011, Reuters) Japan lodged a formal protest on Wednesday after two Chinese ships briefly entered what it regards as its territorial waters near disputed East China Sea islets, the latest flare-up in a long-running dispute. "Vice Foreign Minister (Kenichiro) Sasae summoned the Chinese ambassador and said the Senkaku islands are Japan's integral territory historically and in terms of international law," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. "He protested firmly and demanded they prevent a recurrence" on an incident last year, he told a regular news conference.
China replaces Tibet's hard-line party boss (August 25, 2011, AP) China on Thursday replaced Tibet's hard-line Communist Party boss under whom bloody rioting broke out in the Himalayan region three years ago. The official Xinhua News Agency said Zhang Qingli, the region's highest-ranking official, is being moved to another position which it did not identify. It said he will be replaced by Chen Quanguo, a longtime party official in the eastern province of Henan who last served as governor of Hebei province surrounding Beijing. Like all of Tibet's party chiefs, Chen is not Tibetan but a member of China's majority Han ethnic group. No reason was given for the move, although Zhang has served five years in the position, roughly the standard term for provincial officials.
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HEALTH
Two confirmed anthrax infection cases reported in NE China (August 23, 2011, Xinhua) Two people have been confirmed infected with cutaneous anthrax, while 33 others were suspected as having the disease in Liaoning Province, health authorities said Tuesday. Wang Tianyu, an official with the emergency response office of the Liaoning Health Bureau, said the two patients -- both locals in Niuzhuang Township, Haicheng City -- were diagnosed after their cell samples tested positive for the disease by state-level labs. Suspected anthrax infection cases were first reported in Haicheng on Aug. 6. All those 35 people either confirmed or suspected to have the disease have been hospitalized. |
RELIGION
Inner Mongolia, 21 Protestant leaders arrested (August 24, 2011, AsiaNews.it) Arrests, forced detentions, threats and extortion: these are the "weapons" with which the Chinese government is carrying out religious persecution in the country. The Chinese government arrested 21 unofficial Protestant Christian leaders on charges of "using a cult organization to undermine national law". Of these, six were released on health grounds: the other 15 are in jail since the end of July. The news was only reported today by ChinaAid Association, a non-governmental organization that monitors the status of religious freedom in the country.
Reports: Chinese priests detained over new bishop (August 24, 2011, AP) A number of priests and laymen in China's underground Catholic church have been detained in the country's northwest in a struggle over the appointment of a new bishop, overseas reports said Wednesday. Catholic news agencies AsiaNews and ucanews said security officials rounded up men from the underground community in the city of Tianshui over the weekend. They are being held separately and are required to attend political study sessions for four hours each day, they said. However, an official with the local government's Religious Affairs Bureau said the men were merely taking part in a routine training session."There was definitely no detention at all," said the man, who refused to give his name because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.AsiaNews and ucanews said the actions appeared to be aimed at persuading the men to support the official candidate to fill the bishop's seat in Tianshui. |
EDUCATION / CULTURE
More students look to US for grad school (August 25, 2011, Xinhua) Some agencies that help Chinese study overseas are seeing leading US universities make a record number of admission offers for doctorate programs this year. "We are so surprised and happy to see so many admission offers pouring in from Stanford University, New York University and Columbia University," said Zhang Meng, senior manager of CACDIY International, an agency that helps Chinese study overseas. "If Chinese students only have admission offers, that means they have to pay all of their tuition and living fees," he said. "I guess US universities want to attract more Chinese students, who brought in a large amount of money this year. "Chinese students who have more than two offers, regardless of their money situation, simply have more choices." |
SOCIETY / LIFE
Chinese journalist suspended for outspoken report (August 19, 2011, AP) A Chinese journalist has been suspended after publishing an article challenging the Communist Party's official take on a national hero, a newspaper reported, in the latest example of a reporter pushing the limits of censorship only to have authorities rein them back in. Magazine editor Zhao Lingmin was suspended Monday because of a Q&A-style interview she did with a Taiwanese historian that portrayed modern China's founding father Sun Yat-sen in an unfavorable light, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported Thursday. Zhao works for Nanfeng Chuang, a magazine in southern China's Guangdong province, which is home to several publications known for relatively fearless reporting. The Post said Nanfeng Chuang's president, Chen Zhong, was demoted because of the piece.
Stray cat 'army' battles west China rodent plague (August 20, 2011, AP) Stray cats rounded up in a remote west China city are being used to catch rodents that have infested surrounding pasture lands. Some 150 strays - dubbed by Chinese media as the "cat army" - were turned loose on the range lands outside Bole city in May to fight what the government calls a plague of rats. The state-run Xinhua News Agency says that the cats were brought in, along with tons of poisonous rat pellets. The Bole government said in late June that rat holes had decreased by more than half. The Xinhua report on Friday quoted a Bole official as saying the cats were proving valuable.
"Biden set" a hit at Beijing restaurant (August 23, 2011, Reuters) Black bean sauce noodles and other delicacies served at one Beijing eatery are being snapped up by customers eager to order the dishes eaten by Vice President Joe Biden on a recent visit, a meal dubbed "noodle diplomacy." Biden and his entourage ordered five bowls of black bean sauce noodles, 10 steamed buns, smashed cucumber salad, mountain yam salad, shredded potatoes and Coca Cola at Yao's Chao Gan restaurant for lunch last Thursday, racking up a tab of 79 yuan ($12.40). Staff at the small restaurant said the number of customers ordering the noodles has risen by four times since then, with many coming in to order what they call the "Biden Set" even if it is not on the menu -- though owner Yao Yan plans to include it soon. "U.S. Vice President Joe Biden came to my restaurant for lunch just like an ordinary customer, and we treated him like an everyday guest who came from far away," she told Reuters Television. "We didn't give him any discounts or special offers."
Tainted vinegar blamed for 11 deaths (August 23, 2011, Shanghai Daily) Police yesterday blamed tainted vinegar for causing mass poisoning that killed at least 11 people and sickened about 120 others at a Ramadan meal in northwest China. A six-year-old was among the dead in the incident in the village of Sangzhu, near the city of Hotan in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Friday, police said. One person remains critical while the others are out of danger after hospital treatment. An initial investigation found that villagers consumed vinegar from two plastic barrels that previously contained antifreeze at a late night Ramadan meal and felt sick the next day. Tests have yet to confirm the source of poisoning, police said. Police investigations are continuing.
Chinese Official Says Train Crash 'Should Not Have Happened' (August 23, 2011, The New York Times) An official at a Chinese government agency investigating a deadly high-speed rail crash in late July has said "the accident should not have happened" and that "it could have been avoided and prevented," according to Xinhua, the state news agency. The official, Huang Yi, a spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety, said in the Xinhua report, which appeared Tuesday, that the agency would find the people and businesses responsible. Mr. Huang reiterated an earlier conclusion by officials that the accident occurred because of faults in the signaling system, and said that there were also shortcomings in the emergency and safety management systems.
China official tells Web firms to control content (August 24, 2011, AP) A Communist Party leader has told China's Internet companies to tighten control over material online as Beijing cracks down on dissent and tries to block the rise of Middle East-style protests. The party secretary for Beijing, Liu Qi, issued the warning following a visit this week to Sina Corp., which operates a popular microblogging site, according to the party-published newspaper Beijing Daily. Internet companies should "strengthen management and firmly prevent the spread of fake and harmful information," Liu was quoted as saying after the visit Monday to Sina. He said companies should "resist fake and negative information."
Lady Gaga and Beyonce on China song blacklist (August 24, 2011, BBC News) Hits by Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Take That are among 100 songs that have been placed on an internet blacklist by China's culture ministry. Music websites have been given until 15 September to remove the offending tracks, which officials say harm "national cultural security". Those that fail to do so risk being prosecuted by the Chinese authorities.
Torture confessions to be outlawed (August 25, 2011, Shanghai Daily) China's top legislature will revise the Criminal Procedural Law to prevent judges from accepting confessions from tortured suspects and give these suspects more defense options. A draft amendment submitted yesterday to the National People's Congress Standing Committee states that "evidence and confessions collected through torture, violence and threats should not be accepted." "Procuratorial organs should investigate allegations of collecting evidence through illegal methods," according to the draft. Interrogators suspected of collecting confessions or evidence through illegal methods should be prosecuted as criminals, it said. It also states that all interrogations of criminal suspects should be conducted in detention houses and that the entire interrogation should be videotaped in the most serious criminal cases.
China executes man for running over Mongol herder (August 25, 2011, AP) China has executed a truck driver for killing an ethnic Mongol herder in a case that sparked Inner Mongolia's largest demonstrations in 20 years. The official Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report that Li Lindong was executed Aug. 18. The report, dated Aug. 19, was posted to a regional news website and appeared to not be widely circulated. The herder, Mergen, who like many Mongols uses just one name, was killed May 10 while he and others were blocking the road through their village to protest noise and pollution produced by coal trucks transiting the grasslands. Police said Li ran over Mergen and then dragged his body for 160 yards (145 meters) before he died. His death and that of another Mongol in a clash with Chinese coal miners sparked protests across the sprawling northern pastureland by herders and students demanding justice and greater protection for Mongol culture and the nomadic herding lifestyle.
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BUSINESS / ECONOMICS / TRADE
China factory output cools in August: HSBC (August 23, 2011, BBC News) China's factory sector is likely to slow slightly for a second consecutive month in August as sluggish overseas demand saps new orders, HSBC's China Flash PMI showed on Tuesday. The listless performance attests to China's gently slowing economy, and does little to dispel market worries that global demand is faltering on Europe's persistent debt problems and sluggish U.S. growth. The flash Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), designed to preview China's factory output before official data is released, edged up to 49.8 in August, from July's final reading of 49.3.
Chinese site bans Web tools used to evade filters (August 23, 2011, AP) A major Chinese online commerce site has banned sales of software used to bypass Internet censorship amid Beijing's efforts to block the development of a Middle East-style protest movement. But Taobao.com, part of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, said it took the action on its own and received no official order. A notice on Taobao.com said virtual private networks and Internet protocol proxies were being used to illegally visit foreign websites. It told merchants that use the site to stop selling them and said the accounts of violaters might be canceled.
China central bank adviser expects long-term dollar decline (August 23, 2011, Reuters) The U.S. dollar is likely to weaken over the long-term, although it may rebound in the short run, Xia Bin, an academic adviser to the central bank said on Tuesday, reiterating his long-held view. Fears of another U.S. recession and the ultra-loose monetary policy in the United States has put pressure on the dollar to weaken against major currencies as well as the Chinese yuan.
China says Google has not sought approval on Motorola (August 24, 2011, Reuters) China's Commerce Ministry said it had not received an application for regulatory approval from Google Inc on its planned $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings. Under Chinese laws, enterprises that run businesses in China and that earn annual revenues of 10 billion yuan ($1.55 billion) globally and 400 million yuan in China must seek government approval for a proposed acquisition.
Beijing Olympics Bill Due as Record Bonds Mature: China Credit (August 24, 2011, Bloomberg) Beijing's state-owned infrastructure companies face a record amount of bonds maturing next year as China's capital city pays the bills for the $70 billion 2008 Olympic Games. Fifteen local government financing units based in Beijing must pay 16.2 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) next year plus interest to investors, breaking last year's record 12 billion yuan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A further 11.6 billion yuan matures in 2013 and 37.6 billion yuan in 2014.
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ENVIRONMENT / TECHNOLOGY
Workers find cracked axle on bullet train (August 22, 2011, Shanghai Daily) A Crack was found on the axle of a CRH380BL train, the type used on the Shanghai-Beijing high-speed line, just over two weeks after the service went into operation, it has been revealed. According to a flaw detection report obtained by the Caixin Century magazine, workers found the crack on a train axle on July 15 at a base in central China's Jinan City. CNR blamed frequent breakdowns of the CRH380BL on train sensors but did not mention any problems with axles. The crack was about 7.1 millimeters long and 2.4mm wide, according to the detection report, and it was suggested the axle be replaced. Axle flaws were also found on other trains of same model, according to Caixin.
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LINKS TO DETAILED ARTICLES AND ANALYSIS
China has begun inspections of all its showcase bullet train lines following a crash last month that killed 40 people, as authorities try to work out who is ultimately responsible for the disaster. The State Administration of Work Safety will present a report on the July 23 crash to China's top leaders in September, the agency's spokesman Huang Yi said in comments Tuesday on its website. "Of course, a period of analysis is required to determine both the direct and indirect factors behind the crash and to work out who is responsible," Huang said.
The most interesting result so far is that we estimate that 96% of all page views in China are to web sites hosted within China. This is a very interesting finding because of its implications for how to understand Internet control in China.
China, the world's biggest exporter and second biggest economy, is still booming, with its GDP expanding at about 9% a year. Since the 2008 financial crisis it has helped keep the global economy growing. But, as our China Correspondent Damian Grammaticas reports, China may not be immune if there is a new slowdown in the US and Europe.
Members of the Turkic minority have traveled from faraway Xinjiang to file grievances. Unable to find housing, they resort to living under bridges. Some have been detained then sent home.
In a SPIEGEL interview, China's vice minister of foreign affairs, Fu Ying, 58, accuses Europeans and Americans of perpetuating Cold War stereotypes of her country, rejects allegations surrounding the treatment of artist Ai Weiwei and disputes notions that Beijing would like to rule the world.
It is one of China's main tourist attractions, an ancient emperor's palace in the heart of Beijing visited by up to 80,000 tourists a day and long recognised as a world treasure by Unesco. But the Palace Museum, more commonly known as the Forbidden City, is in danger of turning into a national embarrassment amid allegations of embezzlement, tax avoidance, lax security and concerns over an infestation of termites.
Before Joe Biden left China this week, the last thing Vice President Xi Jinping told him over dinner was simple: he wants to be friends. If that happens, the U.S. vice president may be the first Western leader to have an inside view into the nature of the little-known man who is expected to take over the helm of the world's second largest economy in 2013.
"China's leaders are committed to altering their country's macroeconomic landscape," Evan A. Feigenbaum, a China analyst at Eurasia Group, a global consulting firm, said in a statement attached to a report released Aug. 17. "But the country's political economy will not change as fundamentally as many in China and abroad hope. And the next decade is likely to be more fraught than conventional wisdom suspects."
Long and stable rule is based on constructive interaction between governors and citizens. The longer the rule is, the more carefully the governors should listen to people's concerns. Its close ties with the masses have been the biggest political advantage of the CPC. Breaking away from the masses is the biggest danger for CPC. The Party should always respond to people's demands. The Party should always consider people's concerns. And the Party should always be able to solve people's problems. The Party should be open, especially in the micro blog sphere, to people's voices.
Without a native religion in the sense of Christianity or Islam, Chinese people's ethos is characterized by pragmatism.
In the latest incident involving violence by families of deceased patients, a hospital staff in Nanchang fights back. Some say the protests are a ploy for money.
Review of "Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chung King Mansion, Hong Kong, by Gordon Matthews). Chungking Mansions, which stretches from 36-44 Nathan Road, comes as a shock of otherworldly proportions. Teeming, crumbling and motley in the extreme, it is a structure to attract or repel the people of Hong Kong, like the Spaceport Cantina in the original "Star Wars".
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LINKS TO BLOGS
If one simply looks at the number of people relocating, China is indeed undergoing rapid urbanisation. But while its epic rural-urban shift has many of the trappings of what amounts to contemporary urbanisation elsewhere in the world, urbanisation in China is a more complicated phenomenon that requires a deeper understanding beyond the superficial, one-dimensional narrative.
Located in, or rather under, mountainous districts of Hebei Province, in northern China, the facility is reportedly hundreds of meters deep. That makes it an exceptionally hard target against conventional or nuclear counterstrikes.China Defense Daily, a publication of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), confirmed the CCTV account in December 2009.
Can you imagine a college basketball team coming from China, and playing a quasi-professional team in the U.S. stacked with members of the U.S. Army? I know it's even tough to imagine that, but then can you imagine a game where U.S. soldiers playing basketball threw punches and stomped on members of a Chinese college team- in addition to punches, chairs, and bottles of water thrown from an American crowd?
But the Lhasa speech was broadcast live on Chinese state television, an exceptional event and an indication of its national importance. Watching Xi deliver it gives a much more complex impression both of him and of China: the visual information largely conveys the opposite of Xi's words.
Press coverage of the Libyan civil war in China has been rather unenthusiastic about regime change since the protests that began on February 15 this year and spiraled into an armed conflict, and it's likely that this tone will continue.
One of the biggest misconceptions in the west about China is that "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" is anything like "Socialism". From the 1970's China has maintained only the State owned enterprises, which are incredibly profitable, but has done away with most of the social programs.
On August 17, QQ.com hosted an online chat with well-known Chinese Academy of Social Sciences professor and CMP fellow Yu Jianrong (于建嵘). The chat gave Chinese web users an opportunity to express their views and ask Yu about his views on education, property demolition and migrants' rights. The interview is an interesting illustration of how internet portals, which are prevented under Chinese regulations from news reporting, employ other means to address topics of interest to their audiences.
China has big business interests in Libya, with billions of dollars invested in infrastructure projects. Now it contemplates a Libya without Muammar Gaddafi, a key ally in the Middle East.
For the past few years I have been dreaming and scheming about doing a China road trip. Some days the urge to take 3 months off, buy an SUV and drive from Beijing to Kashgar is overwhelming, so when I saw the title of Rob Gifford's book China Road, I instinctively knew that this was a book that I was going to like. When I finished it, I realized that it was the book I wanted to write!
The CCP agenda broadly involves improving the party's social management capabilities, and improving social cohesion by promoting equality and justice.
Do these recent incidents of middle-class protest and their powerful impacts indicate that China has entered a new era of political development driven by middle class demands for change? It's tempting to say yes, especially after the Dalian protest. However, a closer look at the development of civil society in China suggests that what happened in Dalian was an isolated case and that the middle class is not yet prepared to engage in organized political activism.
Amid growing U.S. concerns of ongoing Chinese cyberattacks, attribution remains the most complex issue. At the open source level at least, it has been hard to find a "smoking cursor." That is, until the broadcast of a recent cyberwarfare program on the military channel of China's state television network.
Vice President Joe Biden in China last weekend prompted renewed controversy over China's one-child policy, in remarks that seemed to condone the government rule.
Now seems the time both to correct the problematic aspects of the Bloomberg piece and also to discuss lessons we may take away from the entire episode.
One of the few things I dislike about my job is putting the kibosh on a project. I have had to do this many times to foreign companies with China projects that are just not legal. I explain that if the project is illegal under Chinese law, it will always be at risk of being shut down by Beijing, local government guanxi or not. It is our job as lawyers to explain the legal risks and it is the job of our clients to decide what risks to take.
Despite the sledge-hammer strategy, sex scholar Katrien Jacobs says in an interview published Tuesday by the Web magazine Danwei, China's guardians of public morality are losing, badly.
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RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHERS
Are Americans at a linguistic disadvantage as China continues its rapid rise?
Chinese leaders have realised that as the country moves toward domestically-driven growth, and away from the predominance of heavy industry and exports, its social welfare system will need to be developed significantly.
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RESOURCES
I wrote this blog entry mainly for my Chinese students who have trouble with some basic cohesive devices in English - e.g. firstly/at first, lastly/at last, finally/ultimately, etc. However the word and sentence translations here I'm sure will also be helpful for Chinese learners.
When you learned that the Chinese language contained loads of these weird characters known as measure words (量词), how did you feel? Does 'Argh!!!!!' describe the feeling accurately? If you were like us you might have come to China (or Taiwan) thinking you could get away with just using 个. When you got here though you soon realised 个 just wouldn't cut it. So to try and help we thought we'd create a list of 10 of the most common measure words.
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