ZGBriefs November 4, 2011
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FEATURED ARTICLE
If you're retired, single and looking for love in Shanghai, try IKEA. Twice a week, hundreds of Shanghai residents who have formed an informal lonely hearts club of sorts gather at the cafeteria of the Swedish furniture megastore for free coffee and conversation. |
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GOVERNMENT / POLITICS / FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Activists slam US studio for filming in China city (October 31, 2011, AP) Rights activists have criticized a Hollywood studio for filming a buddy comedy in an eastern Chinese city where a blind, self-taught activist lawyer is being held under house arrest and reportedly has been beaten. Relativity Media is shooting part of the comedy, "21 and Over," in Linyi, a city in Shandong province where the activist Chen Guangcheng's village is located. Authorities have turned Chen's village of Dongshigu into a hostile, no-go zone, and activists, foreign diplomats and reporters have been turned back, threatened and had stones thrown at them by men patrolling the village. The news that Relativity Media had chosen Linyi, a city of 10 million, as a location for its film and was touting its close government connections comes at a time when activists have renewed their attention on Chen.
China, 3 countries meet over Mekong River security (October 31, 2011, AP) Officials from China, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar have agreed to cooperate on law enforcement on the Mekong river, where 13 Chinese sailors were killed earlier this month. Chinese Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu said after a meeting Monday that officials from the countries would set up a mechanism for joint patrols on the river and share intelligence information. Nine Thai soldiers surrendered Friday as suspects in the murders of the 13 Chinese near the Thai-Myanmar border. They asserted their innocence.
Chinese navy brings medical aid to Jamaica (November 1, 2011, AP) Dozens of doctors and nurses fanned out from a Chinese navy hospital ship Tuesday to treat poor Jamaicans as part of a global humanitarian mission to portray China's rapidly growing military as a responsible power. The People's Liberation Army's 584-foot-long (178-meter-long) Peace Ark carries more than 100 medical volunteers who provide free surgery, CAT scans, eye care and other procedures. The floating hospital was launched three years ago and is making its second foreign trip, the Chinese Embassy said. It is on a roughly 100-day journey around the Caribbean, where the United States is the largest investment source and military partner. The aim of the operation, dubbed "Harmonious Mission," is to soften the image of China's 2.3 million-member military and boost its ties with other nations' armed forces.
Anger over detained Chinese activist reaches capital (November 1, 2011, Reuters) Supporters of a blind legal activist, whose long confinement in his village in east China has sparked widespread anger, petitioned Beijing officials on Tuesday after some said they were beaten when they tried to visit the activist. In recent months, dozens of supporters have been blocked from visiting Chen Guangcheng, who is under virtual house arrest in his home village in Linyi in eastern Shandong province. Some of the supporters were beaten by dozens of men in plain clothes while trying to visit Chen on Sunday, and their complaints were later ignored by the local police, said Mao Hengfeng, a petitioner from Shanghai. She said the petitioners then went to Beijing's Ministry of Public Security, but it was not clear whether officials accepted their petition expressing concerns about Chen's treatment.
China to launch ethic training for all civil servants (November 2, 2011, Xinhua) China will launch an ethics training campaign for all of the country's civil servants over the next five years, according to a statement issued by the State Administration of Civil Service on Wednesday. All civil servants will be trained by the end of 2015, the last year of China's 12th Five-Year Plan period, and are required to complete a training course of no less than six hours in length, the statement said. Ethics training should be made a compulsory part of civil servants' job training, the statement said.
China military accepting bigger recruits, tattoos (October 2, 2011, AP) China's military is accepting recruits who are heavier and have more visible tattoos, conceding to rising prosperity and individuality among the nation's young. In keeping with a drive for better-educated recruits, the military is also opening up to university students willing to take time off to serve, offering them an additional 6,000 yuan ($944) annually to subsidize their educational costs and guaranteeing that their university places will be there for them when they return to campus. The changes announced by the Defense Ministry on Wednesday took effect during the People's Liberation Army's current winter recruitment drive. The People's Liberation Army is the world's largest, with 2.3 million people in uniform.
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HEALTH
China seizes $30 million of fake drugs (October 31, 2011, Reuters) Chinese police have seized fake drugs worth more than 190 million yuan ($29.9 million) during raids in the poor central province of Henan, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday. After a four-month investigation, police arrested 114 members of a counterfeit drug production network based in the city of Anyang and seized more than 65 million fake medicine bottles, the report said. Authorities were tipped off after "a woman used fake medicine to replace genuine medicine while pretending to make a purchase at a drug store in April", Xinhua said. "Police are continuing to investigate the case." It provided no further details.
Rural mothers-to-be in China lack syphilis testing (November 2, 2011, AP) Nearly half of pregnant women do not get tested for syphilis in poor areas of southern China where the sexually transmitted disease has seen a resurgence researchers said Wednesday. A study published in a World Health Organization journal found that more than 40 percent of about 125,000 mothers-to-be in Guangdong province were not tested for syphilis in 2008, mostly due to a lack of health facilities in rural areas. |
RELIGION
New Biography Examines Shaping, Legacy of John Sung (November 3, 2011, The Christian Post) A novel contribution to research on the life and work of John Sung (1901-1944) has been made in the form of a new biography of the 20th century revivalist exploring contextual and historical factors that shaped his life and legacy. The Life and Ministry of John Sung (Armour Publishing) is the first properly researched work on the Chinese revivalist since a groundbreaking biography written over half a century ago. Dr. Lim Ka-Tong, a pastor, wrote the 352-page biography to help readers understand Sung's effectiveness as an evangelist and his influence in the life and vibrancy of Chinese Christianity. The book shows how Sung was providentially nurtured, used and protected from spiritual and physical harm throughout his entire life. |
SOCIETY / LIFE
Henan riot: China anger after drunk police accident (October 30, 2011, BBC News) There have been violent protests in the central Chinese province of Henan after a policeman suspected of drunk driving crashed his car and killed five people. According to China's official Xinhua news agency, the policeman was arrested after his car hit two lamp posts, which fell on top of people.Witnesses and local reports said a crowd stopped the police taking away bodies, damaging and flipping hearses and a police van.
China Seeks $2.4 Million in Taxes From Dissident (November 1, 2011, The New York Times) Ai Weiwei, the dissident artist whose detention earlier this year stirred an international outcry, has been given two weeks to pay $2.4 million in back taxes and penalties, he said Tuesday. Mr. Ai and his lawyers have repeatedly denied the accusations against him, claiming the tax case is simply cover for the government's more chilling aim: to silence a provocateur who has become one of the most persistent and instantly recognizable critics of China's ruling Communist Party. "This is ridiculous," Mr. Ai said in a phone interview on Tuesday. "This is not the way a great power should behave toward its citizens."
Explosion in China kills at least 7, injures 200 (November 1, 2011, AP) A massive explosion near an expressway ramp in southwest China killed at least seven people and injured about 200 while also destroying several homes on Tuesday. The official Xinhua News Agency said the midday blast occurred in the Guizhou province city of Fuquan, but gave no further details. A man who answered the phone in the press office at the city's Communist Party branch said the blast was caused by three explosives-laden vehicles that caught fire, also destroying a garage and a food warehouse. The man, who like many Chinese officials refused to give his name, could not give details about what kind of explosives were involved.
Police rescue hundreds of foreign mail-order brides in rural China (November 3, 2011, Xinhua) Police in north China's Hebei Province have rescued 206 foreign women who were illegally purchased by desperate bachelors over the last two years, local officials said Thursday. Police in the province also rescued 3,500 women and children abducted from areas around China as part of a campaign against human trafficking, said Yan Zeli, an official from the provincial public security bureau.Yan said some rural families in Hebei still retain an old custom of purchasing wives for men who cannot find suitable Chinese spouses. These families have been more able to afford to buy mail-order wives in recent years, as their incomes have increased.Police have busted more than 429 trafficking rings and arrested 556 suspects since the campaign started in 2009, Yan said.
4 dead, 57 trapped in China coal mine rock blast (November 3, 2011, AP) Rescuers were working Friday to try to save 57 miners who were trapped in a coal mine in central China after a rock explosion that followed a small earthquake, state media reported. Four miners were killed in the blast. The accident in the coal mine in the city of Sanmenxia in Henan province occurred Thursday evening when 75 miners were working in the shaft, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Fourteen workers escaped. At least 200 workers were digging a small rescue tunnel about 1,650 feet (500 meters) deep to try to reach the trapped miners, the People's Daily newspaper's website said.
Nun dies in 11th self-immolation among Tibetans (November 3, 2011, AP) A Buddhist nun died after setting herself on fire Thursday, Chinese state media reported, in the 11th case of self-immolation among Tibetans in western China in recent months. The official Xinhua News Agency said it was unclear why the woman, about 35 years old and identified as Qiu Xiang, killed herself along a road in Sichuan province's Garze prefecture.
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BUSINESS / ECONOMICS / TRADE
China manufacturing activity slows amid growth concerns (October 31, 2011, BBC News) China has reported an unexpected drop in manufacturing activity raising fresh concerns about the impact of a global slowdown on its economy. China's Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to 50.4 in October from 51.2 in the previous month, the first drop in three months. The data comes amid fears that a slowdown in the global economy may dent demand for Chinese goods. Authorities warned that growth may slow even further.
Home prices fall for second consecutive month in October (November 1, 2011, Xinhua) Home prices in China fell in October for a second consecutive month due to the nation's tightening measures intended to cool the overheated property market, a research institute said Tuesday.The China Index Academy, a Beijing-based company that studies China's property market, said in a report that average home prices in the country's 100 major cities dropped by 0.23 percent last month from September to reach 8,856 yuan (1,396.85 U.S. dollars) per square meter. A total of 58 cities posted month-on-month declines in home prices last month, while two cities reported their prices unchanged from September, the academy said. Home prices in 11 cities dropped by more than 1 percent in October, up from 10 cities a month earlier.
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ENVIRONMENT / TECHNOLOGY
China Has Homemade Supercomputer Gain (October 28, 2011, The New York Times) China has made its first supercomputer based on Chinese microprocessor chips, an advance that surprised high-performance computing specialists in the United States. The announcement was made this week at a technical meeting held in Jinan, China, organized by industry and government organizations. The new machine, the Sunway BlueLight MPP, was installed in September at the National Supercomputer Center in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province in eastern China. The Sunway system, which can perform about 1,000 trillion calculations per second - a petaflop - will probably rank among the 20 fastest computers in the world. More significantly, it is composed of 8,700 ShenWei SW1600 microprocessors, designed at a Chinese computer institute and manufactured in Shanghai. Currently, the Chinese are about three generations behind the state-of-art chip making technologies used by world leaders such as the United States, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
China denies it is behind hacking of U.S. satellites (October 31, 2011, Reuters) Beijing on Monday denied a U.S. commission's claim that China may have been responsible for hacking incidents on U.S. environment-monitoring satellites, saying that the committee had "ulterior motives" in writing such a draft report. At least two U.S. environment-monitoring satellites were interfered with four or more times in 2007 and 2008 via a ground station in Norway, and China's military is a prime suspect, according to the draft report to Congress. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which reported the interference, said the events had not actually been traced to China. It said it was citing them "because the techniques appear consistent with authoritative Chinese military writings" that have advocated disabling satellite control facilities in any conflict.
China completes first space docking test (November 3, 2011, Reuters) China successfully carried out its first docking exercise on Thursday between two unmanned spacecraft, a key test of the rising power's plans to secure a long-term manned foothold in space. The Shenzhou 8 spacecraft joined the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1 module about 340 km (211 miles) above Earth, in a maneuver carried live on state television in the early hours of the morning. The 10.5 meter-long unmanned Tiangong, launched on September 29, is part of China's preparations for a space laboratory at some point in the future.
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LINKS TO DETAILED ARTICLES AND ANALYSIS
Chinglish tells the story of a struggling American businessman trying to win a Chinese business contract, with amusing consequences. A new play is bringing to light what is lost in translation between residents of China and the English-speaking world.
One day this month, the reading was so high compared with U.S. standards it was listed as 'beyond index.' But China's own assessment that day was that Beijing's air was merely 'slightly polluted.'
Three coach-loads of Chinese policemen dealt briskly and aggressively with a protest outside a court in downtown Shanghai on Tuesday, clearing a noisy crowd in minutes and setting up a security cordon.
Just how belligerent is the state-run tabloid? Let's take a look at 10 of its most scatching screed.
Economic observers believe China is riding for a fall amid rising debts, illicit loans and increasing social unrest
Chinese families have long favoured sons over daughters, meaning the country now has a huge surplus of men. Is it also leading to a profound shift in attitudes to women?
Microblogging even has the potential to transform China - and its leaders know it. That is why they are now debating how to control this social revolution.
As the G20 leaders gather in the south of France and Europe's economies slide towards another crisis, the search for a solution has led many to look towards China. With plenty of cash from its huge export industry China is seen as a promising source of help with the euro bailout scheme.
More than half of China's millionaires are either considering emigrating or have already taken steps to do so, according to a survey that builds on similar findings earlier this year, highlighting worries among the business elite about their quality of life and financial prospects, despite the country's fast-paced growth.
Since March, according to rights groups, 10 Tibetan Buddhist clergy have set themselves on fire in China's western Sichuan province. Almost all those have come in or around the town of Aba, 50 miles as the crow flies to the west of Hongyuan, amid mountain ranges at the edge of the Tibetan plateau where yaks graze and prayer flags inscribed with mantras and blessings flap in the wind.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said his family was "constantly attacked" in Maoist political campaigns that convulsed the country over past decades, giving a rare glimpse into his tumultuous past as he prepares to leave office. China's wary leaders rarely talk about their pasts. But the premier opened up in comments to students and teachers that were published in the China Education News on Wednesday, saying his father was dismissed as a teacher and sent to tend pigs.
But China has been showing a very different face to countries closer to home in an increasingly tense confrontation over rival claims to the resource-rich waters of the South China Sea. It is a region where the peaceful nature of China's rise is starting to be questioned as it pushes a long-standing maritime claim that stretches deep into South East Asia.
According to Alexa, a Web tracking firm, Taobao.com is the third-most visited site in China and the 15th-most visited site in the world - smack between Yahoo! Japan and Google India. (eBay is No. 22.)
China's people have a clear message for their government -- don't even think of saving Europe. Ahead of a G20 summit in France on Thursday, tens of thousands of ordinary Chinese have been venting their anger online, demanding their leaders sort out China's own problems before bailing out Europe.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, an American businessman who has written as a confidant of Chinese officials like former President Jiang Zemin, says the generation of Communist Party leaders who are expected take power in next year's once-per-decade personnel shuffle will struggle with overlapping interests and constituencies. He dubs their challenge the "three blurs."
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LINKS TO BLOGS
The Chinese media have a name for children like Long Zhanghuan whose parents have migrated in search of a better life for their family -- they're China's "left-behind children" (留守儿童). The People's Daily estimates some 58 million "left behind children" in China. The number means that more than a quarter of children in rural areas are "left behind".
The third installment of a three-part review of Christianity and Chinese Culture, edited by Miikka Ruokanen and Paulos Huang (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010). See also part one on Confucianism and part two on Chinese Religions.
Is China headed for a health care crisis as its work force ages, or can its goal of providing universal health care by 2020 work well enough so that people can spend more freely on other goods or services?
Rigid stability is about defining absolute social calm as the objective of governance, and seeing each and every act of resistance as disorder and chaos, all to be struck down and suppressed through whatever means possible. In a situation of rigid stability, social management methods are always simplified and taken to the extreme.
Note: This is a translation of an open letter written by Wen Yunchao (twitter: @wenyunchao), an outspoken blogger and free speech activist on the Chinese Internet. It is addressed to the investors of Sina Corp, and explores the censorship practices and implications of the corporate structure of the company, which runs the most popular microblogging service in China.
If there's one animal that matters most the well-being of Chinese families, it's the pig. Pork is far and away China's favorite meat. It is also the largest single component in the basket of goods that goes into calculating Chinese inflation. For most of the year, inflation in China has hovered around 6% - squeezing household grocery budgets and giving the country's leaders fits - thanks largely to a shortage of pigs.
I occasionally get asked to recommend good Chinese history books that are well-researched but also accessible to a general readership. So as a mild public service, here it is...my 5 Books about the Qing Dynasty.
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RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHERS
World Bank economist Kirk Hamilton explains how China is growing while the U.S. flirts with asset depreciation.
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