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Today’s links:
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
刷卡手续费下调落定 银联“忧心”线上消费釜底抽薪_财经频道_一财网 – government mandates cut in banks card processing fees
Gao Hua Securities Acquires Shenzhen Futures Broker – Caixin – Goldman Sachs’ strategic partner in China, Beijing Gao Hua Securities, has embarked on futures trading by acquiring Shenzhen-based broker QK Futures Corp.
NDRC approves 75b yuan rail projects |Industries |chinadaily.com.cn– railway from fuzhou to pingtan island..guess the big project there still happening// China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, approved infrastructure projects valued at 75 billion yuan ($12 billion), in an effort to stabilize China’s slowing economic growth. The news was announced on the commission’s website on Monday
Gloom Over China Stocks Deepens; A 4-Year Low – WSJ.com – below 2000//SHANGHAI—China’s main stock index closed at its lowest level in almost four years Tuesday and slipped below a key psychological level, indicating deepening investor worries over the health of the nation’s public equity markets.
OECD Expects China Growth to Bounce Back – WSJ.com – China’s economy is set to accelerate briskly in the next two years, while Japan’s tepid growth should finally drag it out of deflation even as the government sinks into unprecedented debt levels, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday.
Birth rule could be relaxed |Society |chinadaily.com.cn – Changes to the family planning policy are being considered, and action plans have been drawn up, amid a graying society and other demographic challenges, according to a former minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission.
Block Gives Up on China Shorts, Says State Protects Fraud – Bloomberg – seems like it at the local level, but does not help that so far he has also been wrong on his last 3 china attacks, spreadtrum, focus media and new oriental. low hanging fruit gone// “China has gotten harder in the sense that the government has really taken the side of the fraud,” Block said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers” program today. “The government is working with a number of these companies to try to conceal records that are public. When you are up against that sort of strength of the ability to revise history, it becomes difficult. That is one of the reasons we’re not that interested in China anymore.”
Sky’s the limit for booming general aviation sector – People’s Daily Online– Local companies are lining up to take advantage of what is expected to be huge growth across China’s general aviation market. The sector covers all flying except for commercial flights, and includes such activities as private flights, air ambulance services, police aviation and air charter services.
Challenges And Opportunities As Beijing Office Expands Global Firm Capabilities In Trade, M&A, Corporate And Private Equity | The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel – The Editor interviews Spencer S. Griffith, Partner in the International Trade practice and former Partner-in-Charge of Akin Gump’s Beijing office, and William L. Rosoff, current Partner-in-Charge of Akin Gump’s Beijing office, whose practice focuses on M&A, general corporate and China-related matters.
Investors Find Ways to Go Beyond PBOC Limits on Yuan – WSJ.com– SHANGHAI—Chinese investors are finding new ways to express optimism about the yuan despite Beijing’s tight controls, the latest indication of the increasing divergence between the market and authorities on where they think the Chinese currency should be trading. Some investors are trying to profit off trades of once little-used short-term yuan forward contracts that effectively allow them to go beyond yuan trading limits set by the People Bank of China
China Industrial-Company Profit Gains Accelerated in October – Bloomberg – Net income gained 20.5 percent from a year earlier to 500.1 billion yuan ($80.4 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said today in Beijing. Profits in September rose 7.8 percent, the first gain in six months.
POLITICS AND LAW
人民日报-习近平作出重要指示 要求广大党员干部学习罗阳同志优秀品质和可贵精神 –
Tibet Protesters Hurt in Crackdown – Self-Immolations Continue – NYTimes.com – At least five Tibetans have set fire to themselves in recent days to protest Chinese rule in Tibetan regions, while at least five Tibetan students were in critical condition and 15 others were being treated for injuries after security forces cracked down on a large protest in western China on Monday, according to reports by Radio Free Asia and Free Tibet, an advocacy group.
媒体盘点205名新一届中央委员现任职务_新闻_腾讯网 – lists the jobs of the 205 new central committee members
李庄：在看守所曾默念藏头诗 监舍里是“老大”_网易新闻中心– Li Zhuang back in Chongqing, his case being reevaluated, press having a firled day with his disclosures// 向最高检控告“重庆市公安局李庄案、龚刚模案专案组所有警员涉嫌徇私枉法罪”的李庄，接到重庆一中院的约谈电话后，25日夜抵达重庆。 昨日，李庄在接受新京报记者采访时说，11月29日，重庆市一中院将约谈他，就其申诉和控告事项了解情况。
朱瑞峰披露扳倒雷政富过程 – 西蒙周 – 名家博客 – 博客 – 财经网 – 并立案调查。爆料者朱瑞峰在接受专访时表示，揭露此案是送给肩负反腐重任的中纪委书记王岐山和重庆市委书记孙政才的一份厚礼。
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
U.S. to raise passport map issue with China | Reuters – State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news briefing. “We do intend to raise this with the Chinese in terms of it not being helpful to the environment we all seek to resolve these issues.”
North Korea May Be Planning Rocket Test, Satellite Operator Says – NYTimes.com – North Korea has stepped up what could be preparations to launch a new rocket from its northwestern launching station in defiance of a United Nations ban, the satellite operator DigitalGlobe said Tuesday, citing recent satellite imagery of the facility.
人民日报-引导国际关系新发展（高举和平、发展、合作、共赢的旗帜） 钟 声 –
Military innovation improves China’s self-confidence – People’s Daily Online– Anyone with a little military common sense knows that it is sheer nonsense that J-15 is the “replica” of some foreign airplane. J-15 is the first multi-purpose carrier-based fighter developed by China which can carry out air and sea combat missions. It has completely independent intellectual property rights and is a truly Chinese fighter. It is also the results of innovation and intellectual research of China’s defense scientists and engineers. The so-called “plagiarism” is untenable and a reflection of some people’s “sour grapes” mentality. Those with ulterior motives must not underestimate China’s capability of independent innovation on national defense science and technology.
North Korea’s top leader named The Onion’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2012 – People’s Daily Online– Edited and translated by Zhang Qian, People’s Daily Online U.S. website The Onion has named North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un as the “Sexiest Man Alive for the year 2012”.
Kim Jong-Un Named The Onion’s Sexiest Man Alive For 2012 [UPDATE] | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source – UPDATE: For more coverage on The Onion’s Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our friends at the People’s Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades.
China’s Official People’s Daily Quotes the Onion: Kim Jong Eun ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ – China Real Time Report – WSJ – The People’s Daily newspaper, which for more than six decades has sternly spouted the party line, on Tuesday posted on its website a 55-photo slideshow dedicated to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Eun. The occasion: The satirical newspaper the Onion earlier this month declared the double-chinned Mr. Kim the “sexiest man alive for 2012.”
U.S. Treasury Declines to Name China Currency Manipulator – Bloomberg – China “has substantially reduced the level of official intervention in exchange markets since the third quarter of 2011,” the Treasury Department said in a statement accompanying its semi-annual currency report to Congress in Washington today. Still, further appreciation of the yuan “against the dollar and other major currencies is warranted.”
China Unveils New Killer Drones, Aims Them At Russia | Danger Room | Wired.com – If you’re the leader of a small or mid-sized Latin American, African or Asian country, a relatively cheap Chinese drone (that packs a punch) might not be a bad deal — think bargain shopping for flying death robots — compared to the more pricey American or Israeli drones, which happen to lead the world market. That means even if China’s drones won’t match the U.S. anytime soon, it may still spread them far and wide.
Oppa Aircraft Carrier Style! Assessing China’s First Carrier Takeoff and Landing – China Real Time Report – WSJ – On the other hand, always choosing “baby steps” over “pushing the envelope” will severely restrict the progress that Beijing can make. Chinese planners thus face important decisions in this regard. How they decide will be reflected in part in how aggressively Liaoning pursues operations at night, in all weather conditions, and in rough seas. Perhaps if public excitement eventually dies down, it will become easier to use the carrier.
China defense chief says military buildup no threat to the world | Reuters – China’s military buildup poses no threat to the world, Defense Minister Liang Guanglie said on Tuesday, in an effort to allay fears among Asian neighbors amid long-running maritime disputes.
China in Africa: The Real Story: China and Mauritania: Whatever Happened to the Railway? – nothing
The World According to Xi by Zhu Feng – Project Syndicate – Xi understands that the world expects not only a better China, but also a China that is committed to constructing a better world. He will be a tough and strong-minded leader, but one who understands the world in a pragmatic way and knows how to work well with his foreign counterparts.
TECH AND MEDIA
叫板阿里 京东涉水供应链金融领域_财经频道_一财网 – 360buy to copy alibaba, offer financing to suppliers? what could go wrong, a massively loss making ecommerce site lending out money it just raised from foreigners…
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Art in Beijing: Museum showcases other ‘Ai’ –used to love her music, met her last year, married very well// “We chose Ai Jing based on our understanding of her artwork and of public expectation,” said Chen Lüsheng, the deputy director of the National Museum. “We believe Ai Jing’s art pieces will connect China’s 5,000 years history with modern art.”Chinese art-lovers know Ai Jing best as a pop singer and song-writer.
A New Tower of Babel | ChinaFile Beta – Indeed, if this plot summary sounds slim, consider this: From Point-to-Point is “written” without a single word—at least as they are traditionally defined. Instead, it is composed with hundreds of icons, or pictograms, that Xu has been collecting for years. Where Book from the Sky can be read by no one, Book from the Ground can be read by any one. It is, in other words, a remarkable effort to create a universal form of written communication that transcends cultural, linguistic, class, and educational backgrounds. In Xu’s words, “The illiterate can enjoy the delight of reading just as the intellectual does.”
The Troubling Inner Workings of One “U.S. College Application Consulting Company” in China | Tea Leaf Nation – From my experience with the process, however, what the Chinese overseas study consulting companies are trying to offer is not just essay editing but something dangerously close to plagiarism. Because the concept of intellectual property is still relatively weak in China, however, many people do not regard rewriting essays as problematic; they view it as an easy, efficient alternative to the “gruelling” process of editing.
在中央文革办事机构的见闻-2012年第11期 炎黄春秋杂志 – 口述人：李传俊，1942年8月生，曾任北京军区部队机要参谋，1966年8月～1972年12月在中央文革办事组工作。
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH
China’s “Ultimate Goal Is a Huge Fracking Industry” | Mother Jones – China is ratcheting up its fracking ambitions with virtually no regard for groundwater protection or other environmental safety measures, according to a new investigation by the independent publication Caixin.