It looks like the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) blinked. The Financial Times reports that China’s about face with banks eases fears of crisis:

In a volte-face that bore more than a passing resemblance to Mario Draghi’s “unlimited” bond-buying pledge last year at the European Central Bank, the Chinese central bank promised to provide liquidity support to any financial institution strapped for cash. What is more, without naming any names, the central bank said it had already provided such support…

Beyond the market and economy, there was another, less-noticed factor at play. The central bank’s decision to let interbank rates rise was in large part aimed at limiting the growth of shadow financing flows. By reining in credit growth, it hoped to curb banks’ use of off-balance-sheet lending vehicles.

However, its actions were beginning to produce the exact opposite of its intended effect. Strapped for cash, banks were pushing out huge numbers of risky, high-yielding “wealth management” investment products to attract depositors.

My China Insider column for Dealbook this week discusses the possible politics behind last week’s interbank fun. In China’s Market Stress: Pay Attention to the Politics I write that:

China looks to have a classic moral hazard problem. Unless the government either allows defaults and failures, or arrests some bankers, how can it force the banks to improve their risk and liquidity management and really start channeling financing to more productive parts of the economy?

Actually, China arrested a few bankers this year as part of an investigation into shady practices in the interbank market. The crackdown has been led by Wang Qishan, a financial markets expert who is now the Party’s anti-corruption czar.Caixin magazine reported in early May that:

The central bank is mulling broad changes to the interbank bond market in the wake of scandals that have led to the arrest of several executives working for large financial institutions.”

It is possible that those arrests are unrelated to last week’s interbank market stress. We should, however, consider the possibility that these moves, along with a State Council announcement on June 19 of a package of financial reform proposals, are part of a larger plan to lay the groundwork for the painful and desperately needed reform proposals reportedly up for approval at the Third Plenum of the 18th Party Congress that is expected to meet in October…

The president continues to take steps to tighten control. Last week he officially kicked off the Mass Line Education campaign. The campaign is set to last a year and is intended in part to purge the party of formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance. It appears that he has also decided he needs to purge the economy of its excesses.

Even if Mr. Xi succeeds in pushing through ambitious economic reform package, as we should assume he will, growth in China is likely to be slower than consensus expectations. A long-time China bull, Arthur Kroeber, managing director of GaveKal Dragonomics, is now pessimistic about growth prospects through 2014…

There are a lot of risks to reining in credit and pushing deeper economic reforms, and there are many special interests that will be affected. But Mr. Xi clearly sees that there are greater risks from inaction, and at the end of the day there is no bigger special interest than the Party and its ability to maintain power.

Today’s Links:

THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT

CPC leaders take lead in campaign against harmful work styles – Xinhua |The 25-member Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a special conference from June 22 to 25….Political Bureau members should “implement the do’s before asking others to do so, and certainly not do something themselves if they don’t want others to do it,” said a statement issued after the conference…The conference specified major aspects for revamping Party members’ work styles, including boosting the efficiency of theory learning, article writing and meetings; controlling expenditures on official overseas visits, public vehicles and official receptions; preventing officials from extorting bribes and accepting high-end membership cards or prepaid cards. Moreover, great efforts should also be made to scrap “face-lifting” projects, which were described as short-sighted projects undertaken for the sake of burnishing an official’s credentials in a short time. Efforts should also be made to cut back on unnecessary festivities, forums or international conferences, and to curb the construction of wasteful and grand government buildings.

Related: [视频]中共中央政治局召开专门会议 对照检查中央八项规定落实情况 讨论研究深化改进作风举措 习近平总书记主持会议并发表重要讲话_新闻频道_央视网 First fourteen (!!) Minutes of Tuesday’s CCTV Evening news on the Politburo meeting…thought austerity was bad in the first half of the year? Get ready for more, over a longer a period than perhaps the market expects. Between this and the banking crackdown, will Macau’s VIP business finally show some cracks? // 央视网消息(新闻联播)：按照中央关于党的群众路线教育实践活动首先在中央政治局开展的精神，中共中央政治局于6月22日至25日召开专门会议，围绕保持党的先进性和纯洁性，以为民务实清廉为主要内容，切实加强马克思主义群众观点教育；回顾总结贯彻落实中央八项规定情况；联系思想实际和所分管地方部门单位的工作实际，分析在形式主义、官僚主义、享乐主义和奢靡之风方面存在的问题，开展批评和自我批评；研究提出加强作风建设的措施及有关制度规定。

Related: China leader Xi Jinping seeks unity and discipline among top cadres | South China Morning Post “The meeting is about strengthening party discipline – especially the most senior members – ahead of the mass-line campaign and anti-corruption storm,” said Professor Li Chengyan , from Peking University’s school of government. “Xi used a lot of terms that were widely used by Mao Zedong in political movements in his day. Although the term sounds the same, I believe there are some differences. Mao’s era stressed the theory and people were encouraged to read a few books and study the theories. Now it’s more about the actions.”

Related: 中共从中央政治局开刀动真格整风_中国_多维新闻网【多维新闻】从新八项规定的出台到“照镜子、正衣冠、洗洗澡、治治病”的教育实践活动，习近平在上位后所力推的这一自上而下的整风运动和群众路线持续引发外界广泛关注。6月22日至25日，在中央政治局会议上，习近平再强调要以身作则，作风改进必须从中央政治局开始，并对中央政治局的自身建设提出了五点要求。有分析认为，此次对中央政治局的要求细化，是对此前2012年12月4日的中央政治局会议上，习近平“领导干部的作风建设要从中央政治局抓起”之言的践行。习近平整风首拿中央政治局开刀。

Related: 着力实现“四个自我” ——三论学习贯彻习近平同志6月18日重要讲话精神 本报评论员-人民网 third page 1 People’s Daily commentary in series on implementing the spirit of Xi’s June 18 speech at the mass line education campaign conference // 自我净化、自我完善、自我革新、自我提高，这“四个自我”，是我们党能够始终走在时代前列的基本能力，是全党同志发挥先锋模范作用的重要素质。

Related: 人民日报人民观点：摈弃享乐主义，重在奋斗-党的群众路线新思考之四-本报评论部–人民网 今天的环境，远比当年更为复杂，各种诱惑也比过去更多更大，全党同志务必警醒起来，奋斗起来，决不能让无数先贤为之前赴后继的民族复兴夙愿在我们手里停滞，决不能让一代代人为之流血牺牲的使命在我们这一代耽搁

李佐军：2013年7、8月中国将爆发经济危机-财经网 State Council DRC researcher Li Zuojun wrote a report in 2011 predicting a possible debt crisis in July/August 2013. His report is getting lots of play after last week’s events. Li has worked for “many? local governments as a consultant and studied under Wu Jinglian. He wrote in his 2011 report that the next leadership could choose to maintain the bubble, in which case it could go until 2015/16 before a huge crash, or could try to prick it soon after taking power, leading to a crisis in the summer of 2013… // 李佐军为国务院发展研究中心资源与环境政策研究所副所长，被多个地方政府聘为顾问或首席经济学家。师从经济学家吴敬琏。以下是他2011年9月27日应华中科技大学校友会邀请，在一场内部报告会所作的《2013年中国将爆发经济危机》的报告内容。…对下一届政府领导来说，面临一个抉择，一种选择把泡沫接过去，精心维护，最迟能维护到2015年，或2016年，那时就是一场更大的危机。第二种选择，不接这个泡沫，上台之后很快让这个泡沫给破掉；所以说经济危机可能是2013年7、8月份

Related: FSB’s Carney: China Has Liquidity Situation Well In Hand | MNI Asked whether Chinese authorities were compromising the stability of their banking system by not taking earlier and more decisive action to counter the credit squeeze, he replied: “[PBoC] Governor Zhou Xiaochuan was present at the meeting yesterday. We did have a discussion of liquidity developments in all major global markets, including in China. And he outlined … the dynamics that were affecting those markets. He’s best placed to make those comments publicly, but I would say that the authorities have the situation well in hand.”

Are Chinese netizens on Weibo just a bunch of “three-low” losers? | Offbeat China That seems to be the conclusion made by the News and Communications Research Center under China’s Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). The Center released its 2013 China New Media Development Report yesterday, and Chinese netizens are not happy with what they read about themselves…Later, a few media, including Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, made corrections, saying that they’ve mis-read the report. But damage is done. In the eyes of many netizens, irresponsible journalism at many of China’s government-controlled media organizations is exactly the reason why there is a market for online rumors in the first place.

Related: 中国社会科学院发布《中国新媒体发展报告》–传媒–人民网 今天，中国社会科学院新闻与传播研究所、社会科学文献出版社在北京联合发布了新媒体蓝皮书《中国新媒体发展报告（2013）》。

Related: 微博热点三分之一是谣言  this headline from the Beijing News about the new media report generated lots of complaints, turns out is misleading 

Related: 2012年微博舆情发展态势分析报告–舆情频道–人民网 People’s Daily Public Opinion Monitoring service releases 2012 Weibo public opinion trends analysis report // 摘 要：微博是网友首选的爆料工具与议事平台，微博的稳健发展成为推动网民话语权成长的重要力量。网络舆情继续处在高发趋势，微博也成为了主要的舆论场。伴随着政务微博的成熟、媒体微博的大规模进驻，微博舆情呈现出许多新的亮点。新旧媒体融合发展时代，主流媒体实施“全媒体战略”，可以有效避免政府信息在舆论生态场中的信息传播的“不完全性”。大数据时代下，信息资源配置将更加社会化、个性化，对公共信息采集和处理能力形成新的挑战和机遇。

Cisco China Sales Vulnerable as Media Urge Domestic Shift – Bloomberg “Recent events mean that it may be quite a long time before we can trust Cisco again,” the Global Times wrote in June 20 editorial titled “Cisco Under a Cloud of Suspicion.” “We can probably expect Chinese authorities to tighten their supervision over Cisco’s operations in the domestic market. It also wouldn’t be surprising to see Cisco soon eclipsed by local competitors Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp.” // last week’s China Insider column predicted that  American technology firms like Cisco may start getting “Huawei’d” in Beijing on national security grounds…it may take a while, and some indigenous technology may not yet be up to par, but do not doubt that this will become an even bigger priority for Beijing

Political ‘deep freeze’ between Britain and China finally over following Dalai Lama row – Telegraph A 14-month political “deep freeze” between Britain and China has finally ended with an agreement for David Cameron to visit Beijing this autumn.

Related: 为中英关系发展积累正能量–观点–人民网 Zhong Sheng in today’s People’s Daily on accumulating positive energy for the development of Sino-UK relations // 我们坚决反对达赖在国际上从事分裂中国的活动，也坚决反对任何外国政府和外国领导人以任何形式同达赖进行接触。中英关系能否从此不再折腾，关键还需要英方用实际行动给出回答

聂树斌95年因奸杀案被枪决 10年后王书金自认“真凶”_资讯频道_凤凰网 Surprised no one covering this trial in Handan..overturning judicial injustices getting lots of press these days, far more meaningful than a new heavy metal album..but this new trial too late for the man who was wrongly executed// 昨日下午，聂树斌的母亲张焕枝到邯郸市中级人民法院，申请王书金案的旁听证，经交涉他们申请到了2张旁听证。今日上午，与其子聂树斌案密切相关的王书金案，将在此再次审理。

Related: Retrial of 1995 robbery, theft cases opens in E China – Xinhua This one in Hangzhou, nicer than Handan, also a big deal //  Tuesday’s trial, the prosecutor suggested that the verdicts be changed in the two 1995 cases, because there were factual errors in the original trial of the robbery case in March 1995 and there was a lack of evidence in the other robbery case in August 1995. Nearly 100 people, including the five defendants in the original trial, their families and journalists, attended the trial.

China Brushes Aside U.S. Warnings on Snowden – NYTimes.com In Beijing, people with knowledge of how China handled Mr. Snowden’s exit from Hong Kong were claiming a tactical victory for China, saying that the government had acted in China’s best interests, and in the long-term interests of its relationship with the United States. “What did the United States expect China to do? Hand him over? That would be very stupid,” said Sun Zhe, director of the Center for U.S.-China Relations at Tsinghua University. “This was the best China could do.”

Related: Commentary: Snowden case should not affect China-U.S. relationship – Xinhua  Beijing and Washington can actually use the case to facilitate ongoing efforts to deal with the issue. The two sides can sit down and talk through their mutual suspicions. It is a good thing to know that both China and the United States now appreciate the importance and the special nature of the relationship, and have been working hard to break the zero-sum mentality and to jointly build a new type of relations that feature mutual trust and win-win cooperation. For the past three decades, the China-U.S. relationship has seen many ups and downs. Yet the two countries, as shown in past experiences, have the political wisdom and proper mechanisms to deal with many challenges and manage their differences.

Related: U.S. officials worried about security of files Snowden is thought to have – The Washington Post A former senior U.S. official said that the material that has leaked publicly would be of limited use to China or Russia but that if Snowden also stole files that outline U.S. cyber-penetration efforts, the damage of any disclosure would be multiplied…U.S. officials said their assumption is that China and Russia have copied the materials that Snowden took from classified U.S. networks but that they had no way to confirm those countries had done so. “That stuff is gone,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official who served in Russia. “I guarantee the Chinese intelligence service got their hands on that right away. If they imaged the hard drives and then returned them to him, well, then the Russians have that stuff now.” Hrafnsson said such assertions are unfounded. In his call with reporters, Assange insisted that neither the Chinese nor the Russians had debriefed Snowden during his stops in their territories.

Related: China’s state newspaper praises Edward Snowden for ‘tearing off Washington’s sanctimonious mask’ |  guardian.co.uk China’s top state newspaper has praised the fugitive US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden for “tearing off Washington’s sanctimonious mask” and rejected accusations Beijing had facilitated his departure from Hong Kong. The strongly worded front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist party, responded to harsh criticism of China from the US for allowing Snowden to flee.

U.S. Businessman Held at China Plant Says All Calm – Bloomberg Starnes said the situation has calmed down since last week, when he was kept awake overnight, and he’s not feeling endangered by workers. The situation isn’t related to anti-Americanism, he said. Starnes said that his experiences in China have been good and that he has felt welcomed and has no plans to leave.

Related: US company boss trapped in office|china daily Some workers from other departments, who said they had not been paid for two months, started demanding similar severance packages on Friday….Several suppliers of the plant also came to demand payment when they heard the factory was going to close. A worker surnamed Wang said the company owes more than 10 million yuan to its suppliers. // seem to be some very different claims in Chinese and Western media?

Related: Why Chinese Workers Sometimes Hold Foreign Execs Hostage – China Real Time Report – WSJ Numbers for such disputes are hard to come by, though an investigation by the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper published by the official Xinhua news agency, found that more than 400 bosses ran away from bankrupt factories in eastern China’s Zhejiang province in 2008 (in Chinese). Most of those executives worked for foreign companies, meaning workers had virtually no hope of claiming months or even years of backpay owed to them. “Sounds like there’s a big miscommunication here,” said Jack Perkowski, managing partner at JFP Holdings, Ltd., who has been doing business in China for 20 years and who says he’s seen foreign factory owners run into similar problems before. //how does the WSJ quote Mr. Perkowski and not mention the classic, everyone-working-in-China-should-read book Mr. China , which is full of still relevant lessons for doing business in China?

 

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

PBOC Ling Says Rise in China Money-Market Rates Temporary – Bloomberg China’s central bank said it will use tools to safeguard stability in money markets and tight liquidity is set to ease, in a sign of relief for a cash squeeze in the world’s second-largest economy. The People’s Bank of China has provided liquidity to some financial institutions to stabilize money-market rates and will use short-term liquidity operations and standing lending-facility tools to ensure steady markets, according to a statement posted to its website today. It also called on commercial banks to improve their liquidity management.

China: PBoC tries again to ease cash crunch concerns | beyondbrics While the message was delivered after the close, enough people got wind of the bank’s plans for financial markets to stage a sharp recovery in late trading. But don’t mistake this recovery for a return of stability. Investors remain nervous: if the central bank is serious about spreading calm, it has a lot more to do. The seven-day bond repurchase rate, which fell by more than 100 basis points on Monday, rose 68 basis points on Tuesday to 8 per cent.

合理调节流动性 维护货币市场稳定－中国人民银行 下一阶段，人民银行将认真贯彻落实国务院第13次常务会议精神，继续实施稳健的货币政策，把稳健的货币政策坚持住、发挥好。同时，也要根据市场流动性的实际状况，积极运用公开市场操作、再贷款、再贴现及短期流动性调节工具（SLO）、常备借贷便利（SLF）等创新工具组合，适时调节银行体系流动性，平抑短期异常波动，稳定市场预期，保持货币市场稳定，为金融市场平稳运行和经济结构调整、转型升级创造良好货币条件。

Reforms for Chinese Banking – NYTimes.com NYT editorial board weighs in // What the government should do now is move to stop controlling the interest rates on savings accounts, which are lower than inflation. Removing controls over those rates would reduce the demand for risky investment plans and reward ordinary savers. Another important reform, but one that would be much harder to implement, would be to reduce the influence that government and Communist Party officials have on loan decisions, freeing bankers to lend to deserving businesses, rather than inefficient state-owned firms. It will take years to carry out these reforms fully and the government will face significant opposition from provincial leaders, bankers and others who benefit from the current system. But policy makers cannot afford to be complacent in dealing with banking excesses.

Why Did Chinese ATMs Stop Working? – Bloomberg Kuo Cheng, a popular writer, blogger and microblogger (with 1.2 million followers), offered five possible locations for the missing money: “A. Under a corrupt officials’ bed. B. In a mistress’ wallet. C. In a foreign bank account. D. In a bottle of wine in the middle of a state-owned company’s table. E. In the pockets of the working people.”

以准确信息筑牢“金融信心”（人民时评）–观点–人民网 对于金融消费者，准确的理解是理性行为的前提。金融产品越来越复杂，不能要求每个人都“门儿清”，但也不能完全做甩手掌柜，毕竟每个人都要同金融行业打交道。如果能够稍微了解一点银行间市场的知识，其实不难理解所谓“钱荒”丝毫无关储户存款，咱们的钱安全着呢！

银行业资金紧张波及个人房贷 多家银行延迟放款_网易新闻中心 cash crunch hitting mortgage loan market…probably one of the effects Beijing wants, nothing will cool off still rising housing market like a cut in liquidity // “钱荒”传言继前天重挫股市之后，昨天也曾一度令股市处于“地狱”之中，沪指一度再重挫近6%；幸好后来央行放出流动性的利好传闻后绝地反击，最终才微跌0.19%。而随着6月底的临近，银行半年大考加之市场流动性的收缩，“钱荒”成为各家银行头上的紧箍咒。广深多家银行表示，目前放款时间基本都要两个月，而且利率优惠也收紧。

银监会：关注五大领域风险–金融时报 刘宏宇称今年不良贷款存在反弹现象，但银行整体资产质量稳定。一定程度上的不良贷款反弹，主要受全球经济下行以及国内经济周期性、结构性因素影响，属于正常现象，也在意料之中。随着经济走势逐步企稳，未来不良贷款不会出现大幅的波动，资产下滑风险基本可控。 银监会目前主要关注五大领域风险——地方融资平台贷款、房地产贷款、理财产品、产能过剩风险、外部风险的传染。

“压力测试”后央行点对点“输液” “6·30”时点大考将临_财经频道_一财网 央行的这种流动性支持并不意味着政策的放松。央行昨日还称，“继续实施稳健的货币政策，把稳健的货币政策坚持住、发挥好。”这意味着，纠偏当前银行间恐慌情绪的同时，央行引导商业银行去杠杆的政策意图并没有变。 而随着6月30日的半年末关键时点临近，银行间紧张的流动性恐还有一轮“压力测试”。

Mainland tycoons team up, sell James Bond’s favorite yachts to super-rich pals | South China Morning Post Charles Zhang, the founder and chairman of Sohu.com one of the mainland’s top three internet portals, recently made a deal with British luxury-yacht maker Sunseeker for two reasons: his love of boats and to make it easy for his rich Chinese friends to buy their first yacht… “In the future, Wang Jianlin will make the yachts and Charles Zhang will sell them around China,” said the source. “This market has huge potential because the super-rich always want to try something new. Luxury cars like Rolls-Royces and Bentleys don’t feel new to them any more.”

China’s next chapter: Tech, manufacturing, and innovation | McKinsey & Company McKinsey partners explore China’s coming technology transformation, the challenges facing manufacturers, and an exciting new wave of innovative enterprise sparked by high mobile penetration and social media.

 

POLITICS AND LAW

成都锦江区副区长被纪检调查–时政–人民网 Wu Tao, deputy head of the Jinjiang District of Chengdu is under investigation…probably related to the the Li Chuncheng case, which may be related to…Wu had four passports, was preparing to flee when caught // 前日，据成都公安局内部人士透露，5月23日前后，吴涛被纪检部门带走接受调查。该内部人士介绍，吴涛有4个护照，这些护照都通过公安系统办理。在5月中旬就准备携巨款出逃。四川省公安厅通过其“假护照”寻找其下落，随后将其控制。目前，参与办理护照的相关人员也被调查。

胡春华强力反腐 前五月粤37名县处以上官员落马_财经频道_一财网广东省检察院昨日通报称，原揭阳市委书记陈弘平因涉嫌受贿罪，已于近日被广东省人民检察院依法逮捕，目前案件正在进一步侦查中。

小学校长涉嫌猥亵女童被刑拘 教育局长称觉得丢人-中新网　 中新网邢台6月25日电（张鹏翔 李铁锤）针对河北省南宫市段芦头镇马河涯小学校长涉嫌猥亵女童一事，南宫市教育局局长白恒建25日表示，此事经核实情况属实，目前市教育局已对犯罪嫌疑人张文侠做出免职处理，并要求警方对犯罪嫌疑人从严处理。

周永康久未露面引猜测_中国_多维新闻网【多维新闻】原中共前政治局常委周永康的秘书郭永祥，涉嫌严重违纪被调查引发诸多猜测，许多分析认为周永康或许会受到牵连。值得关注的是，周永康自去年11月中共十八大退休后，至今未公开露面。但有分析表示，周永康作为已退休的老常委未露面并不一定意味着什么，其遭到牵连的可能性不大。

Qantas in China prison labour row–Australian Financial Review Qantas, Electrolux and other international companies have ­purchased products, including airline headphones, made in a Chinese jail where inmates are regularly beaten and held in solitary confinement for failing to meet production targets. Danny Cancian, a New Zealander released from Dongguan Prison last year, told The Australian Financial Review he made disposable ­headphones for Qantas, British ­Airways and Emirates. Mr Cancian said he also made tiny inductors used in electrical appliances for local companies, including one which supplies Swedish giant Electrolux and Fortune 500 company Emerson

理发店提供色情服务老板无罪 广东高院：手淫不算卖淫_资讯频道_凤凰网 good news for those in Guangdong who like a hair cut with a happy ending…all I can say, otherwise spam filters may kick in…UPDATE: turns out it only protects the spa owners, not the customers or workers…// 但是，一审判决后李某提出上诉，新的代理律师提出起诉书指控的行为不构成犯罪。检方经过两次补充侦查，2012年以“不应当追究被告人刑事责任”为由撤诉，三被告人无罪释放。佛山中院组成合议庭审查认定，一审判决认定事实不清，适用法律不当，发回重审，并对争议焦点作出答复，最终认定涉案场所提供“打飞机”“洗飞机”“推波飞机”三种手淫服务，不属于卖淫行为。

李天一案代理律师已请辞 警方拒谈案情进展_新闻_腾讯网 Li Tianyi case, his lawyer resigns, police refuse to comment // (虽然本文主角已广为人知，但因为仍属未成年人，故其姓名以L指代。另外，记者丘濂，实习记者张悦对本文亦有贡献，特此感谢)

回良玉近日在云南普洱市看望拉祜族民众_资讯频道_凤凰网 Hui Liangyu makes an appearance, to dispel some of the rumors going around? // 中共中央原政治局委员、国务院原副总理回良玉近日在云南省普洱市看望拉祜族群众

 

FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS

In pictures: Shenzhou-10 spacecraft returns to earth – Xinhua | English.news.cn

2013年蛟龙号载人深潜_新闻频道_央视网 CCTV special site on the Jiaolong undersea expeditions…space dreams and sea dreams, and seemingly unlimited budgets

China rejects Philippines’ illegal seizure of Ren’ai Reef: FM spokeswoman – Xinhua | English.news.cn” China will never accept the Philippines’ illegal seizure of the Ren’ai Reef in any form. We urge the Philippines not to take any action that may complicate the situation,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing. Hua’s comments came after Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the Philippines was free to undertake any activity in the Ren’ai Reef without notifying China.

Turkey May Adopt Chinese Air Defense System | Defense News  Turkey is strongly leaning toward adopting a Chinese long-range anti-missile and air defense system, Turkish procurement officials said, even though it may be impossible to integrate the system with its existing NATO architecture. One senior procurement official familiar with the program said the Turkish government has concluded that the Chinese proposal was technologically satisfactory, allowed technology transfer and was much cheaper than rival proposals.

Li Yong becomes first mainland Chinese to head a UN agency | South China Morning Post Vice-Finance Minister Li Yong has been elected director general of the United Nations’ Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) – the first mainlander to head a UN agency – state media reported.

Report: China’s UAVs Could Challenge Western Dominance | Defense News  As Hsu points out in her report, one reason China’s UAVs are cheap is that many are developed not by industry but by academic institutions. The multirole, medium-altitude, long-endurance BZK-005, now in service with the Chinese military, was developed by Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The Northwest Polytechnical University, also known as Xi’an ASN Technology Group, is the “most prominent and prolific organization focusing on domestic UAV research and development” and holds about 90 percent of the domestic Chinese UAV market.

Chinese Billionaire Says Nicaragua Canal Has Found Investors – Bloomberg Wang is the chairman and biggest shareholder of closely held Beijing Xinwei Telecom Technology Co., which owns core technology used in China’s homegrown standard for third-generation mobile services. Wang said the company’s goal is to become one of the world’s top three telecommunications companies in five to 10 years, according to the company’s website. Xinwei signed a contract last year worth as much as $300 million to set up a phone network in Nicaragua.

Chinese Investors Pursue U.S. Property Deals – NYTimes China’s main sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corporation, has taken direct stakes in properties but has also invested more billions of dollars in real estate funds overseen by large private investment funds. “The overwhelming majority of Chinese capital is getting into the commercial property market through third parties,” said Dan Fasulo, a managing director at Real Capital Analytics. “They’re getting billions of dollars into the system almost unnoticed.”

 

HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN

Taiwan Lawmakers to Examine China Economic Agreement Provisions – Bloomberg Lawmakers from Taiwan’s political parties emerged from closed-door negotiations with an understanding to review and vote on each provision in the June 21 agreement, the Central News Agency reported yesterday. The pact, which allows companies to take controlling stakes in joint ventures across the Taiwan strait, streamlines approvals and expands geographic operations in sectors including banking and hospitals, can’t be put in effect until the review is complete.

Taiwan’s Prodigal Companies Come Home as China Labor Costs Rise – Bloomberg Private investment will reach a record NT$2.3 trillion this year, up from NT$1.6 trillion in 2009, even as a global slowdown hurts exports, the Statistics Bureau estimates. Taiwan expects to lure about $5 billion in 2013 from companies moving back. Last year, Taiwanese government-approved investment in China fell to $12.8 billion, from $14.4 billion in 2011.

Chen Guangcheng Praises Democracy as Taiwan Lawmakers Brawl – China Real Time Report – WSJ Taiwan has long been known for feisty and combative politics, to the extent that its lawmakers regularly get shout-outs on lists with names like “Six of the best parliamentary brawls from around the world” and even landed the mocking Ig Noble Peace Prize in 1995 . The difference on Tuesday was that visiting Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng was just in the other room, praising Taiwan’s democracy.

 

SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY

Gay rights: A queer state | The Economist This midsummer’s weekend, hundreds of Beijingers enjoyed ales and pies at the second annual craft-beer festival. The Beijing LGBT Centre, a non-profit organisation (for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people), had a stall there too, where they handed out T-shirts and answered questions (pictured to the right). This in itself was a small victory—the venue management [SOHO Galaxy] had informed the festival’s organisers earlier that the LGBT stall would not be allowed to use the space, as they “don’t fit in with our architecture”. No other explanation was given. The management later backtracked and apologised, which was perhaps the only surprise

 

ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH

Traditional Medicine: Handle with Care – Caixin there are both hidden benefits and hidden harms to methods often used with little detailed knowledge on toxicity. A growing number of health incidents related to TCM have rekindled controversy on how Chinese medical literature confirms the safety of traditional medications. Western medical practices require side effects of medicinal substances to be clearly identified, said Wei Lixin, a member of the Professional Commission of Ethnic Medicines and Traditional Chinese Medicines Standard Substances under the Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission. Wei said most medicinal substances in TCM practices do not have elaborate guidelines on toxicity.

Cambridge Journals Online – The China Quarterly – Abstract – Pollution and Protest in China: Environmental Mobilization in ContextT his article focuses on environmental controversy in a Chinese rural community. It shows that Chinese villagers may protest against anticipated pollution if the environmental threat is effectively framed. In the face of real and serious pollution, villagers may seek to redress environmental grievances by piggybacking on politically favourable issues. However, when the pollution is caused by fellow villagers, environmentally concerned villagers may remain silent owing to the constraints of community relations and economic dependency. These findings suggest that the relationship between pollution and protest is context-dependent// looks interesting, don’t have full text

国务院促海洋渔业放眼外海远洋 银行争辟“涉海”金融“蓝海”_财经频道_一财网 国务院日前出台的《关于促进海洋渔业持续健康发展的若干意见》（下称《意见》）提出，着力调整海洋渔业生产结构和布局，加快建设现代渔业产业体系；着力提高海洋渔业设施装备水平、组织化程度和管理水平，不断提高海洋渔业综合生产能力、抗风险能力和国际竞争力；加强海洋渔业资源和生态环境保护，不断提升海洋渔业可持续发展能力。

可再生能源电价附加有望翻番 新华社——经济参考网 从20亿元到100亿元，再到200亿元，可再生能源电价补贴的资金缺口不断扩大。《经济参考报》记者从权威渠道获悉，作为可再生能源发展基金的主要来源，可再生能源电价附加征收标准有望从8厘/千瓦时上调到1分6厘/千瓦时，这意味着每年至少可实际征收400亿元左右的资金。目前该方案已上报，如果顺利最快可能在7月前后出台。

环保组织：昆明市政府未给出PX项目环评_网易新闻中心-网易新闻客户端 等待一个多月后，闹得沸沸扬扬的昆明安宁炼油项目昨天公布环评报告，报告指出，生产过程中产生的二氧化硫、氮氧化物、烟尘(粉尘)、 非甲烷总烃、 苯、二甲苯等污染物符合国家标准。针对公众最为关心的对二甲苯，即PX项目的环评报告昨天并未公布。记者注意到，昨天在网上公布的这份环评报告仅为主要内容，而且环评机构也十分不明确，因此报告发布后引发公众质疑。

 

FOOD AND TRAVEL

Discount that China’s salary classes can stomach – FT.com The average wage slave in Shanghai may find it harder than ever to get a job or pay the rent, but when it comes to cheap grub, the Communist party is there for them. Almost 200 eateries in the posh Jing’an district of Shanghai – ranging from upmarket restaurants and five-star hotels to even convenience stores – have begun offering discounted lunches for office workers. Another Shanghai district is even treating stressed-out salarymen to free afternoon teas.

China animal activists rescue hundreds of dogs before dog meat festival | South China Morning Post Chinese animal activists flocked to Yulin, Guangxi province, to save the lives of hundreds of dogs before the local dog meat festival began on Friday. More than 20 activists from various cities in China, most of them Buddhists, spent more than 100,000 yuan (around HK$126,000), most donated by animal lovers, to buy and save around 400 dogs from the local markets.The activists have re-settled these dogs on a farm in Shangrao, Jiangxi province.