The US has indicted charged Edward Snowden and asked for his extradition from Hong Kong.
AP reports that the US has demanded Hong Kong not delay the Snowden extradition:
“Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case,” White House national security adviser Tom Donilon said in an interview with CBS News. He said the U.S. presented Hong Kong with a “good case for extradition.”
However, a senior administration official issued a pointed warning that if Hong Kong doesn’t act soon, “it will complicate our bilateral relations and raise questions about Hong Kong’s commitment to the rule of law.” The official was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and insisted on anonymity.
If this is a threat to Hong Kong, as it appears to be, then the administration is being very stupid if it expects that such talk will result in a desired outcome for the US government.
The South China Morning has more exposes from Mr. Snowden this weekend. Was the newspaper sitting on these until an indictment was announced, and are there more to come?
In NSA targeted China’s Tsinghua University in extensive hacking attacks Snowden claims that:
Tsinghua University in Beijing, widely regarded as the mainland’s top education and research institute, was the target of extensive hacking by US spies this year, according to information leaked by Edward Snowden.
It is not known how many times the prestigious university has been attacked by the NSA but details shown to the Post by Snowden reveal that one of the most recent breaches was this January
His claims that the US spies on Chinese mobile phone companies, steals SMS data is not going to help US high tech firms in China:
Fang Binxing, president at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and widely believed to be the father of China’s “great firewall”, which restricts access to the web, told News China in October last year that foreign equipment was a serious threat to national security.
“China should set up a national information security review commission as soon as possible,” he said.
Telecom companies have started replacing foreign-made equipment.
China Unicom quietly replaced all Cisco routers at a key backbone hub in Wuxi, Jiangsu last year, according to the National Business Daily.
The changes are being kept quiet to avoid panic and embarrassment to the government, people in the industry say.
As I wrote in last week’s “China Insider” column for Dealbook:
Just as Huawei is now effectively blocked from selling its networking equipment in the United States, we should not be surprised to see more aggressive moves from Beijing to shut out American firms like Cisco Systems, which one Chinese news report on Monday noted had significant market share in core parts of Chinese networks.
Mr. Snowden’s disclosures may also explain why certain parts of the United States government have been so concerned about Huawei; they fear the Chinese government could use Huawei to do what the N.S.A. already does. Protests from Washington will be much harder to take seriously now if American technology firms start getting “Huawei’d” in Beijing on national security grounds.
I have heard (so far unconfirmed) rumors of a recent order to remove at least one type of US software from certain network(s). It may be difficult to de-Americanize China’s IT infrastructure in the near-term, but do not expect them to not try. This is a huge business opportunity for local firms, and a confirmation of what some of the security folks have been saying for years.
Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian Newspaper argues in On the Espionage Act charges against Edward Snowden that:
The essence of that extremely broad, century-old law is that one is guilty if one discloses classified information “with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation”. Please read this rather good summary in this morning’s New York Times of the worldwide debate Snowden has enabled – how these disclosures have “set off a national debate over the proper limits of government surveillance” and “opened an unprecedented window on the details of surveillance by the NSA, including its compilation of logs of virtually all telephone calls in the United States and its collection of e-mails of foreigners from the major American Internet companies, including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and Skype” – and ask yourself: has Snowden actually does anything to bring “injury to the United States”, or has he performed an immense public service?
Mr. Greenwald appears to attempt to address the “or to the advantage of any foreign nation” part of what he calls the “essence” of the Espionage Act when he argues later in his commentary that the Chinese “haven’t learned anything from these disclosures that they didn’t already well know”.
I am curious how Mr. Greenwald can be so certain about that. Regardless, he has assiduously ignored Beijing’s Snowden-insipred propaganda party.
Am I just thick in not understanding how Mr. Snowden’s disclosures are not “to the advantage” of China?
Today’s Links:
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
李克强三提“盘活存量货币”传递政策新信号 – 新华财经 – 新华网 在这种背景下，“部署金融支持经济结构调整和转型升级”，国务院的用意正是力图以金融之手，通过市场的调节让资金流向最该去的地方，恢复经济结构平衡，实现中国经济升级版的目标。 理解决策层 “盘活存量”这步棋的用心与决心，下一步，金融监管部门如何落实将值得期待：差别化的信贷政策，推进信贷资产证券化，放松利率管制实质性展开利率市场化改革，运用多种货币政策工具，引导信贷资金流向，发挥市场配置资源作用都有望得到实现。
Related: Closer Look: A Heartening Endorsement of the Market from the Very Top – Caixin Liquidity in the interbank market has tightened recently because tougher regulations and a change in bond trading rules coincided with seasonal factors that often lead to cash shortages. The stock and bond markets have slipped, and many market participants grumbled that the central bank had been too grudging with credit supply. The State Council announced at the meeting, however, that it would continue implementing a prudent monetary policy and keep the growth of money supply at a reasonable pace. Underpinning the decision, the cabinet said, was the central government’s judgment that the overall economy had been stable though the environment had been more complex. By the end of May, the amount of M2, a broad gauge of money supply, has increased by 15.8 percent from a year ago, exceeding the goal of 13 percent set by the Central Economic Work Conference early this year//so by how much does M2 have to drop in next 6 months to hit the 2013 target?
Related: 市场的紧日子_杂志频道_财新网 Caixin on the interbank distress this week // “国务院会议基本透露了近期金融如何为实体经济服务的整体操作的思路。央行需要将这一战略落到实处。”一位接近央行的人士告诉财新记者，央行的目标是总量平衡，为“稳增长、调结构”服务，非常短期的市场价格波动不会成为影响央行决策的理由. 从各种迹象看，针对宏观经济形势和货币政策，高层的基本意见一致，并早就对市场有提醒。有关高层4月上旬到监管部门视察工作时指出，今后五年到十年，中国发展至少面临三个转变：增长转型、发展转型、体制转轨，在这三个转变的历史过程中，银行不仅要会过好日子，也要做好过紧日子的准备。针对市场的非理性恐慌情绪，6月20日收市之后，央行召集了几家大行开会，有“窗口指导”之意。内容则未对外透露。
Related: Analysis: China cash squeeze exposes risks from short-term funding | Reuters Fitch estimated that total sales of wealth management products reached 13 trillion yuan by the end of the 2012, more than 16 percent of total bank deposits. More immediately, it estimated that more than 1.5 trillion yuan in wealth management products will mature in the last 10 days of June. That may explain the scramble by some banks to secure short-term funds, which are often used to meet the repayment obligations.
纪英男公布范悦求婚视频 称希望范妻起诉重婚罪_网易新闻中心 Ji Yingnan was the top topic on Sina Weibo when I woke up Sunday. This video of her birthday party & Fan Yue’s marriage proposal is not to be missed. the delivery method of the ring is “touching”. Fan sounds like a psychopath, which it turns out he probably is. Fan Yue looks to be toast, interesting that beijing allowing this so much Weibo play. Fan to be a poster child for fighting the 4 bad elements–formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance? // 我们在一起已经整整两年了，两年前的6月4号，我跟你结识，两年后的6月4号，我们在这里相约相伴，我想，在过去的日子里，我有做得不好的地方，你受了不少委屈，现在我们在一块儿，彼此相依相偎。 今后我想我们能够一生一世地牵手在一起，我希望在今天，朋友都在的时刻，郑重地向你求婚，希望你能够嫁给我。
China’s New President Sets Up a Potential Showdown, With Himself – NYTimes.com The most famous third plenum, in 1978, is portrayed by the party as the start of Deng Xiaoping’s transformative era. Mr. Xi appears to hope that the next plenum will give him some of Mr. Deng’s aura. He has assigned Liu He, an adviser who advocates faster steps toward a market economy, to prepare for the meeting, said a Chinese businessman close to several leaders. He spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his access to officials. // Liu He was in Sunnylands, does not seem to have been reported in Western media, also hear Xi went out of his way to make sure US officials understand how important he is
Chinese president asks military to implement “mass line” campaign – Xinhua President Xi Jinping has instructed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to implement a “mass line” campaign as part of efforts to build a strong military. “Mass line” refers to a guideline under which the Communist Party of China (CPC) is required to prioritize the interests of the people and persist in exercising power for them. The PLA should build inner relations featuring solidarity, friendship, harmony and purity, he said, adding that bad elements such as formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance should be firmly opposed. // 全军党的群众路线教育实践活动工作会议在京召开|军报记者|中国军网记者频道–中国军网
More U.S. senators concerned by Shuanghui-Smithfield deal | Reuters “This review must be thorough and take into account the full range of national security interests,” the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Finance Committee said in a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. “In particular, we urge that due consideration be given to the impact of the transaction on food safety in the United States,” added Senators Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and the committee’s chairman, and Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican.// How about Congress declare ractopamine illegal? that would do more for US food safety than more bloviating…too bad US can’t use CFIUS to force China to open its market for US beef as condition of Shuanghui approval..consider this a rumor: I heard from a reader in the food safety world that China had agreed to allow US beef imports from cows under 30 months old (BSE only in older cows apparently), which is what Japan and South Korea do, but US rejected those conditions, so the Chinese, as you might expect when they are being held to a higher standard than the Japanese or South Koreans, are annoyed and no deal is happening.
Jack Ma in People’s Daily: China Finance Regulation ‘Excessive’ – China Real Time Report – WSJ The article comes just a week after Alipay, an online payment company associated with Alibaba and also founded by Jack Ma, introduced a new service that allows users to place funds stored online into a money market fund. The funds can be deposited and removed from the fund any time without penalty and the service has already garnered 1 million users, according to Alipay.
Related: China Says Alibaba Investment Service May Face Penalties – WSJ.com The decision was disclosed the same day that the Communist Party’s main mouthpiece published an interview with Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma in which he said China’s financial regulators were “excessive.”.. China’s securities regulator said Friday that a new Alibaba service that enables Internet users to invest in a money-market fund online wasn’t in full compliance with the country’s regulations. The service, which was introduced by Alibaba’s online-payment affiliate Alipay last week, allows users with money stored online to invest in a fund pegged to corporate debt and government bonds. It attracted more than one million users as of Friday, according to the company.
Tibet policy: Bold new proposals | The Economist So for a Chinese scholar, Jin Wei, who is director of ethnic and religious studies at the Central Party School in Beijing, to call for a “creative” new approach is startling. For her to do so publicly, in an interview this month with a Hong Kong magazine, Asia Weekly, suggests that she has high-level backing. A report from a Beijing think-tank in 2009 challenged the official line that rioting in Tibet the year before was instigated from abroad. But Robert Barnett, a professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University in New York, describes Ms Jin’s intervention as a sign that, after two decades, “debate has re-emerged within China about the government’s hard-line policies in Tibet”.
Related: 西藏人大主任：欢迎海外藏族侨胞回西藏定居_资讯频道_凤凰网 中新社纽约6月22日电 (记者 阮煜琳)以全国人大代表、中共西藏自治区委副书记、自治区人大常委会主任白玛赤林为团长的全国人大西藏代表团21日晚抵达纽约，22日与纽约侨界领袖和当地藏胞举行了座谈会。白玛赤林表示，欢迎海外藏族同胞常回来看看，西藏的大门永远向你们敞开，也欢迎你们回西藏定居。
Related: 达赖法相可公开悬挂 中共西藏政策调整_中国_多维新闻网 【多维新闻】继中国官网新华网5月公布十四世达赖喇嘛故乡有望成为中国最年轻城市后，中共当局又以官方文件形式允许青海省海南州各县寺院自由供奉达赖喇嘛法相。2008年拉萨“3·14”骚乱后，身兼奥运负责人的习近平曾说过，对于拉萨骚乱等奥运杂音应以平常心看待。2012年，达赖喇嘛表示对中共新任领导人习近平寄予希望。对此，一些分析人士认为，习近平在西藏问题上有别于其他中共高层官员的强硬态度，体现出中央在涉藏问题上出现明显转变，反映了习近平解决西藏问题的新思维。
The Evan Osnos Exit Interview–Sinica Podcast In a summer when many reporters and their families are departing Beijing (including many people who have appeared on this podcast), perhaps the biggest loss to the foreign correspondents’ pool in the Chinese capital is the departure of Evan Osnos, who has been in China since 2005 and writing for the New Yorker since 2008. In today’s show, Kaiser and Jeremy caught Evan before he leaves for Washington next month to talk about the big kerfuffle at NYU, how the Snowden affair may or may not affect Sino-American diplomacy, his forthcoming book, and about his time in China.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
How Should the World Prepare for a Slower China? | ChinaFile Kroeber and Chovanec // The combination of tighter credit and structural reforms means that with the best of luck China could post GDP growth in 2014 of a bit over 6%, its weakest showing in 15 years and well below most current forecasts. A policy mistake such as excessive monetary tightening could easily push growth below the 6% mark. Banks and corporations appear finally to be getting the message that the new government, unlike its predecessor, will not support growth at some arbitrary level through investment stimulus. The dire performance of China’s stock markets in the past two weeks reflects this growing realization among domestic investors, although we suspect stocks have further to fall before weaker growth is fully discounted.
China Poses Global Growth Risk as Li Squeezes Credit – Bloomberg It’s a view shared by David Loevinger, former senior coordinator for China affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department and now an emerging markets analyst in Los Angeles at TCW Group Inc. “Slowing the growth in credit now increases the prospects for strong and steady growth later,” said Loevinger. “This is good for China and the world.”
China Money-Market Turmoil Poses Test for New Leaders: Economy – Bloomberg Li’s face-off with banks over money-market rates may help determine whether he can push through policy shifts on interest rates and the capital account, said Yi Xianrong, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. Some changes may be decided at a Communist Party gathering in October. “It seems the government has decided that it will keep disciplining banks and is ready to sacrifice a few small banks to pave the way for necessary structural reforms,” Yi said. Li’s government is “trying hard to control banking risks and to gradually solve the risks accumulated in the last decade.”
Minsky Moment Alarm Sounded in China by SocGen: Cutting Research – Bloomberg“ The logical conclusion has to be that a non-negligible share of the corporate sector is not able to repay either principal or interest, which qualifies as Ponzi financing in a Minsky framework,” said Yao. “This is one more data point in China that evokes the troubling thought of a hard landing.” At the very least, Yao expects “the inevitable increase” in non-performing loans and the need to deleverage to slow Chinese growth over the coming years. She estimates expansion of 7.6 percent this year and 7.2 percent in 2014. Colleague Albert Edwards, a London-based global strategist, said in a June 12 report that Australia would be hard hit by such a weakening. “If China really is, as we believe, about to have its ‘Minsky moment,’ there is no shadow of doubt in my mind that Australia will wind up in a deep, deep recession,” he said.
China credit crunch: Q&A | beyondbrics So are banks at risk? In a system dominated by state-run lenders, everything depends on the state. With its authoritarian powers and huge foreign exchange reserves, Beijing can shore up the system, which in any case seems to be soundly financed – if the numbers are to be believed. China’s stated loan-to-deposit ratio is 72 per cent, compared to 70 per cent in the US and 111 per cent in the eurozone. So there is negligible risk of systemic failure.
King Signs Pound-Renminbi Swap Accord With Zhou to Aid Stability – Bloomberg Bank of England Governor Mervyn King and his Chinese counterpart Zhou Xiaochuan agreed to a three-year currency swap line to promote financial stability and aid trade between China and Britain. The maximum value of the arrangement is 200 billion yuan ($33 billion), according to a statement published by the U.K. central bank on its website in London today. A yuan is a unit of renminbi, the name of China’s official currency.
严查用社交媒体操纵市场–时政–人民网 CSRC says will seriously investigate any cases of using social media to manipulate stocks/markets// 发布传播上市公司未公开信息导致股价异常波动，证券交易所将核查是否涉嫌内幕交易或操纵市场，是否存在通过做空工具进行跨市场套利
Central bank surveys reflect weak confidence in Chinese economy – Xinhua | English.news.cn According to the reports, 34.1 percent of surveyed bankers and 36.4 percent of surveyed entrepreneurs believe the macroeconomy has slowed. The index for loan demand was 72.5 percent, declining 4.9 percentage points from the previous quarter, while the index for the manufacturing sector posted the largest drop of 5.5 percentage points. The loan demand of small and mid-sized enterprises decreased by more than that of large companies in the second quarter, the reports said.
Jobs for China’s graduates: are they really hard to get? | beyondbrics However, a closer look shows that much of the bad news is hype. “I don’t think this year is particularly difficult. This complaint has hovered for ten years,” says Ding Dajian, an associate professor at Renmin University in Beijing. According to Ding, China’s college graduates started to run into problems securing jobs as early as 2003. That was the year of the first batch of graduates after China’s university reforms took effect. The reforms greatly reduced the threshold to college entry and caused a 45 per cent jump in new students.
IS SINOCISM WORTH AS MUCH TO YOU AS ONE CUP OF COFFEE A WEEK? IF YES, PLEASE CONTRIBUTE.
POLITICS AND LAW
Shanghai man kills colleagues, taxi driver, military guard in rare spree that saw 6 dead | South China Morning Post A 62-year-old employee at a private chemical factory in Shanghai killed four colleagues, a taxi driver and a sentry at a local military compound on Saturday night in a rare shooting spree that shocked China’s largest city and saw parts of it sealed off in a large police operation.
CPC members urged to soul-search – Xinhua | English.news.cn A circular issued on Friday has urged Communist Party of China (CPC) members to be critical and self-critical, exposing others’ malfeasance earnestly and practicing soul-searching. Issued by the Central leading group of the campaign to boost Party-people ties, the circular required all Party members and cadres learn the speech by President Xi Jinping regarding the campaign.
China to inspect implementation of CPC public relations campaign – Xinhua | English.news.cn A training session for a team that will inspect the implementation of a campaign to boost ties between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the public concluded on Friday. On Tuesday, President Xi Jinping said the year-long campaign will be a “thorough cleanup” of undesirable work styles such as formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance.
住房信息联网数据仅用于宏观分析 反腐或落空_新浪地产网 住建部不设住房产权查询端口、不设授权查询权限、查询结果不作为法院判决和行政处罚依据个人住房信息联网“去反腐化”
中青报：寄望住房联网反腐本就不切实际|住房|反腐|中青报_新浪财经_新浪网 所以，一直以来都是民间一头热地呼吁“借住房联网反腐”，可官方反应非常冷淡，从来没有承诺和回应过公众的期待。反腐败和住房联网完全是两回事，反腐败是纪委监察部门的事儿，而住房联网是住建部主管，井水不犯河水，是公众一厢情愿将两者扯上关系的。一系列腐败案的曝光让公众看到了房子与腐败的关联，于是有了“住房联网就能原形毕露”的联想，可这种联想缺乏官方支持。
疑似中国动态调查委员会主任被曝包养18岁情妇_雅虎资讯 another theoretician scandal may be brewing // 据悉，中国动态调查委员会简称中调委，成立于2010年9月 8日。隶属于中央党校下的科学发展观理论调查研究学会，经济上国家财政拨款。最高机构是常务委员会，由党组书记、副书记，主任、副主任，秘书长、副秘书长 组成。主要工作内容涉及学术交流、国情调研、行业调查、业务培训、内参编辑和咨询服务等。李任主任兼党组书记。 许多网友也对此事表示了看法，值得注意的是，不少人把这个机构当作是官方组织，但实际上并没有任何证据确认这一点。正如某位网友所说，”貌似这妹子上当了，中国动态调查委员会，就是骗子组织。”
李广年包养情妇事件爆料人：掌握更多聊天记录和照片_资讯频道_凤凰网 前天，京华时报记者联系到发帖爆料人，对方称，自己与照片中的两人均无关系，端午节时，自己在高碑店附近捡到一个诺基亚牌子的手机，该手机未设密码，在手机聊天软件陌陌的对话记录中，发现了上述内容。手机捡到时已浸水无法使用，但内存卡中还有更多聊天记录及更为露骨的照片，但拒绝提供给京华时报记者。
中央党校：与“中国动态调查委员会”无任何关系_新闻频道_央视网 Central Party school denies any connection to this alleged group // l京华时报讯（记者怀若谷实习记者郑羽佳）近日，有媒体报道称，网传“疑似中国动态调查委员会主任李广年被曝包养18岁情妇”的消息称：“中国动态调查委员会隶属于中央党校下的科学发展观理论调查研究学会。”引起极大关注。昨天，中央党校官方网站发表声明称，中央党校从未设立过“科学发展观理论调查研究学会”，此前更未听闻“中国动态调查委员会”及其活动，教职工中也没有名叫“李广年”的人。
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
China demands no-entry zone around Senkakus to hold summit talks | GlobalPost Kyodo News is the source, take with grain of salt…// As a condition for holding Sino-Chinese summit talks amid a dispute over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, China demanded after the Japanese government purchased the main part of the islands last September that Tokyo acknowledge a territorial dispute exists and agree on a 12-nautical-mile no-entry zone around them, Japan-China relations sources said Friday.
America Can Take a Breather. And It Should. – NYTimes–Richard Haass China is the country most often cited as a potential challenger. But it is being held back by slowing economic growth, pervasive corruption, widespread environmental degradation, an aging population and a top-heavy political system. China and the other principal powers seek less to overthrow the existing international order than to join it or something like it. They are more interested in integration than in revolution. // “or something like it”? What the heck does that mean?
Will Beijing see red over canonisation of Jesuit missionary? | Little Red Blog News that the cause for sainthood of the Italian Jesuit missionary to China, Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) is back on track is interesting for a whole range of reasons, not least because Pope Francis is also a Jesuit. But overriding this is the possibility that Ricci’s beatification and eventual canonisation just might contribute to easing the long-running tension between the Vatican and Beijing.
Test flight of J-20 fighter jet – Xinhua | English.news.cn
赵克石领衔清查地产 军队反腐直击要害_中国_多维新闻网 【多维新闻】中共官方披露，由中共中央军委授意，由解放军总后勤部部长赵克石领衔的全军基本建设项目和房地产资源普查工作领导小组6月21日召开第一次全体会议，研究部署两项普查工作，包括基建项目和房地产资源。值得注意的是，此次对于解放军内部房地产资源的清查是在中共全面反腐如火如荼的背景下展开的，而军队房产领域也一直为军队腐败“高发区”，总后两名副部长谷俊山中将、王守业中将此前皆因之而落马。有分析人士称，这将是习近平全面执掌军权下达“治军十条”和禁酒令、更换军车牌照遏制豪车滥用后，最具有实质意义的军队反腐整风动作。
Exclusive: Spyware claims emerge in row over Chinese dissident at NYU | Reuters Among the first visitors in May 2012 to the New York apartment Chen had moved into with his family after a dramatic escape from house arrest in China was Heidi Cai, the wife of activist Bob Fu. She brought an iPad and iPhone as gifts. The devices were screened by NYU technicians within a few days and were found to have been loaded with hidden spying software, said Cohen, who arranged the fellowship for Chen at NYU Law School, helping defuse a diplomatic crisis between the United States and China after Chen took refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. “These people supposedly were out to help him and they give him a kind of Trojan horse that would have enabled them to monitor his communications secretly,” said Cohen.
North Korean Diplomat Blames United States for Tensions but Calls for Peace Talks – NYTimes.com In a rare North Korean news conference at the United Nations, Mr. Sin demanded that the United States dissolve its military command in South Korea, which was created to oversee the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War. He urged the Americans to agree to high-level talks aimed at easing the tensions, eventually denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and replacing the armistice with a peace treaty, a proposal the North first revived last Sunday.
Costa Rica Halts $1.3 Billion China-Funded Refinery Plan – Bloomberg Costa Rica’s government halted a $1.3 billion refinery modernization largely funded by the Chinese government due to a contractual violation, paralyzing the Central American country’s biggest investment project.
TECH AND MEDIA
Tencent, Naspers JV Ibibo Buys Redbus To Grow Its Online Travel Empire In India | TechCrunch China’s internet giant Tencent and South Africa’s media powerhouse Naspers are doubling down on tech in India. TechCrunch has just found out that Ibibo, their domestic joint venture, has acquired redBus.in, a Bangalore-based online bus ticketing company that has become a dominant and disruptive force in how people travel in the country. Ibibo’s CEO and founder, Ashish Kashyap, tells us that the terms of the deal are not being disclosed, but there have been rumors of an acquisition in the works for some time, with prices in the region of around $135 million.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Spoon Half Full for China’s Rural School Kids – Caixin Fighting malnutrition among poor children is the aim of a school lunch project that’s been years in the making
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
河北三河粉尘污染调查：村民参军肺检通不过_网易新闻中心 河北省廊坊的三河市，与北京仅一河之隔，距离北京的天安门仅60公里，被誉为“京东明珠”，是环首都、京津冀，以及环渤海经济圈的腹地。不过早在2008年，三河市就被曝光：粉尘污染严重，那么5年过去了，这里的环境有没有改善？《经济半小时》记者赶往三河展开调查。
Top science advisers list China’s 19 priority projects for next decade | South China Morning Post China’s top science advisers have listed 19 projects as the research priorities of the next decade. They include quantum telecommunications and a high-performance jet engine that could drastically improve the capacity of its indigenous fighter jets. The report written by more than 200 experts at the Chinese Academy of Sciences paints an ambitious road map for the nation’s science development, as Beijing tries to break the dominance of Western countries. These top-priority projects include military, space, new materials, energy and agriculture.
Teaching Science, in Chinese, From Space – NYTimes.com Six years ago, the American teacher and astronaut Barbara R. Morgan became the first person to teach from space aboard the International Space Station. Now it was China’s turn. Calling her a “pretty space teacher,” People’s Television showed Wang Yaping, the female member of the three-person crew, holding up a sign that read: “Good morning lovable earth; Good morning beautiful fatherland; Good morning hard-working scientific researchers!”
业内称转基因大豆油与肿瘤高度相关|转基因大豆|大豆|转基因_新浪新闻 在进口转基因大豆的冲击下，我国大豆业“奄奄一息”。15年来，转基因大豆在安全性争议声中，进口数量不断攀升。日前，农业部批准发放三个可进口用作加工原料的转基因大豆安全证书，又掀起了一场无解的争论。
FOOD AND TRAVEL
China’s high-speed rail expands ticket discount – Xinhua | English.news.cn It is the first time for the high-speed rail discount to cover first-class tickets, but second-class ones, the hard-to-get tickets for some popular lines, are still excluded from this round of special offer. According to China Railway Corporation, the discount, starting July 10 through August 31 and with variable rates of up to 20 percent, is implemented to “adapt to market demand.” The discounted tickets will be available for certain sections of the Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rails, some of which are discounted for the first time.
BEIJING
北京的哥曝部分公司调价前已涨千元份子钱_网易新闻中心 本报连续两天报道了本市有些出租车公司以提高车辆维修保养费等方式变相暗涨份儿钱的情况之后，昨天又有不少出租车司机给本报来电投诉。更有一位只愿意留下手机号的匿名“的哥”爆料，称自己所在的出租车公司连暗处的猫腻都懒得玩儿，明着在4月、5月份给合同协议到期的出租车司机涨了份儿钱。