Just links again today:

THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT

IMF Survey : China: New Round of Reforms Needed for Continued Success—IMF official release, with link to full report //  China’s economy is expected to expand at 7¾ percent this year—broadly the same pace as last year—but the risk of moderation has grown, say IMF economists…The report emphasizes a more market-based and liberalized financial system as critical to prevent a further build-up of risks, achieve a more efficient allocation of investment, and boost household capital income. The priorities are to liberalize interest rates; strengthen regulation and supervisory oversight; establish a robust, transparent framework for resolving bad debts and troubled financial institutions, which will help root out the widespread perception of implicit guarantees on most loans; and move to using interest rates as the primary tool of monetary policy

Related:  The IMF Provides Risk Scenarios for China – China Real Time Report – WSJ The IMF thinks most of the things that could go wrong in China’s domestic economy, while potentially serious, are outside risks. But the chances of a major global shock, which would be a body blow to the country’s export sector, are much higher. We summarize the IMF’s “Risk Matrix” below:

Related: China defies IMF on mounting credit risk and need for urgent reform – Telegraph Beijing’s replied dismissively that “vulnerabilities were well under control”. It said the fast growth of wealth products and trusts were a healthy sign of “market-based intermediation”. Any risks were “manageable”. Bad loans in the banking system “remained low and Chinese banks had some of the highest capital and provisioning ratios in the world”. Do you laugh or cry? It may be that the barrage of criticism lately from the IMF, Fitch and others has nettled Beijing more than it lets on, hence the violent “stress test” of the banking system in late June. If it was indeed a stress test, one wonders what they learnt

Abe rallies Ishigaki coast guard members over Senkaku Islands – The Asahi Shimbun hope the US is privately telling Abe to tone things down once the election over, and to avoid the shrine //  In a move aimed at sending a warning to China over the Senkaku Islands, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as part of a stump tour for his Liberal Democratic Party, traveled to Okinawa Prefecture to meet with Japan Coast Guard members on Ishigakijima island.

Related:  Japan urged to stop being provocative over Diaoyu Islands – Xinhua | English.news.cn In response to a question, spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, “We urge the Japanese side to face history and reality, stop all words and acts detrimental to China’s sovereign rights and make efforts to properly resolve the Diaoyu Islands problem through dialogue.” Earlier Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited two small islands and spoke to officers with the Ishigaki Coast Guard Office.

Related: 人民日报-日本，不要自讨没趣 钟声 Zhong Sheng on Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s visit with the coast guard // 狐狸的尾巴是藏不住的。17日，日本首相安倍晋三觊觎邻国领土、破坏地区安全稳定的真实面目再一次暴露在世人面前。据日本媒体报道，安倍晋三在钓鱼岛问题上颠倒黑白，妄称“钓鱼岛不论是在历史上，还是在国际法范围内，都是日本的固有领土”，并狂言“不考虑做出一步退让”。

Related: Exclusive: China in $5 billion drive to develop disputed East China Sea gas | Reuters Chinese state-run oil companies hope to develop seven new gas fields in the East China Sea, possibly siphoning gas from the seabed beneath waters claimed by Japan, a move that could further inflame tensions with Tokyo over the disputed area.

Related: Chinese scholar expects gradual improvement in ties with Japan | GlobalPost “It is welcoming for China that there will be political stability,” Yang Bojiang, a deputy director of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, presuming Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner New Komeito will win a majority in the House of Councillors voting…. Yang said relations between the two countries would be unrecoverable if Abe visits the shrine that honors convicted Japanese war criminals along with war dead and is regarded, especially by China and South Korea, as a symbol of Japan’s militarist past. “However, I personally believe that Prime Minister Abe will not visit the shrine,” he said. “Because if he does, not only with China, Japan’s ties with South Korea, (which are also frayed by a territorial dispute over a different set of islands), would be hopeless.”

Related:  Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun gets censored on China’s social media If the censorship of New York Times is swift retribution for unfavorable reporting, the fate of Asahi Shimbun in China is not so easily explained. Many Internet users are scratching their heads. @夜叉娑罗树 tweeted, “Asahi-kun did not say anything out of line.” Many users lit virtual candles in remembrance of Asahi-kun.

British executive at GlaxoSmithKline banned from leaving China – Telegraph swim to Hong Kong? // Steve Nechelput, the company’s finance director in China, has been told that he cannot leave, although he is free to move around the country. GSK stressed that he had not been detained or questioned in relation to the bribery probe. British diplomats are understood to have been in contact with Mr Nechelput and he is continuing to carry out his work.

Related:  Glaxo Probe Shows China Corruption Endemic Since Execution – Bloomberg Six years after executing its chief drug regulator for accepting bribes for approving fake medicines, the government is focusing on ensuring an eightfold increase in health spending over the past decade doesn’t also line the pockets of drugmakers, doctors and hospital officials. “We know that China’s corruption is so entrenched in the pharmaceutical space that in order to get things done you have to bribe officials; it’s an open secret,” said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and author of the book, Governing Health in Contemporary China. “Rampant bribes, commissions and corruption raises drug prices. This makes it difficult for public hospital reform to push forward.”

Related:  Crackdown on drug industry launched|Society|chinadaily China’s top food and drug authority has launched a major crackdown on the illegal sale and production of pharmaceutical drugs on the mainland and is employing an old tactic to caution violators of the campaign: a public blacklist. The crackdown, which began this month and will continue for half a year, mainly targets the online sale of illegal drugs and traditional Chinese medicine, Yan Jiangying, spokeswoman for the China Food and Drug Administration, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Related:  China Urges Scrutiny of Foreign Firms as Glaxo Probed for Bribes – Bloomberg “China should severely crack down on commercial bribery by foreign companies,” said a commentary in today’s People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party. “This has great meaning for protecting economic market order and maintaining a fair, competitive environment,” said the article, attributed to Zhong Sheng, who wasn’t identified further. The name in Chinese is a homonym for “voice of China.”

Talks to Expand Technology Pact Collapse – Bloomberg Negotiations among dozens of nations aimed at eliminating duties on some electronic devices collapsed after China proposed excluding many items from the talks. “The United States is extremely disappointed that it became necessary to suspend negotiations,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said yesterday in a statement on the Information Technology Agreement. “A diverse group of members participating in the negotiations determined that China’s current position makes progress impossible at this stage.”

China’s Internet User Base Hits 591 Mln in H1 2013 | Marbridge Consulting The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) issued its 32nd Statistical Report on Internet Development in China today, in which it found a total of 591 mln internet users in China as of the end of June 2013, up 26.56 mln from the end of 2012. Internet penetration reached 44.1% at the end of June 2013, up 2.0 percentage points from the end of 2012.

Related:  China Mobile — Benedict Evans China now is a little like Japan in 2000 or so – it’s where a lot of the most important and interesting things in mobile and tech are happening, and it’s also something of an information black hole if you don’t speak (or more accurately read) the language or have an office there. There is some basic resource readily available, though. Most obviously, the CNNIC, a quasi-governmental organisation, produces a twice-yearly statistics report: the 32nd issue was just released. So far it’s only out in Chinese – an English version will follow

Alibaba Founder Jack Ma’s Tiananmen Comments Draw Ire – WSJ.com Mr. Ma also referenced the company’s decision to split off electronic-payment business Alipay, a move that two years ago sparked a public dispute with investor Yahoo Inc. “As a company CEO, no matter if it’s the Alibaba incident, no matter if it’s splitting off Alipay, at that point, it’s just like Deng Xiaoping during 6/4,” said Mr. Ma, who is 48 years old.

Related: Billionaire Jack Ma Makes About-Face, Praises Chinese Government · Global Voices Billionaire Jack Ma, who controls two top online e-commerce platforms, Taobao and Alibaba, stressed in an interview with South China Morning Post in Hong Kong that “the Chinese government is terrific” and compared China with his business empire, saying that cruel decisions like the June 4 crackdown have to be made [zh] for the sake of stability. He also praised the highly advanced Internet censorship in China that watches over 600 million Internet users and three to four of the world’s top 10 Internet giant corporations. English bullet points of the interview are available at the Morning Post’s website.

Related: ‘I made cruel decisions,’ said Jack Ma of his illustrious career | South China Morning Post // 马云访谈录 | 香港南华早报

Related: Alibaba Gains Momentum for IPO With Profit Margin Double Apple’s – Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (ALIBABZ), which accounted for about 2 percent of China’s gross domestic product, is building momentum for a possible initial public offering this year with profitability double that of Apple Inc. (AAPL) China’s biggest e-commerce company posted a profit margin, which measures net income as a proportion of sales, of 48.4 percent in the March quarter, according to an earnings presentation by Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) (YHOO), which owns a stake in Alibaba. Apple, the maker of iPhones and iPads, had a margin of 21.9 (AAPL) percent in the same period.

Whistle-blower accuses China Resources chief of ‘huge graft’ | South China Morning Post The allegations – in the form of an open letter to the ruling Communist Party’s disciplinary department – come as China’s new leaders repeatedly pledge to crackdown on graft. But within hours of Wang Wenzhi detailing his allegations on the Sina Weibo microblogging site, his account was blocked and could no longer be accessed // Luo Changping’s expose of Liu Tienan was not a random act of Weibo openness but rather part of a longer campaign to take down Liu. What is really going with these allegations, and who put Wang on to it? 

Related: Xinhua Journalist Accuses Senior Official of Bribery, Malpractice-Caijing In the latest case, Wang Wenzhi, chief correspondent with a Xinhua-run newspaper, accuses senior officials with China Resources of bribery, as well as malpractice in a $10 billion deal which led to huge losses of state assets.

Related: 新华社记者实名举报华润董事长致使数十亿国资流失_财经_凤凰网 微博认证为新华社《经济参考报》首席记者的@记者王文志17日以公民的身份，向中纪委实名举报“副部级官员华润集团董事长宋林等高管在收购山西金业资产的百亿并购案中故意放水，致使数十亿元国资流失，宋林等已构成渎职，并有巨额贪腐之嫌”。具体见王文志的长微博

Related: China Resources Calls Media Reports on Purchase ‘Slander’ – Bloomberg The parent of China Resources Power Holdings Co. (836) said media reports on a purchase for which the unit allegedly overpaid are full of “speculation, assumption and malicious slander.” The reputation of the company and its leader have been “negatively affected” by the reports, Hong Kong-based China Resources Holdings Co. said in a statement on its website yesterday. The company said it reserves the right to pursue legal remedies over words and actions that denigrate and slander its reputation.

Exclusive: China may become top wheat importer after crops ruined | Reuters China’s wheat crop has suffered more severely than previously thought from frost in the growing period and rain during the harvest, and import demand to compensate for the damage could see the country eclipse Egypt as the world’s top buyer. Interviews with farmers and new estimates from analysts have revealed weather damage in China’s northern grain belt could have made as much as 20 million metric tons (22.05 million tons) of the wheat crop, or 16 percent, unfit for human consumption. That would be double the volume previously reported as damaged.

 

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

Economists on Li Keqiang’s New Slogan – Economic Observer How will monetary policy work alongside the push to restructure the real economy? What are the risks involved? What’s the outlook for the macroeconomy in the second half of the year? The EO put these questions to Lu Feng (卢锋), Vice Dean of National School of Development at Peking University; Pan Xiangdong (潘向东), Managing Director and Chief Economist of China Galaxy Securities and Wu Xiaoqiu (吴晓求), head of Financial and Securities Institute (FSI) of Renmin University of China.

外贸“现形”鸣警笛 支持措施将出台_财经频道_一财网 First Financial says weakness of May and June trade data, once real numbers figured out, surprised central government, now ministry of commerce preparing measures to support export industries, may be announced in next week// 《第一财经日报》此前曾连续报道称，高层已开始关注广东、深圳等地前4个月来“登峰造极”的对港贸易数据，并责令严查原因。知情人士对本报记者表示，由于中央的严查，使得5~6月剔除了外贸水分，但最终过于疲弱的数字大大出乎了决策层的意料。 本报记者了解到，商务部于6月下旬至7月上旬赴沿海省市调研，目前已经汇总资料上报国务院。若考虑到外贸政策执行到产生效应的滞后期为3~6个月，那么真正的政策或许将在下周，即7月下旬密集出台。

地方密集会商半年经济 扩投资稳增长成共识_财经频道_一财网 not good. first financial on provinces looking to more investment to keep growth on track in 2H // 多地实现全年目标任务艰巨，中西部省份一季度下滑明显。经济下行压力加大，稳增长被更加凸显出来，而扩投资、保工业成为主要手段。

隔夜Shibor时隔两月首度跌破3%_财经频道_一财网 overnight SHIBOR back below 3% for first time in 2 months

China Won’t Have Large Stimulus This Year, Finance Minister Says – Bloomberg Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said the nation won’t use “large-scale fiscal stimulus” measures this year, adding to signals that the government will tolerate a slowdown in the economy. China will promote growth and boost employment while fine-tuning policies and keeping the fiscal deficit unchanged, and will also avoid big adjustments to short-term macroeconomic policies, Lou said in July 11 comments in meetings with U.S. officials in Washington. The remarks were posted yesterday on the Finance Ministry’s website.

China’s Thinning Margins Has Marubeni Betting on U.S. for Growth – Bloomberg China’s economic slowdown could be worse than official forecasts and a recovery may not come before 2014, according to the chairman of Marubeni Corp. (8002), Japan’s biggest power and agriculture trading company. Thinning cargo volumes and trading margins suggest China’s gross domestic product may be expanding at less than the announced 7.5 percent in the second quarter, Teruo Asada said in an interview in Tokyo, making the U.S. a better prospect for the trader’s expansion.

When does a Chinese growth deceleration become a crisis? | FT Alphaville Essentially, the point is not so much that ‘China is different’. China can handle many things differently, as its unique approach to growth has already demonstrated. But ultimately, it all ends up being another form of can-kicking. Which, in itself, is not so ‘different’. // more cans, and more feet, in China than anywhere else

A Few Local Gov’ts Like Ordos See Odd Spike in Tax Incomes – Caixin A few local governments around China have posted oddly strong tax incomes in the first half – most notably Ordos in the Inner Mongolia region – even as most levels of government are struggling to meet tax targets. An expert Caixin spoke to said one province may be overtaxing businesses, and another expert said local governments were taxing future earnings. Ordos’ tax intake soared in June after slipping in the first five months of the year, a change that local officials did not explain. Technically Ordos is a prefecture-level city, but it is a large, rural area that is a major coal and wool producing region.

China renews pledge to push property tax expansion – Xinhua  The State Administration of Taxation (SAT) said in a circular issued late Tuesday that it will research the possible expansion of property tax pilot programs. However, like similar statements previously made by other authorities, the circular did not include any details regarding a timetable for the expansion. The comment is the latest in a string of official statements in which authorities have vowed to implement a property tax plan currently being used in the cities of Shanghai and Chongqing.

房地产融资政策调整已成定局 开闸或将始自上市公司 新华社——经济参考网 尽管监管层没有明确表态房地产融资政策将调整，但近期的各种迹象表明，房地产融资开闸基本已成定局。闸门或将从涉及房地产上市公司的重组开启。

Developing China’s business leaders: A conversation wtih Yingyi Qian | McKinsey & Company In an interview with McKinsey’s Dominic Barton, the dean of Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management reflects on the characteristics of successful Chinese leaders and the skills they’ll need to thrive in the future.

 

POLITICS AND LAW

Xi urges development through scientific innovation – Xinhua | English.news.cn Chinese President Xi Jinping (R front), also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), talks with academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) who participated in the creation of the Beijing Electron Position Collider (BEPC) in Beijing, capital of China,

习近平：扫除影响科技创新能力提高的体制障碍_资讯频道_凤凰网 新华网北京7月17日电（记者李斌）中共中央总书记、国家主席、中央军委主席习近平17日来到中国科学院考察工作。他强调，科技兴则民族兴，科技强则国家强，要结合实际坚持运用我国科技事业发展经验，积极回应经济社会发展对科技发展提出的新要求，深化科技体制改革，增强科技创新活力，集中力量推进科技创新，真正把创新驱动发展战略落到实处。

Leading citizen movement activist Xu Zhiyong arrested | South China Morning Post Xu Zhiyong’s arrest on charges of having “gathered crowds to disrupt public order” followed a summons delivered earlier on Tuesday. The arrest deals a heavy blow to the gongmeng citizen movement as dozens of fellow activists have also been arrested in the last months.  The outspoken law lecturer at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications is the most prominent representative of the movement, which has been calling for government transparency and respect of individual rights guaranteed by the Chinese constitution.

Wrongful Convictions and China’s Legal Reform Push – China Real Time Report – WSJ Advocates of legal reform are right to feel encouraged. The high positions of both judges and the directness of their comments suggest that higher authorities approved their views. But, as is often the case, there are caveats. The discovery of wrongful convictions is nothing new in China, but publicity around them has grown in recent months posing a challenge to the reputation of China’s courts.

Indianapolis police seeking public’s help to find missing former Chinese dissident Police report Dongyue Yu has been missing since about 3 p.m. Sunday from outside a foot spa where his sister, Rixia Yu, works. Police say his mental capacity is severely diminished because of the physical abuse he endured while serving nearly 17 years in prison in China. Police spokesman Kendale Adams says foul play is not suspected in his disappearance. Yu was jailed for throwing paint on Mao Zedong’s portrait that looks out over Tiananmen Square in Beijing during 1989 pro-democracy protests.

人民日报-群众路线讲的是“感同身受”（大家谈·深入开展党的群众路线教育实践活动·今天，怎样走群众路线①） 韩毓海 submit your comment to the People’s Daily about the properly implementing the Mass Line Education Campaign…now asking for submissions about dealing with the four bad elements // 新的时代，人民群众的诉求、对执政者的要求、改善党群关系的渴求，在不断增长。走好群众路线，尤其强调知行合一。今天起，我们将推出“大家谈”栏目，围绕上述话题，诚邀各界人士畅言建言。希望通过不同的视角，为党员干部如何走好群众路线提供借鉴。下期话题征集：晒一晒身边的不正之风，支一支整治“四风”的新招。来稿请寄：rmrbpl@163.com，或传真至（010）65368684 　——编 者

揭秘中共七常委整风联系点背后的规律_中国_多维新闻网 按照中共开展的“党的群众路线”教育实践活动安排，政治局七名常委近期分别到各自的第一批教育实践活动联系点调研，实地了解教育实践活动进展情况。细心的人可以发现，七常委的足迹遍布华北、华东、华南、东北、西北、西南地区，调研的省份或与自己的经历有渊源，或与目前分管的工作有关。

革命历史题材影片《周恩来的四个昼夜》全国首映-中新网 new movie out about Zhou Enlai // 中新网北京7月13日电(记者 马海燕)反映中国共产党群众路线的重大革命历史题材影片《周恩来的四个昼夜》12日在人民大会堂举行盛大首映式。导演陈力携主演孙维民、牛犇、柏青、黄薇等与观众见面。 影片讲述上个世纪60年代，新中国面临空前饥荒，周恩来总理深入邯郸伯延革命老区调研的四个难忘昼夜，展现了第一代中央领导集体深入基层、深入群众、扎实调研、体察民情的优良作风和宝贵精神。

人民日报-神木人“定心丸”提醒了什么（人民时评） 曹鹏程 references to the Liaozhai ghost stories and moving people’s cheese in same paragraph in the People’s Daily commentary about Shenmu….not sure what you would call that// 坐拥丰富煤炭资源的神木县，这些年经济快速发展，在国内率先推行12年免费教育以及全民免费医疗，“神木模式”一时为全国津津乐道，也成为神木人引以为豪的民生工程。然而，几天前，几句聊斋志异般的传言，一个领导调动的猜测，竟引发数百群众担心地方财政亏空、“免费”政策有所调整，进而聚集到县政府传递“信任危机”。看似难以理解的背后，其实暗含一种对未来的简单焦虑：经济环境变化，能源经济走低，地方政府有无能力稳住公共财政对民生政策的有力支撑？惠民政策能不能延续保证？主政领导的变化又会不会因此动了自己的奶酪？

湖南临武城管当街打死瓜农_网易新闻 Changzhou, Hunan melon seller beaten to death by cheng’guan with scale weights, pictures

网曝江苏连云港城管群殴村民-财经网 more cheng’guan behaving badly and beating people, this time in lianyungang. pictures // 近日，一段名为《连云港城管暴打老百姓 场面激烈》的视频在网络流传，视频中的一名当事人称，他家因反对在房子旁边架设高压线而与城管发生冲突，家中有多人在冲突中受伤，警方在场却未制止。（截屏图片）

河北邯郸：派出所所长接受吃请 小姐作陪-财经网 more online expsoures of official corruption and bad behavior lately. this one of a cop in a KTV in Handan // 人民网北京电（记者孝金波 实习生凌艺蜻）7月16日，河北邯郸市公安局就网传“河北邯郸派出所长接受吃请多名小姐作陪”作出回应：“目前，当事人程某已被停职，接受调查”。图为吃请照片。

Chinese liquor producers feel hangover |Economy |chinadaily.com.cn Chill winds are sweeping the Chinese liquor (baijiu) industry, and competition in the low and middle ranks of the market will persist as the government continues a crackdown on luxury official banquets, analysts said. “We believe the listed baijiu companies saw their business hit bottom in the second quarter,” said Dennis Wang, an analyst with UBS on Wednesday, as he released an industry outlook report.

Professor Apologizes for Comments on Rape Case – China Real Time Report – WSJ In an interview with China Real Time earlier Wednesday, Mr. Yi said his comments didn’t amount to a defense of Li Tianyi. “I’m not saying that Li Tianyi didn’t commit rape, nor that prostitutes could be raped,” he said. Mr. Yi said each crime has a certain level of social harm, and the psychological harm is different on different victims. “The same curse words have different impacts on different people,” Mr. Yi said. “Chaste women and prostitutes have different views on chasteness,” he said, “so [rape has] a different impact on them.”

 

FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS

China refutes Philippines’ South China Sea accusation – Xinhua  Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a written statement that “We regret that the Philippines stated that it has become impossible for it to continue bilateral discussions with China, and are dissatisfied with its refusal to diplomatic negotiation and closure of the door to dialogue.” Her comments came after the Philippine Foreign Ministry issued an eight-point statement on July 15, saying that a Chinese statement on Friday was baseless and China’s hard line position made it impossible to continue negotiations and led the Philippines to finally resort to international arbitration.

North Korea has everything in place for new atom test: U.S. expert | Reuters North Korea has strong technical reasons to carry out another nuclear test but may be hesitating because it would anger China, a prominent U.S. scientist who has often visited the reclusive Asian state said on Wednesday. Stanford University’s Siegfried Hecker, who was shown a previously undetected uranium enrichment facility when he was last there three years ago, said the North had “everything in place” for what would be the fourth such explosion since 2006.

China’s Quest for World Pork Domination – NationalJournal.com “There’s a boogeyman in a lot of this,” said Kirk Feller, a former lobbyist for the National Pork Producers Council. “The thought is there some way China could steal something away from the American pork producer and capitalize on it in China and overtake the world. It’s the boogeyman behind every tree scenario…. Everything Smithfield has is commercially available. It doesn’t make sense to me, everyone has access to these technologies.”

人民日报-种族问题像道结痂的伤口，一碰就出血 齐默尔曼案触动美社会敏感神经 本报驻美国记者 温 宪 People’s Daily page 3 on the Zimmerman verdict and race problems in the US

China to Lend $10 Billion for Ivory Coast Plans, Minister Says – Bloomberg China will lend as much as $10 billion during the next six years at below-market rates to fund infrastructure projects in the Ivory Coast, according to the West African nation’s planning minister. The majority of the concessional loans will come from the Export-Import Bank of China, Albert Mabri Toikeusse said in a July 10 interview from Paris. Lu Pang, the economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese embassy in Ivory Coast, declined to comment.

The CIA’s New Black Bag Is Digital – By Matthew M. Aid | Foreign Policy Sources within the U.S. intelligence community confirm that since 9/11, CIA clandestine operations have given the NSA access to a number of new and critically important targets around the world, especially in China and elsewhere in East Asia, as well as the Middle East, the Near East, and South Asia.

 

TECH AND MEDIA

腾讯的开放之心_杂志频道_财新网 long story on this week’s Caixin on Tencent and its open strategy // 腾讯在开放平台上摸索两年，逐渐找到了感觉。现在的挑战是：如何将社交链从PC端向移动端平移，微信和手机QQ如何竞合发展

Elizabeth Schimel Named President of Condé Nast in China – Publishing – Media – WWD.com Condé Nast International said Tuesday that Schimel will take charge of the Beijing-based Condé Nast office in October. The office is responsible for brands including Vogue and Self, which are published under copyright cooperation agreements with various Chinese publishers, a form of collaboration commonly used in China. Schimel previously held executive positions at Nokia and the cable television company Comcast, and is fluent in Mandarin, having studied in Beijing.

Cut! China snips back some film censorship rules | Reuters Chinese filmmakers, who have long lobbied for restrictions to be lifted, said they welcomed the changes, but it was too soon to celebrate. “Censorship of completed movies still exists,” movie director Zhang Qi wrote on his microblog. “What’s more, under the new regulation, the risks from censorship will be borne fully by producers and creators. However, I hope this will be a good start.”

新闻出版广电总局回应网传电影审查放开属误读_中国经济网——国家经济门户 or not, as things that never existed can not be snipped back, says the film regulator // 请注意是剧本审查取消，这个在电影局的行政管理上早就按此执行了。只要电影拍摄机构向电影局提交剧本梗概，里面的故事内容不违反法律法规，就可以拿到拍摄许可证。”上述人士强调，不存在审查剧本一说，“电影拍摄完毕后的成品是要送到电影局审查的。这点没有改变。”

NetEase News Client Hit 120 million, Daily Active Users Reached 40 million — China Internet Watch The number of NetEase News Client users has surpassed 120 million, and daily active users reached 40 million, said by NetEase General Manager Xu Shi at Longmen Zhen Salon hosted by Techweb on July 9 2013.

 

SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY

Back from the Deep: Homes Buried in 08′ Sichuan Earthquake Re-emerge The flag still hangs on its pole in front of the building of Xuanping primary school in Xuanping township, Beichuan county, Sichuan Province on July 14, 2013. The township had been submerged following the 8.0-magnitude 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which created a barrier lake. After the recent torrential rains that swept the region, an exit channel was created for the lake, which drained and revealed some of the homes

On Being Black in China – The Atlantic People of African origin are still uncommon in China, but the infusion of international culture has started to erode traditional bigotries.

Harvard Summer Program Recommendations Come at Hefty Cost – Bloomberg and increasingly popular with chinese kids and their parents, who are easier to fool into believing they will help with college admittance // The lure of Harvard endorsements comes with a hefty price tag: $10,490 for the program, and it’s much the same at other elite colleges, where summer courses for high school students have become a lucrative business. While the colleges say they help prepare students for the transition to university, critics charge they give false hope of gaining admission, are unfair to poor students who can’t attend and add to the debt burden by depleting parents’ savings.

韩亚空难暴露游学市场潜规则:老师随团免费出国|韩亚空难|博悦|游学_21世纪网 韩亚空难，让一个名不见经传的“镇江博悦国际交流咨询服务有限公司”（以下简称“镇江博悦”），这个承接了“2013江山中学英语与文化夏令营”业务的中介机构被推至舆论的风口浪尖。 这个工商注册在江苏省镇江丹阳市的以咨询服务为主的外资企业在近8年间承办了包括江山中学在内的一些浙江省二三线城市中学的夏令营，如不是旧金山坠机事件发生，镇江博悦与它的创办人、持有加拿大护照的49岁华人虞国平不会引起这么多的关注与质疑。 一次偶然突发的灾难事件，将一个游学中介与它开展“生意”的中学之间的生存逻辑撕开了一个剖面，亦将一些平时不为外界所知的常态化生态呈现于公众面前，

 

ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH

央企降价抢市　地方煤企结盟保价 新华社——经济参考网 central SOEs cutting coal prices to gain share, causing lots of pain for local competitors // 从6月26日的603元/吨到7月17日的583元/吨，中国煤炭市场风向标环渤海动力煤价格指数“跳水式”跌破600元大关后，仍在不断刷新近5年的最低记录，短短三周就跌了20元。“市场需求低迷，再加上各省搞‘煤电互保’扶持本地煤企，央企神华、中煤又为了抢市场率先降价，其他煤企只能跟风，引发煤价恐慌性下跌。”中煤远大煤炭分析师张志斌解释说。

越位与缺位：环保监管的灰色地带 深度报道——经济参考网 在环保监管的缺位之处，企业的治污设备或者拒不安装，或者装而不用，尤其是治污企业和排污企业基于“减排成本最小化”的利益共识，盲目追求低价招投标，导致减排设备的质量堪忧。在环保监管的越位之处，“拍脑门”决策严重干扰了企业的正常生产，刚刚建成、尚未投运的治污设施因为频繁变化的新政策而夭折，企业前期投入打了水漂；企业被各级政府层层加码的减排目标搞得喘不过气，减排工程不得不赶工期。“守法成本高，违法成本低”依然是中国环保的现状。雾霾治理的根本，正在于合理划定政府、市场、社会三者的边界，既守土有责，又互不侵犯，从而形成“空气保卫战”的最广泛统一战线。

 

BEIJING

北京：烈日当空热难耐 街头吹起“清凉风”–图片频道–人民网 People’s Daily brings us a photo series of pretty women of the Beijing summer...

山东男子在北京持刀杀害两名行人 含外籍人士_网易新闻中心 2 stabbed to death outside joy city mall in eastern Beijng, one a foreign woman, attacker “mentally ill”, arrested at the scene, graphic pictures

北京将严查婚托 “闪婚”买房三次将告警_网易新闻中心 针对近日媒体报道的“婚托”等现象，北京市住建委启动综合执法检查，如果开发商和中介机构参与教唆、协助“婚托”，都将从严查处；购房资格核验系统中，出现“闪婚”三次的身份证号将自动“告警”。//Beijing to crack down on sham marriages designed to get around home purchase restrictions

Intersection: New Style in Old Beijing–New York Times VIdeo In Beijing’s Gulou neighborhood, we met Li Xuan, who cites the local architecture as his main source of style inspiration.

 

JOBS AND EVENTS

Project 2049 Institute – Internships The Project 2049 Institute offers internship opportunities for students and recent graduates who are interested in gaining research experience in Asia security issues. Intern responsibilities include research assistance, contributing to our blog AsiaEye, event planning and administrative support. Qualifications: Desirable qualifications include good research and writing skills as well as an interest in Asia and Asian affairs. Bilingual ability in an Asian language is desirable but not required.