Just links today, smog storm still going strong here, trying not to look out my window.
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THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
习近平主持召开政治局会议：向深化改革要动力-高层动态-新华网
Related: CPC meeting underlines further reform – Xinhua | English.news.cn The meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee was convened to discuss the government work report to be submitted for deliberation at the annual plenary session of the National People’s Congress, the top legislature, in early March. China achieved better-than-expected results last year, despite experiencing more difficulties than expected, according to the meeting. Participants concluded that China will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, stabilize and improve its macro-control policies, keep economic growth “within a rational zone” and elevate growth quality and efficiency in order to achieve this year’s goals.
【舒立观察】“两会”前的改革期盼_杂志频道_财新网 Hu Shuli on the hopes that the upcoming NPC meeting will provide much more clarity on reform details and timelines// 高层领导人数次重申改革的时间表、
Related: 为有源头活水来——
激辩楼市“咔嚓声”：裂痕暂现三四线城市_财经频道_一财网
Related: Industrial Bank Temporarily Tightens Developer Financing – Bloomberg Industrial Bank Co. (601166) temporarily tightened financing for real-estate developers until it prepares a new set of credit policies, according to a stock exchange statement. The bank requested all branches to take stock of existing assets and market conditions after the Lunar New Year, according to the statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday. It also suspended granting new credit to some developers and halted mezzanine financing until new rules are released, by the end of March, it said. The weeklong Lunar New Year break ran through Feb. 6, with financial markets reopening on Feb. 7.
Related: 房地产融资风险遭预警 新华社——经济参考网 一石激起千层浪。
What’s up for Alibaba’s mobile app strategy? | Reuters downloaded Laiwang a few weeks ago…only three people in my address came up as contacts, and none of them use it much, nor have I ever heard anyone talk about using it. There is a reason Jack Ma and Alibaba sound increasingly desperate about mobile. For a recent overview I wrote about the Chinese Internet, see China’s Internet: Gilding the Cyber Cage. And Goldman Monday increased its price target for Tencent to 700 HKD, of which 390 they argue comes from WeChat/Weixin // Alibaba has been grappling with its mobile business in China, and its Laiwang mobile messaging app has yet to make a big impact – either as a chat app or a portal for mobile gaming. As of November, Laiwang had 10 million users, according to Alibaba. As of September, Tencent’s WeChat mobile messaging app had 272 million monthly active users, booking taxis, topping up phone credit and even investing in wealth management products. Some observers say that’s too big a catch-up for Alibaba.
Related: “围剿”余额宝们_财经_新京报网 Beij
Related: Fangs In: Yu E Bao Is Not to Blame – Caixin Internet finance inevitably comes with certain risks and challenges to regulators, but it is also a positive force that China’s financial system has not seen for years. The third plenum urged developing “inclusive finance,” that is to say a financial system without discrimination. The nature of Internet finance is exactly inclusive. Some financial reform goals have been partially achieved by Internet finance. Of course, in the near future Internet finance could be incorporated into the regulatory system, for example, through the issuing of licenses. As for the lofty position that large banks enjoy, to avoid the fate of Nokia and Kodak they should embrace the revolution
LinkedIn Launches a Chinese-Language Site — But Government Censorship Looms | Re/code earlier this year, LinkedIn announced the appointment of Derek Shen as president of LinkedIn China. He is currently recruiting for a large staff that LinkedIn expects to have in the country. Currently, the company’s largest international office is in Europe. The new deal there will be a joint venture with China Broadband Capital and Sequoia Capital China. As part of the deal, the two partners contributed $5 million in cash for a seven percent stake in preferred shares. There is a conditional option for them to pay $20 million more for another 21 percent of the JV. In an interview, CEO Jeff Weiner said the LinkedIn had applied for a license to operate within the country that had yet to be approved.
Related: LinkedIn in China: Connecting the World’s Professionals | LinkedIn official post announcing linkedIn China // Expanding our presence in China presents a challenge that our company must address directly, clearly and in a manner consistent with our core values. As a condition for operating in the country, the government of China imposes censorship requirements on Internet platforms. LinkedIn strongly supports freedom of expression and fundamentally disagrees with government censorship. At the same time, we also believe that LinkedIn’s absence in China would deny Chinese professionals a means to connect with others on our global platform, thereby limiting the ability of individual Chinese citizens to pursue and realize the economic opportunities, dreams and rights most important to them.
Related: 你终于来了，Linkedin中国上线，
衡阳竞选“黑金”-财经网 Caijing cover story on the cash for votes people’s congress scandal in Hengyang, Hunan. Apparently discussed the case at some length in the most recent CDIC Plenary meeting // 涉案金额达1.1亿元，涉及56名省人大代表、
中纪委第二轮巡视：6个巡视点中5个查出腐败_新闻_腾讯网 C
Related: 山西一日公布三官员被查 中央巡视组要求加大反腐力度_财经频道_一财网 Three Shanxi officials taken down in on day. Unlucky three, can’t be the only ones…
Related: 知止 知耻 知恩 知足（声音）(图)_网易新闻中心 Shanxi Provincial Party secretary gives a tongue twister to help officials stay out of trouble //知止就是要遵纪守法、廉洁自律；知耻就是要心怀敬畏、
Kerry ups ante in struggle to crack South China Sea rules | Reuters ASEAN officials told Reuters that a working group of officials from China and the 10-member association would resume negotiations in Singapore on March 18 after agreeing to accelerate talks last year that have made little headway so far. The code of conduct is intended to bind China and ASEAN to detailed rules of behavior at sea – all geared to managing tensions long-term while broader territorial disputes are resolved. It stems from a landmark 2002 declaration between ASEAN and China, then hailed as the first significant agreement between the grouping and an outside power.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
适时将境外融资纳入社会融资规模统计-财经频道-新华网 Chi
Chinese Arts Company Goes Public in Bid to Grow – NYTimes.com Poly Culture Group Corporation — is planning an initial public stock offering that could raise up to $330 million and bolster the prospects of the company in the world’s biggest and fastest-growing art and auction market.
POLITICS AND LAW
人民日报：激浊扬清增强价值判断力|社会主义|道德|价值观_
观察站：贪腐涉黑集团 周永康案性质生变_中国_多维新闻网 Interesting Duowei speculation on the Zhou Yongkang investigation // 在多维新闻曾经的分析中，就曾透露中共高层正在斟酌，
刘迎霞撤职政协委员背后：中石油曾认购其主导基金10亿_
中石油窝案意外“击中”薄熙成_中国_多维新闻网 Duowei says Bo Xilai’s brother Bo Xicheng connected 2 one of those taken down in petro purge //【多维新闻】中石油国际事业有限公司党委书记沈定成“失联”
More Communist Party officials expected to flee abroad | South China Morning Post The number of Communist Party cadres escaping abroad may also rise because a lack of extradition pacts with some countries means fugitives may find bolt holes overseas, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said. The academy’s annual Blue Book of the Rule of Law said the anti-corruption watchdog should pay greater attention to officials moving their families or assets abroad and closely monitor people joining government service to nip graft in the bud.
China’s Premier Li Keqiang Calls for More Open Government to Fight Corruption – China Real Time Report – WSJ In newly published remarks, Premier Li said the government’s broad regulatory powers over markets and business are key drivers of rampant graft. He named bidding for construction projects, government procurement and the awarding of land-use and mining rights as areas particularly prone to corruption. Such processes need to be better standardized this year, and “leading cadres should not meddle,” Mr. Li said at a meeting of the State Council, China’s cabinet, on Feb. 11.
Why the Supreme People’s Court is lobbying National People’s Congress Delegates? | Supreme People’s Court Monitor It appears that the rationale Zhou Qiang (and colleagues) have for these meetings is two-fold. First, it is to diffuse criticism of the Court (and the work of the lower courts) at the upcoming NPC session and incorporate frequently issues into either the final version of the Court Work Report or the 2014 Court agenda. The large number of votes against the 2013 Court Work Report was seen as a loss of face and it is likely that Court leadership wants to avoid that. The second reason Zhou Qiang has for closely liaising with NPC delegates is to lay the groundwork for implementing court reforms
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
China, Vietnam vow more substantial progress in joint maritime cooperation – Xinhua China and Vietnam on Monday vowed to jointly promote their cooperation in areas including maritime, onshore and finance, and achieve more substantial progress. The pledge came out of a meeting between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visiting President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan.
California Man Gave DuPont Secrets to China, U.S. Says – Bloomberg Liew and his Oakland, California-based consulting company were paid $28 million from 2006 to 2011 for contracts to design a titanium dioxide plant for Pangang, prosecutors said at trial. He used process-flow diagrams and parts of a DuPont internal report about plant equipment, both trade secrets, in his work, Axelrod said, citing documents on Liew’s computers seized by federal agents in 2011 that referenced “stolen prints.”
Military Brick-Breaking Demonstrations Face the Chop – NYTimes.com If combat were simply a matter of showmanship, then the PLA would be near invincible. But military officials are acknowledging that such displays have few practical applications, and are reconsidering the amount of time that troops spend on such training. The shift is a small but symbolically important part of China’s broader effort to modernize its military.
Philippines says China fired water cannon at disputed shoal – Channel NewsAsia General Emmanuel Bautista said Chinese vessels fired cannon on January 27 near Scarborough Shoal — the subject of a bitter territorial row in the strategically important South China Sea
China denounces appointment of U.S. special coordinator on Tibet | Reuters Washington urged the Chinese government on Friday to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives without pre-conditions as a means to reduce tensions. To encourage those talks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday he had named one of his officials, Sarah Sewall, as a special coordinator for Tibetan Issues. “The Chinese government resolutely opposes any foreign country using the so-called Tibet problem to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily news briefing.
TECH AND MEDIA
Sina Profit Beats Estimates as Weibo Ad Sales Increase – Bloomberg The company forecast first-quarter non-GAAP revenue of $162 million to $167 million, including advertising revenue $133 million to $136 million. Shares of Sina fell 6 percent in extended trading after the results. The stock advanced 4.3 percent to close at $76.08 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading yesterday.
I.P.O. Planned for Chinese Microblogging Service – NYTimes.com The offering, which has not been formally announced, could raise up to $500 million later this year. Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse have been selected to underwrite the offering, according to the people close to the matter.
Qihoo 360’s unfair competition appeal rejected – Xinhua | English.news.cn China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) on Monday rejected the appeal of Qihoo 360, a major Chinese antivirus software developer, and upheld the original sentence that it had competed unfairly against China’s leading Internet company Tencent. In a statement, the SPC said Qihoo 360, driven by commercial purposes, lured and provided tools for users to change the operation mode of Tencent’s QQ software.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Survey finds Chinese see US as the “ideal country” | beyondbrics A hint as to why many Chinese may not regard China as ideal is contained in a hierarchy of worries that respondents confessed to. Not surprisingly, 85 per cent of Chinese said they were worried about the environment – by far the biggest single concern named among the Chinese, US and UK respondents (see chart).
Sochi Winter Olympics: How Did China Do? – China Real Time Report – WSJ In terms of overall medals, China finished 11th with nine medals, while on the gold medal count it was 12th after winning three golds. Russia won on both counts, with 33 medals in total and 13 golds.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
南水北调水质忧虑_杂志频道_财新网 This week’s Caixin cover story is about worries over water quality in the South-North Water transfer project
Hospital Hand-Wringing over Serving the Rich – Caixin Peking Union was one of the first in the country to build facilities that cater to the well-off. What’s now called the hospital’s international department would be labeled a special-needs wing at another medical facility. Patients who can afford health care in the international department enjoy quieter, cleaner and better-equipped facilities than their less fortunate counterparts on the other side of the hospital. Receptionists are friendly and the tea is free for patients seated comfortably in brightly lit waiting rooms. Moreover, outpatients need not stand in long lines like the common folk waiting in other parts of the hospital. //where our kids were born eight years ago next week, probably couldn’t get in now
石家庄市民因空气污染状告环保局 为全国首例_新闻_腾讯网 Shijiazhuang, Hebei man sues local environmental bureau over air pollution in first case of its kind
One more H7N9 death, four new human cases in China – Xinhua | English.news.cn China’s southern province of Guangdong reported one more death and four new human cases of H7N9 infection on Monday.
BEIJING
邓文迪四合院毗邻故宫价值1亿_网易新闻中心-网易新闻客户端
JOBS AND EVENTS
JIM LAURIE– Focus Asia Productions Ltd Currently, we are providing consulting services to China Central Television in Washington DC. In 2014, CCTV America will increase its daily programming produced from the DC broadcast center to five hours a day. An ever larger portion of Chinese program production for the global English market is being produced outside China – in Nairobi, Washington, and soon Los Angeles and London. CCTV America in Washington is HIRING in anticipation of an expansion in programming in April. While most key positions have been filled effective February 17, 2014, if you are interested in any of the Washington DC positions listed below please contactjim.laurie@cctv-america.com