The Sinocism China Newsletter 06.25.14

I am off to Henan for a couple of days, the next issue will be Sunday at the earliest.

Today’s Links:

THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT

China official on key Taiwan trip says comes with sincerity | Reuters “It took three hours for me to fly here from Beijing, but it took 65 years for both sides across the Taiwan Strait to come this far,” said Zhang Zhijun, director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, as he sat down for talks with Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Minister Wang Yu-chi. “I come here full of sincerity in my heart,” said Zhang, the first head of the Taiwan Affairs Office to visit the self-ruled and democratic island

Related: 张志军访问台湾_国际频道_新华网 Xinhua micro-site on Zhang Zhijun’s visit to Taiwan

Related: China sends 1st minister-level official to Taiwan–AP “Amid all these tensions this particular visit obviously is important in terms of trying to soothe sentiments and trying to stabilize relations,” said Dali Yang, a China expert at the University of Chicago. “Any representative from the mainland, going to Taiwan, I think the best they can do is to try to stabilize relations.” The main opposition party says it will not organize protests against Zhang, though smaller protest groups are vowing to follow him during the visit. Their first wave scuffled with supporters at the airport and clashed with a column of police at the hotel, leaving one activist injured.

New Chinese map gives greater play to South China Sea claims | Reuters Previous maps published by the government already include China’s claims to most of the South China Sea, but in a little box normally in a bottom corner to enable the rest of the country to fit on the map. The new, longer map dispenses with the box, and shows continental China along with its self-declared sea boundary in the South China Sea – stretching right down to the coasts of Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines – on one complete map. “The islands of the South China Sea on the traditional map of China are shown in a cut-away box, and readers cannot fully, directly know the full map of China,” the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said on its website.

Related: 中国地图“竖起来了” 南海诸岛不再是“插图”_新闻_腾讯网 picture of the new map, video news report on it

Related: Vietnam needs brotherly correction – Global Times If the Communist Party of Vietnam cannot acknowledge the conspiracy behind some international hostile forces or leaves the country’s nationalist and anti-Communist forces unchecked, domestic security and social order will face more threats and chaos. It is necessary for the parties of both countries to strengthen cooperation…China would set a good example by firmly cracking down on Vietnam’s fuss-making. The changing international environment brings equal opportunities to every country. The crisis brought by Vietnam’s opportunism is an opportunity for China.--The author is a research fellow with Non-war Military Operations Research Center at National Defense University PLA China.

Related: Vietnam Vows Stand Against China as Sea Collisions Continue – Bloomberg The sea strife poses the most serious foreign policy crisis for Vietnam’s leaders in decades, said Ha Hoang Hop, visiting senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “Vietnam’s politburo is torn about their policy on Vietnam’s relationship with China,” he said in a phone interview. “The fear is China won’t compromise. The last chance for sitting down and trying to resolve the dispute in the South China Sea is this summer. Otherwise, Vietnam will bring the case to an international tribunal.”

Web Preaches Jihad to China’s Muslim Uighurs – WSJ China’s government launched a crackdown on terrorist material online on Friday and took the unusual step Tuesday of broadcasting a documentary on state television including jihadist video clips it said were from Xinjiang militants. The film, jointly produced with Chinese police, said such material had inspired and helped to train the alleged perpetrators of several recent attacks, including an apparent suicide bombing—a tactic rarely used by Uighurs in the past—that killed 43 at an Urumqi market last month. The narrator of the film said most relevant videos were produced outside China, posted online via countries including Turkey, which has strong cultural links to Xinjiang, and then spread within the region via memory cards, social media and other electronic means.

Related: 国信办发布《恐怖主义的网上推手》电视专题片_新闻_腾讯网 the video on terrorism, some very graphic scenes

Related: Pictures Grabbed from Surveillance Video of 10.28.13 Terror Attack In Beijing-Caixin 

Related: China releases documentary on online terrorist propaganda – Xinhua The documentary by China Central Television was made with the support of the SIIO, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Council Information Office. Filled with graphic footage of terrorists’ training episodes and their terrorist killings, it was released to educate Internet users on the consequences of spreading terror and violent videos. It is also aimed at reminding Internet companies of their responsibilities in the battle against such material.

Related: China Voice: Eliminating online terror is a war China must win – Xinhua China has taken serious steps to police the Internet. The country needs support and cooperation rather than doubt or criticism. Otherwise, the kind of terrorists who shouted “Let there be holy war” as they attacked Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in October — as shown in the TV documentary — will shout the same slogan elsewhere in the world. In an era when information is freely available for anybody anywhere who wants to get involved in terrorism, China’s actions concern the survival of everyone.

Meet Mike Love, the mastermind behind Chinese app Pleco–TechInAsia if you are buying one Chinese related app or service, buy Pleco // I’m interested in the gamification of everything. I love Foursquare, and I think there’s a lot of potential for language learning to provide a quantified, reward-based way to keep you motivated. I like the idea of integrating Chinese language learning into your daily life. I’m also open to adding a social element like Stack Overflow to encourage each other in your Chinese learning. So you’re creating communities that encourage each other in language learning. I’ve seen a quite a few few startups working on that, but I don’t think anyone’s quite mastered it yet. Except for maybe Skritter, but those guys already left and are working on another startup.

China’s Supreme Court overturns death sentence for victim of domestic violence: lawyer | Reuters China’s top court has overturned the death sentence of a woman convicted of killing her husband after years of violent abuse, her lawyer said on Tuesday, in a move activists say shows the government could be serious about battling domestic violence. The landmark case of Li Yan, which was widely discussed on the Internet in China, highlights the plight of victims of domestic violence, and drew the attention of international human rights groups.

China Pulling the Plug on Foreign Mainframes – Caixin the switch is not happening overnight. A Bank of China IT department employee said some Chinese suppliers have yet to meet the security and stability standards that are required of any bank computer network working with customer accounts. Moreover, he said, a system overhaul can carry a high price tag. BOC already spends more than 10 billion yuan on IT. “It’s not easy for major banks to change their core systems due to high replacement costs,” said the employee, who asked not to be named.

Related: China sets out to become global leader in chip manufacturing | PCWorld China is propping up its local chip manufacturing industry with new policies and financial support intended to turn the country into a semiconductor-making powerhouse by 2030. In policy guidelines published Tuesday, the Chinese government laid out a blueprint to develop the domestic integrated circuit industry. The country not only wants to sharpen its competitive edge, but also wean itself from foreign chip makers, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a separate posting.// 《国家集成电路产业发展推进纲要》正式公布

Bloomberg journalist in China resigns – Talking Biz News Peter Hirschberg, deputy managing editor of economy and government coverage in Asia, has resigned from Bloomberg News. Hirschberg worked in the Hong Kong bureau. Other journalists have left Bloomberg’s Hong Kong operations in the past year after the company did not publish stories critical of people connected to the Chinese government.

China Sends Enforcers To Provinces On Signs Policy Obstructed | MNI China’s State Council will send inspection teams around the country to ensure that central government policies are being properly implemented amid concerns that the new leadership’s reform agenda is getting short shrift in the provinces. The official Xinhua News Agency said eight teams will spend 10 days travelling around China to ensure “implementation of measures since the second half of last year to stabilize growth, promote reform and priority tasks for 2014 as listed by the government work report.”

 

BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE

China Central Bank’s ‘Targeted Easing’ Leads to Finger Pointing – China Real Time Report – WSJ In theory, the qualifications for banks to be part of the “targeted easing” are pretty straightforward. According to PBOC guidelines, over 50% of a bank’s new loans and 30% of its outstanding loans must have been made to small businesses or to the farm sector during the past year. In practice, the central bank appears to wield significant discretion in deciding which institutions qualify for the lower reserve requirement. That has led some banks not immediately qualified to try to elbow their way into the club. The state-run China Securities Journal reported Friday that more banks are lobbying the central bank to be part of the lower rate. Their efforts were fueled by a widening of the program after three mid-sized banks– China Merchants Bank, Minsheng Bank of China and Industrial Bank—said last week they had received PBOC approval to join smaller city commercial and rural banks in following the lower reserve ratio.

China Local Debt Growth Slows as Economic Expansion Cools – Bloomberg Outstanding debt for nine provinces and nine cities grew 3.79 percent from the end of June last year through March, 7 percentage points slower than the pace in the first half of 2013, according to a report delivered by Liu Jiayi, head of the National Audit Office, at a National People’s Congress meeting yesterday. The report was posted on the office’s website

Survey Suggests China May Finally Be Getting the Message on Debt – China Real Time Report – WSJ Only 19% of companies reported accessing credit during the second quarter of the year, down from 30% a year ago, according to the China Beige Book, a private-sector polling organization. That’s despite a drop in the average interest rate on new loans. Just half of companies increased investment, the lowest figure in the two and a half years the survey has been running. Given that many industries in China suffer from rampant excess capacity — a legacy of sunny predictions about future demand that never materialized — firms may be acting rationally here.

China PBOC Offl Warns Financial Risks; Vows To Pace Up Reforms | MNI In a report to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Liu Shiyu, Vice Governor of the PBOC, said China is facing “very arduous” tasks in adjusting economic structure and financial risks of some areas and regions are “prominent”. Liu said there are risks and concerns when economy is stabilizing, but also said overall financial risks are controllable. “Some enterprises’ debt ratios are too high, non-performing loans of sectors with serious overcapacity problem have risen, default risks of high-yield wealth management products have increased,” Liu said, according the report posted by the NPC website.

PBOC’s Ma Urges Joining TPP to Boost Growth, Report Shows – Bloomberg China would add about 2 percentage points to annual economic growth by joining a Pacific trade pact in the view of the central bank’s chief research economist, according to presentation slides seen by Bloomberg News. The country should join negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership as soon as possible to reap the benefits, Ma Jun of the People’s Bank of China said in an internal presentation in mid-June. South Korea and Vietnam would also add more than 2 percentage points to their gross domestic product growth rates as part of the TPP, the presentation showed.

Tongling Nonferrous Chairman Dies in Plunge From Building – Bloomberg The death is under investigation by the authorities, the company said in a Shenzhen Stock Exchange filing yesterday evening. Tongling said it has named Vice Chairman Yang Jun as acting chairman and operations are normal.

Vanke Jumps in Hong Kong Debut as Developer Seen Resilient – Bloomberg “Safer names have been our preference since we turned bearish on China property sector in October 2013,” Jinsong Du, a property analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG in Hong Kong, wrote in a note to clients today. “Vanke-H’s listing has created another blue chip choice in China property sector.” Credit Suisse initiated coverage of Vanke with an outperform rating.

News Analysis: House-for-pension pilot diversifies eldercare system – Xinhua China’s insurance regulator announced on Monday that it will pilot a house-for-pension program in four major cities in the latest move to diversify the eldercare system. The program supplements the current basic pension system and takes some pressure off the state budget from an increasing aged population. The two-year pilot, effective on July 1, will allow people over 60 in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Wuhan to deed their houses to an insurance company, which will give them cash payment every month, according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission(CIRC).

Big Three Telecom Operators Jump into Online Investment Fray – Caixin The Guangdong branch of China Unicom and Baidu Inc. recently launched an online money market fund, called Wobaifu, making the telecoms operator the latest to jump into the industry. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have taken steps lately toward offering the online money market funds. China Telecom launched Tianyibao in April, and China Unicom’s Shenzhen branch started offering Huafeibao on May 20. China Mobile has not launched a product, but it says its Hejubao offering will be available in the next few months.

China Developer Arrested After Defaulting Amid Fraud Reports | Mingtiandi Today, the official Securities News reported that, according to Hangzhou government sources, the chairman of Zhongdou Group, a Hangzhou-based real estate developer has been arrested after failing to repay an entrusted loan earlier this month. Yang Dingguo who owns Zhongdou Group had been missing since June 14th after the bank which handled the entrusted loan had initiated legal action against him and his companies.

Rebalancing China’s Economy? Fuhgeddaboudit – China Real Time Report – WSJ At least one major bank thinks the rebalancing theory is wrong. “We believe the obsession with rebalancing China’s economy is leading to misguided policy recommendations that are too blunt and may carry unintended consequences,” including, perhaps, reducing savings, write HSBC economists Qu Hongbin and John Zhu in a new report.

Chinese IPOs Lock Up $91 Billion as Deals Divert Funds – Bloomberg China’s first initial public offerings in four months will start trading tomorrow after bids for six companies locked up 563.9 billion yuan ($91 billion), fueling concern the deals may divert funds from existing shares.

China Money Rate Rises to Seven-Week High on Quarter-End Demand – Bloomberg The quarter-end cash demand kept the rates relatively elevated,” said Cao Yang, an analyst at Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. in Shanghai. “However, with the help of the treasury-deposit auction tomorrow and better cash management by big banks, we don’t expect any liquidity problem.”

China govt money paid for French vineyards: auditor – AFP Two companies in the northeastern port of Dalian were granted 268 million yuan ($43 million) by local authorities last year to buy overseas technology, but instead purchased 14 vineyards in France, the National Audit Office (NAO) said in its annual report. Haichang Group, one of the firms named by the NAO, is currently the biggest Chinese owner of Bordeaux vineyards with more than 10 estates including Chateau Chenu-Lafitte, according to French media reports. Chinese investors have been among the biggest buyers of French wineries in recent years, prompting concerns that were highlighted by a report last year by Paris’ money laundering investigators Tracfin calling for “increased vigilance” on such deals.

呼市撤回取消限购文件 称出现打印错误_财经频道_一财网 Hohhot pulls back its order ending housing price restrictions, says it was a “printing error”

China PBOC Surveys See Big Drop In Banker Confidence In Econ | MNI Entrepreneurs also lost confidence in the economy during the current quarter, while the surveys saw more households complaining about rising prices. An index measuring bankers’ confidence in the economy tumbled 13.9 percentage points to 53.7% in the second quarter, while bankers also reported falling loan demand. The findings of the banker survey were echoed in an accompanying survey of entrepreneurs.

China gov’t struggling to meet fiscal target – Xinhua The central treasury received 2.9 trillion yuan (472 billion U.S.dollars) from January to May, a year-on-year growth of 6.3 percent and 0.7 percentage points lower than the budgeted target, said Lou Jiwei, when briefing lawmakers on the final accounts for 2013. This year’s budgeted growth in central fiscal revenue is 7 percent. The government is “under heavy pressure,” Lou said. Difficulties lie in the downward pressure on the economy and the program to replace business tax with value-added tax (VAT) in some service sectors, which will reduce tax revenue to some degree, he explained.

 

POLITICS AND LAW

习近平改革论述摘编:部分系首次发表|习近平改革论述|习近平_凤凰资讯 核心提示:由中共中央文献研究室编辑的《习近平关于全面深化改革论述摘编》一书,近日由中央文献出版社出版,在全国发行。《习近平关于全面深化改革论述摘编》共分12个专题,收入274段论述,摘自习近平2012年11月15日至2014年4月1日期间的讲话、演讲、批示、指示等70多篇重要文献。其中部分论述是第一次公开发表。

Senior CPC official vows to stem corruption – Xinhua | English.news.cn Wang, chief of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, made the remarks as he met with a delegation from the Danish Parliamentary Ombudsman led by Jorgen Steen Sorensen. “Our goal is clear,” he said, adding that “we are disciplining the ruling party itself, tightening up its internal management, and boosting the drive for good governance to resolutely contain corruption.” Wang said the people have entrusted the CPC with the status of ruling party and the anti-corruption drive is linked to the fate of the party, the state and the nation

解读中央纪委“最一月”:“老虎”接连落马 震慑非同凡响-时政频道-新华网 Xinhua on CCDI big month from May 20 to June 20, with 71 officials put under investigation, and no reason to expect a less intense summer

CPC official stresses implementation of anti-decadence campaign – Xinhua | English.news.cn Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, asked CPC officials to improve their work style and pay attention to the public’s main concerns. Criticism and self-criticism at intra-Party sessions, or democratic meetings, are part of the CPC’s “mass line” campaign that is dedicated to removing undesirable work styles from officialdom and forging closer Party-people ties.

评论:“辣味”民主生活会会后还需有“下文”-中新网 Guangzhou Daily article on the democratic life meetings, says “spicy” meetings in which officials faces turn red and they break a sweat are important but there must be follow through into action after the meetings //  24日,人民网盘点了全国近期党员民主生活会上10句真亮丑、真批评的“辣人辣语”,并在结束时指出,批评和自我批评是一剂良药,“红红脸、出出汗”之后,接下来怎么样“排排毒、治治病”,关键还得看实干。

“代写”的心得既不“民主”也没“生活”-评论频道-和讯网 Officials can buy scripts for their democratic life meetings for 100 rmb online…Beijing not pleased  //  最近,随着媒体的报道,各级单位所召开的民主生活会已经成为了人们关注的话题。然而,随着民主生活会的开展,一些代写网站也盯上了这项活动,声称可以代写民主生活会心得,每代写一篇索价100元左右。(新华网6月24日) 众所周知,民主生活会心得则是反“四风”的一剂“良药”。但俗话说:“药到方能病除。”靠人代写的心得体会既不“民主”也没“生活”,如此心得非但谈不上“良药”,而且是形式主义之“流毒”。

人民日报评论员:不贪不占,岂能也不干–观点–人民网 管住吃吃喝喝的嘴,更要迈开勤政实干的腿。当前,深化改革百事待兴,各级干部肩上有沉甸甸的担子,身后有群众眼巴巴的目光。职责所系、群众所盼、现实所迫,都要求干部不仅要干,更要干在实处、干出实效。保持昂扬向上的进取心,保持干事创业的精气神,这才是从政必备的素养,这才是干部应有的风貌。   《 人民日报 》( 2014年06月25日 01 版)

中国拟禁止以任何名义建设具有接待功能设施场所-地方频道-新华网 tougher rules coming to ban construction using government funds of any facilities used for official entertaining //  国务院法制办公室25日就《楼堂馆所建设管理条例(征求意见稿)》公开征求意见。征求意见稿规定,不得以任何名义建设包括培训中心在内的各类具有住宿、会议、餐饮等接待功能的设施或者场所,也不得安排财政性资金进行维修改造。

人民日报人民时评:培训中心不应成“反四风死角”–观点–人民网 People’s Daily goes after official “training centers” that are used for entertaining

Fifth Energy Administration Official Detained in Just over Two Months – Caixin A fifth official at the National Energy Administration (NEA) has come under investigation in just over two months, several sources say. Liang Bo, vice director of NEA’s electricity department, was detained last week, several sources close to the situation said on June 23. It was unclear what authorities detained Liang. No government body has provided information about the case.

人民日报谈唐慧案:个体极端诉求不能左右司法_网易新闻中心 随着案件发回重审,新一轮的审判又将开始。然而,这一次,社会舆论对最高法的最终裁判给予高度尊重,司法机关、新闻媒体、广大公众有了更稳健的行事风格,社会展现出成熟进步。而社会每一次成熟进步,都是由一些标志性事件奠基而成。无疑,最高法未核准“唐慧案”中相关被告人死刑,就是这样一起标志性事件。它对什么是法治,如何呵护公平正义,怎样对待舆论监督与独立审判,作出了深刻的诠释,对全社会都是教育和警示。

Deng Xiaoping’s grandson promoted to party chief in regional township | South China Morning PostThe grandson of late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping has become the highest ranking official in a township in Guangxi, a local newspaper has reported. Deng Zhuodi, the only child of Deng Xiaoping’s younger son Deng Zhifang, was named the party chief of Xin’an, a township administrated by Pingguo county, where he also worked as a deputy head of the local government.// 邓小平29岁孙子邓卓棣兼任广西新安镇书记(图) 

中国新媒体报告:微传播政治热兴 微表达汇聚能量-地方频道-新华网 China new Media Development bluebook report 2014 released// 中国网6月25日讯 “中国新媒体发展报告(2014)”蓝皮书今天上午正式发布。蓝皮书分析指出,中国新媒体传播影响日益扩大,微传播政治热兴,微平台不断滋生新文化,微表达汇聚成能量。主要表现为以下五方面:

Li Peng publishes his political memoir – but fails to cover his role in Tiananmen crackdown | South China Morning Post Book penned by former premier, who is held responsible by many for crushing the pro-democracy demonstrations, only covers events up to 1983

媒体揭秘:谁的葬礼能让常委全体出席|常委致哀|副国级逝世_凤凰资讯 a look at the protocol for funerals of retired senior officials  //  原标题:常委如何致哀:逝者的政治待遇

China raps more government bodies in spending probe | Reuters In a lengthy report, its second in two days, the National Audit Office summarized problems discovered in 37 branches of government, but did not give the total of misspent funds. Two of the bodies probed were the official Xinhua news agency and the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper, both of which have issued stern warnings against extravagance and waste on an almost daily basis.

4农民遭毒气喷射被重症监护 疑与开发商征地有关_国内_新京报网 4 rural residents in shandong sprayed with some kind of poison gas, apparently over land dispute…there is surveillance video of at least one being sprayed by someone in the back of an audi while he is driving his three wheel cart

认真履行主体责任 建设过硬检察队伍–时政–人民网 Cao Jianming in the Wednesday People’s Daily// 主体责任不仅是各级党组织的责任,也是全体党员领导干部的责任。检察机关全体党员领导干部尤其是各级各部门“一把手”,是检察工作的核心骨干力量。这支队伍的素质能力和党风廉政建设状况,直接影响全国检察工作发展大局。一方面,各级党员领导干部要牢记自己的党内职务和责任,认真履行职责范围内的党风廉政建设领导责任,层层传导压力,坚决防止和纠正好人主义、不敢担当和形式主义,不搞多栽花、少栽刺的庸俗哲学,不搞无原则的一团和气,自觉当好党风廉政建设责任人。另一方面,各级领导干部要坚持从我做起、向我看齐,带头贯彻中央八项规定精神,带头纠正“四风”,带头廉洁自律,带头接受纪检监察机构的监督,真正做到有定力、有原则、有纪律、有底线,经得起人情、关系、金钱、美色等各种考验,当好从严治检、廉洁从检的表率。

青岛城北区检察院决定将陈宝成陈青沙取保候审_网易新闻中心 成都全搜索新闻网:多方消息证实,青岛市城北区检察院今天决定陈宝成、陈青沙取保候审,相关手续正在办理过程中。

 

FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS

China Undeterred and Unapologetic–Ely Ratner Alarm bells ought be ringing more loudly in Washington. Ultimately, it will be up to the United States to staunch China’s mounting revisionism. But this will first require a sober recognition that the old theories of how to shape China’s rise aren’t working. This is a difficult conversation to have in Washington because acknowledging Chinese behavior for what it is—undeterred and unapologetic assertiveness—will necessitate a more serious American response than we have seen to date. This doesn’t mean forgoing the cooperative elements of the “hedge” and committing to a highly competitive relationship with China. We’re not there yet.

House committee votes to give Chinese Embassy new address: No. 1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza – The Washington Post The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted to rename the stretch of road in front of the Chinese Embassy “Liu Xiaobo Plaza,” a symbolic nod to the Nobel Prize-winning dissident and a slap at the human rights record of officials in Beijing.

媒体频谈军队反腐:军队腐败是最危险腐败_新闻_腾讯网 several recent media reports on the anti-corruption campaign in the military and how crucial it is for it to succeed…signaling intensification coming?  //  近期,中国军网、中国共产党新闻网、人民网强国论坛等媒体频发军队反腐话题的文章,毫不避讳,痛陈军队腐败的严重危害,指出军队绝不允许有腐败分子藏身之地,对于腐败要“零容忍”。文章同时也强调,像谷俊山这样挂着将星的“老虎”只是个例,个别腐败分子代表不了200多万的热血军人。

U.S. Ambassador Baucus Says China Cyber Theft Is a Threat – Bloomberg “Besides being criminal in nature, this behavior runs counter to China’s WTO commitments,” Baucus said, referring to the terms China agreed to when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. “We won’t sit idly by when a crime is committed in the real world, so why should we when it happens in cyber space? We will continue to use diplomatic and legal means to make clear that this type of behavior must stop.”

China’s gift causes big trouble for tiny Tonga-AP Over recent years, China has financed and built hospitals, schools, offices and roads across Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and other Pacific islands. It has offered Mandarin lessons and scholarships to thousands of students, and has hosted and trained hundreds of government officials in Beijing. Is it about altruism, or influence? In 2011, then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made her view clear: “Let’s put aside the humanitarian, do-good side of what we believe in. Let’s just talk straight realpolitik. We are in competition with China,” she told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “They have brought all of the leaders of these small Pacific nations to Beijing, wined them and dined them.”

Chinese Workers Flee Iraq Energy Project for Safety of Baghdad – Caixin A Chinese company building a power plant in an area of northern Iraq affected by recent unrest has seen most of its Chinese subcontractors reach the safety of Baghdad, but a few remain at the construction site. The Iraq division of China Machinery Engineering Corp. (CMEC) had 1,300 Chinese workers at the US$ 1.86 billion plant near Samarra in Salah ad Din Province. Most reached the Iraqi capital in buses protected by Iraqi security forces, but a few are still awaiting transport, CMEC employees say.

South Korea’s Jeju suspends several Chinese property projects||WantChinaTimes The new governor of South Korea’s southern island of Jeju has decided to curb the influx of investments after claiming that China’s current investment in several property projects on the island are considered speculative capital, reports the Shanghai-based National Business Daily. The new governor said the government will renew screening on a number of these projects and raise the conditions for foreign nationals to apply for permanent residence in Jeju via purchasing properties.

China Has the Fastest Super Computer in the World — AgainMashable Zipping along at 33.86 petaflops (quadrillions of calculations per second), China’s Tianhe-2 is the world’s fastest computer for the third year in a row, according to Top500, a twice yearly compilation of the fastest computers on Earth. The results were announced on Monday at the International Supercomputing Conference in Leipzig, Germany.

 

HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN

Q. and A.: Michael Tien on Why He Thinks Occupy Central Is a Mistake – NYTimes.com Michael Tien, a leader of the pro-establishment New People’s Party, says the three or four candidates that voters will be able to choose from under this system are likely to span a broad political spectrum, even if endorsed by Beijing. But if the Legislative Council passes an election law that does not conform to Beijing’s guidelines, Hong Kong’s 7.2 million people will lose the chance to have a say in picking the next chief executive. In an interview, Mr. Tien explained why he believes the democrats could be forfeiting an opportunity to achieve a government that is more accountable to the public:

Beijing Growls at Hong Kong – New York Times Editorial Here is what Beijing must understand. While the 1997 Basic Law negotiated at the time of the handover says essentially that China and Hong Kong are one country, the cultural differences are vast. Hong Kong enjoys liberties — freedom of speech, assembly and religion; a free press; and an independent judiciary — that are not available in China. However discomfiting these differences may be, Beijing must respect them. And Western nations should speak out against any effort to restrict them.

China’s influence on Taiwan’s media | Chinet.cz Taiwan’s media freedoms are facing a triple threat. Since the early 2000s, China has engaged in a clandestine media war against Taiwan by encouraging pro-China Taiwanese business tycoons to purchase Taiwanese media outlets, by pressuring Taiwanese media proprietors invested in China to censor their content, and by using embedded advertising and advertorials to influence media and public opinion. The goal of this strategy has been to use business people to surround the Government and to employ President Hu’s strategy of ‘Entering the Island [of Taiwan], Entering the Household, and Entering the Mind’’ (Rudao Ruhu Ru’nao). These are the claims of Taiwanese scholar Hsu Chien-jung in a timely new paper published in Asian Survey, which seeks to outline how China has sought to shape and influence Taiwanese media.

 

TECH AND MEDIA

IPOs: Xunlei’s Strong Debut, Tiange Eyes HK | Young’s China Business Blog After a 2 week pause with no new listings, the market for overseas tech IPOs has come chugging back to life with a strong trading debut for video sharing site Xunlei (Nasdaq: XNET). That solid performance could bode well for online karaoke company Tiange, which has just filed for its own new listing in Hong Kong,

Unequal Partners: The Hierarchy of Alibaba’s Inner Circle – new report from Capital Profile pdf

Stripe + Alipay Businesses in 14 countries are using Stripe to sell to customers all over the world. About 1 billion people hold one of the cards that Stripe supports today, but these card brands see little usage in China. Alipay, on the other hand, is used by hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers. We’re building a universal platform for internet commerce; in order to enable China’s 1.3 billion people to buy from Stripe businesses, we decided to add support for Alipay.

Tencent Guangzhou Office – Business Insider The company’s new Guangzhou outpost will accommodate 800 employees in a complex that formerly was a six-building textile factory. Global design firm M Moser Associates transformed the dilapidated industrial zone into a beautiful open-floor office.

蓝皮书:保障网络安全是中国新媒体发展最重要问题-中新网 蓝皮书认为,“斯诺登事件”之后,网络安全问题已经延伸到国家政治安全、文化安全等领域,而不再仅仅是信息安全。全球网络空间战略可分为两种:一种是进攻型战略,一种是防御型战略。

新媒体蓝皮书:微信用户多中产微博用户多草根_cnBeta 人物_cnBeta.COM new media report notes that Wechat users have higher incomes, better educations and that Sina Weibo users are younger, poorer and less educated

 

SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY

北京“男子将陌生人踹入湖”视频走红 回应称因无聊(图)|视频|网友_凤凰资讯 video of young Beijinger kicking a stranger into a lake at a park goes viral,..sort of an a%%hole video selfie, guy had his friend film it, later says he did it because he was bored…he was detained but released after apologized and paying some compensation// “我们之间不认识,踹他就是无聊。”张某某说,当天和朋友在团结湖公园游玩,因为无聊,心中萌生出整人的想法。随后,他将坐在路边的一位陌生游人踹入湖中,并有随行朋友记录下来。 张某某说,把人踹入湖中后,他赶紧离开。“我们已经和解了,赔了钱。”张某某说,他离开后又回头去找还留在公园里的朋友,但被踹的路人已经报了警,随后张某某被带至派出所。据张某某自称,事情最终以他向对方赔钱取得和解结束。

Chinese crime gang ‘lured foreigners to karaoke honey traps’ – Telegraph Fifteen members of a “karaoke crime gang” have been arrested by Shanghai police for allegedly luring witless foreigners into underground crooning dens and forcing them to pay thousands of pounds for the pleasure. The group reportedly specialised in ripping off foreign singing enthusiasts who had ventured onto the streets of Pudong, a skyscraper cluttered district on the east side of this Asian mega-city.

李仁臣_百度百科 met a retired deputy editor of People’s Daily last night. Li Renchen also known by the pen name Chen Ping..fascinating, he wrote the famous 1984 People’s Daily commentary on thoroughly negating the Cultural Revolution 人民日报:就是要彻底否定文革 // 李仁臣,笔名晨平,有37年新闻工作经历,任《人民日报》副总编辑17年,2003年3月才改任全国政协文史委副主任。中国社会科学院研究生院博士生导师,中国环境新闻工作者协会主席。摄影著作权协会主席。首届“地球奖”获得者。中国摄影家协会理事,中国作家协会会员。第十届全国政协委员。

Tighten Those Abs: Ex-U.S. Marine Teaches Beijing How to Plank – China Real Time Report – WSJ You don’t need to speak the same language to understand the pain of an ab exercise. That’s what George Hood, a 56-year-old American, discovered earlier this week in Beijing while breaking his own Guinness World Record for planking, a popular ab exercise. Mr. Hood planked for four hours and one minute, beating his previous record of three hours and seven minutes, as hundreds of Chinese fans cheered him on at the China National Convention Center.

《新闻1+1》 20140624 杨六斤:从弃儿到“宠儿”!_新闻频道_央视网(cctv.com) 这个孩子叫杨六斤,看这张照片上他充满了欢乐。这个孩子在六岁的时候,父亲去世,母亲改嫁,他自己独自一个人是在山里艰难、顽强而又乐观的生活。生活了六年之后,他的故事被媒体报道之后,引来了很多人的关心。而深圳一家民办学校就把他接到深圳来就学。 看下面一张照片。刚才那张快乐的照片,是他在深圳这家民办学校康桥书院就学20天的整个状况。而就在6月23日他被家乡的亲人和政府干部接走,离开了深圳,这是他告别康桥学校时的状态,非常得难受。在这20天里他的命运发生了什么样变化,过去他有什么样的故事?首先让我们从他过去的生活讲起。

 

FOOD AND TRAVEL

Luxury China Travel I Hong Kong, Beijing & More – Times Journeys – NYTimes.com Visit a closed hall in the Forbidden City. View a private martial arts performance — by monks. These are just the highlights of this magnificent trip to China, including Hong Kong and Shanghai. With exclusive access to people and places usually unavailable to tourists, as well as local experts and the context provided by The New York Times, this is the China few see.//including a chat with the NYT HK bureau chief…do other media organizations do this?

 

BEIJING

北京今年第三次小客车摇号将举行 中签比137:1-地方频道-新华网 Beijing conducts its third car license plate lottery of 2014, 2.8m people applied…1 out of every 137 got a license plate

 

JOBS AND EVENTS

Atlas Survey | ATLAS-China a short survey of foreigners working in China…results will be released publicly. if you are a foreigner working in China please consider taking it

 

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