Today’s Links:
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
1. China’s Communist Party Plenum: What to Expect – The New York Times It would be a mistake to discount these gatherings, known as plenums. The ruling Politburo and the leaders of the powerful Central Military Commission are drawn from this body and, throughout the 66-year history of Communist rule in China, plenums have been the scene of momentous decisions that changed the course of the nation’s history….Nothing has been announced, but Alice Miller, who studies China’s elite politics at Stanford University, points out that it is the plenums at the midpoint between the party congresses, which take place every five years, where almost all personnel changes happen. There are normally seven plenums between congresses, and almost all personnel changes in the years since Mao’s death in 1976 have occurred in the fourth and fifth plenums. This year’s meeting is the fifth plenum of the party’s 18th Central Committee. “So if the Xi leadership were to make changes at this level, the upcoming plenum would be the place to make them,” Ms. Miller said. // Lots of rumors about interesting personnel moves at this Plenum, information even more tightly held now so hard to put much stock in any. Among the moves heavily rumored: a promotion for Liu Yuan onto the CMC (some even say in a re-instituted post of Secretary General of the CMC (though that was the rumor before the 4th Plenum too and it did not happen); Replacement of Han Zheng as Shanghai Party Secretary (though that rumor has been around for over a year as well, possible changes to retirement age to allow Wang Qishan to stay through the 19th Party Congress (also been around for a while, so…)
Related: China’s Leaders to Approve Economic Blueprint – WSJ The closed-door meeting, held in a heavily guarded hotel in Beijing, will likely be followed by an official account of the proceedings, but details about the five-year plan aren’t likely to be released until March, when China’s rubber-stamp parliament meets. Even as Beijing says it wants to reduce the state’s clout, some experts say plenums and five-year plans still have their place by giving government-owned banks, companies and bureaucrats a blueprint to move ahead.
Related: 五中全会召开在即 料将创纪录开除11人党籍政经频道财新网 Caixin goes through all the expected personnel changes at the Fifth Plenum, many to replace fallen officials, doesn’t of course mention those rumors above // 至少将有三名少数民族干部递补为中央委员；中央委员会已有18位成员落马，数量超过此前四届总和；中共十八大后，有29位中央委员会成员晋升正省部级，三名军方将领晋升正大军区级，两人屡获重用完成职务“三级跳”
Related: 任仲平：未来五年，中国如何处理好“最艰难的工作”|发展| 中国_凤凰资讯 People’s Daily commentator “Ren Zhongping” writes in Monday’s edition about the Fifth Plenum, how China will over the next five years “properly manage ‘the most difficult work”
Related: China’s 12th Five-Year Plan achievements a milestone for centenary goal – Xinhua The Communist Party of China (CPC) will convene the fifth plenary session of its 18th Central Committee to outline the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) for national development on Monday, with extraordinary achievements in the 12th plan period (2011-2015)…The first Centenary Goal, marking the 100th anniversary of the CPC’s founding in 1921, is to double the 2010 GDP and double the 2010 income of both urban and rural residents by 2020, completing the building of a moderately prosperous society…The second Centenary Goal, commemorating the 100th anniversary of founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, is to build a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious by the middle of this century — the great renewal of the Chinese nation.
Related: 为全面建成小康社会奠定坚实基础——“十二五”期间中国经济社会发展述评-新华网 Xinhua looks back on the achievements of the 12th Five Year Plan //
2. Top graft buster endorses new CPC rules – Xinhua In an article written for Friday’s edition of the People’s Daily, Wang Qishan, secretary of the CPC’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said the regulations “embody the spirit of” key Party meetings and comments by the Party’s leader Xi Jinping, and are crucial in ensuring Party strength. The two new regulations, adopted at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Oct. 12, updated rules which were deemed outdated since the launch of the Party’s anti-corruption drive. The strictest and most comprehensive since China’s reform and opening-up drive began, they are more precise than the old versions. // Dangerous to bet that Wang Qishan is slowing down
Related: China graft-buster says must learn from ancients to tackle corruption | Reuters Writing in the party’s official People’s Daily, Wang Qishan, who is in charge of battling corruption, said that the source of the party’s rules on tackling this problem were the morals and virtues passed down through history. “In a series of important speeches General Secretary Xi Jinping has cited a great number of ancient texts and words from the classics, stressing and lauding the fine traditional culture of the Chinese people which has meaning in the new era,” Wang wrote.
Related: Forgotten Archipelagoes: CCP Regulations on Disciplinary Punishment. Comment. The CCP Regulations on Disciplinary Punishment was the second CCP regulatory document amended last week, on October 12, together with the CCP Standards on Integrity and Self-Restraint. I need not elaborate on the importance of the Regulations. The Regulation are to the Party legislative system what the Criminal Law of the PRC is to state law. The amendment to the Regulations on Disciplinary Punishment was planned since 2013, when Chapter 6 of the intra-party legislative plan eloquently spoke of “perfecting Party rules and regulations on anti-corruption and earnestly placing power within a cage of regulations”
Related: Forgotten Archipelagoes: Chapter 2 – Sources of CCP Law. CCP Regulations on Disciplinary Punishments This post examines Chapter 2 of the Regulations – violations of discipline and disciplinary punishments. Chapter 2 (articles 6 – 15) lists and describes each one of the seven disciplinary punishments. These are punishments for natural persons (members of the Chinese Communist Party), and punishments for legal persons (Party organizations).
Related: Forgotten Archipelagoes: Chinese Communist Party Standards on Integrity and Self-Restraint – comment. Together with the Regulations on Disciplinary Punishment, the Standards are one of the most important pieces of Party legislation. The Regulations on Disciplinary Punishment define certain conducts as violations of Party discipline and specify the punishment associated with each one of them. The Standards, as they were enacted in 1997 (here – Chinese) and amended in February 2010 (here – in Chinese), aimed at “regulating the honest performance of official duties” (规范廉政从政行为).
Related: 把刘志军送进去的纪检组长这次讲话自断后路 purported transcript of internal speech by head of COSCO’s Party discipline group about all the disciplinary problems in COSCO. If legitimate this is an extremely interesting transcript for what it reveals about how the role of the discipline group inside SOEs is changing
3. China to target financial sector in new anti-graft inspection – Xinhua A statement released after a meeting Friday said that the third round will cover the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission and China Investment Corp.` Others include CITIC Group Corporation, a major financial conglomerate; state-owned banks Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China; as well as China Life and the People’s Insurance Company of China, two large insurers. China’s two stock exchanges Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange were also on the list. A total of 31 organizations will be inspected in this third round. Wang Qishan, head of the CCDI, said at the meeting that the inspections will ensure members adhere to the Party code of conduct and that policies are adopted and implemented .// 中央巡视风暴刮向金融系统 中管金融企业全覆盖–时政–人民网
Related: 王岐山在中央巡视工作动员部署会议上强调 聚焦全面从严治党 用好制度利器 把巡视监督做深做细做实—中央纪委监察部网站 Wang Qishan’s remarks at CCDI meeting to kick off third round of inspections this year, worth remembering that there is both a corruption crackdown and a Party discipline strengthening effort under way. They are related but different, discipline includes not just being not corrupt but also implementing Party policies. I wonder if we are going to start to see the discipline strengthening aspect lead through to improved policy implementation. That seems to be one of the goals, and obviously one of the big problems right now. It sure does not look like things are winding down; the opposite in fact // 会议指出，要重点检查政治纪律和政治规矩执行情况。巡视是对党组织和党员领导干部的巡视，是政治巡视不是业务巡视。我们党是执政党，所有违纪问题发展到一定程度，归根结底都是破坏政治纪律，最终都会削弱党的执政能力、动摇党的执政基础。贯彻党的路线方针政策，既要看形式、更要重内容、最终看结果。巡视中央部委党组织，要检查是不是把全面从严治党主体责任牢记于心，落实在工作中；巡视文学艺术界党组织，就要以习近平总书记在文艺工作座谈会上的重要讲话为遵循，看看是否坚持了党对文艺工作的领导；巡视金融监管机构和金融企业党组织，就要监督是否贯彻了中央经济工作和金融工作方针；巡视群众团体党组织，就要检查是否落实了中央党的群团工作会议精神。要通过巡视严明政治纪律，确保中央政令畅通、维护党的集中统一。
Related: 中信金石总经理祁曙光被带走金融频道财新网 10月23日，财新记者获悉，中信金石投资有限公司（以下称金石投资）总经理祁曙光（女）近日被公安机关带走，目前尚不确认是接受调查还是协助调查。祁曙光的手机目前处于关机状态，中信证券官方则不予回应。// Caixin reports that Qi Shuguang, CEO of CITIC-owned Kinshi Fortune Investment, has been detained. Tencent Finance reports 中信证券金石投资多人被调查 或因联手外资做空 that several other execs have also been taken away. Both reports talk a bit about Qi’s relationship with the Citadel hedge fund. Citadel’s China venture keeps coming up in Chinese media reports, wonder if their any execs have plans to visit China in the near future, probably a good idea to stay away…There are also rumors going around that CITIC is in so much trouble that its head jumped to his death. I don’t believe it, but a sign of the very stressed and uncertain environment…
Related: Securities chief found hanged at home | Shanghai Daily unclear how this relates to CITIC investigation, but there are plenty of rumors // Chen Hongqiao, president of Shenzhen-based Guosen Securities, was found hanging from the balcony at his home, news portal Tencent reported, citing unnamed sources in the company and a senior manager of a state-owned bank. Guosen Securities later confirmed in a statement that it had been informed by Chen’s relatives that he had died, without providing further details. Authorities were reported to have prevented him leaving the country following the sacking of a top industry regulator for corruption.
4. China Takes ‘Riskiest’ Step by Ending Deposit-Rate Controls – Bloomberg Business Scrapping interest-rate controls boosts the role of markets in the economy, part of efforts by Premier Li Keqiang to find new engines of growth. While officials must be on guard for any excessive competition for deposits that could increase borrowing costs for companies or lead to lenders going bust, weakness in the economy may be mitigating the risks. Ending the ceiling is an important milestone but comes in the wake of “a tremendous amount of deposit-rate liberalization over the last several years,” especially in the shape of wealth management products, according to Charlene Chu, a partner at Autonomous Research Asia Ltd.
Related: Q: Is the Chinese Rate Cut a Silver Bullet? A: No! | Gavekal Capital Blog cuts in rates mean practically nothing for China’s long-term economic prospects. In the short-term rate cuts may postpone corporate bankruptcies by allowing companies to refinance debt at lower rates. Rate cuts may also make housing more affordable, on the margin. But these are cyclical boosts that act as tailwinds to China’s economic train. No amount of wind, save a hurricane, is going to keep the train from slowing.
Related: 利率市场化正式收官 金融频道财新网 央行希望倚重市场化的货币政策工具和传导机制调控利率，未来存款价格战是否会打响业界看法分歧 // Caixin on the rate cuts and the completion of interest rate liberalization
5. China premier says 7 percent growth goal never set in stone | Reuters China has never said the economy must grow seven percent this year, Premier Li Keqiang said in comments reported by the government ahead of a key meeting this week that will set economic and social targets for the next five years. Li’s comments coincide with remarks by a top central bank official, who said on Saturday that China would be able to keep annual economic growth at around 6-7 percent over that period.
6. Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea: What to Watch For – Lawfare Ultimately, China is unlikely to change its view that a U.S. FONOP is a violation of its sovereignty. But these wildly differing interpretations of UNCLOS, and the fact that China has not been explicit about what maritime entitlements it is claiming based on its artificial islands, are precisely why the Navy is conducting a FONOP in the first place. Put simply, the Navy will be sending China a message about Washington’s, and much of the world’s, view of the law. The guide, we hope, will help you interpret it.
7. Du Runsheng, world’s most influential economist? | Andrew Batson’s Blog Last week, Du Runsheng passed away at the ripe old age of 102. The death of the “father of rural reform” was widely covered in China and Hong Kong, as Du’s proteges include such Chinese economic luminaries as Zhou Qiren and Justin Yifu Lin, not to mention Wang Qishan, who is now one of the seven most powerful men in China. But I have yet to see a proper obituary of Du in the foreign press, which is a real pity [SCMP had one]. You could make a case that Du was one of the most influential economists to have ever lived. He was one of the primary authors of the rural reform policies China adopted in the early 1980s, which reversed agricultural collectivization and returned control of farmland to individual farm households
Related: 长忆改革魂 各界人士送别杜润生政经频道财新网 俞正声、王岐山、温家宝、汪洋、杜青林、回良玉等领导人，以及刘源、陈锡文、韩长赋、韩俊、杜鹰、周其仁、卢迈、翁永曦等各界人士逾千人前来送别杜老 // Du Runsheng’s funeral drew many luminaries, including, Yu Zhengsheng, Wang Qishan, Wen Jiabao and Liu Yuan. They don’t make reformers like they used to
8. IMF set for green light on China’s yuan joining currency basket-sources | Reuters Oct 25 International Monetary Fund staff are set to give the all-clear for China’s yuan to be included in the lender’s benchmark currency basket, laying the groundwork for a favorable decision by policymakers, people familiar with the discussions said on Sunday. The IMF’s executive board is scheduled to decide in November on putting the yuan on a par with the dollar, yen, euro and pound sterling and a key factor will be its performance against a checklist of technical criteria, as assessed by IMF staff.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
Securities watchdog to recruit more regulatory pros – Xinhua The increasing number of supervision and legal posts is attributed to surging securities crime. In mid-June, the worst rout in years started in China’s stock markets, which was followed by intensified CSRC efforts to tackle illegal securities operations such as market manipulation and insider trading. China is also ending approval-based IPOs and switch to a registration system, which requires the CSRC to focus more on policy making and supervision, said Zhang Cheng, an securities analyst with Datong Securities in a Friday interview with Legal Evening News.
China steel output falls, prices retreat – Xinhua Last month, the steel price index came in at 61.73, down 2.58 percentage points from the previous month, the NDRC said in an online report. In the first three quarters, crude steel production dropped 2.1 percent year on year to 608.94 million tonnes, according to the NDRC.
China communist party paper says country should join U.S.-led trade pact | Reuters In a commentary, the biweekly Study Times, published by the Central Party School that trains rising officials, admitted there were those in China who viewed the TPP as a “plot” to isolate and restrain the country’s global ambitions. But the broad aims of the TPP, including reducing things such as administrative approvals and protecting the environment, were what China wants to achieve too, it wrote.
Yuan Bears Forecasting Devaluation Test Offshore Market Nerves – Bloomberg Business The People’s Bank of China on Friday cut its benchmark for a sixth time since November after data last week showed gross domestic product grew 6.9 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the slowest pace in more than six years. Another devaluation would threaten a replay of the panic selling seen in global markets from currencies to equities that followed Aug. 11’s surprise exchange-rate adjustment. “If anything further monetary easing as expected should weaken the currency,” said Andy Ji, a Singapore-based strategist at Commonwealth Bank, who predicts a yuan drop of more than 3 percent within a few days as soon as this year.
America’s Heartland Feels a Chill From Collapsing Commodity Prices – The New York Times In China and other emerging markets, growth is waning and demand for the raw materials that drive the global economy has dried up.
Firms, individuals penalized for stock market manipulation – Xinhua China’s securities regulator said Friday that it had dealt out punishments in 12 cases of securities market manipulation. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) decided to impose total fines of more than 2 billion yuan (315 million U.S. dollars) on companies and individuals found responsible.
Yunnan border zone slated to cost 200 billion yuan – East by Southeast The Mengla Economic Zone, according to plans approved this summer by the Yunnan Development and Reform Commission, will span 4,500 square kilometers, centered around Mengla County (勐腊县). Initial estimates place the cost of the multi-purpose undertaking at 200 billion yuan (US$31.4 billion). The zone spans 240 as-yet unclear projects reportedly focusing on the sectors of agriculture, education, logistics, processing, tourism and transportation.
Sherry-Netherland co-op lists for $86M – Business Insider Liberty Travel cofounder Gilbert Haroche finally sold it to an unnamed Chinese buyer for $67 million last year. That mystery buyer is now flipping the hotel co-op for a near $20 million profit.
不差钱的互联网巨头收紧钱袋子 百度将暂停大规模社会招聘 | 每经网 National Business Daily on the Internet giants reducing hiring
高杠杆场外配资零星重现 业内称规模有限难成气候_证券时报网 Securities Times says high-leverage shadow margin financing is starting to reappear in the stock market
POLITICS AND LAW
Chen Wenqing: China’s New Man for State Security | The National Interest The PLA, however, wants to refocus its intelligence apparatus on the operational requirements of “winning informatized local wars,” which will reduce its capability to support civilian policy-making on foreign affairs. Concurrently with these PLA developments, the politically-powerful Ministry of Public Security (MPS) is taking a greater role in internal security and counterintelligence. Beijing is now fully covered by surveillance cameras, according to recent media reports. In Beijing and other cities, these cameras—increasingly networked and aided by automated recognition of license plates and faces—belong to the MPS. Moreover, the MPS also has built a nationwide set of databases to collect data and automate task assignment to public security elements for tracking persons of interest as they travel through China. These resources offer a wealth of material for any investigation, especially given that the MPS officially re-entered the national security arena in 2012.
Xi Jinping: China has taught UK schools discipline – and learned about play | World news | The Guardian Children from the Robin Hood primary school in Birmingham sang in Mandarin at the event, and a student from Lancaster University Confucius Institute, Cameron Patterson, recited Xi’s paean to Jiao Yulu, a celebrated party leader in Henan province who died in 1964. The embassy-provided programme notes described Jiao as “a role model for civil servants with his hardworking, upright, incorruptible personality”. Xi said the poem was inspired when “literary thoughts surrounding the deceased upright man welled up in my heart”.
人民日报评论员：坚持把政治纪律排在首要位置–评论-人民网 我们党是马克思主义政党，在党的全部纪律中，政治纪律是打头、管总的。习近平总书记指出：“党的纪律是多方面的，但政治纪律是最重要、最根本、最关键的纪律。”不管违反哪方面纪律，任其发展，最终都会侵蚀党的执政基础，破坏的都是党的政治纪律。加强纪律建设，严守政治纪律和政治规矩永远排在第一位。讲规矩，首先要讲政治规矩；守纪律，首先要守政治纪律。抓住严肃政治纪律和政治规矩这个纲，把严肃其他纪律带起来，正是管党治党的治本之策。
省委巡视组进驻前夕，山西一县委书记下令将探头对准举报箱打虎记澎湃新闻-The Paper One Shanxi county party secretary decided to prepare for an upcoming discipline inspection visit by pointing surveillance camera at the letter box used to submit complaints to the inspectors
Is Chinese credit score system a nightmare? Starting from Alibaba’s Sesame | Huxiu Clearly, there are cognitive gaps between above-mentioned understandings of the system and the real system. First, Alibaba’s sesame is not the “credit score system”…Second, Alibaba’s Sesame is currently not mandatory, which to some extent created a “sad phenomenon” referred by foreign media: many Chinese appear to be embracing the score.
河南省委政法委副书记徐合民接受组织调查|政法委|河南_新浪新闻 Xu Hemin, deputy secretary of Henan Politics and Law Committee, under investigation
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
From the mountains to the sea: A Chinese vision, a Pakistani corridor – The Washington Post The new Pakistan-China Economic Corridor will move from here in the mountains down the Karakorum Highway into central Pakistan. From there, even more highways will be built to provide access to Gwadar Port in Baluchistan. The initial outlines of that corridor already are visible here in northern Pakistan, where the highway snakes past mountains, glaciers and rocky gorges. At times, motorists can see the donkey trails from the original Silk Route, which traders traveled for more than 600 years before the 15th century.
China and the UK: Pomp and circumstance – FT.com “Some people in government seem to be thinking about China as little more than a giant hypermart,” says Nigel Inkster, a director at the Institute for International Strategic Studies and former top official at MI6 who specialises in China. “I do worry that not enough thought has been put into the longer-term strategic implications of all this.” The criticism from traditional allies, especially the US, is no less trenchant.
网传疑似国产航母开始吊装新分段 或为机库组成部分 purported pictures of China’s next aircraft carrier under construction going around the Chinese Internet
China Military Seeks to Bring Cyber Warfare Units Under One Roof – Bloomberg Business The plan is part of a broader shift toward a unified military command similar to that of the U.S. to meet President Xi Jinping’s goal of transforming the People’s Liberation Army into a force that can “fight and win modern wars.” It will be discussed at a meeting of top leaders next week, according to people familiar with the matter. A move to a centralized command reporting to the Central Military Commission would better organize China’s cyber warfare capabilities, which are scattered across a variety of units and ministries. It would further elevate the role of cyber within a PLA that has long prioritized the army over the navy and air force, two branches that require a high level of computerization skills.
China’s Online Courses for the World: Tweaking International Media Coverage for Chinese Eyes – Ethnic ChinaLit interesting to see what is deleted before publication // On Oct 21, the New York Times ran an interesting article entitled China Turns to Online Courses, and Mao, in Pursuit of Soft Power. Sure enough, Xinhua’s Cankao Xiaoxi picked it up and translated it for the masses just two days later, with an enhanced title that focuses on capturing foreign eyeballs (中文原文): 中国借网络课程吸引外国受众
Sino-US naval ties ‘best in history’, says China’s navy chief, as tensions rise over territorial disputes in South China Sea | South China Morning Post The comments by navy chief Wu Shengli come as Washington considers conducting freedom-of-navigation operations within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands China has built in the disputed South China Sea, without saying when it would do so. Such a move is likely to infuriate Beijing.
印媒曝光中印边界部队对峙视频 中方表现克制新闻腾讯网 Indian media release video of China-India verbal “confrontation” on disputed border
TECH AND MEDIA
China’s film watchdog targets box office cheats – Xinhua In response to recent news that domestic movies are inflating box office figures, in an interview with China Central Television Li Dong, deputy head of SARFT movie fund commission, admitted that problems still exist in ticket sales . “Statistics from the nation digital ticketing platform show that a few cinemas and distributors have manipulated viewing figures and sales. For example 300 tickets may be sold in a hall of 200 seats and all tickets sold are counted at full price,” said Li.
China’s version of the ‘Maker Movement’ puts the U.S. to shame – Fortune Excerpt: Clay Shirky’s new book takes goes inside China’s booming smartphone market, and the crazy world of Chinese electronics stores // Little Rice: Smartphones, Xiaomi, and the Chinese Dream
Video on Facebook of Mark Zuckerberg’s Recent Speech at Tsinghua I just gave my first ever speech in Chinese at Tsinghua University in Beijing — on why you need a strong sense of mission to change the world. This was also my first real speech in any language sharing how I started thinking about Facebook’s mission // Zuckerberg’s Chinese remarkably good & attitude awesome for studying for such a short time. But he needs a tougher teacher on pronunciation.
大摩资深投资银行家梁翔加盟顺丰金融频道财新网 在摩根士丹利工作17年后，资深银行家梁翔最近选择加入顺丰速运（集团）有限公司（下称顺丰）。 接近摩根士丹利的人士向财新记者透露上述消息。梁翔加盟顺丰后，担任集团副总裁，主要负责资本运作，他的加入或许预示着顺丰上市计划已加快启动。 // Senior Morgan Stanley banker Liang Xiang jumps to SFExpress
博讯youtube视频帐号被注销的情况说明 博讯视频频道youtube.com/boxuntv 在美国当地时间23日凌晨被谷歌注销，因此，该帐号下的数千视频无法播放，如果账户不能恢复，我们过去两年拍摄、编辑发布的中国和美国各地的珍贵视频将丢失。我们一直把youtube当安全的视频保存和发布平台，但博讯数千视频中，个别视频被别有用心的“读者”举报有暴力镜头，最后一个被举报的视频标题是“视频：男子出轨被捉奸在床，与小三一起遭殴打（未成年人不宜）”。该视频是数人闯入一个房间殴打出轨者的事件，并无裸露。至于暴力，动手打人，类似视频甚至更为激烈血腥的视频常见于youtube等网络。 // Google deletes Boxun’s Youtube account, Boxin blames commentators “with ulterior motives” for complaining to Google
China Film Insider – Where Hollywood Meets The Next Biggest Movie Market very interesting new site from Jonathan Landreth
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
The Eagle, the Dragon, and the ‘Excellent Sheep’ | Foreign Policy Former Yale University English professor William Deresiewicz’s book, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, created a firestorm in the United States when it was released in August 2014. “The prospect of not being successful terrifies them, disorients them,” Deresiewicz wrote of Ivy League students in an article in the New Republic about his book. “The result is a violent aversion to risk.” A year later, Deresiewicz’s ideas caught fire again — in China. In late July, a Chinese-language article titled “The Self-Serving Elite and Ivy League Sheep,” published in Guangzhou-based Southern Weekend, went viral on WeChat, China’s huge mobile messaging platform.
Wealthy Chinese Entrepreneur Seeks to Copy Burning Man in China | SocialBrandWatch.com Zhu Guo Fan 朱国凡, a Beijing entrepreneur who owns a chain of foot massage clinics called 良子非凡足迹 or “Extraordinary Footprint,” came to Burning Man this year to experience the wonders of Black Rock City. He was so inspired by the free-thinking attitudes and spiritual nature of the event that he has found a way to replicate the creative experience in Mainland China.
The Last Days of the 6 RMB Hotel | ChinaFile PhotoGallery Beginning in 1981 when it opened its doors in the Chinese city of Wuxi in Jiangsu province, the Big Paddy’s Edge Inn attracted some of the city’s most colorful characters. The inn’s proprietor, Gu Qimei, charged a rock-bottom nightly fee of 6 RMB—or less than U.S.$1—to her residents, who shared daily necessities like food and cooking fuel. In 2009, Jiang Rongfa began photographing the hotel and interviewing many of its residents. Last year, after 33 years of operation, the hotel was forced to close when Wuxi demolished it to clear the way for new development.
‘Kingdom of Daughters’ in China Draws Tourists to Its Matrilineal Society – The New York Times It was morning in the lakeside village of Luoshui here in southwestern China. On a narrow side street, dusty from hotel construction nearby, a group of young workers, including Ms. Ke, 18, was preparing for another day of cultural pageantry at the Mosuo Folk Museum. Their task is to showcase the traditions of the Mosuo, a minority ethnic group said to be the country’s last matrilineal society, where children take their mothers’ surnames and daughters are preferred to sons.
Personal Character or Social Expectation: A Formal Analysis of ‘Suzhi’ by Haifeng Huang :: SSRN looks interesting // The concept of suzhi (素质), which roughly means human quality or character, features prominently in public and intellectual discourses in China on the country’s social and political development including democratization…the paper shows that the current predominant focus on suzhi or individual morality is misguided and misses the crucial role of social expectations in multiple-equilibria social interactions. In fact, without good social expectations even “high-suzhi” people would behave as if they were of “low suzhi”, which perhaps best characterizes many social phenomena in contemporary China. The study thus generates theoretical insights with critical policy implications for a successful social transition.
中国道教协会原秘书长王哲一被查 系巡视发现线索政经频道财新网 Former Secretary General of Chinese Daoist Association under investigation. He lost his Way
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
New Megalopolis a Fresh Chance to Clean China’s Skies, Report Says – China Real Time Report – WSJ The report by the Paulson Institute—Mr. Paulson’s namesake think tank which looks at economic and environment issues in the U.S. and China—says efficiency gains at factories, homes and elsewhere have a big role to play in revamping the heavily industrialized regions that surround Beijing.
China’s environmental drive shuts huge glass factory | AFR At its peak, the plant outside Shanghai produced 15 per cent of the country’s glass, even as nearby villagers complained soot from its chimneys blackened cabbage crops and made their children sick. But in the rush to develop China, there was no time for such concerns, as jobs and economic growth supplanted all else. This has now changed. In a sign of how far China has come in its attitude towards the environment and public health, the last of Farun’s nine smokestacks was shut down on Tuesday for the final time.
FOOD AND TRAVEL
China’s Plans to Be Cruise Ship Player Sail Ahead with Carnival Deal-Caixin A Chinese shipyard will for the first time build luxury cruise ships, for a joint venture formed by two state-owned enterprises and an international cruise operator, a person with knowledge of the matter says, a sign the country’s plans to enter the cruise market are gaining speed. China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC) and the sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. signed a deal on October 21 with cruise operator Carnival Corp. to set up the joint venture in Hong Kong to explore the mainland market for cruises.
BOOKS AND LITERATURE
Eminent Chinese translator of Tolstoy dies at 93 – Xinhua | English.news.cn Chinese translator Sheng Junfeng, known by his pen name Cao Ying, died in a Shanghai hospital Saturday night at the age of 93. Born in 1923 in east China’s Zhejiang Province, Cao Ying translated many Russian literary works into Chinese.
JOBS AND EVENTS
Economist Intelligence Unit – Research Analyst Beijing The Research Analyst is accountable for delivering high quality consulting and custom research (CR) projects to our clients. You will be responsible for undertaking research and analysis to meet client needs. You will work on proposals which are tightly crafted to meet clients’ needs and priced to ensure deal profitability. You will work with the sales team to help build a pipeline of CR business, and interact regularly with clients once a deal is underway. Over time, you will develop some specialist skills related to the CR practice areas of CR methodologies. This position is suitable for a high-performing recent graduate, with up to 2 years of consulting experience being desirable but not required.
The Chinese discourse on moral decay in the PRC | Brookings Institution On November 6th, the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution will host He Huaihong for keynote remarks and discussion of his new book: “Social Ethics in a Changing China: Moral Decay or Ethical Awakening?” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). Following this discussion, a panel of renowned Chinese-American experts will address concerns about China’s perceived moral decay.
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