Condolences to readers suffering through another smog storm in Beijing. I miss a lot of things about that great city but the air is not one of them. Try to be like Bill Clinton and don’t inhale.
Today’s Links:
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
1. PLA reform: China’s top brass set New Year deadline for military command restructure | South China Morning Post The present seven military commands of the People’s Liberation Army would soon be dismantled and replaced by five new strategic zones as part of a wide-ranging restructure of the system, the sources said…General Cai Yingting, head of the Nanjing military command, is tipped to lead the Joint General Staff Department, while General Liu Yuan, political commissar of the General Logistics Department who helped bring down former CMC vice-chairmen Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, is likely to be the secretary of the new military discipline inspection commission. General Li Zuocheng, the chief of the Chengdu military command, is expected to be the new head of land forces. // expanded CMC meeting coming up before year-end? From where does power derive in the CCP system? How does it appear Xi is placed within that nexus of power, and how has he placed himself there? Does he really look weak inside the system, or just to certain parts of the punditocracy?
Related: 坚决打赢深化国防和军队改革这场攻坚战 – 中国军网 ——深入学习贯彻习主席关于深化国防和军队改革重要论述 来源：解放军报作者：中国人民解放军总政治部
Related: 军报：军改突破既有利益格局是最大的难点新闻腾讯网 正确对待利益关系调整、坚决落实各项改革任务。改革之难在于涉及重大利益关系的调整。面对机构调整变化、岗位地位变化和进退去留等问题，能否站在党、国家和军队整体利益、根本利益、长远利益的大局上思考问题、权衡得失，是对能否做到听党指挥的最好检验。对党忠诚只有体现在服从军队建设全局和长远利益的实际行动中，才能真正展现当代中国革命军人的崇高价值追求和责任担当，在改革大考中交出让党和人民满意的答卷。 （作者系国防大学副校长、国防大学中国特色社会主义理论体系研究中心领导小组组长
2. China’s Coal Cuts Are Driving A Plateau In Global Carbon Emissions | ThinkProgress Today’s stunning news from Paris: Global CO2 emissions growth has halted in the last two years, while GDP growth continues. In fact, 2015 is headed toward the first drop in CO2 emissions during a period of economic growth. The well-respected international Global Carbon Project announced Monday the key findings of their detailed survey of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Related: New Charts Show The Downward Spiral Of Chinese Coal Use | ThinkProgress It appears increasingly likely China has peaked in coal. “Chinese coal consumption enters downward spiral,” is a key conclusion of a major new analysis of Beijing’s energy and climate policies from the Center for American Progress (CAP).
Related: China’s national ETS to go big from the start -official | Carbon Pulse China will bring nearly 10,000 companies emitting around 4 billion tonnes of CO2 per year into its national emissions trading scheme from the start in 2017, a government official said Tuesday, marking a step change from previous plans that would have grown the market to that size only by 2020. Jiang Zhaoli, deputy director of the climate change department at the NDRC, told a side event at the UN climate talks in Paris that China wanted to cover as many emissions sources as possible to make the scheme efficient.
3. Chinese Police Raid Labor Rights Groups, Detain At Least Five Activists–RFA Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have detained five labor activists, two of them formally on suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order’ amid an ongoing crackdown on non-government groups, especially those involved in the country’s nascent but unofficial labor movement. // preparing for winter?
Related: China: Activists Held In Crackdown On Labour Rights | Amnesty International Four prominent labour activists have been criminally detained in what appears to be a coordinated crackdown on labour rights organizations in Guangdong province, south-east China. The whereabouts of four other activists are currently unknown, and several others have been questioned. This crackdown comes at a time of escalating industrial tensions in the region.
4. 房地产库存“歼灭战”将上演 – 经济 – 中国经营网_中国经营报 CBN says dealing with real estate inventory going to be a prioroty for upcoming central economic work conference // 据第一财经日报报道，日前从多个信源处获悉，习近平总书记在中央财经领导小组会议上提出的化解过剩产能，开展降低实体经济企业成本行动，化解房地产库存和防范化解金融风险等“四个歼灭战”，将成为中央经济工作会议的重要内容。而在化解房地产库存方面，多项政策有望推出。 有接近高层的研究人士表示，既然定位是“去库存”，政府调控的目的就不在于继续助推房地产。此外，预计地方政府也将在这个过程中逐步摆脱土地财政和房地产依赖症。他还称：“让房地产市场重新活络起来，买卖流动起来才是最重要的，至于要解决多少套库存，完全没有这个说法。”
Related: Investing in Chinese Stocks—投资大中华地区股市: Yet Another Real Estate Bailout: Subsidies for Rural-to-Urban Migrants Chinese mid-sized and small cities are looking at subsidizing first-time urban home purchases by farmers as a way to reduce housing inventory. This isn’t a new policy in the sense of never being tried before, but it could be rolled out on an unseen scale. China Securities Journal reported that there may be a concrete plan in the works to move 100 million people from countryside to city. This involves a host of policy proposals, some already announced such as hukou reform. Adding in various local measures such as tax breaks, reduced down payments, subsidies, and allowing migrants into the local housing funds would add even more support to the push.
5. Higher Education and Authoritarian Resilience: The Case of China, Past and Present (Elizabeth J. Perry, Harvard University) Two millennia of Chinese imperial rule offer rich material for generating hypotheses about the bases of authoritarian resilience. Moreover the surprising success of the contemporary People’s Republic of China (PRC), where a largely unreformed Communist Party has presided over stunning and sustained economic growth, renders that country’s long experience with authoritarian rule of particular relevance. Inasmuch as PRC leaders and Party theoreticians frequently point to the Chinese past as a source of valuable lessons for present-day governance, consideration of China’s historical record is of more than arcane academic interest….”As the quintessential embodiment of Enlightenment values, the modern university has often been acclaimed as an institution that is fundamentally incompatible with an illiberal political system. These days, however, the most “enlightened” autocrats are betting billions of dollars otherwise. The Chinese example suggests that their wager might not be misplaced. ”
Related: Do Years Studying in America Change Chinese Hearts and Minds? | Foreign Policy A Foreign Policy investigation suggests that the reality of Chinese student life in the United States defies both of these narratives. Chinese students in the United States learn much from the contrasts between America’s education system, media, and social and intellectual life and those they find at home. And they often emerge with more admiration for the United States as a result. But they also gain more respect for the enormity of the task involved in running China — and learn that America’s streets aren’t exactly paved with gold. // small survey, not clear statistically significant, but interesting regardless
6. China Creates a World Bank of Its Own, and the U.S. Balks – The New York Times But the National Security Council hung tough. “I am not going to buy the cake you have cooked,” Evan S. Medeiros, the council’s senior adviser on China, said, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation. To which Mr. Jin replied: “You are always welcome into the kitchen to help with the baking.”..Staff members could also be hired from nonparticipant countries. Two American veterans of the World Bank are working with the new bank: Stephen F. Lintner, a former senior adviser on quality assurance, and Natalie Lichtenstein, who recently retired as assistant general counsel. // total cluster$$$$ by US government
7. 南方周末推万字长篇特写《习近平改革这三年》|习近平|改革_新浪新闻 Southern Weekend devotes 10,000+ words to the “three years of Xi Jinping’s reforms”
8. The Unbearable Coldness of Being (Chinese) | Chublic Opinion “If Everything is Cold.” The usually witty Cai Fanghua, a columnist for the Beijing Youth Daily, titled his recent WeChat post with apparent solemnity. The subject was the near-death experience of a fellow journalist, whose traumatic ordeal had stunned and incensed the public for the past two weeks. Oddly, the case has nothing to do with journalism or news reporting, but the protagonist’s profession did help make it a national front page story…At long last, Zhang received a life-saving surgery eight hours after he first saw an ambulance through the window of his flight. Intraperitoneal hernia had blown up his small intestine like a balloon. He was that close to death. Surgeons cut off 80 centimeters of his clogged intestine to save his life. Days after he barely stared down death itself, he posted his experience on Weibo.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
Head of Agricultural Bank of China Steps Down Amid Corruption Probe-Caixin The departure of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. president Zhang Yun is linked to a separate graft probe on another executive, who headed a regional branch, a source with knowledge of the matter said. Police had questioned Zhang on the ongoing investigation into Xu Tao, who headed the bank’s branch in the southern city of Shenzhen, the source, who asked to remain anonymous, said. Graft investigators detained Xu in April for taking bribes.
Cisco chairman promises ‘win-win’ deal with China over network control | Reuters Cisco’s (CSCO.O) executive chairman on Monday declined to say whether it would cede to China’s demands to be able to control equipment deployed in the world’s largest internet market, instead pledging to find a “win-win” solution…”We spent three years winning the trust of the Chinese government and if you watch most American companies, their businesses in China is down dramatically, so was ours for several years. Do you know how much we grew in China last quarter? Forty percent.”
Big city land-grab sowing seeds of next China property boom | Reuters While property prices in much of China are still falling, a rebound is under way in the biggest cities, bringing with it the return of land speculation that could stoke another bubble and widening the economic gap between “tier 1” centers and the rest.
Top China Cop Targets Bankers After Locking Up Security Czar – Bloomberg Business The appointment of Fu Zhenghua underscores the importance that President Xi Jinping has given the investigation into possible securities fraud linked to the $5 trillion wipeout in June and July. Fu has had several promotions since Xi came to power in 2012, and oversaw the case against former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, said three people familiar with the case, who asked not to be identified because Fu’s role hasn’t been made public
Citic Securities says unable to contact two senior executives | Reuters CITIC said in a Hong Kong exchange filing it could not reach two of its most senior investment bankers, Jun Chen and Jianlin Yan. Chinese business publication Caixin said on Friday the pair had been detained, although it was not clear whether they were subjects of an investigation or merely being asked to assist with it.
Rail Cargo Services Continue to Lose Steam-Caixin In the first 11 months of this year, China Railway Corp. (CRC) transported 2.5 billion tons of goods, down 11.6 percent from the same period of last year, data from the state-backed company running the country’s railroads show. Freight volume dropped by almost 15 percent year on year in November, followed a 16.3 percent decline in October.
ICBC Punishes 137 Staff Amid Finance Industry Graft Probe – Bloomberg Business China’s biggest bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., said it punished 137 staff for breaches of Communist Party discipline, such as accepting gifts or starting their own businesses, as a corruption crackdown sweeps through the nation’s finance industry.
China’s forex reserves suffer third-largest monthly decline – FT.com Forex reserves fell $87bn in November, near the record $94bn decline suffered in August — the same month that the central bank surprised global markets by allowing the renminbi to depreciate by 3 per cent in three days.
United States Launches Trade Enforcement Challenge to China’s Hidden and Discriminatory Tax Exemptions for Certain Chinese-Produced Aircraft | United States Trade Representative U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced today that the United States has launched dispute settlement proceedings at the World Trade Organization (WTO) by requesting consultations with China on its measures exempting certain aircraft produced in China from value-added tax (VAT) while imposing those taxes on imported aircraft, affecting American-made aircraft and American parts producers who provide components to foreign-made aircraft.
Big Bets on Homecomings for U.S.-Listed Chinese Tech Firms – WSJ In pitch books circulating on Chinese social media, local wealth-management firms claim investors could earn up to eight times their money by backing products that invest in deals like the planned $9 billion buyout of New York Stock Exchange-listed Qihoo 360 Technology Co. The rosy projections assume these companies’ shares will rocket when they are later relisted on China’s domestic exchanges, where quality tech stocks are relatively scarce.
Where Rich Chinese Are Stashing Their Cash: America’s Hotels and Strip Malls – WSJ While wealthy Chinese home buyers have pulled back on U.S. purchases in recent months amid the market turmoil at home, investors looking for commercial property have kept buying aggressively, brokers said. Many have centered on unlikely investments such as small office buildings, chain hotels and other nondescript properties in and around big U.S. cities, seizing an opportunity to place greater sums of money outside their government’s reach.
China November exports weaker than expected but import decline eases | Reuters Exports fell a worse-than-expected 6.8 percent from a year earlier, their fifth straight month of decline, while imports tumbled 8.7 percent, their 13th drop in a row. Imports did not slide as much as some economists had feared, but analysts were unsure if that signaled a possible improvement in soft Chinese domestic demand, which has been a key factor in driving world commodity prices to multi-year lows.
地产及平台公司成信托撤资大户 _ 经济参考网 _ 新华社《经济参考报》官方网站 Economic Information on early payment on WMPs by many firms as it is easier and cheaper now to get loans from banks and raise capital via debt issuance // 与此前频频实行“拖”字诀不同，近来多家信托公司纷纷提前兑付未到期的产品。据《经济参考报》记者不完全统计，今年来，68家信托公司共发布提前清算公告205起，涉及近200只479亿元规模的信托产品。其中，一度风生水起的房地产类和政信类产品成为“撤资”大户，共清盘近70只240亿元，占全部提前兑付量的“半壁江山”。 “经过几轮降准降息和发债门槛的逐步放低，目前能开的口子基本都开了。除通过政府渠道拿到相应的低息置换债外，商业银行贷款也没有原来那么苛刻，我们可以借助政策性银行主导的平滑基金融资，通过发企业债、公司债以及中票短融融资。”有中部地级市城投人士8日向《经济参考报》记者表示。他坦言，“现在我们愁的不是资金，而是寻找好的项目和更低的融资成本。在此之前，我们肯定首先要置换掉去年资金短缺期间拿的利息高达12%的信托贷款。”
POLITICS AND LAW
授权发布：中共中央办公厅 国务院办公厅印发《关于完善审计制度若干重大问题的框架意见》及相关配套文件–时政–人民网 Xinhua-China to establish full-coverage audit system by 2020
On China’s Constitution Day, Book on Constitutionalism Largely Disappears – The New York Times The book, “Out of Imperialism,” by Qin Hui, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, has garnered considerable attention since it appeared this fall. Mr. Qin is a well-known thinker with liberal views, and there was an avid readership for his book, an examination of how China broke free from the Qing imperial order only to see the promise of constitutional democracy fall apart in the early 20th century. “It has sold quite well,” said a cashier at Sanlian, one of Beijing’s most popular bookstores. “But several days ago we were told not to sell it anymore, so the books are all gone now.”
戴玉庆案二审开庭 继续检举王晓玲政经频道财新网 王晓玲于2015年10月退休。广州市纪委曾公开表示：省委决定是由于年龄的问题，不再担任广州市纪委的书记
Q. and A.: Kerry Brown on Xi Jinping and the Business of China – The New York Times A. In some ways, we are all reduced to strategic ambiguity over China, saying we want one thing — a democratic China — but actually wanting a stable, predictable partner, and one, therefore, that is likelier under the party. Simply because it is the current government in power, and any change will bring risk.
China cracks down on aggrieved party cadres in Xinjiang and Tibet | World news | The Guardian “This does not mean the cadres participated in attacks,” said Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia director for Amnesty International, “but rather is the equivalent of local officials saying: ‘The central authorities are sending leaders who are so ham-fisted they have driven people to the edge and understandably they have started blowing up things.’” With Xi taking the lead in formulating policy toward Xinjiang, “everybody has to march to the same drumbeat”, Bequelin said.
Chinese Businessman Linked to Corruption Scandals Dies in Prison, Reports Say – The New York Times The death on Friday of the businessman, Xu Ming, was reported by several news agencies, including the financial newsmagazine Caixin and the Chinese government-owned Wen Wei Po, a newspaper in Hong Kong. China’s principal state-run news outlets, however, have said nothing about Mr. Xu’s death. // his official wife used to live in Central Park in Beijing, fled to the Uk right before he was arrested. Last I heard she was running out of money and thinking if returning…interesting how the people who fled in this case pay their bills overseas, and stay overseas. Bo Guagua for instance, how is he paying the bills in NYC and what kind of visa/passport is he using to stay in the US?
CPC to target gov’t organs, public institutions in discipline inspections – Xinhua The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee will try to expand its discipline inspections into all government organs and government-sponsored institutions next year, a CPC disciplinary official said on Sunday. Conducting “inspections across the board” has been fixed as a task in a revised version of CPC disciplinary regulations and is considered an important way to govern the Party strictly, said Luo Liping from the office of the CPC Central Committee’s inspection leadership group.
China releases blueprint on fighting poverty – Xinhua The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council released a poverty alleviation instruction on Monday. The document followed a high-profile conference on the issue in Beijing late in November, during which the leadership pledged measures to help lift the country’s remaining 70 million poor out of poverty by 2020. That goal will be “the most arduous task” on China’s path toward the building of a moderately prosperous society, according to the document. // did I miss something but what this document and the meeting and all the page 1 pronouncements over the last week+ get almost completely ignored in the western media,except for the Couth China Morning Post?
千亿扶贫资金到底怎么花？-新华网 日前，在中央扶贫开发工作会上，习近平总书记强调，扶贫开发投入力度，要同打赢脱贫攻坚战的要求相匹配。 在脱贫攻坚的宏大目标之下，无论怎样增加投入，资金总是有限的，“宝贵的弹药”容不得一丝浪费。习近平总书记提出扶贫要做到“六个精准”，其中之一就是资金使用精准。
Four ‘terrorists’ possibly from Xinjiang arrested in China’s northern Shanxi province | South China Morning Post China Youth Daily said posters had appeared around the provincial capital of Taiyuan, warning people to be on their guard against attacks by the four. One of the posters, shown on the newspaper’s website, had pictures of three people with names that appeared to be Uygur, a mainly Muslim minority group that calls Xinjiang home.
Provincial CPC graft-buster under investigation – Xinhua A graft investigation has been opened against Fang Keyou, former deputy chief of the disciplinary inspection team under the Communist Party of China committee of the eastern Anhui Province, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) announced on Tuesday.
Senior lawmaker of Heilongjiang Provincial People’s Congress under probe – Xinhua Gai Ruyin, deputy head of the Standing Committee of Heilongjiang Provincial People’s Congress is being investigated for suspected “severe disciplinary violations,” the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China announced Tuesday.
俞可平最新演讲：党内法规那么严，为什么还有贪官？_共识网 如果几个官员腐败，那确实是他信仰缺失等等，如果是一片官员腐败，那肯定是制度出了问题。正像一个鱼塘，有几条鱼死，那可能是鱼本身的问题；便若有成片的鱼死亡，那必定是鱼塘的水有问题了。 // Yu Keping speaking a little more freely now that he is just an academic? Gongshi runs what it says is a recent speech by him
起底丨苏树林的中石化“生意” 亲属插手油库项目深度新京报网 The Beijing News looks at fallen Sinopec head Su Shulin’s business dealings
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
Singapore Approves U.S. Surveillance Flights | Foreign Policy The defense agreement to be unveiled Monday reflects Singapore’s concerns over China’s assertive stance on territorial disputes. It also points to a broader trend among countries in the region to seek out the United States as a counterweight to China’s expansionist moves in the contested waterway.
Chinese bomber exercise affirms air-defence identification zone, penetrates Second Island Chain | IHS Jane’s 360 An unusually large People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) formation of eight bombers supported by three surveillance and electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft exercised over the East China Sea on 27 November before flying a long distance inside the Second Island Chain.
China, Japan agreed to continue discussion on early start of air, marine contact mechanism – Xinhua China and Japan agreed to continue discussions on an early start of an air and maritime contact mechanism in their fourth round of high-level consultations on maritime affairs. Defense departments of the two countries discussed the issue and agreed to continue their discussion. The defense departments also exchanged views on exchanges, according to a press release from the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday evening.
Three Scenarios for Understanding Changing PLA Activity in Cyberspace | The Jamestown Foundation Drawing firm conclusions about what is taking place is difficult. Some information security analysts familiar with Chinese intrusion sets are less optimistic about 3PLA’s movement out of stealing economic secrets to support Chinese companies, or changes to Chinese behavior in cyberspace (Associated Press, October 19). In this situation, it is worth sketching out several possibilities that might explain the reported changes in PLA computer network operations. The following sections will paint three plausible scenarios, all of which start with the assumption that the PLA is changing, if not necessarily curtailing, its hacking of purely commercial/economic targets.
In Nigeria, Chinese Investment Comes With a Downside – The New York Times shoddy or counterfeit products are a national problem in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, where impoverished consumers have few alternatives. Some shoddy goods are benign, like the Chinese-made shirts, trousers and dresses with uneven stitching and stray threads that fill street markets. But electrical wiring, outlets and power strips from China, ubiquitous in new homes and offices, are connected to dozens of fires a year in Lagos alone.
【獨家】「東突」一號人物：去ISIS不是我們的目的 | 端傳媒 Initium Media 香港珠海學院新聞系學者侍建宇日前與「東伊運」組織的核心人物 — 亞甫泉交談，以求呈現這一組織的現狀及與ISIS的關係。本文的意義在於知曉相關新聞核心當事人的想法。端傳媒特此聲明，亞甫泉的言論只代表他個人的觀點，不代表端傳媒的立場。需要指出的是，本文亞甫泉直接引語中的「東突厥斯坦」即指新疆。
Vietnam hopes trade deal will tip balance toward U.S., away from China – The Washington Post “The TPP is not just economic. It is also a political and security deal,” said Cuong, a former head of the Ministry of Public Security’s Strategy Institute, arguing that the accord would help loosen China’s grip on his country. “It has more value for Vietnam than buying 10 submarines.”
TECH AND MEDIA
Xi Jinping ‘resigns’, according to typo in Chinese state media report | World news | The Guardian Four journalists suspended after allowing an error, which declared the end of Xi’s presidency, to make its way onto a number of Chinese websites
多家报纸罚误登奥马巴责任人_腾讯 editors and news outlets also punished for mixing up Obama’s name from Aobama to Aomaba
WeChat Pulls the Plug on Uber’s Marketing Drive-Caixin “Didi-Kuaidi has been punished repeatedly in the past for violating rules,” Ma Huateng, Tencent’s chairman and CEO, said. Uber was blocked because Tencent would be held responsible for any illegal activity linked to Uber’s accounts, since it had failed to submit the ICP license, Ma wrote on his WeChat. But that does not mean the tech giant treats Uber any differently from its own car-hiring business, Ma said.
Google Tests the Waters in Shanghai’s Free-Trade Zone – China Real Time Report – WSJ The company’s establishment was first reported on Monday by The Paper, a Shanghai-based media outlet. An online company registration database shows the company, Peng Ji Information Technology (Shanghai) Ltd., was registered on Dec. 25, 2014. Google Ireland Holdings — an Irish-based subsidiary of Google — is listed as its only shareholder.
Ex-IBM employee from China arrested in U.S. for code theft | Reuters Prosecutors said the source code at issue was related to proprietary software the company developed for a clustered file system, which facilitates faster computer performance. Xu, who began working at IBM in China in 2010, had full access to the source code before voluntarily resigning in May 2014, prosecutors said.
China chips away at U.S., Taiwan semiconductor dominance | Reuters The world’s second-largest economy now boasts nine companies that design and sell chips in the global top 50 from just one in 2009. Clients such as Chinese smartphone manufacturers have also helped compatriot chip designers amass a market share of almost a fifth, according to data analyst TrendForce.
China Resources challenges ON Semiconductor with Fairchild bid | Reuters Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc (FCS.O) said on Tuesday it received an acquisition proposal from an unnamed party – identified by a source as a group led by China Resources Holdings Co – that rivals a deal it made with ON Semiconductor Corp
In China’s O2O tech, today’s ‘unicorns’ risk becoming tomorrow’s ‘unicorpses’ | Reuters n China’s hottest tech sector, hundreds of “online to offline” (O2O) start-ups like Shequ001, which draw mobile users to local physical stores and services, have failed as skyrocketing valuations deter investors and put the brakes on fresh funding. Many more are expected to fall by the wayside, or be driven into mergers in what executives and investors say is a market bubble.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Soccer schools and boardroom deals: China’s play for World Cup glory | Reuters For the clubs, China is a huge, still untapped market for fans, merchandise sales and TV audiences. The country aims to grow its sports market to 5 trillion yuan ($782 billion) by 2025, around a five-fold leap from its current size, and football will play a big part.
媒体：中国足协人事调整真的失控了？|足协_新浪新闻 lots of infighting, near open rebellion reported in Chinese soccer federation
A Chinese Folk Artist’s Descendants Are Split by the Government’s Use of Their Family Legacy – The New York Times “Our family wants to have nothing to do with politics,” said Zhang Yu, 37, a sculptor and a member of the sixth generation of the figurines’ creators, who objects to his family name being associated with the campaign. “We don’t do those sorts of things.” The peasant girl and other statuettes used in the government campaign are products of a studio founded nearly 200 years ago by a craftsman named Zhang Mingshan.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
Progress for NGOs Battling Polluters in Court-Caixin A court in Nanping, a city in the southeastern province of Fujian, ruled in favor of Green Home of Fujian and the Beijing-based Friends of Nature group in a lawsuit against four miners who run a quarry and destroyed a 1.9 hectare forest. The ruling was significant, even though courts across the country have yet to process thousands of cases filed since a 2015 legal amendment paved the way for NGOs to pursue legal action against anyone who damages the environment.
Silicon Valley’s New Power Player: China – Fortune Backed by Beijing, deep-pocketed, globe-trotting Chinese venture capitalists are buying up U.S. companies to power China’s emerging clean-tech revolution—and getting very rich in the process. How American technology is scaling up on the other side of the pacific.
New E-Car Rental Firms Try to Overcome Bumps in the Road-Caixin Through GreenGo, Hengyu owns one of the country’s largest networks of hourly rented e-cars. Its goal upon establishment in June 2014 was to commit 5,000 electric cars to the rental network in two years. Now, Fan said, it has built nearly 80 stations in cities including Beijing and Hangzhou with almost 1,800 electric cars – one-third of them available for renting by the hour – and 50,000 registered customers. He said the goal is to double the number of stations next year.
Lifeline for elephants: Ivory price halves in China after Xi pledges ban – The Washington Post The price of raw, illegal ivory has almost halved in China in the past 18 months because of growing public awareness, a promise from President Xi Jinping to ban the trade, a far-reaching anti-corruption drive and a slowing economy, according a new study by Save the Elephants.
EDUCATION
要在高校“打响意识形态反击战”的李吉明是谁？ – 中国数字时代 高校意识形态阵地管理，是一项战略工程、固本工程、铸魂工程，它不仅事关党对高校的领导，更关系到中国特色社会主义的事业能否后继有人。然而颇为令人感到遗憾的是，在西方敌对势力亡我之心不死，试图借助一切手段加大意识形态渗透、和平演变力度的当下，一些高校教师不是极力抵制而是积极充当其代言人甚至抹黑中国。
FOOD AND TRAVEL
Tourists to Lhasa tops 10 mln in first 10 months – Xinhua A record of 11.59 million people from both home and abroad visited the city from January to October, up 11.71 percent year on year. The city’s tourism sector realized 15 billion yuan (about 2.34 billion U.S.dollars) in tourism revenue, up 38.16 percent from last year. Overseas tourists reached 106,400, up 11.71 percent from last year.
BEIJING
Beijing Issues First Ever Red Alert on Smog-Caixin The warning system creates confusion by emphasizing forecasts of how long bad air will last over the severity of pollution, experts say
今日本轮重污染将达峰值 明日北风救场空气改善国内新京报网 wind should arrive in Beijing Thursday to blow out the pollution
JOBS AND EVENTS
100K Strong Foundation – the 100,000 Strong Foundation is investing in US-China relations, one student at a time The Chief of Staff (COS) is a critically important role, enabling the CEO and other senior management to work most effectively with internal and external stakeholders and to fulfill their commitments to achieving the goals of the 100,000 Strong Foundation. This is a highly strategic position that requires focus and flexibility as well as a willingness to play an active, behind-the-scenes role.
Film Screening: Assignment China: Follow the Money – The Elliott School of International Affairs Thursday, December 10, 2015 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM DC
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