I have added a Third Plenum section to better highlight all the speculation and commentary about the upcoming meeting, which should occur in the next couple of weeks.
Yesterday’s car attack across from Tiananmen Square killed five and injured dozens. Authorities have not released the identities of the occupants of the vehicle but there are reports that police are looking at ties to Xinjiang. The casualty count could have been much higher given how crowded the area usually is at that time of day.
Today’s Links:
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
Tiananmen Square attack sows terror in spiritual heart of China – latimes.com Nelson Bunyi, a Filipino tourist who survived the attack with a fractured leg, said he had been on the sidewalk with his wife and two daughters when they spotted the vehicle heading toward them. “A lot of people were running and jumping, but it was too late for me,” said Bunyi, who was flat on his back in the hospital, oxygen tubes in his nose. “It was a white car and it was coming very, very fast. I fell to the ground. I remember there was smoke, not much else.”… Most of the injured appeared to have been tourists or police. A nurse at Beijing’s Tongren Hospital said that besides the Filipino family, there was a Japanese tourist and a 5-year-old Chinese boy.// Beijing has not called it a terrorist attack. Would the government want to say there has been a terrorist attack in the political heart of Beijing, even if it turns out that is what is was?
Related: Tiananmen jeep crash kills 5, police name Xinjiang suspects – CHINA – Frontpage – Globaltimes.cn The tourist from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, who goes by the name of Renqiao1220 on her Sina Weibo account, declined to give her real name to this newspaper but described the scene of the incident in detail. She said that she suddenly saw a white SUV rushing into a crowd of visitors and then all the way towards the guardrail of Jinshui Bridge before it set aflame. She also said that she saw police cars chasing the SUV before it crashed…Late on Monday, the police sent a notice to hotels in Beijing, in which hotel management were asked to look out for “suspicious guests” that had visited hotels since October 1. The police also sought information on “suspicious vehicles.” The police notice said that a “major case had taken place on Monday” and named two residents of Pishan county and Shanshan county of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as likely suspects. The police also described a light-colored SUV, and four license number plates, all starting with the regional character showing they were from Xinjiang, in the notice. //Shanshan the site of June incident in which dozens died. A picture of the purported notice was posted to twitter here
Related: The Times–Amateur video of immediate aftermath of Beijing car attack
Related: After Crash In Beijing, Moves to Halt Flow of News – NYTimes.com witness accounts suggested the driver had deliberately steered the vehicle more than 400 yards along the sidewalk and had rammed into a marble railing of the Jinshui Bridge, built to traverse the moat that encircles the vast imperial residence that served generations of Chinese rulers. “This was not some driver who took a wrong turn and accidentally ended up on the sidewalk,” one witness said. Ringed by steel barriers, heavily policed by plainclothes officers and watched over by countless security cameras, the entrances to the Forbidden City and the adjoining Tiananmen Square have long been a magnet for political protest
Related: Horrific Day for Tiananmen Tourists, Banner Day for Censors | TLN China’s thousands of online censors have been just as speedy — and frighteningly successful, even by their own standards. While some official accounts of the incident have survived online, many seemingly anodyne ones, including updates from mainstream media sources like the business magazine Caijing and newsmagazine China Weekly, have not. In fact, a search on Freeweibo.com, which tracks deleted Weibo posts, shows that many related tweets from widely-followed sources were removed so fast that they were able to generate only a handful of comments.
Abe Warns China on Island Spat as Japan Dispatches Fighter Jets – Bloomberg Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned he wouldn’t permit China to use force to resolve territorial spats, as the renewed presence of Chinese aircraft near disputed islands prompted the dispatch of fighter jets from Japan. Japan sent up fighter jets for a third day yesterday after Chinese aircraft flew between its southern islands without entering Japanese airspace, the Self-Defense Forces said on their website. Abe said yesterday the country would not allow any shift in the status quo regarding islands both governments claim in the East China Sea. Abe made similar comments in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 25.
Related: China criticizes ‘self-deceiving’ Japanese politicians | Reuters Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also told his troops on Sunday that Japan would not tolerate the use of force to change the region’s status quo, an expression used by Japanese politicians and security experts to refer to what they see as China’s aggressive maritime expansion. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, asked about Abe’s comments, said Japanese leaders had been repeatedly making “provocative” remarks. “This once again shows that Japanese politicians are deceiving themselves with their arrogance and guilty conscience,” she told a daily news briefing.//外交部就安倍涉华挑衅言论、美监听他国领导人等答问-新华网
Related: China Coast Guard keeps heat on Japan in Diaoyus row | South China Morning Post Beijing kept up the pressure on Tokyo over the Diaoyu Islands yesterday, sending its coastguard near the disputed island chain following a weekend of sabre-rattling by both sides. Four Chinese coastguard vessels sailed into the territorial waters around the Diaoyus, which the Japanese call the Senkakus, the Japanese coastguard said. The ships remained in the area for about two hours.
China’s Official Local Debt Could Exceed CNY14Trl, Some Hidden Debt Excluded-Caijing abridged translation of original story, posted in monday’s newsletter // Chinese local government could owe more 14 trillion yuan in debt, as shown in the new round of nationwide review, Caijing learned, but the real picture could be far more obscure as some of the growing pile of hidden debt would not be included. While officials have repeatedly offered assurance that the debt is “controllable”, industry watchers are expecting regional debt explosions especially in the low levels of local governments. Beijing is also expected to come out with a comprehensive solution to the debt problems, they add…debt from such dubious funding channels has been excluded from auditors’ list, Caijing learned. It’s clear that if the part of debt was included, the ultimate figure could have been much bigger. In spite of that, sources close to the matter told Caijing the otherwise figure would not exceed 20 trillion yuan, as forecast by institutions like Standard & Chartered Bank.
Related: 下篇 清债进行时-财经网 2013年是地方政府性债务还款又一高峰年。银监会数据显示，截至2013年6月末，地方融资平台贷款余额9.7万亿元，而需要在2013年偿还的平台贷款达1.85万亿元。受访地方政府官员表示还款压力巨大，有地方政府打算变卖部分固定资产筹措资金 //second half of that Caijing story
Journalist Tells CCTV He Took Money to Publish Reports Critical of Zoomlion – Caixin The CCTV report did not say who paid Chen or provide evidence he took money. The program revealed parts of a confession signed by Chen. That confession named two other people, including Wang Zhong, the economics section editor at New Express.
Related: 记者陈永洲被刑拘 羊晚集团对新快报调查整顿_传媒_南都网 in wake of Chen Yongzhou case, New Express owner announces investigation, rectification of the paper // 摘要：新快报记者陈永洲涉嫌损害商业信誉罪被依法刑事拘留一事经媒体报道后，羊城晚报报业集团高度重视，决定派出工作小组，对新快报采编人员管理和出版流程管理等进行调查，对报社相关工作进行整顿，对发现的问题作出严肃处理，并督促新快报社认真整改。
Related: Why China is turning to ‘trial by television’ in sensitive cases – CSMonitor.com In a trend that alarms those pushing for more rule of law, six men have confessed to crimes on national TV. A journalist last week apologized for ‘incorrect reports’ about corruption.
HKND chairman Wang Jing: ‘no need for a high profile’ on Nicaraguan canal project | South China Morning Post Wang Jing, the chairman of HKND, the Hong Kong-based company tasked with planning, building and operating the canal, sat down with the South China Morning Post in his office overseeing Victoria Harbour on Sunday to clarify the purpose of the high-profile delegation and the progress in the construction project.
媒体称“单独”二胎政策将不试点 有望全面放开 _新闻_腾讯网 total relaxation on second children for parents who were single kids coming? // [导读]知情人士称，中国将加快步伐调整生育政策，逐步全面放开二胎生育限制。他同时表示，二胎政策不会一下子放开，而是要根据社会配置的承受能力逐步放开，但目标是全面放开二胎。
Apple’s results disappoint ahead of holiday quarter | Reuters Revenue from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan climbed just 6 percent to $5.7 billion in the quarter, despite the 5C and 5S going on sale in September. The previous-generation iPhone 5 began selling in the country only in December, meaning comparisons should have benefited from a more typical year-ago quarter, analysts said. Sales grew by about 24 percent from the previous quarter, or by about $1.1 billion. But that lagged the roughly $1.4 billion that Apple managed to tack on in the December quarter of 2012. “It does raise the question, how well is Apple doing really, in China?” said JMP Securities analyst Alex Gauna. //even more hope will now be placed on a China Mobile deal, and China Mobile now has even more leverage
Related: Only 13% of Chinese consumers will buy smartphones over $330–TechInAsia Today Sina released a report on consumer preferences for Chinese smartphone brands and pricing, and while Sina isn’t a market research firm and the survey isn’t perfect, the report still produced some interesting findings on how Chinese buyers perceive domestic mobile devices. Sina sent out questionnaires to 800,000 recipients, asking consumers to state which domestic brands they have the ‘deepest impressions’ of, and list their preferred price points for domestic smartphones.
‘False Contradiction’ and the Never-Ending Big Question About China – James Fallows – The Atlantic The more confident people sound in answering the big Whither China? question, the more skeptical I’ve become of them and their views…We may need a concept of “false contradiction” when it comes to China: recognizing that incompatible-seeming observations may all be accurate. The slangy way of putting this: everything you might say about China is true—somewhere.// and get comfortable with cognitive dissonance, something I tried to help instill with Sinocism
THIRD PLENUM
迎接中国共产党十八届三中全会_新华网 Xinhua web site has launched a special third plenum section.
“加强全口径预算管理”未入三中全会报告_财经频道_一财网 “全口径预算管理”被视为预算改革乃至财税体制改革中至关重要的环节，是“公开、透明、规范、完整”预算制度的基石，但消息人士对《第一财经日报》透露，写入十八大报告的“加强对政府全口径预算决算的审查和监督”，却未进入即将召开的十八届三中全会报告。
开往投资的列车 三中全会投资专题_21世纪网-21cbh.com 21st Century Business Herald has put together a nice infographic of the stocks that may benefit from reforms announced at the Third Plenum
China May Revamp Farmers’ Land Rights as Yu Sees Deeper Reform – Bloomberg The plans are part of “probably the most ambitious” economic initiatives since the People’s Republic of China was formed and should be viewed as the foundation of President Xi Jinping’s reform framework to be unveiled at the third plenum, Dong Tao, a Hong Kong-based economist at Credit Suisse, said in a note today. Even so, the “details are missing at this moment” and their effectiveness depends on “policy design and execution,” Tao wrote.
土地制度成改革重点和突破口-房产频道-新华网 日前，国务院发展研究中心首次向社会公开了其为十八届三中全会提交的“383”改革方案总报告全文，土地制度成为八个重点改革领域之一，深化土地制度改革、集体土地入市交易成为改革三大突破口之一。与此同时，威海市出台了《威海市2013年农村土地承包经营权流转财政奖补资金管理使用意见》，支持规模性农村土地承包经营权流转。此外，江西等地也陆续出台土地流转政策。土地流转已经成为新一轮改革的主要聚焦点，再加上上周五不少相关品种日K线图呈现“单针探底”形态，相关概念股或再次引起资金关注，尤其是前期的热门品种，如亚盛集团(600108)、罗牛山(000735)、辉隆股份(002556)、北大荒(600598)等。
Hopes of Market Reforms in China Tempered by Political Realities – NYTimes.com Zhang Jianjing, the chief editor of China Reform magazine, which first published the plan, said the proposal offered a window into currents of official thinking, but should not be read as a government blueprint. He said he was surprised by the public excitement about the plan, one of many that researchers have offered to officials. “My view is that it should not be over-read,” Mr. Zhang said in a telephone interview from Beijing. “In fact, it’s one of many studies that have been done. It doesn’t represent a draft of the Third Plenum report.”
十八届三中全会前瞻:中国金融改革涉及三个层次_证券时报网 金融业是我国经济发展的短板。我国现行的金融体系包括央行、国有商业银行、股份制商业银行、政策性银行、主要的非银行金融机构以及外资银行和涉外金融机构。从金融体系的现有构成来看，中国的金融体系具有典型的“银行主导型”特征。这种“银行主导型”的金融体系特征是基于中国特殊的制度和文化背景，因此，在今后相当长一段时间内不会发生根本性改变。这意味着，从当前中国金融体系的现状出发，构建稳定而高效的金融体系，需要以银行体系为核心和出发点。
三中全会或定调国企改革：民企组团进国企破垄断_证券时报网 据一位接近决策层的人士告诉《中国经济周刊》，国有企业改革是十八届三中全会避不开的话题。国有企业改革下一步的目标，是让国企更加市场化。具体来说，首先是所有国有企业都必须进行公司制改革；在此基础上，除极少数涉及国家安全、国防军工和国民经济命脉的国有企业保留国有独资形式之外，其他应发展为股权多元化公司；然后，探索完善国有产权、股权流转机制，发展混合所有制经济。
Magnus: Prospects for Reform at China’s Plenum – WSJ.com George Magnus// A “master plan for reform” would address three significant imbalances that are unlikely to shift. First, the state’s dominant role in the market in terms of industrial policy, resource and capital allocation is likely to remain. Second, the relationship of local governments, which have become key agents of malinvestment and rising national indebtedness with the central government will unlikely change. Third, the privileged status of cosseted state-owned enterprises and banks vis-a-vis private sector entrepreneurs, companies and family firms will probably also not figure into discussions at the Third Plenum.
西藏副书记：三中全会在即 境内外敌对势力伺机而动_资讯频道_凤凰网 本报拉萨10月26日讯（记者 玉珍）今天上午，根据区党委、政府部署，全区维护社会稳定工作视频会议在拉萨召开。会议深入学习贯彻中央纪念毛泽东同志批示“枫桥经验”50周年大会精神，分析当前维稳形势，就扎实做好近期特别是党的十八届三中全会前后全区维护稳定工作进行再强调、再部署。
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
Worst Cash Crunch Since June Shows Robust Economy: China Credit – Bloomberg The central bank has refrained from injecting funds into the banking system since Oct. 17, driving the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate 138 basis points higher to 4.88 percent last week, the most in four months. Yet the one-year swap contract, the fixed payment needed to lock in the repo rate for 12 months, rose just 11 basis points to 4.08 percent, reflecting expectations for a gradual rise in borrowing costs. That’s well short of a 5.06 percent peak in June, when investors were concerned overstretched banks would default on payments…The yuan has risen 2.4 percent this year and touched a 20-year high of 6.0802 per dollar in Shanghai last week. It was trading little change at 6.0838 as of 12:19 p.m. today. Credit-default swaps insuring China’s debt against non-payment were at 83 in New York on Oct. 25, down from this year’s high of 147 in June, according to CMA prices.
China Money Rate Drops as PBOC Resumes Reverse Repos to Add Cash – Bloomberg “Sustained high front-end rates do not appear to be desired by the PBOC,” said Frances Cheung, a Hong Kong-based senior strategist at Credit Agricole CIB. “Open-market operations are a reaction to the market situation, in particular the liquidity condition.” The seven-day repurchase rate dropped 15 basis points, or 0.15 percentage point, to 4.85 percent as of 9:47 a.m. in Shanghai, according to a weighted average compiled by the National Interbank Funding Center. It touched 5.06 percent on Oct. 25, the highest since July.
Demand drives soybean imports – Chinadaily.com.cn “The adverse weather conditions have severely undercut Heilongjiang’s soybean production this year and will force China to import more foreign soybeans to meet its domestic demand,” said Hu Zengmin, an analyst at the China National Grain and Oils Information Center in Harbin. “Based on rising market demand, China’s soybean imports in 2013-14 are likely to rise by 15 percent from the previous market year,” making 10 consecutive years of rising soybean imports, Hu said.
China Economic Watch | China Rebalancing Update – Q3 2013 Overall: The outlook for economic rebalancing remains unchanged relative to the second quarter. On the negative side, the growth of disposable income remains weak, real deposit rates are hovering around zero, and real estate investment continues to outpace GDP by a large margin. In contrast to these negative indicators, loans to small enterprises continue to grow quickly and the tertiary sector has outperformed the secondary sector for three straight quarters. The overall outlook for rebalancing remains neutral.
World Bank: it’s easier to do business in Russia than China | beyondbrics The World Bank’s annual Ease of Doing Business indicators were published on Tuesday – and they make a pleasant read for Russian policy makers. In the last year, Russia has climbed ten places to position 92, and is now the leading Bric nation.
In China There’s Not One City Sans Terrifying Stretches Of Empty Houses – Forbes It is impossible to know with certainty when the property bubble will burst, but burst it will, and anyone visiting China five years from now will be lucky to find prices at 60% of the current values. Governments are the key instigators of the property mania, which in the end, represents expropriation of the people’s savings. Yet this is not the only tragedy associated with housing: the great paving over has replaced functioning villages and communities with soaring cement towers in which families sit, alienated, and now often unemployed. In the coming decade, these “urbanized” developments will become crucibles of crime and poverty, plagues of which Chinese cities had been blessedly free.–Anne Stevenson-Yang is co-founder and research director of J Capital Research Ltd
China Property Firms See New Market in Old Age Homes – China Real Time Report – WSJ Last month, the State Council, or cabinet, announced a new policy to encourage private participation in care for the elderly, reducing taxes and offering subsidies for personnel training. Authorities will waive the business tax on maintenance at facilities for the elderly and scrap the enterprise income tax on some not-for-profit facilities. At least 50% of welfare lottery proceeds of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and local governments should be spent on supporting the industry, the cabinet said without giving further details.
ABREAST OF THE MARKET: China Is Back in Vogue With Investors – WSJ.com You began to see data that told you things weren’t as bad as everyone thought,” said Catherine Raw, portfolio manager at BlackRock Inc.’s Commodities Strategies Fund, which oversees $420 million. “The fears that China was going to have a hard landing…have disappeared.” Ms. Raw purchased copper-mining stocks early in the year, in a bet that a downturn in Chinese demand for the metal would be temporary. She called the position “painful” until the market rebounded over the summer.
Foreign Hedge Funds Warm to China – MoneyBeat – WSJ More foreign hedge funds are devoting resources to China, attracted by strong returns, the potential for growth and signs that the country will continue to develop its financial markets. China-focused hedge funds managed $12.9 billion in assets as of the end of September, exceeding levels before the global financial crisis, according to Eurekahedge, which tracks the industry. In the nine months ended Sept. 30, average returns from China-focused hedge funds eclipsed those in neighboring countries, with the exception of Japan.//any hiring?
Local tastes tempt China diners away from Golden Arches | Reuters local firms such as chicken chain Dicos, Country Style Cooking, and Kung Fu Catering have been nibbling away at the dominance of their U.S. rivals. “I’m a bit sick of Western fast food. There’s too much oil, and you hear things like chickens having six legs,” said student Tang Mei, 25, as she dined at Taiwanese-owned fast food outlet Dicos. “Health concerns have really made people worried.” // yeah the six-legged chickens are a worry…
Western Retailers See Online as Ticket to China – WSJ.com But China’s e-commerce—which, by some measures, overtook the U.S. this year as the world’s largest online retail marketplace—has become too big to ignore. Online retail sales in China are expected to reach about $540 billion by 2015, compared with roughly $345 billion in the U.S., according to consulting firm Bain & Co. China’s online retail sales have increased more than 70% annually since 2009, compared with 13% in the U.S.
POLITICS AND LAW
Translation: “Protect the lifeline of the people and the Party” People’s Daily, 10/14/13 | An Optimist’s Guide to China Below I’ve translated a very long front page People’s Daily editorial (written under the pen name 任忠平) on the Communist Party’s mass line education campaign.
福建株连拆迁教师停课劝母_中国新闻·时事_新京报电子报 second recent expose of local governments reassigning teachers to participate in forced reclamation of relatives’ homes…provoked deserved outrage online…just a disgusting tactic // 被停课50天至今未复课；夫妻因此离婚才保住丈夫工作
新疆日报刊文：坚决抵御宗教极端思想渗透-财经网 近些年来伊斯兰原教旨极端势力的渗透形势严峻，越来越多的维吾尔族妇女不再穿着艳丽的民族服饰，取而代之的是一袭黑罩袍。南疆某些地区甚至禁止音乐、传统歌舞、绘画、雕塑等社会文化活动，并指责维吾尔族婚丧习俗违反伊斯兰教义等等–哈尔克木 张霞（作者哈尔克木系自治区党校经济与社会发展研究中心主任、教授张霞系自治区党校经济与社会发展研究中心讲师）
薄瓜瓜曾自称最愿活在清末：乱世出英豪|薄瓜瓜|薄熙来|乱世_新浪新闻 Bo Guagua has said to wished he were living at the end of the Qing Dynasty. “chaotic times produce heroes”…// 对于马上就要年满26岁的薄瓜瓜来说，这或许是最艰难的一年。两年间，薄瓜瓜在中国人的视野里，从万众瞩目的红三代精英变成了贴满各种标签的纨绔子弟。在对他的父亲、原政治局委员、重庆市委书记薄熙来的审判中，薄瓜瓜生活的另一面开始被外界所知晓：一块他从非洲带回来的肉被父母吃了两个月。为了他的未来，父亲薄熙来接受商人的贿赂，母亲谷开来在法国戛纳为其购置度假别墅，甚至不惜铤而走险去杀人。他的昂贵玩具Segway电动平衡车被明星周杰保管。
孟建柱：“政法机关与媒体是平等的”_政经频道_财新网 Interesting excerpts from a speech Meng Jianzhu gave 3 months ago…Caixin reports on them with the headline “Meng Jianzhu: Political and legal organs and the media are equal”…// “【财新网】公安部门“要牢固树立平等、开放、自信的理念，让媒体成为政法机关的密切的合作者。政法机关与媒体的关系是平等的。除法律规定保密的情况外，要推进阳光司法，把执法司法活动及时公之于众。” 10月27日，《长安》杂志引述中央政治局委员、中央政法委书记孟建柱三个月前在一官方座谈会上的讲话摘要如此说。
Lawyers Challenge Judges’ Authority in Trial of Chinese Activists – NYTimes.com Through an acrimonious day in court, the defense lawyers tried without success to challenge the fitness of the three judges to hear the case, the fitness of the prosecutor to handle the case, and the legal basis for detaining the defendants, said Zhang Xuezhong, a lawyer for Ms. Liu. Late in the afternoon, the three defendants said they would dismiss their lawyers, forcing the court to adjourn the hearing, according to Mr. Zhang and Pang Kun, a lawyer for Mr. Wei.
贵州省委常委廖少华严重违纪违法被调查(图)_网易新闻中心 Zunyi Party Secretary,Guizhou Standing Committee member Liao Shaohua under investigation// 中新网10月28日电 据中央纪委监察部网站消息，贵州省委常委、遵义市委书记廖少华涉嫌严重违纪违法，目前正接受组织调查
The Shanghai FTZ: An Opportunity to Experiment with Chinese Dispute Resolution Reforms | Supreme People’s Court Monitor Few are aware that current plans for the new Shanghai Free Trade Zone (Shanghai FTZ) include limited reforms to China’s commercial dispute resolution systems, both commercial arbitration and the courts. In a thoughtful speech given at the opening of the China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone Court of Arbitration (affiliated with the Shanghai International Arbitration Center) on 22 October, Professor Ding Wei, Chairman of Legal Affairs Commission, Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee (http://www.cietac-sh.org/English/ResourcesDetail.aspx?tid=39&aid=571&zt=3) , identified some of the reforms contemplated as well as some of the obstacles to legal reform in the Shanghai FTZ. This post will look at two of the points that he made:
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
[视频]【时代先锋】核潜艇部队：用生命守护核安全_新闻频道_央视网 Monday CCTV Evening news again on China’s nuclear submarine forces // 央视网消息(新闻联播)：海军北海舰队某潜艇基地官兵以对党的绝对忠诚，用生命守护核安全，确保了核潜艇部队连续40多年没发生一起核事故，为我国形成可靠有效的海基核威慑和核反击能力作出了突出贡献.// Slideshow–Chinese nuclear sub starts homeward voyage – Xinhua
China providing space training – Chinadaily.com.cn China is providing training for space professionals from developing economies, enhancing their capacity in satellite operations and space technology application. “Hundreds of space engineers and scientists from several countries including Pakistan and Nigeria have received training in China since 2005,” Li Lan, deputy general manager of the communications satellite division of China Great Wall Industry Corp, said on Monday.
China responds on U.S. spying – Xinhua China on Monday called on the international community to speed up the formulation of guidelines for cyberspace under the lead of the UN in the wake of accusations that the United States intercepted the private communications of 35 world leaders. The eighth meeting of the UN Internet Governance Forum was held from 22 to 25 in Bali Island, Indonesia, noted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a daily news briefing. Delegates expressed concern and dissatisfaction over U.S. spying on the phone records of 35 world leaders, saying that it has harmed other countries’ sovereignty, invaded personal privacy and affected the public’s trust and confidence, Hua added.
Israel reportedly thwarts cyber attack from China | The Times of Israel The industries’ various defense systems identified the threat and shut it down, Channel 2 reported. An initial investigation uncovered the large number of people targeted in the field, while an additional check revealed that the sources of the threat were Chinese defense industries.
To Beat China, the Navy Could Launch Tiny Spy Drones From Submarines — War is Boring — Medium The targeting problem has become more acute in recent years as Washington shifts its naval forces to the Pacific to confront an increasingly belligerent and heavily-armed China. Beijing’s sophisticated complex of mobile radars and long-range missiles form a kind of no-go zone for American ships and planes that extends a thousand miles or more from the Chinese coast. Only submarines are stealthy enough to get close to these land-based defenses and take them out, clearing a way for other U.S. forces to attack. But to find these on-the-move Chinese defenders, subs need drones. Robots “will provide submarines a fully organic capability to detect, identify, precisely locate and quickly strike,” Owen Cote, a submarine expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in a 2011 paper.
China Is Pivoting to Central Asia—But Is Washington Paying Attention? – Alexandros Petersen – The Atlantic Since the founding of the SCO, China’s priorities for its own westernmost province, Xinjiang, has colored its engagement in Central Asia. Much of the SCO’s activities are concerned with fighting the co-called “three evils”: terrorism, separatism and extremism. In the wake of the September 11th attacks and the subsequent American-led intervention in Afghanistan, these priorities were misunderstood in Washington to refer to potential violent extremism in Central Asia, or the potential “spillover” of Afghan Taliban. But in hindsight, it seems that the “three evils” focus is almost entirely about the perceived threat of the Uighurs, the minority ethnic group native to Xinjiang. This focus is reflected in bilateral security deals between China and the Central Asian states, which provide for extradition of ethnic Uighurs to China and in the unfortunately acronymed Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) Center in Tashkent, which maintains a database of “undesirables” throughout the region, mainly Uighur separatists. SCO joint military exercises often feature war simulations involving separatists or operations against irregular forces.// and if Uighurs were behind the car attack in Beijing Monday then security in Xinjiang is going to get much tighter.
Norway snub shows sharp edge of Chinese diplomacy – Yahoo News Yan Xuetong, dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University, says China expects some at least symbolic act of contrition, although he didn’t say exactly what form that should take. “We find it difficult to forgive these foreigners who support (Liu’s) views insulting the Chinese people,” said Yan, a hardliner whose views closely mirror those of Chinese leaders. China’s retaliation seeks to exact real economic pain. According to the Norwegian Seafood Council, Norway’s share of China’s salmon market plunged from 92 percent in 2010 to 29 percent in the first half of this year. While the Norwegian salmon industry remains robust, operators are wary of what this portends as China’s appetite for salmon grows.
Chinese censorship goes global: Casting a long shadow | The Economist efforts by China to censor global media are increasingly common, says a report commissioned by the National Endowment for Democracy, an American non-profit organisation. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has habitually quashed critical news and opposing viewpoints since coming to power in 1949. Two factors have contributed to the widening of this strategy overseas, the report says. As China’s economic clout increases, the government is becoming bolder about pushing soft power. And today more than half of China’s population has online access to foreign media.
TECH AND MEDIA
Baidu Founder Says Bill Gates His Only Role Model: Video – Bloomberg Robin Li, founder and chief executive officer of Baidu Inc., talks about the company’s creation, his background and Microsoft Corp. Co-Founder and Chairman Bill Gates as his role model. He speaks with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.”
百度“百发不中”犯了哪三个错误？-证券时报多媒体数字报刊平台 百度敲锣打鼓昭告天下的“百发”产品上线开卖、吃了闭门羹的用户骂声一片，估计让两家网站偷着松了口气：铁道部的12306网以后可以说，国内互联网BAT三巨头之一的重头产品、流量压力远远不如春运抢火车票，居然一上线就死火；阿里更可以偷着得意，原因你懂的。试水“互联网金融”的滩头战斗，百度虽然勉强登陆，但品牌损失不小。在我看来，百度犯了三个错误。//criticism of Baidu’s Baifa launch and strategy
“百发”难百中：BAT三巨头金融卡位 _财经频道_一财网 lots of demand for Baidu’s Baifa financial product, reports of technical problems preventing consumers from signing up // 跃跃欲试的投资者还没来得及购买，百度系统随即出现一系列问题，包括无法登录、无法点击购买等。
Baidu search engine coming to Thailand–TechInAsia Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), China’s top search engine and web portal, will be launching its search engine in Thailand with a Thai language version, confirms Kaiser Kuo, the company’s international communications director. The search giant will also be expanding its office in Bangkok. We see in several job postings that the Internet giant is seeking a product manager for web search, a product manager for user operations, and finance personnel.
Suning invests in video website PPTV – Business – Chinadaily.com.cn Suning Commerce Group Co, the country’s largest electronic retailer, said it will invest $420 million in video website PPTV.com, along with private-equity firm Hony Capital Ltd, to further integrate its resources in content and distribution channels as part of its efforts to transform into an internet retailer.
Media giant comes of age – Chinadaily.com.cn The two main press groups in Shanghai are merging and will cooperate with online search engine Baidu to launch the Shanghai channel of Baidu News. “The Shanghai channel of Baidu News will integrate the superiority of the rich news resources from Shanghai United Media Group and the powerful technologies and platform of Baidu to create a watchtower for Internet users to look into this international metropolis,” said Zhu Guang, deputy president of Baidu. Shanghai United Media Group, unveiled on Monday, was formed with the merger of Jiefang Daily Group and Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group.
NQ Swells 57% Plunge on Report ZTE Partnership Has Ended – Bloomberg Shares of NQ Mobile plunged 17 percent to $8.80 in New York. The stock had gained as much as 20 percent today before a report on the Seeking Alpha website. The three-day, 62 percent tumble reduced the company’s surge this year to 46 percent, from 279 percent as of Oct. 23. ZTE, China’s third-largest smartphone vendor, doesn’t have a partnership to use NQ Mobile’s services, according to the post on Seeking Alpha which quoted a report on NetEase Inc.’s website on Oct. 25 that cited unidentified people at ZTE…Kim Titus, an NQ spokesman based in Dallas, said by e-mail that the partnership is still in place. Margret Ma, ZTE’s Shenzhen-based media relations manager, didn’t reply to phone calls and e-mailed messages seeking comment after hours. ZTE said in June 2012 that its V961 handset had NQ Mobile’s security application built in. // pretty impressive short attack on Netqin. Coordinated?
The Chinese are coming: Rumored Tencent investment in Snapchat highlights growing Sino tech influence | PandoDaily Thanks to an active and growing presence in Silicon Valley, including the hire of Y Combinator alumnus Louis Fu as its manager of strategic investments, Tencent has been able to find its way into investment rounds of hot startups that can afford to be picky about whose money they take. Tencent offers the promise of access and connections in the world’s largest, and most difficult to crack, Internet market. In return, it gets partnerships with companies that might one day be big in the US and boast technologies relevant to its core areas, such as gaming and mobile chat. At last week’s Global Mobile Internet Conference in San Francisco, Tencent president Martin Lau said that Tencent has spent close to $2 billion in investment outside of China.
Girls, Girls, Girls: Alibaba’s Play for Mobile Messaging ‘Losers’ – China Real Time Report – WSJ Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Alibaba is calling on desperate men to build a user base for its fledgling messaging application, Laiwang. In a new promotional campaign that began yesterday, Laiwang is sharing with users the profiles of more than 30,000 models with users on its messaging platform. The women are a part of Alibaba’s Tao Girl platform, which was created in 2007 as a resource for merchants who want to use professional models to show off their products on Alibaba’s massive e-commerce site. // looking desperate
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Bloody Attack on Doctors Triggers Protest in China – China Real Time Report – WSJ The latest act of violence against medical professionals in China—a patient’s stabbing of three doctors, one fatally—touched off a noisy demonstration by hundreds of people demanding better hospital security. Photos from local media and bystanders posted on social media sites showed people dressed in the white lab coats of medical swarming outside the No. 1 People’s Hospital in the eastern city of Wenling. They carried placards that said “Guarantee Medical Workers’ Safety.”
Gaming China’s Art Market With Expert Forgeries – NYTimes.com Craig Yee, an expert in traditional Chinese painting and a partner at Ink Studio, a contemporary art gallery in Beijing, says it takes a connoisseur to catch a connoisseur involved in producing fakes and forgeries. “The best fakers are not craftsmen but connoisseurs and expert calligraphers and painters,” Mr. Yee said. “You can’t just pick up a brush and master a style.”
Women’s congress aims to close income gap, lift status – Chinadaily.com.cn The widening income gap between men and women was the main point for discussion among delegates on Monday at the opening ceremony of the 11th National Women’s Congress. “More efforts are needed to give women more opportunities and resources, to improve their abilities in administrating national and social affairs, and to help them play a more important role in cultural development,” Song Xiuyan, vice-president of the All-China Women’s Federation, said at the opening ceremony. The congress is expected to draw up a blueprint for the economic advancement of Chinese women in the next five years.
李小琳全身皮草出席中国妇女代表大会_网易新闻 Pictures of Li Peng’s daughter Li Xiaolin going to the Women’s Conference, in fur, getting play online
Guangzhou Evergrande and the making of Asia’s first ‘superclub’ | John Duerden | Football | theguardian.com Guangzhou have hired the 2006 World Cup winner Marcello Lippi and are hell-bent on becoming the first Asian ‘superclub’
陈小鲁：文革的基因从来就没有彻底肃清_资讯频道_凤凰网 核心提示：陈毅元帅之子陈小鲁作客凤凰卫视《名人面对面》，谈自己对文革的反思，陈小鲁认为文革最大的教训就是要树立宪法的权威。
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
吉林摄影师山路遇虎 拍下东北虎高清照(图)_新闻_腾讯网 Jilin photographer snaps pictures of wild Amur Tiger
FOOD AND TRAVEL
Fonterra to Sell Its First China Baby Formula in Expansion Drive – Bloomberg The company, which started selling its Anmum-brand infant milk powder in the Southern Chinese city of Guangzhou as part of a pilot project, will start sales nationwide within the next year, Kelvin Wickham, managing director of Fonterra’s China and India units, said in an interview.
BEIJING
北京六条地铁线年内开工 或2016年试运营-搜狐汽车 Beijing to have started work on 6 more subway lines by year end…some new, some extensions of existing lines…will add another 94 KM to the subway network, should be in operation by 2016 // 今年年底前，本市将有6条轨道交通线陆续进场开工，总长度达到94公里左右。昨天，北京轨道交通建设管理公司有关负责人表示，这6条地铁新线将力争在2016年前全部建成通车试运营。这6条线路分别是燕房线（15公里左右）、6号线三期（10公里左右）、8号线三,（16公里左右）、昌平线二期（11公里左右）、16号线（26公里左右）以及山后线（16公里左右）。
BOOKS AND LITERATURE
Communities of Complicity: Everyday Ethics in Rural China Dislocations: Amazon.co.uk: Hans Steinmuller: Books a reader’s new book. looks interesting // Everyday life in contemporary rural China is characterized by an increased sense of moral challenge and uncertainty. Ordinary people often find themselves caught between the moral frameworks of capitalism, Maoism, and the Chinese tradition. This ethnographic study of the village of Zhongba (in Hubei Province, central China) is an attempt to grasp the ethical reflexivity of everyday life in rural China. Drawing on descriptions of village life, interspersed with targeted theoretical analyses, the author examines how ordinary people construct their own senses of their lives and their futures in everyday activities: building houses, working, celebrating marriages and funerals, gambling, and dealing with local government. The villagers confront moral uncertainty; they creatively harmonize public discourse and local practice; and sometimes they resolve incoherence and unease through the use of irony. In so doing, they perform everyday ethics and re-create transient moral communities at a time of massive social dislocation.