"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner

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• Developer Says Icelandic Real Estate Bid Revived – Caixin Online – (Beijing) — Real estate developer Zhongkun Investment Group said its hopes to purchase a swathe of land in Iceland have been rekindled, after a bid was rejected by Iceland’s interior ministry last month.
  On December 8, Zhongkun Chairman Huang Nubo told Caixin that the approval rights of investment in Iceland have now shifted from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism. Huang said the company has re-submitted an application for a land purchase.
  “There should be no problems. We can certainly buy,” said Huang, adding the company is in negotiations with the industry ministry no
• No Jail Time for Chemical Plant Protesters – Caixin Online – After arresting two environmental protesters on charges of extortion, government officials—citing social stability–intervened in their trial to lessen their sentence
• Study Finds Top PetroChina Executives Overpaid – Caixin Online – A survey found that PetroChina paid its top executives on average over 800,000 yuan in years when the company saw falling profits
• Bank Sector Execs Follow the Revolving Door – Caixin Online – A party-controlled system for executive appointments is getting closer attention after changes at several big banks
• 重庆啤酒事件应启动公开调查_观点频道_财新网 –
• BrandZ Top 50 Chinese Brands –
• 人民网舆情监测室发布《2011年新浪政务微博报告》–舆情频道–人民网 –
• 地沟油黑色网络涉及28省份 正规油企参与制售_新闻_腾讯网 – gutter oil spread far wider than thought?
• Watch: Christian Bale, Zhang Yimou Field Criticism of ‘Flowers of War’ – China Real Time Report – WSJ – odds on Zhang Yimou eventually becoming at least a vice-minister of Culture?
• Shanghai Shenhua hope signing of Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka can help change China’s footballing landscape – Telegraph –
• Police Use of Drones Raises Concerns on Privacy – WSJ.com – China’s police apparatus jealous of America’s police state technology?//
  US Police Departments’ Use of Drones Is Raising Concerns Over Privacy and Safety
• Mr. Corzine Goes to Washington, With No Pull: William D. Cohan – Bloomberg – dc is burning, Congress’ fiddles made in China
• Vietnam Sentences Buddhist Activist to Prison Term – NYTimes.com– HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam has sentenced a Buddhist activist to five years in prison for distributing anti-government leaflets and CDs.His daughter says Nguyen Van Lia was sentenced Tuesday on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state.”
• The growing menace of domestic drones – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com – is it illegal to shoot down a drone that is illegally surveilling americans?
• Hezbollah names ‘CIA spies’ working undercover in Lebanon – Telegraph – Hezbollah made the names public in a broadcast on Friday night on a Lebanese television station, al-Manar. Using animated videos, the station recreated meetings purported to take place between CIA officers and paid informants at Starbucks and Pizza Hut.
  The disclosure comes after Hezbollah managed to partially unravel the agency’s spy network in Lebanon after running a double agent against the CIA, former and current U.S. intelligence officials said. They requested anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.
• More glowing meat found near Beijing: Shanghaiist – can now eat with lights off, saving on electricity
• China Unicom to sell iPhone 4S by January – Xinhua | English.news.cn – BEIJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhuanet) — China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd, the second-biggest telecom carrier in China, said it will introduce Apple Inc’s iPhone 4S to the Chinese mainland as early as the end of December and no later than Jan 23, the date of the Chinese New Year, said a company official.
• Beijing aims to build leading cloud computing center – Xinhua | English.news.cn –
• Test flight of China’s carrier-based fighter J-15 – Xinhua | English.news.cn – pics
• Senior CPC official discusses bilateral ties with Kissinger – Xinhua | English.news.cn– NEW YORK, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) — A senior official of China’s ruling party, the Communist Party of China (CPC), met here on Monday with seasoned U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger, to discuss the latest developments in Sino-U.S. relations.Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, briefed Kissinger on the fourth high-level dialogue between the CPC and the U.S. Democratic and Republican parties held in Washington.
• Yet another school bus crash sparks fury in China – Yahoo! News – At least 15 children were killed when a school bus crashed in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu, state media said on Tuesday, the latest in a string of traffic accidents that has triggered public fury across the country.
• Chinese Firms Dismayed By New SEC Rule Ending Confidential Foreign IPO Filings | DigiCha– Chinese firms are worried that this will give valuable information to their competitors that can be used against them during the several months long IPO filing process. US firms filing to go public face this competitive risk and seem to be able to manage it, but the some in China believe that it is such a brutally competitive market that their competitors will use the information in the filings to do real damage before the IPO.Some of those firms may also prefer to keep the amendments private, as now that the SEC is paying much closer attention to Chinese companies there are more comments and questions from the examiners, especially around accounting.
• China’s ‘Interventionist Policies’ Remain a Concern, U.S. Says in Report – Bloomberg – China’s trade restrictions and “interventionist policies” in areas such as intellectual property rights remain a concern for American companies doing business in the Asian nation, the U.S. said.
  China discriminates against foreign business in “numerous sectors” of the economy, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said yesterday in its annual report on Chinese compliance with World Trade Organization rules. Continued government intervention in its economy has been a “troubling trend,” the U.S. said.
• Fitch Sees China Housing Slowdown as Officials Meet – Bloomberg –
• Zoomlion Biggest Short on Bets China Building Binge to Slow – Bloomberg – hort sellers have never been so sure that Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., China’s second-biggest maker of construction equipment, will drop as building slows and customers fall behind on payments.
  Speculators lifted bets against Zoomlion to 22 percent of shares outstanding last month,
• China’s 150M Electric Bikes Bolstering Lead Demand – Bloomberg –
• Suspects Detained in Kekexili Murder – Economic Observer News- China business, politics, law, and social issues – Summary：On Jan. 18, 1994, Suonandajie along with four of his team members arrested 20 poachers in the area. However on the return journey, they were attacked. When his body was found, he was frozen in the postion of re-loading his gun.
• English Butlers Wanted For Emerging Super-Rich – Bloomberg – Demand has been driven partly because of a growing number of Chinese clients needing butlers for their second homes in London, said Laura Harrall, a director at Greycoats.
  “Asia is coming up pretty strong now,” Watson said. “We are getting lots of enquiries from these Chinese who are sitting on piles of money. They are discovering that if you spend $8 million on a villa with marble flooring, you need someone to come along who knows what they are doing.”
• Viral Weibo: PLA soldiers in Tianjin Railway Station liberate waiting passengers from their seats: Shanghaiist –
• 航班管家苹果(iPhone)版 | 航班管家,酒店管家,接机大屏幕 –
• Art Dealers Get Tough as $83 Million Chinese Vase Goes Unpaid, One Year On- Bloomberg –

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