China Readings for February 16th

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

  • 《国家“十二五”时期文化改革发展规划纲要》新闻发布会纪实 – 新华时政 – 新华网 –
  • 人民日报-国家“十二五”时期文化改革发展规划纲要》 –
  • 北京公交集团称乘客爬窗挤车事件系极端特例_新闻中心_新浪网 –
  • China’s upcoming leader Xi Jinping has been wined, dined… and warned – Telegraph – President Obama has been careful to give Xi Jinping 'face’ during his US visit, but this is far from a sign of weakness.
  • 债市“危情” 中小房企资金持续恶化 – 产经 – 21世纪网 –
  • 地方调控镜像：顶层政策设计无可回避 – 产经 – 21世纪网 –
  • Surgery pioneer drops support for LASIK – The China Post – Ray Tsai (蔡瑞芳), one of Taiwan's pioneers in laser eye surgery, said yesterday that he will no longer perform the procedure because it violates his medical ethics.
  • FDA称雷射手术的安全性和有效性尚不清楚 – 上市公司调查 – 21世纪网 –
  • 眼科权威停做激光手术 爱尔眼科股价下跌 – 公司要闻 – 21世纪网 –
  • 激光治近视引风险争议 部分医生弃医德违规手术_新闻_腾讯网 – laser eye corrective surgery unsafe? famous taiwan dr says yes
  • 党报五谈政德：一些干部爱制造泡沫捞升迁资本_新闻_腾讯网 –
  • 高清：蒋介石重庆行营被“保护性拆除”_新闻_腾讯网 –
  • Diane Sawyer and Brian Ross belong in a fear-mongering museum – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com – I realize I wrote extensively yesterday about the American media’s typically mindless, nationalistic, war-craving hyping of The Iranian Threat — completely redolent of what they did in 2002 and 2003 toward Iraq — but I just saw this two-minute ABC News report from Diane Sawyer and Brian Ross that sinks to even lower depths than what I highlighted yesterday. It has to be seen to be believed. It’s a perfect museum exhibit for how empty-headed American media stars uncritically recite whatever they are told by government officials, exaggerate or fabricate bad acts by the designated Enemy du Jour while ignoring and suppressing the precipitating acts of America and its client states, and just generally do whatever they can to keep fear levels and war thirst as high as possible. This is nothing short of irresponsible propagandistic trash:
  • Analysis: New China landing vessels point to Pacific rivalry – Yahoo! News – Reuters) – As looming budget cuts force the Pentagon to plan for a smaller U.S. navy, China is accelerating the launch of new, increasingly capable warships as part of a sustained drive to become a major maritime power.
    Shanghai's Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding Company late last month launched the fourth of China's new 071 amphibious landing ships according to reports carried by Chinese military web sites and the state-controlled media.
  • Chinese State-Owned and State-Controlled Enterprises – CAP Economist Adam S. Hersh testifies before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Read the testimony (CAP Action)

    Good morning and thank you for inviting me to testify today. My name is Adam Hersh and I am an Economist at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

    You have asked me to talk about the role of state-owned enterprises in China’s economy

  • Falun Gong’s men and women in Washington | FP Passport – The Communist Party claims that its media is "the mouthpiece of the party," and, with few exceptions, it has succeeded. After reporting in China, it's strange to attend an event in DC and be reminded that there exists a thriving Chinese anti-Communist Party media.  

    At a press event today for Xi Jinping's visit to Washington roughly a quarter of the Chinese media in attendance seemed to be Falun Gong, the spiritual sect banned in China and once practiced by as many as 70 million Chinese, whose affiliates run the "Global Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party," and other services dedicated to informing Chinese people that other options exist. These included the television broadcaster New Tang Dynasty and the newspaper the Epoch Times, best known for issuing a press pass to Wang Wenyi, the Chinese national who heckled Hu Jintao during a joint press conference at the White House with George W. Bush in 2006.

  • Cowen Group, Inc. Announces Investment Banking Hires in its Asia and Technology Groups | Business Wire – Cowen building up China team with folks from Rodman & Renshaw?//

    Mr. Lu joins Cowen from Rodman & Renshaw where he served as Managing Director and Head of China Investment Banking. Prior to this, Mr. Lu served as Managing Director and Chief Representative at Piper Jaffray’s Shanghai-based office, where he successfully built a strong investment banking coverage and execution team. Mr. Lu holds a M.B.A. and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Ontario.

    Ms. Mi joins Cowen from Rodman & Renshaw where she served as a Director in the company’s China Investment Banking group based in Beijing. Prior to this, Ms. Mi served as a Vice President in Piper Jaffray’s China Investment Banking team in Shanghai. Ms. Mi holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economic from Cornell University.

  • This China Chart Will Be All Over The Place Today — But Don’t Let It Scare You –
  • House Probes Botched Defection in China | Washington Free Beacon – According to U.S. officials and reports from the region, the drama began sometime last week when a disguised Wang slipped out of his residence in Chongqing and traveled by car to Chengdu. Prior to reaching the consulate he called and asked for an appointment and was allowed in to the facility.

    He arrived around 10:00 p.m. local time Feb. 6 and stayed inside the consulate through the night.

    During his stay, he briefed U.S. officials, including Consul General Peter Haymond and two other consular officials.

    A source familiar with Wang’s debriefing said it contained details of corruption and links to organized crime by his boss, Bo Xilai, as well as details about Chinese police repression of dissent.

    During the overnight stay, Haymond contacted Ambassador Locke at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and Locke contacted senior State Department officials in Washington with the recommendation that Wang be protected and allowed to stay in the consulate.

    However, the White House overruled Locke over concerns that harboring a senior Communist Party official inside the consulate would upset U.S.-China relations days before the arrival in the United States of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping

  • Understanding Xi Jinping and China’s New Generation of Leaders – NBR talked with Cheng Li, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, to get his perspective on the importance of Vice President Xi’s visit, the challenges that Xi and a new generation of leaders face at home and in the United States, and how the U.S.-China relationship might evolve in coming years.
  • Insight: Suns rise and set rapidly in China leadership opera | Reuters – Leaders battling for promotion in China's Communist Party are using pages out of an old manual for negotiating the rungs of power, with the launch of separate probes that have tarnished the chances of one rising star and burnished those of another.
  • What the ETF? ‘George W. Bush’ Comes to Hong Kong – China Real Time Report – WSJ – All was revealed on Wednesday. Mr. Bush was in fact Steve Bridges, a well-known George W. Bush impersonator from the U.S. Mr. Bridges was in town to promote something rather more prosaic – exchange-traded funds.
  • Exclusive: Proview says any ban of iPad exports hard to impose | Reuters – Proview Technology, the Chinese company embroiled in a legal battle with Apple Inc over the iPad name, said on Wednesday that customs authorities had told it that the sheer size of the market and the popularity of iPads would make it difficult to impose a ban.

    "The customs have told us that it will be difficult to implement a ban because many Chinese consumers love Apple products. The sheer size of the market is very big," Yang Long-san, chief of Proview Technology (Shenzhen), told Reuters in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

    "We have applied to some local customs for the ban and they'll report to the headquarters in Beijing."

  • DreamWorks Animation to Unveil Landmark Joint Venture in China (Report) – The Hollywood Reporter – DreamWorks Animation and two state-owned Chinese media companies, Shanghai Media Group and China Media Capital, will unveil a landmark joint venture on Friday, the Financial Times reported.
    The partners will construct a studio facility in Shanghai to develop film, TV and live stage productions for the Chinese market, according to the report.
  • News of Provincial Showdown Travels Far on Chinese Web – Businessweek – not sure it is this dire//

    The situation is complicated by the fact that many officials hold shifting dual allegiances. And the relative openness allowed on the Internet to discuss Bo and Wang’s fate suggests that the outcome of the factional war is far from being decided, says Northwestern University political science professor Victor Shih. Otherwise, all comments on the incident would have been scrubbed from websites, he says.

    More worrying, says Shih, is the fact that Beijing has not yet publicly reprimanded Bo for his apparently unauthorized decision to dispatch perhaps 100 police officers from one political jurisdiction to another (from Chongqing to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, a few hours drive away), where they surrounded the U.S. consulate. “It’s as if the governor of Ohio has just sent armed forces across the border into Indiana. What would that say about the stability of the U.S. and what does this say about the future of China?” asks Shih. “A door has been opened to using highly unconventional means to settle conflict in China.” And that could end up being “highly disruptive to stability,” he warns.

  • China Pledges to Invest in Europe Bailout Funds – Bloomberg – China pledged to invest in Europe’s bailout funds and sustain its holdings of euro assets, spurring gains in the currency and Asian stocks on optimism the region’s debt crisis will be overcome.
    “China will always adhere to the principle of holding assets of EU sovereign debt,” People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said in a speech in Beijing today. “We would participate in resolving the euro debt crisis,” he said, echoing comments by Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday.
  • Syria Blocks Texts With Dublin-Made Gear – Bloomberg – As unrest in Syria erupted into public demonstrations and a bloody crackdown that has claimed over 6,000 lives in the last year, the regime of Bashar al-Assad sought to neutralize one of the most potent tools in the protesters’ arsenal: text messages sent via mobile phones.
    The Syrian government has ordered blocks on text messages when they contain politically sensitive terms such as “revolution” or “demonstration,” according to two people familiar with the filtering systems. A unit of the Syrian intelligence apparatus, known as “Branch 225,” often issues the instructions on which messages to block, they say.
    Syriatel Mobile Telecom SA, the country’s largest mobile- phone operator, conducts the blocking with equipment from Cellusys Ltd., a privately-held company based in Dublin, according to one of the people, who is familiar with the filtering.
  • Egypt state media accuses US of spreading anarchy – Yahoo! News – CAIRO (Reuters) – State-run newspapers splashed accusations of a U.S. plan to spread "anarchy" in Egypt across their front pages on Tuesday, escalating a dispute Washington says must be resolved to ensure their continued military cooperation.
    Based on remarks by a government minister, the headlines marked another low in the crisis between Washington and Cairo triggered by the investigation into U.S.-based non-governmental organisations that has led to criminal charges against Americans who have been prevented from leaving the country.
    "America is behind the anarchy," declared the front page of Al Gomhuria newspaper. "American funding aims to spread anarchy in Egypt," read the front page of Al Ahram newspaper. The papers are two of Egypt's most widely distributed dailies.
  • Renren Issues Q4 Warning; So Much For The Facebook Bounce – Forbes – The China-based social-networking company said that revenues for the quarter will be within the previous guidance range of $31 million to $33 million, so no issues there. But the company said it now sees a non-GAAP operating loss for the quarter of $15 million to $17 million, due to “increased investments across the company’s business lines,” as well as the consolidation of 56.com, a video-sharing site acquired in October.
  • China’s Money Trail: In Heart of Rust Belt, Chinese Funds Grease Troubled Company – WSJ.com – In 2010, Pacific Century Motors, controlled by Aviation Industry Corp. of China and Beijing E-town International Investment Co., an investment arm of the city of Beijing, bought the money-losing auto-parts maker from its corporate parent, General Motors Co., for about $450 million. With that, this city went from being an exhibit of America's industrial decline to a case study in the impact of Chinese investment money on U.S. communities.
  • “网恋”背后 陷阱重重-搜狐IT –
  • Goldman analyst probed for leaking inside info: WSJ | Reuters – A Goldman Sachs technology analyst is under investigation by federal authorities for leaking inside information to hedge funds, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people close to the situation.

    The newspaper named the analyst as Henry King and said his activities focused on the flow of information from Taiwan to U.S. investors about the supply chain for personal-computer parts makers from Taiwan.

  • In China, Knicks’ Lin Emerges as a Star and a Symbol – NYTimes.com – The clearest sign that Jeremy Lin’s appeal has spanned the Pacific to mainland China may lie not in the 1.4 million Chinese microblog messages mentioning him in recent days, but in a rare failure to meet demand here in the heart of one of the world’s largest centers of pirated garment manufacturing.

    “His jerseys have sold out, even including the counterfeit ones,” said Zheng Xiaojun, a 24-year-old clerk here in the capital of Zhejiang province, near Shanghai

  • Chinese Official to Hear Trade Theft Tale – NYTimes.com – With anger toward Chinese trade and industrial practices emerging as a major theme for the 2012 campaign season, American Superconductor’s story seems ripe for the moment.

    The facts are difficult to dispute, given the volume of evidence. Last March, China’s Sinovel, the world’s second largest wind turbine manufacturer, abruptly refused shipments of American Superconductor’s wind turbine electrical systems and control software. The blow was devastating; Sinovel provided more than 70 percent of the firm’s revenues.

    The value of undelivered components on existing contracts exceeded $700 million, Daniel Patrick McGahn, the company’s president and chief executive, told investors. Its share price plunged by more than 80 percent in six months.

    Last summer, evidence emerged that Sinovel had promised $1.5 million to Dejan Karabasevic, a Serbian employee of American Superconductor in Austria.

  • 全国文化体制改革工作会议召开 传媒板块能否王者归来 – [中国证券网] –
  • MNI | China Official Paper Warns Local Govts On Housing Policy – A leading official Chinese securities newspaper called on local governments Wednesday to follow Beijing's policy on bringing order to the housing market, warning that failure to do so risks sending prices spiralling again.

    The front-page editorial in the China Securities Journal followed the aborted attempt by the authorities of Wuhu, a second-tier city in Anhui province, to ease housing policies imposed on Beijing's orders which were designed to cool the speculative fever in the nationwide market.

  • China taps law enforcer to run uneasy Tibetan area – Yahoo! News – A career law-and-order official has been tapped to run a Tibetan area at the center of protests against Chinese rule, and is calling for his subordinates to take a hard line against unrest while trying to raise local living standards.
    Liu Zuoming was appointed as Communist Party secretary of Sichuan province's Aba region over the weekend. It is not clear whether his transfer was prompted by the latest unrest or part of a regular rotation of officials. His predecessor in Aba, Shi Jun, was promoted to police chief for Sichuan.
  • Two CIA Prisoners in China, 1952–73 — Central Intelligence Agency – Beijing’s capture, imprisonment, and eventual release of CIA officers John T. Downey and Richard G. Fecteau is an amazing story that too few know about today. Shot down over Communist China on their first operational mission in 1952, these young men spent the next two decades imprisoned, often in solitary confinement, while their government officially denied they were CIA officers. Fecteau was released in 1971, Downey in 1973. They came home to an America vastly different from the place they had left, but both adjusted surprisingly well and continue to live full lives.
  • China Mention In The Command: Deep Inside the President’s Secret Army | Sinocism – I read the book and there was one mention of China that stood out. According to the authors:

    Operators from Delta Force and SEAL Team Six infiltrated China with the CIA and mapped the locations of Chinese satellite transmission facilities in the even that the United States ever needed to disable them.

    No date is given, and since Delta Force was created in 1979 and Seal Team Six a year later, it could have happened anytime in the last thirty years. Still, it was a bold move for the U.S. given the history of detained CIA operatives in China (see Two CIA Prisoners in China, 1952–73).

  • The hollow emptiness in social media numbers – most accounts are fake or empty | ZDNet – Summary: Increasing numbers of studies of social networks point to much smaller numbers of real and active users — sharply reducing the value of the platforms, and social media marketing.
  • Goldman Analyst Draws Scrutiny – WSJ.com – Federal criminal authorities are investigating whether a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. technology analyst leaked inside information to hedge funds, adding a new angle to a broadening insider-trading probe, people close to the situation say.

    The development takes the insider-trading investigation inside the research operation of a major Wall Street firm for the first time. It involves Henry King, a high-profile analyst well-known among technology investors for prescient calls on tech firms, the people say.

  • Poll: ‘China girl’ ad hurts Pete Hoekstra – Tim Mak – POLITICO.com – The racially-charged Super Bowl commercial put out by former Rep. Pete Hoekstra featuring an Asian actress speaking broken English has backfired and hurt the Michigan Republican’s campaign for U.S. Senate, according to a new poll on Tuesday.

    Indeed, 54 percent of voters in Michigan were aware of Hoekstra’s controversial ad and 45 percent said it made them less likely to vote for him, according to Public Policy Polling. Only 16 percent said that the spot made them more likely to vote for him, and 37 percent said it didn’t make a difference in their voting preferences.

  • 习近平访问美国、爱尔兰、土耳其_新华网 –
  • 中美发布《关于加强中美经济关系的联合情况说明》 – 新华国际 – 新华网 –
  • Asia House of the Day: Phuket Villa, Beach Included — Photos – Scene Asia – WSJ – 17.5m
  • Court halts sale of New Zealand farms to Chinese – Yahoo! News – WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A New Zealand court Wednesday halted the first ever sale of dairy farms to Chinese investors, the latest twist in a saga that's dividing a country reliant on agriculture for much of its export earnings.
    High Court Judge Forrest Miller ruled the New Zealand government overstated the economic benefits that the Chinese investors would bring when the government approved the sale of the 16 farms last month. Miller said the government needs to review the sale again using stricter evaluation criteria.
  • Obama friendly but firm with China heir apparent – Yahoo! News – WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama told Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping on Tuesday that Beijing must play by the same trade rules as other major world powers and vowed to keep pressing China to clean up its human rights record.
    In White House talks, Obama sought to reassure Xi that Washington welcomed China's "peaceful rise." But he also signaled that frictions would remain in a growing economic and military rivalry between the two countries, even as Beijing's political transition moves forward.
  • Analysis & Opinion | Reuters-Dreamworks’ China deal won’t be access all areas – The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own

    Dreamworks may soon get an exclusive ticket to China’s closely guarded film industry. The U.S. studio is likely to announce a joint venture with China-based investors during Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to California on Feb. 17, a person familiar with the situation has told Breakingviews. It should be a good deal for the creators of “Kung Fu Panda”, but does little to lower the Great Wall around film distribution in the People’s Republic.

  • Chinese blocked visit by U.S. religious freedom envoy, advocates say – The Washington Post – Chinese officials denied a visa to a top State Department envoy and refused to meet with her to discuss issues of religious freedom days before this week’s high-profile visit to Washington by China’s vice president, according to rights advocates and others.

    Suzan Johnson Cook, the U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, was scheduled to travel to China on Feb. 8, according to several rights advocates who were invited to brief her ahead of the visit. But as the date drew near, Chinese leaders refused to grant her meetings with government officials.

  • Explosions in Bangkok Add to Suspicions of Iran – NYTimes.com – A series of explosions rocked a residential neighborhood here on Tuesday, leading the Thai authorities to a cache of bombs in a rented house and the capture of two men identified in Thai media reports as Iranians. A third suspect was being sought.
  • Xi Visit Includes Top Chinese Business Leaders – China Real Time Report – WSJ – Some of China’s most powerful business leaders are accompanying Vice President Xi Jinping on his visit to the U.S. this week.

    Here is the roster, including the heads of private companies as well as state-owned enterprises, of those attending a CEO roundtable with Mr. Xi and U.S. business leaders on Tuesday afternoon:

  • BBC News – Giant Kim Jong-il statue unveiled for his 70th birthday – A giant statue of Kim Jong-il has been unveiled ahead of Thursday's celebrations of the 70th anniversary of his birthday.

    This is the first bronze sculpture of the late North Korean leader.

    The 6-metre bronze statue depicts him riding a horse next to his late father, Kim Il-sung, also on horseback.

    The statues were unveiled in a ceremony attended by top military and political officials on Tuesday in the capital, Pyongyang.

    Kim Jong-un, Mr Kim's youngest son and heir to the leadership position, was not present, although he reportedly initiated the building of the statue.

  • Television Regulations: New Bottle, Same Wine – There is some new content in the regulations issued yesterday, but contrary to the NYT headline, the major issues addressed vis-a-vis foreign content are not new: indeed, they harken back to regulations that have been in force since 1995. From the unpublished manuscript of a guidebook on Chinese television that I co-authored with William Soileau and Jeane-Marie Gescher in 1998, according to regulations then in force:

    Foreign programming must not be distributed between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., although actual enforcement varies according to the broadcaster.

    and

    Foreign programming must not take up more than 25% of total broadcasting time on a station basis. In reality, while the rule is nominally honoured, many networks apply the quota on a channel by channel basis. Unofficial figures indicate that foreign programming may account for as much as 50% of programming.

    The rules governing television are not increasing, as the Times suggests. What seems to be increasing is the degree to which they are openly flaunted by broadcasters. Let me explain.

  • Rare visit to remote Chinese region shows depth of Tibetan despair | McClatchy – A McClatchy reporter last week apparently became the first from an American news organization to make it to Aba since the chain of self-immolations began in March. To do so, he hid on the rear floor of a vehicle under two backpacks and a sleeping bag as it passed through multiple checkpoints.
  • Amazon China and Suning Quit Selling iPads in Ongoing Trademark Battle | Tech in Asia – Two Chinese B2C e-commerce sites, Amazon China and Suning.com (SHE:002024), have removed the iPad from sale in an apparent move to avoid implication in the Apple versus Proview legal battle over the use of the iPad name in mainland China. Today, a search for ‘iPad’ or ‘iPad 2’ or any relevant permutation yields results only for accessories for (or rivals of) Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iconic tablet on both those sites (pictured above).
  • China unable to silence Internet buzz on police chief – USATODAY.com –