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

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• 王立军举报有功 薄熙来命运变得更不乐观 –
• Israel’s Backers in Aipac Press Obama to Harden Iran Policy – NYTimes.com – On the eve of a crucial visit to the White House by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, that country’s most powerful American advocates are mounting an extraordinary public campaign to pressure President Obama into hardening American policy toward Iran over its nuclear program.
• NY Times journalists digest Mandarin with lunch|Americas|chinadaily.com.cn – Like most major news organizations today, The New York Times employs full-time journalists reporting from China.
  While The Times' overseas correspondents complete intensive Chinese language training to report effectively, its employees based in New York also have the opportunity to study Mandarin in weekly in-office classes during lunch.
• The Jamestown Foundation: China’s New Property Tax: Toward a Stable Financial Future for Local Government? – not really
• Decorated World War II vet who later fought for right to fly US flag at home in Va. dies at 92 – The Washington Post –
• Republicans do remember that women vote, right? – The Washington Post – When will Republicans stop their vagina monologue?

  March is federally recognized as Women’s History Month, and Republicans have been celebrating the occasion in a most unusual style: with a burst of interest in women’s private parts.

• China’s Wukan Village Votes for New Leaders After Protests – Bloomberg –
• Mormon Church to Members: Quit Baptizing Dead Jews-Gawker – For many, "don't baptize people who died in the Holocaust" might seem obvious, but everyone can use a reminder now than then. And the Anti-Defamation League appears pleased with the effort from Mormon leaders.
• Chinese director to stage opera for London Olympics – Xinhua | English.news.cn – Film director Zhang Yimou, who engineered the spectacular opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is to stage an opera in London as part of the arts shows leading up to the 2012 London Olympics.
• China releases standard names of Diaoyu Islands|Politics|chinadaily.com.cn – China has released standard names and descriptions of the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated isles, according to sources with the State Oceanic Administration.

  The Diaoyu Island is named as "Diaoyu Island", with its Chinese pronunciation reading "Diao yu Dao". It is described as an island "about 356 kilometers from the city of Wenzhou, 385 kilometers from the city of Fuzhou and 190 kilometers from the city of Keelung."

  The country has also released names of Diaoyu's 70 affiliated islands, the names in pinyin and description of locations

• Producer for Zhang Yimou ‘deserves an Oscar award’|2011flash|chinadaily.com.cn – Zhang Weiping has the chutzpah of Harvey Weinstein or Louis B. Mayer, but he does not possess their artistic visions. He supports the director without giving him the necessary input of a true film impresario. Of all the people who should take some responsibility for the less-than-stellar turnout, the producer should be the one to say, "The buck stops here." That means self-reflection about both the business and artistic decisions of the enterprise.
  By the way, whining like a baby will not help the director's future projects in terms of international cooperation. Who would want to be the next target of Zhang Weiping's wrath?
• Wynn Resorts Partners Split, and Accusations Fly – NYTimes.com –
• A Voice of Dissent in China That Took Its Time – NYTimes.com – EVEN at 106 years old, Zhou Youguang is the kind of creative thinker that Chinese leaders regularly command the government to cultivate in their bid to raise their nation from the world’s factory floor.

  So it is curious that he embodies a contradiction at the heart of their premise: the notion that free thinkers are to be venerated unless and until they challenge the legitimacy of the ruling Communist Party.

• The ‘rise’ of China’s state capitalism is not a point of pride, but a reason for worry | China News Watch | Latest Hong Kong, China & World News | SCMP.com – hu shuli//
  They are in effect special interest groups posing as market players, and their presence distorts the market. The drawbacks of this model of development are today too many to count. We must end it and insist on reform, as well as nurture the development of the private sector. State-owned capital must be forced to retreat from competitive industries.

  China's economy has hit a limit under this outdated model of development. Whether China can now re-engineer a new path of growth and avoid the middle-income trap will depend on its determination to transform itself.

  The deployment of state-owned capital has never been the stated national policy. Yet, so tenacious is China's state capitalism that it continues to extend its influence. The international attention today on the "rise of state capitalism" needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Instead of being seen as legitimising state capitalism, these comments should be taken as a warning of the perils that threaten Chinese prosperity. And they should pull people together to push for reform.

  If our pace of reform continues to lag behind the pace of expansion of state-owned capital, we will soon hear talk not of the rise, but a crisis, of state capitalism.

• Japan Subculture Research Center-Independent Commission on Nuclear Accident: Earthquake, TEPCO negligence, Myth of Safety Caused Meltdown – Independent Commission on Nuclear Accident: Earthquake, TEPCO negligence, Myth of Safety Caused Meltdown
• Chang Ping-Wrong Route | SCMP.com – Never underestimate the naivete/hope bias of analysts/pundits of chinese politics//

  What kind of political reform did Deng have in mind then? Zhao Ziyang wrote in his memoir that it had little to do with reform in the sense of modernisation and democratisation. Rather, Zhao said, Deng was mainly concerned with administrative reforms, with changing the workflow, organisational structure and work methodology. Zhao said Deng's idea of political reform rested on the premise of single-party rule by the party, and reform was meant only to strengthen it. In his conversations, Deng spoke often of social stability and "the party's career", but rarely of dignity and rights.

  The leaders after Deng have strictly followed Deng's path. And the result is rampant abuse of power by officials, widespread corruption and receding rule of law. What a joke then that today so many are calling for a return to Deng's way to solve these problems.

  For two years now, Wen has cited Deng's words to urge reforms. But he has never outlined the specifics of his plan. The reason is, if he were to follow Deng's line of thought, we'd see there is no real political reform to speak of. If Wen were to unveil a reform plan based on democratic values it would violate Deng's cardinal principles and, hence, his development model.

• 贺国强重庆团“嘘寒问暖” 女代表赠“西兰卡普”–中国共产党新闻-人民网 – 贺国强说，“刚才重庆的同志讲，现在重庆的气候和北京的气候有很大的差异，今年北京冷的时间比较长，现在正好是一个季节转换的时期，特别是长期干燥，缺雨少雪，早晚的温差较大，所以希望大家注意防寒保暖，注意保持身体健康。”
• 知情人：白静伙同情人骗老公财 间接致周母死亡_影音娱乐_新浪网 –
• 孕妇提款机取款时遭割喉 7个月大胎儿死于腹中_银行广角_新浪财经_新浪网 –
• The Jamestown Foundation: Another Lei Feng Revival: Making Maoism Safe for China – the CCP Propaganda Department announced on February 27—a week before National Lei Feng Day—the revival of a campaign to promote “the spirit of Lei Feng,” the selfless if obedient hero of the Chinese revolution (People’s Daily, February 28; China News Service, February 27). The campaign highlights the latest contradiction facing a Leninist party bereft of communist spirit, living on nationalist credentials gained through economic development and patriotic education. How does a governing party based on a foreign ideology find native symbols that encourage support for the regime that do not support the principle of regime change? The answer, as it has been since 1963, is once again Lei Feng.
• 两个“雷锋” – 宏观 – 21世纪网 – 就在这个出发点下，雷锋精神中的一部分，甚至被解读成“雷锋成功学”。
• 秦之亡谁之过 全国政协委员热议秦岭事件 – 宏观 – 21世纪网 – 《21世纪》：导致秦岭父亲被各医院互相推诿的一个原因，是医保病人的报销额度受到限制，在一些地方，病人住院天数、医保资金结余被列为医院的考核指标，如不达标医院就要受罚，请问如何解决导致重病病人住院难的这一制度问题？
• 毒地板溯源：板材供应商山东样本调查 – 产经快讯 – 21世纪网 – surprised the vanke poison flooring case has not made it in2 english press yet
• [toread] The Health Benefits of Ginger –
• Taiwan-to-New Jersey $325 Million Counterfeiting Ring Broken, Netting 29 – Bloomberg – U.S. authorities charged 29 people with smuggling $325 million in counterfeit consumer goods from China, including phony Nike sneakers and Coach handbags, through a New Jersey port.
  The bust was one of the largest counterfeiting probes in U.S. history, and it involved smuggling cigarettes, handbags and sneakers through the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal as U.S. agents secretly watched and listened, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said. Agents infiltrated two overlapping criminal rings and lured them to use a front company run by the government.
  Authorities arrested 23 people in New York, New Jersey, Texas and the Philippines. Six are at large. Most are Chinese and lived in New York.

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