"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
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- WPP sees China as second-largest market in 2-4 years | Reuters – WPP Llc (WPP.L), the world's largest advertising company, sees China overtaking Britain as its second biggest market in two to four years, its chief executive said on Sunday.
- Europe will not offer China concessions for aid: Juncker | Reuters – Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said on Sunday it made sense for China to invest its surplus in Europe to help the region overcome its debt crisis, but this would not involve political concessions.
- 预付卡灰色利益链 – 金融 – 21世纪网 – 很多和预付卡业务相关的人从前都是闷声发大财，以后的日子肯定不会这么好过了。
- Colonel Sanders Devouring Little Sheep Means 69% Gain: Real M&A – Bloomberg – Anti-monopoly regulators are turning Yum! Brands Inc.’s acquisition of a chain of Mongolian hot-pot restaurants into the most profitable bet in China.
Little Sheep Group Ltd. (968) has tumbled after saying last week that China’s Ministry of Commerce extended a review of Yum’s HK$4.4 billion ($573 million) takeover by two months. Little Sheep, which rose to within 25 cents of Louisville, Kentucky- based Yum’s HK$6.50-a-share bid, has now fallen 18 percent below that price, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Yum, the owner of the KFC fried chicken chain founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, is facing increased scrutiny from Chinese regulators as it attempts its biggest acquisition. While Little Sheep would extend Yum’s lead among restaurant chains in China, independently owned eateries would still control more than 90 percent of sales. That means the Ministry of Commerce, which has blocked only one of the more than 250 takeovers it has reviewed since China’s anti-monopoly law began three years ago, is unlikely to reject Yum’s bid, DBS Vickers Hong Kong Ltd. said. - China’s NPLs: numbers game – FT.com – The trouble is that reported NPL numbers are neither much of a guide to asset quality nor to the judgment of loan officers at Chinese banks.
- The "Dumb Money" Refuses To Play Along: China State Media Says It Won’t Rescue Europe | ZeroHedge – As AFP reports, "China’s state media Sunday warned that the country will not be a “savior” to Europe, as President Hu Jintao left for an official visit to the region including a G20 summit. Hu’s visit has raised hopes that cash-rich China might make a firm commitment to the European bailout fund, but in a commentary, the official Xinhua news agency said Europe must address its own financial woes. “China can neither take up the role as a savior to the Europeans, nor provide a ‘cure’ for the European malaise. “Obviously, it is up to the European countries themselves to tackle their financial problems,” it said, adding that China could only do so “within its capacity to help as a friend." A friend, who at this point is quite sensible, and realizes far better deals are to be had down the line if one merely waits. That said, we are certain China is not the only one out there with an instant notification pending the second Santorini, Ibiza or the Isle of Capri hits E-bay.
- A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs – NYTimes.com –
- Decanter magazine and Jia Bei Lan 2009: Was it really Chinese wine? | Grape Wall of China – How do we know? How do we really know it is Chinese wine? That is a question many people, particularly outside China, have asked since Jia Bei Lan 2009 became the first Chinese wine to receive an “international trophy” at the Decanter World Wine Awards. The award immediately had people asking questions — or perhaps making accusations is a better way to put it — about the wine, including the idea that perhaps it was French wine stuck in Chinese bottles. Those questions continue nearly two months later.
- China: Questions Following Mekong River Massacre · Global Voices – The Mekong River Massacre, as it's being called in Chinese, refers to an attack on October 5 by unidentified armed men against two Chinese cargo boats, Hua Ping and Yu Xing 8, in the Thai portion of the Golden Triangle.
Thirteen Chinese sailors were killed in the attack, for which 9 Thai soldiers later turned themselves in. Thai police chief general Priewpan Damapong has said the killings had nothing to do with the Thai army, and as a joint Sino-Thai investigation continues, speculation varies on the reason why the attack took place.
- 京东商城模式之殇：割肉补贴方式不能长久_TechWeb –
- China Online Sales Seen Tripling Driving Warehouse Surge: Retail – Bloomberg – China’s largest online retailers expect sales to as much as triple next year, setting off a rush for warehouse space that’s pushing up rents in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
“Everyone wants more warehouses,” Ji Wenhong, chief executive officer of luxury goods seller xiu.com, said in an interview. “Any warehouse bigger than 20,000 square meters will be leased the second it’s out on the market.” - 奢侈的舒适！大明星的私人飞机–图片频道–人民网 – xinhua on chinese stars' private jets
- What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really? | NeuroTribes – Isaacson is admirably frank about the core tenet of Buddhism that Jobs seems to have bypassed: the importance of treating everyone around you, even perceived enemies, with basic respect and lovingkindness. It’s tempting now to cast Jobs’ tantrums, casual brutality, and constant berating of “shitheads” as the brave refusal to compromise his ideal of perfection — even as a kind of tough love that inspired his employees to transcend their own limitations. But a more skillful practitioner would have tried to find ways to bring out the genius in his employees without humiliating them — and certainly would have found ways of manufacturing products that didn’t cause so much suffering for impoverished workers in other countries. The moment in Isaacson’s book when Jobs tells the Mobile Me team after the project’s disastrous début, “You should hate each other for having let each other down,” shows that even near the end of his life, Jobs had more to learn from his teachers.
- "Drunk" policeman’s crash sparks protest in China – Yahoo! News – Chinese authorities have arrested a police officer suspected of drunk driving after he crashed a vehicle and killed five people, setting off protests by local residents, media reports said on Sunday.
The policeman in Runan county, in the poor central province of Henan, has been charged with "endangering public security by dangerous means" after crashing his police van into two street lamp poles, crushing five people to death, the official Xinhua news agency said.
"He is suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol," it quoted a government statement as saying. Three people were injured and remain in hospital.
The Southern Metropolis Daily said that local people, unhappy with the way police had handled the incident, overturned and smashed up vehicles which arrived to remove the bodies. - The Art of Resistance – WSJ.com – Nothing has shaken up the art world this year like the arrest and nearly three-month detention of Ai Weiwei (pronounced "Eye Way-Way"), the 54-year-old son of a poet whose irreverent photographs and conceptual sculptures—often made from porcelain, tea or temple wood—have earned him a coveted spot among China's pivotal, post-Mao generation of artists. Major museums like New York's Museum of Modern Art and London's Tate Modern collect Ai's work, and his pieces have sold at auction for as much as $657,000.
- 【2011专题】胡锦涛访问奥地利并出席G20领导人峰会–时政–人民网 –
- Activists slam US studio for filming in China city – Yahoo! News – "I hope Relativity Media will learn more about the real Linyi, about Chen Guangcheng, and see that what is currently happening in Dongshigu village is what is really 'amazing'," said Nanjing-based activist He Peirong in an interview.
"Especially at this time, when every day there are people trying to visit Chen Guangcheng, people who have been robbed and beaten, I express deep regret to see such remarks whitewashing the city of Linyi," she said.
In the past several weeks, dozens of activists and Chen's supporters have risked being violently assaulted to attempt visits to his home in a bid to draw attention to his plight. The latest group was made up of 37 petitioners who traveled there by bus from Beijing on Sunday and fled after being attacked by about 50 unidentified thugs as they approached Chen's village, said one petitioner, Peng Zhonglin, from Jiangxi province. Linyi police refused to comment when reached by phone.
Human Rights Watch senior Asia researcher Nicholas Bequelin said it was puzzling that Relativity appeared comfortable cozying up with the city's political leadership. - A Foreclosure Settlement That Wouldn’t Sting – NYTimes.com – Cutting to the chase: if you thought this was the deal that would hold banks accountable for filing phony documents in courts, foreclosing without showing they had the legal right to do so and generally running roughshod over anyone who opposed them, you are likely to be disappointed.
This may not qualify as a shock. Accountability has been mostly A.W.O.L. in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. A handful of state attorneys general became so troubled by the direction this deal was taking that they dropped out of the talks. Officials from Delaware, New York, Massachusetts and Nevada feared that the settlement would preclude further investigations, and would wind up being a gift to the banks.
It looks as if they were right to worry. As things stand, the settlement, said to total about $25 billion, would cost banks very little in actual cash — $3.5 billion to $5 billion. A dozen or so financial companies would contribute that money.
- Thai soldiers surrender over killing of 13 Chinese sailors – Yahoo! News – Nine Thai soldiers have turned themselves in to police over the killing of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong river near the Thai-Myanmar border, Thai police said Sunday.
The victims were crew members on two cargo ships attacked on October 5 in the "Golden Triangle," where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet, a region notorious for drug smuggling.
A police chief in northern Thailand's Chiang Saen district, which is on the Mekong near the Myanmar border, said two officers were among the nine who turned themselves in on Friday. - In Anhui, China, Centuries-Old Charm – NYTimes.com – JUST 250 or so miles to the west of the gleaming high-rises of Shanghai sits a window into a world hundreds of years old. Despite the dramatic upheavals brought by war, the Cultural Revolution and industrialization, the hamlet of Xidi, in the mountainous province of Anhui, along with other villages in the area, has managed to remain largely untouched since the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, starting hundreds of years ago. Wander the narrow, labyrinthine lanes and peek into the open-air courtyards of grandiose homes, with their wooden lattice windows, rock gardens, watercolors and calligraphy scrolls, and it can feel as if you are slipping back in time to the days of the Chinese emperors.
- 明年起公民换身份证须录指纹 流动人口要回原籍_新闻_腾讯网 – starting in 2012 you have to give fingerprints to replace lost national id card, migrants will have to return home to replace.
十一届全国人大常委会第二十三次会议昨天上午在北京人民大会堂闭幕。会议表决通过了关于修改居民身份证法的决定、关于修改兵役法的决定及关于加强反恐怖工作有关问题的决定。其中，修改后的身份证法规定，从明年1月1日起，公民申请领取、换领、补领居民身份证，应录入指纹信息。
流动人口录指纹要回原籍
针对流动人口如何录入指纹信息的问题，黄双全表示，按照规定，居民身份证需要到常住户口的所在地机关进行办理，流动人口和常住人口都要在户口所在地公安机关办理。
黄双全称，全国现有两亿多流动人口，要集中回去录入指纹信息确实有很大难度，所以这次没有采取集中录入指纹的做法，今后将逐步实现。
黄双全表示，流动人口在居住地办理身份证技术上是可以办到的，并不存在技术障碍，但为避免通过多种渠道换领可能产生的信息安全问题，仍然要求流动人口回原籍办理。
泄露个人信息将面临刑罚
修改后的居民身份证法在居民身份证登记项目中增加了指纹信息，规定：“公民申请领取、换领、补领居民身份证，应录入指纹信息。”这一决定自明年1月1日起施行。