"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
Today’s Links:
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
China is stealing a strategic march on the US – FT.com–David Pilling ($$) Bit by bit, then, Beijing is creating new facts on the ground, or rather in the sea and in the air. With each new incident, it is throwing down the gauntlet. Is it worth fighting for a Vietnamese fishing boat? Thought not. How about a submerged Philippine reef? An uninhabited island? In the short term, such tactics may well prod neighbours to stick together or cling ever closer to US skirts. But if China is changing regional perceptions, and realities, that may not matter…China is seeking to prove to its neighbours that containment cannot work and that the US cannot be relied upon to defend them. If it can do so, they and Washington will have to acknowledge that the status quo is untenable. It is a dangerous strategy. It is also a clever one.//But it may blow up in China’s face if the US has its act together, including getting TPA passed in the Senate so that TPP can move forward, and countries in the region decide security/sovereignty is more valuable submitting themselves into a “neo-tributary system”…kudos to whomever coined that phrase
Related: As Asia frets over China, warmer welcome likely for Japan PM’s push | Reuters Abe is to deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Friday, a forum for defense and security experts from Asia, including the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United States and Australia. The conservative prime minister is expected to explain his stepped-up push to lift a ban that has kept Japan’s military from fighting overseas since World War Two
Related: China’s Advance Spurs Indonesian Military Shift: Southeast Asia – Bloomberg After years of concentrating on separatist threats across an archipelago long enough to stretch from New York to Alaska, Indonesia plans to deploy attack helicopters to its islands at the southern end of the South China Sea and expand its naval power. The front-runner for July’s presidential election, Joko Widodo, aims to boost defense spending to 1.5 percent as a share of the economy, which is Southeast Asia’s largest.
China’s anti-corruption drive focuses on energy industry – FT.com ($$) In at least seven cases in the past five weeks, anti-corruption investigators have detained energy industry technocrats, in a shift away from the oil and mining sectors where Mr Zhou’s allies were concentrated.
Related: 能源行业反腐或还有大动作：
Related: 能源领域今年已有近16名官员和国企高管落马 _新闻_腾讯网 16 officials and SOE execs taken down so far in corruption investigations into energy industry
Related: 山西吕梁原副市长张中生被查_网易新闻中心-
Win8禁令源于“云泄密”担忧移动端亡羊补牢为时未晚 | 每经网 more on the Windows 8 ban, says due to autosync functionality…also that government procurement had been quietly moving off Windows and foreign IT for years, this just brought it into the open // 核心提示： 清华同方计算机产业本部总工程师刘锋在接受 《每日经济新闻》记者采访时称，Win8禁令在业内并非新鲜事，
FBI’s Most-Wanted List Triggers Chinese Tech Stock Rally – Bloomberg Speculation that the dispute will give China’s technology companies an advantage over U.S. rivals has turned the CSI 300 Information Technology Index into the best performer among 10 industry groups from the worst. Lenovo Group Ltd. (992), which agreed to buy IBM’s low-end server unit in January, has jumped 9.9 percent in a seven-day rally since May 19, its longest winning streak since 2003, while Yonyou Software Co. surged 28 percent.
Related: IBM Challenger Inspur Woos China Customers Amid Dispute – Bloomberg Jinan-based Inspur this week unveiled its “IBM to Inspur” initiative aimed at taking the U.S. company’s market share in China, said a member of Inspur’s marketing department who asked not to be named citing company policy. Inspur hired more than 80 employees from IBM’s hardware arm, he said.
China Online Spending Power Unmasked – Bloomberg Online retail sales, first reported by the statistics bureau in April, jumped 52 percent in the first four months of 2014 from a year earlier, compared with a 12 percent gain in the broader gauge that represented the weakest start to a year since 2004. Shanghai-based iResearch Consulting Group sees annual growth of 20 percent to 30 percent in Internet purchases over the next three to five years.
China Focus: China drafting Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei development plan – Xinhua | The Beijing urban circle has a combined area of 216,000 square km. and a combined GDP of over 6 trillion yuan (about 1 trillion U.S. dollars) and a total population of 100 million. The integration program explores new urbanization models for Beijing as people flood into the capital seeking better education, medical care and jobs. There are also too many cities and townships in the region which is choked by uneven development, a water shortage, and serious air pollution.
Related: 京津冀协同发展规划正在编制_财经频道_
做好新形势下舆论引导工作的科学指南（
China’s fight against pollution is good for the air but bad for the economy (for now) – Quartz recent analysis of economic data by Wei Yao, an economist at Société Générale, found that “Chinese policymakers are getting serious about air pollution.” So serious, in fact, that those efforts are already hurting GDP performance—something the government has so far shown to be its biggest priority. Yao says GDP will slow 0.35 percentage points cumulatively from 2014 to 2017 because of air pollution mitigation efforts, and she expects the economy to take the biggest blow this year. The biggest indicator comes from China’s industrial output—the output of China’s manufacturing, mining and materials sectors—where growth has slowed significantly since September,
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
China MOF Says Will Accelerate Budget Spending To Help Economy | MNI The ministry statement also ordered its branches to speed up the approval, transfer and spending of budgets. Its call for support for domestic activity focused on spending pre-budgeted funding and made no suggestion that new funds would be made available. National fiscal expenditure for 2014 was set at CNY15.3 trillion in the March budget report, up 9.5% on last year. Between January and April, spending rose 9.6% y/y to CNY3.98 trillion, representing 26% of the annual budgeted total.// 关于进一步加强财政支出预算执行管理的通知
Billionaire Forrest Sees Fortune in Australian Beef to China – Bloomberg very expensive to get a good steak in Beijing // Forrest, who this year bought Western Australia’s only licensed beef exporter to China, said Australia could boost its production by 50 percent should it secure a supply position in the Chinese market.
European Business Falling Out Of Love With China As Econ Slows | MNI Chamber President Joerg Wuttke said the survey showed that the chamber’s 1,800 members are still hopeful that reform will provide fresh impetus for commercial engagement with China, but warned that this depends on the new government’s appetite for fundamental change.
媒体称内地多城楼市设15%-20%降价上限_网易新闻中心 s
住建部：放松限购未必有效果 可能传递相反信号|住建部|楼市松绑|地方救市_新浪财经_
房产中介董事称确实有官员抛售房产 且比例不低_财经_腾讯网 one large real estate agency says it definitely sees signs of officials trying to dump properties in some cities, and developers are starting to stiff him on commissions owed //
China’s ‘Golden Era’ for Property Over, Vanke President Says – Bloomberg “The market is far from its big turning point,” the company’s board secretary, Tan Huajie, said in the same briefing. “As the big brother in the industry, we are responsible to alert risks, but it doesn’t mean we are bearish on the property market.”
媒体:北京房价在疑虑中上涨 楼盘仍然供不应求_网易新闻中心 Beijing housing prices really dropping? No, says CCTV, still rising in fact //【北京房价在疑虑中飙涨，在困难中前行。】央视财经《
《经济半小时》 20140527 谁制造了进口车暴利_经济频道_央视网 CCTV goes hard after manufactures of imported luxury cars and what it says are their windfall profits
The Hidden Loans that Sank Nanjing Tanker – Caixin Nanjing Tanker Corp., China’s first state-owned enterprise to lose its stock market listing following four years of consecutive losses, has been withholding information about a massive amount of debt in the form of long-term, off-balance-sheet loans drawn between 2005 and 2008, research jointly conducted by British shipping industry journal Lloyd’s List and Caixin has found. Some US$ 1.3 billion in loans was funneled into Nanjing Tanker by 19 banks in 11 countries to fund the Chinese carrier’s fleet expansion during the shipping market boom. Commitment to the borrowing, which financed 10 very large crude carriers (VLCC) and 10 medium-range product tankers, is one of the major reasons the company is facing insolvency.
China Banks Bad-Debt Ratio Seen Rising to Most Since 2009 – Bloomberg Overdue loans, those late by at least a day, were 31 percent greater for the banks as of Dec. 31 than nonperforming ones, which are debts they don’t expect to recoup in full. That’s the biggest gap in at least five years, signaling lenders may be resisting acknowledging the deterioration to avoid setting aside funds to cover potential losses.
US investors should beware Chinese IPOs – FT.com ($$) Between 1993 and 2013 168 companies from Hong Kong and China went public on organised stock exchanges in the US, not including those notorious reverse mergers. Jay Ritter, a professor of finance at University of Florida, calculates that in the three years from flotation the average return on these 168 IPOs was minus 3.6 per cent, or an average of minus 1 per cent a year. Investors who bought the S&P 500 would have earned an average 23 per cent or about 8 per cent a year. In fact, Chinese stocks have performed dismally over the period regardless of where they were traded.
POLITICS AND LAW
Sustained Anti-Corruption Campaign Is Positive Signal – Caixin-Hu Shuli Editorial Investigators cannot afford to relax: every case of wrongdoing uncovered must be prosecuted. Meanwhile, the country must rethink the structure of its SOEs – a perverse state-market hybrid – that has allowed corruption to flourish. Thus, we could not agree more with Wang Qishan, chief of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission, when he says the corruption fight at SOEs must go hand in hand with their reform
专家解读王歧山反腐思路：适时减压来推动政改_财经_腾讯网
华润宋林的重庆伙伴_21世纪网 A Chongqing real estate developer has been detained as part of the Song Lin/China Resources investigation // 重庆市第三大地产商协信集团的老板吴旭被传接受调查。
CPC bans officials from private clubs – Xinhua According to a circular issued by a CPC “mass line” campaign office, officials will face “severe punishments” for “entering members-only clubs as well as catering, entertainment, beauty and fitness venues that are closed to the general public but open only to a handful of people.” They must also promise not to accept and hold membership of similar businesses, the circular said.// 中央发出通知进一步整治“会所中的歪风”_
新疆和田地区对即时通讯采取临时管制_政经频道_财新网 New controls & filtering in place for Wechat, QQ and other RT messaging apps in Hotan region of xinjiang. But not complete shutdown//将从5月28日零时起对新疆和田地区的微信
Xinjiang moving towards Talibanization: Duowei｜WantChinaTimes.com
China’s Two Problems with the Uyghurs by James Millward-LA Review of Books As China heightens security to protect its people against further terrorist attacks, it should look to other nations for both positive and negative examples and closely consider how to defend against terrorism in a manner that will prevent further alienating the great majority of Uyghurs who oppose violence. The lessons from last week — when authorities were busy arresting schoolgirls in headscarves and then shooting their mothers, while at the same time the bomb-makers prepared and executed their atrocity unhindered — should give Chinese leaders pause.
Global Times report on ‘terrorist hometown’ in Xinjiang angers locals | South China Morning Post Cai Yuzhi, a retired former chief editor of a newspaper in Xinjiang, wrote an open letter on social media to the Global Times yesterday saying the story was unfair to the overwhelming majority of its residents. “Terrorists cannot represent an ethnic group or a region. The Global Times has departed from the country’s ethnic policies and violated media ethics,” he wrote in his letter.
Xi’s speeches on reform published – Xinhua The book falls into 12 sections, extracted from Xi’s speeches, written instructions and comments between Nov. 15, 2012 and April 1, 2014. Some of the remarks are made public for the first time.
Chinese news assistant detained ahead of Tiananmen anniversary Xin Jian, an assistant for Japan’s Nikkei newspaper working in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, was taken away from her home by police on May 13, the paper said earlier. She was detained on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles”, the paper said, citing a detention notice given by police to Xin’s family on Monday.
Tiananmen Square Anniversary Prompts Campaign of Silence – NYTimes.com The police have been warning Western journalists to stay away from the square in the coming days or “face grave consequences,” according to several reporters summoned to meetings with stone-faced public security officials. Amnesty International has compiled a list of nearly 50 people across the country that it says have been jailed, interrogated or placed under house arrest.
25 Years On, Mothers Of Tiananmen Square Dead Seek Answers : Parallels : NPR She is one of the co-founders of the Tiananmen Mothers, an informal group of mostly women who lost loved ones on June 4, 1989. For the past 25 years, their struggle to demand truth and accountability from China’s Communist Party has turned them into a political and moral force.
李瑞英证实与张宏民告别《新闻联播》 转做幕后_娱乐_腾讯网 CCTV Evening news Top Two anchors Li Ruiying and Zhang Hongmin are stepping down
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
China Voice: Cooperation should prevail over rifts in Sino-U.S. ties – Xinhua The United States needs China’s support to stabilize the situation on the Korean Peninsula, tackle climate change globally and join its fight against terrorism worldwide. Moreover, China will remain a promising market for American entrepreneurs. On the Chinese side, the United States is more than an important trading partner, but also a staunch fighter against terrorism. The U.S. role in eliminating terrorism globally has become especially important for China now, when it has been exposed to dangerous terrorist attacks in the past few months. At this point, more trust should be built with regards to information sharing and cyber security to fight the two countries’ common enemy, instead of sowing the seed of distrust.
Chinese general labels U.S. No.1 cyber thief – Xinhua “In terms of both military and political intelligence and trade secrets, the United States is the world’s No.1 cyber thief and its spying force should be indicted,” Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, said on the sidelines of an international security seminar.
U.S. GAO – U.S.-China Trade: United States Has Secured Commitments in Key Bilateral Dialogues, but U.S. Agency Reporting on Status Should Be Improved China is the largest destination for U.S. exports outside North America and also the source of the largest U.S. bilateral trade deficit. The countries engage in two high-level dialogues to address trade barriers and cross-cutting economic issues. These are the JCCT, co-led for the United States by Commerce and USTR, and the economic track of the S&ED, led by Treasury. GAO was asked to review China’s bilateral trade commitments made in these dialogues.
Assessing China’s Foreign Policy Under Xi (Part I)-Carnegie-Tsinghua Center In this podcast, hosted by Carnegie–Tsinghua’s Paul Haenle, Xie Tao, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, described Xi’s active diplomacy as shaped by “Chinese characteristics”: bilateral instead of multilateral negotiations, adherence to non-interference and non-intervention principles, and a preference for diplomatic solutions over the use of force…Xie added that although China certainly is looking for greater respect from the United States in proposing this new concept, it is not necessarily expecting Washington to concede to China’s core interests.
S. Korea, China set to unveil monument honoring Korean independence fighters South Korea and China will unveil a stone monument this week honoring Korean soldiers who fought for the Korean Peninsula’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, an official at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing said Wednesday. China has been putting up the commemorative stone monument in its ancient city of Xian where the Korean independence fighters were based
金钱政治损耗美国软实力（钟声）–观点–人民网 Zhong Sheng writes in Thursday People’s Daily that influence of money in US politics hurts US soft power, mentions the Koch Brothers. Wonder what Zhong sheng thinks about the influence of money on Chinese politics//当通往政治金字塔顶层的道路用金钱来铺就，
China Company Charged in U.S. With Iran Sanctions Crimes – Bloomberg Shandong Sheenrun Electronics Co. broke international sanctions on Iran by shipping infrared cameras to the country, the U.S. said in an indictment unsealed today in Washington federal court. Sheenrun officials arranged to send 15 U.S.-made cameras to Iran via China in mid-2011 after signing a contract for 49,500 euros ($67,285) with a company in Tehran, according to the indictment.
Are China’s Online Military Fanboys Accidentally Aiding Foreign Spies? –Foreign Policy-These forums occupy a curious role in China’s idiosyncratic and constantly expanding online ecosystem. Andrew Erickson, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College who focuses on China, tells Foreign Policy that junmi sites may also occasionally reveal what the government would prefer stay secret. But, he adds, the government also likely views the forums as useful to showcase Chinese military achievements, and even perhaps for leaking information when the government “wants to preserve some level of uncertainty or plausible deniability.
全球最神秘会议即将举行 刘鹤黄益平代表中国出席-手机和讯网 Liu He and Huang Yiping reportedly attending this year’s Bilderberg meeting
Dragon at the doorstep: Myanmar’s changing ties with China-South China Morning Post SCMP goes Snowfall // The South China Morning Post revisits the Southeast Asian nation, investigating the enduring links between Myanmar and the giant next door.
Exclusive: Inside the FBI’s Fight Against Chinese Cyber-Espionage－－Foreign Policy Interviews with eight current and former U.S. officials who are familiar with the now years-long counterintelligence campaign against China show that the administration has quietly waged a battle on many fronts. In the shadows, U.S. hackers at the National Security Agency have broken into Chinese computers in order to find out what information has been stolen from American companies and who in the Chinese government is backing the operations.
TECH AND MEDIA
91手机助手等14家手游平台运营色情游戏被查_科技_腾讯网
还原快播地下利益链：地下广告联盟掘金灰色地带_21世纪网 p
《归来》遭视频网盗播 乐视网状告小米盒子侵权|乐视网|小米盒子|视频网站_互联网_
人民日报时评：从微信朋友圈的纯洁性谈起|微信|朋友圈_
Inside Innoconn: Foxconn’s new hardware startup incubator – CNET Will this Chinese manufacturer’s search for the next big thing pay off? CNET takes a tour of Foxconn’s Innoconn Beijing campus to find out more.
Tencent $1 Billion Game Shows Global Hunt for Mobile Hits – Bloomberg Tencent also plans to shift more game development in-house, allowing it to keep more of the profits. Tencent rolled out five mobile games in the first three months of this year for a total of 13, Mitchell said during the May 14 earnings call. The games attracted 120 million daily active users and brought in 1.8 billion yuan, a three-fold increase over last year.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Worldwide, Many See Belief in God as Essential to Morality | Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project The original version of this report included public opinion data on the connection between religion and morality in China that has since been found to have been in error. Specifically, the particular survey item that asked whether one needed to believe in a higher power or God to be a moral person was mistranslated on the China questionnaire, rendering the results incomparable to the remaining 39 countries. For this reason, the data from China has been removed from the current version of the report, re-released in May 2014.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
Suntech says solar PV costs to match coal in China by 2016 : Renew Economy Suntech Power predicts that the cost of building large scale solar PV plants could match the cost of coal-fired generation in China by 2016, a development that will “completely transform” the energy market in the world’s second biggest economy.
城市公立医院将出综改试点方案_财经频道_一财网
国务院将约谈空气质量不达标地方政府责任人|大气污染|
Chinese man sentenced for smuggling rhino horns – AP An antiques dealer from China has been sentenced to nearly six years in U.S. federal prison after admitting he was the mastermind of an international smuggling ring that specialized in rhinoceros horns and elephant ivory.
FOOD AND TRAVEL
北上广空管无缝衔接完成 东部地区航班延误将缓解_网易新闻中心 air traffic control shift should reduce Beijing-Shanghai-Guangzhou corridor delays//京华时报（微博）讯 从昨天零时起，
BEIJING
北京启动社会面等级反恐 85万人上街巡逻_网易新闻中心 850,000 “volunteers” now on the streets of Beijing to help with security, looks like we are nearly back to 2008 Olympic levels// 全市85万名平安志愿者走上街头，开展治安、
Twitter-3pm and it’s 40C/106C degrees in beijing. At least its dry heat. screenshots
北京高温刷新1951年以来同期纪录-地方频道-新华网 rec