"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
I first came to China 25 years, to spend the second semester of my junior year at Peking University. We arrived in late January and I stayed until the third week of June. No one who was in Beijing then will ever forget the Beijing Spring and subsequent crackdown.
The one lesson I took away from those first few months in China is that it is always a mistake to underestimate what the Party will do to stay in power.
That lesson, which has held up very well over the last quarter century, is why I continue to believe that Xi Jinping is very serious about both economic reforms and reining in corruption. There is no shortage of people, inside and outside China, who believe Xi’s efforts will fail without said political reform, but Xi and his colleagues appear to disagree. Political reforms in any Western or liberal sense seem even less likely now than they have in decades.
I wrote about the prospects for reform under the new leadership in the November 16, 2012 issue of the newsletter, the day after Xi Jinping greeted the world as the new General Secretary of the 18th Party Congress:
I think we will see attempts at reforms, though nothing like the political reforms Westerners and liberal Chinese hope for. The great renewal of the Chinese nation will not happen without significant changes to the economy, and a real crackdown on corruption (calling Wang Qishan…) Some will argue that it will also not happen without wholesale political reform, but Xi Jinping and the new leadership are unlikely to agree.
Expect Xi Jinping to be a reformer, but possibly a hardline nationalist one. Be careful what you wish for?
I am on the road for the next week and not sure when the next issue will come out. If you want status updates and occasional links to interesting things please follow me on Twitter @niubi. Some email providers occasionally put the newsletter into the spam folder and if you follow me on Twitter you will know if there is a new issue even if you have not received it.
Today’s Links:
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
China’s Premature Power Play Goes Very Wrong-Rory Metcalf | The National Interest The Asian strategic order may now be in play; its U.S.-led character is under question, but this is a complex, multilayered game. If China is seeking to rattle America and others—especially Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam—it may be miscalculating. In the long run, the premature displays of confidence China has lately shown are likely to harm its interests more than advance them.
Related: 人民日报钟声：亚洲需要凝聚力和向心力–
Related: A Summer Calendar for Advancing U.S. Policy toward the South China Sea | Center for a New American Security Asia-Pacific Security Deputy Director Dr. Ely Ratner authors the agenda “A Summer Calendar for U.S. Policy toward the South China Sea,” detailing specific actions the United States should take in the coming months to breathe new life into U.S. policy and enhance U.S. economic and security interests in Asia.
Related: 越船再度骚扰中方作业 中国海警船撞击阻挡(图)_网易新闻中心 reports of another water cannon battle and collision of Chinese and Vietnamese boats near the oil rig, on June 1 // #军情速递#【我海警再次度撞击越南骚扰船只】
Voices from Tiananmen–South China Morning Post Snowfall multimedia presentation, best package on the 25th anniversary I have seen // In the following pages, former government officials, student leaders and other eyewitnesses revisit the momentous events of spring, 1989. These personal accounts, gathered from recent video interviews, as well as memoirs, shed new light on the hope and despair left by those days, which continue to haunt China a quarter century later.
Related: How CBS scooped the world on the Tiananmen Square story – The Washington Post I remember it well as i worked as a “fixer” from CBS from late April until the third week of June. Really wish CBS would put all its footage, broadcast and archival, from this period online, free // Rather delivered the “Evening News” by remote in Beijing from Monday, May 15, to Friday, May 19, as the crowds in Tiananmen Square ballooned to 1 million. CBS reporters sketched the nation’s political climate and cultural life in reports that were like mini-documentaries, while Rather careened through the crowds spotlighting delirious hunger strikers as well as jubilant workers who had arrived to join the students. “Dan Rather was better in the field by a hundred than he was sitting behind the desk reading a teleprompter,” said then-news vice president Joe Peyronnin.
Xi hailed as one of China’s greatest communist leaders – by the party’s political magazine | South China Morning Post An editorial in the June issue of Qiushi ( 深入学习贯彻习近平总书记系列重要讲话精神 ) – or “Seek Truth” – said Xi had put forward “new thinking, new views and new conclusions” in a series of important speeches since the 18th National Party Congress in November 2012 addressing the development of the party and the state…Li Xigen, an associate professor at the department of media and communication at the City University of Hong Kong, said the editorial might suggest that a new round of an indoctrination campaign was under way to promote socialist values among cadres…Qiushi confirmed the party was about to start a new round of an ideological indoctrination campaign to study Xi’s thinking.
Related: 努力做焦裕禄式的好党员好干部 —— 学习习近平总书记调研指导兰考县党的群众路线教育实践活动重要讲
Related: 打好全面深化改革攻坚战的指导性文献–
Related: 怎样培养伟大事业的接班人 —— 学习习近平总书记关于青年工作的重要论述 2014年06月01日 来源： 《求是》 作者： 教育部中国特色社会主义理论体系研究中心
For Online Giants, All the Web’s a Stage – Caixin Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent have set sights on the entertainment industry as the Internet’s next frontier
MIIT Chief Engineer On China’s Cybersecurity Policy | China Copyright and Media his speech by MIIT Chief Engineer Zhang Feng was published on Sohu on 29 May. On 20 May, Zhang Feng, the Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology presented a substantive report at the 2014 Annual Chinese Conference on Computer and Network Security The transcript of Zhang Feng’s speech is as follows:
Related: Expert calls for network security protocol vetting – Xinhua A Chinese computer expert called for more checking of network security protocols designed by foreign countries, in the wake of a recent Chinese policy to start security vetting IT products. In a signed article published on www.china.com, Cao Jun, vice chairman of China Computer Industry Association and head of a wireless security lab, said that security of network protocols is more important than that of IT products.
一个村庄的寓言_专题频道_财新网 This week’s Caixin cover story is on village in suburban Beijing that is pushing the envelope on various reforms // 沿着北京的中轴线一路向北，越出通行版市区旅游地图的范围，
China plans absolute CO2 cap for first time: government adviser | Reuters The target will be written into China’s next five-year plan, which comes into force in 2016, He Jiankun, chairman of China’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change, told a conference in Beijing. There had been local media speculation last year that the country would introduce absolute caps, considered more stringent than its current system of pegging CO2 emissions, which have soared 50 percent since 2005, to the size of the economy.
A Media Mogul, Alone on the Island John Garnaut in Foreign Policy on Jimmy Lai // Hong Kong’s fiery beacon of the free press, Apple Daily, is under threat from shadowy forces. Can it survive if Beijing wants it dead or quiet?…Now, two Western financial institutions — banks nurtured in the laws and freedoms of the British Empire — appear to be boycotting Lai’s Hong Kong media business in service of Beijing. Until September 2013, HSBC and Standard Chartered were Apple Daily’s two biggest financial- sector advertisers. But neither of the London and Hong Kong dual-listed banks has placed any advertisements since then
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
China official services PMI hits 6-month high as orders rebound | Reuters The official non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) climbed to 55.5 from April’s 54.8, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That is well above the 50-point level that separates an expansion from a contraction in activity. In a sign of buoyancy in the sector, new orders rebounded to an eight-month high of 52.7, compared to April’s 50.8. Business expectations also held their ground at a solid 60.7, compared to April’s 61.5.
Arresting China’s slowdown: the search for sustainable growth – The A-List -Yukon Huang – FT.com Many see a crisis coming because of the fivefold increase in property prices over the past decade. China is different, however, because a national urban property market only emerged about a decade ago after housing was privatised and local authorities began to sell land for commercial development. Much of this seemingly outlandish price increase is not a “bubble” in the usual sense but the result of market forces trying to establish intrinsic values for an asset previously hidden in the socialist system. But price increases over the past several years have gone too far. A hint of what might be sustainable is when property prices dipped in 2011/12 and then rebounded and continued to rise unlike a typical property bubble.
房地产业营改增税率或定为11% 新华社——经济参考网
一线城市楼市悲观 深圳企业家大手笔抛盘_21世纪网 housing price declines growing in tier 1 cities // 今年4月，
北京5月份楼市量价齐跌 二手房九成降价(图)-搜狐财经 Beijing May housing prices and transactions both down // 成交同样下跌的还有二手房。5月份，
Citic Once Courting Rockefeller to Go Global in Hong Kong – Bloomberg Now, the government is turning again to Citic, this time to lure more private investment to inefficient state-owned enterprises and to aid its global ambitions by acquiring companies overseas. Politically, in a bid to boost its impact in the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, China is moving the majority of Citic’s assets from Beijing to Hong Kong. Citic is ultimately controlled by the State Council and Communist Party.
Chinese port stops metal shipments due to probe – trade sources | Reuters China’s northeastern port of Qingdao has halted shipments of aluminium and copper due to an investigation by authorities, causing concern among bankers and trade houses financing the metals, trading and warehousing sources said on Monday.
China’s economic boom leaves a trail of ghost cities | Marketplace.org For years, high GDP growth has ensured local officials promotions within the Chinese Communist Party. In the case of the faltering Manhattan replica of Yujiapu, it helped boost Tianjin’s GDP growth rate to around 16 percent for three years, the fastest in China at the time. And that helped former Tianjin mayor Zhang Gaoli get promoted – to Vice Premier of China. In Zhang’s rearview mirror on his way to Beijing: a failed project and mountains of debt.
Big Four China accounting units in settlement talks with U.S. SEC -filing | Reuters News of the settlement talks comes just a few months after a Securities and Exchange Commission Administrative Law Judge handed down a harsh 112-page ruling that chastised the firms for failing to share audit work that SEC investigators believe could help them uncover accounting fraud. The judge in January had ordered the China units of the Big Four firms – KPMG, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst and Young – to be suspended for six months from auditing U.S. listed companies.
POLITICS AND LAW
中南海“怒”抓政策落地_财经频道_一财网 CBN says Li Keqiang angry that localities sometimes ignore his policies, has pounded the table in anger, is demanding action…“我在基层调研时注意到，
警察开枪事件频发 专家吁出台枪支管控细则_网易新闻中心 Police start carrying guns, more people get shot. CCTV looks at the spate of recent police shootings, lots of discussion online about this
揭秘新疆一线反恐警察的酸甜苦辣-中国青年报 China Youth Daily on the front line anti-terror police in Xinjiang
Tiananmen Crackdown in Beijing Shaped China’s Iron-Fisted Approach to Dissent – WSJ In taking down Mr. Zhang, police applied a well-honed, layered strategy to nip opposition in the bud. His moves were carefully tracked online and in real life. He was apprehended just before the Chinese New Year, when it was less likely to attract attention, and then quietly released into a life of isolation. “These are strategies that have been used over and over again,” says Maya Wang, Asia researcher with Human Rights Watch. “Tiananmen also started small. The government has to be on the lookout for sparks…They’ve been working on this for 25 years.”
Off the square – Global Times But now the young people tend to be apolitical when viewing and resolving everyday issues. Chen said people tend to care more about politics in periods when the country is highly politicized. “For example, during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), most people were drawn into the disturbance and needed to care about politics,” he said. “Back then, if you cared about personal development, you were looked down upon or considered non-mainstream. But since the Reform and Opening-up, a more individualistic value started to form and young people could openly pursue their own development.” Young people still see problems in an increasingly prosperous China, like corruption, the income gap and bureaucratic practices. When it comes to solutions, unlike the older generation in the 1980s, the young today who grew up with the booming economy tend to solve them in pragmatic ways: from small steps to big change, they eventually make a difference in society.
BBC News – Miao Deshun: China’s last Tiananmen prisoner? Now, it’s believed that only one person convicted during that era remains behind bars. We don’t have his photo, but we know his name: Miao Deshun. A factory worker from Beijing, he was convicted of arson for throwing a basket at a burning tank. For this seemingly minor offence, he received a suspended death sentence, which was commuted to life in prison a few years later. Miao is not scheduled for release until 15 September 2018.
How many Chinese people really know about the Tiananmen incident and how many of those still support the Communist Party? – Quora Kaiser Kuo’s answer:there are also many, and I would say probably that these comprise a substantial majority, who simply see nothing good coming of such a reckoning. Some see it as re-opening an old wound that, however unjustly inflicted, is now well in the past. Others see it as something that West obsesses about and are very suspicious of the motivations of Westerners—rights organizations, media—in wanting to reopen it, often believing that efforts to do so aren’t so much about dedication to truth or to human rights but rather about stirring up turmoil in China and ultimately weakening the country. Some are simply pragmatic about it: They want to get on with their lives and believe they already have enough problems to face: Dirty air and traffic jams, kids to put through school, older relatives needing health care, a mortgage to pay, a job to keep and a corporate ladder to climb. Still others are simply cowed by the coercive state, believing that speaking about such things will just bring trouble: Detention, harassment, or worse.
‘You Won’t Get Near Tiananmen!’: Hu Jia on the Continuing Crackdown by Ian Johnson | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books When do the detentions usually start? It’s usually around May 28 or so until June 8. It’s been like that every year. Since coming out of prison three years ago, it feels like it’s earlier and earlier for me. This year it started in February. The police told me, “You absolutely won’t get near Tiananmen Square!” I guess the worst is that I’ll be arrested and sentenced for twelve years. They threatened me with this. Since coming out I’ve published a lot—just the same as when I was sentenced to three years. That was for “inciting” subversion. That meant I just sat in front of a computer and wrote something. But next could be “organizing” subversion of state power. That means I’ve organized a group that is counter-revolutionary. It means you are a man of action.
People’s Daily calls for ethnic unity in Xinjiang – Xinhua The flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will carry a commentary on Tuesday, calling for more efforts to consolidate the ethnic unity in Xinjiang. The People’s Daily said in the commentary by quoting Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech in the second central work conference on Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that ethnic unity is the lifeline of all ethnic groups and the footstone for development and progress.//人民日报评论员：筑牢民族团结的生命线
维汉同学合伙切糕热销 近几日销售额已突破40万_新闻_腾讯网 the Uyghur-Han model of cooperation, the three students selling tradition Xinjiang cakaes, aka “qie gao”, are now selling upwards of 400,000 rmb a day in cakes
China Detains Five ‘Cult Members’ for Murder in McDonald’s – Bloomberg The attack has led to widespread condemnation of religious sects on China’s strictly controlled Internet, as well as in state media. Lu Dewen, a deputy professor at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, called for an immediate crackdown on cults in an article in the Chinese-language Global Times newspaper today. The persistent existence of cult activities reveals “worrying failures in both education and administration,” the China Daily newspaper said in an editorial today. “There will undoubtedly be a harsh crackdown on the illicit cult,” it said
Killing sparks debate over cult influence – Global Times “There are still debates over where to draw the line between a cult and a normal religion. But people need to remember that they have multiple responsibilities in this world, both to their belief and as a citizen. To [only] believe in God and not the law is clearly the teaching of a cult,” Li Xiangping, a religious studies professor from East China Normal University in Shanghai, told the Global Times. In a telephone interview with the Global Times, a representative from the Church of Almighty God’s Taiwan headquarters said that “it was impossible for her sect mates to commit such a crime, as they are all Christians.” However, the sect, which claims to be Christian, has already been rejected by the Vatican.
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
Chinese army still haunted by the ghosts of Tiananmen Square – Telegraph Their biographies have been carefully wiped, but a Telegraph investigation can reveal that at least two of China’s most senior military leaders played a direct role in the bloody quelling of the Tiananmen protests…The PLA continues to feel such shame over the blood spilt on the streets of Beijing that decades of service have been carefully wiped from the official biographies of General Zhang Yang and Major General Qin Shengxiang.
Is this the freeze in America’s Asia pivot? – The A-List – Kurt Campbell – FT.com There are challenges almost everywhere one looks along with a clear appetite for a sustained and coherent US approach to Asia. The Obama team is intimately aware of these swirling concerns and Barack Obama’s recent visit to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia reflects a manifest effort to translate more the rhetoric of the pivot into concrete reality. Still, more can be done to reassure the region and signal a subtle, sustained, and integrated American approach to Asia. But how?
美国未签署海洋法公约却以此指责中国，于法无据-中国青年报 C
Chinese general reiterates principle for solving island disputes – Xinhua lawfare // China, as a signatory country to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), respects the convention which took effect in 1994. However, Wang said, China’s sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the South China Sea islands and islets as well as related sea waters came into being over the past 2,000 years. The UNCLOS, which took effect in 1994, cannot re-demarcate sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction that came into being over such a prolonged period of time in history, while recognizing countries’ historical rights over seas and islands and islets, Wang said. The UNCLOS is inapplicable to the adjustment of ownership of sea islands and islets, he said. The law governing the sea is an enormous and comprehensive law system, not merely a single UNCLOS.
Chinese veteran diplomat debunks Japan’s “proactive” approach to peace – People’s Daily Online The idea of “proactive peace” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe preaches should be a cause for concern because its essence is not peace but “proactiveness,” says a senior Chinese diplomat. The so-called “proactive” approach is aimed at changing the path of peaceful development set for Japan after World War II, Fu Ying, a former vice foreign minister, said here on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security forum.
Australian defence minister backs US on China’s ‘destabilising’ actions | AFP David Johnston says he supports US defense secretary’s view that China is undertaking ‘destabilising, unilateral actions’ in the South China Sea
Vietnam: Turning Point? | Asia Sentinel Perhaps deployment of the Haiyang has 981 silenced the so-called pro-China faction only for the moment. Based on present evidence, however, it seems as likely that sentiment within the secretive conclaves of the Vietnamese Communist Party has shifted, perhaps decisively, toward cooperation with the US and any other power willing to invest in blunting Beijing’s drive to dominate the South China Sea. //how did the Party to Party channel work between Vietnam and the PRC over the oil rig? Heard not well
王家瑞：努力开创党的对外工作新局面| Wang Jiarui on p 7 pf Tuesday’s People’s Daily on the the Party’s foreign affairs work // 我们要继续以中国梦为主线，对外深入宣介中国特色社会主义道路、
Who Are the Wa?-The Irrawaddy For China, the UWSA is a useful bargaining chip when Beijing wants to put pressure on the Myanmar government not to stray too close to the West, or to protect Chinese investment in the country. The latter concern became especially important after President U Thein Sein’s government decided in September 2011 to suspend the US$3.6 billion Myitsone hydroelectric dam project in Kachin State. China also has to deal with ongoing protests against a copper mine project in Letpadaung, which is a joint venture between the Chinese Wanbao Mining Copper company and the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings. In other words, any military action against the UWSA would pit the Myanmar army against China. The Wa leaders are always accompanied by Chinese intelligence officers, and it is no exaggeration to say the UWSA is an extension of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
China detains Hong Kong journalists over “illegal publication” – Channel NewsAsia Another newspaper, Apple Daily, identifies the men as Wang Jianmin and Guo Zhongxiao, and said they had worked for Hong Kong-based weekly Yazhou Zhoukan.
TECH AND MEDIA
A Chinese Awards Show Gets a Hollywood Welcome – – WSJ China’s Huading Film Awards, a People’s Choice-type prize voted on annually by an estimated 80 million Chinese moviegoers, held its 12th ceremony in Hollywood’s Ricardo Montalbán Theatre, bringing a major Chinese movie awards show to the U.S. for what is believed to be the first time. The show was streamed live and will be broadcast on several television networks in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The decision to host the ceremony in L.A. is another sign of growing entanglement between the world’s largest and second-largest movie markets.
电商抢卖家_杂志频道_财新网 Caixin on the threat to Alibaba as more and more SMEs are leaving taobao for JD.com and other vertical platforms // 中小卖家在淘宝生存困难，离心倾向初现。京东和垂直电商在抢，
质检总局发言人任360副总裁 周鸿祎看重其人脉_财经_中国网 AQSIQ spokesman Chen Xitong leaves government to take a job as VP of Marketing at Qihoo…very interesting move for him and for Qihoo // 据中国之声《新闻纵横》报道，
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
The China Beat · Thoughts on River Elegy, June 1988-June 2011 More than two decades have gone by, and the once electrifying documentary now seems mostly a historical curiosity, often cited but rarely screened in the Chinese studies courses and history classes of the West. I recently downloaded and watched River Elegy again for the first time, and was surprised at how relevant it still is, even though China’s economy has morphed from the wobbly experiment it was during that summer of 1988 to an emerging 21st century powerhouse. But most of all I was struck by an obvious and disheartening realization: Despite the fact that the documentary was aired—twice!—in the turbulent 1980s, it could not be aired on CCTV in 2011. In spite of the unprecedented new information transparency and the buzz of the Internet and social media intruding at the peripheries of China’s media environment, the hallowed realm of the mainstream State television could not now tolerate anything like the blunt critique of River Elegy.
China: Presenting River Elegy : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive
奶妈服务暗藏色情_头版_新京报电子报 The Beijing News expose on wet nurses who provide more than feeding services… // 多家网站介绍成人“喂奶”服务，部分涉及性交易
女婿端午送岳父1条100多斤黄唇鱼 价值300万(图)_新闻_腾讯网 son in law gives his father in law a 100 KG Chinese Bahaba fish worth 3 million RMB for the Duanwu festival..in Fujian // 人民网福州6月3日电（谢曦）昨日端午节，
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
China’s Solar Panel Production Comes at a Dirty Cost – NYTimes.com The environmental cost of Chinese-made solar panels is about twice that of those made in Europe, said Fengqi You, a corresponding author of the paper, which will be published in next month’s issue of the journal Solar Energy.
市长谈治污:几百亿埋地下老百姓看不见 怎么能干_中国经济周刊 有专家透露，
乳业大考欲掀渠道变革 近四成国内企业“落榜”_财经频道_一财网
FOOD AND TRAVEL
Why Chinese Booze Costs More Than Fine Wine at Auction – China Real Time Report – WSJ good, real Moutai is actually quite good // On Sunday, at an auction hosted by Chinese auction house Beijing Googut Auction Co., 540 milliliter bottles of Moutai produced in the 1980s sold for between 60,000 yuan ($9,700) and 70,000 yuan ($11,300). That was up from between 50,000 and 60,000 yuan last year, and around 30,000 yuan at the end of 2012.
BEIJING
Subway’s Line 7 Undergoes Testing, to Open by End of Year | Beijingkids Blog | Beijing subway | Jun 3, 2014 | beijing-kids.com Line 7 of the Beijing Subway, running east-to-west, south of Line 1 and linking the Beijing West Railway Station, Shuangjing and the Happy Valley Amusement Park, is currently undergoing testing and will open formally before the end of the year, Chinese news reports indicate.
JOBS AND EVENTS
致敬！莎士比亚——纪念莎士比亚诞辰450周年系列演出：