"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
揭秘┃中央财经领导小组的神秘面纱 Southern Weekend has published an interesting look at the Central Finance and Economics Leadership Small Group. The author says he talked to several people “close to” the group and retired officials who worked on it. According to this report, since 1987 the FELSG has always been chaired by the General Secretary. The article notes that it is a change that a group meeting and Xi’s chairmanship of it were so widely reported on in official media. So if that if this report is correct, does this alter the narrative of Xi sidelining Li? // 数个权威消息源证实，自1987年以来，
Brother of Aide to Former Chinese Leader Comes Under Investigation – NYTimes.com Mr. Ling, 62, is the older brother of Ling Jihua, who served as head of the party’s general office, roughly equivalent to a White House chief of staff, under Mr. Hu, who retired from all his posts last year. Ling Jihua came under scrutiny in 2012 after his son was killed in Beijing when a Ferrari sports car he was in crashed on one of the city’s ring roads, party officials told The New York Times. Two women also in the car were severely injured, and one of them died six months later. Following the accident and efforts to conceal it, Ling Jihua, who was expected to gain a seat in the party’s ruling Politburo during that year’s leadership transition, was instead shunted aside and apportioned a lesser position. Since then, he has stayed out of the political limelight.//brief official announcement 山西省政协副主席令政策接受组织调查
Related: 新华社评令政策落马：朝里有人也不灵|
Related: Luo Changping wrote in his 2013 account of the takedown of Liu Tienan (《打铁记》第15章：山西“西山会”_真话) about a Shanxi “club” of officials…a group now getting pulled apart in corruption probes…wonder if Ling Jihua is the “Party Whip “党鞭”” to whom he refers?// 不晚于2007年，一个名叫“西山会”
人民日报评论员：香港与祖国同发展共繁荣–观点–人民网 a
Related: Opponents of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central Envision Chaos – NYTimes.com A group opposed to the Occupy Central movement, which has threatened protests in Hong Kong’s Central financial district to press its case for electoral reform, has released a video saying such protests would create widespread traffic congestion that would leave the city dangerously mired in gridlock
Related: Q. and A.: Michael C. Davis on the Battle Over Hong Kong’s Future – NYTimes.com Starting Friday, Occupy Central will hold an unofficial referendum giving residents a choice of rival plans for voting procedures, and it plans later to support a similar vote pitting the winning proposal against the government’s proposal. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party has been attempting to consolidate its influence over Hong Kong and is worried about the ferment of opposition, as are pro-establishment politicians and business groups in the city. In an interview, Michael C. Davis, a professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, explained what is at stake:
Keep Hope Alive: How to Prevent U.S.-Chinese Relations From Blowing Up | Foreign Affairs-By James B. Steinberg and Michael O’Hanlon surprised no mention of ideology..China clears see an ongoing, intensifying ideological battle with the US…Steinberg and O’Hanlon just published Strategic Reassurance and Resolve: U.S.-China Relations in the Twenty-First Century…I am just through the first chapter // U.S.-Chinese relations may be approaching an inflection point. A long-standing bipartisan U.S. consensus on seeking constructive relations with China has frayed, and the Chinese are increasingly pessimistic about the future of bilateral dealings as well. Yet U.S. fatalism about China’s rise could lead to resigned acceptance of a new reality or muscular resistance designed to protect old prerogatives — both unpromising and ultimately self-defeating strategies. Building a relationship around the principles of strategic reassurance and resolve offers the prospect of a more promising future without jeopardizing legitimate interests on either side. In effect, rather than simply hoping or planning for trust, it substitutes a “trust but verify” approach. This is much sounder than classic hedging, since it seeks to reduce the possibility of unintended provocation and escalation. And with luck, it can be enough to help keep full-scale conflict at bay, an outcome that prudent people on both sides should be seeking.
Related: INTERVIEW/ Michael Green: Concerns about China’s rise boost support for U.S. rebalance to Asia – AJW by The Asahi Shimbun A top Asia expert at an influential Washington-based think tank said an overwhelming number of “strategic elites” in the Asia-Pacific region support the U.S. rebalance policy because they are concerned about China’s growing influence. A survey of 402 nongovernmental policy experts in 10 countries and Taiwan, conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in March and April, found that an average of 79 percent of respondents supported the U.S. goal of rebalance to Asia. “If it weren’t for China, that number would be much lower,” CSIS Vice President Michael Green told The Asahi Shimbun, which helped to conduct the survey, in a recent interview.
China must see past its own hype of an America in decline | South China Morning Post hope he is listened to// Zha Daojiong says Chinese policymakers and analysts should not believe their own jingoistic rhetoric about a US in decline. Even if it’s true, a weak America isn’t good news for China
Philippines, U.S. to hold naval drills near disputed shoal in South China Sea | Reuters Five warships, including a U.S. guided-missile destroyer, and about 1,000 troops will take part in week-long Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercises, which include live-fire drills 40 miles (64 km) off Zambales, on the western shores of the Philippine island of Luzon. The drills are to be held about 80 nautical miles distant from two or three ships of the Chinese coast guard are stationed on patrol off the disputed Scarborough Shoal, control of which China seized from the Philippines in 2012.
PBOC Mulls New Tool for Regulating Money Supply, Guiding Rates – Caixin The central bank has been mulling a new tool to regulate money supply and guide medium-term interest rates, a source with knowledge of the matter says. An official in charge of designing the instrument disclosed the plan in a recent internal conference, a central banker who attended the meeting said. The tool will be called Pledged Supplementary Lending, he said. The bank wants it to be a new channel for injecting liquidity into the market and hopes it can play the role of benchmark interest rate in the medium term.
Beijing From Above, aka The Story of How I Was Detained by the Police because of my DJI Quadcopter | Stuck in Customs flying from Beihai Park, right next to Zhongnanhai…nice video, lucky he was not arrested as a spy given the current environment // So, I went into this not knowing what was legal and what was not legal. Okay, I had a sinking feeling that flying a quadcopter over the Forbidden City might be more black than grey, but my intentions were pure and artistic, so I figured that gave me some sort of leeway…After the little photo partay, he gave me back the quadcopter and said, “Okay, here you go, but please don’t fly it inside the first or second ring of the city.” I said, okay, cool. And then we made our hasty egress. Apparently, the news kind of spread around to another group with which I was working in Beijing. They showed up at my hotel the next morning to confiscate the quadcopter, obviously not trusting me not to fly it any more. They agreed to bring it to the airport before I left Beijing. I doubted I would ever see the thing again, but, sure enough, they showed up!
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
China Housing Slump Hits More Than Houses – $$ WSJ Property sales account for 12% of China’s GDP, Citigroup estimates. But Moody’s Analytics argues that the figure is 23% if construction and house renovation are included. Indeed, the housing slowdown is being felt beyond the property market, economists said. Growth in spending in construction and renovation, which includes interior decoration, slowed to 14.2% in the first five months of this year, according to official data, compared with 22.1% growth for all of 2013.
Property Flops Seen as $33 Billion in Trusts Due: China Credit – Bloomberg The trusts, which channel money from wealthy individuals to smaller builders that have trouble obtaining financing elsewhere, must repay 203.5 billion yuan ($32.7 billion) in 2015, according to Use Trust, a Chinese research firm. That’s almost double the 109 billion yuan due this year. New issuance of the products slumped to 40.7 billion yuan this quarter, the least in more than two years, Use Trust data show.
China Financing Probe May Hit Imports of Copper, Iron Ore – $$ WSJ “Things are getting worse and worse. Imports have shrunk in May. It could fall even further in June and July,” said an executive with a Hong Kong-based commodities trading company. “Already, people are finding it very difficult to open letters of credit for import of copper and other metals in banks in China.” An estimated one-third or more of Chinese metal imports are believed to be used as collateral for loans from China’s “shadow banks,” a vast network of loosely regulated lenders. Rather than being used to meet actual demand, these stocks are imported into so-called bonded zones, areas where import taxes don’t apply, and re-exported when they are no longer needed as collateral.
PBOC Injects More Cash Into System – $$ WSJ don’t the banks have a June 25 audit deadline, which is causing them to all try to hoard cash and put as much lipstick on their pigs as possible? will no be repeat of 2013 June interbank squeeze // China’s central bank will pump cash into the country’s financial system for a sixth straight week, as Beijing grapples with a still-nascent economic recovery, a sharp slowdown in capital inflows and a decline in foreign investment. The move to ease funding conditions for banks, the longest of its kind since an 11-week streak last summer, is part of a broader effort by policy makers to lower borrowing costs for businesses and debt-laden local governments.
China PBOC Injects Net CNY15 Bln; Sixth Injection In A Row | MNI This week’s reserve requirement cut, which included some banks with national operations, may have resulted in less than CNY100 billion in extra funding flowing back into the market. Some analysts estimate that recent PBOC actions have added around CNY550 billion in market liquidity, equivalent to a 50 basis point reserve requirement cut.
央行“喊话”满月 房贷未现明显松动 新华社——经济参考网 Economic Information says that mortgage loans have not increased in spite of the PBoC’s jawboning last month, and that in fact some banks have raised rates // 如今，央行“喊话”力挺居民首套房信贷需求已满月，《
Chinese jeweler buys Hearts On Fire| China Daily Chow Tai Fook Jewerlly Group Limited, one of the leading jewelers in China, is buying the Boston-based luxury diamond company Hearts On Fire for $150 million to expand its range of high-end gems in the Chinese market. The acquisition will be funded by internal cash reserves and is the company’s first since it went public in Hong Kong in 2011. The cash-free, debt-free deal is scheduled to be completed by the end of September and will bring Hearts on Fire to locations in Shanghai and Hong Kong by March of next year.
落实“中南海座谈” 多省份微刺激升级_财经频道_一财网 此前的6月6日，
【深阅读】陈光标有多少钱？他的财富从何而来？_深度_南都网
P2P Lending Site ‘Gets Investment from Venture Capital Firm’ – Caixin Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending website Yooli.com has secured an investment from Morningside Venture Capital, Yooli’s CEO and co-founder Ren Yong said on June 18. Yooli is a website that matches people with spare cash with those who need to borrow. It charges borrowers a commission of 1 to 2 percent of the loan amount. The site has about 760,000 users, Ren said.
POLITICS AND LAW
Tibetan Security Official Gunned Down in Sichuan – NYTimes.com The authorities have identified a suspect in the killing, a 35-year-old Tibetan man whose name was given in Chinese as Xue Jia, and they are offering a reward of 500,000 renminbi for his arrest. They described the killing as “premeditated retribution,” according to news reports, but did not offer a specific motive. The shooting could be related to the victim’s recent work policing the caterpillar fungus harvest.
China Jails Anti-Graft Activists Linked to New Citizens’ Group – Bloomberg Liu Ping and Wei Zhongping were sentenced to six and a half years for disorderly behavior, gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place and using a cult to undermine implementation of the law, lawyer Si Weijiang said in a phone interview. A third activist, Li Sihua, was sentenced to three years.
Pay High Attention to Online Ideological Security | China Copyright and Media This article by Lieutenant-General Li Dianren of the National Defence University was published first in the Chinese Journal of Social Science, and republished on Seeking Truth online, on 15 June.
Leaning In … to Corruption | ChinaFile It’s no secret that graft is an essential part of climbing the Chinese Communist Party ranks. Now, according to Chinese state media, ambitious female cadres are increasingly being caught taking bribes and trading favors. On June 16, the state-controlled (but liberal) Beijing News named and shamed 12 female officials targeted by anti-corruption investigators in the first half of 2014. The report said most offenders were city officials in key posts. Four have already been charged; eight remain under investigation, although in the Chinese justice system the ultimate conviction rate of defendants is exceedingly high.
‘Tell me where my husband is’ – wife’s plea to China’s Communist Party – Telegraph Nearly six months after her husband disappeared into the custody of China’s security services, the wife of respected Uighur academic Ilham Tohti issues an emotional plea for information on his whereabouts
Departments publicize rectifications after being inspected – Xinhua From October last year, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) ran a two-month round of inspections, visiting 10 provinces and departments. In February, the CCDI gave feedback on its inspection work to those examined. They include the provinces of Jilin, Shanxi, Anhui, Hunan, Guangdong and Yunnan as well as the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Commerce, the Xinhua News Agency, and the Three Gorges Corporation.
Xinjiang Work Forum Marks New Policy of ‘Ethnic Mingling’ | The Jamestown Foundation James Leibold In the Xinjiang Work Forum summary there is repeated talk about the need to remove ethnic barriers and forge collective identity. The statement includes the controversial phrase “strengthen interethnic contact, exchange and mingling” (jiaqiang minzu jiaowang jiaoliu jiaorong), which the influential Qinghua University economist Hu Angang declared a “new policy orientation” when he outlined his contentious proposal for a “second generation of ethnic policies” in late 2011 (Aisixiang, March 31, 2012). In his interview with Phoenix, Zhu Weiqun admits the concept of interethnic “mingling” elicited a strong response following its inclusion in Hu Jintao’s remarks at the Fifth Tibet Work Forum in January 2010. This was due to fears that, in his words, “this would mingle the ethnic minorities out of existence,” and thus the phrase was subsequently left out of the official statement that concluded the First Xinjiang Work Forum.
广州日报社长举报纪委书记追踪：反映情况不实|广州日报|
江苏信”全能神”女子为”驱魔”掐死女儿同学获无期–法治–
偷拍县长收礼 18天后被捕_深度_南都网 Jiangxi villager films local official taking gifts, villager arrested 18 days later…guess the mass line campaign hasn’t reached this village yet…
中国网事:民主生活会上那些似曾相识的批评“高频词”-
Critical reporting needs approval – Global Times Zhang Zhi’an, an associate professor of the School of Communication and Design at Sun Yat-sen University, said that critical reports often became a way for unprofessional reporters to extort money. “This notice doesn’t mean reporters can’t write any critical reports or investigative stories. It means journalists can’t do those stories without approval,” Zhang said. He added that if media outlets know nothing about their reporters’ stories, they are not able to supervise their reporters if they try to use stories to extort money.
新闻广电总局：对记者批评性报道有关要求被误读—手机财经网 G
China denies trying to ban unapproved critical media coverage | Reuters Jiang Jianguo, deputy head of the administration, told the official Xinhua news agency that the government was dedicated to protecting reporters’ rights. “Some people misinterpreted our instruction as not allowing press criticism in general, but in fact, we have resolutely protected reporters’ lawful professional rights and positively support media supervision via public opinion,” Jiang said. The order that reporters get their employers’ approval to conduct critical reporting is “in line with regular regulations and addresses the problem journalists abusing their positions for blackmail”, Jiang added.
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
Vietnam Has Complex Challenge With China on Seas, Says Minister – Bloomberg A resolution of the crisis might only come after Vietnam accepts China’s conditions, something Vietnam seems unwilling to do, said Alexander Vuving, a security analyst at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. China’s $8.2-trillion economy is more than 50 times the size of Vietnam’s. “China will only agree to de-escalation if Vietnam makes a significant concession,” he said in an e-mail. “I expect that the talks will not resolve the oil rig crisis, though they will demonstrate that both China and Vietnam do not want this incident to affect the general contours of their broader relationship.”
China’s Power Grab Is Alarming – New York Times Editorial The real problem, in any case, is not the muddled question of sovereignty, but the way China appears to believe that its expanding military and economic power entitle it to a maximalist stance in territorial disputes. Certainly the smaller nations abutting the South China Sea are no match for China in a fight, but the fear and anger that China’s aggressive actions have generated among its maritime neighbors, and the tensions they have raised with Washington, hardly seem to be in Beijing’s interest, or in keeping with the image China’s president, Xi Jinping, tried to project when he said in Paris in March that “the lion that is China has awoken, but it is a peaceful, amiable and civilized lion.” That is not the lion now roaring over the waters of the South China Sea, threatening the stability and security that have benefited, above all, China.
China-Vietnam Talks on South China Sea ‘Constructive,’ Hua Says – Bloomberg “What is pressing now is that the Vietnamese side should stop their disturbances against China’s operation, stop hyping up relevant issues, pulling up disputes and stop creating new tensions,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told journalists today in Beijing.
China Moves Second Oil Rig Into Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone | The Diplomat the “600-meter (1,970-foot) -long rig is being towed southeast of its current position south of Hainan Island and will be in its new location closer to Vietnam by Friday.” Despite the fact that this rig will also set up shop in disputed waters, it is less likely to draw the same sort of condemnation from the Vietnamese government as the first rig did. First, the new rig is somewhat more distant from the controversial Paracel Islands. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that the second oil rig is “operating within the coastal waters off China’s Hainan Island,” making this drill’s position far less controversial. Additionally, the AP cites an anonymous Vietnamese official who notes that the second rig will be installed in waters that China has already explored in the past.
[视频]战略性新兴产业助海洋经济转型升级_新闻频道_央视网(
Analysts Say China May Try to Use Manmade Islands to Bolster Bid for Economic Development – NYTimes.com China might have a tough time convincing an international tribunal that its new islands can generate an exclusive economic zone. A clause under Article 60 of the convention says: “Artificial islands, installations and structures do not possess the status of islands. They have no territorial sea of their own, and their presence does not affect the delimitation of the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone or the continental shelf.” The language sounds definitive, though China could argue that its new islands are not entirely artificial, since there were reefs and rocks at the sites before the sand dredging and land reclamation began.
Business and Politics in the South China Sea: Explaining HYSY 981’s Foray into Disputed Waters | The Jamestown Foundation Erica Downs The placement of HYSY 981 in disputed waters is consistent with the longstanding interest of China’s NOCs in expanding operations in the SCS and is likely a political victory for the responsible CEO. However, the perception that the rig’s current operations are politically motivated undermines the attempts of China’s NOCs to claim they are relatively autonomous, profit-driven actors to facilitate their expansion abroad, especially in the United States and Canada, where concerns about whether the investments of China’s NOCs are motivated by economics or politics loom large. Indeed, HYSY 981’s foray into contested waters appears to be a striking example of a NOC serving as an instrument of statecraft to advance a national objective other than energy security. In past analyses of the interactions between China’s NOCs and government (especially in cross-border investments), it has often seemed more likely that it is the company that champions a particular project to advance specific corporate interests and wins support from the government by explaining how the project will enhance China’s energy security (see SAIS Review, 2012 No. 2 (PDF); also chapter 7 of Edward Steinfeld, Playing Our Game, OUP 2012 and China Brief, February 1, 2013). But not enough information is publicly available to draw a similar conclusion for HYSY 981’s current operations.
Door May Open to US at Former Vietnam War Hub | Military.com The U.S. Navy has been making port visits to Da Nang in recent years, engaging in activities that started with sports and ship tours with Vietnamese sailors, and developed into a joint search-and-rescue exercise last year. Greater U.S. Navy access to Cam Ranh Bay, further south near Nha Trang, would represent a bigger step in the military-to-military relationship. The deep water port is about seven miles from open sea and is capable of accommodating aircraft carriers, and its facilities recently underwent millions of dollars in upgrades. Its airport is used by both Vietnamese military forces and by commercial carriers. U.S. Military Sealift Command ships have visited for repairs — the first came along with former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in 2012 — but no active U.S. Navy ship has visited the port since the Vietnam War.
Our friends in the West – Global Times Western academics justify their cheering for China amid suspicion
Gordon Chang muddies the water again – Global Times There is a discussion in Western academia and public opinion that suggests China should take due responsibility for the current situation in Iraq. Chang’s statement shows that he is a representative of this idea. Chang’s views about China are basically established on his personal wishes or bigoted mindset. He prophesied “the collapse of China” 13 times, and none of them became reality. It’s not a convincing conclusion that China’s interests in Iraq are bigger than those of the US just based on Chang’s so-called academic research. With imports of about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil from Iraq each day, China tops all the rest, but such a single parameter is not enough to rank China and the US in terms of their interests in Iraq.
China preparing to evacuate some workers from Iraq | Reuters The vast majority of the 10,000 workers are in safe parts of the country, but the small number in unsafe parts are being evacuated, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily briefing. “For those workers in Chinese companies who are in areas with a more serious security situation we will fully help them evacuate to safe areas,” Hua said, without giving numbers or details of which companies they work for.
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
China’s top official to discuss liaison offices on Taiwan visit – Channel NewsAsia China’s Taiwan policy chief will discuss setting up liaison offices during his landmark first trip to the island next week, officials said Thursday, in a further sign of warming ties between the former bitter rivals. Zhang Zhijun, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, is scheduled to fly to Taiwan on Wednesday for a four-day trip to the island Beijing still regards as its territory.
TECH AND MEDIA
Dropbox is Blocked in China Again–The Next Web The GreatFire database, which continually tests the accessibility of internet links from inside China to identify new blockages, shows that dl.dropbox.com (used for downloading files) is no longer accessible from inside China, which suggests that its apps will no longer work. In addition, the main Dropbox.com appears blocked there too, according to the organization’s analytics. // and as of June 13 even the https version of sinocism is blocked..it was first blocked in march 2012 during the Bo Xilai frenzy, which led me to start the email newsletter. i added https in 2013 and that worked through the GFW until last week…sad they are so worried about even piddling blogs…
The tightrope China’s biggest business tycoon must walk | Business Spectator on the interview Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei recently gave Chnese media // Ren offered his first ever interview to Chinese media this week, outlining his vision for the company, future of the technology, and geopolitics. China Spectator has delved into some of these questions a day already (see Huawei’s love-hate relationship with the US, June 18). Here are the rest of his answers:
China Film Plans $739 Million Shanghai IPO – WSJ The Beijing-based China Film plans to sell 467 million new shares, or 25% of its enlarged capital, according to a draft plan released on the website of China Securities Regulatory Commission on Monday. The company said it would use the proceeds to boost its working capital, invest in digital cinema and digital projectors as well as to repay debt. Its net profit in 2013 was 428 million yuan, down 24% from 560 million yuan in 2012, as it stopped receiving income from importing films due to a policy change.
China-Hollywood Venture Fizzles – WSJ does Huayi have cash issues? // The Chinese entertainment conglomerate announced in March that it intended to invest between $120 million and $150 million in Studio 8, a new company run by former Warner Bros. film chief Jeff Robinov. But those negotiations have fallen apart, people close to the venture said Thursday. Another knowledgeable person said the Chinese company remains in talks with Mr. Robinov and may still become an investor, though the planned amount and structure of the deal would likely change.
七部委发文助推电影产业 华谊、光线迎“及时雨”_21世纪网 Seven Ministries and Government Agencies release document outlining measures to support movie industry // 具体来看，政策将从税收、资金、土地、
BAT“搅局”会否颠覆中国电影业_公司新闻_中证网 Chin
追光动画完成B轮2,000万美元融资 – 新闻稿全球发布 美通社 PR Newswire Light Chaser Animation, founded by Tudoou founder Gary Wang, raises a 20m USD series B from GGV, Chengwei Ventures and IDG // 京2014年6月19日电 /美通社/ — 追光动画近日完成B轮2,000万美元的融资。
I’m making a movie with Wanda Media! | Global Rencai congrats to friend and longtime reader Joy Chen // I’m delighted to report that I’ve partnered with Wanda Media to create a romantic comedy called Do Not Marry Before Age 30, the same title as my book, and that I will serve as the lead screenwriter. The movie will feature two lady CEO headhunters who headhunt Mr. Right. It’s a subject that I know intimately since, as you know, I myself worked as a CEO headhunter for seven years, and it is by using professional CEO headhunting techniques that I found my Mr. Right.
快播因侵权遭腾讯举报 2.6亿罚单与涉黄无关|腾讯|快播_互联网_新浪科技_新浪网
微博下周或推个人用户转账 全面加入移动支付战局_TechWeb Weibo to allow users to transer money with other users starting next week says Techweb
China Mobile Games: De-Listing Ahead? | Young’s China Business Blog Another US-traded Chinese online game firm could be headed for de-listing, after shares of China Mobile Games (Nasdaq: CMGE) tanked on reports of a major bribery scandal. China Mobile Games’ woes are just the latest in a growing list for US-traded online game makers, which have earned the official title of “no respect” from Wall Street investors. Two of the sector’s biggest players, Shanda Games (Nasdaq: GAME) and Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA), are in the process of privatizing, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a buyout offer emerge for China Mobile Games following this new scandal.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Letter from Beijing: The backlash against English Some commentators wondered if the proposal reveals the insecurity of the Communist Party, at a time when the country’s elite are heading overseas en masse and intellectuals are relying on foreign media sites to access unfiltered news. “Are you afraid that we will all flee to the US after we master English?” one suggested. “It is another way of keeping us stupid and uninformed,” another said. “It’s the same as building the Great Fire Wall for our internet… It’s a step backward, motivated by political conservatism.” Most parents and educators doubt the policy will dampen people’s enthusiasm towards English in the long run. The tangible benefits that proficiency in English can bring—admission to western universities and jobs in multinational firms—are strong incentives, as is the popularity of western pop culture
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
French Nuclear Regulator Says China Cooperation Lacking – Bloomberg The first indications of French unease came when Philippe Jamet, one of the regulator’s five governing commissioners, testified before French Parliament in February. “Unfortunately, collaboration isn’t at a level we would wish it to be” with China, Jamet said. “One of the explanations for the difficulties in our relations is that the Chinese safety authorities lack means. They are overwhelmed.” Then, in March, EDF’s internal safety inspector Jean Tandonnet published his annual report to the utility’s chief executive that detailed a mid-2013 visit to the Taishan building site. He wrote that “the state of conservation” of large components like pumps and steam generators at Taishan “was not at an adequate level” and was “far” from the standards of the two other EPR plants
南水北调将有效遏制北京地下水超采_新华社消息_财新网
Guangdong Protests Against Waste Incinerators Turn Violent | Nanfang Insider Several people were injured and detained when hundreds of homeowners in Panyu, south of Guangzhou, clashed with local authorities during a protest against the construction of a local waste disposal plant, reported Radio Free Asia. Approximately 1,000 homeowners in the Fairview Peninsula protested on Wednesday by blocking traffic in and out of the facility located less than 20 meters from the local kindergarten
北京拟建公立医院投融资平台 新华社——经济参考网 Beijing may set up a public hospital investment platform // 据《经济参考报》记者了解，为解决公立医院融资难题，
BEIJING
自住房下周一将首次摇号_头版_新京报电子报 lottery next week for batch of Beijing subsidized housing…127,000 qualified households participating, for 1882 apartments // 新京报讯 （记者马力）北京首次自住房摇号确定在下周一举行。昨日，