"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
U.S., China try to emphasize potential for cooperation – The Washington Post “The United States and China will not always see eye-to-eye on every issue,” Obama said in a statement to the talks. “That is to be expected for two nations with different histories and cultures. It also is why we need to build our relationship around common challenges, mutual responsibilities, and shared interests, even while we candidly address our differences.”
Related: Sino-U.S. cooperation benefits world, confrontation disastrous: Xi – People’s Daily Online Sino-U.S. cooperation will achieve things that are beneficial to both countries and the world, while confrontation will be disastrous, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday at an annual high-level dialogue.
Related: 习近平在第六轮中美战略与经济对话和第五轮中
Related: [视频]第六轮中美战略与经济对话在京开幕_
Related: Why US, China need a ‘track record of success’-CNBC good to see CNBC diversify its China guests and have one who actually has real knowledge of and insight on US-China relations // Evan Feigenbaum, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State from 2001 to 2009, outlines the challenges that U.S. and China need to address in the annual “Strategic and Economic Dialogue.”
Related U.S., China ink coal, clean energy deals but climate differences remain | Reuters The United States and China on Tuesday signed eight partnership pacts to cut greenhouse gases that will bring the world’s two biggest carbon emitters closer together on climate policy
Related 第六轮中美战略与经济对话 Xinhua micro-site on the US-China S&ED
Related Xi proposes ways to handle China-U.S. frictions – Xinhua Xi said the two countries should deepen cooperation based on equality and mutual trust, and tap more cooperative potential. They should “accelerate negotiations on the Bilateral Investment Treaty, strengthen military dialogue, combat all forms of terrorism, work together in dealing with climate change and promote communication and coordination on major international and regional issues,” Xi urged. The Chinese president also underlined Sino-U.S. people-to-people exchanges in the speech, saying both sides should encourage friendly exchanges between their peoples, and broaden social communication channels to consolidate public opinion in favor of bilateral friendship. “The foundation of Sino-U.S. friendship lies in the people, and our hope in youth,” Xi added.
Related: China to accelerate treaty with US: Xi[1]|chinadaily.com.cn odds this gets done before 2016? // “The two countries should speed up BIT talks and try to make a high-standard, balanced agreement as soon as possible with the aim of improving economic relations between China and the US,” said Xi at the opening ceremony of the summit.
Related: Lew Urges China to Be Clear About Exchange-Rate Interventions – Bloomberg “China needs a market-determined exchange rate, it’s something the government has committed to in its own policy statements and it is an important part of our conversations,” Lew said in an interview for CCTV America, the U.S. production center of China Central Television. “The first step would be transparency — if it was clear when the government was intervening and why — that would help quite a lot.”
Related: China’s Fin Min defends country’s FX intervention | Reuters Speaking on the first day of annual high-level talks between China and the United States, Lou Jiwei said Beijing also faced challenges in managing hot money inflows resulting from the winding down of super-loose U.S. monetary policy. “The U.S. side has constantly raised the issue about whether intervention is no longer needed in our foreign exchange policy,” Lou told reporters at a briefing. “But we say it’s difficult when the economy has yet to fully recover, and cross-border capital flows are not normal.”
Related: Menace Overcome? China’s Xi Drops American Poetry on U.S. Officials – China Real Time Report – WSJ wonder if Li Keqiang’s wife had an influence // Toward the end of his opening remarks (in Chinese) on the first day of a visit by Secretary of State John Kerry, Mr. Xi recited a line by 20th-century American poet Marianne Moore: “Victory won’t come / to me unless I go / to it.” Given the often fraught state of U.S.-China relations, the line is a nice one, and fits with frequent Chinese calls for redefining relations between the two major powers. One must wonder whether Mr. Xi himself is familiar with the work of Moore—a contemporary of William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens and others— and with this poem, titled “Nevertheless,” in particular.
President Xi Jinping’s Solo Decision-Making Presents Challenges – NYTimes.com “Power concentrated in one man’s hand means foreign policy will be decided by his strategic personality and his political beliefs,” he said. Mr. Xi’s sense that Mr. Obama is a lame-duck president propels his inclination to “push and push again” in the South China and East China Seas, Mr. Shi [Yinhong] said. Mr. Xi reigns supreme on the Standing Committee, which consists of the seven top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, and none of the others appear to be involved with foreign policy, Mr. Shi said. Mr. Xi almost certainly takes the advice of the military, but the “decision is his making,” Mr. Shi said. Another Chinese academic, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, described Mr. Xi as the “emperor” on the Standing Committee, with “six assistants.”// he better hope he stays anonymous…
China State TV Says Some Banks Violating Currency Rules – Bloomberg Bank of China Ltd. denied a report from the state broadcaster alleging it violated the nation’s foreign-exchange rules by providing services that help clients move “dirty money” abroad. Reports by China Central Television and other media “contain discrepancies with and misunderstanding of the facts,” the Beijing-based lender said in a statement on its website today. “References to an ‘underground bank’ and ‘money laundering’ are inconsistent with the facts.”
Related: 央视曝光中行造假洗黑钱 员工称多黑的钱都能洗_新闻_腾讯网 The CCTV report alleging Bank of China money laundering in cahoots with emigration brokers
Related: 中行澄清洗黑钱：”优汇通”
Chinese Lead $92 Billion of U.S. Home Sales to Foreigners – Bloomberg Spending by Chinese buyers soared 72 percent from a year earlier to $22 billion, with their purchases accounting for 24 percent of spending by international buyers, the trade association said today from Washington. Total investments by foreigners jumped 35 percent. Chinese buyers acquired 16 percent of houses sold to foreigners, up 4 percentage points, spurred by currency appreciation, rising affluence and concerns about an economic slowdown in the world’s most-populous country, the group said.//in case you were wondering how some of the money gets out, and what it is for…
Fearing graft probes, Chinese officials shun spotlight, seek retirement | Reuters with corruption so endemic in China – especially in government procurement, the energy and construction sectors and the awarding of land-use and mining rights – many officials know they could be next. “The anti-corruption campaign is having a big economic impact. Local officials are no longer keen to launch investment projects – they are laying low,” said a government official in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, where Xi served as Communist Party boss from 2002 to 2007. “People thought it would be short-lived, just like the others.”
China Rethinks the Death Penalty – NYTimes.com China is putting the brakes on the death penalty. According to Liu Renwen, a legal scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, between 2007 and 2011 the annual number of executions in China fell by half. Many violent offenders are now given so-called suspended death sentences, which are invariably downgraded later to life in prison. Such restraint has drawn broad public support.
Related: Death by a Thousand Cuts: Timothy Brook, Jérôme Bourgon, Gregory Blue: Amazon A unique interdisciplinary history, Death by a Thousand Cuts is the first book to explore the history, iconography, and legal contexts of Chinese tortures and executions from the tenth century until lingchi’s abolition in 1905. The authors then turn their attention to an in-depth investigation of “oriental” tortures in the Western imagination. While early modern Europeans often depicted Chinese institutions as rational, nineteenth- and twentieth-century readers consumed pictures of lingchi executions as titillating curiosities and evidence of moral inferiority. By examining these works in light of European conventions associated with despotic government, Christian martyrdom, and ecstatic suffering, the authors unpack the stereotype of innate Chinese cruelty and explore the mixture of fascination and revulsion that has long characterized the West’s encounter with “other” civilizations.
孟建柱证实四中全会将重整法治_中国_多维新闻网 Duowei reports on comments Meng Jianzhu made at a court worker conference in Jinan, Shandong in which he said that the 4th plenum would be on rule of/by law..his comments were reported in Chinese media but quickly harmonized from most sites. As for timing, Meng seems to be saying the Plenum would be held by year end but not sure if the quote has it right…also interesting that the meeting was held in Jinan, site of the Bo Xilai trial // 中共中央政法委书记孟建柱7月8日在一次重要会议上披露，“
Reform in Hong Kong must follow the Basic Law – FT.com $$ Some people in Hong Kong find it a thorn in their side to be loyal both to Hong Kong and to China. They are vainglorious in their anti-central government position. They even conspire with external forces to undermine national sovereignty and “one country, two systems”. “One country, two systems” serves the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and, in turn, the interests of the entire international community. Therefore, Hong Kong’s political reform must follow the Basic Law. The writer is China’s ambassador to Britain
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
Economists React: China’s Inflation Remains Muted – China Real Time Report – WSJ Inflation in China remained in check in June as China’s consumer price index posted a year on year 2.3% increase, compared with a 2.5% year-on-year rise in May, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. Pork, egg and vegetable prices eased, while non-food prices held steady. China’s producer price index, a measure of costs at the factory gate, fell for the 28th straight month, declining 1.1% year on year in June compared with a 1.4% fall in May, amid ongoing concerns of deflation. Most analysts said the monthly results give Chinese policy makers more leeway to boost economic growth using targeted fiscal and monetary stimulus measures, since there’s little immediate cause for worry about inflation.
Look Ahead: China’s Economy Likely Perked Up in Second Quarter – China Real Time Report – WSJ China’s economy looks to have improved in the second quarter, according to economists’ forecasts and the data released so far, thanks to a combination of better exports and a steady trickle of domestic stimulus measures. Gross domestic product likely grew 7.4% year-over-year, according to the median forecast of 21 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. (Because of a stronger base of comparison last year, a repeat of the first quarter’s 7.4% on-year growth would represent an improvement in quarter-on-quarter terms.)
China’s yuan global ambition faces payments hurdle | Reuters China’s quest to turn its yuan into a full-fledged global currency has hit a road-block as the planned roll-out of a worldwide payments superhighway looks certain to get delayed because of policy snags and technology challenges. The China International Payments System (CIPS) that would replace a patchwork of networks and allow hassle-free yuan payments was meant to debut later this year, but bankers say it is unlikely to be ready before 2016.
Top Forecaster Sees $4 Trillion Reason to Buy Yuan: China Credit – Bloomberg Nomura Holdings Inc., which had the best estimates over the past four quarters as measured by Bloomberg Rankings, expects a 2.2 percent gain to 6.07 per dollar by Dec. 31. Second-ranked Credit Suisse Group AG predicts a year-end exchange rate of 6.10. The yuan gained 0.2 percent in the three months ended June, trimming its 2014 loss to 2.4 percent.
China Bad-Loan Buyer Taps Dollar Debt as Borrower Costs Fall – Bloomberg China Huarong Asset Management Corp., one of the nation’s four bad-loan managers, is marketing dollar bonds as souring debts surge and borrowing costs fall to a more than 16-month low.
Strong Luye Pharma debut boosts prospects for ‘China orphan’ firms | Reuters Shares in China’s Luye Pharma Group Ltd (2186.HK) jumped as much as 18 percent in its Hong Kong market debut on Wednesday, bolstering prospects for other so-called “China orphan” firms that had been previously listed elsewhere. “China orphans” is a phrase used by bankers to refer to companies that were once listed in New York and Singapore but were largely neglected, particularly after accounting scandals in 2011 caused investors to shun most foreign-listed companies of Chinese origin.
President Xi stresses laws of economics in managing economy – Xinhua Xi made the remarks at a symposium on China’s current economic situation. “The development we desire must be rational and based on the laws of economics and sustainable development based on the laws of nature,” Xi told the meeting after listening to opinions from some leading economists. He said policymakers at all levels must better understand the rules of economic development to raise their capability in achieving the quality and efficiency of economic and social development.
Shanghai joins Beijing in approving more luxury housing | Reuters A project developed by Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town Co Ltd in central Shanghai recently gained selling approval to set prices close to 300,000 yuan ($48,400) per square meter, a record in the financial centre, according to online marketplace SouFun. “We have seen new projects setting prices above 100,000 yuan in the past few months,” said Thomas Lam, senior director at realtor Knight Frank. “It’s a signal that the government is not implementing the administrative measures as strictly as it once did. It knows there’s still a demand for luxury housing.”
POLITICS AND LAW
China official warns party against aping Soviet freedoms | Reuters shadow of USSR collapse seems to inform much of what Xi is doing // Yao Zengke, a deputy head of the supervision ministry which helps oversee efforts to fight graft, said in a chat with Chinese Internet users that the party needed discipline. He warned that before the Soviet Union fell apart, the Communist Party there allowed its members “to publicly express views that were different from the organisation”. “Many members of the Soviet Communist Party, and even its leadership, denied the history of the Soviet Union, rejected the daring vanguard of socialism and became megaphones for broadcasting Western ideology,” Yao said.
Central authorities demand lasting work style revamp – Xinhua China’s central authorities issued a circular on Tuesday, calling for a lasting and effective mechanism for the ongoing work style revamp among officials. The central authorities leading group on the mass-line campaign also required officials to carefully study President Xi Jinping’s comments on June 30 regarding the campaign. The circular demands prudent handling of “problematic” officials — corrupt officials and those with work style problems — as well as a lasting and effective mechanism to prevent achievements being short-lived.
[视频]中央党的群众路线教育实践活动领导小组印发通知 要求认真学习贯彻习近平总书记在中央政治局第十六次集体学习时的
Tibetan Writer Says Invitation to U.S. Embassy Preceded House Arrest – NYTimes.com Chinese security officers placed Tsering Woeser, the prominent Tibetan writer and advocate who lives in Beijing, and her husband under house arrest after Ms. Woeser received a call inviting her to the United States Embassy on Wednesday night, according to a Facebook post by Ms. Woeser.
Author Held in Beijing After a Spate of Detentions – NYTimes.com The officers took Mr. Murong away at 5 p.m. and did not release him until early Wednesday, said his girlfriend, Wang Ling, who teaches at a university in Hong Kong. Ms. Wang said Mr. Murong had been “invited to have tea,” a euphemism the Chinese often use to refer to an interrogation session by police officers.
Beijing Tells Journalists Not To Transmit ‘Unpublicized Information’ – China Real Time Report – WSJ Issued by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the guidelines apply not only to state and commercial secrets but also to “unpublicized information,” according to Xinhua. They also ban journalists from “illegal” copying, recording or storage of such information. The report did not clarify what the latter phrase means or how a news organization is meant to function if its staff members aren’t allowed to publish information that hasn’t been previously made public.
纪检改革专项小组首次亮相 将改进中央巡视制度_新浪江苏新闻_新浪江苏 CCDI reform leading small group to improve the inspection process
中央第二巡视组向北京市反馈巡视情况 CCDI offers feedback on its recent inspection of Beijing, finds some big problems, calls out corruption in SOEs, education, construction and health sectors // 徐光春指出，北京市委领导班子坚决贯彻中央决策部署，
湖北孝感市人大主任坠楼身亡 曾分管城建_新闻_腾讯网 local Hubei official jumps to his death after a colleague is taken away by the CCDI
Three Officials at Center of Graft Scandal Were Secretaries to Ex-High Official – Caixin mentions Zhou Yongkang’s name in this abridged English translation but not in the original Chinese // In the latest development in China’s anti-corruption campaign, three high-level officials were expelled from the Communist Party on July 2, according to the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC), the party’s top anti-graft watchdog. All were charged with abuse of power and taking bribes, and the three also shared similarities in their journey climbing the rungs of officialdom’s ladder in that they were secretaries to senior officials.
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
军队加大审计惩戒问责力度 明确违法违纪线索必须移送执法部门处理-军事频道-新华网 PL
徐才厚案延烧8少将 军中打虎或涉更高层_中国_多维新闻网 Duowei says a least 8 other senior PLA officers under investigation in relation to Xu Caihou case…I’ve heard many more // 中共中央军委原副主席徐才厚上将6月30日被中共宣布开除党籍，
China thinks it can defeat America in battle – The Week So it almost doesn’t matter that a modernized PLA thinks it possesses the means to fight America above the waves, on land, and in the air. If it can’t safely sail an invasion fleet as part of its territorial ambitions, it can’t achieve its strategic goals — capturing Taiwan and or some island also claimed by a neighboring country — through overtly military means. That reality should inform Washington’s own strategy. As the United States has already largely achieved the world order it struggled for over the last century, it need only preserve and defend this order. In other words, America has the strategic high ground against China, as the latter must attack and alter the world in order to get what it wants.
Norinco Sells South Sudan Arms as Chinese Government Talks Peace – Bloomberg China North Industries Group Corp., the nation’s biggest arms manufacturer, shipped a consignment of weapons to the East African nation last month, according to marine-insurance documents sent to Bloomberg by an industry representative and confirmed by the broker handling insurance for the shipment. South Sudanese Defense Minister General Kuol Manyang Juuk confirmed the purchase and said the consignment was ordered “well before” he was appointed in July, five months before violence broke out in the country on Dec. 15.
Foreign Students in U.S. High School Diploma Programs Tripled – Bloomberg Foreign students topped 73,000 in 2013 and two-thirds of them were enrolled for a full diploma, the New York-based organization said in a report released today. Students from China accounted for 46 percent of those in degree programs, followed by South Koreans.
Abe speech all about The Nation that Must Not Be Named-Sydney Morning Herald Abe’s address to parliament is also a strategic landmark which illuminates how Japan and Australia are leading the creation of a regional coalition to hedge against China, with – but also without – the United States.
TECH AND MEDIA
Success of ‘Transformers’ in China Mirrors Strategic Marketing – NYTimes.com While “Transformers: Age of Extinction” was all but guaranteed a certain measure of success in China given the immense popularity of the franchise in the country, its record-breaking success will most likely be seen as further validation of Paramount’s stepped-up outreach to Chinese audiences. For its latest film, the studio adopted a collaborative production strategy that included, among other things, partnering with China Movie Channel, a Chinese production company, on production and marketing, as well as filming in locations in mainland China and Hong Kong and giving significant roles to Chinese actors such as Li Bingbing.
Xiaomi Users Spend More Time In Apps Than iPhone Owners In China | TechCrunch Xiaomi, the so-called “Apple of China,” is beating its namesake on one important metric in its homeland: time spent in apps. According to a study performed in January by app analytics firm Flurry, Xiaomi smartphone users spend 7 percent more time in apps than Apple users in China. That’s the first time Flurry’s gotten that result; for six years, the firm says the iPhone beat every Android device they collected data on by a wide margin.
China Said to Tell Carriers to Cut Marketing Costs – Bloomberg The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission told the three carriers to cut spending on subsidies and advertising by a combined 40 billion yuan ($6.4 billion) in three years, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the order hasn’t been made public. China United Network Communications Ltd. (600050), China Mobile Communications Corp. and China Telecommunications Corp., each have a Hong Kong-listed unit. China Mobile, which began selling the iPhone in January after six years of negotiations, cited the Apple device as one of the reasons subsidies on all phones will rise 29 percent to 34 billion yuan this year, Chief Financial Officer Xue Taohai said in March. The company hasn’t received formal notification of the SASAC policy, said Rainie Lei, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for the listed unit, China Mobile Ltd. (941)
China’s ‘Little I Robot’ Prevails Over Apple in Patent Case – China Real Time Report – WSJ Apple had sued China’s Patent Review Committee and the Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology Co. at the end of 2013, asking the court to determine if Zhizhen’s patent over “a type of chat robot system” was valid. On Tuesday, Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court upheld Zhizhen’s 2006 patent for its “Little I Robot” voice-controlled assistant, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.
Hottest China App Inspired by 25-Year-Old’s Manga Passion – Bloomberg The free app, called MYOTee, lets people design avatars, or digital images, of themselves and friends that can be used for instant messaging or on social networks. It soared to the top of the Apple Inc. and Google Inc. Android app stores in China in June, with the software downloaded 36 million times. Guo, who had previously worked at China Web giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. (700), developed the app by inviting Hong Kong T-shirt artist Peter Lee to join the team and create digital versions of his designs.
In China’s Weirdly Regulated Connected TV Content Market, Xiaomi Set-top Box Lost Lawsuit against Content Right Holder LeTV | TechNode Last week Xiaomi lost lawsuit against LeTV over online video rights. It seems it has something to do with the fact that the two are direct competitors in smart TV and set-top boxes, but the dispute over video content aroused much discussion in China. LeTV accused Xiaomi of offering videos in Xiaomi Box, a set-top box, the former has exclusive rights. But Xiaomi, the maker of consumer electronics products including smart TV and set-top box, doesn’t provide video content directly but through third-party apps or content provider
Instagram disappears from China’s Android app stores Chinese tech blog Pingwest first spotted Instagram’s disappearance from China’s Android app stores late last night. Almost 24 hours since that piece’s publication, it’s still missing. Tech in Asia searched Android app stores from Baidu, Xiaomi, Wandoujia, Qihoo 360, Tencent, and 91 Wireless and found no sign of Instagram’s official app in the listings.
Chinese social network for moms gets $20 million funding as niche social apps boom LMBang’s series B funding comes from Greenwoods Asset Management, with Morningside Ventures, VIPShop, K2 Ventures, and Matrix Partners contributing, reports Chinese tech blog 36Kr. It comes 11 months after the startup got US$10 million in series A investment. // VIPShop probably likes this as a Zullily for China play
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Zhu Yuanzhang and Early Ming Legislation: The Reordering of Chinese Society … – Google Books edited by Edward L. Farmer
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
As China Gets Fatter, World Bank Calls for Health Care Reform – China Real Time Report – WSJ Yesterday, the World Bank announced plans to produce a major study in partnership with the Chinese government looking at health sector reform. The study aims to help China provide low-cost quality care to its 1.2 billion people, especially its aging population and rising middle class, and produce a set of recommendations that could someday serve as a model for other developing countries. “Many of the challenges facing China today are similar to those faced by high-income countries for decades,” said Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank’s president. “China has an opportunity to leapfrog decades of bad practice by developing new models of health care delivery and implementing them at scale.”
中央巡视组:科技部一些科研项目成果弄虚作假_新华网 CCDI gives feedback on inspection of Ministry of Science and Technology, notes fraud in some research projects among other issues // 令狐安指出，科技部领导班子认真贯彻落实中央决策部署，
Angola’s China Trade Links Foster Booming Ivory Trade – Bloomberg At Benfica Market, south of the Angolan capital, Luanda, tables are stacked with ivory trinkets from elephants illegally hunted in the forests of central Africa. The buyers are from China’s 250,000-strong expatriate community, as estimated by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in May, in Africa’s second-biggest oil producer.
BEIJING
Get Outside While You Can: Beijing and Shanghai’s Air Pollution, By the Clock – China Real Time Report – WSJ The results show that Beijing’s air improves during the day, but gets worse at night. In Beijing, air quality is at its best between noon and 4 p.m., when the average concentration of PM2.5 — particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in length — falls to around 87 micrograms per cubic meter. By contrast, between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m., PM2.5 levels rise to as high as 113 micrograms per cubic meter.
北京6年内拟再投4000亿元建地铁 规模达上千公里_网易新闻中心 reports that Beijing plans to spend 400B RMB between now and 2020 to expand subway from 465KM to 1000 KM…and still wont be enough given the population and the number of cars
北京史上最严入学年：“奥运宝宝”冲击乍现_财经频道_一财网
JOBS AND EVENTS
Job Offer – Director, Beijing for Stonebridge Advisors Director The ideal candidate for the position would possess outstanding client service capabilities, strong business development skills, great team spirit, and Native or near-Native research and communications capabilities in both English and Chinese. The ideal candidate is required to have experience and knowledge of economic, political, commercial and policy issues in China. Prior experience in the Chinese government or trade associations is a strong plus. The ideal candidate would also demonstrate capability to think strategically and find solutions to challenging issues, as well as identify and develop new opportunities.