"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
Alibaba’s I.P.O. Could Be a Bonanza for the Scions of Chinese Leaders – NYTimes.com In a country of more than 1.3 billion people, the fact that four Chinese companies investing in Alibaba have had executives who are either sons or grandsons of the two dozen men who have since 2002 served on the Politburo Standing Committee, the most elite group of leaders, speaks to how deeply China’s political class has attached itself to the highest echelons of finance.// wonder what happens if any of these investors or their important relatives are caught up in the corruption crackdown…seems risky these days, especially given the ones named are from previous administrations…
中巴两国元首共同出席百度巴西葡语搜索引擎启动仪式|百度|
Related: Baidu Takes on Google Search in Brazil-TheNextWeb Baidu CEO Robin Li was in Brazil to launch the service this week, just missing out on the World Cup, and Kuo says that Thailand and Egypt are next on the list for a localized search service. Those plans aren’t surprising given that Baidu briefly launched a search engine pilot in Brazil, Thailand and Egypt earlier this year, while it already has services in the latter countries — including its Hao123 local buying guide.
Related: 习近平巴西谈互联网治理 Xinhua microsite on Xi Jinping’s comments in Brazil about Internet governance
China intensifies official education to curb moral corruption – Xinhua Chinese authorities on Sunday announced intense ideological education for officials to strengthen their faith in communism and curb corruption. Profound social-economic changes at home and abroad have brought multiple distractions to officials who face loss of faith and moral decline, said the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in a statement. The conviction and morals of officials determine the rise and fall of the CPC and the country, it added. Officials should keep firm belief in Marxism to avoid being lost in the clamor for western democracy, universal values and civil society, according to the statement. Education in national and world conditions will be carried out among officials to strengthen their political, ideological and emotional identity in socialism with Chinese characteristics. //中共中央组织部印发《
Related: Notice concerning Strengthening Education on Ideals, Convictions and Moral Conduct in Cadre Education and Training | China Copyright and Media Yesterday, the CCP Central Organization Department issued new requirements concerning cadre education. Amongst others, they demand active resistance to Western norms and concepts. The notice has not been made public, the following is a translation of a summary in today’s People’s Daily.
McDonald’s, Yum! Suspend Orders From Chinese Meat Supplier Husi – Bloomberg Shanghai authorities suspended operations at Shanghai Husi on the same day the city’s Dragon TV channel said Husi workers were repackaging and selling chicken and beef whose due date had expired. The allegations renew concerns about unsafe food in China following abuses that included lacing baby formula with melamine, a compound used in plastics. Shanghai Husi, owned by Aurora, Illinois-based OSI Group., has a strict quality-control system and will cooperate with the investigation, said Yang Liqun, general manager for deep processing with OSI China, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.
Related: 麦当劳肯德基供应商黑幕：
楼市松绑倒计时_财经频道_一财网 CBN says more and more cities likely to end housing purchase restriction..Wuhan looks to be the latest, reportedly removing restrictions on homes above 140m // 在多个城市松绑限购的同时，市场预计限价、
Related: 呼市取消限购因面临崩盘 开发商拿豪车房产抵债_房产频道_凤凰网 housing market sounds very bad in Hohhot
贾康：财税改革配套方案即将公布_网易财经 MOF’s Jia Kang says details of fiscal and tax reforms to be released soon, while legal grounds for property and environmental taxes may be laid this year, don’t expect them any time soon…three years for a property tax seems to be the growing consensus among experts
刘奇葆在吉林调研时强调 高扬爱国主义的精神旗帜–时政–
Xi Jinping’s Inner Circle: Friends from Xi’s Formative Years | Brookings Institution The second article in this series examines Xi’s longtime friends—the political confidants Xi met during his formative years, and to whom he has remained close over the past several decades. For Xi, these friends are more trustworthy than political allies whose bonds with Xi were built primarily on shared factional association. Some of these confidants will likely play crucial roles in helping Xi handle the daunting challenges of the future (and may already be helping him now). An analysis of Xi’s most trusted associates will not only identify some of the rising stars in the next round of leadership turnover in China, but will also help characterize the political orientation and worldview of the influential figures in Xi’s most trusted inner circle.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
Cities Vie for Headquarters of Infrastructure Bank – Caixin Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen are jockeying to host the headquarters of a planned regional infrastructure bank backed heavily by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Discussions to create a US$ 50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) were initially raised by Chinese government officials in October 2013. The AIIB has been put forward as giving emerging economies greater representation in regional financial system.
Collector Gets 422 Million AmEx Points With Cup Purchase – Bloomberg Chow said Liu, who plans to place the cup in his private museum in Shanghai, agreed to invite the media for the payment and handover of the cup in order to show that a Chinese collector who bid a record at auction pays his bills.
U.S. audit watchdog says Chinese inspections may start this year | Reuters Officials from the two countries committed to cross-border inspections during high-level annual talks held last week in Beijing, said James Doty, head of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the main U.S. auditor watchdog. Protocols for the inspections are expected to be hammered out in coming months, Doty told Reuters on Tuesday.
China’s rich look abroad as home prices fall, others stay put | Reuters “Smart money” checking the exit is a bad omen for any market, especially one considered frothy after a five-year record-breaking bull run, but wealth managers, brokers and analysts say there is no reason for alarm yet. First, the rich are not in a full retreat mode but rather looking to spread the risks more evenly, money managers say. “There are indeed clients choosing to reduce their exposure to the property sector, but it’s not a common phenomenon,” said an investment strategist at a private banking arm of a large state-owned bank.
China’s First Mortgage Debt Since Crisis Shows Li Concern – Bloomberg “The government has eased its attitude toward the property market since property demand plunged this year,” said Wang Ying, an analyst in Shanghai at Fitch Ratings Ltd. “The policy measures it has taken this year have conveyed a message that property curbs will not be as strong as before.”
Desperate Times: Chinese City Leverages Party Paper to Sell Houses – China Real Time Report – WSJ In an article carried on its digital news portal People.cn (in Chinese), the party’s flagship newspaper lashed out at Changzhou Daily’s piece as an indirect approach to rescue the local housing market. People.cn’s article also identified the two authors of Changzhou Daily’s story as a reporter from the paper and the head of the propaganda office of Changzhou’s housing bureau, respectively. “As a local Party newspaper, Changzhou Daily even went so far as to urge the city’s residents to buy houses on its front page, saying it was the best time to do so. This kind of market support measure betrays a lack of moral principle,” said the People.cn‘s article.
Capital Squeeze Forces China Brokers to IPOs Amid Slump – Bloomberg The IPO plans highlight their quest for capital to fund an expansion into new businesses and avert what Guotai Junan terms “a survival crisis” for the industry. China’s securities firms, which make most of their money executing trading orders for retail clients, have seen profitability plunge to about one-eighth of 2007 levels as trading commissions drop amid investors’ disenchantment with equities.
POLITICS AND LAW
Beijing assembles people’s army to crush China terrorists with an iron fist – Telegraph China has witnessed three major terrorist incidents in the past 10 months: knife and bomb attacks on civilians that have killed more than 70 people and been blamed on Islamist extremists from the western province of Xinjiang, home to the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighur minority. Those headline-grabbing attacks have led Beijing to declare the “people’s war” on terrorism
E China senior political advisor sacked – Xinhua China’s central authorities have made a decision to remove Han Xiancong, vice chairman of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, from his post.
中央政治局委员级别官员查办程序公布(图)|反腐|官员查办_
天津市政协副主席、市公安局局长武长顺接受调查-时政频道-
天津公安局长武长顺落马 传家中搜出价值过亿财产_新闻_腾讯网 reports that over 100m in property found in Wu Changshun’s home
人民日报：被查贪官背后多数活跃着“贪内助”身影_新闻_腾讯网
习近平如何要求“中办”：胸怀大局 极端负责-中新网 People’s Daily looks at what Xi Jinping demands of the General Office of the Central Committee
传机场火车站等处贵宾厅将关闭 中国电信等证实_网易新闻中心 VIP lounges in Airports and train stations to be closed by 10.1, as part of general crackdown on official’s behavior…shouldn’t affect airlines’ lounges…affected lounges are the ones very few of us ever set foot in
China Won’t Give Up on Show Trials – Bloomberg View The Communist Party’s recently proposed reforms may seem liberal, but they only continue legal traditions and explicitly preserve the party’s input in the judicial process.
CCTV’s youngest anchor Ouyang Zhiwei detained by police｜WantChinaTimes.com
公安机关依法查处39名网上造谣者传谣者-法治频道-新华网 2 criminally detained for spreading rumors online that last week’s air traffic mess in and around Shanghai related to hunt for a feeling official…rumors at the time said Guo Boxiong was caught trying to flee…37 others received warnings, education or administration punishment for online rumors around corruption-related topics
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
Crashing Its Own Party: China’s Unusual Decision to Spy On Joint Naval Exercises – China Real Time Report – WSJ A party crasher from China’s navy is enjoying an intelligence buffet at the world’s largest maritime gathering – and the feasting will make it hard for Beijing to condemn similar foreign activities in international waters close to China. U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. Darryn James said Saturday that a Chinese surveillance ship was operating near Hawaii “outside U.S. territorial seas.” That location puts the ship on the edges of the U.S.-led Rim of the Pacific, or Rimpac, maritime exercises in which China is participating for the first time. One U.S. display map of the Rimpac operating zone, described to us by a civilian observer of the exercises, shows the Type 815 Dongdiao-class surveillance vessel sitting directly south of Oahu, near the U.S. Navy’s Ronald Reagan Strike Group and other ships.
国防部回应“中国船监视环太军演”:符合国际法_国际新闻_
U.S. Naval Ties With China Advance, Symbolically – NYTimes.com Admiral Greenert, who has met with Admiral Wu three times in the past year and favors engagement with the Chinese military, has also warned about telling the Chinese too much about American plans. At a symposium at the Naval War College in Providence, R.I., last month, he told his audience that they needed to be circumspect in talking openly about American defense planning to counter China, saying such comments would “unnecessarily antagonize” the Chinese.
解放军八一前夕高级将领调整已涉及六大军区-新闻频道-和讯网
The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea – N.Korea Furious About Kim Jong-un Dance Video North Korea has asked China to stop the spread of a video clip lampooning leader Kim Jong-un. According to a source in China on Tuesday, the North feels the clip, which shows Kim dancing and Kung-Fu fighting, “seriously compromises Kim’s dignity and authority.” Beijng was unable to oblige.
How Russian Hackers Stole the Nasdaq – Businessweek What the investigators found inside Nasdaq shocked them, according to both law enforcement officials and private contractors hired by the company to aid in the investigation. Agents found the tracks of several different groups operating freely, some of which may have been in the exchange’s networks for years, including criminal hackers and Chinese cyberspies…As investigators began examining data on other hacks of government and military computers, there was evidence that the Russians’ malware was being used by a sophisticated Chinese cyberspy also known to have a thriving criminal business on the side. This hacker could have been given the Russian malware or pinched it from inside another computer network and used it to disguise his identity. Some evidence inside Nasdaq supported that theory as well. Obama was briefed again as the probe turned toward Asia…The Asia connection didn’t pan out. Investigators turned back to Russia as the most likely suspect but kept stumbling over questions of motive.
China appoints special envoy for Afghanistan | Reuters Sun Yuxi, a former ambassador to both Afghanistan and India, has been named to the new position and will have “close communication” with Afghanistan and other relevant parties, the ministry said in a statement.
China, Argentina seek closer cooperation – Xinhua In order to promote the future development of bilateral ties, the two sides have decided to lift their relationship from a strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic partnership, added Xi, who is here for a state visit to the South American country…The Argentine side reiterated that it firmly sticks to the one-China policy and supports China’s efforts to achieve peaceful reunification. In response, Xi said China firmly supports Argentina’s claim of the sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands and the restart of negotiations based on relevant UN resolutions to solve the issue in a peaceful way.
China launches 6th Arctic expedition – Xinhua The Bering Sea is one of the key areas of China’s Arctic expedition. Water flowing into the Arctic Ocean through the sea accounts for 10 percent of all water in the Ocean; therefore, research is significant to the study of environmental change in polar regions, Pan said. The team will also explore the Chukchi Sea and the Canada Basin. Xuelong set off from its Shanghai base on July 11. The vessel, capable of breaking ice 1.2 meters thick, will travel over 11,000 nautical miles during its 76-day voyage.
习近平获赠阿根廷国家足球队10号球衣|球衣|国家队_凤凰资讯
推动文明交流互鉴 促进世界和平发展 Wang Jiarui has the lead essay in latest issue of “Qiushi Seeking Truth”, on studying the important concepts of international relations espoused by Xi Jinping during his European tour earlier this year
U.S., Japan Prepare to Defend Satellites From Chinese Attack – Businessweek To defend themselves against China, the U.S. and Japan are in the early stages of integrating their space programs as part of negotiations to update their defense policy guidelines. In May, Washington and Tokyo discussed ways to coordinate their GPS systems to better track what’s going on in space and on the oceans.
China and South Asia: Contention and Cooperation Between Giant Neighbors | East by Southeast This article explains the paradoxical nature of the China-India relationship and its impact and implications for the smaller countries in South Asia and neighboring Southeast Asia.
Commentary: Hasty conclusion on airliner crash detrimental to regional situation – Xinhua Xinhua on July 18. Fortunate for Putin that no PRC citizens on the flight. By 7.21 most big Chinese news sites all running reports quoting US claims that Russian-backed forces shot plane down // As international investigation is pending, officials from the United States, Australia and other western countries have already pointed their fingers at the rebels in eastern Ukraine and blamed Russia for the escalating violence there. The accusation was apparently rash when the officials acknowledged they did not know for the time being who are responsible for the attack, while condemning Russia’s military intervention. The one-sided accusation is not surprising in light of their long-time stance on the crisis in eastern Ukraine, and their attitude towards Russia’s absorption of Crimea in March. But without convincing evidence, jumping to a conclusion will only heighten regional tension and is not conducive to finding out the truth.
Did India gain anything from Modi-Xi meeting? – Rediff.com India News All the three issues raised by China at the Modi-Xi meeting are either intractable or peripheral to the bilateral relations and suggest conventional methods to placate the other side without yielding much, says Srikanth Kondapalli.
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
Popular protest spot Civic Square closed for security works, public access limited | South China Morning Post A three-metre-high fence is being built outside the government’s headquarters amid security fears after several mass protests. Critics attacked the measure, saying it undermined the right to freedom of assembly. The fence will block what used to be free access to the forecourt, or “Civic Square” as protesters call it, in front of the east-wing entrance to the Tamar site in Admiralty.
Pro-Beijing Group Seeks Support in Bid to Counter Occupy Central – Bloomberg A pro-Beijing group is asking for signatures from residents and tourists in Hong Kong to stop mass sit-ins in the city’s financial district, planned by a protest group in a push for full democracy. The Alliance for Peace and Democracy’s initial target is for 800,000 signatures, said spokesman Robert Chow Yung
TECH AND MEDIA
Another Chinese Website Bites the Dust-Foreign Policy Cenci’s accounts were deleted across Chinese social media platforms, including Sina Weibo, Tencent’s WeChat, and film and literature criticism site Douban. On July 15, the icenci.comwebsite, which is hosted overseas, was blocked in China. Cenci, for all intents and purposes, was dead. For Kang, 25, a former Bloomberg Businessweek reporter now studying for his GREs, it was a devastating blow. He posted a grieving essay online that was widely shared and doggedly deleted by censors. (A copy of the essay, saved as an image to make it harder for censors to find it with a key word search, can still be found online.)
演员何盛东因吸毒被北京警方行政拘留_网易新闻中心 anoth
Alibaba claims to have been blackmailed by media outlet｜WantChinaTimes Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which is preparing to go public in the US, announced on Friday that it called the police after being blackmailed by a media institution. According to a statement issued by the company, a media outlet had requested that Alibaba pay US$300,000 in exchange for a research report against the company.
顺丰低调布局金融交易 或成阿里京东新威胁_科技_腾讯网 SF Express continues expansion into finance, is far more than just a delivery company, may end up being one of biggest threats to Alibaba…there is a story going around that the SF founder approached Jack Ma years ago but Ma blew him off, now the SF founder has rebuffed overtures from Alibaba in recent years and is determined to compete with him // 今天的顺丰是一家快递公司？物流公司？金融支付公司？
经济参考网 – 新华社《经济参考报》官方网站 Economic Information says Baidu rolling out a health-related cloud offering this week // 早已被IT企业瞄准的移动健康市场，将在本周迎来新的巨头。《
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Police Probes Match-fixing in Chinese Football | China Sports Review The Yangtze Evening News, a Nanjing-based newspaper under Xinhua, reported yesterday that at least 10 referees are involved in a match-fixing investigation in Chinese football. “From the information gathered, at least 10 referees are involved in the investigation. Some of these suspected ‘black whistles’ are well-held names in Chinese football, and at least five of them enjoy a respectable status in the footballing circle. The games they have officiated are across the Chinese Super League, China League One and Yi League” the paper reported.
Hisense Establishes Partnership With FC Schalke 04 | China Sports Review Hisense’s collaboration with the Bundesliga side focuses mainly on its European market, with the company’s Europe branch and R&D center located in the close-by city of Düsseldorf. The 3-year premium agreement will see Hisense act as the club’s partner for electronics and household appliances until 2017. Under the agreement, the Chinese firm will have “a strong LED branding presence at Shalke’s Veltin Arena, as well as on the club’s TV interview backdrops,” according to Shalke’s official site. Starting from the 2014-15 season, Schalke fans will also enjoy Hisense’ television screens around the Veltins Arena.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
Suicide By Drought | Foreign Affairs Beijing should also consult the platoon of conservation biologists, both Chinese and foreign, who have long been warning of looming ecological catastrophe. China’s water security depends on a complex and subtle balance — the forests that enrich the watersheds, the alpine grasslands that limit soil erosion, the relationships between myriad organisms which maintain healthy waterways — that is extremely difficult to understand. The Chinese state may need to swallow its pride in reaching out to foreign experts, but that shouldn’t be an impediment. China desperately needs to comprehend its environment in all its intricacy, and the country’s officials should be open to reaching out to anyone who might be able to help. Even the diminutive pika, after all, has a critical role to play.
记录南水北调：湖北十堰7万人为水库蓄水迁异乡–财经–
BEIJING
玉渊潭现“金蟾”网友称“雷人”_头版_新京报电子报 22 meter tall golden toad appears in Yuyuantan Park in Beijing…hope it will eat that annoying yellow duck
“four Chinese companies investing in Alibaba have had executives who are either sons or grandsons of the two dozen men who have since 2002 served on the Politburo Standing Committee”
To assume, as our media does, that statements like this point to ‘corruption’ is jumping the gun. As anyone who has lived in a Confucian culture knows, government functionaries of almost any level are practically revered. Here in Thailand, if you merely have a relative – even a humble clerk – who works for the Government, then banks will gladly lend you money. And Thailand’s is far from being a purely Confucian culture like China’s.
Simply having the brother or son of a senior (municipal and above) government on your board is enough to soothe your bank and impress your drinking buddies at the local business club. That’s all. The board member would not normally expect to be asked to intercede on the company’s behalf. He’s just collect his stock options at the end of each year and thank God for his father, brother, etc. It’s the way they do it. IT’s different from the way we do it. Just different. Not worse (it’s been working for 2,000 years). Different.
“four Chinese companies investing in Alibaba have had executives who are either sons or grandsons of the two dozen men who have since 2002 served on the Politburo Standing Committee”
To assume, as our media does, that statements like this point to ‘corruption’ is jumping the gun. As anyone who has lived in a Confucian culture knows, government functionaries of almost any level are practically revered. Here in Thailand, if you merely have a relative – even a humble clerk – who works for the Government, then banks will gladly lend you money. And Thailand’s is far from being a purely Confucian culture like China’s.
Simply having the brother or son of a senior (municipal and above) government on your board is enough to soothe your bank and impress your drinking buddies at the local business club. That’s all. The board member would not normally expect to be asked to intercede on the company’s behalf. He’s just collect his stock options at the end of each year and thank God for his father, brother, etc. It’s the way they do it. IT’s different from the way we do it. Just different. Not worse (it’s been working for 2,000 years). Different.