Methinks the world is still under-estimating Xi Jinping’s corruption purge bc Xi sees himself as clean http://on.ft.com/1tzxhQ8

And:

under-estimating Xi’s resolve, his own sense of moral standing and consensus that CCP was rotting to its core

25 months ago Bloomberg documented the wealth of Xi’s extended family noted that:

No assets were traced to Xi, who turns 59 this month; his wife Peng Liyuan, 49, a famous People’s Liberation Army singer; or their daughter, the documents show. There is no indication Xi intervened to advance his relatives’ business transactions, or of any wrongdoing by Xi or his extended family.

I know the nearly universal assumption is that Xi is corrupt like other leaders, even though no one, including Bloomberg, has proven that. But what if Garnaut is correct that Xi believes he is clean? How might that inform the current corruption crackdown, in terms of intensity, scope and longevity?

And how might we understand what Xi is doing if, as I have heard, even as a child Xi told people that one day he would run China?

Someday it would be nice to learn what is actually going on rather than be left with guesses.

Today’s Links:

THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT

Pegasus consulting, subsidiary of Edelman, ‘cooperating’ with CCTV graft probe | South China Morning Post  Investigators visited the offices of Pegasus Public Relations Consulting  on Thursday, it told the South China Morning Post. Edelman in 2007 acquired a majority stake in Pegasus, which was founded by Rui, Steven Cao Gang  and Howard Hong Xing. Cao was “cooperating with authorities in the investigation”, Pegasus said. He is also the chief executive of Edelman’s China-arm, the Daniel J. Edelman China Group. Rui sold his remaining 7.9 per cent stake in Pegasus to Cao in 2010. Neither Rui nor Cao could be reached for comment as their mobiles were turned off. //so has Steven Cao been detained to “assist the investigation”? Just how much trouble is Edelman now in in China?

Scandal-hit China food firm withdrawing all products, U.S. parent says The parent company of a scandal-hit Chinese food supplier said it is withdrawing all products made by the subsidiary. Shanghai Husi Food Co Ltd, owned by Illinois-based OSI Group LLC, is at the center of a major food safety scandal, which has spread from China to Hong Kong and Japan, over allegations it mixed fresh and expired meat. In a statement posted on its website late Saturday, OSI Group said it would “withdraw from the marketplace” all products made by Shanghai Husi, and that it was conducting an internal investigation into current and former senior management.

Related: China Focus: Shanghai vows harsh punishment after major food scandal – Xinhua a big embarrassment for Shanghai officials  //  Shanghai’s top official on Sunday pledged “severe punishment” for anyone involved in a food safety scandal that has spread from the Chinese financial hub to Hong Kong and Japan. Han Zheng, Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Shanghai Municipal Committee, told a meeting convened to deal with the scandal which has prompted public scare that any company violating the law in the city would be severely punished in accordance with the law.

Related: 福喜将收回上海所有产品 北京麦当劳无餐可售_新闻_腾讯网 in wake of Shanghai Husi food scandal, Beijing McDonald’s apparently have little to sell. One reader reports that when he went to one there were only fish sandwiches for sale. And the fish is safe because? And now People’s Daily reports on Twitter  that “Beijing @McDonalds serve nothing but only beverages and fries on July 27 after the meat scandal from Shanghai”. 

Related: China regulator says food supplier forged production dates: Xinhua | Reuters Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration has found that Shanghai Husi forged the production dates on smoked beef patties produced in May 2013 and sold them as being made in January 2014, Xinhua said. The processed meat had a shelf life of nine months, it added. Xinhua said there were 4,396 batches with forged dates, of which 3,030 had been sold.

Related: Newspaper: Serving Expired Meat a Problem Throughout China’s Food Industry | TheNanfang China’s current food safety scandal involving expired meat products has focused on the Western fast food restaurants that were supplied with the tainted food, something that has led some people to directly accuse Western fast food restaurants of being the problem. However, allegations have surfaced from the Shandong-based Qilu Evening Report that alleged the use of expired meat is endemic throughout all of the Chinese food industry and is not limited to Western fast food restaurants. While there isn’t much conclusive evidence behind these allegations, they remain horrifying all the same.

Related: Amid China Food Scandal, OSI Workers Allege Widespread Violations At Company’s US Plant The American meat supplier at the center of a major food safety scandal in Asia engages in widespread food safety and labor violations at its massive processing plant in West Chicago, Illinois, former employees alleged Wednesday in exclusive conversations with International Business Times. OSI Group LLC, which posted more than $6 billion in sales last year, has been under fire since Sunday, when Chinese regulators shuttered OSI’s Shanghai Husi Food Co. Ltd. meat processing facility.//China will love this report

What Do Chinese Dumplings Have to Do With Global Warming? – NYTimes.com An artificial winter has begun to stretch across the country, through its fields and its ports, its logistics hubs and freeways. China had 250 million cubic feet of refrigerated storage capacity in 2007; by 2017, the country is on track to have 20 times that. At five billion cubic feet, China will surpass even the United States, which has led the world in cold storage ever since artificial refrigeration was invented. And even that translates to only 3.7 cubic feet of cold storage per capita, or roughly a third of what Americans currently have — meaning that the Chinese refrigeration boom is only just beginning…In the United States, at least 70 percent of all the food we eat each year passes through a cold chain. By contrast, in China, less than a quarter of the country’s meat supply is slaughtered, transported, stored or sold under refrigeration. The equivalent number for fruit and vegetables is just 5 percent.

In Scarred Chinese Tibetan City, Devotion to Sanctity of Life – NYTimes.com 放生 // Buddhist monks say the growing interest in “life liberation” or “mercy release,” as it is sometimes called, is part of a surge in religious devotion that followed the quake, which flattened much of Yushu. Donations to local monasteries have soared, they said, as have ordinary acts of kindness among strangers in this city of 120,000 roughly 1,300 miles northwest of Hong Kong. “To save these lives is not only for me and my family but for all the people who died in the earthquake,” said Gelazomo

Related: 北京市民河中放生小鱼 水温过高上千斤鱼被烫死|北京|使命_凤凰佛教 but sometimes “life liberation” can go horribly wrong…Beijing authorities claim that the deaths of 1,000+ dead carp in the tonghui river July 25 were due to citizens freeing fish in the water, which was far too hot for them to survive in…

Alibaba: How Big a Deal Is It? | ChinaFile Duncan Clark not impressed with the recent NYT piece on connected PE with small stakes in Alibaba  //  What about the “pro quo”? The Times article asserts that for these shareholders their “sway may be significant even if their stakes are not”. So is Alibaba benefitting in turn, other than from their support of the September 2012 financing, from allowing these firms to join the ranks of their shareholders?  Here the article fails to connect the dots.   The article quotes analyst Anne Stevenson-Yang from J Capital Research as follows:  “(Alibaba) has got so many different allies across so many different ministries”.  But the article fails to detail the allies or the ministries involved.   And that’s pretty much it in the article for the “pro quo” camp.  Yet we are told that “the situation raises questions about the transparency and operations of Alibaba, which is set to go public in the United States in the coming months.”   Meh.

China Hides Treasury Buys in Belgium: Chart of the Day – Bloomberg China is driving a jump in Belgian holdings of Treasuries and is a key reason for a plunge in yields even as the Federal Reserve trims its stimulus to support growth, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

审视南水北调-财经网 latest Caijing cover story–“closely examining the south-north water transfer project”…Beijing should start getting water from this in late October, starting to see lots more Chinese media coverage  //  历经多次延期，到今年10月北京汛期结束时，以中线工程输水抵达北京为标志，延宕十余载的南水北调一期东、中两线主体建设工程，即将正式竣工。这项迄今为止全球规模最大、建设期可能延绵半个世纪的水资源利用工程，一直面临“调得来、用不好”，“大调水、大浪费”的质疑。

Related: 北京新水策-财经网 为利用好中线新水源，北京对供水体系的重构涉及方方面面。但因人均水资源增加有限，其发展所面临的最大风险，仍然是水资源  //  Caijing on Beijing’s new water policies

China’s anti-graft drive is making state media bolder | Reuters “Part of the reason the report went forward was because of the anti-corruption campaign,” said a CCTV network employee. “It isn’t like corruption never existed before, but now there’s a bit more room to report on it.” Five current and former CCTV employees told Reuters that while the network had run critical reports on state-owned enterprises before, it was unusual to target a major entity such as Bank of China. All asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. CCTV could not be reached for comment. “The Bank of China investigative reporting by CCTV is definitely part of the government-wide push to clamp down on corruption and related activities,” another CCTV insider said, adding that Chinese-language TV channels were putting more resources into chasing investigative stories.

BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE

Jim Chanos On China Anti-Corruption – Business Insider But there was a whole new political element to Chanos’ negativity that we had not heard from him before. “The anti-corruption drive, which is something we’ve been focusing on for the last year and a half, since Xi Jinping has been in power, is actually much more than that,” Chanos told Rose. “It now appears to us to be a far more serious effort to cleanse the party. And if you look at the people’s daily overnight announcements — I mean, there is four or five headshots put up on Twitter and on their website, of people who have been taken away every night. I mean it’s almost as if you’re seeing a Soviet-style 1930s purge through a social media … People are falling out of buildings. I mean I’m not exaggerating …”  //  Yes he is. Who has been taken away at night? Social media media was effectively neutered last summer. No question Chanos is a master of hyberbolic media statements…Kudos to Charlie Rose who is very sharp on China…too bad Chanos’ performance numbers never leak…wonder how much he has made with his China short thesis over the years, I assume a lot given what we publicly know about how he was investing…but he needs better briefers on Chinese politics and foreign policy. 

Audi cuts spare-part prices in China amid anti-monopoly probe | Reuters repairs and parts at my Beijing Buick dealer are egregiously expensive  //  Volkswagen AG’s premium brand Audi said it would cut spare-part prices in China as global automakers rush to change their pricing strategies after Chinese anti-monopoly regulators began probing the auto industry. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s state planner, is investigating the industry amid domestic media complaints that foreign carmakers, using a dominant market position, are overcharging Chinese customers on products and spare parts.

1 pct of Chinese own one-third of national wealth: report – Xinhua About one percent of Chinese households own one-third of the nation’s wealth, raising concerns about income inequality in the world’s most populous country, according to a study by Peking University. Chinese households on average had a net worth of 439,000 yuan (about 71,000 U.S. dollars) in 2012, up 17 percent from the 2010 level, the university’s Institute of Social Science Survey said Friday in its latest report on China’s livelihood development // 北大报告:中国1%家庭占有全国三分之一以上财产 

北京商品住房成交下滑 市长：不会采取放松限购 _ 财经频道 _ 东方财富网(Eastmoney.com) Beijing mayor says officials will not lightly reduce housing purchase restrictions in the capital

西安“60平方米以下随便买” 楼市限购松绑涌向一线城市？_财经频道_一财网 Xian loosens housing purchase restrictions  //  西安某楼盘销售人员昨日向《第一财经日报》记者证实，60平方米以下住房限购确已松绑，当地楼盘已执行新政。 与西安同步放松限购的，还有长三角的无锡，同期首都北京也释放出“适度放开高端商品房项目”的调控思路，加之上周传出上海农行首套房贷款优惠的消息，本轮楼市调控放松新政的暗潮，已从二三线城市向一线城市涌动。

China Mortgage Discounts to Reappear in Shanghai in August | Mingtiandi According to a story from official news agency Xinhua, the bank – which is among China’s four largest – will begin offering a 5 percent discount on interest rates to clients borrowing at least RMB 2 million for first home purchases in Shanghai.

China Property Cooling Prompts Revival of Builder Bonds – Bloomberg China’s government is authorizing developer debt sales for the first time in five years in a bid to avoid bankruptcies as the property market cools…“The issuances are obviously an easing signal,” said Xu Hanfei, a bond analyst in Shanghai at Guotai Junan Securities Co., the nation’s third-biggest brokerage. “The CSRC will probably approve more note sales as long as developers have fund-raising demand. It would be helpful because bond costs are lower than trusts.”  //  who are the buyers?

Supervision shouldn’t pose “hurdles” to small firms: Premier – Xinhua Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has urged government organs to reduce administrative procedures for small firms, stressing supervision should not be a hurdle to small businesses. Li said the government should give a hand to small firms and supervision should not be like “hurdles in a race that lie in the way one after another.” He made the comments during a symposium with owners of small and micro-sized enterprises, according to a statement released Sunday on the website of the Chinese central government…Some 1.27 million firms were registered in the March-June period, up by 66.85 percent from a year ago, after a new business registration system with lower thresholds took effect on March 1.

Dark days descend on Chinese coal | Business Spectator More than 70 per cent of China’s coal firms are making losses, the head of the coal industry association said last week, with prices eroded by falling demand growth, a worsening supply glut and a war on smog. Wang Xianzheng, the chairman of the China Coal Industry Association, told an industry forum that the problems facing the coal sector were expected to get worse, official news agency Xinhua reported. Wang said the problems had been piling up for the sector since the second half of 2012, with slowing consumption growth unable to absorb sustained capacity increases, especially in the face of rising imports. He added that more than half of Chinese coal enterprises were now struggling to pay the wages of their workers.

北京国企改革路线图有望近期公布_宏观_中证网 roadmap for Beijing SOE reform to be released soon

POLITICS AND LAW

Liaoning businessman probed for alleged ties to ex-PLA chief: report | South China Morning Post Wang Chuncheng, 51, chairman of Liaoning-based Chuncheng Industry and Trade Group, was taken away by military prosecutors in April amid the investigation into the former top general, Caijing Magazine reported yesterday. It referred to Xu only by his surname or as “a big military tiger”. But it said an investigation into the “tiger” was launched on March 15, which is the day Xu was officially investigated for suspected corruption…Wang became close to Xu many years ago after Wang’s son was allegedly linked to a street fight in Fuxin , Liaoning, that led to the death of a 37-year-old man, it said. Wang was reportedly introduced to Xu through a friend in Dalian as he sought help to help settle the case. But he never bragged about his relationship with Xu, the report said, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.//媒体:铁路大亨王春成被查 曾向军方大老虎送房产_网易新闻中心 

China strengthens environment watch in auditing of officials’ economic performance – Xinhua Chinese authorities will focus on environmental protection, sci-tech innovation and improvement of people’s livelihood when evaluating the performance of officials in fulfilling their economic responsibilities, a circular published on Sunday said. According to the document jointly issued by the country’s audit, state-owned asset, and human resources and social security authorities and the Communist Party of China’s disciplinary inspection and organization departments, the economic responsibility audit of Chinese officials would give spotlight to the quality and sustainability of economic and social development. // how big a weighting? 经济责任审计细则出台:地方债反浪费等纳入审计 

State media promoting China’s leader Xi with intensity unseen since Mao era – The Washington Post According to Qian’s study, however, that trend against leader worship has eroded gradually over the years, with the change accelerating especially rapidly since Xi’s elevation in 2012. Xi’s name, for example, has been mentioned almost twice as frequently in party news articles as his two immediate predecessors and is catching up with Mao’s. In his first 18 months in power, Xi has been mentioned in 4,186 articles in the first eight pages of the People’s Daily, while Jiang and Hu appeared in less than 2,000 reports…Qian said the numbers suggest an intensification in propaganda exalting China’s top leadership position, but he cautioned in a phone interview that he is not trying to make any argument or interpretation about China’s prevailing political situation. He said his goal is merely to provide quantitative data for others to use in their studies of China’s opaque political system.// definitely looks to be a serious trend away from the collective leadership idea//  領袖姓名傳播強度觀察 錢鋼 香港大學新聞及傳媒研究中心 中國傳媒研究計劃主任  Xi seems to clearly signaling that he is in charge and the era of weak collective leadership is over, still don’t think we are heading for “Cult of Mao” like “Cult of Xi”

山西运城副市长王健康1个月未露面 系令政策妹夫_网易新闻中心 deputy mayor of Yuncheng. Shanxi has not been seen publicly for a month, is the husband of the younger sister of the wife recently detained Ling Zhengce, Ling Jihua’s older brother

令计划到中国藏学研究中心调研|中国藏学研究中心|调研_凤凰资讯 media report July 25 on a visit by Ling Jihua to the Tibetan Studies Research Center, coverage seemed designed to dispel recent rumors of something imminent…that or this is a version of cat playing with the mouse between its paws?

社评：西方莫给中国反腐败泼冷水_评论_环球网 Global Times editorial lambastes recent Financial Times column by David Pilling on the corruption crackdown, sees it as part of broader Western hopes that China fails in the crackdown…the crackdown may fail but responsible policymakers and executives should prepare for it to be far more successful than most appear to have initially assumed //  英国《金融时报》近日刊文，对中国的反腐败说三道四。该报宣称中国的反腐败斗争“注定要失败”，说它是“党的审判，而非依法审判”，“是政治驱动的产物”。文章还预测，如果反腐败持续下去，“也许会像18世纪的法国那样带来不堪设想的后果：革命最终吞噬了自己”。 这种论调折射了西方社会对中国的典型偏见：这是个缺少执政合法性的国家，权力斗争是中国全部政治行为的主轴。依他们看来，在中国只有政治运动，连法制建设也充满政治的杀机。所以《金融时报》把当前中国的反腐败看成是“清洗”。 我们不知道，《金融时报》的文章是否代表了西方力量准备把中国反腐败树立成舆论靶子的一个信号。

党报:取缔不合理收入 干部涨工资才会被社会理解_网易新闻中心 因此，看待干部待遇，关键是要处理好公与私的关系，解决好世界观、人生观、价值观这个“总开关”问题。克己奉公、一心为民，是领导干部执政用权的基本要求，更是正确认识待遇的逻辑起点。社会经济在发展、生活水平在提高，干部待遇理应改善，保障体系理应完善，然而，取缔不合理收入，恰恰是增加合理收入的前提；改善待遇更应遵守法度、符合政策，不能以权谋私、中饱私囊。惟其如此，干部待遇才能规范透明，给干部涨工资、提待遇才会得到更多社会理解。

党报谈官员贪腐:领导干部家事往往含着政事_网易新闻中心 People’s Daily piece on official corruption says leading cadres’ family affairs are also political affairs

中央巡视组进驻西藏:严查重要岗位”带病提拔”_网易新闻中心 CCDI inspection team has arrived in Tibet

北京“小官巨腐”案频发 乡企老总涉受贿千万–财经–人民网 CCDI inspection discovered that some grassroots officials in Beijing are corrupt and very rich…imagine what it must be like around the country…

中央巡视组缘何点名“小官巨腐”，“苍蝇”里也有土豪-新闻频道-和讯网 more on the corrupt Beijing grassroots officials

中共抢夺网络话语权 三大媒体平台同竞技_中国_多维新闻网 【多维新闻】中国大陆的媒体圈中，澎湃新闻、前海传媒、新华社发布三家媒体平台可谓风头正劲，被视为陆媒自救式的“媒变”行动。这三家媒体均有一个共性——由官方注资成立，也就是具有官方背景。分析人士认为，此举是中共应对媒体传播方式变化，在移动传媒时代争夺网络话语权的尝试。然而，迎新不易，皆因辞旧之难。在旧体制、旧观念、旧思想束缚下，融合、创新不会是一个其乐融融的过程。 日前，《中国新兴媒体融合发展报告（2013-2014）》在北京发布。这份由众多中国官方媒体联合发布的报告称，国家战略强力推进中国迈向新兴媒体强国，为新兴媒体提供了巨大发展空间。之后，澎湃新闻、前海传媒、新华社发布，三家新媒体传出即将上线的消息。

CPC scholar warns of challenges of cyberspace, ideology – Xinhua In an article published in the People’s Daily, the CPC’s flagship newspaper, Han Qingxiang, a professor with the Party School, said that despite China’s repeated stance for peaceful development, common interests and its commitment to building a harmonious world, some established powers still see it as a “threat” and are trying to contain the country’s development. Moreover, foreign ideological challenges, such as a peremptory interpretation of “democracy” as well as notions of “neoliberalism” and “historical nihilism,” have been imported to China, the article said. The article noted that some Western forces are using their interpretation of the concepts of “freedom, democracy and human rights” as instruments to instigate discontent and frustration toward the socialist system and CPC leadership in China. Also, within China, systemic loopholes and resistance by vested interests have thwarted the country’s reforms, and economic development has been challenged by depleted resources and a worsening environment, it said.

Chinese police ‘punched and beat’ MH370 families – Telegraph Relatives complain they have been denied access to images showing their loved-ones embarking on the doomed Boeing 777 that disappeared in March while flying to Beijing

善于运用法治思维和法治方式开展政法工作（深入学习贯彻习近平同志系列重要讲话精神） Secretary General of the Central Politics and Law Committee Wang Yongqing 汪永清 on page 7 of Monday’s People’s Daily on being good at using rule of law thinking and rule of law methods to develop politics and law work

FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS

首部《军队奖励和表彰管理规定》将于8月1日起施行-时政频道-新华网 新华网北京７月２７日电（记者王东明）经中央军委主席习近平批准，由解放军总参谋部、总政治部、总后勤部、总装备部制定的《军队奖励和表彰管理规定》日前印发全军和武警部队，并将于８月１日起施行。这是我军首部将奖励和表彰两种褒扬形式作为整体进行系统规范的专门法规，将对健全完善我军激励机制和荣誉制度体系，更好地发挥奖励和表彰的导向作用提供更加有力的法制化保障。

Retired military officials ordered to return extra homes – Xinhua According to a circular issued by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army(PLA) general departments of staff, politics, logistics and armament, and the discipline body of the Central Military Commission (CMC), military and armed police officials and their families may only occupy one public housing unit in a single city, and its size must be appropriate for the official’s rank, the PLA Daily reported Friday. Officials were ordered to give back extra properties if they have more than one military-owned apartment or their combined size exceeds the allowance for their ranks. They are also asked to give up public housing if they have purchased cheaper commercial housing with government or military subsidies, according to the circular, which was endorsed by CMC Chairman Xi Jinping. In the meantime, the families of deceased officials are asked to vacate extra military housing if they already own real estate property. The Chinese military detected irregularities in housing and infrastructure construction during an inspection that started in June 2013. The inspection is part of a broader anti-graft campaign launched by the military after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in November 2012.

China re-creates sunken historic warship in appeal for stronger naval forces – AJW by The Asahi Shimbun July 25 marked the 120th anniversary of the Battle of Pungdo, in which the fight between Japan and China’s Qing dynasty to gain control over the Korean Peninsula took to the seas. By erecting the 80-meter-long reproduction of the warship Zhiyuan, the Chinese government is making a statement about the necessity of strengthening the country’s naval forces, and attempting to draw the public’s attention to China’s maritime interests.

媒体:重造致远舰劳民伤财 不如设坛立碑海祭_网易新闻中心 not everyone happy with this Zhiyuan reconstruction // 核心提示：环球时报7月24日报道，投资3700万元建造“致远”纪念舰的消息传出后，一部分人认为甲午战争是一段耻辱的历史，复制“致远”舰是在复制失败和耻辱。但值得深思的是，用大笔资金，再造一艘既不能行驶又不能实用的舰，实在物非所值。

Western radio broadcasters tuning out–The Straits Times For 67-year-old Victor Goonetilleke, sitting with his headphones on in his house in the lush green Sri Lankan countryside, June 30 was the end of an era. Voice of America’s (VOA) short-wave broadcasts to Asia abruptly went off the air, raising howls of protest from many of the US government-funded broadcaster’s listeners across the region. But as the broadcasts had already been greatly diminished, this was not a surprise. The big Western radio broadcasters have gradually ceded the political “soft power” space they once dominated to a new heavyweight: China Radio International (CRI).

China’s military muscle-flexing ensnarls air traffic–TheAge China will conduct a series of live-fire military training drills in the East China Sea from Tuesday, coinciding with the announcement of massive flight cancellations due to separate wide-scale military exercises on land. Though live-fire drills in the bitterly contested East China Sea are not uncommon, the scale and sustained length of the various coordinated military exercises are unprecedented.  The drills – which disrupt civilian airspace creating long delays for travellers – come during a period of sensitive anniversaries in the tension-filled region.

陆军第40集团军某旅319人被问责 多人训练造假_新闻_腾讯网 319 marines disciplined for cheating on tests// 陆军第40集团军某摩步旅推行军事训练问责制，先后有319人被问责。多名战士武装拉练考核时偷偷减少负重，3名科长跑3000米时安排士兵半路潜伏，偷偷帮忙。

The Real U.S.-China War Asia Should Worry About: The “Range War” | The National Interest fat years ahead for us and prc military industrial complexes…hard to see how this cycle breaks, too much money to be made on both sides  //  Are U.S. forces in the Pacific really “out-sticked” by Chinese missiles and aircraft with greater range? China’s ship- and submarine-launched antiship cruise missiles (ASCMs), such as the YJ-83 (range of 160 kilometers), the SS-N-22 Sunburn (up to 250 km) and the SS-N-27 Sizzler (300 km) outrange the U.S. Navy’s legacy Harpoon ASCM (124 km). In a surface naval battle, U.S. ships might have to endure a volley of Chinese missiles before surviving U.S. ships could sail within range to respond. U.S. planners may count on their comparative advantage in submarines and undersea operations to dominate an adversary’s warships. But China’s land-based air and missile forces present another layer of trouble for U.S. and allied forces in the region. Just as with naval missiles, China has gained a range advantage with its land-based air and missile forces

China to conduct military drill in SE coastal areas – Xinhua Military exercises only have a limited impact on civil aviation, it said, adding that they are not the major factor behind recent flight delays, which were mainly the result of meteorological conditions. The armed forces have been taking measures to cut military activities’ influence on civil aviation in recent years and will continue to do so in the future, according to the statement.

乙晓光升任副总参谋长_政经频道_财新网 出身军人世家，是特级飞行员，成目前最年轻正大军区级将领

王力任总装备部副部长_政经频道_财新网 据《解放军报》消息，7月25日，全军基本建设项目和房地产资源普查工作领导小组第二次全会在京召开。总后勤部部长赵克石主持会议并讲话，总政治部副主任杜金才、总装备部副部长王力出席会议。这是官方首次披露王力的履新消息。

China’s Navy Shows Off Massage Techniques in Soft-Power Display – Bloomberg There are no guns in sight as Senior Captain Sun Tao stands on the deck of the Peace Ark that’s taking part in the five-week-long Rim of the Pacific Exercise, known as Rimpac. Inside the ship, sailors tuck into fatty pork and steamed buns, watching President Xi Jinping on state television, while others give out Chinese massages. “The Chinese navy now is acting on orders to have a cooperative and open attitude,” Sun said after Chinese navy cameramen filmed reporters visiting its eight operating theaters, dental facilities and CT scanner. “I think cooperative areas are growing wider.”

Satellites and seafood: China keeps fishing fleet connected in disputed waters | Reuters On China’s southern Hainan island, a fishing boat captain shows a Reuters reporter around his aging vessel. He has one high-tech piece of kit, however: a satellite navigation system that gives him a direct link to the Chinese coastguard should he run into bad weather or a Philippine or Vietnamese patrol ship when he’s fishing in the disputed South China Sea. By the end of last year, China’s homegrown Beidou satellite system had been installed on more than 50,000 Chinese fishing boats, according to official media. On Hainan, China’s gateway to the South China Sea, boat captains have paid no more than 10 percent of the cost. The government has paid the rest.

HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN

Pro-democracy website House News closes, citing political pressure, low revenue | South China Morning Post House News, a pro-democracy news website and blog, announced its sudden closure yesterday. A co-founder cited fear, political pressure and low advertising revenues as reasons. In a letter posted on the website’s front page, Tony Tsoi Tung-ho, said he and his family had been increasingly influenced by the spreading “white terror” in society, as a number of democracy advocates had been followed, had their past investigated and been smeared.

In Chinese shadow, Hong Kong fights for its future-AP In the eyes of Chan and others, Beijing’s influence has also hit the city’s thriving private media. Most newspapers no longer run stories critical of the Chinese government, and even multinational banks HSBC and Standard Chartered recently raised suspicions by pulling advertising from the city’s sole pro-democracy newspaper, the Apple Daily. HSBC said in a statement that the advertising decision was purely commercial, and Standard Chartered said it came after a review of their advertising strategy. In a report released this month, Hong Kong’s journalists’ association called the past 12 months “the darkest for press freedom for several decades,” citing among other events a cleaver attack in February that left an outspoken former editor at the Ming Pao newspaper in critical condition. Last year, the French press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders ranked Hong Kong 61st in press freedom, a steep fall from No. 18 in 2002.

China denounces British parliament’s inquiry into Hong Kong affairs – Telegraph China denounced the launch of a British parliamentary inquiry into the affairs of Hong Kong that has begun 30 years after the two countries agreed on the return of the financial hub to Beijing. Earlier this week, British parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee opened an inquiry into how British foreign ministry monitors the implementation of a 1984 agreement between Beijing and London that paved the way for the 1997 return of the British colony to China.

TECH AND MEDIA

Rise Of Chinese Box Office – Business Insider Hollywood has little leverage in China, however, as studios have been forced to accept less favorable business terms. As reported by The Wrap, studios receive around only 23% of ticket sales in China compared to around 50% in the U.S., and in some cases they have had trouble collecting earnings

PLA General’s Granddaughter excites on The Voice | TheNanfang Weibo user 王小呆 who claims to be an online entertainment commentator, wrote: “Ye Qingqing is the granddaughter of Ye Jianying. Her stepmother is Zhao Xinyu, a famous socialist in Beijing. Back then Zhao had a falling out with Zhang Ziyi (actress and now Wang Feng’s girlfriend) who orchestrated the now infamous 2010 “Ink Gate” scandal, which hurt Zhang’s career. Not sure what Wang Feng’s reaction was when he saw the daughter of his girlfriend’s nemesis on the stage. He is also the only judge that did not turn his chair”. The post was reposted close to 6,000 times and was liked by more than 1,500 people by the end of Sunday on Sina Weibo.

Chinese consumers shrug off iPhone extraction risk – Xinhua Consumers at the world’s largest mobile phone market have shown indifference after Apple acknowledged that personal data can be extracted from iPhones through previously unpublicized techniques. Their reasons to brush off the potential risks of leaked personal data including text messages, contact lists and photos by using the Apple products range from the ubiquitous imperfection of electronic gadgets to die-hard obsession.  // not sure the Chinese government will be this blase

SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY

The forgotten army of the first world war: How Chinese labourers helped shape Europe | South China Morning Post A special report sheds light on the hundreds of thousands of forgotten migrants of fortune who toiled through the Great War

Artful Dodge: Why Chinese Collectors Are ‘Borrowing’ Their Own Pieces – China Real Time Report – WSJ Rather than take it home, he had it sent instead to West Bund, a bonded art warehouse in Shanghai’s Xu Hui neighborhood. He then “borrowed” the cup from the warehouse for use in his private museum for six months, after which he will take it back to the warehouse, then “borrow” it for another six months, and so on. The aim of all that back-and-forth, which could in theory continue in perpetuity: to avoid paying roughly $6.2 million in value-added taxes.

七访民喝药背后的泗洪拆迁：政府绕过法院直接强拆_深度_新京报网 The Beijing News looks at the land dispute behind the petitioners’ attempted group suicide in front of the China Yuuth Daily offices July 16  //  7月16日早晨，7名来自江苏泗洪青阳镇的中年男女在北京某单位门前喝下农药。这7人在泗洪的房产遭遇拆迁，他们认为拆迁补偿不合理，曾多次向有关部门反映但未得到回应。据了解，泗洪政府在征收拆迁房屋过程中，没有发布拆迁公告，未出示相关手续批文，且补偿标准过低。并且政府未通过法院，而是由住建局和镇政府人员带着施工队直接进行强拆。

Sinica: Hong Kong Protests and Suicide in China discussion This week on Sinica, we’re delighted to welcome back the stalwart Mr. Gady Epstein, Beijing correspondent for The Economist, to discuss the recent protests in Hong Kong, as well as the flux in China’s suicide rates. And specifically, we’ll be looking at the similarities and differences in the stories told by officials and rural women on this front.

ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH

Trail of Medical Missteps in a Peace Corps Death – NYTimes.com Nick Castle had just graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, when he loaded up his backpack with Mandarin-language books and set off for rural China to teach in the Peace Corps. Seven months later, in January 2013, a 2 a.m. telephone call jolted his parents awake. “Your son Nick is very ill,” a Peace Corps official from Washington told them. Mr. Castle, weak from diarrhea and vomiting, had collapsed that day in the city of Chengdu and was in a hospital in a coma.

China Planning ‘Higgs Boson Factory’ With World’s Biggest Super Collider – Yahoo News UK China is planning to build a “Higgs factory”, creating a 52km super collider that will smash electrons and positrons together. Scientists at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing are planning to build the collider – which would be the world’s biggest collider – by 2028.

U.S. Sets Duties on Solar-Energy Gear From China, Taiwan – Bloomberg will this hurt US consumers?  //  The U.S. Commerce Department proposed expanded penalties on some Chinese solar-energy imports in a victory for the U.S. unit of SolarWorld AG (SWVK), which accused China of shifting production to Taiwan after it lost an earlier case. The agency issued a preliminary finding yesterday that said overseas producers, including China’s Trina Solar Ltd. and Taiwan’s Gintech Energy Corp. (3514), sold the goods in the U.S. at unfairly low prices, a practice known as dumping. It called for duties ranging as high as 165 percent for some Chinese manufacturers and 44 percent for those in Taiwan, according to a department fact sheet.

China introduces new acupuncture treatment protocols – Xinhua | English.news.cn The National Technical Committee on Acupuncture and Moxibustion Standardization Administration of China and China Association of Acupuncture-Moxibustion (CAAM) issued the protocols. The protocols address different aspects of the therapies, such as the use of acupuncture needles, how to treat asthma with acupuncture therapy and the dictionary of medical terms used in acupuncture and moxibustion therapies.  //  acupuncture cured my asthma I’d had since was a toddler.

The Outlook for a Chinese Pivot to Gas–NBR Chen Weidong (Chief Energy Researcher at the CNOOC Energy Economics Institute) offered insights on China’s ambitious targets for increasing gas consumption and reducing coal’s role in its energy mix, how energy pricing plays a key role, and the impact of environmental concerns on Chinese energy policy.

BEIJING

Beijing Restricting Expansion of Businesses Around Forbidden City | the Beijinger The move is part of the city government’s efforts to reduce traffic and pollution in the city center. With a plan to create a 100-million person megacity that would include Beijing, Tianjin, and parts of Hebei province under consideration, relocating businesses, universities, and government ministries to areas away from central Beijing are all possible.

北京10万“小人物”潜伏反恐 包括送水工保洁员_新闻_腾讯网 100,000 Beijing “little people” are hidden anti-terror fighters