"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
Tomorrow night in Washington, DC I am moderating the rock star panel China in 2016: Historical Perspectives with Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Mei Fong, Susan Lawrence and Richard McGregor. It starts at 7PM and is free and open to the public. If you attend please say hello afterwards.
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
1. [视频]中央军委联勤保障部队成立大会在京举行CCTV节目官网-CCTV-1央视网(cctv.com) 中央军委联勤保障部队成立大会今天在北京八一大楼隆重举行。中共中央总书记、国家主席、中央军委主席习近平向武汉联勤保障基地和无锡、桂林、西宁、沈阳、郑州联勤保障中心授予军旗并致训词，代表党中央和中央军委向联勤保障部队全体指战员致以热烈的祝贺。他强调，要牢记使命、勇挑重担，以党在新形势下的强军目标为引领，深入贯彻新形势下军事战略方针，推进政治建军、改革强军、依法治军，按照联合作战、联合训练、联合保障的要求加快部队建设，努力建设一支强大的现代化联勤保障部队。// China sets up joint logistics force, Xi confers flags-Xinhua
2. Tianjin Mayor Caught Up in Xi’s Antigraft Campaign – The New York Times Mr. Huang rose up the party ranks in Zhejiang Province, in eastern China, where his career path briefly crossed with that of Mr. Xi, who worked there as governor and provincial party secretary. // also worked under Zhang Dejiang for several years in Zhejiang and under Zhang Gaoli in Tianjin for several years….the file Xi and Wang Qishan must have on on Zhang Gaoli and his family no doubt quite useful in making him very obedient….
Related: Rising star: Hubei Communist Party secretary Li Hongzhong named Tianjin party chief ahead of China’s power reshuffle | South China Morning Post Beijing-based political analyst Zhang Lifan said that Li was still young compared with his rivals for further promotions. “Li has a good chance of landing a Politburo membership next year according to his latest appointment,” said Zhang, adding: “But uncertainty is out there, especially when there is still a year to go before the party congress.” // his bio, interesting that spent time in Ministry of Electronics Industry, Guangdong and Shenzhen, was also one of the first provincial leaders to come out saying Xi is the “core”…though Huang Xingguo also was early with the “core” stuff and a lot of good it did him…李鸿忠任天津市委书记 不再担任湖北省委书记
3. U.S. Spies Think China Wants to Read Your E-Mail – Bloomberg View For more than a decade, the U.S. military and intelligence community has quietly warned that the world’s largest telecom equipment manufacturer, Huawei, is an arm of the People’s Liberation Army and that its phones, circuits and routers are instruments of Chinese eavesdropping. Now these agencies are starting a formal review, led by the FBI and the NSA, examining the national security implications of Huawei’s potential participation in building the U.S. 5G wireless network, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials. // can’t be easy for the US government and US firms to lobby Beijing to not “deglobalize” the PRC IT stack…unfortunately Snowden demonstrated to anyone in Beijing not already paying attention that there are tremendous security risks from relying on US gear for the core of the PRC’s IT stack…and the PRC tech industry is now “good enough” in enough areas and the financial incentives to use local firms so great that it is hard to see any foreign lobbying changing the minds that matter in Beijing
4. China’s Soft Power Rap “This is China” Blasted for Plagiarizing Korean Rapper | the Beijinger In June of this year, China’s soft power machine took to a new medium to dispel any misunderstandings that the world may have about the nation: a rap song titled “This is China,” with lyrics squarely aimed at overseas listeners with the message: China’s great, but give us a break because it’s incredibly hard to govern such a vast country. Now, in both equal parts embarrassing and ironic – highlighting some of China’s ongoing issues with governance of intellectual property rights – the track’s video has been caught red-handed lifting some of its central imagery directly from a well-known South Korean rapper.
5. China’s Gold Rush in the Hills of Appalachia | Foreign Policy Buyers in Hong Kong and Beijing are paying top dollar for wild American ginseng, fueling a digging frenzy that could decimate the revered root for good.// does wild American Ginseng grow in DC’s Rock Creek Park?
6. FT Investigation: How China bought its way into Cambodia — FT.com The UDG investment has received high-level political and military backing in Beijing since the private company, which is based in the northern city of Tianjin, secured its unusually large land concession — which cedes control of 20 per cent of Cambodia’s total coastline — in 2008. Zhang Gaoli, a member of China’s Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of the country’s ruling Communist party, presided over the signing ceremony for UDG’s investment, according to documents obtained by the FT. Since then, the project — called Dara Sakor and which also includes plans for an international airport, hospitals, international schools, five-star hotels and tourism resorts — has been endorsed by military leaders in both countries.
7. In Pictures: Violent standoff, raids and tear gas as police arrest 13 in Wukan ‘democracy village’ | Hong Kong Free Press Police have arrested 13 people in the Guangdong village of Wukan after 85 days of villagers’ demonstrations calling for the release of their jailed leader. In the early morning of Tuesday, around 4am, SWAT police broke down doors and arrested 13 people in the village, according to sources cited by Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao. // the relatively “soft” approach has clearly failed…and very bad timing for Guangdong Party Secretary Hu Chunhua to have such a mess occur again under his leadership…
8. Meet Donald Trump’s feng shui master | US news | The Guardian The offices of feng shui masters Pun-Yin and her father Tin-Sun inhabit a dimly lit basement space, replete with lush plants and gurgling fountains, deep in New York City’s Chinatown. Inside, framed photos decorate the walls, including one taken some 20 years ago. In it, the then 27-year-old Pun-Yin stood front-and-center before a group of people –among them a young socialite called Marla Maples, and a slightly less orange Donald Trump. The caption beneath it reads: “Photo taken at the Trump Int’l Hotel & Tower groundbreaking and blessing Ceremony on June 1995.”
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
US takes China to WTO over farm subsidies — FT.com Washington has stepped up a trade crackdown on China in recent months, introducing steep anti-dumping tariffs on steel imports, launching a flurry of new WTO cases and pushing to resist China’s demands to be treated as a market economy under WTO rules. Tuesday’s case is the 14th it has filed against China during Mr Obama’s presidency but its first major action against Beijing on behalf of the powerful US grain export sector.
About that China infrastructure paper that is making the rounds | Andrew Batson’s Blog A couple of people have asked what I think about this paper on Chinese infrastructure that is making the rounds, which claims that China “is headed for an infrastructure-led national financial and economic crisis.” It’s rather an obnoxious paper to read, in that it aggressively attacks a straw-man position that few people actually hold, and makes grand macro claims about China based on rather equivocal micro data. The general conclusion is certainly not wrong, though it is a fairly widely held view: China is very likely over-investing in infrastructure, and this is going to have negative consequences for its future growth and debt dynamics. But the actual content of the paper does not do as much to support this view as the authors claim. Here I will try to explain what I think is wrong with the paper, and outline the real reasons why China’s infrastructure investment is problematic.
China Postal Savings Bank $8.1 billion IPO mostly covered by cornerstone investors | Reuters The group of six cornerstone investors will buy as much as $5.86 billion worth of stock on offer, or about 72 percent of the IPO, underscoring tepid demand for Hong Kong offerings from retail investors and fund managers in the city. That would put it near the record 77 percent cornerstone tranche for the $810 million listing of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co Ltd (1606.HK) in July.
China’s economy perks up in August, thanks to housing boom, gov’t spending | Reuters Industrial output grew the fastest in five months as demand for products from coal to cars rebounded, though analysts warned the outlook is clouded by weakness in manufacturing investment and a lack of spending by private firms. “It is very clear that the data is improving because of the property market. This is not sustainable,” Commerzbank economist Zhou Hao said.
Sinology by Andy Rothman – Cleaning Up China’s Debt: Q&A Rothman must be getting lonely in the bull camp // The debt problem is serious, but the risk of a hard landing or banking crisis is, in my view, low. The key reason for that is that the potential bad debts are corporate, not household debts, and were made at the direction of the state—by state-controlled banks to state-owned enterprises. This provides the state with the ability to manage the timing and pace of recognition of nonperforming loans. It is also important to note that the majority of potential bad debts are to state-owned firms, while the privately owned companies that employ the majority of the workforce and account for the majority of economic growth have been deleveraging. Additional positive factors are that China’s banking system is very liquid, and that the process of dealing with bad debts has begun.
Yuan Liquidity Squeeze a Bad Sign for China’s Equity Market – Bloomberg “They want the currency to be relatively steady because we’re getting into SDR and they don’t want it to depreciate substantively before that,” said Hao Hong, chief China strategist at Bocom in Hong Kong, one of the few who predicted the start and peak of China’s equity boom. “So you have to give up the equity market. Of all the asset markets, I think the equity market is the least of concern now” to China’s policy makers, he said.
Yum Brands, McDonald’s Explore China Pullback-Caixin Both Yum and McDonald’s are reshuffling their China operations partly due to “pressures from investors,” said an investor who closely followed the Yum and McDonald’s deals and who asked not to be named. The companies are “taking the chance to cash out during the market downturn and reduce risks in the regional business,” said the investor, adding that both companies showed a clear intention to “improve (their) market value” in the short term.
Debt Defaults Prompt Call For Creditor Committees-Caixin The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) issued a notice on Friday that told banks to set up creditor committees not only to protect their rights but also, when possible, to help companies struggling to repay their debts to get back on their feet. Although the notice was aimed at banks, other financial institutions approved by the CBRC can also participate.
Top official at China’s central bank disciplined for paying for banquets, holiday with public money | South China Morning Post Assistant governor Yang Ziqiang partly used the cash for trip to Qingdao with his family, anti-graft agency says
Shanghai Police Find Root of Rumors That Sparked Home-Buying Frenzy – China Real Time Report – WSJ According to a police statement, a 34-year-old Shanghai property-sales manager—identified only by her surname, Shen—said she had been notified in late August that city officials would meet the following week to possibly tighten bank-lending rules in September.
China Proposes Tighter Bond Market Leverage Rules After Defaults – Bloomberg The China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp. said a note investor’s outstanding repurchase contracts shouldn’t exceed 70 percent of debt holdings in the person’s account, according to one of two statements posted on the clearing house’s website on Friday. If an investor uses a security rated AA or AA+ as collateral, the amount shouldn’t be more than 10 percent of the bond’s total issuance, said the statement. The CSDC is seeking public opinions on the proposed regulations, it said.
The Terrible Amusement Park That Explains Chongqing’s Economic Miracle | Foreign Policy With China’s cities drowning in debt, one megalopolis is getting its books in order by selling off trained dolphins, Australian iron ore, and life insurance companies.
Many Province-Level Governments Aren’t Revealing Amount of Debt-Caixin More than a third of China’s 31 mainland provincial-level governments have failed to disclose to the public how much debt they have, even though they are required to do so, an investigation by the Finance Ministry found. In addition to the 11 provincial-level governments, authorities said, nearly 140 cities — more than 20 percent of China’s approximately 660 — had not released data detailing how much debt they had amassed by the end of 2014, the ministry said Thursday.
Former CEO of Harris Corp China unit settles FCPA offenses with SEC – The FCPA Blog – The FCPA Blog The former chief of Harris Corporation’s Carefx subsidiary in China agreed to pay the SEC a civil penalty for helping bribe officials with up to a million dollars in gifts and covering up the scheme in Harris’s books and records. Jun Ping Zhang, 50, a United States resident and citizen, paid a civil penalty of $46,000.
Xi’s $300 Billion Stimulus Playbook Elevates Beijing’s Control – Bloomberg While policy lending has better risk-reward tradeoffs than a broad credit expansion, it “runs counter to the stated objective of reducing government intervention in the allocation of credit,” according to Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The centrally planned spending, rather than being driven by banks or the markets, is a substitute for local-government financing vehicles that led the stimulus effort after the 2008 financial crisis, according to George Magnus, London-based senior independent economic adviser to UBS Group AG. “Policy development banks are the new LGFVs,” he said. Serving as a form of fiscal policy set by the central government, “the scale of their activities is more measured, and less reckless.” // why would it be less reckless?
Former China Development Bank executive expelled from party, office – Shanghai Daily YAO Zhongmin, a former senior executive of China Development Bank (CDB), has been expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and removed from office for corruption. The decision has been approved by the CPC Central Committee. The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced on Tuesday that Yao, former deputy Party chief and chairman of the board of supervisors at CDB, was found to have violated the Party political rules and code of conduct. // 两度犯禁 国开行原监事长姚中民被双开
快鹿系两平台涉非法集资被立案金融频道财新网 上海警方在快鹿系危机爆发6个月后终于介入，对快鹿旗下金鹿财行和当天财富以涉险非法吸收公众存款罪立案 // Shanghai police finally take on the case of P2P platform Kuailu, yet another p2p scam…
Peru’s president throws cold water on Chinese railway proposal | Reuters Peru President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said a transcontinental railway proposed by China to slash the costs of shipping Brazilian goods to Asia could be too expensive and environmentally harmful to build. Peru and China agreed to study the feasibility of a 5,300-kilometer (3,293-mile) railroad to link Brazil’s Atlantic coast with a port on Peru’s Pacific shores last year during the term of Kuczynski’s predecessor, Ollanta Humala.
It’s Time for China Analysts to Stop Talking Past One Another-Scott Kennedy | Foreign Policy In other words, the signals that China analysts are sending to policymakers are conflicted, and sometimes contradictory. One can only hope that China analysts from the opposing camps will step up their dialogue to hash out differences and set clearer yardsticks by which to judge China’s economic performance. It’s time to look at the rivers, the mountain, and the sky all at once. The stakes are too high to continue talking past one another.
A Third of China Malls Predicted to Close | Mingtiandi More bad news for China’s struggling brick and mortar retailers as a recent report from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Social Sciences Academic Press predicted as many as one-third of all shopping centers in China will close their doors during the next five years.
European Chamber in China Position Paper This year’s Position Paper includes: A review of the 13th Five-year Plan: a thorough analysis of the importance of the plan to European business’ position in the Chinese market. A ‘dusting off’ of the Third Plenum’s Decision’s reforms and evaluation of how their implementation—or the lack thereof—has continued to affect the Chinese business environment during the last 12 months. A review of the lack of reciprocity in bilateral investment relations. While Chinese investment in Europe has continued to grow rapidly, European business continues to face a wide range of restrictions on how it can contribute to the next stage of China’s economic development. The concerns of the European Chamber’s 25 workings groups about their respective sector’s operating environment.
POLITICS AND LAW
Supreme Court Procedure Reduces Death Sentences by 60%-Caixin China’s criminal-execution tally fell about 60 percent to “a few thousand” last year from more than 10,000 a decade earlier, according to academics who spoke at a legal forum Sunday. Spearheading the reduction was a 2006 decision by the Supreme People’s Court that introduced a system through which the supreme court reviews capital-punishment sentences before executions can take place.
中国司法领域人权保障的新进展-新华网 新华社北京9月12日电 国务院新闻办公室12日发表了《中国司法领域人权保障的新进展》白皮书。全文如下：// 人民日报评论员：不断进步的中国人权司法保障
Phone fraud still rampant in China despite massive crackdown | South China Morning Post Recent tragic cases in which students and lecturers have been swindled out of their savings prompts public security minister Guo Shengkun to label the crime a ‘major public hazard’
Mao Zedong’s China unrecognisable 40 years on from his death — FT.com Commemorations this year have been tightly curtailed and state media warned on Friday against anyone holding “extreme views” of the former dictator. This reflects the fact that Mao is more popular now than at any other time since his death, which brought an end to the disastrous decade of turmoil known as the Cultural Revolution. Historians estimate that Mao was responsible for between 40m and 70m deaths in his numerous political purges and a famine in the late 1950s caused by his “Great Leap Forward” economic policies. But for many in China, especially young people who are not taught about these “mistakes”, Mao represents a fairer and less corrupt age.
Comic Books and Political Education in China | 高大伟 在美国华盛顿人的博客 Coming to a New China Bookstore near you — Xi Jinping comic books — know both the red line and the bottom line!
Dozens of Chinese lawmakers expelled as vote-rigging scandal grinds Liaoning legislature a halt | South China Morning Post State-run CCTV reported that there was no precedent since 1949 for a provincial legislature to be made inoperable, and top national lawmakers had to come up with a remedy that would conform with the constitution. The election fraud in Liaoning was part of a bigger corruption scandal that saw its former Communist Party boss Wang Min, also an NPC Standing Committee member, detained as part of a graft investigation on the eve of the NPC’s annual meeting in March. // Caixin on this 辽宁全国人大代表贿选案人物谱（之一) and 辽宁全国人大代表贿选案人物谱（之二), CCTV Evening News on the case [视频]全国人大常委会表决通过关于辽宁省人大选举产生的部分十二届全国人大代表当选无效的报告、关于成立辽宁省十二届人大七次会议筹备组的决定 Wang Min in a lot of trouble, would not be surprised if he gets the death penalty
加强回应机制建设 提升舆情应对水平–舆情频道–人民网 人民网9月13日电 9月13日下午2点，由人民网主办、人民网舆情监测室承办的2016年政务舆情回应座谈会，在北京人民日报社新媒体大厦举行。人民网总编辑余清楚出席座谈会并致辞。十二届全国政协外事委员会副主任、国务院新闻办原副主任王国庆，北京市政府新闻办原主任王惠，国家食药监督总局新闻宣传司司长、新闻宣传中心主任颜江瑛，国家行政学院公共管理教研部教授竹立家，清华大学新闻与传播学院常务副院长陈昌凤，及其他中央部委、央企代表出席了此次座谈会。人民网舆情监测室秘书长祝华新担任会议主持。
SPC Judge Zhou Fan–another fallen tiger? | Supreme People’s Court Monitor According to the Caixin report, he is one of the judges linked with former Vice President of the SPC, Xi Xiaoming (earlier posts on Xi found here and here). The Caixin report mentions other allegations against Judge Zhou, such as cooperating with litigation brokers and interfering in major commercial disputes.The dates of the alleged conduct are not specified.
Kong Xiangjun Leaves Supreme People’s Court and Enters Academia | China IPR – Intellectual Property Developments in China Chinese and Western media have reported that former Supreme People’s Court IPR Tribunal Chief Judge Kong Xiangjun and former Deputy Chief Judge of the SPC’s first Circuit Court has been dismissed from his work at the SPC. Shanghai Jiaotong University, Koguan Law School also announced on September 7 that he would be joining their faculty.
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
China Blames U.S. for North Korea Threat, Questions Sanctions – Bloomberg “The crux of the Korean nuclear issue lies not in China but in the U.S. as this issue is nothing but conflict between the DPRK and the U.S.,” China Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing in Beijing on Monday, using an acronym for North Korea. She was responding to calls by President Barack Obama for China to tighten up sanctions against Kim Jong Un’s regime prior to its fifth — and biggest — nuclear test last week.
Chinese Coast Guard Blocks Filipino Fishermen Again from Scarborough Shoal | South China Sea Research The Chinese coast guard has blocked Filipino fishermen again from entering Scarborough Shoal, GMA News’ Jiggy Manicad reported on “State of the Nation with Jessica Soho.”. The fishermen on board four fishing vessels said the Coast Guard vessels closed in on them and that they also heard horn signals. They added that the Chinese personnel also cut loose the anchor of their boats.
China Lays New Brick in Silk Road With First Afghan Rail Freight – Bloomberg With the first train last week pulling in to Hairatan, northern Afghanistan, China marked another advance in President Xi Jinping’s Silk Road project to deepen his nation’s influence along old trade routes. For Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the new link also marks a small step toward a dream of turning his landlocked country into a transit hub of Asia.
China Increasing Overseas Ambitions with Maritime Silk Road – SPIEGEL ONLINE Both the place and the circumstances under which Xi Jinping informed the world about his plan turned out to be symbolic. For the occasion, he chose a visit to Indonesia, the country where his American counterpart Barack Obama grew up. The leader of the United States, the self-proclaimed “Pacific Nation,” was unable to attend the subsequent summit meeting of Pacific leaders in Bali for scheduling reasons. A budget crisis had kept him held up in Washington. “That was just a coincidence,” says senior official Tan Jian, who helped to draft Xi’s speech in 2013. “We didn’t plan that. We are not imperialists and we do not want to colonize the world.
Behind China’s Firewall, Google Maps Shows Nine-Dash Line – China Real Time Report – WSJ Google Maps has found itself in a bit of a kerfuffle on social media after some users noticed that some of its maps highlighted the controversial so-called nine-dash line that marks China’s claims over the South China Sea. On Twitter, several China watchers pointed out Google Maps images of long dashes near Taiwan and the Philippines. One Twitter user wrote to @googlemaps, “Hello. Was there a recent maps update to officially recognize the 9/10 dash line in #SouthChinaSea?” The nine-dash line was rejected this summer by an international tribunal, which said China couldn’t use it to claim historic rights to most of the South China Sea.
China says interests outweigh differences with Vietnam | Reuters in Beijing, Xi told Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc that “China and Vietnam can manage their differences and promote maritime cooperation through friendly negotiations”, the official Xinhua news agency said. “The common interests between the two countries far outweigh the differences,” it paraphrased Xi as saying. The South China Sea issue should be resolved by bilateral consultations and maritime challenges transformed into opportunities for cooperation, Xi added. Phuc met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang a day earlier.
‘We’ve Got To Continue To Engage’ China: CNO Richardson « Breaking Defense Despite rising tensions in the South China Sea, the US Navy’s top admiral says his Chinese counterparts “by and large” behave professionally, not provocatively, when the two nations meet at sea. And precisely because of those tensions, Adm. John Richardson said, it’s all the more important to emphasize cooperating with China, not confronting it. Indeed, while Richardson carefully avoided making policy statements, he sounded much more optimistic about China than either Russia or Iran, whose forces have made dangerously close approaches to US ships in recent weeks.
Chinese military aircraft in West Pacific for combat simulation drill – China Military The drill was a routine arrangement as part of the Air Force’s annual training plan, and conformed to international law and practice, said Shen. Drills at sea are common practices of coastal countries and a requirement of Chinese defense. The Chinese Air Force will organize drills at sea, off island chains at regular basis, Shen said.
China condemns Japan’s “shameless” weapon sales: Foreign Ministry – Xinhua According to media report, the Japanese Government is promoting the sale of weapons worth 1.6 billion U.S. dollars to India. Japan will lower the prices as much as possible in exchange for strengthened cooperation in defense and security and to encourage India to become more involved on the South China Sea issue. Hua Chunying, spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Tuesday that China has no objection to normal defense cooperation, but it would be a “shameless move” if somebody uses this for ulterior motives. // spoken like an expert in shameless…
China, Russia vow enhanced coordination in strategic security – Xinhua China and Russia on Monday vowed to strengthen communication, consultation and coordination in strategic security areas. The pledge came out of the 12th round of bilateral strategic and security consultation, which was co-chaired by Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council.
China, Russia start joint navy drill in South China Sea – China Military The “Joint Sea 2016” drill will run from September 12 to 19, and feature navy surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, marines and amphibious armored equipment. Wang Hai, Chinese chief director of the exercise and deputy commander of the Chinese Navy, said that the joint drill is “a strategic measure” and concrete action to promote the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination and deepen exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries, especially the two navies.
China Rethinks Its Alliance With Reeling Venezuela – WSJ Concerns about debt repayment and safety of expatriates prompt emergency meetings between Chinese envoy and state companies
China Set to Show Off J-31 Stealth Fighter, Y-20 Heavy Transport Aircraft Later This Year | The Diplomat China is set to show off its J-31 advanced stealth fighter and Y-20 heavy transport aircraft later this year at a trade show. According to Xinhua, China’s state-owned news agency, the Aviation Industry Corp. (AVIC) of China, a major state-owned defense aviation enterprise, will feature the two aircraft prominently at the upcoming 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in the southern city of Zhuhai, in Guangdong province. The show will open on November 1.
单仁平：骂《我们的战争》请别捎上抗美援朝评论环球网 Global Times’ “Danrenping” warns against using the offensive trailer for “Our War” to apply historical nihilism to the war to resist American aggression and aid Korea…there seems to be a bit of a resurgence of Korean War themed programming, the anti-American sentiment in popular media may be being dialed up, though it is still far from anti-Japanese programming…worth paying attention to…here is the trailer on Ku6
A hundred think tanks bloom in China | European Council on Foreign Relations A hundred think tanks bloom in China, the new edition of ECFR’s China Analysis series, collates the latest writing from Chinese language authors examining China’s “think tank Spring”. It finds that Xi Jinping’s call for the construction of “think tanks with Chinese characteristics” has led to a proliferation of institutes and an expansion of their portfolio of activities, their international networks and their public profiles.
Attacks have killed 44 Pakistanis working on China corridor since 2014 | Reuters Militants trying to disrupt construction of an “economic corridor” linking China with Pakistan’s coast have killed 44 workers since 2014, an official said on Thursday, a rising toll likely to reinforce Chinese worry about the project’s security. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a $46 billion network of roads, railways and energy pipelines linking western China to a deep-water port on Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast, which passes through Pakistan’s troubled Baluchistan province.
SaveSandy.org Sandy Phan-Gillis has been detained in China by the Chinese Spy Agency, the Ministry of State Security, since March 19, 2015, and has been charged with spying. Sandy is not a spy. Representatives of the Chinese Foreign Ministry have admitted as much. The purpose of this site is to provide information about Sandy and her case, and to help free her from her detention in China. This site is also meant to be a call to action, and suggests steps that you can take to help.
American Is Facing Spy Trial in China, and Husband Seeks Obama’s Help – The New York Times did Obama raise her case? // The indictment also charges that Ms. Phan-Gillis tried to recruit Chinese people in the United States in the late 1990s to work for a “foreign spy organization,” Mr. Gillis said. He said that that allegation was also false and that trying Ms. Phan-Gillis over allegations of events two decades ago in another country defied law and common sense.
Why are we scared of China? – Late Night Live – ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) a chat with Geremie Barme and Rory Metcalf // China’s attempts at ‘soft power’ via its reach into business, politics, media and universities raises questions about what its strategic interests are – and whether those interests tally with Australia’s. How much of our fear about China’s attempts to push its state barrows are real and how much of it is imaginary or over-played?
Media must go deeper than ‘yellow peril’ fear-mongering – Eureka Street The Chinese government is out to undermine every aspect of the Australian way of life, from our Census to the integrity of our democracy. Any day now the red flag of the Communist Party will be flying over Parliament House in Canberra … Or so, you’d be forgiven for believing. Chinese fear-mongering has hit a fever-pitch in Australia’s media in recent months and the lines between genuine concern and sensationalism is becoming increasingly blurred.
Australia cannot afford to spurn its Chinese diaspora-Lowy Interpreter-John Lee There is quantitative evidence that Asian-Australians suffer tangibly from negative stereotyping. This gives cause to doubt whether, in a climate of febrile reporting about Beijing’s fifth column in Australia, the public will distinguish among Chinese of different views, or even between Chinese-Australians and citizens of China…There are serious questions about Beijing’s influence in Australia, and China’s party-state makes no secret about its intent to mobilise overseas Chinese support. But tarring all ethnic Chinese as potential foreign agents (and to be clear, the public discourse is not there yet) is neither fair to individuals, nor good for Australia as a society.
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
Hong Kong judiciary could be undermined by China in struggle against independence calls Senior government and judicial sources say the standing committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) might invoke its right to interpret Hong Kong’s Basic Law – the mini constitution that guides the territory’s relationship to the mainland – to explicitly outlaw discussions of independence. If Beijing and its local allies try to use the law to shut down the independence activists, the role of the judiciary will be critical, since it could be called upon to judge if government has acted within its power. There was a “tangible risk” that the NPC might over-rule a finding in favour of the activists by Hong Kong’s highest court, said one senior source with close ties to Beijing and Hong Kong officials. “This would be very bad … It would be like initiating the end of the independence of the judiciary,” he said.
TECH AND MEDIA
Microsoft, Huawei Join in Cybersecurity Message – WSJ Chinese antitrust regulators are investigating Microsoft, and Huawei has been shut out of the U.S. telecommunications-equipment market over concerns it might be a front for cyberspying. None of that is good for business. And now the two have joined forces in a “buyers guide,” meant to allay fears that each new information-technology contract poses a cybersecurity threat. Aimed at governments and corporations shopping for information- and communications-technology products and services, it was produced in cooperation with the nonprofit EastWest Institute.
Qvod player management jailed for disseminating pornography – Xinhua Wang Xin, former CEO of Shenzhen-based Qvod Technology Co. Ltd., was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and was fined 1 million yuan (149,254 U.S. dollars), according to the Haidian District People’s Court. The other three executives were handed prison terms of up to three years and three months and must pay fines up to 500,000 yuan, according to the court.
China’s SAPPRFT Tightens Control on Interactive Video Broadcasting | Marbridge Consulting – China Internet News China’s State Administration of Press and Publication, Radio, Film, and Television (SAPPRFT) has elaborated on recent requirements published in August by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), effectively requiring interactive video broadcasters and platforms to apply for an Information Network Broadcasting License before being allowed to engage in live broadcasting.
Google’s Former China Chief Raises $674 Million in New Funds – Bloomberg The firm formerly known as Innovation Works recently closed its second yuan-denominated fund and its third U.S.-dollar fund, taking the total amount under management to more than $1.2 billion. The seven-year-old investment outfit now plans to add to a portfolio of almost 300 startups that include app store Wandoujia and Meitu, a developer of selfie apps that’s close to listing in Hong Kong.
Can China’s Best Newspaper Survive? | ChinaFile Conversation interesting conversation, though object to the title calling the SCMP China’s “best” newspaper… // On September 9, the SCMP’s Chinese-language website went dark with little explanation, leading to concerns that censorship might next spread to the newspaper’s English-language coverage….Wang Feng: On the reasons behind nanzao.com’s closure, I tend to agree with most media analysis so far: Alibaba is primarily interested in the global outreach via SCMP’s English-language platforms, and the homeward approach was not a high priority for them. That point was made abundantly clear by interviews given by Joe Tsai and Jack Ma after the Alibaba takeover. After trying unsuccessfully to unblock the Chinese sites, Alibaba and SCMP management probably decided that the several million pageviews the sites attracted were not worth the trouble of producing them. With the Chinese sites in particular, SCMP management faced the impossible job of trying constantly to please both Beijing on the one side, and discerning readers and media critics on the other.
创造中华文化新辉煌（深入学习贯彻习近平同志系列重要讲话精神·治国理政新思想新实践） September 14 p7 People’s Daily transcript of a dialogue with several scholars/experts on building a “socialist culture great power” // 主持人： 本报理论部高级编辑 叶 帆 嘉 宾： 中国文学艺术界联合会主席 孙家正 中国社会科学院原副院长、学部委员 汝 信 武汉大学党委副书记、教授 骆郁廷 北京交通大学马克思主义学院院长、教授 韩振峰
Western Digital Urges China to Tread Carefully on Chip Ambitions – Bloomberg Western Digital Corp. Chief Executive Steve Milligan warned that China’s burgeoning semiconductor industry may flood global markets if the rapid growth of domestic chipmaking capacity runs unchecked. The country’s ongoing effort to build a world-class microchip industry requires careful planning and consideration because a global glut — a persistent concern for a largely commoditized memory sector — benefited neither companies, the government nor the market, the executive told Bloomberg News.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Being Helen Foster Snow: A Q&A with Elyse Ribbons » The LARB Blog As part of Chinese TV’s efforts to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Long March this year, a dramatized 30-hour version of Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China has just wrapped filming. The book, which recounts the months in 1936 that Snow spent with the Chinese Red Army, is well known in China. The personal lives of its author and his wife Helen Foster Snow, however, are little known beyond their relationship to the famous Chinese leader Mao, who died forty years ago this week and whose record continues to be described as 70% good and only 30% bad, despite catastrophes like the Great Leap Famine. Red Star Over China is the first domestically produced series to star two non-ethnic Chinese actors. The series is also partly biographical, retracing the early days of Edgar and Helen’s romance in Shanghai in the early 1930s and following their adventures in China through to the early 1940s.
The People in Retreat: An Interview with Ai Xiaoming by Ian Johnson | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books Ai Xiaoming is one of China’s leading documentary filmmakers and political activists. Since 2004, she has made more than two dozen films, many of them long, gritty documentaries that detail citizen activism or uncover whitewashed historical events. Among them are Taishi Village, which recounts the efforts of farmers to remove a corrupt party secretary; The Epic of the Central Plains, which tells the story of an AIDS village in Henan province; a five-part series on the 2008 Beichuan Earthquake that focuses on the efforts of activist Tan Zuoren; and, most recently, a five-part documentary on Jiabiangou—a labor camp for political prisoners where thousands died of famine in the Great Leap Forward. Still in progress, it already totals seven hours.
Deadbeats Denied Seats on Airliners, Sleeper Trains-Caixin About 3.6 million people who have refused to meet their financial obligations to landlords, banks, employees and their own children have been barred from air travel and sleeper trains. The number of indebted deadbeats who are blacklisted as of Jan. 1 appeared in a white paper on human rights protection and the judicial system that was released Monday by the Information Office of the State Council, China’s cabinet.
“Why Foreigners Marry Ugly Chinese Girls” Causes Soul-Searching in China | The Nanfang Bai Ling (shown above) is an American-Chinese actress who has found fame working in the USA, but is not considered “beautiful” by Chinese standards. Qing explains Bai’s success as a product of her willingness to cater to the second standard: Bai has broken the mold of the traditional Asian beauty that had been entrenched in the mind’s eye of Americans. Even though many feel that Bai has discredited the dignity of the Chinese with her vulgar displays, she has been able to break into the white world of Hollywood and establish her own niche.
Marriage Falls in China, Transforming Finances and Families – The New York Times Fewer Chinese people are getting married, a shift with profound implications for China’s economic and social life. The decline in marriages means a decline in the number of babies, and potentially less spending on homes, appliances and other family-related purchases — the kind of spending China needs to drive economic growth.
An American Opera Company Adapts China’s ‘War and Peace’ – The New York Times It was a week before the premiere, and Bright Sheng, the composer and co-librettist of the new opera “Dream of the Red Chamber,” was already bracing for the backlash. To create his version of Cao Xueqin’s sprawling 18th-century classic about the decline of an aristocratic family in imperial China, Mr. Sheng reduced the book to its bare bones. The novel — over 2,400 pages in its standard English translation, twice as long as “War and Peace” — is told in a mere two hours and 20 minutes. Hundreds of characters have been cut, leaving just eight main figures in the final show, which runs from Saturday through Sept. 29 at San Francisco Opera.
These heartbreaking photos show what it’s like being a migrant in China – The Washington Post someone should also do a photo series on migrant workers have made it
再访皮村（报告文学）（深入生活 扎根人民）_人民日报(北京) 皮村，北京东五环外一个典型的农民工集聚地。全村两万多人口，农民工占了十之八九。一位农民工告诉我：“刚进城，我们住在三环，后来三环繁华了，房租太贵，就搬到四环；再后来，四环繁华了，又搬到五环、六环。城市变得越来越繁华了，我们却不断被边缘化……”…六年前，为了解新生代农民工的生存状态，我曾经在皮村采访了两天，它给我的印象是拥挤、嘈杂，却又带着几分生气。如今六年过去，皮村有哪些变化？当年结识的那些质朴且有追求的农民工，生活得还好吗？我决定再访皮村。
EDUCATION
Peking University welcomes second cohort of Yenching scholars-China Daily The Yenching Academy of Peking University held its opening ceremony on Saturday to officially announce the beginning of the 2016 academic year and welcome the second cohort of Yenching scholars.
President Xi congratulates opening of Schwarzman College – Xinhua He hoped that the Schwarzman College can be built into an international platform for cultivating the world’s excellent talents, providing study opportunities for the youth of all countries and helping them enhance understanding and exchanges. U.S. President Barack Obama also sent a congratulation letter for the opening ceremony.
BEIJING
Beijing once again vows to renovate the shantytown in its CBD – Global Times Just a few dozen meters away from Beijing’s booming “central business district” lies a shanty village, in which bungalows and illegally built makeshift houses sit squeezed together in the shadows of glitzy, glass office buildings. It doesn’t look like it should exist in the heart of the bustling capital city center. Tangled electricity cables hang over the low, one-story brick houses, and the narrow alleyways are flanked by small shops, with sewage overflowing around. Huashiying village, near Jingguang bridge within the city’s East Third Ring Road, is currently home to more than 800 households. // used to live across the street from it, mother-in-law bought vegetables there.
52岁北京友谊商店走下神坛：部分商品积灰，售货员就等退休直击现场澎湃新闻-The Paper Beijing Youth Daily on the sad, decrepit state of Beijing’s flagship Friendship Store…it was once the place to go, as I remember and I assume many readers do as well
JOBS AND EVENTS
Seek Truth From Facts: The Chinese Communist Party’s War on History Tickets, Tue, Sep 20, 2016 at 2:00 PM | Eventbrite The National Press Club – The Holeman Lounge 529 14th Street NW, 13th Floor, Washington, DC 20045
2016 CHINA Town Hall | National Committee on United States – China Relations We are pleased to announce that Dr. Henry A. Kissinger will be the national webcast speaker for our tenth annual CHINA Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections, to be held on Tuesday, October 18, 2016…We are currently seeking venues to host CHINA Town Hall events throughout the United States. More information for potential local venue hosts is available here. To submit a proposal, users must first create an NCUSCR account and be logged in. Proposals are due by Wednesday, September 21, 2016. Any questions about hosting a local CHINA Town Hall program can be directed to Jessica Bissett, jbissett@ncuscr.org.
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