"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
China Factory-Output Slump Tests Premier Li’s Resolve – Bloomberg “It looks like the government is not in any state of panic, judging by Li Keqiang’s speech in Tianjin,” Daiwa’s Lai said. The slowdown isn’t “creating a threat to employment and they also understand that the fight against corruption will inevitably have some impact on growth,” he said. Zhu Min, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said yesterday that China has serious overcapacity and shouldn’t return to an investment-led model. “Any rate between 7.0 percent and 7.5 percent is acceptable,” Zhu, a former deputy governor at the People’s Bank of China, said at a forum in Beijing.
Related: Economists React: China August Industrial Growth Hits Six-Year Low – China Real Time Report – WSJ This week, Premier Li [Keqiang] was talking about the Chinese economy being pretty stable. I think he’s trying to send out a message that things are still ok, to say if there’s a further slowdown in the economy, they do have a higher tolerance for a lower growth rate. If the slowdown continues for another one or two months, I think they will not stay there. They may opt for a broader cut in the banks’ reserve requirement ratio or in interest rates. They can keep calm for another month. Credit growth is actually normalizing, but they need to look at it in September. — Ma Xiaoping, HSBC
Related: China PBOC Mon Pol Offl: Can’t Rely On Printing Money: Press | MNI An official with the monetary policy department of the People’s Bank of China has said the government can’t rely on printing more money to stimulate the economy arguing that “there’s already too much in the pool.” The official, who was not identified by the official China News Service, was also quoted Friday saying that the government will prevent leverage ratios from rising too quickly. “The PBOC hasn’t used any big stimulus to boost growth so far this year. This is because there is already too much money in the pool and the government can’t rely on printing more money to stimulate growth,” the official said.
Related China Seeks to Sway Focus From GDP Growth With Dashboard – Bloomberg The set will comprise existing data such as GDP and new items including the ratio of fiscal debt to revenue and the proportion of workers involved in research and development, the National Bureau of Statistics said today in a statement. The bureau said it’s requiring all departments under its supervision to compile and publish data for 2014 and 2015…The indicators will concentrate on measuring eight criteria, including economic stability, economic security, optimized economic structure, industrial upgrading, profits and efficiency, innovation, the environment and people’s living conditions, the bureau said. // 国家统计局出台反映提质增效转型升级统计指标
Malaysia Risks Enraging China by Inviting U.S. Spy Flights – NYTimes.com Malaysia’s reported invitation to the United States to fly spy planes out of East Malaysia on the southern rim of the South China Sea seems likely to intensify China’s anger at American surveillance of the strategic waterway and its disputed islands, analysts say. The United States’ chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, told a forum in Washington last week that the recent offer by Malaysia for P-8 Poseidon aircraft to fly out of the country’s most eastern area would give the United States greater proximity to the South China Sea. // Hard to build Asia for Asians when some of those Asians still really want Americans around
Related: China’s military secrecy justifies surveillance flights: U.S. official Asked about the Chinese call to scale back such flights, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, the senior U.S. diplomat for East Asia, pointed to China’s big military buildup in recent years and the secrecy surrounding it. “We have the right to conduct legitimate missions outside of China’s territorial space and there is a persuasive rational for doing so,” he told Reuters. “Frankly, the lack of transparency in China’s military modernization is the source of some concern to its neighbors. And we believe that all of the region, including China, would benefit from increased transparency.”
China’s Hong Kong chief says remarks to lawmakers were misrepresented in media reports | Reuters One of the lawmakers quoted in the Reuters article said on Saturday that he was standing by his version of events. “I haven’t misspoken,” Lee Cheuk-yan, who attended the meeting with Zhang on August 19 and decided to speak on-record after Zhang’s statement, said in a phone interview. Reuters said in a statement on Friday: “We stand by our story and the original quote from Zhang Xiaoming, which was obtained from two independent sources who attended the meeting, as well as the accuracy of the Reuters translation.” The statement was issued after some media and blogs said that Zhang’s comments had been mistranslated.
Related: 关于“还活着”说法的一点澄清 Zhang’
Has India-China relations reached an inflection point : The Big Story – India Today Now that Modi is the man at the Centre, the expectation in China is that Prime Minister Modi will not be all that different from Chief Minister Modi, who made four visits to China and travelled widely around the country, visiting Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Guangdong-where China’s eco-nomic reforms first began-and large-scale projects elsewhere. Those visits have appeared to have left a deep impression on the Prime Minister, his closest advisers say. As National Security Adviser Ajit Doval puts it, Modi has, through his travels, “condensed the Chinese achievement into three words: speed, scale and skill. And Prime Minister Modi believes India should benefit from that”.
Related Beijing is upbeat about Xi Jinping’s first visit to India. Narendra Modi will have to balance this relationship with his liking for Japan : The Big Story – India Today Beijing is upbeat about Xi Jinping’s first visit to India. Narendra Modi will have to balance this relationship with his liking for Japan
Related Xi to Abe, $35 billion is peanuts–The Sunday Guardian The total investment slated to be approved during the 17-19 September visit will exceed $200 billion, thereby dwarfing Japan’s commitment of $35 billion spread over five years.
Related Chinese soldiers intrude 500 meters into Ladakh, put up tents on Indian soil | Zee News In 2014 alone, 334 incidents of Chinese troops intrusion into Indian border have been reported. The recent intrusion incident was reported a few days prior to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India.
China Shuts Down Major Newspaper’s Website During Extortion Scandal The Guangdong provincial branch of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television initiated an investigation into suspected economic crimes at the website of the Herald, Xinhua said, adding that its parent company had dispatched a team to “restructure” the paper. “The 21st Century Herald website has been shut down, all website qualifications and personnel have been dismissed, and the company written off,” Xinhua said on its official microblog.
Related: 金融内参的微博_微博 Alleged list of financial media a pr firm bought off to protect clients hits Weibo. Many famous publications on the list, including People’s Daily Online, Sina News and Economic Observer, among others…includes price list. SOP in Chinese media // 国内另一大财关“九富投资”都在搞定哪些媒体？大名鼎鼎的“
To tackle its rampant levels of depression, China must deal with its recent history – Quartz According to a 2001-2005 survey from Shanghai Mental Health Center, 6% of the population of six major Chinese cities suffers from lifelong symptoms of depression (5% is about average around the world). Studies on the rural population indicate even higher percentages, especially among the elderly (a study in Anhui Province says 7.2%) and the children who are “left-behind” by their migrant worker parents. A survey in Heilongjiang province indicates that upwards of 50% of the “left-behind” children suffer from depression and anxiety. These figures together represent 90 million potentially depressed people in China
Related: My life goal — Medium Disregarding rarer conditions, depression and anxiety is rampant in China. Mental illness is stigmatized not only in China but throughout the world. The United States has taken steps to de-stigmatize the notion of talking about one’s pains, but it is a work in progress. China is bursting with energy. People are hungry for money, they are hungry for power. They do not face their personal problems. They run, and they are unaware that they COULD face their demons if they had the proper guidance.
The Postal Service is losing millions a year to help you buy cheap stuff from China – The Washington Post Though McGrath didn’t realize it at first, he was running into a quirk in an international treaty that makes it possible for an individual to send a pound of stuff from Hong Kong to D.C. for less than it would cost to send the same package from, say, Seattle. This strange consequence of postal law was less significant when the mail was mostly personal correspondence. But as Chinese companies began logging on to Web marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, and Alibaba, they started taking advantage of the shipping deal to sell directly to American consumers. And so it’s never been easier to get something cheap and Chinese delivered to your door for a startlingly low price: $4.64 for a digital alarm clock; $2.50 for a folding knife; $1.88 for an iPhone cable — all with shipping included. //seems strange that US taxpayers would subsidize some of Alibaba’s US growth
Coming to Grips with Ammonia in China’s Haze – Caixin Emissions from poultry waste and auto engines alike can contain potentially harmful levels of ammonia, a colorless gas with a pungent smell that’s getting new attention as part of the country’s battle against air pollution. In August, the Ministry of Environmental Protection took a major step toward addressing the problem by issuing the central government’s first-ever guidelines for ammonia emissions. Spearheading the drafting of Technical Guidelines for Compiling an Emissions List for Ammonia Sources (Trial) was a team of experts from Peking University led by Song Yu, an environmental study professor focusing on air pollution.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
China Lender Faces $650 Million of Defaults From Shadow Banking – Bloomberg A Chinese bank was saddled with $650 million of defaults from an off-balance-sheet lending arrangement that channeled money to one of its shareholders and an affiliate, according to a state media report. Evergrowing Bank Co. in Shandong province repaid 3.7 billion yuan ($600 million) of principal and 300 million yuan of interest on Aug. 29 as guarantor for the borrowing, the People’s Daily said on its website today. Three calls to the lender for comment went unanswered.
金岩石为沙滩艳遇道歉 重申北京豪宅价要每平30万_房产_腾讯网 economist Jin Yanshi issues apology on Weibo for being caught on camera in Sanya with a woman who is not his wife…Jin may be best known for his claims that high end Beijing housing should be selling for 300,000 RMB/m // 时隔3天后，金岩石昨日在微博正式对此做出回应：“
500.com too clever by half? | China Accounting Blog | Paul Gillis Carson Block of Muddy Waters is shorting 500.com (NASDAQ: WBAI), which did an IPO at the end of 2013. One of the reasons for his short position is the un-usual tax position of the company, which recorded a tax benefit in 2013 equal to 84% of net income. The tax benefit comes from reversing deferred taxes related to the retained earnings of the companies VIEs. EY is 500.com’s auditor, and I have previously written about how EY clients follow the unusual (although probably correct) ap-proach of providing deferred taxes for the tax cost of transferring profits out of the VIEs. 500.com has revised its VIE agreements and now argues it no longer has to provide those taxes, so they have been released to income.
Sinopec Sells $17.5 Billion Retail Unit Stake to Investors – Bloomberg Sinopec, as the company is known, said the unit will sell a combined 29.99 percent stake to 25 investors including Fosun International Ltd. (656), run by billionaire Guo Guangchang. China Life will buy 10 billion yuan of shares while gas supplier ENN Energy Holdings Ltd. (2688) committed 4 billion yuan, Sinopec said in a Shanghai stock exchange filing today.
U.K. to Sell First Yuan-Denominated Bonds for Currency Reserves – Bloomberg The issue is a “real landmark in the development of the renminbi as an international currency,” Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said today at a press conference in London after talks with Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai. The U.K. in June became the first European nation to sign an accord with China to allow the direct exchange of the renminbi, or yuan, for British pounds. Sterling is the fifth major currency to trade directly against the yuan in Shanghai, joining the Australian and New Zealand dollars, the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar.
POLITICS AND LAW
Confusing concept disrupts rule of law – Global Times Constitutional governance is a good idea in itself, which can be used with the rule of law in a mixed manner. Nevertheless, liberals have changed this situation by dissimilating this term, soliciting the vigilance of mainstream society against the correct use of it. Under the current circumstances, it is proper to avoid the use of constitutional governance and stress the rule of law in accordance with conventions during the past more than three decades. Having universal values is another concept that has been distorted for special political purposes in China. But in the huge Chinese vocabulary, there are still enough “uncontaminated” words of choice. By choosing different words, we assert our attitude.
China nabs burglary gang that preyed on ‘corrupt’ Communists – Telegraph The burglars made off with loot including hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash, gold bars that were larger than fists and pieces of jade. Investigators believe the thieves were meticulous about targeting Communist Party officials who they believed were corrupt on the assumption that dirty officials would be reluctant to draw attention to their illicit fortunes by involving police.
Three get death penalty over Kunming terrorist attack[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn Three men were sentenced to death and a woman faces life in prison over the March 1 Kunming terrorist attack that left 31 people dead, Kunming’s Intermediate court ruled on Friday, China Central Television reported. The court said during an open trial that Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad received the death penalty for murder and leading and organizing a terrorist group. The fourth person, Patigul Tohti, was jailed for life for murder and joining a terrorist group.
曝芮成钢涉间谍案反恐专家评贪婪无底线或死刑-评论频道-和讯网
南京建邺区书记被查 该区被曝突击栽树大量枯死_新闻_腾讯网 Another Nanjing official under investigation for corruption
Netizen Voices: Call Me “Daddy Xi” – China Digital Times (CDT) more like “uncle 伯父 ” than “daddy” // In celebration of China’s 30th Teachers’ Day this week, the president visited Beijing Normal University, where he called on teachers to “have lofty ideals, solid knowledge and a kind heart.” State media focused on the rockstar reception Xi enjoyed, when 500 students and teachers gathered in cheer. On Weibo, China Youth Daily reported students shouted slogans like “The Secretary-General has worked hard for us!“ (总书记辛苦了！). One teacher said Xi’s reception was like a “superstar concert.” When one young teacher asked if he could address the president with the term of endearment “Daddy Xi “(习大大), Xi responded “YES” in English, and state media applauded.
中共党建制度改革用人打破四唯 带病提拔被堵死–时政–
任贤良与陕西宣传干部座谈 鼓励树立互联网思维-新闻频道-西部网 陕西新闻网 任贤良说，随着互联网对人们和社会的影响越来越大，
New documentary tells little-known stories about Deng – Xinhua A new documentary about Deng Xiaoping will unveil first-hand historical materials while exploring the inner world of the late leader through story-telling. At a press conference held on Saturday, chief writer of the documentary Long Pingping said the 20-episode documentary, which will air on China Central Television (CCTV), focuses on Deng’s personal belongings, such as his clothes and letters, with the stories in each episode centered around the objects. Long, an expert on Deng Xiaoping and his theories at the Party Literature Research Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is also the chief scriptwriter of a popular 48-episode TV serial about Deng that is being aired during prime time on CCTV.
十八大来第三波人事变动大潮袭来_大公资讯_大公网 由于官员“
部分地方政府花钱请大V考察 网友:大V被”招安”-地方政府|政府部门|值得一提的是-
新疆：南疆4地州普通高中实现全免费-教育频道-新华网 fre
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China » Position Paper on Working Conditions for Foreign Correspondents in China In an FCCC survey this year of China-based foreign correspondents, 80％of those surveyed thought that their work conditions had worsened or stayed the same compared to 2013. The FCCC believes that China is rapidly eroding the progress it made in “opening up” to the world prior to the 2008 Olympics.
Official urges better telling of China story – Xinhua A senior official on Sunday urged publicity authorities to better tell the story of China’s development to the world. Authorities and media should widely publicize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation and explain the country’s efforts of peaceful development and common development with the world, said Liu Qibao, head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. He made the remarks at a conference on how to make China better understood by the world.
Ottawa threatens to snub Beijing over Garratt couple’s arrest – The Globe and Mail The Canadian government has publicly said little about what efforts it is making to intervene on their behalf. But in a series of conversations with Chinese officials, Ottawa has made clear that if the couple is not released, it will decline an invitation to a meeting between Mr. Harper and Chinese leadership in Beijing around the time of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in early November, two Canadian officials with direct knowledge of the situation told The Globe and Mail. Time is critical: If the Garratts are not soon released, plans cannot be made for the pomp and circumstance around that meeting. Canada would still attend APEC, but it would likely be Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, rather than Mr. Harper, who would chair any sessions with China, one official said.
PLA and Chinese industry at odds over Russian fighter engines – IHS Jane’s 360 Problems with China’s indigenous jet engine programmes are putting the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at odds with the country’s defence procurement bodies. The most visible issue is problems with the WS-10A jet engine made by Shenyang-based Liming Aeroengine Manufacturing Corporation. This powerplant is supposed to be a close analogue of the Russian-made Lyulka AL-31F, and the Gas Turbine Establishment (GTE) engine division of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) has had plans for years to replace the Russian engine on all of the aircraft currently powered by it with the WS-10A.
Local Tensions Trump Beijing’s Power in Southern Kyrgyzstan | China in Central Asia Residents, Uzbeks and Kyrgyz alike, don’t deny the Chinese economic underpinnings. They appreciate the goods, to an extent – “cheaper than the original,” they’ll say – and the road-development even more. But the geopolitical weight China could throw around doesn’t seem to stir much interest in southern Kyrgyzstan, especially when compared to the legacy of the 2010 riots. Chinese investments have brought part of Jalalabad’s bazaar back to life – but, according to Mamadaliev, at the expense of one ethnicity over another. And that may point to one of China’s largest questions in the region. Beijing seems to have little issue with letting its investments and potential remain muted in the region – all the better to avoid contributing to the Sinophobia running through Central Asia, fanned by large-scale fears of economic domination and rumors of Chinese money-laundering in the new construction throughout Bishkek.
Chinese president pledges close cooperation with Maldives on climate change – Xinhua Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday pledged to pursue close cooperation with the Maldives on climate change ahead of his state visit to the island country. “China will continue to pursue close cooperation with it (the Maldives) on climate change, human rights and other issues,” Xi said in a signed article published in the Maldivian media. Xi is due to arrive in Male later Sunday on the first ever visit by a Chinese head of state to the Maldives since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1972.
China urges central Asian neighbors to step up extremism fight | Reuters “(We) should make concerted efforts to crack down on the ‘three evil forces’ of terrorism, extremism and separatism,” the official Xinhua news agency said late on Friday, citing Xi’s speech in Tajikistan to the heads of state of other Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members. “Currently, (we) should focus on combating religion-involved extremism and Internet terrorism,” Xi said, adding that the group’s Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure (RCTS) should enhance efforts to combat drug trafficking.
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
Hong Kong must seize the first chance to elect its own leaders – FT.com –CY Leung The question that the Hong Kong people and our legislators need to address now is whether we embrace this opportunity offered by Beijing for major democratic progress, universal suffrage in 2017, or would rather opt for stagnation by retaining the election committee. Do we want to take one step forward or two steps back? Make no mistake, it will be two steps back if political reform is rejected by legislators unhappy that it does not meet their expectations. We will not only miss an opportunity to elect the chief executive on the basis of one-person, one-vote in 2017, we will also miss the chance to return all members of the Legislative Council (Legco) by universal suffrage in 2020 since that reform is premised on reform of the selection of chief executives.
Black-clad Occupy Central supporters march against Beijing’s universal suffrage stance | South China Morning Post Thousands of Occupy Central supporters took to the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday, accusing Beijing of breaking its promise that the city can enjoy democracy. Defying the scorching heat, the protesters – many of them dressed in black – marched from Causeway Bay to Central.
TECH AND MEDIA
LinkedIn Says China Needs Open Door for Internet Firms – Bloomberg LinkedIn is “doing well” in China and had 5 million users there as of May, Shen said in an interview after his speech. He declined to say how the censorship policies mandated by China affect service users elsewhere. When a LinkedIn user in China shares a post deemed to be in conflict with the government’s rules, the company blocks the content globally. The company said this month it is considering changing that policy. Shen declined to elaborate. “We will focus on making sure users have the best experience,” Shen told Bloomberg News. “I can’t comment on censorship policies.”
央视员工拒回应“央视春晚将停办一年”传言_网易新闻中心 Ap
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
BBC News – Shakespeare’s complete works to be translated into Mandarin The UK government is donating £1.5m for the translation of all William Shakespeare’s works into Mandarin for audiences in China. Plans for cultural co-operation with China also include making 14 important Chinese plays available in English. Culture secretary Sajid Javid also announced £300,000 for a Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) tour of China.
Caught Between China & Japan: Chameleon Star Li Xianglan She called China her fatherland and Japan her motherland. Singer and actress Yamaguchi Yoshiko, better known as Li Xianglan (李香兰), has passed away at the age of 94. A rising star during theSino-Japanese War, she was loved by both Chinese and Japanese audiences. On Sina Weibo, she is commemorated as a star and a traitor–even causing controversy after her death
About – What’s on Weibo What’s on Weibo is driven by our own curiosity about modern Chinese society, the world of Weibo and China’s changing social media landscape. It is meant for people who are interested in what is going on in China’s current popular culture but do not necessarily have the linguistic knowledge or cultural expertise to access the right resources. This blog is therefore not only meant to help you make sense of what is on Weibo, but also to help you understand China’s current culture and society
Han Han’s Master Key-Caixin Han has shown an ability to both criticize and defend public institutions, and yet maintain his aura of non-conformist. Of course, it is a fine line, and the hero can quickly become a target of the state. The more he is exalted the more arrows are aimed his way. When the microblogging, or weibo in Chinese, arrived, and Han Han could have gotten even bigger on such a platform, he instead switched his interests elsewhere: to writing novels to prove he is a real author, and now, directing movies. Han Han is not as sophisticated as he is made out to be. Instead, he can be seen ever more as the product of modern China’s deformed politics, deformed society and deformed market. Zhang Ming is a politics professor at Renmin University
官二代赴贫困县读书 争夺”高招扶贫”名额_网易新闻中心 Gaokao reforms to level playing must be real; reports of officials sending their kids to high schools in poor areas to enjoy preferential policies to get into good colleges // 核心提示：在高考改革背景下，
Zhou Weishi, a pioneer of the performing arts in China, dies aged 98 | South China Morning Post Zhou Weishi’s interest in the performing arts, especially music, was cultivated in the 1930s in Shanghai. He harboured the dream of creating an all-Chinese symphony orchestra and began to teach himself music. In 1936, he conducted a children’s choir at the funeral of literary giant Lu Xun . During the war with Japan, the Jiangsu native went to Yanan in Shaanxi province, the then headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party, and led the Western Front Regiment, a drama and music propaganda group. He went on to become a key adviser for the 1945 premiere of the socialist opera, The White-haired Girl, in which his wife, Wang Kun, sang the title role.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
中华鲟首次未发生自然繁殖 野生种群存灭绝风险_新闻_腾讯网 no sign of wild births of Chinese Sturgeon in 2013..very bad sign for this very endangered species
Chinese march against incinerator for 2nd day – The Washington Post Residents in a southern Chinese town protested against a proposed garbage incinerator for a second straight day Sunday, according to witnesses, as police said ringleaders of earlier demonstrations that saw clashes with police should surrender. Hundreds of people gathered on a long street in front of the offices of the government in Guangdong province’s Boluo county, with anti-riot police standing by, three residents said. They gave only their surnames, Chen, Huang and Wang, out of fear of reprisals from authorities.
BEIJING
Coming out from the Cold: The Gay Russian Emigres Living in Beijing | That’s Beijing “A friend who came out here a year before I did told me fantastic stories [about Beijing’s gay scene]. So I decided to come here to study and never left.” Vadim is now part of a small but growing community of openly gay Russians in Beijing. Estimates from those we speak to put the figure between 200 to 500. In China’s capital Vadim can be frank about his sexuality in ways that might result in violent attacks at home.