"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
Today’s Links:
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
Alibaba Said to Plan Boosting IPO Price Amid Heavy Interest – Bloomberg At $70, Alibaba’s sale would raise $22.4 billion, surpassing Agricultural Bank of China Ltd.’s $22.1 billion offering in 2010 as the biggest ever. Alibaba’s decision came even as billionaire founder Jack Ma told prospective investors today at Hong Kong’s Ritz-Carlton hotel he won’t price the IPO too aggressively, according to two people who attended the meeting. Ma said the company tried to fairly price the November 2007 sale of its business-to-business marketplace Alibaba.com Ltd., which almost tripled on its Hong Kong debut, the people said.
Related: Chinese Gripe at Being Left Out of Alibaba’s IPO – Bloomberg “I’m a little confused about why you can’t invest in a Chinese company if you’re Chinese,” said Zhou, clad in gray shorts as she passes time in front of the digital stock ticker at a local branch of Guotai Junan Securities Co. in Shanghai. Though Chinese consumers have driven Alibaba’s financial success, they’ll largely be left out of the company’s stock offering. Mainland investors can’t purchase overseas equities directly due to government restrictions and only the wealthiest can buy them indirectly through qualified investor programs.
Related: 中国互联网公司出走海外
Related: Alibaba Asia Roadshow Begins; Jack Ma Says Company to Expand Aggressively in U.S. – WSJ Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans to expand aggressively in the U.S. and European markets following its listing, its executive chairman said Monday // While US Internet giants are effectively blocked from the China market…don’t be surprised to start seeing the big US firms begin to make real noise on Capitol Hill. I think some have held off in hopes that they still had a shot in China
Alibaba’s Link to Elite Military Family Is Etched in Stone – NYTimes.com Carved in an ancestral tablet that records the living as well as the dead is the name of Zhang Zhen, the family patriarch, who turns 100 next month and was one of the highest-ranking generals in the People’s Liberation Army. Below are his sons. One of them has the job of making sure the soldiers controlling China’s nuclear weapons stay loyal to the Communist Party. Another, Zhang Lianyang, was a general before venturing into business and is listed along with his wife, Chen Xiaoying. The couple appears elsewhere together: on the corporate rolls of Citic 21CN, the telemarketing and pharmaceutical data business now controlled by the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and Yunfeng Capital, a private equity company owned in part by Alibaba’s chairman, Jack Ma. Ms. Chen is Citic 21CN’s executive vice chairwoman, and Mr. Zhang was a director through April.
Related: China’s ‘princeling’ generals hit by Bo purge – FT.com 2012 Gen. Zhang Haiyang the brother in law of Citic 21CN’s Chen Xiaoying. anything happen with these rumors from 2 years ago? // Military experts say the two officers most affected by the Bo scandal are General Zhang Haiyang, the commissar of the Second Artillery Forces – the home of China’s nuclear weapons arsenal – and General Liu Yuan, the political commissar of the general logistics department, whose father Liu Shaoqi was Mao’s chosen successor until he fell out of favour and was purged. “It is hard to imagine how Zhang Haiyang could not be affected,” said a source familiar with the Second Artillery Force. “His family has close ties to Bo Xilai, they have long been friends, and they got even closer when Bo Xilai was in Chongqing and Zhang Haiyang headed the [neighbouring] Chengdu military region.”
最高检党组副书记撰文驳“大老虎联手反扑论”_网易新闻中心 D
Shaman dancers, coolies and suffragettes: rare photos of 1900s Beijing discovered from Austrian archive | South China Morning Post Kaminski, director of the Austrian Institute for China and Southeast Asia Studies in Vienna, worked his way through the photos and published a selection along with other photos he was given by descendants of Austrian diplomats and traders in imperial China. “These photos give precious insights into daily urban life in Beijing a century ago,” he said. “Many of the buildings don’t exist anymore and traditions seen in the photos have been lost in time.”
Q. and A.: Yong Zhao on Education and Authoritarianism in China – NYTimes.com You have said that traditional Chinese education actively “harms” children. How? A. It basically ignores children’s uniqueness, interests and passion, which results in homogenization. It forces them to spend almost all the time preparing for tests, leaving little time for social and physical activities. It also places them under tremendous stress through intense competition, which can damage their confidence and lowers their self-esteem.
Half of Hongkongers say lawmakers should veto Beijing’s electoral reform plan | South China Morning Post Poll shows 48pc want legislators to vote down any blueprint for electing chief executive that adheres to strict restrictions imposed by Beijing
Ice Challenge Is Social Media Hit, but Sufferers of Rare Diseases Still Live on Fringes – Caixin In recent months, the Ice Bucket Challenge has generated an unprecedented amount of attention in China for people suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a motor neuron disease (MND). With the participation of celebrities, the campaign has swept China’s social media networks, attracting curiosity and media attention. But many sufferers of MNDs and other rare diseases are still going unnoticed and untreated in China. On August 22, 24-year-old Wang Bidan was wandering the streets of Beijing, supported by her grandmother. “We have been evicted from our basement room by the landlord,” Wang said.
Guerrilla Theater: China’s Migrant Workers Get Political Onstage–by Huffington Post’s new China Correspondent Matt Sheehan// For a nominally socialist country, China has many of the trappings of a capitalist paradise. With independent unions banned and the hundreds of millions of migrant workers divided by competitive pressures, most social currents run counter to the Marxist exhortation “Workers of the world unite!” But on the outskirts of Beijing, art collectives that combine labor, theater and radical politics are trying to change that. The New Workers’ Art Collective and a network of art education groups serving Beijing’s peripheral population are using theater as a means to empower and build class consciousness among the underprivileged.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
Shanghai FTZ senior official removed – Xinhua SCMP reports he is going down for corruption…CCDI inspection team arrived in Shanghai last month, rumors Wang Qishan was there last week // SHANGHAI, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) — Shanghai authorities announced Monday that Dai Haibo no longer serves as Communist Party chief and executive deputy director of the administrative committee of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ). The free trade zone in Shanghai was officially launched in Sept. 29, 2013 and has pioneered several financial reforms, broadened foreign companies’ access to China’s service sector and explored more efficient and streamlined government oversight.
Is fresh China stimulus a done deal?–CNBC “I think the data was sufficiently weak to lead to significant steps. When? Such responses tend to be quite fast in Beijing. I would expect to see steps, or announcements of them, in the coming weeks,” Louis Kuijs, chief China economist at RBS told CNBC. Kuijs expects the government to boost infrastructure investment, relax property market policies and take more monetary easing steps. // I think Beijing has higher tolerance for this than most analysts expect…so long as unemployment does not become bigger issue
KTV Industry Falls On Hard Times As The Young Find Entertainment Elsewhere | TheNanfang The Beijing karaoke industry has fallen on hard times as many large-scale locations are closing due to an ongoing price war that is compounded with rising costs and declining interest. Once home to 12 karaoke chains that offered customers features like opulent rooms and buffet meals, Beijing has seen the closure of multiple karaoke locations while those that remain operate at only 50 percent capacity. Partyworld is the latest to be hit. It has closed two branches including its marquee location, and now just has one left. Lesheng has closed its Zhongguancun and Guomao locations, reducing its presence to just Chongwenmen, while Melody has closed its Chaoyangmen location.
十八大后67名国企高管落马 38人为企业一把手_新闻_腾讯网 news report says 67 senior SOE execs have been detained in corruption crackdown, 37 of whom where the top exec. focuses the minds at SOEs // 十八大以来，国企成为反腐的主战场之一。
Cargill fires first shot in legal battle over GMO trade responsibility | Reuters Trading giant Cargill said in court documents on Friday that it had lost more than $90 million because SYNGENTA sold Agrisure Viptera corn, known as MIR 162, to U.S. farmers without first obtaining import approval from CHINA, which has turned away boatloads of U.S. crops containing the variety over the past year. The lawsuit will be a test case of who is ultimately responsible for such rejections that damage international trade
POLITICS AND LAW
Official in Shanxi City ‘Falls to His Death after Facing Investigators’ – Caixin A city official in Shanxi fell to his death on September 14 after answering questions for anti-corruption officials, several sources familiar with the situation say, as graft scandals continue to rock the northern province. Dong Xuegang, the director and party head of the Yuncheng city Economic and Information Technology Commission, fell from a residential building about 7 a.m. on September 14, the sources said. The commission is in charge of industrial planning and overseeing city-owned enterprises.
消息称苏浩通风报信让金道铭落马前转移大量财产|金道铭|双规_
山西原公安局长实名举报副检察长:其女3户口1个已迁进北京_
山西”女老虎”落马引阳泉官场地震 昔日下属被查_网易新闻中心 Yangquan, Shanxi Party Secretary Wang Min detained in wake of wake of detention of provincial party committee member Bai Yun // 核心提示：据媒体消息，
原天津城投董事长马白玉被查 涉城建腐败_政经频道_财新网 former head of Tianjin Urban Construction investment firm detained. She was taken in July 28, fact that Caixin pointing this out now probably means related to something bigger // 津门的反腐败调查，并没有随着原天津市政协副主席、
China says ‘rescues’ more children from Xinjiang religious schools | Reuters Last month the government said it had “rescued” 82 children in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi from religious schools known as madrassas, and that campaign appears to be continuing. The official Legal Daily said that in recent days there had been another sweep in Urumqi against the “three illegals” of illegal publicity materials, illegal religious activities and illegal religious teaching. A total of 85 people have been detained and 190 children “rescued”, the newspaper said, without providing further details. Children in Xinjiang are prohibited by the government from attending madrassas, prompting many parents who wish to provide a religious education to use underground schools.
邓小平同志的革命风范激励我们实现中国梦 Leng Rong in latest issue of Qiushi on studying Xi’s speech at the symposium for Deng Xiaoping’s 110th Birthday // —— 学习习近平总书记在纪念邓小平同志诞辰110周年座谈会上的讲话 2014年09月11日 16:37:32 来源： 《求是》2014/18 作者： 冷 溶
Open government information litigation in China–an oxymoron? | Supreme People’s Court Monitor To show that open government information litigation in China is not an oxymoron, and send messages to the lower courts, government, and public, the Supreme People’s Court (Court) in a press conference on 12 September, released statistics and typical open government information cases brought under China’s version of the US’s Freedom of Information Act (and its counterparts elsewhere in world). For the first time, the Court issued 10 typical (model) open government information cases. (The cartoons hint at the difficulties). The underlying issues are relevant to many, including foreign investors and their lawyers.
习仲勋任仲夷等改革元勋将出画传(图)–时政–人民网
Senior officials told to quit EMBAs as part of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive | South China Morning Post Senior mainland officials have been ordered to stop studying for executive master’s business administration degrees as part of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. Such courses can cost about 600,000 yuan (HK$756,000) a year – up to more than 10 times the annual salary of some officials. However, officials seldom pay the cost of the courses themselves; they will either let businesses or the government’s public fund pay the fees, the Beijing Times reported.
刘云山：价值观自信是保持民族精神的重要支撑_新闻_腾讯网 L
跟习大大去出访（三）：到总统家吃晚饭–时政–人民网 Pe
洛阳副市长郭宜品被曝与房产商一起失联月余_新闻_腾讯网 de
激活红色基因 焕发生机活力 Jiangxi Provincial Secretary Qiang Wei in latest Qiushi on studying and implementing the spirit from Xi Jinping’s speeches–Activate Red Genes, Shine with Energy and Vitality
外媒:中纪委已经决定重查周永康前妻车祸死因_网易新闻中心 C
Police Detain Tie Liu, Beijing Writer and Underground Publisher – NYTimes.com At 81 years old and after decades imprisoned in labor camps as a foe of the Communist Party, the Beijing writer and underground publisher Tie Liu had said that he was too old to seriously worry the security police anymore. But they raided his home over the weekend and detained him on a charge of “creating a disturbance,” his wife and friends said on Monday.
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
US Treasury warns China over antimonopoly efforts | Business Spectator US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned his Chinese counterpart in a recent letter that a spate of antimonopoly investigations against foreign companies could have serious implications for relations between the two countries, according to people briefed on its contents. The letter, which Mr. Lew sent in recent days to Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, said that China’s recent focus on foreign companies could devalue foreign intellectual property, the people said. It also referenced a meeting in July attended by Messrs. Lew and Wang, at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue forum in Beijing, at which China committed to using its antimonopoly laws to promote consumer welfare and not other companies or industries, the people said.
反恐专家爆料称芮成钢是特务 可能面临死刑_网易新闻中心 Xinhua discusses the Weibo claim that Rui Chenggang under investigation for being a spy, says fact that the post has not been deleted suggests it may be true…which foreign leaders and reporters was he closest to? Never met the guy, heard he can be quite charming when he wants to be. Rumors he is under investigation for espionage very chilling in an already cold information environment // 爆料人的身份如此高大上，相信不是为了炒作而放假新闻。而且，
China’s ‘creeping invasion’ – The Washington Post Without exception, Japanese officials and analysts I spoke to here over a week believe China has not moderated its ambition to replace the United States as the dominant power in Asia. But it aims to avoid the sort of crisis — and Western pushback — Russia has provoked by moving in small increments, interspersed with tactical retreats when necessary. The result, over time, could be as momentous as a war. “Some people call it the creeping invasion,” said Akio Takahara, a China expert at Tokyo University.
China to mend relations with neighbors before APEC summit: commentary｜WantChinaTimes.com
人民日报驳斥中国搭便车论:对世界经济贡献率达30%–财经-
Russia, China court India for regional bloc- Nikkei Asian Review Launched in 2001, the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization also includes the central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It promotes cooperation in areas ranging from anti-terrorism measures to the economy and culture. Adding India could boost the organization’s influence, particularly in regional security issues. India said Friday that it has formally applied for membership. The country now holds observer status but is looking to step up engagement with the organization, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said at the SCO summit.
习近平访印之际向46国军官开放西藏_国际-多维新闻网 Duo
With eye on China, Modi’s India to develop disputed border region | Reuters INDIA has eased restrictions on building roads and military facilities along its disputed border with CHINA, as the new government seeks to close the gap on its neighbor’s superior transport network and take a stronger stance on Beijing. Indian environment minister Prakash Javadekar told Reuters he had relaxed environmental rules within 100 km (62 miles) of the contested border in remote Arunachal Pradesh in order to speed up CONSTRUCTION of some 6,000 km of roads.
China woos Maldives to join Maritime Silk Road – The Hindu Xinhua quoted Ye Hailin of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences that Maldives was “a key link of the Maritime Silk Road”, and China planned to utilise its ports. Analysts pointed out that the newly-formed BRICS bank and Asian Development and Investment Bank (ADIB), could be involved in funding maritime infrastructure, including ports and investment parks, as well as energy and information technology hubs in countries belonging to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and South Asia, under the MSR initiative. In a signed article that was widely published in the local media in the Maldives, Mr. Xi said, he hoped to “map out the blueprint” of the relationship with Male during talks with his Maldivian counterpart, AbdullanYameen.
China’s human rights abuses demand a tougher U.S. approach – The Washington Post editorial on Gao Zhisheng from Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post. Too bad the editorial board does not go into detail as to what the “new approach” should be. very easy to call for that, very hard to actually detail feasible steps // The Obama administration says it raises individual human rights abuses in meetings with Chinese officials but keeps the conversations private. Over the past five years, this deference has proved fruitless. It is time for a new approach. Mr. Gao should be allowed to receive medical treatment and join his family in the United States. President Obama should find his voice and make clear that Mr. Gao’s fate is important to the United States.
Swedish Panel To Probe Controversial Chinese Deal | Defense News Sweden’s Defense Ministry and other leading defense and technology organizations will be under the spotlight this week as a parliamentary committee probes whether a research cooperation initiative could have led to the sale of sophisticated aerodynamic modeling software to China.
TECH AND MEDIA
Golden Bear winner detained for hiring prostitute – Xinhua Wang Quan’an, 48, together with a 31-year-old prostitute, was caught by police at an apartment in Dongcheng District around 7 p.m. Wednesday, according to the police. Wang confessed that he contacted the prostitute by cellphone and paid her 800 yuan (130 U.S. dollars). He solicited sex for three consecutive days last week, according to the police.
第三方支付重塑利益格局_专题频道_财新网 this week’s Caixin cover story on third party payment market in China
WeChat Enables Payments at Physical Stores – TechNode The feature is named “Card Swiping”. With a tap on the button, a QR code and a bar code will be generated. Merchants who have supporting POS machines or other devices will be able to accept payments by scanning either code. So far the WeChat feature only supports debit cards bundled with WeChat accounts, instead of credit cards. Payments under RMB300 (about US$50) don’t require password.
For U.S. tech firms, China entices in spite of tight state control many US Internet firms are trying to get in here again // San Francisco-based CloudFlare has a policy of providing cyber-defence services for all, based on a belief that the internet should be free, decentralised and open. Its clients have included groups that the U.S. government regards as terrorist organisations. Those values may now have to be shelved when it comes to entering China, where state control of the internet is among the world’s tightest. CloudFlare is looking for a Chinese partner and aims to be in the country by 2015, said co-founder Michelle Zatlyn on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting in the northern city of Tianjin this week.
人民日报发四文批”悬疑新闻” 呼吁抵制”标题党”–传媒–
Mystery of the cancer cluster killing Chinese workers at factory that makes new iPhone 6: 13 struck by leukaemia in SAME plant… were cleaning agents to blame? | Mail Online At least 13 workers in their late teens and early 20s have been diagnosed with leukaemia after falling sick at the massive factory in Shenzhen since 2010. Five have died – and at ages when doctors say cases of the blood cancer are rare. Families and a labour welfare group believe the leukaemia was caused by exposure to chemicals used to clean electrical panels and say many more workers could have been affected. They add that young workers who fall sick with leukaemia are dismissed and denied continuing medical coverage, bankrupting families as they desperately pay for treatment.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Almost Half of Rich Chinese Consider Move, Barclays Says – Bloomberg North America and Europe may see the greatest influx of wealthy individuals, according to the report by Barclays Wealth Insights, which surveyed more than 2,000 individuals and investors.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
Wild Chinese sturgeon on brink of extinction in polluted Yangtze | World news | theguardian.com For the first time since researchers began keeping records 32 years ago, there was no natural reproduction of wild Chinese sturgeon in 2013, according to a report published by the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences. No eggs were found to have been laid by wild sturgeons in an area in central China’s Hubei province, and no young sturgeons were found swimming along the Yangtze toward the sea in August, the month when they typically do so. “No natural reproduction means that the sturgeons would not expand its population and without protection, they might risk extinction,” Wei Qiwei, an investigator with the academy, told China’s official Xinhua news agency on Saturday.
CNPC’s shale gas projects reeling from graft probe – Natural Gas Daily – Interfax Global Energy China National Petroleum Corp.’s (CNPC) shale gas operations in Sichuan province, thought to contain the bulk of China’s vaunted shale gas resources, have been crippled by one of the biggest anti-corruption investigations into the Chinese state sector in recent years, a well-placed source has told Interfax. China’s largest oil and gas company has been forced to halt work at numerous drilling sites because of the number of executives detained by the graft probe, said the source, who is a third-party engineer conducting field work at shale plays in Zigong, Sichuan.
Government, residents communicate over trash incinerator – Xinhua A south China county government on Sunday held a meeting with residents over a proposed trash incinerator project that triggered concerns and protests. The meeting between the government of Boluo county and some 30 representatives of local residents was aimed at “carefully listening to people’s opinions and suggestions” about the project, said a statement issued by the government of Huizhou city of Guangdong Province, which administers Boluo. More than 200 people gathered outside the county government building while the meeting was underway, and they left at noon, the statement said, giving no details of the meeting.
China police detain 24 after anti-incinerator protest: newspaper | Reuters Chinese police detained 24 people for disturbing social order during a protest on Saturday against a proposed trash incinerator in southern China, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported. More than 1,000 residents of Boluo county, in the southern province of Guangdong, demonstrated against the construction of the planned facility, fearful that it could damage the environment and be bad for health, the newspaper said on Monday.
成都200余名业主抗议建垃圾站与警方冲突_新闻_腾讯网 pr
China Air Pollution Legislation Process and Change | The Energy Collective Though such changes to the Air Pollution Law represent positive improvements, many aspects of the law still lack the force and specificity necessary to bring about comprehensive change in China’s national air quality. Of note, the law lacks human health-based air quality standards and a system for updating such standards, as well as a system for updating emission targets. In addition, the law is also missing relevant provisions on information disclosure, public participation or public interest litigation – all of which serve as crucial enforcement mechanisms when top-down methods fall short. Furthermore, the scope of daily penalties is still extremely limited, and the law lacks positive market-based incentives to encourage enterprises to comply with regulations.
《焦点访谈》 20140914 谋财害命“黑救护”_新闻频道_央视网(cctv.com) C
FOOD AND TRAVEL
China’s highest, most terrifying see-through walkway constructed in Hebei : Shanghaiist A transparent skywalk is currently under construction on the side of a mountain cliff 1,900 meters above sea level in Baoding, Hebei province. Upon its completion, the 95-meter-long glass suspended walkway will be the longest, widest, highest and therefore most frightening of its kind in China.// you first