"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 Provides $81.4 Billion to Five Banks, Sina Says – Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China yesterday started providing the banks with 100 billion yuan each through standing lending-facilities with tenor of three months, the news website said, citing banking analyst Qiu Guanhua at Guotai Junan Securities Co. The PBOC will complete the process today, it said. “This is like ‘printing money’ as base money is created,” Shen Jian-guang, Hong Kong-based chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd., said in an e-mail. “The immediate impact is similar to an RRR cut of 50 basis points to all banks.” RRR is banks’ required reserve ratio; cutting it increases the amount they have available to lend.
Related: 新华网评降息预测：这是对改革的不信任_Xi
‘Mr. Confession’ and his boss drive China’s antitrust crusade | Reuters From interviews with more than two dozen attorneys, executives, and experts, who have been drawn into investigations with the NDRC’s price supervision and anti-monopoly bureau, a picture emerges of a culture of intimidation under the leadership of Director General Xu Kunlin. The agency’s aggressive tactics coincide with an increasingly sobering business climate for foreign firms in China. Fears over the ruling Communist Party’s support for domestic firms has prompted some to declare the end of a golden age for foreign business in the world’s second-largest economy. // any chance the aggression from these NDRC officials is in part a gambit to forestall Wang Qishan’s scythe? Given the carnage among their colleagues, perhaps they think beating up so much on foreigners will give protection, as corruption trouble now would look like weakness in face of foreigners?
Will China’s dirty coal ban hurt Australian miners? | Business Spectator The restrictions applied vary in stringency depending on geography. Details of the restrictions prepared by Citi Research are detailed in the table below, note Australia does not export Lignite coal. The least stringent apply across the entire country and would not affect a single major Australian thermal coal exporter, all of whom would comfortably comply. However it is the most stringent which apply to the major economic zones of Beijing, Hubei, Tianjin, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta which are of the greatest relevance. These areas are on or close to the coast and therefore are the most prospective for Australian seaborne exported coal.
Related: Risky business: China dumps our dirty coal–Sydney Morning Herald According to an analysis by Macquarie Bank, consultant Wood Mackenzie has indicated the ban could affect more than half of Australia’s thermal coal exports to China, although the ban is also likely to hit Indonesian coal.
Related: Petcoke import ban one step closer | Black China Blog These moves are part of the government’s push against pollution. Analysts say that Australian coal is likely to be the hardest hit, because of slightly higher ash content. But it seems to me that it is just a matter of time before similar rules are announced for the import of high sulphur petcoke. China imported just over 8 million tonnes of this category petcoke in 2013, and there had been rumours this time last year that a ban was imminent.
Data Flaws in China Cities With Worst Air Risk Xi Pledge – Bloomberg A coal-fired power plant in the center of China’s most polluted city appeared to shut down on June 30 when it stopped releasing its emissions data online a day before new standards came in. Yet a large LCD screen outside the facility in Xingtai, 360 kilometers (221 miles) south of Beijing, shows the plant is still partly operating. It was spewing out fumes at almost three times the legal limit two days after the rules were introduced, according to a reading displayed on the screen. Flaws are evident in the data across China, with less than half the polluters in some provinces complying with a July 2013 edict from the Ministry of Environmental Protection to publish emissions data online, according to the ministry’s own study.
Related: Meet the Biggest Polluter in China’s Most Polluted City – WSJ On government orders, Jizhong has closed or is planning to close three of its five Xingtai power plants and has halted operations at a fourth while it upgrades to cleaner-running equipment. Jizhong is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce harmful emissions and effluents even as its earnings plummet due to falling demand for coal. Some of Xingtai’s 7.6 million residents applaud the moves. But others—particularly those who work at Jizhong—are ambivalent. Pay is falling for some workers along with the company’s profits, and many worry their jobs and the city’s coal-based economy could be damaged.
China, Economics Asia | Bloomberg Briefs China’s plans to put the world’s second-largest economy on a sustainable growth path are centered on financial reform. At the Third Plenum summit last November, policy makers promised a stronger role for the market in setting interest rates and the exchange rate, a revamped equity market and a greater role for the private sector. A year on, despite concerns about slowing growth and stressed banks, significant progress has been made.
What’s Lurking in the Shadows of China’s Banks | iMFdirect – The IMF Blog Bottom-line: is Shadow Banking a Sweet Smelling Flower or a Thorny Bush? Both. On the plus side, the expansion of nonbank intermediation marks progress in financial development. It benefits companies by providing alternative ways to borrow. And, it benefits households, by giving them more investment opportunities, which is especially important given the ceiling on deposit interest rates. Therein, however, also lays the thorn. Shadow banking provides an opportunity to circumvent regulations, such as the deposit interest rate ceiling (but there are many others). For example, rather than putting money in a deposit, a bank’s customer could buy a wealth management product from the bank that offers a higher return. This wealth management product, in turn, may invest in equities and bonds but can also, subject to a limit, invest through shadow banks in assets that look a lot like bank loans.
达赖与中共沟通顺畅 或藉五台山朝圣回国_中国-多维新闻网 Duowei cites “knowledgeable sources” that Beijing and Dalai Lama’s representatives have been talking, there may be a chance he can visit China // 十四世达赖喇嘛回家的路似乎变得不再遥远。
Bribe case highlights west’s dilemma over China’s overseas probes – FT.com This case and hundreds like it worldwide pose an enormous challenge to liberal democracies such as New Zealand and the UK, especially as China’s economic and political influence increases. “Our countries don’t want to be seen as havens where corrupt officials can flee to with their ill-gotten gains but there are serious questions facing any democratically elected government about how far they can co-operate with China’s authoritarian system,” one diplomat from a big western country who works directly on such matters told the Financial Times on condition of anonymity.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
The rise and rise of China – can it really continue?–The Age–John Garnaut// Questions about how China controls what the world says about it are becoming more important as Xi presses a hardline ideological agenda that requires scholars and officials to self-inoculate against Western agents and ideas. Even the respected governor of the central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, has had to lead his technocrats through a bizarre Mao-era ritual of socially reinforced dictatorship called the “the mass line”. It’s arguably harder than it has been in decades to see through China’s fragmentary data, deliberate half-truths and irreconcilable contradictions. So what do we really know?
Academics Get Caught Up in Debate Over China’s Interest Rates – China Real Time Report – WSJ The academics, who usually back market-oriented reforms, don’t oppose freeing deposit rates per se. Rather, they say, interest rate liberalization should be a lower priority than other changes. “My argument is that China should achieve much fuller currency flexibility before achieving full interest rate liberalization,” says Guonan Ma, a Chinese-born and educated scholar at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels and a former senior economist at the Bank for International Settlements, an international organization of central banks in Basel Switzerland. Mr. Ma is influential back home on central banking issues. Yu Yongding, a senior economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, for instance, says he agrees with Mr. Ma’s priorities, as does He Fan, another senior CASS economist.
China’s Moment of Truth: Financial Reform or Growth? – WSJ Ms. Zhang, of the central bank, mapped out a plan at the May session to stick to the goal of gradually relaxing rates on deposits. The new lending program, she said, was central to the plan, according to people who attended. “The central bank’s ability to influence market rates…may be the most crucial success-or-failure factor for interest-rate liberalization,” she said, according to a transcript of her remarks viewed by the Journal. Since Communist Party leader Xi Jinping took office in 2012, the central bank has seen its influence on monetary policy grow. Mr. Xi returned for a third term the central bank’s governor, Mr. Zhou—a longtime reform advocate—even though Mr. Zhou had reached the bank’s retirement age of 65.
Alibaba IPO Is a Bonanza for Select Firms – WSJ The Alibaba preferred shares will automatically convert to common shares at $18.50 each when the IPO occurs, giving the owners a roughly 3.9% combined stake in Alibaba, valued at as much as $6.2 billion, based on the expected IPO share price of $66 to $68 a share. At the time the preferred shares were sold, Alibaba valued itself at roughly $40 billion, compared with $165 billion at the current midpoint of the proposed offering.
China August FDI falls to lowest in at least two-and-a-half years | Reuters China attracted $7.2 billion in foreign direct investment in August, the Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday, down 14 percent from a year earlier and at a level not seen since February 2012. That left China with $78.3 billion of FDI in the first eight months of 2014, down 1.8 percent from a year earlier.
China’s power consumption slows again in August – Xinhua | English.news.cn China’s power consumption slowed again in August, contracting 1.5 percent year on year, according to the National Energy Administration on Tuesday. The contraction was in stark contrast to the 3-percent rise recorded in July and the 5.9-percent in June.
Cabinet Said to Mull Reforms to Country’s Nearly 1,800 State-Owned Farms – Caixin The changes are intended to lead to market-oriented practices, agricultural modernization and expanded business, the sources said. China has 1,785 state farms covering 6.12 million hectares of arable land, about 5 percent of the country’s total. Some 13.52 million people live on the farms, including 3.29 million farm laborers. The farms are home to more than 3,200 state-owned enterprises that have total assets of 750 billion yuan, and many other educational, research and health institutions.
China caps end-month bank deposits to limit window-dressing | Reuters (Reuters) – Chinese regulators have imposed measures to stop BANKS from collecting large amounts of deposits at the end of a month to flatter their financial position, a practice that traders have said threatens the stability of China’s financial system and MARKETS. Deposits at BANKS at the end of any given month must not exceed 3 percent of the average daily level during that month, the CHINA Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in a notice
Ultrasonic CEO, COO Disappear as Company Cash Goes Missing – Bloomberg Chi Kwong Clifford Chan, chief financial officer of the Cologne, Germany-based company, informed the supervisory board that CEO Qingyong Wu and COO Minghong Wu had been unreachable since the weekend and that their whereabouts were unknown. The company, the holding for a group that’s mainly active in China, also said that most of its cash in Hong Kong and China had been transferred from its accounts and was “no longer in the company’s range of influence.”
Chinese premier stresses role of urbanization in economy – Xinhua Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday highlighted the importance of “new-type urbanization” in the economy. To maintain China’s economy at a medium-to-high growth speed and upgrade it to the medium-to-high end, China must bring the “new-type urbanization” program, a strong engine, into full play, said Li at a meeting on urbanization.// and reportedly announced 62 pilots 新型城镇化确定62地开展试点-
Xinhua Insight: Chinese city planners ready to redesign their mission – Xinhua “Now it is spring for city planning, but winter for city planners. You have more work to do and more interests to balance, as city planning will be closely integrated with social governance,” said Sun Anjun, head of the urban and rural planning department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. You have to deal with government policies, local residents, NGOs, enterprises and other shareholders, and take the bigger picture of future vision in mind, Sun said. “Being a technocrat will not make a good designer in the future,” Li added,” one has to be sensitive to social trends and widely solicit public opinion and design cities or communities with their interests in mind.”
温州房产垫资火爆 民资冷落实业_财经频道_一财网 多名温州资金中介近日对《
POLITICS AND LAW
Anti-graft war far from over, says leading Chinese prosecutor｜｜WantChinaTimes In a prominent commentary published Monday in the Study Times, a newspaper run by the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China, Qiu called for Chinese leaders to “steadfastly push forward in the fight against corruption” and warned authorities against falling under the mistaken belief that the country has turned the corner after a slate of high-profile takedowns of former top officials. // 最高检党组副书记撰文驳“大老虎联手反扑论”
马东伟:反腐败不存在“治标”“治本”转向问题|反腐_新浪新闻
发展党员步入控量提质新阶段–时政–人民网 top of People’s Daily page 1 Wednesday on efforts to focus on quality when admitting and developing Party members.. // 本报北京9月15日电 （记者盛若蔚）党的十八大以来，
CDIC Investigates Chinalco Head after Reports He Abused His Power – Caixin The Communist Party’s graft buster, the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC), said on its website on September 15 that Sun Zhaoxu, Chinalco’s president, is being probed for “serious violations of discipline,” a phrase that often means corruption. Sources close to the matter said Sun was reported for abusing his power about two months ago and the inquiry is likely linked to an overseas acquisition deal…The investigation into Sun is likely connected to an overseas deal while he was at China National Gold, sources close to the situation say. In 2008, the gold miner paid US$ 218 million to buy a 41.99 percent stake of Toronto-listed Jinshan Gold Mines Inc. from Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. Many analysts said at the time that China National Gold paid too much. // Ivanhoe…Robert Friedland apparently also had good ties with Zhou Yongkang and especially his Sichuan cronies through energy deals…
China tries top Uighur scholar on separatism charge–USA Today If convicted, Ilham Tohti could be sentenced up to life imprisonment for his alleged separatist activities, his lawyer said Tuesday. Tohti, 45, a Beijing-based economics professor at China’s main university for ethnic minorities, also ran a website called Uighur Online, which was often shut down for its discussion of policies affecting the Uighur (WEE-gur), a mostly Muslim people who call Xinjiang home.
Islamic State Suspects in Indonesia are China’s Uighurs — Naharnet The elite Detachment 88 police squad had arrested them, along with three Indonesians, after tailing their car on Saturday in the central Sulawesi district of Poso, a known hotbed for militant activity. “It turned out that the four foreigners arrested were Uighurs, after investigation by the anti-terror police,” national police spokesman Ronny Sompie told reporters. “They had used fake passports,” he added. The men had paid $1,000 to a broker in Thailand for each passport and used them to enter Malaysia and Indonesia, Sompie said.
下一盘新闻人才培养的好棋——部校共建新闻学院综述–时政–
人民日报人民时评：打破“诉访怪圈”，要走法治轨道–观点–
因为爱所以爱–时政–人民网 People’s Daily devotes full page to a Han couple–a former Beijing official now Lhasa Deputy Party Secretary and a CASS scholar–who are on their second tour working in Tibet…selected for 1 tour by the Organization Department, signed up for a second
CPC branches key to Xinjiang stability: Xi – Xinhua Chinese President Xi Jinping has written to the authorities and citizens of a successful village in Xinjiang, underlining the role of local Party branches in maintaining stability and prosperity in the terrorism-hit northwestern region. Xi’s letter, publicized on Tuesday, was addressed to Sawuer Menlik, secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) branch of Daxi Village, and all its residents. The Weili County village, known for its transformation from impoverished to well-off, received a visit from Xi in June 2009. The president again mentioned Daxi during his Xinjiang visit in April this year.
The Long Journey to the Rule of Law – Caixin I think sooner or later officials will be required to publish their assets. The question now is on what level of the government this will start and whether their relatives will also be involved. If the group is too small, the policy will be meaningless. But if it is too broad, it will not be practical. There are also concerns regarding how to balance the transparency of assets and protection of privacy. This issue will require the full consideration of officials. Recently, there has been news that the cases of several detained officials have entered the judicial process. People are curious as to whether these cases will lead to trials as open as that for Bo Xilai. I think that at the very least court documents should be open to the public. We have a higher demand now for judicial transparency and open trials. The supreme court has stated that all court documents should be accessible and the trials of dirty officials should be open because that is usually what the public cares about. Jiang Ping is a former president and tenured professor of China University of Political Science and Law
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
India says to defend China border after standoff ahead of Xi visit | Reuters More than 200 soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army crossed into what INDIA considers its territory in Ladakh in the western Himalayas last week, and used cranes, bulldozers and a Hummer vehicle to build a 2-km (1.2-mile) road within it, the Hindustan Times said. Indian soldiers challenged the Chinese troops and asked them to withdraw, the newspaper said. Then, on the night of September 10, soldiers demolished a temporary track built by Chinese forces.
India tightens Vietnam defence, oil ties ahead of China Xi’s visit | Reuters India extended a $100 million export credit to Vietnam for defence deals and tightened energy ties on Monday, signaling a more confident foreign policy ahead of a visit this week by China’s President Xi Jinping. India’s new accords with one of China’s rivals for influence in the South China Sea came as Xi visited the nearby islands of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, a reminder of the geostrategic jostling that is becoming an increasing feature in Asia.
China’s Social Media Underground–Foreign Policy These targeted attempts to shift Twitter’s Chinese-language narrative may seem unnecessary — after all, the vast majority of China’s 618 million Internet users are not on Twitter. But as censorship of mainland Chinese social media has become increasingly restrictive, Twitter has become a kind of Chinese social media underground, concentrating many of the dissident and activist voices that Chinese authorities wish most strongly to suppress.
中国无人机航拍钓鱼岛影像曝光 灯塔清晰可见_新闻_腾讯网 nice, clear pics from Chinese drone of the diaoyu Islands. how is this going over in Japan? // 2014年(第五届)
Chinese, Sri Lankan presidents agree to deepen strategic cooperative partnership – Xinhua Currently the Chinese people are making all efforts to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation, while Sri Lanka is pursuing the “Mahinda Vision”, which envisages ambitious economic growth through the scaling-up of investment and increased productivity, Xi noted. He stressed that China is ready to work with Sri Lanka to seize such opportunities to make a good planning for bilateral cooperation and enhance the strategic cooperative partnership, which is in the fundamental interest of the two peoples. The initiative of building the 21 Century Maritime Silk Road presents many opportunities for China to enhance cooperation with Sri Lanka in such areas as port construction and operation, maritime economy and security, and the construction of a maritime transportation center in the Indian Ocean
中央军委主席习近平签署命令通令 授予空军某试飞大队荣誉称号 给邹建国同志记一等功 squadron of PLA pilots recieves commendation as “Hero Test Pilots”, on page 1 of Thursday People’s Daily…aircraft carrier related? // 新华社西安9月16日电 （记者黄书波）
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
Let’s not allow Hong Kong to come between us – Telegraph Liu Xiaoming, China’s Ambassador to UK // But Lord Patten has been getting it wrong in Hong Kong since the beginning, despite his strong and misguided attachment to the place. In his article, he takes pains to defend his record there: but he should not forget that it is exactly what he did in Hong Kong that caused confrontation between China and Britain over Hong Kong and a cooling of the relationship between the two countries.
TECH AND MEDIA
China Mobile Focuses on ‘Naked’ Phones as IPhone Unknown – Bloomberg China Mobile will offer unsubsidized phones that work on fourth-generation networks for less than 600 yuan ($98) this quarter, Wang Xiaoyun, general manager of the carrier’s technology department, told an industry forum in Hsinchu, Taiwan, today. About 70 percent of 4G devices will cost less than 1,000 yuan by the end of this year, he said. China Mobile is cutting $2 billion from the subsidies it uses to help consumers in the world’s largest market pay for high-end smartphones from Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) The carrier, with 794 million subscribers, is expanding its 4G network by 40 percent and shifting to selling “naked devices” without subsidies or contracts.
PBOC Punishes Payment Companies for Mishandling Bank Card Transactions – Caixin The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on September 10 it told ChinaPNR, Fuiou, Yeepay and VBill to stop business in up to 15 provinces by the end of this year and to stop developing new clients in other regions until it is satisfied that they have changed their practices. At least one other company, 99Bill, has been found to have similar problems, sources close to the regulator said. The PBOC did not say whether it would punish more payment firms.
Chinese Worker Detained for Giving Customers a Sneak Peek at iPhone 6 – China Real Time Report – WSJ Chinese police in recent days said that on Sept. 4, they detained an employee of Foxconn, a major Apple contractor, for stealing shells of the new phone from a factory in northern Shanxi province. According to the local Communist Party-run newspaper Taihang Daily, police alleged the 40-year-old male suspect, identified only as surnamed Qiao, sold six shells for 6,000 yuan ($960) to an electronic gadget market in the southern city Shenzhen, a hub for gadget makers.
Internet Power Balance Tilts Toward Asia – WSJ When the Chinese e-commerce firm begins trading Friday, four of the world’s 10 largest Internet companies by stock-market value will be based in Asia, up from two in 2004, according to S&P Capital IQ. Combined, Alibaba, Tencent Holdings Ltd. , Baidu Inc. and JD.com Inc. are worth about $426 billion, assuming the offering by Alibaba after the U.S. market close on Thursday values the company at about $165 billion. The four biggest U.S.-based Internet companies— Google Inc., Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. —have $797 billion in combined stock-market value.
China’s DMG Entertainment Seeks to Expand in Hollywood – Bloomberg “There are some major acquisitions that we will be announcing that are in the works,” Dan Mintz, the New York-born chief executive officer of DMG Entertainment, said in an interview, without being more specific. The Beijing-based production company is working on U.S. purchases totaling more than $100 million, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be named because the targets haven’t been identified publicly.
Celebrities can’t expect much leniency after sex scandals – Global Times Chinese society has become more open and tolerant than before. But having good morals is still essential to entertainment figures in China. Western celebrities like Kobe Bryant and Hugh Grant were embraced by fans again after they were hit by scandals, causing an illusion among Chinese entertainers that they could be as lucky as Bryant and Grant. However, Chinese entertainment figures are subjected to higher standards of morality than their Western counterparts. Should China become more “tolerant” toward entertainment figures? If the public is still willing to see stars that have been involved in prostitution, gambling or drug abuse in movies or advertisements, then those stars will be only subjected to legal punishment. However, the fact remains that they will also be punished by the market to varying degrees.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Poor health spurs spending by Chinese millionaires – beyondbrics – Blogs – FT.com Fast living is blamed for a variety of ailments, with around a third of millionaires (those with a personal wealth of Rmb10m or US$1.6m, £1m) suffering from insomnia, headaches, fatigue and memory loss while smaller proportions endure hair loss, immune problems, numb limbs and smokers’ coughs, according to a survey by Hurun Research Institute released on Friday. Such conditions underpin a burgeoning demand among wealthy Chinese for products, treatments and lifestyle choices that are thought to confer health. “There is a clear trend among the Chinese millionaire class towards exercise, eating more carefully and generally taking better care of their bodies,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of the Hurun Report.
China’s schoolchildren practise democracy in the classroom – FT.com There’s not much risk that Ms Lv’s pupils will let all that voting go to their heads, though. A little one person one vote play-acting in primary school won’t get in the way of party control in the end: ask Hong Kong. Or maybe it’s all a clever ploy to put the kids off democracy from the start. After a solid morning of polling in Teacher Lv’s class, one pupil averred that voting was “too much trouble”. Bombard them with democracy from age eight, and hope they will be bored to death with it by 18? Heaven knows, that seems to work in the rest of the world.
A day in life of a Cartier-shopping beggar in China | Offbeat China For example, the elderly guy in the image below is one of them who “works” at Beijing West Railway Station. Every month, he’d take his income to a nearby post office, count them, and then make a money order back to his home in Jiangsu province. According to staff at the post office, the guy’s monthly income averages 10,000 yuan, which usually doubles or triples during national holidays. To put the number in perspective, in 2014, the average monthly income of college graduates in China is around 2400 yuan.
The Longmen Lineage: Historical Notes (Golden Elixir Press, Free PDF) free // This PDF contains a short history of the Longmen lineage, to which many masters of Neidan (Taoist Internal Alchemy) claim affiliation. It presents the main stages of development of Longmen, and briefly describes its main branches and masters. The article is translated from the chapter “Longmen pai” 龙门派 (The Longmen Lineage) in Zhongguo daojiao 中国道教 (Chinese Taoism), ed. by Qing Xitai 卿希泰 (4 vols; Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1994), vol. 1.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
Syngenta faces second lawsuit over GMO corn rejected by China | Reuters Trans Coastal Supply Co, a major exporter of livestock feed products, said in court documents it expects to lose more than $41 million because Syngenta sold Agrisure Viptera corn seed, known as MIR 162, to U.S. farmers without first obtaining import approval from Beijing. On Friday, international trader Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] charged in a lawsuit that Syngenta exposed the agribusiness company to more than $90 million in losses by selling the trait in corn seed without China’s approval for imports.
The obstacle to treating China’s contaminated soil is finding someone to pay | Reuters Blocking any meaningful action is the question of who pays – the state, which owns all land in CHINA, or the company. The cost of treating the land alone was an estimated 5 billion yuan ($816 million), said Gong Yuyang, managing director of ESD China, a land treatment firm which has been involved in talks on cleaning up the 8.6 square km (3.3 square mile) facility. What worries environmental experts is that if it’s this hard to deal with contaminated land in Beijing, where there is greater political will to tackle pollution, it will be even more difficult to detoxify farmland in poorer rural areas.
FOOD AND TRAVEL
China’s Antiquated National Holiday System Could Be Overhauled | TheNanfang and National Holiday Office is no longer // Don’t book your next vacation just yet! China’s State Council says it plans to review the national holiday system for 2015. The State Council made its intentions known in a publicized letter to tourism departments on September 9, calling for a joint conference for tourism ministers. As there is no date for the joint conference yet, we don’t know what changes are being planned.
JD.com Feeds Chinese Food Delivery Co. Daojia’s $50 Million Round – Venture Capital Dispatch – WSJ Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com JD -3.71% co-led the Series D round alongside Macquarie Capital MQG.AU +0.27%, with participation from other investors including MorningSide Ventures and CDH Venture, said Hao Sun, Daojia’s founder and chief executive. Similar to GrubHub Inc.GRUB -0.13% in the U.S., Daojia allows users to go online and order food from a variety of different restaurants, which is then delivered to the customer’s door. Daojia operates in eight cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, and has partnerships with more than 3,000 restaurants, according to the company.
BEIJING
Beijing bans all hidden surveillance equipment｜WantChinaTimes.com
北京教改洗牌学区房：政策一出房价1月内涨3万|教改措施|
北京CBD核心区地下将连通19幢楼宇(组图)|中关村|