"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
We are getting the jump on the October National Holiday rush and leaving Thursday for Singapore. There will probably only be a couple of issues of the newsletter between today and October 7.
Today’s Links:
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
China Court Sentences Uighur Scholar to Life in Separatism Case – NYTimes.com Maya Wang, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said she could not recall any ethnic Han advocates or dissidents receiving a life sentence in recent years. But she said the authorities usually treat dissent by Uighurs much more harshly, especially following ethnic rioting in Urumqi in 2009 that resulted in the deaths of at least 200 people, most of them Han. A Uighur radio journalist, Memetjan Abdulla, was sentenced to life in prison in 2010.
Related: Uygur scholar sentenced to life in prison for secession – China – Chinadaily.com.cn Ilham used a website he set up, “UighurOnline”, to spread rumors and separatist thought, as well as to misrepresent events to instigate ethnic hatred and calls for “Xinjiang independence”, the Urumqi Public Security Bureau said in a statement in January. He also told students “Uygurs need to use violence to protest”, according to that statement, adding that he called those who carried out terrorist attacks “heroes” and instigated students to hate and even “overthrow” the government. Police said Ilham used his status as a teacher to draw or lure people to form a group connected with key members of the overseas East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which is listed as a terrorist group and has sanctions applied by the United Nations. Ilham’s group also helped to organize and send people abroad to carry out separatist activities, police said.
Related: 维族教师伊力哈木被以”分裂国家罪”
Related: Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti sentenced: A moderate silenced | The Economist Mr Tohti himself had long expected this day to come. In the video interview below, conducted in November 2009, he talks of being prepared for a long term in prison, or even a death sentence. “That just might be the price our people have to pay,” he says. “Though I may have to go, perhaps that will draw more attention to the plight of our people. People will think more about it and perhaps more people will know about me.”
Related: ‘They Don’t Want Moderate Uighurs’ by Ian Johnson | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books In January, Ilham Tohti was detained. And unlike in a previous detention, he was not released. Last week he was put on trial on charges of “separatism,” a loosely defined crime of seeking independence for a part of China that can carry severe penalties. The only suspense about the verdict, which is expected on Tuesday, is how long his sentence will be. Over the last few months, I have asked several prominent public intellectuals who knew Ilham Tohti for their thoughts on him and his trial. Some of these people have appeared separately in this series, but their views on Ilham Tohti appear here for the first time.
经济参考网 – 新华社-中钢集团受困巨额银行债务逾期 业内称，钢贸贷款风险扩大尚未见顶 Central SOE Sinosteel is overdue on a debt payment? So says Xinhua’s Economic Information // 央企钢铁行业“巨无霸”中钢集团百亿债务违约，一石激起千层浪。 23日，据消息人士透露，中钢集团欠贷涉9家银行，
Related: 中钢集团否认数百亿贷款违约：
Related: 中钢6.9亿贷款逾期始末_财经频道_一财网
Related: No default of Sinosteel loan: ICBC – Xinhua The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said on Tuesday Sinosteel Corporation (Sinosteel) and its subsidiaries did not default on its loan. Sinosteel’s outstanding loans from the ICBC accounted for less than 1.3 percent of the group’s total financing raised from financial institutions. The statement from ICBC came after online rumors that Sinosteel and its affiliated companies had defaulted on loans and accrued interest worth tens of billions of yuan.//all over Chinese media, market does not seem to be buying the denials
China’s Big Four Banks May Ease Mortgage Policies: Herald – Bloomberg China’s four biggest banks may ease mortgage lending, the latest in a series of policy steps aimed at supporting the country’s sliding property market, the 21st Century Business Herald reported yesterday. Criteria for loans to first-home buyers may be eased and people who have paid outstanding mortgages may be considered eligible for first-home status, the Guangzhou-based newspaper said, citing unidentified people at Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (601398) and Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. (601288) Executives at Bank of China Ltd., China’s fourth-largest lender, met yesterday to discuss adjusting mortgage policies, according to the report, which cited an unidentified person.
Related: China property hard sell intensifies in bid to lift sagging sector | Reuters Chinese banks, property developers and regional governments are intensifying efforts to drag the housing market from its worst slump in two years by allowing people to buy more than one home, slashing prices and launching unorthodox promotions. The property sector, which accounts for about 15 percent of China’s economy and directly affects some 40 industries from furniture to steel, is of increasing concern to companies and policy makers as it drags on growth. The most powerful support measure may be yet to come.
Moscow’s ‘Mr. Yuan’ Builds China Link as Putin Tilts East – Bloomberg That’s what skeptical bankers started calling Igor Marich after he introduced yuan trading in Moscow in 2010, when Russia became the first country outside China to offer regulated renminbi purchases. Now, as sanctions from the west over the conflict in Ukraine prompt more Russian companies to look east for growth, Mr. Yuan has become something of an honorific. The yuan-ruble trade on the Moscow Exchange, where Marich runs money markets, has jumped 10-fold this year to $749 million in August, though still a sliver of the $367 billion in dollar-for-ruble sales. Yuan buying hit a then-peak of 666 million yuan ($109 million) on July 31, when the European Union penalized Russia’s largest banks, OAO Sberbank, VTB Group and OAO Gazprombank, over Putin’s support for Ukraine’s insurgency. With EU and U.S. sanctions in place and ties with China deepening, daily trading will soon reach 1 billion yuan, Marich said.
Foreign phones set to ‘disconnect’ – Business – Chinadaily.com.cn The latest ripples of the Snowden case arrived on Friday when a former Chinese official said Shanghai has asked municipal officials to power off smartphones made by Apple and Samsung for security reasons. Wei Jianguo, secretary-general of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told a forum in Beijing that China should stay on high alert regarding national security threats on the Internet and the mobile Web. “Shanghai ordered officials to use Huawei phones instead of Apple or Samsung. Why is that? It is because of security risks,” he said, according to a speech transcript that was posted on Web portal Sohu.com.
《新闻1+1》 20140922 大城里的小村如何治理腐败？_新闻频道_央视网(cctv.
Related: As China’s Antigraft Efforts Increase, a Call for Padded Interrogation Rooms – NYTimes.com The orders come as the Chinese capital has seen a huge increase in the number of graft cases under investigation. Citywide the number of investigations into official corruption rose to 772 over the first eight months of this year, an increase of 64 percent over the same period in 2013, according to a report Tuesday in The Beijing News.
坚持人民民主专政，并不输理-时政频道-新华网 Long piece in Red Flag Manuscript from head of CASS Wang Weiguang on correctness of upholding the People’s Democratic Dictatorship…generating lots of Weibo discussion. Old-school // 党的十八届三中全会明确提出全面深化改革的总目标是完善和发展中
Palm-Greasing End Means Xi Graft Crackdown May Aid Growth – Bloomberg For economic gains from the anti-corruption campaign to materialize, Xi must follow through with additional changes that include greater accountability, more rule of law, less space for discretionary decisions, and financial-industry liberalization, said Louis Kuijs, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s chief Greater China economist in Hong Kong. “The anti-corruption and extravagance campaigns are meant to be coming alongside more systemic changes,” said Kuijs, who formerly worked at the World Bank. “These systemic changes should eventually lead to somewhat better productivity growth and somewhat better allocation of financial resources.”
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
China fundraising scheme collapse sparks street protest – FT.com Local media estimated that roughly $500m in deposits was missing. Xiao Xue, Huangjinjia’s chief executive, travelled with the business delegation that accompanied Xi Jinping to the Netherlands this spring, as the representative of an agricultural firm that she also heads, according to the company website. Her company’s demise is not the only sign of economic weakness in Hebei province. On Monday, Chinese media reported that real estate developers facing a collapse in housing prices had absconded after raising $1.5bn in Handan, a large industrial city in the south of Hebei.
China Raids 13 Real Estate Firms After Funding Collapses | Mingtiandi A report 邯郸楼市危机：众房企集资93亿无力兑付 频现资金断链 in the official Xinhua news agency today said that government work teams had been sent in to investigate thirteen local real estate developers in the city in southern Hebei province after a total of thirty-two property firms illegally raised RMB 9.3 billion ($1.5 billion) in funding for new projects in Handan. In addition to the 94 people already in custody, the police are said to be pursuing another 43 individuals in a crackdown that was triggered by the collapse last month of one of the leading property developers in Handan. In all the shadow bankers are said to have borrowed cash from an estimated 10 percent of the population of the city of 1.3 million people.
State subsidies report casts doubt on fair business practices in China | South China Morning Post Some 88 per cent, or 2,235 of the mainland’s 2,537 listed firms have been given total subsidies of 32.26 billion yuan (HK$40.6 billion) in this year’s first half, up a third year on year, Xinhua reported on Sunday. More than 90 listed firms were even able to post a first-half profit because of the subsidies, without which they would have been in the red, it added. Total net profit achieved by the 2,537 firms grew 10.1 per cent year on year to 1.27 trillion yuan, Xinhua said, citing the firms’ interim reports.
Q. and A.: Jörg Wuttke on the Future of China’s Economy – NYTimes.com China is not a country to me, it’s like a continent, with member states. One province protects itself against the others and subsidizes its local champions, and so forth. There would be so much more domestic G.D.P. power in this country if they would knock down these barriers and prevent provinces from protecting local champions. The W.T.O. was exactly this process, and China benefited greatly. So why not do the same for domestic industry?
Missing Qingdao copper spawns web of lawsuits | Business Spectator At the heart of the deadlock are criminal investigations, claims and counter claims for commodities promised as collateral; claims against warehouse managers and Qingdao port; arguments that agreements have been breached and a testing of insurance policies. “When there is a default of this nature, there is a spider’s web of contractual relations and the risk of the default has been dispersed among the banks, insurers and traders,” said Matthew Cox, banking and finance lawyer at Dentons UKMEA LLP in Singapore. In some cases, banking executives suspect that fake documents were provided to prove that metal promised as collateral was in place. Much remains unclear. Access to storage facilities at Dagang in Qingdao port and at Penglai port remains restricted.
Frankfurt exchange’s China dream turns to nightmare | Reuters But as the New York Stock Exchange (ICE.N) basks in the $22 billion debut of the Chinese e-commerce company, the German exchange operator is licking its wounds after a raft of scandals involving Chinese firms listed in Frankfurt. Investors are wondering how to seek redress and what can be done to prevent it happening again.
If Justin Lin is right, industrial carnage awaits If Justin Lin is right, China will ‘rule the world’ economically, if not by 2030 then certainly before mid-century. Its domestic economy will far surpass anything on the planet, its companies will tower above all, it will be the prime money-mover globally, it must lead technologically and the West’s middle and working classes will be industrially and financially sidelined. If he is wrong, but China’s leaders insist on his growth imperative anyway, then China will become highly indebted, parched, polluted and frustrated. That is why I am listening closely to Justin Lin.
Regulator Said to Approve Jack Ma’s Deal for Financial Software Provider – Caixin The Ministry of Commerce has approved a controversial acquisition that will allow Jack Ma, the founder and chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., to control the country’s leading financial software provider, a source close to the regulator said. The ministry will announce its decision soon, the source said.
Economists React: Surprising Signs of an Uptick in China’s Economy – China Real Time Report – WSJ Economists this month were expecting survey results — which tend to reflect sentiment among smaller, private and export-oriented companies – to show slower expansion or even contraction of activities on China’s factory floor. Yet the flash reading of the HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index rose to 50.5 in September, up from a final reading of 50.2 in August. The components or the sub-indexes of the survey showed a mixed picture. Manufactures reported faster increases in new orders, including new-export orders in particular, even as they were shedding workers at a faster speed. Overall, today’s data suggest that after August’s sharp slowdown, things could be stabilizing.
Fired Ultrasonic CEO Borrowed Company Cash for Own Use – Bloomberg The chief executive officer of Ultrasonic AG (US5), fired last week after he disappeared and the shoemaker’s cash went missing, said he borrowed company money for personal use and planned to pay it back later this month. “I borrowed some money from the company but not large amounts, just small amounts,” Wu Qingyong, founder of the Frankfurt-listed Chinese company, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday in the southern city of Xiamen.
POLITICS AND LAW
多名上海官员涉土地问题遭调查_政经频道_财新网 Shangh
媒体治理体系之变 弹性管控分而治之_中国-多维新闻网 Duowei says that “Yanhuang Chunqiu” has been ordered to change its “responsible work unit”, which it needs to be able to publish…article looks at evolving media management strategies // 以敢言和针砭时弊著称的内地政治杂志《炎黄春秋》
Schools Under Fire for Too Much Pomp in Military Training – NYTimes.com After photos of Mr. Shi spread online over the weekend, it emerged that the college had done the same thing in years past, though before 2012 it had used a military jeep to transport the administrators. Photos of an official reviewing the students from an Audi at another Anhui institution, the Anhui Wonder College of Information Engineering, were also published by Chinese news outlets. A representative from that school told Southern Metropolitan Daily that online critics were “making something out of nothing.” By Sunday, Mr. Shi had gone public in an attempt to appease those who accused him of putting on airs. He told The Xinan Evening News that the Audi was needed to save time to review the 6,000 students. “I had to move around,” he said. “Walking would have taken 20 minutes. In the car you only needed five.”
中国为何不能实行西方的民主制度 来源： 《红旗文稿》2014/17 作者： 陈海燕–近来，乌克兰冲突不断、伊拉克局势堪忧，
Zhou Enlai’s niece urges President Xi Jinping to persist with anti-graft campaign | South China Morning Post President Xi Jinping must persist with his anti-graft campaign or “the country has no hope”, according to the niece of the People’s Republic’s first premier, Zhou Enlai. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, 77-year-old Zhou Bingde criticised some cadres’ luxurious lifestyles and expressed strong support for Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, which is sweeping through the government, state-owned enterprises and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)…Zhou praised General Liu Yuan , son of late president Liu Shaoqi and political commissar of the PLA’s General Logistics Department, for tackling army corruption. “I am grateful to him. He was brave,” said Zhou.
人民日报评论员观察：反腐，一场必须赢的价值观较量–观点–
鄂尔多斯市公安局原局长王会师涉三罪被立案侦查 Ordos police chief under investigation
Senior official stresses enhancing Xinjiang ethnic cadres training – Xinhua A senior leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has called for enhanced training of ethnic cadres in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Liu Yunshan, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks at a conference celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Xinjiang ethnic cadres training class. Liu emphasized the key role of highly competent and patriotic ethnic cadres in maintaining stability and bringing long-term prosperity to the autonomous region.
2 Investigators: China Floods U.S. With Near-Perfect Fake Driver’s Licenses « CBS Chicago They are incredible fakes. Smuggled into this country by high-tech forgery rings that have mastered the details so well, they could lead to critical security threats. Each license costs about $150. They’re smuggled inside boxes of tea sets and jewelry from China; one intercepted batch was headed to a group of 20 students at the same college.
Crab sellers feel pinch from drive to curb corruption – China – Chinadaily.com.cn Wang sold more than 250 kg of high-priced crabs and earned about 50,000 yuan ($8,130) during last year’s crab season, which traditionally runs from Mid-Autumn Festival to the following March or April. However, although this year’s season has only just started and the first batch of Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, Wang thinks that prospects for his business are gloomy. “I’m afraid the sales volume may drop by more than 50 percent compared with last year,” he said. Wang said people used to buy the crabs as festival gifts rather than to eat at home, because they are expensive. “Now, very few want to buy these crabs to give as presents, with the ongoing Party anti-corruption campaign,” he said.
中纪委定期向老同志通报工作 监察部副部长郝明金主持会议。
山西确认“7000万嫁女”煤老板被查_新浪新闻 Xing Libin, the Shanxi coal boss who threw a 70m RMB wedding for his kid, is under investigation, Wang Rulin confirms
刘铁男涉嫌受贿3000余万 广汽丰田南山集团等涉案-新闻频道-和讯网 Caijing with details of the Liu Tienan case. Liu goes on trial today // 《财经》获悉，刘铁男涉嫌受贿金额总计为3000余万元，
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
Over 200 Japanese business leaders head to China in step to mend frozen ties – Global Times A large business delegation left Japan Monday for China with hopes of being granted an audience with President Xi Jinping as the two countries take steps toward patching up tattered relations. More than 200 senior executives – the largest number on record – headed for Beijing on an annual visit that dates back to 1975, an official with the Japan-China Economic Association told AFP.
Army Names New Deputy Commander of China’s Missile Forces – Caixin The People’s Liberation Army has named a new deputy commander to its strategic military forces, the latest appointment in a military leadership reshuffle that started in the summer. Wang Zhimin was named deputy commander of the Second Artillery Corps. He had been deputy commander of the southern Guangzhou military region, one of China’s seven military regions.
Chinese and Indian troops dug in amid stand-off high in Himalayas | South China Morning Post Hundreds of Indian and Chinese troops have dug into positions on a high Himalayan plateau, leading India’s army chief to cancel an overseas trip to monitor the stand-off. The events underscore deep differences between the Asian giants as they seek closer ties. Military officials in New Delhi and Kashmir said yesterday that Chinese troops set up a camp about 3km into territory claimed by India in the Chumar region of the Ladakh plateau more than a week ago.
China says regional war reports in India a wild guess : – India Today China on Tuesday rubbished reports suggesting that a recent address by President Xi Jinping to military officers in Beijing calling for “combat readiness” was linked to India. It said the Indian media reports were “a wild guess” and contradicted the consensus reached by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chinese President to resolve issues peacefully. China’s military, has, at the same time, stuck to the line that its troops had not violated any agreements between India and China and were on “China’s side” of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). With differing perceptions of the LAC in the areas in question, the PLA move has been seen as a bid by China to reinforce its control in territory where both sides have in the past been patrolling…The reference to “winning regional wars” in the “age of information technology” has become the PLA’s standard doctrine since the early 1990s, finding regular mention in defence meetings and white papers, according to military analysts, and is not country-specific.
习近平示和碰壁 莫迪西藏新攻略直挑红线_国际-多维新闻网 just after Xi left India an Arunachal Pradesh official met with the Dalai Lama and encouraged him to visit? // 中国国家主席习近平访问印度之后，
Lawfare › More Tightening of Internet Restrictions by China A stated mission of President Xi’s Leading Group on Internet Security and Informatization is to transform China into a “cyberpower” using homegrown technologies. The inner circle of the CCP is discreet about what that might mean precisely, so far as policy goes. Nevertheless, Lu’s recent comments at the Davos Summit on September 10th provide a window into how the Chinese government’s plans relate to the internet more globally. In a panel on “The Future of the Internet Economy,” Lu called for a “multilateral, democratic, and transparent” internet, echoing descriptions of the most ardent defender of internet freedom. So far so good. Yet, towards the end of his remarks, he also analogized the internet to a car: sometimes, Lu said, it requires brakes—the official’s implication being that sound policy might require subordination of internet freedoms to legitimate national security concerns. Furthermore, Lu warned, the core necessities of the internet also had to respect local laws and customs if it wished to function well and in an orderly fashion. Lu’s admonition comes at an interesting time: as early as 2015, US control over ICANN, the organization that oversees the root-zone file of internet domain addresses, is scheduled to end
China army reiterates retrieving of official houses, vehicles – Xinhua China’s military authorities have reiterated their vow to seize public housing and vehicles from senior army officials, if the number or size of the properties is deemed higher than standard. Since the beginning of this year, retrieving of public properties and reduction of redundant staff provided for officials has been regarded as an important task, a statement from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said on Tuesday.
Pixel by pixel, Taiwan maps out claims to contested South China Sea (+video) – CSMonitor.com Taiwan is finishing a project to map the disputed sea with high-resolution satellite imagery, generating an unusually detailed map and promoting Taiwan’s often overlooked maritime claims – which are as large as China’s.
Chinese ship spies on Valiant Shield — and that’s OK with US – Pacific – Stripes A Chinese surveillance ship has been detected observing the Valiant Shield military exercise from within the United States’ exclusive economic zone — a move the U.S. actually doesn’t mind. One Chinese auxiliary general intelligence vessel has been watching most of Valiant Shield since it began Sept. 15 in and around Guam, military officials said Monday.
As Asia Tensions Cool, Putin Turns Up the Heat – WSJ Mr. Xi can afford to be circumspect: China is an ascendant power, Russia is in long-term decline. Time is on his side.。。Russia’s much weaker economy is narrowly reliant on exports of oil and gas. China is a manufacturing and industrial colossus with some $4 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves. That is why Mr. Xi is able to mix threats in the region with lavish inducements. It also helps to explain why Mr. Xi’s challenge to the U.S. is the most potent in the long run, but Mr. Putin’s may be the more immediately dangerous.
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
Former Hong Kong chief secretary says he accepted secret payoff from Beijing | Reuters A former top Hong Kong civil servant told a court on Tuesday that he had received a secret payment of HK$11 million ($1.4 million) “from Beijing” in 2007 through a businessman intermediary, local media reported. Hong Kong’s former chief secretary, Rafael Hui, was testifying in one of the financial hub’s largest corruption trials, charged with accepting “concealed and disguised” payments from property tycoons Thomas and Raymond Kwok, the billionaire co-chairmen of Asia’s largest developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd, seeking government favor.
Wynn Says Macau Concludes Probe Into Cotai Land Deal – Bloomberg Macau’s anti-corruption agency is satisfied with its probe into a local land deal by Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) and has ended its investigation, the casino operator’s billionaire Chairman Steve Wynn said. “It’s totally mundane, irrelevant,” Wynn told reporters yesterday when asked about the investigation into the deal, after giving a speech to students at a local university. “Everything about the transaction is crystal clear.”
TECH AND MEDIA
3 Arrested in Brawl at New Haven Apple Store | NBC Connecticut Police have been called to the same store repeatedly over complaints from store managers of unruly behavior since the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus hit stores Friday. “There seem to be two groups, rival groups, mainly of Chinese people who are coming in from New York on a daily basis and trying to buy as many of the phones as the store will allow to sell toany one person,” explained New Haven police spokesman Officer David Hartman.
China regulator says iPhone 6 in final review stages – Tencent | Reuters “The iPhone 6 has entered the final stage of the approval process, now it’s just a matter of time,” MIIT chief Miao Wei told Tencent in an exclusive interview in Beijing. “Netizens, please wait patiently.” Miao declined to offer a timeframe for completion of the review, saying only that he expected a result “very soon”.
【早报】京东销售招行保本理财违规叫停，相关负责人被“谈话”-
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
The China Collection | CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov) This collection of over seventy National Intelligence Estimates on China is the most extensive single selection of intelligence analyses the United States Government ever has released. This recently declassified collection represents the most authoritative intelligence assessments of the United States Government and thus constitutes a unique historical record of a momentous era in China’s modern history. The collection spans the pivotal period from the Chinese civil war and the consolidation of the Communist regime through the upheavals of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. It chronicles the struggles within the top leadership, the buildup of the Chinese military, and the evolution of the Sino-Soviet split. With the benefit of hindsight, we now can study the assessments of these developments with a degree of historical perspective, while still feeling the excitement of reading “history as it happens.”
Last Living Pilot of China’s “Flying Tigers” Critically Ill–What’s On Weibo Trending topic on Sina Weibo on September 23, 2014: Long Qiming (龙启明), former member of the Flying Tigers, is critically ill. Chinese netizens are collectively donating money to pay for his medical expenses. It was April 1937 when US Captain Claire Lee Chennault met Madame Chiang Kai-shek in China for a Chinese Air Force mission. China and Japan were on the verge of war, and the underdeveloped Chinese Air Force needed to be strengthened. Chennault’s arrival to China laid the foundation for the organization of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) in 1941. The AVG became famously known as the Flying Tigers (飞虎队), a group of US fighter pilots who went to China during the final three years of Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) to fight the Japanese invaders. Sharks’ teeth were painted on all of their airplanes (AVG 2014; Yu 2006).
Chinese state media commentary over Great Leap Forward death toll draws fierce online debate | South China Morning Post “Some Western hostile forces repeatedly hype and exaggerate that China starved to death tens of millions of people … [They] were attempting to undermine and disprove the Chinese Communist Party’s validation to rule,” wrote Bei Yuan in an article published in Social Sciences Weekly, a publication of China’s top official think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Bei, a retired teacher at the Anhui Administration Institute, acknowledged there was “great loss” during the period but called it “an exploratory miscarriage” as the Communist Party sought a path to socialism. “Since it was an exploration, it could have been a success, but it could also fail,” he wrote. On social networking site Weibo, which has become a vigorous space for public discussion, the article was overwhelmingly greeted by outrage. Comments flooded in, criticising the article as a poor attempt to justify Chairman Mao’s campaign.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
Abalone farmers, angry over pollution, storm Chinese shipyard | Daily Mail Online A shipyard in China’s southeast has suspended operations after at least 500 farmers, who blame water pollution from the yard for killing their abalone harvest, stormed the yard and smashed its offices, an official at the shipyard said on Tuesday. There has been no work at the Fujian Huadong Shipyard, which sits on the north coast of Luoyuan Bay in Fujian province, since last Wednesday, said an assistant manager at the factory who gave only his surname, Zhang.
China’s nuclear expansion threatened by public unease | Zhu Wan – China Dialogue increasingly negative public attitudes towards nuclear power spell trouble ahead. China has seen frequent anti-nuclear protests since Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster. In particular inland nuclear plants – considered less safe than coastal power stations due to earthquake risks and distance from secure water supplies needed for cooling – have become an emotive issue, alongside PX factories and incinerators. Swathes of the public do not believe that a country which fails to guarantee the safety of milk and foodstuffs can be trusted to operate nuclear plants. If China is to achieve its ambitious targets, the country needs to build nuclear facilities inland, and fast – perhaps as early as 2015. A fierce battle between the pro- and anti-nuclear camps may be on its way.
Emissions report tells only part of story, expert says – China – Chinadaily.com.cn A report released ahead of Tuesday’s UN climate summit, which shows China’s per capita carbon emissions have surpassed those of the European Union, does not tell the whole story, an expert said. “China and the EU cannot be compared in such a simple way, given their different stages of development and economic situations,” said Zou Ji, a professor at the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation.
FOOD AND TRAVEL
China, US seek ways to benefit from carp – China – Chinadaily.com.cn In China, Asian carp is considered a delicious dish, but in the United States, it is seen as a dangerous invasive species that threatens rivers, lakes and indigenous species. In early September, US scientists came to China to explore ways to prevent the fish’s spread in their country and explore the possibility of exporting the invaders back to China. “Chinese love eating the fish, and the US has too many of them, which makes exploring a business plan a win-win solution,” said Yang Bo, a freshwater expert from The Nature Conservancy who accompanied the US scientists during their visit. Yang made her remarks in an interview with China Daily on Monday.
BEIJING
北京将建居民心理档案|心理|医生_凤凰资讯 近日，
Beijing to change flat rate subway fares – Xinhua The Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission has released a basic outline which says in the future ticket fares will be based on distance or stop numbers. Currently, the city still adopts a flat rate subway fare with unlimited transfers. A single-ride ticket costs two yuan (32 U.S. cents), which is believed nowhere near operation costs. Owed to swelling population and huge losses by the public transport system, the government has been considering a raise after gathering public opinion on fare pricing in July.
非京籍人口近四成 学者吁增居住证福利_政经频道_财新网 37.4% of beijing residents do not have Beijing Hukou, scholar calls for giving them benefits–Caixin // 北京常住外来人口的比重从2000年的18.8%