"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
There is a temporary APEC section in the newsletter starting today.
Thanks to APEC our kids are now on school holiday until next Thursday. Publishing next week may be sporadic as we try to keep the twins gainfully occupied.
Today’s Links:
THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT
1. China to speed up construction of new Silk Road: Xi – Xinhua the carrot for the regional neighbors…says that the the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will play a key role financing..wonder how the recipient countries will feel about the US when China reminds them repeatedly as the AIIB is disbursing funds that America actively tried to obstruct the bank? Will the “soft” cash approach help offset the concerns about the recent, more assertive aspects of China’s regional foreign policy? That seems to be the bet here, would not assume it is a bad bet… // China will accelerate the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and strengthen cooperation with the countries involved, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced. “We should prepare timetables and road maps for the coming years for the ‘One Belt and One Road’ project,” Xi said when presiding over the eighth meeting of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs on Tuesday. “We will focus on some significant projects and let the construction of ‘One Belt and One Road’ commence as soon as possible,” said the president, adding that the cooperation between China and the countries involved would be mutually beneficial. Xi, who also heads the central leading group, said China would help partner countries with infrastructure projects, including transportation, electricity and telecommunications.
Related: 习近平主持召开中央财经领导小组第八次会议强
Related: 千亿级丝路基金有望年内亮相 将有更多专项金融机构成立_财经频道_一财网 CBN says the Silk Road Fund Company will be established by end of this government fiscal year, initial size will be 100B RMB, other funds expected as well // 《第一财经日报》昨日从权威人士处获悉，丝路基金公司应该年内（
Related: CAREC Institute to be headquartered in Urumqi, China – Xinhua The 13th ministerial meeting of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) announced here Thursday in the Kyrgyz capital that the CAREC Institute would be headquartered in Urumqi, China…China’s Vice Minister of Finance Hu Jinglin also announced that the Chinese government has formally approved the decision to build the CAREC Institute as an intergovernmental organization…Hu called the establishment of the institute a win-win initiative in the history of Central Asia regional economic cooperation, and expressed the hope that future collaboration would take advantage of the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and speed up regional economic integration.
2. China’s Uighur Unrest Is Opportunity for Afghans – NYTimes.com interviews with Afghan officials suggest that they also hope to use the presence of Uighur militants here to drive a wedge between China and Pakistan, which has aided and sheltered the Taliban in the past and is a longstanding ally of Beijing. In the past year, Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, has persistently flagged to Beijing each and every one of the dozens of Uighurs who it says were caught by Afghan forces fighting inside the country. And Afghan and Western officials familiar with the effort say that the intelligence agency has painstakingly prepared dossiers for Chinese officials, laying out evidence tracing the militants back to Islamist training camps inside Pakistan. The subject was atop the agenda last month when Rahmatullah Nabil, the acting director of the Afghan intelligence agency, quietly visited Beijing before President Ashraf Ghani’s first state trip to China
Related: Labor Program in China Moves to Scatter Uighurs Across Han Territory – NYTimes The policy comes from the top. At a two-day work forum on Xinjiang in May, President Xi Jinping stressed binding the ethnicities more tightly and voiced support for sending more Uighurs to work and be educated in Han areas “to enhance mutual understanding among different ethnic groups and boost ties between them,” according to a report by Xinhua, the state news agency. That was preceded by a conference in September 2013 in which other top party leaders called for local governments across China to help find work for members of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
3. China’s top military body to take over army auditing office | Reuters PLA corruption crackdown looks to be in its early days // The office was previously a part of the PLA General Logistics Department. Gu Junshan, the department’s former deputy director, has been under investigation for corruption since he was sacked from the department in 2012, sources previously told Reuters.// 习近平主席签署命令 解放军审计署划归中央军委建制-新华网
Related: 解放军四总部集中发声：
Related: 认真学习宣传贯彻全军政治工作会议精神- 军报记者网 经中央军委主席习近平批准，总政治部日前印发《
4. Fly High the Banner of Socialist Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics! What Does the 4th Plenum Decision Mean for Legal Reforms in China? : SSRN the best analysis I have read so far about the 4th Plenum Decision, by Randall Peerenboom of La Trobe University, Faculty of Law and Management; Oxford University and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies // Part I provides an overview of legal reforms during the last thirty years, and addresses the question of why hold a plenum on rule of law now? Part II analyses the main features of the Decision. The Decision sought to accomplish three main tasks. First, to reconfirm for domestic and international audiences that China is pursuing its own path of development aimed at establishing socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics; second, to provide a central-level comprehensive plan for reforms that cuts across jurisdictions and rises above departmental interests; and third, to move beyond the hardware of legal reforms to the software by promoting the norms and practices of a rule of law culture for officials and citizens alike. Part III assesses the general principles of the reform agenda. Part IV examines major institutional reforms to the legislature, administrative agencies and the judiciary. Part V concludes with an overall assessment of the reform agenda and a discussion of the implications of China’s efforts to establish a socialist rule of law for the promotion of rule of law globally.
Related: China’s constitution roller-coaster – China Media Project the very idea of the centrality of the constitution makes many within the Party nervous. And just as the communique from the 4th Plenum was released, an article appeared online with the headline, “‘Governing in Accord with the Law’ Cannot be Confused with Western Constitutionalism” (依宪执政与西方「宪政」不容混淆). The article set the rather subdued tone for understanding the notion of “governing in accord with the law.” A search on Baidu shows that 106 websites ran this particular article, which was clearly propagated under direct instruction from propaganda authorities. The byline of the article, Guo Ping (国平), is not in fact a person, but the official nom de plume of the Information Office of the State Council.
Related 最高法审委会专委胡云腾：巡回法庭的裁判，
5. China’s Cancer Survival Rates ‘Trail Those in Developed Countries’ – Caixin Less than one-third of cancer patients in China survived five years after their diagnosis, a report shows, a rate that is much lower than in developed countries. The data was gathered from the China Cancer Registration Center and the Cancer Prevention and Control Office, by a team of investigators including Zhang Siwei, an associate professor at the China Tumor Registration Center. The researchers used data from 139,000 cases of Chinese patients diagnosed with cancer from 2003 to 2005 and found that the average rate of survival after five years was 30.9 percent.
6. Yang Yuliang resigns as Fudan University boss amid claims of graft at school | South China Morning Post Dr Yang Yuliang was replaced by Dr Xu Ningsheng, the president of Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, the State Council said in a statement released on Wednesday. Communist Party sources said Yang had failed to rein in malpractices at the university. Earlier this year, a special task force from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection found management of research funds at Fudan was chaotic and construction projects on a campus were in violation of rules and prone to corruption. The watchdog has accused Fudan professors in charge of 25 scientific research projects of swindling state scientific research funds.
Related: 复旦校长杨玉良突然离职 巡视组来时举报箱被塞满-凤凰新闻 report on the sudden resignation of Fudan University President, says the “accusation box” for the CCDI inspection team was so full they had to use a stick to cram the letters in… // 核心提示：在复旦大学校长杨玉良突然离职前两周，
Related: 复旦大学:
7. Smartphone Maker Xiaomi Gets US$1 Bln Loan from 29 Investment Banks – Caixin Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc. borrowed US$ 1 billion from 29 foreign and Hong Kong investment banks during the week of October 27-31, sources with knowledge of the matter say. The loan was for three years, a source who was involved in the deal said. The banks said Xiaomi could borrow another US$ 500 million after it repaid this loan.
Related: 三个月内，小米与联芯完成合资，
8. How Dorothy Wang Was Cast On ‘Rich Kids Of Beverly Hills’ – Business Insider “The #RichKids of Beverly Hills” became the E! network’s breakout reality show of 2014 and recently wrapped its second season on the air. Made up of six wealthy best friends from the 90210 zip code, “Rich Kids” was inspired by the popular and outrageous Tumblr “Rich Kids of Instagram,” in which offspring of the super rich flaunt their yachts, diamonds, magnums of champagne, and more. It was through this Tumblr that E! producers and casting directors found Dorothy Wang, the 26-year-old “funemployed” heiress to her father’s $4 billion retail real estate fortune. Dorothy’s dad, Roger Wang, founded the Golden Eagle International Group in Nanjing and turned it into one of the country’s largest mall chains, with stores in 15 cities // here is a clip of her with her new jewelry line
APEC
Anti-corruption statement proposed by China, U.S.: APEC official – Xinhua Alan Bollard, executive director of the APEC Secretariat, said the Beijing Statement on Anti-corruption has been proposed not only by the leadership of China “but also from the United States.” Bollard said at a news briefing that the statement will result in the establishment of a group “which could get the enforcement agencies together across the APEC region and allow them to pass on the information on particular cases with one another.”
In possible breakthrough, Abe and Xi likely to hold brief talks at APEC | The Japan Times experts said if it materializes, the meeting will likely be brief and informal, and result in little of substance. Still, they said, each side has its reasons to want a photo opportunity to mark an uptick in bilateral ties, however insubstantial the event may be.
China announces import support measures as Apec leaders arrive – FT.com $$ China tossed a bone to trading partners attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting this week by announcing a series of measures including more bank credit for high-tech imports and quicker approvals for meat and seafood shipments. Apec leaders converging on Beijing are intent on accessing China’s vast market. More equipment imports would appeal to the US, Japan and Korea while more fruit, seafood and meat imports would be welcomed by neighbouring Taiwan, southeast Asia and especially Australia, which hopes to ink a bilateral trade deal later this month.
Beijing mobilizes police, civilians for APEC security – Xinhua lots of overtime pay // Beijing police said they will deploy 28,000 police officers each day starting Thursday as the Chinese capital raises security for this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. Another 800,000 civilians will be mobilized to aid in security in the city, said an official with the Beijing Municipal Security Bureau (BMSB). The official said all police officers will be put on duty to crack down on crime and guard the city against terrorism. Motorcycle police, police dogs, surveillance video and other security measures will be stepped up in downtown areas.
U.S. and China Spar Over Tariffs on High-Tech Gadgets – China Real Time Report – WSJ The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is starting its Beijing meetings and so far it’s looking like a China-U.S. show, with the other 19 nations as bystanders. The latest squabble between the two countries is over an extension of the Information Technology Agreement, a 75-economy deal that came into effect in 1996. The global high-tech industry partially credits the agreement – which eliminates tariffs on high-tech products including semiconductors, computers and telecommunications equipment — for the booming trade in such gadgets.
石家庄24名官员因保障北京空气质量不力被处分_新闻_腾讯网
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
News Analysis: Chinese cabinet measures to further facilitate investment, business – Xinhua Five measures were announced at the meeting, including the removal of preceding approvals for investment projects, except for those required by law. Those procedures currently required by the law will also be reviewed and scrapped if deemed unnecessary. “The measures will loosen the government’s over-reliance on administrative approval power and tackle corruption through power abuse at the source,” said Liu Junhai, a commerce law researcher at Renmin University. A series of measures, since March this year, to simplify the government’s administrative approval power has injected momentum into the market. Government data shows that in the first nine months of this year, nearly 2.65 million new enterprises were established, up more than 52 percent year on year
发改委21天内批复16条铁路5个机场 力图稳增长_网易新闻中心 NDRC approves 16 rail lines and 5 airports in 21 days, 693B RMB worth of investments…but don’t call it a stimulus…
经济参考网 – 库存高企 房企借“双十一”一搏 净利润首现负增长 Economic Information says some real estate firms are going to use “Singles day 11.11” and the Internet to offer discounts to try to reduce their inventories // 6日，远洋地产宣布将与京东集团旗下互联网金融平台展开合作，
楼市刺激第三波：税费补贴主打_财经频道_一财网 CBN on more expected moves to stimulate real estate market, including purchase subsidies, tax reductions among other things // 目前楼市已经进入到今年以来第三波救市刺激热潮，
China Central Bank Confirms $126 Billion in Liquidity Injections – Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China said it provided the funds via a newly-created tool called the Medium-term Lending Facility, including 500 billion yuan in September and 269.5 billion yuan in October. The central bank said state banks, joint-stock banks and big city and rural commercial lenders got the funds, all termed at three months with an interest rate of 3.5 percent. The announcement, included in the PBOC’s quarterly monetary policy statement, was the first official confirmation of earlier reports that the central bank would inject the funds. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said every 500 billion yuan in funds from the central bank is similar to a 50-basis-point cut in the required reserve ratio.
China’s Trust Assets Expand Least Since 2010 – Bloomberg Trust companies’ assets under management climbed 3.8 percent to 12.9 trillion yuan ($2.1 trillion) as of Sept. 30 from three months earlier, the China Trustee Association said in a statement today. Government efforts to control shadow banking are sapping momentum from an economy that expanded in the third quarter at the slowest pace since 2009. China had 397 “risky” trust products valued at 82.4 billion yuan as of September, today’s report said, down from 91.7 billion yuan three months earlier.
郭树清主导山东金改上任至少13位金融副市长_金融_中证网 2
POLITICS AND LAW
Q. and A.: Andrew Wedeman on the Fight Against Corruption in China – NYTimes.com My sense is that we’re beginning a shift from the investigative phase of this campaign to the indictment and prosecution phase. The latter part is when you can begin to ramp it down. You stop going after new targets and basically concentrate on settling the cases of those you’ve indicted. But I’ve repeatedly thought he was going to tie it up, only to have something like the Shanxi scandals [in which a string of senior officials in the coal-rich Shanxi Province was implicated in graft] come out and for the drive to keep going…My guess is that we are going to see a drop-off in the high-level cases, but a continuation of the attack on mid- and low-level officials. // or the publicized Shanxi cases are just for the foreplay for Ling Jihua and a corruption investigation that goes right into the heart of Hu Jintao’s camp and the Communist Youth League? I don’t think the “tiger hunt” is anywhere near over.
Another official fall in corruption-hit Shanxi Province – Xinhua Li Jiangong, the head of Bureau of Land and Resources in north China’s Shanxi Province, is being investigated after being suspected of “severe disciplinary and law violations,” said a statement published on the website of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Thursday.
Don’t go back to your old ways when our backs are turned, CCDI warns cadres | South China Morning Post In a separate notice posted on the CCDI website, the watchdog said some officials were not being strict enough to obey disciplinary rules after inspection teams have left. “Local residents told us that some officials rely on luck and take a wait-and-see attitude,” the notice said. “These officials play a ‘face changing’ drama – they are trembling when we are inspecting their regions, but begin to show off again as soon as we leave.” The notice ordered officials to bear in mind the remarks by the commission chief Wang Qishan that “we will come back and catch you off guard”.
Guangzhou’s New NGO Rules Lack Controversial Measures Found in Draft – Caixin The final version says that NGOs that accept funding and donations from abroad should report to regulators 15 days before they accept the money. The groups are also required to provide details regarding their activities, personnel, funding and location when organizing projects with the participation of foreign partners. The final version included major changes to the terms of the management of NGOs with foreign funding. The draft, which was released on October 24, 2013, so the public could comment on it, said organizations that are mainly funded or have close links with foreign organizations will be banned.
‘Traitor’ Lin Biao’s daughter Lin Doudou calls for respect for historical truth | South China Morning Post Many of those at the Beijing gathering came from military families, including Luo Dongjin, son of PLA founding general Luo Ronghuan, and Su Rongsheng, son of veteran commander Su Yu, according to an article carried by Xinhua. They also met to commemorate a brutal battle in Zhangzhou , Fujian, two years after Mao’s Gutian Congress, and issued an open letter to party leaders, urging them to set up a state-level martyrs commemoration centre and to complete construction of a Zhangzhou martyrs park by April 2016.// 近百名红二代在京座谈 林彪之女露面_新闻_腾讯网
中国社会科学报：不允许吃共产党的饭 砸共产党的锅-凤凰新闻 11月2日，中国红色文化研究会、
China’s Tibet relaxes one-child policy – Xinhua Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region announced Thursday it has relaxed its family planning policy to allow couples to have a second child if either parent is an only child. Phurbu Drolma, director with the health and family planning commission of Tibet, said at a press conference that the policy will be applied starting Thursday.
Guo Jian on his Tiananmen Square stand: ‘I’m so proud of what I did’ | Art and design | The Guardian In the room they used for questioning there sat a single chair, the metal kind, with hand and leg cuffs. “I said, ‘I’m not going to sit there!’” Guo tells the story with a wry sense of how absurd his situation was. After officers told him it was the only chair available, Guo still refused. “I said, ‘I’m going to stand, I’m not a criminal’. So they found another chair. They were trying to scare me.” Guo’s interrogation continued through the night, and he noticed that among the changing rota of officers were more than simply local police. There were officers from the Tongzhou security department, the Beijing city security bureau, and most serious of all, the Ministry of State Security – the country’s top intelligence and security agency. The officers would often film their questioning, and Guo began to suspect they were planning to frame him on the evening news.
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
China, Russia agree on military cooperation projects – Xinhua Senior Chinese and Russian military officials said on Wednesday that the two countries have reached agreements on a slew of important military cooperation projects during the 17th round of strategic consultation. Many cooperation projects in critical areas were agreed upon during the current round of consultation, said Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Valery Gerasimov while meeting with Wang Guanzhong, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
U.S. Pilots Say New Chinese Stealth Fighter Could Become Equal of F-22, F-35 – USNI News The J-31 is China’s latest crack at developing a modern so-called fifth-generation stealth fighter — equivalent in ability to Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor or F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter. “They’re still in the glossy brochure phase of development, so they still look ten feet tall and bulletproof,” one senior U.S. fighter pilot familiar with the F-35 program told USNI News. “I think they’ll eventually be on par with our fifth gen jets — as they should be, because industrial espionage is alive and well.”
EDITORIAL: China needs to crack down on coral poachers in Japanese waters – The Asahi Shimbun The question is why so many Chinese fishing boats have suddenly started coral poaching in the Japanese waters. The size of the fleet involved is far larger than those that appeared from time to time in the past in waters off Nagasaki Prefecture or the Miyakojima island in Okinawa Prefecture. And this is happening during the typhoon season. We want the Chinese government to offer convincing explanations about the sudden emergence of such a large-scale flotilla of poachers.
China’s overseas basing strategy–Lowy Interpreter A recent report from the Institute for National Strategic Studies, “Not an Idea We Have to Shun“: Chinese Overseas Basing Requirements in the 21st Century, argues that, based on an understanding of China’s ‘long-standing’ foreign policy principles and goals, there is little evidence that it will pursue a ‘String of Pearls’ strategy. Far more likely is that Beijing will implement a ‘Dual Use Logistic Facility’ strategy, in which overseas bases will provide ‘medical facilities, refrigerated storage space for fresh vegetables and fruit, rest and recreation sites, a communications station, and ship repair facilities’. This would entail a far leaner and less overt military and security presence than the ‘String of Pearls’ theory or most other predictions about the future of PLA Navy overseas basing
军报：开国中将遗孀退房引热议“老同志做出榜样后辈该咋做”_
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
HK students seek intermediary to arrange Beijing trip | Reuters “To make the conversation become a reality we need to find a ‘middleman’ such as Tung Chee-hwa or Rita Fan who can make the arrangements and make the trip workable,” Hong Kong Federation of Students’ (HKFS) leader Alex Chow told reporters.
Taiwan resolves to resist China’s embrace – FT.com $$ Beijing’s plan to lure Taiwan into its embrace risks backfiring. Taiwan’s voters may even throw the Kuomintang party out in 2016, replacing it with an opposition Democratic Progressive party that has a much stronger pro-independence streak. That could set Taiwan on a collision course with Beijing once again. Jerome Cohen, a lawyer who specialises in China and Taiwan, says the world has been lulled into a false sense of complacency over the Taiwan Strait. In a few years, he predicts, the “Taiwan problem” will be back.
TECH AND MEDIA
China inspects online videos in porn, rumor crackdown – Xinhua The campaign, which will run until the end of December, is set to clean up content, such as pornography, violence, terror and rumors, in online videos, it was announced at a press conference jointly held by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. Authorities will focus on inspecting “five key Internet areas,” including online storage services, mobile phone app stores, video links shared on social networks and instant messaging platforms such as the popular Weibo and WeChat, unlicensed video streaming websites and smart TVs and video terminals, said CAC official Liang Lihua.
Chinese websites promise to tighten comments management – Xinhua Representatives from the 29 web portals, including Tencent.com, Sohu.com,163.com and the official website of Xinhua News Agency, signed the letter of commitment at a meeting organized by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Thursday. These websites promised to ensure that “their users register, post and write comments with their real identity,” according to the commitment letter. They also “promise to and sincerely ask all users to consciously abide by the ‘seven bottom lines’ — law and rules, socialist systems, national interests, citizen’s legitimate rights, social public order, morality and authenticity of information — when posting.”
Secure Messaging Scorecard | Electronic Frontier Foundation no surprise, Tencent’s QQ fails on every count // Many companies offer “secure messaging” products—but are these systems actually secure? We decided to find out, in the first phase of a new EFF Campaign for Secure & Usable Crypto.
Remarks at the U.S.-China Film Summit By Charles H. Rivkin Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs // no mention of China’s growing censorship pressure on Hollywood, more like a Commerce speech, but I guess that is his brief, and given his background in the industry probably best to avoid anything controversial…
Working With A Chinese Factory, Hardware Entrepreneur Edition | TechCrunch I’ll leave you aspiring hardware entrepreneurs with one piece of advice: At the very minimum, have your CTO or chief product or engineering gal/guy on the ground wherever your factory is, at least for the first 2-4 weeks, and at minimum once a month after that. And it is crucial that they are on-the-ground for the pilot/production run to ensure that all the changes actually made it from product development onto the factory floor. Most factories that you’re likely to be working with will let you have a desk in their facilities, and most will have a few decent English speakers, so don’t worry so much about communicating or having a place to stay. If you’re planning to manufacture in China, there is no excuse for not being here.
Apple Blocks Chinese iPhone Hacks – China Real Time Report – WSJ “We are aware of malicious software available from a download site aimed at users in China, and we’ve blocked the identified apps to prevent them from launching,” Apple said in a written statement Thursday. Palo Alto Networks found the malicious code in 467 apps on China’s Maiyadi App Store for Mac computers. The apps had been downloaded more than 356,000 times, the company said.
阿里、京东否认工商总局叫停“双11折扣价”_TechWeb
WeChat Opens API to Connect Official Accounts and Mobile Apps – TechNode Thanks to the IM features of WeChat, official account will become a premium channel for app developers to interact and get feedback from their users. In addition, developers can push news via their official accounts, a less bothering way to send information to the users as compared with pushing through mobile apps. The seamless connection between mobile apps and corresponding official accounts will also help WeChat to attract more users for its other services of payment, voice recognition and more.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
【媒目】“不差钱”的赵本山，墙倒众人推？_媒目_新京报网 C
曝赵本山妻儿移民新加坡 曾称自己永远是中国人_娱乐_腾讯网 Zhao Benshan’s wife and child hold Singapore passports, a lawsuit reveals // 腾讯娱乐讯（文/小西）近日赵本山备受各大媒体关注，
赵本山否认移民：最近没热点新闻不整我整谁_新闻_腾讯网 Zh
清华大学教授：赵本山的“二人转”就是灰色二人秀|二人转|
A Farewell Song–Vimeo Since 1949, China’s orchestras have been controlled and funded by the government. In the 1990s, state backing was slowly withdrawn and many orchestras closed. Luo Shoucheng, Tu Weigang, Weng Zhenfa and Chen Dawei are well known in the world of Chinese traditional music. But when their orchestra disbanded three years ago, they chose to retire from the state system. By all rights, they should be fading quietly into Shanghai’s cultural backwaters. Instead, they are about to take a leap into the unknown. They are generating new material that will take Chinese music to wider audiences. And they have teamed up with their friend Liu Ying, a virtuoso woodwind performer, to prepare a major new concert outside of government control. As the event draws near, a sudden tragedy compels them to reflect on their shared past – five decades of remarkable music that has kept them going through hardship and upheaval. In Chinese with English subtitles.
The Untapped Creativity of the Chinese Internet | VICE | United States Using NewHive, a multimedia publishing platform, Netizenet will examine the internet as a medium from within China, an internet very different from what I grew up with in the States. Through an ongoing series of online exhibitions by Chinese and international artists–of which Miao is the first–Netizenet asks important questions about creativity, differing online aesthetics, and location-based web access. Is the Chinese internet uniquely different from the rest of the world’s, or does every country’s web have its own unique aesthetics and traits? The curator behind Netizenet is Michelle Proksell, an independent curator, researcher, and artist currently based in Beijing.
“新四军借条”事件续：部队番号是否存在引争议|河南新四军|
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
非法象牙制品交易被指转向社交媒体， 卖家留微信不留手机_绿政公署_澎湃新闻-The Paper Thepaper reports on the EIA report about the ivory trade, does not mention the accusations about Xi’s Tanzania trip
Insight – For India, China-backed lender may be answer to coal investment | Reuters India is hoping a new China-backed multilateral lender will fund coal-based energy projects, an official said, putting it in direct conflict with the World Bank, whose chief has maintained that it would stick to its restrictions on such lending. A senior Indian official told Reuters the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), sponsored by China, is expected to allow funding of coal-fired power plants that the World Bank has almost totally blocked.
FOOD AND TRAVEL
China approves new railway for Tibet – Xinhua China has approved construction of a railway linking Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region to Nyingchi in its east, local authorities said Friday. According to the plan approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Lhasa to Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet railway runs 402 km from Nyingchi to Xierong, a stop on the Lhasa-Xigaze line.
云南第四富豪董勒成被查 瑞丽航空命运待考_财经_腾讯网 Chairman of Yunnan’s Ruili Airlines under investigation, probably best to avoid flying on it
BEIJING
北京法院将拍带牌车 买主无需再摇号_新闻_腾讯网 Beijing court to start auctioning confiscated cars and their license plates, so if you buy one you do not have to participate in the lottery to get a plate…these should now go for far far more than the actual car is worth
33-Year-Old Woman Crushed to Death on Subway Line 5 Last Night During Rush Hour | the Beijinger A 33-year-old woman was crushed to death last night on Line 5 of the Beijing Subway after being caught between the safety gate and the doors of the train as it left the station. With odds and evens restrictions on the roads for the next week due to APEC, subway traffic has been heavy and is likely to continue to be over the next week.