"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
A Clash of Goals for China’s Leader – NYTimes.com–-Chris Buckley// “It’s really fundamentally about the role of the state in a modern economy,” said Fred Z. Hu, the chairman of Primavera Capital Group, who has advised the Chinese government. “The Chinese state is still just way too powerful, with too much excessive, unchecked, opaque power occupying the commanding heights.” The goals endorsed at the meeting will be made public only after it ends on Tuesday. The government will then begin to formulate policies to accomplish those ideas. The reaction to the meeting will essentially be a referendum on whether officials, investors and citizens believe that Mr. Xi can achieve measured economic liberalization in the coming years.
Related: Chinese Party Meeting to Test Xi’s Clout on Reforms – WSJ.com—Jeremy Page// “Xi has two advantages: he has ultimate power and he has time on his side,” said Huang Jing, an expert on Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore. “What he needs to do, like Deng in 1978, is to create momentum and make sure he enjoys public support. He’ll set the direction [at the plenum], but how to get there and how fast is a bargaining process.” Mr. Xi told a group of foreign visitors Saturday that the upcoming conclave would endorse a blueprint of comprehensive reforms that will allow China to double its gross domestic product by 2020 and avoid the “middle income trap” that has afflicted many other large emerging economies, according to two of the foreign visitors. “There were a lot of references to Deng” in the meeting, according to one member of the group, which included Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister, several other retired world leaders and the philosopher Francis Fukuyama.
正确看待改革开放前后两个历史时期–——学习习近平总书记关于“两个不能否定”的重要论述 中共中央党史研究室 《 人民日报 》（ 2013年11月08日 06 版） All of page 6 in today’s People’s Daily devoted to Xi’s views on history, specifically urging a correct viewing of the periods of history before and after the start of reform and opening…reiteration of the “two that can not be negated”, that enemies of the Party try to deny both Mao Zedong’s achievements and the success of reform and opening
China in the Antarctic: Polar power play | The Economist China is steadily implementing its considerable polar ambitions. Over the past two decades its yearly Antarctic spending has increased from $20m to $55m, some three times the country’s investment in the Arctic. There are many reasons to stake a claim, not least to bolster national pride and global geopolitical clout. The goal of the current five-year polar plan, according to Chen Lianzeng, the deputy head of China’s Arctic and Antarctic administration, is to increase the country’s status and influence, in order to protect its “polar rights”.
Related: Chinese icebreaker embarks on 30th Antarctic expedition – Xinhua Chinese research vessel and icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon) left Shanghai on Thursday, setting sail on the country’s 30th scientific expedition to Antarctica. The 256 member team include scientists from Taiwan and Thailand. The average age is 36, with the oldest 61 and the youngest 21, according to Liu Shunlin, chief scientist and leader of the team.
Manhattan Townhouse Sells for $26 Million to Prominent Chinese Buyer – Developments – WSJ Earlier this year, Chinese businesswoman Zhang Xin was part of a group that bought a stake in New York’s General Motors building. Now she’s making a splash in residential real estate. Ms. Zhang, the CEO of Beijing-based development company SOHO China, bought a restored 19th century townhouse on East 74th Street for $26 million, according to people familiar with the situation. // Money flows easily from the mines of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia to the mansions of Manhattan
Related: Why Chinese People Buy So Many Homes in Palo Alto – Matt Sheehan – The Atlantic Over the past two years, Chinese buyers have been snapping up property in the city, driving up prices and possibly contributing to an emerging bubble. Chinese nationals have tripled their share of home purchases in Palo Alto since 2011, now accounting for around 15 percent of transactions in the city according to Ken Deleon, founder of Deleon Realty, a local firm that has invested heavily in catering to Chinese buyers. “If we have seven offers for a home here, three of them will be Mainland Chinese buyers with all cash,” Kim Heng, the Chinese-born head of Asian outreach at Deleon Realty, guessed. “We’ve never seen so much money in all the years we’ve been in the real estate business.” ／／Beijing friend just bought there over the October Holiday, dropped 3.5m cash on a house they won’t use for at least 3 years. 4 of their friends also bought, in cash. fear of instability had little to do with it, mostly about education and a cleaner environment for their children
Related: Chinese Broaden Their Real-Estate Horizons Beyond the Likes of New York, London – WSJ.com Among the hottest markets are Germany and Belgium. So far this year, German property purchases by Asian buyers—largely Chinese—are nearly 10 times what they were in all of 2012, according to real-estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle. JLL -0.02% Belgian property purchases, at $453 million, are 20 times what they were last year. Chinese developers and investors are following Chinese trade and student flows.
China Singles Day Record Seen as BMWs Sell Cheap Online – Bloomberg Surging purchases show how Chinese demand is shifting away from bricks-and-mortar outlets. The percentage of retail sales made online last year jumped to 6.3 percent from 4.3 percent a year earlier, according to Bloomberg Industries. The market share of the top 100 chain outlets fell to 9 percent from 11.2 percent, it said. // over 10% in 2013?
Related: Stakeholders Gear Up for China’s 11.11 Online Shopping Blitz | Alizila With only a few days left before Monday’s 11.11 Shopping Festival, China’s 24-hour online shopping blowout that eclipses Cyber Monday in the U.S., participating merchants, package-delivery companies and event host Tmall.com are scrambling with final preparations to enable them to cope with the looming tsunami of shoppers. Tmall, China’s largest business-to-consumer shopping website, expects 20,000 of its merchants to slash prices up to 50 percent this year, attracting tens of millions of bargain hunters. While Tmall parent company Alibaba Group is declining to estimate what the Nov. 11 festival’s sales volume will total this year, company officials have suggested that the value of transactions on Tmall and Taobao Marketplace could top RMB 30 billion ($4.9 billion), up more than 60 percent from the RMB 19.1 billion sold on Nov. 11, 2012. // massive logisitics challenges
Shenzhen Puts Parcel of ‘Rural’ Land on Market – Caixin The parcel, near Shenzhen’s Bao’an airport, is owned by a rural collective and has been designated for industrial use. Land resource officials in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, said the city government has approved a plan to let the land be sold this year, meaning a developer could buy usage rights from the government. Thirty percent of profits from a sale would go to the village collective that owns the land, and 70 percent will go to a fund held by the city government. The collective has the right to use 20 percent of the property after it is developed.
Bitcoin Buzz Arrives in China, but with Familiar Doubts – Caixin At the end of September, the number of bitcoins traded every day in the Chinese market was 17,500, up 24 percent from three months before, the report said. That accounted for 30 percent of the world’s total transactions. Vili Lehdonvirta, an Oxford research fellow who has been watching the industry closely, said Chinese speculators were pouring into the Bitcoin market just as the frenzy was beginning to ebb in the U.S. and European markets. He linked Chinese investors’ interest in bitcoins to the fact they cannot trade the yuan as freely as people in other parts of the world can trade their currencies.
Special Report: How Big Formula Bought China | Reuters For Nestle and other infant formula producers, there is one significant complication for their China business: a 1995 Chinese regulation designed to ensure the impartiality of physicians and protect the health of newborns. It bars hospital personnel from promoting infant formula to the families of babies younger than six months, except in the rare cases when a woman has insufficient breast milk or cannot breastfeed for medical reasons. Nestle told Reuters it supports this code and has tried to strengthen its implementation. Peking University Third Hospital declined repeated requests for comment…A Reuters examination reveals that global infant formula companies have found ways to skirt and violate the 1995 code, which they support publicly. Reuters interviewed nearly two dozen Chinese women who have delivered babies at hospitals around China over the last two years. Like Lucy Yang, most experienced the aggressive tactics of formula makers.
THIRD PLENUM
“十八大”后反腐路线图：隐现12招“组合拳”_财经频道_一财网 a look at the likely blueprint for fighting corruption that will come out at the Third Plenum…at least as important as some of the mooted reforms… // 自“十八大”之后，在腐败存量越来越大的现实下，持续以高压姿态打击腐败已经成为执政党必然选择。
三中全会，历史抉择树航标（全面深化改革·决策篇）–《 人民日报 》（ 2013年11月08日 01 版） 开栏的话–党的十八届三中全会明天开幕，全面深化改革的蓝图即将展开。面对新形势新任务，全面建成小康社会，进而建成富强民主文明和谐的社会主义现代化国家、实现中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦，必须在新的历史起点上全面深化改革，更加注重改革的系统性、整体性、协同性，加快发展社会主义市场经济、民主政治、先进文化、和谐社会、生态文明，不断增强中国特色社会主义道路自信、理论自信、制度自信。–从今天起，本报推出“全面深化改革系列述评”，敬请关注。
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
China Big Four Banks’ New Loans Hit New Low in Oct. for 2013: Report-Caijing New loans issued by four biggest Chinese banks in October fell to a new low for 2013, reported by the Shanghai Securities News. The “big four” banks extended merely 182 billion yuan in the month, down from 220 billion yuan in the same month a year ago, the report said. Market analysts had expected new lending to hit 500 to 600 billion yuan in the month.
China’s First ETF in New York to Lure Investors, SG’s Poh Says – Bloomberg The first U.S. exchange-traded fund tracking China’s domestic stocks will lure investors seeking exposure to a broad range of industries in the biggest emerging economy, according to Societe Generale SA’s private bank. Deutsche Bank AG (DBK)’s wealth-management unit and Harvest Global Investments Ltd. started trading an ETF in New York yesterday that tracks the performance of the nation’s 300 biggest companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. The db X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 rose to $24.80 yesterday.
China Seen by Klapwijk Boosting Gold Reserves as Prices Drop – Bloomberg China may have bought 300 metric tons of gold in the first half of this year to diversify its foreign-exchange reserves, the world’s largest, according to Philip Klapwijk of Precious Metals Insights Ltd. China hasn’t announced any changes to state gold reserves since authorities in 2009 said bullion holdings totaled 1,054.1 metric tons. The probable purchases by China, the second-biggest gold user, may have limited price drops, said Klapwijk, who has monitored precious metals for 25 years
The Secret to Success for Alibaba Fund Yu’E Bao: Big Data – China Real Time Report – WSJ The primary risk facing demand deposits like Yu’E Bao is one of liquidity. Because savers can take their money out at any time, banks need to keep enough cash on hand to manage withdrawals and have ways of tapping more cash on short notice if withdrawals suddenly exceed expectations. Demand deposits typically offer savers low returns because holding large amounts of cash and liquid assets isn’t particularly profitable for banks. Alibaba believes it can use its big data to invest Yu’E Bao funds in assets with higher returns while still managing the liquidity risks.
November 2013 Trade Bulletin | U.S.-CHINA Economic and Security Review Commission
Deutsche Bank Wins Approval for Sub-Branch in Shanghai Free Trade Zone – NYTimes.com Deutsche Bank follows Citibank, DBS, Hang Seng Bank, HSBC and Bank of East Asia in receiving approvals to start operations in the pilot free trade zone. The sub-branch will serve corporate and financial institution clients in the area and offer a wide range of corporate banking services with a focus on cross-border transactions, the bank said.
Sinopec acts to boost China stocks ahead of plenum – FT.com Chinese authorities have been keen to boost the equity market, partly as a way to offer an investment alternative to property as they try to cool a housing market that they fear is overheating. In September, house prices across 70 cities rose by more than 9 per cent year-on-year. But so far those efforts have failed to bear fruit. The Shanghai index has fallen by one-third since the start of 2010, a period during which the S&P 500 has risen by more than 50 per cent…. China’s smaller market, based in the southern city of Shenzhen and largely made up of privately owned enterprises as well as technology and healthcare small caps, has performed far better year to date.
Streamlined business rules open to foreigners: official – Xinhua An industry and commerce official on Thursday reiterated China’s new policies to streamline company registration and clarified that they apply to foreign as well as domestic capital. China will remove the minimum capital requirements for registering a limited liability company or a joint stock company, among other measures, to support small businesses, said Zhang Mao, minister of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, at a press conference.
Mattel Gives Barbie a Makeover for China – WSJ.com Barbie closed her swank Shanghai mansion two years ago, after China’s parents turned up their noses at her pink ballgowns and Ken’s polo shirt-and-sweater ensembles. Now Mattel Inc. is making a new effort to sell Chinese on the impossibly proportioned all-American doll, with an appeal to Tiger moms who would rather have their children reading books than plugging body parts into Mr. Potato Head. New, low-price offerings include “Violin Soloist” Barbie, complete with bow and sheet music. // last thing China needs is a Barbiebola outbreak
SEC.gov | SEC Charges New York-Based Audit Firm and Four Accountants for Failures in Audits of China-Based Companies An SEC investigation found that Sherb & Co. LLP and its auditors falsely represented in audit reports that they had conducted the audits in accordance with U.S. auditing standards when it fact they were riddled with failures and improper professional conduct. One of the companies they audited – China Sky One Medical Inc. – has since been charged by the SEC with financial fraud. To settle the SEC’s charges, the firm and the four auditors agreed to be barred from practicing as accountants on behalf of any publicly traded company or other entity regulated by the SEC. The firm agreed to pay a $75,000 penalty.//China stock frauds in the US would not be possible without sleazy foreign facilitators
China Muni-Bond Stalling Shows Debt Threat as Party Meets – Bloomberg While the municipal-bond market will develop in some form, any new borrowing channel will face difficulty because it won’t contain local governments’ power to issue debt or boost spending in “meaningful ways,” Chen Zhiwu, a former adviser to the State Council, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “The only way out is to increase transparency through a free press and make local governments directly accountable to the local citizens,” said Chen, now a finance professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. “The problem is not that the financial engineers cannot design the right financial instrument, but a political reforms problem. Without fundamental political reforms, no financial designer has any magic.”
High-speed railways: Faster than a speeding bullet | The Economist Officials have given the project the ponderous name of the Lanxin Railway Second Double-Tracked Line. This is to distinguish it from a conventional line from Lanzhou to Xinjiang (the first syllables of which form the name Lanxin) that was completed in 1962. Oddly, however, it does not follow the same route. Instead of heading north from Lanzhou along the old Silk Road through Gansu, it detours into adjacent Qinghai province on the Tibetan plateau and opts for a far tougher route through the snowy Qilian Mountains before re-entering Gansu 480km later and picking up the old trail into Xinjiang.
POLITICS AND LAW
习近平指示：隆重、简朴、务实办毛泽东诞辰纪念活动_资讯频道_凤凰网 Xi Jinping instructs that 120th anniversary commemoration of Mao Zedong’s birth on december 26 be “solemn, simple and pragmatic”…so will this get less of a celebration than did the recent 100th anniversary of the birth of Xi Zhongxun, Xi Jinping’s father? // 核心提示：6日上午，湖南省委召开常委扩大会议，传达学习贯彻习近平在湖南考察时的一系列重要讲话精神，研究贯彻落实意见。徐守盛称：“扎实做好纪念毛泽东同志诞辰120周年各项工作， 进一步增强全省人民的道路自信、理论自信和制度自信。要认真贯彻落实总书记关于隆重、简朴、务实办纪念活动的指示精神，按照中央的统一部署和要求，扎实做好各项筹备工作，确保纪念活动圆满成功。”
习近平回京会军方代表 未赴韶山耐人寻味_中国_多维新闻网 noteworthy that Xi Jinping did not visit Mao’s hometown of Shaoshan during his Hunan a trip?// 值得注意的是，今年是毛泽东诞辰120周年，毛泽东故乡湖南韶山早已大张旗鼓地准备纪念活动。然而公开信息显示，上位以来毛氏色彩浓重的习近平此次湖南行并未赴韶山祭拜毛泽东，而是对纪念活动提出了六字要求：隆重、简朴、务实，耐人寻味。
[视频]推动落实八项规定 坚决纠正“四风”_新闻频道_央视网 CCTV Evening News on the success of Xi’s 8 rules…coming up on one year anniversary of the announcement…12.2…now looking forward to cracking down over Jan 1 and Chinese New Year holidays
农民画反腐漫画获王岐山批示 有官员求别再画(图)_资讯频道_凤凰网 responding to call from CDIC, rural residents draw cartoons excoriating corruption. Wang Qishan likes them, some officials ask them to stop drawing the cartoons…some good ones in here
传中远集团副总徐敏杰被双规 或涉贪腐问题_财经频道_一财网 report that central SOE COSCO Deputy GM Xu Minjie in Party detention//据航运界网报道，该网11月7日独家获悉，中远集团副总经理徐敏杰日前被双规，据悉涉案金额数目不小。此外，据中远集团内部人士曝料，徐敏杰于11月5日被有关部门带走，可能涉及贪腐问题. 与此同时中远前董事长魏家福已被有关部门限制离境。据悉，徐敏杰涉及贪腐问题可能和其在中远太平洋任职期间的职务活动有关。// China extends graft investigation into shipping industry | Reuters
四川富商邓鸿被湖北公安逮捕 去年曾被约谈_网易新闻中心 Sichuan businessman Deng Hong officially arrested by Hubei Police…linked to the li Chuncheng case and perhaps something higher, if rumors are to be believed… // 今日，四川省公安系统的一名官员透露，日前，成都会展旅游集团董事长邓鸿关押在湖北省咸宁市咸安区看守所，其父母已目前已收到当地公安部门出具的逮捕通知书。此消息得到湖北省咸宁市的一位知情人士证实。目前，咸宁市公安局尚未对此事予以回应。
Chinese Activists Challenge Beijing by Going to Dinner – WSJ.com As the power elite gather in Beijing for a Communist Party conclave this weekend, the loosely organized civic group known as the New Citizens Movement presents the country’s leaders with a new challenge. Led by a Yale-trained lawyer and backed by a prominent venture capitalist, the group draws from the ranks of China’s business elite and swelling middle class—a departure from previous reform movements, which were largely made up of dissidents and the dispossessed. Their meetings have evolved beyond talk shops: The dinners have been used to organize petitions and demonstrations against corruption, inequality and abuse of police powers.
内蒙古为全区公安特警配发新装备_网易新闻 slideshow of ceremony to issue new equipment to Inner Mongolia Public Security Bureau
Web Watch: Editorial by Caixin’s Hu Sparks Debate on Graft in Journalism – Other journalists and media watchers have joined the debate. Peng Xiaoyun, a former commentator at Southern Metropolis Weekly, disagreed with her former colleagues. She wrote: “Are you really angry with Hu or the insecurity and fear brought by the decline of the industry?” “The decline of Guangdong-based media groups (including both Southern Metropolis Weekly and Southern Metropolis Daily) is partly due to heavier control from Beijing. But a more direct cause is its market-oriented populist tone was overplayed.
舆论场：“二胡”的媒体江湖_中国_多维新闻网 Hu Shuli under a lot of fire for her editorial on media corruption. Duowei goes into some of the details of ire directed at her. It is much easier to blame the government for every problem then to take some personal responsibility to make things better, which is part of what Hu says in her editorial //【多维新闻】有人预言，这可能是中国职业记者女元老胡舒立近年来所遭遇到的最大业界反弹。祸起于财新网2日在“舒立观察”栏目中发表的一篇《新闻寻租不可恕》。剑拔弩张者要么对胡舒立的文过饰非不满，批评这位元老级人物“立论事实未必存在”、“倒向了那些可疑的势力”；要么不满胡舒立不合时宜地大谈新闻寻租，却忽略了背后更大的“黑手”——国家的意见治理策略。言外之意是，即便媒体圈已经污点重重，同行们也该同仇敌忾奋起反击。作为领军人物，胡舒立也该合着大流将明晃晃的新闻寻租藏着掖着，先向体制挥舞大棒才是应有之意。
Award-winning journalist Luo Changping on the state of journalism in China | South China Morning Post Investigative journalist Luo Changping is this year’s winner of the prestigious Integrity Award in Berlin. The Beijing-based deputy editor of Caijing Magazine, is the first Chinese citizen to receive the award, which honours exceptional anti-graft activism and is handed out by the global governance watchdog Transparency International on Friday in Berlin. The 33-year-old risked his career and freedom last December when he accused Liu Tienan, the deputy head of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, of corruption.
Tiananmen Attack Linked to Police Raid on a Mosque in Xinjiang – NYTimes.com Could the attackers responsible for a deadly assault on the heart of the Chinese capital on Oct. 28 have been motivated by revenge? That is the theory offered up by a former local official from the hometown of Usmen Hasan, the man identified by the Chinese police as the driver of a car that struck and killed two tourists before going up in flames at Tiananmen Square.
Commentary: Call Tian’anmen attack what it was: terrorism – Xinhua | Days after the terrorist attack in Tian’anmen Square which killed two civilians and injured another 40, the United States’ refusal to acknowledge it as a terrorist attack laid in plain sight a double standard on terrorism. After repeated questioning in recent press briefings, and despite the Chinese government’s detailed revelations on the attack, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State would say only that the United States was continuing to monitor the situation closely and determine the facts of what happened on the ground.
Shanxi locals suspect anger at government behind Taiyuan blasts – AJW by The Asahi Shimbun A Hong Kong newspaper reported one witness as saying the first bomb exploded in front of an office that accepts petitions against the government. The Chinese government staffs such offices across the country so ordinary citizens can protest against unfair administrative practices and actions. There have been reports that the one fatality occurred at the petition office. Some locals speculated that someone or a group who lodged a complaint at the office resorted to violence after their petition was repeatedly ignored.
Petitioners ‘living in fear’ as police crackdown ahead of third plenum | South China Morning Post Police and local governments across the mainland have been rounding up petitioners, keeping activists under close watch and warning rights lawyers to keep a low profile as security is stepped up ahead of the Communist Party Central Committee’s third plenary meeting that begins on Saturday.
在地方政府职能转变和机构改革工作电视电话会议上的讲话 李克强 （2013年11月1日）
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
歼-15舰载机首次公开露面(图)_资讯频道_凤凰网 First pictures released of carrier-based J-15
Time to Rethink China’s Peaceful Development Policy-Carnegie-Tsinghua Center the foundations of Chinese foreign policy continue to be based on the increasingly unhelpful policy principle of “peaceful development.” After the completion of last year’s 18th Party Congress, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs underscored China’s continued commitment to this approach to foreign policy, stating that “China’s overall foreign policy will not change” and that Beijing remains “committed to open, cooperative and win-win development.” A Chinese commitment to peace and development may not sound like such a bad thing, but there are at least two problems with this approach.
Beijing Seeking a Break in the Impasse over North Korea – NYTimes.com The administration is convinced that North Korea, which conducted a third nuclear test this year, has no interest in scrapping its nuclear arsenal. North Korea keeps reminding the world that it considers itself a nuclear state, and that its “military-first” policy requires that most of its resources go to its armed forces. With that in mind, the United States has enhanced its missile defenses in northeastern Asia, a buildup that brings these weapons closer to China, a situation distasteful to Beijing. For Washington, the stepped-up missile defenses can be used as leverage with China to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
Amb. Locke takes on role of pioneering director on Chinese investment – Doug Palmer – POLITICO.com If you’re a Chinese company even remotely thinking about investing in the United States, President Barack Obama’s man in Beijing has a video he wants you to see. “We go everywhere in China with it,” U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke told POLITICO last week at the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington. “I speak to about two different groups a week, 15 to 20 top CEOs of that community, pushing Chinese investment to America.”// attracting investment to America and reducing visa wait times apparently his top two goals for his tenure as Ambassador. Hard to see how he finishes out Obama’s term here. Who would be a good, eventual replacement as ambassador to Beijing?
李克强会见美国前财长保尔森时强调 把中美之间的互补优势转化为合作动力 《 人民日报 》（ 2013年11月08日 03 版） Li Keqiang meets with Hank Paulson. Henry Kissinger can’t live forever. How worried are the Chinese about finding a “replacement” back-channel to help facilitate US-China relations, though Kissinger is irreplaceable?
PLA officials and media tour US aircraft carrier | South China Morning Post The USS George Washington yesterday hosted senior PLA officers and members of the press aboard the aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, in a gesture aimed at maintaining smooth military ties with China. The media tour was held as the nuclear-powered carrier sailed the high seas. The ship is due to arrive in Hong Kong today on a five-day port call.
Japan putting missiles on Pacific gateway islands – Channel NewsAsia Japan is putting missiles on islands marking the gateway to the Pacific, officials said on Thursday, as part of a huge military drill that has unsettled Beijing.
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
Lawmaker admits discussing HKTV licence vote with liaison office | South China Morning Post A pro-government lawmaker who pledged to vote for a Legislative Council investigation into the free-to-air television licence saga admitted on Thursday he had been approached by the central government’s liaison office to discuss the issue.
Hong Kong Seeks More Women Workers as Aging Population Looms – Bloomberg Hong Kong is seeking to attract more homemakers into the workforce as an aging population and low fertility rates threaten to curb economic growth. More than half a million women homemakers in the city are between the ages of 30 and 59, representing a “huge potential,” Florence Hui, the undersecretary for home affairs, said late yesterday at a Bloomberg seminar in Hong Kong.
TECH AND MEDIA
China Wants Its Movies to Be Big in the U.S., Too – NYTimes.com In the United States, the best-selling Chinese-language film to date remains “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which had about $128 million in North American ticket sales after its release by Sony Pictures Classics in 2000. Since then, some international blockbusters have had Chinese backers, co-stars and settings; but they mostly have been Hollywood products with a Chinese veneer.
China Wants To See More “Positive Chinese Images” From Hollywood, Government Co-Production Chief Tells Confab – Deadline.com The CFCC chief also said that for a film to be a true Sino co-production and not an assisted pic it had to have no less than 20% Chinese investment, significantly feature Chinese talent with a joint script and joint ownership. “So then when the product is released it can be released directly into the Chinese market,” she added. Addressing issues of perceived censorship, Xun told the audience that the reason scripts had to be submitted to her organization for vetting and possible changes was so they could “assist” foreign filmmakers. “We want to help you avoid hot spots and trouble and to make suggestions that will actually save you money.” Xun added that the CFCC would never try to change the gist of a script, though issues of violence and slights against “the feelings of a third country” and negative depictions of other religions could stop a film from being made in China.
首个RFID国标发布 射频识别产业发展扫清最大障碍_证券时报网 中国证券报记者获悉，首个RFID(电子标签)国家标准《信息技术射频识别800/900MHz空中接口协议》日前发布。业内人士表示，空中接口协议是RFID的核心技术，刚发布的国标将为推进我国自主射频识别产业、加快物联网建设发挥重要作用。目前A股上市公司中有RFID业务的包括远望谷 ，新大陆 、中瑞思创等。
Over 200 bln junk messages infuriate China – Xinhua More than 200 billion mobile short messages disturbed Chinese people in the first half of 2013, according a recent report. The report, issued by a platform established by Beijing-based websites for refuting rumors, analyzed almost 100 million junk messages, finding 59 percent of them to be advertisements. // another reason to use Wechat
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Chinese students flock to U.S. exams to chase college dreams | Reuters Nearly 200,000 Chinese students were at U.S. universities in the 2011/12 academic year, almost double the number from India, the second-largest group of overseas students, the U.S.-based Institute of International Education says. While most Chinese study at graduate level, the 2011/12 academic year saw a surge of nearly a third in undergraduates from China, to about 75,000, institute data shows.
China’s Cultural Revolution Is the Setting for a New Adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” – China Real Time Report – WSJ The collaboration between the National Theater Company of Korea and the National Theatre of China brings a new adaptation to the Bard’s tragedy of star-crossed lovers. The setting shifts from 16th-century Verona to late-1960s China. Romeo is a Red Guard in a fictional and radical movement group called the Workers’ Union, which represents laborers, while Juliet is a young propaganda dancer who belongs to the Shaoshan Soldiers faction—another fictional group of Red Guards who aspire to be (and are children of) soldiers. By Workers’ Union standards, its approach to the Cultural Revolution is relatively moderate.
Animal Protection Remains Elusive in China – NYTimes.com Last Sunday, a group of people, some holding signs calling for animal welfare laws, demonstrated in the Temple of Heaven park in Beijing after dozens of cats that roam wild there have been found stabbed to death, at the rate of about two a day starting in early October, according to news reports. The government does not publicly explain why it is not moving ahead with such a law, years after academics and animal lovers began lobbying for one. They drew up a suggested text and offered it to the National People’s Congress for consideration in 2009.
Billionaire’s Gallery Serves as Haven for Dissident Chinese Art – Bloomberg Billionaire Kerr Neilson, Judith’s husband and the co-founder of Sydney-based Platinum Asset Management Ltd., set up a $30 million foundation in 2007 to fund the gallery and the Chinese contemporary collection of more than 700 works — one of the largest in the world.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
China’s Upstream Advantage in the Great Himalayan Watershed The four-character Chinese idiom “benefiting from the gifts of nature” (de tian du hou) captures China’s riparian advantage in the great Himalayan watershed. In Mother Nature’s luck of the draw, China is the big winner; many of the largest rivers in the Himalayan watershed originate in the glaciers of Tibet. The Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Brahmaputra, Salween, Sutlej, and Indus rivers provide water to 1.5 billion people from the mountains in Tibet down to deltas in Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Vietnam. As the upstream power, China has the ability to control the quality and flow of water that reaches its downstream neighbors.
Asia Policy 16 (July 2013) Asia Policy 16 features a roundtable on Himalayan water security; an essay on building a new type of relationship between China and the United States; articles on the modernization of China’s nuclear missile force, strategies to improve U.S.-China military ties, and the evolution of China’s and Taiwan’s cross-strait policies;
If You Think China’s Air Is Bad … – NYTimes.com China contains only about 7 percent of the world’s fresh water while sustaining nearly 20 percent of its population. In stark contrast, Lake Michigan in the United States holds about 4 percent of the world’s freshwater (the Great Lakes combined contain about 20 percent).
China’s Soviet-Style Suburbia Heralds Environmental Pain – Bloomberg What the U.S. did in the 1950s with 160 million people, China is doing now with more than a billion — moving to suburbia. Unlike the U.S. postwar sprawl, which mixed houses with schools, supermarkets and diners, the new Chinese commuters have to drive back to the city, or even across town for basic services, boosting energy consumption and emissions that have made the nation’s cities some of the most polluted in the world.
Bilingualism ‘may delay dementia’ | The Japan Times People who speak two languages may be able to ward off dementia for years, regardless of if they can read or not, according to a study Wednesday. The study in the U.S. journal Neurology is the first of its kind to show that the protective effects of bilingualism can extend to people who are illiterate.
China’s Newest Pollution Concern: ‘Ugly’ Sperm – China Real Time Report – WSJ The fifty shades of gray hovering above China’s cities could be sapping the country’s men of their virility. That’s the message from one Chinese newspaper website citing findings from a sperm bank in Shanghai that monitored samples over a decade and found two-thirds were “affected” to various degrees by environmental factors.
With H7N9 Vaccine, China Flexes Scientific Muscle | China Power | The Diplomat Last month saw serious advances on the H7N9 front, with China’s contributions outpacing many other nations, in no small part because China is on the front lines of bird flu outbreaks. In fact, China announced a vaccine for the H7N9 bird flu virus late last month. This is an impressive feat considering that they only started research on the vaccine in April when they isolated the H7N9 virus via a throat swab from an infected patient. So far, the vaccine has been successful on ferrets, which can spread the virus via respiratory droplets—a discovery also made by Chinese scientists.
China’s ailing solar panel makers see the light, on a farm | Reuters China’s loss-making solar panel makers believe they may have found a way out of their nightmare – by becoming one-stop renewable energy shops with their own solar farms. Manufacturers of solar panels, hit hard by the scaling back of solar-power subsidies in Europe, are taking advantage of a new package of government subsidies at home and diversifying into solar-power generation.
Chinese CO2 permits to trade below $5: consultant survey | Reuters Carbon emission permits in China’s fledgling CO2 markets will trade below $5 a ton in initial years, lower than the crisis-hit European market, a survey found on Thursday. Consultancy Climate Bridge’s survey found companies expected trade to be hampered by a lack of regulation.
FOOD AND TRAVEL
Chinese alcohol commercial uses Game of Thrones opening – YouTube For Jiannan Chun baijiu…blatant ripoff
China’s top-secret nuclear base to be revived as £30m Communist Party theme park – Telegraph Nearly half a century ago, the base was one of the most highly classified locations on earth: a heavily-guarded compound in Xinjiang province where scientists toiled day and night to catapult Chairman Mao’s China into the nuclear elite, alongside the US, the USSR, France and Britain.
JOBS AND EVENTS
YCW Beijing Event–China’s Internet and Innovation Economy, Beyond the Third Plenum With Duncan Clark, Chairman and Founder of BDA China Monday, November 11, 2013 from 7:00 PM