"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
Bloomberg News Is Said to Curb Articles That Might Anger China – NYTimes.com In the call late last month, Mr. Winkler defended his decision, comparing it to the self-censorship by foreign news bureaus trying to preserve their ability to report inside Nazi-era Germany, according to Bloomberg employees familiar with the discussion…“He said, ‘If we run the story, we’ll be kicked out of China,’ ” one of the employees said. Less than a week later, a second article, about the children of senior Chinese officials employed by foreign banks, was also declared dead, employees said….Editors at Bloomberg have long been aware of the need to tread carefully in China. A system has been in place that allows editors to add an internal prepublication code to some articles to ensure that they do not appear on terminals in China, two employees said. This has been used regularly with articles on Chinese politics, including the one on Mr. Xi’s family.//Bloomberg has been self-censoring in China for how long? Do subscribers know this? What else, and in which other geographies, does Bloomberg self-censor?
Related: Bloomberg halts report as China clamps down on foreign media – FT.com The story focused on Wang Jianlin, the founder of Dalian Wanda, a real estate group, who recently paid $28.2m for Picasso’s “Claude et Paloma”. Forbes ranks Mr Wang as China’s richest man with $14.1bn. A spokesperson for Wanda declined to comment. The FT itself has seen no evidence to indicate links between Mr Wang and party officials.
Related: Bloomberg News curtails investigative reporting in China, sources tell NMA – YouTube Bloomberg reporters in Greater China are finding their stories spiked. The stories are deemed too sensitive, sources tell NMA. According to sources, in the past two weeks Bloomberg killed stories that investigated corruption at state-owned enterprises and implicated several high-level officials. //NMA was first with this story, Michael Bloomberg can not be pleased with the animation of him exiting his private jet parked on Tiananmen Square and bowing to an official and a Panda
Related: 彭博社被指“审查对华报道”分析称或怕得罪中国_国际新闻_环球网 Global Times on the New York Times story about Bloomberg’s spiking of a story that would upset Beijing//【环球时报报道】据美国《大西洋月刊》网站10日报道，美国《纽约时报》8日刊登文章，指责美国另一家媒体彭博社“审查批评中国的报道”。文章引用匿名彭博社驻香港工作人员的话称，在上月底的一次电话会议上，其撰写的关于中国官商利益问题的报道被彭博社主编温克勒下令禁止发表，“温克勒说，‘如果发表这篇文章，我们将被踢出中国’”。不过文章同时引述温克勒的话否认了这一指责，称并未阻止该报道。《纽约时报》称，彭博社驻华记者对撰写的该报道很有信心，编辑部审查也没问题，但10月下旬，总部编辑提出意见认为，全世界的富豪都和政界关系密切，该报道“没有实质性证据”，以编辑原因毙掉该报道。《纽约时报》分析称，彭博社“审查对华报道”可能是为了避免得罪中国政府，影响其利润丰厚的金融新闻终端的在华销售，该终端的年费超过2万美元。《大西洋月刊》称，彭博社的创始人、纽约市市长布隆伯格计划近期访华。
Related: Reporter for Reuters Won’t Receive China Visa – NYTimes.com The reporter, Paul Mooney, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry told Reuters on Friday that it would not grant him a resident journalist visa but declined to provide a reason. Mr. Mooney returned to the United States last year after the expiration of his previous visa, which was sponsored by The South China Morning Post, a newspaper based in Hong Kong.
那么一股子劲不能松 ——凝聚全面深化改革的力量之二 本报评论员 《 人民日报 》（ 2013年11月11日 01 版） Page 1 People’s Daily on the need for courage and resolve in pushing reforms…interesting comment about “crossing the river by feeling the stones” being appropriate for earlier era of reform when government had not fully grasped some of the major issues…but now that it has….so what are the odds of a much bolder Third Plenum report than most assume? some interesting chatter over the last few days, including by some who might even know something, would not be surprised to see something actually quite bold…but of course a document is one thing, implementation something else..but you have to start somewhere // 与过去不同的是，当年我们“摸着石头”搞改革，是因为对一些重大问题还没看清看透，而今天亟待推进的多项改革，我们党对其目标和路径都已明确。在这个时候，比认识更重要的，是决心；比方法更关键的，是担当。“冲破思想观念的障碍，突破利益固化的藩篱”，有这样的信念，就能从全体人民整体利益着眼，从国家命运和民族前途出发，敢于啃硬骨头,敢于涉险滩,不失时机深化重要领域改革。什么叫政治勇气？这就叫政治勇气；什么是政治智慧？这就是政治智慧。“夫战，勇气也”。在打开改革开放新局面的时候，邓小平同志说过，“没有一点闯的精神，没有一点‘冒’的精神，没有一股子气呀、劲呀，就走不出一条好路，走不出一条新路，就干不出新的事业”。历史的机遇不可丧失，人民的期待不能辜负。提着那么一口气，鼓着那么一股子劲，坚持全面深化改革不动摇，我们定能开辟改革新境界，抵达发展新高度。
Related: 新华社：新一轮改革需破“公平正义”等三大关口_新闻_腾讯网 Xinhua piece Sunday getting a lot of play, says the new round of reforms will have to have breakthroughs in three areas–“Development and Transformation”. “Government and the Market”, “Fairness and Justice”// –35年改革开放，成就了中国今天“世界第二大经济体”的奇迹。昨天，新华社发文称，面对新一轮改革，中国需破解“发展与转型”、“政府与市场”、“公平与正义”三大关口。
China’s Singles’ Day shows market power of one | Considered View | Breakingviews Singles’ Day resembles U.S. sales promotions, but with even more dizzying numbers. Over 2 percent of the nation’s annual e-commerce outlay is spent on the day, compared with half a percent for U.S. Cyber Monday. Last year Alibaba attracted 213 million unique visitors on Singles’ Day – equivalent to a third of China’s entire internet-using population. Premier Li Keqiang has praised the e-commerce giant for generating a consumption-stimulating “shopping spree”. In reality, however, Singles’ Day demonstrates not consumer power but monopoly power. Alibaba’s market share of over 80 percent gives it huge sway over how sellers reach online customers. Brands on Tmall must cut prices, mostly by 50 percent, to be part of the site’s heavy 11.11 marketing campaign, for example. No-one is forced to participate, but those which don’t risk losing serious market share. Unlike rivals such as Jingdong, Alibaba doesn’t hold or deliver stock, so it’s insensitive to the prices of goods sold on its site. //10B RMB in sales in first 6 hours
Related: 马云革了谁的命？_21世纪网 核心提示：直到今天早上，淘宝的销售额超过100亿时，很多精英才明白过来马云今年在亚布力中国企业家论坛第十三届年会演讲中说的那句话：我们把互联网当作是一场革命。
New China Cities – Shoddy Homes, Broken Hope – NYTimes.com The situation in these new towns contrasts with the makeshift housing where other migrants live. Many of those are created by farmers who chose to leave their land for jobs in the city. Although cramped and messy, they are full of vitality and upward mobility, said Biao Xiang, a social anthropologist at Oxford University who has studied migrant communities. “These migrant neighborhoods in big cities are often called slums, but it’s the new resettlement communities that will be harder to revive, partly because they are not related to any productive economic activity,” Professor Biao said. “And the population tend to be homogeneous, disadvantaged communities.”
Related: China’s cautious land-reform tests cast doubt on big urban vision | Reuters “Pilots in Chongqing and Chengdu are slow,” said Tao Ran, an economist at Renmin University in Beijing. “It’s not an ideological problem, but a problem of interests,” he said. “Local governments still want to monopolize land sales and repay their debt.”
China elated as Guangzhou Evergrande wins big–USA Today The world’s most populous nation celebrated a breakthrough victory Saturday night in the world’s most popular sport. Guangzhou Evergrande defeated FC Seoul from South Korea to become China’s first ever winner of the AFC Champions League, Asia’s foremost club soccer competition.
Related: Big Money Behind Chinese Soccer Strategy – China Real Time Report – WSJ Guangzhou-based Evergrande is owned by Xu Jiayin, who according to the latest Hurun Report rich list has a net worth of $7.7 billion. He also has political clout, as a member of the country’s top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He bought the disgraced Guangzhou Pharmaceutical club in 2010 for 100 million yuan ($16.4 million), after the team was relegated over a match-fixing scandal dating back to 2006. After that, he signed China’s national team captain Zheng Zhi, as well as three players from South America.//and given Xi Jinping’s love of soccer, good politics to win the Asian Champions League, should be very good for Evergrande and Xu Jiayin
Related: 许家印：发生在足球之前的一切_财经频道_一财网 on Evergrande chairman Xu Jiayin // 他是“根正苗红”的革命后代、他也曾是个不到1岁就失去了母亲的不幸男孩；他没有资本“拼爹”，靠自己白手起家，也毫无意外地吃过很多苦。人们熟悉他的名字是因为恒大和足球，但在这个传奇开始之前，还有另一个更贴近现实生活的许家印。
韩正谈上海自贸试验_杂志频道_财新网 cover story of this week’s Caixin is an interview with Shanghai party secretary Han Zheng discussing the free trade zone // 投资实行准入前国民待遇，负面清单带来颠覆性的政府管理方式，金融以开放倒逼改革；三年内要拿出能推广的创新模式——上海市委书记韩正接受财新专访，谈上海自贸试验由来及与国家战略对接的前景
逐浪互联网金融-财经 cover story of latest issue of Caijing is about the development of Intenet finance // 互联网企业与金融公司不会相互取代，而将相互促进。互联网企业与金融领域的紧密结合，将推动金融产业升级发展，让更多投资者受益，并促进金融监管优化
Trader Joe’s to exclude some food imports from China – USATODAY.com By April 1, Trader Joe’s will phase out single-ingredient Chinese imports such as garlic, frozen organic spinach, ginger and edamame, a green soybean, says spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki. The ban doesn’t include products with ingredients from China, a leading source of vitamins and minerals used in many processed foods. With 285 stores in 23 states, Trader Joe’s is known for good prices on a wide selection of exotic items, from Australian licorice to Indian pilaf. Trader Joe’s says the products it bought from China were safe. But “our customers have voiced their concerns about products from this region, and we have listened,” Mochizuki said.
THIRD PLENUM
Portrait of Deng as Reformer in 1978 Plenum Ignores History – NYTimes.com The lessons from the 1978 meeting and Mr. Deng’s “groping” journey towards embracing market-driven reforms should discourage heady expectations for Mr. Xi’s own Third Plenum, Professor Han said. “Many people have a mindset of expectations that they put on a high-level decision-making meeting or a document,” he said. “But in reality in China making a sudden major change is very difficult. It takes time.”
三中全会开启“全局改革”新阶段_财经频道_一财网 一名接近高层的智囊人士在接受本报采访时表示，国家主席习近平7月23日在武汉市主持召开的部分省市负责人座谈会，被认为是对本届三中全会的定调。这次讲话内容的六个要点涉及方方面面，凸显本届全会将着眼于“全面深化的改革”。 上述智囊人士认为，目前市场聚焦的议题偏重于经济和市场改革，这显然较为偏颇。10月29日的政治局会议就指出，全面深化改革就是要完善和发展中国特色社会主义制度。必须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。 //some background on Xi’s July Hubei inspection tour, which likely presaged much of what will be in the Third Plenum report
详细解读委员们的分布和构成_十八届三中全会专题_凤凰网 nice infographic breaking down all the participants of the the Third Plenum
央视三中全会街采遭神吐槽：人民币对不起中国人_资讯频道_凤凰网 近日，央视外语频道街头采访“最关心的改革”。就“您知道第十八届三中全会吗？”、“那您觉得有什么需要改变呢？”、“那咋办呢？”三个问题采访市民的看法。 在回答第二个问题“那您觉得有什么需要改变？”时，有市民以“人民币真得对不起中国人啊”的回答表示物价增长过快//CCTV gets an earful when it interviews people on the street about their hopes for the Third Plenum and reform
【舒立观察】如何理解“全面深化改革”_杂志频道_财新网 强调全面深化改革，并不意味着在任何时点上各领域的改革均需齐头并进。可以预期，较具经济色彩但有明显政治改革含义的系统性改革，例如财税体制改革，将是“先行官”和突破口之一；一些相关性重大改革，涉及体制方方面面，可能分阶段以不同方式推出，具体计划会在实施中调整；法治建设，包括相应的法治体系构建，可能会成为重点、亮点和难点，贯穿改革始终。其实，今年以来国务院出台的一系列旨在营造改革红利的措施，就是全面改革的先声。不过，真正攻坚克难的改革，当在三中全会之后出台。
Chinese Leaders Want a Secure Place of Their Own — WSJ A reason for using the Jingxi is its truly martial security. The hotel is run by the General Staff Department of the People’s Liberation Army. It sits in a busy neighborhood near the Military Museum, Defense Ministry and several military barracks.
The Communist Party plenum: Behind closed doors | The Economist The plenum will mark the start of a busy season for those trying to calculate the trajectory of the world’s second-largest economy over the coming decade. Another meeting, the annual Central Economic Work Conference, will be convened in December (almost certainly, as usual, in the same Jingxi Hotel) to put flesh on the vague policy pronouncements issued in the plenum’s resolution. It too will issue a statement summarising its conclusions (no pesky press conferences). A few days later the yearly Central Rural Work Conference will take place; again in the same hotel, behind closed doors.
As Plenum Starts, an Economist Sees Crisis Ahead – NYTimes.com Wu Jinglian is one of China’s best-known liberal economists and at 83 has the demeanor of a wizened professor. Yet he is also a policy insider whose books and speeches are widely read in China. He is a senior researcher at central government think tanks, including the State Council Development Research Center, and has trained and advised some top economic officials. His warnings show that, even in China’s policy establishment, there is debate and disquiet about how and whether the government can achieve the changes needed to maintain healthy, lasting economic growth.
Reform, Ahoy? A Newspaper Heralds New Horizons for the Chinese Ship of State – NYTimes.com In an image freighted with symbolism, the cover of the supplement in The Beijing News (改革_新京报网) on Friday showed a fully-rigged tall ship in choppy waters sailing straight into the future. To its left are rocks, threateningly close. The only way it can safely turn is right, or it could put distance between itself and the rocks by forging ahead, a set of choices that left some wondering if this was a political message. The Beijing News didn’t return calls seeking an interview with the artist or comment from the newspaper.
Deciphering Xi Jinping’s Dream | ChinaFile–Ouyang Bin According to Party convention, in a cycle of seven Plenary Sessions during each Party Congress, the first and second Sessions concentrate on personnel issues and the third one on policy. What will transpire at this Third Plenum? What will it tell us about China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, whose mercurial “Chinese Dream” seems to encompass both a hard-line on political control and the promise of economic liberalization? I spoke to Roderick MacFarquhar, Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard University.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
China’s Economic Recovery Gives Boost to Xi Amid Reform Summit – Bloomberg “The recent data all suggest a gently recovering economy – good enough to allow the leadership to stop worrying about the next few months and focus on medium-term reform,” said Stephen Green, head of Greater China research at Standard Chartered Plc in Hong Kong, who correctly forecast the industrial output growth. “The question is now whether they have a convincing-enough plan to deal with those medium-term challenges.”
Shanghai Tightens up Housing Regulations -Caijing Shanghai is tightening up the city’s housing regulations to tame soaring prices as the current policies failed to work. The city is raising the minimum down payment to 70 percent from an earlier 60 percent for second home buyers seeking loans from commercial banks, the city’s house bureau said Firday. Shanghai also plans to raise purchase restrictions for those who don’t have a “hukou”. For example, one has to document at least two years of tax payments, compared with a minimum of one year before.
Two New Tools Giving Central Bank More Flexibility, Source Says – Caixin The combined use of two new monetary policy tools has made the central bank’s regulation more effective and more flexible, a source close to the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said. The source was referring to the Standing Lending Facility (SLF) and Loan Prime Rate (LPR). The former was introduced this year and the latter was established on October 25.
U.S. panel hears trade complaints, hope for China reform meeting | Reuters U.S. trade officials and industry groups on Friday aired concerns about Chinese trade protectionism while voicing hope that an economic agenda-setting meeting of China’s top leaders this weekend would launch deeper reforms. The hearing on China’s compliance with market-opening pledges that got it into the World Trade Organization featured a mix of praise for recent signals of a new wave of reform and complaints about theft of intellectual property, discriminatory industrial policies, and trade restrictions.
U.S. Treasury Secretary’s Growth Message for Asia Likely Undercut by Domestic Battles – China Real Time Report – WSJ U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will have three basic messages for officials on his five-country Asia tour next week, all of which are designed to fuel American growth: Stimulate domestic demand; don’t rely on currency devaluation to boost exports; and sign a high-quality trade deal that will boost international commerce. It will be a tough sell in China and Japan, especially since he will likely have to reluctantly address a fourth: reassuring anxious governments that Washington won’t screw up the global economy itself.
天津银行152笔不良贷内幕：受累超日太阳和实德_21世纪网 核心提示：如此规模的不良贷款总额与2012年天津银行8.86亿元的不良贷款余额规模相当 // a look at bad debts at Tianjin bank…tip of a dirty iceberg
Iron ore price in China likely to extend drop – Xinhua Demand has usually shrunk in the fourth quarter every year, especially in north China, and the corresponding slack season for steel production may bring a short-term recession in demand for iron ore, according to a report in the Shanghai Securities News on Friday. Stockpiles of iron ore at 25 major ports in China continued to grow last week, marking the fourth consecutive week of growth.
Sina Weibo To Launch Weibo Finance Platform — China Internet Watch Sina Weibo finance platform will be launched by the end of 2013. Weibo finance platform will sell different types of finance products, such as money fund and insurance, and it will also add P2P services. Sina Weibo had gotten payment license already.
Chinese Obtain 80% of Portugal Visas Given to Property Investors – Bloomberg Chinese accounted for almost 80 percent of the investors who have obtained visas to live in Portugal through a program that encourages foreign investment in the country’s battered real estate market. A total of 318 visas have been issued under a plan that offers residence permits to property buyers, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Francisca Seabra. Of those, 248 went to Chinese nationals compared with 15 for Russians, the next biggest group. Angolans and Brazilians collected 9 visas each since the program began in October last year, she said.
CORRECTED-COLUMN-Where’s the aberration in China commodity imports?: Clyde Russell | Reuters Does this mean that the October commodity import slump can be written off as an aberration? There are some good reasons to believe that October’s numbers were influenced by one-off factors, chief among them the Golden Week holidays at the start of the month. This likely had the effect of pulling cargoes forward into September, thus making that month look stronger than it actually was, while at the same time making October appear weaker.
Andrew Sheng | Shadow Banking Issues in China–Presentation on Slideshare
New Twist in War Between Industrial Heavyweights – NYTimes.com Last March, I sat down at a cafe in Beijing with a former hacker who had firsthand knowledge of the cyberespionage case. He explained it to me in the context of discussing the mercenary nature of Chinese hackers today. This former hacker now worked in corporate cybersecurity, and he said he knew the middleman who had hired the two cyberspies for Sany. (They might have been the two “relevant people” mentioned in the earlier Xinhua report.) The middleman, who had been detained temporarily by the police, was also a security engineer, and he had now been shamed within the industry. “He’s very embarrassed by this,” the former hacker told me.
Chinese Premier voices hope to advance BIT negotiation – Xinhua | English.news.cn Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday that he hopes China and the United States will advance negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty (BIT). Li made the remarks during a meeting with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in Beijing, saying that China and the U.S. need to promote pragmatic cooperation in all fields. The two sides need to convert complementary advantages into cooperation and properly handle differences to safeguard overall development of bilateral relations, Li said.
Finance: Plugged into the party – FT.com With the end of the golden era of big listing mandates and a regulatory backlash against the big western banks, the princelings are moving on. Many members of the younger generation now prefer to work for new, local private equity firms. Winston Wen Yunsong, son of former premier Wen Jiabao, was among the earliest, launching the New Horizon investment fund in 2005. Alvin Jiang Zhicheng, former president Jiang Zemin’s grandson, is a Harvard graduate who left Goldman Sachs’ Hong Kong office to work for Boyu Capital Advisory, a Chinese investment firm.
Shanghai firm buys New Zealand resort as Chinese tourism booms | Reuters Tourists from China have been flooding into New Zealand and now a Shanghai-based property developer has bought an upmarket resort and plans a major upgrade to attract wealthy Chinese travellers to the South Pacific country. Shanghai CRED Real Estate’s purchase of the 1,100 hectare (2,718 acre) Peppers Carrington resort – which includes a seaside golf course and vineyard – is the first significant Chinese investment in New Zealand’s tourism sector.
POLITICS AND LAW
Chinese Attacks Ignite Terrorism Debate – WSJ.com Li Wei, one of China’s top experts and government advisers on terrorism, said Friday that he stood by a previous statement that the Taiyuan bombing had characteristics of a terrorist attack. “I don’t agree with connecting this kind of activity with ethnicity. It doesn’t really matter if they are Uighur or Han or whatever ethnicity,” he said, adding that social-media users might have been angrier at the Tiananmen attack because it happened in the center of Beijing and led to more deaths. Mr. Li also argued the debate was complicated by language, saying that the word for terrorism in Chinese strongly implies ideological motivations, while in English, the term is defined primarily in terms of actions, such as violence against civilians to intimidate a government or a population. For that reason, China’s central government maintains an official definition for terrorist activities but not terrorism in general, he said.
Fareed Zakaria: China’s coming challenges – The Washington Post But one wonders whether a political system can be run like a machine, full of mechanical parts. A nation, after all, is full of people, who are sometimes animated by passions, expectations, fears and anger. Managing those might prove a tough challenge for even the finest engineers.
How China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign Hurts a Liquor-Producing Town – Adam Century – The Atlantic Welcome to Maotai, the Guizhou Province village where a crackdown on expensive booze has sparked an economic crisis.
China, One Year Later | ChinaFile Nearly a year to the day after the seven leaders ascended to their posts, as a part of the Asia: Beyond the Headlines event series Asia Society held a special conversation with The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos; Dr. Susan Shirk of the University of California, San Diego; Former Ambassador to China J. Stapleton Roy; and moderator Orville Schell, who discussed China’s leadership transition so far—its successes, shortcomings, and controversies—as well as what the future may have in store for Zhongnanhai, China, and the world.
Exclusive: Supporters of China’s disgraced Bo Xilai set up political party | Reuters The Zhi Xian Party, literally “the constitution is the supreme authority” party, was formed on November 6, three days before the opening on Saturday of a key conclave of top Communist Party leaders to discuss much-needed economic reforms, the sources said. It named Bo as “chairman for life”, Wang Zheng, one of the party’s founders and an associate professor of international trade at the Beijing Institute of Economics and Management, told Reuters by telephone.//dead-enders, irrelevant
Document 9: A ChinaFile Translation | ChinaFile Mingjing Magazine, a U.S.-based Chinese-language magazine, obtained and published the full text of the document in September 2013. We are confident it is authentic and translate and re-publish it here with Mingjing’s permission. To skip the communiqué’s wordy preamble and go straight to its key sections click here.—The ChinaFile Editors
网传习近平8•19讲话全文：言论方面要敢抓敢管敢于亮剑 – 中国数字时代 互联网已经成为舆论斗争的主战场。有同志讲，互联网是我们面临的“最大变量”，搞不好会成为我们的“心头之患”。西方反华势力一直妄图利用互联网“扳倒中国”，多年前有西方政要就声称“有了互联网，对付中国就有了办法”，“社会主义国家投入西方怀抱，将从互联网开始”。从美国的“棱镜”、“X—关键得分”等监控计划看，他们的互联网活动能量和规模远远超出了世人想象。在互联网这个战场上，我们能否顶得住、打得赢，直接关系我国意识形态安全和政权安全。 根据形势发展需要，我看要把网上舆论工作作为宣传思想工作的重中之重来抓。宣传思想工作是做人的工作的，人在哪儿重点就应该在哪儿。我国网民有近6亿人，手机网民有4.6亿多人，其中微博用户达到3亿多人。很多人特别是年轻人基本不看主流媒体，大部分信息都从网上获取。必须正视这个事实，加大力量投入，尽快掌握这个舆论战场上的主动权，不能被边缘化了。要解决好“本领恐慌”问题，真正成为运用现代传媒新手段新方法的行家里手。要深入开展网上舆论斗争，严密防范和抑制网上攻击渗透行为，组织力量对错误思想观点进行批驳。要依法加强网络社会管理，加强网络新技术新应用的管理，确保互联网可管可控，使我们的网络空间清朗起来。做这项工作不容易，但再难也要做。天下无难事，只怕有心人。不要怕别人说什么。网上负面言论少一些，对我国社会发展、社会稳定、人民安居乐业只有好处没有坏处。用我当年插队时农民的话来说，不要听蝲蝲蛄叫就怕得不种庄稼了。 // is this Xi Jinping’s 8.19 speech on ideological work?
Communist Party Political-Legal Committees Come out of the Closet and Onto the Web | Supreme People’s Court Monitor The Political-Legal Committees, that exist at every level of the Communist Party and government, have been existence for many years. This quick blogpost reports on two unnoticed phenomena: the Political-Legal Committees “coming out”; and the Supreme People’s Court (Court) opening discussion on the relationship among the legal institutions.
An exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama – FT.com
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
How Edward Snowden Escalated Cyber War – Newsweek-Kurt Eichenwald–The administration’s attempt to curb China’s assault on American business and government was crippled – perhaps forever, experts say – by a then-unknown National Security Agency contractor named Edward Snowden. Snowden’s clandestine efforts to disclose thousands of classified documents about NSA surveillance emerged as the push against Chinese hacking intensified.
Kurt Eichenwald’s Espionage Fantasy: Edward Snowden Has Become a Chinese Spy | The Dissenter The feature story did not explicitly call Snowden a “spy,” but that was implied throughout. Eichenwald presented Snowden’s release of secret documents revealing the true nature of the US surveillance state as aiding China’s “voracious theft of corporate, government and military secrets.” Eichenwald accused Snowden of being responsible for China escalating cyberwar. There is no proof or evidence that Snowden has been working on behalf of China to expose US state secrets that the country could use specifically to aid in its hacking against industrialized democracies around the world. Yet, in addition to this feature story on Snowden, Eichenwald has spent hours upon hours on Twitter pushing a wild theory that what Snowden did makes him a spy.
解放军报：坚决抵制“军队国家化”等错误政治观点_资讯频道_凤凰网 当前，国际形势继续发生深刻变化，意识形态领域斗争尖锐复杂，各种思想文化交流交融交锋更加频繁。特别是敌对势力渗透破坏花样翻新，加紧对我实施西化、分化战略，企图把我军从党的旗帜下拉出去。需要警惕的是，一些人缺乏对坚持党对军队绝对领导历史必然性、科学真理性和极端重要性的认识理解。在这种情况下，始终把坚持党对军队绝对领导作为最高政治原则来把握，作为最高政治要求来落实，作为最高政治纪律来遵守，显得尤为重要。
China’s Periphery Diplomacy Initiative: Implications for China Neighbors and the United States | CHINA US Focus What, then, is the reason for Beijing’s return to a good-neighborly policy? The answer may lie in the linkage between the concepts of China’s two one-hundred-year goals and the Chinese dream. In his speech, Xi suggests that “doing a good job on peripheral diplomatic work is needed to realize the struggling objective of the ‘two centennials’ and to realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” The two one-hundred-year goals refer to the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2021 – when China is expected to become a “moderately prosperous socialist country” that is prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized and harmonious – and the 100th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 2049. Both are extremely important milestones for the Party and the first will come up in the penultimate year of Xi’s stewardship. Through these concepts, the CCP leadership has expressed its goal of seeing the Party carry on in power at least till the middle of this century. Ensuring this is achieved will require continued economic prosperity and social stability. In other words, it is likely that the political elite believe that their resources and energy are best utilized to promote economic growth and keep social unrest at bay, rather than being expended abroad.
Wolf Usurps NASA Authority on International Cooperation – All Things Nuclear Regardless of one’s views on the propriety of contact between NASA and its Chinese counterparts, allowing a single member of Congress to exercise a personal veto over who gets to attend science conferences is not a proper or productive way to oversee a space agency or U.S. foreign policy
Commerce Trumps Security? | The Weekly Standard Beijing is now making an all-out push to eliminate the arms prohibitions and has presented Washington with a long list of weapons systems and dual-use technology it wishes to acquire. With the support of important American business sectors, the efforts have begun to bear fruit. The Obama administration has launched a broad relaxation of export controls under the president’s Export Control Reform Initiative. In 2010, the administration lifted export restrictions relating to C-130 cargo aircraft ostensibly to be used in maritime oil spill response operations.
China Deploys New Bomber with Long-Range Land Attack Missile | Washington Free Beacon China’s military recently deployed an upgraded strategic bomber that will carry the military’s new long-range land attack cruise missile, capable of attacking Hawaii and Guam, according to a draft congressional report. The Oct. 8 draft of the forthcoming report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also reveals that China has developed a new armed drone nearly identical to U.S. military’s Reaper.
RAND Suggests Using Land-based ASMs Against China | Defense News | defensenews.com A new RAND report suggests the US military consider turning China’s anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategy on its head by incorporating a “far blockade” strategy using land-based anti-ship missiles (ASM) at chokepoints in the Asia-Pacific region. The new report, “Employing Land-Based Anti-Ship Missiles in the Western Pacific,” looks at how the US military, in a joint or coalition effort using an integrated network of land-based ASMs, could shut down China’s naval movements.
BBC News – Saudi nuclear weapons ‘on order’ from Pakistan The story of Saudi Arabia’s project – including the acquisition of missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long ranges – goes back decades. In the late 1980s they secretly bought dozens of CSS-2 ballistic missiles from China. These rockets, considered by many experts too inaccurate for use as conventional weapons, were deployed 20 years ago.
iTunes – Podcasts – China in the World by Carnegie-Tsinghua Center The Carnegie-Tsinghua China in the World podcast is a series of conversations between Director Paul Haenle and Chinese and international experts on China’s foreign policy, China’s international role, and China’s relations with the world, brought to you from the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center located in Beijing, China.
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
New directors of Taiwan Affairs Office bring experience in cross-strait ties and knowledge of Fujian | South China Morning Post The mainland has named a cross-strait affairs veteran and a senior official from Fujian province as deputy directors of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), in the latest round of personnel changes to deal with the island. Li Yafei , 58, assistant director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, and Gong Qinggai , 55, director of the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone, officially appeared on the office’s website yesterday as deputy directors.
Mainland-Taiwan submarine cable to start operations| China Daily Taiwan’s communication administrative authority has approved the first submarine communication cable directly linking both sides of the Taiwan Straits, enabling the cable to come into commercial service. Communication operators in Taiwan told Xinhua on Monday that once put into use, the cable will be capable of carrying cross-Strait communications with a bandwidth of 6.4Tb/s. Operators in Taiwan previously had to use international cables in Japan or the Republic of Korea to connect with the mainland, and the new direct link will improve the quality and speed of cross-Straits communications.
Chinese embassy ‘strongly objects’ to speech in US – Taipei Times Taiwan wants to maintain “our sovereignty and our dignity and our country,” Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office chief representative in Washington King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) said on Friday as he spoke to a packed audience at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Sources later told the Taipei Times that highly placed diplomats within the embassy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) “strongly objected” to King’s appearance.
TECH AND MEDIA
Web rules promoted among Chinese youth – Xinhua China on Friday launched a campaign to promote knowledge of Internet-related laws and regulations among young people in a bid to protect them from online harm. Part of a larger movement to clean up the Internet for young netizens, the campaign aims to teach them to use online resources in a safe and healthy way while strengthening a sense of legal protection for themselves, according to a statement released Friday by the campaign’s organizers.
Online video in China: The Chinese stream | The Economist The size and innovation of the Chinese online-video industry may be unique, but its economics are not. Like all online-video companies that rely on ad revenues, Chinese firms find it hard to make much money, if any. Although the industry had revenues of around 9 billion yuan in China last year, few firms are profitable. This is because their costs are so high. Buying bandwidth to deliver content to so many users is expensive, and so are the rights to license content. As a result there have been nearly as many mergers as there are elimination rounds on “The Voice of China”, one of China’s most popular TV shows.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Heavy Metal, Preapproved by China – WSJ.com Los Angeles-based AEG, owned by American billionaire Phil Anschutz, entered China in 2007. The company declined to disclose financial details of its Chinese operations, but Mr. Cappo said its China profits remain small, compared with its U.S. earnings, and that revenue from an arena in China averages only 20% of that from an average U.S. arena… In China, officials require every audience member to have a seat, which means that AEG sells around 5,000 fewer floor tickets, the most expensive kind, per show than in Western markets.
Man attacks 2 foreign students with hammer |Society |chinadaily.com.cn A man who seriously injured two female overseas students in Shanghai by hitting them with a hammer was venting his anger on random passers-by, according to police. The man, identified by police as Hu, a native of Bengbu in nearby Anhui province, was detained, and the two young women, a 22-year-old Indonesian citizen and a 20-year-old French citizen, were hospitalized.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
No Quick Fixes for China’s Overwhelmed Organ Transplant System – NYTimes.com The resistance to donation has often been attributed to Chinese cultural traditions about leaving corpses intact. But surveys have indicated strong public support for organ donations. In a 2012 survey by the Canton Public Opinion Research Center in the southern city of Guangzhou, 78 percent of respondents called posthumous donation ‘‘noble’’ and 79 percent rejected the statement that harvesting organs was disrespectful to the deceased. But an overwhelming four out of five said they worried their organs would end up being sold for profit.
BEIJING
Beijing lung cancer on the rise: statistics – Xinhua The number of lung cancer patients per 100,000 people was 63.09 in 2011, compared with 39.56 registered in 2002, according to the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, citing figures from the city’s tumor prevention and treatment office. In 2011, Beijing reported a total of 7,999 new lung cancer cases, accounting for 20.8 percent of the malignant tumor cases that year.
北京地铁官方微博称不文明乘客为“蝗虫”引争议_资讯频道_凤凰网 official Beijing Subway Weibo account posts pictures of a messy subway car, refers to those who did it as “locusts”…outrage ensues// 新京报讯（记者饶沛 刘春瑞）昨日上午，北京地铁公司官方微博“北京地铁”发微博称，“蝗虫”过后的10号线，一片狼藉……并配发了一张地铁车厢内有很多小广告等纸屑的照片。此微博引起众议，有网友认为“蝗虫”一说涉嫌歧视。随后该条微博被删除。