The Sinocism China Newsletter 11.12.15

"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner

Today’s Links:

AnchorTHE ESSENTIAL EIGHT

1. Notes from Latest Meeting of Party’s Economic Affairs Group-Caixin The leading group sent out five signals, including that more rate cuts and a bigger deficit are on the way-By Guan Qingyou and Zhu Zhenxin

Related: China Speeds Up Fiscal Spending in October to Support Growth – Bloomberg Business The stepped-up stimulus effort had taken the fiscal-deficit-to-gross-domestic-product ratio to a six-year high by the end of September, according to an October report by Morgan Stanley analysts led by Sun Junwei in Hong Kong. “The central government has been taking the lead in fiscal easing to support growth” as local governments’ off budget spending through financing vehicles have slowed, the analysts wrote. The country plans to raise the quota for regional authorities to swap high-yielding debt for municipal bonds by as much as 25 percent, according to people familiar with the matter. The quota of the bond-swap program will be increased to as much as 3.8 trillion yuan to 4 trillion yuan for 2015, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the move hasn’t been made public. Increases have been made throughout the year from an originally announced 1 trillion yuan.

Related: 赤字率“红线”遭反思 财政扩张将至?宏观一财网 对3%的赤字率和60%的负债率“红线”,财政部副部长朱光耀近日提出质疑,认为这两条红线应该在实践中调整,引发市场对中国财政政策继续扩张的猜想。 接受《第一财经日报》采访的多名专家认为,上述两条“红线”的划定,只是当年欧盟内部谈判妥协的结果,既不合理也不科学。而在面对经济下行压力时,中国实施有力度的积极财政政策,未来赤字率有进一步扩大的空间。// CBN on the talk of increasing fiscal deficit/debt ratio “red lines” from 3%/60%. fiscal stimulus floodgates opening wider 

Related: 传地方债置换额度增至4万亿:或为在建项目续资|债券|地方债|利息新浪财经新浪网 在媒体11日称,中国财政部计划再次增加今年地方置换债券额度。今年额度将从现在的3.2万亿元人民币(6.3648, -0.0022, -0.03%)增至3.8万亿~4万亿元,增幅最高达25%。最终额度还可能调整,且需要国务院批准。 //  CBN-rumor going around that local debt swap quota 2b increased to 4T RMB

2. China plans maritime, space projects in next five years – Xinhua “China is on its way to building itself into a maritime, space and cyber power,” said Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), in a signed article in Thursday’s People’s Daily. Calling the seas, space and the Internet “strategic fields for military competition” and “commanding grounds for boosting economic and sci-tech development,” Xu said concerted efforts from the whole nation and armed forces are needed to achieve major progress.

Related: 坚定不移推动经济建设和国防建设融合发展(学习贯彻党的十八届五中全会精神)–军事–人民网 Gen Xu Qiliang. a vice chairman of the CMC, in 11.12 People’s Daily on unswervingly promoting jintegrated economic and national security development, part of the “study and implement the spirit of the 5th plenum of the 18th party congress” leadership essay series  //  许其亮-适应国家安全和发展的现实需要。两千多年前的政治家商鞅有句名言,“国不富不可以养兵,兵不强不可以摧敌”。古今中外国家民族兴替沉浮的历史证明,安全是发展的前提,发展是安全的物质基础。今天,随着新的科技革命、产业变革、军事革命迅猛发展,社会生产力、国家竞争力、军队战斗力的关联越来越紧,国防经济与社会经济、军用技术与民用技术的融合度更深;网络信息时代的军队建设、作战和非战争军事行动都是军民一体的,对经济、科技、社会发展和能源资源的依赖性空前增强,不走融合发展之路将难以持续。坚持军民融合发展已成为许多国家的通行做法,也是我国实现安全与发展、富国与强军相统一的必然选择。还应看到,国防建设绝不是纯消耗性的,经济建设和国防建设融合得好,不仅产生军事效益,还会带来巨大经济和社会效益。美国的“曼哈顿”“阿波罗”计划,我国的“两弹一星”、“神舟”飞天、“嫦娥探月”等壮举,就是很好的例证。当前,我国经济发展进入了新常态,稳增长、促改革、调结构、惠民生任务十分繁重。做好军民融合发展这篇大文章,最大限度发掘融合发展这个潜力点、增长点,有利于培育发展的新动力,打开发展的新空间,推动“中国号”航船破浪前行。

Related: China needs focus on military-industrial complex, officer says – Yahoo News In a collection of essays released this week by top officials on the 13th five-year plan, which maps out economic targets up to 2020, Xu Qiliang, a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission, said China needs security to be able to develop its economy. Citing ancient Chinese philosopher Shang Yang, who helped create a powerful military force in one of the early Chinese states, Xu said a country cannot get rich without decent armed forces. “Security is a precondition for development, and development is the material base for security,” Xu wrote. // for those thinking that economic difficulties may dent future defense expenditures, there are lots of reasons to argue why you may be wrong, including the fact that the massive US defense buildup started under Reagan during a horrible period in the US economy…I expect we are entering a golden era for the PRC’s “military-industrial complex”

3. 军改如箭在弦!军报:听党话是最可贵军魂,进退走留要看大局舆论场澎湃新闻-The Paper Thepaper on the latest in series of PLA Daily commentaries preparing the propaganda battlespace for the coming PLA reforms  //  2015年10月27日起,《解放军报》推出《面对改革大考,我们如何作答》系列谈文章。至11月12日共推出五篇,分别为:10月27日《忠诚,就是面对改革绝对服从》;10月29日《调整好心态 保持“在状态”》;11月5日《利益得失算“大账”》;11月10日《用行动为军人荣誉增光添彩》;11月12日,《发扬“一切行动听指挥”好传统》。 最新推出的文章指出,当前,深化国防和军队改革如箭在弦。在这种情况下,必须按照习主席的要求,“严明政治纪律和政治规矩”“加强纪律建设,把守纪律讲规矩摆在更加重要的位置”,也就是牢固树立“一切行动听指挥”的观念。

4. China warns WTO its cheap exports will soon be harder to resist | Reuters But the terms of China’s membership stated that — because it was not a “market economy” — other countries did not need to use China’s domestic prices to justify their accusations of Chinese dumping, but could use other arguments. China’s representative at a WTO meeting on Tuesday said the practice was “outdated, unfair and discriminatory” and under its membership terms, it would automatically be treated as a “market economy” after 15 years, which meant Dec. 11, 2016.

5. Falling oil prices and slow growth push China to find new friends – FT.com “The Chinese government has become more cautious when it comes to loans since Xi and Li took power, especially loans to countries like Venezuela and Ecuador,” says Li Renfang, Latin American analyst at Southwest University of Science and Technology, of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, respectively China’s president and premier. “In the past, Chinese investment in those countries had ideological and political undertones but today we give more weight to economic concerns,” says Mr Renfang.

6. A City Choking on Cars Hopes Commuters Will Return to Two Wheels – The New York Times Mr. Sun’s 30-minute commute is emblematic of a battle brewing on roads across the country. As China has urbanized, families have become more prosperous and many city residents have moved to suburbs many miles from their jobs. The resulting growth in car use combined with lax law enforcement has undermined a half-century tradition of commuting on bikes. Nowhere is that battle more obvious than in Beijing, where buses, automobiles and electric scooters vie with cyclists for space. Today, only 12 percent of commuters in Beijing pedal to work, compared with 38 percent in 2000, according to government data.

7. China’s Bottled Water Industry to Exploit Tibetan Plateau | ChinaFile Water in Tibet is abundant and much cheaper than in other parts of China. Water bottled upstream among snow-capped peaks is also perceived as pure, commanding a premium. This has led to a huge influx of companies hoping to cash in on the region’s water resources. Though it only makes up a very small proportion of China’s annual bottled water production, such premium water is seen as the new point of growth for the country’s booming bottled water industry. But tapping glaciers will come at a huge cost to Tibet’s fragile environment, warned China Water Risk’s recent report, “Bottled Water in China: Boom or Bust? 

8. The political history of China’s economic growth targets | Andrew Batson’s Blog It’s interesting how Xi presents the growth target as just a necessary consequence of another, more important goal: doubling 2010 GDP by 2020. And indeed there is no problem with his arithmetic: given how much the economy has grown since 2010, to double that level in 2020 requires annual growth of at least 6.5% after 2015. The GDP-doubling target is itself the specific expression of a general slogan: to make China a “moderately prosperous” (xiaokang) society by 2020. Xi has emphasized this target as one of his “two centenary goals“: achieving prosperity by the 100th anniversary of the Party’s founding in 2021, and achieving modernization and national revival by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic in 2049. Official propaganda under Xi has made a big deal out of these two centenary goals, but in fact they are not that new, and indeed were inherited from previous leaders.

 

AnchorBUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE

China Changes Its Currency-Market Ways – WSJ China’s typically ham-handed approach to currency interventions—exemplified by its market-wrenching August devaluation—may be giving way to a lighter touch. In recent weeks, traders say, Beijing has been getting its message out more subtly, buying and selling in the freely traded offshore yuan and forwards markets. They praise the change, saying it boosts their confidence in China’s efforts to guide the value of its currency and calm markets.

In China Pileup, Bondholders Hit by Cement Truck – WSJ it is hard to figure why Shanshui can’t repay the onshore debt. It had 3.5 billion yuan in cash on its balance sheet at the end of June. No other listed Chinese cement firm is in danger of defaulting. Whether it can’t get banks to roll the debt, or it doesn’t want to roll it, is the mystery of the hour. One clue is that Shanshui is embroiled in a messy shareholder fight, and management may be holding debtholders hostage.

去哪儿网党委组织开展反腐倡廉警示教育参观活动–地方–人民网 article on Qunar’s Party Committee launching a “warning” education campaign to promote anti-corruption and probity, including taking in a visit to a Beijing detention center. It is long past time for the SEC to require all US-listed Chinese firms to disclose the makeup and role of their Party committees/branches. This is potentially a separate power center that, to the extent it has a role in management decisionmaking, will not have maximizing shareholder value as its main goal, and foreign investors deserve that disclosure. These firms’ PR folks, to the extent they will discuss their party committee/branch work, will tell you they are mostly about HR. Perhaps, but the CEO and CFO should still be required to sign off on that anodyne explanation in their SEC filings.  // 2015年11月10日,为进一步夯实党员理想信念,提高践行“三严三实”的思想意识,去哪儿网党委与海淀区公安分局预审大队开展党日共建活动。去哪儿网组织部分党员干部、党员代表20余人,赴海淀区看守所、海淀区反腐倡廉警示教育基地参观学习。 上午10时许,去哪儿网党委的20余名党员来到海淀区看守所,由海淀区检察院的解说员王艳同志带领,整齐列队进入“模拟审讯室”、“体验监舍”等场所参观体验,大家认真聆听讲解,积极发表问题、看法,接受了“体验式、小班化”的反腐倡廉警示教育。

Futures Trader Faces Scrutiny over Gains from High-Frequency Trading-Caixin Sources close to the matter said Yishidun also tried to use the unregulated bitcoin market to avoid China’s controls on capital flow to transfer a huge amount of money out of the country. A person close to the Chinese bitcoin trading platform BTC China said Murashov and Liang met with its executives in May. “They wanted to buy 10,000 bitcoins every month,” the person said, adding that at the time a bitcoin was worth about 2,000 yuan.

CICC Keeps It `Conservative’ With 300% China IPO Return Forecast – Bloomberg Business Only in China can an investment bank predict 300 percent returns from initial public offerings and call the estimate “conservative” with a straight face. China International Capital Corp. did just that in a report on Thursday as analysts led by Hanfeng Wang outlined their predictions for the country’s new IPO system. Post-IPO performance is likely to shrink from an average gain of 681 percent in the 18 months through June, Wang said  // our Beijing driver made about 1900% on an IPO earlier this year, so 300% chump change…

The evolution of RMB notes-China Daily A new 100-yuan bank note will be released by the central bank on Thursday. Part of the fifth set of bank notes introduced by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) in 1999, the 100-yuan bank note was last changed in 2005. The design will stay largely the same as the 2005 series, but the new bank notes are harder to counterfeit and easier for machines to read.

卓达集团被指非法集资 自称拥有20万亿建筑市场新闻腾讯网  accusations in China media that Zhuoda, a Hebei wealth mgmt firm, is a 10B RMB pyramid scheme

Fosun Billionaires Increase Stakes After Founding Partner Leaves – Bloomberg Business Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang increased his stake in Fosun International Ltd. after buying shares from one of his founding partners, Fan Wei…Jessica Wei, the group’s communication director, said in an e-mail that due to health reasons, Fan sold his interests in the holding company on a “pro rata basis.”

警惕国际资本唱空投资中国前景-证券时报多媒体数字报刊平台 我们当然不能忽视国际金融资本唱空中国经济的负效应,必须以真实经济数据和前瞻性的分析积极引导舆论和市场主体的判断,另一方面,应切实整固实体经济竞争力。因为在充分的信息和准确的数据面前,任何高级别的“忽悠”最终都是苍白的。   (作者系上海外国语大学国际金融贸易学院院长)

商品房库存压力加大 新一轮宽松政策或出台_证券时报网 国家统计局最新发布的数据显示,1-10月,全国商品房销售增速回落,库存有所增加。业内人士认为,库存问题已经成为影响中国经济的困难之一,习近平总书记日前强调要“化解房地产库存,促进房地产业持续发展”,为房地产调控指明了新方向,接下来新一轮宽松政策或将出台。

李剑阁:否定市场化方向改革是对中央大政方针的恶意曲解观点频道财新网 要用发展任务倒逼改革;当前最大的危险在于不改革,更大的危险在于改革往后退,应该旗帜鲜明地对否定市场化方向改革的言论予以抵制;要加快建立符合现代金融特点、统筹协调监管、有力有效的现代金融监管框架,坚守住不发生系统性风险的底

Cushman’s Brett White Flies into Shanghai for Deals | Mingtiandi In his session with the China team, White is said to have met with the agency’s top leadership for China and the region, including North Asia CEO Edward Cheung and Eastern China managing director Mimie Lau, as well as capital markets executive Justina Fan, to explore opportunities for advising Chinese investors on cross-border deals, as well as for providing more services domestically for Chinese companies hoping to rationalise their real estate portfolios. Unlike the US and other parts of the world where it is now known as Cushman & Wakefield, in China the newly-merged company will be marketed as DTZ Cushman & Wakefield.

Real Estate and Green Cards: EB-5 Debate Heats Up in Washington – Washington Wire – WSJ The general fundraising level would be raised to $1.2 million from $1 million and the lower level would be raised to $800,000 from $500,000. // should either kill this or raise threshold to $5m…US selling path to citizenship far too cheaply, so if going to sell it might as well price it right, though would rather this just gets abolished

China Credit Growth Falls as Tepid Economy Dents Loan Demand – Bloomberg Business Aggregate financing fell to 476.7 billion yuan ($75 billion), according to a report from the People’s Bank of China on Thursday. That was lower than all 25 economists’ projections and less than half the median forecast 1.05 trillion yuan. The data rounds out a week of mixed readings that have showed falling exports, tame inflation, slowing industrial output, and a rare bright spot in the form of increased retail spending

证监会公布领导具体分工:姚刚方星海互为AB角要闻一财网 CSRC has issued a document outlining areas of responsibility for its leadership

U.S.-listed Chinese shares fall ahead of MSCI inclusion | Reuters Index provider MSCI will announce on Thursday that it will add foreign-listed Chinese shares to one of its emerging market indexes beginning on Dec. 1.

 

AnchorPOLITICS AND LAW

NGOs in China: Some Good News Regarding the Overseas NGO Management Law Draft and the Long-Awaited Charity Law The National Security Law draft was reviewed a third time at the next Standing Committee meeting, voted on and passed overwhelmingly with only one abstention. The Overseas NGO Management Law draft, in contrast, has not been mentioned at any of the subsequent Standing Committee meetings. Since the Standing Committee meets every other month, there is still a chance that it could be reviewed in December. Still the delay suggests that the many comments on the draft law coming from both the foreign NGO and business community, and the concerns voiced by various government leaders at the highest levels in both the U.S. and Europe have been heard

NGO境外资助方数量滑坡 两年剧降近四成政经频道财新网 据参加评选的195家NGO反馈,和2013年相比,境外资助方的数量已从98家下降到今年的62家。政策面的不确定性,已影响到部分在境内从事公益活动的境外基金会的持续意愿

China Law Translate | 慈善法(草案)- Charity Law (Draft) Article 7: March 5 of every year is”China Charity Day”.  //  Lei Feng Day

Bo Guagua, son of jailed Chinese official Bo Xilai, appears in public at New York book signing | South China Morning Post The third-year student at Columbia Law School, in New York, attended a book signing event in the city on Tuesday, the Voice of America reported. He bought a copy of The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power by Thomas J. Christensen, former US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and asked the author to sign the book. Bo, 27, also talked to Steve Orlins, head of the National Committee on United States-China Relations.

落马学者型官员何家成:交好赵晋,多次出入私人会所打虎记澎湃新闻-The Paper 11月11日上午,中央纪委监察部网站发布消息,对何家成“双开”并移送司法机关。 其个人问题包括严重违反政治纪律,干扰、妨碍组织审查;严重违反廉洁纪律,利用职务上的便利为他人谋取利益并索取、收受财物,收受礼金;严重违反中央八项规定精神,多次出入私人会所。其中,利用职务上的便利为他人谋取利益,索取、收受财物问题涉嫌犯罪。 何家成也是十八大以来反腐风暴中第6名落马的正部级官员。

China still uses medieval torture methods against opponents – Amnesty | World news | The Guardian Chinese security agents continue to employ a medieval array of torture methods against government opponents, activists, lawyers and petitioners, including spiked rods, iron torture chairs and electric batons, a report claims. The Amnesty International report, called No End in Sight: Torture and Forced Confessions in China, is based on interviews with nearly 40 Chinese human rights lawyers and contains chilling details of alleged beatings and torture sessions endured by those taken into police custody.

从传统政治制度中汲取智慧(大家手笔)|《 人民日报 》( 2015年11月12日 07 版 中国传统政治制度的成功经验有很多,诸如发达的政治分工和悠久的制衡观念,积累上千年的一整套比较科学的官吏管理经验等,都值得有使命感的史学家认真总结。就以官吏管理制度而言,长期实行以考试制度选拔人才;在官员任用上,注重实践性,推行试职制度;在官员管理上,实行品阶、俸禄、考课、铨选、迁转、监察、回避等制度。这些都体现了历代统治者为实现政治清明、保持官员廉洁、提高行政效率所作的努力,其中有许多内容至今仍不乏启迪和借鉴意义。 (作者为中国社会科学院学部委员

公安部:居民身份证将可异地换证、补证、挂失 新华社北京11月12日电(记者王茜)为方便长期离开常住户口所在地的群众就近办理居民身份证,同时创造更加安全的居民身份证社会应用环境,经中央全面深化改革领导小组第十五次会议审议通过,日前,公安部印发《关于建立居民身份证异地受理挂失申报和丢失招领制度的意见》。 // Ministry of Public Security makes it easier to replace ID card away from place of household registration

After the One-Child Policy: What Happens to China’s Family-Planning Bureaucracy? –  WSJ The bureaucracy that oversees family planning in China is enormous. According to official statistics of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), there are over 500,000 administrative staff and technical service providers from the central government down to the township level devoted to both policy enforcement and family planning generally.  //  too bad they won’t be made useful by being turned into food safety or environmental protection inspectors...

 

AnchorFOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS

Photos of U.S. Navy intruding in South China Sea released: Aircraft carrier accompanied by two Aegis destroyers – People’s Daily Online Recently, more photos of the U.S. Navy intruding in the South China Sea have been released.

Q. and A.: Ezra F. Vogel on China’s Shifting Relations With Japan and Taiwan – The New York Times Ezra F. Vogel, 85, a sociologist at Harvard University, has spent a lifetime studying China and Japan, writing a best-selling biography of the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and producing widely read studies of Japanese society. Now, dispirited by mounting tensions between the two countries, he has set out to promote a deeper understanding of the relationship between China and Japan across time. Photo Ezra F. VogelCredit Javier C. Hernández Mr. Vogel is working on a book that will explore moments in history when China and Japan were in closest contact

Get Ready: China-Japan Tensions Set to Flare over East China Sea | Nippon.com The new ships improve the China Coast Guard’s maritime strength, thereby enabling China to perform “rights protection” operations far from shore and drive away smaller ships… the new bases strengthen China’s ability to conduct surveillance over the disputed Senkakus on a continuous basis…Chinese oil and gas structures in the East China Sea open up a new front in the maritime dispute that has largely focused on ownership of the islands  //  in case anyone thought the relative calming in that area meant a solution had been found

China and Afghanistan After the NATO Withdrawal-Richard Weitz-The Jamestown Foundation Yet while PRC policymakers naturally wish to maintain their low profile in Afghanistan, such an option is vanishing. They are now considering how to keep Beijing’s costs and commitments modest while preventing the emergence of a dangerous security and institutional vacuum. Excluding a complete Taliban defeat, China’s preferred outcome is a negotiated peace settlement among the Afghan government, the Taliban and the other Afghan combatants, supported by Afghanistan’s neighboring countries and the great powers.

Bayi Aerobatics Team pose for 66th anniv. of China’s PLA air force – Xinhua slideshow

[视频]张德江会见美国众议院少数党领袖新闻频道央视网(cctv.com) Pelosi meeting with Zhang Dejiang makes CCTV Evening News

US Congress Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi visits Tibet during China trip | South China Morning Post Details about the length of the delegation’s visit to Tibet and its agenda were not immediately available.

郭声琨会见美国网络安全执法跨部门代表团 Guo Shengkun Minister of Public Security meets US Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas who is leading a delegation to to discuss cyber security.

外交部回应南海纳土纳群岛“争议”:主权属印尼_凤凰资讯 问:印尼安全统筹部长称,如果无法通过对话与中国解决在南海纳土纳群岛海域所存争议,印尼可能诉诸国际刑事法院解决。中方是否注意到有关报道?对此有何回应? 答:印尼对中国的南沙群岛没有提出领土要求。纳土纳群岛主权属于印尼,中方也没有表示异议。

 

AnchorHONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN

Taiwan Will Use ‘Chinese Taipei’ in Another AIIB Bid, Official from Island Says-Caixin The thaw in ties provided a new window of opportunity for joining the AIIB, Chang Sheng-ford, Taiwan’s minister of finance, told the island’s legislature on November 11. The mainland rejected Taiwan’s bid to become a founding member of the AIIB under the name “Chinese Taipei” in April. The Taiwan Affairs Office, the mainland’s agency for handling cross-strait relations, said that the island could apply for membership later, but the two sides would need to talk about an “appropriate name.”

 

AnchorTECH AND MEDIA

In China, Tough Local Rivals Await Google – WSJ Enjoying Li Yuan’s China Circuit column  //  People in the Chinese Internet industry say that it shouldn’t be too difficult for Google to get regulatory approval to launch Google Play, so long as it agrees to censor its content based on government requirements. “That’s what Apple’s App Store has been doing, and it’s a huge success for Apple,” one of these people said. But even if the authorities approve Google Play, these people say, Google and other U.S. companies will face difficult hurdles to compete against entrenched local companies.

Chinese Hits Miss Out on the Global Box Office | ChinaFile For all the hype about boom times in China’s movie marketplace—the box office in the first half of this year soared nearly 50 percent over the first six months of 2014—China can’t seem to land a single hit in what is still the largest theatergoing movie market in the world: the U.S. of A. Chinese films weren’t always so little seen in America. Think back to directors Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou.

国家网信办约谈凤凰网负责人 北京网信办将依法处罚-中新网  iFeng managers get called in the CAC to be yelled at for indecent content and rumors, likely to be fined

 

AnchorSOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY

Mao’s ‘Proud Poplar’: Yang Kaihui-Caixin Executed by the Kuomintang at the age of 29, not much is known of Mao’s second wife despite her role as a national heroine By Sheila Melvin

 

AnchorENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH

China looks to traditional medicine as tonic to boost growth – FT.com Beijing has made TCM a pillar of its new innovation-driven economic growth model, investing heavily in the sector and using the state medical insurance programme to favour use of traditional medicines. These are usually cheaper than innovative western medicines and often preferred in rural areas, where much of China’s population still lives.

Organ Transplants Suffer Amid China’s Transportation Delays – The New York Times Dr. Chen estimates that about 300 lungs were donated across China in the first nine months of this year, of which only half were transplanted. The rest were discarded because of poor quality, including 50 to 60 that had deteriorated during delays in transport, Dr. Chen said. “They are wasted en route,” he said in an interview. By comparison, in the United States, in the first eight months of this year, 1,344 donors gave lungs, and 1,371 lungs were transplanted, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing

Apocalyptic China scenes ahead of climate talks-USA Today China probably doesn’t want you looking at these photos right now, especially since the world is less than three weeks away from the much-anticipated UN climate change conference in Paris.

China rejects 11 drug applications over inadequate trial data | Reuters The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) said in statement posted on its website on Nov. 11 that the move affected eight Chinese companies making generic drugs for heart problems, schizophrenia, pain, infections and other diseases. The crackdown follows a call in July for manufacturers to carry out their own internal investigations into trial data, which had already led to a number of voluntary recalls

中国生物多样性丧失严重:18种灵长动物种群数55年降8成绿政公署澎湃新闻-The Paper 11月12日,最新一期中国生物多样性和自然资源需求状况研究报告《地球生命力报告 中国2015》在京发布。报告指出,1970年至2010年间,中国陆生脊椎动物种群数量下降了一半,而生态足迹却在同时期上升超过一倍,中国已面临严峻生态挑战。

 

AnchorBOOKS AND LITERATURE

Q. and A.: David Bandurski on the Villages Within China’s Cities – The New York Times In his new book, “Dragons in Diamond Village,” David Bandurski, editor of the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong, writes about “urban villages,” formerly rural spaces engulfed by expanding cities. In an interview, he discussed the important role these enclaves have played in supporting China’s economic boom by offering cheap housing to millions of migrant workers.

 

AnchorBEIJING

京津冀一批大项目最快年内启动 _ 经济参考网 _ 站 推进京津冀城际铁路规划和建设,打造首都大外环高速通道,建设曹妃甸国家级石化基地,打造新能源汽车产业基地……《经济参考报》记者多方获悉,为全面落实《京津冀协同发展规划纲要》,并加大年末稳投资力度,围绕交通一体化、生态环保、产业升级转移等领域,京津冀各方将于四季度陆续推进一批重大项目,同时有序实施一批疏解北京非首都功能的先行项目。// Economic Information says several large projects for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration will start before year end

 

If you like Sinocism please spread the word using this link.

Follow me on Twitter @niubi for updates between newsletters

Send comments/tips/complaints to bill@sinocism.com