"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
China’s Economic Blueprint: Who Wins? Who Loses? – WSJ.com Here’s a look at how various industries might fare under the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee’s Resolution Concerning Major Issues in Comprehensively Deepening Reform, hereinafter, “the blueprint.”
Official pinpoints China’s tax priorities – Xinhua China’s Minister of Finance Lou Jiwei told Xinhua that the emphasis is on the role of taxation as a source of revenue, a redistributor of income and a tool of structural optimization and industrial upgrades.
Related: 楼继伟：房产税改革方向是“清费立税”_财经频道_一财网 楼继伟表示，下一步房产税改革方向是减少房产建设和交易环节税费，增加保有环节税收，配套推进清费立税。
Related: Closer Look: New Property Registration Policy ‘Aimed at Making Deals Easier’ – Caixin this professor is in the minority // Since a regular meeting of the State Council on November 20 decided to unify property registrations under one ministry, the public and media have been trying to figure out what it all means. One popular interpretation is the move is aimed at stemming graft. Another is that is that it may be a precursor to a property tax. However, Cheng Xiao, an associate law professor at Tsinghua University, says registration is the foundation of a property market and the new policy is in fact aimed at boosting the trade of properties.
Related: 潘石屹：不动产统一登记若今年实施 房价马上跌_首页国内_新闻中心_长江网_cjn.cn SOHO China’s Pan Shiyi says a unified property registration database would lead to an immediate drop in housing prices. He would know best, imagine what the rolls of SOHO buyers must look like // （新华网）国务院常务会议决定，整合不动产登记职责、建立不动产统一登记制度。许多人从这一制度上读出了“反腐”“控房价”等效果。SOHO中国董事长潘石屹在微博中表示：“这是好政策，如果今年实施，房价马上会跌。”记者徐海波
Related: 不动产统一登记 牵一发而动全身_新浪地产网 此前，《学习时报》曾刊发了黄震、陆琪的署名文章《不动产登记制度的反腐败功能》指出，不动产登记制度可以反腐败。文章认为，统一并完善不动产登记制度，能够帮助纪检机关明确清晰地查处将贪腐资产集中在房地产等不动产上的腐败官员，使集中在房地产市场的贪腐资产无所遁形。我们已经看到，虽然现在各地房地产信息尚未联网，但是仅仅是个别网民从单个地区的房地产登记记录当中偶然性地以人查房，就查出了多个房叔、房姐、房爷这样的贪腐官员。由此可以想见，如果房地产乃至不动产实现全国性统一的登记和信息互联，对贪腐官员会有多大的震慑作用。
Related: China Developers Fall After Property Tax Reports: Shanghai Mover – Bloomberg China will increase taxes for owning properties, and will quicken the legislation and reform of a property tax, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said without elaborating in an interview with the official People’s Daily published today. The ruling Communist Party mentioned legislation of the property tax for the first time this month after trials started in Chongqing and Shanghai almost three years ago, a move that Ping An Securities Co. said was negative for developers in the long term. “The biggest risk is the expansion in the property tax,” said Luo Yu, a Shanghai-based analyst at advisory firm CEBM Group. “With home prices at such high levels, any news about that could trigger market worries.”
Blueprint tightens EU links|Politics|chinadaily.com.cn China and the European Union announced a grand plan for cooperation until 2020 on Thursday and started talks on an investment protocol, mapping out the blueprint for the key relationship in coming years. They also vowed to discuss the feasibility of a free trade agreement and set the target for bilateral trade volume in 2020 at $1 trillion, nearly doubling the $546 billion recorded in 2012.
U.S. says China’s exemption demands jeopardize WTO technology deal | Reuters About $4 trillion in trade is covered by the current pact, according to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a Washington think tank that estimates an expanded agreement could cover $800 billion in additional trade.
Related: China Craters ITA Expansion Talks – ITI Blog After much erratic and obstructionist behavior by China over the course of the last ten days, it has just blown up the negotiations to expand product coverage of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA). In a high-level meeting between the United States and China this afternoon, Beijing’s negotiators said they have zero mandate to move off their tepid list of import-sensitive products. At a technical working group meeting of all the negotiating parties that immediately followed, China claimed it had exhausted all its resources and its flexibilities have come to an end.
消息称除涉外等领域政法委将不再介入个案|涉外|政法委|个案_新浪新闻 Reports that except in cases involving foreigners the Politics and law Committee will no longer intervene in individual cases…!?!?!?// 2013年11月21日，最高法院召开通气会，公布《关于建立健全防范刑事冤假错案工作机制的意见》(以下简称“《意见》”)。文件中三次提及死刑案件审理，包括认定对被告人适用死刑的事实证据不足的，不得判处死刑；死刑案件由经验丰富的法官承办；复核死刑案件，应当讯问被告人…出于“维稳”考虑，地方政法委一度是干扰个案审判的重要因素，记者从权威人士处得知，除涉及外交、国防等特殊领域外，“政法委今后将不会介入个案”。《意见》亦规定，法院“严格依照法定程序和职责审判案件，不得参与公安机关、人民检察院联合办案”。
Related: Supreme court renews call to ban torture – Xinhua China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has told judges to exclude evidence and testimonies obtained through torture and other illegal methods in a bid to promote fair justice. According to an SPC document made public Thursday on setting up and improving a mechanism to prevent wrong judgements in criminal cases, illegal evidence and defendant testimony obtained through torture or other illegal methods — such as forcing the accused to suffer from extreme temperatures, hunger and fatigue — must be ruled out.
Wikipedia-Using Professor Riles Corporate Spying Defense – Bloomberg The U.S. government’s China expert for an economic espionage criminal trial copied verbatim from Wikipedia large portions of a report summarizing his proposed testimony and should be disqualified, defense attorneys said. The expert is James Feinerman, an Asian law scholar and associate dean for transnational programs at Georgetown University Law Center. He allegedly copied parts of 13 pages of his 19-page report from Wikipedia entries on China’s economy, high-technology development plan and Communist party, according to Stuart Gasner, a lawyer for a California businessman indicted last year in a trade secrets case. The report, which was filed in San Francisco federal court, doesn’t mention Wikipedia. // embarrassing
China reforms create bigger stage for online business performance | Reuters China has released new rules to boost spending in its fast-growing e-commerce sector as it looks to encourage greater levels of domestic demand after the country’s leaders announced its most ambitious reforms in decades earlier this month….China will target total e-commerce transactions of 18 trillion yuan ($2.95 trillion) by 2015, according to guidelines released by China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Thursday. Total e-commerce spend last year was 8.1 trillion yuan.// 商务部发文鼓励商场开网店 将组织电商促销|电子商务|商务部|电商_互联网_新浪科技_新浪网
Spy Copters, Lasers, and Break-In Teams – By Matthew M. Aid | Foreign Policy Between 2006 and 2009, surveillance helicopters conducted daily flights over northwest Washington, D.C., taking high-resolution photographs of the new Chinese Embassy being constructed on Van Ness Street. The aircraft belonged to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which wanted to determine where the embassy’s communications center was being located. But the Chinese construction crews hid their work on this part of the building by pulling tarpaulins over the site as it was being constructed.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
Reforming China’s state-owned firms: From SOE to GLC | The Economist In judging the performance of Temasek’s GLCs, the counterfactual is important. They may not be as obviously successful as private titans from the region such as Samsung or LG. But they are not nearly as bad as most SOEs, including China’s. The enthusiasm for reform of SOEs in China reflects their deteriorating returns and accumulating debt. According to M.K. Tang of Goldman Sachs, their return on assets was 6.5 percentage points below that of other Chinese firms in 2012 and their shares trade at a growing discount. Even Mr Balding, meanwhile, is happy to fly Singapore Airlines.
China regulator drafts new rules to tame shadow banking | Reuters didn’t Caijing report this, in English, a few days ago? // China’s financial regulators are preparing new rules to crack down on explosive growth in complex interbank transactions used to evade lending restrictions, senior bankers who have seen drafts of the regulations told Reuters this week.
China corporate financing squeezed as reform plans spark rate spike | Reuters Chinese bond yields have surged as the market starts pricing in interest rate reform, a development that makes borrowing more expensive and threatens China’s fragile economic recovery. Chinese bond prices have been hammered in recent days on expectations that reforms to loosen government control of interest rates will cause funding costs to rise.
China PBOC Makes Biggest Injection In 2 Months To Calm Market | MNI The People’s Bank of China made a clear attempt Thursday to calm the interbank market about its policy intentions through the injection of a hefty CNY33 billion via 14-day reverse repurchase agreements. The injection, on top of Tuesday’s CNY35 billion addition of short-term funding, brings the week’s net position to a CNY59 billion injection, the largest weekly injection since the week of September 24. A trader based in southern China noted that large lenders have been quietly making funding available at low rates these past two mornings, indicating that they are operating under central bank orders.
China Casting Off Mao Shackles Burnishes Yuan Appeal: Currencies – Bloomberg “Increasingly investors are perceiving risks as relatively one-way toward a stronger yuan,” Greg Gibbs, a Singapore-based strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, wrote in a report yesterday.
Can China get IPOs right this time around? | China Economic Review In a major policy statement late last week, at the conclusion of the Third Plenum, the Communist Party said it would adopt a registration-based system for IPOs, or one that lets companies that meet a list of predetermined requirements register for listing. Previously, the China Securities Regulatory Committee often subjected companies to years of troublesome reviews. Some experts say that change could come as early as March.
构建开放型经济新体制–时政–人民网 Wang Yang in today’s People’s Daily on building an open economic system
The People’s Money: China’s Coming Baby Boomlet Will Deliver a Boost – WSJ.com So, how to calculate the impact? Here is a rough attempt. A 2005 survey by Shanghai Social Science Academy showed that it costs 480,000 yuan ($79,000) to raise a child from cradle to college, including costs such as food, education and health care. Those costs have increased, but take those as a base assessment. So if China adds an extra 10 million children in the next five years, that would be $790 billion in additional spending—and that is likely a conservative estimate.
China’s Third Plenum: ‘Bold’ reforms could jolt stock market into recovery, says Anthony Bolton – Telegraph Fidelity fund manager says China’s reform package could reverse its stock market underperformance// how is his China fund performing?
China’s Bribery Culture Poses Risks for Multinationals – Bloomberg sad that every reader now has to ask: did Bloomberg edit anything out of this story to avoid upsetting Beijing? Management’s actions very unfair to the excellent journalists at Bloomberg // China, the world’s second-largest economy, fares poorly in surveys by Transparency International, the Berlin-based anti-corruption organization. Last year, it placed 80th out of 176 countries ranked for the perception of public sector corruption. A survey released Oct. 16 found Chinese companies were the least transparent and most prone to corruption of 100 multinationals examined in 16 nations, including India, Russia and Brazil.
Remember the Wenzhou Pilot Zone? It’s Showing Mixed Results – Caixin A testing ground for financial reforms in China’s entrepreneurial heartland has made progress, but insiders say there’s more work to do
央行副行长回应比特币大热：受启发但不承认其合法性_科技频道_凤凰网 11月20日，人民银行副行长易纲在某论坛上首谈比特币。易纲表示，从人民银行角度，近期不可能承认比特币的合法性。但他同时认为，比特币交易作为一种互联网上的买卖行为，普通民众拥有参与的自由。此外，易纲还指出比特币“很有特点”，具有“启发性”，个人会保持长期关注。//Yi Gang on Bitcoin, PBoc paying attention, real risk for Bitcoin of China regulatory problems
中国房产投资风险最高50大城市：49个是三线城市_21世纪网 report on the divergence in local real estate markets across China. be wary of any pundit who natters on about China real estate as if it were a single market..a clear tell they either do not know what they are talking about or they are pushing an agenda without care for the facts…// 一边是各大城市房价的高烧不退，一边是部分中小城市楼市的寒意阵阵，当前中国房地产市场出现了明显的分化迹象，三线城市积聚的楼市风险不容小觑。
机构：一线城市核心区房价不贵 郊区房产泡沫高|房价|中金|一线城市_新浪财经_新浪网 CICC report on China real estate says central areas of first tier cities are not expensive but there are bubbles in the suburbs
“沪七条”发威 焦虑房东一夜降价50万_财经频道_一财网 “沪七条”出台后，上海在预售证发放方面明显收紧，加上限购限贷升级，短期内，市场上行空间将受到显著压缩。
温州“产业空心化”余震：千万元房屋抵押仅获贷336万_财经频道_一财网 more on the collapse of the Wenzhou economy and the property market// 事实上，用实体企业作为融资平台，把资金投向房地产、高利贷等领域，成为之前温州“产业空心化”和“资金热钱化”的佐证。
BAT真面目：高尾随佣金冒头 基金业自投“罗网”？_21世纪网 BAT（百度、阿里、腾讯），三大互联网巨头已经齐聚基金销售领域，但是，这并不是基金业得到“拯救”的时刻。 日前，据知情人士透露，腾讯介入互联网金融服务的形态已经成形，将主要嫁接于移动互联端的微信设备，率先与华夏和汇添富等四家基金公司合作，并拟在12月初正式上线。 除了腾讯发力之外，支付宝撬动定存市场的“招财宝”也上线在即。
LDK Solar Gets $256 Million Credit Facility From Banks – Bloomberg The funds will be limited to operations in LDK’s home province of Jiangxi by its unit Jiangxi LDK Solar Hi-Tech Co. and cannot be used to pay down debt, the Xinyu, China-based company said today in a statement. The first drawdown of 200 million yuan was approved and completed today.
China Cinda Said to Seek Up to $2.45 Billion in Offering – Bloomberg Bank of America Corp., Credit Suisse Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and UBS AG are among banks working on Cinda’s share sale, the people said. China’s Ministry of Finance holds an 83.5 percent stake in Cinda, while the national pension fund owns 8 percent, according to a bond prospectus published in October last year. Zurich-based UBS holds a 5 percent interest, while Citic Capital Holdings Ltd. controls 2 percent and Standard Chartered Plc owns 1.5 percent, the document showed.
U.S. Treasury Appoints Michael Hirson as Top China Rep, Replacing David Dollar – China Real Time Report – WSJ The U.S. Treasury plans to appoint Michael Hirson, a Mandarin-speaking international economist, as its top rep in China, replacing David Dollar, a longtime China hand who returned this past summer to Washington, D.C., to work at the Brookings Institution.
POLITICS AND LAW
Communist Party seeks to reform its ‘shuanggui’ anti-corruption investigations | South China Morning Post Jiang Mingan, a law professor at Peking University who was invited to the meeting, said the authorities have formed a consensus to strengthen prosecutors’ roles in investigating allegations of corruption by party members. Officials accused of graft are traditionally dealt with by the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and kept incommunicado for interrogation before being handed over to police and prosecutors. The prosecutors only assist the investigations and pursue charges against the suspects.
China bans public funded gifts during holidays – Xinhua Chinese officials are not to exchange gifts such as fireworks and firecrackers bought with public funds, during the New Year and Spring Festival holidays. “Party and government offices, civil associations, state-owned enterprises and financial institutions will be prohibited from exchanging gifts bought with public money, such as cigarettes and alcohol, during the upcoming holidays,” read a Thursday statement by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China.
人民日报评论员：紧紧依靠人民推动改革–观点–人民网 鲁迅先生说过，“多数的力量是伟大的、要紧的，有志于改革者倘不深知民众的心，设法利导，改进，则无论怎样的高文宏议，浪漫古典，都和他们无干，仅止于几个人在书房中互相叹赏”。历经30多年的飞速发展，全面深化改革激发了亿万人民的全新期待。一切为了人民、紧紧依靠人民，我们就一定能在上下同心、共同参与中，取得历史接力赛中我们这一棒的优异成绩。//page 1 of Friday People’s Daily–reform closely relies on the people, ends with a quote from Lu Xun
揭秘东伊运境外不归路：中巴联合围剿毫不留情-军事频道-新华网 Global Times on ETIM and their overseas training, esp in Pakistan// “10·28”天安门恐怖袭击案的发生，让人们一齐把目光聚焦到“东突厥斯坦伊斯兰运动”(简称“东伊运”)身上。中央政法委书记孟建柱近日透露，“10·28”案的幕后策划者正是“东伊运”。随后，巴基斯坦前外长卡苏里也撰文指出“新疆极端分子栖身于巴部落地区并非秘密”。近几年，来自巴基斯坦的“东伊运”恐怖分子在中国境内的暴力恐怖活动日益猖獗，许多在中国境内被抓获或击毙的“东伊运”要犯在巴接受过恐怖组织的训练。巴基斯坦是中国全天候的战略合作伙伴，那么为什么巴基斯坦有这么多的“东伊运”恐怖分子，他们又是怎样往返中国和巴基斯坦之间的呢？
China Policy Institute Blog » China’s Proposed “State Security Council”: Social Governance under Xi Jinping The proposed State Security Committee probably will add to the growing concentration of power in Xi Jinping’s hands. The committee appears to take on the policymaking authority of the Political-Legal Affairs Committee (and possibly the related leading small groups), giving authority over security operations to someone with broader concerns than security. As a Chinese government analyst noted in an interview with the China Daily, the Ministry of Public Security can disrupt terrorist plots, but it cannot deal with root causes of terrorism. Seen in this light, the State Security Committee is a natural progression from Xi’s reported effort to ensure the Political-Legal Affairs Committee reported to him rather than functioning autonomously in the hands of a rough equal in the Standing Committee.
Several officials netted as graft crackdown renewed in wake of plenum – Globaltimes.cn Several senior officials and executives at State-owned enterprises were revealed on Tuesday to have been sacked or placed under investigation, in what is being heralded as a new wave of anti-graft crackdowns after the recently concluded Third Plenary Session of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.
Courts Use Taobao to Auction Seized Cars, Homes – Caixin Courts in two provinces have started using Taobao, the country’s largest online marketplace, to sell seized cars and houses. The practice started in the eastern province of Zhejiang in the middle of last year. Some 98 courts have auctioned off confiscated cars and homes worth more than 2.6 billion yuan since then, the province’s High People’s Court said on November 19. The autos and properties were usually confiscated by courts because their owners defaulted on loans. The southwestern province of Yunnan has also started similar auctions.
Closer Look: Why Money Can’t Buy Local Gov’ts Stability – Caixin Bai links the quick payments to the ways local officials are evaluated by their superiors, who simply want to see that society’s problems are kept quiet. Thus, to forestall any noisy street demonstrations or complaints to higher-ups, officials use money to suppress problems. Taxpayers might want to start asking where the money for such payments comes from – and whether it is really keeping the peace as intended.
Father of Web says China will dismantle ‘great firewall’ | Reuters China’s rulers will ultimately take it upon themselves to dismantle the “great firewall” that limits its people’s access to the Internet because doing so will boost China’s economy, the inventor of the World Wide Web said. In an interview about his World Wide Web Foundation’s rankings of the way 81 countries manage the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, a London-born computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989, also scolded the United States for undermining the Internet’s foundations with its surveillance programmes.
煤矿文工团长拥多套房被查 保安称其穿着朴素_新闻_腾讯网 新京报讯 （记者展明辉 实习生毛剑）据中国之声消息，国家安监总局21日透露，中国煤矿文工团团长张成祥被双规，已免去其职务。初步查明，在担任黑龙江煤监局局长等任内，张成祥受贿人民币1343万元、美元13万元、欧元2.5万元。在黑龙江、大连、海南、北京有多套住房。
北京等地现“解读全会”研修班 一天收8800元_网易新闻中心 want to understand the 3rd Plenum Decision? There are now private classes for that, including one that charges 8800 RMB a day..//.核心提示:近日，市场上出现一批“解读十八届三中全会会议精神”的“高级研修班”，面向政府部门、企事业单位、金融机构招学员。部分“高级研修班”报名费极其高昂，短短几天课程培训费用要数千元，最高的一天课程要价8800元，“培训”完连张证书都没有。
QQ群“献策”罢运 的哥被拘10日 · 港澳/网眼 · 2013-11-22 ,南都网,数字报,电子报,南方都市报 Xian taxi driver detained for 10 days for trying to organize a strike, now suing the police // 南都讯 记者张东锋 实习生唐骏垚 因不服在QQ群“献策”罢运被警方行政拘留，陕西西安的出租车司机赵师傅日前将西安市公安局碑林区分局告上法庭。8月27日，赵师傅在一个出租车主Q Q群讨论罢运时，发言建议说应组织一些人宣传，并表示需要资金他可以捐助。后来，这被碑林区公安局认定“扰乱正常的社会公共秩序”，并处行政拘留10日。
China Needs to Learn How to Spin Better – Bloomberg Rather than lamenting the new reality, it’s in Beijing’s interest to develop a sustained and sophisticated strategy to telegraph clarity and credibility. This isn’t something that can be done through Xinhua or People’s Daily editorials. In fact, China can learn much from the U.S. and other Western governments about controlling its intended message. Call it “propaganda with Western characteristics.” That might sell in Beijing.
China’s President Will Drive Change, Paulson Says – Bloomberg “Dirty air and dirty water are killing people,” he said. “It’s just not acceptable. The challenge is they don’t have the legal system, they don’t have the regulatory system to operate the way we do.” Paulson said China is taking steps such as evaluating civil servants on their environmental performance, and may take further measures, such as a cap-and-trade system, before the U.S. does.
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
China’s economic diplomacy showcases fresh style with new blueprint – Xinhua In early September, Chinese President Xi Jinping, attending the G20 summit in Russia, expounded China’s stand on issues like macro-economic policy making, the fight against trade protectionism and global governance. By convincing facts and clear policy signals, he hit back on those who bad-mouthed the prospect of China’s economy, and more importantly, enhanced the consensus of all sides and boosted the confidence of global markets. Leaders of Beijing, on their continuous visits to Central and Southeast Asia in the following months, proposed building the BCIM Economic Corridor that encompasses Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar; an upgraded version of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area; a Silk Road economic belt with Central Asian countries; a maritime Silk Road with Southeast Asian countries; as well as a “cross-Pacific regional cooperation framework” that can bring benefits to all parties.
Book on former Chinese President’s military thoughts published – Xinhua A book of former Chinese President Hu Jintao’s thoughts on national defense and military construction has been published, according to military sources on Thursday. The book, which outlines Hu Jintao’s thoughts on national defense and military construction, was examined and approved by the Central Military Commission (CMC) and CMC Chairman Xi Jinping, and was compiled by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Political Department.//《胡锦涛国防和军队建设思想学习纲要》印发全军–时政–人民网
US Commission Wants American ‘Surge’ to Confront China | Defense News | defensenews.com A study group is calling on US officials and lawmakers to dramatically increase America’s naval footprint in the Pacific to “offset China’s growing military capabilities.” In its annual report, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission calls for an American “surge [of] naval assets in the event of a contingency.”
Prime minister’s wife welcomes Chinese students to Japan – AJW by The Asahi Shimbun Shinzo Abe’s nationalist streak has caused chilly concern in South Korea and China, but the prime minister’s wife has been doing her best to bring about warmer relations with Japan’s two neighbors. On Nov. 20, Akie Abe attended a reception at a Tokyo hotel to welcome visiting senior high school students from China. “I am happy that you summoned up the courage to come to Japan,” Akie told the students during a speech in which she acknowledged that Japan-China relations remain far from friendly.
Japan business chiefs shunned by Xi and Li | The Japan Times At a time when no tangible progress has been made in improving diplomatic relations, the Japan-China Economic Association said it is instead scheduled to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, who is in charge of commercial affairs, on Tuesday afternoon. The visit, led by Fujio Cho, Toyota Motor Corp.’s honorary chairman, is the biggest business delegation to go to China since bilateral ties began unraveling more than a year ago over ownership of a group of small islets claimed by both Japan and China.
Remarks to Reporters at the Westin Chaoyang Hotel Glyn Davies-Special Representative for North Korea Policy-Beijing, China-November 21, 2013
China conducts test flight of stealth drone|Politics|chinadaily.com.cn A Chinese stealth unmanned combat aerial vehicle had its maiden flight on Thursday, photos taken by military fans revealed. The successful flight shows the nation has again narrowed the air-power disparity between itself and Western nations. The Sharp Sword conducted its first flight in a test-flight center in Southwest China at around 1 pm, fans said on cjdby.net, China’s most popular military website, adding that the test lasted nearly 20 minutes.// 中国”利剑”隐身无人攻击机成功首飞_图片频道_新华网 pictures of China’s stealth drone on its purported maiden flight
An Island Outpost for China’s Maritime Claims – NYTimes.com some of China’s largest companies have rushed to establish a presence on the small island, or donated goods and services. Political, rather than economic, considerations are likely to have influenced their decisions. Yongxing, previously home to just a small detachment of Chinese soldiers and fishermen, jumped into the national spotlight after it was designated the government seat of a new prefecture-level city, Sansha, in July 2012.
Inside North Korea’s Crystal Meth Trade – By Isaac Stone Fish | Foreign Policy Three North Koreans I spoke with said the drug started appearing on the domestic market in the late 1990s — a period also cursed by devastating rains, which damaged the opium poppy crop. As thousands of North Koreans began moving across the country’s porous border with China during the famine, looking for food and work, they discovered a market for crystal meth on the Chinese side.
[视频]我国实验型深海移动工作站下水成功_新闻频道_央视网(cctv.com) CCTV Evening News on successful launch of experimental deep undersea mobile work station…China has big plans for the deep sea
Regional history: The politics of statues | The Economist NOTHING brings China and South Korea together quite like Japanese imperial history. Its most recent manifestation is China’s decision to erect a statue in the north-eastern city of Harbin to honour the Korean assassin of a Japanese colonial leader. South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye, suggested the idea to President Xi Jinping during a visit to China in June. On November 18th Ms Park thanked China’s visiting state councillor, Yang Jiechi, for going along with the idea. The divide between Japan and its neighbours appears to be widening.
Dutch musician’s ‘racist’ comments against Chinese go viral, draw ire | South China Morning Post A judge from Holland’s Got Talent, a popular singing competition television programme in the Netherlands, has come under fire for making multiple racial slurs against a Chinese contestant.
Paul Mooney On Being Denied Chinese Visa – Business Insider Mooney doesn’t see the situation with foreign journalists getting better without pressure from the United States and other nations. He says that countries should adopt a reciprocal policy — if China won’t process foreign visas, then the U.S. will stop processing Chinese visas.
TECH AND MEDIA
文化部文化市场司副司长庹祖海：将对手游行业进行整顿 – 证券要闻 – 21CN.COM MoC official says rectification coming to mobile gaming industry. Also have heard that China mobile launching a payment codes crackdown that may hit some mobile game revenue hard. Any good stocks to short on this? Forgames does not appear shortable yet in HK. This can’t help Sungy Mobile’s attempt to list in the US // 在11月21日举行的第四届中国移动游戏企业高峰论坛上，文化部文化市场司副司长庹祖海表示，监管层对手游市场存在的个别乱象高度重视，近期将对手游行业进行整顿。分析人士认为，游戏审查制度作出调整，将使得企业对产品周期的把控更加自主，这对游戏行业是一大利好。
央视《朝闻天下》：互联网乱象调查|互联网|乱象|百度|奇虎360_新浪视频 CCTV goes after Internet giants for bad behavior
Warner Bros’ Stellar Year in China | chinafilmbiz 中国电影业务 Having already clinched bragging rights as the top-grossing Hollywood studio in China this year, Warner Bros further cemented its lead with the excellent rollout of Gravity on Tuesday. With nearly $10 million in ticket sales in its first two days of PRC release, and what I’m estimating will be at least a $70 million final tally, Gravity should push Warners’ 2013 total in China to around $325 million.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Lu Xun Letter Sold For a Million Dollars – NYTimes.com Lot 2257 was written on a single piece of paper and sold on Monday for more than 6.5 million renminbi, or over $1 million, about three times its asking price.
Inspiration From China’s Villages – NYTimes.com After three years of commuting to the region, the designer spent most of 2012 there, producing 40 pieces of clothing with the help of artisans from the Miao and Dong ethnic groups…Ms. [Angel] Chang finally decided to draw on her experience at fashion houses like Donna Karan to create a collection using, as she phrases it, “1,000 years of ancient craftsmanship reinterpreted into modern design.” In her Paris apartment, the samples of her custom-order styles were hanging on a rack nearby.
媒体称可动用公检法寻张艺谋:不信能跑到火星去|张艺谋|计生委|无锡_新浪新闻 media suggest public security authorities can help find Zhang Yimou, since the Wuxi government says it can’t find him to pursue an investigation of violations of family planning rules…
China’s Fathers Say Driving Children Is Their Most Important Job as a Parent – China Real Time Report – WSJ In a survey of 500 Chinese fathers released earlier this week by communications company JWT, respondents ranked driving their children to extracurricular activities and to school first and second, respectively, as the childcare responsibilities they most viewed as the responsibility of the male in the family. More than two-thirds of Chinese fathers surveyed said they saw these tasks as their responsibilities, not their wives’.
Fossil study: Native American’s ancestry looked more Eurasian than East Asian – The Washington Pos Modern-day Native Americans share from 14 to 38 percent of their DNA with the Siberian hunter-gatherers — who are not closely related to East Asians — with the remainder coming from East Asian ancestors. Most scientists have thought that the first Americans came only from the East Asian populations.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
U.S. and China Find Convergence on Climate Issue – NYTimes.com Zhang Haibin, a professor of international relations at Peking University who has served as an adviser to China’s Ministry of Commerce, said that while climate cooperation with the United States remained difficult, there appeared at the very least to be a tacit agreement not to torpedo the talks. That represents progress.
陕西数万蓝狐被棒杀剥皮 养殖户称谈人道太奢侈_新闻_腾讯网 blue foxes in Shaanxi clubbed to death for their fur…disturbing pics // 每年冬季是狐狸等动物的集中宰杀季节。11月21日，在西安市临潼区南王村蓝狐养殖园区，街头的血腥宰杀随处可见，蓝狐被敲头时发出的凄惨的嚎叫声，令笼舍中的同类眼神里充满惊恐。
China has a plan to stem the rise of antibiotic resistance, and it’s working – Quartz but I can still buy many without a prescription in any pharmacy in Beijing // What saves the world from that fate could be this: In 2011, China’s ministry of health started cracking down on antibiotics overprescription, applauding hospitals that complied, and publicly shaming those that flouted its new protocols. Now there’s evidence the plan is working. A new study (pdf) by doctors at Zhejiang University reports that the percentage of hospitalized patients who were prescribed antibiotics fell from 68% in 2011 to 58% by the end of 2012. For outpatients, that proportion dropped from 25% to 15%.
FOOD AND TRAVEL
Please Stop Eating Cats And Dogs, Ads Urge Consumers In China A provocative ad campaign in China is urging citizens to stop eating dogs and cats. The series, by advocacy group Animals Asia, features the pets framed by chopsticks in various settings. One ad includes a little girl and two dogs with the message, “What You Just Put In Your Mouth Could Have Been Your Child’s Partner in Growth.”
BEIJING
Rupert Murdoch, wife reach divorce deal[1]|chinadaily.com.cn Key details of the agreement were not revealed, but a person familiar with the terms of settlement said Deng is expected to keep the couple’s home in Beijing and their Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, purchased in 2004 for a then-record $44 million
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