"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
1. Chinese Report on Climate Change Depicts Somber Scenarios – The New York Times “There’s deepening awareness of the gravity of the problems,” Zhang Haibin, a professor at Peking University who was among some 550 experts who prepared the report, said in an interview. He noted a shift since the first such assessment was issued nine years ago. “From the first to the second to this third report, the negative impacts of climate change on China are increasingly apparent.” // 《第三次气候变化国家评估报告》发布 Has the US given China too much leverage on other issues in order to achieve a climate deal, as China needs to clean itself up regardless given the multiple environmental disasters it has created for itself?
Related: Chinese President Xi arrives in Paris for climate change conference | CCTV America The Chinese president will deliver a speech at the conference on Monday, raising China’s proposals on countering climate change before leaving for state visits to Zimbabwe and South Africa and a summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Johannesburg.
Related: Behind China’s Evolution From Climate Deal Holdout to Leader – Bloomberg Business “The fact that the United States and China at the presidential level joined arms and stepped forward in November of last year in the ramp up to 2015 and put forward strong targets together, these two historic antagonists at the presidential level, was a big shot in the arm to the negotiations,” Todd Stern, U.S. special envoy on climate change, told reporters Oct. 23 during a conference call.
Related: Interview: We will make every minute and second count to reach climate deal: China’s chief negotiator – Xinhua China’s chief negotiator Su Wei said on Sunday that he expected negotiators to make full use of time in Paris in order to reach a global legally binding climate agreement by December 11. “Time is quite pressing, we will make every minute and second count,” said Su Wei in an interview with Xinhua prior to the start of a United Nations climate conference in Paris.
Related: China meets pollution reduction targets ahead of schedule: Minister – Xinhua China has achieved the pollution reduction targets for major pollutants outlined in its 12th Five-Year Plan, six months ahead of schedule, Environment Minister Chen Jining said Sunday. Nonetheless, a substantial improvement of the environment will only be possible if pollution is reduced by a further 30 to 50 percent, he said. // really?
Related: Official Figures for Major Smog Pollutant Last Year ‘Off by Half’-Caixin The government underreported by half last year’s emissions of a pollutant from burning coal that plays a major role in the smog covering many of China’s big cities, an expert says. The country emitted 30 to 31 million tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2) last year, said Luo Jianhua, secretary general of the China Environment Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit organization controlled by the government. // 骆建华：雾霾元凶之一SO2或被严重低估（更新）政经频道财新网
Related: Beijing issues highest smog alert of the year as capital chokes on ‘very unhealthy’ air | South China Morning Post Local authorities issued the orange alert – the second highest in the four-tier system – meaning industrial plants were required to cut or shut down production, construction sites should stop transporting materials and waste, and heavy-duty trucks were banned from the roads.
Related: Gates to Announce Multibillion Dollar Clean-Energy Fund – Bloomberg Business Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., will be joined by at least 27 other private investors in the so-called “Breakthrough Energy Coalition,” including Africa’s richest man, Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote; Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. chairman and founder Jack Ma; and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman.
2. China vows breakthrough in long-awaited military reform by 2020, including restructuring PLA headquarters and commands | South China Morning Post A new disciplinary commission and a military audit department would be set up within the military to tackle corruption, Xi said, adding that measures would also be taken to improve the military legal system. A new political and legal commissar for the military would be appointed, he said. “An overall structure should be formed to empower the Central Military Commission to be in charge of both administration and command of the PLA,” Xi was quoted by state-run Xinhua as saying at the end of a three-day meeting attended by about 200 top military officials. // not a sign that Xi is weak or that his power has peaked, as some observers seem to believe. And still a chance Liu Shaoqi’s son Gen Liu Yuan is promoted into leadership in the reformed PLA discipline/anti-corruption function
Related: 习近平:全面实施改革强军战略 坚定不移走中国特色强军之路-新华网 Xinhua/CCTV evening News report on the PLA reforms
一图读懂｜全面实施改革强军战略 Xinhua publishes infographic on the planned PLA reforms.
Related: 坚决贯彻落实习主席改革强军决策指示<BR/>以强烈的使命担当打赢改革攻坚战 – 解放军报 – 中国军网 Sunday PLA Daily editorial on implementing the mooted PLA reforms
Related: 军报：彻底肃清郭伯雄徐才厚案 迎接军改大考_腾讯新闻 这次专题党课的一个鲜明特点，是党委书记普遍深入剖析周永康、薄熙来、徐才厚、郭伯雄、令计划、苏荣等案件，反躬自省、引为镜鉴，不遮不掩晒问题，抽丝剥茧摆教训，一针见血点危害。
3. 妄议中央大政方针绝不是发扬党内民主 人民日报热点辨析：认清“妄议”的错误和危害 韩慧 其二，削弱党的权威和领导地位。一些人在贯彻执行中央决策部署时打折扣、搞变通，形成“上有政策、下有对策”和“上下不贯通、政令中梗阻”的不良局面，损害了中央权威和党的执政能力。这些其实都与妄议中央大政方针有很大关系- （作者单位：济南大学政治与公共管理学院）。 // People’s Daily page 7 piece tries to explain “improper discussion of central party policies 妄议中央” (from Article 46 of the new Party Discipline regulations), says intent is not to limit intra-Party constructive speech but to tamp down “unconstructive” speech. The author notes that inaction, improper policy implementation are related to “improper discussion of central party policies”. Article 46 of the new Party Discipline regulations looks in part to be a tool to attempt to force the bureaucracy to implement reform and other policies that are coming from the Center but not being properly carried through, a common problem across China’s history that long predates the CCP. Bureaucratic resistance and inaction is not actually evidence that Xi has not consolidated power, especially in the sources of hard power like the PLA, PSB, MSS and CCDI.
Related: We’re not having this discussion – China Media Project The humour in these comments is probably lost on those unfamiliar with political jargon in China, but both taunts draw attention to a term that has rightly come in recent weeks to symbolise the Communist Party’s intolerant attitude toward dissenting views under the leadership of President Xi Jinping. The term, “improper discussion of [the policies] of the central Party,” or wangyi zhongyang (妄议中央), kicked up a storm online after being included in the Party’s new Disciplinary Regulations, released on October 21. // interesting piece, focus more on the ideological dimension
4. 完善社会治安综合治理体制机制 Wang Yongqing, secretary general of the Central Politics and Law Committee, writes in latest Qiushi on perfecting the comprehensive social management system, with visions of Big Brother and the Minority Report in this description of using “big data”// 新一轮科技革命蓄势待发，特别是信息科技向数据科技的发展，不仅更新了我们认识世界的思维方式，也给我们加快建设社会治安立体防控体系提供了新途径新手段。 ■ 我们要坚持维权和维稳相统一，把源头治理、动态管理、应急处置有机结合起来，完善社会矛盾排查预警和调处化解综合机制，牢牢掌握预防化解社会矛盾的主动权… 大数据表示的是过去，但表达的是未来，其意义就在于通过对海量数据的整合、挖掘，揭示传统技术方式难以展现的关联关系，让我们更清楚地理解事物本质、把握未来走向，从而发现新规律、提升新能力。我们要坚持用数据说话、用数据管理、用数据创新，全面采集人、地、物、事等基本信息和吃、住、行、消等动态信息，加强关联分析、碰撞比对，使预警更加科学、防控更加有效、打击更加精确。 // wonder if any of the US-listed China Internet firms are helping the government with its Orwellian forays into big data and artificial intelligence?
Related: The Chinese government could use big data to track individual students’ political views – Quartz A new report (link in Chinese) from Studies in Ideological Education, a publication put out by China’s education ministry, suggests using big data to track the political views of individual university students. The report—written by a member of the propaganda department committee at University of Electronic Science and Technology in Chengdu—advocates creating a “political ideology database” that pulls data from library records, surveys, social media, and other sources to collect “quantifiable, accurate, and personalized information” and “improve the effectiveness of ideological education.”
5. Bank chief stresses financial security for more open China- China Daily Financial security is essential to a national security, and the success of financial reform hinges on stability in the sector, Zhou Xiaochuan said in an article published in the People’s Daily on Wednesday. He called for a mechanism to be put in place to monitor and counter risks, and for better regulations against money laundering and terrorism financing…Nevertheless, he said China will stick to its opening-up policy in the financial arena
Related: 周小川罕见警告“金融攻击” 专家称备战小概率事件滚动新闻新浪财经_新浪网 “周小川提到防范金融攻击和制裁，我认为不是针对当前某个特定现象，这应该是一个原则性的说法。”上述全球投资人士也告诉记者，决策层并非首次提到“金融攻击”的问题，“更应该理解为是对未来更高程度的开放，提前做好防范的意思。”
Related: 深化金融体制改革（学习贯彻党的十八届五中全会精神）–人民网 – 周小川
6. The Yuan Grows Up – Bloomberg View Editorial At a board meeting on Monday, the International Monetary Fund is likely to announce that China’s currency, the yuan, will join the dollar, yen, euro and pound as part of the global currency basket known as the Special Drawing Right. Don’t dismiss this as an inconsequential technical adjustment. It’s a milestone for the world economy. // IMF decision announcement coming 11.30
7. China pledges resolute measures to root out poverty by 2020 – Xinhua China’s top leadership on Saturday pledged resolute measures to help the remaining 70 million poor people shake off poverty and enjoy essential social services by 2020. Major tasks for governments over the next five years will include ensuring the poverty-stricken people to have enough to eat and wear, and to enjoy compulsory education, health service and housing, according to a two-day high-profile conference on poverty alleviation and development, which ended Saturday in Beijing. // [视频]习近平在中央扶贫开发工作会议上强调 脱贫攻坚战冲锋号已经吹响 全党全国咬定目标苦干实干 13 minute CCTV Evening News report on the meeting. Xi looks to have gotten a haircut
Related: 坚决打赢脱贫攻坚战–观点–人民网 ——一论学习贯彻习近平总书记中央扶贫开发工作会议重要讲话 本报评论员 // p1 11.30 People’s Daily comment on poverty reduction
8. The Book of Changes | the Anthill Twenty five years in Chinese jazz – by David Moser // among the most interesting expat writing I have read on China in a long time, wish Moser wrote more
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
Citic, Haitong, Guosen Probed on Alleged Margin-Trading Breaches – Bloomberg Business China’s securities regulator is investigating Citic Securities Co., Haitong Securities Co. and Guosen Securities Co. over alleged breaches of rules on margin and short-selling contracts. // Caixin has more in-depth coverage 盘前必读：中信证券称被调查系两融业务问题
China to Ban Derivatives Funding for Stock Trades, CSRC Says – Bloomberg Business Brokerages should provide funding to their clients using margin trading tools that comply with the rules, China Securities Regulatory Commission spokesman Zhang Xiaojun said Friday at a briefing. Swaps offered by some brokerages have deviated from their role as a risk management tool, instead becoming a way to offer unofficial margin loans for investors, Zhang said.
China Stock Bulls Hit Breaking Point as State Dials Back Support – Bloomberg Business While the Shanghai Composite Index had barely flinched since Nov. 6 as authorities lifted a freeze on initial public offerings, raised margin requirements and scrapped an order for securities firms to hold net-long positions, news of a widening regulatory probe into the brokerage industry sparked a 5.5 percent tumble on Friday.
Chinese Cash Floods U.S. Housing Market – The New York Times This year, Chinese families represented for the first time the largest group of overseas home buyers in the United States…While Chinese purchases make up a small sliver of overall sales in the United States, they have had a disproportionate impact on the market for more expensive properties, buying one in 14 homes sold for more than $1 million
Chinese Pull Back From U.S. Property Investments – WSJ Capping a five-year real-estate binge, Chinese nationals surpassed Canadian snowbirds as the top foreign buyers of U.S. homes for the year that ended in March..But in recent weeks, some Chinese buyers have started to pull back, scared off by China’s stock-market selloff, slowing economic growth, currency devaluation and tightened restrictions on capital outflows // so is the WSJ or NYT right? I think WSJ has the current/future trends right, NYT nails what has been happening to date
Economic Research | Global Fallout from China’s Industrial Slowdown In this Economic Letter, I show that the strength of China’s service sector is not likely to provide much support for gross exports from the rest of the world over the short term.
Chinese Copper Smelters Said to Weigh Cuts in Output Next Year – Bloomberg Business The smelters, including China’s biggest, Jiangxi Copper Co. and Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co., decided to reduce output after meeting in Shanghai on Saturday, the people said, declining to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The size of any cut hasn’t been determined, the people said.
Wang Jianlin on Why the Wanda Phenomenon Works-Caixin China’s wealthiest person reveals the secrets of real estate success and plans for the future in an exclusive interview
Xi stresses development of Marxist economic philosophy – Xinhua “The mainstay status of the public ownership and the leading role of the state-owned economy must not waver,” he said, adding that these could ensure that people from all ethnic groups share the fruit of development, and they are guarantees for solidifying CPC’s ruling status and adherence to the socialist system. In addition, Xi stressed that the direction for reforming the socialist market economy and the basic state policy of opening up should be adhered. During the group study, members of the political bureau listened to a lecture delivered by Professor Gu Hailiang from a committee of social sciences under the Ministry of Education. // 习近平在中共中央政治局第二十八次集体学习时强调 立足我国国情和我国发展实践 发展当代中国马克思主义政治经济学
Forced to violate Chinese law by the US court, Bank of China Appeals – People’s Daily Online Both the U.S. and the Chinese governments have noticed the conflict of law and regulations in this case. Several bilateral talks have been made. The U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury – all advised on giving full consideration to the provisions of Chinese law.
What are the chances of an actual currency crisis in China? | FT Alphaville More to the point, if China continues to run a current account surplus and foreign currency reserves continue to rise, then both the dynamics that drive devaluation and the rationale for devaluation just don’t exist. The essential fact is: capital flight triggers devaluation because the owners of the capital realize devaluation is inevitable. Right now, most metrics in China point once again in the opposite direction.
POLITICS AND LAW
Memories Of Torture And Hope For Redemption In A Chinese Village-WorldPost “That’s it,” Liu says, pointing across the highway at the foot of the village. “That’s the hotel where they did it.” By “they” he means seven members of the local police force. By “it” he means beat him as he dangled from the ceiling in handcuffs, poured boiling water over him while he squatted in a small metal cage, and hit him over the head with high-heeled boots until his short-term memory evaporated.
Insurance Executive Said to Die in Office Days after Probe Started-Caixin he chief auditor of a state-owned insurance company was found dead in his office five days after he was put under investigation by the Communist Party’s graft-fighting agency, a person with knowledge of the matter says. Ma Lun, the 55-year-old head of the audit department at China Export & Credit Insurance Corp. (Sinosure), died in his office in the capital early on the evening of November 26, said the source, who attended a meeting at the company shortly after the death.
Lawyers’ Account: Court in China Adds Last-Minute Charge in Heavy Sentence Against Rights Leader Guo Feixiong « China Change Li Jinxing (李金星), one of Guo’s two lawyers, posted online that, after the court had completed its questioning, judge Zheng Xin (郑昕) said that it is the opinion of the court that an additional charge should be added to the original “gathering a crowd to disrupt order of a public place”—that is, “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” He demanded that the lawyers immediately provide a defense of this charge.
Statement by Chinese Rights Campaigner Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison – The New York Times Yang Maodong, a Chinese human rights campaigner better known by his pen name, Guo Feixiong, was sentenced on Friday to six years in prison on charges of “assembling a crowd to disrupt public order” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
掀开西方“普世价值”的面纱(人民要论)–观点–人民网 Ministry of Education researcher Wei Xinghua takes to the People’s Daily page 7 theory page to “lift the veil of Western Universal Values”, says pushing them is an important part of the West’s “Peaceful Evolution” strategy…not a comforting essay, seems more appropriate for Red Flag Manuscript, unless of course the ideological dinosaurs are going fully mainstream… // 西方宣扬和推行“普世价值”，是其和平演变策略的重要一环。民主、自由、平等、人权等作为价值观，本是人类社会所共同追求的目标，怎么会成为西方国家用来“重塑”和“演变”非西方价值观国家的工具呢？这就需要进一步弄清楚西方价值观的经济社会制度基础。西方价值观是建立在生产资料资本主义私有制基础上的，认为只有资本主义市场经济才能保证民主、自由、平等、人权等价值观的实现。它把资本主义看作人类社会最美好的制度，把资本主义民主、自由、平等、人权等宣扬为“普世价值”。尽管我国也把民主、自由、平等、公正等作为自己的追求和价值原则
准确把握互联网意识形态话语权争夺的新形势 essay in latest Red Flag Manuscript on correctly grasping the new situation of the contest for ideological discourse power on the internet…remember, the PRC repeatedly has said the Internet is the main ideological battleground; i.e. they seem themselves in an ideological war. Should the West see itself as in the same ideological war with Beijing?
‘Personal Media’ in China Takes a Hit From Pre-Publication Censorship | ChinaFile Why are new media platforms behaving so ruthlessly, even though it harms user experience and is, in fact, not even to their own benefit? The reason is very simple: the government has placed more and more of the responsibility for censorship on the shoulders of media service providers themselves. On November 30, the Supreme Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly released revisions to the applicable penal code, adding twenty new offences, of which three have to do with Internet speech: refusing to carry out duties related to the safety of online information, illegal usage of the Internet, and aiding or abetting illegal online activities.
Pulitzer’s ‘Lookout on the Bridge’ vs. China’s ‘News Ethics Committees’ | ChinaFile now Xi Jinping is pushing, more aggressively than any of his predecessors in the reform era, to re-establish the old relationship of trust — which is to say, the Party’s dominance over the profession of journalism. His answer is a campaign of moral self-discipline and fear, achieved through new mechanisms and institutions. The recent adaptation of Pulitzer’s famous phrase accompanied a news report back in September announcing the nationwide establishment of “news ethics committees,” or xinwen daode weiyuanhui
纪念邓力群同志诞辰100周年座谈会举行 刘云山出席-新华网 Liu Yunshan chairs commemoration of 100 birthday of leftist Deng Liqun, hear quite the party
在纪念邓力群同志诞辰100周年座谈会上的讲话–时政–人民网 Liu Qibao’s speech about Deng Liqun
央视《新闻联播》将改版 减会议增批评内容_娱乐-多维新闻网 Makeover coming for CCTV Evening News
Why did Qin Hui’s (秦晖) new book “Leaving the Imperial System Behind” disappear from the shelves? Answers can be found in Liu Yu’s (刘瑜) book review « History, Ethics and Faith in China don’t challenge the correct view of history…
关于《中共中央关于制定国民经济和社会发展第十三个五年规划的建议》的说明 Xi Jinping’s “explanation” of proposed 13th Five Year Plan published in latest issue of Qiushi // 受中央政治局委托，现在，我就《中共中央关于制定国民经济和社会发展第十三个五年规划的建议》起草的有关情况向全会作说明
全国政协原副主席苏荣女婿被查 系张家界副市长新闻腾讯网 Su Rong’s son-in-law under investigation, vice-mayor of Zhangjiajie
王岐山选中的新人上任后密集出手 现反腐新变化-搜狐新闻 胡正明是新版党纪处分条例后违反巡视工作纪律的首个公开“样板”。以往，巡视组巡视发现的各单位问题，一般都在反馈情况后再陆续公布。而此次中央第十一巡视组刚进驻出口信保公司不久，不仅边巡视边通报问题，还通报了直接跟巡视工作有关的问题，这种“反常”的工作模式，无疑在释放着新的信号。 同样的情形还出现在银监会
China’s annual national civil servant exam starts on Sunday – Xinhua The written test of China’s annual national civil servant exam took place on Sunday. More than 1.39 million applicants signed up for the exam this year, a slight drop of one percent year on year while the country plans to recruit 27,000 civil servants for national-level government organs, a 25-percent increase from the previous year
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
China to Build Up Military Presence in Djibouti – The New York Times Announcing that China was in talks to build what it called a “logistical facility” in Djibouti, the Foreign Ministry said that the installation would serve to resupply Chinese Navy ships that had been participating in United Nations antipiracy missions in the Gulf of Aden since 2008. The ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, appeared to go out of his way not to refer to the facility as a military base. He did not say when construction would begin or when it would be completed
INTERVIEW/ John McCain: Not satisfied with U.S. freedom of navigation operations in South China Sea – AJW by The Asahi Shimbun “I am very disappointed in the way the whole thing has been handled,” McCain, R-Ariz., said in a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun. He explained, “We elevated this issue to some kind of a climactic event, when it should have just been a normal event.”
The U.S. Should Hold Its Fire Over China’s Boycott of UNCLOS Arbitration – Lawfare – Julian Ku the U.S. should be circumspect in its criticism of China’s reaction to the Tribunal. China is indeed disrespecting its obligations under UNCLOS to settle its disputes through arbitration. But that is far from the worst or most dangerous act China has done in the South China Sea. The U.S. should focus its criticism and response on island building rather than arbitral procedures. Otherwise the U.S., and the Philippines, might end up with a worse result than had the arbitration never been brought.
The Riddle of the Bangkok Bombings | Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Thai authorities have resisted suggestions of any connection to international terrorism. Their reluctance may be partly from fear of hurting tourism and partly to avoid greater international scrutiny of the tightening relationship with China since the Thai coup.
Chinese company postpones canal project in Nicaragua-AP China’s HKND Co. got approval for environmental studies of the canal earlier this month. But on Wednesday, a company statement said that “the construction of locks and the big excavations will start toward the end of 2016.” The company gave no reason for the delay, but said that “the canal’s design is currently being fine-tuned.”
Assuring Assured Retaliation: China’s Nuclear Posture and U.S.-China Strategic Stability – Harvard – Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Many analysts worry that recent advances in U.S. military capabilities could cause China to abandon its nuclear strategy of assured retaliation and its no-first-use doctrine. The writings and statements of Chinese nuclear experts, however, suggest that such fears are misplaced.
On China’s fringes, cyber spies raise their game | Reuters U.S.-based Internet security company FireEye said the attacks via Dropbox were aimed at “precisely those whose networks Beijing would seek to monitor”, and could provide China with advance warning of protests and information on pro-democracy leaders. The company said half its customers in Hong Kong and Taiwan were attacked by government and professional hackers in the first half of this year – two and a half times the global average.
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
How the Occupy protests shaped the District Council elections | Hong Kong Free Press Yes, the District Council election was a referendum on last year’s pro-democracy Occupy protests, because pro-Beijing partisans did everything they possibly could to make it so. The November 22 Election Day special issue of Ta Kung Pao led off with a banner headline: “Use Your Vote: Send the Trouble-Makers Packing.” Loyalists were finally acknowledging what they’ve been doing unannounced all along. The lowly District Councils are not just about providing social services for neighborhoods in need. The councils have been transformed into the base of Hong Kong’s political power grid and they are now weighted heavily in Beijing’s favor.
Macau Gambling Industry Faces Challenges on Multiple Fronts – The New York Times after peaking early last year at almost $5 billion, monthly casino revenue has fallen by roughly half, to levels last seen five years ago. China’s bruising crackdown on official corruption has scared away big gamblers of all stripes, but other factors, including the adverse effect of local government policy, have weighed on the bottom line, too.
MEDIA WATCH: DMG Bid to Buy Taiwan’s Top TV Network Has PLA Twist | Thinking Taiwan But there’s more to DMG: It has China ties. The chairman of the mother company, Beijing-based DMG Media (also known as Yinji Entertainment and Media, or DMG Yinji for short), is one Xiao Wenge, a.k.a. Peter Xiao (肖文閣). The 48-year-old Xiao is the 105th richest man in China, with an estimated net worth of US$2.9 billion. More worrying still is the fact that Xiao also has ties to the People’s Liberation Army — his father, Xiao Jinguang (肖勁光, a.k.a. Xiao Yucheng [蕭玉成] a.k.a. Man Ge [滿哥]), was one of the ten senior commanders of the PLA; he was Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1954 to 1982 and Vice Chairman of the Fifth National People’s Congress Standing Committee from 1979-1983.
TECH AND MEDIA
Chinese Film Crew Survives ISIS, Doesn’t Survive Chinese Censors [UPDATE] | Beijing Cream A reality show about a pair of millionaire tourists has been nixed from China’s Internet, after an episode depicting encounters with Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in Syria was broadcast on the mainland. Married couple Zhang Xinyu, 38, and Liang Hong, 36, made their name crisscrossing the globe for travel show On the Road
Film director’s drug comments land him in controversy|- China Daily Chinese film director Zhang Yimou is in more hot water after his comments on celebrities using drugs backfired, landing him in further controversy after he was bombarded by Internet users for breaking the one-child family planning policy and fined 7.48 million yuan last year for having three children… Zhang said the atmosphere in the entertainment circle is unhealthy and he firmly supports police cracking down on drug use.
Sequoia Capital chairman Michael Moritz: ‘People underestimate China, especially in Europe’ – Business Insider “People underestimate China, especially in Europe,” said the Oxford graduate who now lives in San Francisco. “They have very little sense of the size, strength, and scale of ambition of the leading Chinese technology companies. “It takes a long time for perception to catch up with reality so most people’s perception of China is 20 years behind the times.”
Xiaomi’s $45 Billion Valuation Seen `Unfeasible’ as Growth Cools – Bloomberg Business Now the high-flying smartphone maker is stumbling. Founder Lei Jun’s latest business, one of China’s most exciting startup stories of the past few years, is likely to miss its own goal of selling 80 million smartphones this year, according to two people with knowledge of its production plans. Suppliers also cut their internal targets for Xiaomi in anticipation of the shortfall, they said.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Tibetans Fight to Salvage Fading Culture in China – The New York Times China has sharply scaled back, and restricted, the teaching of languages spoken by ethnic minorities in its vast western regions in recent years, promoting instruction in Chinese instead as part of a broad push to encourage the assimilation of Tibetans, Uighurs and other ethnic minorities into the dominant ethnic Han culture. // Remarkable video. When in Lhasa in July we drove past the very impressive, new “Education City” on the outskirts of town, where many middle/high school students from around Tibet will be housed, or at least the ones who don’t test into high schools in the rest of China
Q. and A.: Jindong Cai on ‘Beethoven in China’ – The New York Times Jindong Cai, 59, is an orchestra conductor and a professor at Stanford University. He has conducted many orchestras in China and has been a guest conductor at numerous orchestras in the United States since moving there in 1985. With his wife, the writer Sheila Melvin, he has written numerous articles on China and two books on music in China: “Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese” and their latest, “Beethoven in China: How the Great Composer Became an Icon in the People’s Republic.”
Beijing shuts down art exhibition on violence against women | World news | The Guardian The exposition, timed to coincide with the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, was to open at Beijing’s Jinge Art Gallery on Wednesday. But when artists arrived hours before its planned opening, they found doors bolted shut.
In China, 1980 marked a generational turning point | Pew Research Center Younger people in China, though still patriotic, view the U.S. more favorably than their elders, according to our spring survey this year. A majority (56%) of Chinese ages 18 to 34 give the U.S. a positive rating, while just 37% of older Chinese (ages 35 and older) view the U.S. favorably.
56th Annual Edward H. Hume Memorial Lecture: “Returning to the High Tang” – YouTube The “High Tang” is seen as the apex of classical Chinese poetry. But to understand an era, we need to free it from the aging weight of its reputation. Professor Stephen Owen shows that the received understanding of the High Tang (indeed the very term) was entirely the creation of the early thirteenth century, half a millennium after the fact.
Christie’s Hong Kong Art Auction Feels China’s Economic Chill – Bloomberg Business The London-based auction house sold HK$507.9 million ($65.5 million) worth of art at its Asian 20th Century and Contemporary auction, compared with HK$636 million at a similar event a year ago, and HK$935 million in November 2013. Saturday’s sale is the marquee event of Christie’s six-day Hong Kong autumn auction marathon.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
World’s Biggest Animal Cloning Center Set for ’16 in a Skeptical China – The New York Times The center, being built by Boyalife Group, a Chinese biotechnology company, and Sooam Biotech, a South Korean company that specializes in animal cloning, will eventually churn out up to a million beef cattle embryos a year, as well as sniffer dogs, racehorses and other animals, its backers say // what could go wrong…
Beijing aims to refill medicine chest with ‘Made in China’ drugs | Reuters Given the 10 years or more it typically takes to bring a new medicine to market, original “Made in China” treatments won’t arrive overnight, but multinationals are already encountering more competition from local generic drugs that look set for a quantum leap in quality.
AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ISSUES
Country’s Rural Areas Face Shortage of Preschools, Ministry Says-Caixin Children in China’s rural regions face a shortage of preschools and only half of youngsters in some poor areas can attend kindergarten, a report released on November 24 by the Ministry of Education says. Some 70.5 percent of the country’s children attended kindergartens in 2014, up from about 51 percent five years ago when the central government introduced a 10-year plan for providing better schooling, the report said.
Dim Sums: Rural China Economics and Policy: Chinese Crops From Russia–Volume Grows As Chinese enterprises growing crops in Russia bring commodities back into the country at an accelerated pace, inspection and quarantine capacity is being upgraded to handle the increased flow of oilseeds and grain. The trade is still relatively small but it provides a window on how China is gradually ramping up its “going out” strategy to grow crops abroad.
Gov’t Announces Plan to Clean Up Rural Areas by 2020-Caixin China has announced a five-year target to clean up the garbage and agricultural and industrial waste in its rural areas because of the mounting environmental and health hazards they pose, an official from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development says.
Dim Sums: Rural China Economics and Policy: Storing Grain in Land and Technology: China’s Latest Strategy China has announced a new strategy for food security that emphasizes potential production instead of actual production. The new strategy for the 13th five-year plan has a slogan that translates roughly as “land as a storehouse, technology as a storehouse.” The strategy calls for idling stressed land to restore its fertility and for relying on technology to produce more from the land. The strategy was announced in a document entitled “Xi Jinping’s Fourteen Strategies for the 13th Five-year Plan.”
EDUCATION
Progress at Universities Requires Outside Help, College President Says-Caixin Liu Jingnan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Duke Kunshan University (DKU) in the eastern province of Jiangsu, said professors, rather than government officials, should have a major say in how universities are run.
不断提高孔子学院发展水平（专题深思）|_凤凰资讯-2015年11月26日 03:18 来源：人民日报 因此，应出台相关政策，在制度设计上强化合作院校的责任。合作院校应从长远考虑，选拔推荐热爱孔子学院事业、具有国际视野、通晓国际规则的专家学者出任院长。 (作者为中国传媒大学副教授）
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