"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. C.Y. Leung issues strongest warning yet to Occupy Central protesters | South China Morning Post Leung yesterday cited a Chinese saying, “if this can be tolerated, what cannot?”, adding that because police had not yet taken action to clear some areas, it was not because they were incapable or a sign of weakness. The administration issued a statement condemning “violent radicals” who repeatedly stormed government headquarters and charged police lines.
Related: New US plea to China for restraint in HK | Business Spectator The US has issued a fresh appeal to Beijing to exercise restraint in Hong Kong, adding it was concerned that British MPs had been barred from visiting the territory. “We encourage differences between Hong Kong authorities and protesters to be addressed peacefully through dialogue,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
Related: Hong Kong protesters on hunger strike after violent clashes – Channel NewsAsia Joshua Wong, the teenage face of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, and two other student demonstrators went on hunger strike on Monday (Dec 1), raising the stakes after one of the worst nights of violence to hit the demonstrations. Wong, 18, and two young female members of his Scholarism student group announced the “indefinite” hunger strike hours after Hong Kong’s leader warned that the two-month-old protests are “in vain”.
Related: Hong Kong protests have produced no real winners | The Guardian Michael Davis at Hong Kong University said the attempt to escalate the protests on Sunday night – student leaders called for the occupation of government buildings, unsuccessfully – might reflect the pressure from more radical elements not to simply withdraw. “Protest leaders have wanted to diversify their strategy, but there are a lot of people that do not,” he said. Politicians and sympathetic intellectuals have also suggested it is time to withdraw and try alternatives such as boycotts and marches as events call for them.
2. Gregarious and Direct: China’s Web Doorkeeper – NYTimes.com On “Internet Czar” Lu Wei. His deputy Ren Xianliang also worth paying attention to // Such measures drew the attention of the Chinese president, analysts say, who rewarded him with the job of director of the new Central Internet Security and Informatization Leading Group, a group headed by the president and charged with strengthening Internet controls, enhancing protection against foreign cyberattacks and developing new technologies. The group is expected to produce a policy document, the analysts said, that will seek to strike a balance between what the government views as a need to further censor domestic social media and block foreign sites, while allowing enough openness for the economy to grow.
3. Q. and A.: James Leibold on Ethnic Policies in China – NYTimes.com James Leibold is a senior lecturer in politics and Asian studies at La Trobe University in Australia, and is currently based in Beijing…In an interview, Mr. Leibold discussed the origin of the Chinese government’s ethnic policies, its efforts to control the borderlands where most ethnic minorities live and its demands that Muslim women remove their veils.
4. China to send artists to live in grassroots communities – Xinhua The State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television will organize film and TV series production staff on a quarterly basis to go to grassroots communities, villages and mining sites to do field study and experience life, it said in a statement. The administration will also send scriptwriters, directors and major casting staff for five films and TV programs on a given theme to live among the masses each year. In addition, it will choose 100 broadcasters, anchors and directors each year from central and local art programs to work in ethnic minority and border areas, and areas that made major contributions to the country’s victory in the revolutionary war. // 广电总局：推动文艺工作者下基层体验生活
Related: What is SARFT afraid of: A Chronicle of China’s Broadcasting Restrictions | Huxiu We have compiled a chronicle of China’s broadcasting restrictions, rules and guidelines over the past fourteen years. While this timeline is not complete, China’s broadcasting regulators, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (formerly known as SARFT), seem to be rather uptight
5. 经济参考网 – 农村集体产权改革系列意见将出 核心是赋予农民占有收益抵押担保等六项权能 Economic Information says series of opinions on reforms to rural collective property rights to be released imminently // 我国农村集体资产产权改革试点工作即将全面展开。《经济参考报》
6. 国企改革顶层设计接近完成宏观中证网 China Securities Journal says “top-level design” plan for SOE reform should be released Q1 2015 // 权威人士1日向中国证券报记者透露，
7. 牛市真的来了？一大波股民正在涌入股市股票频道一财网
8. Rhodium Group » The New Complexity of Chinese Outbound Investment The growth of China’s outbound FDI in recent years is a secular trend that presents huge opportunities for host economies, and the recent relaxation of administrative controls will help sustain an elevated level of overseas investments in coming years. However, as we show in this note, the story of Chinese outbound FDU is a lot more complex than the most commonly used official dataset suggests. MOFCOM data offers a good perspective on recorded gross outflows, but it is missing important trends such as the stagnant or even declining level of net outbound FDI, the changing industry composition of Chinese investment, the growth of fundraising activities by Chinese overseas subsidiaries (and related liabilities), and the implications for a more liberal OFDI policy regime for the effectiveness of China’s system of capital controls. An approach that carefully considers both official data and available proxies is necessary to properly capture and assess the implications for business strategy and policy planning resulting from China’s growing global investment footprint.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
证监会李量被查 长期负责创业板发行金融频道财新网 Li Liang, head of China’s Securities & Regulatory Commission’s investor protection bureau is under investigation. He was long in charge of listings on Shenzhen growth board-Caixin, has an MA from Columbia // 2009年，创业板开市之初，
Senior Chinese securities regulatory official under probe – Xinhua Li Liang, a senior official with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is being investigated for alleged violations of laws and disciplines, according to the top anti-graft body. Li is the head of the CSRC investor protection bureau, and the investigation is in line with a decision made by the CSRC branch of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said a statement published Monday on the website of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
PBOC Shuns Currency War as Yuan Fixings Raised: Chart of the Day – Bloomberg “It’s clear from the fixing pattern that China has no intention to join any currency war,” said Tommy Ong, executive director of treasury and markets at DBS Bank Hong Kong Ltd. “A stable or stronger currency makes sense for the nation as it’s transforming away from an exports-dependent one to a more domestic consumption-driven economy.”
China Winning in OPEC Price War as Hoarding Accelerates – Bloomberg The nation’s efforts to boost reserves may increase its imports by as much as 700,000 barrels a day in 2015, according to London-based Energy Aspects Ltd. That’s more than half the global glut forecast by Citigroup Inc. after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries refrained from cutting output at its meeting last week. Brent crude has slumped 41 percent from its peak in June.
Economists React: China’s Manufacturing Sector on the Slide – China Real Time Report – WSJ Faced with growing worries about a slowdown, China’s central bank last month cut benchmark interest rates by 0.25 percentage points. Many analysts expect more loosening measures to come, but they are divided on whether that will be enough to perk up the economy.
US retailers target Alibaba over sales tax ‘loophole’ – FT.com Alibaba is taking on Amazon’s habitual role as public enemy number one for traditional US retailers, as the Chinese ecommerce group is dragged into a political fight in Washington over its global ambitions. Bricks-and-mortar retailers, which spent years attacking Amazon for profiting from what they call a sales tax loophole, have turned their fire on Alibaba by warning that the Chinese group will be its next beneficiary.
Foreigners Turn Net Sellers of China Shares Through Link – Bloomberg “I’d call it short-term profit-taking,” said Nader Naeimi, who helps manage about $125 billion as the head of dynamic asset allocation at AMP Capital Investors Ltd. in Sydney. “The tail risk for China has been significantly reduced with the PBOC’s action. I doubt selling of Shanghai shares by foreign investors will continue. Overall we’re more bullish on China than Hong Kong.”
Fosun Raises Club Med Bid Hours Before Deadline Expires – Bloomberg The Chinese bidder had until the end of yesterday to sweeten its proposal, after Global Resorts lifted its bid on Nov. 12 to take the lead in a takeover battle that’s dragged out for months. Fosun had sought to strengthen its case with a pledge to expand Club Med’s reach into China, where travel demand is growing among an increasingly mobile population that counts France among its most popular destinations.
China to Monitor Foreign Company Profits to Prevent Tax Evasion – Bloomberg China will seek to have a “full grasp” of the profit levels of foreign companies to stop them from moving their profits out and eroding the tax base, according to a statement posted on the State Administration of Taxation website today, citing its deputy head Zhang Zhiyong. Authorities will also tighten management of tax practices by Chinese companies abroad, Zhang said. // 加强全球税收合作 打击国际逃避税——国家税务总局副局长张志勇答记者问
China plans to bid again for Mexico high-speed rail project | Reuters “Whether we will continue to bid with CRCC, that’s a definite yes,” said the official from CSR’s publicity department, who only wanted to be identified by his surname Xu, on Friday. A separate source close to the Chinese bid said CRCC was definitely going to tender again. Xu declined to say whether the Mexican partners would remain in the consortium, but said “small adjustments made to consortiums are very normal”.
Hong Kong Gold Sales Fall as China Tackles Corruption – WSJ Gifts of solid gold bars, jewelry and even images of ancient Chinese figures are common enough among members of wealthy families and Chinese businessmen looking to sweeten deals. But a crackdown on these golden gifts that began early this year and intensified in early summer—part of a broader effort to eliminate corruption on the mainland—has vaporized demand, analysts say.
China’s Challenge on Deposit Insurance: Create Risk but Not Panic – – WSJ Bank defaults have been rare during the Communist Party’s six and a half decades in power. China has bailed out a handful of failed financial institutions, including Hainan Development Bank in the late 1990s. One factor in the timing of the new system, analysts said, is the expected startup of five private banks on a pilot basis. Without deposit insurance, Chinese depositors would have a limited incentive to try new entrants out, potentially dooming this reform effort before it started.
POLITICS AND LAW
Head of Guangdong Political Advisory Body Comes under Investigation – Caixin The Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) said in a November 28 statement that Zhu Mingguo, the chairman of Guangdong’s people’s political consultative conference, is being probed for suspected “serious violations of discipline and law.”..Zhu, 57, is a native of the southern island province Hainan. He started his career as a primary school teacher in a Guangdong county. He later served in government positions in Hainan and in the southwestern city of Chongqing. From 1998 to 2001, Zhu was the vice governor of Hainan and head of the province’s political and legal affairs committee. He was the public security chief of Chongqing and a member of the party’s standing committee in the city between 2001 and 2006
Legal Experts Criticize Fujian Police for Reopening Murder Case – Caixin Legal experts have criticized a police decision to reopen a 2006 case involving a shop owner who was declared innocent of murder by a province’s high court after spending six years on death row. Police in Pingtan County, an island area in the eastern province of Fujian, confirmed on November 25 that they reopened the case after discovering new evidence against Nian. They did not say what that evidence is.
党报批部分女干部佯装下基层:踩高跟鞋穿紧身裙_网易新闻中心
劲风吹出晴朗天–时政–人民网 People’s Daily says there are now 16 pilot “News Morality Committees” set up in China, and they represent a “strong wind that will blow out sunny days”…
用道德驱散“新闻雾霾”（人民论坛）–观点–人民网 Peo
Chinese Authorities Hold HIV Activist Ahead of World AIDS Day-RFA Authorities in the central Chinese province of Henan on Monday clamped down on public activities by AIDS activists in the provincial capital Zhengzhou to mark World AIDS Day, holding a key participant under house arrest. Wang Qiuyun, an activist based in Henan’s Chibi city, said she had been unable to attend the event highlighting rampant discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS. “I am at home under surveillance, because I had planned to go to this activity in Zhengzhou, but I can’t now,” Wang told RFA from her home.
外逃贪官究竟一共带走中国多少资产？_央广网 《中国经济周刊》
dpa news – Corrupt former Chinese officials hiding out in Western countries A former vice minister tasked with steering China’s economy was reportedly holding a fake Australian passport, an airline ticket to Sydney and about 2 million dollars in cash when he was arrested last year. Prosecutors have accused Liu Tienan of accepting 35.6 million yuan (5.8 million dollars) in bribes and kickbacks from numerous Chinese companies, and are seeking life imprisonment for Liu.
China investigates senior Xinjiang security official for graft | Reuters Li Yanming had been Communist Party chief of the Xinjiang Police College, which trains public security officials, and a member of the region’s Public Security Department until the party opened the investigation in May. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate said in a statement on its website Li had been put under “compulsory measures”, which normally means detention, while it prepares its case against him.
西藏:严明纪律要求 狠刹公款送礼歪风——要闻——中央纪委监察部网站 近日，
Matthew Ng transferred from China to Australia to serve out sentence-The Age Matthew Ng, the high-profile Australian entrepreneur whose controversial incarceration in China strained diplomatic ties, has won the right to serve out his sentence at home, in the first prisoner transfer of its kind between the two countries. Ng, 48, was the high-flying founder of a listed travel business before he was arrested in November 2010. Charged with bribery, embezzlement and related corporate charges, he was sentenced to 11½ years in April 2012 by a Guangdong court, in a case which offered a sobering insight into the influence of powerful state-owned enterprises and the murkier aspects of China’s judicial system.
Government underscores importance of website usability – Xinhua The State Council, China’s cabinet, orders all government departments to make their websites more interactive and efficient. In a document published Monday, the State Council underlined the need for official websites to be streamlined and made user friendly. Government agencies were urged to speed up response time to opinions, complaints and proposals submitted by the public, and to do so within seven to 15 days, depending on the weight of the complaint.
炎黄春秋遭围攻 前总编吴思辟谣股份制_中国-多维新闻网 a real mess at Yanhuang Chunqiu…can’t imagine the authorities are upset with this… // 作为中国大陆知名自由派政论杂志，《炎黄春秋》
打老虎利器：不动产登记条例按期出台，明年三月施行_地产界_
China to audit massive lottery funds to curb misuse – China Daily Chinese auditors are investigating how lottery funds were being managed in 18 provinces, after lottery buyers questioned the credibility of lottery results. The authorities will look into the management and use of 860 billion yuan ($141 billion) from lottery sales.
检方跟踪“小官巨贪”儿子发现亿元“藏金洞”新闻腾讯网
【学习小组】习近平对“村官”的六点看法_网易新闻中心
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
Spotlight: Wilson’s resignation fails to quell protestors, overseas criticism pouring in – SINA English The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Friday the ongoing mass protests against racial discrimination exposed severe human rights abuse in the United States. “This is a clear proof of the real picture of the United States as tundra of human rights where extreme racial discrimination acts are openly practised,” a DPRK foreign ministry spokesman was quoted by the country’s official KCNA news agency as saying.
不断开创外交理论和实践创新的新境界–观点–人民网 sec
徐娟 金瑞：当前国际形势演变的十个特点–理论-人民网
中将:朝鲜若崩溃中国救不了 中国人不必为朝打仗 军事环球网 原题：中国不存在“放弃朝鲜”的问题 作者：南京军区原副司令员 王洪光
Textbook issued to help students better understand Nanjing massacre – Xinhua The Nanjing Massacre survivors receive textbooks about the massacre published for students in senior high school in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, Dec. 1, 2014. The textbook named “Warning and Thinking” is officially issued here on Monday. Besides it, the primary school edition, called “Memory of Blood and Fire, and the junior middle school edition, “Historical Truth,” were also published. In February of this year, China’s top legislature designated Dec. 13 as the National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims to mourn the Nanjing Massacre victims and all of those killed by Japanese invaders.
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
Diplomatic clash as China bans senior British MPs from Hong Kong – The Independent China has banned a senior parliamentary committee of MPs from entering Hong Kong in a move that will escalate diplomatic tensions between the two countries. The unprecedented move to bar members of the Foreign Affairs Committee from Britain’s former colony was communicated to the chair of the committee, Sir Richard Ottaway, by China’s deputy ambassador.
China slams British lawmakers’ attempt to visit Hong Kong – Xinhua “The Chinese central government and the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region have told Britain several times that they resolutely opposed the so-called delegation of the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee going to Hong Kong for a so-called investigation and asked for the visit to be canceled,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying at a press briefing.
Macau’s junket model breaks down as gamblers walk away Lu’s creditors said his wealth and influence made it especially difficult to collect, and local media reported in October that two of his creditors were detained by Chinese authorities for reasons unclear. “Currently it is hard enough to collect debt from low-ranking state executives let alone for the higher ranked ones. How do you pressure them? You can’t. You have to write it off,” said Peter Wong, director at Total Credit and Risk Management Group, which helps companies recoup debt.
An Analysis of Taiwan’s Nine-in-One Local Elections | Center for Strategic and International Studies Although Western media often emphasize the ‘China factor’ when covering Taiwan’s local elections, these races focused primarily on domestic issues. The Taiwan public is concerned with skyrocketing property prices, falling incomes, a growing gap between rich and poor, and food safety. Many young people are worried about job prospects. Many residents on the island have been dissatisfied with KMT governance and this was reflected in the voting island-wide. Cross-Strait issues were likely less important, but may have influenced some voters.
Minitrue: Taiwan Elections – China Digital Times (CDT) Do not hype Taiwan’s “nine-in-one” election. Take note to contain [online] commentary, uniformly delete all content attacking the political system of the mainland, and immediately close the accounts of serious violators.
TECH AND MEDIA
Chinese cheap property portal Uoko secures $22M investment-TechInAsia
Pony Ma’s Genesis project in impoverished Guizhou village｜WantChinaTimes While Alibaba founder Jack Ma was storming Wall Street with an unprecedented IPO punt, his competitor Tencent’s Pony Ma Huateng was doing something quite different. Ma is president of the world’s fourth largest internet firm. His team is currently persuading residents of the impoverished village of Tongguan in southwestern China’s Guizhou province to use Tencent’s social media app WeChat to communicate with the outside world and sell local specialties ranging from mountain tea to organic rice through the internet.
Wanda Holds Talks to Buy Lions Gate, MGM in Hollywood Push – Bloomberg The Beijing-based company is interested in buying control of Lions Gate, the $4.7 billion studio behind “The Hunger Games” films, although its owners have only been willing to sell a minority stake, Wang said in an interview. Talks are at an early stage and may not lead to a deal, he said. Wanda has also held discussions about investing in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., the independent producer of James Bond films, Wang said.
Trailer for Tsui Hark’s The Taking of Tiger Mountain A spy war 3D film shot in mainland China from Hong Kong director Tsui Hark, coming out a year only after the release of his previous (marvelous) work, Young Detective Dee. The Taking of Tiger Mountain is a long-time project of Tsui Hark, who saw the initial Beijing opera version during the 1970s, and was inspired by this battle-of-wits type of story but couldn’t make the film adaptation due to some rights issues
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
These Photos Capture A Dwindling Chinese Village With Only One Baby-HuffingtonPost Tucked away high in the mountains of northwestern China is Da Ping, a village of about 20 residents, many of them elderly. There used to be more people here, but the children of the current residents moved away to find work in the city, and their grandchildren have left to attend school. Da Ping’s only school closed 20 years ago because there weren’t enough students, the village chief told The WorldPost. There is only one child in the village — a baby boy, just 7 months old.
Legendary Go grandmaster Wu Qingyuan dies at 100 | South China Morning Post Wu Qingyuan, the Chinese-Japanese Go grandmaster, died on Sunday at a hospital in Odawara, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. He was 100 years old. Wu, known in Japan as Go Seigen, was widely considered the greatest Go player of the 20th century for his domination of the professional game for more than 25 years.
Teachers’ Strikes Spread Across Northeast China – NYTimes.com The strikes began last week and now encompass a half-dozen cities or counties surrounding the city of Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, an area of the country where economic growth has long been relatively slow. Classes in some primary and high schools have been suspended, the reports said.
康有为私人手札在沪披露，曾在美国密谋刺杀孙中山_艺术观_
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
China and Renewables Development Goals | The Energy Collective China could quadruple its share of modern renewable energy by 2030 with the right policies in place, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the China National Renewable Energy Centre. Under a business-as-usual approach given current policies, IRENA estimates that modern renewables could make up 16 percent of the energy mix by 2030. China has a goal of 15 percent of energy from non-fossil sources by 2020. The assessment defines modern renewables as wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and new biomass, but does not include traditional biomass sources, such as wood.
Chinese Increasingly Concerned About Water, Xylem Survey Shows – Bloomberg The value of water index released today sampled 2,360 urban Chinese on line in large and mid-size cities and 159 water-industry “influencers in China,” the Rye Brook, New York-based water technology company said. It found 96 percent of those responding felt water issues in China were “serious.” About 99 percent believed it important to take urgent action to help solve the increasingly urbanized country’s water crisis with almost nine of 10 surveyed saying more money should be invested to boost access to safer waters.
China tobacco monopoly pushes back on smoking curbs | Reuters The chief of China’s powerful tobacco monopoly on Monday pushed back against government efforts to curb smoking, a habit the World Health Organization says accounts for as many as a million deaths a year. In an interview with the Study Times, controlled by the ruling Communist Party, Ling Chengxing, director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, said controls on tobacco should not take an “absolutist” or “expansionist” direction.
经济参考网 – 环保腐败窝案频发 多地环保部门上演“猫鼠一家亲” Xinhua’s Economic Information on spate of corruption cases among local environmental protection bureaucracies…clearly this is a bureaucracy that needs to have power and authority centralized in Beijing, which seems to be the plan // 近日，江苏省句容市、
Expansion of pollution monitoring on the way – China Daily “The focus of reform in ecological and environmental systems will be to build and improve a stringent pollution prevention and control mechanism, environmental evaluation process, administration system and early warning system,” said Zhou Shengxian, minister of environmental protection, on Monday afternoon in Beijing. Through reform and innovation, governments will have access to the whole picture of pollution through a unified monitoring platform covering pollution in the air, soil, rivers and oceans, regardless of its source, he said.
无锡医生术前微博紧急求助，广州航班临时执飞上演千里送器官
FOOD AND TRAVEL
China Railway Changes Reservation Policy – What’s on Weibo Starting from December 1, 2014, the pre-sale period for train tickets will gradually be extended to 60 days prior to departure (previously, this was 20 days prior). Notice for foreigners: passports are required when buying tickets at the ticket counter.
连云港查获300吨“疯牛肉”已行销数省新浪大连新浪网 L