"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. National Constitution Day to shore up awareness – Xinhua Constitution Day the top of official Chinese media today // Ahead of Thursday’s inaugural Constitution Day, Chinese President Xi Jinxing has called for more awareness of the Constitution, and better understanding of the role of law. The Constitution is the fundamental law of the land and provides the general principles to be followed in the governance of the country, Xi said. Xi was speaking ahead of the country’s first national Constitution Day on Dec. 4. The idea was put forward at a Communist Party of China (CPC)meeting in October on the rule of law.
Related: 习近平：切实增强宪法意识 推动全面贯彻实施宪法-新华网
Related: 国家宪法日，请一起读《宪法》_评论_
2. Obama says China’s Xi has consolidated power quickly, worrying neighbors | Reuters Obama, who met Xi last month in Beijing, told the Business Roundtable group of top U.S. chief executives that the Chinese leader had won respect in the short time since he had taken over. “He has consolidated power faster and more comprehensively than probably anybody since Deng Xiaoping,” Obama said, referring to the man who led China from 1978 to 1992. “And everybody’s been impressed by his … clout inside of China after only a year and a half or two years.” // so this must be the consensus view of US intelligence, wonder if that view also believes he fully controls the PLA now, probably does, otherwise unlikely president Obama would make such a statement about Xi’s power?
Related: Barack Obama ‘Would Not Want Your Kids Growing Up in Beijing’ | the Beijinger so all US government employees living in Beijing with children should expect a bump in hardship pay, right? // “I would just point to one simple example, and that is you would not want your kids growing up in Beijing right now, because they could not breathe,” Obama said Wednesday in remarks relating to new environmental protection regulations in the US.
3. Can China Conquer the Internet? | ChinaFile Conversation Prediction is a treacherous business. I’ll slip that noose and focus on one sure thing—namely, that the recent bluster over internet sovereignty we’ve heard from the Chinese Communist Party reflects the deepest of convictions, anchored by the profoundest of fears: If China cannot reshape the internet, the internet will reshape China. The CCP has always drawn a close link between the control of information and the maintenance of social and political stability (preservation, in other words, of its own rule). The “politicians must run the newspapers,” said Mao (zhèngzhì jiā bàn bào / 政治家办报 ). Loss of the narrative ahead of the brutal crackdown of June 4th, 1989, defined a whole new generation of press controls under the notion of “public opinion guidance” (yúlùn dǎoxiàng / 舆论导向). The possibility of a truly global internet—and especially of dispersed, real-time multimedia content shared across social media with global scale—is a terrifying picture for the ruling Party.
Related: Mutual governance of cyberspace called for-China daily The 7th China US Internet Industry Forum on Dec 2-3 drew some 150 participants, including Lu Wei, minister of the State Internet Information Office, which manages Internet information in China, and Catherine Novelli, the US under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment. In his keynote speech, Lu made several suggestions, including that China and the US should appreciate each other instead of engaging in mutual denial.
Related: 国信办主任：中国互联网是开放的_
4. The Death of the “Liberal Myth” in U.S. China Policy « New Paradigms Forum Dr. Christopher Ford presently serves as Republican Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.// There may not yet be a new consensus on precisely how to relate to China, but there seems today to be a widespread feeling in U.S. policy circles that the previous approach is obsolete. From the perspective of U.S. national interests and grand strategy, “engagement” has not produced the benefits we were all told that it would. Rather than improving its behavior and becoming a prosperous and increasingly democratic, rights-observing country, the PRC seems increasingly to have simply been becoming an ever-richer, more powerful, and better-armed crony-capitalist and domestically repressive revanchiste regional bully. The “liberal myth” is thus in tatters, and our China policy community is starting to recognize that the rest of the Asia-Pacific now has a real problem on its hands…I’m not sure I can tell you who is “winning” Asia, and at this point perhaps no one can. It’s possible, however, that Beijing has itself finally managed to goad the United States toward realizing that we have to be playing the kind of game in which “winning” or “losing” is in fact at issue. We shall see how things go. // this view was given a broader airing a few years ago in James Mann’s book “The China Fantasy”, a book Sinocism first recommended in the 2011 post James Mann And His Prescient Book “The China Fantasy”. The idea that Beijing will eventually come around to being “more like us” has deep roots, but more folks in DC seem to be questioning the basic premise of “engagement”. Grim, but seek truth from facts…
5. Guizhou Province Orders Its Universities Install Cameras in Classrooms – Caixin Education officials in the southwestern province sent a document to universities on November 20 requiring them to have CCTV cameras cover all classroom lectures and tutorials “to build an all-round oversight system for teaching quality control.” The document, which can be viewed online, does not set a deadline for installing the devices. The news prompted four lawyers to write to Guizhou’s education authorities to ask for them to provide a legal basis for spying on teachers and details of the funding sources and budget for the surveillance. The camera plan comes less than a week after the Liaoning Daily, a Communist Party-run newspaper in the northeast, published what it called an open letter warning university professors and lecturers not to bad-mouth the country to their students.
Related: 贵州省教育厅政务网-
6. With New Funds, China Hits a Silk Road Stride – Caixin Several other outbound investment mechanisms are on the drawing board. Sources said that Beijing authorities are working on plans for more outbound-investment funds in which Chinese government cash would finance infrastructure and business projects in other countries. One proposed fund would target Chinese-Arab cooperation with financing from CDB and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund in the United Arab Emirates. According to Chinese political and financial analysts, this flurry of initiatives fits China’s effort to expand outbound investment and enhance the Beijing’s global influence. The funds and policy banks can offer equity, bond and credit financing.
7. China Wants What’s in Your Phone as Chips Replace Oil – Bloomberg China’s current pursuit of semiconductor assets is more coherent than previous attempts to build an industry, said Chris Thomas, an associate partner at McKinsey and a former Intel Corp. (INTC) China executive. “It’s under direct oversight from the State Council,” he said. “It’s intended to bring in private talent to help the government spend money effectively.” The success of the drive depends on whether Chinese companies can find the right targets and effectively integrate them, said Thomas. Another hurdle is local governments competing with each other for the same assets, he said.
Related: 经济参考网 – “1+6”政策将掀新一轮科技创新潮 科技与金融深度结合成着力点，新三板试点将扩至全国 The State Council is going to expand “Zhonggauncun” test areas to push technology innovation//
8. Days after we interviewed these former cops, Chinese authorities arrested two of them – The Washington Post As a journalist, you experience incredible pangs of guilt whenever a source suffers as a result of your reporting. You think about what went wrong, what you could have done differently. In this case, it wasn’t for lack of precautions, nor because of any particular secret we touched on…Instead, what got them in trouble was the fact that we had met at all.
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
China’s Stocks Extend Three-Year High as Financial Shares Gain – Bloomberg China’s stocks rose, with the benchmark index extending three-year highs, as increased trading volumes, new account openings and bullish equities forecasts lure investors back to the market after a four-year rout.
社科院金融所预测：2015年A股看至4000-5000点- 21世纪网 A 2013 CASS report said a 50%+ rise in Shanghai Composite was possible in 2014, said index likely to jump to 4-5000 in 2015
炒房客卖房炒股：股市再不济也比买房收益好-金融频道-新华网
Junk Bond Buyers Cheer as Shareholders Meet Debts: China Credit – Bloomberg The cash calls show the nation’s weakest companies are finding it harder to borrow after the $4.3 trillion onshore bond market produced its first default in March. The some 2,600 companies listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges had an average 97 cents of debt for every dollar of equity, the highest in six years, third-quarter filings compiled by Bloomberg show. That compares with 77 cents as of Dec. 31. “If China’s stock markets continue to recover, distressed bonds from China will benefit,” said Ken Hu, the Hong Kong-based chief investment officer for Asia-Pacific fixed income at Invesco Ltd., which had $790 billion in assets under management as of Oct. 31. “Since their purchase prices are well below par, the issuers would be able to book immediate profits to boost earnings. This is a win-win situation for bondholders and issuers.”
The Parlous State of the Pension System in the Northeast – Caixin In 2012, Heilongjiang’s social insurance fund received 72 billion yuan and spent 71.7 billion yuan. The 300 million yuan surplus was the lowest among all provinces and regions in the country that year. Demographics are not on the government’s side…The entire country’s population is aging, and it is going to be even tougher for the province to grapple with its pension problem. The other two provinces also face a similar challenge. In terms of the ratio of fund-contributing workers to retirees, the national average is 3.09, meaning that about three workers support the pension of one retiree. The ratios for Jilin (1.69) and Heilongjiang (1.52) are the lowest in the country. Liaoning has a ratio of 2.15.
Citigroup Panicked Over Fraud at Chinese Ports: Mercuria – Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. (C) was in a “state of panic” when alleged fraud was uncovered in two Chinese ports, Mercuria Energy Group Ltd.’s lawyer said as a London trial over disputed metal finance deals got under way. “The discovery of the fraud was a massive problem for Citi as it was their metal and it was at their risk,” Mercuria lawyer Graham Dunning told a London judge. “There was a state of panic.”
经济参考网 – 北上广深将试点保障房REITs 试点范围为租赁性保障房，初步方案已报住建部 Economic Information says Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are going to launch pilot REITs for subsidized housing
Oil Drop Offers China Double Dose of Help as Expansion Slows – Bloomberg Crude prices that have fallen by about 30 percent could add 0.3 to 0.5 percentage point to growth in China, according to Mizuho Bank Ltd. The decline also keeps inflation slow enough to give scope for further easing after last month’s interest-rate cut, says economist Lu Ting at Bank of America Corp.
China Government Control Endures Through Xi’s Embrace of Market – Bloomberg Though full implementation of the 330 reforms that Chinese President Xi Jinping promises isn’t due until 2020, the emerging picture underscores the complexity of the planned overhaul and the significant state role that is likely to endure in the world’s second-largest economy. “They don’t have in mind laissez-faire capitalism,” said William Overholt, president of the Fung Global Institute in Hong Kong. “They have in mind a lot of big state enterprises that get various forms of support from the state. They have in mind reforming them, not abolishing them.”…“There has been a fair amount of progress,” said Yao Yang, director of Peking University’s China Center for Economic Research. “By 2020, China probably will be a market economy, except it will still have a special presence of big” state-owned enterprises.
POLITICS AND LAW
China intensifies check on journalistic conduct – Xinhua News organizations at all levels were urged to shut down local offices that fail to meet standards and dismiss unlawfully recruited employees, said a Wednesday statement by the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, and the State Internet Information Office. “Some news groups have too many local offices and employ personnel through unofficial channels, resulting in frequent illegal acts that severely undermine the spirit of journalism, harm the authority and credibility of news and lead to grave social consequences,” the meeting was told.
舒国增任中财办副主任政经频道财新网 Shu Guozeng, longtime aide of Xi Jinping from Zhejiang is now a vice chair of the central leading group on finance and economics // 今年中央经济工作会议前夕，浙江省委副秘书长、
韩正访谈录 – 头版 – FT中文网 Interesting FT Chinese interview with Shanghai Party Secretary Han Zheng, seems timed w anniversary of Shanghai FTZ
President of Sinopec’s oil services unit dismissed amid investigation | Reuters Xue Wandong, the president of Sinopec Oilfield Services Corp (SOSC), was relieved of his duties by the company’s party apparatus, Xinhua said on its Weibo social media account. He is being investigated for reasons that were not specified.
八项规定两周年：“为官者”和“围观者”的巨变效应-时政频道-
Few Clues in Chinese Editor’s Detention – NYTimes.com Even amid a hardening crackdown on civil society and rights activists in China, many journalists and writers were caught off guard when Xu Xiao, a mild-mannered culture and books editor at Caixin Media magazine, was taken away last week by the Beijing police on suspicion of “endangering national security.”
中纪委发文：公务员若只想成为官侩 请趁早改行新闻腾讯网 说起公考降温，
Executive Who Fled to Singapore amid Rail Scandal Returns to China – Caixin The former boss of a Shenzhen-listed company who fled to Singapore amid an investigation into whether he paid bribes to an ex-railroad official has returned to China in a bid to get lighter punishment. Xu Yusuo was in the custody of railroad prosecutors in Zhengzhou, in the central province of Henan, after returning from Singapore on November 27, the country’s top prosecutor’s office said. China’s huge railroad system has its own police, courts and prosecutors.
Curbs on religious extremism beefed up in Xinjiang – China Daily A regulation prohibiting people from wearing or forcing others to wear clothes or logos associated with religious extremism was passed in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Friday. The revised regional regulation on religious affairs is the first in the country to target religious extremism. The measure was approved unanimously by the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang People’s Congress, and is due to come into force on Jan 1 next year. It is intended to protect legal religious activities.
Patriot Blogger Embodies Beijing’s Web Vision – WSJ Mr. Zhou is lionized in state media. Interviewed by the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s flagship paper, he said a formative moment in his life was the deadly U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999, an event that Washington says was a tragic accident. That moment, he said, destroyed his faith in America. “Why? I thought, what if we really go to war, what will happen to my mom and dad after the Americans send their bombs over?” Mr. Zhou channels some of the political themes that Mr. Xi himself is pushing as part of his “China Dream,” a call for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation that sizzles with resentments of the West. This means, of course, that he is now politically untouchable.
Chinese county official accused of taking 65 million USD in bribery – Xinhua A county official in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is accused of accepting bribes of more than 40 million yuan (6.5 million U.S. dollars), local prosecution said on Wednesday. The trial of Fang Ren, former Party secretary of Helan County, lasted two days, the prosecutors said.
In China, One Woman’s Challenge To The Legal System : Parallels : NPR One Chinese woman is suing the government for what she says is exactly this predicament. The case will go to trial even as China is taking unprecedented steps to reform its legal system. The Chinese woman, Li Nanyang, is based in the United States and works for the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She recalls coming home through the Beijing airport last year with her family. “My husband and son-in-law cleared customs smoothly,” she says. “Then customs opened my daughter’s suitcase. They found a dozen or so books. They hauled the rest of us who had cleared customs back in and confiscated all our books.”…Her father, Li Rui served as secretary to Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung in the 1950s.
社区治 城市安（走转改·一线调查） People’s Daily on the success of grid management in Chebei, Guangzhou as a model for social management // 社区“治”则城市“安”。作为典型的城乡结合部，
桂林一县委书记公款吃喝被免 不到1年复出后管吃喝_南都网手机版
山西吕梁反腐持续：两官员同日被查，曾搭档做县委书记、县长
China Slips in Corruption Perceptions Report – NYTimes The worsening of perceptions of corruption in China may also be because the campaign, ordered by President Xi Jinping nearly two years ago, has exposed major structural problems in how corruption is being fought, Mr. Coombes said. What Transparency International looks for as a sign of genuine improvement in the fight against corruption is “permanent and structural change,” he said. “I think the problem is what China is not doing: transparency and accountability of public officials,” Mr. Coombes said.
人民日报：西方发达国家是跨国行贿重灾区_网易新闻中心
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
Rattled by Chinese submarines, India joins other nations in rebuilding fleet India’s navy currently has only 13 ageing diesel-electric submarines, only half of which are operational at any given time due to refits. Last year, one of its submarines sank after explosions and a fire while it was docked in Mumbai. China is estimated to have 60 conventional submarines and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, including three armed with nuclear weapons. Ma Jiali, an expert at the China Reform Forum’s Centre for Strategic Studies which is affiliated with the Central Party School, said Beijing’s top concern in the Indian Ocean was safeguarding the passage of its commodities, especially oil. “There are many voices in India who believe the Indian Ocean belongs solely to India, and no other country belongs there. That line of thought is common – but of course it shouldn’t be viewed like that. Our (China’s) view is that there should be dialogue and discussion between China and India.”
For China, Cybersecurity Is Part of Strategy for Protecting the Communist Party – NYTimes.com China’s cybersecurity strategy — which it calls “network security” (网络安全) — also ranges from mastering information control and propaganda with the goal of preventing or quelling domestic instability to studying foreign adversaries’ military infrastructure and capabilities in the cyber realm, according to the paper. // Warring State: China’s Cybersecurity Strategy | Center for a New American Security
Inside the Ring: China: A cyberwarring state – Washington Times The CNAS report suggests that the Obama administration’s policy of seeking to counter widespread and damaging Chinese cyberattacks through promoting adherence to international norms and rules for behavior in cyberspace likely will be difficult. “China has been actively promoting a counter-narrative: Justifying stringent Internet controls through propaganda, denying involvement or accountability in cyber espionage, and accusing the United States of committing similar actions against China,” Harvard Professor Joseph S. Nye, stated in a foreword to the report.
After the Abe-Xi summit: What comes next in Japan-China Relations? – Dispatch Japan Veteran government officials and security analysts, while pretty much united is saying that Asia’s two superpowers talking would certainly seem to beat the alternative, they were also divided about China’s ultimate intentions, and just how far and how fast relations between Tokyo and Beijing might improve. Today we begin a five-part interview series on these topics. First up is Corey Wallace, a specialist in Japan foreign and security policy.
Rewriting the War, Japanese Right Attacks a Newspaper – NYTimes.com For conservatives, humbling The Asahi is also a way to advance their long-held agenda of erasing portrayals of Imperial Japan that they consider too negative and eventually overturning the 1993 apology to comfort women, analysts say. Many on the right have argued that Japan’s behavior was no worse than that of other World War II combatants, including the United States’ bombing of Japanese civilians. Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story “The Asahi’s admission is a chance for the revisionist right to say: ‘See! We told you so!’ ” said Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University in Tokyo. “Abe sees this as his chance to go after a historical issue that he believes has hurt Japan’s national honor.”
China’s top paper says West stoking extremism in Middle East | Reuters The People’s Daily, the official paper of China’s ruling Communist Party, said that moves by the West to support anti-government movements in the Middle East were having the opposite effect. “The facts prove that by letting jihadists pass unchecked into Syria to join battle has caused the expansion of the extremist group Islamic State,” the newspaper wrote in a commentary. “This is a classic case of how rearing a tiger will court calamity,” it added. “The entry of major powers must avoid by all means adding to the chaos.” // The Zhong Sheng commentary 人民日报钟声：反恐，且行且思勿添乱
WASHINGTON: Chinese firm gets big cache of U.S. government documents in unprecedented exchange over wind-farm dispute | DC Declassified | McClatchy DC The delivery to Chinese-owned Ralls Corp. of 3,487 pages of government material tied to the dispute was completed Friday under a July federal appellate ruling that Obama’s unexplained 2012 rejection of the sale had denied the Chinese-owned company constitutional due process.
欠中国500亿美元 委内瑞拉或用小岛还-手机和讯网 Rumors that Venezuela will give China Isla La Blanquilla to cover its debts. What would President Monroe have said?
解放军信息工程大学副政委高小燕少将被查政经频道财新网 M
军方公开辽宁舰母港建造内幕：1年内迁走6个村新闻腾讯网
HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN
China says Britain has no moral responsibility for Hong Kong | Reuters Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying, asked to comment on whether Britain still had any responsibility for Hong Kong as a signatory to the agreement to hand it back to China, said that was not the case. “Britain has no sovereignty over a Hong Kong that has returned to China, no authority and no right to oversight. There is no such thing as a moral responsibility,” she told a daily news briefing in Beijing.
China’s Commitment to Freedoms in Hong Kong Questioned – Bloomberg “We are concerned by signs that China’s commitment to the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ model, as well as to maintaining a high degree of autonomy, are eroding,” Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel told a Senate subcommittee that questioned the Obama administration’s willingness to prod China.
央视援引港媒称“占中三子”为“占中三丑”(图)_凤凰资讯 C
TECH AND MEDIA
China, a Fish Barrel for Cybercriminals – NYTimes.com In 2013, cybercrime cost Chinese companies and individuals $37 billion, according to a research report by the security firm Norton, putting the nation second behind the United States at $38 billion, and well ahead of the $13 billion that cybercrime cost Europe or the $1 billion for Russia. Security analysts offer many reasons for this, but top among them is the naïveté of China’s myriad new Internet users, as well as government policies that have emphasized the growth of the Internet industry above all else.
乐视TV杀入亲子智能硬件领域|乐视TV|智能硬件互联网_
Carrier-neutral Internet Data Service 21Vianet Announces US$296M Investment from Kingsoft, Xiaomi and Temasek – TechNode 21Vianet Group (Nasdaq:VNET), a leading carrier-neutral internet data services provider in China, has announced that it has entered into share purchase agreements with Kingsoft, Xiaomi and Temasek. The three investors will inject a total of US$296 million of funding into 21Vianet. Kingsoft agreed to a US$172 million investment for a 11.6% stake in 21Vianet. Xiaomi invested US$50 million into a 3.4% stake, while Temasek will invest US$74 million for a 13.1% share of the company.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
China’s Communist Party Tells Kids Being a Loser is Nothing to Be Proud of – China Real Time Report – WSJ Where People’s Daily once saw something positive in the ability of China’s youth to think critically about their lives, it now appears to prefer they just think sunny thoughts. “Even if the subjective intent is to demonstrate one’s courage to confront the mainstream, or an effort to root oneself in the common spirit of the Internet, the existence of diaosi culture, objectively speaking, does not help young people to be more independent. Even less does it promote probity within society.”
Diaosi: Peking University Releases Report on China’s “Losers” – chinaSMACK On October 29th, Peking University’s Market and Media Research Center released the first national “Diaosi Living Conditions Report/Study, with the report showing: diaosi earn an average of 2919.7 yuan per month [~479 USD], and 72.3% of diaosi are unhappy with their lives. What worries diaosi the most remains their family, with diaosi giving 1076.7 yuan to their parents on average every month. In terms of industries, agricultural industries have the highest diaosi index, whereas the diaosi index in marketing/public relations/media, sports & fitness, and finance/banking/investments/
Early-Childhood Separations, Common in China, Said to Hold Hidden Dangers – NYTimes.com China would be appear to be a great, untapped market for Western shrinks // In China, a new generation of young, Western-trained psychoanalysts is concerned that early childhood separation from parents or primary caregivers, considered normal here for generations, has caused profound, hidden trauma in millions of Chinese. They believe early separation, a documented psychological phenomenon, has led to emotional problems in adults who may fail to form healthy relationships. Feeling abandoned as children, they struggle with worthlessness and depression.
Chinese netizens reinvented red propaganda posters | Offbeat China China’s pop culture, especially at grassroots level, has been undergoing a retro movement for quite some time. Arts and everyday objects of the 50s to the early 80s have been resurrected and reinvented with modern twists. This time, China’s always creative netizens are trying to give new life to a very special art/propaganda form: red posters.
人民日报：语言，该规范就要规范–传媒–人民网 Peopl
Language Log » Punning banned in China Because of the huge number of homophones in the language, punning is super easy in Mandarin, and Chinese are extremely fond of engaging in this type of verbal play. So deeply entrenched is paronomasia in the Chinese tradition that it is even commonly reflected in the symbolism of art and material culture. For example, Chinese families used to put a saddle (ān 鞍) in the main hall of their home because it was thought that it would bring ān 安 (“peace”). Bats (biānfú 蝙蝠) figured prominently in many decorations because the second syllable sounded the same as the character for “fortune” (fú 福). Entire dictionaries were based upon the principle of punning as a means for defining words
新闻背后｜王健林为何突然斥资十亿去贵州扶贫？ Wanda’s Wang Jianlin suggests a different approach to poverty work, takes the initiative and commits 1B RMB to a county on Guizhou // 今年的全国社会扶贫工作座谈会，王健林列席其中。
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
China’s Fujian reports human bird flu case – Xinhua The patient is a 27-year-old man from the city of Fuqing, the Fujian provincial health and family planning commission said in a statement. The patient is in a critical condition and under observation at a hospital in the provincial capital of Fuzhou.
Beijing doctor explains on Youku about bribes and commissions–A video is circulating online of a man purporting to be a former surgeon at a Beijing hospital, explaining how the red envelope bribe and commission system works in China. The erstwhile doctor, claimed to be Li Rui of the Beijing Aerospace Institute Hospital Urology department.
教学生收红包医生承认视频为真 称为鼓励学医而调侃国内新京报网 4日，教学生“收红包”
AGRICULTURE
现代牧业危机调查：“后三聚氰胺”时代，万头牧场模式遇重挫
FOOD AND TRAVEL
Cruising 200km/h on Xinjiang’s New High-Speed Train Today, I’m cruising in a beautiful new high-speed train that glides smoothly along Xinjiang’s desert at 200km/hr. The views of Xinjiang are essentially the same, but the window through which I see them has changed. Below I want to share with you a little background on this new train line as well as tips for travelers who want to give it a try themselves. Scroll down for plenty of pictures but before you do, take 2 minutes to watch the video I edited from my trip 🙂
The Latest Superfood? Peru’s Maca Root – WSJ bought some at whole foods in July as heard could help with altitude in Tibet, didn’t do anything for me, but maybe I can sell the big unopened bag I still have at a markup in Beijing // This year a flood of buyers from China swooped into the Junin region of central Peru to buy up as much of the root as possible. That led to a tenfold increase in the price of maca, and in some cases even more, growers say. Peruvian exporters say the frenzy to find maca has led to broken long-term supply contracts. Global natural-products companies say they are in danger of being pushed out of the market. Police say the aggressive demand has led to sometimes violent thefts of sacks of maca in Peru.
This Chinese PhD Student Just Wrote an 80,000-Word Dissertation on Braised Chicken – China Real Time Report – WSJ Braising chicken is a science in itself. That’s according to an 80,000-word doctoral dissertation by a 34-year-female PhD candidate in China’s Shanxi Province, written in an effort to find out how spices impact the taste of meat. Sun Lingxia, a student at Shanxi Normal University, conducted a two-year study on braised chicken to help pave the way for standardizing production of traditional food on a large scale, she told the Southern Metropolis Daily, a local newspaper in Guangzhou.