"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. Shanghai Composite Index Tops 3,000 for First Time Since 2011 – Bloomberg Citic Securities Co. and Haitong Securities Co., the nation’s biggest securities firms, jumped 10 percent, adding to gains of at least 75 percent over the past month. Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. surged 9.6 percent…The Shanghai Composite climbed 2.8 percent to 3,020.26 at the close, the highest level since April 2011. The CSI 300 Index jumped 4.1 percent, extending gains to 28 percent during the 12-day advance.
Related: Five Charts That Show China’s Stock-Market Boom Is Unprecedented – Bloomberg While the Chinese gauge is still 50 percent below its 2007 peak, the stock market’s boom during the past month has been unprecedented by several measures. The following charts show how the nation’s share-price momentum, trading volumes, margin debt, market capitalization and financial-industry outperformance have all reached record highs: // lots of leverage, but in danger zone yet? The market really needs a pullback, this is getting ridiculous
Related: 人民日报称股市迎来发展机遇，
2. China advisers recommend 7 percent growth goal in 2015 as leaders meet | Reuters Sources said government-run think-tanks, which are influential in the decision-making process but do not wield power themselves, are planning to recommend Beijing reduce its official GDP growth target in 2015 to seven percent, down from 7.5 percent this year. “President Xi (Jinping) has already hinted at the growth target when he said growth of seven percent is the highest in the world,” said a senior economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), who declined to be identified. // best to get rid of the GDP target all together, that would be a positive sign for reform…but seems too embedded in the system, especially the cadre evaluation system
Related: 以习近平同志为总书记的党中央引领中国经济发
Related: 新常态下应树立提高发展质量导向 State Council DRC deputy director Li Shijin on page 7 of Tuesday’s People’s Daily, on improving the quality of economic development in the “new normal”, says the transition away from excessive dependence on investment, industry and external demand is making progress // 以往人们在分析我国增长模式时，经常提到的问题是过多依赖投资、
3. Report: Zuckerberg reads Chinese president’s book – The Washington Post “I bought this book for my colleagues as well,” Zuckerberg was quoted as telling Lu. “I want them to understand socialism with Chinese characteristics.” The photo shows a beaming Lu sitting in Zuckerberg’s work chair, with the Facebook founder smiling and standing next to him. “In that photo, Lu Wei looks the part of a boss,” Hu [Jia] said in a phone interview. “I feel ashamed for Facebook and sorry for Mr. Zuckerberg. When you yield to the executioners of the Internet, they will only become more arrogant.” // Conveniently Zuckerberg had a copy of Xi’s “Governance of China” book on his desk when Lu Wei visited. Facebook US Public Affairs group will be very busy if FB ever launches operations beyond ad sales and developer support in China
4. 鲁炜考察Facebook 扎克伯格普通话进行讲解 新闻中心中国网 pictures from Lu Wei’s visit to Facebook// 中国网12月8日讯 正在美国展开密集考察的中央宣传部副部长、
Related: Zuckerberg, Cook Meet China’s Internet Minister in U.S. – Bloomberg Baidu Inc. (BIDU) Vice President Zhu Guang accompanied Lu to the meetings, China.com reported. Kaiser Kuo, a spokesman for Baidu, confirmed Zhu attended the meetings. He declined to comment further. The website also posted pictures with Lu talking to Amazon CEO Jeffrey Bezos. It didn’t provide further details. Craig Berman, a spokesman for Amazon, said he wasn’t aware of the meeting. // Chinese reports said they also visited Baidu’s Silicon Valley outpost. Zhu is more than just a VP at Baidu, he is also secretary of the company’s Party Committee.
Related: Mark Zuckerberg loves Xi Jinping’s book, ‘The Governance of China’ the origin of the image showing Zuckerberg as a good Communist holding Xi’s book.
Related: Ten lessons Mark Zuckerberg can learn from Xi Jinping’s Big Yellow Book – Telegraph As Mark Zuckerberg reveals he is handing copies of Xi Jinping’s speeches to Facebook employees, we look at 10 pieces of wisdom they can acquire from the president’s latest tome.
Related: A Trip to California for China’s Internet Czar – NYTimes.com The disagreement between the United States and China on such critical issues may provide one answer to why Mr. Lu gave equal emphasis to the East and West Coasts on his trip to the United States. Meeting with United States tech companies provided the longtime propagandist with ample photo opportunities to show off back home. It also showed he could easily find eager partners in Silicon Valley, even as officials in Washington seek to play hardball. // remarkable that there was almost no coverage of Lu’s visits on Silicon Valley tech blogs
5. Report: ‘Gold-Obsessed’ Chinese Officer’s Graft Case Worth $5 Billion – Business Insider Phoenix Weekly, a magazine run by Hong Kong broadcaster Phoenix Television which has close ties with the Chinese government, said that total ill-gotten gains amounted to some 30 billion yuan ($5 billion), including about 600 million yuan in bribes accepted by Gu. Gu also loved gold, especially gold statues of Buddha, though he preferred receiving ground up gold rather than gold bars when he was taking bribes, the magazine added, in a story widely carried by mainland Chinese news websites.
Related: 知情者：谷俊山涉案300多亿 贪污受贿达6个多亿_凤凰资讯 Google cache version of one of the remarkable Phoenix Weekly articles on Gu Junshan’s corruption, was online for a bit but now deleted. This was one of two posted Monday// 核心提示：最新一期《凤凰周刊》
Related: 谷俊山被曝曾威胁总后部长：别挡我的道
6. Smog-hit Hebei ordered by government to draw up restructuring plans – Global Times The Chinese government has ordered its most polluted province, North China’s Hebei, to draw up fresh plans to “upgrade” its economy in a bid to ease its dependence on heavy industries like steel and cement production, Beijing-based newspaper the Economic Observer reported over the weekend. The local provincial government is now drawing up new economic restructuring plans which will eventually be passed on to the central government, the newspaper said, citing local officials…The province’s economy grew 6.2 percent in the first three quarters, behind a 2014 target of 8 percent, and in a speech delivered on November 26, Hebei Vice Governor Yang Chongyong called for more incentives for the province. “Hebei has paid a very big price, with its economy suffering grave injuries,” he told a forum. “If there are just widespread enterprise closures and layoffs, if there are no new projects or employment opportunities, then there’s no way of guaranteeing people’s incomes and livelihoods, so how can we maintain stability?” he said at the forum.
7. CSIS 2014 Freeman Chair newsletter analyzes President Xi Jinping’s recent address to the Central Foreign Affairs Work Conference (CFAWC) of the Chinese Communist Party, by Chris Johnson (PDF) best explainer of the recent CFAWC I have read // As noted above, Xi sees robust economic diplomacy as a key element in his overall diplomatic strategy….Signaling China’s neighbors through such initiatives that the economic health of the region is intimately tied to China’s continued growth and prosperity also serves to advance Xi’s seeming predilection for a more multidirectional foreign policy approach than that of his predecessors. In fact, the other noticeable feature of Xi’s remarks is their seeming ambivalence toward relations with the United States. U.S.-China relations received no direct references in Xi’s remarks, and there were only one or two passing mentions of strengthening ties with “major countries.”…This is not to suggest, however, that Xi is somehow downgrading relations with Washington. The outcomes of Xi’s second “shirt sleeves” summit with President Obama make clear that he continues to view U.S.-China ties as Beijing’s most important bilateral relationship. Instead, it probably means that Xi is less likely than his predecessors to be solicitous or desirous of pursuing relations with Washington at a substantial cost to building other important relationships.
Related: Xi Jinping’s Evolution of Chinese Grand Strategy | The Diplomat – Chen Dingding Overall, Xi’s speech shows lots of confidence on the part of Chinese leaders…What this means for the U.S. and its allies in Asia is that they will have to deal with a China that is more powerful, more ambitious, and more confident. Any underestimation of the determination and will on the part of Chinese leaders will lead to serious perception gaps and even potential conflict.
8. Girl at Center of Suspected Abuse Case Dies | the Beijinger An eight-year-old girl at the center of what authorities suspect might be child abuse died last night at 8pm, according to Chinese reports in The Mirror. The girl, known as Phoebe, was brought to the Capital Institute of Pediatrics on November 24. She stopped breathing on her own around 7pm Sunday night and passed away at 8. Suffering from an intestinal obstruction and kidney problems that began some time in September, this was her third trip to the hospital since the injury. // 被老外“收养”女孩去世 知情人否认其被打伤(图)新闻中心中国网
BUSINESS, ECONOMY AND TRADE
Retail Traditions Hit a Wall at Wal-Mart China-Caixin More Chinese consumers are shopping online, which is putting more pressure on Wal-Mart and it’s old-fashioned store model
China Steel Exports Rise to Record While Iron Ore Imports Slide – Bloomberg Shipments in November increased 14 percent from the previous month to 9.72 million metric tons, according to data from the country’s customs administration today. Total exports in the first 11 months of 2014 are 47 percent higher than the same period last year at 83.6 million tons. Imports of iron ore, the main material for steel making, fell 15 percent last month to the lowest since February. China’s steel exports have set records for three straight months as a slowing expansion and cooling construction sector damp demand.
Taiwan, China solar producers no threat to U.S., commission hears | Reuters Solar products from China and Taiwan do not compete with U.S.-made goods, foreign producers told the U.S. International Trade Commission on Monday, as they sought to avert import duties.
Grrr (2014)–Photos of Langfang Hebei Protest Over Underground Finance Blowup Langfang is just outside of Beijing // 12月8日，河北省廊坊市金吉通投资管理有限公司、
China’s Banks Press PBOC to Cut Reserve-Requirement Ratio – WSJ bet they drop more given the A-share surge // A rare drop in bank deposits—historically the main source of cheap funding for Chinese banks—is forcing lenders in the world’s No. 2 economy to curtail lending or look for more expensive types of financing, bank executives say. A planned deposit-insurance system could push up Chinese banks’ funding costs even more, they say, because it would lead to fiercer competition to attract savers. Even the central bank’s latest effort to jump-start growth—a cut in interest rates—has the potential to reduce banks’ profit margins.
人民日报批运营商霸王条款 People’s Daily criticizes China’s big three mobile operators for violating consumers’ rights // 尽管我们有近13亿手机用户、8亿多手机上网用户，
佛山钢贸危机的担保圈拆解之谜_第一财经客户端 CBN looks at the loan guarantee mess among steel traders in Foshan
宝马经销商造反：索要60亿补偿_第一财经客户端 BMW China dealers are revolting, have written a letter to head of BMW China asking for 6B RMB in subsidies, more input in setting sales goals, other changes. business is bad, how much channel stuffing has there been? // 宝马经销商向安格提交的请愿函提出了多想要求，
张维迎：改革最大阻力不是既得利益者，是理念 Professo
A股9149亿元成交天量背后 伞形结构信托有贡献-信托频道-金融界 always a way around the rules…this article on umbrella trusts allowing WMPs to get around ban on directly investing in the stock market // 尽管成本相对较高，但杠杆也更高，
China’s Rate Swaps Surge Most Since June 2013 as Bonds Tumble – Bloomberg China has halted new corporate bond repurchase applications for debt with ratings below AAA, according to a statement posted to the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp.’s website yesterday.
中证登发布加强企业债券回购风险管理通知- 21世纪网 8日，中国证券登记所发布《
POLITICS AND LAW
Zhou Yongkang Arrest Ratchets Up Pressure in Graft Purge – Caixin Before the arrest of the 72-year-old Zhou, at least 39 people with ties to Zhou have come under investigation for graft and at least 20 have been handed over to police. What they have shared in common is that these disgraced officials have either worked with Zhou in the country’s lucrative petroleum industry, or risen through the ranks in Sichuan Province and held positions in the powerful police force, considered Zhou’s three power bases.
China, U.S. reach consensus on combating corruption – Xinhua Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Monday that China has made headway with the United States on bilateral talks for tracking down fugitive corruption suspects. Hong told a regular press briefing that the two sides have reached important consensus on strengthening cooperation in the areas of combating corruption, bringing fugitives to law and seizing their illegal proceeds at the 12th meeting of the China-U.S. Joint Liaison Group (JLG) on Law Enforcement Cooperation, held in Beijing last week…William Brownfield, the U.S. assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said Friday that the two sides had identified a “finite number of individuals and agreed to develop a strategy to address each of those”.
刘金国：猎狐行动执行不力省份要赴公安部作检讨_凤凰资讯 Li
China Rails Against Pollution, of the Journalistic Variety – NYTimes.com a recent editorial in the state-run People’s Daily suggested. The editorial — titled “Using Morality to Disperse ‘News Smog’” — says that the latest contaminant to afflict Chinese society can be ousted by spending time among the grass roots. There, the article said, a great many people ridicule the “unhealthy phenomenon” that is news reportage and speak of its “moral decline” as well as its “soulless click-through rate.”
China sentences eight to death for knife, bomb attacks in west | Reuters China sentenced eight people to death for their roles in two knife and bomb attacks this spring in the country’s violence-plagued western region of Xinjiang, state media reported on Monday. In April, a knife and bomb attack at a train station in the region’s capital of Urumqi killed three and injured 79. In May, 39 people at a Urumqi market were killed when attackers hurled explosives out of the windows of two SUVs.
China Sentences Uighur Scholar’s Tohti Students to Up to 8 Years – Bloomberg China sentenced seven students of incarcerated scholar Ilham Tohti, a member of the country’s Uighur minority, to three to eight years in prison for separatism, Hong Kong government broadcaster RTHK said.
山西省省长李小鹏：信息公开，打造“阳光国企”–观点–
文化部原中国录音录像总社社长王笑然接受调查|文化部|反腐_
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
【独家】解放军南京政治学院副院长戴维民少将被查_政经频道_
China angered by U.S. bill allowing Taiwan warship sale | Reuters The U.S. Senate unanimously approved the bill last week, authorizing the sale of four Perry-class guided missile frigates to Taiwan. China expressed anger in April when a similar bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
China Takes Nuclear Weapons Underwater Where Prying Eyes Can’t See – Bloomberg “China is going to have to reassure their adversaries that those submarines are under positive control at all times,” said Malcolm Davis, an assistant professor of China-Western relations at Bond University on Australia’s Gold Coast. “Positive control” refers to the procedures to ensure the CMC’s absolute control of its nuclear assets, such as the authorization codes it would send to submarines, where, after verification by the commander and probably two other officers, missiles would be launched. // where does the political commissar fit in?
Operation AURORAGOLD: How the NSA Hacks Cellphone Networks Worldwide Aside from mentions of a handful of operators in Libya, China, and Iran, names of the targeted companies are not disclosed in the NSA’s documents. However, a top-secret world map featured in a June 2012 presentation on AURORAGOLD suggests that the NSA has some degree of “network coverage” in almost all countries on every continent, including in the United States and in closely allied countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and France.
BBC News – Kenya breaks ‘Chinese-run cyber crime network’ The suspects had been living in “military-style dormitories”, and Chinese officials were shocked by the revelations, the Standard reports. The group had been preparing to “raid the country’s communication systems” and had equipment capable of infiltrating bank accounts, Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile banking system and ATM machines, according to Kenya’s privately owned Daily Nation newspaper.
State Councilor calls for upgraded overseas Chinese language education – Xinhua State Councilor Yang Jiechi on Sunday urged overseas Chinese language and culture workers to upgrade their education. Yang made the remarks when meeting with representatives of the third World Chinese Language and Culture Education Conference. Yang said overseas Chinese language and culture education should be improved to play a greater role in promoting the Chinese culture and the friendship between Chinese people and the people of other nations.
“和而不同”的文化追求-国际频道-新华网 People’s Daily’s Zhong Sheng not happy with American criticism of Confucius Institutes // 但令人遗憾的是，西方总有一些人挖空心思，
中国航天也卖皮草 每年1000件_第一财经客户端 The China Aerospace and Technology Corporation has a growing side business selling high-end furs… // 当杨利伟在太空挥舞着五星红旗的时候，
中航工业董事长：歼-31上天就能把F-35干掉-凤凰新闻 A
What China has to do with the mysterious death of an indigenous leader in Ecuador – Quartz Last week the leader of an Ecuadorian indigenous group, José Isidro Tendetza Antún was found by his son in an unmarked grave. The outspoken critic of a controversial Ecuadorian mining project had been due to speak at the United Nations climate talks in Lima this week. Authorities said that the circumstances of his death are still unclear, but it is certain to draw more attention to Chinese-funded resource extraction in the Andean nation.
China develops new rocket for manned moon mission: media The first launch of the Long March-9 will take place around 2028, said the China Daily, which also cited experts saying the rocket’s development is at the research stage. It will carry a load of 130 tonnes, the newspaper added, equal to what NASA is aiming for with its Space Launch System (SLS), which aims to blast off for the first time in 2018 with an initial test payload of 70 tonnes.
TECH AND MEDIA
‘Gone With The Bullets’ Premiere Postponed – NYTimes.com The world premiere of the 3-D gangster film “Gone With the Bullets” has been abruptly postponed because of last-minute issues with censors, according to a statement posted on the official WeChat social media account of the film’s Chinese producers. The film by Jiang Wen, an acclaimed Chinese director who also stars in the movie, was scheduled to debut Monday evening at the Olympic Sports Center in Beijing, which had reportedly built an Imax screen in just four days especially for the screening.
鲁炜访苹果公司，要求必须维护中国的国家安全和用户信息安全
苹果否认“只修不换”传闻：主板损坏仍可换整机_TechWeb
TD-LTE leads advancement of China’s telecom technologies – Xinhua China’s homegrown fourth-generation (4G) telecommunications technology, the TD-LTE, is poised for user numbers to hit 70 million by the end of the year. “After almost a year of commercial trials, both networks and user numbers have grown considerably,” said Yang Hua, secretary-general of the Telecommunication Development Industry Alliance (TDIA).
TD式创新新世纪周刊频道财新网 Caixin cover story this week on the effective commercial failure of TD-SCDMA and by extension this kind of top-down ordered indigenous innovation // 2000亿元永远收不回的投资，换来一张五年就停止发展的TD-
Dan Grover | Chinese Mobile App UI Trends This summer, I packed up all my things and moved from San Francisco to Guangzhou, China for work. Through an unlikely chain of coincidences that I don’t entirely recall, I’ve become a product manager on WeChat, a popular messaging app in China…One day, for the fun of it, I started writing a list in my notebook of all the things that are different between apps here and those I’m accustomed to using and creating back in the US. When I finished, I was surprised by how long the list was, so it seemed fitting to flesh it out into a post.
党媒批动画架空国史：说嫦娥奔月迷信，变形金刚登月却成科学
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
Documentary on the 1994 Karamay Fire The 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival is underway right now and one of its ’10-not-to-be-missed’ films is “Karamay” by director 徐辛 (Xu Xin). It is a film about the 1994 Karamay fire that the director readily admits won’t be screened in mainland China and had to be filmed under a shroud of secrecy. It’s the story of the 323 people who lost their lives in a tragic Karamay fire on December 8, 1994, and unfortunately it is best remembered by the line that caused all the ensuing controversy: “Everybody keep quiet. Don’t move. Let the leaders go first.”
青海省委原书记黄静波遗体告别仪式在北京举行_凤凰资讯
三女生文革时揭发老师奸污 40年后承认诬告_凤凰资讯 3 woman who accused their teacher of rape during the Cultural Revolution admit they made it up
沈阳城管开公车打CS 回应称系临时工已被开除图片频道财新网 Shenyang Chenggaun caught using official vehicles to play real-life CS, reply that they were “temporary workers”, have been fired. slideshow
人民日报推筑梦足球重磅系列报道：13亿人为何选不出11人
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH
Chinese tests find quarter of drinking water ‘substandard’: Shanghai Daily | Reuters The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) found excessive bacteria in purified water products from China’s biggest drinks maker, Wahaha Group, as well as C’estbon Beverage Co Ltd and Danone SA’s Robust brand, the newspaper said. In a statement posted on the official Xinhua news agency, Wahaha said it had recalled the affected products and cut its supply relationship with the water station where it said the contamination had occurred.
精神病人遭警方及家人等多方遗弃 疑饿死家中(图)|医生|诊断_凤凰资讯 The Beijing News on neglect and mistreatment of the mentally ill…such a huge issue in China
北京“名医”杜撰享受国务院津贴并谎称上央视，涉事医院被查
AGRICULTURE
东北粮食稳产增收遭瓶颈 黑土地一年退化一厘米新闻腾讯网 Dongbei is losing its famous black soil at the rate of 1 centimeter a year, may thwart efforts to increase grain production // “东北黑土地正面临日趋板结、可耕性变差的问题。
JOBS AND EVENTS
Amcham Beijing event- Young Professional Career Development and Leadership December 10 7:30 PM Bill Zarit, former Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the US Embassy and incoming governor on the AmCham China board, and Jeremy Goldkorn, Managing Director of Danwei, will speak to our young professionals on developing their careers in China.