"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner

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THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT

New Beijing Leader’s ‘China Dream’ – WSJ.com All this leads many diplomats, party insiders and analysts to believe Mr. Xi is casting himself as a strong military leader at home and embracing a more hawkish worldview long outlined by generals who think the U.S. is in decline and China will become the dominant military power in Asia by midcentury…Many Chinese and foreign analysts see Mr. Xi’s military stance, especially regarding the territorial dispute with Japan, as a direct response to the U.S. “pivot” toward Asia. The short-term aim, those analysts say, is to discourage countries that have territorial disputes with China from feeling emboldened by the U.S. strategy of focusing more on Asia. Longer term, the goal is to convince the U.S. that the strategy is unsustainable, given financial pressures on the Pentagon and China’s expanding power.

Xi’s wife to play role in charm offensive – FT.com Peng Liyuan, famous in China for her fiery performances of patriotic songs, will have her own speaking engagement as her husband attends the Brics summit in Durban, three people familiar with the plans told the Financial Times. “She will make an independent appearance,” said a friend of Ms Peng. Another person briefed on plans for the trip added: “She can help China build soft power.”//Any chance Peng Liyuan and Michelle Obama could join hands on some global initiative? could be good for lots of reasons, both for US-China relations and the world

China’s Xi Jinping charts a new PR course – The Washington Post In his first few months as China’s leader, Xi Jinping has moved aggressively to dismantle the Chinese public’s long-standing image of officials as wooden robots full of empty speeches and corrupt motives. Instead, with a sophisticated public relations strategy, Xi and his top advisers have introduced something previously unseen among the higher echelons of Chinese government: a retail politician.

传汪洋掌农业、外贸 十九大后位子仅次习李_多维新闻网 Duowei claims Wang Yang to get vice premiership in charge of rural issues and trade, that the rural portfolio key to many of the reforms Li Keqiang will push, predicts positioning Wang to be number 3 on the 19th PBSC// 中国人大会议已经进入人事议程，其中由李克强提名的四名副总理人选已曝光，但各自分工仍议论纷纷，其中汪洋分工主管的领域最吸引外界关注。 中国国务院新一届领导班子仍保持“一正四副”格局，即在总理李克强下，张高丽以中共中央政治局常委身份，出任常务（首席）副总理；另外三人是上届国务委员刘延东、马凯，以及广东省前省委书记汪洋。 张高丽预定掌管财税金融，结束过去两位副总理分管财税和金融的局面，避免财政部和人民银行再打架，以求强化财政政策和货币政策的协调性；刘延东将继续分管科教文体；马凯将接掌工业、交通和能源等领域。至于汪洋，目前传说将“管一个最土的、管一个最洋的”——前者是农业，后者是市场，包括国内市场和对外经贸。

茅台酿酒原料“假有机”调查：认证造假以劣充好|茅台|酿酒|认证造假_21世纪网 Moutai’s organic ingredients not actually organic? a big scandal if  these allegations are correct// 核心提示：自春节前夕，有关贵州茅台酿酒核心原料“假有机”和质量问题的举报，就进入了记者视野。记者历时一月，跨越几千公里深入茅台种植基地和茅台集团总部进行追踪调查。

U.S.-China anti-tax evasion deal seen as crucial, but elusive | Reuters The success of a broad U.S. crackdown on offshore tax dodging will be determined in part by China’s cooperation, but talks with Chinese officials are making little headway, former U.S. Treasury Department officials and tax professionals said. FATCA requires foreign financial institutions to tell the United States about Americans’ offshore financial holdings.One obstacle in the Chinese talks is likely that China wants, in return, more tax information than U.S. officials are willing to share about Chinese citizens who have assets in the United States, accountants and tax lawyers said.// does USGS have database of all Chinese officials/family members with US ID’s/assets in the US? If it does, leverage for a few things?

PBOC Chief Says China Should Be on ‘High Alert’ on Inflation – Bloomberg China should be on “high alert” over inflation after February’s figures exceeded forecasts, central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said, signaling a heightened focus on controlling prices. Monetary policy is “no longer relaxed” and is “relatively neutral” as demonstrated by a 13 percent target for money-supply growth that’s tighter than expansion in the last two years, Zhou, head of the People’s Bank of China, said at a press conference today during the annual gathering of China’s National People’s Congress.

China’s Hot Real Estate Market Takes Broad Toll : NPR Renee Montagne speaks with Beijing-based sociology researcher Leta Hong Fincher about marriage and the property market in China. Fincher says marriage has become a complicated financial transaction involving home buying, and divorce has become one way for people to try to buy or keep multiple homes.

 

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

China’s Stocks Drop for Fifth Day on Property Tightening Concern – Bloomberg Chinese stocks fell for a fifth day, dragging the benchmark index to its longest losing streak in four months, as construction and real estate companies tumbled on concern policy makers will step up property curbs.

Free food as China TV expose puts retailers on guard | Reuters On Friday, news program “3.15” – one of China’s most widely watched TV shows – will name and shame companies that it says violated the trust of consumers in a nation forecast to become the world’s largest retail market in three years. The TV show, similar to U.S. CBS network’s “60 Minutes”, often catches companies off guard, and the fallout can sting as McDonald’s itself found out last year when it was criticized on food safety. McDonald’s apologized, and its shares fell as China’s army of microbloggers unleashed their anger online.

IT Executives at Top Futures Exchanges Held over Bribe Allegations – Caixin Both are being questioned by prosecutors for allegedly accepting bribes. It was unclear whether they would be charged. Several sources familiar with the situation said the two exchanges often share technology and talents and the investigations into the two men were likely connected. They also suspect that the bribes to Yan and Zhang might have come from suppliers for the exchanges’ transaction systems.

Urbanisation is only a partial panacea for China | The A-List－Yukon huang–but is the goal of urbanisation megacities, or turning lots of townships into small cities? still not convinced we know if li keqiang really pushing 城镇化 or 城市化 // The commercial viability of megacities lies not in dirty industrial production, which is better located in less densely settled areas, but in the provision of services that require concentration of knowledge-intensive activities and proximity to diverse consumer markets. This holds the key to both a more innovation-driven growth model and sustained consumption demand. Mr Li’s urbanisation initiative deserves support for the potential it offers – but resistance to change should not be underestimated. Opponents include mayors and established residents reluctant to encourage inflows of migrants, as well as bureaucrats and developers who profit from the opaque processes controlling land development. It will take a very determined premier to overcome these vested interests to move forward on such an ambitious agenda.

Real-Time Warning Signs of Emerging and Collapsing Chinese House Price Bubbles-National Institute Economic Review February 2013 don’t have access to full text, sounds interesting and controversial// The recent increase in Chinese house prices has led to concerns that China is vulnerable to asset price shocks. In this paper, we apply recently developed recursive unit root tests to spot the beginning and the end of potential speculative bubbles in Chinese house price cycles. Overall, we find that except for 2009–10 actual house prices are not significantly disconnected from fundamentals. Thus, the evidence for speculative house price bubbles in China is in general weak.

National Institute Economic Review Table of Contents — February 2013 lots about China in this issue

购房者排号踊跃 北京房企少量多批谋涨价_新浪房产_新浪网 new home prices in Beijing surging, some developments outside the 6th ring road now 20,000rmb/m+ // 新政颁布接近半月，北京楼市聚焦点由如火如荼的二手房重新转回新房。中国证券报记者了解到，3月以来，一些即将入市新盘排号量暴增，房企在项目的定价方面顺势上调。顺义、房山、大兴等六环外的部分新盘价格已涨到20000元/平方米以上。 业内人士指出，由于北京调控细则未出，公众对新房市场后市不确定性增加，而市场供应量仍然偏少，加上房企采取“少量多批”的销售策略，涨价成为目前市场趋势。

Shenzhen Imposes Price Caps on New Houses in Stricter Curbs-Caijing Land authority in Shenzhen has ordered developers to sell their newly-built house at prices no higher than the previous month, heeding calls from the central government to curb rising home prices, Chinese media said. New housing projects in Shenzhen, planned to be sold in 2013, shall not be priced higher from the previous month, according to an administrative order issued by the land bureau in Shenzhen, Sina reported.

楼市博弈大戏将续演 地产商最抗压购房者最受伤 新华社——经济参考网   近十年来，高速发展的房地产市场经历了数次调控，房价却屡调屡涨。中央希望调控出手“稳、准、狠”，但往往事与愿违。“十年调控十年价涨”的现实窘境给未来调控政策带来诸多难题。究竟是什么原因导致了这种“骑虎难下”的局面？调控中所涉及的开发商、地方政府、银行与购房者又是怎样一种利益博弈关系？在近日的调研中，《经济参考报》记者试图找到答案。

易纲：增持黄金储备须考虑价格影响_经济频道_财新网 Yi Gang says China won’t be adding a lot to its gold reserves as the buying would push up the price…// 黄金储备和黄金投资永远是一个选项，但是为了保持市场平稳，保持价格稳定，中国是否需要增加投资黄金，需要综合考量

20 pct of local gov’t financing vehicles vulnerable to risks – Xinhua | English.news.cn About 20 percent of China’s local government financing vehicles are not profitable and thus are vulnerable to risks, said central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan on Wednesday. “We should not underestimate risks in local government financing vehicles, nor should we overestimate them,” Zhou said at a news conference on China’s currency policy and financial reform, held on the sidelines of the first annual session of the 12th National People’s Congress.

Beijing to improve subway flow |Society |chinadaily.com.cn every analyst/pundit opining on China’s economy and infrastructure spending should be required to ride the beijing subway at rush hour while they are visiting the city// Limiting passengers during rush-hour, opening of new lines to ease congestion The capital will further limit the number of rush-hour subway passengers and increase vehicle capacity to cope with the growing pressure on the network, said the city’s transport authority. In addition, construction of new subway lines will be accelerated to cope with the soaring number of passengers, according to the Beijing Transport Commission.

人民日报-央行负责人在人大记者会上表示 控房价 信贷政策会加力

Philip Morris Names Calantzopoulos CEO Seeking China Growth – Bloomberg As executive chairman, Camilleri, 58, will have more time to focus on “the big imponderables” for the company, such as boosting sales in China and developing next-generation products less harmful than cigarettes, Russo said today by telephone from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He will give up the day-to-day responsibilities for “stacking high and selling more” cigarettes that he has shared with Calantzopoulos, Russo said. “I’m glad we get to keep both.”

 

POLITICS AND LAW

Beijing to Sideline Top Securities Regulator Guo Shuqing-WSJ.com not convinced this is about Guo being too much of a reformer, there are other theories, all speculation at this point…deep waters// The South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday that Mr. Guo was headed to Shandong province, one of the biggest agricultural and industrial producers in the country. In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, a CSRC spokesman said “we haven’t received any such information” about Mr. Guo’s reassignment. Bank of China Chairman Xiao Gang is now expected to succeed Mr. Guo at the CSRC, said the party officials…”This [personnel] move is telling you, ‘Don’t be a reformer,’ ” said Fraser Howie, co-author of “Red Capitalism,” a study of China’s financial system. “If you’re a reformer on the securities beat, you’re out of a job in 18 months.”

反腐重点：剪除高官身边的“红顶商人”_多维新闻网【多维新闻】近日，有消息人士向多维新闻表示，随着两会的结束，由习近平和王岐山主导的此次“反腐风暴”不仅不会停止，反而会进一步推动，并将目标瞄向“老虎”级别的官员。但有知情人士指出，在高官涉腐行为中，有一种现象值得关注，那就是往往在他们的家人身边总围绕着一些“成功商人”，也往往正是这些人在为高官或高官家人输送利益，既让对方享受好处，又可以“手上无泥”，自己亦可捞好处。习近平王岐山真要“动真格的”，就要剪除这类“红顶商人”，彻底打掉高官及他们家人身边的“钱袋子”。

人民日报-“官”“商”交往要有道（人民论坛） 叶小文 日前，中央领导同志在参加江苏代表团讨论时谈到，“官”“商”交往要有道，相敬如宾，而不要勾肩搭背。寥寥数语，生动形象，切中要害。其中包含的三层意思，有深意，也有新意。

600m rural residents to vote in 2013: official |Politics |chinadaily.com.cn About 600 million people in rural China will participate in direct elections for village committees by the end of 2013, said Jiang Li, vice-minister of civil affairs, at a news conference on Wednesday. Jiang said there are 589,000 village committees in rural areas on the mainland, 98 percent were formed through direct elections. She stressed that the direct election of a new village committee in Wukan village in South China’s Guangdong province last March was not an exceptional case in China.

Mining firm ‘bribed Chinese officials to win Beijing Olympics sponsorship’ | South China Morning Post The US government is investigating top global miner BHP Billiton for possible corrupt practices, the company confirmed, after media reports said it was being probed for its sponsorship of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Australia’s Fairfax Media reported that the US Department of Justice and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) were investigating allegations that BHP provided inducements, hospitality and gifts to Chinese and other foreign officials.

Beijing woman sues mother-in-law over late husband’s car number plate | South China Morning Post A Beijing woman is suing her mother-in-law over the right to own a car number plate which belonged to her late husband, the Beijing Legal Evening News reports. The woman, surnamed Ren, claimed she was entitled to the number plate after her husband downed in floods which devasted Beijing in July last year.

In Wukan, frustration and fatigue – China Media Project Inside the village, division rankles. In October 2012, Zhuang Liehong, one of the elected committee members who had pledged most vocally to win back the village’s land, resigned his post, citing irreconcilable differences with Secretary Lin Zuluan and other committee members. “It wasn’t personal,” Zhuang tells me over cups of oolong in the village teahouse he opened after his resignation. “We think differently. Right now it’s just impossible [for us to work together].” In stark contrast to the unity Wukan showed the world in the midst of the protests, villagers now find it impossible to reach agreement even on how to use existing land. And evidence of the stalemate is everywhere.

 

FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS

习近平全军讲话原声曝光 强调要能打胜仗_资讯_网易视频 中共中央总书记、中共中央军委主席习近平今天在出席十二届全国人大一次会议解放军代表团全体会议时强调，全军要深入贯彻落实党的十八大精神，高举中国特色社会是义伟大旗帜，以邓小平理论、“三个代表”重要思想、科学发展观为指导，牢牢把握党在新形势下的强军目标，全面加强军队革命化现代化正规化建设，为建设一支听党指挥、能打胜仗、作风优良的人民军队而奋斗。 2013年3月12日深圳卫视《直播港澳台》播出以上视频内容。

Catholics look to next pope to improve China ties As the College of Cardinals meets at the Vatican for a second day, the fate of the church in China is receiving scant attention amid bigger concerns over priest shortages, clerical sexual abuse scandals, and giving greater voice to women and laypeople. Yet China will certainly be an issue before the next pontiff, not only because of continuing repression of Catholics in the country, but also because China’s rising economic and diplomatic status is propelling it ever more quickly toward the center of global affairs.

Pentagon creating teams to launch cyberattacks as threat grows – The Washington Post The Pentagon’s Cyber Command will create 13 offensive teams by the fall of 2015 to help defend the nation against major computer attacks from abroad, Gen. Keith Alexander testified to Congress on Tuesday, a rare acknowledgment of the military’s ability to use cyberweapons.

China hacker’s angst opens a window onto cyber-espionage – latimes.com Young man’s blog provides a rare glimpse of the secretive hacking establishment of the Chinese military, whose efforts have become a growing concern to the U.S.

China Knocks on Iceland’s Door – NYTimes.com In short, China is reaching out for a position in the Arctic, beginning in Greenland, followed by support facilities in Iceland — which is not a member of the European Union and seemingly has been put out in the cold by the United States — with potential use for naval vessels patrolling the Arctic and the Northeast Polar Passage. Security and stability in the European Arctic region are a matter of vital interest to the European Union and the United States. Fortunately, bolstering that security does not require re-establishing a military base in Iceland or negotiating new treaties — the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949, the U.S.-Iceland Defense Treaty of 1951 and arrangements agreed to in 2006 regarding air policing, military exercises and the establishment of joint search and rescue cooperation at Keflavik airport all remain in force.//Einar Benediktsson is a former Iceland ambassador to the United States, NATO and the European Union. Thomas R. Pickering is a former U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs and ambassador to Russia and the United Nations.

China plans first commercial trip through Arctic shortcut this year | South China Morning Post A Chinese shipping firm is planning the country’s first commercial voyage through a shortcut across the Arctic Ocean to the United States and Europe this year, a leading Chinese scientist said on Tuesday.

Analysis: Greenland’s resources boom still more talk than action | Reuters The promise of a resources boom has Greenland’s locals both eager and anxious, while the European Union sees it as a battleground with China, but the island is still a long way from producing anything. Retreating ice is exposing huge deposits of iron ore, rare earths and hydrocarbons, but it has yet to launch a single major mining project, and oil and gas production is a decade away at best.

China’s Newest Stealth Fighter May Head to Sea, State Media Says | Danger Room | Wired.com The twin-engine J-31, which made its public debut in blurry photographs snapped at the Shenyang Aircraft Company airfield in northeastern China in late October, “may become China’s next generation carrier-borne fighter jet,” according to the government-owned Global Times newspaper. “News” from China’s state media, including Global Times, essentially can be read as official announcements. But Sun Cong, the J-31′s chief designer, implied that the new stealth jet will need to be enhanced to become carrier-compatible, according to Global Times. In other words, the J-31 won’t be headed to sea any time soon, however much Chinese state media signals the rising power’s interest in taking its stealth jet out to the open water.

PLA deputies to NPC call for revision of Civil Air Defense Law – People’s Daily Online Bai Jianjun, director of the Operation Department of the GSH, is one of the proposers of the motion. He told reporter that the current Civil Air Defense Law has effectively safeguarded the construction and development of civil air defense since it came into force as of January 1, 1997. However, new situations and new things have kept bobbing up following the on-going change of the world, so some of the provisions in the Civil Air Defense Law are no longer adequate to solve the emerging contradictions in practice.”Under the situation that there have been no wars for decades, civil air defense construction will gradually lose its vitality due to the lack of understanding from various sectors of the society.”

 

HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN

Taiwan Shrinks Wealth Gap as Xi’s Communists Struggle in China – Bloomberg As incoming Chinese President Xi Jinping completes his nation’s leadership succession this week, Taiwan may offer a model for his campaign to bridge a wealth gap that threatens to undermine Communist Party legitimacy. Taiwan’s Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, was 0.342 in 2011 compared with China’s 0.477 and the 0.4 level used as a predictor for social unrest. Taiwan moved to introduce a national health-insurance program and greater political accountability as growth slowed to less than 10 percent two decades ago.

Taiwan Nixes China Military Confidence Measures – ABC News Taiwan is not ready to discuss military confidence building measures with China, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday, four years after leaders of the sides floated the idea when unveiling separate peace initiatives. Releasing his ministry’s quadrennial defense review, Deputy Defense Minister Andrew Yang said Beijing and Taipei need to build more political trust before they can start discussing military issues.

Hong Kong Banks Boost Rates as Government Cools Property Market – Bloomberg The lenders will raise home loan charges priced at the best lending rate by 25 basis points, starting today, they said in two separate e-mailed statements yesterday. HSBC’s mortgage rate linked to the best lending rate will climb to a range of 2.85 percent to 3.15 percent, from 2.6 percent to 2.9 percent.

 

TECH AND MEDIA

微信免费时代或将结束 消息称运营商正与腾讯谈判-中新网 mobile operators about to squeeze Tencent over Weixin/WeChat? but chatter on weibo about more than just taking away sms/mms businesses. suggestions the service may degrade calling quality on the networks, perhaps other issues// 据经济之声《天下公司》报道，最近有大量消息传出，国内三大电信运营商正在与腾讯公司展开谈判，主要内容是如何监管腾讯的OTT业务，以及如何向OTT业务收费。OTT 是英文”Over The Top”的缩写，这个词汇来源于篮球体育运动，原本是”过顶传球”的意思。而如今，OTT是指互联网公司越过运营商，发展基于开放互联网的各种语音、视频以及数据服务业务。比如说，腾讯的微信，以及微软的网络电话Skype。

Why China Can’t Make Its Own Mobile OS–TechInAsia Yesterday, Ji Yongqing (a seasoned tech reporter and the author of several books on China’s IT industry), addressed the operating system problem and laid out three reasons for China’s failure to produce a great OS in a blog post titled “Why Chinese People Can’t Produce Our Own Operating System.” It’s pretty interesting, so I’ve translated the most relevant part of it — Ji’s three reasons for China’s OS gap — below.

 

SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY

China’s Post 1980’s Generation—Are the Kids All Right? | ChinaFile This week, the ChinaFile Conversation is a call for reactions to an article about China’s current generation gap, written by James Palmer, a Beijing-based historian, author, and Global Times editor. The article, first published by Aeon in the U.K., “The Balinghou: Chinese Parents Bemoan Their Children’s Laziness and Greed, But This Generation of Young People Has Had Enough,” is excerpted with permission below, followed by our bloggers’ reactions:

Will China Change Its One-Child Policy? – Businessweek When asked point-blank what to expect next, the deputy head of China’s State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform told reporters not to anticipate immediate policy changes. Yet as Wang Feng, a sociologist and demography expert at the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy in Beijing, points out in an e-mail interview, that rhetoric may be “purely political.” “The government wants to change but does not want to see total chaos,” he writes. “Insisting no change in policy [is forthcoming] is just lip service for now.”

文化部今年重点治理艺术品鉴定市场乱象-  从“金缕玉衣”到“汉代玉凳”，鉴定的乱象让大众收藏、艺术品交易等行为成了“雾里看花”。据悉，《艺术品市场管理条例》现已明确画廊经纪、拍卖交易、展览展销、艺术品进出口等管理制度框架，但鉴定问题尚存在争议。

China’s New Dissidents: Dog Owners – Damien Ma – The Atlantic. The film, Oversized Dogs: Chinese Dog Laws and the People Who Break Them, is ostensibly about what the title suggests. It follows several Beijing residents who own dogs that are technically illegal because they are above the size limit stipulated in an antiquated Beijing law. It’s not just the Chinese capital — these size limitation rules have popped up in other parts of China, yet Chinese dog owners seem to be flouting them with impunity. Beyond the legal issue, dog ownership in China turns out to be an interesting examination of evolving attitudes in Chinese society today. In particular, it indirectly reflects the rise of rights consciousness among the growing legion of Chinese who count themselves among the middle class.

Saving China’s Soul: Journalist Examines Life of His Missionary Grandfather – China Real Time Report – WSJ This was a signal to write the book,” the younger Mr. O’Neill said Tuesday night at the Beijing Bookworm Literary Festival, where he introduced “Frederick: The Life of My Missionary Grandfather in Manchuria,” the culmination of more than two decades spent tracing the often difficult years his grandfather had spent proselytizing in China’s frozen north. Frederick O’Neill was part of a wave of Protestant missionaries who poured into China in the 19th century, convinced that they would succeed where their Jesuit rivals had failed a century earlier. Battling disease, isolation and an unreceptive population, few found themselves harvesting many souls. One of the first Protestant missionaries to arrive in the country, Robert Morrison, famously said that he managedjust 25 converts in 27 years (pdf).

Favorite American Boarding Schools with Chinese Students Fall 2013 | Vericant Choate Number 1. I am old enough to remember the big cocaine scandal. these boarding schools cleaned up, or some of these Chinese kids getting an intro to American prep school drug culture?// For Chinese students, however, a more important piece of information is which schools are top destinations for their peers that admissions cycle. An informal poll conducted by a Chinese student last month asked Internet-surfing peers which schools they had applied to, presumably to see how competitive the application pool was for Fall 2013 admission.

 

ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH

人民日报-“美丽中国”如何建设（听·代表委员议国是） 十八大报告首次把“美丽中国”作为生态文明建设的宏伟目标。政府工作报告再次强调，要顺应人民群众对美好生活环境的期待，大力加强生态文明建设和环境保护。连日来，代表、委员围绕建设“美丽中国”积极建言献策。

嘉兴探访：死猪总量大 无害化处理池不够用_新民突发_新民网 visit to Jiaxing to find source of dead pigs. grim pictures and video

Dead pigs in China river spotlight heedless industry | Reuters The rotting bodies of about 6,000 pigs in a river that supplies tap water to Shanghai has drawn attention to an ugly truth – China’s pig farms are often riddled with disease and one way or another, sick animals often end up in the food chain.

46 jailed for selling meat from sick pigs |Society |chinadaily.com.cn Zhang Xingbing, the principal offender who illegally purchased, slaughtered the diseased pigs and sold the meat, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison and fined 800,000 yuan ($129,000), Xinhua reported.The case was heard in Wenling, a city in Zhejiang province.Last year police arrested 65 people accused of selling meat from sick pigs and confiscated more than 10 metric tons of the product.

Asia Unbound » Dead Pigs in Shanghai: Failing Food Safety Regulations As the illicit trade of dead diseased pigs has become rampant in the past few years, the Ministry of Public Security has kicked off a nationwide campaign cracking down on gangs involved in the marketing of sick pigs. In one operation last year, police in Jiaxing reportedly arrested 12 suspects and confiscated nearly 12 tons of unsafe pork meat. During the celebration of the Lunar Chinese New Year in February, the police reportedly stepped up efforts to rid the market of tainted pork meat. In absence of collaboration from other departments, however, these well-intended efforts led to unintended outcomes: farmers simply dumped the large number of unmarketable dead pigs into the local river, which happens to be upstream from Shanghai.

浙江嘉兴一养殖户涉嫌乱扔死猪被立案_网易新闻中心 the scapepig? 1 pig farmer arrested 4 throwing dead pigs into river//新华社杭州3月13日电 浙江省嘉兴市13日傍晚发布消息称，上海水域漂浮死猪事件发生后，嘉兴市积极协助上海方面做好核查。经查，上海方面向嘉兴提供的14个耳标中，1个耳标涉及的养殖户承认随意抛弃死猪，目前已立案；7个耳标因号码缺失或信息不全无法核查；余6个耳标尚待进一步核查。

Tibet to build first genetic resource bank – Xinhua | English.news.cn Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region will start construction on its first genetic resource bank within the year, regional authorities said Wednesday. The bank will help Tibet protect its genetic resources and ensure sustainable conservation, according to the regional science and technology department. The bank will be used to preserve plant seeds, as well as DNA from animals and microorganisms.

习近平：网民检验水质的标准是市长敢不敢下湖游泳_资讯频道_凤凰网 Xi Jinping says citizens’ test for whether water is safe is if mayor is willing to swim in it

钟南山：英国治霾用了快30年 北京若下狠心10年就成_资讯频道_凤凰网

Chinese province offers ‘clean air tourism’ to suffering urbanites | Marketplace.org Paris has culture. Barbados: beaches. The big draw to Southeastern China’s Fujian province: Breathable air. A television ad from Fujian’s tourism bureau shows off the province’s lush, green mountains, and sandy beaches. Crystal clear views abound. “Take a deep breath,” says the voiceover, “you’re in Fujian.”

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