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

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The best way to see this daily post is to subscribe by email, especially if you are in China, as Sinocism is blocked by the GFW. You can also follow me on Twitter @niubi or Sina Weibo @billbishop. 

Just links today, blame the Shui Jingfang at an interesting dinner at the China Club:

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

汇金几度出手：银行股为何“再而衰”？_股票频道_一财网 – Huijin buying shares of China’s big 4 banks again, another of the measures to keep A shares above 2000?// 中央汇金再出手增持“四大行”，“双节”前后A股市场明显回稳，仅五个交易，上证指数便累计反弹了115点，涨幅超过5%，也重新站上2100点上方。

China: All the golden week data you could ever want | beyondbrics – For all the concerns about the economy’s slowdown, the figures provide a glimmer of hope that China is making headway in its efforts to unleash domestic consumption as an engine of growth.

人民日报-如何看待国企改革（经济热点面对面） ——访国资委负责人及有关专家 – page 2 people’s daily Interview w SASAC #2 Shao Ning on how to look at SOE reform

Your New Car Is Made In China–Shanghai Daily – love the lime green suit// Billionaire and philanthropist Chen Guangbiao stands on the roof of a new car he bought in the eastern city of Nanjing yesterday. Chen spent about 5 million yuan (US$794,252) in purchasing new cars, all Chinese brands, for the 43 owners of Japanese cars that were damaged last month during nationwide anti-Japan anger

北京甲级写字楼空置率创历史新低_公司频道_财新网 – vacancies in Beijing CBD Class A office market at record low, rents continue to climb//

北京土地出让超过前8月总和 –Beijing land sales in September exceeded total sales from the previous 8 months combined//

Motorists Warned on Air Bags – WSJ.com – The counterfeit air bags look identical to certified parts, and bear facsimiles of auto makers’ logos or markings, NHTSA said. The agency doesn’t know where exactly they’re coming from, but federal agents have seized thousands of bogus air bags, many with origins tracing back to counterfeiters in China.

China Economy to Improve After Leadership Change, BlackRock Says – Bloomberg –this is what many are now arguing/hoping. me too, if only because the need for progress in reforms is now so obvious and desperate that continued inertia could lead to ugly outcomes// “Once we get through the leadership change, both in the U.S. and also in this part of the world, I think we’re going to see a much healthier base from which we can have growth within the expectations of China,” said Mark McCombe, BlackRock’s Asia-Pacific chairman, during Bloomberg Television’s Titans At The Table program which aired yesterday.

U.S. firms less optimistic, but will still invest in China: survey | Reuters – “The China market continues to deliver sales growth and profitability for U.S. companies, but rising costs, increasing competition, and persistent market access and regulatory barriers are tempering the optimism of U.S. companies doing business with China,” the U.S.-China Business Council said.

U.S. sets steep final duties on Chinese solar panels | Reuters – The United States on Wednesday set steep final duties on billions of dollars of solar energy products from China, but turned down a request from lawmakers and U.S. manufacturers to expand the scope of its order

China’s Economic Slowdown Felt By Its Young Generation | PBS NewsHour –

 

POLITICS AND LAW

The Dark Heart of the Bo Xilai Case – –Translation of new Hu Shuli editorial in Caixin// Bo taught us all a painful lesson. Thirty years of reform and opening up has brought China tremendous success, but also created many problems in society. Its people are desperate for solutions. Chinese leaders should heed the call for change and deepen their reform efforts. Their priority now is to continue fighting corruption and speed up the reform of the economic and political systems, particularly the legal system. “All people are equal before the law” must be more than a slogan, and the system of checks and balances strengthened.

【舒立观察】现代政治油彩 封建残余底色_杂志频道_财新网 – New Hu Shuli editorial on the Bo Xilai case in Caixin// 薄熙来事件的教训是极为深刻的。30多年的改革开放，在取得巨大成就的同时，也积累了一定的弊端和矛盾。人们迫切希望消除这些弊端，化解这些矛盾。执政党应当顺应这些要求，善于引导这些要求，把这些合理的要求转化为进一步深化改革的动力。当前，必须坚定不移地惩治和预防腐败，加快推进经济体制和政治体制的改革，特别是要不断完善社会主义法治体系，把“法律面前人人平等”的观念制度化，切实加强对权力的制约和监督。

Chinese official under graft probe for owning 21 houses – Xinhua | English.news.cn – and people wonder why a property tax has still not been introduced// An investigation is underway into an urban management official in south China’s Guangdong Province

Kissing Up to Get Ahead in China – Economic Observer Online  – Sucking up is to getting ahead at a Chinese banquet is even more important than being able to hold your drinks. But successfully winning favor through brownnosing is a difficult art to master.

习仲勋之女齐桥桥：历经文革磨难 商海华丽转身 – 编者按：2011年7月初，清华大学经管学院网站记者对话EMBA04D班学员齐桥桥，听其讲述60年来与祖国同呼吸共命运的风雨历程。齐桥桥是前国务院副总理、政治局委员、书记处书记习仲勋和齐心的大女儿，1949年出生于延安桥儿沟中央医院，故名“桥桥”。

人民日报-改革开放，永葆探索创新的朝气（人民观点·锻造我们时代的精神气质 ②- 本报评论部 – 今天的中国，改革有了更坚实的基础，但继续推进改革开放所遇的新情况、新问题和压力，丝毫不亚于当年。只有更加自觉地思创新、促改革，做闯关夺隘的开路先锋，只有始终保持探索创新的蓬勃朝气，始终保持那么一股子冲劲、闯劲、拼劲、韧劲，我们才可能跨过攻坚期的艰难险阻，将先辈们开创的改革开放大业推向一个新的境界。

人民网：迟迟未政改因理论准备不足 非惧怕民主_网易新闻中心 – 核心提示：人民网发表署名公方彬的文章称，不改革死路一条，为什么政治体制改革迟迟未上路，不是惧怕民主，而是很大程度上缘于理论准备不足。没有科学理论作指导，就不能保证正确的改革路径。

Bringing Down ‘Watch Brother’: China’s Online Corruption-Busters Tread a Fine Line | World | TIME.com – “let them eat cake” becomes “let them flesh search a few expendable officials” in the microblogging era?// And for all its power, Weibo can be used as an anti-graft weapon only when the government allows it to function in such a manner. “The microblogging site has other limitations,” says professor Zhan. “When we observe officials wearing watches, belts and glasses or using certain cigarettes, we can get clues about their possibly corrupt lifestyles. But we cannot look into every official. To some extent, the ‘watch brother’ is just unlucky compared with his corrupt colleagues who have not been discovered.”

Censorship Scandal Reaching Over 1,000 Miles Is Exposed On China’s Twitter | Tea Leaf Nation – “Transportation chief Li Dejin of Fujian Province wears a Rado diamond watch worth 50,000 RMB (about US$8,000) and a waist belt worth 15,000 RMB (about US$2,400). The Metropolis Times in Yunnan Province (@都市时报) had planned to run a piece titled ‘Fujian’s Watch Uncle is Coming’ on page A30 [on October 9]. Hundreds of thousands of copies had been printed, but were destroyed in the early morning due to pressure from Fujian Province

Beating in Xi’an for Offense of Driving Japanese Car–New York Times– “These protests could be a very important turning point in China’s democratic politics,” Bai Yansong, a prominent commentator on state television, said on his program, “1+1.” “Just because you have a just cause doesn’t mean that the process can be illegal.”

 

FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS

Asia Unbound » Huawei, Cybersecurity, and U.S. Foreign Policy–Adam Segal – Most of the threats the report identifies as being characteristic of Huawei—unsecured supply chains in China, vulnerability of middle managers to recruitment by intelligence agents, government access to networks for state security—could be said to afflict any telecommunications company in the world. These are real threats and the solution promoted by many, including Huawei, is a transparent process of inspections that could be scaled globally (a process Huawei agreed to in the United Kingdom). The report dismisses Huawei’s suggestions as insufficient and the process as too complicated. Both may be true, but Rogers and Ruppersberger could have made more of an effort to describe a process that would work. Here the report missed an opportunity to address its own credibility issues, broaden the problem, and build a coalition.

Memo to Congress re: Huawei — IBM China Has Communist Party Committees Too | Tea Leaf Nation – The “Communist party committees” within Huawei and ZTE that allegedly cast “a shadow source of power and influence” (in the words of the U.S. Congressional report) over the Chinese companies are present in most large foreign companies’ China branches as well.

Erica Downs–China’s Oil Investment Is Not a Threat – By Erica Downs | Foreign Policy – The Chinese purchase of a Canadian oil company is something U.S. officials should welcome, not fear.

Chinese intellectuals call for rational Japan-China ties – AJW by The Asahi Shimbun– A leading Chinese intellectual is spearheading a petition drive via the Internet to restore calm to Japan-China relations, now whipped into a frenzy over a territorial dispute.For her efforts, social critic, scholar and author Cui Weiping has been branded a traitor in some quarters.

Something to Talk About, Again – China Power-Taylor Fravel – Japan could acknowledge that the islands had been discussed and deferred without altering its claim to them.  China could view such as statement as acknowledging the past “common ground.”  Both sides could move on.  As Doug Paal suggests, if China rejected such a Japanese statement, then the “onus shifts to China” to de-escalate the situation.

Senkakus a harbinger for Japanese shift on China policy? | East Asia Forum – If an LDP-led government comes to power and follows through on these pledges it would be challenging China on one of its fundamental interests. Bejing’s reaction would most likely be harsh. A tougher stance on the island dispute could possibly also be a harbinger for Japan to challenge China on other issues. This is, of course, what nationalist politicians like Ishihara want: they have long been calling for Japan to stop being deferential toward Beijing. But such a development could mean the end of Japan’s active accommodation of China’s rise and could have far-reaching implications for regional security.

 

TECH AND MEDIA

Apple Choice of IPhone Aluminum Said to Slow Down Output – Bloomberg – The scrapes, which sparked complaints with the iPhone’s debut last month, are due to Apple’s decision to use a type of aluminum that helps make the smartphone thinner and lighter. Senior Apple managers told executives at Foxconn near the end of September to tighten production standards, said the person, who asked not to be named because the matter was private.

 

SOCIETY, ART, CULTURE AND HISTORY

Confucius as I Know Him | China Heritage Quarterly – I believe here we have at last arrived at the true Confucius, erring, struggling, sometimes elated and sometimes despondent, but always retaining a personal charm and a good sense of humour, and able to laugh at a joke at his own expense. This is the true Confucius and not the immaculate saint of irreproachable character which the Confucian scholars and the western Sinologues would have us believe.

Imperial Exposures – Google Cultural Institute – During her visits to the imperial courts of Asia, Alice Roosevelt Longworth collected a series of photographic portraits given to her as official diplomatic gifts. In her 1933 autobiography, Alice recalls in detail the events surrounding each gift, providing valuable insight into the use of royal portraiture. Furthermore, an examination of the different images of each ruler is instructiive in understanding the diplomatic context of the era.

 

ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH

End of an ice age – Globaltimes.cn–Bai told the Global Times that other snowy mountains in Yunnan Province, such as Haba and Meili in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, are faced with the same grave situation, with their glaciers rapidly melting. “But Yulong is the most critical.”Many tourists are disappointed to find that many sections of Meili that used to be blanketed by snow are now covered by vegetation.

The best way to see this daily post is to subscribe by email, especially if you are in China, as Sinocism is blocked by the GFW. You can also follow me on Twitter @niubi or Sina Weibo @billbishop. 

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