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Just links today, still having big Internet problems:
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
Heavy Lending Creates a Surge in Chinese Economy – NYTimes.com – The latest data, including industrial production, retail sales, fixed-asset investment and electricity generation, were stronger than most economists had anticipated. They presented a consistent picture of an economy that is starting to show real growth again after a very weak spring and summer.
Chinese state firms say reform should mean more growth | Reuters– “The direction of the SOE (state-owned enterprise) reform should be: SOEs must be more market-oriented and they must keep strengthening their vitality and influence,” Wang Yong, the head of a commission on supervising and administering state-owned assets, told reporters.”Scholars may have different views, but that’s the development need of the enterprises and the state.”
China Exports Exceed Estimates in Sign of Global Pickup – Bloomberg – Overseas shipments increased 11.6 percent from a year earlier, the Beijing-based customs administration said in a statement today. That compared with the 10 percent estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists and was the fastest rate since May. Imports rose 2.4 percent, the same pace as the previous month. The trade surplus widened to $32 billion, the biggest in almost four years.
Beijing land plot auction fails for the first time – Companies & Industries – MorningWhistle – The other two land plots in Fengtai and Huairou districts of Beijing were sold at a premium. The multi-function land plot in Fengtai was sold at 843.5 million yuan, and average selling price of the land plot in Huairou reached to 8,556 yuan per square meter.
PCAOB progress in China | China Accounting Blog | Paul Gillis – I think the better approach is to clean up the sector. China should designate the China Securities and Regulatory Commission (CSRC) as the primary regulator and gatekeeper for Chinese companies seeking overseas listings. Chinese regulators will always be more effective than foreign regulators at regulating Chinese companies.
POLITICS AND LAW
The Children Devour the Revolution – By John Garnaut | Foreign Policy –buries the lede..Liu Yuan absent from the 18th? maybe those Mingjing rumors of investigation true?// In an extraordinary closed door speech in February, notes of which Foreign Policy has seen, Liu Yuan cautioned that Saif exposed himself to the flattery, privilege, and ideological brainwashing of the “Western hostile forces” -amorphous enemies of Chinese communism. And he returned to Libya with ideas of liberty and democracy, which fatally softened the ideological defenses of his once-defiant father, Liu said, leading to his bloody demise. It is exactly this kind of Fifth Column that Liu fears could kill China from the inside…The son of former President Liu Shaoqi, Liu was listed as one of the Party delegates assembled this week in Beijing for the Communist Party’s epochal 18th Congress, where President Hu Jintao will begin to officially yield power to the next generation of leaders. But Liu didn’t appear onstage on Thursday with his peers.
操刀十八大报告 习近平执政思路露锋芒_多维新闻网 -不过，
人民日报-
【舒立观察】十八大：改革之火燃起来_政经频道_财新网 – 姓“公”姓“私”，始终是阻碍经济改革深化的一道坎。
刘世锦：两个“毫不动摇”以公平竞争为基础_政经频道_财新网
China’s ex-president overshadows party congress, transition | Reuters– While few believe Jiang has much sympathy for political reform, some party insiders believe his involvement in selecting the new standing committee may be a sign that the next government could be more inclined to push for more aggressive economic reform. Sceptics believe that’s unlikely to happen quickly.
张卓元：十八大报告关键在于落实_政经频道_财新网 – 今后的关键问题是，这些方针、政策、部署、措施，
Party congress responds positively to age of Internet – Xinhua | English.news.cn – Shu Bin, general manager and chief editor of Rednet.cn, based in central China’s Hunan Province, is one of two Internet media practitioners attending. The other is Liao Hong, president and chief editor of People.com.cn.
For China’s next first lady, a lowered profile – The Washington Post – China’s first ladies: Unlike her American counterpart, the spouse of a Chinese president often stays well in the background, clear of the spotlight. But China’s next first lady, Peng Liyuan, a popular singer, may break from that mold.
China’s New Boss: Xi Jinping – WSJ.com – Still, the new leadership is unlikely to try pushing through big changes overnight. China’s central bank head, Zhou Xiaochuan, a financial liberalizer, warned a former U.S. official recently not to expect a big reform push until at least next October, the official said.
Chinese delegates go through the motions – FT.com – “The congress is not supposed to decide anything; everything has been decided beforehand in much smaller meetings,” says Zhang Ming, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing. “The congress is purely ceremonial, with delegates going through the motions to make sure the ceremony is perfect and harmonious.”
China’s State Council Opens Weibo Account, Gains 150,000 Followers in 24 Hours | Tea Leaf Nation – China’s ultra-powerful State Council has joined the social media age by registering an account on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. In less than 24 hours, the account (@国务院公报) has already gained more than 150,000 followers, and its first post was retweeted over 30,000 times:
State Enterprises Pose Test for China’s New Leaders – NYTimes.com – “I think there are definitely different schools of thought” inside the government, said a manager at a company looking closely at acquiring stakes in state-owned enterprises if they were to be privatized. “What they actually choose to do will also depend on the courage of the new leadership.”
China using massive surveillance grid to stop Tibetan self-immolation – Telegraph – China has revealed it is using a massive surveillance camera network to cover restive areas of Tibet and bring to an end a grisly wave of self-immolations.
Educated Chinese Are Silent Amid Tibetan Self-Immolations – NYTimes.com – racism runs very deep// Mr. Wang and others say a subtle undercurrent of antipathy toward Tibetans suffuses the worldview of educated Chinese. That sentiment, they say, has been nurtured by official propaganda that paints Tibetans as rebellious, uncultured and unappreciative of government efforts to raise their standard of living. One prominent filmmaker, speaking more candidly than usual, but only under the condition of anonymity, noted that many Chinese are alternately fascinated and repulsed by Tibetans. We Han love their exotic singing and dancing, but we also see them as barbarians seeking to split the nation apart, he said.
Google unblocked again – was it a mistake or a test? | GreatFire.org
Google Is Blocked in China as Party Congress Begins – NYTimes.com –
Cicero’s Advice to China’s Would-be Leaders | The China Story – The Chinese already appreciate the importance of these [Latin] sources. Several years ago they were sending local students on scholarships to learn Latin at European universities. Today … they are training up thousands of Chinese teachers of classics – not the Chinese classics of Confucius and Lao Tzu, that is, but those of ancient Greece and Rome.
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
China to launch manned spaceship in June – Xinhua | English.news.cn – Like in the Shenzhou-9 mission, the crew might include two men astronauts and a woman, who are scheduled to enter the Tiangong-1 space lab module, Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of China’s manned space program, said on the sidelines of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
China’s mystery space plane draws attention – Technology & science – Space – Space.com | NBC News – The bottom line, the two researchers said, is that foreign policymakers need to take China’s ambitions in space seriously. “Beijing’s development of space plane programs is broad-based, and their trajectory will represent a key barometer of its civil and military space intentions.”
Japan Seeks Tighter Pact With U.S. to Confront China – NYTimes.com – Japan’s defense minister, Satoshi Morimoto, said Friday that he wanted to revise his nation’s security alliance with the United States to place more emphasis on the threat from China to islands at the center of a territorial dispute.
Video: Former US Ambassador Says ‘China Expertise’ an ‘Oxymoron’ | Asia Society – “I believe ‘China expertise’ is an oxymoron,” Lord, who served in Beijing from 1985 to 1989 and later became Assistant Secretary of State, said in a recent video interview at Asia Society Studios in New York. “It’s very difficult to predict, [which] particularly goes with the secretive nature and the non-democratic nature of their system.”//i plead guilty to at least the moron part…
TECH AND MEDIA
博联社暂停内容更新公告_服务员_博联社 – 博联社暂停网站内容更新公告 blogging platform bishe stopping updates for 1 week. no word why //各位博友、网友：
Shuabang: The Great Evil in China | TechNode – “Shuabang” is the practice of using various shady methods to propel an app onto the top of the App Store ranking for free apps. App Store is the preferred victim here, because despite the fact that Android is three times as popular as iOS, the inherent fragmented nature of the Android ecosystem means that there is no universal ranking that everyone adheres to, and rigging the system is deemed too simple and common place.