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Both kids are home sick today with the nasty cold going around Beijing, so just links today.
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Today’s links:
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
China Rebound Accelerates as Xi Confronts 8.1% Unemployment Rate – Bloomberg – Industrial production climbed 10.1 percent in November from a year earlier and retail sales growth accelerated to 14.9 percent, while inflation was 2 percent, the statistics bureau said yesterday. The urban unemployment rate exceeded 8 percent this year, a central bank-backed research center said yesterday in Beijing, citing a household survey.
China Survey Shows Wealth Gap Soaring as Xi Pledges Help – Bloomberg – The Gini coefficient, an index measuring income inequality, was 0.61 in 2010, based on a survey of 8,438 households by the Survey and Research Center for China Household Finance, a body set up by the Finance Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. The survey also estimated the urban jobless rate in July 2012 was 8.05 percent, almost double the official figure.
报告称中国家庭基尼系数达0.61 贫富悬殊世所少见 – 推荐-国内 – 21CN.COM –
China’s Bullish November Economic Data – Business Insider – China’s government will be setting its official economic targets fro 2013. Here’s SocGen’s Yao: “Policymakers will meet at the Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC) in the next few days and set the economic targets for 2013. At the Politburo meeting last week – the prep meeting for the CEWC, the top leaders sounded more confidence in the growth momentum, reiterated to maintain prudent monetary policy, and emphasised the importance of the quality of growth as well as structural reforms. Hence, we expect no change in either the growth target of 7.5% or the cautiously supportive policy stance.
China November inflation bounces off 33-month lows | Reuters – dimming the chance for more monetary policy easing as its economy recovers.Sunday’s data missed analysts’ expectations for November inflation to quicken to five-month highs of 2.1 percent from October’s 1.7 percent. Food was the key driver of consumer prices last month, with vegetable prices jumping 11.3 percent.
房贷新利率下月起将实施 百万贷款月供减333元_房产_腾讯网 – mortgage payments to drop 333 rmb/mo per 1m RMB of loans starting jan 1. resets for mortgage rate every jan 1, this year’s PBOC rate cuts the reason
China is now heading toward Japan-style economic paralysis if it doesnt change course- Quartz- by Jack Rodman..see from graf 3 on for Rodman’s record on his pronouncements about Beijing real estate. more and more people saying China on the road to being like Japan. I still think the differences between the two are much greater than than the similarities. but it certainly makes a catchy headline and a good soundbite// Property prices in Japan and China, driven by speculation (supported by the banks), were pushed to unaffordable levels, limiting and in some cases prohibiting, middle-class homeownership in each country. Government policies favoring the construction industry created the problem as both countries tried to “grow their way out of the problem” by “paving over the countryside” with infrastructure developments. I leave it to the political pundits to compare the 50-year rule of the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan to the 60-year reign of the Chinese Communist Party in China. But the strong similarities are undeniable.
国家统计局原局长：房价上涨十年内不会逆转_国内财经_
全国房地产开发投资加速_经济频道_财新网 – Caixin, real estate investment increasing nationwide// 1-11月，
人民日报-探寻城乡一体化路径—— 诸城看村不见“村”(学习贯彻十八大) –Big page 1 People’s Daily article on urbanization
CSRC comments on PCAOB/SEC tiff | China Accounting Blog | Paul Gillis -Most interesting to me is a comment made by Tong Daochi, CSRC Director General of International Affairs, at a conference last week in Hong Kong. Tong is reported to have said “Audit papers are very important to maintain market integrity and the CSRC is ready to cooperate with other jurisdictions on this issue.” Tong further indicated that with respect to the discussions with the U.S. “We are making progress and I think we should be able to work out a way to get them out”.
地方经济数据造假成统计领域最大腐败 获利大处罚轻 | 每经网 – People’s Daily Overseas Edition goes after to local officials manipulating data and how they use the fake data for their benefit // 核心提示： 据报道，有些领导身边有“两本账”，
Sea Bass With Barbie Dolls Challenge Wal-Mart in China – Bloomberg – RT-Mart// From Shanghai to Chengdu, the outlets run by China’s largest big-box retailer, Sun Art Retail Group Ltd. (6808), are recreating American-style Wal-Marts, with one big difference: They’re giving them the feel of local street markets with hairy crabs laid on table tops and discounted hot-pot ingredients. That formula has helped it crack the country’s 507 billion yuan ($81 billion) hypermarket industry overseas rivals Tesco Plc. (TSCO), Wal-Mart and Carrefour SA (CA) have struggled to get a handle on.
POLITICS AND LAW
人民日报-改文风 写新风 本报评论员 – page 1 people’s daily calling for change in official writing style…
Man of the people makes little fuss on first official visit|Politics|chinadaily.com.
深圳特区报重发1992年评论：多干实事(图)_新闻_腾讯网
亲历者回忆重庆打黑:打死了有王立军成口头禅|重庆|打黑基地|
China police detain two Tibetans for inciting self-immolations | Reuters – Police in Sichuan province have detained Lorang Konchok, a 40-year-old monk in Aba county, and his 31-year-old nephew for inciting eight people to set themselves on fire since 2009, encouraging them by saying they would be “heroes”, Xinhua said.
As Tibetan self-immolations rise, Beijing tightens grip | Reuters– Some experts have said Communist Party chief Xi Jinping — whose former vice premier father had a close bond with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama — might adopt a more reformist approach to the troubled mountainous region when he takes over as president in March. But so far, the anti-China protests, including 81 burning cases this year, have only been met with an intensified crackdown by Chinese security forces.
Rare Beijing protest takes aim at high-speed rail project | South China Morning Post– Police allowed the largely middle-class protesters to march down a main road, where they briefly blocked an intersection shouting “down with the high-speed line” and “change the route”. They peacefully dispersed later in the afternoon.
China keeps a close eye on university student groups – latimes.com – Peking University’s tuanwei, an arm of the Communist Youth League, is a means for the Communist Party to monitor and exert control over extracurricular groups.
Officials’ assets in spotlight[1]|chinadaily.com.cn
广东横琴、南沙、始兴三地将试点官员财产公示|广东|财产公示|
Police chief in Chinese city sacked over mistress scandal – Xinhua | English.news.cn– A police chief in northwest China has been removed from the post as he is being investigated for allegedly keeping a pair of twin sisters as mistresses, local authorities confirmed Sunday. Qi Fang, director of public security bureau of Wusu City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has been embroiled in the sex scandal since earlier this week. He was sacked on Saturday, the Tacheng prefecture committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) announced.
No surprise some are cynical about anti-graft efforts | South China Morning Post– However, Xi’s trip to Guangdong was not just about charming the people. The selection of Shenzhen as his first stop aimed to send a strong message that he would continue Deng Xiaoping’s open-door policy. By contrast, when Hu came to power in 2002, his first trip beyond Beijing saw him pay homage to Xibaipo, a village in Hebei where Communist leaders established their base from 1947 to 1948. While some mainlanders are heartened by Xi’s efforts to fashion a new style and his promises to fight corruption, many can be forgiven for being sceptical.
“20亿村官”发家新谜团_财经频道_一财网 – 在周伟思一些“说不清楚”的资产中还存在诸多疑点，
举报人称不信兰州市长没名表 将上书中纪委_新闻_腾讯网 – person who reported the Lanzhou mayor for owning expensive watches thinks the official report in response is a whitewash, vows to submit a report to CDIC
FOREIGN AND DEFENSE AFFAIRS
人民日报-开创睦邻友好合作新局面(高举和平、发展、合作、
Analysis: As China’s clout grows, sea policy proves unfathomable | Reuters– “It is really unclear, I think, to most nations (what the regulations mean),” U.S. Ambassador to Beijing Gary Locke told Reuters last week. “Until we really understand what these things are, there is no way to comment. First we need clarification of the extent, the purpose and the reach of these regulations.” The fact that a provincial government can unilaterally worsen one of China’s most sensitive diplomatic problems highlights the dysfunctionality, and potential danger, of policymaking in this arena, analysts say.
人民日报-中国梦 报国魂 ——追记航空工业英模罗阳 – also page 1 people’s daily..luo yang a national hero and becoming a symbol of assertive nationalism?
Philippines backs rearming of Japan – FT.com – The Philippines would strongly support a rearmed Japan shorn of its pacifist constitution as a counterweight to the growing military assertiveness of China, according to the Philippine foreign minister. “We would welcome that very much,” Albert del Rosario told the Financial Times in an interview. “We are looking for balancing factors in the region and Japan could be a significant balancing factor.”
Shintaro Ishihara, Right-Wing Japanese Politician, Makes Gains – NYTimes.com – Shintaro Ishihara has been a rare, flamboyant presence in Japan’s otherwise drab political world for four decades. A novelist turned right-wing firebrand, he has long held celebrity status on the political margins, where he was known for dramatic flourish. He once signed a pact in blood to oppose diplomatic ties with China because of its communist government, and he published a book at the height of Japan’s economic power that lectured his countrymen on the need to end what he considered its postwar servility to the United States.
The Hindu: PLA air force tests fighting skills in major drill– The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) northwestern Lanzhou Military Command, whose charge includes the disputed Aksai Chin region, completed a large-scale, 12-day military drill involving more than a dozen air force units in the Gobi desert on Friday.The exercise was described by state media as the biggest “air-to-air strike assessment” drills conducted by the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) in recent years, involving “simulated air combat” to measure the fighting capability in modern warfare scenarios.
Beijing hopes ‘bias’ against China ends with Canada’s Nexen approval – The Globe and Mail– China’s official media cheered Ottawa’s decision to allow the takeover of Nexen Inc. by a Chinese government-owned oil company as symbolic, expressing hope that it would lead other countries to end their “bias” against large Chinese investments. However, a key adviser to the Chinese government acknowledged that Beijing would have to accept and adapt to the new reality that no more takeovers by foreign state-owned enterprises would be allowed in Canada’s oil sands.
Canada won promises from China in backing Nexen deal – minister | Reuters – Paradis said CNOOC made promises involving the management of Nexen and that the Chinese company would have report back to the Industry Ministry to ensure conditions are being met. Canada made “sure that we had significant undertakings in terms of governance, about transparency, about disclosure,” Paradis told CTV’s “Question Period” program.
China, Cuba to further military cooperation – People’s Daily Online– BEIJING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) — China and Cuba agreed to further deepen military cooperation as a Cuban senior general visited Beijing on Friday.Joaquin Quintas, Vice Minister of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), said that the Cuban side is willing to enhance exchanges with the Chinese military and strengthen bilateral cooperation in personnel training and other areas.
Raul Greets Visiting Chinese Military Delegation – Radio Angulo –China upping military exchanges with Cuba as South China Sea heats up, or is this normal tempo of exchanges? //December 9 -Army General Raul Castro, President of the councils of State and Ministers, greeted Lieutenant General Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China. Jianguo headed a delegation that concluded a visit to the island on Friday.
HONG KONG AND TAIWAN
Tsai Eng-meng lived up to his bulldog reputation with Next purchase | South China Morning Post – He made the deal happen despite harsh criticism and accusations that he was trying to control Taiwan’s opinion market or that he was acting in the interests of Beijing by looking to serve as its mouthpiece on the island. In doing so, he took over the Taiwanese interests of Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying – an unrelenting critic of the Communist Party.
TECH AND MEDIA
央视《焦点访谈》：莫让微信成“危信”|央视|焦点|焦点访谈_
China’s indie filmmakers and the way of the ‘dragon seal’ – latimes.com – But in the last few years, more and more filmmakers like Yang have been trying to carve out a new middle ground: They are developing scripts for art house-style movies that can win a “dragon seal” (Chinese censors’ official stamp of endorsement). As the number of these government-approved indie films grows, a nascent Chinese industry — production houses and exhibitors — is emerging to support them.
4399, the Third Most-searched Query on Baidu in 2012 – 4399.com, or 4399 Small Games, is one of the most popular small game portals in China, especially among kids. As kids have limited knowledge on using the Internet, a typical scenario you’d see a kid access 4399 is: step one, turning on a PC; step two, clicking open the Internet Explorer, which is still widely adopted in China; step three, typing in “4399″ into the search box on the landing page — chances are Hao123 or any others with Baidu as the default search service; step four, clicking open the search result with 4399′s logo Baidu returns; the last step, clicking open a game.
Focus Media Slides on Report CDH Out of Buyout – Bloomberg –looks like very bad news for Focus. vindication for Muddy Waters and John Hempton on the horizon?// CDH Investments Fund Management Co., based in Beijing, has withdrawn from the August bid to take Focus Media private, Dow Jones Newswires said, citing a person with knowledge of the deal that it didn’t identify. CDH and Jing Lu, responsible for Focus Media’s investor and media relations, didn’t immediately reply to e-mails sent after business hours in the Chinese capital. The buyer consortium includes Washington-based Carlyle Group LP (CG), whose spokesman Chris Ullman declined to comment on the report.
SOCIETY, ART, SPORTS, CULTURE AND HISTORY
The Struggle of 15-Year-Old Hukou Protester Zhan Haite | ChinaGeeks | analysis and translation of modern China – A 15-year-old girl has made waves in the Chinese press recently for her fight against Shanghai authorities after she was banned from taking the college entrance examination because she does not hold a Shanghai hukou (household registration). She and her family have experienced harassment from locals and authorities as a result of their advocacy.
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH
china medical news 中国医学新闻: Contaminated instruments kill five patients at Beijing hospital – An outbreak caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii affected 12 patients being treated at the intensive care unit of a 1200-bed hospital in Beijing. An investigating team led by Dr Xia Yukun of the Department for Hospital Infection Control & Research at the Institute of Disease Control & Prevention of PLA, Academy of Military Medical Sciences traced the outbreak to inadequate sterilisation techniques used to clean the ICU’s bronchofiberscope.
FOOD AND TRAVEL
Shanghai visa plan ‘set to boost visitor numbers’ |Politics |chinadaily.com.cn– As a new year commences, citizens from 45 countries will be permitted a 72-hour visa-free stay inside the “administrative area” of Shanghai, the municipal government said on Sunday. The countries include the United States, France, Japan and Australia. The new policy, approved by the State Council, comes four days after Beijing officially announced a similar program, the first city to do so. That will also be introduced on Jan 1.