"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
- 专访央行行长周小川：利率汇率改革再推进-《财经网》
- Key players in Bo scandal may learn fate soon | SCMP.com
Princeling’s ex-henchman may escape execution for trying to defect, top officials in HK allegedly told, with wife Gu Kailai likely to be the main culprit..
According to sources who attended the latest briefing in Shenzhen, central government leaders concluded that Wang Lijun had “tried to defect” – which in theory is punishable with the death penalty – but said that he had partly made up for his crimes by making “contributions” – a reference to his co-operation with the investigation into Bo. - AFP: China hosts S. Sudan president as oil dispute rages
- Pentagon to Create New Spy Service – WSJ.com
The U.S. is getting a new spy service.The Defense Clandestine Service is being created through a Pentagon reorganization, using existing personnel and funds, to increase the Defense Department’s role in the collection of sensitive intelligence about threats to the U.S.
- CORRECT: SEC Accuses SinoTech Energy, Top Officers Of Fraud – WSJ.com
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged SinoTech Energy Ltd. (CTESY), a China-based oil field services firm, and two top executives with allegedly lying about the value of the company’s assets and its use of $120 million in proceeds from its initial public offering.Additionally, SinoTech’s chairman, Qingzeng Liu, was separately accused of stealing $40 million from the company.
- Batteries Dead on China’s Electric Vehicle Push? Not So Fast. – China Real Time Report – WSJ
Foreign automakers are feeling a whole lot better about China’s drive for electric vehicles, thanks to a set of new guidelines released by Beijing last week.
- Hu talks advancing ties with DPRK guests – Xinhua | English.news.cn
BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Hu Jintao said here Monday that advancing friendship and cooperation between China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) will continue to be the guideline of the ruling party and government of China.Hu made the remark as he met with a Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) delegation from the DPRK, headed by Kim Yong Il. Kim is an alternate member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the WPK Central Committee. He is also the head of the international department of the WPK.
- Former Wukan village heads expelled from Party – Xinhua | English.news.cn
GUANGZHOU, April 23 (Xinhua) — Two former officials from south China’s Wukan village have been expelled from the Communist Party of China over corruption and election-rigging charges, provincial authorities announced Monday.
Xue Chang, former Party chief of Wukan, and Chen Shunyi, former head of the village committee, were also ordered to hand over illegal gains of 189,200 yuan (30,031 U.S. dollars) and 86,000 yuan respectively, said Zeng Qingrong, deputy head of the supervision department of Guangdong Province - China de-escalates situation in Huangyan Island|Hot Issues|chinadaily.com.cn
MANILA – China is de-escalating the situation in Huangyan Island in South China Sea by withdrawing two law enforcement vessels, Zhang Hua, spokesman of Chinese Embassy in the Philippines said on Monday.
- Economist Debates: China’s military
Andrew Krepinevich vs. Shen Dingli
- 中钢幕后事： 谁为巨额国资流失负责？ – 能源·有色 – 21世纪网
- 北京地面沉降起底：10年后最大累积下沉或达2米 – 宏观 – 21世纪网
- China Auto Rental Said to Struggle to Attract Investors – Bloomberg
China Auto Rental Holdings Inc. (CARH), striving to become the second Chinese company to go public in the U.S. this year, may raise less than planned after struggling to attract investors, said two people with knowledge of the situation.
- A New Email Encryption App Your Network Admin Might Not Like – Lauren Goode – Media – AllThingsD
a new app, called Enlocked, says it’s going to make email encryption at the consumer level even easier, by introducing a mobile and Web application that adds a one-tap encryption button to an existing email account.
- Silent Circle | Worldwide Private Encrypted Communications
- PGP Creator Phil Zimmerman Has a New Venture Called Silent Circle – Arik Hesseldahl – Enterprise – AllThingsD
Silent Circle will offer services both to consumers and corporations, but also to human-rights groups, dissidents and nongovernmental organizations working in dangerous or sketchy places where governments tend to monitor communications. There’s also a promise of no backdoors offered for any individual, organization or government.
Though Silent Circle is now running a private beta, the plan, as I understand it, is to launch a public beta on July 15. - Li Bingbing: Gucci’s Chinese torchbearer – Telegraph
Chinese film star, Li Bingbing talks about Gucci, football, and her role in this summer’s Olympics.
- All In This Tea, About
In All In This Tea (2007), Les Blank’s handheld camera takes us into the hidden world of tea by following world-renowned tea expert David Lee Hoffman to some of the most remote regions of China in search of the best handmade teas in the world.
Hoffman is obsessed; during his youth, he spent four years with Tibetan monks in Nepal, which included a friendship with the Dalai Lama, and was introduced to some of the finest tea–that golden nectar with which we can taste the distant past.
- In Lagunitas, Calif., a Fight Over Worms and Moats – NYTimes.com
For the last 40 years, Mr. Hoffman, 67, an entrepreneur who specializes in rare aged tea leaves, has been building a Chinese- and Tibetan-inspired compound on a steep hill in this unincorporated hippie holdover in western Marin County where the general store has a community piano and sells clothing “made with peace and love
- Stirring up the South China Sea (I) – International Crisis Group
The conflicting mandates and lack of coordination among Chinese government agencies, many of which strive to increase their power and budget, have stoked tensions in the South China Sea.
- 60 Minutes on the Plight of Palestinian Christians – Robert Wright – International – The Atlantic
Last night’s 60 Minutes segment about the plight of Christians in the West Bank has gotten a lot of attention, in part because of the attempt by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren to intervene with CBS brass while the segment was being put together. (See the 11-minute point in the video below, where CBS correspondent Bob Simon confronts Oren with this fact.)
- BBC News – Pinterest clones flooding Chinese web space
Pinterest clones have flooded China’s web world – only months after the social image-sharing website reached massive popularity.
- Obama to target foreign nationals’ use of new technologies in human rights abuses – The Washington Post
President Obama will issue an executive order Monday that will allow U.S. officials for the first time to impose sanctions against foreign nationals found to have used new technologies, from cellphone tracking to Internet monitoring, to help carry out grave human rights abuses.
- Internet freedom threat posed by Hillary Clinton’s State Department and Anonymous. – Slate Magazine
The State Department and the online mob are both destroying “Internet freedom.”
By Evgeny Morozov - Bo Xilai and China’s Communist Party : The New Yorker
In surgically removing Bo from Chinese politics, the Party was humiliated but also, one senses, energized. After Bo’s dismissal, China’s cabinet, in the name of reducing corruption, ordered ministries and local governments to disclose more detail on public spending and affordable-housing construction. Optimists inside and outside the country have begun discussing the transformative potential of unexpected events. Cheng Li, of the Brookings Institution, believes that the Bo Xilai case will be “a curse if the Party pretends that its rule can remain as before, but a blessing if the Party decides to transform itself.”The cost of transformation, however, would be measured in power—the interests threatened by curtailing corruption, the money that must be siphoned away in order to balance the economy, the privileges that would vanish in the glare of transparency. For now, the streets are quiet, because one thing that all factions of the Party agree on is that they could lose everything if the Bo Xilai case opens a wider schism. But do they recognize the longer-term problem: that their refusal to share the affairs of state with their own people is the greatest peril of all? ♦
- Huawei Founder Ren Splits CEO Role With Rotating Panel – Bloomberg
Huawei Technologies Co., China’s largest maker of phone equipment, said its founder Ren Zhengfei is splitting the role of chief executive officer with a panel of three executives who will rotate at six-month intervals.
Deputy Chairmen Guo Ping, Xu Zhijun, who uses the English name Eric, and Hu Houkun, who uses the name Ken, will join Ren as co-CEOs, spokesman Ross Gan said in an interview today. Ren, 67, also retains his title as a deputy chairman of Huawei, according to the company’s annual report released today. - 中药失控，步步惊心__鲜橙互动 南都网 南方都市报 新闻互动网站 南都数字报
epidemic of fake chinese medicinal herbs and medicines
- China Internet firms face venture capital funding squeeze – Yahoo! News
Starved of funds, scores of startups face an uncertain future. Many are turning to unusual financing sources.
Some have dipped into their own funds. Others have tapped family and friends for the capital they need to stay in business. - Video: Slackline walker conquers Chinese canyon without safety net – Telegraph
Dean Potter conquered the Enshi Grand Canyon in central China’s Hubei province on Sunday in just over two minutes.
Balancing precariously 5,905 feet (1,800 meters) above sea level, the thrill-seeker crosses the distance of 130 feet (40 metres) without a safety harness or parachute. - “Your post has been secreted” – China Media Project
how much is $sina spending on censorship? do investors have right to know?//
The post was made at 9:47:13 am, and deleted within 13 minutes. At 10:00 am I received a notice from Sina Weibo featuring Sina Weibo’s signature eye icon wearing a blue police cap. It read:We are sorry, your post “A special work team from Beijing has arrived in Hong Kong . . . ” has already been secreted by managers. This microblog post is not appropriate for making public to the outside (对外公开). If you require assistance, please contact support (Link: http://t.cn/z0D6ZaQ)抱歉，您在2012-04-23 09:47:13发表的微博“北京的专门工作组到达香港调…”已被管理员加密。此微博不适宜对外公开。如需帮助，请联系客服（链接：http://t.cn/z0D6ZaQ）
- New jail threat for Hong Kong bankers – Craig Stephen’s This Week in China – MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — It is doubtful many would shed tears if a few unpopular bankers were to end up in jail. This fate now looms as a new career risk for Hong Kong bankers if proposals to make listing sponsors legally liable for the accuracy of prospectuses goes through.Last week, the Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said it plans to consult the market over tougher new regulations for listing sponsors.
- Report: Women Losing Ground in China – China Real Time Report – WSJ
China has over the past decade risen to become the world’s second-largest economy, opening up vastly more opportunities for the country’s 1.34 billion citizens to improve their lives and become strong leaders in their jobs and society. Yet those opportunities are largely still limited to men.That’s one takeaway from a new report, “Rising to the Top: A Report on Women’s Leadership in Asia,” from the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and the New York-based organization Asia Society, which places China among several key Asian countries in which women’s leadership remains stunted by social preferences and biases that favor males.
- Rumor: Baidu and Other Search Engines Will Have to Stop Indexing Weibo Content | Tech in Asia
Rumor: Baidu and Other Search Engines Will Have to Stop Indexing Weibo Content | Tech in Asia $sina
- Weixin 4.0 is Vintage Tencent and the Most Important Chinese Internet Product Since Weibo | TechRice
Facebook may have shelled out for Instagram, but don’t expect a billion-dollar acquisition of a mobile startup by Tencent anytime soon.Instead, version 4.0 of the Weixin mobile app is vintage Tencent. The new release adds a host of new SNS features, many of which copy from Path, Instagram, and Google Circles, and still others that are unique. It’s a prime example of the homegrown combination of copying, remixing, and innovation that Tencent executes to perfection.
Moreover, with the release of version 4.0, Weixin (微信) has an official English name: WeChat. Tencent has its sights on the global market: in addition to English and Chinese, the app is now available in Arabic, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Portuguese.
- China Grows Its Dairy Farms With a Global Cattle Drive – WSJ.com
In one of the largest transoceanic cattle drives in history, as many as 100,000 heifers from Uruguay, Australia and New Zealand will board multistory cattle-carrying ships this year—bound for China.
- The Startling Plight of China’s Leftover Ladies – By Christina Larson | Foreign Policy
“Why do sheng nu happen now in China?” Wu asked. After a dramatic pause, she answered her own question: “It is a result of high GDP growth.” At this point, several women in the audience fidgeted, wary of an economics sermon, but Wu continued. “In the past, there was no such word as sheng nu. But today women have more wealth and education — they have better jobs, and higher requirements for men.” She reflected: “Now you want to find a man you have deep feelings for who also has a house and a car. You won’t all find that.”
- Business as usual for Zhou Yongkang? – China Media Project
If the news being reported outside of China has any basis, Zhou Yongkang could already be the political walking wounded. But until the top leadership is ready to weather another political storm, they will no doubt do their best to give the impression that everything is business as usual.
- Non-official scholar has inside track on Bo Xilai rumors｜Politics｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com
Soon after fallen former Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai began being investigated by authorities, academic Wang Kangbegan disclosing intimate details about the personal and financial entanglements between Bo, Bo’s wife and murdered British businessman Neil Heywood, reports the China Times, our sister newspaper. Wang Kang seems to know even more than the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and while the Communist Party has trying to keep a tight grip on rumors regarding Bo, Wang Kang always evades trouble, leading many to believe he is disseminating information on behalf of Beijing.
- Chinese censors hamstrung by US site – FT.com
Since Bo Xilai was ousted as Chongqing Communist party secretary last month, Chinese censors have gone into overdrive to prevent the drama from ballooning into a public debate about corruption and power struggles within the party.
But much of their efforts have been undone by Boxun, a US-based website which has been reporting on every twist and turn of the Bo Xilai case – with unusual accuracy. - Jon Huntsman Trashes GOP, Expresses Campaign Regrets
Former Republican candidate Jon Huntsman took a battle axe to his own party, comparing it to China’s Communist Party and criticizing it’s standard bearer in a wide-ranging interview at the 92nd Street Y Sunday night.
Recounting his first experience on the presidential debate stage in Iowa last August, Huntsman says he was struck by the question “Is this the best we could do?”
Huntsman, the former Utah governor and once President Barack Obama’s Ambassador to China, expressed disappointment that the Republican Party disinvited him from a Florida fundraiser in March after he publicly called for a third party.
“This is what they do in China on party matters if you talk off script,” he said. - Lamborghini Introduces Urus, Its First SUV in Two Decades – Bloomberg
The Volkswagen AG (VOW) unit unveiled the concept SUV, called the Urus, in Beijing yesterday before this week’s auto show in the Chinese capital.
- 从外部失衡到内部失衡_杂志频道_财新网
为什么IMF会下调中国经常项目盈余与GDP之比？其下调是否意味着人民币升值压力下降？是否说明中国经济发展不平衡情况正趋改善？
- CHONGQING FAOCAO – City.Finance-Sustainable Development Forum was held successfully in Chongqing
Dec 7, 2011, City·Finance-Sustainable Development Forum was held successfully in Intercontinental Hotel, Chongqing,China. This forum was hosted by Chongqing Municipal People’s Government, Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, Paulson Institute of the University of Chicago, City of Los Angeles, organized by Chongqing Financial Affairs Office, Chongqing Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. The mayor of Chongqing-Huang Qifan, vice mayor-Ling Yueming, the former minister of Finance of America and CEO of Paulson Institute of the University of Chicago-Henry Paulson, the mayor of City of Los Angeles-Antonio Villaraigosa, the Senior Consultant of Inter-American Development Bank-Bakko, chief Landscape Architect of Karl Thorpe Planning and Design Firm-Peter, the senior vice president of Energy Resource Foundation-Lin Jiang, and some other officers of related municipal departments and teachers and students from universities attended this forum.
- BULL CAPITAL PARTNERS
In 2005, Mr. Niu donated 51% of his share of dividends from his holding in Mengniu Dairy to the Laoniu Fund to provide incentives and rewards to individuals and organizations in the PRC that have made significant contributions to the Mengniu Group. Mr. Niu is gradually increasing his contribution to the Fund and Laoniu Fund is now a non-profit charity fund registered in accordance with Chinese rules and regulations.
- Lao Niu Foundation Denies Niu Gensheng Cashed Mengniu Shares for Personal Use
- Cities get a sinking feeling: report|Society|chinadaily.com.cn
A diminishing water table, combined with a growing number of skyscrapers, is causing large areas of China to sink, increasing flood risk and endangering the rail network, according to a survey released recently by the China Geological Survey.
The government has already launched a number of measures to combat the problem and a plan of action was approved by the State Council in February.
Research shows the most vulnerable spots are in the North China Plain, the Yangtze River Delta and the Fenwei Basin, covering a combined total area of 79,000 square kilometers – more than 100 times the size of Singapore.
More than 50 cities in these areas are now at least 20 centimeters lower than they were in the 1970s, the survey said. - Revolutionary Ink: The Paintings of Wu Guanzhong in New York – WSJ.com
“Revolutionary Ink: The Paintings of Wu Guanzhong” opens at the Asia Society Museum in New York on Wednesday (and runs through Aug. 5).
- Behind a Chinese City’s Growth, Heavy Debt – WSJ.com
Borrowing Fueled Chongqing’s Infrastructure Projects, Highlighting National Problem of Reliance on Government Spending
- “Online CPC branch” established in Chongqing – Xinhua | English.news.cn
BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua) — An “online Communist Party of China (CPC) branch” was set up in Banan District of southwestern China’s Chongqing Municipality after voted for by dozens of floating Party members, Chongqing Daily reported Sunday.Floating Party members, whose credentials are now still kept in Shitan Township of Banan District, participated in the vote on Friday. The members elected the secretary and members of the Party branch via mobile phones, iPads and personal computers.
Floating Party members are Party members who have left their original work places or residences’ Party organizations, and moved elsewhere but are unable to re-enroll or transfer their credentials to the new Party location.
Digest powered by RSS Digest