"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
Links only today:
- 周克成的微博 新浪微博-随时随地分享身边的新鲜事儿
lots of sina weibo comments on zhang weiying’s sohu interview
- 第一访谈之张维迎：理念改变中国-搜狐财经
sohu interviews with zhang weiying, getting lots of play. recent western media reports that zhang muzzled/censored seem overdone//
- 应最大限度压缩假新闻的发酵期－－北京日报
Beijing Daily on dealing with fake news// 今天的中国，利益分化，社会结构复杂，时不时就会有各式各样的假新闻冒出来，极大地消耗着社会的物质资源和心理资源。对此我们不能迁就，而应该加力，打出假新闻的本来面目。只有在全社会形成一种对假新闻的及时纠偏机制，我们才会拥有更加健康的发展环境。
- Paul Ryan: China is treating Obama ‘like a doormat’ – The Washington Post NORTH CANTON, Ohio – Rep. Paul Ryan had some tough talk Thursday for President Obama on China, arguing that the White House has been too lenient when it comes to the country’s trade and currency policy.
“President Obama said he’d go to the mat with China,” Ryan (R-Wis.) told a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters at Walsh University, a small Catholic college in North Canton. “Instead, they’re treating him like a doormat. We’re not going to let that happen.”
- China has produced 620 million cellphones in Jan-July: MIIT- Morning Whistle –
During the first seven months of this year, China has produced 620 million mobile phones, which represents mild 3.4 percent growth in comparison to the same period last year, according to China. Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
- SOHO China H1 results slumps – Morning Whistle –
The industry leader produced a turnover of 1.22 billion yuan ($0.19 billion) in the first six months, decreased 54 percent year on year, while the net profit was 0.61 billion yuan.
- SOHO’s boss wants to be a “landlord” – Morning Whistle
Pan Shiyi, Chairman of SOHO China Co.(00410.HK),the largest property developer in Beijing and the developer with top sales for several years, stated in his blog to give up the business mode of property developing and selling, and change to a new route of developing, holding and renting the property plots.
- China again presses Syria over talks, reform | Reuters
China’s foreign minister on Thursday repeated Beijing’s call for the Syrian government to talk with the opposition and take steps to meet the people’s demand for change, but stopped short of offering any new solutions to the ongoing crisis.
- Suntech CEO steps down, CFO to take top job | Reuters
Suntech said founder and CEO Zhengrong Shi had been replaced by David King, the company’s chief financial officer. Shi’s chairman title will also be changed to executive chairman and he will take the position of chief strategy officer.
- 北京3岁男童坠深井身亡续：3名责任人被刑拘_资讯频道_凤凰网
- Stranded in a Land Struggle – Caixin Online
A household with more than twenty people spanning five generations is only receiving 1.25 million yuan in compensation for their 800 square meters of land in the high-priced second ring road area of Beijing. Wang Lishan’s family received news of the decision in August from the Beijing Rural and Urban Housing Committee.
Heping Village, which is near Beijing’s eastern second ring road, had been included in a citywide demolition and relocation project from an early stage. The area, a slum in the heart of the city, is composed of simple buildings built in the 1970s. The government planned to demolish the area in the 1980s but waited on funding concerns…
After eight years of struggle between residents and the local government, 400 households remain in Heping Village. At one point the Wang family cast iron bars to protect their home, demonstrating their unyielding position towards the government’s attempts at demolition.
On August 10 the Wang family submitted an administrative appeal regarding the amount of their compensation. But the fate of families in a similar situation has left the Wang family worried. - Rise Of The Online Titans – Caixin Online
Retailers are responding to changing consumer habits by investing heavily in online shopping platforms, but only giant warriors are likely to win
- Powering ahead with Reform – Caixin Online
A decade has passed since the country restructured major electricity companies, but Fan Bi, deputy director of State Council’s General Research Office, says progress will continue
- 平安银行：房地产行业景气度已触底 考虑增加房贷-财经网
- China FDI Down 3.6Pct in Jan.-July: Official-Caijing
China has attracted 66.7 billion U.S. dollars in foreign direct investment in the first seven months, down 3.6 percent from the same period a year ago
- MOFOM Warns Over Falling Exports to Europe-Caijing
Exports to the European Union, China’s largest trade partner, fell 3.6 percent so far this year
- Beijing considers stronger foreign ties – FT.com
Analysts say Cambodia’s move to do China’s bidding is a glimpse of things to come as Beijing seeks to build foreign policy alliances it long eschewed. Deterred from such alliances by the collapse of its pact with the Soviet Union in 1961, China decided in 1982, when it started opening up after more than a decade of self-imposed isolation during the cultural revolution, that it should follow a strict policy of non-alignment.
But following the 2008 financial crisis, the Arab Spring and the growing US push to reassert its presence in Asia, this strategy is increasingly being challenged at home. - 解读31位省级党委书记 – 新华时政 – 新华网
- The Associated Press: German TV crew filming at China factory attacked
German broadcaster ARD says one of its crews was attacked and detained for nine hours while filming at a Chinese factory for a story about pollution.
Correspondent Christine Aldehardt said a SWAT team rescued them from the factory cafeteria Saturday as workers outside chanted “death to the foreign spies.” - Price War Rattles Chinese Retailers – WSJ.com
The prospect of a gadget and appliance price war in China spooked investors already worried about the impact of the country’s slumping housing market, sending shares of China’s consumer-electronics retailers on a rocky ride.
- The Politics of a Chinese Orgy : The New Yorker
the sex party is vexing for the Party because it highlights the gap between the artifice of official solemnity and the unadorned reality beneath, a gap that has become more pronounced in recent years as the Web eats away at the monopoly on authority. The downfall of Bo Xilai is of interest to the Chinese public not simply because it involves murder, corruption, and betrayal but because it is unfolding noisily just offstage from where the Party is desperately seeking to convey the sense that everyone is proceeding according to plan. As the Global Times commented of the group shots, people “feel that this is but scratching the surface of the lives of luxury and sin that many officials secretly enjoy. Such activities are being pointed to as evidence for the decaying morality of government officials.”
- China Censors Totally Awesome Communist Officials Orgy Picture Scandal-Gawker
probably not the kind of soft power Beijing wants to project
- China Poodle ‘Babies’ Spur $1.2 Billion Pet-Care Market – Bloomberg
Wang Xingru and her husband chose a fluffy brown alternative to parenthood named Jing Jing. Before welcoming the year-old toy poodle into their Beijing apartment last summer, the couple spent 5,000 yuan ($786) in veterinary fees, including shots and medication.
This month they paid 288 yuan for a fur-trim, perm and pedicure for the 8-inch-long (20-centimeter) pooch. The treatments add to a pet-care market in China that Euromonitor International Ltd. estimates will reach $1.2 billion this year, helped by a 35 percent jump in pet ownership since 2000. - China Mobile Heads for Slowest Profit Growth Since 2000 – Bloomberg
- 移动互联网畸形现象：规模大，不赚钱_财经频道_一财网
- Fighters conduct training on plateau – People’s Daily Online
The air force of the Chengdu Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) organized its fighters to carry out actual combat training on the Tibetan Plateau on August 10, 2012, in a bid to explore and perfect the new methods of operation for the aviation force in high attitude areas.
- CPC delegate election shows improved intra-Party democracy – Xinhua | English.news.cn
After almost one year of campaigning, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has elected its delegates to the 18th National Congress, demonstrating both its understanding of democratic procedure and an optimized lineup with more younger, grassroots-level Party members.
- Chinese, Costa Rican presidents vow to further ties – Xinhua | English.news.cn
no sign of a tan, but first public appearance in 2 weeks or so.//
Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla Miranda during a welcoming ceremony held for Chinchilla in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 16, 2012. - Time for Re-Education? Critics Pile on China Labor Camp System – China Real Time Report – WSJ
A controversial feature of China’s legal system that allows authorities to ship people off to labor camps without formal arrest or trial is coming under increasing fire inside the country.
In the latest development, 10 lawyers from different cities issued a call for reform of the laojiao — or “re-education through labor” –system in an open letter sent to the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice on Tuesday, warning that the punishment can result in abuses of power, according to local media. - China in Talks to Buy Barrick’s Stake in Tanzania Miner – Bloomberg
There’s no certainty that China National Gold will make an offer for Barrick’s 73.9 percent stake in African Barrick Gold Plc (ABG), Toronto-based Barrick said in a statement today. UBS AG is advising the Canadian company, according to the statement.
- Ex-Morgan Stanley Executive Gets Nine Months in China Case – Bloomberg
9 months is a joke// Ex-Morgan Stanley & Co. (MS) real estate executive Garth R. Peterson was sentenced to nine months in prison for transferring multi-million dollar interests in a Shanghai building from his employer to himself and a Chinese official.
Peterson, 43, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein in Brooklyn, New York, for conspiring to circumvent internal bank controls required under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He faced as long as five years in prison - Coordination needed to succeed in Diaoyu – Globaltimes.cn
Chinese need to be clear that China cannot retrieve the Islands now. This would mean a large-scale war, which is not in China’s interests.
- Chengguan not best choice to enforce civilized behavior
The Shenzhen urban management bureau stated on Monday that the city won’t stop its chengguan outsourcing due to huge responsibilities.
Under such conditions, allocating more tasks to chengguan and giving them more power is very likely to result in more conflicts and abuse of power.
Combating uncivilized public behavior through legislation is laudable, but the local government should reflect more on how to guarantee civilized methods of law enforcement by chengguan. - 首页-分享收获CSA– 淘宝网
- CSA Member Recruitment
- 分享收获: 真实的食物，真实的农夫，真诚的社区
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) outside beijing
- Under One Roof Movie — Indiegogo
Under One Roof is a full-length documentary that chronicles the evolving economic and cultural changes sweeping through China, as seen through the eyes of two families–one Moso and one Han Chinese–living and working together at a village inn on Lake Lugu in Southwest China.
- Contemplating a third nuclear test in North Korea | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
A new analysis using seismic information, previous reporting, commercial satellite imagery, and Google Earth tools and geo-positioning refines the locations of North Korea’s two nuclear tests and provides an improved basis for estimating their explosion yields. A recently completed tunnel in the vicinity is judged to be capable of accommodating another test in as little as two weeks, based on comparisons with features of the two test tunnels previously used by North Korea and publicly available data on the Pakistani test program. Similarities in publicized North Korean and Pakistani testing practices lead to speculation that Pyongyang may decide to test both plutonium and highly enriched uranium devices simultaneously. Although there are strong technical and military forces driving Pyongyang to conduct additional tests, so far it appears to have concluded that the political price of another test is too high. Washington and Beijing should make sure that it stays high.
- 360Buy, Suning, Gome Price War: A Publicity Stunt?
Seeing this from a outsider’s point of view, the price war feels a little awkward, though a little fun at the same time. It doesn’t take an extreme skeptic to doubt if all this is just a publicity stunt by 360buy or even one performed together with Gome and Suning. This Sina Weibo poll suggests that a large group of netizens are indeed suspecting that this is a joint act. The price war could have some detrimental effect on all the companies’ bottom-lines. But if that’s in the name of publicity, then it could still be a worthwhile investment.
- SOEs struggling amid economic downturn |Companies |chinadaily.com.cn
Central State-owned enterprises are reporting that the profits of their listed units decreased in the first half of the year, and the largest declines were seen in the nonferrous metal and transport industries.
- U.S. should share power with China in Asia Pacific: Australian strategist – Xinhua | English.news.cn
The United States should treat China as equals and Australia’s relations with the two powers will affect its future economy and security,Hugh White, a renowned Australian strategist said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
- The price of China | Inside Story
IN THIS new book Hugh White makes an important and challenging case for the United States to share power with China in the Asia–Pacific region to avoid possibly catastrophic warfare in the near future. He argues that China’s spectacular economic rise could lead to war unless the two powers can agree to share leadership in a concert of great regional powers made up of the United States, China, Japan and India.
- 北京公安局启动十八监督保障指挥部–时政–人民网
Beijing PSB establishes 18th party congress security HQ
- China: Wen Jiabao, the confidence man | beyondbrics
Investors and analysts are pouring over the minutiae of Chinese data for every little hint about the government’s policy stance. Are they about to crank up the stimulus? Investment approvals suggest so. Or are they holding back? Lending figures point in that direction.
But a far simpler and potentially more powerful signal has now come from Wen Jiabao, China’s premier. He has issued a rallying cry for “confidence”. - Jewish studies flourish in China | Cover Story | Jewish Journal
- CEO commits suicide, Chinese photovoltaic industry at its limit｜Economy｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com
- BBC News – The Uighur from Guantanamo cooking pizza in Albania
- The Demonization of Empress Wu | Past Imperfect
Wu (she is always known by her surname) has every claim to be considered a great empress. She held power, in one guise or another, for more than half a century, first as consort of the ineffectual Gaozong Emperor, then as the power behind the throne held by her youngest son, and finally (from 690 until shortly before her death in 705) as monarch. Ruthless and decisive, she stabilized and consolidated the Tang dynasty at a time when it appeared to be crumbling–a significant achievement, since the Tang period is reckoned the golden age of Chinese civilization. T.H. Barrett’s recent book even suggests (on no firm evidence) that the empress was the most important early promoter of printing in the world.
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