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

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And we are back, after 65 hours of no power. It was a crazy storm, but James Fallows nicely articulates the craziness of such a crippling outage in the nation’s capital in American Infrastructure Report: D.C. Storm Edition infrastructure-related.

Still way behind, so just links today:

• China HSBC PMI Dips To 48.2 – Business Insider
• 《新维月刊》2012年7月号 | 新维资讯网 • 新维月刊
  the july issue of xinwei monthly is out, top story claims li keqiang’s little brother is a tobacco magnate, the issue also discusses ling jihua’s wife gu liping (why so many 谷 s?) and the aftermath of the 3.18 beijing ferrari crash, has what its says are details of a secret speech by liu yuan about the gen gu junshan case along with more salacious tales.
  the may xinwei claimed that generals liu yuan and zhang haiyang were under suspicion for ties to bo xilai, a story that the wall street journal reported a couple of weeks later. the june issue of xinwei broke the news of the alleged us mole in the mss, a story for which reuters claimed an “exclusive” several days after xinwei had already published. so maybe there is something in the july issue that will appear in the western press soon.
• Falling Star – Barrons Cover Story
  Barron’s puts China on the cover and declares a hard landing is coming. Should we assume then that China has already bottomed, given Barron’s track record?//
  The Chinese economy is slowing and is likely to slow a lot more. Get ready for a hard landing.
• 楼市上演“疯狂6月”：中央调控稳字当头|楼市|上演|疯狂_21世纪网
  “Crazy June” for china real estate. market on way back, or aberration?
• Drink Xijiu has a tribute to Xi Jinping’s future ascension to power｜Politics｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com
  see Xi Jiu, A Baijiu Bet on Xi Jinping from a month ago on SInocism//
  China’s high-priced liquors, such as Maotai, have all recently undergone price cuts, except for Xijiu, a liquor produced by Maotai Liquors.
  Some scholars have suggested that the liquor’s rising prices correspond with vice president Xi Jinping’s rise to power in the upcoming 18th National Congress, both the man and the drink which share the character “Xi,” (習) according to Duowei News, a US-based Chinese paper which reports rumors that are often difficult to prove.
• China to explore virgin forest home of ‘Bigfoot’｜Environment｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com
  Researchers will start exploring large areas of primitive forest this month in the Shennongjia region of central China’s Hubei province, local authorities said Sunday.
• China’s icebreaker Xuelong to kick off 5th Arctic expedition from Qingdao on July 2 – Xinhua | English.news.cn
• Chinese vice premier meets SEC chair – Xinhua | English.news.cn
  will they fix the auditor deadlock?//
  Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan met Monday with Mary Schapiro, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in Beijing.
• China Housing Prices Rise After 9 Months of Decline – WSJ.com
  China’s battered real-estate market appears to be turning around, strengthening an important pillar of growth and reducing the chances that China’s slowing economy will stall in the second half of the year.
• 深入开展政法干警核心价值观教育实践活动<br>为政法事业发展进步提供更加有力思想保证_2012/13_求是理论网
  zhou yongyang in latest issue of seeking truth
• Asia Sentinel – Chinese President Hu Jintao’s Hostile Hong Kong Reception
  Tens of thousands take to the streets to deliver rocky beginning for Hong Kong’s new Chief Executive
• “Most beautiful teacher” joins the Party | Danwei
  Today the front page of Jilin’s City Evening News features a headshot of teacher Zhang Lili (张丽莉) in front of a Chinese flag. The headline: “Zhang Lili, the ‘most beautiful teacher,’ joins the Party.”
• Panda Politics: Tokyo’s Governor Puts His Paw in It, Again – China Real Time Report – WSJ
  When a giant panda gets pregnant, it’s news. Especially in Japan, a country that has waited decades for a baby panda to be born. But the good news that Shin Shin, a giant panda at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo on loan from China, appears to be with child, has quickly been turned into bad news by Tokyo’s outspoken governor.
• China on the Internet and in Western media « Jeremy Goldkorn
  Rose Luqiu Luwei’s of Phoenix TV did a report on the way Western media and the Internet portrays China to the outside world.
• Mongolia Pushes Russia, China to Re-route Planned Gas Pipeline – Bloomberg
  Mongolia is calling upon China and Russia to re-direct a planned natural-gas pipeline across its territory as the world’s fastest growing economy seeks to tap the cleaner-burning fuel.
  Altering the route to pass through Mongolia would save 1,000 kilometers (622 miles) of pipeline, Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj said in an interview in Ulan Bator, the nation’s capital. It would also allow Mongolia to switch to gas heating in the capital, which ranks among the world’s most polluted cities due to widespread use of coal-fired stoves.
• Michael Auslin: Is the PLA a Paper Dragon? – WSJ.com
  AEI “scholar” meets WSJ editorial page “thinkers”//
  If the U.S. loses its ability to operate at long distances in a timely and persistent manner, China could deny U.S. forces the ability to enter a conflict zone or operate freely once inside. That would give Beijing a far easier road toward achieving its aim of regional hegemony. A paper dragon just might yet best a grounded eagle.
• Rebiya Kadeer: Beijing Stirs Ethnic Hatred in Xinjiang – WSJ.com
• Willy Lam: China’s Hawks in Command – WSJ.com
  do these talking generals actually wield power and influence?//
  The Chinese Communist Party has begun to pursue a more aggressive foreign policy over the past few years. To some extent this is to be expected as the country’s economic and military clout grows substantially. But a key factor has so far been overlooked: The unprecedented influence of People’s Liberation Army generals in the formulation of foreign policy.Military officers in most countries are not allowed to speak in public about their countries’ foreign or security policies. This was also true in China under former leaders Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, as well as the first five-year term of current General Secretary Hu Jintao. Since 2010, however, PLA hawks have been making belligerent statements in the official media.
• Work on China leadership change ‘smooth’: paper
  China’s top communist party newspaper said Sunday that preparations for a key meeting to set the country’s next leadership were smooth, despite a festering political scandal.
  The People’s Daily said work to hold a party congress for a once-in-a-decade leadership change later this year was proceeding, as the country marked the 91st anniversary of the party’s founding on Sunday.
• China vows to contain financial risks amid reforms | Reuters
  China will step up efforts to curb financial risks as it continues with reforms to make country’s interest rates and currency regime more market-driven, the central bank said on Monday.
• Exclusive: Philippines may ask for U.S. spy planes over South China Sea | Reuters
  The Philippines may ask the United States to deploy spy planes over the South China Sea to help monitor the disputed waters, President Benigno Aquino told Reuters on Monday, a move that could worsen tensions with its giant neighbor China.
• Qihoo CFO Denies Anonymous’s Report of Lower Online Traffic – Bloomberg
  Qihoo 360 Technology Co. (QIHU), a Chinese developer of online security software, denied allegations made by Anonymous Analytics that user traffic on its website is lower than reported. The shares sank 7.5 percent.
  The information cited in Anonymous’s report is “inaccurate,” Chief Financial Officer Alex Xu said yesterday by phone from Beijing. “This report is basically a repetition of what other short sellers said before,” which Qihoo has denied and clarified in the past, he said.
• Chinese Servant Gets 10 Years In Jail For Stealing Overpriced Nokia Vertu Handset – TechCrunch
• 政法委或被削权 党刊发周永康旧作稳人心_多维新闻网
• » Riot Police And Protestors Clash In Shifang, Sichuan Province Beijing Cream
• Sichuan Protest Turns Violent – China Real Time Report – WSJ
• Sina Falls to Lowest Since January as Maxim Cuts Revenue Outlook- Bloomberg
• CENTCOM’s China Challenge: Anti-Access and Area Denial in the Middle East | Brookings Institution
• Wealth and power: It’s a family affair | The Economist
  a sensible piece, and not just because they link to sinocism twice in it//
  The system also gives those in power precious little incentive to advocate for meaningful political reform. Too many people have too much “skin in the game”. Political openness would threaten not only the Party’s grip on power, but also a whole system which provides direct and indirect financial benefits to millions of relatively well-connected individuals. Factionalism abounds of course, but the divide is less between “reformers” and “hardliners” than it is between different political power-brokers and within their networks of patronage. Such competition becomes particularly fierce in the run-up to one of these once-in-a-decade leadership transition, as in 2012.Given the stakes involved, it would seem Chinese officialdom should have no trouble appreciating a famous admonition made by an American polymath, Benjamin Franklin, some 235 years ago this week: “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
• Qihoo 360 traffic fraud? Anonymous Analytics
• Chinese patrol ships practice in S China Sea – Xinhua | English.news.cn
• Anonymous Analytics: Qihoo is a “Fraud” That’s Hiding its Traffic StatsTech in Asia
• The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition)- China ‘Won’t Tolerate More N.Korean Provocations’
• 奇虎360成功加入GFW防火长城 为国家安全保驾护航 河南法制 – 中新网河南新闻
• 2 suspects dead in China plane hijack attempt | Fox News

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