"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
The Essential Eight
1. Trump Is Right To Take on China Over Intellectual Property, May Be Too Little Too Late
Trump administration goes after China over intellectual property, advanced technology – The Washington Post with video of the signing. Navarro looks pleased.
American genius is under attack from China – FT $$-Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross OpEd in the Financial Times
Chinese companies, with the encouragement of official Chinese policy and often the active participation of government personnel, have been pillaging the intellectual property of American companies. All together, intellectual-property theft costs America up to $600 billion a year, the greatest transfer of wealth in history. China accounts for most of that loss.
Max Baucus Says U.S. Should Stand Up to China – Bloomberg Comment: The former Ambassador is always worth listening to. There were plenty of people in the bureaucracy under the Obama Administration who wanted to take a tougher a line against China but were in part held back by Obama, Susan Rice and John Kerry.
The U.S. faces a number of challenges in taking on these industrial policies. For one, the Chinese restrictions on import of services and inward investment are mostly legal under its World Trade Organization (WTO) accession agreement. When the Clinton and Bush administrations negotiated China’s entry into the WTO, they left the country wide latitude to restrict trade in services and inward investment. The expectation was that China would gradually liberalize these areas over time. The U.S. thought that joining the WTO was the beginning of China’s opening, but it turned out to be the end. There has been no significant opening of these areas since accession in 2001. President Xi Jinping, in particular, seems very wedded to the industrial policies and the China 2025 goals.
“Section 301 has been denounced by other nations for its unilateralism since it came out. The US has made promises to the international society, noting that it will execute the section in a way that accords with WTO rules. The US should keep its promises and not become a destructive force that undermines multilateral rules,” said the spokesperson.
2. Temporary Easing of Tensions Over North Korea
Comment: There appears to be a temporary cooling of tensions over North Korea. South Korea’s President also made it clear that he expects his country to have a say in any attack on the North, comments that may further weaken the credibility of any President Trump threat of preemptive strikes.
North Korea’s Kim appears to ease rhetoric in standoff over nuclear weapons – The Washington Post:
But, as is often the case with North Korea, the message was mixed: Kim was inspecting the missile unit tasked with preparing to strike near Guam, and photos released by state media showed a large satellite image of Andersen Air Force Base on Guam on the screen beside the leader.
“The U.S. should stop at once arrogant provocations against the DPRK and unilateral demands and not provoke it any longer,” the North Korean leader told his missile unit, according to a report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency published Tuesday.
Moon Vents Korea Frustration by Asserting Right to Veto U.S. – Bloomberg:
In a forceful speech on Tuesday, Moon asserted the right to veto any military action against Kim Jong Un’s regime, saying that decision should be made by “ourselves and not by anyone else.” He vowed to prevent war at any cost — a statement that drew a sharp contrast with President Donald Trump, who has warned of “fire and fury” if North Korea continues to threaten the U.S.
China tells ROK to stop THAAD deployment – Xinhua:
“THAAD deployment will not help to ease the ROK’s security concerns, and will do even less to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a news briefing.
South Korea should act as a buffer between US and North Korea – Global Times:
Seoul should play the role of a buffer between the US and North Korea to prevent a head-on confrontation between the two. It is an ally of the US. It will have immediate effect if Seoul refuses to cooperate with Washington in launching military action against Pyongyang.
China has friendly relations with North Korea, but it has no deciding leverage. It is more difficult for China to influence North Korea than for South Korea to influence the US.
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3. More on Crackdown Of Multi-Level Marketing/Pyramid Schemes
Comment: US-listed shares of NuSkin 如新 and Herbalife康宝莱, both MLMs with large China operations, feel sharply yesterday afternoon, not long after the newsletter went out. So far there has been no specific mention of either in the context of this crackdown.
National campaign aims to topple pyramid schemes – China Daily:
The State Administration for Industry and Commerce said in the notice that it will work with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Security to fight such illegal schemes, regulate companies’ hiring procedures and offer job-seeking advice for school graduates.
The four ministries’ campaign to eliminate pyramid scheme gangs will last from Tuesday to Nov 15. They pledged to severely punish pyramid scammers and promised to establish a long-term way to deal with such scams.
Shares in Herbalife, Nu Skin tumble as China cracks down on pyramid schemes:
China’s State Administration for Industry & Commerce (SAIC) earlier that day announced on its website that it was launching a three-month campaign against recruitment by pyramid sellers. The report did not name any of the three companies…
The SAIC’s crackdown comes shortly after the country experienced an outpouring of anger online towards pyramid schemes following the death of a young Chinese university graduate who fell victim to such a scheme on a job-seeking website.
Pyramid networks — which finance themselves by recruiting dues-paying new members and may purport to sell products that don’t actually even exist — cropped up in China in the 1990s. In 2009, the government made it a crime to organize and lead such sales networks.
However, the pyramid networks never died. In some areas, they are still rampant. There may be complex economic, social and culture factors behind this. But it is clear that the authorities’ crackdown is still not tough enough, and the way they deal with this issue is still problematic. It is common for local authorities to turn a blind eye to such groups “as long as there are no major incidents taking place.”
国家出手了！颤抖吧 传销组织！（这30多个传销组织上过黑名单）a little more detail on the MLM/pyramid scheme crackdown.
4. Of All Of China’s Problems Soil And Water Pollution May Be Among Its Most Intractable
China overall water quality improves in H1, but some regions worsen – Reuters:
China ranks its water supplies in six bands. Grade IV refers to water that is “lightly polluted” but can still be used for ordinary industrial purposes, while Grade V is suitable only for agricultural use.
In the first six months of 2017, samples in the lowest “below-V” grade, which refers to water that is so polluted that it has “lost function”, fell 1.7 percentage points to 8.8 percent, the ministry said.
However, the ministry also listed 27 sampling sites that saw water quality decline in the first six months of the year, including sites in Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Liaoning and the capital Beijing, where a third of tested samples were judged to have “lost function”.
环境保护部通报2017年上半年各省（区、市）水质情况和水质下降断面–Ministry of Environmental Protection announcement, with data broken down by province and centrally administered municipalities
Battery Factory Boom Leaves Toxic Legacy – Caixin Global:
Although he didn’t know it at the time, Li and hundreds of other workers at the state-owned factory in the city of Xinxiang, in Central China’s Henan province, were slowly being poisoned by cadmium, a toxic heavy metal.
The battery plant went into bankruptcy last year amid a government push that closed hundreds of Xinxiang battery-makers — part of a citywide crackdown on industrial pollution that began in 2012…
A survey conducted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land Resources three years ago found more than 16% of the soil samples collected nationwide containe unacceptable levels of pollutants, including cadmium.
Nearly one-fifth of the 133 million hectares (328.7 million acres) of farmland nationwide was contaminated and unsuitable for growing food for human consumption, the survey discovered.
Authorities Investigate Claims of Cadmium-Laced Wheat From Central China – Caixin Global – June 2017:
Wheat planted in at least two townships in Xinxiang, Henan province, was laced with the hazardous heavy metal, according to a spokesperson from Airman, an environmental advocacy group in Beijing.
5. No Need To Send In Tanks When The Party Can Suffocate And Subvert Hong Kong Into Becoming Just Another PRC City
Three Young Voices Versus a Superpower – The New York Times:
Three years later, Mr. Wong and his colleagues, including Nathan Law and Alex Chow, are still being punished for their courage. Several are under threat of bankruptcy thanks to onerous legal fees, and others are being stymied in their chosen fields because of their criticism of the Communist Party. But what is by far most troubling is the prospect that Mr. Wong, Mr. Law and Mr. Chow might be thrown in prison this week on charges for which they have already served sentences.
The protesters were earlier convicted of unlawful assembly and sentenced to community service over the clashes. The Department of Justice applied for a review of the sentence on Monday, arguing that the defendants’ actions bordered on rioting, Oriental Daily reported. On Tuesday, the judges sentenced 12 of the defendants to 13 months in jail. The last defendant, Wong Kan-yuen, had pleaded guilty and was given an eight-month jail term.
Hong Kong Police Say Activist Faked Account of Kidnapping and Torture – The New York Times:
The activist, Howard Lam, a member of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, gave his account to reporters last week and showed rows of staples in his upper thighs that his supporters said were meant as a warning to people who might cross the mainland authorities.
But serious doubts have since been raised about the case. On Tuesday morning, the police arrested Mr. Lam, 42, on suspicion of providing false evidence and misleading investigators.
Comment: This is a bizarre story, I did not include it yesterday because it just did not feel right…
6. China’s Path To Becoming an AI Superpower
Comment: Those still engaging in wishful thinking that “because China has censorship therefore it can not innovate” are likely to be disappointed again.
China’s Plan for World Domination in AI Isn’t So Crazy After All – Bloomberg Money is pouring in from China’s investors, big internet companies and its government, driven by a belief that the technology can remake entire sectors of the economy, as well as national security. A similar effort is underway in the U.S., but in this new global arms race, China has three advantages: A vast pool of engineers to write the software, a massive base of 751 million internet users to test it on, and most importantly staunch government support that includes handing over gobs of citizens’ data –- something that makes Western officials squirm.
China’s Plan to ‘Lead’ in AI: Purpose, Prospects, and Problems – New America:
Commentary and translation of the plan by Graham Webster, Rogier Creemers, Paul Triolo and Elsa Kania
China’s new artificial intelligence strategy is a signal that Beijing wants to be a leader in AI. How it gets there is a different story.
China introduces pioneer AI Challengers’ Games – People’s Daily Online:
The first AI Challengers’ International Games were introduced on August 14 by three innovative Chinese companies including Sinovation Ventures, the early stage venture capital firm. Thepaper.cn reported that prizes for the competition are 2 million yuan.
The campaign includes five competitions, namely English-Chinese simultaneous interpretation, English-Chinese machine translation, scene classification, human skeletal system key point detection and image captioning in Chinese.
7. The Party Journal Qiushi (Seeking Truth) On XI’s Recent Speeches
Comment: The August 15 issue has several pieces on the importance of Xi’s July 26 talk to the provincial and ministerial-level officials, his speech August 1 after reviewing the troops, and a commentary from “Autumn Stone” on the importance of Xi’s concept of “supply side structural reform”. They are very good indicators of what will likely be in Xi’s forthcoming political work report to the Party Congress.
充分认识习近平总书记“7·26”重要讲话的重大意义 来源：《求是》2017/16 作者：本刊评论员:
党的十九大召开前夕，习近平总书记在省部级主要领导干部专题研讨班开班式上发表重要讲话，站在时代和全局的高度，科学分析当前国际国内形势，深刻阐述党的十八大以来党和国家事业发生的历史性变革，深刻阐述新的历史条件下坚持和发展中国特色社会主义的一系列重大理论和实践问题，深刻阐明未来一个时期党和国家事业发展的大政方针和行动纲领，提出了一系列新的重要思想、重要观点、重大判断、重大举措，具有很强的思想性、战略性、前瞻性、指导性，为党的十九大胜利召开奠定了重要的政治基础、思想基础、理论基础，是一篇马克思主义的纲领性文献。
在党的强军思想指引下努力建设世界一流军队 来源：《求是》2017/16 作者：国防大学党委理论学习中心组
牢牢把握我国发展的阶段性特征 来源：《求是》2017/16 作者：国防大学中国特色社会主义理论体系研究中心
一项关系全局关系长远的重大决策-——深入学习习近平总书记关于供给侧结构性改革的重要论述 2017年08月15日 09:00:00 来源：《求是》2017/16 作者：秋 石:
习近平总书记在省部级主要领导干部专题研讨班开班式上发表的重要讲话指出，我们要坚定不移深化供给侧结构性改革。供给侧结构性改革，是以习近平同志为核心的党中央科学把握当今世界和当代中国的发展大势，顺应实践要求和人民愿望，作出的一项关系全局、关系长远的重大决策，也是我们党在实践基础上取得的重要理论创新成果。习近平总书记在2015年11月中央财经领导小组第十一次会议上首次提出这一概念以来，就如何理解、如何贯彻落实供给侧结构性改革作了大量论述
8. 1995 Murder Case Cracked
Comment: Fascinating Beijing News story on the cracking of a 1995 cold murder case using shoe leather, a discarded cigarette butt, DNA samples and big data. Two suspects arrested, one now an author, the other worked in Shanghai.
Has the PRC built a nationwide DNA database yet? If not, why wouldn’t they soon? Biometric data are useful inputs for Panopticon 2.0.
Business, Economy And Trade
China’s Party Congress Poses Threat to Assets as Reforms Loom – Bloomberg Markets have calmed as last week’s tension with North Korea ebbed, but Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says there’s a bigger threat looming, especially for risk assets in China. The 19th Communist Party Congress, where China’s ruling party shuffles leadership and addresses economic reform, is set to trigger an uptick in volatility for offshore Chinese stocks, if previous gatherings are anything to go by, the firm said.// Comment: Have not seen the underlying GS report, sounds interesting
China’s Stability at Stake as the Next Generation of Money Men Rises – Bloomberg As the retirement of People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan nears, his legacy of financial reform may yet live on through the advancing careers of people he’s helped guide to prominence.
China’s July new loans fall to 825.5 bln yuan, but higher than forecast – Reuters Broad M2 money supply (M2) in July grew 9.2 percent from a year earlier, central bank data showed on Tuesday, missing forecasts for an expansion of 9.4 percent and compared with June’s 9.4 percent. Outstanding yuan loans at the end of July grew 13.2 percent from a year earlier.
As China’s Shadow Banking Takes a Hit, the Cash Flows Elsewhere – Bloomberg China’s giant shadow banking industry shrank for the first time in nine months during July — evidence Beijing’s campaign to quash risks to the financial system may be starting to bear fruit. At the same time, however, traditional forms of lending are seeing a renaissance. Net corporate bond issuance has been jumping as non-financial corporations opt for cheaper sources of finance than borrowing in the shadow banking sector, where costs have surged amid the government crackdown.
The mouthpiece of China is officially annoyed with the country’s sharing-economy “gimmicks” — Quartz In China the “sharing economy” has taken off of late. But many of its supposedly innovative business concepts are nothing more than “gimmicks,” said the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese Communist party, in a commentary published today (Aug. 15). It also argued such services need to be more regulated—which suggests they likely will be in the near future. 人民日报人民时评：共享业态，多聆听用户心跳
Dingding Latest Bike-Share Firm to Throw in Towel – Caixin Global Unlike previous flops — with companies publicly announcing their withdrawal from the cash-burning sector — the Nanjing-based company has discreetly pedaled off with users’ deposits. Nanjing’s Market and Quality Supervision Committee has received hundreds of user complaints saying users have been unable to retrieve their 199-yuan ($29.84) Dingding deposits, which were required to rent bicycles.
A Journey to the New Heart of Urbanization in China | KraneShares The migration of people from rural to urban areas has been a cornerstone of China’s rapid growth for the past 30 years. Kraneshares’ CIO, Brendan Ahern, and Head of Capital Markets, Mark Schlarbaum, recently visited the site of what is slated to become the next chapter in China’s urbanization story: the Xiong’an New Area. Below, Brendan recounts how seeing this area first-hand underscores the incredible growth potential that China’s new cities possess for the Chinese people, the Chinese equity market, and for global investors.
Politics And Law
Cooking the News: Xi’s Digital Future by The Little Red Podcast The Chairman of Everything is tightening his grip over the media, pushing control into new spheres ahead of the 19th Party Congress. As the state-run media – traditionally the tongue and throat of the party – moves onto digital platforms, innovations in control include a welter of new regulations and theoretical concepts like the idea of cyber-sovereignty. Louisa Lim and Graeme Smith are joined by David Bandurski and Qian Gang of the China Media Project to discuss innovations in news production and control in China. Also the question of Xi: he’s no longer Xi Dada, but will President be Xi be defined by a Theory, a Thought or an Ism?
China’s Xitocracy | Foreign Affairs The question of leadership in China may seem a moot point—many observers already see Xi as the all-powerful “new Mao.” This assessment masks growing uncertainty, however, about two fundamental factors behind China’s remarkable achievements over the past quarter century: elite leadership cohesion underpinned by limits on power and a capacity for transformative economic restructuring that prioritizes pragmatism over ideology. These are the key features of a system built by the architect of modern China, Deng Xiaoping. At stake now is whether Xi can dominate the system without destroying it.
Family of jailed Chinese dissident Yang Tongyan seek medical parole after brain tumour discovered | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP The family of jailed Chinese dissident Yang Tongyan has applied for medical parole on his behalf after a tumour was discovered in his brain, his sister has said. Yang, who is also known by his pen name Yang Tianshui, is serving a 12-year prison sentence for “subversion of state power.”
社评：挑衅中国法治，西方媒体可谓闲不住_评论_环球网 西方媒体近日关注了一个叫杨天水的人，它们称，此人2006年因颠覆国家政权罪被判处12年有期徒刑，因在狱中被查出得了“脑瘤”，日前获保外就医。西媒还称，之前他因别的疾病要求保外就医，未获准，而此次官方同意他保外就医，是“怕他死在狱中”。正所谓之前没批他保外就医不对，如今准许他保外就医还是不对，那什么是对的呢？ // Comment: Global Times takes “western media” to task over Yang Tianshui case
Xi asks college students to “take root” in society – Xinhua | English.news.cn Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks Tuesday in a letter in response to college students who took part in the third China College Students’ “Internet Plus” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. // Comment: The group also went to Yan’an 习近平给赴延安学习的创业大学生回信点赞
朱英国院士遗体告别仪式举行-武大新闻网 // Comment: Absence of Wang Qishan from list of leaders offering condolences over death of Zhu Yingguo has raised speculation in some circles of trouble for Wang, though trying to read the funereal wreath flower petals is notoriously difficult, and this is not his first “absence” when other PBSC members have sent condolences
Foreign And Defense Affairs
Top U.S. general says committed to working through difficulties with China: “I think we have to be honest. We have many, many difficult issues where we don’t necessarily share the same perspective,” Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fang Fenghui, chief of the Joint Staff Department of the People’s Liberation Army. “We share a commitment to work through these difficult issues,” he added, without elaborating.
South China Sea Patrols: Does the Trump Team Get It? | RealClearDefense it appears that the current White House hopes to use FONOPs as a source of negotiating leverage on other issues. This is both unrealistic and counterproductive.
Philippines says China has agreed no new expansion in South China Sea – Reuters The minister, Delfin Lorenzana, told a congressional hearing that the Philippines and China had reached a “modus vivendi”, or a way to get along, in the South China Sea that prohibits new occupation of islands.
India’s illegal entry into Chinese territory is a miscalculation that will lead to nothing but shame on itself: experts – People’s Daily Online “Sino-Indian tension regarding border disputes happens from time to time, but the current standoff is different, as it is the first ever face-off in an uncontested border area. Indian troops have actually entered China’s territory,” said Guan Peifeng, an associate professor from the China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies at Wuhan University.
Chinese Editorial: Charlottesville Proves U.S. Source of ‘Global Instability’ – Breitbart The Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times argued in a Sunday editorial that the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, proves the United States is the source of global instability, for which stable Chinese leadership is the antidote.
“F&*k Off Foreigners” (Gua Laowai）ENGLISH TRANSLATION – Fat Shady (Xie Di) – YouTube This song is by Fat Shady AKA XieDi, AKA MC Shady, a Chengdu rapper // Comment: Disturbing. Imagine the reaction to a “F&*k Off Chinese” video by an American rapper. The growing xenophobia and jingoism one of the top reasons we moved back to the US in 2015
Chinese Documentary on WWII Sex Slaves Shows How They Live Now The director, 36-year-old Guo Ke, began working on his film “Twenty-Two” in early 2014, when there were 22 known survivors across the country. By the film’s release date, only eight remained — though a few more have become officially registered in the meantime. However, rather than focusing on their wartime experiences, the film documents the survivors’ daily lives in their later years. 电影《二十二》上映，这是对“慰安妇”受害老人最后的深情凝视 | PingWest品玩
China holds peace assembly to mark 72nd anniversary of Japan’s WWII surrender – Xinhua Representatives from countries such as China, Japan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Jordan attended the assembly in the Nanjing Massacre Victim’s Memorial Hall, mourning the 300,000 people who died in the massacre in the name of world peace.
外交部回应NHK播731真相纪录片：赞赏日本有识之士勇气_澎湃国际_澎湃新闻-The Paper 在8月15日的中国外交部记者会上，发言人华春莹表示，赞赏日本国内有识之士揭露历史真相的勇气，希望日方认真倾听国内外的正义呼声，正确认识和深刻反省日本军国主义侵略历史，切实尊重中国等亚洲受害国人民的感情。
TwitLonger — When you talk too much for Twitter Comment: Story going around Wechat of a PRC tourist’s encounter w Major General Patrick Higby in economy class on a commercial flight. Wonder if true
Hong Kong, Macao And Taiwan
AsiaEye – Official Blog of the Project 2049 Institute: The Chinese Communist Party’s Political War on Taiwan: The Assault on Taiwan’s Diplomatic Allies Third, with every move to convert Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, the CCP demonstrates its ultimate goal of reuniting Taiwan with the mainland. Although Beijing is currently unprepared to mount an invasion at this time, it is rapidly improving its capabilities and is increasingly becoming more prepared to take Taiwan by force
Massive blackout hits Taiwan amid sweltering heat | Taiwan News Amid sweltering heat, a power outage at Taoyuan City’s Datan Power Station (大潭電廠) plunged traffic, shopping malls and offices across Taiwan into chaos beginning Tuesday afternoon.
Tech And Media
Politics underline China probe of Tencent, Baidu, Sina – CNBC “Cultural conservatives within the bureaucracy appear likely to gain a temporary advantage in the coming months as the leadership shuffle approaches, leading to more conservative media content regulations across the board,” the Eurasia analysts said. // Comment: I have not seen the full note but I am very wary of terms like “cultural conservatives” and “temporary” when discussing the Internet control regime. The tightening control, the cybersecurity law, other actions all part of a very coordinated strategy since at least the October 2011 17th Party 6th Plenum to regain the propaganda and ideological initiative over the Internet. This is a long-term strategic project for the Party, increasingly codified in law and bureaucratic structure, reporting directly into Xi, and certainly does not look to me like some “campaign” led by “cultural conservatives” with a “temporary advantage”.
Playing Around with Tencent: Chinese Parents are Losing a Fortune on Mobile Games | What’s on Weibo At the same time the story of the boy from Guiyang made its rounds on Chinese social media, there was also the story of a 13-year-old from Xianyang who spent 5697 RMB (±850$) in one day on a Tencent mobile game through WeChat Pay. Or that of a junior high school student from Guangzhou spending a staggering 50,000 RMB (±7400$) within one week, buying armor for a game. // Comment: There has not been a serious, material crackdown on online gaming since Xi set up the Cyberspace Administration. One may be overdue given the social ills that stem from some of these games.
China’s Guizhou province to oversee Apple’s data project The Guizhou government said on its website (www.gzgov.gov.cn) that the Apple iCloud working committee would be made up of around 10 members, such as Guizhou’s Executive Vice Governor Qin Rupei, Deputy Secretary-general Ma Ningyu and other officials. // Xinhua-贵州省政府决定:成立苹果iCloud项目推进协调工作领导小组
China drone maker steps up security after U.S. Army ban Chinese drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd is tightening data security on its drones after the U.S. Army ordered its members to stop using DJI drones because of “cyber vulnerabilities,” a company official told Reuters on Monday.
Alibaba, Tencent Need to Deliver on Their Riskiest Bets in Years – Bloomberg The scale of Alibaba and Tencent’s acquisitions and deals — a total of $55 billion announced or completed in 2016 and 2017 — had initially taken investors by surprise, given their years-long conservative streak of minority stakes. They’re motivated in part by the driving need to remain at the forefront: as Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt put it, competitors in the internet industry may be just one click away.
围观“水军”乱象：治理为啥就这么难？ Comment: People’s Daily Online Public Opinion Monitoring Centter on the difficulty of dealing with online “water armies” aka astroturfers // 对于网民而言，“水军”并不是非常陌生的词语或者现象。发端于论坛、鼎盛于微博、蛰伏于微信——网络水军行业的身影与互联网发展几乎如影随形。然而，当具体谈及关于“水军”的概念与行为特征，连互联网业界与学界都各执一词。当前，“水军”的身影依在，熟悉却又神秘的面纱也在各式各样、层出不穷的网络新闻热点中被一丝丝地揭开。
Society, Art, Sports, Culture And History
Keeping up with China’s marathon fever | 1843 there were 328 marathons nationwide in 2016, up from 22 in 2011, with 2.8m runners. “Marathon fever”, as it has been dubbed by local media, has gripped the country. What the numbers do not reveal, though, is why running has taken hold. As someone who has completed ten of the races (almost always the half, it should be said), I have tracked the progress of this trend and see it as a small window onto the changes sweeping through Chinese society.
Shanghai plans to build Jewish refugee database – People’s Daily Online A forum held in Shanghai Jiaotong University on August 13 to discuss plans for the database alongside the launch of a new book on Jewish refugees in China.
“奶奶庙”有趣有争议，我有趣没有争议_深度_新京报网 Tsinghua PhD’s strange talk on a temple in Hebei goes viral…struggling with how to translate 奶奶庙, and how much of this video os actually real. The video:【一席】徐腾：现在隆重介绍让我佩服得五体投地的一尊神仙
Energy, Environment, Science And Health
China to Tackle Coal-Fired Power Glut – Caixin Global China’s economic and energy authorities have decided to cut the country’s coal-fired power generation capacity by 170 million kilowatts over the latter half of the decade to deal with a glut in the industry. The planned capacity cuts come at time when China has been building more coal-fired power plants than it needs, while the government faces growing pressure from a public demanding better air quality.
Why China’s quantum satellites do not herald ‘unhackable’ networks – Naked Security Headline writers got carried away with the idea that what the Chinese have built is some kind of “unhackable” communications system which, of course, is utter nonsense – though actually, it’s far more interesting than that.
85% of hazardous waste in China not being treated properly: expert – Global Times China’s hazardous waste treatment market is estimated to reach more than 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) by 2020 but the domestic hazardous waste treatment capacity is lagging far behind, with only 15 percent of hazardous waste being effectively treated at present, experts said.
Protect Green Peacocks From Dam, Environmentalists Urge Court – Caixin Global The Beijing-based non-governmental organization Friends of Nature said the dam could flood the habitats of the green peacock. It filed the suit with a court in Yunnan’s Chuxiong prefecture, claiming that the environmental impact study for the dam is flawed because it was conducted by a subcontractor — Kunming Engineering Corp. — of the construction company.
Education
Two teachers sacked, school closed as police probe alleged abuse of autistic children | South China Morning Post The incident came to light last week after video footage appeared online of two teachers from the Senxi Education centre in Changping district apparently abusing their charges, The Beijing News reported on Tuesday.
Food And Travel
Expert: China should open market to country’s self-developed GM fish – People’s Daily Online China should promote market access to its self-developed genetically modified (GM) carp, said Zhu Zuoyan, a researcher and academician at the Institute of Hydrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinhua reported on Aug. 14. The academician made the statement against the backdrop of U.S. regulators’ decision to allow genetically modified salmon, making it the first GM animal destined for human consumption recently. // Comment: Glad I don’t eat fish…
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