| Photo: Xi Jinping, by Jan Zdzarski Jr Posted: 29 Jun 2012 06:59 PM PDT |
| Bloomberg Blocked After Revealing Xi Family Wealth Posted: 29 Jun 2012 06:29 PM PDT Bloomberg ran a lengthy report on Xi Jinping – the presumed heir to the title of China's paramount leader, digging deep into the business connections of his family. After outlining Xi's reputation for being a clean, moral politician who championed an anti-graft campaign, the article airs the extensive business relations and enormous reserves of wealth connected to the Xi family: As Xi climbed the Communist Party ranks, his extended family expanded their business interests to include minerals, real estate and mobile-phone equipment, according to public documents compiled by Bloomberg. Those interests include investments in companies with total assets of $376 million; an 18 percent indirect stake in a rare- earths company with $1.73 billion in assets; and a $20.2 million holding in a publicly traded technology company. The figures don't account for liabilities and thus don't reflect the family's net worth. No assets were traced to Xi, who turns 59 this month; his wife Peng Liyuan, 49, a famous People's Liberation Army singer; or their daughter, the documents show. There is no indication Xi intervened to advance his relatives' business transactions, or of any wrongdoing by Xi or his extended family.[...]
After Bloomberg makes the important note that none of these assets can be tied directly to Xi, it offers a contextual picture of a China rife with tension surrounding wealth and corruption. The in-depth piece of investigative reporting outlines the Xi family's revolutionary history and Jinping's "princeling" status before diving into the massive business holdings of his extended family: Xi and his siblings are the children of the late Xi Zhongxun, a revolutionary fighter who helped Mao Zedong win control of China in 1949 with a pledge to end centuries of inequality and abuse of power for personal gain. That makes them "princelings," scions of top officials and party figures whose lineages can help them wield influence in politics and business.
The Guardian briefly summarizes some of Bloomberg's findings: The Bloomberg report said most of the assets it traced were owned by Xi's older sister, Qi Qiaoqiao, her husband, Deng Jiagui, and Qi's daughter, Zhang Yannan. It said Deng held an indirect 18% stake in a rare earth firm with $1.7bn (£1.1bn) in assets, while the couple held 1.83bn yuan (£184m) of the assets of the Shenzhen Yuanwei Investment Company and wholly owned the Yuanwei group, which had assets worth at least 539m yuan (£55m). The report did not assess the liabilities of relatives and so could not calculate their net worth. Deng told the agency he was retired and it was "not convenient" to talk much about the couple's business interests. The Chinese government refused to comment when the agency provided a list showing the Xi family's holdings to the foreign ministry.
Shortly after the piece went online, Bloomberg found its website on the harmonious side of the Great Firewall. AP reports: China blocked access to Bloomberg's website on the mainland after the business and financial news agency published a report Friday detailing the multimillion-dollar assets of relatives of the man set to become the country's next president. Bloomberg noted that no assets were traced to Xi, his wife, or their daughter and said in the report that there was no indication of any wrongdoing by Xi or his extended family. Still, the move to block access to Bloomberg's main website, on which the Xi story was the lead news item, underscores the government's sensitivity to such exposure of wealth belonging to people linked to top leaders amid a burgeoning gap between rich and poor and rampant official corruption. "The government has always been very careful in, on the one hand, emphasizing how they want to contain corruption but yet also worrying about how reports of this nature might galvanize public opinion against the Communist Party," said Dali Yang, a political scientist at University of Chicago Center in Beijing.
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Post tags: anti-corruption, Bloomberg, censorship, corruption, Great Firewall, princelings, Xi Jinping
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| Bloomberg Blocked After Revealing Xi Family Wealth Posted: 29 Jun 2012 06:19 PM PDT Bloomberg ran a lengthy report on Xi Jinping – the presumed heir to the title of China's paramount leader, digging deep into the business connections of his family. After outlining Xi's reputation for being a clean, moral politician who championed an anti-graft campaign, the article airs the extensive business relations and enormous reserves of wealth connected to the Xi family: As Xi climbed the Communist Party ranks, his extended family expanded their business interests to include minerals, real estate and mobile-phone equipment, according to public documents compiled by Bloomberg. Those interests include investments in companies with total assets of $376 million; an 18 percent indirect stake in a rare- earths company with $1.73 billion in assets; and a $20.2 million holding in a publicly traded technology company. The figures don't account for liabilities and thus don't reflect the family's net worth. No assets were traced to Xi, who turns 59 this month; his wife Peng Liyuan, 49, a famous People's Liberation Army singer; or their daughter, the documents show. There is no indication Xi intervened to advance his relatives' business transactions, or of any wrongdoing by Xi or his extended family.[...]
After Bloomberg makes the important note that none of these assets can be tied directly to Xi, it offers a contextual picture of a China rife with tension surrounding wealth and corruption. The in-depth piece of investigative reporting outlines the Xi family's revolutionary history and Jinping's "princeling" status before diving into the massive business holdings of his extended family: Xi and his siblings are the children of the late Xi Zhongxun, a revolutionary fighter who helped Mao Zedong win control of China in 1949 with a pledge to end centuries of inequality and abuse of power for personal gain. That makes them "princelings," scions of top officials and party figures whose lineages can help them wield influence in politics and business.
The Guardian briefly summarizes some of Bloomberg's findings: The Bloomberg report said most of the assets it traced were owned by Xi's older sister, Qi Qiaoqiao, her husband, Deng Jiagui, and Qi's daughter, Zhang Yannan. It said Deng held an indirect 18% stake in a rare earth firm with $1.7bn (£1.1bn) in assets, while the couple held 1.83bn yuan (£184m) of the assets of the Shenzhen Yuanwei Investment Company and wholly owned the Yuanwei group, which had assets worth at least 539m yuan (£55m). The report did not assess the liabilities of relatives and so could not calculate their net worth. Deng told the agency he was retired and it was "not convenient" to talk much about the couple's business interests. The Chinese government refused to comment when the agency provided a list showing the Xi family's holdings to the foreign ministry.
Shortly after the piece went online, Bloomberg found its website on the harmonious side of the Great Firewall. AP reports: China blocked access to Bloomberg's website on the mainland after the business and financial news agency published a report Friday detailing the multimillion-dollar assets of relatives of the man set to become the country's next president. Bloomberg noted that no assets were traced to Xi, his wife, or their daughter and said in the report that there was no indication of any wrongdoing by Xi or his extended family. Still, the move to block access to Bloomberg's main website, on which the Xi story was the lead news item, underscores the government's sensitivity to such exposure of wealth belonging to people linked to top leaders amid a burgeoning gap between rich and poor and rampant official corruption. "The government has always been very careful in, on the one hand, emphasizing how they want to contain corruption but yet also worrying about how reports of this nature might galvanize public opinion against the Communist Party," said Dali Yang, a political scientist at University of Chicago Center in Beijing.
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Post tags: anti-corruption, Bloomberg, censorship, corruption, Great Firewall, princeling, princelings, Xi Jinping
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| China in Africa: Voices of Approval Posted: 29 Jun 2012 02:41 PM PDT An ongoing debate has long revolved around China's investment of cultural, economic, and military resources in Africa. Western politicians have warned African states to be wary of a "Chinese Invasion", and African statesmen are sometimes ambiguous in their stance – playing a hard line while campaigning and then affirming the importance of ties to Beijing once in office. There are, however, those who lucidly see positive light in China's African campaigns. In a New York Times op-ed, international economist Dambisa Moyo takes on the "scaremongering", and emphasizes the needed accountability to which African leaders should be held: Despite all the scaremongering, China's motives for investing in Africa are actually quite pure. To satisfy China's population and prevent a crisis of legitimacy for their rule, leaders in Beijing need to keep economic growth rates high and continue to bring hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. And to do so, China needs arable land, oil and minerals. Pursuing imperial or colonial ambitions with masses of impoverished people at home would be wholly irrational and out of sync with China's current strategic thinking. Moreover, the evidence does not support a claim that Africans themselves feel exploited. To the contrary, China's role is broadly welcomed across the continent. A 2007 Pew Research Center survey of 10 sub-Saharan African countries found that Africans overwhelmingly viewed Chinese economic growth as beneficial. In virtually all countries surveyed, China's involvement was viewed in a much more positive light than America's; in Senegal, 86 percent said China's role in their country helped make things better, compared with 56 percent who felt that way about America's role. In Kenya, 91 percent of respondents said they believed China's influence was positive, versus only 74 percent for the United States.
An article from Global Research discussing U.S. plans to expand military activity in Africa points to a difference in aid strategy that may help explain both positive African perceptions of China (as represented by Moyo), and condemnations of China's presence by Western politicians (as represented by Hillary Clinton's statements last year): the difference between "hard" and "soft" power: [...]The big difference in China's attitude as compared to the West, and primarily the U.S., is that it used the so called "soft power" creating a positive impression of itself rather than twisting the arms of its partners and expanding military presence. [...]Feeling that they might lose the competition with China if it continues to move along economic rails only, the West has resorted to the time-tested tactics of increasing its military presence. The pretext may be any – the anti-terrorism fight as in the case of Africa, or even "humanitarian operations" and search for the remnants of U.S. pilots killed in World War II like the one the U.S. is planning to launch in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, bordering China and disputed by the latter. But the long term goal is clear – that is, pressing China out of all spheres of vital interest. Whether such development and the substitution of China's "soft power" by the U.S. "hard power" is in vital interests of the affected countries themselves, is for the latter to judge. But one thing is clear – while shifting the focus of its strategy to the Asia Pacific (i.e. to China's immediate neighborhood) , the U.S. is ready to start a scramble for influence on "distant playgrounds" as well.
For more from an approving stance on China's presence in Africa, lets turn to China Daily. One article in today's edition outlines the history leading up to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and all of the positives that have resulted since the first forum 12-years ago. It ends stressing that, while the forum has been beneficial to Africa, there is room for improvement: After 12 years, the China-Africa cooperation platform has now reached a concrete stage. Multilevel exchanges, bilateral interactions and decision-making processes between the two sides reflect the common goal of scientific cooperation. Project selection under the aegis of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum has also veered more toward African interests. (The African side is permitted to float two or three alternative proposals depending on the need). The real core of China-Africa cooperation can be found in the Four Basic Principles, namely the principles of equal treatment, mutual support, autonomy and common development. Though cooperation between the two sides has notched up many achievements, there are still defects and problems. Due to lack of experience in the initial stages, the forum is not perfect, and it has always been in a process of continuous learning, change and adaptation.
Another opinion piece in today's China Daily further applauds China's efforts in Africa: "If you want to be rich, you must first build roads," says a well-known Chinese proverb. Massive investment in road construction has been an important element for China's success in its reform and opening-up. Based on its own successful experience, China has made heavy investment in Africa's infrastructure. The African people and leaders know well that the investment will lay a solid foundation for the continent's economic development in the future. When picking up Chinese visitors at airports, taxi drivers in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, often gladly point at the city's high-quality beltways and say gratefully that they would not have such modern highways without the help of China.
Also see prior CDT coverage of soft power and the debate surrounding Chinese investment in Africa.
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Post tags: Africa investment, Africa relations, soft power
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| World’s Oldest Pottery Confirmed in Jiangxi Posted: 29 Jun 2012 12:04 PM PDT An report released today in Science details the dating efforts that have confirmed pottery fragments found in Jiangxi province's Xianren Cave (仙人洞) to be the world's oldest. Radiocarbon samples have proven the fragments to be 20,000 years old, at least 2,000 years older than shards found in Hunan, previously thought to be from the world's oldest pots. The Guardian reports on the groundbreaking archaeological theory that this new evidence speaks to: The findings, which appear in the journal Science on Friday, add to recent efforts that have dated pottery piles in east Asia to more than 15,000 years ago, refuting conventional theories that the invention of pottery correlates to the period about 10,000 years ago when humans moved from being hunter-gatherers to farmers. The research by a team of Chinese and American scientists also pushes the emergence of pottery back to the last ice age, which might provide new explanations for the creation of pottery, said Gideon Shelach, chair of the Louis Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies at The Hebrew University in Israel. "The focus of research has to change," Shelach, who is not involved in the research project in China, said by telephone.
An AP article further quotes Shelach on the significance of the confirmation, and talks to a leading researcher on the project: In an accompanying Science article, Shelach wrote that such research efforts "are fundamental for a better understanding of socio-economic change (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) and the development that led to the emergency of sedentary agricultural societies." He said the disconnection between pottery and agriculture as shown in east Asia might shed light on specifics of human development in the region. Wu Xiaohong, professor of archaeology and museology at Peking University and the lead author of the Science article that details the radiocarbon dating efforts, told The Associated Press that her team was eager to build on the research. "We are very excited about the findings. The paper is the result of efforts done by generations of scholars," Wu said. "Now we can explore why there was pottery in that particular time, what were the uses of the vessels, and what role they played in the survival of human beings."
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Post tags: archaeology, Jiangxi
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| No Weibo for the New York Times Posted: 29 Jun 2012 10:18 AM PDT  "This user doesn't exist  " The New York Times Chinese-language venture, launched this Wednesday, is off to a bumpy start. While the website itself is running, the site's Sina Weibo account went down just hours after its launch. It was up again on Thursday evening. "Given that the site was brand new, they could not have possibly posted anything controversial," says Philip Chun at Shanghaiist. But Chun, CDT and other media outlets spoke too soon. @nytchinese is down again. The Times Weibo account may have been shuttered not for anything it said, but for its mere presence. Times Foreign Editor Joseph Kahn says "We're not tailoring it to the demands of the Chinese government." The cn.nytimes.com server is based outside of China. In a blog post announcing the launch, staff writer Christine Haughney notes the Chinese site will adhere to the same standards as the English-language edition. The Times gained 25,195 followers before the second shut-down. Its Tencent Weibo account is still up, with nearly 7900 followers, but its Sohu and NetEase Weibos are both down. The Times Chinese edition includes translated articles and original Chinese-language content. It seeks a middle-class, urbane audience, as can be seen from its advertisers: Salvatore Ferragamo, Cartier and other luxury companies. That same audience thirsts for high-quality, incisive reporting. The question is, will the Chinese censors allow it to deliver, or continue to cut off major platforms like Weibo? As the Times faces pressure to clean up for the authorities, Zhang Zhi'an, an associate professor at the Sun Yat-Sen University School of Communication and Design, sees the paper's experiment as a litmus test for foreign media in China: ZhangZhi'an: The New York Times Chinese edition has two issues worth paying attention to: 1) Will the Times translate and publish articles on sensitive subjects or which report negatively on China? 2) Which discrepancies will there be between the English and Chinese versions of the same article? These questions may offer a window onto the monitoring pressure and self-censorship of foreign Chinese-language media. 张志安：「纽约时报中文版」有两个问题值得关注：1、纽约时报那些关于中国的敏感报道、负面报道，能翻译成中文放这么？2、关于中国报道的中文版经「翻译」后和英文版有何差异？从这点或可管窥外媒中文网的监管压力及自我审查。
The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal both have Chinese-language editions, each with fully functional Weibo accounts. It's unclear what the Times could have done to cross the censors. Hopefully, the paper will get a chance to answer Dr. Zhang's questions. Zhang Zhi'an Weibo post via SneezeBloid.
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Post tags: netease, new york times, sensitive words, sina weibo, SneezeBloid, sohu, tencent, weibo
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| The Daily Twit (@chinahearsay links) – 6/29/12 Posted: 29 Jun 2012 03:51 AM PDT The big news of the day was the safe splashdown of the Shenzhou 9, ending another of China's manned space flights and marking the successful journey of the first female taikonaut. State media made some confusing noises about whether other women would be included in future missions, and there's also the possibility that foreigners might participate as well. Down here on the ground, we're talking about the following: Reuters: U.S. grants Iran sanctions exceptions to China — This has been in the news a lot lately, and the predictions that the US was not going to confront China on this policy were spot on. Economist: China's security state: Guarding the guardians — reform of China's security apparatus, including the role played by provincial police chiefs. Diplomat: Zhou Yongkang's Successor — another look at security reforms, this time focused on how the job of the nation's top security official will change this year once Zhou steps down. CNN: U.S. firm, subsidiaries admit role in sending military software to China — The US government is not amused, catching Pratt & Whitney (Canada) in a violation of technology export bans when P&W sold software to China that was used to develop an advanced attack helicopter. Economist: India and China: Friend, enemy, rival, investor — Talk about a complicated relationship! A lot of people are waiting to see when/if these two nations will establish better relations. If that can happen, and if economic cooperation can strengthen, the possibilities are endless. Lots of media-related stories out there today: Asia Sentinel: Prize-Winning Reporter Driven out of SCMP — Hong Kong-based SCMP is taking a beating these days, with accusations that the new owners/editorial staff is sucking up to Beijing in a big way. Foreign Policy: The Old Grey Lady in Red China — Isaac Stone Fish takes a look at the New York Times' new Chinese-language site — cn.nytimes.com. AP: China Blogger Says Court Overturns His Conviction — Amazing story of a blogger from Chongqing who spent a year in a labor camp after writing a post that mocked Bo Xilai. He got out, went to court to challenge the detention, and won. Surprising, until you realize who was ultimately responsible for putting him in jail in the first place — it pays to be on the winning team. Last but not least, if you've been hearing about strange goings-on with access to Bloomberg news here in China, the mystery has been solved. One of the cardinal rules of China journalism is that you don't go after national leaders (or their families). Bloomberg made the decision to do it anyway; one assumes that the fallout will not be pleasant.
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| Hu Arrives in HK for Handover Celebrations Posted: 29 Jun 2012 02:29 AM PDT Ahead of this weekend's 15th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the mainland, the city's outgoing and incoming chief executives welcomed President Hu Jintao and an entourage of other CCP officials at Hong Kong International Airport on Friday. From Xinhua News: HKSAR Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen mounted the special plane to welcome Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the Central Military Commission. HKSAR Chief Executive-elect Leung Chun-ying and a group of high- ranking officials were also present at the airport to greet Hu. Upon his arrival at the Hong Kong International Airport, Hu said he hoped to witness the city's latest development and progress and have a better understanding of the citizens' life and expectations. Hu said the central government is willing to work with the Hong Kong people from all walks of life to draw up the "precious experiences" in carrying out the "one country, two systems" policy over the past 15 years for further development.
Despite Hu's call for unity in his airport speech, he arrives at a time of strain between Hong Kong and the mainland. For BBC News, Juliana Liu reports that an independent poll shows that the Hong Kong public's mistrust of the Chinese government stands at a post handover high. The Financial Times' Enid Tsui writes that Hu's arrival is arousing mixed reactions: Local officials, business tycoons and pro-Beijing politicians have literally painted the town red to mark the occasion. But tens of thousands of ordinary citizens plan to welcome the Chinese leader by taking to the streets in protest. The July 1 anniversary has traditionally been the biggest day for protests in Hong Kong since the handover, and turnout this year is expected to be bigger than usual. Protesters are calling for the resignation of Leung Chun-ying, who is scheduled to be inaugurated as Hong Kong chief executive on Sunday, over concerns that he misled the public about several illegal structures at his home. However, the main target is the Chinese Communist party, which they believe is undermining the "one-country, two-system" framework that Britain and China agreed before the handover to ensure Hong Kong retained a high degree of autonomy.
Hu will also oversee the swearing-in of Leung Chun-ying, who in March won a campaign marked by scandals and protest and who faces a number of issues as he takes office. Reuters reports that for Leung, who has given inconsistent explanations for a series of illegal housing structures in his Victoria Peak villa, the honeymoon is over before it's begun: China had been hoping for a smooth transition of power from outgoing Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang to his Beijing-backed successor, Leung Chun-ying, but a series of scandals that has infuriated the public, and undermined the government's reputation as clean and honest, makes that unlikely. "He (Leung) will have a very difficult, if not turbulent, one or two years," said political analyst Willy Lam. "The honeymoon has gone before he's even started."
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Post tags: Donald Tsang, hong kong chief executive, hong kong elections, Hong Kong handover, Hong Kong mainland relations, Hu Jintao, Leung Chun-ying
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| China May Continue to Send Women into Space. Wait, what? Posted: 29 Jun 2012 01:12 AM PDT China may continue to send female astronauts into space in future space missions, an official responsible for selecting and training Chinese astronauts said Friday. Chen Shanguang, director of the Chinese Astronaut Research and Training Center, told a post-mission press conference that "the specific plan will be decided after research". (China Daily)
May continue? May!?! What the fudge is that all about? The suggestion here is that China may decide not to send women on future space missions. Why would this happen? Well, we're not told, but the decision will be made "after research." Are you as curious as I am about what that research will entail? A partial explanation might be found in CCTV commentary from this morning. Canadian journalist Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) Tweeted the following: "Females are having a harder time adapting to gravity than males," CCTV anchor informs. "Of course, their muscles are much less strong."
Jeebus. The old "women are too weak" excuse, and I don't think they're talking about reduction in bone density or something. This is always a superficially attractive "argument," but it's ultimately useless when applied on a case-by-case basis. Moreover, just what sort of heavy lifting are these spacers doing out there? Or perhaps they need to be tough enough to fight off typical space threats, like interstellar salt monsters and felonious Kryptonians? It's great that China finally sent a woman into space, but I'm glad the whole exercise is over. The thinly-veiled misogyny from some folks was getting on my nerves.
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