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Blogs » Politics » How China Sees America |
- How China Sees America
- Photo: View of downtown Shanghai from the Shanghai World Financial Center, by Remko Tanis
- Why Chinese Netizens Are Calling Koreans “Lucky”
- Is Apple’s Popularity Waning in China?
- Assigning Blame for a Hard Landing
- Angola Deports Chinese “Gangsters”
- GDP, Infrastructure, Train Crashes and Tofu Bridges
- Translation: Seven Chinese Myths About Money in America
- Chinese Bidder Smashes $15,000 French Wine In Failed Show of Patriotism
- Xu Qing: a lotus flower rises from under water
- Video: Sexy “road killer” shrugs it off when her car tipped over
- China Tightens Security Ahead of Power Transfer
| Posted: 26 Aug 2012 10:27 PM PDT In a lengthy article in Foreign Policy (reposted by China U.S. Focus), Andrew J. Nathan of Columbia University and Andrew Scobell of RAND, give an in-depth look at the current U.S.-China relationship by examining how Beijing views the world and in particular the U.S. The article also presents an alternative for the future where both countries, "create a new equilibrium of power that maintains the current world system, but with a larger role for China." In explaining Beijing's perspective of the U.S., Nathan and Scobell write:
Also watch a video interview with Nathan about the article, which is excerpted from a new book, "China's Search for Security": For other views on U.S.-China relations, see a Reuters column by Mark Leonard, "The great Sino-American divorce," and an op-ed in the New York TImes by Peter Hays Gries, "Why China Resents Japan, and Us." Read more on the bilateral relationship via CDT. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Photo: View of downtown Shanghai from the Shanghai World Financial Center, by Remko Tanis Posted: 26 Aug 2012 09:54 PM PDT  View of downtown Shanghai from the Shanghai World Financial Center © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Why Chinese Netizens Are Calling Koreans “Lucky” Posted: 26 Aug 2012 07:34 PM PDT On August 23, judges in South Korea ruled the country's controversial real name-registration system unconstitutional, a move hailed as a victory by free speech advocates.  The Constitutional Court of Korea has ruled against the country's real-name system. By PuzzletChung via Wikimedia Commons In practice since June 28, 2009 under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Information and Communication of Korea, real-name registration had required netizens to register with identification credentials in order to post online. In South Korea, 35 popular websites, chosen because they each receive over 100,000 daily views, had been required to implement real-name registration in order for netizens to comment and contribute content. This move came amid concerns over the growing number of rumors and abusive comments plaguing websites and the rampant spread of unchecked user-generated content, problems that are increasingly occurring on the Chinese Internet and falling under the watchful eye of the Chinese Communist Party. Many Chinese turned to Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, to voice their opinions on the South Korean court's ruling. Most tweets expressed shock at the South Korean court's decision. @两滴鹤顶红 lamented, "South Korea says the name-registration system is unconstitutional, but ours is constitutional?"@ 东莞律师微博专栏 expressed the sentiments of many, simply tweeting, "Lucky Koreans!" In ruling the law unconstitutional, the Constitutional Court of Korea found that the real-name registration system amounted to prior censorship. It also noted that, following the law's adoption, there has not been a significant drop in the amount of online libel, even though preventing libel was the law's original stated purpose. However, real-name identification is moving in the opposite direction in China. Sina's Code of Conduct for Weibo users mandates that users cannot publish false information or words that may harm state unity. Earlier this year, the Chinese government recently required that Sina and other companies providing microblogging platforms implement programs requiring users to register with their real names and identification card numbers in order to share and forward posts. Netizens on Weibo were quick to note comparisons with China's own real-name registration system. @裴彬1984 criticized the Chinese Communist Party's system of policy-making, writing, "In South Korea, the real-name registration system was abandoned because it violates the constitution. However, in China, the laws and rules seem to be made by leaders, and nobody can stand out and fix them, even some of those leaders' activities are against the Chinese constitution."[1] User @法律-疯子 pointed out that real-name registration in China even extends outside of the digital realm: "The regulation system in South Korea is not as advanced as in China. In China, people even have to use their IDs to buy train tickets."[2]
Not all Chinese netizens believe that regulation and real-name registration have no place on the Chinese Internet. @兮兮宝儿 believes that citizens have a right to protection on the Internet: "I believe that real-name registration has more advantages than disadvantages. China needs to learn from the experience of South Korea and improve the real-name registration system while protecting people's privacy at the same time." [4] And other users, such as @双鱼圆圈人生, argue that the South Korean ruling is not significant for China: "Real-name registration is necessary for the development of Internet technology, China cannot abandon it just based on a few special cases." [5] Finally, netizens remarked that the registration system's repeal coincided with widely-followed Weibo user @作业本 (zuoyeben)'s return after an 80-day censor-imposed exile. @二拉-yy-Ykg tweeted, "South Korea has just repealed the real-name registration system, tonight zuoyeben returned. Well, it's progress." Microblogging websites have become the place for Chinese to vent and voice their concerns, acting as havens for political participation in a nation that strictly prohibits protests and even public statements contrary to the Party line. China-watchers and netizens alike are concerned that real-name-registration threatens the limited freedoms that Chinese have won in their online lives. The recent ruling in Korea is cause for Internet free speech advocates to be optimistic, but it is also a reminder of how far Chinese Internet freedom has to go. Footnotes (? returns to text) |
| Is Apple’s Popularity Waning in China? Posted: 26 Aug 2012 07:58 PM PDT Reuters reported Friday that Apple's share of China's smartphone market almost halved in the second quarter:
For The Financial Times' beyondbrics blog, Zhao Tianqi and Kathrin Hille ask why Apple isn't as cool as it used to be in China:
See also recent CDT coverage of Apple's slowing growth in China. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Assigning Blame for a Hard Landing Posted: 26 Aug 2012 06:28 PM PDT Since Reform & Opening up (and to an even greater extent after the Tiananmen uprising) the Communist Party has used China's torrid economic growth to justify its absolute unchecked power. By pointing to slower growth in emerging economies like India and the recessions of developed democracies, the CCP can proudly tout the superiority of its system. But things are changing. Just about every economic indicator for China is headed downward. Mass factory layoffs/closures, sharply declining steel production, a pile up of unsold cars…you name it. Serious questions are being raised over the "superiority" of China's command and control economy, which pushed down interest rates, forced excessive loans (MANY of which are starting to go bad) and created what could be the biggest real estate bubble in history. Over the next few months we should start to see an answer to the "hard vs. soft landing" question. Since talk of a possible hard landing began, I've often wondered how China's propaganda apparatus would respond if and when China's economy takes a sharp turn south. The party can't exactly just say, "Oops. I guess our system is deeply flawed and not as superior as we led you to believe." Its legitimacy lies almost completely in the idea that efficient economic growth is a result of its authoritarian model. A few weeks ago People's Daily gave a little clue as to how the party might be planning to address this issue. Unsurprisingly, it looks like it will go with the standard approach of "It's not that bad; and anyways, it's the West's fault." The piece said:
So whether it's domestic or international problems, no fault lies with China itself. The rest of the piece downplayed the idea that China's economy is in serious trouble anyways, with a touch of "look on the bright side" (inflation is falling). It seems a likely double-pronged approach: Pretend that a hard landing isn't happening and blame foreign countries for the minor economic hiccup that has to be acknowledged. Many of the points the piece raises are valid. If it wasn't for the US-created 2008 financial crisis, China wouldn't have injected its $586 billion stimulus (which has largely gone into fruitless projects) or required banks to give out a ludicrous $2.7 trillion in loans (ditto). So in that sense, a fair amount of blame does belong to the US for setting the stage for China's potential hard landing. Europe certainly hasn't done anything to help matters either. But the mismanagement of the economy by the Chinese government is where the lion's share of the blame rests for China's economic woes. When faced with an economic crisis and potential unrest, the government opted (as always) to secure short-term stability at the cost of long-term sustainability by throwing cheap money at the problem and trying to guide the invisible hand of the market too forcefully. "The debt-ridden western countries are to blame" argument can only stretch so far. But accepting blame and owning up to deep systematic flaws with its economic model aren't in the CCP playbook. So it's likely we'll see that argument stretched to its very limit. The question is, will people buy it?   |
| Angola Deports Chinese “Gangsters” Posted: 26 Aug 2012 04:49 PM PDT The BBC reports on the extradition of Chinese nationals who have been making an illicit living in Angola:
As noted above, most of the victims were law-abiding Chinese nationals seeking a livelihood in Angola. AP reports on the experiences of some of those targeted:
The Telegraph describes the Chinese task force assigned to deal with these "gangsters":
© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| GDP, Infrastructure, Train Crashes and Tofu Bridges Posted: 26 Aug 2012 04:03 PM PDT Earlier this month, Foreign Policy compiled a list of the 75 cities projected to be the "world's most dynamic" by 2025, according to per-capita GDP growth. The list, which is based on a McKinsey Global Institute database of 2,065 cities, is dominated by China's rapidly changing urban landscapes, as an accompanying FP brief explains:
In a more recent FP article, James Traub reflects on the list described above, to see if China really is "eclipsing the West". He looks closely at one indicator of growth in China: its massive development of infrastructure:
While Traub's piece claims that China's investment in infrastructure could serve as a lesson for the West, it also mentions the many pitfalls of rapid development that can be seen in China, exemplified, for example, by the 2011 train crashes in Wenzhou, or more recently by Beijing's infrastructural inability to stand up to heavy rain in parts of the city. While China's investment strategy may indeed be helping its cities dominate lists like the one compiled by FP, poor planning coupled with official corruption often creates disaster, and last week two infrastructural mishaps occured in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. AFP reports on a train accident last Thursday in Jiamusi:
On Friday, a day after the Jiamusi collision, a newly opened bridge in Harbin collapsed. AFP reports:
The New York Times has more on the collapsed bridge, and on the public distrust that incidents like it provoke:
Also see prior CDT coverage of China's infrastructural development, high-speed train network and the accidents that occur on its rails, collapsed bridges, "tofu construction" or corrupt officials. © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Translation: Seven Chinese Myths About Money in America Posted: 26 Aug 2012 02:40 PM PDT  Want to live here? Too bad, you can't afford it. By Florin dr via Wikimedia Commons Not only are foreigners leaving China; those Chinese who are rich enough are emigrating out of their motherland as well. Recently, Charlie Custer, founder and editor of the wonderful Chinageeks.org, announced he was leaving China, but he is by no means unique. Reasons for leaving almost always include food safety and air quality, among many others, and in a recent popular infographic, the stark difference in the purchasing power of USD and RMB was also illustrated. It's simply cheaper and easier to live in the United States than in China, they say. Some people beg to differ, however, particularly Chinese who were raised and educated in China but now work in the U.S. They think some of the claims about living standards in the U.S. are exaggerated and that life isn't easy anywhere—the grass is just always greener on the other side. Recently, a blogger calling himself "Stock Investor Tang Tang" wrote a post on the Sina forum with an ungainly title reading in part: "A Warning To Chinese In The U.S.: Chinese People Have Too Much Blind Faith In The U.S."[Chinese] Our dear readers may not agree with everything written, but it's a voice worth hearing. Tea Leaf Nation translates in part: First we have to admit that the United States is indeed better than China in terms of economics, rule of law, social stability, social security, infrastructure, and medical care. The name of "international number one" isn't just hype, but the United States isn't all that perfect as the name suggests; it is not a paradise as described in many articles. Too many Chinese buy into those stories and it's not good for our offspring! I'll use a few famous examples to illustrate my point: Misunderstanding No. 1: Income America's average annual income is US$35,000. But hear this: the average annual income at Goldman Sachs in 2009 was $7,750,000, but the crew I know from the auditing department only earned $100,000 a year, and that included their bonus already. The average is always elevated [by the wealthy few]. Level of income at law firms, investment banks, hedge funds, and among doctors is far higher than in other industries. The situation in big cities is also better than in smaller cities and rural areas. In a big city like New York, an ordinary white-collar worker can earn $45,000-$90,000 a year, but can only get 50%-60% of that amount due to taxation, and end up getting a disposable income of $2,500-$4,500 per month. If you have a wife with bunch of kids, you can get a lot tax returned, of course, but even with that you can only strive to make your ends meet. I will talk more when we talk about education. The annual income at the tertiary sector in big cities is $35,000-$60,000, but most people in small cities work in places like Walmart and only earn $30,000-$40,000 a year, or $20,000-$30,000 minus tax and insurance. If we count in living expenses, they can save up $10,000-$20,000 every year; it takes ten years to be able to buy a [country] house that's worth $150,000. Needless to say, this is the Chinese way of calculating, since the Americans can't even save half as much [in the given circumstances]. We can see that if you have a disposable monthly income of $40,000-$50,000, you can be fairly rich already. If you're not in those few special industries I mentioned above, it is hard to earn this much in New York unless you're a senior manager already; I don't know how much longer it takes to get there in smaller cities. Besides, many Chinese experience the "glass ceiling" problem, and can't ever get there. I know many Chinese whose annual income is still stuck between $80,000 and $120,000 when they are in their forties or fifties. It's not easy to maintain a household with such an income. 40%-50% of bonus income is taxed in the United States. Salaries are taxed by the federal government, the state, and the city, which is roughly 25%-40% of the total amount. So for those who claim that the average monthly salary is $4,000-$5,000 in the U.S., feel free to come to the U.S. and try working on a job like this. Misunderstanding No. 2: Housing Don't compare houses in Beijing and Shanghai with houses in the U.S. in places where nobody can be seen within fifty miles. If you claim that houses in the city center of Shanghai cost 40,000 RMB per square meter, should I tell you the price of housing near Central Park in Manhattan? Houses there are easily worth seven, eight million dollars. Is there any comparability? 200,000 dollars can indeed land you a house with a swimming pool, but it only happens in the Midwest where you have to drive for more than an hour to the nearest supermarket. A house like this costs at least $300,000 in a big city where everything is two hours of drive away. We working class have no need to talk about stand-alone houses, an apartment with two bedrooms and a sitting room around New York (excluding Manhattan, where housing is way too expensive) costs $400,000-$1,000,000. Of course you need to pay attention to the enclaves as well. There is $300,000 housing in the black enclaves too. An important expense after you buy the house is often ignored (which makes sense, because those are Chinese tourists in America, who walk away feeling envious without knowing enough about the actual situation), and that is the property tax. It depends on the worth of your housing, the quality of schools in your area, and ranges from $6,000 to $20,000 every year. Better communities might have various maintenance fees. Think about it, the property tax you pay living in a place for thirty years is enough for you to buy another house. So don't forget property tax when you compare prices of housing. Even if you have a good job with an annual income of $100,000, tax and insurance take up a third of that, and you end up getting $60,000 to $70,000. Lead a frugal life and by the end of the year you save up $30,000 to $40,000, then you need about twenty years to be able to own a house near New York with two bedrooms and a sitting room. Let's now talk about renting houses. I can't afford Manhattan though those Americans who love going to bars often choose to live in Manhattan, because it's convenient when they go home in the early morning. In Manhattan, it's often the case that three people live in a suite with two bedrooms and a living room where the living room is segregated. This way each person pays $1,200-$1,600 a month. Housing surrounding New York is cheaper and each person has to pay $800-$1,100. You'll realize that one to two thirds of your monthly income easily gets spent on your rent. As mentioned above, housing in smaller cities is slightly less pricy, but the problem is, job opportunities in those places are far fewer as well. Except for working as laborers, it's hard for foreigners to survive there. Most first-generation immigrants choose to live around big cities. Luckily Americans don't have the custom of buying housing before marriage, so most people only have enough for a down payment in their thirties or forties, and many people live in rented housing all their lives. It's not a bad option to buy a house in a small place after retirement. Misunderstanding No. 3: Cars and Transportation Yep, American cars are cheap, but when I see online "A car is at most $30,000—a BMW" or "BMW Z4, priced $29,888," I don't know whether I should cry or laugh. Go ahead and ask. See if you can get the worst BMW with $36,000. Well, possible if it's second-hand.  This costs oodles of money, even in the United States Imported cars are taxed 100% in China, so luxury cars in China are naturally more expensive than in America. But cars like a Honda Accord cost $28,000-$30,000 in America—not so different in China. Most importantly, the part you can save isn't really when you buy the car, but when you maintain it. Insurance and reparation fees matter the most. Full-coverage insurance costs between $2,500 and $3,500 every year. Reparation costs even more. Changing four brake rubbers costs $200-$350. You pay the workers $80 an hour to get a Japanese or an American car fixed. European cars have more ridiculous rates. Examples: A friend of mine had the AC of his Benz broken, and it cost him 3,000 bucks to get it fixed. Another friend spent $2,000 changing the roof of his convertible. Finally, switching a front bumper of an AUDI A4 cost my third friend $2,000. As for fees on the road, I can only say you have never approached big cities if you never ran into tollbooths in America. It's eight bucks entering into NYC, and other highways have tollbooths too, only not so expensive. Highways in America are of the same quality as their Chinese counterparts—pretty bad for the cars. It's hard to see tollbooths on bridges in China, but I've seen several in America. Taxies: Starts off with more than two bucks in New York, though I don't know how exactly the fees are calculated. I know it takes twenty minutes to get home by taxi and it costs thirty bucks excluding 20% tips. So unless I go to the airport, which means a reimbursable taxi drive, I never call a cab. Misunderstanding No. 4: Telecommunication An iPhone is indeed $299, but why is it priced seven, eight hundred dollars on eBay? Because you can only get one for $299 with a two-year contract! Every month you get 450 minutes in the day, 500 at night and on weekends, and 2G of data. All kinds of taxes included, you'll have to pay 80-110 bucks every month. See what that amounts to by the end of two years. Similarly, many phones are on the house, but the cheapest plan still costs 50 bucks a month. Retailers will earn more than the phone's worth by the end of two years. Phones on eBay are all bought by illegal immigrants who cheated on their contracts, but since they have no credit record they don't need to worry about the rate when they buy cars or housing. Still some people say the rate is actually cheap in America because it only costs a few cents per minute to call China from the States. You're right but don't play any tricks here. It's cheap to call China, but I dare you to live in America and only call China without ever calling anyone in America. Misunderstanding No. 5: Education There is indeed the public school system in which education from elementary to high schools is free, but the problem is whether you dare to send your kids there. I was a volunteer this year teaching financial basics at a Manhattan public school. The school is close to Chinatown but I didn't see any Chinese kids there, because the graduation rate of this school is only 33%. Well there are good public schools but first you need to pass the tests to get in, and second of all, it depends on whether you live in that particular district or not. As I mentioned above, houses in good districts cost a lot more, with higher taxes, do you remember? I don't know how much it costs to go to a private school, but I hear it's just as expensive as college education. Speaking of colleges, the ones that are ranked top twenty cost $200,000-$250,000 in total, a sum that most ordinary Americans cannot afford. It's extremely hard to get scholarships or to get loans from banks. But only graduates from these schools or brand name MBAs can go on to work in lucrative industries as I mentioned. So this is the vicious cycle: Only rich kids get to go to good schools, then work for good companies and keep being rich. Surely there are poor kids who change their lives through hard work and intelligence, but generally speaking, education in America is so expensive that it's fairly good if poor kids get to work as medium-level managers. Now you know how hard it is for a family with a $100,000 annual income to get their kids into good schools or good companies. Misunderstanding No. 6: Cheap food A huge difference between America and Europe/China is you get taxed everywhere. So is the necessity to give out tips. Tips at restaurants are usually 16%-20% of the bills, though you don't need to tip anyone at a place like McDonald's. But when you come here and see what adults feeding on junk food look like, you'll immediately kill your idea of going for fast food. Anything healthy for a lunch costs $8-10, and if you go to a restaurant, it's $18-40. This is why many Americans bring their own lunch to work, two pieces of bread with a piece of ham, a piece of cheese, a piece of tomatoes and two lettuce leaves—that's their lunch. Chinese food delivery is everywhere in America and is the cheapest way to get full, costing about $5-7 per meal. But they add too much MSG to the dishes, and their ingredients aren't very fresh either. It's a lot cheaper if you cook yourselves, but the pace of life is fast in big cities and the time spent on transportation is also a lot, so most people still choose to buy their meals. Misunderstanding No. 7: Electronic devices and other appliances are cheap They are indeed dirt cheap in America, but how much money do you have left for them when you settle the bill for housing, cars, telecommunication, and food? Yes, you can buy a pair of Levis jeans for thirty dollars, but how many pairs do you need each year anyway? There are just too many places where you need to spend money in America. Some say, "Panasonic 54 Plasma TV is only $1499.99 in the States and a month's income can get you two to three of those." Well, if your monthly income is that decent, you'd go for LCD or LED already, not Plasma TV. But not many people actually earn that much every month… Cable TV is really expensive, costing about 40 bucks per month post-tax. Some say there are also ten-dollar plans—well, do you know you can actually attach a metal cod to the heating radiator and still receive signals for the same channels, plus quite a lot of Spanish HD ones? … All right, now something many people don't notice about living in America: 1. It's expensive to go see the dentist in America. Taking a tooth out or fixing a tooth is okay, but dental implants or dental braces can't be done without two to three thousand dollars—they're not covered by health insurance. A lot of my American friends go to the dentists abroad, and it's still cheaper including their plane tickets… 2. It's expensive to have glasses in the States, with each pair costing between $300 and $700. I always come back to Beijing to get mine. 3. A big American routine expense: Drinks at bars. It costs $20-60 each time and you gotta go there at least once every week. 4. Travelling is also another huge expense in life. A lot of people save up for months only to be able to go to the beach in the summer. 5. Hotels are expensive. It's $160 to $200 dollars a night in big cities, and 100 dollars in small ones. Okay. I've written so much not to prove how bad the United States is, but I just want to say, please don't hear the rumors and slight ourselves. America is indeed slightly better than China, but really not so much. If China were that bad, why are there still so many people who choose to go back every year? I went to Europe once, and I found out that the living standard in many places were really not as good as in big Chinese cities. Footnotes (? returns to text)
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| Chinese Bidder Smashes $15,000 French Wine In Failed Show of Patriotism Posted: 26 Aug 2012 09:42 AM PDT
His message was heard–and widely ridiculed–on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter. The news item attracted thousands of mostly negative comments. @Eddie_lj scoffs, "This is not patriotism, this is stupid show-off. If he really loves the country, he can use the money to support students who dropped out of college because of poverty or other disadvantaged groups, and that would be meaningful. But doing this only shows how ignorant and shallow he is." [1] Others questioned his motives. @–壹— comments, "The other bottle is now worth more than RMB200,000. People in the antique business play this trick a lot." [2] @太妃糖泡泡 tweets, "This man is so poor that all he has is money. What a pity." [3] With China becoming one of the largest wine markets in the world, domestic wine producers may be pulling out the stops to promote China's own grape juices. Many netizens believe the stunt may be staged by staff at the Changli Wine Festival to hype the event and promote domestic wine. According to media reports, the wine in question is a type of late harvest white wine from Domaine Emile Beyer in Alsace. Tea Leaf Nation thinks it's the Emile Beyer Gewürztraminer Vendange Tardive, the 2009 vintage of which goes for under 20 euros per bottle. Footnotes (? returns to text) |
| Xu Qing: a lotus flower rises from under water Posted: 25 Aug 2012 07:41 PM PDT
Actress Xu Qing (许晴) recently had a new photo spread featuring her nude in swimming pool released. The photosnaps were taken in Thailand, when she was filming her latest movie "Looper" there, which is scheduled to hit the mainland on September 28. The 42-year-old actress looked very charming in water and seemed to really enjoy the summer time in the country.
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| Video: Sexy “road killer” shrugs it off when her car tipped over Posted: 25 Aug 2012 06:22 PM PDT
At 1:30 a.m. August 25 in Nanjing, a scantily-dressed girl, riding in high heelings, climbed out of her Buick car that tipped over at a road side unharmed, and laughed at the accident before the camera, "this was the forth time in two years." The girl, 17 years old, surnamed Xu, said that she sped up and wanted to overtake a taxi in front of her, but suddenly the taxi jumped the lane and cut in hers. In order to avoid the taxi, she then had her car bumped into the road's isolation strip and turned on a side. Xu added, she learned her driving skills when studying in the US and has three to four years of driving experience. She had been involved in four overturn accidents in two years but sustained no injuries. "Two accidents happened in the US. One was because I was at speeds above 260 km per hour, and the other one was because I slept over while driving," the sexy girl told the journalist without showing any guilt. And in China, in addition to this current accident, she ever overturned too when over-speeding at 240 kpm. Xu was not found with drunk driving through blood test. But traffic cops caught that she was driving without a Chinese driver license, but a US driver license which is invalid in China. Xu was now transferred to the local traffic police station for investigation. Soon after the mater was made publicly online, it aroused huge outrage. Some netizens targeted the young girl in revealing outfit saying that she attempted to gain publicity with the stunt, and some others criticized her for being irresponsible to other people's lives and called her a "road killer." |
| China Tightens Security Ahead of Power Transfer Posted: 26 Aug 2012 12:58 AM PDT Chinese authorities are tightening security in Beijing as the city prepares to host the Communist Party's 18th National Congress that will usher in the next generation of leaders. State media are reporting increased police patrols and security checks around the capital. The Xinhua news agency says police are forming a "security belt" around Beijing to help ensure stability. The city's police chief recently told reporters that authorities are prepared to take "tough" measures "to create a harmonious and stable social environment" for the sensitive conference. Beijing has not yet revealed the date of the congress. Though many have speculated it will take place in September or October, Xinhua only says it will be "in the latter half of this year." At the conference, senior party leaders will reveal who they have chosen to fill the country's top governing bodies, the 25-member Politburo and its nine-member Standing Committee. Earlier this month, Communist leaders held a secretive meeting at the coastal resort town of Beidaihe, where they reportedly put their finishing touches on the tightly orchestrated once-a-decade transition process. Observers say this year's leadership transition is especially sensitive for Communist leaders, who are dealing with consequences of the downfall of Bo Xilai, a disgraced Politburo member who was once a rising star in Chinese politics. Earlier this week, Bo's wife was convicted of murdering a British businessman over a failed financial deal. Bo himself has been stripped of his titles and is under investigation for corruption. In addition to the increased police presence, observers say that foreign and domestic news reports, as well as other online conversations, have been more closely monitored by government censors in an effort to enforce calm ahead of the event. Source: VOA news |
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