News » Society » China launches Bo Xilai probe

---

• China launches Bo Xilai probe
• "Wild Winds Never Last All Morning"
• Will China fall flat on its face?
• What’s Happening… China booze makers defy economic gloom
• Have You Heard…
• Protests in China Get a Boost From Social Media
• Philip Morris Seeks an Edge in China
• Taiwan Arrests 3 for Spying for China
• Alcoholic father sells baby girl for money
• Alcoholic father sells baby girl for money
• Plant move fails to take seed among protesters
• Residents of the eastern city of Ningbo who have been protesting over a new chemical plant reacted warily yesterday to news the project would be halted, with some continuing to demonstrate.
• Outrage at Apple's sexy Siri
• Why manufacturing jobs are leaving China
• Shenzhen lawmaker arrested in bribery probe
• Another kindergarten teacher detained for child abuse
• China media: Wen and the NY Times

China launches Bo Xilai probe Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:25 AM PDT Chinese prosecutors launch a criminal investigation into disgraced politician Bo Xilai, hours after he was formally expelled from parliament.

"Wild Winds Never Last All Morning" Posted: 30 Oct 2012 07:44 PM PDT That line from passage 23 of the Daodejing came to mind today, as I saw the terrible damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy.  New Jersey seems to have borne the brunt of the destruction.  The images of Seaside Heights, devastated and covered in sand, are shocking.  My hometown, Rye, New York, lost part of its picturesque boardwalk.  But the scenes from New York are most poignant for me.  The flooding downtown is simply depressing.  It is going to take a long, long time for the Lower East Side to recover.  My wife's uncle lives in Breezy Point, flattened by both fire and water. He and his family are safe but such a sad, terrible day.... If I have learned anything about New Yorkers, however, it is that they know how to rebound from tragedy.  The City is not defeated, its greatness will endure.  "Wild winds never last all morning and fierce rains never last all day" - that is what the Daodejing tells us. It is all too reminiscent of last year, when Hurricane Irene stormed through my town here, flooding my in-laws out of their house, causing a world of hurt.  So, I will paste below a post I wrote then, though now with New York and New Jersey in mind: *** As I have pondered the disaster, a passage from the Daodejing has come to the fore: Keeping words spare: occurrence appearing of itself. Wild winds never last all morning and fierce winds never last all day.  Who conjures such things if not heaven and earth, and if heaven and earth can't make things last, why should we humans try? That's why masters devote themselves to Way.  To master Way is to become Way, to master gain is to become gain, to master loss is to become loss.  And whatever becomes Way, Way welcomes joyfully, whatever becomes gain, gain welcomes joyfully, whatever becomes loss, loss welcomes joyfully. If you don't stand sincere by your words how sincere can the people be? (23) The above is David Hinton's translation.  I mention that here because as I consult other translations, I notice some variation.  The basic ideas are the same, but some of the translation choices are different. For example, in the first and last lines, the Hinton mentions "words" and "sincerity."  Generally, I see this framing as drawing a parallel between the impermanence of wind and rain to the instability of language and any sense of sincerity we may draw from the use of language.  Hinton translates "xin" 信 - as "standing by your words," which I have always liked, since the character is made up of a "person" 人, next to "words" 言.  He thus puts forth "sincere" as a key notion here; while other translations (Ivanhoe and Van Norden; Lynn) use "trust" for xin.  I don't see the difference as being that great, and Hinton's approach allows us to link the last and the first lines in their references to "words."  In any event, that is just the first idea in this multifaceted passage. More important than the implicit critique of language is the observation of impermanence.  Terrible storms come and go.  They are beyond our control in all ways and, as such, they are a reminder of just how much is beyond human control.  In my town, and in my family, we are living that reality right now.  All we could do was watch as the storm rode in and the water rose.  We could not know what the full effect would be, we still don't know.  We can only follow where Way leads. And that brings us to another important aspect of the passage, a kind of "you get out of life what you put into it" message.  If we interpret and experience unexpected circumstances as "gain," we will live "gain;" but if we interpret and experience those same circumstances as "loss," we will live loss.  There is a kind of agency here.  People are not just mindless automatons in the vastness of Way.  We have will and interpretive capacities.  And if we allow that will and those interpretive capacities to get caught up in transient worldly concerns, we will experience Way negatively.  This is how Wang Bi, a Han dynasty commentator on the classics, understood this passage (thanks to Richard John Lynn's translation, which includes Wang's notes on the text): Failure ... [loss] results from being entangled in having much... If one is entangled in having much, he fails, and this is why the text refers to "failure." If one practices failure, such a one embodies failure.  Thus, the text says that he "becomes one with failure." In other words, the Dao reacts to one's practices and so responds in kind. I don't think this would go so far as to permit a kind of human control of Dao.  Rather, humans have control, not over Dao, but over their own apprehension of and reaction to Dao.  And Dao, then, reacts to our reactions, and on and on and on... The line that leaps out here, for me now, is: "if one practice failure, such a one embodies failure."  Or, as Hinton has it: "to master loss is to become loss." If facing our troubles I will thus not practice failure, I will not master loss.  We have literally lost a home and with that comes a cascading series of other sorts of apparent losses.  But we are not simply victims of circumstance.  We can choose to experience this as loss or as gain.  I choose to become gain...

Will China fall flat on its face? Posted: 30 Oct 2012 05:11 PM PDT Will China fall flat on its face just like Japan?

What’s Happening… China booze makers defy economic gloom Posted: 30 Oct 2012 10:58 AM PDT What's Happening… China booze makers defy economic gloom China's Tsingtao Q3 net profit flat, misses estimates Facing Booze Cuts, Local Chinese Officials Brew Their Own Kweichow Moutai's Q3 profits surge 106% Liquor Maker Wuliangye Sees Robust Q3 Profit Growth China cracks down on counterfeit liquor Starbucks stirs its coffee right in a nation of Chinese tea-drinkers- Interview This Bud's For You, China: The Fall of Budweiser as a U.S. Brand Fine wine market in China turns sour Wal-Mart to open 100 more stores in China Uni-President promoting Master Kong boycott in China: report DDB China tipped to resign from Pernod Ricard creative account

Have You Heard… Posted: 30 Oct 2012 08:36 AM PDT Have You Heard…

Protests in China Get a Boost From Social Media Posted: 30 Oct 2012 08:50 AM PDT Source: Bloomberg Businessweek By Christina Larson "We want to survive," read signs carried by the hundreds of protestors who thronged the streets of Ningbo, a southeastern Chinese coastal city, from Friday through Sunday. Their demand: that the local government scrap plans for an $8.9 billion expansion of a petrochemical plant to be operated by a subsidiary of state-run oil giant Sinopec. By Sunday the authorities had promised "resolutely not to go ahead with the PX project," according to a statement published on the local Zhenhai district government website and printed in the Ningbo Daily. The city of Ningbo—a prosperous port of 3.4 million people, near Shanghai—is hardly one of China's cancer villages, of the kind contributing to the thousands of pollution-related protests that happen each year in China. And the mostly middle-class protestors were not rising up because of past harms, but for fear of the future—and because, through social media, smartphones, and the Internet, they had gained information about the government's plans and also about the potential health risks should the planned facility to manufacture the chemical paraxylene, or PX (used in the making of polyester), leak toxins into surrounding rivers and coastal waters. One protestor, whose Weibo (a Chinese micro-blog) account lists his name as Liu Jimi, wrote online of another region in Zhejiang province that he believes has been contaminated by chemical factories. Liu holds this up as a cautionary tale of what he doesn't want to happen in his hometown: "Outside the Zhoushan fishing zone, which once was rich in seafood, now there is nothing. The sick people are diagnosed more and more frequently with cancer, and many people can smell the filth in the water as they fall asleep. But now the government wants to build more chemical plants near us [in Ningbo], as the taxes brought in through various other private industries seem not to satisfy them." Leaks of dangerous toxins from such plants are not inevitable. But with hurried construction, minimal oversight, frequently cut corners, and rampant corruption, infrastructure projects in China, large and small, are subject to various pitfalls. All too often factory storage tanks leak, waste products are illegally discharged into rivers, and equipment designed to filter water or scrub smokestacks is powered off to trim electricity costs. "There is very little public confidence in the government," one 24-year-old protester in Ningbo told the Associated Press on Sunday. In the past 15 months, similar protests against large chemical plants have taken place in other big Chinese cities: In the northeastern port of Dalian, an estimated 12,000 people packed the central People's Square one Sunday in August 2011 to demand that a PX plant located near the coast—and presumably vulnerable in the event of a typhoon grazing the shore—be shuttered and relocated. This summer, hundreds of protesters in the central Chinese city of Shifang demonstrated against the construction of a copper plant, partly due to fears that the earthquake-prone region was an unsuitable location. Earlier this month, residents of a town on the southern island of Hainan, sometimes known as "China's Hawaii," protested a proposed coal-fired power plant. The results of these protests are mixed: Officials in Dalian pledged to shut down the PX plant, but local reports say operations were later resumed. In Shifang, construction on the new copper plant was stopped. In Ningbo, protests continued even after the authorities pledged to halt the PX project, in part because suspicion of the government runs so high. "We don't trust them at all; we think [their promise] is a stalling tactic," as one 30-year-old protester in Ningbo wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg Businessweek on Monday. "We'll still keep our eyes on them." In summing up his concerns and those of other protestors, he added: "It is said that this project would bring a large increase in GDP—which may be a good thing for the city. But we believe it will pollute the soil we live on, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the air we breathe. We'd just love to have a clean place to live and to preserve it for the later generations. We aren't so concerned about how much money the project brings because we are already satisfied with the current economic situation. We don't trust the treatment techniques to reduce emissions or the official 'assessment' of the pollution impact." The Beijing-based environmentalist Ma Jun, honored earlier this year with the internationally prestigious Goldman Prize, sees it as no coincidence that the frequency of middle-class protests in China's more prosperous cities has increased alongside the use of social media. "Social media is a game changer," he says. "People can educate themselves and share information." The marches in Ningbo, Shifang, and Dalian were all organized largely through micro-blogs, smartphone apps, and text messages. (After clashes with police turned violent, the function to upload photos to Weibo was recently blocked in the Ningbo area.) "The next leadership of China is going to face a challenge on these environmental issues, which the previous leadership had not seen so strongly for 30 years," says Ma. He has seen some positive signs: "For the first time, some local officials have begun to call us to learn more about how these situations are handled in other countries—they really worry about becoming the next protest targets."

Philip Morris Seeks an Edge in China Posted: 30 Oct 2012 08:40 AM PDT Source: Wall Street Journal By Mike Esterl Marlboro is the world's top-selling cigarette, but it has a minuscule 0.3% share of the market in China, where roughly a quarter of the population smokes. Now, Philip Morris International Inc., which makes and markets Marlboro outside the U.S., is trying to raise its profile in that enormous Asian nation by moving beyond simple smokes. In one curious effort, it is setting out to develop flu vaccines derived from a type of tobacco plant. In another project, closer to its core business, it is developing less harmful cigarettes, which it would aim to sell all over the world, but especially in China, where about 40% of the world's cigarettes are smoked but state-owned China National Tobacco Corp. enjoys a virtual monopoly. In September, Philip Morris said it would be licensing rights from Medicago Inc., MDG.T +1.10%a small Canadian biopharmaceutical company, to develop vaccines for sale in China. The seemingly incongruous move is underpinned and motivated by several different situations. Philip Morris already owns about 40% of Medicago. Philip Morris also has a goal of diversifying into different tobacco-related products. More important, the vaccine agreement in China has as much to do with cultivating relations with government officials as diversifying into a new business that may or may not take root, highlighting how much of a long-term play China remains for Switzerland-based Philip Morris, the world's second-largest cigarette company by volume, after China National Tobacco. "This is one other way they could endear themselves to the Chinese," said Bonnie Herzog, a global tobacco analyst at Wells Fargo. At a recent investor conference, Philip Morris acknowledged traditional cigarettes from foreign companies will continue to be a hard sell in China, where the government generates tens of billions of dollars in profits from tobacco. Retail cigarette sales in the country topped $160 billion in 2011, roughly a quarter of the global market, according to estimates by Euromonitor, a data service. "Why would they share their market?" Philip Morris Chairman and Chief Executive Louis Camilleri told investors in June. "To come up with new technology is really the only avenue to get into a place like China." Thus Philip Morris's effort to develop next-generation cigarettes that are less harmful than current versions, with a serving of public health on the side. There are rising health concerns about cigarettes in China. More than 1 million people die annually in the country from tobacco-related diseases and officials have warned the number could triple by 2030 without action. Health authorities have been pushing to turn more public buildings smoke-free. Philip Morris is investing hundreds of millions of dollars trying to develop less-harmful cigarettes and executives have described the strategy as a potential "game changer" in China. One version generates smoke at temperatures below combustion, releasing fewer toxins, but aims to mimic traditional cigarettes more closely than alternatives already on the market such as electronic cigarettes. Philip Morris has begun discussing its next-generation plans with CNTC and Chinese officials "are extremely interested," Andre Calantzopoulos, Philip Morris's chief operating officer, recently told investors. But he estimated the new cigarette products wouldn't be launched before 2016 or 2017. The vaccine is perhaps even further off in the future. Philip Morris said its China flu business hinges on the successful completion of clinical trials and securing regulatory approvals. "We're definitely talking years," added a spokeswoman for Philip Morris. Medicago specializes in producing flu vaccines from Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of Nicotiana tabacum, the tobacco plant used in cigarettes. It represents one of several plant and cell-based alternatives to chicken eggs, which have been used for decades to make vaccines but are seen as slow and expensive. China has been among the countries hardest hit by H5N1 over the past decade and was swept up in the H1N1 outbreak of 2009 and 2010, which killed an estimated 280,000 people world-wide, according to a recent estimate. Under the Medicago deal announced in late September, Philip Morris will pay an initial $4.5 million for the rights to develop Medicago's pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccines for China. Medicago produced more than 10 million doses of an H1N1 or swine flu vaccine within 30 days earlier this year in a research project with the U.S. Department of Defense. It also has reported positive results from a Phase II clinical trial for an H5N1 or avian flu vaccine. The China program represents publicly traded Medicago's first foreign-licensing deal. Philip Morris began investing in Medicago in 2008, when it acquired a large minority stake in the Quebec-based company for roughly $15 million—pocket change for the cigarette maker. Both the next-generation cigarettes and the flu vaccines are expected to take several years to come to market, if ever. Philip Morris got its foot in the door in China in 2005, when it inked a strategic partnership with China National Tobacco, or CNTC. Under that arrangement, CNTC began producing Marlboros under license in China four years ago. Philip Morris also helps distribute CNTC brands outside China, including Poland and the Czech Republic. But as of last year, CNTC still boasted a 97% market share in its home country, according to Euromonitor International. Marlboro's 0.3% market share puts it behind more than three dozen CNTC brands including market-leading Hongtashan. China's biggest foreign brand last year, British American Tobacco 555, had a 0.5% market share.

Taiwan Arrests 3 for Spying for China Posted: 30 Oct 2012 08:45 AM PDT Source: Wall Street Journal By Aries Poon TAIPEI—A retired Taiwanese naval officer and two others were arrested on suspicion of spying for China, the latest in a string of cases that underline the mistrust between Beijing and Taipei despite warming economic ties. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said in a statement Monday that Lt. Col. Chang Chih-hsin was suspected of "spying for officials at the Communist Party in China" and "bribing other officers in the navy for illegal gains" during his tenure, which ended in May, at the Naval Meteorological & Oceanographic Office. The office provides mapping data for the military. Authorities arrested Lt. Col. Chang after "gathering evidence of Chang's illegal behavior" following a report the ministry received in March, the statement said, but added "there was no leakage of confidential information and [the behavior] didn't involve any officials currently serving in the navy." It didn't elaborate further. The ministry didn't make Mr. Chang available to comment, and said he will be tried by a military court, but the date hasn't been set. The ministry said the two others arrested were also retired military officials but declined to identify them. Chinese officials couldn't be reached to comment. Despite closer economic cooperation and conciliatory rhetoric between Taiwan and China in recent years, there is still mistrust between the two sides. Beijing has yet to renounce the option of military force as a way to reclaim Taiwan, which it considers part of China. Taiwan, under the Taiwan Relations Act signed with the U.S. in 1979, is still opting for purchase of more weapons for self-defense. The U.S. in September 2011 agreed to upgrade Taiwan's aging fleet of F-16 for $5 billion. The arrests follow several recent information-leak cases. In February, a Taiwanese air force captain was arrested on allegations of selling classified information to China. Taiwan's Defense Ministry said those allegations were still being investigated. In January 2011, a high-level army general, Lo Hsien-che, was sentenced to life in prison by the Supreme Military Court for passing confidential information to China since 2004. He was one of the highest-ranking Taiwanese officers to ever be convicted of espionage for China. Prosecutors said he confessed during the investigation. Relations between Taiwan and China have improved since Taiwan elected Ma Ying-jeou—who is seen as China-friendly—as president in 2008. Several cross-strait trade agreements have been forged under his administration, including direct cross-strait flights and the opening of Taiwan for Chinese tourists, and bilateral mayoral-level exchanges have also begun.

Alcoholic father sells baby girl for money Posted: 30 Oct 2012 12:40 AM PDT A man in Chongqing, southwest China surrendered himself to police two years after he sold his then three-year-old daughter for money as his family lived in poverty. Li Qiang, 59, is a jobless alcoholic in Tongliang County under Chongqing. His insane wife gave birth to their first child five years ago but Li rarely took care of his daughter. To pay his debts, Li asked his friend Zhou Jian to help him sell the baby girl in 2010. Zhou found a buyer in eastern Zhejiang Province and Li earned 38,000 yuan (US$6,031) from the deal. Four middlemen were paid 4,000 yuan each, Chongqing Morning Post reported today. Li lied to his wife that the girl went missing and everyone believed him. But three months ago, he surprisingly handed himself over to police, saying he wanted his daughter back because he missed her so much. During questioning, prosecutors found his real motive was to sell his daughter again so they rejected his request. They also learned that the girl is living well in her new home. The five offenders were charged with child trafficking yesterday, but Li's confession would earn him a lenient sentence, the newspaper said.

Alcoholic father sells baby girl for money Posted: 30 Oct 2012 12:40 AM PDT A man in Chongqing, southwest China surrendered himself to police two years after he sold his then three-year-old daughter for money as his family lived in poverty. Li Qiang, 59, is a jobless alcoholic in Tongliang County under Chongqing. His insane wife gave birth to their first child five years ago but Li rarely took care of his daughter. To pay his debts, Li asked his friend Zhou Jian to help him sell the baby girl in 2010. Zhou found a buyer in eastern Zhejiang Province and Li earned 38,000 yuan (US$6,031) from the deal. Four middlemen were paid 4,000 yuan each, Chongqing Morning Post reported today. Li lied to his wife that the girl went missing and everyone believed him. But three months ago, he surprisingly handed himself over to police, saying he wanted his daughter back because he missed her so much. During questioning, prosecutors found his real motive was to sell his daughter again so they rejected his request. They also learned that the girl is living well in her new home. The five offenders were charged with child trafficking yesterday, but Li's confession would earn him a lenient sentence, the newspaper said.

Plant move fails to take seed among protesters Posted: 30 Oct 2012 01:00 AM PDT Ad: Chris Farrell Membership - Voted No.1 Internet Marketing Service Online By Imreportcard.com. Chris Farrell Membership Is For Those Serious About Creating A Regular And Continuous Income Online.

Residents of the eastern city of Ningbo who have been protesting over a new chemical plant reacted warily yesterday to news the project would be halted, with some continuing to demonstrate. Posted: 30 Oct 2012 01:00 AM PDT Ad: Get Cash For Surveys - Mind Blowing Conversions, 75% Commissions + Earn Up To $148.50 Per Sale! Geotargeting, 1 Click Upsells, Downsells, And More! Followup Emails With Your CB Id To Make Sure You Get Credit! $50 Bonus To New Affiliates! Getcashforsurveys.com/affiliates.php

Outrage at Apple's sexy Siri Posted: 30 Oct 2012 01:00 AM PDT Ad: Get Cash For Surveys - Mind Blowing Conversions, 75% Commissions + Earn Up To $148.50 Per Sale! Geotargeting, 1 Click Upsells, Downsells, And More! Followup Emails With Your CB Id To Make Sure You Get Credit! $50 Bonus To New Affiliates! Getcashforsurveys.com/affiliates.php

Why manufacturing jobs are leaving China Posted: 29 Oct 2012 11:00 PM PDT YOU may not know that this is true: but it is. The number of manufacturing jobs in China is falling. The reason why is really very simple: A 16pc annual rise in Chinese wages over the last decade has changed the game. When you compound that up 16 percent a year becomes over 4 times in only one decade. At which point we should all be very cheerful because if the jobs are leaving China then some of them are going to come back here, right? Sadly, no, they won't. For that rise in wages means not that it becomes cheaper to manufacture using UK labour. The Chinese are still only getting $6,000 a year or so for working in a factory. No, what's happening to the jobs is that they are disappearing altogether: the work is being done by machines now, not people. And that's the Great Truth about "manufacturing jobs" and even Maggie's evisceration of manufacturing. The UK didn't stop manufacturing: manufacturing output kept on rising up until 2005 in fact. It is manufacturing employment which has fallen off a cliff. We're just doing all of the work with machines now instead of people. What's going to end up happening is the same as what happened to agriculture. It used to be we needed 80% of the people in the fields to feed us. Now we need about 2%. Machines do all the work. Exactly that will happen to manufacturing. All that offshoring, all that the jobs going to China, it hasn't made the slightest bit of long term difference. The jobs were always going to go, the only question was whether they went to machines right away or off to some poor people for a couple of decades. They were always going to go though.

Shenzhen lawmaker arrested in bribery probe Posted: 29 Oct 2012 11:10 PM PDT A legislator in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, who disappeared from the public view for some time, is now under investigation for bribery linked to a deadly train collision in Wenzhou in July last year. Shenzhen prosecutors said yesterday that Xu Yusuo, a member of the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen People's Congress and president of Invengo Information Technology Co Ltd, has been put in custody at the request of Zhengzhou Railway Bureau in Henan Province. Xu's downfall is believed to be connected to the breakdown of a railway signal system that caused the train collision in Wenzhou, leaving 40 people dead and 172 injured. But this has not yet been confirmed officially. Invengo Information Technology, a provider of railway signal systems, was founded in 1999 and went public in August 2007, according to information on its website. Xu ranked 496th on the Hurun Rich List in 2009 with 2.2 billion yuan (US$349 million) in personal assets. Most of his company's income came from railway projects.

Another kindergarten teacher detained for child abuse Posted: 29 Oct 2012 11:00 PM PDT A kindergarten teacher in Shandong Province was held in administrative detention for abusing children in her class. Parents watched in horror video footages that showed their child was physically abused by the woman teacher who defended her actions as "kiddy fight." After the teacher was caught, children started telling their stories with encouragement from their parents. A boy said his teacher identified as Li Ling pricked him with a needle in his face, the mole on his arm, in his back and buttocks. The boy refused to go to school but said nothing bad about his teacher before her arrest. He suffered the trauma and would not let his father to turn off the light when he was in the bed because "once the light is out, the teacher will come with a needle." Another girl said her mouth was sealed with adhesive tape by the teacher. As soon as she tore it off, the teacher would seal her up again until the tape was used up. Parents said they thought this teacher was very polite and had a nice personality before her sadist behavior became known. Haipei Goldren Cradle Kindergarten is a well-known preschool in Dongying City, Shandong Province. Local police have started an investigating into the case. The local government also held a meeting made up of justice, public security, education, and health authorities to address the issue and said people responsible for the teacher's misconduct will be punished as well.

China media: Wen and the NY Times Posted: 29 Oct 2012 09:51 PM PDT Morning newspaper round-up: Newspapers remain quiet on an NY Times report on the premier's relatives' alleged riches.

You are subscribed to email updates from Update » News » Society To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610