Links » Crème » Friday Links: Bloomberg’s almost-controversial Xi Jinping story, The Gray Lady in China, and introducing: The English Chinese New York Times
Links » Crème » Friday Links: Bloomberg’s almost-controversial Xi Jinping story, The Gray Lady in China, and introducing: The English Chinese New York Times |
- Friday Links: Bloomberg’s almost-controversial Xi Jinping story, The Gray Lady in China, and introducing: The English Chinese New York Times
- Top Ten Search List (June 29)
- Today’s China Readings June 29, 2012
| Posted: 29 Jun 2012 08:59 AM PDT
We're bumping the musical outro to tomorrow morning. China news never ceases — here're links to prove it. A report that got Bloomberg temporarily blocked in China: "As Xi [Jinping] 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." Run by the excellent Philip Pan and former Caixin reporter Cao Haili: "The New York Times is introducing a Chinese-language Web site, part of a continuing effort to expand its reach to international readers. // The site, which is called cn.nytimes.com and went live Thursday morning China time, is intended to draw readers from the country's growing middle class, what The Times in its news release called 'educated, affluent, global citizens.' // The site will feature about 30 articles a day on national, foreign and arts topics, as well as editorials. Joseph Kahn, the paper's foreign editor, said that about two-thirds of the content would be translated from Times articles and one-third would be written by Chinese editors and local freelance journalists." [Media Decoder, NY Times] All that studying for gaokao, and then? "As the debate heats up, a 2006 survey about China's higher education has resurfaced as a topic on China's Twitter-like microblogs. The China Youth Daily-QQ.com survey says that among the 8,777 web users who answered the online survey, 34.7% said they "regret" that they went to college, and 51.5% said they 'didn't learn anything useful' in college. // …A number of microblog users complained that they are facing unfair competition for jobs from the children of the powerful and wealthy. One said, 'Competing to win a job has now become competing to show who has a more privileged daddy.' A tougher job market has raised the volume of such grievances." [Wall Street Journal] Uh, yeah… want. "A software program that can recover deleted posts from the mainland microblogging site Sina Weibo has been developed at the University of Hong Kong. // Mainland censors monitor the Chinese version of Twitter for politically sensitive posts and delete them but a university pilot project, WeiboScope, allows researchers to recover and analyse the deleted postings. After beginning work on the project early last year, researchers are starting to share their findings." [South China Morning Post] Taiwan dude going around the world, just not China. "A Taiwanese man is about to embark on a six-month world tour during which he'll repeatedly transform himself into a human flag, reports ITN. // …According to the International Business Times, the cyclist says he plans to spread the word about Taiwan as he visits countries around the world. China is not on his list, however." [Huffington Post] Zombies. Gotcha. "An intoxicated bus driver has been detained after he gnawed on a female driver's face after blocking her car on a road in Wenzhou City of Zhejiang Province, local media reported yesterday." [Shanghai Daily] Above and beyond their duties. Must've been a slow day in law enforcement? "A Russian man named Sergei travelled to Ningbo and his passport was throw away by a hotel cleaning staff as a litter, After learning about the situation, the police went to the waste transfer station and after turning five tons of garbage upside down, the police found his passport, When Sergei was on his way to the consulate in Shanghai to apply for another passport, After hearing that the police found his passport in garbage,he just couldn't believe it." [China Whisper] Shenzhou-9 returns to Earth interlude: Finally… "Articles written in English, translated into Chinese by humans, and translated back into English by Google (by @zseward)." [The English Chinese New York Times] "Legendary" physics teacher fired for sexually harassing (molesting?) students. [Offbeat China] Great stories linked to by Danwei: This is the 1510 Digest, a weekly roundup of recent essays and articles published in Chinese on My1510.cn, with links to translations on the Marco Polo Project. |
| Posted: 29 Jun 2012 03:39 AM PDT Here is today's top ten real-time search list, recorded at 2:17PM. 1. 抓拍公车私用 zhuāpāi gōngchēsīyòng – "Candid Shots of Public Vehicles in Private Use": An elderly Guangzhou man by the name of Qu Shaokun, lovingly known by fellow townspeople—and now by netizens—as "Uncle Qu," has risen to national fame with the help of two cell phone cameras and a sense of civic duty. Six years ago, coming out of a brief stay in the hospital, Qu was walking down the street when the driver of a car coming from behind him tried to forcefully honk him out of the way. When he turned around and saw that it was a police car, but a police car coming out of a bar parking lot and definitely not on its way to some official mission, he shouted out on impulse, "Public Vehicle, Private Use!" ("Gōngchēsīyòng!") and immediately called in to report what he'd seen; soon after, he received word from the police department confirming the veracity of his report and informing him that the appropriate disciplinary measures had been taken. Thus began Qu's six-year (to date) self-appointed tenure as an unflagging "Gongchesiyong" watchdog. Qu has so far successfully reported 100 instances of Gongchesiyong, and is a public hero for his devotion to equality before the law. Here's the story in Chinese. 2. 甘肃牛奶投毒 Gānsù niúnǎi tóudú – "Gansu Milk Poisoners": On June 27th, the Higher People's Court of Gansu Province opened the public hearing of Pingjing dairy farmers Ma Xiuling and Wu Guangquan, who in April of 2011 intentionally tainted a local competitor's milk with nitrite, subsequently poisoning 35 townspeople and killing 3 children. Here's the story in Chinese. 3. 神九返回直播 Shénjiǔ fǎnhuí zhíbō – "Shenzhou's Back Live Broadcast": China's most recent manned space mission has now concluded, with the successful return of the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft to earth. The team landed in Inner Mongolia. Liu Yang, China's first female astronaut, was the first to exit the spacecraft. Here's the story in Chinese. 4. 温州啃脸男 Wēnzhōu kěnliǎnnán – "Wenzhou Face-Eater Man": The U.S. is no longer alone when it comes to being home to a southeastern face-eater. On June 26th in the early afternoon, an intoxicated Wenzhou bus driver (too much too drink at lunch with his buddies, according to police) climbed onto the hood of a female drivers car, banged on her windshield, grabbed her, attacked her on the ground, and then…starting gnawing on her face. The police found it extremely difficult to pry him off of his victim, because he was "acting so crazy." Here's the story in Chinese. 5. 蕾娜-格雷克 Lěinà Géléikè – "Lena Gercke": This past Wednesday, the German Football Association asked Germany's next top model winner Lena Gercke, girlfriend of midfielder Sami Khedira, to dress as modestly as possible and generally tone down her appearance during the Euro 2012 semi-finals, as she has apparently been stirring up too much jealousy among the wives and girlfriends of other players—to the point of threatening morale within the team itself. So, Chinese soccer fans are now searching Lena's name along with the rest of us, of course in the interest of understanding the game from all angles. Here's the story in Chinese. 6. 末位淘汰可索赔 mòwèitáotài kě suǒpéi – Yesterday, the Supreme People's Court notified reporters that it is seeking the advice of the community as it deliberates over the appropriate judicial interpretation of laws related to the hiring and firing practice referred to as the "Bottom Out" principle ("mòwèitáotài" = literally, "last place eliminated"), by which the least competent employee, when it becomes clear to employers who that is, may be fired at any time, without warning, simply because he or she is in "last place". The way deliberations are going, it seems that the Supreme Court may soon grant employees the right to seek compensation if they have been fired purely as a result of Moweitaotai. Here's the story in Chinese. 7. 罗伊斯-怀特 Luóyīsī Huáitè – "Royce White": As devoted NBA fans, many Chinese netizens were concerned about the fate of Royce White, projected first-round pick in the NBA draft, when it came to light that his chances may have been hurt due to his fear of flying (pteromerhanophobia, for the lay people out there), related to his anxiety disorder. Now that he's landed with the Houston Rockets, things seem like they're going to be okay. Here's the story in Chinese. 8. 广州油罐车爆炸 Guǎngzhōu yóuguànchē bàozhà – "Guangzhou Tanker Explosion": A major traffic accident occured this morning at 4:30AM on the Yanjiang highway in Guangzhou, when a truck rear-ended a tanker with a 40-ton oil load, setting off an explosion and a massive fire that got so out of hand as to caused damage to surrounding buildings. 20 people were killed and 27 injured in the explosion. Here's the story in Chinese. 9. 贾斯汀-汉密尔顿 Jiǎsītīng Hànmì'ěrdùn – "Justin Hamilton": More NBA news—this time of LSU center Justin Hamilton being selected with the 45th pick of the draft by the Philadelphia 76ers—attracts netizen attention as the results of Thursday evening's draft trickle in. ("Late Thursday night" in the U.S. conveniently overlaps with midday Friday in China: peak cubicle procrastination/NBA-draft-pick-checking time). Here's the story in Chinese. 10. 张瑞芳 Zhāng Ruìfāng – Famous mainland Chinese film actress Zhang Ruifang passed away last night, at the age of 94. As the nation celebrates the life and mourns the loss of one of China's irreplaceable and beloved "Four Dan Actresses" (sìdàmíngdàn 四大名旦 ＝ a title given to Zhang and three other brilliant leading ladies in Chinese history), Weibo users join in to wish her a "pleasant journey to the next life" and to sing her praises as a true unforgettable "classic" of Chinese art and culture. Here's the story in Chinese.        |
| Today’s China Readings June 29, 2012 Posted: 28 Jun 2012 05:22 PM PDT Pettis' students// Recently the research house CLSA issued an in-depth special report on Chinese economy called Misunderstanding China, trying to debunk certain so-called western illusions about China's economy. Some of its points, such as the party's influences on domestic financial institutions, the absence of a mature legal system and etc., are fairly reasonable. However, we believe that this report still illustrates a typical optimists' view on China's economy that we do not agree with. Therefore, we find it very necessary to clarify our standpoints of the Chinese Economy by raising our counter-arguments to some of CLSA's assertions, with which we disagree most. At 6 a.m. last Wednesday, residents rushed out of a Shanghai housing compound and discovered the bloody aftermath of the latest episode in what may be China's most ancient and intractable conflict: the war between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. China is conducting a large experiment with interest rate liberalization, albeit in an uncontrolled and seemingly unplanned way. The pace of official interest rate liberalization has been glacial since 2004, only recently revived with the decision to increase flexibility around the benchmark deposit rate… In a scathing indictment of Australia's political and public service leadership, the Lowy Institute's Linda Jakobson says the Gillard government must work out what Australia wants from China, be brave enough to talk about the anxieties inherent in China's rise, and move on from mouthing platitudes that no one believes. A 31-year-old migrant worker in Guangdong's Zhongshan city has been arrested in the wake of demonstrations by migrant workers, which led to the lockdown of the Shaxi township for at least two days…. The Juilliard School ("Juilliard") in New York has signed a framework agreement with Tianjin to set up an educational institute in the Yujiapu financial district of Tianjin on June 27. wang yang requires guangdong city mayors and party secretaries to pass a test that includes sending an email, reading weibo, going on qq, video conferencing, interacting with netizens details of the downfall of shandong vice governor huang sheng. sold official posts, use his position to enrich his relatives, and was decadent One adviser said to favor a more calibrated approach was Evan A. Feigenbaum, a co-chairman of Mr. Romney's Asia-Pacific working group and a former State Department official. Arguing for a relatively more aggressive response was Aaron L. Friedberg, another co-chairman who was a national security aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Friedberg is known for favoring a hard line on China, and others say it was almost certain the two men would stake out different ground. Deng Jiyuan, husband of forced abortion victim Feng Jianmei was last seen by his family on June 24 after he was reportedly harassed by local villagers and officials The off-sheet trust financing model and the inadequate information may put investors at risk Will the just-launched New York Times Chinese-edition get censored by Beijing's media watchers? Shipowners have tried to block the huge vessels poised to bring Brazilian iron ore into nation's ports 20,000-year-old discovery helps dispel conventional theories that hunter-gathers did not use pottery how do ut executives not go to jail for this? government losing war on consumer expectations re real estate? a 2nd hand home in beijing increased by 530k rmb in a month Xinmin cover on how things have changed in China for foreigners Is China's slowdown worse than the government is letting on? That was the provocative claim in a New York Times article last week which reported that officials were manipulating data on everything from tax revenue to power production in order to present a rosier picture of the economy.But two prominent analysts have now come to Beijing's defence, arguing that Chinese statistics are reliable and concerns about falsification overblown. They say the truth is that the economy is slowing, not collapsing, and that the data have accurately portrayed this. This time the culprit is Shanghai's Bright Dairy & Food Co., which has been forced to recall milk that was tainted with detergent. According to the city's quality bureau, Bright Dairy had to recall the milk due to a "technical" problem that resulted in detergent finding its way into the company's Ubest fresh milk. these Western bankers also typically command much higher salaries than their Chinese counterparts, putting huge cost pressures on the banks particularly as investment banking activity has slowed in recent months. One adviser said to favor a more calibrated approach was Evan A. Feigenbaum, a co-chairman of Mr. Romney's Asia-Pacific working group and a former State Department official. Arguing for a relatively more aggressive response was Aaron L. Friedberg, another co-chairman who was a national security aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Friedberg is known for favoring a hard line on China, and others say it was almost certain the two men would stake out different ground. Swedish furniture brand IKEA has been accused of including unfair clauses in the agreements it makes with its affiliated contract factories in China. The problem, which has prompted local contract suppliers to cut corners to reduce costs, has also sparked heated discussions online, the Chinese-language National Business Daily reports. Internationalization of the Renminbi: big investigation into the very sketchy art trust poducts There was a time, not so long ago, when China-based handset makers were making phones with crappy hardware to compete with Apple's iPhone. Today, several Chinese handset makers have their own flagship phones that feature impressive hardware, and they are no longer a piece of crap. The ones we love include the Huawei Ascend P1, Meizu MX, Xiaomi M1, and Oppo Finder. Well, it seems like these handset makers are placing bulk orders for AMOLED panels from a Samsung component distributor. Prudent developers stay on the sideline as their expectations for house prices in the future remain low, with a bloated inventory of unsold homes On April 22, Wang Xiangwei, the new editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post, informed me that my contract with the newspaper would not be renewed when it expired on May 21. I can't say I was surprised. Taiwan-based Digitimes Research reported recently that Mainland Chinese smartphone shipments will increase to 140 mln units this year, with Samsung and Apple accounting for a combined 40% of the total. Domestic manufacturers Huawei, ZTE (0763.HK; 000063.SZ), Lenovo (0992.HK), and Yulong Computer Telecommunication (Coolpad), a subsidiary of China Wireless Technologies (2369.HK), will divide another 40% of the total amongst themselves, leaving little market space for other brands In the final minutes of his show, after the cartoon finished, Gao tried to unknot an even harder puzzle: How did American political discourse get to the point where it is today? On that one, no amount of American experience had prepared him for what he has encountered. "I once watched a debate between some important congressmen on TV," he said. One of their arguments: "Why should we, people who work hard and pay our taxes, pay more taxes for those people who eat a lot and don't exercise so that they can have health insurance?" He gave a bewildered look, and continued. The issue was deeper than health care, he explained. "In America, there is no unified idea that 'democracy and freedom are great, and everyone should be equal.' That's not the case. When they talk about democracy, freedom, and equality, it is more like a kind of chess." Over the weekend, the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) quietly announced that nine new blocks in the South China Sea were now open to foreign oil companies for exploration and development. This move reflects one of the starkest efforts by China to assert its maritime rights in these disputed waters – and constitutes a direct challenge to Vietnam's own claims.Unlike the blocks that CNOOC offered in2010 and 2011, the new ones are located entirely within disputed waters in the South China Sea. As this map shows, the new blocks lie off Vietnam's central coast and comprise of more than 160,000 square kilometers. The western edge of some blocks appear to be less than 80 nautical miles from Vietnam's coast, well within that country's Exclusive Economic Zone. All the blocks overlap at least partially with PetroVietnam's, including potentially ones where foreign oil companies have ongoing exploration activities. The finances of China's county-level governments are unstable and unsustainable as the majority of their fiscal income comes from sources other than taxation, the nation's top auditor said. Vietnam's state-run oil explorer warned China to halt efforts to develop disputed areas of the South China Sea that Hanoi's leaders have already awarded to companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and OAO Gazprom. so much for thinking the government would prop u the market Military authorities are considering establishing a presence in the city of Sansha. China may set up local military command organs in the city according to relevant regulations. The State Council has approved the establishment of the prefectural-level city of Sansha. No related posts. |
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