Taiwanese scholar, officer indicted for jeopardizing national security

Taiwanese scholar, officer indicted for jeopardizing national security
Zhejiang solicits investment from its native entrepreneurs
China cut holdings of US bonds by US$7.9bn for Q1: new datat
A new era of Chinese colonization, on the moon: Foreign Policy
Tsai Ing-wen does not work well with others: Chen Shui-bian
Hu, Obama meet in Mexico: Xinhua
China: 2 Tibetans Set Themselves on Fire to Protest Beijing’s Rule
Custodial death stirs row in China
Foreigners protest in China over custodial death
In Rising Use of Air-Conditioning, Hard Choices
Top China Stories from WSJ: Risky Bets, Cambodia Extradition, Rare-Earth Revamp
Pictures of the Day: Spain and Elsewhere
NGOs Criticize Flouted Land Grant Ban
15,000 Sign Petition to Support Falun Gong Practitioners in China
Deciphering China’s Real Estate Market
Phony Wages in China Could Cost Over $1 Billion
Source: Wang Lijun Told U.S. Officials of Organ Harvest
Ai Weiwei Warned Not to Attend Own Court Hearing
Comments on African Protest Censored
Ai Weiwei barred from court hearing by Chinese police

Taiwanese scholar, officer indicted for jeopardizing national security

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:31 AM PDT

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office indicted an associate professor at Central Police University and a police officer on Tuesday for violating the country's National Security Act, after discovering...

Zhejiang solicits investment from its native entrepreneurs

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:31 AM PDT

Zhejiang province in eastern China is soliciting investments of more than 50 billion yuan (US$7.9 billion) from businesspeople who have left the region, according to the First Financial Daily in Shang...

China cut holdings of US bonds by US$7.9bn for Q1: new datat

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:23 AM PDT

The US Treasury Department says China reduced its overall holdings of US bonds by US$7.9 billion in the first quarter of the year, after modifying an earlier figure. The department released an origi...

A new era of Chinese colonization, on the moon: Foreign Policy

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:23 AM PDT

After the launch of Shenzhou 9 spacecraft by the Chinese, an article from Foreign Policy, a DC-based publication under the Washington Post, titled "Red Moon Rising" discussed potential future confront...

Tsai Ing-wen does not work well with others: Chen Shui-bian

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:23 AM PDT

Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian has said that Su Tseng-chang, the new chairman of his Democratic Progressive Party, did not like his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen when they served respectively as ...

Hu, Obama meet in Mexico: Xinhua

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 03:55 AM PDT

Chinese President Hu Jintao met US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Mexico for talks over bilateral relations and major regional and global issues of common concern. Dur...

China: 2 Tibetans Set Themselves on Fire to Protest Beijing’s Rule

Posted: 19 Jun 2012 10:00 PM PDT

The two men called for the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.

Custodial death stirs row in China

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 05:40 PM PDT

Hundreds of foreigners on Tuesday protested in China's Guangzhou over the death of a Nigerian in police custody. Some of them pelted stones at police, postings in Chinese websites said.

Foreigners protest in China over custodial death

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 04:54 PM PDT

Hundreds of foreigners on Tuesday protested in the South China city of Guangzhou over the death of a Nigerian in police custody. Some of them pelted stones at police, postings in Chinese websites said.

In Rising Use of Air-Conditioning, Hard Choices

Posted: 19 Jun 2012 10:00 PM PDT

Gases that damaged the ozone layer are mostly out of use in air-conditioning, but replacements used in developing countries are potent agents of global warming.

Top China Stories from WSJ: Risky Bets, Cambodia Extradition, Rare-Earth Revamp

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 06:16 PM PDT

Across Asia, brokers are pushing to sell complex products to the region's expanding ranks of investors, especially wealthy ones; China has asked Cambodia to extradite a man with close ties to the wife of ousted official Bo Xilai; a government pledge to restructure the rare-earth industry was reaffirmed.

Pictures of the Day: Spain and Elsewhere

Posted: 19 Jun 2012 10:00 PM PDT

Photos from Spain, Iraq, Gaza Strip, and China.

NGOs Criticize Flouted Land Grant Ban

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 03:52 PM PDT

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has given approval to grant state-owned land to three private companies despite issuing a temporary ban on land concessions, drawing criticism from local NGOs concerned about increasingly frequent land disputes in the country.

Copies of three subdecrees obtained by RFA showed that Hun Sen approved a total of over 21,000 hectares (80 square miles) of land to be handed over to three companies to invest in rubber plantations.

The three subdecrees, dated May 18, allow 7, 710 hectares (30 square miles) of land in Siem Reap province to be transferred to Le Ye Rubber; 5,914 hectares (22 square miles) in Kompong Thom to H.M.H.; and 8,000 hectares (31 square miles) in Ratanakiri to S. K. Plantation.

The documents, which allowed the land to be converted from state public land to state private land, came less than three weeks after Hun Sen ordered a temporary suspension on economic land concessions effective May 7.

Political statement

Ny Chakriya, chief investigator for local rights watchdog ADHOC, said that the transfer of the land to the companies show that Hun Sen's orders suspending land concessions were a campaign ploy, not a commitment to ending the practice.

"Prime Minister Hun Sen's order [to suspend land concessions] was only a political statement, and only for a political campaign," he said, adding that land transfers should not be arbitrary and should comply with laws already on the books.

The order suspending economic land concessions came ahead of commune-level elections held June 3, which the ruling Cambodian People's Party won by a landslide.

Ouch Leng, land reform project coordinator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said the three land transfers contradicted the temporary ban issued by Hun Sen.

"The [land transfer] sub-decrees were signed in a very secret way," he said.

Adding that the flouting of the ban could lead Cambodians to lose trust in the prime minister, he said that the National Assembly should have been part of the process of deciding on the land transfers.

"The transfer sub-decrees should be first approved by the National Assembly, and the assembly should at least be allowed to discuss them," he said.

"The National Assembly should be the one who decides whether or not the land transfers should be approved."

Land concessions

Economic land concessions granted to private developers have been at the root of several high-profile disputes in recent years, including in the Boeung Kak Lake and Borei Kela areas of Phnom Penh, where residents say they were forced from their homes.

The Ministry of Agriculture Forestry, and Fisheries says that 800,000 hectares (3,100 square miles) of land has been granted to 68 companies—including those from China, Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, India, and Singapore—to invest in agricultural projects such as rubber, cassava, or sugar plantations.

But local rights watchdog Licadho put the total number of agricultural land concessions higher, at 2 million hectares (7,800 square miles).

Council of Ministers Spokesman Ek Tha refused to comment on the land transfers, saying only that Hun Sen's actions were in the people's best interests.

"What Samdech Hun Sen has done is for the sake of the country and the people," he said, using the prime minister's honorary title.

Cabinet Chief Ho Sithy has said that the sub-decrees were the continuation of economic land concessions approved before the May 7 suspension, according to the Cambodia Daily.

Reported by Sonorng Khe for RFA's Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

15,000 Sign Petition to Support Falun Gong Practitioners in China

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 11:25 AM PDT

23-year-old Qin Rongqian started her appeal to the public after her father died in prison last year. Local authorities refused to investigate when the family questioned the cause of death.

Deciphering China’s Real Estate Market

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 03:13 PM PDT

This photo from the Jin Mao Tower in the financial district of Pudong shows a view of Shanghai real estate. A Chinese economist says prices are 'way too high' and that a big drop this year is possible.(Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)

China's skyrocketing housing prices are due to the density of urban population centers and bad state policies.

China has seen a steady rise in housing prices since the 1998 property market reform. Some experts have argued that China's high property prices are a product of its huge population and the need to maintain a large area of land for agriculture, thus restricting the amount of land available for real estate development. But this concept is incorrect. China only needs 1.07 billion acres out of its current total of 1.8 billion acres of agricultural land to be self-sufficient in food production. Furthermore, housing developments in cities use up relatively little land.

Ineffective State Regulation

Chinese authorities have failed to implement regulations that would discourage speculation, and would help to maintain a supply of low-cost rental properties.

Land Monopoly

Soaring housing prices also arise from China's land ownership system, which gives regional governors a monopoly over land supply. The local governors restrict the supply of land available to the market, artificially creating a shortage that allows them to sell land at higher prices. The high land prices then drive up construction costs, and hence housing prices.

Monetary and Fiscal Policies

Large amounts of speculative foreign investments have flowed into China in expectation of an appreciation of its undervalued currency. These include investments in property, thus driving up property prices.

Furthermore, in response to the 2008 global economic crisis, the Chinese regime launched a 4 trillion yuan stimulus package, which sparked a wave of speculative property development that further increased property prices.

Export and Foreign Exchange Policy

China's excessive production capacity and favorable export policies have both driven exports, thus leading to an increase in the country's monetary base and foreign exchange reserves. This large money supply has resulted in excess liquidity, and has driven inflation in China.

Restrictions on Private Enterprises

In China, private enterprises are obstructed in terms of capital investment and development by many restrictions; including restrictions on private businesses in sectors where state-owned enterprises have monopoly positions, restrictions on private financing, and various restrictions over capital investment and management of private companies. Furthermore, these companies are subject to unreasonable levels of taxes.

One-Child Policy

China's one-child policy has created a situation where most Chinese parents are more than capable of financially supporting their only child. Now, newlywed couples are often capable of affording a new house with the financial support of both their parents. This further contributes to demand in the housing market.

Rich-Poor Gap

Bad state policies have led to other problems in Chinese society, which are also contributing to the high housing costs.

With the growing income gap between China's rich and poor, the majority of China's general population has adopted a lifestyle of low consumption. When this is further exacerbated by the lack of social security, people become more reluctant to spend. This results in a low domestic demand, with the exception of real estate, which contrasts with the Chinese economy's excessive output.

The rich have also begun to invest more in real estate instead of industrial investments and stocks and futures, which are now perceived as high-risk. A survey of China's wealthy showed that over one-third now choose to invest primarily in real estate.

Corruption

With a total disregard for the welfare of their citizens, local officials have run cities as their private enterprises, turning large sums of illegitimate profits. They do so by quietly aiding housing projects that they have ties to, while secretly opposing all other housing developments that would compete against them.

This limits the supply of new houses, driving up housing prices and allowing the officials to personally profit from their sales.

Other Reasons

Because of China's high property prices, most Chinese cannot afford homes with more than three bedrooms. Developers have therefore turned to building smaller units, which they can sell more easily. However, building many small units increases the per-square-meter price of the property. It also increases the population density of the area and will further drive up housing prices in the future.

China's housing prices are being driven upwards by rapid urbanization and speculation. Real estate speculators continue to buy and sell properties for easy profits, believing that they will always be able to find a buyer for every property. However, should the economy turn down, these inflated housing prices will become unsustainable.

China's housing bubble will inevitably burst. Predictably, there will be two crashes, with the first likely occurring between 2013-2015, and the second around 2025, after which prices will never again recover to their previous levels.

Many Chinese have bought real estate in a "house-for-pension scheme." These investors are especially vulnerable.

Liu Zhongliang is a scholar in Hunan Province. He has written columns for NetEase, ifeng.com, SOHU.com, and bokerb.com. In an article published in 2011, Liu gave his analysis of the causes behind China's high housing prices and a prediction of China's future housing market. His article received 360,000 hits on NetEase and bokerb.com.

Liu recently reposted the article to warn of the risks of investing in China's housing market. The above translation is an abridged version of the article.

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Phony Wages in China Could Cost Over $1 Billion

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 02:54 PM PDT

No-Show Jobs Are Costly to Chinese Taxpayers. (kanzhongguo.com)

A recent campaign to do away with "no-show jobs" has uncovered over 70 thousand non-existent "jobs" spread across seven provinces in China. The total cost of the phony wages could reach more than a billion dollars.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate, the highest state agency responsible for prosecution and investigation, disclosed on June 19 that these sinecures were found throughout the government and Party apparatus at various levels.

The phenomenon is comprised of four categories: listing a job but not hiring anyone, transferring the worker but not reporting the personnel change, padding the payroll, and keeping the deceased on the payroll.

According to the 2005 China Statistical Yearbook, based on annual expenses of $800 to $3,000 for each sinecure, the expenditures for sinecures in seven provinces is anywhere from $350 million to $1 billion. If those figures are reflective of similar expenses in other provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, the wealth being siphoned from the taxpayer may be vast.

Professor Li Chengyan, director of the Clean Governance Construction Research Center at Peking University, commented about the matter online: "The sinecure scandal has become a budgetary black hole. The main cause is the lax supervision of personnel administration, the opaque organization charting, the abuses of power, and the ineffective control of human resources and finance."

Looking at Shandong Province, for example, out of 11,858 violations, only 269 people were disciplined. Most of the people caught in a sinecure scandal went free, and hardly any of them were disciplined. Critics point to such facts to argue that there is no effective mechanism in place to control or eliminate the widespread abuse of taking money from the state through fake jobs.

Public administration professor Wang Yukai said: "The abuse of power has greatly hurt the implementation of the system. In order to strengthen the supervision, promoting reform of the system is critical."

Well-documented nepotism in China does not help. This was illustrated by three cases from Shanxi, reported in the Chinese press.

Wang Ye, a county Party secretary's daughter, had a no-show job at the Disease Control Center and was paid for over five years.

Li Nan, the county Secretary for Education's son, had a sinecure at a local middle school under similar conditions.

Wang Hui, a former deputy county head, went into private business in 1992 and never worked in the local civil administration—but until 2007 he was being paid for a job there that he never did.

Read the original Chinese article.

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Source: Wang Lijun Told U.S. Officials of Organ Harvest

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 02:07 PM PDT

Wang Lijun, former Chief of Chongqing Public Security Bureau, in March, 2011. (Feng Li/Getty Images)

Former police chief and deputy mayor of Chongqing Wang Lijun made a surprising and hasty visit to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu in February, making international headlines. What Wang said to U.S. consulate officials, however, remained mostly confidential.

Sources told Bill Gertz, a national security reporter, that Wang handed U.S. officials key information about Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang's planned coup against Xi Jinping, the heir apparent of the Chinese Communist Party. It was also rumored that Wang attempted to defect and sought protection from U.S. officials.

A well-placed source has now told The Epoch Times that Wang gave U.S. officials confidential documents containing critical information about top communist officials' involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong. The source said Wang provided details about organ harvesting from executed Falun Gong practitioners in China's network of military hospitals, prisons, mental hospitals, and labor camps.

The State Department did not respond to telephone and email requests for comment.

In July 2006, former Canadian Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas released a report summarizing the findings of their investigation into organ harvesting allegations from Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in China. Their report cited as evidence telephone interviews with hospital staff in China admitting that Falun Gong practitioners were being killed and their organs sold.

In May of this year, the U.S. Department of State released the 2011 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, which included for the first time reference to allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs in China. The report noted reports that Falun Gong practitioners were "targeted for arbitrary arrest, detention, and harassment."

In February, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking for an explanation about how U.S. officials dealt with Wang after he arrived at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu.

New Chongqing Leader Says Bo Xilai Damaged China's Image

In April, the State Department held a private briefing for members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs regarding the Wang Lijun incident. Details of the briefing were not provided to media.

When Chongqing's former top cop, Wang Lijun, fled for his life to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, he set in motion a political storm that has not subsided. The battle behind the scenes turns on what stance officials take toward the persecution of Falun Gong. The faction with bloody hands—the officials former CCP head Jiang Zemin promoted in order to carry out the persecution—is seeking to avoid accountability for their crimes and to continue the campaign. Other officials are refusing any longer to participate in the persecution. Events present a clear choice to the officials and citizens of China, as well as people around the world: either support or oppose the persecution of Falun Gong. History will record the choice each person makes.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing crisis within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the new interactive Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

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Ai Weiwei Warned Not to Attend Own Court Hearing

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 08:30 AM PDT

Today artist and dissident Ai Weiwei told reporters that police warned him not to attend a court hearing for a case involving his own company.

Comments on African Protest Censored

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 01:11 PM PDT

China's Internet censors on Wednesday deleted posts commenting on protests this week by Africans living in the southern city of Guangzhou after one of their number died in police custody.

One netizen said censors deleted a post he made following Tuesday's incident in which more than 100 Africans protested outside a Guangzhou police station.

"I wrote a microblog post which said that there were a lot of black people in Guangzhou, and that there was [also] an incident last year in which they got together and attacked a police station," wrote user @laolongkantianxia on the popular Sina Weibo microblogging service.

"My post wound up getting deleted," the user wrote. "This is crazy."

Guangzhou television reported on the protest, which occurred after a man died in police custody Monday afternoon.

Xinhua said the man, who is believed to be Nigerian, "suddenly fell unconscious" at a police station and "died after medical efforts failed."

He had been taken into custody following a dispute over payment with a bicycle owner that turned physical, it said.

His death sparked a protest in Guangzhou which brought traffic to a halt and lasted for two hours on Tuesday, Xinhua said, citing an official from the Guangzhou municipal public security bureau.

The Xinhua report said police have launched an investigation into the death and that "police in Guangzhou have called for foreigners to abide by Chinese law and refrain from disturbing public order."

An employee who answered the phone at the Guangzhou municipal police department confirmed that large numbers of police had been sent to the scene of the protest.

Tensions

One netizen commented, "Too bad you're a black guy. If you'd been a white guy, the police would have just told the other guy to let the matter drop."

Comments by one Guangzhou shop owner suggested there was a degree of ethnic tension between local Chinese residents and Guangzhou's large African population, citing fears by Chinese business owners of shoplifting and robbery by Africans. But he gave no details of specific incidents.

However, a second store owner said of the protests, "I think it's just an organized action, just like we Chinese would do if were overseas and one of us was badly treated. We would all band together and demand an explanation," he said.

"There are a lot of Africans around here, mostly businessmen," he said. "They are pretty nice and polite."

The protest comes ahead of a high-profile China-Africa summit that China is expected to host next month, and amid a continuing crackdown in Beijing and Shanghai on foreigners who are in breach of immigration rules.

Beijing launched a 100-day campaign to "clean up" foreigners living or working illegally in the city and has stepped up police checks on foreign nationals.

Reported by Fang Yuan for RFA's Mandarin service and by Pan Jiaqing for the Cantonese service. Translated and written by Luisetta Mudie.

Ai Weiwei barred from court hearing by Chinese police

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 08:13 AM PDT

Dissident artist says police warned him to stay away from court hearing on company's lawsuit against Beijing tax authorities

Police in China have barred the artist Ai Weiwei from attending a hearing on his company's lawsuit against Beijing tax authorities, and blocked filming at the courthouse..

Ai told reporters police had ordered him to stay away from the court, and that he complied.

Chinese authorities detained Ai for three months last year and his design company was ordered to pay 15m yuan (£1.53m) in back taxes and fines in a penalty interpreted by activists as punishment for his criticism of the authoritarian government.

The company has appealed against the fine and separately filed a lawsuit that accuses the tax bureau of violating laws regarding the handling of witnesses, evidence and company accounts in the case.

Ai said police have not explained why he was barred from the hearing.

"This society has become a scary and dangerous one now, because there are too many things that violate people's rights and that happen with no explanation," Ai said.

Ai's wife, Lu Qing, who is the legal representative of his design company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, attended with lawyers and an accountant. It was the first hearing in the case, and details were not revealed on Wednesday.

Plainclothes and uniformed police were stationed outside Ai's home and studio in north-east Beijing, registering journalists who turned up to interview Ai and report on the case. Ai argued briefly with them and demanded to know why they were interrogating his visitors. Reporters were also blocked from filming at the courthouse.

Liu Xiaoyuan, a legal consultant who has been staying at Ai's home, was missing after being taken away by police on Tuesday night, Ai said.

Rights activist Hu Jia claimed he was prevented from leaving his Beijing home to attend the hearing on Wednesday and in the evening was beaten by three men he described as plainclothes state security officials as he tried to leave the premises. They grabbed him by the collar and wrists, choked him and punched him, Hu said.

Since he emerged from detention last year, Ai has been refused permission to travel and is under constant surveillance. He still frequently criticises the government on Twitter, which is blocked in China but accessible to tech-savvy citizens.

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