Links » Cream » How China Saw the Olympic Opening Ceremony

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• How China Saw the Olympic Opening Ceremony
• Gold Farming for College Credit: Berkeley Offers China Online Game Class
• Beijing Floods, Act III: the Negligence Claims
• Photo: School children in Hong Kong, by Henrik Berger Jørgensen
• Tenuous Calm After Pollution Protests (Updated)
• Photos: Unrest in Qidong
• China Eases Restrictions on Foreign Investors
• Hong Kong Protests Patriotism Classes

How China Saw the Olympic Opening Ceremony Posted: 29 Jul 2012 09:33 PM PDT Since the opening of the Beijing Olympics four years ago—a declaration of national arrival which awed some and terrified others—the question has lingered of how London would follow it. Comparisons were inevitable, and perhaps even invited: while China paired one girl's voice with another's face for a rendition of "Ode to the Motherland", director Danny Boyle had "God Save The Queen" sung and signed by a choir including deaf and wheelchair-bound children. Lauren Collins examined the contrast at The New Yorker, where she awarded Boyle a gold medal for his three-hour tribute to British music, literature, industry and healthcare. The unspoken message was that Britain was an old country, a proud country—and a very different country from China. […] […] Rowan Atkinson—Mr. Bean—sat behind a keyboard and, pecking away with one finger, mangled the theme from "Chariots of Fire." Exiting the stage, he (actually, what is probably the world's most advanced whoopie cushion) made, as the British put it, "a rude noise." The trick of this was that, by deflating the national myth of stoic heroism, Boyle bolstered the national myth of the British sense of humor. The wonkiness of moment only underscored the grim-faced conformity of the Chinese approach. Among the most eagerly anticipated reviews were those from China itself. The Telegraph reported reactions from CCTV, Xinhua and a couple of men on the street: "Director Danny Boyle presented to the world a stunning feast for the eyes at the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games, with the Queen's parachuting, Mr Bean's funny performance, Lord Voldemort's dreamy appearance, a gathering of so many big stars, green landscape and choirs," said a news anchor on state broadcaster CCTV. The official Xinhua news agency called the opening a "glittering ceremony" that displayed Britain's sense of fun. The BBC also explored Chinese views of the ceremony and the games more generally, including the security arrangements and the booming trade in Union Jack underpants. A reader called "yunjin chengfeng 998575″ posted on the Chinese microblogging site Sohu: "I got up at 4 in the morning to watch the opening ceremony, and was very disappointed; the countryside scenery looks like a circus, not attractive at all, it is like watching a drama, with no Olympic passion. It is no comparison to the Beijing opening ceremony." But reader Dong You Xi Dang doesn't agree. He thought the London show was completely different from the Beijing ceremony, with different rhythm – "it conveys pleasure, participation, and it is perfect," while xiangjun8000 summed it up: "The London ceremony highlights that it is the people's game; the Beijing ceremony shows it is the authority's game." […] An article by Li Hongbing in People's Daily, before the opening ceremony, said: "The London Olympic Games look quite frugal and even shabby… Europe is after all in an economic crisis, and the British are indeed short of funds. "But from another perspective, practicality and environmental protection are principles that have been given more importance, and this concept deserves to be studied by us." Also writing before the ceremony, Global Times seemed less convinced that any valuable lessons lay in London, though it at least approved of the organisers' choice of Chinese fireworks. The curtain went up on the London Olympic Games early Saturday morning Beijing time. Now the event has returned to a traditional Western power from the world's biggest developing country that hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, but the fever of four years ago has greatly faded. The London Games only received moderate attention before its opening. […] The UK wanted to shake up its economy with the help of the Games, but failed due to its limited potential. […] The Beijing Games has been recorded in history as a highly successful event. In the future people will remember it when they talk about either sports or the history of developing world. We wish the London Games another kind of success. There is one world, but all kinds of happiness. The Legal Evening News was still more blunt, according to Simon Rabinovitch at The Financial Times: "The fireworks and mass acrobatics of Beijing delivered a clear message: China's time has come," declared the Legal Evening News, a popular newspaper. And what message did it take from London's ceremony? "This is not a rising city. It is in decline." But Bird's Nest co-designer Ai Weiwei, who wrote last week of his hopes for a more inclusive Games in London than in Beijing, gave the ceremony a glowing review at The Guardian: Brilliant. It was very, very well done. This was about Great Britain; it didn't pretend it was trying to have global appeal. Because Great Britain has self-confidence, it doesn't need a monumental Olympics. But for China that was the only imaginable kind of international event. Beijing's Olympics were very grand – they were trying to throw a party for the world, but the hosts didn't enjoy it. The government didn't care about people's feelings because it was trying to create an image. […] There were historical elements in the Beijing opening ceremony, but the difference is that this was about individuals and humanity and true feelings; their passion, their hope, their struggle. That came through in their confidence and joy. It's really about a civil society. Ours only reflected the party's nationalism. It wasn't a natural reflection of China. Few of the people were performers. They were ordinary people who contribute to society – and if there is a celebration, then it should be for everyone from the Queen to a nurse. I feel happy that they can all have their moment to tell their story. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, Beijing Olympics, Bird's nest, CCTV, China's rise, Global Times, Lin Miaoke, London, London Olympics, Olympics ceremonies, people's daily, sohu, Xinhua Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Gold Farming for College Credit: Berkeley Offers China Online Game Class Posted: 29 Jul 2012 08:03 PM PDT The University of California, Berkeley will open in fall semester an elective course on exploring Chinese history and culture through playing the Chinese online game Legends of the Three Kingdoms, reports Guangzhou's Southern Metropolis Daily. The game, originally a desktop card game similar to Bang, was designed by four students from a university in China. It proved so popular that it became an online game in 2009. The course will invite students on a journey into Chinese history and culture focusing on the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 CE) and read the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by the 14th century author Luo Guangzhong. Playing the online game will be a requirement of the course to help students understand the historical characters and students will even be quizzed on contemporary Chinese pop culture. (WantChinaTimes) I figure this sounds much more fun than it really is. This course undoubtedly includes the same sort of reading list that would be required with any China history/culture class, so it's not like the kids are going to escape the real work. Additionally, as with any online game, it can become dull and tedious as one grinds away, hour after hour, going on missions, looking for gold, killing things and breaking shit (or blowing things up, depending on the game). After a while, it just seems like work. To be honest, after about two or three hours of most games, for me it's a toss-up between soldiering on and ditching the game for a good book. I wonder if the Berkeley class will require a certain number of game hours played, in-game achievements, etc.? If you get to a certain level, maybe you can earn extra credit, but let's hope that the game in question isn't one of those where you can simply buy your way to better weapons and higher levels — that wouldn't exactly be fair, would it? Anyway, the idea itself is cool in terms of educational creativity, although it does sort of discriminate against the older students. Imagine going back to school after 20 years to get a college degree and your professor, who is probably younger than you are, tells you that you have to learn how to play a MMORPG to graduate. I assume your reaction would be "What the &$^@ is an MMORPG, and can I pick one up at the bookstore?" If this Berkeley class is a hit, I'm going to try and find a game for my class. What would be the most appropriate for a foreign investment law class? © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags:

Beijing Floods, Act III: the Negligence Claims Posted: 29 Jul 2012 07:35 PM PDT Now that the weather has, at least temporarily, returned to normal and the recriminations from an angry public have died down, it's time for more serious complaining. And what form does that take? Well, most humans have a predetermined biological response to natural disasters: first they get scared, then angry, then they file insurance claims and sue someone. The capital's expressway management found themselves under fire on Sunday from 80 angry vehicle owners who are filing for compensation in the wake of the heavy rainstorm on July 21. The owners are complaining that they were charged at toll booths which allowed them to enter the flooded section of the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway. Hundreds of buses and cars found themselves stranded on the expressway for two days after the rain. Many were damaged or waterlogged. One car owner surnamed Shi, a businessman from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, spent about 90,000 yuan ($14,286) on a new car two month ago. Shi told the Global Times that he and other drivers had been to Beijing Capital Highway Development Co., Ltd twice last week to claim compensation over the company's negligence. "We went to demand an answer and recompense for our damaged cars on Wednesday and were told we would get a result on Friday. However, we were told on Friday that they couldn't release details of a compensation plan until the government had sorted everything out," Shi said. Shi claimed that the tragedy could have been avoided if there had been any traffic management at the scene. "No staff came to stop more cars entering the flooded section. If someone had dealt with this in time, or made space for cars to turn around in both directions, there would have been fewer losses," he said. Standard negligence argument, right? a) company had duty of care regarding management of the highway in question; b) rainstorm and related problems were foreseeable; c) company was negligent in allowing traffic onto the road given the flooding; and d) company was negligent in not having additional staff on hand to deal with storm-related issues. Sounds like a pretty good case. I don't think the "We haven't had rain like this in X number of years" defense against foreseeability holds up. Moreover, even if the company wasn't aware of the specific traffic conditions on all parts of the road when motorists were being charged tolls and allowed to drive on, I assume that the company ought to have known. Here's a second opinion on the case: Yue Cheng, founder of the Yuecheng Law Firm based in Beijing, suggested that the company was responsible for the loss that many of the car owners have suffered. "Not mentioning the design defects of the expressway, they have to admit their mistake in allowing vehicles to pass without giving any warning about the hazards ahead," said Yue. "The company does not bear any liability in case of an unpredictable natural disaster. However, rainstorms are not an unpredictable phenomena, so the company has no right to evade its responsibility," he said. There you have it. Bad news for the company, although a good "design defect" argument might be a mitigating factor. Heck, who am I kidding? If this whole thing goes down the same way as other natural disasters, also food scandals, the government will get directly involved in an overall settlement, pooling compensation on the one side and qualified victims on the other. The companies involved will piss and moan, and then go on about their business, and the victims will bitterly complain about insufficient damages. Mission accomplished, in terms of a harmonious-ish settlement. While this goes on, many of these individual complaints, some of which will be filed in Beijing courts, will be quietly dismissed pending formal action on the settlement fund. (I'm assuming, by the way, that these companies are private. If they are part of the municipal or State government, then that throws a wrench into the litigation analysis of course.) Is that the best possible outcome? Well, I'm biased in favor of tort cases. In addition to being a U.S. lawyer, I grew up in the Ralph Nader age, where public interest lawyers used tort to get bad actor corporations to learn the error of their ways. There are only two ways to do that, you know. First, government can regulate. This doesn't work so well in some places and with certain industries. In the U.S., the government has been "captured" by companies in many industrial sectors, precluding effective enforcement. Second, the tort system can be wielded by individuals in court, given legal standing, as a weapon against misbehaving companies. The business end of that weapon is, of course, punitive damages, which can be high enough to hurt these guys' bottom lines. The U.S. tort system is aggressive and has often been abused. However, that's what judges are for (and an independent judiciary), but that's a long discussion. Suffice it to say that in my opinion, the good has outweighed the bad. The modern American environmental movement, for example, owes a very great deal to the tort system. China also has a tort system, and a fairly new tort law, but we do not have anything here resembling the structure that Ralph Nader used to such great effect. The entire system is different here, including trial procedure and discovery, which precludes the kind of tort litigation for which America has become famous (or infamous). And the goals here are different. With a large-scale problem like some of the food scandals or a natural disaster, the priority is to get some compensation to the victims in an efficient, non-confrontational manner. No fighting, no disharmony, and certainly none of the U.S.-style litigation ugliness, including the siphoning away of a lot of compensation to plaintiffs' attorneys. We don't have punitive damages here, and if companies do bad things, well, that's a problem for prosecutors and administrative enforcement. Will we see the usual settlement fund for the floods? I'd expect that, yes. Will this change the bad behavior of companies like this highway management firm? I doubt it, and I'd rather see a hefty civil complaint that makes them hurt and scares other companies out there. But that isn't going to happen, and at least with a settlement fund, some folks will come away with something. Best possible outcome. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: beijing flood, civil litigation, tort

Photo: School children in Hong Kong, by Henrik Berger Jørgensen Posted: 29 Jul 2012 07:18 PM PDT School children in Hong Kong © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Tenuous Calm After Pollution Protests (Updated) Posted: 29 Jul 2012 05:38 PM PDT AFP reports quiet in Qidong amid a heavy police presence following Saturday's violent protests against a planned pipeline. "People don't dare to go out in the streets today," said a local resident, who for safety reasons only gave her name as Qin. "Thousands of security forces have been deployed to Qidong to prevent further gatherings against the police," she told AFP, adding that residents were wary of police retaliation after some were beaten in Saturday's protests. Up to three people were killed in the violence and scores were injured, while up to 100 were detained by police, according to rights watchdog Chinese Human Rights Defenders. The violence began after police began violently beating a young female protester, it said, citing witnesses. A reporter for The Asahi Shimbun, Atsushi Okudera, was reportedly beaten by police while covering the protests. The newspaper has complained to the Chinese government, and Japan's Consulate General in nearby Shanghai is investigating the incident. From The Asahi Shimbun: Okudera, 41, was attacked when he was shooting pictures of demonstrators under attack by police. He was on the street in front of the municipal police building in Qidong. All of a sudden, his camera was seized by police and 15 to 20 officers surrounded him and shoved him to the ground. Although Okudera identified himself as a reporter, police kicked him for about 20 seconds. One of the officers jumped on him. Police seized his press ID when he showed it to them after they stopped beating him and didn't return his camera, which contained images he shot of the protest. CHRD's account of how the violence started, if true, may blunt some criticism of the protesters' conduct. Shanghai-based blogger Jian Shuo Wang wrote on Saturday that "we crossed the line, seriously crossed the line […]. Right goal always cannot prove the rightness of process. If we continue to follow the current thinking too far, China may enter into the next terrible violence-ruled circle." Others, though, have suggested that violence is inevitable when other avenues for raising grievances are blocked. From Tsinghua professor Patrick Chovanec, for example: Qidong scary, but would anyone listen if they did not riot? Lack of peaceful ways to hold officials accountable leads to anger, violence. — Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) July 29, 2012 @KaiserKuo I'm not justifying violence, but hardly surprising when there are no pressure valves, peaceful petitioners persecuted — Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) July 29, 2012 Peaceful protest did seem to have secured the closure of a controversial chemical plant in Dalian last year. But even Dalian was a sign of a dysfunctional system, Tang Hao wrote soon afterwards at chinadialogue, lamenting the "sinister truth[ that] from officials to activists, everyone is ignoring the rules". Following the uproar, Dalian authorities ordered the managers of the Fujia Dahua facility immediately to halt production and relocate their plant: the public campaign had concluded with the government bowing to public opinion – on the surface, a triumph. But the whole case highlights how, in the absence of strong rule of law, China's environmental management has taken the road of what I call "interaction without rules". This brings its own set of problems. On environmental issues, "interaction without rules" normally goes through three stages: first, local interest groups and local governments push ahead with a polluting project in violation of environmental regulations. Second, local people spontaneously organise mass protests against the project in question, an activity supported by neither law nor policy. And third, in response to the threat to social stability created by the protests, local government halts the project – again, breaching laws. At every stage, the existing rules are lightly cast aside by all participants. Tang noted, however, that such protests might ultimately lead to "positive interaction and system reform", pointing to Taiwan's environmental and other campaigns of the 1980s. Mark McDonald cited Dalian, Qidong, Shifang and others as possible signs of a developing "Chinese Street" at The New York Times' Rendezvous blog: Although there are tens of thousands of civic protests every year in China, most are small-scale, ineffectual and officially smothered. But high profile demonstrations over environmental issues are occurring with more regularity, size, violence and political oomph — in Dalian (a petrochemical plant), in Zuotan (land grabs) and earlier this month in Shifang (a heavy-metals smelter). Deadly floods and a feeble government response in Beijing last week also led to a huge outcry online. "These demonstrations represent a new grassroots force made possible by social media tools such as Weibo (China's Twitter), the messenger service QQ and online forums," said Monica Tan, a Web editor with Greenpeace East Asia, writing on The Diplomat blog. "These protests can be characterized by how swiftly they are organized and the way they happen outside more formal structures like unions, NGOs or political parties." Other, offline factors are also at play, Willy Wo-Lap Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong told Bloomberg: The Qidong protests "demonstrate that ordinary people's awareness of their rights has increased and they are more willing to assert their rights," Willy Wo-Lap Lam, an adjunct professor of history […], said in a telephone interview yesterday. "It also demonstrates more sophistication on the part of the authorities in handling protests." Cases interpreted by the authorities as potentially "anti- party or anti-government" would lead to a crackdown "mercilessly and with a lot of force," Lam said. "But if a protest is regarded as basically economic and environmental in nature, they are more willing to strike a deal." See also CDT's collection of photos and video from the protests and an infographic, translated by Tea Leaf Nation, explaining the protesters' grievances. [Updated at 23:40 PST]: Global Times reports one arrest for "spreading rumors online saying police had beaten to death a young man and a 9-year-old girl". The Japanese paper company at the centre of the controversial plans has again defended its adherence to environmental standards. From AFP: "There are some reports that discharged water would contain carcinogens but that is totally groundless," it said. "We are controlling water quality in a responsible manner by purifying water enough to satisfy China's national standards." […] Oji Paper had not invested in the planned pipeline, said a company spokesman in Tokyo. Its plant was not operating Monday, he added, and the firm was considering whether to resume operations Tuesday. In a very extensive round-up of photos, commentary and other information, Minister of Tofu Jing Gao translated a selection of posts by prominent microbloggers, many of whom expressed mixed feelings about protesters' use of violence. Han Han, China's most influential blogger and author, wrote, "The city government has fallen and been occupied. The state apparatus showed restraint. The project has been permanently canceled. The mayor's top was stripped. But as long as he does not seek revenge later on, he is still more dignified than those well-dressed government officials who ordered a crackdown. I hope people in Qidong can be gratified with the result and stop at it. I will even warn officials elsewhere, stop before it goes too bad." […] Ge Sang, an anchorwoman at Shanghai Media Group, wrote, "Why did you have to charge at the city government while protesting? Can ransacking the mayor's office help your appeal? The public behave like rogues even before the authorities strike the first blow. Isn't this going to give others a handle against you?…When activism turns into smashing, beating and ransacking, don't blame others if you are met with tear gas." He Zhenbiao, a communications professor at Zhejiang University, wrote, "I support the public for their expression of opinion on the street. This is the lesson 101 in a modern civilized society. But please allow me to remind them, this may be only a step away from the remnants of the Cultural Revolution…Express opinion with reason. Stroll with peace. Oppose personal attacks. Draw the line between public affairs and private matters." At Global Voices, Oiwan Lam outlined the heated disagreement between the protesters' critics and supporters: Li Kaifu: [The courage to stop a loaded arrow] Back in 2006, a million protesters dressed in red surrounded the Chen Shuibian government in Taiwan, the leader Si Mingde insisted that they should not crush into the building and no blood should be shed. He did not romanticize the means [the use of force]. If the protesters took the wrong path, an army of justice would become sinners in history. He said: "An arrow is loaded and is ready to take the shot, it takes more courage and wisdom to unload it then letting it go off." I wish people from Jiansu would see this. 布吉-moxie: Mr Li, at least you have to distinguish the difference between the political systems in the two regions, one is democratic, one is authoritative. Could the Jews have negotiated with Hitler? Of course ordinary people don't want to shed blood, but when there is no other way out, they are brave enough to sacrifice themselves for a greater cause. Global Times editor in chief Hu Xijin criticised all parties, from the Qidong local government to those who cheered on the violence. The netizen comments chosen to accompany his on the newspaper's website spread the blame even further, to government control of the media and heavy-handed policing: The situation in Qidong demonstrates once again that China's society fears pollution, a sentiment which once stirred will create a desperate and destructive power. This has already become a serious political problem. The government should communicate with the public before making decisions on such sensitive environmental issues. Otherwise, the government should be held accountable for not fulfilling its duty. People who violated the law should also be punished in accordance with the law. I condemn everyone who applauded the violence that took place. @随事理: Just like in the Shifang event, most people only learn about Qidong through gossip and rumor. The question is when will people have the right to know the whole truth and when will mainstream media provide the public with timely information? @wsirsir: There is no doubt that violence is not to be allowed. However we must be against violence of all kinds, both among citizens and government. Our society should build an effective system of communication, which is not only needed after conflict occurs, but also to prevent such problems. People should have the right to freely express their opinions through proper channels. The question is whether the government respects this right to expression? Is there any such channel? Does the government represent the people's interests or their own? A Global Times editorial even implied that the central government shared some blame for failing to give local authorities sufficient guidance: The Qidong protest may have been inspired and encouraged by the Shifang incident. They both achieved the same result through extreme approaches. The quick compromise made by the Qidong government may also have been learnt from Shifang. The two protests have together left the impression that the fastest way to change a government policy is to hold a violent demonstration. If this model is copied widely, it would be disastrous for social stability. It encourages the public to resort to radical methods to realize its demands. This model must be broken. Policies concerning broad public interests cannot be decided only by officials. Public participation needs to be implemented, and not just as a show. […] […] The blame should not be shouldered solely by the two local governments. There is no clear policy or regulation on dealing with mass incidents. Choking under the pressure of public opinion and the tough task of maintaining social order before the coming Party congress proved too much for two small city governments. Their desperate reactions were intuitive. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Asahi Shimbun, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, dalian, dalian px, environmental protests, Japan, NIMBY, pollution, protests, Qidong, Shifang, violence against journalists, willy lam, Zuotan Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Photos: Unrest in Qidong Posted: 29 Jul 2012 01:40 PM PDT Saturday's protests in Qidong, Jiangsu, over a proposed pipeline, escalated into violence and riot police were called in. Numerous photographs of the scene have been distributed online by bystanders, which show an immense crowd gathered outside the local city government offices and large numbers of police. Some protesters broke into the offices and were shown on the building rooftop. Violence broke out on both sides, and the photos and video below show protesters being beaten as well as overturned police cars. For more on the protests, see yesterday's CDT post and a post from Tea Leaf Nation. [Armed Police use the campus of the Qidong High School as a base] The following video of Qidong was posted by Boxun News:   See more photos of the unrest via CDT Chinese [zh] (here, here and here), on Cryptome and via the official Global Times. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: environmental protests, police violence, Qidong, riots, social unrest Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

China Eases Restrictions on Foreign Investors Posted: 29 Jul 2012 11:09 AM PDT Despite China's launching of a body to screen foreign investment in Chinese companies, Beijing has now announced it will relax its control over qualified foreign institutional investers (QFII), from Xinhua: Compared with previous rules, the regulation published by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Friday lowers the QFII threshold and allows QFIIs to invest in the nation's capital market through more than one securities dealer. The regulation also allows QFIIs to invest in the interbank bond market and private placement bonds issued by small and medium-sized enterprises and hold up to a 30-percent stake in a listed company, up from the previous 20-percent stake cap. The move aims to make it easier for QFIIs to invest in China's capital market, part of the nation's efforts to free up capital flows and accelerate the opening of domestic capital markets. The CSRC said it will continue to speed up the approval of QFIIs, facilitate the operation of the QFII scheme with related authorities and strengthen supervision to attract more long-term overseas investments. According to the Wall Street Journal, the new regulations are similar to the draft rules issued last month: Under the new rules, which came into effect Friday, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said it had lowered minimum qualification requirement and simplified the approval process for applicants under the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors program, the primary program for foreign investors to enter China's capital markets. The new rules, which are similar to the draft rules issued last month, said China has expanded the investment scope of QFIIs and allowed QFIIs to hold more shares in domestically listed companies. The CSRC said in the statement that it will continue to speed up its approval for QFIIs and will look at ways to relax foreign-exchange restrictions on QFIIs further with relevant authorities. It will also clarify tax issues about QFIIs as soon as possible, it said, without offering more details on what issues. As China's economy looks as though it will miss it's 2012 growth target, the CSRC claims foreign investors will be able to make more long-term investments, Reuters reports: The new rules will make it easier for foreign groups to obtain the status of qualified institutional investor, and thus enter the Chinese market, said the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Foreign investors will now also be able to put their money into China's interbank bond market and high-yield bond market, said the regulator. The steps should lead to "more long-term foreign investment on China's capital markets," according to a statement from the regulator. New applications for foreign investors have been sped up recently, with the securities regulator approving 37 new qualified investor licences for the first six months of this year compared with 29 for the whole of last year. © Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: financial policies, foreign companies, foreign investment Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Hong Kong Protests Patriotism Classes Posted: 29 Jul 2012 11:08 AM PDT Amid fears that the mainland is increasing their involvement in Hong Kong politics, the San Francisco Chronicle reports parents, students, and teachers took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest China's planned curriculum change: Tens of thousands including teachers and parents pushing strollers took to Hong Kong streets Sunday to protest the upcoming introduction of Chinese patriotism classes they fear will lead to brainwashing, the latest sign of growing discomfort over Beijing's influence in the semiautonomous territory. Students and pro-democracy activists were among those who marched to the Hong Kong government's headquarters to protest the new curriculum, which authorities are encouraging schools to begin using when classes resume in September. The protest is the latest sign of growing discontent in Hong Kong over mainland China's increasing influence 15 years after the freewheeling financial center was returned to China by Britain following more than a century of colonial rule. Tensions have also been stoked by growing economic inequality and as well as an influx of free-spending wealthy Chinese, who are seen as driving up property prices and shop rents. Sunday's demonstrators carried placards and banners and shouted slogans calling for the government to withdraw its plan to introduce the Moral and National Education curriculum. According to the New York Times, protesters have referred to the change as 'brainwashing': Victoria Park, the traditional starting point for the city's frequent mass protests, was a sea of umbrellas as parents shielded their children from the subtropical sun. There have been at least two demonstrations since June: Hong Kong's annual vigil for the victims of the 1989 crackdown, and a protest on the 15th anniversary of the former British colony's handover to Chinese rule. The latter coincided with the swearing-in of Hong Kong's new Beijing-backed leader, Leung Chun-ying, on July 1. The crowd Sunday, including many young families, blocked off large parts of the Causeway Bay commercial area as it inched toward the new government headquarters in the city center. Many felt that the changes were rushed through without public consultation. Critics liken the curriculum to brainwashing and say that it glosses over major events like the Cultural Revolution and the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. It will be introduced into some primary schools in September and be mandatory for all public schools by 2016. Before the protest, Jiang Yudui of the China Civic Education Promotion Association of Hong Kong added fuel to the fire when he told the Hong Kong public that the curriculum should "wash their brains." Hong Kong officials have responded to the protests claiming  they only used the China booklet as a model, but Hong Kong residents have expressed discontent for its officials. From Reuters UK: While the booklet touches on some negative aspects of contemporary Chinese history including unfair land grabs by corrupt officials and a toxic milk powder scandal, it makes no mention of the June 4, 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. It also describes the U.S. political system as having "created social turbulence" and harmed people's livelihoods. They responded to the protesters' concerns by saying a "broadly representative" committee would be formed to monitor the scheme after its implementation in the coming few years, before deciding whether it becomes a mandatory course or not. "We definitely would not want to see any so-called brainwashing type of education from happening. If that indeed happens, which we do not believe will happen…we would be the first one to come out to condemn such a situation," said Lee Chack-fan, chairman of a group tasked with drafting the guidelines for the national education scheme. These protests come during a time when anti-Beijing sentiments are high, AFP adds: Sunday's protest underscored rising anti-Beijing sentiments, coming weeks after the city's biggest demonstration in nearly a decade, as new leader Leung Chun-ying was sworn in before Chinese President Hu Jintao. A poll released by the University of Hong Kong last month showed the number of people in the former British colony identifying themselves as citizens of China had plunged to a 13-year-low. More identified themselves as Hong Kongers. Under the proposal, students would take 50 hours of lessons a year focusing on "building national harmony, identity and unity among individuals". There would be no exams. Anti-Beijing protests are a regular fixture in the regional financial centre of seven million people. Read more about Hong Kong's relationship with the mainland, via CDT. © Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: education, education reform, Hong Kong, Hong Kong education, Hong Kong mainland relations, patriotic education, patriotism, propaganda Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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