Links » Crème » Today’s China Readings July 24, 2012
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| Today’s China Readings July 24, 2012 Posted: 23 Jul 2012 07:30 PM PDT Pettis// Late last year, Cosmopolitan editors in China started splitting its monthly issue into two magazines because it was too thick to print. Elle now publishes twice a month because issues had grown to 700 pages. Vogue added four more issues each year to keep up with advertising demand. Hearst is even designing plastic and cloth bags for women to easily carry these heavy magazines home. "We never take anything for granted. But so far this year, we look like we're having a pretty good year of growth," said Duncan Edwards, president and chief executive of Hearst Magazines International, which has agreements to have 22 magazines, including Elle and Harper's Bazaar, published here. "There is an enormous hunger for information about luxury, and there aren't many other places you can get that information than in fashion magazines." the official people's daily sina weibo account "It's a sleepless night tonight. People's Daily is praying for those who are still on the way home and pays tribute to those who are at the front of battling heavy rain. Beijing, put it together!" This is the first message posted by the official account of People's Daily on China's twitter-like weibo at 4:58 a.m. of July 22, 2012, when Beijing was suffering from the heaviest rain in 60 years. A hospital director in Jinhua city of Zhejiang Province has been arrested for raping two underage girls, the Procuratorial Daily reported today. It is reported that Japan and the United States have already reached an agreement that officials from Japan self-defense force will be stationed permanently in Pentagon around 2013, so as to respond promptly to emergencies in Asia Pacific. Is the security situation in the region spinning out of control? The shift of the U.S. military focus back to Asia Pacific and Japan's increasingly active role in building a new security landscape in East Asia easily remind people of a Chinese proverb " The disturbed create trouble for themselves when peace reigns in the world." In order to contain China and to a lesser extent Russia as well as act as a so-called offshore balancer, certain U.S. politicians have been deliberately supporting Japan, and even pulled the chestnuts out of the fire for Japan in the Diaoyu Islands dispute and other issues. Their intentional burial of the Yalta system may destroy the legal foundation of the existing power system in East Asia, and turn many resolved historical problems into new disputes, which will damage the interests of China, Russia, and also the United States itself. Secondly, the United States has diplomatic ambitions beyond its capacity, and may suffer another major setback. Even in its heyday, the United States failed in all major military operations in the Asia-Pacific region such as the Korean War and Vietnam War. The main reason is that the United States lost moral support and failed to understand the changing balance of power in the region. well there you have it…// Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday called on officials to "unswervingly" carry forward the reform and opening-up and "confidently" overcome all difficulties and risks on the road ahead. Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday called on officials to "unswervingly" carry forward the reform and opening-up and "confidently" overcome all difficulties and risks on the road ahead. 意见里面明确表示，为鼓励扩大内需、拉动南京房地产消费，对住房公积金缴存者首次购房家庭给予公积金贷款支持。 Conflicting messages on macroeconomic targets and property control measures are adding to the government's challenge of stimulating economic growth in the second half of this year, a top think tank has warned. The National Academy of Economic Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in a report released on Monday, that the government should maintain its tighter property credit policy, but improve its current property policies in an effort to reverse the recent rising price trend, and prevent a "retaliatory rebound". 7月21日以来，北京暴雨洪涝灾害已致37人死亡，7人失踪。 Most scenic spots in Beijing got through the storm on Saturday unscathed, but rain continued to lash neighboring Hebei province, killing at least 17 people by Monday. Meanwhile, the highway linking Beijing, Hong Kong and Macao remains blocked Thorough examinations of underpasses will be conducted, and upgrading plans will be made for every one of them to improve drainage, Pan said. He did not reveal schedule of the upgrading program. According to a report released by the Beijing Drainage Group in early July, all 78 existing underpasses will be reconstructed by the end of 2015. More powerful pumps will be installed if water fails to drain from the underpasses when rainfall reaches 50 mm. Adjustable reservoirs will also be built for some underpasses, which will prevent flooding even if the rainfall reaches 70 mm. Many skyscrapers have been erected and densely-populated communities built in recent years thanks to a buoyant property market. However, the drainage systems have not been upgraded accordingly and remain at a low standard, experts say. Beijing's drainage system is able to withstand precipitation of 36 to 56 mm per hour. However, the city received 163.7 mm of precipitation on average as of 10 p.m. Saturday, the largest since weather records began in 1952. It is high time for the government to work on the improvement of the drainage system so that such kind of tragedy will not happen again. Private-equity investors in China are facing tougher times. The slump in share offerings has made it difficult for them to sell their holdings, often in unlisted companies, via the stock market. Selling stakes to other companies, an exit strategy commonly used in the West, hasn't provided much relief. Private-equity firms operating in China received $2.1 billion in the first half of this year from the sale of investments, less than half the amount in the same period last year, according to the Hong Kong-based Center for Asia Private Equity Research. Meetings of the China-Africa Forum are usually the last place you would expect to find controversy, but South Africa's Jacob Zuma didn't get that memo, evidently. Zuma raised serious warnings about China's presence in Africa at last Thursday's meeting: 当天的会议还选举张耕、张军、冯文海为三沙市副市长，选举罗毅刚为三沙市人民法院院长、陈亚春为三沙市人民检察院院长。 China's State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said it started a level-II emergency response to flooding, the second-most severe of five warning levels, to prepare for surging water flows down the Yangtze river and nationwide floods, Xinhua News Agency reported. what could go wrong?// Baidu Inc. (BIDU), owner of China's most- used search-engine, said second-quarter profit rose 70 percent, beating analysts' estimates, as the company increased advertising sales to new customers. The challenge, however, comes when public goods are shown to be inadequate. Slowing economic growth, as now seems to be happening, is most often discussed in this regard: slow growth could increase unemployment, causing more people to question the efficacy of authoritarianism and call for some sort of political change. There have yet to be any significant system-challenging political movements in the PRC, but the political elite seems nervous about the growing pressure for some sort of transformation. This is where the rain and floods come in. The failure of Beijing's drainage infrastructure, a public good, raises questions about the overall efficacy of the regime. If it cannot deliver the goods at this level, then questions arise regarding broader ineffectiveness and corruption. In the context of a one-party authoritarian system such pressures are exacerbated because the regime is the only plausible responsible party. It claims authority for economic success and thus has to accept blame for public goods failure, even in very specific circumstances like the Beijing drainage system. Beijing Municipal Committee Department of Propaganda: For public opinion guidance (舆论引导) concerning yesterday's rainstorms, all media outlets, including central news organizations, must emphasize the power of human compassion over the elements. Netizens have reached out a digital hand to those left stranded by Beijing's torrential rains. There are over 7.4 million posts on Weibo on the subject (北京 + 暴雨), many of them calls for help—and answers. From a CDT Chinese screenshot: Comac has confirmed that the first delivery of its ARJ21 regional jet has been pushed back by around two years to end-2013, a development that could have a knock-on impact on the C919 narrowbody programme. the american high school student trending on sina weibo for his singing. clay garner an american high school student now a weibo star for a chinese song he sings in fangshan, hit hard in the beijing floods// Fundamentally, the chaos at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) appears to be an outcome manipulated by a China that has decided that a weak and divided ASEAN is in its national interests. Understanding that fact, and the fact that ASEAN has the capacity and commitment to overcome China's shortsighted campaign to break its ranks, is a necessary condition for advising the policies of countries that want to advance regional structures that will promote peace, security, and prosperity in the Asia Pacific. increase in indebted pearl river delta factory owners running away// nice infographics on growth of trust industry in china. consider it bear porn Some reports from the region suggest that China is orchestrating a diplomatic and economic counteroffensive. The calculation seems to be that the United States, distracted by an election campaign, worried about Syria and other Middle Eastern problems, and facing the "fiscal cliff" along with defense budget cuts will be unable to make an effective response. Taiwan is considering purchasing tanks used by the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan to update its aging fleet, the defense ministry and media said July 23. Taiwan remains wary of China despite a recent improvement in relations, and military experts say the self-ruled island would deploy tanks in the event of a land invasion by its powerful neighbor. With U.S. companies reporting earnings in dollars, in past years the value of China profits has been juiced by a rising yuan. From June 2005, when China allowed its currency to edge upward, to the end of 2011, the yuan rose 31% against the dollar. In 2011, a 4.7% gain provided a small but significant bump to earnings. Now, in 2012, that story has come to an end. Philippines President Benigno Aquino said Monday that the country is moving to expand its military capabilities but was quick to point out that the Southeast Asian nation isn't preparing for a fight over disputed territory in the South China Sea. nderscoring Cnooc Ltd.'s massive $15.1 billion deal for Canada's Nexen Inc. is an uncomfortable fact for Beijing's policy makers: China's economy remains intensely energy hungry. While the rhetoric in Canada against Chinese acquisitions has been less raucous than in the U.S., regulators there have not shied away from rattling their sabers in the face of aggressive foreign investment in strategically important sectors. BHP Billiton's $39 billion offer for fertilizer company Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan in 2010 was, for example, struck down by the government. Cnooc's $2 billion purchase of Alberta oil sands developer OPTI Canada Inc. in July 2011 was seen as a landmark deal, though the deal was a unique since OPTI had filed for bankruptcy and urgently in need of a wealthy suitor. Canada's Talisman Energy Inc. agreed to sell a 49% stake in its U.K. North Sea business to China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, for $1.5 billion. Nexen Inc. has agreed to a $15.1-billion (U.S.) takeover by Chinese oil producer CNOOC Ltd., marking the most important acquisition to date by an Asian firm in Canada. China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television — the country's popular culture watchdog — has made July the "month of protecting domestic films," arranging for Chinese movies to screen in July and Hollywood blockbusters like the new Batman title to screen in August, reports the Nanjing-based Yangtse Evening Post. Lin nevertheless emphasized that Chinese scholars have a responsibility to develop their own economic theories. Otherwise, they will not have their own vision and will thus have no choice but to follow western thinkers. Weibo "was extremly imporant. Many Internet users used it to help other people, to go to the airport to pick people up. They used their own cars to take people home, and some bar owners let people sleep in their bars, providing food and beverages to them. None of this would have been possible without Weibo. It has really moved us," she said. 【多维新闻】北京遭受61年最强降雨，已造成37人死亡。其中因爆粗口辱骂记者引起舆论哗然的北京大学教授孔庆东、存有争议的《环球时报》总编胡锡进、"约架事件"主角吴丹红、以"反特异功能"和力挺薄熙来、王立军著称的司马南四人不约而同对暴雨叫好、"喜迎"，被网民戏谑为"微博四大恶人"。 Below, a photo I recently took in a warehouse roughly 80 km from an inland Chinese city with a population around 8 million people. If it's not clear in the image, those are televisions. Tens of thousands of scrapped, no-longer-wanted televisions. No related posts. |
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