Links » Cream » China Frets Over Coming Pork Shortage

---

• China Frets Over Coming Pork Shortage
• U.S. Looking into China’s Business With Iran
• City Party Chief Fled with Money
• Scholars Fight Back Against Roman Invasion
• Yahoo! Dissident Wang Xiaoning to be Released
• In Provincial Capital, Display of Police Force (Update)
• Dalai Lama: “Encouraging Signs” in China (Updated)
• New Series: From the Censorship Vault
• The Daily Twit – 8/30/12: RMB, Infrastructure & Labor Problems. Oh My.

China Frets Over Coming Pork Shortage Posted: 30 Aug 2012 11:36 PM PDT As high costs for animal feed reduce profits and lead to declining pig herds, China is stockpiling frozen pork to control a feared round of soaring food prices next year. From Naveen Thukral at Reuters: Faced with sluggish domestic demand and the record cost of fattening animals — the result of a steep rise in the prices of corn and soybeans as drought grips the top exporter, the United States — Chinese hog producers are being forced to sell their herds. China's food price cycle is driven in large part by pork, the country's staple meat. And while it is in abundance now, in about six months, meat stocks are expected to fall as a result of the sell-off, resulting in a surge in prices. Any increase in food price is expected to push up inflation, which now sits at a comfortable level, having cooled from last year. But inflation is still one of China's biggest economic concerns given the possibility that rising prices might lead to social unrest. Xinhua reported on Tuesday that prices for a number of foodstuffs had risen for a sixth consecutive week, but pork remains relatively cheap, increasing the risk of sudden, steep rises next year. The wholesale prices of 18 types of vegetables monitored by the ministry increased 1.2 percent from one week earlier, with the prices of eggplants, cabbages and celery rising 7.5 percent, 7.1 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively, according to a statement posted on the ministry's website on Tuesday. The retail price of eggs continued to climb, up 3 percent week on week but still down 2.8 percent from the same period last year. The wholesale price of pork, a staple meat in the country, rose 0.8 percent from the previous week but was still 22.7 percent lower compared with the same period last year, according to the statement. Read more about China's food prices and inflation via CDT. © Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: CPI, food prices, inflation, pork price Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

U.S. Looking into China’s Business With Iran Posted: 30 Aug 2012 09:07 PM PDT Following its investigations of HSBC and Standard Chartered in recent weeks, U.S. prosecutors now say they have discovered evidence that Chinese banks may have played a role in transferring money to Iran. From The New York Times: Information on how Chinese banks may have routed money on behalf of Iranian banks and corporations is more valuable than any monetary settlement the authorities could win from the global banks, law enforcement officials with knowledge of the cases said, because the United States could use the information to strengthen its efforts to choke off economic dealings with Iran. The United States has been ratcheting up its sanctions as Iran's nuclear ambitions raise the risk of military action from Israel and shocks to the global economy. The investigations of two London-based banks, HSBC and Standard Chartered, could prove especially fruitful, said the law enforcement officials, who declined to be identified because the cases are continuing. As part of their broader investigations, prosecutors are examining whether any money transfers originated from Chinese banks and moved through the British banks before being routed through their American branches. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: HSBC, Iran, money laundering, Sino-U.S. Relations, Standard Chartered Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

City Party Chief Fled with Money Posted: 30 Aug 2012 07:17 PM PDT Wang Guoqiang, former party chief of a city in northeast China's Liaoning province, has fled to the United States with his family members and, reportedly, with millions of dollars too. From BBC: Local officials said Mr Wang, who was being investigated for corruption, had been removed from his post, it [the People's Daily] said. Several reports cited 200m yuan ($31.5m; £20m) as the amount taken. A report released by China's central bank last year said more than $120bn (£74bn) had been stolen by corrupt officials who fled overseas, mainly to the US. © Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: corruption, embezzlement, Liaoning, local corruption, United States Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Scholars Fight Back Against Roman Invasion Posted: 30 Aug 2012 04:58 PM PDT More than 100 scholars have protested the inclusion of 239 English words and abbreviations including NBA and PM2.5 in the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary. From Global Times: In the letter, experts point out that including such terms breaches the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language and the Regulation on the Administration of Publication. The collection of terms using Latin or Greek letters in the dictionary violates the law, which stipulates that publications in Chinese should conform to generally-followed criteria and standards of the language. "Listing those terms and replacing Chinese characters with letters in such a dictionary, which is supposed to be an exemplary linguistic standard, deals the most severe damage to the Chinese language in a century," Li Minsheng, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Monday. 'NBA' was also among the English abbreviations proscribed by a 2010 directive from "a relevant Chinese government department" to national and local broadcasters. The ban apparently did not apply to the logo of state broadcaster CCTV. Xinhua's report on the petition points out that Chinese has already adopted many terms from Japanese, including 'dang' (political party), 'jieji' (social class) and 'douzheng' (struggle). But the scholars' complaint is less about foreign loans than the preservation of Chinese script, the defining expression of the Chinese culture. From Xinhua: Fu Zhenguo, a senior journalist with the state-run People's Daily and one of the organizers of the petition, said that if the Chinese people ignore the inclusion of words like "NBA" and "GDP" in their language and do nothing to exclude them from the dictionary, the language they use will end up as a bizarre mixture of Chinese and English. […] "If they keep growing, we could have over 10,000 English entries in 100 years," said Fu, who has instead proposed translating English words into their Chinese equivalents before including them in the dictionary. "When the English language absorbed the Chinese vocabulary, it used pinyin, the phonetic system that romanizes Chinese characters, instead of the Chinese characters themselves," he said. "So why do we take in these English acronyms and words without translating them into Chinese characters?" he asked. The protesters' vehemence echoes 20th century discussions of writing reform, in which a comprehensive shift to alphabetic script was proposed on grounds of efficiency and modernity. That argument is long dead, but those fighting to keep the Roman alphabet out of Chinese face an uphill battle. One major beachhead is technology and the Internet, where alien letters spill over from URLs and pinyin character entry into online slang and culture (from Ministry of Tofu, via Eveline Chao). From Didi Kirsten Tatlow at The New York Times: William C. Hannas, a linguist and author who speaks or writes 10 languages including Chinese, says the debate on going to an alphabetized writing system, which flourished into the 1950s, is over. "There is no debate in China — or anywhere today — on writing reform," he wrote in an e-mail. "We resent being asked to give up a tradition, or hearing from an outsider especially, that a piece of our identity is flawed." Nevertheless, something along those lines is happening unofficially, he says. Especially online, Chinese are experimenting with the Roman alphabet: government, "zhengfu" in pinyin, is often shortened to "ZF." An interpersonal competition is a "PK" (taken from video game terminology). To digitally alter images with a program like Photoshop is to "PS." To make love is to "ML." "Digraphia — the coexistence of character and alphabetic writing — is happening in China not by policy from the top down, but by default from the bottom up," Mr. Hannas wrote. See more on changing language and the eternal treadmill of dictionary updates via CDT, as well as our Grass Mud Horse Lexicon and Word of the Week series. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Chinese characters, Chinese language, English, GDP, NBA, online culture, PM2.5 Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Yahoo! Dissident Wang Xiaoning to be Released Posted: 30 Aug 2012 03:41 PM PDT Wang Xiaoning is to be released from prison on Friday following a ten-year sentence for "inciting subversion of state power" in a series of online essays. Wang was one of around 60 people prosecuted on the basis of information handed to Chinese authorities by Yahoo. From the Associated Press: Wang Xiaoning's wife Yu Ling said in a phone interview that the Beijing No. 2 Prison told her of his release Friday morning and that she should meet him at the prison gate. […] Rights groups said that passages from writings cited at his trial in 2003 included: "Without a multiparty system, free elections and separation of powers, any political reform is fraudulent." Others called China an "authoritarian dictatorship," and complained of continuing widespread corruption, poverty and workers exploitation. A lawsuit Wang and others filed in the United States showed that Yahoo's wholly owned subsidiary based in Hong Kong gave police information linking Wang to his anonymous e-mails and other political writings he posted online. Yahoo could not immediately be reached for comment. Yu told AFP that Wang's political rights will be suspended for another two years, and that he has been mistreated in prison but remains in reasonable health. Yahoo was also involved in the prosecution of journalist Shi Tao, who is still serving a ten-year sentence passed in 2005 for leaking state secrets. Wang and others later sued the US company, which settled in 2007 for an undisclosed amount. Yahoo founder and then-CEO Jerry Yang later urged the Bush administration to demand Wang and Shi's release. These cases illustrate the legal entanglements that come with a physical business presence in China. Google avoided storing sensitive user information on Chinese servers in order to avoid any similar predicament, but was still forced to filter search results and eventually left the Chinese mainland. Twitter alarmed users in January with an announcement that the service would selectively block posts in accordance with local laws, a move widely suspected of being a concession to allow entry to the Chinese market. CEO Dick Costolo quickly clarified, however, that "I don't think the current environment in China is one in which we can operate". See also a 2007 Wired article on Wang's case (via Isolda Morillo), and more on Wang and Yahoo via CDT. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: freedom of expression, Google, Internet companies, Jerry Yang, Shi Tao, Twitter, Wang Xiaoning, Yahoo Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

In Provincial Capital, Display of Police Force (Update) Posted: 30 Aug 2012 02:43 PM PDT An special police officer in Taiyuan. Update: Additional photos added at end of article. Mainland media outlet Hexun reports a display of police might in Taiyuan, Shanxi in preparation for this October's leadership transition: On the evening of August 22, 2012, the Taiyuan Municipal Police Department in Shanxi Province launched a "provincial capital public security and public incident prevention and control combined patrol demonstration" at the Taiyuan Coal Business Center. The combined patrol officially started at 8 p.m. Taiyuan's armed police, patrol police, special police, traffic police and all other divisions and units formed an all-weather, all-terrain 103-unit strong "golden shield" patrol squad. This high-density force has been set up to patrol public incident prevention and control activities and police checkpoints, as well to as aid the masses. It will maintain public order in Taiyuan during the Chinese Communist Party's 18th session of the National People's Congress. 2012年8月22日晚，山西省太原市公安局"省城治安防控联合巡逻启动仪式"在太原煤炭交易中心举行。 此次联合巡逻从8月22日晚20时正式开始，太原市的武警、巡警、特警、交警、各公安分局和派出所共同组成103支"金盾"巡逻分队，开展全天候、全方位、高密度的联勤联动、巡逻防控、设卡盘查和救助群众，保障党的"十八大"期间的太原社会治安稳定。 During the National People's Congress, new leaders will ascend to the Politburo Standing Committee, the presidency and premiership. Xi Jinping is expected to take over from Hu Jintao as president and general secretary of the Communist Party. A reduction in the number of Standing Committee members from nine to seven is also anticipated. Authorities are particularly wary of unrest during the Congress in the wake of the Bo Xilai scandal. Some of the images from this demonstration bear eery resemblance to Tiananmen. From Xinhua News Agency: Read more about the upcoming leadership transition from CDT. Translation by Harriet Xu. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Armed Police, CCP, Hexun, Hu Jintao, leadership transition, National People's Congress, NPC, police, Politburo Standing Committee, public security, Shanxi, stability maintenance, Taiyuan, Xi Jinping, Xinhua Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Dalai Lama: “Encouraging Signs” in China (Updated) Posted: 30 Aug 2012 02:26 PM PDT Amid a stream of mostly bad news out of Tibet, including more than 50 self-immolations by protesting Tibetans, the Dalai Lama has now offered a ray of hope for Tibetans seeking more autonomy in their homeland. From Reuters: "I can't say for definite, but according to many Chinese friends, they say the new, coming leadership seems more lenient," the Dalai Lama, 77, told Reuters in his audience room in the Indian Himalayan foothills town of Dharamsala. "If their side … for their own interest are thinking more realistically we are ready for full cooperation with them." His comments were more upbeat than just a few weeks ago when he declared that resuming formal negotiations – frozen since 2010 – was futile unless China brought a more realistic attitude to the table and that it was useless trying to convince China that he was not seeking full independence for Tibet. The Nobel peace laureate said there had been a stream of visitors to Dharamsala from China, among them people who told him they had connections with senior Communist Party leaders. UPDATE: While the feelings of presumed incoming premier Xi Jinping toward Tibet are not known, some observers have looked to the policies and personal life of his father, former Vice Premier Xi Zhongxun, for clues. From Reuters: [Xi Jinping's] late father, Xi Zhongxun, a liberal-minded former vice premier, had a close bond with the Tibetan leader who once gave the elder Xi an expensive watch in the 1950s, a gift that the senior party official was still wearing decades later. The Dalai Lama, 77, recalls the elder Xi as "very friendly, comparatively more open-minded, very nice" and says he only gave watches back then to those Chinese officials he felt close to. "We Tibetans, we get these different varieties of watch easily from India. So we take advantage of that, and brought some watches to some people when we feel some sort of close feeling, as a gift like that," the Dalai Lama said in an interview in Dharamsala, a capital for Tibetan exiles in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Dalai Lama gave the watch to the elder Xi in 1954 during an extended visit to Beijing. Xi was one of the officials who spent time with the young Dalai Lama in the capital where he spent five to six months studying Chinese and Marxism. Read more about the the Dalai Lama and the dialogue process between Beijing and the Tibetan government-in-exile, via CDT. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Dalai Lama, Tibet Dialogue, tibet politics Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

New Series: From the Censorship Vault Posted: 30 Aug 2012 12:00 PM PDT Editor's Note: From the Censorship Vault features previously untranslated censorship instructions from the archives of the CDT series Directives from the Ministry of Truth (真理部指令). These instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation. Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source. The series opens with the very first "directive" posted on CDT Chinese: Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China: All information concerning the Yuanhua case in Fujian must come from the Central News Office. Reporting must be unified. Do not produce "side stories" or distribute news through improper channels. Do not use this case as a soapbox for other matters. Do not spread news through unusual methods. Do not reprint news reporting from overseas or foreign media. (August 30, 2000) 中宣部：对福建省厦门远华案案情审理的报导，必须由中央新闻办审稿，作统一报导，不搞「小道」消息，及非正常渠道消息，不准搞借题发挥，不准以不正常手段取得消息外传，不准转载海外、外国传媒的有关报导。 Yuanhua Group, a foreign import business based in the Xiamen Special Economic Zone in Fujian Province, was once the darling of China's nascent capitalist economy. Founded by Lai Changxing in 1994, Yuanhua brought luxury cars, oil and cigarettes into the country. Lai also masterminded a smuggling ring that averted hundreds of billions of yuan in taxes. Lai eventually fled to Hong Kong, then Canada, where he remained from 1999 until April 2012. The Canadian government agreed to extradite him on the condition that he not receive the death penalty if found guilty. Lai is currently serving a life sentence. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: censorship, Censorship Vault, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Fujian, lai changxing, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, xiamen, Yuanhua, Yuanhua case Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The Daily Twit – 8/30/12: RMB, Infrastructure & Labor Problems. Oh My. Posted: 30 Aug 2012 06:32 AM PDT Today's news managed to be both boring and negative, which is probably unsurprising given that it is the end of the summer and absolutely nothing is going on. Here in Beijing, the weather is hot, the air unbreathable, and everyone is just hanging around and killing time. But The Daily Twit must go on: Reuters: Yuan now China's problem too — The RMB is no longer a guaranteed bet, and some have pointed to recent capital outflows as a sign of things to come. Bloomberg: China's Bridges Are Falling Down — Corruption, mismanagement and a whole lot of infrastructure failures. We're going to be living with these mistakes for a long time. Wall Street Journal: Chinese Firms Warm to Private Equity — Sounds like good news, but the reason many companies are turning to private funds is that institutional financing for private firms is very difficult to obtain. FT: China-bashing and the GOP — Gideon Rachman looks at the China-related pledges made by Mitt Romney. Depressing and amusing at the same time. Global Times: Govt defends college policy favoring boys — Gender discrimination in China? Not exactly breaking news, but I did find the Ministry of Education's defense of this policy ridiculous. I responded with this:  "Acceptable" Gender Discrimination in Chinese Universities. China Economic Review: The human factor — A worsening job situation in China. Forbes: Chinese Auto Factory Bows To Striking Workers' Demands — Not exactly a "bad news" story, but coupled with the above article on problems with the labor sector, we might start seeing a lot more of this. OK, not everything out there in the press today was a bummer: Stephen Roach: China is Okay — Another high-profile pushback against the "hard landing" crowd. China Daily: Environmental assessments go online — A large number of environmental protests have occurred in the last few years, and this is a move towards more transparency and dialogue. The big questions are what information will be posted, will it be accurate, and what will happen if folks are concerned about a project? East Asia Forum: Upgrading China's economy through outward investment — some of the strategic aspects of Chinese ODI. Reuters: China considers downgrading domestic security tsar in next line-up — The speculation about security honcho Zhou Yongkang and what will happen to his position later this year may be starting to get clearer. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags:

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