Links » Cream » One School’s Stability Maintenance Instructions

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• One School’s Stability Maintenance Instructions
• Chinese Couples Seek American Surrogate Mothers
• One Year Later, Wukan Faces Same Challenges
• Photo: Street in Baiyang town, Baoshan, Shanghai, by Remko Tanis
• The Rich List, “Brother Watch” and the Gini Coefficient in China
• Foxconn Plant Open, But Broader Issues Persist
• Does Mitt Romney Know the Difference Between Currency Manipulation and IP Infringement?
• No Passport, No U.S. Visit For Ai Weiwei
• Photographs Capture a Disappearing China
• 20 Die in Coal Mine Plunge
• Let Them Eat Pop-Tarts!
• The Daily Twit – 9/25/12: Giraffes on Frickin’ Aircraft Carriers
• Taobao Links Up With Another U.S. IP Advocacy Group

One School’s Stability Maintenance Instructions Posted: 26 Sep 2012 12:01 AM PDT The following document from an unnamed university (apparently located in Shaanxi Province) is available, uncensored, within the Great Firewall on Baidu Wenku: Comrades: Just now, Comrade Bailong led a study of the Notice of Maintaining Stability in Universities with Regards to Japan from the provincial committee of education, and Comrade Xiaoqing led a study of the Outline of Publicity regarding the Diaoyu Island disputes from the provincial committee of education. We must follow the spirit of these instructions from above; do our utmost and take the greatest care to practically execute ideological and political work among students and faculty; guide young students to express patriotism rationally; direct their energy towards study and work; and insure the stability of our school. I therefore provide the following instructions on stability maintenance with regards to Japan in our school: 1. University Office of Stability Maintenance Take full charge of stability maintenance tasks with regards to Japan. Immediately start to work in accordance with the emergency plan and be prepared to handle complex situations. Adopt emergency measures. Make conscientious preparations for all types of response and be organized for possible critical conditions. We must quickly discover, diffuse and settle large-scale demonstrations and activities which seriously violate social order in which students are involved. Be prepared to take command at the first sight of an incident and act decisively in order to maintain control of the situation. Arrange staff on duty around the clock. Promptly report emergency and other relevant information to the provincial committee of education. Phone number: 029—88668814 88668815 (fax). 2. Department of Propaganda and United Front Work Successfully execute Japan-related stability maintenance measures handed down from above and transmit the documents you have studied. Explain and publicize the Outline of Publicity regarding to Diaoyu Island disputes to the whole campus. Closely monitor changes in public opinion; promptly determine the tendency of student and faculty sentiment with regards to Japan; track and apprehend the trend of their ideology. Reinforce legal publicity. Educate the masses not to believe or spread rumors and not to attend demonstrations that have yet not been approved. 3. Office of Security Enhance campus security with frequent patrols. Work with student management departments and student organizations at the departmental level to limit Japan-related protests on campus. At the same time, prevent outsiders from entering the campus to make contacts or incite activity. 4. Office of Student Affairs (Youth League Committee) Convene meetings with counselors to successfully complete student ideological work. Take full advantage of the Youth League and student cadres to guide students and faculty to express their patriotic fervor rationally, lawfully and calmly. Closely monitor the trend of thoughts among students. Coordinate with the Office of Stability Maintenance to deal with relevant incidents. 5. Office of Education and Research Launch positive online guidance and strengthen inspection of the campus network. Closely control contents online and in text messages which have a tendency to incite students to organize Japan-related demonstrations and large-scale gatherings. Promptly block and delete contents on campus networks which attack the Party and the government, incite or plan mass demonstrations or exhibit radical or violent behavior. Report these contents to the Office of Stability Maintenance immediately. 6. Schools and Departments Within the University Convene meetings with class advisers to successfully complete student ideological work at the departmental level. Explain and publicize the Outline of Publicity regarding to Diaoyu Island disputes. Work in classrooms and dormitories to ensure student and faculty emotions are stable. Precisely apprehend the ideological trends among students and faculty. Should an unusual situation arise, deal with it promptly and report it to the Office of Stability Maintenance at the institute in which it occurred. Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Mengyu Dong. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: anti-japan protests 2012, diaoyu islands, Japan, stability maintenance Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Chinese Couples Seek American Surrogate Mothers Posted: 25 Sep 2012 11:50 PM PDT Stories of Chinese mothers travelling to the U.S. to give birth have become familiar. Global Times' Xuyang Jingjing, though, describes a growing trend of Chinese couples seeking American surrogate mothers. The babies' U.S. citizenship is a welcome side effect, but not the primary objective. Instead, prospective parents turn to America because of its higher success rate and "more developed and open" system for surrogacy. Large demand and a fuzzy legal status have created an underground surrogacy business [in China]. Dodgy adverts can be found across the Web luring surrogate mothers with high pay, usually hundreds of thousands of yuan. There are also many agencies boasting a high success rate in helping desperate couples find surrogate mothers and clinics. […] West Coast Surrogacy, in California, has worked with about 40 Chinese clients, with 70 percent of their clients now coming from China. Lee Truong, in charge of international relations at Surrogate Alternatives, founded in 1998 in San Diego, says they have seen a significant increase in Chinese clients in the last 18 months. "This year, about a third of our clients are from China, and of the babies already born and those still due in 2012, more than 30 percent are children of Chinese parents," Truong told the Global Times in an e-mail. Demand from Chinese couples has driven up prices for eggs from Chinese-American donors, according to a February report by The Los Angeles Times' Shan Li: A Caucasian woman normally gets about $5,000 to $8,000 for 10 to 14 eggs, Steinberg said, with the money technically being paid for the energy, time and pain associated with the "donation." An ethnic Chinese woman can command $15,000 and up for her eggs, according to Steinberg and other surrogacy specialists. "It's supply and demand," Steinberg said. "Chinese are the premiums." Commercial surrogacy in China has suffered varying fortunes since a 2001 ban on hospitals' involvement cast it into a legal grey area. See ''Womb Brokers' Rise to Meet Demand' from 2008 and 'Forced Abortions Shake up China Wombs-for-Rent Industry' from the following year on CDT. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: citizenship, fertility clinics, forced abortion, forced abortions, Global Times, India, infertility, parenthood, surrogate mother, United States Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

One Year Later, Wukan Faces Same Challenges Posted: 25 Sep 2012 11:14 PM PDT After a minor protest in Wukan last Friday at the lack of progress made by the village's democratically elected leaders since last year's land grab demonstrations, The Wall Street Journal's Josh Chin questions whether Wukan still has value as a blueprint for political reform in China: Defenders of the Wukan experiment have explained the anniversary protests as the product of impatience – or what the Atlantic's Brian Fung called an "expectations gap." Having fought so hard and won, the argument goes, some villagers are holding their new leaders to unrealistic standards. After all, the new government has been in power for only six months. Hong Kong University legal scholar Fu Hualing thinks the problem runs deeper. Mr. Fu, one of a handful of scholars and activists who gathered in Hong Kong earlier this year in an effort to evaluate what had happened in Wukan, says he thinks the frustrations evident in the village last week highlighted the limited impact of bottom-up democracy in A political system like China's. "You have an election within the village, but the problem is not within the village itself. It's how the local government handles issues affecting the village," he says. In the case of Wukan, real power to decide land issues continues to reside with government officials at the county level and higher, he says. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: democracy, Guangdong, land grabs, village elections, Wukan Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Photo: Street in Baiyang town, Baoshan, Shanghai, by Remko Tanis Posted: 25 Sep 2012 10:26 PM PDT Street in Baiyang town, Baoshan, Shanghai © 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

The Rich List, “Brother Watch” and the Gini Coefficient in China Posted: 25 Sep 2012 10:21 PM PDT Hurun has released its annual list of China's richest individuals. Topping the list for the second time in three years is Zong Qinghou, founder and chairman of beverage giant Wahaha Group, who owns a fortune worth $12.6 billion. Time Magazine looks at the statistics behind the list: The average wealth of China's richest 1,000 stands at $860 million, down 9 percent from last year but still up 96 percent since the start of the financial crisis in 2008. Their average age is 54, most live in the capital Beijing (12 percent), are born in years of the rabbit (13 percent), and by an increasing margin are male (87 percent). Almost half have made their fortune in either manufacturing or real estate, or both. The country has 2.7 million millionaires when measured in U.S. dollars, according to Hurun. But even with a boom of wealth entering China, the country's richest are still dwarfed by their U.S. counterparts. China's richest man would rank 25th on the Forbes List of America's Richest. The combined fortunes of America's richest three — Microsoft founder Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison — equal the wealth of China's richest thirty, the Beijing-based New Capital Daily calculated. You'll need $3.9 billion to make it into Forbes' list of the richest one hundred Americans. For the same list in China, just $1.8 billion would suffice. A report from the Wall Street Journal says that the decline in overall wealth is due to a slowdown in the property market, where many on the list made their fortunes: While elsewhere in the world, being named on such a list might be cause for celebration, many in China prefer to keep a lower profile. With a widening wealth gap and corruption becoming major concerns of the Chinese people, China's wealthy elite often prefer not to draw attention to themselves or the sources of their income. According to a new study, they have good reason to worry. From the Financial Times Beyond BRICS Blog: Hurun-listed entrepreneurs are more likely to be arrested than their unlisted rivals – and, whether or not they are taken away for questioning, the mere fear that they might be can hit their share prices. Moral for investors – sell the listed, buy the unlisted. Shanghai-based authors Xianjie He, Oliver Rui, and Tusheng Xiao present their findings in a 38-page paper called The price of being a billionaire in China: evidence based on Hurun rich list*. The conclusion is clear: We find that when the Rich List is announced, investors react negatively to the companies controlled by the listed entrepreneurs and their market values drop significantly in the following three years and the government is reluctant to assist listed entrepreneurs and their companies, and even monitors them more closely. Furthermore, listed entrepreneurs are far more likely to be investigated, arrested and charged than other entrepreneurs. In addition, they tend to conceal profits through negative earnings management to avoid public attention. Chinese citizens are growing increasingly frustrated with blatant displays of wealth and power by even low-level local officials. After a local official in Shaanxi was shown wearing numerous luxury watches, which he wouldn't be able to afford on his salary, he became the target of netizen outrage. He was subsequently removed from his position. Responding to such public outrage, the government has launched a crackdown on corruption and conspicuous consumption. Some observers say that this has led to a slowdown in the overseas luxury market. But despite these efforts, the wealth gap is growing and so is the anger of those on the losing side. From Business Week: China's Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, may hover around 0.5, Li Shi, who helped draft a government plan on income distribution, said in an interview last week. The government hasn't published a countrywide Gini figure since 2000. The index (SHCOMP) ranges from 0 to 1, readings at 0.4 or higher are used by analysts as a gauge of the potential for social disturbances. "The situation is very dangerous now, and it's a life-or- death battle for the new leaders to fight," said Li, 55, executive dean of Beijing Normal University's China Institute of Income Distribution, who compiled his own Gini survey in 2007. "Many reforms have been delayed in past years, but I don't think China has the luxury to delay any more." Read about the "rich list" from previous years via CDT, and more about the wealth gap in Chinese society on our special Great Divide page. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: corruption, rich list, wealth, wealth gap Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Foxconn Plant Open, But Broader Issues Persist Posted: 25 Sep 2012 10:08 PM PDT Foxconn's Taiyuan plant reopened on Tuesday morning after closing due to a worker riot, and the company expects little impact to production as it gets back to the business of assembling electronics for the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Nintendo and Sony (Apple's iPhone is made in Foxconn factories elsewhere in China). But while Foxconn has denied that the Sunday evening melee was work-related, The New Yorker's Evan Osnos explores what it says about the broader labor situation in China: If Chinese factory workers are feeling frustrated with life, that is likely to get worse before it gets better, as the economy faces a volatile period captured in an August story in Southern Weekend headlined "The First Layoff in the Last Ten Years." The riot at Foxconn—or any of the other five hundred "mass incidents" that China records on an average day—has implications far beyond Apple. Labor activists say that they are happening more often this year than last. A little over a week ago, six thousand workers at a Flextronics Technology factory in Shanghai went on strike for severance pay. In June, it was a hundred workers in a mini-uproar at another Foxconn plant. They are no longer simply calling for better wages. "Many of the protests this year appear to be related to the country's economic slowdown, as employees demand the payment of overdue wages from financially struggling companies, or insist on compensation when money-losing factories in coastal provinces are closed and moved to lower-cost cities in the interior," as the Times put it. It was largely business as usual on Tuesday, writes The Financial Times' Kathrin Hille, but observers say that more issues will likely resurface despite Foxconn's attempts to improve conditions. Her interviews revealed many of the work-related frustrations of employees at the Taiyuan plant, from the obvious (unpaid wages to lack of overtime during the upcoming National Day holiday) to the less-than-obvious: Another staff member, who asked not to be named, says many felt inspired by the anti-Japanese protests across the country earlier this month. "It is so rare in China that you can demonstrate when you're unhappy about something. It felt like the right moment," he says. In an interview with Gawker, China labor scholar Eli Friedman spoke at length about evolving labor conditions in China, including the ongoing shift in geographic concentration by companies such as Foxconn: The major thing that Foxconn has done, which is to some extent indicative of a broader trend, is a lot of capital relocation from these coastal areas, like Shanghai and Shenzhen, into the interior. They're doing that for that a number of reasons: the cost of labor and land are cheaper. In the interior the local governments are more excited about trying to attract investment—if you're in Sichuan Province on the west, you'd get more tax breaks; you get the government mobilized to try and find workers for you. So a lot of these factories are moving into the interior. Workers will now, to a greater extent, be living in the same place they work. Whereas now migrant workers come from interior and western provinces to the coast. And when they're in these big cities in the coastal areas they don't have access to public goods like education, health care, housing and subsidies. But if they're back in the interior, they might be more in their own community, and things might be a little bit more stable. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: anti-Japan demonstrations 2012, Apple, Foxconn, labor rights, labor unrest, mass incidents, riots, Shaanxi Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Does Mitt Romney Know the Difference Between Currency Manipulation and IP Infringement? Posted: 25 Sep 2012 09:58 PM PDT The old adage about beating a dead horse comes to mind at this point, but since the ad was just released yesterday, we might as well talk about it. I also feel compelled to comment since it deals, in part, with China intellectual property enforcement. Here's a link to the ad on YouTube. The point of the ad is to hit Obama on his China policy, essentially faulting the administration for being too "soft" on China. The relevant text is this: China is stealing American ideas and technology — everything from computers to fighter jets. Seven times Obama could have taken action. Seven times he has said no. His policies cost us 2 million jobs. Factcheck.org has taken a look at the ad and done a decent job pointing out its faults. The main problem here is that the ad mixes up two different issues. The "seven times" language is a reference to the U.S. Treasury Department's semi-annual report on currency manipulation. The Obama Administration has had seven opportunities, in issuing those reports, to label China a currency manipulator, and it has failed to do so, something that Romney says he would do if elected president. On the other hand, the "stealing American ideas and technology" language refers to intellectual property rights infringement. The statistics cited in the advertisement on job losses are numbers from the International Trade Commission's analysis of intellectual property infringement. Obviously the currency issue is completely different from IP, and Romney's conflation of the two is dishonest. It's the old George Will trick — just throw out a statistic from a reputable source to establish credibility, but then misuse the number. Most readers won't get past the credible source, assuming that the number means what you say it does. There are many problems with the ad, including a lot of nonsense related to the currency issue, and I've certainly talked about that before. A keyword search at China Hearsay for "currency," "RMB," "Treasury Department," or even "Chuck Schumer" will probably get you more than enough analysis on that topic. Moreover, I'm not going to even bother questioning that ITC report on IP infringement-related job numbers. I wasn't too thrilled when several Senators asked for the report and was skeptical as to its usefulness, but when it was issued, I did admit that having more economic data on IP was a positive. More relevant was my post back in June of last year, which was a response to an Op/Ed written by Tuck School professor Matthew Slaughter, who argued, based on the ITC report, that U.S. pressure on China to better enforce IP law could result in as much as 2.1 million new American jobs. For a variety of reasons, I found Slaughter's analysis to be wanting: One of [the ITC's] assumptions here was U.S. levels of IP enforcement, and as an assumption to an economic analysis, that's entirely acceptable. However, for Slaughter to run with that and assume that getting to that level is somehow a realistic goal, well, that's very poor policy advice. I'm not sure how China's intellectual property system, which is only a few decades old, is supposed to transform itself overnight in that fashion. As we say here on the South side of Beijing, he can dream about it (but it won't make it so). Slaughter also seems to suggest that protecting IP is something that has until now slipped the mind of the folks in charge[.] Let's forget for the moment that Romney is purposefully mixing up the currency and IP issues and assume that he is suggesting a more forceful stance on IP enforcement by Obama would have led to significant job creation. Even so, Romney's use of the ITC numbers runs into the same problems as Slaughter's argument. First, suggesting that China can somehow magically transform its IP enforcement system to be on par with the U.S. regime is ridiculous. If I had any reason to believe that the Romney campaign had enough of its shit together to even be making that point overtly, I'd say that they were woefully ignorant of the IP situation over here. In reality, it's more of an inference I'm making from the "logic" of the advertisement. Second, a much more overt suggestion in the ad is that Obama has been asleep at the switch when it comes to IP. As I've said many, many times over the years, IP has been, and will continue to be, among the top three U.S.-China issues. EVERY SINGLE TIME the U.S. and China sit down and talk about the bilateral relationship, IP plays a prominent role in that discussion and subsequent negotiations. Without even getting into actual disputes, WTO actions, and other ad hoc efforts, I can tell you that Romney's implication here is absolutely without merit. If you don't believe me, ask the folks at the Motion Picture Association, the Business Software Alliance, or Phrma if the U.S. government cares about IP. One last issue. In addition to conflating IP and currency valuation, the Romney ad also groups together traditional, private sector IP infringement with hacking and espionage. The ad states that China is stealing everything from "computers to fighter jets." This general statement may be true, but if you're then going to back it up by using those ITC job loss numbers, then we're once again in bullshit territory. This is not rocket science. If a Chinese company makes a widget based on patented technology owned by a U.S. company and then sells that product, then one can make the case that the U.S. company has suffered economic losses. However, if Beijing engages in espionage, stealing technology necessary to construct an advanced jet fighter, this is not a private sector loss but a national security issue. Whether China builds a fighter jet or not, it certainly won't be giving the contract to Lockheed Martin. (Real problems do exist with IP and components used in the defense industry, but that wasn't discussed in the ad.) From top to bottom, this latest China ad from the Gang that Can't Shoot Straight is extraordinarily weak. It conflates currency matters with IP, using statistics from one area to somehow justify a policy in another. Moreover, even if we give Romney the benefit of the doubt and assume that he actually is talking about IP-related job losses, we encounter more conflation, confusion and obfuscation. FUBAR © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Mitt Romney

No Passport, No U.S. Visit For Ai Weiwei Posted: 25 Sep 2012 08:16 PM PDT In a telephone interview, Ai Weiwei has told The New York Times that he would likely miss the opening of his exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, as well as several other scheduled appearances in the United States next month, because Chinese authorities still have not returned his passport: "They're still holding my passport," Mr. Ai said. "They said they want to give it to me but have no clear time schedule for that." Mr. Ai was detained for 81 days last year and put on probation for one year after his release. That probation ended June 21. Mr. Ai said at the time that police officers in Beijing had told him that he could not leave China, but that he would soon have his passport returned. "I think it's that the person who's responsible for my case didn't get a clear order from above," he said. "And maybe the people from above are busy with much more important issues." In a preview for an article which will appear in this week's Huffington iPad magazine, Gazelle Emami sat down with Ai Weiwei at his Beijing studio: Of everything discussed in an 80-minute interview at Ai Weiwei's studio on the outskirts of Beijing -– including his 81-day detention in April last year, the government's iron hold on his passport and the tax case that would never end–nothing roused the dissident artist so much as his fellow Chinese artists who stayed silent during his disappearance, while the Western art world cried, "Where is Ai Weiwei?" "Zhang Xiaogang, Yue Minjun, Zeng Fanzhi, Xu Bing, Liu Xiaodong," Ai lists off casually, as if he were taking attendance instead of denouncing China's power art players. See also Ai Weiwei's take on "contemporary Chinese art", as well as recent profiles of Ai and his former protege Zhao Zhao in Smithsonian Magazine and Spiegel, respectively, all via CDT. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Ai Weiwei, contemporary art, dissidents, United States Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Photographs Capture a Disappearing China Posted: 25 Sep 2012 10:33 AM PDT With rapid and profound economic and social changes underway in China, many aspects of day-to-day life are being transformed. Several artists have recently made efforts to document the current way of life for Chinese families as a way to preserve a lifestyle that may soon disappear. In Beijing, an exhibit of photographs by Huang Qingjun portray families outside their homes with all their worldly goods. Huang spent ten years traveling to remote areas of China to photograph the country's poorest residents, but also included members of the wealthy elite. Despite a wide disparity in the amount and worth of the possessions, almost all photographs include a television. From the BBC: Huang's project has taken him to 14 of China's 33 provinces, giving him an unusually broad perspective of how the country is changing. He is optimistic about the process, and where it will lead. "In lots of Chinese villages, the government has delivered roads and connected them with electricity. This has been a huge change. If you've a road, you can move about. If you've got electricity you can have TV, you get the news and ideas about what the outside world is thinking. "The biggest problems in rural areas now are how people can get better education for their children, and healthcare," he says. Many photos appear to capture something that is about to be lost. Families camp as if about to move on. They are framed by houses that have just been expensively renovated or are about to be pulled down. The preponderance of cooking utensils, the paucity of clothes and items of leisure suggest a lifestyle that is about to be upended. See also a previous CDT post on Huang's work. His exhibit brings to mind a show at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2009, in which Chinese artist Song Dong displayed the complete contents of his mother's home, amassed over 50 years. In a similar effort to document a disappearing lifestyle, journalist and photographer Howard French has published a book together with writer Qiu Xiaolong of photographs, essays and poems titled, Disappearing Shanghai: Photographs and Poems of an Intimate Way of Life. As Ian Johnson writes on the New York Review of Books blog: We get no clichéd pictures of a beggar in front of a Louis Vuitton mural, no workers looking uncomprehendingly at a Bentley pulling into a five-star whatever. Instead we are thrust deeply into ordinary people's lives, into their tiny living rooms with moldy walls and faded curtains. We see them living out on streets of cracked sidewalks and crumbling facades. We watch them sitting and waiting in poses of leisure. The transience and decay tells us that all this is vanishing. See more of French's photographs on his website. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Howard French, lifestyle, photographers, photography, poverty, quality of life, rural development, Shanghai Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

20 Die in Coal Mine Plunge Posted: 25 Sep 2012 08:52 AM PDT Twenty workers were killed in China's latest mining accident in Gansu. This comes just after another one of the deadliest coal mine blasts in nearly three years. AP reports: A steel cable broke as it was pulling two carriages at a coal mine in northwest China on Tuesday, killing 20 workers in the country's latest mining accident. The state-run China News Service said 34 miners were riding in the carriages when the cable broke, overturning the carriages in the mine in Baiyin city in Gansu province. It said 14 miners were rescued. Safety improvements have reduced deaths in recent years, but safety rules are often ignored and accidents are still common. According to AFP, officials who oversee the mine refused to comment. China's mines remain the deadliest in the world: Officials at the Baiyin city work safety administration, which oversees the Qusheng mine, refused to comment when contacted by AFP. But its mines are among the deadliest in the world because of lax regulation, corruption and inefficiency. Accidents are common because safety is often neglected by bosses seeking quick profits. According to the latest official figures, 1,973 people died in coal mining accidents in China in 2011, a 19 percent fall on the previous year. But labour rights groups say the actual death toll is likely to be much higher, partly due to under-reporting of accidents as mine bosses seek to limit their economic losses and avoid punishment. Aside from the accident in Gansu, China Daily reports a total of 22 miners trapped after three separate accidents: Eleven people were trapped after a fire at Longshan Coal Mine in Shuangyashan, Heilongjiang province, on Saturday morning. Residents reported the accident to authorities on Sunday. Another five miners were trapped when a ceiling collapsed at a mine in Zibo, Shandong province, on Sunday. Meanwhile, a gas explosion injured 13 miners at a coal mine in Anshun, Guizhou province, on Sunday night. Compared with the same period last year, 36 fewer accidents occurred and 142 fewer miners were killed. Read more about mine safety in China, via CDT. © Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: coal industry, Gansu, mine safety, mining accidents Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Let Them Eat Pop-Tarts! Posted: 25 Sep 2012 08:40 AM PDT While more companies are relying on Chinese tastes to produce luxury goods and cars, food companies, such as Nestle, have also followed suit. The Wall Street Journal reports Kellogg has now agreed to a joint venture to expand its snack business in China: Kellogg Co. K +0.50% has agreed to a joint venture with Wilmar International Ltd.F34.SG +1.57% for the manufacture, sale and distribution of cereal and snacks in China as the U.S. company looks to expand in the fast-growing snack foods market there. "China's snack-food market alone is expected to reach an estimated $12 billion by year-end, up 44% from 2008," Kellogg Chief Executive John Bryant said. "This joint venture positions our China business for growth and fundamentally changes our game in China." Kellogg noted that China is expected to become the largest food and beverage market globally within the next five years. It said cereal consumption is currently being driven by rapid growth in milk consumption, along with consumers' desire for healthy and convenient breakfast foods, while snack foods also represent a very large growth opportunity. Wilmar, which is based in Singapore, is a leading agribusiness group in Asia. Its wholly owned subsidiary in China, Yihai Kerry Investments Co., will participate in the joint venture. As a result of the announcement, shares of Wilmar jumped two percent. Reuters adds: "In the longer term, it's a positive because it allows them to monetise their extensive distribution network in China. It's already in place, so it is a matter of moving the goods through the channels," said Carey Wong, an analyst at OCBC Investment Research. But Wong noted that the breakfast and snack foods market in China is very competitive and the Chinese may not yet have a tradition of eating cereal, compared with Western countries. Kellogg said Wilmar will contribute infrastructure, supply-chain scale and its sales and distribution network in China to the 50-50 joint venture. The JV will market Kellogg's and Pringles branded products, said the maker of Mini-Wheats and Rice Krispies. Despite the jump in share price, critics say the entrance of Kellogg's various unhealthy snacks may lead to a growing obesity rate in China. Concerns about the obesity rate in China have already been highlighted due to the rapid influx of fast food chains. From The Los Angeles Times: The company now makes most of its money in North America, where, coincidentally, an obesity epidemic is spreading among kids and adults. But Kellogg has determined that the real action going forward is in the developing world, where diets are still largely traditional and thus are relatively low in sugar and sodium. That deal made Kellogg the world's second-biggest maker of salty snacks after PepsiCo's Frito-Lay. Kellogg's other salty snacks include Cheez-It, Keebler's Club crackers and its new Special K crackers. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only about 3% of Chinese adults are currently obese, compared with a rate of about 34% in the United States. Apparently it's time to welcome our Chinese friends into the club. © Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: food, joint ventures, obesity, western food in china Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The Daily Twit – 9/25/12: Giraffes on Frickin’ Aircraft Carriers Posted: 25 Sep 2012 08:07 AM PDT I think we've gotten to the point of saturation with the China-Japan islands dispute. The Twitterati this afternoon was so bored that several of us became fascinated by this photo of a couple of giraffes being transported along a Beijing highway to God knows where. Theories include the Beijing Zoo or a new exclusive restaurant for plutocrats with exotic tastes. Then again, they could have been on their way to a new exclusive brothel for plutocrats with exotic tastes. You never can tell with the filthy rich, emphasis on the filthy. Aside from the giraffathon on Twitter today, there was one other new item out there: China's latest military toy, the aircraft carrier Liaoning. After a spot of research, I was surprised to find out that the carrier is not actually named for Liaoning Province, as I had assumed, but for the medieval Mongol word for "useless military prestige project." You learn something new every day. If you actually want to know something about the latest in maritime boondoggles, you could read one of these exciting articles: Associated Press: China says first aircraft carrier entering service, although not ready for combat or planes — Hmm. Not exactly as advertised, I guess. Without the planes and the combat readiness, the Liaoning leaves quite a lot to be desired. Xinhua: China's aircraft carrier poses no threat to world — Yeah, after the whole "no planes or combat" warnings, I kind of figured that out for myself. Guardian: China launches aircraft carrier amid rising tensions with Japan — However non-threatening China says the carrier is, the timing suggests that it is meant to be . . . well, I'm going to have to go with "warning." Interesting that China chose the name "Liaoning," the province where the shit went down in 1931 that precipitated the Japanese invasion. Just a coincidence, I'm sure, but a nifty one at that. Shit, I thought we were talking about a piece of military hardware, but just as I thought I had safely left the China-Japan spat behind me, the damn thing sucks me right back in. Very well, let's go there: LA Times: The specks of land at the center of Japan-China islands dispute — Love the headline, and the reference to the "feral, inbred goats" (the islands' only inhabitants)  isn't bad either. Attitude in a major newspaper – that's refreshing. How did Barbara Demick get that language past the anti-snark detectors? Financial Times: Taiwan's fishermen enter troubled waters — Just when you thought you knew all the characters in this little drama, some Taiwanese fishermen show up. It's worse than a Russian novel. Apparently the Japanese even turned the water cannons on these guys this afternoon. No, really, I'm not making this up. Telegraph: Japanese water cannon attack on Taiwanese fishing boats over Senkaku dispute — See, I told you I wasn't making it up. I see that the Telegraph has gone with "Senkaku" in its headline (and not "Diaoyu"), which probably means that its Beijing correspondent will have problems renewing his visa next time. Oops. MarketWatch: As Japan, China argue, analysts stay hopeful — I'm glad someone is maintaining a sunny outlook. Then again, you can always find a couple of finance types to talk up the market. Any dissenting opinions out there, maybe even on the same web site? Here's one: Toyota to cut output due to China protests: report — that sounds like a negative impact to me, although it could very well end up being short-lived. Global Times: Japanese auto companies suspend marketing in China — Also not the best news. If consumer demand for Japanese products is down, and only a week ago folks were breaking and burning the stuff, sounds smart to keep a low profile for a while. Asian Lawyer: Firms Fret Over China-Japan Tensions — Another negative story, but a close read will tell you that this is mostly hand-wringing by nervous corporate lawyers. We are a jittery bunch. Cross-border deals (that include PRC/Japan) are being scrutinized perhaps, but so far, they are not being cancelled. In other news, I'll stay away from most of the empty speculation on the import of the riot/brawl/disturbance at the Foxconn plant in Taiyuan. If you read my post from yesterday, you'll remember that the whole thing made me cranky. But if you need a summary of where things stand as of today, check this out: Financial Times: Foxconn's supply chain of lost souls. Rumor has it that the Party Congress has finally been calendared for mid-October. For an interesting discussion of the Hu/Wen legacy and what lies ahead for the handover — Guardian: China's fraught succession. The China bashing in the U.S. presidential contest shows no signs of slowing down. Oh joy. Elizabeth Economy has apparently had enough of it. The Diplomat: Message to the Candidates: Talk China Policy not China Smack. I went after Romney myself today for his latest foray into misleading China blah: Mitt Romney Jumps the China Debt Shark. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags:

Taobao Links Up With Another U.S. IP Advocacy Group Posted: 25 Sep 2012 02:28 AM PDT The political and industry savvy of China's big online players continues to impress. From the time that the video and audio file sharing sites began licensing music, films and television programs, to Baidu's various content deals, things have come a really long way in a very short period of time. For its part, Taobao inked a cooperation agreement with the powerful Motion Picture Association earlier this month, promising to work with the studios to fight copyright piracy, and now the e-commerce platform has signed an MOU with one of the better known anti-counterfeiting groups. Taobao.com, China's largest consumer shopping platform, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition to curb the manufacture and sales of counterfeit goods. IACC is a Washington-based nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the volume of counterfeit goods sold online by signing agreements with e-commerce websites. (Shanghai Daily) Although I used to attend some of their conferences, I haven't had any direct contact with IACC for years. As I recall, it is a solid group that does good advocacy work. It is not in the same league as MPAA in terms of sheer political power, but it has a very good profile in IP circles, and particularly in D.C. where it is headquartered. This kind of partnering up is really smart. Taobao can take advantage of the valuable network of contacts via these groups. Moreover, it can let these groups educate them not only on new IP developments in different countries, but also how to successfully navigate the corridors of power in places like D.C. I assume Taobao already sends representatives and in-house legal folks to IACC events and has used these conferences to learn how other e-commerce companies are solving their IP problems. Although Chinese companies like Taobao and Baidu are not engaged in significant outward investment in places like the U.S., this type of model, partnering with strong, politically connected organizations, should be emulated as much as possible by other Chinese firms moving overseas. Doing so will allow them to avoid a lot of mistakes and wasted resources. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags:

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