Got Kung Fu? Check Out Soul of Shaolin

Got Kung Fu? Check Out Soul of Shaolin
‘The Key to Bringing Democracy to China’: Yasheng Huang
Chengguan officer taking huge bribes says he was too afraid to turn them down
Find of the Week: The Miso Black Cod at M1NT Restaurant & Grill
Find of the Week: The Miso Black Cod at M1NT Restaurant & Grill
India, Australia back calls for South China Sea code of conduct
This Might Be A Picture Of The Five Urchins Who Died In A Dumpster
Passengers smash windows to escape fire on Guangzhou metro
Midweek Music Preview: Nov 21-27; Jennifer Lopez, Blue and Elton John
Using Letters Of Credit With China Suppliers
Another Incident On Guangzhou Subway, This Time Involving Fire
Officials punished after five boys found dead in dumpster (Update)
Watch: Gorgeous video love letter to Hong Kong
Chinese sex toy market to be worth 40bn RMB by 2014
Weibo loves the new Princess of China
Chillax With Images Of Hong Kong’s Teeming Alleys, Glistening Skyscrapers And Shimmering Bays
The psychology of climate change: it's in my backyard now
South Korea fights poverty with the power of kimchi
Two Wee-Hour Beatings This Past Week Prove There’s Both Strength And Cowardice In Numbers
Top 10 Search List (November 20, 2012)

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 08:03 PM PST

Date: Nov 21st 2012 11:58a.m.
Contributed by: mengsta

‘The Key to Bringing Democracy to China’: Yasheng Huang

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:57 PM PST

Yasheng Huang

Anything that Yasheng Huang has to say about China is worth paying attention. In 'The Key to Bringing Democracy to China,' he makes and backs up a as sweeping argument that might be summarized as:

For China to open up politically, however its elites have to believe that it is in their interest to do so (which, indeed, it is).

How?

It's time for the United States to pivot to a new approach toward influencing China's political future: explaining that democracy produces concrete benefits such as balanced growth, stability, and personal security — even for top Communist Party officials. This performance-based argument will resonate with many of China's economic and intellectual elites and may have a chance to influence the thinking of Xi Jinping and his fellow top officials.

Certainly a new and even radical view. And, after you read the rest of the essay, you might find it a persuasive one.

Chengguan officer taking huge bribes says he was too afraid to turn them down

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:45 PM PST

Source: Southern Weekend

The head of a local urban management team in the southern city of Guangzhou has been detained on allegations of accepting multimillion-yuan bribes. At court on November 15, he said that he did not dare turn down the bribes for fear of offending some people. He also blamed the system for nourishing corruption.

Wang Baolin, former head of the urban management brigade in the city's Baiyun district, is charged with taking 4.32 million yuan ($692,000) in bribes and 500 grams of gold products during the past two years when he was overseeing demolition of unauthorized and illegal structures. Another 6.89 million yuan (US$1.1 m) in his bank account cannot be explained with his 16,000-yuan (US$2,500) monthly salary.

Wang Baolin, an urban management (chengguan) officer, is escorted in handcuffs to court.

Urban management officers, known as chengguan, are in charge of enforcing city ordinances and regulating street facilities. The wide-range of day-to-day duties chengguan are entrusted with, small and mundane as they may seem, have empowered them to use brutality against street vendors and extort protection money from violators.

At court, Wang compared the chengguan forces to a Buddhist temple where Buddhist gods are enshrined, "And I am definitely not the biggest god." He also said he was, in a certain sense, forced to take bribes.

"People who really bribe me do not see me in person. They bribe through middlemen. These middlemen are some big potatoes that I can never afford to offend," Wang said, "I took their money because I didn't want to be their enemy. I didn't want them to think I was going to deliberately make things difficult for them."

"It (Chengguan system) is like a temple, and I am one bodhisattva/deity in the temple. I am neither the highest-ranking deity, nor the smallest goblin. They come with money just to make offerings, and I am definitely definitely not the only one they make offerings to."

Wang Baolin went on with his all-too-honest confession, "I did not really want to do it (the job), but I can't really quit, and no one is willing to take my seat, because whoever comes cannot possibly survive."

"Then I was thinking, being a chengguan is like making the journey up the mountain during Qingming (Tomb-sweeping Festival): some people are doomed to fall. I am always thinking, is it the problem with the specific person, or the problem with the system."

Screen grabs of a TV news report on Wang Baolin's corruption case, which highlight some of Wang's remarks at court.

From September 9 to August 2012, 27 urban management officials at all levels within Guangzhou's urban management system were disciplined for corruption. The graft money involved in the 27 cases totaled up to 10 million Chinese yuan (US$1.5 m). That count does not include cases that may have been stifled and not reported by the news media.

Teng Biao, a lecturer at University of Politics and Law, was once quoted by Yangcheng Evening News as saying, the series of corruption cases exposed in the chengguan system has much to do with lack of supervision of its power. "But the most important of all, it is because they have too much power."

According to Caixin magazine, urban management officials in Guangzhou have the power to impose penalties for more than 200 types of city ordinance violations.

Find of the Week: The Miso Black Cod at M1NT Restaurant & Grill

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:23 PM PST

Date: Nov 21st 2012 10:24a.m.
Contributed by: geofferson

Find of the Week: The Miso Black Cod at M1NT Restaurant & Grill

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:04 PM PST

Date: Nov 21st 2012 10:24a.m.
Contributed by: geofferson

India, Australia back calls for South China Sea code of conduct

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:00 PM PST

India's Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai has said his country supports efforts to establish a Code of Conduct between ASEAN and China to govern the South China Sea. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard also voiced support for the plan ahead of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia this week. [ more › ]

This Might Be A Picture Of The Five Urchins Who Died In A Dumpster

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:09 PM PST

Sina Weibo user @公民李元龙 may have posted the first photo of those five Bijie children who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a trash bin last week, and it's perfect. Look at that light. In a post that was published yesterday at 9:18 pm (884 forwards, 322 comments so far), @公民李元龙 writes:

A miracle, I obtained a picture of those five children who died of suffocation. Apparently it was the day before the children died, using a phone at Bijie College, taken on the stone steps of a highway underpass just 200-some meters from the place where the children died.

News of the children's deaths continue to circulate, with Xinhua writing an editorial yesterday calling the incident "a wound in society." Many netizens have compared the story to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl," about a poor Danish girl who sells matches on the street. The Bijie boys — so-called because they lived in the poverty-stricken coal-town of Bijie, Guizhou province — died of carbon monoxide poisoning from the matches they lit while trying to stay warm inside their dumpster. Notes Wall Street Journal:

"When I was little, the study topic for 'The Little Match Girl' was: Understand the horrible tragedy of the little match-selling girl's death on the streets on New Year's Eve and how it reveals the darkness of capitalist society," wrote one Sina Weibo user. "Vicious capitalist society! That's how we were educated."

Wrote another microblogger: "I thought the little match girl was something that only happened in capitalist societies. Why this sense of superiority about our system?"

And of course, people are wondering how bureaucrats can strut their wealth when so many people have so little. Via Tea Leaf Nation:

One commentator (@木尔) with more than 40 thousands followers contrasted the death of these boys with the wealthy life led by the Party Secretary from the same city, who the blogger complained has a weakness for luxurious leather belts: "[The cost of] any one of his belts could easily cover many people's foods and clothing."

Indeed, the search for a culprit ranged far and wide: Sloppy governance, careless parents and schools, an indifferent community.

…As fairy tale writer Zheng Yuanjie concluded: "Though you left the world in a dumpster, you are not trash. The irresponsible adults are. A child frozen to death means a future frozen to death. Beijing spent 800 million RMB to [heat the city for an additional 15 days this winter], but still did not warm you … please forgive us."

But poverty simply has a way of being, in any society. It's always a tragedy; what can any of us do? Perhaps let the story be a reminder for all of us to be a little better.

(H/T Josh Chin)

Passengers smash windows to escape fire on Guangzhou metro

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 06:00 PM PST

While the Shanghai Metro has certainly had its share of accidents and general craziness, it seems to be the Guangzhou subway that is always in the news these days. Passengers on Guangzhou's Line 8 had to smash windows and escape into the tunnel after the train they were riding caught on fire on Monday night. [ more › ]

Midweek Music Preview: Nov 21-27; Jennifer Lopez, Blue and Elton John

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 05:00 PM PST

Midweek Music Preview is a rundown of all the events happening on stages across Shanghai. On the docket this week: International superstars Jennifer Lopez, Blue, and Elton John do Shanghai, and they're joined by several interesting local and non-local bands of smaller fame. Get ready for My Little Airport from Hong Kong, the Rocksgiving Thanksgiving charity concert at YYT, Kun opera at SOAC, the Bigger Bang and more. Check the details to learn what we have to say about the bands and for links to music streams. And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for more. [ more › ]

Using Letters Of Credit With China Suppliers

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 05:15 PM PST

This is a guest post from Renaud Anjoran. Renaud runs a product quality inspection business in Shenzhen and he also writes the truly excellent and perinially helpful Quality Inspection Tips. My firm has worked with Renaud on a number of China product matters and we have consistently found him to be highly knowledgeable about China product sourcing. This post arose from a long email "conversation" between co-blogger Steve Dickinson and Renaud, which ended as so many of those do: with me suggesting that it be turned into a blog post.

So here's the blog post, written by Renaud Anjoran.

Most transactions with Chinese suppliers are done through bank transfers. This payment method was described in a previous China Law Blog post, China Manufacturing Payment Terms. Limit Your Risks.

Many importers/foreign manufacturers are not familiar with Letters of Credit (LC) as an alternative to bank transfers. Letters of Credit were designed to protect both product buyers and product supplier in international trade. In practice, they are usually more favorable to the buyer.

How a letter of credit protects the buyer

An importer that pays by LC does not have to wire a deposit before production and it usually has the option to cancel the payment in the following cases:

If a supplier does not ship at the right time. Typically if this happens, the LC simply expires, but the buyer still has the choice to pay if it wants the goods.

If a supplier does not honor the product specification or if there are too many defects. One of the conditions of the LC should be that the LC will not be paid on unless and until the product buyer has signed off on product quality or a specified third party QC agency has issued its certificate of inspection.

If the seller fails to provide any document listed as required in the LC or the documents do not fully conform to the LC's requirements.

Why letters of credit can be cancelled by the buyer in most cases

Even something as small as a typo in the LC, or the fact that a quantity is written in dozens rather than in pieces in the invoice is usually enough to cause a discrepancy in the LC, which in turn allows the buyer to cancel payment.

In practice, a small minority of LCs are "clean," i.e., without any discrepancy. In all other cases, the buyer has the option to refuse payment and cancel the transaction, even if the goods are already on a boat (in which case the buyer will not get the documents to get the products out of custom).

CLB Note: We are aware of a Seattle buyer company that refused goods that had already arrived in Seattle because the street address (which was irrelevant) of one of the parties in the letter of credit was off by a single letter.

Tips for negotiating payment by letter of credit

For the reasons mentioned above, Chinese suppliers typically refuse to accept Letters of Credit. Here is how you can increase your chances of finding a Chinese company that accepts this payment method:

When sourcing your product, try to identify as many potential suppliers as possible. This will at least increase your chances of finding one that will accept an LC.

In your first conversation with your potential suppliers, mention that you always pay by LC on your first order. Try to get the supplier to accept this payment method in writing

Sell your project to your potential suppliers. Good manufacturers are inundated with customer inquiries, so you need to make yourself stand out. Explain why they should work with you. Call the Chinese company's sales manager if necessary

Send your potential Chinese manufacturer a draft of the LC before opening it. You will usually need the commercial invoice, the packing list, the certificate of origin and/or GSM form A, the bill of lading, and an inspection certificate. Try to avoid putting "soft terms" into your Letter of Credit that will make it even more difficult for suppliers to collect payment.

If possible, use a major international bank. This will tend to reassure your suppliers.

Unfortunately, bank fees are much higher for an LC than they are for a bank wire, so an LC only makes sense for transactions of at least USD$30,000.

Chinese exporters are good at guessing whether a project is likely to become a source of long-term business. When they see what they think will be a a one-shot deal, they generally insist on getting a deposit and will not agree to an LC payment arrangement.

In summary, Letter of Credit are a payment tool that makes it unnecessary to transfer a 30% (or more) deposit to your Chinese manufacturer. They are usually more favorable to the buyer's side, and for that reason, many Chinese companies refuse to accept them. But some Chinese product suppliers have been paid via Letters of Credit from some of their foreign customers for years, and sometimes Chinese manufacturers will accept your Letter of Credit if they really want your orders.

What do you think?

Another Incident On Guangzhou Subway, This Time Involving Fire

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 02:00 PM PST

Guangzhou subway, what's up?

Last month, there was a bloody, bloody fight on Line 4. Last week, a boy pooped inside a crowded carriage on Line 3. And two days ago, a train caught on fire on Line 8, forcing passengers to evacuate through a tunnel.

No injuries were reported. The problem was apparently caused by a short circuit in the AC, according to Guangzhou Security Bureau's microblog. The Nanfang has more details:

Passenger Miss He told Nanfang Daily she heard an explosion and saw that there was a fire between the fourth and fifth carriages.

A member of staff then came and put the fire out with a fire extinguisher before anybody was hurt. A passenger surnamed Peng, who was in the second carriage, said the fire was not big but it burned an LED sign and caused smoke to spread quite far.

Some panicked people — in what appear to be crowded carriages — resorted to smashing windows. The Nanfang again:

There were scenes of panic on the train as some passengers smashed windows and entered the tunnel to escape. Sun, a 41 year-old farmer from Hubei Province, was taking the subway for the first time when he heard the explosion.

We'd also like to point out that in August, a man jumped onto the tracks on Guangzhou Subway Line 5, causing a 30-minute delay, and last year, a man from Hunan started a fire on a Guangzhou subway train because he was in a "bad mood." It must be the water.

More pictures via Sina:

Just before the evacuation, someone whipped out a camera and began filming. Warning: the fire alarm is really annoying in this video:

Officials punished after five boys found dead in dumpster (Update)

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:00 AM PST

Several government officials have been removed from their positions following the discovery of the bodies of five young boys inside a rubbish dumpster in Bijie, Guizhou Province. [ more › ]

Watch: Gorgeous video love letter to Hong Kong

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 06:00 AM PST

Photographer Gregory Kane has penned this video love letter to Hong Kong called, "So Long, My Hong Kong". [ more › ]

Chinese sex toy market to be worth 40bn RMB by 2014

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 04:00 AM PST

The Chinese market for sex toys is expected to grow to around 40bn RMB by 2014, up from around 10bn last year, according to industry experts. [ more › ]

Weibo loves the new Princess of China

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 03:00 AM PST

Meet the new Princess of China. A photograph from this week's Mail on Sunday has been making the rounds on Weibo, but has just been blocked by the censors (as of 8:54am today). [ more › ]

Chillax With Images Of Hong Kong’s Teeming Alleys, Glistening Skyscrapers And Shimmering Bays

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 04:30 AM PST

This video by Gregory Lane, "So Long, My Hong Kong," presents dozens of beautifully rendered shots of the true Pearl of the Orient. I've said it before but it bears repeating: Hong Kong does not seem like a city built by men of this world, such is the ambition of its design and overwhelming beauty. You get a glimpse of that here.

The music is Nino Rota's "La Dolce Vita."

(H/T Marshall Wang)

The psychology of climate change: it's in my backyard now

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 02:14 AM PST

Direct personal experience of global warming is on the rise in the US, according to a new study. Could it push more people into seeing it as a risk they want to solve?

We have been bombarded with warnings about climate change and global warming over the past decade. So much so that you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in Europe or the US unaware of the term. Likewise in China, where studies by Pew and the BBC suggest awareness, at least in urban areas, is also high.

Despite this, there remains widespread ambivalence and reluctance to support policies designed to mitigate climate change.

In the US, President Barack Obama, who once championed tackling climate change, could hardly bring himself to mention it during his most recent re-election campaign. The UK took a bold move in passing the Climate Change Act in 2008, committing itself to reducing its carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. However, the current government has already been accused of breaking that commitment by pursuing new gas-fired power stations. Europe, meanwhile, re-iterates its intentions to significantly reduce carbon emissions while continuing to outsource its emissions, by importing carbon intensive products from overseas.

However, as Hurricane Sandy tore its way across the East coast of the US earlier this month, many were left wondering whether climate change and the expectation of more extreme weather events could push up support for climate policies. If people began to perceive global warming as a risk to their own lives and livelihoods, wouldn't they be more likely to want to tackle it?

It was this thought that led US-based environmental scientist Karen Akerlof to research whether or not people believe they have "personally experienced" global warming, and if so how. It is already known that people do better responding to risks which they directly experience.

Akerlof's study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, before Hurricane Sandy had struck, found that people already believe they are experiencing global warming. And not just individual weather events either, but long-term changes like seasons and lake water levels.

"For a long time, academics researching people's risk perceptions of climate change thought that people would not be able to "experience" climate change," says Akerlof, from George Mason University, "because the phenomenon occurs over such long periods of times, and it is difficult to detect long-term trends amidst the noise of normal weather variation."

In her survey of the state of Michigan, just over a quarter of residents said they had experienced global warming, with the most frequently described experiences being: changes in season (36%), weather (25%), lake levels (24%), changes to animals and plants (20%) and snowfall (19%).

What's more, these "experiences" were consistent with the climatic record - frosts have started to first appear later in the state and water levels in Lake Michigan have dropped below average. The only example that didn't appear to match up was snowfall, which researchers put down to people assuming climate change and global warming would mean less snow in winter.

Somewhat surprisingly, extreme weather events such as storms, hurricanes or heat waves were not mentioned by people, despite the statistics showing a rising in frequency across the US. "One of the possible explanations is that people were referring to those types of changes more generally as changes in the weather," thinks Akerlof.

Crucially, Akerlof's research showed that people who had experienced global warming locally were also more likely to see it as a risk.

"Believing you have experienced global warming -- we used that term in the survey -- would not necessarily indicate that you thought it was a risk. But people who said they believed that they had personally experienced global warming were more likely to see it as a risk to their county, and its residents," she says.

Climate talks deadlock and apathy

There are limits to how far we can see this heightened risk awareness as a breakthrough factor for climate politics.

Firstly, as Akerlof is quick to point out, there is still a significant percentage of Americans who do not believe that climate change is occurring. Most respondents in her study either did not believe they had personally experienced global warming, or did not know if they had or not.

Secondly, risk awareness on its own will not translate into action. Although it is impossible to survey people's sub-conscious motives, Akerlof says if people cannot see a solution they are more likely to ignore the problem.

"There are a lot of researchers who say that people are in denial about the enormity of the political consequences. If people don't think there is a solution, they shutdown. People need to feel that there is a solution otherwise they do not do anything."

So while "experience" of global warming may indeed play a role in engaging people in the issue, the onus will still be on policymakers and the wider environmental community to establish solutions.

The Doha climate summit is less than a week away, but an international agreement to cut emissions looks no more than a faint and distant hope. Climate scientists are already suggesting it is becoming impossible to avoid 2 degrees of warming now.

Akerlof says there is a danger that political stalemate on climate change will feed the general apathy towards politics amongst many people in the US.

"One of the questions researchers are interested in is collective political efficacy - the belief of individuals that they can function as part of a larger community to accomplish political goals. A lot of Americans feel disengaged from the political process.

"People will need to make changes to their lifestyles, but it is also a question of engaging in the political process to accomplish the large emission reductions we will need to make to address this problem," she says.

South Korea fights poverty with the power of kimchi

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 02:00 AM PST

Over 2,000 women volunteered in Seoul last Thursday to combine garlic, ginger, salt, fish sauce, and cabbage into 140-tons of poverty and hunger-fighting kimchi. The annual event involved more than 60,000 heads of cabbage and resulted in enough fermented goodness to feed 25,000 families. [ more › ]

Two Wee-Hour Beatings This Past Week Prove There’s Both Strength And Cowardice In Numbers

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 02:30 AM PST

In the top video, a security guard on nightshift is beaten to within an inch of his life, reasons unknown. "Fight, fight," notes one wry commenter. "Fighting is good for the health."

In the video after the jump, a Wanda Plaza staffer tries to prevent a group of non-employees from passing, and he suffers a terrible fate. Clocked over the head several times by plastic Coke bottles, if I'm seeing it right.

Youku videos after the jump for those in China.

Security guard beatdown on Youku:

Top 10 Search List (November 20, 2012)

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 01:35 AM PST

1) 银川地震 (Yínchuān dìzhèn, Yinchuan earthquake) – An earthquake of 4.5 magnitude hit Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region this morning. No casualties have been reported. Chinese story here.

2) 主播撕裙(zhúbō sīqún, anchor woman tore her skirt) – This story made our list last week. While appearing in an entertainment show, a South Korean anchor woman tore her skirt shorter and poured bottled water on her white shirt to win a "sexiness battle" with another guest of the show. For more crazy things anchor man and woman have done, see the story here.

3) 俏江南张兰(qiàojiāngnán Zhānglán, Zhanglan of South Beauty) – Zhang Lan is the president of a high-end restaurant chain, South beauty. A formal employee of the company filed a lawsuit again Zhang over the ownership of an apartment. The court was unable to reach Zhang and her son said on his weibo that she has been in the hospital. Chinese story here.

4) 黄晓明受伤(Huáng Xiáomíng injured) – Huang Xiaoming, the actor/singer, got injured during the shooting of his new movie. Huang fell from three meters above the ground and injured his left foot and arm. Chinese story here.

5) 女生老师吃饭坠亡(nǘshēng láoshī chīfàn zhuìwáng, female student taken to dinner by her teachers died after falling from a building) – This tragedy made our list yesterday. A reporter who tried to find out what really happened to the girl was told off by the principle of the college and this has triggered much criticism online. Chinese story here.

6) 真实版睡美人(zhēnshíbán shuìméirén, sleeping beauty in real life) –Sleeping Beauty Syndrome is a rare condition also known as Kleine-Levin Syndrome, which makes 17-year-old Nicole Delien from the U.S. sleep 18 to 19 hours a day. The life of the sleeping beauty is not like that of a fairy tale. When Nicole wakes up from her long sleep, she is often in a sleepwalking state and forgetting to do simple things such as eating. English story here.

7) 吴亚军(Wú Yájūn, Wu Yajun) – Longfor Properties co-founder and chairwoman Wu Yajun is no longer China's richest woman after divorcing and transferring part of the jointly-owned stakes to her ex-husband Cai Kui, with whom she co-founded the company. Wu's net worth is estimated at $4.2 billion, down from $7.3 billion. Chinese story here.

8）任建宇(Rén Jiànyú, Ren Jianyu) – Ren Jianyu is a village official who was sentenced to two years in a labour camp in September last year for "incitement to subvert state power", without a court process. Ren forwarded many messages criticizing the government. He was released yesterday after serving only about half his term following a public outcry. Ren filed a lawsuit against the Chongqing Re-education through Labor Committee, which is part of the much-maligned labor camp system Beijing said was in need of reform. Chinese story here.

9) 昂山素季(ángshān sùjì, Aung San Suu Kyi) Aung San Suu Kyi is a democracy activist in Myanmar who became a lawmaker after eight years of house arrest. U.S. President Barack Obama hugged her and kissed her on the face when he paid her a visit at her house. English story here.

10) 邓超考驾照(Dèng Chāo káojiázhào, Deng Chao driver's license test) – Actor Deng Chao was seen taking a test for renewing his driver's license in his hometown in Jiangxi. In the photo posted online, he seemed quite unmoved by the fuss made by the celebrity-chasing crowd and focused on his test. Chinese story here.