Another School Attack: 23-Year-Old Anhui Student Murders Classmate With Hatchet

Another School Attack: 23-Year-Old Anhui Student Murders Classmate With Hatchet
China’s Latest School Killing. This One’s Grisly.
Huawei’s U.S. Investment Troubles Still a Hot Topic in Beijing
Why the JCCT Meeting in Beijing is a Non-story
Fast Food MNCs Getting Clobbered by China Daily Today
Year End Wrap-Up: Top 10 Social Search Terms

Another School Attack: 23-Year-Old Anhui Student Murders Classmate With Hatchet

Posted: 20 Dec 2012 09:07 AM PST

Ax murder Anhui

Details are sparse, but around 7:45 am today, according to Xinhua, a student surnamed Hu killed a classmate, surnamed Tan, on the sixth-floor library of Anhui Medical University.

Another article speculates that the incident was instigated by either a dispute over a seat or an "emotional dispute." According to one eyewitness, Hu and Tan had chatted many times before about a certain girl, who later sought out Tan.

Before the attack, Hu and Tan engaged in a verbal confrontation. Hu then picked up a fire-fighting hatchet and, despite pleas from those nearby, hacked Tan to death.

Both the attacker and victim were 23-year-old seniors at the Hefei, Anhui province university. Hu was a clinical medicine major, while Tan majored in biomedical engineering.

Hu has been detained by police, and the situation is being investigated.

China’s Latest School Killing. This One’s Grisly.

Posted: 20 Dec 2012 05:14 AM PST

Kind of a good news/bad news thing. On the plus side, there was only one fatality here, and no firearms were involved. The downside? Check out the gruesome details:

A student in east China's Anhui Province was axed to death in a university library on Thursday morning, local authorities said.

The victim, surnamed Tan, 23, a senior student majoring in biomedical engineering of Anhui Medical University based in the provincial capital of Hefei, was killed at about 7:45 a.m..

He was axed to death in a classroom on the sixth floor of the library, a Hefei municipal public security official said. A witness said Tan was attacked in the neck.

If international relations could be depicted as a big Hollywood ensemble action movie, with each nation playing a member of an elite commando team, China would definitely be the expert in edged weapons.

Huawei’s U.S. Investment Troubles Still a Hot Topic in Beijing

Posted: 19 Dec 2012 11:44 PM PST

Chinese wanting to invest in the US should not have to undergo "political background checks", a top Communist party official said at the close of high level trade talks with his counterparts in Washington.

Wang Qishan, the outgoing vice-premier responsible for commerce, trade and finance, said at a dinner attended by US cabinet members there was no reason for Chinese investors to be asked about their political affiliations. (Financial Times)

What's that all about? Sounds like a reference to the recent U.S. Congressional report which essentially recommended that Chinese companies such as Huawei should not be allowed to invest in certain sectors of the U.S. economy because of their ties to China's government/Communist Party. I've written a series of posts on the subject; search for "Huawei" and "ZTE" on China Hearsay, and you'll find a nice long list.

The controversy over the Congressional report and the treatment of Chinese companies in the U.S. has subsided over the past few weeks, but do not think for one minute that anyone here in Beijing has forgotten about it. I still think that there is some payback in the offing. The question is merely "who" and "when"? My advice to IT multinationals in China: when you least expect it, that's the time to expect it. {cue the scary Halloween music}

Why the JCCT Meeting in Beijing is a Non-story

Posted: 19 Dec 2012 10:54 PM PST

I've had a couple of people ask me about the current U.S.-China bilateral meeting, which is part of the U.S-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) framework. Not much to say, really. The following quote in Reuters is indicative of the type of progress that is expected this time around:

The United States expects only "incremental" progress on longstanding farm trade issues in high-level talks with China on Wednesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

"Hopefully we'll be able to get some progress, but it's incremental. It's slow but sure," Vilsack told reporters after a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Yeah, don't expect too much this week in terms of "deliverables." Maybe China will announce the purchase of a few planes or something, and perhaps some sort of technical cooperation on some obscure field of endeavor can be touted, but nothing big is going to happen.

I hope you aren't disappointed. Some commentators speculated that the U.S.-China relationship would find its groove once again after the nonsense of the U.S. election was behind us and China took care of its own succession issues. Both events went down more or less smoothly, and I would still hope that the bilateral relationship can now begin to settle down.

But let's be realistic. These monumental political events just took place. For new President Xi, he is still in a consolidation phase, and one has to assume that his attention is focused on internal political maneuvering. For President Obama, he has the dreaded "fiscal cliff" to navigate and has not even announced his second-term cabinet reshuffling. So much to do in the early days for both of these guys, and the holidays make all of this even more difficult.

This isn't to say that there aren't important bilateral issues to deal with. Of course there are. But let's face it, a lot of the top agenda items are not exactly time sensitive. Take a look at the list Reuters came up with and tell me if anything there is not at least several years old:

The United States is pressing Beijing to take stronger action to fight piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. goods and end policies that discriminate against foreign firms or require them to transfer technology to do business in China.

China has its own list of concerns, which include U.S. restrictions on exports of high technology and its active use of anti-dumping and countervailing duties against imports of Chinese goods that Washington believes are unfairly priced.

IP, technology, market access, anti-dumping, and export restrictions — we're talking about bilateral frictions that are at least a decade old. If Reuters is saying that these are the topics that will dominate the discussion at the JCCT meeting, that's just another way of saying that nothing much is going on and each side will revert to the Powerpoint presentations that were put together when China joined the WTO.

I'm going back to sleep. Call me when something happens.

Fast Food MNCs Getting Clobbered by China Daily Today

Posted: 19 Dec 2012 10:23 PM PST

It's not exactly breaking news to say that multinationals/foreign companies have it tough in China. Seems like every other day I'm writing something about a new investigation, enforcement campaign, or dispute involving a foreign firm here. Some times the criticism turns out to be fair, and other times the rumors are unfounded.

Occasionally there are witch hunts, where the media (often, but not always State media) piles on with inflammatory rhetoric, assuming the worst of multinationals and their business practices. Recently we saw a series of reports about Nike and its "double standard" with respect to product quality, and the retailer Carrefour has had its share of problems as well.

The latest fun and games is courtesy of China Central Television, which this week did an investigative piece on chicken farmers:

China Central Television reported earlier this week that some chicken farmers in east China's Shandong province have given their chicken with excessive amounts of antibiotics, including amantadine and ribavirin, to make them survive in overcrowded chicken houses.

The topic is certainly fair game and quite relevant to most folks here who worry about food safety. KFC and McDonald's, which haven't purchased chicken from these guys for months, promptly issued the usual statements about food safety and promised full cooperation with the authorities. The Shanghai authorities are now conducting an investigation. However, in the two days following that CCTV report, some follow-up pieces in China's print media seem to be focused not on the farmers or their customers as a whole, but rather on KFC and McDonald's.

I suppose that one could justify this attention in light of the sheer size of these two fast food franchises. KFC and McDonald's do a huge business in China and may totally overshadow other customers of these Shandong farmers.

It's much more difficult to explain why China Daily just hours ago sent out one of their usual RSS feed dumps that included the following articles:

Some foreign fast food is harder to swallow (2011-08-15)
Tests find oil used by KFC not harmful (2011-08-11)
KFC denies excessive brightener in containers (2011-04-27)
McDonald's apologizes for wrongdoings (2012-03-16)
Prices up 1 yuan at McDonald's (2012-05-16)

That's a partial list. Apparently some editor over at China Daily thinks that folks interested in the current Shandong farmer story also need to be reminded about McDonald's pricing changes from earlier this year and old allegations about KFC's packaging practices.

Nice, huh? My favorite one is from August of last year and is entitled "Multinational firms' tricks." The content is pretty much what you'd expect: a consumer protection story that devotes itself exclusively to the ways that MNCs screw over Chinese shoppers.

Why is all this worth mentioning? It all comes down to branding, PR, social media and reputation. It doesn't take much media attention to tarnish the image of a brand these days, particularly when it comes to food. This news item from the Financial Times on this latest food scare is in no way surprising:

Chinese consumers, spooked by a seemingly unending series of food quality scares, responded vociferously on Sina Weibo, the popular microblogging site, with a handful calling for a boycott of KFC or even of western fast food in general.

I suppose the lesson here for MNCs is not merely to maintain high quality standards in China but to keep an eye on media management. These guys have extensive story archives, which can be dredged up and sent off through the Intertubes on a whim. Scary stuff.

Year End Wrap-Up: Top 10 Social Search Terms

Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:24 PM PST

As 2012 winds down, as we do every year we've released a list of all the top search terms for they year. Over the next week or so we'll highlight a different category each day. You can find all the top lists (Chinese only) here.

We're kicking things off with the Top 10 Social Search terms: searches related to politics, phenomena in society, the economy and so forth.

1. 王立军事件 (Wáng Lìjūn Shìjiàn – the Wang Lijun Affair) – The dramatic fall of Bo Xilai was triggered in February when Bo's hand-picked top cop in Chongqing was suddenly demoted, then fled in disguise from Chongqing to Chengdu, where he sought refuge in the U.S. Consulate. There, according to many sources, he presented information on the murder of Neil Heywood, a British citizen with close ties to the Bo family, at the hands of Bo's wife Gu Kailai. And so began the most dramatic real-life political thriller that China had seen in decades. Wang went on trial in September, and was convicted of abuse of power, bribe-taking, attempting to defect, and "bending the law for selfish ends." He was given a 15-year sentence. Since then, many sordid details of his tenure as Public Security Bureau chief in Chongqing, where he oversaw the "Strike the Black" campaign against organized crime in the megacity. China's muckraking Southern Metropolis Weekly magazine recently published a whopping 40-page exposé about Wang (the version linked to here is from Caixin, courtesy of Bill Bishop's excellent Sinocism daily newsletter), excerpts of which you can read in a translation from the South China Morning Post in English here and here.

2. 白银价格 (baíyín jiàgè - the price of silver) – After its price started skyrocketing after the 2008 financial crisis began, silver hit a high of nearly $50 an ounce in May of 2011. This year, the volatility of its price (surging in the first few months of the year from about $27 an ounce to about $37 an ounce in March, falling back down to about $26 in July, then climbing back up yet again to $35 in October before beginning a year-end oscillation) has Chinese speculators watching carefully, and searching for the price of silver very often, as we end the year.

3. 薄熙来被免职 (Bó Xīlaí beì miǎnzhí – Bo Xilai is removed from posts) – The princeling son of revolutionary immortal Bo Yibo, Bo Xilai—never appearing in print without the trusty descriptors "flamboyant," "charismatic," and "populist"—rose to prominence as the mayor of Dalian, governor of Liaoning Province, Minister of Commerce, and finally Party Secretary of Chongqing. By March, when the Two Meetings were held in Beijing, the writing was clearly on the wall: Bo was out. His unraveling had been set in motion when his wife, Gu Kailai, poisoned Britisher Neil Heywood to death in a three-star hotel in Chongqing, and it was riveting. When CCTV announced that Gu was "strongly suspected" of the murder and had been placed under arrest, and minutes later announced that Bo had been removed from his position in Chongqing, China knew that it was in for a rare political spectacle. See "the Wang Lijun Affair," above. Highly recommended: John Garnaut's book, The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo.

4. 油价 (yoújià – gasoline prices) – With China now the world's largest market for automobiles, and with nearly every driver in China online, it's no surprise that gas prices would be a subject of frequent search—especially in a year that saw gas the government raise prices in February and March, cut them in June, and raise them again in August.

5. 纸黄金 (zhǐhuángjīn – paper gold) – Chinese investors took a keen interest in "paper gold," or gold certificates, this year. Gold certificates are basically a savings account for gold. Investors can buy and sell their gold through their account instead of actually exchanging physical gold. Gold speculation has been very popular in China in the past year, as investors lack means of investment due to tightened control on the real estate market and badly-regulated and sluggish stock market.

6. 个人所得税 (gèrénsuǒdéshuì – individual income tax) – The threshold for individual income tax exemption was raised this year from 2000 RMB to 3500, which meant that a lot of people who had tax liability last year didn't have it this year—surely cause for celebration for the vast majority of Chinese Internet users, whose average incomes are still below the new 3500 RMB threshold.

7. 摇号 (yaóhaò – [auto license] lottery) – In an effort to curb private automobile ownership, which has turned Beijing's famed Ring Roads into barely-mobile parking lots during rush hour commute, the capital implemented a lottery system on January 1 2011 for would-be car buyers. This year Guangzhou followed suite, and began issuing license plates only for lucky lottery winners beginning in August. As the chances for getting picked by the lottery machine get slimmer by the day, Beijingers became even more furious with a recent report that Song Jianguo, head of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, was being investigated for rigging the lottery for personal gain. The authorities claimed the accusations were groundless but people's suspicions remained.

8.劳动合同法(láodònghétóngfá, Labor Contract Law) – The Labor Contract Law of the Peoples Republic of China was passed in 2007 and has been frequently searched by employees and employers alike as it is the guidelines for any dispute between the two parties.

9. 重阳节(Chóngyángjié – The Chung Yeung Festival) – The Chung Yeung Festival is a traditional Chinese festival that falls on the ninth day of the September of the lunar calendar. Traditionally, people have a family reunion, climb to a higher place and enjoy taking in the chrysanthemums that bloom around this time. Starting in 1989, it took on another layer of meaning and became a holiday for senior citizens. Family members often take senior citizens on a picnic, an activity that has become quite popular on this day.

10. 局长儿媳炫富(júzháng érxí xuànfù - official's daughter-in-law shows off wealth) – In Zhejiang Province, a local drug administration bureau chief's daughter-in-law posted photos of luxury bags and watches online and said her husband basically gets paid for going to work once a week at a local state-owned entity. The photos and comments triggered an investigation into her father-in-law and husband. In a similar case, the wife of a local police in Hainan showed off photos of her visiting hot spring resorts in her husband's patrol car and an investigation was launched against the conduct of her husband. Internet users made fun of these "ignorant women", calling them "death traps" for their men and "big helpers" of the ongoing anti-corruption campaign.