Blogs » Politics » China’s Internet ‘Wall’ Hits Foreign & Domestic Business

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• China’s Internet ‘Wall’ Hits Foreign & Domestic Business
• Passengers booted off of KLM plane
• Inside China’s Genome Factory
• Banned Weibos: Protesting DPRK Nukes and More
• Photo: The Flower Man, by Vern Fong
• MOC Claims China Not World’s Top Trading Nation
• Government Reform: Super-Size Me
• If Marx Had Weibo
• Is It Time for American Schools to Recognize the Lunar New Year Holiday?
• Hawaiian Cliff Diving: a test of courage and loyalty
• Photo: 春节2013, Chinese New Year 2013, near Chongqing, by Chris Aston
• Tensions Mount as China Snatches Farms for Homes
• Vows of Change in China Belie Private Warning

China’s Internet ‘Wall’ Hits Foreign & Domestic Business Posted: 15 Feb 2013 09:44 PM PST As online regulation tightens, Paul Mozur and Carlos Tejada report on its growing toll on foreign businesses in China. From The Wall Street Journal: Fredrik Bergman ran into a problem when a client in Sweden tried to transfer files to his firm's headquarters here: Each time, the firm lost its Web connection for an hour or so. After several weeks of multiple outages a day, he says, the firm solved the puzzle: the files were named for the Swedish town of Falun, where the client was working. Mr. Bergman says his firm thinks the name triggered the filters China's online censors use to block discussion of Falun Gong, a religious group long banned in China. […] The American Chamber of Commerce in China said last year that nearly three-quarters of about 300 businesses it surveyed said unstable Internet access impedes their efficiency. About 40% said China's censorship efforts have a negative business impact. […] "The real question is whether the next administration is going to continue to roll back Internet availability to foreign firms," [Shaun] Rein said. He said companies are unlikely to pull out of China in any case, but they likely will think twice about moves like shifting their regional headquarters to Beijing from places like Singapore and Hong Kong. "They will still invest in China," he said. "It just depends on what scale." Though one China-based entrepreneur tells Mozur and Tejada that homegrown web companies have benefited from shelter against international competition, the overall cost of Internet controls on Chinese firms is likely to be even higher. From Andy Yee at openDemocracy: This censorship regime is hurting China's competitiveness in the internet age. Very often, it is commercial firms that bear the collateral damages. Online portals are frustrated about the energy and time wasted on outsourced censorship tasks from the propaganda department. Chinese web giant Tencent has to work hard to deal with censorship concerns connected with its globally popular chat app WeChat among international users, who are accustomed to sharing information freely. Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE, flagged by the US Congress as security threats on flimsy evidence, are victims of China's perceived opacity. And investor uncertainty about censorship and over-regulation mean that market performance of Chinese internet companies will never achieve their potential. More importantly, to the extent that web technologies become essential platforms for learning, collaboration and innovation, China runs serious risks of underachieving its information technology ambitions. Chinese talents are robbed of learning possibilities simply because many foreign websites and tools are blocked. According to a UNESCO report, some open educational resources are out of reach for students and educators in China because they are filtered by the Great Firewall. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: business, education, Falun Gong, foreign businesses, huawei, Internet blocking, Internet censorship, Internet crackdown, Internet regulation, online censorship, online education, tencent, ZTE Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Passengers booted off of KLM plane Posted: 15 Feb 2013 05:39 PM PST Anyone who has flown to or from China knows the drill.  Flight attendants on international carriers are often very…particular about following the safety guidelines.  Many upwardly mobile Chinese tend to believe that rules are for other people.  Hilarity often ensues. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines confirmed Friday that one of its aircraft traveling from Beijing to Amsterdam was suspended from taking off after six Chinese passengers quarreled with flight attendants on Wednesday. The Netherlands airline told the Global Times Friday that "there was an incident with Chinese passengers on board and that the aircraft returned to the gate," but refused to reveal more details on the incident. The Civil Aviation Administration of China was not available for comment by Friday due to the week-long Spring Festival holidays. Six passengers, all in first class, were late for boarding and refused to wear their seat belts as well as turn off their mobile phones when the aircraft was preparing to take off from the Beijing Capital International Airport for Schiphol Airport, the Beijing-based The Mirror reported on Thursday. A passenger on board surnamed Lin said in the report that he heard a fierce quarrel and a middle-aged female passenger speaking rudely and threatening to take photos and expose the photos online. The report said the captain of the flight refused to take off until the passengers were taken away by airport security. Part of the problem for some is unfamiliarity with the basic protocols of air travel.* Part of it too is that a few people, regardless of nationality, are just assholes.**  I flew back from Kunming this week and as soon as the wheels hit the tarmac in Beijing, the flight attendants were running around playing "whack-a-mole" with passengers who assumed that since the plane was not in a death spiral it was safe to get up and open the overhead bins.  I thought I saw one attendant actually tackle a dude.  And this wasn't a language issue.  This was Hainan Airlines (one of my favorites) and Chinese passengers. On Weibo, few are buying the "language barrier" excuse.  Most of the comments are deriding the KLM passengers who were removed from a plane, complaining that such boorish behavior is a loss of face for other Chinese travelers.  Others speculated that they must be members of a corrupt official family.  Still more lamented that money rarely seems to buy good manners among the 暴发户 baofahu, the Chinese term for the nouveau riche. That said, in a lot of these cases language barriers do make the situation worse.  There are several unpleasant things that recur every year: my annual prostate exam, renewing my visa, and at least once every twelve months willingly placing myself in the surly and sometimes openly hostile embrace of United Airlines. Say what you will about Chinese carriers, most of the staff speak a foreign language.  They might not speak it well, but they have functional communication skills in important topics like "coffee or tea?" "would you like a newspaper?" and "sit down, sir before your pink wheelie suitcase falls out of the bin and gives somebody a concussion."   (Okay, I made the last one up but you get the idea.) United Airlines? Chinese passengers are lucky if even two of the cabin crew speak their language.  Or any language other than English.  The route to and from Beijing must be a primo gig because the crew is always a senior group of hardened and jaded attendants.  You imagine if you met one out on the town, she'd be croaking through her menthol smoke about how she once made out with Neil Young.*** On my last flight on United, there were the usual shenanigans with people ignoring the rules.  I know this pisses off the attendants but the response was hardly a soft power win for the USA.  One attendant asked a passenger to put his seat back up.**** When he didn't understand her, she — how predictable was this? — just talked louder and slower.  Then she started threatening him.  All the while the dude was looking around to see if anybody could tell him why the women with the horrible bottle dye job was screeching in his general direction.  Finally another passenger — a Laowai — translated for him and he complied. So it goes both ways.  I have a hunch that the level of entitlement among passengers in the first class cabin on a flight from Beijing to Europe ranks somewhere between "God" and "The guy who has pictures of a naked Xi Jinping holding a goat."  It's the same impulse that causes drivers here to speed up when approaching a cross walk. (If pedestrians don't want to be hit by a car, then why don't they just stop being poor and buy their own car?) At the same time, international airlines, American carriers in particular, can do a better job about staffing their planes with more people who can communicate across cultural and language barriers. ——————————————————————– * h/t @MissXQ **Why can't this be the first line of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? *** YJ once found half of a worm in her salad on a United flight. When she showed it to the flight attendant the response was "that sometimes happens." After fuming silently for a few minutes, YJ turns to me and says, "Don't ever bitch to me about 'Chinese service standards' again." **** By the way, one of my ALL TIME pet peeves — the compulsive recliner. I can't even speak rationally about this.

Inside China’s Genome Factory Posted: 15 Feb 2013 03:29 PM PST At MIT Technology Review, Christina Larson profiles the world's most prolific DNA sequencer, BGI-Shenzhen, which has unravelled the genomes of the rice plant and the giant panda, contributed to the international Human Genome Project, and isolated Tibetans' genetic adaptation to life at high altitudes. The budding "bio-Google" is now collaborating with Danish, American and British research into obesity, autism and intelligence, and with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on medical DNA analysis. BGI-Shenzhen, once known as the Beijing Genomics Institute, has burst from relative obscurity to become the world's most prolific sequencer of human, plant, and animal DNA. In 2010, with the aid of a $1.58 billion line of credit from China Development Bank, BGI purchased 128 state-of-the-art DNA sequencing machines for about $500,000 apiece. It now owns 156 sequencers from several manufacturers and accounts for some 10 to 20 percent of all DNA data produced globally. So far, it claims to have completely sequenced some 50,000 human genomes—far more than any other group. BGI's sheer size has already put Chinese gene research on the map. Those same economies of scale could also become an advantage as comprehensive gene readouts become part of everyday medicine. The cost of DNA sequencing is falling fast. In a few years, it's likely that millions of people will want to know what their genes predict about their health. BGI might be the one to tell them. […] Wang [Jian, BGI's president and cofounder], the Everest climber, is still frequently asked to explain BGI's strategy and its intentions. He says to think of a wandering migrant worker—looking for opportunity and occasionally irritating the authorities. That is what BGI is like. But its only core mission is to do work that will be socially useful, he says: its strategy is to "do good." © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: DNA data bank, genes, giant panda, rice, science, scientific advancement, Shenzhen Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Banned Weibos: Protesting DPRK Nukes and More Posted: 15 Feb 2013 02:57 PM PST CDT editors have collected the following posts that have been banned from Sina Weibo as of February 14 2013.   Lanzimujin: When I went back home, I met my husband's nephew, a sophomore in high school. He hates school, but he loves history and geography. I chatted with him for a bit. He's quite a cute boy. He said he was brainwashed in elementary school to despise the U.S. and Japan and love Mao [Zedong]. In 2nd grade of middle school, he turned against his brainwashing. He said it would be much better if Xi [Jinping] was Chiang Ching-guo. He even calls himself a rightist. He knows about LXB [Liu Xiaobo]. He said his mother talks all day about the greatness of a certain party. He says his grandmother is an iron GF, and his cousin is a 50-Cent Party member who works for free. He's quite an angsty young person. 蓝紫木槿： 回老家，先生的侄子高二，厌学，但酷爱历史和地理。和他聊了一会，很可爱的一个小男孩。他说在小学时被洗脑，痛恨美日，无比热爱毛。初二时，反洗脑了。他 说习要是蒋经国就好了。还说自己是右派。他知道LXB。他说他妈妈整天就是某党好，说他外婆是铁板GF，说他堂姐是自费五毛。一个正苦恼着的少年。 Hainan-LiChao: The people of Harbin protesting the North Korean nuclear explosion… 海南-李超： 哈尔滨人民抗议朝鲜核爆…… Banner: (center, large text) Protest Against the North Korean Nuclear Explosion; Protect Our Home, People, Land, Water, Air, and Food ZhangHuazhiV: If I can neither speak out nor sing, then discipline me as you will! 张华志V： 假使讲说话也不可，高歌也是过错，随便你处分我！ Image text: (center) Massacre: The CCP's "Greatness, Glory, Righteousness" fell from the hearts of the people. BeijingChaoyangShibaliGuoguijun: Today we went to the Millennium Monument to call for the public disclosure of the assets of government officials 北京朝阳十八里店郭桂军： 今天去了世纪坛要求官员财产公示 Banner: (top) The Citizens Call For Public Disclosure of the Assets of Officials. (bottom) To sign: Send your "name + address + profession" to caichangongshi@gmail.com or send a text message to 15810050900 铮然02： 删贴 也阻挡不了民众的觉醒 保卫地球人类 是地球人的责任 Xuxin: Happy Lunar New Year to Big Xi [Xi Jinping]. By the way: When will the assets of government officials be made public? 徐昕： 向习大大拜年。顺便问下：官员财产何时公开？#让红包飞# http://t.cn/zYGDzWV Tianjiliub: Thank you to the fans and volunteers for Bo [Xilai]. We have been together for 330 days! I've published over 26,000 weibos. Yesterday, Sina deleted [my account] TianjiliuA, and today, I'm back. Comrades, our iron will is forged with blood! Fight to the end! Fight to the death! 天际流b： 感谢粉丝们，挺薄的志愿者们，三百三十天，我们在一起！我发出了二万六千多篇微播，昨天，新浪删除了天际流A，今天我又回归了，同志们，我们用热血铸就我们钢铁般的意志！挺到底！誓死如归！ © Little Bluegill for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Internet control, weibo Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Photo: The Flower Man, by Vern Fong Posted: 15 Feb 2013 02:32 PM PST The Flower Man © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Vern Fong Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

MOC Claims China Not World’s Top Trading Nation Posted: 15 Feb 2013 02:14 PM PST China's Ministry of Commerce is contesting recent media reports that China surpassed the U.S. as the world's biggest trading nation in terms of volume last year. China Daily reports: Recent data from the world's two largest economies show that Chinese trade in goods and services reached $3.87 trillion in 2012, according to the General Administration of Customs, while the value of US exports and imports was $3.82 trillion, according to the US Commerce Department. The ministry said, however, that China's combined export and import volume from last year is below that of theUS when the same method of measurement is used. A ministry official, who wasn't identified, said on Wednesday the Commerce Department released two sets of figures for US trade last year: $3.82 trillion based on the country's international balance of payments, and $3.882trillion based on a measurement similar to that used by the World Trade Organization. Only the smaller number was compared with China's volume. The official said the WTO's annual trade report, which will be released within a month, will show a continued 1-2 ranking of the US and China. At South China Morning Post, Tom Holland provides further details, explaining why reports that China is now the world's biggest trading economy are wrong: The most obvious way they are wrong is because China's import and export numbers are heavily distorted by domestic companies fiddling their taxes. Under mainland regulations, exporters of electronic gadgets and other widgetry can claim a value-added tax rebate worth 17 per cent of the goods' value. What's more, under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, no tariffs are charged on goods imported into the mainland from Hong Kong, provided the importer claims a relatively small component of value was added in the city. As a result, mainland companies ship huge quantities of goods to Hong Kong, where their value is marked up by around 20 per cent before they are re-imported back into the mainland.[...] A brief from The Economist looks at the numbers contested above, noting that even if they are accurate, the U.S. remains the global leader if services are included in the count: [...]New figures show that America's imports and exports of goods amounted to $3.82 trillion in 2012, compared with China's $3.87 trillion (see chart). These figures count only trade in objects (ingenious or mundane). If services are added, America retains its lead for the moment. Tax dodges may also inflate China's numbers, but its trade networks are spreading.[...] Another recent piece on the topic from South China Morning Post notes that the Ministry of Commerce is also condemning recent U.S. sanctions on Chinese military firms for disrupting international trade norms: Meanwhile, Beijing said the US was disrupting international trade by slapping sanctions on Chinese firms. [...]In a separate report, Xinhua said Shen Danyang, a Ministry of Commerce spokesman, accused the US of disrupting the "normal order of international trade" and harming Chinese companies' interest by imposing sanctions under its non-proliferation laws. China urged the US to correct its "erroneous practice", Xinhua said.   © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: exports, foreign trade, imports, Ministry of Commerce, trade, US-China relations Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Government Reform: Super-Size Me Posted: 15 Feb 2013 01:09 PM PST The Economist reports on government efforts to increase efficiency by merging China's multitude of bureaucratic bodies into  larger ministries, and concerns that these moves could prove unproductive: [...]The government believes that fewer and bigger ministries will boost bureaucratic efficiency. It could also, officials say, help the country change in more fundamental ways. [...]In recent weeks speculation has been growing that a new round of ministry mergers will soon unfold. The 370-odd members of the Communist Party's central committee are expected to meet later this month to finalise arrangements for the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, which begins on March 5th. Further steps to create what officials call a "big-ministry system" are likely to be discussed.[...] Bigger ministries, it is argued, should mean smaller government. [...]Some worry that creating bigger ministries with more responsibilities could backfire. Instead of making government more efficient, it could create even more powerful bureaucratic interest groups that could thwart efforts to make government nimbler and more responsive to public needs. In recent months discussion has burgeoned online in China about the possibility of creating a new commission to oversee economic and political reforms and ensure that ministries co-operate in carrying them out. The lack of co-operation has been evident recently in behind-the-scenes feuding over a blueprint for reducing the wealth gap. It was eventually published on February 5th, with a telling lack of detail. Officials say that the "big-ministry system" is not just about redefining bureaucratic boundaries, but is an important part of more thoroughgoing political reform. Alongside small government, they sometimes stress a need for "big society", with much greater non-governmental involvement in the provision of basic services.[...] Wen Jiabao's 2008 announcement of the plan to fuse government agencies into "super-ministries" also met with skepticism. © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: ministries reorganization, political reform, super-ministries Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

If Marx Had Weibo Posted: 15 Feb 2013 12:00 PM PST Netizen yansuanzhi (@验算纸) imagines Karl Marx in the age of the Chinternet.                                             "Genie" is a nickname for the propaganda departments. Checking the water meter is a clever excuse for the police to get someone's door open. State media blamed external hostile forces for the Southern Weekly protest in January.                                                                                           Via CDT Chinese. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Karl Marx, political cartoons, political humor, weibo Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Is It Time for American Schools to Recognize the Lunar New Year Holiday? Posted: 15 Feb 2013 09:12 AM PST China and members of its diaspora around the world have rung in the lunar new year. (By the Chinese Student and Scholar Association of Milan/Flickr) Should American schools celebrate the Lunar New Year? In both New York City and nationwide, more and more people are saying "yes." Just yesterday, a petition on the White House's official website calling for the establishment of Lunar New Year as a national holiday received over 39,214 signatures by its February 14 deadline, surpassing the 25,000 signature threshold required at the time of the petition's creation to require a White House response. Although that threshold has since been raised to 100,000, the petition was apparently created just hours before the White House announced the change, and it thus remains subject to the earlier, lower threshold. The petition is titled, "Establish Lunar New Year as a National Holiday. Give it the same importance and weight as the other cultural holidays." It reads: Our nation is composed of a wide array of nationalities and cultural background. It is imperative that we as a diverse nation to recognize and acknowledge that diversity. The Asian population represents a large percentage in U.S.'s population and is growing ever more. Students in public schools voluntarily take off from school to spend the Lunar New Year holiday at home with families. Yet, they are marked absent for their in-attendance. Please make this important holiday widely recognized and make it an official day off for students too. The holidays in our calendar year already consists of holidays from different cultures and definitely has room for Lunar New Year too. The Lunar New Year signifies important celebrations across the Asian American Diaspora, including the Chinese New Year. During this time, families comes together from all over to cook a large feast on the eve of the New Year. Designating the Lunar New Year as an official school holiday would enable students to spend more time with their families. In addition, when Asian-American communities act in observance of the holiday, community schools and businesses are noticeably affected. Currently, a student who notifies their school in anticipation of celebrating the holiday will receive an "excused" absence. But it remains an absence on the student's record, and the student still misses coursework from classes missed. At present, San Francisco is the only city in the United States that recognizes the holiday on its academic calendar. The New York push The push is happening at the local level as well. In New York City, officials have been calling upon Mayor Michael Bloomberg to make the Lunar New Year an official holiday for the New York public school system. New York State Senator Daniel Squadron, who represents an area that includes New York City's Chinatown, as well as then-Assemblywoman of Flushing Grace Meng, issued the same call in January of 2012, one that they and other local leaders have recently renewed. Squadron and Meng were the main sponsors of a bill in the New York State Legislature (A1883/S27) that aims to designate the Asian Lunar New Year as a school holiday for all city school districts of one million or more with an Asian population of 7.5% or more. According to Queens' Times Ledger, the legislation has been introduced five times before. In a letter sent to Mayor Bloomberg in January 2012, Squadron and Meng invoked the city's proud multiculturalism, arguing that "designating the Lunar New Year as a school holiday would be an important gesture to Asian Americans that their customs and contributions to our City are appreciated." Mayor Bloomberg has since expressed concerns about losing a school day. To counter this concern, Squadron and Meng have urged the Mayor to move the Brooklyn-Queens Day of professional development for school staff to coincide with the Lunar New Year. Speaking outside of Public School Number 20 in Flushing on January 31, 2013, State Senator Squadron remarked, "We pride ourselves on being one of the most diverse and welcoming cities in the world. It's time for our school calendar to reflect the huge number of kids whose families observe Lunar New Year." Last year, the New York City Department of Education reported 15.42% of the public school system population as identifying as Asian American. Nationwide, Asian-Americans number approximately 17.3 million, comprising about 5.6% of the total U.S. population. According to Pew Research, Asian Americans recently passed Hispanics to become the largest group of new immigrants to the United States. "One of every six New York City public school students is Asian American," Squadron said. "And they're forced to choose between spending their most important holiday with their family or going to school. From Chinatown to Flushing and throughout our city, a school holiday would allow students to celebrate Lunar New Year without missing class." The proposed bill states that keeping schools open on the Lunar New Year celebration "places an unfair burden on school children within the Asian community. It is impractical to keep the public schools open in Asian communities when there is a significant number of students and instructors who take the day off." In the past, the bill passed the state Assembly but stalled in the Senate. The bill needs to pass both houses to move forward in this new legislative session. Amy Spitalnick, Communications Director for Senator Squadron, told Tea Leaf Nation via e-mail, "We believe that if the Senate leadership allows the bill to come to a vote, there will be enough votes to pass it — since there is a majority of Democratic Senators despite the Republican coalition controlling the chamber — so we're urging the Republican leadership to pass it out of committee and bring it to a full vote." Gauging support State Senator Squadron tweeted his support of the bill and images of the press conference outside P.S. 20 on January 31, 2013, but Twitter discussion of the measure has been very light. Comments to a related article on the Gothamist blog dated January 23, 2012, titled "Should Lunar New Year Be A NYC School Holiday?" provided more detail, although they almost certainly cannot be taken to represent overall public sentiment toward the proposal. One Web user sarcastically commented on the school system's low student performance, writing, "Good thing public school students are exceeding state standards so they can get more time off." Noting Department of Education statistics on the ethnic makeup of New York City schools, one commenter wrote that "this should go without saying but, for more than one reason, the fact that 15% of students are Asian does not mean 15% of students celebrate Lunar New Year." In contrast, Ms. Spitalnick told TLN that response to the still-pending measure has been positive. "Overall, reaction has been very positive to this proposal throughout NYC's Asian American communities and in general. That includes the many community groups and individuals who have come out in support of it, folks who have contacted our office, and, of course, what we hear when we're out in the community talking about the proposal. A number of principals and teachers have highlighted the dramatic absence rates their schools experience on Lunar New Year." Time will tell what happens at the local and national levels. The White House is technically required to respond to the online petition, although there is no particular time frame within which it must do so. Meanwhile, state officials from all over New York City are throwing their weight behind the proposal, and now-U.S. Representative Meng has continued to trumpet her support. For now, the growing number of students celebrating the Lunar New Year in the U.S. will have to continue to rely on "excused absences."

Hawaiian Cliff Diving: a test of courage and loyalty Posted: 15 Feb 2013 12:30 AM PST In 1770, King Kahekili dove 63 feet from the cliffs to the water at Kaunolu Bay on the southern tip of Lanai island. He forced his warriors to follow suit, to demonstrate courage and to show loyalty. Hence forth, cliff diving has become a tradition in Hawaii. Today, at the Black Rock beach adjacent to Sheraton Hotel on Maui, we got to witness this tradition in a short ceremony. The ceremony was performed during sunset and the effect was, in a word, dramatic.

Photo: 春节2013, Chinese New Year 2013, near Chongqing, by Chris Aston Posted: 14 Feb 2013 11:47 PM PST 春节2013, Chinese New Year 2013, near Chongqing © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Chris Aston Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Tensions Mount as China Snatches Farms for Homes Posted: 14 Feb 2013 11:42 PM PST The Wall Street Journal explores land ownership in China, and the economic and political factors which lead to farmers being pushed off their land and often into lives of poverty: The root of the problem is an economic system that allows local government and developers to make vast profits from one-sided land deals with farmers who have little legal ability to resist. That situation, in turn, accounts in part for a gaping chasm in income distribution in China, contributing to unbalanced economic growth. The issue pits urban elites, who have been swept along by one of the greatest economic booms in history, against a 650 million-strong rural underclass that is falling further behind. Rapid urbanization has underpinned a decade of supercharged growth. From 2001 to 2012, China's gross domestic product notched average gains close to 10% a year. But with little constraint on urban expansion, and land artificially cheap, total investment in factories, real estate and infrastructure has surged out of control, rising to more than 48% of gross domestic product in 2011 from 36.5% in 2001. For China's farmers, precarious land rights mean little incentive to invest in improving agricultural output, and no asset that can be sold to fund a move to the city. Low compensation for the millions ousted from their land—coupled with ineligibility for social benefits because they aren't registered as urban residents—means for many a life of poverty on the edges of the cities. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: farmers, forced evictions, land rights, rural urban divide, wealth gap Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Vows of Change in China Belie Private Warning Posted: 14 Feb 2013 11:31 PM PST Since his ascent to the top of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping has pushed a public image of change and approachability, while announcing a crackdown on corruption at all levels of government. In the New York Times, Chris Buckley writes about the tensions between this public face and private messages he is sending to the party, including a speech in December when he appeared to take a firm stand against substantial political reforms: In Mr. Xi's first three months as China's top leader, he has gyrated between defending the party's absolute hold on power and vowing a fundamental assault on entrenched interests of the party elite that fuel corruption. How to balance those goals presents a quandary to Mr. Xi, whose agenda could easily be undermined by rival leaders determined to protect their own bailiwicks and on guard against anything that weakens the party's authority, insiders and analysts say. "Everyone is talking about reform, but in fact everyone has a fear of reform," said Ma Yong, a historian at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. For party leaders, he added: "The question is: Can society be kept under control while you go forward? That's the test." [...] The tension between embracing change and defending top-down party power has been an abiding theme in China since Deng set the country on its economic transformation in the late 1970s. But Mr. Xi has come to power at a time when such strains are especially acute, and the pressure of public expectations for greater official accountability is growing, amplified by millions of participants in online forums. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: CCP 5th generation, corruption, political reform, Xi Jinping Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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