Must-read China news by Danwei

You became a master sommelier in 1972. For 36 years since, you haven't been to China, so why is it suddenly on the map?

Because China's on the map for business. What I do in the United States is go around and talk to American executives, CEOs, presidents of companies. They can't come into a room like this [dining room] with a board of directors and not know something about wine, so they want me to train them. One day, I was talking to the CEO of a big company and the guy said, "do a lot of business in China." He says, "Wherever I go, they are constantly asking me, 'What's the right wine with this? And how do I open bottles? And why do I decant?' and all these things," and the guy said to me, "You should take your job and go to China."

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What's less clear is the relationship between the baozi affair and the backlash it has triggered. Sources were inclined to see the case as a conveniently timed catalyst for grander schemes of control. "It's looks like a broader effort to rein in the media, especially in Beijing ahead of the Olympics," said the editor.

The lightweight papers targeted so far certainly suggest this possibility.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:03 PM | Permalink

Walking into the first section of the exhibition, my leaflet told me I was embarking on "Part One: Strategic Decisions, Brilliant Course". Small huddles of potentially some of the best "Risk" teams in the world were being given tours. An Air (Force) Stewardess carried a provocative black cane to point at each exhibit. Her smile looked like it hurt. Her well-rehearsed explanations were translated by university students into words that were easy to stop listening to. "To establish a modernized army and to realize the transformation from the single infantry..." I decided to tag on the end of one group as I was attracted to a burly Zimbabwean general who possessed more medals than Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz combined. Unfortunately, his facial expression would barely twitch out of glum for the entire two-hour tour, not once opening up his chops to speak.

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Former Shanghai Party Chief Chen Liangyu is now detained in jail and waits for trial, China's disciplinary watchdog confirmed in Beijing Thursday.

Gan Yisheng, spokesman for the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said Chen's case has been handed over to prosecutors....

...At the press conference in Beijing Thursday, Gan said execution for corruption is proportionate and accords with 'China's national condition'.

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China completed on Wednesday the construction of a second blacktop highway across the Taklamakan Desert in ... Xinjiang...

...The 424-km highway runs from Aral, a city in central Xinjiang, and ends in the Hotan prefecture in the south of the region, traversing the Taklamakan Desert.

Construction of the road began in June 2005 with an investment of 790 million yuan (105 million U.S. dollars). Around 180 km was built by the People's Armed Police Force.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:38 AM | Permalink

The attacks on China for having the audacity to develop are becoming serious. Last week the OECD slammed the uppity Chinese for contaminating rivers and polluting the air. Where some of us look at China's rapid economic growth of 10% a year and see something positive, even mesmerising - the birth pangs of a great industrial nation - the OECD sees only 'dust, waste and dirty water'...

...Yeah, those greedy Chinese, migrating en masse to cities to work in factories or shopping malls or schools and hospitals... who do they think they are? Why don't they get back to the paddy fields where they belong?

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Picture, if you will, a slight breeze trying to muster the strength to ruffle your hair as you glide deftly through the wilds of Chinese traffic at a cool 35 km/hr. The slight buzz beneath you hums into your thighs with all the power of an electric pencil sharpener.

For only a few thousand kuai you've upped your rank on the food chain of China's roads by an exponential factor. No longer are you bound by your two feet, nor your heart beat. You are born again; born to ride!

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Alibaba.com, China's largest e-commerce company, confirmed on Monday that it is making preparations for an initial public offering, as it seeks to raise capital to expand its international presence.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:38 AM | Permalink

How are you going to make money?
....Subscription to HiPiHi will be free, although there will be products/services for sale within the world. We haven't yet decided whether there will be a HiPiHi currency as in SL yet - a lot depends on market regulations - but of course there will be trading."

Will you be "policing" the site?
As a platform provider we will not be policing HiPiHi as such. HiPiHi is a free world where users can do and create whatever they want - user-generated content is the key to HiPiHi. There will also be no age limit as to who can enter HiPiHi. Having said that, there will be technical restrictions to ensure that everything in HiPiHi complies with Chinese regulations - no pornography, gambling, violence or politically sensitive material. There will also be adult zones where access will be tightly controlled...."

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In its latest issue, Caijing magazine ventures beyond the hype, examining how the government might streamline consumer safety regulation in the wake of Zheng's death. Ace reporter Luo Changping (罗昌平) opens, most revealingly of all perhaps, by counting down the waning moments in Zheng's life. The lede, apparently an exclusive account, tries to lay to rest at least a couple questions: How was Zheng executed? And what were his real "last words"?

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Lonnie B. Hodge, the elder of the two, US army veteran, past recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts and resident of Asia for nearly two decades, has played a very active role in China's English-language blogging community since he started OneManBandwidth in 2004, supporting not just top blogger and photo contests, but also charity initiatives being played out across the country, all on top of maintaining a business column and drawing on life experiences (and a PhD) in decoding life as a teacher and business consultant in today's China on everything from cancer to censorship to corruption on campuses.

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The number of mainland Chinese visitors to Macao fell by 16.5 per cent last month after neighbouring Guangdong province brought in visa restrictions in May.

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It was a baking hot day for the opening of the Our Troops toward the Sun exhibition, but that didn’t stop thousands of people showing up for this impressive display which allows visitors to drive a tank, see Chairman Mao Zedong’s punch-bag or check out a model of a hydrogen bomb. Visitors seemed to particularly enjoy examining in detail the new uniforms of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Gone are the old-school, Long March-inspired, one-size-fits-all uniforms…

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Li Changchun, China's senior propaganda official, went to President Hu Jintao recently suggesting a ban on the July issue of the magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu.

The scholarly monthly had published a long and daring article by a Communist Party professor saying that the party's monopoly on power was the 'root cause' of many of the ills afflicting modern-day China, including corruption and peasant unrest.

Although Hu has generally shown a restrictive attitude toward free speech, he counseled tolerance this time, the report said, advising Li that it is healthier to have such debate out in the open than to let it ferment under the surface. The magazine remains on the stands...

... After a meeting of top Beijing propaganda officials, for instance, the capital's newspaper editors and television news directors last week were handed a list of newly off-limits subjects, Beijing journalists reported. The list included food safety as well as riots, fires, deadly auto accidents and bloody murder cases, they said.

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When did the "Harry Potter 7 Bar" begin to prepare for the translation team? Xiao Wang said: "Since July 2, the three or four core members had been working separately to make posts on the Internet for volunteer translators. During the earlier recruitment process, we came across another translation team. I spoke to the person in charge over there, and we decided to coalesce into a single team....On an average day, about 30 people leave their QQ numbers to join. About 200 volunteers have contacted me. We had to give tests to these people. The test material came from English-language paragraphs about Harry Potter taken from overseas websites. Those paragraphs do not appear in the Harry Potter novels themselves....We set up a work schedule of based upon division of labor. Basically, there are four or five people per group. The translation in each chapter has to go through translation, editing, proof-reading and final review. This is to ensure the quality of the translation."

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