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August 17, 2007

Instant noodle price fixing

From Xinhua:

China's top economic planner on Thursday determined that the China branch of the International Ramen Manufacturers Association (IRMA) has illegally fixed prices for instant noodles.

The IRMA branch had held three meetings of instant noodle manufacturers and related businesses early this year to discuss specific plans to raise prices, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The story quotes an instant noodle insider who says that price increases are necessary because of commodity price hikes, and also at the punishment that may get meted out to price-fixers.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:14 PM |

Lots of jobs, no qualified staff

From The Economist:

In a recent survey, 600 chief executives of multinational companies with businesses across Asia said a shortage of qualified staff ranked as their biggest concern in China and South-East Asia ... Across almost every industry and sector it was the same.

The report notes that airline pilots, lawyers, doctors, accountants and managers are all in short supply in China.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:04 PM |

Why do foreigners want to change China but not Italy?

Blogger The 88s:

China has a lot of problems — and I don’t really care anymore. And that’s a good thing...

...I used to live in Italy. The main thing I learned there is that Italians have their own fucked up ways of doing things that you aren’t going to change — ever ... So why do I always seem to run into foreigners who tell me how much they “care” about China and its problems? I never heard that phrase once in Italy.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:47 PM |

Chinese Net slang

CIC Data's blog has an interesting post about the argot used by Chinese netizens on forum websites about automobiles.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:36 PM |

Black market banks

Last week's Economist had a story about a black market bank:

Just over two years after a big unlicensed bank was last found in China, another surfaced this week. Last time the bank was based in Shanghai and operated in a small number of provinces. This time the illegal bank, which is based across the border from Hong Kong in Shenzhen, is on a far grander scale. It did business in every province of the country and its clients included state-owned enterprises and foreign multinationals. It appears to have been operating unnoticed by officials for up to eight years. In the Shenzhen area alone, it was reported to have done 4.3 billion yuan ($544m) of unspecified transactions in the year and a half to May.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:05 AM |

August 16, 2007

The fall of Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu

Caijing magazine has published an investigative report about the crimes of former Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu (in English translation).

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:33 AM |

More than 3 million cars in Beijing and counting

From Xinhua:

New car owners in Beijing has begun to use licence plates started with the letter of 'L' as the city's registered 3.07 million cars have devoured more letters on the alphabet with a daily register of more than 1,000 cars.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:26 AM |

Investigative journalism and advertising leverage

ESWN translates a post by Xu Min at 1510:

The media are supposed to have the sacred duty of monitoring the conditions, satisfy the right of the people to know and to communicate culture. But many media are now playing the role of delivering results to clients. They are more interested in swatting the flies than attacking the tigers. The essential principle and operational standard for chief editors, editors and reporters are never to touch any government units higher than the local levels and to let the advertiser clients become the "bosses" behind the scene.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:37 AM |

August 15, 2007

A lonely war on forest destruction

Michael Zhao at CDT translates a piece from Southern Breeze magazine (aka South Wind View) about Hainan's forests:

In early July, Hainan's people's congress conducted a blanket examination on its forest resources. The island also invited media outlets from Beijing and other provinces to "expose the shame (揭丑)," that the province has lost more than 1 million mu natural forests since 2000. This, inviting the media all over, was a first.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:33 PM |

More reflections on the Pope's letter: Heyndrickx v. Zen Edition!

Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap continues his discussion on the recent pastoral letter to China:

I feel comfortable stating that - diplomatic track, aside - China's Catholics are actively grappling with how to respond to and obey the Pope's letter and its call for reconciliation between adherents of the open and underground churches. Alas much of that grappling is out of sight of the media. Yet there are public hints as to what’s happening, and perhaps the best ones have been dropped in a terse public exchange between a Belgian priest and a Hong Kong cardinal, both of whom have long-standing ties to China's Catholic Church, but neither of whom can be said to belong to it.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:03 AM |

August 14, 2007

China to launch moon probe

Xinhua reports that China will launch its 'first circumlunar satellite as part of its ambitious moon exploration program enters the stage of implementation, sources with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Friday.' The article also says that China's space agency will launch a moon rover around 2012. How soon after that will there be a moon colony full of miners from Shanxi?

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 6:40 PM |

Signposts of inner-party democratization

David Bandurski at CMP summarizes media attention surrounding the 'historic list' of congressional delegates and other political matters, and offers a quantitative analysis of the coverage:

How significant are those numbers? At this point, they are more symbolic than anything else. Consider that with 30 provinces and autonomous regions in China, there are just over 300 differential candidates, or an average of around 11 per province. That means that in the vast majority of voting districts (county or city, etc.) there are no additional candidates. While party members are theoretically tasked with "electing" their delegates, there are in most cases no decisions to be made.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:22 PM |

The Bookworm grows in China

At Gadling, Kelly Amabile talks about the Beijing Bookworm and its plans to open an outlet in Suzhou. With photos.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:41 AM |

Review: The Old Capital

The Complete Review likes the "intriguing perspectives and presentation" of Howard Goldblatt's translation of The Old Capital (古都) by Chu T'ien-hsin (朱天心):

The characters constantly look for fixed points to hold onto, but the general feel in these pieces is of being untethered in the contemporary world: a hold is hard to find. Chu T'ien-hsin works this well into her stories. Her approach isn't particularly subtle, yet it doesn't feel forced, and with the twisting spirals of connexion (particularly in the long title-piece) she uses it to very good effect....Unusual, but worthwhile.

From History Wire.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:22 AM |

"Democratic Imperialism": Tibet, China, and the National Endowment for Democracy

Michael Barker at Global Research looks at financial connections between the US National Endowment for Democracy and Tibetan activists:

This article has demonstrated the close ties that exist between the Dalai Lama's non-violent campaign for Tibetan independence and U.S. foreign policy elites who are actively supporting Tibetan causes through the NED. This finding is particularly worrying given the high international media profile of many of the groups exposed in this article, especially when it is remembered that the NED's activities are intimately linked with those of the CIA. This funding issue is clearly problematic for Tibetan (or foreign) activists campaigning for Tibetan freedom, as the overwhelmingly anti-democratic nature of the NED can only weaken the legitimacy of the claims of any group associated with the NED.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:49 AM |

August 13, 2007

Maker of recalled toys kills himself

Michael Zhao at CDT translates an excerpt of a SMD report:

A phone call went to a reporter and the other end of the line said the boss of Foshan Lida Toys (利达玩具), whose nearly 1 million toys exported to US were recalled, killed himself at his own plant at Nanhai (南海平洲), near Guangzhou. Zhang Shuhong (张树鸿), the Hong Kong toy maker, hung himself in mid-afternoon on Aug. 11, leaving behind over 5,000 workers with his company.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:48 PM |

The panic about China's nuclear option

An opinion piece in The Daily Telegraph alleging that the Chinese government 'has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States' has caused ripples through the world's financial industry.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:57 AM |

Dubbed American and subtitled in-jokes

Polyglot Conspiracy reproduces and comments on a SCMP article on how foreign comedies are dubbed into Chinese, with particular focus on the Cantonese version of The Simpsons Movie:

As actress Josie Ho Chiu-yee (who dubbed Marge) confesses, "It's like a foreigner trying to translate a Stephen Chow Sing-chi film, it's very difficult and there will be something lost in the translation."

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:55 AM |

Guru Nanak with Chinese characteristics

From the Times of India:

After the Chinese-made kirpans (daggers) nearly wiped out local manufacturers of one of the five 'K's of Sikhism, it is the turn of Guru Nanak Dev's idols with 'Chinese characteristics' to flood shops across Punjab.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:39 AM |

Plastic surgery in North Korea

This article in Asian Sex Gazette says that 'businesses offering facial plastic surgery, skin maintenance and breat augmentation are becoming more popular among the wealthy class' in North Korea.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:15 AM |

Seattle - Beijing direct flights

According to a China Daily report, Hainan Airlines has applied to operate a non-stop flight between Beijing and Seattle in the United States starting next June. Microsoft should be happy.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:09 AM |

August 12, 2007

Anyp shuts down blogging services

From China Web2.0 Review:

Since July 26th, users can not access Anyp.cn's service. Anyp said there was something wrong with their data, and the service will be available soon. But yesterday, Zhang Jingjun, CEO of Anyp, announced in her personal blog that because some of Anyp.cn's users published inappropriate posts in their blog, therefore, Anyp has to shut down its service asked by regulatory departments, and Anyp will try to find other blogging service providers to take over its users and help them to move their previous posts.

There's also speculation that Anyp is dumping its free blogging platform to concentrate on its paid enterprice services.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:02 PM |

August in Beijing

JDM070812swim.jpg
This is a look at China as seen on the pages of glossy lifestyle magazines - and their swimsuit supplements - available in Beijing. Danwei also published a review of early August's pulp magazines.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:56 PM |

Publish your video and audio on Danwei

Danwei is looking for contributors of audio and video podcasts for our Danwei FM and Danwei TV platforms. If you have experience with or are interested in using audio or video to say something compelling about business, society, culture, or urban life in China, we want to talk to you.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:50 PM |

Blue skies in Beijing

A prediction that the air will be clear in August 2008 for the Olympics, but who knows what the weather manipulation treatment will do to those of who live in Beijing.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:44 PM |