Must-read China news by Danwei

Zhang's fortunes are not quite as good as Lin's. Every day he makes a little over 10RMB—in a month he might make about 300RMB. He accomplishes this by working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., sometimes going home as late as 8 p.m. Even though by national standards of income Zhang is deeply impoverished, he says that he does make enough to meet his daily needs for food and housing. Both Zhang and Lin. go to the same reclamation center at Erxian Bridge (near where Lin lives), and they receive the same amount of money for each item they turn in.

How could two people in roughly the same line of work and the same situation have such vast disparities in their income?

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:14 PM | Permalink

After repeated reports of confiscations from travellers, China's ministry of foreign affairs confirmed that the guide was banned last year because of a map that depicts the People's Republic of China and Taiwan as separate countries.

A spokesman said the book has some errors concerning the Taiwan issue, such as marking the Chinese mainland and Chinese Taiwan in different colours (on the map). These practices breach Chinese law.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:27 PM | Permalink

On September 5, 2007, twelve mainland publishers issued a "joint declaration" in "News Publishing Daily" in which they question the validity of Crown Press (Taiwan)'s claim of owning the copyright to the Eileen Chang copyrights. The declaration stated: "Recently, we found out that Crown Press (Taiwan) is holding an unregistered copy of a will that Eileen Chang has personally stated is 'no longer valid.'"

...On September 27, Crown Press (Taiwan) made a public rebuttal on the charges from the twelve publishers. The core of the debate revolves around two points: First, did the will of Eileen Chang go through the proper legal procedures to become legally valid? Second, if valid, does Eileen Chang's possessions include the copyrights.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:02 PM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:59 PM | Permalink

Now their prison records invoke sympathy from voters, who in turn think the wronged ex-cons deserve a chance at the throne. To wit, President Chen Shui-bian, Vice-President Annette Lu, former party chiefs and a bunch of legislators served in prison in the 1970s.

So imagine when the Communist Party falls. Then today's incarcerated rabble-rousers, folks in prison for stoking protests at the state complaints office in Beijing or shooting video of illegal housing demolition in Shanghai, will form a fully legal political party. The likes of former New York Times researcher Zhao Yan, former demolition activist Ye Guozhu and any number of Tiananmen Square activists now in prison will have a clean shot at running China.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:21 AM | Permalink

While the farmers living on the outskirts of greater Beijing are given strictly controlled allocations of water, in central Beijing the people in charge are celebrating the construction of the ultimate "water follies" which will be ready in time for the Olympic year. These include the vast lake that will surround the titanium, egg-shaped National Grand Theater next to the Great Hall of the People, just off Tiananmen Square, as well as the largest fountain in the world at the Shunyi "Water Heaven"—one that can shoot 134 meters high. The Shunyi water park has been built on the dried-out remains of the Chaobai River—no irony intended. And then there are the hundred golf courses that have been laid out in greater Beijing. These infamous "water guzzlers" occupy over 20,000 acres of land and their imported turf has become a serious drain on the city's dwindling water resources.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:07 PM | Permalink

The big mac of book cities the Beijing Publishing Logistics Center, located in Tongzhou district and an hour and a half drive from central Beijing, opened on November 8th. The BPLC is Asia's largest – perhaps the world's – book city and book warehouse. It stretches over 300,000 square meters and houses over 500 state-owned publishers and an estimated 300 private and overseas publishers, including Random House and Penguin.

Designed by Architectural Design Studio and shaped like an eight, the book center is jaw-dropping. At its grand opening the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) stated that this, comrades, was a historical moment; and that publishing had the responsibility for cultural development - no kidding.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:22 PM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:43 PM | Permalink

Chinese-language publishers have printed more than 1.8 million copies of the final book about boy wizard Harry Potter and are considering issuing more, executives said Wednesday...

...Mainland China's The People's Literature Publishing House said it issued 1.1 million copies of the book, the seventh in the Harry Potter series, but declined to provide sales figures.

Taiwan's Crown Culture Corp. has shipped 700,000 copies to book stores in Taiwan and Hong Kong...

...In China, which has long been the world's leading source of illegally copied goods, including designer clothes, movies and music, The People's Literature Publishing House marketing executive Sun Shunlin said its new Potter books are printed with anti-piracy watermarks on the first page.

China's General Administration of Press and Publication has also ordered officials to get tough on book pirates, he said.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:52 AM | Permalink

...one more photo of Tianjin's airport, this time to give a sense of the pollution's density. That's the main terminal in the distance - roughly 200 meters, I'd say. Like many Chinese cities, Tianjin's population burns wood and coal for heat during the winter months - and it was plenty cold when I was there. Also, Tianjin has a significant manufacturing sector, lots of cars, and - most important - it is downwind from Shanxi Province, the beating heart of China's coal country, and home to yet another thriving manufacturing sector.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:50 AM | Permalink

On November 6, some departments organized class monitors and deputy class monitors together for a meeting, during which plans and instructions aimed at candidate Sun Wenguang were given, and they were made to passed on to other students: "do not listen to Sun Wenguang's speeches." On November 7, certain departments held an emergency meeting for Party members, the notice for which read, 'some independent candidates have received support from overseas powers, and want to campaign; stop your classmates from listening [to them]. Those who go listen, if seen, will be brought back. No votes are allowed for independent candidates; anyone who votes for them will be found out; students who are found out and those directly responsible for them will be investigated.'

I firmly object to the unfairness of Shandong University's public powers.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:27 AM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:03 PM | Permalink

[Hengda Real Estate Group and Star River,] two property developers based in southern China plan to list in Hong Kong next year, underscoring the continuing appetite for development capital to take advantage of the mainland’s surging real estate sector...

A number of privately owned Chinese property developers have listed in Hong Kong recently and dealmakers say that there are more in the pipeline...

...Also making its debut in Hong Kong last month was Soho China, a Beijing-focused commercial property developer, which raised $1.7bn.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:41 PM | Permalink

Yahoo! has definitely evolved over the past two years since Shi Tao was sentenced. They started out on the defensive, with statements that sounded as if they believed that Shi Tao, dissident Wang Xiaoning and at least two other people were acceptable collateral damage in the noble effort to bring the Internet to China. After being featured as number one negative example on the cover of human rights reports, yelled at in congress twice, a victims' awsuit, and countless anti-Yahoo campaigns by free speech and human rights groups, they are finally doing what many have been advising them to do for some time: admit that their actions have helped to ruin human lives, and admit that they made mistakes.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:49 AM | Permalink

Dongtan sounded too good to be true. An entire eco-city three-quarters the size of Manhattan built from scratch? Who's building this? Who's paying for it? What Chinese companies are involved? What are the obstacles and challenges to this endeavor? Have there been setbacks? Is the technology behind it feasible? How will construction affect the surrounding wetlands? Will local Chinese people be able to afford living there? Why build a new city when so many of China's other cities need sustainable design? Has actual progress been made? (Apparently, by 2030 there will be more than 500,000 people living in Dongtan. Has anyone moved in, yet?)

Legitimate questions, I think, that demand thorough answers.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:36 AM | Permalink

The roof's owner is Zhao Chunjian, a professor at Shanghai University of Electric Power, who last winter climbed up and installed his self-designed "domestic power station". On December 15, 2006, Zhao's solar power plant produced its first watt, and to date it has produced 2,750 kilowatt-hours. In fact, the clean energy the panels produce is enough to power Zhao's entire apartment below.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:22 AM | Permalink

Researcher Wang then led things to a climax by saying that Lust, Caution's female character was based upon the patriotic martyr Zheng Pingyu but Eileen Chang wrote this story because she was a Chinese traitor who hated the people's heroine Zheng; furthermore, Eileen Chang was ugly and therefore jealous of the beautiful Zheng. Wang concluded emphatically: "The ugly female Chinese traitor Eileen Chang wrote a story filled with dark and vile imagination in order to express her hatred against the beautiful heoine Zheng." That was how Lust, Caution was created!

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:09 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Inc. today settled a lawsuit brought against it on behalf of imprisoned Chinese journalist Shi Tao, and pro-democracy writer Wang Xiaoning, according to court documents. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Yahoo could not be reached for comment.

The settlement comes after a contentious Congressional hearing last week in which members of the U.S. House of Representatives accused Yahoo of providing information to the Chinese government that led to the arrest and imprisonment of journalist Shi Tao. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) also accused Yahoo officials of lying to Congress about how much Yahoo knew of the facts surrounding the case when it provided information to the Chinese authorities.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:05 PM | Permalink

'It seems that iPhone is hot in some markets. We are willing to discuss with Apple,' Li Zhengmao, executive director and vice president of China Unicom told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau...

...China Unicom's rival China Mobile Ltd. said Tuesday it was in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to China.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:43 AM | Permalink

When I met one of Baidu's program managers a few months ago, I told her I'd be interested in talking to folks from Baidu Baike, just to let them know how to conform to the GFDL. It was actually fine to copy Wikipedia's content, and also to censor stuff they don't like, as long as they complied with the GFDL.

She got back to me saying Baidu's folks on that side were "scared" of talking to folks involved with Wikipedia, after the strong comments by Wikimedia Foundation chairperson Florence Nibart-Devouard.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:42 AM | Permalink

"The major purpose is to provide better service to the media, it is not to monitor the press or threaten anyone," they said. "Some reporters like to cover sport and some others are very interested in politics. So we have some kind of data and information concerning that."

Well, no harm in that, I suppose. But it raises the age-old question of how efficient one's minders are. Will we be allowed to check the list? What if by some mistake we are left off, and judged to be fake reporters? Will we know this is the reason for all our interview requests being turned down?

Worse - what happens if the man from the Financial Times is accidentally confused with the man from Kazakh Wrestling Weekly? Just think of the chaos that might ensue.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:35 AM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:01 PM | Permalink

The written circular, which the paper said was delivered last week, warned reporters that they should take particular care with four sensitive topics: air quality, food safety, the Olympics torch relay and the Paralympics. "It also requires state media to put a spin on those topics in order to 'offset the bad publicity' created by those previous reports," the newspaper quoted an editor informed of the new policy as saying.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:00 PM | Permalink

The paper factory has previous experience in training Burmese technicians, so it could win the bid for this newly program. Burma is a mysterious country to me, the military government, religion and their customs, not until the day I saw them had the mystery been revealed. In this factory, I heard of that there was once a batch of training team which is led by a military leader. It was the basic impression of mine to the people from Burma and their country. A length of two months is not long in one's life, but when you get along with foreigners in such length of time, it seems that you can learn much from them and their country.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:05 PM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:07 AM | Permalink

China plans to relax rules that are currently barring HIV/AIDS carriers from entering the country, the health ministry said on Monday.

Ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an said the decision was based on current knowledge of the way the AIDS virus spreads.

He said the existing restrictions, strongly criticised by AIDS activists as discriminatory, were introduced when people were 'unfamiliar' with how the disease may spread.

Mao did not disclose when the new rules would take effect, or if the relaxation would mean a complete end to limits on HIV/AIDS carriers' entry into China.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:53 AM | Permalink

Sites that "attempt" to be multi-lingual by offering you a cheezy array of "click this flag to translate into this language" buttons think that they've done their task at the end of the day. To be fair, they have - to some extent - if the only language they're fluent in is the Anglican tongue. When a guy proficient in up to ten languages comes along for the test drive, however...

Windows Live Translator Beta looks like a straightforward site. Give it a website or paragraphs on end to devour and translate, and it'll do its task. Except (and this is not just a "Microsoft problem"), it does the task very poorly.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:13 AM | Permalink

While we met a fabulous group of people, that group was weighted towards expats, folks from multinational companies with offices in China, Chinese who've been educated abroad, and Chinese bloggers like Isaac Mao who blog in English as well as Chinese. It was also weighted towards the internet industry and linux, while in the US Foo camps, we draw from these areas, but also hardware hacking, gaming, publishing, public policy, PC software, and the sciences. In a show of hands, about 1/3 of the attendees were programmers; 1/3 were entrepreneurs (with overlap between the two groups.) There was no one from any state owned enterprise -- still a huge economic sector in China. The university segment was also lightly represented.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:09 AM | Permalink

The parallels between Mao's China and Mugabe's Zimbabwe are undeniable. Mao was constantly worried the western powers, and after the Sino-Soviet split the Russians, were trying to usurp the CPC's power in China. It's that conspiratorial nature that eventually led Mao launch the Cultural Revolution. And things don't appear to be too much different in Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe, given Ms. Chimene's suggestions.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:10 PM | Permalink

The three men went into Li's room and started a conversation with him. They started off by saying that it's so difficult for a non-Beijinger to work in Beijing and that other lawyers from elsewhere had had difficult experiences. They also offered to befriend us, and to be "helpful" to us. Slowly, they cut to the chase, educating us with words of persuasion. Don't bother to be involved with "trivial matters" in the society, they said. The world is what it is, how can you lawyers change it? Then, they directly asked him not to attend the funeral for Bao, who was not his relative, they said.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:07 PM | Permalink

One booth featured a laser tag-like shooting range, except it looked more like a military recruiting event. Instead of toy-looking guns you might see elsewhere, these looked like something that might intimidate the Taliban. Old folks, children, and women alike all took turns firing what can only be described as a plastic bazooka at a water cooler fitted with sensors.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:19 PM | Permalink

China reported 218,107 AIDS cases by the end of August this year, with an increase of 3,807 cases in August, said Dai Zhicheng, director of the Chinese Association of STD (sexually transmitted disease) & AIDS Prevention and Control.

In central Henan and southwestern Yunnan provinces, the reported infected cases exceeded 30,000, Dai said at a recent seminar to raise people's awareness of AIDS in Liaoning Province.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:20 PM | Permalink

The new labor law is going to apply to all employers, no matter how few employees (even one!) they might have. It is going to require all labor contracts be in writing and it will impose significant penalties on employers for failing to comply with this. Employees can claim double salary for months worked without a contract for up to 12 months' salary. This rule is absolutely going to apply to "informal" employment relationships common to so many foreign businesses doing business in China. Expect a whole slew of lawsuits to be filed on January 1, 2008, by employees seeking double damages for the 12 months they just completed without a contract.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:32 AM | Permalink

"Wolf Totem," a Chinese novel that has attracted critical and popular acclaim for its thought-provoking reflections on Chinese culture and society by Jiang Rong, a publicity-shy first-time author who writes under a pen name, has won the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:27 AM | Permalink