Must-read China news by Danwei

In the two years that the original water system worked the community had good, free water, but, the quality of the work ensured that the system wouldn't last. After we went in last year and assessed the problem, privately raised the funds to redo the system and worked with the villagers.....90 households now have running clean water into the walled yards of their houses....

Well, two days after the water began running the local government showed up, saw the progress that had been made and decided to take action: everyone would now have to pay a water tax, despite the fact that there had not been one even during the two years when the old system actually worked, and despite the fact that the government had nothing to do with the expensive repair of the broken system.

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On a recent Friday night, Anna and Avita huddle in one room, dressed in matching Hello Kitty tops and whispering to each other in English on a bed strewn with a Chinese checkers board, marbles and miniature plastic figurines.

Here at home, everybody talks to Anna in English. Her brother and sister are perfectly fluent in English and Chinese. Everyone calls her "Anna," instead of her Chinese name "He Sijia."

After nine months in China, Anna still does not speak much Chinese, a notoriously difficult language to learn. She says she can understand some things "if it's really easy."

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Officials of the CSRC, which regulates China's stock markets but requires the assistance of the country's Public Security Bureau to prosecute malfeasance, told a news conference Friday that their investigation dates to early 2008, CCTV said. The officials said the probe touches on unusual movement in the Shanghai-listed shares of appliance services company Sanlian Commercial Co. and in Shenzhen-traded developer Beijing Centergate Technologies Co.

The two small companies have in the past been cited in China's financial press as possible takeover targets for GOME, reports that quoted company officials indicating Mr. Huang hoped to obtain an exchange listing in mainland China by buying a traded company. Regulators on Friday suggested a private company substantially controlled by Mr. Huang called Beiing Pengrun Investment Co. was involved in irregular asset restructurings of the listed companies, media reports said.

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Bank of China said Friday that it had received the green light from the Swiss Federal Banking Commission to open a private bank and institutional asset-management arm in Geneva. It said it would start operations "immediately" in a "prestigious building" of the Quartier des Banques at 3 rue du General-Dufour.

Bank of China Suisse will offer "top quality private-banking services to Chinese as well as international, ultra-high-net-worth and very-high-net-worth clients." The definition of ultra-high-net worth varies from bank to bank, but it could typically represent an individual or family that owned assets worth at least $50 million.

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The lawyers decided to choose a class-action approach after several suits against milk producers were thrown out before trial.

As of November 20, the OCI had been retained to represent 126 plaintiffs in class-action litigation against producers of the tainted milk. Within that group, 54 were suing Sanlu.

According to Xu, the letter they handed over to Sanlu was a demand for fair negotiation and settlement out of court to avert court action. They told the EO that they warned Sanlu that the suit would be filed at the High People's Court of Hebei Province in one week if they did not receive an acceptable response.

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Guangdong-based China Southern said in a statement Thursday its parent, China Southern Air Holding Co., is considering injecting the capital into the listed unit. China Southern also is considering a private share placement, but no decision has been made, the statement said.

The capital injection will help with China Southern's short-term cash flow needs, but it is a "drop in the ocean" compared with its high debt levels and committed capital expenditure, said UBS analyst Damien Horth. "This is a temporary solution while the government considers possibly wide-ranging industry restructuring," he said.

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Wang misused 798 million yuan raised from investors, buying himself luxury goods and lending money to others, while continued to swindle investors who visited the company and told them the business was doing very well, the court said.

One investor committed suicide after realizing he had been duped and Wang's actions also caused huge economic losses for investors and many subsequently suffered depression, the court said.

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China has to postpone the 11th summit with the European Union scheduled in early December because of French leader's planned meeting with the Dalai Lama, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said here Wednesday night.

The decision is made because the summit does not enjoy a good atmosphere, nor can it achieve expected goals, Qin said, adding the cause and responsibility do not lie on the Chinese side.

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Many saw Chinalco's stake buy as an attempt to spoil the BHP-Rio Tinto tie-up -- a defensive maneuver backed, and maybe even engineered, by Beijing.

A joint BHP-Rio Tinto entity would have had enormous pricing power over key raw materials such as iron ore -- no good thing for China's steel companies. And using Chinalco to intervene was certainly more palatable than a similar move by one of China's sovereign wealth funds or a consortium of steel companies would have been.

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Some Chinese, such as economist Qin Zunwen, hope the four-day event could lead to a broader liberalization of gambling laws nationwide.

"The amounts bet this week will be small, and it will be a kind of entertainment, but the methods will be more extensive than other places have tried," says Qin, who has been leading the fight to legalize a form of track betting.

At this week's races, people can wager on "horse lotteries" by buying a set-price ticket to guess on a winning horse or series of races, rather than betting any amount. The price limit -- and calling it a lottery -- is a way to keep novice gamblers from losing too much money.

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I interviewed 29 elderly residents of Shanghai, many of whom live in either Jin Yang Old People's Home or Fahua Homes for the Aged - proceeds from the book will go directly to these two homes. The interview process was full of unexpected surprises. It's slightly unnerving to find out that your elderly ayi, as a child, saw a man beaten to death by soldiers simply for dancing a traditional folk dance. Or to interview an old man, who looks the same as every other old man on the street, and find out that he once painted Mme Chiang Kai-shek's portrait.

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The newspaper also refers to a Nov. 22 report on reaction to the record published in The Wall Street Journal, highlighting how some Chinese fans of GN'R said they were distressed by the album title. The Beijing report noted other Western coverage of GN'R as well, and quoted Internet postings that said foreign reporters writing about China like to "hype" talk of independence movements and democracy to show off, "so that when they go back home they can be heroes."

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One of the things that I like about Hangfeng's work (and Hangfeng) is his willingness to go out and "report" his creations. Last year, for example, he traveled to Zhejiang Province's small-scale, export-oriented Christmas ornament workshops to obtain footage for his "Christ Mass Production," an installation that - again - playfully challenged viewers to think about the consumer waste stream (in this case, a Christmas waste stream). Meanwhile, the filmed footage he obtained there remains - to my knowledge - the only such footage of those workshops in existence. It's good journalism and it's good art.

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Samsung, Panasonic, Nokia and other leading foreign brands were on the list of Chinese subsidized household appliances for farmers.

The Chinese government promised to grant a 13 percent subsidy for household appliances for farmers' on purchase of these household appliances to improve 900 million rural residents' living standards and boost domestic consumption, and a pilot program began in December 2007.

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Home-appliance tycoon Huang Guangyu is under investigation for market manipulation, Caijing magazine's website reported Sunday. The report quoted unnamed sources close to Huang as saying that he was taken away by investigators late Wednesday. Huang's company Gome (国美) was not immediately available for comment, but the report quoted sources as saying that the Hong Kong-listed company was likely to issue a statement soon.

The report said Huang was allegedly involved with stock price manipulation in a company controlled by his elder brother Huang Junqin.

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Dai [Jianjun] is the owner of the Dragon Well Manor, a restaurant in Hangzhou, the provincial capital. In an age of industrialization, dire pollution, and frequent food scares, the Dragon Well Manor is committed to offering its guests a kind of prelapsarian Chinese cuisine. Dai assures them that everything he serves will be made from natural ingredients, untainted by pesticides or melamine, and with no added MSG.

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At a news conference on preparations for the winter in the quake zone, Wei Hong, executive vice governor of Sichuan, gave the student death toll as 19,065 -- nearly a quarter of the total death count -- a figure that was immediately quoted in stories by Chinese state-run and foreign news services.

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The General Administration of Sport of China (GASC) and the Chinese Football Association (CFA) are currently considering taking back the ownership of football clubs from companies to local sports bureaus, a move clearly trying to put Chinese football under its controversial juguo or whole-nation sports regime.

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In the interview which follows, Marjorie makes it clear that she's not writing "China novels." At the same time, though, she is happy to note that many - if not most? - of her books have varying degrees of China content, ranging from entire set-ups and narrative lines, to simple details about clothing and accents. On a deeper level, she admits to being inspired by Chinese literature (among many other sources of inspiration), and - in the case of her most recently published novel, The Iron Hunt - by a quote from Lu Xun.

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The shoot also brought the concept of national identity to the foreground by questioning some of our basic assumptions about what it means to be part of a nation. If, as people noted, the Uyghurs made convincing Mexicans when they were adorned with the accoutrements of some stereotypical construction of Mexico, what does this mean for the way that we build so many of our assumptions about ethnicity ethnic minorities and the nation?

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:10 AM | Permalink

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told a gathering of Chinese product manufacturers here that the U.S. hopes to work with China as part of a global product-safety strategy that would eventually involve opening similar inspection offices in India, South America, Europe and the Middle East.

"This is not about China and the U.S.," Leavitt said. "This is about a response to a large shift in global trading patterns. We have to invent solutions to problems that didn't exist 15 years ago."

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Cantonese speakers faced bleak movie prospects with the coming of sound, so Zhang Huichong decided it was time for a career change. Reverting to his first love - magic - he formed a performance troupe to tour South China staging magic acts. After a successful run in several Chinese cities, Zhang decided to chance taking the show to Jakarta, where there was a sizable Chinese populace. When the company opened in Jakarta, the demand for tickets overwhelmed the box office, and it was reported the crowd outside the theater was so thick it blocked all traffic on the street. With this encouragement, Zhang took the company, more than 20 people, on a tour of Southeast Asia, drawing packed houses in Singapore and other cities.

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This autumn, after six years of 20 percent or more annual growth, vehicle sales were flat or slightly negative, a shock to an industry that has borrowed heavily to build ever more factories for a market that had once seemed insatiable.

Citing the $25 billion in loans that Congress has already approved to help American automakers increase green research, and the additional $25 billion in loans the American industry is seeking this week to cope with a hobbled economy, Chinese executives are now telling the government here that they also need emergency measures. They are seeking lower taxes on new cars, lower fuel prices and increased grants for research into hybrid cars and new technology.

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External demand and investment cannot be a lasting solution for China, just as loan-backed, high consumption was unsustainable for the US. There has been a consensus that China should transform its growth pattern and rely on domestic consumption, but many people tend to deny the costs of such a transformation, or they weren't actually willing to bear the costs.

By comparison, a RMB 4 trillion investment plan would be more effective. Indeed, it gives first-aid to the economy and restores confidence in the public, and policy-makers are praised for their resolute decisions. However, we hope this plan results in more than two years of steady growth, though it is the most urgent thing to do at this moment.

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But Bank of America's move to increase its stake in one of China's biggest state-owned lenders is potentially controversial at a time when the Treasury Department is pumping $250 billion into the nation's largest banks, including $15 billion into Bank of America, as a way of boosting lending during a time of crisis.

"I am just wondering if Congress is not going to look at it and say 'you are taking [federal] money and investing it in China,'" said banking analyst Nancy Bush of NAB Research LLC in Annandale, N.J. "Is this necessarily the time to make an investment that is that in-your-face?"

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"There is a slim chance for the trapped workers to survive, because of heavy flooding, " said Wang. Water from a nearby river rushed into the tunnel, rising as high as 6m at one point.

The incident happened at 3:20 p.m. when a 75-m section of a tunnel under construction collapsed in Xiaoshan District, trapping about 50 workers and 11 vehicles. The cause of the collapse is being investigated.

Most of the trapped workers were saved. At last count, the number of injured was 24, all of whom were initially hospitalized. Eleven of the injured have been discharged.

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Organizationally, Yanhuang Chunqiu is under the Yanhuang Cultural Research Association, which is underneath the Ministry of Culture. The Ministry of Culture has suggested to Yanhuang Chunqiu that its publisher, deputy publisher, secretary general and the editorial committee are too old and should be replaced. However, Yanhuang Chunqiu is not an official magazine, and does not receive a dime from the government towards its operations. Therefore, the government has no right to meddle with personnel issues in as much as it has not right to challenge the age of the boss of a private enterprise.

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Hissing and venting near the town of Jimsar, the underground fire at the Shuixi Gou coalfield is thought to be emitting about 423,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year into the atmosphere.

That sum has a value. Carbon credits can be traded under a mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, and markets already have been set up.

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Recording of Professor Frank Dikötter talking about his new book on the China's republican era and debating it with his audience. Frank Dikötter argues that the years from 1900 to 1949 were characterised at all levels of society by engagement with the world. Frank Dikötter is a professor of the Modern History of China at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong.

Posted by Eric Mu at 11:04 AM | Permalink

As the internet has grown rapidly in China in recent years, there has been an attendant upsurge in cases where ordinary citizens (公民), or 'netizens' (网民), are arrested, jailed or otherwise punished for things they dared to write. The latest case to have Web users up in arms involves the alleged sacking of a substitute professor at Hubei University for Nationalities after the teacher wrote an entry on his personal weblog criticizing the school's anniversary celebrations.

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If a local government wants to build a port somewhere, even if it is doing so entirely with its own money, it has to receive National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) permission to do so. If it is a state sponsored project, which means it is part of the five-year plan (yes, those still exist), a project can lobby the NDRC for central funding. However, even if that were the case, the majority of the financing typically comes from local government (or SOE) self-raised capital and bank loans. Thus, the 4 trillion is not all central government money; the majority will come from local budget and bank loans.

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Chinese Women's Hockey Team continued their winning streak by beating Japanese Team 2-0 in Shanghai, securing themselves a shot of playing in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics after three straight wins over Norway, Czech Republic and Japan...

...Only six of Wang's teammates get their paychecks every month. Others can only receive an allowance of RMB 900 (roughly $ 130 USD) per person in a best month, while most of the time playing for nothing. 'Isn't it unimaginable we're supported by our families? People ask why we still play. We play only because we love this sport'

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Looks like the stranger-than-fiction tale of Yang Jia just took another bizarre turn. Liu Xiaoyuan, a Beijing lawyer who has been closely following the case, reported on Monday that the cop killer's mother, Wang Jingmei, has finally emerged in public after disappearing for four months. According to Liu's blog, Wang was secretly kept in a psychiatric hospital run by the Beijing Police Bureau throughout the prosecution of her son. A female officer who answered the phone at Beijing's Office of Compulsory Treatment --which is responsible for cases like Wang's--refused to comment or give her name when contacted Wednesday.

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Under a deal signed by the four parties in Geneva on Thursday, China agreed to transfer Xinhua's role in overseeing foreign financial information suppliers to an independent regulator and to allow such suppliers to set up commercial operations.

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The series of Xinhua reports on the Chongqing taxi strike is important evidence of the changing nature of media control in China, of the emergence of Control 2.0. But we can also glimpse important changes in the Xinhua coverage itself.

One of the most noticeable changes is the use by Xinhua of the term "transport strike," or bayun (罢运), which points clearly to a rights struggle and is far less neutral in tone than the "mass incident" designation generally used for such news by state media.

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The answer to this question is embedded in the one important question that Sixty Minutes didn't bother to ask. Namely: does all of the waste in Guiyu come from the US and the developed world? Or, is it just possible, that China, too, is contributing to the problem?

...Why should this matter? I'll offer two reasons.

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What's really going on? Even with the weak dollar, 100 million is still nothing to sneeze at. The Variety fluff piece goes on to say the film is being put together by "China's Fontelysee Pictures in collaboration with the Emagine Studio of Hollywood." Though that line depicts a grand US-Chinese partnership, I believe these two entitles are in fact run by the same people, and that "Emagine" is a Chinese company with offices in the US....Even the name "Emagine" seems designed to conflate it with Imagine Studios, a real Hollywood entity, much in the manner of those Asian knockoff "Adidos" and "Pummas". Same with Irv Kershner - the very mention of his name is supposed to evoke sci-fi spectacular, though his involvement in high-profile movies is two-decades old. Chinese entrepreneurs will soon learn Western audiences and mass-media are more sophisticated than that.

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Former President Chen Shui-bian on Tuesday was led from a prosecutor's office in handcuffs after being questioned for five hours on money-laundering allegations.

Taiwan television stations, which broadcast images of Chen being taken away, said that Chen arrived at Taipei district court, where a judge could order his detention.

Chen could be heard shouting, "This is a political persecution" and "Cheers for Taiwan," as he was being led away.

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I always pretend to be a cultured person to trick girls into bed...

America's 911 incident was orchestrated by me, do not tell anyone...

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From ESWN:

One Nation On Each Side, With Cleavage Between

Li Yanjin wore this low-cut bright-red dress with the People's Republic of China flag on the right side and the Republic of China flag on the left side. She was asked about whether she was concerned about being criticized in Taiwan and banned in China.

She said that the co-existence of both flags on her body represents cross-strait peace. She said: 'I don't understand politics, but the economy is right now more important.'

Click through for pictures.

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Is it possible, in other words, that a terrible press law in China is preferable to vast and secretive propaganda system? Perhaps China's media can absorb the hits from a press law and work actively and openly for fairness while effectively neutralizing (over time) its nastiest enemy, the Central Propaganda Department, whose purpose might be diminished.

Is a bad law better than no law?

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Cab drivers went on strike in another two Chinese towns on Monday, demanding government intervention on issues including high monthly cab rental fees and unlicensed taxis.

Just a week ago, cab drivers in China's fourth largest city, Chongqing, launched a two-day strike to protest insufficient supplies of compressed natural gas (CNG), which fuels most cabs in the city, competition from unlicensed cabs, high fines for traffic violations and the unfair division of fares between drivers and companies.

No cabs were seen running in Sanya, a major tourist city in south China's island province of Hainan, on Monday...

...Also Monday, cab drivers in the Yongdeng County of northwest China's Gansu Province staged a strike near the county's transport bureau office building.

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Hordes descended on the Sixth Guangzhou Sex Culture Festival yesterday, paying 30 yuan (US$4.50) to get in -- triple the fee of 2006.

The annual event, which began in 2003, was free for its first three years. Organizers began charging 10 yuan in 2006, mainly to keep visitor numbers down and children out, according to Zhu Jiaming, deputy chief of the Guangdong Provincial Society of Sexology.

This year's festival features activities from talks on birth control to sex toys, a photo show on sexual health and eugenics, forums on sexology, quizzes and lingerie shows.

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One of the main problems with the approach of the Chinese authorities is that it doesn't seem to differentiate between addiction to the internet and addiction to online games. It is clear to anyone that has ever stepped into a chinese internet cafe that the real addiction problem here is to games, and not to the internet itself.

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China has approved a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) government spending package to boost domestic demand and help the world's fourth-largest economy ride out the global credit crisis.

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As for government guidance, if I have to watch one more mainland film where guys in ponytails stand around brooding at each other in between awesome-yet-tedious battle scenes and tepid, sexless interludes with winsome looking girls I might have to commit suicide by stir-frying my own head in peanut oil.

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Such high character. So good. When can China be like this?

I love America. I am so fond of America.

Now there is hope for a Chinese to become president next time.

I do not know why there are this many Chinese who support Obama. After he takes office, it will only be even more disadvantageous for China.

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A CCTV presenter was attacked by separatists while in Taiwan covering the visit by the mainland's chief envoy to the island.

Chai Lu, the presenter of CCTV's 'Cross the Taiwan Strait' program, was recognized and attacked by a mob as she was leaving the Royal Hotel in Taipei on Wednesday night, where Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang party, was holding a banquet to welcome Chen Yunlin, the visiting chief of the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.

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A traffic police detachment was assaulted by local people from Friday afternoon to early Saturday morning after the death of a motorcyclist in China's southern city of Shenzhen, the city's public security bureau said.

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In China, about 25 foreign banks, including Citigroup Inc. and HSBC Holdings PLC, operate through holding companies that are standalone entities, largely walled off from their global operations by restrictions on how capital can move across China's borders.

The structure is partly meant to protect China's ability to influence the value of its currency and to reduce its exposure to global financial risks, but puts the entities under the regulatory authority of the Chinese government. It also leaves some of the world's biggest financial institutions highly dependent on China's money markets to fund the growth of their operations in the country.

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China's Internet is now the meme pool for youth culture. It's really the crucible of contemporary culture, as I've said many times because I have a weakness for alliteration. It's where new language is born, where new literary talent gets discovered, it's where music (most of it awful, admittedly) gets popularized, and it's where brands can either soar or get completely obliterated. Language travels from the Internet to everyday life. A phrase like PK which comes from MMORPGs is now everyday parlance, even to people who've never touched a computer.

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The official Xinhua News Agency said late Tuesday that authorities in the northeastern city of Shenyang found that the factory mixed an ingredient tainted with melamine into feed sold to the country's leading egg producer, Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group.

...Xinhua said the owner of the Mingxing Feed Processing Factory, Gao Xingtao, was detained and the remaining tainted animal feed made by the factory was destroyed.

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The reason why I got mad was that some website was "under pressure" to pretend that they represented the author and asked other websites to delete the posts. I don't understand why this website had to do this. I wondered if the coal mines paid huge sums to delete the post. So I had to use my real name to accept the responsibility and consequences for my actions as backed by my writing and photos. At the time, I did not think too much beyond bringing out the truth and attacking the lies.

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The Nigerian government's motives are likely both political and financial in nature, analysts say. A turnover of leaders has put major foreign contracts in the country under review and in limbo. Meanwhile, the drastic fall in oil prices has squeezed Nigeria's budget, limiting its ability to finance major infrastructure projects. The 17-month-old administration of President Umaru Yar'Adua has expressed skepticism about the terms for infrastructure and oil contracts negotiated by its predecessor and has called the 2006 contract with China Railway Construction "over inflated."

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Taiwan is considering building a bridge linking Kinmen, one of its outlying islands, to Xiamen city in Fujian Province on the mainland, the Central News Agency said on Sunday, in a sign of improving cross-Straits ties.

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Certainly it's a common expectation that a foreign correspondent will be a white middle-aged male, and subverting that expectation can be both entertaining and a useful reportorial tool. In this particular case, it worked to our advantage. The official we interviewed was outrageously condescending and treated us like idiots right until he realised belatedly that he'd admitted all sorts of shortcomings in AIDS provision on tape.

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But it appears the NFL isn't giving up. Standing in the Beijing subway at the tail end of rush hour, I was surprised to see highlights from last week's game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Philadelphia Eagles broadcast on the small flat-panel televisions inside the car. Fellow passengers watched the spectacle with passing interest, though admittedly it's not hard to find a captive audience among bored commuters. At the end of the highlight reel, the NFL China logo appeared briefly on the screen. Branding at work.

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Some nearby villages suffered thefts after the quake, but not Zhongba. There also have not been disputes over the fair distribution of aid. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the government provided extra pork to the villages. However, two neighbouring settlements refused the extra meat, fearing arguments would arise over its division. So Zhongba got their pork too, and had a feast.

According to Wu, the patrol team's greatest achievement is providing the local people with a sense of belonging to a community. Since village reform started three decades ago, this is the first time they have felt proud to belong. This will be crucial for Zhongba's future harmony.

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The Chinese mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) chief Chen Yunlin arrived here on Monday to begin a five-day milestone visit to Taiwan.

Chen's visit marked the first meeting in Taiwan between leaders of the ARATS and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:51 AM | Permalink

The book contributes to, but otherwise sits outside of the academic literature on framented urban form and suburbanization. A scale from actual to dream bleeds off the lower right corner of the pages grounding each of 17 chapter-scenarios. Mapping these regional development trents onto urban and rural China, the book presents a stark picture of the implications of the hyper-urban development of China. Shanghai with its central highrise Pudong district, is one well known form in which China's cities are developing. However, at a broader scale of whole cities and urban regions, this book shows the significance of Chinese growing cities.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:39 AM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:37 AM | Permalink

Twenty people were confirmed dead and 42 were missing Sunday after mudslides engulfed several villages in southwest China, state press reported.

The mud and rock flows occurred near Chuxiong city in Yunnan province with the exact number of people killed still being counted, Xinhua news agency said, citing local authorities.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:03 AM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:11 AM | Permalink