Must-read China news by Danwei

The Chaile blog translates an article that appeared on China Court Online about the problems gaming company Blizzard has encountered while trying to bring Starcraft: Ghost to China:

About the rejection, SAIC gave us a reason that "STARCRAFT:GHOST comes under the kind of words that tend to produce negative influence, for containing the meaning of astrology and spirit, which are overtly against socialist moral standards.

The "ghosts" of Blizzard's new game are psychic espionage operatives, not the undead.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:00 PM | Permalink

The Grass Mud Horse (草泥马) is the most famous of the Ten Legendary Beasts of Baidu, fake encyclopedia entries that pun on dirty words. Also, the story of ideological hero Wei Guangzheng, a hoax entry of a different sort.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:43 PM | Permalink

Xujun Eberlein records a conversation with a Chongqing taxi driver, and with a migrant worker:

Me: Shifu, you seem to be in a bad mood.
Driver (upset): I just got fined! The police fined me for tailgating his car! But there was a private car between me and him. What the fuck! Why did he skip the private car but take on a taxi? Some sort of revenge?
Me: Didn't you reason with him?
Driver: What's the use! They don't care!

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:38 PM | Permalink

Startling news, if true:

Today's China Youth Daily reports that the General Administration of Press and Publication, the national media regulating body, has declared: "By the end of 2010, all for-profit news media and publishing entities will be decoupled from the government institutions they are affiliated with and transformed into separate companies. The government will no longer place restrictions on them in terms of ISBN numbers, publication licenses, and content."

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:15 PM | Permalink

Chris at the bezdomny ex patria blog translates an article about a family who encountered problems when trying to get a rural registration for their child:

Villager Mr Sun of Liqiao Township, Shunyi District called this newspaper's hotline saying that he and his wife both had Beijing agricultural residence registrations, and wanted their child to enter an agricultural residence registration. When they went to the township Family Planning Office to undertake the procedures last week, a worker informed them that according to the rules the child's residence registration could only be entered as non-agricultural, otherwise it would not be processed.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:12 PM | Permalink

This AP article is the latest in a series of reports about Chinese investors touring the US in search of cheap real estate. The tours, organized by SouFun Holdings, have brought more than 100 prospective buyers to the US since the end of 2008.

An article about the tours that ran in the Los Angeles Times in December put price targets between US$200,000 and $300,000; the AP article reports that this tour will look at properties "foreclosed properties priced at $300,000 to $800,000."

See also: The Chinese Are Coming, Part XVII on the China Law Blog.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:11 AM | Permalink

At China Dialogue, Ding Yuanfang picks apart a one-sided CCTV documentary on the controversial Nu River hydroelectric project:

The programmes claimed the dams would do nothing more than bring bridges and roads, create jobs, improve housing, provide water and electricity, increase tax revenues, relieve poverty and bring economic development.

If only that were true. The series was not objective and the viewer was not presented with all the facts about the Nu River debate. The information was filtered selectively, and no consideration was given to long-term development or the environment. Its stance was in complete agreement with the interests of the local government and dam developers. How credible is a journalistic voice when it speaks solely for the interests of political or business groupings?

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:51 AM | Permalink

From the Economic Observer Online, Nicholas Ray and Liu Peng cover the twelve that have been detained for the TVCC fire, and outlines angry online responses.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 8:01 PM | Permalink

Josh at the Far West China blog highlights the threat of a potential bird flu outbreak with one death, 519 culled chickens, and 13,000 more birds killed in Xinjiang province.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 5:08 PM | Permalink

ESWN translates from China National Radio about telephone polls in Qidong, Haimen, Tongzhou and other districts of Nantong city in Jiangsu province asking about the prosperity level of the people:

Local cadres asked the interviewees to use previously distributed standard answers. Many elementary and secondary schools even had a day off so that the students can memorize the answers and "assist" their parents to deal with the telephone poll.

Earlier at Danwei, a post on the people of Shiqiao, a town in Nanjing's Pukou District, who received a list of sixteen questions and answers before phone-calls inquiring into their happiness levels.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:52 PM | Permalink

China Sports Review notes the Chinese Football Association's response to Zhou Haibin's transfer from Shandong Luneng FC to the Dutch squad PSV Eindhoven: where CFA rules conflict with FIFA, the international body's regulations prevail.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:57 AM | Permalink

Chris Buckley reports on China's "black jails" for Reuters (via the International Herald Tribune).

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:12 AM | Permalink

China Daily discusses the state's effort in boosting its publishing sector, and hot stocks as a result.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 6:21 PM | Permalink

The China Daily reports, alongside with AP, about the recent sentencing in Tibet:

Courts in Tibet have so far meted out sentences to 76 people involved in the March 14 riot last year in the capital city of Lhasa, a senior Tibetan official said.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 5:52 PM | Permalink

A sign that the Chinese government is encouraging domestic spending in the face of the economic recession? From China Daily:

Civil servants in Hangzhou are to receive part of their wages in shopping vouchers, the city's Party chief Wang Guoping said on Monday.

"About 5 to 10 percent of their salaries will be paid in the form of consumption coupons," Wang was quoted as saying by the Metropolitan Express.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 4:49 PM | Permalink

A collection of netizen and mainstream media coverage of the fire that broke out in the TVCC building in the new CCTV complex on Monday night.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:24 PM | Permalink

Juliet Ye at the Wall Street Journal China Journal tracks a cross-section of online reactions during the TVCC blaze, including a translation from Pan Shiyi's blog, as well the role of citizen reporting during the fire.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:24 AM | Permalink

Bert de Muynck, architect writer and co-director of MovingCities, writes for the Arbitare website his afterthoughts on the fire.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:09 AM | Permalink

Xinhua reports on a mid-day press conference about last night's fire that gutted the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the new CCTV complex:

CCTV hired staff from a fireworks company to ignite several hundred large festive firecrackers in an open space....Four camcorders recorded the fireworks display and the entire ignition process, [Fire Control spokesperson] Luo said.

He said these fireworks were much more powerful and explosive than what was available at roadside stalls during the Spring Festival and therefore needed approval from the municipal government before being allowed in the downtown areas.

"Owners of the property ignored policemen's warnings that such fireworks were not allowed," Luo said.

CCTV has issued a statement:

CCTV is deeply distressed over the great loss of state assets this fire has caused, and it sincerely apologizes to people in the surrounding area for gridlock and other inconveniences this has created.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:30 PM | Permalink

In the Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Cheng writes about predictions for the Year of the Ox from some of Hong Kong's fengshui masters:

"The incoming U.S. president and [Treasury] secretary were both born in the Year of the Ox," said one client. "Is that a problem?"

Mr. Yeo's answer: Yes. The pair of oxen in charge of the U.S. economy could be an accident waiting to happen. Hold out until after January 2010 before investing in the U.S., he advised.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:47 AM | Permalink

A Beijing newspaper quotes Tong Gang, the head of the Film Bureau, about an upcoming ratings system. Unfortunately, the quote was lifted from an interview done in 2004.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:57 AM | Permalink

Chen Taihe, who writes on the law blog provider The Lyceum, discusses the Wen Jiabao shoe throwing incident.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:55 AM | Permalink

From Art News via Shanghai Eye:

A Shanghai government backed company has established a special center for tax free trade in artworks in the Waigaoqiao special trade zone. Waigaoqiao is a large bonded area, home to more than 150 large corporations, who use the area to manufacture industrial products, predominantly for export. Ren Yibiao, Chairman of OICT, the company in charge of the new center, and also CFO and vice President of Jinwin Investment, a large Shanghai government backed investment group, in an exclusive interview with Art Newspaper explained that the Shanghai government has created a series of new regulations relating to tax refunds and tax free incentives especially for the new art trade center. Its formal English language name is the "Shanghai Oriental International Cultural Service and Trade Platform" (OICT).

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:48 AM | Permalink

The northern building of the new CCTV complex, which houses the future Mandarin Oriental Hotel and TVCC offices, caught fire on Monday night at around 9:00; click for video.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:23 PM | Permalink

At Global Voices Advocacy, Oiwan Lam translates a list of Douban discussion groups that have been shut down in recent days during an "anti-vulgarity" campaign that is targeting much more than plain smut.

Deletion notices are being collected at the Douban Delete blog.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:10 PM | Permalink

Gady Epstein reports on China's shanzhai culture, especially shanzhai phones, for Forbes magazine:

Regardless of the state of the global economy, one robust sector that adjusts as efficiently as any other in the world is the Chinese black market. Despite years of official rhetoric about cracking down on pirated products, the urge to make a quick buck through imitation remains so entrenched in China that it has matured into a celebrated culture of its own.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 4:50 PM | Permalink

From China Daily:

Special Award for the entire Chinese nation, which showed determination, courage and wisdom in the face of disasters as well as victories [in 2008].

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:27 PM | Permalink

Mike at Shenzhen Undercover blog muses on the unemployment riots in the south, and whether the government successfully negotiated for economic stability with their people.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:44 AM | Permalink

Tim Johnson at McClatchy Newspapers analyzes the trading relationship between China and Latin America:

Another sign of Chinese interest: Beijing has agreed to open branches of the China Development Bank in Mexico, Brazil and two other countries, a sign of intensified trade cooperation. My understanding is that this is a quasi-private bank.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 10:58 AM | Permalink

From the Associated Press:

Beijing has declared an emergency across China's north, where 4.4 million people lack adequate drinking water and winter wheat crops are withering...

Some areas got a sprinkling of rain and sleet Saturday and Sunday after clouds were hit with 2,392 rockets and 409 cannon shells loaded with chemicals, the weather bureau said.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 10:47 AM | Permalink