Must-read China news by Danwei

At the China Daily, Raymond Zhou looks at a letter about college romance that has sparked considerable controversy online:

Now, let me try to get into the mind of the letter writer. He obviously can't see what is going on behind closed doors, but he notices public display of affection, like kissing and hugging and that upsets him because it helps him visualize what is happening out of sight. If the students are discreet and enter the rooms separately - they've watched enough spy thrillers to know how to avoid undesirable attention - few will notice them.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:28 AM | Permalink

At Global Voices Advocacy, Oiwan Lam notes that "Grass Mud Horse" (草泥马) has been filtered from Yahoo.cn and Google.cn searches. A Baidu search now returns just 9,080 results, along with a note explaining that additional results were filtered for violating relevant laws and regulations.

This is probably a response to a notice that started circulating a few days ago instructing forum moderators not to promote conversation on the topic.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:15 AM | Permalink

From The China Daily:

The Chinese military is ready to call an end to the standoff with the United States in the South China Sea after diplomatic efforts have reduced tensions, defense sources said on condition of anonymity.

Xinhua has not issued a similar report.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:21 PM | Permalink

At China Dialogue, Ma Jun writes about uneven enforcement of pollution laws:

The Chinese central government is aware of the imbalance regarding economic development and environmental protection. The "scientific view of development" was developed in order to achieve balanced and sustainable growth. "It is better to be poisoned than poor" does not fit with the scientific view of development.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:31 AM | Permalink

Forbes ranks the clout of China's celebrities:

The list, compiled by Forbes China, surveys the popularity and income of leaders in movies, sports, media and music in mainland China. Celebrities from Hong Kong and Taiwan, like Jackie Chan and Jay Zhou, aren't included. Although the list reflects the clout of China's top celebrities at home, the country's top stars are increasingly finding success abroad.

via Shanghaiist.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:02 PM | Permalink

Tim Hathaway translates Guo Guangdong's op-ed from this week's Southern Weekly:

A reporter from New Express revealed that employees gave a copy of a list of interview questions to reporters whom they were familiar with before the open question portion of the press conference with the Yunnan delegation on March 7. They also reminded reporters to ask the questions in the order they were given. During the 40 minute press conference, there was not one question regarding the "elude the cat" case, which was the most pressing issue for Yunnan at the moment. The questions merely touched on topics such as cooperation with ASEAN, education reform, and the environment, and those who answered were all well prepared. They even buried their faces in their notes as they read, making it very clear that each question and answer had been scripted.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:32 PM | Permalink

David Wolf "explore[s] (with the full benefit of hindsight) why this deal may have been killed, in the fervent hope we can learn something at Coke's expense."

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:54 AM | Permalink

The story of a young Tibetan mastiff who forms a rock band in an underground canine empire outside of Beijing and does battle against the evil agents of hip-hop.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:13 PM | Permalink

Bloomberg reports on the Ministry of Commerce decision:

"After the merger, Coca-Cola may use its dominant position" to limit competition in China's juice market, the agency said in a statement on its Web site today. The purchase would have been the biggest foreign takeover of a Chinese company.

The decision will cost Coca-Cola, the world's biggest soft- drinks maker, the opportunity to boost its share of China's juice market to more than 20 percent. China's fruit- and vegetable-juice sales may rise 20 percent to 97.1 billion yuan ($14 billion) this year, almost double the rate for carbonated drinks, according to Euromonitor International.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:21 PM | Permalink

Investigative journalist Wang Keqin attempts to visit the family of imprisoned rights activist Chen Guangcheng. ESWN translates.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:16 PM | Permalink

The Financial Times reports that Coca-Cola may abandon its bid to takeover the Huiyuan Juice company:

Beijing regulators have been examining Coca-Cola's proposed $2.4bn takeover of China Huiyuan Juice, China's leading juice company, since the deal was announced in September.

According to people familiar with the matter, the regulators recently told the US company that approval depended on a number of conditions and signalled that one of these could force Coca-Cola to give up the China Huiyuan Juice brand after the acquisition....The demand has been regarded by some as a potential deal breaker because Coke offered to pay a huge premium partly on the basis of Huiyuan's strong brand image.

See also: Bloomberg's report; earlier in the week Reuters reported that Coke was "expected to get OK for China Huiyuan deal."

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:08 PM | Permalink

sinopop reviews China: Museums by Miriam Clifford, Cathy Giangrande and Antony White:

As a Beijing resident and museum fan, I recommend "China: Museums" for its authors' thorough background research, factually abundant descriptions that truly guide, instead of merely editorializing, us across this often rough landscape. Using minimum snark, readers are brought a little closer to informed cultural tourism in China, even if you don't plan on being in Lushan, or Zigong anytime soon, it is rewarding to know that one can visit Pearl S. Buck's villa, or that Zigong was a center of salt production whose technology affected the entire global economy, or that in the flooded Three Gorges Dam valley, an underwater museum is being built that preserves rock carvings dating to the Tang Dynasty... it stirs the arm-chair traveler in anyone to get a ticket.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:50 PM | Permalink

More boom boom boosting in The China Daily:

Hoping to avoid the "skyscraper curse," China's cities continue to reach for the sky.

While most of the world's major construction projects have been put on hold, new skyscrapers are under construction in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and several smaller cities, defying the global economic slowdown.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:56 AM | Permalink

From Xinhua:

Fire-fighters had extinguished a fire in the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing by noon Monday.

Thick smoke and flames in a two-story, sheet-metal dormitory building that accommodated security guards, students and some staff were reported to the police at 10:10 a.m.

More than 140 fire-fighters with 24 fire appliances managed to extinguish the fire after two hours...

...Police are investigating into cause of the fire. Their findings are expected to come out in about three days...

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:24 AM | Permalink

The stimulated China Daily:

China's Ministry of Railways signed a deal with state-owned vehicle producer CNR Corporation Limited here Monday to purchase 100 high-speed CRH trains for 39.2 billion yuan (US$5.74 billion)...

...With a designed speed of 350km/h, the new CRH trains will travel between Beijing and Shanghai in 2011...

..."The contract does not include any foreign parties, as Chinese companies possess core technologies for the high-speed trains..." said Zhang Shuguang, director of the transport department under the Ministry of Railways.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:13 AM | Permalink

From the Far West China blog:

Last Friday officials from various government bureaus in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi organized a campaign to destroy fake and low-quality products. I gotta give them some credit, though, cause they didn't just destroy the goods, they had some fun doing it...I'm talking about gasoline, flame throwers, and steamrollers here! Not a bad way to celebrate World Consumer Rights Day last March 15th.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 3:07 PM | Permalink

Emma Graham-Harrison of Reuters gets to write a tabloid journalist's dream opening:

Only two memories brought tears to Sun Yaoting's eyes in old age -- the day his father cut off his genitals, and the day his family threw away the pickled remains that should have made him a whole man again at death.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:31 AM | Permalink

From The Los Angeles Times:

Iran announced a $3.2-billion natural gas deal with China on Saturday, a move that underscored the difficulty of using economic sanctions to pressure Tehran to bow to Washington's demands on its nuclear program.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:16 AM | Permalink

USA Today reviews Alibaba: The Inside Story Behind Jack Ma and the Creation of the World's Biggest Online Marketplace by Liu Shiying and Martha Avery:

It is difficult to discern from the book whether Ma cooperated with the co-authors a little bit, a great deal or somewhere in between. At times, Shiying and Avery practice hagiography. At other times, they seem mildly critical of Ma. The phrasing of the book, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, adds to the lack of clarity about the authors' relationships to Ma, because the English constructions range from stilted to bizarre.

Still, for readers willing to battle through the book's shortcomings, Ma's rise is worth digesting.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:15 AM | Permalink

David Barboza at the New York Times profiles CCTV financial journalist Rui Chenggang:

But Mr. Rui,....who drives a Jaguar to work and wears Zegna suits, says his goals reach beyond media stardom. He wants to use his celebrity to build bridges with the West and help change world opinion about China, which he says suffers because of biased foreign media coverage and the country's poor training in communication.

"China has a really bad image problem," Mr. Rui says after a broadcast one evening, while lounging at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. "I'm gathering a group of people and we hope to do something about that."

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:56 AM | Permalink

Reflecting on the aftermath of the TVCC fire, Alex Pasternack writes for Tree Hugger about Rem Koolhaas's urban vision and the future of Chinese cities:

Owing to its sheer size and its owner, China's TV propaganda maker, the CCTV headquarters is an easy target in discussions about the health of Beijing's development. But this building is only one of thousands rising across China that turn their backs on good ideas like the hutong in favor of sensational steel and glass. No matter how cool object buildings can be, their relevance to the city at large in China is dubious at best. Whether the CCTV building will be able to make good on its commitment to openness, to public space, to an improvement of the urban fabric around it, will be determined when it opens late this year.

Via Absurdity, Allegory and China: Wreckage

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:14 PM | Permalink

other lisa at the Paper Tiger Tail blog writes about a train journey to Xinjiang, and compares it to one she took decades ago.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:36 PM | Permalink