Building falls over in Shanghai
ESWN has a set of astonishing photos currently circulating online of a 13-storey building in Shanghai that tipped over, landing intact on its side.
« June 14, 2009 - June 20, 2009 | Main | June 28, 2009 - July 4, 2009 »
June 27, 2009
Hummer may not be coming to China
The BBC relays a China National Radio report about Tengzhong's bid to buy Hummer from GM:
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will also block Sichuan Tengzhong from buying Hummer because the Chinese construction equipment maker lacks expertise in car production, the state radio added.
Sichuan Tengzhong said: "The view expressed on China National Radio's website did not quote or source anyone at NDRC."
"We do not yet have a definitive agreement, but are developing our proposals with GM and Hummer and we will continue to engage with the appropriate authorities in an appropriate manner."
China - Turkey: deals worth €1 billion
From The China Daily:
Five Chinese companies signed agreements worth 1 billion euros with a visiting Turkish business delegation on Friday even as officials of both countries called for more trade and investment exchanges.
June 26, 2009
Is 29 too young to be mayor?
A translation of Yu Jianrong's essay about Yicheng's new mayor whose age -- 29 -- has sparked a debate in China about how officials get their jobs.
Getting old before getting rich
The Economist examines China's problem with having too may old people:
China is still a relatively young country, with a median age of around 30. But, uniquely among developing countries, it is ageing extraordinarily fast, so by 2050 its median age will have risen to about 45.Over the next few decades the ratio of elderly dependants to people of working age will rise steeply, from 10% now to 40% by 2050. From about 2030 the country will have more elderly dependants than children.
Reform of state secrets law?
On Forgotten Archipelagoes, a blog about criminal law, detention, violence in China
The first round of discussion on the Law on the Protection of State Secrets will take place in Beijing from June 22 to 27. The decision was made today by the 25th Presidium of the NPC.
How China justifies empty witness chairs
From Caijing:
Despite the complexity and seriousness of the case, none of the eyewitnesses to the killing attended the June 16 [Deng Yijiao] trial. Instead, the prosecution presented every bit of witness testimony by submitting written records to the court.
The physical presence of a courtroom witness is rare in China. According to the Supreme People's Court, only 10 percent of all witnesses testify at first instance trials in China, and less than 5 percent appear at second instance hearings.
Drugs, women and group sex parties
From Xinhua:
New drugs such as "ice" enhance sexual ability, and were often found in group sex parties, in which the same number of men and women participate, which partially explained the increase in women drug users, according to Professor Xia Guomei from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
NY Times on Internet restrictions in China
The New York Times has published a comprehensive account of recent Chinese government meddling with the Internet, from Green Dam to Google bashing and new restrictions, issued by the Ministry of Health, on sexual health websites.
June 25, 2009
Guangming Daily: Western 'hostile forces' at work in Iran
David Bandurski at the China Media Project introduces a Guangming Daily op-ed that points to the black hand of "western factors" seeking to destabilize Iran:
After briefly summarizing the pressure applied by Western leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the article enumerates, without a hint of skepticism, all of the charges Iran has leveled against the West, such as the use of special agents and the coordinating of "propaganda" efforts through the BBC and CNN.
The article's author, Li Jiabin (李佳彬), has written a number of such articles in recent days. Li wrote on June 23 that the U.S. government had "demanded that the operator of the Twitter service cooperate with the activities of Iran's opposition party."
Migrant children: The forgotten among China's next generation
At China Elections and Governance, Colton Margus writes about the children of migrant workers in Beijing:
According to the Rural Education Action Project (REAP), there are more than 300 migrant schools in Beijing alone. The children in these schools represent China's next generation, just as much as the children of the urban elite who so enjoy China's apparent rise. What appears to be a kind of systematic discrimination carried out because urban residents are either unable or simply unwilling to share will have long-term repercussions on society as a whole. Extremely different opportunities afforded to people in very close proximity is, after all, not good for social stability.
Will China rule the world?
The Guardian's Comment is Free runs a series of comment pieces: the latest by Shi Yinhong, and previous, John Gray and Martin Jacques.
Cheating metal importers stuck in Guangzhou
No sex, but writer and blogger Adam Minter does make the scrap metal trading industry fascinating in a way I would not have thought possible.
A new blog post of his looks at the tax loophole that has made Guangzhou's port "China's - and the world's - leading centers for the processing of mixed metal scrap over the last twenty years", and a current crackdown on traders who've been using the loophole.
Reading Liu Xiaobo's arrest report
From the Wall Street Journal China Journal, which takes the below translation from Silouweizi's blog:
2. It's likely that [Liu] Xiaobo will be indicted within a month and tried quickly. I predict that a trial would conclude before the end of July and that Xiaobo's sentence would be five years or less. If the procuratorate decides to prosecute him for "major crimes," the sentence could be greater than five years, but no matter what it would not exceed 10 years.
Sinopec to buy Canadian Addax Petroleum for
$7.2 billion
The New York Times reports that Sinopec, the Chinese oil giant, is seeking to take over Addax Petroleum, a Canada-registered oil company with fields off the coast of West Africa and in Iraq.
China's deal machine revved up Wednesday as Sinopec agreed to acquire the Canadian oil producer Addax Petroleum for $7.2 billion.
The transaction is remarkable for a few reasons. It's China's largest cross-border energy deal and the country's second-largest cross-border deal of any kind, according to Dealogic. And it comes after months of relative quiet from Chinese dealmakers, who, like many others, have been put off from shopping around the globe for companies by the grim economic climate.
June 24, 2009
Migrant worker blogger Wan Xiaodao
Jenny Zhu's blog introduces a migrant worker who writes about how it's better never to marry a city woman.
Sexologist Li Yinhe on "Homowives"
The Shanghaiist runs a translation of Li Yinhe's blog post about women married to homosexual men:
The 'homowife' phenomenon is a phenomenon unique to China, seldom witnessed in other countries. In other countries, homosexuals would remain single or live together or marry other homosexuals. Very few would enter into a heterosexual marriage. This difference comes about because Chinese culture places such a great emphasis on marriage and reproduction, as to make them compulsory.
See also: Jonathan in China responds with stories of two gay men.
Dissident Liu Xiaobo arrested for subversion
From Reuters:
One of China's best known dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, has been formally arrested on suspicion of inciting subversion, following his detention late last year for promoting a petition calling for an end to one-party rule.
There is also an AP report that quotes Liu's lawyer. The New York Times highlight the charge of "attempting to overthrow the Socialist system", which is considered a rare charge against dissidents.
Bread, milk, and pocket change
A brief history of childhood from Southern Metropolis Weekly. Translated by The Foreign Expert.
US lodges WTO case against China, and Green Dam complaints
From The Financial Times:
The US and the European Union on Tuesday raised the stakes in a growing dispute with China, lodging a joint case at the World Trade Organisation over export quotas on raw materials in the latest sign of friction over trade......The US is also stepping up its complaints on a separate trade-related issue over censorship software. US officials based in Beijing are lobbying Chinese counterparts to drop a requirement that computers sold in the country carry internet filtering software called Green Dam.
Zhang Yimou starts shooting Coen brothers remake
From Hollywood Reporter / AP:
Zhang Yimou has started shooting a remake of the Coen brothers' debut, "Blood Simple," the "Raise the Red Lantern" director's first film since designing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics last year, a publicist said Tuesday.
Filming on the Chinese film "San Qiang Pai An Jing Qi" -- which roughly translates as "The Stunning Case of the Three Gun Shots" -- kicked off June 9.
Plywood infernal
Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap visits a plywood factory where workers expect to contract a terminal illness within two to three years of going on the job.
I lasted only a few minutes and then my eyes began to water uncontrollably and swell. I rushed out into the daylight and relatively fresh air where it took a good ten minutes - maybe more - for my eyes to recover. Below, some images of the kids who remained working in that warehouse and who - as I already mentioned - the locals expect to survive for two or three years, at best.
Sino-Indian border tensions
By Jeff E. Smith in The Wall Street Journal:
The peaceful, side-by-side rise of China and India has been taken for granted in many quarters. But tensions between the two giants are mounting, and Washington would do well to take note. On June 8, New Delhi announced it would deploy two additional army divisions and two air force squadrons near its border with China. Beijing responded furiously to the Indian announcement, hardening its claim to some 90,000 square kilometers of Indian territory that China disputes.
Chinese journalists and post quake trauma
An article on Dartcenter.org looks at the psychological state of Chinese journalists who covered the Sichuan earthquake in 2008:
Gao knows three media professionals who resigned because of the pressure, but things only got worse after returning to Beijing. "White plastic bags in the streets, instinctively I thought they were corpses." Reactions ranged from group binge drinking and seeking fights, as Gao saw other media colleagues do, to isolation.
June 23, 2009
Caijing editor condemns Green Dam
Caijing magazine has published an English translation of editor Hu Shuli's condemnation of the Green Dam fiasco:
Mandatory installation of blocking software is an administrative act without sufficient moral and legal ground. From a legal point of view, this is a tussle between public power and social rights.
Cook's family to get compensation
China Daily reports on the mass incident in Shishou:
Around the blackened hotel, completely covered by plastic sheets, people gathered yesterday not to protest or pelt military police with rocks but simply to know if there were new developments. Some even offered military police watermelon slices as refreshment in the sultry summer day.
Zhang Yonglong, the owner of the hotel remained missing after the incident.
The hotel at the center of the riot was rumored to be used by dealers to distribute drugs.
Beijing airport "surpassed them all"
Evan Osnos in the New Yorker compares the airports Beijing, Newark, O'Hare, Tokyo, and Beijing comes out on top:
Beijing Capital International Airport has surpassed them all. Set aside matters of overall economic development, political freedom, obstacles to innovation, and so on. The simple fact is that China's vast flagship airport is a more painless, efficient, and impressive experience than the others. I arrived one hour before my international flight, stood in virtually no line, and was at the gate with thirty minutes to spare
Reuters reports Ai Weiwei's Internet boycott call
Reuters has dialed up the noise on artist and provocateur Ai Weiwei's calls for a boycott of the Chinese Internet on July 1:
...Ai Weiwei ... called on web users to boycott use of the Internet on the day of Green Dam's debut.In a post on Twitter ... Ai called for the low key protests to mark a day that is also the anniversary of the founding of China's Communist Party.
"Stop any online activities, including working, reading, chatting, blogging, gaming and mailing," Ai wrote in the Chinese-language post. "Don't explain your behavior."
Ai told Reuters he hoped the boycott would gather support because it offered an easy way to make a stand in a country where vocal opposition to government policy can be risky.
Hunan to give 10% of corruption money to whistle blowers
From China News Wrap:
The People's Daily website has a headline news story about the introduction of new regulations by the Hunan province government, stipulating that 10% of the proceeds from cases of official corruption are to be awarded to the informants responsible for reporting them. Up to 10 percent of the illegal proceeds of official corruption will be awarded to individuals who report such cases, with the maximum potential award sum as high as 200,000 RMB.
Activists: Dam near Chongqing will kill off rare fish
From The Wall Street Journal:
Environmental advocates are warning that a planned dam on China's Yangtze River could lead to the extinction of a number of rare fish species, casting a fresh spotlight on the potential environmental costs of the country's huge hydroelectric building program.
George Soros: in praise of China's unlisted companies
From Chinastakes.com:
George Soros consistently praised the regulation of the Chinese government and promoted opportunities during his recent visit to China. People can't help questioning why he has changed form "Mr. Short" to "Mr. Long".Soros refused to reveal details about industries and companies in his favor during his interviews with Chinese media. He has contacted quite a few Chinese companies, mostly unlisted, including some state-owned financial companies. Soros said the real investment opportunities in China lie in non-public companies, and that it is not wise to hold shares in these companies after their IPOs.
June 22, 2009
"Hazardous" Beijing air
James Fallows talks about the smaller particles in Beijing's polluted air:
The second development is the ongoing failure of the Chinese government to report any readings of, and perhaps even to measure, the PM 2.5 small-particulate level in its big cities' air. This matters because the smaller particles, which go deep into the alveoli, are more damaging to the lungs than the larger ones (background and links here) -- and because, by many accounts, their level in Beijing is once again rising.
US gets involved in filtering software
From the Financial Times:
"We view with concern any attempt to restrict the free flow of information," said Ian Kelly, a State department spokesman.
"Efforts to filter internet content are incompatible with China's aspirations to build a modern, information-based economy and society."
"We are concerned about Green Dam both in terms of its potential impact on trade and the serious technical issues raised by the use of the software," Mr Kelly said. "We have asked the Chinese to engage in a dialogue on how to address these concerns."
Also, a similar report from Bloomberg: U.S. Calls for Talks With China on Online Porn Filter
The US making trouble for China
At Forbes, Gady Epstein interviews Wang Xiaodong, one of the writers of Unhappy China.
Beijing Queer Independent Film Group interview
City Weekend interviews Popo of the China Queer Independent Film Group about his documentary short New Beijing, New Marriage to be screened in Beijing on June 28.
Cops arrest owners of quartz plant where explosion killed 16
From The China Daily:
The father and son who own a mining plant that was turned to rubble when a stash of illegal explosives detonated yesterday have been arrested, government sources said.As many as seven tons of illegal explosives stored in the office building of a quartz plant in Fengyang county in north Anhui province exploded at 3:17 am yesterday, killing 16 people immediately and leaving 43 injured, said the Chuzhou municipal government in a press conference yesterday.
Cigarette tax increase
From The China Daily:
The government has raised consumption tax on cigarettes by between 6 and 11 percent to curb smoking and add revenue to State coffers...
...The tax has not yet been passed on to smokers and it is unclear how much of the increase tobacco companies, wholesalers and retailers will absorb.
The myth of the $12 million Uighur
An op ed in The New York Times by Stuart Beck:
President Obama, much admired in Palau, asked our new president, Johnson Toribiong, to do the United States a favor: Please accept, as refugees, a group of innocent Chinese Muslims. They are not anti-American terrorists, but victims of human rights violations, who landed at Guantánamo Bay for seven years...
...In breaking the story that Palau was amenable to President Obama's request, the Associated Press reported that two anonymous State Department officials had linked Palau's acceptance of the Uighurs to a $200 million payoff.
staunch American ally would have been applauded, at least in the United States. Instead, for reasons that are beyond me, unattributed leaks and unsubstantiated rumors have twisted Palau's act of decency into another grab for dollars by a cunning third-world country. In breaking the story that Palau was amenable to President Obama's request, the Associated Press reported that two anonymous State Department officials had linked Palau's acceptance of the Uighurs to a $200 million payoff.
Almost immediately, much of the news media took the bait, did the math and asserted that Palau was getting nearly $12 million dollars per Uighur...
...Before the story gets too far out of hand, let's consider a few facts.
June 21, 2009
Tens of thousands protest in Shishou
On Saturday 20th, in Shishou (石首) city, Hubei province, tens of thousands of people went on the streets after the body of a 24-year-old chef was found outside the hotel he was working at. From AFP:
Police were struggling to restore order Saturday in a central China city hit by riots following a man's death in a government-linked hotel, local residents and a human rights group said.
The unrest in the city of Shishou in Hubei province saw violent clashes between police and thousands of residents amid suspicions over the cause of the man's death Wednesday, a resident said.
Also from Reuters, the twitter feed set up for the event, Baidu Full House blog, and Global Voices Online.
Also, a translation and lots of photos on ESWN