Narrow Dwellings and the pain of the times
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December 11, 2009
Wacky ads for a miracle fertilizer
An African and a Japanese fight over the rights to an American fertilizer in this weird ad from a Chinese agriculture company.
Dongguan's ISO sex industry
This week's issue of Southern Metropolis Weekly presents an extensive cover feature on the sex industry in Dongguan, a manufacturing center in Guangdong Province.
The fate of a small, discussion-oriented TV station
At China Media Project, Qian Gang discusses the mainland block of Hong Kong TV station SunTV.
In the past I believed that the space for Sun TV’s development on the mainland would be rather small. A channel that targets a specified audience must rely predominantly on service subscriptions, and this is not yet a mature model for the television market in mainland China. But I discovered this year that even in a tough Chinese media environment, squeezed between political and economic pressures, Sun TV had emerged as a successful oddity. Its investors were not focused on maximizing profits, but instead used investment gains from elsewhere to support media development.
Suicide at the Shanghai Maritime University dormitory
A suicide case at the Shanghai Maritime University last month highlighted out-of-towners' plight in big cities. China Daily reports:
The incident gained national significance because Shanghai, with its many top universities, has become a magnet for aspiring students countrywide. Yang, a graduate of business administration at Wuhan University, had sought to further her studies in a more specialized field of maritime law in Shanghai, which provides much better job prospects.
Yang's mother came to stay with her in the dormitory in Shanghai against the rules of the university. Messages on the Internet alleged that attempts by the university to evict her mother had caused her so much grief that she took her own life.
Netease has reposted a more detailed, Chinese-language report.
CPI rises 0.6% in November, ending 9 month fall
Xinhua reports:
China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 0.6 percent year on year in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Friday.
It is the first monthly growth since January, before the CPI dropped 1.6 percent in February.
The producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, declined 2.1 percent in November from a year earlier, according to the NBS.
Families of students killed in trampede to get compensation
The China Daily reports:
Families of the eight students killed in Monday's stampede at a central China school will each get about 350,000 yuan ($51,200) in compensation, according to an agreement reached between the deprived parents and school Wednesday evening.
As of 8 pm, all the eight families had signed the compensation agreement, said a spokesman with the Xiangxiang city committee of the Communist Party of China in Hunan Province.
December 10, 2009
Sanlu civil case delayed
For the New York Times Edward Wong (via the China Daily) reports that the first civil lawsuit against Sanlu has been delayed:
A hearing scheduled for Tuesday in the first civil case related to China’s tainted-milk scandal was postponed indefinitely, China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, reported Wednesday. The first hearing in the case was heard on Nov. 27 in Beijing, when Ma Xuexin, the father of a 20-month-old with a kidney stone, argued that his son fell ill from drinking tainted milk made by the Sanlu Group, a dairy company. Mr. Ma was demanding the equivalent of more than $8,000 in compensation from Sanlu and a supermarket chain
5.7 million photos of ethnic minorities
ChinaHush reposts portraits of China's 56 ethnic minorities for a book named Harmonious China: A Sketch of China’s 56 Ethnicities.
Book sales of Zhu Rongji's Q&A with journalists
The Wall Street Journal China blog writes about the style and sales of the former premier's Q&As with journalists:
According to Ren Chao, deputy director of the People’s Publishing House, which put out the book earlier this year, 1.08 million books have been printed, with more than 700,000 sold. Ren says the strong sales stem from an interest in the tough reform years of the 1990s, when China grappled with mass unemployment following the closure of large state enterprises and also negotiations to join the World Trade Organization.
“I’ve worked in large-scale publishing houses for over 20 years. It is quite rare that one book has such good sales in such a short period of time,” he said.
94 people arrested for Xinjiang violence
The BBC reports:
Those detained are said to have fled following last July's unrest, between ethnic Uighurs and members of China's Han majority.
Nearly 200 people were killed and another 1,700 injured.
The fugitives were detained as part of a large scale crackdown by the authorities on crime in Xinjiang.
Thoughts on improving regional autonomy
ChinaGeeks translates a post by Woeser on China's ethnic policies. The ensuing comment thread is well worth a read.
December 9, 2009
State Council to revise "forced demolition" regulation
China Daily reports:
China's State Council is moving to revise the "Regulation on Urban Housing Demolition" and the legislative research of the work has started, the cnr.cn reported Monday.
The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Forestry has taken part in the legislation preparation, said an unnamed official with the NPC Standing Committee, according to the reports.
Shen Kui, the professor of Law School of the Peking University, also confirmed the news in the report.
Supposedly the debate surrounding the death of an entrepreneur in Chengdu contributed significantly to the debate: Burning issue, as reported by the China Daily.
Today the China Daily also reported on five PKU scholars' appeal for a revision of the law:
Five scholars from Peking University have recommended to the country's top legislature that an existing law defining the government's ability to seize urban housing should be abolished or revised to protect property owners.
In a letter to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee on Monday, scholars said the current "Housing Demolition and Relocation Management Regulation" is a breach of the country's constitution and property law.
The letter has fired up public attention across the nation, especially after the death of a resident who set herself on fire to prevent local authorities in Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan province, from seizing and demolishing her home.
In the letter, law professors Shen Kui, Jiang Ming'an, Wang Xixin, Qian Mingxing, and Chen Duanhong suggested that the NPC Standing Committee urge the State Council Legislative Affairs Office, the organ that issued the existing regulation, to revise or abolish the law.
The system has no outlets for compassion
A translation of an opinion piece in the Southern Weekly about the status of NGOs in China:
This is a reflection of a fundamental conflict in our society, namely that there is a massive gap between the need for public welfare and what the system can offer. This is similar to the artificial suppression of cultural and spiritual activities, which has long wearied cultural industries. The complicated lot of Chinese NGO’s is a direct result of the public’s increasing demands on welfare and public life, which cannot go on indefinitely.
Why China won't rule the world
Pei Minxin in Newsweek:
One of the strangest things about predictions of Chinese dominance is that they tend to impress everyone but the Chinese themselves.
Gay conversion therapy and filtering software
Jonathan in China talks about the filter on gay websites announced yesterday as well as recent reports in the Global Times about the gay community:
In the end it’s all just more mixed signals from the Chinese government and the Communist Party, which in fact runs the Global Times. Just yesterday there was an article published by Xinhua, the official press agency of the Chinese government, with the headline: “Public tolerance needed for Chinese gays to tackle AIDS.” On the same day Beijing News published a report on how the China Telecom is blocking websites set up to provide information to homosexuals:
The report quoted Guangdong branch company of China Telecom, one of the country’s main internet service providers, as saying that the “green filtering software” which was somehow put in place without prior application and confirmation of its clients has blocked a majority of government-sponsored websites that provide authoritative information on HIV/AIDS prevention and common knowledge about homosexuality.
What a mess….
Developing nations united in climate talks
EU, US differ
Coverage of the Copenhagen climate change summit on Xinhua's website is way down the page, but the China Daily leads with this story:
Developing nations spoke as one on Monday in calling for the continued functioning of the Kyoto Protocol, while the European Union (EU) and the United States differed on what should emerge from two weeks of UN climate talks in Copenhagen.
Speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China at the opening plenary session of the UN Climate Change Conference here, head of the Sudanese delegation Ambassador Ibrahim Mirghani Ibrahim said developing countries reject developed countries' objective of "concluding another legally binding instrument that would put together the obligations of developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol and similar actions of developing countries.
December 8, 2009
How China won and Russia lost
On the Hoover Institution's website, Paul R. Gregory and Kate Zhou look at 'two dissimilar economic paths':
On a dark November night in 1978, 18 Chinese peasants from Xiaogang village in Anhui province secretly divided communal land to be farmed by individual families, who would keep what was left over after meeting state quotas. Such a division was illegal and highly dangerous, but the peasants felt the risks were worth it. The timing is significant for our story. The peasants took action one month before the “reform” congress of the party was announced...
...Ten years later, in August of 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev lifted his nation’s 50-year-old prohibition against private farming, offering 50-year leases to farm families who would subsequently work off of contracts with the state. Few accepted the offer; Russian farmers were too accustomed to the dreary but steady life on the state or collective farm. Thus began reform of agriculture in Soviet Russia.
Local brands dominate CCTV ad auction
Media magazine reports on CCTV's annual auction of airtime to advertisers:
China Mengniu Dairy , the largest liquid milk producer on the mainland, was the top bidder at the auction in Beijing, splashing out US$50 million, according to GroupM. Mengniu and a host of big-spending local clients knocked Procter & Gamble (P&G), the top-ranked multinational and the leading bidder in previous years, into fifth place on $37 million.
However, with CCTV’s revenues from the auction rising 18.5 per cent , there is also a sense that some advertisers - particularly established brands with sophisticated media planning resources - are looking for more cost-efficient alternatives.
“P&G has bid slightly less than previous years. It is the macro-trend that we are moving towards multimedia touchpoints,” explains Mabel Leung, MD of the P&G Greater China business at Starcom Guangzhou. “In particular, the media consumption of younger consumers is changing and they are spending less time watching TV.”
"Red Princess" at the Debutante Ball
Adam Cathcart at Sinologistical Violoncellist reposts reports from the La Figaro blog about the whereabout of Jia Qinglin's daughter, Jasmine Li:
Jasmine Li, following in the footsteps of other “red princes” (wealthy scions of the revolutionary elite), spent last weekend at the Bal du Debutantes in the Hôtel de Crillon, on the rue Royale in Paris. (En plein coeur du Paris! the hotel website reminds us.)
For Jasmine Li, such fetes are a far cry from her dad’s work as a machinist in Shijiazhuang in the late 1950s or his efforts to lift steel companies in moribund Taiyuan into profitability, but sometimes one has to make sacrifices for the sake of international relations.
Lessons from the Frankfurt Book Fair
At Paper Republic, Eric Abrahamsen summarizes a Foreign Correspondent's Club of China panel discussion on China's experience at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, and presents the text of remarks made by journalist Zhou Wenhan.
But the problem is that with advancements in technology and increased channels of communication between China and the world, it's become harder and harder to maintain that singularity.This leads Chinese government officials to strengthen their control over the flow of information and personnel at events like the Olympics or this book fair, which constitutes what is in my opinion an unnecessary and very expensive waste.
Day one at Copenhagen
The environment blog Green Leap Forward has a summary of the first day at Copenhagen by Angel Hsu and her colleagues from Yale University:
While China has long established its negotiating position for Copenhagen, we’ve identified a set of major issues for the Chinese negotiating team at Copenhagen. A team of masters students and I (call us “Team China” if you will), have carefully reviewed the negotiating texts (non-papers in policy-speak) and developed a series of policy scenarios and strategic recommendations for how China can act as a leader in this talks to achieve an outcome that is optimal for both themselves and the global climate regime.
Rural subsidies for cars and white goods to continue
Xinhua's English and Chinese websites today both heavily feature news of the Central Economic Work Conference.
The conference is "held once a year to set the tone for next year's economic development, comprises policy-making officials from central and provincial-level governments, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao".
The reports are mostly waffle and hot air. One of the few policy specifics to be found is this point:
The government vowed to continue and enrich current policies to enhance domestic demand, including the subsidized rural purchase programs of home appliance and autos.
December 7, 2009
"Evil advisers of organized crime"
The Global Times reports on the difficulties faced by lawyers representing defendants in Chongqing accused of involvement in organized crime:
Officials of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission in Chongqing explained that gang-related cases are very complicated and the early involvement of attorneys would disturb the investigation, while insisting that justice won't be affected by defects of procedure as long as the trials are open, the Beijing News reported.
Zhou Litai, however, strongly disagrees. "Procedural justice is the premise for substantive justice," he said. "We can't sacrifice it for the anti-gang campaign."
Earlier on Danwei: The mob lawyer speaks: an interview with Zhou Litai.
China, America, and Afghanistan
ChinaGeeks translates a piece by Zhang Wen on China's possible future peacekeeping roles:
If China really sends troops to participate in peacekeeping missions, where would they be sent? Obviously, we can’t rule out Afghanistan. It borders China, so deployment and reenforcement of troops would be convenient, moreover there are Xinjiang separatist forces there. One netizen commented, China can try its hand at international peacekeeping in Afghanistan and get some experience.
Han Han and the lost generation
ESWN translates reactions from Hecaitou and Rose Luqiu to Han Han's Time interview, his subsequent complaints, and China Daily columnist Raymond Zhou's smackdown.
Also, Chinayouren discusses Han Han's perplexing lack of media savvy.
The truth about Xinjiang's internet situation
Josh at Far West China summarizes the current state of connectivity in the autonomous region:
The most common misunderstanding I run into with anybody outside the province is the idea that we have no internet whatsoever. Although true in some ways (all email, Skype, and IM have vanished), the statement is bit misleading. While any internet content, especially for English-speakers, is extremely limited, there is plenty still available to be found in Chinese. It seems to me that the government has basically cut the cord to content that is hosted outside the province, but anything within the province is accessible. So what does that leave us with?
China: We'll hang on to our dollars
From The Wall Street Journal:
China sought to reassure the world that it is taking a conservative approach to managing its massive foreign-exchange reserves, with officials saying it hasn't made big changes to its strategy and the dollar remains a central asset.
The statements by a senior regulator, later supplemented by a book published by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, seem intended to reassure investors that Beijing isn't selling its vast holdings of U.S. Treasurys, despite worries the dollar is likely to depreciate.
December 6, 2009
China and the world map of the Internet
Uln at Chinayouren illustrates the Internet forces that keep China separated from the rest of the world.
Young people should not be able to afford houses
Key at China Hush translates some quotes from a property developer regarding the popular TV drama Woju. Ren Zhiqiang argues that young people should not expect to be able to buy a house so soon.