19th of November 2010
The Lion Awakes
Daily News, Culture & Current Affairs about China
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China Daily
CCTV9 - SLIDESHOW - Opening ceremony of 16th Asian Games kicks off
China Daily Photos - Asian Games' main cauldron lit
MOF adds 10.5b yuan to support rural education
BEIJING - China's Ministry of Finance on Thursday announced an injection of an extra 10.5 billion yuan ($1.58 billion) from the central budget this year to support nine-year compulsory education for all students in the country's rural areas.
A second-grade student sits in a prefabricated classroom with a burning stove on Nov 15, 2010 in Yushu county, Qinghai province, which was hit by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake on April 14.
New rules target insider trading
BEIJING - The State Council, China's Cabinet, on Thursday ordered further measures in its crackdown on stock market insider trading.
FEATURE - Questions linger over inferno
The flames may have been extinguished, but anger over the fatal blaze at a Shanghai high-rise is still raging in the hearts of the victims' families and friends.
Cambodia: China not behind Mekong floods
BEIJING - China holds a responsible attitude when developing the Lancang River and highly values ecological protection, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Thursday.
"In the process of development, China fully takes into considerations the lower stream countries," Hong told reporters at a regular news briefing.
The spokesman was affirming comments by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who reiterated on Wednesday that disasters and floods in his country are not caused by Chinese dams, but are triggered instead by global climate change.
The prime minister told environmentalists not to be "too extreme".
China asked to lead fight on piracy
BEIJING - China is helping lead the charge in the fight to protect intellectual property rights, receiving the world's fifth largest number of international patent applications, Francis Gurry, director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), said on Thursday.
China, South Africa pledge to enhance military ties
BEIJING - China and South Africa on Thursday pledged to enhance military ties.
The pledge came out of the meeting between Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie and South African Secretary of Defense Mpumi Mpofu, who was here for the fourth meeting of China-South Africa defense committee.
Hailing the traditional friendship and deepening military ties between China and South Africa, Liang said China was satisfied with the current development of the relationship, and attached high importance on further expanding it.
China will join hands with South Africa to enhance political mutual trust and expand pragmatic cooperation, so as to promote a deepening development of political and military ties.
Mpofu said South Africa valued its relationship with China and the relations between the two armed forces. She believed the two sides' constructive discussion in the meeting would help further promote the development of the relations.
South Africa will endeavor to promote cooperation with China and promote bilateral friendship, she said.
Health reforms to change China's smoking culture
BEIJING - In 1638, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen, issued an imperial edict declaring the possession, use or selling of tobacco was a capital offense punishable by decapitation.
Three years later, a powerful general, who was in charge of the army guarding the border with the northeastern Manchu area, asked the emperor to end the ban, saying tobacco was crucial to boosting the morale of the soldiers and curing their diseases.
Today, tobacco is deeply entwined into the national culture from the compulsory cigarettes given to male guests at almost every wedding to the glossy images of national icons that adorn cigarette packets.
China's smokers puff their way through a bounty of cigarettes given as gifts on special occasions and holidays.
Like Chongzhen, modern China is also at war, but this time the enemy is tobacco and it is estimated to kill a million Chinese each year, says Yang Gonghuan, deputy head of China's National Tobacco Control Office.
China's gold consumption set to rise by 4%: Report
TIANJIN - China's gold consumption is set to rise by about four percent from a year earlier to 430 tons this year, said a senior executive of China National Gold Corp, one of the country's largest gold producers.
Sun Zhaoxue, the company's general manager, said that accelerating domestic output will reduce China's need to import.
"China's gold production has been gradually increasing and will continue to do so in the coming years, so imports could start to gradually fall," Sun told a conference in the port city of Tianjin.
Sun's view contradicts that of most analysts, who expect China's gold imports to rise in the coming years, as demand for bullion increases from both official and private investment purchases.
Student finds roots on the farm
BEIJING - Surrounded by neatly arranged greenhouses, Xia Xiukui's dormitory sits in the middle of an 80-hectare farm. The simple white cottage looks like a temporary shed.
It is from here that Xia, a 22-year-old senior student from China Agricultural University, can see what's most enjoyable in life: A panoramic view of the orchards joined by a few vegetable gardens stretching out to the feet of tranquil mountains in the distance.
When he graduates as a mechanics major next year, Xia, unlike most of his classmates, hopes to become an organic farmer - and since September he has been working as an intern on an organic farm in Beijing's northeast suburbs.
Xia Xiukui, a senior student from China Agricultural University, works at an organic farm in north Beijing
Rare photographs of 1950's China found in New Zealand - VIDEO
New Zealand photographer Tom Hutchins spent four months in 1956 travelling through China on an exclusive assignment for Life Magazine. Fifty years later, photographic historian John Turner discovered this rare archive and set about piecing together a unique collection.
Gushi means History
Chinese Zodiac
Jewellry
Global Times
Editorial - Government intervention not a taboo
To tame the soaring prices of food and necessities, the State Council decided on Wednesday to "intervene temporarily when necessary."
This move was described by the Wall Street Journal as "dusting off a measure from socialist central planning."
The newspaper quoted some economists as saying that the move was more likely to be made out of political concerns than the real negative effects of inflation.
Since the late 1980s, China has evolved from a centrally planned economy into a market economy. The pragmatic change has proved to work in China as it continues to open up to the world.
But adopting a market economy does not mean a planned economy has to be completely shelved to collect dust.
It is unrealistic for an economy to solely work under market forces and exclude any external interference.
The debate about the market economy in China in recent years only indicates that the country has not completely given up pieces of its planned economy of earlier years.
It is true that China should be on the alert for the return of an excessively planned economy. But this caution should be rational. The dynamic market forces in China have made it clear that it is impossible for the country to return to a planned system.
On the other hand, a market economy is never perfect. It does not always develop with itself and fix problems. The 2008 financial crisis that is dogging many of the world's biggest market economies is the biggest proof.
It is reasonable for the government to step in when the market does not work.
With a huge market involving 1.3 billion people, the Chinese central government will consider multiple factors when enforcing a measure such as this. The country has learned numerous lessons from its previous planned economy. China will be even more cautious when incorporating some government planned policies to help manage the worsening situation.
The prices for food and other necessities is growing at an alarming rate. The current situation is not only a matter of economics but it also has social and political implications.
The degree to which Chinese society can tolerate massive price hikes has to be considered along with economic factors when the government makes such a decision.
Former Chinese leaders did not consider ideology when opening up, they simply did what was best for the nation.
China continues to be pragmatic in setting policies. No matter if it is market or planned economic policies, as long as they work for the nation, the government will unswervingly go ahead and make sure its people do not suffer.
Beijing Escalates Inflation Battle - WSJ 19/11/2010
BEIJING—China said it is ready to clamp price controls on daily necessities to bring down inflation, dusting off a measure from socialist central planning in a new sign of alarm by Chinese leaders who have been striving to cool economic growth through more conventional means such as hiking interest rates.
Kaixin OpEd – Ho, Ho, Ho ‘Dusting off measures …’
Kaixin wonders what is wrong with trying a new approach to managing a national economy.
The GFC seems to indicate that the economists from the ‘west’ do not have the answers.
A new approach is obviously needed.
Capitalism with Chinese characteristics …
Socialist Economic Theory with Chinese characteristics …
The ‘west’ has lurched from economic model to economic model looking for the perfect answer.
Each new economic model was hailed as a breakthrough and the economist awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
Then it didn’t work over time.
So, perhaps the Chinese will come up with a new economic model. Perhaps it may even work over time.
I wonder if the Chinese government will be awarded a Nobel Peace prize if they do .... a suitable flowing tribute Kaixin thinks.
Dialogue - A 30 Minute Current Affairs Programme on CCTV - 9 (In English) where current issues are discussed by experts from China and Internationally:
Inclusive growth of next five years
Beijing vows to keep a lower but steady GDP growth rate in the next five-year plan. The blueprint is compared to a more sustainable strategy of inclusive development.
The consensus is generated at a landmark conference of the Chinese communist party that comes to a very fruitful conclusion on Monday. The strong visible hand of the central government has helped bail out a big continental economy in times of financial meltdown.
But is the Chinese mode of development healthy enough to sustain a sizable economy that will be based more on its domestic consumption and environmentally friendly manufacturing? How shall we examine the sense of global responsibility for China as its economy continues to pull the world economy out of recession?
12th Five-Year Plan & Sustainability
These days obersvors around the world have been discussing if China would sustain its double-eadged growth in the next five years, Beijing vows to transfer multi economy from labor intensive and exports growth to domestic consumption. It means to be more innovative and more invironmentally friendly and to prioritize improvement of people's lifelyhood and their social security programs.
But very quietly, more people are discussing if more sustanable and incrusive goals in this country would lead to broader political participation. With these questions, BRANDON BLACKBURN-DWYER and FARZAM KAMALABADI are taking part in this discussion.
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Cop Coughs Up $69,000 For Son’s Victim
The son of a senior police official in a northern Chinese city coined a new catchphrase for abuse of power last month when he was caught fleeing the scene of a fatal car accident and responded by shouting: “My dad is Li Gang!”
From Yesterday's 'China News & Current Affairs'
我的爸爸是李刚
The New York Times 18/11/2010 - “My father is Li Gang” has become a bitter inside joke ...
China’s Censors Misfire in Abuse-of-Power Case
Curiously, however, the opposite has happened. A month after the accident, much of China knows the story, and “My father is Li Gang” has become a bitter inside joke, a catchphrase for shirking any responsibility — washing the dishes, being faithful to a girlfriend — with impunity. Even the government’s heavy-handed effort to control the story has become the object of scorn among younger, savvier Chinese.
In many ways, the Li Gang case, as it is known, exemplifies how China’s propaganda machine — able to slant or kill any news in the age of printing presses and television — is sometimes hamstrung in the age of the Internet, especially when it tries to manipulate a pithy narrative about the abuse of power.
Kaixin OpEd - See our OpEd below. The voice of the Chinese people will be heard and is being heard. The Internet and Mobile Phones ensure that.
Indeed, Xiaosui points out that even under Mao stories like these soon spread through the country.
The Chinese people are not the oppressed grey automons that many in the west see them as.
They have been, are and always will be a vibrant people full of colour, which is probably why China has been able to rise so rapidly.
Xiaosui – All of China is talking about this.
Li Gang’s son was driving a BMW through the university grounds when he hit the students.
He tried to drive away but the other students surrounded the car and stopped it. The son, showing want of brain, got out of the car and said the now infamous words ‘My father is Li Gang’.
Li Gang is the second highest-ranking police officer in He Bei.
It landed Li Gang in a lot of trouble and he has since appeared on television apologizing for his son’s actions.
The response from the Internet community to Li Gang’s apology is that he must be very smart to be such a high-ranking officer, however his son must be very dumb.
The son is now in gaol (jail).
The implication of the NYT’s article is that Li Gang could have swept the accident under the carpet. Maybe in Mao’s time, but not now.
The ‘princelings’ of high government officials in China certainly do get away with a lot of anti-social behaviour, but they seldom get away with openly breaking the law.
Though, power is at times still used for personal ends.
As we say, the colour is coming through: unevenly, but insistently.
Kaixin OpEd 19/11/2010 - Very unevenly if the above report is accurate. Very dissappointing.
Premier-To-Be Expounds The Five-Year Plan
In a lengthy commentary published by the Xinhua news agency this week, Vice Premier Li Keqiang has given one of the best explanations so far of the government’s economic strategy for the coming five years. China’s government is now in the process of drafting its twelfth five-year plan, covering the years 2011 through 2015, and the leadership has already outlined its broad themes.
China’s Military Ambitions: A Walking Tour
If China is trying to keep its military ambitions under wraps, somebody forgot to tell the exhibitors at this week’s Zhuhai Airshow.
Kaixin OpEd – Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! as Gomer Pile would have said.
America is sailing nuclear-armed aircraft carriers around China like they were playing in the bathtub.
Of course China is addressing the tactical issue of what to do in case America gets a rush of adrenalin.
IMF to Hong Kong: Watch Housing Prices
If Hong Kong isn’t careful, its economy could be set for another bout of “protracted and painful” deflation and a crash in housing prices like it saw in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Kaixin OpEd – The IMF reminds Kaixin of a spoilt fat boy running behind a ball with his rich parents shouting instructions.
The IMF has shoved America’s world view down the throats of developing countries for decades.
It is not an independent body; it is an instrument of policy for America.
Why wasn’t it shouting from the rooftops as Greenspan turned American real estate into tulips.
Now, running behind the dribbling ball, as ever, it has found its voice.
The trouble is, it is probably wrong. Just as it basically has been all along.
A voice to be ignored if it is now reformed and the developing nations given a significant voice.
IMF History
The Bretton Woods system of international finance devised by 44 nations after the Second World War, mostly represented by the IMF, World Bank, was designed to help reconstruct and stabilize a post-war global economy.
In the 70s, the purpose of these international financial institutions (IFIs) shifted towards a neoliberal economic agenda, championed by Washington, (also known as the Washington Consensus).
It was at this time that policies such as structural adjustment started to be pushed to much of the developing world, following a “one size fits all” prescription of how economies should be structured, which had disastrous consequences for much of the world’s population.
China's New Drones Raise Eyebrows
ZHUHAI, China—China is ramping up production of unmanned aerial vehicles in an apparent bid to catch up with the U.S. and Israel in developing technology that is considered the future of military aviation.
WSJ SLIDESHOW - Air Show China 2010
Caixin Online
China Poised to Curb Food, Energy Prices
China said it will adopt temporary price controls on daily necessities and factors of production when necessary
(Beijing) - China has unveiled four key measures to curb soaring prices of daily necessities in the face of mounting inflation.
Agricultural prices have spiked since July, increasing living costs for many middle and low-income families, according to a work meeting attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Asia Times Online
Re-enter the dragon
By Peter Lee
With perceptions that the fire has recently, if temporarily, gone from American power, Japan is turning to more pressing priorities than stirring up trouble with China to draw the United States into a relationship it has struggled to manage alone. The ruling party's confront-China policy is, at least for now, another item of collateral damage from the US mid-term elections.
Drum-roll stops on Gulou demo
By Mitch Moxley 
Gulou, a neighborhood of historic alleyways surrounding the Drum and Bell Towers, one of the Chinese capital's top tourist spots, has been reprieved from a date with the wrecker's ball. While the scrapping of redevelopment plans pleases historians keen to preserve what's left of Beijing's unique character, some residents of cramped and often decrepit homes are disappointed
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