29th of November 2010
The Lion Awakes
Daily News, Culture & Current Affairs about China
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China Daily
China proposes urgent talks to ease tensions
ROK, US launch joint naval drills as DPRK warns of counter-attack
BEIJING - China on Sunday proposed emergency consultations, among participants to the Six-Party Talks, next month amid rising tension on the Korean Peninsula.
"After careful deliberation, China proposes emergency consultations, among the heads of delegations to the Six-Party Talks, in early December in Beijing," said Wu Dawei, Chinese special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs.
It was China's latest move following the exchange of artillery fire last week between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK).
It came as the ROK and the United States launched a four-day joint naval drill on Sunday in waters west of the Korean Peninsula, with the US aircraft carrier USS George Washington joining the drill. A spokesman for the US 7th Fleet said no live-fire drills were planned. Officials would not supply exact locations but Yonhap news agency in the ROK said the drills were taking place about 160 kilometers south of Yeonpyeong island, the scene of last week's artillery barrage by the DPRK.
Rising labor shortage hits delta regions
Soaring living costs, low wages 'are to blame'
SHANGHAI / GUANGZHOU - The economy's twin engines, the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas, are spluttering due to a shortfall of migrant workers, especially in the service and manufacturing industries, amid soaring living costs and stagnant salaries. "The labor shortage has hit customer services and the home service sectors since spring, and it is becoming more serious recently," said Chen Qian, the manager of a downtown employment agency in Shanghai.
"On average, up to 40 percent of job vacancies in these sectors have not been filled."
Safeguarding environment a priority
BEIJING - China continues to face mounting pressure to curb environmental degradation, despite progress in reducing pollution over the last five years, the environmental protection minister warned.
"Currently in China, contamination is expanding, damage to the environment is worsening, the risk to human health is increasing and curbing pollution is becoming even more challenging," said Zhou Shengxian, minister of environmental protection. Although the country has already beaten its five-year target to slash emissions, especially of sulfur dioxide - a major air pollutant - the quality of the environment has not improved accordingly.
"This is because, on one hand, China has to pay back its environmental debt for rapid economic growth during the past three decades and on the other hand, the country is also facing new and emerging environmental problems," Zhou explained.
Is water pipeline project merely a pipe dream?
Bohai Sea-Xinjiang transfer plan offers hope for thirsty north, but pollution fears remain. Jiang Xueqing in Beijing and Shao Wei in Urumqi report.
On paper, Wang Xiushun's plan is simple: Build a pipeline that will carry millions of cubic meters of water from the coast to the drought-plagued northern regions.
The process of making it a reality is far more complex.
To get water from the Bohai Sea in the east to Xilinhot in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, it will first need to be pumped 1,170 meters above sea level and then transferred 618 kilometers through mighty tunnels and glass fiber-reinforced pipes.
Changing climate of climate change meet
The world media will be focused on Cancun, Mexico, from Nov 29 to Dec 10. It is that time of the year when most of the world leaders appear worried about the fate of planet Earth, while during the rest of the 50 weeks it is mostly business as usual. Not that business as usual ceases for the two weeks.
But this time the hype seen before the Bali climate change conference in 2007 and the Copenhagen conference two years later is missing. No one seems to be talking about the possibility of reaching any deal, let alone finalizing the agreement to succeed Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
There is all-round despair, so to say, over reducing the emission of the principal greenhouse gases (GHGs) - carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. But there is hope, too, among some of the world leaders that it is possible to move forward, at least prepare the ground for the 2011 climate conference in Durban, South Africa. These leaders say it will not be easy to achieve a politically balanced package, but it is within reach. The key word here is "political", which means political will can make Cancun a success, or at least stop it from being a failure.
But as things stand now, the "hope" of such world leaders seems more like wishful thinking. And if Cancun fails, the blame can always be passed on to China (and India).
Progress possible in Cancun
China will do all it can to play a constructive role in reaching an outcome 'which is acceptable for all' in Mexico
The world's media are getting ready for the United Nations Climate Change Conference that opens next Monday, in Cancun, Mexico.
Environmental ministers from more than 190 countries, as well as many heads of state, will attend the two-week negotiations.
There has been a lot of discussion over the standpoint China will adopt and what it will do during the coming negotiations.
Xie Zhenhua, China's top climate official, has made it clear that China will do all it can to play a constructive role and push for progress in the global climate talks.
"It is for the benefit of the whole of mankind," he said.
China tries to bridge gap between urban, rural residents
Hukou
For more than 50 years, the word "farmer" not only means a job in China, but also determines one's social status. This is, however, about to be changed in a city in Southwest China.
The government of Chengdu, capital of populous Sichuan province, announced on Nov 16 that the city was to enforce a uniform household registry system, or hukou, for farmers and urban citizens alike, as a step to eliminate their difference.
According to Qin Daihong, a government official of Chengdu, the city will register urban and rural citizens in the same system. It will be one where details of residence, marriage, employment, tax, credit and social insurance are listed according to ID number.
This means that by 2012, urban and rural residents in the city will enjoy the same rights and be free to move between downtown areas and countryside, making Chengdu the first Chinese city to eliminate the difference between rural and urban hukou.
China began implementing the hukou system 52 years ago to reduce the mobility of people and maintain social order. According to the regulation, people's basic rights and social welfare were attached to their hukou.
Residents without a local hukou are not entitled to medical or social insurance from local governments and their children are not allowed to attend public school, unless they pay extra fees.
The system was helpful before China's opening up and reform, when budgets from the central government were limited.
However, it is becoming an obstacle to the country's urbanization as the population of migrants reached 211 million by the end of 2009, according to a report from the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China.
Mainland vows to deepen cross-Straits ties
BEIJING - The Chinese mainland will continue working with Taiwan to expand and deepen cross-Straits exchanges and cooperation, a spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said Sunday.
Commenting on mayoral elections in the island's five cities, which concluded Saturday, spokeswoman Fan Liqing said the mainland had "paid close attention" to the results.
The mainland would steadily promote cross-Straits relations and improve the living standards of people on both sides, she said.
"We hope Taiwan society is stable and people live and work in peace," she said.
Fan said that over the past two years, improved cross-Straits relations had brought tangible benefits to people on both sides, and the peaceful development of relations had become common ground.
Hubei to invest $26.5 billion on port expansion
WUHAN - Authorities in Central China's Hubei province announced Sunday they will invest more than 180 billion yuan ($27 billion) to expand throughput capacity of Wuhan New Port on the Yangtze River between 2011 and 2020.
The move comes as Hubei seeks to explore the shipping potential of the Yangtze to make the port, which covers the cities of Wuhan, Huanggang and Ezhou, the shipping center for the middle reaches of the country's longest river.
Although the provincial government gave no exact figure for the full 10-year project, it said the investment between 2011 and 2015 would amount to 176.6 billion yuan.
The investment will help expand annual cargo throughput to 200 million tons and container throughput to 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2015 from the current 100 million tons and 650,000 TEUs, it said.
The annual throughput is expected to increase to 240 million tons and 5 million TEUs in 2020.
Hunan starts building supercomputing center
CHANGSHA - Central China's Hunan province began building the country's third National Supercomputing Center (NSCC) on Sunday, where the world's fastest supercomputer, the Tianhe-1A, will be installed.
Designed to handle one quadrillion computing operations per second, the NSCC in Changsha will add to the world's eight quadrillion-level supercomputing centers and national labs, said Du Zhanyuan, vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
British universities pursue stronger ties with China
BEIJING - British universities are endeavoring to build stronger partnerships with their Chinese counterparts and to enhance the exchange of students and scholars, in order to satisfy rising student interest in each other's country, a senior UK education official said.
"It is an opportunity to learn from each other and try to build a strong relationship between our two countries," Steve Smith, president of Universities UK, said in an interview with China Daily on Wednesday. Smith was part of the delegation that had accompanied British Prime Minister David Cameron on his state visit to China.
Guizhou mulls rules to protect Moutai water source
GUIYANG - The legislature of Southwest China's Guizhou province said Sunday it is reviewing proposed regulations to protect the water source of Kweichow Moutai, known as "China's national liquor."
The proposals include a ban on dam construction on the Chishui River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, restrictions on building large poultry farms and a ban on the production, sale and use of detergents with phosphor in the river basin.
The quality of the Chishui River water was declining due to overuse of water, overexploitation of land and mineral resources, deforestation and soil erosion, said a statement from the legislature, the Guizhou Provincial People's Congress.
Lawmakers were also seeking to control pollutants discharged into the river and to gradually put in place water pollutant trading.
Zhou Zhongliang, secretary general of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress, said the regulation was vital in protecting the environment of the Chishui River and safeguard the production environment for leading liquor makers, particularly Kweichow Moutai.
China Kweichow Moutai Distillery Co, the producer of Kweichou Moutai, is an important taxpayer for the Guizhou provincial government, which has spent more than 3 billion yuan ($450 million) to protect the Chishui River.
Other measures the provincial government has taken to protect the environment in Moutai Town, Renhuai city, where the liquor producer is located, include the relocation of 15,000 residents and closure of 400 small liquor workshops.
Kaixin OpEd - This should be the top environmental priority for China. Mr Kaixin has spent many a pleasant hour with family and friends in China discussing life over many many glasses of Moutai & Wu Liang Ye.
See Kaixin's 'Insights into China'
Two girls in Chongqing on Saturday move the pieces on a 1,600-square-meter board during a game of Go, or Weiqi in Chinese, attended by the mainland’s world champion, Gu Li, and his Taiwan counterpart, Zhou Jun-xun.
See Wikipedia for a detailed article on the game
Chinese Zodiac
Jewellry
Global Times
Editoral - Is a war looming on the Korean Peninsula?
The tension on the Korean Peninsula soared to a new level with the US aircraft carrier George Washington set to join a Yellow Sea military drill. If a new clash erupts with a US aircraft carrier involved, a final scenario will be much harder to predict.
Despite the strong rhetoric, none of the countries involved in the confrontation are truly prepared to fight an all out war.
North Korea does not have the capability to beat South Korea and the US, while South Korea does not have the will to see the peninsula engulfed in a military clash. Barely emerging from the Iraqi war nightmare, another war without a clear ending is the last thing the US needs.
Keeping this in mind, the three countries should stop trying to intimidate the other side with strong-arm tactics. China pushed for emergency talks yesterday, trying to cool down the tense situation. Whatever the response, China's attitude is in earnest and the initiative should be taken to get the parties involved back to the negotiation table in Beijing.
Strategic intimidation has to be renounced. Within the US and South Korea, the official stance from the governments and strong public sentiment can affect each other. Many wars have been fought because public sentiment mistakenly influenced government policy.
In Northeast Asia, peace and stability are of the greatest concern, however, it is often pushed aside by minor but vocal hard line opinions. Peace comes second to election rhetoric and media noise. Advocacy for rationality and mutual compromise, on the contrary, would cause political risk and often be dubbed as traitorous.
Experience from the last decade suggests that hawkish policies rarely work out in Northeast Asia. Short-term political gains often incur long-term damage that has to be repaired by the entire region. The erratic policies are also often dumped with a change in administrations.
The accumulation of tension on the Korean Peninsula has now reached a dangerous breaking point. The two Koreas, and also the entire region, must be cautious.
War is not welcome, yet it is approaching and the danger is being bizarrely tolerated. What is happening is not a game. No one can guarantee the situation will not turn into a real war.
A test of tolerance over the Korean Peninsula
After the recent artillery exchange on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea seems to be the only country that gained, but Pyongyang is drinking poison to curb its thirst. It is running head long down a road that leads to nowhere.
Is the Korean Peninsula heading toward a dangerous dead end?
Stability is a shared goal of all the countries involved. North Korea wishes to maintain a stable government; the South would like to see a stable border area.
It is in the interest of China to keep an uneventful situation on the Peninsula, and the US hopes to see its influence in Northeast Asia unchallenged. Japan and Russia hold attitudes similar to China's or the US'.
However, this shared goal is often interrupted by other interests, primarily, the pursuit of nuclear weapons by the North and its continuous provocation. In addition, the inconsistent policies of the US and South Korea toward Pyongyang also cause the North agitation, which in turn tends to overreact.
Strategic trust is almost zero among the players involved. The efforts China makes in promoting regional stability are often offset by US strategic intentions in the western Pacific. China's efforts also often get the cold shoulder by North Korea. The on again, off again, Six-Party talks best exemplify the difficulty.
The hard line approach of the US is unlikely to succeed on the Korean Peninsula. If it did succeed it would mean the failure of China's diplomacy and bring unbearable strategic risk to China. But it is equally impossible that China's moderate stance takes the lead, which suggests a much needed fundamental policy adjustment from the US, South Korea and Japan.
The stalemate will continue and test the tolerance of all the parties involved. But the way things stand now, South Korea will go on living under the shadow of the non-stop provocations of the North; while Pyongyang will continue suffering isolation and poverty, which is getting worse after each incident.
Among all the countries with a stake in the region, it looks like South Korea can and should take the initiative to adjust its policy toward the North. But, the question is, is it willing to do so?
Kaixin Oped - The reason China supports North Korea is blindingly obvious.
It is the United States of America.
The U.S is uneasy about China because China is so far removed from the American mindset.America has sought to contain China since 1949. It supported the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) in China and then in Taiwan. America only opened the door to China in the 1970’s when they were more afraid of the potential of Russia, than of China.
America obviously underestimated the potential of a China, bought to its knees by the Cultural Revolution.
The rise and rise of China has startled America.
It sees China as a threat. Perhaps not in the immediate time scale, but in the future, when China is strong enough to threaten America. So the logic behind America’s policy of containment is understandable.
North Korea is chock-a-block with nuclear arms. China obviously does not want America sitting next door playing with those toys.
If China did not support North Korea, then South Korea would have taken over long ago. That would have meant Uncle Sam smiling and waving at China from right next door, only ducking down to the basement every so often to polish his nuclear bombs.
A US Carrier in the region is sending a strong message to North Korea, South Korea, China and the region.
In Kaixin’s opinion, North Korea might have some big toys to play with but it is unlikely China will allow the children to get out of control. Diplomacy dictates China’s response. But Kaixin suspects China is like a parent who smiles when their child is naughty while friends visit, then gives it a good clip under the ear when they leave. Certainly hope so, given the alternative.
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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China Moves to Cool Korean Tensions 
BEIJING—China on Sunday proposed emergency discussions among delegates to the six-party talks to discuss "complicated factors" on the Korean peninsula, as the U.S. and South Korea started a naval drill that has prompted dire warnings of reprisals from North Korea.
The move comes as Beijing engages in high-level diplomacy to try to cool tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul.
Local Races Set Stage for Taiwan Presidential Election
TAIPEI, Taiwan—Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang won three out of five mayoral seats Saturday in tightly contested local elections that have been watched closely as a gauge of support for the historic steps taken by the party to warm political and economic relations with China.
Return of the China Twitter Clone?
A Chinese Twitter-style website that was shut down last year at a politically sensitive time appeared to have been resurrected Friday, though it wasn’t the same site users remember.
Fanfou, which went offline following deadly riots in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi in July last year, was back up and publishing messages at least once every second Friday afternoon. A report on the Chinese portal NetEase (in Chinese) said Fanfou came back online late Thursday.
The New York Times
China Seeks New Talks to Ease Korean Tensions
SEOUL, South Korea — China called on Sunday for an emergency meeting of the countries involved in past nuclear talks with North Korea as already heightened tensions in the region rose with the start of joint United States-South Korean naval exercises in the Yellow Sea.
Asking China to Act Like the U.S.
WASHINGTON — A fundamental tenet of foreign policy says that nations will seldom voluntarily act against what they have determined, for whatever reason, to be their own national interest. “We’re still struggling with a post-unilateralist hangover,” said David Rothkopf, author of “Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power.”
That hangover, he says, leads Americans to believe “that we’re the sole remaining superpower and the objective of our foreign policy is to get people to go along with that. To fall into step with our worldview. But the reality is, that’s not what the future holds.”
“We have moved from the cold war era of bipolar reality through the brief bubble of sole superpower unilateral fantasy into a world of a new multipowered system which requires old-fashioned balance-of-power diplomacy,” Mr. Rothkopf said. The result, he said, may be that “all of a sudden, the old cobweb-infested State Department is more important than it’s been in many, many years.”
Kaixin OpEd - Interesting Article, well worth reading in full.
The Australian
China begins trading in credit default swaps
But even as it embraces the complex kingdom of derivatives, China is being ultra-cautious. It has not escaped Beijing's notice that the reputation of credit default swaps took a hammering in the global financial crisis. Accordingly, the instruments introduced in China will trade under the guise of "credit risk mitigation warrants".
North Korea opens fire as war games begin
JOINT US-South Korea military exercises in the Yellow Sea got off to a tense start yesterday.
North Korea fired off more artillery shells in an apparent training exercise while it moved missiles into position near the sea border.
Kaixin OpEd - North Korea threatening an American aircraft carrier reminds me of the story of the flea having sex with an elephant. The elephant was walking along with a distinct lack of excitement when a coconut fell on its head. The elephant raised its trunk and let out a loud trumpet. The flea doubled its efforts, yelling out, “Go, baby, Go!”
Mind you, if the flea has an A-Bomb in its back pocket, that could change the outcome somewhat.
The Age
John Garnaut
China walks the line between two Koreas
A Chinese envoy, Wu Dawei, said Mr Dai had proposed ''emergency'' six-nation talks to defuse tensions. South Korean media said the proposal had been rejected by Mr Lee, saying the time was not yet right, while Chinese officials called in the US ambassador in Beijing, Jon Huntsman, to discuss the idea.
South Korean public opinion has hardened significantly against the North after the artillery raid that killed two civilians and two marines and wounded more than a dozen others. It emerged at the weekend that the civilian deaths may have been the result of miscalculation. The two dead civilians were reported to be contractors engaged to paint a military building.
The North described reports of civilian deaths as ''regrettable'' and accused the South of erecting a ''human shield''.
WSJ - Remembrance as Reminder? Mao’s Son in N. Korea
With the U.S. calling on Beijing to rein in North Korea after the artillery strike on a South Korean island, Pyongyang is playing up perhaps the most potent symbol of its historic link with the People’s Republic of China: the gravesite of Mao Zedong’s first son.
NYT - For China’s Women, More Opportunities, More Pitfalls
BEIJING — The question that dashed Angel Feng’s job prospects always came last. 
Fluent in Chinese, English, French and Japanese, the 26-year-old graduate of a business school in France interviewed between January and April with half a dozen companies in Beijing, hoping for her first job in the private sector, where salaries are highest.
“The boss would ask several questions about my qualifications, then he’d say: ‘I see you just got married. When will you have a baby?’ It was always the last question. I’d say not for five years, at least, but they didn’t believe me,” Ms. Feng said.
“The main issue we face is confusion, about who we are and what we should be,” said Qin Liwen, a magazine columnist. “Should I be a ‘strong woman’ and make money and have a career, maybe grow rich, but risk not finding a husband or having a child? Or should I marry and be a stay-at-home housewife, support my husband and educate my child? Or, should I be a ‘fox’ — the kind of woman who marries a rich man, drives around in a BMW but has to put up with his concubines?”
Guo Jianmei, director of the Beijing Zhongze Women’s Legal Counseling and Service Center, insists that, over all, women today are in a better position than they were three decades ago.
“They know so much more about their rights,” she said. “They are better educated. For those with a competitive spirit, there’s a world of opportunity here now, whether they are businesswomen, scientists, farmers or even political leaders. There really have been huge changes.”
Women in China
Police Couple Pays Dearly for Business Badge
A luxury apartment that a Linfen traffic cop and his wife bought with illegal profits later became a murder scene
Wang, 52, was a traffic police officer for the Public Security Bureau of Hongdong County, a section of Linfen with a population of about 700,000, making it Shanxi's largest county. Han, meanwhile, worked in the security bureau's complaints office.
Yet within just a few years, the couple managed to amass a minor fortune, ran a steel mill, lived in a luxury villa, drove a BMW and sent two daughters and one son to study in the United States. Their wealth apparently became well-known in the community and, according to police, eventually attracted their killers.
How did they get rich? Answering that question requires an understanding of the fuzzy boundary between questionable business dealings and public service in Hongdong's coal economy.
See Kaixin's 'Corruption v 'li shang wang lai' 礼尚往来'
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