3rd of December 2010
The Lion Awakes
Daily News, Culture & Current Affairs about China
Graeme has been using ChinesePod since 2007
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China Daily
Trilateral talks 'aim at joint response'
BEIJING / WASHINGTON - High-level talks involving officials from the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) next Monday will possibly seek a joint response against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), some analysts said.
But a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday it expected the meeting to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and promote dialogue rather than inflame the situation.
"We'll keep a close watch on this meeting," Jiang Yu said in a statement.
It is uncertain whether the talks in Washington will approve a Chinese proposal for a meeting in Beijing involving the delegation heads to the Six-Party Talks.
"We expect the three countries to take into account regional peace and stability and Korean Peninsula denuclearization and give a positive consideration to China's proposal," Jiang said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to meet the foreign ministers of Japan and the ROK in Washington "to discuss the recent developments on the Korean Peninsula and their impact on regional security, as well as other regional and global issues", State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Wednesday.
He denied that the meeting would be a snub to China and Russia, adding that additional meetings are also planned.
Kaixin Oped - Whether America & Co like it or not, China and Russia are part of the equation. They have to be part of any solution.
Pentagon leader says China ties to improve
WASHINGTON / BEIJING - America's top military officer has said the resumption of military exchanges between the United States and China will renew prospects of strengthened military-to-military engagement.
"Now that both countries have agreed to resume routine contacts as part of this important (aspect) of our relationship, the hard work really begins," Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, said at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, on Tuesday.
"The United States stands ready to do our part."
Measures 'ease food price surge'
But analysts say rate hike needed to tackle inflation
BEIJING - The trend of surging food prices, which account for more than one third of the consumer inflation basket, softened in late November after authorities took measures to curb inflation.
But some analysts warned that the respite is only temporary and high inflation will remain if the government relies on just administrative measures and does not significantly raise interest rates.
The government introduced a series of measures, including subsidies, ensuring supplies and punishing hoarders, to control rising prices in November.
In Beijing, vegetable prices decreased 19 percent month-on-month by the end of November, Liu Tong, head of statistics at Xinfadi market, the largest agricultural commodities wholesale market in the city, told China Daily.
"Growing supply is gradually sending prices back to last year's levels," he said.
"The figures showed that measures taken by the government to broaden the vegetable supply and crack down on hoarding and other illegal speculative activities have worked," said Hu Shaowei, economist with the State Information Center.
Kaixin OpEd - This will be an interesting test of Free Market Principles v A Planned Economy. In a Free Market the hoarders would be rewarded with higher profits, in the true spirit of capitalism. However, the average person would lose out. The Planned Economy approach seems to be working through the age old supply/demand equation.
Time will tell, if the Planned Economy approach causes distortions in the economy with un-intended and/or un-expected consequences.
However, if hoarding must also send out false signals to the market.
Micro blogs 'the next big thing'
BEIJING - Micro blogs are set to become the next battlefield in China's online advertising market as the practice becomes more popular among Chinese netizens.
Micro-blogging was still at a nascent stage in China last year, but user numbers are expected to exceed 100 million next year as it is quickly becoming the new marketing tool for multinational companies, such as Nokia, Dell and Lenovo, to promote their brands and products, industry sources say.
"Micro blogs provide a new tool for us to interact with our potential consumers here in China," says Yang Weidong, head of marketing for Nokia in China.
Kaixin OpEd - Tech-Democracy in China
China, Russia sign emergency aid document
MOSCOW- A handover certificate on China providing Russia with emergency humanitarian aid has been inked in Moscow between the two sides, the Chinese embassy in Russia announced on Thursday.
The humanitarian aid delivered by the Chinese side on August 20 was worth three million US dollars, including fire extinguishers, compressors, fire-fighting suits and gas masks.
Statistics showed that the summer wildfires have cost Russia 15 billion dollars.
China builds national network for online television
BEIJING - China has built a national platform network for online television program broadcasts, according to a statement released Thursday by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
The platform for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services is divided into two tiers, namely, the central level, which will provide programs catering to all audiences throughout the country, and the local level, which will provide more programs designed for audiences in specific regions, the statement said.
The platform has the capacity for 100 channels of standard-definition broadcasting services, 15 channels of high-definition services and 20,000 hours of video on demand (VOD) services.
More high earners as wealth gap stretches wider
BEIJING - Five percent of China's total population now have annual incomes of at least 300,000 yuan ($45,000) after tax, according to new research.
Results of a study carried out in more than 10 major cities show roughly 50 million Chinese have passed the 300,000-yuan mark, while 5 million more are taking home in excess of 1 million yuan a year after tax.
The primary field of investment for those in the "million club" - most of whom are aged 25 to 50 - is real estate investment, said Lu Xiao, assistant professor at Fudan University's school of management, who led the research.
China exposes 31 websites for selling fake drugs
BEIJING - China's drug watchdog has exposed 31 websites in an ongoing crackdown on the illegal selling of drugs on the Internet.
Op-Ed Contributors
Central bank's current challenges
Monetary base is smaller than it appears but sterilization may need to continue to control inflation and asset prices
Not long after the United States Federal Reserve Board announced its second round of quantitative easing (known as QE2), the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, announced two increases of 0.5 percentage points in the required reserve ratio (RRR) of bank deposits. The RRR now stands at 18.5 percent, a historic high, even in global terms.
While the Fed is planning to pump more money into the US economy, the People's Bank of China is trying to reduce the amount of money in circulation. Money used by commercial banks to satisfy the RRR, which is held in accounts at the central bank, can no longer be extended as loans. As a result, more money than ever is now frozen or inactive in China.
Bodyguards in line of hire for more people
Increasing security concerns mean brisk business for related services. Cao Li in Beijing reports.
Zhang Li turned around and looked at the two muscular men hiding in the shadows, trying to act as inconspicuous as possible. Although they pretended to be reading newspapers, she knew they were watching her every move.
"I call them shushu, my uncles," said the 7-year-old. Her mother calls them her bodyguards.
With her rosy cheeks, pigtails and bright pink rucksack, Zhang looks like every other first-grader as she skips through the gates of her primary school in downtown Shanghai. What sets her apart is her entourage.
"We're her secret escorts," said Zhou Jie from CCG Security, the company hired to protect the girl from her divorced father.
In the last two years, the 26-year-old martial arts expert has guarded visiting royals from the Middle East, celebrities and company CEOs. "But it is the first time I've protected an ordinary family," he said.
Once the preserve of the rich and famous, a shift in China's traditional customer base has led to a boom in demand for bodyguards. As the nation's wealth has grown, Chinese security firms say they are witnessing a surge in middle-class families using their services.
Kaixin OpEd - The downside of all this wealth creation. Xiaosui can remember a time when this was not an issue, when you did not have to lock your doors, when you did not need high security fences around your residential compound.
Wind can't blow away Beijing's pollutants
BEIJING - The sky appears blue, but the air remains polluted, Beijing's environmental watchdog ruled Thursday as strong winds blew away the murky haze that shrouded China's capital for days.
Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center's daily report shows that Beijing's average air quality from mid-day Wednesday to Thursday was "slightly polluted" (pollution reading 101 to 200).
Slideshow: Great Wall shrouded in mist
Click on the Photo to go to the Slideshow
The 16th United Nations Climate Change Conference
Chinese Zodiac
Jewellry
Global Times
A smart response to smart power diplomacy
When observing China's recent bickering with neighboring countries, exemplified by rising tensions with Japan, Vietnam and South Korea, one can surely see the shadowy hand of the US exerting its influence against China's rise.
The smart power diplomacy of the US is in full play around China.
China's rise cannot escape clashing with a major strategic goal of the US: maintaining its leadership in the western Pacific. There is almost zero chance the US will ease up in its drive to suppress China, despite its reform and opening-up.
The US' smart power diplomacy is increasingly difficult to offset. Due to a long-standing concept that equilibrium of the big powers benefits small nations, an anti-US sentiment is difficult to be planted among China's neighboring countries. But meanwhile, the US cannot persuade them to openly challenge China either.
The fact is that China has to live with direct and indirect conflicts with the US in the coming decades. China's peaceful development largely depends on how well China responds to those conflicts.
In the past, wars were often the result of rising powers unable to handle conflict with the existing power well. Today, military solutions to conflict have been gradually discarded. War is an equally painful choice to existing powers. There are other ways of engaging other countries in today's reality. The way out is not to get rid of conflicts, which is impossible, but learn to resist and dissolve conflicts.
China needs to realize that it is still on the weaker side in terms of strength and influence. However, developed countries are also uneasy with the prediction of a "China Century."
China's rise should not be judged by one single victory or a loss. Much like the past, the road ahead will be full of ups and downs.
This is one of the most complicated and confusing times in the western Pacific in recent history, and the most important thing is to keep China's current growth momentum.
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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I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributor
Scolding China Won't Help
China has become far freer, and bashing it over human rights will only slow the process of political reform.
There is an established historical pattern for real change in China. Over the past 30 years, change has come slowly but steadily.
Political reform is coming to China and Western politicians should avoid prolonging the process through strident remarks and posturing that only give ammunition to Chinese hard-liners. Instead, we should encourage Beijing as it becomes more comfortable with its place as a modern, and increasingly open, power.
James Zimmerman, a lawyer and former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, is the author of a guidebook for lawyers and businessmen working in China.
As Food Prices Soar, A Crucial Test For Beijing
Price ceilings haven’t officially arrived in China yet. Or have they?
Government-imposed pricing is the nuclear option of counter-inflation measures. Despite China’s previous experience with a planned economy, the country’s leaders have been hesitant to use price ceilings because of the potential to misdiagnose price levels and thereby degrading the quality of the market—or even causing goods to disappear from shelves. Besides which, controlling prices doesn’t necessarily address underlying demand even as it crimps the incentive to supply.
Top China Economist Says Sell Lafite. Now.
Andy Xie has some advice to fine-wine collectors: Sell your Lafite now.
The famously blunt economist — he left Morgan Stanley after writing an email that described Singapore as a money-laundering hub, and has called the current Chinese asset market a “giant Ponzi scheme” — wrote on his blog that there is a bubble for Lafite, the Bordeaux of choice for China’s nouveau riche.
Green Dam Comes Back to Haunt Beijing
Just as China begins trumpeting its latest campaign to protect intellectual property, a California court delivers some bad news to Beijing on an intellectual property suit involving a controversial piece of Internet-filtering software.
China's Lending Spills Over Limits
BEIJING—Lending by lightly regulated financial companies outside China's formal banking system has ballooned this year, causing increasing headaches for the government in its efforts to manage the economy and control inflation, observers say.
China's government has traditionally used its control of the largely state-owned banking sector to regulate the country's pace of economic growth, directing it to pump out cheap credit in good times and restricting the volume of new loans to prevent overheating. But controlling credit has become more difficult as the financial system gets more sophisticated, analysts say, complicating Beijing's efforts to bring the economy in for a ...
China's Web Gets the Luxury Look
BEIJING—Searching for wealthy customers beyond China's urban areas, luxury-goods makers are opening shop in a new location: the Chinese Internet.
Emporio Armani led the way, opening online sales last week through its own website in one of world's fastest growing markets for luxury brands.
"This is a strategic move that will open up luxury to the entire nation," said Federico Marchetti, founder and chief executive of Milan-based YOOX SpA, which created the site for the Giorgio Armani SpA label. Mr. Marchetti said at a news conference that YOOX plans in the next year to open Chinese sites for three or ...
Sinopec to Join Chevron Gas Project
China Petrochemical Corp. has struck a deal with Chevron Corp. to join a $6 billion-plus deepwater natural gas project off Indonesia, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday, in the latest push by Chinese companies to secure overseas energy assets.
China's Credit Raters Aim to Better Their Image
BEIJING—Chinese ratings provider Dagong Credit Rating Co. gained global attention with its bearish views on the U.S. government's creditworthiness. Back home, the government is looking to change the way Dagong and its fellow Chinese raters do business.
The changes, one step in the country's efforts to build a more efficient financial system, could help credit raters shed their poor image.
One reason the industry has struggled to gain influence, say industry professionals, is that domestic raters are seen as plagued by conflicts of interest and unwilling to give poor ratings. To address the problem, China's central bank in September launched ...
China's Culture of Secrecy Brands Research as Spying
SHANGHAI—As a "scout" for IHS Inc., a U.S. petroleum industry research firm, geologist Xue Feng won plaudits from his managers for obtaining a trove of rare data on 30,000 Chinese oil wells.
Kaixin OpEd - Kaixin doubts it is as straighforward as the WSJ makes out. Still, doing business in China can be tricky.
China's Credit Raters Aim to Better Their Image
BEIJING—Chinese ratings provider Dagong Credit Rating Co. gained global attention with its bearish views on the U.S. government's creditworthiness. Back home, the government is looking to change the way Dagong and its fellow Chinese raters do business.
The changes, one step in the country's efforts to build a more efficient financial system, could help credit raters shed their poor image.
One reason the industry has struggled to gain influence, say industry professionals, is that domestic raters are seen as plagued by conflicts of interest and unwilling to give poor ratings. To address the problem, China's central bank in September launched ...
The Age
Tears for husband lost in China jail
John Garnaut GUANGZHOU
EACH night after the children are in bed, Niki Chow writes to her husband, Matthew Ng, in Guangzhou's No.3 Detention Centre to tell him to be strong because he will prove his innocence.
But she doesn't know if any of her letters have got past the Chinese censors.
Kaixin Oped - Unsure why this article is in the Age which holds itself out as a serious rag. The artilce should be in a second rate women's rag under sob stories.
Kaixin feels for anyone in Mrs Chow's position.
However, that was not the purpose of the article.
As Kaixin has previously noted, we should await developments and form any opinions based on the facts and what happens.
It may well be that Matthew Ng has got seriously on the wrong end of some powerful 'ren ji guan xi', but that is a hazard of doing business in China. Mr Ng would have been aware of that.
His trip throught the Chinese legal system will be bumpy.
I.H.T. Global Agenda 2011
Go East, Young Diva
For four hundred years, no art form has been more closely identified with Western culture than opera. At the heart of every great European city stands an opera house. Over the centuries, it became the center of intellectual and social life: the place where the aristocracy gambled and partied, the rising bourgeoisie conversed, the artistic avant-garde sought inspiration. From Baroque to post-modern, opera librettos mirror the modern history of the West.
Yet opera is dying — in the West.
Caixin Online
New Day for Shanxi's Black Gold Investment
Mine consolidation and the lure of coal-bed methane are helping draw a new wave of investors to Shanxi Province
(Taiyuan) – The auto company Chery is investing, as is computer maker Lenovo's partner Legend Investments, the state-run energy giant PetroChina, and private equity funds backed by insurance and securities firms.
Hot Money Blamed for Surging Yuan Settlements
Currency speculators apparently hijacked a pilot program in Hong Kong designed to promote yuan-based trade settlements
Central bank officials were surprised to hear October 27 that the yuan trade settlement quota for the entire year had already been reached.
New Subway Lines to Push up Beijing Housing Prices
Construction of five Beijing subway lines began between late 2008 and early 2009 – Since then, prices for homes along the lines have increased by up to 40 percent
(Beijing) -- Five new subway lines in Beijing, scheduled to be opened by the end of the year, are expected to push up nearby housing prices by up to 15 percent.
Chinese companies consume as much as 30 percent more energy than their industrialized peers – how the economy can lift off from energy efficiency technology
Where is next deep rumble emanating from in the Chinese economy? Already being sent across the land, it's coming from China's nimble moves to enhance industrial efficiency.
Silence and Discipline in Public Tragedy
It's become a well-rehearsed stage direction – when the authorities term an event an isolated incident, it is the public's cue to quiet down
"The death of one man is a tragedy but the death of millions is a statistic," goes the oft-quoted saying of Joseph Stalin. Although cold and cruel, it taps into an intuitive fact – human emotions are unable to comprehend disasters with huge casualties as easily as the individual. Take war films for instance. Why is the audience indifferent when a bomb kills dozens of innocent men and women but when a soldier is killed by a sniper, they react with emotion? The reason is simple. We do not know the dozens of people killed in a blast but the soldier who is shot dead is someone familiar to us.
Asia Times Online
US sails with Japan to flashpoint channel
By Todd Crowell
Military exercises this month between Japan and the United States near the Miyako Channel - a stretch of water fast becoming one of the world's most sensitive maritime flashpoints and the gateway for the Chinese navy to open sea - show Tokyo is awakening to the fact that Japan's southern flank is basically undefended. The potential for "incidents" to escalate into major confrontations is enormous.
Feng Shui masters milking Hong Kong
By Kent Ewing
It isn't just private individuals who are paying out large sums for the dubious expertise of Hong Kong's feng shui masters. The city government routinely pays fortune-tellers to "cleanse" infrastructure projects, with well-connected village chiefs often sharing the spoils.
Singapore’s Lee Rates China’s Leaders
Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father and minister mentor, and the grand old man of Asian politics, is famously blunt with his views. All the more, it would seem, in supposedly private diplomatic conversations than in public.
Kaixin OpEd - Insightful comments, well worth reading.
Special Report: Contemporary Art
The Frenetic World of Yi Zhou
SHANGHAI — Imagine that van Gogh, after slicing off his ear, finds himself sucked down a passage into his own brain, which turns out to be the concentric onion of Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” Then capture that journey with three-dimensional digital imaging software and turn it, frame by computerized frame, into a five-minute animated movie.
See Kaixin's Chinese Art - Yi Zhou, Contemporary Chinese Artest (very interesting)
WSJ - Beijing’s Xu to Design Mouton Rothschild Label
Salvador Dali, Joan Miró, Georges Braque — add the name of China’s Xu Lei to the list of artists who have designed a label for top-flight Bordeaux wine producer Château Mouton Rothschild.
The winemaker has selected artists to design its label every year since 1945.
See Kaixin's - Insights into China
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
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