China alert | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

23/07/2013

China’s Smartphone Generation

BusinessWeek: “Every day at noon, workers spill out through the red gates of the Xue Fulan garment factory on the outskirts of Beijing to enjoy one precious hour of lunchtime freedom. They are mostly in their late teens or early 20s, living in no-frills dormitories within the factory complex. Most saunter out on a hot summer day with a water bottle in one hand and a smartphone in the other.

While personal computers are rare inside the factory, many of these young migrant workers—who are just climbing onto the lowest rung of the urban economic ladder—are now on the Internet daily. With 12-hour workdays, their free hours are scarce, but they still find time to use social media and dating apps, play video games, and read lifestyle and news sites, where they can catch a glimpse of the upscale urban life they aspire to.

Last week the government-affiliated China Internet Network Information Center reported that 591 million people in China now have Internet access; that’s 45 percent of the population. Just six years ago, only 16 percent of China’s population was online. Among the drivers of the steep rise in Internet penetration: the rapid adoption of Internet-enabled mobile devices, especially among groups that previously lacked regular connectivity, including China’s migrant workers. More than three-quarters of China’s netizens (464 million people) now use a mobile Internet device—instead of, or in addition to, a laptop or PC.

Kantar Media, a U.K.-based global consumer research and consulting firm, polled nearly 100,000 Chinese Internet users about their online habits and preferences in 2012 and just released its analysis of the study: 59 percent of respondents said that online chat and dating were their favorite uses of the mobile Internet, while 43 percent described themselves as “frequent” users of social media. Notably, the number of Chinese netizens who claimed they had visited a social media site in the past day was higher among mobile Internet users (32 percent) than among all netizens (26 percent). Weixin (“WeChat”), Tencent’s (700:HK) popular social-media app, is almost exclusively used on smartphones and tablets.

Megacity commutes are also correlated with more time online. In 2012, Chinese commuters who travelled more than one hour to work were three times as likely to go online daily as those whose commutes were under a half hour. As China’s large cities sprawl, traffic jams proliferate as well. Shen Ying, a general manager at CTR Media, Kantar Media’s joint-venture partner in China, believes that the “fragmentation of ‘social’ time created by longer commutes” goes hand in hand with the “desire for social networking.” Fortunately for China’s lonely subway passengers, Internet access on Beijing’s subway is more stable than on New York City’s.”

via China’s Smartphone Generation – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Consumer, Economics, Internet, Migrant workers, social media | 1 Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, china internet network, China Internet Network Information Center, Chinese Internet users, global consumer research, internet, mobile internet users, Sina Weibo, Social media, technology

22/07/2013

Knife attacks and bomb threats follow Beijing airport explosion

SCMP: “Several incidents of violence have been reported in Beijing in the aftermath of the attempted suicide by an aggrieved petitioner at the capital’s international airport on Saturday.

On Monday, a man armed with a knife went on a rampage at a Carrefour shopping centre, in Beijing’s western district, wounding at least four people. Police have arrested a Beijing-native surnamed Wang, born in 1963 at the scene, local police said in a statement.

One child was among those wounded, Beijing News reported on its microblog. The report did not say what triggered the attack.

Last Thursday, a knife-yielding man stabbed two people, including one US woman, to death, in a similar incident.

In two unrelated incidents, Beijing police arrested two men for “threatening to carry bombs and attempting to disturb social order” in the capital.

Four hours after petitioner Ji Zhongxing caused an explosion at Beijing Capital International Airport on Saturday, a 39-year-old man surnamed Wang from Beijing’s Miyun county threatened to set off explosives at a Beijing airport to protest against land seizures, according to a statement by Beijing police.

Only one hour later, a 31-year-old man surnamed Liu from Jiangsu province, threatened to detonate explosives at a video arcade, police said. Both men have since been arrested.

Many Chinese netizens blamed a “butterfly effect” and criticised the government for failing to address petitioners’ grievances. “If the government continues in its corrupt ways, everybody will become Ji Zhongxing,” said one Weibo user. “Using lives to protest is the last way for ordinary people to seek changes,” wrote another.

via Knife attacks and bomb threats follow Beijing airport explosion | South China Morning Post.

Blast hits Beijing airport terminal (bbc.co.uk)

Posted in China alert, Petition, Politics, public protest, social media | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, Beijing Capital International Airport, China, politics, Sina Weibo

22/07/2013

To Remain Tops in Innovation, the U.S. Needs Immigration Reform

BusinessWeek: “As China’s economy catches up with America’s in pure size, it’s worth asking whether China will eventually assume the top spot when it comes to innovation as well. The U.S. retains a strong global lead in research and new inventions, in large part because the U.S. continues to attract innovators from the world over—including from China. But to stay on top, the U.S. needs immigration reform that makes it easier for scientists and technology developers to come and stay in the country.

China is producing ever more science and technology graduates and climbing the global rankings in patent applications

China is churning out ever more science and technology graduates and climbing the global rankings in patent applications. By 2004 it was the fifth-largest producer of academic scientific publications—behind only the U.K., Germany, Japan, and the U.S. And in 2011, China’s ZTE (000063:CH) alone made 2,826 international patent filings—the most of any company in the world.

More global innovation is a good thing for everyone—so there’s no reason to fear China’s increasing technological heft. Regardless, that heft is still a fraction of America’s. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the U.S. is still first by a big margin in terms of widely cited articles—a measure of the quality of research. China ranks 17th. Per dollar of gross domestic product, the U.S. produces more than six times China’s number of patents that are filed in at least three different countries, which is an indicator of marketable innovation.

In 2012, China earned $1 billion in foreign royalty and license payments—this for intellectual property the country had created that was being exploited by companies elsewhere. Meanwhile, it paid $18 billion in royalty and license payments to foreign firms, for a total deficit of $17 billion. Compare that with the U.S., which ran a $82 billion surplus.

A new paper co-authored by Carsten Fink, chief economist of WIPO, suggests one big reason for the U.S.’s continued lead: The country remains a magnet for global innovators. Fink’s paper studies patent applications filed under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty, which records more than half of all international applications and lists the residence and nationality of the inventors of more than 4 million patents. Using that data, Fink and his colleague Ernest Miguelez found that in 2010 about 10 percent of inventors worldwide lived outside their country of nationality when making their international patent application. The proportion of international patent applications made from the U.S. by non-nationals was twice as high—around 20 percent. That proportion approximately doubled from 1985 to 2010, and it’s the highest share out of any large economy. It compares with a non-national share of international patent applications of about 2 percent in Japan and closer to 5 percent in Germany and France.

The U.S. is by far the biggest global net beneficiary of innovator migration. Between 2001 and 2010, 14,893 inventors with U.K. nationality applied for international patents while residing in the U.S., for example. And there were three times as many Chinese inventors in the U.S. than British ones. That illustrates the U.S. has done particularly well in attracting innovative talent from the developing world—more than half of the U.S. non-national innovator population comes from countries outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development club of rich countries.

Still, recent trends are disturbing. Duke University’s Vivek Wadhwa reports that the proportion of high-tech startups founded by Chinese and Indian immigrants in Silicon Valley dropped from 52 percent in 2005 to 44 percent in 2011, in part because more and more Indian and Chinese graduates of U.S. universities are returning home rather than dealing with the hassle of American immigration procedures. The U.S. is becoming less attractive to the very people who help power the U.S. innovation economy.

via To Remain Tops in Innovation, the U.S. Needs Immigration Reform – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Economics, innovation, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Duke University, intellectual property organization, Patent application, Patent Cooperation Treaty, Silicon Valley, technology graduates, United States, Vivek Wadhwa, World Intellectual Property Organization

21/07/2013

Hauling New Treasure Along the Silk Road

NY Times: “AZAMAT KULYENOV, a 26-year-old train driver, slid the black-knobbed throttle forward, and the 1,800-ton express freight train, nearly a half-mile long, began rolling west across the vast, deserted grasslands of eastern Kazakhstan, leaving the Chinese border behind.

Dispatchers in the Kazakh border town of Dostyk gave this train priority over all other traffic, including passenger trains. Specially trained guards rode on board. Later in the trip, as the train traveled across desolate Eurasian steppes, guards toting AK-47 military assault rifles boarded the locomotive to keep watch for bandits who might try to drive alongside and rob the train. Sometimes, the guards would even sit on top of the steel shipping containers.

The train roughly follows the fabled Silk Road, the ancient route linking China and Europe that was used to transport spices, gems and, of course, silks before falling into disuse six centuries ago. Now the overland route is being resurrected for a new precious cargo: several million laptop computers and accessories made each year in China and bound for customers in European cities like London, Paris, Berlin and Rome.

Hewlett-Packard, the Silicon Valley electronics company, has pioneered the revival of a route famous in the West since the Roman Empire. For the last two years, the company has shipped laptops and accessories to stores in Europe with increasing frequency aboard express trains that cross Central Asia at a clip of 50 miles an hour. Initially an experiment run in summer months, H.P. is now dispatching trains on the nearly 7,000-mile route at least once a week, and up to three times a week when demand warrants. H.P. plans to ship by rail throughout the coming winter, having taken elaborate measures to protect the cargo from temperatures that can drop to 40 degrees below zero.

Though the route still accounts for just a small fraction of manufacturers’ overall shipments from China to Europe, other companies are starting to follow H.P.’s example. Chinese authorities announced on Wednesday the first of six long freight trains this year from Zhengzhou, a manufacturing center in central China, to Hamburg, Germany, following much the same route across western China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland as the H.P. trains. The authorities said they planned 50 trains on the route next year, hauling $1 billion worth of goods; the first train this month is carrying $1.5 million worth of tires, shoes and clothes, while the trains are to bring back German electronics, construction machinery, vehicles, auto parts and medical equipment.

DHL announced on June 20 that it had begun weekly express freight train service from Chengdu in western China across Kazakhstan and ultimately to Poland. Some of H.P.’s rivals in the electronics industry are in various stages of starting to use the route for exports from China, freight executives said.

The Silk Road was never a single route, but a web of paths taken by caravans of camels and horses that began around 120 B.C., when Xi’an in west-central China — best known for its terra cotta warriors — was China’s capital. The caravans started across the deserts of western China, traveled through the mountain ranges along China’s western borders with what are now Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and then journeyed across the sparsely populated steppes of Central Asia to the Caspian Sea and beyond.

These routes flourished through the Dark Ages and the early medieval period in Europe. But as maritime navigation expanded in the 1300s and 1400s, and as China’s political center shifted east to Beijing, China’s economic activity also moved toward the coast.

Today, the economic geography is changing again. Labor costs in China’s eastern cities have surged in the last decade, so manufacturers are trying to reduce costs by moving production west to the nation’s interior. Trucking products from the new inland factories to coastal ports is costly and slow. High oil prices have made airfreight exorbitantly expensive and prompted the world’s container shipping lines to reduce sharply the speed of their vessels.

Slow steaming cuts oil consumption, but the resulting delays have infuriated shippers of high-value electronics goods like H.P’s. Such delays drive up their costs and make it harder to respond quickly to changes in consumer demand in distant markets.”

via Hauling New Treasure Along the Silk Road – NYTimes.com.

Related articles

Reincarnation of the legendary silk road (newsmoose.com)
China to revive ‘Southern Silk Road’ (stratrisks.com)
‘Revival of the Silk Road’: Kazakhs launch China-Europe rail route (worldnews.nbcnews.com)

Posted in China alert, Economics, Trade, Transport | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Caspian Sea, Central Asia, China, Hewlett-Packard, Kazakhstan, London, Roman Empire, Silk Road, transportation

20/07/2013

China frees up lending rates in major reform

Reuters: “China’s central bank removed controls on bank lending rates, effective Saturday, in a long-awaited move that signals the new leadership’s determination to carry out market-oriented reforms.

An employee counts money on the last workday of the week at a bank in Taiyuan, Shanxi province in this June 28, 2013 file picture. China's central bank announced long-awaited interest rate reforms on July 19, 2013, scrapping the previous floor on the rates that banks charge clients for loans. Picture taken June 28, 2013. REUTERS/Jon Woo

The move gives commercial banks the freedom to compete for borrowers, a reform the People’s Bank of China said on Friday will help lower financial costs for companies. Previously, the lending floor was 70 percent of the benchmark lending rate.

However, the PBOC, in a statement, left a ceiling on deposit rates unchanged at 110 percent of benchmark rates, avoiding for now what many economists see as the most important step Beijing needs to take to free up interest rates.

The latest step underscores Beijing’s resolve to start fixing distortions in its financial system and the economy more broadly as it tries to shift from export- and investment-led growth to more consumption-led activity.

Some analysts said cheaper credit could help support the economy, which has seen year-on-year growth fall in nine of the last 10 quarters.

“This is a big breakthrough in financial reforms,” said Wang Jun, senior economist at China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, a prominent government think-tank in Beijing.

“Previously, people had thought the central bank would only gradually lower the floor on lending rates. Now they scrapped the floor once and for all.”

The Australian dollar rose modestly on the news on hopes cheaper credit will lead to more demand from Australia’s biggest export market.

The announcement provided some support to weak stock markets in Europe .FTEU3 and a timely reminder to the world’s top financial leaders meeting in Moscow of China’s intention to rebalance its economy.

A Group of 20 draft communiqué will urge China to encourage more domestic demand-driven growth as part of wider efforts to rebalance the world economy, G20 sources said.

The United States welcomed the move, saying China promised to let markets play a bigger role in allocating credit during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington last week.

“This is a welcome further step in the reform and liberalization of China’s financial system,” Holly Shulman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury, said in an email.”

via China frees up lending rates in major reform | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Economics | 1 Comment »

Tags: Beijing, Business, China, Chinese financial system, economy, Peoples Bank of China, politics, U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue

20/07/2013

China officials held over watermelon-seller death

BBC : “Six urban security personnel have been detained by police investigating the death of a fruit seller in southern China, state media say.

Deng Zhengjia, in his 50s, died on Wednesday in Chenzhou City, Hunan.

He was hit with a weight from a set of scales after a row erupted with the officials, known as “chengguan”, Xinhua reported, citing Mr Deng’s niece.

The six are being held on suspicion of intentionally harming others, added the news agency.

The row in Linwu county, Chenzhou, erupted after Mr Deng, 56, and his wife tried to sell home-grown watermelons at a scenic riverside spot without a licence, the county government said in a statement.

Having asked the couple to leave, “the enforcers temporarily confiscated four of the watermelons, requesting that the couple sell their melons in an authorised location instead”.

The couple began “insulting” the officers when they encountered them again 50 minutes later, the statement said.

“The enforcers tried to reason with the couple, the dispute between the two sides became a physical conflict, and in the process Deng Zhengjia suddenly collapsed and died,” it added.

There were anti-chengguan protests in Linwu on Wednesday, and the fruit seller’s death has also sparked outrage on China’s microblogs.

In July 2011, the death of a disabled street vendor who was reportedly beaten by local law enforcers sparked a riot in Guizhou province.

Who are the chengguan?

Urban law enforcers tasked with enforcing ”non-criminal administrative regulations” such as traffic, environment and sanitation rules

Chengguan operate separately from the police

They are employed by the Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureaux of their individual cities

Critics call them “violent government thugs”

Reports that a disabled street vendor was beaten to death by chengguan in 2011 sparked riots in China’s Guizhou province

There are thousands of chengguan in at least 656 cities across China, Human Rights Watch says

The chengguan, or Urban Management Law Enforcement force, support the police in tackling low-level crime in cities and have become unpopular with the Chinese public after a series of high-profile violent incidents.

“They are now synonymous for many Chinese citizens with physical violence, illegal detention and theft,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a report last year.

via BBC News – China officials held over watermelon-seller death.

BBC News – Probe over China fruit-seller ‘beaten by enforcers’ (chindia-alert.org)

Posted in China alert, Human rights, Illegal practices, Justice, Politics, public protest, Rule of law, social media | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Chenzhou, China, Guizhou, Human Rights Watch, Hunan, Linwu County, Police, politics

19/07/2013

Strike Force Would Allow ‘War on Two Fronts’

WSJ: “The Indian government this week reportedly paved the way for the creation of a new military corps of 50,000 troops near its border with China. If correct, analysts say this is a sign that New Delhi, which has been largely focused on its frontier with Pakistan, is now shifting its attention to the long, disputed Sino-Indian boundary.

Government sources were quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying a new mountain strike corps costing nearly $11 billion over seven years, was approved by India’s cabinet committee on security Wednesday. The committee is headed by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The force will be headquartered at Panagarh, in the eastern state of West Bengal, the news agency reported. Attempts to confirm these reports with India’s ministries of defense and external affairs were not successful.

The creation of a strike corps would give India thousands of war-ready soldiers, trained and equipped to respond rapidly to a military threat, stationed close to the border between India and China, known as the Line of Actual Control.

Analysts say it would take five to seven years for such a force to be formed fully, as large numbers of soldiers would need to be recruited and trained for combat at high altitudes and in mountainous terrains.

“The process will be incremental,” said Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor in Chinese studies at the New-Delhi based Jawaharlal Nehru University. “There won’t be large-scale training, because there is no immediate threat.”

For decades, relations between India and China have been characterized by mistrust. The tensions boiled over into a war between the two in 1962, which China won by gaining control over a large swathe of Indian territory known as Aksai China.

Beijing is still in control of the 38,000 square kilometers of land, but Indian maps show Aksai Chin as a part of Jammu and Kashmir, it’s northernmost state. China also claims 90,000 square kilometers of land in Arunachal Pradesh, a state in India’s northeast.

Neither nation has shown any inclination to return to armed conflict since, but India’s decision to create a strike corps – which analysts say has been in the offing for over two years – reflects New Delhi’s growing concern that Beijing is becoming increasingly assertive in its territorial claims.

via Strike Force Would Allow ‘War on Two Fronts’ – India Real Time – WSJ.

China-India Relations: The Geopolitics Of Aksai Chin – Analysis (eurasiareview.com)
China & India: All Not Quiet on the Western Front (thediplomat.com)
Government clears posting of 40,000 soldiers along China border (ndtv.com)
China Welcomes Indian Defense Minister With Warning: ‘Don’t Provoke Us With New Trouble’ (hngn.com)

Posted in China alert, Chindia Alert, Defence, Diplomacy, Foreign invasion, GeoPolitics, History, India alert, Military, Neighbour conflict, peace keeping, Politics, Territorial dispute, war | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Arunachal Pradesh, Beijing, China, India, indian maps, Jawaharlal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Line of Actual Control, manmohan singh, New Delhi, prime minister manmohan singh, state of west bengal

19/07/2013

Probe over China fruit-seller ‘beaten by enforcers’

BBC: “Police are investigating the death of a fruit seller in China, state media say, amid reports he was beaten by “chengguan” urban security personnel.

Deng Zhengjia, in his 50s, died on Wednesday in Chenzhou City, Hunan.

He was hit with a weight from a set of scales after a row erupted with chengguan officials, Xinhua news agency said, citing Mr Deng’s niece.

Chengguan are unpopular with the Chinese public after a series of high-profile violent incidents.

The chengguan, or Urban Management Law Enforcement force, support the police in tackling low-level crime in cities.

But the force’s ”thuggish” behaviour had led to public anger and undermined stability, a report by Human Rights Watch said last year.

“They are now synonymous for many Chinese citizens with physical violence, illegal detention and theft,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), when the report was released in May 2012.

via BBC News – Probe over China fruit-seller ‘beaten by enforcers’.

Posted in China alert, Human rights, Illegal practices, Justice, Politics, public protest, Rule of law, social media | 1 Comment »

Tags: China, Human Rights Watch, Hunan, State media

19/07/2013

China Seeks Australias Help Building Emissions Trading Scheme

Sydney Morning Herald: “Australia has been drafted in to help design an emissions trading scheme for China, the world’s biggest polluter.

A deal announced in Canberra on Thursday will see the Australian National University take leadership of a program that will analyse pollution data provided by China and allow Chinese university researchers to examine Australia’s experience of the carbon tax and transition to an emissions trading scheme.

China pollution China is aiming for a full national emissions trading scheme by 2015.

The program, known as the “Australia-China research program on market mechanisms for climate change policy”, will team Australian researchers with those from three provincial universities in China and the Beijing Institute of Technology. The University of New South Wales and Melbourne University will also take part.

The deal comes less than a month after China launched the first of seven pilot emissions trading schemes.

The first, in the manufacturing city of Shenzhen, will cover 635 companies, responsible for 38 per cent of the city’s total emissions. Chinese authorities are under pressure to do something about the chronic air pollution affecting public health in Shenzen and across China.

China emits one-quarter of the worlds greenhouse gases – nearly 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, more than the US and India combined.

The $305,000 program, announced by Trade Minister Richard Marles, will be run by the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy, and led by Associate Professor Frank Jotzo of the Schools Centre for Climate Economics and Policy. He said projects would include modelling the effects of emissions pricing on electricity sector investments in China; research on how energy markets can be reformed to make carbon pricing more effective and the design of China’s pilot emissions trading schemes.

Professor Jotzo said: In the future, China is expected to rely less on command-and-control economic management and more on market-based systems to help protect the environment and modernise its energy system.

The research under this program will help inform Chinese policymaker’s about innovative approaches and international experiences, he said.

Climate expert and economist Ross Garnaut, a professor at ANU, said the most recent climate science showed a two degree warming of the planet was now a minimum and Chinese leaders understand there is a huge potential impact from climate for that nation.

via China Seeks Australias Help Building Emissions Trading Scheme.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Climate change, Economics, Green, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Australia, Australian National University, Beijing Institute of Technology, China, climate, Emissions trading, emissions trading scheme, environment, Shenzhen, University of New South Wales

15/07/2013

Apple Investigates China iPhone Death Allegations

WSJ: “Apple Inc. AAPL -0.20% said Monday that it is investigating a case in which the family of a 23-year-old woman alleges that she was electrocuted by her iPhone.

Though details about the case remain sketchy, it has caught the imagination of social media users in China, who have been spreading word about the case and warning not to use devices while they are charging.

According to a report in China’s official state-run Xinhua news agency, relatives of the woman in China’s western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region are alleging the woman died after trying to answer a call while her iPhone was charging. An officer with the local Public Security Bureau said Monday that an “elementary inspection” showed the woman, named Ma Ailun, was electrocuted.

“Her neck had an obvious electronic injury,” he told China Real Time.

Beyond that, though, the official said that the case was still under investigation, and there were no more details available about whether her smartphone, the charger, or something else killed the woman.

In its statement, Apple said: “We are deeply saddened to learn of this tragic incident and offer our condolences to the Ma family. We will fully investigate and cooperate with authorities in this matter.””

via Apple Investigates China iPhone Death Allegations – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Apple, China, China Southern Airline, IPhone, Public Security Bureau, tragic incident, Xinjiang

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

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To Remain Tops in Innovation, the U.S. Needs Immigration Reform

Hauling New Treasure Along the Silk Road

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Apple Investigates China iPhone Death Allegations

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