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

22/09/2013

Bo Xilai found guilty of corruption by Chinese court

BBC: “A Chinese court has found disgraced former top politician Bo Xilai guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

The former party chief of Chongqing was sentenced to life imprisonment, but has the right to appeal.

He had denied all the charges against him in a fiery defence at his trial.

Bo was removed from office last year amid a scandal which saw his wife convicted for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

The verdict was handed down by the Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan, Shandong province.

Passing sentence the judge told Bo that he had damaged China’s national interests and the interests of its people, wrongfully using his position in power to receive bribes totalling 20 million Chinese Yuan ($3.2m; £2m).

He rejected Bo’s claims that his confession to the crimes was acquired through illegal means such as torture and interrogation, and said it therefore stood.

The BBC’s John Sudworth, outside the court, said that the judge completely demolished Bo’s defence arguments.

During Bo’s trial last month the court took the unprecedented step of releasing details about proceedings on its Weibo microblog.

The curtains appear to have finally dropped on Bo Xilai’s once-glittering Communist Party career.

Bo can appeal against the trial verdict and his life sentence, but it is highly improbable he could engineer a future in which he re-enters China’s political arena. He has been stripped of all political rights for life.

Of course, Bo can apply for release on parole after 10 years. Other convicted politicians were released from prison after serving only part of their original sentences. Chen Xitong, a former Politburo member, was released on medical parole after serving half of his original 16-year prison term.

However, Bo Xilai is 64-years-old. Even before his political downfall, he was moving towards the final chapter in his career. It is difficult to envision a scenario in which he can quickly revive his populist power base, even if he gains an early release from prison.

It is difficult to make predictions in the world of Chinese politics. Two years ago Bo appeared to be poised to move into Zhongnanhai, the government compound in Beijing were China’s top leaders reside.

Now, he will spend the foreseeable future inside a prison cell.

Bo was sentenced to life in prison on the bribery charges, 15 years for embezzlement and seven years for abuse of power – our correspondent says that he has been politically buried. In addition all his personal wealth has been confiscated.

He has 10 days to appeal against his sentence and conviction, but correspondents say that any such move is highly unlikely to be successful.

Although his trial was conducted under an unprecedented degree of openness for China, many analysts say that the guilty verdict was always a foregone conclusion – and many see the process against him as having a very strong political dimension.

Prosecutors had said that Bo accepted the bribes and embezzled public funds from Dalian, where he used to be mayor.

He was also accused of abusing his office by using his position to cover up for his wife Gu Kailai, convicted last year of murdering Neil Heywood in 2011.

In lengthy comments in court, he said he did not illegally obtain millions of dollars or cover up Mr Heywood’s killing.

He also dismissed the testimony of two key witnesses, describing his wife’s statement as “ridiculous” and his former police chief Wang Lijun’s testimony as “full of lies and fraud”.

via BBC News – Bo Xilai found guilty of corruption by Chinese court.

Posted in China alert, Law suit, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Bo Xilai, China, Gu Kailai, Intermediate People's Court, life imprisonment, Neil Heywood, politburo member, Shandong, shandong province

19/09/2013

Delhi shaped South Asia’s Muslim identity, Pakistani author says

Reuters: “Raza Rumi is based in Lahore, but the public policy specialist and Friday Times editor’s new book is based in another milieu entirely. “Delhi by heart” is a kind of travelogue about a city that is the source of a shared heritage that spans hundreds of years.

By his own admission, it is a “heartfelt account” of how a Pakistani comes to India, an “enemy country”, and discovers that its capital has, in fact, so many things common with Lahore.

“I wanted to write the biography of Darah Shikoh, the great Indian Mughal prince,” Rumi said. “While researching for that, and while visiting Delhi all the time, I felt really it merits a Pakistani version as well because for these five years we have been so much cut off and we have misunderstood each other so much that it is time to sort of build bridges. Hence the book.”

Just two days after the book came out in July, there was fighting on the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir that resulted in the deaths of five Indian soldiers. Relations between the neighbours have since been strained, and there have been reports of cultural and religious exchanges being cancelled.

This backdrop and the past 66 years of separation, mistrust and aggression have forced Pakistan into recasting its history and its heritage in ways that create a blind spot where India used to be, Rumi noted.

“Is this Indian music or Pakistani music? Is it Indian food or Pakistani food?” Rumi said. “For example, the poet Ghalib, the greatest of Urdu poets, is Ghalib an Indian or a Pakistani? It’s very difficult. Amir Khusro, who gave us the Urdu language as we speak (it)… the kind of language that is popular in Bollywood… is he Indian or Pakistani? So Pakistan had a harder task to create an identity and it’s still grappling with that.”

Traveling to Delhi, he said, sharpened this impression. The first thing he noticed, and which reminded him of home, was the azaan, the Muslim call to prayer, which he could hear throughout the city. Then there was the Mughlai food, the qawwali music, the Urdu and Hindi languages with their origin in “Hindustani,” and the shared heritage of Mughal architecture and the common Punjabi character of both cities.

After about a dozen visits to attend various conferences and do research, he sat down with a pile of notes and wrote a book that builds on the shared past and common culture of south Asia. “I think it’s a mix of travelogue and personal narrative with a bit of history thrown in.”

In the beginning, he said, he worried that Delhi is a city that foreigners and Indians have written about at length. He also doubted that anyone back home would be interested in reading about Delhi. He was wrong, he said.

“When I gave the chapters to my father to read, I thought he would object to my whole search for common history and kind of challenging the state narrative of nationalism but, quite interestingly, I found him to be most supportive of the idea …”

There may be differences between the two faiths and countries, but according to Rumi, “through the 1000 years of their shared experiences and interaction, the two did develop a certain composite culture. That composite culture, in many ways, still survives in India.” So much so that despite the political acrimony between the two countries, Rumi sees hope for the future in Pakistan. And Delhi gave him a glimpse of that future.”

via Delhi shaped South Asia’s Muslim identity, Pakistani author says | India Insight.

Posted in Economics, History, India alert, Neighbour conflict, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Delhi, India, Lahore, Pakistan, Pakistani, politics, religion, Urdu

19/09/2013

For China, a New Kind of Feminism

Given that it was Chairman Mao who said that “women hold up half the sky”, it is surprising that women still do not feel equal in China. But history and culture is obviously very deep rooted.

NY Times: “If you want to Lean In in Chinese, you “Take One Step Forward.” That’s how the title of Sheryl Sandberg’s contemporary feminist manifesto, “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead,” has been translated here.

And you do it with gusto, judging from the reactions of about a thousand students and businesspeople at two events in Beijing last week where Ms. Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, promoted the new Chinese version of her book.

“People were hungry for it,” Allison Ye, co-founder of a “Lean In circle” in Beijing — a small group of peers who meet to talk about the book’s message — said of the response to Ms. Sandberg’s main point: overcome your internal barriers to success and get to the deal table.

The enthusiasm suggests an intriguing possibility: As the Chinese government strikes anew against freedom of speech, detaining even mild-mannered democracy activists, civil society advocates and popular public opinion leaders, might there be a feminist revolution in China before there is a democratic one?

In recent weeks, Lean In circles have set up in half a dozen universities in the capital, including Tsinghua University, Peking University and the Communication University of China, members said in interviews.

“I feel like this is a new stage for us,” said Ms. Ye, 27, who works for a Chinese company. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I feel that despite the cultural differences between America and China, the method is universal. I feel it’s true that you can take responsibility for yourself, it’s a good thing, and then you can change your situation.”

Of course, feminism in China predates Ms. Sandberg’s book. But it has gained new focus with the arrival of the movement here. Ms. Ye’s conversion began in March, when she chanced online upon a TED talk given by Ms. Sandberg in 2010 called “Why we have too few women leaders.” She was hooked.

“I was shaken,” she said. “I said to myself, ‘Who is she?’ Everything she said was, wow! So true. I watched it three times in one day. Then I bought an English copy of her book.

“With a friend, we said, ‘Why don’t we open a Lean In circle? We want to support Chinese women and help them set up their own circles.”’

Word spread, including to 21-year-old Carrie Huang. Two weeks ago, Ms. Huang set up a circle at the prestigious Renmin University of China, where she studies finance. “My friends and I, we all felt that we do that — we underestimate ourselves,” she said in an interview. “It has to do with our education and background. Our parents tell us, ‘You are girls, get yourself a stable life and don’t have too much ambition.”’

Many young Chinese women, especially in cities, are highly educated and beginning to overtake men in some college subjects — Ms. Huang said there were 16 women and 7 men in her finance class — but deep cultural messages hold them back.

“We fear we aren’t good enough. We lack confidence,” Ms. Huang said, adding that many women in China prioritize their boyfriends’ or husbands’ goals. “What we need is the courage to try different things,” she said. “It’s about discovering what you want to do. Parents have wishes for us, and it’s hard to change.”

At their weekly meetings, Ms. Huang said, she and her half-dozen “circlers,” some of whom are male, plan to raise specific questions. “We want to talk about ‘strong women’ and how men see them — as aggressive or bossy?”

Not everyone likes the Chinese translation of the book’s impactful English title. Some snickered that it was similar to the message found in men’s public urinals to “please take a step forward.”

Ms. Huang says it doesn’t quite catch the psychological nature of Ms. Sandberg’s message. “It makes it sound like it’s about overcoming external obstacles, taking a step forward,” she said. “But actually, this book is about overcoming your inner obstacles.”

Either way, experienced Chinese feminists have welcomed it.

“I think her message is definitely an empowering one, calling for more women to get to the deal table,” said Feng Yuan, an activist for gender rights and equality.

Still, it is only one response to the daunting cultural and institutional hurdles facing women in China, Ms. Feng said.

“I don’t think the personal approach can change the fundamentally unequal gender structures,” she said. “But in terms of a woman’s individual situation, it’s useful because a lot of women fear feminism, that kind of collective call. A personal message is workable.”

It may not work for uneducated, poor or rural women, Ms. Feng said, an echo of criticism that the book has received in the West. “Her target audience is educated and ambitious women, and these women are able to mobilize resources to achieve their goals,” she said.

“But we shouldn’t be too critical,” she said. “You can’t expect her to have a formula for all women’s rights. Even the very well educated need this, and they should have it.””

via For China, a New Kind of Feminism – NYTimes.com.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Gender imbalance, Gender issues, Politics, Social & cultural | 1 Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, Communication University of China, Feminism, feminist manifesto, politics, Renmin University of China, Tsinghua University

17/09/2013

China’s Bosses Size Up a Changing Labor Force

This post about the workforce and another posted today about houses-for-pensions show how fast China is catching up with the developed nations; not always for the good of its citizens.

BusinessWeek: “John Liu is the 31-year-old founder and owner of Harderson International, a small factory in southern China that applies paint and decals to ceramics and glass. His showroom includes samples of tinted perfume bottles made for Ralph Lauren and Kate Spade.

A 2006 graduate of Wuhan University in central China, Liu is not much older than the 20-somethings and late teenagers who come to work on the assembly line. But generational cohorts in China are extremely compressed, and Liu sees a vast gap in expectations between himself and those a decade younger. “When I finished school, I felt I needed to find a good stable job quickly and earn money,” he says. “But living conditions in China have improved quickly. Young people now don’t have to work so hard to earn a living, and many have parents who will support them. … A lot of those born in the 1990s can’t stand this kind of repetitive work, so they choose to stay home or do very simple cashier work, even though it pays less.” The upshot is that, for a small factory, it’s “getting harder to find workers.”

Last year the total size of China’s working-age population began to decline, according to figures from China’s National Bureau of Statistics. As the Economist ominously noted, China’s moment of “peak toil” has passed. Yet it’s not only demographics that are changing. Today’s Internet-savvy young workers have different ideas and higher expectations than their predecessors, and not only regarding pay. In response to an evolving workforce, factory managers at a handful of small and midsize plants in China’s Pearl River Delta say they must now offer better conditions to attract and retain workers—or else look for opportunities to automate.”

via China’s Bosses Size Up a Changing Labor Force – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Economics, education, employment, income-wealth gap, labour shortage, middle class, One-child policy, Politics, Population, Social & cultural, The Chinese Dream | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, generational cohorts, Labor force, national bureau of statistics, Pearl River Delta, Ralph Lauren, stable job, Wuhan University

17/09/2013

China says aims to train astronauts from other countries

Reuters: “China aims to train astronauts from other countries who will conduct missions with their Chinese counterparts, state news agency Xinhua cited a senior official as saying on Monday.

China will also share the technological achievements of its manned space program with other countries, especially with developing ones, Xinhua quoted Wang Zhaoyao, head of the country’s manned space program office, as saying.

“Cooperation should be either bilateral or multilateral, with diversified and flexible models based on peace and a win-win cooperation,” he said.

The move will happen “at a proper time”, Wang told an international seminar in Beijing. Xinhua gave no other details.

China successfully completed its latest manned space mission in June, when three astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with an experimental space laboratory critical in Beijing’s quest to build a working space station by 2020.

China is still far behind established space superpowers, the United States and Russia, which decades ago learned the docking techniques China is only now mastering.

It is already working with Russia in the field of astronaut training, has a cooperative relationship with the European Space Agency and has begun talking to its opposite numbers in the United States, Wang added.

Beijing insists its space program is for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China’s increasing space capabilities and said Beijing is pursuing a variety of activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.

Wang said that China “will consistently adhere to the principle of peaceful use, equality, mutual benefit and common development in the construction of its manned space station”.

China aims to land its first probe on the moon at the end of this year.

via China says aims to train astronauts from other countries | Reuters.

Posted in Aerospace, China alert, Economics, GeoPolitics, Good news, Politics, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, European Space Agency, Human spaceflight, Russia, United States, United States Department of Defense

17/09/2013

China Communist Party investigators tried over drowning

The Communist Party of China seems to be trying hard to apply the ‘rule of law’ to its own cadres. Must be a good thing.

BBC: “The trial has begun in China of six Communist Party officials accused of causing the death of a man who drowned after his head was repeatedly plunged in icy water during an investigation.

File photo: Yu Qiyi poses for a photo at an exhibition held at a hotel in Beijing, 2 September 2012

Yu Qiyi, the chief engineer of a state-owned company in Wenzhou, was being interrogated by party officials – and not police – when he died on 9 April.

As the trial got under way, the family lawyer said he was ejected from court.

Analysts say the case casts light on the darker side of party discipline.

Indeed the case, which is being heard in the city of Quzhou, appears to be a rare acknowledgement of some of the methods that lie behind the country’s well publicised crackdown on corruption, according to correspondents.

The case is extremely sensitive and the lawyer for Mr Yu’s family has already expressed his anger at being removed from court, saying the legal process was flawed.

Reuters also reports that the lawyer for one of the accused expressed concern about the court’s actions because her client wanted to apologise.

There has been no comment from the lawyers of the other accused men and neither the government nor the Communist Party has commented publicly on the case.”

via BBC News – China Communist Party investigators tried over drowning.

Posted in China alert, Good news, Human rights, Illegal practices, Interrogation, Openness, Politics, Reform, Rule of law | Leave a Comment »

Tags: china communist party, communist party of china, party discipline, politics

16/09/2013

China in Central Asia: Rising China, sinking Russia

The Economist: “In a vast region, China’s economic clout is more than a match for Russia’s

LESS than a decade ago little doubt hung over where the newly independent states of Central Asia had to pump their huge supplies of oil and gas: Russia, their former imperial overlord, dominated their energy infrastructure and markets. Yet today, when a new field comes on stream, the pipelines head east, to China. As if to underline the point, this week China’s president, Xi Jinping, swept through Central Asia, gobbling up energy deals and promising billions in investment. His tour left no doubts as to the region’s new economic superpower.

In Turkmenistan, already China’s largest foreign supplier of natural gas, Mr Xi inaugurated production at the world’s second-biggest gasfield, Galkynysh. It will help triple Chinese imports from the country. In Kazakhstan $30 billion of announced deals included a stake in Kashagan, the world’s largest oil discovery in recent decades. In Uzbekistan Mr Xi and his host, President Islam Karimov, unveiled $15 billion in oil, gas and uranium deals, though details in this opaque country were few.

China is the biggest trading partner of four of the region’s five countries (the exception being Uzbekistan). During Mr Xi’s trip, Chinese state media reported that trade volumes with Central Asia topped $46 billion last year, up 100-fold since the countries’ independence from the Soviet Union two decades ago. Though neither side puts it like this, China’s growing presence clearly comes at Russia’s expense. Russia still controls the majority of Central Asia’s energy exports, but its relative economic clout in the region is slipping—other than as a destination for millions of migrant labourers. For years Russia has treated the region as its exclusive province, insisting on buying oil and gas at below-market rates through Soviet-era pipelines, while re-exporting it at a markup. The practice helped drive Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, both with huge energy reserves, into China’s arms.

Yet Russia and China have much riding on their bilateral relationship. The government in Moscow is eager to benefit from its eastern neighbour’s economic might, while in Beijing policymakers view Russia as a critical ally on the world stage. (Knowing the premium China places on protocol, it was no accident that Mr Xi’s very first official visit as president was to Moscow; and that he went to St Petersburg for the G20 summit in the middle of his Central Asian tour.) All this suggests the two giants will aim to co-operate as much as compete, at least for the moment. As for Central Asians, says Vasily Kashin, a Moscow-based China expert, Russia has accepted that “they will try to get the best deals out of this rivalry.”

When it comes to security issues in Central Asia, in public China still defers to Russia. Both look warily on as NATO withdraws from Afghanistan. China’s chief concern is the threat posed by Uighur separatists and their sympathisers in Central Asia. And so, in security matters too, China’s influence is growing. As The Economist went to press, Mr Xi was expected in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, a block which China was instrumental in founding. A chief aim is to counter the “three evil forces” of terrorism, extremism and separatism.

Arguably, Chinese investment in Central Asia promotes that goal, by improving living standards and thus stability in a region that shares a 2,800km (1,750-mile) border with Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province and Uighur homeland. Yet China’s soft power is undermined by a beast it is not good at fighting: resentment. Chinese contractors are flooding into Central Asia, building roads and pipelines and even, in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, the government buildings. The cruel irony is not lost on the millions of unemployed men leaving for Russia to look for jobs. But it is lost, says Deirdre Tynan of the International Crisis Group, a think-tank, on policymakers. “Central Asia’s governments see China as a wealthy and willing partner, but on the ground little is being done to ease tensions between Chinese workers and their host communities,” she warns.”

via China in Central Asia: Rising China, sinking Russia | The Economist.

Posted in China alert, Economics, GeoPolitics, Politics | 1 Comment »

Tags: Bishkek, Central Asia, China, Kazakhstan, Moscow, politics, Russia, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Xi JinPing

16/09/2013

Off the Menu: Hong Kong Government Bans Shark’s Fin

Austerity and anti-graft comes to the rescue of sharks (whose fins are cut and hence the fish bleed to death).

WSJ: “Hong Kong may be the capital of the world’s shark’s fin trade, but as environmentalists step up their campaign against the delicacy, even this city’s government has declared it off-limits.

Last year, China’s government announced it would stop serving shark’s fin soup at official banquets, a move that was heralded by green groups around the world, though it will likely take years to come into effect. Now, Hong Kong is following suit, banning the dish at official events and requesting civil servants to refrain from eating it at other functions, along with other endangered species such as bluefin tuna and black moss. The move comes as international companies from luxury Shangri-La hotel chain to Cathay Pacific Airways have declared they will refuse to serve or carry most shark’s fin.

Altogether, said Allen To of the World Wildlife Foundation, more than 150 corporations have pledged not to serve the dish—a gelatinous, stringy soup that’s believed to have curative properties—at their own banquets. “But it’s still very common at wedding banquets,” said Mr. To, noting that at local restaurants, it can be more expensive for couples to swap out shark’s fin soup for other luxury dishes such as abalone or bird’s nest soup.”

via Off the Menu: Hong Kong Government Bans Shark’s Fin – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in austerity, China alert, corruption, Economics, Environment, frugality, Good news, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: aviation, Banquet, Cathay Pacific, China, Conservation movement, environment, Food, Hong Kong, Hong Kong government, restaurants, Shark fin soup, transportation, World Wide Fund for Nature

16/09/2013

China opens world’s highest civilian airport

Reuters: “China opened the world’s highest civilian airport on Monday, in a restive and remote Tibetan region of southwestern Sichuan province, which will cut journey times from the provincial capital from two days to a little more than one hour.

Daocheng airport in Garzi, a heavily ethnic Tibetan part of Sichuan, is 4,411 meters (14,472 feet) above sea level, and overtakes Qamdo airport in Tibet, which sits at 4,334 meters above sea level, for the title of world’s highest.

The official Xinhua news agency said flights would initially connect with Chengdu, the provincial capital, otherwise a two-day bus trip away. Flights to cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing will begin at a later date.

The 1.58 billion yuan ($258 million) airport, designed to handle 280,000 passengers a year, will help open up the nearby Yading Nature Reserve to tourism, Xinhua added, referring to an area renowned for its untouched natural beauty.

China has embarked upon a multi-billion-dollar program in recent years to revamp old airports and build new ones, especially in the remote west, as a way of boosting the economy.

Some of these airports have been located in Tibetan regions, whose population chafes at Chinese political control, and often have a dual military purpose so troops can be bought in quickly during periods of unrest.

Garzi has been the scene of numerous self-immolation protests against Chinese rule in the last three years or so and remains under tight security.”

via China opens world’s highest civilian airport | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Ethnic clash, Politics, Religious clash, Transport | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Chengdu, China, Guangzhou, Sichuan, sichuan province, Tibet, Yading

15/09/2013

Agni-V missile successfully test launched from Wheeler Island off Odisha coast

Times of India: “India on Sunday conducted a second test flight of its indigenously developed nuclear- capable ‘Agni-V‘ long-range ballistic missile, which has a strike range of more than 5000 km, from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast.

English: Graphical drawing of Agni-V missile (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The three stage, solid propellant missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher from the launch complex-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at about 8:50am, defence sources said.

The surface-to-surface missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne, witnessed an ‘auto launch’ and detail results of the trial will be known after thorough analyses of all data retrieved from different radars and network systems, they said.”

via Agni-V missile successfully test launched from Wheeler Island off Odisha coast – The Times of India.

Posted in Defence, India alert, Military, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: mobile launcher, solid propellant, surface to surface missile

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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Bo Xilai found guilty of corruption by Chinese court

Delhi shaped South Asia’s Muslim identity, Pakistani author says

China says aims to train astronauts from other countries

China Communist Party investigators tried over drowning

China in Central Asia: Rising China, sinking Russia

Off the Menu: Hong Kong Government Bans Shark’s Fin

China opens world’s highest civilian airport

Agni-V missile successfully test launched from Wheeler Island off Odisha coast

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