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11/04/2014

In China, Xi’s Anticorruption Drive Nabs Elite, Low Ranks Alike – Businessweek

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anticorruption campaign has lasted longer, gone deeper, and struck higher than many analysts and academics had expected. Xi has been so zealous that since late last year retired Communist Party leaders including ex-President Jiang Zemin have cautioned him to take a more measured pace and not be too harsh, say Ding Xueliang, a professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, and Willy Lam, an expert on elite politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Xi is cracking down on the army and the police at the same time, something no leader has done before, says Ding. Gu Junshan, a lieutenant general in charge of logistics for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), has been charged with bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of power, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on March 31. He will be tried in military court.

China’s former top cop and security czar Zhou Yongkang is under investigation for corruption, say Ding and Lam. When asked at a March 2 press conference whether Zhou was under suspicion, a government spokesman avoided a direct answer, saying, “Anyone who violates the party’s discipline and the state law will be seriously investigated and punished, no matter who he is or how high ranking he is.” He added what seems to be a veiled confirmation: “I can only say so much so far. You know what I’m saying.”

More than 180,000 party officials were punished for corruption and abuse of power last year, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s watchdog. While most were low-level officials—or “flies,” as Xi has put it—they also included senior party members—“tigers,” in Xi’s words. Thirty-one senior officials were investigated by the commission last year: Eight had their graft cases handed over to prosecutors. The remaining 23 are still being investigated.

via In China, Xi’s Anticorruption Drive Nabs Elite, Low Ranks Alike – Businessweek.

Posted in austerity, China alert, corruption, Economics, Good news, Politics, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Jiang Zemin, People's Liberation Army, Xi JinPing, Zhou Yongkang

11/04/2014

And the Award for Best Chinese Film Goes to… – China Real Time Report – WSJ

And the winner is…no one.

That was the message from the China Film Directors’ Guild, which declined to hand out its two top prizes—best picture and best director—for 2013, citing a lack of high-quality contenders.

“What China’s film industry needs now is not to be coddled, but to hold itself to a higher standard,” said director Feng Xiaogang, chairman of the guild’s nine-director awards jury.

China’s box office has been booming in recent years, growing from a mere 950 million yuan ($153 million) in 2002—when China first began allowing modern theater chains—to 21.6 billion yuan last year. But an increase in quality hasn’t followed the increase in revenue, directors and many industry experts say.

“Decades ago, many film directors resolutely gave up their artistic ideals to save the Chinese film market from going bankrupt and devoted themselves to the flood of commercial films,” Mr. Feng said at the awards ceremony Wednesday night in Beijing, which was aired live on state television.

Prominent Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s “A Touch of Sin,” which won best screenplay at last year’s Cannes film festival and has been critically celebrated, wasn’t eligible for consideration for the awards because Mr. Jia’s company couldn’t provide the guild a legal copy of the film on DVD or online. This film didn’t make it to China’s big screens because it hasn’t been approved by censors.

via And the Award for Best Chinese Film Goes to… – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, entertainment, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, Cannes Film Festival, China, China Film Directors’ Guild, Chinese, Cinema of China, Feng Xiaogang, film directors, Film industry, Jia Zhangke

11/04/2014

Beijing seeks to ban purchase of cigarettes with public funds | Reuters

Good news for Chinese health, bad news for the cigarette industry.

“China’s capital Beijing is proposing to ban the use of government money to buy cigarettes, either as gifts or to be provided at official functions, state media said on Friday, in the latest move to try and curtail smoking.

China, home to some 300 million smokers, is the world’s largest consumer of tobacco, and smoking is a ubiquitous part of social life, particularly for men. Cartons of cigarettes are commonly given as presents or provided at formal events.

The Beijing government rules, currently in the proposal stage, would ban cigarettes being provided or given at any official event, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The rules also seek a ban on promotional sales activities or advertising for cigarettes and a ban on smoking in public places like train stations, hospitals and schools, with fines of up to 200 yuan ($32), the report said.

Beijing, along with other parts of China, already bans smoking in many public places, though the rules are generally ignored.

Xinhua did not say when the new rules may go into effect.

Tougher regulation of smoking is a priority this year, officials from the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in January, adding that the agency was pushing lawmakers to toughen laws on tobacco use.

The ruling Communist Party said last year that officials must not light up in schools, workplaces, stadiums, and on public transport, among other places, so as to set a positive example.

($1 = 6.2125 Chinese yuan)”

via Beijing seeks to ban purchase of cigarettes with public funds | Reuters.

Luxury cigarette prices fall after Beijing ban

Posted in China alert, Economics, Good news, Health | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, Beijing government, China, Cigarette, cigarettes, communist party of china, Public space

01/04/2014

Almost 10,000 Divorces Each Day in China’s Breakup Boom – Businessweek

China is facing a boom in breakups. Almost 10,000 marriages end in divorce every day, a figure that has been growing for the past decade, according to a report in China Daily citing Zhang Shifeng, head of the department of social affairs at the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

In 2012, the last year for which figures were available, China counted 3.1 million divorces, up 133 percent over 2003. Big cities are the epicenter of China’s new wave of “conscious uncoupling,” including Shanghai, Tianjin, and Beijing. In the capital, 164,000 couples tied the knot in 2012, while one-third as many dissolved their marriages—pushing the number of divorces up 65 percent since 2011.

In most cases the irreconcilable differences at the root of China’s rising divorces are common ones around the world: Top of the list are extramarital affairs, domestic violence, and an inability to communicate, said Du Huanghai, a Shanghai attorney cited in the China Daily report. Urbanites in their 20s and 30s “lack the patience to adapt to each other or make the necessary compromises, so their marriages are often in a fragile state,” Du said.

via Almost 10,000 Divorces Each Day in China’s Breakup Boom – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Divorce, Social & cultural | 4 Comments »

Tags: Beijing, China, Divorce, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Shanghai, Tianjin, Yellow Sea

01/04/2014

The Links Between the Delhi and Mumbai Rape Cases – India Real Time – WSJ

The two crimes were strikingly similar: In both, a young, ambitious woman was gang-raped by a group of impoverished men in one of India’s premier cities.

But their connection didn’t end there.

National outrage at the first case, involving a physiotherapy student who died from her injuries in New Delhi in Dec. 2012, arguably had an impact on how the country reacted to the second, in which a photojournalist in Mumbai was attacked while out on an assignment in an abandoned area of the financial capital.

They are also linked through the law.

The Delhi rape triggered changes to legislation to protect women that were subsequently used to convict the men charged with the attack in Mumbai.

Parts of that toughened up legislation, which made death the maximum penalty for rape in the case of repeat offenders, are also being used, for the first time, against the men guilty of gang-raping the Mumbai photojournalist.

Three of the four men convicted of gang-raping the photojournalist have also been convicted and sentenced to life in prison for gang-raping a telephone receptionist a few weeks earlier at the same location.

This makes them repeat offenders, so eligible for the death penalty, said the public prosecutor when he pressed fresh charges against the men last week in the hope of securing a death sentence for them at a trial court in Mumbai.

In the case of the Delhi victim, the attackers were punished under the previous version of the law, which awarded the death penalty for murder in the rarest of rare cases but set the maximum penalty for rape to a life term of 14 years.

The trial judge in the case in Mumbai allowed the prosecutor to introduce the new charge of repeated offense before sentencing began, but the defense lawyers appealed against the decision in the high court. The defense also challenged the constitutional validity of handing the death penalty to repeat gang-rape offenders.

The Mumbai High Court rejected the defense’s appeal against the fresh charges but refrained from expressing its view on the “tenability of framing additional charge.”

The judges added that their decision not to interfere in the trial court hearing fresh charges should not be construed as approval.

The High Court judges also observed that sentencing repeat gang-rape offenders to death could bypass the “rarest of rare” criteria, which has long been invoked to prevent judges from using the death penalty too frequently or in an arbitrary manner.

via The Links Between the Delhi and Mumbai Rape Cases – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Gender issues, India alert, Law enforcement, Rule of law | Leave a Comment »

Tags: 2012 Delhi gang rape case, capital punishment, Delhi, India, mumbai, Mumbai High Court, New Delhi, Rape, Types of rape

01/04/2014

China charges former senior military officer with graft: Xinhua | Reuters

China has charged former senior army officer Gu Junshan with corruption, state news agency Xinhua said, in what is likely to be the country’s worst military scandal since a vice admiral was jailed for life for embezzlement in 2006.

An unfinished residence which belongs to former People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Gu Junshan is pictured in Puyang, Henan province January 19, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer

In a renewed campaign on graft, Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to go after both powerful “tigers” and lowly “flies”, warning that the issue is so severe it threatens the ruling Communist Party’s survival.

Gu has been charged with corruption, taking bribes, misuse of public funds and abuse of power, Xinhua said on one of its official microblogs on Monday. He will be tried by a military court, it added.

Three sources with ties to the leadership or military, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Gu also sold military positions.

Gu has been under investigation for corruption since he was sacked as deputy director of the logistics department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 2012, sources have said.

Sources told Reuters this month that Xu Caihou, 70, who retired as vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission last year and from the Communist Party’s decision-making politburo in 2012, was under virtual house arrest while helping in the probe into Gu.

As one of Gu’s main supporters in his rise through the ranks, Xu is being implicated in ignoring, or at least failing to report, Gu’s alleged misdeeds.

Reuters has not been able to reach either Xu or Gu for comment. It is not clear if they have lawyers.

via China charges former senior military officer with graft: Xinhua | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, corruption, Good news, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Central Military Commission, China, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Communist Party, communist party of china, Gu Junshan, People's Liberation Army, senior military officer, Xi JinPing, Xinhua News Agency, Xu Caihou

30/03/2014

Accomplished women in India face higher risk of domestic violence: study | India Insight

Women in India who are more educated than their husbands, earn more or are the sole earners in their families face a higher risk of domestic violence than women who are more dependent on their partners, according to a new study.

Much of India is still deeply patriarchal and there are wide gaps in the status of men and women. And this form of violence could be a way for men to reassert their power or maintain social control over their wives to preserve the “status quo” in the relationship, said the study’s author Abigail Weitzman.

Weitzman, a graduate student at New York University, looked at data from the female-only module of India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS) collected between 2005 and 2006, concentrating on married women.

The study found that compared to women less educated than their husbands, women with more education face 1.4 times the risk of violence from their partners, 1.54 times the risk of frequent violence, and 1.36 times the risk of severe violence.

The study appeared in the latest issue of the Population and Development Review, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Population Council, an international non-profit organization that conducts research on development issues.

“The result of such violent responses may in turn prevent some women from pursuing employment or greater earnings opportunities either because they have been injured or because the material benefits of such opportunities no longer outweigh the physical costs at home,” the study said.

via Accomplished women in India face higher risk of domestic violence: study | India Insight.

Posted in Economics, education, Gender issues, India alert | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Domestic violence, Education, India, India’s National Family Health Survey, married women, men and women, National Federation of State High School Associations, New York University, Population Council, Risk, Women in India

30/03/2014

Exclusive: China seizes $14.5 billion assets from family, associates of ex-security chief – sources | Reuters

Chinese authorities have seized assets worth at least 90 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) from family members and associates of retired domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang, who is at the centre of China’s biggest corruption scandal in more than six decades, two sources said.

China's Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang reacts as he attends the Hebei delegation discussion sessions at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing in this October 16, 2007 file photo. REUTERS/Jason Lee/Files

More than 300 of Zhou’s relatives, political allies, proteges and staff have also been taken into custody or questioned in the past four months, the sources, who have been briefed on the investigation, told Reuters.

The sheer size of the asset seizures and the scale of the investigations into the people around Zhou – both unreported until now – make the corruption probe unprecedented in modern China and would appear to show that President Xi Jinping is tackling graft at the highest levels.

But it may also be driven partly by political payback after Zhou angered leaders such as Xi by opposing the ouster of former high-flying politician Bo Xilai, who was jailed for life in September for corruption and abuse of power.

Zhou, 71, has been under virtual house arrest since authorities began formally investigating him late last year. He is the most senior Chinese politician to be ensnared in a corruption investigation since the Communist Party swept to power in 1949.

“It’s the ugliest in the history of the New China,” said one of the sources, who has ties to the leadership, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for speaking to the foreign media about elite politics.

The government has yet to make any official statement about Zhou or the case against him and it has not been possible to contact Zhou, his family, associates or staff for comment. It is not clear if any of them have lawyers.

via Exclusive: China seizes $14.5 billion assets from family, associates of ex-security chief – sources | Reuters.

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

Tags: assets, Bo Xilai, China, Communist Party, communist party of china, corruption investigation, corruption scandal, Family, family members, President Xi Jinping, Xi JinPing, Zhou, Zhou Yongkang

26/03/2014

2nd-child policy hurts female job application – China – Chinadaily.com.cn

China has loosened its family planning policy by allowing couples to have a second child if either parent is an only child. Unfortunately, the policy has resulted in discrimination against some married women who are looking for jobs or are already employed, according to the Xinhua News agency.

Xia Fang, a Changsha local who gave birth to her first child 10 months ago, said that during job interviews she is always asked if she is an only child or if she plans to have a second child.

“I don’t plan to have a second child. But when potential employers learn that my first child is a girl, they think I’m likely to have another baby,” said Xia.

Before the second-child policy was introduced, married women with children and work experience had an advantage in the job market, but now they are being confronted with gender discrimination again, Xia added.

Female employees of child-bearing age are being affected, as well. A white collar worker surnamed Liu said she was passed over for a promotion that went to a young man, because her boss thought she might plan to have a second child.

“Women have to work harder to be given equal status in the workplace. And many face pressure from their families to have second children, which can affect their career prospects,” Liu said.

“Companies can predict the cost of a female employee’s maternity leave when they’re allowed to give birth to only one child,” said Li Bin, a professor of sociology at Zhongnan University. “But some middle and small-sized companies can’t bear the costs of two leaves in a few years.”

via 2nd-child policy hurts female job application – China – Chinadaily.com.cn.

Posted in China alert, Economics, employment, Gender issues, One-child policy | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, Changsha, China, family planning policy, Guangzhou, Home, job interviews, Liu, married women, Twitter, Xinhua News Agency

26/03/2014

China’s Three Gorges replaces top executives amid graft probe | Reuters

China’s Three Gorges Corp, which built the world’s biggest hydropower scheme, has replaced its chairman and general manager, the company said, in the latest major reshuffle of a state-owned firm as the government steps up a fight on graft.

China's Three Gorges power company CEO Cao Guangjing makes his statement before the deal signing with Energia de Portugal in Lisbon December 30, 2011. REUTERS/Jose Manuel Ribeiro

Some officials of Three Gorges, set up in 1993 to run the hydropower scheme, were guilty of nepotism, shady property deals and dodgy bidding procedures, the ruling Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog found in February.

The scandal has reignited public anger over the $59-billion dam, which was funded by a special levy paid by all citizens.

Chairman Cao Guangjing has been removed from his position and would be assigned another job, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. It named Cao’s replacement as Lu Chun, but gave no further details.

via China’s Three Gorges replaces top executives amid graft probe | Reuters.