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

01/09/2013

Jiang Jiemin: China corruption probe into top official

There are increasing signs that this time, anti-corruption is being taken very seriously by the Party and government.

BBC: “Chinese authorities have announced a corruption investigation into Jiang Jiemin, the head of the commission that oversees state-owned companies.

The supervision ministry said Mr Jiang was suspected of a “serious violation of discipline”. He has not publicly commented on the allegations.

The term is used to refer to corruption by managers of state companies.

President Xi Jinping has vowed to eradicate corruption in China, warning that it threatens the Communist Party.

Recent months have seen several high-profile corruption cases against high-ranking officials, including disgraced senior party official Bo Xilai, who was put on trial for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power in August.

The verdict in his case is expected “at a date to be decided”. Mr Bo denies all charges.

Until March Mr Jiang was head of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which has faced a number of corruption allegations.

Last week it was announced that another four CNPC executives were under investigation for corruption.

Earlier in August the general manager of state-owned phone company China Mobile Ltd was detained in the southern province of Guangdong. He too is being investigated for discipline violations.

Internet users are also increasingly pursuing those perceived as having done wrong through online exposes and campaigns.

But in recent weeks there have been signs that this has worried the authorities, with a number of journalists arrested for “rumour-mongering” and a high-profile blogger arrested.”

via BBC News – Jiang Jiemin: China corruption probe into top official.

Tags: Bo Xilai, China, China Mobile, China National Petroleum Corporation, CNPC, communist party of china, corruption allegations, corruption in china, corruption investigation, Jiang Jiemin, national petroleum corporation, Xi JinPing

30/08/2013

China’s Rich Want Their Say on Policy Reform

BusinessWeek: “Pan Shiyi is a real estate tycoon whose company Soho China has built some of the most fashionable developments in the country. Pan has a political side, too, which he expresses in a blog followed by 16 million Chinese. After Pan posted a call for increased transparency on how authorities monitor pollution, the governments of Beijing and 73 other cities started releasing more daily pollution data. He was also invited to tour the offices of the environmental protection agency for Beijing after a heated online exchange with its spokesman.

He Di co-founded the Boyuan Foundation

Such an episode would have been unthinkable in China 10 years ago, given the tight censorship. But China now has an emerging business class that wants to influence the debate on pollution, economic reform, U.S.-China relations, and broader political change. Some, such as Pan and Lee Kai-Fu, ex-head of Google China (GOOG), use the Internet to spread their views. Others, including the founders of the Boyuan Foundation, take an institutional approach to reform and seek ways to engage the government. Most of these executive-activists back what’s known in China as universal values—the rule of law, free markets, and freedom of speech, assembly, and religion.

Lee’s two microblogs have more than 66 million followers, an audience nearly as big as the Communist Party’s membership. In between notes on his family, Lee points out cases of corruption and censorship and advocates greater freedom of expression. In the past half year, the government imposed a temporary gag on his social media activities after he criticized the state’s backing of a search engine run by the People’s Daily. (Lee is back blogging.) An army colonel has accused Lee of being an American spy.”

via China’s Rich Want Their Say on Policy Reform – Businessweek.

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

Tags: american spy, army colonel, Beijing, China, freedom of expression, pollution data, real estate tycoon, SOHO China

30/08/2013

To a Chinese Scrap-Metal Hunter, America’s Trash Is Treasure

BusinessWeek: “Just before 8 a.m., Johnson Zeng eases his rented Chevrolet into a space in front of Cash’s Scrap Metal & Iron in St. Louis. He’s in the market to buy scrap metal he can ship to China, and this is the first stop of the day in the middle of a two-and-a-half-week road trip to regular suppliers that started in Albuquerque and will end in Spartanburg, S.C. But that, Zeng says, is nothing. “My last trip with Homer,” he recalls, referring to Homer Lai, the scrap importer in China’s Guangdong Province who provides him with most of his business, “we drove 9,600 miles in 26 days.”

To a Chinese Scrap-Metal Hunter, America's Trash Is Treasure

The result? Millions of pounds of metal worth millions of dollars left the U.S. for China.

Zeng is one Chinese trader, in one rental car, traveling across the U.S. in search of scrap metal. By his estimate, there are at least 100 other Chinese traders like him driving from scrap yard to scrap yard, right now, in search of what Americans won’t or can’t be bothered to recycle. His favorite product: wires, cables, and other kinds of copper.”

via To a Chinese Scrap-Metal Hunter, America’s Trash Is Treasure – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Economics, recycling | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Recycling, Scrap, United States, Wrecking yard

30/08/2013

European Nations Woo Chinese Home Buyers With Visas

BusinessWeek: “Southern Europe’s cash-strapped governments are wooing wealthy home buyers from overseas by offering so-called golden visas to purchasers of high-end properties. Portugal, Greece, and Cyprus are offering temporary-residency permits to foreign investors, and Spain is about to kick off its program. The main targets are wealthy Chinese, who have been snapping up properties from Vancouver to London as Beijing tightens controls on real estate speculation on the mainland. Luis Hortelão, a broker with Re/Max in Lisbon, says his Chinese clients “know exactly what they want: a modern property to rent out during their absence and a visa to travel in Europe.”

Limassol, Cyprus

In Portugal buyers must pay a minimum of €500,000 ($670,000) for a property to be eligible for a five-year residency permit. A total of 102 visas has been granted since the program began last year, according to the Portuguese Immigration and Borders Service, mostly to Chinese buyers. Edmund Zhao, a real estate developer from Hangzhou in eastern China, expects to receive his permit any day now after paying €700,000 for an apartment in the resort town of Cascais. Zhao must spend at least seven days in Portugal during the first year and 14 days every two years thereafter. His visa will also let him travel freely through the Schengen Area, made up of 26 European countries that have abolished immigration controls at their borders. “I want to move there with my wife and parents as soon as possible,” says Zhao, 38, who wants to send his future children to European schools.

Searches for Portuguese properties on Juwai.com, a Chinese real estate website aimed at international home buyers, rose more than threefold from January through April, says Andrew Taylor, its co-chief executive officer. Home prices in Portugal are less expensive than in some parts of China; €300,000 buys a 2,000-square-foot villa facing the sea, according to Wang Ning, a manager in the international property department at SouFun Holdings (SFUN), owner of China’s biggest real estate website. That amount buys a 730-square-foot apartment in central Shanghai.”

via European Nations Woo Chinese Home Buyers With Visas – Businessweek.

Posted in austerity, China alert, Economics, emigration | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, chinese clients, Cyprus, immigration controls, Lisbon, London, Portugal, portuguese immigration, real estate speculation, Schengen Area

30/08/2013

Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz sees double-digit growth in China market

Reuters: “Daimler AG‘s Mercedes-Benz expects to see growth of up to 15 percent in China’s luxury car segment this year, a senior executive said, and is trying to grab a bigger share of that market by expanding into the inland-west and smaller cities.

The company plans to open 75 new dealer outlets this year, nearly half in third- and fourth-tier cities, said China sales head Nicholas Speeks, as part of a broader turnaround plan to reverse its recent struggles in the world’s biggest auto market.

“We are a little bit lagging behind our principal competitors in terms of outlets opening,” Speeks told reporters at a news briefing to outline the German brand’s strategy at the Chengdu auto show on Friday.

“In the past we have been concentrating on Beijing, Shanghai (and other major markets along China’s coast). We recognize one of our shortcomings is the fact that we need to expand our dealer network.”

The network expansion is a key component of Daimler’s (DAIGn.DE) strategic plan to invest 2 billion euros ($2.67 billion) in China over the next two years.

It aims to boost sales of Mercedes-Benz cars by a third to more than 300,000 cars a year by 2015, from this year’s forecast sales of 230,000 cars.

If achieved, the target would make China Mercedes-Benz’s biggest market globally. Currently, China is the brand’s No. 3 market behind Germany and the United States.

Speeks said China’s economy remained “fairly healthy”, despite a slowdown in growth.

China’s overall car market was expected to grow about 10 percent, year-on-year, this year, he said. “I think the premium car market will exceed that. It will be solid double-digit growth this year.”

Asked to define that, he said: “13-15 percent growth – somewhere in that ball park.””

via Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz sees double-digit growth in China market | Reuters.

Posted in Affluence, China alert, Economics, luxury brand | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, car segment, Chengdu, China, Daimler, Daimler AG, dealer outlets, double digit growth, Germany, mercedes benz cars, Mercedes-Benz, turnaround plan

29/08/2013

China-India joint anti-terrorism training planned

Xinhua: “China and India will launch joint anti-terrorism training between the two armies within 2013 in southwest China, a spokesman announced on Thursday.

The training, set in Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan Province, has been arranged in accordance with the two armies’ annual military exchange plan, Ministry of National Defence spokesman Yang Yujun said at a news briefing.

The joint training is aimed at increasing mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation and preserving regional peace and stability, Yang said.

Experts from both sides have had two rounds of consultations on the date, assignment and scale of the forces to be involved in the training, he said. “The two defence ministries are keeping in touch on details of the training.”

Yang also slammed comments at the briefing that attempted to provoke tensions between China and India, saying, “It is groundless and shows a lack of good will to use weapons equipment as a pretext to drive a wedge between China and India.”

His remarks were in response to comments alleging India’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier obviously targets China and ignites the fiercest arms race the world has ever seen in Asia.

“China and India are partners and close neighbors. Getting along well with each other and achieving co-development is in the fundamental interests of the two peoples,” the spokesman said.”

via China-India joint anti-terrorism training planned – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

Posted in China alert, Chindia Alert, Good news, India alert, Politics, terrorism | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Counter-terrorism, India

29/08/2013

Bo Xilai on trial: Settling scores

The Economist: “IN A heavily guarded courthouse in the eastern city of Jinan, the trial began on August 22nd of a politician who was once one of China’s most powerful figures. Bo Xilai, who is 64, has been accused of receiving bribes, embezzlement and abuse of power. His downfall in March 2012 caused the greatest political shock of its kind in decades.

That the trial is under way at last is a sign that Xi Jinping, who took over as China’s leader eight months after Mr Bo disappeared from public view, is confident that he can handle its ramifications. Mr Bo, like Mr Xi, is the son of one of Mao Zedong’s fellow revolutionaries. He remains popular in the parts of China where he has served, including as Communist Party chief in the 29m-strong region of Chongqing in the south-west. He is an icon of diehard Maoists and members of the “new left” who decry China’s move towards money making. Handling Mr Bo’s case without upsetting powerful families and arousing public ire (whether of Mr Bo’s fans or of the many Chinese who are aggrieved at widespread official corruption) has been Mr Xi’s challenge. As the trial began, dozens of supporters gathered nearby. Police dragged several away.

Mr Xi and his colleagues wished to choreograph the proceedings—which at the time of going to press were expected to last just a day or two—with great precision. But Mr Bo, with a characteristic feistiness, queered the pitch from the outset. He denied a charge of bribery involving payments of more than 1.1m yuan ($180,000) from a businessman in the north-eastern city of Dalian. His response to the other charges, including millions of dollars in other kickbacks, are not yet known. Foreign journalists were barred from the trial.

The allegations, even if disagreeable to Mr Bo, would have been tailored to suit all factions—including, to some extent, his own, for Mr Bo had powerful backers, including within the security forces. Speculation has also centred on whether the state tried to secure Mr Bo’s co-operation by promising not to go after his 25-year-old son, Bo Guagua, who was expensively educated in Britain and is now studying in America. The younger Mr Bo may hope one day to to avenge his father’s downfall.

via Bo Xilai on trial: Settling scores | The Economist.

Posted in China alert, corruption, Internal politics, Justice, Politics, Rule of law | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Bo Xilai, China, Chongqing, Dalian, Mao Zedong, politics, Xi JinPing

28/08/2013

China Launches Three ASAT Satellites

Washington Free Beacon : “China’s military recently launched three small satellites into orbit as part of Beijing’s covert anti-satellite warfare program, according to a U.S. official.

The three satellites, launched July 20 by a Long March-4C launcher, were later detected conducting unusual maneuvers in space indicating the Chinese are preparing to conduct space warfare against satellites, said the official who is familiar with intelligence reports about the satellites.

One of the satellites was equipped with an extension arm capable of attacking orbiting satellites that currently are vulnerable to both kinetic and electronic disruption.

“This is a real concern for U.S. national defense,” the official said. “The three are working in tandem and the one with the arm poses the most concern. This is part of a Chinese ‘Star Wars’ program.”

China’s 2007 test of an anti-satellite missile shocked U.S. military and intelligence leaders who realized the U.S. satellites, a key to conducting high-performance warfare, are vulnerable to attack. Officials have said China could cripple U.S. war-fighting efforts by knocking out a dozen satellites. Satellites are used for military command and control, precision weapons guidance, communications and intelligence-gathering.

The official discussed some aspects of the Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) program on condition of anonymity after some details were disclosed in online posts by space researchers.

“The retractable arm can be used for a number of things – to gouge, knock off course, or grab passing satellites,” the official said.

The three satellites also could perform maintenance or repairs on orbiting satellites, the official said.

Details of the small satellite activity were first reported last week in the blog “War is Boring.”

The posting stated that one of the satellites was monitored “moving all over the place” and appeared to make close-in passes with other orbiting satellites.

“It was so strange, space analysts wondered whether China was testing a new kind of space weapon — one that could intercept other satellites and more or less claw them to death,” the report said.

The U.S. official said: “It is exactly what was reported: An ASAT test.”

According to space researchers who tracked the satellites movements, one of the satellites on Aug. 16 lowered its orbit by about 93 miles. It then changed course and rendezvoused with a different satellite. The two satellites reportedly passed within 100 meters of each other.

One space researcher was quoted in the online report as saying one satellite was equipped with a “robot-manipulator arm developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.”

The Chinese appear to be testing their capability for intercepting and either damaging or destroying orbiting satellites by testing how close they can maneuver to a satellite, the U.S. official said.

“They are learning the tactics, techniques and processes needed for anti-satellite operations,” the official said.

The Chinese have given a code name to the satellites and numbered the satellites differently. Chinese state-run media identified the satellites as the Chuang Xin-3 (Innovation-3); the Shi Yan-7 (Experiment-7); and Shi Jian-15 (Practice-15). The Shi Jian-15 is believed to be the satellite with the robotic arm. The official said the designation used in the blog, SY-7, was not correct.”

via Washington Free Beacon » China Launches Three ASAT Satellites » Print.

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

Tags: Anti-satellite weapon, Beijing, China, Chinese, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Long March 4C, orbiting satellites, precision weapons, satellite activity, star wars program

27/08/2013

Chinese Hatred of Japan—Real or Government-Created?

The Atlantic: “”On this day in 1945, Japan announced unconditional surrender.” The official account of China Central Television posted this information on Weibo, one of China’s largest social media platforms, and it quickly spread. Three trending posts, with a combined 236,000 retweets, identified the day’s significance and emphasized the number of Chinese who had been wounded and killed during the war — 35 million by China’s official estimates.

Within an hour, the hashtag “#NeverForgetNationalHumiliation” began to trend, drawing a mix of patriotism, anger, and confusion. User @谭兵林 asked, “How can you not mention to whom the Japanese surrendered?” Others criticized the appropriation of a day thought to be a victory to remember a period of national humiliation: “Many people have told me that today is a day of national humiliation,” wrote @Cepheus的旁座-ELF, “but … isn’t today the day Japan surrendered? How can Japan surrendering be a day of national humiliation?”

How much of this anti-Japanese sentiment is real, and how much manufactured? All three trending articles were posted by state-run media, with some users complaining that “50-cent party” users — those alleged to write pro-government posts for money — played a role in spreading and promoting the anti-Japan comments. Yet much of the reaction was organic. In last year’s round of anti-Japan protests, Chinese authorities sought to promote such protests, but also control them, fearing public anger might spiral out of control. While the government may be seeking to use public sentiment, perhaps as a distraction from domestic issues, Chinese dissatisfaction with Japan is not entirely manufactured; it has sharply increased over the last year, while public support for Japan among Chinese has fallen 12 percentage points over the last five years, according to a recent Pew survey.

In particular, Japanese officials’ annual visit to Yasukuni, the shrine memorializing Japanese soldiers who fought in the Second World War, has angered Chinese. One Weibo user wrote, “When I saw on TV that the number of Japanese who visited the Yasukuni Shrine was double that of last year, I felt myself become suddenly enraged.” Many others joined in, calling for an attack on Japan or a boycott of Japanese goods.

Some version of the Yasukuni Shrine controversy replays itself between China and Japan every year, but tensions between the two countries have been especially raw of late. Last year, violent protests erupted throughout China as Japan announced it was nationalizing a chain of islands, known by Japan as the Senkaku and China as the Diaoyu. A survey conducted annually since 2005 showed that last year, 92.8 percent of Chinese and 90.1 percent of Japanese have “unfavorable feelings” toward the other’s country, with 77.6 percent of Chinese citing the aforementioned dispute as the main motivating factor.

Japan’s recent political moves — including the move to nationalize the islands — have added fuel to an already-burning fire. The Chinese education system has long incorporated teachings about Japanese atrocities during World War II and encouraged negative feelings toward the country. But this anti-Japanese sentiment is not simply an expression of regret for the past. As long-time China watchers Orville Schell and John Delury wrote in their new book, Wealth and Power:

Foreign superiority (as remembered in the Opium Wars, colonization, and Japanese occupation) may have been humiliating and shameful, but it also served as a sharp goad urging Chinese to sacrifice for all the various reform movements and revolutions that came to be launched as a way to remove the stigma of their shame.”

via Chinese Hatred of Japan—Real or Government-Created? – China – The Atlantic.

Posted in Foreign invasion, History, Neighbour conflict, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Anti-Japanese sentiment, China, Japan, national humiliation, public anger, public sentiment, Surrender of Japan, unconditional surrender, World War II, Yasukuni Shrine

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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China’s Rich Want Their Say on Policy Reform

To a Chinese Scrap-Metal Hunter, America’s Trash Is Treasure

European Nations Woo Chinese Home Buyers With Visas

Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz sees double-digit growth in China market

China-India joint anti-terrorism training planned

Bo Xilai on trial: Settling scores

China Launches Three ASAT Satellites

Chinese Hatred of Japan—Real or Government-Created?

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