Posts tagged ‘China’

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06/01/2013

* Pirated Copy of Design by Star Architect Hadid Being Built in China

Spiegel Online: “Star architect Zaha Hadid is currently building several projects across China. One of them, however, is being constructed twice. Pirates are the process of copying one of her provocative designs, and the race is on to see who can finish first.

Star architect Zaha Hadid has become one of the most admired architects in the...

London-based Zaha Hadid, widely regarded as one of the leading lights in the constellation of avant-garde architecture, has likewise become a superstar in China, where her latest designs radiate out through architecture schools and studios across the country. On a recent trip to Beijing, 15,000 artists, architects and other fans swarmed to a talk she gave for the opening of the futuristic Galaxy SOHO complex — just one of 11 projects she is designing across the country.

But the appeal of the Prtizker Prize winner’s experimental architecture, especially since the unveiling of her glowing, crystalline Guangzhou Opera House two years ago, has expanded so explosively that a contingent of pirate architects and construction teams in southern China is now building a carbon copy of one of Hadid’s Beijing projects.

What’s worse, Hadid said in an interview, she is now being forced to race these pirates to complete her original project first.

The project being pirated is the Wangjing SOHO, a complex of three towers that resemble curved sails, sculpted in stone and etched with wave-like aluminum bands, that appear to swim across the surface of the Earth when viewed from the air.

Zhang Xin, the billionaire property developer who heads SOHO China and commissioned Hadid to design the complex, lashed out against the pirates during the Galaxy opening: “Even as we build one of Zaha’s projects, it is being replicated in Chongqing,” a megacity near the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. At this point in time, she added, the pirates of Chongqing are building faster than SOHO. The original is set for completion in 2014.

‘China Can Copy Anything’

Zhang has issued an open appeal for help in combatting this massive, open counterfeiting operation, and lamented: “Everyone says that China is a great copycat country, and that it can copy anything.”

Piracy is pervasive in China, where counterfeit iPods, iPhones and iPads are sold openly, and even entire fake Apple stores have proliferated across upwardly mobile cities. Although China has, on paper at least, a series of laws to protect intellectual property, enforcement of these rules is wildly sporadic.

Yet You Yunting, a Shanghai-based lawyer who founded an online journal covering intellectual property issues, said China’s copyright law includes protection for works of architecture. You said he has studied the copying of the Hadid project, and added: “The two versions of the complex are quite similar.”

“SOHO could have a good chance of winning litigation in this case,” he predicted. “But even if the judge rules in favor of SOHO, the court will not force the defendant to pull the building down. But it could order the payment of compensation.””

via Pirated Copy of Design by Star Architect Hadid Being Built in China – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Posted in China alert, Construction, Economics, Intellectual Property Rights | 3 Comments »

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04/01/2013

* Poorest Chinese province to settle 100,000 in new homes

This is one way of lifting the very poor out of their poverty. China seems to be the only country capable of doing so; not India, Brazil or any of the other countries with huge slums and large clusters of the ultra poor.

Xinhua: “A southwestern Chinese province with the largest impoverished population in the country will relocate more than 100,000 destitute rural residents into modern communities before spring 2013.

The move was part of a poverty alleviation project initiated last year to move 2 million farmers out of the province’s poverty-ridden mountainous and desert areas within nine years.

According to the province’s office on poverty relief and ecological migration, Guizhou built 180 new communities for the project in 2012, with a cost of 1.81 billion yuan (287.9 million U.S. dollars).

The first batch of 101,300 farmers are expected to move into their new homes before this year’s Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on February 10, an official from the office said.

Guizhou is home to 11.49 million rural residents who are struggling below the national poverty line for farmers, which was raised to 2,300 yuan in per capital annual income in 2011.

The official said most of the communities were adjacent to towns and industrial parks where job opportunities abound, and the local governments will offer job training to help the farmers adapt to their new lives.

Those relocated near towns will also have access to education, medical services and other social welfare enjoyed by urban dwellers.

Officials in Guizhou said the project would relocate another 250,000 farmers in 2013.”

via Poorest Chinese province to settle 100,000 in new homes – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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

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04/01/2013

* China’s investment in UK will be ‘explosive’

United Kingdom

United Kingdom (Photo credit: stumayhew)

China Daily: “China’s investment in the United Kingdom will continue its “explosive” growth, with high-end manufacturing and infrastructure leading the way, a senior diplomat predicted.

“The UK is the most open economy, and also the most market-oriented,” in Europe, said Zhou Xiaoming, minister counselor of the Chinese embassy in the UK.

Chinese companies have been answering the call from some members of the European Union for capital.

In 2011, the UK was the third-largest EU destination for Chinese investment, following Luxembourg and France, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

China’s overseas direct investment in the UK in 2011 was $2.5 billion, it said.

But Zhou said the real figure was far more as Chinese overall investment in the UK experienced “explosive” growth.

“It is estimated that the Chinese capital that flew into the country in 2011 reached $6.5 billion,” said Zhou.”

via China’s investment in UK will be ‘explosive’ |Economy |chinadaily.com.cn.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/13/pattern-of-chinese-overseas-investments/

Posted in China alert, Economics, Infrastructure | 1 Comment »

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02/01/2013

* The Word From Beijing: Thank You for Not Smoking

WSJ: “China’s government has a New Year’s resolution: to stamp out smoking.

Leaders aim to reduce smokers to 25% of the population by 2015, down from 28% in 2010, according to a smoking-cessation plan the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published recently. The work of the ministries of health, finance and foreign affairs, as well as the administrations of tobacco, safety, customs, industry and commerce, it plots moves to ban smoking in public places and end ads and sponsorships by tobacco companies.

China is home to 300 million smokers, a quarter of the world total, and they burn up a third of the world’s cigarettes, according to a study from the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

The stub-smoking initiative comes weeks after World Health Organization officials urged China’s government to reduce smoking rates by at least 30% by 2025 through programs teaching that habits such as tobacco use and excessive salt intake can lead to chronic diseases and early death.

Smoking-related sicknesses kill more than one million Chinese citizens each year, according to the WHO, and smoking contributes to the country’s high rates of chronic disease—which accounts for 80% of deaths and 70% of health expenditure.

Critics of China’s tobacco plan say enforcement details are lacking. A smoking ban in public places such as hotels and restaurants, announced in 2011, has been only loosely applied.

“Apart from the legal codes legislated by various local governments on banning smoking and installing ‘no smoking’ signs in public places, there are hardly any specific rules to enforce the ban,” an editorial in the state-owned China Daily said, adding, “Besides, very few smokers have received due punishment violating the ban.” The editorial also notes that cigarette packages lack graphic health warnings—which in other parts of the world can include gruesome images.

Beijing has said long said it is determined to tackle the country’s smoking problem, but so far has had little success. Cigarettes remain cheap—available for less than $1 for a pack, according to the WHO, which recommended last year that China triple its tobacco tax to 70% to discourage young would-be smokers from buying.”

via The Word From Beijing: Thank You for Not Smoking – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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02/01/2013

* China’s taste for pork serves up a pollution problem

This is but an indication of what is going to happen when billions of poor people become affluent enough to want the things that affluent Westerners take for granted.

The Guardian: “Fan Jianjun points to a concrete pipe jutting from the lake bank. Sludge spews from its mouth and arcs across the water, the surface bubbling with the bodies of flies.

Piglets being fed on a farm near Suining, Sichuan province, China - 27 Apr 2009

Fan has lived in Houtonglong village all his 31 years. The water was clear, he says, before the pig farm was built and people’s health began to suffer.

No one consulted the villagers before Shengtai pig farm was built 100 metres from their homes. The farm produces 10,000 animals a year – a relatively small concern in the world of industrialised farming – but there is so much waste to dispose of, the village air is thick with the stench. In the rainy season manure escapes from the farm, covering the roads. Villagers are developing respiratory problems and Fan struggles to raise chickens and ducks, which die soon after hatching.

In the 10 years since the farm arrived, the villagers have tried to get it dislodged. “We pulled down the walls several times, and blocked the gate with mud and trucks,” said Fan, a self-employed businessman. Complaints to the local government have gone unanswered, so Fan turned to internet forums to raise awareness. “We can only hope the farm will stop polluting our environment,” he added. “Our village was once a very beautiful place.”

Pork is China’s favourite meat: last year the country produced 50m tonnes – more than half the world’s total – and as the disposable incomes of China’s 1.3 billion people rise, their appetite is growing. “Pork is wrapped up in ideas of progress and modernity,” said Mindi Schneider, a sociologist at Cornell University. Until the 1990s typical families only ate meat at Chinese new year.

Memories of the devastating famine that killed tens of millions in the early 1960s still weigh heavy on the Chinese psyche. “I’ve heard people talking about eating meat in ‘revenge,'” Schneider said. “It was so limited before. Now it’s like: ‘look at this progress, we can eat as much meat as we want.'”

In 1980 the average Chinese person ate 14kg of meat. Today that person eats over four times more, almost 60kg. In comparison, the average American eats 125kg of meat each year and the average Briton about 85kg.

The livestock industry is transforming accordingly. Seen from a hilltop 200 miles from Houtonglong, the future of Chinese pork production takes the form of 32 identical redbrick pig sheds, shaded by leafy trees.”

via China’s taste for pork serves up a pollution problem | World news | The Guardian.

Posted in Affluence, agriculture, China alert, Consumer, Economics, Environment, Pollution | 1 Comment »

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02/01/2013

* CHINA REQUIRING PEOPLE TO VISIT THEIR AGED PARENTS

The Associated Press: “Visit your parents. That’s an order.

So says China, whose national legislature on Friday amended its law on the elderly to require that adult children visit their aged parents “often” – or risk being sued by them.

The amendment does not specify how frequently such visits should occur.

State media say the new clause will allow elderly parents who feel neglected by their children to take them to court. The move comes as reports abound of elderly parents being abandoned or ignored by their children.

A rapidly developing China is facing increasing difficulty in caring for its aging population. Three decades of market reforms have accelerated the breakup of the traditional extended family in China, and there are few affordable alternatives, such as retirement or care homes, for the elderly or others unable to live on their own.

Earlier this month, state media reported that a grandmother in her 90s in the prosperous eastern province of Jiangsu had been forced by her son to live in a pig pen for two years. News outlets frequently carry stories about other parents being abused or neglected, or of children seeking control of their elderly parents’ assets without their knowledge.

The expansion of China’s elderly population is being fueled both by an increase in life expectancy – from 41 to 73 over five decades – and by family planning policies that limit most families to a single child. Rapid aging poses serious threats to the country’s social and economic stability, as the burden of supporting the growing number of elderly passes to a proportionately shrinking working population and the social safety net remains weak.”

via News from The Associated Press.

See also: Ageing population

Posted in Ageing population, China alert, Economics, Social & cultural | 1 Comment »

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01/01/2013

* Reform now or there’ll be a revolution, Chinese leaders told

The Times: “China faces the prospect of “violent revolution” if the Government fails to implement political reform, a group of prominent intellectuals is warning six weeks after the country’s change of leadership.

Liu Xia was filmed in her house as activists pushed past the guards

The call, from 73 of China’s leading scholars, came as dramatic footage emerged yesterday of activists pushing past security officials to reach Liu Xia, the wife of the Nobel Prizewinning dissident Liu Xiaobo.

In a pointed open letter, the academics warn: “If reforms to the system urgently needed by Chinese society keep being frustrated and stagnate without progress, then … China will again miss the opportunity for peaceful reform, and slip into the turbulence and chaos of violent revolution.”

Drafted by Zhang Qianfan, a Law Professor at Peking University, the letter has garnered signatures from such prominent figures as Zhang Sizhi, a lawyer who is known in China as “the conscience of the legal world” and is best known abroad as the man who defended Mao Zedong’s widow at her 1980 trial. Other well-known signatories include Hu Xingdou, a noted economist at the Beijing Institute of Technology, and Jiang Ping, the former dean of the Chinese University of Political Science and Law.

The letter was circulated on the internet but was quickly removed from Chinese news sites, and links to it have been removed from Mr Zhang’s profile on the microblog Weibo.

Entitled “An Initiative on Reform Consensus”, it has echoes of Charter 08, a manifesto published in 2008 calling for the protection of human rights and an end to one-party rule. The main author of that manifesto, Liu Xiaobo, was arrested on charges of subversion and sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment in December 2009.

In a separate development Hu Jia, one of China’s leading dissidents, broke through a security cordon to enter the apartment of Mr Liu’s wife, who has been kept under house arrest since her husband won the peace prize. In a video clip of the confrontation, which was posted on YouTube yesterday, a security official is shown telling Mr Hu and two other activists that it will not be possible for them to see Ms Liu. In response, the three force their way past, saying: “Who are you to tell us it’s not possible?”

Although the petition, signed by the 73 academics last week, raises the spectre of violent revolution, the demands made are not as radical as those found in Liu Xiaobo’s 2008 charter. The signatories to the latest letter urge China’s new leaders to rule according to the country’s constitution. In particular, the letter underlines the Government’s duty to protect freedom of speech, the press and the right to demonstrate, to deepen market reform and to allow for an independent judiciary.

These advocates of reform may have been encouraged by signals sent out by Xi Jinping, China’s new leader, who succeeded Hu Jintao as General Secretary of the Communist Party in November.

Commentators have noted Mr Xi’s easy-going style compared with his predecessors and his decision to do away with red carpets for officials.

He has been quoted in the state press saying: “The Government earnestly wants to study the issues that are being brought up, and wants to perfect the market economy system … by deepening reform, and resolve the issues by strengthening rule of law.”

Judged by actions, the signals sent out by the new government have been mixed. An apparent easing of internet searching restrictions, during which it was possible to search Chinese microblogs for the names of top officials for the first time in months, was followed by legislation that critics say will discourage free commenting online by requiring real-name registration for internet users.

Similar hopes that Mr Hu would prove to be a reformer, which were aired when he first took office, were later dashed by years of stagnation on political reform, a period that has come to be known by many as the “lost decade”.”

via Reform now or there’ll be a revolution, Chinese leaders told | The Times.

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31/12/2012

* Reform plans published for migrants’ education

A good news item to end the year with – moves to embrace migrant workers rather than treat them as a short-term anomaly.

China Daily: “China’s Beijing and Shanghai cities and Guangdong Province on Sunday published plans to gradually allow migrant workers’ children to enter senior high schools and sit college entrance exams locally.

china_gaokao.jpg

They are the latest in a total of 13 provinces and municipalities to formulate plans to ensure that rural children who have followed their parents to cities can enjoy the same rights as their urban peers in education.

Beijing will allow migrant workers’ children to attend local vocational schools in 2013 and allow them to be matriculated by universities after graduating from the vocational programs in 2014, said a statement from the city’s commission of education.

The eastern metropolis of Shanghai took a step further, saying it will allow migrant children in the city to enter local senior high schools, vocational schools and sit college entrance exams (commonly known as gaokao) locally starting in 2014.

Guangdong, a manufacturing heartland in south China and a magnet for migrant workers, has asked its cities to start recruiting migrant workers’ children in local senior high schools in 2013.

The province will allow these children to sit gaokao and compete with local residents on an equal footing in college entrance starting in 2016, Luo Weiqi, head of the province’s education department, told Xinhua.

Luo said the restrictions would be relaxed gradually and “step by step” as the province must solve the conflict between its gigantic migrant population and a scarcity of education resources.

Migrant workers, whose children could be benefited by the new plans of the three regions, must have residential permits, stable jobs and incomes, and meet other local requirements, according to the plans.

China’s hukou, or household registration system, used to confine children to attending schools in their home provinces. A 2003 regulation amended this by allowing migrant workers’ children to receive the nine-year compulsory education in cities where their parents work.

But the country has in recent years faced mounting protests from its migrant workers, whose children under current policies had to either return to the countryside for further schooling or risk dropping out of school if they chose to stay with their parents in cities where the parents work.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education asked Chinese cities to formulate plans before the end of this year regarding the further education and gaokao of migrant workers’ children.

Official figures show that China has more than 250 million farmers-turned-workers living in cities. An estimated 20 million children have migrated with their parents to the cities, while more than 10 million are left behind in their rural hometowns.”

via Reform plans published for migrants’ education |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.

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31/12/2012

# Question: Who did China woo in 2012?

Answer: everybody!
Up to the beginning of the 20th century, China was very reclusive. It deemed itself self-sufficient, not needing anything from anyone else. China in the 21st century seems to have turned itself 180 degrees and is seeking to network and collaborate with everyone.  The list of over 100 countries below has been compiled from on-line articles in China Daily and Xinhua News. They are countries that either sent senior leaders to China or to which China sent senior leaders (often the Prime Minister) in 2012 to discuss and agree collaboration, or with whom China forged or renewed some significant treaty or alliance.

 

In other words, China is not leaving matters to chance but taking proactive action. Maybe the Chinese leaders have read and internalised Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People) or even Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People).

On the other hand, maybe China has heard of the saying: “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.” and since everyone can at some time be a friend or a foe, China wants to keep close with everyone.

By the way, if your country is not one of those listed, either I missed an article OR you better start worrying. 

  • December: Mexico, Bolivia, India; New Zealand; USA; Cuba; Kazakhstan; Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Latvia; South Africa; Bahrain; Armenia
  • November: Nepal, Laos, Pakistan, Maldives, Bangladesh; Cambodia; Luxembourg; Russia; Palestine; Spain; Tajikistan; Benin; Surinam; Italy; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Germany
  • October: Colombia; The Netherlands; New Zealand; Maldives; Cambodia; Bangladesh; Philippine; Vietnam; Laos; Poland; Romania; Croatia; Moldavia
  • September: Vietnam, Russia, Singapore; Myanmar; Malaysia; Turkmenistan; Canada; Cambodia, Sudan, Algeria; France
  • August: Bulgaria; Ghana; Taiwan; Indonesia; Brunei; Malaysia; Croatia; Philippines; Egypt; Germany; South Korea; New Zealand; Congo; India; Iran, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Fiji; Montenegro; Cambodia; Burundi
  • July:  Cuba; Slovenia; Israel; South Korea; Malaysia; Niger; South Africa; Egypt; Ivory Coast; Equatorial Guinea; Niger; Nepal
  • June: Belarus; Georgia: Afghanistan; Myanmar; Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Russia; Denmark; Sri Lanka; Belgium; Ethiopia; South Korea; Singapore; Brazil; Congo; Uruguay; Argentina; Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe; Argentina; Poland; Chile;
  • May: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; Taiwan; USA, Arab League, Colombia; Japan, South Korea, Romania, New Zealand, Australia; Croatia; Netherlands; Luxembourg; Brazil; East Timor; Singapore; Kenya; Turkey.
  • April: Kazakhstan, Britain, Cyprus, Brunei, Premier Wen visit: Iceland, Sweden, Germany, Poland; Thailand, Japan, North Korea, Timor-L’este, Colombia, South Sudan, Indonesia, VP Li Keqiang, presumed Premier-to-be, visited: Russia, Hungary, Belgium, EU, Central & East Euro states, Malawi, Malaysia, Zambia, South Korea. 
  • March: Britain, France, Italy, UAE, Albania, Angola, Kenya, Israel, Egypt, Brazil, Venezuela, Turkey, Indonesia, South Korea, South Africa, Japan, Cambodia, Taiwan, Ireland, Russia and India. 
  • February: VP Xi Jinping, presumed President-to-be, visited US; Canada, Australia, Turkey; Taiwan; Myanmar.
  • January: Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Germany, Libya, Sudan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan; Vietnam; Chile.

Posted in China alert, Economics, GeoPolitics, Politics, Social & cultural | 7 Comments »

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30/12/2012

* Chengdu aims to be world’s next Silicon Valley

SCMP: “Entrepreneurs in China’s southwest are dreaming of turning the city of Chengdu into the world’s next Silicon Valley as the government encourages more investment outside the booming coastal regions.

applechengdu.jpg

Small start-ups as well as big-name western companies have flocked to the metropolis of 14 million people, attracted by cheap labour costs and favourable government investment policies and hoping to tap into China’s rapidly expanding consumer market.

And the Silicon Valley dream is becoming reality as the city, already a hi-tech manufacturing hub, seeks increasingly to become a magnet for software development and innovation.

Between one-third to one-half of the iPads sold worldwide are assembled in Chengdu, while computer giant Intel makes up to half of its chips in the city.

Far from the booming coastal regions, Chengdu can offer perks through the government’s “Go West” development programme, with incentives for start-ups such as one-year interest-free loans.

So far it has attracted about 29,000 companies to its 130-square-kilometre “hi-tech development zone”, including about 1,000 foreign enterprises.

Chengdu is also developing a nearby “Software Park” as the city aims to go beyond manufacturing and become a centre of innovation.”

via Chengdu aims to be world’s next Silicon Valley | South China Morning Post.

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