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

17/02/2014

China says keen on meeting with Taiwan president, but no rush | Reuters

China said on Monday it was keen on a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, but signaled it was in no rush to set a venue or timeframe for what would be a historic get-together.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Minister Wang Yu-chi (2nd R) and Vice Minister Wu Mei-hung (R) pay their respect to the statue of party founder Sun Yat-sen during their visit at Sun Yat-sen mausoleum in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, February 12, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer

Since taking office in 2008, Ma has signed a series of landmark trade and economic agreements with China, cementing China’s position as Taiwan’s largest trading partner.

But Taiwan said last week that China had rebuffed as “inappropriate” a request for the two men to meet at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing.

Fan Liqing, spokeswoman of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters the subject of a Xi-Ma summit was “not a topic for discussion” during last week’s landmark meeting between top Chinese and Taiwan government officials.

That meeting was an important step in pushing overall cross-Strait relations, she said, adding that further steps would follow, promising to benefit people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

“As for a meeting between the leaders on both sides of the Strait, we have said many times that this is something we have upheld for many years, and we have always had an open, positive attitude towards it,” Fan said.

via China says keen on meeting with Taiwan president, but no rush | Reuters.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2014/02/14/china-dashes-taiwans-hope-of-meeting-between-leaders-at-apec-reuters/

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

Tags: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Beijing, China, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Ma Ying-jeou, President Xi Jinping, Reuters, Taiwan, Taiwan Affairs Office, Taiwan President Ma, Xi JinPing

16/02/2014

Taiwanese official says aloud formal title of Taiwan during Nanjing visit | South China Morning Post

A senior Taiwanese envoy raised eyebrows on the mainland yesterday when he used the island’s official name during a landmark ceremonial visit to Sun Yat-sen’s resting place.

Wang Yu-chi, the head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, used the phrase Republic of China at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, where Beijing and Taipei government officials are holding their first official talks in six decades.

“The Republic of China, the first democratic republic in Asia established by Dr Sun Yat-sen, has existed for 103 years,” Wang said in brief remarks before officials from Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Taiwanese journalists and a huge group of mainland tourists.

The statement seemed to contradict Beijing’s official line that the People’s Republic of China – founded by the Communist Party in 1949 as Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan – is the one true China. The party maintains Taiwan is a breakaway province, not a republic, as “103 years” would appear to suggest.

Watch: China and Taiwan hold historic talks

Wang went on to say that he believed Sun would be gratified to know that his “three principles of the people” – nationalism, democracy and the welfare of people – were now being practised in Taiwan. Sun is revered on both sides of the Taiwan Strait for his role in the 1911 revolution and the founding of modern China.

The deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, Ma Xiaoguang, sidestepped any controversy, saying it was a known fact that Sun led the revolution that overthrew the imperial regime 103 years ago.

via Taiwanese official says aloud formal title of Taiwan during Nanjing visit | South China Morning Post.

Seealso: https://chindia-alert.org/2014/02/14/china-dashes-taiwans-hope-of-meeting-between-leaders-at-apec-reuters/

Posted in China alert, Diplomacy, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Asia, Beijing, China, Mainland Affairs Council, Nanjing, Republic of China, Sun Yat, Sun Yat-sen, Taiwan, Taiwan Affairs Office

14/02/2014

Chinese luxury spending drops 19% during festival[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn

Chinese people spent $6.9 billion overseas on luxury goods during the Spring Festival holiday (Jan 31 – Feb 6), a drop of 18.8 percent from last year, according to World Luxury Association.

Austerity drive among factors taking toll on luxury market

Luxury outlets lure Chinese at Lunar New Year

And domestic sales of luxury goods were only $350 million, a 57.8-percent drop from 2013 and 80 percent drop from 2012.

The European area tops the destinations by receiving nearly $3.6 billion of total overseas spending during the festival.

Meanwhile the domestic luxury goods consumption also saw a sharp drop in five major cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chonagqing), standing at $350 milion, down 57.8 percent from the same period of last year and 80 percent from 2012.

Insiders said the results were due to the Chinese central government‘s cracking down on corruption, which led to dramatic decrease in government-paid junkets and officials accepting gifts.

via Chinese luxury spending drops 19% during festival[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn.

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

Tags: Beijing, China, Chinese central government, chinese new year, Chinese people, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Luxury good, luxury goods, luxury market, Shanghai, Shenzhen, World Luxury Association

14/02/2014

E-Commerce Gives a Lift to China’s Rural Farmers – Businessweek

A recent series of food safety scandals has created a hunger in China’s big cities for natural or traditionally grown food, absent buckets of fertilizer and pesticide. Two beneficiaries of this new market are Li Chengcai, 83, and his wife, 76-year-old Cheng Youfang, who grow white radishes in fields shadowed by the Yellow Mountain range. They get orders online from distant urban customers willing to pay more for flavorful, safe food.

The couple lives in Bishan, a village of 2,800 residents, in an old stone home on a narrow street lined with crumbling mansions. Rich merchants built the homes more than a century ago when the village, in southern Anhui province, was in its heyday. Many villagers, including their four daughters, have left for the cities. In 2011, China’s population was more than half urban for the first time. But Li and Cheng, who are illiterate and speak only their local dialect, say they have no plans to leave. Fortunately, a new opportunity has come to them—as it may to many more farmers in the next few years.

About a year ago, Zhang Yu, a 26-year-old “young village official”—that’s her actual title—knocked on Li’s door. In the summer of 2012, as national newspapers carried heated debates about genetically modified organisms and food safety, Zhang and a few other young colleagues had an idea. In their capacity as village officials they launched an account on Sina Weibo, a microblogging site, to post items about the fresh, traditionally grown produce of the Yellow Mountain region. Soon afterward they began an online store through Alibaba Group’s Taobao.com platform to connect local farmers with urban buyers. The first order, for 5 pounds of sweet corn, came from a resident of the wealthy port city of Dalian.

via E-Commerce Gives a Lift to China’s Rural Farmers – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, eCommerce, Economics, food safety, Good news, Social & cultural, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Alibaba Group, Anhui, China, E-commerce, food safety, Sina Weibo, Village, Yellow Mountain, Zhang Yu

14/02/2014

China dashes Taiwan’s hope of meeting between leaders at APEC | Reuters

China has rebuffed a request by Taiwan for Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou to meet at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing, saying it was “inappropriate”, a Taiwan official said on Friday.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Chief Wang Yu-chi (C) is surrounded by microphones and recorders as he talks to journalists at the Shanghai Media Group headquarters in Shanghai, February 13, 2014. REUTERS-China Daily

China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since Nationalist forces, defeated by the Communists, fled to the island at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has never ruled out the use of force to bring it under its control.

But over recent years the two sides have built up extensive economic ties, and this week, they held their first direct, government-to-government talks, a big step towards expanding cross-strait dialogue beyond trade.

At the talks in the mainland city of Nanjing, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Minister Wang Yu-chi said Zhang Zhijun, head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, brought up the subject of a meeting this year between their leaders.

Wang said he responded by proposing the APEC summit later in the year as “the only choice for us”, but Zhang resisted the request.

“I told Zhang that Taiwan hopes Ma and Xi can meet in the upcoming APEC meeting,” Wang told a news conference in Taipei after returning from his four-day visit to China.

“However, Zhang said that is not acceptable. China doesn’t see APEC as appropriate,” Wang said, without elaborating.

via China dashes Taiwan’s hope of meeting between leaders at APEC | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Diplomacy, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Beijing, China, Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan, Taiwan Affairs Office, Taiwan President Ma, Xi JinPing, Zhang Zhijun

14/02/2014

China says 11 ‘terrorists’ killed in new Xinjiang unrest | Reuters

Eleven “terrorists” were killed during an attack in China’s far western region of Xinjiang on Friday, state news agency Xinhua said, in the latest violence to hit a part of the country with a large Muslim population.

A leading member of the ethnic Turkic Uighur community in exile said such attacks were a response to heavy-handed Chinese rule in the region and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit to Beijing, expressed concern over the state of human rights in Xinjiang, to the annoyance of his hosts.

“The terrorists, riding motorbikes and cars, attacked a team of police who were gathering before the gate of a park for routine patrol at around 4 p.m. in Wushi County in the Aksu Prefecture,” Xinhua said in an English-language report.

“Police said the terrorists had (an) unknown number of LNG cylinders in their car which they had attempted to use as suicide bombs. Several terrorists were shot dead at the scene,” it added.

Eight were killed by police and three died “by their own suicide bomb”, Xinhua said.

via China says 11 ‘terrorists’ killed in new Xinjiang unrest | Reuters.

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

Tags: Aksu Prefecture, Beijing, China, John Kerry, Uqturpan County, Xinjiang

14/02/2014

Valentine’s Day: Chinese Movie Seat Prank | TIME.com

In what might be the greatest-ever Valentine’s Day prank, a group of Shanghai singles purchased every odd-numbered seat for a Feb. 14 showing of Beijing Love Story. Their sole purpose: disrupting lovey-dovey dates. “Want to see a movie on Valentine’s Day?” asks a message posted by an organizer. “Sorry, you’ll have to sit separately. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

Tell that to the millions of Chinese who will be spending the day in the absence of a date. With a population of 1.3 billion, China naturally has hefty share of the world’s singletons. This is compounded by a dramatic gender imbalance. Thanks to the one-child policy and preference for sons, there are an estimated 34 million ‘surplus men’ in China — a whole lot of lonely hearts.

Luckily, the country’s unattached have a history of being awesome; they’ve even got their own day. Since the 1990s, Nov. 11 have been celebrated as Singles Day. It was picked because the numerals — 11/11 — are said to look like ‘bare branches,’ a Chinese term for bachelors. It started as an occasion to get together for a meal, but has since morphed into a multi-billion dollar orgy of online shopping.

Valentine’s day is also celebrated (if you’re into that type of thing). As I left my apartment block this morning, an older gentleman entered through the lantern-drapped gate, a bouquet of pink and white flowers tucked under his arm. All of Beijing’s best restaurants have been booked up table-for-two by table-for-two.

The self-desscribed “computer nerd” that spearheaded the Shanghai theater stunt said he was just trying to do something nice for fellow singles. He initially tried to buy all the the tickets in the theater, he told the Shanghai Morning Post, but was turned down. Things came together when he started a campaign on a crowd-funding site and, working with fellow singles, snapped up the requisite seats; behold:

The best part may be the comments it generated online. For every “No wonder you’re single,” there were witty rejoinders and high-fives to spare. “No choice but to go on a blind date now,” joked one commenter, according to a translation by ChinaSmack. “Now most lovers will go to the hotel directly,” quipped another.

Gazing at the checkerboard seats, one netizen had this to offer: “If he bought the white seats, he could’ve saved nine tickets.” Unromantic and cheap? You have won my heart.

via Valentine’s Day: Chinese Movie Seat Prank | TIME.com.

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

Tags: Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Beijing, China, ChinaSmack, Chinese term, Shanghai, Shanghai Morning Post, Single (music), Valentine, valentines day

13/02/2014

* China spends billions on rural education – Xinhua | English.news.cn

The Chinese central government has invested 61.8 billion yuan (10.1 bln U.S. dollars) improving schoolhouses and educational facilities in rural areas over the past four years.

Since 2010, 39.9 billion yuan from the central budget has been used in schoolhouse renovation and 21.9 billion yuan in educational equipment, said Liu Limin, deputy minister of education, at a press conference on Thursday.

Money was also used to build cafeterias at schools in 699 “poor” counties, after media reports exposed that some students in remote villages have to cook for themselves during study time, according to Liu.

The deputy minister revealed that the ministries of education and finance and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly worked out a plan on improving the level of education in poor areas at the end of last year.

The plan aims at completing six major tasks in three to five years, including improving basic school facilities like teaching equipment, sports grounds and toilets, promoting digital teaching methods and improving the quality of teaching staff, according to Liu.

He also said that the ministry will try to ensure better compulsory education and care for 23 million rural left-behind children at school age, who stayed alone or with their relatives while their parents go to cities to make a living.

via China spends billions on rural education – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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

Tags: China, compulsory education, deputy minister of education, Education, educational facilities, Liu Limin, National Development and Reform Commission, NetEase, Rural area, rural areas, rural education, The Chinese central government

13/02/2014

* Rice Exports From India Climbing to Record on Mideast Demand – Businessweek

Rice shipments from India, the world’s largest producer after China, will probably expand to a record as buyers from Iran to Saudi Arabia boost purchases of aromatic basmati grain used in biryani and pilaf dishes.

Exports are set to increase 7.8 percent to 11 million metric tons in the 12 months through March from a year earlier, said M.P. Jindal, president of the All India Rice Exporters Association. Sales of basmati may jump 14 percent to 4 million tons as cargoes of non-basmati varieties advance 4 percent to 7 million tons, he said in a phone interview.

Shipments are increasing from India as Thailand, once the world’s biggest supplier, is also set to boost exports. The Southeast Asian country has built record stockpiles big enough to meet about a third of global import demand under a buying program that started in 2011. Farmers are demanding the government sell the reserves to pay for their crop.

via Rice Exports From India Climbing to Record on Mideast Demand – Businessweek.

Posted in agriculture, Economics, exports, Good news, India alert | Leave a Comment »

Tags: All India Rice Exporters Association, Basmati, China, India, iran, middle-east, Rice, Rice Exports, Saudi Arabia, Thailand

13/02/2014

For South China Sea claimants, a legal venue to battle China | Reuters

When Philippine President Benigno Aquino compared China to the Germany of 1938 and called for global support as his country battles Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea, he put the focus on a case that Manila has filed in an international court.

The Philippines has taken its dispute with China to arbitration under the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea and its lawyers say that the tribunal has discretionary powers to allow other states to join the action.

China is refusing to participate and has already warned Vietnam against joining the case being heard at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, sources have said. Hanoi has so far kept its options open.

Any final ruling by the court on the dispute, one of the most tense flashpoints in Asia, cannot be enforced but will carry considerable moral and political weight, analysts say.

“If a large number of countries, including members of ASEAN, speak out in support of the application of international law to resolve disputes, Beijing might conclude that flouting the ruling of the tribunal is too costly, even if China’s nine-dash line is found to be illegal,” said Bonnie Glaser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, groups four of the claimants to the sea – Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam – and six other countries in the region.

China, and also Taiwan, claim much of the sea through a nine-dash line on Chinese maps that encompasses about 90 percent of its 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile) waters. The sea provides 10 percent of the global fisheries catch and carries $5 trillion in ship-borne trade each year.

via For South China Sea claimants, a legal venue to battle China | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Diplomacy, GeoPolitics, Politics, Territorial dispute | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Asia, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Beijing, China, international court, Permanent Court of Arbitration, Philippine, South China Sea, Vietnam

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 says keen on meeting with Taiwan president, but no rush | Reuters

Taiwanese official says aloud formal title of Taiwan during Nanjing visit | South China Morning Post

Chinese luxury spending drops 19% during festival[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn

China dashes Taiwan’s hope of meeting between leaders at APEC | Reuters

China says 11 ‘terrorists’ killed in new Xinjiang unrest | Reuters

* Rice Exports From India Climbing to Record on Mideast Demand – Businessweek

For South China Sea claimants, a legal venue to battle China | Reuters

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