Buried Under Water
on July 26, 2012
Ding Zhijian, a 34-year-old editor at a children’s literature publishing company, was on his way home after meeting a colleague when a horrific rainstorm hit Beijing.
Earlier that day, his wife had asked Ding not to leave the house. It was the weekend, after all, and rain had already started to fall.
But Ding insisted the meeting would be short and that he’d be home in time for dinner.
Mass Medal Preparedness
on July 26, 2012
China’s Olympic training system demands its athletes give their all—and not expect much in return.
It’s a structured, planned, and government-funded system specifically designed to churn out winners.
While other countries around the world build Olympic teams with professional training systems that raise funds through sports federations and sponsors, China continues to maintain a centralized system—modeled off the Soviet-era sports bureaucracy—that prepares young bodies for the Olympics often from an early age.
Is Chinese Social Media Becoming an Unruly Fight Club?
on July 25, 2012
To pick out three similar but unrelated incidents on Weibo and call them a trend is to risk forfeiting one’s right to say anything about the social media site ever again, except some things so defy responsible behavior that they deserve to be on the receiving end themselves.
Cyber Candles for Two Tragedies
on July 25, 2012
Yesterday marked two tragedies in China: the third day of floods in the nation’s capital and the one-year anniversary of the high-speed train crash in Wenzhou. Connecting the two events, especially by lighting commemorative cyber candles, is a provocative move in China’s tightly controlled media space. Despite admitting to error and firing Railway Ministry officials, authorities have still barred reporters from visiting the site of the Wenzhou crash, and independent reporting on the anniversary was forbidden. Even journalists working for state-run media were chastised for criticizing the response to the disaster. Citizens are braced for cosmetic responses to the floods. Braced, but not complacent.
Crisis Management Falters as Beijing Mayor Resigns
on July 25, 2012
If this past weekend’s deluge in Beijing shows us anything, it’s that nothing and no one in this city is waterproof.
Patrick Chovanec: An American Perspective from China
on July 25, 2012
From their website:
Patrick Chovanec (程致宇) is an Associate Professor of Practice at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China, where he teaches in the school’s International MBA Program. His insights into Chinese business, economics, politics, and culture have been featured by both Chinese and international media including CNN, BBC, CNBC, Time, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, PBS, NPR, and Al Jazeera. He serves as Chairman of the Public Policy Development Committee for the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
WTO to Probe China's Rare-Earth Policies
on July 25, 2012
The World Trade Organization has set up a panel to probe China's rare-earth export policies, a widely expected move following requests by the U.S., the European Union and Japan, the trade body said in a report on its website Tuesday.
The trade dispute centers on China's dominance of the production of 17 metallic minerals that are essential for a range of sensitive cutting-edge technologies, including missile-defense systems, wind turbines and smartphones.
What’s Driving China’s Real Estate Rally?
on July 25, 2012
Yesterday, I began an investigation into the potential causes behind the latest bump in China’s property sales numbers, and whether they portend a genuine turn-around in the nation’s real estate market. I noted that five basic theories to account for what has been happening, and promised to examine them each in turn:
- Lower Prices are Bringing Buyers Back
- Looser Restrictions are Unleashing Pent-Up Demand
- Optimistic Buyers are Misreading the Market
- Government Intervention is Boosting the Numbers
- Developers are Fudging Numbers to Stay Afloat
Floods in Beijing
on July 25, 2012
For a capital city unusual, and perhaps unique, in being situated neither on a coastline nor along the banks of a big river, Beijing has been under water a lot of late. Violent summer rainstorms flooded the city in June of last year, overwhelming the antiquated drainage system, flooding roads and paralysing the normally bustling city. On July 21st Beijing was struck again by an even more devastating rainstorm. According to official monitors it was the largest the city has suffered since records began to be kept in 1951.