Liu Futang expressed a sense of foreboding just before his recent arrest by posting a microblog entry that began, “If one day I’m invited out for tea, please don’t worry about me.”
“Drink tea” is a euphemism in China for an unwanted interrogation by government authorities, such as secret police and propaganda officers.
At the world’s only International Sister City Museum, located in far northeast China, a guide leads a group of Harbin middle school students past displays for each of their hometown’s twenty-seven “twins.” “Our government’s friendship with these cities promotes peace and understanding,” the guide intones, as the children stare at silver-plated spoons from Sunderland, Puntas Arenas postage stamps, sake made in Asahikawa, and a Holy Zohar from Giv’atayim. “Forgetting about history means betrayal.”
Investing like an angel now costs no more than an average duck dinner in Beijing.
The force driving China’s growing ranks of small-scale angel investors are crowdfunding websites, which offer individuals access to business financing pools for as little as 100 yuan each.
But these websites are operating in a regulatory gray area in China. And investors are called to give money for flimsy returns: In one case, they were rewarded for their financial backing with scarves in lieu of cash.
In mid-September, the fishing season got under way as usual in Ningbo, on China’s east coast, after the three-month season when fishing is forbidden. Over 2,000 steel-hulled boats headed out to sea. But, on board, there was little cause for optimism.
“For the last two years profits from coastal fishing have been low,” explained Chen Jiming, chief engineer at the Hainan Fisheries Research Institute. “Early estimates show that, with increasing fuel and labor costs, about 80% of fishermen will suffer losses without a diesel subsidy or similar support.”
China's latest evidence of sputtering growth underlines a dilemma for its incoming leaders: They can shore up the economy by doubling down on an exhausted growth model, or take a risky political bet on reforms that could worsen the slowdown in the short term.
Since withdrawing from the Republican primaries in January, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman has tried to stay engaged with China, where he served as Barack Obama's ambassador from 2009-2011. But China hasn't always wanted to engage with Huntsman: In an interview with Foreign Policy in mid-October in his Washington, D.C. home, Huntsman revealed that the Chinese government canceled his visa, prohibiting him from entering the country to give a talk in September. He also spoke candidly about his primary defeat, Mitt Romney's foreign policy, and the difficulty of managing the most important relationship in the world.
Two characters in China’s English textbook used 20 years ago are back, sparking a wave of nostalgia.
From their website:
Two years into the business of providing Chinese consumer insights to foreign companies, I feel very strongly that people outside China should learn more about the Chinese people, by not just looking at them, but truly feeling their pulses. And nowhere like the Chinese internet can show the vitality of the Chinese people.
James Fallows' pics from inside a Chinese factory making many famous Western electronic brands.
