Caixin Media
12.15.14
China, Russia Near Deal for Wide-Body Aircraft
Russian and Chinese aircraft manufacturers are preparing to cooperate to help China meet soaring demand for new jumbo jets without kowtowing to industry heavyweights Airbus and Boeing.Aviation industry officials on the sidelines of the recent Zhuhai...
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12.15.14China’s Double-Edged Pact
New York Times
Whether China is a climate hero or a climate villain is a matter of polarized debate. At one extreme, the world’s biggest carbon-emitter is portrayed as a wasteful bogeyman that obstructs efforts to halt global warming and “steals” clean-tech jobs...
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12.15.14Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Make It Clear He's Cool with China
Huffington Post
Lu Wei, the Chinese Internet czar who heads a censorship system that keeps many popular American sites—including, of course, Facebook—out of China, was touring American tech companies recently. Chinese media reported that when he arrived at...
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12.15.14San Gabriel Valley’s El Monte Getting a Boost from Chinese Investors
Los Angeles Times
Trucks loaded with construction materials park in front of a vacant lot in El Monte, where a homeless man slumbers on the sidewalk next to a mountain of rags and trash bags. Overhead, colorful flags whip in the breeze, advertising opportunities for...
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12.15.14China Shocked by Fatal Riot in Madagascar
Huffington Post
"We hope the Madagascar government will take necessary measures to properly handle the attack at the Morondava sugar plant and to erase the ill impact this incident has brought to the country's international image and its ability to...
Infographics
12.15.14
Is Studying Abroad Worth the Cost?
from Sohu
The number of Chinese students who choose to study abroad has increased by more than 1,000% since 2000. Yet education costs abroad also continue to rise. This infographic looks at reasons why Chinese students are choosing an education overseas.
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12.14.14China’s Baidu Set to Partner with Uber and Reportedly Invest up to $600M
TechCrunch
If Baidu does put money into Uber, it will be a significant expansion of its international portfolio of products and investments. Baidu has focused on emerging markets, including Southeast Asia, Egypt and Brazil, where it recently acquired e-...
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12.14.14Falling Oil Prices Push Venezuela Deeper Into China’s Orbit
Businessweek
The late Hugo Chávez cozied up to China as part of his drive to curb U.S. influence in the Americas. Maduro, like his predecessor, has relied on Beijing to underwrite Venezuela’s flagging socialist revolution and finance the country’s gaping fiscal...
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12.12.14Patent Fiction
Economist
“What has long been predicted has now become a reality: China is leading the world in innovation.” So declares a press release promoting a new report by Thomson Reuters, a research firm, called “China’s IQ (Innovation Quotient).”
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12.12.14The Sony Hack: China’s Half-Hearted Defense of North Korea
Businessweek
It’s not easy being one of North Korea’s only allies. Chinese President Xi Jinping doesn’t seem particularly fond of Kim Jong Un, the third-generation Kim scion who rules China’s erstwhile client state.
Sinica Podcast
12.12.14
Band of Brothers: China and South Africa
from Sinica Podcast
Pomp and ritual surrounded South African President Jacob Zuma's recent state visit to China, a trip that saw China roll out the red carpet in a very uncritical fashion, not often seen these days, with even Xinhua getting into the spirit of...
Viewpoint
12.11.14
Here Is Xi’s China: Get Used To It
from China Economic Quarterly
The prevailing mood among China-watchers in 2014 was one of anxiety and skepticism. The year began in the shadow of Chinese assertiveness in the East and South China Seas. Economic concerns quickly took over: by February the property market seemed...
Caixin Media
12.11.14
Sacked Deputy Reform Commissioner Gets Life in Jail for Graft
A former deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has been sentenced to life in prison for taking 35.6 million yuan (U.S.$5.8 million) in bribes between 2002 and 2012, according to a microblog post from a Langfang court...
Features
12.10.14
Why Beijing’s Troubles Could Get a Lot Worse
from Barron’s
Few foreigners know China as intimately as Anne Stevenson-Yang does. She has spent the bulk of her professional life there since first arriving in 1985, working as a journalist, magazine publisher, and software executive, with stints in between...
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12.09.14China Flexes Its High-speed Rail Muscles by Rolling out 32 New Routes in One Day
Quartz
China has lofty expectations of becoming a global leader in high-speed rail technology, with projects in over a dozen countries, as well as plans to more than double its own domestic network of high-speed rail, which is already the world’s largest.
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12.09.14Warm West Coast Reception for China’s Web Czar (Chillier in Washington)
New York Times
Mr. Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, pointed to the book, “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” last week while giving a tour of the company’s office to Lu Wei, the de facto head of Internet policy in China.
Caixin Media
12.09.14
With New Fund, China Hits a Silk Road Stride
China's ambitious plan to expand trade links westward into Central Asia in the spirit of the ancient Silk Road is taking shape now that the government has decided to shift foreign currency into a special fund.The State Council will tap the...
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12.09.14China Tightening Curbs on Opaque Local Debt Spurs Market Tumble
Bloomberg
While the change caught traders off guard, authorities in the world’s second-largest economy are trying to rein in the use of lightly-regulated Local Government Finance Vehicles (LGFVs) as they promote the development of a more transparent municipal...
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12.08.14Prince William Attacks China over ‘Ignorant Craving’ for Ivory
Independent
According to excerpts of his speech released in advance, Prince William, who is due to go to China early next year, will say: “Some endangered species are now literally worth more than their weight in gold."
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12.08.14Chinese Online Giants Eating Into U.S. Dominance of Digital Media
Hollywood Reporter
China now accounts for two of the six companies with the highest online media revenues and four of the 10 fastest-growing, according to a report from the global research and advisory company Strategy Analytics.
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12.08.14Why Beijing’s Troubles Could Get a Lot Worse
Barron’s
Anne Stevenson-Yang: China, for all its talk about economic reform, is in big trouble. The old model of relying on export growth and heavy investment to power the economy isn’t working anymore.
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12.08.14What China Has to Do with the Mysterious Death of an Indigenous Leader in Ecuador
Quartz
Last week the leader of an Ecuadorian indigenous group, José Isidro Tendetza Antún was found by his son in an unmarked grave. The outspoken critic of a controversial Ecuadorian mining project had been due to speak at the United Nations climate talks...
The China Africa Project
12.06.14
The BRICS Bank: China’s Drive to Shake Up Development Finance
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (aka the ‘BRICS’) are moving forward with an ambitious plan to shake up the clubby world of development finance. The new BRICS bank announced over the summer 2014 is expected to have a profound impact on...
Environment
12.05.14
The Great Lake in Danger
from Confidencial
Southwest of the Maderas volcano, where the Rivas coast is a line fading into the distance, Lake Cocibolca’s inmensity is on prominent display: breezes softly comb stretches of water that are seemingly endless. Sonar has marked this as the deepest...
Environment
12.04.14
Indian Critics of Tibet’s First Dam ‘Exaggerating’ Dangers
from chinadialogue
Tibet’s first major dam, the Zangmu hydropower station, started generating electricity at the end of November. This prompted complaints from Indian media that Chinese dam building on the Yarlung Zangbo River could reduce water flow and cause...
Conversation
12.03.14
Can China Conquer the Internet?
Lu Wei, China’s new Internet Czar, recently tried to get the world to agree to a model of information control designed by the Chinese Communist Party. Regular contributors comment below and we encourage readers to share their views on our Facebook...
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12.03.14Mutual Governance of Cyberspace Called For
China Daily
In Washington, Internet Czar Lu Wei Lu pointed out that the two countries should also respect each other instead of engaging in confrontation and accusation.
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12.01.14Hong Kong IPOs Become Losing Bets for Investors
Wall Street Journal
Hong Kong is one of the world’s top venues for initial public offerings, thanks to listings by Chinese companies over the years, but most of the IPOs have been a losing bet for investors, with the bulk of them lagging behind the market in recent...
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11.24.14China’s Regulations on Sale of Birth By-product in Chaos
Global Times
In a cramped, quiet room, several bloody placentas sit in a machine, drying. Some workers then ground them down and filled capsules with the viscera. This gory scene is not from a horror movie but the day-to-day business of an underground placenta...
Caixin Media
11.24.14
At Factory Waste Ponds, Fumes Choke Fantasies
Deep in the Tengger Desert, near a community of cattle herders about 700 kilometers west of Beijing, pipes from a complex of coal processing and chemical factories once spewed slimy wastewater into six ponds.The "evaporation ponds" were...
Sinica Podcast
11.22.14
Banned but Booming: Golf in China
from Sinica Podcast
Despite China's legal moratorium on the development of the golf industry, a policy driven by concerns over illegal farmland seizures and the potential misallocation of agricultural land and water resources, the golf industry has experienced an...
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11.21.14Los Angeles Mayor Presses China to Allow More Hollywood Films
Reuters
Hollywood producers, eager to build ties to the world's second-largest film market, have embraced an influx of Chinese capital in recent years, leading to a series of high-profile partnerships.
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11.21.14China Commits $45.6 Billion for Economic Corridor with Pakistan
Reuters
The Chinese companies will be able to operate the projects as profit-making entities, according to the deal signed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during a visit to China earlier this month.
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11.21.14Google Looks to Get Back Into China
Wall Street Journal
Google Inc. is considering bringing a version of its Play mobile-app store to China, a tentative but important step back into a country that Google mostly exited in 2010.
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11.21.14Writers Phil Klay and Evan Osnos win top National Book Awards
Reuters
Klay was awarded the fiction prize for "Redeployment," his book of stories about the wars in Afghanistan. Osnos earned his award for "Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China" in the non-fiction...
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11.17.14Driverless Cars Compete in China
BBC
China has been holding its sixth driverless car competition, with the unmanned vehicles having to navigate their way through various obstacles.
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11.17.14China’s New Old Financial Capital
Wall Street Journal
Hong Kong’s democracy protests are often said to be futile because the city is no longer China’s golden goose, protected from Beijing’s wrath by its economic importance. But Monday’s big news shows that things aren’t so simple: The opening of a “...
Caixin Media
11.17.14
Visa and MasterCard Confront China’s Stacked Deck
Visa and MasterCard executives eager to expand in China were thrilled recently when Premier Li Keqiang seemed to suggest that a door would open to them for bank card yuan business in the country.But they had read Li wrong: The premier's...
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11.11.14What Brookings Experts Are Saying about Obama in Asia
Brookings Institution
Experts recently joined together in a full-day conference to examine the economic, environmental, political, and security implications of President Obama's trip to China and his interactions with President Xi Jinping.
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11.11.14Alibaba Smashes Its Sales Record On China’s Singles’ Day Shopping Bonanza
TechCrunch
In case you missed the media hype and have no idea why November 11 (11/11) is significant, it’s China biggest e-commerce sales day. Think of it as an amalgamation of all of North America’s biggest online retail days into one… on steroids.
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11.10.14Xi Outlines Four Expected Achievements of APEC Meetings
China Daily
The first achievement will be the launch of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) process, which points out the direction for Asia-Pacific cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said.
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11.10.14China Criminal Gang Floods Market with 100 Metric Tons of Toxic Tofu
Reuters
The gang added industrial bleaching agent rongalite to make dried tofu sticks brighter and chewier, the Shanghai Daily reported on Monday, citing official media in Shandong province.
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11.10.14Few Signs of Construction at Yujiapu, China's Manhattan Replica
NBC News
Complete with its own Rockefeller Center and Twin Towers, Yujiapu been billed as the world's largest financial center in the making. But this Manhattan still has a long way to go.
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11.10.14Shanghai-Hong Kong Link to Start in a Week as China Opens
Bloomberg
The program allowing a net 23.5 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) of daily cross-border purchases will begin on November 17, regulators said in a joint statement today after weeks of investor speculation on the start date.
Caixin Media
11.10.14
Popular Mental Health Treatment Has No Benefits, Experts Say
A widely used and expensive mental illness treatment that many patients have turned to for help is in the spotlight due to suggestions it offers little help.A college student name Xiaolei and his father travelled more than 500 kilometers from the...
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11.07.14China Announces Import Support Measures as APEC Leaders Arrive
Financial Times
China tossed a bone to trading partners attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting this week by announcing a series of measures including more bank credit for high-tech imports and quicker approvals for meat and seafood shipments.
Environment
11.07.14China’s EIA Industry Rife with Fraud
from chinadialogue
A farce played out at an environmental impact assessment (EIA) firm in the southern city of Shenzhen when inspectors called round in early October, this year.The firm had applied to renew its license to carry out EIAs—reports that are supposed to...
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11.05.14China Puts the Brakes on Car Makers
Wall Street Journal
Global car makers sounded new warnings that demand in China, the auto market’s strongest growth engine in recent years, is cooling further and clouding prospects after several reported disappointing October sales in the country.
Caixin Media
11.04.14
Cai Jinyong: A Chinese Voice at the Top of the IFC
Three top executives serving in recent years at the World Bank and its emerging markets financing arm International Finance Corp. (IFC) have called China home.Economist Cai Jinyong became the fourth in October 2012, when he was named IFC's...
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11.04.14Why China Won Mexico’s High-Speed Rail Project
Diplomat
Underlying Mexico’s decision to choose China, and what may have made it the only country able to meet to proposal deadline, was its decision to finance 85 percent of the project through the Export-Import Bank of China.
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11.03.14China Rolls out the Red Carpet for APEC
Financial Times
The APEC summit of nations that collectively represent more than half the global economy is more about dialogue and non-binding commitments than implementing change.
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11.03.14China Officials “Buy Corpses to Meet Cremation Quota”
BBC
Two officials in Guangdong province have been arrested after they allegedly bought corpses from grave robbers to have them cremated, Chinese media say.
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11.03.14Wanted: 500,000 Pilots for China Aviation Gold Rush
Reuters
The aviation boom comes asChina allows private planes to fly below 1,000 meters from next year without military approval, seeking to boost its transport infrastructure.
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10.31.14China: Facebook Not Banned, but Must Follow the Rules
PC World
“Foreign Internet companies entering China must at the base level accord to Chinese laws and regulations,” Lu Wei, the director of China’s State Internet Information Office, said. “First, you can’t damage the national interests of the country...
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10.29.14It’s Time to Give China Some Time
Bloomberg
There’s also evidence the country may be approaching something of a Henry Ford moment, when a manufacturing-based economy matures to point where workers can afford to buy the products they're making.
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10.27.14China’s Assault on Corruption Enters Executive Suite
Wall Street Journal
Communist Party leaders plan to slash the compensation of the top executives at China's largest state-owned companies over the next few months to make sure only those truly committed to the party run them.
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10.27.14Troubles in China Rattle Western Banks
Wall Street Journal
Foreign lenders in China have been stung by a string of suspected fraud cases and problem loans in the country as Beijing investigates company executives and seizes assets in a crackdown on corruption.
Caixin Media
10.27.14
Rise and Fall of a Coal Boomtown
Some 187 kilometers west of Taiyuan, capital of the northern province of Shanxi, the city of Luliang is located on the dry and gullied Loess Plateau in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River.The city, which covers 21,143 square kilometers...
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10.27.14Using Cash and Pressure, China Builds Its Chip Industry
New York Times
Beijing is starting programs to increase investment by the state and to gain expertise from foreign chip companies. Experts say the chip industry is one focus of Chinese espionage efforts.
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10.27.14Why China Chose a French-Directed Film as Its Oscar Submission
Wall Street Journal
“It’s a mild, breezy, accessible, feel-good drama which really pictures China as a harmonious, wonderful place where conflicts of various stripes—across age, class or geographical divides—could easily be reconciled,” said Clarence Tsui, a film...