So are you saying the death penalty is a good thing or gang shooting, drugs, murder or any other serious crime are good things ... or are you just muttering to yourself
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Net a friend, not an enemy
By Yiyi Lu (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-01 07:49
In China, local governments open and responsive to online public opinion are praised and those suppressing criticisms are shamed
The Chinese government's relationship with the Internet is far more complex than media-filtered presentations. From the central government down to the local level, there have been many experiments to use the Internet to improve government performance and communications with the public. The government doesn't just see the Internet as a challenge; it also considers it an opportunity.
Stories of the proactive use of the Internet by government agencies abound. Perhaps the best examples are websites where members of the public can report corruption cases, such as the Untitled Document website launched by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China in October 2009. The website had so many visitors on its first day that it crashed under heavy traffic.
The Supreme People's Court, too, launched a website last year to solicit reports of illegal activities by judges. Within six months, 294 judges faced disciplinary action, which resulted in 116 prosecutions.
Many government agencies have started using microblogs to improve communications with the public. Reports of police corruption, torture of suspects to extract confession, and collection of illegal or arbitrary fines have dealt a blow to the image of law enforcement departments in recent years. Not surprisingly, police departments have been at the forefront of efforts to use microblogs to regain the public's trust.
The Beijing police department launched its microblog earlier this year. In five months, it has attracted more than 300,000 visitors, even though netizens initially criticized it for its formal, disjointed style bogged down in bureaucracy. But its writers have responded by gradually phasing out their dry official-speak in favor of the lively colloquial expressions or abbreviations widely used by the microblogging community.
The microblog of Guangzhou police department has become popular by sharing timely information with the public. In June, Guangzhou police had an hours-long standoff with an armed man before shooting him down. The police microblog covered the incident live throughout the day, attracting about 250,000 visitors.
Many Chinese officials have learned to use the Internet to show their commitment to serving the people and their responsiveness to public opinion. In Jiangxi province, 72 county-level officials have opened "people's livelihood" blogs. The public can use the blogs to seek help for their individual problems, while officials use them to respond to the requests.
Some officials have chosen to participate in discussions in Internet forums. A county Party secretary in Chongqing was voted one of the top-10 local "cyber-celebrities", because he regularly took part in online discussions on local issues and often responded to suggestions and criticisms.
The most dramatic example of officials' eagerness to demonstrate their Internet-friendliness came from Changzhou in Jiangsu province. After a resident attacked the environmental protection bureau in an Internet forum for failing to deal with water pollution and demanded the resignation of the bureau's director, the bureau offered him a "cyber-supervision of the government" award of 2,000 yuan ($302).
But not everyone is convinced by such initiatives of government agencies and officials. Critics dismiss them as mere public relation stunts. Responding to such criticisms, Guangdong's Party leader Wang Yang said that officials can spend only limited time interacting with netizens: "In this sense, if this is said to be just making a show, then I don't deny it." But Wang argued that when officials like him make such a show, they encourage others to follow in their footsteps and spur efforts to turn the Internet into an institutionalized vehicle for citizens' political participation.
So, are government agencies and officials genuinely interested in using the Internet to better serve the people and give them more opportunities to supervise the government, or is it just an exercise to improve their image? And how many concrete results can these government experiments with the Internet deliver? These are legitimate questions that need to be continuously asked because the Internet will play an increasingly important role in China's political life.
At the moment, the central government appears quite determined to push local governments and officials into ensuring that their Internet-friendliness is meaningful. The People's Daily recently criticized local government websites that had been lying "dormant" rather than serving as active communication channels for the public. The newspaper publishes quarterly rankings of local governments' response to incidents that have gained high profile in cyberspace. Local governments that are open and responsive to online public opinion are praised, while those that try to suppress criticisms are named and shamed.
Apparently, although it still has a long way to go, China is learning how to turn the Internet into its friend rather than an enemy.
The author is a research fellow at the University of Nottingham's School of Contemporary Chinese Studies and an associate fellow at Chatham House.
By Yiyi Lu (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-01 07:49
In China, local governments open and responsive to online public opinion are praised and those suppressing criticisms are shamed
The Chinese government's relationship with the Internet is far more complex than media-filtered presentations. From the central government down to the local level, there have been many experiments to use the Internet to improve government performance and communications with the public. The government doesn't just see the Internet as a challenge; it also considers it an opportunity.
Stories of the proactive use of the Internet by government agencies abound. Perhaps the best examples are websites where members of the public can report corruption cases, such as the Untitled Document website launched by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China in October 2009. The website had so many visitors on its first day that it crashed under heavy traffic.
The Supreme People's Court, too, launched a website last year to solicit reports of illegal activities by judges. Within six months, 294 judges faced disciplinary action, which resulted in 116 prosecutions.
Many government agencies have started using microblogs to improve communications with the public. Reports of police corruption, torture of suspects to extract confession, and collection of illegal or arbitrary fines have dealt a blow to the image of law enforcement departments in recent years. Not surprisingly, police departments have been at the forefront of efforts to use microblogs to regain the public's trust.
The Beijing police department launched its microblog earlier this year. In five months, it has attracted more than 300,000 visitors, even though netizens initially criticized it for its formal, disjointed style bogged down in bureaucracy. But its writers have responded by gradually phasing out their dry official-speak in favor of the lively colloquial expressions or abbreviations widely used by the microblogging community.
The microblog of Guangzhou police department has become popular by sharing timely information with the public. In June, Guangzhou police had an hours-long standoff with an armed man before shooting him down. The police microblog covered the incident live throughout the day, attracting about 250,000 visitors.
Many Chinese officials have learned to use the Internet to show their commitment to serving the people and their responsiveness to public opinion. In Jiangxi province, 72 county-level officials have opened "people's livelihood" blogs. The public can use the blogs to seek help for their individual problems, while officials use them to respond to the requests.
Some officials have chosen to participate in discussions in Internet forums. A county Party secretary in Chongqing was voted one of the top-10 local "cyber-celebrities", because he regularly took part in online discussions on local issues and often responded to suggestions and criticisms.
The most dramatic example of officials' eagerness to demonstrate their Internet-friendliness came from Changzhou in Jiangsu province. After a resident attacked the environmental protection bureau in an Internet forum for failing to deal with water pollution and demanded the resignation of the bureau's director, the bureau offered him a "cyber-supervision of the government" award of 2,000 yuan ($302).
But not everyone is convinced by such initiatives of government agencies and officials. Critics dismiss them as mere public relation stunts. Responding to such criticisms, Guangdong's Party leader Wang Yang said that officials can spend only limited time interacting with netizens: "In this sense, if this is said to be just making a show, then I don't deny it." But Wang argued that when officials like him make such a show, they encourage others to follow in their footsteps and spur efforts to turn the Internet into an institutionalized vehicle for citizens' political participation.
So, are government agencies and officials genuinely interested in using the Internet to better serve the people and give them more opportunities to supervise the government, or is it just an exercise to improve their image? And how many concrete results can these government experiments with the Internet deliver? These are legitimate questions that need to be continuously asked because the Internet will play an increasingly important role in China's political life.
At the moment, the central government appears quite determined to push local governments and officials into ensuring that their Internet-friendliness is meaningful. The People's Daily recently criticized local government websites that had been lying "dormant" rather than serving as active communication channels for the public. The newspaper publishes quarterly rankings of local governments' response to incidents that have gained high profile in cyberspace. Local governments that are open and responsive to online public opinion are praised, while those that try to suppress criticisms are named and shamed.
Apparently, although it still has a long way to go, China is learning how to turn the Internet into its friend rather than an enemy.
The author is a research fellow at the University of Nottingham's School of Contemporary Chinese Studies and an associate fellow at Chatham House.
China fails pledge on indoor smoking ban
By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-01-04 17:50
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Large Medium Small China's pledge to ban smoking indoors looks set to go up in smoke as the Jan 9 deadline set five years ago approaches.
A power plant worker smiles at Tangyin, Henan province, after signing her name on a campaign board to promote tobacco control. Volunteers who signed the names on the board vowed to stay away from cigarettes. [File photo/China Daily] Despite the promise on entering the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2006, The Beijing Times reported Tuesday that China has witnessed no decline in smoking, but has 200 million more people suffering from the effects of second hand smoke over the past three years.
Related readings:
Anti-smoking group calls for urgent tobacco controls
Beijing hopes to stub out smoking
City's smoking ban gets watered down
Controversy clouds debate on toughest smoking regulation
A report named Tobacco Control and China's Future, which will be issued on Thursday, said 3 million deaths in China will be caused by smoking in 2030, accounting for 25 percent of the total, compared with 2 to 3 percent for AIDS. The social welfare effect of the tobacco industry has also declined sharply from 150 million yuan ($23 million) in 1998 to minus 60 billion yuan in 2010, considering the high costs including medical and labor which far outnumbered its contribution of tax and employment, the report said.
"The situation will be even worse in the next 20 years," said Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of the National Center of Disease Control of China.
Lax enforcement of tobacco control
Yang said it is hard for the government to take a knife to the tobacco industry because it is an important taxpayer, despite 60 experts' research finding the industry has posed the greatest threat to people's health and become the main factor for the fast rise of chronic diseases in China.
Anti-smoking activists said a law is crucial to enforcing the commitment to the tobacco control convention. But China has yet to make one, and its current Advertising Law doesn't even ban tobacco companies from advertising.
The lax enforcement of China's commitment was highlighted when tobacco firms including Hongta Group, Guangdong Shuangxi and Shanghai Tobacco were nominated among the top 10 Chinese social responsible enterprises in November.
The move triggered heated debates online and was seen as an obvious violation to the WHO tobacco control convention which required participating countries to ban tobacco advertisements, promotion and sponsorship on the fifth year of committing to the convention.
Despite the freedom of advertising, tobacco firms have also tapped into the public welfare area.
A total of 52 tobacco companies donated to or sponsored 79 public welfare activities in 40 cities and counties from September to December 2009, according to the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control.
In November 2010, China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration established two funds for China Women's Development Foundation and donated 10 million yuan to support two welfare projects.
The convention also requires warning information to cover at least 50 percent of cigarette pack's total visible area, but the only warning one can find on the fine-looking and tempting Chinese cigarette packs is a line of small characters reading "smoking is bad to your health."
Zhi Xiuyi, a professor and a member of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, said expensive cigarettes are generally used in gift-giving and public funds consumption. "If we print disgusting pictures like rotten feet and lung on cigarette packs, they would loss their market."
Long, a man suffering from lung cancer after smoking for more than 50 years said the cigarette he usually smokes costs less than 10 yuan a pack and he needs more than one pack everyday.
The low price is definitely a huge temptation for Chinese smokers considering the fact that a pack of cigarette costs about 60 yuan to 70 yuan in Hong Kong and New York.
Yang Gonghuan said China imposed a 5 percent tax on the tobacco wholesale process and raised its tobacco tax in 2009, which didn't cause a decline in the country's tobacco consumption, but made the sales of some kinds of tobacco to keep a growing trend.
"The tobacco tax was seemingly raised, but the sum of cigarettes that have price hikes is quite limited," Yang said, adding only by raising tobacco's retail prices can the country enforce tobacco control by a pricing mechanism.
Beijing's move
Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health said on Dec 24, 2010 that tobacco control is in its 12th year plan and the city's public indoor spaces, public working place and public transportation vehicles will be totally smoke-free by 2015, which means the goal is postponed by five years from the original 2010.
But when a law will be issued is still unknown, because "it involves the communication and coordination of many government departments."
According to official data released in 2009, 70 percent of Beijing's public spaces have banned smoking, 1,020 restaurants, 218 hospitals and 66,000 taxis are smoke-free after a new regulation was enforced in 2008.
But the rule seems to have become loose recently, with smoking and smoke-free areas not being separated in some restaurants and smoking still found in smoke-free areas.
Comments(25)
By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-01-04 17:50
A power plant worker smiles at Tangyin, Henan province, after signing her name on a campaign board to promote tobacco control. Volunteers who signed the names on the board vowed to stay away from cigarettes. [File photo/China Daily]
Related readings:
A report named Tobacco Control and China's Future, which will be issued on Thursday, said 3 million deaths in China will be caused by smoking in 2030, accounting for 25 percent of the total, compared with 2 to 3 percent for AIDS. The social welfare effect of the tobacco industry has also declined sharply from 150 million yuan ($23 million) in 1998 to minus 60 billion yuan in 2010, considering the high costs including medical and labor which far outnumbered its contribution of tax and employment, the report said.
"The situation will be even worse in the next 20 years," said Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of the National Center of Disease Control of China.
Lax enforcement of tobacco control
Yang said it is hard for the government to take a knife to the tobacco industry because it is an important taxpayer, despite 60 experts' research finding the industry has posed the greatest threat to people's health and become the main factor for the fast rise of chronic diseases in China.
Anti-smoking activists said a law is crucial to enforcing the commitment to the tobacco control convention. But China has yet to make one, and its current Advertising Law doesn't even ban tobacco companies from advertising.
The lax enforcement of China's commitment was highlighted when tobacco firms including Hongta Group, Guangdong Shuangxi and Shanghai Tobacco were nominated among the top 10 Chinese social responsible enterprises in November.
The move triggered heated debates online and was seen as an obvious violation to the WHO tobacco control convention which required participating countries to ban tobacco advertisements, promotion and sponsorship on the fifth year of committing to the convention.
Despite the freedom of advertising, tobacco firms have also tapped into the public welfare area.
A total of 52 tobacco companies donated to or sponsored 79 public welfare activities in 40 cities and counties from September to December 2009, according to the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control.
In November 2010, China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration established two funds for China Women's Development Foundation and donated 10 million yuan to support two welfare projects.
The convention also requires warning information to cover at least 50 percent of cigarette pack's total visible area, but the only warning one can find on the fine-looking and tempting Chinese cigarette packs is a line of small characters reading "smoking is bad to your health."
Zhi Xiuyi, a professor and a member of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, said expensive cigarettes are generally used in gift-giving and public funds consumption. "If we print disgusting pictures like rotten feet and lung on cigarette packs, they would loss their market."
Low cigarette pricesLong, a man suffering from lung cancer after smoking for more than 50 years said the cigarette he usually smokes costs less than 10 yuan a pack and he needs more than one pack everyday.
The low price is definitely a huge temptation for Chinese smokers considering the fact that a pack of cigarette costs about 60 yuan to 70 yuan in Hong Kong and New York.
Yang Gonghuan said China imposed a 5 percent tax on the tobacco wholesale process and raised its tobacco tax in 2009, which didn't cause a decline in the country's tobacco consumption, but made the sales of some kinds of tobacco to keep a growing trend.
"The tobacco tax was seemingly raised, but the sum of cigarettes that have price hikes is quite limited," Yang said, adding only by raising tobacco's retail prices can the country enforce tobacco control by a pricing mechanism.
Beijing's move
Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health said on Dec 24, 2010 that tobacco control is in its 12th year plan and the city's public indoor spaces, public working place and public transportation vehicles will be totally smoke-free by 2015, which means the goal is postponed by five years from the original 2010.
But when a law will be issued is still unknown, because "it involves the communication and coordination of many government departments."
According to official data released in 2009, 70 percent of Beijing's public spaces have banned smoking, 1,020 restaurants, 218 hospitals and 66,000 taxis are smoke-free after a new regulation was enforced in 2008.
But the rule seems to have become loose recently, with smoking and smoke-free areas not being separated in some restaurants and smoking still found in smoke-free areas.
shadowshiv
*And you already have a thread to post this stuff in* thread .
________________________________________________
China's role in the world
By Yu Yongding (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-25 07:56
After three decades of breakneck growth, China overtook Japan as the world's second largest economy in 2010. The reaction in the West to China's stunning success has so far been mixed, which boils down to one question: What role will China play in the world amid its seemingly unstoppable growth?
History shows China has basically remained an inward-looking country. This tendency is most vividly expressed in the Great Wall. Despite its occasional outbursts of anger and bellicose reaction to what it regards as provocations, China harbors no ambition to become a hegemonic power. Yes, China needs to learn how to be more relaxed in global affairs. At the same time, as former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said, Western countries should be coming to terms with China: "(A) drift into escalating reciprocal demonization" would be the worst outcome for Asia's long-term stability as well as for China-United States relationship.
China has done more than any other economy to pull the world out of recession, and may remain an important engine of global growth for some years to come. According to the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), China will shift from export-led and investment-driven growth to a more balanced pattern of economic development. As a result, China's growth rate may be significantly lower, but more sustainable.
At the same time, the rest of the world can expect China to play a more active role in areas such as fighting climate change, poverty alleviation, global infrastructure development, and reform of the international monetary system.
The world economy has welcomed 2011 with many challenges: An uneven and unstable global recovery, the threat of protectionism and fiscal pressures require strong and coordinated action. China can and must play a critical role in resolving these issues.
China has already identified escalating inflation, 5.1 percent at present, as the key near-term risk. Overhanging global liquidity has led to rising input costs, but the rise in China's credit over the last two years is also to blame. Inflation is inevitable when there is abundant liquidity and strong demand. The tug of war between real estate developers and authorities is still on. To avoid a Japan-style boom-bust, China must stabilize housing prices, and make efforts to change the supply structure of residential units to meet people's demand for affordable housing.
Crucially, China must be willing to make short-term sacrifices, such as asset price adjustments or a temporary drop in employment in some sectors, to guarantee the long-term stability of its national economy. China can leverage off its extremely strong fiscal position (19 percent debt to GDP ratio) to ensure that domestic demand does not suffer dramatically.
But these are tough choices. On one hand, failure to cool down the economy would have serious consequences for China's long-term growth. On the other, a hard landing on China's part would shake the confidence in emerging markets and set back the global economy by many quarters, if not years.
The US' attempts to blame an "undervalued" yuan for its economic woes are by and large without merit. Nevertheless, it should be recognized that a stronger yuan is not only beneficial to the US, but also in the interest of China, because Beijing needs to promote structural adjustment and contain spillover inflation.
Now a new argument for the revaluation of the yuan is gaining ground: China must choose between maintaining large current account surplus and lower reserve accumulation, that is, have fewer dollars to plough into the US government securities. Lower reserve accumulation means less central bank intervention in the foreign exchange market, which in turn means tolerating greater yuan revaluation.
Given that the developed world is unlikely to move toward policy normalization anytime soon, capital flows will probably be lopsided at a time when China is trying to rein in inflation and deflate asset bubbles. Like other emerging economies, China has to strengthen its management on cross-border capital inflows, even though some of them are not speculative in nature.
China's leadership has stated repeatedly that nothing will be done to destabilize the sovereign bond market. And we expect the likes of the US and the eurozone to act responsibly toward their creditors. The US is debasing its currency with QEII, and President Barack Obama's tax deal has failed to address the deficit and allay the fear of its creditors. So this year could see China sending a clear message to the US: Do not expect any more munificence.
The lack of alternatives to the dollar as a reserve currency has bred a sense of security within the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. A reduction in Chinese buying (when China reduces its current account surplus and diversifies away from US dollar assets) will be felt in the US Treasuries' market. Some in Washington may dismiss this as a bluff, but surely a healthier US fiscal balance is in everyone's interest. Like China, the US also needs to make more sacrifices. Of course, we have noticed that the sacrifices in the US so far are not fairly borne among Americans.
As for the eurozone, while voicing its strong support, China must urgently seek clarification on whether its current holdings of periphery debt will be part of any restructuring plan. According to market observers, the numbers for Ireland and Greece don't add up. Until such clarification is provided, or the eurozone comes up with a permanent resolution mechanism, I do not think China should commit itself to supporting the eurozone by buying government bonds directly, because of the risk of turning good money bad.
In aggregate terms, though, the eurozone remains an attractive investment destination, with a strong institution (for now) in the form of European Central Bank and Germany's fiscal strength. China wants to see the eurozone carry out necessary reform and act in a responsible manner, but the State Administration of Foreign Exchange's primary responsibility to the Chinese people is value preservation.
There is much to be done in 2011. China should be bold and face up to the responsibilities, but it should also demand the rest of the world to reciprocate.
The author is president of China Society of World Economics, a former member of the monetary policy committee of Peoples' Bank of China, and former director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics.
___________________________________________
Government and Policy
Chongqing cracks down on local mafia, 46 arrested
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-23 23:46
Large Medium Small CHONGQING - Police in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality arrested 46 people involved in a mafia-style gang, including a major shareholder of the local Hilton Hotel that was recently targeted by police because of its involvement in prostitution. Two government officials were also arrested.
Peng Zhimin, 47, owner of Qinglong Property Development Co, was arrested on multiple charges including allegedly managing a mafia-style organization, organizing prostitution, crimes of intentional injury, illegal occupation of farmland, and bribery, according to a statement emailed to Xinhua by the municipal public security bureau.
Related readings:
China breaks up 1,400 mafia-style gangs in 4 years
18 jailed for mafia-style crimes in Chongqing
Police crack 56 mafia-style gangs since Dec
Ex-official denies mafia allegations
Peng was detained last month after police shut down the local Hilton Hotel on June 21 as it allegedly provided shelter for Peng's underworld gang, which ran a prostitution ring at the hotel. Peng, a major shareholder of Chongqing's Hilton, ran the Diamond Dynasty Club in the basement of the hotel which, according to the statement, sheltered crimes including prostitution, drug abuse, gambling and gang activities.
He also is charged with seeking protection from officials by bribing them with money and sex.
Peng, a junior high school graduate, served jail time in the early 1980s for theft. He earlier built a fortune through manufacturing and selling fake cigarettes in the 1980s and began operating in the real estate business in 1993.
Also, the former director and vice director of a district-level agricultural, forestry and water resources bureau in Chongqing were arrested Friday for shielding the gang, according to the statement.
Besides Peng and the two officials, police also apprehended 43 others related to the gang.
Police in Chongqing have been engaged in a wide-ranging mafia crackdown that resulted in a death penalty verdict handed down to the city's former deputy police chief in April.
*And you already have a thread to post this stuff in* thread .
________________________________________________
China's role in the world
By Yu Yongding (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-25 07:56
History shows China has basically remained an inward-looking country. This tendency is most vividly expressed in the Great Wall. Despite its occasional outbursts of anger and bellicose reaction to what it regards as provocations, China harbors no ambition to become a hegemonic power. Yes, China needs to learn how to be more relaxed in global affairs. At the same time, as former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said, Western countries should be coming to terms with China: "(A) drift into escalating reciprocal demonization" would be the worst outcome for Asia's long-term stability as well as for China-United States relationship.
China has done more than any other economy to pull the world out of recession, and may remain an important engine of global growth for some years to come. According to the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), China will shift from export-led and investment-driven growth to a more balanced pattern of economic development. As a result, China's growth rate may be significantly lower, but more sustainable.
At the same time, the rest of the world can expect China to play a more active role in areas such as fighting climate change, poverty alleviation, global infrastructure development, and reform of the international monetary system.
The world economy has welcomed 2011 with many challenges: An uneven and unstable global recovery, the threat of protectionism and fiscal pressures require strong and coordinated action. China can and must play a critical role in resolving these issues.
China has already identified escalating inflation, 5.1 percent at present, as the key near-term risk. Overhanging global liquidity has led to rising input costs, but the rise in China's credit over the last two years is also to blame. Inflation is inevitable when there is abundant liquidity and strong demand. The tug of war between real estate developers and authorities is still on. To avoid a Japan-style boom-bust, China must stabilize housing prices, and make efforts to change the supply structure of residential units to meet people's demand for affordable housing.
Crucially, China must be willing to make short-term sacrifices, such as asset price adjustments or a temporary drop in employment in some sectors, to guarantee the long-term stability of its national economy. China can leverage off its extremely strong fiscal position (19 percent debt to GDP ratio) to ensure that domestic demand does not suffer dramatically.
But these are tough choices. On one hand, failure to cool down the economy would have serious consequences for China's long-term growth. On the other, a hard landing on China's part would shake the confidence in emerging markets and set back the global economy by many quarters, if not years.
The US' attempts to blame an "undervalued" yuan for its economic woes are by and large without merit. Nevertheless, it should be recognized that a stronger yuan is not only beneficial to the US, but also in the interest of China, because Beijing needs to promote structural adjustment and contain spillover inflation.
Now a new argument for the revaluation of the yuan is gaining ground: China must choose between maintaining large current account surplus and lower reserve accumulation, that is, have fewer dollars to plough into the US government securities. Lower reserve accumulation means less central bank intervention in the foreign exchange market, which in turn means tolerating greater yuan revaluation.
Given that the developed world is unlikely to move toward policy normalization anytime soon, capital flows will probably be lopsided at a time when China is trying to rein in inflation and deflate asset bubbles. Like other emerging economies, China has to strengthen its management on cross-border capital inflows, even though some of them are not speculative in nature.
China's leadership has stated repeatedly that nothing will be done to destabilize the sovereign bond market. And we expect the likes of the US and the eurozone to act responsibly toward their creditors. The US is debasing its currency with QEII, and President Barack Obama's tax deal has failed to address the deficit and allay the fear of its creditors. So this year could see China sending a clear message to the US: Do not expect any more munificence.
The lack of alternatives to the dollar as a reserve currency has bred a sense of security within the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. A reduction in Chinese buying (when China reduces its current account surplus and diversifies away from US dollar assets) will be felt in the US Treasuries' market. Some in Washington may dismiss this as a bluff, but surely a healthier US fiscal balance is in everyone's interest. Like China, the US also needs to make more sacrifices. Of course, we have noticed that the sacrifices in the US so far are not fairly borne among Americans.
As for the eurozone, while voicing its strong support, China must urgently seek clarification on whether its current holdings of periphery debt will be part of any restructuring plan. According to market observers, the numbers for Ireland and Greece don't add up. Until such clarification is provided, or the eurozone comes up with a permanent resolution mechanism, I do not think China should commit itself to supporting the eurozone by buying government bonds directly, because of the risk of turning good money bad.
In aggregate terms, though, the eurozone remains an attractive investment destination, with a strong institution (for now) in the form of European Central Bank and Germany's fiscal strength. China wants to see the eurozone carry out necessary reform and act in a responsible manner, but the State Administration of Foreign Exchange's primary responsibility to the Chinese people is value preservation.
There is much to be done in 2011. China should be bold and face up to the responsibilities, but it should also demand the rest of the world to reciprocate.
The author is president of China Society of World Economics, a former member of the monetary policy committee of Peoples' Bank of China, and former director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics.
___________________________________________
Government and Policy
Chongqing cracks down on local mafia, 46 arrested
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-23 23:46
Large Medium Small CHONGQING - Police in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality arrested 46 people involved in a mafia-style gang, including a major shareholder of the local Hilton Hotel that was recently targeted by police because of its involvement in prostitution. Two government officials were also arrested.
Peng Zhimin, 47, owner of Qinglong Property Development Co, was arrested on multiple charges including allegedly managing a mafia-style organization, organizing prostitution, crimes of intentional injury, illegal occupation of farmland, and bribery, according to a statement emailed to Xinhua by the municipal public security bureau.
Related readings:
Peng was detained last month after police shut down the local Hilton Hotel on June 21 as it allegedly provided shelter for Peng's underworld gang, which ran a prostitution ring at the hotel. Peng, a major shareholder of Chongqing's Hilton, ran the Diamond Dynasty Club in the basement of the hotel which, according to the statement, sheltered crimes including prostitution, drug abuse, gambling and gang activities.
He also is charged with seeking protection from officials by bribing them with money and sex.
Peng, a junior high school graduate, served jail time in the early 1980s for theft. He earlier built a fortune through manufacturing and selling fake cigarettes in the 1980s and began operating in the real estate business in 1993.
Also, the former director and vice director of a district-level agricultural, forestry and water resources bureau in Chongqing were arrested Friday for shielding the gang, according to the statement.
Besides Peng and the two officials, police also apprehended 43 others related to the gang.
Police in Chongqing have been engaged in a wide-ranging mafia crackdown that resulted in a death penalty verdict handed down to the city's former deputy police chief in April.
Last edited:
China's largest ice bar opens in Harbin
Visitors enjoy themselves inside the ice bar in Zhaolin Park of Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Photo:CNSPHOTO)
China's largest ice bar, which sits underneath a dome made completely from ice, opened recently in Zhaolin Park of Harbin in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. The ice bar built in a snow castle attracted numerous visitors. The snow castle is 4.5 meters high and has a span of 12 meters. Inside the snow castle, there is an ice bar counter as well as ice tables and ice desks. Visitors can enjoy ice lanterns inside the bar and have a good time there.
By Ye Xin, People's Daily Online
【1】 【2】 【3】 【4】
China, Poland vow to develop military ties
21:38, October 20, 2010
Senior Chinese and Polish military officials met here Wednesday and pledged to carry out cooperative projects in military training and academic exchange.
China attaches great importance to developing ties with Poland and views the country as an important partner in the European Union, said Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie in a meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Poland Mieczyslaw Cieniuch.
Liang spoke highly of the bilateral military exchange and cooperation of recent years.
I love China also ,they shoot all criminals .
Try putting yourself in China's shoes
Updated: 2011-01-24 07:54
The seminar "China in the world" at Columbia University on Thursday brought together a panel of respected China scholars from the US and Australia. However, as you may have noticed, there was something missing in the conversation.
At least one Chinese panelist from China at the seminar on Thursday would have made the event more relevant.
The Americans kept talking about the hot issues in China with US national interests in mind, while the Australians focused on their own concerns. Most talks in the West about China lack representation from China, and few seem to care much about what Chinese people want.
This is a big problem with debates on China today - everyone chooses to be obsessed with their own agenda.
Many in the US like to tell China what it should do - appreciate its currency, consume more goods and less energy, spend less on the military.
Few Americans pay much attention to what the US should do - save more and cut down on its energy use, which is four times that of China per capita. As I sat in the heated Columbia Faculty House in just a shirt despite the freezing cold outside, teachers and students in Shanghai, where I am from, have to wear thick down coats in unheated offices and classrooms.
Americans should also consider their own military spending, which is more than the rest of the world combined.
Such focus on self-interest and ignoring voices from China is probably why many Western debates sound so foreign to Chinese people.
In a live broadcast of the White House welcoming ceremony for President Hu Jintao on Wednesday morning, CNN broadcast Obama's speech without comment. But when Hu spoke, CNN just showed the picture with anchor Christine Romans giving a verdict on China.
Was that judgment more important than the speech by the head of state representing a quarter of humanity?
Such willful indifference to an important, yet maybe different voice, stems from the deep-rooted arrogance of the US and its "we are right and they are wrong" mindset. That's why talks lecturing China are never in short supply.
If China learns just a bit from the West' obsession with lecturing others, or if China were truly "assertive" or even "aggressive" as some describe, China would tell the US that it should apologize for the invasion of Iraq by misinforming the world, it should shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and it should tell its citizens to save more.
Maybe China should continually lecture the US for borrowing money, importing its goods and moving manufacturing jobs to China.
Americans should stop blaming China for all its problems and failures.
And I am not done yet. The US should also lift the inhuman embargo on Cuba and stop drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Indeed, the list could go on and on.
What do you really want from us? - a wildly popular poem among Chinese netizens - is a strong backlash to the Western hobby of lecturing China.
If the West thinks Chinese people are "nationalistic", it should consider whether it is its constant fault finding that pushes people in that direction.
It is natural for China, a huge country under great transformation, to have problems, many of them serious.
But if people would put themselves in China's shoes, at least for a moment, they could become part of the solution rather than be part of the problem.
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Price war declared as ticket sales start for world's fastest train
17:36, December 18, 2009
China's railway stations Friday began selling passenger tickets for the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway, which boasts the world's fastest train journey with a 350-km-per-hour average speed.
The service between Wuhan, the largest city in central China, and Guangzhou City, a business hub in the southern Guangdong Province, was scheduled to start on Dec. 26.
The journey of 1,068.6 kilometers would take three hours, compared with the previous 10 and a half hours, said an official with the Wuhan railway bureau.
Tickets from Wuhan to Guangzhou ranged from 490 yuan (72 U.S. dollars) to 780 yuan, almost the same as airline tickets.
The China-made bullet trains reached a maximum speed of 394.2 km per hour in trial operations on Dec. 20, said Sun Bangcheng, general engineer of the Tangshan Railway Vehicle Co., Ltd of ChinaCNR Corporation Ltd, the manufacturer of the trains.
Bullet train going through Mi River Bridge
China's government has launched a major upgrading of the nation's overstretched railway system. It will build 42 high-speed passenger rail lines with a total length of 13,000 kilometers in the next three years.
The country opened the first high-speed railway between Beijing and Tianjin last year.
With the expanding network of highways, bullet trains could further open up travel to millions of Chinese, while putting the pressure on airlines.
"The price for Wuhan-Guangzhou line is reasonable, although it is a little bit higher than discounted flight price," said Wu Bin, a businessman who traveled between the cities frequently. "The time of the rail journey is even shorter than by air, because I can avoid security checks as well as long trips between the airports and city centers."
To attract passengers, China Southern Airlines (CSA) Thursday announced an express service with 30 flights traveling between Guangzhou, Wuhan and Changsha from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day.
The airfare from Wuhan to Guangzhou dived to 190 yuan at the lowest, compared with the previous level at about 1,000 yuan.
When a network of high-speed passenger rail lines traveling at 250 to 350 km per hour is finished in 2012, it will cover almost every major city with a large population. Almost 80 percent of the civil transportation market will be affected.
"We can only survive the competition by reducing costs and improving services," said Si Xianmin, general manager of CSA.
Airbus maintaining an active China presence and plans on expanding
08:53, January 27, 2011
The first A380 for China Southern Airlines is rolling out of the hangar at the A380 final assembly line in Toulouse, France. China Southern will become the first A380 operator in China this year. Photos provided to China Daily
In 2010, Airbus delivered more than 110 new aircraft to Chinese airlines from Toulouse in France, Hamburg in Germany and Tianjin in China, accounting for 22 percent of the company's total production in the year, or one of every five aircraft Airbus delivered in 2010 was for Chinese airlines.
Most of these were from the A320 Family, including 26 that were assembled by FALC in Tianjin. The in-service Airbus aircraft fleet in China has grown to over 650.
Airbus delivered its first aircraft to China in 1985, and has been providing Chinese customers with a comprehensive range of aircraft services, since then, to ensure smooth, continued operations.
Airbus has had fruitful cooperation with China's civil aviation authorities and says that it is committed to forging a long-term strategic partnership.
Airbus has a representative office in Beijing and several joint ventures in China: the Hua'ou Aviation Training and Support Center, and the Airbus (Beijing) Engineering Center in Beijing; the Airbus A320 Family Final Assembly Line China (FALC) in Tianjin and Airbus (Tianjin) Delivery Center; and the Harbin Hafei Composite Manufacturing Center in Heilongjiang.
In November, during President Hu Jintao's visit to France, China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS) signed an agreement with Airbus for 102 aircraft, 66 of them new orders.
These new orders consist of 50 A320 Family aircraft, six A330s, and 10 A350 XWBs.
In August, Lhasa's Tibet Airlines placed an order for three A319s, becoming Airbus' newest China customer.
This demonstrated the advantage Airbus aircraft offer for high-altitude airports. According to statistics, more than 80 percent of the commercial flights to and from Tibet involve Airbus aircraft, most of them A319s, the others, A330s.
The airline says it is planning to expand its fleet to some 20 aircraft over the next five years.
Fruitful cooperation
All of the company's industrial cooperation projects in China are doing well.
By the end of 2010, 37 FALC-assembled A320 aircraft had been delivered to eight Chinese airlines.
The performance of the Tianjin-assembled aircraft has been recognized as being "at least as good as that of European-assembled aircraft".
Airbus has completed its allocation of sets of work for the five percent of the A350 XWB airframe that will be manufactured in China as the company signed a contract with the CAC Commercial Aircraft Company (CCAC) in September.
The Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Center has been allocated four sets of the work.
Airbus (Beijing) Engineering Center has contributed six sets of work to the Airbus A330-200F program related to the new freighter's design.
In addition, Airbus is cooperating with Chinese universities and institutions in research projects. In 2006, it signed framework agreements with four leading universities. Six of these projects have been completed, three are underway, and two more are about to begin.
In 2007, Airbus began cooperating in aeronautical materials and aeronautical manufacturing technology with Chinese aeronautical research institutes. So far, eight projects have been completed and three are still underway.
This year, the company began cooperating with the Chinese Academy of Sciences on a project scheduled for completion in 2012.
Airbus has also cooperated with Chinese authorities in improving the management of the aviation industry overall. For example, it joined the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in holding the third Strategic Aviation Management Seminar, in July 2010. This applied to senior management of CAAC and its subsidiaries.
This year, Airbus will continue to expand its China activities and expects to develop not just manufacturing but also new business and services in connectivity, air traffic management, aviation finance, and environmental protection.
17:36, December 18, 2009
China's railway stations Friday began selling passenger tickets for the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway, which boasts the world's fastest train journey with a 350-km-per-hour average speed.
The service between Wuhan, the largest city in central China, and Guangzhou City, a business hub in the southern Guangdong Province, was scheduled to start on Dec. 26.
The journey of 1,068.6 kilometers would take three hours, compared with the previous 10 and a half hours, said an official with the Wuhan railway bureau.
Tickets from Wuhan to Guangzhou ranged from 490 yuan (72 U.S. dollars) to 780 yuan, almost the same as airline tickets.
The China-made bullet trains reached a maximum speed of 394.2 km per hour in trial operations on Dec. 20, said Sun Bangcheng, general engineer of the Tangshan Railway Vehicle Co., Ltd of ChinaCNR Corporation Ltd, the manufacturer of the trains.
Bullet train going through Mi River Bridge
China's government has launched a major upgrading of the nation's overstretched railway system. It will build 42 high-speed passenger rail lines with a total length of 13,000 kilometers in the next three years.
The country opened the first high-speed railway between Beijing and Tianjin last year.
With the expanding network of highways, bullet trains could further open up travel to millions of Chinese, while putting the pressure on airlines.
"The price for Wuhan-Guangzhou line is reasonable, although it is a little bit higher than discounted flight price," said Wu Bin, a businessman who traveled between the cities frequently. "The time of the rail journey is even shorter than by air, because I can avoid security checks as well as long trips between the airports and city centers."
To attract passengers, China Southern Airlines (CSA) Thursday announced an express service with 30 flights traveling between Guangzhou, Wuhan and Changsha from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day.
The airfare from Wuhan to Guangzhou dived to 190 yuan at the lowest, compared with the previous level at about 1,000 yuan.
When a network of high-speed passenger rail lines traveling at 250 to 350 km per hour is finished in 2012, it will cover almost every major city with a large population. Almost 80 percent of the civil transportation market will be affected.
"We can only survive the competition by reducing costs and improving services," said Si Xianmin, general manager of CSA.
Airbus maintaining an active China presence and plans on expanding
08:53, January 27, 2011
The first A380 for China Southern Airlines is rolling out of the hangar at the A380 final assembly line in Toulouse, France. China Southern will become the first A380 operator in China this year. Photos provided to China Daily
In 2010, Airbus delivered more than 110 new aircraft to Chinese airlines from Toulouse in France, Hamburg in Germany and Tianjin in China, accounting for 22 percent of the company's total production in the year, or one of every five aircraft Airbus delivered in 2010 was for Chinese airlines.
Most of these were from the A320 Family, including 26 that were assembled by FALC in Tianjin. The in-service Airbus aircraft fleet in China has grown to over 650.
Airbus delivered its first aircraft to China in 1985, and has been providing Chinese customers with a comprehensive range of aircraft services, since then, to ensure smooth, continued operations.
Airbus has had fruitful cooperation with China's civil aviation authorities and says that it is committed to forging a long-term strategic partnership.
Airbus has a representative office in Beijing and several joint ventures in China: the Hua'ou Aviation Training and Support Center, and the Airbus (Beijing) Engineering Center in Beijing; the Airbus A320 Family Final Assembly Line China (FALC) in Tianjin and Airbus (Tianjin) Delivery Center; and the Harbin Hafei Composite Manufacturing Center in Heilongjiang.
In November, during President Hu Jintao's visit to France, China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS) signed an agreement with Airbus for 102 aircraft, 66 of them new orders.
These new orders consist of 50 A320 Family aircraft, six A330s, and 10 A350 XWBs.
In August, Lhasa's Tibet Airlines placed an order for three A319s, becoming Airbus' newest China customer.
This demonstrated the advantage Airbus aircraft offer for high-altitude airports. According to statistics, more than 80 percent of the commercial flights to and from Tibet involve Airbus aircraft, most of them A319s, the others, A330s.
The airline says it is planning to expand its fleet to some 20 aircraft over the next five years.
Fruitful cooperation
All of the company's industrial cooperation projects in China are doing well.
By the end of 2010, 37 FALC-assembled A320 aircraft had been delivered to eight Chinese airlines.
The performance of the Tianjin-assembled aircraft has been recognized as being "at least as good as that of European-assembled aircraft".
Airbus has completed its allocation of sets of work for the five percent of the A350 XWB airframe that will be manufactured in China as the company signed a contract with the CAC Commercial Aircraft Company (CCAC) in September.
The Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Center has been allocated four sets of the work.
Airbus (Beijing) Engineering Center has contributed six sets of work to the Airbus A330-200F program related to the new freighter's design.
In addition, Airbus is cooperating with Chinese universities and institutions in research projects. In 2006, it signed framework agreements with four leading universities. Six of these projects have been completed, three are underway, and two more are about to begin.
In 2007, Airbus began cooperating in aeronautical materials and aeronautical manufacturing technology with Chinese aeronautical research institutes. So far, eight projects have been completed and three are still underway.
This year, the company began cooperating with the Chinese Academy of Sciences on a project scheduled for completion in 2012.
Airbus has also cooperated with Chinese authorities in improving the management of the aviation industry overall. For example, it joined the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in holding the third Strategic Aviation Management Seminar, in July 2010. This applied to senior management of CAAC and its subsidiaries.
This year, Airbus will continue to expand its China activities and expects to develop not just manufacturing but also new business and services in connectivity, air traffic management, aviation finance, and environmental protection.
Big brands cash in on China's bling obsession
09:50, April 04, 2011
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Private jets, elite villas, vintage wines, one-of-a-kind jewelry, and glittering watches set with colored diamonds are transforming the Chinese beach resort into a luxury hot-spot.
In Sanya City, south China's Hainan Province, a four-day event, the Hainan Rende-zvous, which kicked off on April 1, is providing Chinese luxury-hungry consumers an intimate interacting with world-class showoffs from 195 companies.
Having been flirting with the idea of owning a yacht for almost two years, a businessman, surnamed Chen, flew all the way from eastern Zhejiang Province hunting for the vessel in his dream at the Hainan Rendezvous.
A yacht priced at three million yuan (458,106.2 U.S. Dollars) caught Chen's eye.
"The price is reasonable enough for me and, more importantly, I really love the design," said Chen, excited.
A window displaying a Chopard necklace with more than 3,000 diamonds was wowing the visitors with its dazzling glamour and extremely high price.
Zhang Zhiyuan, shopkeeper of the Chopard Beijing department store, said the Swiss manufacturer has shipped 200 million yuan worth of watches and jewelry from Europe for this show.
"The sales far exceeded our expectation. We have received hundreds of customers in the last two days and some items, such as sun glasses and watches, sold very well." Zhang said.
【1】 【2】 【3】
That's all in 30 years ......yeap, but they still don't play hockey ,right boys ?
09:50, April 04, 2011
Email | Print | Subscribe | Comments | Forum
Private jets, elite villas, vintage wines, one-of-a-kind jewelry, and glittering watches set with colored diamonds are transforming the Chinese beach resort into a luxury hot-spot.
In Sanya City, south China's Hainan Province, a four-day event, the Hainan Rende-zvous, which kicked off on April 1, is providing Chinese luxury-hungry consumers an intimate interacting with world-class showoffs from 195 companies.
Having been flirting with the idea of owning a yacht for almost two years, a businessman, surnamed Chen, flew all the way from eastern Zhejiang Province hunting for the vessel in his dream at the Hainan Rendezvous.
A yacht priced at three million yuan (458,106.2 U.S. Dollars) caught Chen's eye.
"The price is reasonable enough for me and, more importantly, I really love the design," said Chen, excited.
A window displaying a Chopard necklace with more than 3,000 diamonds was wowing the visitors with its dazzling glamour and extremely high price.
Zhang Zhiyuan, shopkeeper of the Chopard Beijing department store, said the Swiss manufacturer has shipped 200 million yuan worth of watches and jewelry from Europe for this show.
"The sales far exceeded our expectation. We have received hundreds of customers in the last two days and some items, such as sun glasses and watches, sold very well." Zhang said.
【1】 【2】 【3】
That's all in 30 years ......yeap, but they still don't play hockey ,right boys ?
hinese teacher brings 30 AK-47s to class
China National News (IANS) Sunday 2nd December, 2012
A teacher in a Chinese university brought 30 real AK-47 assault rifles to class to teach students having their major in weaponry.
The teacher, named only as Wu, from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, explained the structure of automatic weapons to his students. He had also brought an M-16 rifle, the Global Times reported.
The students also tried to disassemble the rifles in the classroom.
University authorities said they exercised strict control regarding the guns, and that they had permission from police.
Wu said the class was not open to those without major in weaponry. The guns were not permitted outside the classroom and students could only handle the weapons under the teacher's strict supervision.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________They don't need gun control.
China National News (IANS) Sunday 2nd December, 2012
A teacher in a Chinese university brought 30 real AK-47 assault rifles to class to teach students having their major in weaponry.
The teacher, named only as Wu, from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, explained the structure of automatic weapons to his students. He had also brought an M-16 rifle, the Global Times reported.
The students also tried to disassemble the rifles in the classroom.
University authorities said they exercised strict control regarding the guns, and that they had permission from police.
Wu said the class was not open to those without major in weaponry. The guns were not permitted outside the classroom and students could only handle the weapons under the teacher's strict supervision.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________They don't need gun control.
Hey China how's the love life? Have you got a new main squeeze or have you given up matters of the flesh ? Haven't heard any philosophy out of you for years. What's up with that anyhow?
Life is a philosophy .You can say that life is like a beer - once the head is gone..................that's it .hahaha
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China reiterates that Liu Xiaobo is a criminal
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By The Associated Press
1:08 a.m., Dec. 7, 2012
BEIJING — China's Foreign Ministry has reiterated that locked-up 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal.
This year's Nobel literature winner Mo Yan evaded questions about his fellow countryman Liu at a news conference in Stockholm on Thursday.
Asked Friday whether the Chinese government instructed Mo not to talk about Liu, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: "I want to point out that Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to imprisonment by China's judicial authorities for violating laws."
Hong said he was not aware that Liu Xia, the wife of Liu Xiaobo, has been under house arrest for two years following her husband's Nobel win.
He said that the "legitimate rights of citizens are protected by the rule of law."
China's Nobel Literature Winner Defends State Censorship
Chinese author Mo Yan, who has been criticized for his links to the country's Communist leaders, defended state censorship and avoided discussing human rights issues as he prepared to accept the Nobel prize in literature.
A visibly uncomfortable Mo, whose pen name means "don't speak," told reporters at a press conference in Stockholm on Thursday that censorship is sometimes necessary, comparing it to airport security checks.
"I've never given any compliments to the system of censorship, but I also believe that censorship exists in every country of the world," he said. "The only difference is the degree and way in which censorship happens."
The 57-year-old author, who will receive the Nobel prize Monday, suggested he would not sign a petition by 134 fellow Nobel laureates calling for the release of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize winner serving an 11-year prison term for inciting subversion.
Mo, who is reluctant to speak against Chinese leaders, surprised his critics in October when he said he hoped Liu could achieve his freedom as soon as possible. But on Thursday, he refused to support Liu again, saying he had already issued his opinion on the matter.
"I have always been independent," he said. "I like it that way. When somebody forces me to do something, I will never do it. When I want to speak, I will speak. When I am forced to express my opinion, I will not do it.
Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based human rights analyst, said in an interview with VOA that is difficult to tell Mo's stance on Beijing's political repression of dissidents and artists.
"Many people interpreted [Mo's remarks] as sympathetic, as saying he wished [Liu] could be released from prison," said Rosenzweig. "But others have interpreted that as he wished that Liu Xiaobo would not criticize the government and would repent of his actions and therefore be released by the government."
Rosenzweig also questioned Mo's comparison of state censorship policies to those meant to protect against terrorism.
"Censorship in China is designed primarily to protect the state from being criticized, whereas we get patted down on an airplane to protect us all from acts of terrorism or other dangers," he said. "The 'danger' here that the security laws and censorship laws in China are designed to prevent are dangers to the political regime, rather than danger to individuals."
Several Chinese dissidents, including artist Ai Weiwei and activist Hu Jia, have said that Mo is unworthy of winning the prestigious Nobel literature prize because of his political affiliations and reluctance to speak on human rights.
Mo, who was accompanied on the trip to Sweden by a Chinese government official, told reporters that he received the prize because of his literary works, not for his politics.
Comments (0)Share:TweetFacebookEmailPrintSave
By The Associated Press
1:08 a.m., Dec. 7, 2012
BEIJING — China's Foreign Ministry has reiterated that locked-up 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal.
This year's Nobel literature winner Mo Yan evaded questions about his fellow countryman Liu at a news conference in Stockholm on Thursday.
Asked Friday whether the Chinese government instructed Mo not to talk about Liu, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: "I want to point out that Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to imprisonment by China's judicial authorities for violating laws."
Hong said he was not aware that Liu Xia, the wife of Liu Xiaobo, has been under house arrest for two years following her husband's Nobel win.
He said that the "legitimate rights of citizens are protected by the rule of law."
China's Nobel Literature Winner Defends State Censorship
Chinese author Mo Yan, who has been criticized for his links to the country's Communist leaders, defended state censorship and avoided discussing human rights issues as he prepared to accept the Nobel prize in literature.
A visibly uncomfortable Mo, whose pen name means "don't speak," told reporters at a press conference in Stockholm on Thursday that censorship is sometimes necessary, comparing it to airport security checks.
"I've never given any compliments to the system of censorship, but I also believe that censorship exists in every country of the world," he said. "The only difference is the degree and way in which censorship happens."
The 57-year-old author, who will receive the Nobel prize Monday, suggested he would not sign a petition by 134 fellow Nobel laureates calling for the release of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize winner serving an 11-year prison term for inciting subversion.
Mo, who is reluctant to speak against Chinese leaders, surprised his critics in October when he said he hoped Liu could achieve his freedom as soon as possible. But on Thursday, he refused to support Liu again, saying he had already issued his opinion on the matter.
"I have always been independent," he said. "I like it that way. When somebody forces me to do something, I will never do it. When I want to speak, I will speak. When I am forced to express my opinion, I will not do it.
Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based human rights analyst, said in an interview with VOA that is difficult to tell Mo's stance on Beijing's political repression of dissidents and artists.
"Many people interpreted [Mo's remarks] as sympathetic, as saying he wished [Liu] could be released from prison," said Rosenzweig. "But others have interpreted that as he wished that Liu Xiaobo would not criticize the government and would repent of his actions and therefore be released by the government."
Rosenzweig also questioned Mo's comparison of state censorship policies to those meant to protect against terrorism.
"Censorship in China is designed primarily to protect the state from being criticized, whereas we get patted down on an airplane to protect us all from acts of terrorism or other dangers," he said. "The 'danger' here that the security laws and censorship laws in China are designed to prevent are dangers to the political regime, rather than danger to individuals."
Several Chinese dissidents, including artist Ai Weiwei and activist Hu Jia, have said that Mo is unworthy of winning the prestigious Nobel literature prize because of his political affiliations and reluctance to speak on human rights.
Mo, who was accompanied on the trip to Sweden by a Chinese government official, told reporters that he received the prize because of his literary works, not for his politics.
US asks China to initiate talks with Dalai Lama
China National News Thursday 6th December, 2012
• Special US Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero issued a statement.
• More than 90 Tibetans have committed self-immolation since 2009 to protest China's rule of the Tibetan plateau.
• China accuses the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, of inciting the suicides
WASHINGTON - The US has expressed deep concern over the increasing number of self immolations by Tibetans, and asked China to initiate unconditional talks with the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
"We call on the Chinese government to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives without preconditions," Special US Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero said in a statement.
Otero said the United States is deeply concerned and saddened by the continuing violence in Tibetan areas of China and the increasing frequency of self-immolations by Tibetans.
"Chinese authorities have responded to these tragic incidents with measures that tighten already strict controls on freedoms of religion, expression, assembly and association of Tibetans. Official rhetoric that denigrates the Tibetan language, the Dalai Lama, and those who have self-immolated has further exacerbated tensions," she said.
More than 90 Tibetans have committed self-immolation since 2009 to protest China's rule of the Tibetan plateau. The number of incidents sharply increased in November.
She noted that senior US officials have raised the issue of Tibetan self-immolations with their Chinese government counterparts, and added that the US government has consistently urged the Chinese government to address policies in Tibetan areas that have created tensions.
"These policies include increasingly severe government controls on Tibetan Buddhist religious practice and monastic institutions; education practices that undermine the preservation of Tibetan language; intensive surveillance, arbitrary detentions and disappearances of Tibetans, including youth and Tibetan intellectual and cultural leaders; escalating restrictions on news, media and communications; and the use of force against Tibetans seeking peacefully to exercise their universal human rights," she said.
"We call on the Chinese government to permit Tibetans to express their grievances freely, publicly, peacefully, and without fear of retribution. We hope that the tragic acts of self-immolation end. We call on China's leaders to allow journalists, diplomats and other observers unrestricted access to China's Tibetan areas," Otero said.
The strong US statement comes days after relatives of three Tibetans, who recently self-immolated in Tibet, met Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Michael Posner.
"He (Posner) expressed our deepest condolences and our grave concern for the spiraling violence and harsh crackdown in Tibetan areas as well as, you know, grief with regard to the self-immolations," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters last Friday.
China accuses the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, of inciting the burnings.
The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since 1959, when he fled an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.
Many Tibetans in China accuse the government of repressing their religious freedom and eroding their culture.
China National News Thursday 6th December, 2012
• Special US Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero issued a statement.
• More than 90 Tibetans have committed self-immolation since 2009 to protest China's rule of the Tibetan plateau.
• China accuses the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, of inciting the suicides
WASHINGTON - The US has expressed deep concern over the increasing number of self immolations by Tibetans, and asked China to initiate unconditional talks with the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
"We call on the Chinese government to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives without preconditions," Special US Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero said in a statement.
Otero said the United States is deeply concerned and saddened by the continuing violence in Tibetan areas of China and the increasing frequency of self-immolations by Tibetans.
"Chinese authorities have responded to these tragic incidents with measures that tighten already strict controls on freedoms of religion, expression, assembly and association of Tibetans. Official rhetoric that denigrates the Tibetan language, the Dalai Lama, and those who have self-immolated has further exacerbated tensions," she said.
More than 90 Tibetans have committed self-immolation since 2009 to protest China's rule of the Tibetan plateau. The number of incidents sharply increased in November.
She noted that senior US officials have raised the issue of Tibetan self-immolations with their Chinese government counterparts, and added that the US government has consistently urged the Chinese government to address policies in Tibetan areas that have created tensions.
"These policies include increasingly severe government controls on Tibetan Buddhist religious practice and monastic institutions; education practices that undermine the preservation of Tibetan language; intensive surveillance, arbitrary detentions and disappearances of Tibetans, including youth and Tibetan intellectual and cultural leaders; escalating restrictions on news, media and communications; and the use of force against Tibetans seeking peacefully to exercise their universal human rights," she said.
"We call on the Chinese government to permit Tibetans to express their grievances freely, publicly, peacefully, and without fear of retribution. We hope that the tragic acts of self-immolation end. We call on China's leaders to allow journalists, diplomats and other observers unrestricted access to China's Tibetan areas," Otero said.
The strong US statement comes days after relatives of three Tibetans, who recently self-immolated in Tibet, met Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Michael Posner.
"He (Posner) expressed our deepest condolences and our grave concern for the spiraling violence and harsh crackdown in Tibetan areas as well as, you know, grief with regard to the self-immolations," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters last Friday.
China accuses the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, of inciting the burnings.
The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since 1959, when he fled an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.
Many Tibetans in China accuse the government of repressing their religious freedom and eroding their culture.
Western powers should drop bias toward Chinese investors
Xinhua | 2012-12-9 16:03:55
By Agencies
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Twice prolonging its verification process amid strong domestic protests, the Canadian government has finally approved the $15.1-billion bid by China's state-owned CNOOC for oil and gas producer Nexen.
Friday's hard-earned approval for the largest overseas takeover by a China-based company has expressly revealed the predicament that has frustrated Chinese entrepreneurs' enthusiasm for foreign investments and prompted them to question the fairness of foreign marketplaces.
For quite a while, Chinese investors have been discredited by some Western governments and media as a group of cash-rich predators and spies. They have been wrongly reported to forage across the world for energy resources and raw materials on behalf of the Chinese government and covertly plot to sabotage the national security of those who receive their investments.
The scary yet sham character sketch has been successful in barring a string of Chinese companies from engaging in legitimate investment activities in foreign lands.
The US House Intelligence Committee warned in an October report that the equipment supplied by two Chinese telecom firms, Huawei Technologies and ZTE, could be manipulated by Beijing for espionage purposes.
Days later, an 18-month review ordered by the White House unearthed no clear evidence that could prove the two firms had once spied for China.
Still, the damage done by the unwarranted accusations could well overshadow the Chinese telecom equipment provider's future overseas business moves.
If stricter and more prudent examination measures are taken to scrutinize foreign capital in key infrastructure areas is somewhat tenable, then it is totally unjustifiable in cases like the recent stalled bid by a Chinese firm for a tourism project in Iceland, in which security concerns were once again played up by local commentators.
Besides investment impediments, the volume of trade disputes between China and the Western powers has also been growing over the years.
One explanation behind the investment obstruction and trade frictions lies in the developed world's poor adaptability and fears for a fast expanding Chinese economy that is with vast ideological, political and cultural differences.
Waves of political opposition against the dangerous outcome that could be brought about if a "communist China" controlled Australia's mineral resources helped to kill the takeover deal between China's Chalco and Australia's Rio Tinto at the last minute in 2009.
In this case, these free-market-believing politicians suddenly became admirers for government's magic and powerful hand.
However, it seems that there is not a single case worldwide in which a country's national security has been jeopardized because of Chinese investment.
In fact, national security is no more than a one-size-fits-all rap the Western powers could use whenever a Chinese company tried to invest in their territory.
The slack economic performance and weak recovery prospects in the United States and the euro-zone has also made those nations believe that it is necessary to flesh out protectionist measures.
Still, the Western countries, which equate Chinese investments to threats, should have to be well aware that in an age of economic globalization there's no such a thing as a zero-sum game because all countries are bound to win or lose together.
Those countries also need to know that protectionism could only paralyze global free trade and no one would win in a possible trade war if protectionist moves could not be contained.
"Give Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's," a Western saying goes.
To promote fairness in their biased marketplaces, the Western powers that harbor China-investment-phobias should first drop their prejudice towards Chinese companies and let their entrepreneurs, not politicians,decide the business deals with their Chinese counterparts.
Xinhua | 2012-12-9 16:03:55
By Agencies
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Twice prolonging its verification process amid strong domestic protests, the Canadian government has finally approved the $15.1-billion bid by China's state-owned CNOOC for oil and gas producer Nexen.
Friday's hard-earned approval for the largest overseas takeover by a China-based company has expressly revealed the predicament that has frustrated Chinese entrepreneurs' enthusiasm for foreign investments and prompted them to question the fairness of foreign marketplaces.
For quite a while, Chinese investors have been discredited by some Western governments and media as a group of cash-rich predators and spies. They have been wrongly reported to forage across the world for energy resources and raw materials on behalf of the Chinese government and covertly plot to sabotage the national security of those who receive their investments.
The scary yet sham character sketch has been successful in barring a string of Chinese companies from engaging in legitimate investment activities in foreign lands.
The US House Intelligence Committee warned in an October report that the equipment supplied by two Chinese telecom firms, Huawei Technologies and ZTE, could be manipulated by Beijing for espionage purposes.
Days later, an 18-month review ordered by the White House unearthed no clear evidence that could prove the two firms had once spied for China.
Still, the damage done by the unwarranted accusations could well overshadow the Chinese telecom equipment provider's future overseas business moves.
If stricter and more prudent examination measures are taken to scrutinize foreign capital in key infrastructure areas is somewhat tenable, then it is totally unjustifiable in cases like the recent stalled bid by a Chinese firm for a tourism project in Iceland, in which security concerns were once again played up by local commentators.
Besides investment impediments, the volume of trade disputes between China and the Western powers has also been growing over the years.
One explanation behind the investment obstruction and trade frictions lies in the developed world's poor adaptability and fears for a fast expanding Chinese economy that is with vast ideological, political and cultural differences.
Waves of political opposition against the dangerous outcome that could be brought about if a "communist China" controlled Australia's mineral resources helped to kill the takeover deal between China's Chalco and Australia's Rio Tinto at the last minute in 2009.
In this case, these free-market-believing politicians suddenly became admirers for government's magic and powerful hand.
However, it seems that there is not a single case worldwide in which a country's national security has been jeopardized because of Chinese investment.
In fact, national security is no more than a one-size-fits-all rap the Western powers could use whenever a Chinese company tried to invest in their territory.
The slack economic performance and weak recovery prospects in the United States and the euro-zone has also made those nations believe that it is necessary to flesh out protectionist measures.
Still, the Western countries, which equate Chinese investments to threats, should have to be well aware that in an age of economic globalization there's no such a thing as a zero-sum game because all countries are bound to win or lose together.
Those countries also need to know that protectionism could only paralyze global free trade and no one would win in a possible trade war if protectionist moves could not be contained.
"Give Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's," a Western saying goes.
To promote fairness in their biased marketplaces, the Western powers that harbor China-investment-phobias should first drop their prejudice towards Chinese companies and let their entrepreneurs, not politicians,decide the business deals with their Chinese counterparts.
For the sake of clarity, perhaps the reference to 'Chinese Investors' should be changed to the 'Chinese Government'
China to have biggest economy by 2030: report
Updated: 2012-12-12 00:44
By Chen Jia (China Daily)
Print Mail Large Medium Small
1
China is likely to have the world's largest economy by 2030 ― surpassing the United States, the US National Intelligence Council said in a report released this week.
The country's rise will signify a shift in power from North America and Europe to Asia, the organization said.
The age of US and European dominance may be waning as emerging economies become increasingly important, the council said in its Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds report.
The organization is an analytical arm of the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
"China alone will probably have the largest economy in the world, surpassing that of the United States a few years before 2030," it said. "Meanwhile, the economies of Europe, Japan, and Russia are likely to continue their slow relative declines."
It also said China's total GDP will be 2.4 times as large as Japan's by 2030 and that "Asia will have surpassed North America and Europe combined in terms of global power, based upon GDP, population size, military spending, and technological investment".
Related:
'No room for over-optimism' for economy
Measures to lift border economy
China's economy to expand by 8.4% in Q4: report
US report sees Asia's global power rising by 2030
The report is the first by the intelligence organization to give a specific prediction of when China will become the world's largest economy.
Still, the US is likely to remain "first among equals" in the division of global power, the report said.
As China's contribution to the global economy increases, the country is exerting ever greater influence on the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the report said.
By 2025, China will be the source of a third of all global economic growth, much more than any other economy in the world, it said. The IMF has predicted that China will have the biggest economy by 2016.
"It is likely that China will expand to the largest economy in the next 20 to 30 years," said Pieter P. Bottelier, a senior adjunct professor on China studies at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
According to Chinese Academy of Social Sciences research, economic reforms will help ensure China's GDP grows at an average rate of between 7.5 and 8 percent in the next 10 years.
Economic growth in emerging markets is expected to be an impetus for technological innovation and lead to an increase in the flow of companies, ideas, entrepreneurs and capital to developing countries, the report said.
"During the next 15 to 20 years, more technological activities are likely to move to the developing world as multinationals focus on the fastest-growing emerging markets and as Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, and other emerging-economy corporations rapidly become internationally competitive," the report said.
Although the US council foresees the end of a unipolar world, the US will remain the only power "that can really orchestrate these coalitions, including non-state actors and state actors, to really manage, deal with these huge challenges and changes", said Mathew Burrows, counselor to the council.
Reuters contributed to this story.
R
Updated: 2012-12-12 00:44
By Chen Jia (China Daily)
Print Mail Large Medium Small
1
China is likely to have the world's largest economy by 2030 ― surpassing the United States, the US National Intelligence Council said in a report released this week.
The country's rise will signify a shift in power from North America and Europe to Asia, the organization said.
The age of US and European dominance may be waning as emerging economies become increasingly important, the council said in its Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds report.
The organization is an analytical arm of the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
"China alone will probably have the largest economy in the world, surpassing that of the United States a few years before 2030," it said. "Meanwhile, the economies of Europe, Japan, and Russia are likely to continue their slow relative declines."
It also said China's total GDP will be 2.4 times as large as Japan's by 2030 and that "Asia will have surpassed North America and Europe combined in terms of global power, based upon GDP, population size, military spending, and technological investment".
Related:
'No room for over-optimism' for economy
Measures to lift border economy
China's economy to expand by 8.4% in Q4: report
US report sees Asia's global power rising by 2030
The report is the first by the intelligence organization to give a specific prediction of when China will become the world's largest economy.
Still, the US is likely to remain "first among equals" in the division of global power, the report said.
As China's contribution to the global economy increases, the country is exerting ever greater influence on the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the report said.
By 2025, China will be the source of a third of all global economic growth, much more than any other economy in the world, it said. The IMF has predicted that China will have the biggest economy by 2016.
"It is likely that China will expand to the largest economy in the next 20 to 30 years," said Pieter P. Bottelier, a senior adjunct professor on China studies at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
According to Chinese Academy of Social Sciences research, economic reforms will help ensure China's GDP grows at an average rate of between 7.5 and 8 percent in the next 10 years.
Economic growth in emerging markets is expected to be an impetus for technological innovation and lead to an increase in the flow of companies, ideas, entrepreneurs and capital to developing countries, the report said.
"During the next 15 to 20 years, more technological activities are likely to move to the developing world as multinationals focus on the fastest-growing emerging markets and as Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, and other emerging-economy corporations rapidly become internationally competitive," the report said.
Although the US council foresees the end of a unipolar world, the US will remain the only power "that can really orchestrate these coalitions, including non-state actors and state actors, to really manage, deal with these huge challenges and changes", said Mathew Burrows, counselor to the council.
Reuters contributed to this story.
For the sake of clarity, perhaps the reference to 'Chinese Investors' should be changed to the 'Chinese Government
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