CHINA – POLITICS
Beijing to close thousands of liaison offices
The central government will shut down thousands of liaison offices set up by local governments in Beijing (驻京办) to prevent corruption, according to Outlook, a periodical under Xinhua. Those targeted are mainly offices set up by county-level administrative bodies, such as counties, county-level cities and districts. But liaison offices set by provincial-level governments or agencies will remain. Offices of city-level administrative bodies will be re-evaluated and approved by higher governments. There are 52 semi-provincial-or-above-level offices, 520 city-level offices, and more than 5,000 county-level and enterprise liaison offices currently in Beijing.
Liaison offices representing regional governments have operated in the capital for decades, but their numbers have skyrocketed in recent years as part of sharpening competition for central government funding. The offices are widely considered a symbol of bloated bureaucracy and abuse of public resources, but are considered necessary because of China’s highly centralized decision-making process. Outlook said an order to close them was being drafted, but gave few other details.
Chang Ping, a former news editor of Nanfang Zhoumo said the main function of liaison offices is to get construction projects and investment from the central government through connections, which is because the central government controls all the resources and the financial system is not transparent, local governments have to send specialists to work on this if they want to get more money. Liaison offices can also keep the stability of the capital by sending local petitioners back home. “As long as the demands exist, there will be need for people to work on it.” So, “the problems of liaison offices are not on liaison offices”.
Phoenix TV interviewed professor Sun Xiaoli of Chinese Academy of Governance, she said it’s very likely the liaison offices will change names and stay, simply closing the offices can’t solve fundamental problems behind it.
A Beijing office staff sent by a city government of Jiangsu province told China Daily that his main job is to seek business opportunities for his home city and although he would like to go back, his mayor “wants to send more people to Beijing”. “I don’t think it would be that easy to dismiss the offices. We can just change a name for our office and stay.”
Shenzhen’s NGO registration reform
Shenzhen has relaxed registration rules for NGOs, according to The Beijing News (新京报). NGOs in Shenzhen now can formally register with the city’s Civil Affairs Bureau directly, no longer have to be attached to superior organizations, but human rights NGOs are treated more cautiously, as they can’t register with the government directly yet, but well-performed organizations can apply for small government grants.
With the new legal status, NGOs’ fundraising is easier. Shenzhen’s government can now send service orders to some NGOs as a financial support and also to provide assistance to the government itself. Shenzhen is also planning to raise NGOs’ political status. According to a policy issued in 2008, the government has decided to attract more NGO representatives in the city’s party congress, people’s congress and political consultative conference.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs backs Shenzhen’s NGO registration reform, asks Shenzhen to explore further.
China’s NGO Registration and Management Rule was promulgated in 1989 and later revised in 1998. According to item 11, the founder of a NGO needs to provide an approval document from its superior organization for registration. According to a China.com.cn report in 2009, only 10% of NGOs in China are legally registered.
Dalai Lama’s envoys talk to Chinese government
Dalai Lama’s envoys Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen had two-day meeting with senior Chinese officials from Jan 30-31. This round of talks comes after a 15-month deadlock. Before the talks the Tibetan enoys were taken to Hunan to visit “important places” for a few days. Later on a press conference, Chinese official Zhu Weiqun said the Hunan trip was arranged for the envoys to better understand the country and the ethnic autonomy policy.
On Feb 1, Xinhua reported the meeting, but before that the mainland media remained quiet about it. Xinhua said Du Qinglin, head of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the CPC Central Committee, told the envoys “the door for contacts and talks is open, and the policy has not been changed so far.” Du pointed out that issues concerning China’s territory and sovereignty were non-negotiable and no concessions would be made on those issues, the concept of a “Greater Tibet” and “high-level autonomy” violated the Chinese Constitution, talks would progress “only if the Dalai Lama completely abandoned such claims”. “It won’t be a way out to seek ‘Tibet independence’ or ‘independence in a disguised form’ through violence or non-violence”, “nor will it be a way out for them to seek internationalization of the so-called ‘Tibet issue’ or to give support to international anti-China forces.” The report said UFWD Executive Vice Minister Zhu Weiqun, UFWD Vice Minister Sita and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibet regional People’s Congress Nyima Cering attended the meeting. The Chinese officials pointed out to the envoys that the so-called ‘Tibet government-in-exile’ is utterly illegal. It can neither represent Tibet nor the Tibetan people. The private envoys could talk only about the future of the Dalai Lama and people around him under the precondition of completely abandoning secessionist words or activities.
“Greater Tibet” and “high-level autonomy” were part of a memorandum presented by Dalai Lama’s envoys at the eighth round of the talks in the fall of 2008. The position taken by Mr. Du appeared to close the door for now on any compromise by the Chinese involving the Dalai Lama’s most urgent demands, says the New York Times, the rejection of the same demands during this ninth round could fuel the belief among some Tibetans in exile, especially younger ones, that the Dalai Lama’s strategy is failing. Those Tibetans say the exile movement should formally seek independence for Tibet rather than negotiate for greater autonomy in western China.
Zhu Weiqun, the executive vice minister of UFWD told a press conference on Feb 2 that “We have been accustomed to such a viewpoint confrontation as views had been divided in previous talks” between the central government and the Dalai Lama side. But the viewpoint confrontation also “had some upside” as it let both sides know what exactly their differences were and how wide the differences were.
Coming NPC & CPPCC
The Third Sessions of the 11th NPC and the 11th CPPCC National Committee are scheduled to open on March 5 and March 3. The websites — www.npc.gov.cn/pc/11-3 for the NPC session and www.cppcc.people.com.cn for the CPPCC session — will post information related to news reporting on the event.
According to the survey on People.com.cn, the top 5 concerns of the people are (till Feb 8, 2010):
- Anti-corruption (14442 votes)
- Rich-poor gap (9335 votes)
- Housing price control (8843 votes)
- Demolition according to the law (8604 votes)
- Endowment policy (73311 votes)
In the past few years’ online surveys, “anti-corruption” has been the top concern for three years. This year, “rich-poor gap” and “housing price control” replaced last year’s “food safety” and “medical reform” as the 2nd and 3rd on the list. According to media reports, premier Wen Jiabao is acknowledged of the top concerns collected by media, said they’re also issues that the government should be concerned and solve.
New trend: local governments take netizens’ opinions more serious
According to People’s Daily’s report, more and more local governments are taking netizens’ opinions serious and would like to get more advices online or even let famous netizens join the political consultive conferences. Hunan province put in this year’s work report that the government should “let netizens’ opinions play an important role in government’s decision-making.” Experts say “netizens” are no different from “citizens”, but netizens can’t represent the people, because there are still lots of people don’t use internet. Till Dec 2009, there’re 384mln internet users in China, the figure grows 8-9mln every month.
China sets up National Energy Committee
China set up the National Energy Committee (NEC) on Jan 27 in which Premier Wen Jiabao leads, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang serves as deputy and more than 20 ministers as commission members (see the footnote15 link for details). The NEC is responsible for drafting a national energy development plan, reviewing energy security and major energy issues and coordinating domestic energy development and international cooperation.
This is a step China took to coincide with the United Nation’s Jan 31 deadline when all countries are required to submit their binding or voluntary reduction targets of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, according to China Daily, as the Chinese government aims to reduce 40-45 percent carbon intensity by 2020 from 2005 level.
Nanfang Daily’s commentary says 5 years ago China set up an “Energy Office” under the State Council which is led by the premier but its function is mainly coordinating and doing research on energy policy. If the new NEC is only going to draft policies and provide consultative advice, rather than get involved into detailed daily energy management work, then NEC may not be able to work as people expected.
Can China rebuild its soccer team?
Chinese solar energy company Yingli Green Energy is going to be China’s first official sponsor of the 2010 World Cup.
But the big news is a sudden crackdown on senior Chinese soccer officals in a bid to rescue the game in China. Match-fixing and agent kickbacks are thought to be commonplace and having a direct effect on the poor state of the national competiton and the much criticised performance of the Chinese national team. So far, more than 20 players, officials and managers have been either detained or arrested, according to CNN’s TV report. The football season may be delayed, said the new chairman of Chinese Football Association (CFA) Wei Di.
What’s new in this wave’s of soccer investigation is 5 national soccer officials were “taken away” by the police recently, including the former chairman of CFA Nan Yong and his deputy Yang Yimin, who both have now been formally arrested; Zhang Jianqiang, CFA official who took charge of the national women’s soccer team, Fan Guangming, CFA official in charge of commercials, Lu Feng, the general manager of Chinese Super League (CSL), the league’s administrative company.
Because of the high rank of the detained officials, media say China’s finally getting serious about is poor soccer performance over recent years. According to 21st Century Business Herald, in China, there are three organizations managing the sport.; China’s Soccer Administrative Center (CSAC) under the General Administration of Sport of China, CFA and CSL. CSAC is the highest soccer administrative. The CFA which manages all football-related issues is supposed to be a non-governmental organization as it is in other countries but the management team of CFA is actually the same as the team of CSAC, which means CFA is both a government department and a for-profit company. The CSL takes charge of commercial activities of the Super League which was founded in 2006 as a responce to club manager’ joint-stock reform appeal in 2004.
The CFA holds 36% of CSL’s shares, and 16 super league clubs together hold the other 64%. Because none of the club managers work in the management team of CSL, their 64% shareholding doesn’t meet the 67% veto. This means the club managers can’t influence the CSL which effectively holds a monopoly on profits. As a result, club managers and players are paid relatively and appear to be giving in to the temptation of higher return from match-fixing for soccer gambling syndicates.
21st Century Business Herald says to cure the “illness”, China has to separate the government functions from enterprise management, separate the administrative side from the operating side and let CFA become a non-governmental organization.
New boss of CFA Wei Di also told a press briefing on Feb 2 that he plans to reach the target of separating the government functions from enterprise management before he retires, which is within five years.
Famous soccer commentator Li Chengpeng said in his blog that he doesn’t like Wei’s big promises, China’s football is in such an awful situation, he hopes Wei won’t “take a funeral as a wedding”.
CHINA – ECONOMY
Hainan real estate market: buying house is like buying cabbage
- “Buying houses is like rushing for cabbages.”
- “It’s not even accurate to say the prices change everyday, the prices in the afternoon may be different from the morning, if you are lucky, you can make money in a few minutes.”
- “Even the prices remain the same, I will not be able to afford a house in this life,” said a local taxi driver.
- A property on Sanya’s Phoenix Island, a man-made island, sold for 60,000-70,000 per sqm in this Jan, the first batch of 700 apartments sold out in a day.
This is what’s happening in Hainan province, an island in the South China Sea: when the government announced it plans to turn Hainan an international tourist resort by 2020, investors from 27 countries rushed into the island for house hunting, it’s very common for property prices to rise 1000 yuan everyday, while at the same time, local people can’t afford a square meter with their whole year’s income. According to latest statistics, the average housing price in Hainan in Jan 2010 is 20540 yuan per sqm, the average annual income of Hainan residents of 2009 is 11621.55 yuan.
As of now, more than 30 percent of Sanya’s properties are vacant, which analysts say is “quite dangerous for the market”. Hainan witnessed a property boom in the early 1990s, which left abandoned construction sites and billions of dollars of bad loans.
Expert warns that Hainan might become the next Dubai.
China to publish survey-based jobless rate as early as 2011
According to China Daily, China plans to officially launch an unemployment rate survey and publically release the results during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15). The data is likely to become one of the major indices of state regulation. The national survey will cover both urban and rural residents.
Youku and Tudou sign cooperation agreement
Two China’s major video-sharing Youku and Tudou, which account for about 80 percent of China’s online-video market, reached an usual deal on Feb 4, agreeing to share a portion of their video libraries with each other, they will also unite in the purchase of new, copyrighted video content. Due to copyright issues, Tudou and Youku are expected to fork out huge amounts of money to purchase video content from copyright owners. Chinese online video prices have jumped several times over the last year as market competition intensifies. That has made content expenditures the greatest cost for many online-video sites.
The agreement comes at a time when newcomers are reshaping the online video landscape. Recently, Chinese Internet giants Baidu, Alibaba and Sohu as well as state-run CCTV have announced plans to enter the online video market, putting new pressures on the dominant market leaders.
At the end of last year there were 240 million online video site users in China, accounting for 62.6 percent of the nation’s 384 million Internet users.
Industry source told The Beijing News that Baidu video service is expected to unite with Sohu when it launches in March, Youku and Tudou’s cooperation is because of their business model problems. But Tudou’s CEO Gary Wang denied the saying.
CHINA – DIPLOMACY
U.S.-China tension increased
A list of irritants has increased the tension between China and the U.S.. The latest is the Obama administration urging China to stop artificially depressing its currency, plus Obama’s announcement he will meet the Dalai Lama in the next fortnight. These moves come after the US said it will sell US$6.4bn of arms to Taiwan.
In late January, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton waded into the Google-China controversy by criticizing China for censoring the Internet and pushing for greater internet security.
At Copenhagen late last year China also resisted American initiatives on climate change policy, turning the recent climate change meeting into a diplomatic drama. To cap all that, the U.S. is also frustrated China won’t back tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
China responded to each of these criticisms very strongly. Analysts say Beijing’s ire at the White House announcement was predictable as it gets more assertive about its core concerns. But it remains to be seen how far each country would go down that road, and when it is time to put the on brakes as the two are in dire need of each other.
Wang Wanzhen, the chief editor of Current Affairs wrote a commentary in China Daily saying that to reshape the image of the US and revitalize America’s soft power has become Obama’s fundamental imperative. At the same time, with its strength and international influence, China has put forward its own soft power strategy. President Hu, at the eleventh Conference of Ambassadors, clearly pointed out that China should be more influential in politics, more competitive with its economy and more friendly in image. But “…consequently, what worries me most is that the soft conflicts between the US and China will burst eventually. The problem is whether the US’ soft power revival and China’s soft power strategy is a collision that can’t be reconciled? The answer is absolutely, no.”
A Global Times’ editorial said that with Obama’ public ratings on the downtrend, he may come up with more initiatives that might be against the interests of China, for example, pushing for appreciation of the yuan, or more protectionist policies. China needs to be well prepared to deal with these when they happen, including launching specific counter measures to demonstrate China’s stance.
Renmin University professor Jin Canrong told the Global Times that the West put the new round of U.S.-China tension on China’s growing confidence and toughness, but China’s reaction is reasonable. China’s determined attitude can show the U.S. more clearly the line China holds, affecting the U.S. government’s future decisions on the Dalai Lama and arms sales issues. China’s power is getting closer to the U.S., which is different from the past, the U.S. can’t treat China as in the past any more.
Japanese scholars admit Nanking Massacre a massacre
After three years of joint research and academic exploration, a “joint report on Sino-Japanese history” has been completed. In the report, the Japanese side admitted the nature of the Sino-Japanese war of 1931-1945 as an aggressive Japanese invasion of China. They also admitted the Nanking Massacre was actually a massacre, reports China Daily.
The China-Japan joint-historical research project, launched in December 2006, was conducted by the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Japan Institute of International Affairs. The Japan Institute of International Affairs “is Japan’s foremost centre for producing and disseminating ideas on international relations. As an academically independent institution affiliated with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, JIIA is a source of authoritative interpretations of Japanese foreign policy.”
CHINA – CULTURE
Migrant worker to publish novel based on real-life experience
Chinese Migrant Workers (《中国式民工》) has had more than 500,000 views online since it appeared on internet last Octover. The novel follows three farmers after they become migrant workers and vividly reflects the harsh living of the 200 million migrant workers in China. A Beijing publishing company will publish the book soon. According to the company, the novel will be the first written by a migrant worker describing lives of a group which Chinese literary circles had so far paid little attention.
The author Zhou Shuheng left his poor hometown village in Sichuan when he was 16 and has been working in Fuzhou city for 15 years. He said, “I used to think the life of migrant works was nice, because all the workers wear fashionable clothes when they go back to their hometown.”
Zhou lost his job again in May 2008. Years of hardworking and a tough life gave him his passion to write. He bought a second-hand computer and started writing at night. At the beginning his friends all laughed at him and said he was “completely crazy”. Zhou said he found it hard to express himself because he only finished junior middle school.
But the book has changed Zhou’s life. He’s been interviewed by CCTV Cui Yongyuan and Phoenix TV. “I’m happy to death!” he said. The book’s royalty payments are also cheering although not enough to buy him a house, he plans to build one in his village with the money. He also plans to make an online film for his migrant brothers and sisters because “not many migrant workers read, but they all love movies and TV shows”.
Confucius & Confucius
The Chinese movie Confucius, starring Chow Yun Fat, held its premiere on the same day Avatar’s 2D version was taken off Chinese cinema screens’s. Confuscius opened to netizens’ negative comments and ratings. Well-known writer Han Han’s rated the film 2 out of 10. His blog has so far won more than 3mln hits.
According to the Oriental Outlook, the leading script writer of Confucius is Khan Chan from Hong Kong. He said he thinks the mainland wanted a Hong Kong script writer because they want it to be more closer to the audience. But the mainland side didn’t seem that “casual”. The State Administration of Radio Film and Television organized 6 meetings with experts from different fields to talk about the script. “We want to find out the historical value of Confucianism… at the same time, we are thinking the meaning of telling Confucianism today, it has to be told with the spirit of the time.” Liu Yunshan, the director of the Central Propaganda Department gave instructions to let all relative departments co-operate with the crew.
The box office outlook for Confucius is not optimistic. It was only seen by 28mn in the first 3 days, a number described as “embarrassing” by Chinese media. According to many film-themed websites, Confucius is rated under 4 out of 10 by netizens, on douban.com 52% of voters only gave 1 star out of 5 to the film. Sohu said “Confucius is boycotted”. The reasons for the “boycott” include Chow Yun Fat’s arrogant words before the premiere, “If you don’t cry when watch it, you are not a human-being.” And the widespread criticism of the 2D version of Avatar being taken off screens to benefit Confucius. Confucius lost the market and trust of audience, Sohu reported. People don’t dislike Chinese movies, still, you have to give the audience enough reasons to like them.
Meanwhile, American philosopher Roger T. Ames, a regular visitor to China, told the Oriental Outlook he finds Chinese students becoming more interested in Confucius again. He predicts Confucius and Confucianism will become a world-class philosophy within a decade.
But Ames expressed his concern about the popularity of Confucius and his theory in today’s China in the Oriental Outlook article, “I hope Confucius won’t be politicalized.” He’s afraid Confucius becomes a political slogan. “I hope Confucius can be inherited in the form of cultural heritage, instead of systematic social education.” “Chinese people say there’s a ‘faith vacuum’, so there came materialism and mammonism. Debating on Confucius is a good thing. Chinese people should re-find their confidence in culture.”
HONG KONG – POLITICS
Who’s going to be the next Hong Kong executive administrator?
Ming Pao’s columnist Lee Sin Zi’s article on Feb 4 analysed the changes of the situation of the two possible president candidates Henry Tang Ying-yen and C.Y. Leung after the five-district referendum movement. The two candidates know that to get elected, they need the support of local people especially a few influential families. More importantly, they have to be the one that Beijing chooses.
Leung is said to have visited Hong Kong’s few influential families already but his recent talks annoyed some local rich. Some even called him a “socialist”. Leung is famous for supporting a minimum wage law for Hong Kong, which reminds the local rich of Tung Chee-hwa’s 85,000 housing policy that was blamed for dragging Hong Kong’s housing prices down dramatically in late 90s. He also asks the government to pay more attention to the “poverty problem”. He says “wealth is not a problem, but poverty is”. Even so, some pro-establishment camp members are optimistic about Leung’s chances because Beijing has shown serious concerns for Hong Kong’s “chaotic situation” and tough attitude towards the five-district referendum movement, it’s becoming more likely for the central government to choose a strong leader, which perhaps fits Leung better than ot does Tong.
Sources from Beijing say as long as Jiang Zemin can still influence Zhongnanhai, Tong can’t be underestimated because of his backing from Jiang.
In Brief: Tony Chan loses battles for Nina Wang’s fortune
The High Court threw out fung shui master Tony Chan’s claim for the estimated HK$100 billion fortune of late property tycoon Nina Wang after a sensational court battle. A day after, Chan was arrested on suspicion of forging the will of Wang, then released on bail of HK$5 mln.
In Brief: Citywide check after To Kwa Wan block collapses
Urgent checks on the safety of all buildings more than 50 years old were ordered after a 55-year-old block of flats in a run-down part of Kowloon collapsed on Jan 29, killing at least three people, in the worst incident of its kind in the city in decades. The development minister said officials carrying out safety inspections on old buildings should use their legal power to break in if necessary, after the Buildings Department revealed its officers failed to gain entry to the ill-fated To Kwa Wan building a month before it collapsed.
In Brief: DAB not to take part in the by-elections
The biggest pro-Beijing party Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) will not take part in the by-elections triggered by the resignations of five pan-democrat lawmakers, also it urges its supporters to boycott them.
TAIWAN – POLITICS
Taipei International Book Exhibition 2010
Taipei International Book Exhibition 2010 (TIBE) opened on Jan 27 with a focus on French culture. The theme country France displayed 2500 recently published books. Mainland writer Ye Fu won “Book of the year” award for his non-fiction book “Under the River” (《江上的母亲》), marking the first time a mainland author was crowned in the TIBE. “Under the River” is Ye Fu’s first book and tells several family stories reflecting the huge historical changes they experienced including the cultural revolution and the Tiananmen incident. Only Shenzhen Economic Daily (深圳商报) reported Ye Fu’s award, four other websites quoted the report.
