CHINA – POLITICS
Qinghai earthquake
On April 14th, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit remote Yushu county in western Qinghai province. The death toll currently stands at 2064 with 175 missing and 12135 injured. About 70% to 90% of the wooden and mud houses in the quake zone collapsed in the earthquake, according to relief workers.
At 10am on April 21st, the Day of Mourning, people all over China bowed their heads for three minutes while sirens and horns sounded in a gesture of grief.
12,300 PLA soldiers were sent to the quake zone, they’ve rescued 1200 people and treated more than 8700 injured till April 17th noon. CCTV reported that about 40,000 tents would be in place by April 17th, enough to accommodate all survivors. The relief work is affected by the high altitude (4493.4 meters) in the area, as some 200 rescuers had to leave with altitude sickness. Ethnic Tibetans were reported accusing Chinese soldiers of not doing enough to help in the immediate aftermath of the quake, according to CNN, but the Dalai Lama praised Chinese authorities for visiting the predominantly ethnic Tibetan region. A foreign NGO worker based in Yushu also said “ Chinese authorities are doing well,” according to AP.
But the main rescuers are Tibetan monks instead of PLA solders, because they are familiar with the terrain, and trusted by local people. They arrived the epicentre earlier than the government rescuers, they helped to register and cremate the victims, to distribute the relief goods. But lama was not widely reported by Chinese media, though people could see pictures of lama rescuers on CCTV, it’s still a sensitive topic. “Paragraphs about lama rescuers were all deleted by the editor,…the readers can only see a very small part of Yushu.” A mainland journalist said. Micro blog became a very important platform of reporting earthquake news. Both professional journalists and citizen journalists put thousands of updates on their micro blog pages.
Premier Wen Jiabao arrived Yushu on April 15th to meet the survivors. He visited a local orphanage and Tibetan temples as well, which is seen as the government’s efforts to foster good relations in region where the relationship between the ethnic Tibetans and Han Chinese population has been strained. President Hu Jintao also cancelled scheduled stops in Venezuela and Peru to come back to China earlier.
Chinese government refused aids offered by some foreign governments, including Japan, Taiwan, the U.S. and Singapore. Civil Ministry official Zou Ming said in a briefing the refusal is because first the earthquake is limited in a small area which is already covered by Chinese relief workers; second, the road condition to the remote quake zone is very tough which will weaken the efficiency of foreign aid teams that might have to travel from far away.
The earthquake has brought school safety back into the spotlight. On April 16th, there were 103 students and 12 teachers dead, 35 buried and 38 missing. Red Cross workers in Yushu County said about 70% school buildings collapsed during the quake. An audit report released in this Jan by Qinghai Audit Office said 73.7% of the province’s school buildings can’t meet the national safety standards, according to a provincial safety inspection on school buildings done in 2009, among which, 33.68% school buildings have to be demolished and rebuilt, 40% need to be repaired. The report mentioned the main difficulty in the school safety project is short of budget, as RMB4.67 billion will be needed but until last October only RMB576 million was allocated from the central and local governments.
On April 17th, hundreds of victims were cremated as necessity forced local Tibetans to break with the centuries-old sky burial tradition. 1000 monks chanted Buddhist prayers as the bodies were set on fire. Monks said there were too many bodies but not enough vultures, it’s no good to keep the bodies for too long because they will become dirty which is not good for the soul, so under this special situation, mass cremation is the best funeral for victims. Ming Pao said some Tibetans don’t agree with the mass cremation, as only sky burial and water burial can send the dead to heaven.
Dalai Lama office issued statement on April 17th, said Dalai Lama is eager to visit the quake zone where he was born, to help people cope with the tragedy. The appeal was not reported by mainland media, no comments from the Chinese government were reported either.
The population in Yushu till the end of 2005 is 89,309.
Wen’s eulogy to Hu Yaobang
An “unusual” eulogy by premier Wen for the reformist Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang whose death in 1989 led to pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square caused worldwide speculation on China’s political atmosphere.
The article memorizing the 21st anniversary of Hu Yaobang’s death ran across the top of page two in April 15thPeople’s Daily.
Hu, much loved by ordinary citizens, held the position of communist party chief in 1987 when he was deposed over his unwillingness to crack down on student protests the previous year. His death in April 1989 sparked the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement and his name was subsequently rarely mentioned in official media due to the link to the protests, a taboo topic in China.
But in the article, Wen revealed he remained very close to Hu and stayed in touch after his ouster, even bearing his cremated remains to their burial place.
It was not clear whether the editorial indicated any possible behind-the-scenes moves in China’s top leadership. VOA Chinese said this article might have been read among the top officials including Hu Jintao before it was published. An independent commentator told VOA that Wen’s praise of Hu Yaobang fits with the popular image of the current premier, so it can’t be considered a risky action or a prelude to the full rehabilitation of Hu’s political status. Xu Qingquan, managing editor-in-chief of the liberal journal Yanhuang Chunqiu, told Deutsche Welle “it’s pretty shocking that Wen wrote this article as a premier. But I don’t think we should over-explain it. There is not much taboo areas to talk about Hu Yaobang now.” Bao Tong, Secretary of another political taboo Zhao Ziyang, said the article is a good start of re-evaluation of Hu Yaobang. It means not all Deng Xiaoping’s decisions were correct. Bao hopes this is a start for Chinese people to express their feelings freely. Some scholars think the article is nothing special because Wen himself is an unusual character in the leadership, as he talks about “universal values”, “fairness and justice”, “speakers shouldn’t be blamed” that no one else in the polibureau really talks about in public.
Chinese media didn’t comment on the article apart from publishing it. Most of the web sites of domestic media closed comment function to this article. But on the sites of Peopls’s Daily and Sina.com, it attracts tens of thousands of replies from netizens.
New bureau to curb web
China has formed a new bureau to help to police social networking sites and other user-driven forums on the Internet, which are proving harder for the government to monitor and control than ordinary news portals, according to the New York Times.
The new formed Internet news coordination bureau (互联网新闻协调局), which is also refered to as bureau nine, “is mainly responsible for ‘guidance, coordination and other work related to the construction and management of Web culture.’ ”. The new bureau nine is headed by Peng Bo, former Deputy Chief of the State Council Information Office Internet Affairs Bureau (bureau five), bureau five is still headed by Li Wufeng, and its function will retain a focus on promoting the official line to domestic sites and international media.
“So just from the viewpoint of personnel, you can see that the government is putting more and more emphasis on managing the Internet,” an editor at an official media organization said to the New York Times.
Senior officials visit Xinjiang for aid
From April 7th to 15th, top leaders of five provinces and municipalities visited Xinjiang, a strong signal that China will step up support for social and economic development of the less-developed western region.
Last month in Beijing, a meeting on development in Xinjing held in Beijing, Vice Premier Li Keqiang and senior leader Zhou Yongkang called for collaboration between central ministries, designated provinces and municipalities and Xinjiang’s regional government to build the region into a moderately well-off society in the next decade. Li said Xinjiang’s development and stability was at a critical moment, national support for the region would be instrumental in its development and essential to its long-term peace and order.
According to the Southern Metropolis Daily, since last October, more than 500 officials from 64 central government departments have visited Xinjiang on stability and development investigation. Yang Yiyong, director of economic research at the National Development and Reform Commission, said the intensive visits by high officials signals the Central government will step up support for Xinjiang, will issue more favourable policies and raise investment, so the local Xinjiang people can benefit from the economic development.
Ming Pao’s commentary said the visit by five senior officials means Xinjing will have big plans before the first central working meeting on Xinjiang and the 1st anniversary of last year’s riots on July 5th. But Xinjiang’s Party Secretary Wang Lequan didn’t show up at any of the visit events, which caused speculation on the political future of this highest regional official. Wang is also a member of the central poliburo.
County-level officials’ training at the central party school
The new Work Regulations of CCP Party School issued in October 2008 for the first time put county officials on the school’s training list. From November 2008, thousands of county officials have been trained in the highest training organization of CCP.
According to China Newsweekly, apart from training county officials, the central government is also trying to improve the grassroots political reform from economic and administrative aspects. In 2009, the central government issued a few documents on county official election process and province governing county fiscal reform, which experts say signals that China will strengthen grassroots governance as it enters a crucial stage of reform and development.
The intensive county official training may also means the central government realized the mass incidents happened in the past few years are because people are questioning the legitimacy of grassroots political power. Chinese Academy of Governance professor Xu Yaotong said at the moment, the county officials are not elected by the people, so their power is not from the people or can be restricted and supervised by the people, which leads to intensive breakout of mass accidents.
Therefore, scholars are calling county officials to be responsible for the people, instead of their senior bosses. CASS researcher Yu Jianrong said the key is to let the people choose their own county officials and supervise them.
“Capsule apartments” appear in Beijing
With the housing prices rising 11.7% year-on-year in March and the confirmed demolishing of Tangjialing where the “ant tribe” stays, young people find it getting harder to even rent an apartment. But the 8 capsule rooms designed and built by 78 year old retired engineer Huang Rixin offer an affordable choice.
The rooms, which measure just 2.4 meters long, 2 meters tall and 0.72 meters wide, are being offered in Beijing’s northern suburb Haidian for as little as RMB250 per month. There’s only a bed and a small desk in each room. But the owner Huang joked, “Even Yao Ming can stay here.”
Huang said the rooms were inspired by an article about capsule hotels in Japan. He invested RMB30,000 to rent the section where the capsules are, to explore a way to solve college graduates’ housing problem.
After media’s reports, now Huang has to answer tens of phone calls from all over China, asking to rent a room. He has upgraded the design to make the rooms a little bit bigger and more comfortable and is looking for an investor to build 20 more capsules. A pool conducted by Sina.com found that more than half of respondents believed that capsule apartments would catch on in China.
CHINA – ECONOMY
Tough policies to curb housing prices
The housing prices gained record 11.7% in March, according to the National Statistic Bureau’s report on April 14th. Haikou city led the jumps by gaining 64.8%, Sanya followed with a 57.5% increase.
Following the date, the government raised the mortgage rates and the downpayment ratio for second and third home purchase on April 15. Buyers buying their second homes must pay at least a 50% deposit, up from 40%, and interest rates should be at least 1.1 times of benchmark rates. Banks can stop loans for the third home purchase in cities with excessive property price gains, also, banks can suspend lending to buyers who can’t provide tax returns or proof of social security contributions.
So far, the ICBC, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank, CITIC Bank and Minsheng Bank announced they would follow the new policies.
The new draconian policies immediately cooled down the property market. Sales in Beijing dropped dramatically, according to real estate agencies. Property stocks were also affected. Shanghai’s key index fell 4.8% on April 19th, which was partly fuelled by the drop of property shares.
Industry insiders say the new policies may lead the home prices to fall 5-10%. Survey shows that at the moment first-home buyers only account for 40% of the market, the other 60% of buyers are all investors.
CASS researcher Yi Xianrong said the key point of the announcement is to curb high property prices and turn the real estate industry back to an issue related to people’s livelihood, which changed the expression in a 2003 central government’s housing policy saying the real estate is a “pillar industry”. Yi expects huge impact on the development of China’s real estate industry by the new policies.
Some experts say the central government may issue further policies in the near future to curb the property market, including imposing property tax. Some experts suggest the government to raise interest rates A.S.A.P. to assist the new measures.
China softens policy on tech purchase
Chinese government announced last November that it would favour technology that developed in China when buying computers and other technology products that the government spends billions of dollars each year. The announcement caused alarm among many foreign companies as the Chinese government is the biggest consumer for many kinds of technology products.
The government said the “indigenous innovation” policy is to spur domestic innovation but foreign companies worry that they will be shut out of the government purchases. American, EU and other foreign chambers of commerce have criticized the plan.
On April 9th, the Ministry of Science and Technology issued a new draft set of rules for technology procurement for 2010 that says companies may apply to qualify for government procurement as long as they have legal rights over the products’ intellectual property and their products adhere to China’s laws and its national industrial and technological policies, which is seen as a step back from the previous policy.
Staley Lubman, a long-time specialist on Chinese law, said “the modifications don’t address continuing and significant concerns for foreign owners, including the very real possibility that China’s administrative decentralization will result in inconsistent administration of the procurement rules.” The implementation of the new rules is another
concern, as well as if local officials make decisions based on the national rules.
Compare with foreign experts sceptical attitude, Chinese media and industry insiders seem more worried. The 21stCentury Business Herald said the changes made in the 2010 draft means the government totally failed in its original intent and aim of favoring domestic companies. A local government staff who takes charge of procurement told the newspaper that foreign brands are already dominating government purchases in China, the central government must have a clear stance on this issue and help domestic technology companies to develop.
According to AmCham-China, 28% of its member companies have already been affected by the “innovation policy”, 40% expected to be hurt when the policy was fully implemented. The chamber’s 2010 Business Climate Survey Report finds American companies were “troubled by a mounting number of policy challenges ranging from the inconsistent enforcement of laws, to China’s discriminatory domestic innovation policies and regulations that limit market access into sectors that had been increasingly open to foreign investment for the past 30 years.”
CHINA – DIPLOMACY
Nuclear Security Summit
Chinese president Hu Jintao attended the Nuclear Security Summit on April 12-13th in Washington and delivered a speech on China’s policy and practice on nuclear security. Hu outlined a five-point plan that included proposals on strengthening international cooperation in coping with nuclear security challenges in the world, urging the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and developed countries to heed the needs of developing countries and offer greater economic, technical and human resources assistance so that nuclear security is ensured for all.
A 90-minute one-on-one meeting between the U.S. president Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao was scheduled on April 12th. Before the summit, there were fears that Hu would skip the session due to rising Sino-U.S. tensions. Hu and Obama discussed yuan exchange rate, Iran nuclear program and other issues.
The Diplomat said Asian countries played a prominent role at the nuclear meet, and with Seoul now designated as the host city for the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit, the need for Asia’s leadership is becoming even clearer.
Renmin University professor Jin Canrong said Hu’s speech stresses that it’s IAEA that should play the leading role in the nuclear security mechanism, not one country or a group of western countries.
China’s currency appreciation pressure
China is facing more pressure from other developing countries to begin appreciating yuan. Indian and Brazilian central bank presidents have made the most forceful statements yet by their countries about case for a stronger Chinese currency. The comments underline that a number of developing economies feel that China’s dollar peg has imposed costs on their economies, says FT.
Earlier this month, on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit, Hu met Obama for a one-on-one meeting. Hu told Obama that China will chart its own course in setting the value of the yuan, China and the U.S. should resolve their economic and trade differences through consultations on an equal footing. It was their first meeting since bilateral ties turned sour at the begining of the year, mainly because of the US’ $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, and Obama meeting the Dalai Lama, China Daily said.
Pieter Bottelier, a professor with Johns Hopkins University, thinks Hu’s statement indicates China will again allow a wider trading range of yuan, according to China Daily. FT also reports that many U.S. officials and analysts assume China has already decided to abandon its peg with the dollar over coming months.
On April 17th, Guangdong newspaper Information Times cited Vice Commerce Minister Zhong Shan as saying “a preliminary agreement” had been reached with the U.S. for yuan to stay “basically stable”. The news soon appeared on other main media and caused wide concern. On April 19th, the Ministry of Commerce denied the report.
China and Iran sanctions
On April 14th, Envoys of Britain, China, France, Russian and the U.S. met again in New York on Iran nuclear sanctions because of Iran’s reported failure to comply with international regulations governing nuclear programs. The members already have held their first round of talks for drawing up a resolution on the sanctions.
China’s willingness to discuss specific sanctions against Iran was seen as a breakthrough by the U.S., which sees China’s previous reluctance to back sanctions the biggest block to its drive to escalate the pressure on Iran.
But China’s attitude on sanctions is still unclear, as Iran is a major oil supplier of the country. The sanction package, already endorsed by Washington’s European allies, would include a full arms embargo, a ban on new investments in Iran’s energy sector, restrictions on shipping and finance as well sanctions targeting the business interests of the Islamic republic’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, AFP reported.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said on April 20 that “the talks in New York does not mean that the door is shut to dialogue and negotiations.” And diplomats in NY said Chinese envoy had indicated displeasure at the sanctions proposals affecting Iran’s energy sector.
At the one-on-one meeting Hu Jintao had with president Obama in Washington on April 12th, the two leaders discussed Iran’s nuclear issue. Hu said China shares the same overall goal with Washington on Iran’s nuclear issue and he hopes the issue can be resolved through dialogue and negotiations. According to The Diplomat, Hu indicated Beijing’s willingness to consider another round of sanctions providing they were not too strong and ongoing diplomatic initiatives remained unsuccessful.
Second summit of BRICs
From April 15-16th, the leaders of the world’s top four emerging markets – Brazil, Russia, India and China – gathered in Brazilian capital for the second summit of the BRICs.
The BRIC nations are looking to deepen trade ties among the group and are calling for a bigger role in the global economic order following last year’s financial crisis. In a summit concluded by the four nations, they call for an urgent reform of the world financial system, including a quick readjustment of the voting power in the World Bank.
Though Chinese president Hu Jintao cancelled scheduled trips to Venezuela and Chile because of the 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Qinghai, deals were still signed at the shortened summit. Sinopec signed deal with Brazilian state oil company Petrobras to develop Brazilian oil resources. Brazilian media reported Wuhan Iron and Steel will build a plant with a local firm, Brazilian president Lula said China also expressed interest in bidding to construct speed train line in Brazil. As China seeks a supply of raw materials to continue its high-speed development, Brazil is positioning itself to become an indispensable source of imports such as iron ore, oil, and soybeans, says WSJ.
CHINA – CULTURE
New era of duanzi
Duanzi, comic dialogue or joke, has been pushed into a new era by micro blog technology. 140-character space, quick updates and mass readers, famous duanzi writer Hu Shufen (胡淑芬) even said micro blog was created for duanzi.
The most popular duanzi are usually about politics and sex, showing duanzi is seen as a good pressure valve in a fast-changing society under strict censorship.
A recent favorite of netizens is “Kill the post-2000s with milk powder, kill the post-90s with exams, kill the post-80s with property prices, kill the post-70s with unemployment, kill the post-60s with city management officers, kill the post-50s with xiagang (furloughed from state-owned enterprises with little chance of recall), kill the post-40s with demolishment, kill the post-30s with medical reform. At last, the survived all went to the NPC and CPPCC. ” (用奶粉灭掉00后，用考试灭掉90后，用房价灭掉80后，用失业灭掉70后，用城管灭掉60后，用下岗灭掉50后，用拆迁灭掉40后，用医改灭掉30后，最后，活着且活得很好的人都去开两会了)
Earlier this year, Beijing and Shanghai governments announced to ban people from sending dirty jokes (黄段子“huang duanzi” in Chinese) by cell phone. And Bo Xilai, the Party secretary of Chongqing municipality, started the “red text campaign” in his city by issuing a public SMS encouraging people to forward “red” text messages (红段子“hong duanzi” in Chinese).
HONG KONG – POLITICS
HK unveils Political Reform Proposals for 2012
After months of consultation, Hong Kong government on April 14th unveiled a constitutional proposal that would enlarge the appointed election committee to 1,200 people from the current 800 and increase the size of the legislature from 60 to 70 seats. At the same time, Qiao Xiaoyang, deputy secretary-general of the Standing Committee NPC, said, “The revised plan is in line with the Basic Law of the HKSAR and relevant decisions made by the NPC Standing Committee. … The plan also reflects the principle of developing democracy according to Hong Kong’s actual situation and in an orderly and gradual way.”
The pan-democrats said they won’t support the proposal, accusing the government of failing to address the issue of how votes for all could eventually be achieved.
Ming Pao’s editorial on April 15th said the “sudden” announcement of the proposal sacrificed all the efforts made by the mild Alliance for Universal Suffrage, also it didn’t mention the real problem in the legislature – the fact that half the “functional constituencies” seats are largely elected by pro-Beijing business elites. The members of Alliance for Universal Suffrage felt they’ve been cheated as their political appeals and request to talk to Beijing were both ignored by HK and Beijing. The newspaper says unless the government doesn’t care the proposal being turned off, or else, it better promise the people the “functional constituencies” will fade out in the future.
Hong Kong Economic Journal said Hong Kong government already tried its best to bring out the revised proposal, because Beijing has already set the pace for the reform, Hong Kong can only stay in the cage and make some minor adjustments. Qiao Xiaoyang sincerely hopes Hong Kong can take this chance to make a step forward, so practically speaking, pan-democrats should take the central government’s kind offer, don’t let Hong Kong’s democracy stuck on the ground, or else, Hong Kong people will again miss a chance to march to the universal suffrage.
Housing prices
The property prices in Hong Kong increased 27.7% in a year, which tops the whole world, the Economist said, while the prices in mainland China only increased 10.7%.
Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah on April 20th proposed nine measures to help cool Hong Kong’s residential property market and curb excessive speculation. He forecasts that some 55,000 units would be available on the private residential market in the next three to four years.
