19th Party Congress Speculation Near An End; Trump Wanted To Deport Guo Wengui While PRC Agents Ran Amok In NYC
We are less than 24 hours away from learning the composition of the new Central Committee and whether or not "“Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era 习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想”" is added to the Party Constitution.
Speculation about the new Politburo Standing Committee is at a fever pitch, and the South China Morning Post has been the most aggressive in reporting who is in and who is out. If the SCMP is right, and we will know in less than 48 hours, it will be a huge win for the paper and its perceived access in Beijing.
The Wall Street Journal has a blockbuster story on Guo Wengui and Beijing's efforts to repatriate him--China’s Pursuit of Fugitive Businessman Guo Wengui Kicks Off Manhattan Caper Worthy of Spy Thriller. The journalists detail the illegal operation of Chinese security agents in the US as well as a lobbying effort by casino magnate Steve Wynn to convince President Trump deport Guo:
The recent chapter in China’s pursuit of Mr. Guo began May 24, when Mr. Liu [Yanping], a top official in charge of discipline at the security ministry—China’s equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency—went with his colleagues to the fugitive’s New York home. They entered the U.S. on transit visas, which allow foreign government officials only to travel through the U.S. for a short period en route to another destination...
Later that afternoon, at the beginning of rush hour around 5 p.m., agents from the FBI confronted the Chinese officials at New York’s Pennsylvania Station, according to people familiar with the incident.
At first, the Chinese said they were cultural affairs diplomats. Then they admitted to being security agents. The FBI agents instructed them to leave the country, saying they were in violation of their visas and weren’t to speak to Mr. Guo again.
The Chinese got on the train to Washington. The FBI assumed they would be gone in 24 hours.
Two days later, on May 26, Mr. Liu and the other Chinese officials returned to Mr. Guo’s apartment ahead of a planned flight back to China in the late afternoon.
U.S. law-enforcement authorities, whom Mr. Guo had told about the impending visit, decided it was time to act. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn prepared charges alleging visa fraud and extortion, according to people familiar with the matter. FBI agents raced to John F. Kennedy International airport ahead of the officials’ scheduled 4:50 p.m. Air China flight...
State Department officials, worried about collateral consequences for U.S. personnel in China, hesitated to approve the Justice Department’s plan to make arrests.
So the US just confiscated their phones and let them go home. This is far from the first incident involving Chinese security officials coming to the US under false pretenses to hassle PRC citizens, and so long as the US response is a slight tap on the pinkie Beijing will continue to do this.
Meanwhile Steve Wynn, perhaps with an eye to ensuring his Macau gaming license is renewed, delivered a letter from the PRC government to Trump, who then decided the US should deport Guo:
“Where’s the letter that Steve brought?” Mr. Trump called to his secretary. “We need to get this criminal out of the country,” Mr. Trump said, according to the people. Aides assumed the letter, which was brought into the Oval Office, might reference a Chinese national in trouble with U.S. law enforcement, the people said.
The letter, in fact, was from the Chinese government, urging the U.S. to return Mr. Guo to China.
The document had been presented to Mr. Trump at a recent private dinner at the White House, the people said. It was hand-delivered to the president by Mr. Wynn, the Republican National Committee finance chairman, whose Macau casino empire cannot operate without a license from the Chinese territory.
No wonder Guo, who has been quiet since the start of the Party Congress, is working DC hard for allies to help lobby his case. If a Mar-a-Lago membership can't fully protect him with Trump then he needs to be much more creative and liberal with his funds.
Read the whole story, it is awesome.
The Essential Eight
1. Will 19th Party Congress Delegates Insist "Xi Thought" Is Written Into the Party Constitution?
Si, whose rank is equivalent to that of an ordinary party member, was among the first to raise the suggestion of including Xi’s name in the doctrine during his speech in a group discussion on Thursday, the day after Xi’s speech that opened the congress.
The 59-year-old Heilongjiang-based entrepreneur said: “The suggestion I proposed attracted strong support and became a hot topic during the internal discussion session within the delegation on Friday morning. It turned out to be a consensus among quite a number of delegates.”
Page 1 Monday People's Daily on delegates discussing the "New Era"...Leads by referring to it as Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era 十九大代表热议新思想新方略--十九大专题报道-人民网:
连日来，习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想成为十九大代表热议的主题。代表们一致认为，习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想，开辟了马克思主义新境界、中国特色社会主义新境界，是党和人民实践经验和集体智慧的结晶，是中国特色社会主义理论体系的重要组成部分，是全党全国人民为实现中华民族伟大复兴而奋斗的行动指南。
Education Minister Chen Baosheng said the new ideology, unveiled at the start of the party’s national congress last week, would be incorporated into curriculums across the country.
“[The thought will] go into textbooks, into classes, and into the brains [of students],” Chen said last week on the sidelines of the congress.
2. 19th Party Congress Personnel Speculation
On Sunday, delegates to the party’s national congress in Beijing held closed-door meetings to discuss the lists of candidates for its elite Central Committee and anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Two sources who have seen the lists confirmed to the Post that Wang was not among the names, meaning he will step down from the Politburo Standing Committee.
Zhao Leji, the party’s organisation chief, appeared on both lists, confirming an earlier Post exclusive report that he is expected to take over anti-corruption responsibilities from Wang
Xi Jinping’s power faces two big tests during China congress - FT $$:
“The [standing committee] list that gets announced may not necessarily stay the same for five years, I’m not sure this is locked in till 2022,” said Christopher Johnson, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “In the 1980s, Deng held an extraordinary party conference halfway between two party congresses [to] reshuffle the leadership.”
The Wall Street Journal profiles Chen Min'er. A Xi Jinping Protégé Rises to Stardom - WSJ:
Mr. Chen joined the party and began a career in Zhejiang province’s propaganda agencies in the 1980s, when China was opening up after years of isolation and testing free-market reforms...
By the time Mr. Xi became party secretary of Zhejiang in 2002, Mr. Chen was directing all media in the province. As propaganda director, he oversaw publication of regular columns attributed to Mr. Xi in the Zhejiang Daily, the province’s major newspaper.
Xi finds ‘perfect position’ for trusted adviser Liu He, sources say | South China Morning Post:
After he is elevated to the Politburo, sources said Liu will take over from Wang as head of the Central Policy Research Office, which provides research and ideas for ideology and theories. It also prepares work reports and key documents for the top leadership and carries out research for major policy initiatives.
China Focus: Congress delegates signal dynamic new era for CPC - Xinhua:
With an absence of potted plants in meeting rooms and expensive dishes in dining halls, delegates have noticed the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is a frugal affair. "I am sure you will not find even a drop of alcohol in our dining halls," Li Wanjun, a delegate from northeast China's Jilin Province, told Xinhua. "It is plain and practical, but we are all satisfied and more enthusiastic and down-to-earth in our discussion."
Comment: But will potted plants end up on the Standing Committee?
3. The New "Principal Contradiction" May Indicate Beijing Really Is Serious About Cleaning Up The Environment, Even At The Expense of Economic Growth
China’s New Antipollution Push Could Cool Its Growth Engine - The New York Times:
“For those areas that have suffered ecological damage, their leaders and cadres will be held responsible for life,” said Yang Weimin, the deputy director of the Communist Party’s Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs. “Our people will be able to see stars at night and hear birds chirp.”
But the effort could have a cost as well. Economists at Société Générale, a French bank, predicted in a recent research note that environmental restrictions could shave two-tenths of a percent off economic growth.
The Party Congress press conference on the environment-：“打好生态环保攻坚战”集体采访_环球网
10月23日，十九大新闻中心举办记者招待会，邀请中央财经领导小组办公室副主任杨伟民，环境保护部党组书记、部长李干杰介绍践行绿色发展理念，建设美丽中国有关情况，并回答记者提问
China aims to meet air quality standards by 2035: minister - Reuters:
Speaking on the sidelines of China’s Communist Party Congress, Minister of Environmental Protection Li Ganjie urged the public to be “patient” when it came to improving air quality, and said a strengthened environmental protection system would eventually benefit the country’s economic development.
China's top steelmaking city deepens output cut to fight smog: CSJ - Reuters:
China’s top steelmaking city, Tangshan, will step up curbs on industrial output as it makes greater efforts to cut hazardous smog, the China Securities Journal reported on Monday.
"It's a huge event. It's a serious event. I think many of us here believe it will become the new normal," says Michael Crotty, president of MKT & Associates, a company that exports textiles from China. Crotty says in his nearly two decades in China, he's never seen a crackdown of this magnitude. "The consumers of China don't want red and blue rivers. They don't want to see gray skies every day."
Reforms will boost role of green finance, official says - China Daily:
The Ministry of Finance is also considering building a national green development fund, while the central bank is planning to set up pilot programs in regions for green finance reforms and the China Securities Regulation Commission is studying improving information disclosure standards for listed companies, said Yang Weimin, deputy head of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs.
'Impossible To Save': Scientists Are Watching China's Glaciers Disappear : Parallels : NPR:
Xinjiang, a land of mountains, forests and deserts, is four times the size of California and is home to 20,000 glaciers — nearly half of all the glaciers in China. Since the 1950s, all of Xinjiang's glaciers have retreated by between 21 percent to 27 percent.
4. Officials Explain Xi's Vision of China's Global Role
Based on the excellent cultural traditions that the Chinese nation advocates Datong world and all human beings belong to a big family, a world like that aims to solve various global challenges facing the planet. The above-mentioned goal proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping transcends the similarities and differences between countries, parties and systems, reflects the universal expectation of most countries and conforms to the common interests of the international community. The goal makes China's foreign policy and philosophy occupy the commanding height of human morality, and shows that Chinese Communists are able to and willing to make contributions to solving problems facing mankind. And it will be widely welcomed and supported by the international community.
Wang Yi said that the construction of a new type of international relations, and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind make it necessary for China to make practical efforts and set an example, as well as unswervingly pursue a road to a great nation which is different from that of traditional powers. This is not only the historical duty that China, as a big socialist country, should undertake for the development of human society, but also the historical mission that the Chinese Communists should advance for the progress of human political civilization.
Press conference: CPC's united front and international relations - SCIO:
Executive Vice Minister Zhang Yijiong and Vice Minister Ran Wanxiang of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, and Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the conference...
The report of the 19th CPC National Congress has raised clear demands for the Party's external exchanges, while the Party Constitution also carries explicit stipulations on that. Therefore, we will uphold the fundamental guide of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in the Party's external exchanges. We will strive to serve the overall interest of the country and make innovations to contribute to forging a community of a shared future for humans and pushing forward the Party's construction in a new era.
And we hear from a prominent PRC scholar in—Xi Jinping Pushes China’s Rise Despite Friction and Fear - The New York Times:
“Xi’s aggressive diplomacy largely comes from his own aspirations, beliefs and strategic requirements,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University...
Mr. Shi, the international relations professor, said President Trump’s “negative attitude toward liberal world trade and climate change” had emboldened Mr. Xi to take a more active role on the global stage.
But he added that China’s efforts to influence opinion and policy in other countries were a natural extension of its growing stature in the world, and not just a result of Mr. Xi’s leadership. He said China has greater “financial and human resources” available now — and greater ambitions.
5. Trump China Visit Preparations
Comment: So what are the specific asks from Trump to Xi? Might Trump be surprised by a Xi who is more confident and less willing to placate an American President? And will the Trump visit be less successful than hoped because the US National Security Advisor did not make an advance trip to work out the agenda and the deliverables? I am hearing Trump will not visit the Great Wall, which is surprising given the possibility for a photo-op and comments about the beauty of such a huge wall.
U.S. Disappointed by Slow China Reform, Trump Official Says - Bloomberg:
The U.S. has been disappointed this year at China’s lack of progress in pursuing market-oriented reforms, said a senior administration official, ratcheting up the pressure on the world’s second-largest economy ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit there next month.
While China made progress in previous decades toward market pricing and reducing the number of state-owned enterprises, the U.S. is concerned now with subsidies, excess capacity, and its industrial policy, said the official, who asked not to be identified in order to discuss sensitive policy issues.
Mattis tries to unite fragmented Asean against China - FT $$:
US defence secretary Jim Mattis will try to unite Southeast Asian countries against China during a meeting of defence ministers in the Philippines on Monday, as President Donald Trump prepares to send a strong message to challenge Beijing.
6. New MERICs Paper On Financial Instability In China
Comment: Dr. Victor Shih does not think a financial crisis in CHina is likely in the next five years
MERICS China Monitor No. 42 - Financial instability in China Possible pathways and their likelihood:
In this China Monitor “Financial instability in China: possible pathways and their likelihood,“ Victor Shih, Associate Professor of political economy at UC San Diego and a former visiting fellow at MERICS, examines four plausible scenarios of financial crisis in China: household defaults, shadow banking panic, capital flight, and a sudden stop of international lending.
Shih concludes that despite the enormous debt load, a domestically triggered crisis is not likely in the next five years. Trouble is more likely to come from some combination of capital flight and sudden withdrawal of external credit.
7. Industrial Policy Leads To Glut Of New Energy Vehicles?
China to Probe Overcapacity in New-Energy Vehicles - Caixin Global:
The Chinese authorities have started an investigation into overcapacity in the new-energy vehicle manufacturing sector as entrepreneurs have swarmed into the market to tap lucrative state subsidies, a senior official with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said.
The government’s strategy to encourage production of new-energy vehicles (NEV)– those powered by fuel sources other than oil – has had some negative impact, Song Qiuling, a deputy director of the ministry’s department for economic construction, said at an event last week to promote a regulation on a planned NEV quota system.
Tesla Strikes Deal With Shanghai to Build Factory in China - WSJ:
The deal with Shanghai’s government will allow the Silicon Valley auto maker to build a wholly owned factory in the city’s free-trade zone, these people said. This arrangement, the first of its kind for a foreign auto maker, could enable Tesla to slash production costs, but it would still likely incur China’s 25% import tariff.
Comment: When is Tesla's Q3 earnings announcement? Any chance this is being re-leaked now to distract from Tesla's performance?
China's recyclers eye looming electric vehicle battery mountain - Reuters:
China began promoting electric vehicles in 2009, and as the first of those cars reach the end of their lifespan, lithium battery waste could be as much as 170,000 tonnes next year, industry experts estimate. The figure is likely to keep multiplying in tandem with car sales.
8. Coming Boom In Chinese IPO In The US
Comment: Bankers salivating, recent listings have popped. Sign of an approaching top, or something much more sustainable?
Chinese issuers prepare ‘supercycle’ of technology IPOs - FT $$:
Yixin illustrates another trend: many of those coming to market are backed by China’s tech royalty including Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and JD.com. Auto financier Yixin, backed by the latter trio, is expected to raise about $200m.
Rise Education Gets Lift From New York IPO - Caixin Global:
As Rise’s shares were skyrocketing, Jianpu Technology Inc. and iClick Interactive Asia Group Ltd. made their first public filings for New York IPOs on Friday in the U.S. They came a week after another fintech company, Ppdai Group Inc., announced similar plans to raise up to $350 million.
Tencent unit China Literature launches up to $1.1 billion HK IPO - Reuters
Business, Economy, Finance And Trade
Seen From Space, China's Oil Demand Looks Stronger Than Expected - Bloomberg Storage data gathered by satellite implies the amount of crude China is putting into storage is below what can be extrapolated from the nation’s customs and production data, Barclays Plc analysts wrote in an Oct. 23 note. That means it may be consuming more oil than official data indicate and that the global supply-demand balance is tighter than estimated.
China Vows No Return for Shuttered Steelmakers as Curbs Hit Home - Bloomberg The nation will stick to its capacity-cuts mission this year, Ning Jizhe, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters at a weekend briefing during the 19th Communist Party Congress. Separately, NDRC Chairman He Lifeng said cuts to steel and coal capacity had resulted in more than 1.1 million workers being “reemployed” after job cuts.
China Won’t Have a Typical 'Minsky Moment' - Bloomberg - Mohamed A. El-Erian Although he [ Zhou Xiaochuan] was right to warn against policy complacency and general economic overconfidence, particularly in the context of a growth model that still relies too heavily on credit and debt, the Minsky threat of a financial crisis per se is lower than the risk of generalized downward pressures on economic growth should the policy effort falter.
China's central bank continues to inject funds into market - Xinhua The injection saw a net 140 billion yuan pumped into the market Monday, offset by 60 billion yuan in maturing reverse repos. The move is to "keep liquidity basically stable" in response to spiking liquidity demand due to seasonal factors such as tax payments, the PBOC said in a statement on its website.
Insurance Watchdog to Beef Up Policing of Data Fabrication - Caixin Global The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said it will conduct quarterly checks on the authenticity of solvency data that insurers submit. If needed, the CIRC will conduct on-site inspection of insurers’ solvency management practices and records.Special attention will be focused on insurers that are nearly insolvent, as they appear to have more of an incentive to gloss over their ability to meet financial obligations
China's Home Prices Rise in Fewest Cities Since January 2016 - Bloomberg New-home prices, excluding government-subsidized housing, in September rose in 44 of 70 cities tracked by the government, compared with 46 in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. Prices fell in 18 cities from the previous month and were unchanged in eight.
Rail Cargo Deliveries Chug Ahead, but Growth Rates Slow - Caixin Global The operator reported its cargo shipments rose 13.9% in the first three quarters of the year to 2.18 billion tons, according to the operator’s latest quarterly report. But that number was down from 15.3% growth in the first half of the year, indicating that the growth rate was decelerating in the third quarter. Reflecting that, freight shipments for the month of September were up just 8.3% to 246 million tons.
China's Primavera, CITIC PE to raise dollar funds worth $5 billion - Reuters Primavera, run by former Goldman Sachs (GS.N) Greater China Chairman Fred Hu, aims to raise around $2.8 billion in its third fund and has started tapping prospective investors, known as limited partners (LPs), one of the sources said.
Politics, Law And Ideology
2nd World Congress on Marxism to be held in Beijing - Xinhua The congress, to be held from May 5 to May 6, is expected to attract more than 300 Marxism researchers to discuss Marxism in the 21st century and its developments in China.
Police robots target highway traffic violations in Beijing - Xinhua The luggage-sized robot, weighing around 20 kg, operated on the highway barrier at a speed of 5 km per hour...The robotic cop can capture images and videos of illegal parking and driving in the highway emergency lane, then send the evidence back to the police, the spokesman said.
For some Chinese dissidents, party congress means a paid 'vacation' - Reuters For his enforced holiday, Hu [ Jia] and his two government minders jointly decided on the destinations. Hu suggested the ancient town of Dali in Yunnan for the first stop, and the public security agents accompanying him chose the second and third stops in the southwest region, Guiyang -- the capital of the mountainous province of Guizhou, and the coastal city of Beihai in Guangxi province.
How Mao Molded Communism to Create a New China - The New York Times - Roderick MacFarquhar And yet today, China’s current ruler, Xi Jinping, with his relentless anticorruption drive to make officials more honest, has unleashed another Cultural Revolution against the bureaucracy, albeit one that is controlled from the center not from the streets.
JadeRAT mobile surveillanceware spikes in espionage activity - Lookout JadeRAT sample names have remained fairly consistent. The apps SIM卡管理 (SIM Card Management), 手机管家 (Phone Guardian), and Google Searcher are the most popular observed titles. Others have included Uyghur, 170602, Telegram, and Voxer, indicating the actor is impersonating communication apps and may be running some campaigns targeting ethnic minorities in China, given the Uyghur reference.
Analysis: what China’s leadership reshuffle means for Xi Jinping’s New Era | This Week In Asia | South China Morning Post As previously argued in this column, Xi appears to have opted for political continuity and stability when deciding the leadership line-up, despite his ascendancy in power. The composition of the new line-up also reflects his considerations of interests from other party factions, including the Shanghai faction headed by Jiang Zemin and the Communist Youth League headed by Hu Jintao, Xi’s two predecessors.
[视频]十九大代表分组讨论：新时代开启新征程 新思想指引新作为_CCTV节目官网-CCTV-1_央视网(cctv.com) 7 minutes on Monday CCTV Evening News of Party Congress delegates discussing the Work Report. The discussion seems to consist of praising Xi and the correctness of the report
十九大条漫丨习近平同我们“新”“心”相印_评论频道_央视网(cctv.com) CCTV produces a cartoon version of the highlights on the 19th Party Congress Work Report
[视频]党的十九大主席团举行第三次 第四次会议 习近平主持会议_CCTV节目官网-CCTV-1_央视网(cctv.com) CCTV Evening News on the 3rd and 4th meetings of the Presidium to work on the candidate lists for Central Committee and CCDI
In Xi’s New Era, Four Government Bodies to Bring Country Forward - Caixin Global In a “new era” envisioned by Communist Party chief Xi Jinping, the country will set up new bodies to promote four specific areas: the rule of law, natural resource conservation, veteran benefits, and a strong supervisory system at different levels, from local to national. 定了！中国将成立组建四大新机构
Foreign and Military Affairs
Xi Jinping offers a long-term view of China’s ambition -FT $$ Kevin Rudd- The west needs to reflect on its own condition. Since the fall of the Soviet Union there has been little strategic direction about the idea of the west itself, and the core elements of the liberal democratic and capitalist project. Instead, the west is increasingly self-absorbed, self-satisfied and globally complacent. China is marching towards its perception of its global destiny. It has a strategy. The west has none.
Move over, America. China now presents itself as the model ‘blazing a new trail’ for the world. - The Washington Post A poll by Pew Research Center spanning 37 countries showed a sharp drop in U.S. favorability ratings this year, with more people trusting Xi Jinping to do the right thing regarding world affairs than President Trump — by 28 percent to 22 percent — although a majority expressed no confidence in either man.
China to build more marine research vessels - Xinhua China has around ten marine research vessels under design or construction by the end of August 2017, according to the Oceanic Scientific Research Vessel Technology Summit 2017 held here on Frida
Japan election: Shinzo Abe's coalition wins supermajority - The Washington Post Abe has long sought to revise Article 9, which renounces war, and remove the ambiguity surrounding Japan’s military, known as the Self-Defense Forces. While many conservatives view the amendment as overdue, many voters remain skeptical. South Korea and China, Japan’s neighbors, also are nervous about what they see as the potential return of a militaristic Japan.
American 'Communist' in Chinese Propaganda: I Read 'Quotations from Chairman Mao' Almost Every Day - Breitbart A recent film by the Chinese propaganda outlet Global Times depicts a young American man, inspired by dictator Mao Zedong, describing his seemingly happier life in China. “I think communism is the most ideal social and political system in the world,” says Dylan Walker. “We just want to make sure everyone can get basic welfare and rights.”
Chinese military academies to cut student enrollment - Xinhua A total of 6,800 postgraduates will be enrolled in 2018, a 9 percent decrease compared with the number enrolled this year, said the training management department of the CMC.
PLA deepens trust with 28 countries, organizations - Global Times "In the past five years … China has not only maintained stable relations with great powers but also attached importance to military cooperation at different levels and in different fields with neighboring countries," Liu Fang, a military delegate to the 19th CPC National Congress from the international military cooperation office under the Ministry of National Defense, told a press conference Sunday night.
China confidently develops independent space technology "These breakthroughs prove that China can develop its own independent space strategy and is shortening the gap with the other two major space powers, U.S. and Russia. In some areas China has even surpassed them," Song Zhongping, a military expert who served in the PLA Rocket Force, told the Global Times on Sunday.
China Defends Its Trade With North Korea as Permitted by UN - AP Customs data show Chinese exports to North Korea rose 31.4 percent in August from a year earlier, while imports fell 9.5 percent. Beijing has pointed out the sanctions don't prohibit food sales and argued against measures that might harm the North Korean public.
Hong Kong, Macao
Hong Kong teachers must love China to do their job properly, education chief says | South China Morning Post In Beijing on the sidelines of the Communist Party’s national congress, Chen Baosheng said the city’s government should make sure teachers understood China “in a correct way” as part of its efforts to advance national education. “They [teachers] need to love the country first, identify with the country, have stronger national pride, and enjoy the fruits of China’s development together with the mainland,” Chen said over the weekend.
Tech And Media
China’s Drive for the Driverless Car - Caixin Global: While laying out its 2015 “Made in China 2025” manufacturing strategy, the country’s State Council said it hopes to master the key technologies behind autonomous vehicles by 2025. The government wants “partially autonomous” vehicles to make up half of all car sales by 2020, and “highly autonomous” vehicles are to account for 15% by 2025, according to a 2016 joint-planning document by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Society of Automotive Engineers. // Abridged translation of this week's Caixin cover story--【封面报道·主文】智能驾驶聚变
This Chinese comedy just surpassed Home Alone as the highest grossing single-market comedy ever: Shanghaiist The body-swapping sports comedy Never Say Die took home $286 million at the box offices, making it the highest grossing single-market comedy of all time, a title previously held by Home Alone. It took the film, about a male UFC boxer who switches bodies with the female reporter responsible for exposing his dirty dealings, just 17 days to match the box office earnings Home Alone accrued over the course of its 200 day run.
China Internet Giant Tencent Leads $40M Round In Canadian Online Storytelling Platform Wattpad – China Money Network Founded in 2006 by Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen, Wattpad allows users to post stories via its website or mobile app and interact with readers through comments. The platform has a monthly audience of over 60 million and supports more than 50 languages, the company says. Tap, the company’s second storytelling product, offers short, chat-based stories in over a dozen languages.
A Showdown Brews Between Amazon and Alibaba, Far From Home - The New York Times Alibaba has a long lead over Amazon and is building up its infrastructure across Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, for example, it took a minority stake in August in another online marketplace, Tokopedia. Experts say Amazon could fight back by offering online Western movies and television programs as it does in the United States, which could increase its appeal with younger customers.
Society, Art, Sports, Culture And History
Thousands of Chinese athletes doped through state-sponsored programme, exiled whistle-blower claims | AFP In a television interview with German broadcaster ARD, Xue Yinxian, a 79-year-old doctor, claimed more than 10,000 athletes in different sports were involved in a state-backed doping programme. The interview with Xue came from the same German investigative team which first made claims of widespread doping in Russia which ultimately led to the Russian athletics team being banned from the 2016 Olympic Games.
Quick Take: Yao Ming Quits Shanghai Sharks to Head CBA - Caixin Global NBA Hall of Famer Yao Ming — who became chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) in February — has quit as head of a Shanghai basketball club, under rules that prohibit league administrators from running individual teams.
Energy, Environment, Science And Health
China to Centralize Control of National Parks - Sixth Tone On Sept. 26, the State Council and the Party’s General Office — China’s highest level of decision-making bodies — published the Overall Plan for Building a National Park System. While the plan still lacks detail, it shows that that the management of national parks and nature reserves is in for a major overhaul.
Researchers find fungus used in traditional medicine can fight cancer - China Daily Chinese scientists have found evidence that a fungus used in traditional Chinese medicine widely sought by the public for its healing powers, also carries anti-cancer benefits. The scientists found there was an interaction between two anti-cancer compounds in the fungus Cordyceps militaris...Cordyceps militaris, bright orange-yellow mushrooms sold as a fresh supplement for soups and stews, is a much more affordable alternative to caterpillar fungus. 蛹虫草
新证据再评冬虫夏草药效：不含抗癌成分_政经频道_财新网 科学家在我国广泛分布的蛹虫草菌中发现抗癌成分虫草素和喷司他丁，相反，昂贵的冬虫夏草中却没有 // Comment: But expensive caterpillar fungus (Cordyceps sinensis) does not
Food And Travel
Say Cheese: China's Short-Lived Cheese Ban Has Been Lifted | the Beijinger Cheese Republic, a popular importer and seller of the flavorful golden dairy product on the mainland, announced on its WeChat account on Friday, Oct 20 that it was given the clear to sell soft and blue cheese once again
Jobs And Events
CHINA Town Hall | National Committee on United States - China Relations The eleventh annual CHINA Town Hall will take place on October 24, 2017 and will feature Ambassador Susan E. Rice, former national security advisor and U.S. ambassador to the UN, as the national webcast speaker. The webcast will take place from 7:00 to 7:45 pm EDT, and will be preceded or followed by the local speaker's presentation.