Trump and Xi to meet at the G20; US indicts MSS officer; 2018 GDP in the bag; Urbanization and consumption plans; More to come in TV/Film tax evasion scandal
Today's newsletter is a bit on the short side, apologies but got jammed in some meetings last night and this morning.
Thanks for reading.
The Essential Eight
1. Trump and Xi to meet at the G20
Another scoop from Lingling Wei and Bob Davis...
1. Trump and Xi Plan to Meet Amid Trade Tension - WSJ $$:
The Trump administration has informed Beijing of its decision to go ahead with the meeting in recent days, while China has been hoping such a meeting could provide an opportunity for both sides to try to ease the escalating trade tensions. The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Buenos Aires at the end of November.
On the U.S. side, the meeting is being pushed by Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow. The two men, who have worried about market reaction to the trade fight, have been trying to get negotiations on track for months, with little success. During this time, the U.S. has imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports, about half of what China sends to the U.S.
Mr. Trump has dedicated a team to plan for his summit meeting with Mr. Xi, the officials said. One of the people involved in the planning is Christopher Nixon Cox, grandson of former President Richard Nixon, whose trip to China in 1972 eventually led to diplomatic relations between the two nations. Meantime, the planning team on the Chinese side includes Liu He, Mr. Xi’s economic envoy...
“The plan is to get Trump in a room with Xi, get a small win and declare an end to the whole thing,” said a U.S. source familiar with the negotiations, who views the talks skeptically.
Thoughts: China will be very skeptical unless USTR head Lighthizer buys into the deal. Even if there is a deal that mitigates some of the short-term tensions the broader security and strategic issues remain, and expect that a key Chinese lesson from the last few months of dealing with Trump is that the US view towards has shifted fundamentally and so any trade deal would be a useful delaying action to give China time to prepare for much more difficult longer-term relations with the US.
Trump called into Fox and Friends this morning and talked tough about China. Tough talk to set up an announcement of "victory" in late November/early December? - Trump says he could do 'a lot more' on China trade: Fox | Reuters:
U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Thursday there was much more he could do that would hurt China’s economy further, showing no signs of backing off an escalating trade war with Beijing...
“It’s had a big impact,” Trump said in a Fox News interview. “Their economy has gone down very substantially and I have a lot more to do if I want to do it.
“I don’t want to do it, but they have to come to the table.”
However, Trump said the Chinese want to negotiate but he does not believe they are ready and he told them so. He blamed previous U.S. presidents for allowing China to pursue unfair trade practices and said he had to tell Beijing, “It’s over.”
Even Rogers Pay, lead agriculture analyst at consulting firm China Policy, said that while Beijing’s attempt to damage US exports with tariffs on soybeans might have appeared to have fallen flat, the government might have had other reasons for the move.
“If demand for imported soy is somewhat reduced and trade partners diversified in the long run, that would be considered a win by many in China’s government,” she said.
“This is something policymakers have been keen to do for a while, but couldn’t under normal trade conditions. Trump’s escalation gave China’s policymakers an excuse to constrain US soy, forcing the Chinese industry to adjust.”
Comment: As I have said before, if the pigs are still fat and tasty with this shift why would the Chinese ever return to their pre-tariffs soybean import level?
One aspect of this transition in relations that I have not seen noticed by my Chinese friends is something that was driven home to me vividly this past summer during seminars with officials who recently left the US government. An important generational milestone has been passed without drawing attention to itself.
Across the American government, in every agency and regardless of party identification, those with experience with pre-reform China have retired and been replaced by much younger officials with no personal memory of the “three communiqués” that are the foundation of US-China relations. They did not witness Deng Xiaoping’s “hide and bide” low-key approach to foreign affairs. They did not see how the Chinese people escaped the extremes of the Cultural Revolution.
Most serving American officials today have worked on China-related issues for about 10 years or less. The China they know started with the eye-popping Beijing Olympics in 2008, not with Nixon’s bold trip to open relations with an impoverished, backward nation. The context is not that of Nixon, seeking to counter the Soviet Union while extricating the US from Vietnam, but of a strong, rising China striving to reshape Asia at American expense...
The younger officials who now have our futures in their hands will need to see real change to be convinced that there is an alternative to confrontation.
2. US indicts MSS officer for economic espionage
This is a very big deal, looks to be a significant upgrading of US counter-espionage efforts. Will the Chinese respond by finding an American to arrest as a spy now?
A Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) operative, Yanjun Xu, aka Qu Hui, aka Zhang Hui, has been arrested and charged with conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and steal trade secrets from multiple U.S. aviation and aerospace companies. Xu was extradited to the United States yesterday...
Yanjun Xu is a Deputy Division Director with the MSS’s Jiangsu State Security Department, Sixth Bureau. The MSS is the intelligence and security agency for China and is responsible for counter-intelligence, foreign intelligence and political security. MSS has broad powers in China to conduct espionage both domestically and abroad.
Xu was arrested in Belgium on April 1, pursuant to a federal complaint, and then indicted by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Ohio. The government unsealed the charges today, following his extradition to the United States. The four-count indictment charges Xu with conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and theft of trade secrets.
In a rare feat, federal agents lured a Chinese government spy to Belgium, where authorities transferred him this week to the United States for prosecution on economic espionage charges, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Yanjun Xu, a senior officer with China’s Ministry of State Security, is accused of seeking to steal trade secrets from leading aviation firms, top Justice Department officials said. His capture helps vindicate law enforcement officials who have faced criticism in recent years that indictments of foreign operatives are not likely to result in the defendants setting foot in a courtroom.
Officials and former officials said it is apparently the first time that a Chinese government spy has been brought to the United States to face charges...
Xu’s case is linked to the arrest last month of Ji Chaoqun, 27, a Chinese citizen living in Chicago, according to individuals familiar with the matter. Ji was accused of passing information on eight Americans to Chinese intelligence officers for possible recruitment.
The indictment and criminal complaint and affidavit re uploaded here, fascinating reading - Document: Chinese Intelligence Officer Indicted and Extradited to U.S. for Spying on Aviation Companies - Lawfare
How the US Halted China’s Cybertheft—Using a Chinese Spy | WIRED:
This is adapted from Dawn of the Code War: Inside America’s Battle Against Russia, China, and the Rising Global Cyber Threat, by John P. Carlin, with Garrett M. Graff
This is the story of how the US finally achieved some leverage over China to bring a stop to more than a decade of rampant cybertheft, how a Canadian couple became bargaining chips in China’s desperate countermove, and how the game ended happily—only to start up again in recent months with more rancor and new players...
After their detention, the Garratts found themselves caught in China’s Kafkaesque justice system, interrogated regularly but with nothing to confess. Their family retained James Zimmerman, an American lawyer with the firm Perkins Coie, who had spent nearly two decades working in Beijing. He began to piece together the case against the couple.
The Chinese government, he realized, was leveling charges against Kevin Garratt that were almost a mirror image of the US charges against Su Bin. The Chinese Foreign Ministry told The New York Times that the Garratts were being investigated for stealing intelligence “about Chinese military targets and important national defense research projects, and engaging in activities threatening to Chinese national security.” As if that weren’t menacing enough, on February 19, 2016, China amended the indictment against Kevin to include more serious charges.
But the Obama-Xi cyber deal looks to have frayed, per Dmitri Alperovitch, Co-Founder & CTO at CrowdStrike:
3. Sounds like the US will not label China a currency manipulator
China to get status quo treatment in currency report - POLITICO:
The Treasury Department unveils its semiannual report on foreign exchange rate practices on Monday, but don’t expect the administration to slap China with currency manipulator status.
The report submitted internally to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did not recommend that Beijing be labeled a currency manipulator and continued to place China on a monitoring list, an administration official familiar with the report told POLITICO.
It’s possible Mnuchin could revise the final report to include China, but the official said there is no precedent for such action. The April 2018 report found China met two criteria for being listed — having a significant bilateral trade surplus and an account surplus in excess of 3 percent GDP — but not the third and final requirement of having a “persistent, one-sided” intervention in its currency market.
4. Growing US Congressional pressure over Xinjiang
In conjunction with the 2018 Annual Report’s publication, the Chairs also announced new joint initiatives, including:
Letter to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray: The Chairs released a letter asking the FBI to report on how it addresses “unacceptable” intimidation and threats targeting Chinese, Uyghur, and Tibetan diaspora communities living in the United States.
Letter to Thomas Bach, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, on 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics: The Chairs released a letter to IOC President Thomas Bach urging him “to take steps to reassign” the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing given “credible reports of the mass, arbitrary internment of one million or more Uyghurs and other predominately Muslim ethnic minorities” and other gross violations of universally recognized rights, “which may constitute crimes against humanity.”
Legislative Initiatives: The Chairs announced the introduction of the Xinjiang Uyghur Human Rights Act of 2018 to focus U.S State Department resources on the mass internment of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in China. During the 115th Congress, the Chairs and CECC Commissioners introduced a number of different measures related to human rights and the rule of law in China, highlighting bipartisan Congressional efforts to upgrade U.S. policy and diplomatic options regarding China. Among these measures are the Countering the Chinese Government and Communist Party’s Political Influence Operations Act (H.R. 6010/S. 3171, 115th Cong., 2nd Sess.); the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2017 (S. 417/H.R. 3856, 115th Cong., 1st Sess.); the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act (S. 821/H.R.1872, 115th Cong., 1st Sess.); the Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act (S. 2903, 115th Cong., 2nd Sess.) and the Fair Trade with China Enforcement Act (S. 2826/H.R. 6001, 115th Cong., 2nd Sess.).
Nomination of Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti for 2019 Nobel Peace Prize: The Chairs announced their intention to nominate Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. Tohti, who is currently serving a life sentence on charges of “separatism,” founded the website Uyghur Online, which sought to promote dialogue, peace, and understanding between Han Chinese and Uyghurs.
Comment: There is a rumor going around that Chen Quanguo 陈全国 has been replaced as Party Secretary of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region by Zhao Zhengyong 赵正永. I am skeptical but you never know...
5. China's 2018 GDP is in the bag-Yi Gang
Exclusive: Central Bank Governor Says China Will Achieve 2018 GDP Target - Caixin
China will achieve its growth target this year, and debt levels in the economy have stabilized, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Yi Gang said in an exclusive interview with Caixin...
The Chinese central bank will focus only on the domestic economy when making adjustments to its monetary policy, Yi also said, indicating that the PBOC’s decision-making will be influenced less than before by changes in the external environment such as recent interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve...
Yi also expressed his confidence in the progress of this campaign to reduce financial risks. “The macro-leverage ratio has stabilized, the leverage ratio of state-owned enterprises continues to fall, and local government debts are controllable,” said Yi. “All these elements indicate that China has entered a period of high-quality development.”
“We’ve talked about deleveraging for many years. Now, leverage has stabilized. This is a significant change.”
The full interview in Chinese 专访易纲：杠杆已稳 年初预定增长目标可以实现
6. Will Urbanization start getting talked up again as a growth driver?
NDRC Calls for 100 Million More Chinese to Be Settled in Cities - China Banking News
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued the “Plan for Advancing the Settlement in Cities of 100 Million People Lacking Household Registration” (推动1亿 非户籍人口在城市落户方案) on 11 October.
The directive says that the settlement of 100 million people in urban areas is a “key mission for advancing high-quality new-model urbanisation….an organic integration point for expanding domestic demand and improving the livelihood of the people [and] an intrinsic requirement for the comprehensive establishment of a well-off society that benefits a larger population.”
As a consumption plan is finalized—China to further promote healthy consumption structure - Gov.cn:
The State Council released an action plan (2018-2020) on improving China’s consumption mechanism to further stimulate the vitality of domestic consumers. According to the circular issued on Oct 11, the consumption structure should be improved from six aspects — further relaxing market access in the service and consumption sectors, improving policy systems to upgrade non-service consumption, establishing product and service standards in key fields, building a credit system for consumption, optimizing supportive fiscal measures for consumption, and strengthening consumption promotion and information guidance.
Market access should be relaxed in several service-related fields, including tourism, culture, sports, healthcare, elderly care, domestic service, and education and training.
国务院办公厅印发《完善促进消费体制机制实施方案（2018－2020年）》
7. Asset Management Companies (AMC) under pressure
One way to cut down the grey rhinos is to starve them of capital
China finance: why ‘accidental banks’ face a crackdown | Financial Times $$:
The curbs on the investment banking operations at Huarong and three other state-owned asset management companies, or AMCs, slammed the brakes on easy access to credit for some of China’s most aggressive buyers of overseas assets. The move led to defaults and fewer foreign acquisitions by Chinese companies.
The country’s top financial regulators last year launched a campaign to stop corporations from moving vast quantities of capital offshore — at its peak in 2016 $220bn was channelled out in foreign direct investment. But simultaneously the AMCs were operating aggressive investment banking businesses and facilitating the rise of offshore finance.
It was a contradiction that could not last. Six months on, the crackdown is being felt across the Chinese corporate world and in Hong Kong, which has positioned itself as the financial centre for Chinese international capital.
8. The TV and film tax evasion scandal keeps getting stranger
Why is Cui Yongyuan allowed to be so vocal about this?
The Chinese television host whose allegations triggered the Fan Bingbing tax evasion scandal has pooh-poohed Shanghai police’s claim that they were unable to find him and accused Beijing police of disregarding the multiple death threats he claimed to have received.
On Sunday, Cui Yongyuan accused Shanghai police of taking hundreds of thousands of yuan in bribes during their investigation of the Fan case. They responded yesterday by saying Cui could not be reached, which led to reports he had gone missing.
However, the talk show host later dismissed those claims on Weibo – China’s Twitter-like service – asking officers to write to him or get his number from the tax authorities...
In a fresh post on Wednesday night, Cui, who is known for campaigning against genetically modified food and sparking the tax evasion probe into Fan and the Huayi Brothers Media film studio with which she has worked, accused the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau of dereliction of duty.
Business, Economy, Finance And Trade
China Stocks Tumble to Four-Year Low After U.S. Sell-Off - Caixin The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, the primary indicator of China’s stock market, closed down 5.22% at 2,579.58. The Shenzhen Component Index fell by an even-sharper 6.07% to 7,521.40. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index, which includes many Chinese companies, closed down 3.6% at 25,250.41. The daily stock turnover reached 358.6 billion yuan ($51.78 billion) on the Shenzhen and Shanghai markets combined. This was up 51.9% on the previous day.
Indonesia’s China-Financed High-Speed Rail Project Off Track - Caixin When Caixin visited the future site of the Walini tunnel, the Chinese construction employees on the site were unwilling to disclose details of the project’s progress, offering only a terse “It’s still OK.” Nearby residents said that excavation work began to speed up in April, after the China Development Bank granted the first batch of loans for the project. The railway’s completion date has been pushed back to 2021 amid obstacles that include budget overruns, land acquisition delays and political uncertainty.
Beijing ‘looking into joining trans-Pacific trade pact’ to hedge against US | South China Morning Post China could hedge against US President Donald Trump’s protectionist “America first” strategy and boost its role in free trade by joining the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), observers said. So far China has not publicly expressed any interest in joining the pact and it did not apply for membership of the previous TPP deal – which Trump has pulled the US out of – calling it too complex. But attitudes towards the CPTPP have been quietly shifting in Beijing, with Chinese officials over the past few months exploring the possibility of, and seeking advice on, joining the deal, according to the source, speaking on condition of anonymity
BMW Makes $4.1 Billion Push for Control in China Car Market - Bloomberg BMW AG will plow 3.6 billion euros ($4.1 billion) into securing control of its Chinese joint venture, a deal that will see the German automaker retain more of its earnings in the world’s biggest car market and potentially spur similar moves by its rivals.
Public anger in China spreading as property prices drop | South China Morning Post Not only were their sales figures grim for September, but the seven-day national holiday last week also brought at least two fangnao incidents – when homeowners protest against price cuts offered by developers to new buyers. These protests are often directed at sales offices, with varying levels of intensity – from throwing rocks to holding banners and putting up funeral wreaths. As home ownership has remained the most important channel of investment for urban households in China in the past decade, price cuts have become increasingly unacceptable and a cause for social unrest.
China draws over $17 bln in orders for dollar bond sale | Reuters China drew over $17 billion in orders for a sovereign dollar bond sale of $3 billion on Thursday against a backdrop of a global market sell-off and trade war with the United States. The $3 billion deal is only the third U.S.-dollar denominated issuance by China in the last 14 years. It returned to global markets in October last year for the first time since 2004.
New railway set to fuel Tibet’s economy, trade with India and Nepal: experts - Global Times The 250-billion-yuan ($36.16 billon) railway, which will have a designated speed of between 160 and 200 kilometers per hour, is expected to be completed by 2026, media reports said. The line will go through the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, one of the world's most geologically active areas, which also has sharp changes in terrain. This means the construction of the railway line will have to overcome substantial risks. Long Xingchun, an associate professor at China West Normal University, told the Global Times on Thursday that the railway could fuel Tibet's economic growth because it will connect Tibet with Sichuan, whose transportation network is also linked with other southwestern regions as well as more developed central and eastern regions such as the Yangtze River Economic Zone and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Politics, Law And Ideology
中国纪检监察报 - 公职人员应如实申报境外存款 PSA for officials - A friendly reminder in the CCDI/NSC newspaper from a NSC official that if you have a huge amount of deposit overseas, you better tell the party before we find out
No, New Xinjiang Legislation Does not Legalize Detention Centers - Lawfare Under both Article 37 of China’s Constitution and Articles 9 and 10 of its Law on Legislation, the physical restriction of personal liberty is permitted only pursuant to statutes passed by the National People’s Congress or its Standing Committee.
确保党始终成为坚强领导核心--党建-人民网 确保党始终成为坚强领导核心 ——改革开放40年党建理论创新的丰硕成果与深刻启示 全国党的建设研究会
央企两年新增基层党组织1.76万个--党建-人民网 Central SOEs have built 17,600 party branches at grassroots level over the past two years.
Foreign and Military Affairs
Who Controls the Tap? Addressing Water Security in Asia | Council on Foreign Relations The future of the region’s water—upon which about four billion people depend—rests almost entirely in China’s hands. Through its presence in Tibet, China controls the headwaters of ten of the eleven major rivers of Asia. So far, China has taken a relatively cooperative approach to sharing water with its neighbors as part of the systematic consolidation of its “soft power” over downstream countries. But climate change and rapid growth are threatening to upset this delicate diplomatic balance.
Chinese Entrepreneurs Launch the Next Caribbean Invasion | OZY Small Chinese businesses are cropping up throughout the Caribbean, bringing with them concerns ranging from who they employ to whether they adhere to local standards and laws. Chinese immigrants usually open family-run businesses where they employ other workers from China, instead of locals, says Ramchand Rajbal Maraj, president of the Couva/Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce in Trinidad. On the other hand, he concedes, they do provide significant rental income to locals. Dwyer Astapahan, a businessman and former government minister in the neighboring island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, is clearer: Chinese immigrant businesses are hurting his country. Where they all agree is that the Caribbean is witnessing a silent flood of new Chinese immigrants that’s showing no signs of abating.
Defying China, Malaysia releases Uighur detainees | Reuters Malaysia has freed from detention 11 ethnic Uighur Muslims who fled to the southeast Asian nation after a Thai jailbreak last year, and sent them to Turkey, their lawyer said on Thursday, in disregard of China’s request to hand them to Beijing.
一封驻美记者朋友的来信：美国对华政策，连常识都守不住了？-新华网 A PRC reporter based in DC writes about the change in attitudes towards China, says that the US has lost common sense
Hong Kong, Macao
Beijing tells foreign consulates in Hong Kong to 'refrain' from attending Taiwan National Day events | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP The Chinese foreign ministry in Hong Kong has told foreign consulates to “refrain” from attending Taiwan National Day events in the city. Sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told HKFP that a diplomatic note was sent to the Consul General of Argentina, Dean of the Consular Corps in Hong Kong. It was then passed on to other foreign consulates in the city.
Singapore troop carriers seized in Hong Kong were labelled as civilian vehicles, court told | South China Morning Post A batch of Singaporean armoured personnel carriers worth more than HK$136 million (US$17.3 million) were allegedly labelled as civilian vehicles and shipped via Hong Kong to the Lion City without the proper licence, a court heard on Thursday.
‘Untenable and unfair’ to link British journalist’s visa denial to US-Hong Kong Policy Act, city leader says | South China Morning Post The remarks by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor came after British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called Hong Kong’s refusal to renew the work visa for Financial Times Asia news editor Victor Mallet “politically motivated”. Lam also played down worries the saga might threaten Hong Kong’s special status under the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 amid the escalating US-China trade war, as some local pan-democrats including James To Kun-sun had expressed concerns. Describing Hong Kong as a staunch supporter of free and open trade, the chief executive said her administration had already raised objections to any sanctions.
Tech And Media
Tencent Tumbles Out of World’s Top 10 Most Valuable Companies Tencent’s departure from the global top 10 came as the company posted a 10th consecutive day of share price declines, including a large drop on Thursday amid a broader market sell-off that saw China’s two main stock markets plunge by around 6%. That sell-off alone has seen Tencent’s shares fall by nearly 20% over that period, wiping out about $80 billion in market value. Those declines pushed Tencent’s market cap down to about $320 billion on Thursday, making it the world’s 11th most valuable company, according to Bloomberg data compiled by Caixin.
Apple Boss Tim Cook Stays Low-Key in Busy Visit to China - Caixin A source told Caixin on Thursday that the major purpose of Cook’s visit was to attend the Tsinghua board meeting. An Apple China spokesperson refused to divulge other information, but the Shanghai government revealed Cook had met with officials.
Recent arrests show increased sophistication of illegal data brokers in China · TechNode Police from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province have uncovered a sophisticated network of underground data brokers trading personal information to the tune of RMB 1 million a day. According to local media, police have arrested 113 individuals that form part of the network. The group shows how criminals are building complex operating structures to avoid being caught.
Apple's Cook Visits World's Hottest Startup During Beijing Trip - Bloomberg Photos of Cook walking through the headquarters of Bytedance Ltd., talking to workers and shaking hands with Bytedance founder Zhang Yiming circulated Thursday and were posted on Chinese social media. Representatives for the startup behind hit mobile news app Jinri Toutiao declined to comment while Apple representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Hackers Are Using Stolen Apple IDs to Swipe Cash in China - Bloomberg Ant Financial’s Alipay and Tencent Holdings Ltd. warned that cyber-attackers employed stolen Apple IDs to break into customers’ accounts and made off with an unknown amount of cash, in a rare security breach for China’s top digital payments providers.
Society, Art, Sports, Culture And History
Palace Museum starts building new branch in north Beijing - ECNS The Palace Museum has begun construction on a new museum in Beijing's Haidian District to display more cultural relics to the public. Located in Xiyuhe Village, the new museum compound will cover 62 hectares and have facilities with a total floor area of 102,000 square meters. Exhibition areas, space for cultural relic restoration and warehouses will cover 35,000 square meters, 20,000 square meters and 23,000 square meters respectively. It will also include 9,500 square meters of space for digital mass communications and a 2,500-square-meter visitor service area.
Speed Dating With Shanghai’s Social Elites - SixthTone Wu says that often when Jiaoda posts notices of upcoming events on a Monday morning, the spots for women will sell out within hours, whereas places for men will not fill up until the day of an event itself, which is usually on a Saturday or Sunday. To attract more men, the platform posts profiles of the female participants who have already registered, including each woman’s age, hometown, occupation, education history, and hobbies — as well as its contentious event-pricing policy.
Energy, Environment, Science And Health
China's Tangshan orders steel mills to halve output for a week in smog fight | Reuters China’s steelmaking hub of Tangshan has ordered mills to cut output by half from Oct. 11 to 18 due to forecasts of adverse weather, according to a city government document reviewed by Reuters.
China to improve management on human genetic resources - Xinhua China will set up a new set of regulations on human genetic resources to further protect its national biosafety. The decision was announced at a forum on human genetic resources development and innovation held Wednesday in Beijing. It gathered scholars from government organizations, research institutions and universities.
“if the pigs are still fat and tasty with this shift” -- come on, does anyone REALLY think the 东坡肉 is going to taste the same without North Dakota soybeans in the feed?