ZGBriefs | August 4, 2016

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Featured Article

The unprecedented aging crisis that’s about to hit China (August 1, 2016, PBS Newshour)
China has the largest Baby Boom generation in the world. But now just years away from a mass retirement, that country is headed toward a severe workforce crisis and retirement cost cash crunch. Due to the country’s one-child policy from 1978 until 2015, the younger generation poised to take over is relatively small. What’s the solution?

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Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

Behind China's Global Propaganda Campaign (July 25, 2016, The News Lens)
A new report suggests that while censorship has proven an effective tool in reducing foreign influence in China, Beijing is now focused on creating an "international echo chamber" for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“Who am I?” Chinese Communist Party Launches First Public Service TV Ad (July 28, 2016, What’s on Weibo)
In celebration of the 95th anniversary of the China’s Communist Party (CPC), CCTV recently produced the Party’s first public service TV ad. The emotional video has got Weibo’s netizens talking.

Purged Chinese Leader’s Inside Look at Communist Leadership (July 28, 2016, The New York Times)
Now, however, an unnamed group of Mr. Zhao’s former associates, in cooperation with his family, has published “Collected Works,” a four-volume set of his speeches and writings from the 1980s, when he helped steer China’s economic overhauls and increasingly clashed with conservatives who opposed his ideas for a measure of political liberalization.

Party Discipline Becomes Plenum Focus (July 29, 2016, China Digital Times)
The Chinese Communist Party Central Committee’s Politburo has met this week and set the date for the upcoming plenary session in October. According to Xinhua, tightening rules for party discipline will be at the top of the agenda this year, a focus that is markedly different from previous plenums that have centered on economic reform and rule of law.

Russia’s Acres, if Not Its Locals, Beckon Chinese Farmers (July 31, 2016, The New York Times)
Perched in the cabin of a clunky Russian tractor, Li Chengbin, a 62-year-old peasant farmer from China, drove round and round in ever widening circles, plowing a field to get it ready for planting — and rejoicing at the opportunities offered by untamed lands in the Russian Far East almost empty of people.

Wang Yu 'confession' – China's bid to counter critics of its crackdown? (August 1, 2016, Christian Science Monitor)
On the eve a major trial of Chinese human rights lawyers and activists, a video emerges of a prominent associate blaming 'foreign groups' for defaming Beijing.   

Former FBI employee pleads guilty to giving sensitive info to China (August 2, 2016, Christian Science Monitor)
Kun Shan Chun, who had worked at the FBI for 19 years, disclosed information and sought to cover up his involvement with Chinese officials, say prosecutors.

China puts human rights activists on trial (February 2, 2016, The Guardian)
Authorities have detained and arrested hundreds of activists and lawyers since the government deepened a crackdown on dissent in mid-2015. Many of those detained were associated with the Fengrui law firm, previously headed by Zhou Shifeng, who is also expected to go on trial this week.

Hong Kong Restricts Election Candidates, Renewing Fears of Lost Rights (August 3, 2016, The New York Times)
Moves by the government of Hong Kong to bar candidates from a coming legislative election over the issue of independence from China have raised worries in this semiautonomous city about the deterioration of political freedom and the potential for renewed conflict with Beijing.

China Reins In Communist Youth League, and Its Alumni’s Prospects (August 3, 2016, The New York Times)
President Xi Jinping of China in effect wrote an epitaph to the shrunken influence of his predecessor and former rivals this week when the Communist Party announced major changes to its once-powerful Youth League, a training ground for many officials who have been marginalized under Mr. Xi.

Religion

"Waffle House" of Northwest China (July 29, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
When I first started working at Waffle House, I met a customer named Mr. Gao. He and I have become great friends and I meet weekly with him for lunch. He’s still not a believer, but I’ve shared much of my life and the gospel with him. I continue to pray for his salvation. I wouldn’t have met him without Waffle House.

Praying the Ten Commandments for China (August 2, 2016, Chinese Church Voices)
The following is a translation of an excerpt of a sermon preached by Wang Yi, pastor of Early Rain Reformed Church in Chengdu. In this sermon, he proposes the Ten Commandments as a model to pray for China. For each commandment he highlights some relevant statistics about Chinese society.

Gospel Advancement in the Marketplace (August 3, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
The gospel is advancing in the workplaces of China. Fresh research indicates that the gospel is advancing numerically, with the growth of Christians among business leaders outpacing that among the rest of the population. Evangelism is a common practice Christian CEOs in China, most of whom report sharing their faith on a regular basis.

Christian church leader jailed in Chinese human rights crackdown (August 3, 2016, The Guardian)
Hu Shigen, a leader of an underground church movement, was found guilty of subversion, sentenced to seven years and six months’ imprisonment and derived of political rights for five years. Previously, Hu spent 16 years in prison for other political offences, including sharing leaflets about China’s 1989 crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square.

Society / Life

China’s Cheating Husbands Fuel an Industry of ‘Mistress Dispellers’ (July 29, 2016, The New York Times)
Mistress-dispelling services, increasingly common in China’s larger cities, specialize in ending affairs between married men and their extramarital lovers. Typically hired by a scorned wife, they coach women on how to save their marriages, while inducing the mistress to disappear.

Inside China's largest polo club – in pictures (July 29, 2016, The Guardian)
On the outskirts of Tianjin, membership of the exclusive Goldin Metropolitan, China’s largest polo club, is by invitation only. Increasingly, wealthy Chinese parents are choosing polo and other equestrian activities for their children as a way to bolster their credentials for admission to top-tier universities in the US and UK.

Report: Shanghai a hub for those with overseas education (July 29, 2016, China Daily)
Shanghai is the Chinese city that has the highest ratio of employees who have been educated abroad, but this has not translated into an advantage in producing senior employees, according to a report released on July 19 by LinkedIn and Shanghai’s Xuhui district government.

Inside the grueling Chinese 'sports schools' where 6-year-old farm kids become Olympic superstars (August 1, 2016, Tech Insider)
Shichahai is just one of thousands of intense sports-centered boarding schools around China. With sizable funding from the federal government, kids as young as 6 who show early talents in sports like taekwando, table tennis, gymnastics, and badminton train for years in the hopes of bringing money and honor back to their families. For most, the dream dies early. But for some, it's the first step on the path toward Olympic greatness.

Photos: Left-behind children see parents in cities during summer vacation (August 2, 2016, China Daily)
To enrich summer vacation of left-behind children who came to cities for family reunion with their parents, some cities provided voluntary services and venues to organize a variety of activities for them.

China's elevated bus: Futuristic 'straddling bus' hits the road (August 3, 2016, BBC)
It may look like something from the future, but China's long-awaited "straddling bus" ran its inaugural test in Hebei province this week. The 2m-high Transit Elevated Bus (TEB) straddles the cars below, allowing them to pass through.

Sinkhole opens up on street in China swallowing up passersby (August 3, 2016, ABC)
One person is still missing and two others were pulled from the 30-metre long, 20-metre wide and nine-metre deep sinkhole, which appeared during heavy rainfall in central Zhengzhou in the province of Henan. Rescuers retrieved a man and a woman from the sinkhole after it appeared, but witnesses said one other woman who was riding a bicycle with the man was swept away by a torrent of running water.

China's Internet users total 710 mln (August 3, 2016, China Daily)
China has 710 million Internet users as of June, accounting for 51.7 percent of its total population, exceeding the global average by 3.1 percent,according to an official report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on Wednesday.

Economics / Trade / Business

China Steels Its Resolve, But ‘Zombies’ Abound (July 29, 2016, China Real Time)
China’s steel industry is a test case for the nation’s ability to restructure overbuilt parts of the economy, and so far it’s not going very well. Seven months into 2016, China has cut just 30% of the 45 million tons of steel capacity it has pledged to pare this year. And a Renmin University study found that more than half of China’s steel companies are “zombies.”

Holding up Half the Sky? Assessing the Current State of Female Employment in China (July 29, 2016, China Briefing)
The trend is clear – female employment rates in China are steadily decreasing. According to data from the International Labor Organization (ILO), the work participation rate of women dropped nine percentage points from 73 percent in 1990 to 64 percent in 2014.

Getting Money out of China: Go With Your Gut (July 31, 2016, China Law Blog)
What so many people fail to realize is that many countries (the US and many European countries, for example), make it illegal to take in money via methods that violate laws of the foreign country. What is the jail risk for someone who does this? Who knows? How do these people often get caught?

Recession Hits China — Along With 10% Growth (August 2, 2016, Bloomberg)
The long-feared Chinese hard landing has become a reality in rustbelt Liaoning. The northeastern province, ground zero in China’s multi-year slowdown, saw its economy contract 1 percent in the first half of 2016 as factories splutter and the coal industry groans under the weight of overcapacity. 

Struggling in China, foreign firms seek to become more Chinese (August 2, 2016, CNN)
"Companies are caught up in a 'Catch-22' … China is the second-largest economy in the world — it doesn't seem like a smart business plan to lock yourself out of that," said Drew Bernstein, a partner at Marcum, a New York-based accounting firm that works with Chinese companies. But "it can be tough to play by Chinese rules." "What you're seeing now is how companies are achieving 'Sino-fication' through different means," Bernstein said, describing how multinationals must adapt to China.

The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires (August 2, 2016, Bloomberg)
“I show homes every day to Chinese families from Shanghai, Beijing, cities I’ve never heard of, and sometimes it’s just the mother and kids because the father is working,” Debelle said, referring to so-called astronaut families with the father working in China and mother and children staying in Vancouver.

Education

Walls Surrounding Beijing Universities Set to Be Torn Down; Heated Debate About Traffic Ensues (July 28, 2016, The Beijinger)
The campuses of Renmin University, Beihang University, and the Beijing Institute of Technology are about to undergo rezoning that will tear down many of the walls that have long sectioned them off.

Science / Technology

China, Not Silicon Valley, Is Cutting Edge in Mobile Tech (August 2, 2016, The New York Times)
Silicon Valley has long been the world’s tech capital: It birthed social networking and iPhones and spread those tech products across the globe. The rap on China has been that it always followed in the Valley’s footsteps as government censorship abetted the rise of local versions of Google, YouTube and Twitter. But China’s tech industry — particularly its mobile businesses — has in some ways pulled ahead of the United States. Some Western tech companies, even the behemoths, are turning to Chinese firms for ideas.

China's Jade Rabbit Lunar Rover Ends Mission After 31 Months (August 3, 2016, ABC News)
China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover, which won a large following on social media, has been retired after a record 31 months of collecting data from the moon's surface, state media reported Wednesday. The rover arrived on the moon on Dec. 14, 2013, aboard the Chang'e 3 lunar lander and was designed to operate for just three months.

Smartphones dominate access to internet in China (August 3, 2016, China Daily)
More than 92 percent of China's netizens surfed the internet with smartphones by the end of 2015, indicating that the market for internet gadgets in China is leaning further to mobile terminals, according to figures from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

History / Culture

Mao meets with the last emperor Puyi in 1962 (July 31, 2015, Everyday Life in Mao’s China)

Photos: Tangshan earthquake 'changed everything' (August 1, 2016, China Daily)

A Changing China (August 1, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
But what we often forget is that when we refer to “China,” we are not necessarily talking about a static geographical area. In other words, the map of China has changed. I recently found this great gif that illustrates exactly how the map has changed.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

Why China’s love affair with Shakespeare endures (July 29, 2016, South China Morning Post)
It’s had its ups and downs but, 400 years after William Shakespeare’s death, China’s affinity with The Bard is as strong as ever.

Meet China's patriotic rap group CD Rev (August 2, 2016, BBC)
Chinese group CD Rev are using rap to challenge the world's media over its portrayal of China. Their nationalist track, This is China, was recently promoted by the Communist Youth League.

Travel / Food

China Has Its Own Birthright Tour (July 27, 2016, Foreign Policy)
Young members of the world's largest diaspora can attend camps in their ancestral homeland — now on Beijing’s dime.

You Can Walk in the Sky in Shanghai, Once It’s Safe (July 29, 2016, China Real Time)
Shanghai’s 88-floor Jin Mao Tower is planning to open an outdoor glass walkway 1,116 feet above ground to the public. The glass walkway extends 197 feet in length but is only 3.9 feet wide. Marketed as the “skywalk” by Jin Mao Tower, it is said to be the world’s tallest transparent, fenceless walkway.

Visiting Yunnan: A Bountiful Paradise South of the Clouds (July 31, 2016, The Beijinger)
Flanked by Tibet, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, China’s southern province of Yunnan presents a stunning mixture of Tibetan and Southeast Asian cultures.

A Quick Guide to Suzhou, the “Venice of the East” (August 2, 2016, Johnny Jet)
Five days in Suzhou revealed a haven for the restful in a country in inexhaustible pursuit of all things bigger, faster and more. On numerous occasions, people I met in Suzhou recalled being lulled by its soothing energy into relocation from the likes of Shanghai. Unexpectedly, and wonderfully for western guests on whirlwind Chinese adventures, it is a place to slow down.

China's 300m high cliff walk for fearless tourists – in pictures (August 3, 2016, The Guardian)
A glass-bottomed walkway on Tianmen Mountain in China’s Hunan province has been opened to visitors. The Coiling Dragon Cliff walkway measures 100m and towers 300m above the scenery below. It is the third glass skywalk on the Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.

Language / Language Learning

On The Character: 种 (July 31, 2016, The World of Chinese)
This historical tale leads us to our character of the day, 种, which has several pronunciations and meanings. When pronounced zhǒng, as in the tale, it means “breed, seed, or species”; when it’s pronounced zhòng, it means “to plant, sow”.

Resources

View the Story (Simplified Chinese) (Viewthestory.com)

Links for Researchers

Boosting The Party’s Voice: China’s quest for global ideological dominance (MERICS China Monitor)
The latest China Monitor “Boosting the Party’s voice: China’s efforts to shape the global ideological discourse” by MERICS expert Mareike Ohlberg analyses the CCP’s campaign to amplify its voice.

Can China eradicate poverty? (July 30, 2016, East Asia Forum)
China has had remarkable success in alleviating poverty. According to World Bank statistics, over the past several decades China has accounted for more than 70 per cent of reductions in global poverty. The poverty-stricken population in China has plunged from 770 million people in 1978 — the year before economic reforms began — to 55.8 million in 2015.

New Report Details Why a War between China and America Would be Catastrophic (August 1, 2016, The National Interest)
A war between the United States and China would cause severe losses on both sides, but—today at least—Beijing would bear the brunt of the casualties. However, as China’s anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities continue to improve—the balance of losses would shift more towards Beijing’s favor by 2025.

Image credit: by Dominique Bergeron, via Flickr