ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | May 5, 2016

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ZGBriefs is a compilation of news items gathered from published online sources. ChinaSource is not responsible for the content, and inclusion in ZGBriefs does not equal endorsement. Please go here to support ZGBriefs.

Featured Article

China Reveals What It Wants to Do with Christianity (April 28, 2016, Christianity Today)
According to Xi, uniting all believers under CPC leadership is necessary to preserve internal harmony while warding off hostile foreign forces that may use religion to destabilize the regime. Xi’s insistence is not new, nor is it simply a function of China’s Communist rule. Since imperial times, state power has been seen as ultimate. It is, and has always been, the prerogative of the Chinese state to define orthodox belief and to set the boundaries for religious groups whose doctrines fall outside official limits.


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Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

China battles foreign influence with new NGO law (April 28, 2016, Christian Science Monitor)
China’s legislature brushed aside international criticism and enacted a strict law Thursday that authorizes tighter controls on foreign nongovernmental organizations, including police supervision of charities and nonprofit groups.

China Will Not Permit War on the Korean Peninsula, Xi Jinping Says (April 28, 2016, TIME)
Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed that his country would prevent war from breaking out between North and South Korea, in an address to several Asian Foreign Ministers on Thursday.

China refuses US carrier permission for port call in Hong Kong harbor (April 29, 2016, The Guardian)
China has denied the US aircraft carrier USS Stennis and accompanying naval vessels permission to make a port call in Hong Kong. It was not immediately known what prompted the Chinese action, but it comes amid growing tension between the two countries over Beijing’s moves to assert its claims to much of the South China Sea.

Chinese Rights Lawyer Strikes Back at ABA Over Scuttled Book (April 29, 2016, China Real Time)
A feud between a Chinese human rights lawyer and the American Bar Association over a proposed book has gone from bad to worse. Teng Biao, a prominent Chinese lawyer and rights activist who now lives in the U.S., on Thursday accused the ABA of lying about its handling of the book proposal the organization made to him in 2014.

Overseas NGO Law FAQs (May 1, 2016, NGO’s in China)
The first few FAQs have to do with basic questions related to the how INGOs can operate in China under the law. The last two FAQs have to do with issues that I’d like to raise as deserving our attention.

China Puts a Tycoon, Ren Zhiqiang, on Probation for Criticizing Policies (May 2, 2016, The New York Times)
Chinese Communist Party officials have put an outspoken property tycoon who is a party member on a one-year probation for writing online comments criticizing President Xi Jinping’s propaganda policies, according to reports published on Monday by Chinese news websites.

Chinese Communist Party Cracks Down on ‘Improper Discussion’ — Even After Retirement (May 3, 2016, China Real Time)
As Chinese President Xi Jinping continues his bid to consolidate power, his 88 million-strong Communist Party has increasingly spoken with one voice. Failure to sing to the same tune could mean facing the music.

'Big Daddy Xi' no more? Chinese president's nickname nixed (May 3, 2016, The Guardian)
Propaganda officials warn state media off using moniker after push to portray leader as man of the people appears to backfire.

China's Xi says not stifling debate but wants everyone on same song sheet (May 3, 2016, Reuters)
China's ruling Communist Party is not trying to curtail internal debate or even criticism with rules banning "baseless comments" but is simply trying to ensure no one is "singing out of tune", President Xi Jinping has said.

China's Xi Jinping denies House of Cards power struggle but attacks 'conspirators' (May 3, 2016, The Guardian)
Xi Jinping has rejected claims that a “House of Cards power struggle” is raging at the pinnacle of Chinese politics, but claimed “conspirators” were attempting to undermine the Communist party from within.

China May Release Last Known Tiananmen Prisoner in October (May 4, 2016, Sinosphere)
A man believed to be the last person still in prison for participating in the 1989 Tiananmen protests is scheduled to be released later this year, a human rights group said. The man, Miao Deshun, was given an 11-month reduction in his sentence this spring, which means he should be released in October, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, an organization based in San Francisco that has lobbied for Mr. Miao and other prisoners from that era.

China deploys folk singer to disputed Spratly Islands (May 4, 2016, BBC)
Her career has taken her round the world but popular Chinese folk singer Song Zuying's latest tour has taken her to new destinations – very new. The military chanteuse entertained workers on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratlys in the South China Sea. It is the first stop in a tour of the disputed territory, where China has been reclaiming land and building military facilities on reefs.

Religion

Jewish troubles in Kaifeng, China (April 28, 2016, Times of Israel)
The Jewish center has been shuttered; foreign Jewish tour groups are not permitted there; the Sino-Judaic Institute’s educational program has been suspended; security forces are keeping a vigilant eye on community members; and rumors have reached our ears that the authorities have removed all commemorative signage regarding the old Jewish neighborhood. What has led to this drastic turn of events?

Church in China claims victory in land battle with authorities that left pastor's wife buried alive (May 1, 2016, Christian Daily)
A Chinese church in Zhumadian has won a land battle that left the pastor's wife buried alive while trying to prevent a demolition team from destroying their church building.

Orthodox Easter in China (May 2, 2016, Outside-In)
In China, this Easter marked the first time in 16 years that an ordained Orthodox priest was able to preside over Easter services, in the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province.

China Wants to Feed the World’s 1.6 Billion Muslims (May 2, 2016, Tea Leaf Nation)
The officially atheist country is salivating at a $1.6 trillion halal market. So far, it's been unable to break in.

Migrant Worker, How Are You? (May 3, 2016, Chinese Church Voices)
This video, produced by The Amity Foundation, China’s largest Christian charity organization, is a “letter” to the urban migrants, acknowledging their presence, and role in building the cities. 

The New Normal for Faith-Based, Foreign NGOs in China: Key Provisions of the New Law (May 4, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
While there are still many unanswered questions about how the law will be carried out, it would be wise to start thinking now about the potential impact of this new legislation. 

Society / Life

8 die in coach hijacking, arson in NW China (April 29, 2016, Xinhua)
Eight people died and five others were injured after a coach was hijacked and set on fire in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Thursday, local police said. The incident happened at about 12:40 p.m. near the entrance of a tunnel on the Fuzhou-Yinchuan Highway in Lantian County, according to the public security bureau of Xi'an City, capital of Shaanxi.

Debate over Chinese city's women-only bus (April 29, 2016, BBC)
The introduction of a women-only bus in one Chinese city has riled some local men and sparked an online debate. The new summer service will run during morning and evening rush hours in the eastern city of Zhengzhou, in an effort to cut the number of groping incidents, Dahe Daily reports.

Video: Factory Buddies (May 2, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
What we rarely think about, though, is that behind that “Made in China” label are real people, with real lives, and real hopes and dreams. In almost all cases, they are young people who have moved from the countryside to work in a factory in a city. Having left behind loved ones, their fellow workers become their new family.

China's new weapon against water pollution: its people (May 2, 2016, Marketplace)
China's government calls its newest environmental campaign "hei chou he," which literally translates to "black and stinky rivers." Walking through an industrial section of southern Beijing, resident Shi Dianshou thinks he's found one.

Domestic abuse is thriving in China’s culture of silence (May 2, 2016, The Washington Post)
In China, as elsewhere, domestic violence is a hidden epidemic — a public health crisis dismissed as private scandal, a crime discounted or covered up.

Video of Beatings Amid Demolition in China Leads to Punishments (May 2, 2016, Sinosphere)
An official who oversaw a demolition project in southern China has stepped down, and two others have been dismissed, state news media reported on Monday, after a video showing law enforcement officers beating women and at least one child circulated on social media, prompting widespread criticism.

In China’s Northeast, a Daily Jostle for Jobs Produces Mostly Despair (May 2, 2016, The New York Times)
Mr. Zhang moved to Shenyang from the countryside when he was 18. With his knack for laying electric cables, he had grown accustomed to working almost every day. Now, sometimes more than a week passes without work. He worries that his wife, a waitress, might leave him. They have a 10-year-old son and a 20-year-old daughter, and their savings of about $3,000 are dwindling.

China's One Child Policy Was 'The Stupidest Thing A Country Ever Could Have Done' (May 3, 2016, Asia Society)
A sociologist who has worked closely with senior Chinese government demographers says that China's recent shift from a "One Child Policy" to allowing two children per family will do little to alleviate fallout from the long-standing birth limits. "No, there will not be a baby boom, and yes, there will be an economic bust," said Dudley Poston, a Texas A&M University demographer and sociologist who has researched China's population issues for 35 years.

7 Expat Freedoms in China (May 3, 2016, Chengdu Living)
Is it possible that we, as foreigners, can feel more free in China than in our home countries? I chose to write this article because I feel it many ways, I am.

The Great Fapiao Mystery (May 3, 2016, The World of Chinese)
It is something everyone eventually runs into in China. You come out of a subway station, and the entrance is blocked by several furtive middle-aged women. When you come close enough, they glance sideways or stare at their shoes, murmuring in a listless whisper, “Fapiao, fapiao. Do you want fapiao? Real fapiao.” If you don’t understand the word, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were trying to sell you drugs, but what they are selling is less fun and probably more precious: the elusive invoice (发票 fāpiào)

China's military appeals to younger generation with 'kill, kill, kill' video (May 4, 2016, The Guardian)
China’s military is appealing to the younger generation with a slick new recruitment video featuring aircraft carriers, rocket launchers, tanks and fighter jets, all set to a rousing rap-rock soundtrack. With lyrics such as “just waiting for the order to kill, kill, kill”, the video appears aimed at millennials brought up on first-person shooter video games such as Call of Duty.

Economics / Trade / Business

Chinese business travel boom brings opportunities for U.S. companies (May 1, 2016, USA Today)
China has surpassed the USA in the amount of money spent on business travel, and industries ranging from planemakers to hotels to luggage companies are clamoring for a foothold in the massive new market.

Baidu’s problem goes way deeper than a dead college student (May 2, 2016, Tech in Asia)
If users are angry and distrustful of the market leader for too long, something else will inevitably appear to challenge for that market leader’s share by willing over angry users.

Beijing to release frozen pork to ease market pressure (May 3, 2016, Xinhua)
Beijing will release 3.05 million kilograms from its frozen pork reserves onto the market to ease pork supply pressure and contain a price surge. Beijing's pork prices have been rising since the Lunar New Year due to tight supply, with raw pork prices surging 50.6 percent month on month in April, according to the Beijing municipal government.

Apple's Betting China's Farmers Are No Rubes (May 3, 2016, Bloomberg)
For the last five years, incomes have grown faster in China’s rural areas than in cities. Per capita rural incomes now top $6,000 annually — a key threshold for consumer spending and enough, for some, to afford the new low-end iPhone. If Apple and other consumer goods companies want to continue growing in China, they clearly need to reach this demographic, which accounts for half of the population.

Apple loses China trademark case for 'iPhone' on leather goods (May 4, 2016, Reuters)
Apple Inc has lost a battle for the use of the "iPhone" trademark on leather goods in China after a Beijing court ruled against the world's biggest technology company in favor of a local firm, state media reported.

China’s Film Market: By the Numbers (May 4, 2016, China Real Time)
The film sector is one of few boom industries in China. Here are some key numbers about China’s movie industry.

China Presses Economists to Brighten Their Outlooks (May 4, 2016, China Real Time)
Chinese authorities are training their sights on a new set of targets: economists, analysts and business reporters with gloomy views on the country’s economy.

Education

Why So Many Chinese Students Come to the U.S. (May 3, 2016, The Wall Street Journal)
They’re eager to escape flawed education systems back home, where low standards are leaving many ill-prepared for a global economy.

Health / Environment

The Last Downer: China and the End of Down Syndrome (May 2, 2016, What’s on Weibo)
The ethical debate that is so alive in many countries seems practically non-existent in China, where Down syndrome is slowly disappearing from society.

China Investigates Baidu After Student’s Death From Cancer (May 3, 2016, The New York Times)
The student, Wei Zexi, 21, from the central province of Shaanxi, died of synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, on April 12. Before his death, he wrote a long post on a Chinese website that detailed his experience seeking treatment. In a promoted search result on Baidu, he learned of a hospital in Beijing that offered treatment for people with his condition.

Chinese consumers buy up fresh Australian air by the can (May 4, 2016, Shanghaiist)
John Dickinson and Theo Ruygrok are offering Chinese lungs a variety of different "flavors" of air, taken from places like the Blue Mountains, Bondi Beach, Yarra Valley, New Zealand and Tasmania.

Amid scandal, China military hospital closes doors to new patients (May 4, 2016, Reuters)
A Chinese military hospital, embroiled in a scandal over the death of a college student who had sought experimental cancer treatment at the facility, has temporarily closed its doors to new patients, state media reported on Wednesday.

Science / Technology

China's push for driverless cars accelerates (April 28, 2016, BBC)
With the Beijing Motor Show under way, the days when the country's domestic car firms was brushed off as mere copycats are well and truly over. And a lot of this year's buzz is around driverless cars in particular.

Man on the Moon: China Sets Lunar Mission Date (April 29, 2016, China Real Time)
Chinese spacemen could walk on the moon in the next 15 to 20 years, a senior space official said, in remarks that state media described this week as Beijing’s first official confirmation of its manned lunar ambitions.

History / Culture

China's history as told through its unbelievable queues (April 28, 2016, BBC)
Queuing in China is not for the faint-hearted – photographer Wu Guofang has been documenting the phenomenon through history.

Shanghai’s 1922 Refugee Crisis (April 30, 2016, China Rhyming)
1922 saw the sudden influx of a large number of White Russian refugees in sensational circumstances and is well worth remembering.

Liao Yiwu on human rights, universal values and Chinese culture (May 2, 2016, The China Story)
However, the exiled writer and social critic Liao Yiwu sees the failure of foreign heads of state to challenge the Chinese government’s abuse of human rights as amounting to a triumph for Chinese authoritarian politics. In the essay below, he writes that it shows ‘the democratic West’ as having ‘shrunk back to the point where it can hardly retreat any further’.

A canteen during the Great Leap Forward in 1959 (May 2, 2016, Everyday Life in Mao’s China)

Q. and A.: Roderick MacFarquhar on the Cultural Revolution and China Today (May 3, 2016, The New York Times)
Roderick MacFarquhar, a scholar of elite Chinese politics at Harvard University, is a leading expert on the Cultural Revolution. He is the author of the trilogy “The Origins of the Cultural Revolution” and, with Michael Schoenhals, of “Mao’s Last Revolution.” In an interview, he discussed the relevance of that era for contemporary China.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

China to roll out blacklist for paid video streamers, and stricter restrictions for regular users (April 25, 2016, Tech in Asia)
A couple of weeks ago, we learned that virtually all of China’s independent video streaming platforms were in hot water with authorities. Those sites are still under investigation, but meanwhile, China’s mainstream tech companies with streaming video platforms – Baidu, Sina, Youku (now owned by Alibaba), Sohu etc. – have agreed to follow a restrictive new set of streaming guidelines.

Himalaya: Ladder to Paradise – A Film Review. (April 29, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
Ladder to Paradise, a documentary, draws our attention to a growing part of Tibetan society where a new generation of young people are carving out their careers as guides up Mt. Everest. It’s more than a job. To them, it’s marrying the spiritual meaning within the mountains with a passionate enthusiasm to make a living in an exciting new way.

China sports ministry hauled on the carpet over graft measures (May 3, 2016, Reuters)
China's top graft-busting body rapped the sports ministry again on Wednesday for not taking the country's sweeping campaign against corruption seriously enough, summoning in 17 ministry discipline officials to discuss the problem.

Travel / Food

Through deserts, mountains and trade posts on the Silk Road (Lonely Planet)
Two Silk Road routes run through China’s Wild West, both of which begin in the east at Xī’ān, the ancient capital of China.

Adventurous American couple plans to walk across China (April 29, 2016, Shanghaiist)
In October of this year, the young couple will begin their on-foot trek down China. Their route begins in a far-off northern corner of Heilongjiang province, in a county called Mohe. The walk down south will take them through ten major cities and across nine provinces, before finally ending up in Sanya, Hainan. According to Google Maps, that's a distance of 5,674 kilometers and 1,162 hours.

Shanghai Disneyland Draws Crowds—and It’s Not Even Open Yet (May 1, 2016, Shanghaiist)
Disneyland’s periphery is drawing thousands of people daily, as anticipation builds for the park’s long awaited opening in mid-June. Some, like Ms. Liu, rode the subway to a newly opened jumbo-size station with colorful silhouettes of Mickey Mouse on its escalators.

The bizarre rock formations of Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark (May 2, 2016, China Underground)
Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark is a national park located primarily in the Chinese province of Gansu, not to far from Dunhuang, that shows the 700,000 years old Yardang geological feature of the area.

Chinese police to patrol Rome's streets (May 2, 2016, Reuters)
Chinese police are joining Italian officers on the streets of Rome and Milan in an experiment aimed at helping tourists from China feel safe, Italy’s interior ministry has announced. […]  The four Chinese officers, who were trained by Italians in Beijing, will wear the same uniforms they wear at home so their compatriots can recognise them easily.

A Chinese Tour of Europe (May 3, 2016, Roads and Kingdoms)
Last April, I joined a group on a 10-day journey to the UK, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Italy. What started as journalistic curiosity rapidly evolved into a photographic statement against the abuses of a system that promotes consumption at the expense of meaningful human experiences.

Language / Language Learning

How technology can help you learn Chinese (April 28, 2016, Hacking Chinese)
The impact of technology on learning Chinese is mostly positive. It means that more of the study time is spent on activities that matter, that we can find more and better learning materials, that we can talk with native speakers located on the other side of the world and that we can handle much more demanding language tasks.

Books

China’s Cultural Revolution (April 29, 2016, Financial Times)
Two contrasting accounts explore a period of upheaval that the country is yet to reckon with.The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962-1976, by Frank Dikötter, Bloomsbury, RRP£25/$32, 432 pages
The Cowshed: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, by Ji Xianlin, New York Review Books, RRP£14.99/$24.95, 216 pages

Links for Researchers

Bilingual FNGO Law (China Law Translate)

Christianity in China: From the History and Operation of “Evergreen China Service” and Beyond (Global Missiology)
My goal for this paper is to research, explore and explain the different views concerning Christianity in China. I am writing this with the hope that together we in the West might understand the full picture of Christianity in China better. Instead of only posting a blog or presenting my opinion, I wish to present a well-researched representation of the situation in China.

Image credit: Xishiku Church, by Joann Pittman, via Flickr

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Joann Pittman

Joann Pittman

Joann Pittman is Vice President of Partnership and China Engagement and editor of ZGBriefs. Prior to joining ChinaSource, Joann spent 28 years working in China, as an English teacher, language student, program director, and cross-cultural trainer for organizations and businesses engaged in China. She has also taught Chinese at the University …View Full Bio