ZGBriefs | October 27, 2016

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Featured Article

Vatican and China in final push for elusive deal on bishops (October 21, 2016, Reuters)
Representatives from the Vatican and China are expected to meet before the end of the month in Rome in an effort to finalize a deal on the ordination of bishops on the mainland, a move aimed at ending a longstanding dispute, according to Catholic Church sources familiar with the negotiations. The Church sources also told Reuters that China is preparing to ordain at least two new bishops before the end of the year and these appointments would have the blessing of the Vatican. A person with ties to the leadership in Beijing confirmed that these ordinations would go ahead.

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Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

China Recalls Passports Across Xinjiang Amid Ongoing Security Crackdown (October 20, 2016, Radio Free Asia)
Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang are requiring residents, who include the mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking Uyghur group, to hand in their passports to police by early next year amid ongoing travel restrictions specific to the troubled region. The Shihezi municipal police department made the announcement, which comes after similar orders were issued in Xinjiang's Ili prefecture in April 2015, in a statement posted to its official social media accounts.

Xi Jinping is a strongman. That does not mean he gets his way (October 22, 2016, The Economist)
Mr Xi spars with crusty generals, powerful bureaucracies and large state-owned enterprises controlled by the central government. But an even greater impediment to his power is an age-old one: local authority. This is reflected in a popular saying that refers to the compound in Beijing where China’s leaders live and work: “Policies do not go beyond Zhongnanhai.”

For China's Xi, anticorruption drive is all about Communist Party survival (+video) (October 24, 2016, Christian Science Monitor)
Xi has wielded the anticorruption banner, many critics have argued, to push aside political rivals and stifle internal party dissent. But his focus on cleaning up a party rife with abuse has also been portrayed as a life-and-death struggle for the survival of China’s Communist Party.

What’s happening at the Communist Party of China’s secret meeting this year? (October 24, 2016, CNBC)
A secretive four-day meeting of hundreds of Chinese leaders is taking place in a Beijing hotel this week as president Xi Jinping sets out to consolidate power and further enforce his hard-line stance against graft. Beyond party discipline and politics, however, international investors are more interested in how leadership changes will shape the economy in the next five years as the country transitions to a greater dependence on consumption amid concerns about debt sustainability.

Silence Follows Blast of Yulin Coverage (October 25, 2016, Medium)
An official news release from Xinhua News Agency, the foundation of Hong Kong media reports yesterday and international media reports today, came at around 5 p.m. And once the Xinhua version was out, the story started progressively disappearing from the internet inside China, buried and marginalised.

Beijing engages in ‘unprecedented’ op-ed battle with Hong Kong activists on self-determination (October 25, 2016, Hong Kong Free Press)
China’s foreign affairs organ has engaged in an op-ed battle with Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong and Jeffrey Ngo, after the duo wrote an article on Hongkongers’ right to self-determination. Ngo, a postgraduate history student of New York University, told HKFP that he anticipated Beijing to be “extremely troubled by calls for self-determination even though that is a right Hong Kongers deserve,” but did not expect that the Chinese government would give such a prompt response.

China to carry out more military drills in South China Sea (October 26, 2016, Reuters)
China will carry out military drills in the South China Sea all day on Thursday, the country's maritime safety administration said on Wednesday, ordering all other shipping to stay away.

Religion

Hope for Returnees (October 21, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
I want to add a footnote to the wide range of ideas and resources suggested: that we give credit to God’s ability to keep those he has touched, through the power of his word planted in them, even if the discipleship we have offered is less than ideal. Three brief stories (names changed) of returnees to first-tier cities illustrate this.

The Separation Between Mosque and State (October 21, 2016, China File)
The loudest critics of the Hui are not state officials but reformists from within the Hui community, often returnees from religious study in the Middle East. They deride Hui Islam as facile and compromised, both because of its melding with Confucian and Daoist practices and because they believe that many of its practitioners have succumbed to materialism and corruption.

Why are Chinese Christians so concerned about new religious affairs regulations? (October 23, 2016, South China Morning Post)
Leaders of China’s Protestant house churches – those operating independently of state-sanctioned religious organisations – called last month on tens of millions of Christians across the mainland to pray and fast for three days as the State Council’s Legislative Affairs Office mulled the introduction of a tougher version of the Regulations on Religious Affairs. A public consultation exercise on draft amendments that have been fiercely criticised at home and abroad concluded this month.

Chinese Megachurch Pastor Released After Seven Years In Prison (October 24, 2016, Christian Today)
A megachurch pastor who was arrested and imprisoned seven years ago for protesting the demolition of a house church in China has been released, according to reports. Christian persecution watchdog China Aid reports that Pastor Yang Rongli was arrested along with her husband in 2009.

“Mission China 2030” in Korea (October 25, 2016, Chinese Church Voices)
The mainland site China Christian Daily recently reported on the Mission China 2030 conference held in Jeju, Korea last month. It is part of a movement in the Chinese church to send 20,000 missionaries out from China by the year 2030.

Society / Life

The Chinese Dream (October, 2016, Places Journal)
In China, the astounding scale and speed of urbanization is galvanizing a generation of rural activists.

Sinica Podcast: The Consequences of the One-Child Policy Will Be Felt for Generations (October 20, 2016, ChinaFile)
The first day of 2016 marked the official end of China’s one-child policy, one of the most controversial and draconian approaches to population management in human history. The rules have not been abolished but modified, allowing all married Chinese couples to have two children. However, the change may have come too late to address the negative ways the policy has shaped the country’s demographics and the lives of its citizens for decades to come

Risky Business for China’s Window Cleaners (October 20, 2016, Sixth Tone)
Nobody knows for sure the exact number of casualties suffered each year, as monitoring and accountability systems are poor. But according to Huang Shengchu, director of the Center for Safety Research under the State Administration of Work Safety, more than 1,000 lives are lost every year to accidents in the construction sector, and 60 percent of these deaths come as a result of falls, including those from collapsed scaffolding.

China’s plan to organize its society relies on ‘big data’ to rate everyone (October 22, 2016, The Washington Post)
The government hasn’t announced exactly how the plan will work — for example, how scores will be compiled and different qualities weighted against one another. But the idea is that good behavior will be rewarded and bad behavior punished, with the Communist Party acting as the ultimate judge.

Living in China’s Expanding Deserts (October 24, 2016, The New York Times)
Nearly 20 percent of China is desert, and drought across the northern region is getting worse. One recent estimate said China had 21,000 square miles more desert than what existed in 1975 — about the size of Croatia. As the Tengger expands, it is merging with two other deserts to form a vast sea of sand that could become uninhabitable.

China’s Latest Deadly Industrial Explosion Spotlights Dire Workplace Safety (October 25, 2016, TIME)
A suspected industrial explosion tore through a small town in northwestern China on Monday, leaving at least 14 people dead and almost 150 injured, while cleaving a crater several feet deep in the street and shattering the windows of a nearby hospital and kindergarten.

Helping Adopted Children Seek Closure (October 25, 2016, Sixth Tone)
In both Chinese and American families, adopted children often struggle with identity issues as they grow up. They commonly feel self-conscious or out of place in their new environment, curious about their origins, and frustrated at the difficulty of finding their birth families. However, the way that adoptive families treat children’s early memories and their wishes to find out more about their biological parents varies substantially between cultures.

Resettling China’s ‘Ecological Migrants’ (October 25, 2016, The New York Times)
China calls them “ecological migrants”: 329,000 people whom the government had relocated from lands distressed by climate change, industrialization, poor policies and human activity to 161 hastily built villages. They were the fifth wave in an environmental and poverty alleviation program that has resettled 1.14 million residents of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a territory of dunes and mosques and camels along the ancient Silk Road.

It’s so dangerous being a bridesmaid in China that some brides are hiring professionals instead (October 26, 2016, Quartz)
Weddings today have become a social display during which Chinese newlyweds receive recognition and blessings from acquaintances and families. But like the procession of a luxurious and high-profile wedding motorcade, a bridesmaid is often objectified as part of the wedding display. The physical beauty and number of bridesmaids are often seen as a sign of power and “face” of the families involved in the marriage.

China is the least generous country in the world, 2016 World Giving Index finds (October 26, 2016, Shanghaiist)
Looking for a helping hand? You've come to the wrong place. China has been ranked dead last in a new worldwide survey on generosity by the Charities Aid Foundation. For the 2016 World Giving Index, the foundation polled an average of 1,000 people in 140 different countries or regions, asking them if in the last month they had helped a stranger, donated money to charity or volunteered their time.

Economics / Trade / Business

The Chinese Government Is Getting Real on Requirements (October 19, 2016, China Law Blog)
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but eventually, if you are not operating legally in China, there will come a time when you will pay the price for that. The Chinese government has stepped up its law and order efforts and that has meant that time is coming more often these days for foreign companies doing business in China.

The Yuan’s Internationalization is Just Beginning (October 24, 2016, China File)
The official acceptance of the yuan (or renminbi) into the International Monetary Fund’s elite currency club on October 1 marked a milestone in the Chinese government’s campaign to boost the yuan’s international appeal

The risks from China’s property bubble (October 24, 2016, East Asia Forum)
The housing market in China has been behaving wildly. Housing prices in China’s major cities are up by 30 per cent on a year ago. The frenzy to purchase property has come to dominate media reporting around the country, with the People’s Daily capturing a riot at the opening of a new housing development late last month in Hangzhou, where the G20 summit was held just weeks before.

The incredible rise of China and India, in two GIFs (October 25, 2016, The Washington Post)
You won't be able to tell the story of the 21st century without India and China as its main protagonists. Just look at the numbers.

China receptionist job sees 10,000 applicants (October 26, 2016, BBC)
China's highly competitive civil service recruitment process recently saw a record-setting 9,837 applicants for a post as "China Democratic League public reception staff". The Democratic League is one of several minority political parties in the country which have very limited powers, and is hardly seen as a prestigious placement. So why are so many people hoping to be its receptionist?

Education

Boom and Bust of Shenzhen’s International Schools (October 25, 2016, Sixth Tone)
The popularity of “international schools” has resulted in many underprepared providers scrambling to take advantage of the market, according to a report in Guangzhou Daily on Sunday, with disappointing consequences for students and parents.

Chinese High School Blues (October 25, 2016, The World of Chinese)
Californian Kami Katz, 19, is used to being woken by her family each morning. These days, it’s a teacher banging on her door. She has struggled with the gray skies of Beijing, after the blue skies back home. She’s among a group of foreign students at the Beijing No. 80 High School in the capital’s Wangjing district, who have traded life at an American high school for one in China. In return for getting a glimpse into the lives of Chinese students, they have taken on quite a number of challenges over the course of their 10-month stay.

Concerns in China over foreign students’ ‘preferential’ access (October 26, 2016, Times Higher Education)
The state-controlled Global Times reported that ethnically Chinese students with overseas passports gained via family emigration are winning university places without having to take the notoriously competitive gao kao university entrance test that domestic students must endure.

Health / Environment

HIV is growing so fast among Chinese youth that a university is selling testing kits in vending machines (October 24, 2016, Quartz)
The kits, which cost less than $5, are sold alongside snacks and drinks in the machines at China’s Southwest Petroleum University in Sichuan Province. The province has a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS (pdf, page 7) and was among the top three Chinese provinces, that accounted for nearly half of China’s half million cases (link in Chinese) at the end of 2014, according to China’s 2015 AIDS report.

China officials stuff cotton gauze into air monitoring equipment to falsify results (October 26, 2016, The Telegraph)
China has detained five local officials after they jammed cotton gauze into sensors used to monitor pollution in an attempt to improve air quality readings, media reported. The environmental officials had also tampered with computers to alter the results of pollution monitoring in the northern city of Xi’an, reports said.

Science / Technology

China's longest space mission launches (October 16, 2016, CNN)
This is China's longest-ever crewed space mission. On board are two astronauts — Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong. They will dock with the Tiangong-2 space lab, which was launched last month. Jing and Chen will remain in space for a total of 33 days, with 30 of those spent conducting experiments related to medicine, physics and biology in the space lab.

History / Culture

Remembering The Long March – The Cute Way (October 22, 2016, What’s on Weibo)
In commemoration of the Long March (1934-1935), Chinese official state media have released a series of gifs and images of a cute Chinese Red Army soldier. Not all netizens can appreciate the gesture.

Travel / Food

China in Winter: Where Should I Visit? (October 20, 2016, Wild China Blog)
Most importantly, traveling around China during the months of November to January allows you to view and experience the land through a completely new lens. Get inspired for your next big Chinese winter adventure with the following destinations:

Traveling to Xi’an – The Former Capital of China (October 21, 2016, Sapore di Cina)
Xi’an is the capital of the Shaanxi province (not to be confused with Shanxi), and is one of the former imperial capitals. However, it is not the only former imperial capital of China, although the majority of them (Anyang, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, and Luoyang) are found in the neighboring Henan province. Nonetheless, after Beijing and Shanghai, Xi’an is probably the best-known city in China, and the Terracotta Warriors, a World Heritage Site since 1987, is without a doubt its most popular tourist attraction. This guide tries to give all the information necessary for you to enjoy this emblematic city.

A Trip Through Guiyang (October 26, 2016, The World of Chinese)
One thousand and seventy-one meters above sea level in the downtown area, Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou Province, is probably one of the most geographically diverse cities in China. On the plateau, mountains, hills, basins, and terraces dot the urban environment. Here, skyscrapers stand alongside hills while rivers connect wetlands around the city. The mild climate makes it ideal for tourists around the year.

Language / Language Learning

China’s Digital Soft Power Play (October 24, 2016, The New York Times)
Looking at Chinese script, you might empathize with the words of an 18th-century Jesuit missionary: “One can only endure the pain of learning it for the love of God.” The piety may be gone, but the Chinese have heard this kind of complaint for over four centuries and are finally doing something about it.

Books

A Free Resource — "Gospel in Life" (October 24, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
Our friends at the International Outreach department of The Gospel Coalition (TGC) are offering a free resource to those serving in China—Tim Keller’s Gospel in Life, in simplified Chinese. 

3 Questions: "Salt and Light" (October 26, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
Stacey Bieler together with Carol Hamrin edited three volumes of Salt and Light: Lives of Faith that Shaped Modern China. Here she talks about how Salt and Light came to be and the impact it has had on her own life.

Image credit: Catholic Church in Beijing, by sj liew, via Flickr