FEATURED ARTICLEThe Politics of Rain in Beijing (July 23, 2012, The Useless Tree)Central authorities are sensitive to such criticism, since infrastructural development is often held up as proof of the efficacy of Chinese style authoritarianism.That worry stems from the nature of regime legitimation under authoritarianism. without regular elections to provide a basis of electoral legitimacy (i.e. there is no opportunity ever to “throw the bums out”), an authoritarian regime has to rely, instead, on what has been called performance legitimacy. The implicit pact of domination enables the party to maintain political hegemony without democratic opening and in return it will provide for society certain public goods, especially economic growth and social stability. This has seemed to work for the CCP over the past three decades.GOVERNMENT / POLITICS / FOREIGN AFFAIRSChina steps up fight against Tibetan separatism (July 22, 2012, AFP)China’s propaganda chief has ordered officials to intensify the fight against separatism in Tibet, a report said, following a series of self-immolations in protest at Beijing’s rule. Li Changchun, ranked fifth in the hierarchy of the ruling Communist Party, called for the campaign during an inspection tour of Lhasa, where he visited the Jokhang Temple, the centre of Tibetan Buddhism, the People’s Daily reported on Sunday. “The lifeblood of Tibet rests in ethnic unity, social harmony and stability,” the paper quoted Li as saying during his visit to the Himalayan region last week.China Sends Troops to Disputed Islands (July 23, 2012, The New York Times)The Central Military Commission, Chinas most powerful military body, has approved the deployment of a garrison of soldiers from the Peoples Liberation Army to guard disputed islands claimed by China and Vietnam in the South China Sea, the state-run Xinhua news agency said Sunday. On Monday, there was a first meeting of the 45 legislators elected over the weekend to govern the 1,100 people who live on the island groups of the Spratlys, the Paracels and the Macclesfield Bank, Chinese authorities told state media. The meeting was the latest escalation of the territorial dispute between China and its neighbors over the island groups, known in Chinese as the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha Islands. The new legislators will not only govern the island groups, many of which consist of rocks and atolls, but also about 772,000 square miles of the South China Sea over which China claims jurisdiction, state media said.China censors coverage of deadly Beijing floods (July 24, 2012, AFP)Beijing authorities have reportedly ordered Chinese media to stick to positive news about record weekend floods, after the death of at least 37 people sparked fierce criticism of the government. Censors also deleted microblog posts criticising the official response to the disaster in China’s rapidly modernising capital, which came at a time of heightened political sensitivity ahead of a 10-yearly handover of power. City propaganda chief Lu Wei told media outlets to stick to stories of “achievements worthy of praise and tears”, the Beijing Times daily reported, as authorities tried to stem a tide of accusations that they failed to do enough. Many Beijing residents took to the country’s popular microblogs, or weibos, to complain that some of the deaths could have been prevented if better warnings had been issued and the city’s ancient drainage systems modernised.China’s Hu calls for party unity as succession looms (July 24, 2012, Reuters)Chinese President Hu Jintao has called for unity in the ruling Communist Party and unflinching backing for economic reforms in the face of “unprecedented challenges”, as Beijing struggles with a scandal-hit leadership transition and economic slowdown.Hu’s speech to dozens of top officials dominated the front pages of China’s major state-run newspapers on Tuesday, a sign of its importance in setting the themes for a party congress late this year that will install a new generation of leaders.Using jargon-laden political slogans, Hu laid out two themes likely to dominate the congress: a call for conformity after the contentious dismissal of one-time leadership contender Bo Xilai; and a defense of Hu’s efforts to shift the economy to more balanced, equitable growth driven by domestic consumption.Chinese activists ‘sentenced’ for Hong Kong protests (July 25, 2012, BBC News)Officials have sentenced two activists from mainland China to labour camp for joining Hong Kong’s annual pro-democracy protests, reports say. Song Ningsheng and Zeng Jiuzi from eastern Jiangxi province face 14 months each for their part in the 1 July demonstrations. They have been petitioning Chinese authorities to reopen investigations into the deaths of their spouses. They were among a number of mainland Chinese demonstrators at the rally.Beijing police launch Internet restrictions (July 26, 2012, Global Times)The police chief of Beijing has warned that Web users who “attack” leaders of the Communist Party of China and the country, or the current system will be severely punished, raising concerns over control of online speech. Fu Zhenghua, chief of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, made the remark at a meeting on cleaning up cyberspace on Tuesday. The one-month cleanup campaign is mainly aimed at protecting and creating a healthy cyberspace for minors. Fu said the police have set up platforms to report offences on major microblog sites to reinforce oversight. Three of the country’s four top microblog service operators are based in Beijing, including the most popular site Sina Weibo. Those who make up and spread political rumors, attack the Party and government leaders and the system will receive a public warning or severe punishment according to law, said Fu, according to the Beijing News. However, he didn’t specify what constitutes a political rumor or an attack.RELIGIONMother of ‘Canadian Psycho’ victim becomes Christian (July 22, 2012, AFP)The mother of a Chinese student murdered and dismembered in Canada announced that she has converted to Christianity and was recently baptized in the wake of the gruesome case”Last Sunday, I decided to get baptized,” Lin’s mother Du Zhigui said in emotional remarks at a religious service in a Montreal church of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada, an evangelical organization that includes 400 congregations and 120,000 members around the country. In her speech on Saturday, occasionally interspersed by sobs, she said the pastor of the church, Philip Cherng, approached her when she first came to Canada upon news of her son’s killing, adding “the voice of God comforted me.”Du, who had her first contact with Christianity in Taiwan seven years ago, told the audience of roughly 100 people that she still felt “much grief,” according to a French translation of her Chinese comments.HEALTHMildew found in infant formula (July 22, 2012, Shanghai Daily)Authorities in Guangzhou said they discovered mildew contamination in some infant formula products. Excessive amounts of aflatoxin were detected in five formula products produced between July and December last year in central China’s Hunan Province. Four of the products were produced by Ava Dairy Co Ltd based in Hunan’s capital of Changsha, while the fifth was produced by its parent company – Hunan Ava Dairy Holdings Co Ltd, authorities said. High levels of aflatoxin have led to cancer in animal tests.EDUCATION / CULTURE160 cultural relics damaged in Beijing storm (July 25, 2012, Xinhua)About 160 unmovable cultural relics in Beijing were damaged during a storm last Saturday, when the heaviest rains in 60 years left 37 dead, the Beijing cultural heritage bureau said Wednesday. An initial investigation showed that the 160 cultural relics, mostly located among 210,000 square meters of the city’s suburbs, saw varying degrees of damage. Direct economic losses totaled more than 800 million yuan (125 million U.S. dollars). Cultural relics at the district-level in Fangshan, Fengtai and Shijingshan districts sustained more serious damage, and more than 80 cultural relics in Fangshan district faced threats such as collapse and saturation, the bureau said.China’s universities admit more rural students (July 25, 2012, Xinhua)According to this year’s college admission plan, 12,100 vacancies are allocated for students from 680 poverty-stricken counties in 21 provincial areas. Residents in these counties had an annual per capita income of 2,676 yuan (418.37 U.S. dollars) last year, about half the national average. High school graduates from the impoverished counties are given preferential treatment, a move interpreted by many to counterbalance the country’s regional discrepancy in education quality. More than 10,000 graduates from the counties will benefit from the policy this year. Statistics from the Ministry of Education show that the national average admission rate in some leading universities last year was 8.5 percent, while the number in the 680 impoverished counties was 5.7 percent.SOCIETY / LIFEBeijings heaviest rain in 60 years leaves 37 people dead (July 22, 2012, Shanghai Daily)Beijing’s heaviest rainstorm in six decades killed at least 37 people, flooded streets and stranded 80,000 people at the main airport. The storm, which began on Saturday afternoon and continued late into the night, flooded major roads and sent torrents of water tumbling down steps into underpasses. The Beijing city government said last night that of the people who died, 25 drowned, six were crushed when their homes collapsed, five were electrocuted and one was struck by lightning. Twenty-two of the bodies have been identified, it said. More than 500 flights were cancelled at Beijing’s Capital International Airport, The Beijing News said. The subway system was largely unaffected by the floods but was swamped with people desperate to get home and unable to use cars, buses or taxis. The city received about 170 millimeters of rain on average, but one township in Fangshan District to Beijing’s west was hit by 460mm, officials said.Counterfeit Millions (July 22, 2012, Shanghai Daily)Chinese police have caught 463 suspects and seized 118 million yuan (US$18.5 million) worth of counterfeit money in 374 cases since the launch of a campaign in March. In one case, police in Guangdong Province caught four people in a counterfeit money-making den where 80 million yuan worth of counterfeit money had been half completed. Since 2010, police have seized 946 million yuan in counterfeit money.Torrential rains spread misery across the nation (July 23, 2012, Shanghai Daily)Torrential rain has ravaged China’s 17 provincial areas since July 20, leaving 95 people dead and another 45 missing, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said yesterday. Natural disasters caused by the downpours have affected about 6.23 million people in 264 counties in 17 provincial areas and forced the evacuation of about 567,000 people. The ministry reported 37 deaths in Beijing, 17 deaths and 21 missing in Beijing’s neighboring Hebei Province, eight deaths and two missing in Sichuan, six deaths and four missing in Yunnan, five deaths in Chongqing, four deaths and one missing in Shanxi, three deaths in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, three deaths and 14 missing in Shaanxi. Rainstorms also destroyed 29,000 houses and damaged another 55,000.Beijing highway reopens as deluge cleared (July 24, 2012, Shanghai Daily)The highway linking Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau has been reopened for traffic this morning, two days after it was blocked by the Beijing’s heaviest rainstorm in six decades. More than 500 police officers and firefighters on 10am cleaned up the puddles, standing water and silt which covered the section around 17.5 kilometers away from the toll station in Beijing, and the highway opened to the public around 11:50am. Among the rescuers, scuba divers were sent to see the trapped drivers in waterlogged vehicles while other police drained the water, removed the cars and tightened up the road embankments, Xinhua News Agency reported.Urban jobless rate stays at 4.1% for 8th quarter (July 25, Shanghai Daily)Chinas urban registered unemployment rate was 4.1 percent at the end of June, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said yesterday. It was unchanged for the eighth consecutive quarter during the April-June period, and was below the government’s 4.6-percent annual target set for this year. China created 6.94 million new jobs in urban areas in the first half of the year, fulfilling 77 percent of its annual target of creating 9 million new jobs, ministry spokesman Yin Chengji told reporters. A total of 2.94 million laid-off workers were re-employed in the first six months, meeting 59 percent of the annual target to have 5 million unemployed workers move back into jobs, Yin added. The country’s central and western regions were a major force in creating jobs in the first half as their economies had kept growing by more than 10 percent despite the overall slowdown, Yin said.SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY / ENVIRONMENTBiggest flood peak passes Three Gorges Dam (July 25, 2012, Xinhua) mac internet security software The biggest flood peak in nine years smoothly passed the Three Gorges Dam as the waterflow into the dam receded on Wednesday morning. On Wednesday morning, the water inflow into the dam receded to 65,000 cubic meters per second6,000 cubic meters per hour less than the peak flow, according to data released by China’s Three Gorges Corporation. And the water level in the dam rose to 160 meters, which is a new record for the dam’s water depth in the flood season this year.BUSINESS / ECONOMICS / FOREIGN TRADEChina vows to keep tight grip on property prices (July 20, 2012, AFP)China vowed Friday to maintain tight controls over the country’s property market after house sales recently picked up despite a slowing economy. China has since 2010 introduced a spate of measures to control housing prices, including bans on buying second homes, hiking minimum down-payments and mortgage rates and imposing property taxes in certain areas. Expectations for a loosening of controls on the sector to boost economic growth rose after the world’s second-largest economy recorded its slowest expansion in more than three years in the second quarter.China unveils blockbuster foreign energy deal (July 23, 2012, AFP)China’s state-owned energy colossus CNOOC unveiled a $15.1 billion bid to buy Canada’s Nexen Monday, in what would be the largest-ever foreign commercial purchase by the oil-hungry nation. Seven years after political panic about China’s thirst for global energy assets scuppered a massive bid to take over California’s Unocal, CNOOC announced it was trying for another blockbuster North American deal. The proposed CNOOC-Nexen takeover, which has yet to be approved by regulators, would be China’s largest foreign investment and its largest energy deal, according to data firm Dealogic.LINKS TO ARTICLES AND BLOGSA Year After the Wenzhou Train Crash, Burying Continues (July 20, 2012, China Real Time Report)Chinese citizens almost one year ago were outraged to see government officials pushing into a dirt pit the ruins of a wrecked rail car left from the deadly Wenzhou train crash, literally burying a visible reminder of one of the worlds worst high-speed rail accidents. Today, the burying continues. Chinas censors have banned coverage of the first anniversary of the collision that killed 40 people and injured nearly 200 others, according to a statement from the International Federation of Journalists.The Chinese left behind by economic growth (July 20, 2012, BBC News)President Hu Jintao steps down in China later this year, handing over to his successor a country which boasts enviable economic growth rates – but also a growing inequality gap. Since 2002, when the present leadership took over, China’s economy has more than quadrupled, but not everyone has benefited.How did China fare hosting the 2008 Olympic Games?(July 20, 2012, CNN, via Shanghaiist)CNN’s Stan Grant on the impact the 2008 Olympic Games had on Beijing.What Childhood Obesity Tells Us About Modern China (July 20, 2012, Matt on China)Between 1985 and 2005, the total percentage of obese and overweight 7-18 year-olds increased from 1.6% and 1.8% to 32.5% and 17.6%, for males and females respectively. These figures show that the obesity prevalence in some urban Chinese populations is on a par with that of developed countries.Heartless attacks (July 21, 2012, The Economist)After a growing number of attacks on medical staff in China, doctors and nurses are finding hospitals increasingly unsafe.Reports of Forced Abortions Fuel Push to End Chinese Law (July 22, 2012, The New York Times)Recent reports of women being coerced into late-term abortions by local officials have thrust Chinas population control policy into the spotlight and ignited an outcry among policy advisers and scholars who are seeking to push central officials to fundamentally change or repeal a law that penalizes families for having more than one child.BSF Launches Program at Haidian Church and Fengtai Church in Beijing (July 23, 2012, Chinese Church Voices)This article from the Gospel Times website in October of 2011 is about the launch of BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) in Beijing.Video: Meet: Liu Ximei, an AIDS patient fighting discrimination in China (July 23, 2012, Shanghaiist)Via AFP: “Liu Ximei was infected with HIV when blood sellers at a rural hospital injected her with a used needle. Now she’s fighting for compensation and an apology while fending off widespread discrimination in China.”Notes from a Chinese student in the USA (July 24, 2012, Danwei)Rich kids with bad grades! Spoiled students who cant face the college entrance examination! These are the labels that are affixed to people like us.The Boys From Brazil: Overland From Beijing to London (July 24, 2012, The Beijinger)The Olympic host city baton is being passed from Beijing to London at the end of this week. To mark this, three Brazilians Richard Amante, Edgar Scherer and Paulo Scherer have decided to drive the 20,000 kilometers from Chinas capital to Englands, taking in Central Asia on the way. We caught up with them on the road, although their car didnt make it across the Chinese border.Going viral on Chinas social media(July 24, 2012, China Digital Times)An episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation show Foreign Correspondent recently went viral on weibo, with 7.5 million clicks on a program about the fu er dai or rich second-generation China correspondent Stephen McDonnel talks to Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei about social media in China and why McDonells show spread so far so fast, especially considering it is not broadcast in ChinaMongolia’s relationship status with China? Complicated.(July 25, 2012, Christian Science Monitor)In today’s harsh economic climate, most countries are falling over themselves to attract Chinese investment. Mongolia’s government, however, just rushed a law through parliament to make it harder.Hong Kong sellers profit from Beijing’s ‘forbidden’ books (July 25, 2012, CNN)In mainland China the government places strict controls on mass media, which often means that political analysis and controversial accounts of Chinese history are impossible to find within the country’s borders. However, entrepreneurs in Hong Konga special administrative region of China that has freedom of pressare cashing in on the ban to cater to the millions of mainland Chinese who travel to Hong Kong to shop.Cyber-Maoism and the micro struggle session (July 25, 2012, China Media Project)But social media have of course also become a new platform for the playing out of longstanding ideological divisions in China.Social Media, China, and The Environment (July 25, 2012, The Diplomat)Of the many misconceptions that outsiders hold about China, there is one that is incredibly easy to disprove: there are no protests in China.Why China is founding a new city on a coral reef (July 25, 2012, The Christian Science Monitor)The new city of Sansha lies on tiny coral reefs in the Paracel Islands, one of the many disputed specks of land in the South China Sea.Top China-Watcher Bill Bishop on his Social Media (July 25, 2012, Agenda)As one of if not the foremost China watchers on the scene today, Bill Bishop (perhaps better known as @niubi) has been a vital part of the social media ecosystem for some time, through his blogs Sinocism and Digicha, his use of Twitter and Sina Weibo, and his daily email posting and analyzing China-related links and news. With his highly influential social media use, he not only shares the news but makes it too. He shared with Agenda how he handles it all.SPECIAL SECTION: FLOODING IN BEIJINGIn pictures: Beijing’s deadly deluge(July 22, 2012, BBC News)Beijing hit by floods after worst rain in 60 years video (July 23, 2012, The Guardian)China struggles with flood recovery as death toll mounts(July 23, 2012, The Guardian)Beijing floods unleash online criticism of government (+video) (July 23, 2012, Christian Science Monitor)Deadly Beijing floods prompt infrastructure questions (July 23, 2012, BBC News)The Beijing deluge of 2012(July 23, 2012, Danwei)Beijing underwater (July 23, Foreign Policy)A heartbreaking tale: one girls search for her dad in the Beijing storm (July 24, 2012, Nanfang Daily)The poverty of the institutional imagination: The case of Beijings moats and canals (July 25, 2012, Isham Cook)Beijing government booed by netizens for donation call (July 25, 2012, Offbeat China)Rising tide of criticism after deadly China floods (July 25, 2012, BBC News)Crisis Management Failure as Beijing Mayor Resigns (July 25, 2012, China Real Time Report)Beijing Flood Fears Prompt Run on Survival Tools (July 26, 2012, China Real Time Report)ARTICLES IN CHINESE1/3 (July 23, 2012, Gospel Times)LINKS FOR RESEARCHERSXi Jinping And Chinas New Leadership Analysis(July 24, 2012, Eurasia Analysis)China Releases 12th Five-Year Plan for National Strategic Emerging Industries (July 25, 2012, China Briefing)RESOURCESRandom Pics From Old China, Restored