FEATURED ARTICLE
The Church Today (November 11, 2013, Chinese Church Voices)
In Section Two of the article, posted here, the author talks about the church-consciousness (ecclesiology) of Chinese Christians today. He argues that Chinese believers have a weak understanding of what the church is, and gives reasons for this. He also describes some of the characteristics of churches in some smaller and medium-sized cities in China. Finally, he talks about the importance of building community within a church and gives some suggestions as to how that might be done.
SPECIAL SECTION: THIRD PLENUM NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Political reform: Walling up democracy (November 11, 2013, Analects)
Hardly an article is written about the ongoing meeting in Beijing of the Communist Partys Central Committee without a comparison being made to the most famous of all such meetings: the third plenum of the 11th Central Committee in December 1978 that marked the countrys return to a somewhat more pragmatic approach after three decades of Maoist madness.
China Third Plenum: Leaders unveil key reforms (November 12, 2013, BBC)
China's leaders have unveiled a series of reforms aimed at overhauling its economy over the next decade.
Internet Sows Doubt Over China Reform Plan (November 12, 2013, China Real Time)
Its all a bunch of clichs, wrote one Weibo user in the comments section on the Sina Weibo social media feed of the official Xinhua news agency. Looks like this new group doesnt have what it takes to accomplish actual, meaningful reform.
Chinese power play: Xi Jinping creates a national security council (November 13, 2013, Christian Science Monitor)
The council's creation is seen as strengthening the position of President Xi Jinping, giving him a freer hand to address domestic and international crises.
China security committee to make enemies 'nervous': govt (November 13, 2013, AFP)
Chinese Panel to Combine Foreign Policy and Domestic Security (November 13, 2013, The New York Times)
Chinas new national security committee will apparently differ from the National Security Council in Washington, on which it is modeled, in one crucial aspect: The Chinese version will have dual duties with responsibility over domestic security as well as foreign policy, Chinese experts say.
Chinas State Companies Aint Going Nowhere (November 13, 2013, China Real Time)
At least one thing appeared clear: State-owned enterprises will remain pillars of Chinas economy.
New chapter for change opens in China (November 13, 2013, Asia Times Online)
Concentration of power in the hands of the top leadership, a new phase of economic reforms with an expanded role for market forces, and a greater role for the judiciary are the main elements emerging from the communique of the Third Plenum of the 205-member Chinese Communist Party Central Committee that concluded on Tuesday. All point to the opening of a new chapter for comprehensive change in China.
Xi Jinping's urban gamble (November 13, 2013, BBC)
The communique from the Third Plenum of the 18th Party Congress issued on 12 November after the three-day meeting should put paid to the notion that this leadership is about to undertake the same dramatic reverse that the 1978 event achieved.
GOVERNMENT / POLITICS / FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Document 9: A ChinaFile Translation (November 8, 2013, China File)
What suggests the significance of Document 9 is the fact that a worrisomely harsh crackdown against human rights lawyers, media outlets, academics, and other such independent thinkers has followed. But, whether Document 9 is the expression of one faction or that of the central Chinese leadership itself is still uncertain.
Bo Xilai supporter launches political party (November 10, 2013, BBC)
A supporter of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai says she has set up a new political party and named the imprisoned former official its chairman. Wang Zheng said in a phone interview that the Zhi Xian party was established last Wednesday in Beijing with the objective of bringing "common prosperity" a fairer distribution of wealth to China.
Foreign journalism under pressure: A little local difficulty (November 11, 2013, Analects)
Foreign correspondents in China are often asked back home how much they are affected by censorship in China. The reflexive answer has long been that censorship in China is for local journalists; foreigners are free to write about whatever they please. But that answer, while usually still true, is now subject to scrutiny.
Q&A: Paul Mooney on reporting in China (November 12, 2013, Committee to Protect Journalists)
A lot has been written about China's refusal to give him a visa to let him go back to Beijing to work as a features writer for Reuters- a dream job for a reporter with as many clips as he has built up over the years. He's been quoted widely about what happened, but I haven't seen his full account anywhere else. So here is an email exchange with him from today (I've dropped a reference to some foreign journalists Mooney named who are also having visa problems and most likely wouldn't want to be mentioned):
China granted seat on UN's human rights council (November 13, 2013, The Guardian)
Campaigners express concern at China's human rights record as it gains seat along with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Cuba.
Crossing Lines: Sina Punishes More Than 100,000 Weibo Accounts (November 13, 2013, China Real Time)
According to the Beijing Youth article, which couldnt be independently verified, of the 103,673 accounts penalized, more than 70% were targeted due to personal attacks, with 14,357 cases of harassment and 1,030 cases of spreading of false information about others. Another 3,773 accounts were temporarily suspended, deleted or otherwise punished for spreading vulgar and pornographic content, according to the article. Sina declined to comment on the veracity of the report.
RELIGION
China Asks Church For Help With Social Care (November 12, 2013, Christian Post)
China's leaders are holding a meeting this week in Beijing to discuss the economic and political agenda for the next decade in which it seems the Church will play a vital role. "The government welcomes the support of the Church," said government official Wang Xinhua at a recent Shanghai conference on the role of Christianity in China, sponsored by the Bible Society. "We lack the resources to meet all the needs that we face, so we need religious organizations in order to do so."
Can Matteo Riccis Beatification Mend Chinas Rift With the Catholic Church? (November 13, 2013, The Atlantic)
The campaign to turn the 16th century Jesuit into a saint depends on finding a miracle. Restoring Sino/Vatican relations may require one, too.J
esus Preached a Chinese Gospel (November 14, 2013, Jackson Wu)
My previous post, examined the story of the rich, younger ruler (Mark 10:1730). I suggested that Jesus shifts our focus from what to who. If this is correct, then what does this mean for gospel preaching?
SOCIETY / LIFE
Fed-up with dancing grannies: release the hounds (November 8, 2013, World of Chinese)
If youve lived in China you are no doubt familiar with the annoying, or perhaps cute, plaza dancing that occurs on any piece of public space large enough for middle aged ladies to put on a show. And there is obviously nothing harmful in older people getting exercise and having fun, but the volume is enough to drive some people mad. And that is exactly what it did to a resident in Beijings Changping District. He got so fed up with the music that he fired off his shotgun and released his 3 Tibetan mastiffs into the dancing crowd.
Slide show: One Child Family (November 9, 2013, Caixin Online)
A look at the effects of China's family planning program throughout society
.China's Uighurs: Who are they, and why are they unhappy? (November 9, 2013, Christian Science Monitor)
An audacious attack on Beijing's Tiananmen Square has cast attention on the ethnic minority that China often calls terrorists. That label does not apply to most Uighurs.
New China Cities: Shoddy Homes, Broken Hope (November 9, 2013, The New York Times)
Three years ago, the Shanghai World Expo featured this newly built town as a model for how China would move from being a land of farms to a land of cities. In a dazzling pavilion visited by more than a million people, visitors learned how farmers were being given a new life through a fair-and-square deal that did not cost them anything. Today, Huaming may be an example of another transformation: the ghettoization of Chinas new towns.
Watch: Chinas Urbanization Push Heads Underground (November 11, 2013, China Real Time)
China is stepping up what is already one of the most ambitious urban rail projects in history despite concerns that the countrys obsession with infrastructure could be dragging it into a pit of unmanageable debt. The aim of the expansion isnt stimulus but urbanization.
Video: China urbanisation: Why Chinese people collect empty properties (November 12, 2013, BBC)
Rapid urbanisation and a shortage of other investment opportunities have created fears of a housing bubble, that could leave many Chinese people exposed. Lucy Williamson reports from Beijing, where many Chinese people have been investing in empty properties.
Video: Typhoon Haiyan brings destruction to southern China (November 12, 2013, BBC)
At Bloomberg, Special Code Keeps Some Articles Out of China (November 13, 2013, Sinosphere)
It is called Code 204. Editors at Bloomberg News append it to an article to ensure that it does not appear on Bloomberg financial data and news terminals in mainland China. Little known outside Bloomberg, the system has been in place for more than two years, and it is used regularly to keep articles on Chinese politics and social issues away from the eyes of powerful people in China who might be offended, Bloomberg employees say.
Who watches CCTV Nightly News? (November 13, 2013, China Media Project)
The following post by Kdnet.net, the official Weibo account of the international Chinese-language web portal KDNET, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 5:04pm today, November 13, 2013. The post reports the results of an online survey on the popular Netease web portal showing that 60 percent of respondents do not watch the official nightly news cast () on China Central Television, and more than 70 percent rate the program as rather poor.
EDUCATION / HISTORY
Video: Cambridge: Chinese tourists pay homage to poet (November 11, 2013, BBC)
Chinese tourists are flooding into Cambridge to pay homage to the 20th century poet, Xu Zhimo.Little known in Britain, his poem "Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again" is taught in every single primary school in China.
Photo: Great Wall of China, 1907 (@ClassicPics)
HEALTH
Special Report: How Big Formula bought China (November 7, 2013, Reuters)
A Reuters examination reveals that global infant formula companies have found ways to skirt and violate the 1995 code, which they support publicly. Reuters interviewed nearly two dozen Chinese women who have delivered babies at hospitals around China over the last two years. Like Lucy Yang, most experienced the aggressive tactics of formula makers.
Smoggy Beijing sees lung cancer cases soar (November 9, 2013, BBC)
The number of lung cancer cases in the Chinese capital Beijing has soared over the last decade.According to figures published by the state-run Xinhua news agency, they have increased by more than 50%. Beijing health officials say smoking is still the number one cause of lung cancer, but they admit air pollution is also a factor.
ECONOMICS / BUSINESS / TRADE
Chinese Negotiation Email and Online Platforms (November 13, 2013, China Solved)
How to Negotiate with Chinese using email and online platforms. Strategies for email and online negotiation with Chinese counter-parties. Chinese negotiators value relationships more highly than Western negotiators do, which presents a unique set of challenges when deals are being discussed long distance.
Hiring Local Staff through China Representative Offices (November 13, 2013, China Briefing)
Foreign companies that have established a representative office (RO) in China do not have the ability to hire local staff directly. Instead, Chinese staff must be seconded from an agency that will take the title of official employer. The reason for restricting the right of an RO to employ staff is quite simple, it is not a capitalized legal entity in China. An employee must have the right to claim against their employer, and an RO will not be a suitable entity to claim against. By forcing ROs to employ staff through an agency (which is a capitalized legal entity in China), the interests of the employee are protected.
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About China Law. The Bibliography. (November 13, 2013, China Law Blog)
This bibliography is definitely slanted towards the legal issues that confront foreign companies doing business in China
.SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY / ENVIRONMENT
China does a "180" on air pollution policy to combat its deadly smog (November 11, 2013, PRI)
Visitors to China quickly learn a fact of life that millions of Chinese confront every day: the air in many of the countrys cities is often terrible. Deadly, even. Until recently, the Chinese government was loathe to acknowledge this, and extremely slow to do anything about it. But The Worlds Matthew Bell, whos reporting from China this month, says thats quickly changing.
Urbanization takes toll on China's wetlands (November 13, 2013, China Daily)
Ten percent of China's wetlands have vanished over the past decade as urban development has advanced, a forestry official said at the launch of a national wetlands conservation project on Wednesday. Bao Daming, of the State Forestry Administration, said more than 3.3 million hectares of wetlands have disappeared since the first national survey 10 years ago, even though more wetlands are protected by regulations today. Protection has expanded from 30 percent of the country's total wetlands to 43 percent.
ARTS / ENTERTAINMENT / SPORTS
China's quest for global golf domination (November 8, 2013, BBC)
Every province in China has its own centre of excellence like Shichahai. Since the IOC voted to include golf in the Olympics from 2016, five million people in the country have been given the chance to try their hand at the game. If they show promise, their education and training will be paid for by the government while they work towards becoming the best.
FOOD / TRAVEL / CULTURE
VIDEO Eight Spectacular Hong Kong Time Lapse Videos (November 11, 2013, Hong Wrong)
Perhaps the pace of HK lends itself well to what is quickly becoming a genre of local videography unto itself. Each has a different atmosphere, reflecting different sides of our city.
Myanmar to Tibet: Hiking the Dulong (November 14, 2013, Go Kunming)
This article is the first of two chronicling a week-long hiking trip GoKunming contributor Sander Van de Moortel recently took through the Dulong River valley. The second installment will be posted in two weeks.
LANGUAGE / LANGUAGE LEARNING
Beijing Hua Dictionary (JD.com)
BOOKS
Shanghais Hudec Architrecture (November 12, 2013, China Rhyming)
Laszlo Hudec himself was responsible for some great Shanghai buildings of the 1930s the Park Hotel, Grand Theatre, Moore Memorial Church and DVs Woos Residence. Now Hua Xiaohong and Michelle Qiao have produced a charming little book Shanghai Hudec Architecture produced by the Tonji University Press.
Image credit: China Beijing, by Rita Willaert, via Flickr