FEATURED ARTICLEThe Nature of the Chinese Protestant Two Organizations: Evidence from the Incident of Chinese Delegates being stopped from Attending the Lausanne Conference (Pacific Institute for Social Sciences)The Chinese government successfully launched a campaign to stop almost all of the Chinese delegates from attending the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town by various unlawful means. We dont know what the leaders of the Two Organizations (Chinese Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Committee and the China Christian Council) think about this great achievement.GOVERNMENT / POLITICS / FOREIGN AFFAIRSChinas Paid Trolls: Meet the 50-Cent Party (October 17, 2012, The New Statesman)The Chinese government hires people to distort or deflect conversations on the web. Ai Weiwei persuades an online commentator to tell all.The Children Devour the Revolution (November 10, 2012, Foreign Policy)Liu lives more frugally than many of his princeling peers and makes a point of demonstrating that he can easily mix with peasants and rural cadres. He loves to golf but avoids visiting any of Beijing’s luxurious golf courses because that would clash with his revolutionary ideals. (And it would hurt his carefully constructed image.) He confines himself to belting balls against a net he has erected on the roof of his villa, which was allocated to him when he was in the People’s Armed Police, China’s internal security force.Li Keqiang, Chinas next premier, carries reformers hopes (November 10, 2012, Washington Post)Li Keqiang, the man slated to become Chinas next premier, is described by several former classmates and associates as a cautious political climber who moved up slowly through the Communist Partys bureaucracy while quietly maintaining friendships with pro-democracy advocates.Recalling better days(November 13, 2012, Analects)In the days of Mao Zedong, party congresses took place in secret, with no news released until they were over. It was not until the 12th congress in 1982 that the party began to arrange press conferences about the proceedings, but it still did not let foreign journalists into the Great Hall of the People.Spotlight is likely to be kept off China’s next first lady (November 13, 2012, The Guardian)Peng Liyuan is a singing superstar in China, but as wife of new leader Xi Jinping she will be expected to stay behind a cloak of secrecyChina party congress: old guard finds it hard to let go (November 13, 2012, The Guardian)Re-emergence of former party leaders illustrates extent to which power in China is still about personalities and patronageChina’s Communist party congress draws to a close in pictures (November 14, 2012, The Guardian)Where are China’s women leaders? (November 14, 2012, Christian Science Monitor)Less than a quarter of the delegates to the 18th Communist Party Congress in Beijing, there are women. As for the select group of seven or nine top officials who in effect govern China? Not one.The Rise of Chinas First Families(November 14, 2012, The Daily Beast)Chinas princelings, the children of influential early Communist Party leaders, are likely to emerge as the winners of the countrys political transition.A Hilarious Coded Riff on Chinas Government: Going Shopping for the 18th Time(November 14, 2012, Tea Leaf Nation)But reading between the lines, it quickly becomes apparent that the author is in fact talking about Chinese citizens relationship with their government as the Chinese Communist Party convenes its 18th National Congress, where the next generation of leaders will soon be selected. Tea Leaf Nation translates. As 18th Congress Ends, a Peek into the Process (November 14, 2012, Caixin)Economist Zhang Zhouyuan has seen close up how party congresses have shaped the reform period so far. He explains what has been accomplished and what is left to doStrongmen Still Cast a Long Shadow in China (November 14, 2012, The New York Times)China has moved beyond the era of the strongman, a man whose words count above all others.Instead, several thousand members of prominent political and military families and their allies battled for influence over promotions at the top, making the road to the congress extremely chaotic, said a senior party researcher, who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.China confirms leadership change (November 15, 2012, BBC News)Xi Jinping has been confirmed as the man to lead China for the next decade. Mr Xi led the new Politburo Standing Committee onto the stage at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, signalling his elevation to the top of China’s ruling Communist Party. The party faced great challenges but would work to meet “expectations of both history and the people”, he said. Most of the new committee are seen as politically conservative, and perceived reformers did not get promotion. Xi Jinping replaces Hu Jintao, under whose administration China has seen a decade of extraordinary growth. The move marks the official passing of power from one generation to the next.The Communist Partys Reform Punt (November 15, 2012, China Real Time Report)Faced with a chance to be decisive, Chinese leaders opted for default-plus. This was a transition, not a transformationa switchover instead of something that might have been earth-shaking. Theres a decidedly conservative cast to the Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee unveiled Thursday in Beijing. The candidates that might have carried reform furtherpeople such as Organization Department head Li Yuanchao and Guangdong Party chief Wang Yangdid not win spots in the Partys preeminent decision-making body. Political restructuring is clearly on hold: Those arguing for an expansion of the Communist Partys rolefrom the economy to culture, and a good deal in-betweenwon their places and the present day.Xi Jinping: the ‘big personality’ taking charge in China (November 15, 2012, The Guardian)Xi Jinping, who has been confirmed as the man who will lead China for the next decade, cuts a contrasting figure to his predecessor, Hu Jintao.While Hu is determinedly anonymous, Xi is “a big personality”, according to those who have met him. Standing over 6ft tall, he is confident and affable. He boasts a ready smile and a glamorous second wife the renowned People’s Liberation Army singer Peng Liyuan. He has expressed his fondness for US war movies and, perhaps more surprisingly, praised the edgy independent film-maker Jia Zhangke.RELIGIONHandling Family Relationships at Holiday Time (November 9, 2012, Chinese Church Voices)One of the challenges facing those who come to faith in China is how to handle family relationships during the traditional holidays when they return home to be with family members who do not share their faith and may not accept it. In this article, published in the Christian Times just prior to the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, a believer shares some thoughts on how Christians can handle the tensions that naturally arise during holiday visits.HEALTHObesity becomes a growing health problem in Shanghai (October 14, 2012, Xinhua)Shanghai is acting to head off an “obesity epidemic” as health authorities warn of a rising tide of diabetes and weight-related diseases. Roughly 40 percent of adults in Shanghai are overweight or obese, and one-fourth of residents do not exercise enough, according to a report by the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau, released on Monday. “The rise in obesity among children and adults is very disturbing,” said Li Guangyao, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Promotion Committee. “It will lead to many health problems and should be given attention.” In a recent academic paper, sports scientist Colin Boreham found that over the past 20 years, the number of obese Chinese men has grown from 3 percent to 11 percent, while the number of obese women has increased from 5 percent to 10 percent.EDUCATION / CULTURESociety worries about jobless college grads (November 9, 2012, Xinhua)A report indicating that one in 11 college graduates has been jobless for a year has raised public concern and caused heated discussion among the country’s Internet community. In a blog, Xiong Bingqi, vice president of the 21st Century Education Research Center, quoted a “2012 Graduate Employment Report,” which showed that 570,000 of 6.8 million college graduates in 2011 remained jobless one year after graduation. Among them, more than 100,000 neither go to school or work nor receive vocational skills and rely on support from their parents. This is known as the NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) group. Xiong blamed university education for not preparing students for China’s fast-developing society and high demanding employers. The lack of career planning and aimless job searching are two reasons why many college graduates cannot get work, with many more developing a job-hopping habit, he said. The educationist’s blog sparked debate about university education.The Art Of Chinese Propaganda (November 9, 2012, NPR)The Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center lies buried in an unmarked apartment building off the tree-lined streets of the city’s former French Concession. There are no signs. You have to wend your way through apartment blocks, down a staircase and into a basement to discover one of Shanghai’s most obscure and remarkable museums.Watch: Chinese students choosing to study abroad (November 13, 2012, Al Jazeera, via Shanghaiist)Outgoing Chinese President, Hu Jintao, told the Communist Party Congress in Beijing quality education must be available to everyone. Many Chinese students, however, are opting to study overseas, Al Jazeera reports.Watch: British-style private schools becoming more popular in China (November 13, 2012, BBC, via Shanghaist)George Alagiah reports for the BBC on the rise of fee-paying schools in China which mirror British public (read: hugely expensive private) schools.Confucius’ family tree goes digital(November 13, 2012, Xinhua)Descendants of ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius have digitized books delineating their family tree, which is believed to be the world’s largest, to make it easier to revise. The original paper collection of the family tree containing a record of all 83 generations of Confucius’ offspring of over 2 million people is currently 43,000 pages long and takes up 80 books, but it will be able to fit on a thumb drive after being digitized. The digital version has embedded search bars, diagrams and analytical functions that can swiftly sort out demographic and other statistical information, said Kong Deyong, a 77th-generation descendant of Confucius, also surnamed Kong, and chief compiler of the great thinker’s genealogy books.He said the move has made it much easier to revise the family tree.China to train university presidents overseas (November 14, 2012, Xinhua)The Ministry of Education on Tuesday launched a five-year overseas training program for 1,000 presidents of public universities based in central and western China in order to improve their management capacity. Some 100 university presidents will be sent to the United States, Britain, Australia and Germany for a three-week training course later this month, the ministry said. The trainees will study relations between universities and enterprises and the management of human resources within universities, said Zhao Lingshan, an official with the ministry.SOCIETY / LIFEA China Aural Fixation (November 13, 2012, The Talking Monkey)Since I arrived in China many years ago, I have, on occasion, nearly reached this out-of-body state of enlightenment, only to be brought crashing down to earth because of some ear-splitting sound that seems unique to China.SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY / ENVIRONMENTGoogle services blocked in China (November 9, 2012, The Guardian)Google has said that said that several of its online services have been blocked in China just after the country’s once-in-a-decade meeting to transfer power to a new generation of leaders got underway.Traffic to its services in China dropped sharply on Friday evening according to an online “Transparency Report” website operated by Google, which measures traffic to its sites around the world. Google’s search engine and its Gmail web email were among the services affected in China, where the internet company has had a fractious relationship with the authorities.Snowstorms affect 7,500 people in NE China (November 13, 2012, Xinhua)Snowstorms in recent days have affected road traffic and caused difficulties to local people in northeast China. The snowstorms from Sunday to Tuesday have affected more than 7,500 residents in Hegang and Shuangyashan cities in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. The snowstorms also flattened 170 houses and suspended local bus service, local government officials said. The snowstorms also damaged 33,000 hectares of trees and more than 2,200 hectares of crops in the two cities. All expressways in Heilongjiang were forced to close on Tuesday morning due to heavy snow, local transportation authorities said. Major expressways linking Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, and other cities in the province, including Mudanjiang, Daqing and Yichun, have been closed since 7:30 p.m. Monday.ARTICLES IN CHINESE (November 9, 2012, Gospel Times)(Pacific Institute for Social Sciences)LINKS FOR RESEARCHERSZhang Lingnie(Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity)BOOKSChinas Great Shame (November 12, 2012, The New York Times)In Maos China, the coercive power of the state penetrated every corner of national life. The rural population was brought under control by a thorough collectivization of agriculture. The state could then manage grain production, requisitioning and distributing it by decree. Those who tilled the earth were locked in place by a nationwide system of household registration, and food coupons issued to city dwellers supplanted the market. The peasants survived at the pleasure of the state.ZGBriefs is a weekly compilation of the news in China, condensed from published sources and emailed free-of-charge to more than 6,000 readers in China and abroad. ZGBriefs brings you not only the most important stories of the week, but also links to blogs, commentaries, articles, and resources to help fill out your understanding of what is happening in China today. Coverage includes domestic and international politics, economics, culture, and social trends, among other areas. Seeking to explore all facets of life in China, ZGBriefs also includes coverage of spiritual movements and the role of religious believers and faith-based groups in China. The publication of ZGBriefs is supported by readers who find this weekly service useful. ZGBriefs is a publication of ChinaSource.