ZGBriefs | April 30, 2015

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.

Featured Article

Viewpoint: Across China by wheelchair (April 26, 2015, BBC)
The good news – discovered whilst looking out of the window on the overnight train to Beijing – is that the vast majority of Chinese cities are flat as a pancake. When carrying a year's worth of backpacking supplies, I like to make a habit of avoiding steep hills wherever possible. As soon as we stepped off the train, however, the good news stopped flowing. Carrying out even the most basic of tasks in a wheelchair in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Shenzhen felt like I was competing in The Hunger Games.

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

China Has Reason to Be Worried About North Korea’s Nukes (April 24, 2015, TIME)
The two countries were once as close as lips and teeth, but Beijing is increasingly wary of Pyongyang and Kim Jong Un.

The Chinese Government Has a Resignation Problem (April 24, 2015, China Real Time)
In 1966, Chinese leader Mao Zedong insisted to university students that “it’s right to rebel.” Half a century later, an increasing number of the country’s civil servants seem to be of the opinion that it’s right to resign. In a wide-ranging article that appeared in the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper People’s Daily on Wednesday, three government employees talked about the pressures of working in China’s bureaucracy that led two of them to quit (in Chinese).

Brothers again? How deep is the Xi-Putin bromance? (April 24, 2015, BBC)
But as the Ukraine crisis has deepened and the year-old US-led sanctions against Russia bite, China is now the only major economy outside the sanctions regime and Russia and China are closer than at any time in half a century. Russia's ambassador to China, Andrey Denisov, said: "President Putin and President Xi met five times last year. They will meet at least as many times this year. This shows the importance of the political dialogue." President Xi and President Putin describe themselves as "good friends". Both like to present themselves as strong national leaders who will rebuild past glory.

China Opens Corruption Inquiry Into Sinopec President (April 27, 2015, The New York Times)
The second-ranking executive at Sinopec, one of China’s dominant oil and energy companies, is being investigated for “serious violations” of laws and discipline, according to official news reports and a statement by the commission of the Chinese Communist Party that oversees corruption investigations. The announcement means the executive, Wang Tianpu, president of Sinopec, will almost certainly be removed from his job soon and purged from the party after being accused of corruption. He is also likely to face trial and be prosecuted on criminal charges related to corruption.

China Rushes Aid to Nepal After Deadly Earthquake; Taiwan Is Turned Away (April 27, 2015, TIME)
China this weekend rushed a 62-person team to Nepal to help with the ongoing search rescue operation after Saturday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake. They landed in Kathmandu early Sunday and set to work immediately, according to Chinese state media.

Why China arrested, then released, five feminists (April 27, 2015, The Economist)
Why were the five women arrested in the first place, and why has the state continued to harass them? The women were targeted as core members of a nascent organised feminist movement in China. For many years the Chinese authorities have consistently sought to squash organised activism.

Chinese Officers Harshly Interrogated Women’s Rights Activist, Husband Says (April 27, 2015, The New York Times)
A women’s rights activist, who was among five female advocates whose detention for over a month led to a global outcry, was harshly interrogated for eight hours by police officers in her hometown, Hangzhou, on Friday, her husband said on Monday. The interrogation showed the continued official pressure on the women despite their release from jail this month.

China forces shot protesters: Xinjiang residents (April 28, 2015, Reuters)
Something hideously violent happened in Elishku. Whether it was a separatist attack or a civilian massacre is shrouded in the mists of conflict, control, claim and counter-claim that plague China's mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang. According to authorities, 96 civilians and "terrorists" died when militants attacked a police station in the township last July 28. Residents, speaking to foreign media for the first time, say that hundreds of people mounted a protest against government restrictions on religion which was brutally put down.

Gao Yu’s Real Crime (April 28, 2015, The New York Times)
Ms. Gao’s real crime had nothing to do with leaking Document No.9. She offended the authorities by speaking out against government policies. Even though Mr. Xi has recently announced plans to make the legal system more transparent, Ms. Gao’s conviction shows that nothing has changed under a dictator who cannot abide dissenting views.

Why are Hong Kong's proposed electoral changes so controversial? (April 28, 2015, BBC)
At least 11 democracy activists in Hong Kong were arrested over the weekend, allegedly for vandalism or assaulting police officers. It came a few days after the Hong Kong government unveiled a highly controversial proposal for selecting the city's next chief executive by one person, one vote in 2017. If the election happens, it would be an unprecedented political event on Chinese soil.

Religion

Video: One Hundred Churches of Zhejiang (April 24, 2015, ChinaSource Blog)
In February, a YouTube user posted a slideshow of pictures of churches around Wenzhou Province. The slideshow is titled One Hundred Portraits of Wenzhou Churches. Of course we do not know which, if any of the churches in this collection have been affected by the campaign.

Christian Persecution in China Dramatically Worsened in 2014, Group Says (April 24, 2015, Christian News)
Persecution of Christians in China reached its highest level in more than a decade last year as the government cracked down on church growth perceived as a threat to Communist Party power, according to a U.S.-based advocacy group. Texas-based China Aid Association (CAA) this week reported 572 cases of religious – mainly Christian – persecution last year, a 300 percent increase over the previous year’s 143 cases.

Worship in China: Why Place Matters (April 29, 2015, ChinaSource Blog)
The destruction of churches and widespread pulling down of crosses in Zhejiang province during the past year have served to highlight the dilemma facing China’s Christians, whose numerical growth has, for the past several decades, outstripped the availability of suitable venues for worship. 

Society / Life

Hong Kongers are worried that China is swallowing them (April 21, 2015, AP)
All around Chow Tak-yee's neighborhood in the working-class edges of Hong Kong, the 26-year-old can feel the spreading influence of nearby mainland China on the prosperous, open-minded city she's always called home.

China’s Leftists Are Embracing Confucius. Why? (April 23, 2015, China File)
Other findings require more effort to digest: The paper finds a strong correlation between “leftist” beliefs and what it terms “cultural conservatism”—defined as those who support “traditional, Confucian values,” or at least are favorably disposed towards traditional, somewhat “Confucian,” bodies of knowledge.

China's Latest Target: Funeral Strippers (April 24, 2015, NPR)
Looking for a way to give a departed loved one a send-off everyone will remember? How about hiring strippers to perform at the funeral? In some parts of rural China, this is not considered absurd, but a good idea.

China, in Suspending Woman’s Death Sentence, Acknowledges Domestic Abuse (April 24, 2015, The New York Times)
In an acknowledgment of the problem of domestic abuse in China, a court on Friday suspended the death sentence of a battered woman who had killed her husband, a case that drew international attention and a petition from hundreds of Chinese lawyers and feminists urging the court to reconsider.

Tibet suffers devastating ripple effects (April 27, 2015, China Daily)
Twenty Chinese people were killed in the Tibet autonomous region as result of shock waves related to a magnitude-8.1 earthquake that struck Nepal on Saturday. At least 55 others in Tibet were injured. Four people were missing, as of noon on Sunday. The death toll in Nepal has risen to at least 2,200, according to media reports.

‘Rent-a-Foreigner in China’ (April 28, 2015, The New York Times)
In provincial West China, I filmed specialty firms that collect groups of foreigners whom they rent out to attend events. Clients can select from a menu of skin colors and nationalities; whites are the most desirable and expensive. The most frequent customers are real estate companies. They believe that filling their remote buildings with foreign faces, even for a day, suggests that the area is “international,” a buzzword in provincial areas that often translates to “buy.”

Screams of horror in Tibet as Nepal earthquake strikes (April 28, 2015, The Telegraph)
This mobile phone footage shot in China's Tibet Autonomous Region captures the moment Nepal earthquake struck. In the footage, people, including a family with a child, can be seen running for their lives as rubble tumbles from the mountains around them.

Canadian tourist pays 600,000RMB compensation to family of woman accidentally killed on Great Wall (April 28, 2015, Shanghaiist)
The Canadian tourist involved in a fatal accident at the Great Wall of China earlier this month has apologized to the victim's family and agreed to pay 600,000 yuan in compensation. The 38-year-old Canadian woman, identified as Fortin, bumped into 73-year-old Cui Hongfang on a steep section of the wall on April 8. The collision knocked Cui over, causing her to fall down the stairs and hit her head, ultimately resulting in the elderly woman's death.

The families revealing everything they've ever bought online (April 28, 2015, BBC)
Photographer Huang Qingjun is famous in China for his photo series, Family Stuff. Since 2003 he has been asking subjects to pose with everything they own, neatly displayed in front of their homes. […]  Huang's new project is based on a similar idea – this time, he asked people to display everything they've ever bought online. The results are a testament to the overwhelming popularity of online shopping, particularly China's most popular internet shopping platform, Taobao.

Cloudy With a Chance of Censorship: China Bans Unofficial Weather Reports (April 29, 2015, China Real Time)
If you’re a Chinese resident with a knack for predicting the weather, you might be best off keeping those skills to yourself. A new regulation from the Chinese Meteorological Administration bans amateurs and enthusiasts from publicizing their own weather reports, saying that only official authorities are allowed to offer such forecasts.

Education

Foreign University Students Abandoning Beijing for Second, Third Tier Cities (April 24, 2015, The Beijinger Blog)
Sagging numbers of incoming international tourists is not the end of the story for Beijing: international university students are beginning to avoid Beijing as well. According to figures released last week by China's Ministry of Education, Beijing's international university student population dropped by 4 percent from 2012 to 2014, virtually the only location in China that has seen a drop in students over the same period. 

Defects in the Chinese Education System (April 28, 2015, Chinese Church Voices)
In this “special report” in the Christian Times, a reporter talks with a Christian woman who runs a homeschooling academy in Guangzhou about her thoughts on the Chinese education system.

Health / Environment

Mayo Clinic-Invested Company to Open General Hospital in Beijing (April 21, 2015, Caixin Online)
Amcare Women's and Children's Hospital has become the first foreign-invested medical services institution in China to set up a general hospital, amid growing opportunities in the private hospital business. Amcare Corporation, which is backed by U.S. investment giant Warburg Pincus LLC, entered a partnership with a joint venture company owned by American medical services group Mayo Clinic to set up a hospital in Beijing. The facilities will cater primarily to the emerging middle class, according to Amcare Corporation founder Hu Lan.

Why So Gloomy? In Sun-Deprived China, Only 5% Have Healthy Levels of Vitamin D (April 23, 2015, China Real Time)
A recent study conducted by seven Chinese hospitals across five cities found that more than half of the Chinese population suffers from the same problem. The study measured vitamin levels in more than 2,000 volunteers and found that only about 5% of participants had healthy levels of Vitamin D, which is crucial for strong bones and a healthy immune system.

Chinese Scientists Slammed For World’s First ‘Editing’ of Human Embryo DNA (April 24, 2015, China Real Time)
A team of Chinese scientists have reported using human embryos as subjects for an experiment in editing genes in a way that could be passed on permanently—a practice believed to be a first and also hotly opposed by most genetic researchers and ethicists internationally.

Benefits of Breathing: Beijing’s Olympic Babies Born Heavier, Study Finds (April 29, 2015, China Real Time)
Parents in Beijing may wish the Olympics were held every day. A study released in a scientific journal on Tuesday finds that women who were pregnant during the 2008 Beijing Olympics – when aggressive measures by the Chinese government over a seven-week period significantly reduced air pollution – gave birth to heavier and presumably healthier babies.

Economics / Trade / Business

Short Work Stays In China: Work Visa Now Probably Required (April 23, 2015, China Law Blog)
According to the Processing Procedures, if a foreigner comes to China to complete a short-term work task and stays no more than 90 days, he or she must get a work visa (a/k/a a Z visa). The Processing Procedures define a “short-term work task” as one of the following.

Whitbread plans to expand Costa coffee chain in China (April 27, 2015, BBC)
Costa owner Whitbread plans to expand the coffee chain in China from 344 to 900 coffee shops by 2020. Over the last year, 43 new Costa coffee shops opened in China's biggest cities.

Walmart to open 115 stores in China (April 29, 2015, BBC)
The world's biggest retailer, Walmart, plans to open 115 new stores in China by 2017, the company says. The move would increase the number of its stores in the world's second largest economy by almost a third. "Our aim is to become an integral part of China's economy," chief executive Doug McMillon said at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

History / Culture

A former Shanghai 'comfort house' – a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 23 (April 24, 2015, The Guardian)
The Ximeng mansion – once used as a military brothel where occupying Japanese soldiers raped local women – is a bricks and mortar testament to Shanghai’s tumultuous 20th century history.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

Platon: China at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute (May 4, 2015, The New Yorker)
For most of the twentieth century—the Mao-suit decades—couture fashion was not a feature of daily Chinese life. But centuries of Chinese culture have inspired designers in the West. The Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute and Department of Asian Art examine that influence in more than a hundred pieces.

Travel / Food

Hong Kong's most breathtaking views: where to glimpse the city from above (March 25, 2015, Lonely Planet)
Hong Kong’s power buildings and gleaming harbour are made for the cinema. The city’s views have inspired the sci-fi classic Blade Runner and awed audiences in The Dark Knight. Luckily, unlike Batman, you don’t have to scale a 400-storey building for a glimpse of Hong Kong’s dramatic skyline. There are plenty of less life-threatening spots around town that afford equally stunning views.

Roughing It Xinjiang Style (April 22, 2015, The World of Chinese)
Xinjiang cuisine isn’t just lamb kebabs, and if you’re there with friends, the “big-plate chicken” (大盘鸡) is a classic.

The Ultimate Didi Dache and Uber Taxi-Off (with Bonus User Guides) (April 24, 2015, The Beijinger Blog)
In case you missed out on all the action, are new to Beijing, or are looking to for once and all settle the debate, this is the Didi Dache and Uber comparison guide. For proper results, your faithful editor, yours truly, went to Wangjing SOHO from the Beijinger mansion, using Didi Dache on the way there, and Uber on the way back.

Last of the locomotives: China's steam train line – in pictures (April 24, 2015, The Guardian)
It’s a bumpy ride, and it takes over an hour to go 12 miles. But the trip from Shixi to Huangcunjing in rural Sichuan is one of the last regular passenger steam train services in the world – and a lifeline to locals, who could not travel to nearby towns without it.

Language / Language Learning

Will a Chinese-only rule improve your learning? (April 22, 2015, Hacking Chinese)
While everyone agrees that immersion is great, is a “Chinese only” rule really as good an idea as it seems? In this article, I’m first going to look at some pros and cons, then present my conclusion.

Top 500 Chinese Characters (and How to Write Them) (April 23, 2015, CarlGene.com)
I created this because a) I’m sick of memorising Chinese characters the old-fashioned way; and b) I’m obsessed with collecting Chinese radicals and components. If you’re looking for a systematic way to learn how to memorise all of the common Chinese characters, you’re in the right place.

Chinese Dictation Practice #1 (April 26, 2015, CarlGene.com)
Inspired after my recent post Top 500 Chinese Characters (and How to Write Them), I thought I’d create a dictation practice mp3 for those out there who want more practice writing and recalling Chinese characters.

Books

Theosis, Sino-Christian Theology and the Second Chinese Enlightenment, Part II (April 28, 2015, Global China Center)
Though Alexander Chow’s book possesses a number of extremely helpful features, it also suffers from several significant weaknesses. These include internal problems, omissions, and questions of fact. The second part of this review will discuss these and conclude with a theological critique.

Xinjiang: A Travel Guide to Far West China

Articles for Researchers

China's Ideological Spectrum (Social Science Research Network)
We offer the first large scale empirical analysis of ideology in contemporary China to determine whether individuals fall along a discernible and coherent ideological spectrum, and whether there are regional and inter-group variations in ideological orientation.

Events

International Workshop on Daoist-Christian Dialogue and Comparative Scripture May 9-10, Minzu University of China, Beijing
Scriptures play important roles in both Daoism and Christianity. Both religions have their respective ways of shaping, reading, translating and interpreting their scriptures. Are there significant convergences and divergences in their hermeneutical traditions? What can and should be the roles of scriptures in the dialogue between them? 

Opening

Asian Charity Services (www.asiancharityservices.org), the leading provider of pro-bono organizational development training and consulting services for NGOs in Hong Kong, is currently recruiting an Executive Director (ED). The ED will inherit an organization with a solid foundation and functional team and will play a crucial role in deciding the future direction of ACS. In addition, he or she will contribute comprehensively to all aspects of the fulfillment of ACS’s mission including strategic planning, program execution, team development, fundraising, communication and relationship building. For more information about the ED position, please contact Peter Li (peter@asiancharityservices.org). All applications will be treated confidentially.

Image credit: by bricoleurbanism, via Flickr