ZGBriefs | March 3, 2016

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Featured Article

Death and Despair in China's Rustbelt (March 1, 2016, Bloomberg)
This is the city of Tonghua in China’s rustbelt, where a desperate handful of steelworkers has gathered each week outside the management office of their mill in freezing temperatures to demand months of wages they say they’re owed. The answer, according to interviews with workers and residents, is always the same: there is no money.

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Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

The true nature of Xi Jinping’s power (February 25, 2016, China Policy Institute Blog)
But under Xi Jinping, the concealment, if it can be called that, has reached a new level of sophistication. Now it is not that things are hidden in the dark. Even seen in broad daylight, they carry two meanings. We are in the age of ambiguity. Xi and the true nature of his power sit at the centre of it.

Rebel Pepper (变态辣椒): Zhang Kai on the Cross (February 26, 2016, China Digital Times)
Cartoonist Rebel Pepper comments on the recent televised confession by lawyer Zhang Kai, who had worked with Christians in Wenzhou, Zhejiang to fight the government removal of crosses there.

Hong Kong Bookseller Confesses on TV to Evading Rules on Shipping to Mainland (February 29, 2016, The New York Times)
A co-owner of a Hong Kong publishing house who disappeared from his home in Thailand only to emerge in police custody in China has given a televised confession, saying that his company circumvented customs regulations to ship politically sensitive books from Hong Kong to the mainland.

Q. and A.: Minxin Pei on the Future of Communist Rule in China (February 29, 2016, The New York Times)
Will China’s Communist Party stay in power in its present, authoritarian form? Mr. Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, argues that the odds are high that by 2030, China’s government will be quite different, pushed to change by the endemic corruption of the current party system.

The Case of Zhang Kai: Refuting Lies, Clarifying the Facts, and Setting the Record Straight (February 29, 2016, China Change)
Zhang, 37, appeared thin and haggard, and his hair made him look like a concentration camp prisoner. We still don’t know what kind of ordeal he suffered during those six months. Looking at the language used in his “confession,” which was delivered in the tone and style of the official media, viewers were left feeling that he had been forced to read from a script prepared for him by the authorities.

China’s Coming Ideological Wars (March 1, 2016, Foreign Policy)
Chinese society is apparently rediscovering, or at least re-prioritizing, its moral and ideological cravings. Over the past several years, ideological forces and divisions have moved back to the center of Chinese political and social life, and ideological tensions among Chinese elite are now arguably higher than at any point since the immediate aftermath of the 1989 protests. The image of a “post-ideological” China has become increasingly outdated.

Why China Isn’t Hosting Syrian Refugees (March 1, 2016, Foreign Policy)
The East Asian giant faces complex political, demographic, religious, and economic challenges that have prevented it from considering allowing migrants inside its borders. Even so, if China is to become a responsible global power, the country must reevaluate the ideology that has prevented it from taking an active role in ameliorating a global crisis.

Social Media Purge Goes Far Beyond Ren Zhiqiang (March 1, 2016, China Digital Times)
While the purge of liberal microblogger Ren Zhiqiang from Sina and Tencent Weibo services has made big news in China and abroad, less press has been given to the closure of 580 more social media accounts by the Cyberspace Administration of China, including those of several celebrity bloggers, or Big Vs.

Video: China’s Annual Political Festival: What You Need to Know (March 2, 2016, China Real Time)
Lawmakers and political advisers from all over China are gathering in Beijing in early March for what’s known as the lianghui, or “Two Sessions.”

Today’s ‘Kings Without Crowns?’ — The Growing Powers of Xi’s Party Disciplinarians (March 2, 2016, China Real Time)
After hunting corrupt cadres over the past three years, the Communist Party’s much-feared graftbusters are switching gears to political policing. In the process, they have emerged with an authority perhaps unparalleled since ancient China.

Advice From Mao Recycled in the Era of Xi Jinping: ‘Play the Piano?’ (March 2, 2016, China Real Time)
Chairman Mao once urged Communist Party cadres to “learn to play the piano.” Not literally though, since classical claviers were in short supply in revolutionary China. Rather, it was an allegorical call for multitasking.

Chinese Newspaper Editor Fired Over 'Hidden' Headline Message (March 2, 2016, NPR)
At first glance, the front-page headlines in China's Southern Metropolis Daily on Feb. 20 looked like normal fare: coverage of a speech by President Xi Jinping and a politician's funeral. But read vertically, and there's a message that seems to criticize a government crackdown on the media.

Religion

Anger as Christian lawyer paraded on Chinese state TV for 'confession' (February 26, 2016, The Guardian)
Supporters of a prominent Christian lawyer who was taken into secret detention after opposing a Communist party cross-removal campaign are demanding his release after he became the latest Chinese human rights defender to be paraded on television for an alleged “confession”.

Pastor in China Who Resisted Cross Removal Gets 14 Years in Prison (February 26, 2016, The New York Times)
A court in southeastern China has sentenced a Protestant pastor to 14 years in prison and his wife to 12 years after convicting them of corruption, financial crimes and gathering people to disturb social order, an official provincial newspaper reported on Friday. The sentences for the pastor, Bao Guohua, and his wife, Xing Wenxiang, were among the harshest imposed recently on clergy members and their associates in China.

Is There a Role for the Western Church in China? (February 26, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
I have listened to a range of Chinese opinion on this. Some argue that Westerners should stay home while others appeal for as many workers as we can send. Most opinion falls somewhere between these two extremes.

When Your Phone Becomes a Substitute for True Relationships (March 1, 2016, Chinese Church Voices)
What on earth would lead an 18-year-old boy from a top class to stab his teacher and show no remorse? In this interview transcript, originally published on the mainland blog Territory, host Wenjun speaks with Jiang Peirong, a Taiwanese psychologist and Christian, about what might have led to this shocking event. Was it the thousands of hours spent reading Kung Fu novels? Lack of parental involvement? Or was there a deeper root that needs to be addressed?

Beyond Theological Education (March 2, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
Along with formal theological training there is a need for the kind of deep spiritual formation that can only come through extended personal encounters with the Lord. Marriage too costly for some rural bachelors in China

Society / Life

China, Facing Land Shortages, Encourages Saving Space 6 Feet Under (February 25, 2016, The New York Times)
Days after the government ignited a public outcry with urban development guidelines that called for an end to gated residential communities, a directive that encourages family members to be buried together or to have their remains disposed of in environmentally friendly ways has drawn criticism online.

CCTV: Bride Prices in China Are Sky-High (February 26, 2016, What’s on Weibo)
Getting married is a costly affair in China. Especially in China’s rural areas, families on the men’s side are expected to pay staggering prices to the bride’s family before marriage.

Heard in the Hutong: What Do Beijingers Think of ‘Weird’ Architecture? (February 26, 2016, China Real Time)
A host of eye-catching buildings have popped up all over China in recent years. But their days may be numbered. A new urbanization blueprint pledges to crack down on "West-worshipping, weird architecture" as well as gated housing complexes. The move follows a 2014 speech by President Xi Jinping calling for an end to "weird" architecture. We asked Beijingers their thoughts on the issue.

China's high-speed sexual revolution (February 27, 2016, BBC)
Over the last 20 years, Chinese attitudes to sex have undergone a revolution – a process carefully observed, and sometimes encouraged, by the country's first female sexologist, Li Yinhe. "In the survey I made in 1989, 15.5% of people had sex before marriage," says Li Yinhe. "But in the survey I did two years ago, the figure went up to 71%."

Impoliteness & China (February 27, 2016, Chengdu Living)
We are living in a foreign country with a drastically different history (especially recently) than any of our homelands. Whenever I encounter a situation that makes my blood boil in China, I try to think of this.

Video: Shock in Chinese village as women’s corpses stolen for use in "ghost weddings" (February 27, 2016, The Telegraph)
Grave robbers in rural China are stealing women's corpses to feed a new demand for "ghost weddings", an ancient ritual whereby elderly bachelors are given a "bride" to buried with when they die.

Knifeman wounds 10 children outside China primary school (February 29, 2016, BBC)
A knife-wielding attacker has stabbed 10 children outside a primary school in southern China before killing himself, according to police. Two of the children were seriously hurt in the attack in Hainan province but their injuries are not life-threatening, reports said. They were walking out of the school in Haikou when the man attacked them.

Slaying of Beijing Judge Prompts Horror in China’s Embattled Legal Community (February 29, 2016, China Real Time)
The case of a Beijing judge gunned down late last week — the latest in a slew of physical attacks against the profession — has triggered horror and introspection among China’s legal community, which is already facing problems of morale. According to the Supreme People’s Court’s verified Weibo account, Ma Caiyun, 38, was shot and killed on Friday by two attackers.

Aging Workers, Slowing Productivity: China’s Changing Demographics (March 1, 2016, China Real Time)
China is aging and urbanizing. Its productivity rate is slowing and it still favors males. That’s all according to new data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, which gives a glimpse at China’s 1.37 billion in numbers. The country’s working age population, ages 16 to 59, is shrinking, comprising 66.3% of the population in 2015.

New legislation outlaws domestic abuse (March 1, 2016, China Daily)
China's first law targeting violence within the home has now come into force, outlining a new approach to spousal and partner abuse and challenging traditional notions about family values.

24 jailed over billion-dollar fraud in China (March 1, 2016, Xinhua)
A court in south China's Guangdong Province on Monday imprisoned 24 people for fraudulent fund-raising of over 9.9 billion yuan (about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars). The main suspect, Jiang Hongwei, was sentenced to life in prison while 23 others received jail terms ranging from 3 to 14 years at Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court. The ring was convicted of cheating more than 230,000 victims, mostly elderly people, from 2002 to 2012, the court said.

Shanghai population declines for the first time (March 2, 2016, China Daily)
China's eastern metropolitan of Shanghai saw its population shrink for the first time this century. The city's permanent population, those who have lived there for six months or more, was 24.15 million at the end of 2015, marking a decline of 0.4 percent year on year, the city's statistics bureau said Tuesday.

Economics / Trade / Business

More Chinese cities unveil measures to boost home buying (March 1, 2016, Reuters)
More Chinese cities have rolled out measures to stimulate home buying, joining growing efforts nationwide to reduce inventories and support the slowing economy.

China to Lay Off Millions of Workers in Next Three Years, Says Report (March 1, 2016, TIME)
China will lay off as many as 6 million workers in the coming years in an attempt to improve the efficiency of the country’s slowing economy.

Education

Four Chinese first in nation to win Rhodes scholarships (February 25, 2016, China Daily)
Chinese students have enjoyed a good reputation for their performance in math and science compared with their Western counterparts. This, however, was not the case at the recent competition for Rhodes Scholarships – the world's most prestigious award for postgraduates and Ph. D. students outside the United Kingdom.

Photos: This kid is the only one left at his rural primary school that once had over 300 students (February 26, 2016, Shanghaiist)
Meet Liu Jiankang, he makes up the entire student body of Taohuagou Teaching Academy, the loneliest school in rural Hubei province.

Chinese students look beyond top-ranked universities overseas (February 29, 2016, China Daily)
China's top students have increasingly been applying for niche liberal arts colleges instead of Ivy League schools as they have become more aware of their interests and needs.

Health / Environment

Guangdong reports China's 10th Zika case (March 2, 2016, China Daily)
South China's Guangdong province on Tuesday said the father of two previously confirmed Zika patients was also found to have contracted the virus, marking China's 10th confirmed case. The 40-year-old man from Jiangmen City returned from Venezuela with his family on Feb. 25. His two children tested positive for the virus on Feb. 27, according to the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission.

Science / Technology

China Plans to Send a Second Space Laboratory Into Orbit This Year (February 29, 2016, TIME)
China will place its second space laboratory into earth’s orbit later this year, sources within the country’s space program told state-run media Sunday, furthering its push under President Xi Jinping to become the world’s next space power.

History / Culture

The stone lions of China (February 27, 2016, The World of Chinese)
They sit in front of imperial tombs, palaces, and not a few Chinese restaurants. Guardians of stone, roaring silently for centuries. The lion is one of the most common and auspicious symbols found in traditional Chinese architecture. Yet lions have never been known to occur naturally in the wilds of China. Originally thought by the Chinese to be a mythical creature, the lion eventually became a highly sought after commodity in a cross-continental tributary trade in exotic animals, and remains a symbol of power and protection.

CIA film on the Great Leap Forward from 1958 (February 27, 2016, Everyday Life in Mao’s China)
This film is called China Leaps Forward. It is on Beijing and Tianjin. 

Chinese newsreel about the Lin Biao counterrevolutionary clique from 1973 (March 1, 2016, Everyday Life in Mao’s China)

Well-off Chinese families of the 1980s and 90s in pictures (March 2, 2016, China Daily)
Chinese people's livelihoods have seen significant improvement in the past 30 years, after the reform and opening up policy that began in 1978 mobilized human and monetary resources. This collection of photos shows the properties and family settings of the 1980s and 1990s.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

BBC’s Carrie Gracie: ‘China is difficult – a giant piece of history rising’ (February 28, 2016, The Guardian)
“China is a very difficult story to cover effectively, and I feel frustrated I have never covered it effectively. It is difficult for all of us, it is a giant piece of history rising, and we don’t know what will happen, nobody knows, yet you have to make some educated guesses – report on it as it happens.

China’s New Online Publishing Rules: Another Nail in the VIE Coffin? (March 2, 2016, China Law Blog)
The OPES Rules are primarily directed at controlling Chinese entities that publish online in China and it only indirectly addresses the activities of foreign entities. The reason for this is that foreign entities are already absolutely prohibited from any publication activities in China. I repeat: WFOEs, JVs and foreign entities are absolutely prohibited from carrying out any publication in China. Since this prohibition with respect to foreign publication in China is absolute, the only role of the OPS Rules is to prohibit schemes designed to evade this absolute prohibition.

Travel / Food

Changsha! (February 29, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
I have been to Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, twice and have three distinct memories. The first is rain. Getting around town meant traipsing through mud or riding in taxis that could barely make it through the flooded streets. One taxi was in such bad shape that water was coming in through the holes in the floor.

'Red-eye' bullet train on track to meet growing demand (March 2, 2016, China Daily)
China is to introduce "red-eye" bullet trains to cater for a growing demand, according to Chinese business publication Caixin on Wednesday. China Railway Corp (CRC) will add "red-eye" bullet trains to its fixed operation schedule later this year, China Railway Corporation (CRC) said to Caixin. Trains running overnight are popularly known as "red-eyes".

Language / Language Learning

What your Chinese course will not teach you (March 1, 2016, Hacking Chinese)
Some people claim that classroom learning is useless. I disagree, I think taking a Chinese course is a good idea for a number of reasons. It gives you structure, makes you accountable and provides a steady stream of things to learn.

Links for Researchers

Special Coverage: Annual legislative and political advisory sessions (China Daily)

Promoting “young guards”: The recent high turnover in the PLA leadership (Part II: Expansion and escalation) (February 2016, Brookings)

Events

Day of Prayer and Fasting: Beijing (IMB East Asian Peoples)
Please join our March 14 Day of Prayer and Fasting for Beijing.

Image credit: wikipedia