ZGBriefs

ZGBriefs | May 28, 2015

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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

Moscow Patriarchate: China authorises the ordination of Chinese Orthodox priests on its territory (May 19, 2015, Asia News)
Metropolitan Hilarion, the Moscow Patriarchate’s ‘foreign minister’, made the announcement after a visit to China where he met the leaders of the State Administration for Religious Affairs. The first priest should serve in Harbin. Two more ordinations are expected. With a new Cold War as the background, the Moscow-Beijing strategic alliance also has a Church connection with the People's Republic recognising the latter’s 'political' role in Russia.

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

A New Day for Foreign NGOs? (May 22, 2015, ChinaSource Blog)
Depending on what one is trying to accomplish in China, the new law could come as a relief or as a rude awakening. Based on this latest draft, here is a sampling of what may be in store:

And the law won (May 23, 2015, The Economist)
The rise and fall of China’s civil-rights lawyers says much about the Communist Party’s approach to the rule of law.

Chinese officials sent on prison tours as a 'warning' against corruption (May 25, 2015, The Guardian)
Chinese officials have been sent on prison tours visiting inmates including former colleagues as a warning against corruption, state-run media said Monday, provoking mockery online. More than 70 officials and their spouses in central Hubei province spent a day in prison this month “as an educational warning”, the government-published China Daily reported.

Chinese students in the west call for transparency over Tiananmen Square (May 26, 2015, The Guardian)
A group of Chinese students living in western countries have issued a rare public appeal for their government to end its secrecy over the Tiananmen Square massacre and hold those responsible to account. The open letter from 11 students enrolled at universities in the US, UK and Australia is politically risky at a time of tightening government controls on activists and rights groups, from small charities and feminists to human rights lawyers who take on politically controversial cases.

Hong Kong Student Activist Joshua Wong Barred From Malaysia (May 26, 2015, China Real Time)
Joshua Wong, the teenage face of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy student movement, was refused entry to Malaysia where he was scheduled to attend a series of forums relating to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Mr. Wong, 18 years old , said in statements posted to his social-media accounts on Tuesday that he was banned from leaving Malaysia’s Penang airport upon arrival because of a “government order,” he cited an immigration official as saying. He was put on a Dragon Air flight back to Hong Kong the same day.

Exclusive: China warns U.S. surveillance plane (May 26, 2015, CNN)
The Chinese navy issued warnings eight times as a U.S. surveillance plane on Wednesday swooped over islands that Beijing is using to extend its zone of influence. The series of man-made islands and the massive Chinese military build-up on them have alarmed the Pentagon, which is carrying out the surveillance flights in order to make clear the U.S. does not recognize China's territorial claims. The militarized islands have also alarmed America's regional allies.

China plans blunt move into 'open seas,' warns foreign powers not to meddle (+video) (May 27, 2015, Christian Science Monitor)
China outlined on Tuesday a strategy to expand the reach of its military, as it continues to press its territorial claims in the South China Sea. The strategy came amid a series of louder warnings to the United States to divert its military presence in the area. The Chinese Navy will shift its focus to "open seas protection" rather than "offshore waters defense" alone, according to a policy document issued by the State Council, China’s government cabinet.

The Short Answer: China’s Claims In The South China Sea (May 27, 2015, China Real Time)
Beijing and Washington are at odds over whether the U.S. has the right to send military planes and ships close to the Spratly Islands, where China is in the process of building a set of artificial islands.  International law – the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — only goes so far in determining who’s right.

China's latest law-enforcement gadgets (May 27, 2015, BBC)
The BBC's John Sudworth reports from the annual Beijing Police Equipment Expo, an event showcasing the latest law-enforcement gadgetry at the disposal of the ruling Communist Party.

China hails crackdown on terror in Xinjiang (May 27, 2015, BBC)
Chinese authorities say security forces in the western autonomous region of Xinjiang have busted 181 terror groups in an almost year-long operation, with the overwhelming majority thwarted while still at the planning stage.

Chinese Racist Views Towards Blacks and Africans: A China in Africa Podcast (May 27, 2015, China File)
Viola Rothschild is a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University. She posted a commentary on Foreign Policy magazine’s website that focused on the increasingly complex racism that is expressed online towards blacks (both from the U.S. and Africa). Viola joins Eric and Cobus to discuss her observations about China’s complex relationship with multiculturalism and how it’s manifested online.

Foreign Journalists in China Face Increasing Intimidation, Survey Says (May 28, 2015, China Real Time)
Nearly three-quarters of foreign correspondents in China experienced intimidation or harassment while reporting in the past year, according to a survey of reporters in the country. The 72% figure represents an increase from the two-thirds of respondents who said in last year’s survey that they had experienced interference by police or unidentified persons, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) said in its annual Working Conditions report.

China puts weapons on its new artificial islands (May 28, 2015, The Age)
China has moved weaponry onto artificial islands that it is building in contested areas of the South China Sea, adding to the risks of a confrontation with the United States and its regional security partners including Australia.

Religion

God’s Work, God’s Way (May 21, 2015, The Gospel Coalition)
Hudson Taylor is best known as a 19th-century pioneering missionary to inland China. He became a Christian at 17 after reading an evangelism tract. On September 19, 1853, Taylor left England for China. After an arduous ocean voyage of nearly six months, Taylor arrived in China for the first time on March 1, 1854, at the age of 22.

The Spectacular Seda Monastery (May 21, 2015, The Atlantic)
High in a treeless valley in China's remote Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture lies the largest Tibetan Buddhist school in the world. Founded in 1980, the Seda Larung Wuming Tibetan Buddhist Institute consists of a few main buildings and tens of thousands of small dormitories built on the surrounding hillsides.

China Aims to Break Foreign Influence on Religion (May 22, 2015, VOA News)
Chinese President Xi Jinping this week asked religious groups to pledge their loyalty to the state and warned that religions in China must be independent of foreign influence. At a time when China’s Christians now outnumber the membership of the Communist Party, some say there is an intensifying crackdown on religious groups.

How I Escaped from North Korea: And the crucial role the Chinese church played (May 26, 2015, Christianity Today)
From that town in the northernmost part of China, I made my way to Yanji, then to Tumen City. I wandered around until I found another church. On the wall were written these words: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Photos: The Amazing Colors of China’s Buddhist Temples (May 26, 2015, Slate)

A Foolish Way to Build the Church (May 26, 2015, Chinese Church Voices)
For this post, we have translated a sermon given by Pastor Wang Yi, of Autumn Rain Church, one of the prominent house churches in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. In it, Pastor Wang reflects on what it means to build a church.

China Province Under Fire After New Rules on Churches (May 27, 2015, China Real Time)
Chong-Yi Church in the provincial capital Hangzhou posted its response to the regulations on its website before the end of the comment period earlier this month, saying the rules interfere with religious freedom and traditional customs.

How Can We Better Prepare People for the Field? – An Interview with Lauren Pinkston (May 27, 2015, ChinaSource Blog)
I want to know how a person's job reflects how much language learning they do, how long they stay in this country, how much they interact with local culture, how they educate their children, as well as their depression and anxiety outcomes.

Society / Life

American Jailed for Theft Describes Conditions in a Chinese Detention Center (May 22, 2015, Sinosphere)
The testimony provided by Mr. Foster was notable, not only because he allowed his name to be used, but also because he is one of the few foreigners to have witnessed conditions inside China’s pretrial detention centers, a shadowy world characterized by filth, hunger, violence and forced labor. He and his fellow inmates at the Baiyun Detention Center in Guangzhou, he said, spent their waking hours assembling Christmas lights for export.

China’s little emperors – the children without siblings (May 23, 2015, The Guardian)
China’s one-child policy led to a generation waited on hand and foot as sole focus of their parents’ hopes and dreams. Rather than hot-house her own son, Xinran Xue left home in 1997 to bring him up in Britain.

Sinica Podcast: Identity, Race and Civilization (May 24, 2015, Pop-up Chinese)
This week, Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn are delighted to be joined by David Moser, director of the CET immersion program in Beijing, and Jeremiah Jenne, renegade Qing historian and director of The Hutong. We chat about what it means to be Chinese, where these ideas came from and whether anything is likely to change them in the future.

Photos: The daily life of Shanghai's waste pickers (May 26, 2015, The Guardian)
Workers en route to the Chuan Chang road recycling depot in Shanghai are among thousands of waste pickers working in China’s cities sorting through rubbish for materials that can be recycled for a profit.

Police detain 12 people after 38 killed in fire at aged care home in China (May 26, 2015, The Guardian)
At least 12 people connected to the privately run home for the elderly in central China where 38 people died in a fire earlier this week have been taken into custody by the police, state media reported on Wednesday. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the 12 included the legal representative of the Kangleyuan rest home, and that police were searching for another three employees.

Hong Kong paper loses four top voices: A pro-China 'putsch'? (May 27, 2015, Christian Science Monitor)
The ejection of at least four veteran columnists from Hong Kong's English-language paper of record, the South China Morning Post, has reignited concerns over press freedom in this former British colony. Steve Vines, one of the ousted columnists, calls the simultaneous departure of senior voices that were sometimes critical of Beijing and Hong Kong as a “putsch,” though the reasons behind the enforced departures remain murky.

Education

For American Students in China, Some Risks, No Regrets (May 27, 2015, Foreign Policy)
Life in the People's Republic can be trying — but for a young American, it's also transformative. FP surveys a rising generation of cross-cultural natives.

Health / Environment

Sterile mosquitoes released in China to fight dengue fever (May 24, 2015, The Guardian)
Scientists carry out trial in southern province of Guangdong aimed at reducing population of insects that carry the disease.

Economics / Trade / Business

Welcome to Baoding, China's most polluted city (May 22, 2015, The Guardian)
It is a rare blue-skied day in the city of Baoding, in north-eastern China. It’s not even that clear, but the hazy sky is as blue as it gets here. Most days, the sky is obscured by a thick blanket of smog. Baoding, a city of 10 million people, was named in February as China’s most polluted city by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, based on air pollution figures gathered for 2014.

How China's pollution problem impacts on its people – in pictures (May 22, 2015, The Guardian)
China is home to many of the most polluted cities in the world. Souvid Datta travelled around the country to photograph some of those who are worst affected.

China cuts import taxes to boost consumer demand (May 25, 2015, BBC)
China will cut import taxes on consumer goods by more than 50% on average in a bid to boost consumer spending. High tariffs for imported goods have prompted some Chinese consumers to shop abroad or through agents. By lowering the fees, China may hope to bring some of that consumer spending home.

China Contracts That Work (May 27, 2015, China Law Blog)
There are three reasons why it makes sense to have a contract with your Chinese counter-party, and only one of those reasons is enforceability in court.

Science / Technology

China, Peru and Brazil mull Amazon railway (May 23, 2015, BBC)
A Chinese scheme to build an east-west railway across South America, cutting across parts of the Amazon rain forest, has moved a step closer after Peru agreed to study the proposal. The scheme would link Peru's Pacific coast with Brazil's Atlantic shores.

History / Culture

A Huge Cache of Photos of The Cultural Revolution in Hong Kong, 1967 (May 24, 2015, Everyday Life in Mao’s China)

China’s ancient city where Islam took hold (May 25, 2015, BBC)
Xi’an’s Silk Road roots continue to fuel one of the city’s most interesting modern-day neighbourhoods.

An Important Lens: The Boxer Rebellion (May 25, 2015, ChinaSource Blog)
Once again, a quasi-religious movement destabilized the social and political order; this time bringing it all crashing down. Today’s leaders know this.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

China’s Invisible History: An Interview with Filmmaker and Artist Hu Jie (May 27, 2015, New York Review of Books)
Though none of his works have been publicly shown in China, Hu Jie is one of his country’s most noteworthy filmmakers.

Language / Language Learning

Why you should learn Chinese in Chinese (May 27, 2015, Hacking Chinese)
One of the first things you should learn to say in Chinese are those sentences you use to learn. A good rule of thumb is that if you find yourself saying something (anything) in English a few times, you should learn it in Chinese instead.

Books

Flood of Fire – to Canton on the eve of the Opium Wars with Amitav Ghosh (May 24, 2015, China Rhyming)
Flood of Fire, the final book Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy which has so wonderfully evoked the old Canton Factories takes us to the eve of the Opium Wars.

Image Credit: by Joann Pittman, via Flickr

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Joann Pittman

Joann Pittman

Joann Pittman is Vice President of Partnership and China Engagement and editor of ZGBriefs. Prior to joining ChinaSource, Joann spent 28 years working in China, as an English teacher, language student, program director, and cross-cultural trainer for organizations and businesses engaged in China. She has also taught Chinese at the University …View Full Bio