Don’t you think it ridiculous to commission an aircraft carrier without aircraft? And the commissioning ceremony was so grand that it was attended by both General Secretary Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. If the carrier remains without aircraft for… Read More ›

Month: September 2012
China speeds up construction of Sansha City on island claimed by Philippines
Chinese authorities are speeding up construction work in Sansha, a newly formed city located on a disputed island in the West Philippine Sea. A report posted on China‘s government web portal Sunday said authorities mapped out plans for four infrastructure… Read More ›
BRIC hallucination: China won’t be engine of new world order, nor Russia, nor India
In the New World Order, the BRIC nations – developing nations – are to be the engine of global growth. That is at least what officials from the foremost global institutions have maintained all along, divorcing their narrative from the… Read More ›
French architect in China scandal back in Cambodia
A French architect embroiled in the scandal surrounding the ousted Chinese Communist Party official Bo Xilai has left China and returned to his adopted homeland of Cambodia, according to French and Cambodian government officials. Patrick Henri Devillers flew to China… Read More ›
China-made aircraft carrier will be launched next year
Singtao Daily reports Thursday: Sources say that China is now building two aircraft carriers, one of which, a new one entirely built by China on its own, will be launched next year at the earliest. As for China’s carrier-based aircraft,… Read More ›
A Chinese megacity is on the verge of bankruptcy
While most “developed world” people have heard of Hong Kong and Macau, far fewer have heard of China’s province of Guangdong, which is somewhat surprising. With over 100 million people, a GDP of nearly $1 trillion – the biggest of all… Read More ›
China: Conservatives’ Waterloo in Bo Xilai saga
China announced in its prime time TV news the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo decision to expel Bo Xilai from the CCP, remove him from all his official posts and transfer his case to the prosecutor for Bo’s serious crimes… Read More ›
China to sell 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) in treasury bonds
The certificate treasury bonds, the third batch this year, will be sold Oct 10-19 to individual investors, the China Daily Friday quoted the finance ministry as saying. They include 12 billion yuan of three-year bonds with an annual interest rate of 4.76%… Read More ›
Two Chinese warships sighted at disputed Senkaku Islands
According to China’s major Internet portal sina.com, China’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed that Chinese warships patrolled the sea area around the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku Islands). At a press conference, a reporter asked Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun: There… Read More ›
Philippines will respond to China ships
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario on Wednesday said the Philippine government may have to respond to the continued stay of Chinese ships in the waters of the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. Del Rosario, in… Read More ›
China’s reserve of talented leaders: Sun Zhengcai
SCMP says in its report “Sun Zhengcai is being tipped as a future top leader” that being one of the youngest provincial party chiefs, Sun Zhengcai is tipped to be a future top leader for his efforts in booming Jilin…. Read More ›
China is not a functioning meritocracy
Two months ago Professor Daniel Bell of Qinghua University wrote an article in the Christian Science Monitor about what American democracy could learn from China’s one party rule. The focus of his piece is on the positive values of meritocracy… Read More ›
China carrier a show of force as Japan tension festers
China sent its first aircraft carrier into formal service on Tuesday amid a tense maritime dispute with Japan in a show of force that could worry its neighbours. China’s Ministry of Defence said the newly named Liaoning aircraft carrier would… Read More ›
PBOC injects biggest daily amount of funds via repos to raise liquidity
China’s central bank yesterday injected the largest daily amount of money into the banking system via open market operations to ease a liquidity thirst before a week-long holiday. The People’s Bank of China conducted 190 billion yuan of 28-day reverse… Read More ›
North Korea plans agriculture reforms, seeks Chinese investment
Reuters’ Benjamin Kang Lim reports from Beijing: “North Korea plans to allow farmers to keep more of their produce in an attempt to boost agricultural output, a source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said, in a move that… Read More ›
China: Foxconn security guards beat workers resulting in riot
Global Times reports: “Foxconn was forced to shut down its plant in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province Monday after a fight broke out among 2,000 of its workers late Sunday, leaving some 40 people injured, the Taiwan electronics giant said. “The brawl… Read More ›
Chinese navy gets first aircraft carrier
China‘s first aircraft carrier, an overhauled former Soviet vessel, has been formally handed over to China’s navy, local media reported on Monday. The official ceremony was held on Sunday at the Dalian shipyard in Northeast China, where the aircraft carrier… Read More ›
China’s super-rich get poorer
Many of China‘s richest people have grown poorer over the past year and the number of its US dollar billionaires has fallen for the first time in seven years, according to the Hurun Rich List, which tracks Chinese wealth. In… Read More ›
China: Wen Jiabao will strive for political reform after retirement
According to Ming Pao, three times within ten days, China’s soon-to-be-retired premier Wen Jiabao mentioned in public his retirement and stressed the importance of political structural reform. Analysts and Beijing scholars believe that it indicated that Wen will not rest… Read More ›
South Korea signs deal to become NATO partner
NATO and South Korea on Thursday signed a new partnership program that sets the framework for cooperation and political dialogue. NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow and the South Korean Ambassador Kim Chang-beom signed the first Individual Partnership Cooperation Program (IPCP)… Read More ›
Fish flee after China claims Bay of Bengal (humour)
In developments that our editor refuses to call fishy, China‘s geopolitical muscle-flexing has led to a major exodus of marine wildlife. Schools of petrified fish were observed to be fleeing in panic moments after Xinhua announced that the Bay of… Read More ›
Protesters stage anti-China rally in Tokyo over Senkaku Islands
A group of about 1,400 activists staged a mass anti-China demonstration in Tokyo on Saturday, vowing to defend the Senkaku (Diaoyu or Diaoyutai) Islands and safeguard Japan‘s territorial integrity. The activists, mostly men of middle age or older, were from… Read More ›
China-Japan ceremony postponed
Global Times reports: “China announced on Sunday that the date for the reception marking the 40th anniversary of the normalisation of China-Japan relations will be postponed to ‘a proper time,’ following escalating tensions between the two countries caused by the… Read More ›
Zhu jia jiao: A watertown in Shanghai
If you want to visit an ancient watertown in the outskirts of Shanghai, Zhu jia jiao is just the right place for you. There are nice canals running through the town, and the best way to explore the city is… Read More ›
Japan, U.S. joint drill to defend remote islands opens to media
Media organisations observed a joint drill Saturday of Japan’s Ground Self-defence Force and the U.S. Marine Corps on the western Pacific island of Guam, aimed at strengthening their ability to defend remote islands from foreign assault. The drill was conducted… Read More ›
China: Zhou Qiang set for Politburo despite Li Wangyang scandal
The party secretary of a troubled province is regarded as a reformist and a strong bet for the Politburo but he may be too low-key for some. Despite a recent series of scandals in Hunan , provincial party secretary Zhou… Read More ›
China’s Xi Jinping: sea dispute hardliner or peace seeker?
We now have two conflicting reports on China’s leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping’s speech to Southeast Asian leaders in Nanning, Guangxi yesterday. Reuters gives its report the title “China’s Xi seeks to reassure Southeast Asia on sea dispute”. SCMP’s title, however, is… Read More ›
China at crossroad: risk of disintegration
The disintegration of the giant Soviet Union took everyone by surprise. The reasons for the disintegration remain a mystery for most analysts. Perhaps we Chinese, with a history of quite a few disintegrations, may understand it better. Like China with… Read More ›
China: Bo Xilai doomed for his Role in Wang Lijun’s and Gu Kailai’s cases
At 8.56pm on Thursday, Xinhua’s english.news.cn gave a detailed account of Wang Lijun’s case, which revealed Bo Xilai’s role in Gu Kailai and Wang Lijun’s cases Xinhua said: “Relevant testimonies from witnesses showed that on Jan. 28, Wang Lijun reported… Read More ›
China launched two satellites for its GPS system
Ming Pao reports: At 3.00am Wednesday, a Long March 3B Rocket successfully launched the 14th and 15th satellites for China’s BeiDou (COMPASS) Navigation Satellite System, a system similar to America’s GPS System very useful in war as it can guide… Read More ›
Bond wars: Chinese advisor calls for Japanese bond dump
China is actively considering “using its power as Japan’s biggest creditor with $230bn (£141bn) of bonds to “impose sanctions on Japan in the most effective manner” and bring Tokyo’s festering fiscal crisis to a head.” Meaning: dump Japan’s bonds en… Read More ›
September 21 1949 Mao Zedong outlines the new Chinese government
Originally posted on Craig Hill Consultancy Services:
On September 21st 1949, at the opening of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Peking, Mao Zedong announced that the new Chinese government would be “under the leadership of the Communist Party…
Bo Xilai involved in Wang Lijun’s case but cannot be prosecuted
Hearing of the case of Bo Xilai’s close assistant Wang Lijun was over yesterday, but Bo Xilai was not mentioned either by the court or the media. However, as Wang’s crime of taking technical spying measures on various people without… Read More ›
How much gold does China have?
China Is Seeking To Offset The Declining U.S. Dollars It Holds By Buying Gold On the 24th of April 2009, China announced that it had increased its gold reserves 75% from 600 tonnes to 1,054 tonnes. What made the announcement… Read More ›
Modern Chinese ethical dilemmas
Two pieces of news out of China in the last few weeks really caught my eye. I specifically focus on these as neither is directly related to the upcoming transition of power, the Bo Xilai scandal, or the current Sino/Japanese… Read More ›
China and Russia quit dollar
China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday. Chinese experts said the move reflected closer… Read More ›
Japan’s restraint makes war with China less likely
A clash seemed unavoidable when twelve Chinese surveillance and fishing administration ships and seven Japanese patrol ships were in the waters within and around the areas over which China and Japan each claims its sovereignty. That was a situation much… Read More ›
Hollywood should bet on India over China
Hollywood should bet on India over China in the long term, according to Chris Dodd, the Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of the inaugural Asian Film Summit… Read More ›
Will clash begin by boldness on both Chinese and Japanese sides?
It seems that the Japanese coastguard acted with restraint on Monday when six Chinese surveillance ships went to the disputed sea areas to claim sovereignty. The Japanese coastguard claimed that its ships had not seen any Chinese surveillance vessels within… Read More ›
China hints at lenient sentence against ex-cop
China signalled Tuesday it will be lenient with an ex-police chief enmeshed in a political scandal roiling the country’s leadership, saying he cooperated with investigators who brought down a top Chinese politician’s wife for the murder of a British businessman…. Read More ›
In Africa’s warm heart, a cold welcome for Chinese
Malawians bill their country as the “Warm Heart of Africa” and pride themselves on a reputation for friendliness. But Jaffa Shaibu, a burly 32-year-old merchant in a clothes market in Salima, a dusty town near the shores of Lake Malawi,… Read More ›
Over 1,000 Chinese fishing boats to fish in disputed waters near Senkakus
Ming Pao reports from Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong: While mass anti-Japan protests spread to at lease 85 cities in China, over 1,000 fishing boats set out for the sea areas around the Diaoyu Islands to fish and claim… Read More ›
Tight security as China opens police chief trial
Police and security forces surrounded a courthouse in southwest China on Monday, ahead of the long-awaited trial of the mafia-busting cop at the centre of the Neil Heywood murder scandal. Wang Lijun, the flamboyant former police chief and vice-mayor of… Read More ›
Vandalism and rage in China; party instigated protests with Chinese characteristics
Do not be surprised by the vandalism and rage in the recent anti-Japanese mass protests instigated by the Chinese government. Ming Pao regards the violence as something related to the quality of Chinese people. It said in its report yesterday:… Read More ›
Indian tank brigades deployed to defend border with China
The Indian army’s defences on the China border will get a major offensive boost with the impending deployment of two tank brigades, one each in Ladakh and north-east India. This is the first time that India will deploy armoured formations… Read More ›
War between China and Japan imminent; reply to comments
I am glad that my respected friends Joy Ocampo and Gene S. commented my post Naval War between China and Japan Seems Imminent soon after it was posted. Joy Ocampo said: Even the Philippines & it’s neighbouring countries are eager to defend… Read More ›
China: Panasonic factory, Toyota dealership on fire as anti-Japan protests escalate
A Panasonic Corp. factory and a Toyota Motor Corp. dealership in China were damaged by fire as demonstrations over a territorial dispute with Japan widened, prompting Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to urge the Chinese government to ensure the safety of… Read More ›
As China’s wages climb, Mexico stands to win new manufacturing business
Not long ago, Mexican factories couldn’t compete with the “China price,” the ridiculously low cost of production in the Asian nation. But sometime this year, with rock-bottom wages soaring in China, the average cost of factory labour in the two… Read More ›
U.S. return of Senkakus to Japan in ’72 upset China, Taiwan
China and Taiwan, which are embroiled in territorial disputes with Japan over the Senkaku Islands, opposed the islets’ incorporation into Japan ahead of Okinawa‘s 1972 reversion from the United States, declassified U.S. documents showed Saturday. In a diplomatic note from… Read More ›
In China, officials are always correct; two true stories of despotism
In Mao era, lots of innocent people were imprisoned as officials were always correct In the Mao era, an era not only millions of Chinese Maoists but lots of people outside China regard as an era of idealist fairness and… Read More ›