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The Zhejiang Kan Group deal

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:17:47 GMT

The Economic Observer summarizes the reporting that made Qiu Ziming a wanted man: In his first report, Qiu revealed that during the privatization of Zhejiang Kan Group (ZKSMC's parent firm) during the late 90s, the local government-owned company, which at the time of privatization had total and net assets of 136 million yuan and 7.09 million yuan respectively, was transferred to Wang Bailang and 15 other people at the heavily-discounted price of 890,000 yuan. The transfer was made in accordance...(read more)

A sleeping giant stirs

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:09:50 GMT

The Socialist Worker turns its eye on the recent labor protests in China: It's worth noting that very few rank-and-file leaders who built industrial unions in other countries have limited their ambitions to "pure-and-simple trade unionism." Some vision of a transformed society--whether based on socialist, anarchist or social-gospel Christian ideas--has been crucial to shaping the core cadres of activists committed to the life of risk, sacrifice and hard work that is necessary to building...(read more)

Weekendist: Potlucks, dance performances and parties aplenty

Shanghaiist — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:00:00 GMT

Every Friday, we try to make things easier for you by bringing you a roundup of events going on this weekend. If you're in the mood for a little night music this weekend, have a look at our Midweek Music Preview . FRIDAY Feel like showing off your cooking skills tonight? OZNZ is doing a crazy little potluck, where you bring a dish of food in exchange for... well, the company of friendly strangers, we suppose. Best tasting dish gets drink prizes. Get there in time for dinner at 7:30pm. OZNZ, 1153...(read more)

Cops revoke wanted criminal status of EO reporter

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:23:22 GMT

From the Economic Observer Today we received notification that, after conducting an investigation, the Public Security Bureau of Lishui City in Zhejiang Province announced that the decision by Suichang County's Public Security Bureau to issue an arrest order for our reporter Qiu Ziming for the crime of "alleged damage to a company's business reputation" did not comply with the law and they ordered Suichang Public Security Bureau to immediately revoke the decision and to apologize...(read more)

U.S. govt. uncomfortable with Huawei investments

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:13:48 GMT

From The Financial Times : US government agencies charged with reviewing sensitive acquisitions are engaged in a debate over how to handle Huawei, the Chinese software and telecoms equipment-maker viewed with deep scepticism by government security experts. Last week, Huawei narrowly lost a bid to take over 2Wire, a privately held US maker of broadband internet software that was ultimately acquired by Pace of the UK for $475m, even though Huawei offered more than its rival, according to people familiar...(read more)

Mystery surrounding stitched rectum remains unsolved

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:06:18 GMT

Shenzhen Evening News , July 30, 2010 News that woman in Shenzhen having her rectum "stitched closed" by her midwife during her cesarean delivery touched a chord with the public whose discontent to the current health care system often lead them to assume the worst when it comes to doctors' ethics. The woman's husband affirmed that the midwife sealed his wife's rectum in retribution for their failure to come up with a more generous bribe; the midwife countered that she might...(read more)

Reporters not allowed to interview or publish photos of Nanjing explosion

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:04:37 GMT

China Digital Times has published some recent directives from various government propaganda organs, including this one: The Propaganda Bureau of the Nanjing Party Committee has issued a directive: In all cases use circulated copy on today’s explosion; reporters are not allowed to interview or publish pictures. Meantime, Chinese Twitter users are speculating that the official death toll went down from 12 to 10 yesterday because any disaster with more then 10 fatalities is classified as a large-scale...(read more)

1989 student leader Li Lu to succeed Warren Buffet?

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:02:23 GMT

From The Wall Street Journal : Twenty-one years ago, Li Lu was a student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests. Now a hedge-fund manager, he is in line to become a successor to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Mr. Li, 44 years old, has emerged as a leading candidate to run a chunk of Berkshire's $100 billion portfolio, stemming from a close friendship with Charlie Munger, Berkshire's 86-year-old vice chairman. In an interview, Mr. Munger revealed that Mr. Li was likely to become...(read more)

Shanghai Shouning Lu's xiaolongxia sanitation: Not great

Shanghaiist — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Now is the season for chomping down on delicious crayfish, and CNNGo has highlighted some of the best places to get some already (so we won't update ours )... but - not to spoil your xiaolongxia outings or anything - some places may not be very sanitary. One of the places you're most likely to hit up for crayfish will be Shouning Lu, but the sanitation situation there has now emerged as a serious concern. A Xinmin reporter went there and found quite a few problems with the cleaning of the...(read more)

Google blockage reports false

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:59:52 GMT

Rebecca MacKinnon: As of this writing, numerous major American and European news outlets are reporting that Google is blocked in China, based on the information appearing on Google's Mainland China service availability page. However no journalist has actually confirmed with a human being at Google that this information is correct. What's more, I've heard from several dozen people all over China who say that Google isn't blocked for them when they access it on their Internet connections...(read more)

China responds to US-ROK drill with live ammo exercises

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:49:06 GMT

From The China Daily : A top military officer has warned the Chinese military to keep a close eye on the changing situation amid a large-scale naval exercise in the South China Sea, held at the same time as a joint Washington-Seoul drill, State media reported on Thursday. According to China Central Television, Chief of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army Chen Bingde, as well as the navy commander and other high-level military leaders, oversaw a naval exercise on Monday, the second day...(read more)

Shanghai Airlines leaving Star Alliance, thanks to China Eastern

Shanghaiist — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:30:00 GMT

Got Star Alliance points? Then, if you like taking Shanghai Airlines flights, you'd better use up your miles before the end of October . The airlines was taken over by China Eastern last year and will now "maintain the consistency of the new China Easten Airlines" by leaving Star Alliance and possibly joining up with SkyTeam, China Eastern's airlines miles group of choice. Even if you don't manage to get rid of your miles, though, I suppose you could always book through Air...(read more)

Far West China: "Why a Uyghur journalist was sentenced to 15 years"

Shanghaiist — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:00:00 GMT

Uyghur journalist Gheyret Niyaz was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "endangering state security" by conducting an interview with a Hong Kong paper shortly after the Urumqi riots . While mainstream media has focused on the criticism China has gotten for this harsh sentence, Far West China examines why. It's a warning from the Chinese government: Talk to media, even a little big, get sent to jail. And it's working, though with what consequences?...(read more)

Google blocked in China... NOT!

Shanghaiist — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:40:00 GMT

Some server error has severely pranked the mainstream international media . Google declared itself blocked in China for all services except for Gmail sometime early this morning. Strangely enough though, everyone actually in China was still able to access everything they'd been able to access before. According to the Wall Street Journal : Google said its images and news services were partially blocked, but noted that Gmail was still fully or mostly accessible within the country. The information...(read more)

Photos: The trials of China's worst floods in a decade

Shanghaiist — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:00:00 GMT

They've been called the worst floods in a decade , causing tens of billions of dollars in damage, killing at least 928 people and causing another almost 500 to go missing. And with more rains coming to all parts of the country, China can only brace itself for more devastation. As if landslides , collapsing bridges and the Three Gorges Dam constantly being put to the test weren't bad enough, just today, flood waters washed 3000 barrels of explosive chemicals into a major waterway in Jilin...(read more)

Western China's best friend: Dog? No! It's the silver fox!

Shanghaiist — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:00:00 GMT

They used to be farmed for their fur, but authorities in Xinjiang have found a better use for these cute little animals: using them to deal with the almost overwhelming rat problem! And they've proven really, really good at being rat catchers too. According to People's Daily : This year, about 5.5 million hectares of grasslands, or more than 10 percent of the total coverage in Xinjiang, have been overrun by disease-infested rats. The rats have ravaged the grasslands, eating grassroots and...(read more)

ChinaJoy kicks off today with crowds, cosplay

Shanghaiist — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:10:00 GMT

ChinaJoy, the annual gaming convention that's supposed to be China's version of E3, has hit Shanghai today! The 8th China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference opened its doors at Shanghai New International Expo Center, where it will stay til Sunday. Like every year, this one was chock full of press conferences, game developers, game seminars and exhibitions - but we know what all you non-nerds were really hoping to see: Showgirls and costumed Cosplay fans. Boy, are they here in droves...(read more)

Bloomberg: China environmental accidents doubled from last year

Shanghaiist — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT

Feel like there's been a huge rise in big environmental accidents happening recently? That's probably because there has been - the Environmental Ministry has revealed that accidents rose 98 percent in the first six months of the year, mostly because of higher demand for energy and minerals. “Fast economic development is leading to increasing conflicts with the capacity of the environment to absorb” demands, the ministry said. To combat the problems, it has started a nationwide...(read more)

Spot the newspaper that reported the Nanjing factory explosion

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:40:06 GMT

Modern Express , July 29, 2010 Reporting around the explosion in a plastics factory in Nanjing has been patchy. The factory, which has been called a "time bomb" before a gas leak killed 12, was in newspapers in the former capital today. Modern Express is a Xinhua-run commercial newspaper. Today a black cover points to the explosion in Nanjing, and about how it is testing its people. However, no other major newspaper in the city had the explosion on the front page. Yangtse Evening Post The...(read more)

Bumblebee stands guard over Transformers fan convention in Shanghai

Shanghaiist — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:30:00 GMT

Looks like Transformers fever still hasn't quite left Shanghai. The hero's robot of choice, Bumblebee, was recently spotted standing outside the Shanghai East Asia Exhibition Hall in anticipation for the 2010 Cybertron Annual Meeting. What IS the 2010 Cybertron Annual Meeting? Apparently, something that will "display different generations of transformer toys to Chinese fans," according to Xinhua . Googling the name (in Chinese) reveals that it will be held from July 30 to August...(read more)

Darth Vader Steve Jobs in Apple Daily animation

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:24:01 GMT

Next Media, publisher of Apple Daily in Taiwan and Hong Kong , has become famous for it news animations of events like Tiger Wood's car crash and fight with his wife and the failed crotch bomb . Above is Next Media's take on Steve Jobs and the iPhone antenna affair. Tags : animation , Apple , Apple Daily , iPhone This article is from Danwei.org . tweet facebook bookmark HaoHao digg Mainland accessible mirror on Danwei.TV Jobs in China: danweijobs.com...(read more)

Has Xinhua's chief defected? Or is he just having back trouble?

Shanghaiist — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Wan Wuyi, a man with mysteriously crippling back problems It's a problem that never troubled Kim Philby but if it had, it would perhaps have saved MI-5 a lot of embarrassment. Online rumors circulating yesterday claimed that Wan Wuyi, the 58-year-old head of domestic news at Xinhua, may have switched teams after going AWOL following a training course at Oxford University. But Wan has apparently surfaced to refute this, saying he’s actually holed up in London with a bad back. “This...(read more)

Peace Hotel re-opens, Telegraph gets a peek inside

Shanghaiist — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:00:00 GMT

As we reported , the Peace Hotel reopens to the public today. Malcolm Moore of the Telegraph got a first look at the renovated 81-year-old landmark. He says: The restorers insisted on forensically stripping back the paint to find the original colour scheme, and have uncovered the octagonal glass roof in the lobby. However, much has also been lost. The hotel has added a new wing and rooms have been modernised to include “things like hot running water” according to the general manager....(read more)

Google & CIA invested data mining company looks at Hu Jintao

Danwei - Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:34:41 GMT

Hu Jintao's jet trails From Wired : The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to predict the future. The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents — both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine “goes beyond...(read more)

Shanghai sees reemergence of unlicensed pedicabs... and the cops trying to catch them

Shanghaiist — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:30:00 GMT

Unlicensed pedicabs, which for the longest time have been gone from our city, have been making quite a comeback recently. To combat this, police have issued a pedicab crackdown, which cumulated in them seizing 60 of these electric wagons in just one short hour! The police especially targeted Changjiangnan Lu in the Baoshan District, which is one of the largest electric pedicab gathering spots in the city. Trying to escape the police, several drivers jumped into the nearby river with their vehicles...(read more)