Today's Links: Cash flows, car salutes, and corny sayings

china_money.jpg
Photo by nefflo
  • China's rivers of cash flowing wrong way [Sydney Morning Herald] "On Thursday, the National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Li Xiaochao had been comfortably batting away curly questions from the international media about what lay beneath China's spectacular headline GDP growth of 8.9 per cent through the year. But one question from Shanghai's Oriental Post tied him hopelessly in knots: "What is the amount and growth rate of consumption expenditure for government administration, compared with last year?" The journalist was asking how much of China's spectacular retail sales growth - 17 per cent after adjusting for falls in prices - was simply the bureaucracy taking advantage of the fiscal stimulus to spend more money on itself."
  • Salute All Cars, Kids. It’s a Rule in China [NY Times] "All the students at Luolang Elementary School, a yellow-and-orange concrete structure off a winding mountain road in southern China, know the key rules: Do not run in the halls. Take your seat before the bell rings. Raise your hand to ask a question. And oh, yes: Salute every passing car on your way to and from school."
  • China and America: The odd couple [The Economist] "IT HAS become a tedious tradition for Westerners dealing with China to garnish their speeches with wisdom from the Chinese classics. Barack Obama, addressing Chinese and American leaders in July, used not just a banal quotation from Mencius, a Confucian sage, but a punchier one from Yao Ming, a Chinese basketball player: “No matter whether you are new or an old team member, you need time to adjust to one another.” Though it is 30 years since the two countries re-established diplomatic ties severed by the Communist takeover, both sides still badly need to adjust…"
  • Solar industry is reined in [China Daily] "China is attempting to rein in overcapacity in the country's solar energy sector despite the government's ambitious goal to increase solar capacity from 50 megawatts in 2008 to between 10 and 20 gigawatts by 2020. Enterprises flocking to boost markets in industries such as steel and cement have been common in recent years, with the government then stepping in to correct potential overcapacity."
  • A foreigner's life in a Beijing jail [Danwei] "A foreign man who spent the last seven months in jail sent Danwei this description of his daily life at the Beijing No. 1 Detention Center after his release last week. If I were a Chinese person and not a foreigner, a crime like mine would have been dealt with on the “city district” level, as opposed to the “municipal” level which is much tougher. The other people incarcerated at Beijing No. 1 Detention Center were all facing life sentences or death sentences, at least as a possibility, so it’s not a place where detainees are given a lot of slack. It’s the site of Beijing’s newly constructed hi‐tech lethal injection chamber. It was boring as anything, and the rules were strict."
  • India, China hits conciliatory note [MorungExpress] "Skirting the recent Sino-India diplomatic spat over Arunachal Pradesh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Wen Jiabao on Friday made it clear that differences should not impede growth of a robust strategic partnership between the two countries. Meeting on a positive note in this Thai beach resort on the margins of the ASEAN summit, the two leaders underlined the importance of building trust, harmony and better understanding.
  • Wang Dahao (王大豪): “After July 5th, There are no Netizens in Xinjiang” [China Digital Times] "Xinjiang has become the only place where the Internet exists but no access to it has been allowed in such a long time. At the beginning, people in Xinjiang were mostly interested in the casualties from the July 5th riots; afterward, they became interested in when Internet access will be restored. When will the Internet be restored?"
Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
user-pic
By Elaine Chow in on October 26, 2009 8:00 PM Comments 0 Likes Likes

Tags:


Comments [rss]