Results tagged “obama”

• Get lost Yao Ming. Alright, stick around. But make room for the Harlem Globetrotters, playing at Yuanshen Sports Center on December 12! If you're not b-ball buff some quick stats: the Globetrotters were formed in 1926, have lost only two games between 1968 to 2000, and have a current winning percentage of 98.4%. Details on how to get tickets coming soon! [Urbanatomy]
• Many were left a bit disappointed by Obama's Town Hall in Shanghai: we wanted chairs flying and Chinese students drunken on Baijiu yelling obscenities at the President... or maybe just something a little less programmed. But there are some positive things to take away from the visit, and what it means for China-US relations. [Huffington Post]
• An interior-design company has been fined 40,000 yuan for employing a majority of foreigners without a work permits. Each of the 40 employees was fined 500 yuan. Ouch. Get your work permits before you start working in Shanghai. [Shanghai Daily]

Rich Medina, a veteran of the New York music scene, is tearing up the Shelter on Friday night - a party you definitely don't want to miss.

Well, President Obama's first trip to China is now officially over. A lot of things happened, a lot of people talked about it, but nothing too groundbreaking occurred. Obama seemed to have a good trip: he visited famous Chinese landmarks, met with his brother, even talked a bit of politics along the way. But a lot of us were ultimately left with a feeling something like disappointment: for various reasons, the mythic qualities of the American president were overwhelmed by the totalizing nature of China and Chinese politics.

Alright, we don't really have anything to say about this, we just love the picture. How can you not? It's one of the most beautiful places in China, and certainly one of the most haunting in the world (though, like Obama's trip, it's been hollowed out and stripped of any sort of deep significance, turning it into a mere symbol). Plus, the press has been following Obama around like lost fauns, waiting for him to make the right face or hand motion that will perfectly capture the essence of the president, in relation to his surroundings in China. It seems that the best thing that can come out of this trip for Obama is a bunch of good photo ops.

• Who knew that one simple gesture, like holding your own umbrella, could mean so much? Obama made an awesome first impression by shielding himself from rain on Sunday evening, thanks partially to the habit of Chinese officials usually having a flukey to hold their umbrellas, P. Diddy style. [Wall Street Journal]
• The LA Times has a great look at the story behild Jiyuan, a place known for manufacturing lead batteries where lead poisoning has gotten so bad that entire villages are being evacuated. [LA Times]
• So should we be calling President Obama 奥巴马 (àobāmǎ) or 欧巴马 (ōubāmǎ)? Both have been used in press releases, though the U.S. Embassy said it was now standardizing the Chinese translation of Barack's last name and should now be using the latter exclusively. [Danwei]

Now that we've had a good night's rest, we can sit back and reflect on the general meaning and importance, both literal and symbolic, of President Obama's town hall in Shanghai yesterday. We've come to a sort of peace with the entire affair: yes, it was scripted, but could you expect more from such an unprecedented meeting between citizens and the populist president of a staunchly democratic country in a Communist state? No, Obama didn't seem to have a substantive, overarching message for a meeting that his administration fought tooth and nail to arrange: but in his first appearance in China, having yet to even meet with President Hu Jintao, were we really expecting something earth shattering?

Since our live blogging of Obama's town hall meeting with Chinese students earlier today, a few interesting things have come to light.

There has been a flurry of news in preparation for and response to Obama's first trip to the Mainland. Because we're following it across the web so you don't have to, here's a round up of the most salient and interesting links, videos and general reactions to the US President in China.

That's right: the man everyone's been waiting for with baited breath has finally landed in Shanghai. After starting his first Asia tour with a somewhat difficult and controversial trip to Japan, Obama will settle into what should be a more pleasant, warm reception here in the Middle Kingdom.

We've been all over Obama coverage in the buildup to his visit in...four excruciatingly long days, and we've seen a lot of interesting Obama fandom from the mainland. But when it comes down to it, words are just words, and when Reuters has a greatest hits video of our favorite eccentric tributes to the American President, we'll gladly defer. After all, there's nothing like watching a flaming Obama, or seeing a little Chinese boy strike the Obama pose. Priceless.

• "VVIP" President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be camping out at the Portman Ritz-Carlton during their visit to Shanghai, effectively shutting down the hotel from Nov. 14-16. No doubt, security will be extremely tight during the Obamas' visit, so don't try nothin' fancy. [Urbanatomy]
• With all the excitement surrounding Shanghai local government approval of Disney's bid to build a new theme park in the city, there are still those who suffer the consequences: retired farmer Jin Xinmei and her husband will lose their land to the magic kingdom. This Bloomberg piece outlines China's past land acquisitions for projects such as the Three Gorges Dam and Olympics construction. [Bloomberg]
• Ye Quiantong, dubbed "China's number one voice actress" by admiring netizens, was arrested for creating pornographic audio on the website DongTing China, since shut down. As China continues to attempt asexuality, we wonder what's next... censoring erotic smells? [ChinaHush]

Obama's short time in our city might be cut a little shorter. The American President has been hoping to make a town hall styled forum with Chinese students a focal point of the trip. However, the government's desire to censor the event has caused problems: the event has been cut from 1,000-1,500 students to a mere 600, media may be banned (excluding CCTV, of course), and the event may not be broadcast live. The event seems close to cancellation: depriving the American President the chance to directly speak with the Chinese people, and making Beijing seem like it wants to keep him under wraps, would make a poor start to Obama's first trip to China.

Oh no! Remember those lovely mash up shirts of ObaMao, the combination of everyone's favorite pseudo-socialists? Turns out that the government is making stores selling the shirts and swag in Beijing take them off the shelves while the US President is in town. What a shame: we've been dying to know what he would think of them! More importantly, where on earth (specifically in Shanghai) can we find these?

There's a general energy in the air over Obama's upcoming visit. Judging by the many, many taxi and motorcycle drivers who have conversations with us to the effect of "美国好," Obama has become a cultural icon for the Chinese. While the American president represents a polar change in policy and practice for Americans, the Chinese seem to view him as an intelligent and fair man who will directly or indirectly help China in its ascendant world superpower-dom.

President Obama's itinerary has just been released, with a little under a week before his first visit to the mainland. And the best part? He's going to start his tour in Shanghai!

While his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has been busy meeting up with former US President George Bush, Singapore's ever so feisty and sprightly 86 year old Minister Mentor¹ Lee Kuan Yew has gone halfway around the globe to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington ahead of his debut Asian tour that will include China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Lee's tour also saw him meeting two key Cabinet members of the Obama administration - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

If you were President Obama, what's the best possible news you could hear from Hu Jintao during your upcoming visit in November? That the Chinese military will agree to keep their agreement to work more closely with the US military? That recent threats to potentially raise tariffs on US automakers were just a big joke? Or were you thinking something perhaps...a bit more...magical?

• 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…"

• China's 8.9% Growth? No Way [Forbes]"On Oct. 22, Beijing announced that gross domestic product grew by 8.9% in the third quarter of 2009 compared with the corresponding period last year. The National Bureau of Statistics also reported that growth for the first three quarters was up 7.7%. How could it not have been? Since last November, Beijing has spent perhaps as much as $900 billion-from its own funds as well as those of the larger state banks-to jump start its $4.3 trillion economy. No government can disburse that amount of cash without creating some economic activity."
• China's push for oil in Gulf of Mexico puts U.S. in awkward spot [LA Times]"China's push to enter U.S. turf comes four years after CNOOC's $18.5-billion bid to buy Unocal Corp. was scuttled by Congress on national security grounds. The El Segundo oil firm eventually merged with Chevron Corp. of San Ramon. Whether CNOOC's second attempt to lock up U.S. petroleum assets will trigger a similar political backlash remains to be seen. The sour U.S. economy and the need for Washington and Beijing to cooperate on potentially larger issues could mute any outcry."
• The story of China Incorporated [China Daily] "Twenty-five years ago, Megatrends was a must-read for any Chinese who was keen to know about the world - not just the world as it was, but the world that would be. And that included higher officials who were unaccustomed to foreign theorizing other than that by Marx and Lenin. By some estimate, the book sold some 20 million copies in China. The original English version was published two years earlier, in 1982, and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for two years. Last month, John Naisbitt, the author of Megatrends, came out with China's Megatrends. This time, the Chinese edition debuted before the English original."
• Voices of Power Transcript: Chris Lu [Washington Post] "Chris Lu has known President Obama since they attended Harvard Law School together, but they cemented their friendship when Obama hired him in 2004 for his Senate staff. He's the Cabinet secretary — a title that belies an intense assignment as chief intermediary between the White House and the federal agencies. On a daily basis, his job is not only to convey the president's views and expectations to all the department heads and keep them on message, but also to help them resolve their issues with the White House. The son of Chinese immigrants, Lu is one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in the administration. "
• A special report on China and America: : The price of cleanliness [The Economist] "The Beijing authorities built Taiyanggong to impress the world in the run-up to the Olympic games which opened in the city in August 2008—on the same day that America opened a new embassy in Beijing (heated, American officials say proudly, by Taiyanggong). Some 5,000 workers toiled night and day to deliver on the Chinese government’s promise to provide an environmentally friendly power source for the games. Taiyanggong was connected to the grid with nearly eight months to spare…Now the power station’s owners, led by a municipal state-owned company, are struggling to make it work financially. "
• Mandarin Eclipses Cantonese, Changing the Sound of Chinatown [NYTimes] "He grew up playing in the narrow, crowded streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown. He has lived and worked there for all his 61 years. But as Wee Wong walks the neighborhood these days, he cannot understand half the Chinese conversations he hears. Cantonese, a dialect from southern China that has dominated the Chinatowns of North America for decades, is being rapidly swept aside by Mandarin, the national language of China and the lingua franca of most of the latest Chinese immigrants."
  Continue reading "Todays links: China's Megatrends, Chris Lu, and Taiyanggong"

In case you haven't seen them, ObaMao schwag- shirts, bags, journals, you name it- is all the rage in Beijing. China Daily reported a while back on the entrepreneur whose political mash-up memorabilia (is it still Maomorabilia?) is making splashes on both sides of the pacific. Is it funny, insensitive, confusing, or just good old fashioned marketing? Salon.com draws some pretty funny insights from the shirts:

U.S. President Obama has nominated the first openly gay person to become an ambassador and - would you look at that? - he's based in Shanghai! Shanghai Pride, for real. David Huebner heads the China Practice and International Disputes Practice of Los Angeles law firm Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton from its Shanghai office. While his position still needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he's been nominated to be ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Source: Bloomberg

• DPRK tells Wen it open to nuke talks [China Daily] "Premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Yong-il told his visiting Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao Sunday that the country was open to bilateral and multilateral talks on its nuclear programmes, China Central Television (CCTV) reported. "DPRK has never abandoned the goal (of denuclearising the Korean peninsula). We are willing to seek to realize this goal through bilateral and multilateral dialogue," Kim was quoted as saying by the CCTV."
• China Hopes to Create Its Own Media Empires [NYTimes] ""China plans to spend billions of dollars in the next few years to develop media and entertainment companies that it hopes can compete with global giants like the News Corporation and Time Warner, and will in the process loosen some of its tight control of these industries. An ambitious plan, set forth in guidelines last week by China’s State Council, envisions the creation of entertainment, news and culture companies with a market orientation and with less government backing. China, in short, would like to consolidate its industry into companies resembling Bloomberg, Time Warner and Viacom, analysts say."
• Obama's Meeting With the Dalai Lama Is Delayed [Washington Post] "In an attempt to gain favor with China, the United States pressured Tibetan representatives to postpone a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Obama until after Obama's summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, scheduled for next month, according to diplomats, government officials and other sources familiar with the talks."

• 'China's YouTube' Pries Path Through Profit Puzzle [PC World] Youku.com, China's leading video sharing Web site, faces a challenge shared by YouTube and other rivals worldwide. The Web site has worked to expand its revenue from video ads, mobile downloads and elsewhere, and it claims a massive audience of 25 million visitors each day. But despite all that, Youku — like YouTube and similar sites worldwide — has yet to become profitable.
• Winning Designs in China: Standing Out to Fit In [Tom Doctoroff] "The Chinese consumer is becoming increasingly modern and internationalized. However, while "egos" and ambitions are huge, the "new generation" is not becoming "individualistic" in the Western sense - i.e., the peoples never define themselves independent of society. The middle class, those who can afford non-essential items, is torn between two impulses. The first is projection of status which leads to a desire to be noticed (in public contexts), aggressive self-expression and experimentation with new modes of style and design. The second, in vivid contrast to the projection, is protection, a fear of sticking out too obviously or challenging existing hierarchies and social restrictions."
• And then there were two: Obama meets the Chinese; transcript of president's speech [Los Angeles Times] "Well, today there was the first meeting of what you might call the G-2, between Beijing and Washington, arguably the two most important capitals in the world. Another one is scheduled in November, when Obama makes his first trip to China. … Obama did not mention directly the recent deadly ethnic unrest between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang Province. But he noted that Americans "strongly believe that the religion and culture of all peoples must be respected and protected, and that all people should be free to speak their minds. That includes ethnic and religious minorities in China."

• Lottery hacker wins detention [SINA English] "A hacker has been arrested after breaking into a lottery database in an attempt to win millions, an official at Shenzhen Public Security Bureau said. The man surnamed Cheng, a software engineer of a high-tech company which contracted with the lottery management center to work on a system upgrade, was arrested by police on June 12. He is accused of hacking into the system and falsifying entries for five winning tickets. Those tickets were among nine that won the top prize in the "Dual-colored Ball" lottery on June 9. Each ticket was worth roughly 6.6 million yuan ($966,000)."
• Obama science adviser insists talks with China will not bypass UN process [Guardian UK] "Bilateral talks between the US and China will not replace the need for a global climate deal at Copenhagen, according Barack Obama's most senior science adviser. John Holdren also said that, though there was much legislative work still to do in Congress, he was confident the US would be in a position to sign up to a successor to the Kyoto Protocol by the end of the year and would do it within the United Nations framework."
• More than 240 Chinese detained in Russian clampdown [China Daily] "China Thursday called upon Russia to guarantee the rights of Chinese businesspeople and workers after reports said more than 240 Chinese had been detained in recent days. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Beijing had not yet received official notification from Russia about the reported detentions."

• Learn English with Obama [Sinosplice] "The book [link on DangDang] claims to teach English using nine of Obama’s famous speeches, teaching you how to speak English like Obama. It even comes with an MP3 CD of audio content. Interesting! (Meanwhile), Here’s another one...that simply takes Obama’s speeches and translates them on the opposing page..."
• US House Speaker Pelosi in China for climate talks [Yahoo News] "US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime critic of Beijing's rule over Tibet and its rights record, arrived in China on Sunday for a trip focused on energy and climate change. US embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson confirmed Pelosi had arrived in Shanghai but could not say who the top US official was going to meet in the country's financial hub."
• NAO: Ten Chinese Provinces Embezzled Farming Aid Funds [ChinaCSR] "The National Audit Office of China has released a report which shows that ten Chinese provinces and municipalities had illegally spent a total of CNY2.693 billion from farming aid funds, of which CNY5.8374 million was used to purchase houses and cars. It is learned that NAO audited the use of farming-aid fund in ten Chinese provinces and municipalities: Henan, Gansu, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Hunan, Fujian, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Chongqing; and found that there was a general problem in the allocation, use and management of farming aid funds in these regions."

• China says Obama should not meet the Dalai Lama [Associated Press] “China said Thursday that President Barack Obama should not meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, when he visits the United States in October. Although a meeting has not been confirmed, every president since George H.W. Bush has met the Dalai Lama, raising the ire of China, which says the Nobel Peace laureate is bent on splitting Tibet from China. "We firmly oppose the Dalai's engagement in separatist activities in any country under whatever capacity and under whatever name," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said when asked to comment on a possible meeting.”

• 'Empire of the Sun' author J.G. Ballard dies [USA TODAY] "Writer J.G. Ballard, best known for the autobiographical novel Empire Of The Sun, which drew on his childhood detention in a Japanese prison camp in China, died Sunday, his agent said. He was 78."
• No-Drama Obama China Policy [JLM Pacific Epoch] There is no split in the Obama administration when it comes to China policy. Non-naïve, non-ideological, clear-eyed and serious engagement is where this relationship is headed. It looks like Obama will be coming to China after the APEC meetings in November. Look for the White House to use its star-power to reach out directly to the Chinese people.
• Porsche Introduces a Luxury Sedan to the Chinese Market [NY Times] "Company executives said that the car would start at $89,800 in the United States and more, sometimes much more, in countries with higher taxes. The turbo version with a V-8 engine will cost 2.5 million yuan, or $366,000, in China, which has stiff import taxes and heavy taxes on family vehicles with large engines."

• Obama accepts invitations to visit China, Russia [AP] "President Barack Obama has accepted an invitation to visit China later this year. The White House said Wednesday that Obama has accepted an invitation from President Hu Jintao. Obama and Hu met in London ahead of the G20 economic summit."
• Chinese Inmates at Guantánamo Pose a Dilemma [NYTimes] "Mr. Hassan, an intense former college professor, is among some 300 exiles from western China’s Uighur Muslim minority who live peacefully in the Washington area, where the American government has supported their pro-democracy efforts. But while the United States is hosting Mr. Hassan and the others, it has been imprisoning 17 of their countrymen in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba."
• SARFT Tightens Grip on Online Videos [JLM Pacific Epoch] "The State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) issued new regulations for audio-visual content broadcast online and via mobile Internet on March 30. Under the new rules, all films, TV series, cartoons and documentaries transmitted through Internet media must first obtain offline broadcasting licenses."

Luckily for us here in Shanghai, U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration happens at around the midnight hour. That means, basically, that it's completely acceptable to drink to this historical event

The road to Obama's inauguration has the world equally fixated as the election itself. Jeffrey Garten, former undersecretary of commerce under the Clinton administration poses an interesting proposition: that the President-elect, in his first presidential trip abroad, makes China the first stop. Not only that, Garten says Obama should bring his all-star cast to Beijing: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his appointed ambassador.