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China-Japan-Koreas
Gordon Chang: China's Headed for Meltdown
2022-09-06
In 2001, Chang predicted the collapse of China by 2011. He predicted it again many times since. Some day he'll be right.
[19Fortyfive] Companies no longer want money to launch new projects. Pessimism about the economy dominates thinking in Chinese boardrooms and throughout the rest of society.

The big story is not that the Chinese economy is falling apart. It is, at least apart from the export sector. The big story is that China's stimulus efforts, so successful in the past in jump starting growth, are no longer working. The country's economy is, in a word, exhausted.

In the past, when the economy look fatigued, China's business community could count on the central government to create growth with massive stimulus programs. That is, after all, how former Premier Wen Jiabao avoided contraction in China as the rest of the world suffered during the 2008 downturn.
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China-Japan-Koreas
Duan Weihong and Wen Jiabao
2018-04-02
Bill Bishop:
It appears this story got wilder and now everything shows "404"s.
That means China is disappearing it from the net.

The arrest of Duan Weihong is tied to former premier Wen Jiabao

She was arrested Feb 9th. This article covers it:
[Radio Free Asia] Chinese Businesswoman Allied to Former Premier Wen Jiabao Detained: Report

Chinese authorities have detained a wealthy businesswoman with strong financial ties to the country’s former premier, Wen Jiabao, The New York Times reported, with political analysts saying her detention, if confirmed, could be the next move in a power struggle among the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s elite families.

Previous reports have indicated that Duan Weihong, who uses the English name Whitney Duan, is a key figure in the finances of the Wen family, with The New York Times reporting in 2012 that his relatives controlled assets worth at least U.S.$2.7 billion.

The paper cited business associates of Duan’s as saying that she was detained by unknown agencies ahead of the 19th Party Congress last October.

“It is not clear who detained her, why and whether she is still being held,” the paper said.

An employee who answered the phone at the Huadu Hotel in Beijing, one of Duan’s businesses, said she wasn't there.

Meanwhile a member of staff who answered the phone at her Beijing Taihong Holdings Co. said she wasn’t there, either.

“I haven’t seen her for really quite a while now,” the second employee said, suggesting that she may have “left the country.”

Beijing-based constitutional scholar and political commentator Zhang Lifan said Duan, as an entrepreneur with close ties to the ruling party elite, could bear the brunt of any corruption probe if Wen’s family becomes a target of President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive.

“Wen [Jiabao] put a lot of effort into the fall of Bo Xilai, and it’s hard to say whether or not he is now being investigated,” Zhang said. “Unless it’s a power struggle. These sorts of detentions are often a way of threatening an opponent with evidence, as leverage.”

“Duan Hongwei is sure to be in possession of huge amounts of evidence, and that fact that they have brought her in will be enough to intimidate the people she is acting for,” he said.

“These ‘arms length’ entrepreneurs are in a pretty vulnerable position, because they can be bandied around as a bargaining chip in a power struggle at any time.”

Politics and business intertwined
According to Bao Tong, former aide to China’s late, ousted premier Zhao Ziyang, China’s richest business-people are inextricably entwined with the country’s ruling political class.

“These entrepreneurs have an extremely close relationship with the Chinese government, or officials within it,” Bao told RFA. “The entrepreneurs are basically the government’s sidekicks.”

“We can see the links in the chain, and so the companies must do what the leaders say; then they will last for as long as the leaders do,” he said.

“They could be a billionaire today and a prisoner tomorrow, a conspirator, a criminal,” he said.

Pin Ho, editor of New York-based Chinese news magazine Mingjing News, said Wen’s family may have been given an easier time by graft investigators in return for their close cooperation on the case of former Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai.

“Wen Jiabao put a lot of effort into the cases against Bo Xilai and [former security czar] Zhou Yongkang, and so the corruption case against Wen’s family was shelved,” Ho told RFA. “Crisis was averted, because Wen’s son was at the helm of Ping An Insurance.”

“Wen’s family made several billion U.S. dollars out of Ping An Insurance during Wen Jiabao’s term as premier,” he said.

Xia Ming, a political science professor at the The City University of New York, said Duan is also a link between the more recently fallen former Chongqing party chief Sun Zhengcai, who is under investigation for corruption, and Wen’s family.

“After Beijing won the bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, Sun Zhengcai was the most powerful man in Shunyi county, Beijing,” Xia said. “He controlled all of the rights to the land near Beijing International Airport.”

“Duan Weihong and her ex-husband Shen Dong were running a business that acquired the land nearby that was needed for the widening of the airport expressway,” he said. “A lot of the shares in Duan’s property company were held by members of Wen’s family.”

“The investigation into Sun Zhengcai has become a massive case, although it’s as yet unclear how much of an impact this will have on Wen Jiabao personally,” he said. “But his two grown children are deeply involved, and they will definitely feel the impact.”
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China-Japan-Koreas
JPM hired Chinese president's daughter
2013-11-15
Nice gig.

The New York Times is reporting JPMorgan Chase secretly employed the daughter of Wen Jiabao, who until recently was China's prime minister and the main overseer of the world's second largest economy.

The Thursday report comes as the U.S. government investigates whether the bank hired the children of powerful Chinese officials to help win lucrative business deals with the country's state-owned companies.
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
China hacked NYT computer systems, paper says
2013-02-01
[FRANCE24] Hackers have infiltrated The New York Times' computer systems in recent months, a move that may be linked to its October exposé of the wealth amassed by relatives of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the paper said Wednesday. China has denied the claims.
There's not a day that goes by when somebody's not trying to break into the Burg. The majority of those trying to break down the door are Chinese.
What could the Chinese possibly want with Rantburg? They are at best a tertiary interest here, and everything is open source anyway.

Update from Ynet:
The Wall Street Journal also says its computers have been infiltrated by Chinese hackers trying to monitor the newspaper's coverage of China.

The Journal didn't address how the hacking of its systems occurred, but it said it has faced such threats from China in recent years and denied that attempt stemmed from a desire to "gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information."
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Home Front: Culture Wars
China's People's Daily launches attack on The New York Times
2012-10-31
Definitely a cage match in which two enter and one leaves...
The mouthpiece newspaper of China's Communist Party has launched a blistering attack on the mouthpiece newspaper of the American Left The New York Times, accusing it of "faking" and "distorting" news and being a government "propaganda tool".

The 1,500 word People's Daily editorial appeared to be a direct response to The New York Times's explosive exposé last week about the $2.7 billion (£1.67 billion) "hidden fortune" of the family of Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao.
Feel free to publish Champ's college diplomas as retribution...
But in a humiliating about-turn, within hours of the People's Daily publishing its lengthy assault on the American newspaper's journalistic integrity it emerged that much of the Chinese newspaper's critique had in fact been plagiarised from other sources.

The Beijing-based People's Daily turned its canons on the 161-year-old newspaper on Monday, three days after The New York Times published the highly embarrassing results of its one-year investigation into Mr Wen's family's finances.

"For a long time, the New York Times has [had] one line printed on its masthead, 'All the news that's fit to print'," noted the People's Daily opinion piece, under the headline: 'New York Times: scandals stack-up, prestige declines'.

"This century-old newspaper claims its news is authentic and reliable, yet there have been quite a few [cases of] plagiarism and fake news in recent years," added the combative piece published on the website of a newspaper which is controlled, funded and censored by the Chinese government.

"It turns out the New York Times has a history of faking news," the People's Daily went on, pointing to the damaging scandal surrounding reporter Jayson Blair, who resigned in 2003 after being accused of "frequent acts of journalistic fraud".

Doug Young, a journalism professor at Shanghai's Fudan University, said that while the People's Daily had not directly referred to The New York Times' allegations about Mr Wen's family wealth, the editorial was a "clear response" from the Communist Party leadership.

"It is the official Party newspaper [and] they are speaking on behalf of the Party," he said. "An editorial like that is basically their rebuttal even though they aren't giving The New York Times the pleasure of having their story mentioned."

The People's Daily story was an attempt to "discredit" the western media, added Young, the author of a book on the Chinese media called 'The Party Line'.

But the People's Daily and other state-controlled media outlets have themselves struggled with plagiarism in the past. In August, a reporter from its sister paper, the English-language Global Times, was sacked after being caught fabricating or copying a number of reports on the London Olympics. Among the plagiarised stories was a supposedly "exclusive interview" with London mayor Boris Johnson, which had been cribbed from one of Mr Johnson's Daily Telegraph columns.

On Monday afternoon, meanwhile, it emerged that large chunks of the People's Daily article on The New York Times had been plagiarised from a variety of online sources. Several sections appeared to have been lifted word-for-word from China News Agency stories while other parts had been copied from previous articles in the People's Daily itself.

Calls to the People's Daily HQ went unanswered on Monday afternoon. Users of China's Twitter-like microblog Weibo were unimpressed.

"The domestic media is so entertaining," wrote one. "Plagiarism, faking, scandals stack-up -- all because [The New York Times] reported the unspeakable secret."
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China-Japan-Koreas
China Blocks NY Times Website Over Story on Wen Jiabao
2012-10-29
Chinese government censors moved quickly to block the New York Times website Friday after it published a blockbuster story detailing the massive wealth accumulated by the family of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. The report threatened to shatter the public image of Wen, who is known as a compassionate, reformist leader with a modest background. The Times says a review of corporate and regulatory records indicate the prime minister's relatives control assets of at least $2.7 billion.

Just hours after the article was posted, access to the paper's English and Chinese-language websites was blocked throughout China. Censors also hurried to delete references to the prime minister and his family on China's Twitter-like Weibo microblog, while the Times' Chinese social media accounts were also deleted.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei condemned the article on Friday, telling reporters that it was meant to "smear China" and had "ulterior motives."

Eileen Murphy, the paper's spokeswoman, expressed disappointment and said she hopes full access is restored soon. But she said the Times refuses to compromise its journalistic standards. Following the June launch of its Chinese-language site, the paper made a similar commitment, vowing not to tailor its content based on "the demands of the Chinese government."

In a move suggesting it anticipated China's anger at the Friday article on Wen, the Times made the Chinese-language version available for download in PDF format, making it much easier to distribute.
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China-Japan-Koreas
China's first aircraft carrier entering service
2012-09-26
BEIJING: China formally entered its first aircraft carrier into service on Tuesday, underscoring its ambitions to be a leading Asian naval power, although the ship is not expected to carry a full complement of planes or be ready for combat for some time.

The Defense Ministry’s announcement had been long expected and was not directly linked to current tensions with Japan over a disputed group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. In a brief notice on its website, the ministry said the carrier’s commissioning significantly boosted the navy’s combat capabilities and its ability to cooperate in responding to natural disasters and other non-traditional threats.

“It has important significance in effectively safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development benefits, and advancing world peace and common development,” the statement said.

China had partly justified the launching of a carrier by pointing out that it alone among the five permanent United Nations Security Council members had no such craft. That had been particularly glaring given the constant presence in Asia of carriers operated by the US Navy, which maintains 11 worldwide.

President Hu Jintao, also chairman of the commission that controls the military, presided over a ceremony Tuesday morning at the ship’s home port of Dalian, along with Premier Wen Jiabao and top generals. Hu “fully affirmed” the efforts of those working on the ship and called on them to complete all remaining tasks according to the highest standard, the Defense Ministry said.

The carrier is the former Soviet navy’s unfinished Varyag, which was towed from Ukraine in 1998 minus its engines, weaponry and navigation systems. Christened the Liaoning after the northeastern province surrounding Dalian, the ship began sea trials in August 2011 following years of refurbishment.

So far the trial runs of the aircraft carrier have been to test the ship’s propulsion, communications and navigation systems. But launching and recovering fixed-wing aircraft at sea is a much trickier proposition. It will take years to build the proper aircraft, to train pilots to land in adverse weather on a moving deck, and to develop a proper carrier battle group.

Beijing hasn’t said what role it intends the carrier to fill other than helping safeguard China’s coastline and sea links. The Liaoning has also been portrayed as a kind of test platform for the future development of up to five domestically built Chinese carriers.

Writing in Tuesday’s China Daily newspaper, retired Rear Adm. Yang Yi said the carrier will be used to master the technology for more advanced carriers. He said it also will be used to train in how to operate such a craft in a battle group and with vessels from other nation’s navies.

Whatever its practical effects on China’s global status, the carrier embodies huge symbolism for China’s political and military leaders as a totem of their country’s rise from weakness to strength, according to Andrew S. Erickson, a China naval specialist at the US Naval War College.

“While (Chinese navy) acceptance of this ‘starter carrier’ is the first step in a long journey, it is a journey that will take place in full view of the world, and one that will ultimately take Beijing to a new place as a great sea power,” Erickson wrote on his blog.

The carrier’s political importance was highlighted in Wen’s remarks to the ceremony, in which he said it would “arouse national pride and patriotic passion.”

“This has mighty and deep significance for the opening of a new facet in our enterprise of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” he said.
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China-Japan-Koreas
China's Foreign Minister cancels Hillary Clinton meeting amid 'tensions'
2012-09-06
On what may be her final trip to China as America's top diplomat, Hillary Clinton failed to find any agreement over Syria or the South China Sea and saw her meeting with the country's next president cancelled. Mrs Clinton was told late on Tuesday night that Xi Jinping, 59, would not meet her.

Such is the tension surrounding Mrs Clinton's trip to Beijing that many suspected it was a deliberate snub. Ahead of her visit, the state-run Global Times newspaper said bluntly: "Many Chinese people do not like Hillary Clinton [...] She makes the Chinese public dislike and be wary of the United States."

However, Mr Xi, who is likely to be unveiled at the pinnacle of the Communist party after the 18th Party Congress in mid-October, was reported to have injured his back. Mr Xi also cancelled his other engagements yesterday, including a meeting with Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong. Mrs Clinton did meet with Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, the current president and premier, but found little common ground.

On Syria, China repeated its policy of non-interference. Mrs Clinton has said in the past that vetoes at the United Nations Security Council from China and Russia would put the two nations "one the wrong side of history". However, in what appeared to be a direct rebuke, Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Foreign minister told a press conference yesterday: "I think history will judge that China's position on the Syria question is a promotion of the appropriate handling of the situation."

Mrs Clinton, in turn, said she had been "disappointed" by China's actions. However, she noted that this was her fifth trip to China, and that the two countries were working to "build habits of cooperation" which have seen them "literally consult almost on a daily basis."

On the thorny problem of sovereignty in the South China Sea, where several nations have overlapping claims, Mrs Clinton called for China to work on a multilateral code of conduct. Mr Yang said that China had "plentiful historical and jurisprudential evidence" for its claims to virtually all of the South China Sea, but agreed a code of conduct was necessary. Clinton has voiced hope that China, which claims virtually all of the South China Sea, will agree to work out a code of conduct on regional territorial disputes, and has encouraged Southeast Asian nations to stand united.

"The US should respect China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, respect China's national core interests and the people's feelings," said Wen Jiabao, during his meeting with Mrs Clinton.

China has in the past called off meetings at the last minute to show displeasure, although Xi has generally made US-friendly statements and sought warm relations during a trip across the United States earlier this year. But Beijing has repeatedly expressed concern over what it sees as interference by Washington in the region.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said ahead of Clinton's arrival Tuesday that China hoped the United States would "do more to promote regional peace and stability, instead of the opposite."
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China-Japan-Koreas
China announces £800bn stimulus to boost confidence
2012-08-26
One Chinese province after another has stepped forward over the last fortnight to announce their plans, in what appears to be a propaganda effort to reassure the public that the economy is still on track.

Meanwhile, Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, promised over the weekend that the Chinese government would intensify its efforts to boost the economy in the second half of the year.

On a visit to Guangdong, the heartland of China's export industry, Mr Wen warned that "there will still be a lot of problems and uncertainties in exports going forward. The third quarter is a crucial period".

Analysts said the government could now steer the value of the yuan lower, after a gain of 4.7pc last year against the dollar. Further export tax rebates could also be used to bail out manufacturers.

China's export sector is suffering from anaemic demand from Europe and the United States. In the first seven months, exports rose 7.8pc, while imports rose 6.4pc, leaving China in danger of missing its 10pc target for trade growth this year. July's exports grew at the lowest pace since 2009 and there are reports of factory workers leaving and returning to their home provinces for the first time since the financial crisis.
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China-Japan-Koreas
Pudgy's Uncle Visits Beijing
2012-08-14
Making sure his power base is secure, that the Chinese will tell Pudgy to listen to uncle, and to check on the proper storage of his Krugerrands...
North Korea's eminence grise Jang Song-taek made a sudden visit to Beijing on Monday afternoon, the highest-ranking North Korean official to go to China since former leader Kim Jong-il's death in December last year. Jang is the husband of new leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un's aunt, the former leader's younger sister.

Jang is expected to stay in China for six days and will meet top Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. He will also likely meet Vice President Xi Jinping, tipped to become president at the upcoming Communist Party Congress in October.

"A delegation led by Jang left Pyongyang to attend the third session of the joint [North] Korea-China guidance committee on the development of special economic zones in Rajin-Sonbong and Hwanggumpyong and Wihwa Islands to be held in Beijing," the official KCNA news agency reported earlier that day.

A diplomatic source in Beijing said the North Korean delegation consists of some 50 members. Jang and Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming meet on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, Jang is expected to visit economic zones in the booming southern Chinese provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, suggesting there is a heavy economic focus to the visit. He goes back to Beijing on Friday and returns to Pyongyang the following day.

Jang is in China for the first time since he accompanied Kim Jong-il on his last visit to China in May last year.
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China-Japan-Koreas
Don't Provoke Us, Lee Warns N. Korea
2012-07-05
President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday warned North Korea on Tuesday against further provocations, saying that China is under increasing pressure from the international community to stop supporting Pyongyang's bellicose behavior.

China "is taking steps to promote stability and balance in Northeast Asia," Lee told an advisory group of prominent figures, according to presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha. "We are making it clear that we will respond to whatever provocations North Korea makes several times over," Lee said. "We also asked China to relay this position to North Korea."

The comments came a week after the 10th anniversary of a naval skirmish with North Korea that left six South Korean sailors dead.

China has often effectively sided with North Korea after provocations like the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan and shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, urging dialogue rather than implementing sanctions against Pyongyang. But senior Chinese figures have recently indicated that Beijing's patience with the North is running out.

A high-ranking government source speculated that Lee has confirmed this change in China's position in talks with top leaders including Premier Wen Jiabao.
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China-Japan-Koreas
China's investment boom starts to unravel
2012-05-14
In an unguarded moment in 2007, the man anointed to take over next year as the helmsman of the world's second-largest economy revealed his doubts about China's economic growth statistics.

The country's official gross domestic product figures are "man-made" and therefore unreliable, Li Keqiang told the US ambassador at the time, adding with a smile that he regarded them as being "for reference only".
Man-made in the same way statistics from the Soviet Union were always man-made -- that is, phony. Our CIA believed the Soviets then and apparently believe the Chinese today. Problem is we don't have a modern Daniel Patrick Moynihan to call attention to the stupidity.
When evaluating the speed of economic growth Mr Li, who is expected formally to replace Wen Jiabao as China's Premier next March, said he focused instead on three sets of data -- electricity consumption, rail cargo volumes and disbursement of bank loans.

If Mr Li's assessment is correct the Chinese economy is in a lot more trouble than headline GDP figures have indicated until now.

Less closely watched economic data released in recent days, including figures for electricity, rail cargo and bank loans, have all shown a steep drop in activity that appears to have caught policymakers by surprise.
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