Christmas in China
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December 24, 2007
December 20, 2007
Morgan Stanley cuddles up to China
What should a Wall Street firm do when it loses billions on risky bets in the mortgage securities market? Have its CEO call the Chinese government for a capital infusion of course. Bear Stearns did it back in October. Yesterday, Morgan Stanley announced a USD $5 billion equity investment from China Investment Corp. after writing down USD $9.4 billion of its mortgage securities portfolio, ouch! China Investment Corp. is the USD $200 billion sovereign wealth fund that the Chinese government has setup to invest its massive foreign currency hoard, estimated at roughly USD $1.4 trillion.
News of Beijing’s involvement sent Morgan Stanley’s stock flying, even in the face of an abysmal quarterly earnings report. However, shareholders may not want to cheer just yet. So far, having the Chinese government as a major investor hasn’t proved to be a winning formula. A "kiss of death” is more like it. Of the three overseas investment China has made in 2007, The Blackstone Group, Barclay Plc., and Bear Stearns, all are down about 20 percent. Admittedly the poor performances have nothing to do with China. But for those looking to China as the proverbial “silver bullet”, or even just a lucky charm, may want to reconsider their position.December 18, 2007
China Pavilion at World Expo to be big and red
WORLD Expo Shanghai organizers unveiled a red, traditional design for the China Pavilion as construction on the structure started this morning.
The structure is named as "the crown of the East" as its most distinct feature is the roof. It will be made of traditional dougong brackets, which have a history of more than 2,000 years.
The dougong style features wooden brackets fixed layer upon layer between the top of a column and a crossbeam. Some important buildings in the Forbidden City and Summer Palace in Beijing feature elaborate dougong-style roofs.
China Pavilion's design was chosen from 344 entries submitted from all over the world and revised by experts, the organizers said.
The China Pavilion, covering an area of 6.52 hectares, will host a 20,000-square-meter exhibition inside based on the theme "Chinese wisdom in urban development" by explaining values about harmony, nature and spirit.
It will also include a national pavilion, a joint pavilion for provinces and cities as well as separate pavilions for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Each province or city will get a 600-square-meter exhibition area in the pavilion.
Organizers have also launched a worldwide search for exhibition designs. Winning entries will be published in mid April.
Construction of the pavilion will be completed in two years.
China's New Bestseller: The Bible
As the book business goes, Amity Printing is not unusually prolific. In the last 20 years it has printed some 50 million books; some publishers churn out that many in a year. But Amity focuses on one title — the Bible — and primarily one market, China. It is the largest printer of Christian literature in the officially atheist country, where freedom of religion remains weak; up until 1979, when Deng Xiaoping began undoing the social strictures of the Mao Zedong era, the mere possession of a Bible could get a person into serious trouble.
Amity has churned out 41 million Bibles for Chinese believers at its plant outside the southern city of Nanjing, including more than 3 million copies last year. (About nine million copies have been exported to Africa, other parts of Asia and Central Europe.) For a country whose religious oppression tends to make more international headlines than its exhibitions of tolerance, that stands as a significant achievement. But it also highlights the gap between China's officially sanctioned churches and the illegal "house" churches that exist outside the limited sphere of religious freedom in China.
Amity Printing, a joint venture between the Amity Foundation, a Chinese Christian charity, and the United Bible Societies, a Reading, England-based group dedicated to providing access to Christian scripture, is acting entirely within the law. Its chief customer is the China Christian Council, the supervisory body for the country's state-controlled Protestant churches. "You can build on trust or it can be broken, depending on how you act," says Peter Dean, a New Zealander and the resident consultant for the United Bible Society at Amity's Nanjing plant. "In the case of Bibles, the government took a step in 1979 and extended trust toward the church to assemble, worship and print its own materials. I think it's important to make full use of the trust that was extended. That helps build the future that everybody wants."
About 80% of the Bibles Amity produces are for domestic use, with the remainder going to Christians in Africa, Central Europe and other Asian nations. A poll early this year by East China Normal University in Shanghai of 4,500 Chinese found that 31.4% considered themselves religious, a proportion that suggests 300 million Chinese believers; of the religious respondents, Christians represented 12%, or 40 million nationwide. Demand has grown to the point that the foundation plans to open a new, 515,000-square-foot (48,000 sq. m.) printing plant next year, which will allow Amity to turn out more than a million books a month. It's thought to be one of the largest Bible production facilities in the world.
But in the face of China's larger restrictions on religion, some overseas aid groups say, a boom in Bible production doesn't mean much. "It reflects the rapid growth of the number of Christians in China," says Bob Fu, who runs the U.S.-based China Aid Association, an advocacy group for mainland Christians. "But I don't see that can be a sign of increasing religious freedom." Several Chinese have recently been arrested for illegally bringing Bibles into the country, Fu points out. On Nov. 28, police raided the house of Beijing bookstore owner Shi Weihan, confiscating Bibles and other religious publications and placing him under detention. And Zhou Heng, a businessman and leader of an underground church in China's western Xinjiang region, was arrested in August for receiving three tons of Bibles from South Korea.
Daniel Bays, head of the Asian Studies program at Calvin College in Michigan, argues that China's restrictions on Christianity aren't necessarily a fear of religion, but of the possible threat to the Party's leadership that comes from any organized group. "On the whole the authorities don't really care what people believe," he says. "What they are afraid of [is people] getting together and meeting in secret and not registering [with the government]. It doesn't bother them that people believe in Jesus. It bothers them that they don't want to register and they don't know who [the] leaders are."
Under Chinese law, the Bibles Amity prints can only be distributed through officially sanctioned churches. But in recent years it has become easier for house churches to procure Bibles, often buying them through registered churches. Some Bibles are even appearing in bookstores, despite lacking the registration numbers required of any printed work. Jean-Paul Wiest, an expert on Chinese Catholicism who teaches at the Beijing Center, says his students have no problems getting religious materials. "Bibles are very widely available," he says.
But Amity's millions of Bibles could still be insufficient for China's growing ranks of Christians — depending on how many there are. The number of China's believers is "a hotly contested issue," says Bays. The state-sanctioned Protestant church has 17 million members; Bays believes that membership in unregistered churches is twice that, which would put the total number of Protestants in China at around 50 million — roughly close to the number of Bibles printed. "But of course some people say there are 150 million Christians," Bays says. "Then there aren't enough Bibles."
December 13, 2007
The Flavor Spirit
In many places in the West, Chinese food has earned a bad rap as an unhealthy, low quality cuisine- largely owing to wei jing- which could be translated as The Flavor Spirit: MSG.
MSG has a very different reputation in China, and throughout much of Asia, than it does in the West. Although a third of Americans claim MSG makes them ill, medical studies show that only a very small proportion of humans actually have any reaction to it, and these reactions only occur when it is administered in large doses on an empty stomach. In China, MSG is a ubiquitous seasoning without any stigma attached, and it has earned a place in the kitchen of most homes and restaurants right next to the salt and the chili.
Although MSG was only created in 1908, the bond between Chinese cuisine and MSG goes back farther than that. What is sometimes called “the fifth taste,” (clearly named such by a Western palate unfamiliar with chili) is actually a group of compounds which include glutamates, like MSG, but also inosinates and guanylates. These “fifth taste” molecules occur during the breakdown of proteins in foods, such as the aging of a rich cheese, and also occur naturally in many ingredients long used in Chinese cuisine; like Yunnan ham, dried scallops, and shiitake mushrooms. For a talented chef, using these ingredients correctly could create the same mysterious fabulous flavor given off by MSG.
Todays use of MSG in homes and restaurants is like a short cut, or maybe an improved way of releasing the “flavor spirit” of this fifth taste that has seasoned Chinese food since long before MSG. Used correctly- in moderation, and in the right dishes, MSG really can elevate the flavor of a dish, and maybe its time for MSG nay-sayers to do a little soul searching into the source of their hatred for such a helpful little compound.
To be fair, there has been much scientific research in the west pointing out a link between obesity and MSG. MSG is a known excitotoxin, a substance that can overexcite neurons, resulting in cell damage or even death. In studies performed on rats, MSG “creates a lesion in the hypothalamus that correlates with abnormal development, including obesity, short stature, and sexual reproduction problems.” (2)
This does sound rather frightening, and although I am not a scientist, I am also not a rat. I believe there is a much large study that should be done on a group much more suitable than lab rats. Its called: Asia. Asian countries consume MSG voraciously, and although may be somewhat shorter in stature, I don’t think its because of the MSG, and the Asian continent does not share the rampant obesity problem found in the West.
In fact, MSG is proving itself rather beneficial in some situations- in Indonesia, the additive is being fortified with Vitamin A to help reduce incidences of Xerophthalmia, an eye disease that causes blindness in children.
So perhaps, with regards to Chinese cuisine, its time to look at MSG in a new light, and, in a country not big on religion, come to see why its citizens worship the flavor spirit.
Chinese gymnasts promise to be injury-free and drug-free
According to the official countdown, the Beijing Olympics are about 240 days away and the pressure is mounting for China's athletes to bring home the bacon, especially in China's strongest events like ping pong, diving, and gymnastics. In traditional Chinese business fashion, gymnastics coaches are making their gymnasts sign a contract to stay injury-free and drug-free in preparation for the Games, according to this article from China Daily. In an unusual move to secure a gymnastics golden harvest at next year's Olympic Games, Chinese gymnasts and their coaches will sign contracts with the sport's state governing center to ensure everyone in the 2008 lineup will be injury free and drug free, a top team official said."In the coming days, all the Chinese national coaches will sign contracts with the gymnastics administrative center to prevent serious injuries from happening before the Beijing Games.
Also all the gymnasts will sign with the center to prevent any doping offenses," China's gymnastics team leader Zhang Peiwen said on the sidelines of the 2007 Good Luck Beijing Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament, which ended on Monday in the newly built National Indoor Stadium.
"I don't know exactly when they will sign because we are still working on the details of the contracts. But I think it will be pretty soon."
Hmm, good luck with that.
In other gymnastics news, a test event was held in the brand, spanking new National Indoor Stadium in Beijing. Unsurprisingly, the results of the "Good Luck Beijing" competition were a good preview of what we can expect to see at the big show this summer. In the men's event, the Chinese men dominated, winning the team competition (with its "B" team no less) by a large margin of 3.050 points, or about 4 or 5 falls. Individually, the Chinese men also did well, winning four individual gold medals. They were led by Lu Bin (陆斌), who won gold on three events: pommel horse, still rings, and vault. Lu's teammate, Liang Mingsheng (梁明声), won parallel bars.
Although there was no team competition for the women, the Chinese women were the clear winners, capturing four gold medals and one silver medal. China's Jiang Yuyuan (江钰源) won the gold medal in the all-around competition, thus solidifying her role as China's best chance for an all-around medal in Beijing. It was also a great competition for China's superstar gymnast, Cheng Fei (程菲), who won three gold medals, winning vault, floor exercise, and balance beam. Although a simple uneven bar routine would make Cheng Fei a threat for all-around gold in Beijing, she has abandoned that idea.
You may remember, Wang Yan (王燕), a gymnast who was paralyzed after she fell from the uneven bars at this year's National Gymnastics Championships. She is now able to walk and has regained almost all feeling in her arms and legs. Also doing well is Sang Lan (桑兰). You may remember her from the 1998 Goodwill Games after a freak accident resulted in paralysis. According to this article, she recently graduated from Beijing University, has her own talk show for sina.com, and hopes to be one of the final torchbearers for the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games. We sure hope she gets it.
December 08, 2007
Is 27 Billion Dollars Enough to Clean Up China?
The Chinese government will invest 1.35 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) each year for the next three years in environmental protection, or 200 billion RMB (US$27 billion), the State Council announced Monday.
As we have reported somewhat breathlessly before, China is already spending billions on eco clean-up. In October, the State Council announced it would pay RMB 100 billion, or $14 billion, on cleaning up Lake Tai. In fact, separate from the Lake Tai clean-up, the government already spends roughly 200 billion on environmental cleaning each year.
The results, however, have not been promising. For instance, while China spent 238.8 billion yuan on environmental protection in 2005, accounting for 1.31 percent of that year's GDP, SO2 emissions that year increased by 27.8 percent over 2000 instead of dropping. The country's five-year environment plan for 2001-05 didn't meet its targets either. Between 2006 and 2010, China is aiming for a 10 percent cut in major pollutants, but last year SO2 increased by 1.8 percent over 2005 while Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), a water pollution index, rose 1.2 percent.
Which brings us to the question: how much money is enough?
The question was raised most recently by Time's Simon Elegant:
God alone knows how much the real bill for clean up will be, that is a clean up that actually works. Four pc of gdp ($500 billion)? Six pc ($750 billion or something in that region)?
When you begin to approach one trillion dollars you are beginning to talk real money, even by China's inflated standards.
One estimate by SEPA's famous Green GDP program -- lauded but eventually shelved due to official opposition -- puts the actual cost of environmental degradation in 2004 at 511.8 billion RMB, or $64 billion, in economic losses that year, or 3.05 percent of GDP. And that, say SEPA officials, is a conservative estimate that doesn't account for water pollution among other factors.
Austin Ramzy at Time puts this 3% of GDP into context:
How much is 3% of GDP? It's more than $300 billion, based on last year's numbers. Here's another way to look at it: according to Minxin Pei, a China scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 3% of China's GDP is the amount that ends up in the hands of the country's elite due to corruption each year.
Money's not all that's lost through corruption, of course. Industrial polluters often evade inspection and environmental enforcement by bribing local officials.
Interestingly, a good portion of the money to be spent will go towards research and development for technologies (and marketable, exportable ones) to clean up what is already ruined, as well as more effective bureaucracy, in order to help fight the corruption and lack of information that leads to pollution.
Still, how much will it help?
Smallest teapot in the world
Chinese master potter Wu Ruishen has created a mini teapot weighing just 1.4 grams. The ceramic teapot was revealed on Nov 15 and is claimed to be the smallest teapot in the world.
The 73-year-old Wu is a renowned pottery artist in China, specializes in creating teapots. His artworks can be found in various museums in China.
Piece of advice… don’t try to compare metal artwork with pottery. Clay doesn’t share the same element as metals and it’s not easy to make potteries into thin and small components; it would break before it was done.
Besides, a teapot is different from “something that look like a teapot”, go figure.
China: Kingdom of bicycles no more
Be worried. If you have given even a moment's thought to climate warming and its potential impact on our planet, be very worried. China, a nation of 1.3 billion people, has abandoned the bicycle as a principal mode of transportation and is now moving at a frightening pace to a car-based economy.
Perhaps it's the years of Western chest-beating about the grandeur of capitalism and consumerism. Or perhaps it's the simple human desire to have and consume more, to be more comfortable. Whatever it is, the Chinese are going the American way.
Recently I was in Korla, a fast-growing city in Xinjiang province in western China where I was at the tail end of my mission, to scout the Chinese portion of the famed Silk Route for a bicycle tour that my company is planning for the summer of 2007. The route will take about 45 cyclists from Istanbul to Beijing in 108 days, covering 10,000 km. Part of our mandate is to promote bicycles as sustainable transportation in a world that seems to be hurtling toward major ecological disaster.
Korla is one of 661 cities in China. What distinguishes it from all others is that it is the home base for several oil companies, including the U.S. conglomerate Exxon. The companies are tapping into the oil reserves of the vast Taklaman desert.
Korla is an impressive city. Striking new highrises line wide boulevards filled with Western style boutiques. The city is clean and, unlike most of the other cities I have seen on this trip, one can still breathe here without tasting the pollution. Here the sun still reaches the street.
Of course, Korla is still relatively small (population: 350,000) and new, and is the beneficiary of cleansing desert winds. Other Chinese cities were once like this, too. Now, the smog is so thick in most of them that the sun is only a rumour.
But while I can breathe here comfortably, I have reached the dispiriting conclusion that promoting sustainable transportation in China, as in the West, is a quixotic activity.
A friend who works for the World Health Organization recently pointed out that, when Chinese officials are drawn into discussions about bicycles as a means of transportation, they respond by asking how many people use bicycles in Los Angeles, New York or Toronto. Automobiles are rapidly replacing the bikes that are disappearing from the streets of Chinese cities at a phenomenal rates..
According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, car sales in China in the first half of 2006 climbed almost 50 per cent, year-on-year, to 1.8 million.
The gains come on the heels of 21.4 per cent growth in car sales for 2005, with sales of luxury cars doing particularly well. Before the 1980s China did not allow private citizens to purchase vehicles for private use and there were few automobiles on the roads. By 2005, there were 20 million cars in use. By 2020, it is estimated, there will be 140 million.
It is not only new roads that these automobiles require.
With China's new wealth come bigger houses, each requiring more energy, not only to build, but to heat in the winter and cool in the summer, producing additional climate warming gases. Last Nov. 22,the China Daily reported that in the first half of 2006, emissions of sulphur dioxide increased by 4.2 per cent, chemical oxygen demand, a major index of water pollution, grew by 3.7 per cent, compared to the same period in 2005.
So although a 10,000-km bicycle trip may be a worthwhile activity for promoting health, fitness or adventure, it is hardly going to make a dent in changing people's minds about using bicycles instead of cars.
Perhaps the only hope would be for Western trendsetters – young actors, business leaders, politicians – to adopt a non-car lifestyle, since Western trends seem to influence the behaviour of much of the world.
Of course, that is not going to happen. Even if by some miracle it does, there is no guarantee that a world that has watched the West stuff its collective face with energy-consuming habits will join in its new-found environmental sensitivity.
So be worried. It's really the only option. And if 1.3 billion car users do not scare you, remember that Indians, who number a mere 1.2 billion, are close behind. Our Western ethos and lifestyle has triumphed, all right.
Oh, here is one more piece of good news: At the recent annual Detroit auto salon, China's Changfeng auto group announced that within two years it will be selling sports utility vehicles and pick-up trucks at least 20 per cent below any competitor. Isn't that wonderful?
Keyboard on a building
You seriously have to give it to architects in Shanghai for coming up with something that catches your eye. It may not work all the time, but it will be at least different from anything else you have seen before.
