6 May 2014

Hello everyone,

I like to do a summary of important/interesting news events which take place each month.  Below is the summary for April 2014.  We live in an age of 'information overload' and I find that many news items quickly fade away as the next crisis or event occurs.  It will be handy, in years to come, to look back over these monthly summaries and remember some of the key things which took place.

Last weekend UPC took the foreign teachers to Chengdu in Sichuan Province over the May Day holiday.  I will do a post on that trip, but it will probably take another 3 or 4 days to get it together.

Events which made the news in China in April 2014.

Note: these news items were sourced from The China Daily newspaper published in April 2014.  Actual events usually occurred a day or two before the date shown.  Currency is US$, and the exchange rate I have used for April 2014 is US$1 = Yuan 6.2.

(a) International issues

2 April	President Xi Jin Ping and Belgian King Philippe visited the Volvo factory in Ghent, to witness 300,000th car produced.  Volvo is owned by a Chinese company.
8	Pro-Russians declare independence in Ukrainian cities of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv.  Moscow warns of civil war in Ukraine.
9	Ming Dynasty “chicken cup” (Cheng Hua style 1465 – 1487) sold for record $36 million at Hong Kong auction. It was bought in 1999 for $8m by Swiss Zuellig family.
9	Chuck Hagel, US Secretary of Defence visiting China.  Denies US wants to ‘contain China’.
9	Elections in Quebec: separatist Parti Quebecois beaten by anti-separatist Liberal Party.
9	New Zealand Maoris: 15% of population, but 50% of incarcerated prisoners.
10	World Cup (Football) trophy on display in China, enroute to Japan, USA then finally Brazil for kick-off on 12 June 2014.
14	No ‘acoustic pings’ from MH370 black box recorded since 8 April. 12 planes and 14 ships continue search off west coast of Australia. Submersible Bluefin used to search ocean floor, 4,000 metres deep.
14	Iran anger at US refusal to issue visa for new Ambassador to United Nations. Hamid Abutalebi was involved in take-over of US Embassy in 1979.
14	Bayern Munich’s run of 53 undefeated soccer games ended with two defeats in a row.
17	South Korean ferry Sewol capsized and sank.  174 survivors. Difficult search conditions. Two weeks later 188 confirmed dead with 114 still missing.
17	Boston remembers victims of 2013 Marathon bombing (3 dead, 264 injured).
18	Voting starts in Indian general election (ends 12 May).  815 million registered voters.  Hindu Nationalists expected to gain.
19	Death of Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, aged 87.  Author of One hundred years of solitude.  He had a big following in China.
21	Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) won the Shanghai FI race (his 3rd in a row).
23	After 10 months, Manchester United Football Club sacked David Moyes. Ryan Griggs temporary manager.
26	President Xi Jin Ping made Time magazine’s 2014 list of “100 most influential persons” for the 4th time.  Other Chinese: Pony Ma (Tencent), Jack Ma (Alibaba), and Yao Chen (actress).
29	Lydia Ko (Korean born, New Zealand raised) won her first tournament as a professional golfer on her 17th birthday.  She is already LPGA’s world #2.
29	President Obama signed the US – Philippine Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement to give US military temporary access to bases in The Philippines.

(b) Local Chinese issues

2 April	Actor Wen Zhang lost his image as a ‘model husband’ when he admitted to an affair with actress Yao Di.  His wife Ma Yi Li said “to date is easy; but to be married is not.” The news attracted 1 million online comments in 24 hours.
2	Beijing saw 164,000 marriages in 2013, and 55,000 divorces.
2	30th anniversary of establishment of Patent Office of China.  Patent applications have gone from 14,300 in 1984 to 2.4 million in 2013 (including 22,924 international patent applications).  156,000 applications for invention patents in Q1 2014.
3	Customs confiscated and destroyed a shipment of baby formula from OZ Milko Dairy Foods, Melbourne.  The expiry date had been changed from June 2014 to September 2015.
4	Chen Zhi Cheng got 15 months jail for spreading rumours of a bomb in a railway station.
8	Hubei introduced strict regulations on water conservation.  50 years ago it had 1,332 lakes bigger than 7 hectares, but now only half that number.
9	28% of Chinese adults smoke; 3,000 deaths per day from smoking-related diseases.  Govt gets 7% of revenue from tobacco products.
9	Sales of Passenger Motor Vehicles in March: 1.6m for a total of 4.6m in Q1 (increase of 9.5% over Q1 2013).  When Hangzhou City announced new restrictions on car ownership, 70,000 cars were sold the same day before the changes took effect.
10	Railway Corporation will open 48 new lines in 2014 (budget $116 billion).  China will have 19,000 km of high-speed rail by end of 2015.
10	Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott leads a business group of 600.  Opens ‘Australia Week’ in Shanghai.  Australia has huge trade surplus with China.  Negotiating a FTA.  Mr Abbott told journalists that the search for the missing MH370 plane had been narrowed to ‘some kilometres’.
11	March 2014: China’s exports were valued at $170.1 billion; imports $162.4 billion.
12	High levels of benzene detected in water supply of Lanzhou City, Gansu Province.
12	The Spring Property Expo in Beijing attracted over 90,000 visitors.
14	Shenzhen: 128 medical workers were injured by angry patients in 2013.  By the end of 2014, all 148 hospitals will have security guards.
14	Beijing to Shanghai high-speed rail takes 5 hours to cover the 1,318 km.  Very popular - 200 million trips since the service opened.
17	Workers strike at Yue Yuen (Taiwan) shoe factory in Dongguan over unpaid social benefits.
18	A joint study by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land & Resources found that 20% of China’s arable land contains pollutants which exceed the national standard.  13 types of inorganic (mainly heavy metals) pollutants and 3 types of organic pollutants were identified.
18	Qin Zhi Hui sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for ‘rumour-mongering’ in his website.  He admitted posting false information about celebrities to increase traffic to his website.
19	As part of frugality drive, Government reduced budget for ‘public expenses’ (official entertainment, travel, cars, etc), from $1.5 billion in 2011 to $1.2 billion in 2014.
19	Life expectancy of Chinese women increased from 73.3 years in 2000 to 77.4 years in 2013.
21	Construction of new nuclear plants was suspended after the Fukushima disaster, but has now resumed.
21	3,300 websites closed down in the first week of the Government’s anti-porn ‘cleaning the web’ campaign.
23	Storm over toddler urinating in Hong Kong street.
23	2013 beer production in China was 50.6 million kilolitres.  The ‘Big 5’ producers: Carlsberg; China Resources (Snow); Anheuser-Busch; Tsingtao; Beijing Yanjing.
23	Yum Brands has 6,332 outlets in China, including KFC (3,800), Pizza Hut, Little Sheep and East Dawning.  Plans to open 700 new outlets in 2014.
25	Two licences revoked from Sina Weibo, until it has cleaned porn sites. Fined $800,000.
26	Alibaba founders Jack Ma and Joe Tsai established a charity foundation with 2% of Alibaba’s equity (expected worth more than $2 billion when IPO listing in US).
28	Government ordered removal of 4 American TV series from Chinese video sites such as Youku and Tencent Video: The Good Wife; NCIS; The Practice; The Big Bang Theory.  They may be allowed to return after review for inappropriate content (themes propmoting superstition, violence, salaciousness, or gambling).
29	Ministry of Land & Resources estimated 60% of China’s groundwater is of poor or very poor quality.
29	China’s share markets still in doldrums.  Shanghai Composite Index down to 2003.
29	China’s steel output in Q1 2014 was 203 million tonnes. Average export price $794 per tonne. The sector has huge over-capacity and is suffering big losses.

Operations of China’s ‘Big 4’ banks (all State owned enterprises) in 2013:

	Operating income Yuan billion	Net profit Yuan billion	Increase in NP over 2012	Non-performing loans
Industrial (ICBC)	590	263	10%	0.94%
Construction (CCB)	509	215	11%	0.99%
Agriculture (ABC)	463	166	155	1.22%
Bank of China (BOC)	408	164	12%	0.96%

Time Magazine's 2014 "100 Most Influential People"

Beyonce graced the cover of Time magazine (she was also one of the Chosen).  I've seen more flattering photos.

Every April Time magazine publishes a list of the 100 people the editors believe are the most influential in the world. It divides them into 5 categories: Leaders; Titans; Pioneers;Artists; and Icons.

As usual, the list is very US-centric, with 56 of the 100 honorees born in the USA.  Europe has just 10 entries, the same as Africa. South America has 4 entries: Pope Francis (originally from Argentina); President Jose Mujica of Uruguay (who has legalised marijuana); President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela (controversial successor to Hugo Chavez); and President Michelle Bachelet of Chile.

Only four Chinese made the list: President Xi Jin Ping (for the 4th time); Pony Ma (Ma Hua Teng) the founder and CEO of Tencent which is one of China's biggest social media companies with QQ and WeChat; Jack Ma (Ma Yun) a co-founder and Chairman of Alibaba, China's e-commerce giant; and Yao Chen an actress who is also an environmental campaigner and has 66 million followers on weibo.

One Aussie in the list.  David Sinclair was born in Australia although he is now a professor at Harvard Medical School.  He has made important discoveries in medical science.

17 year old prodigy Lydia Ko was included for her remarkable talent as a golfer.  She was born in South Korea and grew up in New Zealand. Has just won her first tournament as a professional, and is already LPGA World #2. Amazing.

From what I could see, other Asian-born honorees included 5 Indians, one Indonesian (Erwiana Sulistyanings), one Japanese (PM Abe), and the redoubtable Kim Jong Un from North Korea.

The Wen Zhang affair

The news that actor Wen Zhang (he won China's prestigious Best Actor Award in 2012) had cheated on his wife Ma Yi Li made headlines in China.  About 2.5 million comments were made on weibo (China's equivalent of Twitter).

Wen always praised his wife in public and had developed a reputation as a 'model husband and father'.  Their second daughter was born in February 2014 and everything seemed rosy.  The news of his affair with Yao Di broke in late March and shattered his goody-goody image.

I used it as a discussion topic with my Oral English classes, and sure enough it was very popular.  Everyone was eager to express an opinion.

At the end I asked the girls what they would do if they were married and their husband played up?  About two-thirds said they would forgive him, as long as he repented and promised not to do it again!

Wen Zhang with his wife Ma Yi Li. in happier times. They have been seen together recently, so it seems she has forgiven him for straying.

Wen Zhang and Yao Di co-starred in the very popular 2011 film "Naked Marriage".  Apparently their affair started during the making of this film.

Flight MH370

As the search for the missing plane entered its 9th week, and still without trace, Malaysian Airlines announced that it would close its "information centres" in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing and asked the relatives of passengers to return home.

Malaysian Airlines has been providing shelter and sustenance for more than 500 relatives at the 5 star Metro Lido Hotel in Beijing (and some also in KL).  What started as a generous gesture - presumably the Airline, like the rest of us, thought it would all be over in a week - has turned into an expensive nightmare for the company.

Some of the relatives expressed dismay at what they saw as a 'down-scaling' of effort (or perhaps they had become accustomed to their 5 star lifestyle?).

Although we'd all like to know what really happened, it's time for everyone to take a deep breath and reassess the cost/benefit of continuing this search which looks increasingly futile.

Ukraine

Events in Ukraine seem to be escalating.  Let's pray that a full-scale civil war can be avoided.

...

I will do a post on the trip we did to Sichuan Province (panda country) last weekend - hopefully in the next few days.

Best wishes,

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at China University of Petroleum, Qingdao.
www.upc.edu.cn
Tuesday, 6 May 2014