Toxic ponds near Beijing
A roundup of top China news from April 21, 2017. Get this daily digest delivered to your inbox by signing up atย supchina.com/subscribe.
Twenty giant ponds of poisonous sludge
Caixinย reportsย that the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) has โconfirmed that there were nearly 20 giant ponds where untreated wastewater had been dumped for yearsโ in an area about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Beijing. The existence of the ponds โ โcovering an area of 300,000 square meters in total, or the size of 42 soccer pitchesโ โ was first publicized by an environmental NGO, the Chongqing Liangjiang Voluntary Service Centerย (link in Chinese), on its verified WeChat account. Caixinย says its WeChat account was โblocked as of Thursday by chat service operator Tencent Holdings,โ but the MEP has taken up the cause, confirming โon Wednesday that its investigation team had found three toxic wastewater dumps in a rural town in the Jinghai District in Tianjin and two ponds containing acidic industrial wastewater in rural Dacheng County, in Langfang, in neighboring Hebei Province.โ The MEP said that local authorities had known about some of the wastewater dumping sites since 2013, and that cleanup work had already โbeen completed on 15 ponds by the end of 2016.โ
Reutersย reportsย that a MEP official, speaking at a press conference on Friday, said that the ministry was โextremely open to all kinds of NGOs, the public and the media helping to provide oversight, so we can improve our environment.โ He also said that it was โunclear how many similar pits China has.โ
In other environmental news, Reutersย notesย that a campaign aimed at โnormalizing complianceโ in 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region began this month. The MEP says that โ4,077 firms had already been investigated as part of the campaign, and 2,808 firms were found to have violated environmental rules.โ
Count your days
We have been covering news about exiled tycoon Guo Wengui ้ญๆ่ดต since January. His allegations of high level corruption in China โ more than two years after stories of his own corrupt activities were published in China โ have been met with further counter-accusations in the form of an Interpol โred noticeโย for him requested by the Chinese government, and a video confession of a manย claiming to be disgraced top spy Ma Jian ้ฉฌๅปบ, who makes his own accusations against Guo.
The latest battle in the war of words across the Pacific is an articleย by Caixinย magazine, whose editor Guo has previously accused โ on Twitter โ of improper collaboration with the Chinese government. Caixin says that it has seen โa report to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspectionโ which shows evidence of Guoโs involvement in various corrupt schemes. When one of the men involved in those schemes was detained by police, Caixinย says that Guo warned him by saying โYou dare to report me, count your days.โ
Welcome to John Pomfret
In case you missed it earlier this week, the veteran China journalist and author has become a regular contributor to The China Project. His first piece for us was published earlier this week: Accomplishing what they could not at home: The bond between American and Chinese women. There are links to other articles, podcasts, and videos we published this week on our website and apps below.
As always, simply hit reply to this email to send me feedback.
โJeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief
The Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, episode 2
The second installment of The China Projectโs new weekly show with Chinaโs leading business and financial news source. Please send any feedback to sinica@thechinaproject.com.ย
This is what Shanghai foodies crave
The China Project brings you a guide to the hottest items on the menuย in Shanghai.
Viral video Friday
From a strange new parking technique to basketball yoga: Watch Jia Guoโs one-minute compilationย of the videos that lit up Chinaโs internet over the past week.
This week on The China Project:
- Sinica Podcast: What actually happened at Mar-a-Lago?
- Video: Live streaming in China
- Video: Who is Anna May Wong? Hollywoodโs first Chinese-American icon
This weekโs news roundups are:
- April 17: โSwords drawnโ over North Korea
- April 18: No porn on WeChat for government officials
- April 19: A billionaire on the run
- April 20: He fled from Bo Xilai; now he wants to make 300,000 electric cars in China
This issue of the The China Projectย newsletter was produced by Sky Canaves, Lucas Niewenhuis, Jia Guo, and Jiayun Feng. More China stories worth your time are curated below, with the most important ones at the top of each section.
BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:
A payments war between WeChat and Alipay
Tech in Asia wroteย today on โHow WeChat Pay became Alipayโs largest rival,โ arguing that the โstickyโ social experience of WeChat โ the app that mobile users in China spend 35 percent of their screen time using โ allowed its โred packetโ (็บขๅ hรณngbฤo) feature to spread rapidly. Though Alipay, owned by Alibaba, still maintains a majority market share (54.7 percent) in mobile payments by providing a โrobust array of financial services,โ the โred packetโ feature to send small cash gifts to friends on WeChat has given WeChat Pay a user base much larger than Alipayโs.
Both companies are now fiercely competing in the online-to-offline (O2O) market, which includes food delivery services and ride hailing. And while it is difficult to predict who will win out in the quickly changing and booming online payment market, Alipay and WeChat are being seen as examples of models of innovation in a new reportย from the Better Than Cash Alliance. The report, written by a United Nationsโaffiliated team, notes that โin poor communities, digital payments are proving to be an effective way to open up new economic opportunities and markets for individuals and small businesses.โ
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Tencent, Moutai shares sparkle with new global milestonesย / Caixin
โRecent runups in their stocks powered internet leader Tencent and liquor giant Moutai past two major milestones last week, as the former became the worldโs 10th-most-valuable company and the latter took the global crown for most valuable liquor maker.โ - Chinaโs credit excess is unlike anything the world has ever seenย / SCMP
- Chinese workers might not be too happy with their pay raisesย / Bloomberg
- Eyeing U.S. market, Chinese automaker may change Trumpchi brand nameย / Reuters
POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:
The symbolism of Xi Jinpingโs choice of district
There are no open elections to national-level political positions in China, so the news earlier this week that President Xi Jinping had wonย a seat as a delegate to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was unremarkable on the surface. But today, the Wall Street Journalย has a pieceย exploring the meaning behind Xiโs unusual choice of district to โrunโ from: the poor, southwestern province of Guizhou, where he has neither lived nor held office in his life. One former top political science professor tells the Journal that Xi is โsharing a platformโ with Chen Miner ้ๆๅฐ, the Guizhou Party chief whose poverty alleviation focus dovetails with Xiโs rhetoric. Furthermore, it may signal that Chen is likely to gain a seat in the powerful 25-member Politburo when the new CPC National Congress votes this fall.
-
China rights lawyer wins little in successful appeal of sentenceย / SCMP
โRights lawyer Xia Lin, who has defended high-profile activists and dissidents, had his jail term reduced from 12 to 10 years by an appeal court in Beijing on Friday, his lawyer said. Xia, whose former clients include outspoken artist Ai Weiwei, Sichuan earthquake activist Tan Zuoren and rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, was first convicted of fraud involving 4.8 million yuan ($697,000) last September, nearly two years after being detained.โ -
Former senior Hebei official stands trial for briberyย / ECNS.cn
Zhang Yue, a former provincial-level official in northern Chinaโs Hebei Province, is accused of โtaking advantage of his positions to seek benefits for others and of accepting money and assets worth more than 157 million yuan (nearly 23 million U.S. dollars) between 2008 and 2016.โ -
Philippines sends defense chief to disputed South China Sea islandย / NYT (paywall)
โThe Chinese challenged the flight at least four times on radio as it passed through the region. China claims the island, as do Vietnam and Taiwan.โ - Chinese coastguard accused of firing on Philippine fishing boatย / SCMP
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U.S. official: With eye on North Korea, China puts bombers on โhigh alertโย / CNN
โBut Chinaโs Ministry of National Defense said the U.S. officialโs assertions were โnot true.โโ -
Chinese drama shelvedย / China Media Project
White Deer Plainย (็ฝ้นฟๅ bรกi lรน yuรกn) was pulled after airing for exactly one episode, an unusual time for censors to step in, David Bandurski reports. It is not yet clear what caused the move, although some allege political pressure. - You will pay: Chinese media warn India over Dalai Lamaโs Arunachal visitย / Hindustan Times
SOCIETY AND CULTURE:
Does Dolce & Gabbanaโs ad campaign feature an โunderdeveloped Chinaโ?
Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) has pulled an online advertisement campaign that was shot in Beijing and sparked accusations of only showing the dilapidated side of modern China. In the collection of photos, several models wearing high-end fashion gowns pose themselves in Beijingโs centuries-old hutongsย (hรบtรฒng ่กๅ) and famous tourist attractions such as Tiananmen Square, next to ordinary people such as tourists as well as taxi and pedicab drivers.
The marketing campaign is part of the brandโs attempt to localize itself to cater to Chinese consumers. D&G has launched similar campaigns in Hong Kongย and Japan, in which models were seen against relatively fancier backgrounds with skyscrapers and flashing neon billboards.
The campaign triggered a huge debate in Chinese social media on whether D&G intentionally stereotyped China by choosing outdated street views as background instead of advanced modern areas such as the financial district in the city. Many of the comments on the Chinese social media platform Weibo labeled the photo collection as โoffensive.โ One internet user wrote, โIt almost looks like North Korea! This is definitely not what China looks like now!โ A photographer on Weibo comparedย (in Chinese) the D&G campaign with a photo collection featuring a Chinese theme that was produced by Vogueย in 1993, saying, โD&G uses hashtag #DGLovesChinaย to promote their campaign, but I donโt sense any love in their photos.โ
Others called the critical remarks too sensitive: โI guess everyone Chinese should examine themselves before going out. What they wear and where they are going. Are you being a drag on Chinaโs image? If yes, you are not qualified to be Chinese. Meanwhile, we should learn from North Korea to designate a specific area for foreigners to take photos,โ a Weibo user ridiculedย (in Chinese) people from the opposite camp. There are more discussion on this topic on this Weibo threadย (in Chinese).
- Journal retracts dozens of papers by Chinese scientistsย / Sixth Tone
- A new โcureโ for Chinaโs millions of web addicts: Hack their computersย / Foreign Policy
- Progress on depression slow in China as stigmas persistย / ABC News
- Chinaโs super-rich target environment, research in growing embrace with philanthropyย / Caixin
- Bulldozers threaten what may be the worldโs oldest animal fossilsย / Science
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