REFLECTIONS IN A CHINESE EYE

China’s Gao Shan heads home to face charges on $130M fraud ring after eight years hiding in Vancouver

Eight years after he slipped out of China to take up a quiet suburban life in Vancouver, Gao Shan, the accused mastermind of a $130-million embezzlement ring, has returned home to face fraud charges.

The sudden surrender ends Mr. Gao’s careful eight-year bid to evade the international reach of Chinese authorities.

Reportedly, the ex-banker “came to the conclusion that if he ultimately going to be sent back anyway it might be better if he was sent back voluntarily,” said Clive Ansley, a B.C. litigation lawyer who practiced in Shanghai for 13 years.

Mr. Gao is the former manager of the Bank of China branch in Harbin, a city of 10 million near the Russian border. According to Chinese authorities, between 2000 and 2004 Mr. Gao was the ringleader of a scheme to siphon cash from corporate accounts.

‘I don’t think the Chinese government likes to talk openly about it — it’s kind of embarrassing that they couldn’t find these potential criminals before they left the country’

Only weeks before the alleged fraud was discovered, say Chinese officials, Mr. Gao boarded a plane to Canada. Just before leaving, the banker reportedly told colleagues he was merely going to Beijing for surgery. He also instructed a colleague to hold onto his cell phone and leave it on. “Mr. Gao appears to have been trying to create the illusion that he was still in China,” reads the transcript of a 2007 Canadian immigration hearing.

Read more at National Post

China steps up diplomacy with Syrian envoy visit

* Foreign Ministry says Beijing considering inviting Syrian opposition groups
in near term to China

BEIJING: China said on Monday that it would
host an envoy of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and consider another visit by
members of the opposition, as Beijing steps up its diplomacy to help resolve the
crisis gripping the country.

The West and many in the Arab world have
scolded China, along with its ally Russia, for vetoing United Nations Security
Council resolutions designed to exert pressure on Assad. China has said it is
simply trying to prevent more violence. Opposition sources say at least 18,000
people have been killed since rebels began fighting to oust Assad in March last
year.

To deflect criticism and show it is trying to develop a political
solution, Beijing has sent its own envoys to Syria and has already been visited
by both Syrian government and opposition delegations. In its latest effort,
China’s foreign ministry said Assad’s envoy, Bouthaina Shaaban, would begin a
visit to China on Tuesday and meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
The ministry added that China was also considering inviting members of the
Syrian opposition. “To promote the political solution to the Syria problem,
China has always actively balanced its work between the Syrian government and
the opposition,” ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a brief statement on the
ministry’s website (www.mfa.gov.cn).

Read more at Daily Times

Powerful uncle of North Korea leader in China to talk business

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s uncle — the man seen as the power behind the young and untested dictator — went to Beijing on Monday in the latest signal that the reclusive state is looking seriously at ways to revive its broken economy.

The official KCNA news agency said Jang Song-thaek was visiting China, the North’s only major ally, to discuss setting up joint commercial projects. The news comes after leader Kim recently told Beijing that his priority is to develop his impoverished country’s decaying economy.

Last month, a source with ties to both Pyongyang and Beijing told Reuters the North was gearing up to experiment with agricultural and economic reforms after Kim and his powerful uncle purged the country’s top general for opposing change.

Read more at  FirstPost World

 

 

 

Our Chinese oil sands

In June, the Alberta government launched a website publicly outing employers who haven’t paid their workers—an online hall of shame. Among these “deadbeat bosses,” as the media quickly dubbed them, the worst offender was a subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec), a Chinese state-owned oil giant. That same subsidiary, along with others, is facing charges after the deaths of two Chinese workers flown in to work on a site near Fort McMurray, Alta., in 2007. After much delay, the trial begins this fall.

It’s the kind of bad press Chinese firms can’t afford as they seek to buy up swaths of Alberta’s oil patch and attempt to win over Canadian regulators and a wary populace. Last week, Chinese state interests went after two Calgary-based companies. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Ltd.’s $15.1-billion bid for Nexen Inc. got the most attention by far: it’s the biggest-ever takeover of a Canadian company by a state-owned entity. On the same day, Talisman Energy Inc. said it would sell a 49 per cent stake in its U.K. North Sea outfit to Sinopec for $1.5 billion. “Virtually overnight, Chinese investment in the energy sector has doubled to over $30 billion,” says Wenran Jiang, director of the Canada-China Energy & Environment Forum. Although the deals have yet to be approved, it’s a sign of things to come.

Read more at MaLeans

China’s Olympic Soul-Searching: What the Games Have Taught the Country

For many Chinese, the London Summer Games have been an eye-opener, igniting unprecedented debate about everything from patriotism to sports ethics to obsessing over gold medals.

Chinese's Wu Jingbiao reacts after failing in his last attempt during a weightlifting event at the 2012 Olympic Games. (Yuri Cortez / AFP / Getty Images)

For a number of Chinese, especially younger generations, the London 2012 Games are only the second Olympics they’ve followed closely. And their first, in Beijing four years ago, was hardly a routine sports event. The 2008 Summer Games were a global coming-out party for this emerging economic superpower, and competing on home turf helped China top the gold-medal tally for the first time ever, beating the USA 51 to 36. The Americans, however, won the total medal count (110 to China’s 100) and paved the way for the sporting world’s current Clash of the Titans, now about to conclude in London.

Chinese debate has often pitted nationalistic voices against those seen as “liberal.” These arguments have raged in the media, and especially through Weibo microblog accounts (essentially China's Twitter), which have provided citizens the closest thing they have to freedom of expression despite continuing Internet censorship and the “Great Firewall of China.” Here are some of the lessons learned and debates ignited during these Olympics.

Read more at the dailybeast

Why I disagree with Hugh White on China's rise

THERE is no more important policy challenge for Australia than the future relationship between the US and China.

Hugh White has raised serious questions about how to manage that relationship and, in particular, his view that the US should share power as an equal with China (discussed comprehensively in The Weekend Australian on August 11-12 ).

I disagree with much of his analysis and policy prescriptions for the following reasons.

First, he exaggerates the dangers in tensions between these two powers and, especially, the risks of conflict leading to nuclear war. He says competition between the US and China will inevitably lead to confrontation and military conflict. That did not happen in the more dangerous Cold War confrontation between the USSR and the US.

This was because it was clearly understood on both sides just how destructive a nuclear exchange would be. And yet, White

suggests a scenario in which a military incident in the South China Sea could lead to China dropping a nuclear weapon on American military bases in Guam, and the US doing nothing in retaliation.

In other words, the US, with more than 5000 strategic nuclear weapons, has backed down and accepted nuclear devastation on its territory with all the precedents that would set.

Second, there is little recognition of just how limited China's military capabilities are. It is simply not good enough to accept the pumped-up claims of the US Naval War College that US aircraft carriers are vulnerable to ballistic missile strikes by China.

Read more at The Australian.

Chinese police launch manhunt for 'Chinese Rambo'

By Tom Phillips, Shanghai

2:21PM BST 12 Aug 2012Rifle-toting police in combat gear descended on a forest-covered mountain outside the mega-city of Chongqing on Saturday in search of their suspect, named as 42-year-old Zhou Kehua.

The operation was launched after a woman was shot dead on Friday morning during a robbery outside a branch of the Bank of China in Chongqing. Police believe the gunman, who made off on a motorbike, may be responsible for an 8-year crime spree in which at least six people have been killed.

"This guy is like a Chinese Rambo," Bill Bishop, an influential China-blogger, wrote on his daily 'Sinocism' news bulletin. "His evasion skills are remarkable."

A photograph of the aftermath of Friday's attack showed the female victim, apparently suffering from a head wound, sprawled facedown on the pavement.

Another image showed a security guard clutching a towel to an arm wound.

Read more at The Telegraph

Analysis: China's sway over Cambodia tests Southeast Asian unity

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Students in
their twenties sit behind old wooden desks in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh,
scribbling away as a teacher barks out phrases in a foreign language above the
roar of motorcycles outside.

Unlike in most other countries in
the region, the students at this private language school and others nearby are
not learning English -- it's Chinese.

Along the street, signs with
golden Chinese letters on newly painted red-and-yellow buildings offer cheap
crash courses in Mandarin.

"Before, people came to this area
to study English but now it's Chinese," said Gua Fa, a teacher and manager of
the Ming Fa Chinese School. "The students all want to be tour guides, Chinese
translators, or work in banks and restaurants."

It's another sign of China's
growing influence in Cambodia, something that is upsetting the unity of the
10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Read more at CNBC

The making of a new China

Eric S. Margolis (America Angle) / 13 August 2012

Two major events in China are sure to shape the world’s newest superpower: the sensational murder trial of Madame Gu Kailai, and the top secret leadership conclave at the seaside resort of Beidaihe.

Madame Gu, as widely reported, was charged with poisoning Neil Heywood, a British businessman, fixer, and possibly her former lover. Gu is the wife of the recently disgraced powerful Chongqing party boss, Bo Xilai who, until the scandal, appeared set to be elevated to a senior role in China’s leadership. Bo was regarded – and feared – by many as a dangerous opportunist bent on reviving Maoism.

Gu’s trial was the biggest sensation in China since the trial of Mao’s shrewish, scheming wife, Jiang Qing, leader of the notorious Gang of Four. Reviled as “the white-boned devil,” she and her leftist allies were blamed for the ghastly Cultural Revolution.

Beidaihe, along with the lovely northern port of Dalian, are traditional summer venues for the pampered Communist Party leadership. This year’s meeting is extremely important as it will likely determine the shape of China’s next round of leaders at this fall’s 18^th party congress, a once in a decade seismic event. President Hu Jintao will step down and is likely to be replaced by rising star,  Xi Jinping.

Read more at Khalee

 

Are Chinese Olympians Competing Against Colonialism?

In advance of the London Olympics, China’s sports authorities went out of their way to dampen gold medal expectations. Nonetheless, there were exceptions, foremost among them the assumption that gymnast Chen Yibing would repeat his 2008 win on the rings. So when, on Monday night, Chen took the lead with a lofty score of 15.800, everything was right in China -- but only briefly.

Moments after Chen's routine, Brazilian Arthur Zanetti gave a fine, but obviously flawed, performance. (Most notably, while Chen had a perfect landing, Zanetti stumbled on his dismount.) Nonetheless,  Zanetti earned a 15.900. The Chinese reaction online, as represented by hordes of furious microbloggers, was swift: China was not only robbed of its rightful gold, but the country was also disrespected by the biased Western authorities running the London Games.

Read more at Bloomberg

Yiwu is the 'fastest growing Muslim community' in China

YIWU, CHINA // Go back little more than a decade, and a group of Muslim residents in Yiwu, a city in eastern China, had to rent a hotel room so that they would have somewhere to pray.

As their numbers increased from about 100, they moved to a rented car park - but soon they had outgrown that, too, and worshippers spilt into the nearby street.

Today, the finishing touches are being put on a 25 million yuan (Dh14.4 million) mosque that is already being used by Yiwu's Chinese, Arab and South Asian Muslim residents and visitors.

Yet despite the construction of the mosque, one thing has not changed. Such has been the growth of the city's Muslim population that at busy periods, there is still not enough room for everyone inside and some worshippers have to find space outside to pray.

Read more at The National

 

Chronic disease sees rapid growth in China

BEIJING - Chronic diseases will experience rapid development in China, as the number of patients is expected to triple or even quadruple in the coming two decades, a newly-released report warns. "With an increasingly aging population and various factors that lead to cardiovascular threats, chronic diseases in our country will rapidly increase," said the 2011 Report on Cardiovascular Diseases in China, which was released Friday by the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases. The report estimated that an average of 3.5 million people die of cardiovascular diseases in the country every year, equivalent to one person dying of such illnesses every ten seconds

Read more at China Daily

Mother of young rape victim heads home

CHANGSHA - The petitioning mother of a rape victim began her journey home on Saturday after being released from a labor camp in central China's Hunan province, saying she will continue her pursuit of justice.

Tang Hui sobs as she embarks on the bus journey home in Yongzhou of Central China's Hunan province. The photo is taken in Changsha, capital of the province on Aug 11, 2012. Local authorities released Tang from a labor camp on Friday, where she was ordered last week to serve an 18-month term for "disturbing social order and exerting a negative impact on society." Tang was challenging the sentences handed down to the men who abducted, raped and prostituted her 11-year-old daughter. Tang's case triggered a public outrage questioning the local justice system. Authorities also said they would investigate Tang's claim that police falsified evidence in her daughter's case. [Photo/Xinhua]

Read more at China Daily

First Tibetan Olympian wins medal for China

LONDON –  On any other day and in any  other situation, the Tibetan exiles who gathered excitedly in groups next to  Buckingham Palace would never have come to cheer for an athlete wearing the  colors of China, a country they regard as their oppressor, a country that  invaded and has governed their Himalayan homeland with an iron fist for six  decades.

But this was exceptional. Because, apparently for the first time at an  Olympics, the athlete was one of them, a Tibetan.

Standing apart but, just this once, both wanting the same thing, groups of  Chinese supporters shouted "Jia You!" while the Tibetans yelled "Gyuk!" -- both  meaning, "Go on!"

The Chinese waved their red flags. The Tibetans waved the flag of Tibet that  is banned in China, with a bright yellow sun rising over a snow-clad mountain.  They could hear and see each other, but they studiously ignored each other,  too.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/08/11/first-tibetan-olympian-wins-medal-for-china/?test=olymp#ixzz23IS7jy39

China's Internet population reaches 538 million

China's Internet users totalled 538 million at the end of June, with mobile phones become the most popular way for users to access the Internet, according to a non-profit research group in the country

China's Internet users totalled 538 million at the end of June, with mobile phones become the most popular way for users to access the Internet, according to a non-profit research group in the country.

The new figure, which comes from the government-linked China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), means Internet penetration in the country is at 39.9 percent. In contrast, the U.S. has 77.3 percent Internet penetration rate, according to Internet World Stats.

Read more at COMPUTERWORLD

Defense white paper eyes China

The 2012 white paper on defense, endorsed by the Cabinet on July 31, expressed concern over China's rapid defense buildup and muscle-flexing in the Pacific Ocean, noting that it has become common for Chinese naval vessels to enter the Pacific Ocean, and that China appears intent on improving its ability to deploy its naval forces in international waters

The report pointed out, for example, that a flotilla of 11 Chinese naval ships, the largest grouping ever, passed between Okinawa Island and Miyako Island in June 2011, and that Chinese ships entered Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea in August 2011 and March 2012.

In view of this development, it is important to be vigilant over China's moves in the seas around Japan. But it must keep in mind that overreaction could worsen the security situation.

Read more at Japan Times

South China Sea Row Needs a Mellower Soundtrack

“Are you going to Scarborough Shoal? China, Phils, Vietnam and Brunei …”

Simon & Garfunkel sang different lyrics for their 1960s hit “Scarborough Fair,” a song that had nothing to do with Asian geopolitics. That didn’t stop one Filipino lounge singer from turning it into a protest song about rising tensions in the South China Sea on a recent evening in Manila for his martini-sipping audience.

Such strains are anything but music to the ears of world leaders, who already have enough to worry about. So how about adding a little diplomatic and military tension in Asia to the mix?

The brawl between China and the Philippines over ownership of a reef known as the Scarborough Shoal — the scene of armed patrols and a source of a daily war of words — is but the loudest of the moment. Asia features various territorial disputes involving Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan, with China at the center of almost all of them. The South China Sea is now the scene of one of the more serious feuds between officials in Washington and Beijing.

Read more at The Jakarta Globe

iPad grabs more than 70 percent of China's tablet users

Apple's tablet captured a 72 percent chunk of China's tablet market in the second quarter, says a new market report.

by Lance Whitney

August 8, 2012 7:10 AM PDT

(Credit: Apple)

Though Apple has faced legal issues in China, theiPad is by far the most populartablet among Chinese consumers.

The iPad's market share jumped to 72.6 percent in the second quarter, according to market research firm Analysys International. As reported by China Daily, that number proved to be a 20 percent rise over the first quarter of the year.

Read more at CNET

China Braces for Record Third Typhoon in a Week

BEIJING, China, August 7, 2012 (ENS) – China is facing its third typhoon in a single week, as Haikui strengthened from a tropical storm on Sunday into a typhoon on Monday afternoon.

“Within seven days our nation may be hit successively by three typhoons, the first time such circumstances have arisen since records have been taken,” Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei said in a statement.

Typhoons Damrey and Saola head for China’s east coast as seen by a NASA’s MODIS satellite, August 1, 2012 (Photo courtesy NASA)

“We are still dealing with the impact of Typhoons Saola and Damrey and now Typhoon Haikui is heading towards us,” he said.

At least 14 people are confirmed dead and five others are missing after typhoons Damrey and Saola blasted across China’s eastern coast over the weekend, authorities said Monday.

Now Typhoon Haikui is approaching East China’s Zhejiang province, heading for a stretch of coastline just south of the 23 million people living in Shanghai, the world’s largest city.

On Tuesday morning the center of Typhoon Haikui was located in the East China Sea, about 330 kilometers southeast of Shanghai.

Haikui is forecast to move west by north to northwest at a speed of 10-15 kilometers per hour, gaining intensity, and make landfall in the low-lying coastal area between Zhoushan and Yuhuan on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, according to the China Meteorological Administration, CMA.

Environment News Service (http://s.tt/1krzc)

America: The new sick man of Asia?

Page 1 of 2 America: The new sick man of Asia? By Peter Lee The tag line for United States President Barack Obama's appearance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Honolulu was "The United States is a Pacific power, and we are here to stay". The question is, is the United States a leader bringing economic and security solutions to the Pacific, or is it the new "Sick Man of Asia", infecting the region with its imperial malaise. Obama was in full scold mode at the meeting, telling the Chinese their economy was "grown up" and it was time for Beijing to "stop gaming the system". Chinese President Hu Jintao, smarting under the lash of American condescension, was perhaps muttering to himself that the main problem is that United States economy can't "grow up" anymore, and needs China's help - but can't bring itself to ask for it. Read more at ASIA TIMES

China 'kidney for iPad' trial begins in Hunan

China 'kidney for iPad' trial begins in Hunan

 iPads are as sought-after in
China as in many other countries

Five people have gone on trial in
China for illegal organ trading and intentional injury after a student sold his
kidney to buy an iPad and iPhone.

The defendants include the surgeon who removed the kidney from the
17-year-old in the central province of Hunan.

They face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty, according to the
state-run Xinhua news agency.

The teenager, who suffered renal failure after the transplant, was said to be
too sick to attend the hearing.

The student, identified only as Wang, was recruited in an online chat room,
according to prosecutors.

They accused one of the defendants, He Wei, of arranging the illegal kidney
transplant last April in order to pay his gambling debts.

The group is said to have received around $35,000 (£22,000) for the transplant, while the student was reportedly given about $3,000 for his kidney.

He nearly died after suffering renal failure following the operation and is
said to still be in poor health.

Read more at BBC

Bo’s Wife Confessed to Murder During Trial, Xinhua Says

Gu Kailai, center, the wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai, standing trial in the Intermediate People's Court in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei on Aug. 9, 2012. Photograph: CCTV via APTN

Gu Kailai, the wife of ousted Chinese Politburo member Bo Xilai, confessed to charges she used poison to kill a British businessman in his hotel room, according to China’s official news agency.

Gu admitted to dripping cyanide into Neil Heywood’s mouth as he lay drunk on his bed because she thought he had threatened her son, the Xinhua News Agency wrote in an account of the seven-hour trial in the eastern city of Hefei on Aug. 9. Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly in Gu’s house, confessed to aiding in the crime, Xinhua reported.

“This case has been like a huge stone weighing on me for more than half a year,” Xinhua cited Gu as saying at the end of the trial. “What a nightmare. During those days last November, I suffered a mental breakdown after learning that my son was in jeopardy. The tragedy which was created by me was not only extended to Neil, but also to several families.”

Read more at Business Week

Details of intentional homicide trial of Bogu Kailai, Zhang Xiaojun

English.news.cn   2012-08-11 00:58:37

HEFEI, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The attention-grabbing intentional homicide trial of Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun opened Thursday in east China's Anhui province.

All seats in the courtroom of the Hefei City Intermediate People's Court in Anhui were occupied when the trial began.

More than 140 people attended the trial, including relatives and friends of the two defendants, relatives and friends of British victim Neil Heywood, diplomats from the British embassy and consulates in China, media representatives, deputies to China's legislature and members of China's political advisory body, as well as members of the general public.

Prosecutors presented evidence and summoned forensic experts to testify, while the defense counsels of Bogu Kailai and Zhang conducted briefings for them, respectively. Legal representatives for the victim's family also presented their opinions.

The trial lasted for about seven hours, and the court announced that the judgment would be delivered on a day that has yet to be announced.

TRIAL DETAILS

When Hu Quanming, chief judge of the No. 1 Criminal Division of the Hefei City Intermediate People's Court, announced the beginning of the trial at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Bogu Kailai and Zhang were escorted by marshals to the defendant seat.

Bogu Kailai, nee Gu Kailai, was born on Nov. 15, 1958 in Beijing, with her household registration listed in the city's Dongcheng District. She was a practicing lawyer in Beijing.

Zhang Xiaojun was born on Oct. 22, 1979 in Guxian County of north China's Shanxi Province, and his household registration is listed in Yuzhong District of Chongqing Municipality in southwest China. He was an employee of the General Office of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The hearing started at 8:35 a.m. after the chief judge informed the parties of their legal rights during the trial. Du Wei, a prosecutor for the People's Procuratorate of Hefei City, presented the indictment.

According to the indictment, Bogu Kailai and her son, surnamed Bo, had conflicts with Heywood over economic interests. Concerned about Heywood's threat to her son's personal safety, Bogu Kailai poisoned him with the assistance of Zhang.

Read more at XINHUA NET

China's Catholics Go to Camp

By JILLIAN
KAY MELCHIOR

While thousands of American teenagers have spent their summers at expensive
camps that allow them to have fun outdoors, students in Rui'an city in China's
eastern Zhejiang province did something simple and soulful this summer: They
attended a Catholic summer course.

Maria, a high school senior, last year attended such a course offered by An
Yang Parish in her hometown Rui'an, and she loved it. Her social skills and her
emotional health improved, she said. She wasn't the only one who liked it. When
the parish, which is part of Wenzhou city's diocese, launched a large-scale
youth program last year, 430 students attended. Otherwise, the parish has only
about 320 members.

Nuns and parishioners volunteered to teach the week-long intensive Bible
study courses. Rosa Chen, a laywoman who helps run the program, said, "For
Catholic parents, they cherish the opportunity to send their children here."

While the demand is there to sustain the program, the parents don't know if
the camp will be open next year. The government has long limited religious
training for children, which makes the program's continuation precarious.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

Pollution protestors clash with police in China - 28Jul2012

QIDONG, China - Thousands of
people demonstrating over fears of pollution from a sewage pipeline at a paper
factory in east China clashed with police Saturday, the latest in a series of
environmental protests.

The protestors overturned two cars and ransacked
local government offices in the coastal city of Qidong, near Shanghai, an AFP
photographer said.

Demonstrators seized bottles of liquor and wine from
the offices along with cartons of cigarettes, items which Chinese officials
frequently receive as bribes, according to messages on Sina Weibo, China's
Twitter-like service.

Thousands of people had gathered in a square in
front of the government offices and in adjacent streets Saturday morning, with
armed police arriving at the scene at 9:00 am, AFP witnessed.

But the crowds dispersed after local authorities used television, radio, the Internet
and text message to announce that the waste water pipeline project at the mill,
which belongs to Japanese company Oji Paper, would be "permanently
cancelled".

Read more at Asia Pacific News