Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 60/No. 10 i Beijing Review

Home Prices Stable The hot property market in major cities is stabilizing after authorities took measures to contain rising prices, according to an official survey on February 22. Of the 70 large and mediumsized cities surveyed, 45 saw prices for new residential housing climb month on month in January, down from 46 in December and 55 in November 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In Beijing, new residential house prices remained flat month on month, while Shanghai prices fell 0.1 percent. Housing prices in Shenzhen, a southern metropolis neighboring Hong Kong, slid 0.5 percent. Year on year, housing prices in the three cities have risen 24.7 percent, 23.8 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively. According to the NBS, new residential housing prices in second-tier cities rose 0.1 percent…

After leaving Beijing for nearly a year, Qiao Shifu, a retired grandfather, was “summoned” back from Shanxi Province to babysit his newborn granddaughter, the second child of his son. Qiao had lived in the capital for more than six years since his first grandchild was born, to take care of the infant. But he disliked the crowded and noisy metropolitan life and hankered for a carefree retired life in his rural home. So one year ago, soon after his grandson entered primary school, Qiao returned to his hometown, thinking his babysitting days were behind him. But now he is back on duty once again following the implementation of a government policy that allows all couples to have two children, which resulted in the birth of his granddaughter. Qiao’s current duties…

China and Pakistan are working together to implement the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) program at full speed, which provides further impetus for the two nations to extend their cooperation from land to sea. CPEC, proposed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during his visit to Pakistan in May 2013, will become a 3,000-km-long route connecting Kashgar in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Gwadar Port in southwest Pakistan’s Balochistan Province. Along the route, the two countries are building a network of extensive roads, railways, ports and other infrastructure. In November last year, as part of the early harvest projects, a maiden overland cargo voyage set off from Kashgar to Gwadar Port at the entrance of the Arabian Sea. With Gwadar Port a new option, China’s cargo trade routes to the…

China’s smartphone arena was dominated by OPPO in 2016—the company stood atop its competitors with 16.8 percent of the market. Started by China’s BBK Electronics in 2004, OPPO shipped 78.4 million units in 2016, up 122.2 percent year on year, according to the worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker published by research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) in early February. OPPO’s sister brand VIVO ranked third, with a shipment volume of 69.2 million units, behind China’s telecom equipment giant Huawei. The top three smartphone players, all homegrown, took up 48 percent of the Chinese market. These brands’ slice of the market far exceeded Apple’s 9.6-percent share. This indicates a growing acceptance of domestic brands—a result of improvements in product features and better marketing messages, said the IDC. Keys to success Before…

Daniel Bell, currently a political theorist, became an enthusiast of China in 1989 when he met his Chinese wife, Song Bing, during his studies at Oxford. The Canadian national became even more interested in China after getting married and worked hard to learn Chinese. After receiving his PhD from Oxford University in 1991, Bell taught at National University of Singapore, University of Hong Kong, and City University of Hong Kong before becoming a professor of philosophy at Tsinghua University in 2004. Bell said he has become increasingly Chinese after working and living in Beijing for over a decade. When he returns to Canada, he uses Chinese standards to judge local people’s behavior. For instance, in China, people wait until guests walk into the distance when they see them off. However,…

Staff members work at the reception center for foreign journalists at the press center for the annual full sessions of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) and the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), or the two sessions, in Beijing on February 27. The NPC is China’s top legislature and the CPPCC National Committee is the top political advisory body. The CPPCC National Committee session opened on March 3, two days ahead of the NPC session.…

TURKEY Prime Minister and ruling AKP leader Binali Yildirim attends a campaign rally in Ankara on February 26, urging people to vote “yes” in a referendum on amending the constitution to expand presidential power UNITED STATES President Donald Trump addresses for the first time the joint session of the Congress in Washington, D.C. on February 28. Trump rolled out his “America First” agenda at the session UNITED NATIONS Amina Mohammed is sworn in as the new deputy UN secretary general at the UN headquarters in New York City on February 28 MALAYSIA A former ambassador of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the UN, Ri Tong Il, speaks to media outside the DPRK embassy in Kuala Lumpur on February 28. A highlevel DPRK delegation arrived in the capital…

Piao Chunhua is in two minds. Should she expand her business? There’s a high demand for her services but on the other hand, the expenses are also high. Nine years ago, Piao started a private kindergarten in Wangjing, a residential area in northeast Beijing, and today, she has 41 pupils. “Many of the smaller kids are second children,” she said. Since the government relaxed birth control and announced in October 2015 that all couples can have two children, various sectors have been facing a boom in demand as families opt to embrace the new policy. Kindergartens are one of them. As public kindergartens often have stricter requirements—for example, the child should be at least 3 years old or have a household registration in the same area— smaller private kindergartens are…

In addition to his work as chief of the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee of Yixing, a city in Jiangsu Province in east China, Wang Zhongsu was given an extra task. He was also appointed chief of the Caoqiao, a major river running into freshwater Taihu Lake. It was 2011 and at that time, the 23-km-long river was the most polluted waterway in Yixing. The concept of “river chiefs” is an administrative measure taken by the Chinese Government to address the increasingly serious problem of water pollution. These chiefs have to protect the water resources under their jurisdiction, prevent and control pollution, manage the river banks, and undertake ecological restoration. If any environmental damage occurs in the water bodies under their supervision, they will be held accountable. “Being a…

News of public-private partnership (PPP) projects has kept pouring in since the start of the year. More and more local governments are regarding PPP as a major means of attracting investment as they deal with tighter budgets, stricter debt oversight, and slowing economic growth. However, problems have also cropped up as PPP projects move forward, and participants shake off the investment fever. As an innovative investment and financing tool as well as a source of government expenditure, PPP is expected to play an important role in ensuring stable growth. It is also designed to help bolster reforms, optimize the economic structure, improve people’s lives and forestall financial risks. Since 2013, the number of PPP projects has increased rapidly, spreading throughout the country. PPP ventures have kept doubling in number each…

A New Look A boy gets his hair cut in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, on February 27. It was the second day of the second month in the Chinese lunarc alendar, known as the day when the “dragon raises its head.” It means the advent of spring after the winter hibernation. It is a tradition for Chinese to have their hair cut on this day. Poverty Reduction China beat its annual target by lifting 12.4 million people out of poverty in 2016, official data showed on February 28. “The progress was partly due to large financial resources, over 230 billion yuan ($34.33 billion), earmarked by the central and local budgets,” said Su Guoxia, spokesperson for the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development. “More than 30 million poor…

Information on Official WeChat Accounts What % Follow How Many Accounts (Note: People who don’t follow official accounts are not included.) Nature of Accounts People Follow Closely (Note: These are multiplechoice questions; the total percentage is above 100.) Reasons for Unfollowing (Source: Penguin Intelligence; designed by Pamela Tobey) Chen Xiao belongs to a community that has had a new word invented just for them. He is a phubber, one of a rising class of smartphone addicts who remain immersed in their phones or tablets, oblivious to everyone and everything around them. The community is especially discernible on the subway, where they are seen glued to their gadgets, continuing to pore over them even when exiting the system and walking to their destinations. Every day, while commuting to work, Chen reads…

The residents in Beijing’s Chaoyang District have a special title: “the Chaoyang masses.” This title has only come up in recent years, after the residents became renowned for tipping off police about a number of cases involving highprofile celebrities using drugs and having sex with prostitutes. They also have helped to crack down on illegal construction and unlicensed taxis, among other things. To acknowledge their contributions, they have received awards from the police. They have even earned themselves an amusing nickname: the “fifth largest intelligence agency” in the world, after the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States, the Committee of State Security in the Soviet Union, Mossad in Israel, and Military Intelligence 6 in the UK. However, rather than being supermen, the Chaoyang masses are mostly ordinary people such…

It is believed that Buddhism reached China through the Silk Road around the first century A.D., and subsequently, Buddhist arts and crafts arrived from countries like India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. An example would be the artworks found in grottoes built along the Silk Road in China. The Mogao Caves near the city of Dunhuang in Gansu Province in northwest China, the Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang in central China’s Henan Province, and the Yungang Grottoes near Datong in Shanxi Province in north China are the three most important places in the country where Buddhist grottoes have been found. The most famous and beautiful artworks among them are those in Yungang, built in the fifth century. I had the privilege of viewing these historical masterpieces in August 2016. At the base…