Beijing Today News (January 2, 2015)

7.8 MB·English

by  Beijing Youth Daily Group

PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY ~ ISSUE NO. 708 ~ JANUARY 2, 2015 ~ 3.00#
Charity Boxes Xiaomi Aims Embezzlement
Cheat China’s for Smart Homes the Norm in
Faithful with Midea Research
Temples are borrowing money Without patents or innovation, Less than 40 percent of the
meant for monks to fuel their Xiaomi is trying to enter the government’s grant money is
business projects. Page 4 smart home market. Page 5 going to research. Page 6
Invisible
Children
When parents head to
prison, it’s the children
who suffer.
More than a million chil-
dren across China are fall-
ing through the cracks of
society and missing every
safety net on the way
down as their parents
serve time. Page 2
Stronger Gmail Blackout
CHINESE STOCK INDEXES
Shakes Chinese Business SSE (Shanghai)
Close Change YTD
3,234.68 +68.86 (2.18%) +57.95%
BY LI RUIQI A blogger and national firewall ana- A spokesman for Google said the com- SZSE (Shenzhen)
lyst writing under the name yueguang- pany’s mail system was not to blame for Close Change YTD
A
fter six months of limited access, boke said the new block moves the Gmail the outage. The announcement came only 11,014.62 +292.36 (2.73%) +38.48%
China’s Internet regulators moved to ban to the IP level. days after Hua Chunying, the spokesper-
completely block access to Google’s popu- With more than 35 million registered son for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, HSI (Hong Kong)
lar Gmail service on December 27. users, Gmail has become an essential tool announced that the Chinese government Close Change YTD
Gmail’s troubles on the Chinese main- for personal and business use in China. remains dedicated to cultivating a wel- 23,605.04 +103.94 (0.44%) +5.31%
land began on May 31 when an adjustment The sudden block has created significant coming business environment for for-
to the national firewall blocked all con- challenges for companies that deal with eign investors. Accurate to market close on December 31, 2014
nections to Google’s server using the stan- international trade or education. Until the government chooses to
dard Web ports of 80 and 443. “I am still waiting for a response to unblock Gmail’s IP addresses, the service
In the following months, many users my application to a graduate program in will only be accessible through VPN.
turned to third-party mail clients such the UK. Now I’m worried I may never “VPN is the best way to revive your
as Foxmail and Outlook to access their see whether I was accepted,” said Xu Gmail and the only way to restore access
Gmail mailboxes using mail transfer pro- Yuelin, a senior at Beijing Foreign Lan- to Instagram and Facebook in China,” said
tocols rather than the Web. guage University. several writers on Baidu Tieba. ~
Beijing Youth Daily Group President: Zhang Yanping Editor-in-Chief: Jack Wang ~ Content Director: Su Derui ~ Designer: Pan Fan ~ Phone: [phone] ~ FAX: [phone]
Editor-in-Chief: Yu Haibo ~ Director: Li Xiaobing ISSN: 2095-9591 ~ 刊号: CN11-0120 ~ 邮发代号1-364 ~ Overseas Code No: D1545 ~ Subscriptions: [phone]
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Chaoyang District, Beijing, China 100026 Published under the auspices of the Office of the Beijing Municipal Government. Run by Beijing Youth Daily Group.
2
JANUARY 2, 2015 NEWS BEIJING TODAY
Prisoners’ Invisible Developers
Send HIV
Children Hang in
Patients to
Scatter
Legal Limbo
Community
BY LI RUIQI
R
esidents of the Sanchang community
in Nanyang, Henan province have
been in a panic since several men began
threatening to infect them with the HIV
virus if they do not relocate immediately.
A resident named Jin Meizhen said
the men keep coming to her door with
what appear to be small vials of blood and
saying that they are ill and will infect her
if she doesn’t vacate her home. “I can’t
sleep at night because they set off fire-
works to keep us awake,” she said.
“We turned to the police, but all they
do is show up and issue an oral warn-
ing,” said Zhang Zhenduo, another res-
ident whose window was shot out with
Photo by CFP steel ball bearings after he identified sev-
eral of the men to the police.
BY YANG XIN
W Red graffiti that reads “AIDS Demoli-
hen parents go to prison, it’s more likely to drop out of school than prison, he said. tion Crew” is now ubiquitous throughout
the children who are left to their peers. Sevenants said the government could the community.
pay. Across the country, a mil- “In the end, prison hurts criminals less ease its emotional punishment of pris- On December 29, local police detained
lion children are falling through society’s than it hurts their families,” said Huang oners’ children by allowing longer and five of the men and their organizer Liu
cracks and being left to starve or die once Jinliang, chief of the Prison Education more frequent child visits in a child- Huzi. The men said they were being paid
their families are locked up. Section in Putian, Fujian province. friendly setting. 100 yuan per day by the Nanyang Yi’an
Children whose parents are in prison are The interests of children are seldom “With or without existing laws, doing property development group to force out
denied basic rights and face numerous prob- taken into account in the Chinese judi- something about this is the government’s Sanchang’s residents.
lems, said Koen Sevenants, general director cial process. responsibility,” said Chen Youhua, dean Located in central Nanyang, the San-
of the Morning Tears Alliance charity. According to a statement by the Third of the Department of Sociology at Nan- chang community was scheduled for
A survey conducted by Anhui Agricul- Intermediate People’s Court of Chongqing, jing University. demolition in late 2011 to make way for
tural University found that the children of the Constitution and Convention on Children “The thing is, the nation is not willing new office buildings. However, Nanyang
prisoners usually end up with their grand- Rights does nothing to safeguard minors to, or is incapable of taking responsibil- Yi’an never went through the formalities
parents or abandoned. As recently as June whose parents are serving sentences. ity,” Chen said. necessary to demolish the community.
2013, two girls in Nanjing were left to Even the prison visit arrangements are The Ministry of Civil Affairs first “If they don’t go through the for-
starve to death after their father was con- far from reasonable, Sevenants said. addressed the issue of prisoners’ children malities, we cannot get a Certificate of
victed and sentenced to prison. “In China, the standard prison visit under the name of “children without Resettlement with Ownership. That’s
Even those children who have a arrangement is once a month for 15 min- actual safeguards” in 2006. “Minors who why we refuse to relocate,” said Yang
mother to depend on suffer greatly. Data utes. Conversations are behind glass and have lost their parents to prison or other Jinyou, a resident.
from the All-China Women’s Federation via phone. But often, visitation is only causes may be properly settled in accor- China’s urban reconstruction pro-
showed that more than half of Chinese allowed on school days and the cost to reach dance with relevant legal provisions,” cess requires the government to first
moms with a spouse in prison have to sur- the prison is prohibitive,” he said. “Implic- according to the guidelines. allocate a sum of money to resettle res-
vive on less than 200 yuan per month. itly, the child’s right to visit is denied.” Unfortunately, the ministry has never idents before the cleared land can be
An investigation in 2010 also found Prisons further restrict family visits specified which department should be procured through open tender. But few
that the children of prisoners are 20 times as a punishment for bad behavior in responsible for such resettlement. ~ locals can afford to pay the resettlement
funds beforehand.
20 Nursing Moms As an alternative, sometimes the gov-
ernment compromises and allows real
estate developers demolish the homes
Unite to Save Baby early on the condition that developers
foot the resettlement bill.
The local government denied any
knowledge of the plan to hire HIV posi-
tive men to harass local residents. How-
BY LYNNE WANG
ever, 31 staff members at the government’s
Photo by Beijing Youth Daily Meixi sub district office appear on the
N
ine-month-old Xiaomada has been delivery. Although the girl recovered, a tribute some of my milk,” said Sun Li, a list of “annual bonuses” awarded by Nan-
in the news since a series of her pic- bout with breast cancer in 2006 left her donor who sent 600 milliliters of fresh yang Yi’an this year. ~
tures began circulating online. But the 36-year-old mother Liu Fengli unable to milk every day for the last six months.
attention has less to do with the chubby breastfeed her. Thus far, more than 20 mothers from
infant’s cute photos than the story of 20 “Xiaomada suffered a lot since her Beijing’s districts of Tongzhou, Miyun,
nursing mothers who came together to birth. I want to give her the best – decent Jiuxianqiao and Andingmen have con-
save her. food that can strengthen her body instead tributed their milk. Most sent along their
Xiaomada’s parents had deep expecta- of unsafe baby formula,” Liu said. health reports and a “production date”
tions that she would be healthy and strong. Liu shared her story on an online BBS with each bag of milk.
The couple lost their first baby four years several days after Xiaomada’s birth. Many Six months later, Xiaomada weighs 11
ago due to its weak constitution. nursing mothers were moved and volun- kilograms and has grown to 74 centimeters.
Xiaomada was born with similarly teered to send their extra milk for free. “I deeply appreciate the contributions
poor health. She suffered from severe “Liu and I knew each other through of all these donors,” Xiaomada’s grand-
pneumonia and respiratory failure and the Internet. Life has been unfair to her mother said in an interview with Beijing
was sent to the ICU immediately after and the baby, and I don’t mind to con- Youth Daily. ~ Photo by p2.pccoo.cn
EDITOR: DIAO DIAO ~ DESIGNER: PAN FAN
3
BEIJING TODAY NEWS JANUARY 2, 2015
THE WEEK
IN WEIRD
STRANGE HAPPENINGS ON
THE CHINESE NEWS WIRE
BY SU DERUI
Drunken Bomber Gets
Jail Time
Fuelled by baijiu and alone in his hotel
room, the 40-year-old Xu made an
immensely stupid decision on the evening
of August 28: he phoned the Shanghai
police and told them he was going to bomb
Xueyuan Road.
Police shut down the road and dis-
patched 50 officers to comb the street for
a bomb. When none could be located, they
traced the call back to Xu’s hotel room.
Xu attempted to present his behavior as
a harmless, drunken prank. The Huangpu
CFP Photos
Antibiotics a New Threat District Court didn’t see it that way and sen-
tenced him to a year in jail on December 16.
(Shanghai Daily)
to Nation’s Water Man Caught With Ceiling
Full of Bras
In a case of real life mimicking anime,
a man in Guangxi province was caught
with more than 2,000 bras stuffed into
BY DIAO DIAO
A his ceiling. The discovery follows months
ntibiotics are being recognized and amoxicillin both exceeded 100 nano- the tap. The water is not clean,” he said. of reports of underwear theft by nearby
as the latest major contaminant grams per liter. A woman surnamed Zhang who lives female residents.
in China’s shrinking water sup- Wang Jin, head of the Water Science in a residential community on the west The thief, surnamed Tang, was caught
plies, according to a study conducted in Department at Beijing Normal University, side of the factory said their community on hidden camera stealing about in a home
October and November. said the numbers were shocking. runs out of water every few days. The he had previously raided.
In Nanjing, tap water in many homes Wang said water samples from the water does not smell strange, but it tastes Police said Tang was entering his neigh-
was found to contain significant amounts mouths of rivers and many lakes showed awful, she said. bors’ homes using a master key for the locks
of antibiotics. Water in Shandong prov- that the majority of China’s water is being According to Ind.com.cn, Shenyang in their apartment complex. He told police
ince near the Shandong Lukang Medicine contaminated with antibiotics. Antibiotics Factory has been fined repeat- he has had a “mental illness” since child-
factory was found to have an antibiotic The Pearl River in Guangdong edly for dumping its medical waste into hood and knows not why his is so obsessed
concentration 10,000 times greater than province was seriously polluted with the water reservoir. In March, the Envi- with women’s underwear.
the average sample nationwide. anhydroerythromycin being found in ronmental Protection Department fined (iFeng)
Water resources and drainage chan- concentrations of 460 nanograms per the factory for discharging too much
Silent Night Snatcher Skips
nels located near pharmaceutical compa- liter – more than four times the Euro- sulfur dioxide.
Cash, Grabs Dildos
nies and poultry farms in the country’s pean standard. Shenyang Antibiotic Factory is
northeast and central regions showed Shenyang Antibiotic Factory refused directly supervised by the local govern- A sex shop owner surnamed Jiao was
similar elevations. to answer questions, or allowed CCTV ment. Its sewage fees are the third high- shocked to find his store smashed open
Shenyang’s water in particular con- reporters to enter its factory. est in Liaoning province and total more on the morning of December 25. He was
tained multiple antibiotics in shockingly A student in Shenyang who studies in a than 466,000 yuan for a quarter. more shocked to find that no one took the
high concentrations. The antibiotic nearby school said that factory discharges The Shenyang government said the cash or computer.
6-aminopenicillanic acid was found in its medical waste into a 1.5-meter deep factory would be relocated at the end of A review of surveillance video footage
concentrations of up to 178 nanograms sewage ditch nearby. “Our teachers told us 2015 to prevent further damage to local showed a man in a hat smashing the glass
per liter. Concentrations of ampicillin not to drink any water that comes out of groundwater. ~ door at 11:45 pm. The man entered the
shop and left after only three minutes.
After counting his inventory, Jiao found
Screenwriter’s Lawsuit
that only 10 sex toys were missing. The
devices had a combined value of about
5,000 yuan.
a Win for Copyright
(Xinhua)
Husband Pimps Out Wife
Enforcement
to Sell Umbrellas
Zhang and Li met in 2005 and married
soon after. After working and saving for
BY DIAO DIAO a few years, they decided to chase their
dreams by going into business for them-
P
opular romance screenwriter Qiong Many of her stories have been adapted film industry workers came out in support selves and opening an umbrella factory in
Yao won her lawsuit against fellow into TV serials. of Qiong during the last eight months. Anhui province.
screenwriter Yu Zheng for plagiarism on As one of China’s younger screenwrit- Critics said many of Qiong’s support- Unfortunately, the umbrella market
December 25 in the Third Intermediate ers, Yu Zheng’s works have been highly ers seemed to be more jealous of Yu’s has not been one of China’s most lucrative
People’s Court of Beijing. controversial. Viewers have been espe- fame than in agreement with her copy- during the last few years.
The court found that Yu’s Gong Suo cially fond of poking fun at Yu’s question- right claim. Others worried that strict In order to lure in orders, Zhang asked
Liancheng was an unlicensed adaptation of able casting choices in his remakes of such limits on imitation and an increased focus his wife to exchange texts, eat dinner,
Qiong’s popular Meihua Lao and awarded classic series as The Brave Archer and The on original work could work to decrease accompany the clients to KTV and perform
her 5 million yuan and a public apology Condor Heroes. new ideas. sexual favors for particularly big clients.
from Yu and four other defendants named Wang Xingdong, president of the Chi- Unlike many writers, Qiong enjoys a When their marriage began to fall apart,
in the lawsuit. nese Society of Film Literature, said Qiong’s certain amount of respect and clout that Zhang hired several young women to fill Li’s
Qiong is best known for her popular lawsuit could have far-reaching conse- brought her lawsuit to attention. Her vic- role. They ultimately decided to divorce and
Princess Pearl series in the late 1990s, as quences in an industry rife with plagiarism. tory remains an outlier in the Chinese split their assets equally last month.
well as Yi Lian You Meng and Meihua Lao. More than 100 screenwriters and other legal system. ~ (Wenxue City)
EDITOR: DIAO DIAO ~ DESIGNER: PAN FAN
4
JANUARY 2, 2015 FEATURE BEIJING TODAY
To encourage donations and sponsor-
ships, the group offered a commission
to staff members and tour guides who
persuaded visitors to donate money to
Buddha. Commission payouts ranged from
5 percent to 15 percent depending on the
amount of money spent.
Zhao Ye, a visitor from Qinhuangdao,
Hebei province, said she was persuaded
to spend 120,000 yuan when she visited
the temple.
“I put 300 yuan into the charity box.
Then a monk impersonator told me I had a
fate with the temple’s Buddha and I should
support it throughout my life by spending
100,000 yuan,” Zhao said.
When she refused to support a second
Buddha, she was charged 9,999 yuan for a
scripture reading and told to put another
999 yuan into the charity box for the
Buddha she already supported.
A week later, Zhao received a text mes-
sage from the monk showing the pictures
of a newly built Buddha with her name
and date on it. She realized something
was wrong when the picture featured the
wrong date.
It was only when she tried to complain
that she learned the Famen Temple Char-
ity Fund and the temple itself were actu-
ally completely different.
Wang Tianding reported a similar
experience. He chose to participate in the
temple’s free scripture copying activity.
When he finished, he was bullied to pay
CFP Photos a fee and have his copy stored in a locked
Law No Barrier to Temples’
drawer in the temple.
In some online forums, people shared
stories of being pressured to buy con-
secrated jade Buddhas, ring the bells at
Fake Charity Boxes festivals, touch a Buddha and have their
fortune told.
Solution and the Law
The commercialization of religious affairs
continues to be a problem in China as man-
BY DIAO DIAO
agement companies prey on the faithful in
T the name of Buddhism. The government’s
he Tanzhe Temple was at the top the only ones used to supply the temple’s last updated in 2005, stipulate that non- refusal to pursue punishment or tighter
of almost every Chinese news ticker monks, according to one monk who asked religious entities cannot organize or regulation has only emboldened them.
on December 20, but not for its not to be named. All other charity boxes hold religious activities or accept reli- The most recent amendment to the
famous beauty. are claimed by Beijing Jingxi Tourism gious donations. religious management law published in
Tanzhe Temple is at the heart of a new Development, a tourism company and the Accordingly, the temple’s operating 2012 prohibits non-religious groups from
controversy in China’s religious commu- legal owner of Tanzhe Temple. company has been asked to remove its fake placing charity boxes but still falls short of
nity after an in-depth report exposed how An IPO report published by Beijing charity boxes. But the problem is far too specifying a punishment.
the religious site’s legal owner placed fake Jingxi Tourism Development in 2010 said widespread for the Tanzhe Temple’s oper- The Beijing Buddhist Association
donation boxes throughout the temple to the company planned to develop the ators to face punishment. said the fake charity boxes in Tanzhe
funnel donations away from the monks Temple are guaranteed to return within
into the company’s own coffers. Nationwide Problem the next week.
While the municipal government asked The Famen Temple in Baoji, Shanxi In recent years, much discussion has
the temple to immediately remove its province was exposed for a similar prac- focused on protecting the structures of
“fake” charity boxes, that demand is tice in 2013. the temples themselves. It’s often hard
unlikely to stick. Experts say the tourism When a finger bone of the Sakyamuni for visitors to figure out which sections of
companies behind most temples face no Buddha was discovered in the temple in a historic temple are considered a sight-
legal penalty for their deception. 1987, pilgrimage to see the relic became seeing location and which have a reli-
a significant source of money. Southern gious function.
The Case Weekly reported the temple placed 21 char- Guangming Online said that the Famen
Located in the rolling hills of Mentougou, ity boxes labeled “Famen Temple Charity Temple in Shanxi province blurred the
the Tanzhe Temple is one of the oldest Fund” throughout the temple to collect 8 line between commercialized tourism and
religious structures in Beijing and a pil- million yuan. religion and its escape from punishment
grimage site for devout Buddhists. In addition to charity boxes, the tem- set a bad precedent.
The temple’s day-to-day religious Tanzhe Temple area into a Level 5A sight- ple’s operating company began selling The Jinan Ethnic and Religious
operations are conducted by a number seeing destination with an investment of sponsorships. Sponsorship in Buddhism Affairs Bureau in Shandong province
of monks who are primarily supported more than 118 million yuan. A private stock usually entails regular donations of food or published a notice in 2013 that set a limit
by the charity of visitors. More than 70 offer by China Huali Group would cover clothing, but the Famen Temple accepted on the number of charity box in temples.
charity boxes throughout the temple ask 78 million yuan with the rest to be paid by only one kind of sponsorship: cash. The bureau maintains a publicly avail-
for such donations. the tourism company. Supporting the 10 Bodhisattva along able list of which temples are allowed to
But a careful examination of the It’s not difficult to connect the new the Buddha Avenue cost 10 million yuan. have charity boxes and how many each
boxes found that 53 were labeled as fake charity boxes to the report. The three in the relic tower were priced 30 is allowed.
“Charity Box” (Gongde Xiang) while the A staff member at the nearby Jietai million yuan, 40 million yuan and 50 mil- While it’s too early to say whether this
others were labeled using a Buddhist Temple said their temple had also hiked lion yuan. To sponsor the tower itself cost will tie the hands of predatory temple man-
phrase with a similar meaning (Guang its admission fees and placed fake charity a whopping 100 million yuan. agers, it’s a good first step to driving a
Zhong Fu Tian). boxes since the release of the IPO report. The Famen Temple Group laid claim wedge between secular management and
The latter boxes, beaten and aged, are The Regulations on Religious Affairs, to all sponsorship money. the monks the faithful hope to support. ~
EDITOR: DIAO DIAO ~ DESIGNER: PAN FAN
5
BEIJING TODAY BUSINESS JANUARY 2, 2015
Xiaomi’s Steps into the
Smart Home May be
Foolhardy
BY LYNNE WANG
T
he marriage between an emerg- and Xiaomi’s success comes from endless phones in the Indian market. The sus- cent,” said Yi Sha, an IT analyst.
ing IT firm whose market value marketing without any important innova- pension may be due to Ericsson’s ongoing Indeed, all the domestic IT giants are
was recently estimated at $40 tion,” Dong said. suit against Xiaomi for infringing on sev- heading for the smart home arena.
billion and a 46-year-old home As the leader of a home appliance giant, eral of its patents related to wireless net- With the help of Ali Cloud, Alibaba
appliance giant has been attracting Dong’s words smacked of disdain for key work connections. is integrating its platform with the
public attention. rivals and sour grapes over a lost battlefront. “The nightmare might go on,” said Internet of Things. Baidu’s Baidu Inside
On December 14, Xiaomi bought a 1.27 But Dong is not entirely wrong. Xiaomi Neil Mawston, CEO of Strategy Ana- aims to win over hardware makers with
million yuan stake in Midea and became is paying for its mythical growth as the lytics. “Although Xiaomi could become advances in speech recognition, loca-
one of the latter’s largest shareholders. firm is repeatedly drawn into intellectual the largest smartphone seller in China tion-based services and video decoding.
According to their announcement, Xiaomi property scandals. without the support of competitive pat- Tencent is also collaborating with smart
and Midea will collaborate to develop On December 9, Xiaomi released its ents, that weakness will crush it when hardware makers to put its WeChat into
products for smart homes, mobile Inter- new smart air filter. In less than a week, it expands into the American and Japa- other devices.
net and e-commerce. IT circles were buzzing about how it nese market, which have strict intellec- The smart home strategy for Baidu,
While the digital age has no shortage was a pirated version of the Japanese tual property laws.” Tencent and Alibaba is to build an ecosys-
of partnerships between technology firms Air Engine. “Also, other foreign companies who tem and then develop hardware, Yi said.
and traditional enterprises, the case of “While there was no legal judgment hold core patents will regard the case in “But what Xiaomi did is exactly the
Xiaomi and Midea is a little different. on whether Xiaomi’s air filter committed India as a red alert to target Xiaomi,” opposite. Lei was familiar with Internet
Xiaomi has long been seen as the golden copyright infringement, its appearance Mawston said. business when he applied Internet logic
child of Chinese startups, and its expan- was not distinctive and would confuse In addition to the lack of innovation, to the traditional telephone industry. His
sion into the competitive smart home general consumers,” said Chen Jiying, a the competitive smart home environment triumph depended on the absence of com-
battleground comes without patents or business observer. will also be a problem for Xiaomi, indus- petitive technology firms. He is going to
technological innovation. A lack of core patents and technolo- try insiders said. find that the smart home industry will be
Founded in 2010, Xiaomi become a gies has also led Xiaomi to face obstacles “When Lei turned his aim to the a fierce battle,” Li said.
legend for its rapid growth. With its when expanding into foreign markets. smart home filed, his rivals were no longer Low-priced smartphones and a mobile
user-friendly MIUI operating system, On December 12, Xiaomi said it would traditional home appliance makers such ecology based on MIUI have allowed
low-prices and hunger marketing, the temporarily suspend the sale of Xiaomi Gree or domestic phone makers like Meizu Xiaomi to grab market share, but the dig-
smartphone maker came to dominate the and Huawei. He is now competing ital product landscape changes fast and
domestic market in only four years. with Baidu, Alibaba consumers are infamously forgetful.
With more than 57 million products and Ten- “Nokia held its throne for 50 years
shipped in the past four years, Xiaomi prior to being replaced by iPhone, HTC and
has become the most popular smartphone Blackberry. And Blackberry only held
with a 14 percent market share in China. attention for two years before its
Research by International Data Corpora- market share collapsed,”
tion shows that Xiaomi is also the third Wang said. ~
largest smart phone maker worldwide,
tailing only Apple and Samsung.
But Xiaomi seems to have bigger
ambitions than to be a leading smart-
phone brand. In the last two years,
S
h
the company has expanded its product a
r
e
line with intelligent routers, Internet h
ol
TV and air filters. As it enters further d
e
r
into smart home territory, its coopera-
tion with Midea will be essential.
“Our partnership will allow us to
develop a digital ecosystem in which Xiao-
mi’s devices and Midea’s home appliances
can be perfectly connected,” said Lei Jun,
CEO of Xiaomi. The appliance maker also
brings Xiaomi its sales channels, brand-
ing and sourcing experience, said Wang
Jianyu, a reporter for Huxiu Daily.
“For Xiaomi, the cooperation with Midea
is just a start. It might collaborate with more
hardware manufactures to turn any device
into an intelligent terminal and manipulate
the entire smart home,” Wang said.
But criticism from Dong Mingzhu,
CEO of Gree, was aimed to pull Xiaomi’s
smart home dreams back into reality. Just
a day before the announcement of Xiaomi
and Midea, Dong called the partnership
“a marriage between two liars.”
“Putting two second-class firms
together will not make a great giant.
Midea is a firm whose success is built on Photo by CFP
patent infringement and false advertising,
EDITOR: LYNNE WANG ~ DESIGNER: PAN FAN
6
JANUARY 2, 2015 EDUCATION BEIJING TODAY
Long Shadow of
Embezzlement Falls on
Chinese Research
a southern university who wished to ogy Bureau colluded with enterprises
remain anonymous. “We’re always told to pocket scientific subsidies from the
to claim costs in every single category government.
because it “looks more professional.” Authorities who have the power of
“The sheet requires applicants to fill approval take bribes in exchange for a
out the specific frequency, destination green light, said Wang Yuan, head of
and expenditure for each investigation the Chinese Academy of Science and
Engineering apnrodj escutrsv. eyB utht aht owwil l dboe iIn vkonlvoewd ienx tahcetliyr TMeicnhisntorlyo gofy Sfocire Dnceev ealnodp mTeecnht nuonldoegry .the
A cade m y of wfyoehra emrrsey?, ” i nwhvehe essantii gdaa.ntdio nw dituhr iwngh othme nI ewxti lflo guor wenhtoiXs tir nechfouuusael rdde pgtooar itnbe ed “ tanh aasmtu oemnd e osrafe isdme aoar ncshecyei”r-
C hinese exceAsfst efru ntdhse cpreroatjeec ht uinsd arepdpsr oovfe odp, ptohre- figroenmt tehneo umgihn”is itnry e assta lbolnisgh ains gh ec oisn t“adcitls-
tunities for project leaders to the grab in these departments.
cash for themselves.
“National natural science foundation Absence of Laws
projects, once approved, are seldom short China has no national laws regulating
of money. At the year end, project leaders how government research funds are to
withdraw the remaining funds by sub- be used.
mitting handfuls of invoices or hiding “Most of the stipulations concern-
the money under the name of another ing scientific research projects are writ-
company,” said Wang Jie (pseudonym), a ten in a careless way that could never
graduate doctor of medicine. “Whether work to prevent the embezzlement of
any of that money ends up used on academic funds,” said Ren Jianming,
research is uncertain, but unlikely.” a professor of Integrity Education and
The current scientific research system Research Center, Beihang University.
requires that professors hand in tax The Guidelines for Sponsorship in
invoices for reimbursement. However, National Nature and Science Funding
because the actual expenditures rarely Projects contain only 30 clauses. For
match the budget, project members are comparison, the rules governing the use
asked to forge applicable invoices to col- of US government grants fill a 168-page
lect the remainder of the money. book and include all kinds of restric-
tions on behavior.
Oversight Just a Formality Zhen Zhen, a deputy procurator gen-
School administrators have little incen- eral at the Beijing Municipal People’s
tive to exercise tighter control over proj- Procuratorate, said that the administra-
ect budgets. The number of projects and tive departments are in such a chaotic
the amount of money they are granted mess that it’s impossible to track down
are seen as key metrics for national who is responsible for misdirected sci-
school rankings. entific funds.
In fact, scholars and professors are “Unless there comes to be some
Li Ning, an academian at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, became one of the first strongly encouraged by universities to national-level legislation for this field,
professors busted for embezzling scientific research funds last year. Photo by CFP file research project applications even for I suspect that all the professors and
projects that are guaranteed to become administrators I meet with might even-
vaporware. Once approved, the school tually end up in prison,” Zhen said.
BY YANG XIN skims off a certain amount of the money Wang Mengshu, an academician at the
for administrative costs and looks the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said
A
other way as professors decide how to the corruption hinges on a lack of effec-
close examination of how ruption is even possible demonstrates spend the rest. tive evaluation and assessment strategies
30 universities manage their “something is terribly wrong with how Supervision bodies within universi- for scientific research projects.
scientific research funds research grants are allocated and man- ties exist in the name only, Wang said. “At present, we base our approval on
found that five scholars aged in China,” he said. “We merely examine the validity of a briefing and thesis by the project leader.
embezzled more than 16 million yuan in The system’s total lack of trans- the invoices submitted by professors However, the application and practical
research funds. parency and oversight makes it fertile regardless of the rationality of their effects of the findings are never evalu-
Based on the revelation, it’s not surpris- ground for corruption, Cong said. expenditures,” said an auditor who ated or assessed,” Wang said.
ing that less than 40 percent China’s sci- refused to be named. “There is already Wang also said most of the minis-
entific research funds are actually used to Fapiao the Fatal Flaw a Scientific Research Office within the try’s departments in charge of fund dis-
support scientific projects, the China Asso- The problems begin with the budget sheets. school that is supposed to take charge of bursal are not staffed by the kinds of
ciation for Science and Technology said. Professors who wish to apply for checking the rationality.” academic who could examine research
Although China ranks second in the a project must “correctly” fill out a Short of effective supervising powers projects with a more critical eye.
number of scientific articles published budget sheet with expenses separated from the outside, human relationship “Most scientific research projects
in magazines and journals, no Chinese into 11 categories such as meeting costs, becomes a practical tool for project lead- focus on specific issues in profes-
scientist has ever won the Nobel Prize consulting fees, travel expenses, inter- ers to access scientific grants. sional fields and require expert assess-
in Science. national communication expenses and Corruption scandals in Foshan’s sci- ment before approval. Such assessment
“Individual scientists should not take equipment costs. entific grant system last year exposed is simply not happening,” Wang said.
all the blame,” said Cong Cao, an expert “One trick is to just pack the sheet to some of the huge loopholes in local proj- “The ministry’s approval of totally use-
on Chinese science policy at the Uni- the brim with costs,” said Wang Liang ect supervision. In those cases, staff less projects sows the seeds for future
versity of Nottingham. That such cor- (pseudonym), an associate professor at from the Foshan Science and Technol- corruption.” ~
EDITOR: YANG XIN ~ DESIGNER: PAN FAN
7
BEIJING TODAY EMBASSY JANUARY 2, 2015
2014 Miss Korea winners and Kwon Youngse
Photos by Venus Lee
Cultural Night Shares Korean
Culture, Kimchi Recipes
BY YANG XIN
T
he 2014 China Korea Culture Night In order to better promote Korean cul- popular Korean mobile games. The games Intangible Cultural Heritage.
closed out the year in style with ture, the Korean Culture Center of Beijing helped the ambassador find common “China and South Korea share many
an introduction to the country’s invited three finalists from the 2014 Miss ground with gamers and introduced non- similarities in culture and that means we
traditional culture and a class in kimchi Korea pageant to present Culture Night. gamers to some of Korea’s most popular can work together in politics, economics
making on December 24. Kwon Youngse, the South Korean Ambas- software products. and culture,” Kwon said.
Co-hosted by the Korean Embassy sador to China, nominated the three as The kimchi pickling lesson took The China Korea Culture Night is sup-
and Crowne Plaza Sun Palace Beijing, image ambassadors for Korean culture. place in a spacious room for 300 people ported by the Embassy of the Republic
the night’s activities included a perfor- The annual national beauty pageant in the Crowne Plaza Sun Palace. Guided of Korea, the Korea Tourism Organiza-
mance by the Jun Eun Ja Dance Company is used to select Korea’s representative by Bai Shuonan, head chef of the Walk- tion, the Korea Creative Content Agency,
and several Korean musicians. The per- to the Miss Universe, Miss International erhill Culinary Development Center, the Korea Copyright Commission and the
formances combined South Korean folk and Miss Earth pageants. The three image participants learnt how to prepare their Korean Film Council.
dance with original music from popular ambassadors will play an active role in the own kimchi. The Korean Culture Center is prepar-
TV dramas. promotion of Korean culture in China in The Korean Culture Center in Beijing ing new activities for 2015 that include
A fashion show in which Korean hair- 2015, Kwon said. said the kimchi pickling activity was tourism and photography exhibitions, a
style designers introduced 2015’s trends The ambassador interacted with the chosen to commemorate the successful Hanbok costume exhibition and Korean
in hair followed the dance. audience during Culture Night by playing listing of Kimchi as a UNESCO World cuisine tasting. ~
China to Connect
BY YANG XIN
P
rime Minister Li Keqiang signed a all countries in the region,” Li said.
Serbia, Hungary by deal with Aleksandar Vucic, pre- Serbian and Hungarian officials wel-
mier of Serbia, and Viktor Orban, comed the deal as well.
premier of Hungary, to connect the “This will help Serbia not only devel-
High-Speed Rail European countries by high-speed train opment its infrastructure and transporta-
on December 17. tion but also build a new connection with
The railway is expected to be com- our friends from Hungary, Macedonia and
plete by mid-2017 and will shorten travel Greece. It will also bring a more significant
time between Budapest and Belgrade to connection to Europe,” Vucic said.
less than three hours. “Historically, it was armies that were
The $3.1 billion project will be 85 percent passing through Hungary, but now goods
financed by China Development Bank and exe- will be passing through by the new rail-
cuted by Chinese state-owned enterprises. way and we will finally benefit from our
The railway agreement “shows that position,” Orban said.
China and Europe have found mutually The plans for the railway were settled
beneficial ways to cooperate in the decades a year ago atthe 2013 China-Central and
to come,” Orban said after the ceremony. Eastern European Countries Economic
Li called the project “a corridor between and Trade Forum.
China and Europe.” However, the specifics of the financing pro-
Analysts said the 400-kilometer railway cess remain unclear. According to Portfolio, a
is part of China’s ambitious plan to speed Hungarian newswire, the duration of the debts
up delivery of its exports to central Europe will be codetermined by the three parties.
through Greece’s port of Piraeus. Andrassy Notay, former director of the
“This will put in place a new corridor Institute for World Economy at the Hun-
between China and Europe and we hope garian Academy of Sciences, said the main
to see an increased exchange of goods challenges of the project are financing and
between China and Europe. The potential environmental protection. Andrassy urged
for increased exchange and investments is the Hungarian government to embrace Chi-
big, and a fast railway will definitely be ben- na’s “New Silk Road” strategy and give China
Photo by Ta Kung Pao eficial for our trade and the development of a real entrance to continental Europe. ~
EDITOR: YANG XIN ~ DESIGNER: PAN FAN
8
JANUARY 2, 2015 NEWS RELEASE BEIJING TODAY
Vip.com Releases Asian Female Online
Shopping Report
W
ith its carefully curated selection of brands, at night; 59 percent said they made impulse purchases
rock-bottom prices and limited-time offers, while browsing; and 33 percent said they had little con-
Vip.com is one of the most popular websites trol over their buying impulses.
among female online shoppers. “We all think we can win in the e-commerce battle as
Recent data from the company shows that it has more long as we attract enough female customers,” said Feng
than 9 million registered members, 80 percent of whom are Jialu, vice president of Vip.com. The company has been
female. Female shoppers account for nearly 90 percent of retooling its desktop and mobile websites to better appeal
Vip.com’s total sales volume. to female buyers.
To study the female online shopping market, Vip.com
partnered with Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to Report’s Findings
publish the first report on Asian female online shoppers. EIU said the Asian retail market would grow 4.6 percent in
The report is based on data sampled from 5,500 female 2015 to reach $7.6 trillion, putting it ahead of both the Euro- cant source of their household’s income. More than two-
online shoppers in India, Japan, Singapore, Korea and pean and North American markets. thirds said they maintained their own bank accounts, and 48
China, as well as specific studies of the Hong Kong, With female shoppers leading Asian purchases, the percent said they had their own credit cards.
Taiwan and Macao markets. Asian consumer market is entering into “female times.” About 15 percent of the Asian female respondents said
According to the report, as many as 30 percent of Among female respondents, more than 43 worked in they paid for their spouse’s online purchases as well.
the female shoppers make their purchases while in bed management or services. About 83 percent were a signifi- As Asian women’s economic capability grows, they are
also gaining financial discretionary power at home. More
than 80 percent reported that they decide the family’s budget
for clothing, cosmetics and household items, as well as influ-
ence spending on electronic products, furniture and travel.
“Asian females direct their families’ consumption to a
great extent,” said Laurel West, a senior analyst at EIU.
When choosing shopping websites, Asian females value
brand, preferential price and certified product. Asian female
shoppers typically consider brands and certifications more
important than shoppers in other countries.
In recent two years, subjective consciousness has become
a significant factor guiding the online shopping market.
Impulse buys and mobile terminals are expected to greatly
influence female’s online shopping patterns in the future.
Unlike European and American females, Asian females
treat online shopping as a social or recreational activity.
“The information in this report has been of great
value to Vip.com, and even to the broader female con-
sumption industry,” Feng said. ~
(By Shu Pengqian)
EDITOR: VENUS LEE ~ DESIGNER: PAN FAN