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Your irregular China round-up

Started by Cain, April 02, 2012, 05:53:01 PM

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I_Kicked_Kennedy

Oh, and I forgot the huge elephant in the room:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-06/china-local-debt-may-top-estimates-former-minister-says.html

Supposedly, the major difference between the US's municipal debt and China's is that these debts are "...mostly domestic." However, their growth has been hingent upon the massive investment in infrastructure. If that falters, foreign investments dry up, and their currency loses. Meaning, debts they hold over other countries can be bought off for a smaller percentage. To believe this is any less than a potential disaster for China is beyond shortsighted.
If I had a million dollars, I'd put it all in a sensible mutual fund.

Junkenstein

http://www.wheels.ca/news/angry-maserati-owner-destroys-430000-car-with-sledgehammer/

QuoteWhat's that they say about "more money, more problems?" A certain Maserati owner in China might be able to relate.

A man hired "smashers" to help him pound his car to a pulp outside the Qingdao Auto Show on Tuesday in what he says was a protest against bad service by the dealership, the China Car Times reports.

The owner was apparently unhappy with Furi Group, the company responsible for Maserati distribution in the Qingdao area, because they allegedly repaired his  $430,000 Quattroporte with second-hand parts rather than the new parts he paid for and did not make all the repairs he requested.

Fed up, the owner and his assistants showed up at the Auto Show's opening to hammer their point home.

This supercar-smashing is becoming something of a bizarre tradition at the Qingdao Auto Show. The China Car Times says a Lamborghini owner smashed his exotic ride at the show in 2011 to protest apparent dissatisfaction with Lamborghini China, even though he had bought the car second-hand from Germany.

I can only hope this adopted worldwide as the best way to deal with bad customer service, regardless of the product or service.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Junkenstein

http://world.time.com/2013/05/03/china-sex-scandal/?iid=obnetwork

QuoteChina wouldn't be China without the officious slogans that plaster every other wall and railing, educating citizens on the latest government policy or crackdown. But the banners and billboards that began appearing in March all over Shuangfeng, a rural county in central China's Hunan province, bore exhortations more curious than most. "Let all of society take action! Let's engage in a people's war against blackmailing activities using fake obscene pictures," read one. Another urged: "Crack down on the crime of extortion using fabricated obscene photos."

What lies behind these unusual party directives? Proficiency in Photoshop, apparently. Starting in 2011, a number of Shuangfeng residents began supplementing their income by using the popular software to create fake sex photos featuring local officials and businessmen. The images were then sent to those purportedly involved in a crude blackmail scheme, according to government prosecutors. In mid-March, police arrested eight suspects from four gangs that were accused of trying to raise $7.35 million through doctored pornography. Since last year, 37 suspects have been arrested in connection with 127 such extortion cases, according to local media. On its website, the Shuangfeng police department published a list of blackmail suspects still at large.

China's systemic corruption, currently the target of a crackdown by new leader Xi Jinping, is often tied to sexual scandal. In recent months, numerous Chinese officials have been targeted in online show-and-shame campaigns that usually involve images — apparently genuine — of errant cadres in various stages of undress, accompanied by women other than their wives. A survey conducted by Renmin University in January found that 95% of the corrupt officials caught in 2012 maintained mistresses.


Photoshop as a political tool seems to be surprisingly effective. I guess when corruption is well known and widespread, the easiest thing to do is just try and blackmail everyone. Like a 419 scam, only instead of promising wealth just make random accusations until profit.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Junkenstein

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/09/big-building

Quote
Broad Sustainable Building, a Chinese company aiming to build the world's tallest building before the end of 2013 in the city of Changsha, has been granted permission to begin construction.

You might think that doesn't give the company much time. After all, the current record-holder, the Burj Khalifa, took five years to put together.

But Broad Sustainable Building (BSB) has pioneered a technique that involves prefabricating large parts of a structure offsite, then transporting them to a chosen location and putting them together very quickly. It used the technique to build a 30-storey apartment building in 15 days in 2011.

China's never backed away from large projects and this seems to step it up a notch. Construction technique if this works out as planned would give China a huge edge in the construction sector in the developing world. Resources for infrastructure seems to be part of the long term plan.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Junkenstein

This could have considerable implications for nations with aging populations.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23127936

QuoteA Chinese court has ordered a woman to visit her mother once every two months, state media say, in the first case since a new law on parental visits came into effect on Monday.

The judgement was issued by a court in Wuxi, after a 77-year-old woman brought the case against her daughter.

The court also ruled that the daughter and her husband had to provide financial help, reports said.

The new visitation law has provoked both debate and ridicule online.

Called the "Elderly Rights Law", it is intended to tackle the growing problem of lonely elderly people by ordering adult children to visit their ageing parents.

But many have questioned how it can be enforced, given that the frequency of visits is not spelled out.

Other internet commentators say it intrudes into areas that should be governed by personal choice.

In this case, Xinhua reported that the elderly mother sued her daughter after she refused to care for her any more following a row.

China Daily said the hearing on Monday in Wuxi was held "to highlight the implementation of the law".

"Filial piety, considered a key virtue of traditional Chinese culture, generally means respect for one's parents and ancestors, including being good to one's parents and fulfilling one's duty to take care of them," the paper said.

The law was aimed primarily "at urging all of society to pay more attention to elders", it quoted a professor of population studies as saying.

China's population is aging and in recent years there have been a number of cases of elderly people being poorly treated or neglected that have shocked the nation.

I get the feeling we are going to see these kinds of laws outside of China within the next 5-10 years.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Junkenstein on July 02, 2013, 11:09:19 AM
This could have considerable implications for nations with aging populations.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23127936

QuoteA Chinese court has ordered a woman to visit her mother once every two months, state media say, in the first case since a new law on parental visits came into effect on Monday.

The judgement was issued by a court in Wuxi, after a 77-year-old woman brought the case against her daughter.

The court also ruled that the daughter and her husband had to provide financial help, reports said.

The new visitation law has provoked both debate and ridicule online.

Called the "Elderly Rights Law", it is intended to tackle the growing problem of lonely elderly people by ordering adult children to visit their ageing parents.

But many have questioned how it can be enforced, given that the frequency of visits is not spelled out.

Other internet commentators say it intrudes into areas that should be governed by personal choice.

In this case, Xinhua reported that the elderly mother sued her daughter after she refused to care for her any more following a row.

China Daily said the hearing on Monday in Wuxi was held "to highlight the implementation of the law".

"Filial piety, considered a key virtue of traditional Chinese culture, generally means respect for one's parents and ancestors, including being good to one's parents and fulfilling one's duty to take care of them," the paper said.

The law was aimed primarily "at urging all of society to pay more attention to elders", it quoted a professor of population studies as saying.

China's population is aging and in recent years there have been a number of cases of elderly people being poorly treated or neglected that have shocked the nation.

I get the feeling we are going to see these kinds of laws outside of China within the next 5-10 years.

It'll open an interesting can of worms if it's tried here in the States, as I presume children will counter-sue over issues like past physical/emotional abuse, neglect, or even things like the parents failing to pay to send them through college, thus not adequately preparing them to be able to support their parents later in life.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Junkenstein

Opens up all the way - Suing parents for sending you to college and debt bondage for example. Every parental act could potentially be examined and questioned by a court.

Parenting on trial, that will surely keep prisons full.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

http://www.duihuahrjournal.org/2013/06/corruption-shuanggui-and-rule-of-law.html

Relevant to our earlier discussions on the shuanggui:

QuoteLi Yongzhong summarized for SR the reasons why shuanggui is such a great deterrent. Based on his own experience handling cases and the results of his research, he has concluded that there is one major principle and three major laws of shuanggui. The principle is that corrupt people become associated with each other out of economic interests, but "they have no lasting friends, only lasting interests." As for the three major laws, the first is the "toilet law": once an official leaves his position of power, it's like standing up after using the toilet—the stench immediately begins to spread, and the signs of criminality then become apparent. The second is the "law of when the tree falls, the apes scatter": once an official under shuanggui is isolated from other persons associated with the case, the "apes" start to panic and it's easy to divide and conquer. The third is the "law of asymmetric information": after being put under shuanggui, an official loses contact with the outside world and the conspiracy of silence surrounding his corruption begins to fall apart on its own.

Salty

This is good. It is easy to think of these workers as stoic autonomatons who just dont know any better, not like us westerners with our labor strikes of old. Hell, there arent any jobs around laborious enough to warrant striking. We should count our blessings, drink another god damned frappé, and STFU.

Except no. They're working at it.

http://jacobinmag.com/2012/08/china-in-revolt/
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

Salty

Also, i have things to say about this because it's fascinating  but gotta run.

http://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-censorship-china-allows-government-criticism-silences-collective-expression

My first thought is how we all get too distracted fighting to engage in that collective expression in such a way that leads to results. Mostly cause of the teevee, imo.
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

Junkenstein

Cain, Nice find on Shuanggi. I suspect we're going to see a version of something similar in the west quite soon. Probably just working out a bland sounding name for it first.

Alty, excellent links, reading through them now. Thanks!
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

A Chinese business is using drone aircraft....to deliver cakes

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nsp/Metro/2013/07/24/Local%2Bcompany%2Btakes%2Bdelivery%2Bof%2Bcakes%2Bto%2Bnew%2Bheights%2B%2Bliterally/

QuoteA local cake factory is using drones to deliver cakes in Shanghai! And China's civil aviation authorities are not too happy about it.

The factory used remote-controlled aircraft on five different occasions to "fly" cakes across the Huangpu River to customers in downtown, claimed Men Ruifeng, the marketing manager of the Incake company, which only accepts orders online.

Well, it's certainly a step up from Hellfire missiles, I'll give them that.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Cain on August 01, 2013, 09:19:11 AM
A Chinese business is using drone aircraft....to deliver cakes

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nsp/Metro/2013/07/24/Local%2Bcompany%2Btakes%2Bdelivery%2Bof%2Bcakes%2Bto%2Bnew%2Bheights%2B%2Bliterally/

QuoteA local cake factory is using drones to deliver cakes in Shanghai! And China's civil aviation authorities are not too happy about it.

The factory used remote-controlled aircraft on five different occasions to "fly" cakes across the Huangpu River to customers in downtown, claimed Men Ruifeng, the marketing manager of the Incake company, which only accepts orders online.

Well, it's certainly a step up from Hellfire missiles, I'll give them that.

:lulz: That's great.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Junkenstein

Quote from: Cain on August 01, 2013, 09:19:11 AM
A Chinese business is using drone aircraft....to deliver cakes

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nsp/Metro/2013/07/24/Local%2Bcompany%2Btakes%2Bdelivery%2Bof%2Bcakes%2Bto%2Bnew%2Bheights%2B%2Bliterally/

QuoteA local cake factory is using drones to deliver cakes in Shanghai! And China's civil aviation authorities are not too happy about it.

The factory used remote-controlled aircraft on five different occasions to "fly" cakes across the Huangpu River to customers in downtown, claimed Men Ruifeng, the marketing manager of the Incake company, which only accepts orders online.

Well, it's certainly a step up from Hellfire missiles, I'll give them that.

I've heard Amazon and others making motions about trying to get same-day delivery working again, even if it happens to be a loss leader.

I suspect that this tech could enable that, at least in highly urban areas.

Which could give rise to the crime of "Drone Piracy" Imagine it. Drones designed purely to steal another drones payload. Depending on what you swipe it could be a rather profitable activity.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Junkenstein

More shuanggi antics?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23628085

QuoteA former top economic official in China has been expelled from the Communist Party and removed from public office, state media report.

Liu Tienan, formerly deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, "accepted huge amounts of bribes", Xinhua news agency reported.

Allegations against Mr Liu emerged online in December, when a well-known journalist accused him of corruption.

The move comes amid a high-profile crackdown on corruption.Mr Liu "took advantage of his position to seek profits for others," Xinhua reported, citing the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

QuoteChinese President Xi Jinping has called for a crackdown on corruption, vowing to tackle it from the powerful "tigers" at the top to the "flies" at the bottom of the Communist Party.

I'd guess so. Seems to fit the pattern. I'd guess there to be more to follow now they can shove this guy through the wringer too.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.