1. chinadailyusa.com $1TUESDAY, February 10, 2015
New York’s
Baccarat is
latest prize
White
House:
Xi visit
major
Graft fight targets publicly listed personal ‘ATM’ firms
DIPLOMACY REAL ESTATE
By JACK FREIFELDER
in New York
jackfreifelder@
chinadailyusa.com
A second high-profile hotel
real estate deal in the United
States involving a Chinese
insurance firm is a growing
sign of the investment-diver-
sification strategy of a num-
ber of multinational compa-
nies,accordingtoamanaging
director at a commercial real
estate firm.
Kevin Mallory, global head
of CBRE Hotels, a unit of the
Los Angeles-based CBRE
Group Inc, told China Daily
that foreign capital is “mak-
ingupamoresignificantpart
of our landscape” in the US.
“We have a number of
Chinese companies that are
highlyvisibleandmakingsig-
nificant investments in the
US and elsewhere,” Mallory
said Monday. “But there are
other types of foreign capital;
look at the Malaysian capital
that’s coming in.”
“The amount of foreign
capital that is invested in
US real estate is accelerating
from a long-term average of
just over 5 to 6 percent to
an amount now between 18
to 20 percent,” he said. “In
many respects, certainly with
Anbang and now with Sun-
shine, we’re seeing the results
ofthatdiversificationstrategy
that’s being deployed around
theglobe.Soweexpecttocon-
tinuetoseethistrendacceler-
ate as we go forward.”
On Monday, global private
investment firm Starwood
Capital Group announced
that it agreed to sell the Bac-
caratHoteltoaunitofChina’s
Sunshine Insurance for $230
million. The purchase price
breaks down to $2.04 million
perroom,datafromSTRAna-
lytics showed.
TheBaccarathas114rooms
and suites available for as
much as $18,000 a night. The
hotel,whichoccupiesthefirst
12 floors of a 50-story tower
at 20 W 53rd Street and fea-
tures a 125-foot wide corru-
gated crystal façade, is set to
open next month. The floors
above the hotel house nearly
60 apartments set aside for
use as condominiums.
The property is also across
the street from the Museum
of Modern Art.
Sunshine, founded in 2005
as a property and casualty
insurer, has provided insur-
ancetomorethan130million
customers since its establish-
ment nearly a decade ago.
InOctober,China’sAnbang
Insurance Co agreed to pur-
chase the Waldorf Astoria
hotelinNewYorkfromHilton
Worldwide Holdings Inc for
$1.95 billion, roughly equal to
$1.4 million per room.
The purchase price is the
largest amount ever paid for a
UShotel,accordingtoresearch
firmLodgingEconometrics.
SEE “HOTEL” PAGE 3
By HUA SHENGDUN
in Washington
“There is no substitute
for the two leaders sitting
together,” White House
aide Ben Rhodes said of the
expected visit by Chinese
President Xi Jinping later
this year.
“We thought it was
important to have Presi-
dent Xi here,” Rhodes, who
is assistant to the president
and deputy national securi-
tyadvisorforstrategiccom-
munications and speech-
writing, said Monday.
US National Secu-
rity Advisor Susan Rice
announcedonFeb6thatUS
President Barack Obama
has invited Xi for a state
visit this year. Also on the
invitation list is Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Agreements on envi-
ronmental, military and
reciprocal visa-extension
issues were reached when
Obama and Xi met during
a conference in Beijing in
November.
Before that, Xi made his
initial visit to the US as
president at the Sunnyl-
ands retreat in California
in June 2013, but has not
yetbeenhostedinWashing-
ton for an official state visit.
Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao,
made a state visit in 2011.
Rhodespraisedlastyear’s
highlight of “two leaders
getting together to [make]
progressonclimatechange,
on trade, on military to
military relations”. He said
the best way to keep the
momentumgoingistohave
another state visit.
He said that the White
House didn’t have fixed
dates for the meeting yet.
Cui Tiankai, China’s
ambassador to the US,
said on Feb 6 that China-
US relations have reached
wider and deeper scopes in
many ways in recent years,
and China would work to
enhance bilateral relations
in 2015.
“In the Chinese Year of
the Sheep, I hope China-US
relations will be more like
the‘PleasantSheep’andless
like the ‘Big Bad Wolf,’ ” he
said at the embassy’s Chi-
nese New Year gala.
SEE “VISIT” PAGE 3
By CHEN JIA in Beijing
chenjia@chinadaily.com.cn
Corruption has made deep
inroads into the Chinese capital
market and threatens the man-
agement integrity of at least
70 publicly listed companies,
according to media reports.
“Nearly all corrupt officials
had ill-gotten incomes from
business organizations,” a com-
mentary in the Beijing-based
Guangming Daily said.
Many companies and enter-
prises have served as “money
printers and automated teller
machines” for corrupt officials,
the commentary added.
According to Hithink Royal-
flush Information Network, an
onlinefinancialinformationsite
in Hangzhou, Zhejiang prov-
ince, out of 70 problem-plagued
companies, the largest group
consists of 18 in industries such
as oil, coal mining and nonfer-
rous metals.
Six of the 70 are in the real
estatesectorandanothersixare
financial companies.
State-owned and non-State
companies are among those
with executives suspected of
beingcorruptandofhavingcor-
rupt official ties, Hithink said.
Beijing News said listed
companies in high-profit and
monopoly industries bribe
officials by giving them shares,
manipulate stock prices and
transfer benefits through merg-
ers and acquisitions in the capi-
tal market.
Some senior executives have
been taken away by the anti-
corruption watchdog to help
with investigations, while oth-
ershavebeenaccusedofaccept-
ing bribes and of other illegal
activities.
One of the largest compa-
nies involved is State-owned
SEE “ANTI-GRAFT” PAGE 4
By GAO YUAN in Beijing
and CHEN WEIHUA
in Washington
Lu Wei, head of the Chinese
Internet regulator, and the US
AmbassadortoChinaMaxBau-
cus are WeChat buddies.
And they will use the most
popular instant-messaging tool
in China to discuss the thorni-
est cyber issues the two coun-
tries face. It’s unclear whether
they’ll use emojis — animat-
ed emoticons — in their chat
threads.Thatmightbeafirstin
international diplomacy.
At a Chinese New Year
reception held by the Cyber-
space Administration Office of
China, Lu told Baucus that he
would welcome an exchange
of views on Internet regulation
via WeChat, a social network-
ing tool developed by Tencent
Holdings that has more than
400 million users worldwide.
“WeChat will be a very nor-
mal channel to exchange ideas
for me and Baucus,” Lu said.
China is imposing tougher
Internet regulatory policies
because of fears an unfettered
Internetcoulddamageinforma-
tion security and social stability.
“The word ‘net’ also means
law and order in Chinese cul-
ture,” Lu said. “Every Internet
user desires cyberfreedom, and
order is the foundation,” Lu
said. “Where there is no order,
there will be no freedom.”
China and the United States
have had a number of skir-
mishes over cybersecurity and
Internet freedom.
“Iheardthemessageofcoop-
eration from Lu,” Baucus said.
“I think we should focus more
on the cooperation than on the
differences.”
The former US senator from
Montana, who took up his cur-
rent job last March, agreed that
both parties should keep the
dialogue channels open and
functioning.
The US, the creator of the
Internet and a key overseer, is
graduallylosingcontroloverthe
biggestinnovationafterelectric-
ity, as a number of countries are
askingforanintergovernmental
body to oversee the Net.
Fadi Chehade, chief execu-
tiveofthecyberspacegoverning
body, the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Num-
bers (ICANN), warned on Mon-
day that hopes to transfer con-
trolofICANNfromUShandsto
a globally representative body
could be jeopardized unless
a deal is reached before the
2016 US presidential elections,
Agence France-Presse reported.
Lu’s words may indicate that
China, with its fast-developing
Internet market, is increasingly
interested in the international
governance of cyber space.
Chinasuspendedthebilateral
working group on cybersecurity
immediatelyaftertheUSJustice
Department indicted five Peo-
ple’s Liberation Army officers
last May for alleged cyber theft,
charges China has denied.
Like many other countries in
the world, China has become
increasingly wary of cyberse-
curity following the revelations
in the past 20 months made by
former National Security Agen-
cycontractorEdwardSnowden
thattheNSAhasbeenconduct-
ing wide-ranging surveillance
offoreignleaders,governments
and corporations, including
some in China.
Lu, minister of China’s State
Internet Information Office,
paid a high-profile visit to the
US in December, attending
the seventh China-US Internet
Industry Forum in Washing-
ton,meetingUSofficials,speak-
ing to students and faculty at
George Washington Univer-
sity, visiting Silicon Valley and
interactingwithentrepreneurs,
including Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg.
Chinahasbecometheworld’s
largest Internet market, with
more than 4 million websites,
600 million Internet users and
four of the world’s Top 10 Inter-
net companies. Online com-
merce is set to hit $2 trillion
this year and keep growing at
30 percent a year, Lu told the
China-US Internet forum.
Contact the writers at
gaoyuan@chinadaily.
com.cn and chenweihua@
chinadailyusa.com
China’s Internet regulator to
‘WeChat’ with US ambassador
TECHNOLOGY
NO STRINGS ATTACHED
A puppeteer with the Shannxi Folk Arts Troupe performs the Drunken Concubine at a Chinese New Year program on Monday evening at
the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, Maryland.The performance was sponsored by World Artists Experiences, a non-profit
organization whose mission is to bridge international understanding through cultural and citizen diplomacy in communities, colleges and
schools. LIU CHANG / CHINA DAILY
Construction work takes place outside the Baccarat Hotels
& Residences NYC building on W 53rd Street on Monday.The
50-story tower will be home to the Baccarat Hotel starting next
month. JACK FREIFELDER / CHINA DAILY
Max Baucus, US ambassador
to China
Ben
Rhodes,
US Deputy
National
Security
Advisor
Lu Wei, head of the Chinese
Internet regulator
CHINA
Church and state
The Catholic Church is push-
ing to reclaim land and proper-
ties seized in Shanxi province
more than 40 years ago. > P5
Legal trouble
Law graduates are facing
tough job prospects despite
the government’s emphasis on
the rule of law. > P6
LIFE
Art treasure
Famed writer La She and his
wife were known to collect
20th-century Chinese art,
which is now on display in
Beijing. > P8
BUSINESS
Stock options
The trading of stock options
debuted on the Shanghai
Stock Exchange on Monday, in
a nod to institutional investors.
> P13
Alibaba quest
Alibaba will invest $590 million
in smartphone maker Meizu
Technology, boosting an effort
to get its mobile operating sys-
tem on handsets. > P16
In the news
Debut day
Equity-linked options
traded for first time > p13
Proud moment
Confucius Institute director
honored by Nebraska
> ACROSS AMERICA, PAGE 2
Liquid glitter
Gold flakes in white
spirit spark debate
> LIFE, PAGE 7
ter
white
ebate
Super luxury hotel seen as part of
trend among Chinese investors
CRIME
2. By HUA SHENGDUN
in Washington
A delegation from the
Bureau of Commerce of Zibo
City, Shandong province, and
the China-US Chamber of
Commerce co-hosted an event
to promote investment in the
medical industry in Washing-
ton on Feb 8.
Li Shumin, vice-mayor of
Zibo, said he hoped the con-
ference would help generate
deeper research and develop
relationships with the US.
“We are seeking more coop-
eration on a larger scale with
the US, specifically in the areas
of biomedicine, chemical syn-
thetics, drugs, medical devic-
es and medicinal packaging
materials,” Li told China Daily.
During the delegation’s
earlier visits to Toronto and
New York City last week, some
agreements were signed,
including a continuation of
cooperation on cancer diagno-
siskitproductionwithPanacea
Global, a Canada-based bio-
technology company.
The city is also planning to
put in place a US-based repre-
sentative, but is “still looking
for the best location”, said Li.
Zibo city, with a population
of about 4.5 million, is located
inthecenteroftheeasterncos-
tal province of Shandong. Li
called it an important indus-
trial city with “a long history of
international trade and invest-
ment dating back a century”.
As a national pharmaceuti-
cal export and nationwide bio-
logicalmedicineindustrybase,
Zibo is the largest pharmaceu-
tical industrial center in Shan-
dong province, its economic
scale and integrated opera-
tions ranking it first provin-
cially, said Qiu Feng, chairman
of the Zibo Medical Industry
Association.
“We have a group of prod-
ucts with production capacity
and market share ranking first
in China,” Qiu said.
The city houses a total of
150 pharmaceutical enterpris-
es, more than half in medical
device production, 30 in medi-
cine and 42 in pharmaceutical
packaging materials, employ-
ing about 40,000 people.
Featured are metamizole
sodium, caffeine and aspirin
from Xinhua Pharmaceutical
Co, one of the nation’s largest
manufacturers and exporters.
Xinhua products have been
distributed to more than 50
countries, with 11 registered by
the US Food and Drug Admin-
istration, Qiu said.
“Zibo city has developed
strong pharmaceutical com-
panies and the opportunities
formorepartnershipsherewill
help many people,” said Milton
Brown,directorofGeorgetown
University’s Center for Drug
Discovery. “We are looking for-
ward to more collaborations
with Zibo city.”
Zibo’sGDProcketedto$64.5
billion in 2014, a 7.4 percent
growth over the previous year,
according to the Zibo govern-
ment.
Themedicalindustrycontrib-
uted about a third of the city’s
exportgrowthof6.9percent,the
highest rate of any sector.
Sheng Yang in Washington
contributed to this story.
A
fter a string of teen
suicides, with the
latest one taking
place on Jan 24 in
the San Francisco Bay Area,
the Chinese community and
parents are busy conducting
workshops and organizing
public speaking campaigns to
restore a healthy family order
and nurture a healthier par-
ent-youth relationship.
Among the many commu-
nity efforts targeting parent-
ing skills and youth behav-
ioral health, the public service
announcement (PSA) video
produced by the city of Fre-
montintheEastBayandmade
available to the public on Feb
6, is believed to help alleviate
many families’ chronic pain
caused by mental and emo-
tionaldisordersamongyouths.
Entitled Chinese Youth and
Families Bridges to Behav-
ioral Health, the 30-second
video aims to educate Chi-
nese-American parents on the
importance of early interven-
tion and to encourage parents
to seek professional assistance
from the community and orga-
nizations for their troubled
youth.
Annie Bailey, administrator
of Fremont’s Human Services
Department/Youth & Family
Services, said her team worked
closely with families and the
school district to learn some of
the concerns about the social
and emotional development
ofchildrenintheChinesecom-
munity. Through this video,
Bailey hopes parents will learn
more about child development
and work with the community
and organizations like hers “if
issues and concerns do arise.”
Helen Hsu, clinical psy-
chologist and supervisor also
with the Fremont department,
was extensively involved in the
production of the video. She
deplored losses of young lives
through suicides, acknowledg-
ing effective communication
remains the key to solve many
parent-children conflicts.
In Fremont where one-
fourth of the population is
Asian American and 40 per-
cent are Chinese-American
families with children under
18 years, Hsu said children
from the Chinese-speaking
families are under a lot of
pressure and anxiety because
of the high expectations from
immigrant parents.
Hsu said research since the
1970s indicated that Chinese
families are very reluctant to
seekandutilizepublicresourc-
es for early intervention when
it comes to youth mental dis-
orders. “Virtually, we just want
to keep it in the family and
we try to be stoic and wait for
its pass,” said Hsu. However,
when treatments for mental
disorders are delayed, the
health outcome is poor. “If you
have small problems (but you
won’t seek treatment), they
don’t usually go but become
very worse,” she said.
Veryoften,“wehavefamilies
coming to us when they have
emergencies due to their lack
of education on early interven-
tion,” Hsu said. “We need to
fight against this kind of stig-
ma. Please don’t think of seek-
ingmentalhealthassistanceas
a shameful thing.”
With the release of the video
to the public and school dis-
trict, “We are able to help the
parents gain the knowledge of
where to seek assistance, the
culturally and linguistically
appropriate services and sup-
port,” said Ivy Wu, who used
to sit on Fremont’s school
board and now runs her non-
governmental organization to
spread concepts about healthy
parenting.
Parenting can be very chal-
lenging for anybody, but it’s
much harder when you are
parenting crossing cultures,
said Justine Fan, a PhD stu-
dent majoring in psychology
who conducted workshops to
help Chinese-speaking parents
struggling with behavioral
disorders of their adolescent
children.
“Our parents are first-gen-
eration immigrants who tend
to use the Chinese tradition
to raise us and shape our way
of thinking,” said Fan. “We are
supposed to respect our par-
ents, follow their instruction
and don’t talk back.”
In Eastern culture, parents
are strict with their youth and
spend more time criticizing
than praising. In America, we
often forget how little time we
have to spend with our chil-
dren. And when we are with
them, we end up berating
them – this only makes com-
municationmoredifficult,said
the monologue in the video.
“However,weareAsianAmeri-
cans and we need to assimi-
late to the American cultures
– its values, social norms and
behaviors.”
Fan said conflicts and clash-
es of the two cultures some-
times would result in tension
between parents and children,
“somehow they might escalate
into stress, anxiety and pres-
sure of the youth and lead to
emotional derailments.”
Hsu encourages parents to
spend more time with chil-
dren, praising them on their
positive attributes, and always
listening with patience, with-
out being judgmental. Besides,
“Early prevention can keep
your children healthy and you
can detect the problems much
earlier before they are diag-
nosed as health issues.”
Contact the writer at
junechang@chinadailyusa.
com
ACROSS AMERICA2
Tuesday, February 10, 2015 CHINA DAILY USA
By LIA ZHU
in San Francisco
liazhu@chinadailyusa.com
After teaching English at
Xi’an Jiaotong University in
west China for more than 20
years, Huang Pingan’s desire
to promote Chinese language
and culture became a reality
when he was selected to serve
as associate director of the
Confucius Institute at the Uni-
versity of Nebraska–Lincoln in
March 2011.
Now not only have the
students he has taught hon-
ored him but also the State of
Nebraska, Governor Pete Rick-
etts proclaimed Feb 2 “Pingan
Huang Day” for his distin-
guished accomplishments and
urged “all citizens to take due
note of the observance.”
Recalling the past four years
of working in this sparsely-
populated state, Huang con-
sidered his work as “mean-
ingful” and “enjoyable.” Every
year, around 8,000 students
are enrolled in the institute’s
classes, despite the limited
demandonChineseeducation.
“The thought has lingered
in my head since I was an Eng-
lish major student: When can
people across the world learn
Chinese as we learn English?”
Huang said, in a telephone
interview. “The Sino-foreign
cultural exchange should be
balanced and two-way, how-
ever, I feel what we Chinese
understand the world much
more than the world under-
stands us.”
He believes culture can be
more easily learned through
language at an early age. “In
China, English is now taught
at primary schools, and even
some kindergartens,” he
said,.“That’s why we under-
stand the English culture bet-
ter than the English-speaking
people understand ours.”
In the state capital of Lin-
coln, two of the institute’s 15
Chinese teachers are assigned
toteachateachprimaryschool
for six weeks a semester, which
means all the students have
a chance to learn Chinese,
Huang said. The classes are
not formal language teaching,
but introduce Chinese culture
and simple language through
Chinese painting and music,
he explained.
Besides Lincoln in the east-
ern part of the state, Huang
also reached out to cities in
the middle and western parts,
trying to establish Chinese
classes there. With concerted
efforts from local school dis-
tricts, a high school and a mid-
dle school in Scottsbluff and
another high school in North
Platte began offering Chinese
language classes in the fall of
2011. “Now some 200 students
in the three schools are taking
Chinese classes for academic
credit,” he said.
Huang also emphasizes the
role of a cordial relationship in
effectively promoting cultural
exchanges
As the governor said in his
proclamation last week, “Pin-
gan Huang has worked to fos-
ter meaningful relationships
and create deeper understand-
ingamongChineseandAmeri-
can students, staff, faculty and
citizens by developing Chinese
language courses … maintain-
ing quality of all language
teaching activities.”
“Nebraska is a reserved
agricultural state; the people
here have limited knowledge
of China,” said Huang. “We try
to design our courses and lec-
tures according to their spe-
cific needs.”
The courses, designed at
elementary, intermediate and
advanced levels, range from
Chinese language to Chinese
painting, dancing and cook-
ing. The students include uni-
versity students, children and
retired people from local com-
munities.
Huang also lectures at the
university. With the increasing
number of Chinese students
coming to study in Nebraska,
his lectures have become very
popular. “The most popular
one is on Chinese names,
since the Chinese pronuncia-
tion is difficult,” Huang said.
“The lecture on Chinese char-
acters and outlook of values
also receives positive feedback
from the counselors in dealing
with Chinese students’ mental
health issues.”
To help local people bet-
ter understand China, the
Confucius Institute has orga-
nized several “culture-experi-
ence” trips to China, with par-
ticipantsincludingStateSecre-
tary John Gale, school district
officials, school masters and
teachers.
“We have received unexpect-
ed results from the trips,” said
Huang. “The Lincoln school
district superintendent has
given us exceptional support
like attending our Chinese
classes and cultural activities,
and promoting our Confucius
Institute.”
Horace Marvin Almy, 69, is
also one of the beneficiaries of
those trips. “We saw awesome
constructionsandtookabullet
train. It confirms our impres-
sion of China from pictures
first-hand,”hetoldChinaDaily.
A member of the advisory
council of Osher Lifelong
LearningInstitute,apartnerof
the Confucius Institute, Almy
also co-sponsored the trip last
May. “It’s an awesome learning
experience,whichaddedtoour
understanding of the Chinese
culture,” he added.
Huang hopes such cultural
experience trips can be orga-
nized after he leaves to resume
his English teaching job in
Xi’an.
“The connections and expe-
rience that I acquired here in
Nebraska will definitely help
in promoting the cultural
exchanges between Chinese
and American people in Chi-
na,” he said.
CI director honored for exchanges
CULTURE
Huang Pingan receives certificates from Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale at a ceremony last week.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Li Shumin (left), deputy mayor of Zibo, meets Milton Brown (right),
director of Georgetown University center for drug discovery,at an
investment conference inWashington on Feb 8.At center is Sun Qiang,
a scientist at the National Cancer Institute.CAI CHUNYING / CHINA DAILY
Zibo seeks industry
partners in US tour
Raising bi-cultural Chinese youth and restoring the healthy family
INVESTMENT
Chang
Jun
SANFRANCISCO
JOURNAL
TELEVISION
By PAUL WELITZKIN
in New York
paulwelitzkin@
chinadailyusa.com
China is taking its famous
New Year’s Gala television
show to an international
audience for the first time,
as analysts said the country
is eager to inform the West
about its culture and eco-
nomic progress.
State broadcaster China
Central Television (CCTV),
which has broadcast the
Spring Festival Gala (also
known as Chunwan) on the
eve of the Lunar New Year
annually since 1984, will
license the rights to foreign
television stations for free.
This global campaign
for Chunwan also includes
selected programs from
previous galas and three
gala-themed documenta-
ries, which will be telecast in
English, Hindi, Portuguese
and other languages across
24 television networks in 16
countries.
The programs will also be
launched via social media
platforms such as YouTube,
Google Plus and Twitter to
reach an expected 230 coun-
tries and regions, said Ma
Runsheng, assistant to the
president of China Interna-
tional Television Corp.
“Our purpose is to give
overseas Chinese and for-
eigners who are interested in
Chinese culture a chance to
see Chunwan,” Ma said.
Xu Xin, associate director
of the China and Asia-Pacific
Studies Program at Cornell
University in Ithaca, New
York, said in an interview
that the Chinese New Year is
the most important holiday
in the country. He believes
CCTVismainlymakingshow
availableforChinesewholive
abroad.
“In my view, CCTV wants
to reach the Chinese popu-
lation that lives overseas
– people like me,” he said.
“They also want to help
expand the Chinese culture
to new audiences, particu-
larly in the US.”
“As China’s economy and
role in the world have grown,
its culture is something the
restoftheglobeshouldknow
about,” said Joseph Weber,
a professor of journalism at
the University of Nebraska
in Lincoln, who has taught
at Tsinghua University in
Beijing. “I expect that CCTV
officials feel they have a good
story to tell that would inter-
est viewers well beyond its
borders.”
YouTube, Google Plus and
Twitter are not available in
China.
“You need to reach the
audience where the audience
is,” Weber said. “If potential
viewers are users of YouTube
and Twitter, it seems reason-
able for Chinese authorities
to use those vehicles. Of
course, it would be helpful
if all Chinese citizens had
access to those sites as well.
The more avenues of com-
munication ... open to Chi-
nese citizens and to others
around the world, the better,”
he wrote in an e-mail.
“Social networks are a
popular way to commu-
nicate overseas, so I think
it’s only natural that CCTV
would seek to reach as large
an audience as possible,” said
Xu.
According to statistics
from CSM Media Research,
morethan700millionpeople
watchedChunwanliveonTV
in 2014, and another 100 mil-
lion watched it online.
Even with those impres-
sive numbers, Jonathan M.
Hall, a professor of media
studies at Pomona College in
Claremont, California, said
the gala has less importance
in China than it used to.
“CCTV’s foreign promo-
tion of the show speaks both
to China’s growing efforts to
become a cultural exporter
and to the increasing domes-
tic irrelevance of this media
mishmash,” Hall said. “Even
though Chinese national-
ism is on the upswing, the
domesticneedforsuchunify-
ingprogramshasdiminished
greatly as Chinese media
reflect the individuation of
entertainment.
“TV also doesn’t appeal
as much as the luxury of
the new multiplexes or the
personal convenience of the
Internet,” he said. “Many
Chinese might not appreci-
ate the comparison, but we
saw a similar phenomenon
in the decline of Japan’s
Kohaku Utagassen New Year
variety show from the 1990s
onwards,” he wrote in an
e-mail.
Xu of Cornell said the tele-
vision show is not as popular
as it once was. “Particularly
among the youth, I think
the show has lost some of its
appeal,” Xu said.
CCTV’s New
Year’s Gala
goes global
China’s central broadcaster will
license extravaganza free of charge
4. CHINACHINA DAILY USA » CHINADAILYUSA.COM
4 Tuesday, February 10, 2015
BEIJING
Court publicizes
parole information
The Beijing Second Interme-
diate People’s Court publi-
cized information on
Monday concerning cases
that involved parole or com-
muted sentences. More than
1,800 cases related to com-
mutation and parole were
tried in the court between
July 2012 and last year. The
court held public hearings
in more than 40 such cases
last year. The court has
stepped up efforts to make
judiciary work more trans-
parent to the public.
College officials
investigated
Forty high-ranking college
officials were investigated
for corruption in 2014,
among which 27 serious
discipline violators were
named by the Central Com-
mission for Discipline
Inspection, Minsheng
Weekly said on Monday.
The report also said areas
such as school admission,
infrastructure construction
and allocation of research
funds are potential breed-
ing grounds of corruption.
1m more births
expected in 2015
Atleast1millionmorebirths
areexpectedin2015thanlast
yearasaresultofchangesto
thefamilyplanningpolicy.
Lastyear,16.9millionChi-
nesewereborn,470,000
morethanin2013,according
totheChinaPopulation
AssociationonMonday.
AccordingtotheCPA,since
1990s,theannualnumberof
newbornshasdecreased
frommorethan20millionto
around16million.
JILIN
High-speed rail
to link Vladivostok
Plans for a high-speed rail
link between Hunchun, Jil-
in province, and Vladivos-
tok, Russia, are taking
shape, local authorities said
on Monday. Jilin Governor
Jiang Chaoliang said the
new railway will boost trade
between Jilin and Russia
and cooperation between
the province and northwest
Asia. Hunchun, on the bor-
der with Russia, is only
about 180 kilometers from
Vladivostok, but it takes
more than five hours to
travel by car.
LIAONING
Train derails after
collision with truck
A freight train derailed aft-
er colliding with a truck
that had careered through a
crossing, authorities said
on Monday. No casualties
were reported. The truck,
overloaded with iron ore,
jumped a railway crossing
that links Jinzhou, Liaon-
ing province and Chengde,
Hebei province, said an offi-
cial with the Shenyang Rail-
way Bureau. Despite the
signal to stop, the truck
crashed through the guard-
rail, hitting the middle of
the cargo train.
GUANGXI
Passer-by killed
in knife attack
A passer-by was killed by a
knife-wielding man in Bei-
hai around 3 am on Mon-
day. The suspect, who was
attacking passers-by on the
street, was shot by police
and died after he was sent
to a hospital. The case in
under further investigation.
XINHUA—CHINA DAILY
Briefly
Fancy ride
Yu Jietao, a farmer from Guangfeng county, Jiangxi province, drives his handmade sports car with his relatives on Monday. Yu spent half a
year and more than 100,000 yuan ($16,000) assembling the car. The frame and decorations are made of mahogany, and the vehicle can
run up to 30 kilometers per hour. ZHUO ZHONGWEI / FOR CHINA DAILY
A meal for seals
A spotted seal swims in icy waters off the Dongpaotai seaside
scenic zone in Yantai, Shandong province, on Monday. Workers
at the scenic zone broke the ice and fed the seals to help them
survive the winter. CHU YANG / FOR CHINA DAILY
China National Petroleum
Corp, the country’s largest oil
and gas producer and supplier,
with a market capitalization of
2 trillion yuan ($320 billion).
Forty-five executives and
employees from the company
are under investigation on
suspicion of corruption, brib-
ery and bribe-taking.
According to Hithink, the
investigation into the company
also covers alleged illegal activi-
tiesatitsHongKong-basedsub-
sidiariesKunlunEnergyCoand
Wison Group and at its Shang-
hai-listed Sichuan Star Cable
Co.
Anti-corruption watch-
FROM PAGE 1 dogs reported an investiga-
tion into Shenhua Group Co,
the largest State-owned coal-
based integrated energy
company, on Feb 5.
Another listed company,
Shanxi Coking Coal Group Co
and its three subsidiaries from
Shanxi, the country’s largest
coal-producing province, have
all been investigated.
The report said Ren Runhou,
a former vice-governor of
Shanxi province who has been
arrested, previously chaired
Lu’an Group, one of Shanxi’s
sevenmajorcoalcompanies.
In the financial sector, the
most recent case is that of Chi-
na Minsheng Banking Corp,
the country’s biggest private
lender. The bank’s president,
MaoXiaofeng,resignedforper-
sonal reasons after reportedly
being implicated in the corrup-
tioncaseofLingJihua,aformer
seniorpoliticaladviser.
Lin Boqiang, director of the
China Center for Energy Eco-
nomics Research at Xiamen
University, said officials hold-
ing shares in listed companies
cantosomeextentgiveprotec-
tiontoacompany,forexample
by reducing project examina-
tion and approval procedures
and by covering up some ille-
gal activities.
On Monday, China National
Radio reported that the busi-
ness department handling
wine imports at China Nation-
al Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs
Corp, the country’s largest oil
andfoodimporter,spentmore
than 200,000 yuan on wine
during a two-day party at a
luxury hotel in Yunnan prov-
ince.
The anti-corruption watch-
dog investigated COFCO from
March 27 to May 9 last year
and found some irregularities,
including company money
being spent on playing golf
and to bribe officials.
Anti-graft: High-profit, monopoly sectors probed
BUSINESS
SOEs under graft spotlight
Weak supervision and a desire for benefits can
prompt senior managers to abuse their power
By ZHANG YAN
zhangyan1@chinadaily.com.cn
Lack of supervision and a
strong desire for benefits were
blamed for rampant graft cas-
es involving senior managers
in major State-owned compa-
nies, according to the Central
Commission for Discipline
Inspection.
In early December, inspec-
tors visited eight SOEs, includ-
ing China Unicom, Shenhua
Group, Dongfeng Motor Corp,
China State Ship Building
Corp and China Huadian
Corp, to collect valuable tips
involving corrupt officials.
“Some severe corruption
issues involving senior man-
agers were found in those five
SOEs,” according to the CCDI.
At China Unicom, for
example, annual investment
on 3G services reached 100
billion yuan ($16.1 billion),
and the purchase of infra-
structure construction equip-
ment has become one of the
worst-hit areas for graft.
In addition, some senior
managers in the companies
abused their powers to
arrange for spouses and chil-
dren to operate businesses, or
they gained benefits for other
enterprises in exchange for
huge bribes including cash,
financial securities, precious
gifts and overseas trips,
according to the CCDI.
“Their strong desire to
obtain high benefits and loop-
holes in supervision of their
intensepowershavecontribut-
edtothehighincidenceofsuch
graft cases,” said Zhu Lijia, a
professor at the Chinese Acad-
emy of Governance.
The priority is to establish
clean government and use the
high salaries to attract more
talented senior directors rath-
er than using the high salaries
to keep their integrity, he said,
adding that integrity should
be a basic moral code for each
civil servant in the country.
Since November 2012, when
the new leadership took office,
the central government has
conducted a sweeping drive to
crack down on graft.
According to the CCDI,
more than 70 senior managers
from SOEs had been investi-
gated on suspicion of corrup-
tion last year, 59 percent more
than in 2013.
During the latest inspection
of SOEs, initiated in December,
14seniordirectorswereprobed
on suspicion of graft, included
Xue Wandong, former manag-
er of a petroleum engineering
technology subsidiary of Sino-
pec, and Zhang Zhijiang,
former deputy director of Chi-
na Unicom’s network unit.
“Most of the suspects in the
SOEs took charge of valuable
resources, including petrole-
um, gas, coal and electricity.
There was a lack of proper
supervision and this created
opportunities for misconduct,”
said Hao Mingjin, vice-minis-
ter of supervision.
REFORM
Monopolies ‘increase
risk of corruption’
By CHINA DAILY
Monopolies in the power,
communication and finan-
cial industries can increase
the possibility of corruption
as well as broaden the
income gap, said a consult-
ant to the State Council, who
suggested those are areas
where economic reforms
should be pushed further
this year.
State-owned enterprises,
which benefit from lower
taxes and fees than private
enterprises, are able to use
the extra money to lobby the
governmenttoincreasetheir
market share and cause
unfair competition, hinder-
ing China’s industrial
upgrading and dragging
down economic develop-
ment, former chief econo-
mist of the World Bank
Justin Yifu Lin told Phoenix
TV.
“Deepened reforms are
key to removing market dis-
tortions from the planned
economic system, especially
in terms of financial and
price reforms,” Lin said.
He pointed out that the
existing financial system,
formed mainly by giant
State-owned banks and the
stock market, primarily
serves large enterprises that
are trapped in overcapacity
and outdated technology.
However, future economic
development will depend
more on small and medium-
sized enterprises in the ser-
viceindustry,Linsaid.
The State Council consult-
ant believes that China’s
annual growth will fall
between7and7.5percentthis
year, supported by relatively
high investment growth.
“A fast growth in invest-
mentisnecessarytoensurea
healthy job market and lift
residents’incomestoexpand
consumption,” said Lin.
Buttheresourcesandpoli-
cy support needed to
upgrade the industrial struc-
ture should come from gov-
ernment, he added.
“The required infrastruc-
ture construction, and the
financial and legal environ-
ment should all be improved
under the reforms.”
Contact the writer at chen-
jia1@chinadaily.com.cn
GOVERNMENT
City’s former Party chief
had ties to Ling Jihua
By ZHAO RUIXUE in Jinan
zhaoruixue@chinadaily.com.cn
A Party chief with suspect-
ed ties to former senior polit-
ical adviser Ling Jihua has
been removed from his posi-
tion, Shandong Satellite TV
reported on Sunday.
The whereabout of Chen
Wei, former Party chief of
Zaozhuang, Shandong prov-
ince, remained unknown.
Chen, who was removed
fromhispostlastmonth,was
suspected of having close ties
with Ling’s wife Gu Liping,
thepaper.cn reported.
Ling was also the former
minister of the United Front
Work Department of the
CPC Central Committee and
was under investigation for
corruption.
A Zaozhuang official con-
firmed to China Daily that
Chen had been absent from
the city’s regular meetings
since early January, and his
resume was removed from
the city government’s web-
site later in January.
The report also cited a
business source saying that
Gu often visited Zaozhuang,
as she had lived in the city
when she was younger, and
Chenoftenaccompaniedher.
Chen was born in Zheji-
ang province in 1966. He got
a doctorate at the Tokyo
Institute of Technology and
worked in Japan until 2000
when he came back to China
to work as the assistant
mayor of Weihai, Shandong.
Chenwasappointedasthe
mayor of Zaozhuang in 2007,
becoming the youngest may-
or in Shandong. He became
the city’s Party chief in 2011.
Under Chen’s guidance, an
ancient town was built from
the ruins of Tai’erzhuang
Battle, a major battle of
World War II. The town has
become a big tourism desti-
nation in Zaozhuang, a city
once heavily dependent on
the coal business.
Money used for building
the ancient town was col-
lected from five local State-
run coal companies who
wanted to transform their
business structure by join-
ing the tourism project,
since coal is running out.
Chen’s position has been
filled by Li Tongdao,
former mayor of Rizhao in
Shandong.
CRIME
Customs staff stand trial for bribery
By CHINA DAILY
Eight customs officials are
on trial for accepting bribes to
allow vehicles to pass through
Customs without being
checked.
The group at Shenzhen
Huanggang Customs in
Guangdong province con-
nived together and shared in
the spoils, the Futian district
people’s court heard.
Li Guoqiang, the former
director of the department,
headed the group.
They were put on trial in
Shenzhen on Feb 5, Xinhua
News Agency reported on
Monday.
Huanggang Customs is one
of the major checkpoints con-
necting the Chinese mainland
and Hong Kong.
Prosecutors alleged that the
group started accepting bribes
from logistics companies and
letting their vans pass through
Customs without being
checked from October 2011.
Li said it usually took a long
time for logistics companies’
vans to pass through Customs.
“We would let them pass if
they contacted us and gave us
rewards in advance,” Li said.
Huang Yanbin, one of the
staff members, confessed that
he was responsible for staying
in touch with four logistics
companies. If vans from these
companies were selected be
checked, the companies
would contact Huang and he
would tell staff on duty to let
the vans pass.
As a reward, the group
charged 6,000 yuan ($960) for
each van from Guangdong and
10,000 yuan for those outside
Guangdong,Huangsaid.
Contact the writer at zhaoxi-
nying@chinadaily.com.cn
Most of the sus-
pects in the SOEs
took charge of val-
uable resources.”
Hao Mingjin, vice-minister of
supervision
Justin
Yifu Lin,
a consultant
to the State
Council
70
number of publicly listed com-
panies affected by corruption
5. CHINA 5CHINA DAILY USA Tuesday, February 10, 2015
RELIGION
Building on the right foundations
The Catholic Church is pushing to reclaim land and properties confiscated more than 40 years ago to
extend its reach in China, as Xu Wei and Sun Ruisheng report from Changzhi, Shanxi province
T
he city of Changzhi in
Shanxi province may have
lost a notable entrepre-
neur the day Andrew Jin
Daoyuandecidedtocommithimself
to religion and become a priest in
the Catholic Church.
Jin, who was ordained as a priest
by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic
Association in 1956, and as a bishop
in 2000, was instrumental in resur-
recting the fortunes of the church in
Changzhi diocese after he and other
local priests were forced to abandon
their spiritual roles and become
farmers during the “cultural revolu-
tion” (1966-76).
Despite Jin’s business nous, the
rebuilding process was tough. “We
started from almost nothing. But I
knew that a church without the
means to sustain itself financially
could never play a full role in socie-
ty,” said the 86-year-old, who serves
at the Nantiangong Church in the
diocese.
Starting in the late 1980s, Jin used
his entrepreneurial skills to take
advantage of the business opportu-
nitiespresentedbythegovernment’s
relaxed attitude toward the CPCA,
and started a number of ventures,
including a vinegar factory with an
annual production volume of 3,000
metric tons, an embroidery factory,
and a number of clinics and shops.
Jin believes that dioceses need to
be self-financing to a large degree,
and that financial security is essen-
tial to both the survival of local
churches and the quality of the ser-
vices they offer.
Emphasizing the need for finan-
cial independence, Ding Lingbin,
secretary-general of the Changzhi
Diocese under the Chinese Patriotic
Catholic Association, said, “The
churchneedstoreachouttothepeo-
ple and society, but without a stable
source of income, it can do nothing.”
However, despite owning a large
number of businesses, the diocese is
still unable to realize its ambition of
building a nursing home for city res-
idents, according to Ding. “The
donations made by the congrega-
tion are an important part of our
income, but they are largely casual
and unstable,” he said.
Founded in 1890, Changzhi is one
oftheoldestCatholicdiocesesinChi-
na, and its estimated 60,000 follow-
ers can worship at more than 70
churches spread across the city’s
urban and rural areas. In the 1990s,
the city’s Catholics numbered about
50,000, but Christianity, both the
Protestant and Catholic denomina-
tions, has seen a surge in popularity
nationwide in recent years. In 1988,
there were 4.5 million Protestants
and about 12 million Catholics in
China, according to a 2010 report by
theChineseAcademyofSocialScien-
ces.
Since then, the numbers have
continued to rise. Wang Zuo’an,
head of the State Administration for
Religious Affairs, told Study Times
that there were at least 23 million
Protestants in China in 2013, while
the number of Catholics was esti-
mated to be around 5.5 million.
CaoNanlai,anassociateprofessor
of religious studies at Renmin Uni-
versity of China, said the recent rap-
id expansion of religion has made
property rights a central issue for
the church. “Christianity is different
from Eastern religions in that it
requires strong social participation
from worshippers, and requires a
fixed space for activities, including
servicesandchoralsinging,”hesaid.
Charitable acts
Inits2015workplan,SARAsaidit
would encourage the religious
groups to undertake charitable acts
and provide nursing home services
in their dioceses.
Ding said it would be natural for
Changzhi diocese to launch a nurs-
ing home program because many of
the priests, nuns, and lay staff have
received training as paramedics.
“However, if we are to start a nurs-
ing home, we want to make it a pro-
fessional one, somewhere elderly
people will feel at home,” he said,
adding that the diocese’s “good rela-
tionship” with the city’s religious
bureau enables the church to play
an active role in social affairs.
“We don’t want political power.
We spend all our income on social
activities, to help children and the
disabled. We try to ensure that
everything we do is transparent to
the authorities and there’s nothing
mysterious about our activities, so I
don’t see why we can’t all just get
along,” he said.
The harmonious relationship
betweenthechurchandlocalgovern-
ment has been mutually beneficial,
andtheauthoritiesdonated5million
yuan ($800,000) toward the con-
structionofthemaincathedralofthe
dioceseinthenorthofthecity.
According to Song Fuyi, a CPCA
priest in urban Changzhi, the grow-
ingsocialacceptabilityofreligionhas
enabled the church to play a bigger
role in society. “Compared with years
ago, nowadays there’s a marked dif-
ferenceinreactionwhenyoutellpeo-
pleyou’reaCatholic,”hesaid.
However, despite all the positives,
official support from the authorities
varies from area to area, and it’s
impossible for churches to rely on
local governments as their main
sourceofincome.
Ding said that as one of the oldest
dioceses in China, Changzhi is home
to a large number of devout people
who are willing to devote their time
to charitable work. “That means a
large number of the congregation is
assisting with church activities,” he
said.
The diocese is spreading the word
across China, too: More than 80
priests in Catholic churches nation-
wide were born in Changzhi, a fact
that Ding ascribes to the piety of
believersinthecity.
Cheng Guoqing said Catholicism
has proliferated in the city because of
strong religious belief at the family
level.“Everymemberofmyfamilyisa
Catholic. As believers, we are
required to practice what religion
teaches in our daily lives. That’s how
our children follow suit in terms of
beliefs,”the64-year-oldsaid.
The city’s religious spirit has been
strong for a long time, and parents
even attempted to pass on their
beliefs in secret during the “cultural
revolution”whenallreligiousactivity
wasoutlawed.
Real estate standoffs
In April, the demolition of the
massive Sanjiang church in Wen-
zhou, Zhejiang province, prompted
international headlines, even
though the authorities said the
move was aimed at rectifying illegal
construction and paving the way for
further economic development.
Although Sanjiang is the best-
known case, property disagree-
ments between church groups, both
Catholic and Protestant, and local
authorities have made headlines in
a number of provinces.
The Catholic church in Quanzhou,
Fujian province, has been in a stand-
off with commercial and industrial
interests over the fate of a valuable
pieceofrealestatesince2013,accord-
ingtolocalmediareports.
In Changzhi, the city’s Protestants,
estimated to number about 10,000,
were able to build a new church last
year with the help of 9 million yuan
donatedbytheChangzhiCityBureau
of Religious Affairs. Li Baohong, a
protestant elder, said the new house
of worship is the result of decades of
effort from worshippers and the cler-
gy after the original church building
was commandeered by the local
authorities,and.
“ThePeople’sHospitalisnowlocat-
ed in the building our church occu-
pied. Once the property had been
confiscated,itwasimpossibletogetit
back. All we could do was push the
localauthoritiestofindanotherplace
in the city where we could build a
church,”hesaid.
Ding said the diocese once owned
six properties in Beijing, but they
werecommandeeredduringthe“cul-
tural revolution”, and “so far, we have
only been able to get one of them
back”. It will be impossible to reclaim
some of the buildings because they
are now occupied by government
departments,hesaid.
Professor Cao — the author of Con-
structing China’s Jerusalem: Chris-
tians, Power and Place in
Contemporary Wenzhou, an exami-
nation of the role of Christianity in
modernChina—saidthatduringthe
1950s and ’60s, a large number of
churches were razed to make room
for government buildings, a policy
thathasresultedintheproblemsnow
faced by Christian denominations
nationwide. The issue is much more
complex in first-tier cities, including
Beijing and Shanghai, where the
urbanizationprocessbeganearlyand
real estate prices are much higher
thanthenationalaverage.
“However, the issue of ownership
ofchurchpropertymainlyaffectsthe
community services offered by reli-
gious groups, who are unlikely to
attractnewmembersorofferregular
services without a brick and mortar
centerofactivity,”hesaid.“Myobser-
vation is that the expansion of reli-
gion goes hand in hand with a rise in
the number of churches.”
A lack of regulations or laws to
define the types of property reli-
gious groups can own is also exacer-
bating the situation. “The church
property issue is important in that a
fixed church building would make it
easier for church leaders to manage
religious activity,” Cao said, adding
that it would also make it easier for
congregations to supervise the use
of donations.
The big sticking point, though, is
that a fixed location would also make
it easier for local authorities to super-
visereligiousactivity,somethinglocal
governments are happy to facilitate,
Cao said. “My experience is that the
local religious authorities are willing
to help with the return of religious
property. Officially recognized reli-
giousvenuesarenotonlytheirfieldof
responsibility, but they are also a
powerbase.”
Contact the writers at xuwei@
chinadaily.com.cn and sunruish-
eng@chinadaily.com.cn
Zhao Mengjiao contributed to this
story.
HEALTH
‘Cancer hotels’ are home from home for poorer patients
By XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
A gray, five-story building on the
southeast corner of Beijing’s Second
Ring Road is one of the city’s bur-
geoning “cancer hotels”, where Sun
Yu, from a small village in Hebei
province, and her husband pay a
daily rent of 40 yuan ($6.40) for one
of the 10-square-meter windowless
cells.
Sun, 64, who has ovarian cancer,
has been a regular visitor at the Chi-
nese Academy of Medical Sciences
Tumor Hospital since 2012. Every
time she makes the 250-km journey
toBeijingshestaysatoneofthecan-
cer hotels, which are cheap and
close to the hospitals.
Sun’s cancer was diagnosed in
2012, but her condition was too
advanced for surgery at her local
hospital. “They told me I only had
twoyearsatmost.Mysonsaidahos-
pital in Beijing was my last hope,”
she said.
Sun is one of about 700 patients,
most from outside Beijing, who line-
up every week at the hospital, reput-
edtobeoneofChina’sleadingcancer
treatment centers. However, the lim-
ited number of beds mean that most
patients live in cancer hotels.
China’s cancer morbidity and
mortality rates are set to keep rising
over the next 20 years, according to
Dai Min, a researcher at the China
National Cancer Center. In 2012,
more than 3 million Chinese had
cancer, accounting for 20 percent of
the global total, while deaths from
the disease reached 2.2 million,
accounting for 25 percent of the
world total.
In Europe and North America,
prostate and breast cancers — the
mostcommontypes—havesurvival
ratesofmorethan80percent,butin
China, the most common cancers
(lungs and liver) have survival rates
of less than 30 percent.
China’s marked death rate can be
attributed to the high number of
patients in the terminal stages,
according to Cheng Shujun, an aca-
demicianattheChineseAcademyof
Engineering. For example, more
than 80 percent of lung cancer
patients in Beijing are in the termi-
nal stages, while in Europe and
North America the proportion is
about 50 percent.
Like Sun, Zhang Qingxiang, from
Shandong Province, has ovarian
cancer. However, initial examina-
tions by senior doctors at her local
hospital found no indications, and
by the time Zhang was finally diag-
nosed, it was too late.
“When the local hospital diag-
nosed cancer, it was already at the
terminal stage because the cancer
had moved to other organs. I don’t
trust them (the doctors) — I want to
be treated in Beijing,” she said.
In China, the initial examination
and diagnosis of early stage cancers
isstillexpensiveandlimitedtoafew
hospitals in larger cities, leaving
almost no chance of early diagnosis
for people in rural and poverty-
stricken areas.
Cancer is also a heavy economic
burden on families and society,
even though tens of billions of
yuan have been spent on treat-
ments. In 2003, the government
started the New Rural Cooperative
Medical System to partly cover
medical expenses for people in
rural areas, but although coverage
has extended to more treatments
and higher reimbursement rates,
most rural patients still can’t
afford cancer treatments.
According to an NRCMS regula-
tion this year, cancer patients can
claim 50 to 80 percent of treatment
costs if they are treated in a desig-
nated local hospital, but only 35
percent in hospitals outside their
home province.
Worshippers attend a Mass at a Catholic Church in the urban area of Changzhi, Shanxi province, on Jan 22. Changzhi is one of the oldest Catholic dioceses in
China, and its estimated 60,000 followers can worship at more than 70 churches spread across the city’s urban and rural areas. XU WEI / CHINA DAILY
I knew that a church
without the means to
sustain itself financial-
ly could never play a
full role in society.”
Andrew Jin Daoyuan, a bishop in the
Catholic Church. The main cathedral of the Catholic diocese of Changzhi, Shanxi province. ZHAO MENGJIAO / CHINA DAILY
6. 6 CHINA Tuesday, February 10, 2015 CHINA DAILY USA
EDUCATION
Law graduates facing bleak job prospects
Number of degree programs rises, but some
experts say the training doesn’t match reality
By CAO YIN
caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn
Li Xiaoxiao, a law student
who will graduate with a mas-
ter’s degree from Fudan Uni-
versity this year, is not as
passionateforthemajorasshe
was when she selected it seven
years ago.
“I have sent more than 100
resumes on the Internet since
September, but I’ve received
no reply,” said the 25-year-old,
who currently works as an
intern at a Shanghai law firm.
Li sees her hunt for employ-
ment as something like find-
ing a needle in a haystack. It
will be hard to stay at the law
firm at the end of her intern-
ship, let alone become a prose-
cutor or judge — jobs that
require strict qualification
examinations.
“I never thought a law
major, which is regarded as a
hot major in the country,
would be such an embarrass-
ment in actually finding a job,”
she said, noting that she spent
seven years pursuing her
degree.
Several legal industry insid-
ers said law degrees became
hotter since the central gov-
ernment placed an emphasis
on the rule of law last year and
began pushing nationwide
judicial reform. The market is
thirsty for judicial talent, they
said.
Only three universities
offered a law degree in 1977,
but the number has roared to
630 out of the total 2,500 col-
leges and universities, accord-
ing to eol.cn, China’s largest
education portal.
“Our judicial development
requires new talent, especially
in international law and for-
eign commercial law.
Improvements in the legal
environment are the reason
programs have been set up at
more universities and colleges
across the country,” said Yi
Shenghua, a criminal lawyer.
Buttheemploymentpicture
is not rosy. There’s a gap
between the programs offered
and the real world, said Yi,
who has provided career gui-
dance for law students since
2010.
In a report released last year
on college graduates, law
majors were included in a list
of those with high risk of
unemployment and low salary
prospects. Law even dropped
to the bottom in more than 10
provinces, including Fujian.
Deng Yong, a law instructor
at Beijing University of Chi-
nese Medicine, said that cur-
rent degree programs are out
of step with the market.
“The legal education that
students are getting at univer-
sities is far from what the
industry demands. If nothing
changes, the awkward
employment situation will
become serious,” Deng said.
Few prospects
Li, the Fudan student, spe-
cializes in administrative law.
She has become more anxious
since beginning work as an
intern at a law firm about a
month ago.
“What I am doing at the
firm is dealing with specific
cases, such as company merg-
ers. The basic legal thinking I
learned at school seems a bit
general for the work,” she said.
In her class of about 200
graduates, less than 20 per-
cent have job offers, she said.
“We chose the major
because we were interested in
it. Then we found we’re not so
fond of the job availability at
theend,”Lisaid.“Butaftersev-
eral years of study, it seems
there’s no turning back.”
She received her bachelor’s
degree three years ago from
EastChinaUniversityofPoliti-
cal Science and Law but decid-
ed to pursue an advanced
degree at Fudan on account of
the gloomy employment pic-
ture.
Now, many universities
have created a law major, and
all students can take the judi-
cial and civil exams — “which
means law graduates have few
advantages, and everyone has
a finger in the pie”, Li said.
Increasing numbers of stu-
dents have pursued a bache-
lor’s degree in law, with the
total reaching about 80,000 in
2012, according to eol.cn.
Yi, the lawyer, said the
sharply increasing number of
law graduates is both good
and bad.
“The good is that the major
gets high attention. After the
country’s leadership empha-
sizedjudicialreformandhigh-
lighted the rule of law, the
legal environment started
improving,” Yi said.
But there’s a downside for
graduates. For example, sala-
riesforjudgesandprosecutors
are small, yet the number of
cases they handle in a year is
big, which cools the interest of
some law graduates, Yi said.
He added that the number of
judges and prosecutors will be
reduced further under the
reforms, which means some
experienced insiders will
switch to being lawyers.
“Astablejudicialjob,includ-
ing work opportunities in
undeveloped areas, such as
legal aid providers in a county,
is not as attractive for most
students as being a lawyer
with a good income,” he said.
Reality gap
For those with the chance to
be employed by a law firm, sal-
aries at the beginning are also
not great, “as they must be
lawyers’ assistants at first,
researching and learning how
to handle specific cases,” Yi
said.
The current impractical
legal education deserves some
criticism, he said.
Incareertraininglecturesat
law schools, Yi tells students
that the legal theories they are
learning are not necessarily
what’s found in actual prac-
tice. He used his own assist-
ants as an example, saying
they sometimes had no idea
how to search for judicial
materials or how to talk with
litigants in their first working
year.
Liu Xing, a senior official at
the Beijing Dongcheng Dis-
trict People’s Procuratorate,
saidabout100graduatesapply
for jobs as prosecutors every
year, but only 15 are hired.
“The newcomers should be
copyclerksatfirst,butsomeof
them sometimes are not quali-
fied for this simple job,” Liu
said. “They have legal back-
ground, but what we need is
someone with combined
majors.”
For example, a law graduate
with medical knowledge can
deal more easily with cases
related to hospitals, he said.
“In other words, our law
education in universities
hasn’t been geared to reality
for a long time, and most stu-
dents have little time for
internshipsatlegalorgans,”he
said.
He prefers the approach of
Taiwan to law education. Law
school students are required
to put what they learn into
practice during their four
years of university study, he
said.
“Being an intern for several
months isn’t enough to under-
stand judicial work, let alone
to follow specific legal cases,”
he said.
Deng, the teacher at Beijing
University of Chinese Medi-
cine, said that while the num-
ber of universities offering law
majors has risen sharply in
recent years, most offer noth-
ing unique.
“Some teachers who are
qualified lawyers intend to
share practical cases with
their students, but the details
of cases they are handling
sometimes can’t be disclosed,”
he said. He suggested that
each law school select a specif-
icbranchoflawasitsspecialty.
“For example, laws dealing
with medicine or that aim to
solve medical disputes are
the key course at our univer-
sity,” he said. “Our students
can be both legal consultants
for medical bodies — includ-
ing hospitals and medical
supervision organs — and
lawyers specializing in medi-
cal cases.”
After Zhang Tianyi (left) received his master’s degree from Peking University Law School in June, he started his own business, two noodle
shops in Beijing’s central business district. A handful of other law graduates across the country, facing a challenging employment
environment, have also become entrepreneurs.LUO XIAOGUANG / XINHUA
80,000
students
pursuedabachelor’sdegreeinlaw
in2012,accordingtoeol.cn,but
someareturningtootherfields
7. Tuesday, February 10, 2015 7
LIFE DINING
CHINA DAILY USA » CHINADAILYUSA.COM
NOVELTY
W
hat do curry,
schnapps, bot-
tled water,
c h o c o l a t e ,
hamburgers,
soup,digestivecapsules,bagelsand
lobsters have in common?
All of these edible items have
been embellished with gold leaves
or gold flakes in recent years, as
marketers seek some extra sizzle
for their products.
Thelatesttoseektheshinystatus
is China’s distilled white spirit, bai-
jiu, which has seen its sales slide as
the government pursues a policy
against extravagance and corrup-
tion. Industry observers question
whether regulators would approve
ofsuchashowystepinthisclimate,
though it’s a mystery that who has
asked the government to approve
glittery baijiu — and who might
buy it.
Putting gold in alcoholic bevera-
ges is currently illegal in China,
though such bottles have sporadi-
callypoppeduponstoreshelves.In
the West, a few gold-flake tipples
have been market successes, par-
ticularly the cinnamon schnapps
Goldschlager and the German
herbal liqueur Goldwasser.
Dong Shuguo, the president of
website Winechina.cn, a Chinese
website, says: “I have seen some
sparkling wines and dry white
wines with golden flakes, such as
Blue Nun. But they are all for deco-
ration.
“Gold flakes will only make the
bottle look elegant and pleasing to
the eyes. They add nothing to the
flavor,” he says.
Blue Nun Gold, in fact, was not a
luxury product but an effort to
appeal to young female drinkers
who “like to try something new”.
Ignace Lecleir, general manager
of the elegant Temple Restaurant
Beijing, says that he can’t recall any
customer asking for a drink with
such a golden touch. He is diplo-
matically noncommittal on the
idea, though “it looks pretty…”, he
muses with a slight shrug.
Beijing cocktail guru Leon Lee
finishes that thought more ada-
mantly: “Gold adds nothing to the
value, only to the price, so I don’t
care for the idea,” he says, dismiss-
ing it as a gimmick best suited for
karaoke bars.
Like other critics of the idea, he
says such liquors command a pre-
mium price despite containing a
minuscule amount of gold.
Ruan Guangfeng, food-safety
expert from China Food Informa-
tion Center, says the proposal
would limit the additions to 0.01g
of gold per 500g of baijiu.
“The raw material of 99.99-per-
cent pure gold sells for more than
200 yuan a gram,” he adds, “so the
valueofthegoldflakesinonebottle
of baijiu may be no more than 2
yuan”.
The Beijing News reports that
leading Chinese baijiu brands such
as Moutai, Wuliangye, Luzhou Lao-
jiao and Xifeng aren’t talking about
theproposal.However,adealerwho
wished to remain anonymous tells
China Daily there is no reason for
suchtopbrandstoaltertheirformu-
lasandjeopardizetheirreputations,
even if the gold flake is tasteless.
Iftheproposalisapproved,other
dealers agree, it may be struggling
smaller distillers that try to capital-
ize on the novelty.
Zhong Kai, associate research
fellow with China National Center
for Food Safety Risk Assessment,
writes on a popular-science web-
site, Guokr.com: “It’s hard to say
why it is necessary to add gold
flakes, though it’s proved to cause
noharmwithinthesafetylimitand
procedure.”
Experts have dismissed most
rumors about the safety of gold-
enhanced liquors. Goldschlager
was long-rumored to enter the
bloodstream faster than plain
schnapps because the gold flakes
supposedly made small cuts in the
drinker’s throat and stomach lin-
ing. Experts say gold is too soft to
make such cuts, and The Savory
blog was quick to ridicule the get-
drunk-faster theory as “just one
step further from pulling up to a
bar, cutting your hand open and
pouring whisky into the wound”.
The idea of gold-plated baijiu
does have fans in some luxury
hotels, however. Chocolates deco-
rated with gold are still proffered
by top pastry chefs, and gold flakes
are likely to swirl in champagne
glassesaroundtheworldthisweek-
end for Valentine’s Day. So why not
put some glitter in baijiu?
That’s the question embraced by
the Taiwan-based biotech firm
Gold Nanotech Inc, which
announced in late January that it
had received notification of com-
pliance from the European Union’s
food additive regulator for its gold-
flakeproduct,whichitsellstomak-
ers of cosmetics, food and
beverages. The certification not
only means more credibility in
Europe, where most of its custom-
ers are based, but in India and Chi-
na, where it sees most of its growth
potential.
“In China, they want to see that
other countries have recognized
your product first,” company presi-
dentAlexChentoldthetradepubli-
cation Biotech East. “I believe that
the China market will eventually
make up more than 80 percent of
GNT’s business in Asia.”
Most of the blogosphere, howev-
er, has yet to be convinced.
“Gold just passes straight
through the body,” a netizen identi-
fied as ToastMe wrote last week.
“Why pay extra just to have sparkly
poop the next morning?”
Contact the writers at
dongfangyu@chinadaily.com.cn
and michaelpeters@
chinadaily.com.cn
TASTE TO ACQUIRE
Who’s afraid of a
shot of strong liquor?
By CHINA DAILY
Many foreigners in China have
their first serious encounter with
baijiu, China’s potent white spirit,
when they join in Spring Festival
celebrations. But while some for-
eigners shun the clear grain distil-
late (and mutter about “kerosene”),
many are finding wine-like subtle-
ties in the top-shelf varieties and a
new appreciation for the liquor.
Chinese-American Simon Deng
is one of the co-founders of Capital
Spirits, a bar in a Beijing hutong
(lane) that he believes is the world’s
first dedicated to baijiu and craft
liquor. We asked him for insights
and advice that would make every-
one an expert when Chinese New
Year arrives.
Q: First things first: What is
baijiu?
It’s a clear alcohol distilled from
different grains, usually sorghum,
after aging in earthen pits with
yeast. It’s generally 40 to 60 percent
alcohol by volume.
Q: Your bar serves more than
40 different kinds. Where do we
start?
There are four basic types: rice,
light,strongandsauce.While“rice”
is literally made from rice, the oth-
er labels tell you more about the
aroma, not the strength of the alco-
hol.
Among the four types of baijiu, I
personally enjoy the “strong aro-
ma” type the most. Beginners will
normally favor the rice-flavored
baijiu first, due to its clean flavor,
and then slowly develop a taste for
the “strong” or “sauce” aroma bai-
jiu. “Light” is not for the light-
hearted with its typical high
alcohol and strong flavor — don’t
let the name category fool you.
Q: Should novices jump in
with both feet and say “Gan-
bei!”, or can you dip a toe in and
learn to appreciate baijiu?
We serve flights of four samples,
in small tasting shots, to give people
an introduction to the four types.
Once they decide their type, we can
offer four more samples of their
favorite type.
Some visitors come to the bar
with a baijiu-drinking friend, but
don’t intend to drink shots of baijiu
themselves. We convert about 90
percent of them once they try it. We
serve tasting shots in very small
glasses, so people can sample a few
without getting loaded.
For people curious about baijiu,
we also like to suggest trying it in a
cocktail, such as a baijiu sour.
Q: What’s the most popular?
“Strong” is probably the most
popular and widely distilled cate-
gory of baijiu. It’s particularly com-
mon in China’s southwestern
Sichuan province, eastern Anhui,
Jiangsu and Shandong. Famous
“strong” brands include Wuliangye
and Luzhou Laojiao; such brands
are mostly based on the grain sor-
ghum. The “strong” types have flo-
ral, licorice flavor with a strong,
pungent aftertaste.
Q: How long does it take to
make?
Premium strong-aroma baijiu
canbeagedfromonetothreeyears,
buttheactionisreallymuchlonger.
The strong-aroma distilleries spe-
cialize in continuous distillation,
which allows the microoganisms to
develop their unique tastes over
many decades or sometimes a few
centuries. Luzhou Laojiao’s 1573,
for example, is named after the last
time the fermentation tanks were
cleaned! Using the last batch of
mash for the next mash ensures
continuity in taste. Different layers
of the distillate are then aged in
batches for at least six months
before bottling.
Q: What do we do when we
areataLunarNewYearcelebra-
tion and the host brings out the
baijiu and a bunch of glasses?
My advice would be, of course, to
drink what you are offered to give
face to your host. Then offer to buy
the next round and choose the bai-
jiu type you like (rice, strong, light,
sauce). If you don’t know the differ-
ence, go with the rice-based baijiu
since it’s the easiest to drink. The
host will most likely be impressed
by your knowledge of baijiu!
Q: Is it true that we won’t get a
hangover?
Normally if you have a meal, and
the baijiu is of good quality, you
won’t get a hangover.
Gift of the corn gods
Most of the crowd huddled at
Beijing’s discrete Taco Bar in Sanli-
tun are there for, well, tacos —
which are superb, satisfying and
comfortable companions for the
nice tequila selection. But we
always save room for dessert: the
pan de elote is two nice slabs of
grilled corn cake, a mildly sweet
confection in a divine combination
of vanilla ice cream, rum syrup,
honey and chili powder. At 30
yuan, it’s a bargain sugar rush.
Taco Bar, Unit 10, Electrical
Research Institute (next to Home
Plate), Sanlitun Nan Lu, (South
Road) Chaoyang district, Beijing.
010-6501-6026.
Bite of the week
The taste of baijiu was new to Simon
Deng when the Chinese-American
came to Beijing, but now he savors it.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
But experts have dismissed the idea that gold flakes will add flavor to the
spirit or enhance its quality. Mike Peters and Dong Fangyu report.
BAIJIU GOES
FOR THE GOLD
Online
See more stories
about dining by
scanning the code.
Gold flakes will only
make the bottle look
elegant and pleasing
to the eyes. They add
nothing to the flavor.”
Dong Shuguo, president,
Winechina.cn
WANG XIAOYING / CHINA DAILY
The Oscars inspired a bar at the
Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, to add
gold powder to a special cocktail for its
awards-viewing party later this month.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
8. 8 LIFE | Art Tuesday, February 10, 2015 CHINA DAILY USA
on the move
Get one week free access to
China Daily on Smart Edition
ARTISTIC EYE
Famed writer Lao She and his wife were notable collectors of 20th-century
Chinese art, and many of those works are now on show, Lin Qi reports.
COLLECTIONS
B
esides his accomplish-
ments as a novelist and
playwright, Lao She
(1899-1966)isnotedfor
the connoisseurship of
traditional Chinese paintings.
Together with his wife, Hu Jieqing
(1905-2001), he accumulated a
wealth of artworks dating from the
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the
modern age. Many were created by
important figures of 20th-century
Chinese art, whom the couple kept a
close relationship with in their life-
times.
Artists of the People, an exhibition
now on at the National Art Museum
of China, demonstrates the couple’s
discerning judgment of Chinese art
with a display of part of their collec-
tions.Morethan200paintings,calli-
graphic pieces, seals and ink slabs
stand as testaments of their aesthet-
ic taste and their friendship with
prominent painters such as Qi Bai-
shi (1864-1957) and Yu Feian (1888-
1956).
The exhibits fall into three sec-
tions. The first one shows several
cooperative works between Hu, a
well-established painter herself, and
Lao She, who nourished himself to
be a poet and calligrapher.
The second section celebrates the
intimate association between the
couple and Qi Baishi. Lao She
bought the first painting of Qi in the
early 1930s and had since then
becomeanadmirer.Huoncetutored
Qi’schildren,andlaterbecameastu-
dent of Qi.
Qi once said of himself, “(I’m) best
in poetry, then seal art and calligra-
phy, while painting comes last.” On
show are more than 70 works, most
of which the couple received as gifts,
to show Qi’s versatility and compre-
hensiveness as a genuine literati.
“The relationship between my
father and Qi Baishi was more than
thatofacollectorandapainter.They
were definitely bosom friends,” says
Shu Yi, the son of Lao She.
The third section elaborates on
the couple’s criteria as collectors:
They bought artworks that they
were interested in, not those that
would bring short-term gains. And
the modern masters on their collect-
ing list trace the peak and evolution
of Chinese art in the first half of the
20th century, including Wu Chang-
shuo (1844-1927), Fu Baoshi (1904-
1965)andLinFengmian(1900-1991),
to name a few.
“LaoShelovedpaintings.Heloved
collecting and hanging them on the
walls. He also loved befriending the
painters and commenting on their
works. In one word, he was obsessed
with paintings,” Shu Yi once said.
He said his father started to pur-
chase small-sized paintings, includ-
ing picture postcards, when he
served as a lecturer at the University
of London between 1924 and 1929.
Although he lived on a limited wage,
heboughtmanyalbumsandprinted
pictures of Western artists including
Rembrandt and Michelangelo,
before he returned to China.
The couple hung their collections
on a wall in the living room. They
would rotate the paintings regularly.
They didn’t keep these valuable
assets only to themselves but would
invite friends in to appreciate them.
Thewallwascalledthe“LaoSheGal-
lery”.
Lao She felt quite humble to be
recognized as a connoisseur though,
Shu says, “because he said he
couldn’t identify a real antique
painting, nor could he afford a mas-
terpiece”.
Lao She also collected a lot of pic-
turefansonceownedandpaintedby
famous Peking Opera actors such as
Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) and Ma
Lianliang (1901-1966). “He was quite
familiar with them. They dined and
drank together very often. He knew
that these star performers worked
with opera-loving literary figures
whoalsowrotescenariosandhelped
rehearsals, hence they had gained
artistic attainments during the proc-
ess,” Shu says.
The fans, however, were confiscat-
edandlostduringthe“culturalrevo-
lution (1966-76)”, when the family
suffered mistreatment.
Theworksonshowcomefromthe
collections of the National Museum
of Modern Chinese Literature, the
Beijing Lao She Memorial and pri-
vate hands, as well as a recent dona-
tion from Lao She’s family to the
National Art Museum of China.
Painting Collections of Lao She
and Hu Jieqing, a set of five volumes
compiled by China Guardian Auc-
tions, will soon be published.
Contact the writer at
linqi@chinadaily.com.cn
If you go
9 am-5 pm, through March 15.
National Art Museum of China,
1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng
district, Beijing.
010-6400-1476.
Lao She’s collections of painting works of Qi Baishi (left), Yu Fei’an (right top) and
Xie Zhiliu (right bottom). PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
What’s new
SHANGHAI
Beauty in sheep
Write the two Chinese characters
yang (sheep) and da (big) together
as one, and you get a new character
mei (beauty). Artist Zhou Beili,
inspired by the character’s compo-
sition, has created a large installa-
tion with paper, wool, glass and
foam. The piece shows a happy
shepherd sitting midair on the
clouds, in the public space in Life
Hub@Anting.
10 am-10 pm, through March 2.
Life Hub@Anting, 1055 Moyu
Road South, Jiading district.
021-6950-2255.
Swordsman’s dilemma
One of the most pre-eminent
names in contemporary Chinese
art working with digital images,
Yang Yongliang is presenting his
latest creation, Yan (Nightmare).
The 50-minute piece depicts a met-
aphorical dream from which one
can never wake up and a dilemma
that one could never pierce
through. The protagonist is a
swordsman existing in a metropo-
lis who has an ambition but no way
to express it.
11 am-7 pm, through April 7.
Shanghai Gallery of Art, 3F, 3
Zhongshan E1 Road, Huangpu dis-
trict. 021-6321-5757.
Chasing the light
Japanese artist Hitomi Uchikura is
having her first exhibition, Lumi-
ere, in Shanghai. Uchikura was
inspired by a pile of glass pieces
from a broken mirror, which
reflected light from the sun and
illuminated her studio. Later, as she
traveled to many parts of the world,
she continued to be fascinated by
the movement of light. The exhibi-
tion features photography and digi-
tal installations.
10 am-6 pm, through March 22.
Shun Art Gallery, 28 Moganshan
Road, Putuo district.
021-5252-7198.
HONG KONG
Ode to human form
Foremost sculptor Wang Keping’s
solo exhibition at the 10 Chancery
Lane Gallery continues his obses-
sion with the human body.
Through his sculptures, he conveys
simplicity and nature that are
essential to Asian spiritual philoso-
phies. “Through his bestial erotic
forms and swirling lines he works
with a language of natural intuition
of space and object, collaborating
with his material and the secrets it
has to reveal,” says gallery founder
Katie de Tilly.
10 am-6 pm, Tuesday to Saturday,
through Feb 28. G/F, 10 Chancery
Lane, SoHo, Central.
852-2810-0065.
BEIJING
Focus on people
Chinese paintings of the 20th cen-
tury broke away from traditional
rules by shifting the focus from
landscape to people, as artists felt
obligated or were required to paint
people from different walks of life,
living up to their social responsibil-
ities. Images of People, an exhibi-
tion at the National Art Museum of
China, shows dozens of portraits
and other paintings from the muse-
um’s holdings. Highlight works
include Liu Wenxi’s Four Genera-
tions and Zhou Sicong’s Premier
Zhou Enlai.
9 am-5 pm, through March 11. 1
Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng district.
010-6400-1476.
![chinadailyusa.com $1TUESDAY, February 10, 2015
New York’s
Baccarat is
latest prize
White
House:
Xi visit
major
Graft fight targets publicly listed personal ‘ATM’ firms
DIPLOMACY REAL ESTATE
By JACK FREIFELDER
in New York
jackfreifelder@
chinadailyusa.com
A second high-profile hotel
real estate deal in the United
States involving a Chinese
insurance firm is a growing
sign of the investment-diver-
sification strategy of a num-
ber of multinational compa-
nies,accordingtoamanaging
director at a commercial real
estate firm.
Kevin Mallory, global head
of CBRE Hotels, a unit of the
Los Angeles-based CBRE
Group Inc, told China Daily
that foreign capital is “mak-
ingupamoresignificantpart
of our landscape” in the US.
“We have a number of
Chinese companies that are
highlyvisibleandmakingsig-
nificant investments in the
US and elsewhere,” Mallory
said Monday. “But there are
other types of foreign capital;
look at the Malaysian capital
that’s coming in.”
“The amount of foreign
capital that is invested in
US real estate is accelerating
from a long-term average of
just over 5 to 6 percent to
an amount now between 18
to 20 percent,” he said. “In
many respects, certainly with
Anbang and now with Sun-
shine, we’re seeing the results
ofthatdiversificationstrategy
that’s being deployed around
theglobe.Soweexpecttocon-
tinuetoseethistrendacceler-
ate as we go forward.”
On Monday, global private
investment firm Starwood
Capital Group announced
that it agreed to sell the Bac-
caratHoteltoaunitofChina’s
Sunshine Insurance for $230
million. The purchase price
breaks down to $2.04 million
perroom,datafromSTRAna-
lytics showed.
TheBaccarathas114rooms
and suites available for as
much as $18,000 a night. The
hotel,whichoccupiesthefirst
12 floors of a 50-story tower
at 20 W 53rd Street and fea-
tures a 125-foot wide corru-
gated crystal façade, is set to
open next month. The floors
above the hotel house nearly
60 apartments set aside for
use as condominiums.
The property is also across
the street from the Museum
of Modern Art.
Sunshine, founded in 2005
as a property and casualty
insurer, has provided insur-
ancetomorethan130million
customers since its establish-
ment nearly a decade ago.
InOctober,China’sAnbang
Insurance Co agreed to pur-
chase the Waldorf Astoria
hotelinNewYorkfromHilton
Worldwide Holdings Inc for
$1.95 billion, roughly equal to
$1.4 million per room.
The purchase price is the
largest amount ever paid for a
UShotel,accordingtoresearch
firmLodgingEconometrics.
SEE “HOTEL” PAGE 3
By HUA SHENGDUN
in Washington
“There is no substitute
for the two leaders sitting
together,” White House
aide Ben Rhodes said of the
expected visit by Chinese
President Xi Jinping later
this year.
“We thought it was
important to have Presi-
dent Xi here,” Rhodes, who
is assistant to the president
and deputy national securi-
tyadvisorforstrategiccom-
munications and speech-
writing, said Monday.
US National Secu-
rity Advisor Susan Rice
announcedonFeb6thatUS
President Barack Obama
has invited Xi for a state
visit this year. Also on the
invitation list is Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Agreements on envi-
ronmental, military and
reciprocal visa-extension
issues were reached when
Obama and Xi met during
a conference in Beijing in
November.
Before that, Xi made his
initial visit to the US as
president at the Sunnyl-
ands retreat in California
in June 2013, but has not
yetbeenhostedinWashing-
ton for an official state visit.
Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao,
made a state visit in 2011.
Rhodespraisedlastyear’s
highlight of “two leaders
getting together to [make]
progressonclimatechange,
on trade, on military to
military relations”. He said
the best way to keep the
momentumgoingistohave
another state visit.
He said that the White
House didn’t have fixed
dates for the meeting yet.
Cui Tiankai, China’s
ambassador to the US,
said on Feb 6 that China-
US relations have reached
wider and deeper scopes in
many ways in recent years,
and China would work to
enhance bilateral relations
in 2015.
“In the Chinese Year of
the Sheep, I hope China-US
relations will be more like
the‘PleasantSheep’andless
like the ‘Big Bad Wolf,’ ” he
said at the embassy’s Chi-
nese New Year gala.
SEE “VISIT” PAGE 3
By CHEN JIA in Beijing
chenjia@chinadaily.com.cn
Corruption has made deep
inroads into the Chinese capital
market and threatens the man-
agement integrity of at least
70 publicly listed companies,
according to media reports.
“Nearly all corrupt officials
had ill-gotten incomes from
business organizations,” a com-
mentary in the Beijing-based
Guangming Daily said.
Many companies and enter-
prises have served as “money
printers and automated teller
machines” for corrupt officials,
the commentary added.
According to Hithink Royal-
flush Information Network, an
onlinefinancialinformationsite
in Hangzhou, Zhejiang prov-
ince, out of 70 problem-plagued
companies, the largest group
consists of 18 in industries such
as oil, coal mining and nonfer-
rous metals.
Six of the 70 are in the real
estatesectorandanothersixare
financial companies.
State-owned and non-State
companies are among those
with executives suspected of
beingcorruptandofhavingcor-
rupt official ties, Hithink said.
Beijing News said listed
companies in high-profit and
monopoly industries bribe
officials by giving them shares,
manipulate stock prices and
transfer benefits through merg-
ers and acquisitions in the capi-
tal market.
Some senior executives have
been taken away by the anti-
corruption watchdog to help
with investigations, while oth-
ershavebeenaccusedofaccept-
ing bribes and of other illegal
activities.
One of the largest compa-
nies involved is State-owned
SEE “ANTI-GRAFT” PAGE 4
By GAO YUAN in Beijing
and CHEN WEIHUA
in Washington
Lu Wei, head of the Chinese
Internet regulator, and the US
AmbassadortoChinaMaxBau-
cus are WeChat buddies.
And they will use the most
popular instant-messaging tool
in China to discuss the thorni-
est cyber issues the two coun-
tries face. It’s unclear whether
they’ll use emojis — animat-
ed emoticons — in their chat
threads.Thatmightbeafirstin
international diplomacy.
At a Chinese New Year
reception held by the Cyber-
space Administration Office of
China, Lu told Baucus that he
would welcome an exchange
of views on Internet regulation
via WeChat, a social network-
ing tool developed by Tencent
Holdings that has more than
400 million users worldwide.
“WeChat will be a very nor-
mal channel to exchange ideas
for me and Baucus,” Lu said.
China is imposing tougher
Internet regulatory policies
because of fears an unfettered
Internetcoulddamageinforma-
tion security and social stability.
“The word ‘net’ also means
law and order in Chinese cul-
ture,” Lu said. “Every Internet
user desires cyberfreedom, and
order is the foundation,” Lu
said. “Where there is no order,
there will be no freedom.”
China and the United States
have had a number of skir-
mishes over cybersecurity and
Internet freedom.
“Iheardthemessageofcoop-
eration from Lu,” Baucus said.
“I think we should focus more
on the cooperation than on the
differences.”
The former US senator from
Montana, who took up his cur-
rent job last March, agreed that
both parties should keep the
dialogue channels open and
functioning.
The US, the creator of the
Internet and a key overseer, is
graduallylosingcontroloverthe
biggestinnovationafterelectric-
ity, as a number of countries are
askingforanintergovernmental
body to oversee the Net.
Fadi Chehade, chief execu-
tiveofthecyberspacegoverning
body, the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Num-
bers (ICANN), warned on Mon-
day that hopes to transfer con-
trolofICANNfromUShandsto
a globally representative body
could be jeopardized unless
a deal is reached before the
2016 US presidential elections,
Agence France-Presse reported.
Lu’s words may indicate that
China, with its fast-developing
Internet market, is increasingly
interested in the international
governance of cyber space.
Chinasuspendedthebilateral
working group on cybersecurity
immediatelyaftertheUSJustice
Department indicted five Peo-
ple’s Liberation Army officers
last May for alleged cyber theft,
charges China has denied.
Like many other countries in
the world, China has become
increasingly wary of cyberse-
curity following the revelations
in the past 20 months made by
former National Security Agen-
cycontractorEdwardSnowden
thattheNSAhasbeenconduct-
ing wide-ranging surveillance
offoreignleaders,governments
and corporations, including
some in China.
Lu, minister of China’s State
Internet Information Office,
paid a high-profile visit to the
US in December, attending
the seventh China-US Internet
Industry Forum in Washing-
ton,meetingUSofficials,speak-
ing to students and faculty at
George Washington Univer-
sity, visiting Silicon Valley and
interactingwithentrepreneurs,
including Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg.
Chinahasbecometheworld’s
largest Internet market, with
more than 4 million websites,
600 million Internet users and
four of the world’s Top 10 Inter-
net companies. Online com-
merce is set to hit $2 trillion
this year and keep growing at
30 percent a year, Lu told the
China-US Internet forum.
Contact the writers at
gaoyuan@chinadaily.
com.cn and chenweihua@
chinadailyusa.com
China’s Internet regulator to
‘WeChat’ with US ambassador
TECHNOLOGY
NO STRINGS ATTACHED
A puppeteer with the Shannxi Folk Arts Troupe performs the Drunken Concubine at a Chinese New Year program on Monday evening at
the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, Maryland.The performance was sponsored by World Artists Experiences, a non-profit
organization whose mission is to bridge international understanding through cultural and citizen diplomacy in communities, colleges and
schools. LIU CHANG / CHINA DAILY
Construction work takes place outside the Baccarat Hotels
& Residences NYC building on W 53rd Street on Monday.The
50-story tower will be home to the Baccarat Hotel starting next
month. JACK FREIFELDER / CHINA DAILY
Max Baucus, US ambassador
to China
Ben
Rhodes,
US Deputy
National
Security
Advisor
Lu Wei, head of the Chinese
Internet regulator
CHINA
Church and state
The Catholic Church is push-
ing to reclaim land and proper-
ties seized in Shanxi province
more than 40 years ago. > P5
Legal trouble
Law graduates are facing
tough job prospects despite
the government’s emphasis on
the rule of law. > P6
LIFE
Art treasure
Famed writer La She and his
wife were known to collect
20th-century Chinese art,
which is now on display in
Beijing. > P8
BUSINESS
Stock options
The trading of stock options
debuted on the Shanghai
Stock Exchange on Monday, in
a nod to institutional investors.
> P13
Alibaba quest
Alibaba will invest $590 million
in smartphone maker Meizu
Technology, boosting an effort
to get its mobile operating sys-
tem on handsets. > P16
In the news
Debut day
Equity-linked options
traded for first time > p13
Proud moment
Confucius Institute director
honored by Nebraska
> ACROSS AMERICA, PAGE 2
Liquid glitter
Gold flakes in white
spirit spark debate
> LIFE, PAGE 7
ter
white
ebate
Super luxury hotel seen as part of
trend among Chinese investors
CRIME](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/b99ce6c2-c40e-47b1-b29c-c6ca3f96d8ea-150212103449-conversion-gate01/85/20150210usa1-1-320.jpg)
