chinadailyusa.com $1WEDNESDAY, February 11, 2015

By HUA SHENGDUNin Washington

Some American historians are urging their Japanese coun-terparts not to allow the Japa-nese government to minimize the prevalence of “comfort women” during World War II.

To mark the 70th anniver-sary of war’s end, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is now “pushing to put a gloss on Japan’s wartime history and, in turn, to loosen some of the postwar constraints on its military”, said a report in The Washington Post on Tuesday.

A public letter was signed by 19 academics from Princeton, Columbia, American University and elsewhere to be published in the March issue of Perspec-tives on History, a magazine of the American Historical Asso-ciation.

“We stand with the many his-torians in Japan and elsewhere who have worked to bring to light the facts about this and other atrocities of World War II,” the letter said, referring to the women who were forced into providing sexual favors to the Japanese Imperial Army in wartime.

The American historians express their dismay “at recent attempts by the Japanese gov-ernment to suppress state-ments in history textbooks both in Japan and elsewhere”, according to the letter.

An estimated 30,000 to 200,000 women from China, Korea and other Asian coun-tries were forced to be sex slaves in the 1930s and 1940s. Chinese researchers’ fi ndings indicate the number is about 400,000, according to Peipei Qiu, professor of Chinese and Japanese and director of the Asian Studies Program at Vas-sar College, New York.

The issue is controversial in Asia, especially when the Japanese government recently off ered a diff erent interpreta-tion and attempted to “get the American publishing house McGraw Hill to remove two paragraphs about comfort women from a college text-book”, according to the Post.

The book, Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspec-tive on the Past, said the Japa-nese Army “forcibly recruited, conscripted and dragooned as

many as 200,000 women aged 14 to 20 to serve in military brothels, called ‘comfort hous-es’ ”. It also says that the Japa-nese military “massacred large numbers of comfort women to cover up the operation”.

The dispute lingers on the number of the women coerced into sexual slavery and the pre-cise role that Japanese troops played in their procurement during the war. Many Japanese conservatives regarded the women simply as prostitutes.

McGraw Hill declined the request, saying that “scholars are aligned behind the histori-cal fact of comfort women” and that it “unequivocally” stands behind the book.

Herbert Ziegler, an associate professor at the University of Hawaii and co-author of the textbook, said that he got an e-mail late last year from an offi cial of the Japanese Consul-ate General in Hawaii.

The Japanese side requested a discussion about the pas-sages, which Ziegler called “an infringement of my freedom of speech and my academic freedom”.

She co-authored a book called Chinese Comfort Wom-en: Testimonies from Imperial Japan's Sex Slaves, with Su Zhil-iang and Chen Lifei, two schol-ars based in Shanghai, China.

The book, which is the fi rst English-language account of the women’s ordeal, features personal narratives of 12 vic-tims and was published last year by the Oxford University Press as part of the Oxford Oral History Series.

Qiu said in her book launch at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Stud-ies that if the wounded failed to be recognized by history, it would be a new wound for them.

“Human suff erings of such magnitude cannot, and should not, be dismissed,” she said.

Pedro Chan, an adviser to the Pacifi c Aviation Museum, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; the Chi-nese American Museum of Los Angeles; and the Flying Tigers Historical Organization in the US, collected photos of the women and supported a World War II memorial statue in California last year.

SEE “HISTORY” PAGE 3

CHINA

Alibaba grilled

The head of China's quality watchdog met with Alibaba chairman Jack Ma as the e-commerce giant dealt with crackdown on fake products. > P4

BUSINESS

Confi dence lag?

Nielsen's Consumer Confi -dence Index declined four per-centage points in the fourth quarter of 2014 amid bleak outlook for employment. > P13

M&As get eyedWanda is targeting revenue of $16 billion by 2020 from its culture business having just bought Swiss Sports Group Infront. > P15

Moveable game

The tough crackdown on

gambling in Macao has gamers searching for new alternatives, especially in South Korea. > P16

In the news

Historians fault Japan on ‘comfort women’ fl ak

Kim Bok-dong, a victim of the Japanese military during World War II, sits in the empty chair of the "comfort women" memorial during the unveiling ceremony in Glendale, California, on July 30, 2013. The statue is a tribute to Asian comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops. LIU YIYI / CHINA DAILY

Premier Li Keqiang chats with Canadian educator Isabel Crook at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday after a meeting with more than 60 foreign experts. Crook, who celebrated her 100th birthday in December and has devoted most of her life to English-language teaching in China, has attended many meetings with Chinese leaders. WU ZHIYI / CHINA DAILY

By ZHAO SHENGNANzhaoshengnan@chinadaily.com.cn

Pledging stepped-up mea-sures to benefi t talented for-eigners on Tuesday, Premier Li Keqiang made no secret of China's desire to draw more talent from overseas as the nation deepens its reform and opening-up.

China will lower the threshold for foreigners to come to the country and streamline procedures for them to invest and start businesses here, Li told more than 60 foreign experts from 32 countries at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The country will offer more international prod-ucts and services for them, making China a promising land for talent in various areas to innovate and suc-ceed, he said in the meeting held by the State Adminis-tration of Foreign Experts Aff airs. Li also promised a simpler visa policy and an easier path to a permanent residency permit, or green

card, in China.The meeting between

Chinese leaders and foreign experts has become a much-anticipated event before the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 19 this year. Tuesday's meet-ing marked the second such gathering for Li since he took offi ce. He has called a number of times in the past for simplifi ed procedures to facilitate foreigners' work and life in China.

The number of for-eign experts in China has increased from fewer than 10,000 at the end of the 1980s to about 530,000 at the end of 2011, according to offi cial fi gures. Since China began issuing green cards in 2003, it has granted about 500 to foreign applicants annually. The United States, by comparison, issues about 1million a year.

"China should try to adopt a more positive, proactive and open policy to attract international talent, and an effi cient foreign talent man-agement system is crucial," said Yrjo Kalervo Sotamaa,

professor emeritus at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, in Finland.

"For recruiting foreign tal-ent, employers and the mar-

ket should play a decisive role. The main contribution of government is to create an environment and provide services," said Sotamaa.

Li promises to ease way for talented foreigners

“China is on a march to a higher-income, highly productive, highlyinnovative economy and society.... Based on my studies of numer-ous cases of the middle-income

transition, I think it’s fair to say that a 6 to 7 per-cent sustained transition through the middleincome would be a new normal success.”Michael Spence, US economist and winner of 2001 NobelPrize in economics

“Schools and all of society must help youngpeople who would ‘break away’and take a different path to ‘standapart’ from others.”Edmund Strother Phelps, US economist andwinner of 2006 Nobel Prize in economics

What they say

By PAUL WELITZKINin New Yorkpaulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com

The decision by Qualcomm Inc to pay a record $975 mil-lion fi ne to settle an investiga-tion by a Chinese regulator may increase trade tension with Washington and aff ect negotiations on a key trade pact in the Asia-Pacifi c region analysts said.

On Monday, San Diego-based Qualcomm agreed to pay the largest corporate

fi ne ever in China, ending a 14-month investigation into anti-competitive practices by the country’s National Devel-opment and Reform Com-mission (NDRC). The "unfair" and "excessively high" roy-alties Qualcomm collected from Chinese smartphone makers were the key factors that led to the historical fi ne, the NDRC said.

“The settlement is likely to add to the trade tension between China and the US and may also complicate the negotiations on the Trans-

Pacific Partnership. One of the issues that have bogged down the TPP negotiations is the objection by some devel-oping countries to US insis-tence on stringent rules for the protection of patents.

"I suspect that the US nego-tiators are trying to prevent any potential TPP partners from using anti-trust rules in their future bargaining with US multinationals,” said Talian Chi, professor and Carl A. Scupin Faculty Fel-low at the University of Kan-sas School of Business, in an

e-mail to China Daily.The Trans-Pacifi c Partner-

ship (TPP) is a free- trade deal between the US, Canada, and 10 countries in the Asia-Pacifi c region (not including China) that's been under dis-cussion.

However, Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation think tank in Washington, said the Qual-comm case could end up boosting the TPP.

SEE “FINE” PAGE 3

Qualcomm fi ne may aff ect trade talks, increase tensions: analysts

By LI XIANG and DU JUAN

President Xi Jinping calledon Tuesday for the establish-ment of the Asian Infrastruc-ture Investment Bank to besped up and for “concreteinvestment plans” under Chi-na’s$40billionSilkRoadFund.

At a central governmentfinancial meeting, Xi said thebank’s main mission will be toprovide financial support forinfrastructure projects in Asiaand for those along the land-based and maritime Silk Roadeconomic belts.

He said the bank will act as akeysupplement to fundraisingchannels for infrastructureprojects, adding that it shouldbe set up as soon as possible.

Xi said the Silk Road Fundshould be managed undermarket-driven principles, andhe also called for “concrete”investment projects.

The bank was created inOctober when 21 Asian coun-tries agreed to join as found-ing members. In November,Xi announced the creation of the Silk Road Fund, part of anational strategy to revive thecenturies-old trading routeconnecting Asia and Europe.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Xialso said China should speedup establishing a strategic oilreserve system and energypricing reform, closely follow-ing global market changes.

China increased crudeimports rapidly for strategicreserves last year when theglobal crude price started toplunge.

The National Developmentand Reform Commission, Chi-na’s top economic planner, saidrecently that the country willset a minimum standard forcommercial crude reserves atprocessing companies. Thiswill require them to have crudereserves equivalent to at least15 days’ refining capacity.

But Liao Na, vice-presidentof ICIS C1, a Shanghai energyconsultancy, said companiesmight face financial difficultiesin meeting such standards, asbanks have become stricter inapproving loans to companiesin the commodities sectorwhen prices are falling.

Xi also said at the meetingthat transferring noncapitalfunctions out of Beijing andpushing forward regionalintegration between Beijing,Tianjin and Hebei province isa “huge systematic project”.

He said in February last yearthat the key functions of Beijingare related to its strategic posi-tion as a national political cen-ter, cultural center,international exchange center,and technology and innovationcenter.

Zheng Jinran contributedto this story.

Contact the writers atlixiang@chinadaily.com.cn.

INVESTMENT

Xi urgeswork onregionalbank tospeed up

21 countries

agreed to join the Asian Infra-structure Investment Bank asfounding members in October.

RECRUITING HISTORY

BUSINESS

Holiday focusPicture book captures good old Lunar New Year traditions> LIFE, PAGE 8

China's china capitalJingdezhen still attracts the best porcelain artists in the world > LIFE, PAGE 7

Infl ation dipsCPI slumps to 5-year low in

January >P13

ACROSS AMERICA2

Wednesday, February 11, 2015 CHINA DAILY USA

C onfucius once said: “Writ ing cannot express all words, words cannot encom-

pass all ideas.”A new exhibit of works by

renowned Chinese artist Xu Bing pushes the envelope of that adage — and turns it on its head.

Opening next weekend at the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, a show called Writ-ing between Heaven and Earth encompasses 5,000-square-feet worth of the artist’s iconic installations, as well as newer works created just for the show.

Xu is known internationally for his large-scale installations about language and text that playfully recreate the written word and invite viewers to take another look at their cultural identity and their language.

At the heart of his work is the preservation of Chinese culture and tradition. “My aim,” Xu has

been quoted as saying, “is to make an art that truly serves the people.”

The focal point of the exhibit is the complete Book from the Sky, a massive piece that fea-tures more than 4,000 illegible, meaningless Chinese-looking characters invented by the art-ist, meticulously hand-carved (the work was four years in the making) and more than 160 hand-made, woodblock printed volumes, huge scrolls hanging from the ceiling and wall pan-els resembling propaganda posters.

The work was created between 1987 and 1991 and there are only a few museums in the world with enough space to display it.

Xu’s relationship with his motherland has been some-thing of a rollercoaster ride. Born in Chongqing in 1955, he moved to Beijing with his par-ents at the age of two. Relocat-ed to the mountainous regions of northern China to perform farm labor in the mid-’70s, he began sketching and organiz-ing arts groups.

In 1977 he enrolled in the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and studied print-making, eventually teaching there. His fi rst big solo show came in 1988 at the China National Museum of Fine Arts and drew international attention, but its subject mat-ter — how the written word can be turned into propagan-da and rendered meaningless — was deemed too controver-sial and Xu moved to the US in 1990.

His works continued to be shown and commissioned worldwide and in 1999 he was

awarded a MacArthur genius award, and numerous other honors followed. In 2007 he returned to China in his cur-rent capacity as vice-president of Beijing’s prestigious Cen-tral Academy of Fine Arts. He divides his time between New York and Beijing.

On Jan 21, Xu Bing was one of seven international artists awarded the US Department of State-Medal of Art by Secretary of State John Kerry during a ceremony at the State Depart-ment in Washington.

“My viewpoint is that wher-ever you live, you will face that place’s problems,” Xu wrote in a letter to a young artist in 2006. “If you have problems then you have art. Your plight and your problems are actually the source of your artistic creation.”

The show opening at the Frost Museum on Feb 21 is curated by Lidu Yi, a professor and Chinese art historian at FIU and a long-time friend of

the artist.“Xu Bing is a genius,” said

Yi. “He looks very eccentric. He constantly thinks about art. That’s all he thinks about.”

Xu Bing has created his own visual language, she explained. “Nobody can read his Book from the Sky because he invented the 4,000 charac-ters, which look very much like classic Chinese characters and yet they’re not,” she said. The symbols intentionally have no meaning, not even to the artist himself.

“The book pushes you to rethink your cultural identity, it forces you to participate, to be involved in the artwork,” she said. “The book does not com-municate with you because you do not understand any single word of it and yet it forces you to communicate with it by not communicating with you.”

The work is meaningful, she said, because it makes every-one in the world equal before

it, because no one understands the words, “so we are the same in many ways, just as we are the same in front of this art-work”.

One of the smaller pieces is called Square Word Calligraphy and is part of a classroom set-ting with desks and chairs that invites the audience to take up a brush and follow calligraphy instructions on the wall and a video of the artist teaching how to draw characters that he has, again, invented using Western letters in traditional Chinese

formations. It spells out: “Art for the people.”

“It looks like Chinese but it’s English,” she said, adding that like Book from the Sky, it chal-lenges the audience to rethink their preconceptions about cul-tural identity.

Yi, who is a Buddhist, said all of the pieces she picked have a Zen quality to them. “It gives you a good sense of tranquility, serenity,” she said.

Contact the writer at chrisda-vis@chinadailyusa.com.

Between heaven and earth, artist challenges written wordChrisDavisNEW YORKJOURNAL

Read between the lines, Xu Bing’s Square Word Calligraphy uses English letters (spelling out “Art for the people”) to construct Chinese-looking characters. COURTESY OF THE FROST MUSEUM.

By AMY HE in ORLANDO, FLoridaamyhe@chinadailyusa.com

State Grid Corp of China, the largest state-owned electric util-ity company in the world, has released an English version of the company’s latest book on ultra-high voltage (UHV) trans-mission technology after the successful release of the Chi-nese version a year ago.

The book — Ultra High Voltage AC/DC Grids, written by Liu Zhenya, president and CEO of State Grid Corp of Chi-na (SGCC) — was co-published by Elsevier and China Electric Power Press, a publishing sub-sidiary of SGCC. Elsevier is an academic publisher of science, health and technology books based in New York, with global headquarters in London and Amsterdam.

“This book systematically elaborates the characteristics and advantages of ultra-high voltage AC/DC transmission technology, analyzes the engineering technical stan-dards and comprehensively summarizes SGCC’s experi-ence on ultra-high voltage power grid development,” said Liang Xuming, direc-tor of the Executive Director Offi ce of SGCC, at the book’s launch event on Tuesday in Orlando, Florida.

“Since its publication in 2013, the Chinese version has been highly praised by inter-national organizations, indus-try peers, scientifi c academics, government organs, and mass media,” he added.

Liang said that the book is a compilation of all the knowledge and best practices that the utility company has achieved through its decade

of operation. The Chinese version was

published at the end of 2013, selling almost 200,000 cop-ies and exceeding expected demand, Liang said. A Russian version was released on Feb 6.

The English version will be available at major book retail-ers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders. It is also available through Elsevier’s online store as well as Scien-ceDirect, the company’s scien-tifi c database that off ers jour-nal articles and book chapters.

"Elsevier's goal is to ensure that scientists and engineers have access to content that helps them to understand and solve problems in industries such as energy," said Suzanne BeDell, managing director of Elsevier’s science and technol-ogy books, in a Feb 10 state-ment. "We are pleased to work with SGCC and CEPP on this

new Energy Series to provide insights into ultra-high volt-age transmission from a true leader in the fi eld."

Founded in 2002, SGCC supplies power to almost 90 percent of China and is the seventh-largest company in the world, according to a 2014 Fortune Global 500 ranking. It recorded $333.4 billion in revenues last year, according to Fortune estimates.

Ultra High Voltage AC/DC Grids is a reference for indus-try professionals and experts for understanding the most current applications and inno-vations in the field of ultra-high voltage transmission, which is advantageous for getting electrical power across long distances.

“It is the world’s most advanced transmission tech-nology with the highest volt-age. China is leading the world

in this regard and has its com-pletely independent intellectu-al property rights,” SGCC said in a statement.

China’s more than 1 bil-lion in population consumes 5.322 trillion kilowatt hours, according to the CIA World Factbook, compared to the US’ 3.886 trillion kilowatt hours. China generated 5.2 trillion kilowatt hours in 2013, accord-ing to data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics, a 7.6 percent growth from the previous year.

In order to supply the coun-try with electricity, power has to be transmitted through an ultra-high voltage grid from west China, where the coun-try’s energy load centers are and where energy consump-tion is less, to the more eco-nomically developed and densely populated central and eastern China.

“SGCC vigorously promoted UHV technology and solved the problems of large capac-ity and long distance trans-mission,” the company said. “SGCC has comprehensively mastered the core technolo-gies of UHV AC and DC trans-mission, overcome technical difficulties such as overvolt-age, insulation, electromagnet-ic environment and success-fully developed AC/DC system equipment independently.”

The book documents the research and engineering practices of UVH power grid construction in China since 2005.

“State Grid’s role in carry-ing out any government-to-government initiatives will build on its own experiences in China as demonstrated how its ultra-high voltage AC/DC grid can integrate vast lines of power from conventional and clean energy resources located in western China and carry that profi ciently over long dis-tances where customer load is situated in central and east-ern China,” said Robert Gee, former assistant secretary for Fossil Energy of the US Department of Energy, at the book launch.

State Grid announced in January that it will be invest-ing $68.7 billion on grid infra-structure in 2015, a record amount for the company and up 24 percent from the year before. It will construct 40,000 miles of AC power transmis-sion and 8,000 miles of DC current lines in 2015, accord-ing to Xinhua.

It also plans to begin pre-project work for four power links that will connect China with Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and Pakistan.

Ultra High Voltage revealed in book

By NIU YUEin New York

China is learning that export-ing and marketing its culture is big business.

“Look at the United States, they barely use offi cial chan-nels, but more through busi-ness, like Hollywood, popular music and games," said Wu Zhao, consul for cultural aff airs with the Chinese Consulate General in New York. "Given our historical and cultural heri-tage, it would [be] a big market if we could develop modern cultural products loved by the younger generation."

An example is this year's Hap-py Chinese New Year campaign, an initiative by China's Ministry of Culture to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The movement, in its fi fth year, is expected to involve more than 300 cities.

China's Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) is fi nding a business foothold in New York for this year’s New Year’s cel-ebration. The most prestigious institution of fi ne arts in China will spend some $1.3 million in its Fantastic Art China series.

Most of the money was col-lected through fundraising and sponsored by Chinese enter-prises, said Yu Ding, a professor with CAFA and president of Fantastic Art China.

CAFA also will feature a cre-ative bazaar with its public art exhibition on Feb 17 at Lincoln Center. Derivatives designed by dozens of Chinese student art-ists along with collections from several Chinese museum stores will be on sale at the bazaar.

To appeal to Westerners, the exhibited artworks and deriva-tives on sale are contemporary, including steel sculptures, experimental artworks and even animations.

"You cannot confi ne cultur-al outreach or influence to a few artworks,” Yu said. “From 'Made in China,' to 'Created by China' to 'Designed by China,' you need products. If you just celebrate a festival without any products, it will have little impact. But if products could

follow up, it would drive the whole economy."

He told China Daily it is "completely possible" to make the whole campaign market-oriented. Fantastic Art China will be expanded to other parts of the world under a unified brand if its trial in New York City proves successful.

"It will be big business if our products are sold in over 300 cities [where Fantastic Chinese New Year is celebrated]," Yu said.

The Chinese Consulate General in New York also has been helping to connect Chinese and American pre-senters so that more Chinese performances could be staged in US theaters. Chinese and Chinese-American performers have packed auditoriums, and shows are mostly sold out.

The ambition to turn public diplomacy into a healthy busi-ness also has allies in multina-tionals. Soft-drink giant Pepsi and China's Culture Ministry will show a Lunar New Year-themed short film in Times Square as part of both Pepsi's marketing during the holiday season and the Happy Chinese New Year celebration.

"The film is made up of moments shot by ordinary Chi-nese,” Pepsi said in a news release. “True and happy, these stories will spread the warmth and hap-piness to the whole world."

It is the fi rst time that CAFA is participating in the Happy Chinese New Year celebration. CAFA also will put on a fire-works show on the Hudson River on Feb 17, and it will join in the lighting of the Empire State Building celebrating the Lunar New Year the same day.

CAFA also will join the New York Historical Society for Chi-nese-American-focused family events from Feb 16 to 19, and a community event by New York Philharmonic's Chinese New Year concert featuring dances by public school children from the National Dance Institute on Feb 24.

Lu Huiquan in New York con-tributed to this story.

China gets savvier marketing itself

TECHNOLOGY

MARKETINGCG weighs in

Zhang Qiyue (center), consul general of China in New York, speaks at the Lunar New Year symposium held by local Chinese communities in Flushing, New York, on Tuesday. Zhang spoke of the communities' important role in Queens and called for a new relationship between China and the United States in 2015. HONG

XIAO / FOR CHINA DAILY

Executives from State Grid Corp of China (SGCC) and academic publisher Elsevier attend the launch on Tuesday of the English version of Ultra High Voltage AC/DC Grids, written by SGCC's president and CEO Liu Zhenya. The book is published jointly by Elsevier and China Electric Power Press, a publishing subsidiary of SGCC. AMY HE / CHINA DAILY

From left: Alice Stevenson, director of the DiMenna Children’s Museum; Shirley Young, chairwoman of the US-China Cultural Institute; Huang Jiancheng, vice-president of Fantastic Art China; Yu Ding, president of Fantastic Art China; Kathy Mele, chairwoman of the National Dance Institute; Bill Thomas, COO of New York Philharmonic; James Heimowitz, president of China Institute; and Wu Zhao, consul for cultural aff airs with the Chinese Consulate General in New York, attend a press conference for Fantastic Art China in New York on Tuesday. LU HUIQUAN / FOR CHINA DAILY

TOP NEWSCHINA DAILY USA Wednesday, February 11, 2015

3

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FROM PAGE 1

“If anything this and other similar actions by the Chinese government will increase sup-port (for TPP) because it will be seen as a way to better exert pressure on China to curtail these kinds of practices that dis-criminate against foreign fi rms. For overall bilateral US-China relations, this action will only heighten the concerns held by the US government over dis-criminatory Chinese economic policies,” he said in an e-mail.

Atkinson said there is no evidence that Qualcomm com-

mitted any violations. “China’s anti-monopoly law is not only quite fl exible, allowing the gov-ernment a great deal of leeway that other nations’ competition authorities do not have, it is also unique in treating intel-lectual property as a form of monopoly. No other nation has brought a similar action against Qualcomm, which practices the same licensing business model around the globe. So Qualcomm essentially has no choice but to pay the $975 million if it wishes to continue to sell to the growing Chinese wireless market.”

“Any fi rm possessing propri-

etary technology has monop-oly power, but such monopoly power is often protected by the government under the patent system,” said Chi. “Given the monopoly status of Qualcomm over its technology, the negotia-tion of the licensing fees is inevi-tably subject to its bargaining power relative to that of its Chi-nese licensees. The governments of some developing countries do try to boost the bargaining power of their domestic fi rms by limiting the maximum royalty rate in licensing contracts via domestic legislation. This type of government policy is unlikely

to work for a small country, but China is the largest cell phone market in the world and is thus better able to get concessions from foreign fi rms though such policies.”

Qualcomm will also offer licenses to its current 3G and 4G Chinese patents separately from licenses of its other pat-ents, and it will provide pat-ent lists during the negotiation process. Qualcomm also said it plans to continue to grow its investments and expand col-laborations in China, including with China's mobile operators, handset and device suppliers,

and within the Chinese semi-conductor sector.

Chi said the Chinese govern-ment may be trying to alter the balance of bargaining power between Qualcomm and its Chi-nese licensees. “The healthcare authorities of many Western European countries have been able to negotiate lower prices for patented drugs with multi-national pharmaceutical com-panies, but the use of antitrust rules to get lower prices of pat-ented technology for domestic producers seems to be a novel strategy,” he said.

Atkinson said the Chinese

government has long been concerned with the amount of money Chinese companies pay to foreign fi rms to license their technology, despite that China runs a big trade surplus with the rest of the world. “It (Chinese government) has sought ways to reduce these payments which it views as fundamentally unfair. The NDRC has used the anti-monopoly law as a way to force concessions from Qualcomm in future licensing terms. This not only will help domestic Chinese competitors, it will at the margin reduce Qualcomm’s competitive position.”

FROM PAGE 1

“The Japanese always deny what they did or downgrade their crimes in the war,” Chan said. “They wanted to remove the statue from the park, and I testifi ed that there is a freedom of speech for the Korean and Chinese.”

A 1,100-pound statue of comfort women in the cen-tral park of Glendale, Cali-fornia, was a gift from South Koreans in July 2013 to hon-or the women. Glendale is a sister city of Goseong and Gimpo of South Korea.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the city that sought the removal of the statue, saying that the statue's opponents were unable to show that the memorial caused them harm, and Glendale didn’t break any laws by erecting it in the park, according to a court order signed in August US District Court Judge Per-cy Anderson.

Shen g Yang in Washington contributed to this story.

Fine: Move will only heighten concerns held by the US government

History: Japan tells its own story

By LIAN ZI in San Franciscozilian@chinadailyusa.com

Undocumented Chinese immigrants appear to be the least interested in President Obama’s reprieve for young undocumented immigrants in the US, as their application rate is much lower than their coun-terparts, particularly Latinos, who flocked to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

About 15,000 Chinese immi-grants in the US were eligible for the DACA program that started in 2012. But as of 2014, less than 1,100 have applied, according to Summer Chi-ang, Chinese media coordina-tor at New America Media,

which organizes media advi-sory events with Asian Students Promoting Immigrant Rights through Education (ASPIRE), a San Francisco-based non-profi t that helps undocumented Asian immigrants.

Nationwide, Chinese immi-grants were the ninth largest population of DACA-eligible immigrants. But they applied for the program at such low rates that they were not includ-ed in the list of top 25 applying communities, Chiang said.

Asian community advocates have ramped up outreach eff orts to as many undocumented Chi-nese immigrants as possible and tried to educate the Chinese community about the benefi ts of applying for DACA, said Amy Y, a representative of ASPIRE.

DACA offers undocument-ed immigrants two years of amnesty. It also provides tem-porary legal status, Social Secu-rity Numbers and employment authorization, said Amy Lin.

Obama has announced that the new DACA program that will go into eff ect on Feb 18, no longer has an age cap, Lin add-ed, which means no matter how old you are right now, you can get approved by DACA if you came to the US before the age of 16, and have continuously lived here since January 2010.

Lin, 23, currently a gradu-ate student at a university in California, shared her personal experience with China Daily.

“I came to the United States from Taiwan on a tourist visa when I was only 12. Now I have

received my work authoriza-tion after applying for DACA in 2012,” she said, mentioning that she heard about ASPIRE when she applied for DACA.

“Being able to get a work permit and work legally in the United States, I am currently working as a teaching assistant at my school, which substan-tially alleviates the financial burden that I suff ered for a long time,” she said, adding that hav-ing a SSN was a prerequisite for applying for jobs at her school.

“My salary right now is much higher than my former under-the-table jobs that had no ben-efi ts,” she said.

Lin said she wants to help other undocumented immi-grants like her in the Chinese community of the San Fran-

cisco Bay Area. There are many reasons why

undocumented Chinese immi-grants don’t apply for DACA, she said.

Chinese people often feel shame and embarrassment at not having legal status. “People just don’t want to share infor-mation about their immigra-tion status or how they came to the US if they are undocu-mented," she said.

Also, potential applicants face pressure from other fam-ily members. “Their parents who are not eligible to apply for DACA have concerns that they might be at greater risk for deportation if their children fi ll out the application,” said Lin.

“Many undocumented peo-ple are still living in fear, and

one of the fi rst things we need to do is lift their concerns,” said Lin, noting that the $465 appli-cation fee for DACA is also a financial burden for some potential applicants.

Most importantly, the low degree of visibility of the DACA program in the Chinese-speak-ing media makes it difficult to educate the target undocu-mented immigrants, she added.

“We would like to have a con-versation with Chinese media in the San Francisco Bay Area about why Chinese immigrants have the lowest enrollment rates and explore what jour-nalists can do to increase the awareness of DACA and Presi-dent Obama’s Executive Order for people eligible for DACA,” said Chiang.

Chinese youth shun immigration amnestyIMMIGRATION

By SUN XIAOCHENsunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn

Hosting soccer’s World Cup on home soil has long been a dream not only for Chinese fans, but also top leaders.

Chinese company Dalian Wanda Group’s latest acquisi-tion of Infront Sports & Media, an international sports mar-keter and soccer promoter, has taken a major step toward real-izing this.

The acquisition has also cemented the company’s status as a competent player in the global sports market.

On Tuesday, Dalian Wanda, a conglomerate operating in the property and entertainment sectors, said it had acquired Swiss-based sports marketing giant Infront from European private equity company Bridge-point for about $1.2 billion.

The acquisition sees Wan-da take a 68.2 percent stake in Infront, which focuses on

distributing media rights for broadcasting sporting events including the FIFA World Cup and several Winter Olympic sports.

Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin said that by using expertise from Infront, Wanda expects to better support the development of soccer in Chi-na and to tap into the lucrative sports industry.

China is far from being quali-

fi ed to host the World Cup due to the level of soccer develop-ment in the country, Wang said at the signing ceremony for the deal onTuesday.

“But Infronthas strengthin soccer promotional expertise and resources. I believe we can accelerate our progress to real-izing the dream of hosting the World Cup, as our top leader expects, through the new part-nership.”

In 2011, then vice president Xi Jinping said his three wishes for Chinese soccer were qualify-ing for the World Cup, hosting the tournament and ultimately winning it.

Wa n d a ’s a c q u i s i t i o n of Infront comes after it announced a 45million euro ($52 million) investment in Spanish soccer champions Atletico Madrid last month, its fi rst overseas sports deal.

Wang said, “The growing sports market in China was the main motive for us to purchase

Infront and to shift our focus fromthe traditional property business to the sports and cul-ture industry.”

Philippe Blatter, Infront’s president and CEO and the nephew of FIFA President Sepp Blatter, also has high expecta-tions for the potential of China’s sports industry.

“With Wanda, we are com-mitted to tackling a variety of major expansions worldwide with the aim of strengthening our position in the global sports market,” said Blatter, who will continue to operate the agency with his management teamun-til 2020.

Zhang Qing, founder of sports marketing agency Key-Sports, said that by acquiring Infront, Wanda will be best positioned to support China in its bid to host the 2022 Win-ter Olympics by using Infront’s connections to all seven Olym-pic winter sports federations and various rights holders.

Wanda’s sports purchase boosts China’s World Cup ambitions

Wang Jianlin, Wanda Group chairman

By HUA SHENGDUNin Washington

An exhibition of modern Chinese ink painting reborn from its 1,000-year tradition made its New Year debut at the University of Maryland on Tuesday.

The exhibition — Reshuf-fl ing the Past: 2015 Contem-porary Chinese Ink Art — con-sists of works by eight con-temporary Chinese artists and is co-hosted by the university’s gallery and the Confucius Institute of Maryland

“It’s a very special exhibi-tion, made possible by the sponsorship of Hanban,” said UMD President Wallace Loh, who opened the exhibition, which also served as the presi-dent’s reception event for Chi-nese New Year. “We are very proud that our university had the fi rst Confucius Institute in the US.”

“It’s been my pleasure to open the culture door to a modern twist in honor of the artistic Chinese tradition,” Donna Wiseman, dean of UMD’s College of Education and director of the Confucius Institute, told a crowd of more than 200 guests, faculty mem-bers and students.

“It’s an important exhibit to an overall plan of extending cultural learning and to overall China-US relations,” she said.

This group installation fea-tures 40 works of Chinese art-ists Huai Yi, Jin Weihong, Li Jin, Liu Qinghe, Qian Zhongping, Shen Qin, Wu Yi and Yi Liao.

“While most collections of

Chinese ink painting in major museums in Europe and the US focus on its classic forms, this exhibition highlights modern and contemporary examples,” curator Jin Wei-hong told China Daily.

Jin said Chinese art has its own way of expression and she expects more similar exchang-es between East and West.

“Most students here at the UMD are more familiar with the traditional aspects of Chi-nese calligraphy and paint-ing, but not so much with the contemporary practice,” said Taras Matla, the art adminis-tration manager of the gallery.

“We hope that the exhibi-tion can express a different version of Chinese art and culture and let American people know more about modern Chinese culture,” said Cui Jianxin, organizer and co-director of the Confucius Institute, adding that this was the fi rst time a show of this kind had gone overseas.

James Gao, professor of his-tory at UMD, was impressed by the innovative approach of the artwork exhibited. “The paintings granted various fl avors, ranging from every-day life to showcasing artistic expression,” said Gao.

Following its University of Maryland debut, the exhibi-tion will travel to the Roberson Museum and Science Center in Binghamton, New York, and the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College.

Sheng Yang in Washington contributed to this story.

Visitors view the exhibition Reshuffl ing the Past: 2015 Contemporary Chinese Ink Art, consisting of works by eight acclaimed contemporary Chinese artists. The exhibition opened at the University of Maryland on Tuesday. CAI CHUNYING / CHINA DAILY

New ink debuts in Maryland

ART

BUSINESS

Beginning of a year

Maryland State Senator Susan Lee (left) presents a citation to Lisa Liu (center), president of the US-China Association of Commerce, during the Spring Festival Celebration held by the association on Tuesday evening in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Maryland State Senator Jim Rosapepe looked on. LIU CHANG / CHINA DAILY

CHINACHINA DAILY USA » CHINADAILYUSA.COM

4 Wednesday, February 11, 2015

BEIJING

Science progressgiven recognitionThe Ministry of Science andTechnology unveiled the top 10domestic science and technolo-gy breakthroughs for 2014 onTuesday in Beijing. The break-throughs include a remote-con-trolled deep-sea submersiblethat can go up to 4,502 metersunder the sea.

GUANGDONG

Top politicaladviser namedWang Rong, Party chief ofShenzhen, was elected chair-man of the Guangdong Provin-cial Committee of the ChinesePeople’s Political ConsultativeConference during the 11th ses-

sion of the province’s politicaladvisory body on Tuesday.Wang, 56, replaces Zhu Ming-guo, who was sacked in Novem-ber and placed underinvestigation for alleged seriousviolations of Party disciplineand laws.

Drug traffickingring broken upA cross-regional actiondestroyed a transnational drugtrafficking group by ferretingout a total of 106 kg of metham-phetamine and arresting sevensuspects, including three fromHong Kong and four fromSoutheast Asian countries,according to Shenzhen Cus-toms on Tuesday. Customs offi-cials in Shenzhen, Hong Kongand New Zealand, along withAustralian police, carried outthe action, Wang Zhi, deputy

commissioner of ShenzhenCustoms, said.

HUBEI

Express companydelivered methA manager from QuanfengExpress Co helped a traffickerdeliver drugs, China Central Tel-evision reported on Sunday. Thetrafficker, surnamed Bai, con-fessed that he paid Zhang, themanager of the Yidu branch ofthe company, 6,000 yuan ($960)every month to deliver meth-amphetamine hidden in teaproducts. Bai and Zhang werearrested after police launched acrackdown on online drug traf-ficking in Zhejiang, Hubei andAnhui provinces. A total of 54people were arrested.

XINHUA—CHINA DAILY

Briefly

JUSTICE

Ex-officials, wealthy‘got out of jail early’Investigation launched to closeloopholes, ensure judicial fairness

By ZHANGYANzhangyan1@chinadaily.com.cn

Many ex-senior officials orwealthy people have hadtheir prison sentences ille-gally commuted, an investi-gation by the SupremePeople’s Procuratorate hasfound.

The Supreme People’sProcuratorate launched theinvestigation in March toclose loopholes in the prisonsystem and improve judicialfairness and credibility.

“Many of the inmates whowere found guilty of duty-re-lated or economic crimes, orinvolving mafia-like gangs,have been released on paroleor had their sentences illegal-ly commuted,” Yuan Qiguo,director of the SPP’s prisonmanagement bureau, said onTuesday.

During the investigation,prosecutors obtained 470such reports from the publicand media, mostly involvinginmates charged with duty-related or economic crimes,Yuan said.

“Compared with commonconvicts, they will get a longcommutation of their senten-

ces or conditional release,and some of them find waysto accumulate fake pointsthat contribute to gettingtheir sentences reduced,” hesaid.

In addition, some con-victs submitted fake medi-cal certificates requiringthem to serve their senten-ces outside, according toYuan.

Under the Criminal Law,if inmates behave well orare credited with “meritori-ous achievements”, they willbe eligible for reduced sen-tences or conditionalrelease.

If convictsarediagnosedashaving serious illnesses, suchas cancer, heart disease orhigh blood pressure, they canapply to serve their sentencesoutside to receive medicaltreatment.

After conducting initialinvestigations, prison

departments will submitthe documents of inmateswho apply for commutationof their sentences to thelocal superior court for anew judgment. After thecourts issue a new ruling,the commutation will takeeffect.

According to the SPP, pros-ecutors also investigated anumber of law enforcementofficials who received hugebribes to help convictsobtain commutations,including Sun Hai, formerdeputy head of the HebeiProvincial Prison Manage-ment Bureau, and Liu Xian-ming, former head of thepublic security departmentin Cexiang county, Guizhouprovince.

The prosecuting depart-ments will conduct thoroughinvestigations and carefullyexamine the illegal commu-tation of sentences for ex-offi-cials and wealthy people toensure justice is done, Yuansaid.

Apart from strengthenedsupervision over convictswho apply for commuta-tion, the courts should alsohold open court hearingsand publicize the verdictsonline to improve transpar-ency, said lawyer Li Weifrom the Beijing LawyersAssociation.

BUSINESS

Alibaba head meets with regulatorsBy XUWEIxuwei@chinadaily.com.cn

The head of China’s quali-ty watchdog met with Aliba-ba chairman Jack Ma onMonday as the e-commercegiant held its second meet-ing with regulatory authori-ties to discuss the crackdown

on fake and shoddy prod-ucts.

Zhi Shuping, minister of theGeneral Administration ofQuality Supervision, Inspec-tion and Quarantine, said inthe meeting that e-commerceplatforms must take meas-ures to tackle problems ofcounterfeit products andensure the quality of productsthey sell, according to a state-ment released by the qualitywatchdog on Tuesday.

Ma met Zhang Mao, minis-ter of the State Administrationfor Industry and Commerce,on Jan 30 after the market reg-ulator blasted the company’sfailure to exert effective super-vision on Taobao.com, China’slargest consumer-to-consum-er platform, which is ownedby Alibaba.

“Product quality is an essen-tial part of a healthy e-com-merce industry. Counterfeitproducts sold online will notonly harm the interests of con-sumers, but also damage thereputation of the country,” Zhisaid.

“As the world’s leading

e-commerce company, Alibabashouldattachmoreimportancetothequalityofproducts…andundertake more social respon-sibilityandprotect the interestsof consumers,” he said.

He added that the qualitywatchdog has established aplan for supervision of e-com-merce activities that involvespurchasing products throughonline platforms and tracingthem to the factories if theproducts are counterfeit.

The General Administrationof Quality Supervision, Inspec-tion and Quarantine is incharge of product quality dur-ing the production process,while the State Administrationfor Industry and Commerce isin charge of market activitiesandthequalityofcommoditiesduring distribution.

Ma said Alibaba has madeefforts to combat counterfeitproducts,buttherearestilldefi-ciencies and room for furtherimprovement. The companywill work closely with regulato-ry authorities to crack down onfake products, he added.

Ma made a similar promise

to work with governmentdepartments and devote moreefforts to weed out fake goodsduring the meeting withZhang last month.

That meeting also put anend to a highly unusual epi-sode in which Taobao staffpublicly clashed with the mar-ket regulator.

The row started when thecommerce authority releaseda report on its website on Jan23, blaming unnamed onlineshopping platforms for failingto supervise products and ser-vices that infringed upontrademarks, as well as for sub-standard or fake products.

However, it escalated afterTaobao released an open letteron its micro blog accusing LiuHongliang, who is in charge ofregulating online trade at theadministration, of “using awrong method and reaching aconclusionthatisnotobjective.”

The regulator responded byreleasing a report directly con-demning Taobao for failing toclean up what it called illegalbusiness deals on the e-com-merce titan’s platforms.

Yuan Qiguo,director of theSPP’s prisonmanagementbureau

CHARITY

Former premier makes list of top donorsBy ZHENGJINRANzhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn

Former premier Zhu Rongjiwas recognized as one of thecountry’s most generousdonors by the China Philan-thropy Research Institute ofBeijing Normal University.

Zhu,87,donated15.2millionyuan ($2.43 million) to thePractical Education Founda-tion in 2014, ranking 82nd outof the 100 donors, according tothe institute.

He had previously made thelist in 2013.

Zhu, who served as premierfrom 1998 to 2003, wrote sev-eral books, including ZhuRongji Meets the Press andZhu Rongji’s Answers to Jour-nalists’ Questions. The booksbecame best-sellers.

He said he would donate allthe money from his books topublic welfare to help poor stu-dents in poverty-stricken areas.

“It’s impressive to see aformer national leader givingsuch a donation, bringing himcloser to the people,” said TaoChuanjin, director of theResearch Center of Philan-thropy and Social Enterpriseat Beijing Normal University.

Total donations from the100 on the list hit a record 30.4billion yuan in 2014, anincrease of 15.7 billion yuanover 2013.

Twenty-four on the list con-tributed more than 100 mil-lionyuantocharity,up from18in 2011 when the institutemade its first list of donors.

Jack Ma, the billionaire CEOof Alibaba, the country’s larg-est e-commerce group, donat-ed 35 million shares worth16.9 billion yuan, making Mathe most generous donor onthe list.

Alibaba Chief FinancialOfficer Joseph Tsai was secondon the list after donating 15

millionsharesequal to7.24bil-lion yuan.

One-quarter of the donorswere from Guangdong prov-ince, and donations to over-seas charities (24.2 billionyuan) surpassed those given

domestically for the first time.“It shows that there is no

boundary to charity,” said Tao,adding that it may be relatedto the imperfect charity sys-tem in China, which has driv-en them away.

A reader browses Zhu Rongji’s Answers to Journalists’ Questions atWangfujing Bookstore in Beijing on Tuesday.WANG JING / CHINA DAILY

CHINA 5CHINA DAILY USA Wednesday, February 11, 2015

By WANG XIAODONGwangxiaodong@chinadaily.com.cn

China’s anticorruption authority reprimanded two central government ministries on Tuesday for poor manage-ment and bad behavior among their staff members.

In a rare move, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection issued statements leveling criticism at two highly placed ministerial-level government bodies - the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The Ministry of Culture appointed a new minister recently, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection may soon change its min-ister, according to sources

close to the central govern-ment.

Ministers at the two minis-tries are members of the State Council, China’s Cabinet.

A statement on the com-mission’s website said that problems found at the Minis-try of Environmental Protec-tion included violations of the law, lax supervision and corruption.

Ji Lin, head of the third central disciplinary inspec-tion team, attended a meet-ing of senior officials from the ministry on Monday.

Ji said at the meeting that corruption and a lack of supervision are behind wide-spread violations of the law and regulations in environ-mental assessments of devel-opment projects.

This includes construc-

tion being carried out before approval is granted, or proj-ects being modifi ed without approval from environmen-tal authorities, Ji said.

Monday’s meeting was also attended by Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian, the state-ment said.

Ji addressed the meet-ing to give feedback to the ministry on the results of an inspection into it late last year.

“Some leaders, officials and their relatives interfered with the environmental assessment process of devel-opment projects, and even went so far as to set up com-panies to seek profit from winning contracts for proj-ects where environmental assessment was required,” Ji said.

Th e inspection team also received tipoffs about sus-pected corruption among some offi cials, the statement

said.In a separate statement,

the commission pointed to problems found at the Ministry of Culture. Th ese included management fail-ures at enterprises affi liated with the ministry —caus-ing a loss of State assets and risk of corruption — and an excessive number of arts events being awarded.

Liu Wei, head of the sec-ond central disciplinary inspection team, said at a meeting on Monday: “Some of f ic ia l s used minis tr y resources for business and to seek profit, infringing regulations. ...Management (at the ministr y) is not strict and officials tend to spend an excessive amount of time entertaining them-selves.”

The inspection teams asked the two ministries to attach importance to the problems and to rectify them properly.

DISCIPLINE

Ministries rebuked for fl awsInspections uncover poor management and bad behavior among staff members

By PAULINE D. LOH

It was an excellent score sheet, with straights A’s in all major subjects, but notable room for improvement in others. That is the annual report card given by top for-eign experts gathered for a pre-Lunar New Year meet-ing and dinner with Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People.

Now that the stomach is sat-

isfi ed, it is time to pay atten-tion to heart, mind and soul.

Famous American futurist author of Mega-Trends John Naisbitt summed it up as he predicted world economic trends for the next quarter of a century.

“We call it the Global Game Change, and the game-changer is going to be China.

“It is bound to face strong headwinds of resistance, but the Middle Kingdom is back.”

These headwinds, Nais-bitt said, can be weakened by better communications, and the onus is on China.

“It is the responsibility of the sender to make the mes-

sage understood.”What Naisbitt said cer-

tainly resonated with many of the foreign experts pres-ent at Tuesday’s meeting. Among the 15 who spoke or asked questions, several peppered their speeches with three themes they thought were important if China is to go striding for-ward: global integration, communications and trans-parency.

All three points are logi-cally linked, and no one knew better than the hand-ful of media foreign experts invited to join their col-leagues in the sciences and engineering this year.

China Daily, too, partici-pated in the symposium for the fi rst time, with two for-eign experts from editorial — working journalists who have to deal with these too familiar issues every day.

Foreign experts deliver China’s report card: it’s all A’s, but...

By ZHAO LEIzhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn

The countr y ’s e ig ht non-Communist parties will play a bigger role in decision-making and the creation of important poli-cies, and their views will be solicited on key gov-ernment posts, according to a new set of guidelines issued by the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The guidelines aim to promote “consultat ive democracy”, a unique sys-tem largely embodied by the political advisory sys-tem that features multipar-ty cooperation and politi-cal consultation under the leadership of the CPC.

The document defines consultative democracy as an important democratic pattern in which all sec-tions of society are con-sulted on major issues of reform, development and stability before and during the policymaking process.

Th e guidelines stipulate that symposiums must be held before the CPC and the central government release important deci-sions or make appoint-ments to key posts. Such meetings will be presided over by the CPC’s top lead-ers.

Conferences will also be opened when a non-

Communist party has pro-posals or research fi ndings pertaining to significant issues, with senior lead-ers of the CPC hosting the meetings.

The CPC said central committees of the non-Communist parties and their leaders should raise c onc e r ns and subm it advice to the CPC Cen-tral Committee and the State Council. Leaders of the non-Communist par-ties will be invited to take part in senior CPC leaders’ domestic inspections and major diplomatic events, according to the guide-lines.

People’s congresses, the country’s legislative bod-ies, are urged to conduct comprehensive inspec-tions, deliberations and discussions when making complicated or contro-versial laws and regula-tions. Central government departments and local authorities are also asked to solicit opinions from members of the public in dealing with important public issues.

“The issuance of the guidelines can substan-tially boost consultative democracy, which will facilitate the CPC’s eff ort to deepen the overa l l reforms,” said Li Junru, a senior expert on China’s political advisory system.

Party reinforces ‘consultative’ system of govt

POLITICS

Some offi cials used ministry resources for business and to seek profi t, infringing regulations. Liu Wei, head of the second central disciplinary inspection team

PaulineD. LohSECOND THOUGHS

6 WORLD Wednesday, February 11, 2015 CHINA DAILY USA

JAPAN

Foreign aidcan assistarmed forcesCabinet approves guidelines ascountry seeks clout in diplomacy

By AGENCIES in Tokyo

Seeking a more assertivediplomatic and nationalsecurity role internationally,Japan’s Cabinet adopted onTuesday new guidelines forinternational aid that for thefirst time clearly state that itwill allow supplying provi-sions to foreignarmedforces,although for nonmilitarypurposes only.

The guidelines said Japanshould prioritize aid toSoutheast Asia to strengthencooperation in the region.

It said Japan should spendaid money more effectivelyto serve its national interestsamid limited budgets andsporadic efforts to boost theeconomy.

Japan, for instance, plansto continue giving assistanceto Caribbean island coun-tries, many of them support-ers of its campaign forcommercial whaling, a Japa-nese Foreign Ministry offi-cial said on condition ofanonymity before the officialrelease of the guidelines.

The changes, the first in 12years, are in line with Japa-nese Prime Minister ShinzoAbe’s push to bolster Japan’sinternational role in diplo-macy and national security.

“Taking into considerationthat armed forces are increas-ingly playing major roles inpost-conflict reconstructionand disaster relief efforts, wespecified our policy regardingnonmilitary projects,” Japa-nese Foreign Minister FumioKishida told reporters.

The guidelines said thatJapan’s pacifist aid policyremains unchanged and thateach provision will be scruti-nized carefully, although itraised concerns aboutwhether Japan can ensure

that the money is not fun-neled into military use.

Japan will also expandhumanitarian assistance tocountries fighting againstterrorism, such as the $200million aid Abe pledged lastmonth to six Middle Easterncountries fighting againstIslamic State extremists.

Days later, the militantgroup demanded that Japanpay that same amount in ran-somfor twoJapanesecitizensin a hostage crisis that endedwith the beheading of both.

Self-imposed banAbe’s Cabinet last year

eased a self-imposed ban onmilitary exports, and adopteda new interpretation ofJapan’s war-renouncing Con-stitution to allow Japan todefend its top ally, the UnitedStates, or other nations incase of a foreign attack. Par-liamentary approval of neces-sary legislation is still neededfor the change to take effect.Japan currently can use forceonly for its own self-defense.

With regional and globalsecurity environmentsbecoming more dangerous,the guidelines said no singlenation can defend its ownpeace and stability alone.

“Development assistanceis one of the most effectivetools and is significant as ‘aninvestment for the future’,”the guidelines said, referringto diplomacy.

Last year, Japan signeddeals with the Philippinesand Vietnam to providecoast guard vessels.

Japan’s developmentassistance budget peaked in1997 at 1.17 trillion yen ($10billion), but dropped to 550billion yen by in 2014.

AP—XINHUA

INDIA

Landslide ends PM Modi’s honeymoonBy AGENCIES in New Delhi

An anti-establishment partycrushed India’s ruling Bharati-ya Janata Party in an electionfor the Delhi assembly onTuesday, smashing an aura ofinvincibility built aroundPrime Minister NarendraModi since he swept to powerlast year.

With the vote of the mainnational opposition CongressParty collapsing, the AamAad-mi Party, or Common ManParty, was set to capture morethan 90 percent of the seats inDelhi, in what Modi’s criticssaid was a warning against thepartisan politics of Hinduhard-liners in his fold.

Winning power in India’sstates is critical for control ofthe upper house of Parlia-ment, where Modi’s partylacks a majority and has beenthwarted in its effort to passreforms, including wideropening up of the insurancesector.

Delhi is a small state, buthigh profile, and such a com-prehensivedefeat in thecapitalis a blow to the BJP’s ambitionsto capture India’s second mostpopulous state, Bihar, in anelection later this year.

The Aam Aadmi Party, ledby former tax inspector Arv-ind Kejriwal and campaigningon a platform of pro-poor poli-cies and clean government,was set to win 65 seats out of70 seats in the Delhi assembly,NDTV projected.

The Congress Party, theBJP’s main nationwide chal-lenger, failed to win a singleseat, underlining how far theGandhi dynasty has fallen.

The BJP, seen as a party oftraders and big business, hadslumped to 4 seats, its worstshowing ever, with its chief

minister candidate andformer Director General ofPolice Kiran Bedi failing towin her own seat.

Modi, who threw himselfinto the campaign, congratu-lated Kejriwal and said in aTwitter post he was ready towork with him for the devel-opment of the city of morethan 15 million people.

“While Delhi is not very sig-nificant in electoral terms, aBJP loss there shatters thepopular narrative around theBJP’s invincibility,” said MilanVaishnav, an associate at theCarnegie Endowment for

International Peace.“A loss in Delhi certainly sig-

nals an end to Modi’s honey-moon. Furthermore, becauseit is the capital city, an opposi-tion government, especiallyone led by the confrontationalAAP, would be a constantthorn in the Modi govern-ment’s side.”

Hundreds of supporters ofthe AAP swarmed into itsoffice, wearing their trade-mark boat-shaped white caps,and showered their leaderswith flower petals.

India’s main stock exchangeshrugged off the BJP’s defeat,

rising more than 1 percent, astraders turned their sights to areform-friendly federal bud-get that the Modi governmentis expected to unveil in parlia-ment later this month.

Social tensionsModi swept to power with

the biggest national electionvictory in three decades lastyear, promising to revitalizeIndia’s economy. His BJP haswon a string of big states inrecent months.

While he has sought to fixgovernance and tried to pushthrough reform legislation by

executive decree after theopposition blocked him inparliament, corporate invest-ment has yet to revive, waitingfor structural reforms in theeconomy.

Meanwhile, social tensionshave risen as Hindu hard-linegroups tied to the BJP becomemore emboldened, rowingwith Muslim minority groupsover religious conversions.Christian groups have alsosought greater police protec-tion after a series of attacks onchurches.

REUTERS—AFP—AP

Indian Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal (center) walks through a group of supporters as they celebrate his victory in the state assemblyelections outside the party's headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conceded defeat in the Delhi stateelections as early results showed anti-corruption campaigner Kejriwal's party set for a victory. PRAKASH SINGH / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

SOUTH KOREA

Sewol captainguilty of murder,prosecutors sayBy AGENCEFRANCE-PRESSE in Seoul

The captain of the Sewolferry that sank in April withthe loss of 304 lives, mostlystudents from the same highschool, murdered his passen-gers by intentionally aban-doningthemtocertaindeath,a South Korean appeals courtheard on Tuesday.

Prosecutors argued for ahomicide conviction at thefirst in a series of hearingsthat will include appealsfrom both the prosecutionand defense in the case ofCaptain Lee Jun-seok and 14of his surviving crew.

The 15 defendants werehanded jail terms in Novem-ber ranging from five to 36years for their roles in thetragedy, which plunged theentire country into a lengthyperiod of mourning.

The 36-year sentence wasimposed on Lee, who wasconvicted of gross negligenceand dereliction of duty, butacquitted of a more serioushomicide charge along withtwo crew members.

The prosecution wants thehigher court to reconsiderthe dismissed homicidecharges, while the defend-ants are appealing their con-victions and the severity ofthe sentences.

The crew neglected theirduty to rescue passengers“even though they knew theywould die”, one of the prose-cutors told the high court inthesoutherncityofGwangju.

“So it was an intentionalmurder,” the prosecutor wasquoted as saying by the Yon-hap news agency.

The notion of “intention”is at the core of the appealslodged by both sides.

Dismissing homicide char-ges against Lee and two crewmembers in November, the

lower court ruled prosecutorshadfailedtoprovethedefend-ants abandoned the ship withthe knowledge that the pas-sengers would die as a result.

The exception was theship’s chief engineer, whowas convicted of homicidefor specifically failing to helptwo injured crew memberswho then drowned.

Man-made tragedyThe Sewol was carrying

476 people when it capsizedoff South Korea’s southerncoast on April 16. Of the 304who died, 250 were studentsfrom the same high school.

The tragedy shocked andenraged the country as itbecame clear that it wasalmost entirely man-made —the result of an illegal rede-sign, an overloaded cargobay, an inexperienced crewand unhealthy connectionsbetween operators and stateregulators.

Lee and his crew werepublicly vilified — especiallyafter video footage emergedshowing them escaping thevessel while hundredsremained trapped on board.

Relatives of the victims saidLee and senior crew membersdeserve thedeathpenalty.

A verdict is expected onApril 28.

MALAYSIA

High court upholdsopposition leader’ssodomy convictionBy AGENCIESin Putrajaya, Malaysia

Malaysia’s highest courtupheld a sodomy convictionand five-year jail term onTuesday for Anwar Ibrahim,throwingtheopposition lead-er’s political future into perilwith a decision that he angri-ly denounced as a conspiracy.

Chief Justice Arifin Zakariadismissed Anwar’s challengeof last year’s conviction forsodomizing a young maleformer aide, saying the courtfound “overwhelming evi-dence” of the crime.

Sodomyispunishablebyupto 20 years in prison in Mus-lim-majority Malaysia andAnwar was expected to beginhis sentence immediately.

Arifin read his judgmentsout to a stunned courtroompackedwithjournalists,oppo-sition figures and Anwar’sfamily and supporters, manyof whom wept quietly.

Anwarlatertooktothedockand attacked the federal courtpanel of justices for takingpart in a “political conspiracy”by Malaysia’s government.

“In bowing to the dictatesof your political masters, youhave become partners to thecrime,” he said.

“You have chosen to be onthe dark side.”

Angered, the judgesabruptly got up to leave, withAnwar shouting at them asthey exited.

“I will not be silenced! Iwill never surrender!”

The UN Human Rightsoffice and Australia said theywere disappointed by theruling.

Government critics say thecase is part of a long-runningcampaign to destroy Anwar,a formerdeputypremierwhowas ousted from the rulingparty in the late 1990s andlater helped unite a previous-ly divided and hapless oppo-sition intoa formidable force.

‘Day of infamy’“It’s a day of infamy. It’s a

shocking decision,” senioropposition parliamentarianLim Kit Siang said.

Now 67, he would notemerge from prison untilthe age of 72 if he serves thefull term.

Hundreds of Anwar sup-porters had gathered outsidethe court since before the rul-ing, chanting, “Free Anwar!”and “Reformasi!”, the long-time clarion call of the move-ment to unseat the country’s58-year-old government.

AFP—REUTERS—XINHUA

TECHNOLOGY

Samsung reveals potentialfor smart TVs to eavesdropBy ASSOCIATEDPRESSin Seoul

Watch what you say in yourliving room. Samsung’s smartTV could be listening. Andsharing.

Voice recognition technolo-gy in theSouthKoreancompa-ny’s Internet-connected TVscaptures and transmits nearbyconversations.

The potential for TVs toeavesdrop is revealed in Sam-sung’s smart TV privacy policyavailable on its website.

“Please be aware that if yourspoken words include person-al or other sensitive informa-tion, that information will beamong the data captured and

transmitted to a third partythrough your use of voice rec-ognition,” the policy said.

For the voice command fea-ture to work, the TV listens forspeech to be translated bythird-party software into textand sent back to the TV as acommand. Samsung declinedto name the software compa-ny. The TV also transmits oth-er information including itsunique identifier.

Samsung said data collec-tion is aimed at improving TVperformance but users candisable it.

In a statement, the companysaid it takes consumer privacy“very seriously”.

“We employ industry-stan-

dard security safeguards andpractices, including dataencryption, to secure consum-ers’ personal information andprevent unauthorized collec-tion or use,” it said.

It is not the first time thatsmart TVs have sparked priva-cy concerns. In 2013, the own-er of an LG Electronics smartTV revealed it was sendinginformation about his viewinghabits back to the companywithout consent and withoutencrypting data.

LG has also experimentedwith displaying targeted adson its smart TVs, whichrequires collecting and utiliz-ing user data, such as location,age and gender.

I’LL CALL BACK

Monsoon rains have flooded many parts of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, leaving commuters strandedand causing traffic chaos. One man crossed a submerged road on Tuesday by putting his motorcycle ontoa cart — and still managed to take a call on his cellphone. BAY ISMOYO / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

(They neglectedtheir duty to rescuethe passengers) eventhough they knewthey would die.”a prosecutor told the high courtin the city of Gwangju

Wednesday, February 11, 2015 7

LIFE TRAVELCHINA DAILY USA » CHINADAILYUSA.COM

VESSEL OF CULTUREJingdezhen has forcenturies remained areceptacle of Chineseporcelain culture. Thecity lures artists fromhome and abroad,who flock to China’schina capital to create.Yang Feiyue reports.

PORCELAIN CAPITAL

P erhaps nothing better rep-resents China than china.And perhaps no place rep-resentsChina’s chinabetter

than Jiangxi province’s Jingdezhen,hailed as the country’s “porcelaincapital” since ancient times.

Travelers visit the city’s ancientkilns in a park that displays the his-torical legacy surrounding the set-tlement’s porcelain production.

I was stunned to see an elderlyman effortlessly carry about six-dozen bowls on a specially madewooden shelf.

Then I watched Wang Yanshengspin a lump of yellow clay into abowl at the park’s production-dem-onstration site. The man in his late70s started making porcelain at age11 and has devoted his life to thetrade.

“What matters most is persever-ance and the pursuit of perfection,”Wang says.

He explains he’s still learning andinnovating.

The demonstration site is nestledin a nearly 200-meter-long alley.

It shows each step, includingshaping, trimming and painting.

Wang Shenfang, who has paintedunfired pieces for three decades,decorates ceramic works with teaflowers and sickles with quick flicksof her brush. Her brush seems todanceas she finishesabowl inabouthalf a minute.

The park houses kilns from theQing (1644-1911), Ming (1368-1644),Yuan (1271-1368) and Song (960-1279) dynasties. The gray-brick fur-naces are fired up for demos onCultural Heritage Day on the secondSaturday of June and the JingdezhenInternational Ceramic Fair every Oct18-20.

The park also hosts porcelainmusical-instrument performances.

Jingdezhen’s historical legacydraws contemporary artists fromaround the world. They congregatein Dongshi district, where they oper-ate studios and galleries in a modernporcelain plant.

Many foreigners come during theApril-July and September-Octoberperiods, a plant worker says.

Seoul native Jung Gilyoung haslived in Jingdezhen for three years.

“I could only make small pieces in

South Korea because of technicalrestrictions,” the 55-year-old says.

“But the skilled craftspeople heremake large pieces possible.”

Jung’s works incorporate sculp-ting and painting.

Australian Naoko Yehenara cre-ates modern pieces depicting herhomeland’s flowers, birds and blueskies, and flower arrangements inporcelain vases.

She’s constructing an exhibitionroom.

“Jingdezhen is a sacred place forporcelain,” she says.

“The atmosphere makes me much

more creative.”She stays in the city for half of

every year.“Back in Australia, I had to do

everything, from casting earthen-ware to firing,” she says.

“It was exhausting. I could onlymake a few pieces a month.”

She used to ask her students tohelp. But they can’t compare to Jing-dezhen’s skilled craftspeople.

Yehenara hires locals to reproducemolds she makes on larger scales.

“I can find the best materials here,which can endure high tempera-tures,” she says.

“That’s crucial to bringing out thedistinctive colors.”

The presence of foreign artists hasgiven the city an international flair.

Yehenara says she often runs intoold friends from elsewhere in Jing-dezhen, including one she hadn’tseen in five years.

Many foreigners visit the week-end porcelain fairs.

Visitors can easily see how porce-lain continues to sculpt Jingdez-hen’s legacy.

Contact the writer atyangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn

MOVIE SET

Spotlight on Staten Islandtheater in Pacino filmBy ASSOCIATEDPRESSin New York

A new movie starring Al Pacinoas an aging actor was partly shot ata grand old theater on StatenIsland with an interesting history.

Pacino performs several scenesin The Humbling on the stage ofthe St. George Theatre, which islocated about a half-mile fromwhere Staten Island’s famous fer-ries cruise past the Statue of Liber-ty to Lower Manhattan.

In one scene shot at the St.George, Pacino throws himself offthe stage into the audience; inanother, he has a confrontationwith an old friend, Dianne Wiest,in the orchestra.

The theater has been used as afilm set in other movies such asThe School of Rock and for TVshows including Gossip Girl, Got-ham and Smash.

“Film crews like our locationsince it is under the radar but yetstill in New York City,” says WayneMiller, the theater’s executivedirector. “Certainly, an actor of AlPacino’s renown could not film anoutdoor scene near a public streetwithout a mob, and yet he filmeda scene in our stage door alleywith no gathering of paparazzi.”

Chellsey Cruz, a spokeswomanfor the movie, says the St. Georgewas chosen because “it’s grandenough to feel like Broadway”without the difficulty and expenseof shooting on Broadway. She addsthat director Barry Levinson“loved the look of it visually”.

The St. George Theatre openedin 1929 as a movie-and-vaudevillehouse that featured live perform-ers like Al Jolson, Kate Smith andGuy Lombardo. Its grand interioris decorated in a Spanish-Italianbaroque style with ornate chan-deliers, balconies with cast-ironrailings, ceilings and walls cov-ered in intricate gold-leaf andplaster designs. One wall is cov-

ered with a mural of a bullfight.Film scouts like the theater

because “it has a wow factor thathas a history behind it. It’s uniqueand magnificent,” says DoreenCugno, president of St. GeorgeTheatre Restoration.

The theater showed moviesuntil 1977. Over the next few dec-ades, efforts to operate it as a rollerrink, nightclub and antiquesshowroom failed.

In 2004, it was taken over by anot-for-profit organization found-ed by Cugno’s mother, RosemaryCappozalo. It now hosts headlin-ers like Tony Bennett and JerrySeinfeld as well as local events likegraduations. The theater is tempo-rarily closed for renovations butwill reopen this spring.

The neighborhood around thetheater is likely to get a boostwhen a massive Ferris wheelopens on the nearby waterfront,part of a complex of shops andother attractions that is expectedto draw tourists. Groundbreakingfor the New York Wheel is expect-ed this year.

Al Pacino stars as Simon Axler inThe Humbling. The movie filmedscenes in the St. George Theatreon the Staten Island borough ofNew York. CHRISTIE MULLEN / AP

GAME-BUILDING

Solve puzzles or geteaten by a ‘zombie’By ASSOCIATEDPRESSin Detroit

A theater show offered in morethan a dozen cities across the USencourages participants to chan-nel their inner Sherlock Holmes inan end-of-the-world team game-building exercise.Trapped in aRoomWith a Zom-

bie is a “room-escape” experience,versions of which are offered inAtlanta, Chicago, Denver, LosAngeles, New York, Seattle andother cities.

During the show, up to a dozenpeople are ushered into a roomand locked inside for an houralongside a supposedly blood-thirsty zombie (played by anactor), who is chained to a wall.

Every five minutes, a buzzersounds, and the zombie is givenanother foot of chain, allowing thecreature to scamper closer to itsnext meal.

If participants don’t solve aseries of puzzles and riddles, thezombie eats everyone.

Rick Broida, the Detroit show’sexecutive producer, says: “Thezombie is there to add an adrena-line rush.”

He says Audrey Poe, who was ina group of seven people whoentered the room, “was trying tofind something fun and interest-ing to do” for her 30th birthdaywhen she read online aboutTrapped in aRoomwith a Zombie.

Poe’s group solved some clues,but not quickly enough to make itout “alive”.

“We almost got out,” she says,minutes after affixing her nametag to a wall reserved for thosewho didn’t “survive”.

About 30 percent of the groupsthat have taken part in the Detroitshow “survived”. The record timeso far is 58 minutes, 21 seconds.

“It always comes down to a raceto the finish with the zombie nip-ping at your heels, and everybody’strying to solve the last puzzle,”Broida says.

“It makes for a really excitingtime.”

A chained “zombie” reaches for participants as they play Trapped in aRoom With a Zombie. Up to a dozen people are locked in a room for an houralongside a role-playing actor who’s chained to a wall. CARLOS OSORIO / AP

If you go

• There’s only one direct flightfrom Beijing to Jingdezhen. Youcan otherwise fly to Jiangxi’sprovincial capital, Nanchang,and take a three-hour bus ride.Local food is spicy. The PrivateKitchen No 58 (0798-823-6777)on Zhushan district’s Lianshe-bei Road offers native fare atreasonable prices.• Zijing Hotel claims to offersome of the best accommoda-tion. It’s 8 kilometers from theJingdezhen Luojia Airport, 10 kmfrom the train station and 3 kmfrom downtown. It’s next to theJingdezhen Ceramic Museum.Zhan Xiangsheng demonstrates his craftsmanship of glazing the unburned

earthware at the Jingdezhen ancient kilns. Zhan, in his 70s, has devoted his lifeto the trade.

What matters most isperseverance and thepursuit of perfection.”Wang Yansheng,Jingdezhen ceramic craftswoman

Ancient kilns in a park in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province display the historical legacy of porcelain production. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

A performer uses Jingdezhen ceramics to create music.

8 LIFE | Books Wednesday, February 11, 2015 CHINA DAILY USA

GOOD OLD HOLIDAYSIn a new picture book, a 66-year-oldBeijinger recaptures the capital’sLunar New Year traditions forchildren, Xing Yi reports.

NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS

I n the Chinese lunarcalendar, the 23rdday of the 12th lunarmonth, which falls onFeb 11 this year, is the

“Little Chinese New Year”. Tra-ditionally, people will set offfirecrackers to bid farewell tothe Kitchen God who returnsto Heaven to report the activi-ties of every household overthe past year to the JadeEmperor.

However, such customshave lessened with time in thecity and might seem unfamil-iar to children nowadays.

In order to preserve tradi-tions for the next generation,Yu Dawu, a 66-year-old paint-er, recently published a pic-ture book, Spring Festival inBeijing, for children to seehow people used to celebratethe Chinese New Year.

Based on an essay by LaoShe (1899-1966), one of themost significant writers inmodern Chinese literature,the picture book starts from

the first holiday, La Ba, theeighth day of the 12th lunarmonth of the past year, whentradition says people shouldeat congee made of eightingredients to bring good for-tune in the coming year. Itconcludes with the LanternFestival on the 15th day of thefirst lunar month of the newyear, which marks the end ofthe Spring Festival.

In the book, Yu creates alocal family of four who live inan ordinary quadrangle court-yard, and readers follow thefamilyas it celebrates the festi-val traditions.

“I am an old Beijinger, sowhen I was drawing andpainting for this book, thememories of childhoodrushed into my mind,” recallsYuatabook-sharingpartyear-lier this week.

“The Spring Festival was afavorite time for children: Weposted handwritten coupletson both sides of the door,paper-cut with traditional

imagesonthewindow,andwesetoff firecrackers,putonnewclothes, and went to the tem-ple fairs where there were allkinds of toys and snacks.”

Yu’s drawings revive thecapital’s old look: the city wall,gate towers and many fading

trades such as puppet showsand a knife-sharpening stall.

Although the festival in Bei-jing is not as lively as it used tobe, Yu believes the holiday’score concept hasn’t change:“Family reunions and the ear-nest hope for a better life in

the coming year remain thesame.”

Illustrating the book tookYu half a year, but the collec-tion of materials began muchearlier.

“I like roaming in thehutong in Beijing, and draw-

ing some sketches or takingphotos when I come uponbeautiful scenes,” says Yu, whogrew up in a hutong near oneof the city’s northern gates,Andingmen.

Yu learned traditional Chi-nese painting as a child, andbecame a painter and editorfor children’s book at People’sFine Arts Publishing House in1978.

As an old Beijinger, hisfavorite theme is the city’s cul-ture. He published anotherpicture book, Beijing — theCity on the Central Axis, in2012, inwhichYudrewthecityfrom a bird’s-eye view fromthe south to the north, fromspring to winter, and fromancient to modern times.

For his next book, Yu plansto paint hutong, the intricatesmall alleys that oncesprawled in the city’s down-town area. Many have beendemolished due to urbaniza-tion and the city’s renovationprogram.

“It’s inevitable that sometraditional things disappearas time passes,” says Yu. “It’smy pleasure to pass on the cul-ture to future generationswith my brush.”

Contact thewriter atxingyi@chinadaily.com.cn

CLASSIC REPRINTED

Longtime critic still best guide to London architectureBy GILESELGOODin London

Arguably the best guide toLondon published this seasonwas written nearly 50 yearsago.Nairn’s London by Ian

Nairn first appeared in 1966and has been reprinted afterfans of the idiosyncratic archi-tectural enthusiast mounted apublic campaign.

The author, a former RoyalAir Force fighter pilot whobadgered the editors of theArchitectural Review into giv-inghima jobandwhowentonto become the Observer’sarchitecture critic, died ofdrinking in 1983, aged 52.

Hemadehisnameasanagi-tator against poor-quality

buildings being thrown up aft-er the war, coining the derisiveterm “Subtopia” for the dam-age being inflicted on Britain’ssuburbs and starting a cam-paign against bad modernarchitecture called “Stop theArchitects Now”.

Nairn’s guide to the capitalcontains 450 entries describ-ing churches, galleries, offices,houses, monuments, bridges,markets, pubs and just abouteverything else betweenUxbridge to the west andDagenham in the east.

Most of the buildings hewrites about are still there,although inevitably some havesince changed use or disap-peared. He chose places thepublic could get into.

It’s an extraordinary cata-

logue, the product of anexhausting amount of legworkenlivened by a literary stylethat is waspish, informed andopinionated.

Elephant’s backsideFurther north, an early Vic-

torian development in Isling-ton, Milner Square, provokesan equally forthright reaction,this time negative.

“Not to be missed in thesense that you ought to tryFernet-Branca at least once,”Nairnsaysof thesquare’s strik-ing yellow brickwork andwhite pilasters. “It is as near toexpressing evil as a design canbe.”

Highgate cemetery, thenorth London necropoliswhere Karl Marx’s body lies

and a popular spot for Sundaystrollers, also comes in forsome criticism.

“This is the creepiest placein London,” writes Nairn.“Nothing seems real but deathat its creepiest and clammiest.The cemetery closes wellbefore dark, and a good jobtoo.”

Not much escapes Nairn’snotice. Of the Albert Memori-al, Queen Victoria’s elaborateKensington tribute to herPrince Consort, Nairn says:“The elephant on one of thecornershasabackside just likea businessman scramblingunder a restaurant table forhis cheque-book.”

Planes as trophiesNairn is surprisingly ambiv-

alent about some modern pla-ces.

Heathrow Airport is “squal-id, messy, cluttered, a sea ofcars, a depressing introduc-tion to London ... maybe”.

The former pilot cannotresist seeing the airfield as ashowcase for its airliners,described as “those astonish-ing 600 mph packages, eachone costing as much as Coven-try Cathedral”.

Nairn once described him-self as “a person who drinks alot and can’t bear either pre-tensions or possessiveness”.

So of course he listed quite afewpubs.OnetovisitwouldbetheWellington, centrally locat-ed on the corner of the Strandand the Aldwych.

REUTERS

SHORTLIST

Folio Prizenomineesreflectdiversityof writersBy ASSOCIATEDPRESSin London

Tales of troubled familiesfrom Kenya and India, themusings of an ironic New Yorkwriter and the story of emo-tionally bruised Canadian sib-lings are contenders for theFolio Prize, a lucrative fictionaward open to English-lan-guage authors of any national-ity.

The eight finalists for the$61,000 prize, announced onMonday, include Yvonne Adhi-ambo Owuor’s Kenyan familyepic Dust; Akhil Sharma’sIndian immigrant story Fami-ly Life; Brooklyn-based BenLerner’s autobiographical10:04; and Canadian authorMiriam Toews’ tragicomic taleof sisterhood, All My PunySorrows.

The other finalists are USwriter Jenny Offill for hercompact exploration of rela-tionships in Dept. of Specula-tion;ColmToibin forhis taleofan Irish widow, NoraWebster;Scottish writer Ali Smith forher dual-narrative novel Howto Be Both; and Canada-bornBritish author Rachel Cusk forher story-spinning yarn Out-line.

Writer William Fiennes,who heads the judging panel,says all the finalists hadstretched the possibilities ofstorytelling.

“It’s easy to say somethingnew and it’s easy to say some-thing true,” he says. “But thesebooks all say something trueabout human experience in away that feels like somethingnew.”

The Folio Prize, which wasestablished last year, aims torival the Booker Prize as theEnglish-speaking world’smost prestigious literaryaward. It is open to anyEnglish-language work of fic-tion published in Britain inthe previous year, which ledsome to predict the prizewould become US-dominat-ed.

Five of last year’s finalistswere American, including thewinner, George Saunders, forthe short-story collectionTenth of December.

This year’s list includes writ-ers from four continents, fivewomen and three men.Fiennes says the diversity wasnot by design — “agenda wasexcellence” — but it was still arelief.

“If it had turned out to beeight white men from Brook-lyn, we’d have all felt a bitsheepish,” he says.

The winner will beannounced on March 23 at aceremony in London.

Nairn’s LondonBy: Ian NairnPublisher: PenguinClassicsYear republished: 2014Price : £9.99 ($15.22)Pages: 288

Above: Writer Rachel Cusk,author of Outline. Top: Irishauthor Colm Toibin, who wroteNora Webster.PHOTOS BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Above: Painter Yu Dawu signs an autograph for his picture bookSpring Festival in Beijing. Top: Some pages from Yu’s book.PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

It’s my pleasureto pass on theculture to futuregenerations withmy brush.”Yu Dawu, painter

LIFE 9CHINA DAILY USA Wednesday, February 11, 2015

MONEY TALKSA columnist’s book offers tips on raisingchildren through wiser ways of handling dough,Associated Press reports.

PARENTING

M oney can bea touchysubject forpeople of allincome lev-

els, but a new book on theimportance of teaching kidsto handle their finances sug-gests parents stop avoidingthe topic and start talking tur-key.The Opposite of Spoiled:

Raising Kids Who AreGrounded, Generous, andSmart About Money by RonLieber is flush with practicalways to incorporate moneylessons into family life. Its goalis to start a dialogue with kidsthat focuses lessondollarsandcents, and more on values.

Lieber, a personal financecolumnist for The New YorkTimes, researched his subjectwell and uses an effectivecombination of professionaladvice — from psychologists,sociologists and financeexperts — and anecdotes fromfamilies across the country.While he says the book isaimed at those making atleast $75,000 a year withmoney to spend on kids,there’s guidance for people onevery earning level.

The author defines socio-economic classes andaddresses privilege through-out the book, reflecting anawareness and sensitivity topeople with different back-grounds and views on howfamilies manage money.

His style is conversationaland frank, with a sense ofhumor. He often refers to hisown parenting experiences,creating intimacy with read-ers and making him a trust-worthy guide through some

complicated issues. He knowshow to connect to people, get-ting them to share privatedetails, and reports withoutjudgment. What could be bor-ing finance issues are easy tounderstand and relatable.

Some of the book’s uncon-ventional recommendationsmay surprise parents, likeanswering salary questionshonestly and not tying house-hold chores to allowance. Par-ents who fear that talking withkids about money leads tospoiled children may be deny-ing them a map to navigateimportant decisions later on.

Lieber says it’s “lunacy” toexpect a teenager who’s prob-ably never bought anythingmore expensive than a bike tomake one of the biggest finan-cial decisions of his life whenchoosing a college, if financialaid is involved. The book’sgoal is to lay a framework forkids to start dealing with thedough when they’re youngerso they develop good habitsbefore finances get more com-plex with student loans,retirement plans and insur-ance policies in their 20s andbeyond.

When explaining moneydecisions, Lieber suggests dis-tinguishing “wants” and“needs”. If kids understandthe difference, it becomes eas-ier and more rewarding tosave for coveted things. Guid-ing kids to separate moneyinto spend, save and giveaway piles isn’t new, but Lie-ber delves deeper into how tohelp kids appreciate thosechoices, which often requirepatience, restraint and build-ing character.

The chapters on allowance

and working are must-readsfor parents. It’s important togive older kids responsibilitiesand chores so they learn tocontribute to the family, buildstaminaanddevelopapositivework ethic, Lieber says.

Several inspiring storiesillustrate the importance ofteaching children that there’smore to giving than donatingmoney to a favorite cause. Par-ents should celebrate chil-dren’s generous spirits andlead by example. Participate inphilanthropic activities, andfollow up with conversationsabout how it feels to shareyour time and money, he says.

He even encourages givingmoney to the homeless guy onthe street — whether youthink he’ll make good use of itor not — because it raisesawareness and teaches com-passion and empathy.

The book offers solutionsfor dealing with competitionamong kids regarding birth-day gifts, designer clothingand luxury vacations. Lieberturned to Facebook to deter-mine the Tooth Fairy’s goingrate and marveled at theinsane amounts ($20 to $50)some parents dish out pertooth. He offers alternatives

to parents seeking a moremeaningful celebration thana crisp bill under the pillow.

Lieber wants to start a con-versation about values, andprovides useful answers forthe inevitable question, “Arewe rich or poor?” saying eachfamily has to determine what

rich means to them. It can bemeasured by good health,religious faith, a big family,great schools and even a safeplace to play.

It’s rare to find a book aboutfinance with so much heart,but Lieber’s bottom line is toinvest in our kids’ futures by

being honest and aware of ourrelationship with money:“There’s no shame in havingmore or less, as long as you’regrateful for what you have,share it generously with oth-ers, and spend it wisely on thethings that make you happi-est.”

DOWNLOAD

Words oflove forValentine’sDay mood— for freeBy ASSOCIATEDPRESSin New York

With Valentine’s Day fastapproaching, what better wayto get you in the mood thansome of the world’s great lovepoems read aloud — for free?

Audible Inc, the world’slargest seller of downloadableaudiobooks, is offering a30-minute collection of somethe most beloved love poemsnarrated by actor RichardArmitage including Sonnet116 by William Shakespeareand Andrew Marvell’s To HisCoyMistress.

Starting on Monday, the 15poems were available as a freedownload.

The list includes She WalksInBeautyby Lord Byron,HowDo I Love Thee? by ElizabethBarrett Browning, Maud byLord Alfred Tennyson, BrightStar by John Keats, AnnabelLee by Edgar Allan Poe, I Car-ry Your Heart by E. E. Cum-mings and Love’s Philosophyby Percy Bysshe Shelley.

“These are some of themost beautiful and mostromantic verses ever writtenin the English language,” saysArmitage, a stage and filmactor who was in the Hobbittrilogy.

“I hope that those who arealready admirers of theseworks enjoy my recitation,and that those discoveringthem for the first timethrough this production fallin love with the melodiousand heartfelt poetry thatmakes Valentine’s Day andevery day just a little bit moreromantic.”

The Opposite of Spoiled:Raising Kids Who AreGrounded, Generous, andSmart About MoneyBy: Ron LieberPublisher: HarperYear published: 2015Price : $26.99Pages: 256

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36 HOURS IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEESOUTHERN LIVING

By CHRISTIAN L. WRIGHTThe New York Times

C ountry music is alive and well in Nashville; you might even see a young family in broad daylight

practicing their line dancing on the sidewalk outside a bar downtown — all in cowboy boots, including the toddler who just learned to walk. But these days, there’s much more to the Tennessee capital than coun-try. One of seven cities chosen to begin Google for Entrepreneurs Tech Hub Network, Nashville is bustling with new business. The dynamic food scene draws an international clientele and chefs from bigger cities. There’s money to preserve historic buildings and revitalize neighbor-hoods, like Germantown, which was established by European immigrants in the 1850s. Add a farmers’ market, some enticing shops and a batch of very stylish hotel rooms, and it’s hard not to conclude that the city is changing its tune — or at least add-ing a few new riff s.

Friday Welcome aboard: The Music City Center, the new $598-million con-vention center with the curvy roof and guitar-shaped ballroom, gets all the attention as a totem of Nash-ville’s bright future, but Union Sta-tion is an anchor to the past. Built in 1900, and all but abandoned by 1979, the stately Gothic railway terminal was spared demolition by a group of Nashville investors. Today, limestone fireplaces, oak doors and panels, and a 20-meter vaulted ceiling marked by golden yellow stained glass distinguish the building, now a hotel, that sits on a hill, just south of the Capitol and a stone’s throw from the live music downtown. Both buildings are open to the public; for a free tour of the mammoth convention cen-ter, reserve online well in advance.

Grand ole evening: The sexy, bour-bon-centric bar on the ground fl oor of Husk — a luminary in the new constellation of ambitious restau-rants and a sister to the original in Charleston, South Carolina — is a good place to alight for a drink (cock-tails start at $9) and snack to start the evening. If they’re on the menu, order the Rappahannock oysters, with green garlic butter, bottarga and preserved lemon ($14), which are served warm and will sate you through a show at the Ryman. The storied auditorium, built in 1892, before the advent of microphones, sells daytime tours, but to get the full eff ect of the exceptional acous-tics, go at night, when a full range of musicians, as disparate as the local hero Vince Gill and the English mis-anthrope Morrissey, have taken the stage. (Ticket prices vary.)

Nashville on Hudson: Called Nash-vegas for its glitzy glamour, the city could just as easily be called the sixth borough of New York. It is fi lled with Manhattan refugees, while lots of creative companies are setting up shop here as a cheaper, nicer alternative. And in the gentri-fying Germantown section, there’s Rolf and Daughters, which might have been plucked from Dumbo and inserted into its century-old brick warehouse — except for the Southern charm: an unfl appable bartender, a waitress with great food knowledge yet no pretense, and a kitchen that turns out what it calls “modern peasant food” but is, in fact, deft and sophisticated. Recent menu items include a start-er of beets with cashew butter and aleppo pepper ($13) and a surpris-ingly light squid-ink pasta with shrimp and pancetta ($17).

Neon Lights: The honky-tonks on

and around Broadway are classic, just as corny and twangy, loud and boozy as you’d hoped they’d be. Many charge no cover, but drink-ing is encouraged. You can do a little planning and check nowplay-ingnashville.com in advance, or you can just squeeze into Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge to see who’s stand-ing and singing on the bar, or hit Robert’s Western World for some traditional country heartbreak or, darlin’, set right down anywhere in between. It’ll be all right.

Saturday

Local Flavor: Barista Parlor opened in May 2012 in a converted auto-repair garage behind a dusty old store called Rainbow Fashions

in increasingly hip East Nash-ville. It is a highly stylized cof-fee house where they spin vinyl, decorate with Edison bulbs and old motorcycles, use blue ban-dannas as napkins and do not serve decaf. It ’s a communal place — a kid with a “Franny and Zooey” paperback in the pocket of his low-slung jeans might take a stool by a willowy woman in a big sweater editing footage on her MacBook Air — that is serious about local ingredients. The sausage in a crumbly butter-milk biscuit is from Porter Road Butcher next door; the baris-tas’ canvas aprons with leather straps are from the workshop of the leather goods company Emil Erwin, across the river in Mara-thon Village; and the Olive and Sinclair chocolate in this morn-ing’s scone? Stone ground in Nashvi l le .

(Breakfast for two, about $25.) With the Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, who lives and operates a recording studio in Music City, Barista Parlor has just opened a second place on Magazine Street in the Gulch neighborhood.

Food Trucks and Stuff : Poke around the rapidly changing east side, and you’ll find a district reinventing itself. The Craftsman-style bun-galows, circa 1920s, that make up sleepy little residential pockets vary from student fl ophouse to ren-ovated dream house. Creative types mill around I Dream of Weenie, a hot-dog stand fashioned out of an old Volkswagen bus. All the imagi-native dogs cost less than $4.75. In the Shoppes on Fatherland, there’s Moxie, a furniture store opened by a former set designer where you might fi nd the perfect Lucite ice bucket, and Jones Fly Co, where a fl y-fi sherman hand ties his feathery designs on a raw wood workbench. Before dropping from shopping, repair for a nouveau comfort-food lunch at the Silly Goose (red chile couscous with grilled chicken is $9.50), or if the wait’s too long, head to Mas Tacos Por Favor, the groovy former food truck that’s serving fried avocado from a fi xed address now. Tacos are $3; cash only.

A New Frontier: In hilly Sevier Park, picnickers in fashion-sweats settle

in for the afternoon, while stroller-pushing mothers amble shoulder to shoulder, and plaid-and-denim-clad men throw balls for their rescue dogs. Here’s a chance to walk among the locals who staked a claim to the 12 South neighborhood well before the current boom. A pioneer on 12th Avenue South, Imogene + Willie, opened in 2009 in an old gas station selling meticulously made jeans and has grown into a cool emporium with a branch in Portland, Oregon. The avenue is now lined with inde-pendent businesses like Savant Vin-tage (packed to the gills with frocks, clutches, tumblers, and the like), Las Paletas unusually fl avored ice pops ($2.50), Holly Williams’s nouveau general store White’s Mercantile, and Judith Bright, a jeweler that recently moved from Green Hills, where Ann Patchett opened Parnassus Books, drawing a crowd that’s equal parts Berkeley and Bridgehampton.

An All-Purpose Block: In the Gulch, the 404 Kitchen has fewer than 60 seats in a retrofi tted shipping con-tainer, but has made a big impres-sion. One recent evening, the chef Matt Bolus chatted with Eric Close, who plays mayor Teddy Conrad on ABC-TV’s Nashville, while his kitchen wove Southern ingredients throughout the confident menu. (Dinner for two around $100, not including drinks.) With the res-taurant; its sister hotel, a 10-room hideaway that opened in March; and the city’s temple of bluegrass, the ($12 to $15 cover charge) next door, you’d never need to leave the block.

Into the Wee Hours: Venture any-way for a nightcap at the Patterson House, if you fancy a little book-lined speakeasy with barmen in period costume who take their time with the ice balls and ginger syrup. Cocktails, about $12.

Sunday

That Old-Timey Music: You don’t have to care a lick about the earli-est days of the Grand Ole Opry to be enthralled with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum ($22). Get an eight-ounce soy latte ($4.43) at the Bongo Java by the entrance of the splashy new Omni Hotel, stop into the Hatch Show Print gallery and the store where the old printing presses that made many iconic concert post-ers now live — all in the corridor that attaches the hotel to the museum as part of its ongoing integration into the Music City Center complex. Go early, before the crowds descend.

Silence Your Cellphone: Brunch at Marche Artisan Foods, which is just down the hill from the Turnip Truck organic market and the nicely stocked Woodland Wine Merchant, is easy and casual and languorous — spindly chairs, heavy curtains pulled back from the street-front windows, pastries under glass, natives in no hurry at all. Use of mobile devices is forbidden in the dining room.

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Broadway is lined with honky-tonks. NATHAN MORGAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Imogene + Willie, a jeans purveyor, opened in 2009 in an old gas station. NATHAN MORGAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

From left: Ryan Ellis Band at Tootsie’s Orchild Lounge; Barista Parlor opened in May 2012 in a converted auto-repair garage. NATHAN MORGAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Known for its country music scene, the city now off ers a lot more.

10 LIFE | Travel Wednesday, February 11, 2015 CHINA DAILY USA

Wednesday, February 11, 2015 11

COMMENT EDITORIAL • OPINION

China Daily USA chinadailyusa.com

VIEWS

The opinions expressedon this page do not necessarily

reflect those of China Daily

While doing ideological work in colleges, it is necessary to not to gooverboard. The irrational call of some officials to ‘cleanse’ and ‘purify’college faculties are similar to the way of thinking in 1957 or 1966.”

Gong Ke, president of Nankai University, said in an interview with People’s Daily website. He was commenting on therecent debate over the ideological work on campus.

QIAO XINSHENG

Buried gold surely belongs to the StateA 7.85-kilogram chunk of

gold found by a herdsmanin Qinghe county, Xinjiang

Uygur autonomous region, lastweek has sparked heated discus-sions across the country over itsownership. Going by the PropertyLaw, the gold surely belongs to theState because it is an “ownerlessproperty” found within China’sborder.

In general, there are two kindsof property law featuring nation-alism and individualism respec-tively -- the former is adopted byChina. Under such a definition,there are three kinds of proper-ties in the country: Stateowned, collectively and per-sonally owned, with State-owned property gettingabsolute State protectionand personal propertyreceiving relative protec-tion. Besides, State owner-ship takes precedence inmatters of controversial owner-ship, meaning the State has theright of ownership of unidenti-fied properties

The Property Law offers a broaddefinition of the ownership ofState-owned property.

Land, minerals and water areState properties, and cannot beowned by individuals. The samerule applies to wildlife, culturalrelics, defense resources andeven radio-frequency spectrum.Forests, mountains, grasslandsand deserts, except those belong-ing to collectives in accordancewith the law, are owned by theState too. In other words, all visi-ble resources can be deemedState property, with the excep-tions being those specifically list-ed in the law as collective orpersonal properties.

But some law experts say thechunk of gold, partly buried inearth and dust, found by the Qing-he herdsman cannot be consid-ered part of the country’s naturalresources and thus belongs to theherdsman. But Article 111 of theProperty Law says that lost prop-erty has to be submitted to a rele-vant department before claimingit. And Article 113 says that lostproperty, if not claimed within sixmonths of issuance of a lost prop-erty notice, should be owned bythe State. Under the current prop-

erty law, thesame stipulation also applies tothe discovered floating, hidden,and buried objectives.

So the herdsman has to submithis find, which apparently wasburied treasure, to police or oth-er relevant departments thathave to issue a lost propertynotice and wait for six monthsfor the original owner (if any) toclaim it. Of course, after the pas-sage of six months, it can be con-

sidered asState property.

It is thus clear that the PropertyLaw is veered toward protectingState property. And citizens whofind lost property or cultural orother relics are entitled to getrewards for turning them to theirrightful owners, be it the State orindividual owners. But there is nospecific rule to decide the sum ofthe reward according to the valueof the discovered item.

Therefore, given the existingProperty Law, citizens who find atreasure, buried or above ground,have to declare it to local govern-ments instead of claiming theirownership. That being the case,not only the State’s property butalso the benefits accruing to theperson who discovers it could beunwillingly damaged.

The author is a professor atZhongnanUniversity of Econom-ics and Law inWuhan, Hubeiprovince.

MA XUEJING / CHINA DAILY

FANG ZHOU

Promote people-firstimage to the world

W ith both Chineseand English sub-titles, the three-minute-longvideo “The CPC

is on the Way Together with You”,which was shot in 2013 and firstreleased at the beginning of lastyear, has become popular againsince People’s Daily posted it onits official WeChat account onSunday.

With picturesque rivers and vil-lages south of the Yangtze River,the Great Wall and the ForbiddenCity, working farmers, high-speedtrains, skyscrapers, as well as fum-ing chimneys, rubbish disposalstations, traffic jams and densecrowds, the video reveals a fullpicture of China; from some sym-bolic cultural architects the coun-try has inherited from ancienttimes, to its contemporary eco-nomic and scientific developmentfruits as well as social problems

that have emerged during itsmodernization drive.

Despite the country’s widelyrecognized economic and socialprogress over the past decades, thevideo does not choose to promotejust China’s achievements to theoutside world. It also faces up tothe problems that have arisen inthe process of the country’s devel-opment, such as the wideningwealth gap, traffic and environ-mental problems. Such an objec-tive portrayal of China and itscurrent circumstances shows theruling Party’s down-to-earth spirit.Any exaggeration of one side ofthe coin while ignoring the otherside would inevitably have createda distorted view of China.

More importantly, the short vid-eo is free from political jargon ortedious terms; it refrains fromstrategic or hollow politicalpreaching that is not closely relat-ed to the daily lives of ordinary

people. Instead, it centers on pro-moting what grassroots peoplefrom all walks of life aspire tohave. “I want a good harvest nextyear. I want to start a diner. I wanta bigger pension. I want a prettywife. I want bluer skies and clean-er water. I want a world free ofwars.” All these concrete but dif-ferent dreams constitute theessence of the Chinese Dream.

Such a people-first and jargon-free publicity approach is not onlysubject to the spotlight of interna-tional publicity, but also testifiesthat the ruling Party has drivenhome the perception that underits leadership the country is striv-ing to realize everyone’s dream.More publicity videos like this willhelp the world better understandthe key role of the Party in China’sprogress.

The author is a senior writer withChinaDaily.

T he country’s press watchdog, theAll-China Journalists’ Associa-tion, twice exposed the plagia-

rism and forgery in some media reportslast month. Such scrutiny indicates thewatchdog’s enhanced supervision overthe sector, as well as the necessity ofshoring up the ethics of media practi-tioners.

In the first case, the associationrevoked an article’s candidacy for the24th China News Awards, the nation’stop journalism award, and withdrew athird prize given to a TV news report,citing plagiarism and forgery as thereason. Such open criticism is unprece-dented in the 24-year history of theaward.

In the second case, as the result of aninvestigation it carried out after beingtipped off by the public, the associationrevealed that five stories from threemedia outlets were falsified.

As a country with a large contingentof traditional media, as well as a boom-ing new media industry, a handful ofincidents of media malpractice do notreflect the whole picture of the entiresector, which, according to a reportissued in December, enjoys an increas-ingly open and transparent operatingenvironment, as well as greater credi-bility and social influence.

Yet, this does not necessarily meanmedia outlets and journalists can relaxtheir self-discipline or slacken theirobservance of the basic norms and eth-ics governing the profession.

The violations revealed by the AllChina Journalists’ Association shouldserve as a wake-up call for the entiresector to strive for quality journalismand dutifully shoulder their socialresponsibilities.

Authenticity, objectivity and truth-seeking form the very foundation ofany media organization’s credibilityand should be upheld at all times.

In recent years, along with the rise ofnew media, journalists are facing inten-sified competition and rising tempta-tions from the outside world. It is notuncommon for some to resort to sensa-tionalism or even falsification to boostcirculation or audience ratings.

In some of the worst cases, reportershave even been involved in bribery andblackmailing.

Last year, Chen Yongzhou, reporterfor the New Express newspaper insouthern Guangdong province, wassentenced to a year and 10 months inprison for taking bribes and writingunverified reports that defamed a listedcompany. Zhuo Zhiqiang, a co-writer ofone of the stories, received a 10-monthjail term.

Also last year, a few business editorsand reporters at 21cbh.com werearrested for an alleged scam in whichsuspects collaborated to extort moneyfrom companies in return for favorablecoverage.

Incidents like these have tarnishedthe image of the media sector and erod-ed social credibility in the profession.Chen’s case was regarded as among thetop 10 scandals in China in 2013.

To cultivate a healthy environmentfor the media, the country haslaunched a series of campaigns as wellas adopted various measures to weedout false reports and curb differentforms of media violations. Media out-lets have been repeatedly urged toenhance their management, plug loop-holes in their supervision, as well asabide by media ethics to the letter.

While such a top-down approach ishighly necessary, the readers and audi-ence should also be encouraged tosupervise the content of both tradition-al and new media. After all, any qualityjournalistic work should be able toendure the scrutiny of its recipients.

WANG HUI

Media’s integritynow in the spotlight

MIKE BASTIN

US can learn from China’s Ukraine policyT he Ukraine crisis is front-

page news again with Ger-man Chancellor Angela

Merkel, French President FrancoisHollande and Russian PresidentVladimir Putin to broker peacebetween Kiev and Ukrainian pro-independence insurgents. Thethree will meet in Minsk, capitalof Belarus, with Ukrainian Presi-dent Petro Poroshenko to findways to restore permanent peacein Ukraine on Wednesday.

China, the engine of growthacross the Asia-Pacific region,continues to work closely withRussia to build effective economic

and political partnership, whichshould be seen as importantbeyond the bilateral relationship.But the international communitydoesn’t do so.

It is good to see the Germanand French leaders involve morein Ukraine crisis even if it is moreto prop up their own political for-tunes than to broker a peace deal.But it is certainly not good to seeUS politicians visiting Ukraine,especially because when it comesto the United States’ foreign poli-cy, “foreign” and “policy” form aperfect oxymoron. Why? Becausethe world has always perceived

the US foreign policy as bellicoseand bombastic.

Ukraine is already battling itsworst crisis. Now the interventionof US Secretary of State John Ker-ry threatens to deepen it. Forexample, Kerry and his fellowAmerican politicians are hell-benton providing military “aid” toUkraine. Such belligerent attitudesharply contrasts with China’sapproach, characterised bypatience and peaceful negotia-tions, to end the crisis.

Even more alarming are com-parisons by the US between thesituation created by the Ukraine

crisis and the Cold War. It smacksUS hope to continue its hegemo-ny. And the confrontational USinvolvement in Ukraine is notwithout precedents.

In their blind pursuit of superi-ority, the Americans haveopposed China’s initiatives toestablish the Asian Infrastruc-ture Investment Bank and FreeTrade Area of the Asia-Pacific,which are aimed at generatingcommon benefits and have beenlauded by many countries andregions.

Traditional Chinese values con-tinue to influence Beijing’s

domestic as well as foreign poli-cies, which have also played a veryimportant role in the country’sincredible economic rise.

The US can learn from the Chi-nese approach and seek a negoti-ated settlement to the Ukrainecrisis, for that is the only way torestore permanent peace inUkraine.

The author is a visiting professorat the University of InternationalBusiness and Economics in Bei-jing and a senior lecturer onmar-keting at Southampton SolentUniversity’s School of Business.

The author is a senior writer withChinaDailywanghui@chinadaily.com.cn

I n contrast to past failedefforts for the same purpose,the international publicity

video of the Communist Party ofChina has become a huge hit inChina. Its success lies in its strik-ing a chord with ordinary peo-ple. Instead of feeding audiencesrigid ideological dogma, it sim-ply displays the different dreamsof a number of Chinese people.These are dreams most Chinesecan relate to.

It was to realize such dreamsthat China’s leaders launchedmarket-oriented reform 36years ago. Over the ensuingyears, reform and opening-uphas released the potential ofChina’s huge workforce, andcreated enormous socialwealth.

Even the staunchest support-ers of market forces have cometo realize the importance of peo-ple, out of whose hands come allthe goods we consume. China isone of the few non-Western-de-mocracies in this world. Despite

the West’s doubts, China hasbecome a dynamic country witha stable society. Maybe the videobest explains the legitimacy ofthe ruling Party — “Our people’sdreams are our goals.” The CPC’srelationship with the Chinesepeople is unique and can beexplained in terms of traditionalChinese culture only.

It was by shouldering theresponsibility “for the people’sdreams to come true” that theCPC rallied people’s support tofound New China in 1949. Nowthe Party leadership is deter-mined to realize those dreams.

Of course, as the ruling Party,the CPC also faces great challen-ges as China is such a largecountry. No political system is100 percent perfect in the world,but only under the leadership ofthe Party can the people achievetheir dreams.

The author is an associate pro-fessor onMarxism studies,TsinghuaUniversity.

LV J IA

Video gives a stage tovariety of dreamers

The violations revealed bythe All China Journalists’Association should serve asa wake-up call for the entiresector ...

12 Wednesday, February 11, 2015

The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily

refl ect those of China Daily USA.

VIEWS

BUSINESSCHINA DAILY USA » CHINADAILYUSA.COM

Wednesday, February 11, 2015 13

Children buy candied hawthorns at a market in Liaocheng, Shandong province, on Tuesday. Food prices rose 1.1 percent year-on-year in January compared with 2.9 percent in December. ZHAO YUGUO / FOR CHINA DAILY

Trends of major economic indicatorsUnit: % (y-o-y)

2.0 2.4 1.8 2.5 2.3 2.3 2.0 1.6 1.6 1.4 1.5 0.8

-2.0 -2.3 -2.0 -1.4 -0.9-1.1 -1.2 -1.8 -2.2 -2.7 -3.3 -4.3

LIU LUNAN / CHINA DAILY

2015Jan

Mar2014Feb

DecApr AugMay Jun Jul Sep Oct Nov

PPICPI

Source: National Bureau of Statistics

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Bad news in China seems to be good news for the currenciesof Australia and New Zealand.

Both currencies extended gains after China’s consumer pri-ces rose at the slowest pace in more than five years in January,fueling speculation for expanded stimulus in the biggest tradingpartner of both countries. The release came after data thismonth showed imports to the world’s second-largest economydeclined and manufacturing gauges fell into contraction.

The Australian dollar “strengthened as heightened expecta-tion for further monetary easing” from the People’s Bank of Chi-na drove up shares in Shanghai, JPMorgan Chase Bank analystswrote in a note to clients.

The New Zealand dollar rose 1.4 percent against its peers overthe past week, the strongest performance among 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-WeightedIndexes. Australia’s currency was the third-strongest with a 0.8percent advance.

The Consumer Price Index in China rose 0.8 percent year-on-year, compared with the median projection for a 1 percentincrease in a survey of analysts by Bloomberg News.

“Over the near term, at least we expect their outperformanceto continue, unless we have a knock in key commodities prices,”Raiko Shareef, a markets strategist in Wellington at Bank of NewZealand Ltd, said of the Australian and New Zealand currencies.

- BLOOMBERG

Australia,NZcurrenciesgetalift

By HU YUANYUANhuyuanyuan@chinadaily.com.cn

Nielsen NV’s ConsumerConfidence Index declinedfour percentage points in thefourth quarter of 2014 amid aweakening outlook foremployment and personalfinances in smaller cities, themarketing and research firmsaid on Tuesday.

The index stood at 107 inthe fourth quarter, downfrom 111 in the previousthree-month period. It wasthe first decline in four quar-ters.

But the big picture in Chi-na has not changed, Nielsensaid.

“Chinese consumersremain optimistic about jobprospects, personal financesand spending in the comingyear when compared withtheir global peers for most ofthe markets,” said Yan Xuan,president of Nielsen China.

For 2014 as a whole, theindex was 110, unchangedfrom 2013 and 13 percentagepoints higher than the globalaverage.

China ranked sixth amongthe 60 countries and regionsmeasured in Nielsen’s globalConsumer Confidence Indextracking.

The index reflects percep-tions of local job prospects,personal finances and imme-diate spending intentions.Levels above and below thebaseline of 100 indicatedegrees of optimism and pes-simism, respectively.

“Our survey also showedthat consumer confidence inbigger cities, where incomegrowthandbuyingpowerarecomparatively stronger, got ahealthy boost,” said Yan.

Confidence in jobprospects and personal

finances each rose three per-centage points in the first-tiercities, including Beijing andShanghai. Spending inten-tions were up by four per-centage points year-on-year.

“For consumers in the big-gest cities, all three key indi-cators of Nielsen’s ConsumerConfidence Index — employ-ment expectations, personalfinances and spending inten-tion for the next 12 months —reached record highs in thefourth quarter,” said Kiki Fan,managing director of NielsenChina.

“That can be attributed tofactors including expecta-tions for a stable economyand well-controlled consum-er prices, aspirations for ahigh-quality lifeandanestab-lished habit of online shop-ping,” Fan said.

Nielsen’s report alsoshowed that nine out of 10consumers in first-tier citiesshopped online in 2014, up 12percentage points from 2013.

“The confidence dip in thefourth quarter will not have abig impact on the Chineseconsumer market, where thetransition from meeting thebasic demands to satisfyingaspirations for a better life ishappening across the coun-try,” said Fan.

Study sees consumerconfidence faltering

DATA

Inflation rate dips to5-year low in JanuaryDeflation fears spookindustrial sector; bothindexes weakest sinceglobal financial crisis

By CHEN JIAchenjia1@chinadaily.com.cn

Inflation at the consumerlevel moderated to a five-yearlow in January, led by declin-ing food prices, while defla-tion intensified in theindustrial sector, reinforcingexpectations for further mon-etary easing to stabilizegrowth.

The Consumer Price Indexfell to 0.8 percent in Januaryfrom 1.5 percent in December,the National Bureau of Statis-tics said on Tuesday.

It was the first time that theCPI had retreated below 1percent since 2009. It wasalso the lowest level since theglobal financial crisis in 2008,when the figure bottomed outat a decline of 0.8 percent.

Weaker food prices and dis-tortions from the impact ofthe upcoming Lunar NewYear might have draggeddown the CPI, according toeconomists.

The Lunar New Year holi-day, which falls in January orFebruary each year, sees asurge in consumer spendingand widespread businessshutdowns, which can pro-duce year-on-year distor-

tions. This year, the holidaystarts on Feb 18.

In January, food inflationfell to 1.1 percent year-on-yearfrom 2.9 percent in Decem-ber, while nonfood inflationdropped to a 59-month low of0.6 percent, the NBS said.

The Producer Price Indexalso dropped to its lowest lev-el since the global financialcrisis. It declined by 4.3 per-cent from a year earlier, com-pared with the 3.3 percent fallin December.

Plunging world oil pricesdrove down the CPI by 0.07percentage point, and theycontributed 65 percent of thePPI’s drop in January, said YuQiumei, a senior economist atthe NBS.

The figures also reflected

weak underlying demandgrowth, economists said.

“These data help explainlastweek’sdecisionbythePeo-ple’s Bank of China to cutreserve requirement ratios,which was a helpful but likelyinsufficient policy move,” saidSong Yu, an economist atGoldman Sachs Group Inc.“We expect further easing,with a benchmark rate cutlikely before the end of thefirst quarter.”

The central bank cut theamount of cash that all banksmust set aside as reserves by50 basis points, which was thefirst broad cut since May 2012.

JPMorgan Chase & Co low-ered its CPI prediction forthis year to 1 percent from 1.5percent.

Zhu Haibin, chief econo-mist in China at JPMorgan,said that the government willlikely speed up pricingreform for utilities such asnatural gas, electricity andwater, as well as transporta-tion, to help offset the import-ed disinflationary pressuresof lower oil prices.

“Further softness in theinflation trend points to ris-ing levels of real interestrates, which tend to intensi-fy the pain of economicadjustment amid sluggishdomestic demand and highlevels of domestic leverage.As such, combining the con-cerns about near-termgrowth and the low inflationenvironment and PPI defla-tion will likely trigger fur-ther pro-growth measures,”said Zhu.

Deflation has become thereal risk for the Chineseeconomy, and this concernmay prompt the central bankto further ease monetary pol-icy, said Liu Ligang, chiefeconomist in China at Aus-tralia and New ZealandBanking Group Ltd.

To ease the deflation riskand curb huge capital out-flows, Liu forecast that thePBOC is likely to cut thedeposit interest rate by 25basis points in the first quar-ter of this year.

Liu said there may also beanother 50 bps cut in thereserve ratios in the secondquarter.

By MENG JINGmengjing@chinadaily.com.cn

The competition to capturenew users of mobile paymentservices during the upcomingSpring Festival has intensifiedamong China’s Internet com-panies as Alipay, the e-pay-ment affiliate of AlibabaGroup Holding Ltd, expandedthe battlefield to overseasmarkets.

Alipay announced on Tues-day that itwill offerdiscounts ifup to 50 percent to its overseasmobile payment users duringthefestival,aseven-dayholidaythat begins on Feb 18.

The plan to ride China’s out-bound travel wave is Alipay’slatest move against its chiefrival, Tencent Holdings Ltd, inthe competition to send cash-filled red envelopes online.

The red envelope campaign,which began during last year’sSpring Festival with Tencent’swidely used messaging appWeChat, has proven to be ahuge success in terms of gen-erating new users of mobilepayment services.

Many domestic Internetcompanies, from Alipay toWeibo Corp to Momo Inc, havefollowed in WeChat’s foot-steps.

WeChat and QQ said earlierthis month they will offer redenvelopes valued at 3 billionyuan during the festival.

Internet companies arespending more than 7 billionyuan ($1.12 billion) in thisyear’s campaign, according toestimates by Alipay.

Apart from offering 600million yuan worth of redenvelopes, including cash-filled envelopes and envelopeswith online shopping cou-pons, Alipay said it will offerup to 50 percent discounts forthose who shop in its brick-and-mortar partners’ outletsin South Korea, Thailand andSingapore during the SpringFestival.

Up to 200,000 shops, super-markets and restaurants inthose destinations will partici-pate in Alipay’s campaign,according to the company’sstatement on Tuesday.

Wang Weidong, an analystwith iResearch ConsultingGroup, said that by involvingoverseas shops and vendors,Alipay can leverage its resour-ces in shopping and avoidcompeting directly with Ten-cent.

“Tencent has built itsempire on social networkingtools such as WeChat and QQ.It is very difficult for Alipay tocompete with Tencent in thered envelope campaign,because the whole scheme is asocial game, encouraging peo-ple to send and share redenvelopes with their onlinefriends,” said Wang.

Alipay has no advantages insocial media, compared withWeChat, which claims amonthly active user base ofmore than 450 million, saidanalysts.

INTERNET

‘Battlefield’for mobilepaymentsis shiftingoverseas

T hough QualcommInc has agreed to paya record fine of about6.08 billion yuan

($975 million) for antitrustviolations, the move is likely tohave little impact on the Unit-ed States-based chipmaker’srevenue from China, industryexperts said on Tuesday.

Instead, the lower patent

fees will help grow the chip-maker’s client base and boostearnings in the world’s largestsmartphone hub.

The chip giant is alsoexpected to lower royalties onthird-generation devices to 5percent and to 3.5 percent for some fourth-generation devi-ces. The royalty base was earli-er set at 65 percent of the net

selling price of the devices,and in most cases Qualcommcharged Chinese 4G devicesmakers around 5 percent.

Although Qualcomm haslowered royalties, it will stillcollect patent fees based on thewhole price of the device, a sig-nificantly higher valuation

SEE “INDUSTRY” PAGE 14

FOCUS

Record fine to have little impact on QualcommSmartphone firmsmay gain fromchip giant’s decisionto reduce patentlicensing charges,report Gao Yuanand Lan Lan.

3 billion yuan

Value of red envelopes likely tobe distributed through WeChatand QQ by Tencent Holdings Ltd

Chinese consum-ers remain opti-mistic about jobprospects (andtheir) finances ...”Yan Xuan, president ofNielsen China

Visitors walk past the Qualcomm Inc stand at the Mobile WorldCongress in Barcelona, Spain, in February 2014. The chipmakerwas fined $975 million for anti-monopoly violations. REUTERS

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Watch what you say in your living room. Samsung’s smart TV could be listening. And sharing.

Voice recognition technology in the South Korean company’s Inter-net-connected TVs captures and transmits nearby conversations.

The potential for TVs to eaves-

drop is revealed in Samsung’s smart TV privacy policy available on its website.

“Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition,’’ the policy

said. For the voice command feature

to work, the TV listens for speech which is translated by third-party software into text and sent back to the TV as a command.

Samsung declined to name the software company. The TV also transmits other information including its unique identifier.

Samsung said data collection is aimed at improving TV perfor-mance but users can disable it.

In a statement, the company said it takes consumer privacy “very seriously”.

“We employ industry-standard security safeguards and practic-es, including data encryption, to secure consumers’ personal infor-

mation and prevent unauthorized collection or use.’’

It is not the fi rst time that smart TVs sparked privacy concerns.

In 2013, the owner of a LG Elec-tronics smart TV revealed it was sending information about his viewing habits back to the com-pany without consent and without encrypting data.

Samsung to launch voice recognition TVsELECTRONICS

14 BUSINE S S | Digest Wednesday, February 11, 2015 CHINA DAILY USA

GOVERNMENTS AND POLICIES

Marine output valuesurges to $961 billion

The total value of China’s marineoutput soared to about 6 trillionyuan ($961 billion) in 2014, repre-senting a 7.6 percent year-on-yeargrowth, the head of the State Ocean-ic Administration said during awork conference on Monday. WangHong, director of the SOA, said theoverall maritime economy remainedsteady in the past year withimprovements made to the industri-al structure. The marine bio-phar-maceutical industry remained thefastest-growing sector, while theengineering equipment industryalso saw rapid expansion.

Bond connect schemeto attract investorsThe government is working on aplan to link its bond market with theone in Hong Kong, giving foreigninvestors access to the world’s third-largest debt market, the South ChinaMorning Post reported on Tuesday.A State-backed clearinghouse for thenation’s interbank note market toldregulators and industry groups itwas interested in a “bond connectscheme,” the newspaper said, citingpeople it did not identify.

Mayors ink deal toboost infrastructureMayors of four provincial capitalsalong the middle reaches of theYangtze River signed an agreementto improve infrastructure links inthe region, according to a reportpublished by the Xin’an EveningNews on Tuesday. The agreementaims to speed up construction oftransportation hubs in Wuhan,Changsha, Nanchang and Hefei, andalso includes construction of newrailway lines across the region. Inparticular, it aims to get the pro-posed Hefei-Anqing-Jiujiang andChongqing-Changsha-Xiamen linesincorporated into the 13th railwayconstruction five-year plan.

Govts chart plans toset up free trade zonesEight provincial governments havestated in their work reports for 2015that they will be seeking permissionfor setting up free trade zones thisyear, the China News Service said onTuesday. Unlike last year, when over20 provinces sought approval forFTZs, demand seems to have cooleda little this year. However, interest inestablishing free trade zonesremains strong in inland provinces.The provinces that have soughtapprovals this year are Shaanxi,Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Jilin, Liaon-ing, Shandong and the Guanxi Zhu-ang autonomous region.

Restrictions on homepurchases easedSome local governments havescrapped a decade-old restriction onthe size of new homes amid theproperty market downturn, ChinaEconomic Weekly said on Tuesday.The restriction, imposed in 2005amid concerns about an overheatedproperty market, stipulated that soldapartments smaller than 90 squaremeters should be no less than 70 per-cent of a new housing project, and no

less than 70 percent of a city’s totalhousing space. Sichuan province,Tianjin municipality and Xiamen inFujian province had earlier removedmost of the curbs on home purchasesin their respective regions.

Qingdao to attractforeign fund managersQingdao, the coastal city in Shand-ong province, has launched two pilotprograms to further open its assetmanagement market to overseasfund managers. Under the program,known as Qualified Domestic Limit-ed Partnership, qualified foreignasset management companies canset up private yuan-denominatedfunds in China to invest in interna-tional markets. The other program,known as Qualified Foreign LimitedPartnership, allows qualified foreignfunds to invest in the Chinese privateequity and venture capital markets.

PBOC uses reverserepos for fund injectionThe People’s Bank of China, the cen-tral bank, has injected funds intomarkets through reverse repurchaseagreements in an effort to meet ris-ing cash demand before the LunarNew Year holiday. The PBOCpumped 80 billion yuan ($13.05 bil-lion) into the money markets onTuesday through 14-day and 21-dayreverse repos, a process in whichcentral banks purchase securitiesfrom banks with an agreement toresell them at future dates.

COMPANIES AND MARKETS

Equities gain on hope ofmonetary policy easing

Share prices rose the most in a weekon Tuesday as official data showinginflation slowing more than forecast

spurred speculation the governmentwill further ease monetary policy toboost the world’s second-biggesteconomy. Property and technologycompanies led gains as Poly RealEstate Group Co and HangzhouHIK-Vision Digital Technology Coadded more than 3 percent. BeijingYanjing Brewery Co jumped themost in a month after people withknowledge of the matter said thecompany plans to sell a stake to aforeign investor.

Some firms approvedfor FTZ import trialBaoxin Auto Group Ltd, China Run-dong Auto Group Ltd and a ChinaYongda Automobile Services Hold-ings Ltd unit are among companiesthat have won approval to importvehicles as part of a trial at the Chi-na (Shanghai) Pilot Free TradeZone. Seventeen companies havebeen cleared for parallel imports,which allows them to ship carswithout the brand owner’s authori-zation, according to a Shanghai gov-ernment statement on its website.The city has the country’s first FTZ.The decision comes as the govern-ment is reviewing industry rulesthat govern the relationshipbetween automakers and dealers inChina.

Iron ore seen retreatingbelow $60 near holidayIron ore risks sinking below $60 ametric ton in the next two weeks,deepening a bear-market rout, asmills in China cut steel productionbefore and during a national holi-day, curbing demand as suppliesexpand further. Prices may drop toless than $60 as factories and busi-nesses shut for the week-long LunarNew Year break, and rebound afterthat, according to UBS Group AGand Shenhua Futures Co. China isthe largest iron ore importer andbiggest steelmaker, accounting forabout half of global production.

Yunling steer to helpboost beef production

The Ministry of Agriculture on Tues-day granted a breeding license forYunling steer, a new beef cattle varie-ty developed by the Yunnan Acade-my of Grassland and Animal Science.The breed was developed after 31years of hybridization involvingthree types of beef cattle in Yunlingcounty, Yunnan province. The Yun-ling steer has been officially catego-rized as the fourth beef cattle varietyin China. It has several advantageslike higher disease resistance, bettermeat quality and ability to eat forageto save feed costs.

AROUND THE WORLD

London office rentsmay surge this year

Central London office rents willclimb the most since 2000 this yearas tenants compete for a dwindlingamount of space, according to BNPParibas SA’s real estate unit. Averagerents will jump 17 percent to 655pounds ($998) a square meter from560 pounds at the end of 2014, thebroker said on Tuesday in ane-mailed statement. Vacancies in theWest End district will drop to 3.5percent, the lowest ever recorded,BNP Paribas Real Estate said.

New Look to reconsiderplan for public floatThe United Kingdom-based fashionretailer New Look is ready to haveanother attempt at an initial publicoffering , though the decision is upto its owners, its chief executive saidon Tuesday. “I think this business isa business that is ready, but it is notmy decision to decide when weshould do an IPO or not,” chief exec-utive Anders Kristiansen said.

Canon to buy Sweden’sAxis for $2.8 billion

Japan’s Canon Inc said it plans tobuy security camera maker Axis ABfor about 23.6 billion Swedishcrowns ($2.83 billion) to expandinto the surveillance products mar-ket amid weak sales of its cameras.Canon said it was launching a ten-der offer to buy all of Axis shares for340 crowns per share, a premium ofnearly 50 percent to their closingprice of 226.90 on Monday.

Samsung dividendlikely to declineSouth Korean tech firm SamsungElectronics Co Ltd will likely pay outa smaller amount in dividends thisyear compared with that of 2014, aperson with direct knowledge of thematter told Reuters on Tuesday. Theperson, who declined to be identi-fied due to the sensitivity of the sub-ject, said that last year’s sharpincrease in payout was due to excep-tional circumstances as Samsungsought to assist government effortsto lift the economy and boost share-holder value.

SoftBank net profitboosted by AlibabaJapan’s SoftBank said on Tuesdaynine-month net profit rose 15.9percent to a record high, boostedby its huge stake in Chinese e-com-merce giant Alibaba Group Hold-ing Ltd, which listed in New Yorklast year. Net profit for April-De-cember came in at 579.4 billion yen($4.9 billion), although it saidgains were eroded by restructuringat newly acquired US wireless car-rier Sprint. SoftBank has a one-third equity stake in Alibaba,whose $25.02 billion initial publicoffering in New York in Septemberwas the biggest in history.

CHINA DAILY– XINHUA –BLOOMBERG – REUTERS

With China now a verylarge trading nation, andcontinuing to grow into a‘continental-sized’ economy,it would be surprising if atsome point we do not seemuch more use of its cur-rency for trade purposes.”

Glenn Stevens, governor of theReserve Bank of Australia

Will China’s stock marketturn away individual inves-tors because of stockoptions? It is indeed a ques-tion that needs to bethought over.”

Pi Haizhou, a well-known financial com-mentator

With China’s economy likelyto face a sustained slump,all kinds of money will flowinto the stock markets.”

Ye Rongtian, a reputed stock analyst

The central bank is expectedto use conventionalmonetarytools like reducing the reserverequirements for lenders andcutting interest rates to stabi-lize the economy.”

Guan Qingyou, assistant to thepresident of Minsheng Securities

SOURCE: 163.COM; FTCHI-NESE.COM; HEXUN.COM

Quotes of the dayWhat’s news

These little piggies

Piglets huddle together in the aisle after protesters put them in the meat section of a supermarket in Rennes, western France, on Saturday, during a demon-stration against the drop in pork prices. DAMIEN MEYER / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

BUSINE S S 15CHINA DAILY USA Wednesday, February 11, 2015

REALTY

Gains on cards forhigh-end propertysector in ShanghaiApartments, villas with small floor area to offerbetter rental income for investors, say analysts

ByWUYIYAO in Shanghaiwuyiyao@chinadaily.com.cn

Demand is likely to increasethrough 2017 in the high-endresidential market in Shang-hai as buyers’ needs shift andinvestor sentiment recoverswith the improving market cli-mate, property services pro-vider Savills said in a report onTuesday.

“As Shanghai’s central busi-ness districts emerge in vari-ous areas in the city, demandfor high-end residences insuchregionshasbeengrowingfast. We estimate that the aver-age price and sales revenue ofhigh-end residences mayincrease in the next few years,”saidSiuWingChu,headof res-idential sales with Savills inShanghai.

As of Dec 31, sales of high-end residences accounted for9 percent of the market in thecity, compared with 1 percentin 2005.

Chu said sales of existinghigh-end residence projects,including villas and largeapartments in premier loca-

tions, began recovering duringthe fourth quarter of 2014.

The number of wealthyShanghai residents, defined asthose with a net wealth ofmore than 10 million yuan($1.62million),hasbeenrisingsteadily and now reaches160,000, which increases pur-chasing power in the high-endresidence market, accordingto Savills.

In 2005, the highest pricefor an apartment was 60,800yuan per square meter. As oflast year, the figure had risento 242,000 yuan per sq m.

Demographic changes andurbanization have createddemand for high-end residen-ces, with the younger genera-tion favoring apartments withmature facilities includingshopping and schools.

The elderly prefer more spa-

cious, suburban villas, accord-ing to Chu.

“I think the most importantfactor for me when decidingwhere to buy a spacious apart-ment was whether the districthad a nice school that mydaughter would love to attend,as well as a park or a lake thathelps improve the air quality,”said Sun Jingbo, a 42-year-oldhome buyer.

Analysts said that apart-ments and villas with relative-ly small floor areas mayperform better for investors.

According to Dooioo Prop-erty, a Shanghai-based prop-erty service firm, rental yieldsfor high-end units of less than200 sq m may be double thosewith areas of more than 500sq m.

High-end properties in first-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai,Guangzhou and Shenzhen —are still among the “best choi-ces” for investors, said experts.

The highest average price ofa residential project in Shang-hai is about 173,000 yuan persq m, while the figure is113,000 yuan in Beijing and98,000 yuan in Guangzhou.

In Chengdu, one of the larg-est second-tier cities, the fig-ure is about 30,000 yuan.

ByWANGZHUOQIONGwangzhuoqiong@chinadaily.com.cn

The catering industry’s for-tunes took a turn for the betterlast year, driven by strongdemandforrestaurants target-ing mass consumers, accord-ing to an industry survey.

The China Cuisine Associa-tion said that consumptionusing non-public fundsaccounted for 90 percent ofthe total catering spendinglast year.

Industry revenue stood at2.786 trillion yuan ($449.3billion), up 9.7 percent, theCCA said in its reportreleased on Monday. Thegrowth rate was an improve-ment from 9 percent in 2013.

The association forecastrevenue will reach 3 trillionyuan in 2015.

The survey was conductedin December involving 41,171interviewees, mainly maleconsumers aged 18 to 50 who

live infirst-andsecond-tiercit-ies or township-level regions,with a monthly income of3,000 to 8,000 yuan.

Food safety and hygienelevels ranked higher than inprevious surveys when itcame to picking a restaurant.The CCA said this findingshowed the huge impact oflast year’s OSI scandal.

Shanghai Husi Food Co,owned by OSI China (the Chi-nese arm of United States-based food giant OSI Group),was accused in a televisionreport of supplying expiredmeat to fast-food giants,including McDonald’s andYum Brands.

Consumers have becomemore price-sensitive, boost-

ing the growth of mass-mar-ket restaurants.

Many restaurants are shift-ing from large cities andexpensive menus to smallercities and medium-priceddishes, a trend that is morevisible during festive seasons.

Zhu Danpeng, an industryresearcher, said the tradition-al Lunar New Year’s Eve din-ner for this year’s SpringFestival, which falls on Feb 18,is being offered at much low-erprices thanbeforeandwithmore food choices.

He said that although mostchains had launched high-end menus in a bid to main-tain profits, it is medium-priced menus that areexpected to draw more trafficto restaurants.

According to the survey,social occasions involvingfriendsand families, aswell asdating, are still the main rea-sons people go to restaurants.

Business meals have beencut back amid the govern-ment’s anti-corruption cam-

paign. That has beenespecially true for high-endrestaurants that depended oncustomers using public funds.

Other findings of the sur-vey:

• Consumers have “verylimited tolerance” in terms ofwaiting for their orders toarrive. Less than 10 percent ofinterviewees said they couldwait between 20 and 30 min-utes. Commitments to cutwaiting times are beingoffered by many restaurants.

• Restaurant choices aremost influenced by word-of-mouth reviews, which areranked ahead of third-partyreview websites. The impactof newspapers and broad-casting outlets has continuedto weaken.

• Delivery services haveemerged rapidly, especiallythose based online, eventhough the sheer number ofusers remains small. Thistrend is creating challengesin food safety among third-party food delivery providers.

FOOD

Restaurants’ growth acceleratesas mass-market outlets thrive

Customers check out food products at an international food expo in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. The China Cuisine Association saidthat consumption using non-public funds accounted for 90 percent of the total catering spending last year.WANG JIANKANG / FOR CHINA DAILY

By XIEYU in Hong Kongxieyu@chinadaily.com.cn

Wang Jianlin, the self-made Chinese billionairewho made his fortune bybuilding shopping malls, isactively diversifying hisassets through global merg-ers and acquisitions.

“Wanda Group is targetingrevenue of 100 billion yuan($16 billion) by 2020 from itsculture business,” said Wang,chairman of Wanda GroupCo, on Tuesday, at a news con-ference in Beijing toannounce the company’s pur-chase of Swiss Sports GroupInfront.

By culture business, Wangwas referring to the emergingmedia and entertainmentsector, as Chinese consumersare spending more on “spiri-tual life” and the nation’sleadership stresses reducingreliance on traditional indus-trial growth like propertydevelopment.

The company controlsthe world’s second-largestcommercial propertyassets, as well as a fast-ex-panding entertainmentbusiness including themovie-theater chain AMCEntertainment Holdingsbought in 2012, themeparks under constructionin China, and a Hollywood-style film base in the coast-al city of Qingdao inShandong province.

It seems that Wang is shift-ing his focus from buildingshopping malls and office

buildings to the entertain-ment and property integrat-ed businesses.

Wanda’s new targets mayinclude Hong Kong-basedcash-strapped Asia TelevisionLtd. Local media said Wanghad placed a bid to purchase10.75 percent stake fromATV’s biggest shareholder. Ifhe manages to beat the otherthree competitors, Wangcould buy as much as a 52.4percent stake and become thecontrolling shareholder ofthe company.

Wang did not confirm thedevelopment on Tuesday, butsaid Wanda would “accom-plish at least two majorM&As this year in the cultureindustry”.

ATV, together with Televi-sion Broadcasts Ltd, are theonly two competitors in thefree-to-air television broad-casting market in HongKong. But the former hasbeenbeleagueredbyashrink-ing market share, delayedemployee payments and riskslosing its free-to-air license asit has no funds to pay theHK$10.2 million ($1.316 mil-lion) in overdue license feesand penalties.

Francis Kwok, marketingdirector of the Bright SmartSecurities Ltd based inHong Kong, said: “I wouldsay that ATV is not anattractive asset.

“Television stations havebeen facing a cash crunch aft-

er advertisers started shiftingto new media channels. Hugeinputs of time and energy areneeded to revive ATV. Howev-er, a white knight with strongcapital does have its advanta-ges,” he said.

Wang’s fortune almostdoubled within threemonths to above $28 billion,after his property units andcinema chain went public inDecember and January,respectively, according tothe Bloomberg BillionairesIndex. That moved him clos-er to China’s richest man,Alibaba Group HoldingLtd’s Jack Ma, who wasworth about $34.4 billion onTuesday.

Wanda announced a 45million euro ($39.87 million)deal to buy a 20 percent stakein Spanish soccer club Atleti-co Madrid in late Januaryand is now in talks to buy astake in Lions Gate Enter-tainment, the Hollywoodfilm studio. A $1.2 billion lux-ury apartment and officedevelopment in Beverly HillsWanda bought last August isalso expected to aid thegroup’s entry to the UnitesStates’ film industry.

Net profit for WandaGroup would reach 60 billionyuan, of which over 20 per-cent would come from over-seas, while sales fromcultural, tourism, finance ande-commerce businesses willspeed up the company’sdiversification, the companysaid in a statement in lateJanuary.

INVESTMENT

Wanda eyes more M&A deals this year

By BLOOMBERG

Sun Qinghuan, chairman ofMLS Co, China’s biggest pro-ducer of light-emitting diodes,is poised to become a billion-aire with an initial publicoffering.

MLS is planning to sell 44.5million shares for 21.5 yuan($3.44) on the Shenzhen StockExchange, according to a filingon Monday. Sun will ownabout 357 million shares afterthe IPO, giving him a networth of about $1.2 billion,according to the BloombergBillionaires Index.

Sun, 42, joins a rising num-

ber of Chinese entrepreneurswho have become billionairesas investors drive up the val-ues of newly traded compa-nies. The light-bulb maker lastyear was ranked the world’s10th-biggest for packagedLEDs, according to marketresearch firm IHS Technology.

“It’s grown to become a bigcompany,” said Alice Tao, anLED and lighting industryanalyst at IHS in Shanghai. “InChina, there are very few otherLED companies that have thatkind of size and scale to com-pete with global LED manu-facturers like Samsung,Osram or Philips.”

The IPO was 65 times over-subscribed, according to thecompany’s filing.

The Shenzhen CompositeIndex rose 2.47 percent onTuesday.

An MLS representative whoanswered the company’s mainphone line declined to com-ment ahead of the IPO.

MLS products are used incomputer appliances, trafficlights and shopping malls,according to its website. Itsproduct line and research anddevelopment innovation areamong its strengths, Changji-ang Securities Co Ltd said in areport earlier this month.

FLOATS

LED leader reaps IPO riches

By BLOOMBERG

China’sautosales rose 10per-cent in January, led by demandfor sport utility vehicles andminivans as consumers contin-uedtofavormorespaciousridesover conventional sedans.

Retail deliveries of passen-ger vehicles climbed to 2.07million units in January, theChina Passenger Car Associa-tion said on Tuesday. SUVsales surged 62 percent, whileminivans advanced 22 per-cent, outpacing demand forsedans, which was littlechanged, the data show.

Vehicle sales in China areforecast to expand 7 percentthis year, half the paceachieved in 2013, as the econo-

my cools in the world’s largestcar market. Total deliveriesmay exceed 25.1 million vehi-cles, from 23.5 million lastyear, the China Association ofAutomobile Manufacturerssaid last month.

China’s gross domesticproduct is forecast to expand 7percent this year, slowingfrom 7.4 percent in 2014, asPresident Xi Jinping seeks a“new normal” after three dec-ades of breakneck growth.

Local authorities in Chinahave stepped up restrictions tolimit deliveries of vehicles as agrowing number of cities jointhe fight to control smog andtraffic congestion across theworld’s most populous coun-try. Shenzhen’s decision to cap

the number of new vehicleregistrations a year hasspurred concern that severalsmaller cities may follow suit.

“Nanjing, Suzhou in Jiangsuprovince and Wuhan in Hubeiprovince were cited as exam-ples in our conversationswhere similar restrictions hadbeen rumored,” Max Warbur-ton, an analyst at Sanford CBernstein Ltd, wrote in a noteto clients last week. Shenz-hen’s decision “was said tohave helped drive volumes,apparently pulling forwarddemand”.

General Motors Co said itssales in China fell 2.4 percentlast month, while ToyotaMotor Corp boosted deliveriesin the country by 11 percent.

INDUSTRY

Auto sales climb 10% in January ondemand for SUVs and minivans

160,000Shanghai’s wealthy residentswith an individual household netwealth of more than 10 millionyuan

Wanda Group Co held a news conference in Beijing on Tuesdayto announce the purchase of Swiss Sports Group Infront.ZHU XINGXIN / CHINA DAILY

2.786trillion yuan

Total food industry revenue for2014, an increase of 9.7 percentover the previous year

16 BUSINE S S Wednesday, February 11, 2015 CHINA DAILY USA

LEISURE

Casino grows as Chinese find paradiseTough crackdown on Macao gambling has somegamblers making a search for new alternatives

By BLOOMBERG

Paradise Co, South Korea’slargest operator of casinos forforeigners, is increasing gam-bling space to cater for a boomin Chinese visitors, even asChina cracks down on over-seas casinos marketing to itscitizens.

Paradise will expand floorspace at three of its five for-eigner-only casinos includingdoubling the size of gamingareas at its casino on JejuIsland, as Chinese gamblerswho comprise more than two-thirds of its visitors pack itshalls, Vice-Chairman LeeHyuk-byung said in an inter-view.

China announced on Feb 6it would stop foreign casinosfrom luring its citizens togamble overseas includingthrough offices set up in thecountry, the latest in a slew ofpolicies linked to an anti-cor-ruption campaign that hashit gambling revenues inMacao. Seoul-based Paradisedoes not market directly togamblers in China as that isillegal, and it mainly relies onword of mouth, Lee said onFeb 5, prior to China’sannouncement.

There is not enough infor-mation about the latest policyand Paradise has not seen anyimpact on its operations, saidShim Hye-jeong, an investorrelations official at the compa-ny after China’s announce-ment.

Chinese wooedCasino operators such as

Australia’s Echo Entertain-ment Group Ltd and Naga-corp Ltd are trying to wooChinese gamblers as the anti-graft campaign and strictervisa rules to Macao drove bet-

tors to seek out alternativegaming markets. There hasbeen a surge in the number ofvisitors from China to SouthKorea over the past two years,Lee said.

“If you visit our casinos, itisn’t full on the weekdays, buton the weekends from Fridayafternoon to Sundays, it’s fullypacked,” Lee said. “This meanswe cannot provide all the gam-ing needs of our visitors. Byexpanding, we can.”

Paradise shares broke itsthree-day losing streak torebound from Monday’s17-month low, rising 2.3 per-cent to 22,300 won ($20.5) atthe close of trading in SouthKorea on Tuesday. RivalGrand Korea Leisure Coclosed up 0.8 percent, whilethe benchmark Kospi indexfell 0.6 percent.

While sentiment for Para-dise and Grand Korea Leisurewill probably suffer in theshort term, China’s clamp-down is unlikely to seriouslyaffect casino markets target-ing Chinese gamblers, YangIl-woo, an analyst at SamsungSecurities Co, wrote in a notethis week.

“Korean casinos may actual-ly benefit, as their success atattracting Chinese puntersappears to be due to SouthKorea’s proximity to China,not marketing capabilities,” hewrote.

Baccarat gamesParadise will spend $26

million on the expansion,Lee said. The operator willadd 26 gambling tables at itscasinos, mostly for baccaratcard games, bringing thetotal to 252, according to thecompany. Baccarat gamesare a favorite of China’s gam-blers.

The expansion by theSouth Korean operatorcomes as Macao’s casino rev-enue slumped for an eighthstraight month in January,for the longest losing streakon record. Paradise in 2014posted its first profit declinein three years, according toBloomberg.

Chinese tourists to SouthKorea are increasing as SouthKorean pop culture gains pop-ularity and travel restrictionsease, Lee said. Mainland gam-blers formed 67 percent of thecompany’s high rollers lastyear, growing from 46 percentin 2010, the company said.Chinese accounted for 77 per-cent of the total mass gam-

blers last year, up from 50percent in 2010, it said.

Tourism spendingAbout 6.1 million Chinese

mainland travelers went toSouth Korea last year, anincrease of 42 percent,according to data from theKorea Tourism Organization.

South Korea last yearapproved construction of itsfirst foreign-owned casino asAsia’s fourth-largest economytries to emulate Macao andSingapore in attracting moretourism spending from Chi-na.

Paradise is Korea’s largestforeigners-only casino oper-ator with almost 50 percent

market share, the companysaid, citing data from theKorean Casino Association.Grand Korea Leisure, astate-run casino operator,ranked second with a 42percent share.

Kangwon Land Inc, whichoperates South Korea’s onlycasino that allows local gam-blers, is the country’s largestoperator overall by sales, fol-lowed by Paradise, accordingto data compiled by Bloom-berg.

Paradise plans to focus onbringing in mass marketgamblers, especially with its1.3 trillion won integratedresort Paradise City project,Seoul-based Shim said.

By BLOOMBERG

BOC Hong Kong (Hold-ings) Ltd, the lender withthe most outlets in the city,said its number of privatebanking employees maydouble within three yearsas Chinese wealth rises andcustomers tap its yuan-re-lated services.

Staff at the two-year-oldbusiness may climb to 100to 150 employees fromabout 60, Wendy Tsang,managing director andhead of private banking,said in an interview inHong Kong last week. Shecited growth in the num-ber of wealthy Chineseand global interest in Chi-na-related investments.

The lender is up againstthe likes of UBS Group AGand Citigroup Inc, whichwere the largest wealthmanagers in Asia in 2013according to a study byLondon-based PrivateBanker International. BOCHongKong is theonlyyuanclearing bank in HongKong and can offer yuanproducts around the worldthrough Bank of ChinaLtd’s network.

“Our history is not longcompared to the Europeanfirms, but we have theadvantage of grasping newopportunities in China,”Tsang said. “We’re in a bet-ter position to help Asianand European clients thatwant to enhance their ren-minbi portfolio and use thecurrency for business out-side China.”

The wealth of Chinesemillionaires increased 20percent to $3.8 trillion in2013.

BANKING

HK lenderto boostheadcountfor growth

A dealer displays cards on a gaming table at Paradise Casino in Incheon, South Korea. Paradise Co is increasing gambling space to caterfor a boom in Chinese visitors. REUTERS

This means wecannot provide allthe gaming needsof our visitors. Byexpanding, wecan.”Lee Hyuk-byung, vice-chairmanof Paradise Co