Portrait of a Chinese P2P lender

Posted on 2013-08-09 by Jeremy Goldkorn

ppdai manPeer to Peer (P2P) lending websites allow users to lend and borrow money directly to and from each other. China’s first P2P lending website, PPDai.com, launched in 2007. As of 2013, there are scores of websites that operate as online brokers hooking up lenders with borrowers, and taking a small transaction fee.

Independent data suggests the market has been growing multi-fold annually. In May of this year alone, over 2.7 billion yuan was transacted via P2P lending websites, according to a report prepared by research organization Wangdai Zhijia. Renrendai.com, one of the largest players, announced that the total amount of loans transacted on its platform in 2012 exceeded 350 million yuan, an eight-fold year-on-year increase. Renrendai did not release its revenues, but P2P lending services typically charge 2% of the total loan amount as a transaction fee. It is widely believed that some P2P websites such as Renrendai have already achieved positive cash flow.

The prospects for rapid growth demonstrated by the early entrants have already attracted powerful players. In 2011, Ping An Insurance (HKG:2318) launched Lufax.com (featured in the chart on the previous page) and earlier this year, Shenzhen Pharma Group (unlisted) unveiled its 91yt.com.

How much credit do borrowers get?

Compared with US counterparts such as Prosper or Lending Club, Chinese P2P sites display a clear focus on businesses rather than individuals. On PPDai the most popular borrowers are vendors on Taobao, China’s largest online retail website, who sometimes have an urgent need to raise funds to buy inventory for shopping seasons, or for making advance payments on large orders.

Chinese banks, even small ones, do not usually make loans to such vendors, but on PPDai, Taobao vendors can get an unsecured loan of as much as 500,000 yuan if they have good sales and customer ratings (much more than the maximum US$2,500 that Prosper allows).

As part of a recent research project about P2P lending in China, Danwei interviewed a number of P2P lenders and borrowers. Below is a sketch of one of them.

Portrait of a P2P investor

Wang Zhen (not his real name) is a 29-year-old white collar worker from a provincial town in Henan province who has been working in Beijing since graduation. His monthly salary is about 13,000 yuan and his life goal is to own a piece of real estate in the capital. As real estate prices skyrocketed, he grew increasingly frustrated with his financial situation. While the balance of his savings account grew steadily, rent was increasing at a much more rapid pace. In November 2012, after his landlord raised the rent again, he decided that he needed to find alternative ways to invest in order to make extra money.

Wang briefly flirted with the idea of buying gold, but after thoroughly reviewing investor testimonies on Internet forums, he decided that lending money on Peer-to-Peer or P2P lending websites was a safer investment with better returns. In November 2012, he invested 10,000 yuan via PPDai.com. After a month of anxious waiting, borrowers started to pay him back. By January 2013, he had made a total of 500 yuan in profits, but two borrowers failed to pay back their loans, leading to a 200 yuan loss.

Wang decided to change his strategy by investing more in entrepreneurs on Taobao.com (China’s biggest ecommerce website) because such vendors have traceable sales and sometimes credit histories. Because of this they can borrow money on PPDai at lower rates, offering lenders a safer investment but a lower return. This change in strategy stabilised Wang’s loan default rate.

In addition, Wang spread his investments across more than 1,300 borrowers. Wang carefully reviewed many of the borrower profiles and credit histories, but he also allowed PPDai’s software to choose some. Many lenders on PPDai have adopted this strategy of making a high number of small loans to spread risk. Many of them also participate in an online chat forum where they exchange information about reliable borrowers.

As of July 11 2013 he has invested a total of 116,637.60 yuan of his own capital in several irregular instalments. The investments have generated 5,535.21 yuan in interest, which he has put back into PPDai. There are 12 overdue loans totalling 818.26 yuan, although Wang is confident that most of these borrowers will eventually pay him back. The PPDai website dashboard says that his annualized return rate for his investments is 13.51%.

The above is adapted from the Danwei Bulletin, a weekly briefing of company and market news compiled from our research as well as Chinese news and social media . The Danwei Bulletin is sent to premium subscribers of the FT’s China Confidential and Danwei. Please contact Danwei founder Jeremy Goldkorn for more information – jeremy@danwei.com

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“Are you still prostrating yourself before foreign milk powder?”

Posted on 2013-08-06 by Neil Thomas

The vast majority of Chinese daily newspapers yesterday featured the massive New Zealand milk powder product recall as a front page story, most as either the leading headline or as a large and prominent graphic feature. The imagery is very much that of a scare campaign, with dozens of papers using evocative images of microscopic bacteria. The cover of the Xiamen-based West Strait Morning Post even showed the grim reaper lurking behind the recalled products. The New Zealand flag was also prominent on some front pages.

Yesterday the New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra announced that a batch of whey protein concentrate manufactured in New Zealand and sold to dairy producers in China (and many other countries) was contaminated with bacteria that can potentially cause fatal botulism. China responded by halting all milk powder imports from New Zealand and Australia, and ordered product recalls of infant milk formula and milk drinks sold by the affected companies, which include Dumex, Wahaha and Coca Cola. But hundreds of tons of affected milk powder have already been sold.

This is a major issue in China because milk powder is the preferred source of nutrition by Chinese mothers for their children, and domestic milk powder safety scandals have triggered massive demand for foreign milk products because they are perceived as safer. Additionally, New Zealand is the source of over 80% of imported milk powder in China, and 95% of the New Zealand dairy industry is export-oriented.

It is unclear what the long-term effect of this ban will be on the Chinese milk powder and dairy markets, but given how extensive and sensationalist the coverage of ‘contaminated New Zealand milk’ has been in the Chinese press over the last couple of days, it may present an opportunity for the domestic dairy industry to regain market share forfeited as a result of their own safety scandals over the last few years, particularly if the Chinese government takes its time lifting the ban on New Zealand imports.

A handful of newspapers preempted the consumer reaction and carried headlines provocatively suggesting that this mass product recall has significantly damaged the reputation of foreign milk powder and that its substantial market advantage over domestic brands may be drawing to a close.

The front page of the Guangzhou Daily also wonders, “Could the worship of foreign milk powder be coming to an end?” The story on page three states that, based on its interviews with city residents, the “myth of foreign milk powder is collapsing” as Chinese parents have lost confidence in its safety and in the future may no longer differentiate between the quality of domestic and imported milk powder. The report continues by stating that cases of unsafe foreign milk powder are becoming increasingly common, with over 8,400 tons of milk powder from countries like New Zealand, Australia, Chile and South Korea failing to meet import quality testing standards so far this year.

The front page of the Chengdu Evening News asks, “Are you still prostrating yourself before foreign milk powder?” A feature report on the incident spread out over pages five and six quotes Shanghai University professor Gu Junren as saying that foreign milk powder has fallen off its “divine altar” and so domestic dairy product enterprises should not celebrate but use this as a time for self-improvement in order to increase the strength of their products as substitutes for imported milk powder.

A cover story in the Shanghai Securities News also warned, “The Chinese dairy industry should not look upon another’s trouble with indifference”, suggesting that Chinese milk product companies should not take idle delight in Fonterra’s misfortune but must remain vigilant themselves to avoid the safety issues that have plagued them in the past.

It remains to be seen how this latest milk powder safety scandal pans out with Chinese consumer preferences, but there is no doubt that the Chinese media will try to play a role in forming popular perceptions and purchasing behavior.

Links and sources:
Guangzhou Daily (广州日报): 进口洋奶粉七成恒天然
Chengdu Evening News (成都晚报): 多美滋问题奶粉流入市场420吨
Shanghai Securities News (上海证券报): 新西兰乳品染“肉毒杆菌”;国产奶业不应隔岸观火

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Is Shanghai’s current heatwave even hotter than the notorious summer of 1934?

Posted on 2013-07-30 by Hans Gaebler

东方早报A dead heat has settled in to large parts of southern China, and images of fiery thermometers and children splashing in pools have cropped up on front pages of newspapers around China alongside headlines exclaiming record-breaking temperatures, as can be seen in the gallery below. Most reports simply confirm the weather to be as outrageously hot as readers feel, but this morning’s Oriental Morning Post broke word of Shanghai’s heatwave a little more creatively, comparing it with the notoriously hot summer of 1934.

The picture for the main story, “Hot 1934: People hot at indoor chairs and desks, people rushing around on street even sweatier” (热过1934：人在室内桌椅皆热，路上奔波更为汗透), is a clipping from the July 12 1934 edition of Shun Pao (申报), China’s first, and now defunct, newspaper, dating from the Qing Dynasty. According to the report, the temperature yesterday reached a blazing 39.1 degrees celsius, bringing the tally to a grand-total of twenty-three exceptionally hot days (高温日) this month, and beating out July 1934 to become Shanghai’s hottest July on record. Nevertheless, considering how Shun Pao described the heatwave in 1934, “Steamed by the heat, warmth everywhere, even when sitting, the sweat is torture” (暑气所蒸、无处不热，虽静坐，亦觉汗珠点滴不收), Oriental Morning Post reporters wonder if 2013 might boast the hottest summer in name only, and look to the venerable periodical to find out how the metropolis beat the heat without air-conditioning in that notorious summer of 1934.


Amid the “densely-packed traditional characters” of the Republican-era newspaper, reporters discovered a snapshot of life in old Shanghai: A low, muddy Pudong river; residents and officials purchasing irrigation equipment for peasants to keep down the price of rice; silk factories closing their doors during the day; the reading of sutras on the street, in offices, and even in Christian churches, to pray for rain; stylish Shanghaiers packing into soda fountains and movie theaters; and hospitals treating hundreds of victims of the heat each day. Situated alongside this digest of 1934 heat-wave news, the paper also reproduces a number of news clippings – describing the deaths of five from heatstroke and record sales by the local soda bottlers, among other events – from various July 1934 editions of Shun Pao, transcribing traditional characters into simplified but leaving the original semi-classical wording unchanged.

As for the rest of Oriental Morning Post‘s front page today, the main headline reads “When criticizing superiors, don’t shoot ‘polite bombs’; When criticizing oneself, don’t shoot ‘empty bombs’ (对上级批评不能放“礼炮”，对自己批评不能放“空泡”), referencing a speech made at a Party education and practice event (教育实践活动) by Shanghai Party Secretary Han Zheng 韩正. Four other headlines, including one claiming that non-critically injured individuals account for 40% of ambulance rides and an apology to netizens by the Guizhou vice-provincial governor for criticizing “scumbags” (人渣), take up the sidebar. Beneath the main picture, the top headline reads “Non-Shanghai residents will be able to obtain Passports next month”, while the lower notes that Public Accounts Committees at all levels of government will expand the scope of audits to better address public debts.

Links and Sources
Oriental Morning Post 东方早报: 热过1934：人在室内桌椅皆热，路上奔波更为汗透

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60-70% of honey in Jinan is fake

Posted on 2013-07-29 by Neil Thomas

Honey

The front cover of yesterday’s Jinan Times is dominated by an exposé of the Shandong honey industry, with a headline proclaiming “60-70% of honey on the market is adulterated,” leading into a detailed feature article on pages two and three. The report claims that the production of counterfeit honey in China is an open secret to industry insiders, and so journalists from the Jinan Times went undercover to investigate. If you enjoy eating honey, as the Chinese have since ancient times, then you will not like what these reporters found.

In conversations with merchants at a Jinan farmers market, stall owners freely admitted that numerous beekeeping merchants buy sugar syrup from them to mix into their honey. Buying syrup is much cheaper than producing bee honey and thus it is more profitable to sell honey that has been adulterated.

Large Chinese supermarkets generally stock dozens of honey products from 7-8 different brands, and prices for a 500g jar range from 21 to 38 yuan. Tests conducted by an experienced honey industry expert on four brands of honey purchased from a Jinan supermarket revealed that two brands’ honey products were frauds – one was diluted with beetroot syrup and the other with rice syrup.

Song Xinfang, Chairman of the Shandong Apiculture Association, claims, “Presently up to 60 or 70% of honey on the market is fake.” Consumers without professional knowledge can easily be fooled by counterfeit honey because sham honey looks more like what honey is supposed to than real honey itself; it is clear, free from impurities, and does not crystallize. Thus, with its attractive appearance, enticing packaging and cheap price, phony honey has been a hit with unwitting consumers and the practice has spread.

According to another Jinan industry insider, there are two main tricks for producing counterfeit honey. The first is to mix chemical substances or liquids with honey, a process usually carried out in small workshops that create the product sold by roadside peddlers. The second is to blend honey with fructose syrup, a technique that tends to be perpetrated by merchants who rent beekeeping areas in the Jinan suburbs and erect a few beehives to give the impression they are running an honest business. The latter is the more common method as it produces a liquid hard to distinguish from genuine honey, and this is the counterfeit honey often found in supermarkets.

Wang Yizeng, General Manager of the Jinan-based Jiquan Huangshi Bee Produce Company and Vice Chairman of the Shandong Apiculture Association, states that not only is fake honey a threat to the health of consumers, it also infringes upon the rights and interests of beekeepers. In 2006, a national food quality and safe market access system was implemented for honey and related products, meaning that only companies that obtain a QS authentication mark are allowed to sell honey for human consumption.

Only two companies in Jinan (including Jiquan Huangshi) have obtained the QS mark, but many more companies still sell honey because honey is not exclusively classified as a foodstuff – it can also be sold as an agricultural by-product or medicine. If this is the case then relevant departments lack the legal basis to investigate honey companies without a QS mark.

A further hurdle is that the cost of fighting fake honey is very high, with definitive proof of counterfeit honey requiring 40-50 separate tests each costing around 550 yuan, meaning few consumers or even government departments have been willing to pursue this issue.

Furthermore, the supervision of the honey industry falls through an administrative gap, because the production of counterfeit honey in small workshops means that it lands outside the scope of responsibility for both the local Quality Control Office and Industry and Commerce Office.

Song Xinfang outlines the following key challenges facing apiculture in Shandong (aside from counterfeit honey):

  • Heavy pesticide use killing off large honey bee populations
  • Land clearance
  • Diseases that threaten plant species important for honey production, and
  • The need to import non-native Western bee species suitable for large-scale collective beekeeping.

Links and sources
Jinan Times (济南时报): 市场上蜂蜜六七成掺假

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Bo Xilai indicted: “No-one is above the law”

Posted on 2013-07-26 by Johan van de Ven

xiandai kuaibao front page july 26Disgraced former Chongqing Party boss Bo Xilai was indicted yesterday on charges of accepting bribes, corruption, and abuse of official power. Today, Chinese newspapers have responded. The People’s Daily (人民日报) published a strongly-worded editorial under the headline “No one is above the law, and no one is exempt from the fight against corruption.” The Liberation Daily (解放日报), also a conservative paper, published a short article detailing the charges on which Bo was indicted and reprinted the People’s Daily article.

The same approach was taken by editors at the Beijing Daily (北京日报), while the Xinhua Daily (新华日报) devoted very little of its front page to the indictment. The Global Times (环球时报), a commercially run tabloid with a jingoistic and nationalist bent, broke slightly from the coverage of other papers, running a prominent title down one side of the front page, which read, “Prosecution of Bo Xilai shows China’s determination in its fight against corruption.” The Global Times also carried a full-page report on its back cover, detailing the background behind the case, as well as the response from the foreign media, which, according to Global Times journalists, “emphasizes that the Communist Party will show Bo no mercy.”

Chongqing, Dalian toe the line

Prior to Wang Lijun’s visit to the United States consulate in Chengdu in February 2012, Bo Xilai was best known for his controversial campaign against organized crime and corruption in Chongqing. Before that, Bo had served as mayor in the northeastern city of Dalian. Looking at today’s papers from these two cities, nobody would guess that the man now facing an indictment in Jinan, Shandong province, had any local significance in either Chongqing or Dalian. The Chongqing Daily (重庆日报) printed the People’s Dailyeditorial in full on its front page, while it also a featured a small article detailing the charges against Bo Xilai. Similarly, the Chongqing Times (重庆日报) summarised the People’s Daily editorial and carried an article outlining the charges. The Chongqing Morning Post (重庆晨报) and Chongqing Business Daily (重庆商报) carried identical headlines, reading, “Bo Xilai prosecuted on suspicion of accepting bribes, corruption, and abusing powers of office.” In Dalian meanwhile, the Dalian Daily (大连日报) and the Dalian Evening Post (大连晚报) both merely summarized the charges faced by their former mayor.

Progressive newspapers practice obedience

Publications such as the Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市报) and Beijing News (新京报), two of the country’s more daring newspapers, did nothing bold on the Bo Xilai story. The Southern Metropolis Daily carries the news of his indictment as the headline of its front page, but does not go beyond reprinting copy from the Xinhua wire. Editors at the Eastern Morning Post have also gone with this tactic. The Beijing News merely noted “Bo Xilai Indicted on Three Counts.”

Lesser-known newspapers add some color

The monotony of the Chinese press’s response to the news that Bo Xilai’s indictment was not limited to how different publications dealt with the news. It was also literal: not one of the above-mentioned newspapers printed so much as a mug shot of Bo. The Xiaoxiang Morning Post (潇湘晨报), a newspaper based in Hunan, first demonstrated its independent streak when, in solidarity with striking journalists at the Southern Weekly, it refused to print a critical editorial from the Global Times. This time around, theXiaoxiang Morning Post features a large picture of Bo on its front page, his eyes closed and his expression solemn. The headline is lifted from within the People’s Daily editorial, and it reads, “Nobody can rely on chance for this ‘minister beyond punishment.’ The New Anhui Evening Post (新安晚报) also carries the same picture and headline, together occupying over half of its front page. Modern Express, a newspaper owned by Xinhua, went to so far as to print a large picture of Bo apparently wiping tears from his eyes. This paper, like all other papers, did not make any independent comment on the significance of the indictment of a man once talked about as a potential future leader of China.

Links and sources 
Xinhua Daily (新华日报) 薄熙来昨日被提起公诉
Liberation Daily (解放日报) 法治没有特区 反复没有例外
People’s Daily (人民日报) 法治没有特区 反复没有例外
Beijing Daily (北京日报) 薄熙来涉嫌受贿，贪污，滥用职权案提起公诉
Global Times (环球日报) 审判薄熙来是依法治国的清晰重申
Chongqing Daily (重庆日报) 法治没有特区 反复没有例外
Chongqing Times (重庆时报)薄熙来提起公诉
Chongqing Morning Post (重庆晨报) 薄熙来涉嫌受贿、贪污、滥用职权案提起公诉
Chongqing Business Daily (重庆商报)
Dalian Daily (大连日报）薄熙来涉嫌受贿、贪污、滥用职权案提起公诉
Dalian Evening Post (大连晚报) 薄熙来涉嫌受贿、贪污、滥用职权案提起公诉
Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市报)薄熙来在济南公诉
Eastern Morning Post (东方早报) 薄熙来昨在济南被公诉涉嫌受贿贪污滥用职权
Beijing News (新京报)薄熙来三宗罪被诉
Xiaoxiang Morning Post (潇湘晨报)谁都不能心存“刑不上大夫”侥幸
Modern Express (现代快报)薄熙来昨被提起公诉

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Baidu’s guide to the eight biggest Internet scams in China

Posted on 2013-07-25 by Neil Thomas

BeijingWanBao 25 July copy

The top headline of the front page of today’s Beijing Evening News (北京晚报) is ‘Bo Xilai indicted today’. The Global Times has a good English summary of the way the party is spinning the story. Also on the front page is the headline “21 Million Sham Webpages Deleted in Half a Year” for a page eleven story regarding the release today by Chinese Internet search engine giant Baidu (the equivalent to Google in China) of an “Anti-Fraud Guide for Eight High-Risk Areas on the Internet.”

The eight types of websites deemed by Baidu to be particularly susceptible to fraudulent activity and requiring netizens’ vigilance are those involving financial management, value recharge, pharmaceuticals, online shopping, ticket bookings, after-sales services, express delivery, and prize draws (see below for more detailed descriptions of the top three Internet scams).

According to statistics quoted from the Anti-Phishing Alliance of China, in 2008 there were only 1,610 scam websites in China, but by last year this figure had increased to 37,584 (this figure seems to relate to coherent scam website operations rather than individual webpages, which is what the figure in the headline refers to). In 2011, over 60 million netizens had already lost money to online fraudsters, with the total amount swindled exceeding 30 billion yuan (US$ 4.9 billion). And fully 30% of all online shoppers have been victims of scams.

China’s 500 million or so netizens each use Baidu an average of ten times every day, searching and sifting through the over 200 billion individual webpages that Baidu has records for. Given the oceans of data available, there are bound to be a few sharks that get caught in the net, and so in 2010 Baidu’s national illegal online information reporting center initiated “Operation Sunlight” to get rid of them.

The article reports that in 2012 alone, Baidu cracked down on over 30 million scam websites. There are indications that such fraudulent websites are becoming increasingly prevalent, however, as in the first half of 2013 Baidu has already had to delete over 21 million of them.

The Baidu guide details typical scams in each of the eight high-risk categories, although the advice provided by Baidu is rather simple, and basically just warns netizens to be careful, use antivirus software, verify website bona fides by checking addresses and telephone numbers, and only transfer money online using certified official websites. Below are translations of the examples provided of the top three online scams in China.

#1 Financial management scams
Mr. Gao received a text saying “Valued Internet banking customer, your E-banking account will expire tomorrow, please promptly visit www.xdboc.com to upgrade”. Mr. Gao immediately logged onto the website to “upgrade” and after providing his banking details had 160,000 yuan drained from his account.

#2 Value recharge scams
Old Wang searched online for “Sinopec gas card” and found a recharge website. He used Internet banking to put 1,000 yuan on his card, but when he went to use it there was no money on it. It turned out that a scammer had registered a fraudulent website with a numerical domain name (many domain names in China consist of random numbers or letters) only one number different from the official Sinopec gas card recharge website.

#3 Pharmaceutical scams
Mr. Liu went online to buy medicine for his father, and chanced upon a diabetes website claiming to be the “most professional, most authoritative, most effective.” Per the instructions on the website, he made an online payment and arranged for delivery. The medicine was received, but rather than alleviate it in fact aggravated his father’s condition.

Links and Sources
Beijing Evening News (北京晚报): 半年打掉虚假网页2100万个

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Chinese newspapers react to royal baby

Posted on 2013-07-24 by Johan van de Ven

Six This Morning Front Page July 24The as yet unnamed third-in-line to the British throne emerged into the world at 11:34 pm Chinese time on 22 July. With yesterday’s print already set, the Chinese press today benefited from a luxury not enjoyed by their colleagues in Britain: time to consider their response to the birth of the first child of Prince William and Kate Middleton. As his birth was preceded by a series of earthquakes in western China’s Gansu province, most editors did not see fit to adorn their front pages with pictures of the new royal baby. Most, but not all.

Six O’Clock This Morning (今晨六点), a newspaper based in Yantai, Shandong province, divided its front page into two. On the top is a photo of the first baby born in the Gansu earthquake area after the disaster, “The Hope of the Gansu Earthquake Zone”; while below the London Town Crier is captured in full voice, announcing the birth of “The Hope of the British Royal Family.”

The two babies, who were born within seven minutes of one another, feature on the front page of the Changsha Evening News (长沙晚报). This newspaper ran with the headline “Earthquake, Royal Family Both Welcome Babies.” While “Earthquake Baby” and the “Royal Baby” shared the limelight in these papers, they also enjoyed individual attention in other papers. A photograph of journalists and royal fans awaiting the royal baby’s first public appearance dominates today’s edition of East Asia Economic News (东亚经贸新闻), while “Earthquake Baby” is the headline of the Beijing Times (京华时报), superimposed on a photo of the first child born in Dingxi, Gansu province, after the earthquake struck.

The Changsha Evening News chose to focus its reporting on the financial implications of the prince’s birth, running with the headline, “Royal Family Welcomes Son, Merchants Welcome Money.” According to the paper, the birth of the third-in-line heir to the British throne will bring an extra £372 million or $572 million (US) to UK sales income. How, the paper wonders, can the birth of one baby provide an economic boost worth several hundred billion pounds? First and foremost, many thousands of tourists have come in anticipation of the birth and will continue to flock to Britain. The newspaper also quotes Daily Beast columnist Dan Gross, who joked that a boom will have been felt simply due to the arrival of the world press corps in London, who flocked in on intercontinental flights and pitched up at high-end hotels. This “commercial feast ” has also been particularly beneficial to certain industries.

The Changsha Evening News reports that the gambling industry has made a killing from the birth. First, people placed bets on the gender and time of birth, while bets are continuing to come in on what the baby will be named. The total sum of bets has already surpassed £15 million or $23 million (US). Aside from the gambling industry, the birth has also provided free advertising, raising the profile of Britain and British companies throughout the world.

Both Six O’Clock This Morning and Changsha Evening News also note that the royal baby is the most important birth for the British monarchy in over 100 years, as it is the first time in this period that heirs to the throne of three generations are alive at the same time.

Links and Sources
Six O’Clock This Morning (今天六点): 万众狂欢
Changsha Evening News (长沙晚报): 王室添丁商家添财
East Asia Economic News (东亚经贸新闻): 英凯特王妃顺产 小王子7斤6两
Beijing Times (京华时报): 地震宝宝 

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Massive earthquake strikes rural Gansu

Posted on 2013-07-23 by Hans Gaebler

沂蒙晚报Early yesterday morning, Zhu Wenqing 祝文清 had just arisen from bed in Majiagou 马家沟 village, Min county 岷县, Gansu, when he heard a spectacular boom. He rushed outside and watched as the building he had just exited began to sway violently, and moments later, collapse from an aftershock. Many neighbors were not so lucky, as newspapers are reporting today with headlines around China exclaiming “Magnitude 6.6 Earthquake Yesterday in Gansu: 89 Dead, More than 500 Injured” (甘肃昨发生6.6级强震89人遇难800余人伤).

Coverage this morning is wall to wall, with nearly every paper in China giving front page space to the earthquake. Those few papers which did not display the earthquake instead featured full page ads and relegated the story to the second page. Interestingly, the Business Daily of International Tourism Island, (which was the subject of our post on the chengguan and the death of the water melon vendor last week) awarded its front page to yet another report on police brutality, while this morning’s Chutian Citizen (楚天民报) and Chutian Bulletin (楚天快报) for some reason did not cover the earthquake at all.

According to the top story, “Never Give Up” (不言放弃) in the Yimeng Evening Post from Linyi, Shandong province, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck Gansu yesterday morning at 7:45 AM roughly 250 kilometers from the provincial capital of Lanzhou, affecting an estimated 900,000 people in 29 cities and villages. Although the epicenter of the quake lay twenty kilometers beneath the border of rural Min (岷) and Zhang (漳) counties, tremors were felt as far away as Xi’an, Shaanxi province. Initial reports included 89 confirmed deaths, 517 injuries, and 14 reported missing persons, as well as the collapse or severe damage of nearly two-thousand buildings, resulting in 1.98 billion yuan of damage.

Pictures of orange-clad emergency personnel and soldiers in camouflage fatigues searching through the rubble blanket the covers of nearly every Chinese newspaper today, as the gallery below illustrates. All though some reports varied slightly in specific details (occasionally within the same article), the presentation of the event was relatively uniform, focusing on the specific numbers of people, buildings, land, etc., affected.

 

 

Although the Gansu earthquake was dominant on today’s front pages, not all papers followed suit, as the gallery below illustrates. There was no room on the Nanyang Evening News, Yangcheng Subway News, and Spring City Evening News since ads occupied the entirety of their front pages. Readers of all three papers, however, could find the story on page two. Somewhat inexplicably, news of the quake was absent entirely from the Chutian Citizen and Chutian Bulletin. Both, owned and published by the Hubei Daily Media Group (湖北日报传媒集团 ), reported a variety of other news, while other papers, such as the Chutian Metropolis Daily, belonging to the same company, featured the story as their leading headline.

 

Once again apparently bucking the trend, this morning’s Business Daily of International Tourism Islandventured into controversial waters and featured as its main story “I was Beaten by the Police” (我在派出所被民警殴打). On June 20, one Mr. Ye, a resident of Santan village (三滩村), Hainan province, was sitting at home watching television when a band of men “from the police station” (派出所来的人), arrived without warning and arrested him. Soon after, the group took Ye to the police station office where they hand-cuffed him and locked shackles on his feet. Once Ye was thoroughly immobilized, one of the officers let loose a kick to the back of his head. The others joined in, taking turns kicking and punching the captive. When Mrs. Ye arrived to help her husband, she found him kneeling in front of the police officers. “I started swearing at him: ‘Why would you kneel in front of them? They don’t have the right to make you kneel’! My husband screamed at me to call a friend of his and tell him to call the police and tell them to stop beating him”.

By 5:00 PM, the police had freed Ye. The cause of all the ruckus? A week earlier, Ye had sold a piece of rosewood to a local rosewood dealer. Ye never suspected that when the man called him a few days later claiming that the piece of Rosewood (a different piece, according to Ye) was fake and would call the police unless Ye gave him a refund, that he would actually show up with the local gendarmes to carry his threats through.

Links and Sources
Yimeng Evening Post (沂蒙晚报)：不言放弃
Business Daily of International Tourism Island (国际旅游岛商报): 我在派出所内遭到民警殴打

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China’s football team fights back

Posted on 2013-07-23 by Barry van Wyk

Qingnianbao 22Jul

This was a long time coming: finally there’s something to cheer about for Chinese football fans. It’s not a victory, but a respectable draw and – even more important – not a humiliation. With a summer of shame and three straight losses behind them (including the embarrassing 5-1 home drubbing by Thailand), most Chinese fans would have hoped China could somehow just keep their dignity intact at the East Asian Cup now taking place in South Korea. One of the few Chinese fans in the stadium in Seoul for the match against Japan on Sunday night carried a banner reading “Please just respect the national flag”. Yet China did more than merely avoid a humiliation: despite taking an early lead, China fell 3-1 behind before rallying in the last 20 minutes, converting a penalty and then scoring a dramatic late equalizer for a blistering finish. What was most gratifying about the performance was the fighting spirit exhibited by the Chinese side, and the sense of pleasant surprise and contentment was clearly visible on Monday’s front pages in China:

“Me and my buddies are all stunned…”
On June 17 Danwei reported on the Oriental Guardian (东方卫报) from Nanjing describing the Chinese national football team’s 5-1 loss against Thailand on June 15 as a “dagger deep into the heart of every Chinese football fan” (像一把尖刀深深地刺痛每一个球迷的心). Yet on Monday the same newspaper’s front page exclaimed its new-found faith in the national team by using a new meme that’s become popular on the Internet in China: “Me and my buddies believe in the Chinese football team again” (我和小伙伴又相信国足了). The “me and my buddies” part is based on a primary school student’s essay that was uploaded to Weibo in November 2011 but went viral in June this year. One of the sentences that the student used in the essay read “Me and my buddies are all stunned” (我和小伙伴们都惊呆了). The Oriental Guardian is one of many newspapers that used the “me and my buddies” meme on Monday to praise the Chinese team’s performance.

This was the first game in charge for new coach Fu Bo (傅博), who was hired to replace the team’s former Spanish coach who was sacked after the debacle against Thailand. So when Japan established a 3-1 lead, many Chinese fans feared another bad loss was on the way. But then China fought back. Never mind, as the Beijing Morning Post (北京晨报) pointed out, that the Japanese side was really barely a second-string team, or, as the Chongqing Times (重庆时报) pointed out, that the referee seemed to be favoring China slightly – all the Chinese newspapers on Monday were able to revel in the Chinese team’s fighting spirit and refusal to give up.

For the Guangzhou Daily (广州日报), there are two good things that China can take out of the match. The first is that every member of the team worked hard to get something out of the match, yet they did so in a disciplined fashion and within the rules; and the second is that the team displayed good skill and technique to score three goals. Fighting spirit and skill were things (as the paper notes) that were sadly lacking in previous games this year.

After Sunday’s game the official Weibo account of the national team posted the following message:

This is not a moment to celebrate a victory, and certainly does not mean we have achieved any of our goals. But it is progress. We want to say thanks to every fan who supported us through the tough times. For the glory of China and for all the fans, we can only keep fighting to the end.

China has not beaten Japan in football since 1998.

China’s next game in the tournament is on July 24 against South Korea.

Links and sources
Oriental Guardian (东方卫报): 我和小伙伴又相信国足了
Beijing Morning Post (北京晨报): 3比3，我们懂得知足 
Chongqing Times (重庆时报): 国足3∶3日本，我和小伙伴们都惊呆了
Guangzhou Daily (广州日报): 永不放弃 终可做到
Wuhan Evening News (武汉晚报): 战斗到底
Chinese national team on Weibo

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Chengguan kill melon vendor with his own measure weights

Posted on 2013-07-19 by Neil Thomas

Guojilvyoubao

Yesterday’s front page of the Hainan-based Business Daily of International Tourism Island reported on the latest incident of violence involving chengguan, those city management officials tasked with enforcing regulations on local-level law and order, traffic, sanitation, and the environment. Yet this particular incident in Hunan province seems even more grimly odder than usual because the chengguan killed a melon vendor with his own measure weights.

On the morning of 17 July, 56-year-old “model worker” Deng Jiazheng and his wife drove from their home in Liantang Village in Hunan province to the prefecture level city of Chenzhou to sell watermelons. They set up a street-side stall on Jiefangnan Road, but a group of chengguan arrived and fined them 100 yuan for trading without a proper license. When the chengguan decided to also take a few watermelons, Deng’s wife tried to block their path and was forcefully pushed aside.

The couple packed up and moved to a different location, but just as they were unloading their watermelons again, a group of approximately ten chengguan rushed to the scene and an intense argument broke out. Passers-by filming the incident had their phones confiscated or smashed by the chengguan. Seven or eight chengguan then surrounded Deng and his wife and started beating them.

An eyewitness claims that Deng received a heavy blow to the head from a chengguan wielding one of the sliding measure weights Deng uses to sell his watermelons. Deng then fell to the ground, dead. Deng’s wife was also seriously injured and is being treated in hospital.

Before he died, Deng snatched an identification card off one of the chengguan, which his sister later posted as a photograph online. It pinpoints one of the chengguan involved as Liao Weichang, District Chief of the Third Law Enforcement Brigade.

The Linwu County Party Committee has acknowledged that Deng died in the course of law enforcement carried out by county chengguan, but has stated that the cause of death is yet to be confirmed. The Committee has also announced a meeting of all relevant departments to discuss the issue and placed the chengguan involved under disciplinary investigation.

Also of note is that the main story splashed across the same front page of the Business Daily of International Tourist Island alleges chengguan misconduct involving the newspaper itself. A series of photographs and a feature story accuse a chengguan in Lingao County, Hainan, of violently shoving volunteers involved in a campaign to promote public education about legal rights and confiscating copies of the Business Daily of International Tourist Island being distributed as part of the campaign. The report alleges he was drunk on duty and reeked of alcohol.

The Business Daily of International Tourist Island seems to have been the only Chinese newspaper to feature the melon vendor story on its front page yesterday, and perhaps only in reaction to the events described just above. However, the story was carried as a headline item by major online news portals such as Phoenix, NetEase and Tencent, complete with graphic photos of the deceased and his grief-stricken family members.

Update
19 July: Tencent News is running a story detailing overnight developments in the matter. The local Party Committee has denied that Deng Jiazheng died from being hit on the head with measure weights by its chengguan, and interviews with street vendors who were at the scene of the incident have cast further doubt, though without providing a thorough refutation.

Additionally, on the night of 18 July, a brawl broke out between police and several hundred onlookers siding with Deng’s family members over disagreements regarding the process for removing his body, which had been lying in the street for almost 24 hours. Police tried and failed to remove the remains several times over some hours, with many of those trying to prevent the corpse from being taken away being severely beaten. Photographs appeared online of resistors with blood streaming down their faces from nasty head wounds.

20 July: Tencent News has reported that Deng’s family have received compensation of 890,000 yuan from the Linwu County government and have declared the matter closed. They thanked the county government for its handling of the matter and Deng has now been buried according to local customs.

Earlier, official autopsy results were published stating that Deng died of a heart attack, to which Deng’s daughter immediately expressed her outraged doubts on Weibo, claiming that the corpse’s cranium was clogged with blood. However, she quickly deleted the post.

Six chengguan suspected of being involved in the incident have been detained on suspicion of intentionally causing bodily harm. The Linwu County Standing Committee of the CPC has also sacked the bureau chief of the county’s Urban Management Regulation Enforcement Bureau (the organisation in charge of chengguan), Hu Chen, as well as the CPC vice-secretary assigned responsibility for law enforcement in the county, Zou Hongwei.

A short essay entitled “The Melon Farmer’s Chinese Dream” (translated by The Telegraph here) posted by prominent writer and social commentator Li Chengpeng on his official Weibo account on 18 July has gone viral, notching up almost 200,000 reposts and over 20,000 comments in the past two days. The essay is a bitingly eloquent criticism of the official discourse surrounding the incident and asks how one can talk of a national “Chinese Dream” if one cannot even protect the simple dreams of a melon farmer.

According to The Telegraph, the central Propaganda Ministry has responded by blocking Li Chengpeng’s access to Weibo for the next month.

The incident and its subsequent developments continue to be a hot topic of discussion on Chinese social media and online news portals.

Links and sources
Business Daily of International Tourist Island (国际旅游岛商报): 湖南一瓜贩在与城管冲突中死亡
Phoenix Net News (凤凰网新闻): 湖南被打死瓜农亲属：城管说“要打就打死”
NetEase News (网易新闻): 湖南临武城管被曝当街打死瓜农
Tencent News (腾讯新闻): 湖南临武城管疑用秤砣打死瓜农 警方现场维稳

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