UMIFRE

La revue de presse du CEFC du mois de janvier 2017 est disponible en ligne.

Une analyse de la presse chinoise qui porte sur les événements suivants:

CHINA

Environment

1. Large-scale smog pollution around the New Year eve in China

- Since the end of December 2016, the northern part of China suffered from large-scale smog pollution. The extent of the smog pollution was huge and it has affected a number of northeastern and central provinces in China, spreading to the southern provinces early this year. A number of flights at airports of major cities were cancelled and the highways between Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai were forced to to temporary closure. The National Meteorological Center of China Meteorological Administration issued the Red Alert on 03 January 2017, which was the first time in history. The Red Alert will be issued if there are more than 3 provinces with strong smog and the situation is likely to persist. School classes were suspended in light of the severe smog pollution. The large-scale smog has lasted for over than a week. Compared to last year, the air-borne pollutants in Beijing have decreased in concentration, but yet to be close to the reduction goal set for 2017.

Source: The Initium, 04 January 2017

- In response to the smog, the Beijing government intended to put “toxic smog” on the list of climate disaster. Such action initiated a discussion on whether it is scientific to do so.

Source: BBC News, 21 December 2016.
Source: New Beijing News, 08 January 2017.

- Since early January this year, one article on the knowledge-exchange platform Zhihu widely circulated online noted an incident of a school in Xi’ an province which defied the ban on class suspension under the severe smog situation. The incident was reported by a student of that school but the whistle blower was later found out and criticized by the school management. It raised a discussion on the effectiveness of the supposedly anonymous reporting mechanism and the reason for the urge of the school to have classes under a situation unfavorable to health.

Source: Xinhua, 10 January 2017.

- Prof. Zheng Xinye (郑新业) from National Academy of Development and Strategy of Renmin University of China analyzed that the recent smog pollution was caused by 1) the energy structure of China, 2) the seasonal factor where heat supply is needed in winter, 3) the increase in industrial activities with high consumption, and 4) wind speed. He regarded the first two as fundamental to the problem. He proposed to solve the problem with three measures: 1) managing the need for energy in a medium-long range, 2) reducing reliance on fossil fuel (especially coal) for energy and moving towards to clean energy, and 3) increasing the strength of supervision to ensure policy implementation. In December 2016, China Dialogue together with Energy Foundation China has published a report on the current circumstances and future directions of China’s fossil fuel subsidies. The report is available here.

Source: The Beijing News, 09 January 2017.

- Nie Riming (聂日明) from Shanghai Institute for Finance and Law argued that managing smog pollution requires more than a short-term policy. The government should 1) encourage the build-up of “infrastructure” for greater participation of the public (e.g. more transparency in information dissemination, research-based knowledge, etc.), 2) to balance the interests involved, and 3) to enhance the capacity of supervision over heavy-polluting industries.

Source: Financial Times, 05 January 2017.

- Keith Bradsher from New York Times in November 2016 reported that the increase in the demand for coal due to greater number of housing construction works and the increase in coal price due to the unstable supply last year re-activated the coal-mining activities in China and thus worsened the efforts made by the Chinese government to curb air pollution as well as climate change.

An unusually hot summer and early autumn added to power demand. China’s banking regulators decided to let banks release a flood of mortgages to home buyers to bolster economic growth. That produced strong demand for electricity from the steel and cement industries. Along the way, China had a run of bad luck. Flooding disrupted mines and rail routes last spring. A government decision to withdraw many trains from service this year for a new safety improvement campaign made it difficult to deliver supplies quickly. As a result, Chinese coal prices almost doubled from the start of this year until early November. […] In recent weeks, China changed course. It halted most coal trading on commodities markets and encouraged state-owned mines to sign long-term contracts at low prices with power stations. This month, the National Development and Reform Commission raised the number of days that mines could operate to 330 days per year.// Source: New York Times, 29 November 2016.

Society

2. After-school tutorial class becomes a heat among parents in China

- The cancellation of examination for the primary-school students to enter secondary school two years ago was intended to relieve the learning pressure on students. Every student can now be guaranteed a placement in a secondary school. However, Southern Weekly in December reported that the workload of the students has not vanished but actually increased because parents would like to make sure their children could go to the school of better quality. Despite the no-examination requirement, secondary schools still use a number of informal measures to admit students of high calibre as far as they are allowed. Observers argued that those schools show great concern over this part of admission since they want to keep up their respective university admission rates. A number of after-school tutoring agencies are established to offer advanced courses for children in the name of “nurturing talents” (培优). One of the popular agencies is named Xueersi (学而思), which recruits students on a meritocratic basis, and provides an impression that it has good connections with good secondary schools which could allow a better chance for enrolled children to enter those schools. Tutoring agencies thus offer courses to train up children to fare well in some open qualification exams such as Olympics Mathematics Competition as a way to demonstrate the children’s capability. However, it has led to the children’s intensive working on mock questions and over-burdening of children. The rise of tutoring agencies and the craze of parents for them are altogether dubbed by the media as “Xueersi phenomenon”.

Source: Southern Weekly, 01 December 2016.
Source: Southern Weekly, 01 December 2016
Source: Guangming Daily, 14 December 2016.

Politics

3. New missions for Central Commission for Discipline and Inspection and the establishment of “State Supervisory Commission”

- A meeting of the Central Commission for Discipline and Inspection (CCDI) was finished on 08 January 2017. It revealed that the paramount mission for the CCDI is to make sure the changing personnel is free of corruption in the run-up to the 19th CCP’s National Party Congress, among other important messages noted below.

Source: The Beijing News, 09 January 2016.

- In the meeting it also endorsed a set of standards for members of CCDI to follow when making investigations. The idea is to make clear what is expected from those who are tasked to fight against corruption and to prevent what is called “darkness under the lantern” (灯下黑). In the new series of anti-corruption television programme “Ironing requires self-strength” (打铁还需自身硬) rolled out before the meeting, former CCDI members who were involved with corruption are highlighted.

Source: Xinhua, 08 January 2017.
Source: Hong Kong 01, 09 January 2017.

- Also, it is announced that a new state supervisory system called “State Supervisory Commission” (国家监察委员会) will be established, which centralizes the roles of many supervisory departments that exist in the current governmental structure in one oversight body. The new supervisory system will comprise four tiers, from national, provincial, city to county. The new function of the supervisory system is to target not only at party members, but also government officials, executives for state-owned enterprises, members of All-China Federation of Industries and Commerce, and other officials with public power.

//Officials say the “national supervisory commission” will target graft and dereliction of duty from lowly functionaries to top government figures, with powers to interrogate and detain suspects, freeze assets and, in some cases, render punishment. The commission, which is undergoing regional trials ahead of a nationwide rollout next year, aims to merge the roles of several government supervisory departments and prosecutorial offices, centralizing oversight of China’s vast bureaucracy. On paper, the watchdog will answer directly to a rubber-stamp parliament. But in practice, officials say, the commission will share personnel and responsibilities with a powerful disciplinary agency that answers to Mr. Xi’s 89-million strong Communist Party. “To use a Chinese saying, it’s ‘one group of personnel, two plaques,’” Xiao Pei, vice minister at China’s Ministry of Supervision, said Monday at a news briefing. “Our aim in deepening reforms of the national supervisory system is to strengthen the party’s centralized and unified leadership over anticorruption efforts.”// Source: The Wall Street Journal, 10 January 2017.
//Xiao Pei, vice minister of supervision, made the comments at a press conference after a plenary session of the CCDI concluded on Sunday, explaining the two bodies will share institution and staff. The Ministry of Supervision also currently shares responsibility and organization with the CCDI. The country’s supervisory system will be put into four tiers: national, provincial, city and county, Xiao said, noting that it is a major political system reform. […] Xiao said the new commissions are powerful anti-graft bodies, which will supervise not only functionaries in Party organs and legislative, administrative and judicial bodies, but also members in non-Communist parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. In addition, the commissions will supervise executives in state-owned enterprises and government-sponsored institutions as well as those in mass organizations.// Source: China Daily, 09 January 2017.

- The newly established national commission will share the same group of personnel with the party members of the CCDI, as usually dubbed as “one organization, two plaques”. The new commission will not be independent of the CCP’s control in its anti-corruption campaign. The deputy secretary of CCDI Wu Yuliang explicitly dismissed the concept of “separation of powers” in the new establishment when asked by a reporter.

Source: CRNTT, 09 January 2017.

HONG KONG

Politics and Urban Planning

1. The controversy over the new branch of Beijing Palace Museum in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District

- The Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam announced on 23 December 2016 that Hong Kong would build a branch of the Beijing’s Palace Museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) to mark the 20th anniversary of establishment of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The project was kept under confidentiality and not known to the public until late December, and the funding of 3.5 billion HKD for the project would not need the approval of the Legislative Council as it would be provided by the long-established Jockey Club which enjoys monopoly in legal betting in Hong Kong and members are of higher social strata. The reception of the project was mixed. Controversies arise over the potential loss of Hong Kong’s autonomy, the need for the secrecy, the lack of public consultation prior to the deal, etc. Supporters argue the project would enhance the city’s status as an international city. The development of WKCD has been controversial for years. The recent incident was that the CEO of WKCD Authority Michael Lynch resigned for personal reasons August 2015 (relevant report here). A former civil servant Duncan Pescod was later appointed as the new CEO. His relative inexperience in arts surprised the cultural sector in Hong Kong (relevant report here).

//In a cultural coup for Hong Kong, the city on Friday signed a HK$3.5 billion deal with Beijing to create a replica of the capital’s celebrated Palace Museum at the West Kowloon Cultural District. The project, funded by the Jockey Club, is a highlight of next year’s events to mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule and the culmination of close collaboration following an agreement in 2012 between the city and the Palace Museum. […] “The future exhibits will be loaned to us by the Palace Museum on a long-term basis, which would have been impossible within the existing state policy on the export of artefacts,” she said. According to a government source, the present policy limits the number of exhibits on loan to 120 items per tour for a maximum period of three months, but the future museum will feature over 1,000 items on display for up to three years at a time. The source dismissed suggestions that the museum had anything to do with independence sentiments in Hong Kong, saying discussions on the project began last year. A government press release added that “developing a museum with a clear focus on Chinese history, art and culture in Hong Kong is fully in line with the vision of developing Hong Kong into a cultural metropolis”.// Source: SCMP, 23 December 2016.
//Hong Kong’s No 2 official on Monday dismissed concerns about a lack of transparency over the city’s HK$3.5 billion deal to build its own version of Beijing’s celebrated Palace Museum, saying it would be “embarrassing” if a public consultation threw up opposition to it. Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was on the defensive as she announced that she would cut short her Christmas holiday to fly to Beijing for the second time in a week for official meetings on cultural exchanges. But she made clear she would not be meeting Beijing officials to discuss her widely expected bid for Hong Kong’s top job after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying opted out of seeking a second term. “It is very difficult to conduct a public consultation because it involves the central government and the related ministries,” Lam said. “You can imagine that, if we were to ask the public if they wanted to have more exhibits from the Palace Museum more than half a year earlier, everyone should respond positively.// Source: SCMP, 26 December 2016.
//The decision to build a $450m [USD] branch of Beijing’s famed Palace Museum in Hong Kong was meant to celebrate this year’s 20th anniversary of the return of the former British colony to Chinese control and boost its struggling tourist industry. // Source: Financial Times, 03 January 2017.

- Given the mounted criticisms, the government decided to hold a public consultation related to the project, but the consultation matters are restricted to the design, operation, and exhibition ideas but not whether the project should proceed.

Source: The Initium, 05 January 2017.

- Opposition lawmakers and urban planning professionals are concerned whether the deal had followed strictly the procedures. For one thing, critics questioned whether the architect was commissioned to the project without open tendering was appropriate. Also, they criticised the designation of use for the vacant land in the District had no public consultation. Some are also concerned about the non-transparency of the process. Carry Lam’s sudden announcement of the project also raised concerns whether it is related to her indicated interest in joining the competition for the Chief Executive Election in March this year.

//The dispute over the museum underlines the growing tensions between pro- and anti-Beijing forces in Hong Kong, where the civic freedoms guaranteed by the Chinese government have come under increasing threat. […] James To, an opposition member of the legislature, said the government’s efforts to bypass debate and oversight were “absolutely inappropriate” and would further undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy. […] Camille Lam, a town planner, said the Hong Kong government should consult the public because it is changing the plans for the West Kowloon Cultural District, where the museum will be built in place of a proposed performance venue. She also accused the government of departing from previous practice by appointing an architect for the project without any open design competition. “Government officers will do anything to bypass the statutory process,” said Ms Lam, who is a member of the 1,200-strong committee that will nominate candidates to be Hong Kong’s next leader. “We worry that they’re ruining the culture of good governance in Hong Kong.// Source: Financial Times, 03 January 2017. Source: Hong Kong 01, 07 January 2017.

- Tim Hamlett, a political commentator from the Hong Kong Free Press, pointed out two issues related to the construction deal that warrant greater attention, 1) the deal was paid by a non-governmental organization the Jockey Club which enjoys the monopoly on horse-racing betting, and 2) the perfect timing of which the space in the West Kowloon Cultural District is available for the Palace Museum Project:

//What bothers me is the chronology. Early in 2015 the internationally famous museum director who was steering the cultural district project resigned, and was replaced with a retired Hong Kong civil servant. In September of the same year Ms. Lam visited Beijing and toured the Palace there, which is not a replica. The director thereof then asked her if she could arrange a venue in the Cultural District where selected objects from the palace museum might be displayed for the delectation of Hong Kong citizens. […] Saying that “the Jockey Club was requested” is a polite way of putting it. Actually disbursements from the Jockey Club Charities Fund are decided by a joint committee on which the government is represented. This is a useful arrangement for both sides. […] Eddie Chu Hoi-dick, alias the King of Votes, was unkind enough to point out in LegCo that while the Jockey Club was, at least in theory, pondering its response to the funding request, the club was fortunate enough to secure an extension on a racecourse lease and permission to hold more race days than before. Chu has an admirable nose for research. He also noted that the Jockey Club’s Executive Director collected a Gold Bauhinia Star last year. No doubt these happy events had nothing to do with the final decision, officially made last October, that the Jockey Club would pay for the museum. Certainly Ms. Lam seems to have been confident, because having got the money lined up, she proceeded to tackle the problem of a site. The planning of the Cultural District had been going on a long time and there were of course no large spaces left vacant. Happily, though, the flying finger of fate came to the rescue, because in July 2016 the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, chaired by Carrie Lam, announced that it was abandoning plans to build a mega performance venue in the district, leaving an empty space. […] At this point the smell becomes a problem. Ms. Lam said, and I quote from a boring newspaper which usually supports the government: “any plans on how to replace the mega performance venue and exhibition centre would be decided by the WKCDA and its committees.” This was no doubt an accurate summary of the constitutional position, but hardly of the practical one. It led reporters and their readers to believe, as Ms Lam should have known and presumably intended, that the cancellation of the mega performance venue had been entirely due to problems with the venue idea itself, and that the resultant vacant space would now be the subject of fresh cogitation on what might occupy it instead. […] At this point Ms Lam was six months into her negotiations with the Jockey Club over money. An architect had already been engaged – apparently on the strength of his experience in museum work – and had advised on the potential use of the site. In other words the Palace Museum was virtually a done deal. […] The official version is that the cancellation of the old plan had nothing to do with the upcoming museum one. This is difficult to believe. Did Ms Lam tell her fellow members of the authority, one wonders, that seven months before this matter appeared on their agenda she had been asked by a Beijing bigwig to find space in the cultural district for a museum?// Source: Hong Kong Free Press, 10 January 2017.

- Some members of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority supported the government’s decision and the way of handling the project. One member of the Authority, KAN Tai-Keung, argued that the project is well supported by the public according to the head counts of visitors who went to exhibitions related to the Beijing’s Palace Museum, and the level of secrecy is needed or the project would have been competed for by other cities:

Source: Hong Kong 01, 07 January 2017.

- A member of Executive Council, Bernard Chan, showed support for the Palace Museum Project for values to enhance Hong Kong’s international status:

//[l]et’s look at it from a different, and positive, angle. Would anyone seriously suggest that we should turn down the opportunity to have part of the Palace Museum’s collection? Obviously not. If Hong Kong wants to be in the same league as New York and London, it needs more than a financial sector, some amazing food and the usual shopping scene. It needs world-class cultural assets, to enrich life for local people and for visitors from overseas. M+, the West Kowloon museum for modern and contemporary visual culture, is already in the pipeline. It will contain the unsurpassed Uli Sigg collection of modern Chinese art and various international exhibits. […] The Hong Kong Palace Museum, with its focus on historic China, will complement it magnificently. It will showcase the Forbidden City and a selection of its treasures. The museum in Beijing displays only around 1 per cent of its 1.8 million items, so the choice is huge. […] There will be plenty of scope for local input as our cultural experts will be able to discuss the selection of artefacts, management of the museum and so on. Artefacts can be rotated, so we will enjoy new exhibits from time to time. As well as the works on loan from Beijing, the museum will also have space to display items from local collections. These facilities will give Hong Kong international-class major museums. They will not cover the same ground as world-famous museums in New York, London or Paris – they will offer things you cannot see in those cities. Duncan Pescod, chief executive officer of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, said that other cities would “give their left arms” for the Palace Museum artefacts. We can be pretty sure that Shanghai and Shenzhen are among them.// Source: SCMP, 05 January 2017.

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Press Highligths 11 January 2017 - CEFC

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Press Highligths 11 January 2017 - CEFC

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La revue de presse du CEFC du mois de janvier 2017 est disponible en ligne.

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