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Asia Pacific Friday, January 04, 2008
Wife’s TV outburst prompts Chinese clampdown on Internet videos
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By Bivash Mukherjee. Shanghai, China, 12:00 PM IST

A recent verbal joust involving two of China’s best-known television anchors may have prompted the Chinese regulators to clamp down on Internet videos on private websites.

During a recording to relaunch Chinese state broadcaster’s sports channel CCTV 5 as the Olympic channel on New Year’s Day, the invited guests at the studio got more than the share of rabble-dabble they had expected.

Zhang Bin, a sports commentator and one of the country’s most familiar television faces, was hosting the programme when his wife Hu Ziwei, herself a well-known television personality with a local TV station, walked up to the podium and stunned the audience by telling them that her husband was cheating on her!

‘Today is a special day for Zhang Bin, a special day for the Olympic Channel … and a special day for me too. Because just two hours ago, I found out that, besides me, Zhang Bin has been having an improper relationship with another woman,’ Hu told the gathered audience during the programme that was being recorded for the big launch.

A visibly upset Hu went on to claim that her husband’s infidelities would bring shame on the Chinese mainland and the Games.

The three-minute clip could be seen on popular Chinese websites for a day and was the subject of massive interest among China’s netizens, embarrassing the powers-that-be in this Olympic year. It was blocked later but not before it had made its way to international video websites like YouTube.

The damage clearly was done.

Even more disturbing for the authorities was Hu Ziwei’s reference to a ‘French diplomat’ (France President Nicolas Sarkozy).

‘But as a French diplomat once pointed out, if Chinese people don’t have any humane values to present to the world … then what does all the [Olympic] fuss mean?’ she asked.

On Thursday, China announced new regulations that restrict uploading of Internet videos, including those posted on video-sharing websites, to government-run sites.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Information Industry approved the regulations, which come into effect Jan 31.

It states that websites that provide video programming or allow users to upload video will need government permits.

It remains to be seen how the new ruling affects the popular California-based YouTube, which has a Chinese-language website, but operates from outside of the country.

The rules insist that those who provide Internet video services ’serve the people, uphold socialism and abide by the moral code of socialism’.

During the 2006 World Cup football tournament another CCTV commentator hit the headlines over his controversial rant on air while covering a game.

When Francesco Totti converted a penalty against Australia to send Italy into the quarterfinals, commentator Huang Jianxiang shouted live on air: ‘Goooooal! Game over! Italy win! Beat the Australians! … Italy the great! … Happy birthday to Maldini! Forza Italia!’

‘The victory belongs to Italy, to Grosso, to Cannavaro, to Zambrotta, to Buffon, to Maldini, to everyone who loves Italian soccer! … (Australia) should go home. They don’t need to go as far away as Australia as most of them are living in Europe. Farewell!’

Huang later claimed to be a keen follower of Italy’s Serie A league. World Cup newcomers Australia have become a growing football rival for China since it moved into the Asian confederation.

Huang apologised and was shunted out of the job but his outburst became a popular mobile phone ring tone besides being a big hit on the Internet.

With the Summer Olympics just months away, an image-conscious China is on guard to avoid any more potential embarrassments.

By Bivash Mukherjee (Staff Writer, © IANS)

http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=9210
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/168750.html
http://twocircles.net/2008jan03/wifes_tv_outburst_prompts_chinese_clampdown_internet_videos.html
http://www.nerve.in/Shanghai/news:253500121505
http://www.indiaenews.com/pdf/89627.pdf
http://www.indiaenews.com/asia/20080104/89627.htm

Asia Pacific Thursday, February 07, 2008
How can Peking duck go electric, fume Chinese
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By Bivash Mukherjee. Beijing, China, 12:01 PM IST

A very famous restaurant here that specialises in the signature Peking duck is getting a bit of a stick lately for its preference of electric ovens over the age-old method of using firewood for cooking the hot delicacy.

A visit to China is said to be incomplete without a visit to Beijing’s famed Quanjude Beijing Roast Duck Restaurant, along with the Great Wall of China. But the restaurant has been in the news for all the wrong reasons ever since it announced recently that it is planning to go electric as it seeks to spread its area of influence nationwide, which for some implies cost cutting and increasing profits.

Quanjude enjoyed a highly successful November listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The added funds, and its electric ovens, are intended to fire its expansion plans - around 100 branches - all over China.

Traditionalists are fuming over the anomaly with many arguing it would be no better than the fried chicken dished out at major fast-food outlets.

Ma Yue, a Shanghai resident, fears that the crispy part and the succulent taste of the dish may simply evaporate with the new ovens, while a taxi driver bemoaned that in the chase for modernisation a bit of Chinese culture and habits were dying with it.

While that may be a bit far-fetched, a survey by Beijing Youth Daily and popular Chinese portal Sina.com revealed that over 76 percent were opposed to the use of electric ovens at the popular restaurant that is thronged by hundreds of well-heeled and epicurean visitors alike.

The Chinese capital’s most famous dish is processed in several steps and kept hanging in the air for some time before being roasted in a brick oven, akin to Indian tandoori dishes. It is served with Mandarin pancakes and green onions and can cost anywhere between 168 to 198 Chinese yuan (about $23-27) if not more.

Quanjude has said that it is cooperating with a German firm to produce ‘computer-controlled ovens to roast ducks’.

‘Computerised ovens, while guaranteeing quality, simplify, standardise and automate the roasting process,’ the restaurant’s group general manager Xing Ying was quoted as saying in the China Daily.

The group insists that the flavour won’t be lost, adding that the ducks will be sprayed with natural fruit juices before they are cooked, while some of the outlets would continue to employ manual roasting methods.

Rivals argue that the restaurant, which dates back to the Qing Dynasty in 1864, would lose some of its lustre and a ‘bit of history’ but Xing is confident it would ride through that.

A pragmatic Ma Yue sees no harm in the changes but adds that ‘if it alters the taste substantially they might as well go back to the proven way of cooking things’.

By Bivash Mukherjee (Staff Writer, © IANS)

http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=19831

Asia Pacific Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Indian IT firm head voted among Shanghai’s 10 best
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By Bivash Mukherjee. Shanghai, China, 10:00 AM IST

The head of Hyderabad-based Satyam group’s operations in China, Raghvendra Tripathi, is one of the two expatriates voted by the Shanghai administration among the top 10 IT talents in the city.

‘The IT talent list covers more and more sectors. The two foreign-listed talents show Shanghai’s IT development has attracted world attention,’ Shanghai’s vice mayor Yang Xiong has been quoted as saying in Shanghai Daily.

The annual list is compiled from the Internet and SMS voting and authorised by the Shanghai Committee of China Communist Youth League and the Shanghai Municipal Informatization Commission.

Tripathi, who moved in here from Singapore after the Satyam group set up base in China in 2002, may see the recognition coming after a successfully branding of his enterprise here and a recognition of the same by government bodies.

He has also worked closely with a non-government organisation Project Hope that focuses on healthcare by contributing free data warehouse solution and - a fact that may have also been noticed by the Shanghai administration.

‘I’m not surprised. Satyam is the first Indian Tier-1 IT company to enter China. After five years of development we have enjoyed a good reputation among multinational companies,’ Tripathi said.

‘We have a wide presence in China’s big cities - Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Dalian and Guangzhou.”

Satyam China, which has seen growth in terms of associates, offices and clients, while overcoming the language barrier, mainly extends 3E services - enterprise, integrated engineering and infrastructure management services.

It has over 600 employees in Greater China - 97 percent locals ‘which is the highest percentage among the Indian peers,’ said Tripathi, adding the numbers are expected to cross 2,000 by the year-end and touch 3,000 by end-2009.

‘Right now we are still in the investment stage. We have set up the 2,500-seat global solutions centre at Nanjing that will be Satyam’s largest research and development centre out of India.’

It will be a campus-style centre - complete with lodging and other amenities and located in the high-tech - which is expected to attract more than 300 software companies while cutting down development costs, he added.

Satyam, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Euronext of Amsterdam and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in India , is hoping to use China as a base to service its clients in North America and distribute talent globally.

Currently, over 60 percent of Satyam’s global business comes from the US, while Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East regions contribute around 16 percent. Europe contributes another 18 percent.

Larger rivals like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies have also set up facilities in China with an eye on the growing domestic market as well as neighbouring powerhouses like Japan and Hong Kong, industry sources said.

By Bivash Mukherjee (Staff Writer, © IANS)

http://www.indiaenews.com/asia/20080129/94386.htm
http://www.indiaenews.com/pdf/94386.pdf
http://twocircles.net/2008jan28/indian_it_firm_head_voted_among_shanghais_10_best.html
http://www.zdnetindia.com/index.php?action=articleDescription&prodid=16529
http://www.nerve.in/news:253500126158

Asia Pacific Saturday, January 12, 2008
Rare protest in China over maglev train route extension
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By Bivash Mukherjee. Shanghai, China, 07:31 PM IST

In a rare sight in China’s financial capital Shanghai, a few hundred people opposed to plans to extend the maglev (magnetic levitation) train route demonstrated outside the city government in the heart of this city on a foggy afternoon.

Police acted quickly and bundled away the demonstrators in waiting police vans but not before they had taken the authorities by surprise.

The city government is in People’s Square next to the prestigious Grand Theatre and opposite the Shanghai Museum, close to the famed Nanjing Road that is flocked by tourists and visitors.

Reports of radiation effects from maglev have been making the rounds on the websites since last month but most of the sites have been blocked by the authorities. There have been unreported smaller protests last week in distant suburbs over the health hazards but few reports added the protests also had to do with relocation of the locals and property prices that may supposedly dip if the plans go through.

The current magnetic levitation train route covers a little over 30 km and connects the city’s international airport in Pudong to the subway. Trains on this route can attain a top of 420 km/hour. It is projected as the pride of the city - the only one in the world - and covers the distance in seven minutes flat which otherwise is a good 45-minute ride by road.

The city is trying to extend the maglev line to the domestic airport in Hongqiao. Shanghai is keen to get the maglev ready for the World Expo in 2010. Built with German assistance, it was inaugurated by the then German chancellor Gerhard Schroder in late 2003.

Shanghai also plans to connect the city with neighbouring Hangzhou (175km), which is often projected as the `Geneva of the East’. The current train ride takes a little over three hours. The maglev is expected to cut that down by an hour and a half.

A report in China Daily last week claimed that any proposed revisions to the plans would cost twice the original budget. It said that costs could jump from 200 million yuan ($27.5 million) to 500 million yuan for each kilometre of the extended line that would provide wider buffer zones between the residents and the maglev tracks.

The Xinhua news agency also reported last week the controversy was likely to continue following the release of an environmental assessment report. Xinhua reported in May last year that the project had been suspended, which was denied by the Shanghai government. But the local government added that an environmental study would be carried out.

The study suggested the maximum speed along the Shanghai section of the route would be limited to 200 km/h, which is substantially less than the 450 km/h planned for the remainder of the railway to Hangzhou. It said that the maglev would not affect water and air quality and insisted that noise pollution could be adequately controlled.

The China Daily report quoted an unnamed source as saying: ‘Experiments have shown that the electromagnetic radiation is minimal compared with what is emitted from electronics appliances in the home. But the noise is a problem.’

It said the Shanghai government is unlikely to abandon plans for the extended line, because 10 billion yuan has already been invested in the project.

By Bivash Mukherjee (Staff Writer, © IANS)

http://www.indiaenews.com/pdf/91184.pdf
http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=11694
http://news.boloji.com/2008/01/16371.htm
http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10870&Itemid=88
http://www.twocircles.net/2008jan12/rare_protest_china_over_maglev_train_route_extension.html

Asia Pacific Wednesday, January 16, 2008
By Bivash Mukherjee. Beijing, China, 06:31 PM IST

The Chinese media has generally welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to China this week, describing the rise of the two nations of ‘revolutionary significance’ and a ’strategic partnership’ between them the need of the hour.
The People’s Daily, with close links to the Chinese Communist Party, observed that ‘the two Asian nations have had a frequent, high-level exchange of visits from the entry of the new century.’
The article by Hu Shisheng, a researcher and director of the South Asia Studies Center at the China Institute of Contemporary Relations, said that people-to-people exchange was the need of the hour.
‘The only pity is that the people-to-people exchange between the two nations is not smooth enough,’ Hu wrote. ‘Indians are reported to have made a total of 629,947 trips to China in 2006, whereas there were only 46,805 trips made by Chinese visitors to India that year.’
In 2007, which was named as ‘the Year of Friendship through Tourism,’ India only received 67,600 Chinese, while China had 35 million outbound tourists in the year.
Hu stressed that frequent visits bring friends closer — quoting from a popular Chinese saying.
‘Closer bilateral ties are attributed to an exchange of visits … Without any contact, there will be practically no personal experience and direct understanding to speak of and; without any people-to-people exchange of visits, erroneous views and even misconception or misunderstanding could be prevalent.
‘To a greater extent, a negative influence from bias, prejudices and disparities in mutual recognition of each other’s nation is not inferior to that inflicted by the border issue.’
Hu said that he hoped both the countries would aspire “to have a growing, bilateral exchange of visits at the high level and make it a regular practice, or even on a yearly basis, and turn it into an extensive education on bilateral ties.”
Hu said in his commentary that the rise of the world’s two most populous nations “was of a revolutionary significance.”
“The two Asian neighbors will have an ample capacity for changing the overall global outlook. In this sense, bilateral relations should overstep the limits of geopolitics and the scope of bilateral relations, and should especially exceed the security predicaments and grudges against each other in history.”
Wu Yongnian from the Shanghai Institute For International Studies said sound foundation was essential to boost strategic cooperation between the two.
Writing in Shanghai’s Jiefang Daily, a large circulated Chinese language paper, Wu said that good Sino-India relations have significant strategic meaning to the world. “We are partners, not opponents,” has been a common ground for leaders of both the countries while making policies.”
Wu went further in saying that good ties between the two nations can help keep world peace, implying that both the nations should play a bigger role on the world stage.
“A deeper Sino-India strategic partnership is the common need of the two countries, as well as a call of the time. It is high time that China and India take a step forward to improve their relations,” Wu wrote, adding however that the present bilateral trading was relatively restricted and investment into each other’s countries was still limited.
Xiaoxiang Morning Post, a Chinese language newspaper in distant southeast province of Hunan, said that while most Chinese see India as a neighbor developing nuclear weapons “due to the alleged threat from China,” they were “blind to the fact” India is a young country full of vigour and energy.
“Apart from its hugely successful IT industry, it is big in bio-research and development and pharmaceuticals.”
It said that people in India have shown respect for knowledge.
“The population in India is no smaller than in China, but it is young country with abundant human resources that would last as long as 20 years.”
It mentioned that Manmohan Singh’s reforms over “international cooperation and adjustment of industrial structure is a good example for the industrial reforms in China.”
It is understandable why a visit of this stature arouses jealousy from other developing market economies, it said.
By Bivash Mukherjee (Staff Writer, © IANS)

http://www.indiaenews.com/pdf/91981.pdf
http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=13322
http://story.chinanationalnews.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/9366300fc9319e9b/id/318714/cs/1/
http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2008/jan/16/china_india_rise_revolutionary_significance.html