Call for more babies as China turns to grey

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6841430.ece

August 29, 2009

LETTER FROM CHINA

Tucked Away in Shanghai, Hidden Lives

By HOWARD W. FRENCH

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/world/asia/29iht-letter.html?em

for pictures go to link

SHANGHAI — For the last couple of months I have spent the first part of each day either teaching at a Chinese university or writing.

Nearly every afternoon, though, in what has distinctly felt like the start of a new day, I have set off with camera in hand by motorcycle and subway to some of the fast-disappearing old neighborhoods of this city, to knock on the doors of hundreds of ordinary, working-class people.

These encounters with strangers have plunged me deep into a world experienced by few foreigners, and indeed, one might venture, few Chinese — particularly those of the middle class.

Through the time spent in the cramped, dimly lit homes of my subjects — people whose portraits I’ve taken for a long-term photographic project about the city’s oldest neighborhoods — I may have learned as much about Shanghai and about China as I did in five busy years as a correspondent here.

Typically, I enter their world by climbing up a rickety, twisting wooden staircase, ducking to avoid bumping my head in the near-total darkness. This experience, eerie at first, but now utterly familiar, has come to feel appropriate for a photographic adventure, like the adjustment of one’s eyes, and perspective, upon entry into a darkroom.

My subjects come fresh to the experience, so it has been unexpected and unquestionably strange for each of them, at least initially. Once they have overcome their surprise at the sight of a very tall, camera-bearing, Chinese-speaking foreigner in the sanctum of their tiny homes, the most common question has been: What could possibly be interesting about a place like this?

The answer is: plenty.

The demographics of this city, said to have the oldest population in a country that has begun to age rapidly, has come to life before my eyes. I had not expected to find so much evidence of China’s thriving quasi-underground religious culture here. In house after house, I found people worshiping privately as Christians or Buddhists. Asked how she had come to the church, a woman who had been sent to the countryside as a youth in the Cultural Revolution told me she had been converted by her neighbors. “Everyone in this building believes in Christ,” she said.

We are ever more accustomed to dazzling images of China, the fast-rising nation that may soon surpass the United States and lead the world, according to one increasingly widespread trope. Those who know a bit about the country will be aware that there are still many hundreds of millions of people in the countryside who have not yet found a spot on China’s economic escalator.

Even in China’s richest city, huge numbers of people eke out a very modest existence. To be sure, these are very often migrants from provinces like Anhui or Jiangsu, or even further afield. But more than most Chinese would suspect — particularly the proud, newly affluent generations of Shanghai people who look at my photographs and sniff “wai di ren,” or “outsiders” — a great many of the denizens of the city’s dilapidated but character-rich old quarters are natives.

Much has been written lately about growing social inequality in China. The country’s social divisions, however, are much more complicated than statistics suggest, involving lots of fine-grained, identity-based prejudices.

I think, for example, of the poor and jobless Shanghainese parents in the old garment district who told me of their eagerness to be relocated across the river to Pudong, where the environment would be better, in part they said, because there would be fewer of the “wai di” people, whom they dismissed as having “no culture.”

Others pessimistically dismissed the likelihood that China’s increasing prosperity would continue to lift all boats. “I’m frightened for my son’s future,” said a migrant from Henan. “China’s biggest problem is the population. There are just too many of us, and the competition for opportunity is murderous.”

Inevitably, the theme of relocation comes up often in encounters like these, given the frantic pace of redevelopment. Some people are pleased with the take-it-or-leave-it buyout arrangements the government has offered to pave the way for the construction of high-rises; others respond with fatalism. “If the country needs this land, what can I do?” said one elderly man.

A great many people spoke bitterly and with surprising candor, though, about what they see as a crisis of social justice. Here, I think of the 75-year-old owner of a tiny barbershop whose neighborhood came down before my eyes this summer.

“What they are doing here is simply unfair,” he said, telling me how thugs had been dispatched to beat up residents who refused to quietly make way for the demolition. “There is no rule of law. The ‘lao bai xing’ have no rights at all.” That old phrase, meaning the nameless masses, never seemed more appropriate.

Others told me the stories of corrupt local officials, whom they said offered higher compensation for relocated people who were willing to pay bribes. These anecdotes took on special potency in a summer where a nearly completed apartment building fell on its side, killing a worker and setting off lurid rumors of government corruption.

I learned that large numbers of Chinese understand and value democratic ideals and yearn for them to be applied here. “We may have gotten richer, but our politics have not really evolved since imperial times,” said one elderly man. “Chinese people want democracy as much as anyone else, and one day we will have it.”

Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard

http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html

Good article on why Chinese is so damn hard.

China denounces proposed Dalai Lama visit to Taiwan

China denounces proposed Dalai Lama visit to Taiwan

By Ralph Jennings and Lucy Hornby
Reuters
Thursday, August 27, 2009 8:20 AM

TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China promptly denounced a proposed trip to Taiwan by the Dalai Lama on Thursday, saying any such visit by a man Beijing brands a separatist threatened to "sabotage" improving relations.

Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by Beijing, approved the visit by the Nobel Peace laureate to comfort victims of a deadly typhoon at a time of burgeoning trade and investment between the rivals.

"No matter under what form or identity Dalai uses to enter Taiwan, we resolutely oppose this," China's Taiwan Affairs Bureau said in a statement carried by Xinhua news agency.

"Some of the people in the Democratic Progressive Party use the disaster rescue excuse to invite Dalai to Taiwan to sabotage the hard-earned positive situation of cross-straits relations."

Beijing brands the India-based Tibetan luminary as a separatist and condemns his trips abroad.

An aide to the Dalai Lama in the Indian town of Dharamsala said the spiritual leader had been keen to visit Taiwan.

"As of now, we are planning a visit to Taiwan and the dates are still being worked out," Tenzin Taklha said. "We want to make it very clear that the Dalai Lama is visiting Taiwan to express condolences to victims and lead prayers."

China is considered unlikely to retaliate by choking off growing economic ties between the long-time political rivals.

By blaming the opposition DPP and not Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou or the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT), Beijing may have indicated it does not wish to escalate the issue.

"Beijing will be a little uncomfortable, but if they understand how severe the disaster is they will show some respect to Taiwan's people," KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih said.

About 650 people are feared dead after Typhoon Morakot, the island's worst typhoon in 50 years, soaked Taiwan from August 7-9.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's KMT fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

But Beijing is also aware any strong moves against the Dalai Lama could play into the hands of Taiwanese opponents of President Ma, who has sought to ease tensions with Beijing.

RESTORING IMAGE

The Taiwan president's office, under fire for perceptions the response to Typhoon Morakot was too slow, and national security officials met for five hours late on Wednesday and decided to permit a visit, the Government Information Office said.

Admitting the Dalai Lama lets Ma give the impression that Ma is not driven solely concerned with ties with Beijing, said Hsu Yung-ming, a political science professor at Soochow University.

"He doesn't want people to think he cares only about China, that he also cares about Taiwan," Hsu said.

Taiwan, home to a large exiled Tibetan community and millions of Buddhists, allowed visits by the Dalai Lama in 1997 and 2001.

Ma last year quashed hopes for a new visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader, saying the timing was wrong. Taiwan Buddhist groups criticized that decision.

Since taking office in 2008, Ma's administration has avoided action that could anger Beijing as he pursues trade ties.

"We've ... decided to let the Dalai Lama visit as he is coming here to pray for the dead victims, as well as the survivors," Ma told reporters while visiting typhoon survivors.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule over Tibet.

(Additional reporting by Bappa Majumdar in New Delhi, Chris Buckley, Benjamin Kang Lim, Yu Le and Lucy Hornby in Beijing; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Congress-targets-Chinese-language-education

http://www.examiner.com/x-15615-Asia-Headlines-Examiner%7Ey2009m7d15-Congress-targets-Chinese-language-education

Congress targets Chinese language education

WASHINGTON - A bill pending in Congress would dramatically expand Mandarin Chinese language classes for American students. The measure, the U.S.-China Language Engagement Act, would award competitive grants to schools to “establish, expand or improve” Chinese language and cultural classes. It also expands technology options to help American schools establish “virtual connections” with schools in China.

U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., who authored the legislation, said the measure can increase the competitiveness of American workers.

“While an estimated 200 million Chinese school children are studying our language and culture, less than 50,000 American elementary and secondary students are studying Chinese,” Davis said. “This bill is part of a broader legislative package seeking to improve our competitive edge and relationship with China.”

School districts around the country are increasingly adding Mandarin language courses to their curriculum, but a lack of funding and qualified teachers often makes program implementation difficult. Linguists are divided as to whether studying foreign languages at an earlier age is essential for fluency in the target language. The so-called “critical learning period” has been challenged by more provocative research which demonstrates the “plasticity” of the human brain in people of all ages and backgrounds.

Mandarin Chinese, called “Putonghua,” is widely considered one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to master. It is classified by the Defense Language Institute as a “category four” (out of four) language in regards to difficulty of mastery by native English speakers. On the Foreign Service Institute language difficulty scale, Mandarin is rated as a “category three” language (out of three), due to the exceptional difficulty it poses for English speakers to learn.

National security experts have said that the U.S. has a shortage of qualified “critical language” speakers – specifically Mandarin and Arabic. Both the CIA and FBI regularly advertise positions with their agencies for Americans who possess some Chinese ability. In May, CIA Director Leon Panetta announced that he was boosting the agency’s foreign language training programs. The 9/11 Commission Report criticized the weak foreign language capabilities of the government’s national security agencies.

On the campaign trail, then-candidate Barack Obama stressed that foreign language instruction should be expanded in American schools. “I don’t speak a foreign language. It’s embarrassing,” he said. “It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup, right?”

A number of current Washington officials studied Mandarin as college students. Democratic New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand studied the language for six months in Mainland China and Taiwan. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner spent two summers learning the language at Beijing’s Peking University, called “BeiDa” in Chinese.

The bipartisan bill, H.R. 2313, is cosponsored by U.S. Reps. Charles Boustany, R-La.; Gerry Connolly, D-Va.; Mike Honda, D-Calif.; Steve Israel, D-N.Y.; Mark Kirk, R-Ill.; Rick Larsen, D-Wa.; and Erik Paulsen, R-Minn.

The legislation is currently awaiting further action in the House Committee on Education and Labor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/business/energy-environment/25solar.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

August 25, 2009

China Racing Ahead of U.S. in Drive to Go Solar

By KEITH BRADSHER

WUXI, China — President Obama wants to make the United States “the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy,” but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy — especially in solar power, and even in the United States.

Chinese companies have already played a leading role in pushing down the price of solar panels by almost half over the last year. Shi Zhengrong, the chief executive and founder of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, Suntech Power Holdings, said in an interview here that Suntech, to build market share, is selling solar panels on the American market for less than the cost of the materials, assembly and shipping.

Backed by lavish government support, the Chinese are preparing to build plants to assemble their products in the United States to bypass protectionist legislation. As Japanese automakers did decades ago, Chinese solar companies are encouraging their United States executives to join industry trade groups to tamp down anti-Chinese sentiment before it takes root.

The Obama administration is determined to help the American industry. The energy and Treasury departments announced this month that they would give $2.3 billion in tax credits to clean energy equipment manufacturers. But even in the solar industry, many worry that Western companies may have fragile prospects when competing with Chinese companies that have cheap loans, electricity and labor, paying recent college graduates in engineering $7,000 a year.

“I don’t see Europe or the United States becoming major producers of solar products — they’ll be consumers,” said Thomas M. Zarrella, the chief executive of GT Solar International, a company in Merrimack, N.H., that sells specialized factory equipment to solar panel makers around the world.

Since March, Chinese governments at the national, provincial and even local level have been competing with one another to offer solar companies ever more generous subsidies, including free land, and cash for research and development. State-owned banks are flooding the industry with loans at considerably lower interest rates than available in Europe or the United States.

Suntech, based here in Wuxi, is on track this year to pass Q-Cells of Germany, to become the world’s second-largest supplier of photovoltaic cells, which would put it behind only First Solar in Tempe, Ariz.

Hot on Suntech’s heels is a growing list of Chinese corporations backed by entrepreneurs, local governments and even the Chinese military, all seeking to capitalize on an industry deemed crucial by China’s top leadership.

Dr. Shi pointed out that other governments, including in the United States, also assist clean energy industries, including with factory construction incentives.

China’s commitment to solar energy is unlikely to make a difference soon to global warming. China’s energy consumption is growing faster than any other country’s, though the United States consumes more today. Beijing’s aim is to generate 20,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2020 — or less than half the capacity of coal-fired power plants that are built in China each year.

Solar energy remains far more expensive to generate than energy from coal, oil, natural gas or even wind. But in addition to heavy Chinese investment and low Chinese costs, the global economic downturn and a decline in European subsidies to buy panels have lowered prices.

The American economic stimulus plan requires any project receiving money to use steel and other construction materials, including solar panels, from countries that have signed the World Trade Organization’s agreement on free trade in government procurement. China has not.

In response to this, and to reduce shipping costs, Suntech plans to announce in the next month or two that it will build a solar panel assembly plant in the United States, said Steven Chan, its president for global sales and marketing.

“It’ll be to facilitate sales — ‘buy American’ and things like that,” Mr. Chan said, adding that the factory would have 75 to 150 workers and be located in Phoenix, or somewhere in Texas.

But 90 percent of the workers at the $30 million factory will be blue-collar laborers, welding together panels from solar wafers made in China, Dr. Shi said.

Yingli Solar, another large Chinese manufacturer, said on Thursday that it also had a “preliminary plan” to assemble panels in the United States.

Western rivals, meanwhile, are struggling. Q-Cells of Germany announced last week that it would lay off 500 of its 2,600 employees because of declining sales. It and two other German companies, Conergy and SolarWorld, are particularly indignant that German subsidies were the main source of demand for solar panels until recently.

“Politicians might ask whether this is still the right way to do this, German taxpayers paying for Asian products,” said Markus Wieser, a Q-Cells spokesman.

But organizing resistance to Chinese exports could be difficult, particularly as Chinese discounting makes green energy more affordable.

Even with Suntech acknowledging that it sells below the marginal cost of producing each additional solar panel — that is, the cost after administrative and development costs are subtracted — any antidumping case, in the United States, for example, would have to show that American companies were losing money as a result.

First Solar — the solar leader, in Tempe — using a different technology from many solar panel manufacturers, is actually profitable, while the new tax credits now becoming available may help other companies.

Even organizing a united American response to Chinese exports could be difficult. Suntech has encouraged executives at its United States operations to take the top posts at the two main American industry groups, partly to make sure that these groups do not rally opposition to imports, Dr. Shi said.

The efforts of Detroit automakers to win protection from Japanese competition in the 1980s were weakened by the presence of Honda in their main trade group; they expelled Honda in 1992.

Some analysts are less pessimistic about the prospects for solar panel manufacturers in the West. Joonki Song, a partner at Photon Consulting in Boston, said that while large Chinese solar panel manufacturers are gaining market share, smaller ones have been struggling.

Mr. Zarrella of GT Solar said that Western providers of factory equipment for solar panel manufacturers would remain competitive, and Dr. Shi said that German equipment providers “have made a lot of money, tons of money.”

The Chinese government is requiring that 80 percent of the equipment for China’s first municipal power plant to use solar energy, to be built in Dunhuang in northwestern China next year, be made in China.

Dr. Shi said his company would try to prevent similar rules in any future projects.

The reason is clear: almost 98 percent of Suntech’s production goes overseas.

Your Favorite Foods with a Chinese Twist

American Food Companies Catering to $186B Chinese Market by Adapting Offerings There to Chinese Tastes

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  Minute Maid makes flavors geared toward their Chinese customers. (CBS)

(CBS) Do palates differ around the world?

CBS News correspondent Celia Hatton reported it appears so. She said on "The Early Show" Tuesday your favorite foods might have an unexpected twist in a land far away.

Grocery stores in China, for example, might surprise American shoppers. Blueberry-flavored potato chips, strawberry and milk-flavored Cheetos and aloe juice from Minute Maid are the norm.

Why?

Because, Hatton reported, every major U.S. food label, it seems, is trying to bite into China's $186 billion fast food and processed food industries by creating new products made just for Chinese taste buds.

Hatton said grocery stores in Beijing are packed with labels that look familiar, but feature flavors that definitely aren't, such as Tropicana cantaloupe juice, orange-flavored Chips Ahoy cookies, and Chinese herbal medicine Wrigley's gum.

But, she said, it's Frito-Lay potato chips that really push the boundaries.

Taste tests, Hatton reported, revealed Chinese people didn't like popular American flavors like sour cream and onion. So, to reach their audience, researchers developed new flavors inspired by traditional Chinese food, such as savory Sichuan spicy, sweet and sour tomato and sugary options like cucumber, lychee and mango.

Harry Hui, of Pepsico, said, "The market is extremely competitive, so there are many new products that are being launched regularly."

Popular American fast food chains are also getting in on the game. McDonald's has a purple taro pie. Starbucks offers coffee drinks with jelly cubes in the bottom. And KFC goes even farther by offering spicy squid on a stick.

Even the toothpaste companies, Hatton said, can't afford to ignore the flavor game, pointing out lotus flower Crest and salty Colgate.

These products may seem wacky in the US, but she said there's serious pressure to be the object of Chinese cravings.

Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, said China is going to be the second-largest or largest consumer market in the world in the next five years.

He said, "If American companies don't figure out how to get it right in China, they'll be missing out on what should be their major generator for growth."