106 ways to annoy

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

SPAM, as every user of mobile phones in China is aware to their intense annoyance, is a roaring business in China. Its delivery-men drive through residential neighbourhoods in “text-messaging cars”, with illegal but easy-to-buy gadgetry they use to hijack links between mobile-phone users and nearby communications masts. They then target the numbers they harvest, blasting them with spam text messages before driving away. Mobile-phone users usually see only the wearisome results: another sprinkling of spam messages offering deals on flats, investment advice and dodgy receipts for tax purposes.

Chinese mobile-users get more spam text messages than their counterparts almost anywhere else in the world. They received more than 300 billion of them in 2013, or close to one a day for each person using a mobile phone. Users in bigger markets like Beijing and Shanghai receive two a day, or more than 700 annually, accounting for perhaps one-fifth to one-third of all texts. Americans, by comparison, received an estimated 4.5 billion junk messages in 2011, or fewer than 20 per mobile-user for the year—out of a total of more than two trillion text...Continue reading

Stretching the threads

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

EVERY day hundreds of trucks rumble across the border between China and Laos, carrying wood, textiles and agricultural goods to China, and home appliances, small machinery and building materials back. The Laotian frontier town of Boten is largely empty, apart from a few dusty shops selling snacks or machine parts, a row of rusting cars, vacant buildings and some geese; an advertisement for a Thai ladyboys’ performance hall is a rare sign of passing trade.

Over the Chinese border the roads are smoother: palm trees line the main street of Mohan, which is flanked by logistics firms, translation companies, express-delivery services, mechanics and stores selling Thai bags, cosmetics and coffee; few buildings are more than ten years old (a spiffy-looking customs post, pictured above, is among the newest). Many residents are newcomers, too. Yet the Chinese town is no metropolis. Chickens walk the streets. Firms shut for several hours after lunch. Money-changers sit at the base of a banana tree accosting visitors.

Both frontier towns aspire to something better. A deserted marketing suite just inside Laos features plans for a cross-border golf...Continue reading

Clearing up

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

THE change in tone in Hong Kong newspapers that are sympathetic to the Communist Party says it all. Once hysterical about the territory’s pro-democracy protests, their commentators are now smugly dismissive and condescending. The “Occupy” demonstrations had begun “with madness”, declared an editorial in Ta Kung Pao, one of Hong Kong’s staunchest pro-party rags, on November 19th, and were “ending in failure”. A few days earlier Global Times, a nationalist newspaper in Beijing, had crowed that the protesters had been “forgotten” by the world.

Nearly two months after the use of tear gas by police drew more than 100,000 demonstrators onto the streets and prompted protesters to set up barricaded encampments on several major roads, the authorities are beginning once again to step up pressure, this time with little resistance.

The protesters, now numbering only a few hundred, are demoralised. On November 18th police, enforcing a court order, quietly cleared some of the barricades from in front of an office building near the government’s headquarters. They have orders to do the same at other protest sites. It looks like the beginning of the end for the unexpectedly protracted standoff. Protest leaders watched the police without interfering. They still have the support of younger Hong Kong...Continue reading

A lack of will power

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

IN RECENT weeks China’s leaders have been talking up the need to enhance the rule of law. Their aim is to strengthen the Communist Party’s grip on power while at the same time ensuring that justice is served more fairly. This may improve the lives of some. Many people complain bitterly that courts often pay more heed to the whims of officials than to the law. But in the realm of death, it is the law itself that is the problem. The country’s statutes on inheritance remain little changed from the days when few had any property to bequeath. The rapid emergence in recent years of a large middle-class with complex property claims has been fuelling inheritance disputes. The crudity of the law is making matters worse.

Today’s inheritance law was adopted in 1985 when divorce and remarriage were rare and international marriage nearly unknown. Few owned homes, cars or other valuable property. The law does at least grant men and women equal rights to their kin’s estates, but otherwise it is based largely on tradition. It is specific when it comes to handing down “forest trees, livestock and poultry” but runs out of steam when it comes to newfangled...Continue reading

A matter of honours

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

FINE porcelain, Chinese-landscape scrolls and calligraphy adorn the office of Shi Yigong, dean of the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Little about his ornamentation hints at Mr Shi’s 18 years in America, where, like thousands of Chinese students, he decamped for graduate study in the early 1990s. Mr Shi eventually became a professor at Princeton University but he began to feel like a “bystander” as his native country started to prosper. In 2008, at the age of 40, he returned to his homeland. He was one of the most famous Chinese scholars to do so; an emblem for the government’s attempts to match its academic achievements to its economic ones.

Sending students abroad has been central to China’s efforts to improve its education since the late 1970s, when it began trying to repair the damage wrought by Mao’s destruction of the country’s academic institutions. More than 3m Chinese have gone overseas to study. Chinese youths make up over a fifth of all international students in higher education in the OECD, a club mostly of rich countries. More than a quarter of them are in America.

Every country sends out...Continue reading

Analects says "Goodbye"

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

IT IS TEMPTING to start this farewell note with some pithy yet profound quote from Confucius about the nature of change, the importance of rituals or how all good things must come to an end. But this is a temptation that should be resisted. For as we explained as clearly as we could when we launched the blog and decided to name it “Analects”, the choice was not meant to imply our endorsement for Confucius’ philosophy. Or to take sides in the political battles over his legacy . Or—heaven forfend—somehow to compare ourselves to this (or any other) great sage. The Confucian connection to the word Analects of course helped make it suitable for our purposes, but far more important was its appeal as an English word, derived from ancient Greek, denoting “things gathered up”, “literary fragments” or “gleanings”.

That seemed to fit well with what we tried to do in nearly 400 posts over the past three years, and it...Continue reading

Bone China

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

Throw her a bone

A GIANT, pinkish femur juts out of the ground, longer than a person is tall. The area is littered with the fossilised vertebrae, leg and arm bones and skull of this Hadrosaurus. For 70m years it and other dinosaurs have lain buried here. Now the site in Zhucheng, in Shandong province in eastern China, is known as “dinosaur valley” for its more than 10,000 fossils found to date. The hunt for dinosaurs only properly began in China in recent decades. Already more species have been identified there than in any other country.

The bonanza is explained by China’s great expanses of rock from the Mesozoic era, when “fearful dragons”, as they are called in Chinese, roamed. In many areas rivers, floods, sandstorms and earthquakes buried the animals soon after they died, so preserving them. An unusually large amount of the rock from this era is now close to the surface, so the troves of bones, eggs and footprints have been uncovered comparatively easily. A recent discovery in Liaoning province, the Changyuraptor yangi, is the largest known four-winged flying reptile and marks another vital...Continue reading

The Chinese order

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

FOR the past week China’s state media have conveyed an almost imperial choreography playing out in the Great Hall of the People, in Zhongnanhai, the Chinese leaders’ compound next to the Forbidden City in Beijing, and at Yanqi Lake just outside the capital. Every day, on television and in newspapers, President Xi Jinping (above, right) is portrayed receiving lines of grateful world leaders. And every day he is seen arranging prosperity, ordering peace or, in an agreement with Barack Obama, America’s president, (above, left) on carbon emissions, even saving the planet. It escaped no visitor that not since Mao Zedong has a Chinese leader conducted foreign affairs with such eye-catching aplomb. Yet this was not only Mr Xi’s moment, but also China’s—a diplomatic coming-out party of sorts.

On several fronts, a country known for a somewhat reactive diplomacy has made the running. China was host this week to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation—APEC, a regional trade gathering that rarely makes waves. Yet in quick succession China declared free-trade agreements with South Korea and Australia, two sizeable Asian economies, all but signed. It...Continue reading

Out of the deep freeze

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

AFTER Japan’s prime minister worshipped at Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine last December, China declared Shinzo Abe to be beyond the pale; principles are principles. But Chinese ones are, well, nothing if not adaptable, and on November 10th President Xi Jinping met Mr Abe for the first time. A “four-point agreement” comes as a welcome signal that tensions between Asia’s two biggest powers might, at least for now, begin to ease.

The thorn in the side of relations is Japan’s Senkaku islands, which China claims and calls the Diaoyus. Chinese aircraft and coastguard vessels have greatly raised tensions from 2012 onwards, by making incursions around the Senkakus. So it is progress that Japan and China now acknowledge “the emergence of tense situations” there. For the first time Japan has referred to the Senkakus in a document with China. Chinese analysts claim a diplomatic victory. Even if obliquely, Japan acknowledges a dispute over sovereignty, Huang Dahui of Renmin University argues. Yet the wording also left ample room for Japanese diplomats to insist that they have not acknowledged any such thing.

The negotiations seem mostly about avoiding the hard issues. On Yasukuni, it beggars belief to think the Japanese promised Mr Abe would not visit the shrine where high-ranking war criminals are honoured. The joint statement says that Japan and China will...Continue reading

Crosses to bear

Going out

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

A big reason for its fast economic growth is that China has been a magnet for the world’s investment capital. Over the past two decades, China attracted more foreign direct investment (FDI) than any country save America. So the recent prediction made by the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Beijing think-tank, that this year China’s outbound investments would exceed its inbound ones, is noteworthy (see chart).

This is not—yet—because China is becoming less attractive to multinationals, which are squeezed by local rivals and targeted by overzealous regulators and the state media. Inward investment has topped $100 billion a year in the past five years. Rather, Chinese firms are increasingly venturing abroad. Earlier waves of investors were led by state-owned enterprises in search of resources in Africa and Latin America. Today’s pioneers are often private firms. They seek brands, talent and technology to bring back to the Chinese market.

Losing focus

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

SPARKLY, spotted or Hello Kitty: every colour, theme, shape and size of frame is available at Eyeglass City in Beijing, a four-storey mall crammed only with spectacle shops. Within half an hour a pair of prescription eyeglasses is ready. That is impressive, but then the number of Chinese wearing glasses is rising. Most new adoptees are children.

In 1970 fewer than a third of 16- to 18-year-olds were deemed to be short-sighted (meaning that distant objects are blurred). Now nearly four-fifths are, and even more in some urban areas. A fifth of these have “high” myopia, that is, anything beyond 16 centimetres (just over six inches) is unclear. The fastest increase is among primaryschoolchildren, over 40% of whom are short-sighted, double the rate in 2000. That compares with less than 10% of this age group in America or Germany.

The incidence of myopia is high across East Asia, afflicting 80-90% of urban 18-year-olds in Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The problem is social rather than genetic. A 2012 study of 15,000 children in the Beijing area found that poor sight was significantly associated with more time spent studying, reading or using electronic devices—along with less time spent outdoors. These habits were more frequently found in higher-income families, says Guo Yin of Beijing Tongren Hospital, that is, those more likely to make their...Continue reading

Showing off to the world

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

THE factories have closed down for a few days, and millions of cars have been ordered off the roads. Clear blue skies appearing over a usually smog-choked Beijing always mean one thing: a big event is about to get under way.

From November 10th President Xi Jinping will welcome world leaders to this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit. Not since the Olympics in 2008 have so many leaders gathered in the capital, and they will include the heads of the United States, Russia and Japan. It is a defining moment for Mr Xi’s foreign policy. Having established himself at home as China’s most powerful leader since Deng Xiaoping, he now seems to want to demand a bigger, more dominant and more respected role for China than his predecessors, Deng included, ever dared ask for.

Respect begins by putting on a good face to guests. Chinese bullying over disputed maritime claims has done much to raise tensions in the region. But now Mr Xi appears to be lowering them. In particular, China’s relations with Japan have been abysmal. The government has treated Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, with both venom and pettiness, implying he...Continue reading

Manufacturing Rebounds On Strong Demand, Low Prices

Otmane El Rhazi from Investors.com.



Manufacturing activity was brisker than expected in Oct., the Institute for Supply Management said. Its overall PMI touched 59, rebounding 2.4 points from a Sept. pullback that followed the best month since early 2011. New orders led the way, surging 5.8 points from an already strong reading to 65.8. Production added 0.2 point to touch 64.8, and employment rose nearly a full point to 55.5. But the PMI also got a boost from softer price pressures....

U.S. Factories Rev Up, Leave Rest Of World In Dust

Otmane El Rhazi from Investors.com.



Manufacturing activity surged in October, industry reports showed Monday, confirming that the U.S. economy is picking up steam even as the rest of the world falters. The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index regained the 3 1/2-year high of 59 it hit in August. The underlying details were even better: The production gauge hit a 10-year high of 64.8, and new orders rose nearly 6 points to its second-best level of...

Economic News: U.S. Factories Roar, Eurozone Mixed, Japan Stimulus?

Otmane El Rhazi from Investors.com.



Manufacturing roars higherISM's gauge touched 59 in Oct., higher than the 56.6 in Sept. and besting expectations for a slight decline. Survey respondents liked the combination of "strong" growth and weaker input prices. The new orders gauge shot up to 65.8, backlogs swung solidly back to expansion at 53.0 and employment added nearly a point to 55.5. Americans reported spending an average of $89 per day in Oct., Gallup....

出口業受日本擴大QE重擊 韓股今收低

KOSPI指數今天以低盤﹝1,959.66點﹞開出，開低走低，終場下挫0.58%收在1,952.97點。﹝法新﹞

2014-11-03  17:10 〔本報訊〕上週日本央行意外宣佈擴大QE，刺激國內出口，首當其衝的就是日本鄰國南韓，今日南韓出口類股一應下跌，讓本就疲軟的南韓出口業再吃一季重錘；KOSPI指數3日以低盤﹝1,959.66點﹞開出，開低走低，終場下挫0.58%收在1,952.97點。

《彭博》報導，南韓10月貿易順差金額達75億美元、創單月歷史新高。其中，出口金額年增2.5%、進口年減3%。

《路透》報導，南韓10月製造業採購經理人指數﹝PMI﹞自9月的48.8降至48.7、創今年6月﹝48.4﹞以來新低，為6個月以來第5度低於榮枯分界點﹝50﹞。
LED大廠首爾半導體﹝Seoul Semiconductor﹞股價暴跌11.72%收在16,200韓元，跌破週線、月線、季線支撐，創2009年2月5日以來收盤新低。

現代汽車的勞資糾紛判決將出爐，南韓媒體報導，若現代輸掉官司，初期賠償金額恐達5兆韓元﹝約新台幣1395億元﹞，今日股價重挫5.88%收在160,000韓元。Otmane El Rhazi.

Moscow recognises Ukraine separatist vote

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



EU’s new foreign policy chief calls polls ‘a new obstacle on the path towards peace’

Nusra ousts Syrian rebels from Idlib

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Military bases and weapons caches surrendered to al-Qaeda affiliate

British banker in court over HK murders

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Ex-equities trader at Bank of America Merrill Lynch charged after bodies found at his flat

Bomb kills 57 at Pakistan-India border

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Blast is most severe terror attack by Sunni Muslim extremists in Pakistan for more than a year

Banker charged after Hong Kong murders

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Suspect to appear in court on Monday after one victim found in suitcase

Merkel considers British exit from EU

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Chancellor is reported to have told the prime minister the UK is approaching ‘point of no return’

McConnell in pivotal fight for Senate prize

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Prospective senate majority leader if GOP wins six seats and Kentucky senator holds his own

Burkina Faso army urged to give up power

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



The country is an important ally of France and the US in the fight against jihadi groups

Report says cost of saving climate is low

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut to nearly zero by the end of this century

Russian-backed regions of Ukraine hold poll

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



A week after Ukraine elected an EU-friendly government, a vote in breakaway regions could lead to a fresh diplomatic standoff between Moscow and the west

Virgin Galactic head rejects risk-taking claims

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.

China hails moon orbiter success

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Another step forward in long march into space

Obama’s energy past hurts Democrats

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Republicans gain the upper hand in states resentful of president’s policies

Syrian jihad lures disaffected Tunisians

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Nation that led Arab Spring leads in numbers fighting with Isis

Talks with Ocalan enter perilous phase

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Justice minister warns unexplained murders of Turkish soldiers are threatening the talks

Lieutenant Colonel takes control in Burkina Faso

Otmane El Rhazi from World News.



Seventh time that military officer has taken over as head of state since independence from France