Race to the bottom

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

JAPAN is often viewed with antipathy in China, but increasingly commerce is trumping contempt. During the lunar new-year holiday in February, Chinese tourists thronged to Japan in record numbers. Many came home lugging a high-end Japanese luxury: a heated toilet-seat complete with pulsating water jets, deodorisers and even music to drown out less melodious tinklings. In recent weeks the run on Japanese loos has been a topic of much debate among Chinese commentators, revealing deep insecurities.

Chinese visitors bought more high-tech lavatory seats than almost any other Japanese product during the week-long break, according to Hottolink, a Japanese consulting firm. Most popular was a new variety with hands-free lid opening, say staff at a branch in Tokyo of Bic Camera, a consumer electronics store where Chinese shoppers are so numerous that signs advertise wares in Chinese and assistants speak Mandarin. These cost around ¥65,000 ($540). Some bought several seats, including portable, battery-powered ones.

Relations between China and Japan have shown recent, tentative signs of warmth after a long chill. But only three years ago demonstrators...Continue reading

The devil, or Mr Wang

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

FEAR is Wang Qishan’s favoured weapon. As leader of the Communist Party’s most sustained and wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign in its history, he often urges his investigators to be “frightening”. One story goes that at a meeting of the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), convened after Mr Wang took charge of it in November 2012, senior members—themselves among the most feared officials in the party—were presented with dossiers of their own sins. Mr Wang’s aim, it appeared, was to terrorise the enforcers themselves. Failure to uncover high-level graft, he has warned them, would be “dereliction of duty”.

At the time, a few were said to have grumbled—relentlessly pursuing the powerful over ill-gotten gains had not been a common feature of the unruffled life of a CCDI official. Before taking up the job, corruption had not even been Mr Wang’s preoccupation. A one-time banker and mayor of Beijing, he had gained a reputation as a troubleshooter during crises such as a deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003 and the global financial crisis of 2008-09. To foreign dignitaries he even came...Continue reading

Clearing the air

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

AT LAST year’s ten-day annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the prime minister, Li Keqiang, declared “war” on pollution. On March 15th, at the end of this year’s meeting, he admitted that government efforts were falling far short of public expectations. He failed to mention that on controlling one source of foul air—smoking—the government’s record has been worse.

About 300m Chinese, or one in four, smoke every day. This proportion has remained steady in recent years; efforts to publicise the dangers have been half-hearted. This year, however, may see improvements. On June 1st stricter rules will be enforced on smoking in public places in Beijing, including bars, offices, stadiums and some outdoor areas such as those of hospitals and schools. Fines for failing to keep such places smoke-free could be as high as 10,000 yuan ($1,600); for smokers who break the rules, they could be up to 200 yuan. Cigarette advertising and tobacco-company sponsorships of events will also be banned. Similar measures are included in a draft, published in November, of new national regulations on smoking.

The new rules in Beijing are more wide-ranging than those already in place in many big cities (almost all of which lack a complete ban on smoking in offices). They are also tougher than the capital’s existing...Continue reading

A bad day for women

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

Daring to demand respect

A GROUP of women’s-rights activists had planned to mark International Women’s Day on March 8th by handing out leaflets and stickers in several Chinese cities to draw attention to the prevalence of sexual harassment on public transport. But the authorities decided to observe the day in a different way—by detaining at least ten of the women. Five remain in custody, charged with the crime of “picking quarrels and causing trouble”, a frequently used catch-all for locking up dissidents. Fellow feminists fear this heralds greater government opposition to their campaigning.

Women’s Day is officially observed in China: women are even, theoretically, allowed to take half a day off. But it also coincides with the brief annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), which this year ended on March 15th. The authorities are always hyper-vigilant around the time of the parliamentary session, fearful that citizens might use the occasion to draw attention to their grievances. Dissidents of all stripes are kept under close watch.

The continued detention of some of the activists...Continue reading

The golden urn

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

WHEN the 13th Dalai Lama died in 1933, the body of Tibet’s spiritual leader was placed in state on a throne at the Norbulingka, his summer palace in the capital, Lhasa. It faced south. Twice, however, overnight, its head had turned to the east. Also pointing east, a star-shaped fungus mysteriously sprouted on a pillar in the room. In the trances to which they were prone, state oracles tossed khatak, ceremonial scarves, to the east. Taking the hints, parties searching for the reincarnation of the dead lama headed in that direction, looking, in accordance with tradition, for an infant born at around the time of his death. They eventually identified the young Tenzin Gyatso as the 14th Dalai Lama.

That incarnation will turn 80 this year and, though in good health, he is given to musing about his own death and reincarnation. It would be “logical”, he has suggested, for the reincarnation to be like him, in exile from Tibet, which he has not been able to visit since fleeing from the Chinese suppression of an uprising in 1959. Perhaps the 15th Dalai Lama might be female. Or perhaps the institution of the Dalai Lama, being man-made,...Continue reading

Aisles apart

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

LATE last year thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators poured onto the streets of Hong Kong calling for the right to elect the city’s leader in 2017, free of interference by the central government in Beijing. In recent weeks protests have flared again; far smaller this time, but more violent and similarly fuelled by resentment of the mainland’s encroachment. At issue has been the hordes of mainland Chinese who visit Hong Kong to buy goods for black-market resale at home, a racket described locally as “parallel trading”. These new and nastier outbursts are about far more than shopping; they suggest that antagonism towards the mainland is deepening and spreading beyond the territory’s urban core. This is causing anxiety among officials on both sides of the border.

In 2002, five years after the end of British colonial rule, the Hong Kong government abolished a quota on Chinese tourists. Since 2009 residents of Shenzhen, a city adjoining Hong Kong, have been able to cross the border as often as they like. The loosening of restrictions has been credited by Hong Kong officials with reviving the city’s flagging economy. But many Hong Kongers feel...Continue reading

Spare the bullet

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

TRANSPLANT operations in China have long relied on organs taken from executed prisoners, a practice that has led to such abuses as the timing of executions to meet organ demand, with no notification of relatives. As by far the world’s biggest user of the death penalty, China could count on an abundant—if still far from adequate—supply. But in recent years, stung by international criticism, it has been trying both to reduce executions and to end the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners without their, or their families’, consent. Since January 1st the government has insisted that no such organs be used for transplants. Ensuring compliance, however, will be difficult.

The number of executions is almost certainly falling, even if it remains far higher than in the rest of the world. The government does not release data, but the Dui Hua Foundation, an American NGO, reckons there were around 2,400 executions in 2013, down from 6,500 in 2007. In spite of the impact this has had on organ supply, the government still seems keen to sever the grim link between hospitals and courts that allows wealthy (or well-connected) patients to use organs from...Continue reading

Bad beginnings

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

THE Chinese economy has earned a reputation as a slow starter. In 2012, 2013 and again last year, it was sluggish out of the gates, fuelling concerns that much worse was to come. In each of these years, though, the government stepped in, boosting investment and easing monetary policy to keep growth on track. So the worse-than-expected data for the first two months of 2015, published on March 11th, bring more than a little sense of déjà vu. But there are also important differences.

Worryingly, the weakness is broader than in previous years. Almost all main indicators are pointing down. Investment rose by 13.9% on a year earlier, the slowest in more than a decade and down from 15.7% last year. Industrial output increased by 6.8%, the slowest since the global financial crisis. In December it had grown by 7.9%. Retail sales also slowed, a disappointing sign for the emergence of consumption as a driver of growth. Even more alarming was the property market, which in the past has driven as much as 15% of growth. It is now at risk of becoming a drag. Home sales fell by 16.3% year-on-year in volume, and new property starts were down by 17.7%.

The policy environment has also changed. Xi Jinping, China’s president, has spread the gospel of a “new normal”, by which he means that the government should place less emphasis on GDP and instead pursue structural...Continue reading

Aerotropolitan ambitions

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

POLITICIANS in London who have been debating for years over whether to approve the building of a third runway at Heathrow Airport might find a visit to Zhengzhou—an inland provincial capital little known outside China—an eye-opening experience. Some 20,000 workers are labouring around the clock to build a second terminal and runway for the city’s airport. They are due to begin test operations by December, just three years after ground was broken. By 2030, officials expect, the two terminals and, by then, five runways will handle 70m passengers yearly—about the same as Heathrow now—and 5m tonnes of cargo, more than three times as much as Heathrow last year.

But the ambitions of Zhengzhou airport (pictured) are far bigger than these numbers suggest. It aspires to be the centre of an “aerotropolis”, a city nearly seven times the size of Manhattan with the airport not a noisy intrusion on its edge but built into its very heart. Its perimeter will encompass logistics facilities, R&D centres, exhibition halls and factories that will link central China to the rest of the global economy. It will include homes and amenities for 2.6m people by...Continue reading

Particulates matter

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

GRUMBLING about the semi-permanent smog that cloaks Chinese cities has grown louder in recent years. But discussion has been muted by the reluctance of officials to wag fingers too often at large state-owned enterprises (SOEs), or the government itself, for their roles in fermenting the toxic brew. That changed on February 28th with the release of an online video-documentary pointing precisely at these culprits. Within days it had attracted 200m views and raised the temperature of public debate.

Intriguingly, government officials and state-controlled media have been among those singing the praises of the 104-minute video, “Under the Dome”. It was made independently by Chai Jing, a former state-television journalist, and was released on busy websites, including that of the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, People’s Daily. The new environment minister, Chen Jining, praised Ms Chai and said the film reminded him of “Silent Spring”, a book published in 1962 by an American author, Rachel Carson, which exposed the dangers of DDT and led to a ban on the pesticide.

Such signs of official backing for a work that blames state entities and the government itself for a huge public-health problem has led to speculation about politics at work. Did some leaders hope it would encourage green reforms in the powerful energy industry? The...Continue reading

Comprehensive education

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

REMEMBER the “Scientific Outlook on Development”? Not many people do. Yet in 2003 when Hu Jintao, then head of the Chinese Communist Party, launched the idea, it seemed a big deal. Four years later the party even amended its constitution to enshrine the principle in its guiding ideology. Mr Hu’s successor, Xi Jinping, will hope his own new contribution to the party’s canon lingers longer in the public’s mind. But his newly unveiled theory—the “Four Comprehensives”—faces similar difficulties. Like Mr Hu’s bright idea, Mr Xi’s is not exactly a crowd-pleaser—more a vague and prosaic formulation of propositions with which it is hard to argue. Yet it starts life with some advantages, and those mean China may be studying it for years to come.

It may be beneficial that Mr Xi has rejected his predecessor’s outlandish precedent of not attaching a number to his doctrine. Before Mr Hu, Jiang Zemin went for the “Three Represents”, an opaque theory that seemed to boil down to the idea that it was possible to be both a successful entrepreneur and a good party member. Before Mr Jiang, Deng Xiaoping’s thinking was distilled in the phrase:...Continue reading

The power of fish

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

Kingmakers convene

WONG FOR-KAM has long ceased to make her living only from catching grouper and snapper, but she still fishes and is proud of her profession. She is chairwoman of the Aberdeen Fisherwomen Association, whose 230 members work from a harbour crowded with sampans and trawlers. That obscure post gives her unexpected influence. Unlike most residents, the association has voting rights in the choice of Hong Kong’s chief executive, as the city’s leader is known.

The group is one of about 160 farming and fishing organisations which fill 60 of the 1,200 seats in the committee that selects the chief executive. The same farming and fishing groups also elect one of the 70 members of Hong Kong’s legislative council, or Legco. Granting special voting rights to businesses and professions is a practice dating to Hong Kong’s days as a British colony. Pro-democracy politicians want to end the system, but neither China’s ruling Communist Party, nor the interest groups themselves, are keen. “Our contributions, if you ask me, are very big,” says the 58-year-old Ms Wong, surrounded by piles of baskets, boxes and bamboo...Continue reading

Go slow

Otmane El Rhazi from China.

GONE are the days of double-digit growth in China, with official targets always far exceeded. That was the message delivered on March 5th by the prime minister, Li Keqiang, at the opening of the annual session of the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament. Mr Li called for growth of “about 7%” this year. At 7.4%, last year’s growth was already the slowest in nearly a quarter-century. He said the slowdown was what the government had expected as it tries to build a steadier, stronger economy. But the going will be tough.

In his address to nearly 3,000 delegates in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People (pictured above, with posing attendants), Mr Li said economic difficulties in the year ahead “may be even more formidable” than in 2014. “Downward pressure”, he said, was intensifying. But he also used a phrase that has in recent months become a mantra for Chinese officials: slower growth, he said, was the “new normal”. His speech was peppered with calls for further economic reform, despite the complaints of industries hit by closures and job losses. Mr Li spoke several times of the need to reduce the power and...Continue reading