Chinese authorities cut 40 minutes out of the American movie Cloud Atlas to be released in China on January 31, 2013. “Although in the Mainland version, the censors cut 40 minutes off as compared to the international version, the Mainland version of Cloud Atlas will not cause difficulties or problems for viewers. … The censors cut lines of words ruthlessly from the Mainland version. Most of the footage chopped off consists of dialogue.” Love scenes were also removed by the Chinese film censors.

[Editor’s note: Explicit love scenes, including between two same sex characters, were cut. Scenes of graphic violence, including a fatal gunshot and a man having his throat slit, remained. The film’s directors were not involved in the cuts.]  
Source: Jiefang Daily reprinted by Nanjing Daily, January 23, 2013
http://www.njdaily.cn/2013/0123/310120.shtml

China Economic published a commentary stating that China has identified urbanization as a major solution for expanding domestic demand and enterprise development. The article argued, however, that the core of urbanization in China is to “urbanize people,” or to make farmers the same as or similar to city residents. The article quoted three scholars’ opinions. They argued that 50 percent of the total population in China now lives in cities, but only 35 percent of the total population have city Hukou – China’s unique household registration system which identifies a person according to his or her original area (e.g. from Beijing, Shanghai, or a rural village). This means that of the 700 million people who are identified as urban dwellers, 220 million of them are still labeled as farmers. These farmers are mainly the “immigrant farmers” and cannot enjoy the same social benefits, such as social security, employment, land ownership, housing, education, and so on, as city residents.

Source: China Economic Net, January 18, 2013
http://paper.ce.cn/jjrb/html/2013-01/18/content_141406.htm

Xinhua published a short news article with the title “Comrade Jiang Zemin Requested that the Party Central Committee List His Name among Other Senior (Retired) Leaders in the Party and State Leaders of that Rank.” The entire news article read, “A Reporter obtained information from a relevant party that, after the 18th National Party Congress, comrade Jiang Zemin made a request to the Party Central Committee that, from now on, his name should be listed among other senior (retired) leaders in the Party and state leaders of that rank. This reflects a Communist Party member’s integrity and open-mindedness.”

[Editor’s Note:
1. In China, the ranking order of top leaders is extremely important. It shows who has more power.
2. From this short news item, it is hard to tell if Jiang indeed made the request. One thing is likely to happen: Jiang’s ranking order will be lowered.]

Source: Xinhua, January 23, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-01/23/c_124266293.htm

Meng Jianzhu, Secretary of the Central Political and Law Commission, announced recently, at a meeting on national political and legal work, that China will abolish the “education through labor” system this year. Xinhua Net published the relevant news on the same day. However, the news report was removed that night. One week later, several labor camp bureaus claimed that they had not received any notification about labor camp reforms. Lawyer Zhou Ze believes that no agreement was reached on the issue due to the fact that different departments have different interests.  

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 14, 2013

http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/yf-01142013161055.html