Hot Topics – Page 2

Chinese Scholar: China’s Academia Is Full of Fake and Low Quality Publications

Recently, a report by Li Bozhong (李伯重), published on China’s Tribune of Social Science in 2005, was spread on the Internet. Li discussed his view that despite the fact that Chinese scholars have been publishing many academic papers, most are fake or of low quality.

Li is a famous Chinese economist, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and also a professor at Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

In Li’s view, Chinese researchers have ignored both theoretical and foundational research in the academic fields and have focused only on the practical areas of the hot applications of technologies. This is due to the Chinese people’s focus on immediate short-term gain. Hot applications can result in fame and bring money in quickly while the basic research may not yield any fruit for years or decades. As a result, some foreign scholars have said that, except for the papers published by a few trusted serious Chinese scholars, they would not read any papers written by other Chinese authors.

Source: Sina, November 5, 2021
https://k.sina.com.cn/article_1250060497_4a8268d1019011jor.html#/

Hot Topics | | February 16, 2023 | Information/Technology

Economy: China’s Internet Celebrity Making Machine Aims at Western Unemployed Young People

China has developed a mature marketing strategy to use Internet celebrities to promote products on the Internet. It is done by the Multi-Channel Networks (MCN’s), or service providers that help (and even finance) video channel owners (Tiktok, YouTube, etc.) to produce and market products for manufacturers. Now these Chinese MCN’s have put their eyes on the Western channel owners to promote Chinese products directly to the people in the U.S. and Europe.

Chinese MCN’s usually identify the channel owners who they believe have the potential to grow big but currently have only a small or mid-sized follower base. They then work with these channel owners to package them, guide them in producing videos, or even produce the videos for them. This allows the MCN’s to control the channel owners at a lower cost before they become Internet celebrities. These MCN’s sign up Chinese manufacturers to let their channel owners sell the products on their channels. Then both the channel owners and the MCNs share the proceeds with the manufacturers.

Now the Chinese MCN’s are applying their business model to the U.S. and Europe. Some Western channel owners have started to see that they make more money from their MCN work than from their regular jobs.

However, there are also cultural challenges. Chinese MCN’s found that, unlike the Chinese channel owners, the Western channel owners do not like to be told what to do. Also the Western channel owners are more willing to settle for a big enough increase in their follower count instead of going ahead full-steam for a bigger target.

Source: Sina, February 9, 2023
https://t.cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/2357213493/8c80393502001d6la

Hot Topics | | February 16, 2023 | Economy/Resources

Economy: City Investment Corporations Cannot Pay Their Obligations

In China, many local governments have set up their own investment companies. These companies usually use the land as collateral to get loans from banks to invest or finance the construction of infrastructure projects or government-subsidized housing.

However, due to the collapse of the real estate industry in China, many of these city investment corporations are short of money and some cannot even pay their obligations.

Phoenix Finance reported that in the past year, people buying government-subsidized housing reported the delay (or even failure) of delivery of those houses. This has happened in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province; Qingdao City, Shandong Province; Zhengzhou City, Henan Province; and Baoding City, Hebei Province.

Chengyang District, Qingdao City, Shandong Province provided an apartment subsidy to attract skilled/talented people to come to the city. On a jointly-owned housing program (government pays a portion to reduce the purchase cost for the talent they are bringing in), the talent paid 1.5 million yuan (US$220,000) but the Chengyang Municipal Investment Group did not pay the government portion of 760,000 yuan, and thus the talent could not get an apartment. (After the Phoenix Report, Chengyang Municipal Investment Group said they had gathered enough money to pay for their dues.)

People pointed out that this showed the government has run out of money. These investment companies cannot raise more money because land is no longer hot property – builders are not willing to buy land from the government (thus paying the land transfer concessions) anymore.

Since November 2021, the number of bonds issued by the city investment corporations that missed the payback on the due date has increased from five per month to around 20 per month.

An unconfirmed report said that to sell their apartments, some city investment corporations assigned quotas to their employees and tied it to their annual reviews.

Source:
1. Phoenix, February 2, 2023
https://fengcx.com/news/detail/56084949.shtml
2. Sohu, February 3, 2023
https://www.sohu.com/a/636924623_100162316
3. Sina, February 4, 2023
https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/zqgd/2023-02-04/doc-imyemynm3699818.shtml

Hot Topics | | February 14, 2023 | @CS Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Economy: Jiangsu City Coerced Government Employees into Paying 2.5 Billion Yuan in Fines

As many local governments run out of money, one city in Jiangsu Province came up with a creative way to get more money: to impose a hefty fine on those government employees who have taken a part-time secondary job. The city sent special “working groups” to each government unit to check any government employee who “illegally” took on a secondary job. They targeted those people who have skills (so that they were able to get a secondary job), who do not have connections with higher-powers, and who want to have a smooth retirement. Those employees didn’t think it would be a big fine so they co-oporated with the investigation. Then the government fined them from 600,000 yuan (US$ 88,000) to 1 million yuan (US$ 147,000). Many of them depleted their own savings and some even had to borrow money to make the payment.

The city raised 2.5 billion yuan (US $367 million) by using this approach.

Source: Sound of Hope, February 8, 2023
https://www.soundofhope.org/post/694290

Hot Topics | | February 13, 2023 | Economy/Resources Government/Politics

People’s Lives: Organ Harvesting Happened in China 30 Years Ago

Mr. Guo Zhigen (郭志艮), a resident at Qingtao City, Shandong Province, told the Epoch Times that he has heard about an organ harvesting case that happened 30 years ago.

In April 1991, Mr. Guo stayed in the Hospital Affiliated with Qingdao University in Qingdao to treat his aplastic anemia. One summer afternoon, on his way to the bathroom, he heard someone crying when passing the nephrology department (hematology and nephrology departments were in the same area at that time). He asked the patient what happened and was told that the patient was going to receive a kidney transplant the next day and was worried about the result since he signed a document to relieve the hospital from accountability. The patient looked like an official under 40-years-old.

The patient’s family member also told Mr. Guo that the police had a “body confiscation team.” Police had already matched both the blood of the person to be executed and the recipient. On the day of execution, the police would ask the dead person’s family members for all sorts of documents to prove their relationship to the dead. As long as there was a document they didn’t bring with them, the police would then refuse to acknowledge their connection to the dead and they then declare the dead person’s body as unclaimed. The “body confiscation team” could then take it to sell to hospitals.”

According to Mr. Guo, the hospital performed two liver transplants on the next day. The operation for the patient he met went well, but the other patient died on the operating table. Qingdao’s newspaper reported that the kidney transplant was successful.

According to published information, the hospital affiliated with Qingdao University was among the first group of hospitals in China to do kidney transplants. It did the first kidney transplant in 1982.

Source: Epoch Times, January 31, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/1/31/n13919567.htm

Hot Topics | | February 5, 2023 | @CS Government/Politics Social Stability

Government and Leadership: China Plans to Delay the Retirement Starting Age to 65

China’s current retirement rule is that a male’s retirement starts at age 60 and a female starts at age 50 (female cadres start at 55). However, an internet posting, quoted a report by the CITIC Group, formerly the China International Trust Investment Corporation, saying that Beijing is planning to delay the retirement starting age. The government might announce the new plan this year, start implementation in 2025, and by 2055, reach the goal of males and females both retiring at age of 65.

A lack of workers due to the aging population is a reason for the authorities to consider delaying the retirement starting age. However, the big reason is that the government does not have enough money to pay for the retirement pensions.

Source: jrj.com, February 3, 2023
https://m.jrj.com.cn/madapter/finance/2023/02/03190037316790.shtml

Hot Topics | | February 5, 2023 | Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Economy: Local Governments Have No Money

The real estate industry in China is facing a severe problem. People are not buying and as a result, builders do not want to acquire new land from the government for development either. As a result, the local government’s income has dropped dramatically.

An Internet article listed many numbers to show that, in 2022, many local governments were severely short of money.

The article said that, according to data from the Ministry of Finance, from 2017 to 2021, the proceeds from the land use rights concessions was a significant portion (above 30 percent) of the total local government’s revenue. It had reached 8.4 trillion yuan in 2020 (43.59 percent of their total revenue), 8.7 trillion yuan in 2021 and the percent was 41.81. The local governments depend heavily on land sales.

The article then said that in 2022 the land use rights concessions brought in only 3.4 trillion yuan, a 31 percent drop from the previous years’ amount (Editor’s notes: The number does not match. China.com said the land use rights concessions in 2022 were 6.7 trillion yuan, a 23.3 percent drop from the previous year).

The article then discussed the percent completed of planned land use rights transferred in 2022. Among 22 cities, only four cities completed 100 percent or above. Beijing completed only 36 percent. Changchun City in Jilin Province and Chongqing City only completed 16 percent. They couldn’t complete the goal because builders did not want to take on land.

Changchun City sold only 3 pieces of land in 2022, bringing in 780 million yuan in total. In 2021, the city’s public spending budget was 44 billion yuan and revenue from land use rights concessions was 68 billion yuan. The lack of land sales in 2022 left the city facing a big hole in its public spending.

Sources:
1. 51.ca, January 19, 2023
https://info.51.ca/articles/1178169
2. China.com, January 30, 2023
http://house.china.com.cn/2129918.htm#:~:text=%E5%B9%B4%E4%B8%8B%E9%99%8D23.3%25-,%E8%B4%A2%E6%94%BF%E9%83%A8%EF%BC%9A2022%E5%B9%B4%E5%9B%BD%E6%9C%89%E5%9C%9F%E5%9C%B0%E4%BD%BF%E7%94%A8%E6%9D%83%E5%87%BA%E8%AE%A9%E6%94%B6%E5%85%A5,%E6%AF%94%E4%B8%8A%E5%B9%B4%E4%B8%8B%E9%99%8D23.3%25&text=%E8%B4%A2%E6%94%BF%E9%83%A8%E6%95%B0%E6%8D%AE%E6%98%BE%E7%A4%BA%EF%BC%8C2022,%E6%AF%94%E4%B8%8A%E5%B9%B4%E4%B8%8B%E9%99%8D20.6%25%E3%80%82

Hot Topics | | February 2, 2023 | Economy/Resources

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