STATE OF THE NATION

时间:2022-04-15 08:33:04

The Year of the Dragon has been one of change and challenge. The Communist Party skillfully navigated the tricky waters of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition while the downfall of Bo Xilai and his allies reminded the public that corruption continues to plague the highest levels of power.

China continued to expand its overseas presence with more business ventures and multilateral trade agreements than ever, though an economic slowdown and the stirrings of a push-back against its influence in Europe and America serve as a warning to those who see commerce as a panacea for all conflicts of interest.

The US pivot to Asia came alongside the re-election of “Pacific President” Barack Obama, whose reaching out to Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand has added further obstacles to China’s attempts to assert itself as a benevolent superpower. These attempts have already been severely hampered by the deterioration of relations with China’s most influential neighbors, with territorial disputes threatening all-important regional trade.

More development milestones - the first Chinese woman in space, a record-breaking dive by a Chinese submersible and another spectacular Olympic performance by China’s athletes came alongside familiar public complaints - snowballing food safety scandals, a new trend of nIMBY protests against industrial prestige projects and the looming demographic precipice of the aging population.

Our editorial team has combed our 2012 archives for a one-stop guide to China’s past year, selecting the most important, most interesting and most representative stories, personalities and quotations we have featured during the last 12 months. This overview will inform both regular readers and recent subscribers about China’s 2012 journey, and, most crucially, the state of the world’s fastest-rising power as it heads into 2013 - under new management.

1. Headlines

Territorial Disputes (March-present)

Since March 2012, spats have continued between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors, particularly the Philippines, over a disputed area of the South China Sea. These escalated following the Philippines’ alleged harassment of Chinese fishermen near Huangyan Island (Scarborough Shoal), and their invitation to foreign oil companies to explore resources in disputed waters adjacent to the Nansha (Spratly) Islands. In late July, China established a new “prefecture level” city, Sansha, to administer three disputed islands in the territory. In the East China Sea, decades of dispute between China and Japan over ownership of the Diaoyu Islands (known as Senkaku in Japan) provoked vehement nationwide protests against Japanese detention of Chinese nationals who sailed to the islands, and tension grew when Japan officially “nationalized” the islands by purchasing them from their private owners in September. Both of these territorial disputes remain unresolved and continue to cause controversy.

Leadership Transition (november)

The Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Congress, held in Beijing November 8-14, 2012, was the venue for a once-in-a-decade power transition in China. A new generation of leaders, headed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, took over from the previous leadership, led by Hu Jintao. After decades of breakneck economic development, the new party leadership faces historic challenges including the pressing issues of ecological degradation and rampant corruption. Since the Congress, anti-corruption campaigns have been launched across the country with investigations into alleged disciplinary violations by a number of high-ranking officials in Guangdong, Chongqing and Shandong, all initiated by the Central Committee. In addition, Guangdong is to launch a pilot project requiring all Party and government officials to declare their assets. 2013 will likely bear witness to whether or not such efforts can be extended across the nation, and really be effective in the fight against corruption.

Environmental Protest (July)

Early July, construction of a molybdenum copper plant was halted after thousands of locals took to the streets to protest in Shifang, Sichuan Province. The mass incident caused skirmishes between police forces and protestors, who tossed bricks at local government office buildings. The demonstration was one of a series of “not in my backyard” grassroots protests against polluting chemical plant projects sparked across the nation this year. In October, a similar mass protest took place in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, when thousands took to the streets to oppose the proposed expansion of a petrochemical factory. The Ningbo government immediately announced that the expansion would not go ahead. Public planning hearings do not exist in China, and many have hailed this series of legal rights movements across the country as a breakthrough for civil rights awareness.

Road Tragedy (August)

36 were killed in a fatal road accident where a double-decker sleeper bus collided with a fuel tanker in Yan’an, Shaanxi Province on August 26. The startlingly high number of traffic accidents in China in recent years has caused widespread public and government concern over traffic security issues. Following the August collision, in addition to banning the manufacture and sale of sleeper buses, road transport authorities in many localities have suspended or banned all overnight long-distance bus services. However, the lack of a systematic road safety program, together with loose safety testing standards in China’s domestic car industry and slack enforcement of driver’s licensing all combine to pose a continuous threat to people’s lives.

Serial Killer Gunned Down (August)

One of China’s most wanted fugitives, Zhou Kehua, was shot and killed by police on August 14 in Chongqing, having eluded the authorities since 2004. 42-year-old Zhou was suspected of killing 10 people and wounding several others in an eight-year string of armed robberies. A robbery that left one woman dead and two men injured outside a bank in Chongqing on August 10 set off a large-scale manhunt that ended 4 days later when Zhou was gunned down outside a shoe factory. Gun crime is exceedingly rare in China given the limited access to firearms, including a ban on private gun ownership. Zhou’s alleged crime spree captured the country’s attention partly because of its reported brutality, but also for Zhou’s ability to elude China’s well-funded public security apparatus, despite having what the Chongqing police described as only a “junior middle school education.”

Deadly Downpour (July)

Beginning on July 21, a 16-hour rainstorm flooded Beijing’s metropolitan area. The biggest rainstorm in the capital since 1951, it plunged the city into chaos. The official death toll in the flash flood stands at 79, with one man drowning in his car under a submerged viaduct in the busy downtown area. Apart from scientific explanations such as “heat-sink” caused by city expansion, the great loss of life and property in the rainstorm sparked public anger at what people saw as the badly constructed drainage system and the failure of the authorities to adequately prepare the city for extreme weather. In 2012, many cities in China, including Tianjin, Wuhan and Nanning, all experienced record-breaking rainstorms and floods.

Going Deeper (June)

As China’s manned spacecraft Shenzhou IX was successfully launched in mid-June, China’s manned submersible Jiaolong broke a new national dive record after reaching 7,062 meters below sea-level during its fifth diving test into the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. The voyage brought China into the ranks of deep-sea faring countries including the US, Japan, France and Russia. Official sources told media that after collecting samples, recording video footage and photographing the undersea world in 2012, the Jiaolong is expected to conduct further scientific research in the South China Sea between April and May 2013.

Anti-Japanese Protests (September)

As the territorial disputes between China and Japan escalated following Japan’s purchase of the disputed Diaoyu Islands, to which China also lays claim, massive anti-Japan demonstrations erupted in cities across China as crowds of thousands of Chinese vandalized Japanese restaurants, ransacked department stores, and smashed up Japanese-made cars. Some protests turned violent, resulting in damage to Japanese-branded businesses and the temporary closure of several Japanese-funded companies. In Xi’an, Li Jianli, a Toyota car owner, was struck on the head with a steering lock and saw his car destroyed by an angry mob as he drove home on September 15th. Li was taken to hospital and diagnosed with brain trauma. The brutality was caught on film, and went viral on Chinese video-sharing websites and microblogs, triggering a fierce public backlash. A new phrase “violent patriotism” was coined to decry the behavior of protestors. Police arrested Li’s suspected assailant in October.

2. People

Xi Jinping, 59, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China

After months of speculation, Xi Jinping, always the favorite, was formally inaugurated as China’s top political figure as well as head of the armed forces in November 2012. Taking the reins of an ascendant but increasingly conflicted China faced with a long list of domestic and international challenges, all eyes are on Xi and the six other members of the slimmed-down Standing Committee of the Politburo to set the timetable for further political reform.

Barely one month after assuming power, a number of senior Party officials have found themselves under internal investigation, with some observers claiming that Xi is seeking to secure his position by taking a more hard-line stance on corruption than his predecessor Hu Jintao. Xi’s transition from heir apparent to paramount leader will be completed in early 2013, when he officially takes over from Hu as head of state. In one high-profile speech, Xi spoke of a “Chinese dream,” which he defined as “the renewal of the Chinese nation.” With speeches by Chinese leaders often the public’s only insight into their political personalities, some have implied that Xi’s choice of words is a sign that his tenure will be marked by more assertive policies.

Bo Xilai, 64, disgraced politician

Among the officials disgraced in 2012, the most senior and the most sensational one is Bo Xilai (left), former Party Secretary of Chongqing municipality and Poliburo member as well as one-time favored candidate for a seat on the all-important decision making body’s Standing Committee.

An attempted defection by Bo’s police chief Wang Lijun(right) to the US on February 6, 2012 led to the arrest of both Wang and Gu Kailai, Bo Xilai’s wife, on suspicion of complicity in the death of Neil Heywood, a British businessman who had close ties to the Bo family. On August 7, Gu Kailai received a suspended death sentence for Heywood’s murder, likely to be commuted to a life sentence. Wang was convicted of treason, obstruction of justice and an assortment of offenses relating to corruption, receiving a 15-year jail sentence. Bo himself, kept in custody but out of the news during the sensitive months surrounding the 18th Party Congress, is likely to face a formal criminal trial later this year.

An unashamed populist, Bo’s tenure in Chongqing was marked by his perceived zero-tolerance crackdown on organized crime and a high-profile anti-corruption campaign, both of which have been quietly debunked following his detention and expulsion from the Party.

Liang Wengen, 56, billionaire

After topping the 2011 Forbes China Rich List, Liang, chairman of Sany, China’s heavy machinery giant, kicked off 2012 in style as rumors began to circulate that he would be the first businessman to be given a seat on the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In February, Sany launched a high-profile acquisition of German multinational Putzmeister, which led to an abortive attempt to expand this new acquisition in the US. The Obama administration went on to block an acquisition which would have seen the Sany-owned Ralls Corp. from gaining control of four wind farms in Boardman, Oregon, citing the reason that the wind farms were located close to military facilities.

Sany reacted by taking the Obama administration to court, though legal experts believe the company has little hope of a victory. In the meantime, rumors that Sany’s capital flow has been severely depleted by its failures in overseas markets, leading to massive layoffs, caused the company’s stock price to plummet. On the Forbes 2012 China Rich List, Liang found himself a distant 6th.

In late November, Liang made headlines by announcing that Sany would relocate its headquarters from Changsha, Hunan, to Beijing, citing “embarrassment” on the part of the Changsha authorities. Liang accused the Hunan government of collusion with Sany’s chief rival Zoomlion Heavy Industry, engaging in industrial espionage, slander and other illegal business practices. China Economic Weekly offerd readers a different assessment, claiming that Liang’s decision to relocate was a retaliation after he failed to gain support from Hunan officials in his failed bid to become a member of the Party’s Central Committee in November.

Mo Yan, 57, nobel Prize laureate

As the first Chinese citizen to win a Nobel Prize, Mo Yan’s newfound international acclaim has been hailed in China as an acknowledgment of that country’s contemporary literary culture. However, given Mo’s ties to the Communist Party and its censorship apparatus, his win also triggered debate.

Many have accused Mo of dodging the issue of censorship and failing to use his position as a Nobel laureate to defend freedom of expression. Others, however, have pointed out that most of Mo Yan’s works often take an unflinching view of social ills, including political oppression, incorporating sensitive themes such as the Cultural Revolution, forced abortion and local uprisings.

In its announcement, the Nobel committee praised Mo’s technique of “merging hallucinatory realism” with “folk tales, history, and the contemporary.”

“This is a victory for literature, not political correctness,” said Mo Yan in a December 6, 2012 news conference prior to the awards ceremony.

Ye Shiwen, 16, swimmer

After Ye (left) won gold in the women’s 400 meters individual medley and set a new world record at the London Olympics, a senior coach with the American men’s swimming team, publicly implied that she had secured her victory through doping. Although the British Olympic Association stated that Ye had passed her mandatory drug tests and “deserved recognition for her talent,” it was pointed out that Ye’s time in the final 50 meters of the race, faster even than men’s event gold medalist Ryan Lochte in the men’s event, was simply “too good to be true.”

The allegations aroused a storm of nationalistic protest in China, with many accusing the Americans of racism. The more reasonable of Ye’s supporters argued that despite her record-breaking home stretch time, Lochte’s overall time was comfortably ahead of Ye’s.

A homegrown belief that China and her athletes are singled out by Westerners as inveterate cheats continues to characterize Olympic controversies, with many drawing parallels with perceived opposition to China’s rise as a world power. Indeed, the controversy surrounding Ye eclipsed the astonishing success of her teammate Sun Yang (right), who left London with two gold medals and a place in the history books as the first male Chinese swimmer to win an Olympic gold.

Liu Yang, 38, astronaut

On June 16, 2012, Shenzhou IX, China’s most advanced spacecraft, docked with Tiangong I, China’s space station. On board were Liu Yang (right), China’s first female astronaut, and her two male colleagues Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang. While the mission itself was one of many manned missions required to complete assembly of the country’s first space station, Liu’s presence on board was taken as a milestone in China’s domestic space program, which has set lofty targets for the coming decade, including a moon landing and the expansion of China’s satellite array.

As a member of the Chinese military, Liu’s public image was carefully managed by the official media, with her commitment to her work heavily emphasized and her personal life and character, beyond her exemplary patriotism, left out of all coverage. However, not every public appearance was all smiles. When Liu and her two fellow Shenzhou IX astronauts appeared at a “welcome home” event in Hong Kong on August 15, all three national heroes found themselves heckled by protesters opposing a new “patriotic”educational policy being introduced to the territory.

3. Economics

new Economic Pace

China’s economic growth for the first three quarters of 2012 slowed down to 7.7 percent, one of its lowest points since 1993, as a result of decline over seven consecutive quarters. It partly reflects the government’s goal of placing growth on a slower track, while focusing on “growth quality.” The sluggishness of export markets is another significant drag. While little progress has been made on giving household consumption and industrial innovation a bigger role, infrastructure investment remains the most realistic option for policymakers. In the short term, there is still enough room to boost the economy, given China’s eased inflationary pressure and strong fiscal position, though this window of opportunity is closing fast. In the long term, the question of the market-government relationship must be answered.

Private Lending Crisis

The careers of famous Chinese private entrepreneurs typically begin with small business start-ups funded by the meager savings of their family networks, which expand with the aid of high-interest loans from legal or illegal private lenders. The economic downturn resulted in multi-billion-yuan losses suffered by many private lenders, and significant social unrest. Some big borrowers were severely punished. A reform program has been launched in Wenzhou, one of the epicenters of the crisis, to create an open market for private lending, improving loan access for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and ensuring better regulation of the private lending market. Banks are also required to lend more money to SMEs. However, private banks are still illegal, a major impediment to small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Interest Rate Reform

Since July, Chinese commercial banks were given some freedom to determine deposit interest rates in order to attract deposits for the first time. They have also been given more flexibility to offer cheaper loans than ever before. This is the first substantive move towards building a market-based risk-pricing system in banking. The new interest rate flexibility has put pressure on profits, which for decades have been based on cheap deposits and cheap loans to big borrowers, normally State-owned or well-connected enterprises. Banks are expected to shift to sophisticated non-credit services like those offered by international banking giants, and loaning to SMEs, with whom higher lending rates can be negotiated. Currently, banks compete fiercely on off-balance sheet credit grants, creating new business but also resulting in significant risk. The success or failure of the reform will have a crucial impact on China’s banking-dominated financial sector.

Dark Days for the Stock Market

China’s stock market plunged to well below 2000 points on November 27, a psychological indicator of a long, deep bear market. Although it rebounded back to 2000 points a few days later, investor confidence remained weak after the bear trend dominated the market for a few years. Net capital outflow has continued. Transactions are not active. Few can explain why the world’s fastest-growing major economy has some of the world’s worst stock prices. However, foreign investors have increased their holdings of Chinese shares through their Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors accounts. Regulators are applauded for stepping up efforts on cracking down on the misconducts of listed companies. Investors expecting less government intervention in the listing process don’t think it’s enough.

E-commerce Controversy

“Come on, let’s fight to the death!” With these provocative words on his microblog in August, Liu Qiangdong, CEO of 360buy, a leading B2C website, launched a price war on Suning and Gome, two home appliance chain stores that are moving into e-commerce. The same thing had happened in June, and lasted one day. This time, it lasted two days, and all three retailers announced victory. The loser? The consumer. In September, government investigations uncovered price fraud, including several cases of companies raising prices before cutting them. On November 11, a promotion campaign launched by Taobao, an e-commerce website, generated US$3 billion sales within 24 hours. According to the Data Center of China Internet, online shopping accounted for nearly 5 percent of the country’s entire retail sales for 2012, compared with nearly zero in 2003.

Shale Star

By early December, two rounds of bidding for shale gas exploration had finished, meaning China had begun implementation of its shale gas strategy less than half a year after the plan was first announced. It is expected that by the end of 2015, 6.5 billion cubic meters of shale gas will have been extracted, about four percent of China’s gas supply by then. While several private companies are on the list of successful bidders, State-owned giants remain the majority. Foreign companies like Total and Shell have already joined hands with SOEs on China-based extraction projects. China hopes to follow the US in using shale gas to reduce its heavy reliance on oil and gas imports.

Solar Cliff

Encouraged by government support for new energy, the investment frenzy in China’s solar power industry led to overcapacity and heavy reliance on the US and European markets. In October, the US announced punitive tariffs on imports of Chinese solar cells. In September, the European Commission launched trade investigations into about US$21 billion Chinese PV imports. Major Chinese companies either faced being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because of slumping share prices or insolvency due to heavy debts. In November, the Chinese government filed a complaint with the WTO against the EU’s subsidization of its own solar power industry. Since it will take some time before domestic demand can rush to the rescue, China’s solar industry now faces a survival crisis.

Hard Road Abroad

Several investments by big Chinese companies have run into barriers in foreign countries, out of “national security” concerns. In each case, the company in question has been accused of having too close of a connection with the Chinese government, either in the form of personal background (official-turned-businessman Huang Nubo), the sensitive nature of the industry (heavy machinery manufacturer Sany), government ownership of the company itself (State oil giant CNOOC), or a combination of those reasons (telecom companies Huawei and ZTE). Sany has sued President Obama for vetoing the company’s acquisition of a wind farm. Opportunities for Chinese companies to go global are undermined by a combination of deep political mistrust and the vigilance against competition in host countries, and the strong State intervention in economy in China.

The Property Game

Since 2010, China’s central government has imposed unprecedentedly stringent policies to temper soaring property prices, imposing restrictions on buyers to contain demand and encouraging the development of low-income housing projects to increase supply. For local governments, the property market is the biggest source of fiscal revenue at their disposal, and the quickest way of increasing GDP growth. Their attempts to circumvent the restriction and delay affordable housing projects have repeatedly been blocked by the central government. The decline in property investment and sales in the first ten months of the year are evidence that the policy has taken effect. The central government has reiterated its commitment to continuing the control into 2013. However, strong sales and price increases in November show that the game is far from over.

Yuan Movement

From April 16, the trading band of the yuan on the spot market was expanded to 1 percent of the midpoint price set daily by the People’s Bank of China. This doubles the previous 0.5 percent limit and is regarded as a milestone in the move towards a market-based foreign exchange system. Since the global financial crisis in 2008, the yuan has seen peaks and troughs, contrasting sharply with its previous constant upward movement since the managed floating system was installed in July 2005. Analysts believe the yuan exchange rate is now very close to equilibrium. Changes that already happened and will continue affecting the value of yuan include the reduction of China’s trade surplus, the deficit of its capital account, and the economic climate and policies of its major trading partners like the US, the EU and other emerging economies.

4. Culture

Popular voice

From July to the end of September, China was fixated on talent show The Voice of China, the Chinese version of The Voice of Holland. For more than 10 weeks, the show topped China’s TV ratings, reaching an audience share of 29.5 percent at the peak of its 100-minute final on the evening of September 30. Online, meanwhile, each of the 15 episodes accumulated tens of millions of clicks, making it one of the most watched programs of recent years. Since the success of the second series of Super Girl, a singing contest for women in 2005, talent shows have become major cash cows for Chinese networks. Yet, in contrast to earlier offerings, The Voice of China prioritized singing ability over all else for the first time, the audience seems to have been overwhelmed by the music itself. The show’s producers went on to make 300 million yuan (US$48m) on their 100 million yuan(US$16m) investment.

Palace Intrigue

Starting in March 2012, a 76-episode drama series called The Legend of Zhen Huan had the nation glued to their TV sets and computer screens. Zhen Huan, a 17-year-old woman, is taken into the harem of emperor Yongzheng (1678-1735) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and thus begins her struggle for survival in the dog-eat-dog environment of the imperial palace. Rising from the position of a low-ranking concubine to that of the empress dowager, Zhen Huan’s complex fate was so popular with audiences, particularly women, discussion of the latest plot developments became a daily activity for neighbors, friends and co-workers. Many saw the story as an allegory for modern-day office politics, perhaps the main reason behind its popularity.

Boycotting the Bosses

In just one week in early June, more than 400,000 netizens joined a boycott initiated by KaiFu Lee, the founding president of Google China, against Only You, a job-seeking reality TV show shown on satellite TV station Tianjin TV. Zhang Shaogang, the show’s host, earned notoriety for his arrogant and dismissive attitude towards some of the contestants. In one episode, a student who had returned from studying overseas fainted on the show after the judges alleged that his master’s degree received in France was fake. In other episodes, the host and panel of entrepreneurs would often enter into fierce arguments with the job-seekers. Critics claimed that the show was a “very negative depiction of workplace culture.” While some believed it was an honest depiction of China’s cutthroat job market, the boycott revealed a desire for fairness and mutual understanding in the employer-employee relationship.

An Epic Dispute

Feudalism may have collapsed, but deep-rooted traditions die hard. In White Deer Plain, tragedy follows on the heels of revolution and wars on the fertile land of the eponymous plain in northwest China. In Cheng Zhongshi’s 1993 novel, the love and hate between two families, and their tenacity amid social turmoil develop into an epic tale spanning half a century from the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Wang Quan’an, winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and one of China’s famous “sixth generation” directors, spent three years completing his big-screen adaption of the modern classic. Expectations had been high before the movie’s release in September, and the movie polarized critics and audiences. The director won praise for his realistic portrayal of history, but many criticized his poor presentation of the story’s romantic lead, actress Zhang Yuqi.

Authenticity Spat

At the very end of 2011, star blogger, rally driver and novelist Han Han posted a series of three blog posts laying out his views on revolution, democracy and freedom. Before long, science writer and notorious fraudbuster Fang Zhouzi made accusations that Han’s posts were ghostwritten. In the disputed posts, Han advocated a gradual approach to democratic reform, a stark contrast to his usual gung-ho attacks on corruption and the selfish interests of the rich and powerful. For a while, both the right and left wings turned on Han, who later offered 20 million yuan (US$3.2m) and the copyright to his entire oeuvre as a reward to anyone who could provide conclusive proof that he had used a ghostwriter. Though no one has so far claimed the reward, the accusations continued for months.

Pritzker Pride

Architect Wang Shu studies the sites where his project locations as long as possible. He adapts to the local environment, and reuses local building materials. Incorporating traditional Chinese aesthetics from landscape paintings and calligraphy, his buildings are typically simple and abstract, finding equilibrium between tradition and modernity. In February, he won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, the first Chinese citizen ever to do so. Building a bridge between the past and the present, Wang cherishes Chinese architectural heritage, and has strongly campaigned against the demolition of traditional buildings.

Flavor of the Year

No Chinese-made documentary has ever caused such a stir as A Bite of China. The 7-episode documentary took director Chen Xiaoqing and his team 13 months to complete. Produced by State broadcaster China Central Television(CCTV), the documentary introduced viewers not only to the rich and refined world of Chinese gastronomic culture, but also to the human stories behind the food and its production. Meanwhile, the narration showed considerable improvement on previous works, and the production team were honest about their imitation of documentaries produced by the BBC. Dining culture varies widely inside China, where people now migrate frequently from one place to another, and the series not only whet viewers’ appetites for fine cuisine, but also their nostalgia for the flavors and fragrances of their hometowns.

Moneyball

The market-oriented reform of China’s sports leagues in the past two decades has resulted in such rapid monetization that some of the world’s biggest names are now being made offers they can’t refuse, and 2012 saw something of a “China Rush” for famous foreign athletes and coaches. In October and November, former NBA stars Tracy McGrady and Gilbert Arenas joined their new CBA (Chinese Basketball Association) teams the Shanghai Sharks and the Qingdao DoubleStar Eagles respectively. In June, former English Premier League soccer star Didier Drogba signed up with Shanghai Shenhua, while famous Italian soccer coach and

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