The Hindu: Muddying the Waters-The Dalai Lama Cheating the World

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/article3616701.ece The Hindu: Muddying the waters-The Dalai Lama Misleading the World


The Hindu:
July 10, 2012

Letter to the Editor

Muddying the Waters



The Dalai Lama refused to call self-immolations wrong in an interview published by The Hindu on July 9. Then readers may ask him what compassion really means to him. His prayers for those self-immolators amount to encouragement of the violent deed.




As to autonomy, the Dalai Lama’s views totally contradict the Chinese Constitution. Ethnic Regional Autonomy and people’s representative system are the norms for ethnic minorities to exercise autonomy. He advocates “Greater Tibet” which is a legacy of the British imperialists to split China. It’s against the Constitution too. No Tibetan living in the Tibet Autonomous Region and autonomous prefectures buys his argument. With an ulterior motive, the Dalai Lama has been muddying the waters with regard to reincarnation. His disguised “independence” drive is doomed to failure.



Li Xiaojun,



First Secretary, Press Section,



Embassy of P.R. China in India,



New Delhi



Keywords: Dalai Lama interview, Tibet self immolation, Tibetan movement

China sent 3 astronauts into space on June 16, 2012

Delhi Diary May 31, 2012: 45.4 degrees Celsius

Delhi lives through another blistering day (Lead)

2012年5月31日 19:55:27 by IANS   New Delhi, May 31 (IANS) Delhi’s heated summer days continued Thursday with the maximum temperature settling at 45.4 degrees Celsius-the highest in this season as of now withfive notches above the average. The met department forecast some respite in the form of squall later in the night.

“The sky is likely to turn partly cloudy towards the night. A dust storm or squall may occur in some parts,” said an official from India Meteorological Department (IMD).

“Temperature is likely to drop from June 1. Maximum and minimum temperature will stay around 44 and 32 degrees Celsius,” the official added.

Minimum temperature recorded was 31.2 degrees Celsius, four notches above the average for the season.

While the city has been braving blistering heat over the last two weeks, long power cuts Thursday added to the woes. Parts of south Delhi faced an over 7-hour long power cut due to a snag in three 220 KV circuits.

“We are working on the restoration. We have a simultaneously load shedding programme going on, so we are finding the reasons for the snag,” an official from distcom BSES told IANS.

The national capital has been witnessing a high demand for power at over 5,000 MW per day.

May 25, 2012: Tibet Railway starts Rail Laying for another 253km Westward from Lhasa

Delhi Diary May 22: 42.2 degrees Celsius, low 27.2

Hot day in Delhi, Wednesday likely to be same


2012年5月22日 21:01:44 by IANS   New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) It was a hot Tuesday for the capital with the maximum temperature rising to 42.2 degrees Celsius, three notches above average. Wednesday is likely to be the same, the weather office here said.

The minimum temperature Tuesday was one notch above average at 27.2 degrees Celsius. The humidity saw a high and low of 55 and 18 percent, respectively.

The weather department forecast similar temperatures and mainly clear skies for Wednesday.

“Wednesday should have mainly clear skies with the maximum and minimum temperatures of 43 and 27 degrees Celsius, respectively,” an official at the India Meteorological Department told IANS.

Monday’s maximum and minimum temperatures were 42.3 and 27.7 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Beautiful Earth by Russian Satellite

The 14th Dalai Lama's Tangka Gift to Chairman Mao Zedong in the 1950s

Tarmak007 -- A bold blog on Indian defence: Propel your dreams: When LSP-7 kissed the sky...

Tarmak007 -- A bold blog on Indian defence: Propel your dreams: When LSP-7 kissed the sky...: Moving snapshots from Old HAL Airport in Bangalore when LSP-7 from Tejas flightline had its first flight on March 9...

The Daily Telegraph columnist Tom Stevenson's views on China

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/tom-stevenson/9247958/Its-Chinas-mass-market-that-offers-the-best-opportunities.html


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/tom-stevenson/9247958/Its-Chinas-mass-market-that-offers-the-best-opportunities.html



https://www.fidelity.co.uk/investor/news-insights/fscc-china-trip.page

It's China's mass market that offers the best opportunities

One of the things which surprised me as I walked round a WuMart supermarket in Beijing recently was the number of Western brands on the shelves. Pampers, Quaker Oats and even Blue Nun wine at an eye-watering £18 a bottle jumped out.

Shoppers queue to pay at a supermarket in Hefei, eastern China. Photo: AFP

By Tom Stevenson

8:00PM BST 05 May 2012

20 Comments

With that fresh in my mind, I was not remotely surprised last week when Bright Food, one of China's largest food groups, snapped up 60pc of Weetabix – the Chinese appetite for Western products is far from restricted to luxury brands.

In fact, the evidence from my spin round China with my colleague Anthony Bolton a couple of weeks ago points to the real consumer growth story being at the bottom end of the market. Yes, the likes of Burberry, BMW and Louis Vuitton will do well in the newly-affluent, brand-conscious mega-cities that places such as Shanghai have become in recent years. Indeed, a luxury car dealership I visited projects 30pc annual growth into the future.

But I think the better opportunities will be found among companies catering to the millions who, for the first time, are buying packaged instant noodles, eating out in Japanese-style Ramen restaurants or upgrading to the Chinese equivalent of a Travelodge.

I talked to the managements of companies operating in all three of these markets and the outlook they described was very bright indeed. I heard similar stories from a high-end cosmetics chain and an upscale department store but the evidence of my own eyes made me more excited by the mass market opportunity.

I'd no sooner got back to London than Goldman Sachs sent me a research note describing exactly what I'd seen for myself.

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• The market may wobble, but it still holds long term value
  07 Apr 2012

Splitting China's 600m strong urban population into income bands, its conclusion is that the mass market (with earnings of between £150 and £400 a month) provides the best long-term growth prospects and more reliable, structural rather than cyclical, growth too.
As the mass market accounts for around three quarters of city-dwellers, boosted by millions of migrant workers in recent years, the growth potential for products such as a humble British breakfast cereal is immense.
As the information overload of a week in China settles, one of my main conclusions is that sometimes we over-complicate investment. Having visited around 20 companies and spoken to many other experts on the Chinese economy, I understand the concerns about China – inflation, bad debts, over-investment – but the sheer scale of the transformation of a country of 1.3bn people from an export and investment-led economy to a domestic consumption-driven one trumps these.
As one of many articulate and impressive business leaders I had the opportunity to talk with put it, "everyone says China is difficult to read, but it's actually the simplest country in the world to understand. You just have to look at the Five Year plan".
The latest of these makes quite clear that the Government is guiding the economy to a slower and more sustainable rate of growth (although at around 8pc a year, one we'd certainly settle for), a much reduced dependence on infrastructure investment and a massive increase in the spending power of the ordinary worker.
The minimum wage will increase by 15pc a year for the next five years, which will double the incomes of low-earners and bring a bowl of Weetabix within the reach of millions.
Mass market consumption will benefit from two other factors: the ongoing urbanization of China, which has some considerable way to go, and improvements in the social safety net, the absence of which has been a driver of China's extremely high savings rate. In the five years to 2010, government spending on healthcare, for example, rose more than three-fold.
As one China strategist told me, the fact that household consumption is still a small part of China's GDP merely reflects the 25pc annual growth in investment over the past nine years. China "will continue to be the world's best consumption story for everything from instant noodles to luxury cars".
This does not mean that profiting from China's rapid growth will be easy. The one thing that is abundantly clear from a visit to China is that it is different – different priorities, different standards of corporate governance, a wholly different relationship between the individual and the state. That means there is no substitute for kicking the tyres on the ground and doing plenty of due diligence. I would be surprised if long-term outperformance did not make it worth the effort.
Tom Stevenson is an investment director at Fidelity Worldwide Investment. The views expressed are his own. He tweets at @tomstevenson63

Having just returned from a fascinating and stimulating trip to China with Anthony Bolton and a group of senior financial and personal finance journalists, I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you some of the key findings of our visit to Hong Kong, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.
The group – comprising top journalists from The Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Financial Times and Independent – joined Anthony Bolton on an intensive round of company visits in China’s key commercial centres.
The trip was an unprecedented opportunity to see Anthony at work, joining him in quizzing company managements on the outlook for their companies and the macro-economic context in which they operate. In total we had around 20 external meetings during a packed schedule that left everyone impressed by Anthony’s energy and enthusiasm for the Chinese investment opportunity.
The trip was put together by Fidelity and Morgan Stanley to demonstrate the scale and pace of economic development in China and to showcase Fidelity’s ability to capitalise on the rapid rate of change for the benefit of our investors.

---

Meeting the managers

The itinerary for the trip was different from most press visits and much harder work! Journalists were shown for the first time how Fidelity’s portfolio managers and analysts gather and assess information from company managements. Each day, the group visited four or five different companies.
The sector focus reflected Anthony’s belief that the best investment opportunities in China are to be found among consumption-related and service businesses.
Companies visited included:

• Ping An Insurance – the largest holding in China Special Situations, Ping An has transformed itself from a small insurance company to an integrated financial services business in the past 10 years. Everything at Ping An is on a massive scale with tens of thousands of calls being made and taken every day in one of the world’s largest telemarketing operations. The quality of its systems is key, with every process having been redesigned and centralised for greater efficiency.
• China Lodging – a fast-growing chain of largely budget hotels, meeting the needs of an increasingly mobile Chinese population. Hotel chains control a tiny proportion of the overall lodging market in China, with significant potential to increase market share in addition to benefiting from the overall growth of the market.
• Ajisen – a fast-food operator specialising in Japanese Ramen-style noodle dishes. Ajisen is a classic Anthony Bolton recovery situation, having suffered a dramatic share price fall amid the adverse publicity caused by an earlier food safety scare.
• In addition, the group visited one of Beijing’s leading luxury car dealers, a major commercial property developer, television advertising media buyer, lottery company and drug developer. There were tours round a cosmetics retailer, department store and supermarket chain. To complement the focus on consumer and service sector stocks, the group also took a high speed train from Beijing to the new economic development zone in Tianjin to witness the creation of a high-tech hub and to visit the giant port that will serve it.

Findings from the trip

For anyone wishing to understand the scale of the changes underway in China, and the commercial and investment opportunity they represent, there is no substitute for time on the ground in this most fascinating of countries.
Things that struck me during my week in China include the following:

• Not just the scale but the pace of change in the country. Both Beijing and Shanghai are huge, ultra-modern cities with excellent infrastructure. The high-speed train service between Beijing and Tianjin was fast, clean and smooth as silk. The ambition of the Tianjin economic development zone is breathtaking.
• The potential for companies that understand the changing nature of the Chinese market is enormous. The growth projections in, for example, the budget hotel market, or the fast-food sector, are on a completely different level from those in the developed world.
• The importance of not viewing China through the prism of Western ideas about, for example, democracy and personal freedom. Priorities are different, with stability and growth valued more highly than individual rights.
• The importance of conducting extensive due diligence in a country where the best companies are at least as good as the best in the West but others do not live up to the standards that overseas investors might expect.
• The impact of rising wages. The Government has mandated big increases in the minimum wage in its latest five year plan. This has important implications for companies and will affect them in different ways, depending on their exposure to labour costs and the extent to which they can benefit from rising disposable incomes. Stock-picking is key.
• The importance of taking a long view. China’s economy is growing fast, it is being transformed from an export and investment-led economy to one more focused on domestic consumption and services. But this process will take time and will not be smooth.

In the long run, it is hard to believe that the transformation underway in China will not provide an excellent backdrop to an active, stock-picking investment approach. The trip, and the opportunity it has given me to see Anthony Bolton and his supporting team at work, has highlighted some of the challenges investors in the country face but also increased my confidence in the outlook for China.
As an investor in Fidelity China Special Situations PLC, I hope you have found my thoughts useful. For me, it has been a fascinating insight into the world’s leading emerging market. I can’t wait to go back!
All the best
Tom Stevenson
Investment Director

Fox Bat Indian Flying fox Topsy-Turvy

The Hindu photo April 22.

India versus China: foreign reserves

India versus China: foreign reserves
China: USD3181.148bn (Jan.13, 2012)
India: USD 293.14bn (Apri 13, 2012)

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson on Agni V on April 19

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Liu Weimin's answer on the launching of Agni V in India.

　
Original text in Chinese:


    问：印度今天成功试射了烈火-5导弹。中方对此有何评论？是否担心此举会威胁中国的安全并影响亚洲地区的和平与稳定？ 


　　答：我们注意到有关报道。 


　　中国和印度同为重要的发展中国家和新兴经济体，两国不是竞争对手，而是合作伙伴。双方应当珍惜两国关系来之不易的良好局面，共同努力，坚持中印友好，深化战略合作，促进共同发展，为维护本地区乃至世界的和平与稳定作出贡献。 


My transliteration at 9pm New Delhi time (official translation not available till now)

Q: India successfully test launched Agni V missile today. Does China have any comment? Do you worry about that this could endanger the safety of China and affect peace and stability in Asia?
A: We've noticed relevant reports.
China and India are both important developing countries and emerging economies.The two countries are not competitors, rather they are cooperative partners. The two sides should cherish the hard-eared momentum in bilateral relations, work together, stick to Sino-Indian friendship, deepen strategic cooperation, promote common development, and contribute to the maintainance of peace and stability in the region and even the world.








China and India are partners rather than rivals 

Beijing, April 19 (Xinhua News Agency) China on Thursday reaffirmed its partnership with India, after India testfired its homemade nuclear-capable Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on India's missile launch.

The missile, with a strike... range of over 5,000 kilometers, was testfired at 08:07 a.m. local time from Wheeler Island off Odisha coast, said V.L. Saraswat, chief of the India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

China has taken note of media reports of the missile launch, said Liu, adding that China and India, both large, emerging economies, are cooperative partners rather than rivals.

Bilateral ties are developing well at the moment, he said, adding he believed that both sides will seize the opportunity to further advance relations.

At the BRICS Summit in March, leaders of China and India reiterated the consensus to further strengthen bilateral ties, said Liu.

He called on both sides to cherish the hard-earned good momentum of bilateral relations and deepen their strategic cooperation, so as to promote common development and safeguard regional peace and stability.

India's 5000km range Agni-V missile Test Fired

April 19 2012 Headlines Today in New Delhi

1. India's "ICBM" missile Agni-V launched successfully (Indians jump with joy calling it"game changer","counterbalance to China", "historic day for India", hailing entry into the elite club,says "China sour" by quoting Global Times, America "commend India's nuclear record", news channels no mention of China launching its first intercontinental ballistic missile-9000km-range in 1980 ).
2. 3 dead, 14 injured after falling off overcrowded Mumbai train.

          Launched from Wheeler Island in east India's Odisha State.

中国城市停车难愈演愈烈

中国城市停车难愈演愈烈
2012-4-18  来源:《参考消息》


中国大城市车满为患，找车位就像大海捞针。日媒称，北京和上海等大城市停车场不足已成为深刻的社会问题。

日本《东洋经济》周刊14日一期发表文章称，中国城市停车难的背后，实际上是中国政府刻板的土地政策和行政机关、国企在土地利用上的宽裕。停车位不足滋生了违法停车，贴条罚款又无法从根本上解决问题。

文章指出，中国城区停车难问题大致可分为两部分，第一是城市中心地带写字楼和商业区公共停车场不足；第二是住宅小区业主停车位不足。机动车数量暴增无疑是停车难的首要原因，但这个问题其实也掺杂了很多“中国特色”的特殊情况。

中国2000年后新建的写字楼和商场大都配备了停车场，拥有数百个车位的大型地下停车场并不少见。但此前兴建的百货商场、宾馆和私人小卖部却基本没有或只有极少停车位。以上海为例，城市中心地区共计需要120万个停车位，但目前却只有90万个，也就是说，有30万辆车无处安放。

在这种情况下，政府开始利用道路两侧和人行道的空间，设置管理员对停车进行计时收费。这虽部分解决了停车位不足的问题，却引起市民的不满。

中国媒体曾经呼吁，地面不够用，就应该兴建立体车库或机械停车场。

文章分析这些举措之所以少有落实，缘于中国的土地使用权多掌握在行政机关、军队和国企手中，民营和外资的商业设施大都租用“官家”的土地。手握土地使用权的机关和企业，对资产活用漠不关心，对开放土地提高市民的便利性并不积极。

另一方面，住宅小区是开发商购买了工厂和农地后开发、建设并出售给业主的，住宅小区停车难的主要问题是停车位价格不断上涨，以及增设停车位所产生的各种麻烦。

以上海郊区的住宅小区为例。2004年，上海市政府规定，新建住宅楼须配备一定数量的停车空间。但现在情况是，不但老小区拥挤不堪，就连2004年后兴建的新小区也面临严重的车位不足问题。小区停车位价格也随着住宅价格水涨船高。即便是上海郊区的也达到10万—20万一个。

在中国的住宅小区里，围绕增设停车位的冲突从未停息。中国的住宅区没有日本那样的居民管理组织。个人为投资购房，然后就随意出租给他人。各家各户各自为政，业主的意见很难统一，给管理带来了诸多不便。

文章称，中国政府想要做好停车管理工作先要对停车的各项相关数据心中有数，做好登记工作。但政府机关和国企对公开作为自己“资产”的停车场遮遮掩掩，态度消极。现在，停车难这个顽疾似乎还没有特效药，此问题恐怕会愈演愈烈。

The Great Economic Super Bowl

March 31, China's 335-meter high suspension bridge over canyon inaugurated

CHINA-HUNAN-AIZHAI-SUSPENSION BRIDGE-COMPLETION  

JISHOU, March 31, 2012 (Xinhua) -- Vehicles move on the long-span Aizhai suspension bridge in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, central China's Hunan Province, March 31, 2012. Aizhai suspension bridge, with a main span of 1,176 meters and a maximum height of 330 meters, was open to traffic on Saturday. Spanning over the Dehang canyon, the bridge was built as part of the expressway from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality to Changsha city in Hunan. Its completion would greatly improve the transportation between the two cities, according to authorities.

London, April 4 (IANS) At 1,102 feet up and 3,858 feet across, the ambitious 

suspension bridge in China’s Hunan province has become the highest and longest 

in the world.

Note: The bridge connects Changsha, capital of Chairman Mao's home province and Chongqing, China's 4th largest municipality with the Yangtze River passes through it. Chongqing is 1640km southwest to Beijing.

Bird's -eye-view.

 Local ethnic minority villagers.

                              11am. March 31, 2012.

Sky-walk cleaner.

Eve before inauguration.

Photographer's new love.

Paint work before completion of construction.

March 29, 2012 China-India Year of Friendship and Cooperation Begins

Delhi Diary March 20, 2012

Beijing saw heavy snow on March 18. Delhi caught fire yesterday and today. It's 20-37 degrees Celsius. Delhi was even enveloped by rear sand storm today. I washed my car at 6 pm and its roof was covered with a layer of dirt by 8pm. Fortunately there are so many trees in Delhi and the situation is not that bad. If this happened in Beijing, the dirt might be 5 times thicker.

Indian embassy swayed by nationalism :Global Times Jan.5, 2012

Indian embassy swayed by nationalism
Global Times | January 05, 2012 20:43
By Global Times Share
E-mail Print Comments(20)





The Indian media has been hyping the collapse of an Indian diplomat in a court in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province. Even the Indian foreign minister reacted to the news and small-scale protest movements appeared in New Delhi.

The details of the incident are still not clear. The story seems to be that two Indian businessmen owed money in Yiwu, and were, according to the Indian media, held hostage by their Chinese partners for three weeks.

An Indian diplomat attended a court in Yiwu to try and get the local police to "rescue" the two businessmen. The Indian media reported that the diplomat suffers from diabetes and that officials refused to allow him to eat or take his medicine in the court for seven hours, which resulted in him fainting. However, the local authorities dispute this claim.

The Indian embassy in China has warned all the Indian businessmen not to do business in Yiwu, as "Indian businessmen/traders can be illegally held under detention and mistreated by Chinese businessmen there. Based on experience, there is no guarantee that legal remedies will be readily available," The Indian media praised this announcement, and they may think that it can teach a lesson to the people of Yiwu.

The diplomat's fainting does not prove that he was maltreated. Public opinion in India is making too much of a fuss about this incident, and India's foreign ministry is surrendering to public opinion.

Yiwu is the largest small commodity distributing center in East Asia, and is also famous in the world.

Indian businessmen no doubt come to Yiwu on their own. Yiwu and other cities in China welcome Indians to do business, but they should obey rules. If they cannot get rid of their bad habit of defaulting on debts, both Chinese and foreign businessmen will keep away from them. The international trade in Yiwu doesn't tolerate unethical business.

The Indian official announcement describes Yiwu as a terrible place. However, a great deal of foreigners stay and do business in Yiwu, and the security of the town is obvious to all. But are the Indian businessmen involved trustworthy? The conflict this time is the confrontation between nationalist sentiment of Indians and the steady market regulations of Yiwu. It is interesting to see whether Indian businessmen or Yiwu market will lose the prestige when news of this incident spreads.

Chinese society has no stomach to argue with the Indian press over this incident. In fact, without the excessive reports of Indian media and the action of the Indian embassy, the incident is only the unnoticed news in China that will be ignored soon.

Chinese society has no prejudice against India.

We can understand that Indian media is nationalistically hyping this dispute. However, we don't like the unjustified way in which Indian officials deal with Sino-Indian issues.

They always think Indian press is free, while Chinese public opinions should be discounted. But over the incident in Yiwu, the actions of India's foreign ministry are full of narrow nationalism, which is not much wiser than the editors of Indian media. India's foreign ministry should remember that Sino-Indian friendship needs common efforts to be maintained.
The article is an editorial published Thursday on the Chinese edition of the Global Times. opinion@globaltimes. com.cn