Halfway my expedition through China

I'm halfway my tour visiting some leading academic research institutes and meeting great people, eating great food. Here a scene of yesterday with some new friends at Sichuan University in Chengdu.
Not sure yet whether my escapades are bloggable, but until the end of next week time to do so will anyway be limited.

China's new ministries

One of the major plans of this week at this year's National People's Congress is the installment of five super ministries, write many media. In what I understand that will mean a new layer for bureaucracy will be created, while the old 27 ministries more or less continue. That would be rather bad news.
A ministry for the environment is a nice gesture, but when it is not supported by real power, it does not mean that much. When powerful state-owned enterprises continue to play their power games through the old ministries, there is very little the new supremo's can do. It would not only need super ministries but also a kind of supermen (or women) that can break the old mold. For the short term I remain pessimistic.

On the road

Blogging will be light in the coming two weeks as I will do my bit to add to global warming. Ten flights are on my agenda, including some intercontinental ones. I will make it up later.

The F-visa circus

There are many rumors going around on the possibility to renew F-visas, the most commonly usedtemporary visa for China-visitors who do not have an established business or activity in China that can provide them with a permanent visa. Shanghaiist win the price of giving the most comprehensive overview of all different rumors.
Like in many cases, that does not mean the situation gets much clearer, since the policies do not seem very consistent, to put it mildly. Since last year there seems to be a tendency to limit the possibilities to stay inside China without getting a renewal. (This was a year, now a maximum of six months) if you go though Hong Kong. A lot of people try to make sense out of all this and I can only wish them good luck.