Can the Shanghai Media Group beat CNN?

The Shanghai Media Group (SMG) is planning to set up a 24-hours English news station to compete on a global market, reports Reuters. Since its major competitor CCTV has one in Beijing, Shanghai needs one too.
Could the Shanghai Media Group (or any other state-owned broadcasting station in China) compete on a global market. I'm not the most reliable expert in this field, since I have given up watching the boring nonsense on Chinese TV years ago.
But the Reuters dispatch offers a glimpse of what it needs to set up a new news station in China. The Shanghai Media Group has already been talking for a year to the local regulators. And what is next? Talking to the regulators in Beijing.

Although it has yet to receive final regulatory approval, Shanghai Media has already begun hiring English-speaking presenters, editors and reporters, including foreigners, for the new service, the sources said.

We will see. Or not, of course, since there are many more things to do than watching TV.

Shanghai Skyscraper on fire

Danwei points at images of the Shanghai Word Finance Center on fire. Fortunately the skyscraper, the highest in Shanghai, is still under construction, although it is almost done. Even the Shanghai Daily is now bringing the news. Neither Danwei or the Shanghai Daily has a clue what is happening.
A movie shows the smoke, but rather little activity of the firebrigade to be seen.

Update I : Reuters reports the fire is out and was caused during the construction activities. It seemed to have been a fairly small thing.
Update II: Shanghaiist has it all.

The details of Chen Liangyu's case

The financial magazine Caijing explains the finer details of the wrongdoings of Chen Liangyu, Shanghai's former party secretary. The bigger political picture gets a bit lost here, but by actually including Chen's parents in the story - although they only add emotion, no facts - makes clear that we are going to see quite a lot of his very special court case.

In an apartment in the Luwan district of Shanghai, an old couple has saved a well-worn newspaper dated July 27, 2007. The headline reads, “China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Answers Reporters on Chen Liangyu’s Serious Violation of Principles.”
“We know nothing more than what was printed in the paper,” said the husband, Chen Genghua, an 86-year-old retired engineer,as his wife, Li Mouzhen, bears a look of sadness and distress.
The person mentioned in the headline is Shanghai’s disgraced former party secretary, who has been embroiled in a multi-billion yuan pension fund scandal. Chen is also the eldest of the couple’s three sons.

Chen Liangyu, a real Jiang man

Chen Liangyu

Ahead of the corruption trial of former Shanghai party secretary Chen Liangyu, Howard French summarizes the political side of this prosecution, a part that will most likely never be part of any public proceedings.
Chen was the man of the mega-projects, focusing on mega growth, the mantra of Jiang Zemin. He followed the Jiang Zemin line even when the new central government under Hu Jintao had decided to a drastic policy change and became both a political and an economic liability.
His plan to give Shanghai a beach, his plan to extend the useless maglev to Hangzhou, the World Expo in 2010, the Formula One, his tennis complex of USD 290 million.
The cancellation of the extension of the maglev in May under public pressure was the signal the days of Chen Liangyu were really over.

Almost-accident a Shanghai Stadium subway station

Yesterday at line 4 of the Shanghai subway I saw how we came close to another accident that happened ten days ago described here by the Shanghai Public Transportation. Then a passenger actually got stuck between the "safety doors" and the subway and was killed when the train took off. Micah Sittig translates the story on a weblog, entered ten days earlier.
Yesterday a man fell with one leg between the train and the platform. The man seemed in pain and there was some screaming going on. He was just in time able to pull his leg out as both sets of doors started to close. A security man was at the scene and he was able to halt the train from leaving, but when there would have been a few seconds less to act, we might have seen another accident.
One of the conclusion of the witness of the deadly incident:

So I think that that the company is responsible for not creating a standard signal between the platform staff and the drivers, and that if there was a standard signal that the staff could make that the driver would understand and not start the train, then in today's situation the accident would have been avoided. So I think what's missing is a signal between staff and drivers for use in emergency situations, that is to say a signal that would emphasize that it's NOT ok to start the train.

What I see at some stations that since a day or ten some of the guards carry a green flag, indicating to the driver he can leave safely. But the systems is only used on a few platforms and certainly not on all platforms with safety doors. It looks like the system is only used after a really nasty incident.
My victim was relatively unharmed: his foot seemed painful and one of his shoe was laying under the train.

Planning a city tour on Monday

I have been organizing a city walk in Shanghai for a Dutch group of trade union people in October last year and that success story has been going around a bit. Now a group of Belgian trade union people has been visiting their brethren in China at the ACFTU and want me to take them around also on Monday afternoon in Shanghai.
There is nothing against that apart from the sweltering heat. Shanghai is not the place you want to go around very much at this stage. And I do want to pick their brains about their experiences before they are taken away for excessive exposure to the Shanghai summer. No sign it might even rain before August is due.
Maybe a tour through Shanghai bars? Looking for more useful ideas.

Why Shanghai stock might not be overvalued - the WTO-column

After last week's correction by 20 percent downward of the Chinese stock markets, the nay sayers seemed to be leading the attack. From Singapore Bloomberg guestimated that the Chinese stocks were 65 percent overvalued, of course compared to the stocks in Singapore. But it looks that the increased unproductive hours in China - because staff has to follow the stock market during working hours - might still not disappear.

The Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club organized on 12 June a discussion with Peter L. Alexander, principal at Z-Ben Advisors, a consultancy working for mutual funds. He ridiculed the Bloomberg dispatch and came up with some observations that might be good food for thought for people who blindly follow the P/E ratio as a guide for rating stocks - the relations between the stock price and the earning capacity of a company. Most observers do not realize that those P/E ratio's might not work in China.

In the 1990s state-owned companies used the stock markets as a cash machine. They would list one third of their assets, mostly as a subsidiary, and could get capital from the market while the government departments would still be firmly in control of the company, holding the other two third, known as "non-tradable shares". People would buy shares regardless of the quality of the company, since they knew the value of the shares would go up anyway. That was obvious an unhealthy situation.

In 2000 a government study suggested putting the non-tradable shares on the market could be a good remedy for some of the illnesses of the state-owned companies. The discipline of the market would force them to improve. The investors at the stock markets did not like the idea and a massive fall of the exchanges started that lasted for five years. The idea of a market that would triple in size drove those investors out of the market and the stock markets lost their attraction. Even the denials from the government they would list the non-tradable shares caused more plunges because the people did not believe them.

In 2005, with the stock market at its lowest point, the government started to do what was suggested five years earlier: they started to release those government-held shares. But in 2006 the market reacted in an opposite way and started a long journey up. "Basically they did nothing differently in 2005 from 2000, but the market had changed," says Peter Alexander. "There were more institutional investors and mutual funds in stead of the Mr. and Mrs Wang who dominated the market in 2000. This time the investors did not rush out of the market."

State-owned companies are putting now all their assets in the listed vehicles and that is changing their earning capacities dramatically, says Alexander. "Looking at P/E ratio's makes no sense at this stage, since we are looking at fully different companies."

The floor is yours, nay sayers.

Fons Tuinstra

PS: Peter Alexander is going to be associated with our Speakers Bureau and if you are interesting in hearing this very engaging speaker, do drop me a note.

SFCC meeting on the stock market

The Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club is organizing on Tuesday a meeting to discuss the current events at the Shanghai stock market with Peter Alexander of Z-Ben Advisors. About the event:

It's always a warning sign when ordinary people stop to gossiping about their neighbours in favour of exchanging stock-tips. For months now housekeepers, pensioners and bus drivers have been pouring in their meagre earnings "frying stocks", but the past few days has seen the Shanghai index go into a free fall. Is the bubble on the verge of bursting or is the market stronger than it appears? Peter Alexander will explain what to make of the current slide in share prices and the impact of the ongoing state share reform scheme.

Just for the record: the Shanghai Index is in positive grounds again today, although only marginally, against my expectations yesterday.
The meetings starts on June 12 at 7 PM at Mesa Manifesto at Julu Lu and you have to RSVP here. Non-members pay 50 Rmb entrance fee.

64 foreign schools "apply" to close down in Shanghai

A rather mysterious article in the Shanghai Daily, that quotes an official of the Shanghai Educational Commission who says that 64 educational program between foreign schools and local partners have "applied" to close down because they do not meet the quality standards.
Foreign schools, especially business schools, have entered the market, believing that it was a very lucrative one. Competition might have killed that market.

Most of the closed schools were facing financial difficulties before failing an annual assessment and being told to make changes of shut down, according to the commission.

Shanghai finds excuse to halt Maglev expansion

Transrapid on fire

The expansion of the Maglev or transrapid from Shanghai to Hangzhou has been suspended for fear of radiation, state media wrote this weekend. (h/t CDT). Official reason is the concern of citizens for their health.

An official with the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress confirmed a major reason for the suspension was the radiation concerns from residents living along the proposed route.

While I'm not a radiation expert, it sounds to me like a load of bullshit that is being used to look good in the eyes of the concerned citizens and to hide the real reason: the high costs. Accidents both a fire in Shanghai and a derailment in Germany had already complicated the negotiations with the German participants, the New York Times writes.

Shanghai agency caught in the stock market

A prominent Shanghai government departments has been using its capital to invest in three listed company, against explicit bans to do so, the Financial Times writes. The Shanghai Municipal Housing Maintenance Fund Management has been one of the top-10 shareholder in a variety of companies at the Shenzhen stock market. The agency is in charge of maintaining public spaces and get a levy of two percent on each purchase of apartments.

Fraser Howie, an expert on the Chinese stock market, said it was probable that other government units – including state-owned companies, local government, the police and the army – had been investing surplus funds in the stock market and their holdings could be as high as $125bn.

It reflects the worries by Hu Shuli, chief-editor of the financial magazine Caijing, who blamed the government for not doing enough to stop illegal activities at the stock markets.

Shanghai still pulls white color workers from provinces

For many well-educated people, Chinese and foreign, Shanghai is just not offering the kind of reward they expect, I wrote last week. Experienced managers with a foreign education do not return to China or leave again because of the low compensation they get for their work.
That story triggered off some interesting reaction from readers in the poorer provinces of China, who struggle with the same problem, getting and keeping experienced staff, on a different level. University graduates, who speak some English leave after three, four years provinces like Fujian to go to Shanghai. "Salaries in Shanghai are about three times what they can earn here," writes a manager in a joint venture in Fuzhou, who sees many employees leave. That is already the case for people with a few years of experience, for managers it is still more problematic.
They compete directly with the graduates from Shanghai who have nowadays a hard time in finding a decent job. That keeps the salaries in Shanghai on a - relative - low level.
"In Shanghai experience means a higher salary," says the manager in Fuzhou. "Here typically companies do not want to increase salaries, so people leave for Shanghai."

Shanghai foreign correspondents reject censorship

At its annual meeting members of the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club have "narrowly" rejected a motion last night to censor its mailing list, reports a freshly elected president Duncan Hewitt on the same mailing list to its members.
Some members had objected against the sometimes fierce exchange on the mailing list, although I would never support such a initiative, unless you have to cut short spam. I was unable to attend myself last night, but it looks the club is ready for a new start.

The FCC confusion

Now, this is going to be a rather confusing entry. Even for me, as a former president of the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club, it took a while to get all this. When I returned to Shanghai at the end of last year some FCC-board members said they were really upset that another club, the Foreign Culture Club at Julu Lu, had taken over this famous acronym that belongs to the foreign journalistic community. Well, that has not stopped them from organizing meetings there now too.
Anyway, I was scanning the internet in vain today for any online rumors on the FCC in Shanghai, when I stumbled into the FCClub in Shanghai, who is throwing a really nice get-together coming Tuesday. Now, they do not explain what FCC stands for, but it really seems to have a nice sound.

FC Club Media Night brings together journalists, publishers, editors, communications and marketing & sales professionals, artists, designers, photographers, amateur media creators, public relationship, advertising & events professionals and other interested collaborators. Essentially the people who create and consume media who have an interest in seeing the ‘media industry' evolve for everyone's benefit. We are the people who communicate our thoughts and ideas near and far.

That is how you sell an event. When I checked it, the event had close to one hundred people who rsvp-ed already.
Unfortunately, the Shanghai FCC is having is anual membership meeting - in a desperate effort to survive in a fast changing media landscape - in this other FCC at Julu Lu. (I hope you are still with me).
Both meetings I cannot attend, because of too many other obligations, but it would be tough to make a choice here.

Twittering between the dinosaurs - the WTO-column

(Written for Chinabiz)

You might have noticed that the on-going media revolution is one of my major fields of interest. The way how people get their information and deal with that knowledge is changing very fast, and changing in China faster than in the rest of the world. China's media have done a particular bad service to both the Chinese citizens and its foreign visitors, explaining why - when they get the chance - people turn to the internet in stead of the traditional media. That has dramatic consequences for the former guardians of the news, be it journalists or censors, because their positions are eroding as the audiences increasingly ignore them. Communication has become - more than ever - a conversation between peers in stead of a top-down relationship.

I had to laugh a bit when I got this week an invitation of the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club for their annual meeting carrying a motion to censor their mailing list and leave it up to the board to decide what emails are appropriate or not. "The dinosaurs," I thought and reported it to my digitally more advanced friends at Twitter, one of the latest tools of the online vanguard.

In these days you should foster conversations, not kill them. A conversation means you are alive, even if you might not like the way how others express themselves, you cannot tell them to shut up. Well, you can tell them, but you cannot really stop them anyway.

Already when we decided to formally set up the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club at the beginning of this century, we knew (at least I knew) times were changing for the media and the position of the foreign correspondents. We looked with envy at the established clubs in Hong Kong and Tokyo, but we realized that we could never match those sophisticated organizations with their history of decades and nice facilities. We have been looking at some buildings in Shanghai too, but you did not need to be a good accountant to tell that even the turnover of a bar each night packed with journalists could never make up for the costs. We had to set a rather low membership fee, since media organizations would no longer reimburse the hefty fees of the old clubs. The clubs in Hong Kong and Tokyo are still packed, although the foreign correspondents have gradually been replaced by bankers, diplomats and others.

There is still a decreasing layer of classic correspondents belonging to a small number of publications that will survive: The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Financial Times, perhaps AP. They might survive, all right, maybe Dow Jones too when they play their cards right. Another group of surviving foreign correspondents covers subjects in a vertical way: they go for plastic, insurances, automotive industry of payment systems. They might too survive although in a less romantic environment than the classic foreign correspondent.

I'm not sure what is going to happen to most newswires: they have already been changed in sweatshops to remain competitive and might not survive in the long run.

The few remaining foreign correspondents are mostly too busy to join social clubs and for their work they actually do not need them anymore. They can get their information easy enough outside the clubs. The clubs were in the past places you could not ignore, because they offered you access to information that was otherwise hard to get.

Shanghai and Beijing have been going strong in numbers of foreign correspondents, because they are cheaper than Tokyo and Hong kong and the China story appeals more. But many existing jobs for foreign correspondents have disappeared or saw their compensation and working conditions deteriorate. Newcomers in Shanghai do not find jobs in journalism, but they teach English and write for 0.1 US cent per word for local publications, hoping for a return of a tide that will never return.

So, what is this twittering dinosaur now doing, you might wonder. As a compulsory writer I will show up here every now and then, but very soon you might see here more and different names too. We are very close in signing a partnership that will allow us to set up a China Speaker Bureau on an international footing. A speakers bureau organizes professional speakers in exchange for a percentage of the speakers' fee. We think China is ready for such a service and by organizing an international alliance we do have an advantage other cannot offer that easy.

My main task will be organizing a domestic stable of professional speakers, an activity that allows me to reuse skills and networks I have developed in the past as a foreign correspondent.

Now, some of you might think this is funny, since getting people physically into a hall or meeting room and talk to them might actually be very 19th century. That is true. but some people are still reading books, listing to the radio or watching are TV. Some of those tools might change in character, importance, but I do not see them really disappear. There is enough room in China for professional speakers. I think.

Fons Tuinstra

PS: If you are interesting for one reason or another in our upcoming speakers' bureau, do drop me a line or even better, send me a message over twitter.

Shanghai stock market up again

Shanghai stock market was up today almost 3 percent, after having been closed for a week over the May holidays. The market is at least for the time being defying experts' stories that a stiff correction is imminent.

Where are the blind in Shanghai?

Huangpi Nanlu Subway station

One of the points where Shanghai really does a very good job compared to other cities I know it in facilitating life for the blind. I'm not blind myself, but have been participating in registering this kind of facilities in Europe, or mostly the lack of facilities.

In Shanghai most pavements, all subway stations and many other place are having these dots and lines (at the picture in the middle) that allow blind to feel with their stick where they are going. Now, of course you can find the odd place where it is also used as a place to park bicycles, but mostly it should work very well. In theory.

Since what I'm missing are the blind people themselves to use this. First, I meet in the city center (compared to other Chinese cities) very seldom blind people and when they are there they do not use the stuff. Maybe somebody should teach them how to use it. Where are they anyway?

Longhua: innocent entertainment

Only a few years ago Shanghainese had a good time by walking up and down Huaihai Lu with inflatable hammers. Compared to that, the festival at the Longhua Temple is really very exciting. When you take you time to get in the mood, it becomes actually fun, the crowds, the enjoyment, the children riding on mechanic horses and playing in plastic waterbikes. And there is of course the food. A good tip from Shanghaiist.

Longhua Festival

Shanghai's shopgirl wants a break

Amanda Zhou of 8 Days

What I like more then reviews of books or movies is when Shanghainese women take each other on. Shopgirl's Shanghai has taken this drastic way of reviewing her peers to the internet and this is what she has to say about Amanda Zhou:

Now this girl Amanda Zhou working for Shanghai Magazine 8 Days will hate me for bringing this up. She is according to 8 Days an "it-girl". Perfect body, perfect face, best clothing style, successful business woman, etc. Give me a break..........
Orange is indeed a trendy colour this season but wearing an
orange polo just doesn't do it for me. I'm sorry.

There are many more of those reviews on her weblog. I just discovered that it was hit by the official firewall. Guess they have maybe some jealous women at their desk too.

Car producer Brilliance accused

One guy in a suit at the Shanghai Auto Show is not enough to create a mass incident, as the China Car Times suggests. Unless you can of course add the journalists and security people who jumped on the guy.

The text accuses car marker Brilliance of cheating and expresses the hope the government can do something about it. China Car Times could not really find out what the problem was. The traditional media did not mention the incident yet, so perhaps tomorrow we will have to check additional sources.

Vincent Lo's second dream

KIC at Yangpu district

From a distance the first slide of the Knowledge & Innovation Community (KIC) Vincent Lo is creating in Shanghai looks like an image from Second Life. But it is a dream, after he created the succesful Xintiandi in Shanghai, a second dream.
Next to 17 Shanghainese universities a high tech community has 84 ha available for

technological innovation and entrepreneurship similar to that of Silicon Valley in the United States and to provide "live-work" accommodation inspired by the Left Bank in Paris. Placing strong emphasis on education, technology, culture, research and business incubation, KIC will be a multi-function community where people live, study, work and relax.

Vincent Lo admitted today at a private party I just returned from that the area did not yet took off as fast as he had hoped, but I certainly take up his invitation to have a look there very soon.

The Shanghai Nailhouses

The Crash Test Dummy Video Blog went on his bike to investigate the state of two Shanghai-based nail houses after the upheaval about the Chongqing one. The second one was gone.

Waiting in line at H&M in Shanghai

For a while I thought in Shanghai people were only queuing in front of ATM-machines, unlike more than ten years ago when queuing was a kind of local game, because of the ongoing shortages. But Shanghaiist links to this amazing queue in Huai Hai Lu in front of H&M, who just opened their stores.
Shanghai is a place with so many markets next to each other, my doubts about yet another fashion chain in China might be misplaced.

Jacky Cheung, a neighbor for this evening

Ticket-sellers were out in force, thousands of people were milling around and all the restaurants in my neighborhood had long queues. This evening Jacky Cheung is performing in Shanghai Gymnasium and it looks I will enjoy at least the music.

Is there room for C&A in Shanghai?

Reuters reports that the originally Dutch fashion chain C&A is preparing for a launch in China. C&A plans four stores in Shanghai for 2007 and will conquer Beijing a year later.
They are following a trend, as their European competitors Zara and H&M have done this already. Zara is actually a wild success in Shanghai and the effect of H&M is hard to gauge, since they only recently opened up their store.
I had to laugh a bit, because in my (possibly outdated perception) of C&A that would not be a wise move. I know them as a fashion line that is decent, affordable and extremely boring. They would focus on the same group as Zara, not the top-end, but just under it. Only Zara has a much more trendy image.
Well, the consumers in Shanghai do not suffer under my memories, it could still work out.

Maria Trombly for president?

Maria Trombly for president?

Strong rumors suggest that Maria Trombly will be running for the presidency of the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club. I almost forgot, but on Saturday there is a deadline for members to nominate themselves. (On their website this is not mentioned, since the club is organized by digitally handicapped people.)
I have been pondering myself for five minutes to take up one of the other posts, but since I have moved away pretty far from being a foreign correspondents club, I think first the core members should get their act together. When Maria would become president, she would be ideal to blackmail others (including me) in supporting her.

The social agenda for next week

the Cotton Bar at Anting Lu

Just getting the social agenda for next week together. I say "social", but of course it only means work in a more relaxed atmosphere.
So, on Monday there is Mobile Monday for the digital vanguard. On Wednesday there is the month Amcham membership mixer. On Thursday we have the weekly journo-drinks at the Cotton bar at Anting Lu.
Why is nothing going on on Tuesday. Am I missing something on Tuesday?
Again that sounds very relaxed, but actually there is a lot of deal making in the air, as you can read in Maria Trombly's report on last night's meeting.
Shanghai is also hot this weekend (not in temperature by the way), I heard from a friend who was just standing at Beijing Airport. He has a reservation for a Shanghai-flight and might be back this evening, but all tickets for Shanghai and Hangzhou were sold out, upsetting a lot of people.

Xinmin evening news turns digital for salvation

The Xinmin Evening News, in the last century one of China's most popular dailies, is turning digital for salvation, writes the Shanghai Daily. The paper's website is offering more interactive tools, like the possibility to write comments and value different articles.
The question is whether it all is not too little too late. While circulation figures are secret, insiders believe the paper has dropped from daily three million readers in the first half of the 1990s to less than one million now. Both editors and readers belong to the over 45-year segment of the population, a group that is mostly not the ones that are very internet savvy. Whether the current changes will convince also a younger audience to turn back to the old lady remains an open question.

Mobile Monday meets on mobile internet access

The first people are already leaving ahead of the May holiday (yes you hear this correctly, they are early), but Mobile Monday in Shanghai still has its last meeting on April, 23 before the holiday coming Monday. Subject: surfing on your mobile.
Only ten percent of the 450 million mobile phone users in China now uses an internet connection to link up with the world. Representatives of Nokia, Opera and Openwave give their take on Monday. Access is free, but pre-registering required.

How the Virginia killer became Chinese

Beijing Newspeak explains how a Chicago columnist let us think for a while the Virginia killer was a Chinese. While the spokesperson of the ministry of foreign affairs already started to express his deepest regrets, the student appeared to be a South Korean.
I picked the first news up in reputable Dutch newspapers, who splashed it over their pages, unlike most US media who were more prudent. I thought I would do the readers of this weblog a service by not linking to the Dutch papers, but ended up at the Chicago-based rumors.

Update: Good summery at Shanghaiist too.

Virginia killer was South Korean

Latest news says that the Virginia killer was a South-Korean:

The Virginia Tech Police Department identified him as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior in the English department.

It will be interesting to see how the Chinese element came into this play. Hope to hear more from our Taiwanese student at Virginia Tech. The South-Korean could of course still have applied for his US visa in Shanghai, but it seems rather unlikely.

Broken heart causes Virginia shooting

Yesterdays shooting at Virginia Tech, causing 33 deaths, was caused by a love affair, a Taiwanese student of the university has declared on Taiwan's TV-station CTI. The girl friend of the killer had broken up the relationship, media reports.

"They had a big quarrel in the West Ambler Johnston Hall and he shot her. Then the RA (dorm supervisor) came, and he shot the RA," Chen told CTI by phone.

Two hours later the rampage started. No new information about the identity of the murderer is released, who is supposed to be a fellow student who got last year his student visa in Shanghai. So, that means that the US visa office must by now have a good idea who this person is.

Update: The US media and the internet have already been hunting one wrong suspect, writes Wired on its blog. More about the wrong guy here.

Shanghainese possibly Virginia killer

police in action after Virginia killing

News stories are suggesting that the student who killed 33 fellow-students in Virginia is possibly a 24-year old Shanghainese, named "Chow". Fifteen others got injured in the incident. The Chinese national under investigation arrived in August last year on a student visa issued in Shanghai.

Shanghai Daily covers pollution in Shanxi

polluted Shanghai

China Hearsay praises the Shanghai Daily for a story on pollution. Actually, Chinese media have never been afraid to report about China's problems, poverty, aids, corruption or pollution, as long as it was very far away in another province. Never they would do so at home, unless they cannot really avoid the issue - like when party secretary Chen Liangyu was disposed of.
What would really be a breakthrough would be the Shanghai Daily reporting on environmental scandals in Shanghai.
The environment in Shanghai halfway the 1990s was really shockingly bad and the government has taken tough action to improve the living climate. Pollution factories were moved to the country side or actually closed down, building sites had to be covered in a green wrap, so dust would not leave the site, taxi's all got their lpg-systems.
But in the past year, the situation has deteriorated again. Not sure what the cause is, but much of the dust seems from the deserts, that would get to Beijing but never bothered us so much in Shanghai.