“The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong was once the densest place on earth, a virtually lawless labyrinth of crime, grime, commerce and hope. A Wall Street Journal documentary tracks its colorful legacy and brings the place alive 20 years later.”
“President Obama, who is in Japan today, has announced that the U.S. defense treaty with Japan applies to the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. Japan and China are in dispute over who has sovereignty over the largely uninhabited island chain in the East China Sea, but Obama’s statement, simultaneously meant to reassure Tokyo and threaten Beijing, made clear that the U.S. will go to war against China if the territorial dispute erupts into conflict. The Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands are not a vital U.S. interest. The dispute over them between Japan and China has nothing to do with Americans. But Obama just promised the world he’ll go to war over a bunch of rocks in the East China Sea, if he has to.”
“China has unfurled a vigorous new campaign to clean up the Internet, to purge it of everything from pornography to ‘rumors’ that might undermine Communist Party rule, a crusade that critics say is a renewed attempt to silence grass-roots voices and stifle dissent. Censorship of the media and Internet is routine in China, but controls on online freedom of expression have been steadily strengthened since Xi Jinping took over as president last year. The drive, to ‘sweep out porn, strike at rumors,’ will run from mid-April until November, the party’s news portal Seeking Truth declared this week.”
“Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism, a move that may increase strains on Tokyo’s ties with Asian neighbours China and South Korea. Adding to unease in the region, a Chinese maritime court in Shanghai seized a ship on Saturday owned by Japanese shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, saying the company had failed to pay compensation stemming from a wartime contractual obligation. The offering from Abe, who visited the shrine in December but opted not to go in person this time, was sent just before U.S. President Barack Obama’s three-day visit to Japan begins on Wednesday.”
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/04/21/uk-japan-yasukuni-idINKBN0D701220140421
“Here’s a guy you want to bet on– Li Ka-Shing. Li is reportedly the richest person in Asia with a net worth well in excess of $30 billion, much of which he made being a shrewd property investor. Li Ka-Shing was investing in mainland China back in the early 90s, way back before it became the trendy thing to do. Now, Li wants out of China. All of it. Since August of last year, he’s dumped billions of dollars worth of his Chinese holdings. The latest is the $928 million sale of the Pacific Place shopping center in Beijing– this deal was inked just days ago. So what does he see that nobody else seems to be paying much attention to? Simple. China’s credit crunch.”
http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/the-richest-man-in-asia-is-selling-everything-in-china-14208/
“The Chinese have already forged agreements amongst the BRICS and the ASEAN nations to use the yuan as the currency of trade, with countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the UK agreeing to trade in the yuan in future. It may well be that China intends to sew up the world with yuan agreements, with the US as the last man standing, then pull the plug by simply by refusing outright to accept any further US debt of any kind. At that point, the US would be isolated and, in order to trade, would be forced to cave to the yuan as the currency of world trade. If this were to take place, the remaining question would be whether the dollar would remain as the US currency.”
http://www.internationalman.com/articles/the-next-best-thing
“A Chinese dog breeder said Thursday that a property developer paid him 18 million yuan for Tibetan mastiff twins, highlighting how the breed has become a status symbol for China‘s rich. The large, slobbery dog with massive amounts of hair used to be best known for herding sheep in Tibet, but has now become a luxury for the ultra-rich who want to spread their wealth beyond stocks and real estate. Zhang said the buyer, from eastern Shandong province, paid him the 18 million yuan with his credit card. Liu Na, organizer of a Tibetan mastiff fair, said the average price for one of the dogs is several hundreds of thousands of dollars: ‘It’s just like deals done when buying antiques.'”
“China has announced a set of steps to boost slowing growth in the world’s number-two economy, including extending tax breaks for small businesses and support measures for poor urban districts. The State Council, China’s cabinet, announced the mini stimulus after a meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang. Li said last month that China had set its annual growth target at ‘around’ 7.5 per cent. The tax breaks for ‘small and micro’ companies will be extended until the end of 2016, the State Council said. It also said 6600 kilometres of new railway lines will come into operation this year. The plan will also see the creation of a railway fund that will receive between 200-300 billion yuan each year.”
http://www.thebull.com.au/articles/a/45175-china-boosts-economy-with-mini-stimulus.html
“While the PBOC doesn’t appear ready to ban Bitcoin outright, they appear determined to drive it out of the Chinese banking system. The Chinese government apparently was concerned over investor speculation in the digital currency, and in particular in the use of Bitcoin to move money outside the country. Once people started using Bitcoin to bypass China’s strict capital controls, the government almost had no choice but to cut it off from the banking system. For China’s Bitcoin exchanges, which include BTC China and OKCoin, the news is bad but not necessarily fatal. But longer term, this is just another pebble in the stream.”
http://moneymorning.com/2014/04/02/bitcoin-prices-whipsawed-looming-china-crackdown-long/
“Tonga is slipping into a high-level political crisis after revelations its diplomatic passports have been sold to Chinese nationals on the express order of the island nation’s prime minister. The issue is splitting the already divided royal family, with King Tupou VI ordering that passports not be sold – but the Queen Mother insisting they be given to her Chinese friends. Diplomatic passports give holders special high-security access in many airports. Tonga has had a long history of selling citizenship and passports. In the 1990s it gave them away to runaway despots such as Ferdinand Marcos, of the Philippines, and his family, Hong Kong criminals and Libyan and Palestinian nationals.”
http://www.smh.com.au/world/crisis-looms-after-tongan-passports-sold-20140328-zqo4e.html