What's New is Old Again - on tangibles and intangibles in the trade conflict
Fake LV bag
Source: Wondermika
From Caixin -
China Starts New Crackdown on Intellectual Property Theft After Xi-Trump Talks
Thirty-eight state agencies have announced that they will soon begin a coordinated campaign against IPR infringement
... and an update 12-11-18 on the update. A senior US official offers intelligence agency cooperation on Chinese interference in New Zealand, citing in particular the Anne-Marie Brady incidents. And a closed circuit camera is now in her office, which was broken into after publication of her research on CCP influence in New Zealand. No word about protection for her home, her car, or her person.
Back in September, I wrote about threats and break-ins directed at Anne-Marie Brady, a New Zealand scholar who has written about CCP influence in foreign affairs. Her recent work is titled Magic Weapons - China's political influence activities under Xi Jinping, an investigation of United Front activities such as media and university partnerships, "management" of overseas Chinese, and multimedia communications strategies to influence and co-opt foreign citizens and Chinese outside China.
A Note on City Size and Political Economy
Among the China superlatives that we have heard for the last two decades is the fantastic growth in city size - Pudong in Shanghai from fishing and farming villages to the world's most recognizable skyline; similarly for Shenzhen, Guangdong, and literally dozens of places most of us have never heard of.
Source: Lujiazui 2016.jpg
No Way Out, 2
Understanding the Chinese Constitution, the New Citizens Movement, and Document No. 9
The New Citizens Movement should not have been a big deal – a loosely organized group of activists campaigning against corruption and for “constitutionally protected rights” in China. Xu Zhiyong, a PhD from the Peking University Law School, was one of the leaders.
Xu Zhiyong, shortly before arrest Xu Zhiyong speaking at a meeting in Beijing in March, 2013, shortly before his arrest
Enyce and guanxi and ... chen dongfan Fall, 2009
Note – this was a couple of months after I began teaching full time in Hangzhou, so I was being sensitive to … everything. Food, clothes, manners.
Ju la, or as it is sometimes written, Ru la, is an American-sixties style restaurant in the hills of Hangzhou. Chinese food, Chinese patrons, but the design is all exposed and rough-cut wood, with American nineteen-fifties advertising posters on the walls and tables that are enormous rough hewn blocks. It is very popular, especially on Sundays. It is a custom to go to a restaurant on Sunday, take a table, and spend two or three hours or more eating and drinking and talking. No waiters hustling you out as you take your first bite of dessert. It is Sunday, the one day of rest.
Ju ra Trip Advisor - Restaurants Hangzhou
The Mysterious Parking Garage Market
Tea party activists and Randians and market fundamentalist miss some things about the real world. One is the distinction between free markets and competitive markets. Free markets are for one-off deals with buyers and sellers who don’t know each other, have equal power in the market, will not see each other again, and don’t convey any information about the transaction to the rest of the market. One-off deals are the métier for people like our current dear leader. Except for the equal power in the marketplace bit.
