28 November 2013
Is China a Paper Tiger?
Only hours after China published its air defense zone, South Korean, Japanese, and US military jets have crossed into the zone without reporting to the Chinese authorities, as required by the new edict. In fact, even Japanese civilian airlines have crossed into the zone without filing their flight plans with China.
So does China's muted reaction to the violations of its airspace make it a paper tiger? Or is the air defense zone just the first step of a brilliant strategy to resolve the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands with Japan in China's favour?
What do you think?
27 November 2013
THEY STOLE THEIR MONEY FAIR AND SQUARE...
Chinese buying up California housing
Diana Olick, CNBC
Nov. 25, 2013 at 1:44 PM ET
At a brand new housing development in Irvine, Calif., some of America's largest home builders are back at work after a crippling housing crash. Lennar, Pulte, K Hovnanian, Ryland to name a few. It's a rebirth for U.S. construction, while the customers are largely Chinese.
"They see the market here still has room for appreciation," said Irvine-area real estate agent Kinney Yong, of RE/MAX Premier Realty. "What's driving them over here is that they have this cash, and they want to park it somewhere or invest somewhere."
Yong's phone has been ringing off the hook, with more than 5,000 new homes slated for the nearby Great Park Neighborhood. Most of the calls are from overseas, but prospective buyers are not looking solely for financial returns on the real estate.
"We are seeing a lot of Asians who are buying as an investment, but their kids are going to school here, so kids live in the home. They are looking at it more as an investment in education," said Emile Haddad, CEO of Fivepoint Communities, developer of the Great Park Neighborhood.
That is Brian Yang's plan. Speaking from his home in China, Yang said he purchased a home in Irvine this year, but he will wait five years, until his daughter turns 10, before moving his family to the U.S. He has several reasons for taking the leap.
"Education in America is very good and world class, so the first one is for education, and I think the second one is for the property appreciation," explained Yang.
While American secondary schools and universities are a big draw for the majority of Chinese buyers in California, Yang, and many of his colleagues, are also concerned about China's political instability, inflation, even pollution. They are paying all-cash for real estate in California, using it as a safe-haven for their wealth. Yang was reluctant to talk about the money, but he admitted, "I feel the same way to some extent."
For now, Yang is renting out the four-bedroom home, and, he said, getting a 5 percent return on the investment.
While Yang purchased an older home, the new model homes at Great Park are drawing thousands of potential buyers. In fact, more than 20,000 attended the opening weekend, according to developers. The vast majority of lookers were Asian, and that fact is not lost on the builders. Hoping to cash in on this new wave of investors, they are tailoring the homes to the demand. Some are incorporating multigenerational floor plans and even Feng Shui designs.
"The imbalance of supply and demand here is really driving a lot of competition for these homes," said Haddad.
The homes range from the mid-$700,000s to well over $1 million. Cash is king, and there is a seemingly limitless amount.
"The price doesn't matter, $800,000, 1 million, 1.5. If they like it they will purchase it," said Helen Zhang of Tarbell Realtors.
Zhang was coming out of one of the models with a Chinese couple pushing a toddler in a stroller and carrying an infant. As our CNBC camera crew interviewed Zhang, another group of potential buyers roaming the neighborhood models raised their brochures to hide their faces when they saw the camera.
While no one would say specifically why certain families were shying away from the media, some alluded to the fact that many of the buyers don't want any questions about where the cash is coming from. Some are buying multiple homes as investments, while others are moving their families to the U.S., intending to stay at least until their children graduate from college.
—By CNBC's Diana Olick. Follow her on Twitter @Diana_Olick.
24 November 2013
So Sad :--( Life Imitating Art
From www.chinasmack.com
Husband and Wife Desiring Child Discovers They Are Brother and Sister, Wife’s Father and Husband’s Mother Were Lovers
In Jiangxi Province, a young married couple were always teased for “looking like each other”. Not long ago, the wife’s father suddenly spoke of a secret: it turns out that many years ago, he and the husband’s mother were secret lovers. Later on, the husband’s mother became pregnant, while the wife’s father fell in love and married someone else. On top of that, the husband’s mother has been dead for over 20 years, so this secret was almost buried forever, up until this young married couple decided to have a child…
In early November, the couple chose to go to the Furong Forensic Centre of the No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital in Hunan in order to do a DNA test. The results dealt them a heavy blow.
As they prepared to start a family, the wife’s father revealed past events
Cao Wei and Xiao Qian (aliases) both grew up in the same city in Jiangxi Province. They lived near each other and had known each other since they were youngsters. Cao Wei is 4 years older than Xiao Qian and always looked after her the way a big brother would. Their relationship gradually began to change ever so subtlety, eventually becoming a romantic relationship.
Last year, they revealed to both their parents that they wanted to get married. Cao Wei’s mother had passed away when he was only 4 years old, and his father didn’t get very involved in the wedding. Xiao Qian’s mother thought the young man was quite nice, while her father, Bao Gen (alias) remained silent the entire time.
The young couple got a marriage certificate without any problems, and lived happily together. Other people often teased them, that they looked so similar, especially Cao Wei, who looked more and more like he could be Bao Gen’s son and Xiao Qian’s elder brother. Then this year, the couple decided to have a child. But here, Bao Gen suddenly revealed a deep secret.
20 years ago, Bao Gen was still only 18 years old and unmarried. Next door lived a young married woman in her twenties, whose husband was often away from home, and so Bao Gen frequently called by. Later on, this evolved into a physical relationship, which lasted for almost 2 years. Afterwards, the young woman became pregnant, and Bao Gen too found a girlfriend/wife.
As it turns out, the child she gave birth to was Cao Wei.
They find out they are brother and sister through DNA testing
Bao Gen says no one came to trouble him about the situation in the many years that has passed by since — he just pondered over it once in a while. In fact, he thought something was amiss early on, and when some of his old neighbours who were familiar with the romantic exploits of his youth happened to come round and make fun of the couple, he broke out in a sweat.
Although he realised that Cao Wei might be a blood relative, he wasn’t brave enough to stop the marriage between the two youngsters, nor was he brave enough to bring the events of 20 years ago out in the open, so he chose to remain silent.
In fact, Xiao Qian also had her suspicions, and therefore specifically asked a distant relative to seek confirmation from her father. The truth left her stunned – could it really be that the husband she’s been living with for nearly two years now is actually her elder half-brother? In the future, what would happen if they had children?
The young couple decided to do a paternity test. In early November, after taking blood samples from Cao Wei and Bao Gen at the Furong Forensic Centre of the No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital, they carried out a DNA test. The results came out very quickly: the probability that they were blood relatives was over 99.9% and, according to international practice, this supported the fact that a biological father-son relationship existed between them. This meant that Cao Wei and Xiao Qian were brother and sister.
On November 20th, legal medical expert and head of the material evidence examination room at the Forensic Centre, Dr Huang Jian, said it was currently unknown how Cao Wei and Xiao Qian would deal with their marriage. She believes that Bao Gen’s irresponsibility not only thoroughly discredits him, but has also deeply hurt his children.
Data
Furong Forensic Centre of the No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital
Strong>Paternity tests increasing by 20% and more each year
A member of staff at the Furong Forensic Centre of the No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital explained that the main types of people that come in for paternity tests are: husbands who are suspicious that the child isn’t biologically theirs, divorced couples who, after doing a paternity test, can guarantee that the child they will be supporting is biologically theirs, pregnant ladies who perhaps had extra marital affairs and therefore can’t determine who the baby’s father is (in particular, cases of testing amniotic fluid during pregnancy are increasingly common), couples who used a surrogate mother who want to check the child is in fact biologically theirs, immigrants who want official documents proving that their children are biologically theirs, or those that need scientific evidence for inheritance laws or other legal disputes…
Why are more and more people walking through the doors of forensic testing centres? Staff believe that at the moment, many people’s incomes are rising, the number of social services are increasing, and the costs are also decreasing. On top of that, cases of extra-marital affairs and one night stands, etc. are more frequent than in the past, and the number of children born out of wedlock is relatively high, plus the feeling of trust between husband and wife is gradually fading away. Each year, the number of these types of tests is 20% or more greater than the year before, and that’s in Furong Forensic Centre of the No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital alone.
Comments from NetEase:
网易山西省晋中市手机网友(183.187.*.*):
In the future, my son will have to do DNA tests before getting a girlfriend.
穷天极地 [网易广东省广州市手机网友]: (responding to above)
The test will say they’re brother and sister, and the daddy isn’t you.
网易北京市手机网友 ip:124.64.*.:
May all lovers in the world be siblings.
网易四川省眉山市网友 ip:112.192.*.:
DNA tests really are useful.
网易上海市手机网友 ip:140.207.*.*:
What a sin, there is karma for everything in this world [every action has a consequence].
网易山西省大同市手机网友 ip:218.26.*.:
Faint.
晨羲载曜 [网易广东省广州市网友]:
Actually, close relatives marrying merely increases the probability of the child having hereditary diseases, it doesn’t necessarily result in hereditary diseases. If the members of the family itself have no pathogenic genes, then it’s not a big problem. Albert Einstein’s parents were close relatives.
寂寞其实也是一种享受 [网易上海市网友]:
Some senior official’s daughter went off travelling, suddenly she discovered a girl who looked extremely similar to her, so stepped forward and asked her: Hey, was your mum a servant in this senior official’s house? The girl replied: my mum has never left the village, but actually my dad was that official’s bodyguard.
网易广东省东莞市手机网友 ip:183.23.*.*:
A piece of fake news…
网易浙江省杭州市手机网友 ip:183.157.*.
I heard in the past that close relatives can’t get married, that if they got married and had children then the children wouldn’t survive, or they would be deformed!
网易黑龙江省哈尔滨市网友 ip:221.208.*.:
If this type of situation is more and more common in China in the future, will the quality of our race decline?
网易吉林省手机网友 ip:36.48.*.*:
This type of thing happens more often in the south, because there’s a lot of [marriage between close relatives] in the south, especially Guangdong.
网易北京市手机网友 ip:114.66.*.*
When I read the second half, I felt like it was an advert for the Furong Forensic Centre.
Image: For illustration only, not related to individuals in article.
23 November 2013
Fair and Balanced Piece on Vietnam Three Years After Liberation (1978)
John Pilger's excellent reporting on Vietnam three years after the fall of Saigon. Love the 1978 hairdo!!!
22 November 2013
12 November 2013
FILTHY RICH...ACTUALLY JUST FILTHY
11/12/13 (November 12, 2013)
CHINESE BUSINESSMAN PAID SLUTTY MODEL rmb100,000 (usd 16,000) so that he could suck milk from her breasts like a baby...
Model's name is Mo Lulu.
So much for Xi Jinping's curb on hedonism...
CHINESE BUSINESSMAN PAID SLUTTY MODEL rmb100,000 (usd 16,000) so that he could suck milk from her breasts like a baby...
Model's name is Mo Lulu.
So much for Xi Jinping's curb on hedonism...
03 November 2013
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