« May 2008 | Main | July 2008 »
June 30, 2008
RMB Freely Bought and Sold on Taiwan as of Today
"就是今天，台灣本島都可自由兌換人民幣了，估計各銀行備妥五億以上人民幣等著給民眾換。根據規定，買賣人民幣跟其他外幣一樣，只要帶著身分證、護照等身份證明文件即可，但每人每次仍有兩萬元人民幣的上限。不過，開放初期受限於貨源，部分分行可能只買不賣，民眾前往銀行結匯前，不妨先打個電話問清楚，免得白跑一趟。"
[Editor's Translation: Today, the RMB is freely convertible throughout Taiwan, and it is estimated that banks have prepared 500 million RMB for that purpose. Regulations make NT-RMB conversion the same as conversion with other foreign currencies, requiring only an ID, passport or similar documentation of identity. with 20,000 RMB at most converted in any one transaction. However, because of the limited supply at first, some bank branches may only be buying and not selling at this time. Customers should call ahead for availablity before traveling to their branch.]
Read more here and here. [In Chinese.}
June 25, 2008
Fright of the Day: Justice Breyer Argues Value of American Judges Consulting Foreign Law
It is a scary day in June when a justice of the United States Supreme Court insists upon the value of looking to foreign law and practice as an aid in the interpretation of American law.
Curiously, Justice Breyer, in yesterday's brief defense of this argument at Brookings, adapts the shabby and insubstantial construct of "displacement," offered in explanation by his wife, a psychologist, to dismiss out of hand the purportedly few critics of this world-consultative approach. And for that matter, he tells us, American judges are already consulting with other judges in various nations. So what's the big deal?
Justices Scalia and Breyer have debated this issue previously. Justice Scalia:
Why is it that foreign law would be relevant to what an American judge does when he interprets -- interprets, not writes -- I mean, the Founders used a lot of foreign law. If you read the Federalist Papers, it's full of discussions of the Swiss system, German system. It's full of that. It is very useful in devising a constitution. But why is it useful in interpreting one?
Isn't Justice Breyer's notion simply another iteration of the radical "one-world" stance -- that hyper-democratic and globally populist ideal -- which assumes we all choose to be governed similarly, despite our valuable and often profound differences?
Justice Scalia, again:
...what does the opinion of a wise Zimbabwe judge or a wise member of the House of Lords law committee, what does that have to do with what Americans believe, unless you really think it's been given to YOU to make this moral judgment, a very difficult moral judgment? And so in making it for yourself and for the whole country, you consult whatever authorities you want. Unless you have that philosophy, I don't see how it's relevant at all.
Justice Breyer:
Well, it's relevant in the sense that you have a person who's a judge, who has similar training, who's trying to, let's say, apply a similar document, something like cruel and unusual or -- there are different words, but they come to roughly the same thing -- who has a society that's somewhat structured like ours. And really, it isn't true that England is the moon, nor is India. I mean, there are human beings there just as there are here and there are differences and similarities. And so one is not trying to figure out the meaning, really, of the words "cruel and unusual punishment," one is trying to deal with their application.
It is terrifying to hear that law enacted under systems not archetypally defined by and through the American Constitution may, through this Justice, become influential to the decision-making of the highest American court.
While global judicial cooperation may assist in the streamlining of international dispute resolution, the recent institutional decisions within a judicial block, such as the EU -- that awful federalizing, steamrolling behemoth which the English have rightly spurned -- make even that approach questionable. What is essentially ours we would choose to keep that way.
Posted by Richard at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)June 20, 2008
EU Grant Opportunity for Training and Research in China
Editor's Note: This grant appears to be a superb opportunity for "cultural immersion," followed by hosted research. Click the link below to go to the EuropeAid page. On the left frame, select "By Country" from the drop down box. Then click the "Open" and "Grants" check boxes. The grant program will then appear on the right frame of the page. Thanks to Prof. Richard Balme at Beida for the information on this grant.]
The European Union has recently launched a new research mobility programme to China - the Science & Technology Fellowship Programme China (STF CHINA). It offers young researchers from all EU member states a unique opportunity to participate in a 6-month Chinese research culture and language training in Beijing followed by an 18-month practical research in a Chinese host institution.
Application for STF China is now open. Research proposals from all disciplines as well as interdisciplinary topics are welcomed. For more information, please visit: the EuropeAid official website or the STF campaign website.
Deadline for application: 5th September 2008
Posted by Richard at 1:12 PM | Comments (0)June 19, 2008
Chinese Pirates in Spanish Waters
Spanish Police Crack Down on CD/DVD Piracy Operation Involving Chinese Labor
Spanish police have disrupted an organized criminal syndicate based in Madrid that was producing counterfeit CDs and DVDs on an industrial scale. The group operated burners that could produce 150,000 CDs and DVDs each day, worth an estimated €600,000 daily (US$ 920,577) or €219 million annually (US$ 336 million). Police arrested 32 individuals, seized 466,000 blank discs and 306,500 recorded CDs and DVDs, 506 burners, and four delivery vehicles. Authorities also discovered that the gang was involved in human smuggling of Chinese as a labor source. The felons allegedly kept their network of salespeople in semi-human bondage.
(Source: IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) Press Release, June 5, 2008.)
[Editor's Note: The copy for this post originated in the June 13, 2008 issue of "China IPR News for U.S. Industry."]
Posted by Richard at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)June 17, 2008
Chinese Corruption and School Construction -- No Longer A Suitable Media Topic
Here is Caijing magazine's attempt to explain in English the causes of the collapse of school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake. Yes, construction standards existed, goes the article, but weren't implemented. That English language translation -- intended to be the magazine's face to the world -- appears to be a compilation of several articles, including this, originally in Chinese, but the thrust of the pieces is consistent:
《财经》记者从四川省政府投资非经营性项目代建办公室在6月2日提交省抗震指挥部的一份报告中获知，省建设厅调查组的初步结论，将汶川大地震中大量公共建筑倒塌的原因归结为三点：抗震标准不达标、结构设计不合理、施工质量不合格。这与此前四川省教育厅把房屋倒塌归结为“地震烈度超过建筑设防强度”的结论并不一致。 [Editor's note: Subscription required.]
If indeed standards were sufficient to maintain a school structure long enough to allow students to leave the classroom before collapsing -- and even that statement has not been justified -- why weren't those standards implemented? Caijing magazine fails to treat this question directly. Hailed by many as a trend-setter in Chinese journalism, Caijing shows the limits of even these media channels to get the news out (as we well knew). Even an indirect assertion of corruption such as this is insufficient:
School buildings are totally controlled by an educational hierarchy. Local officials are responsible for fund-raising, lining up design and construction bids, and quality appraisals. No third party supervises the process.
So, where is the discussion of the pervasive corruption that allowed administrators, builders, educators, et al, to profit from the evasion of those standards? if anywhere, the discussion goes on within the Chinese Communist Party.
Posted by Richard at 1:23 PM | Comments (0)June 13, 2008
Direct Flights from Taiwan to Mainland China
In the mid-1980s, Taiwanese businessmen, at least those of a cautious nature, were too frightened to participate in the triangle trade （三角貿易）. That business moved product under the radar from Taiwan into China, when direct trade was prohibited with major consequences for Taiwanese (imprisonment and fines) and Chinese (who knows? execution, probably).
An American in my 20s，believing myself protected by the shield of my passport and immune by virtue of reckless youth from any potential danger, I floated the idea to friends that I should set up shop in Hong Kong doing precisely that: my Taiwanese friends would source needed electronics, foodstuffs, clothing, etc. on the island and I would move it into the mainland.
The mainland was open territory indeed at that time and a few Americans were already sourcing American product and moving it into China. No Americans I know of at that time were sourcing product in Taiwan to bring into China, although I'm sure there must have been a handful (Hong Kong Chinese were).
Of course, the only problem, aside from the naked fact that Chinese did not have American dollars to purchase the product -- barter was big then -- was that none of my friends was reckless enough to agree to the scheme. I think it probably would have gone far, that is, if KMT authorities and the COCOM nations, did not become wise to it. But now, everything has changed, as we all know.
This is all a rather too lengthy and unnecessarily personal introduction to today's post: the simple fact that, given the rapprochement between China and Taiwan of the past months, direct flights between Taiwan and China will become a fact of life and will only increase. Hong Kong will undoubtedly feel the effect of these direct flights.
港、澳旅游局的资料显示，两岸直航后，过境香港的台湾客将狂掉六成，台湾每年赴港的238万停留旅次中，会流失150万人次；澳门则会锐减三成多。[Editor's translation: according to information provided by the Hong Kong and Macau travel authorities, after direct flights between China and Taiwan, the number of Taiwanese passengers passing through Hong Kong will drop as much as 60%. 150,000 fewer Taiwanese (of the current number of 238,000) will stay in Hong Kong every year, with Macau losing over 30%.]
In other words, rapprochement with Taiwan -- now eagerly desired by a Taiwanese population whose wealth is greatly tied up in China, while it was feared only 20 years before -- contributes to the mainland strategy of replacing Hong Kong with Shanghai as the financial capital of Asia. Not that that strategy will be effective in the end. But the foresight of certain planners a generation ago continues to impress as its adherents implement their vision for dominance.
Posted by Richard at 2:04 PM | Comments (0)June 5, 2008
Football Really Means Something in Texas
Now, here is a court order worth reading. Texarkana?
[Many thanks to James Tyre and Peter Shafran, attorneys, for this file.]
Posted by Richard at 4:12 PM | Comments (0)
