China Watch: Big on Mao Tai, Afraid of Milk

A list of what the Wall Street Journal’s reporters in China are reading and watching online, periodically updated throughout the day. (NOTE: WSJ has not verified items in the ‘News’ section and does not vouch for their accuracy.) Last updated: 6:20 pm Beijing time. News Items:

• More than one hundred bottles of vintage Mao Tai, China’s “national liquor,” sold at auction for a total of nearly $800,000 in Shanghai over the weekend. (Xinhua)

More after the jump

Economist: China No. 1 by 2027 Seems ‘A Certainty’

With China now officially confirmed as the world’s second largest economy, the question is when – if ever – it will become number one and force the U.S. to eat its dust . A secondary question: What will be the role of the yuan if China takes the top spot? In a little noticed paper, Japanese economist Takaoshi Ito offers interesting answer to both.

Available: Chinese Tech for Putting Down Protests

To get an idea of how well-equipped China is to prevent mass anti-government protests, you need only look at some of the security equipment that was being touted by Chinese companies at this week’s IDEX arms fair in Abu Dhabi.

When China’s leaders crushed pro-democracy protests around Tiananmen Square in 1989, they sent in the army with tanks and live ammunition. These days, they would have many other ways of dispersing such crowds – or preventing them forming in the first place.

Deepening Shadows Over Chinese Law

• Commentary

Stanley Lubman, a long-time specialist on Chinese law, teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and is the author of “Bird in a Cage: Legal Reform in China After Mao,” (Stanford University Press, 1999).

Chinese president Hu Jintao addressed a “study session” of leaders last week and called for new measures and policies of “social management.” His message foretells a tightening of controls over China’s population and over social protest. Although the speech may have been provoked by recent events in Tunisia and Egypt, brutal treatment of dissidents was already ongoing. It has become more intense and it will continue.

Huawei’s PR Strategy: Everything But the Boss

Whatever one thinks of the debate over Huawei’s relationship with the Chinese government and how it should be treated in the U.S., one thing is clear: The Chinese company has dramatically upped its public relations game in its quest for American acceptance.

Still, there remains a gaping hole in Huawei’s PR strategy.

Libyan Turmoil Prompts Chinese Naval Firsts

China has sent one of its most modern warships to protect vessels extracting thousands of its citizens from Libya, in the Asian power’s first naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea and its first deployment of military hardware in a civilian evacuation mission.

Chloe’s China Fashion Debut, Online

Chloe wants to win China’s web-surfing fashion followers.

To that end, the French fashion label is launching China’s first-ever digital fashion show, meaning that its big runway event in Shanghai on Friday night will be streamed live on a special Chinese-language blog that the brand launched in December for China’s luxury lovers.

In going online in search of Chinese sales, the company is not alone.

Will Huawei Ever Break into the U.S. Market?

The relative exclusion of Huawei, the world’s second largest telecom-equipment vendor, from the U.S., a coveted telecommunications market, has underscored U.S. concerns about China as threat, both politically and commercially. Will the Chinese company ever have a chance to make it big in the U.S.? If so, what will it take?

Two China experts surveyed by China Real Time on Friday came at the issue from different angles.

Read what they had to say and tell us what you think after the jump.

China Watch: Walking Cacti, a Bold Claim from Sina

A list of what the Wall Street Journal’s reporters in China are reading and watching online, periodically updated throughout the day. (NOTE: WSJ has not verified items in the ‘News’ section and does not vouch for their accuracy.) Last updated: 4:20 pm Beijing time.

News Items:

• China’s National Bureau of Corruption Prevention tied for the last spot with the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine in a top think-tank’s annual government agency transparency rankings. (China Daily)
• The fossil of a walking cactus, thought to be the missing link between worms and spiders, has been discovered in China. (Christian Science Monitor)

The Fight of ‘The Warriors of Qiugang’

In 2004, Zhang Gongli began a legal battle to rid his community of pollution caused by a nearby pesticide plant. The farmer’s once-idyllic village of Qiugang in China’s eastern Anhui province had become choked with toxic waste: Residents fell ill, crops suffered and waters filled with dead fish.

Mr. Zhang’s years-long struggle is the subject of “The Warriors of Qiugang,” which has been nominated for best short documentary film at Sunday’s Academy Awards.

Continue reading on Scene