China Reform Monitor: No. 930

October 25:

Over 57 percent of urban groundwater is substandard and 17 percent is of poor quality, according to a survey of 182 Chinese cities by the Ministry of Land and Resources. In rural areas the situation is worse: 360 million people lack clean water. “Things look rather gloomy in terms of the overall quality of groundwater as more than half of the water sources assessed have been contaminated. Cancer villages have emerged in Henan, Anhui, Sichuan, Guangdong, Heilongjiang and Shandong,” it says, estimating economic losses from water pollution at several billion yuan per year. The South China Morning Post reports groundwater provides 18 percent of China’s water supply and is most important to the north where it supplies 65 percent of water for households, 50 percent for industry and 33 percent for farming. In Beijing, where the groundwater level has dropped by 1.2 meters per year since 1999, more than 70 percent of water comes from underground. Sewage, garbage, industrial waste, fertilizer and pesticides are the major sources of pollution and experts are skeptical about a 10-year, 59 billion yuan government plan to fix the problem by 2020.

Starting next year China will limit the number of entertainment programs and restricted television that “records the dark and gloomy side of society,” the Southern Metropolis Daily reports. Performance galas and programs about talent, dating, games, talk and reality TV will be replaced with morality-building programing. According to the official directive no more than nine such shows will be aired on China’s 34 cable channels between 7:30pm and 10pm each day. Each television network will be limited to two such shows each week and no more than 90 minutes of such shows on any given night. Programs that “promote harmony, health and mainstream culture” and “socialist core values” will fill the time slots. Networks are ordered to improve their news programs and offer more documentaries on economics, culture, science and education, Reuters reports.

October 27:

China’s authorities will tighten control over social media and instant-messaging, according to a communiqué approved by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. The CPC will “strengthen guidance and management of social media and instant-messaging tools to regulate the dissemination of internet information in a civilized and rational environment,” according to the document. The CPC vows to develop a “healthy and positive” internet culture by establishing an online security-evaluation mechanism to protect the security of “national information.” More than 200 million Chinese use Twitter-like microblogs, including Sina Corporation’s Weibo, which transmit information, political views and challenges to official policies. The introduction of a real-name registration system is forthcoming and Sina is working to limit rumors and punish Weibo users who post them, the South China Morning Post reports.

October 31:

As part of its effort to increase Russian tourism and commerce, officials in Harbin, Heilongjiang are investing millions to preserve and restore the city’s Russian heritage sites destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In Volga Manor, a 600,000-square-meter park in Harbin’s Xiangfang District, an exact replica of the Saint Nicholas Cathedral was completed in 2007. Built in 1900, the Cathedral was once the city center’s landmark monument before the Red Guards tore it down. In 2007 Harbin’s city government also began transforming Laodaowai, the old Russian trade and exchange quarter, into a modern financial business zone for large-scale assemblies, entertainment, and business, Taiwan’s China Post reports.

[Editor’s Note: This report on China’s protection of Russian culture is part of a larger effort for Taiwan’s media to gain greater access to mainland China. These efforts will begin with cultural piece like this one and may be expanded to other spheres.]

“China approves of Nepal’s firm stance on issues relating to Tibet and heartily appreciates Nepal’s sincere cooperation,” General Chen Bingde, the Chief of the General Staff of China’s People’s Liberation Army told his Nepalese counterpart General Chhatraman Singh Gurung during their meeting in Beijing. Gurung responded that: “Nepal has always adhered to the one-China policy and will never allow any force to make use of the Nepalese territory to engage in anti-China activities.” Nepal’s security services have adopted tough measures against Tibetan refugees who trek the treacherous Himalayan trail to escape from Tibet through Nepal to the Dalai Lama’s enclave in Dharamshala, India and have arrested Tibetan refugees for holding anti-Beijing protests in Kathmandu, the Press Trust of India reports.