CHINA’S AGING AND MEDICAL CARE

CHINA SEEKS WESTERN-STYLE CARE AMID EXPLOSION OF ELDERLY

Natasha Khan

Bloomberg, August 28, 2013

The Chinese increasingly eat, shop and play in ways their Western counterparts would instantly recognize. They’re aging like them too, living longer lives that are often limited by debilitating illnesses.

As the almost 200 million population of over-60s more than doubles in the next 40 years, China faces a deluge of infirm elderly who can’t live alone. Nor can they rely on Confucian tradition of children caring for their parents: the country’s one-child policy has left fewer offspring to share the load, while more Chinese are moving away from home to study or work.

While China spent 1.1 trillion yuan ($179.7 billion) over the past four years to cut the cost of drugs and provide basic medical coverage for more than 90 percent of its 1.3 billion people, services for the elderly have fallen behind. To plug the gap, Premier Li Keqiang said Aug. 16 the government will cut red tape and costs to spur foreign investment into the type of privately funded care that is common in the West.

“They’re going to be struggling with an enormous burden in terms of caring for their elderly,” said Benjamin Shobert, managing director of Rubicon Strategy Group in Seattle, which advises companies on how to enter Asian health-care markets. “They don’t really have two bites of the apple. Purely from a time-frame point of view, the next 10 years are critical.”

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INDIA AND THE WOMEN’S DAY

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2013: INDIA BATTLES RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT; NEW CRIMINAL LAW MAY BE BEST GIFT

International Business Times, March 8, 2013

"There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had once said.The world observes March 8 as International Women's Day, and the United Nations has chosen the theme, "A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women", for this year.

The theme is seen appropriate in the wake of the brutal Delhi gang-rape that triggered mass protests across India.

The 16 December, 2012 incident, in which a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was brutally gang-raped and murdered, shocked not only India but also made headlines around the world. The incensed public took to the streets demanding stringent punishment for rapists, in an effort to put an end to such crimes.

Several rape cases have been reported after the horrifying Delhi gang-rape incident. A three-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped while she sleeping and was gang-raped in Malappuram district of Kerala a few days ago. Another minor aged seven was raped in a Delhi school on 27 February.

In another shocking incident, three minor girls, sisters, aged six, nine and 11 went missing on 14 February, and their bodies found in a well in Bhandara district of Maharashtra. Post-mortem reports confirmed that they were raped. These are some of the several instances of crimes that have been reported in the past couple of months.

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XI JINPING’S HARD TASKS

LEAVING HARD TASKS TO NEW LEADER

The Japan Times, November 11, 2012

China is now in the final stage of preparation for its leadership transition, as the once-every-five-years national congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is in session with some 2,300 delegates attending.

Under outgoing President Hu Jintao, who led China for the past 10 years, the country has achieved rapid economic growth, surpassing Japan in 2010 to become the world's No. 2 economy. During Mr. Hu' tenure, China's economy grew nearly four times in size and its per capita gross domestic product in 2010 was 3.2 times the 2002 figure. Current per capita GDP is estimated at $5,000. This is a great achievement.

Mr. Xi Jinping, expected to be elected China's new leader at the end of the party congress, will inherit enormous side effects caused by China's economic development as well as its achievements.

To maintain its legitimacy, the CCP must continue to increase the economic fruit for people. But this process has produced problems such as a growing gap between rich and poor, widespread corruption, and environmental disruption. China, with a population of 1.34 billion, has significant ethnic problems. China's new leadership clearly will confront great challenges.

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THE WUKAN MODEL

CHINA'S NEW LEADERS TO FACE EMBOLDENED CRITICS

A year ago, the villagers of Wukan in China forced their corrupt local leader to flee in a rebellion that shook the Communist Party and which serves as a warning to the country's incoming leaders

AFP

The Bangkok Post, November 4, 2012

At a congress starting Thursday, the party will anoint a new chief for the next 10 years, whose regime will have to address growing anger over graft as well as challenges from a vocal band of dissidents and rights activists.

In the Wukan revolt, villagers defied the usually iron-fisted police and forced their long-standing party chief to flee after angry demonstrations denouncing shady land deals during his decades-long tenure.

The crisis was defused in December when provincial authorities in Guangdong stepped in, agreed to untangle the complex web of land transfers to private developers, sacked the party chief and allowed villagers to hold elections.

The newly elected deputy head of the village has a message for Xi Jinping, the 59-year-old vice president who is widely expected to be promoted to Communist Party general-secretary this week and then state president next year.

"If they don't wipe out and punish corruption, then things are only going to get worse," Yang Semao told AFP in Wukan, a small fishing and farming village of about 12,000 people.

"If they don't crack down on graft, then you are only going to encourage more people to be corrupt (and) the new government leaders will become corrupt," he said in an interview in his office.

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A NEW VISION OF CHINA’S ECONOMY

CHINA'S RAPID GROWTH MAY BE EXAGGERATED

It's getting hard even for the bulls to pretend something isn't off about China's breakneck growth story

AAP

Adelaide Now, June 30, 2012

ON the one hand, as everyone knows, China's GDP is said to have expanded by an incredible average 10 per cent per year for 30 years, according to the IMF, bringing millions of people out of poverty, and making it the second largest economy in the world behind the US.

On the other hand, much of this growth has been fuelled by investment - in innumerable highways, airports, apartment complexes, and trains - so much so that some experts say China's economy is not only imbalanced, but may actually be smaller than previously thought, due to waste and environmental destruction.

In fact, according to a new "Inclusive Wealth" index revealed by the United Nations at the Rio+20 conference this week, by some measures China's economy still trails Japan as the third largest in the world.

The UN's metric weighs economic growth against other factors, including environmental resources, and the value of "manufactured, human and natural capital stocks."

The top economy in the "Inclusive Wealth Index" is the US with $US118 trillion ($A117.90 trillion) in total wealth, followed by Japan with $55 trillion. Germany ranks nearly the same as China, with $20 trillion.

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FACEBOOK IN INDIA

A LIKEABLE PHENOMENON?

Ram Ruman Ramaswamy

The Asian Age, February 4, 2012

Out of the approximate 845 million users of Facebook, India has now pipped Indonesia to emerge as its second largest user base.

In 2011, India was number 6 on the list. As of February 1, India had as many as 43,497,980 registered users, following a 144 per cent growth in 2011 alone.

Although only less than four per cent of India is active on social networks, this is a sign of things to come. Because not only is the country’s social networking growing a never-seen-before pace, it has also been revealed by a study that Facebook users worldwide do not have any major ‘fatigue’ because of continued usage. The Pew Research Report said Facebook helps the ‘basic human need of being in touch with loved ones and in getting the much needed support when need arises’.

Its easy reach and the ‘sharing’ ecosystem has been a big reason behind the success, added the study.

But is this all really true? Will India, one day, become Mark Zuckerberg’s treasure chest?

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IS THE HIGH GDP GROWTH TRICKLING DOWN IN SRI LANKA?

SRI LANKA’S GDP DILEMMA

The Synday Times, January 29, 2012

Sri Lanka is the world’s second-best performing economy in the world after China, we are told. According to Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, an IMF study has showed that Sri Lanka was the second-best performing economy in the world, growing at a rate of over 8 %. He also told reporters this week that Sri Lanka is growing this year by 8 % when other countries have reduced growth rates.

However many economists, following these comments, have been ‘Googling’ the web but unable to trace any such report or study from the International Monetary Fund. IMF officials here were also unable to provide any clues to this so-called study.

On the face of it however, Sri Lanka’s GDP growth is comparable to the best in the world. According to the tradingeconomics website (www.tradingeconomics.com), China, which by 2050 will overtake the US as the world’s largest economy, grew by 8.9 % in 2011 and India by 6.9 %. Others – mostly Sri Lanka’s main buyers of garments and other products – slowed down considerably with Canada’s growth being 3.4%, Germany-Australia-France in the 2 to 2.5% range while the US grew by 1.5 % and the UK by a marginal 0.7%.

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ACCOUNTABILITY AND GOVERNANCE IN CHINA

GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS OF CHINA'S CHALLENGES

The Wukan event reveals the mounting challenges to China’s authoritarian resilience

Asia Sentinel, January 19, 2012

During the last few weeks of December, the Guangdong village of Wukan, located some 200 miles northeast of Hong Kong, earned a place in the history books. Outraged by the death of a local leader in police custody following angry protests against land grabbing and corruption, villagers drove out Communist Party and government officials, refusing to yield unless their demands were met.

In a sense, there is nothing unique about the Wukan event – one of the tens of thousands taking place in China – but it catches in a microcosm multiple elements of China’s evolving drama and is a serious reminder of the widening gap between the CCP and the people. As the protests spread to other towns and with the whole world watching, the party had no choice but to negotiate a compromise and Guangdong’s reform-minded Party Secretary Wang Yang, dispatched his immediate deputy to reach an agreement with elected protest leaders.

After a deal was reached, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Beijing declared: “We can no longer sacrifice farmers’ land ownership right to reduce urbanization and industrialization costs.” The prime minister was touching a raw nerve in the system. According to recent estimates, land grabbing may generate 40 percent of local government incomes, in addition to being a major source of corruption. The problem has grown more serious as construction has expanded to levels rarely seen anywhere in the world. Recent estimates put China’s property construction at 13 percent of GDP.

As a consequence, land prices have been rocketing, as developers have acquired ever more land for investments, creating their own land banks. However, during the last few months the bubble has begun to burst as housing and land prices have fallen, leaving land auctions without bids. For local government, a major source of income is threatening to dry up.

In sum, the Wukan incident and the ad hoc manner in which “mass incidents” are handled raise fundamental questions about accountability and governance.

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MALNUTRITION IN INDIA

INDIA’S CHRONIC BATTLE WITH MALNUTRITION

Ruth Fremson

The New York Times, January 12, 2012

Malnutrition in India is worse than in many African nations, stunting the growth of children like this girl in Shivpuri, photographed in November 2008.

“It is unrealistic to expect any major breakthroughs in dealing with the diets of impoverished Indians,” a correspondent wrote in The New York Times in an article on Oct. 23, 1981.

While the words were written thirty years ago, they might have been written this week.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday that India faced “national shame” because 42 percent of children below the age of five are underweight. The survey he referred to also found that India has failed to significantly improve the diet of almost half of its children, despite two decades of economic growth, because of everything from lack of coordination between government departments to continued lack of maternal education.

Just as it did thirty years ago, malnutrition looms large in India, and by some measures seems to be getting worse. In the twenty years preceding 1981, “per capita intake of calories has dropped from 93 percent of daily requirements to 91 percent,” The New York Times wrote. At the time, India’s population was 680 million.

Despite the recent boom years of the 1990s and 2000s, there has been little improvement in overall nutrition in India, according to United Nations data. About 20 percent of India’s over 1 billion population remained “undernourished” during that time, meaning their “food intake regularly provides less than their minimum energy requirements.” The most recent “Global Hunger Index” shows that two-thirds of the 122 developing countries studied had reduced hunger levels in recent years, but that hunger levels in India have increased.

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JAPAN’S POPULAR CULTURE

WHAT'S REALLY COOL ABOUT JAPAN

Hanscom Smith

The Japan Times, January 7, 2012

Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba's recent visit to Beijing included a stop at the Japan Animation Festival, part of the government's ongoing series of public events designed to showcase Japan's popular culture. Since 2007, the Foreign Ministry has established an International Manga Award and named an Anime Ambassador, among other initiatives designed to capitalize on foreign interest in Japan's vibrant cultural scene. There is certainly nothing wrong with Doraemon, Super Mario, and other "Made in Japan" pop icons.

The use of cultural exchange to improve Sino-Japanese relations, in particular, should be welcomed by everyone in the region. And increasing the exposure of Japanese products is definitely good for their corporate parents' bottom line. A heavy official emphasis on "Cool Japan", however, risks diluting the potency of the "Japan Brand" hip factor — while at the same time distracting attention from the real source of Japan's attraction.

You can't capture "cool" in a bottle. When governments try to identify themselves with trends prevalent among youth, they may inadvertently undermine the counter-culture ethos that so often sparks creativity.

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VIOLENCE IN XINJIANG

IN CHINA'S FAR WEST, ETHNIC STRIFE CONTINUES

Austin Ramzy

Global Spin (blog) - Time, July 19, 2011

The heat of the summer in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang has been punctuated once again by mass violence. In the oasis city of Hotan, authorities say rioters from the Uighur ethnic group attacked and set fire to a police station on Monday, killing four people including a paramilitary officer, a security guard and two hostages. Police "gunned down" several rioters, the state-run Xinhua news service reported, without providing details.

Exile Uighur groups have disputed the official version of events. The Munich-based World Uyghur Congress says that a group of about 100 Uighurs were protesting "illegal seizures of land and the forcible disappearances of relatives by Chinese security forces" when police opened fire, prompting the clash.

Outbursts of violence have been regular if relatively infrequent events in Xinjiang for the past two decades. In August 2010 a Uighur man who was targeting police and paramilitary officers set off a bomb rigged to a three-wheeled cart, killing seven people and injuring 14. Two years before in the city of Kashgar two Uighur men drove a truck into a group of border patrol officers who were out on an early morning run, then attacked the survivors with knives and homemade explosives. Seventeen guards were killed, and 15 injured.

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INDIAN INTOLERANCE

INTOLERANT INDIA?

The brutal killing of crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey and the death in exile of celebrity artist MF Husain raise serious questions about rising intolerance in India.

Seema Sinha

The Times of India, July 3, 2011

Be it the rights of an artist, author, filmmaker, journalist, or the civil society, mocking freedom of speech and expression has increased considerably with several groups claiming moral custody of the entire nation. Is this the emerging India of the 21st century?

Attack mode
Three journalists were killed and 14 attacked in a span of six months; fearing a law and order problem, artist Nalini Malani voluntarily shifted her paintings to galleries in Paris; Mumbai University succumbed to protests by the Shiv Sena and hurriedly withdrew Rohinton Mistry's book Such A Long Journey from the curriculum; religious leaders issued fatwas targeting Muslim women; a violent mob attacked theatres ahead of the release of My Name Is Khan and after attacks on pubs and girls, Sri Ram Sene now opposes appointment of women in bars, disrespecting the Women Empowerment Act. These incidents show the shrinking space of democracy and freedom of expression in India in the recent past.

Unity in diversity?
Experts believe that in a complex, multicultural, diverse and heavily populated nation as ours, there is bound to be some amount of intolerance. Points out Pavan Verma, writer-diplomat, "There can never be a black-and-white picture as India is not a black-and-white civilisation." However, sociologist and author Dipankar Gupta is of the belief that India has always been intolerant, "We don't accept different ideas, our minds are closed to those who are not like us. We lack empathy and the government too doesn't want to act."

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