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Media Report
January 19 , 2017
  • NPR：China's First Freight Train To The U.K. Rolls Into London
    NPR reports: "It took about two weeks, nearly 7,500 miles, nine countries and two continents. But before this freight train could roll to a well-deserved stop, it had to break through one final barrier, a banner proclaiming its historic achievement: 'First freight train from China to UK — Yimu to London.' The train, which set out from the eastern Chinese city earlier this month, inaugurated a direct freight train service between the two countries with its arrival in east London's Barking terminal Wednesday. But to do so, it first had to cross Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France. The final leg of its intercontinental trip was under the sea, in the Channel Tunnel between France and the U.K. It should be noted, the news comes with a little caveat. The train that left Yimu isn't identical to the one that rolled into London, as The Guardian notes: 'Differing rail gauges in countries along the route mean a single locomotive and set of wagons cannot travel the whole route.' Still, the freight train — with its rather mundane cargo of clothing and household goods — marks a milestone for an altogether more ambitious plan: the revival of the centuries-old Silk Road trade routes between China and the West. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the multibillion-dollar investment in infrastructure known as 'One Belt, One Road' in 2013."
  • Newsweek：Japanese Hotel Chain Under Fire From China Over WWII Massacre Denial
    Newsweek comments: "The Chinese government has voiced its anger at a Japanese hotel chain over its owner's claims that a World War II massacre perpetrated by Japanese forces did not happen. Toshio Motoya, the owner of APA hotels, came under attack from Beijing after reports emerged this week that a book he wrote on Japan's historical frictions with its western neighbor was available in gift shops and every guest room in his hotels. Chinese hotel booking websites have also boycotted the APA chain. Motoya's book, entitled 'The Real History of Japan: Theoretical Modern History II,' casts doubt on evidence for some of the most gruesome acts Japan committed against China in World War II, the BBC reports. The hotelier claims the massacre of Nanjing, 'was fabricated by the Chinese side and did not actually happen.'...The event remains one of the most gruesome acts in Japan's modern military history, but as the country has rapidly modernized and reformed in the decades since, confronting its difficult history has become problematic when dealing with its neighbors."
  • Bloomberg：China's Xi, Preaching Openness Abroad, Expands Clampdown at Home
    Bloomberg reports: "As Chinese President Xi Jinping preached 'openness' and 'economic liberalization' to global elites in Davos this week, his government was warning against 'false Western ideas' at home. Xi's speech at the World Economic Forum came days after the country's top judge ordered the courts to 'boldly whip out the sword' against judicial independence and constitutional democracy. The ruling Communist Party, meanwhile, issued a directive ordering five ministries to put political loyalty first when selecting senior officials and it decided to revise textbooks to bolster 'patriotic education.' The moves show Xi's efforts to avoid a dual challenge that Chinese leaders have long described as 'anxiety within, trouble without.' Not only does the president face a potentially more confrontational U.S. under Donald Trump, including the threat of a damaging trade war, he's seeking to minimize domestic risks ahead of a twice-a-decade party leadership reshuffle in the last quarter of the year. 'The contrast between Xi acting flexible abroad and being iron-fisted at home is a reflection of a sense of anxiety or even crisis,' said Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based historian who previously was a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 'He needs to buy more time and win more room for himself. He needs more foreign investment and less hostility. The party at this moment cannot really afford external conflicts.' "
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