It looks like Tencent’s QQ International version will be ceasing operations in Europe, effective 2018 May 20. I am unsure why. I also do not know if this affects WeChat. Perhaps this is about Europe’s new privacy laws, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)? I need to do more research. This is from a friend in China. it does look like Tencent’s QQ and Wechat will be pulled from the EU market.
We are sorry to announce that for operational needs from 20 May 2018 QQi will no longer be available in Europe.
BiHu routers are government mandated in Qingdao, Xiamen, Chifeng China for any company providing wifi services, including all retail stores, or the stores will get a heavy fine.
We all find retail wifi hotspots convenient. You leave your smartphone wifi on, and as you walk to can roam between different retail wifi hotspots such as McDonalds or Starbucks. The Chinese government has locked down this internet access point just a little further, by forcing retail store owners that offer wifi to use a government sanctioned router, which they can monitor. Big Brother one ups again.
Baidu map, Beijing University, is accurate to the line map. The map has a lot more detail about local anemities than the Google Map
If you play around with GPS coordinates you will quickly need access to a map. The GPS coordinate numbers do not reveal a geographic location useful to a human. The two go-to internet resources are Google and Baidu. Both have maps for North America and China, but are not as good outside of their competitive areas. As I am in Toronto and have lived in China, I can verify their usefulness for these locations, but for other parts of the world you are on your own.
As I talk to people in China it is very useful to understand general level salary levels. These are average starting salaries for entry level university grads. These do vary depending on the cost of living.
These salaries are very variable. In all cases I used the highest average. None of these mean much comparing one country to another, as expenses such as housing vary greatly.
South China Morning Post, a beacon of balanced pro and anti-China reporting
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) was purchased by Alibaba owner in 2016. Alibaba is a very large Chinese internet company. The ongoing question after the acquisition is if the SCMP is still unbiased, or will it bend to the views of China. This NY Times article highlights the concerns about the paper.
I am here, not to comment on the article, but to comment on the bias nature of the SCMP. Yes, there have been some very pro-China articles from SCMP, but they are more the minority and are equally balanced with anti-China articles. SCMP does find the right balance between the two. But for how long, is a question.
It had to happen. It was predictable, and everyone saw it coming. Therefore it should not be a surprise that there is an impending trade war with China. Let’s discuss and document some of the issues.
China has grown stronger, and this is good. What is not good is their increasingly aggressive trade and military stances in the world. Their military buildup in the disputed South China Sea islands has antagonized all their neighbours and has destabilized the region. Using Chinese Coast Guard vessels to hassle indigenous Philippine fishermen, in their own waters, is not friendly. There are kidnappings of Chinese businessmen from Thailand, which is completely out of China’s jurisdiction. There are also Chinese influence and incursions into foreign politics that many countries such as Australia, find distasteful.
Our electricity must come from somewhere. Not too many places are blessed with a gynormous waterfall that we harness for clean hydro-electric power, such as Niagara Falls, Ontario. Still, electric cars are heavily subsidized by governments, as without these they simply would be too expensive. This is true in Canada, China and Norway.
As Xi Jinping has now removed his term limits within the Chinese constitution, this solidifies his hold on power until he dies or choses to leave. Even before this historic change in China’s constitution it was clear that Xi has a stronghold on China. This directly affects how government officials implement directives and the effect on the Chinese people themselves. An interesting observation, to say the least.
Interesting is how the Chinese government has changed in its implementation of general directives. It seems like government officials react faster and harder, and even overreact to policy implementations. These implementations are understandable, in a way, because government officials do not question or tweak directives, but carry out their orders, possibly overdoing it.
Pyro Pizza, Beijing, Wudao Kou, 火鬼比萨, must limit foreigners to a maximum of 10, by government order. Here is the entrance from the main street. It is not very large.
Try, as I might, I cannot understand why the Beijing government would limit the number of foreigners that eat at local restaurants. This is in a university area. Yes, China’s National People’s Congress or NPC has started, but do government officials expect trouble from foreign university students?
Wudao Kou is an area very close by at least three large universities in Beijing: Beijing University, Qinghua University and the Beijing Foreign Language Institute.
