ICHINOSEKI, Japan – We’re on the Iwate coast of Japan this week, looking back on the devastation wrought here nearly a year ago by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that flattened coastal communities and killed nearly 20,000 people.

The cleanup we have witnessed on our frequent trips back here since the disaster is simply astounding and is a testament to the strength of the communities that remain. In fishing towns like Otsuchi, Kesennuma and Ichinomaki, NBC News has documented the gradual steps to recovery, from search and rescue, to the clearing of rubble, to the sorting and removal of debris from city streets.

One thing absent in our coverage though: reconstruction.

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My colleague Ian Williams earlier in the week wrote about the issues facing the town of Otsuchi, where 10 percent of the town’s population of 16,000 is dead or missing and nearly 70 percent of the town was obliterated by the tsunami.

Today, all that stands in much of Otsuchi are the foundations of the buildings that once stood there – skeletal remains of sleepy neighborhoods that once occupied these parts. In the surrounding hills around, small communities of short-term, pre-fabricated homes for the displaced have sprung up, granting a small degree of normalcy to residents who had spent months living in schools, recreation centers and other temporary camps.

When the government will allow, much less begin, construction of new permanent homes in these areas is difficult to predict. In communities like Otsuchi, the debate seems to be centered on whether residents should be allowed to begin rebuilding now or must the town’s coastal defenses be strengthened before development can begin.

With many of these coastal towns having disproportionally older populations – a result of the departure of many younger residents to other parts of Japan for work – the desire for quickly built, affordable housing is a popular sentiment among people here.

It was with that backdrop that I watched a video yesterday released in early January of a 30-story hotel tower being built in China in a shockingly quick 360 hours. 

It’s not the first time we’ve seen such feats from China, or from Chinese construction firm, Broad Sustainable Building (BSB). Two years ago, the three-year-old company shocked the world by constructing a 15-floor hotel in two days.

This time around they doubled down on the aptly named T-30 Hotel.

Not only that, but they gave viewers a unique look at a style of building construction that has been employed by the West for some time, but with unique adaptions that BSB developed and hope will help launch the style throughout Asia.

Pre-fab solution?
BSB’s system of pre-fabrication involves constructing segments of a building in advance at an indoor factory. There the basic building blocks of a modern building – things like ventilation, water pipes and electrical wiring – are pre-installed, allowing for the segments to be uniformly stacked at the construction site and assembled like Lego blocks.

The savings in construction time is perhaps the most note-worthy thing. An interesting piece done on BSB and its latest feat by the Los Angeles Times quotes one expert on pre-fabricated architecture who noted that such construction techniques can shave a third or a half off building schedules in western countries.

BSB sliced off between one-half and two-thirds of construction time on T-30.  Not to mention 20 to 30 percent off building costs through reduced construction times and greater efficiencies.

And since much of the construction is done in the relative safety of the factory floor compared to many stories in the air, BSB’s on-site accidents noticeably dipped.

The company also claims a number of innovations in its designs that would certainly appeal to rebuilding residents in northeastern Japan. After all, the inspiration for BSB’s formation were reconstruction efforts in China’s Sichuan province after an 8.0 earthquake rocked the region in 2008, leveling cities and leaving towns in such disrepair, they were forced to completely relocate.

According to the video, which was released by BSB, the new hotel is designed to handle earthquakes up to 9.0 on the Richter scale and incorporates design advances like external solar shading, three-stage air purification systems and improved insulation techniques that make the building five times more energy efficient than other Chinese buildings.

Pre-fabricated building techniques are already in use throughout the affected regions of Japan as a form of temporary housing. In fact, Japan was already moving residents into pre-fabricated houses just eight days after the quake and as of last week there were 52,620 temporary houses built in 911 locations throughout the country.

However, much of this housing is built on school sports fields and other public spaces – often contracted out for two years before the temporary housing must be disassembled and the space returned.

That’s a point not lost on the residents we talked to this week. Many living in short-term housing are older and have no meaningful income. So they live off pensions with no realistic means of building or renting new homes.

To deal with this issue that will seemingly boil over in 2014, Iwate prefecture alone has announced they will construct between 4,000-5,000 permanent public housing units for the displaced.

Where and when these housing blocks will be built in this nation where land is at a premium is one that will certainly keep urban planners here busy for years to come.

The lessons learned from the T-30 exercise should not be lost on municipal governments up and down the Iwate coast. Pre-fabricated housing once viewed as a short-term fix can now be the answer to a very long-term problem.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Fukushima plant, before, during and one year after
• Japanese tourism slowly rebounds year after tsunami
• Slimy, salty, but tasty: Seaweed revives Japan village
• Tsunami scientists prepare for next wave
• Tsunami survivors: Obstacles remain for rice farmer
• Giant quake like Japan's could hit Pacific Northwest
• Earthquake experts improve their predictive powers
• Cook uses recipes to help quake survivors heal
• One year after Fukushima, Japanese town is frozen in time
• Japanese tsunami survivor, 79, looks ahead
• Tsunami Survivors: Struggling to live on, alone
• Japan Red Cross: Whole year wasted after tsunami
• Cosmic Log: Hear the soundtrack of a super-quake
• Nuke pill frenzy fizzles in U.S. as Fukushima fades
• Photo Blog: Panoramic images, then and now
• Japan disaster snarls U.S. nuke plant plans

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

 

BEIJING – Apple’s recent market valuation of over $500 billion has invited countless comparisons, even inspiring a website that gleefully chronicles the places and things the tech giant is now valued more than.

Among other things, Apple is now worth more than the entire GDP of Poland, all the gold in the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York and America’s entire aircraft carrier fleet.

But is that enough to take the sting out of the $1.6 billion in compensation Proview Technology (Shenzhen) is rumored to be demanding in exchange for settling the thorny dispute over ownership of the iPad trademark in China? 

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Last Wednesday, Guangdong’s Higher People’s Court heard an appeal from Apple after a lower court ruled in favor of Proview and declared them the actual owner of the iPad name in China. 

The significance of the case has not been lost in Chinese. Both local and foreign media were said to be staked outside the courtroom. In response to greater calls for transparency from the government, Wednesday’s legal proceedings before the three-judge panel were actually live-blogged by the court on a twitter-like service called Tencent Weibo.

The court now has almost 80,000 followers – but their decision has not been announced yet. According to Chinese law, the time limit for ruling on an appeal is three months. 

The stakes are high for everyone involved: Apple, Proview, the Chinese government and other Western investors.

High stakes
China is Apple’s second largest market behind the United States. It is also where most of its products are made –  including the highly anticipated iPad 3 which some tech-watchers are speculating may be released as soon as tomorrow. 
 
This court is typically the final word on legal proceedings in China, although Apple could still appeal to the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing. A loss would leave two undesirable options: An appeal to a Supreme Court that is not known for overturning many decisions of its lower court; or settling with the cash-strapped Proview. 

For Proview, a company that at one time was an industry leader in the manufacturing of computer displays before falling on hard times, a win or an out-of-court settlement could set the stage for a dramatic revitalization of a company that now counts the Bank of China and China Banking Corp. as creditors. 

According to a Chinese-language report out last Friday, Proview’s consortium of creditors are said to be seeking $400 million from the cash-strapped company.

A settlement with Proview may be anathema to Apple; effectively inviting similar copycat suits against them in other jurisdictions, but the alternative of changing the name of a product they’ve already sold 32 million of worldwide is an equally bitter pill to swallow.

A warning for Western investors?
The need to legally resolve this issue is also uncomfortable for the Chinese government, which stands to lose politically regardless of who wins the case. 

Should Proview prevail and receive control of the trademark in China, it would stir up a certain crisis-of-faith among the foreign business community, whose concerns about intellectual property have become louder in recent years.

Sixty-six percent of respondents to the American Chamber of Commerce’s 2011 China Business Climate Survey said intellectual property rights protection is “very” or “critically” important to their business.

One U.S. businessman, who declined to be named for this piece, noted that while Apple’s spat with Proview is over the sale of a trademark and not the legal standing of the trademark itself, he would nevertheless be concerned about the strength of his company’s own trademarks in China should Apple lose. 

“Remember that line from the movie, ‘The Social Network,’ ‘You better lawyer up!’? You bet we have our lawyers looking closely now at all our company’s legal arrangements.”

It’s an example of corporate skepticism of the legal system here and a growing sentiment among the foreign business community of economic inequality between foreign and domestic companies.

That’s a sentiment that China’s ruling Communist Party wishes to avoid at all cost. In recent years the government has worked hard to improve intellectual property rights law in the country. They touted them as the Guangdong Higher People’s Court did on its Weibo feed of the court proceedings, inviting China’s web sphere to “witness the progress of intellectual property right protection in China.”

Ironically, the enforcement of those laws could potentially unravel the goodwill they were intended to build with foreign companies and investors.

Best for all? Out-of-court settlement
An Apple victory may mollify Western companies. It will also likely draw the ire of a more nationalist section of the population here that may view it as an example of China serving foreign interests before those of its own companies.

As unlikely as it may seem that a decision in Apple’s favor could lead to any mass resentment towards the government, in this sensitive time leading up to China’s leadership transition later this year, the Party is hyper-attuned to perceived public discontent.

So in the meantime, China’s government is quietly pushing through the court’s judges their dream solution to this dispute: out-of-court settlement. At the end of the hearing on Wednesday, the judge apparently gently urged Apple and Proview to consider a private settlement.

The financial motivations are there for both parties to come to the bargaining table, but Apple’s participation will either require a dramatic change of heart by the company which has refused to come to the table so far or a more pessimistic analysis of their chances in court.

Either way, you can bet the Apple CEO Tim Cook is thinking twice about his bold earlier statement last month that the company “has more money than it needs.”

BEIJING – “Why are you going to a Peking opera? It’s slow, boring and you can’t even understand what they’re saying half the time!”

That was the reaction Karolina Shab, a 26-year-old Polish student studying in Beijing, got from a Chinese friend when she said she was going to see a performance of the traditional Chinese theater that combines elaborate Chinese costumes, high-pitch singing, dancing and dramatic facial expressions.

That negative reaction among young people to the classic Chinese art form is common – many would rather wait in line for the latest Apple creation than catch the latest Peking opera.

But director Chen Shi-Zheng hopes to change those impressions with a new, modern production of the classic Chinese folk tale, “Farewell My Concubine" that just premiered in Beijing last month.

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“We want to reconnect young people with Peking Opera and make it relevant to their lives,” Chen told NBC News, “This is a story of love and tragedy – a classic tale that young people can relate to.”

As the director behind the re-imagining of Disney’s High School Musical for Chinese audiences, Chen understands better than most how to relate to China’s mainstream youth. Working alongside an international creative team, the New-York based director incorporated some arguably controversial elements to the production in an attempt to save the art form’s declining reputation.
“I believe it’s important to push boundaries,” Chen explained.

With its fast-paced tempo, rhythmic fight scenes and flashy digital backgrounds, Chen’s East-West fusion resembles the energy and style of a New York Broadway show.

One of the most dynamic parts of the show was the fast-paced acrobatic and mix-martial arts moves displayed during the fight sequences. These kung-fu inspired dance routines are relatable to Western audiences, who associate them with cinematic icons such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

But Chen says his reinterpretations have not all been warmly received.

“Most people feel my show is exciting, but it is controversial,” said Chen. “Some people have said that I’ve destroyed Peking opera
and Chinese culture.”

One local Chinese art aficionado who spoke to NBC News, said he believes that Chen’s reinterpretation trivializes the true essence of Peking opera.

“I agree that Peking opera needs modernization, but not like this,” said the critic who wouldn't share his name. “The modern technical elements are too simple and make the performance superficial. People must appreciate the tradition before they can make changes to it.”

But judging by the nearly 5 percent decline in ticket sales every year, a new style may be the only way to appeal to both younger audiences and tourists.

Yu Shaowen, a Beijing local who attended the show with his daughter, found Chen’s reinterpretation more acceptable for younger audiences, comparing it to commercial Chinese tea.

“Traditional Peking opera is like traditional Chinese tea and [Chen’s] show is like commercially bottled tea. Traditional tea takes a connoisseur to appreciate, but bottled tea is easier for the general public to consume and enjoy.”

Indeed, a “commercially bottled” opera might be the only way to quench the thirst of young Beijingers and Western audiences who are accustomed to today’s fast-paced digital world.

 “I was surprised with how easy it was to understand and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m going to tell my Chinese friends to see this show,” Shab, the Polish student said after the show.

That’s a sentiment Chen hopes will spread as he works to update traditional Peking opera for the 21st century. “I've tried to create a picture book of modern images so young people won't feel completely put off by Peking opera,” said Chen. “It's an important cultural tradition in Beijing and there is always a need for constant reinterpretation to keep it fresh.”

 

BEIJING – With massive security in Beijing during the annual National People’s Congress, it would seem like a risky time to protest in China’s capital, but for Guan Youming, it’s the best time.

Nearly 3,000 members of the ruling Communist Party gathered in the Great Hall of the People on Monday for the start of the annual meeting amid tight security throughout the city. Premier Wen Jiabao delivered his equivalent of a state-of-the-union speech to the group, setting out the government’s strategy for the coming year.

In addition to economic and military policy, a prominent goal he mentioned was the need to manage major sources of domestic discontent by protecting farmers’ rights and improving rural governance.

Farmers’ rights to their land “must not be violated,” Wen told the politicians, just a day after unprecedented democratic elections in the southern Chinese village of Wukan, which has become a symbol of successful revolt against land grabs and corruption.

You would think that Wen’s words would be music to the ears of Guan, a farmer from central China who made light of his 500-mile journey to brave tight security in Beijing and expose what he claims is illegal confiscation of his land by village authorities.

But Guan was not impressed. “I don’t necessarily believe in what the leaders says, I want to see results,” he told NBC News as he recounted his years of work to try and seek justice for his claim.

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Season of discontent
With China’s booming real estate industry, residential and land prices have skyrocketed and land disputes have become a major cause of mass protests. According to a report by Tsinghua University Professor Sun Liping last year, the number of protests, riots and strikes have doubled over the last five years to almost 500 a day.

And land grabs cause more than 65 percent of rural “mass incidents,” or collective protest actions, according to Yu Jianrong, a leading expert on rural conflicts at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Reports have estimated that nearly 50 million Chinese farmers have lost their homes during the past 30 years of industrial and urban growth; and that some 60 million more could be further uprooted with accelerated urbanization in the next few years.

Wen promised a better deal for farmers this year, with measures to improve rural incomes and protect farmers’ rights as a “top priority.”

“Farmers’ rights to the land they contract to work on, to the land on which their houses sit, and to proceeds s from collective undertakings are property rights conferred by law, and these rights must not be violated by anyone,” declared Wen during his two-
hour address.

He vowed “better supervision” and “regulation concerning compensation” for farmers in the course of land transfers and expropriations, in a clear signal of a government drive to address the crux of rising rural discontent.

‘Airing dirty laundry in public’
 “From my experience,” Guan said, “the sweeter the words, the more false they are.”

Guan hails from the farming village of Daqiao in Hubei province, where he said local leaders have “illegally” expropriated farmland to build government offices, commercial apartments and roads. Thousands of villagers have been affected, and many have not been adequately compensated, according to Guan, who also said that five fellow villagers have bravely joined him in Beijing to press for their case.

The last straw for Guan was when his quarter acre of farmland – what he said was his “only source of food” – was taken away.  He said he sought the help of various government departments but hasn’t gotten any response.

Asked why he chose this time of tight security in Beijing during the parliament session to make his case – when protesters and petitioners from rural provinces are routinely rounded up or forcibly returned to their villages. Guan said it was a deliberate decision to “exert pressure on leaders.”

“We are seeking out the Western and Taiwan media to explain our plight,” he said.

“Only by doing so can we expect the leaders concerned to pay attention because they are scared of airing our dirty laundry in public,” he explained.

In order to verify Guan’s claims, NBC News reached out to Wu Mingjing, party leader of Wuxie City which oversees Guan’s village.

“No, it’s impossible to for his land to be confiscated,” said Wu. “We have laws and regulations concerning land expropriation and compensation,” he explained, adding that he was not very clear about the details of Guan’s case.

With Guan listening to the telephone conversation, Wu suggested that the Daqiao villagers bring their case to the attention of a local party secretary, with the assurance that “proper action” will be taken.

Guan was not so sure – perhaps Wen’s promises would trickle down after all.

Researcher Isabella Zhong contributed to this report 

 

BEIJING – Every year, thousands of Beijing’s century-old alleyways and historical courtyard residences are demolished to make way for high-rising blocks of concrete and glass.

But now one Chinese architect, who has it made his life work to honor China’s rich history and culture by using salvaged materials in modern forms, has been given architecture’s highest honor for his efforts.

Wang Shu, a 48-year-old Hangzhou-based architect, is the first Chinese citizen to be awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. 

With much of China’s rapid development being fueled by Western architects, China is pleased to see one of their own honored.

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‘Appreciation for traditional Chinese architecture’
Wang was born in Urumqi, in the western Chinese province Xinjiang.  He and his wife, Lu Wenyu, founded their Hangzhou-based architecture firm, called Amateur Architecture Studio, in 1997. Wang has said he is highly passionate about the “handicraft aspect” of his trade, and shows an equally passionate disdain for the “the professionalized, soulless architecture that is practiced today.”

 

 

 

 

Professor Lu Jiwei, Wang’s PhD supervisor when he was at Tongji University, spoke to NBC about his impressions of Wang as a student. He said Wang was “a highly focused and grounded student who showed a deep sense of appreciation for traditional Chinese architecture and innovatively incorporated elements of it into his own designs.”

Indeed, many of Wang’s notable works, which include the Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum and the China Academy of Art’s Xiangshan Campus, display a distinct Chinese flavor that tends to be absent from many contemporary structures seen in China today.

For instance, with the China Academy of Art building, Wang covered the campus buildings with more than 2 million reused tiles from demolished traditional homes.

“Everywhere you can see, they don’t care about the materials,” Mr. Wang was quoted as saying in the New York Times. “They just want new buildings, they just want new things. I think the material is not just about materials. Inside it has the people’s experience, memory — many things inside. So I think it’s for an architect to do something about it.” 

However, as eco-friendly buildings with modern interior spaces, Wang’s work also simultaneously takes into consideration China’s present and future needs.   

Luo believes that Wang was awarded the highest accolade in the architectural world because “he is able to successfully bring China’s architectural heritage to the present.” He added, “Wang’s win is a wonderful thing because a majority of buildings in China have become too generic and lack cultural characteristics; Wang’s designs try to bring back these characteristics.”

Proud nation
Wang’s achievement has been well received by the media and the general public in China. On Weibo, China’s equivalent to Twitter, more than 90,000 postings about Wang have appeared so far.

The postings range from a simple “Congratulations, Wang Shu!” to excerpts from Wang’s biography and albums of Wang’s notable works.  Many Weibo users have expressed pride about the fact that Wang is the first Chinese national to win what many are dubbing as the “Nobel Prize for Architecture.”

Indeed, the prize, founded in Chicago in 1979 by the Pritzker family, has been likened to the Nobel Prize: winners receive a $100,000 reward.

State-run media organizations, such as China Daily and China Central Television (CCTV), have also run stories about Wang’s win. The China Daily proudly announced “Pritzker Prize goes to Chinese for the first time” on its web site. (I.M. Pei, was the first Chinese-born architect to win the prize in 1983, but he was an American citizen).

China Central Television also mentioned that many celebrities across China, including Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, co-founders of the Chinese construction giant, SOHO, have posted on Weibo to express their delight about Wang’s win.

The outspoken, world-renowned artist Ai Weiwei told NBC News: “I’m happy for him. He is a good choice. He has his own way and he has his own style that is different from others. It’s the first time that the Western world has given recognition to a Chinese architect.”

Given the backdrop of the massive socio-economic changes that are currently happening in China, Wang’s win certainly comes at a very interesting time.  As urbanization sees the mass demolition of historical villages for so-called “Lego-set” apartment blocks, and as globalization sees China’s younger generations increasing abandon traditional Chinese customs, Wang’s designs might well serve as a symbol of hope that China’s cultural traditions and its economic growth can go hand-in-hand.

This sentiment was well articulated by Weibo user, Yu Jing Ming, who said “He’s the pride of the Chinese people and the world. Wang Shu is like timely rainfall … it is him staying true to his cultural heritage that has allowed him to win this prize.”

 

BEIJING – These days it seems everyone has an opinion about what China’s economy needs to do to continue to prosper.

Yesterday was the World Bank’s turn to give its two cents as it released a new joint-report with the Chinese Development Research Center entitled, “China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society.”

The ambitious report attempts to lay out a new development strategy for China that emphasizes a gradual transition to a market economy, serious economic and labor reform and an eventual shift from an economy powered by state-owned businesses to private enterprise.

It was that latter condition that appeared to be a step too far for Du Jianguo who created a stir during a press conference by World Bank President Robert Zoellick at the bank’s Beijing headquarters Tuesday.

Du, a self-described “independent scholar of politics and economics,” stood up as Zoellick was talking and began to shout slogans like, “state-owned industry should not be privatized!” and “this report from the World Bank is poison!” 

He also handed out an essay he had written, aptly titled, “WB [World Bank] Go home with your poison!”

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Privatization debate
Du was pulled from the room by staff, but continued his protest outside where he claimed that the World Bank was corrupting China’s banking sector so much that it was beginning to resemble what he deemed a terrible role model: Wall Street.

“The World Bank wants Chinese banks to become like Wall Street,” said Du. “Do they want Chinese banks to turn into liars and parasites?”

Back inside the conference room, Zoellick acknowledged the intense debate that his bank’s report had generated in China between nationalists and economic liberalizers on the mainland, but defended it by saying that was “the point of any good research report.”

The debate comes at a sensitive time in China as it gears up for a leadership change later this year and a possible change in economic strategy under presumed future-President Xi Jinping.

The drive for greater economic liberalization and an increased focus on private enterprise by supporters of the study would come at the expense of expansive governmental support for state-owned enterprises that have become economic titans in China due to access to low-cost credit from state banks and protection from foreign competitors.

Proponents of the state-driven model argue that state-owned enterprises are a source of national strength and pride and should be protected.

Not so say others, who argue that private enterprise actually creates more jobs in China and should be nurtured to spur renewed growth.

Such proponents of economic liberalization will face a tough slog against men like Du, who are unabashed skeptics of the World Bank and made it a point to say so.

"We have no reason to accept their poison,” said Du later of the World Bank. “After they ruin China, they will ruin the whole world."

BEIJING -- Chairman Mao famously said “women hold up half the sky,” but in today’s China they are standing twice as long in restroom lines.

It’s a universal problem: women waiting anxiously inside and outside public bathrooms while men can “finish the business” much more quickly. Women spend much more time in bathrooms than men, but they don’t necessarily enjoy the proportional number of facilities. The problem is particularly severe in China with a population of 1.3 billion, especially in big cities whose growth outstrips the amount of toilets.

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But some young women in the southern city of Guangzhou just couldn’t bear it anymore. They decided to cry out loud last Sunday in a campaign to “occupy male bathrooms” near a popular public park.

Li Maizi, the 23-year-old campaign organizer who insisted on using a pseudonym, told a local newspaper that the purpose was to raise the awareness of the public and the government.

“It seems like women and men are equal with the same amount of public bathrooms built for them. But the physical differences make them spend a different amount of time in the toilet – so it’s just not fair,” said Li.

Li, along with a few other young women, asked male passers-by who wanted to use the guy’s bathroom “do you mind waiting for a few minutes because the line in front of female toilet is too long?” They held signs reading “love women, starting with convenience” and “the more convenience, the more sexual equality.” Convenience in Chinese also means “to use a toilet.”

The women also handed out pink public letters to their male peers, calling for legislative steps to increase the number of public bathrooms for women to at least twice that of the opposite sex. They also demanded more unisex bathrooms in areas like railway stations and shopping malls.

The campaign was soon echoed by the public, and Sina Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like service, invited Li for a live chat on Thursday afternoon. Over 300 questions and comments were made, many from men who showed support. “I’m a man but I support you. All men have moms, wives, daughters and sisters. To occupy boys’ bathrooms is not the only goal. It should trigger the response from the government and the society,” said a Weibo user by the name of “Walking Camel.”

When asked where the idea of “occupying” originated, Li said she borrowed it from “Occupy Wall Street.” 

“It echoes the campaign over there, although we are not connected at all," she said.

Following the live chat, Weibo launched an online survey, “Are you happy to use a unisex public bathroom?” But out of 13,000 respondents within one day, only 35 percent of the males and 14 percent of the females said “yes.”

In a phone interview with NBC News, Li said the government has responded to her efforts. The Guangzhou City Administration Committee said it plans to bring the issue up in the legislative process to build 1.5 times more female bathrooms than male.

Li wasn’t too happy with this result. “It’s just not enough. They should build at least twice the female restrooms than male ones,” she told NBC News, “and we have support from many, many people.”

Li plans to continue her campaign in other big cities like Beijing and Shenzhen.

BEIJING — Earlier this month, a U.S. study on the economic impact of China’s air pollution was released with little fanfare. Maybe it was because of the series of successive “blue sky” days we were enjoying in the Chinese capital, thanks to the gusty winds blowing down from Mongolia. 

The study, which was conducted by researchers at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, breaks down costs that result from the health impacts from ozone and particulate matter, which typically lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

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The conclusion? “[D]espite improvements in overall air quality,” the cost of air pollution (as in lost economic productivity growth) in China has mushroomed from $22 billion in 1975 to $112 billion in 1995. But for at least one pair of 29-year old software engineers in Beijing, air pollution has actually meant greater economic productivity and a business opportunity.

A killer app
Wang Jun and Zhang Bin each moved to Beijing in 2001 to attend college.  Zhang, a Fujian native, was a math major at Beijing University while Wang left Inner Mongolia to study traffic infrastructure at Jiaotong University.

They met at a high-tech company, where for three years they worked together. Last year, they decided to strike out on their own and set up Fresh Ideas Studio.

“The primary aim … is creating mobile apps for solving practical problems in our daily lives,” Wang said, on a blustery (but sunny) afternoon at a coffee shop.

Last year saw some of the worst air pollution in Beijing since the 2008 Summer Olympics, spurring intense discussion among Chinese residents, teeth-gnashing among Western expats, and a near-diplomatic spat between the U.S. and China over fine particulate matter in the air known as PM2.5 that can wreak havoc on the respiratory system.

“Recently, the media and Weibo [a popular Chinese microblog like Twitter] users are very concerned about air quality, especially in Beijing,” Wang said.

In particular, there was a lot of online chatter about @Beijing Air, the U.S. embassy Twitter account that posts hourly Air Quality Index(AQI) data. 

The readings come from an air quality monitor that sits on top of the embassy in downtown Beijing, and they differ sharply from the daily results posted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP).

AQI values on @BeijingAir range from 0 to 500.  A “good” AQI  is 0 to 50 or what the Chinese call a “blue sky” day.  Unfortunately, many days in 2011 qualified as “unhealthy” to “hazardous.”  But on some of those same days, MEP data maintained the levels were “good” or “moderate.”  (The Chinese, in fact, claim there were 286 "blue sky" days in 2011.)

“The [Beijing] government says that nearly 80 percent of the days in the last two years met at least the Chinese standard and therefore had good or even excellent air quality,” Steve Andrews, an environmental consultant who has analyzed the @BeijingAir data, said. “While when we look at the U.S. Embassy data … over 80 percent days exceeded what would be considered healthy air quality and more days were hazardous than good.”

Andrews said that Beijing's pollution levels were "six or seven times higher than the U.S.'s most polluted city." "Air pollution at these levels likely shortens life expectancy by about five years," he added.

The discrepancy was due to the fact the U.S. embassy monitor includes PM2.5, a fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter that, according to the EPA, “pose the greatest health risks [and] can lodge deeply into the lungs.”

The Chinese data, however, only measured the much coarser PM10 particles.

“I’m a Twitter user and saw many Tweets about [@BeijingAir],” Zhang said. “Many Weibo users reposted the data, too.”

The software developers decided to try creating a smartphone application that based itself on the @BeijingAir data.

“Sometimes we can tell there’s a gap between what we feel and the data from the government,” Wang said.  “This is probably why many prefer the data provided by the U.S. embassy.”

In November, they released a 1.0 version, available only in Chinese and which came with simple but appealing graphics.  On good AQI days, the screen background was light and featured a hiking boot, indicating it was time to be outdoors. On bad AQI days, the screen background turned dark, an X marked the boot, and a person’s face wrapped in a mask would pop up.

There were iOS and Android versions of the app. Within weeks, it had been downloaded 80,000 times. At least half of those users checked the app regularly, according to Wang. 

Pollution 'ignored' in past
Under popular pressure that has been building since last year, Chinese environment authorities in Beijing have agreed to publish PM2.5 data. But they maintain the air quality has improved steadily in recent years. 

“We may have had bad pollution in the past, but people probably didn’t pay too much attention to it before so it was just ignored,” said An Xinxin, who works in the Automatic Monitoring Office at the Beijing Environmental Protection Monitoring Center. 

The Center relies on anywhere from 30 to 40 monitoring stations. “Almost every district and county in Beijing has its own station,” explained An. “So citizens in every district and county can know what the pollution in their own area is like.”

Like many of his colleagues at the municipal level, An pointed out that the U.S. embassy only uses one monitor. “[It] can only represent one spot at a certain time. Their spot might be very close to the road where there is a lot of vehicle exhaust, which causes a high level of PM2.5,” he said. “Our statistics are an average of Beijing as a whole, not just one spot.”

Zhang has lived in Beijing for more than ten years, but he said he’s not sure whether the air quality has improved or not. “I don’t know if it’s because now I pay more attention [because of the media and online discussion], or if it’s because the air quality has worsened,” he said. 

But he and Wang dreamed up the idea of incorporating both the Chinese and American data streams into their app.

On Monday this week, they introduced a 2.0 version that not only posts real-time data from the U.S. embassy in Beijing and U.S. consulates around China, it also includes data from the Chinese Ministry of Environment’s monitoring centers in 120 cities across the country.

Also available in English, the app has been downloaded nearly 5,000 times.

“We thought it was good to include both. In some cities, users might want alternative information,” Wang said. “If there were a third source for air pollution data, we’d probably include it in the app, too.”

They might also want to add Hong Kong to their list of cities.

This month, a local nongovernmental group said Hong Kong’s air is 20 per cent more deadly than the air in mainland China. 

Using data from Hong Kong’s own government and the World Health Organization, the Clean Air Network ranked Hong Kong ahead of mainland China, India, Vietnam, and Bangladesh for its high air pollution mortality rates.

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With additional reporting from Bo Gu and Ting Zhao.

BEIJING – Between Linsanity and Apple’s iPad trademark case, it seems like the only things on people’s minds in China right now are basketball and trademarks.

Leave it to “His Airness” to elevate that talk to another level.

Earlier today, NBA legend Michael Jordan issued a statement announcing that he has filed a lawsuit in Chinese court against Qiaodan Sports Company Ltd., charging the company with using his name and playing number without permission.

“A Chinese sports company has chosen to build a Chinese business off my Chinese name without my permission,” said Jordan in a video statement posted on a special website announcing the suit. "It pains me to see someone misrepresent my identity.”

“Qiaodan” is a transliteration of the name Jordan has gone by in China since he and the NBA took China by storm in the ‘80s and ‘90s, transforming the mainland into a nation of basketball diehards.

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“It is deeply disappointing to see a company build a business off my Chinese name without my permission, use the number 23 and even attempt to use the names of my children,” Jordan said, referring to Qiaodan’s recent bid to trademark the name of his children in China. He continued by saying, “I am taking this action to preserve ownership of my name and my brand.”

Jordan’s announcement is a blow to Qiaodan, a Chinese sportswear and footwear manufacturer that has its roots in the 1980s but found tremendous financial success when it changed its name to Jordan’s Chinese moniker in 2000.

Company: Lots of people named 'Jordan'
Since that time, Qiaodan has borrowed heavily from the Jordan mystique to drive sales in China. His iconic number 23 is on much of their sportswear and advertisements and equipment often sport a logo which greatly resembles Nike’s iconic “Jumpman” logo, which accompanies virtually all of Jordan’s branded gear.

Still, the company denies any connection to the NBA legend and argues any resemblance is coincidental.

Speaking to Chinese media today, a spokesman for the company brazenly claimed, “There is no connection, 23 is just a number like $23 or $230 dollars… I don’t think there is a problem at all here.”

He continued by saying Qiaodan goes to great lengths to advertise that the company was a “China national brand” and that there was no need to tell every customer that they are not associated with Jordan since their brand is already unique to the mainland.

“Not everyone will think this is misleading,” said the spokesman. “There are so many Jordans besides the basketball player – there are many other celebrities both in the U.S. and worldwide called Jordan.”

A bold claim by Qiaodan, but one that is seemingly refuted by a 2009 survey conducted by a Shanghai marketing company. They found that 90 percent of 400 young people polled in China’s small cities believed Qiaodan Sports was Michael Jordan’s own brand.

“We live in a competitive marketplace, and Chinese consumers, like anyone else, have a huge amount of choice when it comes to buying clothing, shoes and other merchandise,” said Jordan, “I think they deserve to know what they are buying.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Nike, who markets the “Jordan” brand in China under its English name, which the Oregon-based company registered in China in 1993. It failed, though, to register the Chinese name, allowing Qiaodan to take it in 1998. Attempts by Nike to legally halt Qiaodan from selling under that name were blocked by the Chinese government’s state trademark office 

Subsequently, one can walk into a sports store here in China and often find Nike’s official Jordan line of sportswear on sale just a few racks down from Qiaodan’s brand.

Why now?
In lieu of Nike’s previous experience in attempting to protect its trademark and the fact that Jordan himself has waited 11 years to make his first high profile attempt to stop Qiaodan, the question is: “Why now?”

The answer to that may be found in two recent legal decisions involving two other NBA players.

Stan Abrams of the invaluable China legal and business blog, China Hearsay, wrote about two cases involving Chinese basketball stars – Yi Jianlian and Yao Ming – and the parallels between their two trademark cases and the suit Jordan is bringing against Qiaodan.

In the Yi Jianlian case, a company unaffiliated with the player registered for the trademark of his name in 2005. Yi filed a complaint with the Chinese Trademark Review and Adjudication Board and won in 2009; he also won a subsequent appeal in 2010.

Yao Ming faced a similar issue when he filed suit and won against another Chinese sporting goods company, Wuhan Yunhe, which had attempted to trademark a name associated with the former NBA superstar.

In both cases, lawyers for the players cited Article 31 of Chinese Trademark Law which states: "An application for the registration of a trademark shall not create any prejudice to the prior right of another person, nor unfair means be used to pre-emptively register the trademark of some reputation another person has used.”

Perhaps seeing the trademark law now being more stringently enforced in cases closely paralleling his own, and already knowing the terrific economic potential for himself and his brand in China, Jordan must have seen this as the time to make a definitive move against Qiaodan.

Considering Nike’s failed injunction and the fact that Qiaodan is a purely homegrown Chinese company – a fact that should not be underestimated - Qiaodan must have appeared frustratingly untouchable to Jordan, who touched on fairness in his statement.

“When I was a former player, I played within the rules, I played off of honesty,” said Jordan. “Today, even in business, honesty is something that I truly, truly hold as a high value, and I stay within the guidelines.”

While the lawsuit is primarily for control of his Chinese name in China, Jordan has pledged that any money earned in the lawsuit will be “invested in growing the sport in China.”

“No one should lose control of their own name; China recognizes that for everyone. It’s not about the money; it’s about principle—protecting my identity and my name.”  

One person who should take heed of Jordan’s words? Current NBA phenom, Jeremy Lin, whose Chinese name was registered by a Chinese company back in 2010.

Watch Jordan's video statement

BEIJING – If you thought that Guangdong province’s peaceful handling of the Wukan uprising last year would become the precedent for managing future mass protests in China, guess again.

Early Tuesday morning, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China notified journalists that three employees of European news agencies had been attacked in two separate incidents this past week while attempting to cover a land dispute story in eastern China.

The three were attempting to cover protests in the village of Panhe in eastern Zhejiang province. The first attack happened on February 15, when a Dutch journalist was accosted by a group of what appeared to be plainclothes police after interviewing villagers in Panhe.

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The reporter was beaten and had his notebook and camera memory card confiscated.

The next day, a French reporter was attempting to drive to Panhe with his Chinese assistant when another car collided into theirs. The reporter described the incident as “obviously 100 percent intentional.”

After the journalist's vehicle was rammed, a group of men approached the car, dragged his Chinese assistant out and assaulted him.

When they finished beating the assistant, the men walked to the side of the road and smoked cigarettes until a police car arrived.

No arrests were made, but the local Wenzhou government apologized for the incident, according to the French journalist

Chinese police beat-up journalists

To be sure, press restrictions in China have been relaxed considerably in recent years, but since last year’s anonymous calls for a “Jasmine Revolution,” local municipal and provincial governments appear especially sensitive to negative press and foreign reporting on so-called "mass incidents." 

It’s unclear whether the Panhe attacks represent a government-driven reversal in strategy for dealing with foreign press coverage of mass incidents. It is nevertheless a stark reminder of the dangers of reporting local disturbances despite the optimism inspired by the peaceful resolution of the Wukan rebellion.

Rebellious Chinese village takes baby steps toward democracy

Rebellious Chinese village under siege by police