Secret celebrity romances are usually things that are uncovered by unscrupulous paparazzi photographers, violating the privacy of the rich and famous. However, the reveal of China’s hottest celebrity romance comes straight from the source itself – which, in this day and age, is a personal Weibo account.

Weibo users were first clued in to the romance between 50 year-old Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson and 31 year-old Chinese-Canadian singer Qu Wanting at beginning of January, but they made it official with a post sent by Robertson on Valentine’s Day:

Once again, this isn’t a private message, but a post sent to all of Robertson’s followers. While it may be a strange way to make it official, it makes sense for Robertson to announce his relationship to Qu on the Weibo micro-blogging service because he’s been mentioning Qu on his Weibo account for years.

The two were photographed together after a performance in February 2014, and another post has Robertson in full support of Qu becoming the tourism ambassador for Vancouver in November 2013 when he explained “Because SHE ROCKS!!!”

Robertson is having quite a year so far. He separated from his wife of 30 years last July, won himself a third term as the mayor of Vancouver, Canada back in November, and now has a new love in his life.

His public announcement of his relationship with Qu has resulted in a flurry of responses online. The most common is that he looks far younger than his 50 years:

佳爺万万岁：

There doesn’t seem to be an age difference of 19 years between [Robertson and Qu]… maintaining your health is very important.

STRONGKBB:

This old geezer is 50?!?! What a shock！

Sashaxu：

He doesn’t seem like he’s 50 years-old.

tearfulrobby：

Well maintained!

The coming together of East and West can have many implications, but the apparent one for netizens when it comes to cross-cultural relationships is the difference of beauty standards:

freshairr：

Her (meal)ticket doesn’t seem at all to be 50 years old, while she seems to be at least 40, oh my garters.

gemma凖：

Indeed, (her) face is suitable for a laowai (implying that Qu is not beautiful by Chinese standards).

Zippo227：

Foreigners like ugly women.

小婷婷luck：

Qu Wanting is (more) suitable for a foreigner because which Chinese would be able to put up with her?

尔本o：

Westerners aren’t willing to directly face the Chinese beauty standard.

A happy couple in love turns out to be the appropriate time to criticize their appearance.

罗滴嘎嘎：

Canadians are the most disgusting people. (I) pity that beautiful woman.

樱桃子2013：

At first I thought the woman had the worst end of the deal. The man is already 50 years old and is so much older than her. But then, after opening the photo, I felt that the man had the worst end of the deal…

But then some people were all too happy to wish the couple well:

男精零101：

I’m envious. 

徐威gg：

The very much have the appearance of a husband and wife.

Some netizens have come to certain conclusions about Vancouver and China’s northeast:

FrancisMartinCA：

After this, there will be more Chinese people going to Vancouver.

孫雪甛：

Speechless! 30 years of marriage is being substituted by a 31 year-old woman! I am fully in awe of China’s Dongbei (northeast)

While others see this relationship as having certain political overtones to it:

梦境_先知：

How are US mayors in any way more powerful than Chinese mayors, or any richer? That’s crazy!

肥皂是赵智君：

Why do I get the feeling that this is just propaganda material, and the mayor is just a fan?

jiatian琪：

Is this one technique with which China can conquer the world?

We’ll just have to see what comes next on Robertson’s Weibo account.

The post Vancouver Mayor Reveals Chinese Girlfriend on Weibo to Frenzied Response appeared first on The Nanfang.

Here’s what he had to say:

In establishing a top-tier, internationalized livable and harmonious city, Beijing is currently establishing a system of standards, something that is very important. At the present time however, Beijing is not a livable city.

 

There was no shortage of days in 2014 where the PM 2.5 reading, which measures particulate matter in the air, was above 200, considered hazardous. Wang blamed the city’s pollution problem to a massive influx of vehicles and an uneven distribution of industrial factories. Currently, 71.8 percent of all factories in Beijing are concentrated in just six of the city’s districts.

To address these concerns, Beijing got rid of 476,000 vehicles last year that failed to meet emission standards. The city also dismantled 36 trading centers and closed 392 factories.

Yet, as bad as the city’s air quality has become, smog is not the Mayor’s top priority. He’s more concerned with over population:

Seeing that there is a mad rush of people flocking to the city, population control remains Beijing’s number one problem.

And so while the mayor’s speech included buzzwords like “living standards” and “greenification”, overpopulation sits at the top of the list. At 21.5 million residents, Beijing continues to grow at a feverish pace. There were 368,000 new arrivals to the city last year, and despite the poor air quality, the city is projecting similar numbers for 2015. The city has become so dense that its western area is packed with 25,700 people per square kilometer.

Wang continues to promise change, arguing his mandate is the people’s mandate:

As the economy achieves a new state of being, so does society. The government should not be afraid of being critical as this reflects the will of the people.

Photo: People’s Daily Online

The post Even Beijing’s Mayor Says the City is Unlivable appeared first on The Nanfang.

Liang Daoxing

The former deputy mayor of Shenzhen, Liang Daoxing, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption. The 63-year-old who served from 2002 to 2009, was convicted of accepting RMB 1.94 million, HKD 2.78 million, and US $5,000 in bribes.

The laundry list of offences included, allowing businesses to pay for his travel expenses, as well as his daughter’s apartment. Liang disputed the charges, arguing he should have received a more lenient sentence due to his years of public service.

When Liang was party chief of Nanshan District, he reportedly took HKD 680,000 from an engineer at Nanyou Holdings Co., surnamed Ye, in exchange for appointing him head of the Nanshan Urban Construction and Development Co., a state-owned enterprise. Ye, also charged with corruption, pleaded guilty earlier this month to accepting RMB 2.09 million and HKD 290,000 in bribes.

Then there was Jiang Hanping, a deep-pocketed man who shelled out twice to Liang—once to become head of Shenzhen’s family planning commission, which cost him RMB 130,000, and later to ascend to the head of Shenzhen’s public health bureau, a promotion with a price tag of RMB 500,000.

Liang didn’t just hand-out promotions to the highest bidder, he also accepted RMB 428,510 and HKD 1.1 million in bribes to relocate Shenzhen’s Neurological Disease Hospital and a factory.

Liang also used a man named Zhang to purchase the aforementioned apartment for his daughter, who was getting married at the time. Liang paid roughly 60% of the cost, and Zhang shelled out the rest. Zhang then agreed to decorate and furnish the apartment, paying an additional HKD 600,000.

Photo: xwh

The post Former Shenzhen Deputy Mayor Gets 10 Years For Corruption appeared first on The Nanfang.

Dongguan Mayor Yuan Baocheng, courtesy of Google Images

The ancient expression 养子防老 （yangzifanglao） means “Raise a son to protect yourself in old age.” This expression encapsulates nicely a culture in which children are expected to support their parents in old age and may explain some of the thinking that has gone into the policy.

The man must be at least 49 and the woman must be at least 60 for a couple to qualify. Dongguan Mayor Yuan Baocheng said that the new measure, along with existing social security and health insurance policies, will provide a safety net for the ageing couples.

The post Dongguan to give 1,000 yuan a month to parents who lost only-children appeared first on The Nanfang.

Under the new system, a red alert will be issued when the air quality index (AQI) is forecast to exceed 300 at more than half of the city’s 10 monitoring stations. Cars in the city will be allowed on the road only on alternate days during red alerts, according to the rules approved on Monday. Orange alerts will be issued when air quality index falls between 201 to 300. If an orange alert is issued, businesses that fail to meet emissions standards will be required to cease emissions altogether.

Thirty percent of government cars will remain parked if air pollution hits serious levels. Twenty percent will be kept off the road during orange alerts.

The mayor himself has pledged to change his commuting habits to help the environment.

The paper has more:

Construction sites that put dust and fumes in the air, as well as fireworks and outdoor barbecues will be banned during orange alerts.

The government’s fleet of 13,000 cars accounts for about 0.6 percent of the cars in Guangzhou, Yang Liu, director of the city’s environmental protection bureau, said at a news conference on Monday.

“In difficult times, public servants should take the lead in taking action to address environmental pollution.”

Yang said Guangzhou Mayor Chen Jianhua pledged to go to work by subway during any environmental emergencies.

Asked whether schools would be suspended during a red alert, Yang said education authorities would address that issue.

In the past three years, the city’s air quality has never deteriorated to a level that would today prompt a red alert, Yang said.

An orange alert would have been issued twice in 2011 and three times last year. No orange alert would have been warranted so far this year.

Guangzhou’s air quality complied with the standard on 210 of the 274 days in the first three quarters of this year, according to Yang’s bureau.

Excellent air quality was recorded on 73 days, good air quality on 137 days, light pollution on 55 days and medium pollution on eight days.

Readings that failed the standards mainly involved ozone, nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5 — particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter.

Of the six air pollution indexes, the PM2.5 reading failed the standard by the largest margin, averaging 47 micrograms per cubic meter and exceeding the standard by 34 percent in the three quarters.

Guangzhou’s PM2.5 readings will decrease by more than 6 percent in 2015 compared with the 2010 levels, according to the city’s environmental protection plan.

Although there is reason to be skeptical as to whether the measures will be successful, their introduction shows that the issue of air pollution has truly taken centre stage. Long-term China watcher Isabel Hilton had this to say:

There was a time, maybe ten years ago, when people were almost proud of smog because it meant ‘we’re industrializing, we’re becoming a real country, we have the problems of modernity rather than the problems of the middle ages.’ So this was regarded as progress….that moment has definitely passed, and these very serious episodes have brought terrific pressure on the government. If you are the only power, you also are the only people to blame, and they know that.

The post Guangzhou to limit car traffic on heavily polluted days appeared first on The Nanfang.

In an attempt to encourage the city’s citizens to keep the city clean, Mayor Chen Jianhua (centre) and Municipal party secretary Wan Qingliang (right) grabbed a broom and a bit of elbow grease and headed down to Beijing Lu, one of Guangzhou’s main shopping districts, on Tuesday to give the pavement a good scrub.

Chen told CRIEnglish.com:

Keeping the city clean is every citizen’s responsibility and obligation… through this move, [hopes] more citizens will get involved in keeping the city clean.

While Guangzhou’s political leaders complain about the upkeep on the ground, at least the Flower City looks aesthetically pleasing.

Let’s see if this new policy stunt works out.

Picture from: New Express

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