How to Use Guide

What is the software?

The Elastic login is a deep search portal. This allows for very targeted information searches such as through historical information at the word level; should you wish to know exactly what has occurred in one area (sector, person, company etc) within a short, yet specific timeframe (e.g. within in one week) with only one specific keyword. This is like Google, for each of the different lines. It is used for checking specific queries from unstructured search.

The second login is called Bilby, which is a custom alert and instant information delivery app. This Bilby rapid allows you to search through various areas and create your own alerts, delivered to your email inbox or phone no more than 30 seconds after the release of the information. It also gives you a chronological update of whatever is happening within Chinese governance (click the small page icon in the top corner for an English translation).

‌‌The final Google login is a hybrid solution delivered. It provides regular RSS style update feeds at the regulatory/official media/private media level, as well as ten pages that work at the sector level. ‌‌

How to use it:

Elastic is best used for top-down research or for digging into things. Bilby is best used for anything that requires being the first person to know or anything where you need to be updated.

Bottom up example

Start with the top 5 of the day. Switch to Elastic to dig into the details. Switch to Bilby to create an updater and tracker that can keep you on top of what comes first.

Look at the report on the Greater Bay Area; then add to that the private information. "On 24 April, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Shenzhen announced the departure of eight senior officials and their replacement by cadres from other cities. Topping the list of outgoers is its mayor Chen Rugui, a 59-year-old Shenzhen veteran. His successor is Deputy Governor of Guangdong Qin Wei-zhong, a 49-year-old ex-manager of oil giant CNPC."

Top down example (ESG on the non-national level)

1/ Pollution is spottedcomplaints to provincial/local environmental protection bureausmunicipal/provincial monitoring system detects an abnormality2/ On-site inspections and gather evidence (local Environmental Protection (EP) Bureaus)Sometimes joined by public security teamsOccasionally joined by administrative bodies (local/street offices), relevant local bureaus, and provincial expertsA few cases involved collaboration with other EP bureaus3/ Depending on the severityEP Standard violation: Local EP bureau decides the punishment according to national policies. Some refer to local penalties as well.Criminal Law offends: The pollution case and inspection records are handed to public security administrations (and sometimes involve the prosecutors)

For MEE1/ Targeted pollution problems: nuclear-related, frequent offenders2/ Follow and publicizes rectification updates3/ Coordinate major pollution events (those involving multiple provinces)4/ Dismiss and suspend officials for bad enforcement

Power of the guidance

  1. Page and place and font and colour and picture -- from Top 5 Things

  2. How much of the page it occupies -- can be tracked in Elastic or in GCP

  3. How many people cite it within the leadership -- can be tracked in Elastic or in GCP

  4. Who said it, what type of document it is, which committee was it at -- diagrams

  5. Is this regular or irregular? Ie central economic work conference is regular, a financial crisis is irregular -- Bilby

‌Power of the response

  1. Page and place and font and colour and picture within the ministerial newspaper -- from Top 5 Things

  2. Number of ministerial actions on that topic -- can be tracked in Elastic (Regulatory Line)

  3. For some areas: amount of local work activities on that topic -- can be tracked in Elastic (Local Line)

  4. Opinion leaders and other comments on the theme -- can be tracked in Elastic (Social and Private Line)

  5. Workplan percentage plus budget line -- can be tracked in Elastic (Budget Line)

‌‌Metrics

  1. Amount of newspaper inches/xinwen lianbo broadcast time -- can be tracked in GCP (Top Line)

  2. Private line coverage – views and comments

  3. 3) State council information office questions in press conference by ministries

  4. 4) Weibo/wechat data FORTHCOMING, VARIES BY SECTOR — PLEASE CONTACT IF YOU’D LIKE

Shocks to the system

Usually these are best tracked through Bilby. Three comparative use cases to be designed include:

  1. Index score

  2. Comments deleted/censorship applied

  3. Direct attack on a company

Systematic Example: Regional preferential FDI policiesChange of regional preferential FDI policies provide favorable tax exemptions or environmental green passes are suddenly eliminated, increasing the operational costs.Apart from the central policies of setting up various special zones and coastal cities, provinces have the power to set their own preferential tax and land policies to attract foreign investment, also different local industrial policies subsidizing specific industries.Regional regulations change for export-oriented firms and those domestic market-oriented firms. The local govnt set more hidden regulations (e.g. during implementation) for those firms that might compete with the regional firms for its domestic market share.

We measure:

  1. local tax, land, industrial policies (but hard to automate without sector level specification)

  2. other preferential policies (like loans) - in the ZonesChina does provide preferential financial policies for foreign investors; more loans to foreign-invested projects with preferential interest rates or repayment schedules, e.g. towards western development