Australia's surf giants drift as big retail, newcomers catch wave
Amid bankruptcies, buyouts and shifting consumer fashion trends, large question marks hang over Australia's legacy surfing brands -- Rip Curl, Quiksilver and Billabong. How do the 'big three' stay surfer-cool now that decades of commercial development have left them closer to the shopping mall than the beach? And how do they deal with competition from fast fashion and newcomers from the subculture?
This week's China Up Close focuses on two senior officials who have become the latest probe targets. Liu Jianchao -- the head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department who was supposed to accompany North Korea's Kim Jong Un and other foreign leaders at events related to the Sept. 3 military parade -- was not seen during the extravaganza. Three days later, Chinese authorities announced that Yi Huiman, former chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, had been placed under investigation for "serious violations of discipline and law."
The two are members of the party's Central Committee, which will hold its fourth plenary session next month. Before Liu and Yi apparently fell out of favor, there was a spate of purges, including within the military. Attention is now focused on how the key session will reshuffle personnel.
今週の「China Up Close」は、新たに調査対象となった2人の高官に焦点を当てています。中国共産党中央対外連絡部のトップで、本来なら9月3日の軍事パレード関連行事で北朝鮮の金正恩氏やその他の外国首脳に同行するはずだった劉建超氏は、その華やかな式典に姿を見せませんでした。3日後、中国当局は、中国証券監督管理委員会の元主席である易会満氏が「重大な規律違反および法律違反」の疑いで調査を受けていると発表しました。
