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May 19, 2007

China: $20 billion for Africa

The African Develoment Bank just concluded it annual meeting, hosted in Shanghai by the Chinese government. William Wallis reports for The Financial Times:

China intends to provide about $20bn in infrastructure and trade financing to Africa during the next three years, eclipsing many of the continent’s traditional big donors by a single pledge.

The scale of China’s accelerating financial flows were revealed to the Financial Times on Thursday by Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The sums involved are beginning to outstrip individual contributions from traditional donors, including multilateral development agencies.

Impossible to avoid Chinese food ingredients

This LA Times article looks at the response of US food manufacturers to recent safety scares about Chinese ingredients. The article reports that Mission Foods and Tyson Foods have issued directives to their suppliers banning Chinese ingredients. However it seems such bans may be impossible because 'some food additives are available in vast quantities only from China'.

May 18, 2007

Zhejiang: Capitalism on speed

National Geographic has published story by River Town author Peter Hessler about the incredible entrepreneurs and workers of Zhejiang. It's is accompanied by a series of photos by Mark Leong, as well as 'field notes' by both the writer and photographer. Excerpt:

In 23 minutes, they designed an office, a hallway, and three living rooms for factory managers. On the top floor, the workers' dormitories required another 14 minutes. All told, they had mapped out a 21,500-square-foot (2,000 square meters) factory, from bottom to top, in one hour and four minutes. Boss Gao handed the scrap of paper to the contractor. The man asked when they wanted the estimate.

'How about this afternoon?'

Food product exports feel the heat

David Barboza in the IHT:

Weeks after tainted Chinese pet food ingredients killed and sickened thousands of dogs and cats in the United States, China faced growing international pressure to prove that its food exports were safe to eat.

But simmering beneath the surface is a thornier problem that worries Chinese officials: how do they assure the world that this is not a nation of counterfeits and that 'Made in China' means well-made?

Is China's art dragon made of paper?

From Anna Somers Cocks in The Art Newspaper:

..much has changed in the official attitude towards art in the last four or five years. In particular, the art colleges have been opened up and enormously expanded. Mr Chang, who teaches at the Huang Zhou Academy, says that it used to have about 300 students to 300 teachers, but in the last four to five years it has grown to 6,000 students, only 2,000 of whom are in the fine arts, and the rest in new subjects such as design.

What Chinese art needs now, says Lorenz Helbling, is better exhibitions, focused on a single artist to get away from the undifferentiated 'Chineseness' of group shows. It needs better curators within China (Hou Hanru, although excellent, is now more of a Western figure).

Do British journalists count?

Daily Telegraph correspondent Richard Spencer wonders on his blog why he has not been detained in Tibet or hassled by government minders.

Chery cars to form JV with Israeli firm

The Wall Street Journal reports that China's Chery Automobile plans to set up 'a car-manufacturing joint venture with Quantum LLC, a U.S. unit of Tel Aviv-listed holding company Israel Corp'. The article quotes Xinhua saying that 'Quantum will acquire a 45% stake for $225 million'.

May 17, 2007

Why China relaxed blogger crackdown

In The Wall Street Journal, Jason Leow writes about how industry pressure and technological limitations have forced the authorities to delay plans to have mobile phone users and bloggers to register with their real names.

LVMH invests in baijiu

The Financial Times reports:

Not content with exporting Dom Pérignon champagne, Hennessy cognac and Glenmorangie whisky to China’s elite, France’s LVMH has taken a majority stake in Wenjun, a Chinese distillery.

Its decision to buy 55 per cent of the business for an undisclosed sum highlights the desire of international drinks groups to win a foothold in the fast-growing market for Chinese clear grain spirits, known as baijiu or “white alcohol”.

Diageo, the British drinks group that owns Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka, said in January it was taking a stake in a leading maker of baijiu.

Yu Guoming Interview

互联网上的政治

     -专访中国人民大学舆论研究所所长喻国明

《环球》杂志记者/ 谢黎

随着网络视频等技术的不断发展,互联网给人们提供厂一个更为开放的话语场所。虚拟的空间敲开了原本严肃的政治之门。

真实,混杂,等等,这些从不同角度观察网络的不同看法,也提出了不同的问题。就此,记者专访了中国人民大学舆论研究所所长喻国明

《环球》:网络在传递信息、制造舆论等方面起到了越来越重要的作用,有人说它加强了“国家意志”和“民间意志”的相互交流与沟通,这在多大程度上影响了政治文明的发展?
喻国明:无论在国内还是国外,互联网都使过去缺少表达渠道的人获得了发表意见的平台。现在网络展示出来的种种可能性还在一个发展过程当中,但是我们至少可以知道,这种渠道已经开始影响政治生态。

在过去,民意要通过如议会、媒介等机构或管道来表达。网络则让个人可以直接对政府的施政行为或者公共政策表达自己的意见。网络把这些“微力量”聚集起来,形成当今社会生活中不可忽视的力量。

《环球》:互联网的开放性以及言论的自由传播是否会在某种程度上加剧政府的管理难度?
喻国明:网络使话语权分配状况发生改变,昭示了社会的一种进步。无论是政府还是社会管理者都要做出调整去适应这种变化,这种管理需要采取新的思维和工作模式,不是一味地简单地去管制,而是需要正确疏导和良性互动。

《环球》:有人认为,网络民意可以代表真正的民意,您怎么看?
喻国明:过去征集民意的方式是比较单一的,其特点是间接地对相关问题做出反应。而网络议政则有利于直接沟通,在有“代言人”的同时,“直言人”大大增多了。但是,网民不等同于作为民意主体的公众。此外,即便是网络调查也存在着对于被访者身份难以辨认的问题。因此,在严谨的社会研究者看来,现阶段的网络民意可以部分地反映民意,但是很难真正完全代表民意。

《环球》:有人讲,网络民意也会带来无序,造成混乱。
喻国明:无序的状况是很多原因造成的。一方面是有一部分人不习惯看到有这么多的不同意见。他们习惯地认为,只有支持的认同的声音才是有序的。其实这种政治态度是需要调整的。另一方面,也要承认,多元化参与就像身处一个热闹的集市,混乱是难免的,实现科学有效的管理也需要一个过程,要知道,网络文明是在磨合中发展起来的。

《环球》:在中国,网民已成为一个日益庞大的群体,人们上网频率也很高。您认为,在这样一个开放的信息时代,政府部门应当采取怎样的措施以更好地发挥网络的“舆论场”作用?
喻国明:网络上面反映出来的东西,已经越来越成为政府进行决策参考以及相关学者进行研究的重要依据。在涉及到国家的一些重要决策时,在意见采纳上,还是要建立起一些规则将其纳入合理的轨道,降低可能的冲击。随着网民素质的提高,当大多数人都意识到要遵守一定规则的时候,秩序也就建立起来了

《环球》:网权对政权的影响不仅仅局限在一国之内。有人说,在世界范围内,国与国之间通过互联网进行的文化、思想交锋是一种“软战争”。而目前来说,中国的网络空间还比较狭小,一些人对此有些担忧,您怎么看?
喻国明:我不这么看。我很早就是个网民了。当时,网络上还没有中文资源。而现在,用百度用谷歌去搜索一下中文信息,你会发觉内容很丰富。我认为,网络上中文资源占有量的多少是跟中国的国际影响力、国际地位以及政治经济文化的发展状况联系在一起的。

和那些担忧不同,我倒认为,从发展势头来说,中文资源的话语权越来越强,这是很了不起的。当然,我们还要更多地进人到国际交流当中去,要有更多的文化交融的平台,而不是一种卡拉OK式的自娱自乐。但这种提升一定是一个漫长的过程,不能有急躁的心态。□

Comrades, Flush!

JDM070517flush.png
A woodblock print bearing the battle-cry "Comrades, charge" (同志们,冲啊!) is repurposed for use in a Beijing toilet stall.

David Spindler and the Great Wall

Andrew Field introduces the work of David Spindler, the subject of an article by Peter Hessler in the latest issue of the New Yorker:

David's unique combination of field research and library research has allowed him to put together a set of stories behind the building of the Beijing-area walls in the late 1500s-early 1600s that had remained obscure for centuries, as well as enabling him to describe the structures and functions of the walls and towers in far greater detail than anybody has done before.

May 16, 2007

Wall-Eyed in Suzhou

Bill Dodson at the This is China! Weblog continues his first-hand account of a dispute between homeowners and developers:

It was then I understood why the police had stayed out of the high-rise protest until that moment: now it was a public disturbance; before it was much like a spat between a husband and wife, an internal affair. The protest now though spilled out onto a public thoroughfare, Xing Gang Street. A very busy street in the mornings during rush hour, especially for trucks loaded with building materials for other construction sites around Suzhou Industrial Park.

Did the 'Genocide Olympics' influence China?

Will Moss at Imagethief writes about Darfur, the Beijing Olympics, and western protests:

Propaganda and censorship are two sides of the same coin. Both share the same goal: to enable an individual or organization to shape consensus in a group. They often work together. Censorship eliminates competing ideas, creating a void in which propaganda can be more effective. Having a coup? Seize the transmitters and studios so you control the message. It's time-honored strategy. Propaganda and censorship are related in another way. They both work cumulatively, over time. It's not usually the 'magic bullet' that drives consensus so much as the patient steering of discourse over time via many channels.

Asian history roundup

Issue #14 of the 'Asian History Carnival' by the Granite Studio blogger is an excellent annotated round-up of the past month's history-related news. Not to be missed.

Political reforms and effective power monitoring

From David Bandurski at CMP:

Wang Guixiu (王贵秀), a scholar with the Party School of CPC Central Committee, criticized normative approaches to 'power monitoring' in China, saying they were based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the notion of power relationships and the delegation of power. Effective monitoring, he argued, could only come with 'rational decentralization', in which power was delegated through an electoral process and officials were monitored independently by those who entrusted them with power.

With translated excerpts from Wang's op-ed in the Beijing Daily.

Video of Jung Chang in Israel

fiLi at fiLi's World writes about a presentation by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday at Tel Aviv University on the publication of the Hebrew edition of Mao: The Unknown Story. Videos and a bullet-point summary of their speeches are included.

Those Seeds Unsown

In Spot-On, Jonathan Ansfield writes about wealth and gender issues in contemporary Chinese society: 'When a man reaches 40,' Mr. Zhang reflected, 'his main occupation should be beautiful women.'

The art media hustle

At CDT, Jonathan Ansfield introduces a gallery owner's description of being approached by 'journalists' selling magazine content: Basically, it is all soft ads. The contents page doesn't pop up until page 26 and according to the price list, every one of the monthly's 200-odd pages is for sale....The government talks about building the 'cultural industry' and the 'creative industry' ('文化产业','创意产业'). I suppose that means more creative marketing of culture than I previously thought. [UPDATED: The narrative is in the gallery worker's own words.]

May 15, 2007

Scolding an errant reporter

Tim Johnson travels on a tourist permit instead of a journalist pass and gets a measured talking-to from the Foreign Ministry.

The Times to Murdoch-bashers: no China problem

The editor of The Times of London, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has written to a member of the board of Dow Jones, defending his newspaper's China coverage.

Multinational brands advertise real estate

JDM070515google.jpg

Google, Baidu, Nokia, Motorola, and BP are tapped to plug a Beijing building project in a series of advertising puns.

WSJ China bureau to Murdoch: stay away!

The Wall Street Journal's China-based reporters -- whose coverage won a Pulitzer this year -- have sent a letter to three key members of the Bancroft family, the Dow Jones Company's controlling shareholder, urging them to refuse Rupert Murdoch's bid to buy Dow Jones.

Blue-haired girl and lies on the Chinese Internet

ESWN translates articles from the Chinese Internet: 'Did a photographer save a girl with blue hair from throwing herself in front of an oncoming train? Or did he take advantage of her disadvantage and violated her sexually afterwards? On the Chinese Internet, who can you trust nowadays?'

Yu Dan: force for harmony

Yu Dan (于丹) gets criticized by 'real scholars'. He Dong (何东) writes in her defense, saying that TV program hosts are the ones who ought to be upset. Zhao Yong in Southern Metropolis Daily writes that she upholds the mainstream government line.

Foreigners barred from independent travel in Tibet

Jane Macartney of The Times (London) reports: 'China has tightened restrictions on travel by foreigners in the Himalayan region of Tibet after five Americans unfurled a banner at the foot of Mount Everest to protest against the staging of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing ... 'We can’t let foreign tourists just go anywhere by themselves,” she said. “In the past they could be left alone to travel independently as they wanted for a few days. Now this is not allowed any more.''

Beijing Olympic rules for foreign journalists

BOCOG has released a document named 'Service Guide for Foreign Media Coverage during the Olympics' with contact details and rules for foreign journalists that apply from January 1 this year until just after the Games. The only dodgy part is the 'Coverage of Public Emergency' section which specifies that journalists must 'follow the security personnel's instructions'.

Teamsters' Hoffa in China

James P. Hoffa, son of Jimmy Hoffa and General President of one of America's largest trade unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, is in China on a fact-finding mission and will hold 'media briefings': Hong Kong May 17, 9am at Grand Hyatt; Shanghai May 18, 5pm at Grand Hyatt, Beijing May 21, 8am at St. Regis Beijing. Workers of the world unite and enjoy five star hotels!

May 14, 2007

Monkeys, Onions and Bunnies

Zat Liu at Shanghaiist introduces a Life Week interview with Wang Momo, creator of those cute bunny animations you see all over Chinese chat programs and blog providers.

Citizen sues China's Net Nanny

A Shanghainese man is apparently suing China Telecom because his company website, hosted outside of China, is blocked. China Telecom is his Internet service provider, so he he taking them to court because they can neither solve the problem nor explain what is causing it. This could be an interesting test case for the Net Nanny aka Great Firewall. The blog post linked here gives the time and venue of the first hearing of the case (May 29).

Myspace.com blocked in China

Soon after the launch of MySpace for China at myspace.cn, the international myspace.com appears to be blocked.

A green revolution in China?

Seed magazine (slogan: 'Science is culture') has published an article by Mara Hvistendahl titled The China Experiment — Inside the revolution to green the biggest nation on earth. Excerpt: '[C]rucial awareness of global climate issues is penetrating China's political leadership, who realize that environmental damage threatens their economic miracle ... If China's peasants get hooked on renewable power before they join the middle classes, and if its existing middle classes can learn to conserve energy before they can afford two cars, the country could effectively leapfrog over the West in developing sustainable energy and growth.'

China launches satellite for Nigeria

Xinhua reports: 'China on early Monday morning launched a communications satellite for Nigeria, the first of its kind in Africa and the first time a foreign buyer has purchased a Chinese satellite and its launching service'. The report also makes the following dubious claims: 'Experts estimate that the satellite program will revolutionize telecommunications, broadcasting and broadband multimedia services in Africa. It will create more than 150,000 jobs for Nigerians, save broadband users more than 95 million U.S. dollars a year...'

Chinese allowed to invest in foreign funds

The Financial Times reports on changes to China's laws that will allow Chinese people and companies investing in foreign equity products: 'The new rules, in effect, let foreign fund managers tap China’s $2,000bn in retail bank deposits, the world’s biggest savings pool, without forming mandatory domestic operations.'

Mao portrait vandal media coverage

ESWN has a roundup of the media coverage about the man who tried to set fire to Mao's portrait on Tiananmen.

African Development Bank meets in Shanghai

From The Wall Street Journal: As Shanghai plays host this week to the African Development Bank's annual board of governors meeting, African countries are likely hoping that China will use the event to show that its developing affection for the continent extends beyond energy and commodities. Showing China's deepening relationship with Africa, the board of the 77-member organization will meet here Wednesday and Thursday -- only the second time it has met outside of Africa, the first being in Spain in 2001 ... In trade terms, the importance of the relationship is growing for both sides. China-Africa trade reached $55.5 billion last year, more than four times its 2002 level, and it is expected to hit $100 billion by 2010.

May 13, 2007

China appoints Special Rep. for African Affairs

From a Xinhua article in The China Daily: 'China announced on Thursday the appointment of a special representative for African affairs, a measure that analysts say shows China is trying to exert more influence in the region ... Liu Guijin, a 61-year-old veteran diplomat, was appointed to the post. Former ambassador to Zimbabwe and South Africa, he has been engaged in African affairs for more than 25 years ... Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that Liu would initially focus on Darfur as the region continues to attract international concern.'