China's Marlboro Country
Te-Ping Chen writes for Slate about the counterfeit cigarette industry in Yunxiao, Fujian Province.
« May 2009 | Main | July 2009 »
June 30, 2009
Tipping and Beijing air pollution index
The Atlantic's James Fallows has left China － in this blog post he misses not tipping and hopes that the people on top of the Beijing U.S. embassy will predict some positive weather for Beijing on Twitter soon.
Delays for Green Dam filter installation
The Financial Times is reporting that computer retailers in Beijing aren't expecting PCs equipped with the Green Dam-Youth Escort software until several weeks after the official deadline of July 1:
Staff selling Lenovo, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Acer, Asustek and Founder computers at a branch of Suning, a big electronics retailer in northern Beijing, all said Green Dam-equipped PCs would not be available for about another two months.
An information technology ministry spokesman declined to comment on whether the government would penalise PC makers who failed to comply with the July 1 deadline.
Some retail staff said they did not expect the government to enforce its order strictly.
Some more Green Dam documents...
Rebecca MacKinnon writes about more documents to do with the Green Dam: from Sony, who has gone ahead with including the software in their products, and a letter composed in protest to Premier Wen:
So it appears that Sony has gone ahead with distribution of Green Dam on at least some of its computers sold in China, providing the program on the hard disk for the user to install if they want, with major disclaimers.
Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reports that a broad coalition of international business associations, including most of the world's major technology companies have issued an appeal directly to Premier Wen Jiabao.
China raises gasoline and diesel prices
From AFP:
China boosted state-set gasoline and diesel prices Tuesday to reflect rising global crude costs.
The retail price of gasoline rose by 8.6 percent and that of diesel by 9.6 percent, the country's planning agency announced. It said the step, the fourth change in prices this year, was meant to allow prices to fluctuate as crude costs change.
Virtual currency only virtually useful
The WSJ's China Journal reports on new rules prohibiting the use of virtual currency to buy actual goods:
Among the other highlights: The regulations state that online currency issuers should refund the unused virtual money of their users if their products or services are terminated for some reason. Virtual currency is to be used only to purchase other goods or services from the company that issued the virtual money and it may not be used to buy virtual items from any other company other than the original issuer. Companies already involved in virtual currency trading are required to register with the local cultural affairs bureau within three months.
June 29, 2009
Michael Jackson and China
The Global Times writes about the King of Pop and his fans in China:
"If you were young and sensitive to rhythm, you would surely fall in love with his music," said 41-year-old Wang Xiaofeng, a well-known music critic, while describing the heat Jackson created at his heyday.
In the summer of 1986, Wang got a copy of Jackson's songs from his schoolmate who had managed to buy the album from an exhibition of audio and video products.
"In the first few minutes, his music got me," said Wang, "I had no idea about rock'n'roll until that moment."
Politics of othering and postmodernization of the Cultural Revolution
Guo Jian, professor of English and Chinese at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and co-editor of Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, has posted a number of papers to the TECN academic website.
Others include:
Pollution blamed for tumor outbreak in Dongming
The Global Times reports on allegations concerning the connection between industrial pollution and thyroid tumors in Dongming County, Shandong Province. The local government had dismissed online discussion last week as rumors, but the case has attracted high-level attention:
According to a report yesterday by the Southern Metropolis Daily, the petition was started by a few retired teachers. The deputy county mayor of Dongming talked to them three times to no avail. The local petitioners don’t believe the statistics of the local environment watchdog because, they said, the authorities are on the side of the chemical plants.
Yu Guoming, deputy dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that the official feedback to the public opinion “is not at all timely, allowing negative reports to grow and losing the best opportunities to guide public opinion.”
“The feedback is general and does not address specific public concerns,” Yu said.
China's stringent football transfer rules
China Sports Review describes the process a CFA player must go through to be transferred to another team:
Different from FIFA’s current Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, it stipulates a player needs to wait 30 months after his contract runs out at a club to become a free agent, a period of time spanning across three seasons....If a player hands in a transfer request to his club and the club wants to keep him. Chances are he can still be transfer listed, but the sky-high price tag will only keep interested buyers away.
Shaoguan violence sparked by a rumor
Xinhua reports that Han-Uighur violence in Shaoguan was predicated on a rumor:
The brawl left two Xinjiang workers dead and another 118 injured.
A post on a local website that said "Six Xinjiang boys raped two innocent girls at the Xuri Toy Factory" caused the brawl, a municipal government spokesman said.
Police found that the former worker of Xuri, surnamed Zhu, faked the information to express his discontent as Zhu failed to get re-employed after quitting the job.
Police found no rape cases at the Xuri Toy Factory.
ESWN has earlier reports and photos.
June 28, 2009
Austrians love Asians
FEER's Traveller's Tales blog finds a restaurant sign in Vienna that's in very poor taste.
Observations on Chinese publishing
At the Frankfurt Book Fair blog, Edward Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives, relates some experiences during a "journey of literary discovery" to Beijing, including:
On Sunday night, our group met with four Chinese writers discusses the Chinese concept of culture. While the conversation ranged over a wide variety of topics, from Mao and communism, to the capitalist economic explosion that’s embracing China and diverting young people away from literature, the panelists unselfconsciously referred to themselves as “intellectuals.”
· The “C” Word:
If the Chinese delegation that’s going to attend Frankfurt is smart, they will host at least one panel that addresses the topic head on. “Is there Censorship in China?” sounds perfect. If they don’t, they risk making it the only topic that gets written about their stint as Guest of Honor at the Fair.
My impression of the Chinese publishing scene is that it’s a bit like like sitting down to a Chinese banquet : It’s all a bit foreign, a bit familiiar, and everything is so appetizing that it’s hard to know where to start. There are some 225,000 books published in China each year — about the same number as in the US, provided you discount self-published titles — and some 6,000 publishers. So, a few impressions….
Sino-French relations from "the time of distrust" to today
Adam Cathcart at the Sinologistical Violoncellist blog muses on the development of contemporary French attitudes toward China (and Chinese attitudes toward France):
I think that one unintended consequence of China's massive rise as an economic powerhouse is that sympathy for China among the French left has eroded completely. Does any self-respecting French communist, much less a reader of the (quite-well written) leftist daily papers like L'Humanite or Liberation really have hope for socialism in China? In the 1950s and 1960s, some French saw China as a major source of revoutionary theory and socialist creativity. (On the other hand, French correspondent Robert Guillain coined the decidedly unfriendly term "army of blue ants" to describe how Mao was organizing society.) During the Cultural Revolution, a French film studio even produced "Red Guards Occupy Paris" in a type of praise for student activism. Today, in the aftermath of Tiananmen's disappointing fussilades, the French left appears to have divested itself permanently from association from a People's Republic with whose agenda it has little in common. To them, the combination of economic growth with political repression is, simply, repugnant.
Michael Jackson commemorated
A mosaic of Chinese newspaper covers marking the death of the international pop star.
Jin Yong joins the Writers' Association
Martial arts novelist Jin Yong is joining the China Writers' Association and is rumored to be in line for a vice-chairmanship. Good news? Or one last bid for relevance by a dying organization?
Shishou suicide note
Analyzing Tu Yuangao's suicide note in the context of the Shishou riots.
June 27, 2009
Building falls over in Shanghai
ESWN has a set of astonishing photos currently circulating online of a 13-storey building in Shanghai that tipped over, landing intact on its side.
Hummer may not be coming to China
The BBC relays a China National Radio report about Tengzhong's bid to buy Hummer from GM:
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will also block Sichuan Tengzhong from buying Hummer because the Chinese construction equipment maker lacks expertise in car production, the state radio added.
Sichuan Tengzhong said: "The view expressed on China National Radio's website did not quote or source anyone at NDRC."
"We do not yet have a definitive agreement, but are developing our proposals with GM and Hummer and we will continue to engage with the appropriate authorities in an appropriate manner."
China - Turkey: deals worth €1 billion
From The China Daily:
Five Chinese companies signed agreements worth 1 billion euros with a visiting Turkish business delegation on Friday even as officials of both countries called for more trade and investment exchanges.
June 26, 2009
Is 29 too young to be mayor?
A translation of Yu Jianrong's essay about Yicheng's new mayor whose age -- 29 -- has sparked a debate in China about how officials get their jobs.
Getting old before getting rich
The Economist examines China's problem with having too may old people:
China is still a relatively young country, with a median age of around 30. But, uniquely among developing countries, it is ageing extraordinarily fast, so by 2050 its median age will have risen to about 45.Over the next few decades the ratio of elderly dependants to people of working age will rise steeply, from 10% now to 40% by 2050. From about 2030 the country will have more elderly dependants than children.
Reform of state secrets law?
On Forgotten Archipelagoes, a blog about criminal law, detention, violence in China
The first round of discussion on the Law on the Protection of State Secrets will take place in Beijing from June 22 to 27. The decision was made today by the 25th Presidium of the NPC.
How China justifies empty witness chairs
From Caijing:
Despite the complexity and seriousness of the case, none of the eyewitnesses to the killing attended the June 16 [Deng Yijiao] trial. Instead, the prosecution presented every bit of witness testimony by submitting written records to the court.
The physical presence of a courtroom witness is rare in China. According to the Supreme People's Court, only 10 percent of all witnesses testify at first instance trials in China, and less than 5 percent appear at second instance hearings.
Drugs, women and group sex parties
From Xinhua:
New drugs such as "ice" enhance sexual ability, and were often found in group sex parties, in which the same number of men and women participate, which partially explained the increase in women drug users, according to Professor Xia Guomei from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
NY Times on Internet restrictions in China
The New York Times has published a comprehensive account of recent Chinese government meddling with the Internet, from Green Dam to Google bashing and new restrictions, issued by the Ministry of Health, on sexual health websites.
June 25, 2009
Guangming Daily: Western 'hostile forces' at work in Iran
David Bandurski at the China Media Project introduces a Guangming Daily op-ed that points to the black hand of "western factors" seeking to destabilize Iran:
After briefly summarizing the pressure applied by Western leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the article enumerates, without a hint of skepticism, all of the charges Iran has leveled against the West, such as the use of special agents and the coordinating of "propaganda" efforts through the BBC and CNN.
The article's author, Li Jiabin (李佳彬), has written a number of such articles in recent days. Li wrote on June 23 that the U.S. government had "demanded that the operator of the Twitter service cooperate with the activities of Iran's opposition party."
Migrant children: The forgotten among China's next generation
At China Elections and Governance, Colton Margus writes about the children of migrant workers in Beijing:
According to the Rural Education Action Project (REAP), there are more than 300 migrant schools in Beijing alone. The children in these schools represent China's next generation, just as much as the children of the urban elite who so enjoy China's apparent rise. What appears to be a kind of systematic discrimination carried out because urban residents are either unable or simply unwilling to share will have long-term repercussions on society as a whole. Extremely different opportunities afforded to people in very close proximity is, after all, not good for social stability.
Will China rule the world?
The Guardian's Comment is Free runs a series of comment pieces: the latest by Shi Yinhong, and previous, John Gray and Martin Jacques.
Cheating metal importers stuck in Guangzhou
No sex, but writer and blogger Adam Minter does make the scrap metal trading industry fascinating in a way I would not have thought possible.
A new blog post of his looks at the tax loophole that has made Guangzhou's port "China's - and the world's - leading centers for the processing of mixed metal scrap over the last twenty years", and a current crackdown on traders who've been using the loophole.
Reading Liu Xiaobo's arrest report
From the Wall Street Journal China Journal, which takes the below translation from Silouweizi's blog:
2. It's likely that [Liu] Xiaobo will be indicted within a month and tried quickly. I predict that a trial would conclude before the end of July and that Xiaobo's sentence would be five years or less. If the procuratorate decides to prosecute him for "major crimes," the sentence could be greater than five years, but no matter what it would not exceed 10 years.
Sinopec to buy Canadian Addax Petroleum for
$7.2 billion
The New York Times reports that Sinopec, the Chinese oil giant, is seeking to take over Addax Petroleum, a Canada-registered oil company with fields off the coast of West Africa and in Iraq.
China's deal machine revved up Wednesday as Sinopec agreed to acquire the Canadian oil producer Addax Petroleum for $7.2 billion.
The transaction is remarkable for a few reasons. It's China's largest cross-border energy deal and the country's second-largest cross-border deal of any kind, according to Dealogic. And it comes after months of relative quiet from Chinese dealmakers, who, like many others, have been put off from shopping around the globe for companies by the grim economic climate.
June 24, 2009
Migrant worker blogger Wan Xiaodao
Jenny Zhu's blog introduces a migrant worker who writes about how it's better never to marry a city woman.
Sexologist Li Yinhe on "Homowives"
The Shanghaiist runs a translation of Li Yinhe's blog post about women married to homosexual men:
The 'homowife' phenomenon is a phenomenon unique to China, seldom witnessed in other countries. In other countries, homosexuals would remain single or live together or marry other homosexuals. Very few would enter into a heterosexual marriage. This difference comes about because Chinese culture places such a great emphasis on marriage and reproduction, as to make them compulsory.
See also: Jonathan in China responds with stories of two gay men.
Dissident Liu Xiaobo arrested for subversion
From Reuters:
One of China's best known dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, has been formally arrested on suspicion of inciting subversion, following his detention late last year for promoting a petition calling for an end to one-party rule.
There is also an AP report that quotes Liu's lawyer. The New York Times highlight the charge of "attempting to overthrow the Socialist system", which is considered a rare charge against dissidents.
Bread, milk, and pocket change
A brief history of childhood from Southern Metropolis Weekly. Translated by The Foreign Expert.
US lodges WTO case against China, and Green Dam complaints
From The Financial Times:
The US and the European Union on Tuesday raised the stakes in a growing dispute with China, lodging a joint case at the World Trade Organisation over export quotas on raw materials in the latest sign of friction over trade......The US is also stepping up its complaints on a separate trade-related issue over censorship software. US officials based in Beijing are lobbying Chinese counterparts to drop a requirement that computers sold in the country carry internet filtering software called Green Dam.
Zhang Yimou starts shooting Coen brothers remake
From Hollywood Reporter / AP:
Zhang Yimou has started shooting a remake of the Coen brothers' debut, "Blood Simple," the "Raise the Red Lantern" director's first film since designing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics last year, a publicist said Tuesday.
Filming on the Chinese film "San Qiang Pai An Jing Qi" -- which roughly translates as "The Stunning Case of the Three Gun Shots" -- kicked off June 9.
Plywood infernal
Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap visits a plywood factory where workers expect to contract a terminal illness within two to three years of going on the job.
I lasted only a few minutes and then my eyes began to water uncontrollably and swell. I rushed out into the daylight and relatively fresh air where it took a good ten minutes - maybe more - for my eyes to recover. Below, some images of the kids who remained working in that warehouse and who - as I already mentioned - the locals expect to survive for two or three years, at best.
Sino-Indian border tensions
By Jeff E. Smith in The Wall Street Journal:
The peaceful, side-by-side rise of China and India has been taken for granted in many quarters. But tensions between the two giants are mounting, and Washington would do well to take note. On June 8, New Delhi announced it would deploy two additional army divisions and two air force squadrons near its border with China. Beijing responded furiously to the Indian announcement, hardening its claim to some 90,000 square kilometers of Indian territory that China disputes.
Chinese journalists and post quake trauma
An article on Dartcenter.org looks at the psychological state of Chinese journalists who covered the Sichuan earthquake in 2008:
Gao knows three media professionals who resigned because of the pressure, but things only got worse after returning to Beijing. "White plastic bags in the streets, instinctively I thought they were corpses." Reactions ranged from group binge drinking and seeking fights, as Gao saw other media colleagues do, to isolation.
June 23, 2009
Caijing editor condemns Green Dam
Caijing magazine has published an English translation of editor Hu Shuli's condemnation of the Green Dam fiasco:
Mandatory installation of blocking software is an administrative act without sufficient moral and legal ground. From a legal point of view, this is a tussle between public power and social rights.
Cook's family to get compensation
China Daily reports on the mass incident in Shishou:
Around the blackened hotel, completely covered by plastic sheets, people gathered yesterday not to protest or pelt military police with rocks but simply to know if there were new developments. Some even offered military police watermelon slices as refreshment in the sultry summer day.
Zhang Yonglong, the owner of the hotel remained missing after the incident.
The hotel at the center of the riot was rumored to be used by dealers to distribute drugs.
Beijing airport "surpassed them all"
Evan Osnos in the New Yorker compares the airports Beijing, Newark, O'Hare, Tokyo, and Beijing comes out on top:
Beijing Capital International Airport has surpassed them all. Set aside matters of overall economic development, political freedom, obstacles to innovation, and so on. The simple fact is that China's vast flagship airport is a more painless, efficient, and impressive experience than the others. I arrived one hour before my international flight, stood in virtually no line, and was at the gate with thirty minutes to spare
Reuters reports Ai Weiwei's Internet boycott call
Reuters has dialed up the noise on artist and provocateur Ai Weiwei's calls for a boycott of the Chinese Internet on July 1:
...Ai Weiwei ... called on web users to boycott use of the Internet on the day of Green Dam's debut.In a post on Twitter ... Ai called for the low key protests to mark a day that is also the anniversary of the founding of China's Communist Party.
"Stop any online activities, including working, reading, chatting, blogging, gaming and mailing," Ai wrote in the Chinese-language post. "Don't explain your behavior."
Ai told Reuters he hoped the boycott would gather support because it offered an easy way to make a stand in a country where vocal opposition to government policy can be risky.
Hunan to give 10% of corruption money to whistle blowers
From China News Wrap:
The People's Daily website has a headline news story about the introduction of new regulations by the Hunan province government, stipulating that 10% of the proceeds from cases of official corruption are to be awarded to the informants responsible for reporting them. Up to 10 percent of the illegal proceeds of official corruption will be awarded to individuals who report such cases, with the maximum potential award sum as high as 200,000 RMB.
Activists: Dam near Chongqing will kill off rare fish
From The Wall Street Journal:
Environmental advocates are warning that a planned dam on China's Yangtze River could lead to the extinction of a number of rare fish species, casting a fresh spotlight on the potential environmental costs of the country's huge hydroelectric building program.
George Soros: in praise of China's unlisted companies
From Chinastakes.com:
George Soros consistently praised the regulation of the Chinese government and promoted opportunities during his recent visit to China. People can't help questioning why he has changed form "Mr. Short" to "Mr. Long".Soros refused to reveal details about industries and companies in his favor during his interviews with Chinese media. He has contacted quite a few Chinese companies, mostly unlisted, including some state-owned financial companies. Soros said the real investment opportunities in China lie in non-public companies, and that it is not wise to hold shares in these companies after their IPOs.
June 22, 2009
"Hazardous" Beijing air
James Fallows talks about the smaller particles in Beijing's polluted air:
The second development is the ongoing failure of the Chinese government to report any readings of, and perhaps even to measure, the PM 2.5 small-particulate level in its big cities' air. This matters because the smaller particles, which go deep into the alveoli, are more damaging to the lungs than the larger ones (background and links here) -- and because, by many accounts, their level in Beijing is once again rising.
US gets involved in filtering software
From the Financial Times:
"We view with concern any attempt to restrict the free flow of information," said Ian Kelly, a State department spokesman.
"Efforts to filter internet content are incompatible with China's aspirations to build a modern, information-based economy and society."
"We are concerned about Green Dam both in terms of its potential impact on trade and the serious technical issues raised by the use of the software," Mr Kelly said. "We have asked the Chinese to engage in a dialogue on how to address these concerns."
Also, a similar report from Bloomberg: U.S. Calls for Talks With China on Online Porn Filter
The US making trouble for China
At Forbes, Gady Epstein interviews Wang Xiaodong, one of the writers of Unhappy China.
Beijing Queer Independent Film Group interview
City Weekend interviews Popo of the China Queer Independent Film Group about his documentary short New Beijing, New Marriage to be screened in Beijing on June 28.
Cops arrest owners of quartz plant where explosion killed 16
From The China Daily:
The father and son who own a mining plant that was turned to rubble when a stash of illegal explosives detonated yesterday have been arrested, government sources said.As many as seven tons of illegal explosives stored in the office building of a quartz plant in Fengyang county in north Anhui province exploded at 3:17 am yesterday, killing 16 people immediately and leaving 43 injured, said the Chuzhou municipal government in a press conference yesterday.
Cigarette tax increase
From The China Daily:
The government has raised consumption tax on cigarettes by between 6 and 11 percent to curb smoking and add revenue to State coffers...
...The tax has not yet been passed on to smokers and it is unclear how much of the increase tobacco companies, wholesalers and retailers will absorb.
The myth of the $12 million Uighur
An op ed in The New York Times by Stuart Beck:
President Obama, much admired in Palau, asked our new president, Johnson Toribiong, to do the United States a favor: Please accept, as refugees, a group of innocent Chinese Muslims. They are not anti-American terrorists, but victims of human rights violations, who landed at Guantánamo Bay for seven years...
...In breaking the story that Palau was amenable to President Obama's request, the Associated Press reported that two anonymous State Department officials had linked Palau's acceptance of the Uighurs to a $200 million payoff.
staunch American ally would have been applauded, at least in the United States. Instead, for reasons that are beyond me, unattributed leaks and unsubstantiated rumors have twisted Palau's act of decency into another grab for dollars by a cunning third-world country. In breaking the story that Palau was amenable to President Obama's request, the Associated Press reported that two anonymous State Department officials had linked Palau's acceptance of the Uighurs to a $200 million payoff.
Almost immediately, much of the news media took the bait, did the math and asserted that Palau was getting nearly $12 million dollars per Uighur...
...Before the story gets too far out of hand, let's consider a few facts.
June 21, 2009
Tens of thousands protest in Shishou
On Saturday 20th, in Shishou (石首) city, Hubei province, tens of thousands of people went on the streets after the body of a 24-year-old chef was found outside the hotel he was working at. From AFP:
Police were struggling to restore order Saturday in a central China city hit by riots following a man's death in a government-linked hotel, local residents and a human rights group said.
The unrest in the city of Shishou in Hubei province saw violent clashes between police and thousands of residents amid suspicions over the cause of the man's death Wednesday, a resident said.
Also from Reuters, the twitter feed set up for the event, Baidu Full House blog, and Global Voices Online.
Also, a translation and lots of photos on ESWN
June 19, 2009
State media blames Google for porn
The government's Internet cleansing is a CCTV attack on Google China for pornographic content.
Foreign hacks in China before 1949
An extract from Paul French's new book about foreign journalists in China from 1820 to 1949, a colorful lot -- the exquisite Emily Hahn and her gibbon (left) are two of the many characters in the book. See also video interview with French.
Western socialists slug it out over 1989
In the June 4 issue of the Socialist Worker, Dennis Kosuth wrote Twenty years after Tiananmen Square, which read the events as a people's uprising. He included a sideswipe at the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which has now responded with an article by Richard Becker:
Dennis Kosuth's "Twenty Years after Tiananmen," in the Socialist Worker, qualifies, in this writer's opinion, as the single worst article on the Chinese Revolution from an ostensibly "left" perspective in decades.
What is most striking about Kosuth's piece is its extraordinary hostility to the Chinese Revolution in its entirety....It has nothing good whatsoever to say about an epochal and truly heroic revolutionary process that spanned decades and rescued a quarter of humanity from colonialism, landlordism and starvation. Such an utter lack of positive sentiment toward a truly great revolution is really an expression of fundamental disloyalty to all revolutions.
See also: John Chan at the ICFI's World Socialist Web Site: Twenty years since the Tiananmen Square massacre, Origins and consequences of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Global Times demands the vote (sort of)
Peter Foster at his Telegraph blog notices the front page picture of the English Global Times yesterday: an Iranian woman with a "Where Is My Vote?" badge.
Senior Tianjin official sacked for graft
The Straits Times reports:
Mr Pi Qiansheng, a vice-ministerial official in the north-eastern city of Tianjin, was sacked from the Chinese Communist Party over graft allegations on Wednesday. This followed the removal of Mr Xu Zongheng, mayor of Shenzhen city, less than a week ago on similar accusations.
While observers believe that both cases are not linked, they said that these are part of a fresh move by the central government to target provincial leaders.
June 18, 2009
Xanliq madrasa demolished
The New Dominion reports that the Xanliq madrasa in Kashgar has been torn down as part of a "renewal" of the old city:
Mahmud al-Kashgari, the 11th-century scholar who compiled the Dīwānu l-Luġat al-Turk, is said to have studied at the Xanliq Madrasa in its heyday. In the 1860s, following a lengthy period of decline at the Xanliq Madrasa and in the Islamic scholarly community in East Turkestan in general, a wealthy merchant from Atush named Abdurusulbay funded its renovation. In exchange, the Xanliq Madrasa was to host primary schools funded by local luminaries. In 1883, it became home to the first experimental school in Xinjiang to mix Islamic and "scientific" curricula. This was founded by Abdurusulbay's grandsons, Bawudunbay and Hüsäyinbay Musabayov. Although that school was short-lived, its successor, Atush's Hüsäyniyä School, produced generations of students educated using modern methods. It also spawned a broad-reaching network of similar schools that played a major organizing role in pre-1949 social and political movements.
Tear down this cyberwall!
Nicholas Kristof wants Barack Obama to support an "Internet freedom initiative" that would include $50 million in appropriations for censorship-evasion technologies to help netizens in places like Iran and China access websites blocked by the authorities.
The secrets of the US Expo 2010 pavilion
The murky circumstances behind the (lack of a) United States pavilion at Shanghai's Expo 2010 remain secret after a Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the Action Plan was denied, Adam Minter writes:
Late last week, the citizen who made the FOIA request contacted State for an update. On June 11, he was told that "it takes an average of 333 days for a case to be processed." Which means, if the request is approved, we might know by Thanksgiving (late November) the rules under which the authorized US pavilion group are/were operating.
Just to be clear: this isn't a top-secret document. It's not a torture memo (those were obtained via FOIA requests, by the way); it's not a national security briefing. It is a set of rules governing a pavilion for a fair. So why on Earth won't the State Department and/or the authorized group consent to its release?
Uighurs wary of move to Palau
The AP reports that although Palau has agreed to resettle some of the Uighurs held in Guantanamo, the men are not enthusiastic about going:
The Uighurs appear reluctant to temporarily resettle in Palau, said Joshua Koshiba, who leads a committee on U.S.-Palau relations. He has been in contact with the team since their trip.
Possibly only one Uighur wants to move to Palau, he said, without providing details of the discussions.
"You and me, we thought this was between the U.S. and Palau," Koshiba said. "But they have their own lawyers, and they have rights."
June 17, 2009
'The west should heed advice from China's bank regulators'
Arthur Kroeber in FT Dragonbeat:
[T]wo clear messages emerged from the cogent presentations by Chinese speakers [at a recent International Institute of Finance meeting].
First, China provides some useful lessons for western governments as they contemplate how to redesign their financial regulatory systems. Second, the prospects for significant financial-sector reform within China are rapidly brightening.
Gang bosses Hammerhead and Spicy Qin on trial
From AP / L.A. Times:
Scores of police gripping black clubs guarded a courthouse in southern China on Tuesday -- the first day of a trial for two alleged gangster bosses, the "Hammerhead" and "Spicy Qin," accused of using violence to build an empire that included everything from underground casinos to cement factories, truck lines and poultry markets.
More in Chinese, with pictures here.
Why is Li Yuanzhong so important?
Tim Hathaway blogs about attending a legal discussion session that addressed the case of a man killed when a bicyclist fleeing from the police struck his ladder.
The guards were chasing the bicyclist because a policeman was running behind shouting, "Stop that man! Stop that man!" ("抓住他！抓住他！"). He had chased the bicyclist from a hospital around the corner. This was the second time in less than ten minutes that he had chased someone down like this. According to reports, the policeman regularly waited near the hospital entrance for bicyclists who gave rides to elderly people. He would subject them to a fine or take a fee to make their trouble go away. So what exactly is the policeman guilty of?
Several legal scholars from Beijing University, Tsinghua University and Renimin University of China gathered on Sunday, June 14 to discuss Li Yuanzhong. They met in a small conference room with several media and the Li family's legal team in attendance.
Rules for sex change operations
From The China Daily:
To change gender in China costs more than money. One must be free of a criminal record and be single if he or she wants to have a sex change, the Ministry of Health said Tuesday in a new regulation.
Other conditions include having lived publicly as the other gender for more than two years, at least five years of unwavering desire to change, more than one year of psychotherapy and a commitment by local police to issue a new ID card after the operation.
The ministry posted the regulation online to solicit opinions from its local bureaus, which are due by July 10.
June 16, 2009
Desertification in Inner Mongolia
Sean Gallagher at the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting takes some stunning but sad photographs in Inner Mongolia about grazing (or lack-thereof) and the erosion of nomadic culture since the 1980s.
China's legal system: mentally unsound
From Peter Foster's Telegraph blog, on the Deng Yujiao case, who has been released without punishment today:
The government has pledged a fair trial, but without a independent legal adviser to represent and defending the accused throughout the process (Mr Xia didn't enter the scene until 21st May, 11 days after the killing) it's very difficult for the public to have faith in the process.
The hullabaloo is unsightly - it is, as some commenters on this blog have said, a kind of mob justice - but in the absence of a proper legal system I'd have to say it was better than the alternative, which is to see Miss Deng's case stitched up without a word.
Waitress who stabbed official walks free
From AFP:
A Chinese court convicted but did not punish a waitress for stabbing to death an official who demanded sex, state media said, in a case that sparked an Internet outcry about government sleaze.
Deng Yujiao, 21, was allowed to walk free after a short trial in the city of Badong in central China, the People's Daily said on its website.
Different rules for English and Chinese media
From The China Media Project:
[From an] article ... in the most recent issue of China Journalist (中国记者), a key official journal dealing with press policy...
....spell[ing] out the policy of targeting propaganda products for different audiences, with differing standards and approaches for Chinese and foreign readers...
... It should perhaps be taken as a reference next time Xinhua, China Daily or the English edition of the Global Times surprise us with ostensibly "open" coverage.
Green Dam filter not compulsory, unnamed MIIT official says
Following a week's worth of public outcry over a new content filter that all new PCs have to pre-load starting July 1, an anonymous official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology told the China Daily that the software is not compulsory after all:
PC users have the "final say" over installing the filter and recent reports of the government compelling them to use the software was "a misunderstanding", the official said.
An expanded article quotes the official further distancing the government from the software:
"The blacklisted terms are not provided by the government," said the official.
"The government only purchased the software. It was the developer who decided what content needed to be blocked to protect youngsters from unhealthy information on the Internet."
The official also said that all security problems reported by the professors from University of Michigan had been fixed.
Educating kindness and charity
Wu Fei (吴非) uses the inclusion of Schindler's List in a middle school textbook as a starting point for a discussion of the problems with onscreen violence, and the need for kindness and understanding to be part of childhood education.
Something we haven't seen for over four hundred years
Evan Osnos talks to Ben Simpendorfer, chief China Economist for the Royal Bank of Scotland based in Hong Kong, about the interaction between the Chinese and Arab worlds:
The Arabs are hungry for "Made in China" goods. Households in Dubai and Riyadh have money to spend as a result of the rise in oil prices. But Chinese goods are also priced right for poorer households in Cairo and Damascus. I've been shopping for digital cameras with Arab friends and I can't explain their delight at being able to afford something once considered a luxury. But cheap goods are only part of the story. Visas are also important. It is difficult for Arab traders to visit Europe or the United States ever since the events of 2001. Their visa applications are either denied or take weeks to process. But they can typically turn up at their local Chinese embassy and receive a visa in a day or less.
June 15, 2009
The rise of electric bicycles in China
Austin Ramzy in Time:
...Cars clog intersection and expressways. Their exhaust clouds the sky and the air is full of the sound of horns. But zipping through the congestion is the vanguard of another transportation revolution: vehicles that use no gas, emit no exhaust and are so quiet they can surprise the unwary pedestrian.
Green Damned
By government order, all new PCs sold after July 1 must pre-load the Green Dam content filter. People are complaining: it doesn't work, it's paternalistic. Xinhua blames the media. Netizens respond with the "Green Dam Girl."
So Rock! says "never mind the machine"
So Rock! magazine slaps a tank on the back cover of its June issue.
Naked escorts at a karaoke bar
A reporter for a Wuhan-based newspaper goes undercover to a karaoke joint where hostesses will strip for a fee.
Beijing-based digital music label celebrates one year in business
From the Outdustry blog:
MicroMu is our attempt at a sustainable record label model in an environment where people, by and large, aren't used to paying for music. The solution? Give music (and lots of other things) away for free, build a loyal community around it all, and then support this (largely) through a partnership with a brand who shares your audience. Or, as we say in our label intro:
"MicroMu is an experimental, sponsor-driven, free-to-user record label model designed to discover new talent, create original music and reward artists in seemingly impossible conditions."
You can download a 1 year anniversary digital album from the blog post on Outdustry.
Film makers are working in a changed market
Clifford Coonan writes from the Shanghai Film Festival for Variety about the growth of China's domestic film market:
The issue of how to nurture the strong growth in the biz is one of the key themes at the Shanghai fest this year. The fest has long been seen as a provincial affair, but the growing influence of the Chinese film biz means it is of greater interest than ever this year to the biz abroad.
One of the main reasons why Chinese cinema is booming is improved distribution, and the forum featured presentations by two key cinema chain figures, Chen Guowei of Wanda Cinema Line and Wu Hehu of Shanghai United Line.
Hu Jintao in Russia for acronym meetings
Xinhua:
Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Yekaterinburg in central Russia on Sunday for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and a meeting of BRIC countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China...
...Founded in 2001, the SCO consists of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran are observers of the organization.
Police use chopper for opium poppy search near Beijing
From The People's Daily:
A helicopter was used for the first time on Saturday to help local police in poppy plantation hunting in suburb Beijing.
The copter, with experts onboard, hovered around the mountainous areas in Yanqing District and sent video images of the ground back to the headquarters...
...The first hunt, which lasted about half an hour, found no poppy plantation in the region...
...Some poppy growers, who plant poppies to make drugs, always choose the remote and sparsely populated areas at the border of Beijing and the neighboring Hebei Province," Zhao said.
According to China's law, growing more than 500 poppies is a crime. But several villages in suburb Beijing has a tradition of growing poppies mostly because villagers love the plant's colorful blossoms or they use poppies as medicine ingredients.
June 14, 2009
Shanghai gay pride: muted pink
Paul Midler:
Hundreds turned out for China's very first "Gay Pride Festival," and the event has been touted as a sign of greater openness in China.While it is certainly nice that an event was pulled off, I have my doubts about how much it means for freedom in China.
June 12, 2009
CCTV anchor investigated for Taiwan espionage charges (updated)
Update: Could it all be just a malicious rumor? ESWN translates the latest reports, which quote Fang Jing denying that she was a spy, or that she was detained.
The China Daily previously reported in a now-deleted article that Fang Jing (方静) had been taken away by public security forces for espionage charges (for Taiwan):
Sources with CCTV also confirmed Thursday that Fang had been "taken away for a possible spy probe".
She was rumored to have been seduced by a man from Taiwan who was "eight years younger than her" and to have received money from him, the sources said.
Fang had been member of the all-star line-up at some of the largest live broadcasts in CCTV history, including the three-day live coverage of the return of Hong Kong to the mainland in 1997 and live coverage of the millennium celebrations.
She started working for CCTV in 1994 after graduating from China's top school for broadcast journalists and spent four months at Harvard University in Boston as a visiting scholar.
Zhou Yijun (aka Ah Yi) posted an oblique reference to Fang's arrest on his blog, but that's been called into question now.
Unofficial fan club for Party leaders closed
From the Global Times:
"It looks like the local government still think it's too early to have such fans' things," said Professor Mao Shoulong, associate dean of the Academy of Public Policy in Renmin University of China, Beijing. "They may still worry about some radical comments and reactions of fans on the Internet will endanger the stability of local society."
Said Professor Liu Qinglong of the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University in Beijing, "A site based on pure grass roots usually lacks efficient management, and communication can easily get out of control.
Swine flu quarantine victims: guilty until proven innocent
A second letter to James Fallows about flu quarantining hysteria, this time from the daughter of a Chinese-American who tested positive for the virus:
My mother is now racked with guilt for having inconvenienced so many people but she is also feeling somewhat betrayed. A seemingly innocuous visit to her office has now been labeled as an "incident" by the government (murder would also be placed in the "incident" category). Everyone who works for the institute has to attend a meeting to learn about H1N1 prevention and the heads of the institute have been summoned to report to officials in Beijing. We didn't know any of this was happening in the outside world but one of mom's co-workers called to tell her. In that same conversation, he not so subtly suggested that my dad, who is still in the US for a conference, should voluntarily quarantine himself for a week upon his return to China.
A picture of my mother in her hospital bed was taken and released to the media without her permission. Although they have not gone as far as to reveal her name, they have released enough personal information (including where she lives and works) to have made it very easy to identify her.
Previousl: A mediation on the threat of swine flu by James Fallows, and a letter from a Chinese-born American citizens on being forcibly quarantined in Shanghai for being on the same plan as a swine flu carrier.
Beijing lesson unlearned
From Boston.com:
You've heard a lot about Tiananmen Square lately, since Thursday was the 20th anniversary of the Chinese government's brutal crackdown on prodemocracy demonstrators.
What you might not have heard about is how a leader of that crushed movement is trying to put the boot into a pillar of democracy right here in Boston.
The comments thread is worth a read too.
China braces for H1N1 pandemic fallout
The China Daily reports that China will not so much be affected by flu outbreak as by the pact on import/export and tourism after the WHO declared an epidemic last night:
The fragile recovery in the Chinese and global economies has been dealt a blow with the H1N1 flu outbreak declared a pandemic Thursday night.
Analysts and experts in China said the announcement would have a significant impact on the country's travel, tourism and foreign trade sectors.
Kim Jong Il's son on his father's plans
Footage on Youtube: Kim Jong Il's son's Kim Jong Nan denies he has defected from the DPRK and talks about his father's succession plans -- "My father ... does not need to talk to me".
A fish named Paul
Quirky Beijing blogs about one of the novel amenities provided by Orange Hotels.
June 11, 2009
Shanghai: Don't get too gay now
From Shanghaiist:
Up until yesterday, it'd been smooth sailing for Shanghai's first Pride week. But as of Wednesday afternoon, the festival, a celebration of gay pride and social tolerance, ran into some problems with the authorities.
Green Dam: "all new computers are required to wear condoms"
ChinaSMACK translates more Internet reactions about the Green Dam project from forums, with an especially disturbing images distorted from the front page of the Green Dam download site.
Separate Mop image here.
Rights lawyers challenging the Dam
Reuters reports:
Li Fangping, a Beijing human rights advocate who often embraces controversial causes, has asked the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to allow hearings on the "lawfulness and reasonableness" of the demand, which takes effect from July 1 and was publicized only this week.
New Terracotta Warrior tomb dig starts this weekend
From Xinhua:
Starting this weekend, archeological workers will dig through the northern section of the number one pit, most of which has been excavated during the previous two efforts. The upcoming excavation will cover an area of two hundred square meters. The dig is expected to make new discoveries about the imperial life of more than 2,200 years ago.
The site of the terra cotta warriors was discovered by local farmers in 1974. The first excavation was carried out between 1978 and 1984. Covering some 2,000 square meters, it unearthed more than a thousand terra cotta soldiers. In 1985, the second effort began. But it lasted only one year because of a lack of advanced technology to carry out the challenging task.
Twenty great foods that don't go great together
Josh Summers at Far West China translates a notice informing the public of complications, ranging from decreased vigor to deafness, that may result when certain everyday foods are eaten together.
June 10, 2009
Is private capital just an emergency service?
The Economic Observer discusses cyclic attitudes toward private investment in the public sector:
In the good years, few people care about private capital, and calls to tear apart monopolies are overwhelmed by the huge profits generated by giant state-owned enterprises.
Private capital is considered a trouble-maker and each time it tries to break through the limits surrounding a particular market, it's met with a barrage of regulatory controls.
While in the bad times, when nobody is willing to invest, everyone pins their hopes on private capital stepping in. This cycle has repeatedly gone on.
Uighurs may leave Guantanamo for Palau
Some of the seventeen Uighur detainees may be transferred from the Guantanamo prison to Palau, a North Pacific archipelago, reports the New York Times:
The president of Palau, Johnson Toribiong, said his government had "agreed to accommodate the United States of America's request" to "temporarily resettle" the detainees, members of the Uighur ethnic group, "subject to periodic review." Palau, the president said, would be "honored and proud" to take them in a "humanitarian gesture."
No other country has been willing to take the men from the US, which is seeking to relocate detainees so it can close the Guantanamo prison. Palau promises a warm reception:
"What they will encounter in Palau is paradise," said Stuart Beck, an American lawyer who is Palau's permanent United Nations representative. "From the time the first British vessel hit a reef in Palau in 1783, it has welcomed refugees."
Practical sign-making techniques
Chris at the Shanghai Eye presents images from a 1971 publication he calls a "CCP corporate identity book" -- "essentially an instruction booklet for painters and sign makers on how to create acceptable slogan posters, etc, for party use."
Socialized healthcare with Chinese characteristics
At China Elections and Governance, Sam Verran writes about health care reform in Shenmu County, Shanxi Province:
Despite omissions, the Shenmu pilot initiative has already enabled many patients to obtain medical care and it does mark a potentially meaningful change in healthcare policy. Since the inception of the initiative individuals have flocked to village, township, and city medical facilities. On the 22nd of May county officials reporting on the status of the initiative after its first two months of operation reported that in March and April the number of inpatients reached its pinnacle of 30% more patients than the same time the year before. During this time and government subsidies reached 9.6 million Yuan in March, and 12.7 million in April.
Also on the same site: Shenzhen's use of "Socialism with Chinese characteristics"
User reviews of the "Green Dam" filter
ESWN translates some complaints that Chinese netizens have voiced about the Green Dam filtering software, which is set to be made mandatory for all new PCs sold in the country as of July 1.
Also, Rebecca MacKinnon suggests that industry opposition will ultimately scuttle the project.
June 9, 2009
College entrance exam essay questions, 2009
A rundown of the essay prompts given to test-takers across the country. In Beijing, students had to respond to I have a pair of invisible wings, a line from a popular song sung by Angela Chang.
Mars probe set for October launch
The China Daily has announced a date for the launch of Yinghuo-1, and the test of 8.8 hours when it will see no sunlight for generating power:
China's first Mars probe will have to stand the test of nearly nine hours in the freezing, dark shadow of the red planet during its one-year mission - the longest such period in exploration history - the scientist in charge of the probe's design has said...
Should anything go wrong, the orbiter could become "frozen" - like the United States' Phoenix Lander, which froze on the surface of the planet.
Body of Minnesota climber found in China
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the body of Wade Johnson, missing since May 20, was found buried by an avalanche on a peak in southwestern China:
The Chinese rescue team had been scouring Mount Gongga in Sichuan Province for the missing U.S. climbers after the first body, that of Jonathan Copp, was found Saturday. The third climber, Micah Dash, 32, who like Copp is from Boulder, remains missing.
June 8, 2009
Bus passengers foil robbery
Close to the bus incident in Sichuan comes this hijacking episode where one hijacker was killed. From Chris at Gokunming:
An attempted robbery on a passenger bus traveling from Pu'er to Kunming was repelled by bus passengers resulting in the death of one of the two thieves while the other clings to life in a hospital, according to local media reports.
Current TV journalists sentenced to 12 years
Current TV journalists sentenced to twelve years in jail in North Korea for working around its China border, from the New York Times:
North Korea on Monday sentenced two American journalists to 12 years of hard labor in a case widely seen as a test of how far the isolated Communist state was willing to take its confrontational stance toward the United States.
The Central Court, the highest court of North Korea, held the trial of the two Americans, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from Thursday to Monday and convicted them of "committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry," the North's official news agency, KCNA, said in a report monitored in Seoul.
Administrative law enforcement in Grand Theft Auto
ESWN points out how the game has incorporated something very unique to China.
Nanny software to be made mandatory
Loretta Chao reports for the Wall Street Journal that Chinese authorities have mandated that all PCs sold after July 1 come with site-blocking software:
The software's Chinese name is "Green Dam-Youth Escort." The word "green" in Chinese is used to describe Web-surfing free from pornography and other illicit content. Green Dam would link PCs with a regularly updated database of banned sites and block access to those addresses, according to an official who tested the product for a government agency.
The May 19 Chinese government notice about the requirement says it is aimed at "constructing a green, healthy, and harmonious Internet environment, and preventing harmful information on the Internet from influencing and poisoning young people."
The software was developed by Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co., with input from Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy Co.
Bryan Zhang, founder of Jinhui....said his company compiles and maintains the list of blocked sites, which he says is limited to pornography sites. He said the software would allow the blocking of other types of content, as well as the collection of private user data, but that Jinhui would have no reason to do so. He also said the software can be turned off or uninstalled.
One small comfort: "The software needn't be preinstalled on each new PC -- it may instead be shipped on a compact disc -- giving users some choice."
Update: Rebecca MacKinnon analyzes the report and the company's press release.
Update (2009.06.09): Also from Rebecca MacKinnon, the original document concerning the mandatory nanny software, which she interprets as demanding that it be preinstalled.
Update: (2009.06.10): China Daily runs an article claiming that the "Green Dam" software is not sophisticated enough to be used as "spyware".
Soros: 'China has been recovering'
From The Shanghai Daily:
George Soros, the world-famous investor and currency speculator, said yesterday he believes China will be the first country to recover from the global financial crisis.
"I believe China has been recovering and its pace of recovery will be faster than the rest of the world," said Soros in a speech at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Domestic brand ad spend up 22% - Shanen Chuang
From The Financial Times:
China's advertising market is defying the financial crisis but companies are guarding their budgets warily in a clear sign that confidence in a global economic recovery is still lacking...
...Domestic brands increased their ad spending by 22 per cent in the first quarter, while foreign brands only added 1 per cent," said Shenan Chuang, chief executive in China of Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency.
There are also some one-off factors at work, such as government orders to local milk brands to restore public confidence with large-scale image campaigns following last year's melamine scandal.
New Orleans mayor Nagin quarantined in Shanghai
MSNBC.com reports that New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, famous for telling U.S. president Bush and the federal government to "get off your asses" in a radio interview after hurrican Katrina, has been quarantined in Shanghai:
Nagin, who traveled on Friday to Shanghai, China on an economic development trip, was placed in quarantine Sunday after Chinese officials found another passenger on his flight to have signs of the swine flu.
That passenger was undergoing quarantine and treatment. As a precaution, the mayor, his wife and another member of the Mayor's Executive Protection Unit were also placed in a designated quarantine location in Shanghai
June 7, 2009
Super Girl 2009: who to watch
Cfensi gives a run-down of the highlights of the field of 300 contestants for this year's Super Girls competition.
CCTV anchor Luo Jing dies
Luo Jing (罗京), who co-anchored CCTV's Network News program for two decades, passed away on the morning of June 5 at the age of 48.
Foreign books for Chinese children
For Children's Day, four Chinese authors recommend reading material.
Innovative government buildings: "rebellious"?
The May issue of Art & Design showcases and interviews the architects and planners on if their designs are contrary to tradition or "rebellious".
June 5, 2009
Speculation about the Hummer
The Hummer is a type of car previously associated with General Motors, it was bought by China this week. From L.A. Times:
The news has propelled Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. onto the radar screen of auto enthusiasts worldwide. And it underscores China's growing economic might at a time when U.S. industrial prowess is flagging.
China is already the U.S. government's largest creditor and the largest foreign provider of manufactured goods to the U.S. Now a Chinese firm is the first to salvage a piece of a fallen U.S. titan -- a point of no small pride for many in China.
The new owners are planning to push sales of the gargantuan vehicle here, where it is already a status symbol for China's newly rich.
Plastic surgery-gate for "Little Cecilia Cheung"
ChinaSMACK translates netizen comments about whether singer Gong Mi has had plastic surgery to make her look more like Cecilia Cheung.
Rio Tinto backs away from Chinalco
From the Financial Times:
Rio will pay a $195m break fee to Chinalco, the mining group's largest shareholder with close to a 10 per cent stake, for abandoning a deal for the Chinese aluminium group to buy $7.2bn in Rio's convertibles bonds and inject a further $12.3bn for stakes in a number of assets, including Rio's Western Australia iron ore operations.
Why China isn't going to say sorry
Malcolm Moore writes at his Telegraph blog some ponderings about why the government won't address 6-4, and records the positions of Politburo members in 1989:
Although the student protests were much wider than just in Beijing, they were brief and neither the protests nor the subsequent suppression affected large numbers of Chinese.
And while it may seem to us that it would be politically advantageous to 'fess up to what happened, it could create tensions and accusations within the Communist Party about who did what and when.
A stab at reform
From The Economist:
The unrest in China 20 years ago was also fuelled by anger over corruption and other official misconduct. But the party has less to fear now. Discontent is mainly directed at the actions of local bureaucrats rather than national leaders. The Deng Yujiao case has not led to calls for an end to one-party rule, only for more enlightened government. To the extent that officials do sometimes cave in to online sentiment, change is already happening. The danger now, as an article on a Chinese legal website argued, is of trials by the media.
Behind the scenes: A new angle on history
The New York Times features a previously-unreleased photo of the Tank Man taken at street-level.
June 4, 2009
'Virgin prostitutes' case puts heat on Kunming police
Go Kunming wraps up the case of two girls arrested for prostitution in March, apparently on fabricated charges:
When police from the Wangjiaqiao police station were dispatched to the scene of the dispute, the Lius and the police reportedly experienced "friction", which the Lius believe offended the police station.
Afterward, police claim that a foot officer and two officers in training were propositioned by Liu Fangfang, who reportedly asked "Do you want to play?" ("要不要耍一下?"). While waiting for police from the Wangjiaqiao police station with the authority to arrest to arrive, the officer and cadets allegedly saw a man in his 30s enter an apartment with Liu.
Even the China Daily has weighed in on the case.
Today at Tiananmen Square
James Fallows at The Atlantic blog writes about his experiences in the square last night, and warnings to those who are about to go:
There are more representatives in all categories -- soldiers, police, obvious plainclothesmen -- than I recall seeing even during the Tibet violence in early 2008 or through the Olympic games. Also many people whom you would normally classify as fruit vendors, tourists from the Chinese provinces, youngish white collar workers male and female, and skateboarder-looking characters wearing cargo shorts and with fauxhawk haircuts, were last night walking up and down the sidewalks with their eyes constantly on visitors and drifting up next to people who were holding conversations.
The way to avoid their attention is keep moving briskly along the sidewalk rather than stopping as if you think there is something particular to look at in the square today. The way to draw it is to stop and look around, to pay attention to the security forces themselves, or to have a camera in your hand. If the camera comes out, it may be pointed at one of the scenic highlights in the center of the square
2009 is not 1989, and it's not 1984 either
At Six, Alec Ash discusses how PKU students engage with politics:
What strikes me in terms of students speaking out openly is the absence not only of the anti-authority voices which identified their predecessors twenty years ago, but the absence of any kind of open engagement with contemporary politics that you expect in a top university, and see in universities everywhere else in the world. Their silence over the Sun Dongdong incident on their own campus is a good example.
...
This all isn't to say, of course, that there's no kind of political discussion going on about the "incident" in Beida. There's a lot. It just isn't out in the open air for the world - and it's reporters - to witness. It's in quiet dorms and crowded canteens.
Tsingtao Beer: A complex brew
At The China Beat, Robert Bickers presents the history of China's most famous beer:
Tsingtao Beer was never formally German (in fact, until 1915 it was not even Tsingtao Beer). The Anglo-German Brewery Co. Ltd was established in August 1903 as a British company, under Hong Kong ordinances, and was chaired at Shanghai by a Scotsman, with (by 1915) 60 per cent German, 40 per cent British and other share ownership (including 5 per cent owned by the French religious orders). Of course, the Manager and the Brewmaster were German, and the inability to run the brewery without a German brewmaster was why it failed to present it as entire free of German interests in 1915, and so fell into Japanese hands with the blessing of British diplomats.
June 3, 2009
Twitter blocked in China
Twitter and Flickr are inaccessible from the mainland.
The day China's heart froze
Dan Edwards writes for the New Matilda an article that uses his interviews with two survivors. One recounts the night of June the third:
When the massacre began at Muxidi, Liu was at the demonstrators' makeshift HQ on top of the Monument to the People's Heroes in the centre of Tiananmen Square. "The first news about shooting came around 10:00pm," he says. "We were really shocked. We couldn't believe they were really shooting -- there were rumours they were just rubber bullets -- until we saw people bleeding. The first wounded appeared on the square around 11.30pm. Around the same time there was battle around Jinshui Qiao [a small footbridge immediately in front of Tiananmen gate at the top of the Square]. They set fire to a military truck. But that vehicle had come from the east, not the west."
The cult of a Super Girl
The latest development in a peculiar online meme focused on Super Girl Li Yuchun casts her as a messiah.
Sichuan Tengzhong buys Hummer off GM
Chengdu-based Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company is the buyer for GM's Hummer, one of the units the bankrupt American auto-maker is selling off. The New York Times reports that should the deal go through, it will "make Tengzhong the first Chinese company to sell vehicles in North America":
"The Hummer brand is synonymous with adventure, freedom and exhilaration, and we plan to continue that heritage by investing in the business, allowing Hummer to innovate and grow in exciting new ways under the leadership and continuity of its current management team," Yang Yi, the chief executive of Tengzhong, said in a statement released by G.M. "We will be investing in the Hummer brand and its research and development capabilities, which will allow Hummer to better meet demand for new products such as more fuel-efficient vehicles in the U.S."
Media censored on Tiananmen
The Financial Times reports on media blackouts in China leading up to tomorrow's anniversary:
BBC News broadcasts were blacked out in Beijing on Monday night. Last Saturday's edition of the Financial Times, which contained an interview with Bao Tong, the most prominent Tiananmen-era dissident still residing in China, was either not delivered to subscribers or censored. Mr Bao was an aide to Zhao Ziyang, the late party general secretary purged in May 1989 for opposing the violent crackdown. Copies of the International Herald Tribune and Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, which has dedicated extensive coverage to the anniversary, have been shredded. The government has censored Tiananmen-related stories on www.ftchinese.com, the FT's Chinese language website.
Toilet dramas
Jonna Wibelius at SHE in China gets stuck in a train station toilet stall.
For the company, shut your dialect mouths
The Foreign Expert translates a Y Weekend article about the problem of people speaking something other than Mandarin in the workplace:
A woman who used to work at a Fortune 500 company was sought out by a Shanghai company to receive a high salary as a project manager; in just three days she just put in her resignation. Her reason was that two-thirds of the people in the office all like to use Shanghai dialect to talk to each other; lunch time is even more so, "everywhere a potpourri of bird languages" -- this is a language barrier that she never expected before coming to work for this company. She did not want to spend her after-business hours enrolled in Shanghai dialect classes, so she had no choice but to change her environment and start over again.
June 2, 2009
Twitter blocked in China
Twitter, and a host of other foreign hosted websites went down today.
The great Tiananmen taboo
Ma Jian writes for The Guardian (article blocked in China) a tale about his experiences in 1989 and when he went back to the square before the Olympics to interview some survivors. As well as the point-of-view of students, he also visited a soldier, who was 17 years-old at the time:
Chen Guang's flat in Tongxian is in an anonymous modern block. In the middle of his stark room was a plastic bucket filled with his cigarette stubs; the white walls were hung with green swirling paintings of tanks, helmeted soldiers and flattened tents.
He gave me a glass of water and confessed that in 1989 he had joined the army. He was just 17. Within a few months of conscription, his regiment - number 62 - was sent to Beijing to help quash the student movement. On 3 June his fellow soldiers received orders to disguise themselves as civilians, make their way independently to the Great Hall of the People on the west side of the square, and await the signal to drive the students out.
"There were 7,000 of us," he told me, lighting a new cigarette from the glowing stub of his last one, "and I was given the job of transporting our 4,000 assault rifles to the Great Hall. I dressed myself up as a student and loaded the guns on to a public bus the army had appropriated. As the driver edged through the packed crowds of students on Changan Avenue, I was terrified that they might jump up and spot the rifles stacked along the floor, so I leaned out and gave them a cheerful victory sign.
New economic and financial emissary to China
The World Bank's China Director has been named by Timothy Geithner as "economic and financial emissary to China." David Dollar was formerly an Assistant Professor of Economics at UCLA and a Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and keeps a blog called East Asia & Pacific on the Rise. (via China Law Blog)
Hot water in China? Don't get burned
Aimee Barnes concludes a three-part series on dealing with the law in China as a foreigner:
Although I am sure that you are avoiding areas of protest and have resisted whipping out your camera to take pictures of ceremonial military drills, expect an increased security presence, more arrests, and tighter restrictions on expatriates between now and mid-October. While common sense is often the best guide to staying out of trouble, accidents do happen and legitimate crimes are committed by foreign passport holders, as outlined in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. If you happen to find yourself in hot water, what are your legal rights in China? What's the best way to escape a bad situation relatively unscathed? And, who can you reach out to for help? The conclusion of this series explores answers to these questions. Consider it a cheat sheet for making a potentially awful day just a little bit easier.
Chinese National Geography in English
Interviews with the editor-in-chief and publisher of the new magazine, which aims "bring China to the world," and is targeted at Chinese who are living abroad as well as an international audience.
The right to refuse to "chat"
Rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan discusses Ai Weiwei's visit from the police.
June 1, 2009
Australian businessman funds anti-China ads opposing Rio Tinto bid
From The Age:
Businessman Ian Melrose will spend about $200,000 [USD 161,000] this week on a TV advertising campaign using images of the Tiаnanmen Squаre massacre to reinforce opposition to a Chinese company increasing its stake in Rio Tinto.
With the Government's decision on the Chinalco bid very close, the advertisement says it would be wrong to approve it.
How to write official history
ChinaGeeks translates a sixteen-point list of historical observations that should get you on your way to becoming a government historian:
6. In China before 1949, everyone who broke the laws, every thief and murderer was a rebel opposing the wicked ruling party. After 1949, they were were all class enemies, counterrevolutionaries, and after 1976 they were criminals.
7. The collapse of every single dynasty was because of the corruption of the ruling class.
8. At the beginning of every dynasty new ruling measures were adopted that were a step forward and should be regarded as positive; whatever measures they adopted towards the end were reactionary and should be firmly condemned.
Australia: between the old and the new
From China Bystander, speculation about whether Kevin Rudd will take the Guantanamo Bay Uighurs:
The Gitmo Uighurs, captured in Afghanistan in 2001, were cleared for release in 2004 after being cleared of links to terrorism. Albania took five but U.S. appeals to other countries to take some have fallen on deaf ears - or at least been drowned out Chinese warnings not to.
Australia's foreign minister Stephen Smith has played a straight bat so far: "We will consider these individuals on a case-by-case basis in accordance with our immigration law, in accordance with our domestic and international immigration obligations," he said and added "where it is appropriate, take into account security advice and considerations."
Student protests in Han China
At Frog in a Well, Alan Baumler writes about Imperial University students during the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling who protested against corruption and favoritism:
Of course the students lost, and many of them and many of those they supported in the regular bureaucracy were purged in 169. As became normal in Chinese politics the losers were accused of forming a faction (部黨). This was a serious accusation, since there was no tradition of loyal dissent in China. Just as there was little hope that Zhao Ziyang and the student protesters at Tiananmen would be able to work out a compromise that would preserve both the party and the students' principles there was not much possibility that that bureaucracy and the eunuchs were going to work out an accommodation. Both were competing to be the exemplars of virtue for the empire, and there could be only one of them.
A night with China's secret police in 1989
Reuters' Andrew Roche was detained whilst with activists in 1989: he recounts 14 hours of incarceration with the secret police who sliced open his shirt and made him write a self-criticism:
A knife sliced off every shirtbutton, right through the cloth. Years would pass before I understood why.
Things went downhill. The vehicle ploughed into a crowd, who guessed it was a secret police car. There were angry shouts of "They've got a prisoner!" and, I think, from my view under the blindfold, someone out there brandishing a petrol bomb.
Oh no, I thought, the mob's going to set fire to the car and, pinioned blind in the middle, I'll be last one out. Or rather, the last one left in. I'm only 28 and it's all over because of a pro-democracy pyromaniac. And Reuters owes me annual leave.
Geithner looks to secure purchasing
From China Daily:
Visiting US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to reassure China of the safety of its investments in the US and resist the temptation of trade protectionism -- crucial to woo further Chinese lending to the world's largest borrower.
Geithner, who arrived in Beijing Sunday on his first trip as Treasury chief, is expected to meet with President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, as well as deliver a speech at Peking University.
Observers say Geithner's top priority would be to persuade Chinese policymakers to continue the purchase of US Treasuries, vital for Barack Obama's administration to finance its stimulus plan and pull the US economy out of recession.
However, Xinhua published the comments of professors who say that large holdings of US bonds might be detrimental to China, via People's Daily Online, who quotes the Global Times.